Biographical Sketch of Fannie Jane Lamar *********************************************************************** USGENWEB NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by any other organization or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. Transcribed by Marti Agan agan@iland.net *********************************************************************** All information is being uploaded as it is transcribed... check back often for more pages. FANNIE JANE LAMAR BUTLER TIMES, Thursday, June 24, 1954 Mrs. Fannie LaMar Recalls Early Days Now 88 Years of Age, She Has Vivid Recollections of Early Settlement in Bates County Mrs. Fannie J. LaMar of the Amoret vicinity has submitted the following article to The butler-Times-Press for publication: Here are a few lines from an old Missourian. I am not a native of the state, but was born December 14, 1865, about two miles from the city of Toulon, the county seat of Stark county, Illinois, the daughter of Jacob and Mary Rogers. There I lived with my parents until I was 3 years old, when my father, desirous of making a change and to look for himself a home, landed in Crawford county, Kansas , then a wide open country. After two years, owing to bad luck and the hardship of a new country, he was compelled to make a change and came to Bates county, MO. Bates was also a new country and most beautiful. As far as any one could look, they could see broad, green prairie of bluestem grass. In many places, it was as high as a horse's back. There was plenty of wild game, such as rabbit, quail, prairie chicken and wild turkey, which now are almost a thing of the past. There are still a few quail and rabbit but no prairie chicken or wild turkey. My parents came here in the year 1871, when I was 5 years old. When I was 18 years of age, I met and married Charles H. LaMar, also of one of the old pioneer families, since his parents settled here on a claim the year 1853, about two and one-half miles south of where the town of Amsterdam now stands. My husband was born there in 1854. The place is still known as the old LaMar plantation. After our marriage, we lived across the Kansas line a few times, but always called Bates county our home. In 1902, my husband became anxious to see the west, so we threw a few pieces of our belongings in a covered wagon and started west, going as far as Colorado Springs. We saw Pike's Peak, Garden of the Gods and other places of interest. We also saw the famous person, Buffalo Bill. We returned to Bates county in the fall. I have lived to see the way of transportation change from ox team to airplane. Although they fly through the air and drive fast through the country in autos, I often wonder if they are any happier then we were in pioneer days when people would hitch up their horses to the wagon and drive miles at night to a revival meeting held in the old country schoolhouse. Everyone seemed to be as happy as could be, as the old saying it was "the old time religion, it was good enough for me". My husband and I reared seven children, all of whom are now living in their own. homes. One son is with me on the little farm my parents bought in 1880, two miles from Amoret and 17 miles from Butler, the county seat. What education I have, which isn't much, I got at the district school. In January after I was 85 years old in December, I fell and broke my right hip and about four months later I fell again and broke the other hip, so now I am a cripple. Otherwise, I enjoy good health and company and can read and sew to pass away the time. I am 88 years old and have been a county resident 83 years the first of March. Among special memories are the so-called grasshopper year. They came in the fall of 1874 and left in 1875. They destroyed everything in the country. So ends the sketch of an old-timer.