Daisy Ellingwood was born November 8, 1896 to Frank Ellingwood and Kathy Gabbert, the third child. Her two older sisters were Ily Mae and Annie. Her mother died shortly after her baby brother was born, and her baby brother died the following year. Her other brother James and she were close. Daisy’s oldest sister May married Willard Capps. Daisy’s neighbors were Morris Hartsell and Byrd Parks.
I found the location of where the farm that Daisy was born on. https://goo.gl/maps/L5JQQ1CoLEafezC17 Now Dripping Springs Road and Mike grew up on what is now highway 124, they are 8 miles away from each other, but they both went to Step Rock school. The odd thing is they show up in different towns on the census, it’s just because Judsonia Road, now Highway 124 is the border for dividing the townships and Step Rock is right on the spot dividing three different townships. They all used the same post office growing up. They also attended the same revivals. I also found the Capps family near the Grimes family and the other neighbors near the Grimes were Napoleon B Church, John Huff, John Stolz, Henry Sandford, Alpha Wood, and Icy Wood.
Daisy walked to school in Step Rock and from this farm, she walked 5 miles to school each way with her sisters and brother. I couldn’t find any pictures of the school building back in its day, but I found a story of it being burnt up by an arsonist on December 6, 1917. Their teacher was Miss Edna Vick. From 1918 on, the students living in this area had to go across the river to school in Judsonia, which was 14 miles away, including going across a swinging bridge. Thankfully, Daisy had graduated from school three years prior in 1914. Her brother James might have had to do that long trek, though. Mike also walked to school in Step Rock, but his way was 3 miles away down a bigger road.
Mike and Daisy got married on March 31, 1918 and Mike moved over to Frank’s land, but the land was so big that the 3 houses on it were spread apart- Frank, James, wife Beulah in the original home, Mike and Daisy in a newer home built near the road leading to the farm, and Daisy’s sister May and her husband Willard Capps built their home further back towards the back, extending the driveway a ways back into the land. This property is the same property that all the Grimes children were born on, just by 1934, they now had a Bald Knob address, due to changing borders. That’s why Betty shows a birthplace of Bald Knob, whereas the other children has a birthplace of Step Rock. I thought for a long time they moved, but I was able to figure out this puzzle. Also, Mike registered for the war draft, but he didn’t get chosen to be sent over. Mike had gray eyes, light brown hair, no marks on body after being given the physical for registering.
January 9, 1923 The state of Arkansas filed a bill to grant road crews to White County, meaning they would begin to lay out roads throughout White County. The road besides the Ellingwood farm was becoming highway 124. Each of the individual farmers planted their fields by themselves, but come harvest time, they hired each other to have huge picking parties with potlucks, it was a true community.
The Grimeses, Ellingwoods, Capps, and Altoms all attended a revival on September 9, 1927. On the way home, their neighbors were accidentally killed by 6 unidentified teenagers being rowdy on horses. No charges were filed and as they were young, the sheriff chose to not publish who they were. I wonder if they were our relatives. At this time, Mike and Daisy had 8 year old Andrew, 7 year old Trellis, and 6 year old Almeda. James and Beulah had their 1 year old Franklin Ellingwood, Willard and May Capps had Harry Capps, 20, Oatis Capps, 17, Henley Capps, 13, Maxine Capps, 5, and Lena Capps, 3. Solomon Grimes had Ernest, 17, Oran, 15, Barney, 13, Conley, 12, and Helen, 6 years old. Arley and her husband Kemp Chandler had Riley, 15, and Jewel, 14. Cora and her husband Kirby Bickers had Pauline, 7 and Christine, 5. Pearlie and her husband Eugene Altom had Julia, 14, Gladys, 12, Alvin, 9, Conway, 7, Hersey, 5, Lois, 3 and Isom Grimes and wife Oma Wood had Ozella, 5, Jalaw, 3, and Cozette, 1. The families all grew up around each other and were all each other’s in-laws in one way or other.
Mike Minor Grimes’s part of the farm had a building for smoking meats, another building for hanging wild game, a chicken coop, and a barn where he kept hay for the livestock. Mike, Frank, James, and Willard handled the crops while Daisy, Beulah, and May handled the home gardens. The combined family sold the market strawberries, peas, potatoes, and watermelons and they kept the hay for their own livestock. They kept only enough livestock to feed themselves, they didn’t raise livestock for market.
In Step Rock, they had no electricity yet, so the family used kerosene lamps and a wood stove/oven. They had a spring house for keeping dairy and eggs cool. Electricity did not make it out to that town until 1943, even though other towns had it sooner. Mike Minor Grimes bought his first truck in 1941 and Mike abandoned the oxen drawn wagons his neighbors continued to use. Mike Grimes bought new farming technology as they came out. Tractors and such, whereas Frank Ellingwood stuck to the old way of using oxen or horse drawn plows and such.
In 1929, there was a big flood then a drought from 1933 to 1941. Mike’s farm was failing. The CCC came in to offer assistance to farmers now living in poverty. I am looking for records of if they accepted the assistance or not. I wonder if he sold his farming equipment to his brother in law James Ellingwood, I can’t imagine he would have brought all that equipment to Bergman.
1940 war registration draft card, Mike had gray eyes, light brown hair, and a scar on his left calf. The previous draft card stated no marks, so this happened between 1918 and 1940. I wonder what happened.
Mike and Daisy put their children on a horse drawn school bus and their children grew up being called the children from across the river, going to school in Pangburn, Arkansas. They had to walk across a rickety wooden swinging bridge because it couldn’t support the full weight of the loaded down wagon. They then got back on. More information at this site. http://www.argenweb.net/white/wchs/A_Bus_for_the_Kids_Files/A_bus_for_the_kids.htm
Betty Grimes may not have ridden this bus as by the time she was school age, they moved to Bergman, but the above children of the extended family all rode this bus driven by their uncle Willard Capps. I imagine Willard didn’t want to see the children walk so far to school.
In 1930, many children in the area had tonsil infections, it was so bad that they had a tonsil clinic on October 17th and Andrew, Trellis, and Almeda; their oldest three, was among the children needing their tonsils removed.
From 1933 to 1942 They shopped from a grocery store on wheels run by Mr. Siler out of Searcy, Arkansas. They would buy white bread, peanut butter, and such out of the cupboards along the sides of the truck. Mike would supply the family with proteins by going hunting and fishing. He was knowledgeable about how to preserve meats and taught his children how to make things like summer sausage, jerky, smoked hams, bacon, and so on. Mike was the kind of man that could go out in the wilderness with just a gun and be just fine foraging off the land. He taught his children these skills.
Mike had a temper and Daisy filed for divorce, her reason being cruelty and spousal abuse in 1939, but in 1944, Daisy filed to cancel the divorce. Sometime in between that time, Mike shows up attending Oregon Flat church and bringing the family to church. I wonder if he gave his heart to Jesus Christ and that’s why he was a changed man, making Daisy happy to work things out with him.
In 1942, they likely read the newspaper article about how the CCC was rehabilitating the land all around Boone County and they already had a nephew living in Harrison, AR (Ernest Grimes) and that’s how they chose Bergman as their next home.
1943, Frank Ellingwood, Daisy’s father died, then their daughter Trellis died a few months later. Randy Moss, Trellis’ husband took their two granddaughters with him and I don’t think Mike and Daisy got to see their granddaughters Betty Mae Moss and Emma Jean Moss growing up.
Mike’s brother Solomon decided to move to Bergman area too. So in 1943, Solomon and wife Luttie moved to Bergman, their children already grown and married- Helen came and settled down in Bergman around 1955, Andrew, Vera, and son Bill moved to Bergman, Almeda moved to Little Rock, Lowell enlisted in the air force and was whisked away overseas.
Now in Bergman, there’s Mike and Daisy Grimes settling down in a new home with only two daughters and Mike’s brother Solomon bought land the next lot over. At this time, they had 12 year old Vivian, and 6 year old Betty. Betty went to Bergman school from 1st grade to 12th grade. Vivian went to Pangburn schools from kindergarten to 4th grade, then Bergman from 5th or 6th grade to high school. Their nephew Bill Grimes also went to Bergman school his entire school life. When their youngest daughter Betty graduated high school in 1954, Mike and Daisy moved to Wichita, Kansas.
While they were in Wichita, Mike worked as a janitor at the Boeing factory. Mike was a janitor there from 1954 to 1960 and while there, they lived at 4500 S. Glenn, Wichita, KS and I found Vivian and husband Doc Drewry living in Wichita too. Maybe that’s why they moved to Wichita.
In 1960 Mike and Daisy bought land off Wooded Hills Road and built a cement block home to be covered with rocks later. Daisy must have been very happy to be back near Luttie, Solomon’s wife. There’s many pictures of them embracing. Luttie and Daisy looked like they were really close.
Mike and Daisy were 61 and 64 years old. Retirement age. They doted on their grandchildren and taught their grandchildren their old ways. The documents from this time period aren’t public yet, so I will have to update this in 20 years when that information becomes available.
Daisy died on Thanksgiving day of 1970, she was 74. Mike died 3 years later on December 16, 1973. He was 74.
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