The Turnbo Manuscripts
by Silas Claiborne Turnbo
1844-1925
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GRAVE YARD ON LITTLE NORTH FORK
By S. C. Turnbo
From the top of the bluff between where the waters of Little North Fork
and Pond Fork mingle their waters together, an observer has an extended
view of wooded hills, ridges, hollows and creek bluffs. At an ordinary stage
the water in both streams are clear and transparent and the roar of the
rushing water as it passes over the shoals is heard at a long distance.
On the west bank of North Fork below the junction of the two streams is
situated the hamlet of Theadosia. Jim Clarkson was the first settler here.
His wife was named Polly and they had two girl children whose names were
Nancy and Elizabeth. One morning at day break in war times 7 men on horse
back crossed the creek near where the roller mill dam is now and charged
up to the log cabin occupied by Clarkson and his family and compelled Mr.
Clarkson to go with them to a glade on the side of a hill near where the
Lutie Road now passes and near ¼ mile from the creek where they halted
and shot him to death and rode on. Two of Clarksons sisters Patsey and Mandy,
Jim Pelham and Nathan Young were the first to reach the spot where the murdered
man lay. It is said that a pale yellow dog named Tige which belonged to
Clarkson followed him to his death and returned back to the house and accompanied
the searching party and guided them to the place where his dead master lay
in the embrace of cold grim death. As it was nearly impossible to have a
coffin made here in those days of blood and strife his remains were enclosed
in a common box. I am told that both his children are dead. Nancy was buried
at the side of her father’s grave. Mr. Clarkson was an inoffensive
man and one of his eyes had been destroyed by fire in the state of Illinoise
when he was a little fellow. On the opposite side on North Fork from the
bluff is an old time burial place of the dead. This grave yard is marked
by a grove of timber and is situated on the upper part of the Lize Friend
farm. On the 5th day of October 1905 1 went up to the top of this bluff
to view this cemetery and reflect back when the old timers of this neighborhood
once enjoyed the balmy air of the Ozarks. Mr. Lize Friend informs me that
Agnes a little daughter of John B. Graham died in 1838, her body was the
first interment here. The body of "Gid" Brown who was killed on
the east prong of Big Creek by a pedlar in 1839 was the second interment
here. A large number of pioneer people of Ozark County Mo. rest in this
cemetery. Among them are three of the Risleys, Ben Silas and Bert. Two first
named were brothers and Bert was a son of Silas’s. Silas Risley’s
wife was named Betsey and I am told that Silas was the first settler on
the land known now as the sand field which is on the west bank of Little
North Fork just above where Paton Keesee lived many years ago known now
as the "Dug" Price Place. Here in this sandy bottom Silas Risley
cleared one acre of land and planted it in corn and I am reliably informed
that he raised 100 bushels of corn off of this acre of land. This was a
few years after Paton Keesee occupied the "Dug" Price land in
1823. Returning to the grave yard we are told that the old pioneer settler
John B. Graham and his wife whose name was Betsey is also buried here. Other
early residents of Ozark County whose mouldering bones repose here are Isaac
Copelin, Isaiah Baize, John B. Ford, Noel Hutchison, John Friend and Lewis
Clarkson. Jim Clarkson son of Lewis Clarkson who we have already stated
was killed in war times was also buried here. This village of the dead was
known many years ago as the Betsey Graham Grave Yard, taking its name from
Mrs. Betsey Graham who lived here a number of years after the death of her
husband.
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