McDonald County Newspaper Article



Roller Community, McDonald & Barry Co., MO


The following McDonald County Newspaper Article was found in my mother's (Nancy Rose Woodard) memory box:

Pioneer recalls Roller community's early times by Mrs. Silas (Day) Woodard

as told to Meda (Sims) Feasel on Feb. 20, 1965.


My father Captain Madison (Matt) Day, (1800 - 1900) was rather an old man when he moved his family from Tennessee to Ozark, Missouri the County Seat of Christian County. He had three families, two children in the first family, ten in the second and five in the third. My mother was Elizabeth Hays Alexander of Springfield, Missouri and I, Hester Day was the youngest daughter of my father's seventeen children. I was born February 26, 1877, near Ozark. My father was fifty-five at the time. I was a very small girl when we moved to Taney County. There were few settlements in the county at that time. My father established a post office on Bear Creek, near Forsyth, on November 18, 1889. It was know as Day Post Office, and my father served as postmaster for three years, before Joshua Allen, became postmaster on November 19, 1892. My father also built his own dam and mill there. My mother homesteaded land there, as father had homesteaded in Christian County. I attended my first school in the Kitchley Settlement, it was the Kitchley School and was two miles from home.


Civil War and 'Baldknobbers'

While we were in Taney County, I remember there was a group of men known as "The White Caps." It became a lawless group and took the law into their own hands. We had not heard of the Ku Klux Klan then. The "White Caps" could have been part of the organization that came to be known as the "Baldknobbers", over in Christian County. They were the result of trouble and stifle carried on long after the Civil War. As a child, I remember lying awake at night and hearing my mother and father talking of a terrible thing that happened near Forsyth. A man had murdered his pregnant wife. The "White Caps" took him out of jail, tied him to a horse's tail and dragged him. The mob then hung him. The sheriff and officers put a bunch of men in jail beat them terribly, trying to force them to tell who the leaders were. None ever told. My father was coroner at the time.

He had been one of the early settlers who drove through in wagons and who made their homes on the frontier as the country was settled farther and farther to the west. He had served in the Union Army in the Civil War. I don't know whether his home at this time was in Christian County or Tennessee. I remember hearing my family tell how he'd come home on horseback between battles, when he was near enough, that he could have time to visit his loved ones. They would watch for his coming, and have told me how tired and worn he'd be with clothing ragged and torn. He became a captain and was in the Battle of Pea Ridge. After that, he was known as 'Cap' Day. He was in his late forties at the time.

I was still a young girl when we moved to McDonald County. We settled in the Roller Community, in the southeastern past of the county. This was sometime in the early 1890's. Wiley and Billy Day were two of my half brothers who came to the county too. I was fifteen years old when Wiley died. His grave stone is not far from father's and bears the dates from 2/28/1846 - 9/11/1892. Two of his children were buried nearby. They have small natural stone markers. Jim and 'Big" George were Wiley's sons. Clyde and Lemmy Day were Billy's sons. Billy had several children.

After we were settled, I went to school at the old Roller School. The land for the school, along with the cemetery and Baptist Church grounds had been deeded by a Mr. and Mrs. John Roller, back in 1871 but the cemetery was used long before the Civil War. Father bought land and built our home in a valley leading down to Big Sugar Creek. It was, maybe, two miles below the schoolhouse on the south side of the creek. This valley became known as 'Day Hollow'. A road led upstream over which I walked to school, crossing at the ford just below the schoolhouse.

The farm at the crossing was the Wilk Lawson farm, now known as the Dr. Palmer place or the Coby Dude Ranch. Wilk's daughter Ida, married Lee Perkins and lived there. When I was thirteen my mother let me stay with Mrs. Perkins while she was expecting her baby. Years later I became a midwife. I know I have helped deliver a hundred babies. I never took full responsibility but people sent for me to help. We didn't have many doctors then and no woman ever thought of going to a hospital, as they were few and too far away.

Millsites Developed

My father and Wiley were millsite men. The would locate places suitable for dams and millsites. The Days built one on the homeplace in Day Hollow. They located the site for one on the Lawson place. This was a grist mill for a long time but later was turned into a sawmill.

There was a road from our place which led into Bentonville Hollow. It came down into the hollow on the farm we still know as the Tommy Cooper Place. I walked over this road, about two and one-half miles, to attend my last year of school. It was the old Enterprise Schoolhouse. I had gone through all the 'readers' and was ready for history. Promotions were not by grades then but more by readers and certain subjects.

I remember of walking, many times, from our home to the Cove store and Post Office on Trents Creek, about two miles east of Roller. It was later moved and called Shrader's Store but was still the Cove Post Office. We got our mail there but it was later brought from Washburn on a route down the Roller Community and on to Powell.

Clyde (Pea Ridge) Day, was a famous ball player. Many people here knew him. He later went to Kansas City, and pitched for the Kansas City Blues. His last game here was at Rogers, Arkansas. Paten Hall, Hiram Carnell and others remember playing many town games with him. He was the son of Jim Day. His widow, Mrs. Clyde Day, still owns Floyd Hall Service Station in Pea Ridge.

I was married at twenty, to Silas Woodard, in 1897 He was the son of George Woodard who was a brother of Dollie Woodard. The Dollie Woodard's settled in a fertile valley up Trents Creek east of Roller. The valley is still known as Woodard Hollow. Josh Woodard lives there now. George homesteaded, or bought a claim, just east of Powell on the south side of Big Sugar Creek. Silas grew up here and I remember the Woodard's raised wheat and could always have biscuits for breakfast on Sunday morning.

Life at Roller

Father was a stern man and not given to attending church but at heart was a tender and loving father. He came to our wedding. I remember as though it were yesterday, of his coming up to greet me and to shake my hand, and of how he broke down and cried. He was then seventy-one, yet seemingly a strong and healthy man but passed away three years later, at his home at the age of 74. He is buried in the Roller Cemetery on the side near the road. His grave is marked by a tall, natural limestone, set deeply into the ground. There are no markings. I am so happy to know that the efforts of the McDonald County Historical Society is contacting the American Legion through Mr. Wm. Peterman, that there may be a Government marker on his grave in this year 1965. It is sixty-five years since his death and one hundred years after the close of the war. I am happy that I have lived to know this. He had a long life and worked hard to care for his family during the long years before and after the Civil War. I only knew him as a old man.

On our wedding day, Silas came for me in his mother's new Springfield wagon, driving her fine team of mules. They were the finest team around anywhere and were noted for their size and beauty. We were married in the old Laughlin Chapel. This old Methodist Church was new then and was down the creek from Roller, on the Uncle Harve Laughlin farm. It was later moved to its present site, just north of the Roller Schoolhouse.

The wedding ceremony was immediately after the Sunday morning church services. The minister was Uncle Billy Moore. He was the father of Mrs. John S. Laughlin or Aunt Oma as we knew her. Uncle Billy had us practice or go through the ceremony a few days before. As I remember all the people, who were at church, stayed for the wedding. Two of them were Estella McDowell and Dick Sims. She came with the Shipley's, with whom she boarded while teaching at the Trents Creek School. Dick was running his cattle ranch up on Pine Creek. They first met at our wedding. I introduced them, and they were married six months later. Some of the others were: Dolly Mosier, some of the Halls, Laughlin's, Shipley's, Harpers, Rollers and others. From the wedding we drove to Neosho, in the wagon. There was a hotel there but we stayed with the team and slept in the wagon at the Big Spring Wagon Yard. It was where the Big Spring Inn now is.

We raised three children, Cloy Cloto (1898), Leonard H. (1899) and Maxine (1901). Cloy married Ethel McKennon; they had two sons, Gene and Glenn. Leonard married Gladys Williams and had no children. Marie married Dale Mater. They had one daughter Terelle, who married Harold Sharod. The Sharods have three girls and live in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

In 1960 we retired, sold our home and moved to Pineville. We had been married sixty-three years when Silas died. Marie passed away seven months later. They are buried in the Union Cemetery north of Powell.

Silas had three half brothers, Johnie, George and Lonzo. General Woodard is a brother and he and his son live at Longview. John Marion Woodard is a son of the early settler, Dollie Woodard and lives with a son Amel and wife Mable on Trents Creek. He also has a daughter Mrs. Bill Winchester, who lives at Rogers and another son Keet. There are many more of the Woodard's who are descendents of the early settlers here. Many members of my own family the Days are widely scattered. Most of the older sisters and brothers were gone from home by the time I was born.

My health broke after Silas' and Maria's deaths and it took a long time to recover. I am now eighty-eight. I enjoy visiting with old and new friends. Some of the things that I have enjoyed most were making a home and helping others. On our fiftieth wedding anniversary, Albert Brumley visited us and wrote a news article about us. I still have the clipping.

If I have a secret to a long life it would be: 'being contented and of a peaceful mind and heart.' We were happy together. Had I to live my life over I'd not change anything.


Tribute to Captain Madison Day

From January 1965 issue of Missouri Historical Review, "Milton Burch, Anti-Guerilla Fighter" by Howard V. Canan.

Quote from Burch's written report, "I must speak a word of praise for the noble manner in which Lieutenants Day and Kelso aided me in all my undertakings. They are both brave men and good officers. The men also deserve the highest praise. They bore the fatigue of the long night marches without a mummer and faced every danger with the utmost coolness. With such officers and men I shall always consider victory certain even against superiority of numbers."

Madison Day enlisted as a Private in Company F. 14th. Regiment Missouri State Militia Cavalry at Rolla, Missouri in 1861.

Advanced to Lieutenant, then Captain. Was mustered out of service in 1863.


People from both Barry and McDonald Counties are mentioned in this article.

Mentioned are Keet Woodard, my grandfather; John Marion Woodard, my great grandfather and John Dolphis "Dolly" Woodard, my great-great grandfather.


Submitted in by Frances (Woodard) Coberly