[This is a transcript of a letter written to me by Aunt Colleen McCain [note 1], Dad’s sister, in 1990 or 91 I added in the notes when I sent the information to one of my nieces.]

To give specifics on my father’s family: [Her father was John Oliver Vandergriff]

Mother was Mary Elizabeth (Forbes) Vandergriff. Died Dec. 1913 age around 62.

Father: Isaac Henderson Vandergriff - born ? Died in 1922-23.

Mother born in Kentucky and lived thru the Civil War. I believe she was married at age 16. When they came to Mo. I do not know.

She had two sisters Martha and Liza. Liza married Abe Null. One brother Willis. There may have been more children but I do not know.

Mary Elizabeth, called Liz, was a mid-wife and neighborhood doctor. Gathered herbs and made her own medicine.

She had 11 children - one boy (Jessie) died at age 2. The other 10 survived.

(1) James (Jim) Vandergriff married Lady (usually called "Bug") Baker. They had three children: 2 boys and 1 girl. The two boys died - one killed in a car accident, the other with TB. The girl Gertrude married and had 1 child, a girl Jackie. Gertrude and her husband were killed in a car accident. Uncle Jim and wife raised Jackie. They first spent many years in Colorado where Uncle Jim worked for railroad. He lost his right arm on job. Later they moved to Phoenix, Ariz. Both dead.

(2) Martha Eveline Vandergriff married a William (Will) Johnston. They, early in married life, moved to Ashland, Kansas where they lived out their lives. Had a large family - Hattie, Guy, Raleigh and Clyda are all the names I remember but there were more. Most are probably dead before now.

(3) Minnie - Vandergriff (died in late 40’s I believe) never did marry but she did have one little boy named Barney who died at about age 2.

(4) John Oliver Vandergriff (our dad) [note 2] married Enola Paradine Miller on June 16, 1907. They had 4 children. The oldest a girl died at age 10 days.

(5) Laura Kathryn Vandergriff married Jason Stebbins. No children. For many years lived around Branson, Mo., where they operated a resort on White River, float trips, fishing, etc. [note 3]

(6) George Washington Vandergriff married Fern Craig. No children. Raised an orphan boy. Lived mostly in Iowa - he worked for a railroad co.

(7) Cora Jane Vandergriff married William (Will) Walsh. They, too, migrated to Western Kansas I think to homestead. They lived out their lives in Kans. Had 4 children: May, Ray, Reese and Ralph. May died in early womanhood. The boys may yet be living.

(8) Charles Thomas Vandergriff married Faye Wilson. They had one boy, Vernice. [note 4] He, too, is dead. Aunt Faye died when Vernice was about 12 yrs. old. Uncle Charlie married an 18 yr. old girl - the marriage did not last. He later married Flossie Wilson. Both dead.

(9) Stella Artisha Vandergriff married Bill Carroll. They had one girl - Maxine. They lived in St. Louis, Mo. Aunt Stella died in April 1976 - buried in Crocker, Mo. Maxine [note 5] died a few years later. [Maxine had two children: Mary Lou and Donna Sue.]

(10) Augustus (called Gus) [note 6] Vandergriff was the baby of the family. He married Elma Cormack. They lived in Crocker & Waynesville. Had 3 children - Harold [note 7] (dead), Erma Chloe and Everell [note 8]. Harold is dead, Elma in Ariz. I believe and Everell is a barber working on Ft. Leavenworth, Kans. post.

Uncle Gus died at age 44 (in Crocker). He had what they called barber’s TB. He and Uncle Charley both barbered all their lives. I believe he died in fall of 1937.

The immediate family is all I ever knew about.

Someplace in the family was an Indian - Cherokee - seemed to be a disgrace and all I ever heard was "the Sloans." That is where the black eyes were supposed to have come from. My father and Uncle Gus were the only ones to have the dark eyes.

The Vandergriffs came from Ireland and my grandmother’s people from Germany. I think the name that came from Germany was Shipmann. And if you go to Crocker or Dixon to hunt connections you will find the name Forbes has been changed to Forbus. [note 9] Ignorance showing up!!

There are Nulls around Rolla Mo. Whether they are off-spring from Uncle Abe and Aunt Liza I do not know.

My dad was born in or near Vienna, Mo.

The country around Crocker and Dixon should be full of distant relation.

So many graves in the old cemeteries never had grave stones - too poor to afford one.

I know nothing of Mama’s people [note 10] - especially her mother. She is buried in an unmarked grave in Hillhouse Cemetery North of Stoutland about 6 or 8 miles. [note 11]

Uncle Bill Miller (my grand dad’s brother) married Matilda Honey. Their children were: Belle (Palmer) [note 12] Aretta (Elder) Elizabeth (Lizzie Stubblefield) Lydia (Shaller - Rustin) Florence (Kail) Victoria (Mondy) and John Miller.

One could go on to George Henry Miller - my grand dad’s first cousin. Their fathers must have migrated from Tenn. to Mo. together.

Do you know my grandfather’s entire family was wiped out one night when a cloudburst washed their home away? Grandpa and Uncle Bill were away from home working and therefore lived. That happened in Stoutland-Lebanon neighborhood. The creek was called Brush Creek. I never knew where Brush creek was.

This is all very disconnected so you will have to try to make rhyme and reason from it.

(The letter Oliver [note 13] wrote me I want returned to me please. Don’t neglect.)

The rest of this I do not need. The name Shipmann may not be correct. Someway it doesn’t sound right.

Also I thought you might like to know that your grandmother made a trip to Colorado in a covered-wagon train. I think it was probably in 1889 or 1890. The train was small - 3 wagons - travel conditions were much improved compared to 20 or 30 years earlier. I believe the wagons were all kin-folk. One wagon belonged to our grandfather (John Miller) one was his sister-in-law and husband a Mr. Shockley and wife Molly. I’m not sure who the 3rd wagon belonged to.

Mama said it was so tiring to ride in a wagon so they walked a great part of the way. It took them 3 months to make the trip. They did take rest periods of a few days and one time for a week.

They settled in the Yuma, Colorado, vicinity - about 40 miles out, I believe - in which direction from Yuma I know not. The men folk immediately set about making homes. They lived in what was called "soddies." There were no trees for shade or fuel. The houses had dirt floors - real well packed, were whitewashed inside for light. Windows were a scarce article on that wind swept prairie. Dried buffalo chips were their only fuel. Mama said the women and children ran all about collecting the chips in piles. Later the men brought wagons and hauled them to their homes where they were piled in ricks for winter burning.

Those homes were easy to heat (like a below-ground-level cellar) and cool in summer.

Rattle snakes seemed to be their most frequent enemies.

Mama found one by their door. She grabbed a shovel and killed it. A daring thing for a 10 or 11 yr. old child.

Twice a year the men folk harnessed their teams, hitched them to the wagons and drove 40 miles to lay in a 6 month supply of food and whatever else would be needed for next 6 mo.

They were homesteading but due to practically no rain their crops were failures. At the end of 3 years they gave up, sold what little they had accumulated and returned to Missouri.

But this time the women and children were returned by train. At that time (1892-93) it took almost 2 weeks to make that trip by rail. Much of their food was packed and brought on the train. The men folk drove through.

Mama and Aunt Birdie’s [note 14] mother died when they were 3 and 5 yrs. old, I think. Their Aunt Molly Shockley took them in and was a mother to them until Mama was 11 yrs. old. Then Grand dad decided they were old enough to help him with the cooking and house work. Mama said she was so homesick for Aunt Molly that she just had to go to her house each day to visit. And of course she needed much help and advice in most everything.

A terribly lonely existence for a little 11 yrs old girl. So its no wonder Mama was sort of an oddity in many respects.

I just thought you probably had never known about that part of her life.

I never did learn how their water was supplied. Ponds probably took care of the livestock. They may have dug wells.

Lots of prairie dogs were around at that time and I guess the children spent a lot of time watching them. Those prairies were at one time (a few million years ago) underwater. The prairie dogs would bring up beautiful sea shells which the children gathered up to play with. Mama kept a little sardine box full of them -- which we kids immediately lost. She should never allowed us to play with them.

This was always like a fairy tale to me!!

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A few notes:

As I have heard the story in the last few years, Henderson Vandergriff, our first Vandergriff ancestor in the U. S., had a daughter named Kate. Kate got pregnant, but would never reveal who the guy was. She and her father raised the child. That child was Isaac Vandergriff. He was my great grandfather. So, technically speaking, we shouldn’t be named Vandergriff (or even Wilson).

1Colleen -- Opal Colleen Vandergriff McCain -- was Dad’s eldest sister.

2John Oliver Vandergriff, born 1874, died 1935. Enola Paradine Vandergriff, born 1879, died 1958.

3Mom says Aunt Laura is buried in Hollister, MO, that she went to the funeral.

4Vernice had five children: Dorothy, Wayne, Gary, Curtis, and Jimmie Lee. These were the "cousins" I grew up with. They are actually our second cousins.

5Maxine had two girls by her first husband -- Mary Lou and Donna Sue Carroll. They used to visit us once in awhile when we were pre-teens. (The girls were Jerry and Bobby’s ages.) I haven’t seen them since then, though, and have no idea where they are. I think there was another girl by Maxine’s 2nd husband, but I’m not sure, and I don’t have a name to put on her.

6Uncle Gus was a fiddler. He and Vernice used to be partners in a barbershop in Waynesville and would play music on the sidewalk when they didn’t have customers, and he played at a lot of public events in the area -- he was quite highly regarded for his music. Some of the old-timers around Waynesville still remember him, and he is included in a history of Missouri fiddlers done by MU press a few years ago.

7Harold Vandergriff lived in Columbia, Mo.

8Everell Vandergriff is probably the barber John Colt met at Whiteman AFB. It may have been Everell’s son, though.

9Dad has often said that this name was pronounced "Faubus, like the Governor of Arkansas." He always contended that we were related to the Gov. I always doubted it, though I don’t know why. Maybe because I didn’t want to be kin to him. He was Governor in 1957 when President Eisenhower sent federal troops into Little Rock to integrate the schools. I don’t really care to be related to one of history’s villains

10Grandma Vandergriff’s father was a Baptist preacher also. I have seen a picture of him baptising people in the Gasconade River. We kids always called her "Mamo." Baby talk for "grandma," I guess.

11 Off of Highway T in Camden County.

12Belle Palmer was married to Robert E. Lee Palmer; he is the person my brother Bobby was named after.

13Oliver is my father -- Oliver Wyatt Vandergriff, born Nov. 26, 1913 in the same old house I were born in.

14Aunt Birdie, Grandmother Vandergriff’s sister, married Will Northrip. Uncle Will was the youngest of 21 children; his father was in his 70s when Uncle Will was born. His father was one of the first settlers in Laclede County. I remember Uncle Will pretty well, as he died when I was 12 or so. I always have found it fascinating that I knew the son of one of the first to settle Laclede County!