THE RAPE OF
HOWELL AND HAMBURG, MISSOURI
(An American Tragedy)
by
Donald
K. Muschany
COPYRIGHT © 1978 BY DONALD K. MUSCHANY. ALL
RIGHTS RESERVED.
[Letter 7]
March
3, 1977
My dearest wife, Mary
Jayne:
The type of research I am doing is indeed
dangerous in this era of ERA, but, intrepid soul that I am, I plunge on.
When a man attempts to trace his begetters
of “folks,” he is apt to overlook his beloved spouse and her kith and kin. With
me, not so. I am an equal opportunity husband and am going to make a search, as
we call it at the genealogical society, for your illustrious forebears as soon
as I lay the Clan Muschany to rest.
In all honesty, I must say that I did not
dream I had so many ancestors; I find it hard to believe that anyone is an
orphan in the fullest sense.
The Howell area could have been called
Muschany Meadows, or Keithly Korners (my mother was a Keithly, as you know), if
there had not been so many Castlios, the Stewarts, the Darsts, the Morrises,
the Doughtys, the Audrains, (are you still with me?) the Callaways, the Boones,
the Millers, the Howells, the Pitmans, ad infinitum.
To me, these are a bunch of “players in
search of an author,” to steal a phrase from literature, and I am attempting to
give their lives a plot in order to make this collection readable and
pleasurable for our children . . . and theirs. This is slow but rewarding work
as I do have leeway to philosophise as I go along. You, of all people, know
that I am a frustrated historian and philosopher who had to make a living while
keeping these two subjects on hold.
The benefit of being my age is that there
is a lot of time behind me and, hopefully, a pretty good amount ahead. The
Travelers Insurance Company is betting that I do have some extended time, and
they are not rich because they make bad bets. What a practical way to look at
it! I never thought of that before!
Dear Mary Jayne, You and I know of our
personal struggle shared with all the other young couples we know. There is no
point in regaling our kids with “we did without this or that,” but rather tell
what we did “with” and what those before us handed on to us. Not money,
necessarily, but inspiration, love, family loyalty (a precious commodity which
has been out of vogue for years), religion (which is making a comeback), and
self-respect coupled with dignity.
We have learned that one cannot have
self-confidence without first having self-acceptance. This latter is impossible
unless we seek self-respect. Our families did this by the simple ploy of being
honorable people; a handshake was a contract. Apparently there was not a surplus
of lawyers in the history of Howell. It’s not that I have anything against the
men of the bar, but that a simple buy-and-sell agreement seemed to be all that
was needed. I found several manuscript copies of sale contracts, even one in
which value of the slaves are included. (No, dear, not housewives, just
slaves.) Also, estate sales, and those of farms, cattle, land and stores. All
very simple and written in long hand. Also a land grant from Martin Van Buren,
the eighth president of the United States, again very simple and to the point.
We all felt Cal Coolidge and Vermonters in
general used an economy of words. I think the whole country did, with the
exception of politicians on the stump, of course. ’Twill be ever thus, I’m
afraid. So, bear with me, dear lady, your time will come and you can help me
dig . . .
All
my love,
[signed:
Don]
