Missouri
My apologies for the long delay in adding to my narrative. From October 3 through 6th we camped in a campground called the Katy Roundhouse in Franklin, MO. This is a campground that is on the Katy Trail which is a 200+ mile trail that once was a railroad. The trail is now limestone surfaced for biking and hiking. The campground is the old switching yard; roundhouse although the equipment is buried in the weeds behind a fence.
My interest in being in this area is that my great great (and great great great) paternal grandparents lived in Boonville, 3 miles from New Franklin. This is my first time visiting an area where my ancestors lived and it was interesting to think that they probably rode the original railway and were very familiar with that switching yard.
I found out in my admittedly amateur research online that my great great grandfather Philip Back was murdered in Boonville in 1874. He owned a tavern and was found in a cistern. The newspaper article described the setting as a “locked door” mystery. It said that he was found inside the cistern which was inside his tavern and the doors and windows were locked from the inside. I hoped that I could find out more information by visiting the Missouri Historical Society and look through the newspaper collection on microfiche. On Friday, October 5th I visited the historical collection and spent several hours looking through the collection of the newspapers from that time period. I found two references to his murder but nothing later to explain whether anyone was ever caught for the crime. The only newspaper I wasn’t able to investigate is a newspaper that was written in German, the “Central Missourier”. It’s quite possible that paper had more information but I don’t read German. I did scan them to see if I saw the name “Back” but with the dense text nothing was noticeable. So the mystery of his death is still there, although I saw a write up by someone that some thieves were later arrested for the crime but there was no source for that information listed.
However there are three graveyards in Boonville and I knew from “Find a Grave” website that many of my relatives have headstones. I found the Diringer and Meisburger great-grandparents’ gravestones and several Back relatives (great great grandfather and mother Philip and Barbara Back) and my great uncle Ernst. I was able to speak with the caretaker at the Walnut Grove Protestant cemetery and found out that Ernst bought the gravesite in 1900 when Barbara (his mother) died. He re-interred his father, Philip at that time. Previously when he was murdered the newspaper account said that he was buried at the Sunset Hills cemetery that was called the city cemetery. We then went to Sunset Hills cemetery and I was able to find the burial stone for my great great great grandparents Paul and Mary Stegner. The picture from Find a Grave was very helpful in locating it because I could see the fence in the photo. Otherwise I could have been looking for quite awhile as the cemetery is several acres spread over a large hill. It is a picturesque and peaceful site. Next to the Stegner gravesite is one for Sophia Vollrath which is Mary’s maiden name so it may be a 3X great aunt. She is listed in a German census with Mary, although I need to investigate that further as the column headings are in German.
We also toured the Old Cooper County jail and "Hanging barn". http://freindsofhistoricboonvillemo.org/?page_id=128 It was in use up until 1978! It was an ancient jail with raw iron doors and damp limestone walls. The county continued to use it until a lawsuit forced them to close it. The jail was the site of several hangings. I had also hoped to find out the outcome of a “citizen’s arrest” that my great grandfather made of a man who raped a pregnant woman (she later died). The news articles I found said that a mob was after the rapist who was moved to a larger town nearby. The last article I found interviewed a mob member who said that the man, Sam Johnson, wouldn’t survive long enough to come to trial. It’s no wonder that William, my great grandfather, decided to move with his wife to Illinois to start his family there. He later moved to Red Wing MN. My branch of the family moved to Minneapolis which is where I was born.
Several early battles of the Civil War were fought in Boonville. One of the historical signs said that the war progress was affected by the early battles in Boonville as an important supply of armaments was maintained under Union control and the governor of Missouri who was a secessionist was hounded out of town. My relatives joined the Union army the earliest day that they could join. Before that, assumably, they were part of the “Home Guard”, unpaid soldiers on the Union side.
Our last stop on the way out of Missouri was the little town of Bunceton. The train depot is still there along with a train engine. (See pictures) My great grandmother, who became Anna Back (born “ Annie” Meisburger) lived in Bunceton. She apparently knew the Back family very well. My sister had a small album for signatures that she showed me while I was in Minnesota before traveling through Missouri. On one page Annie’s future sister in law, Emma Back, teases Annie about how Willie (William) is glad for “Bunceton station”. He apparently went to Bunceton to court Annie. I’m not sure where they met, perhaps they lived in Boonville and then moved to Bunceton. It will be good to look again at census records as prior to seeing this signature book I had no idea the Meisburger family lived in Bunceton.
While we were in Missouri we met one of the riders from our southern Coast to Coast tour. Marla met us in Columbia for lunch. She lives in St. Louis. We had met Cecil in Iowa, he is also a rider from our Coast to Coast tour. Fun to have reunions with them!
Unfortunately, we didn’t ride on the Katy trail at all. The weather continued to be often rainy and mostly fairly cold (in the 40’s) although we had two freakish days of high 80 degrees which plunged again into 40’s. We did visit Rocheport on a day when it was partly cloudy and managed to walk for a little more than an hour to see the high bluffs near the town and climb to an overlook over a former train tunnel. However, by the end of our walk the rain started again. We saw several groups of riders. They were managing to avoid most of the rain by starting later in the day but we saw one group that started so late they were riding in the dark to get to the campground. Both groups had not heard from the Katy Roundhouse owners so we told them the code for the bathrooms. The campground was really strange in that in the four days we were there we never saw the owners or anyone managing the place. They appear to operate it completely on the honor system, at least during the off season. They also had recently flushed their water system with bleach. It was quite undrinkable, at least to our taste, so we bought a jug of water for cooking and drinking.
The Bunceton Depot where my great grandfather went to visit my future great grandmother.
The old Cooper County historic jail, in use until 1978!
An early battle of the Civil War was fought in Boonville. It is likely my ancestors fought on the Union side.
The gravesite of my great great grandparents at Walnut Grove Cemetery.
Also my great great grandparents. They are in the Catholic cemetery, Saints Peter and Paul cemetery.
My great great great grandparents in a beautiful site at the Sunset Hills cemetery.
Also great great grandparents.
