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26 April 2006 -
Wednesday
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By 8:00 am we were back in Vienna looking for breakfast. The parking lot at Margie’s Café was full of
battered pick-up trucks and inside was a dozen or so local farmers. With a bit of eavesdropping we were able
to ascertain that the main topic of conversation was the raising of
livestock. Thus we began to realize
that the grazing of cattle was the major occupation in Maries County. At first glance you are struck with the
beauty of the green rolling landscape but upon further examination one
realizes that a deep layer of rock starts a mere few inches below the surface
limiting the cultivation of planted crops to the few areas of bottom land
near the rivers. We noted that
according to 1860-1900 census documents list
grandpa Moreland as a farmer as such we must assume that he probably
had a pretty goo piece of land in order to make his living this way. After our meal we headed up the street to
the courthouse in hopes of answering this and other questions about our
Moreland and Pinnell ancestors. After examining deed records for a few hours we were able to
ascertain that John P. Moreland had left Maries County during the spring of
1907, and that our great-grandfather Jeremiah Moreland had taken up residence
in Woodward County, Oklahoma by 1900.
We were also able to determine that in 1856 John had purchased his first
piece of land in Maries County. Around
11:00 we were ready to get out of the courthouse for a ride into the
countryside. For the next two hours
we explored Jefferson Township. Tom guided us out to the small towns of Lanes
Prairie and High Gate. At High Gate
we explored the cemetery and located the graves of Jeremiah’s first wife
Laura Kinsey and their son Emmett.
Next to Laura is the grave of her sister Josephine wife of Jeremiah’s
brother William Robert Moreland. The
story of Laura and Josephine Kinsey is a tragic one. Jeremiah married Miss Laura A. Kinsey on May 16, 1880 and his
brother William married Laura's sister Josephine on April 18th of the same
year. Both Jeremiah and William are found in the 1880 census living together
with their new wives in Jefferson Township and little more than a year after
they were married Jeremiah and Laura's first child, a son named Emmett C.,
was born on June 2, 1881. On October
4, 1881, William’s wife Josephine died at age 22 years, 10 months, 11 days. The day after Christmas 1881 Jeremiah’s
six-month-old son Emmett left this earth.
As if that wasn't enough, three months later on March 29, 1882 Laura
passed on at the tender age of 21 years!
We believe their deaths were probably a result of spreading sickness
of some sort. After leaving High Gate we decided to search out the location of
John Moreland’s farm. Using a digital
image of a plat map, taken at the courthouse Tom easily guided us to the
location. Below are photographs of
John’s Maries County property and the life-less section he had purchased in
Stevens County, Kansas. Upon
comparison of the following images one must wonder why our 75-year-old John
P. Moreland decided to leave Maries County, as well as his emotions upon
seeing the land he was to homestead in Kansas?
John P. Moreland’s property in Maries Co., MO
John P. Moreland’s homestead in Stevens Co., KS By a little after 1:00 pm we were back in town for a visit to the Maries County
Historical Society. As it is only
open on Wednesday afternoons from 1:00 to 4:00 pm we were indeed fortunate to
have had the opportunity to utilize this fine resource. As such we spent the remainder of the
afternoon picking up interesting tidbits of information with the help of the
two volunteers on |
duty. We received the impression that researchers made infrequent
visits thus it is common for the volunteers to fill their Wednesday
afternoons with quiet chats between themselves. After our arrival things picked up quickly. They especially enjoyed listening to the
story of our Maries County ancestors and were also impressed with our array
and use of electronic equipment.
Before departing we left a donation and Tom purchased a throw blanket
that depicted various Maries County landmarks. Soon thereafter both of us realized that
in the excitement of the day’s activities we had not eaten anything since
breakfast. We had eaten twice at
Margie’s Café and since the small town of Vienna did not offer much in the
way of diversity when it came to eating establishments, we were in a quandary
as to where we might find a proper meal.
Remembering a sign advertising a “Moreland’s Restaurant” we decided to
try and find it. Eventually we did
locate it down a country road near the Gasconade River. As it was only about 4:30 pm the place
looked deserted but an open sign encouraged us to carry on. The place was empty save Susan the
bartender and Mrs. Moreland the widow of Elmer Moreland founder of this
interesting enterprise. As they had
seen our van and New Jersey license plates both were interested in what would
bring us out to their place.
We quickly described how we were tracing our family history and
that we were directly descended from the Moreland family of Maries
County. Needless to say our
explanation certainly changed their apparent skepticism to open
acceptance. A quick review of the
menu showed that catfish was the house specialty. Susan informed us that Moreland’s had won several local
competitions for “best catfish dinner”.
Soon we were served a plate that included three large fillets that had
been deep-fried in wonderful cornmeal coating. It is worth pointing out that the fillets were by no means
greasy just a beautiful golden brown.
Potato, three hushpuppies and homemade coleslaw rounded out our
meal. If chicken fried steak was to
be considered in Texas what would a trip into America’s heartland be with at
least one catfish feast? Soon after finishing
our meal we returned to the Scenic 63 RV Park of the previous night. This would be the only time on our trip
that we camped in the same place two nights in a row. Tom’s guitar, eventually given the moniker
of “Jethro”, as mentioned back in the April 15 entry was our “traveling
companion”. By this time in the trip
we were both tired of what seemed to be the endless task of lifting, moving,
and storing the guitar. Most of the
time Jethro rode in the shower compartment where the constant movement of the
van caused him to create ugly black marks on the surface of the walls as well
as scratches on the floor and plastic trim.
On countless occasions one of us would have to go to the rear of the
van when Jethro would take a tumble and needed to be re-secured out of harms
way. By the end of this day, our 26th
on the road, Tom felt the need to seriously discuss our issues with the boy,
as seen in the photograph.
Jethro & Tom |
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