Juden School Established 1854

Juden School 900 W Cape Rock 04-29-2014Niece Laurie Evertt of Annie Laurie’s Antiques fame, said someone came into the store asking for information about Juden School. I admitted that I had heard of it, but had never shot any photos there.

I pretty much forgot about it until Monday afternoon while I was on a ramble with Buddy Dick McClard. I’m not sure how the topic came up, but Dick volunteered that the school was just down the road from his house.

School closed in 1960

Juden School 900 W Cape Rock 04-29-2014News clippings say the school, which was established in 1854, was closed when the Nell Holcomb R-4 School District was created in 1960.

It has had a variety of uses since then. I saw references to art exhibits, an animal feed store and an antique store.

If you’re looking for it, it’s at 900 West Cape Rock Drive, on the corner of Cape Rock and County Road 635. [Editor’s note: I said it was at the intersection of 643 earlier. I was only half-way correct. Cape Rock Drive is 643. The intersection is 643 and 635.]

St. Mary’s to Reopen April 13

Cathedral of St. Mary of the Annunciation 04-11-2014 The Cathedral of St. Mary of the Annunciation in Cape Girardeau, better known as St. Mary’s, will hold Palm Sunday church services April 13, after being closed most of 2014 for a facelift.

Buddy Dick McClard, Class of ’66, sent an email saying he had just finished installing six 7-foot-tall windows facing Sprigg Street and wanted to know if I wanted a sneak peak at the inside of the church. St. Mary’s and St. Vincent’s have been on my list for a long time, so this sounded like a perfect excuse.

Rather than pretend I know much about the history of the church (even though Wife Lila and I were married there in 1969), I’ll point you to a blog by Missourian librarian Sharon Sanders.

The bells of St. Mary’s

Cathedral of St. Mary of the Annunciation 04-11-2014I tried to shoot things that haven’t changed, things that have been uncovered and things that have been added. In addition, I climbed into the bell tower to capture parts of the structure that everyone in the neighborhood has heard, but few have seen. I felt comfortable doing that because Sharon had sent me a clip saying that the bells had been reinstalled in 1988 after it was feared the 2500-lbs bells might come crashing down into the church entrance. Indeed, the staircase leading to the bells was steep and narrow, but solidly built.

Photo gallery of Cathedral of St. Mary of the Annunciation

Here is a link to a Christmas Novena I shot at the church in 1967. You can compare the front of the church to these photos I took Friday afternoon. Click on any photo to make it larger, then use your arrow keys to move through the gallery.

Haunting the Mailbox

Watch sent to Ken Steinhoff from Dick McClard 08-29-2013I loved to get mail when I was a kid. I’d order a ring that would shoot popped wheat, then spend the next six weeks waiting for it to arrive. Even today, I like ordering from online companies so I can have the anticipation of the FexEx or UPS truck pulling up in  front of the house.

Rarely, though, does a box arrive unsolicited. When one does, I remember back to my employee with a stalker ex-husband who terrorized her. One day a box with no return address arrived at the office. When she was afraid to open it, I made a big deal out of putting it on the counter, carefully slitting the taped sides and easing the top up while staying as far back as possible. I peered into the darkness and two black eyes and a forked tongue met my gaze. Even though the cop who took it to the zoo for ID said it was non-poisonous, I look upon strange packages differently these days.

When Wife Lila dropped a small package on my desk this morning, I had those same bad vibes.

THIS box had a return address, but it didn’t make much sense: GFJ + ST L; S. Sprigg / Good Hope (Around Back).

There was a watch inside

Watch sent to Ken Steinhoff from Dick McClard 08-29-2013Inside the box was a rather nifty watch and the letter above. When I saw the name “McClard,” I remembered a Facebook exchange with one of Wife Lila’s Class of ’66 Classmates, Dick McClard. He had sent me a birthday wish when he confused me with another Ken he was actually friends with.

When I pointed out the error of his ways (quite a list, by the way), he countered by writing, “I bought you a really nice diamond studded watch for $25 from a fella on South Sprigg and he said he would get it to you but I don’t know which carrier. Let me know if it doesn’t get to you by March. I’m not going to risk a trip to Florida with the temp and humidity you described. IT….IS….BEAUTIFUL here today.”

Nefarious plot

Watch sent to Ken Steinhoff from Dick McClard 08-29-2013Dick and I are on opposite sides of the political fence. I, of course, am a rational, pragmatic thinker and Dick is, well, he thinks Attila the Hun had the right idea, he just didn’t go far enough. He’s a nice enough guy despite that and I treat him like the funny uncle you keep locked in the attic.

When I tried on the watch, however, I was disappointed. It was so small I couldn’t even get the thingie through the first hole.

Either he had underestimated the manly size of my wrist or he more likely hoped the tight band would cut off circulation and cause my left wing to fall off.

Wife Lila has an idea

Watch sent to Ken Steinhoff from Dick McClard 08-29-2013When the watch was too tight even for Wife Lila to wear, she had an idea. She’d hang it on the wall of the kitchen next to other decorative doo-dads.

I didn’t ask for elaboration

Watch sent to Ken Steinhoff from Dick McClard 08-29-2013After she finished pounding a nail in the wall to display the watch, I thought I heard her say, “Well, at least something of Dick’s will be well-hung.”

I didn’t ask her to elaborate.

Thanks for remembering my birthday

So, Dick, you were either seven months early or six months late, but I’ll overlook the timing. It is the thought that counts.

I’ll be sure to send you something on your birthday. Oh, by the way, just for your information, snakes get really cranky in transit. That’s something you may need to know.

McLain’s Chapel

 

 

You can’t beat the Indian Creek Community for story telling: it’s a mix of Revolutionary War soldiers, Indian maidens, the Trail of Tears and a Civil War atrocity all wrapped up in about 640 acres.

It’s hard to break out McLain’s Chapel from all of the other things the McLain family touched in the Oriole / Egypt Mills / Pocahontas area. I’ll touch on McLain’s Cemetery, Apple Creek Cemetery, Indian Creek Store and School later. [Note: the sign and a stone marker in front of the Chapel spell it “McLains Chapel,” without an apostrophe. Other sources spell it McLain’s Chapel. I’m going to use that spelling.] You can click on any photo to make it larger.

McLain Brothers fought in Revolutionary War

LaFern Stiver provided this background:

This area was settled early by the McLain Clan, from the Isle of Mull in Scotland. The family came from South Carolina and established itself here before 1815, based on the earliest tax records. Alexander McLain, was one of four brothers who fought in the Revolutionary War. John, the older brother was killed; for his sacrifice, his family was given one half bushel of salt.

The father of the whole McLain Clan, Alexander McLain, settled near Indian Creek School and McClain’s Chapel Methodist Church and Cemetery. On the banks of Indian Creek is a spring that furnishes water all year, something pioneers needed for their homesteads.

David McLain given 15-year-old maiden

A letter written in 1932 from a 94-year-old lady states that David D., the youngest son of Alexander, was told by the Indians that they would allow him to have as much land as he could walk and return in two days for 8 cents an acre. For this privilege and the protection of the tribe, he was given a 15-year-old Indian maiden as his mate, with the understanding that all children remained with the tribe.

Alexander received land for service

Herbert McLain provided some information about Alexander, his third great-grandfather, in a post on flickr.

Alexander was able to acquire a 640-acre land grant that dates back to the Spanish Land Grants (date unknown) for his service to the government during the Revolutionary War, but he couldn’t claim it until after the War of 1812..

Alexander and his family lived among the Shawnee and their wigwam communities that existed for many years after they settled there. According to the Lewis and Clark documentation, there were 400 Shawnee in Apple Creek at that time.

Alexander McLain’s property backs up to the Trail of Tears State Park. Alexander, friendly with the tribe, would let Cherokees shelter there through the winter after crossing the Mississippi. When President Andrew Jackson developed his lifelong enmity for Native Americans and set a policy to relocate approximately 100,000 westward toward Oklahoma, a trail was developed by Captain John Stuart, a Scott British Army Nobleman, who had come to the colonies to serve as an Indian agent. The trail that connected Kentucky to Arkansas and Missouri stretched across Alexander’s property.

Even though Alexander was able to enjoy his land grant most of his adult life, it wasn’t until March 4, 1831, when he was 77, that he began receiving his $33.33 per year pension for his services in the Revolutionary War. He lived out his life in Missouri with his family. He gradually went blind, as his father had. He died February 8, 1847.

 Wouldn’t plow holy ground

LaFern passed on another Trail of Tears story. “I know that two braves escaped and hid on the property that was owned by descendants of Alexander.  One of them died shortly after his escape, but the other had a rough shelter built on the farm and stayed to help my grandfather.  He refused to come into their home to eat and crouched Indian fashion at the back door as he ate his food. 

“I know that when my aunt owned the farm, we did not plow over two areas in one of the fields because her father had told her that was where the two Indians were buried and we should keep the ground holy for  them. My cousin griped because he had to plow around them.”

Blood spilled in church

A March 5, 1931, Missourian story recounts a chilling story of how the Civil War touched the area. “Down the creek from Oriole is located a Methodist Church known at McLain’s Chapel…. It was in this church that a Civil War tragedy was enacted. A farmer in the neighborhood by the name of Hamilton, who was known to be a very pious man, and also known to be loyal to the federal government during the war between the states, was apprehended by a number of bushwhackers, most of them residents of Jackson.

“The marauders took Hamilton to the church, and told him to kneel and pray, which he did, and was shot down in cold blood. The spot where his blood soaked into the rough planks of the floor was visible for years.

Building in bad shape

When I shot these photos April 20, 2011, I wondered if the building would stand through summer storms and the winter. The church really IS leaning. It’s not a trick of lens distortion.

Vickie Sams Cash asked about McLain’s Chapel when I did the piece of the Trinity Lutheran Church in Egypt Mills.

Reader Dick McClard answered her, “McLain’s Chapel is now in the hands of David McLain.  He’s thinking about knocking the old church down because of its poor and unsafe condition. This may be the last year to see the building.  It’s unremarkable in its architecture and contains nothing of value.