“Ozark pioneer Granny Blue’s life, times an historical society topic”

CSA Today

Brev. Brig. Gen'l
Honored Fallen Comrade
Joined
Dec 3, 2011
Location
Laurinburg NC
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CIVIL WAR AND THE “SOUTHERN CAUSE’’

In 1858, she married William Blue. After the Civil War broke out her husband revealed to her his strong feelings for the “Southern Cause.” He supported the Southern troops by providing horses, supplies and wagons. Their farm was used as a hideout when the Federal scouts came in on their raids. Horses captured from the Union soldiers were concealed in their stable many times until they could be transferred to the soldiers in Arkansas.

At the height of the war, 1863, she learned her husband was dead. She never learned the manner of his death or the location of his grave.

She continued to permit the fighters to use the farm and stables in their raids. “Without their protection I could not have remained there. Almost every house and building had been burned all along the Warm Fork. I heard there was not a house standing in West Plains. Even now, "I wonder how we survived those years—perhaps our closeness to Arkansas—our raiders were never far from Mammoth Spring.”

After the war a new settlement called Clifton was being built just a mile from the farm.

location -- Oregon County Missouri

http://www.westplainsdailyquill.net/news/local/article_bd790fd4-6373-11e4-8f67-001a4bcf6878.html
 
What a tragic life she seems to have led. She'd buried 2 husbands and 6 children before the Civil War and then a 3rd husband died during the ACW.

What seems impressive to me in her story is her commitment to education and to equipping her children with knowledge. She educated them herself on the frontier and was proud that her son founded a newspaper. She also learned to use surveyor's tools from one husband and passed that knowledge along to her son. What a great contribution to future generations of her family!
 
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