Caldwell County MO Archives History .....KIDDER NEAR CENTENARIAN 1934
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Karen Walker khw4@yahoo.com August 28, 2008, 5:13 pm

KIDDER NEAR CENTENARIAN
	Narrator:  Mrs. Eliza (Thornhill) Stephenson  Kidder, Missouri

	Covered Wagon Days
	Indians in Daviess County
	Frank James Story

     Mrs. Stephenson was born 1834 and almost reached her one hundred years.  
She was born in Kentucky and was sixteen years old when her parents left their 
farm and brought a dozen slaves and two covered wagons to Missouri settling 
near Gallatin in Daviess County.  It took them a month to come, but it was a 
wonderful trip especially to the youngsters, with out door meals and new 
sights every day.  After they built their new home she saw Indians but they 
were what people called "friendly or begging Indians."  By 1860 the occasional 
wandering Indians in this section did not bother anyone except for cooked food.
     During the Civil War, the Thornhills sided with the South.  One day a 
body of Union troops passed their home.  Her brother promptly showed his 
mother's training by yelling "Hurrah for Jeff Davis."  The soldiers quickly 
scared him into silence.
     She loved to tell a story about Frank James, the famous Missouri bandit.  
She had then moved to Kidder.  One of the family was called back to Kidder on 
account of illness in the home.  She got on a train, by mistake, which did not 
stop at Kidder.  She pled in vain to have the train stop there to let her 
off.  Suddenly a passenger informed the Conductor that the train WAS GOING to 
stop at Kidder.  When the astounded Conductor recognized the passenger as 
Frank James he naturally stopped the train at once.
     Miss Thornhill was married 1862 to William Vallandingham and to A.J. 
Stephenson in 1882.
     Interview taken  1934 (shortly before her death).


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