Volume 7, Number 2 - Winter 1980
Farm Award Honors Family's Past
By Viola Hartman
The view from Layton Hill is a magnificent sweep across several thousand acres in the southwest corner of Taney County overlooking new Highway 65, The School of the Ozarks and the ancient trail downward along Turkey Creek toward Hollister.
It includes the new home of Wanda and Vernon Layton who were among the seven Taney County families to recently receive an award from the American Revolution Bicentennial Missouri Committee for Agriculture. This plaque stated:
In observance of the American Revolution Bicentennial this Centennial Farm Award is presented to Thomas Foster Layton, homesteader, Vernon Layton, owner. This award is in recognition of those farm families who have maintained an active interest in agriculture by owning and operating a Missouri Farm for one hundred years or more.
"May this recognition also be a symbol of priority that a productive agriculture is vital to the health of this nation and to the world."
Signed this Bicentennial year of 1976, James H. Boillot and Elmer R. Eiehl.
Vernon Layton is understandably proud of this honor but of course, it doesn’t tell the full story. Even Vernon isn’t sure he knows it all. He is certain that the family is one of the oldest in this area and that his home rests on the original foundation of the old mansion built by Thomas Foster Layton over a century ago and became, in this county, a symbol of the Layton family’s perpetuity.
This early Layton, the first of the family to immigrate to this county was one of seven children born to Charles and Sarah Foster Layton of Spotslyvania County, Va. In 1843 he followed the acceptable and prudent custom of the time by marrying his cousin, Julia Ann Foster. Both the Layton and Foster families came from England. Their lineage is buried in antiquity but is known to have been from Scotch nobility. They were people of substantial holdings and community standing when this country was just getting established. In Virginia the Fosters owned not only vast lands but fleets of sailing ships and the Laytons were equally prominent. It was traditional that each individual member forge his own link in the family chain and there were no spoiled scions or favored sons.
Shortly after their marriage, Thomas and Julia Ann put their personal possessions in a wagon, hitched up a yolk of oxen and headed for Greene County, Mo., Springfield, the Ozarks’ Queen City was a mere mud-streaked urchin but Thomas Foster saw its future promise. His faith in it and himself was such that he opened a mercantile store, the first in the town and implemented its income with his work as a cabinet maker. Julia Ann contributed her share by sewing for the wealthy men of the area and within the rosy glow of ambitious youth, it looked as if they could make it on their own.
When news of the great gold discovery burst in Springfield, groups of men banded together for the trek Westward. Under the banner of The Greene County Argonauts, many headed toward California to make their fortune. How many died of disease, accident or foul play may never be known but the hazards soon became apparent to all. Thomas Foster was among a group of one hundred men, most of whom made it through safely. There is no doubt he hoped to find gold for he staked a claim in the hills above San Francisco. He was also a very practical man and as agent for the firm of Kimble, Shepherd and Kimble, he drove a herd of 1,500 cattle across the mountains to furnish meat for the 49ers. Since he anticipated being gone at least two years, Julia Ann went home to Virginia to stay with her folks while he was away. His letters back carried instructions as to the education of the children in his absence and included drafts to cover expenses and pay off debts. They were filled with details of what he found and did in that far off land. He wrote of opening a store there and making investments, most of which turned out to his financial satisfaction. Although he abhorred it personally, the trip out had been generally uneventful but the return was another matter. His father, who had gone with him refused to recross the mountains and plains so they booked passage on a ship to sail around by way of South America. The voyage was a near disaster. The sailing ship was becalmed for six weeks and the food ran out. The men became so desperate with hunger they decided one of their number must be killed in order that the others might live and drew lots for the sacrifice. However, before this cannibalistic act could be completed, a wind came up and, realizing there was a good chance another ship would come by and rescue them from starvation, they discarded the ballot. This last decision proved correct and the remainder of the trip was without further incident.
In 1854, Thomas returned to Poker Flats to check on his claim and the business he had established there. As before, he headed
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another cattle drive to pay his way. The claim had not produced anything of value and he felt himself fortunate to find a buyer--only to see the man strike gold the following day. This stay in the golden state was an unhappy period. Thomas Foster was a man reared in the Southern tradition of decency and honor. A man’s word was all that was necessary in a business transaction and a gentleman consorted with others of his kind. Here he found himself in the midst of thieves, gamblers and murderers. A man of strict moral convictions and church affiliations he found the absence of any religious life nearly intolerable. His letters to his parents and his wife were full of despair for what he saw and he noted with extreme clarity the conditions of the era and the absolute baseness of human nature. He began to dispose of his holdings as the vigilante groups took charge and hanged murderers in ever increasing numbers and he wrote that he could not willingly be part of such an existence. Probably his most pleasant memory was of a boat he had seen there--at least it made enough impression on him to give his next child its name, Sacramento Belle and to her eventually went his only known memento of his trips, a ring made from a gold nugget.
Julia Ann’s brother was also in the gold fields at this time and he wrote to his parents his impressions of the immorality there, stating there wasn’t a Virginian in the area and saying they must inform Julia Ann -- "I am far from ridiculing the people with whom she has been living for so long a time but must say that the Missourians are among the greenest set of people in general that I ever saw and if the people here are a fair example of the Western people, I say, Lord, deliver me from a Life’s residence among them!
How she received this message is unrecorded but her unselfish endeavors throughout her lifetime to comfort and assist her neighbors establish her concern for all humanity. In the best Southern tradition, no one was ever refused lodging or went hungry from the Layton home. She was waiting when her husband arrived back in Greene County, having spent this last vigil in her adopted land.
Thomas Foster’s homecoming was to an equally unpleasant situation shaping up. He had little time to adjust his affairs before the outbreak of the Civil War. He joined the army of Sterling Price and fought valiantly for what he believed to be right, the Confederate cause. At the Battle of the Elkhorn Tavern (Battle of Pea Ridge) he was wounded in the leg, captured and sent to Rolla, Mo. for the duration of the war and for the rest of his life was to walk with a limp.
There was relief if not gladness at the war’s end and the feeling among many Springfieldians at the assassination of Lincoln was mixed. The city was under martial law. Quintus Richards reported that the citizens there were informed of the president’s death and ordered to put out flags of mourning. One Southern sympathizer hung out a blood red tablecloth and when a Yankee Captain rode up hurriedly with his squadron to demand the meaning of this outrage, the lady replied she was doing as ordered. "Red is not mourning," he said and she snapped, "Red is mourning for the devil and the devil is dead!"
How strongly Thomas Foster’s feelings were personally he never said, (at least for posterity) and certainly he took advantage of Mr. Lincoln’s Homestead Act, homesteading 160 acres in Taney County, property bordered by one of the main north and south travel arteries used by the stage and freight lines between Springfield and Harrison, Ark. His neighbors were to be families who created Taney County history; the Ellisons, Olivers, Keiths, Whortons, Jacksons, Holidays, Coggburns and a couple of yankees he admired and respected, Dr. A. J. Storms and Hardin Warren.
He established a saw mill known as The Pinery and built a successful business, one important enough to have a store and Post Office in conjunction which became known as the town of Layton. Andrew Brown, father of Lee Brown and Winnie Stottle, courted Susie Bryan with letters mailed from this place and to this area came his cousin, the great statesman, William Jennings Bryan to visit during his campaigning. It became a favorite picnic spot in the nineties and "many a name is carved on the wall of the huge cave nearby."
Elizabeth Mahnkey describes the original power used at the mill as "tread power" and writes of "an immense wheel placed in an incline, driven by 24 head of cattle. Tied to a place behind each other as they walked they turned the great wheel that made the power. Later on, machinery was brought and installed and the mill became famous throughout the country."
It was the Layton mill that furnished the lumber to build the old mansion, "cut from Ozark oak and pine, so immense that two 52" saws, one above the other, were required to make the cuts and only the heart of the logs was used," wrote Mrs. Mahnkey.
The house was styled in the old Colonial fashion of the Virginia plantations with stately white pillars of the veranda supporting the high roof and dormer windows that cast oblique shadows onto the grounds below. There was beautifully carved woodwork, false fireplaces and a magnificent stairwell. Quoting a Layton, Mrs. Mahnkey wrote of the family ghost, "not a creepy, spooky ghost," but one who made its presence known "in the dark hours of the night with the pleasant tinkle of glass and silver in the grand old dining room."
It was a lofty, alien neighbor to the hand hewn log cabins and salt box clapboards scattered through the country but to its
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owner the house was a monument to remind his sons and daughters of their prestigious heritage. It took seven years to build and so remarkable was the workmanship it withstood the ravages of the elements and the onslaught of numerous descendents for over a hundred years.
Originally there were two enormous trees flanking the entrance (one is dead) and twin barns in the rear (one remains) with a handsome cellar built of square rock quarried on the place and still in use, and the customary burial grounds behind the house where Thomas Foster and Julia Ann rest among their kin and close by the slaves who chose to ignore emancipation.
Thomas also brought to this homestead the first and finest dairy cattle of the Ozarks to pasture on the luscious and plentiful native bluestem grass. He raised jet black saddle horses, prized as the ultimate in luxury by breeders and riders, alike and easily identified by the tiny white forehead star that was their trademark. But his greatest feat was bringing in the Morgan quarter horse from New Hampshire which he bred and trained as the stock introduced into the West--the fabulous cutting horse of the great cattle roundups.
He was a man of good judgment with a reputation for fair dealing and was often asked to settle disputes or act as administrator. (He was one of three men appointed by the court to appraise the value of Malinda Fortners property following her death--the land that became the center of Hollister.)
He was foremost in many fields and endeavors, setting the social trends and customs and helping to establish better educational standards. He employed teachers, paid their salaries and boarded them free of charge, allowing anyone who desired to attend classes. His own family received the best education available and were taught to understand its value. All made good use of this. One son became a lawyer and a daughter married an educator who established the famous Clarke Academy at Berryville, Ark.
Obviously he had help in these matters and his strength and moral support no doubt came from his constant companion and equally strong wife. The couple seemed invincible. They had conquered near insurmountable obstacles, recreated a genteel Southern way of life in a raucous new environment. Their dreams were unfolding and they saw the future a serene and happy fulfillment.
When their twelfth child was two years old. Julia Ann developed "congestive fever" and died. While the world did not end, for Thomas Foster it changed and was never the same again. (He did remarry--a widow with a small child and twenty-six years his junior.) Years later he had a magnificent portrait of Julia Ann done by a Chicago firm, an expensive and lengthy process. The day the portrait arrived he wrote his daughter of his satisfaction with the result and said he had taken it over to show Uncle Hardin Warren.
Thomas Foster Layton died July 20, 1899 at the age of sixty seven but his mansion continued to house his children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. It was they who added to the original homestead until now the aggregate acres number nearly a thousand.
Information for this article was obtained from family records of Avis Hawkins, Betty Ammerman and Mr. and Mrs. Vernon Layton. Permission for this use is gratefully acknowledged.
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