McDonald Tales - MT26 - Let’s Look Ahead

Young Joseph, Joe, McDonald was 4 years old in 1892 on our last visit (MT25), and 4-year-old Beth Young had just moved into the valley, on a farm, four miles to the south of the McDonald place.

Joe and Beth were married on the 1st of July in 1909, after each had graduated from high school in Oak Springs, in the Class of 1906. They had a daughter, Ethel Eileen, born on the 6th of March in 1911 and then a second daughter, Mildred Arlene, born on the 26th of June of 1917.

NOTE: The stories of Mildred, of course, are the basis of the several novels of “The Homeplace Saga,” beginning with the novel, "Back to the Homeplace." Recently, the story of Ethel has been shared at “The Homeplace Saga” blog in serial form each Friday.

Daniel and Jane (Truesdale) McDonald along with William and Charlotte (Crane) McDonald continued to build on their successes at farming and raising cattle well into the 20th Century. Daniel passed away during the first decade of the 1900s and both Jane and Charlotte were lost to the Flu Epidemic of 1918. William continued to guide the family, in the direction set by his mother, until his death in 1939. He continued to live in the farmhouse, remodeled several times, that he and Charlotte had occupied from when they first married.

Their son, Joseph, and his wife, Beth, build what we now know as ‘The Homeplace’ farmhouse on State Highway 24 before they were married in 1909. Their family continued to occupy it through the rest of the century.

Mildred McDonald married Frank Bevins on the 15th of April of 1934. Their story may be shared at a later date. Frank was the son of Ora B. and Sarah Jane (Waters) Bevins. We reported the birth of Ora B., to Howard and Myrtle (Truesdale) Bevins, in April 1891 (In MT 25, along with the children of the other members of the Willing Workers Sunday School class)

Also in MT 25, we shared the birth of Theodore Campbell to Vic and Kate (King) Campbell. Vic followed his father, Ralph, as President of the Oak Springs Bank, of course. Theodore followed Vic in the same capacity. In 1932, Theodore and his wife had a daughter, Sarah Campbell. In 1955 Sarah married Harry Flanders. Harry was President of the bank in 1987 when he was introduced in “Back to the Homeplace,” the first novel in “The Homeplace Saga” series.

[Learn more on this family at: http://homeplace.wikispaces (dot) com/Campbell+family]

Lewis, along with his wife, Caroline (McDonald) [recall that she is a sister of Alex McDonald, at the newspaper, and now the world traveler - first cousins of William McDonald] Truesdale made the conscious decision to focus on his businesses rather than on the farmland they inherited. Their only son, Jimmie, died in the river flood, as a teenager, of course. Their only daughter, Myrtle, married Howard Bevins. She inherited the one 160 farm, they had the son, Ora, and were happy on this farm. When Lewis died in the mid-1890s, the businesses effectively became ‘investments’ for Caroline as they were now run by the managers Lewis had put in place. Those managers effectively took them over, over the years. They supported Caroline, through her life, but the Truesdale name and influence came to an end.

In MT 24, we found Alex McDonald and Nellie Truesdale (younger sister of Lewis and Jane) brought together in a business arrangement related to his world travels. This story may be continued at a later date. Time will tell.

Two other businesses that we have followed continued on through family lines into the late 20th Century in “The Homeplace Saga.” Russell Nixon at the Oak Springs Enterprise and Jacobi Inman at the Oak Springs Realty each were followed by sons and grandsons that kept those businesses in those families (more details available at the Wikispaces web address above).

The Karl King family continued in Oak Springs. Kate, as wife of Vic Campbell, is most closely tied to the central story. Her brother, Kent, continued the family farm with his wife, the former Janice Carver. Their first child was introduced with the Sunday School class births. The older King son, Keith, continued to work for the Missouri Highway Department in northern Missouri locations. The younger King daughter, Karla, went off to college, and did not return to live in Oak Springs, either. This distribution is fairly typical of the farm families of Midwestern small communities, of course. One or two siblings stay around, the rest disperse, often far and wide around the nation.

This family continues to be chronicled in the Lx series of the ‘Weston Wagons West’ series of stories on my related but separate HubPages account. Dormant for a bit, it will likely continue, as time goes by.

The ‘Meet the Folks’ series here may continue, as well, picking up stories of other families or individuals in the Oak Creek valley and Oak Springs. There may be occasional reference to the others mentioned above, of course. Again, time will tell. Is the inspiration there to do it? I cannot honestly say, at the moment… but it will likely return, one day.

This entire set of background stories for “The Homeplace Saga,” from 1833, has been a great experience for me… and a lot of fun. There is even background on the original pioneers that I could go back further than 1833 to share some of those stores, of the Pattons, McDonalds, Truesdales, Owens, Campbells, etc. Probably not, but, you never know.

I guess you can tell I am wrapping up this series, for now. McDonald Tales (MT series) will be either on hiatus, or ended, as the case may be. I need to do some other things. Will these stories draw me back to tell more? I honestly don’t know right now. Can I not write them, that is the question? Right now, I’m pretty much burned out on these story lines. But, in the back of my mind, I know there are still stories to tell. I do need to take a couple of weeks/months to finish compiling the existing sets of stories into ebooks so that these stories are preserved outside of the HubPages platform. That should, and will be, the first/next priority. See you down the road… ;-)

P.S. Now in late 2017, the Levi Wilson stories have resumed, for late 1879 and into the 1880...they will be continuing into 2018... Enjoy :-)

These episodes continued to share details of life in Oak Springs and the Oak Creek valley seeing the activities through the eyes of Jane, Daniel, William and Charlotte McDonald, along with new material and insights. In this series of stories we have learned new behind-the-scene information about this family. These Tales are a part of “The Homeplace Saga” series of stories and continue the early years of the saga.

The earlier episodes of the King Family series have now been compiled into two eBooks, titled: "The Kings of Oak Springs,” Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 (20 episodes each). See the link, below, to get yours.

“The Homeplace Saga” family saga, historical fiction stories are the creation of the author, William Leverne Smith, also known as “Dr. Bill.”