CHAPTER 9

The Tracy Family History

Mildred Bailey  

    She is used by historians, researchers, and professors, also, by myself. Look at the size of her mailbox. She keeps the post office busy. A Wallace who married a Wallace, she is our cousin.
    Mildred is an elderly widow, crippled, and only able to talk on the phone and do genealogy. In short, she is the perfect genealogists!
    Her whole life is genealogy. She is an encyclopedia of knowledge, irreplaceable in researching our family history now to come.

Here are some tidbits about the war sent to me by Mildred Bailey, through her numerous sources:

Mildred Bailey’s grandmother was Siotha Clark: born 1864, died 1964. Siotah was a Wallace, the youngest of 12 children. Her sister was Amelia, in whose house Mildred now lives. The house was built immediately after the Civil War by Amelia’s husband. He was one of four brothers, all of whom fought for the Union. He was the only one to survive the war.

He knew Amelia in Tennessee before the war, came out to Missouri to find her, then marry. He was 25 years older.

This story shows the complexity of our family tree. We have many cousins still living in Missouri today, more than you can imagine.
“We are related to half the people in the State of Missouri,” (And most of them have slept over at Cousin Mildred’s house.)

Mildred’s great grandfather owned a mill right in the middle of the Border War. He could not have picked a worse spot, right on the line between Kansas and Missouri, in the middle of the two states. The bushwhackers burned the mill and in October, 1862, he was bushwhacked and killed just 2 miles from the house in which Mildred now lives. He would leave 3 orphan children, from whom Mildred descends. The body was never found. Mildred tells of the difference in living with your neighbors in Missouri in those days. “It was brother against brother. Your neighbor would come over to your house and shoot you dead in your doorway.”

Guerillas carried information, supplied horses, guns, supplies, gave aid and comfort. Murder from ambush was their favorite technique. They were a constant menace to citizens who supported the Union.

A lot of our people scattered across the country, out West particularly. By 1866, stock was still being stolen - “but ‘Feds & Confeds’ were living side by side.

“And also mentioned Kansan’s stealing whole orchards from Missouri and transplanting them across the line. (Yes, they did.) And that’s why eastern Kansas has some trees, tho the rest is a barren wasteland. And that Missourians only drove across it at night.”

The war had been more subtle, and had far-reaching affects on our people other than the violence already told. Mildred provides me with several letters from one of our kin who told of the plight of her grandmother. First, she married beneath her families' status and was denied the slaves to which she thought she was entitled. She would be humiliated and forced to work and earn her living as a midwife. When she did gain the status of a slaver owner, she lost them all to the war. These letters go on to say that grandmother was never the same after losing her slaves.

One of our kin, during the war, had half his household as Confederates, and
the other half were Unionists. “That must have been interesting.”

Now I am going to tell Cousin Mildred something she does not know: (...and she knows everything)
    What is the origin of the name Siotha?
Jon ThunderChild gives us the answer: “The name ‘Sciotha’ as far as I can tell was mis-spelled by Daniel Boone who visited the Scioto river in Ohio. Scioto was a Shawnee word which is roughly translated ‘deer hair.’ Actual translation is lost in time. The river Scioto was apparently named because there were so many deer and when they shed hair it floated down the river in large amounts. Many people having native backgrounds use this name in it’s different forms. Especially tribes in the south such as Cherokee, Creek, and Choctaw.”
Walk in Beauty

Our cousin Lillola (Bonnie) Horning of Las Vegas, NV., has in her possession the following Moon heirlooms:

    Many of the Moon heirlooms were destroyed in a fire in the early 1950's. (This is common when you start researching family history.) The following survived the fire: A & A are two cast iron biscuit pans; B is a large tea kettle; C is an flat iron; D & D is a cast iron Dutch Oven. It is possible that one or more of these heirlooms actually crossed the planes in the Archibald wagon train of 1863. When you hold the two biscuit pans, feel how heavy they are, and see how they are cast iron, you just know they came across in the covered wagons!
    E did not come down through the Moon! 's but has an interesting story. It hangs on Bonnie's wall. It is a 15-inch handmade, old wooden clock, which, as you can see, is backwards. In the 1930's, Ripley's ran an article saying there was only one of these clocks in the world, and it was at the Flat Iron Building in Chicago. They were quickly informed that there was a sister clock, and Ripley's apologized. Somehow, it came into Bonnie's possession. In 1926, the clock was repaired and still runs.

From Aunt Jean who married Clarence Griswold

    Jim, your book arrived today and thanks for sending it. From what little I have read so far you are to be commended on your hard work.
    The pictures of your cousin’s old cast iron items, just a couple of comments. First, I bet they were made by the Griswold Iron Works. Second, the old iron had a handle arrangement that was made of lighter metal and fit down over the top of the heavy Iron. It had a clip arrangement to hold it on and a wood handle across the top to hold onto as you ironed the clothes. Believe it or not, I have used the darn old heavy things. You put them on top of the wood cook stove to heat, had to remove the handle part so the wood wouldn't burn, then pick it up and go to work They were called Sad Irons. (probably because you were sad you had to use them). I have several old Griswold fry pans and Dutch ovens with the Griswold printed on the bottom. I have always said I was related to the Griswold Iron works. They just won't admit it. The Griswold Iron Works is no more. So, any that you find with the name on it is an antique. Just thought you might like to know these little tid bits. Love Jean

Two Wagon Trains

    It was the custom during the Colonial days, and later frontier days, to send a scouting party out ahead to look for new land to settle. This party would consist of one or more of the more capable men in the family group.
    Then, someone would go back, form an immigration party, and head for the Promised Land.
    This is probably what Archibald did when coming to California in the first wagon train. The family was not as separated as we might believe. Even though they were 2,000 miles apart, there was the telegraph line, which could give near instant communication between California and Missouri.
    Don’t think our people were isolated by traveling only during the seasons and limited to taking to taking wagon trains, which required several months to go each way. There were regularly scheduled stagecoach runs between Sacramento and St. Joseph, Mo. All you had to do was thrown your clothes in a suitcase, grab the next stage and you were home in 21 days.
    The Wells-Fargo Museum in Old Town Sacramento told me, “We give that information every day in our tours.” 21 days was under ideal conditions: dry roads, good weather, no Indians.
    The ticket cost a year’s wages, $300, but it was doable.


To Make Matchless Indian Ointment
Hand written by Y. A. Pannel for Mr. Hiram Brogans, Tennessee.

Take of barks, Red oak, black oak, white oak, Red bud, Red dogwood, beach,
elder, Shuemak, Sasafras Roots, witchhazel, hornbeam alder, and mullen: White
Mullen, yarrow, life everlasting, the pursley, Jimston weed; put all into a pot,
boil slow for about twelve hours then take out and put it into a pot and put in
as much lard as you want ointment and boil as long as there is any water in it.
And then bottle it up for it is then Redy for use.

This recipe was found in material from the descendants of Callaway Robbins & wife.
Lousana Brogans
Her grf. John Wallace Jr
His mother sister
Elizabeth Wallace



A family Receipt to make Wallaces’ paine destroyer
1 oz. gum goacum
½ oz camphor
2 oz. Liquor do podeldoc
1 oz. Laudonum
2 oz. Harteshorne
Put them all in one quart Bootle then fill it with Proofe Whiskey

To make the pilles, git
1 oz. Callamon
1 oz. Rheubarbe
Mix them together then make the pilles

To cure the C L ?
Soak Blue Stone in Whiskey then drean it of and put Read Sands in till
it is blue Red......
Take 1 teaspoon ful a day.

These recipes were taken from materials saved from past generations by
Siotha Wallace Clark,

Possession of Mildred Clark Bailey and William W. Bailey
Leeton, Mo.

My family history web site has 79 chapters. If you would like to know more about the other chapters then go to my Home Page www.thetracyfamilyhistory.net