William Jackson Myers, Moving West

-

William Jackson Myers, Moving West
By Janet O'Conor Camarata

William Terry Myers, nicknamed “Blackie” in his later years, was born December 7, 1861 In Terre Haute, Vigo County, Indiana at the beginning of the Civil War. He was the second son of William Jackson Myers and Mary Etta “Met” (Asher) Myers.  William Jackson Myers and his parents were originally from the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia and had moved west, sometime in the early 1840s, settling in south central Indiana. 
By 1860, William Jackson Myers was living in Cloverdale Township, Putnam County, Indiana. He married “Met” Asher on April 30, 1857 in Owen County and shortly thereafter, moved to Clay County where his eldest son was born. When the war began in Indiana on April 12, 1861, William Jackson Myers was 31 years old living in Harrison Township, Vigo County, northwest of Terre Haute. William Jackson chose not to volunteer to serve in the Civil War. By 1862, a draft was established, and quotas were set by the state government. At first, volunteers for the Union Army were plentiful enough to fill the quota, so no draft was implemented in Vigo County. A total of 4,445 men served in all branches of the war, both Union and Confederate, from the Vigo County. By the time the war ended in Indiana on April 9, 1865, William was the father of three children, the eldest son, Allen J.; second son, William Terry and daughter, Louisa Myers.
 Loading Wagons — Stock Photo
It was time to leave Indiana. The end of the war affected many economically and politically. Returning soldiers were looking for work and returning to their homes. Conflicts and tensions continued to resurface between Union and Confederate returnees.  Ads appeared in local newspapers like the Wabash Daily Express and the Terre Haute Daily Morning Journal offering good terms and favorable loans for all kinds of property in Iowa and Missouri. William Jackson Myers, a farmer without land of his own made the decision to leave Indiana with his young family. He traveled with his wife’s parents, Lewis and Allie (Brown) Asher and their 13 children.
He purchased a covered wagon and an ox team strong enough to pull it on their journey west.  The sturdy covered wagons were known as prairie schooners or “western wagons.” They had flat bottoms and lower sides than the original Conestoga wagons of Virginia. The white covered canvas made the wagons look like sailing ships from the distance, earning them the “schooner” name. The Myers and Asher families left Terre Haute in the summer of 1865 and moved across the prairie, following the National Road, the major route for western expansion, passing established towns and farms from Terre Haute to Vandalia, Illinois, 100 miles. From here they traveled north to a point on the Mississippi River where they could float across on a flat-boat ferry, a shallow rectangular watertight barge or “mud scow” with gently sloping ends, strong enough to load and unload a wagon, ox team, a family and all their family goods.  Using the current for power, they floated downriver and maneuvered with oars until they reached the west side of the river. Their journey continued until they reached their destination in north central Missouri, first settling in Grundy County, Missouri, 350 miles and 35 miles from the Iowa border. It took them about six weeks to make the journey.
The William Jackson Myers family settled on Asher Ford southwest of Denver, Gentry County in the north central area of Missouri. Although the region was first settled more than thirty years before, much of it was still available and heavily timbered, especially in oak and walnut. They cleared the land, built their homes, and began farming the land. William Jackson Myers died 23 years later, July 17, 1908 from complications of “old age” at the age of 78. He was buried in Maple Grove Cemetery in Trenton, Grundy County, Missouri with a hand-cut stone reading, “Wm. J. Myers, 84y. Born VA. h/o Mary Etta (ASHER) 30 Apr 1857 in Owen Co., IN. Died 1908.” William Jackson Myers lived life to the fullest. His headstone symbolizes the permanence of the family’s memory of their ancestor.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Looking for a Needle in a Haystack? GAME CHANGER at FamilySearch

-
Image
Generated with Bing ImageCreator (AI), March 13, 2024 Where is YOUR Needle, Your Missing Record? Genealogical Proof Standard When we use the GPS (Genealogical Proof Standard) as our guide, we all know that "exhaustive research" can be both tedious and exhausting. Is life long enough to search page by page through all the counties where all the members of a family might have lived, paid taxes, bought, leased or sold property, made a will or died intestate? It is possible that the new Full Text Search at FamilySearch will  eventually  allow us to do just that. It has been estimated that 75% or more of the records at FamilySearch were browsable but not searchable; the only indexes those found in the records themselves. Those records are certainly attainable by using those indexes and browsing to the record of interest, but the process is tedious, often frustrating, and slow. And once found, the record must be read and transcribed to be useful. This new Full Text Search tackles a
Read more

What's the Question?

-
Image
We genealogists are often told by experienced researchers how important it is to begin with a research question. I resisted doing this for a long time, but now that I use a series of questions to guide my research, the search is more focused and actually finds more of the history of the family I'm investigating. I use a Google Doc as the  research proceeds, where I keep the question(s), the plan, timelines, checklist of resources to search, etc. all in one place. I've seen others use spreadsheets in the same way, perhaps splitting up things in tabs (Excel or Google Sheets). I prefer a document because I add source citations as I find them and I can begin writing up the case right there in the doc as the hypotheses are proven. Specific Questions in Previous Successes As beginners we often have no clue how much and what details we already know about a person, event or relationship, so it's hard to specify what we want to know. But when looking back at successful research, it
Read more

Help Save This Abused and Neglected Cemetery

-
Image
Screen capture from Google Maps History In an exchange of emails this past week in both the main SKCGS group, and in the Washington-State-Genealogy group, many facts were revealed about the history of the I.O.O.F. Comet Lodge Cemetery, also known as the Old Burying Ground, the Georgetown Cemetery, the Graham Street Burying Ground and maybe more.  FindAGrave sums it up this way: "Since it was established in 1881, the Comet Lodge cemetery site has been whittled away to less than half its original 5 acres. Records are sketchy but it's safe to say that some 500 pioneers were buried here, atop unknown numbers of native Duwamish people. New burials ended in the 1930s. Since then, homes and streets were built on top of many of the plots as the neighborhood around the cemetery grew.  "Upkeep and ownership of the cemetery bounced between the city, civic groups, relatives of Comet Lodge residents, and nearby neighbors. For years, much of the property was allowed to deteriorate int
Read more