"THE STANTON FAMILY"

By Mrs. Sherman Spivey

(Nee Annie Stanton)

I am unable to tell what happened in the course of their earlier rovings, but will try to tell what little I can of their lives after they finally settled at or near Craig, Holt County, Missouri, before coming to Norway Township, Republic County, Kansas.  At Craig the family consisted of my father, Erastus Stanton, my mother, Martha Stanton, Nee Armstrong, George 10, Laura 4, and I was born there January 29th, 1871.  While living there, my father worked in the timber, making railroad ties.  Some time in the following months, his aunt, Eliza Ross, her husband, Jacob Ross, and Chauncey Messinger, a son of a former marriage, came by in two covered wagons, and loaded our family and what little they had into their wagons and went on to Scandia, Kansas, where they all homesteaded farms.

My father homesteaded west of Norway with one eighty in Norway Township and one eighty in Beaver Township, W¼ SW¼ 18 4 4 & E½ SE¼ 13 4 5.  Their home was in Norway Township.  The others took adjoining homesteads one or two miles north of ours.  With the help of earlier settlers they soon had dugouts and wells.  The dugouts were holes in the ground, usually on a side hill.  Some walled them up with rock, which was plentiful, laid in mud, and a door and a window in one end.  Chauncey Messinger had brought carpenter and blacksmith tools and seemed able to layup rock as well as do carpenter and blacksmith work.  He helped lots of them there and most of the lumber was sawed from cottonwood logs.  Their furniture was made of cottonwood lumber; a frame for a bed with rope stretched across to hold up the straw tick; a trundle bed; a cupboard; a table and benches.  The roof on the dugout was what they called a ridgepole in the center, with poles laid from it to the sides, and hay put on the poles to keep the dirt form falling through.

The people had many hardships, and corn bread and watermelon molasses was a good part of their food.  

The most awful happening was the scarlet fever epidemic.  Hardly a family did not lose one child at least, and some lost all of their children.  Dr. Scott was going day and night, and he also lost one son.  With their leaky dugouts and my other disadvantages, there was a poor chance to take care of the sick.  The stock was tied out with ropes with picket pins on one end to drive into the ground.  They had to be changed to a new place quite often, and had to be led to water.

My father was a miller by trade.  He had owned a mill in Rochester, Illinois, so he soon had to work at the Scandia mill, where he worked until he had to quit on account of his health.  He then bought a yoke of oxen and went to farming his own farm and broke out more ground.  The oxen were slow and faithful power.  My Aunt Eliza brought garden and flower seed and I know of her Corn Lilies growing near homes where I lived and moved with me.

The first school was in a dugout near the Scott home.  I remember two of the teachers, Julie Harding and Mary Raymond.  Later there was a dugout school on the farm south of ours, and finally the little frame Hungry Hollow schoolhouse was built on our place.  We only had three months of school so the big boys could go.  The Grange was organized and furnished pleasure and entertainment through its meetings, but I do not know much about its work.  The most wonderful happenings were the railroads coming up the valley, the Norway bridge, the town of Kackley, new schoolhouses, churches, and all were welcomed and appreciated.  Some of the earlier settlers were Rambo, Raymond, Belden, Chapman, Carney, Larson, Peterson, Ellison, Palmer, Meade, Houghton, Jensen, Paulson, Linn, Rogers, Stephenson, Kershner, Kackley, McGlaughin, King, Spivey, Scott, and Dunlap.  Many Scandinavians were included in the early pioneers.

My father served on the schoolboard and was assessor of Norway Township for several years.  I think he was fairly well educated.  He went to some kind of school or college when he was a young man.  He was always ready to help any one in trouble and never turned anyone away from his door.  It was a welcome home and they both loved it, and both died on the old homestead.

Grandfather came to lie with them and was well cared for as long as he lived.  He, my father & mother, and my brother, John, are buried in the Danish Lutheran Cemetery about three miles south of their old homestead.

My father, Erastus Stanton was born November 4, 1838 near Petersburg, Illinois (Manard County) and died February 26, 1912 on the homestead near Norway, Kansas.

My mother, Martha Armstrong Stanton, was born November 10, 1838 near Petersburg, Illinois (Manard County) and died May 16, 1906 near Norway, Kansas.

They were married September 25, 1860 and their children were: George McClellan born August 18, 1861 in Rochester, Illinois and died January 25, 1941, in or near Sundance, Wyoming.  He was married to Mary Doser December 13, 1893.  Nora May was born February 19, 1865 at Virginia City, Montana and died March 10, 1867 at Omaha, Nebraska.  Amy Catherine was born April 12, 1863 at Rochester, Illinois and died March 16, 1864 at Rochester, Illinois.  Laura Irene was born February 9, 1867 at Omaha, Nebraska and died near Scandia, Kansas February 27, 1934. She was married to Joseph Chapman March 10, 1886.  Annie Lee was born January 29, 1871 near Craig, Holt County, Missouri.  She was married to Sherman SpiveyBelleville, Kansas.  He was married to Margie Carpenter May 11, 1922.  Ellen Adelaide was born July 14, 1880 and died April 12, 1956.  She was born near Norway, Kansas and died in California.  She was married to Charles C. Madison in 1902.

Erastus Stanton was a graduate of Yale University.

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My father had three sisters and one brother.  Aunt Irena settled on a homestead joining ours on the north.  Her first husband was named Lewis.  She married John Aby.  He had a family from a former marriage.  He had a boy about George's age.  Aunt Irena had no children.

Uncle Frank Stanton and his wife and girls, Grace and Lillian, always lived in Shenandoah, Iowa.

Aunt Malvina Aby always lived in Galesburg, Illinois.  She had four boys: Arthur, Frank, Charlie, and Clark.  Her husband was Alex Aby, a brother of John.

Aunt Chloe Cravens, whose husband was a doctor, never came to Kansas except on short visits.

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Now, while the Old Year's sun is setting

Thou, New Year, Harken unto me.

Grant me that boon Men call forgetting, 

'Tis all I ask of Thee.

Oh, Cursed be he who sits by the dead embers

Of fires whose usefulness and light are gone;

Sits brooding by cold ashes and remembers

While years roll on and on and on.

God pity Him who can but sit and ponder

On some past sweetness or remembered sin.

Sweep up, New Year, the pile of ashes yonder

And let all seem as though no fire had been.

"Written by Erastus Stanton"

In an old letter I found since I wrote the Stanton history, I find that my parents went to Virginia, Montana in 1865, in covered wagons, as there was a gold mine rush on and still had gold mines.  They lived there two years and little Nora was born there.  They then went down the Yellowstone and Missouri Rivers in boats.  My father became so good at handling boats, the he worked on the ferry at Omaha until they moved to Holt County, Missouri.  Nora died at Omaha and Laura was born there.  In this letter he told about his graduation from Yale University.

Mrs. Sherman Spivey

Note from the blogger, I found one site about Watermelon Molasses.  Click here to read.