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Montressa Von Ceil Burchett (b. 18 Jul 1912, d. 08 Oct 1996)

Montressa Von Ceil Burchett (daughter of Jacob Frederick Burchett and Etta Paralee Smith)²² was born 18 Jul 1912 in Humansville - Polk County - Missouri^{23, 24}, and died 08 Oct 1996 in Ft. Madison - Lee County - Iowa²⁴. She married James Olin Jinkens on 10 Mar 1935 in Ednia - Knox County - Missouri^{25, 26}.

Notes for Montressa Von Ceil Burchett:
[v15t1468.ftw]

MEMORIES OF FAMILY HISTORY
As recalled by Von Ceil Jinkens
And sent to Beverly Ruth (Smith) Dunn

Grach Edna Smith married Hubert Simms probably about 1914. As I remember the story they were never allowed to live together. Parents did not approve. I do remember she got his black horse. Then the family went to Kansas in a covered wagon. She married Uncle Jim Anderson who was many years her senior.
We homesteaded next to their land and stayed there one year. The wind blew all our buildings down except the house. We had lumber stored in the loft that probably helped keep it from blowing away. Howard was a baby at this time. Bonnita Ferril was on the way. Aunt Grace passed away in late summer or early fall of 1919. Hioward was 2 years old and Bonnie was 12 months old. Grandma Smith took the kids home and kept them approx. a year and Uncle Jim could stand it no longer. He came and got them and they were raised up with house-keepers. It was a hard old life for all concerned. Bonnie never having the love of a mother grew up feeling the loss greatly.
As for Grandpa Smith's family I actually know very little. I've heard there were 6 boys and all died of heart attacks. uUncle Joe was the only one I ever met and they always talked in the past of the others. Uncle Joe was such a kind gentle man. He was married to Grandma Smith's sister Biancy. If you will pardon my French, she was a [b*tch] on wheels. If someone up the road 9 miles found a penny, she would get down her old syrup bucket from atop the dish cupboard and count her money and you can bet she could figure some way that penny was without a doubt her penny. It couldn't possibly belong to anyone else. Good Old Uncle Joe would say, Well, I declare." He never was allowed to declare anything! He used that expression for everything. He never raised his voice.
Ir is hard for me to realize Grandpa Smith was also your Grandpa. A generation gap I guess. Anyway Grandpa was quite the opposite from Uncle Joe. He had a short fuse. It was easily set off. It was always my job to sit next to him at the table. As he no teeth, he would cut the nice brown crust from his homemade bread and give it to me to eat in my milk. I don't know if Grandma ever figured it oout or not but in her own quite way Grandma Smith ran the whole shubang.When they lived on the dryland near Los Animos 35 miles toward Caddo, Grandma organized a Sunday School. She was the mid-wife, undertaker, or whatever was needed. Her medicine case consisted of 2 bottles of Watkins Linamint. One was to be taken and the other you applied. No 1 tasted like - - - -. When the horse almost chewed 2 of my fingers off and that old linamint was applied it hurt like - - - -. After that first dose of the No. 1, I never had the tummie ache again! Oh, yes I still have my two badly seared fingers.
I can remember one time seeing a lady coming across the prairie with a horse and buggy. She was coming as fast as she could get that horse to go, whipping it all the way and yelling as she went. We could not understand what she was saying until she got to the house. She had been with a neighbor lady who had delivered a baby and the lady in the buggy could not get the mother to expell the after birth. She had come to get Grandma Smith to help care for the lady. Grandma saddled the horse as fast as she could and went with the lady in the buggy to care for the mother. She was successful in getting the mother to expell the after birth.
I have found some pictures of Uncle Joe and Aunt Biancy and part of their family. Also some pictures of your Dad when he was younger that I feel you should have. Also the Bible I had been presented for perfect attendance at Sunday School. Dwight didn't have a Bible so I gave him mine to take to Sunday School. I see Gloria had it after him so it is extra precious!
At the time "Clonnie" Smith was born they either lived on or near the Indian Reservation - Chacaqattee. The big gold strike was somewhere near. I presume it was the Clondike and thought the baby was named for Grandma Smith. Grandpa always called her his "Little Clonnie" after the big gold strike. She died of the flux which we know as diarrhea but they didn't have modern medicine to help pull her through.
Ever since I can remember Grandpa seened old to me. He always had a long white beard and Uncle Ernie had a mustache. Uncle Ernie played the french harp which was ou only music. He studied the Almanac and predicted the weather. May I say he did just as good as our modern weather men. He could tell time by the sun, direct anony anywhere they wanted to go on that "Old Prairie". He hauled all the water, herded the cows, remembered anything that anyone else forgot that needed to be remembered and was sure to get chewed at if someone needed chewing and always had time to entertain the kids. He was very much like Uncle joe.
I can rememberour Great Grandma Arnold, but not Grandpa. They always spoke of him as Poppie and she was Mammie. When I knew her she made her home with Aunt Emma or Ama as she chose to call herself. Her children were, Emma Etta (Alice Werner's mother) , Charlotte Jane (Smith), Blanche Klipstein (Biancy Smith) and william Arnold, all deceased.
Now while I think about it, one of Uncle William Arnold's grand-daughters is working on the family tree and she phoned Youree. Of course Youree didn't know anything. But if you were to phone Youree you might get the name and you could write her and you might be able to help each other. I will enclose Youree's phone number and address. She's not much to write. In fact she might just ignore you, but try phoning.

Arnold Family (Great Grandma's)

I think Grandma Arnold's maiden name was Tanniehill Agnes
Elizabeth
Emma or Ama May Hill married Dan Hill
Blanche Klipstein married Jack Klipstein
Charlotte Jane Smith married William Larkin Smith
Biancy Smith married Joseph Smith
Etta Phillips married Mose Phillips
William Arnold

Uncle Joe and Aunt Biancy's Family

Bessie Miller married to (Mr. Bob) had 4 or 5 children
Harvey Smith first wife Mable second Rose had 2 boys
Elmer Smith wife Lola (Just moved away and left no address)
Arthur Smith wife Helen

Arthur married but always lived with his parents. His wife lived long enough to present him with a little daughter. She was probably about 2 years old when her mother died. She had a half sister and her Grandma took her and Arthur in to live with them. Uncle Joe and Aunt Biancy raised little Biancy and she lived like Bonnie, just sorta grew up and she wasn't too sharp. I always figured it was inviorment but that was my opinoin.
I now can remember that Grandpa had a sister Jane. She lived about a mile from Aunt Biancy and I used to work up there when I had all I could take of Aunt Biancy (and she was probably glad to see me go) . I can't remember if anyone ever told me she was Grandpa's sister.
Of an evening on the Dryland Grandpa would turn around from the wash bench after cleaning the day's dust off and sing.

An old Fox stepped out one sunshinny nite
He wheeled and wheeled and turned to the right
Some meat, some meat this very nite
Before I lay my body down
Before I lay my bodt down

He stepped up to a barn yard gate
And there he spied a old grey drake
Say he, Mr. Drake don't you want to take a walk
Some little further down in town
Oh, Some little further down in town

He picked him up by the nap of the neck
And all he san was quack, quack, quack
And his legs hing down dingling
And his legs hung down dingling

And Mrs. Pitty Pat jumped out of bed
And out of the window she popped her head
Run, boys, run something got a drake
A little further down in town
A little further down in town

Daddie and Mammie ate that drake
With the little ones chewing on a bone
Oh, the little ones chewing on a bone
And his legs hung down dingling a low

By this time Uncle Ernie had got the French Harp down and he would play, Oh, The Moon shines Tonight on a Pretty Red Wing! Anyone who felt like it joined in as this was all the entertainment he had. We all joined in then, someone would strike up a hymn. I can think so much faster than I can write. We would sing hymns the rest of the evening until Uncle Ernie would run out of breath. Dwight would join him because he missed a note and Ernie always insisted his mustache got in the way. Then we would sing "Let the Lower Lights Be Burnign" and everyone was off to bed to begin a new day. Dwight and Ernie slept in a sod house by the side of the dug out. The rest of us slept in the dug out. A scoop shovel was always kept in each building to dig out in case of a big snow. There was a fence around the yard so no one could wonder off. If you got out of the house (the wind blew and the snows were nothing like we know today) . The chicken house was just beyond the boys bunk house and the barn was about 2 blocks from the house. There was a wire that you took hold of when you left either the barn or the house. It was Grandpa's law and if you had something in both hands, you sat one of them down and put your arm over the wire and then picked up "whatever" and proceeded on the way. I wonder now if this wasn't a lot for my protection but in the winter's storms even Dwight didn't complain. (Didn't do him any good because he still had to follow order) Ha!
He was six years older than me and I'm quire sure I was flies in his soup but sometimes he bugged me too, like the times we pulled the pulley bone from teh chicken breast. He always got his wish and one day I quizzed him as to WHY ! He said, "I always wish for something I already have so I know I will get my wish) .
Then we had a big old barrel churn and we were supposed to take turns cranking it. Well, one day he wanted to go somewhere and if he could figure a way to get me fastened to that churn he could go and I would have to finish the churning. We decided it would be quite fair if we drew straws and you can guess who had the straws and "Yours Truly" was left to churn. He made the mistake of coming around on the North side of the house where I was fuming and churning. Just as he turned to leave after holding it over me, I gave that churn a big hard yank and the door of that churn flew open adn that cream hit Dwight at the seat of his pants, and went all the way to his ears! Well, I had to finish teh churning but he didn't have a change of clothes for his social call.
I wish we were where we could visit. I could tell you so many things and you could ask a few questions.
Tell Gladys I am wrote out but she can help read all this or help you try to read it. Let me hear form you all again.

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Living on the Dryland
As recalled by Von Ceil Jinkens

I can remember living on the Dryland. I spent a lot of time out there but one summer we stayed there all summer with Grandman and Grandpa. Uncle Dwight was home but went to work in the melon fields to make money enough to pay the taxes.There just was not enough money coming in to support everybody.
I remember one time when Grandpa said to Uncle Ernie, "You better take the cream over to Caddo this afternoon."
Uncle Ernie said, "Alright, but it is going to come a blizzard."
Grandpa said, "Well, it don't look to me like it is going to come a blizzard."
Uncle Ernid said, "Well, my big toe is bothering me and that corn on my left foot is bothering me and besides the Almanac says it is going to storm.
Grandpa said, "You go ahead and take the cream over to Daddo anyway."
Ernie said "alright" but he did it against his will. He took the cream over to Caddo, which I think might have been about 12 miles and that was quite a distance with a team and buggy but he went. He did not come back and he did not come back and everyone began to worry. Grandma always had an old boiler lid that she would hang out on the side of the dugout and put a latern out there so it would reflect and somebody might be able to see it. They had a wire that stretched from the barn up to the house. It did not make any difference about the weather you walked within that wire. You walked within that wire because out there on that prairie you just make a step in the wrong was in time of a storm and you were lost. Finally Uncle Ernid came home and he was just about froze. He put the horses in the barn. Grandpa said, "Where have you been?" Ernie said, "I don't know where I have been, Lord them hiorses just took me everywhere. Finally "Old Prince" spotted the fence and just followed the fence line. He brought me down there in that big ditch and up by the barn and pulled up in front of the barn and I was home. He said if it had not been for the horses I don't know where I might have been." After that they decided if Uncle Ernie said it ws going to storm that maybe they should listen to him.
One time I had a burro. Dwight had got it down in the cedars one time when we went there to get wood. It was just a young colt. We had broke it to ride. We had to herd calves and the cows to keep them apart or we would not get any milk. We would have to watch them close. One day whild doing this we spotted an Old Eagle that had a nest down along the cliff. It was a long way down the cliff. We watched and the Eagle hatched her eggs. The babies were just a big ball of fur. We watched them a lot and we knw just about how long the adults would be gone before they would be back. Uncle Dwight tied one end of the larriot rope to the saddle horn and the other end around me and backed that pony up and let me down the cliff until I could get those baby eagles. I got two of them. That is all there were. I brought them up and Uncle Dwight took them home as fast as he could and put them in a chicken coop. Grandpa was about ready to skin us alive. He said, "Suppose those Eagles had come back." Dwight said we had been watching and knew about how long they would be gone. Grandpa finally said, "Well the Good Lord watches after fools and kids. I suppose you kids will fall in one category or the other." Grandpa was short tempered.
We raised a fox one time. Dwight had run him down with the pony when he was a pup. There was a whole den of them but he was only able to catch this one and he brought it home. He tied his handkerchief through the fox's mouth so it could not bite him and put it on the back of his saddle and brought it home. We raised it and Grandpa said, "When that fox gets into Grandma's chickens, I guess you know what is going to happen. Dwight said, "Yes, I know." It got to be a big dog and we enjoyed it. It was just as gentle as it could be. One night mother nature got the best of him and he got into Grandma's chickens. I had to hold it on the rope while Dwight shot it. It wa not funny.
One time we were bringing the cows and calves in. I was bringing in the calves first because that was the way we did it. It was coming up a bad storm. It had been awful hot about then. The calves came by this big cactus bed and I suppose they kinda roused the snake up and they are mean when it is getting ready to storm. I rode up past that cactus bed and just about got past it when a snake raised up and the rattlesnake struck just in front of the stirrup on my pony. I got out of there as fast as I could. I had only went a few blocks and that borro dropped dead. I took the saddle off and carried the saddle home. They critized me for carrying the saddle home. I told them I did not want to loose the saddle. That wa something! I have not learned to like snakes yet even if they are small as my little finger.
I am sure my parents had separated. Mom and us kids went to stay with Grandma for the summer. I raised Fred. It was my responsibility anyway. Mom would nurse him and then she would say, "Get him out of here, I cannot stand him any longer" I would take him and pull him up and down the road in a little wagon. I would carry him straddle of my hip.
One time we had got some sweet corn. I suppose we had raised it. We were in the process of canning that corn. Shortly Fred just turned deathly sick. He had turned white and we could not imagine what was wrong with him. Dwight saddled a horse and was getting ready to take him to Los Animas which was 35 miles to the nearest doctor. Fred started vomiting and he vomited up a corn worm. He would pick up everything and put it in his mouth. He started to feel better right away.
Mom pulled most of her hair out that summer, all but a little of it. Mom was always nervous and Mom was never a stable person. She would have one of her spells and would pull her hair out. She would call them her "wild" hairs. She even plucked out her eye lashes and eye brows. When Fred was a baby and we lived in Missouri we were going to go somewhere. There was trouble on the home front. I don't know what, but Mom never got along with Grandma and Grandpa Burchett. My Dad finally traded his farm for the 4 way garage in Humansville, Missouri. He knew nothing about being a mechanic. He got a gitney which was a taxi in those days. He would haul freight from the trains to the different stores. Finally that business all just frizzzled out. We going to leave there. We sold what few possessions we had which were very few. Mom saved the bone handled silverware and that was about all we saved. We started out in a Model T Ford with no top. We had all our possessions on the back of that old car. There were no paved roads in those days. We got about so far and the car gave out. Dad put us on the train and we went to Aunt Emma's and stayed. My Great Grandmother was still living. She was an invalid. I helped take care of her and did things that needed done.
Finally we wore out our welcome and we went to Aunt Eff's until we wore out our welcome there. Finally we went to Granma Smith's. Grandpa met us in Los Animos. We had to cross Caddo Creek to get where they lived. That creek was high and we almost went down the creek getting across. While staying at Grandma and Grandpa's, Dad got a job for the Santa Fe Railroad in La Junta, Colorado. That is when they had the big strike. Dad did not go to work until the strike was over. They fenced off the Santa Fe yards and made a place for anyone who would come in and work. They had tents for them and their families and would feed them. We ate there one meal but Dad didn't think that he wanted any charity.
I can remember that they said Grandpa Smith passed away when he and Grandma had company. It was Grandma's sister from California. They got ready to eat and Grandpa said, "You go ahead and eat. I am bashful about eating in front of someone." When they finished, the dog started barking and when "Old Lester" barked you better look to see what was going on. Grandpa got up to check what was going on and had a heart attack and fell dead. This was Grandpa William Larkin Smith.

More About Montressa Von Ceil Burchett and James Olin Jinkens:
Marriage: 10 Mar 1935, Ednia - Knox County - Missouri.^{27, 28}

Marriage Notes for Montressa Von Ceil Burchett and James Olin Jinkens:
[v15t1468.ftw]

Olin Jinkens is married

Bride is Miss Von Ceil Burchett of La Junta, Colo.

Olin Jinkens, son of Jas. M. Jinkens of Memphis, and Miss Von Ceil Burchett, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Fred Burchett of La Junta, Colorado were married at Edina Sunday afternoon, March 11, by the pastor of the Methodist church there.
Mr. and Mrs. Jinkens returned to Memphis Sunday evening and started housekeeping in an apartment they have rented in the R.F. Dickerson property on North Market street.
Mr. Jinkens is employed at the West Produce Company and is a will-liked young Memphis man. Mrs. Jinkens is a graduate nurse and has made many acquaintances here while visiting at the home of Mr. Mrs. Virgil Stogsdill.
The couple were given a charivari at their home by their friends Tusday night.

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Burchett-Jinkens

Miss Von Ceil Burchett arrived here from her home in La Junta, Colo., Sunday and was married that afternoon to Olin Jinkens of Memphis.
The groom met her at the train at Baring, Mo. and from there they went directly to Edina, Mo. where the ceremony ws performed.
Mr. Jinkens works at the West Produce company.
A group of their friends charivaried them, Tuesday night, at the Robert Dickerson home, where they have taken rooms.

Children of Montressa Von Ceil Burchett and James Olin Jinkens are: