Family History and Artifacts

In 1884, my Great Grandfather, Jim Yates migrated from Roane County, Tennessee along with his sister Myra, and his uncle Gideon Morrison's wife and family, to Howell county, Missouri. Farming had been so difficult in Tennessee because of the poor soil conditions, and they thought that their crops would grow much better in the fertile Missouri clay. Family members who had migrated sometime earlier might have exaggerated that fertility just a 'wee mite'.

The Bureau of Land Management website contains Jim's land purchase in Howell county on August 9, 1900. A year after his arrival in Missouri he had married Cerilda Breedlove, daughter of Elizabeth Wright and John Breedlove who resided in that same county. By the time they bought this farmland, they already had 9 children, the last being born on December 24, 1900. My Great Grandmother Cerilda died on January 2, 1901 of child bed fever .

The family was in disarray and the children were farmed out to live with various relatives and friends while Jim continued to work the farm. This land was originally part of the Mississippian Indian's domain which covered quite a large expanse of area. Farming invariably involves disturbing the land, and that in turn sometimes rewards you with discoveries.

One of my cousins who lived in Howell county, and later owned the land where Jim Yates farmed, related to me how he would visit with Jim and Jim had shown him a large sugar sack full of various items he had found in and around his land. So cousin Dick wasn't surprised when I told him that I had inherited one of those artifacts.

Jim Yates married a second time, in 1907, to Mary Elizabeth Pentecost Smith whose husband had died unexpectedly in 1899 from spinal meningitis at age 45, leaving her with several young children, the youngest of which was my grandmother (to be) Minnie.

Mary and Jim's marriage lasted 28 years until her death in 1935 at the height of the Depression. All the children were grown and out of the home, and Jim's children now took on the responsibility of his care. Of his 9 children, it was chosen that he go live for a short time with his daughter Ida in Oklahoma, but her health was deteriorating and so Jim was urged to come live in Washington state with his children who had moved there in the 1920's.

Jim's nine children consisted of two boys and the rest girls. One of the boys was my grandfather Will Yates who lived in Bordeaux, Washington, a small mill town just south of the state capitol in Olympia. Will's sisters Lydia, Martha, Rhoda, and Lizzie all lived in Bordeaux at about the same time, and it was decided that Jim would live with his daughter Martha and her husband Fred Scott. Jim's farm was sold and his possessions auctioned off one by one, probably to his neighbors and family.

But not everything was left in Missouri. Somehow, at least one artifact made the move to Washington with Jim. It ended up in my grandfather's garage, in a box, high on a shelf to protect it. Grandpa Will had passed away in 1984 and the house was occupied by my parents after that. We were helping Mom and Dad clear out some of the accumulated falderol in the garage, and it was then that we discovered our treasure.

Dusty, and in three pieces, it didn't look like much. Someone had tried to repair it with mucilage, with little success. Still, it was very interesting to all of us. My dad told me that Grandpa had related to him that Jim had been helping someone dig some graves somewhere in Howell county when this vessel was unearthed from one of the plots. That was about all I knew of it. I was afraid it would get damaged and might deteriorate out in that cold garage, so I asked my dad if I could have it.

I took it home and it languished in my closet for 20 plus years. Until 2005, when I was doing some genealogical research online at the Howell county GenWeb site , I discovered a link to the Saponi Indian website (caution: there is music on this site that might make it slow to load) and I was able to correspond with one of the members in West Plains.

After much discussion and the sending of pictures and emails, it was decided that the vessel would go back to Missouri and be put in safe keeping by the tribe. Even though the Mississippian culture is far removed by time, I felt that the Saponi Indians understood its historical significance and that they would be the best caretakers.

After it was returned, it was examined by a man in West Plains who confirmed its origins and the substances used to make it: clay and shells. I was told,  The vessel is around 1000 years old and is called [a] "Mississippian" (era) "water pot" [and] it has a "Bell Plain" finish done by rubbing a smooth stone over it when it was made. 

(c) Carol W.