These photos are pages scanned from a book "Jacks Fork Of The Current River," written by David Lewis.
On page 38, Lewis refers to the early settlements along Leatherwood Creek. One of the earliest settlers mentioned was one J.U. Woolsey. Now, a correction must be made immediately to Lewis' statement. Since Lewis' book was published in 1978, the information was supplied from local lore by word of mouth rather than documentation. After talking to Will McVickers, I know this for a fact. Mr. McVickers said that the ridge above the Peter Renfrow Cave / Arch Cave is called the J.U. Ridge. Unfortunately, what the current residents & local historians do not realize is, the J.U. Ridge was not named after the erroneous J.U. Woolsey... but rather our old "Jehu" Woolsey, who settled in Delaware Township, Shannon County, Missouri, in 1860 (on Leatherwood Creek) Try it for yourself... Say the initials "J.U." and then say the old Bible name "Jehu," and you will see the mistake is simply a phonetic sounding of the same name. This mistake has been repeated many times. For example, in the Oakside Cemetary, off Highway 17, between Mountain View and Summersville, MO, there is a gravestone bearing the name, "J. Hugh Woolsey." Once again, someone goofed! Although the grave at Oakside is not our Old Jehu, (since the dates are c. 1860-1902) the individual in question is the grandfather of John Roy Tune, whose mother was Marry Woolsey Tune. So, the J. Hugh (Jehu) at Oakside is a distant relative with a misspelled name.
Lewis makes another mistake in his book by referring to a second, early homestead owned by one "John Woolsey," located farther up Jack Fork at the end of the Woolsey Trail / Trace. The problem with our Old Jehu is... he also used the nickname "John." Darn it! I have collected many records showing his identical family... wife and children, but sometimes he appears as Jehu and sometimes as John. Nuts! To begin with, I assumed the census taker or recorder of deeds didn't know how to spell the name "Jehu" and simply spelled John. However, enough information has been collected to suggest that the fault lay with Old Jehu rather than some other second party.
CAUTION!!!! DO NOT CONFUSE OLD JEHU'S NICKNAME "JOHN" WITH JOHN D. WOOLSEY, SON OF JOSEPH WOOLSEY OF URBANA / VANDALIA, IL. Sadly, I spent years following this dead-end trail. John D. Woolsey is NOT our guy! I accumulated ALL THE POOP on that John... discharge papers from the Mexican War.... death certificate (dysentery) soon after the Mexican War... widow's application for pension in the name of his only child... widow's remarriage records... even the obituary of his grandchild many years later. I have managed to drive a stake through the heart of the "John D. Woolsey" fallacy... So, just don't go there!
Lewis was correct that a second "Woolsey" settlement existed farther up Jacks Fork in Texas County, MO., at the other end of the Woolsey Trail / Trace. Although Old Jehu Moses Woolsey settled in Shannon County in 1860, he "died during the war." (par. Attorney James Orchard, husband of Susan Effie Ann Woolsey Orchard, daughter of J.M. Woolsey - "formerly of Shannon County but who died during the War" - A Reminiscent History Of The Ozark Region - Goodspeed / c. 1884 http://cdm.sos.mo.gov/cdm/ref/collection/mocohist/id/58819) However, following the end of the Civil War, Old Jehu's son - Charles Benjamin Woolsey was repatriated in Jacksonport, ARK., after being listed as "prisoner of war" subsequent to the surrender of his commander, Brig. Gen. M. Jeff Thompson - the Swamp Fox. http://communities.washingtontimes.com/neighborhood/civil-war/2012/jul/4/civil-war-colorful-life-brig-gen-jeff-thompson-con/ Rather than returning to the original family settlement, Charles Benjamin Woolsey moved farther up Jacks Fork into Texas County, MO., and settled on the north side of the river opposite the Lamech Tharp property. Later Charles Woolsey would marry Lamech's daughter, Nancy Elizabeth Tharp. In time, the Tharp property would be included as part of the old Woolsey home place bordering both sides of Jacks Fork River.
So, basing the content of his book on six generations of "secondhand information," Lewis confused Old Jehu's nickname "John" as a totally different settler and mistook that "phantom" with the identity of Old Jehu's son, Charles. However, there were two separate Woolsey homesteads on either end of the Woolsey trail... Old Jehu Woolsey at the mouth of Leatherwood Creek and his son Charles Woolsey farther up Jacks Fork River, near the now-extinct community of Haiti, MO.
