Born 1846~Taney County, Missouri

The following was written before we located the above info.

Died 1861*???  Missouri - a Civil War Causality

Son of John Robert & Hannah Lewallen

Written By Carol Ann Ross-White:

The story of James Ross Lewallen’s short life (or should we say his death) has been told many times by family and kin until it was put down in the book John H. Mitchell wrote titled “Tales of the Bull Creek Country” The first time we hear the book was going to be written was around the late 1970’s.  We had almost given up on it being published when we found a copy in 1993.

Our mother was born and raised in the Ozarks, her father was James Ross Hilton and her mother was Minnie Edith Thornton.  Kate Hilton (wife of Ferd Gideon) was our grandfather’s sister. Kate and Ferd were Irene Gideon Mitchell’s grandparents.  We were pleased that our mother got to read and enjoy the book at long last; she especially liked the stories about her grandmother, Gamma Polly.  My sister and I grew up here in the east and we always looked forward to the trips home with our mother during our childhood.  In 1980 my sister Lu Dawn, myself and our mother headed west once more to travel back in time to learn more family history.  That year we brought our daughters and spent the time visiting family, cemeteries, and looking up ancestry at the Ozark court house.  Thanks to John and Irene Mitchell for their little blue book we still love to read as it still has bits of information to reveal with each re-reading. 

When I first read about the short lived life of James Ross Lewallen I was struck by the circumstances of his death and wanted to know more.  I have spent many hours searching for a personal story or reference in history or even a newspaper article about the incident, to no avail to date.  What I have learned is how difficult life back then was, especially during the awful Civil War.  I did not find one “civil” thing about the war in the articles I have read.  It was truly terrible times with so much pain, sorrow, starvation, intimidation, and death all around. 

When the Union Army took control of Springfield and Rolla, President Abraham Lincoln ordered that Rolla was to be held at all costs because of the vital military supplies that passed through its railroad terminals.  Most of these supplies had to be hauled by huge freight wagons over the main roads to all the Union armies stationed in Springfield, the Linn Creek area known today as the Lake of the Ozarks, and Harrison, Arkansas.

 With all the able bodied men enlisted to give their military service to the north or south (while other chose bushwhacking, murder, and mayhem) many more were needed to provide supports for all aspects of the home front.  One of those called to serve was the young son of (our ggg-great grandmother) the widow Hannah Lewallen, his name was James Ross.  He was only 14 or 15 years old when he started driving the military wagons over the freight roads. I was impressed with the description and sizes of these freight wagons and the number of draft horses needed to pull them, thus the name “teamsters” was given for the drivers. We may never know if James enlisted in the military, volunteered as an independent contractor, or was forced by the military to drive the supply wagons over the dangerous roads.  In any event he was surly trying to help his mother and the family the best way he could.  What we do know is that shortly after the Civil War started, several tragic events transpired upon the Lewallen family of Taney County, with his death being but one of them. 

When the war opened, Hannah had been head of the family for about ten years due the passing of her husband after 1850. He too had been traveling over dangerous roads, not in Missouri or in War Time, but the many roads known as the Oregon Trail.  John Robert and his oldest son Bill were going to (or returning from) the great Gold Rush.  As it always seems to be the way, news spreads across the hills to the ears of loved ones home in Taney County.  A neighbor brought the words that they had drowned in the great Platte River somewhere along the trail. He reported that they went swimming shortly after recovering from Cholera, adding that the Cholera had left them too weak to swim against the rivers swift currents.  This too was word of mouth about loved ones fate and once more they were never heard from again.

Now the hills were ringing out the words that a young boy form Taney County had been killed while driving the military supply wagon across the Rolla Wagon Road to Springfield, Missouri and Harrison, Arkansas. (Perhaps the very road the family had traveled on their way from Yellville, Arkansas to Taney County arriving about the same time James arrived in this world.) They said he had been killed by bushwhackers and many thought it was James, Hannah’s young son.  Hannah was never to know for sure if it was her James that was killed this day, but he never returned home.  His body or whereabouts was never found nor were the perpetrators as it was lawless times.  A history of the times I read while researching tells of one mother who lost her son in much the same way.  She had the means and made it her mission to locate her son that the Union army had “abducted” into their service.  She was able to follow the hearsay trail to his location and bring his body home for proper burial.  This was not to be for Hannah or her family.

Hannah herself would meet fate once more, either before or shortly after her son died. The time of her death has been put at 1861 or later. I have tried to frame it with the time line of her older boys entering the Union army in the Kansas Home Guard.  The dates for Jesse and George were for the Johnson County census of 1865, they were using the spelling of their last name as, Lieuallen.  Some say it was their way to protest against slavery but it could very well have been the way the census taker heard it and spelled it.  At first I thought I had found their enlistment dates as they gave their units but it is a census where Jesse is listed as head of household. Further research of their military enlistment and discharge is needed, as George was only 18 in 1861 meeting the age for enlistment.  Another way to frame the date of Hannah’s death is to find the court papers giving her daughter Sarah guardianship for her younger brothers and sister after their mother died.  In 1861 Sarah would have been 19 years old, James, Robert, and Elizabeth were underage. The year of James’ death is given by subtracting his reported age at the time of his death as 14-15 years old.  Sarah not only lost her mother, she had to leave their home and move to Kansas with her young charges due to the constant fear of getting killed, attacked, and/or burned out.  The smoke from the battles surrounding them often filled the hills. The war was everywhere. 

Hannah was described as looking old for her 45 years when she died. She had lived a hard life.  Everyone familiar with the family history knows she was also driving a wagon that day.  Her wagon was not filled to the brim and that gave the conclusion that she only had a small crop of corn for the miller to grind into meal.  The wagon seat was not in place so she was standing on the gears when the wagon broke apart, as it went down the steep slope, too fast! Hannah was hit in her back by the wagon breaking apart, it was a fatal blow and it didn’t take long for her to die.  But it was not over for her yet, even in death.    If bushwhackers were involved, we will never know, but one can’t help but wonder, why else would she be going down a steep slope, too fast.  Just what had caused the ‘runaway’ wagon that day?   Bushwhackers had killed for much less than a few ears of corn, perhaps she had to leave home in haste and did not have the time to put the wagon seat on?  Maybe she did have more corn and was making a run for it to try and save herself?

Family tradition does not state if Hannah died at home and also questions the reason she was buried in the Meadows Cemetery instead of the closer to home Walnut Shade cemetery. Perhaps it depended on where the mill was located or where the incident happened, maybe it happened near the cemetery. She may have even died at the site of the wagon wreck.  The story also tells about the two young boys, Hosea Bilyeu and Ike Lewis who were busy opening a grave for her when they were attacked by bushwhackers.  The boys shot back and managed to get away.  It was decided to move her body after dark for burial when it would be safer, or so the story goes.          

The story we heard with our mother was that Hannah was Indian and Indian could not be buried in a cemetery.  Hannah is buried just inside the entrance to the cemetery to the left of the gate. A rock was used to mark her place in the dark of night. Mother also said that’s just what they did back then, put a rock to your head if you were Indian. Today, posted on the cemetery website it states they counted over thirty stones in the Meadows Cemetery. In my heart I hope one of them is James Ross Lewallen.

We have knowledge and proof that James Ross Lewallen had two brothers who served in the Civil War.  Now we are left to wonder if James Ross Lewallen himself also served during that time in Kansas; as there is a James Lewallen listed with the 15th Regiment:

James Lewellen Side: Union

Regiment State/Origin: Kansas

Regiment Name: 15 Kans. Cav.

Regiment Name Expanded: 15th Regiment, Kansas Cavalry

Company: L   Rank In: Private

Rank In Expanded: Private  Rank Out: Private

Rank Out Expanded: Private

Alternate Name: James/Lieuelon

Film Number: M542 roll 5

We have found no furthur trace of our James Ross Lewallen to date.

 We pose the question:  Could this possibly be our James Ross Lewallen or is he some other Lewallen's son?  The later is possible as we hold that our James Ross Lewallen was killed during the Civil War.