Go Now......Out Of Iraq

Kelly Casilio, dressed as a U.S. soldier, stands silently at an anti-Iraq war protest in Boston, Massachusetts January 11, 2007. The numbers on Casilio's face represent the number of U.S. soldiers killed in the war.

The War in Iraq continues. Seven more of our troops killed today. Yes.........there was a huge demonstration in Washington today. This demonstration was unique, with Hollywood actors, and with Jane Fonda attending. She said it was her first demonstration against a War in 35 years.

At the rally, 12-year-old Moriah Arnold stood on her toes to reach the microphone and tell the crowd: "Now we know our leaders either lied to us or hid the truth. Because of our actions, the rest of the world sees us as a bully and a liar." After Moriah spoke on behalf of those concerned, I really don't think there is much more to be said, in my opinion she said it all.

The State of Kansas is probably one of the most conservative States in the country. Kansas State legislators rallied this week to send a private memo to President Bush, very short and sweet, "Get the Hell Out".

I really like some of the signs that were at todays demonstration.

Bush..................Custer and Mr. Magoo were better deciders than you!
Democracy is the will of the people..............not the will of the president.
Kill one person and it's murder.....Kill thousands and its foriegn policy!
Still lying!!.....Stop lying!!
Yes to God...No to torture!
Words of Mass Deception
Lying is not Leadership............Impeach Bush & Cheney

I keep telling my brother, two more died, then 4 more died, and then 7 more died. No one is keeping track. Will they be remembered? What a waste of young men so talented. They had there whole lives ahead of them. I can tell you the brotherhood of the Marines will remember, "Farewell Marine".

Song of the Week

Mary Gauthier sings some very deep and dark songs. But whether we like it or not, she speaks the truth. One of my favorites is "Mercy Now".

Have a Good Week

Daniel

In the News

Democratic Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton entered the 2008 U.S. presidential race

Yes...........I am ready for a woman President..............are you? A woman can be a better pacifier, be the devils advocate, play cat and mouse, much better than any man. I think Washington needs a good enema, what better way to wake up these yes men politicians than vote in a woman. At Least we will finally have someone who will listen to the American people, with passion and sensitivity. One piece of advice for Hillary, and the same advice I gave to one of my lady manager colleagues. Find the biggest, and meanest man you can to stock your store, and watch your back. Im sure Hillary can be mean when she wants to be, but you always need back up. Besides, it would be entertaining to know that Bill is doing the cooking now! I would also like to see Gena Davis as Vice President. If you have ever watched Gena in any interviews, you will know she is pure CLASS!

U.S. helicopter down in Iraq, all 13 aboard dead

This makes me sick. There was a total of twenty US troops killed today in Iraq. The most recent election was overwhelming in telling the President to get out of Iraq. Republicans voted out of office in almost every state. Do you think this administration got the message...............Heck No!!!.................we are sending another 20,000 troops to Iraq. In 1968, Walter Cronkite anchored the CBS Evening News. Each night there was a body count for that day and a total dead for the duration of the Vietnam War. They dont do this anymore........why?..........because the media doesn't get that information anymore. That information is suppressed now days until our government decides that it is comfortable acknowledging our loses.
There is a National Geographic Special on Sunday Night, "Iraqs Guns for Hire". About mercenary soldiers doing missions in Iraq, that quite frankly, our government can't. Should be interesting.

Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie

They are moving to New Orleans. These people are for real. They obviously hate Hollywood, and are sick of the rederick. I believe they are truly humanitarians. What better place to live than NO. Besides they need to get to know my sister Abby and her husband Frank who live in the French Quarters. They know everyone there, Brad and Angelina will be know different. I miss those fresh oysters on the halve shell, a large Hurricane drink, and the street musicians. I love the "Mile High Pie" also, from the Poncetrain.

Song of the Week

It is snowing cats and dogs here. We will get over 8 inches since this morning. How bout this old song. Brooks Benton, "Rainy night in Georgia".

Oklahoma Land Run, 1892

This is a early photo of settlers waiting for the "Run of 1892" in Clinton, Ok.

Tonight I would like to finish writing about that great journey my Grandfather, Lloyd M. Rice, and my Great Grandfather, Boone C. Rice, made in 1889. Their migration from Polk County, Mo., to the Rice homestead, outside Elk City, Ok., in Roger Mills County, was not an easy one. The migration of families is the most important part of what built America. Our country built from East to West. The Rice(Rhys) family from Wales to England, then to Jamestown in 1656. From there, the family seeds follow lands opened to the West into Kentucky by Daniel Boone, then to Missouri, and Illinois, which became public domain after the Louisiana Purchase. Now, Boone C. Rice compelled to move his family to the last unoccupied, and uninhabited lands left in America. These are my thoughts after reading and researching what Lloyd M. Rice wrote about what happen so many years ago.

Prior to the passage of the Organic Act of 1890, an Indian Commission of three men were appointed to work with the Indians and persuade them to take their lands by allotment. The surplus would then be opened for settlement. The Indian Commission worked with the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes at Fort Sill for several years, and finally the Jerome Agreement was signed. The Tribes were allotted their homesteads, and the remainder of the rest of the area would be available for settlement by others. The lands of the Cheyenne - Arapaho country were to be decided by a "land run", a race for claims in the reservation. This run was held April 19, 1892.

There were some prominent stock men (cattlemen) in the Walnut Grove township, Polk County MO. I believe Boone C. Rice , according to Goodspeeds Biography, made frequent trips to Texas to sell cattle, or mules, selling to the Southern Market, and then returning to Missouri. Then eventually, I believe is why he settled in Roger Mills County, Ok. To homestead a cattle ranch. By 1880, there were no more cattle drives to be found. Moving cattle was now in the hands of the great railroad system. The Railroad had bypassed the town of Orleans, Mo., close to where Boone lived. Eventually Orleans became non-existent. Boone is now forty-five years old, but he needed to move on. Boone brought his cattle with him to Oklahoma in 1889. They lived in tents for almost two years, in the Arbuckle Indian Territory, close to Purcell, Ok., and then participated in the "Oklahoma Run", in 1892. During this time he leased land to grow feed for his cattle. Lloyd M. Rice wrote " In a few minutes he (Boone) came back to the second wagon, pulled by four horses and driven by my twin brother. The wheel horse was saddled and one of us rode it while the other drove. Sometimes one rode a horse and herded the cattle following behind the wagons", "The Land is again a cattle ranch. However, there are no small boys chasing coyotes to their dens in this modern age". To put this in perspective, Lloyd and Leslie were only five or six years old when they made this trip. Here was one twin boy on a horse, and the other twin pulling at the reins of a covered wagon.

Even though the "Run" had been announced in 1889, due to government bureaucracy, the run did not take place till 1892. There were problems getting some of the Indians off the land, and some of the Indians got first choice of properties, which had to be formalized. The land also had to be surveyed, which took a substantial amount of time. Maybe Boone thought it was going to happen quickly, which it didn’t, but at any rate, they lived there in limbo for some time. I have been told by reliable sources, that almost twenty-five thousand settlers lined on the Texas side of the territory, and they ran south to north. The U.S, Calvary was there, and fired the gun to start the "Run", and yes, there were those who jumped the gun, now called "Sooner’s". It would be almost another fifteen years before any roads were built around Roger Mills County. When Boone settled on the land, they made a "dugout" to live in until they built the house.

When, my brother Tim, and my father visited there in the mid-seventies, the old dugout was still visible, the windmill was still standing. It must have taken months getting the lumber to the land to build the home. The lumber was hauled one hundred and fifty miles from the end of the railroad. It is overwhelming for me to think of this land with no roads, no fences, wild prairie grass growing to shoulder length while on horseback. It would be another fifteen years before this land was even to become a state.

From Judy Tracy, Roger Mills County
Prior to our Land run, we were cordoned off in quarter sections (160 acres) and then Cheyenne was made into town lots. The Cheyenne and Arapaho Indians were given first choice of their 160 acres and paid $75, in 1891, because they were here first. Basically the land run began when the Cavalry men (who had been here for a year or more getting things ready) shot their guns in the air all along the lines. The lines were on the north of County "F" (our county prior to the government being formed here who later named the county Roger MIlls in 1893) and on the east it ran north south through Ft. Reno (El Reno of today which is located just west of Oklahoma City) and on the south down to Old Greer County and on the west at the Texas line. Prior to our statehood, November 16, 1907, our Roger Mills County included Beckham County and half of Ellis County of today. Beckham County was not established until November, 1907.

The Great Western Cattle Trail

When driving between Lone Wolf in Kiowa County and Granite in Greer County, on Highway 9, or west out of Sentinel on Highway 55, even the natives of the area has trouble imagining six million Texas Longhorn cattle with hundreds of trail bosses, chuckwagons, and remudas of 40 to 50 horses ambling through and grazing contentedly in the lush, green grass during the period from 1866 until 1885. In addition to the many enormous drives, cattle herds also traveled in fewer numbers until 1892 when homesteaders located and began fencing Oklahoma Territory. Local lore and history tells about the Great Western Trail traversing this area with it's origin at Bandera, Texas, just to the NW of San Antonio, about 450 miles south of the Red River, and it's destination of Dodge City, Kansas, about 45 miles north of Indian Territory. Some historians called the trail the old Doan Trail, because it crossed the Red River at Doan's crossing. Others called it the Old Dodge City Trail, because it ended at Dodge City. Some even confused it with the Chisholm or Chisum Trail, which actually lay further east near El Reno. Oklahoma State Highway Department called it the Old Texas Trail on their map published in 1933.

The Great Western cattle Trail was only a few miles west of Elk City, and the Rice Homestead. After the land had been settled in 1892, there were others who used the old trail. Lloyd M. Rice wrote: Father had a windmill on the place, which furnished an everlasting stream of pure, cold water. So, all the freighters, all the hunters of homes, all the outlaws, all the people who were running from "you guess what" came by our Homestead.....at different times we met Frank and Jesse James, Temple Houston and others who were nameless. They stopped, drank our water, watered their horses and slept in my fathers house, ate his bread and went on their way.

Song of the Week

Who would have thought that my favorite song in the whole wide world would have been from a band from my hometown of Springfield, Mo. The Ozark Mountain Daredevils were very popular during the seventies, with alot of big hits. I even knew some of the bandmembers, afterall, they went to the same high school I did. I never thought they would have written a song for veterans. This song "Standing on the Rock", almost sounds Gospel. Well, I guess it is to me.

Have a Good Week

Daniel

"SHADOWS OVER MY SHOULDER"

My Grandfather was Llloyd McMehen Rice who married my Grandmother Ira Belle Word. The records from LDS, and the Social Security index indicate that Lloyd Rice was born June 14 1886. I believe this to be untrue. The following notes left by my Grandfather, include short stories of the Rice family journey from Polk County, Mo, to the Arbuckle Territory of Oklahoma in 1889. From these writings, himself, and his twin brother Leslie drove the wagon, and mustered the cattle from behind during this journey. He had served in WWI, and when all of his sons had been sent off to War during WWII, he himself enlisted again, lieing about his age. I suspect my Grandfather was born around 1880 or 1882, five years prior to his birth date given to the Social Security Administration.
I remember my Mamaw and Pappy as very kind and gentle people. Mamaw would always have a candy dish for the kids. You guessed it!! Filled to the rim with lemon drops. I remember when I was twelve or fourteen years old, spending some time with Pappy. We went fishing everyday. He drove that old red Ford Galaxie to Lake Hefner in Oklahoma City. He would wear beige pants and a red and white plaid shirt, and he wore this big straw hat. We would pack a lunch, and he would pack a beer, or two. We would stop and get minnows, but he preferred the old "Catfish Charlie" stink bait most of the time. We never caught a fish. But we enjoyed the sun and wind hitting our face. He would tell fish stories about the big ones that got away, and give a hand gesture to his forearm to show the length of the fish. This was a lot of work for a man in his seventies. I know he enjoyed every minute of his time out fishing. I remember Mamaw had this coffee table with a glass top, and kept pictures of all us kids there, it was always full of new pictures. Pappy had this old standing ash tray with the Masonic Emblem on it, and of course there was always a pack of Pall Mall cigarettes there too. I suppose he smoked till the day he died.
These words to follow written by my Grandfather and transcribed later by my Uncle Jack, will always be embedded in my mind. I have read it many times over the years, and each time, the stories, giving me a different visualization of the good times and hard times, the old and the new. A different story is found each time I read these musings. Daniel Rice


These words were written in longhand, with pencil, by my father....during the days after his 80th year. He gave them to me in a small black memo book and ask me to type them for him. I am sorry I did not get them finished before he went to see, "The Old Man with the Long White Whiskers" during his 84th year.....God Bless Him!
Lloyd M. Rice Jr.

July of 1979

"SHADOWS OVER MY SHOULDER"
by
Lloyd McMehen Rice Sr.
June 1, 1886 - July 3, 1970
The West was won by a Man on a horse. Here he is. I hope you like him. He is on a horse, a big black horse. A horse named Tom. Tom is tall, leggy and the kind of black that doesn't fade with the seasons.
The Man is also tall. More than six feet, He wears "Duckins" and a faded shirt covered by a black vest. He wears a slouchy white hat. Booted feet are in stirrups. Under that slouchy, dirty hat is a bearded face and VERY blue eyes.
As he rides Tom across a green valley, he stops at the top of a red hill. He can see for miles down the valley and stands in the stirrups and looks in all directions. He must have liked what he saw, as he said to himself. "Yes, this will do. I will go for my family and my cows."
He often talked to himself. He looked back over his shoulder and promised these red hills that he would be back.
This is the way it was. I was there. The Man was my father.
Somewhere among these scribblings you will learn how we stopped and stayed among those red hills. Here I spent my boyhood, my youth and my young manhood.
It was a raw and untamed country in those days, but to me and mine it was and still is the most wonderful country in the whole wide world! Yes, the West was won by a Man on a horse .... followed by a Man with a plow, a team of mules and a roll of barbed wire¼..and that ended the cattle range.
In spite of what you may be thinking, the Man we saw on the big black horse did not wear a "six-gun" on his hip. He rode with a 44 carbine Winchester in a gun boot on the side of his saddle.

"What did Delilah do with her shears after she gave Samson his haircut?"

The house on the Old Homestead sat a short distance off the old "Cheyenne Trail" over which all the freight for all the country North and West of there was "freighted". There were no fences, no bridges and the trail followed the "divides" between the creeks, canyons and rivers. It started always at the end of the railroad and went North and West, right by our Homestead.
Father had a windmill on the place, which furnished an everlasting stream of pure, cold water. So, all the freighters, all the hunters of homes, all the outlaws, all the people who were running from "you guess what" came by our Homestead¼...at different times we met Frank and Jesse James, Temple Houston and others who were nameless. They stopped, drank our water, watered their horses and slept in my fathers house, ate his bread and went on their way.
Let me sit on the banks of a lake with a fishing rod in my hand. Let the wind blow around me and let the sun shine in my face.
Have you ever watched a gull or a tern fall straight down out of the sky like a rock falling and come up from the water with a fish in his claw?

Genesis: ll.1 " And the whole earth was of one language and of one speech."
While you are running this mad rat-race that we call life, you had better slow down once in a while and look behind. The Old Man with the Long White Whiskers and the Scythe may be gaining on you!

May the Good Lord hold you in the hollow of his hand, make your trail all down hill may the sun shine in your face and the wind stay at your back.
Our Lord rode into Jerusalem on the back of a borrowed Burro...was crucified, died and was buried in a borrowed grave.

FOUR SCORE YEARS
Someone has said that Man's life span is "three score years and ten". Today I reached four score. During these four score years I have done and seen many different things. I have lived in a dugout with dirt floors, walls and roof. I have lived in a tent. I have lived out-of-doors with only the ground at my back and the sky for a roof. I have lived in rat-holes .... sometimes called "apartments". .... So what, "Four score years"!!!???
I have fed cattle in blinding snow and sleet storms! Walked a hundred miles, leading a saddled horse to keep from freezing to death So what, "Four score years"!!!???
I have ridden many miles through dust storms, looking for a recognizable Landmarking; many miles along drift fences looking for shelter, and finally found it...So what, "Four score years"!!!???
I have ridden all day looking for water for me and my horse ....finally finding a spring...poisoned. So what "Four score years"!!!???
I have been thrown off a freight train in the dead of night and walked till daylight and then asked for breakfast at a back door...So what, "Four score years"!!!???
I have attempted to ride broncos that no one else would try...and landed on my face in the dirt. I have fished and hunted through all these years and have loved every day of it. I have worked for others, and have owned and operated my own business. I have worked for my government. I have proudly worn the uniform of my country, together with my three grown sons and the husbands of my two daughters, and we all made it back home again. Some were a little the worse for wear, but we all made it….So what, "Four Score years"!!!???
Today I live in a modern house with the same woman I started with more than sixty-two years ago, and I still have my three sons and two daughters, with fifteen grandchildren and one great grandson. Today I mow my own lawn, help care for the flowers, raise a small garden and go fishing every day the sun shines and there is beer in the ice-box!! So what,
"Four Score years"!!!???

I wonder what became of the little boy who gave our Savior the loaves and fishes which he Used to feed the MULTITUDE????
May the Lord bless you and everyone in your house.

Since three-fourths of the Earth's surface is water, and only one-fourth is land...it is clear to me that the Good Lord intended that man should spend three times as much time fishing as he does mowing the lawn.

Our Arrival in a New World
The sun was still a couple of hours high on a warm winter day, father, who was driving the lead covered wagon, stopped his team. He climbed down over the front wheels of the wagon, walked out a few yards onto a small hill and looked out over the rolling prairie. He pointed to a cottonwood tree about fifty yards away to the North. He came back to the wagon and helped my mother to the ground and walked her to the tree. In a few minutes he came back to the second wagon, pulled by four horses and driven by my twin brother. The wheel horse was saddled and one of us rode it while the other drove. Sometimes one rode a horse and herded the cattle following behind the wagons. He told us to follow him and we drove past the tree to a bit of higher ground and camped. There was a spring near the tree. We unhitched the horses, hobbled them and other loose stock, and put up the tent. My mother spread the benches in the tent and we soon had a good fire going, using wood brought from the previous night's camp. We checked the animals after a good supper, prepared over the campfire and then we all, my youngest brother inside the tent with Mother and Dad, the rest of us outside, went to sleep. Little did we know that we would spend the next year and a half in this camp in Roger Mills County, Oklahoma.
My father put one-by-twelve boards around the tent on the ground and piled dirt against them to keep the wind and water outside. He also put a 'brush arbor' over the front entrance for some shade. We placed a small enclosure inside a single barbed-wire fence to hold the animals. Our father rented forty acres from a homesteader who lived a bit East of us and planted it in feed for the horses and cattle.
And so, with a few improvements, such as cleaning out the spring under the cottonwood tree and making an enclosure to keep some chickens (which my Mother got from a settler), we "settled in" our new home.
Thus, our tall, blue-eyed father and our short, black-eyed mother established a home, as many other settlers were doing in that year of 1892. It was a long way from Missouri.

THE HOMESTEAD
We children did not know, nor did we care, that our father would go a few miles West of the 'tree camp' and homestead one hundred and sixty acres...and that we would build a real home (after a year and a half in the camp) in the edge of the "Red Hill" country of Roger Mills. On this claim, we three boys spent the remainder of our boyhood and most of our youth.
After this claim was completed and we were grown (almost), I met a neighbor girl, married her and, after three children born on this original homestead, we left...but that is another story.

More, SHADOWS OVER MY SHOULDER, continued .....

We three boys, my twin brother and myself and the 'little one', grew to manhood on the old homestead. Then they drifted away. .oh, they returned for visits often, but they never lived there again.
It seems like we lived on the old ranch for a lot of years (we still own it) and I try and go back at least once each year and look around. It seems that the red hills get higher and the canyons get deeper every time
I see it. But, I have never seen a more beautiful country than this in the spring, with the hills covered with prairie flowers, the hills always seem to me to be looking for someone...could it be three small boys chasing coyotes on painted ponies? Between the hills are the green valleys where the best grass in the world grows. I remember when it grew as high as the shoulder of a boy on a pony. As I stop my car on a hill overlooking the site of the old ranch house, the hills and the valleys resemble a varicolored saddle-blanket spread out over the world. As I sit in this modern machine that covers more ground in a day than the old wagons did in months, I get a wave of homesickness. I look, but I cannot see, three small boys who lived, worked, rode and played among these same age-old hills so long ago. Here they grew to manhood: the freckled twin and the youngest went out into the world from here. They lived their lives and are both buried far from the red hills they both loved so much. My tall, blue-eyed father and my short black-eyed mother are buried in the old country graveyard just a few miles from the old ranch...I stop and say hello to them each time I go back. Most of the old neighbors (pioneers), who made the land what it has become, are buried with them. The land is again a cattle ranch. However, there are no small boys chasing coyotes to their dens in this modern age.

YEAH !!!!
News reports say Dallas "resents" Ruby. Resenting seems to be the biggest thing Dallas does. First, it was Vice President Lyndon Johnson and his wife. THEY were "resented" so much that the people pushed and shoved them, knocked their hats off and trampled on them. They "resented" Adlai Stevenson, one of the greatest workers for world peace we ever had, Dallas "resented" him so much that they manhandled him, slapped his face and spat in his face. Then one of the Dallas "resenters" bought a rifle, some ammo and a sandwich, sat down in an easy chair and, as the President of the United States drove by, he shot him dead. Now they "resent" Ruby, one of the head "resenters".' Resenting is the biggest thing Dallas does...Big D...Big R!

A SMALL SHADOW
Here is what I saw six small bottles of catsup do:
On the first trip we made to the new country, my twin brother and I drove four horses hitched to a covered wagon. One of us rode the 'left wheel horse' and drove the team of lead horses. Our father drove a two-team hitch pulling a covered wagon ahead of us. On this day, Father became uncertain of the trail, (as it could not be called a road). We finally met a tribe of Indians, Cheyenne’s, moving everything they owned on "wicki-wakis" behind their ponies. Father attempted to talk with them about the "road". They refused to talk. We finally came to where the trail divided, one going Northwest and the other due West. We finally came to a Indian Trading Post, our fellow travelers still not talking. At that time it was known as "Seger's Post". Today it is the site of the town of Colony, Oklahoma. We stopped at the store and my father bought six bottles of catsup. Stepping to the side of the trail, he held out a bottle of bright red mixture. The first Indian to pass attempted to grab the bottle. My father finally gave it to him. .and, after the brave had drunk the catsup, held up a second bottle, and gave him the catsup only after talking for awhile. After the sixth bottle had been disposed of, my father had talked to a number of Indians and decided he had learned the correct trail to where we were going. Afterwards, he remembered he might have purchased the entire reservation for one more bottle of catsup!!!
We lived for several years near the reservation and they called my father "Man with Whiskers Good Brother". We three boys rode with the young Indians all over the countryside.

Do you believe in dreams?
During World War I, when my twin brother was in France and stationed at a base hospital near Verdun, site of one of the longest and bitterest campaigns of that terrible war, where "They did not pass". While he was there (I did not know where he was) I had the same dream night after night. I could see my brother walking along a bluff above a stream of deep, black water, The trail was slippery and the side of the bluff was covered with large stones and strung with barbed wire. At the crest of this bluff, fighting for his footing, I seemed to see my brother (I was in a tree). As I reached for him I never reached him...he never fell, but a hundred times I thought he would...this was a recurring dream, every night for months. Finally, I received a long delayed letter from my brother. He had moved on. After returning home in the Fall of 1918, he spent some time with me. I described my dream. He said that he knew exactly where it was (the bluff), just below the base hospital...hospital personnel were forbidden to go there, but he and some others went, to get away from the war for a time. They slipped down and looked around. He was told that 1,000 men had died attempting to climb that bluff!! After the first visit, he said they never went back again.
Do you believe in dreams? Neither do I!!!

When my work is ended and I am called by the Lord...Grand Architect of the Universe (Masonic), to cross that river to "that home of many mansions not made by human hands". HE will find me sitting in peace, "under my own vine and fig tree"

HERE WAS A HOME
Last week I stood on the site of the old ranch house where I grew up and spent the last part of my boyhood, my young manhood, married and started my own family.
There is nothing there now, just some large stones are all that is left of the foundation of the original "shack"; the lumber of which it was built was hauled one hundred and fifty miles from the end of the railroad. As I sat there, on one of the stones, my thoughts went back a lot of years. Where I sat people had been born and had died...long gone, they had laughed, talked and suffered. Here, "once upon a time", my father, mother and three half-grown boys had stopped for a place to call "Home".
Here we had "pitched camp" and my father and mother lived out their lives. Two of those half-grown boys are now gone. I, alone, am left to sit on a stone and "remember". As often as I can, I visit this "site of what was once a home". On my way out, I stop at the "grass-grown" and wind swept hill where, with many other pioneers, my father and my mother are buried. You would, perhaps, say it was a wild and lonely place, but to me, it is BEAUTIFUL. It is covered with the original stone and grass...green in summer, brown in winter…wild it is....like it was in the beginning. My people and all those other pioneers would have it no other way.

Another thing: What became of the little burro that Mary rode from Nazareth to Bethlehem? Or the Swine that "dined on husks with the Prodigal Son? Or the "little" man that climbed a sycamore tree to see his Lord? Or the Roman Soldier that lost his ear in a meeting with Peter?

Who stole the rock I sat on while I ate a "bowl of beans"? Who sawed off the limb the Wise Old Owl sat on for so many years?

Song of the Week

This is an old tune, somewhat melancholy, and reminds of those fishing days with my Fathers. America "Old man Took".


Have a Good Week
Daniel

Bringing in 2007

Saddam is dead. Dead before 2007. The only other person I know who has been rushed to their death, so fast, was Timothy McViegh. Now investigators are wishing McViegh was alive to answer questions about his ties to the extreme terrorist in the Phillipines. Maybe Saddam did deserve to die, but maybe he could have sat on death row for twenty years like our prisoners in America. At least he could have written his memoirs, and answered, some unanswered questions.



James brown is dead. Over the years he has done "I Feel Good", "Sex Machine", "Get Up Offa That Thing", "Papas got a brand new Bag", " Get On Up". I like that one and that one, ahhhh shucks I like them all. I remember in the 70's, Saturday Night Live did a skit called "The James Brown Home Security
System".......ooooohwwwwwwoeeeeee......get out of here!......its was hilarious!...............I will miss James brown..........Song of the Week.......... one of my favorites "It's a mans World", by James Brown.


Gerald Ford is dead. He was appointed Vice President by Richard Nixon, when then, Vice President Spiro Agnew resigned. Then was appointed President when Richard Nixon resigned as President after the Watergate scandal. I always thought that our presidents were elected officials. Its not surprising that I have been lied to again. But then the best part of this journey is that Gerald Ford aquitted Richard Nixon for his crimes. Quite frankly, the American people should have demanded an elected president, after an administration of scoundrels. I guess we were too busy dancing Disco, and oh yes, we wore bell bottoms back then. Without even thinking conspiracy, I see Ford was appointed the scapegoat for Nixon. Don't get me started on the "Watergate Plumbers", that is a whole other story. J. Edgar Hoover would have been ecstatic to know that such powerful men had fallen. If you think I feel bitter over watergate, Your Right! I was with a Marine Detachment that watched over Richard Nixon. He was a very nice man, quiet to us Marines, but very respectful. In my heart, I never blamed Nixon for the scandal, I blamed the Party who corrupted him.

Happy New Year
Daniel

Merry Christmas 2006

Included in my story tonight is the biography of John Donne, and his famous Christmas Poem "Nativity". Equally, his Poem "Crucifying" is just as powerful, and should sit beside his "Nativity" Poem. This, of course, the story of life and death of young Jesus.
John Donne (1572-1631) was the most outstanding of the English Metaphysical Poets and a churchman famous for his spellbinding sermons.
Donne was born in London to a prominent Roman Catholic family but converted to Anglicanism during the 1590s. At the age of 11 he entered the University of Oxford, where he studied for three years. According to some accounts, he spent the next three years at the University of Cambridge but took no degree at either university. He began the study of law at Lincoln's Inn, London, in 1592, and he seemed destined for a legal or diplomatic career. Donne was appointed private secretary to Sir Thomas Egerton, Keeper of the Great Seal, in 1598. His secret marriage in 1601 to Egerton's niece, Anne More, resulted in his dismissal from this position and in a brief imprisonment. During the next few years Donne made a meager living as a lawyer.
Donne's principal literary accomplishments during this period were Divine Poems (1607) and the prose work Biathanatos (c. 1608, posthumously published 1644), a half-serious extenuation of suicides, in which he argued that suicide is not intrinsically sinful. Donne became a priest of the Anglican Church in 1615 and was appointed royal chaplain later that year. In 1621 he was named dean of St. Paul's Cathedral. He attained eminence as a preacher, delivering sermons that are regarded as the most brilliant and eloquent of his time.

NATIVITY.
Immensity, cloister'd in thy dear womb,
Now leaves His well-beloved imprisonment.
There he hath made himself to his intent
Weak enough, now into our world to come.
But O ! for thee, for Him, hath th' inn no room ?
Yet lay Him in this stall, and from th' orient,
Stars, and wise men will travel to prevent
The effects of Herod's jealous general doom.
See'st thou, my soul, with thy faith's eye, how He
Which fills all place, yet none holds Him, doth lie ?
Was not His pity towards thee wondrous high,
That would have need to be pitied by thee ?
Kiss Him, and with Him into Egypt go,
With His kind mother, who partakes thy woe.

CRUCIFYING.
By miracles exceeding power of man,
He faith in some, envy in some begat,
For, what weak spirits admire, ambitious hate :
In both affections many to Him ran.
But O ! the worst are most, they will and can,
Alas ! and do, unto th' Immaculate,
Whose creature Fate is, now prescribe a fate,
Measuring self-life's infinity to span,
Nay to an inch. Lo ! where condemned He
Bears His own cross, with pain, yet by and by
When it bears him, He must bear more and die.
Now Thou art lifted up, draw me to Thee,
And at Thy death giving such liberal dole,
Moist with one drop of Thy blood my dry soul.

Song of the Week
When it came to Christmas music, I think Nat king Cole over the years had the best. One of my favorites is "O Holy Night". When you listen to this song, it will give you goosebumps. What a voice, so powerful, and inspirational.

Merry Christmas Everybody

Violet Susan Roberts....My 2nd Great Grandmother

John Price Gaddy and Violet Susan Roberts


My 2nd Great Grandmother was Violet Susan Roberts who married John Price Gaddy. Their daughter was Nancy Caroline Gaddy who married Albert Pike Word. Violet Susan Roberts was my Grandmother's (Mamaw's), Grandmother. The following is a letter that has been transcribed written by Florence Myrtle Gaddy, who descends from John Henry Gaddy. This letter is a very visual insight on Violet Susan Roberts in her later years, written by her Grandaughter Florence.


I, Florence Myrtle Cook Wilson, born September 2, 1897, am the last living one of the family of John Henry Gaddy and Susan Alice Cook. I shall try to relate a few things that happened while I was growing up on our 40 acre Farm which was 3/4 of a mile north of Newport, Barton County, Missouri.

My maternal grandmother, Susan Violet Roberts Gaddy, lived with us all the time I can remember while growing up. She was very stern about discipline. I remember one time my mother was gone mid-wifering and my grandma was left in charge. At noon time I mixed too much cornbread and molasses on my plate and could not eat it. Grandma put it up on the cupboard and said I had to eat every bit of it before I could have anything else to eat. I wasn't stubborn, I just couldn't eat it. So I got nothing to eat for my supper. The next morning Mama was home and she said I didn't have to eat it. To this day I can't eat anything sweet on cornbread.

Her husband, my grandfather, John Price Gaddy, who was born in Lexington, Kentucky on August 24, 1827, died at an early age from cancer long before I was born. He is buried in Round Prarie Cemetery but has no marker so we can't find the grave.

Grandma told us a little about her growing up. Her family lived on a cotton farm in North Carolina and had two black slaves, a man and woman who were married to each other. They were called Aunt and uncle. They ate at the table with the family and shared in the profits of the farm.

My grandmother was 24 when she married and had a big hope chest filled with handmade linens and hand-pieced quilts. Marrying so late she had time to make so much. Girls were considered old maids at that age.

My grandma was a Christian and embarrassed my mother in church by shouting when she felt the spirit. A Shouting Methodist. After she got too old to go to church she would have her own service every Sunday afternoon. She would set her chair in the middle of the living room with her Bible and hymn book, then read some scriptures and sing some hymns in her old cracked voice. Mother would not let us kids bother her at all. If we had company, we had to keep them quiet too.

She raised sweet potato plants in what she called a hot-bed and every year she sold them to the neighbors in early spring. She covered them every night with old quilts and sacks, then in the morning she would take them off so the sun could get to them. One morning she went to lift the covers off and underneath was a copperhead snake all curled up ready to strike. She jumped back and it missed her but how she yelled. By the time my dad got there the snake had gotten away, never to be seen again.

With the money she got from selling the sweet potato plants she bought a pair of black laced old lady's shoes and calico for two dresses which she sewed by hand. We had a Singer sewing machine but she would not use it. She made the dresses the same, without a pattern, a tight fitting bodice with long sleeves and a gathered shirt which fell to her shoetops. For years she had ready her clothes to be buried in. They were made of black taffeta in the same style as her calico dresses. She made a bonnet of the same black material. Several times a year she would take them out to air them. It would give us kids the shivers.

Every time she had a sick spell she would say that it was her last and that she was dying. She would take on and groan and carry on. She slept in the same room with us kids and it would scare us, but when she did get her last sickness she was very quiet. They brought her bed down to the living room so Mama wouldn't have to climb the stairs. We all watched her die. She had been in a coma for a while. I was standing at the foot of her bed, my sister, Mary, and her husband, at one side. Grandma suddenly opened her eyes and said, "I want you to join the church." We all three did that after she passed away. She went back into the coma and never spoke again.

The neighbor-men hitched up their wagon and went to Lamar to get the coffin while the women came and bathed her and dresses her in the black taffeta dress and bonnet. Other neighbors dug the grave and the burial service was held that afternoon as it was very hot weather. No one in those days thought of embalming. Years later another grandson and I got together and had a stone put on her grave. It is still there in the Newport, Mo. cemetery which is next to the Baptist Church.


Thinking back now!
Does anybody remember climbing the firetower up on Hwy 64 over in Dallas County, MO. This area was also called Jack Rabbit pass. Anyway, you could see for miles from the top of that tower. There were no towns within 20 miles. When I was younger we would climb the tower and drink beer, and other dispicable things......! We would spit off the top of the tower, and count how many seconds it took to hit the ground.

Song of the Week
My brother and my sisters were raised around the rivers of Missouri. My dad had this obsession with rivers and fishing, of which we all joined in. We had a canoe, I believe to be 18 foot , and aluminum. We would float, on some days 5 to 10 miles, we would fish, and swim. I remember one float we just picked up trash, to clean the river up. My Dad was an environmentalist long before there was such a thing!!
Natalie Merchant must have been raised not far from the River. On her Tigerlily album, she has two songs that are wonderful songs of words and music. "The River" is a classic song, but the one I like most is, "Where I Go"......................... Enjoy!

THOMAS RICE....The Emigrant, Our first known ancestor in America

Lord Rhys of Wales

Thomas Rice was an Englishman by birth, of Welsh extraction. He came to America aboard the Bristol Merchant in 1679/80 assigned as an apprentice to John Stephens.

From The Rice Family 1680 to 1793 compiled by William Gunn Calhoun, 1973, p. 3.
"Stephen Rice, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, had sons Thomas, Hezekial and Ibjan who migrated to Hanover County, Virginia when it was a colony."

From The Thomas Rice Family Home Page: Family Tree Maker. com. Internet site.
In the later part of his life, he owned a small plantation in the lower part of what is now called Hanover County, Virginia. He received this land from King George II by deed, dated April 29, 1693, for 1, 200 acres of land in Hanover County, on both sides of Cub Creek and Dirty Swamp, bounded by the lands of Col. Davis Meriwether, James Goodall and Richard Brooks.
Tragedy overtook Thomas Rice when he let his wife, with nine sons and three daughters, and went to England to receive a considerable estate which had been left to him. He did not return. The sailors reported that he died at sea. It is supposed that he was assassinated. Nothing was ever heard regarding the inherited English estate.

"His family was left destitute in a strange land....." "The family being left without an earthly father, were distressed, but they were, in the good providence of 'God, provided for." Memoirs of the Reverend David Rice, published by Thomas T. Skillman, Lexington, Kentucky. 1824, pg. 420. (B.R. 55K 46, rare Book Division, Congressional Library, Washington, D,C.

From the World Connect Project at Roots Web. Barnes - Rice Family by. Sharon Barnes.
"Thomas Rice, the emigrant 1680 had nine sons and three daughters. His son David married Susannah Searcy and had David, "The Apostle to Kentucky" who married Mary Blair 1762." Based upon this we know that the line of descent is direct. "A Thomas Rice was in Kingston Parish, Gloucester County, VA April 29, 1693. One record states he came to America the latter part of the 17th century. His people were from Wales and bore the Coat-of-arms with the motto: FIDES NON TIMET. In old Welsh the name is spelled "RHYS." a copy of the old Coat-of-arms once belonged to the widow of John Holt Rice D.D., son of Benjamin Rice and Catherine Holt. "The Vestry Book of St. Paul's Parish, Hanover County, VA 1706-1786 on page 213 gives the returns made March 14th 1708-09 from the surveyor of the 39 precincts. "The lands of David Crawford, Thomas Rice, John Sims and Thomas Crenshaw lying adjacent to each other being made one precinct of which the said Thomas Rice and John Sims were appointed overseers." p.4

Again, the William and Mary Quarterly (Vol. 21) gives the record of Hanover County 1734-35 as follows: "12/3/1734-- Thomas Rice (St. Martin's) to David Crenshaw 400 acres both sides north branch of Cubb's Creek in St. Martin's. wife Joyce to Thos. Jackson." (page60)

"The Dictionary of American Biography (Vol. XV, page 537) tells us that Thomas Rice, an Englishman of Welsh extraction emigrated to Virginia at an early date. Upon a return trip to England, possibly to settle an inheritance, he was either lost at sea or murdered. In any event he was never heard from again."

From Genesis in Virginia: Exodus to Illinois compiled by Christine Rogers rice, 1995. pp. 2-3
"Thomas Rice first appeared in county records of New Kent in colonial Virginia in 1686, and by the start of the 18th Century he can be found in land records of both Hanover and Gloucester Counties of that state. He is thought to have come from Shirementon Bristol in the British Isles and to be of the Welsh family known as Thys, descendants of chieftain kings of the 7th and 8th centuries.
"Tradition says that Thomas Rice and a brother, Hezekiah, fled to Virginia about 1685 as a result of the rebellion against King James. One story that concerns Thomas is that earlier in England an old man named Rice died with only a daughter to survive him. He left his estate to her providing that she promised never to change her name. Later upon marriage, her spouse took the name Rice. It was this mother's property that Thomas Rice, then of Virginia, returned to claim upon his mother's death.
"Thomas was never heard from again and several very early documents attest to Thomas' disappearance if not the rest of the story. His brother Hezekiah was said to have been murdered when returning from Jamestown, Virginia, where he had gone to sell his tobacco crop. Each man left several children and was an ancestor of many residents of the South. "

"The Sarver Collection of genealogical material in the State Archives of Tennessee contains a document which states that Thomas Rice was a physician, but his famous grandson, David Rice, does not mention that Thomas was of that profession. Thomas' wife was named March, some say her maiden name was Hewes. Her given name is sometimes written Marie or Mary, varied interpretations of ancient manuscripts. The family has carried down Marcy through family nomenclature which seems to indicate that it is correct. Baptismal records dating from 1685 to 1702 can be found fro some of Thomas Rice's children. These parish records are from St. Peter's of New Kent." p.4

The Virginia rent rolls of 1704 list a Thomas Rice in Parish of St. Peters and St. Paul.

"The parish records of Hanover County mention Thomas Rice as late as 1711/12 as a processioner. In 1716 the bounds of his land were placed in the hands of an overseer, indicating some problem, likely his death."
"David Rice in his memoirs stated that the family of Thomas Rice was left in poor circumstances and part of the family, including his father, the elder David, moved 40 miles upcountry in Hanover to a smaller plantation on a branch of Cub Creek. David, Thomas, and Edward Rice all were known to live in this general vicinity. Old Thomas' widow Marcy last called "widow Rice" and in 1722 when a child was indentured to her. Recounting the struggles of the Rice family, preacher Rice characterized David Rice, his father, as a poor farmer, with no slaves, who thought they were more trouble than worth. His mother, Susannah Searcy, was depicted as a most religious woman who opposed slavery on principle. The memoirs state that 4 or 5 of old Thomas' children became preachers.
[Thomas Rice.ged]

ID: I3048
Name: Thomas Rice
Sex: M
Birth: in New Kent/Hanover County, VA
Death: ABT. 1716, died at sea while returning to UK for inheritance
Note:
Thomas came to America aboard the Bristol Merchant in 1679/80 assigned as
an apprentice to John Stephens. Thomas died at sea when he returned to UK
for his inheritance.
Rice Families of Caswell County, North Carolina -
http://www.ficom.net/members/wolfslayer/rice.html
Thomas and Marcey Rice were Welsh immigrants.
-----------------------
From The Rice Family 1680 to 1793 compiled by William Gunn Calhoun 1973
p. 3
Thomas Rice
"Stephen Rice, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, had sons Thomas, Hezekial and Ibjan who migrated to Hanover County, Virginia when it was a colony." We are inclined to believe that the above Thomas is our first known ancestor. Another source tells us, "Thomas Rice, the emigrant 1680 had nine sons and three daughters. His son David Married Susannah Searcy and had David, 'The Apostle to Kentucky' who married Mary Blair in 1762."
Based upon this we know that the line of descent is direct.
"A Thomas Rice was in Kingston Parish, Gloucester County, VA April 29, 1693. One record states he came to America the latter part of the 17thcentury. His people were from Wales and bore the Coat-of-arms with the motto: FIDES NON TIMET. In old Welsh the name is spelled "RHYS." A copy of the old Coat-of-arms once belonged to the widow of John Holt Rice D.D., son of Benjamin Rice and Catherine Holt.
"The Vestry Book of St. Paul's Parish, Hanover County, VA 1706-1786 on page 213 gives the returns made March 14th, 1708-09 from the surveyor of the 39 precincts. "The lands of David Crawford, Thomas Rice, John Sims and Thomas Crenshaw lying adjacent to each other being made one precinct of which the said Thomas Rice and John Sims were appointed overseers." p. 4
"Again, the William and Mary Quarterly (Vol. 21) gives the record of
Hanover County 1734-35 as follows: "I2-3 1734--Thomas Rice (St. Martin's) to David Crenshaw 400 acres both sides north branch of Cubb's Creek in St. Martin's, wife Joyce to Thos. Jackson." (page 60) "The Dictionary of American Biography (Vol. XV, page 537) tells us that Thomas Rice, an Englishman of Welsh extraction emigrated to Virginia at an early date. Upon a return trip to England, possibly to settle an inheritance, he was either lost at sea or murdered. In any event he was never heard from again."
------------------
From Genesis in Virginia: Exodus to Illinois compiled by Christine Rogers
Rice, 1995.
pp. 2-3
"Thomas Rice first appeared in county records of New Kent in Colonial Virginia in 1686, and by the start of the 18th Century he can be found in land records of both Hanover and Gloucester Counties of that state. He is thought to have come from Shirementon Bristol in the British Isles and to be of the Welsh family known as Rhys, descendants of chieftain kings of the 7th and 8th centuries.
"Tradition says that Thomas Rice and a brother, Hezekiah, fled to
Virginia about 1685 as a result of the rebellion against King James. One story that concerns Thomas is that earlier in England an old man named Rice died with only a daughter to survive him. He left his estate to her providing that she promised never to change her name. Later upon marriage, her spouse took the name Rice. It was this mother's property that Thomas Rice, then of Virginia, returned to claim upon his mother's
death. "Thomas was never heard from again and several very early documents attest to Thomas' disappearance if not the rest of the story. His brother Hezekiah was said to have been murdered when returning from Jamestown, Virginia, where he had gone to sell his tobacco crop. Each man left several children and was an ancestor of many residents of the South. "The Sarver Collection of genealogical material in the State Archives of Tennessee contains a document which states that Thomas Rice was a physician, but his famous grandson, David Rice, does not mention that Thomas was of that profession. Thomas' wife was named Marcy, some say her
maiden name was Hewes. Her given name is sometimes written Marie or Mary, varied interpretations of ancient manuscripts. The family has carried down Marcy through family nomenclature which seems to indicate that it is correct. Baptismal records dating from 1685 to 1702 can be found for some of Thomas Rice's children. These parish records are from St. Peter's of New Kent."p. 4
"The parish records of Hanover County mention Thomas Rice as late as
1711/12 as a processioner. In 1716 the bounds of his land were placed in the hands of an overseer, indicating some problem, likely his death. The vestry book of St. Paul's Parish, which was the parish created from a portion of the old St. Peter's, gave a return on 14 March 1708/9 for its 39 precincts, "The lands of David Crawford, Thomas Rice, John Sims (sic), and Thomas Crenshaw laying adjacent to each other being made one precinct of which the said Thomas Rice and John Sims were appointed overseers." Of
interest in this early record is the mention of neighboring lands of
Symes and Crenshaw, both of whom figure in later Rice marriages.
"David Rice in his memoirs stated that the family of Thomas Rice was left in poor circumstances and part of the family, including his father, the elder David, moved 40 miles upcountry in Hanover to a smaller plantation on a branch of Cub Creek. David, Thomas, and Edward Rice all were known to live in this general vicinity. Old Thomas' widow Marcy last called "widow Rice" and in 1722 when a child was indentured to her. Recounting the struggles of the Rice family, preacher Rice characterized David Rice, his father, as a poor farmer, with no slaves, who thought they were more trouble than worth. His mother, Susannah Searcy, was depicted as a most
religious woman who opposed slavery on principle. The memoirs state that 4 or 5 of old Thomas' children became preachers.
From Genesis in Virginia: Exodus to Illinois compiled by Christine Rogers
Rice, 1995.p. 5
"Another descendant of old Thomas Rice of Hanover was Nathan L. Rice, born in 1808, who also would become the national moderator of the Presbyterians. Born and reared in Mercer County, Kentucky, he went on to serve as pastor of churches in our largest cities including Chicago and New York City. In the last years of his life following the Civil War he became …p. 40
The property of the Rices actually lay in both counties although the
homeplace of Thomas Rice was actually in Caswell on Cabin Creek. Most of his records are entered in that jurisdiction. Thomas Rice arrived in 1775. [Note, I believe this is a descendant of the old Thomas.]
p. 41
Records of the Superior Court of equity for District of Mero, 11 August 1808, transcribed in part by WPA Historical Record Project, Davidson County TN, the case was pursued for over 30 years in Tennessee courts; Caswell Deed Book O, pg. 221, indicates heirs of John Rice names William H. Rice, Williamson Rice and John Windsor filed powers of attorney to sue in behalf of rights to land of John Rice as early as 26 May 1804. Wilson County, TN. Probate Settlements, Book 5, pg 27, property sale by Patterson Miles and Frances Underwood. note due estate from George
Underwood; book 6, p. 6, administrator's settlement, Thomas Miles, Jr., recorded 27 May 1830; pg 234, Thomas Miles, guardian for Joshua, Clary, Betsy, Polly, Patsy and Newton, reports in June 1831, expenses for bonnet and shoes for Betsy, Polly, and Patsy.
p. 45
. . . "A record in Gloucester, Virginia, home of the early Gwynns,
indicates that a Thomas Rice owned 30 plus acres in that county.
[Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, Vol. 32, pg 259.]
p. 46
. . . "The Hanover Rices claim a coat of arms said to be the same as that of the Rice and Thomas families which stem from Sir Rhys ap Thomas, a natural son of George Plantagenet. This line had a peerage granted by Bloody Mary in 1555. Earlier figures of interest in the lines are Sir Griffith Rice, Catherine Howard, who descended from William, the Conqueror, and Vryan Reged, lord, of South Wales. [Coat-of-arms data; for genealogy of Welsh Rice family, see A History of Wales by Sir John Edward Lloyd, condensed in Rice and McGhee Families History.]"
"The childhood home of Sarah Rice Gwynn would have been in Hanover as proved by her brother William H. Rice's pension papers. She, born in the early 1750's, was likely a great-granddaughter of Thomas, the immigrant. Her father, Thomas Rice's own birth would be in the 1720's, to make him
of the generation of the immigrant Thomas Rice's grandsons."
------------------------------
On 1704/05 Rent Roll of Virginia from Wertenbaker, Thomas J., The
Planters of Colonial Virginia, Russell & Russell New York, New York
Rice, Tho Parish of St Peters and St. Paul, 1704
Rice, Thomas Glocester, Kinston Parish
---------------------------
The Welsh Rices of Dynevor Castle - from Shelby Rice Sutton of St.
Georges, Delaware.
This goes back to the 11th century to give the background of those
ancient Welsh princes whose given name was Rhys (Rice). There were times in the pre-Norman period when the Deheubarth kings were
unable to maintain their hold on all parts of the kingdom. Rhys ap
Tewdwr, the last independent Deheubarth king to rule the whole kingdom, was killed in a 1093 skirmish with Normah forces. His death marked the end of an era. By the early years of the 12th Century The three provinces of Deheubarth became part of a territory of lordships ruled by Normans who enjoyed a power derived by conquest from the Welsh kings they displaced.
Rhys ap Tewdr left a son, Gruffudd ap Rhys, brought up in exile in
Ireland, Gruffudd returned to try and regain his father's kingdom. He managed to secure a foothold in Ystrad Tywi from which he launched a powerful Welsh campaign after the 1135 death of Henry I. Gruffudd fell during early stages of the struggle and his three elder sons were in due course eliminated. A fourth son, Rhys ap Gruffudd, survived. By 1171 he had secured control not only of the greater part of Ystrad Tywi, but the whole of Credigion and parts of Dyfed. The same year Henry II, anxious to secure settlement of the Welsh problem, recognized the position Rhys had won for himself. Rhys, from his chief castle at Dinefwr, ruled a
Deheubarth which - though less extensive than the pre-Norman kingdom - was still a major political entity.
The earliest surviving redaction of Welsh law emanates from Deheubarth and is very probably to be attributed to the years of Rhys' supremacy. …
At this gathering - proclaimed the previous year throughout Wales,
England, Scotland and Ireland - Rhys set two contests, one for the poetry and another for "the harpers and the crowders and the pipers and various classes of music" and chairs were awarded to the winner of each contest. It was after the 1189 death of Henry II and Rhys's failure to secure rapport with Richard I that major conflict broke out. Rhys turned first to those lordships on the perimeter of his principality and then to the frontier central sections, but the ageing warrior's vigorous campaigns did not solve these issues. Before Rhys ap Gruffudd's 1197 death, Deheubarth itself was rent by the conflict which arose between his sons.It seems likely Rhys intended his eldest son, Gruffudd, should succeed him as ruler of the entire kingdom, which he had ruled from Dinefwr, but
within a few weeks of the Lord Rhys's death Gruffudd's position was
challenged by three of his brothers, Maelgwyn, Rhys Gryg and Maredudd.Maredudd and Rhys Gryg were the first to gain possession of Dinefwr, but on July 2, 1201, Maredudd was killed fighting against the Normans. Rhys Gryg managed to hold on to Dinefwr, but Gruffudd seized Cantref Bychan and its main castle at Llandovery. Then on July 21 Gruffudd died at Trate Florida, leaving two young sons, Rhys Ieunac and Owain. IN spite of their
youth, the two sons continued the struggle against their uncles to hold on to at least some of their father's territory. During the next few years Dinefwr changed hands often but Rhys Gryg gradually asserted a hold on Ystrad Tywi.
There were no surnames in the days of the Welsh "Rice" princes. The name "Rhys ap Tewdwr" means Rice, son of Tewdwr, with Rhys (or Rice) and Tewdwr both being first names. Thus Gruffudd ap Rhys is Gruffudd, son of Rhys, and his son, in turn, is Rhys ap Gruffudd. All their descendants could just as legitimately claim as a surname Tudor (Tedwdwr) or Griffith (Gruffudd), instead of Rice (Rhys). Later, when surnames became obligatory, some descendants adopted the Rice surname.

John WORD was my 3rd Great Grandfather

Cynthia "Nettie" Faynetta Word, daughter of John Word and Margaret Prewitt.


John WORD was born 1780 in Charlotte Co., VA, came from Ky. to Center Point, Hempstead Co., Ark. about 1820. He brought his family of nine children and several slaves. His children were: John, Matt, Jim, Tom, Orville Crawford, Elizabeth "Betsie", Peggy, Polly and Martha. His first wife died in 1821, and he returned to Ky. in 1823 and married a widow named Margaret (Peggy) Prewitt LATIMER. Their children were Nettie and Sam. John Word died in Center Point, Ark. in 1843. His widow Peggy died in Center Point, Ark, in 1864. (This information from Lloyd M. Rice Jr., Uncle Jack)

Hempstead County, AR, Will Book B, Pages 45-46; will written 20 Oct 1836; filed 27 April 1844 and settled.

WILL OF JOHN WORD
In the name of God, amen: I, John Word, of the county of Hempstead and State of Arkansas, being in good bodily health and of sound and siposing mind, calling to mind the frailty and uncertainty of human life, and being desirous of settling my worldly affairs, do make this my last will and testament herby revoking and making null all other last will and testaments by me heretofore made. First, I give and bequeath to my beloved son Orvil Word one hundred dollars. Second, I give and bequeath unto William Henry, my Son in law, One cow and calf. Third, it is my will that my beloved wife Peggy A. Word shall possess and hold all the remainder of my estates, real, personal, and mixed during her natural life after paying my funeral expenses and other past debts I may owe at and after the time of my decease. Fourth: It is my will that from and after the decease of my said wife, that the said remainder of all my estates, real, personal and mixed shall be equally divided between my beloved daughter Cynthia Finnetta Word and my beloved son Samuel H. Word. In testimony whereof, I, the said John Word have here subscribed my name to this, my last will and testament, this 20th day of October 1836. Signed, sealed in the presence of J.W. Finely / Andrew C. Roberts
/s/ John Word (seal)


[I was told by descendents of Cynthia Faynetta Word, Orvilles step sister, that they could not find any evidence of the rest of the Word family, other than Orville. Our family notes say John Word had children from his first marriage. Thomas, John, Mathew, James, Elizabeth, Polly or Mary, and Peggy. None of these children were in the will of John Word, which is somewhat puzzling. The will only mentions Orville, and his son-in-law William M. Henry, and leaves the rest of his estate and affairs to Margaret. This may make since if some of the children are still living with Margaret, and the rest of the children had married and moved away.

The search for John Word has been exhausting and quite complicated. In family research, everyone has their brickwalls. John Word happens to be mine, and I have spent many, many hours researching him.

I have found new information, which I find very interesting. It seems that the Henry's intermarried with the Word family. They also migrated together. Martha Ann Word b 1817 in Mo., married William M. Henry. Wiliams father, John William Henry, first married Ann Alexander, then married second Elizabeth "Betsie" Word. Elizabeth was the sister of Martha Ann Word. John Word married Margaret Latimer (Prewitt or Pruitt in later years). She was the widow of John Latimer. Margaret and John had a son Isham P. Latimer, who married Mary Caroline Henry. I have found on a 1840 census in Pike Couny, Ar, in the Brewer Township, Thomas Word, John Word, James Henry, and Isham P. Latimer. They all live within five houses of each other. The census shows John Word 30 to 40 years old, another female 20 to 30 years old, and a female 60 to 70 years old. I suspect this to be Margaret Word. The family records show John Word died in 1844, if this is true then he should have been on the 1840 census, which tells me that he died much earlier, before 1840. I suspect that John and Thomas are the sons of our John Word and brothers to Orville Crawford Word. James Henry is the brother of our William M. Henry who married Martha Ann Word. I have found some information where I believe John Henry and John Word may have lived in Missouri, and then migrated together to Arkansas. The following are land certificates issued to John Ward and John Henry. In all of my research, the Word family has been documented as Ward Family. It shows John Henry widowed, this would explain the death of his first wife, Ann Alexander. I do not know if these are French or Spanish land certificates. It is one or the other, because Federal Land Patents were not issued until after 1812. Here is why. Those lands of Missouri were either owned by France or by Spain. After the Louisiana Purchase of 1804, it took the Federal Government many years to survey the land they had bought. These surveys were not fully completed until the early 1820's. These lands that were bought from France or Spain between these years were fully recognized by the US Government, once they had completed their surveys.

John Henry and John Word's families intermarried. John Henry eventually married John Words oldest daughter, Elizabeth. It seems quite clear that John word and John Henry were traveling companions. First in Kentucky, then Missouri, and then to Arkansas. John Henry was a famous "Methodist Circuit Rider". He traveled a lot of territory in the early 1800's, and preached the word of God.

The real question is, what was John Word doing in Missouri before 1804, prior to the Louisiana Purchase. These lands were owned by the French. Was he a "Longhunter", like Daniel Boone? Was he traveling with the Prewitts, or Henry family? There are several Word families for which our John Word may descend from, but I have no proof of who his father was, or which family he descends from.

John Ward
LAND CERTIFICATE FOR MISSOURI BETWEEN 1808 AND 1812
03/18/1809 CERTIFICATE NUMBER 206
John Henry
LAND CERTIFICATE FOR MISSOURI BETWEEN 1808 AND 1812
05/29/1811 CERTIFICATE NUMBER 668
WIDOW

The records show that Orville and Martha Ann Word were born in Mo, or KY. There are no records to prove for sure. But John Henry had a son James who was born in Belleview, Iron County, Mo., in 1803. There is some indication that they may have came from Howard County Mo. The following excerpt is from the History of Howard County. We find a trading post owned by none other than a man named Prewitt. I believe this to be Isham Prewitt Sr., Margaret Prewitt's grandfather. I also believe that this is where the Henry's and the Word's are also from in Missouri. Isham P. Prewitt II, was Margarets father, they were from Harrodsburg Ky. I believe this is also where John Word and John Henry's roots were from, both families migrating from Virginia to Kentucky first. This would also explain why John Word went from Mo to Ky to marry Margaret Prewitt, and then took her and her kids onto Arkansas and settled around the mid 1820's. By the way, the prewitt family in America of which Margaret descends, dates back to 1624, Cape henry, and the first settlements at Jamestown.

The following history of Howard County, Mo., is from The History of Howard and Cooper Counties, St. Louis: National Historical Company, 1883, pp. 88-99.

The French settled Canada and the northwestern part of the United States, as well as the country about the mouths of the Mississippi river. They came into the upper Mississippi and Missouri valleys in 1764, under the lead of Pierre Laclede Liguest, who held a charter from the French government, giving him the exclusive right of trade with the Indians in all the country as far north as St. Peter's river. Laclede established his colony in St. Louis in 1764, and from this point they immediately began their trading and trapping excursions into the unbroken wilderness. Their method of proceeding was to penetrate into the interior and establish small local posts for trading with the Indians, whence the trappers and hunters were outfitted and sent out into the adjacent woods. In this way, the country west and northwest of St. Louis was traversed and explored at a very early day, as far west as the Rocky mountains. But of the extent of their operations, but little has been recorded; hence, but little is known of the posts established by them.
That these daring Frenchmen had explored that portion of Howard county lying contiguous to the Missouri river, even prior to the year 1800, there can be no doubt; that there existed within the present limits of the county a trading post, for several years before its settlement proper, there can be no doubt. The names of the streams, such as Bonne Femme, Moniteau, etc., attest the fact that they were of French origin, and had been seen and named by the French pioneers.
Levens and Drake, in their condensed but carefully prepared history of Cooper county, say: "While Nash and his companions were in Howard county (1804), they visited Barclay's and Boone's Licks, also a trading post situated about two miles northwest of Old Franklin, kept by a white man by the name of PREWITT. The existence of this trading post, and the fact that 'Barclay's and Boone's Licks' had already received their names from the white persons who visited them, show conclusively that this portion of the country had been explored, even before this, by Americans. But no history mentions this trading post, nor does any give the name of Prewitt; hence, we are unable to determine when he came to the Boone's Lick country, how long he remained, and where he went; he evidently left before the year 1808, as Benjamin Cooper, who moved to Howard county in that year, said there was then no settlement in this part of the state." Boone's Lick, from which this region of country took its name, is situated about eight miles northwest of New Franklin, in Boone's Lick township, on section 4, T. 49, R. 17, on land owned by William N. Marshall. This place was visited by Daniel Boone at an early date, - the time not known. Here he found several salt springs, and as such places were frequented by deer and other game, he not only often hunted in the neighborhood, but, according to John M. Peck, who visited the old hunter at his home in St. Charles county, a few years prior to his death, pitched his camp there for one winter and put up a cabin. Mr. Peck does not give the date. The presumption is that he got his information from the lips of the old hunter himself, and he would further suppose that he camped there between the years 1795 and 1807.


Ok........keep in mind that Daniel Boone did not go to MO. until 1799. I suspect the Henry's, Word's, and the Prewitt's were right there with him. Later they migrated to Arkansas. The Federal Land Records show John Henry and John Word buying land in 1827, Hempstead County, believe it or not, only 10 days apart in the month of August. John Henry led a large Methodist congregation from Missouri to Arkansas, and settled in Centerpoint, AR. I'm sure John Word was right with him. The story I read of this migration, says they crossed the river at Little Rock, when the town of Little Rock had not been built yet.

It might be interesting to note that William M. Henry who married Martha Ann Word was a first cousin to Patrick Henry. Patrick Henry was the 4 time elected Governor of the independent State of Virginia. William M. Henry's Great Grandfather was Hugh Henry, and his brother John Henries Henry was the father of Patrick Henry. Patrick Henry first married Sarah Shelton and second married Dorothy Dandridge. Dorothy was a first cousin to Martha Washington. Between the two marriages, Patrick Henry had seventeen children. Patrick was named after his Uncle, Rev. Patrick Henry. He was outspoken in his opposition to British policy towards the colonies, particularly on the subject of the Stamp act(1765), and he made the first speech in the Continental Congress (1774). You can read his most famous speech "give me liberty or give me death" at this website.
Daniel Rice]


HEMPSTEAD CO., ARK., FEDERAL LAND RECORDS
Bureau of Land Management land records and includes Homestead and Cash Entry Patents before 1908 for what is now Hempstead Co, AR.

WORD JOHN 8 11S 25W 80 1827/05/10
WORD JOHN 12 11S 26W 0 1837/08/01
WORD JOHN 12 11S 26W 0 1843/03/01
WORD SAMUEL H 5 10S 26W 161.23 1857/12/01

Song of the Week
You have heard of the one hit wonders. This song, by Jay Ferguson was a big hit, "Thunder Island".

Sketches of Orville Crawford Word

Old Fort Smith, 1817.



Orville Word was my 2nd Great Grandfather.

Orville Crawford WORD was the son of John Word. He was born in Mo or Ky., Oct. 12, 1812. He died in Washburn Valley, Sebastian Co., Arkansas, July 25, 1863. He was buried in the Veteran's Cemetary at Ft. Smith, Ark. and his grave has been lost. O.C. Word ran away from home when he was nine years old, and went to Little Rock, Ark. where he lived with a family named BIRD. He was married at age 17 to a Miss Mary RONE. When she died he married another Miss Drusilla Jane GROVES who was either the cousin or sister of his first wife. They became the parents of a daughter named Grace, who was raised by her grandfather in Pine Bluff, Ark.
O.C. Word was married a third time to Eliza Wilcox Hays, who was the great granddaughter of Daniel Boone. O.C. and Eliza were married in Mexico, Missouri on Sept. 2, 1843. Orville Crawford Word and Eliza Wilcox Hays became the parents of six children. The first two were girls, Emilee and Amelia, who died young. A boy Frank died in Ft. Smith, Ark. and is buried under a magnolia tree near the old house, which was later part of a church. They planted a magnolia tree for each child they had. The other three children were: John Howell, who was born in St. Louis, Feb. 2, 1852 and died April 22, 1922 at Washburn, Ark. He moved to Ft. Smith, Ark. with his parents in 1860. In 1869, he married Mollie Bell of Washburn and they were the parents of four children: Orville Charles Word, John Howell Word, Jr., Jennie (Mrs. Carl Wyman) and Mag (Mrs. Jim Colden) all of Ft. Smith, Ark. William Wade, was born at Ft. Smith, Ark., May 15, 1855, and died there Oct. 7, 1927. He was never married. Albert Pike was born in St. Louis, Missouri and moved to Ft. Smith, Ark. with his parents at age 7 months. His date of birth was Feb. 1, 1857 and he died Oct. 11, 1938 in Elk City, Okla. at age 81. He was married to Nancy Caroline ‘Callie” Gaddy at Greenwood, Ark. in Sebastian Co., July 8, 1883. She was born Sept. 6, 1866 in Newton, Mo. and died Jan. 29, 1946 in Elk City, Okla. at age 80 years. A.P. and "Callie" Word were the parents of Ira Belle Word Rice. They were the parents of seven living children: Sebe Word, born June 30, 1884 in Milltown, Ark., Clint Turner Word, Dec. 26, 1885, in Milltown, Ark., Porter Howell Word, born in Milltown, Ark., July 28, 1888 and died in Portersville, Calif., May 8, 1918. Irabelle Word, born in Milltown, Ark., Sept. 9, 1891, died April 23, 1980 in Okla. City, Okla. Ralph Rogers Word, born in Summers Mills, Bell Co., Texas, Oct. 13, 1895, died Nov. 22, 1938 in Elk City, Okla. Jewell Word, born in Edwardsville, Custer Co., Okla., April 8, 1901. Oaksie Cook Word, born in Elk City, Okla., Aug. 15, 1906. Besides these children Albert Pike and Callie Word lost three children at birth.
(This information from Lloyd M. Rice Jr., Uncle Jack)


Orville Crawford Word owned Trading Post up and along the Santa Fe Trail, first in St. Louis, then later in Fort Smith. Fort Smith was the last stop before entering Indian Territory, was along the Trail of Tears, and was a main route for the Butterfield Stage Co. between the east and west. This was, at the time, an ideal place to start a Trading Post.

Note: According to La Donna Word Woltman, Travis AFB, CA - "Orville Crawford left home and went to Little Rock where he married the Rone girls. He was a wealthy man and owned several stores and other property. In 1860 his personal property was valued at $20,000; real estate at $300,000. My records show Orville C. was born in Kentucky, but on 1860 census it shows he was born in Missouri. He and his wife moved from Missouri to Fort Smith to Missouri then back to Fort Smith. My gggrandfather was born in St. Louis but they moved back to Ft Smith when he was 6 mos old. O.C. married the first time around 17 years of age. I don't know what happened to his first 2 wives."

See below the early settlers of Calloway County, in the Nine Mile Prairie Township.

Calloway County Missouri
The courts divided the county into the following "old" townships from 1821 through 1838. Auxvasse Feb. 12,1821; Cote San Dessein 1821; Round Prairie May 14, 1821; Elizabeth [changed to Fulton 1825 ] May 15, 1821; Nine Mile Prairie May 15, 1821; Cedar November 13, 1824; Bourbon February 21, 1825; Liberty February 24, 1838.

Nine Mile Pairie was erected into a township May 15, 1821 with the following boundaries. "Beginning at the corner of the township line, between 47 and 48, of sections 2,3,34,35, then east in the said township line, until it strikes the western boundary of Auxvasse township, then south with said boundary four miles; then east until it strikes the eastern boundary of the county; then north as far as the jurisdiction of the county extends".

Early settlers in the township included the folllowing families: Anderson; Arnold; Board; Boone; Boswell; Breadwater; Burt; Callerson; Coil; Collins; Cress; Crump; Darby; Dillard; Driskill; Duncan; Everhart; Freeman; Fruite; Grant; Harding; Hamilton; Hays; Hobson; Hughes; Hutts; Jones; Kidwell; Lail; Larch; Manning; Martin; McMahan; Meteer; Overfelt, Palmer; Peters; Robinson; Sayers; Scholl; Todd; Wilburn; Wilkerson; Word; White; Winn and Wren.
Communities in the township included: Shamrock and Williamsburg,

This means that the Word family made the trip with Boone from Boonesborough Ky, or joined his family group somewhere along the way in 1799. Here is what I believe: Daniel Boone settled in Missouri in 1799, John Word would have been about 20 years old, came with his father and the rest of the family. His father would have been 40 to 50 years old at that time. I assume John Word did not marry till he got to Missouri, and may have married someone local. Their are also alot of HOWELL’s , in Calloway county, which may be where Orville and Eliza’s children all got their middle names. I have listed in my files, that Martha Ann, Orville's sister, was also born, 1817, in Missouri. In Uncle Jacks notes, it says of Orville's birth, Ky or Mo. So know one really knew for sure.

The Hays, Wilcox, Howell, Boone, and Word families all intermarried. They all lived together, and were all neighbors.

In 1811 the Indians had committed some outrages in the Boone's Lick settlements, in Howard County, and over near the Mississippi, on the Salt and Cuivre Rivers, in Pike and Lincoln. It was suspected that the perpetrators were the Indians of the Missouri. Gen. Wm. Clark, then in command of this department, made every exertion to detect them, but as the American forces were not yet organized, he did not succeed. Indian forays from the north were repeated, and during the year 1812 from Fort Madison (on the Illinois bank of the Mississippi, a little below the mouth of the Des Moines) to St. Charles, settlers were murdered and their homes destroyed by the savages.
At last Gov. Benjamin Howard went to St. Charles and ordered Col. Kibbe, who commanded the militia of that country, to call out a portion of the men who were in requisition to march at a moment's warning. He organized a company of rangers for continuous service with Capt. James Callaway, a grandson of Daniel Boone, as captain. This company was made up principally of St. Charles county men, all hardy woodsmen, active, skillful and bold. At intervals this company scoured the country from Salt river to the Missouri, and performed invaluable service.
Gov. Howard also established a small fort on the Mississippi in St. Charles County, which was garrisoned by a company of regulars from Bellfontaine under the command of a Lieut. Mason, and for him was called Fort Mason. Fort Clemson, on Loutre Island, was built at the same time. Throughout the settlements the pioneers themselves built a number of block houses, or so called forts. There was Daniel M. Boone's Fort, in Darst's Bottom, St. Charles county; Howell's Fort, on Howell's prairie; Pond's Fort, on the Dog Prairie; Hountz's Fort, eight miles west of St. Charles; Zumwalt's Fort, near O'Fallon; Castillo's Fort, near Howell's Prairie; Kennedy's Fort, near Wright City; Callaway's Fort, near Marthasville, and Wood's Fort at Troy. But for these establishments and that the whites in this part would either have been driven out of the country or exterminated.

"Hell on the Border", Ft. Smith, Arkansas

The scrappy border town of Fort Smith grew up slowly around the walls of a small fort established in late 1817 on a high bluff overlooking the junction of the Arkansas and Poteau rivers. The site was familiar to hunters and trappers because it was the location for annual trade rendezvous' between frontiersmen and Native Americans. Named for General Thomas Smith at the federal garrison in St. Louis, the tiny outpost was originally built to promote peace between the warring Osage and Cherokee Indian tribes.
Because of its unique geographical position - straddling the border between what became the state of Arkansas and what was known then as "Indian Territory" in present-day Oklahoma - Fort Smith by the mid-19th century was feared as "Hell on the Border," the gateway between "civilization" and the untamed West. Through this gate passed trappers canoeing upriver; Cherokee Indians on their fateful "Trail of Tears" journey; Forty-Niners seeking gold in California; the Butterfield stagecoaches linking St. Louis to Santa Fe; Confederate and Union troops skirmishing in the Civil War; outlaws seeking freedom across the border; and even cowboys and ranchers headed for Texas.
During this period, bustling Fort Smith attracted people who later made brief marks on the pages of history - future president Zachary Taylor; Civil War general Benjamin Bonneville; "Hangin' Judge" Isaac C. Parker, the man credited with restoring law and order to the area; his feared hangman George Maledon; outlaws Cherokee Bill, Belle Starr and the Rufus Buck gang; and "Miss Laura" Ziegler, an enterprising frontier "madame."

The First Fort Smith
On Christmas day, 1817, soldiers of the U.S. Army formally established the first Fort Smith. Isolated on the edge of the American Frontier, these men, under the command of Major William Bradford, were charged with keeping the peace between the Cherokee and Osage tribes.
Officially operational for only seven years, the first Fort Smith marked the beginning of Fort Smith's eighty year history as an agent of Federal Indian Policy.

The Second Fort Smith
The second Fort Smith was established by an act of Congress in 1838, two years after Arkansas gained statehood. Unwanted by the army, the fort was initially designed as a massive fortification. Construction of the garrison took eight years due to labor difficulties, budget overruns, and other reasons. When finally completed in 1846, less than half of the original number of structures were built. The fortification wall, intended to be twelve feet high, varied from six to twelve feet in height; cannon platforms at the corners of the fort were never completed, instead several were converted into warehouses.
The second fort gained a purpose in the 1850s as the "Motherpost of the Southwest," supplying military forts further to the West. The fort was a focal point of Civil War operations in the region, as both armies prized the facility and its location.
At the end of the Civil War, the post's operational days were numbered; the facility did not age well, and within five years, both Officer's Quarters were destroyed in fires. In the summer of 1871, U.S. Army troops leave Fort Smith for the final time

The Trail of Tears and Native American History
Fort Smith's history is strongly tied to the history of the removal of the five tribes, better known as "The Trail of Tears." The soldiers of the first Fort Smith were sent West to keep the peace between the incoming Cherokees and the Osage. The stockades fort was abandoned by the army and relocated prior to the forced removal. The second Fort Smith supplied the newly-relocated tribes as well as other military posts in the Indian Territory. The federal court for the Western District of Arkansas had the task of enforcing federal law in the Indian Territory in the decades following the Civil War.


[The following are 1880 census. The Word's, John H. Jr., Eliza, and Albert Pike all lived next door to each other. You will notice that Albert Pike was married first to Mary Faister, born in Ms, they are both 23 years old. He did not marry Nancy Caroline Gaddy till 1863. You will notice that there is a Jane Bowers living with Albert and Mary. I suspect this is Mary's sister. Eliza is watching the 9 year old daughter of Jane, her name is Minnie. Alberts first wife was probably ill at this time and died. It says Jane is 35 years old and widowed, she may have lost her husband in the Civil War. Daniel Rice]



1880 United States Census
Eliza WORD Self W Female W 56 MO Keeping House KY KY
William WORD Son S Male W 25 AR Farming MO MO
Minnie BOWERS Other S Female W 9 AR At School AR AR
LDS Source Information:
Census Place Washburn, Sebastian, Arkansas
Family History Library Film 1254057
NA Film Number T9-0057
Page Number 684A

1880 United States Census
Albert P. WORD Self M Male W 23 MO Farming MO MO
Mary WORD Wife M Female W 23 MS Keeping House --- ---
Jane BOWERS Other W Female W 35 AR --- ---
LDS Source Information:
Census Place Washburn, Sebastian, Arkansas
Family History Library Film 1254057
NA Film Number T9-0057
Page Number 684B

1880 United States Census
John H. WORD Self M Male W 28 MO Farming
Mary WORD Wife M Female W 30 AR Keeping House TN TN
Orville C. WORD Son S Male W 7 AR At School MO AR
Jennie WORD Dau S Female W 5 AR At Home MO AR
John N. R. WORD Son S Male W 3 AR At Home MO AR
LDS Source Information:
Census Place Washburn, Sebastian, Arkansas
Family History Library Film 1254057
NA Film Number T9-0057
Page Number 684A



[ I believe my Great Grandfather, Albert Pike Word, was named after the famous Albert Pike. He can be described as “a pioneer, a crusader for justice for Native Americans, a musician, a reformer, a journalist, a poet, a philosopher, a prominent Washington lawyer, and a Civil War general.” He shaped and directed the Scottish Rite of Freemasonry, Southern Jurisdiction, USA, for 32 years (1859-1891) as its Sovereign Grand Commander. He published a book in 1871, "Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry", of which I find somewhat controversial. Some of the passages in this book refer to Lucifer, of which I could only raise my eyebrows in disbelief. Albert Pike was a very talented man in many areas. His contribution to our country is monumental. Daniel Rice].

Song of the Week
Why am I playing this song this week. Because it is one of my brothers favorites. Enjoy!!....Vanessa Carlton "A Thousand Miles".

Full Circle....Again!

First there was Hanoi Jane....Notice the anti-aircraft shells that are ready to be used to shoot down American planes by Jane Fonda's foot...July 1972.




US President George W. Bush sits beneath a giant bust of revolutionary hero Ho Chi Minh at the Government Office in Hanoi, Vietnam. I am saddened that our President would take this picture. As a Vietnam Veteran, I am not ready to rub shoulders with a Ho Chi Minh bust. They call Ho Chi Minh a hero, however, there were 5 million Vietnamese that died in that War. I'm sure my 52,000 American brothers that died in Vietnam, are rolling in there graves today.

Like rubbing salt in a old wound........These are the days of our lives!

Song of the Week
J.J. Cale and Eric Clapton have teamed up for their newest album release "The Road To Escondido". Here is one of my favorites off the album called "It's Easy".