May 19
As told to Elsie Odell Bennette by Beth Gowdy about her mother, Anne Kemp Gowdy
John Glenn Newbill of Virginia was a slave owner but his slaves were well treated. When his daughter, Sarah, and her husband, Riley Kemp, moved to Pettis County, Missouri, he gave her a couple. Read the rest of this entry
May 19
As told to Elsie Odell Bennette by Beth Gowdy about her father
The summer of 1862, John T. Gowdy and a friend went north to Canada to hunt for gold. They had very little success, but John did bring home a very small amount of gold dust.
May 19
As told to Beth Gowdy by her mother, Anne Kemp Gowdy
When I was ten years old, we lived for about a year in a little log cabin in Polk County, near where Fort Sheridan stood. Ever since we had been in Oregon, we had lived in Salem, and had near neighbors with children to play with me. This was a lonesome place, no houses in sight and no near neighbors.
May 19
Told by Anne Kemp Gowdy.
I was six years old in November, 1849. The next spring I went to school for the first time. We were living on a farm, near where is now the city of Sedalia, Missouri. My teacher was Mrs. Ferguson. She taught, or kept school, as we said then, in her home.
May 19
As told to Elsie Odell Bennette by Beth Gowdy
Your great grandfather, John T. Gowdy, was only seventeen years old when he crossed the plains in 1852 by ox team. By the time he was telling this story to his children, he had forgotten the name of this river.
