Only Henry Can Get a Copy of His Death Ceritficate

Only Henry can obtain his Death Certificate until 2020.
Ella Mae is smiling because she knows that I can get her Death Certificate next year.  

     Over the years I have tried to locate some records of events that occurred in Oklahoma.  Henry McBee (Jayme's great-grandfather) passed away in 1945.  I know he lived in Hooker, Texas County, Oklahoma.  He is buried in Hooker.  But I will have to wait until 2020 to obtain his death certificate and to prove that he died.  The law of the State of Oklahoma states that for the first seventy-five years after a death in Oklahoma the only person that can be legally receive a copy of a death record is the person that died.  Go figure.  Oklahoma SB 1448 was signed into law by Governor Mary Fallin on April 30, 2014.  
     Guy McBee and Betty Kilbourne (Jayme's grandparents) were married in Oklahoma in 1924 (we think).  Betty was only fourteen years old at the time.  We will be able to get a copy of their marriage record in 2024.  If I don't live that long then maybe my granddaughters, Hailey or Abbey, can get a copy of the record for me. If it turns out that Guy and Betty were not married in Texas County, Oklahoma as we have been told, then we will have to search across the border in Kansas.  Kansas isn't much better at releasing genealogical records.  
     

William C. McBee: Union Soldier or Confederate Soldier?

     Missouri was one of those states which supplied soldiers to both sides of the Civil War.  Did William C. McBee serve?  If he did serve, which side did he support?  
     There are records of a William C. McBee serving Union Army in Company K, 5th Kentucky Infantry.  There is another William C. McBee serving in the Confederate Army in Company E, 7th Missouri Infantry (later known as the 16th Missouri Infantry).  There is another William C McBee in the 27th Arkansas Infantry.  Additional  William C. McBees show up in North Carolina and Alabama.  Could one of these men be the William C. McBee who was the Great-Grandfather of Garna McBee?  
     Up to this point I have suspected that our William McBee would have sided with the Confederacy.  He was born in Tennessee before moving with his father to Arkansas and then to Missouri.  He named one son, Henry Claydean McBee and another, Robert E. Lee McBee. (Henry Clay Dean was a know opponent of the Lincoln administration who lived in Iowa and later Missouri.)  The William C. McBee in Arkansas is too young.  Alabama and North Carolina would seem to be too far away.   
     But if the records for the William C, McBee in the 7th Missouri Infantry are correct then this can’t be our William McBee.  This William McBee was wounded and captured at the Battle of Helena, Arkansas.  Our William was married in Schuyler County, Missouri on 15 December 1863.  Records show that that this William McBee was a prisoner in Delaware in December 1863.   

Marriage Record

     The William C. McBee who joined the Union Army in Kentucky is possibly our man. Records show that he was wounded (broken leg) at the Battle of Shilo in 1862 and subsequently discharged before December, 1863 because of this injury.  Records show that this William McBee was born in Tennessee. 

     At this time the evidence would seem to support the case for the  William C. McBee who enlisted in Kentucky and fought for the Union as being our William McBee.
     But, why would he have traveled 400+ miles from Schuyler County, Missouri to Louisville, Kentucky?  Was it the 160 acres promised to all men who enlisted in the Louisville Legion?  And why would he name his sons Henry Claydean and Robert E. Lee?

Dust Storms

Dust Storm in Oklahoma
Possibly in Hooker, Oklahoma

     The Dust Bowl of the 1930s was a series of severe dust storms that swept across the midwest.  This disaster was caused by poor farming techniques as well as the severe drought that the region experienced. The drought devastated the farmland and that together with the Depression was certainly one the reasons that Jayme’s maternal grandparents left Kansas and moved west.  

Dust Storm in Kansas
Probably in or near Hugoton, Kansas

     As one who enjoys his daily shower, I can't imagine having to live through one of these storms.  The fine dust made it inside the houses and covered everything.  The dust coated people's bodies but because of the drought, showers were not a daily affair.  
     If you missed the PBS Ken Burns Documentary, you ought to watch it.  It is available on DVD.
     Lewis Joseph "Jake" Kilbourne and Clara Bell Kilbourne (Jayme's great-grandparents) homesteaded land in Stevens County, Kansas but later moved into Hugoton.  Henry Claydean McBee and Ella Mae Tarr McBee (also Jayme's great-grandparents) lived in Hooker, Oklahoma.  Both Hugoton, Kansas and Hooker, Oklahoma felt the full force of these dust storms.

1. Burns, Ken,  The Dust Bowl. PBS Documentary, 2012 http://www.pbs.org/kenburns/dustbowl/