Shortly after our return from St. Louis, I was in Urbana one day, and passing the residence of Mr. Daniel Rush, I saw his daughter Miss Rhoda, with whom I was well acquainted, standing at the gate of their front yard talking to another lady. As I approached them, Miss Rhoda introduced the lady as her friend, Miss Josephine Lindsey of Hickory County, whom I remembered having heard read an essay at the closing of the Urbana Select School, previously referred to. We conversed a few minutes, and after expressing my pleasure in having made her acquaintance, I passed on, leaving the ladies still conversing and their conversation continued for some time I observed. I was very much impressed with the appearance of Miss Lindsey of whom I had frequently thought since first seeing her. A few days later, in conversing with Miss Rush, I found that they had been very intimate friends at school and Miss Rush complimented her friend Josie, as she called her, very highly. I was interested and I determined to seek a further acquaintance with Miss Lindsey.

In the meantime I learned one day in talking with Mr. John Pendleton, at that time, a druggist in Urbana, that his first wife, then deceased, was the oldest sister of Miss Lindsey, and John spoke in high praise of the amiable disposition and splendid attributes of head and heart of Miss Josephine and paid a glowing tribute to her father and mother, Mr. and Mrs. Lycurgus Lindsey. I was very much impressed with what John said, as he and I had become very good friends since he had lived in Urbana. I first knew him when he attended school in Buffalo in 1870. The only member of Miss Lindsey’s family whom I knew then were her sisters, Mrs. Ben F. Creed and Miss Emma Lindsey, with whom I had attended school, at Urbana and both of whom I regarded very highly. My desire for a further acquaintance with Miss Josephine increased and not having had the pleasure of meeting her again, I wrote to her asking the privilege of calling on her, which she very briefly but courteously granted, and thus our friendship began. It ripened into love and we became engaged and after a few months, we were married at her home on May 5, 1878 with Rev. James Madison Reser performing the marriage ceremony.

This was the most important event to me personally that had ever occurred in my life and by it, I obtained one of the grastest blessings that can be attained by man-- a kind, affectionate wife. She was a young woman of fine intelligence, a believer of justice and a doer of that which she believed to be right, one of the best of earth, a pure good woman. I was indeed fortunate in winning her as my helpmate on life’s tempestuous sea. After our marriage we lived with Father and Mother for more than a year and during that time on the 6th day of June, 1879, our first child, a son, was born whom we named Joseph Rountree for my Grandfather. He was a fine dark haired, black eyed little boy of whom his young parents were very proud.

When Father and family removed from Buffalo to Urbana, Brother Bud and his growing family still lived on their farm south of town where they had resided since about two years after their marriage. In addition to their two oldest children, there had been born to them several other children. They were Sigourney Thayer, who was named by Father, usually called Gona, Bertha, Zenas Ludolphus, Frederick who died in infancy, Josephine and Wylma. Bud had spent his time diligently tilling his farm and had also taught one term of school, but he disliked teaching and did not continue it as an occupation. About two or three years after we moved to Urbana, Bud sold his farm near Buffalo and bought a farm four or five miles northeast of Urbana. While living on this farm, a daughter Alma was born and died while an infant. After living on this for a few years, Bud sold it and bought a farm about a mile east of Urbana where they resided several years and two more children were born to them. Their names were Thomas Albert and Grace Sue. (Mary Slavens Thurston says Grace Sue was born in Buffalo.) They continued to live there some time and industriously labored to support themselves and family, and using their best endeavors to give their children an opportunity to acquire an education,

About a year before I was married, I was elected Commissioner of Public Schools of Dallas County, for a period of two years. During my incumbency of this office, I tried my best to promote the educational interests of the people of the county and to that end endeavored to raise the grade of teachers and to supply the various school districts of the county with well qualified teachers. In doing this, I incurred the displeasure of some of the incompetents and their friends and when I was a candidate for re-election, I was defeated by John H. Jones, a Democrat. That was the period of the political history of Missouri when Democrats and Populists frequently formed a coalition in elections against the Republicans. Although the office of Commissioner of Public Schools was supposed to be a strictly non-political office, still political partisan feeling was running high. I had always taken a part to the best of my ability in favor of the cause of the Republican Party in the county. Many of the opposite parties used their best endeavors to defeat me and succeeded. Of course, the office from a financial point of view was of small importance, but as a teacher, I felt that it would be a benefit to me.

The year after my marriage I again taught school in the Urbana School District and when the school closed, I accepted a position as a clerk in Mr. S. H. Burris’s store in Urbana and later bought an interest in a stock of groceries and furniture in Urbana belonging to Mr. Burns, which had been managed for some time by Mr. Jerry Vaughn. After I bought a half interest in the stock, I assumed the management of the business and was assisted by Mr. Vaughn. But the business was too small for the profit on my half of it to amount to enougn to support my family, so I exchanged some real estate I owned near Urbana for Mr. Burris’s interest in the stock of goods and the store building and lot which he owned. After this purchase, I employed Mr. Vaughn and continued the grocery and furniture bust ness for awhile. Then I closed out the furniture and put in a stock of dry goods, boots and shoes and clothing. Mr. Vaughn then obtained employment with Mr. Burris and I employed Mr. Thomas S. Burris as a salesman and I did quite a good business for several years. When I established the general merchandise business, we moved from a small house I had on the land I traded to Mr. Burris where we had lived for a few months, and we occupied some living rooms in the back part of my stone building where we lived until I built a new dwelling house on some lots I had bought adjoining the lots on which my store building was located.

A few years after Father and Mother located near Urbana, Mother’s brother, Uncle Marzavin Jerome Rountree, of Springfield, visited us.. Uncle Jerome was a tall dark complected man, a good business man, and besides having served as a Judge of the County Court of Greene County, he had also been honored with election to the office of Mayor of the city of Springfield. He spent several days visiting us and other relatives in the vicinity of Urbana and we enjoyed having him with us very mach. I think it was some time previous to Uncle Jerome's visit that Mother’s brother Zenas Meredith Rountree and his wife Aunt Elizabeth, who resided on their farm about three miles west of Springfield, came to see us. Uncle "Buck", as we always called him, was a small bald headed, gray haired man (his hair was very scanty); a great contrast to his much larger brother Jerome. He and Aunt Elizabeth were very genial, friendly old people and we appreciated their visit very much. Soon after their visit, one of their sons, Newton M. Rountree, President of the Keet Rountree Wholesale Dry Goods Company, of Springfield, who was in Urbana on business, called on Father and Mother with whom we were then living, and spent a few hours vary pleasantly. Newt, as we always called him, was a tall, light compIected, red haired man, about 40 years old. He began work when he was a boy, probably 19 or 20 years old, for the firm of Keet and Massey retail merchants in Springfield before the Civil Wan and continued work for them in the capacity of a clerk for several years. After the war, the firm engaged in the wholesale business carrying a stock of dry goods, boots and shoes, hats, groceries and notions. In the meantime, Newt had saved some money from his salary, which had been increased from time to time, and when the wholesale business was launched, he purchased some stock, and as time passed, acquired more stock and years later, on the death of Mr. Keet and his uncle William Massey, the other member of the firm, the company was reorganized and incorporated under the name of Keet Rountree Dry Goods Co. The incorporators were James and Thomas Keet, sons of the elder Keet and Newton M. Rountree, and they soon became the leading wholesale merchants in Southwest Missouri; eventually becoming Wholesale Dry Goods Company and doing a very extensive business in Southwest Missouri and Northwest Arkansas. At his death, Newton M. Rountree, who had been the head member of the firm for many years, owned a large part of the stock of the company, and was regarded as one of the great merchants of the state of Missouri. When Newt was quite a young man, he married Miss Gabrielle Hayden, a daughter of Joel Hayden, and farmer of Greene County. They had several children, of whom I remember the names of three of their sons: Joel, Charles and Albert, all of whom were members of the Dry Goods Company when their father died about the year 1912, and Joel became the head member of the firm.

While we were living in the rooms at the rear end of my store building in Urbana, our first daughter was born June 2, 1882. She was fine large baby, had blue eyes before seven years, turning to grey about that time (Mary L. S.), and red hair and we named her Mary Louisa. And then about two months after Mary’s birth, her mother, who I thought was doing fairly well, was taken suddenly very ill, which became so serious that I greatly feared it would prove fatal. The malady which seemed to be malignant from the start, developed into typhoid fever, and as our rooms were small and the weather had become very hot, in August I removed her and the children to the home of her father and mother where she could have more pleasant surroundings and the care and attention of her mother, who was an excellent nurse and had had long experience in sickness. Her illness continued until October before she had recovered sufficiently to return home. In the meantime her mother and her sister Laura became ill, too, of typhoid fever and while neither of them were so seriously ill as her, they remained sick, I think until after our return home. Then we had more illness in our little family. Mary, our baby girl, who during the sickness of her mother and especially later of her grandmother, had had only the care and attention of an incompetent but very kind hired girl, Mollie Williams. She contacted jaundice and as the saying is "became as yellow as a pumpkin" and as her grandmother Lindsey was still quite ill, we decided to return home. After we came home, Brocher Dolph gave the child treatment and prescribed a change of her milk (she was raised on bottle milk) and pretty soon, under the care of her mother, who had become able to give the child constant attention, the jaundice subsided and in a few weeks she was rosy checked and fat again. But about that time, she and Joe both contracted whooping cough with which they were affected nearly all winter. By spring Josie had partially regained her health. The children were rid of their distressing coughs and soon we had a fairly healthy young family and I was able to give closer attention to my business which had been badly neglected during our long siege of illness.

We had been thinking far some time of procuring better living quarters, but there was no satisfactory dwelling house in the village for sale and we concluded to buiId a new house. Accordingly, I bought a lot adjoining the one on which the store building was located and erected a very nice four room frame building. When it was finished, we moved in our new home and greatly enjoyed its comfort and, to us, its roominess. And then I took the partitions out of the living roams back of my store room and used this large space for a wareroom, an improvement I had needed very much ever since I enlarged my business into a general merchandise store.

I think it was in the fall of 1881 that Brother Dolph sold his farm near Urbana to Mr. S. H. Burris, and purchased a house and lot first to just south of the lot on which my store building was located and which they occupied soon after its purchase. He continued to live there and practice medicine until some time in 1882, probably the latter part of the summer. They removed to Marionville, Missouri to get the advantage of a better school: the Marianville College, a Methodist institution; located at that place for their children, Tenie and Burnie, as the school in Urbana then was only an ordinary public school. After about two or three years of freedom from illness in our home we had another case of typhoid fever in the family, and Joe, then about five years old was the victim. He had a very serious and continued spell of the malignant disease. He was treated by Dr.E. P. Vaughan, and under his careful and efficient medical treatment, good nursing and constant attention, he finally recovered so as to be able to walk about the house and yard slowly; but it was a long time before he fully regained his health and he never did become active physically, like he was before his illness.

About the time Joe began to recover from his illness, Brother Dolph and family came back to Urbana, lived with Father and Mother awhile, then moved to their home near my store, which they had leased to someone during their absence from Urbana. While they were gone they had lived a part of the time at Marionville, but as he found it was not a good location for the practice of medicine, there being a number of physicians there with well established businesses. Dolph removed to the town of Richey on the Frisco Railroad, fifteen or more miles west of Marionville, where they lived until they came back to their home in Urbana.

I think it was while their son Thomas Horace was about 19 or 20 years old that Brother Dolph and wife assisted by some good friends and through the influence of Congressman Rice of the Seventh Congressional District of Missouri obtained Torn an appointment as a cadet in the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York. He was a fine athletic young man. Having acquired a fair education at Morrisville, Missouri College, he successfully passed the examination for admission to the Military Academy and after four years application to his studies, graduated with high honors and was appointed Second Lieutenant of the Fourth Regiment of United States Cavalry. After a service of several years at various military posts, principally I think in the middle Western States, he was promoted to a captaincy and was a participant in the Spanish American War. After this war ended, he was sent to the Phillipine Islands and assisted in subduing the Filipino rebellion under the intrepid insurgent Aguinaldo. After peace was restored in the Phillipines, he returned to the United States and did service in numerous sections of the country, having charge for some time of the Military School at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. Then when the United States became engaged in the World War, having at that time become by promotion a colonel, his regiment was ordered overseas and part of the time in command of a brigade. He was engaged in many of the battles of the world war and was promoted to the position of Brigadier General. After the war he returned to the United States, and for some time was in command of a military post in Texas. In 1926, having reached the age of 63 years, he was retired from the military service of the United States. He made a splendid record as a brave soldier, an efficient officer, in the service of his country and his friends and relatives are proud of his fine record and his achievements both in peace and in war. Since his retirement, he has been making his home in Washington, D.C. His only son, Stanley, recently received an appointment in the diplomatic service of the United States and is an assistant to the consul at the capital of Honduras in Central America.

I think Brother Dolph and family lived with Father and Mother during the fall and winter of the year they returned to Dallas County from their sojourn at Marionville and Richey. Mother ‘s health was very poor and her cancer had grown worse and required constant attention. Just awhile prior to this however, they had been having a hired girl, Miss Samantha Darby, whom they employed to do the housework and wait on Mother. I also had a man to look after the farm work, prepare their firewood and do the feeding and other chores. During this time Father had a very serious attack of dysentery. He was so ill that I wrote to his half-brother and half-sister, Uncle Henry Slavens and Aunt Lydia Dyer who lived then in Cedar County, Missouri, and they at once came to see him and remained several days until he began to recover from his illness. Uncle Henry was a large, fleshy man, and I could not see that he resembled Father at all. But Aunt Lydia was a small dark complected old lady and had the Slavens appearance. I suppose Uncle Henry looked like his mother, but he did not resemble Grandfather Slavens. We were all glad to see this good old uncle and aunt, and Father and Mother, and in fact all of us appreciated their kind visit very much. He never heard directly from them again. I understood later that Uncle Henry lived at Lowry City, Missouri.

At the tine Uncle Henry and Aunt Lydia returned to their homes Father was beginning to sit up and he slowly improved until in a few months he had partially recovered his health, but Mother's health had become very much worse and she required constant attention and after there was no one with them but a hired girl, Josie went over to their home every day and dressed Mother’s cancer and gave her such other attention as she could. Although her condition was so bad and constantly growing worse Mother wished very much to remain at her own home, but finally consented to the change, and I had her and Father and some of their household effects moved to our house and they made their home with us during the balance of their lives.

When Joe was seven and Mary was four years old they attended the public school in Urbana. This was their first school. Joe might have gone to school a year sooner, but he was so long in recovering from the effects of the typhoid fever, Father advised us not to have him attend school until he became stronger. Mary at the time was under school age, but she had learned to spell pretty well and she could read in the second reader, and Miss Alice Curtice, who was the teacher of the primary department of the school and who boarded at our house, obtained permission for her to accompany Joe to school. The next year Laura Slavens, Brother Bud’s oldest daughter, was the teacher of the primary department, which pleased Joe and Mary very much as she stayed at our home most of the tine during the school and assisted them with their lessons of mornings and afternoon after school hours.

A few pertinent events had occurred previous to this tine which I have overlooked and will now record; on the 16th of January 1878, Alice, the eldest daughter of Brother Dolph and wife, was married to George W. Lightner, a son of Mr. and Mrs. Jesse N. Lightner then residing on their farm about three miles north of Urbana. Subsequently George and his father and brother, Chris, engaged in the mercantile business in Urbana.

About two years after I was married and while my wife and I and our baby boy Joe were still living with Father and Mother, my sister and her pretty black eyed red headed daughter Etta, then about ten years old, came from their home in Pana, Illinois to visit us. Mother’s health had been gradually becoming worse, and being uneasy about her, Sister and her little daughter made the long wearisome trip in order that they might have the satisfaction of being with her a little while. We all were exceedingly glad to see them and regretted that they could stay with us only a few days. Both realizing that Mother’s case was hopeless, the parting between the afflicted Mother and only daughter was pathetically sad. Sister and Etta were both in fine health and reported that the older daughter, Nelle, had remained at home to keep house for her father and care for her small brother Luther. That was the last time Sister visited us during the life time of our mother. Sister and her daughter, Nelie, visited us several years later, but it was after the death of both Father and Mother.

Copyright ©2004 Larry Slavens. All rights reserved.