The Turnbo Manuscripts
by Silas Claiborne Turnbo
1844-1925
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By S. C. Turnbo
There is a spring of water on the east side of the Pro-tem and Chadwick Wagon Road which is a noted one. The road in the vicinity of this water leads along the crest of the dividing ridge between the breaks of Brushy and Caney Creeks that empty into Beaver on the west side and the left hand prong of Big Creek and the east prong of Shoal Creek on the east side. The ridge is heavily timbered mostly of black oak trees. The spring of water is in a gulch on the east side of the wagonway and is well known to stockmen and freighters who haul goods from Chadwick for the merchants of Pro-tem. The vein of water is not strong but it is cold and a drink from this noted water cools the thirst of the weary traveler or freighter during the warm days of the good old summer time. Freighters or moving families often stop here to noon or camp of hights. In the month of June 1903 an aged lady was found dead in the neighborhood of this watering place. Though this sad event occurred in recent years but it is of much interest and I give it as a sad occurrence in the annals of the history of Taney County, Mo. The most of the account was given me by Mrs. Emiline Gilbert wife of John Gilbert who lives on this ridge north of the spring and some 6 miles south of Hercules. Mrs. Gilbert is a German lady being born in West Prusia Germany and came from there to the United States and lived a few years in Chicago Illinoise. Soon after her and Mr. Gilbert were married they came to Missouri and settled in Taney County. Mrs. Gilbert related the story to me on the first day of September 1906 while on my return back from the Indian territory to Pontiac Mo. She stated it about as follows:
"The woman’s name was Mrs. Sherman. She had left her husband many
years ago and brought her children to Chicago where she lived until she
came to Taney County with her son in law Wesley Wilson who had married her
daughter Miss Mira Sherman. Mrs. Sherman was quite an old lady and resided
with her son in law Wesley and Mira Wilson on the ridge just north of our
house. The old lady suffered with a cancer on her right breast. The sore
of which was greatly inflamed and was as large as a saucer which caused
her to undergo terrible suffering and no doubt deranged her mind at time.
The woman was of a peculiar nature and belief in religious matters and held
to superstitious notions. She said that the lord told her he would heal
the cancer and seemed tobe under the impression that she did not suffer
with pain yet the sore was an eating one. On Monday evening she left home
and Wilson and family thought she had went to Herman Reiders who lived on
the road just south of our house. The weather at the time of her disappearance
was warm and showery at intervals which was followed with much cooler temperature
and heavy rains. The woman did not return back home as expected and her
prolonged absence awaked uneasiness and on inquiry it was found that she
had not been at Mr. Reiders. Further investigation proved that she had not
made her appearance at any house in the neighborhood. It was now that the
alarm spread all over the country and men collected together from the surrounding
country and searched the woods for her for several days without discovering
her whereabouts. Some of the people were Inclined to believe that the woman
had been murdered and her body had been concealed . It is said that she
claimed that Mr. Reider was the lord and that he was able to heal the cancer
without an application of medicine. She seemed to have much confidence in
the man as a divine healer of malignant sores which proved conclusively
that her mind was unballanced which more than likely was caused by the great
suffering she endured from the effects of the cancer and was not responsible
for what she thought or believed. When the men began searching for the woman
and some of them supposing that she had not gone far and was murdered and
that her murderers had hidden the body had a tendency to prevent them from
going far enough. As the hours passed by a few of the men become more auspicious
and suspected Herman Reider, John Gilbert, and Wesley Wilson as being the
men that committed the murder and that the body had been cut to pieces and
hidden in some dark recess in the hills or about a house. Some of the more
auspicious ones searched our house claiming that I and husband had buried
her under the floor. Rail piles were torn down and other places where they
conjectured the body might have been put away were closely investigated
but no revelation was made as to the supposed disposition of her remains.
Other men continued the search in the woods and extended their investigations
over a wider range. At this time the weather grew very cool for the month
of June and a number of the searching party put on their over coats to keep
warm. After a few days more of closely hunting the woods for her more of
the men gave it up that she was not in the woods or they certainly could
find some trace of her but they finally decided to help hunt for her until
the next Monday and by that time if her whereabouts were still unknown to
them a hanging would occur on that day. But fortunately for the men who
were accused, Mrs. Sherman’s dead body was discovered on Sunday before
the hanging was to take place. The dead form was found near Frank Owens
stock ranch and near three quarters of a mile south of the Eastview Spring.
The body lay in the head of a hollow that leads Into Big Creek. It is supposed
that she had reached the wire fence in the night time and probably had made
an attempt to get through the wire to the inside of the ranch - not knowing
where she was going - and in her efforts to pass through between the wires
she dropped her hat on the inside and it appears that after her hat fell
from her head she left the wire and passed on up the hill side some 40 yards
from where her hat was picked up where she was found dead. The remains were
in an advanced state of decomposition. An inquest was held over the dead
form and the jury was convinced that she had not beet murdered but had died
from exposure and the horrible effects of the cancerous sore and it was
more than probable that she had succumbed to death during one of those cool
rainy nights of that period. It is sad to think of the death of this unfortunate
and suffering human being out in the dark dreary forest alone with no bed
to lie on except the rough stoney ground, no shelter but the bows of the
trees and surrounded by darkness and gloom with the rain drops pattering
down on her. She had endured great torture from the painful sore. Her agony
in the death struggle must have been awful for she had scratched the cancer
sore with her fingernails and the blood had run from the bleeding sore and
flown over bosom and stained her clothing. Oh what a blessing it was when
the great ruler of Heaven sent the death angel to relieve her of the pangs
of suffering here on earth. The body was prepared for burial and received
interment in the grave yard at the Cedar Grove School House on Caney Creek.
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