Weston Wagons West - Ep. L36 - Levi Saw His Extended Family Grow

Rebecca (Cornelius) Parks gave birth to their daughter, their first child, on July 2, 1882. Trey and Rebecca named her Inez after her maternal grandmother. Hiram joined Ralph and Inez Cornelius as happy grandparents. Alfred and Rowena (Cornelius) Weston, as newlywed aunt and uncle, were especially fascinated to observe this new arrival to the family. Cousin Levi Weston was proud to be asked to serve as Godfather to the newborn. Baby Inez was happy and healthy, a circumstance celebrated by the entire extended family.

On July 4, Levi and Otis enjoyed watching and participating in the new holiday tradition initiated by the local G.A.R. Post chapter. The Post had created a 5-member band to play martial music and lead a parade the five blocks from their new chapter headquarters up Central Avenue to Centennial Park. The new chapter headquarters, and future museum, was the original Truesdale/Patton double cabin that had been donated by the Truesdale family. Nellie had moved from the cabin to the residence of her mother, Victoria, shortly after the death of her father, Hugh. Augustus Ward led the veteran volunteers in a project each month in connection with their monthly meeting held there, to help make the museum a reality.

Levi and Otis walked the couple of blocks west to Central Avenue, and waited a few minutes as the band approached from the south. The band was followed by the other non-band member veterans, most in their uniforms. They were followed by five mounted horsemen and three horse-drawn decorated wagons. As the parade moved up the street, others fell in line behind. When they had passed, Levi and Otis fell in behind walking north on Central. As they continued to walk, others fell in behind them, until they all arrived at Centennial Park for the 4th of July Celebration.

In the 1882 Town Election, Levi’s attorney, Sylvester Preston, who was running for re-election, was elected to serve a new three-year term. In the School Election, Russell Nixon, running un-apposed for re-election, earned a new three-year term. Jane McDonald had announced in the spring that she would not be a candidate for re-election. Franklin Gifford, a resident of the east valley like McDonald, was the only candidate to file for the position and was elected to a three-year term.

At the next meeting of the School Board, Karl King was elected President and Russell Nixon was elected Vice President. Superintendent Quinton Chambers announced that he had filled the new custodian position provided in the new year budget. Edwin Bevins had been hired for the position after a careful search. He and his wife, Esther, along with their 14-year-old son, Howard, had moved into town the last week of June. Edwin started his new job on July 1. Howard would be a new member of the fall Freshman class. Also in the Freshman class were Donald Dent, as well as Myrtle Truesdale, Martha Reeves and Nettie Gifford.

Levi noted an interesting national story in the weekly Enterprise. It told of the new Pearl Street Station, in Manhattan, in New York City, which was generating electricity to power an initial load of 400 lamps located at 82 customers in a nearby area. The ‘power station’ had one direct current generator, fired by coal, that created the electric current for the lamps. He had read earlier about the ‘electric light lamp’ that Thomas Edison was said to have invented. This was the first real application he had read about. Would electric light lamps come to Oak Springs, one day, he wondered as he read the story?

Levi was called to the old “Gower Place” to check out a horse owned by the McDonalds that had suffered an injury as they were preparing for the harvest. He learned that William was ‘in charge’ of harvesting the crops on the farm left by the Gower family. William would be assuming full control of the farm on the following March 1, 1883. With the help of Charlotte, and each of their nearby parents, they had been working on the house and the out buildings to get them ready to become ‘their place.’ William and Charlotte planned to get married prior to March 1, but had not set a specific date, at this time. The horse had a bad bruise on its rear left leg, and would need to be rested for some time before returning to full work mode. Levi left some medication that would help speed the recovery.

Levi knew from Chamber of Commerce meetings, and talking to Ralph Campbell at the bank, that the national recession of 1882, now being called the Panic of 1882, was reaching Oak Springs. Crop prices for excess farm produce this year were severely depressed. Some farmers were buying hogs, hoping they could feed them some of the excess corn, and have a better market for hogs later on. Others simply chose to store their excess crops, hoping the crop prices would rise later. Several of the local farms, of course, were not really affected because they only raised the crops they needed for their own subsistence. Levi kept close tabs on this kind of information as he visited with vary customers around the valley. He always wanted to be aware of when folks had extra funds and when they were hurting for cash.

A state news item in the Oak Springs Enterprise, from October 5, caught everyone’s eye. Frank James, the notorious outlaw brother of Jesse James, had surrendered himself to the governor of Missouri. He stood trial for robbery and murder, but he was acquitted. At least, Levi considered, this episode of Missouri history was closed. That was good.

Levi learned of two marriages of young folks in town that he found interesting. The first was Cynthia Wilhite, daughter of Martin and Martha Wilhite, who had married the local school teacher, Leroy Ring. She had made a point that she would be continuing to work at her parents’ store. Rowena had made the same decision when she married Alfred. Times were changing, Levi noted, as women more and more put their own interests front and center. Grant Ward, son of Augustus and Clementine Ward, had married a girl named Lenore that he had known for many years in their prior hometown. Those close to them had known of the long distance ‘romance by mail’ but it came as a surprise to others around town. Grant and Lenore would make their home at the Campbell Boarding House, where she had secured a position as cook. Grant would continue to work at his parents’ store.

This episode continues the Levi Weston family saga fictional stories. Levi Weston family stories were included, from time to time, in the ‘Life in Oak Springs’ and ‘The Kings of Oak Springs’ stories elsewhere here on HubPages. Those stories occurred during the 1876-1886 time frame. This present series is reliving that period but from the viewpoint of this Weston family, through this second set of 20 episodes.

As noted in Episode L1 of this series of historical fiction family saga stories, all of the characters in this episode are fictional. Activities and events are consistent with known historical facts, but are entirely fictitious. The Weston characters that appear here, as well as the McDonalds, were first created as a part of “The Homeplace Saga” stories. The first 20 episodes of this Lx series filled in the early years of the lives of Levi, Jacob and their family.

Some of the stories of the "American Centennial at the Homeplace: The Founding (1833-1875)" collection of historical fiction family saga short stories have also been published on "The Homeplace Saga" blog, found at the link, below, including those introducing Levi and Jacob Weston.

These first 20 episodes of the Levi Weston story have been compiled into an ebook: “Weston Wagons West: Levi Weston, L1-20 (1823-1874).” Thank you for your support.

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