Maps of Clinton County, Missouri (How Galen & Pearl Met Cont.)

    The recent 52 Ancestors Prompt, Courting, took me down a road where I found more information than I was expecting. On my quest to learn more about the area where Mark's Grandparents met, lived, and were married, I came across some sources that opened up a new perspective for me. While researching the area trying to get an understanding of where everything was located (The School, the Church, the Swope Family, the Berryman Family, and the town), I discovered some maps of the town from that time period. I had mentioned that the town was small and surrounded by farms. I was curious how close everyone was to everything. Well, I was in for a surprise.

    To recap, Galen Swope would stay with his parents when he would come back to town from Kansas City and Pearl McGrew was renting a room from the Berryman family while she worked as a teacher for the Martin School. The 1930 Census shows where they lived.

1930 US Federal Census
Mildred Mcgrew
Platte Township, Clinton County, Missouri
Source: Ancestry.com

1930 US Federal Census
Galen Swope
Lafayette Township, Clinton County, Missouri
Source: Ancestry.com

    I found these maps online after doing a Google Search. The first map shows the Plats of land that belonged to J.A. Swope and R Berryman. The 1930 Census told me that they both owned their properties, so that told me to look at these maps. Look how close the Swope Farm and the Berryman Farm were to each other. 

    The second map shows the location of buildings. Black squares were houses. There were a couple of houses right near each other that could have the Swope's house and the Berryman's house. 

Map 1

Plat book of Clinton County, Missouri
Lafayette Township
Missouri Plat Books cir 1930
Source: Missouri Digital Heritage

Map 2

Plattsburg, Missouri
cir 1926
Source: Old World Maps
Courtesy of USGS

    There are a couple other things written on Map 2 that caught my attention. First, Martin School. That's the school that Pearl taught at. Map 1 does not have the school listed because the first map is for Lafayette Township only. Map 2 has Lafayette Township and Platte Township, where Martin School was located. So I found the Platte Township map & combined it with Lafayette. See Map 3 below. If you look in square 11, you will see a dark square which is labeled "school". Looking back at Map 2, you can see that is where Martin School was located.

Map 3

Plat book of Clinton County, Missouri
Lafayette Township & Platte Township
Missouri Plat books cir 1930
Source: Missouri Digital Heritage

    There was something else I noticed on Map 2. West of the Martin School is Lebanon Church. That would be the Lebanon Baptist Church that they attended. Now when you look back at Map 1, I circled a cross on that map. That would be the location of Lebanon Church. Do you see where that's located? Right next to the J.A. Swope property! So everything was right there along the same road.

    This is really neat! And helpful. I now have a better understanding of the area. Mark and I plan on making a trip out to this part of Missouri hopefully this year. When we traveled out there a few years ago, it was tricky trying to find where the old farmhouses were and where the location of the Church used to be. The cemetery used to be opposite the Church. While the church is gone, the cemetery is still there and that's where a lot of Mark's family is still buried... including Galen & Pearl Swope.

Lebanon Cemetery
Stewartsville, Missouri
Google Maps

Galen & Pearl Swope Headstone
Lebanon Cemetery
Stewartsville, Missouri
July 2014

    It's amazing what else you can learn about family when you start looking a little deeper. I never planned on looking up maps for the area. I never thought about looking up the location of the farms, the church, or the school. Just goes to show you, just when you think you can't research anymore, there is always something. 

Read the post about the Prompt that started this all here: Week 8: Courting (How Galen & Pearl Met)

Week 8: Courting (How Galen & Pearl Met)

Week 8:
The Week 8 theme is "Courting." Is it courting as in the law or courting as in romance? You decide! 

Courting: to engage in social activities leading to engagement and marriage - Merriam Webster Dictionary

    Dating as we know it today, did not really exist in our grandparents' day. Most of the time, instead of dating, courting took place. This involved two people getting together in social activities to get to know each other better in the presence of friends and family. Most of the time it was family. That was the case with my husband's Grandparents. 

    Samuel Galen Swope was born on August 15, 1895, in Clinton County, Missouri. He was the firstborn child of James Albert Swope and Mary Alice Hoover. The Swopes were a prominent family in Western Missouri around the Kansas City area and in the county where Galen was raised. Looking through the newspapers for the area, I found quite a few mentions of the Swope family in the "Happenings" or "Society" sections.

Plattsburg Leader
Plattsburg, Missouri
2 Jan 1914

Plattsburg Leader
Plattsburg, Missouri
9 Nov 1917

Plattsburg Leader
Plattsburg, Missouri
17 Dec 1920

    Pearl Mildred McGrew was born on June 6, 1907, in Kansas. She was the fourth child born to Reverand Hudson Taylor McGrew and Sadie Emma McCullough. As you can see, her father was a Reverand in the United Brethren Church (which eventually became a sect of the Methodist Church). The United Brethren Church had traveling ministers that were appointed to different churches in their area for a specific time. So Pearl's family moved around quite a bit.

    Since Pearl's father was a respectable man in the United Brethren Church, his children were also expected to be on their best behavior. Rev. H.T. McGrew was mentioned in the newspapers quite a bit as well. From the new appointments to the families he would visit and many other circumstances. 

Wichita Daily Eagle
Wichita, Kansas
15 Sep 1889

The Times
Clay Center, Kansas
3 Aug 1911

Lecompton Sun
Lecompton, Kansas
18 Jul 1902

Lecompton Sun
Lecompton, Kansas
5 Apr 1901

    Since both of them belong to very prominent families and their lives were documented publicly in the paper, they would have had to have been on their best behavior. When Mark asked his mom about his parents courting, she said she wasn't told much about that time except that they met in church and that they were not allowed to "date" so to speak in private. All their meetings would have been in public with family present. Thanks to newspapers, I was able to track some of the meetings.

    Mark's mom said they met in Church. This would have been the Lebanon Baptist Church in Clinton County, Missouri. The area consisted mostly of Farmland and the nearest town was Stewartsville. Plattsburg is about 15 miles south of Stewartsville and Lebanon Cemetery, where the Church used to be, is about halfway in between the two towns. Pearl moved to Stewartsville to be a teacher in the Martin School District. Mark's mom said this was a one-room schoolhouse. Pearl did such a great job as a teacher, they elected to keep her for three years. 

Plattsburg Leader
Plattsburg, Missouri
15 Mar 1929

Plattsburg Leader
Plattsburg, Missouri
13 Sep 1929

    As you can see, there are only eight students in this school, all ranging from different grades. We are talking VERY small town. So it would have only been a matter of time before Galen and Pearl met. Galen worked in Kansas City for a time, but he would frequently visit his family.

Plattsburg Leader
Plattsburg, Missouri
11 Jan 1929

    When Galen was back in town, he would stay with his parents, James & Mary. Pearl did not originally live in Stewartsville when she was hired as a teacher. So she rented a room from Rae Berryman and his family. When school was closed for the season, she would go back to visit her parents in Guilford, Missouri. As stated, this was a small town, so almost everyone knew each other. Everyone would make visits to each other's houses, they would attend church together and even celebrate occasions with each other. This would be perfect for Courting situations. As would be the case for Galen & Pearl. And it would then be published in the local paper for everyone to read about.

    Thanks to Newspapers.com, I was able to track down these articles. Articles mentioning dinners, reunions, health & well-being posts (who was sick, who was recovering), and who was visiting who. This made the courting process more apparent.

Plattsburg Leader
Plattsburg, Missouri
17 Apr 1931

Plattsburg Leader
Plattsburg, Missouri
6 Feb 1931

Plattsburg Leader
Plattsburg, Missouri
2 Jan 1931

Plattsburg Leader
Plattsburg, Missouri
13 Nov 1931

Plattsburg Leader
Plattsburg, Missouri
29 Apr 1932

    Soon after that last article, this one appeared in the newspaper.

Maryville Daily Forum
Maryville, Missouri
2 May 1932

    As you can see in the articles, Pearl was invited to many gatherings at the J.A. Swope house (Galen's father). They were also invited to dinner at the Hoover's house (Mrs. Mary Swope's family). As stated before, they both attended Lebanon Baptist Church where Rev. H.T. McGrew preached at least once. 

    When I first saw these articles, I didn't think much of them. But this prompt caused me to look at them in a different way. In the way of Courting. You can actually see the courting process. The families were coming together for meals, celebrations, worship, etc. Then to the wedding shower and eventual marriage. I am looking forward to presenting this to my Mother-in-Law to give her a small glimpse into the lives of her parents and how they got together.

Something special to close out this blog post. A picture of Galen and Pearl on their wedding day & the newspaper article about the day.

Galen & Pearl Swope
1 May 1932

Plattsburg Leader
Plattsburg, Missouri
6 May 1932

This prompt also caused me to do some more research on the area they lived. If you want to see what else I found out, check out my next blog post: Maps of Clinton County, Missouri - (How Galen & Pearl Met Cont.)

Do you have any stories about your parents or grandparents courting??