William Reed/Farncombe

While in De Soto Library recently, I was looking through their files and found this. It was a very faded copy---this is actually more readable than the original. It was stapled to a lot of genealogy of local French families---Roussin and Lalomondier are two that I recall. I don't know who wrote it. It is slightly different from the other story that other Reed cousins had. I'm going to try to transcribe it to the best of my ability without making comments. But, before beginning I want to be clear that William Reed was not royalty---his father was a "Chelsea pensioner" having retired from the British army before he was born (and he wasn't an officer, either). Please click on the "Lables" to the left on Reed or Farncombe for other stories.

Tyrey Family on a Flatboat

This is an image I snatched from the internet, but I wanted to show what it must have been like to travel down the Mississippi River on a flatboat. Two relatives have related the story that Jacob Tyrey and Celecia Kilpatrick Tyrey with their children---Francis M. Tyrey and Caroline Tyrey Valle (and possibly my g-g grandmother Eliza Ellen Tyrey Reiter who is listed as being born in Missouri, Illinois and Wisconsin). Here is a web-page which explains the dimensions and logistics of a flatboat a little better.

Tyrey Final Resting Places

After taking a detour around a flooded road, we finally found the Maness/Fletcher Cemetery.
It was beautifully maintained with a well-painted fence. Although some of the stones look broken, I think they were the origninal stones which were just rocks.
Although this is hard to read, I loved the colors and textures---it is for a J. E. Maness (but not one we are related to) Click here to see everyone in this cemetery.

This is the stone for Francis Marion Tyrey and his wife Sophia Marrah (not the original French spelling). He was Eliza Ellen Tyrey Reiter's oldest brother----Mary Reiter Long's uncle.
Linda shared this photo of Francis Tyrey and Sophia. He looks so much like my great uncle Clarence Long (the little blond boy sitting on a stool in the middle) and his son Clyde Long.

After lunch, we wanted to find the Poor Farm where Jacob Tyrey (Francis and Eliza's father) spent his final days.
Using my plat map and a current map of Jefferson County, we were able to locate the buildings (Although these building look like abandoned houses, if you click on them to enlarge them, you'll see satellite dishes on them) We don't know why Jacob Tyrey was at the Poor Farm but he was quite old. One of his descendants recalls hearing about "the old man at the Poor Farm". He lived there from 1896-1899. We assume he died there and is in an unmarked grave. Click here for more information on the "Poor Farm."

Cousin Dwight said there is a cemetery nearby, but we didn't visit it. I still think Jacob Tyrey is probably in an unmarked grave nearby although the article on the Poor House says many paupers are buried in Neeley Cemetery in Hillsboro, MO.

Tyrey Country

Linda (married to a distant cousin) and I decided to try to find the old Tyrey homestead---where Jacob Tyrey (my g-g-g grandfather) lived. First, we crossed Tyrey Creek many times which was full after all of the rain we've had this fall.
Linda had a map which certainly helped us find the Tyrey Homestead, but we were disappointed to see it had burned down.It had been a log cabin, I believe. We don't know when the fire was but it was definitely within the past 20 years.
Here are the tags on the front post which shows that whoever owned the property had paid for fire protection up until 1988.
Linda's eagle eyes found a little foot bridge over Tyrey Creek.
Next, we decided to try Tyrey Road. I was pretty impressed that these gravel roads had street signs. Tyrey Road, however, was a little travelled gravel road.
Yeah, that's mud on the windshield. . .we got to someone's yard where there was a gate to keep us from going on up the road, so we turned around and decided to try to find the Maness Cemetery where many of our relatives were buried.
Although our map had directed us to a different Oak Grove Church, we think this was the Oak Grove Church where the Tyrey families belonged.
But, the road to the church and cemetery had water flowing very swiftly across it. We decided that would not be wise to cross this stream.We stopped by the post office to see if there was another way to get to Maness Cemetery. The postmaster just laughed when she found where we had been. She,then, told us how to get around this water hazard.

William Graham's Will

William and Margaret Graham are perhaps my most interesting ancestors (4 greats). They are Catherine Caroline Brown Long's (Milton's wife) grandparents. Their daughter (Catherine's mother)was Mary (Polly) Graham Brown who was born in Missouri around 1811.

Originally they were just names, but I gradually began to realize that almost everyone with Jefferson County pioneer blood is related to them (some, like cousin Rick, is related to them three or four ways). Although we aren't sure where they came from, they were definitely early settlers since Missouri wasn't a state until 1821.

At first, we thought William had died before 1830 because Margaret is the head of the household in the census (above). But, then we found William's will dated 1835: