Progress Notes

This week I am going to start off with what might be considered an unusual subject, a discussion of train culverts and tunnels. The topic was brought to my attention by Jeff Cooney of Gainsville, Texas who wrote the following letter:

Mr. Pryor,

My name is Jeff Cooney. I grew up in Eldon leaving in 1978 to attend college at Central Missouri State University. I am a weekly reader of your MCHS article posted on-line. I have a passion for history, particularly railroad history which includes that of the Rock Island’s St. Louis line. In 1989, I was able to obtain my first railroad motor car (track inspection car now replaced by hi-railers). In 1991 and ’92, I made several trips on the former Rock Island trackage with at least two of those trips taking us through the Eugene Tunnel. The August 20, 2012 “Presidents Page” has a very interesting summation by Alan Wright on the rock quarry at Spring Garden. There was a picture posted of a group of folks standing alongside a cut stone structure identified as being “in front of CRI&P tunnel” (photo 01).

01 Eugene and CRI&P Cut Stone Culvert

I believe this photo actually is of a cut stone culvert which is located a mile or so east of the east portal of the Eugene tunnel. This next photograph taken December 6, 1991 is of that same culvert (photo 02).

02 Stone Culvert a mile East of Tunnel

Most of the original construction techniques for this portion of the Rock Island were with poured concrete and it was quite unusual to find a cut stone culvert such as this so I felt it worthy of taking a photograph with my track car posed above. I will also forward another attachment with my car at the east portal of Tunnel No. 2, Eugene (photo 03).

03 Tunnel No. 2 - December 6, 1991 - East Portal Eugene Tunnel

In the article, there is discussion on the origin of the name, Colorado Lime Company. I might suggest the name was a derivative of the original road being built westerly towards Kansas City, The St. Louis, Kansas City and Colorado Railroad.

Joe, this is shot of me at Sulphur Springs, TX March, 2012 with a Casey Jones car out for a trip. I have several other track cars photos which I am forwarding to you (photos 04 - 08):

04 Jeff Cooney with Casey Jones Track Car

05 Casey Jones Track Car

06 Casey Jones Track Car

07 STL and SFRR Track Car

08 Line of Track Cars

By the way, Jack Wright, originally from Tuscumbia and son of Bamber Wright, accompanied me on the trips we made with the motor car. Jack and I have been friends for many years. While I grew up in Eldon and Jack was from Tuscumbia, we went to the same church as kids and then became much better friends after we both got out of college. One of the trips we made on the Rock Island was from the town of Hoecker across the Osage River on the Hoecker bridge and then back east along the Osage and Argyle through Freeburg taking us across the Maries River bridge and then on east across the Gasconade River bridge to Gascondy (photo 09).

09 Hoecker Bridge - Howard Killiam

I am very doubtful you could motor any of this now and I am so thankful we were able to do what we did.

Here is a photo of Jack and myself (photo 09a):

09a Jack Wright and Jeff Cooney

This was taken on a trip made July 10, 2010 on the Arkansas-Oklahoma Railroad, formerly the Rock Islands old Choctaw Route.  We ran from Oklahoma City east to Shawnee, OK with this shot taken at Shawnee. Jack is on the left.  I’m the short one on the right.

I purchased many duplicate slides from Howard Killiam in the mid 1980’s including the Hoecker bridge above as well as this one of the Eugene Station taken June 2, 1957 (photo 10).

10 Eugene Train Station - 1957 - Howard Killiam

Presently, I live in Fort Worth, TX where I am employed by the Lone Star Transportation Company. It is a 620 truck motor carrier headquartered in Fort Worth, TX operating in 49 states (including Alaska) and Canada as well as interline into Mexico. We are a flat-bed, heavy carrier servicing construction, building materials, energy including oil and gas as well as wind, aerospace and machinery. We specialize in large over-dimensional freight requiring multi-axle equipment. I am responsible for safety and regulatory compliance for the company and have been with Lone Star over 10 years. Prior to moving to Texas, I was in Joplin for 17 years with Tri-State Motor Transit Co., working in safety and prior to that and right out of college I was with the Missouri State Highway Patrol working in troops A and D.

I lived in Eldon growing up but had no Eugene connection. The Cooney family were typical Irish immigrants that migrated west in the late 1850's working in railroad construction. The family settled in Franklin County on 40 acres just west of New Haven. My dad’s father moved to Fort Scott, KS in the early 1930's which is where I was born. We moved to Eldon during the winter of 1964-65. Jack and I attended the same church in Eldon and knew each other but really did not become close friends until about 1987 or so. As kids, neither one of us knew that we held a passion for railroad history, he of course fond of the Rock Island and me, both the Rock Island and Frisco. My earliest memories are of my grandmother taking me down to the Frisco depot in Fort Scott, setting me on a baggage wagon and waiting for the morning passenger train to arrive from Kansas City. This would have been in the early '60's. The hook was set early for a lifelong love a railroading.

Jeff Cooney
Vice President of Safety
Lone Star Transportation, LLC
1808 Moss Lake Road
Gainesville, Texas76240

www.LoneStar-LLC.com

Thanks Jeff for educating us on tunnels and culverts and the joy of riding the rails on a track car!

Recently, Dr. Otis Burris of Vancouver, Washington sent us a large painting of his uncle, William T. Franklin, who was a soldier in WW I (photo 11).

11 William T. Franklin

He died October 10, 1918 a victim of the Spanish Flu epidemic when in officer training in the U.S. Army at Camp Pike, Arkansas. William was the son of James Franklin, one of Eldon’s most prominent business men during the early part of the last century.

Dr. Burris wrote the following:

“William “Bill” Franklin was my uncle and my mother’s younger brother. There were five siblings in the family, four girls and Bill. The oldest was Maud (Franklin) Allee, Dr. Allee’s wife. My mother was the youngest daughter Cirrelda (Franklin) Burris. She married Otis Edgar Burris son of Willis Mastin Burris. Willis and his wife Martha Bolin had twelve children. They owned the Burris hotel in Eldon.”

You can read more about the story of William Franklin at this previous Progress Notes.

Especially interesting on the above website are the photos of the young Miller County boys going off to training camp in preparation for WWI. The photos were sent me by Professor William Harvey, second cousin of William Franklin.

We will add this portrait of William T.Franklin to others of the Franklin family donated to us by Professor Harvey and his cousin, Dr. Otis Burris. You can read more about these additional portraits as well as the Franklin family at this previous Progress Notes.

Here is a photo of Professor and Mrs. William Harvey and Dr. Otis Burris the day they donated to us the photos of the Franklin patriarchs of Eldon, Mr. and Mrs. William Franklin and James Franklin (photo 12):

12 Professor and Mrs. William Harvey and Dr. Otis Burris

I received recently the following email from Roberta Fischer who had been at our museum researching her Whittle ancestors:

Mr. Pryor,

I was at the Miller County Museum last week and was looking at the information you had in your genealogy department on the James B. Whittle and Mary Ann Keeth family who lived in the Iberia area. Attached is a picture of their eleven children taken in 1968 in Iberia I believe. All the children survived to adulthood and were all living when this picture was taken (photo 13).

13 James Whittle Family
Click image for larger view

The caption reads:

Shown are the eleven children of the late James B. and Mary Keeth Whittle, who were together at the W.C.C. hall here Sunday.

Front row:
Mrs. Cora Hanna, Mrs. Nora Keeth, Mrs. Flora Huff and Mrs. Dora Lockwood.

Back row:&
John, Elmer, Tom, George, Arthur,
William R. and Everett Whittle.

Tom, 90 is the oldest member of the family and George, 70, is the youngest. My grandfather was Everett Whittle.  We left more information on Everett's family with the lady who was in charge that day.

I really enjoyed my visit to the museum. It is very nice and your genealogy department is great.  I use your website when I am researching my ancestors who lived in Miller County. They include the Whittle, Keeth, Capps, and McGowin families.

Thanks for the interesting information, Roberta, about some of your family ancestors. After receiving Roberta’s note I asked Peggy Hake if she had additional information about the Whittle family. This is what she wrote me:

Joe,

I remember the Whittle’s so vividly because Nora Whittle Keeth and her husband, Tom Keeth, were neighbors to my folks for many years in Iberia. I once wrote a story about my memories of Nora and her remarkable life. She was one of the most 'unforgettable' people I ever knew and spoiled my brother and myself so much when we were young children. I interviewed her for my story in the early 1980s at her home in Versailles, MO and we recalled such wonderful memories. She was past 100 years of age at the time and sharp as a tack!!!! I was descended from the same Whittle and Keeth families as she was and what a wonderful time we had recalling our ancestors......

By the way, even though her mother was born a Keeth, Nora was not closely related to her husband, Tom....if at all. All her family of brothers and sisters have been gone for many years and in later years many of them moved to the Versailles area. We laughed because the girls were Cora, Flora, Dora, Nora and I was thinking there was one more with an 'ora' at the end of her name but I may be mistaken about that !!!!!! What a delight it was for me to have the privilege of knowing Nora and most of her family. I stayed in touch with her son, Lester Keeth, for many years. He lived in Pueblo, CO..... I haven't heard from him in 3 or 4 years so I am presuming he has passed on.

Peggy wrote a narrative about Nora Keeth (photo 14) several years ago which I will copy here:

14 Nora Whittle Keeth

I walked up the pathway to her door on a Sunday afternoon in February 1984 and my heartstrings gave a twitch as I remembered other days of long ago when a little girl ran down the hill along another pathway to a kitchen door and waited for her friend to let her in. In 1984 I was waiting for her to answer her door in her modest little home in Versailles, Missouri. This day I was waiting for that same old friend to once again open the door and let me in after many years of absence.

The same wonderful gleam sparkled in her eyes when she realized who was standing outside her home. Nora Whittle Keeth had reached her 101st year of life in 1984 and I sat with her for three hours and listened to her talk of her life, which had spanned many decades. I remembered the scriptures which reminds us in Psalms 90:10 that God has only promised us "three score and ten years and if our days are numbered more, then we should apply our hearts to wisdom". With such wisdom, Nora Whittle Keeth had walked and talked with God heart to heart and she was called His friend.

Her heritage is easy for me to record because it is the same as my own. We are both descended from good Kentucky pioneer stock and our common ancestry was one we both shared with pride. A few years prior to 1984 I had traveled back to Edmonson County, Kentucky and there I delved into the old land grants, probate and marriage records, discovering our Whittle-Keeth ancestors and our pioneer heritage in the Green River country of central Kentucky.

Our common ancestors were Joseph and Susannah (Kinser) Whittle and John and Ruhama (Allen) Keeth, all living in Edmonson County in the early 19th century. They were farmers who homesteaded in the Green River Valley circa 1825. For a number of years they continued living in that area, but around 1845, the 'westward movement fever' evidently hit all these venturesome ancestors and they started looking for a new valley to descend or a new mountain to climb. They came to Missouri in covered wagons, bringing all their families and earthly belongings where they settled near one another in the southwest part of the Big Richwoods of Miller County.

They continued to marry within the same family circle over the years. My ancestor, John Levi Whittle, married Nancy Jane Keath/Keeth and Nora's ancestor, Peter J. Whittle married Serilda Hoskins. John Levi and Peter J. were sons of Joseph and Susannah (Kinser) Whittle. Nancy Jane Keeth was a daughter of John and Ruhama (Allen) Keeth. This is the ancestral bond that Nora and I had in common.

Peter J. Whittle (1836-1910) and Serilda Ann Hoskins (1836-1917) were Nora's grandparents. She told me she could remember them so vividly. Her grandmother was a "fair-haired Irish lady with a high temper; clean as a pin; and ruled the roost!" Her grandfather was a quiet, soft-spoken man who loved to till the earth and spent many years as a farmer. Peter J. Whittle was also a Justice of the Peace in Richwoods Township and performed many marriages over the years. Peter and Serilda Whittle parented eleven children between 1856-1878 including: JOHN A., JAMES B., GEORGE C, ROBERT D., MARGARET, MARY, ALBERT E., LEVI F., MARTHA A., NANCY E., AND HENRY V. All their children were given middle initials but no names....... Nora's father was the second son, James B. Whittle (1857-1938). Her mother was Mary Ann Keeth (1857-1938), daughter of Solomon Keeth and Mary Ellen Bourne/Boren. Solomon Keeth was a son of John and Ruhama (Allen) Keeth and Mary Ellen Bourne was a daughter of Wm. H . Bourne, a native of Virginia. The nine children of Solomon and Mary Ellen Keeth were SARAH J., LUCINDA C., ANDREW JACKSON, GEORGE WASHINGTON, LUCY F., JOHN W., FANNIE E., HARRIETT E., and Nora's mother, MARY ANN.

James B. Whittle married Mary Ann Keeth in October 1878 and over the years they became parents of twelve children: Thomas Henry Whittle b. 1879, John Logan Whittle b. 1880; Lenora/Nora Whittle b. 1883; Arthur M. Whittle b. 1884, James E. Whittle b. c/1887; Cora I. Whittle b. 1889; Wm. Robert Whittle b. 1891; Everett Whittle b. 1892; Dora Mae Whittle b. 1894; Flora Whittle b. 1895; George Washington Whittle b. 1898, Elmer Whittle b. after 1900. Lenora/Nora was the first daughter and the third child of James and Mary Ann, born 6 Jan 1883 in Richwoods Township in southern Miller County. On that January day, 124 years ago, Nora came into the world in a ferocious snowstorm. Her father had to trudge through deep snow banks, leading a horse to fetch the midwife (a Mrs. Griffin) to assist in her birth. They made it back in time and Nora was born in an old 3-room log house that sat in the Pleasant Hill community near the present home of Gene and Beryl Whittle. She remembered well the home where she was born with its wood fireplace and over the years, they lived in other log houses in the same community. She told me that they moved away "every time the cracks got filled up between the logs."

Her formal schooling was very limited because as the oldest daughter of eleven children, she was needed at home to assist her mother. But you would never have believed it that day as I spoke with her...she was very intelligent and one would think she was highly educated.....this was the amazing accomplishment of a self-taught woman. She had some wonderful memories of her school days even though they were few and one in particular was delightful...On her first day of school, about 1888-89, she and her cousin, Frances Hyle, were walking together to the old Madden Country School. Along the way the conversation got to the subject of their mothers. One said, "my mother can cook better than your mother"...No, she can't"...."My mother is prettier than your mother"..."No, she ain't" and here the fight really began! They started scrapping and tumbling all over the trail and had to be separated. When their teacher, John Martin, learned of this little episode, he brought them before the class and said, "You must now tell the truth, become friends again, kiss and make up!". Nora stomped her foot, refused to kiss her cousin, and said, "I ain't a doin' it cause my mama is the prettiest!"

By the age of 6 years, her mother had taught her to sew and to operate the old spinning wheel. This skill of sewing and spinning had been her 'second life' over the years. She worked for the neighbor ladies in her younger life cleaning, cooking, and sewing when she used the old-fashioned, foot and hand pump sewing machines and made many, many garments over the years for her brothers and sisters and later for her own children. She did not do much cooking at home while growing up, but remembered one of her chores was the 'clean-up' after a meal. One time she remembered while washing the dishes she got careless and left a dish to soak in the dishpan so she could go outside and play. When her mother discovered she had not finished the job, she called her to the kitchen door and threw the dishwater on her! Nora laughed and said "that was the worse whipping I ever got." Nora said she only received one spanking from the hand of her father. After she had helped put the dinner on the table one evening, she ran back to the spinning wheel where she was still learning to spin. In the process her little sister, Dora Mae, spilled the whole table of food onto the floor. Her father thought it was Nora who had upset the table in her haste to return to the spinning wheel, so he got a hickory switch and gave her a tap or two. She said that when he learned it was not her fault, he sat down and "cried like a baby."

In her early teenage years, she left home and worked in Dixon at an old rooming house called "The Cottage". It was a three-storied hotel and was used by 'traveling men' or drummers who rode the train into Dixon and canvassed the area selling their wares during the day. They generally arrived in town on a night train, sought sleeping rooms overnight, and worked the vicinity the next day. Nora was one of the cooks who prepared breakfast for these 'traveling men'. This was about the turn of the new century (1900). It was during those years that she purchased her beautiful old Crown pump organ, which was standing in a corner of the living room in her little home in Versailles when I visited her in 1984. It had traveled with her over the years from that old Dixon hotel; to her parents home in southwest Miller County; after her marriage to her own home in the Pleasant Hill community; later to her home in Iberia; and finally to her home in Versailles.

She wanted the old pump organ so much, but was only earning $3.00 per week working at 'The Cottage'. One of the traveling drummers told her if she paid $16.00 down, he would take it to her home and she could pay a small amount at a time until it was paid for. She sent it back home to her parent's farm so her sisters could learn to play and they all did indeed learn to pump out beautiful music on its keys. When I saw it the last time in 1984, it was in the original state, beautifully hand-carved, displaying pictures of her family from its shining mantle shelves.

On 9 December 1907, Nora married Thomas Newton Keeth (b. 26 Jan. 1875 d. 23 Jun 1960) at the home of her parents in the Pleasant Hill community. Louis Moneymaker, a minister of the gospel, performed their marriage ceremony that December day which is now 100 years ago. Before their marriage, Thomas/Tom Keeth had bought a farm in the same vicinity approximately five miles southwest of Iberia. He and his stepmother, Mary Moneymaker Keeth, the second wife of "Big Jim" Keeth, had the house 'all fixed up' for his new bride before their wedding day and they moved in on the day they wed. The house was a three room log house with one room downstairs, one room upstairs, and 'one on the side'. All their children were born in their log home including Lewis, Lela, Ruby, Lester, and Harold Robert (who died in infancy). Lester is still alive today, living in Pueblo, Colorado. He calls me often and it is such a pleasure to talk with him. He is much like his mother and loves to reminisce about his days growing up on their farm near Pleasant Hill and the little house where they lived in Iberia.

Big Jim Keeth, father to Tom, was a woodcutter and worked for a time in the big timber region of Howell County, Missouri. All the Keeth men were skilled woodworkers and wood carvers, while the Whittle men were farmers, readers, writers, etc. She and Tom's heritage was diversified and it is no surprise that Nora was a self-taught reader and a marvelous writer-poet. When I left her Versailles home on that cold February day in 1984, she gave me a little booklet of poems she had written called "Priceless Joys, A Collection of Short Poems". What a treasure they were and I still have the booklet in my home today.

Sometime in the time era of 1923-24, they left their farm and moved into Iberia. Their children finished their school years at Iberia's elementary school and then each entered the Iberia Academy. Their older daughter, Lela, taught at the Academy for a year after her graduation.

Prior to and during the depression years of the 20's and 30's, Nora got a 'sewing help' job in the Iberia area. There she supervised a sewing circle of employees, teaching them needlecrafts. She also gave sewing lessons to many of the country schoolteachers, teaching them to make their own clothes. At one time, she taught sewing in the Odd Fellows Hall in Iberia and taught many to make robes.

She remembered well the day Iberia's downtown area was burned and destroyed in April 1939. She and others were working in the W.P.A. Sewing Room, which was located in the old Rowden Hotel on Main Street. This building was one of the casualties of that devastating fire. This ended her teaching of sewing skills. The W.P.A. Sewing Room was not rebuilt so she conducted her life as a private seamstress for many years following the fire. She also recalled the days she spent rebinding and repairing old school books from all the area schools. That was quite an art in those days, hand-binding and repairing books, which had seen many years of use by students of Miller County.

Another of her pleasant memories revolved around her country church home, the Pleasant Hill Christian Church. At age 19, in 1902, she taught a 'singing school' at that old church for grownups and children alike. They had no musical instruments in the church so she used a tuning fork and wonderful melodies could be heard ringing across the countryside as she taught them the beautiful songs of Zion and how to sing in harmony.

At the age of 101 years, in 1984, Nora Whittle Keeth was a remarkable specimen of good 'pioneer heritage traditions'. Her family all lived to an advanced age. Four of the eleven children born to her parents were still living in 1984. Dora Whittle Lockwood, age 90, was living in Kansas; Flora Whittle Huff, age 88, Elmer Whittle, age 97, and Lenora/Nora Whittle Keeth, age 101 years, were all living in Versailles, Morgan County, MO. Longevity was a blessing in this family and I might add also, that she was related to Mr. Hite Boren of Hawkeye (Pulaski County) who lived to be over 100 years old. It was such a pleasure and privilege to interview 'Uncle Hite' before his death and to write the story of his life also. They all shared ancestral lineage in the Boren family of North Carolina.

Deeply religious, her church and its people were a mainstay in her life. Nora read her Bible daily; attended church functions regularly; wrote poetry; took trips on the OATS bus; did her own cooking; and worked her needlepoint "when I can get my needle threaded".

Visiting her on that Sunday afternoon in February 1984 was one of the most inspirational experiences I have ever encountered in my life. The years melted away and again I was back in her neat little home in Iberia being hid behind the kitchen door from my mother to escape the punishment I so richly deserved! That was our special secret and a memory that I will treasure always.

Lenora/Nora Whittle Keeth died in November of 1984, just nine months after I visited her in February 1984. She was placed beside her husband, Thomas Newton Keeth, at the Pleasant Hill Church Cemetery where they had begun their married life in 1907. When I visit the old country cemetery I always go to Nora's gravesite and tell her what a moving experience she gave me when I was a child and onward into my adult life. I wish I could spend another afternoon with her so she could tell me some more of her fantastic stories.

Thanks Peggy! I never fail to be surprised how many times I can mention a subject or a Miller County person about which or whom Peggy hasn’t written an article or a biography. She is absolutely one of the most prolific historians I have ever met (photo 15)!

15 Peggy Hake

That’s all for this week.

Joe Pryor

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