The Turnbo Manuscripts
by Silas Claiborne Turnbo
1844-1925
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SAD SCENES OF DEATH
By S. C. Turnbo
Many sad and pathetic scenes occurred in the days of long ago, that no record was kept of it, but some of these incidents made such a lasting impression on the minds of the people who were living at the time of their occurrence and knew of the circumstance that they never forgotten it until the day of their death. Among some of the old time occurrences is one of which the account of it was told me by Mrs. Huldah Turnbo wife of the writers brother J. N. (Newt) Turnbo. Mrs. Turnbo was a daughter of Sam and Hettie (Keesee) Johnson and was born on her fathers old farm at the mouth of Brattons Spring Creek in Ozark County, Mo. March 24, 1846. She was married twice. Her first husband was Andrew Herd son of Marlin Herd. He died In 1867 and was buried in a grave yard near the old Jimmie Forest Place on Little North Fork. She married my brother in the early part of 1873. Mrs. Turnbo is dead now. She died suddenly at her home on the morning of January 30 1907 and was buried on the following day in the cemetery at Pontiac. Mrs. Turnbo said that "In the year 1856 Andy Bevins and his wife lived on what is now the W. C. Johnson farm on Brattons Spring Creek where they both took violently ill one day in the month of May in the year named and died in less than an hour apart, the wife dying first. It was a tearful scene to see husband and wife pass away so near together. A very large coffin was prepared and on the following day after their death both bodies were placed in it. The coffin was too large to be hauled in a wagon and it was fastened on the top of the wagon box and hauled to the grave yard at the mouth of the creek and buried there. It taken the strength of several stout men to handle the coffin containing the two bodies. They were buried late in the evening and that night a rain storm occurred which caused North Fork to overflow the bottom lands along the creek. Mrs. Lina Duggins widow of Alex Duggins died the same day Bevins and his wife did and was buried in the same grave yard on the next day after the bodies of Bevins and his wife had received interment. Mrs. Duggins was a daughter of my father by his first wife and was born in the state of Tennessee", said Mrs. Turnbo.
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