and Nancy Lavanda Wilson  (Oct. 14, 1846-March 5, 1929)

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April 2006

Randy has generously shared these for publication with the Christian County Mogen Web site.No data may be reproduced or published without permission of the author. Please note that web host to delete names and data of the living altered the manuscript. 

Civil War veteran John Wesley Inman (Oct. 11, 1842-March 7, 1927) was born —near Campbellsville, TN in Giles Co. — to Elkanah Dulaney and Sarah Moore Inman, and the youngster was attending local school in 1850 with his brothers James, Joseph, Isaac and Andrew.

Whether the school helped, however, is questionable because many relatives could not read and write, according to census records, although John could do both. Gov. and later-President Andrew Johnson told the Tennessee Legislature in 1853 that "our common schools are doing little or no good." The state had attempted to fund schools through the sale or rental of township lands, a scheme that worked well in the North, but failed in Tennessee. The state's public schools didn't truly function until after 1854, when the Tennessee began levying a tax for education and the Inmans already had moved to Missouri.

Elkanah's children consequently had a poor educational foundation when they arrived, and Missouri schools were far less advanced than those in Tennessee.

The Inmans had heard about the new country in the Ozarks from their near-neighbors, the Keltners, the Horns and the Balls, who had seen parts of their families move to lands in Greene Co. since 1840. Also leaving for the Ozarks in 1845 was Walter McConnell, whose family settled just south of the village of Springfield, the county seat for most of southern Missouri. Just north of Campbellsville, many families related to William and Mary Johnson Kenamore -- the McCaffertys, Edwardses, McCaslins, Gooches, Macks, Smiths and Murphys -- were selling their lands in Maury Co. and preparing for the move west.

This new country sounded -- and looked -- like the plains and hills found in Giles Co.

The Inmans were divided -- about equally -- into artisans and tobacco farmers. Long active in the Eastern TN mountain-country iron trade, many of the Inmans became blacksmiths as they moved west. Several, though, had learned to raise tobacco -- a commodity unknown in the mountain counties -- after they came to Giles, beginning in 1827. The crop required little land, but large  amounts of labor that was difficult to obtain unless the family had slaves. The Inmans had few. Most farmed plots of 25 to 40 acres, although James William's son John W. Inman was among the largest landowners in the county.

The Inmans already had seen family leave for the west by the early 1840s. Uncle Lazarus C. Inman, who had lived in Giles in1836, moved to Huntsville, AL and then to Missouri River areas west of St. Louis, but he was already planning relocation to Oregon in the early 1850s.

John W. died at age 52 in June 1852, continuing the series of deaths that had decimated the ranks of the elder Inmans. The Rev. James William Inman, the family patriarch, had died in the 1830s, and his brother John followed in 1838. Only Major Joseph Inman, a veteran of the frontier Indian wars, his wife Frances and James William's widow Martha remained from the oldest generation of Inmans who had come to Middle Tennessee a half-century before. Joseph, a plantation and slave owner who already had turned 70, had no intention of leaving.

Most of the other Inmans emigrated to Missouri in late 1852, and the following spring, John Wesley's brother David became the first of the family born in southern Greene Co. -- an area that soon would break off to form Christian Co. Forming the core of the group who moved were Elkanah Inman, their father, and his nephew James C. Inman, the son of John W., but other related families expanded the group to more than 40 settlers.

In federal papers from the 1890s, Nixa Postmaster Irvin W. Edwards said he had known John W. since 1853 - the spring when the family made its first impact on Porter Township. John W. attended school in Missouri because Justice of the Peace George W. Nokes said he had known John W. since 1854 and they had been "school boys" together.

The Civil War years

The Civil War sorely divided the Inman cousins in Missouri, and at least a half dozen joined the Confederate lines against their Union relatives in the volatile war zone along the Missouri-Arkansas border. Even James C. Inman enlisted in the Confederate forces, and his family quickly moved back to Tennessee.

John Wesley like his brothers sided with the Union, saw extensive action in the war and earned a pension that was a principal source of income in his later years. State records nevertheless do not indicate that he served in the Christian Co.  Home Guard in 1861 as did most of his neighbors.

A daughter-in-law, in a 1971 interview, told the story of John Wesley's activities when the Battle of Wilson's Creek grew near in August 1861, as he related them to the family:

John Wesley was assigned to drive a grub wagon for Union forces coming down from Rolla to Springfield on the eve of the battle. His father Elkanah had been in extremely poor health, and John Wesley received permission to visit him. The next morning, he heard sounds of the battle and turned in that direction on the Mt. Vernon Road (Highway 14) and took the Old Wire Road north to the battlefield.

He told the family about terrible carnage - halves of bodies lying on opposite sides of the fence - in Sharp's cornfield at the Greene Co. line and the dead laid out for burial. John Wesley then drove his wagon back to the Springfield Public Square where his unit was bivouacked.

He enrolled Aug. 20, 1862 in Company A of the 72nd Enrolled Missouri Militia Regiment and served until Feb. 1, 1863. On April 1 he entered Company H of the 6th Regiment of the Provisional Enrolled Missouri Militia and re-upped on Sept. 14, 1863 in Company L of the same regiment; during roll call on Oct. 31, 1863, he was "absent with leave." His service ended in that stint on March 15, 1864, but he again was drafted to serve from Aug. 20 to Nov. 14, 1864 patrolling Ozark Co.

The 6th Provisional Militia was considered regular army and earned John Wesley the pension that supported him, his wife and apparently some of his children's families in later years.

John Wesley enrolled in the 15th Regiment of the state militia after the war to help keep general order. His records show he was 5-feet-6 with auburn hair, blue eyes and a fair complexion. But his pension records offer a far different picture: John W. Inman was 6-foot-3 with sandy hair, a towering man brought low by disability in middle and later years.

The Wilsons

At whatever height, John Wesley married his cousin Nancy Lavanda Wilson on Feb. 9, 1865 before Justice of the Peace Elijah L. Elam, who lived near the Inmans in the hills southwest of what became Nixa.  Elijah was the brother of Flora Ann Elam Nokes, the wife of Archibald G. "Nelson" Nokes who was one of the Inman's closest neighbors; they were parents of John W.'s "school boy" friend George W. Nokes. Records of the marriage were burned in the Christian Co. courthouse fire of 1865, which was set by an arsonist trying to destroy his criminal records and evidence. The Inmans didn't re-register their marriage, unlike others in the county. But in 1915, John W. and Lavanda still had their original marriage certificate, which has been lost.

Lavanda Wilson (Oct. 14, 1846 - March 5, 1929) was born near Campbellsville, Giles Co., TN to James H. Wilson (1820, Maury Co. - Oct. 6, 1862) and Sarah Emily Hawthorn (1821 - 1851).  The families were closely connected: James H.'s father Joel is believed to have been the brother of Martha Wilson Inman, John Wesley's grandmother. After his first wife died, James H. married his cousin and John Wesley's aunt Louisa Caroline Inman Glover, whose husband had been killed in 1846 in the Mexican-American War. All the known Wilsons had joined the Inman wagon train to Missouri.

James H. Wilson's parents Joel Wilson (1784) and Mary (1794)  LNU (possibly Newell), both NC natives, probably married in Hickman or Maury Cos., TN, where they were living in 1812 and then 1820 with four children under 10, two sons and two daughters. By 1830, they had resettled in Giles Co., and the census records suggest five sons and four daughters, all under 20. At least two more sons were added in the 1830s.

Only the names of the youngest sons have been identified: James H. (1821), Francis P. (1830), Daniel W. (1833) and Joel A. (b. 1836), all born in Tennessee. All were farmers, and all except Daniel W. moved to Missouri with their parents..

Francis P. Wilson also married into the Inman family, taking as a wife Nancy Ann Inman — John W.'s aunt — in 1854 and making a home next door to Elkanah in Porter Township shortly after both families moved to Missouri. In 1860, Francis owned a 40-acre farm southeast of Nixa, with five acres under cultivation. A tobacco farmer, he harvested 1,000 pounds that year while ranging a lone milk cow. (See section on Nancy Ann Inman, daughter of James and Martha).

Joel was mentally retarded, but worked on farms and boarded with relatives among the Inmans and Wilsons until he died, sometime after 1880.

The Hawthorn family

According to Lavanda Wilson Inman's death certificate, her mother was (Sarah) "E. (Emily) Hathhorn" whose family came from Ireland, South Carolina, Georgia and Barren Co., KY, where she was born.

Sarah Emily's grandfather, John Hawthorn (January 1748-after 1835, Graves Co., KY), was born to John Hawthorn Sr. and Elizabeth Chalmers in Co. Monaghan, Northern Ireland, and their family and other kin sailed from Belfast to Charleston, SC on the Chichester, arriving on Jan. 5, 1768. The family settled in Fairfield Co. of central SC, and John Jr. married there to Margaret Greene and fought in the Revolution.

John Hawthorn Jr. moved to Georgia in 1791, but in 1806 to Barren Co., KY. There, son James Hawthorn (1777, Fairfield Co.-after 1850, Lawrence Co., TN) married his cousin Sarah Forbes May 16, 1808. Sarah was the daughter of Colin Forbes and Mary Hawthorn, John Jr.'s sister, who had married in Camden District, SC. Forbes had arrived in America by May 1767, or just before the Hawthornes landed.

John Jr. and his son James moved south to Maury Co., TN in 1823, but the father relocated in 1833 to Graves Co., KY where he began collecting a pension the following year. James remained in south-central Tennessee, where wife Sarah died. Many of his Forbes cousins also lived in Giles Co., which bordered both Lawrence and Maury Cos.

James was living with second wife Nancy, born in NC in 1795, in 1850 in Lawrence Co., TN with daughter Ann (1824), daughter-in-law Elizabeth Callahan Hawthorn (1805, VA,) and her children: Ben (1833), Martha J. (1835), James (1837), Melvina (1839, who married an Inman cousin named Elkanah Dulaney) and Laura C. (1840). Living with James H. Wilson and Sarah Emily Hawthorn in 1850 was her sister Nancy, who was deaf, but married later to James A. Randolph of Giles Co.

The family of James H. and Sarah Emily Hawthorn Wilson 

Sarah Hawthorn and James H. Wilson married c. 1840 -- although the Giles Co. records were destroyed -- and daughter Nancy Lavanda had three sisters, all born in Tennessee who moved to Missouri: Mary (May 7, 1843-April 9, 1912), Margaret (1844-before 1876) and Sarah Catharine (1847-after 1900).

Mary N. married James Lafayette Inman, and Sarah Catherine married Joseph Inman, both brothers of John Wesley Inman. (See children of Elkanah and Sarah Moore Inman for more information.)

Margaret married Rufus Benjamin Tyler in Christian Co. on May 28, 1868, and they had one son, James Isom (February 1869-1940). Rufus B. Tyler (Feb. 24, 1849-1917, Haskell, OK), the son of Isom Tyler and Elizabeth Holderby, had grown up near Pocahantas, Randolph Co., AR. He had served in the Civil War with James Grandison Puryear, who married Mary N. Wilson as her second husband. They had come to Christian Co. after the Civil War with his kin, the Holderbys. Margaret Wilson Tyler died after 1870, and Rufus returned to Arkansas to remarry, leaving his son with the Inmans and Wilsons to raise James I.

James I. Tyler is shown as an orphan boarder, living with his aunt Nancy Ann (Mrs. Francis P.) Inman in the 1880 census. James remained with the family at least until 1900, when he was living with Nancy Ann's son, Will D. Wilson, in Christian Co. before that family moved to Craig Co., OK. James I. married Ella Bell Herndon, the daughter of William Joseph and Frances Hedgpeth Herndon, and they moved to Caddo Co., OK about 1905; they died there and are buried in Memory Lane Cemetery.

Sarah Hawthorn Wilson died c. 1851 in Giles Co., and on Feb. 10, 1852, James H. Wilson remarried to his cousin and second wife Louisa Caroline Inman Glover (December 1813-after 1917), the widow of Finley Glover.  By 1860, James H. and Eliza were living with his three youngest children and Jesse Wood, an 11-year-old boy of unknown origin, on a Porter Township farm.

James Wilson originally was a tenant; the 1856 tax lists show he owned a horse (worth $500?), a cow and three mules. But James H. assembled a farm worth $1,000 and personal property of another $1,040 by 1860.

Living with the family, too, was James' brother Joel, who was something of the village idiot. In 1860, he was unable to read and write while living with brother James H.; within 10 years, Joel was a farm laborer living with his niece Mary Wilson Inman Puryear and her husband. The 1880 census flatly lists Joel as an "idiot" and "insane" while living with Nancy Ann Inman Wilson, his sister-in-law.

James H. Wilson died Oct. 6, 1862; his second wife acted as administrator while Elkanah Inman provided the security. The microfilm of James H.'s settlement records are virtually impossible to read -- and Christian Co. officials say the originals were destroyed -- but he had loaned major sums to other area farmers like Isham W. Faught to buy their land.

By 1870, Eliza Louisa Inman Glover Wilson was doing domestic work and living with Charles Thomas and Matilda Hedgpeth Herndon next door to Nancy Inman Wilson's house. But Eliza married again to William Sanders on Sept. 7, 1871 before Justice of the Peace Benjamin F. Hollowell. (See section on Eliza Louisa Inman/Nancy Ann Inman Wilson.)

William, who died in 1891, was the brother-in-law of Ezekiel Inman, who first had married Sally Sanders, but any relation between the two Inman families has not been documented. Ezekiel's six children by his first wife, however, all emigrated from KY and Indiana to the area along the Greene-Christian county line in the 1840s with their Sanders guardians. Ezekiel essentially farmed out the children and left for Illinois for a second and third marriage that resulted, in total, in 17 children. He died in Bethel, MO in 1879.

The John W. Inman compound

After the Civil War, John Wesley Inman set about establishing what eventually became a 200-acre family compound in Porter Township, Christian Co., southwest of Nixa, adjacent to his mother's 55-acre farm.

By 1876 he owned 85 acres: two 40-acre farms and a 5-acre home site (SE 1/4 of SE 1/4 of Section 21, Township 27, Range 22; NE 1/4 of NE 1/4 and part of NW 1/4 of NE 1/4 of Section 23, Township 27, Range 22). Part remained in his hands, but the lands in Section 23, almost inside the current city of Nixa, went to Birdie McDaniel and her family by 1912.

It is unclear why John did not sell this farm when he moved to Texas in 1884, but he was fortunate because he did return.

Personal property tax records show that John Wesley and Lavanda were running nine head of cattle, three sheep and 14 hogs on the place by June 1, 1892. By 1899 he had divested the land nearest Nixa. Instead he owned, besides his original home place of 80 acres, 40 acres of the land that touched his property on the northeast corner.

John Wesley swapped that 40 acres for another 40 adjacent to his property to the east within the next 10 years. He also bought the property of his three siblings, David, Ann and Jack who moved to Oklahoma in 1900.

In 1908, the holdings included three plots: one 80 acres (S 1/2 of SE 1/4, Section 21, Township 27, Range 22), another 80 acres (S 1/2 of NE 1/4, Section 21, Township 27, Range 22) and 40 acres (SW 1/4 of SW 1/4 of Section 22, Township 27, Range 22) — apparently the largest extent of John Wesley's landholdings.

The property contained a large spring, which fed a creek that joined another spring-fed stream on the property before the unnamed branch flowed into the nearby James River. Also traversing the property was Maupin Hollow, a valley named for one of the early Greene Co. Maupin families.

The compound eventually came to include three houses that sheltered John and his three sons' families and a tiny cabin in the hollow that was rented to tenants like Emily Jane Dewitt Lawson. As late as 1908, John W. was paying taxes for the entire compound himself, both for personal and real property, out of his Civil War pension.

John Wesley and Lavanda survived into their 80s, although Lavanda, a heavy woman, could move little, either because of weight or arthritis. John was more active, even traveling to Oklahoma in his 80s to visit kin, according to the Ozark paper.

According to their death certificates, John Wesley died of chronic nephritis, a kidney disease marked by failure of the organ, and Lavanda was claimed by lobar pneumonia. Both are interred at McConnell Cemetery.

Union Hill Church

Union Hill Church began life southwest of Nixa in 1912 when John Wesley Inman donated an acre of ground and neighbor Jim Young the lumber for a building. Each family bought a pew until enough seating was available.

In 1914 the first "revival" was held in the church, and a predominantly Missionary Baptist congregation was organized with the Rev. Wes Coughron as pastor. But the non-denominational church opened its doors to evangelists of most faiths, much the same as churches did back in Tennessee where the families originated. The sessions were known as "protracted" meetings because, unlike later revivals, they had no set completion date and often lasted four to five weeks. The Ozark newspaper in 1899 noted that one at a Porter Township chapel on the James River lasted for three weeks, leaving 100 persons ready for baptism.

Activity at the church ended largely by World War II; it later burned.

The deed for the church required that the land revert back to the heirs of John Wesley when it was no longer used for those purposes. However, in the 1990s, his grandson William Jack Inman began improvements there, including a chain link fence. He originally described the tract as a family park. He later approached the other heirs for their permission to take over the land, but they refused. Eventually, William Jack's children got signatures from a few heirs on a power of attorney and convinced Christian Co. officials to accept the sale of the property to a Nixa developer, who erected a house there.

Children of John W.

and Lavanda Wilson Inman

Census records indicated that two children died in infancy, but their names were not recorded or remembered by current family. However, John W. noted their births and deaths in his federal pension papers. They probably were buried in unmarked, lost graves in a cedar grove on the farm that Robert Inman owned southwest of Nixa, along with John's infant granddaughter Mabel.

Sarah Jane Inman Love (August 1866-Nov. 28, 1921)

Jane married Louis F. Love (Jan. 20, 1866-Nov. 28, 1932), a farmer and son of Charles I. and Margaret Love of Greene Co., on Oct. 12, 1890 before Justice of the Peace Henry Hubbard. Jane and Lou owned 80 acres directly west of her family's farm.

Among their other neighbors at the turn of the century was John Green McConnell, John W. McConnell's nephew. Green, who had a hot temper according to court records, began arguing with Lou one early March day in 1899 over livestock. The verbal salvoes ended when Green hurled a rock and fractured Lou's skull; he was expected to die. According to the Ozark newspaper, Green "skipped," but he was later apprehended and charged with felonious assault.

Lou may have provoked the altercation because he is recalled by his nephew Robert as a "windjammer" who had set and unshakeable opinions.

Jane and Lou, who later moved to Springfield, had three children: daughter Cora Lavanda (Nov. 24, 1895-Dec. 11, 1983), a nurse who moved to Oklahoma and married a man named Conway late in life; and two sons, Charles Glover (Oct. 14, 1900-March 11, 1970) who married and also moved to Oklahoma; and John Wesley (Sept. 5, 1904-Aug. 16, 1977), who married Violet Bradshaw.

All of the children moved to Oklahoma, but relocated later in life to Lake Wales, Polk Co., FL.

Jane and Lou lie in Greenlawn North Cemetery in Springfield along with Cora and Charles.

Finley Glover "Bud" Inman (March 6, 1869-Oct. 2, 1914)

(separate section)

Mary Martha Frances Inman (Dec. 11, 1871-Sept. 9, 1872)

John Grandison Inman (1873-1932)

John was named, in part, for his uncle, James Grandison Puryear, who had married Mary N. Wilson (Inman) as her second husband.

John married Cora Frazier (Sept. 12, 1880-Aug. 11, 1962), whom he met when he visited his double uncle and aunt -- Joseph Inman and Sarah Catherine Wilson, who were living near Waldron, Scott Co., AR at the turn of the century. Cora was born in Scott Co. to John S. and Nancy Adeline McCord Frazier, who had married in Walker Co., GA in December 1869 just before moving to Arkansas.

The parents had been born, however, in Greene Co., TN, where the Fraziers were likely related to the families who settled west of the Inmans in Christian Co. and came from that area of Tennessee.  According to the late Robert Inman, John met Cora when he fled south of the Boston Mountains in the late 1890s to avoid testifying in a murder case that involved a relative or neighbor, but Robert appears to have confused the story with that of his uncle Andrew and cousin Will Wilson who fled to Arkansas after murdering their brother-in-law Daniel Stephenson in 1882.

John and Cora were married on Oct. 15, 1898 in Scott Co., and their first son Edgar was born the following October. Within two months, John's brother Bud came to take the young family home to Christian Co. But his timing was poor because Bud's wife Mary Alice gave birth to Robert at Cassville in December on the return trip.

In the Inman family compound, John and Cora lived in a two-room house, which they quickly populated, and John operated the molasses mill on the family compound, where neighbors and relatives took their cane for processing.

John, curiously, was listed in the 1880 census as "insane," but he appears to have shaken whatever condition prompted that diagnosis; he is remembered, however, as a considerable drinker. He and Cora lie in McConnell Cemetery.

Among the children, other than an infant who was buried in the family plot that has since disappeared:

— Edgar (Oct. 21, 1899-Feb. 22, 1983) in May 1919 married Marie McConnell (July 13, 1903-Nov. 28, 1938), the daughter of Harvey and Maud McConnell. Edgar and Marie had four children: Ila (Jan. 19, 1924-May 22-1985) who married Carl Widders, Okla (Jan. 9, 1922-Aug. 15, 1933), Avadean Inman Cole (Aug. 18, 1934-July 26, 1951), Glen Edgar (Nov. 20, 1931) and Nolan Eugene (Jan. 20, 1926). Cole and her 2-month-old niece, Carlyla Widders, were killed in a 1951 auto accident in Stockton, KS. Cole was driving with the Widders family as passengers. Curiously, no spouse is listed for the 16-year-old Cole in her obituary.

Glen Edgar married Jackie Prugger, and they had two children, Allen and Glenda.

Nolan married Lena Nokes  after her first marriage to Hugo Hedgpeth. After Lena's death, Nolan remarried to Marcelle Bolin, a McConnell cousin through the Edwards family.

— Anne (June 26, 1901-May 17, 1978) married Homer Nokes, the brother of Lena Nokes. Annie and Homer are buried at Payne Cemetery.  Homer and Lena were among the hundreds of descendants, including the McConnells, of the Kenamore sisters who settled in Christian County in 1852 and 1854.  Homer and Lena were children of W.J. "Bunk" and Lillie Mayabb Nokes, grandchildren of  J.T. Nokes and Nancy Edwards and the great-nephew and -niece of Matilda Edwards McConnell.

— Lloyd (Jan. 25, 1903-April 26, 1950) married Ollie Aven (Sept. 6, 1908), the daughter of Walter A. Aven and Josie Hedgpeth, who after his death married Harvey Ginger (April 20, 1901-April 21, 1971) in 1951. Ollie had her name engraved on each man's monument at McConnell Cemetery. Lloyd and Ollie had no children.

— Lydia (Nov. 7, 1904-Feb. 25, 1980) married Hobart McConnell (Feb. 16, 1898-Jan. 19, 1979), the son of Jim Wright and Mary Frances McCafferty McConnell, on July 5, 1924.  The couple had four children: Tommy, a Nixa rancher who married Dorothy Ford;  Russell, a former Christian County treasurer who married Peggy Shumate; Sue who married Wesley Harp; and Roy (Feb. 8, 1927-Oct. 24, 1932).

— Lavanda (Feb. 11, 1907-Jan. 1, 1985) married Emery Pope (Feb. 3, 1902-Feb. 25, 1980), son of Jefferson Pope and Ella Faught and grandson of Samuel H. Pope and Malinda Evaline McCafferty.  Emery was a builder and farmer. The couple had one son, Leo, and they are buried at McConnell Cemetery.  Leo married Dorothy Martin, and they had two children: Carla and Markel.

— Earl (March 5, 1909-Sept. 18, 1976) married Helen Stamper (Dec. 12, 1913), the daughter of Charles and Nettie Young Stamper,  who lived in Nixa. The couple adopted a daughter, Brenda.

— Kenneth (July 7, 1912-Dec. 19, 1978), who is buried in McConnell Cemetery, married Norma Painter (Feb. 17, 1912), daughter of Jacob Painter and Stella McDaniel. Kenneth worked as a carpenter and a realtor. He and Norma had two children: Wilma (Cox); and Ronnie.

Peter Inman (March 16, 1877-Jan. 1, 1878)

James Elkanah or L. (March 3, 1883-Aug. 13, 1944)

Jim married Martha Jane Sparkman of Nixa (Oct. 6, 1883-April 22, 1980), known simply as Janie, on Nov. 11, 1900 before Justice of the Peace Henry S. Evans. She was the daughter of James Alexander Sparkman and Ophelia Virginia Pruitt.

Jim and Jane eventually lived with John Inman in the four-room main house, and family members whispered that Jim was attracted to his father's veterans pension from the Civil War.

Among Jim's money-making schemes was a sweet potato cellar. Sweet potatoes, unlike other vegetables, keep best in a warm, rather than cool, dark place. Jim built a special cellar with a stove where local farmers could pay to store their yams; Jim, like his brothers, raised yams and stored them in the cellar to sell in the winter for coffee money — then 15 cents for a five-pound can.

Both Jim and Janie are interred in McConnell Cemetery. To them were born:

— Mary (Sept. 20, 1903-1944) married Alva Young (1904-1940) on May 7, 1922. They are buried in Delaware Cemetery in Christian Co. They had one daughter, "Midgie."

— James Homer or Jimmy (July 1, 1905-Aug. 22, 1988) married Laura Mae Norman (May 1, 1909-Sept. 17, 1992) on Dec. 24, 1934. The couple had five children:  Phynis Eugene; Shirley Dean, Glen Edward (May 10, 1939), James Wilbur and Darvin Dee.

Phynis Eugene (Oct. 13, 1935) married Rhea Thomas and fathered Kimberlea Norene (Nov. 28, 1963) and Teresia Elaine (May 17, 1969). Kimberlea married Ernest Gray in 1987.

Shirley (Aug. 1, 1939) married Wayne Edward Davis, and the couple had sons David (Sept. 7, 1956) and Allen Dean (Aug. 14, 1960); David Wayne Davis married Martha Leagh Harvin (Aug. 22, 1953) in 1983, and they had two daughters, Lindsey Anne, (March 21, 1981) and Jennifer Leagh Conroy Davis (April 19, 1977).

James Wilbur (Nov. 4, 1941) married Willadean Davis in 1965, and they had two children, Tony Lee (Feb. 7, 1968) and Tammy Lynn, who died at birth on Oct. 16, 1975.

Darvin (April 4, 1944) married Donna Elaine Wilke (July 7, 1948) and had two children — Dianna Dee (March 31, 1971) and Douglas Eric (Jan.  29, 1975).

Jimmy and Laura Inman are buried in Brookline Cemetery.

— Florence Elizabeth (June 5, 1907-Jan. 31, 1998) married Harvey Jones and helped raise her cousin Grace Inman McConnell's son, Clyde, after the couple moved to California. Florence and Harvey eventually divorced after they had one son, Roger Lee. She remarried to Ernie Miackle, who was killed afterward in a pickup accident also claimed their son, Jerry Michael. Florence remarried a third time to Al Vaillancourt. She had returned to live in Springfield when she died on Jan. 31, 1998, but her burial took place In California.

— Porter Isaac (Nov. 16, 1909-Feb. 6, 1983) married Opal Mae Bolin (Dec. 12, 1912-Feb. 20, 1976) in 1937. Porter was a retired powder plant worker and member of Walnut Grove Baptist Church. The couple had sons Jerry and Dean and six daughters: Edna (Thompson), Mary (Simmons), Rose (Hightower), Donna (Rowley), Nettie (Hubbard), and Martha (Martin). Porter and Opal Mae are buried in McConnell Cemetery.

— Dorae Rachel (Feb. 4, 1911-Sept. 8, 1911) is buried in McConnell Cemetery.

— Louis Carl (Aug. 11, 1913-Nov. 13, 2001) married Ava Lucille Bolin (April 13, 1917-Feb. 22, 2001), daughter of William Dolphus Bolin and Addie Estella Seaton. Louis and Lucille are buried in Oaklawn Cemetery, Olathe, Johnson Co., KS.

— Seth Eldon (Oct. 8, 1918-June 19, 1984) married Joyce Hamilton and Christine Ann Iglodi. He died at the then-State Chest Hospital in Mt. Vernon.

— William Jack (Nov. 3, 1915-Jan. 6, 1998) lived in Springfield where he operated a roofing business with his wife, Mayme Ruth O'Neal (Nov. 7, 1919-Oct. 18, 1981). The couple had three children: Jack Lee (who with wife Joan had  sons Randy and Rod); Jody (who with wife Karen had children Dave and Kim); and Jay Newton (who with wife Glenda St. John had children Andy, Amy and Jason).

A son later operated the company.

— Jewell Alvance (June 3, 1922) married Floyd James Cannady (Oct. 6, 1917-May 16, 1957), son of Robert Cannady and Corcia Hayes. Floyd was a policeman who was electrocuted while working with wiring under their home.  The couple had two sons, Bobby and Danny.

William David Inman (March 10, 1890-Aug. 4, 1939)

Will, the youngest child of John Wesley and Nancy Lavanda Wilson Inman, originally was thought to have been named for his relative William Daniel Wilson, who had been sent to prison for murder. However, numerous records show this man was named William DAVID Inman.

Will, a carpenter, married Artie May McConnell (Oct. 26, 1888-Nov. 20, 1976), the daughter of Jim Wright and Fannie McCafferty McConnell, on Dec. 5, 1909. Will and Artie first lived with his father and mother. But the couple later moved in a four-room house on the family farm and had three children: Raymond Theodore (Sept. 15, 1910-Dec. 11, 1913); Lowell E. (April 24, 1911-April 27, 1991), who lived in Nixa; and Mabel who married Carmen Okla McConnell (Feb. 18, 1916-Nov. 25, 1999), a relation of Artie. Mabel and Carmen had three daughters, Linda Merrill McConnell Noe, Connie McConnell Jones and Marsha McConnell Crotts. Raymond died of bronchia pneumonia, according to his death certificate.

Will and Artie eventually moved to Springfield. Will's nephew, Robert Inman, remembered him as "a fine fellow — until him and his wife separated," although they continued living together. Will eventually moved to Joplin, where he died.

Like his brothers and their wives, Will and Artie are buried at McConnell Cemetery.