Your Golden Years I'll Spend With You
Celebrate Golden Wedding Anniversary • After the party was over • Genesis of letter-writing hobby • Getting the old furniture bug • Not born to pull bolts of goods from shelves • Establishing an office • A golden year gallop.
On the day of their wedding, April 21, 1872, Taylor Kingsbury carried his bride, Alice Virginia Smith, across the threshold of Fairview, the comfortable big home built by slaves in 1833. The place was a wedding present from his father, Dr. Horace Kingsbury. Soon after, Taylor planted the first commercial apple orchard in Missouri. All seven of their children were born there. Throughout their 50 years of marriage, Fairview had been a happy home free from tragedy and crisis, filled with joyous memories of their growing family, friends and relatives who frequently gathered to celebrate holidays and special occasions.
Fairview was a mile north of New Franklin, the shopping center for those farming the rich Boonslick Country heartland. The town of about 1600 was on a rising slope up from the Missouri River about three miles away. Looking south across the bottom land and the river, one could see Boonville, a town of about 4500 stimulated by riverboat traffic. To get there, one crossed the river by ferry or rode the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railroad.
Lilburn was then 38. He usually walked a mile south into New Franklin where he was cashier and manager of the Bank of New Franklin. He also had an insurance agency and was active in church and community affairs. A personable, interesting bachelor, he never lacked attractive feminine companionship.
Bank work was keeping him busy. The directors decided to build a new bank building. This and responsibility assumed for promoting and making loans and attracting new depositors ignited his interest in banking.
He spent less time at Fairview. When he told his parents the demands of his work might better be met if he moved to town, it brought a tearful session with his mother. She tearfully lamented, “All your brothers and sisters have gone off and left us. And now you’re going to desert us and we’ll be all alone in this big house. What will we do?” This so moved Lilburn he vowed he would never abandon them. Their well-being was much on his mind - something needed to be discussed with his siblings after the golden wedding party was over.
On March 7, 1922 Lilburn wrote his Cousin Lillian Kingsbury Agnew of Great Falls, Montana, alerting her and numerous Montana relatives of the golden wedding celebration being planned for his parents.
Prior to taking major responsibility for planning the golden wedding party, Lilburn, although a loving son, respecting and honoring his parents, had lived a rather fancy-free existence. Both parents idolized him and gave him the run of their comfortable, pleasant home. He had given little thought to the mortality of his parents, taking their continued presence at Fairview as a given.
A golden wedding celebration was indeed a special occasion! Lilburn, the only unmarried child, living at home, undertook to see it was.
“Father and Mother are going to have a big party on April 21 to celebrate their golden anniversary, and I hereby extend all of you an invitation to come in for the event, and all accompanying activities. We have not decided on the nature of the affair, except it will be quite a public affair, with everybody invited and no presents. We will have to get our heads together from now on to get all the plans made and effected by that time.”
All the children and grandchildren, many relatives and friends were present. One of Grandfather’s brothers, Adkins, a prominent Montana rancher who was later honored by being named one of the state’s two representatives in the National Cowboy Hall of Fame, and his daughter, Mary, came out for the event.
On May 9, 1922, Lilburn wrote his Cousin Lillian:
“I am sending you a newspaper account of the golden wedding. I have intended doing this sooner, but not until today did I get down to the office for the papers.  Ever since Uncle [Adkins Kingsbury] and Mary and Anna Rose and the others came, I have been going, stretched out, on the gay, good-time race track. We haven’t had a nickel’s worth of sleep. I am exhausted, but hope to recuperate in a day or so by getting a few nights’ sound sleep. There hasn’t been anything special to do here, but always some place for us young’uns to go and get home late.”
Celebrate Golden Wedding Anniversary
New Franklin News - April 30, 1922:
A day so fair that even fairies could not complain of the loveliness; an old gray brick home surrounded by budding maples; a flowering orchard of pink and white blossoms to the south; waving fields of young wheat and grass to the west, and the old cemetery to the east, added a touch of sacredness and holiness to the occasion - that was the picture one looked upon as they drove to the home of Mr. and Mrs. R.T. Kingsbury last Friday afternoon to participate in the Golden Wedding Anniversary celebration of this highly-respected couple of southern Howard County.
Nothing could have brought more happiness to friends and relatives than that day. Fifty years of wedded life, not all sunshine, but so much happiness that it made each one glad to press the hands and kiss the lips of these good people, who along the downward path never failed to help the less fortunate, and who have always lived near their God and found all things well. They are now looking toward the sunset of life, their cares are behind them, but by their presence, true reflections of upright Christian characters, they have helped make the community a better place in which to live.
The old house on this day was at its loveliest. The spacious old rooms with their soft light, abundance of cut flowers, the dining room table (the most attractive of all) with the large wedding cake surrounded by 50 lighted candles, the mingling together of the sons, daughters, grandchildren, relatives and many friends of the bride and groom of 50 years was an occasion long to be remembered.
Mr. and Mrs. Kingsbury are lifelong residents of southern Howard County, their birth places being only a few miles from their present home. They have seven children, five boys and two daughters, all of whom returned to the ‘old nest’ for this most joyous occasion. They have every right to be justly proud of these children.
Horace M., the eldest, is one of the best known and successful (now retired) farmers of Howard County.
The second son, William Wallace, has long been a prominent banker and influential citizen of Boonville.
Ernest, the third son, is a prominent and well-to-do citizen of Omaha, Nebraska.
Robert, the fourth son, is a prominent farmer and fruit-grower, his farm adjoining the home place; while Lilburn, the youngest son, is one of our bankers who has played an important role in modernizing banking business in this city.
The oldest daughter, Lillian, is the wife of C.A. Edmonston of New Franklin, and is socially prominent in community activities.
The baby of the family, Anna Rose, is the wife of Will Darneal, a successful businessman in Richmond, Missouri.
About 200 guests were assembled for the occasion and the program was very informal, just as Mr. and Mrs. Kingsbury wanted it to be. The afternoon was spent in social communion, and the renewing of old acquaintances, intermingled with many musical selections rendered by the Culley Orchestra of Boonville. Delicious refreshments were served from the dining room throughout the afternoon.
We congratulate them upon having attained the coveted station in holy wedlock, so often viewed from afar, but so seldom realized. With their present good health, the family chain still unbroken, and bright prospects for many more happy years, they indeed have much for which to be thankful. Their lot is an exception and would it be out of place for us to say, that payment for work well done and faithful servants, has begun on this, the earthly kingdom, while most of us have hopes only in the great beyond.”
Lilburn’s letter continues . . .
As a hearty eating Kingsbury, I’m sure you wish to know about the refreshments.
We served white brick ice cream with yellow heart in the center - heart of apricot ice - individual cakes iced with yellow icing flavored with orange peel. We engaged a five-piece orchestra with a woman singer. While they are a regular jazz orchestra, besides a lot of jazz, I had them play “Kiss Me Again,” “Oh Promise Me,” “Mother MaCree,” and things like that. The vocalist sang the old song about Maggie, “Silver Threads Among the Gold,” “Carry Me Back,” etc.
We had no ceremony - no eulogizing remarks from anybody. It was just sort of an “open house.”
After the Party was Over
It was not long after house guests departed that life at Fairview resumed its normal living patterns. But soon Alice and Taylor’s children and their spouses began discussing how best to assure their elders might live out their lives comfortably in their beloved home.
Discussions culminated in agreement that:
1. Lilburn would continue living at Fairview.
2. Lilburn would assume responsibility for supervisory management of the orchard/farm.
3. Lilburn would monitor his parents’ well-being and provide for their needs - using income from the orchard/farm for that purpose and any improvements in the property he thought necessary.
4. In return, siblings and spouses agreed to waive any claim upon the property.
5. At the death of both Alice and Taylor, Fairview would become Lilburn’s “free and clear.”
To Carry Out This Agreement:
1. He had to find and keep a watchful eye on “live-in-help” to do most of the cooking and cleaning.
2. Employ a farmer to live in the tenant cottage and work with the other farm hands.
3. Begin refurbishing the house and grounds so they would be what he wished when the property became his.
Genesis of Letter-writing Hobby
With these responsibilities added to the growing pressures of his banking, insurance and church obligations he continued writing to relatives. In a Lilburn Says column written in 1972 for the Boonville Daily News, he gives the genesis of this hobby:
For more than 80 years my palm has itched to write and receive letters. Scratching it has afforded me immeasurable pleasure.
It began during the romantic days of high school. A young girl classmate and I, though we had never dated, had come to an agreement that we would pretend we were Lord and Lady Earl of English royalty. Of course, there were official edicts I had to communicate to my lady which had to be delivered during school sessions by couriers in seats which separated us. The thrill of doing this was increased by the risk of having our messages intercepted by the teacher.
2-2. The remodeled Old Seminary where Lilburn met his lady.
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In 1901, it was no bother for me to walk a mile daily to and from Estill, our post office, to get a letter from and mail one to the prettiest girl in the world who had visited in New Franklin, but now lived 150 cruel miles from me. Old Mr. Grider, clerk in the Tutt store where the post office was in the back corner, used to welcome me at the door to gladden or sadden me - “It’s here” or “She done forgot you today.” . . .
He goes on to tell of fascinating female correspondents developed in London, Paris and across the United States. He concludes:
“If I ever fail to get letters, I think I shall die.”
Lilburn knew, to get letters, he had to write letters. This he did diligently - especially in these years to his Cousin Lillian Agnew. In them, he tells of some new hobby-horses he had saddled, bridled and on which he had galloped away.
One of the first things Lilburn did was to get live-in help. This resulted in employment of Mary Kuhne, a deaf mute woman of about 30. Lilburn wrote of her to his Cousin Lillian as follows:
Mother and Father have been pretty well since the first of the year except for colds. Our girl hired as live-in cook and maid gets better all the time and Mother often laughs after breakfast and says, “She has such a hard day ahead of her.” Then Father giggles and says he has too. They spend the day reading, sewing, and picking out nuts, sleeping and just having a good time resting.
Mary Kuhne keeps the house well and Mother has taught her to enunciate quite a number of words. I am sure if one devoted a lot of time to Mary she could be made to speak. She is devoted to Mother and whenever she writes to know anything about Father, calls him “Papa.” We feel like we have a jewel.
Lilburn paid increasing attention to making Fairview what he visioned it being when it became his. He quickly began redecorating the place and replacing the furniture with early American antiques. Collecting these antiques was just becoming fashionable in Boonslick Country. Most of the beds, tables, chairs and chests which had been brought from Virginia or Kentucky, or crafted by the skilled woodworkers emigrating into the community, had been sold off years before or given to the Negro help. Much of it at the time was adorning their shanties. Lilburn wrote Lillian Agnew about the new hobby-horse he was riding.
Getting the Old Furniture Bug
I don’t believe I have written about getting the old furniture bug. I used to laugh at Henry Tindall [a cousin living in Fayette] and Sister Julia and everybody else who cared for the old stuff, but one day I bought a piece of it, got varnish remover, and reduced the wood to its natural finish, then refinished it with satin finish and it looked so good, I decided to furnish a room.
2-3. A bedroom in Fairview, the Kingsbury home in New Franklin, Missouri
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I found a double and a single Jenny Lind bed, both beauties which I had a professional workman finish. Then I traded for the pieces of another one and used the turned pieces and the spindles in having a table and window bench made. I cut up more of the spindles and used them to ornament the top and bottom of a screen made of walnut panels. Then old Mr. Furniture Man gave me a foot-stool, and I picked up some attractive old chairs, all the little stuff, and an old dresser which I found in Moberly at a second-hand store. The little table I had made has a pedestal which came from wood out of our house when we remodeled. The spindles are from a bed brought from Virginia and the top came from the shelf in Grandfather Kingsbury’s old desk. I have found some attractive old picture frames in which I have put prints from old-fashioned pictures. You must have surmised by now that my “stuff” must have over-flowed into another room. My prize piece is a chest of drawers about 85 years old, of cherry and walnut with ash veneer trimming and glass knobs which I found in Warren County, at the home of a spinster, with whom I have been corresponding in the hope of purchasing more of her things.
2-4. Lilburn's Fairview parlor shown when he had finished collecting some of his antique furniture
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Pretty soon I will have the house done over to match the period in which it was built, providing Mother does not pitch me and some of my old stuff, out into the yard. I have had an electric light made using old-fashioned prisms, and also two tall brass candle-sticks which have been adorned with a collar of brass from which to suspend prisms. These are especially attractive. That is how I have spent a good many evenings since the new year. The second room I have started to fix up is to have burnt orange and black draperies and trimmings and will be real gay, festive and loud. After I get these rooms fitted up, I will call them “The Trap,” for with them, maybe I can catch a girl. . . .
I’ll try to keep you posted on how we’re progressing. This year we thought of putting down hardwood - but it is so expensive. I decided I’d see what kind of floor we had down under the paint. So one rainy day, I didn’t go to the bank, but got lye and went to work on the front hall. It’s about 20 x 6 and I found it a terrible job. Took me about eight hours and by then I didn’t have any legs or back left for comfort. The floors in this house are of ash and such a pretty grain. I’ve just put a coat of shellac on the hall floor tonight, and when it dries, it’ll be ready to wax.
In mid-summer, he wrote his cousin:
It’s been about all I can do, moving things along at home, and looking after a bank, but just lately my date and I have been going swimming some and progueing around at night. This I enjoy and at such times I forget my age and responsibilities.
We had a wonderful drive Sunday evening across the hills to Boonsboro, then on to Lisbon, arriving there just about sunset. Then we came back along the bluffs and watched the sunset reflection in the river. We watched the bright colors fade and the stars come out. And the whippoorwills calling and the frogs singing and the high water splashing against the rocks below, and millions of fireflies lighting the cliffs and woods above us. It was like a dream spot, and we stayed so late, we surely had to “whip up” to get home by midnight. We wished for a stop-watch so we could have more time. Now that sounds like serious doings, but coming from me, just pass on over it. I never heard wedding bells ringing up there on the river. But to me, it is the most beautiful spot in the country and I enjoy it as does anybody else with a love of nature. It was so nice Sunday evening I have asked the same girl to go back there with me.
As manager of the bank, Lilburn found himself faced with foreclosing on the Clark Store whose terminally ill owner could no longer manage. Lilburn’s store-owning brother-in-law assured Lilburn it could become a successful operation. So, in addition to his other banking responsibilities, insurance business and supervision of the orchard/farm, Lilburn found himself running the store.
Public response to his management was so ego-satisfying that he bought it from the bank and gave it the Kingsbury name. He thought this might provide the escape from the bank he was seeking.
It took little more than a year for his ego to be fully satiated with store involvement. He felt fenced in, unable to find time to ride his hobbies.
Not Born to Pull Bolts of Goods from Shelves
The New Franklin News of September 26, 1924 announced:
“Mr. Kingsbury is closing out his store because of other interests which require his entire time.”
That wasn’t the whole truth, Lilburn told me late in life when I asked him about his experience as a merchant. He said he always had interests to which he wished to devote his entire time but that he soon found the store wasn’t one of them. He went on to say:
I discovered I had not been born to the art of pulling bolts of cloth from shelves for discriminating women and then putting them back in place only to have to repeat the performance for another customer.
I couldn’t become accustomed to seeing the latest styles of ladies fashionably trimmed hats tried on by women who punished them by pulling a brim up or down trying to make it attractive to their faces. I grew weary of women trying on dress after dress and more often than not leaving the store without buying a thing or even saying, “Thank You.”
The News story continued:
The entire stock of the Kingsbury Store will be placed on sale in a Quit Business Sale. It is arousing county-wide attention and will no doubt attract people by the hundreds. The people of South Howard County particularly know the goods are fresh stocks offering bargains seldom found in a close out sale.
...Besides the usual and far-reaching reductions ample in themselves to attract hundreds of shoppers, a contest will be inaugurated and many valuable prizes will be awarded during the sale. New stunts will be introduced every few days that will be of great interest. Mr. Kingsbury says this is positively a quit business sale and the big selling event will continue until everything is disposed of.
The following week’s News (October 3, 1924) carried this story:
The Quit Business Sale of the Kingsbury store continues to be the talk of the Town and Country and the store is filled daily with eager shoppers.
Interest is kept at fever heat by the new and unusual stunts concluding with the giving of some useful, worthwhile prizes. Contestants working in the sale for the 10 capital prizes offered by the store at the conclusion of the sale are all distinguishing themselves as hard workers seeking patronage for the store with the hope of securing votes to win some worthwhile prize.
Wednesday, October 1 was registration day and a great day for the Rustlers, as the contestants were called. Every person registering at the store had 1000 votes to give one of the contestants and every mile one came (up to 30 miles) in order to register, counted another 1000 votes. People were registering from New York, West Virginia, Colorado, Michigan, Kansas, Indiana, Illinois and Iowa. The Rustlers were even waylaying tourists passing through.
The end of the sale was reported on October 17, 1924:
The Kingsbury Quit Business Sale closed at 3 o’clock this afternoon, every article in the big stock of ladies wear, dry good and gents furnishings having been sold.
The sale in many respects was the most unique ever held in this section of the country. What contributed more than anything to the complete success of the sale was the interest in buying caused by the Rustlers’ Club who were competing for the 10 capital prizes. [First prize was a diamond ring; second, a handsome cedar chest.]
Of all the stunts, the most interesting was the giving away of the “real live white baby” on Wednesday of this week. It was the talk of the town and at 9:30 of that evening the store and street were blocked with people eager to see the baby and the winner. The doubt among some and curiosity among others as to whether or not a real baby would be given away only added to the interest and the award offered much amusement.
The baby proved to be a small white pig all dressed up in baby clothes and was won by Mrs. Margaret Robinson.
With the closing today of its doors, the Kingsbury Store passed out of existence in this city, a fact much regretted by the many friends of the store throughout the Boonslick Country.
When Lilburn and I were discussing his store, I asked him if he had any regrets about closing it. He closed his eyes, pressed the palms of his hands to his cheeks, and was silent, apparently in deep reflection. Then he opened his eyes, dropped his hands, looked roguishly at me, grinned and said,
“Well, yes. I wish now, I’d promised to give away ‘two real live babies - one white pig - one black - but that was before desegregation.”
Establishing an Office
Shortly afterwards, to devote more time to his parents and orchard/farm operations, Lilburn left the bank. He bought the building across the street vacated by the Citizens’ Bank when it merged with the Bank of New Franklin. There, he established an office he maintained until his death in 1983. From it, he serviced his insurance customers, handled the Fairview records, stored many of his collectibles, and kept his genealogical and historical records. Unless he was away on a trip, he tried each day to spend some time in his office.
These two moves enabled him to fulfill the commitment made to his brothers and sisters of looking after the well-being of their parents.
On October 3, 1925 Lilburn wrote Lillian Agnew about this:
The hot days of September played havoc with the Jonathan and other fall apples, preventing them from coloring and they nearly all fell off onto the ground. The winter varieties are falling so badly we are having a terrible waste in harvesting the crop...
Lilburn's office in New Franklin
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I am still antiquing around. These last few weeks, I have added a mahogany table, a mahogany dresser, and the quaintest old brass lamp you can imagine to my collection. Am having the old lamp wired for electricity so its appearance will not be changed. The mahogany furniture has such lovely crochet designs on it. Then I had some foot-stools made, but instead of a cross-stitch top, I am using a hooked woolen top.”
Paralleling Lilburn’s interest in furnishing Fairview’s interior with antique furniture, glass and china was a desire to embellish the surroundings of the old home. In the text of a talk he gave in 1977 to a Boonville Garden Club, he wrote:
There was a time, 45 years ago, when I was just as enthusiastic and devout a gardener as you are. I was making a formal garden (60 x 20) at one side of my house. There was a large bed in the center with rock walks from three sides to and around it. The walks were bordered with jonquils. As much as possible, I planted perennial flowers: lilies, delphinium, poppies, gaillardia, hollyhocks and iris. Highly esteemed were the “starts” which garden-minded friends gave me to “homestead” a claim on my garden. It was beautiful in its formality for many years - but how informal it is now!
In 1925, the road past my home was christened No. 5 and a concrete road was built. To widen it, they cut off a part of our front yard. They left a terrace across the front, a deep bare surface which seemed unsightly. I conceived the idea of planting iris on that terrace to spell out the name “Kingsbury” using a different variety for each letter, arranging them as much as possible so the colors would harmonize.
It made a beautiful display for years, and people had no trouble finding where the Kingsburys lived.
A Golden Year Gallop
The winter of ’26 - ’27 was a severe one. Lilburn’s parents had resisted Lilburn’s attempts to persuade them to go to Florida, where they might get out and around. Spring brightened their lives. Their health improved. They became restless and “put their goin’ shoes on.” With Lilburn as the chauffeur and his sister Lillian along for the ride, off they went. Lilburn wrote of their “wild ride” to his Cousin Lillian on July 20, 1927.
We have been back home 10 days from that wild ride through Missouri and Arkansas. Toward the last days it became a hurried and distressing trip, but now that all of the wrinkles put in us have been ironed out, we are inclined to renege on our oath that we would never go again, and have even expressed the hope we may yet get to Niagara Falls. In Memphis, mother said she could not eat fresh peaches, for they always “just ruined her.” But not many hours later, when I brought some fresh peaches to our room at the hotel, she proceeded to eat two of them. When we got started on our way in the afternoon, she was seized with awful griping.
We were carrying a bottle of Chamberlain’s Colic Cure with us and I gave her the prescribed dose for an adult. It was good for her in a way, but she declared I had given her too much, for her stomach burned so badly, she continued to feel quite miserable. We were headed for Sikeston, Missouri, 157 miles and we had a good trip, but ran into a wind and rain storm which worried mother terribly. We pressed on to Sikeston where we intended to rest a day or two and give her a chance to recuperate.
But we were not destined to remain in Sikeston long. We arrived at 8 p.m. and at 6 a.m. mother was up, as was father, and was clamoring to ride on so she could get home as quickly as possible. She looked just awful and was so hot we all knew she had fever, but she wouldn’t listen to reason, and we thought it might make matters worse to use force, so away we went, rushing to get the 155 miles to St. Louis in time for her and father to catch a train which would get them home a little quicker than we could drive the distance. Mother was complaining of such pain, we figured a Pullman would be much easier on her. By the time we arrived in St. Louis, I knew she was in no condition to go on a train or anything else, so we just went to a hotel and remained until she was better. The following day, after a good rain in the night, we had a lovely cool day and availed ourselves of it to drive on home and she stood the trip nicely and has been resting and improving ever since.
Father was like castor oil to the rest of us. We would not get to bed at one place before he would have us passing on to the next. Always up by seven and ready for me to drive the car around and load up. And if we made our allotted daily distance in good time he would see no reason why we could not go on to the next big town, 60 or 70 miles further, provided the roads were reported good.
When we got to Hot Springs, the rest of us just struck on him and said we were settled for at least three days, when he said just after we got up to our rooms, “Well, I have seen all of Hot Springs I care to see for a while.”
The rest of us enjoyed everything there and have decided it would be a nice place to spend time in the winter, the busy season. It is a town with a permanent population of 16,000 which has accommodation for 25,000 visitors. It had one long crooked main street, and the $12 million worth of bath houses are all in a row on same. There are foreign shops like one sees in Los Angeles and San Francisco, and hotels and cafes by the hundreds. We liked the water very much. There are some 50 springs but the mineral content of the water varies so little in any of them that the difference is negligible. Some of the water is 172 degrees hot, and is drinkable though too hot to hold your hand in.
Our next stopping place of any importance was Memphis, though we did spend a night in Morrillton and went out to see the nurse who had taken such good care of father in the Boonville Hospital. There we found three of the old Boonville nurses and they chatted and took on over dad and seemed very glad to see us. They had gone down there to open up a hospital. We were located so nicely in Memphis that I was hopeful father would catch the like-it from me.
Before we had enough of Memphis, dad decreed we should move on. Next time he wants to take a trip, we shall get him connected with some passing band of gypsies. He thrived on the trip, apparently has regained his customary weight and looks fine. I think he could have gone on indefinitely, provided we did not stop anywhere long. But since he has been home, he has complained of some abrupt shortness of breath when he exercises. This is probably due to excessively high temperatures, as our weather has been pretty warm.
Since I have been home, there has been the hay harvest and plenty of other things to do, some of which are done; some are not.
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