Reeds, Missouri

On Saturday, I drove my brother and sister-in-law down to Carthage, Mo which is about 135 miles south so they could attend her sister's surprise 85th birthday.  It gave me the opportunity to do some genealogy work I have been wanting to do so I dropped them off and then went wandering......  I went to the Civil War Museum and Battle of Carthage Battleground in and near Carthage.  Carthage was the closest large town to where I grew up but I really didn't know anything about their role in the Civil War and I will write that history lesson tomorrow.  However, I have also been wanting to go to Reeds, Mo which is where my mother and brothers were born. I recently discovered that a brother of my mother's and his wife plus my mother's only sister and her husband were buried in the Reeds Cemetery.

Top left: I worked my way over to Reeds from Carthage on back roads.  I wasn't sure where I was a few times but knew I was headed in the right direction and had a GPS app on my phone if I needed it. The drive was a very pretty  trip through farm land with Willie Nelson on the radio....

Top right: The sign for Reeds. I don't know exactly what the population was in Reeds when I was a kid but would guess it was around 3-400. The population was 130 in the 2000 census.  There is certainly not much there now but they do have a new post office.

Bottom: The Reeds Cemetery where 461 people are buried. I had no idea where the gravestones I was looking for were so it was a lot of tramping through weeds to find them.

 

Top: This is the Reeds school house where my mother attended and got her 8th grade diploma from the school in 1924.  I have the original diploma.....  The school has been converted in a home and some work is being done on it.

Middle: There are hundreds of acres corn in the area and it is in good shape this year due to all the rain they have had.

Bottom: I was so shocked to see that someone still hung clothes on a line that I had to take a picture. True Ozarks!