Top of the A.M. once again from ‘Little Dixie’. A little more local history, at least the way I learned to understand it. The struggle for political power in Washington could not find a peaceful solution for the circumstances it had created by trying to balance opposing forces. The We-They, Us and Them dichotomy finally came to a head. The Missouri Compromise slapped a band-aide on for a minute but, allowed the problem to continue. Then came the Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854) | National Archives . For six long years the struggle played out one skirmish after another along the border of Kansas and Missouri as the politicians of the day FAILED to reach a solution to move the country forward, peacefully.
Well, what a difference a couple of keystrokes can make while doing some research. As I have said in previous posts, I believe all of these people are related. Since I have started digging into the past, names like Harris, Fristoe, Twyman, Hunter seem synonymous with the founding of this part of Little Dixie. All came from Kentucky, like the Puritan’s who came to new lands, looking for a place to call their own; Manifest Destiny.
While looking at various things in my tree, I went back to my second great grandfather Minor Tebbs Smith and his two sisters who married the same man, James Overton Hinde. His third wife, Laura Bell (Hunter) Smith, had a sister, Alice May (Hunter) Harris, who married James Marshall Harris. And there it was, kind of. Knowing that the Harris clan settled in Blue Springs around the 1820’s, I started to expand my search starting with https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/6312146/william-harris According to the granite monument in the Blue Springs Cemetery, land donated by Rhonda Harris, William and Rhoda Harris were the parents of fifteen children and they had ninety-nine grandchildren. Thousands of Americans are descendants of this pioneer couple. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/145630500/reuben_boone-harris This line descends from John Harris and Margaret MAUPIN. Although there is little known about them, two Maupin brothers, John and Tom, were known to ride with Quantrill. Their mom was a Fristoe making them cousins to the Youngers. Fannie Maupin Harris married a Miller. Cole Younger’s cousin, Clell Miller, killed in the Northfield robbery is in here somewhere. The Harris and Hinde families often made use of the Overton name as a first and middle name. Also used for a middle name was Kavanagh, also used in the Hinde family. I can almost hear some readers using one of my favorite lines, ‘ get to the point if you have one’. By the time Kentuckians moved to Little Dixie, their way of life was entrenched in them. Whether or not you were involved in slavery or not, someone in your family was. When your family was attacked, you were attacked.
Speaking of family, about a month ago, I mentioned Stephen B. Elkins - Wikipedia being spared by Quantrill and later petitioning the Gov of Minnesota to pardon Cole Younger. In looking at extended families of known guerillas, my distant cousins who was a daughter of Minor Tebbs and Laura Bell Hunter, a cousin was married to a Dr James Kinyoun born 1860, Kinyoun was married previously to a Mary Belle Akers, a daughter of known confederate/guerilla Sylvestor ‘ Ves’ Akers. Ves’ brother Larkin Akers was married to Elkins’ cousins, Mary Ann Elkins. Ves, Larkin and a third brother, Henry, were known partisan rangers. Could that be part of the equation that caused Elkins life to be spared?
Unfortunately, it's off to another funeral this morning. By coincidence, Richard grew up in Little Blue, Mo. A spot in the road between Raytown and Lee's Summit, Mo. This is a stone's throw from the Harris farm and the Hunter farm of my GGGrandma Laura Bell Hunter. The Little Blue Babtist Church was a staging point for Quantrill's men before their raid on Lawrence. Kansas. Daniel Boone helped to build the original church, at least that is what I was told growing up. Now that I'm all growed up and was learnt to read, I see it was a Daniel Morgan Boone, his son, not Ol' Dan'l Boone himself. Hopefully, as memories fade, the written history will survive.
