Sunday, February 01, 2009

Emeline Owens Byrd

I found Emeline Owens Byrd's obituary on microfiche of the Independent Record. She is my great-great-grandmother. I have heard all kinds of family lore about her. I usually find a grain of truth in the family lore, but it is usually twisted to the degree that the bottom line isn't true. I heard her father was an Indian Agent in Oklahoma and she spoke several Indian dialects. Family members said she acted as interpreter for the wagon train on the way west. This doesn't add up with other things I've found about her. I do know:


  • She is buried on Cemetary Island. although it was a steep hill and not yet an island at the time.

  • She was born in Missouri 23 November 1825 (so the OK Indian Agent story makes no sense)
  • Family lore has it that on a plantation each of the girls of the owner was trained in a special skill she was to teach the slaves. Emeline is said to have been trained as a seamstress.


  • She had a lot to do with raising my grandfather after his mother died.

  • According to the old Byrd Bible, Emeline had nine children, not seven as stated in the article. One baby, William, died the same day he was born. Another, Alfred, died at 3 months old.

  • We have no picture of her, although we have pictures of her husband and children.

  • She is said to have been active politically. People listened when she spoke.
  • She died 17 May 1894
I guess not much was going on in those days because this obituary was on the front page of the paper. All the punctuation and capitalization is as it appears in the article.

"York, May 21 - Mrs. Emaline Byrd, wife of John Byrd, Sr., born at Liberty, Clay county, Missouri, November 1825, died at York, Meagher county, Montana, May 17, 1894, aged 68 years, five months and eighteen days. She came across the plains to Alder Gulch in Montana, in a cattle team, with her family of five children, and drove thirteen cows in 1865, her husband having come to Montana in 1863, when they came to York, where they have resided ever since.

Deceased was a member of the Southern Methodist church, an earnest worker for the advancement of education for children, highly respected wherever known. There were seven children: three are dead and four living. She is mourned by the whole community. She was buried at Canyon Ferry, May 19, 1894. All of the town that could go to the cemetary did so, where they were joined by another large circle of old friends of the deceased.


Mrs. Byrd was very generous to the poor and needy; her whole life was given to doing good and to make those around her happy. She was a devoted wife and a kind and indulgent mother. She leaves three sons and one daughter to mourn her loss."


John Byrd Sr, is on the front porch of this house, along with some boys who look like Byrds, and and a girl who looks like Clara Bompart (Emeline and John's granddaughter). I think the woman in the rocking chair must be Emeline, but I can't prove it.




Below - Emeline's husband, John Byrd



Molly Byrd Cochrane, Emeline's youngest.Robin Byrd (I think), one of Emeline's sons.

5 comments:

The Silly Witch said...

Wow! In so many ways, she sounds like a woman born born before he time. I'm proud to be related to her, and I hope that I've inherited some of her qualities.

MT Missy said...

What a neat obituary to run across in the paper! I've always thought that your side of the family REALLY felt that education was very important, I guess we know at least one place that that comes from.

Unknown said...

I would like to know her. I like that the worked with children's education and was generous. So neat that almost the entire community attended her funeral! She makes me proud to be a Montanan!

Prudence said...

How wonderful to know she was kind and helped the needy as much as she could.

The Silly Witch said...

Pippi wants to know if she can go to Cemetary Island sometime.