Submitted
on 14 September 2008 by Donovan Yingst
The house
was built by John and Sarah (Thompson)
Dobkins ca. 1841. It was located
in the SW1/4NW1/4, Section 24, T. 37
N., R. 2 W, 5th Principal Meridian,
Courtois Twp., Crawford Co., MO, a
short distance Westerly from the
Dobkins Cemetery. The house was
built on land patented by the Federal
Government on 31 May 1824 to Lovel
Thompson, father of Sarah (Thompson)
Dobkins. John and Sarah Dobkins
acquired the property by deeds in
1856. The house burned about
1901; only the remnants of the stone
foundation, covered with vegetation,
are visible now.
According
to family tradition, the men in the
household worked in lead mines in the
locale. My grandmother, Sarah
(Walton) Dobkins, decided to burn some
of the men's worn-out rubber boots in
the kitchen range. The range
became overheated and caught the house
on fire. The only thing grandma
was able to save was a piano stool,
but she did try to get the piano
out. I vaguely remember a piano
stool in her Idaho home at the Jerome
Country Club, so maybe it was true.
Pictured
Left to Right
On
horseback, unidentified (probably Cain
Pharris); Albert Earnest Dobkins; his
wife, Sarah (Walton) Dobkins, (my
grandparents); Joshua Frank Dobkins;
Willie Devol Dobkins; Otto Lambert,
Etta May (Dobkins) Sanders and her
husband, Joshua Sanders; two of their
children - James Herkely (Herk) and
William Milas (Sam) and last, probably
one of Joshua's brothers.
