Volume 4, Number 11 - Spring 1973
The story of my parents as far as my knowledge goes.
by John William Kilby Taneyville, Missouri
Richard Kilby, my father was born March 26th, 1864, in Alherington, England. Father had two brothers, John Charles Kilby and Tom Kilby and a half brother, Walter Ind.
There were no free schools in England. At this time most of the farm land was owned by Lords and Princes and the King and Queen of England. Most all the labor was done by hand, only the preparation of the fields was done with horses. Horses at that time was worked tanden, one ahead of the other.
The produce was hauled in two wheeled carts, which had high wheels and wide fellows and tires. They would carry a load of two tons. In my father’s time the main crops were barley and oats. For oats, the fields were prepared for planting and marked off in rows about 12" apart, seeds dropped into the furrows and covered.
All cultivation was done by hoe and by people of all ages. All worked under an underseer who was assigned to so many to look after the crops. The grain was cut with sickles when ripe, Bound in bundles, some to be threshed and sold, the balance stacked.
After a healthy child had passed its 10th birthday, it could be taken into the home of one of the land-owners until it was 18 years old. They were fed and clothed and taught a usedful trade. No schooling was required. My father’s father died and left three sons to raise by the Mother. My Father was taken to a nursery and landscape-owner and learned all about care of flowers and shrubs, including pruning, grafting, and budding. He learned the business thoroughtly and also learned to read and write after his 18th birthday.
He was picked by some branch of Scotland yard, passed his examination and was assigned to the Hussars. They were men used to guard homes and property of the King, Queen, and their relatives. They carried no weapons, only a horn. Father brought his horn to America, it was the most beautiful horn I ever saw. The large end was sterling silver, and there were two bands of silver around the horn with rings and eight strands of braided sash that were about six feet long with two large tassesl at the end. This was worn over the shoulder.
At the small end of the horn was a regular mouth piece. The horn could be heard a long ways and was used to bring help in case of an emergency. Father being so young was used to guard gates and was used to guard the street when some member of the King’s family went for a ride, either on business or pleasure.
Father made application to come to America as an emigrant and was accepted. He and Mother were married at Waterbury, England, March 11, 1889. Father was 25 years old and Mother was 24 when they were married.
Father sailed on a ship from Liverpool the next day, working his passage in the hold of the ship, helping to care for a shipment of cattle to America. Arriving in New York he gave his immigration papers to the immigration officials and they sent him to Chicago, Illinois, from
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there they sent him to Navoo, Ill., to work in a flour mill, powered by water from a canal. Father saved him money and paid Mother’s passage to Chicago. They lived at Navoo where my two oldest sisters were born.
I know very little about Mother’s family. Her Father, William Marshall, was born December 26, 1818. Mary Bell, his wife, was born December 18, 1820. To this marriage were born five children. My mother, Mary Mercy Marshall, born March 10, 1847; Elezabeth Marshall, Oct. 31, 1853; William Marshall, April 23, 1856; John George Marshall, December 3, 1858; and Eliza Marshall, July 5, 1861. All these children were born at Bristol, England.
My mother wrote to her sisters every few months and I used to address these letters for mother. I have no record of John Charles Kilby, Father’s next older brother; only that he could not read nor write and was farmed out and learned to be an expert farmer and stock handler.
I do not know when he arrived in America, but he lived with us his entire life after he came to America. He passed away in 1927 at Taneyville, Mo., and was buried at Taney City Cemetery.
Tom Kilby was Father’s second brother. He was farmed out to a baker and learned the bakery trade. After he came to America he worked in a bakery in Chaunute, Kansas until his death. He was buried at Chaunute.
My father’s Father died and left my Father’s mother with three children to raise. After Uncle Tom was farmed out, she married a man by the name of Ind, and they had one son Walter Ind.
After he came to America he settled in the Black Hills of Dakota. He visited us at the farm south of Taneyville when I was about nine years old. He had one son. That is all I know about him or any of his relatives. I do not know when Father moved to Kansas, but he lived on a farm near Buffalo, which is about 16 miles due west of Chaunute and 6 miles from Benedict, Kans. He made neighbors with a family by the name of Stark. Father must have moved to Chaunute early in 1877. (September 2.) as my sister Emily was born in Chaunute or at least in Neosha county. All the rest of the children were born in Chaunute.
Father was section forman for the M.K.&T. Railroad from Chaunute to Austin, a distance of 8 miles. There was a water tank 2 miles south of Chaunute on Drum creek. Water was pumped by horse power. My Uncle John was in charge of this M.K.&T. tank and pump. We lived somewhere near the railroad tracks when I was born. The railroad was the East and North boundary of Chanute at that time.
Before I was old enough to know, the city made a large park down there and all the houses were moved.
I know where we lived when I was 4 years old and know my own history from that time on. The winter I was 5 years old we lived on the corner of Santa Fe Ave., on 7th St. in a two-story house, in an apple orchard. There was an Osage hedge extending from Santa Fe Ave., west on 7th St. clear to the railroad tracks, or right of way.
My father moved the family to the South edge of Chaunute which was 16th St. The farm (320 acres) extended along the South boundary line of Chaunute. I have a picture about 11 x 14 showing our entire family, the two-story house and the barn. The farm was owned by John Cross. He also owned the farm just across the county road going South. The land of this farm was very poor. Father planted 100 acres of broom corn which was in great demand at that time and was easy to raise. Father alwasy paid cash rent and planted a crop to sell to pay all the bills. In the fall when the broom corn ripened it had to be tabled. You walk backwards and pull two rows together.
You would bend the stalks and pull the two rows together and where the stalks were broken it would cut the sap. It stayed that way until the brush ripened and was cut off and stacked in sheds until it was seeded. The brush broom corn was run over a roller to remove the seeds. The roller was stuck full of fine nails driven into a wooden roller, then the nail heads were cut off leaving them 3/4 inches long.
This roller was run by horse power. After the seeds were off, the brush was sorted, bailed in burlap sacks, like cotton, with bands around each bale. The bale weighing about 500 lbs. was sold and loaded on cars for shipment. In the fall Mr. Cross sold this farm to a company that started a brick yard. August 24th of this year, I was 6 years old and started to school with my three sisters. It was called the Cross school and was 1/4th mile from where we lived.
I remember the names of five of the scholars—Katie Bonebrake, her brother, Walter, Jess Woosley, and Mary McAtee.
Father moved in the Spring to a farm just West of the city limits and there was no school near the place. All of us children, my three sisters and myself went to the old forthward school house in Chaunute, a distance of about one mile.
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Some company had just built a processing plant to make linseed oil at Fredonia, Kansas, which was about 40 mills S.W. of Chaunute. The company urged farmers to plant large acreage of flax. My Father planted 80 acres of flax and bought a reaper, it was built by the McCormick company and was run by a bull wheel attached to the piston that ran the sickle. It had a steel platform and a large reel which bent the grain toward the sickle. The next cut pushed the first one off onto the ground where it lay until it was ready for the thresher. It was threshed from the windrow like the thresh alfalfa now. Father also planted five acres of castor oil beans which had to be gathered every day when they started to ripen. The rows were 6 ft. apart and father made a sled pulled by one horse.
Father and Uncle John cut the rope pods and threw them into the sled box. When filled the beans were hauled in for storage.
Father had a sod plow, moldboard 3 ft. long. It had a round sharp cutter that was fastened to the beam. The plow cut 10 inches wide and 2 inches deep. It turned the sod into long strips and the strips were cut into sections two to three feet long and laid one on top of the other. The ground was swept clean and the castor beans were scattered over the area. The hot sun opened the pods and the the beans popped out. The girls kept turning the pods over and when most of the beans had popped out the pods were raked off. That just left the beans and a small amount of trash. When the castor bean crop was all gathered, the sacks of beans were hauled to town and run through a large fan to remove remaining trash, again sacked and sold. They brought a good cash price.
Father did not have any cattle, we did have three milk cows. There was a fairly large lot and the hogs were kept there. It seems when cash got scarce, Uncle John always had a fat hog to take to slaughter just a short distance from town.
Father planted 1/2 acre of horseradish and bought a grinder. He got a state license, had labels printed (Pure Horseradish) with his name on the label. Uncle John and Father would dig, clean and grind the roots and use some kind of a mixture, mostly vinegar, putting it into cedar buckets or tubs. After school the girls would fill the bottles which were not very large, then a cap was put on and the bottle labeled. I think a lot of tears were shed while filling these bottles. The bottles were packed and sold to the stores.
This was the year 1890. The winter of 1890 and 1891 Father was taken sick and became bedfast. Our family doctor, Dr. Brown, said he had lung fever. Finally one lung collapsed. When spring came Father got better and gained strength. Then the doctor told him he would have to find a milder climate to live in.
In late fall 1891, Father bought a heavy spring wagon with steel axles and slatted bed, with one front seat. Father took off the bed and had the runninggear made longer, Then he built a bed with an overhang which was wide enough to put in a small set of springs and matress behind the seat. He got together a camping outfit, bought a small stocky team and started out. He drove to Oklahoma and part of Texas, Tennessee and came up through Arkansas into Missouri. We crossed White River at Forsyth and went north to Taney City, where John T. Dickenson had one of the largest stores and dwelling in Taney County at that time.
Father stopped there and found that Mr. Dickenson came from England and that his wife was raised in the adjoining Parish as my Mother’s Father.
Mr. Nickerson was judge of the probate court at Forsyth and was administrator of the Taylor estate.
Mr. Taylor and his son were presumbly killed by the Balk-Knobbers and were buried about 400 feet South of the house.
Mr. Nickerson took Father to look at this place of 80 acres, one-fourth mile East & West and one half-mile North 8- South. The barn was burned down leaving a story and one-half log house. A small building which was about 24 inches off the ground was used for storing grain. The house was built of logs with a large fire place in the East end. The house was 16 feet wide and 18 feet long, with two doors and no windows, and had puncheon floor. The roof was shack shingles 36 inches long, rived with a frow. It had no ceiling or floor for the up stairs.
Father bought lumber for a floor for the upstairs and fastened a ladder as there was no stairway. All we three children slept up-stairs except Alice the youngest sister who was about two years old. This was in March 1892.
The North 40 acres of land was in the Helphry school district, the South half was in the Taney City district. There were four of us children school age. My oldest sister and I went to Helphry and my other two sisters went to Taney City school. Sister Flo went to Helphry. Emily and Nillie to Taney City. After Father bought the farm from Mr. Dickenson he came on to Chanute, Kansas where we lived. This
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was in the fall of 1891.
This farm is now owned by Harley Bennet and is 3/4 mile South of Taneyville. After Father returned from his trip, everything was done to get ready for the move to the Taney county farm he had bought.
The trip was made by wagon, some of the things were shipped to Chadwick which was on a branch of the Frisco railroad about 20 miles north of the farm. Father had bought a new mowing machine which had a three foot sickle and was pulled by one horse. I believe this was the first mower in Taney county.
Father started a nursery at Taneyville about 1894. He sold the farm to Dan, John, Tom Hart and their widowed sister.
Stephen Johnson had plotted 40 acres of land and registered it at Forsyth and called it Taneyville. Father bought a track 210 ft. wide and 1/4 mile long divided into lots.
Father built a two story house on the West of these lots and Liege Hull drilled a well by horse power. It was the first well drilled in Taneyville. It is still there and covered with cement. At the present time it is owned by my niece, Francis Hires.
After the house was built, this was the time Father started his small nursery. He made apple grafts and we children wrapped them after school. This was about the Month of February.
These grafts were tied in bunches, labeled, placed in rows in boxes of sand and kept in the celler until about the 10th of May, when they were planted in rows in the ground about 8 inches apart.
After my twelfth birthday, setting these grafts with a dibbling pin was my job as my Father could no longer stoop over, He also taught me to bud peaches which was done in the month of August.
In the fall we made shallow furrows and dropped peach seeds in them. The freezing cracked the shell and the peach seedlings came up and were thinned out to almost one foot apart. In the Month of August, peach buds were put on these seedlings. Father had a special knife for this work. After my 12th birthday most of this work was done by me. Father set two apple orchards, one of 20 acres on the farm now owned by by Nephew, Roy Stout.
John William Kilby passed away
September, 1966.
Buried in the Dickens Cemetery.
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