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Sat, Oct 10 2009
A Treasure of Family History

I believe that at some point in everyone's life they dream of finding lost treasure.  Well today I did, or should I say it found me.  A few days ago I went to my computer to check my email, as I usually do each morning. To my delight I had an email inquiring about my Allenville Missouri website. The email was from Mrs. Teresa Mathis an unknown distant relative. She was about to share a family inheritance of great wealth, a priceless treasure of family jewels.  In this Treasure there were no gold coins, diamonds, or pearls for they are much more common than what she shared with me. Teresa Mathis informed me that she had my great, great, great grandmother's family bible and what seemed to be an endless list of family records that I never dreamed would still exist. My mind races thinking about the family members that had held, and read that bible. I wonder how many family member were lead to Christ from the living word of that bible. When I try to wrap my mind around the journey that that bible must have made, it's mind blowing. I believe that Teresa told me that the bible was recovered from a family barn in Texas and then for a while after that it was stored in a pumphouse before it found it's way into the caring hands of Teresa Mathis.  I find it almost ironic that the word of God survived so long in such humble quarters as a barn and a pumphouse when the very topic of the bible itself started off in a manger.

Teresa also informed me that she had three report cards from Allenville school from the late 1800's belonging to members of my Courtway family, one belonging to my great,great grandfather Charles Alexander Courtway.

What were the odds?  I probably shouldn't use the word odds because that would suggest a game of chance, and I don't believe this happened by chance.  I believe ordained is a better word.  I believe they were looking for me as much as I was looking for them.

Thank you, Teresa.

CRH

 


Posted by allenville at 11:16 PM CDT
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Wed, Mar 25 2009
Not much Allenville info lately

I haven't found much new info on old Allenville lately, but I did get a new post card that looks to be from around 1900-1920.

 The name on the card is Mr. W.D. Wilker of Allenville Missouri.  Anyone that has info on the Wilker family of Allenville please feel free to share.

This site will only grow if we work together, so all info is welcome.

If you have family from Allenville please share a story.

Thanks, CRH


Posted by allenville at 3:26 PM CDT
Updated: Wed, Mar 25 2009 3:34 PM CDT
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Sun, Feb 15 2009
I'm glad that people are starting to find the website

I was glad to see that I had a few emails the other day about the Allenville MO. website. My first email about the website came from Kevin Katon the Great Grandson of J.A. Withers who found the website by doing an internet search for his Great Grandfather. Kevin and I have traded several emails about the site, and the Withers family.  Kevin seems like a great person, and I'm glad I got the chance to meet him.

My second email came from Roger Amos, he's someone that grew up in Allenville, and that I've known for years.  Roger's family, like mine, has been in Allenville since it was founded. There's also a member of Roger's family in the Allenville biography section of the website.  Roger's Mother (Mary Alice Amos) was a very nice lady that was a servant of the Lord at the Allenville Baptist church for many years.  I still have a card that she sent me after I visited the church once.

I think what makes this site worth while is when I get to hear from the people that grew up in Allenville, or that had family from Allenville.  I'm really glad that I decided to do this website.

 Thanks to Roger and Kevin for the emails.

CRH  


Posted by allenville at 6:51 PM CST
Updated: Mon, Feb 16 2009 8:51 PM CST
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Thu, Jan 22 2009
Grandma & Grandpa Thompson

I wonder what my grandparents would have thought of this website? Something tells me that they would have really liked it.

I can't help but think of the stories that I missed out on from their lips. My grandpa, Harry Alexander Thompson was born 1916 in Allenville, MO, and passed away April 8, 1973 when I was only 5 years old. I can only remember one thing about grandpa, and that was how he used to pick me up when I came over to his house and rub my face all over his wiskers, and man he had the hardest wiskers on earth.

I wish he could have lived longer so we could have got to know each other better.  I can only imagine the things we would have talked about and the stories he could have shared with me.

My grandma was Dorothy Lee (Davenport) Thompson. She was born December 28, 1920 at Gravel Hill, MO. She and Grandpa were married June 28, 1941.  Grandma passed away March 21, 2008. Grandma had been sick for some time, and I was unable to carry on a conversation with her for many years.  I do however remember staying with her when I was very young and she would send me to the store which was about 25 yards from her home, but it would make me feel so big that I could go to the store for grandma, of course she would call them when I was on my way and let them know I was coming, but I didn't know it at the time.

I just wanted to share a little bit about my grandparents, and honor them because without them there wouldn't have been an Allenville, MO website, because I would have never been born. Even though I wish we would have had more time together, I thank the Lord for the time we did have.

This website was for you too, and I miss you both.

CRH

 


Posted by allenville at 12:01 AM CST
Updated: Thu, Jan 22 2009 8:42 PM CST
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Tue, Jan 13 2009
Spending the day with an angel.

What a blessing I received today.  It was my pleasure to speak with the 90 year young daughter of H.H. Hinton for about an hour. She is one of the sweetest ladies that I have ever met.

 We talked about the town of Allenville as she remembered it, which was very nice as there's not much left of the town today.  She shared with me the location of many of the stores and other businesses including the location of Withers Distillery which is one of my favorite topics when it comes to Allenville. We also talked about my grandfather whom she went to school with as a child.

She shared things with me that I would never be able to find out anywhere else, such as the location where the boys played baseball in early Allenville, who else would know that?

I will just close by saying thank you to this sweet lady who in one hour gave me a decade of early Allenville

May God bless you and your family,

CRH,


Posted by allenville at 7:37 PM CST
Updated: Tue, Jan 13 2009 11:02 PM CST
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Fri, Jan 9 2009
Starting this website was a double blessing.

When I started this website I was hoping to find some pictures, and stories to help tell the the history of Allenville MO, but early on in this venture I found those things, and much more.

One night while searching the net I found the email of a man who seemed to have some information of one of the most influential families of Allenville. So, I thought to myself, it might be worth while to contact this gentleman. I can only say that I'm so thankful that I sent that email.

From the email that I sent I met Ken Soper and the Allenville site began to grow. Come to find out Ken was the grandson of H.H. Hinton, and he introduced me to his couisn Carolyn Klueppel. Between the two of them I have received a priceless treasure of Allenville pictures and stories.  They are wonderful people, and as Ken and I spent more time talking we came to find out that we were distant cousins by the marriage of Mary Hinton to my great great uncle Joseph Courtway, and as if that wasn't enough. I found out through Ken that the 90 year old Daughter of H.H. Hinton, is living in my home town only 4 blocks from my home. I spoke with her on the phone today and have plans to meet with her next week.

Thanks to Ken and Carolyn for being wonderful people, and a great help in building the Allenville MO. website.

It truly is a small world.

Thanks again, CRH.


Posted by allenville at 5:19 PM CST
Updated: Tue, Jan 13 2009 11:04 PM CST
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Wed, Dec 31 2008
The Tank Slough
Topic: Stories

The Tank Slough was the perfect get away for a young boy. If you walked the railroad tracks towards Whitewater for about 1 mile you would reach the Tank Slough on the left side of the tracks. It got it's name because there used to be a railroad water tank at the location. I can't even count the times I have camped out there.  It was the prefect place to hide out as a young boy.  It was a good hunting and fishing spot, and all the privacy a kid could stand. My favorite thing about the Slough was the bass fishing. It had some big bass in it, and it looked like something out of a Tarzan movie. It had huge lily pads and vines hanging everwhere, so even when the fish weren't biting it was still a sight to behold.

The old slough reminded me of the land that time forgot because it wasn't only the bass that were big. This little swamp had some of the most prehistoric snakes and turtles that I have ever seen. I'll never forget the time that a group of us boys were walking home after camping out at the slough. With every few steps we would take somebody would shout, "snake!" trying to scare the others. As we reached the top of the railroad tracks I saw the biggest snake that I had ever seen outside of a zoo.  This thing was huge.  It's head was on one of the rails of the tracks and it's body went down the side of the tracks and vanished into the weeds. As soon as I saw it, I said "look at the size of that snake", but nobody even flinched because we had been joking about snakes all morning. When no one reacted, I said "really guys, look at that snake", and when they did, everybody freaked out!  I'm not kidding, I believe that the snake was atleast 8 feet long (could have been bigger) and as big around as a good size leg.  I didn't want to get close to it, but my step brother Scott thought we needed to kill it and take it home to show everyone, because nobody was going to believe us when we told then how big it was. 

Any other time we would have had a shotgun, but this time all we had was a shovel and fishing poles. So, Scott got close enough to try and hit it on the head with the shovel. He raised the shovel over his head and came down with  great force missing the snake and breaking our good shovel on the rail of the tracks. The Missouri Anaconda raised it's oversized head gave us a dirty look and slid off into the Tank Slough Badlands never to be seen again.  Now, we had no snake and no shovel. I guess the moral of this story is, let sleeping snakes lie.

P.S.  Happy New Year everybody!  it's now 2009

 

 


Posted by allenville at 11:26 PM CST
Updated: Sun, Jan 4 2009 3:40 PM CST
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Sat, Dec 20 2008
Growing up in Allenville

This is how the Allenville, MO site got it's start.  My family members have been a part of Allenville pretty much since it was founded.  I have always heard stories about how Allenville used to have a Bank, lots of stores, a Whiskey Distillery, and many other businesses, but the time that I spent living there as a young boy with my Mom, and step Dad it kind of reminded me of a ghost town.

As I spent more time there, and made new friends I began to really like Living there.  One of my first friends from Allenville was Eddie Williams.  Eddie and I used to hang out all the time. He was a little older than me so I kind of looked up to Eddie. He was probably 14 or 15 and I was 11, or 12.  I was finding out that living in Allenville wasn't too bad with a few friends.  We used to hunt arrowheads all the time, hang out, and swim at the big Railroad trussel.

Sometimes Eddie could get his mom's car and we would ride around the outskirts of town, it was a lot of fun for a couple of kids.  I liked hanging out with Larry and Betty Hicks son's Frankie, Eric, and Mark the youngest. Frankie was the oldest so we didn't hang out much, but I do remember one time walking home down the tracks from Delta when we came to the Railroad bridge, and Frankie said let's walk across the channel, but I didn't want to because I couldn't swim at the time. Frankie said I'll put you on my shoulders and I agreed. Frankie walked across the Channel with me on his shoulders and water up to his chin. I don't know who was craziest Frankie for walking across, or me for riding on his shoulders. 

I remember Eric Hicks having a Honda motorcycle for a little while and Me, Eric, and Eddie Williams all riding it at the same time crashing it into a trash dump in the ally behind Eddie Williams house, now that was the good ol' days. 

Over the years and through High School the youngest Hicks son, Mark, and I became pretty good friends.  There's no way that I could type out all the fun that Mark and I had over the years.  Mark and I could always find something to laugh about.

In the early 80's Jack and Barb Simpson moved to town and brought their son's Bryan and Eric.  I always got along with Bryan and we had some good times, but Eric and I hit it off right away.  Eric was no doubt one of the best friends I ever had. We stayed very close for 20 years and even though I don't see him much anymore I still think of old times and laugh.  I hope He and his family are doing well.

So, with these memories and my families past in Allenville as I got older I began to take an interest in Allenville and it's past history.  I first became interested in Withers Distillery as I heard my mom tell of someone buying a Whiskey Jug at an auction and It peaked my interest.  I tried to find info on Withers Distillery on the internet but there was none to be found.  Then one day I was in an antique shop in Cape Girardeau, MO and was shown a J. A. Withers glass and from that moment I was hooked. Not long after that my mom and stepdad gave me a J.A. Withers Whiskey jug, which I love! 

Later on mom and Richard met a nice couple at an auction and was talking with them about Withers distillery and the couple said they had some old items from that distillery and that if they ever got ready to sell them they would let them know. About a year or so later they met again at an auction and said they were ready to sell the items.  When we met at Delta to see the items I was pleased to see that they had a Whiskey jug from before Withers had his distillery in Allenville. They had a J.D. Dameron jug from the 1890's, and Dameron is who J.A. Withers bought his distillery from in 1906.  They also had two Withers Glasses, and a branded Withers Barrel top.  Needless to say they are now in my collection and that's when I knew I had to try to tell the story of Allenville's past.

I hope everyone that has old Allenville stories, and pictures will share them with the site.

Thanks, CRH.

 

 


Posted by allenville at 8:57 PM CST
Updated: Tue, Jan 13 2009 11:06 PM CST
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