I also remember attending a singing school at this St. Luke church house taught by Professor George W. Dugan, who was an old time leader of singing at camp meeting and other revival meetings. He was a farmer but taught music when not engaged in farming. This singing school was taught during the late summer, probably in August, as I remember it was hot weather. Most of the young people and a number of the older persons in our neighborhood attended the school. The system of music Professor Dugan taught was known as the four note or ad, fa, sol, la kind. Instead of having eight notes to an octave. In running or singing the octaves some of the four notes were used more than once. The Southern Harmony, a popular song book at that time, was used and the songs were principally of a religious character. I think the school continued about ten days. My sister, Bud, Tom and I attended and as well as I remember we went every day. The pupils, scholars I think the professor called them, were divided into four groups, soprano, treble, alto and bass and the several groups were seated on long benches on the four sides of the house, leaving space in the rear of the seats occupied by the singers where benches were arranged for the spectators. When the singers had taken their seats, Professor Dugan occupied the space in the center and the singing began. He used a tuning fork to get the key note of the piece of music and then he would give each part the note with which to begin singing. The first song rendered was always one with which many of the older pupils were already familiar and the class was able to sing it fairly well. In singing, Bud, Tom and I sang soprano and Sister sang treble as it was called then, tenor it is now, the highest part of the music, almost exclusively rendered by female voices then. Sister was an excellent singer and was the leader of the treble. After the opening song in the morning session, the professor would teach the rudiments of music for about an hour and drilled the pupils so thoroughly that many of them had it all well understood before the end of the term of school. After this, a number of songs were sung. The professor would keep time to the music sometimes with one hand and sometimes using both hands and he would shake his head, pat his foot, and pass back and forth from one to another of the groups, singing alternately all of the parts of the music. He was a good singer and had a voice of great compass and very melodious. I was just beginning to learn to read then, and of course could not read well enough to read the words of the different songs fast enough or well enough to sing them, but before the school closed I had learned the notes and words of some of the songs and could loin in the singing. When the rendering of a song was in progress, the professor, if a mistake was made by the singers of any part, would stamp his foot and stop the singing and then he would drill the group or groups who had committed the error until they could sing it satisfactorily and then all would proceed with the singing. That procedure was used in rendering every song. Sometimes one song would be sung over and over for half a day until the teacher was satisfied with the singing. There were two sessions a day with an hour intermission at noon when we ate our dinner and the pupils would play ball, base and other games. At the end of the term, the last day was devoted to an examination of the pupils on the rudiments of music in the forenoon and in the afternoon the singing of a special program of songs, which had been well practiced for the occasion, and there was a large crowd in attendance. It was a day long to be remembered. Many of the songs I learned at that singing school I remember well now, more than seventy years later.

There was a considerable amount of wild game in Webster County when we moved there, such as turkeys, ducks, squirrels. rabbits and quail and some deer and there were many fish in the Niangua Creek. My brothers were pretty successful hunters and fishermen and we often had wild meat of different kinds and fine fish to eat. We had quite a bunch of hogs, which lived in the woods on grass, roots and acorns during the spring, summer and fall, and when hog killing time came, late in the fall or early winter, my brother would capture several nice hogs in what manner I do not remember, but probably they would toll them with shelled corn into an enclosure or pen. Then they would feed them corn until they were fat and their flesh had become firm and solid and then they would kill them and cut them up and salt them. After the meat had laid in salt for some time it was taken up and hung in the smoke house and smoked. The middlings, shoulders and hams were in this way cured and they would keep indefinitely. Sometimes though, skippers would get in the meat and it would have to be taken down, laid out in the sunshine and rid of the skippers or worms. We always had a fine lot of fresh meat in the fall. Besides the pork, Father would generally kill a fat steer and we would have fresh beef awhile and then dried beef a long time. We always had plenty of bacon the year round.

At hog killing time, Mother, Sister and the hired girl would render the lard and make sausage and souse or head cheese, as it was often called. We had no fruit trees on our Webster County farm except an apple orchard Father planted or set out after we moved there, but there was a good deal of wild fruit such as plums, grapes and gooseberries in the woods and near the creek, which supplied the lack of an orchard to some extent, and Father often bought a lot of apples and peaches. Mother raised an abundance of chickens every year and we always had fresh eggs and chicken to eat when wanted. Fried chicken for breakfast and baked chicken or chicken and dumplings for dinner were often a part of our diet. Mother also raised turkeys and guineas and frequently we had turkey and guinea to eat. The guinea meat was dark but very good.

I remember an exciting occurrence one day when I was about nine years old. Brother Torn had gone to the home of Mr. John King, our nearest neighbor for the purpose of putting half soles on his shoes, Mr. King having shoe mending tools. While Tom was there, their house caught on fire. Their spring, the only source to obtain water with which to extinguish the fire, was some distance from the house and every one there, Tom included, rushed to the spring with buckets and other vessels to get water. When Tom got to the spring instead of having a bucket, he had one a his shoes, which in his excitement, about the fire, he had taken to procure water. He hurried back to the house but when he reached it the fire was nearly out. He found that it was only soot burning out of the chimney. When Tom returned home he told us about the fire and his embarrassment resulting from the attempt he made to carry water in his shoe. Afterward, he was often teased about carrying water in his shoe to put out the fire burning Mr. King’s house.

Brother Joe had been studying medicine under Father 's instruction for a year or two and in 1859 he decided to find a location and practice awhile before attending college, a very common thing at that time. A license to practice medicine was not required by law then and anyone, after some preparatory study, could get a pair of pill bags and some medicine, such as quinine, castor oil, dovers powders, ipecac and calomel and begin work as a doctor. So he and Sarah moved into a section of the country some distance from their farm in the vicinity of a creek known as the Osage Fork of the Gasconade, where he began to practice medicine. Although it was in a thinly settled neighborhood and not near any town, it was quite a distance from where there was another physician, so he had a large territory and it was a very good location for a young doctor just beginning to practice. They remained there until about the time of the commencement of the Civil War. Joe had a very good English education and was a man of quick perception and good judgment, and he was having good success in his practice when the war caused him to have to abandon his location and enter the military service in the Federal Army.

During the year 1853, Mother had a very serious attack of illness and was confined to her bed for several weeks. I remember I was greatly worried and became alarmed on account of her long illness and feared that she would never be well again. Finally however, she began slowly to improve and eventually regained her health. During her illness, Mary Gourley, a large and very fleshy young woman, a daughter of a neighbor, stayed with Mother as her nurse, cook and housekeeper. Soon after Mother was recovered sufficiently to be able to sit up and walk about the room. One day Mary went home to visit her folks for the day and there was no one in the house but Mother and me, as Bud and Tom were at work on the farm and Father and Dolph were not at home. It was getting late in the afternoon when on looking out at the window in the kitchen toward the King home, we saw a woman coming toward our house carrying a budget on her head. From the way she acted Mother at once decided that the woman was crazy or that something was wrong with her. So Mother locked the doors and told me to be quiet. The woman came up to the kitchen, knocked on the door several times and loudly demanded admittance. Mother refused to permit her to enter and told her to go away. This seemed to enrage her very much and reaching into her budget, which she had laid on the ground, she took out a long, dangerous looking butcher knife and told Mother she must open the door. She looked so hideous and talked so wildly, I was terribly frightened and I am sure Mother was too and knew not what to do. Just then Bud and Tom, who had been at work not far away, came to the house and luckily Dolph came home about the same time. The old woman, still raging like a wild beast and swearing like a trooper, defied the boys to prevent her entrance into the house brandishing her long knife. Her actions angered Dolph who had been taking a horseback ride that afternoon and had a large hickory switch in his hand. He told the old hag to cease her raving and be quiet or he would give her a thrashing. "Drat you Hossfly," she yelled, "don't you dare tech me or I’ll cut yer head off" again brandishing her knife. Just then Father came home and when the old curmudgeon saw him, she became as meek as a lamb, called him "boss" and said she would not hurt anybody and to please let her stay all night. Father agreed to permit her to remain over night if she would behave herself. She brought her budget into the house, sat down in a chair, keeping her budget near her; muttering to herself now and then but otherwise kept quiet. At supper, still with her budget near her, she ate the food with which her plate was filled ravenously and seemed like she was almost starved. Father asked her a good many questions after supper, requesting her to tell her name, where she lived and where she was going but she shook her head and persistently refused to make any replies to his queries. Then Mother told her she could go to bed. She occupied the boys' bed in the kitchen. Mother locked the door between the living room and kitchen, fearing that she might arise from her bed after we were all asleep and hurt or kill some of us. We could hear her muttering and talking to herself for a long time after we had all retired, but finally she became silent and must have gone to sleep. She chewed tobacco, Mother ascertained the next morning on finding where she had expectorated amber on the kitchen floor near the bed. After a hearty breakfast, still refusing to talk, she went away and we never saw her again.

While we lived in Webster County before the Civil War, we had a number of good neighbors, the nearest of wham was Mr. John King. He had a Large family. I think there were ten children. He and his good wife, whose name was Hily, often visited us, They generally came after supper and stayed until bed time. Mr. King, although he was uneducated, was a man of fine natural ability and well informed, especially as to agriculture. He was considered to be the best farmer in our community. I remember to have been at his home a few times during the summer. He had a field near the house, and I remember the soil was red. I have seen this field in corn and the rows of corn were straight almost without a crook from one end to the other. I remember that frequently when Mr. and Mrs. King would visit us, Mother would bring in a vessel of nice eating apples and Mr. King would eat several apples ‘and remarked that apples were his favorite fruit, and he certainly did enjoy eating them. Mr. King was a tall, dark complected man with black hair and long black beard. He had very black eyes deep set in his head. Mrs. King was a large woman and very fleshy.

Another neighbor, who did not live so near to us, was John E. Haymes. Father was his family physician, and his oldest son was named John Slavens Haymes, who after he became a man, studied law, located at Buffalo and for years has been one of the most prominent lawyers of Dallas County. Another neighbor was Mr. John Gourley, father of Mary who stayed with Mother for two or three years. I do not remember that Mr. Gourley was ever at our house. The only thing I remember of him was seeing him passing the road running east and west between our farm and Mr. King’s, in a wagon drawn by four horses. That was the first four-horse team I had ever seen and I thought it remarkable to see a man drive four horses.

Another neighbor who visited us sometimes was Mr. Pitts. I do not remember his given name. He had two daughters, Kate Webb whose husband Mr. Will Webb was a school teacher, and a younger daughter Miss Lola. One or both of the daughters came with their father to visit us sometimes. The main thing that makes me remember Mr. Pitts is that he played the fiddle and Brother Dolph was a good fiddler. Whenever Mr. Pitts visited us he would bring his violin and he and Dolph would entertain the family with some fine music. Some of the tunes they played were Fisher’s Hornpipe, Durango Hornpipe, Money Musk, Scott Number Two and Turkey in the Straw. They played many other tunes. I was delighted with the music and so were all the family. Another neighbor was Mr. Allen Day. His wife, Sarah Ann Hollis Day, was a sister to my brother-in-law, Jesse Hollis. The only thing that I remember about Mrs. Day is that she was splay footed, one foot turned to the right instead of in front of the ankle. I had never seen anyone else with a foot in that shape and I thought it very strange.

The only children playmates that I had when I was a child were Willie, Lizzie and Nannie Gourley, little brother and sisters of Mary Gourley. They frequently came and stayed all afternoon at our house and occasionally I would visit them. The last time I did so, I found that Willie was sick and could not play with me and the little girls. They said he had typhoid fever. In a few days we heard that Willie was dead. I was sadly grieved for I thought a great deal of him. After Willie's death, I only remember that Lizzie and Nannie came once to play with me. We all felt so sad about Willie’s death that we did not enjoy our play very much.

In the summer of 1858, my sister had a very severe attack of dysentery and for some time was in a critical condition. After a long illness she began to improve, but her recovery was very slow. As soon as she was able she came to visit us. She was still very much emaciated but during her visit of several days with us she improved more rapidly and was looking much better when she returned home.

I remember that one day while she was there, she and Brother Tom were sitting near the door on the west side of the house. The door was open as it was hot weather and Tom was in his shirt sleeves and the collar of his shirt was unbuttoned and his neck and shoulders were bare. I was standing behind Tom and observed, as Tom stooped aver to pick up something on the floor, the prominent back bones and was alarmed. I cried, "Oh Tom! You have a bone in your back!" Sister and Tom laughed heartily and I was a badly embarrassed boy. I was often teased after that and asked if I had a bone in my back.

While I was attending school at the old log church at St. Luke, there were a number of large boys, some of them nearly grown, in attendance. They played a number of strenuous games, two of which were ring wrestle and crack the whip. In the first game a number of them would join hands and form a ring and then the whole circle would run round and round rapidly until one or more were tripped up or fell violently thrown to the ground. They seemed to enjoy the sport but some of them frequently got hurt which was true of the game of crack the whip in which they would join hands and a dozen or more of them would form a line and those at the head of the line would start at a rapid pacer the others following and their speed constantly increased for some distance when suddenly the head runners would turn in a right angle direction the others following suit and the speed at which they were running caused one or more at the lower end of the line or the "cracker" of the whip, to be thrown with more or less violence some distance to the ground. It was a lot of fun for the boys but sometimes it was hard on the "cracker" especially if, as sometimes happened, he got a bloody nose. At this school, I witnessed the first exhibition of an acrobat I had ever seen. The tumbler was a young man by the name of John Haymes, the son of Uncle Buck Haymes who lived on Timber Ridge four or five miles from St. Luke. At noon one day, he entertained the school by turning a number of handsprings and somersaults. He was a large athletic young man, but very active and seemed to do the acrobatic feats with perfect ease and we were all much delighted with the exhibition. He frequently yielded to much solicitation and repeated the entertainment. A few years later he became a Methodist minister and after the Civil War he was pastor of the church at Buffalo. He was not only a good preacher, but a fine singer and was exceedingly popular, especially with the lovers of good music.

Among the neighbors who visited us at our Webster County house before the Civil War was Mrs. Amy Pigg Hollis and some of her boys. She was my sister’s mother-in-law. I remember on one occasion she and two of the boys had been to their lower place, as they called it, on the Niangua and on their return home they came by our house and stopped awhile. They had a lot of food with them she had cooked while down at the lower place and she insisted on me eating some of it. I remember there were new potatoes and string beans and I thought they were the best I ever ate. Mr. and Mrs. Hollis lived on the Niangua, where the Springfield and St. Louis public road crossed the river and they had a fine bottom farm. They kept a country tavern and many people stopped with them for meals or overnight. Mrs. Hollis had a great reputation locally and with the traveling public as an excellent cook and landlady.