MANGUS AND LA JORRA As dictated by Daisy Mangus) ****************************************************************** File contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives Compiled and submitted by Janet Crosslin Seamon USGENWEB NOTICE: In keeping with our policy of providing free information on the Internet, material may be freely used by non- commercial entities, as long as this message remains on all copied material, AND permission is obtained from the contributor of the file. Unauthorized use for commercial ventures expressly prohibited. All information submitted to this project remains - to the extent the law allows - the property of the submitter who, by submitting it, agrees that it may be freely copied but NEVER sold or used in a commercial venture without the knowledge & permission of its rightful owner. 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Grandmother La Jorra took him to rear. His father, Mr. Mangus (first name unknown) remarried and had two sons and one daughter by this marriage. The Mangus family went back to Canada and William Franklin Mangus (who remained with Grandmother La Jorra lost track of them. As far as we know, he had a good life in Kentucky and received a good education. When he was between 18 and 20, grandmother La Jorra died. About that time, there was a wagon train going west and being young and full of dreams of adventure, he decided to go along. He had a fine horse and saddle; so he joined a wagon train. He wanted to go to Fort Dodge, Kansas. He evidently got separated from the train and was traveling alone, when his horse went lame. He was forced to shoot the animal. Walking along on the Kansas prairies, he met a man who had also lost his horse; so they put up together for the night and went to bed. Before dropping off to sleep, the man told William Franklin Mangus that he (meaning William Franklin) was heading in the wrong direction if he wanted to reach Fort Dodge. He promised to show him the right way (direction) the next morning. When morning dawned, William Franklin got up and started the fire. He then went to awaken the man and found him dead. There was no way to tell where the man came from and the only name on him had no meaning to William Franklin. The man had $200 on him in gold and silver. William Franklin became alarmed and simply packed up and hurriedly left., leaving the man and his money on the plains of Kansas. He was traveling toward Kansas City and we think that he must have met and joined a cattle drive. He traveled around from place to place for awhile (dealing mostly with cattle) and finally wound up in Gilliam, Missouri. He went to work for a Mr. Gilliam who had a lot of land and many slaves. He became the overseer of Mr. Gilliam's plantation. Cambridge was a town on down the Missouri River. That is where the Terry family lived. In his work, William Franklin Mangus would go to Cambridge and he became acquainted with Susan Terry. William Franklin and Susan fell in love, but her father wanted her to marry a McCormick boy, whose family lived near. In fact, her father had made the marriage contract with Mr. McCormick. (Susan's sister, Mary, had already married a McCormick boy.) Susan learned of her father's plans and told William Franklin; so the two eloped, using horses for their way of travel. They crossed the Missouri River, using the Ferry out of Cambridge and were married in Glasgow, Missouri, in Howard County. She was 17 and he was then about 24, so Daisy thinks. They came back on the Cambridge side of the Missouri River and William Franklin went to work on "White's Plantation." At that time, Susan had not contacted her parents. He and Susan decided to go back to Louisiana and they took a boat down the Mississippi, landing at Natchez. We do not know if by that time Susan had contacted her family. There was a rich plantation owner there named Bache and William Franklin went to work for him. The first child, Charles Walker Mangus, was born in Louisiana. Then the war came and William Franklin registered for the war. William Franklin Mangus, according to official records, was registered an March 10, 1862, at Vidalia, Louisiana. He was registered in the Confederate Army LA Infantry, State Army, Company F-25. The next child to be born to him and Susan was William Franklin, Jr. The Confederate Army made William Franklin a scout. He was able to come back and visit his wife several times. In the meantime, Susan had been in touch with her parents and was corresponding regularly. Finally, as a confederate soldier, William, Franklin was taken prisoner. He was Put on a flat car to be taken to a prison camp. He and another man from the train escaped. The war was about over and William Franklin headed for his family in Louisiana, walking. It was later learned that the train carrying the prisoners was burned and all on board either killed or badly injured. In the meantime, the Boche familys’ plantation had been almost destroyed. Mr. Boche was without much money and the slaves were mostly gone. He told Susan he would give her enough money to get back to her people in Missouri. Before she could leave, her husband came in haggard and sick. Susan thought her husband was dead and was planning on returning to Missouri with her two little boys. The story is told that when William Franklin arrived home he knocked on the door. When Susan came to the door he asked for something to eat. Susan turned to get him some food and he said, "Sue, don't you know me?" He must have been a sorry sight having been on the road for about three weeks--had not shaved, clothes dirty and torn, with little to eat. Before he had returned, Susan went several times to the Yankee gunboats in the River for food and coffee. An old Negro mammy would go part of the way with her. She would take the two little boy with her and because several of the Yankee soldiers had small children back home (and partly, I suspect, because Susan was a beautiful woman) they would give her good. When Mr. Boche heard of this he warned Susan of the danger. Then the gunboats pulled out, they went on down the river to New Orleans. Another tale Susan told her children was of other Yankee soldiers coming to the Boche plantation and stealing hogs, chickens and anything they could find. Mr. Boche saved some fine horses by letting a negro boy take them into the woods and down into a deep ditch for hiding until the Yankees rode on. Susan, William Franklin and the two little boys got passage on a river boat and started for St. Louis and Cambridge. William Franklin was afraid of the "Bushwackers" in Missouri; so sometime before reaching Missouri, he left the boat. Susan and the children entered St. Louis harbor and as the boat docked, she noticed the flag flying at half-mast and heard many mournful whistles. Passengers were all alarmed, think their boat was sinking. Then the Captain announced that President Lincoln had been shot and killed. Susan had to wait for sometime on the boat before the passengers could disembark. Then she changed boats and went on to Cambridge, where she was reunited with her family. All was forgiven. As soon as he could finish the journey by foot, William Franklin arrived and he and Susan settled near Gilliam, Missouri. Later they bought land in Saline County and he became a farmer. The Terrys’ liked Susan's husband quite well by this time and were helping them get on their feet. William Franklin made his money in tobacco. Altogether they had ten children. When Monte Mangus was a little boy and before Daisy was born (there are 7 years between their births), the family home burned and all contents were lost. Only the big barn remained. They rebuilt and Daisy was born on that same farm, but in the new house. By the time the oldest 7 children had married and left home (Ida, Monte and Daisy remained), Susan and William Franklin sold the farm and moved into Moberly. This was about 1896 or 1897. They bought a place at the edge of Moberly at what is now Gratz Brown street, where they lived until their father died in 1901. Their mother lived for several years and died in 1911. Both are buried at Oakland Cemetery in Moberly. Note: Susan's father, John Terry, grew so fond of her husband that before he died, he designated William Franklin as the Executor of his estate. There is some doubt as to the correct spelling for La Jorra or Mangus. La Jorra might be La Hore, La Johr, La Horra Mangus might be Manguis, Mangues