Sarah Jane Padgett Fuller Calhoun

Last spring Mom and I went to Missouri and had a great time following the trails of our ancestors.  On Dad's side we were in Phelps county seeing where Alexander and Sarah Jane Fuller lived and started their family.  Alexander went off to fight in the Civil War and never came home.  We met a historian there who told us that there was a document that told that Sarah Jane's brother came from Illinois and took her and her two small children back there with him.  Phelps county was a very unsettled area at the time (more about this in my previous blog).

Back in Illinois Sarah Jane met William Calhoun and they married.  Their next stop was in Little River, Kansas.  Their daughter, Martha, married Jess Frankeburger and lived her entire life there. Sarah Jane and William lived there for a time and then moved up to Sarpy county, Nebraska.  Sarah's son, John Fuller, stayed in Sarpy Co and married my great grandmother, Margaret Overton.  

William died in Sarpy Co and Sarah Jane ended up going back to Little River, Kansas to live with her daughter, Martha.

This summer Dad and I made the trip to Little River, Kansas.  It is a quiet little town in a beautiful setting.  The first thing you have to know about my dad is that we start out early!  I left my house at 5:30 am to meet Dad in Kansas....

...so I rolled out of bed and went...hence the bed head!  Haha.  I also came across these beauties along the way.

Dad drove east and I drove south until we intersected somewhere in Kansas and then rode the rest of the way together.  We arrived in Little River around 10:00-10:30.  

We decided that we should head out to the cemetery first.  

The cemetery was just outside of town....it was a pretty drive.

We were able to find the Frankeberger family plots without much trouble.  Dad standing by the stones of his great grandmother and great aunt.

  Dad's great grandmother, Sarah Jane Padgett Fuller Calhoun.

Next we found her daughter, Martha Fuller Frankeberger and husband Jesse.

Jesse and Martha had 4 daughters.  Leona, Bessie, Vastie and Grace.  Leona was first married to Ben Meyer in 1904 and he passed in 1906.  She then married James Lafayette Smith in 1911.  They are both buried next to Leona.

Vastie married Fred Hodgson.  

Bessie did not marry as she died at a younger age.

And Grace married Bert Snedeger. 

It was really nice that they were all in the same cemetery right beside one another.  It was also a very calm peaceful resting place.

After the cemetery visit we went back into Little River and stopped by the local genealogical society.

We were disappointed to find out that it was only open one day a week and I had mixed up which day so no one was there.  We went across the street to the library and the lady working there looked up the phone number of a couple of the volunteers and we found a really nice gal that was willing to come and open up for us.  It was going to be a little while before she could get there so we went and had a sandwich at the local pub.  The food and service were both really good.  We went back to the historical society after lunch.  The gal that helped us pulled all of the obituaries of the family whose graves we had just visited and gave us some history of the family as she knew it.  It was a really nice visit and we really appreciated her taking the time to come down and open up for us!

So the next thing that we all tease my dad about is that when he gets behind a wheel he does not like to stop anywhere.  One of the comments from my mom and brother was..."good luck getting a picture of the stones while dad cruises by them!"  So with this being said the challenge was on... dad was out to prove them all wrong.  He went out of his way to make sure that we had plenty of time in Little River.  He also made some little detours to see the sites along the way!

Pretty church in Beloit Kansas.

We took time out to see the World's Largest Ball of Twine in Cawker City, Kansas! (Now we are getting a little carried away with things! haha)

And to end out the day...a little side trip to shop.  I was told, "go in and don't come out until you buy something so that we can prove that we went shopping"...while dad waited in the car!  This is about as good as it gets!!!