Footnotes for letters 79 - 85: 1870

Footnotes for Letters 79 - 85: 1870 - 1872

Keep this reference page open as you read letters 79 - 85.

1. High Blue was in northern Cass Co., Missouri near the Jackson county line, where Margaret lived as a child.
2. Pleasant Hill, Cass County, Missouri and Lawrence, Douglas County, Kansas. The railroad was finished in 1871.
3. Elizabeth Ramsey Berry (1820-1895) the widow of Margaret's cousin, Richard D. Berry who was killed by Kansas Jayhawkers in 1863.
4. William J. Yocum, Margaret's nephew.
5. Matthew Berry Yocum, Margaret's nephew.
6. McGee College at College Mound, Macon County, Missouri. Although the Presbyterian run college was closed in 1872, the buildings were still in use in 1910 and College Mound is in the southwest part of Macon county, on a beautiful eminence, giving a broad view of the picturesque landscape in almost every direction. The college building is a large, commodious brick structure, one of the finest and most imposing of its class in its day. (http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~mogeneal/macon/mcgee.htm)
According to the Missouri Valley College website (www.moval.edu) in Marshall, Missouri, the present College was founded by several Presbyterian Synods in Missouri to replace McGee College which had closed it's doors in 1872. Marshall is about 50 miles north of Kansas City, Missouri.
7. John Edward and James Samuel Berry, Margaret's nephews.
8. Linville Hays, Margaret's brother-in-law. In 1870 he and his family were living at Lees Summit, Jackson Co., Missouri.
9. Samuel Hays, Margaret's brother-in-law. In 1870 he and his family were living on the next farm to Margaret near Westport, Jackson County, Missouri
10. Nathan Simpson (1831-before 1900) One of Upton Hays best friends, he named his son John Nathan Hays for him. Nathan Simpson had moved to Kansas by 1859 and then migrated to Wyoming, Otoe Co., Nebraska about 1863 and lived there until his death.
11. Duke W. Simpson (1795-before 1860) had migrated from Madison Co., Kentucky to Jackson Co., Missouri by 1840. He and his family lived near the Boone Hays family.
12. Andrew Jackson Watts, Elizabeth Watts' son.
13. This was Margaret's dower land which was settled on at the time of her marriage in 1852. She did not own the land but had it for her lifetime.
14. The land was at Self 's Schoolhouse, Jackson county, Missouri and the Byram s Internment Association.
Capt. David Mastin was the president.
15. Upton had been buried in Newton County, Missouri after his death on 12 September 1862. William Overstreet, Margaret's future husband, went after the remains and brought them back to Jackson County. (see footnote Letter
16. Richard Francis Yager was killed in Saline Co., Missouri in 1864.
17. Louisa Catherine Yager had married William Bernard Hamilton of Westport, Jackson County in 1859. The young couple lived in Cucharas, Huerfano County, Colorado where William was a grazer (of cattle).
18. Rachel Yager was married to Henry Harper, a farmer in Jackson County, Missouri.
19. A housekeeping car on the railroad. She did do this in 1872.
20. The Hornbuckles who were neighbors of the Hays near Westport, Jackson County, Missouri had been asking Margaret to write her mother about Alfred since 1862. (see Letter 42). A sister, Eliza Jane Hornbuckle was married to Upton's nephew, Richard P. Crump.
21. Rebecca Berry Hays (1828-June 1872) was the wife of Upton's brother, Samuel Hays.
22. Tuberculosis.
23. THE KANSAS CITY TIMES, MONDAY, MAY 22, 1911

HOW COL. UPTON HAYS DIED
CONFEDERATE HERO WAS BURIED HERE FOURTY YEARS AGO
While He Snapped a Wet Revolver at a Federal Soldier, The Latter Took Deliberate Aim and Fired Shot Which Killed Him
              The Kansas City Times of forty years ago contains the following account of the reburial of Col. Upton Hays with five Confederate dead in Kansas City.
              Blessed is the corpse that the rain raineth on. Yesterday the Byram's Interment Association had a meeting to bury one who had died on the field of honor to bury five others who had only their wounds to tell their story.
              Capt. David Mastin, a young Confederate, tried and true, is the president of this association, and he had assistants who were glad to do the honor to the dead because they had died for their native land. For weeks it had been published that on the 20th day of May the remains of certain Confederate soldiers would be reinterred at Self's Schoolhouse in Jackson County.
              Col. Upton Hays was a Missourian. He lived in Jackson County. He was a man that never know an hour of fear. Perhaps no finer horseman ever rode hard over the prairies. He was brave, generous, true, devoted, noble a patriot. Is it any wonder, then, that when the rallying bugles sounded and when Governor Claiborne F. Jackson called for volunteers that Up. Hays should gallop straight to the front? The fiery crown of the Lone Jack Victory sat well above the eyes of him who was the first in all that bright company. Bearing backwards to the south two cannon won where men gave up their lives like flowers in an open hand, Up. Hayes led a regiment to the border. We want now also to tell how he died.
              MANY RODE TO ETERNITY
              The regiment had in it the best blood of Jackson County; had in it men who at a word would have ridden booted and spurred into eternity. And oh! so many, so many did ride this gait to death. After Lone Jack three regiments marched southwards rapidly. The first was commanded by Col. Joseph O. Shelby, the second by Col. Upton Hayes, the third by Col. John Coffey. Death made sad havoc later in the field officers, but to destroy and kill is the fate of war. When one died on the battle field he gets a kind of great glory. Why? Because he cannot see surrenders, cannot see the burning of the banners, the giving up of the arms, the breaking up of the ranks that had withstood musketry and grapeshot.
              These three regiments concentrated at Newtonia, in Newton County, Missouri, bearing with them three thousand men, two pieces of captured artillery, much ammunition, numberless small arms and that élan which asked only a fair field and open fight. The fight came speedily. An advance from Gen Schofield's army then moving down into Arkansas 23,000 strong marched in and took possession of Newtonia. It numbered about five hundred [page damaged, illegible]
              Col. Hayes was ordered to mount his men and drive them from the town. Riding at the head of his regiment, Colonel Hayes discovered two federal dragoons some distance off the extreme outlying post of the detachment occupying Newtonia. Taking with him Si Porter, a soldier belonging to his regiment, Colonel dashed off to this outpost, leaving his regiment some distance behind, because it was advancing at a trot, and he and his companion went forth at the gallop of splendid horses.
              The night before this march there had been a heavy rain. The Confederates had no tents, no shelter, no anything except inherent courage and powder and ball. The revolvers of Colonel Hayes were saturated with water. As he dashed upon the two Federals at the outpost he sternly demanded a surrender. It was refused. To show his peerless self-possession it is known that he snapped six caps upon one revolver before his enemies could bring a carbine to a present. This tells of wonderful dexterity.
              DEATH OF COLONEL HAYS
              As he was drawing his other pistol the Federal soldier, belonging to the Third Wisconsin cavalry, suddenly lifted his carbine and fired. Full and fair in the forehead the bullet went home. The live horse dashed away from the dead rider, just as the regiment gained the hill overlooking the scene.
              BROUGHT BODY HERE
              And so, Colonel Upton Hayes was killed, and so he was buried , and so, when it had been determined to bring the hero back to the people who knew and loved him and to the land that gave him birth, the Confederates sent a commission after all that was left of him. Mr. William Overstreet left on May 4 for the lone grave in Newton County. It was not difficult to find it.
              On the 16th day Mr. Overstreet returned with all that was left of Col. Upton Hayes and it was buried yesterday. This colonel, in addition to being a hero, was a Free Mason, and the Free Masons paid the last solemn rites over the dead Mason who belonged to the Golden Square Lodge No. 107. This lodge is located in Westport. The Masonic procession was formed at the residence of Mr. David Self at 10 o'clock yesterday. The residence is one-forth of a mile from the Self Schoolhouse, where the graveyard is. In the procession there went forth first the Free Masons, as follows: Golden Square Lodge No. 107, Chief marshal Capt. Henry Harper, lodge master, Capt. Frank Thomas. This lodge numbered about eighty. Raytown Lodge, U. D. Lodge marshal, Minor T. Smith. This lodge numbered about fifty.
              THOUSANDS ATTEND THE FUNERAL
             After the Masons and the music there came old men, young men, beautiful women, aged and august women, children led along and all ages and kind of people who could feel reverently above the graves of heroes. R. W. W. E. Whiting of Kansas City, district deputy grand master of the Fortieth District, officiated; Joab Bernard, Esq., being chaplain. There were also in the procession a number of visiting Masons from Lone Jack, Lee's Summit, Shawnee Town and Kansas City.
              Of the whole line, Capt. David Self was the chief marshal, and Capt. Alfred Hayes his assistant. Among those who took part in the procession were the following soldiers of Shelby's Division: Boone T. Muir, S. C. Nolan, J. H. Kemper, Frank Thomas, William Young, Bernard Linsay, Greg Holloway, Napoleon Davis, Harrison Davis, Samuel Muir, William Hickman, Joseph Noell, Wyatt Webb, Hiram Lee, William Muir, John Coleman, George Muir, John Ecket, John Stovall, Lee McMurty, John House, Daniel Muir, and Daniel Vaughn. There is no title given in this catalogue to any man. In the presence of the dead one had no need of the insignia of rank.
At least two thousand persons were present. They had come from all portions of the country. Thanks to the constant care and attention of Messrs. Hayes, Judge Yeager, Henry Harper, Reuben Mastin, Samuel Hayes, Linville Hayes, David Tate, Mobillion McGee, Frank Thomas, Wyatt Webb, David Self, Alfred Hayes, Doctor Herford, Major Robinson and a host of others everything passed off in the best manner possible. Over $300 was collected to erect a monument above the dead, and there is is to be a further re-internment in a short time.

24. Probably the Hessian Fly (a gnat). This pest was introduced into the United States shortly after Hessian troops landed on Long Island, New York in the American Revolution in the 1770's. It is still a serious problem in wheat growing areas of the United States.
25. This is the last letter in the collection by Margaret Watts Hays. She rented a housekeeping car on the railroad and moved her family to California that summer.
26. Mary Boone Hays Hughes (1826-1872) , the widow of Armstead Hughes lived Callaway County, MIssouri
27. Dewitt Clinton Watts (1829-?), Margaret's half-brother. It appears that Dewitt was living in Monterey County, California and working as a teamster. By 1874 he had moved to Utah, married and had four children. Two of the children, John H. and Clara Alice
28. Matthew Berry Yocum, Elizabeth Watts' grandson.
29. Matthew Berry Yocum, Elizabeth's grandson.
30. Margaret Jane Watts Hays in Mariposa County, California
31. Laurinda Holloway Hays
32. Probably James H, Rout (1861-?), Laurinda's grandson.
33. Probably Margaret Davis ((1838-?). The Davis family lived next door to Samuel Hays in 1870.
34. Probably L. C. Ragan
35. Elihu Coffee Rice
36. John Moore
37. Sally Bryant
38. Robert M. Hays (1848-?) a son of Samuel Hays.
39. Rebecca Berry Hays, Samuel Hays wife.
40. Eliza Ann Hays Rout (1844-1881), Linville Hays' daughter.
41. Daniel Stout (1840-?) or Ralph Stout (1847-?), neighbors from Ohio. They were both unmarried and worked on farms.
42. Amazon Hays
43. Samuel Hays
44. George Asbury (1853-?). His brother Foster Asbury married Virginia Hays, a daughter of Samuel Hays in 1875.
45. Martha Muir Yager West (1844-after 1920). A cousin of Upton Hays, she was the widow of Richard Francis Dick Yager. She was married to Edward F. West in 1866.
46. Charles R. Jennison (1832-1884). A Kansas Abolitionist who was the led many Jayhawker raids into Missouri during the Civil War.
47. John J. Ragan (1847-?)
48. Frank W. Tate (1853-?)
49. Temperance J. Hays (1856-?) a daughter of Linville Hays.
50. Newton Green (1852-?) of Westport.
51. James N. Young married Bettie M. White, October 17, 1772
52. Napoleon Boone (1843-?) , a cousin who lived in the Lees Summit area.
53. Elfleda Hays
54. John T. Fry (1854-?) of Westport.
55. Mary Elizabeth Hays
56. John A. Truman (1852-?) When Harry Truman was running for president in 1944, Bettie Hays Moutrey said that her boyfriend in Missouri was Harry's uncle. She left Missouri with her family in 1872 and was living in Mariposa County, California when this letter was written.
57. Possibly Barba E. Hays (1870-1959), a son of Martha Collins and Alfred B. Hays. He was not quite 2 years old.
59. Linville Wylie Hays (1862-after 1920), a son of Linville Hays, brother of Tempy.
59. Mrs. Mary Cunningham lived with Margaret Hays during the 1850s.