After we pass only the bare bones of our life remains. Take me, John Finley Van Huss for example.
Myheritage says this:
John Finley Van Huss, 1859 - 1939
John Finley Van Huss was born on month day 1859, at birth place, Tennessee, to Valentine Worley Van Huss and Lucinda H. Van Huss (born Campbell).
Valentine was born on November 15 1818, in Wythe County, Virginia.
Lucinda was born on April 15 1819, in Carter County, Tennessee.
John had 6 siblings: James Matthias Van Huss, Daniel Smith Van Huss and 4 other siblings.
John married Josephine E. Van Huss (born Brewer) on month day 1888, at age 28 at marriage place, Kansas.
Josephine was born in June 1865, in Missouri.
They had 5 children: Lois O. Gresham (born Van Huss), Luva G. Foote (born Van Huss) and 3 other children.
John lived in 1880, at address, Kansas.
He lived in 1900, at address, Kansas.
He lived on month day 1905, at address, Kansas.
He lived in 1910, at address, Kansas.
He lived in 1920, at address, Kansas.
He lived in 1930, at address, Kansas.
John passed away on month day 1939, at age 80 at death place, Kansas.
He was buried on month day 1939, at burial place, Kansas.
Such a paltry and incomplete description recalls to mind the second stanza of William Butler Yeats' poem "Sailing to Byzantium."
II
An aged man is but a paltry thing,
A tattered coat upon a stick, unless
Soul clap its hands and sing, and louder sing
For every tatter in its mortal dress,
Nor is there singing school but studying
Monuments of its own magnificence;
And therefore I have sailed the seas and come
To the holy city of Byzantium.
But I was not an aged man when I left Tennessee to travel to Kansas by wagon with my parents and brothers. Just a young boy full of hope.
I was six years old when the Civil War ended. Our family was for the Union, a sentiment that was popular though not unanimous in eastern Tennessee. My great grandfather Valentine Felty Van Huss had come to Tennessee by way of North Carolina and Virginia seeking a new start and new land. His son Matthias my grandfather had stayed. Matthias had married twice. I was the only child of his first marriage to Elizabeth Worley of Cripple Creek Virginia. She died within a year of my birth. My father then married Lovina Dugger and they had a large and wonderful family. Lovina was a wonderful mother to me. Then my grandfather died in 1856. The farm in Elizabethton was not large and my father understood that it was best that it go to my half brothers and sisters.
So it was that my father and mother decided to head west to Kansas.
What an exciting adventure for an eleven year old boy to head west to the country of Indians, to land that would be ours. Across western Tennessee we went, though Missouri over roads that a few years before had been primeval forests.
We crossed into Kansas near Kansas City. There my mother Lucinda Campbell of Carter County Tennessee took sick in the town of Aubry and died on October 20th, 1870. She was just 52. I was but 11, too young for such a tragedy, but who is ever ready to lose one's mother?
It was a sad winter for all of us and especially for my father who had lost his wife. But next spring we once again loaded our few possessions into the wagon and headed south.
It was to eastern Butler County we went, to a place on the prairie out on the Flint Hills. The rolling land was watered by the Little Walnut River, which gives you an indication of its size. The land was for the most part grassland, but there were plenty of creeks, and where the creeks went, there was walnut and oak and sycamore.
To sum up, my brothers and my father would take up a homestead. I too would become a farmer. I met a Missouri girl named Josie Brewer from the neighboring farm and we got married in 1888. We had five children Bula, Fred, Luva, Elmer and Lois, who happily all grew up. My life was happy until too soon, the angels took dear Josie at the age of 47. Should you wish to visit her grave, don't be fooled, she is not in Latham as some say; rather you can find her buried next to her parents in peaceful Brownlow cemetery on an old country road.
In his final years, my father lived with my brother Isaac. He died in 1908 and we buried him in the Little Walnut Cemetery, two miles north of the road from Augusta to Beaumont. I lived another 30 years. You can find me in the cemetery at Latham, Kansas.
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| John Finley Van Huss and wife Josie |
