Note:  Lois Malone was Arizona Goldmine Parker’s Sister.

 

I am including it here because of her relationship to our family and the information contained.

________________________________________

 

INTRODUCTION

 

I am undecided whether to begin this account with our maternal or paternal families.  Perhaps I should start with the family I think is the most important; not because it was the wealthiest and most prestigious, but

because they were down-to-earth, honest, and worthwhile people.

 

I have few family records to research as to actual facts, and much of this will be "hearsay" from others who spoke of certain happenings and events, and some of it will be based on stories left behind by family members who knew of the events.  Some of these stories will seem humorous and others somewhat tragic, but, all in all, they were our family, bad and good, and since some of you children have expressed a desire to know and to have some sort of record, I will oblige by giving you a direct and honest account of all I remember and have researched.

 

 

 

 

January 22, 1976

HUGHES  -  BALLOU  -  TYLER

In writing this family history for you children, I must tell you that much of it is by word of mouth from mother or father to sons and daughters.  We have no written proof of most of the information.  If Grandfather Tyler or Great-grandfather Hughes had any family papers, they were lost during the Civil War.  Grand­father Tyler died in the midst of the war, and the last place he lived was in Hartville, Missouri.  He may have left belongings there.  Grandmother left there and came, by gradual stages, to Maries County.  Letters and other papers were kept in an old trunk and the contents were burned when Nancy (your great-aunt) died. Just think of the letters from the Hughes family who went on to California and of their being destroyed just as though they were wastepaper!

§§§§§§§§§§

 

 

I will begin with the Hughes family because to me they and the Tylers are responsible for any worthwhile characteristics we have inherited.

 

The first record of a Hughes in Missouri is from the records in Franklin County, which show that a William Hughes settled on DuBois Creek, not far from what is now Washington, Missouri, in 1794. Since Great-grandfather William Hughes (your great-great) was born in 1783, presumably this was his father (your great-great-great-grandfather). And, also presumably, it was his father (or your great-great-great-great-grandfather) who migrated to this. country in the late 1600's with William Penn.

 

According to family legend, Penn was related to the Hughes family, but it has not been determined whether it was on the Hughes side of the family or that of the elder Hughes' wife. The Hughes family came from Wales.

 

The Hughes family was very strict in religious matters and also believed in the occult.

 

Great-great-grandfather Hughes (who will be referred to as William Hughes the First) came from Pennsylvania originally, then later moved to Maryland, where Great-grandfather (your great-great) was born in 1783. He will be referred to as William II. William the First was a soldier in the Revolutionary War.

Relation to Me        Relation to You Children

Cynthia Ann Tyler              Mother          Grandmother

       m.                      Father          Grandfather

Thomas Bickerton Anderson

Rebecca Hughes                Grandmother      G-grandmother

      m.

John Hunter Tyler             Grandfather      G-grandfather

William Hughes II             G-grandmother     G-G-grandmother

      m.

Prescilla Ballou              G-grandfather     G-G-grandfather

William Hughes I             G-G grandfather     G-G-G Grandfather

 

William Hughes,

came here with Penn        G-G-G-grandfather   G-G-G-G-grandfather

 

 

- 1a -

Great-great-grandfather Hughes's children were:

William           See information later in account.

Joseph            Went to California in the 1840's, but he remained in MariesCounty long enough to beget three illegitimate daughters by the same woman, who later married Ake Rowden, and those offspring were given the name Rowden.  The three daughters married and their descendants still live in Maries County.  One of the daughters, Melinda, was George Cansler's mother and another was Effie Sease's mother.  The third daughter married a man by the name of Orr.

Joseph died in California in 1867

.

(Rowden, after the first wife died, married the widow of Joe Hutchison, Jr., a nephew of your Grandmother Malone. You are related through the Crum family to the Snodgrass, Malone, Hutchison, Brown, Bray, Haines, and Myers families; through the Andersons to the Copelands, Tyrees, Grahams, Heltons, Breedens, Meltabargers, Bassetts, Russells, McDaniels, Nobletts, Knights, and many others. Also through the Andersons or Hugheses you are related to the grand-parents of Irene Murphy John.

Actually there are very few families in this county that are not related to you by blood or marriage.)

John      Who also made the trip to California. He never married.  Disappeared after having made considerable money in mining.  It was believed that his mining partner had murdered him.

 

Mary          Only daughter.  She married Priscilla Ballou's brother William.

Noland            Died single in California.  No other informa­tion.

-2-

In 1807 Great-grandfather William Hughes met Priscilla Ballou (or Belleau) in Carolina (whether North or South is not known) and they were married that same year.  Priscilla (born in 1785) was of French ancestry and had come to America with her family because of religious persecution, although they them­selves were not really what one would call a religious people. They did not, however, take very kindly to being ordered about. The different branches of the family chose their own spelling of their surname.  Some spelled it BALLOU, BELLOW, BIRLEU, BELLEAW, BELLIEU, BILYEU, and, in one instance, just plain BLUE. Their number was many, and a pretty wild bunch of men, I gather.

 

After a few years of married life they, together with Great-grandfather's brother Joseph and several of the Ballous, left Maryland to begin a journey West.  Priscilla's brother William married Great-grandfather's only sister Mary before they left Maryland.

 

After settling for a while in Kentucky, they moved on to Tennessee, where one of the Ballou boys (Isaac) married an Indian girl.**

 

Eventually the Hugheses and Ballous ended up in Missouri in Gasconade County, in 1818, near Vienna, in a place called Hurricane Bluff.  What are known now as Maries, Osage, Miller, and Gasconade Counties were then known as Gasconade County. The division into separate counties came about sometime near the 1830's.

 

Grandmother Rebecca Tyler (nee Hughes) was born at Hurricane Bluff in 1819.  Then her father, Great-grandfather Hughes, returned to Kentucky in 1821 where he lived for six years, returning to Missouri in 1828.  Priscilla died in 1832 and was buried on a bluff along the Gasconade, south of Indian Ford.  After her death and after his children had gone to California, Great-grandfather Hughes married again, a widow named Slate, and had two more daughters.  There is no further information regarding them.

 

We have seen records of his filing on land in Pulaski and Osage Counties.

 

Great-grandfather Hughes was a blacksmith and an expert gunsmith.

 

 

(** In 1830, Isaac Ballou (Bilyew, Birlew, Ballieu), probably a son of this Isaac, Priscilla's brother, and his young wife, both under 20 years of age, settled on the Tavern Creek, near Iberia in Miller County.  He hunted for three years with the famous (or infamous) Chief Rogers, the half-Indian who supposedly was part Indian.  Isaac bought corn from his neighbors, ground it into meal, and, with hunting, made his living that way.  The Ballous voted Republican.  I wonder what became of all of them.)

-  3  -

GREAT-GRANDFATHER HUGHES' CHILDREN

McKamy Wilson             The eldest, born in Tennessee; lived all

b.4/18/1808             his life in Maries County.

d.9/13/1887

Married Elizabeth Davidson, sister to the Davidson who was the first husband of your great-grandmother Malone (nee Sarah Snodgrass).  They had 8 children, 4 boys and 4 girls:

Harriet  - married Larkin Crane.

•

Melvina  - married a Briggs, Civil War

veteran, Union Army; killed at Gettysburg. Three children of this union.

Lucinda  - married James Knight; no children.

Nancy

Priscilla - married a Bassett: lived in Texas.

 

John P. - married Mary Tackett.

 

Elisha - married Rachael J. Roach.

 

Hiram - married Sarah Frances Eads

 

George H. - no data.

Hiram                  Second son, born  in Kentucky.  Married Lucinda Johnson Bowen, widow, with three children.  Daughter of Sydney Johnson; sister to Old Betsy Hawkins (nee Johnson), who was considered to be a witch; and a sister of Mischal Johnson.

Hiram rode for Mischal and was sent on long journeys to cattle and mule markets. He was gone for over a year on one of trips.  Upon his return he found his wife with a new baby (not his), and then decided to join the other members of the Hughes family in California.  He was planning to leave his wife with Mischal, but Mischal blackmailed him into taking her and her four children or he would swear Hiram had rustled his cattle.  Hiram took her with him.  They later had two more children.

 

 

- 4 -

Stephen               Third child, no information.

John                  Never married.

Elisha           Married Mary Coleman, a banker's daughter San Jose,   California. Two children:

John     - no information

Frances - Married John Colbert, and later a man named Fabrette.

Children of both  marriages • still live in California.

David                Also made the trip to California. Died single and young.

Melvlna              Died single.

Elvira               Married a man by the name of Johnson. They had two children.   If I am not mis­taken, Johnson was a great-uncle of Milt, Tom, and Millard Shockley. After Elvira died from ill treatment and neglect by her husband, Johnson married a great-aunt of Lucy Henderson.

Johnson was so stingy that Elvira had to fasten her clothing with thorns. This Johnson was a brother of the "famous" Mischal Johnson, preacher, teacher, cattle man, and, as the Hughes family tells it, a rustler besides. He was considered a very wicked man, and those at his bedside at the time of his death saw "a ball of fire emerge from his coffin and fly out the open door." They were so frightened they left. (An old ghost story!)

Elizabeth             First married a man named Shobe; one daughter, Jane. Second marriage to William Wright; two sons born of this union.

Priscilla             Died single.

Rebecca            First marriage to William Tucker of Fayetteville, Arkansas. Two children:

b.1819              

d.1904

Myra    - Married Henry Davis and lived in in Willow Springs. Several children, but we have lost touch.

- 5 -

(Rebecca, cont'd)    Frances - Married a man named Caine; one daughter:

Minerva - After death of Aunt

Fanny (Frances), Uncle Tom and Uncle Cates and Grandmother Tyler raised Minerva.

Minerva married a man named Olmstead and lived in St. Louis. Two children, Flora

and a boy whose name I do not remember.

Second marriage: After the death of Tucker, Rebecca married John Hunter Tyler.

                      They had six children.

 

My Grandfather Tyler was a widower with three sons. Aunt Nancy said he was born in Virginia in 1801. Mama said he talked of living in Georgia. He may have been born in Virginia, but he was a "fiddle foot" and probably did travel to Georgia. Possibly that is where he met his first wife, an Irish (Welsh?) girl named Cynthia Chestnut. They had three boys, Larry, Robert, and Patrick, nicknamed "Chick." She died and Grandfather started traveling West with his boys. He got as far as Fayetteville, where he met Grandmother Tyler (a widow with two girls) and married her. This was before the Civil War.

 

Grandfather Tyler claimed direct descendancy from the rebel "Wat Tyler", who lived in the fourteenth century. There has been a Wat in each generation of Grandfather's family.

 

He also claimed to be a cousin of President John Tyler. Their fathers or grandfathers were brothers and the maternal name must have been Hunter, which was Grandfather's middle name. He had several brothers, all in favor of the North, although he was a rabid Southerner. During the Civil War he did not try to keep in touch with his family, who were Northern sympathizers. He also had no use for President John Tyler, who he said was a Tory.

 

Grandmother had been left quite well off -- William Tucker had owned an inn or hotel; but her finances were tied up in Confederate money, so she lost the hotel and, probably with Grandfather's help, lost everything else. He was never satis­fied to stay in one place too long. That's when they moved to Hartville, and that's where my mother was born.

 

Grandfather Tyler was 60 years of age when the war came, and he tried every way he could to get into the army so he could fight for the South. When he failed, he formed a militia

 

- 6 -

in Hartville.  He was a totally self-sufficient man, and in one instance when Union soldiers tried to take his horse, he dared them to take it.  They left with the excuse that the reason they didn't take the horse and shoot him was that he was 60 years of age.  The soldiers came back after dark and stole his horse.

 

One battle between the North and South was fought near Hartville.  After the battle the hallway of the courthouse was full of bodies, and he helped bury the dead of both sides.

 

Not long   after, Grandfather died.  He was buried on the bank of White River, which now is a big lake.  It is understood that when the dam was being excavated, all who were buried there were excavated with it rather than being exhumed and reburied.

 

After his death Grandmother Tyler came on to Maries County with their six children, and none old enough to be of much help.  Her two daughters by William Tucker (Myra and Frances) had married.  It took her six years before arriving in Vienna. My mother, Cynthia, was about 16 years old when she arrived here. No one knows where the stops were, or how long Grandmother Tyler remained at each.  But Grandma Cynthia stated it took about six years to arrive in Vienna, where Grandmother Tyler had some relatives.  She worked for other people and some of the rela­tives were able and willing to take some of the children. Grandma Cynthia lived with a cousin of Grandmother Tyler's, a William Wright, until she came on to Vienna.

GRANDMOTHER REBECCA'S CHILDREN

Nancy b.8/20/1849     The eldest, born in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Never married.

      d.1/2 /1928

Ruth  b.7/20/1850    Born in Fayetteville, Arkansas.   Married Enos Logan from somewhere around Columbia.  He deserted her and their two children.  She died, leaving her two little girls for Uncle Tom and Uncle Cates to see after.  Mamie, the oldest, married Dennis Fennessey and moved to Pacific, Missouri. Both died long ago, but their children and grandchildren live there.

The other daughter, Julie, disappeared.

Elisha William     Born in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Died single. Nickname "Cates." Member of Vienna Masonic Lodge for almost 40 years.

b. 12/23/1851 d. 8/2/1933       

Thomas               Born in Fayetteville, Arkansas. b. 9/23/1853         Died single.

d. 1938

 

 

- 7 -

Cynthia             Born in Hartville, Missouri. Married Thomas Bickerton

b. 7/19/1855        Anderson, Tuesday evening, September 14, 1880. Eight

d. 1949, age 93     children:

Harriet        - Born Sept. 25. 1881

             Died 10/5/1882

 

John Paul Vane - Born April 9, 1883. Married Ruth Boston.

                 Three children:

 

Rachael - lives in Tulsa.

Thomas - lives in Denver.

 

Lucille - married Kent Spring. Lives in Oklahoma.

Addie Aletta   - Born Jan. 1, 1885; died in 1942.   Married Ira C. Calkins. Two boys:

Llew, who died on Bataan. One daughter.

Don, who lives in Albuquerque. Married; two daughters.

Mary Lamar     - Born 1882; died in infancy.

Lois Agusta  - Born December 13, 1891. Married George W. Malone in 1909, July 18.

Nine children.

(see Anderson family tree)

Mildred    - Born March 19, 1894. Married Ben Otto, deceased. Two children:

Bernard - deceased; single.

Helen    - married Robert Hight; lives in California; three daughters: Holly, Marjory, and Elizabeth.

Second marriage to John Waidelich; One child, Donna.

- 8 -

Grace      - Born Nov. 17, 1896. Married Charles Scott; one daughter:

Naomi    - Married Morris Byrd;Two daughters:

Julie; married, now divorced.

Suzanne; married R. Faris; two children;

David and Sarah.

 

Glen      - Grace's twin brother; died in infancy.

Arizona               Married Columbus Parker; four boys:

b. 1359                     

Bayard     - Married Oma Hutchison. Five children.

 

Charles    - Died single.

John       - Died single.

William Columbus - Nicknamed "Snits." Married a daughter of Charles Spratley, whose mother was a Copeland, a second cousin of mine. They had one daughter, Olive, who married a man named Eikoff.

 

After Aunt Zone was born, Grandmother left her unnamed for so long that Grandfather said if she didn't name that child soon he was going to call her "Arizona Goldmine." I suspect he was getting an "itchy foot" about then, with an idea of moving on to Arizona. Any­how, she wasn't named and they just began calling her Arizona, shortening it to Zone.

Grandmother Tyler named her first Tyler boy for her first husband and Grandfather Tyler named Mama for his first wife. I think that's really something! Catch me naming any of you for my first husband!

 

Grandfather's two oldest boys by Cynthia Chestnut died soon after he and Rebecca were married. Lawrence (called Larry) and Robert died in the mid-1860's. The youngest, Patrick (nicknamed "Chick"), went with a drove of cattle to California about the time the Hugheses did. Arrived with one cow. He started mining,

- 9 -

then decided to gamble instead and made his fortune. He wrote he was coming home and Grandmother would never have to work again. That was the last they ever heard of him. He probably was murdered too, as was John Hughes, Mama's uncle.

 

Several of Grandmother Rebecca's Ballou relatives left Missouri for Arkansas when the Civil War fighting got bad and never returned to Missouri. Not only the Ballous, but a good many others also left; some to evade having to enlist and some for safety. Not only wore there wild animals in the woods, but there were bushwhackers too. People claimed affection for the South and rode at night to do their evil, but it also gave them an excuse to rob and kill and have the real reason hidden. More than one man hid in his cellar all through the war, or out in a barn somewhere, and his folks would bring him food. Not only through the Civil War did this happen, but during the last two World Wars. Of course, there were not as many who deserted as during the Vietnam War, but they are all the same the world over, and, to me. that doesn't look any worse than paying someone to do your fighting.

 

I could also write about the hard life most women suffered during that Civil War, and before, when living was pretty primitive and downright dangerous from wild animals, or, once in a while, an Indian or two creeping from the forests. Everett King has written an authentic story about the primitive way of life then. so all of you who have his book can read and see that your Tyler and Hughes relatives lived about like that; also your Snodgrass and Crum relatives. There was very little easy and fancy living for anyone. But that was good for them. People who can't stand up under adversity and hard times never amount to anything worthwhile..

 

But I'd better go on and finish this Tyler-Hughes story and try to get it all down without getting sidetracked so often.

 

Well, this story is about finished. Sometime, some of you could do a bit of investigating into the Tyler family in D.C. and see what you can find out about the name "Hunter" in regard to it, and especially if two Tylers (any two and which ones) married sisters. I don't doubt Grandfather's word one bit. He was honest, truthful, and brave and had no false pride about him. He didn't feel it was an honor at all, as most people would, to be related to a president. Actually, he had the idea that there was no one superior Co himself. I think that's a splendid idea to keep in mind.

 

Grandmother Rebecca was left quite well off by her first husband, but due to bad management she lost it or it was wasted. Grandfather was never happy to stay in one place for long at a time. In fact, our whole family is touched with the same disease. Grandmother Tyler used to say that we were part of the "Lost Tribes of Israel." The Hughes family was Welsh, superstitious, and held a firm belief in the spirit world. Uncle Cates believed in transmigration of souls and the whole family believed in signs

- 10 -

and omens. Elisha Hughes and his niece Frances (my mother's half-sister) were mediums and also kept in Couch with each other by what we now call ESP. No wonder their descendants have had a I difficult time trying to disbelieve in ghosts. Well, there is an  old saying, and I Chink it applies especially to the Welsh people, that "The young shall dream dreams and the old shall see visions." That attitude is not wholly on the Hughes-Tyler side; the Wisemans were also "touched."

 

It is a bit too much for me to straighten out the various intermarriages, but King's book will show you that the Ballou, Wiseman, and Hughes families intermarried with the Andersons and that Maries County was pretty well settled by offspring of Chose families, along with the Heltons, Vaughns, and Eads families, who also intermarried with them. All of them were first settlers of this region; some, while it was known as part of Gasconade County; part after it became Maries County.

 The Hughes family came first. There are records of land they bought in what is now Osage County. At that time Osage-Maries-Gasconade-Miller were all one big county. After Grandfather Anderson came, the county was surveyed and separated into the present counties. Thomas A. Anderson owned land in nearly all of them. Besides his own acreage in Maries