Caldwell County MO Archives History .....IN DAVIESS COUNTY IN THE SIXTIES AND SEVENTIES 
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Karen Walker khw4@yahoo.com September 3, 2008, 6:43 pm

IN DAVIESS COUNTY IN THE SIXTIES AND SEVENTIES
	Narrator:  Mrs. James Brookshier, 80, Hamilton, Missouri

	Horse Back Riding          Primitive Baptists
	Barter

     Mrs. James Brookshier was born Ursula Drake 1854 in New York State.  The 
Drakes came to Daviess County when she was fourteen.  The father had died in 
New York and the mother yielded to the desires of the sons to come west.  Of 
course there were no fences and few roads then; you could ride for miles 
across the prairie.  She and her sister went horse back to Kidder one day 1869 
and passed a building just being erected.  The workmen told her it was going 
to be a College.  (It was the present Thayer Hall.)  On that whole trip to 
Kidder they did not use a single road.
     Girls rode on side saddles with long black calico (domestic) skirts, 
which they took off at their destination and tied to the side saddle.  The 
horse was hitched to a hitching post, which were very common.  A few girls 
could not mount a horse from the ground.  But most wanted a stump or a block 
which also were common sights.  Once in a long while out in the country, a 
girl would mount from a man's hand - he boosting her up in the saddle.  But 
most men refused to do it.  
     Mrs. Brookshier was twice immersed.  She joined first the Christian, then 
the Methodist the church of her first man, and lastly the Primitive or Hard 
Shell Baptist, when she was again immersed, since they did not accept other 
sects baptism.  This church was the church of her second man, James 
Brookshier, whose people always had been of this faith.
     To this day, she is faithful to this sect.  One Church was and is near 
Polo and another is at Richmond.  In Polo, once a year is held the "June 
Meeting" a sort of a camp meeting.  The Primitive Baptists have certain 
peculiarities.  They use no musical instruments in the church house.  They 
allow no eating in the church.  They do not take up collections or have 
sociables to raise money for the preacher.  He supports himself although they 
pay his traveling expenses.
     This Primitive Baptist Church was an early one in Caldwell County.  The 
Penney family, who were here in the Fifties belonged to it and Rev. Eli Penney 
farmer and preacher near Mirabile was a leading light.  His son James was also 
a farmer and preacher without pay for preaching.  J.C. Penney, the Chain Store 
man is a son of James.  He sometimes attends these "June Meetings" at Polo in 
honor to the memory of his father and grandfather, although he does not belong 
to the sect.
     When Mrs. Brookshier was a young woman she knitted two pairs of double-
knit mittens and took them to a Hamilton store taking in return two calico 
dresses, the calico being twelve and one-half cents a yard.  Barter was common 
at the stores then.  When a farm wagon drove up before the board platforms in 
front of stores the wife usually carried in farm made commodities to trade for 
muslin, calico, thread, sugar and coffee.  Butter was graded in price by the 
name of the woman who churned it.  One woman could get twenty five cents 
another only fifteen cents a pound, for the trade knew their butter makers.
     Interviewed  January 1934.


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