Sarah Barton Murphy Memorial Forest established 1936 by DAR chapter in cooperation with the Mark Twain National Forest.
Ok, so why the honor? "... founder of the first Sunday School west of the Mississippi..." Read a few pages or read below. http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~mostfran/biographies/first_sunday_school.htm , http://www.farmingtonmo.org/history.html http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=42624707 http://www.farmingtonmo.org/history.html Birth: May, 1748, USA Death: Mar., 1817 Farmington St. Francois County Missouri, USA Buried at the Masonic Cemetery on Carter and South Henry Street, Sarah Barton Murphy was the daughter of the Rev. Joshua (Josiah) Barton & Jean (Jane) DuBart. Sarah Barton married the Rev. William Murphy, Sr. between his first wife's death of 1761 and the year 1767 in Halifax County, Virginia. William [Sr.] and Sarah were the parents of Tabitha Murphy Gentry, David Murphy, Sarah Murphy Evans, Dubart Murphy, Richard Murphy, Isaac Murphy and Jessie Murphy. Rev. William Murphy, Sr. had acquired a land grant from the Spaniards in 1798 in the Louisiana Territory.
In 1799 en route to Tenessee he died in Kentucky while retrieving his family to relocate what would become the Murphy Settlement. Sarah Barton Murphy was determined to follow her late husbands's wishes and with the help of her sons and step-son, she took all her belongings on a flat-bottom boat, went down the Holston River to the Ohio River and up the Mississippi to arrive in Ste. Genevieve along the river in 1802. Her sons David & Richard & stepson William had already set up the settlement arriving in 1800.
See her story as the founder of the first Sunday School west of the Mississippi on the St. Francois County web-page at The Sarah Barton Murphy Story (Link above) From the www.findagrave.com web site. She is listed in several other sites. The local DAR chapter bares her name with honor.
This part of the forest is just a little reminder of an important woman of the area.
****************** :)******FTF goes to 60CGarsee !!!!!!! ***************************************
I have permission to place this cache on the Mark Twain National Forest.
I have been asked to add this to all my Mark Twain NF caches, just a reminder. "Please be aware that collection of historic and prehistoric artifacts or the destruction or defacement of archaeological sites on federal lands is prohibited by the Archaeological Resources Protection Act of 1979, (16 U.S.C. 470aa-470mm) and the Antiquities act of 1906 (16USC 431-433). First time offenders can be fined up to $20,000 and imprisoned for up to one year. Second time offenders can be fined up to $100,000 and imprisoned for up to 5 years." Forest Archeologist