Our Costume Rental Shop is now open to the public!
Come and try them on, get your style, find the accessories
and strut in your Victorian, Edwardian or Prairie style wardrobe!
Rental is priced for everyone.

Complete Costumes,
Dress
shoes
Hat
Gloves

Starting at $45.00 per event
(Petticoats/hoops are a small additional fee)

For a small additional fee, you can rent for longer periods of time)

There are also a selection of custom decorated hats for your special occassions

While you there and would like a cuppa tea, tour our museum

selection and fitting.
Please call the Ray County Museum at : 816-776-2305
or, email- raycountymuseum@yahoo.com

The pictures represent a selection of our costumes.

Tags: button shoes, costume, costume rental, costume shop, costumes, custom hats, Dress, dress gloves, dress shoes, Edwardian, gloves, gowns, hair pieces, hats, high-top shoes, hoops, Petticoats, Prarie, ray county, shoes, snoods, tea gowns, tuxedo, victorian, victorian style, wardrobe, wigs

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TEA TIME!

What better way to relax and run away from all the problems and the hectic pace of your lives?
A formal parlor, your best friends, tea served with light refreshments and a tour of our grand old museum?
October and November are Special Tea in the Parlor Months.
Grandmothers, bring your granddaughters to tea and enjoy an afternoon to remember.
The atmosphere of the 1900’s parlor along with the rest of the museum, a tea party complete with playing dress up if you like plus a tour of the museum.
Complete with our 1800’s Costume room, sewing room, quilt room, Grandmother’s kitchen and more!
The water is on the fire
The china is out
We’re in our period costumes to serve you
We’re just waiting for your reservation.
A nominal fee will bring you a maximum of pleasure and memories.
Come and join us!
Contact- Karen Windsor Bush, Curator/manager/tea-mistress
816-776-2305, Wednesday through Saturday
email- raycountymuseum@yahoo.com

Tags: china, flavored tea, granddaughters, grandmothers, light refreshments, memories, mother daugther, mother-daughter, parlor, party, period costume, period costumes, period tea room, quilt room, sewing room, special tea, tea, tea party, tea tasting, victorian tea

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            I hear one of two questions a lot while giving tours, “What is a Poor Farm?” or “Why were the people here?” or some form of the two questions.  Both of these questions are very good questions and will answer one of them in this article. 

        Why were people placed at the Ray County Poor Farm?  The simple answer is because they could not for whatever reason take care of themselves and became a ward of the county.  Some people think the Poor Farm was just for the “insane”, this is far from correct.  If you were judged to be insane then you were sent to one of the four state hospitals and it didn’t take much, by today’s standards, to be judged insane. I have found one person that spent time in St Joseph because he lost all of his property.  The people can be broken up in to two major groups, medical and hard times.

        People placed at the Poor Farm for medical reasons are no different than people being placed in nursing homes today.   The main group of people that would fall into this category would be simply old age and the person didn’t have any family around that could support them.  There are also cases of people that were blind and/or mute.  The most noted person that falls in this group is Goldie Riser.  A deaf mute little girl that saw her father kill her mother and sibling, one of biggest crimes in Ray County at the time, the Winner/Nelson murders.  She was at the Poor Farm from 1910 to her death in 1941, but that is another story in of itself.

        People placed at the Poor Farm for hardship is a little more complicated.  For a person or family to be allowed to stay at the farm the Ray County Court had to approve you in court.  You had to prove to the court that you did not have the means to take care of yourself and you did not have family in the area that had the means to support you. 

        Once the person was placed at the Poor Farm room and board was provided, BUT it was not free.  The county wanted the farm to be as self sufficient as possible; since this was money they had to spend.  Everybody that could work was required to work on the farm one way or another.  Females did a lot of the cleaning and sewing, I have found receipts for yards of dress, flannel, bed sheeting material.  The men had to help with the garden, hogs, cattle (both diary and meat), chickens, and general repairs around the farm.

        There was a very small third group that needs to be added but not very much information has been found on them.  The Farm was at times used as temporary housing for which the County Court needed to place someone or a family until regular housing could be found.  Orphans sometimes stayed here waiting on the Orphan Train.  Have found one case where the father of a family was arrested and then sent to St Joseph State Hospital but between being arrested and sent to St Joseph the wife and kids stayed at the Farm for a few days.

        I hope that this little article helps you better understand who the people where that stayed at the Poor Farm.  They were not crazy or insane; they are no different than the people that are in rest homes today. 

       

Tags: COUNTY POOR FARM, goldie riser, nursing home, Poor Farm, ray county, Ray County Poor Farm

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Correction- the headstone of Bob Ford should read 1861 as the birth date

The following article can be found in Richmond Conservator Newspapers dating  January 7, 1892-  December 27, 1894 on Microfilm Roll No. 13 at the Ray County Library.

Richmond  Conservator
June 9, 1892 (page 3)
BOB FORD SHOT
Yesterday (Wednesday) evening Cap Ford received a telegram from South   Creede ,  Colorado  that his brother Bob had been shot.  It was understood from dispatch that he had been killed and that he would be sent here for burial.  An answer was immediately forwarded to Creede to get full particulars, but up to time of going to press no answer had been received.
A telegram in Kansas City Times this morning gives full particulars of the killing of Ford and from it we glean the following:
Ford had quarreled some months ago with Deputy Sheriff Kelly and yesterday morning the quarrel was renewed in Ford’s dance hall at Creede when Kelly shot him with a shotgun killing him instantly.  Ford was standing with his back to Kelly scarcely five feet away.  He turned and as he saw who called him his hand went for his six shooter, but he had no chance on earth.  Kelly had only to raise his shotgun and let it go.  Ford’s hand never reached his revolver.
Richmond  Conservator
June 16, 1892
By Cy Warman
BOB FORD’S DEATH
The killing of Bob Ford was not the act of a brave man- it was like the killing of Jesse James; in a well regulated community it would be called a murder.  The coroner’s jury made no apology for the killing and the fact that Ford was exonerated murderer does not excuse his slayer.  The love of notoriety would tempt a man with a weak mind ballated (unreadable) to commit such a crime as that at which Kelly stands charged.            When killers are allowed to go free so easily it is bad for the community- it encourages killing and by and by editor or minister is killed who can and will be spared
Life is buried at both ends and should not be abbreviated in the middle.  If the Lord could afford to let Ford live, Kelly should not have put up with it, perhaps the Lord meant to make something of him after a while.  Kelly stands charged with murder and should be tried as Ford would have been if Kelly’s gun had failed to fire.

Richmond  Conservator
July 14, 1892 (page 5)
Ed O’Kelly, who killed Bob Ford at Creede a few weeks ago, has been convicted of murder in the second degree and sentenced to Colorado Penitentiary for life.
Richmond  Conservator
Thursday, August 18, 1892 (page 1)
BOB FORD
HIS BODY BROUGHT FROM   COLORADO  TO   RICHMOND  FOR BURIAL
The body of Bob Ford, who was killed in   Creede ,  Colorado  some weeks ago was exhumed and brought to   Richmond  and buried Tuesday ( August 16, 1892 ) where the remains of a member of his family now rest.  At was the request of the deceased made to his mother when he last visited   Richmond  that should he die she would have his remains brought to   Richmond  for burial.  True to her promise his mother never forsook him under any circumstances of life availed herself of the first opportunity that presented itself and had his remains brought to his old home for burial.
Funeral services were held at the residence Tuesday morning, only a few of the relatives and friends being present.  At the conclusion or services the remains were conveyed in the city cemetery and placed in their final resting place and will perhaps not be disturbed again until the final and great summons for all graves to give up their dead.
(Bob Ford was only 20 years old when he shot Jesse James on  April 3, 1882 in St. Joseph, Missouri after knowing him only ten days)
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Early years
Robert N. Ford was born in Ray County, Missouri to James Thomas Ford and his wife Mary Bruin. As a young man, he became an admirer of Jesse James for his war record and his daring career in crime. In 1880 he finally managed to meet James. Ford’s brother Charles Ford is believed to have taken part in the James gang’s Blue Cut train robbery near Glendale, Missouri on September 7, 1881.

Assassination of Jesse James
Robert Ford in an undated photograph with the weapon he used to kill Jesse James.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Bob Ford, brother bob, conservator, Coward, creede colorado, cy warman, headstone, Jesse james, kansas city times, ray county, six shooter

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Picture on the left- ??? Is it…or isn’t it?

Graves Found Near Orrick

Where the 1864 Was Battle Fought

By TOM BOGDON - Richmond News, Richmond, Ray County Missouri

Both tradition in the Orrick area and the facts of the battle point to a row of graves in an old cemetery a quarters mile northeast of J.D.’s Store in Orrick as the last resting place of 10 pr 11 Confederate guerillas killed with Capt. William T. “Bloody Bill” Anderson in a battle with Union troops on Oct. 27,1864., ‘ The action took place near Albany, which has virtually disappeared but in the 1860s included a grist mill, general store, blacksmith shop and one pr two churches and had a population of 150.

Albany was three quarters of a mile northeast of Orrick. The only remnants of the town are rock walls that run through part of the townsite.

The smoke still hung in the air at the Battle of Westport in what is now southern Kansas City when Bloody Bill Anderson met his demise at Albany along with 10 of his men.

The three-day Battle of Westport started Oct. 24, and the much smaller but significant Albany action occurred Oct. 27. The outcome at Westport was that Confederate forces under Gen. Sterling Price failed to break the Union hammerlock on Missouri. The outcome at Albany was that by killing Capt. Anderson Union forces were able to greatly reduce guerilla harassment in Central Missouri that had plagued them throughout the war.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: 33rd regiment, 51st regiment, Albany, albany road, Anderson, anson tooliver, bloody bill anderson, capt. woodruff, confederate forces, confederate markers, Daviess County, donald hale, general craig, Guy Dennison, Hamilton, Hamilton Missouri, handk patterson, headstone, james mulligan, James Mylan, japster moody, john mcllane, john pringle, johnson, lafayette county, leabo, levi cline, Lt. Baker, Maj. Grimes, Margaret Mayers, missouri badman, napoleon brown, orrick, paul debenhorst, pioneer cemetery, ray county, ray county missouri, S.P, s.p. 'cob' cox, samuel brown, smith, sterling price, union troops, westport, william tarrington

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Today while taking a break from practice we had a couple of surprise vistors at the museum.  They wanted a tour but everyone agreed that wasn’t the best idea.  Hopefully everyone that came to vist these two enjoyed the show they put on today.

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The Ray County Museum is located in the old Ray County Poor Farm/House, County Home, Alms House, and I am sure a few other names but those are the major one. Most people within Ray County know this is the old Poor Farm, but how many people know that this is not the original Poor Farm or even the original location? The original Poor Farm was located on the corner of Hwy B and Hwy F, the farm had 126 acres of land. To this date we don’t have a date of when county started the Poor Farm, but do know that it was around in the 1860’s.

In my research the first Poor Farm Superintendent I have been able to find is David Rimmer and in his care he had his own family but had six people that the county felt could not care for themselves for one reason or another. The six were Polly Higgins, Nancy Hutchins, Pamelia Brown, Cynthia Brown, Sarah Andrews, and Casse Albert. If this was not the beginning it was very close as this small number grew to the 20’s by the 1900’s.

The superintendents of the Poor Farm must have really loved their job because the pay was not the greatest, David up to George Cook (who was the last superintendent at the old Poor Farm), was paid a grand total of $25 a month and room and board for them and their family. When the county built the new Poor Farm they upped the pay to $75 a month and room and board, first superintendent was Sexus T Simms, but the job required more from the person, still not a lot of money. In 1928 the Board for the Visiting of Corrective Institutions made a visit to the Poor Farm for their semi-annual visit and after giving Andy Ballard, current superintendent, very high marks recommended “Mr. Ballard’s salary should be increased, members of the committee terming it ‘inadequate.’ Mr. Ballard receives at the present time $100, from which he must pay an assistant.”

Within Ray County we have two Potter’s Fields, one is behind the museum and the other currently we do not currently know the location. Currently I know of six people buried at the original Potter’s Field and thirty buried at the new location. I will say this, I am FAR from complete on either location but of the total of 36 names I currently have I know for a fact they are buried in one of the two Potter’s Fields. Will I come up with more? I am sure I will as I go thru more and more of the old records.

Anyone know where the name Potter’s Field comes from?

The term comes from the story Matthew 27:7 in the New Testament of the Bible, in which Jewish priests take 30 pieces of silver returned by a repentant Judas. “The chief priests picked up the coins and said, ‘It is against the law to put this into the treasury, since it is blood money.’ So they decided to use the money to buy the potter’s field as a burial place for foreigners.

When will all of my research become public? I will give you a hint, the second grand opening. Now if between now and then someone needs some help and I have the information I will be more than willing to help. I am not going to hide anything as I love helping people try to find away thru that brink wall.

I do want to give the Ray County Historical Society a special Thank You for let me go thru your records and newspapers to where a lot of my information came from or added to information I already had but just gave me a second source and a very special Thank You to you Karen your the best and I do have something for your here soon

If anyone reading this thinks they might have any information on the Poor Farm that might help me please let me know, and I don’t care if it was “Grandma Jones said that so and so was there” I will take it because it might be a clue and clues are where you start. If I can take the clue Mrs. Cox and find her in the home I hope I can find most other clues.

Rod Fields
rod_gen@mchsi.com

Tags: alms house, goldie riser, inmates, nursing home, Poor Farm, poor house, potters field, ray county missouri, ray county museum, Ray County Poor Farm

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THE DONNER PARTY, 1846-47

FORMER RESIDENTS OF EASTERN RAY COUNTY WERE INVOLVED IN THE RESCUE

In the spring of 1846, Thomas Rhoads, Sr., his wife, Elizabeth Forster Rhoades, thirteen of their children and 35 members of their extended family which included their daughter-in-law, Amanda Esrey and three of her brothers, left Ray County, Missouri, for California. Family tradition has it that Thomas Rhoades, Sr., was a Mormon and had been asked by Brigham Young to assess possible route the Mormons could use to travel west.

The Rhoades group split into two parties at Big Sandy River in Wyoming with one group taking the Greenwood Cutoff route to Ft. Hall and then turning onto the California Trail at Raft River. Thomas, Sr., took the rest of his family over the new Hastings Cutoff by way of Great Salt Lake and rejoined the California Trail just below Elko on the Humboldt River in Nevada. This was the same route the Donner Party traveled two weeks later. When the Rhoades family learned the Donner Party was trapped in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, John and Daniel Rhoades and the Esrey brothers were members of the group which went back to rescue them.

Several members of the Esrey family remained on property in Ray County near Hardin and have descendants in this area. Some related families are Holsinger, Grove, Stratton and Trenchard.

If you would like to learn more about these interesting Ray County people and historic events, plan to attend the program given by Dan Esarey, currently of St. Louis, Missouri. Dan welcomes participation with the audience, questions and answers.

This program will be held at the Ray County Museum,

901 West Royle Street

Richmond, Missouri

1:00 P.M., Saturday, October 11

This program is jointly sponsored by the Ray County Genealogical Association and the Ray County Historical Society. The program is free and the public is invited.

Refreshments will be provided.

(information provided by Bernie Rhoades, great-great grandson of Thomas Rhoades,Sr.)

Tags: Amanda Esrey, Bernie Rhoades, Brigham, California, california family, california trail, daniel rhoades, DONNER, donner party 1846, Elizabeth Forster, esrey, Genealogical, genealogical association, great salt lake, historical society, holsinger, Missouri, MORMON, Mormons, ray county, ray county missouri, richmond missouri, SALT LAKE, sandy river, sierra nevada mountains, st louis missouri, Thomas Rhoades, Thomas Rhoads

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 Battle of Wilson’s Creek

PRODUCED
BY WIDE AWAKE FILMS

WITH
PERFORMERS BY

OUR
OWN MIDWEST PERFORMERS- LEXINGTON, MISSOURI

 

Tags: arkansas, confederate, lexington missouri, midwest, Missouri, movie trailer, performers, Southern Missouri, Union, Wide Awake Films, Wilson's Creek

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