Oak View Church Cemetery

Richwood Township

Section 9, Township 38 North, Range 13 West

Miller County, MO.

Take Hwy EE out of Iberia and go approximately 4.5 miles. There is an old church, which looks to be made of concrete blocks, on the left side of the road. According to first-hand knowledge of Mr. Wall there is a single infant buried behind the old Oak View Church.

This cemetery is no longer in use.

For any information or corrections, please contact me at: deestarr47#@gmail.com

Driver, Infant

no dates – no info

child of William “Bill” Driver & Violet (Williams) Driver

October 25, 1934 Autogram

William C. Driver (colored) – buried Iberia Cemetery

15 Nov. 1868 – 19 Oct. 1934 – colored preacher of the Gospel

s/o Amanda “Mandy” (Dixon) Driver (also a slave)

h/o Violet Mae (Williams)

he adopted when he was young by another black family named Driver and he kept that last name.

William “Bill” C. Driver, a colored preacher and who was a slave during his boyhood days, died suddenly Thursday night at the home of his son, William Driver, Jr., near Iberia. He was in bondage when a child. His death was sudden.

On the evening preceding, his death he complained of feeling ill and he took two pain tablets. It was thought that these affected his heart.

Driver was known throughout many towns in this section where he often appeared on the streets

as an exhorter and singer. He was imbued with religious fervor and prided himself on some songs of

his own composition, characteristic of the colored race. His habit was to beat a bass drum in accompaniment

to his singing.

Besides the son, William Driver Jr., a daughter who lives in Chicago survives him.

Date of death date for William “Bill” Driver would have been 19 October 1934.

Reverend William Driver
(Reprinted from the New Iberian newspaper column dated 4 November 1981)

Reverend William M. Driver was a black minister who was widely known in our area

of Missouri during the early portion of the 20th century. He was born
in Jefferson City, a son of Mandy Dixon, and was later adopted by a slave
family known as Driver. He himself was held as a slave during the Civil War
period. Later he moved to Lebanon, in Laclede County, where he became a
minister of the gospel, being affiliated with the Free-Will Baptist Church,
where he performed a commendable service to other members of his race in

the surrounding area.   At approximately 1916, he came to Iberia, Miller Co., and
moved to a farm southwest of town near the old Oak View Church.   In his
obituary, his widow is not listed, but he was married at that time and had 2
children, William Driver, Jr. of Iberia and Grace Driver Tucker of Rockford,
Illinois.   He and his wife had 6 other children, but all died in infancy.   He
died at the age of 75 years in 1934 and his funeral service was held at the
Nazarene Church in Iberia with the Rev. Otto Shearrer conducting the service.
He was buried in the Iberia City cemetery.

***NOTE: The following was written in MISSOURI LIFE, July/August, 1983:
A prominent community leader of Eldridge, Laclede Co., MO, was William Driver,

who homesteaded in the Eldridge area in the early 1880's. Driver served the black

community as a minister and often preached to his congregation in the same church

used by blacks and whites that lived together in Eldridge for the first forty years of

the 20th century remember that racial friction was relatively rare. In fact, one of the

most frequently mentioned 'good memories' recalled by blacks and whites alike was

of integrated community picnics that featured the fiddling of black musician Will Driver,

son of the minister. No one we talked to failed to mention Will Driver, born on December

8, 1881. Driver now lives in Jefferson City with a daughter. Driver has been called by

one student of fiddle music,” the best example I encountered of a repertory strictly

indigenous to a local area.".....................(Will Driver, son of Rev. William Driver,

lived until 1985 and died in Jefferson City at the age of 104 years.

His memory remained clear until his death but he was blind and incapacitated for several

years before his demise.

The words of an old hymn with the caption,
"Listening All Night Long' as sung by Rev. William Driver (colored) of the
Free Will Baptist Church."

This might be classified as an African American Spiritual

Chorus:

Been listening all night long, Been listening all the day,

Been listening all night long, To hear some sinner pray.

The devil tempted the woman, the woman tempted the man
Go read the third of Matthew, Go read it through and through
And it will tell the poor sinner, Just what he had to do.

Some say that John was a Baptist, He was nothing but a Jew
But the Holy Bible tells us, That he was a preacher too.

Heard a mighty rumbling, A goin' through the Land
St. John came a preachin', Way down in the Promised Land.

There are Moses, Noah, and Abram, and all the prophets, too
All things are ready now, Oh, what a heavenly crew

The fare is cheap--all can go, The rich and poor are there.
No second class on board this train, No difference in the fare.

I believe in free communion, and in foot washing too
Some says it's only a custom, As practiced by the Jews.

On the night of the Last Supper, The blessed Savior knew:
He washed the disciples' feet, and you must wash them too.

Freewill is my contention, Freewill until I die:
I expect to live in Freewill, Till I ascend on high.

WILLIAM DRIVER, SR.AND HIS SON, WILLIAM ‘BILL’ DRIVER JR
written by Peggy Hake

Rev. William Driver, Sr. was born in Jefferson City in 1859, the son of a slave woman named Amanda/Mandy Dixon. At an early age he was adopted by a black family named Driver and carried that name the rest of his life.

William Driver, Sr. moved to Laclede Co., MO in the early 1880’s and located near the small town of Eldridge. He became a preacher in the Free Will Baptist Church and traveled around central Missouri as an evangelist.

About 1916, he moved his wife and children to Miller County and located southwest of Iberia near the Pleasant Hill community and the old Rankin Wright Cemetery. There was a house on the land at the time, but is gone today. ‘Preacher’ William (also called Bill) Driver was a well-known minister in our area as he traveled around preaching the Holy Word and playing loudly on his large drum.......

When he died in 1934, his funeral was held at the Iberia Nazarene Church, conducted by Rev. Otto Shearrer. He was buried at the Iberia Cemetery (per his obituary) but no stone marks his grave today.

William ‘Bill’ Driver, Jr. was born 8 Dec 1881. He was about 35 years old when he came to Miller County with his parents. He married Violet Williams in Miller County. She was a daughter of Hester/Esther Williams Landers.

Bill and Violet were parents of 6 daughters and one son. They lived on a farm in the same community where Bill’s parents had moved in 1916. Their small home still exists today, remodeled to a larger size. It sat near the old Oak View Church on EE Highway about 3 miles southwest of Iberia. While there, they had a young child who died and was buried behind Oak View Church. For many years a small stone marked the child’s grave but it disappeared. Eugene Keeth, of Iberia, hand-crafted a wooden cross and placed it at the child’s grave a few years ago.

Bill Driver had the unique, God-given talent of a musician. He was very well-learned on the old country fiddle and during his lifetime he won many fiddling contests across the countryside. Often his first-place prize was $25 in cash.....He was much in demand at Saturday night dances where he played to the delight of his many admirers. Many times he was accompanied by the Howser sisters (Sadie and Sylvia) as they picked their flat-top guitars for lively dances. Bill and the Howsers (including Sadie and Sylvia’s blind brother) often played at the local picnics held each summer at Hardy Lollis Park in Iberia.

Mrs. Edna Williams Irwin of Iberia, before her death in the early 1990s, told me that often her husband, Dr. Ray Irwin, would meet Bill Driver in Iberia at the Adams and Casey Store and they would sit for hours playing their fiddles in double harmony....Dr. Ray Irwin was a retired professor of history at New York University.

Bill Driver was a farmer and was always willing to help his neighbors during hay harvests, corn picking seasons, and butchering times. He was hired as a handyman around the farms because his neighbors knew he was a good and trusted helper.

I was told about an incident that happened once when Bill was hired by David Farnham Sr. to help bale hay on his farm. Bill was a little careless with his old pipe, which he had smoked for many years. He accidently caught some of the hay bales on fire....he was so taken back by what he had done, he just tossed his old pipe in the burning hay bales and never smoked again !

The seven children of Bill and Violet (Williams) Driver never attended school while in the Iberia area. Violet self-taught her children at home. She made a statement one time and said she educated her children in such a manner so others could respect and love them as much as she did..........

There was once a school for the black children located about 1½ miles west of Iberia. It was located only a quarter mile from the Mace country school. One school year the black school had 36 students and the white school (Mace) had 35.....By the time the Driver children were of school age, the black school no longer was in use. There was a law which required the schools to have at least 20 students in order to remain open. The Drivers were the only black children left in the area by then.

The Driver family of Richwoods township were well-respected by their neighbors....they were considered part of the neighborhood and considered as down-to-earth country folk.

In later years the Driver family moved to Centertown, MO (Cole County). The people of the Iberia area did not forget Bill Driver and his family. Eugene Keeth told me he respected Bill so much that he never called him ‘Bill’. He was always “Mr. Driver” to him.

William ‘Bill’ Driver died at the age of 104 years in 1985 in Jefferson City. I had wanted to go visit him and talk about his years while living in the Iberia area, but by the time I requested to see him, his family said his health had deteriorated too much and he was not able to speak. Unfortunately he lost his eyesight during his last years of life and was quite incapacitated. I will always regret I waited too long to go visit with him..........