The
house1 was built by John
and Sarah Thompson Dobkins ca. 1841. It was located in the SW¼NW¼, Section 24,
T. 37 N., R. 2 W., 5th Principal Meridian, Courtois Twp., Crawford Co., MO, a short
distance Westerly from the Dobkins Cemetery. The house was built on land patented by the
Federal Government on 31 May 1824 to Lovel Thompson, father of Sarah
(Thompson) Dobkins. John and Sarah Dobkins acquired the property by
deeds in 1856. The house burned about 1901; only the remnants of the stone foundation,
covered with vegetation, are visible now.
My Cousin, Jim (J. L.) Dobkins related this story to me that he
got from Lenna Lee SANDERS about the house:
Seems that the men in the household worked in lead mines in the
locale. My grandmother, Sarah, decided to burn some of the men's worn-out rubber boots in
the kitchen range. The range became overheated and caught the house on fire. The only
thing grandma was able to save was a piano stool, but she did try to get the piano out. I
vaguely remember a piano stool in her Idaho home at the Jerome Country Club,
so maybe it was true.
Fragment of Foundation Rock2
Pictured L>R:3
On horseback, unidentified (see Note:); Albert Earnest Dobkins; his wife, Sarah (Walton) Dobkins) (my Grandarents); Joshua Frank Dobkins; Willie Devol Dobkins (Beth Dobkins Garrison's Grandfather); Otto Lambert, Etta Mae (Dobkins) Sanders and her husband, Joshua Sanders; two of their children--James Herkley (Herk) and William Milas (Sam) and last, probably one of Joshua's brothers.
NOTE 1: The man on horseback may have been Cain Pharris, a neighbor and close associate of the Dobkins. James Herkley Sanders maried Mabel Pharris, Cain's daughter in OK in 1912. She died 1914 at Jerome, Jerome Co., ID.
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