Marion Co TOC

Aaron Lockhart Blyeth and Missouri Artemis Newton Blyeth, c. 1930s. Aaron, son of Marion Co. residents Mendoza Jackson Blythe/Blyeth and Clarinda Wood, was born in March 1859 in the county. Missouri was born, not surprisingly, in Iron Co., Missouri on August 4, 1861, the daughter of Ebenezer Newton and Nancy Jane Jones, who moved to Marion Co. around 1878. The Blythe and Newton families lived near each other in White River township.

Aaron homesteaded 160 acres in Crooked Creek township in 1895 but moved the family to Van Buren Co. by 1900. They remained there until the 1930s, when they moved to Cushing, Payne Co., Oklahoma, where some of their children had settled and because Oklahoma offered an old age pension before Social Security was established. Aaron and Missouri had seven known children, including my grandfather, William, and possibly one other that was retarded and died young.

Aaron was primarily a farmer, per all census records, but he was also a Baptist preacher. He obtained his nickname, "Doc" or "Uncle Doc," because he'd originally gone to college to become a doctor, but got the calling to be a preacher instead and went to college for that per family lore, though I can find no records of it.

Missouri died on December 26, 1945 and Aaron died on November 20, 1954. Aaron and Missouri are buried beside each other in the Fairlawn cemetery in Cushing OK.