James Alexander TROXEL

Notes:

                   mentioned in father's 1906 will. More info in Terry book
AF states birth Aug 1852
Married in her family's home by Elder Martin Scott
James journal:We remained in the home of her parents home until the following February. Then I rented a small log cabin from Elder Martin Scott where I farmed that season. We needed some pans and the like and I was reluctant to ask our old store keeper for credit as I owed him for my wedding clothes. He offeered me pans and coffee pot so we went home happy to our old log cabin. I offered to help Uncle Martin Scott look for his stock and he asked if I could beat him in a race, as I was in, I thought, my prime. Then he told me I would not have been able when I was young and could only crawl. Then he explained that I would need help to get started but would make a priority to pay back what I owed, as I had goods. The next fall I got a job feeding stock and paid my bills, bought a stove to replace one I had found in  the junk pile. There was our son John S and winter was coming and we needed a heating stove but I had no money. When I was at the old mill to grind my corn in an old mill pulled round by cattle I met a friend who offered me a heater.
In the fall of 1871 I bought 50 acres, unimproved with a cabin from JW Scott. After getting up a house with a side room, I then laid the floor with  rough lumber, drove on with large nails, then proceeded  to build a chimney of old Missouri rock. We were then fixed up to enjoy life in a more elaborate way than we had formerly been. One day when I walked in my wife announced I had to make a cradle as she had killed a rattle snake coiled close to the baby that came in through a crack in the floor. She was holding the child with one hand and attending to her cooking  with the other. I could see she had stated a case of emergency. I gathered some lumber and proceeded to make a cradle. The rockers were neither oblong, square or semi-circle but it served its purpose.
My friend and I cut down the jack oaks and cleared off the land for laying a foundation for another log cabin in this neck of the woods. Next he suggested we get hasel splitter hogs to kill off the snakes, get fat off the moss, and to have home grown meat. Two families of his relatives moved here too and we called it Grub Town, as we all had to grub,cut, and clear the land. We had brush cutting parties when our wives would come and pick wool and tack comforters and prepare dinner for us. In our little colony there were some nice built homes. In 1879 I sold out, with 3 children, both 90 acres and moved into the Scott neighborhood. After locating here and having our third son we accumulated some money and built a new frame house. Two more children and we bought 120 acres with a nice home and we had one more daughter. We moved to Jameson Missouri in 1901 and to Gallatin where 3 of our children were married and all moved to Oklahoma. In 1906 we followed them, settling in Geary, where we still reside. With the blessing of God and employing the rules of economy and industry we are permitted living in a comfortable little home in our declining years.