The Marrs Tabor Wagontrain &The early years in Nebraska

An interview with John Wesley Marrs in 1945 by Sletha Ann Marrs

At the head of the train rode Mr. Steveson, land promoter and guide, and kin to some of the travelers. Next came "Pap" Wesley Price Marrs, age 51, and his wife Sletha Ann Tabor age 48, with their youngest children riding on top of their household goods that was loaded into two wagons.

Sletha Ann had been reluctant to make this move, she was happy on their comfortable tree shaded farm in Missouri. Life had been good to the couple and their ten children. It had not always been easy, not in the beginning back in 62, when she and Pap had loaded their wagon and toting their two younguns 3 year old Riley and baby Sarah they had joined the migration of other Marrs, Runyon and Tabor families from Tazewell County, West Virginia to Missouri. They had gotten through the war between the States and managed to establish schools and churches in Grundy County, Missouri. Now it would start all over again, Sletha wasn't sure she was up to it. The worry for her children Alice 15, John 13, Bartley 10, and Fanny 5 who had not completed their schooling was heavy on her mind. And what of 18 year old Aradella and 20 year old David how would they cope starting a new life at their ages. Still Sletha loved "Pap" and if he thought this move was for the best she would go along.

When the heavily loaded wagons would stop to rest the teams "Pap" would walk back to check on the others. There was his oldest son Riley with his wife's nephews and nieces, the orphaned Collins children John, Coldon, Mattie and Euphemia . Riley's wife Mary Jane and baby son Walter would join them after they were settled.

Next came Rufus Regan Marrs the son of "Pap's" brother Thomas with his wife Mary Ann Bushong and children Millie Elizabeth 13, Quinton Martin 11, Lucy Ann 9 and Cosby Augusta 4. Mary Ann like Sletha Ann was not pleased about the move. Her heart ached with the leaving of her father and sisters and home. She had never thought to leave the dear familiar valley where her family had lived and died for almost as long as she could remember. Where her mother lay buried in the quiet shade of Salem Church yard. But she too would do as her husband thought best.

In the wagon directly behind Rufus was Mary Tabor (Sletha Anns younger sister)and her husband Ben Ervin with their ten children. In another wagon was Timothy Maxson , married to Wesley and Sletha Ann's ailing daughter Sarah, and their children Daisy, Effie and Dora. Newton and Bennett Marrs sons of Wesley' brother James drove two wagons and Carr Tabor young brother to Sletha Ann had two wagons to carry his goods and step children. Carr had recently married the widow Blue and she was expecting, consequently she had stayed behind and would join him by train after the birth of their child.

In still another wagon was Preacher Joseph Harvey Tabor ( Sletha Ann's older brother) with his wife and son William.

Always before "Pap" climbed back into his wagon he checked on his mule team "Rabbitt and Ribbon", hitched to his second wagon driven by Charles Marrs another son of "Pap's" brother James.

The twenty-seven head of livestock including their mild cow "Frosty Bell" that accompanied the train was herded by Johnny Marrs and his cousin Bennett, the two sharing a Pony between them. The milk provided by "Frosty Bell" was cherished and given to yong Bartley recovering from ague, and little Fanny, as well as the other youngest children on the journey. Each morning a wooden churn was filled with cream and hung on the back of a wagon. Left to jostle all day with the constant rocking of the wagon by nightfall a good supply of butter would be ready.

Underneath most of the wagons hung a chicken coop with a rooster and a few hens, broods with which they would start flocks in their new homes.

The trip was not hard in fact most enjoyed the opportuinity to visit with one another in the evenings around an open fire. The children playing tag until chased off to bed by weary parents. Lucy Ann often said in years past that she walked all the way from Missouri to Nebraska and walk they did. The heavy load of the wagons as well as the restless exuberance of growing children required that they walk. They passed the time with games of tag and blind mans bluff as they crossed the many miles.

They often encountered others traveling as they were and always stopped to say Hello. Johnny Marrs said," On our trip I always told inquirers we were from "The forks of the river" and was surprised they didn't know that meant the area between Thomas and Weldon Creeks, in Missouri.

On April 12, 1885 just as the new Sod Methodist Church held its first meeting the wagontrain arrived in Mills Valley, northwest of the new town of Arnold, in Custer County Nebraska.

Wesley sold his team of mules for $400.00 and bought a 160 acre farm from Mr. Fowler. The farm contained a one room soddy , shed and a dugout chicken house.

That fall two more Marrs daughters, with their husbands and children, settled in the Valley Virella and James Ratcliff and Martha and Bill "Dad" Maxson.

Rufus and Mary Ann homesteaded 160 acres south of Arnold building a soddy and dugouts for out buildings they settled in and began planting.

Times were hard the first few years. There was no well and water had to be hauled from the South Loop River, blizzards swept the land grasshoppers were abundant and rains failed to come. John Ratcliff and Virella pulled up stakes and went back to Missouri.

One day Hohnny, Bennett and Bartley loaded two hogsheads onto the running boards to haul water from the river for the household. As they rode along they sang to the tune of "Beulah Land"!

"Oh, Nebraska land, Poor Nebraska land.

Here on the highest hill I stand

And look away across the plain,

Wondering will it ever rain,

'Til Gabriel comes with trumpet sound

And says the rain has passed around."

The boys had the barrels almost filled when they saw billows of dark smoke beyond the river, to the northwest.

"Prairie Fire! Headed this way!" shouted Johnny.

"We gotta go!" answered Bennett.

So, unmindful of worried parents, the three youths raced their horses across the open fields to where smoke-blackened men fought a three day and night holocaust.

They greeted the sight of water barrels with shouts of joy. Hurriedly they passed a pail of water down then line, cooling their parched throats with satisfying quaffs. They dipped cloths with renewed vigor to fight the leaping flames.

Leaving Bartley to mind the team, Johnny and Bennett tore wrappings from around the barrels to fight flying embers along the fire guard. This freed older men to turn the headlong flames away from the Valley.

It was well after daybreak before the youths felt the danger passed , and the wearily turned towards home.

"We stopped at the river, washed the hogsheads and filled them with clean water before heading home." John reported. "Mam and Pap scolded us for worrying them so, and taking Bart along. But I think they were proud of us."

Rufus and Wesley were great hunters, they would hitch a team to the Spring wagon and along with a couple of quilts and some cornbread , drive to the Dismal river where they would shoot deer and elk , the only meat the settlers would have for months at a time. On other days they took wagons and cut cedar poles along the dismal to sell at Callaway for fences and railroad ties to make a llittle cash money.

The summer of 87 Wesley took a job herding 800 head of cattle on the open range along the Dismal. John took his place late in the summer where he lived in a dugout roofed with hackberry branches. One Morning a rattler dropped from the roof nearly striking Johnny but for his quick senses and nimble feet. He never slept peacefull again in that place.

That fall Wesley and Sletha added two more rooms to the sod house and hired a school teacher Mr. Pinckney to conduct a school in one of the rooms. This school was used until a frame school was built in 1892 called Mills Valley School.

Sletha began to complain that the glare of the treeless prairie hurt her eyes, in truth she was going blind. Still she ran her home smoothly by keeping everything in its place . Her home was the stopover for settlers going to the Dismal to hunt . There was always some sort of stew on the fire and coffee to drink even if it was only roasted rye laced with molasses.

Martha Grissella was also in failing health. Aradella and sister Alice, then about eighteen years of age, went to staty with"Griss" and help her care for her new baby Bertha. It was near Christmas when the two girls felt it was time for them to go home. Johnny went to get the girls and to visit "Bill Dad" and "Griss" of whom he was very fond.

On the way home the three were caught in a sudden Nebraska blizzard, that blocked the road and made it impossible to see the trail. Johnny was smart enough to give the team their lead, knowing that they would find their way home if it were possible. He wrapped buffalo robes around the girls and several times got out and walked beside the horses to keep his own body from freezing. They arrived home at 2 a.m. when they should have been home by nine p.m. at the latest.

Sadly Sarah Marrs Maxson died the year after reaching Nebraska her husband Timothy took their three small children back to Missouri where her married Rebecca Watkins in 1892 they along with Rebecca's three children Anna, Nettie and Thomas returned to Nebraska .

Johnny who always wanted to be a Preacher like Uncle Harvey Tabor went to live with him in Thedford and attended school for a time but after a few months he recieved an urgent message that his mother was sick. Quickly returning home he and his brother Bart attended his mother for six weeks. But in spite of their efforts she died in January 1893. A blind and toothless old woman at the age of fifty-six, her health and life given to her family.

The school year was almost over and Johnny was worn out. He did not return to school. He got a job as a mail carrier on a sub-contract for $20.00 a month, and board, he carried mail, passengers and meat from Arnold to Callaway in an open topped spring wagon. He managaed to save enough to go into farming for himself, on a rented farm in the upper Loop Valley. Often his sister Fannie came to the farm to stay a week or two and "clean up".

The year after Sletha Ann's death Wesley married Anna Kaster who bore him three more sons Everett, Ernest and Bert.

Martha Marrs wife of James Bill "Dad" Maxson died in 1894 a few years after the birth of her fifth child.

Nephew Rufus prospered, a new daughter, Mary Emmaline was born to Rufus and Mary Ann in 1889. They family built a frame house and did well traveling to Missouri often, for visits . The family became charter members of the Baptist Church following a Bushong Tradition. Daughters Millie Elizabeth and Cosby Augusta were married in the church in 1894 and 6 respectively.

In the Spring of 1897 Lucy Ann then 21 years of age brought a basket of fried chicken , potato salad and apple pie to the church raffle where it was promptly bought by 22 year old Thomas Newman. Sharing their lunch they became acquinted and by September were married in the church where they had met. Fannie Marrs and Coldon Collins "standing up" with them. Mary Emmaline married in 1905 and Quinton Martin in 1906.

Rufus sold the farm and retired to town buying three lots near the South Loop River in 1913. In 1917 he died and was carried to the Arnold Cemetery where he rests in the land he loved. Mary Ann did good works for the remainder of her days caring for Church members as well as her family. In 1926 a flu epidemic swept through Arnold, when daughter Lucy Ann became ill Mary Ann stayed with her caring for the children untill Lucy recovered, then rushed to the home of her daughter Mary Emmaline who had recently been struck with the illness. While caring for Mary Emmaline, Mary Ann became ill and died within a few days. She rest next to Rufus. Her Grave Stone reads. " Mary Ann, his wife"

Johnny felt very sorry for his father. "Pap" had led a big caravan from Missouri in 85 hoping to better the lot of his children, grandchildren, neices and nephews . But one by one they had slipped away. Riley and Martha died in Nebraska, Tim had taken his family back to Missouri, Pap's son Dave , who had married his chilhood sweetheart , had stayed in Missouri, and Aradella had married a young Irishman and moved to Iowa.Alice married Walter Price and moved to Montana and Fannie who married Coldon Collins were planing to join them.

"Pap, moved to make opportunities for his children," said Johnny "I'll never leave Nebraska as long as he lives". Yet circumstances forced him to move to Colorado leaving "Pap" without a son or daughter near when he died in 1911.

How sad that at the time of his death in 1911, not one of the ten children he had brought to Arnold was near. He died of smallpox at his farm, there was no funeral, just two old friends and nephew Rufus to take his body to the cemetery and lay him away.

WHAT BECAME OF THEM:::

Johnny Marrs married Bessy McGuire and moved to Colorado, Alice married Walter Price and moved to Montana, Virialla moved to Missouri none of these left descendants in Arnold.

Ardella Marrs married James Crogham and moved to Iowa, they did return to Arnold but not until 1912 one year after Wesley's death.

Bartley Marrs married Eva Simpson and was the father of Zoid and Clarence Marrs Barbers in the town of Arnold.

Of the four orphaned Collins children who had come on the wagontrain with Riley Marrs , the oldest Coldon married the youngest daughter of Wesley and Sletha Ann ,Fanny. Mattie Collins married Phil Houghton, Arnold Real Estate man. Euphemia Collins married Thomas Ricketts. John Collins married Fanny Hoffman.

Ben and Mary Tabor Ervin's children were Hullie who married Willard Newman, Arthur, Ruth , Stephen, Robert, Laura, Gladys, Frank, Kemp, Hugh and Amos.

Preacher Harvey Tabor's son William married Ella Robison . Riley the oldest son of Wesley and Sletha homesteaded northwest of Arnold his son Walter stayed in Arnold for many years.

As for Rufus and Mary Ann's children, Millie Elizabeth married Elmer Twist and was the mother of three children , Quinton married Mary Kinnard and was the father of four sons, Lucy Ann married Thomas Newman they had four children Floy Emmaline, Loran. Vern Emery and Jesse Bud. Mary Emmaline married twice first to Harry Judkins, they were the parents of Milton, then to Joseph Alexander , Mary Emmaline and Joseph had ten children.

Children of Timothy and Sarah Marrs Maxson were Daisy who married Ayer Youngs, Effie who married a Kinney and Dora who married a Argo.