Macon County, Missouri...Part of Genealogy Trails

Newspaper Articles

Father Shot His Two Sons.
Macon, Mo.—Prosecuting Attorney S. S Durham received a telephone message Tuesday morning saying that D. Oscar Seaman, a young farmer of Drake township, had gone to the district school near Goldsberry, called out his two sons, boys of 10 and 12 years, shot one of them dead, mortally Injured the other, and then shot himself.
[Alma, Wabaunsee County, Kansas October 23, 1908 Page 2- Barb Z- 2009]

THE OLDEST INHABITANT.
The Macon Republican sent a special correspondent to interview Mr. Robert Gibson, probably the oldest man in the United States, who lives nine miles southwest of Macon. In the interview, Mr. Gibson made the following statement:
“I was born in Randolph County, N. C. in 1767, from thence my father (while I was very young and do not remember the date.) moved to Burks County, N. C. In 1798 I was first married and moved to Wayne County, Ky. Afterwards in 1809, I moved to what was then the western territory of Louisiana, afterwards the territory of Missouri, St. Charles County, Mo., and afterwards Howard and now Randolph County, Mo. Ten years after I moved to what is now Macon County, Mo., in the neighborhood of which place I now reside with my youngest son, Hesikiah, now aged 44 years. When I came as a western territory of Louisiana it embraced the territory of Arkansas, Nebraska, Oregon and larger portions of Kansas, Minnesota, Washington territory, Dakota territory also a part of Wyoming territory, Colorado and the Indian territories. Afterward as early as 1813, St. Charles County, Missouri, was laid out and embraced all of that territory lying west of the Mississippi River including the territories above mentioned and extending north to the British possessions; (the largest county in the world.) My recollection of revolutionary scenes was very imperfect, but I remember some of the exploits of the “Swamp Angel,” (Gen. Marion) the surrender of Cornwallis the declaration of peace, and of Washington's presidency. When I came to this country it was in its wildest the state, it being inhabited by many Indians and a few whites. Among the latter Catholicism reigned supreme. The country swarmed with a great variety of wild game. Venison hams and sold at all, were worth 6 ¼ cents a piece. I have often seen fifty deer in a herd. I attended as a delegate with a Brother Summers, of Kentucky, the Old Baptist Association near Monticello in that state. At this time a split occurred in the Old Baptist church on account of the question of communion. Having been a member of that church for some years, I became a believer and follower of what was then known as the separate Baptists since Christians reformers or Campbellites to which church I now belong. For many years, up to ten years since, I have preached in that church, having tried to be an earnest worker in my Master's great cause for 90 years. My first wife died at the age of 55 years in Macon County, Mo., in 1840. In 1858 I was married to a widow Howe; she died in 1876 near where I am now living. My children are all by my first wife, of whom there were sixteen, thirteen of whom still survived. Stephen, the oldest, born in North Carolina, is now 81 years old. Ann, the second child, has great grandchildren and Stephen has of his own nineteen children living and one dead. My grandchildren numbered nearly 400, reaching to the fifth-generation. My family of children consist of five girls and eleven boys. I have been a constant and inveterate user of tobacco for eighty-five years and have been a moderate drinker of ardent spirits ever since recollection.”
Mentally, Mr. Gibson is in a remarkable state of preservation, is uneducated, but learned to read after marriage with his first wife. Has (from the best information obtainable) been an earnest Christian gentleman nearly a century.
Physically, though small in statue he presents the appearance of having been a man of wonderful physical strength and endurance his height having been 5 foot 2 inches, weight 145 pounds. Is now hearty but decrepit, as the writer saw, and is nearly blind.
Mr. Gibson being in the hands of his son and daughter who seem to vie with each other in smoothing his declining pathway, is likely to live some time yet, although he is very helpless.
[Source: The Quincy Whig; Mar 22, 1883; Page 8 - Transcribed by Debbie Gibson]