TWO DAYS SPENT IN PIKE COUNTY

The above information is what was originally provided with this letter. We have since heard from Ms. Rodhouse who states, "The letter was written by Annie Roberts Hodgdon of Hannibal to her sister-in-law Abby Hammond Roberts. (It was not found under a house, etc.   Alice Rodhouse, as well as other members of her family, has a copy with her family papers). We most sincerely thank Ms. Rodhouse for providing these additional details.

I have always said that the scenery in Pike County, Missouri cannot be surpassed by any in the United States, and especially if you --- the hillsides in October where the frost has touched the leaves just enough to bring out the gorgeous tints. The oaks this October, 1930 were the most beautiful I have ever seen there, with all the shades of russet, brown with touches of green and red, the brilliant ------, the sassafras and maples. It was sight never to be forgettin.

A joint meeting of the Northern and Southern Convocations of the Diocese of Missouri was held at Calvary Church in Louisiana October 28^th, 29^th and 30^th, so I decided to go down Wednesday morning and hoped Frank could go also, but when he found he could not get away, I decided to go down on the train reaching there about 11 o'clock. There was an interesting business session and then we went out to the Louisiana Country Club to a beautiful luncheon. Gussie Roberts, Mrs. Edith Roberts and Mrs. Mackey of Clarksville had driven up to the meeting, and it had been arranged before hand that I was to be met there and go to Clarksville for the night with Gussie. The luncheon was delicious, the most marvelous fried chicken being the piece de resistence. The principal speaker after the luncheon was Mr. George M. Block of St. Louis, and he spoke of his love for Pike Co. and the beautiful old St. John's Church which was built by his grandparents and other Virginians who had settled in Pike Co. about the same time. He also mentioned Col. Edw ------. The Louisiana Country Club is 4 miles from Louisiana and is on the old Jackson farm belonging to Mr. Mark Gillum's maternal grandparents, who are buried on the farm.

After luncheon we drove to the home of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Stark, which is almost seven miles from Louisiana and is on the top of a hill and looks over into the valley towards Clarksville. I have never seen anything more beautiful than the foliage in these hills nor the entire panorama. It was a perfect October day bright, clear and warm and it was a joy to be out of doors. That evening we listened to a fine sermon by Dr. Block of St. Louis and then went to Clarksville for the night.

During the night had come a hard rain and the weather had turned cold, so Gussie and I stayed indoors and visited all day. Friday was a perfect day, and before I had finished dressing Gussie told me that Mr. Mark Gillum had invited us to drive to Bowling Green with him that morning and we would start at nine o'clock. A young Mrs. Boone, who as a bride had just come from Savannah, Georgia to live in Clarksville, was the fourth in our part.

The air was sharp and bracing, and no schoolchildren, starting out for a day's picnic could have been more excited than we. Our only disappointment was that John could not go with us, but as Publisher of "The Clarksville Sentinel", he was having his busiest day of the week and could not leave. We drove out towards Paynesville, and as we leisurely rode along, Mr. Gillum pointed to each farm telling stories about the early settlers whose names were most familiar to me.

The hills in Pike County have a peculiar shape, all of them being what they call sugarloaf shaped rounded rather than --------- with valleys between them, and the hillsides densely wooded. Then turning around we obtained marvelous views of that grand old Father of Waters, the Mississippi.

It was eleven o'clock when we reached Bowling Green, and the person with whom we sought an interview was Uncle Simeon N. Gillum, son of Nathan Smith Gillum, and grandson of John Gillum II and his wife Elizabeth Smith, Uncle Simeon gave us little information except that Nathan Smith Gillum was the youngest son of John Gillum and that he came to Missouri in 1833 and settled on a farm near Ashley, Mo. He then went back to Virginia and brought his Father and others out to Missouri.

Nathan Smith Gillum was born in Albemarie Co., Va., May 15, 1815. I do not know the date of his death but John Gillum II died in 1837. We then went to see Mrs. Champ Clark, thinking that she might know something of the Gillum Family, but found that she did not and was unwilling to talk of anything except the Porter family whom she had known so well in Clarksville. Mrs. Clark, as Genevieve Bennett was a seat mate of Aunt Nannie Porter's and was introduced by Aunt Nannie to Mr. Champ Clark who she afterwards married. I wanted to linger with Mrs. Clark, but feeling that our object was to locate the Gillum family we reluctantly left, promising to return another day.

It was noon! So we decided to stop and eat our lunch, before we went on in our search for Ancestors. Having satisfied the "lunch ---" we went to call on Judge and Mrs. Gray, who are living in the old Porter-Broadhead home. It is a beautiful home of the low rambling type, with two types of dormer windows. It sets well back off of the street and has been beautifully preserved. The same old stone front door step is there. The same very thick front door, with the same door knob, lock and hinges. You enter a rather narrow hall, with narrow stairs leading up to the second story. There is a room on either side of the hall in front with the same small panes of glass in the windows; the same high baseboard around the walls, and it is so beautifully furnished in antique furniture, so suitable to the home. Judge Gray is the Probate Judge of Pike County, and his wife a descendant of the famous Gentry family. She is in D.A.R. but we had to hasten on.

The highways are paved out of Bowling Green, but you, ----- and Eleanor know what kind of ----- they had to travel through in the olden times, because none of us will ever forget that ride to Bowling Green five years ago. Do you remember the Bank I went into to inquire about the Porter home? Well, Uncle Sim Gillum is President of that Bank, and if that young man had only asked him he would have taken us right to the house, because it is only three blocks from the Courthouse. Wasn't that a terrible pity. You simply must come back to Mo. Because now that the highways are paved we can drive to Bowling Green in one hour.

About ten miles south of Bowling Green is the old Myers farm on Buffalo Knob, from 2 and one half to 3 miles west of Edgewood. When Jeremiah Roberts, and his wife Lucy Mildred Fagg Roberts came out to Missouri in 1835, they brought with them three children, John Granville, James Boyd and Mary Alice (who was a baby in arms) and some negroes. They went first to Mr. Myers, as he had married Elizabeth Gillum's cousin, and Mr. Myers gave him a site for a log house and a field to plant. The house was situated on a knob, called Buffalo Knob, and Spout Spring, where they obtained their water supply is down the hill on the left. It is still an active spring. Here Richard Morris Roberts was born Sept. 27, 1837.

Mr. Myers simply gave Jeremiah Roberts the use of this land until he had time to look around for a permanent location. During their residence here they formed a close friendship with Captain Edward Dorsey's family who lived on another hill just across the Valley. Aunt Millie Roberts, told me about staying all night many times with Aunt Millie Roberts, when Uncle Jerry, as she called them, was away from home. Grandmother Roberts was afraid to go to sleep so she kept Aunt Mary awake by telling her an entire novel by Scott or Dickens. Aunt Mary said she had never known anyone who could relate as interesting a story. One Negro man's name was Bob.

Only one room of the old house built by Jeramiah Roberts remains, but several wonderful old trees are still standing which look as if they were one hundred years old.

Mr. Gillum said he had walked all over this farm with Uncle John Roberts, and had heard him say: "I remember playing here when I was a little boy" or "I remember carrying water up from old Spout Spring," etc. In this particular part of Pike County ---- settled Mr. Carter who was such a large owner of slaves, that he was said not to know all of them by sight. It was reported that the majority of slaves in Pike County were owned by Mr. Carter, Dr. Bankhead and Captain Edward Dorsey. Captain Archy Bankhead was a very intimate friend of Uncle Cole Dorsey's and they with Uncle Sim Gillum fought in the same Company during the Civil War. All of their farms adjoined.

We walked over the farm and to the fence that divided the Dorsey and Roberts places. I heard this story -- It seems that when the Dorsey family sold their farm, they had an old slave named Cato, who was now free, but who had stayed on with them. They gave him a deed to ten acres of land and he lived on it, in his little log cabin until he died. He is buried in a little private burying ground near there. His place was called "Cato's Patch", and the Bankhead family have paid taxes on it ever since old Cato's death, many many years ago. It is all thickly overgrown with underbrush now and is not valuable , but it adjoins their land and as there was no one to claim it, they have just included it in their farm.

We also saw a farm called the Cole Dorsey farm just adjoining the Captain Dorsey farm. There we went over to "Briar Patch" which is such an attractive log house built on the Gillum place. It was built about nine years ago for a hunting lodge and has been used for many happy and gay house parties. It is ideally situated in a grove of beautiful trees and is a ideal place to go to throw off care and trouble and enjoy life.

Very reluctantly we entered the car for our homeward journey. One marvelous view we had going home was from the old McCune farm. It is on the crest of a hill and the view of the hills and valleys is marvelous. We passed ---- Chris Merriweather's home; Mr. Heppie? Merriweather's; Aberdeen the lovely old home of Mr. & Mrs. H. V. P. Block and "Falicon" the wonderful country home of the Dameron family.

It was a day long to be remembered and I can never thank Jessie and Mr. Gillum for making the day possible.

Saturday Gussie drove me out to the lovely old farm where she was born, and to Brookhill Farm, Dr. Clopton's home, also up to Mrs. Roberts's which she bought from Uncle John Roberts. It was a perfect visit and one I shall never forget. That day we also went to the home where Papa and Mamma were married and where Sister was born. We stood on the porch and looked up and down the beautiful Mississippi and remembered the stories of Mrs. Porter sending word to the Captain of a steam boat to please wait for Mrs. Porter, she had decided to go to St. Louis. We went inside this old home and were taken from room to room by Mrs. Holmes?, the charming owner of the house. She has not disturbed much of the old house but has left windows, doors, etc. as they were years ago.

I cannot complete an account of this visit without mentioning John Orville's son, John Orville Roberts IV. He is such a bright, wholesome looking baby and is very handsome with hair almost red and very large dark brown eyes. Mr. Jake Huckstep of Bowling Green told John Orville that Frederick Roberts, Jeremiah's brother had red hair, so John thinks perhaps he may have inherited it.

Before I left Clarksville, Mr. Gillum said he would invite Frank and me to "Briar Patch" for a week-end, so imagine my surprise when a week from Sunday I had a long distance message from Bowling Green to come down for three days. Frank said he could not go but for me to go and he would drive me down. We were at Mother's for dinner, and did not get home until after three o'clock, so I hurriedly packed my bedding and a few things and we drove to Bowling Green to meet Mr. and Mrs. Russell Bankhead and Mr. Merrill of St. Louis. They have beds & mattresses at the lodge but do not keep any bedding down there.

As the quail season opened Monday morning Mr. Merrill and Mr. Bankhead were planning to hunt and took three dogs with them. It was six o'clock when we reached "Briar Patch" and we found a good hot chicken dinner ready for us and Mr. and Mrs. Gillum and Dr. Randolph Bankhead waiting for us. After a delicious meal we sat around the beautiful big fireplace and talked until far into the night. It was wonderful sleeping so far away from civilization and we were all greatly refreshed and ready for an early rising, breakfast and start by eight o'clock for a busy day--Monday. We drove down the highway past Eolia almost to Auburn and then turned onto the country roads to Elsberry where we were to find Mrs. Lizzie Stone, whom we found to be most interesting. (Mrs. Lizzie H. Stone R.R. #3 box 115). She was a wide-awake, interesting little woman and told us many interesting things. She showed us a quilt her Mother made in 1858, which is one of the most beautiful I have ever seen.

Her Mother in 1852 started a scrapbook and in it she had written the names of all of the descendants of John Gillum and Elizabeth Dickerson. I have written to her and asked her to try and find out for us the birth, death and marriage of this John & Elizabeth Gillum and Elizabeth Gillum and Richard Morris. Leaving Mrs. Stone we drove north to Little Ramsey Creek and found the farm where Jeremiah Roberts moved before his daughter Ellen Lewis was born in 1839. He moved over to Little Ramsey to be near his Father-in-law John Fagg, who with his family had moved out from Albemarle County, Virginia in November 1837. We were told that their house, which was very quaint and interesting was not the one where Mr. Roberts lived, but some of the outbuildings were still standing.

We then drove over to the Fagg farm, which is on the other side of the creek and further up the road and at the base of a hill. The front part of the old log house is still standing and I regretted so much not having John's Kodak. Down stairs were two rooms separated by a very narrow hall and narrow stairs led to the upper rooms. The plaster was off the wall in one room and we could see the logs very distinctly. There were the deep window sills showing how thick the logs were. There were small windows in the upper rooms. We then drove up the hill about a quarter of a mile to the family burying ground where we found the grave of John Fagg with the following dates on his tombstone - Born August 14, 1775, died October 12, 1846. Also Elizabeth W., wife of John Fagg born January 11, 1782, died March 45, 1851. Then Horatio T. Kent born October 12, 1811 died May 30, 1849. He was the husband of Mary Ann Fagg, born 1808, daughter of John Fagg. The view from that plot was beautiful. You could look down upon the house, and the lovely hills in every direction.

There is a little country school ---- the public road called the Fagg School. Reluctantly we drove away, -- mind filled with memories of all we had heard about those who had called these very places home. It was very wonderful to me to be there.

We again resumed our ride and were getting very hungry, as it was after one o'clock. We found a persimmon tree, loaded with the most luscious fruit and stopped and gathered some. On we went towards Paynesville, where Dr. Bankhead had lived for many years, and where Grandma Porter and all of her family had visited many, many times. The house had been destroyed by fire and all that remains are the avenues of wells, which stood one between each two negro cabins on the farm. This was Mrs. Gillum's Father's home. There are some charming old homes still standing in Paynesville and I was glad to have seen them.

We reached "Briar Patch" about two and had a refreshing luncheon, after which Mr. Gillum and I left the others to rest and took to the road again.

This time we drove up to the Dorsey farm and walked around. One room of the old house is still standing so the present occupants thought, the present house being well built by a Mr. -------. There they told us of the old family burying ground. We walked over to it and found the graves of ------- Rebecca, Lizzie Rebecca and Margaret Porter, infant daughters of Grandma and Grandpa Porter. Also a stone marked Larry Dorsey who died in his 33^rd year. I do not know who he was, Do you? I learned when I was in Bowling Green, that ----- Lev. Lawrence is still living there, wasn't his Mother a sister of Great-grandmother Dorsey? Is there anything you would like to learn if I ever saw him?

My visit came to an end all too soon. Frank came for me Tuesday afternoon. We met in Bowling Green. Mrs. Gillum is a very charming woman, a true Southern Aristocrat and Mr. Gillum a real Southern Gentleman. They were wonderful to me and I feel so strongly drawn to them, that in my quest for Ancestors, I feel I had truly found real cousins.