Item 39

                                                                                     Tulsa Oklahoma,
                                                                                     Jan. 21, 1940

Mr. Lwurence [Laurence] O. Weakley,
517 ½ Francis Street,
St. Joseph, Missouri

Dear Mr. Weakley:  In Re Armstrong Beattie.

 I am in your debt on account of your letter of Jan. 17th in which you told me about Mr. Beattie and his wife.  Biographical sketches I have read and other data assembled had convinced me that Mr. Beattie had no children.

 This Mr. Beattie appears certainly to have married a lady named Snoddy, and they resided in St. Joseph many years before their deaths.  Armstrong Beattie came out of Boone County.  His father, Mr. James Beattie, came to Boone County at a very early day from Washington County, VA.  This James Beattie died in Boone County Mo., in 1821, and his first cousin Samuel Beattie was the first administrator of his estate.  Samuel Beattie died before the estate was fully probated, and Matthew Ryburn Beattie, a son of James Beattie, wound up the estate.  I checked these items merely to identify James Beattie and his children.  These records further disclosed that James Beattie had at least seven children:
              Betty Beattie, of whom nothing is now known.
              Malinda Beattie, of whom nothing is now known.
              Matthew Ryburn Beattie, (mentioned above) who married in Boone County 1835, Amanda  Cowan. He seems to have died either in Boone County or Saline County, and his widow Amanda, took for her second husband Hardin Dysart of Andrew County, Mo.  I do not know whether this M. R. Beattie left issue.
              Thomas E. Beattie, appears to have died before 1825.
If he left issue, no trace of same has been found.
              ARMSTRONG BEATTIE, married a Miss Snoddy and died in St. Joseph.
              Margaret Beattie, of whom nothing more is known.
              Henrietta Beattie, of whom nothing more is known.

 I have gone into some detail to explain just what it is that I seek.  From your letter it would appear that probably your father, Thomas B. Weakley, was a nephew of Armstrong Beattie, and that therefore your mother could have been of the Beattie family.  I hope you will be good enough to explain this connection if I have correctly suggested it.

 I am intrigued by the name Weakley, and particularly with the name Thomas B. Weakley.  Please let me explain.  A certain Thomas Bedford, a brother of my great great great grandfather, live in Tennessee.  His business partner was a gentleman named Weakley.  These two men found Jefferson Springs, Tennn., and one of Tennessee’s counties was named for Bedford, and one for Mr. Weakley.  Are your Weakley ancestors by any chance from Tennessee?
[Handwritten]
My father’s people came from Kentucky.  Think the Tennessee Weakleys are another branch of the same family.
[End handwritten]
 Am enclosjng [sic] a questionnaire which I wish you would fill out and mail to me at your convenience.  Yours sincerely,
    [signature] Redmond S. Cole
      Box 92, Tulsa Okla

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[Handwritten]
There were Weakley familys [sic] in Gower Mo. Liberty Mo. & also in Texas.  Don’t know the relationship between these.  All spell their names the same however.

My father died on a farm near Morehead ___ [Kas- Kansas?] in 1908, age 72.  He & my mother were separated when I was a child & I saw nothing of him until I was almost grown.  He lived in St. Jos. a few years & then went to S.E. Kas [Kansas] where he ___ [had?] relations.  He died there.  Is buried in Independence Kas.

Yrs
L.O. Weakley
[End Handwritten]