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The following concerns one John Dykes, 1760-ca.1842, of Bonhill, Dunbartonshire,Scotland, and his trips to Missouri. The passages cited are from an article which appeared in The Lennox Herald (Scotland) in 1893, entitled: Balloch and Around "Recollections of Place and People Seventy Years Ago" by James Barr
"When upwards of seventy years (1828-1831) of age he, his wife, and daughter, thought proper to leave this country (Scotland) to join some relatives in America (Missouri) It did not appear that they had given due notice of their coming out, as after arriving at their destination they had the mortification to learn that their friends had left for some other locality at a great distance, if I recollect rightly, somewhere about two (200) hundred miles. Being without means, nothing remained for them but to travel that distance on foot. This they resolved to do, and after suffering great hardships, weary and worn, reached the abode of their friends. So unwonted had their journey been that an American newspaper made it the subject of a long article describing their perils and privations with considerable minuteness."
......"Besides an iron frame, Dykes possessed considerable force on intellect, and could in his peculiar, slow, hissing way, give graphic descriptions of what he had seen and done on the other side of the Atlantic. I can well remember his account of his experience in coming down the rapids of an American river;how the boat had a very large helm, four or five men at the tiller, and their anxiety and alertness while guiding the boat as she swept at almost lighting speed round rocks and bluffs. The captain told the passengers that should anything go wrong they should each take hold of one of the flour barrels, and it would enable them to reach the bank. "My auld wife was lying below ill, so, says I, if that be the way o't I'll hae naethin' tae dae wi' your flour barrels. I'll awa' doon beside her, and we'll gan aff thegither."
"Some years after his return John's wife (Margaret McAllaster Dykes) died, and when nearly eighty (80) years of age he again took it into his head to go back to America. To enable him to do this money must have been sent him. He had heard some person remark on the folly of an old man such as he going away so far, to which his indignant reply was "an auld man gaun tae America! Man, ye don't go; Ye sit in a ship and she goes." Go he did, and his daughter with him. Nobody supposed that Scotland would ever again see that shrivelled-up rickle of humanity. A year or so afterwards, one windy day, what appeared to be the ghost of auld Dykes, with his apron tightly wrapped round his body, was seen stalking by the river-side at Bonhill. It turned out to be Dykes himself still in the -the bones. On being spoken to, and referring to his apron, he said as it was very windy he had tied it round him "just to keep his bones frae rattlin." He had come back just to lay them beside his auld mate. And that was done for him not long after."
I have attempted for many years now to reconstruct this Dykes family odyssey to Missouri on their two successive trips. John Dykes' son Peter Dykes Sr. had a daughter Rebekah Dykes who is cited in the 1851 British Census for Bonhill. She is listed as 20 yrs. of age b. in the U.S. 1830/31. Peter Dykes Jr. is cited in the 1860 Philadelphia Census. He also had a daughter Rebekah cited as being born in Missouri 1855.
I know there were several families surnamed Dykes in Missouri from an early period. Most seem to have originated from Tenn. and Ky. Could the "relations" cited in the Barr work be one of these?
I realize locating this family in official records, or the American newspaper article mentioned; St. Louis? Chicago?, is perhaps a proverbial "needle " "
affair. Determination must be a family trait.
Thanks for slogging through the above, Jim Turner 4X grandson of "Auld" John Dykes
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