Robert Harold Bare, Prisoner of War Horror Story

The squadron. Most of the 169 men that were POWs are pictured here. 

I don't know which one is Robert. 

Robert is in the back row, second from left with his crew. 

 Robert Harold Bare was born to my great granduncle Jesse William Bare, brother of my grandmother Lena Bare and Ethel Turbyfill, sister of my grandfather George Washington Turbyfill. Robert Harold Bare and his siblings are genetically full siblings to the children of George and Lena due to being double cousins. 

Robert also has two cousins named Robert E. Bare that’s 5 years older than him, the son of Arthur Bare and another cousin Robert B Bare son of Ed Bare. In 1930 he lived with his parents Jessie and Ethel Bare, plus his grandfather Curtis Turbyfill and his brothers Wayne, Charles, and Winston. He grew up on Elk River Road. 

Robert Harold Bare, service number 34233825  joined the air force and he was moved to Will Rogers Field in Oklahoma in July 1942 to prepare for departure overseas. In September, the crew flew to Grenier Field in New Hampshire. They were assigned to the Royal Air Force as American loaners. Robert and his crew flew to RAF Shipdham in October 1942. 

Robert was in a B-24 Liberator and you can read more about the airplane here

http://freepages.rootsweb.com/~webermd1/family/Liberator-Info.html

In November 1942, Robert and his crew entered active duty bombing targets in France, Belgium, Germany, and Poland with the 514th Bombardment.   In 1943, Robert and many others flew to Sicily to bomb the island in preparation for the incoming invasion, the same invasion Junior Hicks was a part of.  Robert was then sent to bomb the beaches in Normandy for the incoming invasion. , then they went to do low level raids on the oil fields.  (Fun fact- Junior Hicks and Robert Bare enlisted the same day at the same place.)

From February 1944 to August 1944, Robert was stationed in England and flew to various targets for low level bombings. Things like airfields, train tracks, suspected u-boat locations, bridges, oilfields, etc. This time frame is still classified, so I don’t have access to the details of specific targets on specific days.  The confusing thing is their graves say they were Army and after some investigation, I discovered that the Air Force wasn’t a thing, they had the Army Air Corps. Thus they were buried being labeled as army. 

Sergeant Robert Bare was the pilot,  his copilot was Lt. John Johnson and the men manning the guns were 2nd Lt. Anthony Homyk  and Raymond Jones , the gunners sat in the nose below the pilots  the radioman/radar man Sgt Louis Elgert sat behind the pilots, and above the radar man sat the flight engineer Richard Hess, he manned the top turret, one man was curled up in a ball in the ball turret on the bottom, Sgt Raymond Nickerson,  two men, Sgt Gerald Nygard, Sgt Orlando Neely,  were in the tail manning the rear guns and finally, one man, Samuel Dudley was in the middle making sure the bombs were loading correctly  

Robert didn’t let his crewmates step forward alone when the Germans asked the Jews to step forward. Robert isn’t a jew, but he showed bravery and solidarity by stepping forward too. It was also his duty as a pilot, being responsible for his crew.  His group of 169 airmen were captured. They crashed in occupied France and they were disguised as civilians. For this reason, the Germans thought they were French spies. They crashed in August 1944. He was listed as missing air crew, along with John Johnson, Anthony Homyk, Raymond Jones, Louis Elgert, Richard Hess, Raymond Nickerson, Gerald Nygard, Orlando Neely, Samuel Dudley, Harold Romanoff, Seymour Yudkowitz, Benjamin Fountain, Benjamin Moore, Daniel Miracco, Robert Moody, Stanley Humienny, and Arthur Melius. Andrew Kingsley was killed in the crash, but he was also listed as missing in action until they found the other men.  The other men listed not in the above crew was from another B-24. The specifications of this crash is still not declassified. It only lists who was listed as Missing in Action due to missing planes. 

There was a few items that were declassified and here;s what I discovered. If you are sensitive, I would stop reading at this point. 

Robert and his crew were forced to stand still in a line for 14 hours as the Gemans tried to determine if the others were Jews or spies. From April to August, they were held in the Gestapo  prison at the Gestapo headquarters in France. When they couldn’t break these men into admitting they’re actually spies, the fact they spoke English, not French didn’t matter. French can speak English too and they assumed they were refusing to speak French. So they were sent to a concentration camp.  When they were brought to Stalag Luft on August 20, 1944. The 169 airmen were from the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Jamaica.  There are two movies based on this, but the movies added to what really happened, so they aren’t historically accurate. One movie is called the Wooden Horse and the other movie is called The Great Escape, made in 1963 featuring Steven McQueen and Charles Bronson. 

October 1944, the Nazis split up the airmen and only one American pilot was left in Stalag Luft and the rest of the American airmen were brought to Buchenwald. There, the men were forced to undress and be fully washed and fully shaved head to toe, in full view of everyone.

They were freed on April 2, 1945 by the same unit my other granduncle was in, Junior Hicks. However, at this time, Junior was overseeing the supply chain. Junior coordinated the supply chain getting food to the surviving prisoners and figuring out how to bring the prisoners out and on to their respective homes. Junior was the kind of man to be good at logistics. I wonder if Junior and Robert knew they were related by marriage, his wife Frankie being Robert’s double cousin- his parents and Frankie’s parents married each other’s sibling. Robert and Frankie were genetically full siblings due to this. It’s not likely they physically saw each other, as Junior was in charge of overseeing the supply chain. They would’ve recognized each other, having enlisted the same time. 

Buchenwald had 21,000 inmates, but only 4,000 were actually Jewish. When they heard the 6th bombing and coming closer and closer, the inmates were frightened because they had heard of Auschwitz where they did a mass killing to cover up their war crimes. The Germans tried to move them all, but due to the sheer number of 21,000 people, many were marched into the forests and told to run as they shot them in the back. Only a few that were marched into the forest escaped with their lives. 2,700 people were killed in the forests and the Germans did not have time to move the rest by the time the Americans broke through to the camp on April 2nd.

Robert was one of the prisoners the Germans experimented on. They had purposefully injected him and his crewmates with typhoid so when the Americans showed up, they were too weak to be lucid enough to realize the Germans were gone. They also tested acids on Robert. The men from the B-24 squadron were fearful.  Robert was also raped repeatedly, along with many others.  He was treated by an Army medic Anthony Acevedo, and that man kept a diary of his experiences. Anthony Acevedo was also raped. Yet that man still treated Robert and many other’s wounds.  Robert Bare appears as Robert Bahr in his diary.  The Army had all the survivors sign something swearing to not tell anyone about their experiences and those records weren’t declassified until 1985 and even then, the NAR quietly declassified the experiences of the POWs, so it was a few more years before the general public was aware our own American soldiers were in the same concentration camps as the Jewish. 

Back to Robert… the prisoners did not realize the Americans were in charge now, 9,280 inmates hid until the Americans found them on April 9th. Between April 2nd and April 8th, they already transported 4,880 people out to safety in tanks. 

Some hid in the latrines, some hid below the buildings, some hid under random planks of wood carefully arranged to disguise there was space underneath, and his buddy Melbourne was on the top bunk, stacked 3 high. Melbourne made a hole big enough in the roof to slip through, and a few hundred inmates followed him up to the roof, including Robert Bare. As the Americans in troop 6th searched for survivors, the inmates didn’t trust what they heard and they stayed hidden.  The bunks weren’t even really beds. They were shelves. No blankets, no mattresses. Each shelf was 12x12, and they forced each shelf to have 16 people on it, the clearance between each shelf being 18 inches. 

Their rations were as follows: Sundays, soy beans (the only protein for the whole week); Mondays, jam and black bread; Tuesdays one potato, Wednesdays, beet root liquid/soup (just beets boiled down in water); Thursdays Jam and black bread, Fridays, one potato, and Saturday, the beet root liquid concoction , so they all lost weight. Robert went in weighing 165 pounds, but when he was found, he weighed 97 pounds. That was still heavier than other soldiers. They were also forced to stay in the shelves at night, even if they had diarrhea due to the typhoid fever purposely given to them. If any of the 16 people on a particular shelf dared complain, the Germans would line up the 16 people from that bunk and shoot them in front of the other prisoners, so Robert and his 15 bunkmates kept their mouths shut. 

The Americans left, thinking they had gotten all the survivors out. The germans returned and found the few hundred up on the roof and they captured them and forced them on a march to another camp called Flossenburg.. 

When the POWs stumbled, the Germans would be cruel to them all. Robert fell and a German soldier stomped on him hard enough to cause his uthera to burst all the way down to his prostate.  Robert and his men were forced to march for a month. They were not allowed to lay down or they’d get stomped on again.

 On June 2nd, Allied Forces from Australia found these men and rescued them by shooting the Nazis that were holding them captive. They took the shackles off and brought them to a hospital in France. There, Robert was treated. His medical records are declassified. Robert had a scalp wound with no nerves involved, sutured shut.This wound was from the butt of a rifle. Robert had anal laceteratons that needed to be treated. Robert had a wound through his shoulder from acids being poured on him which ate through his shoulder front to back. It was gaping open.  Robert’s friction burns were treated from being dragged across the gravel. Robert’s urethra was reconnected to his prostate and repaired surgically. Robert also had a severe case of lice. His bunkmates had a kidney removed so they could experiment to see how the human can survive with one kidney. They were not under anesthesia when that happened to them. All the injuries were classified as “Injury Type 2: intentionally inflicted by Military Enemy in close quarters.” This is probably why his medical file was declassified, to use as evidence in the trial against the Germans that had tortured the American soldiers. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buchenwald_Trial 

When Robert was rescued, he had to be carefully fed. The Americans gave him thin barley soup with beef broth. Many more American soldiers died from being given too much food at first. With Robert, he was slowly given more and more. The first week, a cup of mostly beef broth with barley in it twice daily, told to go slow. A lot of people couldn’t resist the temptation to slurp it all down right away. The next week, it was half barley to the amount of beef broth twice daily. The 3rd week, they went up to 3 times daily feeding, two the barley soup and one small beef.  At week 6, they were given eggs at breakfast with toast and on to resuming full feedings.  For this reason, he was not part of the first groups to be transported back home. Plus he needed to recover from typhoid fever before being put on a ship or airplane. 

 

Robert was discharged from the hospital on July 29,1944 and he went back home to his parents Jesse Bare and Ethel Turbyfill.   Robert was formally honorably discharged on October 12, 1944. 

Somehow, Robert wasn’t finished with serving. Robert re-enlisted on November 11, 1945, stayed stateside as part of the reserves, and was honorably discharged from the reserves on  May 4, 1947. 

Robert married Wilma Shook by a baptist minister named Glenn Gentry  on February 6, 1946 and their first son came in November 1946, Donald Harold Bare then Robert “Bobby” Bare, Colleen Marie Bare, Gerald David Bare, Marleen Bare, Rick Bare, and Steve Bare.  These children are a miracle given the severe injuries he got during his time of being a POW. 

Robert lived at 365 Grandfather Road, Banner Elk, NC with his wife and children for over 25 years. He was buried in Jestes Cemetery after his death on March 30, 1995. I wonder if he told anyone about his POW experiences, after 1985 when he was allowed to. I have trouble wrapping my head around this.

I am aware of the concentration camps, but they were always in my mind a Jewish thing. For some reason, having a family member, a double nephew to Papaw George and Lena Bare made it more personal to me and it leaves me feeling more ill and horrified. It’s no longer a part of history I am detached from because I thought it didn’t affect anyone in my family. How wrong I was. I’m sick and angry about what he went through. 

This was difficult for me to write and difficult for you to read. But this is a part of our family history. We can’t forget history, we owe them that.

Example of what they forced the airmen to do- strip down, dunked in lye, then fully shaved head to toe in full view of everyone else. 

The latrine that some of the men hid in. They burrowed down into the waste to hide. 

The "bunk beds", 16 men to each 12x12 shelf. Robert and his crew were in the middle shelf of bunk 26. 

See the different clothes the Jews were wearing. They wore stripes with a yellow star, but the POWs were in solid clothes. 

More fellow POWs in Buchenwald

Notice how the only Jew POW had to wear the stripes, whereas the rest of them were either naked or in solid clothes. 

Some of the POWs reacting to realizing they were rescued. Most of them were too injured or sick to get up and cheer. 

Bunk 24, very close to where Robert was. 

The president of the US touring the horrors of what the Germans made his American men endure. 

My Granduncle Junior Hicks

The officer home that Junior Hicks and wife Frank and toddler daughter Rayna lived in for a few months. 

The map that the 6th followed, however, Junior was placed in various places due to his usefulness. 

The signia to signify that he's 5th rank 

 Junior Hicks is my granduncle. He had an amazing life full of history. He was born August 17,1921 in Elk Park, North Carolina. When he was 14, he began driving cars and became indispensable to the Elk Park community by driving school buses and trucks for various stores. 

  At 20 years old, Junior enlisted into the Army, on September 3rd, 1941 where he was immediately sent to Fort Chickmunga and his knowledge of mechanics and driving skills had him quickly promoted to a driver for the major at the fort within a few months, level 2. A month later, he was a level 3 warranty officer and moved to the Officer homes and no longer in the barracks. 6 months later, he was a level 4 technician warranty officer, responsible for getting everyone out of the barracks each morning and teaching others how to keep the army vehicles running smoothly.

In April, Junior got R&R and coincidentally, this is when he married Frankie Carrie Turbyfill, April 18, 1942. I wonder if Junior wrote letters to my aunt Frankie while he was overseas. Oh to be able to get a peek at those letters if they exist.

Junior’s serial number was 14063575 and with this I was able to find what he did during the war. Operation Torch, January 1943-May 1943, Morocco was invaded by the Axis powers. Junior, along with many others in his unit were loaned to General Patton. Casablaca had already been freed of Axis powers by the time Junior arrived. Junior was put to work instructing and overseeing infantry in tuning up all the vehicles. The sands were harsh on the vehicles and prone to needing frequent maintenance. They then all headed to Tunisia so they could push back the Axis powers, but an attack at Djedeida pushed them back . They retreated to Tripoli to regroup.  On February 14, 1943, they were further pushed back through the Kasserine Pass. This setback forced General Patton to command his men to wear American uniforms to disguise the fact they were British,  and they tried again to free Tunisia of Axis control and failed again. 

They called for ships to come pick them up in Casablanca and during those two months, Junior took in the sights of Casablanca and commanded the mechanics keeping the amphibian car/boats running and ready for the upcoming campaign. The ships arrived in June and Junior was responsible for loading all the vehicles onto the ships in the best order. He had a knack for making sure things fit and would be quickly deployed. Tanks, amphibian vehicles, jeeps, trucks, etc. All kinds of vehicles fell under Junior’s responsibility. While in battle, he drove one of the tanks and called out commands over the radios. He reported to Sir Harold Alexander, who reported to George Patton. 

In June, the platoon took the ships around the coast to attempt to free Tunisia again and this time they succeeded. 10,000 Germans and 20,000 Italians surrendered and abandoned their tanks, jeeps, etc. Junior would go over to each vehicle and get it ready to be claimed and he organized, instructed, and got all them back onto the ship to take back to England. 

Junior stayed in Tunisia to prepare for the next operation. On july 9th, their troops headed to Sicily as part of Operation Husky. They drove out Benito Mussolini and freed Silicy from Axis control. This time, Junior was in a Sherman tank but commanded the other amphibian vehicles as they all left the ship to land on Silician shores. Junior reported to Harold Alexander still.  The next day, Junior pushed Axis powers away from the lighthouse so that the Special Air Service could capture the lighthouse. Once they successfully captured the lighthouse, from the high perch, the snipers from that division helped the 6th free Sicily. 

From July 12 to October 5, 1943, Junior earned leave and he went back home. Let’s say their first daughter was born May 8, 1944. Wink wink. Junior and Frankie must have been ecstatic to see each other, as Frankie barely saw him during the first year they were married. 

From October 1943 to June 1944, Junior was in Sicily helping the Sicilians get situated and reclaiming their land, clearing the rubble, and such. In June 1944, Junior was called to help capture Rome due to the troops in Italy being unable to get up to Rome due to the land being of excellent defense positions for the Axis powers. They needed to do another surprise landing. The ships arrived in Sicily to pick up Junior and his troop, as they needed someone to drive the tanks. On June 4, 1944 in the dark, they broke through Monte Cassino and on to Rome. This was called Operation Buffalo. Then the tanks were commanded to push the Italians up north to Pisa. This is the same day D-Day at Normandy was happening.  And also possibly during this time, he got a letter he had a baby girl born. 

In July, Junior was sent to Omaha Beach to help with the logistics and planning of where supplies go, as the person originally responsible for this was killed in action during D-Day. Junior spent a month being responsible for the logistics of supplies until he could be replaced, then he was sent to Saint Tropez for another surprise landing. This was called Operation Dragoon. Junior drove a tank from Saint Tropez to Touloun, liberating the French along the way. 

From Touloun, Junior commanded a fleet of tanks, leading a convoy to Paris, the headquarters. Once he arrived in Paris, he stayed there for 6 months, from August 1944 to January 1945. During his time in Paris, he oversaw the maintenance of all the vehicles. Being the headquarters of the Allied Powers, nearly all the vehicles were in Paris at some point and Junior was responsible for ensuring all were ready to go. 

In January 1945, Junior was called to the famous Battle of Bugle, there is a lot of footage of this battle, however, Junior was driving a tank, so his face wouldn’t be in there unless he stuck his head out for a photo. In December, some Allied troops were trapped somehow and they had a huge supply problem. Junior was good at solving the logistical issues, and he realized a tank could be the solution, because they’re not as vulnerable as trucks. Junior laid out the logistics where a truck from Paris would meet them at a safe point halfway between the Battle of Bugle and they’d load the supplies into the tank, making it really cramped. Junior used the tank to protect himself and his men as they drove back and forth bringing supplies, as the limited space meant more trips. His division was in Schmidt, Belgium and I believe the halfway point was Brussels, Belgium. . 

Junior was so useful in this role, he was put in charge of logistics of getting the tanks to where they are wanted, laden with supplies. He was able to maximize the space within with creative arranging. He was made a supply chain management and promoted to Level 5, the highest rank within the technical command. During most of 1945,  Junior helped coordinate the supply chain. On August 6, 1945, he was sent to Port Cherbourg, France to serve under General Sommervell.

Thus, when Hiroshima was bombed, Junior was in Port Cherbourg. 

From August 6, 1945 to December 1945, Junior was responsible for getting all the POWs out of Europe and onto the United States. His talent for logistics meant he would look at the space each ship had and placed the correct number to not underload or overcrowd them and he would make sure the ones that were wounded would have space to be laid down and attended to by nurses. He would instruct people in how and where to set up bunks on the ships that were meant to be cargo ships, therefore, no lodging.  He would also load supplies headed back to the US on the ship. He also helped drive the tanks onto the ships to be taken out of Europe now that the war was over. He stayed in France until every last American POWs were out of Europe and he embarked the last ship to leave on January 8, 1946. He disembarked in Hoboken, New Jersey and took a train to Fort Oglethorpe and lived in the Officers house in Park Chickamauga. 

Junior was awarded the American Theater Service Medal, the EAME service medal, the Bronze Star, the Good Conduct Medal, and the World War II Victory Medal. On January 12, 1946, he was joined by his wife and his 20 month old daughter and they lived in the Officer housing. I wonder how he felt seeing his daughter for the first time. Was he ecstatic or kind of sad he missed out on the baby phase. I wish I could ask Frankie and Junior, but they’ve gone on to Jesus’ arms. 

He mustered out on February 8, 1946 then the Hicks family moved back home to Elk Park, North Carolina. By May 1946, Junior had a job driving the school bus. Frankie and Junior quickly had two more children, two boys in 1947 and 1949. Ten years later, they welcomed their final child, a girl in 1949. 

In 1959, something happened and he was no longer able to drive the school bus, so he moved to Detroit to find work. AHe was back home on February 6, 1960 when he started working for the local rescue organization. On December 22, 1961, Junior Hicks rescued a group of stranded duck hunters off an island when the ice they had walked across unexpectedly broke and they couldn’t walk back across. Junior rescued Joe Friday, Monroe Ellis, Ted Russell, Ray Rhoton, and Paul Lilly, Charles Cash. They all were very appreciative that Junior somehow noticed their dilemma and worked out the logistics of how to rescue them safely. 

At 41 years old on January 23, 1963, Junior had a serious accident. So serious that he needed open brain surgery and more surgeries thereafter. AHis first surgery was at the hospital in Banner Elk, then the other surgeries in 1964, 1965, 1967, and 1970 were all at the VA  in Johnson City, Tennessee. I asked his daughter Rayna if she remembers this and she does. That’s why he was in a wheelchair the whole time I’ve known him. After the 1970 surgery, he had complications leading to a long stay in the VA. He was discharged 17 months later on July 25, 1972 and his wife Frankie cared for him in the home. 

Junior passed away when I was 6 years old, so I barely remember him. He was always in a wheelchair whenever I visited and now I understand why. He passed away on September 20, 1987 and I will never forget him.

Jo Webster

Jo Grimes 

She passed away of what we today call a stroke. 

This is the schoolhouse Jo attended. It still stands. 

Mary Josephine Webster was born August 6, 1894 in Powhatan, Arkansas to

James Calvin Webster and Sarah Lamb. Her childhood school is still there to this day

because Powhatan, Arkansas is now a state park to preserve the historical buildings.

Jo grew up with three sisters and two brothers.  Her father was a civil war veteran and

he passed away young, when Jo was only 14. Jo helped with the sheep for wool growing up.

I imagine Jo also spun it into thread for knitting. 

At 20 years old, Jo married Benjamin Grimes Christmas eve 1882 at her home then

moved to Walnut Ridge with her husband. See Benjamin Matthew Grimes’ entry for

more information on her life after marrying Benjamin.

 

Mary Belle Schmick

Harvey's mother on left, Harvey Hawkins, Birdie Snook, and Mary Belle Schmick

Dennis James and Mary Belle (Schmick) James 

Mary Belle Schmick was born in Tazewell County on January 4, 1879,  in Spring Lake Township, near Manitoo to Issac and Rhonda Schmick. Her father attempted to be a pioneer in Kansas, but it failed because of the great blizzard. 

November 1885-March 1886, a blizzard wiped out all of Kansas. It was so severe that at their Montgomery County, Kansas home, her parents had to burn their possessions to keep warm- tables, chairs, beds, and so on.  When the blizzard stopped, the snow didn’t melt until May and the grass didn’t come back until July. That July, her family returned to the homestead in Spring Lake, Illinois and there, her father died when she was 12 years old.  

Mary Belle’s first husband is from nearby McLean, Illinois. For some reason, Mary and Birdie Snook travelled from Illinois to Butler County, Missouri to get married on November 24, 1897, then the newlyweds returned to Spring Lake, Tazewell County, Illinois where their first child arrived August 20, 1898. Her husband worked as a clammer on the nearby rivers. Two years later, Gladys Snook was born , then a son Leo in 1901, then Orin in 1904 and Iona Birdie in 1906. 

Mary divorced Birdie and took the children with her to Poplar Bluff, Missouri and married George Nichols. Shortly after her marriage, her eight year old son Leo died and she buried her son in Butler County, Missouri. She divorced George Nichols shortly after Leo’s death, but a cousin said George died that same year from pneumonia also. I haven’t been able to verify this. 

In 1911, she married again to Harvey Hawkins, but ten years later, he kicked her out and married her youngest daughter Birdie when she just turned 14. Mary Belle moved to Arkansas after this happened. 

December 1926, Mary Belle married Dennis James at 47 years old. When her daughter Birdie died at just 18, she raised her grandchildren.  The children of her ex-husband and her own daughter.  Her grandchildren referred to them fondly as grandpa James and grandma James, so they must have not kept in touch with their biological grandfather Birdie Snook. 

Mary Belle Smick died as Mary Belle James on February 1, 1951.

 

Birdie Snook, the clammer on Mississippi.

 Birdie Snook was born Charles Quimby Burdette Snook to Charles and Mary Snook in McLean, Illinois on November 21, 1879. His father was the manager of the McLean train depot. His father died of a seizure when Birdie was six years old.  

Birdie went to various places on the Mississippi river starting in 1865 at age 16 and got into the clamming industry. Birdie had a rake with many tines and he plunged it down into the muddy water, dragging it along the bottom making the mussels and clams clamp down on the tines. Then he would draw the rake out of the water and pull the mussels and clams off the tines.

Clams and mussels were used for both meat and buttons for the button industry 1890-1910. Birdie would use a rake from the boat, plunging it into the muddy water and dragging it along the bottom so that the mussels and clams would clamp down onto the tines and he’d pull them off and repeat the process. 

When he was 18, Birdie appears in Butler County, Missouri getting married to Mary Belle Schmick and he brings his bride back to along the Mississippi river and resumes his job on the Mississippi River. My great grandmother Ethel is his firstborn. She was born August 20, 1898 when Birdie was 18 years old. Gladys Vishti Snook arrived in February 1900, then Leo in 1901, then Orin Charles Snook in 1904, then his daughter Birdie Snook in 1906. He divorced Mary Belle and remarried to Gertrude Thompkins. With her, Birdie had Virginia, Goldie, Burdette, Donna Mae and Gertrude. 

In 1921, clamming was now banned due to over-harvesting for mother of pearl buttons and he changed to being a commercial fisherman. He would catch things like channel catfish and bass. He died a few years later at the young age of 46 on January 14, 1926. I was unable to find his death certificate.

Birdie Snook as a child. 

Birdie Snook showing off his catches from the Mississippi in 1922. 

Birdie Snook when he married Gertrude. 

An example of the clamming boats he used on the Mississippi

A photo from the Iowa history archives showing a clammer hanging up mussels and clams to dry out so they could be sold to button factories. 

Susan Beales / Susan Beal

 Susan Beales, daughter of James and Nancy Beales/Beal/Beale was born in Bellair, Illinois in June 1862, the eldest of her siblings. Her mother Nancy died when Susan was 11 years old, and shortly thereafter, she went to find work in the nearby big city, Vandalia, Illinois.  There, she married her first husband, Mr. Johnson. He died soon after marriage, leaving Susan a very young widow. 

Susan was hired by J.W. Morehead as a cook at his hotel and it appears in many newspapers across the county advertised as a cozy hotel with delicious foods. She worked there from 1876 to 1881. I wonder if this is how she met Francis? Maybe he traveled to Vandalia, stayed in the hotel, and dined there, meeting Susan. 

Anyways, Susan’s father died in 1881, which we then find Susan getting married to Francis Marion Hornbeck. On their marriage certificate, it had the full names of both sets of parents. Susan bore him 4 children and she died when her youngest son was 5 years old on August 21, 1897. Her grave is missing, and that's another thing I am trying to find more information about.

I wish I could have found out more information on the hotel Vandalia she worked at. If you’re a history buff and have knowledge about this hotel, I would love to find out more about what kind of dishes the hotel served.

Francis Marion Hornbeck

 Francis Marion Hornbeck born August 6, 1843 in Indiana to Simpson and Martha Hornbeck.  In 1860, his father moved the family to Paradise, Illinois and in the nearby town of Mattoon, IL, Francis enlisted into the military with the 62nd infantry, where he was assigned to guard the new railroad through Cherokee territory at what is now Muskogee, OK. He did not see any combat and mustered out at 22 years old. According to the records, he was 5 ft 8 inches tall, thick curly light brown hair, light complexion, light eye color. 

He married Hannah Johnson July 3, 1866 then had the following children: 

Albert Hornbeck, Simpson Hornbeck, ES Hornbeck, James Francis Hornbeck, Rosa Belle Hornbeck (married James Hoover), Marth Hornbeck (married P. Hubbard) then his wife Hannah died in 1880. 

Francis married my great great grandmother Susan Beales on September 1, 1881 and he was a postmaster at the Lyons, Indiana post office. They had the following children: 

Chester Arthur Hornbeck, Susan Alice Hornbeck (married Benjamin Waddle), Ransom Cornelius Hornbeck, Maggie Hornbeck (married John Clemmons), Alonzo Lee Hornbeck. Susan Beales died in 1889. 

Francis married Mary Lemmon 1899 and had one daughter Naomi Oma Hornbeck. By this time, he was 57 years old.

Francis moved most of his children with him to Poplar Bluff, Missouri and he lived there until he died February 16, 1923. He is buried besides many of his children, as many of the Hornbecks stayed in Poplar Bluff and Saint Louis.

George Washington Turbyfill and Mary Magdalena Bare

 George Washington Turbyfill was born March 30, 1897 on Buck Mountain Road, Cranberry Township, Elk Park, North Carolina and he lived there until he enlisted in the war. When he came home, he had weak lungs from mustard gas. George went back to his home with his parents after the war and appeared on the 1920 census with his parents. 

In 1923, I find him in West Virginia getting married to Mary Magdalena Bare on July 29th. George was working for the Pocahontas Coal Company. The coal company transferred him to Amonate, Virginia. George couldn’t tolerate the work with his weakened lungs from the war, they moved back to Elk Park and bought land on Elk River Road. There, they had more children. 

1. Georgia Turbyfill, September 4, 1923 in Clifftop,West Virginia, died before 1929. 

Georgia is not found on any cemetery records in North Carolina. Based on that, I assume she is buried in Virginia somewhere. In the 1920s, Virginia did not maintain meticulous records of infant burials. 

2. Frankie Carrie Turbyfill, December 1, 1924 in Amonate, Tazewell, Virginia 

Married Junior Hicks April 18, 1942 

3. Juanita Turbyfill, December 26, 1927 in Cranberry, Avery, North Carolina 

Married John Trivette

4. Lloyd Turbyfill, January 31, 1930 Cranberry, Avery, North Carolina 

Married Ramona Wilhelm 

5. Ruth, May 16, 1932 Cranberry, Avery, North Carolina 

Married Ralph Winters 

6. Nicola, 1934 (living, not publishing her full birthdate) Married Harold Pritchard 

7. Elmer Curtis, February 21, 1937 married Shirley Brown

8. Maynard, 1940 (living) 

9. Roma, 1944 Mary, 1944 I believe these are the same person, a baby that died. 

George farmed on Elk River Road from 1926 to 1979 and he sold his farm to Lloyd Meredith. I believe this is when he moved in with his daughter Nicki across the road from the home he raised his children in. His wife Lena divorced him between 1944 and 1946. As far as I know, he never re-married. 

I remember my Papaw George. He had this chihuahua that was very protective of his lap and we grandkids had to compete for his lap with this scary tiny snarly dog named “Tiny”. There was also Cricket and Popeye, but they were friendly and would get down off his lap if I ran up to him, but that one dog, Tiny… watch out, she’ll bite you if you dare even look at Papaw George.  When I was very small, he would come outside and sit and watch us play in the creek along the front yard, but as the years went by, he stayed inside the house more and more. When I was a preteenager, he stayed in the living room the whole time I visited and then when I was about 12, he would be in his bed all day and I remember helping Nicki get him Ensure to drink.  He loved having his back scratched and rubbed and I would trace words on his back as he nodded off. 

He passed away at 95 years old. 

Mary Magdalena Bare was born January 13, 1905 to Frank Bare and Molly Presnell in Elk Park, North Carolina. Her mother taught her all kinds of folk songs and she kept the tradition going to keep the memory of her mother alive for her siblings. Her mother passed away when she was 7. She especially sang with her sister Loyd. 

 When she was 14, she went to work for a family in Washington State and she came back when she was 16 or 17. She then marries George and has the children listed above. 

She was a folk singer and you can listen to her voice at the following link. 

https://youtu.be/5ax1n2ad5lk  and there’s more information about Lena at this link 

https://www.appalachianhistory.net/2020/09/songcatching-bolakins.html

She then divorces George between 1944 and 1946, then Lena marries Robert Edward Brockwell/Branchwell July 9, 1949. They moved to Detroit in 1951 and then Lena returned to Johnson City, Tennessee in 1957. It is unclear if she is divorced. Lena is in the hospital for injuries from a fall in 1966 and is discharged.  In 1967, her husband (or exhusband) Robert passed away and she moved to Indiana. It’s unclear why. Maybe to live with one of her children. 

Lena died May 9, 1968.

Lena

    George