Mary Ann Epps 1826-1883

In November of 1852 a great illness passed through southern Missouri, and many children died as a result. Two year old Marion Eli Estes died November 5, and four month old William Thomas died twenty-five days later on November 30. Three year old James Oliver was also sick abed for weeks, and although he lived, he never was very strong. Polly's younger sister, Almarene Epps Crocker, lost two children the same month. Two year old Sarah Crocker on November 10, and two month old Elizabeth on November 21, 1852. Polly's eighteen year old brother, Johnson Palestine Epps, died November 8. Thus five members of the Eli Epps family died within twenty-five days of one another. Knowing of such grief and sorrow coming to this young family all at once makes one sad. Rebecca Palestine Estes Wilbanks Stavely wrote years later in 1944 that the illness was whooping cough and measles.

Yet life goes on. Thirteen months later, December 4, 1853, Artiller Frances Estes was born to Tom and Polly Ann. We have no clue where the name Artiller came from, and have not been able to find any other person with that name. Frances was from Polly Ann's grandmother, Mary Frances Johnson Miller Taylor. On the day after Christmas in 1855, David Johnson Estes was born. He was named from David L. Estes, brother of Thomas J., who died about that time in Tennessee. The middle name of Johnson was from Polly Ann's grandmother, Mary Frances Johnson who may have died about the same year. On November 6, 1857, a fifth son and third living son was born. He was named Charles Newton Estes. Once again, there is no other Charles in either the Estes or Epps family prior to this time, and it would appear to not be a family name. Polly Ann had a younger brother named Newton Carter Epps, and we believe Charles Newton Estes was named after Newton Carter Epps. The last child, a girl, was born June 15, 1861, and was named Rebecca Palestine Estes. Rebecca was the name of Polly Ann's mother, Rebecca Miller, and also of her paternal grandmother, Rebecca Carter. Palestine, we believe, was the middle name of Polly Ann's brother who died in the 1852 epidemic.

While the family was growing, Thomas and Polly Ann were busy developing the farm as they approached middle age. A great political storm was raging throughout the nation over the issue of slavery and the right of states to decide for themselves whether to be slave or free. Missouri was a focal point for opponents of this controversy Proponents of slavery living in Missouri regularly crossed over to Kansas to vote in Kansas elections to make sure the right persons with the right view were elected. Violence was used to keep the wrong thinking people away from the polls. Anti-slavery factions called Abolitionists raised funds to pay immigrants to move to Kansas to vote against slavery. Many of the men and families recruited to move to Kansas had strong convictions and did not quail at using violence to counter the proponents of slavery from Missouri. John Brown was one of them. Hot headed gunmen from Texas and Arkansas traveled to Kansas and Missouri to kill anti-slavery politicians. These killers became known as Bushwhackers, as they were prone to shoot from hiding. Kansas produced a pro-abolitionist faction known as Jayhawkers. Modern day street gangs with drive by shootings would be tame by comparison. The decade of the 1850s saw many southern families move north and many northern families moved south. There were no geographical lines between those who favored slavery and those who did not. Thousands of southerners opposed slavery, and most did not own slaves. The ablution of slavery was a relatively new adventure, having first started in England, of all places, in the early 1800s. England was the nation that had sold hundred of thousands of English citizens into slavery and had peopled North America until the outbreak of the American Revolution and then Australia with the sweepings of excess population as they were referred to by the great men. It was an English King, Charles II, who was the majority stock holder in the African Company that sold Africans to the American Colonies. Now America was caught up in the new religion, for religion it was, with fanatics on both sides. In the midst of this violence the Thomas Estes family continued to improve and develop their farm in Southern Missouri near the Arkansas state border.

The 1860 presidential election was a focal point for both sides of the slave issue, and when the Republican Party won the election with Abraham Lincoln as the president elect, hot heads in South Carolina served notice that state was leaving the Union and asked other states to follow. Before Lincoln was sworn in, the Union was falling apart. It is apparent that Thomas Jarnigan Estes had expressed support for the Union during the election, because it was not long before Bushwhackers came looking for him.

For four years, until the Civil War was over, Polly Ann and her children lived on the Eli Epps farm in Greene County. When she was forty years old, she and her husband returned to their farm in Howell County. Tom had developed a fatal illness, consumption, that prevented him from doing hard physical labor, and their oldest son, James, was also of a weak constitution as a result of the 1852 epidemic. The oldest able bodied son was David, only ten years old. The oldest daughter, Artiller, was twelve. How the family was able to rebuild, plow, plant and harvest is left to our imagination. No doubt there were neighbors and relatives living nearby that contributed, but a great portion of the work must have fallen upon Polly Ann. With the passing of time, David and Charles grew to take on more and more of the work. The farm prospered according to family history as related by Ella May Lilly, a granddaughter. A young man of twenty-one years of age, Francis Lilly, who had served in the army with Thomas may have come to help out on the farm in 1866 when he was discharged. Francis Lilly married Artiller in 1870 when she was fifteen years old. In any event, we know that Polly Ann had to cook and clean for her family of seven as well as any hired hands for the farm. She had a hard life, full of sorrow and hard work. By 1880 she had developed skin cancer on her face. She may have had the cancer much earlier as she never would allow her picture to be taken. Polly Ann Epps Estes died in 1883, and is buried in Hutton Valley cemetery next to her husband who followed three years later.