Values

Henry Byrd

Born 29 Aug 1849, Smithville, Platte County, Missouri

Died 18 March 1923, Millegan, Cascade County, Montana

A friend was telling me about some of the language and expressions used in her family as she grew up.  While my family was far from perfect, I felt grateful that crude language and expressions would not have been tolerated in my family.  My Dad, uncles, and grandfather were particular about what they said when women were present.  As I reflect on it, I believe both my Mom and Dad came from people with class. Below is family history recorded by Nellie Byrd who knew Henry and Robin Byrd (my father's great uncles).  Punctuation is as recorded in the document.

Uncle Henry, who was 56 when I first remember him, was even then gray-headed.  In Southern families the oldest son was always the head of the family when the father was gone.  All our lives Uncle Robin and Dad always consulted Uncle Henry about everything.

Uncle Henry was slender, probably about 5'8" or 5'9", tall and walked with a slight limp, as he had a broken leg when young and it healed shorter than the other leg.  He was a kind and loving man and very proper.  He had been raised very properly and expected us to uphold the Byrd name.  He always felt responsible for the rest of his family.  I asked Daddy why he never married and he told me that once Henry was very much in love with a young woman and had given her a ring.  He was gone during the summer, herding his cattle in the mountains, and when he returned, he found she had been unfaithful to him.  He went to see her and confronted her with it and she admitted it was true and returned his ring.  Dad (John Byrd Jr.) remembered seeing him come home and he threw the ring in a manure pile.  Anyway, he was never close to any other women.

He had large blue eyes that twinkled and smile wrinkles around them, lots of soft gray hair and mustache and chin whiskers, kept trimmed.  He rode like cavalry man.

His word was his bond and he expected everyone else to be the same.  He lent people money, which some did not repay.