Remembering Grandpa Leroy

 My Grandpa passed away recently. In the pictures that were shared during his memorial and viewing was a picture of my Grandpa with one of his teenage best friends standing in front of an old truck. I immediately thought of a letter Grandma had written to me on his behalf a few years ago talking about Grandpa's first truck. Sure enough this truck he was standing in front of was the very same she had written to me about. 

Grandpa is on the right. His friend Eugene Mchols (sp?) is on the left. 

I'll also include a copy of Grandma's letter as well as a link in case it's hard to read in this format. 

If this is too hard to read, try clicking here. 

I'm also going to include a few other pictures of Grandpa that were new to me and a few that aren't:

Leroy and Betty June

Young Grandpa (Leroy) with his Dad (OZ aka Trig) and their HUGE watermelons

Grandpa's first and only remaining cousin on his mother's side, Stanley, told us at Grandpa's memorial, that  Trig and Leroy had won the blue ribbon at the county fair for these watermelons and someone took their cane and jabbed it into the prize melon in order to get some seeds!

Grandpa holding baby Diane

Oz, Bondell, Betty June and Leroy

Reine on Leroy's lap, Michelle on Reba's lap and Diane

Obituary

Leroy Harrison Melson

Age 84, a resident of Prairie Grove, Arkansas, passed away Friday, June 18, 2021 in Prairie Grove, Arkansas. He was born April 13, 1937 in Oark, Arkansas, the son of O.Z. and Bondell (Bynum) Melson.

Leroy worked for the Prairie Grove Battlefield State Park for fourteen years.

He was preceded in death by his parents, one son Steven Melson and one sister Betty June Young.

Survivors include his wife of 65 years Rebecca Stepp Melson; three daughters Karen "Diane" Walls of Bismarck, Arkansas, Denise "Reine" Moore and her husband Steve of Prairie Grove, Arkansas, and Michelle Hyler also of Prairie Grove; six grandchildren Landon Patterson, Preston Patterson, Christy Hood, Becky Drake, Tyler Moore and Bradley Smith, thirteen great grandchildren and five great great grandchildren.

The family will receive friends Monday evening from 6:00-7:00 p.m. at Luginbuel Funeral Home.

Funeral service will be held 2:00 PM Tuesday, June 22nd, 2021, at Luginbuel Chapel in Prairie Grove, Arkansas. Burial will be Wednesday, June 23rd, 2021 at 10:00 AM in Evans Cemetery in Pettigrew, Arkansas.

The family would like to express their appreciation to the staff of Circle of Life Hospice for the loving care given to Leroy.

Grandpa will be missed by many. He left a legacy of many people who will cherish him and remember him fondly. 

Until next time, 
Becky

The Unforgotten -- Benton Q. Williams

 A week or so ago, while digging in and searching for surnames belonging to my husband's ancestors in the Miami Record - Herald, I came across one that mentioned his 2nd great grandmother, Mrs. Eliza Sneary of Commerce. She was named as the next of kin and was to receive a memorial certificate in honor of a soldier who had died inWW1. 

Miami Record-Herald 20 Feb 1920

From Eliza's obituary, I knew that she had three sons that preceded her in death. They were listed by name as: Lorenzo Dow, William Sherman, and Ben Q.

The Houston Herald 8 March 1934

I have never found Lorenzo or William in the census records, but Ben Q. Had been in both the 1900 census as 'Binnie' and then 1910 as Benton. I went to Fold3 and began searching for military records. I came up empty on Lorenzo and William and even when I put in Benton. Then finally, I tried the name written in her obituary; Ben Q.  and found his burial card. It states that he was a private in Co F, 16th Infantry. His cause of death was K/A. His date of death was 4 Oct 1918. 

He was temporarily buried in plot 5 at Chatel-Chehery where he had fallen in battle. Coordinates were even given for his plot. 

 He was then disinterred and reburied 9 June 1919, in Grave #44, Sec. 26, Plot 3. at Argonne American Cemetery. 

The emergency address on file was for Lizza Sneary (Mother) at Western Grove, Arkansas. She was notified on 12 May 1919

 *Western Grove, AR was also given as their residence in Eliza's MIL's obituary*

Ben's grave marker was a cross. Another contact listed was his brother Martin in Commerce, Oklahoma. 

His body was once again disinterred 16 July 1921 and prepared for shipment. It arrived at the European port of Antwerp in Belgium. From there it was shipped on the Wheaton to Hoboken, NJ on 6 Aug 1921. It arrived two weeks later. From there it was shipped to Miami, Oklahoma on 28 Sept 1921. It arrived four days later 2 Oct 1921.

I was also able to find an article mentioning Benton's reburial at the G.A.R. Cemetery in Miami. 

Joplin Globe 4 Oct 1921

I searched the G.A.R cemetery on Find A Grave and was unable to find him listed so I created a memorial for him there, using a few of the images above. 

In all of my research, this is the first WW1 casualty of war I've found in my family as well as my husbands. I will say that one month after Ben's death, my great grandfather boarded the RMS Aquitania headed for France. How different things might have been, had he been called up just a month or two earlier. .

I hope in the years that follow that you'll remember Ben Q. Williams and the countless others who were lost to the Great War. Many of those young men and women were so young they were unmarried and without children of their own. It would be easy for them to be forgotten in just a generation or two. 

I also encourage you to click any of the links highlighted in this post, especially about the USAT Wheaton both here and above.

Until next time, 
Becky

The Unforgotten - Samuel M BELL

Yesterday I wrote about how in my years of researching, I occasionally come across relatives that have been forgotten. They stop showing up in records and more often than not, never marry or have children. In an effort to honor them I'm going to write a series of posts highlighting these various people connected to our ancestors so that they are not forgotten. 

Yesterday was my first post and it focused on one of the siblings belonging to my husbands 2nd grandmother, Joseph P BELL.

Today, I'm going to write about another one of her siblings that time forgot. He did have a wife and child but because of a census error or a lack of family record keeping his birthdate is way off from the last record he is in with his father. So, I'm not sure his ancestors will know where to find his parents and siblings. 

It all started with me looking deeper into the school census records for my husband's grandmother. 

Things to note are: the children's names, birth dates, the fact that Ralph Jr. is "hard of hearing" the date of the census is11 January 1933, and they lived at 407 North River Street. 

Since discovering a few good newspapers from Ottawa County, OK, I decided to search newspapers for their address. 

Here are a few articles I found:

In 1930 their home would've ran $10/month. It was a five room home. 

Miami Daily News, Friday, 3 Jan 1930

Ralph, Bessie and their children lived there in 1933 according to the school census, but in 1937, there seems to be a different family. One with a young daughter named Alta BELL, her father's name is Sam.

Now remember from yesterday's post that Bessie's mother's maiden name is BELL and she had a brother named Samuel, who according the 1900 census was born May 1891. 

Miami News Record 22 Dec 1937

Now, before I found the above article last week, I had found one more piece of information on Samuel way back 2017. I  had come across a snippet from The Mountain Echo in Yellville, where Sam BELL was witness to his brother-in-law's land claim, placing him in Bruno, Marion County, AR, in 1916

The Mountain Echo, Friday, 04 Feb 1916

Back to Sam BELL with the daughter Alta BELL. If I go to the census records for 1930, I find living in North Miami, a Sam BELL with wife Ella and daughter Alta. 

There's one catch, this Sam was born in 1883 not 1891 and that's a difference of at least 8 years. But census records have been wrong before. And drastically so, therefore that doesn't discount that this could be the same Sam. He is a shoveler for a lead and zinc mine and his wife is a laundress working from home. 

**BACKUP I just caught something!** 

Below is a screen shot of the 1900 census that says he was born in 1891. If you look a little closer it also says he is 18. Only one of those statements can be true. Because if he were born in 1891 he would have been 9. But if he were 18 his birth year would have been 1882 and viola we have a date that matches him in later records, like his WW1 draft record.



A little more research shows that Sam's wife was Sara Ella ADAMS and she was born in Bruno, Marion County, AR. Remember where I  had found Sam as a witness back in 1916? Sam and Ella married in 1917, in Ottawa County, OK.

Another piece of evidence I have is a WW1 draft registration for Sam. Like the 1900 census it gives his birth month as May, but unlike that census or the 1930 census, his birth year is now 1882. He's a miner for the Royal Mining Co.
.

But there's one more piece of evidence that leaves me feeling certain that this is indeed Samuel BELL son of Quincy A BELL. It's another little snippet from Miami Daily Record, dated 17 April 1921.

If you were following along in yesterday's post, I showed that Quincy had a daughter named Cordovia Jane and that she married a James W. ROSE. I'm not entirely sure what happened to Mr. ROSE but in 1906 she remarries a Mr. Floyd Edward Saunders. And in 1910 you can find them in Chillicothe, Missouri with some of Cordovia's children from her previous marriage. 

After putting this information into my tree, a few pictures from other contributors showed up. 

This brings us to the end of Samuel's life. I'm happy to know I can now complete his story in my family tree.

My next post will be about Sam and Joseph's nephew, a son of their sister, Eliza Emoline BELL WILLIAMS SNEARY.

Until then, 
Becky

The Unforgotten - Joseph P BELL

 When you've been doing genealogy for any amount a time, you will occasionally come across people who time, it seems, has forgotten. They fall off the map after a census record places them with family, never to be seen or heard from again. Sometimes, if you're lucky, and/or diligent in your research you find evidence of them and it turns out they didn't marry or have children, so nobody came looking for them or proof of their existence. This post and maybe a few more that follow, will be my attempt at remembering the lost and forgotten members of our families. 

Subscriptions that aide in genealogy research can be pretty expensive. I've been able to justify that expense when I'm making loads of progress, but when I seem to have stalled out, I discontinued those services and when I felt the urge to research I used free services like Family Search. After going a few years without Ancestry, Fold3 and Newspapers accounts, I decided to re-subscribe to see if there were any new records. I found some, but quickly ended up where I had been before. Most of my tree filled out and no new records on the horizon. 

It's cheaper to pay by the year rather than the month so here I was with the majority of the year left on my subscription but nobody to research. In order to get the most of my money I started researching various unrelated branches of cousins, in-laws, half-siblings, step-parents etc... 

I also discovered upon my return to my Newspaper subscription that several new papers had been added. So whenever I found a paper that seemed to have a lot of "hits" regarding family names, I decided to dig in and dig deep. 

That's what has lead me to here. 

My husband descends from Quincy A. Bell. He is his 3rd great grandfather. Quincy is the father of at least 7 children. I have them as Mary A, Cordovia J, John L, Surrena, Eliza Emoline, Joseph P. and Samuel M. Three of these children, before last week, had just disappeared in my research.

According to Civil War records, Quincy was born March 1825 in McMinn County, Tennessee. The first census record that lists him by name places him in Dallas, Greene County, Missouri in 1850 with several other adult members with the same surname: BELL. Including a Sarah listed one household before him who is old enough to be his mother with a young female named Sirina [sic]. *Note that on the following page is also a Mary E. BELL age 4.




Then in the 1860 census he is found in Washington, Webster County, Missouri. But if you click on the image you will see that it's actually still Dallas Township. This family most likely did not move. In 1855 Webster County was created from part of Greene County.

Back to the census. Quincy this time is living with Sarah BELL who is 19 years his senior (again, most likely his mother) and other BELL siblings, a few names are the same as were found in the previous census. 




Then in 1865, when Quincy is 40,  you can find a marriage record to a Matilda A FRAZIER in Webster County, Missouri. Image below you can read Quincy A Bell and Tilda Frazier married in July 1865.

But, when you find Quincy five years later in the 1870 census, he is now living in Upton, Texas County, Missouri. He is 45, his assumed wife is Elizabeth not Matilda. She is 28. Then the following children are listed: Mary (9), Cordovia (4), John (2) and Sereny (1). The ages of the children, specifically Mary, quickly put a kink in things. She would have been born 4 years before his marriage to Matilda. And I've never found any other marriage record for Quincy and Elizabeth or any marriages to anyone else for that matter. 




As we move on, there's the Missouri State census of 1876. Quincy is still in Texas County, Township 31. Elizabeth is now Emaly E. and Mary A.  has a different last name. Is it Tiry (Tyree?) Did she marry? Is she a widow? *The name Tyree is important because one of Quincy's daughter's death certificates lists her mother's maiden name as Tyree* But other siblings' death certificates have listed Moody as well as Stevens.*

Next we have the 1880 census. They're still in Texas County, Missouri. Living in the town of Upton. Mary A. is now nowhere to be found. Quincy's wife, Elizabeth is now Emiline E. There's a new child, Joseph P. and a cousin James M. Sitton living with the family. 

It's taken all of this to get us to the subject or "missing/forgotten child" of this post. We're going to focus on Joseph P. BELL, who according to this 1880 census was born about 1879 in Missouri (most likely Texas County).

The 1890 census isn't around, therefore, we fast forward 20 long years. A lot can happen in two decades. In Dec 1883 Cordovia Jane BELL marries James W. Rose and before the next census they will have six children. John L BELL has married Mary "Emma" Owen in Feb 1889 they will have had three children by the next census. Surrena has married Benjamin Lee Fielden in 1883 and they have five children by 1900. And lastly we have my husband's ancestor, Eliza Emoline who has married Samuel Williams and they have at least six living children by 1900. 

In 1900 we find Quincy is widowed and living with him are his youngest two sons, Joseph P. who is listed as being 22 and Samuel, who is 18. He also has his married daughter Cordovia ROSE's family living with him. And his eldest son John is listed right above him. I want you to look closely at how all of the adults and most of the children are able to read and write... except for Joseph.

Before now, this was the last record I could find for Joseph. But now, because of a few newspaper articles, I think I have found him. And because he was recorded as unable to read or write, I have a theory. There is no definite record, that I have found for a death date for Quincy or for his wife Elizabeth for that matter. But we know, because he is listed as a widow, she died before 1900. This is also the last census record for Quincy and the article below from page 6 of The Houston Herald dated May 15 1902, makes be believe he died around this time.





This article from the same source dated 16 May 1907 gives us a better picture as to why Joe BELL was adjudged a county charge, keeping in mind that he was the only one of his siblings unable to read or write.

Then sadly, one year later, one more article that bring us to the end.

The Houston Herald, 16 July 1908

I don't have any definitive proof that this is indeed Joseph P. BELL, son of Quincy A. Bell but I feel pretty sure that it is. 

Find-A-Grave has no one with the last name BELL added to their database for the Ozark Cemetery in Houston, Texas County, Missouri. But I feel like it's a good place to look for further information. Using the articles above, I did go ahead and create a memorial for him.

My next post will be about Joseph's brother Samuel who also seemed to have disappeared after the 1900 census.

Until then, 
Becky