Progress Notes

Recently, former Eldon resident Shane Matzen, who now is a teacher and the basketball coach at Marquette High School located in Chesterfield, Missouri, gave me an old 1944 Eldon High School Basketball Tournament program which I thought might be of interest to our Eldon community readers. Shane, who has had a very successful career as basketball coach at Marquette over the years, has always maintained an intense interest in his alma mater, Eldon High School, and he wanted to share the old program with our website readers (photo 01).

01 Shane Matzen

The following scans of the program also include all the advertisers who helped fund the program’s printing cost (photos 02 - 10):

Click on any of the photo thumbnails to view a larger image.

Note: Once you click on an image below, a new window will open. It would be best to maximize this new window by clicking on the middle box in the upper right-hand corner of the window. When you move your cursor over the image in this new window, it will change to a magnifying glass. Once this occurs, click on the image and it will show in a larger format for easier viewing.

You will notice that the bracket didn’t indicate which team eventually won the 1944 tournament; however, Shane told me that Eldon won first place and Tuscumbia won second place. Shane has a website which gives much more information about Eldon basketball history.

He also has compiled a list of all the winners of the Eldon Tournament through the years (photo 11).

11 Eldon Tournament Winners
Click image to view document in PDF format

This year Shane had an exceptionally good basketball team which won the opportunity to participate in the Missouri State Basketball Tournament which was the school’s first trip to the Class 5 state semifinal. Here is a recent article about Shane’s successful career which I copied from the Ladue newspaper website:

Matzen's Masterful March

By David Kvidahl
March 8, 2012

Shane Matzen stood surrounded by 300 of his closest friends. The Marquette boys’ basketball coach was inundated by hugs, handshakes, well wishes, thank-you’s and attaboys. Matzen’s back was raw from all the slaps it took. While he worked his way around the crowd, those who couldn’t be there shared their joy and appreciation by blowing up his phone with text messages, emails, Tweets and calls. His pocket was vibrating so much it looked like his hip had a twitch.

This much celebration, elation and joy came nearly an hour after Marquette secured its first trip to the Class 5 state semifinals this weekend in Columbia at Mizzou Arena. The Mustangs (20-10) played their best game of the year in a 66-53 quarterfinal win over CBC at the University of Missouri at St. Louis. “It’s unbelievable,” a stunned Matzen said after the game. “It’s unbelievable.”

In his 20 years of coaching, this is Matzen’s first trip to the biggest stage. A standout player at Eldon High School, Matzen passed on the opportunity to play at three small Missouri colleges to go work as a manager for the Mizzou men’s basketball team while an undergrad. From 1986 until 1990, Matzen soaked up the lessons legendary coach Norm Stewart offered. Matzen knew at an early age he wanted to coach. What better way to learn than to sit at the knee of Mizzou’s ‘Top Tiger?’ “That first month at Mizzou, I had a lot of ego to swallow,” Matzen, 43, says. “That’s hard.” Matzen went from being a big fish in the small pond of Eldon to be a fresh fish filling up water jugs and washing towels. It wasn’t the easiest transition, but he was focused on his coaching career.

After earning a master’s degree from Central Methodist University, he landed his first head coaching job at Elsberry High School in 1992. He spent three years coaching the Indians before becoming an assistant at Marquette. A year later he was named head coach.

He had no idea what he was getting himself into. “Everybody thinks they know what they’re doing when they’re young, that’s part of being young,” Matzen says. “You have to put your finger on the stove to figure out its hot. When I see my alumni, I apologize to them for having to go through that.”

Those lessons have paid dividends. Matzen knows they helped him through this season, which at this moment is magical. But this is the silver lining in what was an ugly January. The Mustangs lost seven of 10 games in one stretch. They were beaten in overtime five times. At a certain point it becomes hard to beat back the doubt and keep your confidence. It’s easy to give in, wave the white flag and say, it’s not our year.

Matzen’s not much of a white flag waiver. “They (the coaches) never stopped believing in us,” senior center and Mizzou recruit Ryan Rosburg says. “We knew we could turn it around.” Matzen says his team didn’t do anything out of the ordinary to get back on the right track. He says the Mustangs just kept working every day to get better. “I think everybody has (that mental toughness), you just have to let it out,” Matzen says.

Winners of nine straight games and dancing into their first final four, you could say the Mustangs have turned their season around. It’s been a long road back to Columbia, but the one-time Mizzou manager will finally get to stalk the sidelines like his mentor. That, Matzen says, is a credit to all the kids who, at one time or another, pulled on the Marquette jersey and sweated, bled and gave their heart to the Mustangs. “I think it’s all about the players,” Matzen says. It’s quite possibly the most important lesson of all.

A couple of weeks ago Miller County Prosecutor, Matt Howard, walked over from the Courthouse to our museum to give me seventeen letters of appreciation sent by his wife’s third grade class, which had visited our museum earlier this year. You can review that story with photos at this preview Progress Notes.

I thought the letters were very well written so I am presenting them here for everyone to read (photos 12 - 29):

Click on any of the photo thumbnails to view a larger image. The student's name is listed below their letter.

Aeris	Mary	Destiny	Kyler	Tyler	David
Cadance	Landyn	Alexis	Ella	Talia	Quinten
Katelyn-p1	Katelyn-p2	Ethan	Donavan	Cassidy	Blake

Here is a photo of Matt taken in 2008 accepting an award for prosecutor of the year from Professional Fire and Fraud Investigators Association President Russ Mason (photo 30).

30 Matt Howard accepting Award

Many aspects of teaching today are very different as compared to the early years of our county’s educational system. Back then, the one room school was common, usually financed by local farmers within the school’s district. Each school was required to be within three miles walking distance for all the households surrounding it, and of course, these schools were very primitive; no running water or inside toilets; and having only wood burning stoves for heat. But perhaps the most interesting difference between then and now were the restrictions placed upon the private lives of the schools’ teachers, usually a young woman. We have on display in our model one room school at the museum a list on the wall which enumerates the requirements and codes of conduct demanded of the school teacher in those days (photo 31).

31 Teachers' Duties and Requirements - 1915
Click image for larger view

A couple of weeks ago I announced the opening of a new very elaborate display loaned us by the State of Missouri which presents a pictorial history of the Civil War in Missouri. If you haven’t seen it be sure and include a visit to the museum before the end of August when we will have to return it to the state.

We have a smaller permanent Civil War display located in the museum in our Miller County military display. One of the interesting items featured there is recognition of the Miles Carroll Post No. 111 of the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) originally located at Iberia. The first commander of this unit was Henry Johnson (photo 32).

32 Henry J. Johnson

Here is a photo followed by the caption of the members of the Iberia GAR taken of former Civil War veterans probably in the early 1930’s (photo 33):

33 Iberia GAR

Caption for Photo 33:

Front Row L-R: Jim Berry, James Cross, Jerry Fallman, Epaminandos Deampird (E.D.) Hays, Steven Deardeuff, Simon Deardeuff, John Ferguson, Thomas Marchant, Absolom Bear, John Carroll

Back Row: Benjamin Fike, John E. Dickerson, George Teaverbaugh, Joe Crismon, William C. Thompson, John Brown.

The GAR originally was made up of those who fought for the north in the Civil War. However, after the turn of the century, veterans from both sides were invited to join the organization. You can read more about the GAR at this previous Progress Notes.

The story of Miles Carroll was written quite a number of years ago by Peggy Hake as told her by Iberia native, Hite Boren (photo 34):

34 Hite Boren

Miles Carroll Post Number 111 of Grand Army of the Republic Iberia

PIONEER FAMILIES OF MILLER COUNTY, MISSOURI

"Journey to the Past"
Written and Edited by:
Peggy Smith Hake (photo 35)

35 Peggy Hake

THE STORY OF MILES CARROLL

During the Civil War years, not only did the American people fight the northern cause against the southern cause concerning the slavery question, but they also fought the political question of the older Democrat party against the newer Republican party.

Prior to his death (about 1984), I visited with Hite Boren, age 102 years, who lived in the small community of Hawkeye in Pulaski Co. and I drew important information from his marvelous storehouse of memories. He could remember, when a child, that all the old Civil War comrades would meet at his father's house and spend all night talking about their experiences during the war years and those following.

As a wide-eyed child, he absorbed all those wonderful tales of yesteryear and could recite the most exciting stories! He said the Southerners were mostly Democrat in their political beliefs and the Union army represented Abraham Lincoln and the newer Republican party. The South had a guerilla army called Bushwhackers and they terrorized the countryside with their unscrupulous and deadly behavior.

Miles and Ruah (Setser) Carroll, with their family of 10 children, lived in southern Miller County near the old Madden community. They were new settlers to this region when the Civil War broke out, having come from Macon County, North Carolina via Georgia in the late 1850's. A huge wagon train of 44 wagons made this trek to central Missouri with many settlers making a new home for themselves in our Miller /Pulaski counties area. Some of the family names included Carroll, Boren, Setser, Steen, Day, Strutton, and Lowery.

All these pioneer families came overland with their livestock, trudging the hundreds of miles through the autumn rains; behind wagons loaded with their earthly possessions. The wagon train increased in size as it proceeded westward through Tennessee, Kentucky, and onward to Missouri.

Uncle Hite Boren re-constructed the Madden and Hawkeye communities formed during the Civil War years. The following were the homesteaders who lived in that general region during the 1860's....there was Thomas Day; the Miles Carroll family down by the Tavern creek; Ab(ner) Long; Jack Long; Nick Long, Jack Thompson, Sol(omon) Keeth, Peter Whittle; Dow Wall, 'Old man Rutter who was a preacher; Willis Lively, Elias Popplewell; 'George Steen's folks'; Jack Akins; 'a fellow named Arnold'; Thomas Thornsberry; John Thornserry; Will Pemberton; 'the Lowerys'; and Jim Boren. Also in the same area were the Pennsylvanians who migrated to Miller Co. in the same time era....the Tallmans, Browns, Moores, Pitingers, Getgens, Irlands, Bennages, and Johnstons.

Southern Miller County was peopled by pioneers of very different backgrounds. The northern Pennsylvanian Dutch were Republicans and non-slave owners while the southern homesteaders, of varied backgrounds, were accustomed to a life of slave ownership. Joseph Carroll, whom I believe was a brother to Miles, owned one slave in 1862 and James Long owned one. Both men lived near each other in the Old Madden community.

Uncle Hite was of the opinion, and I am sure he heard this quoted by his father many times as he grew up, that many central Missouri men went into the service of the Union Army even though their hearts may have been with the Confederacy. They were able to acquire food and provisions for their wives and children from the Federal army and evidently the same was not available from the southern armies.

Miles Carroll was a native of North Carolina, born 11 April 1811. At the age of 23 years, in 1834, he married Ruah L. Setzer/Setser, daughter of John and Catherine (Tarr) Setzer, born in Lincoln Co., North Carolina on 26 August 1811. From 1834 until ca 1843, they lived in Macon Co., North Carolina where their first 4 children were born including Narcissa, Mary/Polly, Lucinda, and Henry. After moving to Georgia, 5 more children were born: Martha, John, Levada, Daniel, and William. Their 10th child, Cordelia Jane, was born in Missouri.

Two of the Carroll sons, Henry about 18 years old, and John, not yet 16years, went off to war joining the Union forces of the North. They were young boys who wanted to fight a war that I doubt they even understood!

The Civil War was a terrible time in our history. There will never be an accurate count of how many actually died in the 4 years between 1861-1865, but the estimated number is horrendous.

The violence during those years was terrible as neighbor fought neighbor; family fought family; and it was described as the time 'when brother fought brother'. Little trust could be found and everyone was skeptical of his neighbor.

The story has been told through the generations about the death of Miles Carroll. The translation has probably either lost some truth or perhaps gained some over the years as the legend has survived for over 125 years since a day in October, 1864 when death overtook Miles Carroll. The following is what Hite Boren told me as he remembered the story his father, James Boren, told him when a child..... Miles was 53 years old and too old to serve in the military, but his 2 oldest sons were away fighting for the North. It was rumored that the boys sent money home to their folks for safekeeping. Bushwhackers rode roughshod spreading fear and havoc over the countryside of central Missouri.

One autumn day they rode to the homestead of Miles Carroll and demanded money. He refused to hand any over to them, so they took Miles and marched him in front of their horses for miles, then returned him home, weary and worn out. They left at that time, but returned again about 2 weeks later and this time they dragged him from his house and shot him down in the front yard of his homestead. Two of his daughters, Martha Carroll Shelton and Narcissa Carroll Strutton, were home and witnessed the murder of their father. The Bushwhackers terrorized the women telling them if they attempted to move the body of their father, they would burn the house down. They rode off and a short while later, Ruah and two other of the Carroll daughters, Lucinda Lowery and Polly Smith, returned home to the frightful sight. The five women had just brought Miles into the house when the Bushwhackers returned. With an ax in hand, Ruah challenged these outlaws, daring them to set foot in her house. Evidently she made believers of them because they rode away. The 5 women buried Miles Carroll on a hillside overlooking the Big Tavern creek valley below, the first person buried in the Madden cemetery.

It is my understanding there are approximately 30 Civil War veterans buried in Madden cemetery, one who is James Monroe Smith, husband of Polly Carroll. He was killed in a gunfight on the streets of Iberia a few years after the Civil War had ended but the fight was because of old hatreds stemming from that war. James Monroe Smith was a brother to my great grandfather, William Harrison Smith, sons of John Wesley Smith and Nancy Stinnett.

I do not know for sure how the Grand Army of the Republic Post in Iberia acquired the name MILES CARROLL G.A.R. POST NO. 111, but I would assume that Squire John Ferguson was instrumental in getting the post named for his old friend. The grand old gentleman of Richwoods township, Squire Ferguson, was the cornerstone of the G.A.R. in Miller Co. and was very influential in the community.

Many descendants of Miles and Ruah (Setser) Carroll are scattered throughout the world today and many are yet in our Mid-Missouri region in both Miller and Pulaski counties. The children married into the families of Smith, Strutton, Lowery, Shelton, Hull, Long, Coffey, and Martin, whom are also pioneer families with deep roots in our communities.

The rugged stories of our ancestors are wonderful to research and we realize these pioneer forefathers were a strong people as they set out to conquer a brutal frontier. Missouri was considered an 'untamed land' prior to and during the Civil War era and it took courageous people to tackle such a ruthless wilderness; settle it; and build an ever-lasting heritage for our generations of the 20th century.

1880 census (Richwood Twp):

 Solomon Keeth age 41
 Mary E. age 43? (38)
 Lucinda C. age 19
 Andrew J. age 14 (married Mary J. Thomas, 8/8/1889)
 George W. age 12 (married Martha E. Plemmons, 4/27/1895)
 Nancy C. age 9 (married Anderson Allen, 10/31/1886)
 Lucy F. age 7 (married J. M. Sloan, 9/27/1891)
 John W. age 5 (married Mary Wood, 1/21/1896)
 Fanny E. age 5 months (married Charles A. Carroll, 11/26/1899). (William
 Carroll, father gave consent.)
 Solomon had another daughter Harriett/1897.

Charles Carroll age 18, born June 1881, in 1900 census.
Fannie age 19, born Dec. 1880, in 1900 census of Richwood Twp. West.
Living in the middle of relatives, Keeths, Longs, Carrolls.

That’s all for this week.

Joe Pryor

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