Suggested edit: Obituary of Missouri Heryford Anderson Gaston

Missouri Heryford was the second daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Heryford, parents of nine girls and seven boys. Charles Heryford settled on the farm 2 1/2 miles north east of town, part of which is now owned by Ed Pierson. On the farm all the children were born and reared and the mother died there about 1847, the father also died in 1852.

As a girl Missouri attended school in this town and after the death of her mother she had the care of the family until she married Larz Anderson. After her marriage the couple lived in New Orleans for two years then came to Chillicothe after the death of her father. Their son Mert was born in New Orleans and Malcolm W. and Charley were born in Chillicothe, and their only daughter Zettie, the oldest child, was born on the old homestead. Larz Anderson was a clerk in a county office in Livingston County for about four years when he went West and there died. Mrs. Missouri Anderson came with her family to the old home where she resided with her brothers William and Frank until they moved to Glasgow when she moved with her children to the place now owned by Raymond Mitchell where she was married to John Gaston in 1861 and where her son Charley died. After her marriage to Mr. Gaston they moved to the Bill's farm North of this city where they loved until 1865 when they moved to this town. Their daughters Eliza and Linnie were born on the farm and their son Frank Gaston in town, M.W. Anderson, Mrs. Eliza Miller and Mrs. Linnie Sneed and Frank Gaston surviving.

After the marriage of her daughters and death of her husband in August 1907, Mrs. Gaston continued to live at her old home where she had a very large garden and all sorts of fruits and flowers, always for her friends and the poor more than for her own use. The number of pairs of socks and stockings she knit and the number of quilts she made and gave to relatives and others cannot be estimated. Fruits and vegetables, by the basketful she gave away and even after going to live with her daughter Mrs. H.C. Miller six years ago, she kept her garden and fruit for her friends as best she could from poachers. On the farm in all departments she took greatest interest and was an expert in poultry raising and cooking as well as with the needle. She enjoyed molasses making time and was noted for the fine quality of maple and corn syrup and preserves she made and gave mostly away. In her early girlhood days on the farm deer and all sorts of game abounded and she had pet fawns some of which she herself caught in the high grass and tamed. Fawns and other pets followed the sympathetic girl about the place and scampered away at the appearance of another. Her skill in sickness was no less than her disposition to exert it wherever she could, and her life can be truly said to have been spent for her family and friends and during the years between 30th September 1828 and 21st December 1917 how much she did for others cannot be estimated.

Contributed by Patricia Huntington, maternal 2nd great-grandniece.

Contributor: Patricia Huntington (47857445)