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“Bushwhackers, Visions, Star-Crossed Lovers” is a Hit at Lions Club Meeting

This month’s Shell Knob Lion’s Club was fortunate to have as a guest speaker Frankie Carlin Meyer,  researcher and author of an excellent book, “Bushwhackers,  Visions, and Star-Crossed Lovers”.  It contains over 100 years of information about the  families that settled in the Ozarks mountains.  As a native with access to several generations of stories, family experiences, and photos to draw upon she has created a unique book that travels across four generations.  She describes her research as a “thirst” that led to thirty years of research.  During that time, she visited cemeteries, libraries, museums, National Archives, old home sites, historical sites, county courthouses, and records centers.  She also drew upon her family’s history and has compiled seven family history books.  During the last twelve years, she has shared her work by writing over 700 newspaper columns about Ozark history and genealogical research methods for the Joplin Globe.  

Monday night, using a power point presentation of photos going back over 100 years Mrs. Carlin brought to her audience fresh insights regarding Ozark history and the families that created it     She was able to draw us into history by speaking candidly about family dinners, neighborhood fights, celebrations, bushwhackers, and hangings.  These people loved the land that was hard to gain a living from and gave little in return.  But the land gave these pioneers a mental toughness that provided them with resourcefulness and a love of knowledge that transferred into a love of learning.    Education was promoted and teachers welcomed into homes for meals and housing. 

Mrs. Carlin’s voice and presentation style  is like listening to a storyteller and you are comforted by the way she  paints a series of stories about the Ozarks that are insightful. The book is divided into seventeen chapters and contains maps, charts of the area, and the various families.  It is a quick read as it written in a series of vendettas about events, situations and families. You will bring away from it a greater understanding of the proud and tough spirit of the Ozarks. You may contact her at Carlin Ridge Publishing Company, 2235 Fallen Oak, Joplin, Missouri, 64801 for copies of her book  or for  future speaking events.