The Turnbo Manuscripts
by Silas Claiborne Turnbo
1844-1925
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BRIEF SKETCH OF EARLY HISTORY OF THE GRAVE YARD IN THE
SOUTH WEST CORNER OF OZARK COUNTY, MO.
By S. C. Turnbo
On the south side of White River in the Southwest corner of Ozark County,
Mo. opposite the Panther Bottom is an old burying place of the dead. This
grave yard is in a field and is marked by a small grove of timber and is
situated on a fine plot of ground on the second bank of the river between
two small hollows. This ground was selected by Cage Hogan for the interment
of his son George Hogan who died on the 28th of April 1850, and was the
first buried here. Mr. Hogan and Aunt Polly his wife placed a native stone
at the head of their sons grave with name and date of his death carved on
it. Enoch Fishers wife was the second interment here; she died soon after
George Hogan did. These were the only two graves here when my parents moved
to the farm just above here in the fall of 1853. This old time grave yard
calls to mind an epidemic of pneumonia which spread among the settlers who
lived on the river. It broke out in January 1858 and lasted until the middle
of February before it released its grip on the people. But before it died
out it took away many people. Martin Johnson made 11 coffins at our house
during this fatal spell of winter fever. The eleven bodies that Mr. Johnson
made coffins for were all buried in this grave yard. Among the dead was
my brother Newton Jefferson Turnbo who died on the 13 of February of that
year. Among the names of people who have died and are buried here that we
have not mentioned in other chapters is Mrs. Elmira Magness widow of Sam
Magness and a sister of the writers mother. Two of her daughters Eliza and
Patsey also rest here.
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