Caldwell County MO Archives History .....IRISH PIONEERS IN IOWA AND OKLAHOMA ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/mo/mofiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Karen Walker khw4@yahoo.com September 3, 2008, 6:50 pm IRISH PIONEERS IN IOWA AND OKLAHOMA Narrator: Mrs. Julia Tofflemire of Breckenridge, Missouri Mrs. Julia Tofflemire, mother of Dr. C.D. Tofflemire of Breckenridge, Missouri was born in Providence Rhode Island June 23 1866. At the age of six weeks, her parents went by train to Providence Illinois. Provisions were high, flour being $16 a barrel. One of her recollections of the life in Illinois was the candles her mother made. They always had one large candle that would burn all night on Christmas night. Her parents had only been over from Ireland a year when Julia (Sheila as they called her in Irish) was born. Her father, Daniel Sullivan came from Kahersiveen County Cary and her mother Catherin O'Brein came from Bantry County Cork. The name in Ireland was O'Sullivan, the O being a sign of the nobility but after coming to this country they dropped the O. When Julia was eight years old they went in a covered wagon to Greefield Iowa and bought a hundred sixty acre farm from James Calman of Des Moines. They lived on this farm for years keeping the family from 1875 until 1915. They lived in a tent and in a covered wagon while they hauled lumber twenty miles from Creston, each trip taking two days. When their house was nearly finished a big wind storm blew away the tent and blew in the end of the house. The small creek came up and carried away lots of their household furnishings. It was the custom on the open prairie for the community herdsmen to take cattle out and herd them all day. He received $1.50 a month for each cow. They built a sod barn of thick pieces of sod about two feed square. For windows they used lime barrels with open spaces between the staves. They set out willow and cotton wood shoots and planted maple seeds for trees and started a young orchard. The wolves were thick and killed their pet dog and got after their young pigs. For a Christmas treat they had bakers bread, candy, tea with cubed sugar in it. They went thirty two miles to Stuart to exchange wheat for flour and went twenty miles to Creston to church. Every Saturday Julia rode horse back across the open prairie nine miles to Greenfield and carried a bucket of eggs to exchange for sugar, tea, and tobacco. In the fall, Julia started to school, making the first path across the prairie to the String Town School House. The main road afterwards followed this same route. There was no bridge so she forded the creek, the only bridge being west several miles by the big buffalo wallows. These big hollows in the ground were the salt licks and wallows of the buffalo are still to be seen there. One day while in Greenfield, a prairie fire started cutting her off from home. She found a narrow place and jumped her horse across the blaze but the horses tail was burned getting across. At twenty one she was married to Charles Jerome Tofflemire. They moved to St. Joseph Missouri to live. He worked in the K.C. shops as blacksmith. The K.C. shops, now the Burlington Round House were then the south edge of St. Joseph. Lake Contrary was all wild country then. Mr. Tofflemire shot wild ducks there and she used the feathers for baby pillows. A grocery store near their house was a favorite loafing place of Jesse James known as Jesse Howard. He was a great friend of Wilkerson, the boss blacksmith, and often came to visit the men. He was considered a very quiet fellow and a model citizen. They were very much surprised after his death to find out who he was. He was a familiar figure on his fine saddle horse. After they had lived there ten years they went to Oklahoma by covered wagon and took up a homestead. The town of Fay now stands on this homestead. They built a log house for it was wild country. Their land lay between the two forks of the Canadian River but there were no bridges near. They forded the river to go to Watonga fourteen miles away. There were plenty of wild turkeys and prairie chickens and deer were thick. The deer loved to eat watermelon and raided their patch often. They raised a big patch of melons and raised two crops of sweet potatoes on the same ground each year. Also raised lots of peanuts and the sun roasted the peanuts in the sand. Snakes were common and came in the house too. Mrs. Tofflemire possessed a heavy butcher knife and she became quite expert at throwing this knife and killing snakes on the log wall. Some one stole property from the Indians and they were very much excited, threatening to take the war path. The sound of the war drums carried for miles and the settlers were warned to gather together. But the militia came and quieted them so there was no trouble. Mr. Tofflemire's health failed and after two and half years they went back to Lenox Iowa. Interviewed October 1933. File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/mo/caldwell/history/other/irishpio160gms.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/mofiles/ File size: 5.4 Kb