By Joe Hadsall
jhadsall@joplinglobe.com
It’s hard to get Frankie Meyer to talk about herself — especially when asking about the book she wrote.
If asked about how she wrote it, she’d rather tell you about the stories inside it. That’s partially because the stories aren’t hers — they are the stories of Southwest Missourians living life throughout the years.
“After 30 years of following seven family lines, I’ve collected a bunch of neat stories,” Meyer said. “Some are from my family, some are from neighbors, old diaries, and newspaper articles.”
The Joplin woman is the author of “Bushwhackers, Visions and Star-Crossed Lovers,” which features about 200 of the many stories she’s heard in her genealogy research. Thirty years in the making, the book features stories of people who settled and lived in the Ozarks of Missouri and Arkansas.
The book also features more than 200 photos, many of which have never been published. The photos, from a collection that had been passed between generations, show day-to-day life of people who lived in the Ozarks.
About five years ago, she began picking stories for the book and chose the ones that “tugged at the heart,” she said.
“I picked stories that illustrated something unique about the Ozarks, that showed the heart of people, what life was like and the hardships,” she said.
Such as:
• The Maid of the Mountain, the Soothsayer of Roaring River, Jeanne Wallace. Formerly a nurse, she moved to a log cabin in Dog Hollow in 1890. Her gift was her ability to help people find lost things, Meyer said. But she wouldn’t take money for her answers, so grateful people would cut wood or bring her food.
A picture in the book shows Wallace with a group of visitors to her home.
“Usually, living in a log cabin is dirty,” Meyer said. “In the photo, she is wearing crisp, cotton clothes.”
• Families who owned farms, yet traveled to other farms to work as migrants. A photo shows the family of Ernie and Omega Fletcher posed beside two cars. The family traveled along Route 66 to work in California fruit fields.
“No one ever made a good living on a farm,” Meyer said. “Someone on the farm would always work somewhere else.
• Gospel songwriter Albert E. Brumley, the creator of the songs “I’ll Fly Away” and “Turn Your Radio On.”
“His brother-in-law told me that he would go to creeks and find secluded spots to write,” Meyer said. “There would be other times when he’d be driving along, but would pull over often to write bits of a song. By the time they had gone to Joplin and back, he’d have all these pieces of a song.”
Back to Meyer’s story: She grew up in the Rocky Comfort area at the Carlin Ridge farm. The stories she heard as a child about her family and ancestry helped the genealogy bug bite her early in life.
After working for 28 years as a biology teacher in Joplin, she retired in ’97. Soon after, she began writing a genealogy column for The Joplin Globe, which runs in every Sunday’s edition.
“I called (former Globe editor) Gloria Turner and asked if she was interested in a column,” Meyer said. “She asked me to send some samples, so I sent three, then I went on vacation. When I got back, I called and asked her if they were any good.
“She said that the columns had already run.”
Meyer credits her biological background with her ability to research. But the simple act of hunting her family’s history turned her into a historian, she said.
“When you do a family history, you become a historian,” Meyer said. “You have to find out where records are. You can find out who moved to where, to what church they belonged and where they went to school.”
Her book contains plenty of data, including maps of many of the areas featured in the book. Information about the area’s ancient history is also included.
The most difficult part was stringing the stories together, she said. Sometimes the significance of a story wouldn’t reveal itself for years.
But her hunt for more and more information led to more and more stories — including one that figures directly into Meyer’s existence.
When she and her husband visited the Nathaniel Boone historic site in Ash Grove, she found a book that told the story of how Captain James Calloway assisted “Mr. Quicks” homestead fight off an Indian attack.
“The Quicks are some of my ancestors,” Meyer said. “He saved them.”
The self-published book is selling well, Meyer said. She has earned enough to cover the costs of printing the book and advertising flyers.
As for the future, Meyer said she may write other books. But none will be as important to her as this one, she said.
“I may write others, but none that my heart is in like this,” she said.
Copies available
Copies of “Bushwhackers, Visions and Star-Crossed Lovers” are available at several locations, including the Joplin Museum Complex, Wildcat Glades Conservation and Audubon Center and Joplin Genealogy Society. For more information, visit www.frankiemeyerbooks.com.
