Memories from the Homestead: A shout-out to Sam T. and Betsy

    In the twenty plus years of deep research here in the Garber community, covering the early era prior to the birth of my grandfather, my primary source for gathering facts has been the newspaper writings of J.K. Ross, and you regular readers have seen his work as I have shared his writings when doing a community flashback. These treasures have provided hours of happy reading, and I often go back to them when I get puzzled on a name or an event. Today's topic ranks quite high on the dive down multiple rabbit holes.

Back in 2003, I was reading through the Garber columns Ross wrote weekly in the Taney County Republican newspaper. My focus at that time was the years of 1905 through 1910. Once in a while Ross would mention how he could see a distant Taney County resident known as "Sam T." and his wife "Betsy."

 I was always curious who this couple was, and as I read through entire Republican papers page by page, I learned "Sam T" was the correspondent at Taneyville. Ross mentioned Sam and Betsy on March 22, 1907. He wrote, "In a clear day I can almost look into Sam T's house, though he lives almost sixteen miles northeast of here as the crow flies and see him with that garden rake on his shoulder, while Betsy has the hoe and the onion bed well in hand.  It is one of the sights of a clear afternoon when the sun is shining out of the west to behold Taneyville and Dickens in the distance, with some blue-tinted mountain still further distant as an artistic background.  Sam's copy interests us none the less because he is in eye-shot."

Could Ross really see their place sixteen miles away? I indeed know he could, as he talked about the view high on the hill in his 1913 autobiography, that with "field glasses," the equivalent of today's strong binoculars, he could easily see Taneyville to the northeast, to Pinetop to the southeast and beyond, and could see farmers working their fields. This was the same view that inspired Harold Bell Wright multiple times when he was a guest at the Ross property. This very view can be seen today from the Shepherd of the Hills Inspiration Tower.

Apparently, Sam and Betsy had quite the following with readers and Ross wasn't the only County correspondent to give them a holler once in a while. I've had some recent fun reading their Taneyville columns.

An October 3, 1907, column had this to say. Sam wrote, “Betsy found a hen's nest in the ash hopper among her nasturtiums. She—the hen, evidently had an eye for the beautiful, and her— Betsy's—criticism on Sam's failure to find her—the hen's nest, was not well taken. Sam had been hunting for several days, off and on, but mostly off, and had looked under every brush pile and broken the poke stalks down in every fence corner in a vain effort to locate that nest, and when he congratulated Betsy upon finding it, she said, "I knew where it was all the time; I just wanted to see you hunt!"  Now what do you think of that?

A June 1907 reference to Sam T. in the Republican shared the following that gave a slightly different perspective. It states, “A correspondent in the Branson Echo doesn't seem to like what ‘Sam and Betsy’ have to say. When he considers that they only present the local news of Taneyville, and that the people here, old and new citizens, all seem to appreciate what is intended in a humorous way to create a smile and rub out wrinkles, he will not take the matter too seriously. Lots of great writers treat of the small things of everyday life, and use simple language to point a moral or adorn a tale. We advise our friend to get up to a higher plane, where he can see all over the country, and interview J.K.R., who will initiate him into the honorable fraternity of ‘see clear fellows.’  It might put a new taste in his mouth like unto strawberry shortcake."

Overall, the positives of Sam's writings were way greater over the negatives.  What had me puzzled was—who is this guy and his wife Betsy? Their last name was never revealed, so I needed to dig deeper. Time for my detective hat, y'all. 

I knew that several of the correspondents had used "pen names" and I would soon learn that in 1901, this Taneyville writer and resident was writing much in County Political topics and was using the name Sam Tompkins. To confirm my suspicion, I made sure there were no area residents with this exact name. I was convinced our Taneyville correspondent was without a doubt using a pen name and "Betsy's" name too was fictionalized. I continued digging through three years’ worth of Taneyville columns to see if Sam T. would mention any of his immediate family. Certainly, they had children.

Fun with rabbit holes. My specialty! In a 1909 Taneyville column Sam discussed going to Branson for a Fourth of July event and coming through Kirbyville to visit their daughter and grandchildren. He mentioned her real name! The daughter's name you ask? If you're standing right now, you need to sit down. Mrs. Pres. Mahnkey! What!!?? This is not a typo!

I had no clue my detective work was going to take me to this! Preston Mahnkey is a name we all know if you're a Taney County native! His wife (daughter of this Sam T. and Betsy) is the beloved Mary Elizabeth (Prather) Mahnkey (1877-1948). Mary was formally known by all as "The Poet Laureate of the Ozarks." Her contributions to our region were huge. A gifted newspaper columnist with a massive following. So with her parents being "Sam T. and Betsy," that means they are "really" Col. Alonzo and Mariah Prather! Col. Prather is another very familiar name in our county’s history. He was one of the original thirteen Baldknobbers.

Next week, I'll give y'all an excellent biography of Alonzo Prather! An incredible man who is buried right here in Kirbyville. I had no idea "Sam Tomkins and Betsy" would lead me to this! Thank you, J.K. Ross! If any of you Prather and Mahnkey family descendants would like to give me a "Howdy," I'd love to hear from y'all!

Happy trails, everyone!