The Legend of the Rock House

Many tales have been told about this house in our family lore and I thought I would try to add some facts to the stories as well as some interesting information for those who know the tales and those for whom this is all new.

So how did we end up there?  Well, in 1939 when my dad was but a tike, Grandpa and Grandma lost the farm when they got a mortgage to pay for a tractor and couldn't make the payments.  The Bay family (Aunt Marilyn's parents) allowed them to set up in a corner of their property with good water, a windmill, and shade.  So they bought a tent and lived there-all eight of them-until the crop was in and then they loaded up in a '29 Model A and a two wheel trailer containing all of their worldly goods and left Oklahoma for Seligman, Missouri.

You have to intend to go there to get there.  One doesn't happen to go by. It's a simple rock house on the Missouri-Arkansas line where the only path from Seligman is an old mud road along a railroad track and a low water crossing.  So they had to have a reason to pick this house.  Well, that's where it gets interesting. Not everything in this story can be verified but a lot can. The story goes that the house was built in the Swiss style. Uncle Bart describes it this way, 

"The old rock house was the last house on the road before the Arkansas line. It had been built by a Swiss man who carved out all the stones from the limestone cliffs by hand and built the house in the Swiss style so one wouldn’t have to go out in the deep snows of Switzerland to feed and care for the cows. One could go from the house directly to the milking parlor or go upstairs, cross over the milking parlor to the hay mow, and feed the cattle in the barn below. "

I can document what happened to it after 1900. Grandpa and Grandma passed the papers down to Aunt Leta and after she passed Uncle Loyd gave them to Uncle Vic and he gave them to me. Some were so brittle and faded as to be almost unreadable. BUT there's enough to make a faint trail. So here goes.

I don't know when the house was built but on November the 12th, 1900, a man named G.A.Ramsey sold it to Thomas Banks and he to Mary Frost on March 21, 1901. She in turn sold it to the Sinclairs on January 10, 1903 and they in turn sold it to James Dobbie on January 18, 1904 so this is where it gets interesting. Evidently Dobbie came from Scotland with his wife and they brought their niece Jean, then about 6 or 7. We know this because Jean later sued James Dobbie's widow (his second wife Mary) in 1919. She claimed James was given $15,000 to $20,000 (quite a sum in those days) to support and educate her. She said, in the lawsuit document, that James' first wife died when she was about 13 and Dobbie used the money to buy the house. So she felt the house belonged to her. Apparently she couldn't prove the claim as the house stayed in the Dobbie family until 1922.

James remarried a woman named Mary but she died on April 9, 1918 and the property became hers by virtue of his will dated August 24, 1917 which was probated on April 17, 1918. Mary Dobbie then sold the property to Grandpa George H.T. Bartlow and his sister Laura Tansey for $3500 on May 17, 1922.

The story picks up, document wise, in 1939. The house was apparently handed down to George and Laura's heirs, namely Lucy and Earl (Francis died in 1918 of the Spanish Flu) and Byron and Mildred. We know that because of a letter from Byron to Earl evidently in response to a letter from Earl inquiring into buying the house. Byron says he and Mildred would accept $400 for their half (evidence of the run down condition of the property as noted below). So from there we can only surmise it was all arranged and the Bartlows migrated east. When they took possession they had to do repairs as the house had been rented and the renters who were supposed to use the rent for repairs never did. The roof leaked and one of Grandpa's first tasks was to get some tin and patch the roof.

Living was hard but life continued on. Uncle Vic was born there in 1942, the only one of the kids born during this period (1939-1944). Some indication of life there is described by Uncle Bart, "There was a 40 acre field of alfalfa hay that had never been mowed and was so rich that Earl could stick his arms out level with the top of the hay and a man could throw his hat out over it and it would never hit the ground. Among other crops, they grew peanuts, which they stored in the dining room of the old house on the Arkansas property. After working all day they would shell peanuts and feed the vines to the cattle. One day the peanuts started disappearing and they thought someone was stealing them but later went to the house and found the ceiling collapsed in the dining room. It seems the pack rats had been stealing off with them and storing them in the ceiling between the joists until the weight dropped the ceiling. They packed up all the peanuts, cleaned up the mess, and moved the peanuts to an alternate site. They made their own peanut butter from the crop."

Grandpa never could get enough work, or get paid enough for it anyway. They scraped by near starvation and sometimes the train crew would throw out food. One year they were so close to starvation and they were praying for relief and the Lord provided by way of a trailer load of food showing up just in time from Uncle Willy, Aunt Lucy and their church back in Kansas. Eventually they threw in the towel and moved to Howard, Kansas, close to Uncle Willy and Aunt Lucy. We can only guess that the property was lost to taxes and the family lost hold of the property, theirs from 1922-1945. They farmed in Kansas for a few years, lost everything again, and in 1949 moved to Oklahoma where they were more successful and lived out the rest of their lives.

We are descended from such hardy stock. We are not descended from fearful men.

Note: The Rock House was still standing in 2006 when Kathi and I visited. It can be found south of Seligman, MO on Highway then five miles east of Highway 37 on FR2285 or 2 miles north of HIghway 187 (west of Beaver, AR) on Carroll County (AR) road 232. The Arkansas approach is best as the Missouri approach can be nearly impassable at times.

Approach from US 187 on Carroll Co 232 north.

The Rock House and barn in 2006

Bibliography. Shared with everyone. Click on links below.

Bibliography. Shared with everyone. Click link below.

A Conversation with Warren H “Bart” Bartlow, Nov 9, 2006.  Click Here

A Sunopsis or Testimony, Earl I.T. Bartlow, Undated. Click Here

Rock House Location, Rocky L Bartlow, Nov 13, 2006. Click Here

DobbievsDobbie, page 1 Click Here

DobbievsDobbie, page 2 Click Here

Letter BTansey-EBartlow p1 Oct 15, 1939, Click Here

Letter BTansey-EBartlow p2 Oct 15, 1939, Click Here

Probate, James Dobbie, April 17, 1918, Click Here

Will, James Dobbie, August 24, 1917, Click Here

WD Dobbie to GBartlow-LTansey, p1, Click Here

WD Dobbie to GBartlow-LTansey, p2, Click Here

WD Dobbie to GBartlow-LTansey, p3, Click Here