Individual Notes

Note for: Austin Roy Dunham, 5 SEP 1907 - 24 MAR 1988 Index

Occupation:
     Place:   Secretary-Treasurer for Mutual Insurance Company

Residence:
     Date:   1930
     Place:   Springfield, , Greene, Missouri,

Event:
     Type:   Civil
     Place:   , , , Missouri,

Individual Note:
     Autobiography of Austin Dunham:

"Born September 5, 1907, midway between Ozark and Nixa, Missouri the son of Vernon L. Dunham and Mary A. Frazier-Dunham. I was the last of nine children, all born at the same farm home, and all lived until I was 55 years of age.

"I attended the Richwood (one room) rural school, and then four years in the Ozark High School, where I graduated in the year 1926. After high school I remained at home with my parents and did the farm work for two years, as they needed my help. I later attended Draughon Business College several months.

"In the year 1930, I met Miss Elsie Clay of Springfield, to whom I was married on June 4, 1933. In January of that year, I had been named as Secretary of The Farmers Mutual Fire Insurance Company of Nixa, and it was in Nixa that we made our home, until she departed life on May 22, 1975. She had blessed me with two children, of whom I am justly proud, namely Nancy born June 29, 1934 and Joe, born March 17, 1939.

"Our rewarding home life and the success of our children to this date, I do consider to be our greatest achievement. Nancy met and married Jim Shankle while she was attending college in Arkadelphia, Arkansas. They now live in Fayetteville, Arkansas, where he is the Director of Computer Services, of the University of Arkansas. They have a son William, and a daughter Ann, both in school. Joe like his sister, met his wife to be, Miss Ida Muskrat, when they were in college and she
was from Aurora, Missouri. They now live in Aurora, Illinois and he teaches in the Aurora College there. They have four children, Melanie, Elizabeth, and the twin
boys Richard and Phillip.

"The members and the Board of Directors of the insurance company above mentioned have elected to keep me around these 43 years (they may yet fire
me someday) and the company has grown from 2 1/2 million to 38 million ($$
insurance in force) and is considered as being one of the stronger companies of its kind in the State of Missouri. This seems worthy of mention, but not by my efforts alone was this possible.

"It was my pleasure, to have had a part in the organization of the NIXA BANK in the year 1958, and was named as its first five member Board of Directors. I remain as such at this time. About the same time I was selected in the Nixa community to lead, in a movement to bring Bell Telephone service into the area, to replace the
antiquated independent exchange, and this was accomplished. The benefits
of these two achievements, have been great indeed.

"For a few years I owned and drove a local school bus, and then was a member of the Nixa R-2 School Board for about 15 years.

"During most of our married life, Elsie and I were members of the First Baptist Church in Nixa. Her faith in God and her devotion to her church, were never questioned. We were active, as were our children. During the construction of the present sanctuary and educational facility of the church, we gave as did our fellow members, of our time and dollars.

"If my life is worthy of mention, I owe much to my parents, who taught me to separate right from wrong, and to my faithful wife, whose devotion, intuition and faith, I can not describe. Could it be that there may be
even yet, something left for me to do?

February 20, 1976

Austin Dunham
Nixa, MO 65714"

Austin was a deacon in the First Baptist Church and was also a Notary Public. Austin also drove the school bus transporting soldiers during World War II.

Individual Notes

Note for: Elsie Margaret Clay, 9 DEC 1909 - 22 MAY 1975 Index

Residence:
     Date:   1930
     Place:   Springfield, , Greene, Missouri,

Individual Notes

Note for: Samuel Stephen Cox, ABT 1866 - Index

Alias: Fat /Man/

Individual Notes

Note for: Lorenzo Mcgilvry, 23 JUN 1843 - 2 JUN 1934 Index

Residence:
     Date:   1910
     Place:   5-WD SPRINGFIELD, , GREENE, Missouri,

Burial:
     Date:   JUN 1934
     Place:   Springfield, Greene Co, Mo, Elm Lawn Cemetery

Individual Note:
     Lorenzo was baptized into the Round Prairie Christian Church in Bunker Hill, Illinois on Nov. 6, 1859 and the church records say he left the church when he "moved his residence", no date given. Lorenzo volunteered in the Union army and got sick with typhoid fever at Ft. Butler. His father came with his mother and their doctor to take him home. In order for him to be able to leave, his father, Johnson, took his place in the army and later died in a prison camp in LA.

Lorenzo and and his second wife Margaret Patterson moved by covered wagon to Ava, MO. They said it was too rough a country so moved to Springfield. Lorenzo was a teacher, although none of his children went very far in education. (His daughter Minnie started work at 13.) He moved the family to Missouri for the promise of better land, but his son Robert J. never forgave him for it because he said the family almost starved.

Lorenzo changed the spelling of his last name, dropping the "a" of McGilvary, because of a dispute with one of his brothers. He wanted to separate from that brother by even having a different name.

1880 census: Grover, Johnson County, Missouri with Mary[sic], George, Emma and Robert; next to farm of James & Eliza (Maddox Patterson) Boyes.

1900 census: Lincoln Township, Douglas County, Missouri next to the farm of John W. Patterson and his wife Amanda. (Eliza Maddox Patterson Boyes and son James are in John Patterson household)

1920 census: living alone (?) at 1525 Sherman St., Springfield, Missouri; 2 doors down from son John. Wife Margaret appears to be living with her step-son George in Springfield at time of census.

Individual Notes

Note for: Margaret Patterson, 10 NOV 1856 - 10 SEP 1932 Index

Residence:
     Date:   1870
     Place:   Grover, , Johnson, Missouri,

Individual Note:
     Margaret Jane McGilvry was a quilter. She would stay up very late at night quilting, until 1 or 2 in the morning and slept late in the morning. Florence McGilvry Atwood said that the grandchildren weren't allowed to go to their grandmother's house until after 10 a.m.

There were many vacant houses in Springfield, and Grandma McGilvry would move very often. Her son Robert J. claimed that when he got off the railroad he'd never know where to find his mother because she moved whenever her house got dirty.

Individual Notes

Note for: Robert James McGilvry, 19 OCT 1878 - 24 MAR 1980 Index

Individual Note:
Robert J. started work before he was 16. He was a cowboy, or a hired hand, on the farm of a doctor in Kansas. In 1903 he started work with the Frisco Railroad. He worked up from Fireman to Engineer on freight trains, then up to Engineer on passenger trains. His regular route was from Springfield, Missouri to Phayr, Missouri near the Arkansas border.

Individual Notes

Note for: Minnie Armanda McGilvry, 10 DEC 1887 - 15 MAR 1986 Index

Burial:
     Place:   Eastlawn Cemetery, Garden of Tranquility, Springfield, MO

Individual Note:
     Minnie was born in Illinois, thirteenth of 16 children. Her father, Lorenzo married her mother after his first wife, Mary died. Her mother, Margaret Patterson McGilvry was Lorenzo's first wife's neice. Minnie's family traveled from Illinois to Missouri by covered wagon when Minnie was about 13 to join her brothers who were working building the railroad. She remembered the night Teddy Roosevelt was re-elected when they were traveling. All the young men from the neighboring town of Sedalia, Missouri rode around on their horses shooting their guns in the air. They named a stray cat in the camp, Teddy. Before she married Jessie, in 1904 Minnie worked as a housekeeper for a family in Emporia earning $1or $1.50 a week. Minnie lived to be 99 years old and lived at home alone until her final illness. She was famous for her home-made cinnamon rolls that she still made into her 90's. The Dunham family makes these cinnamon rolls in her memory for every Christmas morning.

Individual Notes

Note for: David Johnson McGilvry, 14 NOV 1891 - 4 JUN 1962 Index

Burial:
     Place:   Greenlawn Cemetery, Springfield, Missouri

Individual Note:
     Typesetter for a newspaper.

Individual Notes

Note for: John Willis McGilvry, 8 JUL 1886 - 29 APR 1967 Index

Burial:
     Place:   Eastlawn Cemetery, Garden of Tranquility, Springfield, MO

Individual Note:
     Engineer on Frisco Railroad.

Individual Notes

Note for: Robert James McGilvry, 18 JUN 1917 - 1988 Index

Individual Note:
Robert J., Jr. worked for John Deere right after college, and then started with the Frisco Railroad. He was a Diesel Engineer. Robert J. Jr. served in Germany and France in WWII.