Info Below Submitted By:  Terry Tullock

There is a story told by Virgil's wife's family that John Edward was seen coming into the area sitting on the back of Joshua Caffee's wagon & that he was "mighty good lookin".  He was supposed to have lived & worked for Joshua Caffee who had a log cabin with a dirt floor.  Joshua Caffee came to Missouri as he was avoiding the law in Tennessee.  He had been caught bootlegging & had to leave in a hurry.  Later Joshua Caffee owed John Edward $100 or $150 & deeded the Clear Creek field of 40 acres to John Edw. in a land abstract.  This was known as the Old Highly place above Pierce's.  There is a remembered story that John Edw. told of himself .  He returned to his home in Tennessee when he was 18 years old & as he was walking across Eads Bridge [St. Louis], his brand new hat blew off into the water below.  John Edw. was 30 years old when his first wife died & left a two year old daughter to care for. 

He met Julia Elizabeth when they were both working the stock farms near Belgrade.  She was 21 years old & pregnant.  There was 10 years age difference.  They married & raised both girls same as the rest.  John Edw. was 31 years old before he started his family with Julia.  He was 56 when his last child was born.

John Edw. was a rather quiet shy man in his later years.  His dark brown eyes still danced when he enjoyed something or someone.  He helped haul lumber for the Pleasant Grove Baptist Church to be built.  He was the Sunday School Superintendent.

John Edward's appearance when he was young was rather dark complexion, black curly hair, real dark brown eyes & a slim build, tall in comparison to most other men of that time. 5' 10".  He was thought to have French & Indian heritage.  His grandmother was said to be a full blooded Cherokee Indian.  The French & Indian was no doubt his mother.  When he had had the twins he & Julia bought a farm from Julia's brother James William [Turner] & his wife Elsie (Robinson) near Belgrade for $400.  This was on top of a hill later named Turner Mountain on the Missouri maps.  This farm as remembered was well set back off the road & they built a low wall of "cave" rock that everyone brought in from the creeks or river beds near there.  Through the gate & across broad grassy yard, under a huge walnut tree & into a screened front porch.  Through the door & into a big kitchen that was where all the family sat & did evening chores & children studied till bedtime.  There was a door to the left off the porch that led to a small parlor where there was a printed rug & leather sofa & chair & a pump organ against the wall.  Only the minister was invited in there.

In the kitchen was a big stove for heating & chairs from the table were gathered around the walls for the children or neighbors to sit & talk when work was done.  Across from the stove was a big long table, much like a picnic table with benches not attached.  Still further across the kitchen was the back entrance & the pantry where Julia kept her dishes & pots & pans.  A sink on spindly legs & a slop bucket beneath it.  Going back to the small hallway was another door to the parlor & an entrance to the narrow steep steps to the upstairs.  Upstairs were wood frames of beds with straw mattresses for as many children that were home at the time.  Some were gone before the others were born.  A sheet hung from the ceiling separated the boys from the girls.  Downstairs again across from the parlor was a bedroom, just big enough for a small double bed & a chifferobe, room just enough to walk around the bed.

Outside the back entrance were small sheds, one with a cellar to separate the milk, cool it & a churn to make butter.  Here were pickle barrels & crocks of all sizes, hood to hang meat, places to put vegetables in dirt to keep as long as possible through the winters.  There were bags of flour & bags of sugar & jars & jars for canning.

Back of these sheds closer to the house was the outhouse - the bathroom a deep hole with a shed over it & a place to sit over the hole.  There was a lime sack to shovel a bit of lime over the accumulation now & then to destroy as much as possible & when the hole was filled they dug another hole & moved the "outhouse".

Back of the outhouse was the orchard.  Peach, apple, plum & pear trees.  Still another section close to the house was a big garden that John Edw. tilled for Julia to raise all the vegetables with the help of the children.

Then there was the well on the side yard.  A wooden platform around a raised wall that protected the hole from animals or children falling into it.  There was a wooden bucket tied to a long rope thrown over a rod built over the well so that when the bucket was lowered or raised it wouldn't damage the sides of the hole.  The platform was to keep feet dry & the area clean & no dirt fall into the hole.  Later there was a pump that brought the water up instead of the bucket.

Out another gate was another area to the chicken coop & the pig sty.  A larger shed was John Edwards blacksmith shop where there was an array of tools: tongs, hammers, vices, horse shoes & strap iron.  There was a big fire pit & bellows to blow the flames hot.  He was an accomplished blacksmith.

Down the hill was the cow barn & a place to store big machinery.  A barn to store hay & horses & sheep & cows.

John Edw. was up by 4:00 a.m. & out to the barns to feed the animals before coming back to the house for breakfast.  About 6:00 a.m.  After breakfast he went out again to turn the cattle out to the fields, plant or reap his grain, work in the blacksmith shed.  In earlier times before his sons were old enough, he would hunt deer, rabbit, squirrel, turkey, quail - whatever was edible to supplement the family need for food.

There were also predators to get rid of such as cougar, mountain lion, hawks, rattlesnakes, anything that would endanger the livestock or children.  A dinner anvil (a piece of iron in shape of a triangle) was struck to call him & his sons in from the fields for dinner.  This was the big meal of the day.  Then it was out again to bed the animals down for the night & make everything safe till morning again as well as getting in crops.  Sometimes he went to help his neighbors.  They all worked together to get their crops in. Supper was usually leftovers from dinner.  After supper or before, it was time to light the coal oil lamps & John would spend the evening resoling shoes, repairing harness, whatever was needed till bedtime.

Having four daughters before having sons was very difficult for a farmer.  John Richard & Robert Johnathan, the twins were only 13 when they had to quit school to help.  They worked in the mines, by 16 they had left to work in the wheat fields of Kansas.  The farm just could not support so large a family.

A doctor diagnosed John Edward as having tuberculosis in his 60's.  Nothing was known of lead poisoning at that time.   His children did not accept this idea of tuberculosis as their father was an outdoor man.  They suspected that he had inhaled wheat chaff & his lungs had become infected.  Nevertheless he became so thin & weak with the years & was finally bedridden.  The families were summoned to say goodbye.  His & Julia's bedroom was dimly lit with oil lamps & one night each & every son & daughter was well as their spouses & their children were each called one by one to go into the bedroom where he lay.  To each & every one, one by one John whispered his blessing & each left back to his own bed.  By morning he was gone.

The body was lovingly washed & the undertaker came.  He asked the two oldest boys - the twins - who were 33 by then to help him "let blood" to prepare the body for the funeral.  It was too much for John Richard - & Robert helped.  John walked around & around the outside of the house, once peeping in the window but he could not get up the courage to assist.  He never forgot the shame he felt for not being able to help.

The sons then took the mattress that John had lain on out to the orchard.  They set it on fire in case he did have TB.  The flames leaped high in the air & was quite an eerie sight in the night sky.

The casket with John Edw. was put in the parlor & the room kept very dim & cool.  One by one his family came in with their children to pay their last respects & visit him in memory.  At night they took turns, one by one sitting with him all night.  Never was he alone.

The third day all the families & their children dressed in their very best got into their cars & followed a big black hearse to the Baptist Church for a service then again to the cemetery.  The line of cars was long & slow & as the many cars passed a field, a horse was so startled it ran & ran along the fence it's mane flowing in the wind.  It was a strange sight.  The sons were the pallbearers & the grand daughters were flower bearers each carrying a spray to the grave sight.  It was a sad day as their dear father, husband, grandfather, friend was to be no more.  A family dissolved.  He was so loved, respected, so admired.  Back at the house, neighbors had come in & prepared a meal & had brought cakes & pies beyond belief, showing their compassion for the Turners.  Somehow no one had ever asked John Edw. about his mother & father or any of his family.  He might have said something but no one ever remembered or wrote it down.  More likely the younger ones forgot to ask the older brothers & sisters who too have gone to rest.