Ulysses Grant Maddox
1864 ~ 1916

This portrait of Ulysses Grant Maddox was taken about 1896 when he was about 32 years old.

    Ulysses Grant Maddox was born August 13, 1864 when Abraham Lincoln became president for his second term.  The next year Andrew Johnson replaced him.  And in 1869, his name sake ~ Ulysses Grant, an old neighbor of his grandfather, William ~ became president.  The Maddoxes in Lewis County, KY, had lived near the Grant family when the future president was a toddler and Grant's grandfather was a teenager.  The Maddox family would have remembered that well.

     The 1870 census of Pendleton Co., KY,
lists Grant as "Ulysses S. G. Maddox."  He was named after President Ulysses S. Grant who had been born and partially raised in Lewis Co., KY.  Pres. Grant's name was actually Hiram Ulysses.  But when he was grown he always went by Ulysses S, and no one ever knew what the S. stood for.  So our grandfather probably never knew what the S. in his name stood for either.

    In the 1880 census of Hamilton Co., IL, Grant was 16 years old.  He was listed by his middle name this time, which is the name he was called by people.

    On July 26, 1886, when Grant was just 22 years old, he purchased 80 acres for $275.  This was one year after his grandfather, William Maddox, died.  So perhaps he was left a little money to which he added his own to make this large purchase.  His father's land lust was catching!  Grant probably grew up hearing his father say, "Land!  Land is where the money is, boy!  Land!"

    In the mean time, love was in the air.  He had met Millie Mae Funkhouser in Champaign Co., IL, just north of Hamilton Co.  On February 17, three days after Valentine's Day, she and her family arrived at his home and they were married there.  The minister was J. H. Voliva, and their fathers signed as witnesses.  It was unusual for weddings to be in the groom's home, but Grant was always strong willed and probably his father too.  Or maybe there were other circumstances that made it too difficult to be married in the bride's home.

    The following September 29, Grant purchased another 40 acres for $250.  He did well farming.  Exactly nine months later, his first-born ~ Francis Marion Maddox ~ was born.  Grant's father had a brother named Francis and another named Marion.  Frank had bright red hair, the first of several children that would.  I wonder if they got it from their Swiss mother's side of the family.  During the next three years, Grant had three more children ~ Louella Venita, Ina Agness and Hazel Ellen.

     That summer of 1896, Grant's young family had their picture 
taken out in the yard, probably with a quilt as a back drop, as did many people in those days in farming communities.  Or perhaps the photographer painted the background out.  He was probably a traveling photographer, also common then.  Not too long after this picture was taken, baby Hazel died.  How sad.  It was common then for babies to die, but was nevertheless always a very sorrowful thing.

     About that time some men came through Hamilton Co., probably by train, recruiting men to cut timber for a lumber company.  The lumber company was probably based out of Stoddard Co., MO.  Sometimes the men were sent to Louisiana to cut timber there also.  Grant wanted in on this.  He thought he'd prefer logging over farming.  (This recruiting information was provided by [email protected] on the Stoddard Co. website who said her great grandfather was one of the men hired in Illinois for logging in Missouri at that time.)

    So, even though that August Grant had purchased another 20 acres for $300, four months after buying it, he sold it for $260; a little bit of a loss.  But he thought the sacrifice would be worth it.  He had already moved to Missouri.

    Grant settled his young family in Acorn Ridge, Stoddard County, Missouri.  He must have started out renting a house and doing logging for someone else for awhile to get on his feet.  But, finally, on November 18, 1898, Grant purchased 40 acres.

And on December 12 he purchased another 40 acres from the same people.

     This was the year the Spanish American War was fought, but Grant was not involved in it.  I heard stories that the Maddoxes used to feed Jesse James' Gang whenever they came through during this time.  They couldn't have, because Jesse died in 1882 and the Maddoxes were still over in Illinois at this time.  But as a child I believed their story.

     Now comes an interesting secret in Grant's life.  In 1899, Grant bought 50 acres in the name of Lucy L. Maddox, a minor.  Grant had no known children named Lucy.  More on her below in 1904.

     Grant and his family were in the 1900 census of Stoddard County living in the western part of New Lisbon Twp.  Grant and his family were in HH 8, and his sister Nancy Cook was living either next door to them or with them as HH 7. 

    In 1901, Grant was taxed $13.70 for 160 acres.  These tax receipts are in the possession of Donald Maddox, Dexter, MO, who has the trunk that Grant's wife and her mother had.

     That year Theodore Roosevelt, the Rough Rider, became President of the United States.  Also that year, Grant bought more land from the people he had bought his other land from ~ another 40 acres
for $134.

    By this time, Lucy Pearl and Jesse Arthur had been born.  In 1902 William Harley was born.  Also in 1902 Grant purchased for an unstated sum 40 acres more!  Surprise!  He was definitely his father's son! 

    The soil in Stoddard County was red and rocky, but it was full of first-growth trees that needed cutting, and Grant was willing to cut it.  He would make a profit out of the timber, and then use his land for wheat or corn.  Yes, he also also definitely his entrepreneurial ancestor's descendant.

     In 1903 Ulys Tucker, my father, was born.  He told me was named after a Tucker family, but did not know who it was.  I learned recently that Stoddard had a judge named W. L. Tucker whose court was in Bloomfield. 
I'll bet Grant and Judge Tucker were friends and that's who my father was named after.

     Now back to the mystery of Lucy L. Maddox.  On January 25, 1904, Grant was appointed guardian of Lucy Maddox, under age 14.  He petitioned the court to sell her 40 acres he'd bought in her name five years earlier for her maintenance and education.  If he was already recognized as her father, why would he request at this time to be her guardian?  On April 25 it was approved, and at that time he also stated that he was Lucy's father.  I do not believe Grant's wife was the mother, for she had a child December 1898 and another one March 1900.  Grant had bought the land on Lucy's behalf (at her birth?) in 1899.

    I'd like to try to find our Aunt Lucy some day.  I tend to think that Grant tried to do the right thing for his illegitimate daughter by investing in land for her in 1899 when she was born.  I also tend to think her mother died in 1904, at which time Grant petitioned to become her guardian.  If she was age five in 1904, she would have married around 1915 or later.  Perhaps someone can look through the marriage books for that time period for a Lucy, perhaps going by the name of whoever was raising her ~ perhaps Rawlings.

     Between 1904 and 1908, children Rilla Magnolia, Angie Marie, and Thurman Ralph were born.  Weren't they great names?

     Also during that time, Grant Maddox's account book with the Bank of Dexter, MO (in possession of Donald Maddox of Dexter) had the following entries:

June 1904 ~ Deposit of $3100

July 1904 ~ Balance after expendiures $2543
July 1904 ~ Deposited of $50

Sept. 1904 ~ Balance $2350

December 1904 ~ Deposit of $403
December 1904 - Balance $2753

June 1905 ~ Deposit of $125

December 1905 ~ Deposit $1000

January 1906 ~ Deposit of $750

August 1908 ~ Deposit of $100
August 1908 ~ Balance $1975

   All this shows that Grant had a very good income.  Plus he trusted banks, something not universally felt then.

     Notice J. A. Maddox in his payouts.  That must have been his brother, James Arthur Maddox, who went to Missouri about the same time that Grant did.

     In the mean time, on September 17, 1904, Grant purchased another 40 acres 
for $700 from widower Jonathan Rawlings. 

And on October 24, he purchased still another 40 acres for $560 from the heirs of Louisa Rawlings. 

Grant was appointed Guardian of Lucy L. Maddox in January 1904.  I sometimes wonder if her mother was Louise Rawlings who died that same year.  And was Grant buying the Rawlings land partly because Mr. Rawlings was anxious to leave the area?  Grant made a big profit off of it as shown in 1905.

     A year later on October 13, Grant and his wife Mae sold that 80 acres for $2250, almost twice what he had paid for it!  What did he do with the money?  Bought 200 acres more with it!  The first tract he bought on November 15 ~ 80 acres for $1600 from W. E. Hill, guardian of James Hill.

     On November 18 he bought another 40 acres for $450 from the Hills.  And on November 27, he bought a final 40 acres 
from the Hills for $450.  So by the end of 1905, Grant had a total of 380 acres of land!  I'm sure his land-lover father was proud of him!

    It was on this land that Grant Maddox built his large house for his growing family.  It had 6 rooms including two large ones on the second for ~ one bedroom for the boys and one for the girls.  Their barn was 30' x 40' where they stored hay and grain.  They also had horses, mules and cattle.  All this is shown on Policy #403, Stoddard County Mutual Fire Insurance Company dated January 10, 1917, now in the poession of Donald Maddox of Dexter, MO. 


The house was in front of the two trees in the photo.  I'd like to have a picture of the house.  There are probably several out there of family members in front of it.

  On June 26, 1906, Grant purchased still another 40 acres from Noah Sifford over in adjoining Butler County close to his friend and co-worker Frank Goble (whose land is also represented in the map in Green.?  This played an important role, for some day Grant's son and Frank's daughter would be married ~ my parents. 

He also purchased next to this land for $66.50 from Noah Sifford and W. E. Hill 40 acres less 6-4/10 acres.  The land in Butler County was more swampy I think that in Stoddard Co.

    In the mean time, Bloomfield was thriving.  (This picture was contributed to the Stoddard Co. website by Ruth Ann Godwin.)

     Here is a map of Stoddard Co., MO, showing the land Grant Maddox owned in green.  The red square is Puxico.  Bloomfield is the gray area to the east of Grant's land.  The large gray area to the SE is Dexter.

    In the 1910 census, Grant's family was in Duck Creek Twp.  He was age 44 (his prime) with wife and nine children.  By now Angie Marie and Thurman Ralph had been born.  Notice how many go by their middle name, including the parents.

    In 1911, Grant took out a mortgage of a hefty $1000 against 160 acres in Section 30 where his house was, repayable in five years.  I wonder if this is when he built the big house, using the $1000 for that.

     In 1913 Woodrow Wilson became president and the United States was about to get involved in World War I.  That was a far cry from the Civil War days when Grant had been born.  Now they used airplanes!

     Also on February 20, 1913, Grant purchased 120 acres way over in White County, Arkansas. 

     What was Grant doing with all his land?  He was cutting the timber first, and then replanting some, but I doubt he had time for much planting yet.  Perhaps Grant had been working for the lumber company there up until now.  Grant and his close friend, Frank Goble (later to be my two grandfathers) worked in the timber together a great deal, something I heard my Goble grandfather talk about many times.  Receipts in the possession of Donald Maddox, Dexter, MO, from the Fisk Stove and Lumber Co. for Elm hauled by "Grant Mattox" cover 1914.  It was divided by feet cut by "G" (Grant), "F" (Frank Goble or son Frank Maddox) and "Smith" (Clayton Smith, husband of daughter Pearl).

Sept. 1 ~ 24 feet
Sept. 1 ~ 22 feet
Sept. 2 ~ 18 feet
Sept. 3 ~ 65 feet
Sept. 3 ~ 66 feet
Sept. 4 ~ 74 feet
Sept. 4 ~ 80 feet
Sept. 5 ~ 50 feet
Sept. 5 ~ 78 feet

  On November 23, 1915, Grant purchased from John Hancock for $75,  "Two bay horse colts one year old and post about fourteen high.  One named Dan and the other Bill."

    It was a very cold winter.  Co-worker, Frank Goble, said Grant wouldn't buy personal things for himself, though he had a good home and his family was always well dressed.  He often went out to the woods to cut timber in the winter without hat or gloves.  After a particularly cold wet day in January, Grant went home sick and ended up with pneumonia.  The doctor came several times, but couldn't help him.  On January 17, 1916, Ulysses Grant Maddox died.  My father, Tucker, had just turned 13 the day before.

   Grant's brother, James Arthur Maddox, provided the family information for the death certificate.  It says he died of Labor Pneumonia.  This appeared in the newspaper:

Ulyssis Grant Maddox was born in Pendleton Co., KY, August 13, 1864, died in Stoddard Co., MO, January 17, 1916 at the age of 51 years, 5 months and 4 days.
     When young he moved with his parents to Hamilton Co., Il.  February 17, 1889, he was married to Miss Mary Funkhouser, his present wife.  To this union were born thirteen children.  About 27 years ago he and his family, consisting of a wife and 4 children, moved to Stoddard Co., Mo.
     He leaves an aged father and mother, two sisters, one brother, wife, twelve children, three grand-children, and an innumerable host of friends to mourn his departure.  By his death Stoddard Co. has lost an honoured and useful citizen.
     Funeral services were conducted by Rev. Williams, and the remains laid to rest in Rock Hill cemetery, Stoddard Co., Mo.

   The funeral cost $86.00, a lot of money a century ago.  I wonder if his parents (aged 81 and 73) still living in Hamilton Co., IL, were able to attend the funeral.  Probably not in this cold weather unless they rode the train.  It must have been very difficult in the coldest part of the winter to chissel a grave on that "rock hill" where Grant was buried.

     Grant Maddox left behind eight children still in the home for his widow to finish raising alone.  The youngest just over two years old.  Being raised without a father is very hard on children, especially the boys.  And step-fathers usually aren't quite the same as one's own father.  But they all did the best they could without him.  At least he left his family well-provided for. 

     I'm sure Grant's (and our) ancestors would have been proud of his enterprises.  If he'd lived another twenty years, no telling how much more he would have accomplished.

GO TO GRANT'S CHILDREN

Francis Marion
Louella Venita
Ina Agness
Hazel Ellen
Lucy Pearl
Jesse Arthur
William Harley
ULYS TUCKER
Rilla Magnolia
Angie Marie
Thurman Ralph
Over Marshall


Clarence Van