Jasper County MO Archives Biographies..... FLORA, William Walter November 23, 1871 - November 10, 1922 ************************************************ 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: William Samuel BOGGESS billbogges@webtv.net February 10, 2008, 10:28 am Author: William (Bill) Samuel BOGGESS       Dr   WILLIAM   WALTER   FLORA,   D D S      ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~       Birth of Will Flora was Thursday, 23 November 1871, according to Carl R Gray's, 22 June 1933 genealogical research report furnished Harriette Pearl (Flora) Hopkins.       Birth was most likely in Montgomery county, Kansas (possibly (?) Lyon county where his mother and sister are buried). He was son of John Andrew FLORA (1845IN-1934KS) and Mary Elizabeth SHULTS (1851OH-1874KS). Will had an older brother Clarence Morton (1867KS-1924OK) and sister Harriette Amanda (Hattie A) (1869KS-1956ME), she, first white child born in Montgomery county according to 1883 written history. A younger sister, Jennie G, lived but one month, buried with their twenty-three y/o mother 9 November1874. He married in 1892, became a dentist, had two daughters while living at Carthage, Missouri, moved to Colorado Springs and died in 1922.       Strange to me, while rest of family are in Oswego, Labette county, Kansas as of 1878, with their father, new step-mother Adda Smith (1844IN-1913KS), her son and daughter, Will is being raised near Liberty in Montgomery county, by his maternal grandmother, Harriet Catherine (Sterling) Shults (Shultz) (1824NY-1905KS), following mother and baby sister's deaths November 1874, "till young manhood." (1875 State census; she is in Liberty Township, Montgomery County, 1870 census she's at Elmendaro Township, Lyon county, 1865 State census she is in Americus Township, Lyon county, 1860 census at Emporia Township, Breckenridge county, 1850 census Washington Township, Franklin county, Ohio), her obit said; moved in "1871" (less 2nd hubby, John Marsh, and without "Marsh" surname), with son George E, her seventh child, and servant Ettie Grubb, near relocated new railroad (1871), Liberty, Montgomery county, Kansas, 11-miles north of Indian Territory (since November 1907, Oklahoma), --- property listed between household's of her sixth born Elige (Elijah?) with wife Libbie and her first born, John with wife Clara, --- her fifth born, Sarah, married Deputy Sheriff Clarence Scranton in Independence Township. She lived with daughter from 1885 till her 20 August 1905 death, near grandson, Clarence Morton FLORA's home with Will in attendance at her funeral. Will moved to his father's Oswego home, the Condon Hotel, in 1885 at age 13, where his sister Hattie A was married the following year to Carl R Gray.       "Mrs H C Shults" (grandmother Harriet Catherine) attended Will's wedding with 1877 orphaned, Maude Wallick (1870IN-1940CO) (name misspelled "Wallock" on license), --- born, Peru, Miami County, Indiana, from Chicago, Illinois, in Carthage, Jasper County, Missouri Sunday, 21 August 1892, performed by Rev William S Knight, Presbyterian minister. Also "Mr & Mrs. J.A. Flora" (father & step-mother), "Mr and Mrs C.R. Gray" (sister, Hattie A and Carl) and Mrs L E Carrier, aunt of Maude and of Alice Kingsbury.       It would appear Maude may (?) have moved after 1880 census from Peru, Indiana, possibly to Oswego before going to Chicago area about 1890/1 where she likely (?) lived with her aunt.     The wedding (requiring his father's consent) took place thirteen days following the Oswego funeral of Maude's first cousin, Alice Kingsbury, first wife of brother Clarence.       Its a bit strange to me as to what occurred: married by a Presbyterian minister, in town where his die-hard Baptist sister lived, themselves, firmly Methodist in Colorado, within two weeks of sister-in-laws funeral. I do not understand??       Carl Raymond Gray (1867AR-1939DC), was division superintendent for the Frisco (Saint Louis and San Francisco Railroad Company, started work 20 March 1883 (age 15), at Rogers, Arkansas, see page 479, volume I, "Who was Who in America"), living in Carthage 1890 to 1898 with wife (Will's sister), Harriette Amanda (Flora), (1869KS-1956ME) "American Mother of 1937", see page 17, May 3, 1937, Time magazine, sons Carl R Jr, (1889KS-1955MN), later a Major General then "Administrator of Veteran Affairs" for Harry Truman and Russell Davis (1899KS-1975NJ), when Will and Maude were wed with her sister, Pearle, not noted in attendance.       Their first home, reported in newspaper, was Oswego where they met, she then had been living in Chicago area, likely with her aunt, he employed by I R Fisher at the grocery store, whose daughter, Lucy, attended the wedding. "Will" was president of Oswego's Y M C A.       Mysteries remaining are:   1)- When & where did Will became a dentist (best guess is between 1893 and 1897, while living in Carthage) and   2)- when did they move to Carthage and to Colorado?       Maude gave birth October 1893 to Harriette Pearl (1893MO-1973CO) and my mother Frances Elizabeth (1898MO-1928MO) in Carthage. He was president of Carthage's Y M C A (1897), several years, involved with the Chautauqua assembly, living on Howard avenue June 11, 1898 when nine y/o nephew Carl R Gray, Jr fell out of their cherry tree while Maude was seven months pregnant with Frances. They built their new home some time after December 1898 at 1216 south Main (former numbering).       There are several Carthage newspaper articles from 1897 to 1903 copied a hundred years later in Mornin' Mail concerning them; He's in Kansas City April 1901, when the crowd around him tried to lynch a husband who had just killed his wife near nineth street, Maude and children to Colorado June 25, 1902, He as president Y M C A, and getting ready to build their new home at 1216 south Main, but NO firm date when they came nor when they left Carthage.       It appears they may (?) have moved to Colorado in 1904 (his 1922 obitbuary said 1900 but they were documented in Carthage but not found in 1900 census) for her health, where she had spent time at least documented twice, June 1902 and October 1903, and where he became active in Methodist church, YMCA, civic and sporting affairs of that area.       Will also invested (5%) in the new (1905) Colorado Springs National Bank with friend Willis R Armstrong, and was member of Board of Directors (Bank was sold in1985) and had one of the first automobiles in Colorado Springs. (Willis a pallbearer at both their funerals)       Granddaddy lived long enough to enjoy watching both daughters attend college and become married, --- Harriette Pearl at home, 2129 North Nevada, to Dr Guy H Hopkins (1894IL-1966CO) 8 September 1920, entire family in attendance, including step-nephew, Elmer C Clark, Jr, as Best Man, then my mother, Frances Elizabeth, 28 August 1921 at home, 221 East St Vrain Street, to Luke J Boggess (1899MO-1974MO), with Dr Guy H Hopkins as Best Man, with only immediate family members present.       Carl R Gray's step-sister, Grace M Beattie (1872TN-1954MS), a teacher, 1902 thru 1944 at Colorado School for the Blind and the Deaf, was a frequent visitor of Maude's through the years.       Granddaddy died at daughter Harriette's Pueblo, Colorado home in 1922, his obituary failing to mention brother Clarence. My brother and I spent summer of 1936 with grandmother Maude in home where she died in 1940, both buried in Colorado Springs' Evergreen Cemetery, later, daughter Harriette's husband, Guy Hopkins, 1966, then Harriette, in 1973 joined them.             Additional items:             ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ family tree http://wc.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=AHN&db=califia1&id=I1847       marriage http://files.usgwarchives.net/ks/labette/vitals/marriages/wallick102mr.txt       obit http://files.usgwarchives.net/ks/montgomery/obits/f/flora37ob.txt       maude & pearle wallick http://files.usgwarchives.net/ks/labette/bios/wallick121bs.txt       father's bio http://files.usgwarchives.net/ks/montgomery/bios/flora112bs.txt ~~~ http://community.webtv.net/billboggess/MYWEBSITES File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/mo/jasper/bios/flora11bs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.poppet.org/mofiles/ File size: 8.4 Kb