My Genealogy Journey ~ Celebrating Mother's Day

CELEBRATIING THE WOMEN IN MY LIFE

by 

Karen Utter Jennings

I come from lines of strong women who lived through triumphs & tragedies, sunshine & rain. Today I am strong because of them: Emma Faye (mom), Nancy (stepmom) & grmas/grtgrmas: Delva, Belvia, Jewell, Ollie, Christina, Laura, Luticia, Nancy, Ethel Mae, Rachel, & 2 special ladies my Aunt Edith & my mother-n-law, Veta.

Mom was a true 50's girl...here she's goofing off with her friends.Emma Faye Laney was born 31 January 1938 on the farm west of Exeter, Missouri. She married Ronnie Utter from Rocky Comfort, MO in 1953 and they had four children; I am the oldest. Emma died in Monett, MO on 15 November 2013 and she is buried at Maplewood Cemetery, Exeter, MO.  

Nancy Wolfe Utter, my step-mom, was born and raised in Montana. She is still alive and living at the foothills of the Rocky Mountains in a quaint little rodeo town. She has a daughter and a son and several step-children. Nancy is a great lady whom I love for her outdoorsy, nature-loving spirit! I've been fortunate to visit Montana several times.

Belvia Ross Laney was my mom's mother; she was born 07 September 1913 at Flat Creek near Cassville, MO. She married Charley Edwin Laney in 1932 and they had a large family. She loved to crochet, sew and she loved to sing. She was a homemaker and died 17 June 1982 from cancer in Joplin MO. She is buried at Maplewood Cemetery in Exeter, MO.

Delva Black Utter was my paternal grandmother. Born  She was born with leukemia & suffered with it until 1956. In January of that year, I was a toddler and on a cold, snowy morning, she shot herself in her bed. Such a tragedy! The stories told to me say that she was a great lady, loved her family, enjoyed fishing, and she was a Grand Worthy Matron in the Eastern Star at Wheaton, Missouri. She is buried at Rocky Comfort cemetery.

This is my paternal great-grandmother, Ollie Johnson Utter Brier. Born 31 August 1895 in McDonald County, she married Dee Jay Utter in 1909 and they had a son, my Grandad. She later married Bill Brier in Kansas in 1921. They came back to Rocky Comfort MO when her folks grew old and their health was not good. She was very close to me and my brothers and our mother. She helped Mom take care of us and I lived with her during my 1st and 2nd grade elementary school years at Rocky Comfort, Missouri. She taught me how to sew, how to ride a bike, how to watch for severe thunderstorms and not be afraid, and how to love nature and the great outdoors. She is buried at the Rocky Comfort MO Cemetery. 

This is Nancy Smith Johnson, mother of Ollie. In her obituary, it claims she was a great and well-known midwife who delivered many babies in McDonald County. She was a short, petite woman. She was born on Halloween 1868 in Sullivan County, MO. She married Tom Johnson in 1884 at Cassville, MO. They had five children, four daughters and one son. Nancy died 25 Sep 1949 at the house in Rocky Comfort, MO. She is buried at the Rocky cemetery. 

Christina Hunt Utter was my paternal great, great-grandmother. She was born 22 June 1844 in Franklin, Johnson County, IN. Her father, Joseph Hunt, was one of the early settlers who helped found the town of Franklin. She married David Jefferson Utter 29 July 1861 and they raised a family of 14 children. She died 18 April 1924 at her son Tom Utter's home in Rocky Comfort. She is buried at the Owsley-Union Cemetery south of Longview, MO.  I love this picture of her; now I know where I get my knack for being able to raise my right eyebrow and my unsmiling lips. She looks like a determined woman with those round glasses, big hat, and the brooch at her throat. 

Nora Ethyl Mae Painter Ross was the mother of Belvia. She was born 22 July 1890 in Barry County, MO and married Daniel Lewis Ross in 1918. They raised a big family. She died 13 November 1967 in Barry County. I don't know much family history about her...maybe I'll find some interesting information about her someday. 

Laura Ellen Danley Laney was my maternal great, great, great-grandmother. She was born 10 April 1886 in Barry County and married Robert "Bob" Laney in 1908 and died 07 November 1969 at the farm west of Exeter, MO. She raised a large family. G'Ma Laney was a God-fearing Pentecostal who ran her family like a General, she almost never smiled, she chewed tobacco and had a spit can. When Mom took us over to the farm west of Exeter to visit her & Grandpa Laney, we enjoyed it, but were scared to death in the house...it was spooky to little kids. 

 Luticia Ann Hanlon Black was the mother of Delva. Born 08 January 1893 in West Virginia, she married Charles Edward Black in 1910. They had five children. She was nicknamed "Teshie" and she died Sunday, 02 May 1954 at the Wheaton MO Hospital. She is buried at the Hamilton KS cemetery. I don't know much family history about her, but I do have a few recipes that she owned, so she must have enjoyed cooking. 

Rachel Brannun Danley was the mother of Laura Ellen. She was born in 1865 and married Hezekiah K. Danley in 1876. They had a large family. Rachel died 21 January 1907 at her home near Seven Star Springs in McDonald County when she was 40 years old. Grandma Rachel is buried at the Rocky Comfort Cemetery.

 Jewell Mae Flippo Utter was my paternal step-grandmother, she was born 27 May 1927 in Harrison, Boone County, AR. She married my Grandad Perry Utter in 1958 at Miami, OK. She had 3 children from her first marriage, whom we all remember and love. Jewel died 11 August 2011 in Winfield, KS. I remember her as a loving and sweet lady.

 Edith Laney Bowen Meyer, one of my mother's sisters, is a special person. She has been a big part of my life forever and many memories abound. She is still alive and we keep in touch. She and her two daughters were very close to Mom and us kids when we were growing up.  

This is Veta Fikes Jennings, my mother-in-law. She was born 14 November 1932 in Neosho, MO. She married Leroy D. Jennings in 1949 and they raised 11 children, my husband, is the 2nd oldest. Veta died in 2009 from a long fight with breast cancer. She was a great woman and I loved her so. 

I'm thankful for cameras & photography because I have their photos to see life etched on their faces & see their personalities in the way they dressed & wore their hair. Through my family history research on my Genealogy Journey, I have found amazing stories of many of the other women in my family lines. So, on this Mother's Day weekend, I say to all: 

Celebrate your mother and the women in your life, for they are the backbone of the family. Learn who they really are ~ learn their history, how they feel, what they did as a child, their likes/dislikes, find out what you can about them, collect family history & photographs, because one day you will be glad you did! When they are gone you will have that information to get you through the sadness of their passing. Make memories now! Celebrate & rejoice about the ladies whom you came from ~ Happy Mother's Day to everyone!

TYPES OF PHOTOGRAPHS

By

Karen Utter Jennings

            When you look at a family photograph collection, you will see all types of pictures: tintypes, paper prints, cased images, Polaroids, black-and-white, color, and digitalized. Through the years, types of photographs came and went quickly. That is why there is a good market for buying, selling, and collecting photographs today.

            Here is an overview of types of photographs.

            Daguerreotypes were made from about 1839 to 1870. The sitting time for these types of photographs could be anywhere from five minutes to 30 minutes. Photographers sometimes used clamps to help their subjects sit still.

            Calotypes were the first paper images and were made from about 1841 to the late 1850s. These types of photos were not very popular. The ones surviving today are usually found in museums.

            Ambrotypes were the negative images made on glass plates with a dark coating on the backs. They lasted from about 1852 to the early 1870s.

            The tintypes, also called ferrotypes or melainotypes, were actually created on a thin, blackened iron sheet, then coated with chemicals, and varnished to protect the image. There is much more information about the popular tintype photographs, which I will cover in a future column.

            Albumen prints, from about 1850 to the early 1900s, helped make photography a profitable venture. They were also printed on paper.

            Stereographs were prints were nearly identical images mounted beside each other and viewed through a viewer called a stereograph. They were popular from about 1854 to 1938.

            Cabinet card photographs were made from about 1866 to 1906. The photographic images were put on large, oversized card stock. I have quite a few of these cabinet cards in my collection.

            George Eastman founded the new age of photography with black-and-white snapshots. During the late 1880s to the present, these prints were taken with box cameras that were easy to use. Eastman named his new camera the Kodak and the company’s promotion was geared to specifically women and children.

            Photo postcards are a special class to me. I own a precious photo postcard dated February 1912. The photo shows my paternal great-grandmother, 17, holding her son, my grandfather, Perry Utter. On the postcard side, she wrote to her younger sister in Rocky Comfort. There is a lot of information pertaining to photo postcards, which I will write about in a future column.

            Auto-chrome photographs were the first color prints and dated between 1904 to the later 1930s. There are special handling tips for owners of these types of prints.

            Color paper prints are well known to us today. The Kodak Company introduced Kodachrome 16mm movie film in 1935 and color prints with negatives in 1941. The popularity of Digital Imaging in today’s market ended the manufacture of Kodachrome film.

            From 1947 to the present, an instant photo is recognizable due to the photo having a thick black pouch-like backing. Polaroids became popular due to the consumer snapping a photo and waiting for a few seconds while the photo developed inside the camera, not needing to take film to the store for development. Special care is necessary for these types of photos.

            Today, using digital cameras is the popular way for photographers to take their family photos. Digital imaging goes along with scrap booking treasured photos for fun and easy creative projects. While many people embrace digital cameras, the cameras requiring film continue to be popular. 

Sources: “Photography as a Tool in Genealogy,” by Ron and Maureen Taylor and “Getting Up To Date,” Family Tree Magazine, Volume 11, Issue 7, November 2010.

             

Rural Country Correspondents in Southwest Missouri

Country Correspondents in Rural Southwest Missouri

By Karen Utter Jennings

In the good old days when newspapers were young, editors relied on country correspondents to report the news from the rural areas. Country correspondents, also called community correspondents, lived in small communities in our counties and gathered local news of their area for the newspaper. They took their written news to the newspaper office themselves or sent it via someone else making the trip to town.  

Rural life in the hills and hollows was brimming with news of people working, births, deaths, accidents and socializing.  However, getting that news to the newspapers meant using correspondents. There were no telephones and the mail system was not reliable to deliver the mail in a timely manner.  Many times, the mail hack was late due to high water when trying to ford a creek, or while encountering other difficulties.

Many people scoffed at community news, comparing it to gossipy rubbish. At the same time, people clamored to read the latest news reported in their community column. Correspondents were made fun of, but they eventually earned the respect they deserved.  People cared about their neighbors and were hungry for news. As time went by, newspaper subscriptions were a great need in the community.

My late mother-in-law, Veta Jennings, was a correspondent for The Neosho Daily Democrat in 1949 during her senior year at Neosho High School in Neosho, Missouri. She wrote news for the Schmolke Hill Community located north of Neosho. She told us she received a “little bit” of money for each column she wrote. When I asked her what a “little bit” was, she said it was fifty cents.

Veta’s columns are preserved on microfilm at our Neosho, Missouri library and I printed them for her before she passed away. From one of her columns, we learned that in July 1949, her parents, Lawrence and Neoma Fikes, bought a new car. In another column, she told of going to a Saturday night movie in Neosho with her future husband, Leroy Jennings, and a pal of theirs. That added interesting details to our growing Jennings family tree!

Many of the old-time country correspondents wrote weekly columns about their community for 20 years or more.  I have found much of my family information recorded in the Neosho Newspapers on microfilm. James Reed’s transcriptions from his inherited Pineville, Missouri, newspapers are another source where I have found bits and pieces of family information to add to my Utter family history.   

When I search the newspapers on microfilm, I always look for news from Rocky Comfort, Missouri. It is there that I have found social history about my late grandfather, Perry Utter. From the newspapers, I have learned that Perry was involved in the Masonic Lodge at Wheaton Missouri, he led the Methodist Men’s Club at Rocky Comfort Missouri Methodist Church, and he coached his sons’ softball teams when they were on town teams.

I also learned that my great, grandmother, Ollie Brier of Rocky Comfort, sold parakeets for one dollar each and during the summer of 1957, she and her husband, Bill Brier, bought a new yellow Plymouth sedan vehicle. There is so much more that I have learned about my families, all because the country correspondents reported the news of the day.

Of course, using the newspapers on microfilm does eat up time. I have spent hours reading and searching. If you use the newspapers on microfilm, gather a notebook and pen or pencil and have dates available so you can go to that particular date in the newspaper and begin your search, rather than having to search the entire paper. 

As the newspaper industry has advanced, today’s editors differ in opinion about country correspondents.  Remember to search the old newspapers on microfilm for country correspondents’ news of the day when you want to add meat to the bones of your family history. I am thankful to the men and women who reported the news in the little towns of our country.

                       

Modern Woodmen of America Organization

MODERN WOODMEN OF AMERICA

By Karen Utter Jennings

Many of my Utter ancestors are buried at the Owsley Union Cemetery, located south of Longview and north of Powell on 76 Highway in McDonald County, Missouri. One day while there, I noticed a unique headstone for Walter E. Utter, a son of my great, great-grandfather, David Jefferson Utter. Walter died two days before Christmas in 1908 from pneumonia.   

Walter’s headstone is a rectangular smooth piece of gray stone that sets on a large base.  It measures five feet tall. Walter’s date of birth and date of death is on the front of the stone. An inscription reads, “left a wife and five children.” At the top of the rectangle on both sides, are engraved upside-down lilies. Four large engraved stone logs are stacked on top of the headstone.   Beneath the lilies and logs is a large square emblem marked with a shield, an ax, and an aul, with the letters M, W, and A. 

I had no idea what Walter’s headstone represented. But, I noticed other ornate headstones in the cemetery that resembled his. They mark the graves of Jerry H.Clapper and Lee R. Owsley. Owsley’s stone resembles a tree trunk with the same emblem, but his states “Erected by the Woodmen of the World.”  From that, I had the information I needed to do research. 

Joseph Cullen Root started the Modern Woodmen of America around 1883 for honoring the pioneer woodsmen who cleared the land for developing our roads, communities, and building homes. Modern Woodmen of America, also known as the Woodmen of the World, began as a fraternal benefit society that protected families and their financial futures by offering insurance protection. In the early days, certificates provided a death and a monument benefit to its members, furnishing free gravestones when they died. Eventually the elaborate gravestones became obsolete due to the cost of materials and cemetery regulations.    

Originally, all of the Woodmen’s gravestones were to be identical in size and design, but the result varied across the nation as local stonecutters used a wide variety of designs. What evolved are beautiful, elaborate, and precious works of art marking woodmen’s graves. There is the answer to the question of why all of the headstones are different, except for the Society’s emblem. 

Woodmen’s gravestones are scattered across the nation and is a fascination for many people who want to document the elaborate stones found in cemeteries. The USGenWeb Archive Project does have some photos of gravestones in our area, but not of the Owsley Union Cemetery. You can access the website at USGenWeb Project to see the photos.  

Cynthia Ann Utter, my great, great-grandfather’s sister, married Lewis Fulweiler Houser. They lived in the Rocky Comfort, Missouri, area all of their married lives. Lewis Houser is distinguished as being a charter member of the local Modern Woodmen of America in Rocky Comfort. I have a picture of the Rocky Comfort Citizen’s Bank building. Banking was done on the lower level, while the Modern Woodmen met in the upper level of the building.

After finding the interesting Woodmen headstones in cemeteries, I watch find more when I’m out visiting cemeteries. As of this writing, I have seen many Woodmen stones dispersed throughout our Missouri counties. While using the newspapers on microfilm, I watch for meeting notices of any fraternities.  

I am proud to have Modern Woodmen of America in my family. Finding information like this is thrilling for family history researchers. Do you have Modern Woodmen of America ancestors in your family tree?  If you’re not sure, why not do a little research and see what you can find?
I wish you luck in finding your history ~ 

Rocky Comfort: Little Town in the Missouri Ozarks

Rocky Comfort: Little Town in the Missouri Ozarks

By Karen Utter Jennings

            Rocky Comfort is a peculiar name for a town.  The history of the village tells about the rocky terrain descending into a beautiful green valley; hence the name.  I am fortunate to live not far from Rocky Comfort, so I take a little drive occasionally to visit the graves of my family in the cemetery and take a spin around the town. 

            The first seven years of my childhood were spent growing up in Rocky.  My parents, Ronnie and Emma Faye Utter and my brothers, Mike, Bill, and Bob, lived between the Prosperity Baptist Church and the Indian Creek Bridge downtown.  The property is known as the old Shipman Place.

            The property came into our Utter/Brier family in the 1950s when my paternal grandmother’s parents (the Blacks) bought it. Through the years, it was sold and resold to family members. When Mae Utter Martin bought it, she had a huge pond dozed out in the back near where Indian Creek Branch flows.

            I have many photographs of the house and property when we lived there. Finally, in the 1970s, Mae Utter Martin went to the Elmhurst Nursing Home in Webb City, Missouri, and the property was sold. Today the property looks nothing like it did. There’s a mobile home setting toward the back of the land.

            Our paternal great-grandmother, Ollie (Johnson) Utter Brier, lived just north of the elementary school and the playground.  Her property is known as the old Milligan house. A dirt road separated the place from the school grounds.

            In 1943, Ollie’s parents, Thomas and Nancy Johnson left Kings Valley and moved to Rocky. Tom and Nancy’s health continued to deteriorate and Ollie and her husband, Bill Brier, left Kansas and moved to Rocky to care for them.

            Bill and Ollie bought the place and the surrounding acreage right after that. I have photographs of the houses and land when me and my family lived there.

            My first and second grade teachers were Marie Goosetree and Lela Young, respectively.  I have old grade cards from those elementary school days.  I remember crossing the road to go to school wearing a dress with long corduroy pants underneath and carrying my satchel. A satchel is defined as a small bag often with a shoulder strap that one carries supplies in and carried to school.

            As time went by, we knew everyone who lived in town.  Ollie loved to walk and she would take my brothers and me for a “walk around the block.”  At each of the houses along the way, we stopped to chat with the neighbors.  Some of her neighbors were George and Julie Barnett, Ouida Lowe, Delores Lamberson, Ephraim Decker, Joi Blair, and Lyman Dabbs.

            The Rocky Comfort Methodist Church is still standing in the same spot, but under a different name.  Earl D. Young christened me in that little church.  As a youngster on Sunday mornings, Ollie slipped a dime into my chubby hand so I could contribute to the offering.  

            Many family members are buried in the old part of the Rocky Comfort Cemetery, located north of town near the Prosperity Baptist Church.

            The year before I was born, my paternal grandfather, Perry Utter, bought the Conoco Station located on the east side of  Rocky.  He, along with his two sons, Ronald and Wayne, offered complete auto service to customers.  Perry also coached the boys’ softball team, called the Conoco’s, of which I have pictures and newspaper stories. They were champion ballplayers.

            I am fortunate to own lots of photographs and memorabilia from my family during their Rocky Comfort days.

            In those days, the Stanley Ford home was still standing and Cecil Shewmake owned the grocery store.  The artesian well down at the four-way stop was full of water and my family got their mail at the little brick post office.  My brothers think of Rocky as their Paradise. 

            Lazy summer days spent at Grandma Ollie’s house meant listening to the whirl of the old window fan and the announcer’s lulling voices broadcasting the baseball games on television.  Iced tea with spearmint picked fresh from the garden, hamburgers on buns (not bread slices) and angel food cake was our favorite meal.  Those are just a few of the memories of days gone by.

            Rocky Comfort was once a large town boasting many businesses and residents. In 1907, when the railroad decided to take their train about 3 miles north and east of Rocky, the town eventually dried up. The new town of Wheaton was born with the railroad.

            Today Rocky Comfort is a village with several hundred residents. But it will always be my childhood hometown where memories carry me back to those glorious days filled with love, laughter, and family times.