I have three scrapbooks. Two of them are very old. One my aunt started in 1870. One my mother started in 1890, sometime before I was born. Poems and acticles written over a period of years were pasted in the book.
    There are four lovely poems by Chinnubie Harjo, a full-blooded Creek Indian. He was superintendent of the Creek orphan school and did much for the betterment of his people. I do not know the year he wrote the poems.
    In the book I read an article on how our presidents died up to McKinley in 1901.
    I'm reading some very lengthy obituaries. One is of a man who died in 1896. There are memoriams to two women who died in 1896, both young.
    There is a written copy of the song, "Wildwood Flower." It was popular around 50 or 60 years ago. Another song is "Dying From Home and Lost," copyright 1892.
    There are old fashioned plates of beautiful velvet dresses in color. In the style of those days ladies wore high button shoes. I have an old hook used to button shoes.
    There are some pressed roses in this scrapbook. I wonder the occasion which prompted the sentiment. Perhaps they were given by some lover.
    There's a poem written for the 8th Missouri Cavalry Volunteers. It was for their 13th reunion at Hickory Barrens and was by M. O. Bedell, dedicated to old comrades. He was secretary and treasurer of the reunion group.
    I also read the population of the counties of Missouri and Arkansas in 1870. My aunt once lived in Springfield. Her husband's name was Lamb and he served in the Missouri Cavalry in the Civil War.
    Here is a card signifying my Grandfather Hawkins belonged to Lodge No. 317, Brothers of Freedom.
    In 1893 Captain Lynch wrote an article or story to a local paper about the rescue of the 15 children, survivors of the Mountain Meadows Massacre. It tells how in January, 1859, pressure was brought to bear on the Army for their recovery. Some of the children were from Boone and Carroll Counties.
    The scrapbook my mother made is interesting, too. In my schooldays when we would have "speakings," I'd go to that book to get a poem to recite. There are poems from my old McGuffey's readers in it. There is one I spoke at an old soldier's reunion at Harrison when I was 10 years old. On old soldier carried me on his shoulder across the park from the speaker's stand.
    My mother loved pretty flowers. In the book are pasted many colored pictures of flowers.
    My scrapbook started years ago. There are accounts of births, deaths, weddings, and mementos cherished from the past and articles I have humbly written over a period of years about pioneer days.
    I hope my grandchildren enjoy as much as I have the scrapbooks my aunt and loving mother made. In reading these books time turns backward and I want to be, for just a day,
    A little girl I used to know,
    A little girl that used to play,
    With happy heart and cheeks aglow,
    In frock of simple calico.

Mellie Cole
April 18, 1962