Letter from John William Janes to Alice Lane Crarkio, MO, date March 1, 1976:

Dear Cousin:

I will try to answer some of your questions first who Grandma Farr was.  Susan Derry married John Janes and became our Grandparents. When Grandpa died Grandma married John Farr, so became Grandma Farr.

Now I will give the history of John Janes as near as I can, Grandma always said he was borned in Ireland and came to the U.S. at age of 3 years, but his Army discharge shows that he was borned in Penn. but the sure thing we know of his folks lived at Centralia. At the age of 9 or 10 he ran away from home and spent some time in Wisc.

When he became a young man he decided to go see his folks got as far as St. Louis. There he meet a man we always called Uncle Billy Rose who was in St. Louis after a load of cattle and Uncle Billy hired him to help so he went home with Uncle Billy who lived close to the Derrys and he meet Susan Derry and they lived in Ill. most of the time making a trip to West Mo. and Kansas and back to Ill. before the Civil war.

When the war started he joined the nothern army and was sent to the border of Mo. and Kansas was wounded close to Fort Scott, Kan. When the war was over he went back to Ill, stayed there a short time then went back to Kansas close to the place where he was wounded that is where George was borned.

Then they moved over to just west of Humansville Mo. where he homesteded.  This place is just about 25 miles from here and we were lucky enough to find it and went to see it. From here moved to Taney Co. a small town about half way betwene Forsythe and the Ark. line where Grandpa died. He was burried in a grave yard on the Ark. line, this grave yard was covered with water when the Bull Sholdes dam was built.  All bodies was to be moved to the National Cem. at Springfield. I do not know if it was or not.  Then Grandma and the kids went back to Ill.

Grandpa died when Dad was about 9 years old that would make his death some time in 1874.

Grandpa had two sisters, one was Sarah Jane Parkison but do not know the other one.

I would like to know if Jerry and William Hopping had any sisters. That is about all I can give you unless you want to know more about the Derrys.

   Your Cousin,
         Mr. J.W. Janes
         115 W. Broadway
         El Dorado Springs MO 64744

A typed copy of the letter was given to Verna Trayer by Mice Lane in the early 1980s. Do not know if the original was typed or not - doubt it. Tried to contact J.W. Janes after that but received no answer.
         --Verna Trayer

John Alexander Janes grave was where the Hull Shoales Dam was built. All graves were supposed to be moved but there is no record that his grave was moved.

The URL http://RJHenry.com will always point to the current location of this website..