When Mother died, what happened to the children?

When Grandmother, Martha Eugenia (Boatwright) Rockholt, died in 1928 the children were farmed out to various family members and friends.  Trying to find just where and with who they went is proving to be a real challenge.

I did manage to find Uncles Fred  Allen  (1912-1986) and Robert Earl  (1915-2003).  In 1930 they are found in the census for Big Springs, Benton County, Arkansas, Monte Ne.  The census is annotated Ozark Industrial College.  The boys, then 18 and 16, are found in the residence of Rev. Arther and Nellie Williams, minister at Holnest Church.  The Ozark Industrial College and School of Theology operated from 1927 to 1932.  Housed in two large log hotels (which had previously operated as resort hotels), ran by Dan Webster Evans under the sponsorship of the Pentecostal Holiness Church.

The fifteen acre location was self sufficient, the students maintaining the gardens and performing household chores for their room and board.  The boys were housed in one of the units, while the girls were housed in the other.  It seems that the school was not able to maintain the mortage payments and they were closed down.  The buildings and amphitheater were consumed by Beaver Lake in the early 1960's.

Uncle Fred was a lemo driver, a deputy sheriff for a while, and mostly ranch foreman.  Uncle Robert was in construction, mostly industrial and agricultural buildings as I remember, but I did not have a lot of interaction with his family.

                                            The Amphitheater at Monte Ne

                                            Part of the Monte Ne complex

Information on the Ozark Industrial College:

Information on William "Coin" Harvey, builder of Mount Ne: 

Grace Rockholt (1920-1980) the youngest of the two girls, is found in 1930 Springfield, Greene County, Missouri census in the household of Edward F.  and Annie Jackson.  Annie's maiden name was Boatwright, she was the sister to Grace's mother (my grandmother) Martha Eugenia Boatwright.  Best I can figure out Annie's name was Jo Annie Mable Boatwright (10 Feb 1881 - 29 Oct 1939); married Edward 27 Jan 1901.

Grace was injured during WW II while serving in the Womens Army Corps (WAC).  As I remember being told, she fell from a second story window while washing windows and was paralized from the injuries.

I have yet to find any information on where Arbie Lee and the youngest boy, Joseph David Rockholt were sent when their mother died.

Additional Information:

I have since found JD:  (Joseph David Rockholt, b. 20 Apr 1927) In 1930 Porun, Muskogee, Okla census with Sam Wiley and wife Susie Elizabeth (Boatwright), his mother's sister.  (He is listed as Uncle, additional annotation as "relative").  In 1940 he is still with Sam and Susie in Porum (as Jonah Rockholt).  In 1945 he enlisted in the Army at the age of (just barely) 18.  He is in and out of the military, serving two additional enlistments in the Air Force.  Arbie is still in the wind, I cannot locate her early life.

Martha Eugenia Boatwright

My paternal Grandmother, Martha (Mattie) Eugenia Boatwright, was born on July 26th, 1891 in Franklin, Stone County, Arkansas.  Her father, Marcellus, was 42 and her mother, Mary Hooper, was 40.  She married my grandfather, Walter William Rockholt on April 24th, 1908, three months short of her seventeenth birthday.  (27 July 2014:  I have since determined that grandfather's name was actually William Walter, not Walter William.)

In 1910 (U.S. Census, May 1910) my grandparents are living with Mattie's family in Martin Township, Muskogee County, Oklahoma, along with my father, William Franklin who is just a little over a year old.  1920 census has the family, Walter, Mattie, William (Dad), and two brothers, Fred and Robert, sister, Arbie Lee, and Grandfather's brother, Uncle Clint, in Diamond, Haskell County, Oklahoma.

Grandmother died on the 25th of May, 1928 in Sebastian County Arkansas.  Dad had already left home, the other children were scattered about with friends and family.  Granddad, a gospel minister, bounced around a lot, often spending time with his children and their families.  He died in Arizona October 1980.

The Boatwright line traces back to England in the mid 1600's, and probably (but unproven) to the early Viking settlements in Northern France in the late 9th century.  The Normans were Vikings who began to settle in northern France in the late 9th century. They soon adopted the French language and Christianity. The Normans protected the French coast from foreign attacks. In the year 1066 an army of Normans under Duke William (later called "the Conqueror" crossed the English Channel and defeated the English king Harold at the Battle of Hastings. Among the Normans were ship carpenters known as "Boatwrights". The earliest reference to this surname dates back to the fifteenth century where one John Botewright is recorded as living in Suffolk County, England in 1469.  The family name is found as Botewright, Botrite, Boatwright and Boatright in various documents and records.

In the late 1640's England was in turmoil.  The English civil war had just ended, the victorious Puritans would soon behead King Charles I and Oliver Cromwell was having fits trying to establish his protectorate. Supporters of the monarchy found that England was no longer a safe haven for them.  They could loose their wealth and even their lives if they remained in England.

I believe "our" John Boatwright is the same John Boatwright baptized on October 8th, 1609  at All Saints Church, Thorpe Abbots, Norfolk, England, the son of Robert and Elizabeth.  This is based on the fact that Robert and Elizabeth had a daughter Lettice and when John grew up and married Elizabeth Cropley, they named their second daughter Lettice, probably in honor of John's sister.  The name is unusual enough that this surely is a connection.  John and Elizabeth had three children, Elizabeth, John and Lattice; Elizabeth and the girls were all buried at Saint Edward King and Martyr Church in Cambridge, England.

While I can only surmise the reasoning for John Boatwright Jr. to leave England for the new world, he did leave, arriving in Virginia as an indentured servant in 1654.  Three years later he imported eight individuals including two uncles (Thomas and William Cropley - younger brothers of his mother, Elizabeth Cropley) and his father, John Botwright, Sr. Branches of the family migrated west in Virginia, to the counties of Cumberland and then Buckingham, then into North Carolina and South Carolina during the second half of the 1700s.  Martha's great grandfather, Daniel David was established in Elbert County Georgia in 1813 when he married Elizabeth Carpenter, their son, Joshua, married Angeline Drake in 1848.  Martha's father, Marcellus Chesley Boatwright, married Mary Elizabeth Hooper on September 30th, 1880, Jackson County Alabama.  Martha was born in Franklin, Stone County Arkansas, she and Granddad were married in Franklin County.