The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1897-12-14
A NOTABLE PIONEER.
Great Grandson of Thomas Jefferson
Dies In Missouri.

winch DlnOS InlS great state TO the
grand old mother commonwealth of
Virginia is loosed.
John Warner Bankhead was the
greatgrandson of Thomas Jefferson. He
was born at Monticello, and his early
youth was spent within the walls of
Jefferson's home. The Sage of Month
cello has recorded the birth of Mr..
Bankhead in his letters and diary.
1t may be remembered that Thomas
Jefferson's daughter, Martha, married
Thomas Mann Randolph, who was gov
ernor of Virginia. To this couple
daughter was born. In time, this
Bankhead, and the mother of John
Warner Bankhead, who was born in
1911.
In 1889, John Warner Bankhead and
his wife who was Elizabeth Christian
of Virginia, came to Missouri and set
tied in Pike county, not far from the
spot where the town of Cyrene is now
located They made a comfortable
home on a farm in that region. Many
of their neighbors were Virginians,
among them the family of James 0.
Broadhead of this city. Colonel Dor
sey of Maryland was one of Mr.. Bank
heads neighbors. Colonel DorSey'S
daughter is now Mrs. James o. Broad
head. The intimacy of these families
has been kept up through all the years
that have passed since those early days.
Four of Mr.. Bankhead's children
lived to maturity. DR.. Cary r, Bank
head, Paynesvilie, Mo, and Colonel
Archie Bankhead of Cyrene, Mo, are
tho only ones now alive. Mrs. Howard
Norris, the daughter died some eight
or ten years ago, and Thomas Bank
head died at Lexington, Mo, in the
early part of the war.
John Warner Bankhead died in his
S7th year at the residence of his son,
DR.. c. R. Bankhead, on Nov. Il last.
The wife of his youth died nearly two
years ago, and since then that grand
old gentleman" as he has often been
called, has been waiting for his own
summons to the Beyond.
Mr. Bankhead was a pioneer of pio-
neer of pioneers. He loved the still
woods and the solitude of unexplOred
regions. He was full of that conquering
instinct which has made the Anglo
Saxon race the colonizing force of the
age.
He was mighty hunter and an un-
erring shot Even in his old age, when
too feeble to walk, his sons would as
siSt him to the woods and leave him
beneath some large tree. There he
would sit and watch for squirrels. He
could not see the little animals, but he
knew where they were by their mo-
tions. He was never mistaken and
never missed a shot.
When the fall hunting season came
on two years ago, Mr.. Bankhead ex-
pressed his wish to join the hunting
party which was to camp out on the
Mississippi river bottoms. His sons
demonstrated. Dr.. Cary Bankhead
said to him:
Father, 1 am afraid you will die if
y ie Tor !, Otr1
trip for you at your age"
The old gentleman smiled and replied
softly:
THAT is just what would like, Cary.
1 cannot imagine anything more beauti-
full than to die under the branches of
a great tree, with Gods own sky above
me-
"Reminiscences being useless, his sons
consented for him to so with the party,
as had been his annual custom Tor so
many years.
When the next year came around,
Mrs Bankhead was dead, and the old
gentleman was too feeble to leave MS
horna.
1t has been only a few years since
Mr. Bankhead remarked to a friend:
IF l knew of a place that was like
this county when L first came here, |
would go there. Do you know that |
used to shoot deer from my front door
when I first came to Missouri? l did:
that is the life for me. At night, l could
stand in my door and hear the wolves
howl. That sound was music in my
ears. Now I wish 1 could hear it
again!"
Mr.. Bankhead was remarkably hand
some. He was 6 feet inches high, and
his well-knit figure always commanded
attention. He had a straight nose, and
gentle kindly eyes. On the Randolph
side of the house he was descended
from the Indian Princess Pochahontas.
His love of a free, outdoor life may
have been an inheritance from this far
away ancestress.
Mr. Bankhead's friends say that he
never did even a single hours work in
his life. He was a Well-to-dO man, and
was always a good manager" His
home was noted for hospitality, and
the good dinners served there have be-
come proverbial, even in that neighbor-
hood of fine housekeeDers
Mr.. Banllhead retained many of his
old time ideas. Pike county is famed
for it's good roads, and yet the old gen.
tleman often said:
"A road that is good enough for a
horse to travel is good enough for me-
He did not oppose the macadamized
roads of his county, but would Ian
guidly plead guilty to the charge of
being an old-fashioned man. In his
younger days country roads We're often
SO bad that it was impossible for any,
one to travel except on horseback.
At the old Bankhead home near Cy-
rene, there stands a large tree, which
is forked about two feet about the
ground. The space between these forks
is filed with deer horns which Mr..
Bankhead has killed. The horns are
piled regularly, and there are hun
dreds of them. This tree presents a
curious, though symmetrical appear
anCe The 'smokehOuSe' of this home
used to be filled every fall with wild
turkey meat and venisOn, provided by
Mr. Bankhead.
This great-grandson of Thomas JEFF
ferson was a Wing. He was not vio-
lent partisan. Indeed, gentleness and
kindness were his distinguishing char
acterist;cs When the war came Mr.
Bankhead's influence was eXerted in
the cause of the south. His sons were
In the Confederacy, and one son,
Thomas Bankhead lost his life for the
cause Mr.. Bankhead owned slaves,
but he did not sympathize with the in
stitution of slavery. He always said
that it was the curse of the south. He
was one of the kindest of masters.
Colonel James o. Broadhead says of
Mr. Bankhead:
IT was a little boy at Charlottesville
Va. when Mr.. Bankhead was in the
university [ knew him and his family
then, and when I settled in Pike coun-
ty, in 1912, I renewed my friendship
with him. The last time 1 went hunt
ing with him, my father-in-laW Col
one1 Dorsey went with us We had all