David Hadley Pickett came to Taney County from Alamance County, North Carolina, via Tennessee, in July, 1868. His original name had been Piggett, but when the family left North Carolina in a wagon drawn by a pair of mules he changed his name to Pickett.
He left North Carolina for two major reasons: he was unpopular with his relatives because he quit the Quaker Church, and he was unpopular with his wife’s family because he refused to fight in the Civil War. The Confederate money he carried was worthless and he had little that was negotiable. Consequently, he stopped in Tennessee and worked in a sawmill for two years. When he had saved a little money, he started West again.
He had sixteen dollars when he arrived in Forsyth, Missouri. He bought a 160 acre Taney County homestead paying a $14 government fee. It was located on Hickory Ridge near Kirbyville. He then spent $1.85 for flour, pork, molasses and potatoes, and the remaining 15 cents for paper and stamps to write home to North Carolina.
Beginning his new life with a family of eight, including six children, he pitched a cloth tent for shelter until winter. Years later Pickett described his homesteading experiences to a journalist, who recorded it in an 1896 Frisco railroad promotional pamphlet:
Luxuries were dear and the Picketts knew the value of a dollar and the worth of work. David Pickett understandably became very attached to his homestead and kept it the rest of his life.
David Pickett was too busy to hunt and fish; in fact, he never owned a gun. Much of his spare time he assumed the role of country preacher. Raised a Quaker, but leaving that tradition behind in North Carolina, he turned to one of the two most common faiths on the Ozarks frontier--Methodism. He preached at the Helfrey schoolhouse, about 1 1/2 miles north of Taneyville, at the Cedar Springs schoolhouse, south of Hollister, and at St. James Church, about 1 1/2 miles east of Kirbyville and -1/2 mile southeast of his homestead. Pickett’s exemplary life reaped great dividends for himself and his children. In 1887 he owned 460 acres of good land--some was river bottom--and paid $72 a year taxes. “I had sheep, hogs, cattle and horses. But in that year my children were grown old enough to marry and were leaving me. I divided my land and my stock with them. I have eight children living. They all live close enough ‘to borrow meal.’ They have each a farm, a home and are doing well. When my birthday comes, they all gather in, numbering 47, big and little.”
Due to a growth in his throat that prevented him from swallowing, David Hadley Pickett died in 1903.
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Categories: Kirbyville, Missouri | Edwards Cemetery, Kirbyville, Missouri