| PART 3. CONT. TENNESSEE 3.9-3.11 & MISSOURI 4.1 |
| 3.9 Knox County, Tennessee, July 1861, Continued This was the beginning of a terrible time for the Booker family. Even though Tennessee had joined the Confederate States, George’s sons, John and Pryor rode to Kentucky and enlisted in G. Company, 2nd Tennessee Cavalry, Union Army, and served under Lt. Samuel J. Tarver, Mary Ann Booker’s husband. Nicholas went to Kentucky and enlisted in F Company, 3rd Tennessee Infantry, Union Army and served throughout the war. James stayed on the farm and did not join either army. According to the Roster of Union and Confederate Soldiers shows that George Washington Booker served in D Company, 31st Infantry, Confederate Army. No military record has been found for his twin brother, Benjamin Franklin Booker. Names matching William’s appear on both sides – no record of him was found after the war. Nicholas’ military record shows that he was hospitalized from June 18 to August 8, 1864 in Knoxville, evidently from wounds. He would later die from complications of those wounds. John was hospitalized in Murfreesboro during the same year. The military records of the other brothers were not found. 3.10 Knox County, Tennessee, 1870 Sarah Webster was living on the same farm in the fourth district, Knox County, which she and Webster had bought 30 years before. Sanders had died some time since 1860, and she still had Catherine (Angeline) and James Pryor at home. Sarah Elizabeth had married H. C. Foust, a son of long time neighbors Louis and Sarah Foust four years earlier, but they evidently did not live nearby. William had married Malinda Foust three years earlier. Susan had married J. M. Foust in May, but they did not appear to live nearby either, according to the 1870 census. Nicholas and Mary Ann Booker lived with their four children nearby and undoubtedly helped with the duties of tending the farm. It is not clear that any of the other Webster children remained nearby. William T. Booker remembered in 1948 that times were hard on the farm after the war. Slaves had been abolished. Postwar tensions were still high. Economic conditions were bad. Will said that Nicholas worked as a deputy U.S. Marshall in Knoxville for a time, perhaps to supplement their farm income. 3.11 Knox County, Tennessee, October 8, 1879 Nicholas, George Washington and James Booker and their wives sat down to sign a contract that would resolve a land issue between them. The 121 acres of the original Booker land held by their father, George had been divided between the brothers. Nicholas evidently did not farm his part of the land, since he evidently lived several miles away at House Mountain, near the Webster farm. On this date, Nicolas and George Washington sold their land to their brother James for $200 each. (See Nicholas Booker record for full text of this contract). Nicholas’ older brother, John IV would sell his 106 acres of land to James eight years later for $166. The available records suggest that Sara Webster had died by this time (she would have been 66 years old). It is not clear what happened to the land Sanders Webster had held. In any case, it is clear that Nicholas had decided to try his luck further west. Nicholas disposed of his farm and most of the farming tools and livestock. With Sherman about a year old they then had eight children. They loaded their belongings into wagons and joined a train of ten wagons headed west. Will and George were 18 and 15 years old, big enough to drive wagons and help with the livestock. Julian Hickel, son of their Uncle John IV’s third wife, was with them. The trip to Missouri took about a month during which there must have been many very cold days. |
| 4.1 Mountain View, Howell County, Missouri, September 27, 1880 Nicholas and Mary Ann Booker had settled near Mountain View, in Goldsberry TWP, in the northeastern corner of Howell County. They probably arrived about Thanksgiving, 1879. They had to find a house, cut wood for the winter and try to set up a farming operation during the winter. The 1880 census records show that most of the children had been in school that winter. Howell County records do not show any records of land ownership by Nicholas Booker. The family evidently had put in their first and only crop in Missouri on rented land. Family records of Cloyd Booker indicate that Pryor made a trip to Missouri. It is possible that he went with Nicholas on the initial journey. It may be more likely that he joined them later as things were becoming desperate for Nicholas’ family. Times were still very hard for Nicholas’ family in 1880. Nicholas still suffered from pain in his left side, as he had since sustaining his wound during the war. He was developing bags of water under his skin and his chest was congested. He was probably unable to do very much farming that year. In September, Mary Ann got very sick with “bilious fever”. The neighbors helped as much as they could. Albert Van Winkle and his wife, who lived a mile and a half away, made their last visit to Mary Ann on September 26, the night before she died. Ashly Nanie, lived only half a mile away, came by often during Mary Ann’s illness, and he said he hauled her body to the cemetery in his wagon. On September 27, 1880, Mary Ann Booker passed away. She was forty-three. |
| PART 4. MISSOURI |
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