Ulmer Ancestry

Short Stories about Thomas Ulmer

Thomas Ulmer Move To Green Ridge, Mo..

    By 1910 Thomas had moved from Nodaway County To Green Ridge, MO. He may have made the move in 1909. The 1910 Census indicates he was in Pettis County in the year 1910. He had 7 or 8 train car loads of his horses loaded on a train when he made the move. He raised race horses.

   Thomas opened a livery stable in Green Ridge and most of his boys worked for him or helped with that business. Ledgers he kept indicate that they did the usual type of things, such as boarding, feeding, and shoeing horses. It also indicates they did other things like, plowing gardens and fields, selling and delivering of fertilizer (manure). They also sold and delivered ice to the locals. The livery stable was located on the south end of the present day main business strip, on the west side of the street just north of where the Katy Railroad tracks were, in Green Ridge. He lived just south and west, across the tracks, in a two-story house at that time. The photo that is dated "1912" with Thomas, Lucy, James True, and Nina on the front porch is a photo of that house. The house was pink in color, and stayed that color many years after Thomas moved from there. Even in the late 1950s the old house remained pink.

  Thomas moved to Camp Branch sometime later. At this time I do not know exactly when he made the move. By 1921 Thomas and his sons, Pearl, James True, and Rolla, all lived in the Camp Branch area. James, Thomas's brother, also moved close to the Camp Branch area later. James lived south, and east, of Camp Branch. Records indicate that James was in the area in 1928 when his wife, Bertha, died.

  Thomas returned to the Maryville area prior to the 1930 census. In 1936 Lucy pasted away in Maryville, MO. She is buried in St. Patrick's Cemetery in Maryville, MO.

   James True Ulmer, Thomas's son, owned a blacksmith shop at Camp Branch, MO.. True had a blacksmith shop there, but also sold feed and other items that a small county store would sell. The small community of only a few houses is located a few miles northeast of Green Ridge, near the corner of present day B highway and Camp Branch road. Thomas and Lucy had moved back to Maryville prior to her death. Sometime after Lucy passed in 1936, Thomas return to Pettis County and lived at Camp Branch. He lived close to True, and his wife Mary, in the late 40s and early 50s. The old house that True first lived in is still there today (2003), although trees, brush, and weeds hide most of the house from view. Another house that True lived in is also still there. It is across the road from the older house.

    Thomas was not as happy living in the Green Ridge area as he was when he lived near Hopkins and Pickering, MO.. Over the years he made several moves back and forth after his first move to Green Ridge. He died in Sedalia, MO. but was buried in St. Patrick’s Cemetery in Maryville, MO., next to his wife Lucy.

The Pocketknife

At Camp Branch, Mo.

    Thomas Ulmer lived close to, or on the corner, on the west end of the road of the small community. His great grandson remembers visiting him there around 1949/1950 with his parents. He, the great grandson, was about five or six years old at that time.

    Thomas gave him a pocketknife, the first one the boy had ever owned. Thomas showed him how to whittle on a corncob, showing him to cut away from his hand that is holding what he is cutting on. Thomas told him that if he cut his hand he'd take the knife back. Thomas went into the house and the boy cut his hand.

   When he started crying, Thomas and the boy's mother came outside to see what was wrong. The boy was holding his injured hand with the other hand and there was blood showing. His mother got him to let her see what he had done. She looked at the cut and told him that there was no need to cry because the cut was not that bad. He told his mother, that he was not crying because of the cut, he was crying because he knew Grandpa Thomas was going to take the knife back. Thomas didn't take the knife back, and that was where he got his first pocketknife.