Letter to the Editor
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Written by Nell Parthene Taylor Hunt, born Sept. 25, 1903 - died Apr. 24, 1984 Transcribed and Donated to our pages by her daughter, Anne Hunt Lozano. MEMORIAL DAY IN CASSVILLE AS I REMEMBER IT Letter to the Editor My Dear Mrs Townsley. I believe you are the gracious lady I talked to via long distance when I ordered the Republican several weeks ago. I have just read the Editorial "On Memorial Day " in the May 25th issue. It has prompted me to write an account of Memorial Day in Cassville as I knew it just prior to World War I and perhaps during the first years of World War I. My grandfather, J. R. Lee*, was a veteran of the Civil War and many of the soldiers from that War were buried in Oak Hill Cemetery. My Grandfather knew the name and status of everyone of them and he made it his business to see that the grave of each one was decorated each Memorial Day until the year of his death,(July 13, 1920). He was bedfast on Memorial Day but managed to send a friend who had helped him in the past to decorate the graves. The reason I remember it so well, I guess, is because we children also took part in the ceremony. On May 29, we would go with Grandfather and gather baskets of daisies over on the hill behind the Poor Farm. (Grandfather living next to the old schoolhouse up on the hill.) We just cut the blooms off the daisies leaving the stems. That afternoon or early the next morning Grandfather would cut a bushel basket or more of blooms from the enormous crimson ramblers in his yard, We would mix these with the daisies. Memorial Day morning we would take these flowers and a bundle of U. S. flags which were carefully stored from year to year and trudge down the long hill and across the long wooden bridge and on to and up the cemetery hill. Under Grandfather's direction we would place a flag on each soldier's grave. Larger flags on the Commanding Officer's graves and smaller flags on the graves of Privates. Some had no stones but my Grandfather knew the name of each serviceman buried in each grave, his rank and his commanding officers, Many of them he had secured headstones for and was in the process of trying to get others when he died. I have always thought Oak Hill the most perfect place for a cemetery and have so many endearing memories of so many people who rest there including my Grandparents, Mr. Mrs J. R. Lee. Most sincerely, Nell. P.( Mrs W.H.) Tailor Hunt P.S. I read in a recent issue of the paper of the account of the death of Leo Hutchens widow. I knew Leo, Lois and Ted all very well. I believe their father was Chas.Hutchens. However what prompts this postscript is a remembrance of Leo some 54 or more years ago. I was employed in Springfield and very early one morning walked from where I lived on Walnut Street down South Street onto the square on the way to my office in the Lambers Building on the opposite side to catch up on work left over that needed to be done before the office was opened. Just as I entered the square I heard the most glorious burst of whistling almost like a Mockingbird was bursting its throat. I looked over toward St Louis Street from whence the sound came and there came Leo Hutchens striding across the square looking and sounding as tho he was the happiest person in the world. It sure made my day much brighter and my work seemed much lighter and I imagine did for all who were around at that early hour. Note: J. R. Lee was Jeremiah Rains Lee born in North Carolina Aug. 18, 1833. He married three times. The first time when very young to Jane Bussell of Tennessee(they had two daughters, Catherine and Amanda. After Jane died he married Fannie Bean also of Tennessee. They had two children, William and Louisa. During the Civil War J. R. Lee served in the Union Army. Fannie Bean, his second wife died during the Civil War. In 1872 J. R. married Lenora Parthene Porter Owens in Lawrence County, Mo. and they settled in Barry County, Missouri where they raised a family of 5 children and part of the time J. R.'s children from his first two marriages. Children of the marriage of J. R. Lee and Lenora Parthene Porter were Sarah Ebbanatte Lee, Elzie Porter Lee, Jerry Asbury Lee, Alford Buford Lee, and Lucy Lee. Letter written by Nell Parthene Taylor Hunt Submitted by Anne Hunt Lozano |