Tag: Mary Jane Elliott

Daisy McIntire, the pretty blond youngest daughter of John A. McIntire and Mary Jane Elliott, was born in the summer of 1888 in Bickles Cove, Stone County, Arkansas.[1]^,[2] Daisy was eleventh of thirteen children with two younger brothers.[3] Hendrix, my great-grandfather, was four years older than Daisy.[4]

John, a stone mason with his fine handwork still apparent in the partly standing log cabin on their old home place, died of a ruptured appendix when Daisy was just six years old.[5]^,[6] Some family members call him John Alfonso though the existing records only show his middle initial as an A.[7]  Mary Jane stayed in Stone County raising the children until she moved to Oklahoma sometime before 1920.[8]

After reading my blog about a visit to Stone County, Arkansas, a Vickers cousin shared several photographs, which inspired this article.[9] The photographs in this blog can also be found in Pauline Mitchell Pierce Via’s book on pages 249 and 251.[10] Pauline still has some of her books available. If you are interested in purchasing her hardback book with almost 600 pages, you can contact Pauline at the addresses below.[11]

Pauline’s book and the census records tell us a lot about Daisy, but if you have any family stories or more records to add to her story or corrections to this story, let me know. I copyright my blog postings, but family members may use this information and pictures for their own personal use.

Stone County was created April 21, 1873, from parts of Izard, Independence, Searcy and Van Buren counties and was named for the rock formations of the Ozark Mountains.[12] The county seat is Mountain View.[13] Virtually unoccupied by white settlers in the first decades of the nineteenth century, present-day Stone County was an Indian reservation until 1828.[14] Stone County’s initial white settlements began soon after that in the early 1830s.[15] The county was devastated during the Civil War, not from battles, but from lawless bushwhackers and guerillas who terrorized the border lands of Arkansas and Missouri with their plundering, theft, destruction of property and even murder.[16]After the Civil War, development, especially along the White River, increased.[17] Agriculture was important in the area, though you can imagine with the name of Stone County, farming was not a lucrative occupation, but with each family producing enough for their own needs.[18]  The economic base of today’s Stone County is poultry, livestock, wood products, and light manufacturing along with popular tourist destinations such as the Ozark National Forest, Blanchard Spring Caverns and the Ozark Folk Center.[19]

Additional information on the census indicates Mary J. McIntire was renting land, with her occupation listed as farmer.[21] The census stated Mary J. had been married twenty two years, was the mother of thirteen children with twelve of the children still living.[22]

The occupation of the twins, Cleveland and Hendrix, was farm laborer.[23] Mary J., Julia and Madona could read and write, but the census taker indicated none of the other children could. [24]  All spoke English.[25] It appears none of the children had attended school in the past year.[26] From nearby census pages, about one third to one half of the school age children had attended two or three months of school.[27]

The census records also indicate all the children were born in Arkansas, as was Mary J. McIntire.[28] Her parents and the father of the children were born in Tennessee.[29]

The twins, Cleveland (nickname – Cleve) and Hendrix (nickname – Hen), were listed in the index with Cleve as age 15 and Hen as age 19.[30] On the digital image of the census, the age of both boys was listed as 15, with that crossed out and re-entered as 14.[31] Then, on the index, Cleve was transcribed as 15 and Hen as 19.[32] The twins were born on 29 Sept 1884. [33] So Cleve and Hen were 15 and would turn 16 in Sept. Also, the Madona listed in the index is actually Mandana, always called Dane. The transcription errors in this index is the reason genealogists always search for the original record and do not trust a transcription/index.

At the time of the 1900 census, Clifton R. McIntire, just older than Daisy, was not counted with the family but was listed as a boarder with another Blue Mountain Township resident James Simpson, age 74, and his wife Rachel Simpson.[34] Clifton was 13. 

When she was fifteen, Daisy married William Alfonso Vickers, a widower seventeen years older.[35] A copy of their marriage record is in the Pierce Via book, along with Pauline’s comments about the marriage license stating Daisy was 17, when she was really only 15.[36]In later years, Daisy said she married at age 15, which perfectly matches the calculation using her birth date and marriage date.[37] William had one daughter Nettie, eight years old.[38]^{, [39]} William’s first wife was Lucy Belle McIntire, a granddaughter of John McIntire and Lydia McCollum, who were great grandparents to Daisy, so the two wives of William Alfonso Vickers were first cousins, once removed.[40] In this culture, it seems a widower with children naturally looked to his wife’s family for a second wife, perhaps to make sure the children are well treated. Daisy went on to raise Nettie and have nine handsome sons of her own, eight who lived to adulthood.[41]

U.S. censuses are collected every 10 years and can tell us a lot of information. While many of the same basic facts are gathered at each census, some different facts are also collected. Here’s what we can tell about the Vickers family from 1910-1940 census records.

In the 1910 census, the Vickers family was renting land just three dwellings from Mary J. McIntire, who now owns her land.[43] Evidently, the township name was changed from Blue Mountain to Cove with Mary Jane McIntire still in the same place since the 1900 census. From the 1910 census, Daisy had two children who are both still living. M. J. Gracie, mother of William Vickers and enumerated with the William Vickers family, indicates she had six children with only one still living.[44] Other Ancestry.com records show William’s mother was Mary Jane Berryhill Vickers Gracy(ie), born about 1854 in Tennessee and died in 1910 sometime after the census was taken that year.[45] Most of these Ancestry.com records show William Vickers’ father was Robert Lafayette Vickers born about 1852, with no death information. [46]

By 1920, the Vickers family is still renting in the Cove area, with the Cleveland McIntire family listed three families down on the same census page.[48] Daisy and Cleve’s mother, Mary Jane McIntire has moved to Cleveland, Oklahoma to live with son, Jasper.[49] Nettie Vickers had left the family home and married Silas Albright.[50] Find-A-Grave.com records show Nettie was born in 1895 and died in 1973.[51] Also, Ancestry.com family trees show Odis Vickers was born in 1913, two years after Richard.[52] Find-a-Grave shows a tombstone picture for Odis, indicating he was born on March 1, 1913 and died in Nov 1914, so Odis wouldn’t appear in any census records.[53] I don’t find any notes on the cause of death. From the 1920, 1930 and 1940 censuses, the state the family members was born in, along with the state their parents was born in, is consistent with the 1910 census.  

 1930 finds these two Vickers households each renting and enumerated next to each other in the community of Wallace. Elihue’s census record carries a note in the margin – “Did not operate farm last year.”[56]A new question for the 1930 census is the age of the person at marriage – W. A. Vickers listed his age at what was probably his first marriage as 22, Daisy listed her age at marriage as 20, Elihue is listed 20 and Clara is listed as 16.[57]^,[58][Since we know from previous analysis Daisy married at 15, perhaps she was trying to set an example for her sons to wait a bit before marriage.] A new question for the 1930 census asked if the household had a radio set. Neither Vickers’ household had one at the time of the census.

Ancestry.com family trees indicate William Alfonzo Vickers died in Poinsett County, AR. on 13 Mar 1938.[59] I did not  find his records in the Arkansas Death Indexes, nor any records the family lived in Poinsett County, with my brief search. William and Daisy have a grave marker together at York Cemetery, Marcella, Stone County, AR, with the tombstone indicating both their birth and death dates.[60]

The family might have moved to Poinsett County in eastern Arkansas before William’s death or he might have been working alone there. We do know that Daisy was the widowed head of household renting in nearby Mississippi County, AR for the 1940 census, which stated the family had lived in Mississippi County on 01 April  1935.[61]

Poinsett was one of the Arkansas counties devastated by the Civil War, right on the border of Missouri, Arkansas and Tennessee.[62] The county didn’t start a financial recovery until the railroads came in the 1880s, giving farmers a way to ship their cotton, farm animals and timber to new markets.[63]Many of the small railroad towns boomed, but, still, the county was mostly poor sharecroppers and tenant farmers.[64] Poinsett County was the hardest hit county by the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927, flooding thousands of fields and destroying many homes throughout the county.[65] Probably not really pertinent to this family analysis, but, never-the-less interesting, the Southern Tenant Farmers Union was founded in the area in the years after the flood.[66] The organization was an interracial union to improve the pay and working conditions of poor sharecroppers.[67]

Mississippi County, Arkansas was named for the Mississippi River which makes up the eastern border of the county.[68] This county has the unusual arrangement of two county seats – one in Blytheville in the north and one in Osceola in the south.[69]This county also has the unfortunate distinction of being part of the First Congressional District in Arkansas which is the poorest Congressional District in the United States.[70] Mississippi County was known for its rich delta farmland with easy transportation access to the Mississippi River and is known these days as a great area of duck hunting and fishing for northwest Arkansas and southeast Missouri ‘Bootheel’ residents.[71]  

The 1940 census asked where the family was living in 1935. The Daisy Vickers family was living in Rural, Mississippi Co., AR on 01 Apr 1935.[74] The Wymon Vickers family was living in Rural, Stone Co., AR on 01 Apr 1935.[75] Wymon Vickers is the name of the second son of Daisy and William Vickers, as indicated in earlier census records and Pauline Via’s book. With the Wymon Vickers family living two houses from Daisy Vickers in the 1940 census, a comparison of the age of this Wymon Vickers in previous censuses and that he was living previously in Stone County near other relatives, this Wymon Vickers was very likely the son of Daisy Vickers and had, perhaps, moved close to his mother and youngest brothers to help out after the death of his father.

For last remarks on Daisy, Pauline Via writes a beautiful summary of her life. In describing Daisy’s appearance and her life, Pauline could be describing many of our McIntire relatives.

“Daisy was a tall woman, 5’ 9 1/2” and, in later years, had the most beautiful snow white hair. She was a widow for almost 28 years, but made a home for her young sons until they married and moved away from her house. She lived with her youngest son Ralph, for several years after his marriage, then alone in a small house in the back yard of her son Forrest in Lepanto, Arkansas. She spent her last years at the home of her son Richard, suffering from complications of high blood pressure, heart problems and diabetes.

Her fruit salad and jam cake were a tradition for Christmas dinner. Today, when you visit various households of granddaughters, you may find these (especially the fruit salad) as part of the Christmas dinner. As a testimony of her character, her daughters-in-law speak of her with respect and affection.”[76]

If anyone has more to add to Daisy’s story or the recipes for that jam cake or fruit salad, please let me know.

____________

[1] 1900 U.S. Census, Stone County, Arkansas, population schedule, Blue Mountain Township, enumeration district (ED) 129, p. 142A (stamped), sheet 8, dwelling 126, family 126, Mary J. McIntire; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 17 January 2014); citing NARA microfilm publication T623,  roll 77.

[2] Pauline Mitchell Pierce [Via], The McIntires and the Elliotts of Bickle’s Cove, Stone County, Arkansas and the Descendants of John McIntire of Maury County, Tennessee, (Palestine, Texas: Pauline Mitchell Pierce [Via], 17557 Hwy 14, Mountain View, AR 72560, 1993), p 84.

Written for 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks challenge at No Story Too Small.

Copyright © 2014 Andrea Musgrove Perisho