The Springfield Connection

Excerpt from Application for Letters of Administration of the estate of Bryant Coker Jr.

The family of Shadrack Coker and his descendants had lived in Springfield, Missouri since at least the mid-1860s.  The document above is from the probate record of Shadrack's grandson Bryant Coker Jr. Thanks to Traci Wilson-Kleekamp of Tracilizz's Genealogy Blog for providing me with many helpful Springfield Coker records.

Bryant Coker preceded his mother Shulia Upton Coker in death. When Shulia died Bryant's wife Bertha filed for administration of the estate; part of the process being to locate possible heirs. All of the people listed in the record are my relatives.



Anna Coker (aunt) was my great-grandmother.
Nettie Stinnett (cousin) was the daughter of Anna's brother William.
Dick Stinnett (uncle) was Anna's brother.
John Stinnett (uncle) and Jess, Arthur, Walsie, George and Richard (cousins) were the brother and nephews and niece of Anna.
Frank, Vencil and David Stinnett (cousins) were the sons of Anna's brother Thomas Stinnett.
Lettie McMillan, Lloyd and James Harlow (cousins) were the grandchildren of Thomas Stinnett through his daughter Virgie Stinnett Harlow.

What I find curious about this list is that all of the relatives are Stinnett descendants. Anna is the only Coker mentioned and she was a Coker by marriage.  I can sort of understand the mention of John and Thomas' children and grandchildren because their mothers were Cokers (Lizzie and Lettie respectively). I don't quite  know how Nettie and Dick got into the mix though there is some newspaper archive evidence that Nettie went to school in Springfield for a while. And I don't understand why Bessie Crawford Payton was not listed as she was Lizzie's daughter (and John Stinnett's stepdaughter), had lived in Springfield since the early 1900s and was still alive in 1952.

The document also said that Jess Stinnett was deceased with no issue. He'd had two children with Mary Morford of Galena but they had been living in Omaha, Nebraska since the 1940s. Since Shadrack, both Bryant Sr. and Jr., and Shulia were all dead it's possible that Bertha only knew these folks through her marriage but did not have knowledge of actual blood ties. I've often wondered if Shadrack was George Coker's (my great-grandfather) brother.

Shulia's death certificate says she was born in Yellville, Arkansas (the Coker-Stinnett homeland) and she can be found there with her mother and siblings in the 1880 census. I wonder if she knew these families before her marriage to Bryant Coker. I can't help but believe that most of the black residents of Yellville knew or knew of each other. I've found evidence of other Springfield residents born in Yellville and wonder if this was a common destination for emmigration from northwest Arkansas.

The record notes that the John Stinnett family had not been heard from since 1924 which was about the time his family moved to Salina, Kansas. They had lived in Wichita for a couple of years before that. Did they stay in touch during that time?

I was pleased to see the whereabouts of Vencil Stinnett. I knew he and his wife lived in Springfield for a few years but had no idea he had moved to the Bronx, NY.

This document was a big break for me because it supported a connection to the Springfield Cokers.