Branson

 We made it to Branson but what a day!

sunrise from our room

Here are some pics of the German "carpet" flooring I mentioned in the first post, made from the different woods.

chandelier original to the house

original transoms, mantels and beautiful woodwork

wall of cabinets

you have to just ignore some of the decor to appreciate the fine craftsmanship

We started off the day with a nice breakfast. Jo Anne had the pancakes.

I had oatmeal and fruit

We packed up the car and took off up the Crowley's Ridge Scenic Parkway on our way to Piggot, Arkansas, our grandpa's birthplace. Unfortunately, the parkway wasn't very scenic and the speed limit was very low, taking hours to get there.

First stop, the Piggott courthouse in search of grandpa's (Commodore Bostic Woods) birth certificate. They sent us to the health department. Jo Anne filled out an application for the bc at the health department. The lady emailed it to Little Rock, where they searched the microfiche but were unable to find one. He was born in 1889 and it was rare that births were recorded in anything other than a family bible.

We stopped for lunch at Pork 'n Stuff. I had pulled pork salad and sweet potato fries.

Jo Anne had the pork sandwich and okra.

A

About 5 miles from Piggott is Pumpkin Hollow. We stopped for a few photos and Jo Anne bought a t-shirt, pumpkin butter and jelly.

These gourds are growing from the vines in the photo below.

next stop, Alton, Missouri, Huddleston cemetery

Our great grandfather, Nathan Woods, his wife Jenny, our great aunt Pearl and some of our grandma's family (Coleman) were all supposed to be buried here. We searched every gravestone and were only able to find Viola Pearl Woods Dotson, our grandpa's sister.

A little story about our great, great grandfather William Woods, told by Nathan, his son:

At 12 years of age, William took his sister and brother and walked through the mountains of Virginia and Kentucky to the Indiana line. Then the three got separated, but lived in Indiana until all were married. (We don't know what happened to their parents which caused him to take his brother and sister and walk to Indiana. We only know our great-great-great grandfather's name was Mark, he came from Scotland and married a little wild Irish girl ☺).

William married a French girl at Vincennes, IN, (name unknown). She died at the birth of her first child and the child also. She was only 16 years of age at death.

William joined in the Indian wars and later married Evarita Watson. She was born in North Carolina. Was of German descent. To this union was born 12 children, 7 boys and 5 girls. One boy died in infancy and 3 girls died while babies. Remaining children were James, George, John, Martha, Mary William Jr, Joseph and Nathan L. All were born in IL except Nathan. He was born in MO on Sinking Creek in 1861 and was taken to IL until I (Nathan L) was 13 years old. ~ these words were penned by Nathan L Woods of Alton, MO on the 28th day of October, 1935.

Next we drove to Union Hill, MO, where our dad Joe Bill Woods, was born. There's just a house and the cemetery at Union Hill.

We found the gravesite of our great-grandfather's second wife, Julia Giles Woods. Our dad told a story about Nathan, his grandad, who built coffins. One day Nathan sent our dad to get his wife Julia and bring her to the barn. When they got there, Nathan was laid out in a coffin he had built. He asked Julia how he looked. She apparently was furious and yelled at him to get out. According to daddy, Nathan died the next day.

The house where Daddy was born on Union Hill.

The school he attended in Thomasville, MO until 8th grade, when he broke his arm and never returned to school.

This is a house and barn that my grandpa built. They are both still in excellent condition and in a beautiful location!

It's now 6:15. We've been on the road for over 10 hours and still have about 3 hours to go to get to Branson. Time for a quick bite and fuel to finish today's journey. My rueben, with no cheese or bread, doesn't look very appetizing from the photo but wasn't bad.

Jo Anne's baked potato and salad.

We got to Branson about 9 pm, 13 hours after leaving the Edwardian Inn. I was too tired to blog all this last night so got it blogged while Jo Anne was having a lie-in this morning. 😉