Marion Co TOC

From the Baxter Bulletin, May 30, 1913.
AGE 112, WALKS 6 MILES

     Elmira Wagoner, 112 years old, known as "Granny" Wagoner over this section of the Missouri and Arkansas Ozarks and the oldest woman in Arkansas, astonished her friends and family last week by walking from her place to Protem, Mo., staying all night with friends at that place and walking back home again the next morning. "Granny" Wagoner lives in Marion County, Ark, almost on the Missouri and Arkansas line, and the distance from her place to Protem is three miles. She made the trip each way in an hour and a half, and felt no ill effects.
     It has been four years since she made the same trip, and in an interview some time ago said then that she did not think she would ever make it again. Her long duress through the winter and spring months, however, in her lonely little cabin made her nervous. She was tired of staying at home and longed for more companionship and old familiar faces. She got a stout stick and announced her intentions of walking to town to her daughter. Protestations were in vain, and she would allow no one to accompany her. There was only one thing that interrupted her peace of mind, and that was that her young chickens might go neglected at home. This worried her after she had arrived in Protem, and it was only by the strongest persuasive errorts of her friends that she was prevented from walking back home that night.
     "Granny" Wagoner's hair turned white over a half century ago and now is taking on a yellow cast. Her step is still steady, and her eyes need no glasses. Her skin is white and of supernatural clearness. Her speech is unsteady, and when excited somewhat incoherent, but she can always be understood.
     Corn Bread is her regular diet. Flour biscuits she considers a luxury. She has toiled since she was a little girl. She lives with her daughter, an old woman, and a grandchild on a homestead. The little log cabin has long since fallen into a state of incurable decrepitude beyond redemption. She has a strong strain of uncouth sentimentality in her make-up, believing in only one marriage for man and woman and bemoans the fact that her husband passed away so many years before her. He was killed in the Civil War. Her wants are few and she seeks happiness with her pipe and in the care of her chickens and small garden.

The following story was related by one of Elmira Wagoner's Great Grand Daughters who was in her 90's and living in a Nursing Home in Gasville, Missouri in the year 2000. The same story has been handed down in my own family for several generations.

The Story Of Elmira Wagoner And The Union Troops At The End Of The Civil War:
     Elmira had lost her husband, Samual Wagoner, who was a Confederate Soldier in the Civil War. His death in 1862 had left Elmira a widow with nine daughters to raise alone. She never remarried. One evening about dusk at the end of the Civil War, a group of Union Soldiers rode in to her place on horseback. They were all carrying torches and yelling that they were going to "Burn the dirty Rebels out". Elmira was a little woman and was the "wirey" type. Upon hearing them, she came outside the log house and walked directly up to the Soldiers and said, "Who is in Charge here?" One of the Soldiers, a Captain answered saying "I am in charge".
     Elmira told him "Get down off your horse, I want to talk to you for a minute". He dismounted from his horse and Elmira walked directly up to him and immediately grabbed him by his coat collar and began to slap him repeatedly with the back of her hand across his face saying to him, "You nor no other Damned Yankee is about to burn my house down". Of course, this action could very easily have gotten her shot during those troubled times. The Captain's mouth dropped open, and he backed away from Elmira and stared at her for a moment. He climbed back upon his horse, looking down at her and said "Lady, anyone with your guts don't deserve to have her house burned down". He yelled to his Soldiers "Ride on and leave her alone".

     Elmira never remarried. She did raise her nine daughters alone without any pension or income. They lived on a Homestead near White River in Marion County, Arkansas, practically on the border of Missouri and Arkansas. Elmira died on that homestead at the age of 114 years and seven months in June 1915.

Additional information:
     In researching my family history, I have found in every branch of the family, the stories about Elmira Wagoner that my cousin, Clarence Heatherly, has related. The stories are the same with a few minor variations.
     I would like to include this addendum to the Elmira Wagoner story:
ACT 25
AN ACT for the relief of Elmira Waggoner.
SECTION
1. Enrolls Elmira Waggoner as pensioner.
2. State board shall approve application.
3. Laws in conflict repealed; Act in force from passage.
     Whereas, Samuel Waggoner, who was the husband of Elmira Waggoner, during the Civil War, was a soldier of the Confederate States of America, and was honorably discharged therefrom; and,
     Whereas, The said Samuel Waggoner died some time thereafter, leaving the said Elmira Waggoner, his widow, now a resident of Marion County, Arkansas;
     Whereas, The said Elmira Waggoner is now a widow, and over one hundred years of age, in destitute circumstances, without means of support, and without children able to properly care for her; therefore,
Be It Enacted by the People of the State of Arkansas:
Be It Enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Arkansas:
     SECTION 1. The Pension Board of Marion County is hereby authorized and directed to place the name of the said Elmira Waggoner on the pension list, as a legal pensioner from Marion County, and the County Clerk of Marion County certify same to the State Pension Board.
     SECTION 2. The State Board of Pensions shall at its annual meeting in August, 1915, approve the application of the said Elmira Waggoner, and allow her a pension as an indigent widow, whose husband has died since the war, and the Treasurer of the State shall pay her said amount on warrant, which shall be issued by the State Auditor.
     SECTION 3. All laws in conflict are hereby repealed, and this Act being for the immediate preservation of the public health, peace and safety, shall take effect from and after its passage.
Approved February 5, 1915.

Additional information from Clarence E. Heatherly, Elmira's great great grandson
THE BAXTER BULLETIN 1914
113 YEARS OLD, MAKES GARDEN
ELMIRA WAGONER, OF NEAR PROTEM, MO., OLDEST WOMAN IN THIS SECTION
     Elmira Wagoner, 113 years old, oldest woman in the State, who lives in Marion County, between Lead Hill and Protem, Mo., says that she will make and tend a garden this spring the same as she has every year since she passed the century mark. The old Lady stood the past winter remarkably well and is fully able to do the work she contemplates. Her vigor and agility are remarkable under the conditions which have surrounded her all her life. Since a child she has had a hard life, doing manual labor many times to keep food in the mouths of her nine daughters, which she raised without the help of her husband, who was a Confederate soldier and who was killed in the Battle of Wilson Creek, near Springfield, Mo., during the Civil War. Her present abode is a little log cabin on a homestead in Marion Co., Arkansas, practically on the Arkansas/Missouri border. The cabin has open places in the chinkings through which the wind and snow blows. Directly behind the house is her garden plot in which she takes a great deal of pride and which she always shows the visitor. Her favorite vegetable is the sweet potato and she turns her attention largely in its cultivation. The land is broken and harrowed for her and she does the rest, makes the beds, pulls the weeds, hoes, etc. She is just as enthusiastic over her crop prospects this year and as interested in her contemplated work as the largest planter in the White River Bottoms.

Additional Information About Elmira Wagoner Which Was Handed Down Through The Generations Of The Heatherly Family:
     She was a small woman. The "wirey" type. She smoked a Corn Cob pipe and chewed tobacco. If you made her mad, she could use the King's English like a sailor, and she would let you have it with both barrels without a seconds hesitation.
     She never did require eyeglasses, even though she lived to be 114. She was never sick and the day she died she was stirring a large iron kettle of home-made Lye Soap, smoking her corn cob pipe. She sat down under a shade tree in a lawn chair to rest from the hot son. She closed her eyes and her life ended in on 21 June 1915 at age 114.
     She was a Mid-wife, and rode a Mule side-saddle and delivered babies all over Marion County, Arkansas and Taney County, Missouri until she was in her 90's.
     She was a well known "Herb Doctor". She knew all the plants, roots, Leaves and berries that had medicinal value. People would come to see her from all over the county, and describe their ailments. She would give them the natural herbs to help cure their medical problems.