EDWARDS FAMILY IN NEW YORK SETTLEMENT

Narrator: Mrs. Ollie Peabody, 86, Hamilton, Missouri

The Trip From Virginia Reasons For Moving

The Marriage Cap Frolics of the Edwards Family

Mrs. Peabody was the daughter of Isaac Edwards and Nancy Moore of Grayson County Virginia who made the trip from the hills of Carroll County Virginia to Caldwell County in a covered wagon 1849. They settled in New York Township then called Grand River Township. Mrs. Peabody recalled much of that trip west which took six or eight weeks. They were strict Campbellites and did not travel on the Sabbath. Whenever they stopped Saturday night they stayed till Monday Morning. They herded their cattle along the road and often the cattle were a day behind the wagons. At night the women folks slept in the wagons, the men folks under the wagons.

There are two reasons for their coming west. First Mr. Edwards had several of the Edwards clan (who largely composed the neighborhood) marry their own cousins; and he said he was going away so his children would not have to marry their cousins. Again little Ollie (Mrs. Peabody) had the pthsic and needed a change. When they started she had to stay in the wagon, but when she got to Caldwell county she could ride horse back.

Mrs. Peabody was never seen without a cap to the day of her death. She said she put on a cap with her wedding veil and after that she was never without it except to comb her hair or wear a hat. It was a sign "back there in Virginia" of a married woman. At night she wore a night cap. Mrs. Rosamond Bowers her sister knew of this custom but did not observe it.

The social events of her day were many. Infair dinners were always given the second night after a wedding. Her own family gave an infair for an orphan girl who had been married. There were dances, games and the Virginia reel. She and her sisters used to ride horseback half a day from the Bowers home in New York Township to attend a "play party" up at the Bowers home in Daviess County. They would stay all night and return the next day