Chapter IV: “The Sites” — Where My Family Tree Starts Folding Back on Itself

Preface to Chapter IV: “The Sites” — Where My Family Tree Starts Folding Back on Itself

And here we are at Chapter IV of Our Seven Children, and this is where my family tree starts looking less like a tree and more like somebody dumped a box of tangled Christmas lights on the floor.

I’ve done a LOT of genealogical research over the years, but this chapter reminds me just how much I still need to untangle. And how much better I need to be about taking notes when I disappear down one of those genealogy rabbit holes at two in the morning and suddenly discover that two branches of my family might not be quite as separate as I thought.

This chapter is about the Sites family, and unlike some of the earlier branches Sam has covered, these people are my direct ancestors.

Minnie Myrtle Sites, born in Bourbon, Missouri, in 1889, was my great-grandmother. She married William John Bohnenkamp in 1911, and one of their children was my grandfather, Wilbur Bohnenkamp. Wilbur married my grandmother, Mathilda Rosetta Caldwell, and their son William Douglas Bohnenkamp is my dad.

And to make things even more intertwined, Minnie’s sister Amy Sites married Reverend Sam D. Bohnenkamp himself. Two Sites sisters married two Bohnenkamp brothers.

So when Sam writes about the Sites family, he’s documenting his wife’s ancestry, his sister-in-law’s ancestry, and my direct family line all at once.

But that’s actually the easy part.

The Sites family history and rural Missouri

Sam begins with the claim that the Sites family came from the Netherlands, arriving in New Amsterdam in 1647, before eventually making their way through West Virginia and into Missouri.

That early history is something I’d love to verify more thoroughly, but the later migration stories are fascinating on their own.

He describes Dorcas Sites, a widow with four young children, traveling from West Virginia to Missouri by covered wagon around 1864. The children had whooping cough during the journey, their father had recently died, and somehow this woman made it to rural Missouri and established a home.

Her father, Jacob Sites, helped build a log house on a hill near a spring about three and a half miles east of Bourbon. Sam tells us that the spring never ran dry, and that his wife Amy carried buckets of water from it when she was young.

I love details like that.

A name and a date can tell me that someone existed. But a woman carrying water from a spring to a farmhouse? That gives me a glimpse of how she lived.

The chapter is full of this kind of history: homesteads along the Meramec River, family cemeteries, little country schools, Methodist churches, farms passing between generations, and people moving between Bourbon, Sullivan, St. Louis, and eventually other states.

And, once again, an astonishing amount of death.

Whooping cough. Tuberculosis. Scarlet fever. Pneumonia. Farming accidents. Children who never reached adulthood. Sam records these losses almost as casually as he records marriages and land transactions, not because they weren’t devastating, but because they were woven into the ordinary experience of family life.

One story that particularly struck me involves Mary Allen, who drowned in a flash flood on the Meramec River while trying to help her father rescue livestock. Her father survived by grabbing onto a tree limb.

That’s the kind of detail that can disappear completely from family history unless somebody writes it down.

And then we get to the Allens and Blantons…

This is where I need to do some serious research housekeeping.

Minnie Myrtle Sites’s mother was Clara Emeline Allen, born in 1867. Clara’s parents were John D. Allen and Elizabeth Blanton, my third-great-grandparents.

And Elizabeth Blanton is where things start getting complicated.

Elizabeth was a daughter of Abraham Absalom Blanton and Cynthia Ann Pratt. Her sister, Mary Caroline Blanton, married John Absalom Pratt, who was also related to the family. I’ve traced additional cousin marriages through these interconnected Blanton and Pratt branches.

Then there is Perlina “Pearl” Studdard, whose mother, Mary F. Pratt, descended from Mary Caroline Blanton. Pearl married Walter Franklin Allen, who descended from Elizabeth Blanton’s branch.

So we have descendants of two Blanton sisters marrying back into related family lines.

And this is only part of it.

I have already uncovered relationships that I am confident I can support with documents and DNA evidence. But I also have a much bigger question involving John D. Allen and my mother’s direct maternal Sturges line.

Yes. My mother’s side of the family may connect back into my father’s side of the family.

I identified what appears to be a double-cousin connection involving descendants of John D. Allen and Elizabeth Blanton. That led me to suspect that John’s ancestry might intersect with the Sturges family on my mother’s strict maternal line.

One possibility I’ve been investigating is that John D. Allen was a grandson of Levi Allen and Triphena Bedortha. Their connections to upstate New York put them in the same general geographic region as my maternal Sturges ancestors. I’ve also wondered whether John’s mother might have been a Sturges.

But — and this is important — I haven’t proved that particular connection yet.

The documented Blanton and Pratt relationships are one thing. Identifying exactly where my maternal and paternal lines cross is another. DNA can point toward a connection, but I still need the records to establish the precise relationships.

And I really, really wish I’d made better notes when I was deep in that rabbit hole.

Because now I’m looking at the work I did and thinking, okay, Jessica, you clearly figured out something important here, but would it have killed you to write down exactly how you got there?

Apparently, yes.

The people behind all these names

What makes this chapter particularly valuable, though, is that Sam wasn’t just copying names from a family Bible.

He actually knew some of these people.

He describes sitting beside an elderly Elizabeth Blanton Allen when he was courting Amy Sites around 1912–1913, listening to her talk about growing up, hunting for food, wasting nothing, and the wild animals that once roamed the countryside.

Elizabeth was born in the 1820s. Think about that. Sam was writing these memories in the early 1960s, recalling conversations with a woman whose childhood reached back nearly a century before his book.

He also records information gathered from elderly relatives, personal letters, obituaries, cemetery inscriptions, and people who remembered the old homesteads.

Not everything is going to be accurate. Some of his names and dates will need checking, and some of his assumptions about family origins may turn out to be wrong. His rather enthusiastic calculations of exactly how Dutch, English, Irish, and German his children were also reflect an older way of thinking about ancestry.

But that’s part of working with historical documents. I don’t want to erase Sam’s perspective just because some of it needs examination.

I want to preserve what he wrote, compare it against what we can establish today, and make those distinctions clear.

And I love that the smallest details survive alongside the big ones. A log house moved on rollers and turned into a workshop. A spring that provided water for generations. A young woman who bought herself a Chevrolet after working in St. Louis. A family cemetery that changed names. A letter from California describing the weather before getting around to the genealogical information Sam had requested.

These are little pieces of ordinary lives that official records rarely capture.

Why I’m sharing this

I originally started digitizing Our Seven Children because I had a rare old family history book that wasn’t readily available to researchers, and I wanted to change that.

But as I work through these chapters, I keep finding new reasons to appreciate what Sam left behind.

This chapter, especially, gives me a substantial starting point for research I haven’t finished. I need to revisit the Blanton and Pratt families, clean up my citations, sort through the cousin marriages, and take another serious look at that possible Allen–Sturges connection.

I’m confident about some of what I’ve discovered. I’m still working on the rest. And I’m perfectly willing to leave a question mark where a question mark belongs.

In the meantime, I hope this transcription is useful to other descendants researching the Sites, Allen, Blanton, Pratt, Carter, Pennock, and related Missouri families, or to anyone interested in the social history of Bourbon and the surrounding rural communities.

Because even without all the genealogical puzzles, there is an incredible amount of history here.

And somewhere in these pages, among the births and deaths and marriages and farms and church records, are people who lived entire complicated lives — and who probably never imagined that someone several generations later would be sitting at a computer, trying to figure out exactly how everybody was related.

I’m sure I’ll have more to say about the Blantons once I’ve untangled them.

Assuming I don’t find another cousin who married another cousin first.

OCR of Chapter IV: The Sites

Chapter IV

“THE SITES”

The Sites’ were Dutch. They left the Netherlands or Holland, Europe in 1647 and settled in New Netherlands or New Amsterdam, where Peter Stuyvesant was governor of that colony, appointed by the Dutch. But it was not long before the English took over the colony, and they named New Amsterdam, New York. From there the Sites scattered. Some came to West Virginia and from there, they came to Missouri. Among them were Jacob Sites and his family, including his daughter, and four small children.

According to the information of my wife’s great aunt, Aunt Martha Pennock, who is still living, says as follows:

We have no definite record of the Sites family due to the fact that I was the only child of my Grandfather Jacob Sites second and last marriage, and I am so much younger than the half-brothers and sisters on both sides of the house. So none of them ever gave me much information on the family records.

I do know that Dorcas Sites was my oldest half sister in Grandpa Jacob Sites family, and that she married a cousin whose name was Levi Sites. I believe Levi (Amy’s Grandfather) died young, and was buried back near the Kentucky border in West Virginia where Dorcas Sites’ father, Jacob Sites, and his first wife came from.

Aunt Martha Lucinda Pennock was born May 30, 1874 near Hinch Mo., to the union of Jacob and Marie Sites. She passed away at her home in Bourbon, Mo., June 6, 1962, at the age of 88 years and 6 days. Funeral was held at Bourbon, Mo., June 9, 1962. She leaves to mourn, four children, 22 grandchildrent, 83 great grandchildren and 42 great great grandchildren.

Dorcas Sites (my wife’s Grandmother), homesteaded the 120 acre farm now called the Sites old Home place, about 3½ miles East of Bourbon, Mo.

Dorcas Sites, a widow with four children, came from West Virginia with her father Jacob Sites and his family in a covered wagon about 1864.

So Jacob Sites helped his daughter Dorcas Sites, build a long house on a hill near a spring of water. The spring has never gone dry these many years. And it is from this spring that my wife carried many a bucket of water to their new house a few yards from the original log house. This log house was later moved a few yards on rollers down from the new house and made a workshop and tool house out of it.

Dorcas Sites had four children, as follows:

Levi Jr., the oldest son, who stayed single, was born on April 17, 1854, in West Virginia and died about 1896 at Bourbon, Mo.

Mary M. Sites was born January 8, 1856 in West Virginia.

Seymour William Sites, born May 24, 1858 in West Virginia. He was christened as a baby and his religion was Methodist. He died on my birthday, February 17, 1935 in his home, Bourbon, Mo.

J. B. Sites was born May 4, 1860, West Virginia.

The mother of the above four children, Dorcas Sites, died about 1892 when my wife, Amy Sites, was a baby. Mrs. Dorcas Sites willed the homestead to her son and his wife, Mr. and Mrs. Seymour W. Sites, for keeping her and giving her a decent burial.

They buried her in the New Rock Cemetery and we put up a monument for her with the inscription, “Grandma Sites.”

Jason Battle Sites, born on May 4, 1860 in West Virginia.

Battle Sites and Amelia Reeves were married at Bourbon, Mo., Jan. 15, 1880. The following children were born to this union: William A. Sites, born Dec. 27, 1880, Bourbon, Mo. Married Sarah Page, Bourbon, Mo. He died March 6, 1952.

Mary Jane Sites, born Oct. 11, 1883, Bourbon, Mo. She married first Weatherley. One son, Lee Weatherley, then her second marriage was Ed. Haase. Four girls were born to this union. Ed. Haase died 1961.

Charlie Lea Sites, born October 11, 1885, Bourbon, Mo. Married, no childret were born to this union.

Edward Brown Sites born March 22, 1892, Bourbon, died March 20, 1936, Bourbon, Mo.

Edward was my school mate at the Bourbon grade school in 1907-1908, and also was my seat mate.

James Earl Sites was born August 22, 1896 at Bourbon, Mo. Earl married one of my school pupils from Possum Hollow School, Miss Bessie Ellis. Her father was my school clerk and director of Possum Hollow School. Their son-in-law is a Baptist minister.

John Wesley Sites was born February 1, 1899 at Bourbon, Mo., and died October 8, 1923. A horse he was riding threw him off and broke his neck which killed him.

Jason Battle Sites died December 31, 1934. His wife, Amelia Reeves Sites, was born October 20, 1858 at Crawford County and died May 27, 1937. So they had a family of six children and all the families are Baptist in religion.

Mary M. Sites, born January 8, 1856 in West Virginia. She was only a baby when she came with her mother, Dorcas, and her Grandfather Jacob Sites to Missouri.

On the way she and her brothers had the whooping cough. You can imagine their father had not been dead long, and Dorcas had all the care of the four small children. What a hard time they had.

Later Mary M. Sites married Mr. John Mitchell, Bourbon, Mo. To this union one daughter was born, her name was Della. Della married Henry Burgress, to this union two sons were born. The entire family of Mary M. and John Mitchell, including Della and Henry Burgress are dead.

In going back to Jacob Sites and his family, they also homesteaded a large farm on the Meramec River about 12 miles from Bourbon, Mo. On this homestead they established a cemetery they first called “Old Crawley.” Now they call it the Harrison Cemetery, on the Woodrow House’s farm across from Oscar Kimberlin’s farm. On this cemetery, Jacob Sites buried his first wife, and the following children were born to this union.

Dorcas Sites; Elizabeth (Bett) Sites Coffmann; Jermima (Mime) Sites Sherzer (or Shotzer); Elijah (Lige) Sites, who was the father of Russell, Jobe, Frank and Ed Sites, also Wesley Sites, whose history is unknown. There were no daughters born to Elijah Sites, Jonothan Sites (single so far as is known to us); Mary Sites, who died single; Christina Sites Isgrigg, who was Roy Alexander’s Grandmother. All of these children born to Jacob Sites and his first wife are my wife’s Great Uncles and Aunts. And Jacob Sites and his first wife, are my wife’s Great Grandfather and Great Grandmother.

Now our Great Grandfather needed a wife since his first wife died, so he married Maria Sumac, Armstrong Sites to this union was born one daughter, Martha Lucinda Sites on May 30, 1874. So she is 88 years old, 1962. She was born on the old homestead. She is my wife’s half great Aunt.

My wife’s Great Grandpa and her Great Grandma and her step Great Grandma, and her Great Uncle Jonothan Sites, and her Great Aunt Christina Sites Isgrigg, are all buried in the old Crawley-Harrison cemetery on the old Jacob Sites Homestead, now on the Woodrow Bouse’s farm across from the Oscar Kimberlin farm.

I just want to write a few lines about “Aunt Martha” as she is affectionately called by everyone that knows her, and is held in high esteem by all of us. A blessing just to know her. Martha Lucinda Sites married Mike Pennock about 1894, Bourbon, Mo. To this union were born eight children as follows:

Jess J. Pennock, born January 30, 1893, Bourbon, Mo., married died in 1961 at Bourbon, Mo.; Ollie Pennock; Ellen Pennock; Leonard Pennock; and Linnie Pennock, who was a twin to Leonard; Lillie Pennock who is single and stays at home to help care for her mother who is 88 years old May 30, 1962; Frank Pennock; Marie Pennock, and Frank Pennock. I think they are married and live in California. All married but Miss Lillie Pennock.

I will now write you about my father-in-law and his family. William Seymour Sites was born May 24, 1858 in West Virginia. He died on my birthday, February 17, 1935 at his home. Buried in the Rock Cemetery. He married Clara E. Allen from near Sullivan, Mo., in 1886. To this union were born eleven children as follows:

Etta Viola Sites born April 29, 1887, Bourbon, Mo., married Pinkney Carter on September 25, 1907, Bourbon, Mo. She died July 16, 1950 at her home, Bourbon, Mo.

Minnie Myrtle Sites, born November 18, 1889 at Bourbon, Mo. She married William John Bohnenkamp on March 15, 1911 at Bourbon, Mo. She died on May 8, 1947 at her farm home, Bourbon, Mo.

Amy E. Sites, was born on July 14, 1892 at Bourbon, Mo. She married Sam D. Bohnenkamp on August 6, 1913, at Bourbon, Mo.

Thomas Wesley (Wick) Sites was born December 19, 1894. Stayed single all of his life and stayed home most of the time excepting being in World War I. He took good care of his mother during the last part of her life. Wesley died suddenly of a heart attack on the old homestead farm, Bourbon, Mo., on March 28, 1962. Funeral services were held on Sunday afternoon, 2:00 P. M., at the First Missionary Baptist Church, Bourbon, Mo. The church was filled with people, some standing. Elder Oliver Mullins officiated at the funeral. Then they took him to the New Rock Cemetery where his father and mother, two brothers and two sisters and his Grandma Dorcas Sites are buried. They buried him by his little sister, Evelyn. The American Legion rites were held at the cemetery of Crawford County Memorial Post, No. 81. In charge of arrangements for the funeral was the Hoener Funeral Home, Bourbon, Mo.

Walter Sites, born May 28, 1897, Bourbon, Mo. Died on November 27, 1897 of T.B.

William Jasen Sites, born October 10, 1898, Bourbon, Mo. Died November 27, 1898, Bourbon, Mo. He died of whooping cough.

Mary Elizabeth Sites was born April 5, 1900 at Bourbon, Mo. She was married to Oscar Schlafer in the spring of 1919, Bourbon, Mo. To this union were born three sons, Morris, Manuel and Curtis. She died April 5, 1939 at Conoga Park at her home in California. They buried her in a beautiful cemetery near Beverly Hills, California.

About a week before she died she professed faith in Christ and I baptized her on her bed in her home and she died peacefully in the Lord. Her funeral was held in the Community Church of Conoga Park, California on Monday after she died on Friday. She died of a rare kidney disease which had the doctors baffled. She suffered for several months.

A letter from Oscar Schlager who was Mary Elizabeth Sites’ husband.

Reseda, California, May 3, 1962. Dear Sam and family: I received your letter and sure was glad to hear from you. I am feeling fine now, but just got over a spell of the “flu.” We sure had a lot of rain here last winter, but I guess it is all over until next winter. I am thinking of coming to Missouri this summer. Sure hope I can come to see you. I am thinking of going on the bus. I will write you when I get to Sullivan, Mo. Some of the questions you asked me, I do not know, but I told you all I do know. Hope you are all feeling fine. Oscar

My father, John August Schlafer was born in Germany, Aug. 18, 1860. My mother, Mary Ann Victoria Chaney Schlafer was born in Illinois, June 13, 1864. The children as follows:

Flora born in Illinois Oct., 1885, married Dave Berry in 1902.

Bertie, born in Illinois, Feb. 19, 1889 married Jefferson Immekus.

Oscar, born in Morehouse, Mo., Dec. 13, 1892, married Mary Sites, Sept. 14, 1919.

Essie and Bessie, born in Illoins, May 21, 1896. Essie married John Pennock. Bessie married Steve Pennock.

August Jr., born in Morehouse, Oct. 21, 1901, married Hilda Bailey.

Marvin, born July 14, 1907 near Bourbon, Mo., married Vera Gerth.

MY CHILDREN.

Marvin, born Oct. 3, 1920, married Ethel Miller and they had Becky, born in Bourbon, Mo., Sept., 1948. Vickie born in Bourbon, Mo., July 9, 1952. Manuel, born near Bourbon, Mo., June 26, 1922. Manuel married Ruby Dickens, they have one adopted son, Danuel, born in Springfield, Mo., in 1952.

Curtis was born near Bourbon, Mo., Dec. 14, 1926. Married Esther don’t remember the date. They have one son, born in Aug., 1952., and one daughter, born April, 1956. Son’s name, Gregory. Daughter’s name Janna. Gregory born in St. Louis, Mo. Janna born in St. Louis, Mo.

Lillian Ethel Sites, born January 29, 1903, Bourbon, Mo. She too attended Dowler Mill School, then she worked in St. Louis and finally purchased her a new Chevrolet car and worked in the Sullivan Shoe Factory and boarded at home, and helped a lot with the household chores.

On June 14, 1941, she married William Frederick Sumers of Scotid, Mo. Since Fred Summers was a carpenter he got jobs on different projects and lived where he worked. One time they lived in Kentucky, where Fred did carpenter work on a government project.

Later they moved to Bourbon, Mo., and finally bought the Wm. Ellis’ farm where they now live, Bourbon, Mo. Star Route. Fred is a brother to our oldest daughter’s husband, Harry Summers, consequently, Fred is not only a brother to our son-in-law Harry Summers, but an uncle also by marriage, as May is Ethel Sites Summers’ niece. Gladys Sites was born October 17, 1906 at Bourbon, Mo. She too, attended the Dowler Mill School and worked in St. Louis, Mo., where she married Carl Ross of St. Louis, Mo. Here they worked and lived for a while, then moved to Bourbon, Mo. Finally they lived on my brother Fred’s farm near Bourbon, Mo., for several years, where their two sons, Carl Jr., and Donald, graduated from High School. Then they moved to Tucson, Arizona, where they own their home and are close to their children. They have several grandchildren.

Della Evelyn Sites was born March 31, 1908, at Bourbon, Mo., and died July 3, 1913 at home, Bourbon, Mo., from scarlet fever. We buried her in the New Rock Cemetrey.

Wilbur Elmer Sites was born August 21, 1912, Bourbon, Mo. He too, attended the Dowler Mill grade school. On February 10, 1934, he married Lela Barton at Bourbon, Mo. Here they procured her parent’s home, Mr. and Mrs. Alfred Barton’s where they lived on the border line of Bourbon, Mo. Since their marriage six children were born to them. Wilbur Sites worked in the shoe factories of Sullivan and St. Clair, Mo. Here he was promoted to a fine lucrative job in the shoe factory with his son assisting him.

Wilbur Sites and Lela Barton were married February 10, 1934 at Bourbon, Mo. The following children were born to them:

Joyce Sites born Nov. 21, 1934 at Bourbon, Mo. She married Elmo Petty, and they have four children as follows: Timmy Elmer, born Sept. 25, 1952; James Wilburn born June 30, 1954; Sharon Kay, born Oct. 20, 1955, and Donald Wayne, born Oct. 9, 1959.

Jack Barton Sites, born Dec. 18, 1937.

James David Sites born May 22, 1941. He married Dorothy Nadine Hill, Nov. 17, 1961.

Ronald Wilbur Sites born Dec. 25, 1943.

Judith Carolyn Sites born Jan. 31, 1949.

Richard Lynn Sites born Aug. 31, 1953.

After being mother and a good kind mother, to her eleven children, and a kind, loving wife to William Seymour Sites, she passed away on the old Sites Homestead, where they lived all of their married life.

The following is an obituary which I will copy:

Clara Sites passed away Sunday night. Clara E. Allen was born near Sullivan, Mo., January 20, 1867 and departed this life February 2, 1947, at the age of 84 years and 13 days.

She was united in marriage to William Seymour Sites in 1886, and came to her home near Bourbon, Mo., where she spent the rest of her life. To this union were born eleven children, four of whom preceded her in death, namely, Walter, and Willie who died in infancy; Evelyn, who died at the age of five years, four months and thre days, and Mrs. Mary Schlafer, Conoga Park, California, who died at the age of 39 years exactly, and her husband, who died February 17, 1935. The living children are: Mrs. Etta Carter, Mrs. Minnie Bohnenkamp, both of Bourbon, Mo., and Mrs. Amy Bohnenkamp of Desloge, Mo., Thomas Wesley Sites who remained at home with his mother and gave her his loving care to the end. Mrs. Ethel Summers, Mrs. Gladys Ross and Mr. Wilbur Sites, Bourbon, Mo.

She also leaves to mourn her departure, 27 grandchildren and 15 great grandchildren, and a host of relatives and friends.

Mrs. Sites gave her heart to God at an early age, united with the Methodist church and remained faithful throughout her earthly life.

Her life as a christian wife and mother, neighbor and friend is an outstanding example to all who knew her. She will be much missed, but our loss is Heaven’s gain.

One who loved her.

Now I will write you about my wife’s Grandparents on her mother’s side, Clara Emiline Sites parents as follows:

Mr. and Mrs. Sullivan were born about 1824 at Sullivan, Mo. They were married about 1846 at Sullivan, Mo. They lived and owned their farm, which was probably homesteaded on the Meramec River, east of Sullivan, Mo. To get to their home from Sullivan, Mo., you cross the Sappington bridge across the Meramec River. They built their house on a beautiful hill from the river.

Mr. Allen died about 1907 and they buried him in the Hamilton cemetery. Mrs. Elizabeth Blanton Allen continued to live on her home place for a short time. In about 1908 she was doing the chores and while she was milking, a cow kicked her and broke her hip. So my wife’s parents got her brought to their home, where she lived with them for about 8 years. Then on February 22, 1916, she died in their home and Mr. and Mrs. Seymour Sites buried her by her husband’s side in the Hamilton Cemetery, Sullivan, Mo. She was over 92 years old when she died.

Their son, John Allen, had built a house near by to help his parents with the farm and after his mother died, he bought out the heirs of their share of the old home farm. Later he sold the farm to the Sappingtons.

My wife’s mother was the youngest in her family. She had three brothers and three sisters. Seven children in the Allen family as follows:

Mary Allen; Kate Allen; John Allen; Henry Allen; Lou Allen; William Allen; and Clara Eimiline Allen.

A tragedy happened in the Allen family on their farm near the Meramec River when my wife’s mother was 7 years old. A flash flood came from the river and got up in their field, and some of their livestock was in this flood. So my wife’s Grandfather Allen and his daughter, Mary, about 17 years old, were in a wagon and the flood took them, including the team and wagon down the swift stream. Mary drowned in the river. Her father, Mr. Allen, saved himself by holding himself to a limb of a tree.

So Mary Allen lost her life trying to help her father save some of their livestock.

Now I want to tell you about my wife’s grandmother who stayed in their home. When she was about 88 years old, and I would go to see my girl friend, Amy Sites, in 1912-1913, I would pull up my chair by her side and talk to her. Yes, Elizabeth Blanton Allen was a friendly, lovable person, she was charming in her conversation and I would listen to her talk. She told me about her home life when she grew up and about her family life.

She said they never wasted anything. When they would want fresh meat the men folk would hunt for deer, turkey and other small animals. Even sometimes they would kill a bear. And she said there were plenty of panthers around to molest the stock and people.

She said they would only kill enough wild animals according to their needs and not waste any meat.

Then she told me that she was on half English and one half Irish and that she married an Englishman, Mr. Allen.

So I figured it all out that my wife’s mother was 75 per cent English and 25 percent Irish, and that my wife is 50 percent Dutch, 37 percent English and 12 one-half percent Irish. And that our seven children are 50 percent German; 25 percent Dutch; 18 three-quarters percent English and 6 one-quarter Irish.

This makes an excellent combination of European blood, which makes them according to blood and training, outstanding personalities of thrift, cooperation, industrious, energetic, perseverance, persistent, intelligent, ambitious, self reliant, honest, benevolent, friendly, compassionate, religious and kind.

I want to write here that my wife and our seven children and I have always had respect, love and kindness shown to each other and practiced all of our life to help one another in time of need. Money has always been a medium of exchange in our family. When one member needed anything or needed money, the one that had it loaned it to the other one in our family.

Since all seven of our children are married and everyone has children of their own except Clara, she has step-children. I think the same spirit prevails in their families. Each one of our seven children have chosen for themselves excellent companions. And my wife and I have always said you must make up your own minds in getting married. Whatever or whoever suits you and the one you marry, will certainly suit your mother and dad as you are ones that have to live with your wife or husband and not us.

I performed a church wedding for all of our seven children. And we hope that each of the seven families will be true to each other and love, honor, and respect one another “till death us do part.”

All of our seven children joined the Methodist church as follows:

May was baptized and received into the Bourbon Methodist church on April 3, 1928, Rev. W. V. Gastian officiated.

Mildred was baptized and received into the Bourbon Methodist church on September 4, 1928. Rev. W. V. Gastian officiated.

Earl was baptized and received into the Anutt Methodist church on May 19. His father being the pastor, officiated

Clara was christened or dedicated on August 20, 1920, in the Bourbon Methodist church. Rev. J. G. Craig officiated.

Then Clara accepted Christ in our home at West Plains, Mo., and was baptized by me and received into the Dripping Springs Methodist Church on November first, Sunday morning, 1931.

Henry seemingly was dying from pneumonia when about a year old. My wife just could not stand it as we did not have him christened yet. So she took a cup of clear, clean water and said, “Henry, I baptize thee in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and she applied the water upon his head, and said, “Amen.” From that minute on Henry our baby began to get better. The fever left him and he became well and strong.

So four years later our pastor, Rev. W. V. Gastian and his wife, and a friend, Mrs. Amelia Kappleman came to our home on the farm and he dedicated or christened Henry, Marvin and Lucy on Sept. 4, 1927. Lucy was only a month or two old.

So one night the 4th Sunday in October, 1931, I was preaching at the Moody Methodist Church and at the close of the service I gave the invitation for anyone that wanted to accept Christ as their personal Saviour to come up. So here came up our two sons, Henry and Marvin, and they accepted Christ as their personal Saviour.

So during the week, the last part of October, we had prayer meeting and Bible Study at the Langston Church, which was held every Thursday night. At the close of the service we had a testimonial meeting and many christians testified as there were about 40 persons present. So to our surprise, our baby daughter, Lucy, stood up and said in a clear ringing voice, “I love Jesus and I want my Daddy to baptize me and take me into the church with Henry, Marvin and Clara.” We had already talked about taking Clara, Henry and Marvin into the Dripping Springs Methodist Church during the week and I think Lucy was thinking about being baptized and joining the church the last few days before this prayer meeting at Langston Church near West Plains, Mo.

So Lucy was only five years old, and mother and I said what are we going to do about it? So I said I am going to talk to some of the stewards in the church and they answered. “Lucy has been raised up in the parsonage home and we know that she has received a lot of religious instruction and we think she knows more about Jesus and the church than some people that are forty years old, and if they were in my place they would just go ahead as she had requested at the prayer meeting.

Consequently, when Sunday came, the first Sunday in November, 1931, I had the privilege and honor and for the glory of God to baptize Clara, Henry, Marvin and Lucy, four of our youngest children and took them into the Dripping Springs Methodist Church.

Now we were all christians and belonged to the Methodist Church.

So when my wife was about 15 years old she attended a Methodist Revival meeting at the New Rock School House where the cemetery is also located, 20 yards away from the school house. In this Revival meeting, she and her sister, Etta, were converted and they were baptized or immersed in a creek close by this school house and joined the Methodist church there as the Methodist’s had a membership or church in that school house.

So on April 29, 1917 she was baptized by immersion and joined the Bourbon Methodist Church. Our pastor, Rev. M. M. Blaise officiated and took her into the church.

In July, 1906, I attended a Revival Meeting at the Bourbon Methodist Church. Evangelist Smith and singer, Miss Jewal and the Evangelist’s wife also assisited with the pastor, J. L. Proffitt directing the Revival meeting.

There were about forty conversions and I was among them and we all joined the Methodist church at Bourbon, Mo., on July 17, 1906. So I wrote on a piece or sheet of paper, Samuel David Bohnenkamp, born February 17, 1889. Born of the Holy Spirit on July 17, 1906. I put this record in my box where I kept my beautiful Sunday School cards. I would get one card for every six Sundays I attended.

I was christened or dedicated in my parents home when I was about two months old. The pastor of the Bourbon Methodist Church by the name of Rev. Sevenfield officiated.

Then I was baptized by effusion when I was 17 years old by the pastor, J. L. Proffit, and he took me into the church on July 17, 1906.

Now as we moved from place to place my loved ones or family, also moved their memberships. Now my wife belongs to the Russell Chapel Methodist Church where she transferred her membership from the Marquand Methodist Church, as Russell Chapel was my last charge after retirement. I hold my membership in the East Missouri Conference as I am an elder in the conference.

I will now write you about my credentials in the Methodist Church.

Bishop A. Frank presided over the Eighty-Fifth Session of the St. Louis Annual Conference, held at Dexter, Mo., beginning October 20, 1932 and ending October 23, 1932. Bishop A. Frank and the conference admitted me on trial, October 23, 1932.

Then the St. Louis Annual Conference was held at the New McKendree Church, Jackson, Missouri on October 18-21, 1934. Bishop John A. Moore, Dallas, Texas presided over the Conference. So on October 21, 1934, I was ordained Deacon in the Annual Conference by Bishop John M. Moore, right after being admitted into full connection.

Then after I finished my Conference Books or Conference Education for to be ordained Elder of the St. Louis Annual Conference and the Methodist Church.

The Annual Conference, Eighty Ninth Session, held at the Murphy Long Memorial Methodist Church, Farmington, Missouri, on October 15-18, 1936. Bishop John M. Moore presiding. Here I was ordained Elder by Bishop John M. Moore on October 18, 1936.

I will copy my Ordination Certificate as follows:

Know all men by these present that I, John M. Moore, one of the Bishops of the Methodist Episcopal Church South, under the protection of ALMIGHTY GOD, and with a single eye to his glory by the imposition of my hands and prayer, (being assisted by the Elders present) have this day set apart Samuel David Bohnenkamp for the office of an Elder in the said Methodist Episcopal Church South, am an who in the judgment of the St. Louis Annual Conference, is well qualified for that work, and he is hereby recommended, to all whom it may concern, as a proper person to administer the Sacraments and Ordinances and to Feed the Flock of Christ, so long as his Spirit and practice are such as become the Gospel of Christ and he continueth to hold fast the form of Sound words, according to the established doctrines of the Gospel.

In Testimony Thereof, I have here unto set my hand and Seal, this Eighteenth day of October in the year of our Lord One thousand, Nine hundred and Thirty Six. Done at Farmington, Missouri, John M. Moore.

I christened the following Grandchildren.

Amy Ann Summers; Samuel Harry Summers; Daniel Earl Summers; Mary Alice Statler; Paul Truman Statler; Twyla Beth Bohnenkamp; Edward Lee Bohnenkamp; Linda Sue Bohnenkamp; Cynthia Ann Bohnenkamp; Beverly Ann Fowler; Brenda Kay Fowler and two of our Great Nieces, Virginia Lee Bohnenkamp; Mary Lynn Bohnenkamp.

I will now write you about my wife’s oldest sister as follows:

Etta Viola Sites Carter was born April 29, 1887 at Bourbon, Mo. On July 16, 1950, she died at her home, Bourbon, Mo., and we buried her in the New Rock Cemetery.

On September 25, 1907 she was married to Pinkney Albert Carter in her parents home at Bourbon, Mo. To this union six children were born as follows: Clara Ruth, born June 9, 1910 at Bourbon, Mo., and departed this life at her home, Tuesday, March 27, 1956 at 10:45 A. M. at the age of 45 years, 9 months and 18 days, following a long period of grave illness.

Her life was one of devotion to her family and friends. Ruth was baptized into the Methodist faith in young womanhood. She was united in marriage to Elwood Barnhart on March 17, 1928. To this union was born one son, the deceased, David Elwood Barnhart, who preceded her in death on February 20, 1935. He died with pneumonia. She leaves to mourn, one daughter, Theora Lee Barnhart Dust, one son-in-law, Theodore Dust, and one granddaughter, Deborah Leigh Dust. Ruth also leaves to mourn her passing, a father, Pinkney Carter, three brothers and two sisters, namely: Russell Carter, Seymour Carter and Roy Carter, and Elsie Hoerath, and Ellen Perkins and many nieces and nephews. Our son-in-law, A. J. Fowler, Jr., preached her funeral in St. Louis, Mo. Her husband, Elwood Barnhart was one of my pupils in the Mound Grade School, Bourbon, Mo. Elwood Barnhart was born December 10, 1906.

The second child was Russell Albert Carter, born on April 20, 1913 at Bourbon, Mo. He married Juanita Lucille Dobkins of Steelville, Mo., on August 21, 1937. To this union was born one daughter, Linda Juanita Carter, February 27, 1941 in St. Louis, Mo. She is now married. Juanita Lucille Dobkins Carter was born April 9, 1919 at Steelville, Mo.

Russell Albert Carter has been working in a car garage in St. Louis, Mo., for several years and now he owns a garage of his own near St. Louis, Mo., or the outer edge of St. Louis, Mo., where they also own a beautiful new home.

Their third child was Elsie Carter Hoerath, born July 30, 1915, at Bourbon, Mo. Her husband, Herman Hoerath, was born July 7, 1912. They were married August 18, 1935. To this union were born the following children: Herman Albert, July 15, 1936 at Bourbon, Mo. Faye Perkins born March 4, 1947; Janice Kay Perkins, born May 27, 1949, at Bourbon, Mo.

The seventh child born was Roy Louis Carter, January 30, 1925, Bourbon, Mo. He married Ellen Jean Irvin.

Carol Ann, born May 11, 1938, Bourbon, Mo. James Roy, born July 7, 1945, Bourbon, Mo. Mary Ruth, born June 24, 1947, Bourbon, Mo.

Their fourth child was James Wesley Carter born Sept. 1, 1917 at Bourbon, Mo. He had heart trouble for a good many years and also high blood pressure and was sick for a long time and died July 3, 1944.

Their fifth child was Seymour William Carter, born October 26, 1921 at Bourbon, Mo. On Nov. 5, 1943, he was married to Mary Lorine McCleary. Her birthday is Dec. 20, 1927. To this union were born as follows:

Erma Lea, born Nov. 30, 1944 at Bourbon, Mo. Then Seymour Williams, born February 2, 1947 at Bourbon, Mo. Then Gail Jean, born June 19, 1951 at Sullivan, Mo. Then Carmen, Doris, Ray, Susie, and Jane Reta. Their sixth child was Ellen Louise Carter, born Bourbon, Mo. She married Roy Perkins Dec. 23, 1939. His birthday is Sept. 21, 1918. They have the following children, Gary Wayne Perkins, born Nov. 11, 1942 at St. Clair, Mo., married Sally McLaughlin on May 5, 1962.

Gallery of Book Scans from this Chapter

Genealogical Index to Chapter 4: