My Genealogy Hound

OWEN L. BIRD, farmer and stock-raiser, residence four miles south of the city of Carthage, Jackson township, was born in Kalamazoo county Mich., Nov. 24, 1839. When eleven years of age he immigrated with his father, Friend Bird, to Kankakee county, Ill., where his father, who was a prosperous farmer, died in 1855. In the year 1866 the subject of this sketch came to Jasper county, Mo., and two years later, Nov. 30, 1868, he was united in matrimony to Martha Maginnis, who was born in Jasper county in 1840. The names of the children are as follows: Morris C., Mary E., Oliver C., and Frederick I. Mr. and Mrs. Bird are both members of the Center Creek Church, in good and regular standing. The farm comprises eighty acres of the best bottom-lands of Center Creek, about forty-acres improved; twenty-seven acres of corn averaged forty bushels; five acres of oats averaged fifty-two and a half bushels per acre. He owns a fine flock of 200 sheep, besides other kinds of stock. The father of Mrs. Bird, Mr. Maginnis was one of the earliest settlers of Jasper county. Her mother was left a widow with a large family of daughters, and saw some of the border incidents. When Price made his raid through southwest Missouri the country was sadly used. Two soldiers were found hung on a peach tree, on what is known as the Dale farm, now owned by Judge Geo. Cormine, and were burned under an apple tree nearby. They were left hanging on the tree when the soldiers left, and Mrs. Bird and a sister were preparing to bury them, having cut them down, when some men appeared on the scene and interred them. One gave his name as Foster and said his home was at Pilot Knob. Such incidents of the war, although abounding in stern realities, rival the most highly colored tales of fiction.