Heritage Part 2

Yesterday I wrote about a cemetery book my grandmother gave me. In that post I also transcribed the entry for my great grandmother, Zula Jane ACORD STEPP. Today I will transcribe the next entry in the book, her husband, my great grandfather, Newell McKinley STEPP:

        STEPP, Newell M., Sr.                24 April 1896   03 Oct 1987

Roma Lynn Jackson Stepp, Newell's daughter-in-law, wrote the following:

"Newell was born April 24, 1896 to James Jonathan & Rebecca (Merle) Stepp near Fallsville, AR.

He was the neighborhood blacksmith until he was elderly. He also was a farmer. He never bought any tools or machinery parts if e could make what he needed & most of the time he could. He knew how to graft trees, slip ginseng. He lived in the most inventive of all times. He lived through the horse & buggy days, men walking on the moon to the computer age. He was in WWI. The war ended while he was on a ship going to France. 

Newell's brother Bill, married him to Zula Acord on April 1, 1923 at Spoke Plant, AR. They had 7 kids. 6 lived to be grown & 1 died at 2 weeks old.

Newell was usually a quiet, nice man. He liked to farm, putter around with his blacksmithing & to read. He was a good neighbor.

He died in Oct 1987 from a blood-clot resulting from falling backward off his porch."

Peggy Harmon Stepp, Newell's daughter-in-law submitted the following information:

"Newell McKinley Stepp was born April 24, 1896 in the Clifty Hollow area in Madison County, AR. He was second born of 15 children to James Johnathan and Rebecca Matilda Merrill Stepp.

Newell grew up helping his dad and brothers working in the timber. They hauled cross ties and stave bolts to the railroad yards at Pettigrew. 

Newell started school at Mullins Chapel, later finishing his education at Spoke Plant school. 

Newell was in the Army during WWI in France.

After returning from the Army, Newell married Zula Jane Acord. He bought a farm at Spoke Plant. Newell and Zula raised all their children at Spoke Plant.

Newell was a farmer, still continuing over the years to work in the timber and was known as a good blacksmith. People came from miles around to have him work on their wagon wheels or whatever could be fixed in a blacksmith shop. Newell was an honest hard working man. He always told his children "Take care of your pennies and your dollars will take care of themselves." They had a happy family life, working hard on the farm. They enjoyed social gatherings, visiting with neighbors. Good neighbors were very important to this generation and the Newell Stepp family were good neighbors. As Newell got older he took great pride in his gardening. He enjoyed growing a big field of corn and garden to share with family and friends. He continued to grow a garden until he was in his late 80's.

Newell and Zula were married 64 years. They continued to live at Spoke Plant until Newell died at age 91."

THE GRAPHIC, Clarksville, Arkansas, Wednesday 7 October 1987

"Newell Mckinley Stepp, aged 91, of Pettigrew died Oct. 3, 1987 at the Johnson County Regional Hospital.

He was a retired farmer, World War I Army Veteran and a member of the Pentecostal Church.

Survivors include his widow, Mrs. Zula Jane Stepp; three sons, Artist Stepp and Newell Stepp, Jr., both of Pettigrew and Dwight Stepp of Oark; three daughters Merle Denzer of Gentry, Argie Jayne Benson of Prairie Grove; one brother, Jubal Stepp of Pettigrew; four sisters, Cora Clark of Wheeler, Stella Barber of Charter Oak, Mo., Alda Mullins of Pettigrew and Odessa Stepp of Fort Worth, Texas; 19 grandchildren; and 20 great-grandchildren.

Graveside funeral services and burial were at 10 a.m. Tuesday, Oct. 6, at Evans Cemetery near Yale with Rev. Bill Gregory officiating. Arrangements were under the direction of Roller-Cox Funeral Home.

Active pallbearers were Tony Benson; Tim Denzer, Greg Stepp, James Stepp, Danny Stepp and Steve Moore.

Honorary pallbearers were Connie Betnar, Clyde Betnar, Dr. Don Pennington, Steve Trosper, Michael Konnard, Clifton Hill, Keith Stepp, David Stepp, Ron Denzer, Clyde Benson and Kenneth Stepp." 

 *This left out my grandmother Reba Melson of Prairie Grove.

I wanted to share a picture (again) of a hammer, Newell made and the story that goes with it.

My Great Aunt Peggy shared an heirloom she and my Uncle Dwight have. Dwight's dad, my great grandfather, Newell Stepp Sr. was a machinist in the Army in WW1. He made 5 ball-peen hammers while he was in the Army. He gave one to his commanding officer and brought the others home. A few years ago Dwight was visiting his cousin, Edna McDonald and she had one of the hammers that Newell made and gave to her Mother. She said she wanted Dwight to have the hammer, which he is very proud of. We don't know where the other 3 hammers are. They have Newell's serial number stamped on them, unfortunately its too faded to make out.

Grandpa Newell, hunting ginseng.

Newell and Zula in their garden.

Until next time,
Becky

Remembering The Ozarks -- Shopping At Spokeplant

I am not a descendant of the subject of the following story but this tribute to her deserves to be shared. She was the wife of my great grandfather's brother, Jubal Early Stepp. She is also related to me because she was the niece of my great great grandmother Julia Bohannon Melson. Rachel's father was Julia's brother. Confused yet? It's easy when it comes to my Ozark family roots.

This story also shows how my great great grandmother Rebecca Merrill Stepp went by Becky, just like me!

From The Madison County Record at Newspapers.com

Civil War Roll Call

This won't be a blog post full of immense detail unless I come back to edit it. For now it will just be a quick reference of my Civil War Ancestors with the units they were in. If the name is highlighted that means a blog post has been written about them or they are at least mentioned. Maybe if I'm having writers block this will be a good place to come back to for writing material. Hopefully every name will eventually be highlighted.

Some of these men fought for the duration, some were imprisoned, some died from disease, some at the hands of bushwhackers, but I don't believe I had any that died from injuries sustained during battle.

• John Middleton Nall (3rd great grandfather) - Co. H 19th Texas Infantry, CSA
• Thomas Franklin Rutherford (3rd great grandfather) - Co. A 34th Mississippi Infantry, CSA
• Asa Franklin Moore (4th great grandfather) - Co. G 34th Georgia Infantry, CSA
• Malcolm 'Mack' Foster (3rd great grandfather) - Co. D Stone's Regiment, 2nd Partisan Rangers, CSA; no service records found, only pension.
• James Martin Bass (3rd great grandfather) - Co. E 1st Regiment Alabama Cavalry; no records found, only pension index.
• Francis Marion Melson (3rd great grandfather) - Co. A 2nd Arkansas Infantry, USA
• Absalom Patton Melson (4th great grandfather) - Co. A 2nd Arkansas Infantry, USA
• John Leander Martin (4th great grandfather) - Co. A 2nd Arkansas Infantry, USA
• William Henry Boyer (5th great grandfather) - Co. F 10th Reg't Arkansas Militia, CSA; Co. L Hill's 7th Reg't Arkansas Cavalry, CSA switched sides Co. A Arkansas 4th Infantry, USA transferred Co. I Arkansas 2nd Infantry, USA
• William Bynum (4th great grandfather) - Co. D 2nd Arkansas Infantry, USA
• Levi Pitts (5th great grandfather) - Co. H 2nd Arkansas Infantry, USA
• James M. Boen (4th great grandfather) - Co. H 26th Arkansas Infantry, CSA
• William Stepp (3rd great grandfather) - Co. A 60th North Carolina Infantry, CSA
• William Gordon Acord (4th great grandfather) - Co. H 10th Arkansas Militia, CSA
• Joseph Josiah Evans (3rd great grandfather) - Co. C 8th Missouri Cavalry, USA
• James Kossier (4th great grandfather) - Co. H 1st Regiment Texas Infantry; no records, only  index card
• Worley Daniel Linville (4th great grandfather) - Co. E Third Alabama Reserves (Lieutenant)

I have two ancestors that were the right age that I can't find any record for involvement in the Civil War:

• Abner Merrell/Merrill (3rd great grandfather) - North Carolina -- One researcher says Abner paid someone to fight on his behalf.
  
  
  
• Killian Rich (3rd great grandfather) - Texas -- Since found one document saying he was a Private Co. Spear's R Corps C.S.A
  
  

I suggest this film by Ken Burns to get a deeper glimpse into the war:

Death And The Civil War or these excerpts from his series The Civil War.

If You Got 'em Smoke 'em

 

 

This is week 13 and the prompt was 'favorite photo'. I am really enjoying this. How about you?

I had a really hard time deciding what photo to use. I really wanted to do one of my grandmother flashing a great big beautiful smile while holding a birthday cake, but I decided a lot of what I would write about might give out too much information... and the internet isn't always safe about things like that. I started going through all my genealogy pictures and nothing was standing out - or the ones that did, I had already written about those individuals. Then I went searching through my grandma's old photos and found one that I just had to write about.

Meet my Great-grandfather, Newell McKinnley Stepp, and his brothers-in-law, John Thomas and Joseph "Joe" Charley Acord. This picture was taken in the late 30's or early 40's. And you guessed it, they're stealing honey from a bee tree!

 

Newell McKinnley Stepp was born April 24, 1896, "out in the woods near Fallsville" as he said in an interview by my 2nd cousin Tarona , who kindly shared it with me. Fallsville is a small community in Madison County, AR. His parents were James Jonathan and Rebecca Matilda (Merrill) Stepp. When he was 21 years old he was drafted to fight over seas in WWI. He was a Private in the Trench Art., Co B 6th Regt., and was discharged Jan 29 1920 from oversea service. In the same interview mentioned above he said he served in France and never even had to shoot his gun! He said he must've just been there for numbers and that by the time the American boys got over there, it was pretty much over. He was in France for about 6-6 1/2 months.

Three years later on April 1, 1923 he married my great-grandmother Zula Jane Acord. The two boys in the picture above were two of her younger brothers. The one in the middle is John Thomas and the one holding the smoker is Joe.

Newell and Zula had seven children, one died as an infant. One of their daughters, my grandmother, Reba, had grown up watching her daddy raise bees and when she had a place to raise some of her own, she got some help from her family to capture some from a known bee tree out on 'Eldridge Holler' (not the one pictured). This story is one that much of my family still tells today.

My grandmother's youngest brother Dwight had cut down the tree but it had become lodged in another one. Everyone was trying to get Dwight to get out from under it - when Dwight's youngest brother Tooter (who had been drinking a little) showed up and also tried to get Dwight to get out from under the tree. Next thing they knew the brothers had gotten into a fight. A lot of the family was there, Grandma Zulie and a few grandkids as well. When the boys began fighting underneath that lodged tree, Grandma Zulie fainted and the little ones started crying because they had thought she died. Finally Tooter's wife, Roma Lynn and Dwight's wife, Peggy encouraged Tooter to come with them down to the creek and on the way there he began singing "poor little black sheep", feeling a sorry for himself.

As story telling goes... there's usually a few different versions. Here's a snippet from an interview Tarona did of my great-grandmother Zula in 1985 with her version of the bee tree story. Click here.

There seems to be a lot of hesitation in telling the famous bee tree story, but my second cousin Debra, Art's daughter, was one of the first to give her account (she was about 10 years old):

"We went way up in the holler that day. Everyone walked in. Tooter had been hitting the bottle and when we got to the business of robbing the bees, the tree (or some tree) had to be cut down. I don't remember who was doing the sawing with the chainsaw, but I remember Tooter & Dwight got into a fuss over something. As the tree was about to fall Grandma Zula came up to calm them down and the tree almost fell on her. Scared everyone to death!! Tooter was scared like everyone else and he started crying and singing "I'm the Black Sheep of the Family". He sang it all the way back to Grandma's house."

Dwight's wife Peggy remembered it like this:

" What I remember about cutting the bee tree

One afternoon we all, grandpa Stepp, Grandma Stepp, Art, Reba, Tooter, Dwight, their spouses and all the little kids walked up the hollow and up the hillside. We went to cut a bee tree for Reba. Grandpa Stepp told Dwight how to cut it. Cut it where it will lodge in another tree and come down slow so it won't bust the bee tree up. Dwight did just what Grandpa said. Tooter had already had way too much to drink. He grabbed the saw from Dwight. He said Dwight was the worst tree cutter and started over the hill to cut the tree it was lodged in. The bee tree was coming down and Tooter was under it. Dwight saw the bee tree was going to fall on Tooter. He ran over the steep hill and bulldoged Tooter and they went rolling over the hill. The bee tree hit the ground right by them. Grandma thought it was falling on them and she fainted. The little kids thought she had died and they were all running, screaming and crying. The bees had come out of the tree and had covered Dwight, stinging him all over. Tooter was wanting to fight Dwight. Roma Lynn and I got Tooter and started to the house with him. He was singing he was the black sheep of the family. We decided when we got to the creek where the foot log was across we would let Tooter fall in, hoping it would sober him up. That didn't work. We couldn't even push him off. He kept wanting to go back and fight Dwight, then he was say Dwight was the best brother anyone could have and then he should just go back up there and whip him. Wasn't much fun at the time but we have had a lot of laughs about it since. Dwight ended up with so many bee stings that he was very allergic to them the next time he got stung. Guess Tooter had so much alcohol in him that they didn't sting him. Grandma was ok and the kids finally settled."

Now for stories about Newell and his bee keeping skills - My great-aunt Merle remembers having to help her Dad rob all of their bees. She said her momma was afraid of the them. Merle recalls that before they got a smoker for keeping the bees off when they were getting the honey they used rags rolled up to the length of a flashlight or so and would light it with a match and it would smoke instead of flame up. She had to hold the rags and smoke the bees while her dad got the honey. She said she never got stung very much. She remembers one time when she was a young girl, there was a big tree in Chinquapin (near Friley) that had a bee hive in it. There were several people trying to get that honey and nobody was able to get it, the bees kept them away . Then her dad, Newell, and her Uncle Roy Bentnar decided to go and try to rob those bees. It was on a Sunday and a big crowd of people came to watch. They were successful in getting the honey. She said her daddy would just wipe the bees off him and he didn't ever swell up or anything. Aunt Merle dates the above picture around 1939 or 1940 because that was about when they got their first smoker. She said the way Newell would hunt for bees was by setting out some sort of sweet bait and when the bees would get full he would follow them home.

Newell's mother Rebecca (Merrill) Stepp would hear a swarm of bees coming and she would get under a tree and hold up a big wash pan and bang on it with a spoon and it would make the bees come and light on the tree. Then they would get them and put them into a bee gum.

This tradition of bee keeping hasn't died out with the younger generation. Newell's grandson James Stepp and Merle's grandson Sundance both keep bees.

James shared a memory of the last bees he caught:

"The last bees I caught was on the side of the road by where I work. A guy from work wanted them so I told him I would be back with them. I gathered up a cardboard box, some tape and some pruners to cut the limb off with. The hardest part was getting someone to hold the box while I cut the limb off. We got about 5-6 pounds of bees and the queen with no smoke or head net with neither one of us getting stung. I watched and helped my grandpa Harmon with his bees - the secret is to not be scared!"

With any luck, when my husband and I are able to move out to our 5 acres - we would love to try our hand at it. Both my mother and father-in-law as well as my brother and sister-in-law have been keeping bees for about 2 years now. I hope we can join in the "fun" soon!

Until next week,
Becky

And don't forget to check out my bee keeping sister-in-law's genealogy blog Days of Our Lives!

 

 

So Far Away

This week's writing prompt is 'So Far Away'. This will prompt me to write about ancestors that are the furthest from me in time and generations.

There comes a point when in tracing your family history, you find yourself in a time period where records run out or are very few and you're left with stories that can vaguely line up with historical events. If you're lucky you may find yourself with an ancestor that's life is something of local legend and lore. Such is the case of my 9th great grandparents Penelope Van Princis and her husband Richard Stout.

Please bear with me, as I have only recently discovered this family, and if you've been in the genealogy game for any length of time, you will at some point find yourself in the midst of several generations that recycle the same few names over and over again or marry first cousins. That coupled with scarce records can make things very hard to keep up with without pencil and paper and plenty of other distant relatives to help keep you on track or debate that you're even in the right generation. There have been more than one occasion, that I have lost my bearings on this line.

So please read on with caution, and do your own research before taking any of this story as absolute fact. Please give grace and some wiggle room.


Our main characters will be Richard Stout born in 1610 to John Stout and Elizabeth Bee/Kee/Gee and Penelope Van Princis born 1622 in Amsterdam, Noord-Holland, Netherlands to  Baron Von Printzin and UKNOWN. These two are my 9th great grandparents on my mother's side.

I will share with you a brief bit about our main characters parentage:
Richard's father, John Stout, was born circa 1584 at Burton Joyce, Nottinghamshire, England. He married Elisabeth Bee/Kee/Gee in 1609 at St. Helen's Church Burton Joyce, England. Below is supposed to be a record of their marriage. (I can make out the 'ee' of her maiden name in the bottom left corner).




Elisabeth was born circa 1591 in Nottingham England, and baptized at St Katharine's by the Tower the 2nd of January 1591.

John and Elisabeth lived during the time that James I was king of England. This is the King James that is known for the King James Version of the Bible, which was published a year after the birth of their son, Richard (from whom I descend).

Penelope Van Princis, thought to be the daughter of Baron Von Printzin, was born in 1622. I have read that she was married three times as well as twice. I am not sure, at this point, which is true. One thing they all agree on is that before she married my ancestor, Richard, she was first married to a John Kent.

In the mid/early 1600's, the date is unknown, Penelope and John would set sail from Holland to America. After weeks at sea their vessel ran aground and became stranded at Sandy Hook or as the Dutch called it, Sant Hoek. All the passengers made it from the ship to land but John who had been terribly ill for most of the voyage and to make matters worse was somehow injured when the ship ran aground, was in too poor a condition to make it any further than shore. As luck would have it this group of voyagers would come to America during a time of conflict between the Pequot people (as some believe) and the local colonists of that area. After making it to shore the rest of voyagers, fearful of the Indians, refused to wait until Mr. Kent became well and quickly made plans to head directly to New Amsterdam, their original destination. Kent and his bride, Penelope, were left behind with the promise that they would send back help. Not long after the voyagers left the shore, were they attacked by the Pequot who then made their way back to the shore to finish off Kent and Penelope. They assumed they had rid themselves of these foreign intruders, but little did they know, Penelope was still alive.

Penelope being terribly mutilated, with a fractured skull, butchered shoulder, abdomen gashed open and insides protruding, had lost consciousness - but had not died. Once she came to, with her good arm, she gathered up her insides and held them inside her body. She then mustered up all the strength she had remaining and crawled to a nearby hollowed out log where she would stay for days until it is said she saw a deer pass by. This deer was shot full of arrows and in the distance she could hear two natives. You would think she would be filled with terror, but instead she was grateful for she had hoped they would come and relieve her from her misery. The two men were said to have argued. One wanted to finish her off, the older, wanted to take her back and heal her. The elder was granted his wish, and in part because of him, I am here today. After she had regained her health and strength, her Indian friend, gave her the choice of remaining with his people, or returning to the white settlement at New Amsterdam. Penelope chose to return to her people, but she and her healer would remain friends for as long as she was living near his people.

Now for Richard's side of the story. He himself would convey to his ancestors the tale that brought him to America. He came from a family of good standing in England and he had been in love with a young woman whom is father deemed beneath them. They had a falling out because of his parents interference and he enlisted in the British Royal Navy on a 'man-of-war'. Richard served for seven years and at the end of such time, he received his discharge at New Amsterdam where his majesty's vessel was ported at the time.

So it is there, in New Amsterdam, that we find these two soon to be companions. In the indexes of U.S. and International Marriage Records, it lists Richard Stout and Penelope Kent as being married in 1644. They would go on to be one of the more prominent settlers of the area and considered one of the founding families of the Monmouth Colony.

In the abstract of Richard's Will, dated 9 June 1703, he lists their 10 children. Sons - John, Richard, James, Jonathan, David, Benjamin; daughters - Mary, Alse (Alice), Sarah; daughter-in-law, Marey Stoute ( wife of Peter).

It is from two of his sons that I descend; Richard Jr. and James. I will conclude this post with my convoluted lineage, but for now, I want to bring your attention to a very neat find. It would seem that Penelope was not only famous for surviving the attack of the local natives but also for another fact or legend that would land her in an issue of Ripley's Believe It or Not! In the below imagine you will find she was also famous for having a grand total of 502 descendants at the time of her death at the age of 110!

There have been numerous books written, records researched and history revisited in order to make her story more credible but I will leave that hunt up to you. I hope you have found this story as fascinating as I have and share it with your ancestors for generations to come!

Now I will conclude with my lineage. It gets messy. Try to keep up.

For privacy reasons, I will start off with my great grandfather Newell M. Stepp, as generation (1).


Newell M. Stepp, Rebecca M. Merrell, Abner Merrell, *** Merrel, John Merrell, William Merrell Jr., Penelope Stout, James Stout and finally Richard Stout Sr.

or because we are a double line once reaching William Merrell Jr. if you start with him once again, it can also go as follows:

William Merrell Jr., William Merrell Sr., Grace Stout, Richard Stout Jr and once again Richard Stout Sr.

The *** Merrell accounts for the fact that it's not 100% verifiable who Abner Merrell's father is. I have seen his father listed as Jacob Merrell (son of John Merrell) but can't find any sources. But in John Merrell's Will he mentions his grandson Abner Merrell the only heir of his son William, deceased. So Abner's father is either Jacob or William - both of which are sons of John Merrell.

I wonder if it's possible that Jacob adopted his nephew, Abner.... I have found no record at this point in time for Abner's mother.

Please also, be sure to stop by my SIL's blog for her post this week about her 2nd-great grandfather, a German stowaway!