Joplin Cemetery Transcription
JOPLIN CEMETERY
Also known as Mt. Herman or Kirby Cemetery.
Benton County, Missouri
For more Benton County research and resources, please check
out our Benton County page.
From 65 Highway south of Fristoe, go west on Raven Road to
Crabtree Road. Go north on Crabtree, then turn east on a small
path between the cedar trees.
For maps and directions of Benton County cemeteries, check out
my Cemetery List page.
Photographed and transcribed by Johnna Quick, Jane Owens and
Brenda Traylor on 16 October 2004. This is a partial transcription,
it will be completed as more stones are found. This is in very
bad condition, and we will be working on it in the future!
*NOTE: Sally Durossette Larkin sent me an old transcription done
in 1965 by Nannie Jinkens, Goldie Holley, Jake and Iva Bird. It
contains probably the most accurate listing of stones that existed at
this cemetery. Sally is a descendant of William Durossette and his
wife Margaret Parsley Durossette. The land that the cemetery is on at
one time belonged to William and Margaret, and although they are
probably buried here, there are no remains of their stones.
Information from this transcription is noted by []brackets.
BIRD
[Martha A daughter of E&ME Bird died 7/22/1882 aged 1yr 6mo 28da]
[Emanuel Co I 45 MO Inf 10/30/1846 4/15/1912]
[Mary E (Reno) 7/22/1864 5/19/1937]
BROWN
Lorinda C 5-24-1861 3-23-1933 [Lucinda Caroline]
James M 2-26-1854 2-6-1891
FERGUSON
Henry N 7-20-1825 death date unreadable
Fern daughter of Byron and Mary 4-6-1898 10-15-1898 [1899]
Bulah Aleeta daughter of Byron and Mary 1-17-1894 8-31-1904
[Lula C daughter of Byron and Mary 12-27-1891 9-9-1893]
HOLLEY
Amy 8-17-18?? 4-26-1880
John B 1801 4-11-1870
[Martha Oct 1871]
KIRBY
[Lucindy wife of Robert 12-13-1796 4-17-1886 aged 89yr 4mo 4da]
[Robert W husband of Lucindy 12-17-1785 9-12-1841]
[Beersheba daughter of CB & S Kerby 3-16-1859 10-27-1861
2yrs 7mo 21da]
[Harvey W son of JH & MJ Kirby died 1-15-1865 age 8mo 21da]
*For more Kirby information, see article at bottom of page.
McGLAUGHLIN
[William E husband of Elizabeth 6-8-1828 3-19-1865]
NORMAN
Lonzo R son of Robert and NJ 12-28-1889 1-3-1920
Infant son 3-29-1891 4-5-1891
Alma daughter 6-14-1892 7-12-1892
Infant son born and died 1896 (all three on one stone)
[Above all children of Bob W & MJ Norman]
[Bob Norman no dates]
[John Norman Co C Osage Co MO H G]
[Herbert H S Norman 3-7-1911 10-7-1915]
[Emery M Norman died 7-9-1949 or 1959 aged 86yr 9mo 5da]
[Mary M wife of James 7-29-1862 10-10-1882]
[Zada daughter of J & M 6-15-1881 11-6-1881]
[Luther son of T & J 12-29-1893 11-9-1894
RENO
[Sarah Margaret 1829 1875]
ROBERTS
Elizabeth 9-16-1851 2-5-1936
Lemuel D 8-29-1842 9-17-1910
[Alva 5-23-1905 10-3-1907]
SHULL
[Telley & Baby]
NO SURNAME LISTED
[Henry]
[John H]
[William]
Information contributed by Jeff Kirby:
John C. Kirby
JOHN C. KIRBY, M. D. For the past fifteen years the name of Dr. John C.
Kirby has been increasingly identified with the best tenets of medical and
surgical science in the city and vicinity of Cedar Vale. By many of the
longest established and most conservative families his skill, resource and
obliging temperament have come to be regarded as indispensable, and there
exist many who are indebted to him for their restoration to health,
happiness and usefulness. Doctor Kirby has the zeal which recognizes no
limitations in his profession, and the great unrest which projects him
into ever-widening channels of research. His most prized attributes in
part are inherited from colonial sires, who braved the perils of early
Carolina and whose successors, when duty called, followed the martial
fortunes of Washington in the winning of American independence.
John C. Kirby was born in Benton County, Missouri, January 7, 1864, and is
a son of Robert and Nancy J. (Davis) Kirby. The earliest American ancestor
of the family came to North Carolina from England, prior to the War of the
Revolution, in which the great-grandfather of Doctor Kirby fought as a
soldier of the Continental line. Robert Kirby, the grandfather of the
Doctor, was born in North Carolina, fought as an American soldier during
the War of 1812, became a pioneer into Tennessee, and in 1843 moved to
Benton County, Missouri, where he passed the remainder of his life as an
agriculturist and died before the birth of his grandson.
Robert Kirby was born in 1832, in Tennessee, and was eleven years of age
when taken by his parents to Benton County, Missouri. There he was married
and engaged in farming, and had just gotten himself nicely started upon an
agricultural career when the Civil war came on to interrupt his forward
march to prosperity and to end his life. As a son and grandson of soldiers
he enlisted in the Home Guards, in Missouri, and in 1865, while
endeavoring to assist his comrades in the capture of a band of roving
guerrillas, was treacherously shot and killed by these free-booters, who
were wearing Federal uniforms. Mr. Kirby was a stanch republican and a
faithful member of the Christian Church. He married Nancy J. Davis, who
was born in 1833, in Kentucky, and died in 1907, at Sedan, Kansas, and
they became the parents of five children: Jacob, who was an employe of the
Missouri Pacific Railroad and died in 1899, at Arkansas City, Kansas;
Emory D., who was a college professor at Battle Creek, Michigan, for a
quarter of a century and died in 1915, in New Mexico, whence he had gone
to restore his health; James J., who is manager of the Fitch Manufacturing
Company, at Boone, Iowa; Lucinda, of Berrien Springs, Michigan, widow of
William Curtis, who was an Adventist minister; and Dr. John C., of this
review. The mother of these children was again married, being united with
O. H. Sheppard, a farmer of Sedan, Kansas, who died at that place in June,
1912. They became the parents of four children, as follows: O. H., who is
engaged in farming in the vicinity of Geary, Oklahoma; Cornelia, who is
the wife of R. Heinebaugh, a retired merchant of Sedan; Alice, who is the
wife of Herbert Comer, in the United States mail service at Sheridan,
Wyoming; and Annette, who is also married and a resident of Wyoming.
John C. Kirby received his early education in the country schools of
Butler County, Kansas, to which locality he had been brought as a child of
eight years by his mother and step-father. Subsequently he went to the
Kansas State Normal School, at Emporia, where he took the academic course,
and following this spent a part of one year at the Kansas University. He
then commenced his medical studies at Iowa State University Medical
College, from which he was graduated with the class of 1892, and receiving
the degree of Doctor of Medicine, and since that time has taken two
post-graduate courses in the Chicago Post-Graduate Medical College, one in
1901 and one in 1907.
Doctor Kirby commenced the practice of his profession at Barnston,
Nebraska, where he remained two years, and where he passed through a part
of his career that is always the most difficult for the young physician.
He next changed his field of activity to the community of Verona,
Illinois, and remained there for eight years, and in 1901 came to Cedar
Vale, where he has since remained. He has been engaged in a general
medical and surgical practice at Cedar Vale, and the community has
generously and readily responded to his bid for co-operation with
commendable promptness and mutual benefit. His offices are located in the
Dosbaugh National Bank Building, and his home, which he owns, is on Maple
Street. Doctor Kirby belongs to the American Medical Association, the
Kansas Medical Society and the Chautauqua County Medical Society, and his
high standing among his fellow practitioners is evidenced by the fact that
he is president of the last named association. He has been successful
financially, as well as professionally, and is the owner of valuable
farming interests and oil lands. Formerly he was vice president of the
Alene Oil Company, of Oklahoma. A prominent and popular fraternalist, he
belongs to Barnston Lodge No. 165, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, of
Barnston, Nebraska; Cedar Lodge, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, of
Cedar Vale; Cedar Vale Lodge, Ancient Order of United Workmen; and Cedar
Vale Camp, Modern Woodmen of America.
In 1898, at Verona, Illinois, Doctor Kirby was married to Miss Lois
Dondanville, who died at Cedar Vale in 1907. They had three children:
Louise, born November 24, 1899, now a junior at the Cedar Vale High
School; Jeane, born November 24, 1899, twin of Louise, and a member of the
same high school class; and Evelyn, born in April, 1903, who is attending
the graded schools. In 1909, at Winfield, Kansas, Doctor Kirby was married
to Miss Bertha McNeely, a daughter of William and Sarah (Houston) McNeely,
residents and retired farming people of Cedar Vale. Dr. and Mrs. Kirby are
the parents of one son, John Paul, born April 19, 1910. Energy,
adaptability, gentleness and sympathy have blazed the way for a gratifying
realization of professional ambitions, and by the same token it may be
said of Doctor Kirby that much is promised to a man who has, in addition,
the maturity, practical experience and broad outlook upon life of
fifty-three years.
Transcribed from volume 4, page 2093 of A Standard History of Kansas and
Kansans, written and compiled by William E. Connelley, Secretary of the
Kansas State Historical Society, Topeka. Chicago: Lewis Publishing
Company, copyright 1918; originally transcribed 1998, modified 2003 by
Carolyn Ward.