FOR MOST OF THE CENTURY: NEW BOOK RELIVES MOST OF CENTURY (PART 1)

1900 - 1910

PRELUDE

Things were shaping up for my arrival. The ice cream cone and the hot dog had been invented at the 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis, Mo.! Grandpa and Grandma Bell were there to witness the event. An old photo shows them in one of Henry Ford's newest contraptions, Grandpa at the steering wheel which was on the right, Grandma on the left with a stern expression as if she wasn't sure of this peculiar vehicle that needed no horses to pull it. A placard on the dashboard declared in bold letters that they were SEEING ST. LOUIS.

Grandma Bell, nee Josephine Lyons, from Carroll County, Va., and Grandpa Stephen Bell from Wythe County, Va., had married in Virginia and had five children before coming from the mining country around Austinville, Va., to the Lead Belt mining country of Missouri. Two other children were born to them after arrival in Bonne Terre, Mo., one of them being my father, Wilson Leroy Bell, born in 1888.

My maternal Grandpa Moses Casey and Grandma Casey, nee Mary Alice Razor, had met and married in Madison County, Mo. They had eight children, the youngest daughter, Myrtle, born in 1886, was destined to be my mother.

Of course other things of importance were going on in that first decade of the 20th century which I learned about later. Three United States presidents served during this period, William McKinley for one last year of his term, Theodore Roosevelt, often called Teddy, for eight years, and William H. Taft for the first year of his term.

The Spanish American War, wherein we were involved with Cuba, had been over for two years before the first decade of the twentieth century. Here, in the last decade, we're still involved with Cuba.

Teddy Roosevelt fought corruption in politics during this first decade. We're still fighting that in the last decade. He organized conservation. In the l990s, we're still arguing about a lot of conservation projects.

I'm sure all these things were being talked about between 1900 and 1910, but until I had to study about them later in school, the only big things to come out of national affairs during this time, for me, were the ice cream cone, the hot dog and the fact that my brown, fuzzy Teddy bear had been named for someone who had once been called president.

A part log, part frame farmhouse, barn and outbuildings had been built in St. Francois County, Mo., near the St. Francis River some time way back before the beginning of the 20th century. This farmhouse was, later, to be my home during my formative years. The frame part of the house was put together with square nails, and wooden pegs held together the inner structure of the great barn.

More important to me than all these things though was that Mama and Daddy had met and married during this first decade of the twentieth century and had two young daughters, Lillian and Lucille. I had a ready-made family to welcome me, the third daughter, in the next decade.

~Jean Bell Mosley is an author and longtime columnist for the Southeast Missourian.