Lavina (Vanderpool) Blevins (1820 - abt. 1912)

Born Apr 1820 in Tennessee USA

Ancestors

Wife of Alexander Blevins — married 18 Jun 1839 in Boone Co., Missouri, USA

Died about 11 Apr 1912 at about age 92 in Lodi, San Joaquin County, California USA

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Biography

Blevins, Alexander to Louisa Vanderpool 18 June 1839 - Boone County, MO

History of Buffalo Settlement

The first settlers came to Ray County in August 1815. The first settlement was called Buffalo, and was located a short distance south of the present Hardin. It is thought that the buffalo were numerous, therefore the name. The first white family to settle was John Vanderpool, wife Ellen, and their children Winant, Meaddors, Kinnan, Mary, Delilah, Holland and John. They came in a covered wagon from Tennessee and built a one-room house with the logs sealed together with mud. There were few openings. Their home was near a river for water and timber for wood for heat and lumber. The country was almost wild. The Indian’s bark canoes floated on the streams. The streams were full of fish. Hunting and trapping were profitable employments. The first families were subjected to a close intimacy with the Indians. Immigrants made up the new settlement from Tennessee, Kentucky and Virginia who came by boat and covered wagon.

Meaddors Vanderpool taught the first school in Ray County in 1819. He also surveyed Ray County. It was a Subscription school and the master was paid in calves, buckskins and wild honey. The building was a rude, unsightly hut made of unhewn logs, roof of rough boards weighted to the rafters with heavy poles. The chimney was made of sticks and the floor was the ground. The seats were puncheons set on pegs. The windows or holes in the sides were closed with greased paper.

Isaac Martin came to Buffalo from Kentucky, Lewis Richards, Stephen and Joseph Field from Tennessee.

In 1816, Abraham Linville, Aaron Linville, John Proffitt and a man named Wood, with their families, joined the Buffalo settlement. They came from Tennessee. The first marriage solemnized was that of Winant Vanderpool to Nancy Linville about Christmas 1816. There being no minister in the neighborhood, they were compelled to go many miles eastward to find one to perform the ceremony.

A son born to Katie, wife of John Proffitt, in the year 1816, was the first male white child born in the county, but he died in infancy. Missouri, daughter of Winant and Nancy Vanderpool, born in 1817, was the first female child born in Ray County. Her father was a Baptist preacher. The second death was Peggy, daughter of Winant and Nancy Vanderpool. The son born to John and Katie Proffitt and Peggy, daughter of Winant and Nancy Vanderpool, were buried on Crooked River in the Buffalo settlement. The first religious services were held at the house of Isaac Martin. Reverend Finis Clark of the Baptist denomination was the first preacher. Rev. William Turnage, a Baptist, preached as early as 1817.

In 1817 the settlers, anticipated an attack from the Indians and for their general safety and protection, built on the Missouri River southeast of where Camden now stands, what they called a fort. A circular enclosure, made by setting cottonwood posts in the earth, formed the stockade. The fort was called North Bluffton. It was not necessary to use the fort for defense because the Indians were friendly and seemed more apt to pilfer than to have motives of hostility.

In 1818, Isaac Martin built a horse mill near his residence on Crooked River. This mill had a capacity of about twenty-five bushels per day. The roads leading to them were poor and lonely but necessity forced people to travel twenty-five to thirty miles to patronize the mill. They would have to stay three to five days, waiting for their grain to be ground; meanwhile subsisting on game and wild honey. Trade in livestock, other than swapping horses was almost unknown. There were few cattle and they could be bought, when found, at three to twenty dollars depending on size. The first settler had no hogs. Much time in the early fall was spent in laying in a supply of meat for the winter. Venison hams, nicely cured, formed a considerable portion of the pioneer’s food. Wild turkey was plentiful. The wild hog was in the woods. Little money was in circulation and little was required. Furs, buckskins, beeswax and wild honey were bartered in the stores. Many settlers without gold or silver actually deposited with the land agent, doeskins and beeswax in payment for land. The settlers performed all domestic and mechanical labor. There were few carpenters among them and skilled artisans were scarce. Many agricultural implements, all wearing apparel and nearly all household articles were made at home. After 1815, a stream of immigration began to pour Into Missouri. One wagon train of settlers after the other came in quick succession to this new and promising land.

Sources

• Find A Grave: Memorial #188293390

• "1910 US Fed Census" Elkhorn, San Joaquin, CA Sht 21 A Line 28

• "1900 US Fed Census" ED #103 - San Joaquin CA. Sht A Page 9 Line 19

• "1870 US Fed Census" TWP 1, Santa Barbara CA pp 33 line 29

• "1860 US Fed Census" Twp 2, Contra Costa CA pp 99 line 93

• "1850 US Fed Census" Polk Co., OR Terr. Sht 114 Line 30

• 'Missouri Marriages Before 1840' Pp 20