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John Case
Jesse Case - Elizabeth McMinnAs the white population increased in the southeastern states the Indian tribes of that region became crowded for land the wild game was growing scarce. This led to frequent raids of the white settlers by bands of Indians from the native tribes. In 1808 a delegation of Cherokee Indians from southern Appalachian region went to Washington to ask Pres. Jefferson to grant them permission to migrate west of the Mississippi River. Their request was granted in June 1809. In 1824 Pres. Monroe recommended to Congress that a tract of land west of Arkansas and Missouri be set aside for the colonization of Indians from the states east of the Mississippi River. Between 1824 and 1830, the date of the establishing of Indian Territory, there was such dissatisfaction in some of the Indian tribes, whose old members did not wish to leave the land of their ancestors. This was especially true in the Cherokee tribe in Georgia. There were many small migrations of Indians to the land west of Arkansas and Missouri before the great forced trek of 1828, known as the Trail of Tears. During one of these Cherokee migrations the Gov. of Georgia commissioned Robert Case, son of Jesse, along with other citizens of Georgia, to escort a band of Cherokees to the land west of Arkansas Territory. They must have ferried the Mississippi somewhere south of the mouth of the Arkansas River. Bob Case was discharged from his duty as guide and guard to the Indians, he left Fort Smith, Arkansas and traveled northeast through Ozark region of north Arkansas and south Missouri to St. Louis, where he ferried the Mississippi, and traveled on to his father's new home in East Tennessee. All this traveling was done on horseback. About the time Bob started on his mission with the Indians his father, Jesse Case, moved his English family to East Tennessee, where they became neighbors of the Scotch-Irish Jacksons of East Tennessee, the English William Riley Matthews of Western Virginia, the Irish Millers of East Tennessee, and the Irish Warren Wrights of Kentucky. Although they lived in three different states they were close neighbors. When young Bob Case arrived home with such enthusiastic descriptions of the great bubbling springs of sparkling water and the rich valley land, of the rivers and creeks all through the Ozark Mountains just waiting to be homesteaded, the above named neighbors decided to migrate to Missouri. Under the guidance of young Bob they organized a caravan and started for the St. Louis ferry in the spring of 1832. The women and children along with their food supplies and the necessary household furnishings were transported in oxen driven wagons. The men and boys herded their farm animals along with the caravan. As ox-team travel was very slow the herded animals ate their fill each day along the trails and road sides. When they reached the drainage basin of Gasconade River in Pulaski Co., Mo. the Matthews, the Cases, the Jacksons and the Wrights, made permanent camp and the head man of each family began to look around and choose the land he wished to homestead. The Millers drove further north along the Gasconade River and chose their land in Osage Co., Mo. where the country was not so hilly. This group of pioneers were public spirited and always answered the call of public service in the community. They were consecrated Baptist in their church life and followed the leadership of William Riley Matthews in community service. As soon as the log-cabin houses were built and occupied and their fields were fenced with oaken rails split from the great oaks cleared from the fields which the fence enclosed, they turned their spare time to building a log church, using the trunks of the huge white oak trees of the primeval forest. They hewed the sides of each log flat and fashioned a room 16 feet square with a large stone fireplace in one side. The land for this church and the church yard (cemetery nearby) was donated and deeded to the state by members of the Matthews family. The old log church served the community for religious worship and also as a school house for more than three generations. The school term consisted of three months in late summer and early autumn. This church was known for miles around as the Pisgah Baptist Church of Pulaski Co., Mo. and the organization is still in existence but they have a neat little frame building with cushioned pews. Jesse and Elizabeth (McMinn) Case had eleven children: Robert, John, William, Elizabeth, Caroline, Virginia, James, Mary, 2 infant daughters and one infant son.
James Case - MargaretMargaret was born in 1824 in Illinois. James and Margaret had four children: William, John Franklin, Josiah S., and Nancy E.
John Franklin Case - Mary Tennessee CrismonJohn was born 12 March 1845, in Missouri. He served in the Civil War. He died 10 July 1889, on the Hugh Murphy farm, known as the Claiborn farm in Pulaski County, Missouri, and was buried in the Pisgah Cemetery. Mary Tennessee Crismon Case was born 16 August 1842, in Missouri and died in Vera, Oklahoma in 1916, and is buried in the Ridgelawn Cemetery, Collinsville, Oklahoma. John, Mary and family lived in Dry Creek township in Maries County, Missouri. They had eleven children: Telitha Cumi "Dink", Nancy Elizabeth "Tobe", Sarah Ellen, Allen Leander, Rosa Lee, Thomas Jefferson, James William, Martha, Mary Tennessee, Robert McMinn and Maude Mae.
Allen Leander Case - Minnie Frances HutsellAllen Leander Case was said to have been born 16 January 1873 in Dixon, Pulaski County, Missouri, the son of John Franklin Case and Mary Tennessee Crismon, but the 1870 census records the family in Maries County, Missouri, Dry Creek Township, family number 54. Dry Creek Township is just northeast of Dixon in Maries County. In the 1880 census John and Mary were still living in Maries County with Family number 139. However, with the numerous relatives of John and Mary in and around Dixon, Mary could have gone to Dixon to be near a doctor when Allen was born, but he appears to have been raised up in southern Maries County where his grandfather Crismon was county sheriff. Allen was 16 when his father died, and being the oldest son in the family, the responsibility of making the living fell mostly on him. His younger brother, Tom, spent most of his time traveling around the country. Minnie Frances Hutsell was born 20 September 1873 in Crocker, Pulaski County, Missouri, the daughter of Bartley Leonard Hutsell and Julia Ann Lipscomb. By 1880, the census shows Bartley and Julia "Hutsel" living in Laclede County near Bartley's brother, Rankin, and their parents, John and Nancy "Hutsel". According to Minnie, she and Allen were married 5 September 1897, in the log cabin home of her parents, located 6 miles southeast of Crocker (on the present DD highway) and one miles south of Wheeler's Mill (formerly Lipscomb's Mill). Allen was 24 and Minnie was 15 days short of her 24th birthday, an old maid for those days. When asked how his parents met, Ernest, there son quipped, "I think he was drowning' a dog in a barrel where they was havin' a footwashin'" and then admitted that he didn't know for sure but thought that it was at a church meeting. "She was goin' with an old boy by the name of old Pink Mitchell. Us Kids would see old Pink Mitchell un' say, boy wouldn't it a been awful if he'd a been our dad. Mom's got uh tin-type of old Pink". Church was the place were most young folk met and courted in those days, for not only was it a place where folk went to get their spirits rejuvenated, but it was also a great time for them to relax with their friends and neighbors and hear the local news. Also, when a "camp meetin'" or revival was held, folk would gather in for miles around so that there was ample opportunity for young folk to meet who lived many miles apart. Their first home was on a farm known as the Nath Wheeler place. This farm probably belonged to Nathan, the son of William E. Wheeler, Minnie's step-grandfather. However, by 2 November 1898, when their first child, Lou Edna was born, they were living near the Needmore School. The following year they moved to St. Joseph, Missouri in a covered wagon pulled by a team of mules. The roads where just two ruts made by the wheels of wagons, and since they had no map to guide them, they stopped at each town along the way to ask directions. They crossed the Missouri River on a ferry at Lexington, Missouri. Wondering why passengers were not allowed to remain in their wagon while on the ferry, they soon learn the reason when the mules became so frightened that it was all Allen could do to keep them from plunging into the river. While living in South St. Joseph, Allen worked in a meat packing plant. He put the mules out on pasture at a farm outside of town. While they were in St. Joseph the 1900 census records this information: Buchanan county, Washington township, St. Joseph, Missouri. Now who is this Frank Case? Could he really have been Allen and Minnie's son? No mention has ever been made by any member of the family about such a child. Lou Edna became sick with "summer complaint", now called diarrhea, and the doctor agreed it would be good for them to take her elsewhere. Minnie was homesick anyway, so, one evening after work, Allen got the mules, loaded the wagon, and they left St. Joseph. After returning to Pulaski County they lived on the Shockley place on the Gasconade River "down by the old bridge" outside of Waynesville. Here, three more children were born, Emmit Oral on 5 November 1900, Ewell Allen on 25 May 1902 and Ora Augusta on 14 August 1904. But then hardship and discouragement came when the Gasconade, swollen with heavy rains, washed out their crops and damaged their fields. Nancy Matthews (Allen's older sister) and her family were moving to Indian Territory. The year was 1905. Allen and Minnie were home folk, not to much inclined to stray far from home, but with the gloom of their loss they were convinced that a new country might be a better place for a new start. They joined the wagon train headed southwest. Arriving in the vicinity of Vera (in the present Washington County, Oklahoma) they rented a farm, pitched their tent and set-up housekeeping. Here on 5 June 1906, Ernest Lee was born. After only one year, in the fall of 1906, homesick for the hills of home, they returned to Missouri and rented "the old Underwood place out northeast of Crocker a little ways." A few months later, on 1 March 1907, Emmit Oral, age 6 years and 4 months, died of the croup. He was buried in the Mitchell Chapel Cemetery. A year later on 24 March 1908, John Raymond was born and then on 15 December 1909, Ivan Delbert was born. There is a bumper sticker that says, "Get revenge, live long enough to be a problem to your kids". Minnie would probably have agreed with that thought when her boys were young. She raised chickens, but one day discovered that her baby chicks were disappearing. Ernest, about 4 years old, had killed them by stomping on them and throwing them in the cellar to hide the evidence. When asked why, he replied, "cause they where bittin' my toes". He had been eating bread out in the yard and the chickens naturally pecked at the crumbs as they fell from his hands. On another occasion, while Minnie was out milking, Ewell put the cat in the old dasher churn full of buttermilk. Allen and George Hutsell, Minnie's brother, had a custom of purchasing a gallon of whiskey each Christmas. Allen would buy Peach Brandy and George would buy another kind. They would then divide the whiskey so that they could both have a half-gallon of each kind. Neither of them would ever get drunk but would use it for "medicinal purposes", so they said. Allen stored his whiskey behind the door. One day, while the grown-ups were out doing their chores, Ernest, age 4, and Ewell, age 8, decided to sample the whiskey. Ernest wasn't big enough to hold the gallon jug up for himself, so Ewell would hold it for him while he drank, then, when Ewell was drinking, Ernest would holler for more. He got "fightin' mad" because Ewell was getting more than him. The drunker they became, the more they drank. By the time the folks returned, they were so drunk they couldn't stand. Ewell had a new pair of cowboy boot on, and his feet must have swollen because they couldn't get them off, so they just laid him on a pallet for the night. They were sick and throwing up all night. Allen hid the whiskey and never purchased any more. Several moves were made in the next few years. From the Underwood place to Swedeborg, to "Lightnin' Rod", to the Red Sow Ranch about 5 or 6 miles east of Crocker near the Cowan School where the children attended classes. Here, on 31 December 1913, their last child, Charles Columbus, was born. The following year they moved again and the kids attended the Sweet Home school. Ora said they had to get their drinking water at the Robertson farm about a half mile from the school. The older children would take turns carrying the water bucket. They all drank from the same dipper. New concerns overtook Allen now as his oldest children approached courting age. The first was Edna. A pie social was held at the school house across the river. Allen, Edna, Ora, Ewell and Ernest crossed the river in a boat and walked to the social. There, Edna met Ben Fuller and his friend Harvey McKinnon. Ben got Edna's pie that night and the next Sunday came courting, while Harve went on to court Edna's cousin, Pearl Poulson. The following April Harve and Pearl were married. Ewell had started courting one of the Layman girls, but when Allen found out, he told Ewell to quit seeing her. When Ewell asked why, Allen told him that she was his cousin. Ewell passed this information on to the girl, who confirmed the fact with her parents. It was the belief then that all offspring resulting from the marriage of cousins produced idiots. Because Allen and Minnie where related to most of the people then living around the countryside, and fearing they would end up with a "bunch of idiot grandchildren", they decided to try Oklahoma once again. Too, Allen's health had been failing and they thought the change might be good for him. Allen was also planning to work in the oil fields. Because these plans were being made, Edna and Ben decided to get married so that she would not have to go to Oklahoma, fearing they would never see each other again. They married on 31 December 1916. In February of 1917, Allen and Minnie had a sale of most of their possessions in preparation for the move. Oklahoma had now been a state for 10 years and many improvement had been made in roads and railway transportation. So, while Minnie, Ora, Ivan and Charlie traveled by train, Allen, Ewell, Ernest and Raymond followed with their covered wagon loaded with their remaining possessions. The first leg of their journey took them to Springfield, where they spent some time visiting Allen's sister, Maude, and her husband Jesse Harris. They stayed until Allen and the boys arrived with the wagon. Maude gave them a cook stove to take with them. She probably breathed a sigh of relief to see them leave, especially Ernest, who, not being too fond of cats, had tied two of her cat's tails together and thrown them over her clothes line, among other things. Allowing time for Allen and the boys to get to Joplin, Minnie and the rest of the children again boarded the train and stopped in Seneca where Allen's brother, Tom Case, met them at the depot with his wagon. Tom was planting his spring garden, and since Ora had been such a help planting onions, he promised to send her one. That fall she was delighted when Tom kept his promise. The onion arrived in a metal cigar box hardly big enough to hold the huge onion. The last leg of their journey took them to Vera where Allen met them at the train and took them to their new home. Not having the money needed to pay cash for a place, Allen and Minnie rented a farm about a mile south of Vera near Nancy and Jim Matthews. All their money was going for doctor bills for Allen, whose health continued to decline. On the farm next door, just a quarter of a mile down the road, lived a part Indian family by the name of Hall. Ewell started courting one of the girls, Elsie Marie, while Ora began going out with Elise's brother, Butch. While gathering wild grapes, Ernest fell from a tree, breaking his left shoulder, collar bone, arm and several ribs. Ernest said, " So, then I took the rheumatism and they just turned me in bed all winter and the doctor give me up to die. He said I couldn't live and Ivy heard about it and he slipped around and said `your going' to die'. I said, Boy I sure hope I hurry." But he recovered a few days later. In January of 1919, Allen rented a farm just east of Ramona, about 7 or 8 miles north of where they were then living. But Allen was so sick he could hardly sit up. So his sister, Nancy, persuaded him to let Minnie and the boys, along with their son and several wagons, move all their belongings in one trip. He was to stay at their house until all the moving was finished and then use their horse and buggy to drive home, letting one of the boys return their equipment. On the 15th of January the move was made. Allen was concerned about Ernest driving one of the wagons since he was not completely recovered from his long illness caused by his fall. Nevertheless he did consent with this parting comment, "Now, you be careful!", the last words Ernest was to hear from his father. After an unsuccessful attempt to get 5-year-old Charlie to accompany him, Allen went to the Matthew's home where he remained in bed. Arriving at their new home that night, after struggling along the muddy roads, Minnie and the children unloaded the wagons and set up the beds. Early the next morning, Dorsey Matthews, their cousin who had helped with the move, drove his team home while Ewell got on his horse and rode back down the road to find an end gate that had been lost on the road the previous day. He met a man who asked if he was one of the Case boys. When he answered "Yes", the man said, "Your Daddy passed away along in the night. They called us and wanted me to get on a horse and come over here and tell you." For supper the previous night, Allen had eaten some pork chops Nancy had prepared for the family meal. Knowing they would not be good for him, she had protested against him eating them. But Allen ate them anyway. Later in the night, he began throwing up blood and soon past away. They buried Allen in the Ridgelawn Cemetery just west of Collinsville, Oklahoma where his mother had been buried three years earlier. He died one day before his 46th birthday, of gastric ulcer, the doctor recorded on his death certificate. After Minnie was a widow, Sadie Case recalls when she was a girl, seeing the widow Case going into Ramona with a wagon load of pumpkins to sell. It was the 4th of July and there was a picnic and celebration going on in Collinsville. Ewell and Elsie, along with Butch Hall and Ernest were returning home. Ernest and Butch were drunk, so Ewell and Elsie rode along slowly in front of them to see that they didn't get hurt. Ernest and Butch started lighting Roman Candles and shooting at Ewell and Elsie. But their horse became so frightened at the ball of fire flying over his head that he turned around then the staves became entangled in his harness. Butch yelled, "Throw that thing away", but when they threw it out in the field it began to shoot back at them. Ewell and Elsie had to get the horses calmed down and straightened out in their harness because Ernest and Butch were too drunk and laughing so hard they were unable to help themselves. When they arrived in Vera, Ernest told Ewell to go ahead and take Elsie and Butch home while he laid down on the step of the bank to sleep. Ewell was to pick him up on his way back through town and take him home. But someone was making such a noise digging around back of the bank that Ernest couldn't go to sleep. So, still in a drunken stupor, Ernest yelled at them to be quiet and then went across the street to another store where it was quieter. The next day it was discovered that the bank had been robbed. One day Raymond and Ivan were returning from Vera with a team and wagon, they overtook Bob Case (a distant relative). He wore pop bottle glasses and walked looking down at the road. Bob was walking along the road toward home and they asked him if he would like to ride. He answered "Don't mind if I do" and stepped up into the back of the wagon making long strides toward the front. The horses became startled at his coattail flapping in the breeze and bolted into a run. Bob was still walking, so when the wagon was jerked from under him, he hit the ground on his feet and without breaking stride, continued walking down the road. The boys couldn't get the horses stopped until the next mile section where Bob would have gotten off, so they just continued on their way. Ora became acquainted with Fred Flake some time before his going to the Army during World War I. Eleven months after Allen died, 24 December 1919, Ora and Fred were married in a ministers home in Ramona. Ora was 15 and Fred was 34. Ewell and Elsie had gotten their license in Tulsa County, so on the 26 May 1920 they went to Collinsville to get married. About six months later Minnie, Raymond, Ivan and Charlie returned to Missouri, where Minnie purchased a 20 acre farm on Gospel Ridge. Ernest stayed in Oklahoma to work, sending money home to his mother so she could live. He sent 20 to 25 dollars a month of his 30 dollar a month salary. He of course also received his room and board, so he just kept a little spending money for himself. About 1922 Minnie married again. This time to a man by the name of Jim Robertson. They lived on Bear Ridge by the Cowan School and later sold out and went to Winfield, Kansas for about a year. Unable to get along together, they separated. Minnie took her family to Ochelata, Oklahoma for about a year, (where Ora and Fred were living) then to Collinsville. From there they went to Tulsa, living at 429 No. Cincinnati. Here, Charlie, with his wagon, helped supplement the family income by searching for bottles and anything else that could be sold for cash. They later moved back to Vera and in about 1924, Minnie, Raymond, Ivan and Charlie, moved back to Missouri where they lived in the Shockley bottoms out of Waynesville. Ernest stayed in Tulsa where on 22 April 1926, he married a four foot ten and a half inch girl by the name of Mary Dunkin. Raymond, Ivan and Charlie began to live with and work for different relatives around the countryside. For a while, Ivan and Charlie worked for Mr. Callahan, their Aunt Dink's second husband. Besides paying them fifty cents a day with board and room, Mr. Callahan allowed the boys to milk his white-face cows and sell the cream for extra cash. Aunt Dink thought she was providing the boys with an extra treat when she made them chicken and dumplings, but they didn't like it when she left the thigh, leg and feet all in one piece. Later, when Ivan and Charlie had gotten into an argument, Charlie started for the house to get his clothes. He yelled back at Ivan that he was leaving and then added "I don't care much for the food anyway." As he continued toward the house, Ivan yelled for him to get his clothes while he was at it and he would go with him. About 1927, after the boys, went out on their own, Minnie "broke up housekeeping" and went to live with her aging parents, Bartley and Julia Ann Hutsell. On 26 November 1929, Ivan married Mae Opal Singleton in Waynesville. Charlie went to work for Dova George. On 3 March 1930 Ewell and two of his children, Amos and Betty Lee, were tragically burned to dead in Wichita, Kansas when the home they were living in caught fire. Raymond, in an effort to console his mother, wrote the following letter to her:
Raymond was then living in Springfield with his Aunt Maude Harris. Ernest and Mary were separated and he was also living in Springfield at the time. They went to Wichita and while Ernest drove Ewell's car, Elsie's father took her, Maxine and Fred in his car. Raymond accompanied the caskets on the train to Oklahoma. Minnie, Ivan and Charlie took the bus on Tuesday the 4th of March, from Waynesville to Skiatook, Oklahoma where the funeral took place. Ewell and the children were buried in the Ridgelawn Cemetery in Collinsville. The 29 June 1930, Raymond married Edna Mae Akley in Dixon. John Bertley Shultz's first wife, Lavonia Paralee Bacon, was Allen's first cousin. She had died in 1929. About October of 1930, Lavonia's sister suggested to "JB", as he was called, that he go visit Allen Case's widow. So for the next two sundays his neighbors wondered where he was going as they observed him in his suit and black hat, as he rode off yodeling on his horse, "Dusty". JB's daughter, Millie, whose husband had died in the east, was keeping house for him, but she was unaware of her father's courtship until election day, 4 November 1930. She was at Wheeler's store in Waynesville when she heard someone ask what the commotion was over in the courthouse yard. Someone replied, "Ol' JB Shultz is a gettin' married." Millie sat in the back of the wagon and cried all the way home. She knew her home was broken up. Charlie said he pouted for awhile about his Mom getting married, but decided one day to go see her. He borrowed a mule from Ivan and rode over there, about ten miles from Waynesville. He decided JB was alright and he went to work for him that summer on his farm. The Fields family was living on the farm next to the Shultz' and there he met their daughter Opal. Charlie was married on 17 January 1936, in Pulaski County to Opal Lucille Fields. They lived several places including on the Piney River, on old 66 Highway (where her grandchildren played a game of chicken -- laying on the highway to see who would remain the longest), and on the Y Highway. This house was supposed to have been haunted. Mr. Shultz claimed someone was at the foot of his bed and jerked the covers off of him. They also lived by the Shepherd School house, and in Rolla at 405 Olive, on Highway 133 between Hannah and Dixon. Here is where JB broke his leg. Then they moved into town (Dixon) where JB died, 13 February 1945 and is buried in the Pisgah Cemetery, Pulaski County. Minnie enjoyed her children and grandchildren and liked to have them visit her. She also liked to spend time visiting with each of them. In September 1949, Minnie moved on North St. in Waynesville, where she lived until her death, 14 January 1963, at the age of 89. She is buried in the Crocker Cemetery, Crocker, Missouri. Children of Allen and Minnie: Lou Edna, Emmit Oral, Ewell Allen, Ora Augusta, Ernest Lee, John Raymond, Ivan Delbert, and Charles Columbus.
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© 2002
by Lee Case
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John was of English descent and lived in
Buncombe County, North Carolina, dying there in 1814. He had seven children: Thomas, John,
Daniel, Jesse, James, Laxton and Elizabeth.
