James was the younger of the two sons of James Timothy DePreste and Della Cora Hays. After the death of the boys' father, Della married Jesse Thomas Robb and they had three children; Vida Mae, Everett Elmer, and Lora Ethel Robb. Jesse was an authoritarian and a harsh disciplinarian who liberally used corporal punishment on both Marcelus and James and precipitated them leaving home at young ages.
After a whipping by Jess at about fourteen or fifteen, Granddad said he'd never take another one and gathered up his clothes and his hound and left the farm. He went to work as a water-boy for the road crews during the day and hunted at night. When he'd sold enough skins to buy a wagon and team of horses he hired out and drove for the road bosses who gave him the nickname "Jim Boone." He became well known in the Ozarks for his horse-trading and resourcefulness and he never went back to the farm while Jess Robb was living there. Granddad worked with the road crews who were building Route 14 from Springfield to Joplin. In Lawrence County, Route 14 ran through Halltown, Heatonville, Albatoss, Phelps, Rescue, and Plew, and was one of the first paved roads in Missouri. It later became parts of Highways 266 and 96, and some parts of historic Route 66. After Granddad's mother divorced Jesse Robb, she was married a third time to a good and caring man named Norman Beckley Garver, who was much like a father to Mart and our Granddad, and a grandfather to Mart's daughters Marjory "Marjie" Lee, and Patty Jo, and to our Granddad's sons, Victor Eugene, Paul Trenton, and little Jimmy "J. B."
Mart had left home at about eighteen. He moved to Joplin and went to work for Frisco Railroad. In 1928, he married Alice Leota Phipps from Galena, Kansas. They had two daughters, Marjory "Margie" Lee and Patty Jo. During a visit to his home in Joplin in 1978, Uncle Mart recounted the days of childhood when the boys had the onerous task of clearing rocks from the fields on the farm. Seventy years had not tempered his opinion of farming "a pile of rocks" or for some reason the negative view he had of the Freemasons in Miller.
James and Nina Edith Jones (both of Miller), eloped and were married April 20, 1818 by the Judge of the Probate Court at the Jasper County Courthouse in Carthage. [Marriage License] Granddad stated he was over twenty-one years of age, and Grandma stated she was over the age of eighteen. Grandad was actually eighteen, and Grandma sixteen. James and Nina had four children; Virginia Lee (1918-1918), Victor Eugene (1919-1994), Paul Trenton (1924-2011), and James Biffel "Jimmy" - "J. B." (1931-1944).
In the early years of their marriage, Granddad had sometimes worked on his Uncle Jackson Benton Davis' 1,000 acre ranch two miles west of Miller. Uncle Jack was a very prominent citizen in Lawrence County, having made a sizable fortune in mining and other investments. He owned the Lucky Jack lead mine near Stotts City and made the biggest ever strike in the tri-state area and later sold it for $100,000. Though having a fondness and high regard for his uncle, Granddad knew Uncle Jack was always on the lookout for another strike-it-rich venture and wasn't above having a little fun along with the other hired hands. He once told his Uncle Jack about the presence of oil on the surface of the water on the overflow from a walled-in natural spring and Uncle Jack started drilling for oil on the ranch. Granddad and the other men knew the oil came from the binding-twine repairs on the horses' harnesses when the teams watered at the spring. Uncle Jack drilled for oil and ore-mined several areas of the ranch, but never made a strike. Uncle Jack died in 1924, and in the 1940's, Granddad bought a 480-acre parcel of his Uncle Jack Davis' ranch property.
Granddad worked hard to provide for his family, but also had a sense of humor and enjoyed the simple pleasures of life.
...Sometimes it took the form of starting a rumor just to exact a little comeuppance. While living near Stinson on what was then called Copperhead Hill, Granddad and George Wilkerson thought they'd put the loafers at the Stinson store to work and started a rumor that one of the old locals had died. The men that hung out at the store got their shovels and dug a grave on a nearby rocky hillside in preparation for a body that didn't exist.
...Or using human nature to your advantage. In addition to hauling freight, Granddad trapped and traded in beaver fur. George Wilkerson started a rumor the bottom had dropped out of the market for beaver fur as England had lost its desire for beaver hats and coats, etc. Thinking to take advantage of Jim Boone, everyone rushed to sell him their supply of furs at bargain prices, but the prices were actually on the rise with demand stronger than ever.
...Or it might be pure serendipity. After a big rain, Granddad Boone and his son Paul, Arvie "Stump" Sexton, and Deiter (or Deeter), were standing out on a dirt road checking to see if a sweet clover field was too wet to combine. They were just talking amongst themselves when Lantern-jaw Smith came along drunk as usual and looking to stir up something with Jim Boone. "Hey Jim Boone, I heard you was one mean roller coaster, but I bet I could whip you though," and put his hands up around Jim Boone's neck to take him in a neck hold. Jim Boone in one move whirled around and flipped ole Lantern-jaw upside-down head-over-teakettle and he landed butt first in the middle of a big mud puddle. Granddad said, "see, I ain't mean, if I was mean I mighta hurtcha." [Paul Trenton DePreste, Sr., 1999]
Both Uncle Victor and dad worked for Granddad during their youth and early adulthood. Uncle Victor, who Granddad nicknamed "Buck," did short and long hauling. Dad did some hauling and bulldozing, and recounted one very amusing incident. Granddad and his friend Carl Warren sometimes worked together and once left a young Paul to start clearing brush and small trees from Carl's land along the Spring River. Dad figured they'd probably go to the bar at Stotts City for a few beers and stay gone all afternoon so asked where he should pile the debris. Carl said he didn't care what he did with it, "just push it off in the river." They were probably careful about future instructions... When they got back from Stotts City they found Spring River nearly dammed. Dad said they never heard anything about it, so guessed the next heavy rains must have washed the brushy debris downstream.
Grandma and Granddad lived first in Miller. A sometimes playmate from childhood remembered the DePreste family in Miller... "In the early 1930's Victor and Paul DePreste lived in a big house across the street from us and had a huge hedge in their front yard. They made a hole in the hedge to hide in when they were up to their shenanigans. They wrapped up packages to put in the road and waited for travelers to stop and try to pick them up, then jerked the packages back with a string. A few people got pretty angry." [Dorothy, a Baldwin descendant of Cardin, Oklahoma]
They also lived in Stinson and Mt. Vernon in Lawrence County, before moving to Joplin and Sarcoxie in Jasper County, before moving back to Miller. A horrific incident happened to him at the gas station he operated near Joplin in the late 1930's. Granddad was brutally attacked by men with straight razors. Dad said "he was cut to pieces," but didn't share any other details. I had always thought it might have been some kind of business deal gone bad, but decades later a relative shed light on the matter, "it was over a woman." I hadn't really spent much time around Granddad through the years and was so in awe of him, I seriously hadn't noticed the scars until dad mentioned the attack and I looked at one picture which the scars show but aren't predominate. [The picture appears on the left side of this memorial.]
...Granddad and Grandma divorced in the early 1950's and she moved to Springfield, remarried and moved on to California. When our family moved to Texas in 1955, Granddad moved into our old farmhouse west of Miller. He never remarried but did "keep company" for some years with a wonderful lady named Verna Kathleen (Hulen) Rhodes also known as "Mom Rhodes" (1909-1992).
...In the summer of 1964, Paul and Morris had summer jobs and didn't go with us on the family trip to Missouri. Besides seeing our Granddad and visiting with Uncle Victor and Aunt Mildred and cousins Cathy and Nancy in Springfield, we actually got to meet Granddad's longtime lady friend. We were graciously welcomed into her home (in or near Olinger) for a wonderful dinner, and afterwards she insisted we stay the night! Though I know Granddad sometimes stayed at her house (and I believe he did some work for her as well), for propriety's sake he had left and gone back to the farm. Dad hadn't really wanted to impose further on her hospitality but she persisted and we did end up staying. The folks slept in our '58 Chevy Apache Panel truck on a mattress pad we used during the trip, while us kids enjoyed sleeping on feather beds in the house.
...Another memorable part of the trip was that for some reason, mom and dad weren't speaking so she stayed in the back of the Panel truck with Brian, Joyce and James and didn't help drive. I rode up front with dad and by the time we got to the Nevada state line he was so tired he began falling asleep at the wheel. He said it was my job to help him stay awake which worked for awhile but he finally said he was starting to see imaginary things (monsters) ahead of the truck on the road and asked if I wanted to drive. He knew I could drive as I'd been seen driving their '61 black Plymouth Valiant by a family friend (Vera Garner) in Livermore when they had gone shopping at a grocery warehouse in Oakland for the day. Of course I said yes to driving and he slept for a few hours until daylight when we needed to stop for gas. This trip is one of my best memories of a visit in Missouri. (And yes, the extra key had been removed from the Valiant's hubcap so no more joy riding for Vicki.)
In the late 1960's, a long time friend and associate Frank Patrick Hall (1925-1991), found an incapacitated Granddad on a tractor. He had suffered a stroke and was placed in a care facility in Ash Grove, Greene County. He spent about two decades in the facility before he developed a blood infection and was transferred to a hospital in Springfield where he died in 1984.
Dale West remembers Jim Boone DePreste who lived west of Miller. Jim DePreste and a friend or two once pulled a good one on Jim Hinshaw who lived in Miller, but drove by Jim DePreste's every day to feed the cattle he kept on his old farm west of town. One of the friends told Jim Hinshaw that Jim Boone had a woman staying at his place who did all the cooking, house maintenance, and yard work, etc. When the friend phoned that Jim Hinshaw was on the way, Jim Boone put on the dress and bonnet he'd gotten, grabbed a hammer, and climbed onto the roof. When he saw the car approaching he kept his back turned and acted like he was repairing the roof. Jim Hinshaw took it in hook, line, and sinker. "The story got pretty wide circulation around Miller and there were a lot of laughs about it. It is one of the funniest I've heard." He also remembers that his dad Ellis West drove a truck for Jim DePreste one winter in the 1930's to haul corn from Illinois for resale in drought-stricken Southwest Missouri. The Missouri crop was inadequate to sustain local livestock through the winter. People with the resources bought flatbed trucks with racks for hauling grain and hired drivers to transport the grain south. Trusted drivers carried the cash to pay for the corn in their boots for security. [James Dale West, 1999]
Grandma Nina brought resolution to a forty-year separation of their family in a rather unique way. She bought plots in Miller Memorial Gardens and had little "Jimmy - J. B." re-interred there from Davis Cemetery and made arrangements for her and Granddad to be buried there upon their deaths. Grandma died on August 21, 1982 and was buried next to little James "Jimmy J. B." and Granddad was laid to rest next to Grandma at his death on March 17, 1984.
After a whipping by Jess at about fourteen or fifteen, Granddad said he'd never take another one and gathered up his clothes and his hound and left the farm. He went to work as a water-boy for the road crews during the day and hunted at night. When he'd sold enough skins to buy a wagon and team of horses he hired out and drove for the road bosses who gave him the nickname "Jim Boone." He became well known in the Ozarks for his horse-trading and resourcefulness and he never went back to the farm while Jess Robb was living there. Granddad worked with the road crews who were building Route 14 from Springfield to Joplin. In Lawrence County, Route 14 ran through Halltown, Heatonville, Albatoss, Phelps, Rescue, and Plew, and was one of the first paved roads in Missouri. It later became parts of Highways 266 and 96, and some parts of historic Route 66. After Granddad's mother divorced Jesse Robb, she was married a third time to a good and caring man named Norman Beckley Garver, who was much like a father to Mart and our Granddad, and a grandfather to Mart's daughters Marjory "Marjie" Lee, and Patty Jo, and to our Granddad's sons, Victor Eugene, Paul Trenton, and little Jimmy "J. B."
Mart had left home at about eighteen. He moved to Joplin and went to work for Frisco Railroad. In 1928, he married Alice Leota Phipps from Galena, Kansas. They had two daughters, Marjory "Margie" Lee and Patty Jo. During a visit to his home in Joplin in 1978, Uncle Mart recounted the days of childhood when the boys had the onerous task of clearing rocks from the fields on the farm. Seventy years had not tempered his opinion of farming "a pile of rocks" or for some reason the negative view he had of the Freemasons in Miller.
James and Nina Edith Jones (both of Miller), eloped and were married April 20, 1818 by the Judge of the Probate Court at the Jasper County Courthouse in Carthage. [Marriage License] Granddad stated he was over twenty-one years of age, and Grandma stated she was over the age of eighteen. Grandad was actually eighteen, and Grandma sixteen. James and Nina had four children; Virginia Lee (1918-1918), Victor Eugene (1919-1994), Paul Trenton (1924-2011), and James Biffel "Jimmy" - "J. B." (1931-1944).
In the early years of their marriage, Granddad had sometimes worked on his Uncle Jackson Benton Davis' 1,000 acre ranch two miles west of Miller. Uncle Jack was a very prominent citizen in Lawrence County, having made a sizable fortune in mining and other investments. He owned the Lucky Jack lead mine near Stotts City and made the biggest ever strike in the tri-state area and later sold it for $100,000. Though having a fondness and high regard for his uncle, Granddad knew Uncle Jack was always on the lookout for another strike-it-rich venture and wasn't above having a little fun along with the other hired hands. He once told his Uncle Jack about the presence of oil on the surface of the water on the overflow from a walled-in natural spring and Uncle Jack started drilling for oil on the ranch. Granddad and the other men knew the oil came from the binding-twine repairs on the horses' harnesses when the teams watered at the spring. Uncle Jack drilled for oil and ore-mined several areas of the ranch, but never made a strike. Uncle Jack died in 1924, and in the 1940's, Granddad bought a 480-acre parcel of his Uncle Jack Davis' ranch property.
Granddad worked hard to provide for his family, but also had a sense of humor and enjoyed the simple pleasures of life.
...Sometimes it took the form of starting a rumor just to exact a little comeuppance. While living near Stinson on what was then called Copperhead Hill, Granddad and George Wilkerson thought they'd put the loafers at the Stinson store to work and started a rumor that one of the old locals had died. The men that hung out at the store got their shovels and dug a grave on a nearby rocky hillside in preparation for a body that didn't exist.
...Or using human nature to your advantage. In addition to hauling freight, Granddad trapped and traded in beaver fur. George Wilkerson started a rumor the bottom had dropped out of the market for beaver fur as England had lost its desire for beaver hats and coats, etc. Thinking to take advantage of Jim Boone, everyone rushed to sell him their supply of furs at bargain prices, but the prices were actually on the rise with demand stronger than ever.
...Or it might be pure serendipity. After a big rain, Granddad Boone and his son Paul, Arvie "Stump" Sexton, and Deiter (or Deeter), were standing out on a dirt road checking to see if a sweet clover field was too wet to combine. They were just talking amongst themselves when Lantern-jaw Smith came along drunk as usual and looking to stir up something with Jim Boone. "Hey Jim Boone, I heard you was one mean roller coaster, but I bet I could whip you though," and put his hands up around Jim Boone's neck to take him in a neck hold. Jim Boone in one move whirled around and flipped ole Lantern-jaw upside-down head-over-teakettle and he landed butt first in the middle of a big mud puddle. Granddad said, "see, I ain't mean, if I was mean I mighta hurtcha." [Paul Trenton DePreste, Sr., 1999]
Both Uncle Victor and dad worked for Granddad during their youth and early adulthood. Uncle Victor, who Granddad nicknamed "Buck," did short and long hauling. Dad did some hauling and bulldozing, and recounted one very amusing incident. Granddad and his friend Carl Warren sometimes worked together and once left a young Paul to start clearing brush and small trees from Carl's land along the Spring River. Dad figured they'd probably go to the bar at Stotts City for a few beers and stay gone all afternoon so asked where he should pile the debris. Carl said he didn't care what he did with it, "just push it off in the river." They were probably careful about future instructions... When they got back from Stotts City they found Spring River nearly dammed. Dad said they never heard anything about it, so guessed the next heavy rains must have washed the brushy debris downstream.
Grandma and Granddad lived first in Miller. A sometimes playmate from childhood remembered the DePreste family in Miller... "In the early 1930's Victor and Paul DePreste lived in a big house across the street from us and had a huge hedge in their front yard. They made a hole in the hedge to hide in when they were up to their shenanigans. They wrapped up packages to put in the road and waited for travelers to stop and try to pick them up, then jerked the packages back with a string. A few people got pretty angry." [Dorothy, a Baldwin descendant of Cardin, Oklahoma]
They also lived in Stinson and Mt. Vernon in Lawrence County, before moving to Joplin and Sarcoxie in Jasper County, before moving back to Miller. A horrific incident happened to him at the gas station he operated near Joplin in the late 1930's. Granddad was brutally attacked by men with straight razors. Dad said "he was cut to pieces," but didn't share any other details. I had always thought it might have been some kind of business deal gone bad, but decades later a relative shed light on the matter, "it was over a woman." I hadn't really spent much time around Granddad through the years and was so in awe of him, I seriously hadn't noticed the scars until dad mentioned the attack and I looked at one picture which the scars show but aren't predominate. [The picture appears on the left side of this memorial.]
...Granddad and Grandma divorced in the early 1950's and she moved to Springfield, remarried and moved on to California. When our family moved to Texas in 1955, Granddad moved into our old farmhouse west of Miller. He never remarried but did "keep company" for some years with a wonderful lady named Verna Kathleen (Hulen) Rhodes also known as "Mom Rhodes" (1909-1992).
...In the summer of 1964, Paul and Morris had summer jobs and didn't go with us on the family trip to Missouri. Besides seeing our Granddad and visiting with Uncle Victor and Aunt Mildred and cousins Cathy and Nancy in Springfield, we actually got to meet Granddad's longtime lady friend. We were graciously welcomed into her home (in or near Olinger) for a wonderful dinner, and afterwards she insisted we stay the night! Though I know Granddad sometimes stayed at her house (and I believe he did some work for her as well), for propriety's sake he had left and gone back to the farm. Dad hadn't really wanted to impose further on her hospitality but she persisted and we did end up staying. The folks slept in our '58 Chevy Apache Panel truck on a mattress pad we used during the trip, while us kids enjoyed sleeping on feather beds in the house.
...Another memorable part of the trip was that for some reason, mom and dad weren't speaking so she stayed in the back of the Panel truck with Brian, Joyce and James and didn't help drive. I rode up front with dad and by the time we got to the Nevada state line he was so tired he began falling asleep at the wheel. He said it was my job to help him stay awake which worked for awhile but he finally said he was starting to see imaginary things (monsters) ahead of the truck on the road and asked if I wanted to drive. He knew I could drive as I'd been seen driving their '61 black Plymouth Valiant by a family friend (Vera Garner) in Livermore when they had gone shopping at a grocery warehouse in Oakland for the day. Of course I said yes to driving and he slept for a few hours until daylight when we needed to stop for gas. This trip is one of my best memories of a visit in Missouri. (And yes, the extra key had been removed from the Valiant's hubcap so no more joy riding for Vicki.)
In the late 1960's, a long time friend and associate Frank Patrick Hall (1925-1991), found an incapacitated Granddad on a tractor. He had suffered a stroke and was placed in a care facility in Ash Grove, Greene County. He spent about two decades in the facility before he developed a blood infection and was transferred to a hospital in Springfield where he died in 1984.
Dale West remembers Jim Boone DePreste who lived west of Miller. Jim DePreste and a friend or two once pulled a good one on Jim Hinshaw who lived in Miller, but drove by Jim DePreste's every day to feed the cattle he kept on his old farm west of town. One of the friends told Jim Hinshaw that Jim Boone had a woman staying at his place who did all the cooking, house maintenance, and yard work, etc. When the friend phoned that Jim Hinshaw was on the way, Jim Boone put on the dress and bonnet he'd gotten, grabbed a hammer, and climbed onto the roof. When he saw the car approaching he kept his back turned and acted like he was repairing the roof. Jim Hinshaw took it in hook, line, and sinker. "The story got pretty wide circulation around Miller and there were a lot of laughs about it. It is one of the funniest I've heard." He also remembers that his dad Ellis West drove a truck for Jim DePreste one winter in the 1930's to haul corn from Illinois for resale in drought-stricken Southwest Missouri. The Missouri crop was inadequate to sustain local livestock through the winter. People with the resources bought flatbed trucks with racks for hauling grain and hired drivers to transport the grain south. Trusted drivers carried the cash to pay for the corn in their boots for security. [James Dale West, 1999]
Grandma Nina brought resolution to a forty-year separation of their family in a rather unique way. She bought plots in Miller Memorial Gardens and had little "Jimmy - J. B." re-interred there from Davis Cemetery and made arrangements for her and Granddad to be buried there upon their deaths. Grandma died on August 21, 1982 and was buried next to little James "Jimmy J. B." and Granddad was laid to rest next to Grandma at his death on March 17, 1984.
James was the younger of the two sons of James Timothy DePreste and Della Cora Hays. After the death of the boys' father, Della married Jesse Thomas Robb and they had three children; Vida Mae, Everett Elmer, and Lora Ethel Robb. Jesse was an authoritarian and a harsh disciplinarian who liberally used corporal punishment on both Marcelus and James and precipitated them leaving home at young ages.
After a whipping by Jess at about fourteen or fifteen, Granddad said he'd never take another one and gathered up his clothes and his hound and left the farm. He went to work as a water-boy for the road crews during the day and hunted at night. When he'd sold enough skins to buy a wagon and team of horses he hired out and drove for the road bosses who gave him the nickname "Jim Boone." He became well known in the Ozarks for his horse-trading and resourcefulness and he never went back to the farm while Jess Robb was living there. Granddad worked with the road crews who were building Route 14 from Springfield to Joplin. In Lawrence County, Route 14 ran through Halltown, Heatonville, Albatoss, Phelps, Rescue, and Plew, and was one of the first paved roads in Missouri. It later became parts of Highways 266 and 96, and some parts of historic Route 66. After Granddad's mother divorced Jesse Robb, she was married a third time to a good and caring man named Norman Beckley Garver, who was much like a father to Mart and our Granddad, and a grandfather to Mart's daughters Marjory "Marjie" Lee, and Patty Jo, and to our Granddad's sons, Victor Eugene, Paul Trenton, and little Jimmy "J. B."
Mart had left home at about eighteen. He moved to Joplin and went to work for Frisco Railroad. In 1928, he married Alice Leota Phipps from Galena, Kansas. They had two daughters, Marjory "Margie" Lee and Patty Jo. During a visit to his home in Joplin in 1978, Uncle Mart recounted the days of childhood when the boys had the onerous task of clearing rocks from the fields on the farm. Seventy years had not tempered his opinion of farming "a pile of rocks" or for some reason the negative view he had of the Freemasons in Miller.
James and Nina Edith Jones (both of Miller), eloped and were married April 20, 1818 by the Judge of the Probate Court at the Jasper County Courthouse in Carthage. [Marriage License] Granddad stated he was over twenty-one years of age, and Grandma stated she was over the age of eighteen. Grandad was actually eighteen, and Grandma sixteen. James and Nina had four children; Virginia Lee (1918-1918), Victor Eugene (1919-1994), Paul Trenton (1924-2011), and James Biffel "Jimmy" - "J. B." (1931-1944).
In the early years of their marriage, Granddad had sometimes worked on his Uncle Jackson Benton Davis' 1,000 acre ranch two miles west of Miller. Uncle Jack was a very prominent citizen in Lawrence County, having made a sizable fortune in mining and other investments. He owned the Lucky Jack lead mine near Stotts City and made the biggest ever strike in the tri-state area and later sold it for $100,000. Though having a fondness and high regard for his uncle, Granddad knew Uncle Jack was always on the lookout for another strike-it-rich venture and wasn't above having a little fun along with the other hired hands. He once told his Uncle Jack about the presence of oil on the surface of the water on the overflow from a walled-in natural spring and Uncle Jack started drilling for oil on the ranch. Granddad and the other men knew the oil came from the binding-twine repairs on the horses' harnesses when the teams watered at the spring. Uncle Jack drilled for oil and ore-mined several areas of the ranch, but never made a strike. Uncle Jack died in 1924, and in the 1940's, Granddad bought a 480-acre parcel of his Uncle Jack Davis' ranch property.
Granddad worked hard to provide for his family, but also had a sense of humor and enjoyed the simple pleasures of life.
...Sometimes it took the form of starting a rumor just to exact a little comeuppance. While living near Stinson on what was then called Copperhead Hill, Granddad and George Wilkerson thought they'd put the loafers at the Stinson store to work and started a rumor that one of the old locals had died. The men that hung out at the store got their shovels and dug a grave on a nearby rocky hillside in preparation for a body that didn't exist.
...Or using human nature to your advantage. In addition to hauling freight, Granddad trapped and traded in beaver fur. George Wilkerson started a rumor the bottom had dropped out of the market for beaver fur as England had lost its desire for beaver hats and coats, etc. Thinking to take advantage of Jim Boone, everyone rushed to sell him their supply of furs at bargain prices, but the prices were actually on the rise with demand stronger than ever.
...Or it might be pure serendipity. After a big rain, Granddad Boone and his son Paul, Arvie "Stump" Sexton, and Deiter (or Deeter), were standing out on a dirt road checking to see if a sweet clover field was too wet to combine. They were just talking amongst themselves when Lantern-jaw Smith came along drunk as usual and looking to stir up something with Jim Boone. "Hey Jim Boone, I heard you was one mean roller coaster, but I bet I could whip you though," and put his hands up around Jim Boone's neck to take him in a neck hold. Jim Boone in one move whirled around and flipped ole Lantern-jaw upside-down head-over-teakettle and he landed butt first in the middle of a big mud puddle. Granddad said, "see, I ain't mean, if I was mean I mighta hurtcha." [Paul Trenton DePreste, Sr., 1999]
Both Uncle Victor and dad worked for Granddad during their youth and early adulthood. Uncle Victor, who Granddad nicknamed "Buck," did short and long hauling. Dad did some hauling and bulldozing, and recounted one very amusing incident. Granddad and his friend Carl Warren sometimes worked together and once left a young Paul to start clearing brush and small trees from Carl's land along the Spring River. Dad figured they'd probably go to the bar at Stotts City for a few beers and stay gone all afternoon so asked where he should pile the debris. Carl said he didn't care what he did with it, "just push it off in the river." They were probably careful about future instructions... When they got back from Stotts City they found Spring River nearly dammed. Dad said they never heard anything about it, so guessed the next heavy rains must have washed the brushy debris downstream.
Grandma and Granddad lived first in Miller. A sometimes playmate from childhood remembered the DePreste family in Miller... "In the early 1930's Victor and Paul DePreste lived in a big house across the street from us and had a huge hedge in their front yard. They made a hole in the hedge to hide in when they were up to their shenanigans. They wrapped up packages to put in the road and waited for travelers to stop and try to pick them up, then jerked the packages back with a string. A few people got pretty angry." [Dorothy, a Baldwin descendant of Cardin, Oklahoma]
They also lived in Stinson and Mt. Vernon in Lawrence County, before moving to Joplin and Sarcoxie in Jasper County, before moving back to Miller. A horrific incident happened to him at the gas station he operated near Joplin in the late 1930's. Granddad was brutally attacked by men with straight razors. Dad said "he was cut to pieces," but didn't share any other details. I had always thought it might have been some kind of business deal gone bad, but decades later a relative shed light on the matter, "it was over a woman." I hadn't really spent much time around Granddad through the years and was so in awe of him, I seriously hadn't noticed the scars until dad mentioned the attack and I looked at one picture which the scars show but aren't predominate. [The picture appears on the left side of this memorial.]
...Granddad and Grandma divorced in the early 1950's and she moved to Springfield, remarried and moved on to California. When our family moved to Texas in 1955, Granddad moved into our old farmhouse west of Miller. He never remarried but did "keep company" for some years with a wonderful lady named Verna Kathleen (Hulen) Rhodes also known as "Mom Rhodes" (1909-1992).
...In the summer of 1964, Paul and Morris had summer jobs and didn't go with us on the family trip to Missouri. Besides seeing our Granddad and visiting with Uncle Victor and Aunt Mildred and cousins Cathy and Nancy in Springfield, we actually got to meet Granddad's longtime lady friend. We were graciously welcomed into her home (in or near Olinger) for a wonderful dinner, and afterwards she insisted we stay the night! Though I know Granddad sometimes stayed at her house (and I believe he did some work for her as well), for propriety's sake he had left and gone back to the farm. Dad hadn't really wanted to impose further on her hospitality but she persisted and we did end up staying. The folks slept in our '58 Chevy Apache Panel truck on a mattress pad we used during the trip, while us kids enjoyed sleeping on feather beds in the house.
...Another memorable part of the trip was that for some reason, mom and dad weren't speaking so she stayed in the back of the Panel truck with Brian, Joyce and James and didn't help drive. I rode up front with dad and by the time we got to the Nevada state line he was so tired he began falling asleep at the wheel. He said it was my job to help him stay awake which worked for awhile but he finally said he was starting to see imaginary things (monsters) ahead of the truck on the road and asked if I wanted to drive. He knew I could drive as I'd been seen driving their '61 black Plymouth Valiant by a family friend (Vera Garner) in Livermore when they had gone shopping at a grocery warehouse in Oakland for the day. Of course I said yes to driving and he slept for a few hours until daylight when we needed to stop for gas. This trip is one of my best memories of a visit in Missouri. (And yes, the extra key had been removed from the Valiant's hubcap so no more joy riding for Vicki.)
In the late 1960's, a long time friend and associate Frank Patrick Hall (1925-1991), found an incapacitated Granddad on a tractor. He had suffered a stroke and was placed in a care facility in Ash Grove, Greene County. He spent about two decades in the facility before he developed a blood infection and was transferred to a hospital in Springfield where he died in 1984.
Dale West remembers Jim Boone DePreste who lived west of Miller. Jim DePreste and a friend or two once pulled a good one on Jim Hinshaw who lived in Miller, but drove by Jim DePreste's every day to feed the cattle he kept on his old farm west of town. One of the friends told Jim Hinshaw that Jim Boone had a woman staying at his place who did all the cooking, house maintenance, and yard work, etc. When the friend phoned that Jim Hinshaw was on the way, Jim Boone put on the dress and bonnet he'd gotten, grabbed a hammer, and climbed onto the roof. When he saw the car approaching he kept his back turned and acted like he was repairing the roof. Jim Hinshaw took it in hook, line, and sinker. "The story got pretty wide circulation around Miller and there were a lot of laughs about it. It is one of the funniest I've heard." He also remembers that his dad Ellis West drove a truck for Jim DePreste one winter in the 1930's to haul corn from Illinois for resale in drought-stricken Southwest Missouri. The Missouri crop was inadequate to sustain local livestock through the winter. People with the resources bought flatbed trucks with racks for hauling grain and hired drivers to transport the grain south. Trusted drivers carried the cash to pay for the corn in their boots for security. [James Dale West, 1999]
Grandma Nina brought resolution to a forty-year separation of their family in a rather unique way. She bought plots in Miller Memorial Gardens and had little "Jimmy - J. B." re-interred there from Davis Cemetery and made arrangements for her and Granddad to be buried there upon their deaths. Grandma died on August 21, 1982 and was buried next to little James "Jimmy J. B." and Granddad was laid to rest next to Grandma at his death on March 17, 1984.
After a whipping by Jess at about fourteen or fifteen, Granddad said he'd never take another one and gathered up his clothes and his hound and left the farm. He went to work as a water-boy for the road crews during the day and hunted at night. When he'd sold enough skins to buy a wagon and team of horses he hired out and drove for the road bosses who gave him the nickname "Jim Boone." He became well known in the Ozarks for his horse-trading and resourcefulness and he never went back to the farm while Jess Robb was living there. Granddad worked with the road crews who were building Route 14 from Springfield to Joplin. In Lawrence County, Route 14 ran through Halltown, Heatonville, Albatoss, Phelps, Rescue, and Plew, and was one of the first paved roads in Missouri. It later became parts of Highways 266 and 96, and some parts of historic Route 66. After Granddad's mother divorced Jesse Robb, she was married a third time to a good and caring man named Norman Beckley Garver, who was much like a father to Mart and our Granddad, and a grandfather to Mart's daughters Marjory "Marjie" Lee, and Patty Jo, and to our Granddad's sons, Victor Eugene, Paul Trenton, and little Jimmy "J. B."
Mart had left home at about eighteen. He moved to Joplin and went to work for Frisco Railroad. In 1928, he married Alice Leota Phipps from Galena, Kansas. They had two daughters, Marjory "Margie" Lee and Patty Jo. During a visit to his home in Joplin in 1978, Uncle Mart recounted the days of childhood when the boys had the onerous task of clearing rocks from the fields on the farm. Seventy years had not tempered his opinion of farming "a pile of rocks" or for some reason the negative view he had of the Freemasons in Miller.
James and Nina Edith Jones (both of Miller), eloped and were married April 20, 1818 by the Judge of the Probate Court at the Jasper County Courthouse in Carthage. [Marriage License] Granddad stated he was over twenty-one years of age, and Grandma stated she was over the age of eighteen. Grandad was actually eighteen, and Grandma sixteen. James and Nina had four children; Virginia Lee (1918-1918), Victor Eugene (1919-1994), Paul Trenton (1924-2011), and James Biffel "Jimmy" - "J. B." (1931-1944).
In the early years of their marriage, Granddad had sometimes worked on his Uncle Jackson Benton Davis' 1,000 acre ranch two miles west of Miller. Uncle Jack was a very prominent citizen in Lawrence County, having made a sizable fortune in mining and other investments. He owned the Lucky Jack lead mine near Stotts City and made the biggest ever strike in the tri-state area and later sold it for $100,000. Though having a fondness and high regard for his uncle, Granddad knew Uncle Jack was always on the lookout for another strike-it-rich venture and wasn't above having a little fun along with the other hired hands. He once told his Uncle Jack about the presence of oil on the surface of the water on the overflow from a walled-in natural spring and Uncle Jack started drilling for oil on the ranch. Granddad and the other men knew the oil came from the binding-twine repairs on the horses' harnesses when the teams watered at the spring. Uncle Jack drilled for oil and ore-mined several areas of the ranch, but never made a strike. Uncle Jack died in 1924, and in the 1940's, Granddad bought a 480-acre parcel of his Uncle Jack Davis' ranch property.
Granddad worked hard to provide for his family, but also had a sense of humor and enjoyed the simple pleasures of life.
...Sometimes it took the form of starting a rumor just to exact a little comeuppance. While living near Stinson on what was then called Copperhead Hill, Granddad and George Wilkerson thought they'd put the loafers at the Stinson store to work and started a rumor that one of the old locals had died. The men that hung out at the store got their shovels and dug a grave on a nearby rocky hillside in preparation for a body that didn't exist.
...Or using human nature to your advantage. In addition to hauling freight, Granddad trapped and traded in beaver fur. George Wilkerson started a rumor the bottom had dropped out of the market for beaver fur as England had lost its desire for beaver hats and coats, etc. Thinking to take advantage of Jim Boone, everyone rushed to sell him their supply of furs at bargain prices, but the prices were actually on the rise with demand stronger than ever.
...Or it might be pure serendipity. After a big rain, Granddad Boone and his son Paul, Arvie "Stump" Sexton, and Deiter (or Deeter), were standing out on a dirt road checking to see if a sweet clover field was too wet to combine. They were just talking amongst themselves when Lantern-jaw Smith came along drunk as usual and looking to stir up something with Jim Boone. "Hey Jim Boone, I heard you was one mean roller coaster, but I bet I could whip you though," and put his hands up around Jim Boone's neck to take him in a neck hold. Jim Boone in one move whirled around and flipped ole Lantern-jaw upside-down head-over-teakettle and he landed butt first in the middle of a big mud puddle. Granddad said, "see, I ain't mean, if I was mean I mighta hurtcha." [Paul Trenton DePreste, Sr., 1999]
Both Uncle Victor and dad worked for Granddad during their youth and early adulthood. Uncle Victor, who Granddad nicknamed "Buck," did short and long hauling. Dad did some hauling and bulldozing, and recounted one very amusing incident. Granddad and his friend Carl Warren sometimes worked together and once left a young Paul to start clearing brush and small trees from Carl's land along the Spring River. Dad figured they'd probably go to the bar at Stotts City for a few beers and stay gone all afternoon so asked where he should pile the debris. Carl said he didn't care what he did with it, "just push it off in the river." They were probably careful about future instructions... When they got back from Stotts City they found Spring River nearly dammed. Dad said they never heard anything about it, so guessed the next heavy rains must have washed the brushy debris downstream.
Grandma and Granddad lived first in Miller. A sometimes playmate from childhood remembered the DePreste family in Miller... "In the early 1930's Victor and Paul DePreste lived in a big house across the street from us and had a huge hedge in their front yard. They made a hole in the hedge to hide in when they were up to their shenanigans. They wrapped up packages to put in the road and waited for travelers to stop and try to pick them up, then jerked the packages back with a string. A few people got pretty angry." [Dorothy, a Baldwin descendant of Cardin, Oklahoma]
They also lived in Stinson and Mt. Vernon in Lawrence County, before moving to Joplin and Sarcoxie in Jasper County, before moving back to Miller. A horrific incident happened to him at the gas station he operated near Joplin in the late 1930's. Granddad was brutally attacked by men with straight razors. Dad said "he was cut to pieces," but didn't share any other details. I had always thought it might have been some kind of business deal gone bad, but decades later a relative shed light on the matter, "it was over a woman." I hadn't really spent much time around Granddad through the years and was so in awe of him, I seriously hadn't noticed the scars until dad mentioned the attack and I looked at one picture which the scars show but aren't predominate. [The picture appears on the left side of this memorial.]
...Granddad and Grandma divorced in the early 1950's and she moved to Springfield, remarried and moved on to California. When our family moved to Texas in 1955, Granddad moved into our old farmhouse west of Miller. He never remarried but did "keep company" for some years with a wonderful lady named Verna Kathleen (Hulen) Rhodes also known as "Mom Rhodes" (1909-1992).
...In the summer of 1964, Paul and Morris had summer jobs and didn't go with us on the family trip to Missouri. Besides seeing our Granddad and visiting with Uncle Victor and Aunt Mildred and cousins Cathy and Nancy in Springfield, we actually got to meet Granddad's longtime lady friend. We were graciously welcomed into her home (in or near Olinger) for a wonderful dinner, and afterwards she insisted we stay the night! Though I know Granddad sometimes stayed at her house (and I believe he did some work for her as well), for propriety's sake he had left and gone back to the farm. Dad hadn't really wanted to impose further on her hospitality but she persisted and we did end up staying. The folks slept in our '58 Chevy Apache Panel truck on a mattress pad we used during the trip, while us kids enjoyed sleeping on feather beds in the house.
...Another memorable part of the trip was that for some reason, mom and dad weren't speaking so she stayed in the back of the Panel truck with Brian, Joyce and James and didn't help drive. I rode up front with dad and by the time we got to the Nevada state line he was so tired he began falling asleep at the wheel. He said it was my job to help him stay awake which worked for awhile but he finally said he was starting to see imaginary things (monsters) ahead of the truck on the road and asked if I wanted to drive. He knew I could drive as I'd been seen driving their '61 black Plymouth Valiant by a family friend (Vera Garner) in Livermore when they had gone shopping at a grocery warehouse in Oakland for the day. Of course I said yes to driving and he slept for a few hours until daylight when we needed to stop for gas. This trip is one of my best memories of a visit in Missouri. (And yes, the extra key had been removed from the Valiant's hubcap so no more joy riding for Vicki.)
In the late 1960's, a long time friend and associate Frank Patrick Hall (1925-1991), found an incapacitated Granddad on a tractor. He had suffered a stroke and was placed in a care facility in Ash Grove, Greene County. He spent about two decades in the facility before he developed a blood infection and was transferred to a hospital in Springfield where he died in 1984.
Dale West remembers Jim Boone DePreste who lived west of Miller. Jim DePreste and a friend or two once pulled a good one on Jim Hinshaw who lived in Miller, but drove by Jim DePreste's every day to feed the cattle he kept on his old farm west of town. One of the friends told Jim Hinshaw that Jim Boone had a woman staying at his place who did all the cooking, house maintenance, and yard work, etc. When the friend phoned that Jim Hinshaw was on the way, Jim Boone put on the dress and bonnet he'd gotten, grabbed a hammer, and climbed onto the roof. When he saw the car approaching he kept his back turned and acted like he was repairing the roof. Jim Hinshaw took it in hook, line, and sinker. "The story got pretty wide circulation around Miller and there were a lot of laughs about it. It is one of the funniest I've heard." He also remembers that his dad Ellis West drove a truck for Jim DePreste one winter in the 1930's to haul corn from Illinois for resale in drought-stricken Southwest Missouri. The Missouri crop was inadequate to sustain local livestock through the winter. People with the resources bought flatbed trucks with racks for hauling grain and hired drivers to transport the grain south. Trusted drivers carried the cash to pay for the corn in their boots for security. [James Dale West, 1999]
Grandma Nina brought resolution to a forty-year separation of their family in a rather unique way. She bought plots in Miller Memorial Gardens and had little "Jimmy - J. B." re-interred there from Davis Cemetery and made arrangements for her and Granddad to be buried there upon their deaths. Grandma died on August 21, 1982 and was buried next to little James "Jimmy J. B." and Granddad was laid to rest next to Grandma at his death on March 17, 1984.
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