Caldwell County MO Archives History .....ABRAHAM BRUNK FAMILY AND THE ROBERT WHITE FAMILY  
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Karen Walker khw4@yahoo.com September 4, 2008, 4:22 pm

THE ABRAHAM BRUNK FAMILY AND THE ROBERT WHITE FAMILY 
	BOTH OF BRECKENRIDGE TOWNSHIP
	Narrator:  Andrew Brunk of Breckenridge

     Mr. Brunk is the son of Abraham Brunk of Rockingham county Va. and Mary 
Kibler of Shenandoah co. Va. who were married 1860, moved from Va. to Ills. in 
1856, the general time of the keen Ills. migration, and then on to Caldwell 
county 1868, the flood time of the Caldwell county migration.  They settled in 
Breckenridge township.  Abraham was the son of Christy Brunk (1795-1880) and 
Barbara Funk.  Old Christy Brunk had 11 children, he himself was a Memonite 
and two of his children were ministers of that faith.  Mr. Andy Brunk is a man 
now along in years and knew many of the pioneer characters now passed away.
     Among them, he mentioned Robert White, a very early interesting Caldwell 
county pioneer.  He spoke of him as Father White, because of his age when he 
knew him and his general sanctity of living.  Robert White is buried in the 
Breckenridge cemetery, although the old White cemetery was started on his 
ground.
     White was known to be a Mormon preacher, coming in with the vanguard of 
the Mormons 1834.  He entered two tracts of land in Fairview township one Aug 
2, 1836, and another in 1837.  He used to say that he came the year after the 
stars fell, now that meant 1834, for the meteoric shower here came in 1833.  
He as others of that time used it as a dating time.
     Father White came from King Co. Ohio, and he built one of the early mills 
in the county, one mile from the site of the old Mormon town ford and Haun's 
Mill.  This mill was sold to Wm. Mann and he sold it to John Raglan and soon 
after it was washed away in the flood of 1839.
     When the Mormon exodus from the county occurred, Robert White became a 
dissenter from Mormonism.  He stayed on in the county and embraced Methodism 
where he was quite a leader.
     He died Oct 1898.  His property division caused no little litigation for 
he left an estate of $50,000.  By his first wife, he had one child Mary Jane 
who married one Sawyers, and she died, leaving one child Robert Sawyer.  By 
his second wife, he had a child W.M. White of Breckenridge.  In 1883, Robert 
White made a will which gave all his property save $50 to his son William.  In 
1896, he made a deed by which he conveyed his farm to his son.  Robert Sawyer, 
thinking that he had not been fairly treated by his grandfather, after the 
death of Uncle Robert White, began to take steps to have the will and deed set 
aside on the ground of mental unsoundness.  The case went against the 
grandson.  It was shown that Mr. Robert White drove several miles to have the 
will made and this seemed to show that he knew what he was doing.
     Interview  1934.

Interviewer's  Note - In relation to Mr. White's Mormonism, the following is 
of interest:  Amanda Smith, a Mormon survivor of the Haun's Mill massacre, in 
her account, mentions White as two of the company left by the Gentiles at 
Haun's Mill to guard the women and prevent a Mormon outbreak.


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