A Good Man Came To Town: The Alvin Boultinghouse story

by Kenneth Wayne Long with research by Donald Ray Boultinghouse, Margaret Ellen Long Gough, Deborah Hydeman Swirczynski and Joyce (Mrs. Bill) Ingram

We just celebrated the annual Miller-Boultinghouse reunion on the third Sunday in September in the El Dorado Springs city hall with a carry-in dinner at noon like we do every year.

For awhile, I was the only Miller descendant present with tons of Boultinghouses. Wait, Pete Fast, husband of the late Murneth June Ingram Fast (12/9/1945 – 5/7/2024) was there when Kimball and I arrived.

Everet Dewey (Harvey) Miller married Erma Davis and had two baby girls with her: Reba on Jan.25,1917, and June on June 24, 1920. Grandpa Miller divorced Grandma and headed for Bakersfield, CA, where he took up with and married Margarite. They never had any children.

He bought a twin wing-twin cockpit airplane and replaced the factory engine with a bomber engine. He converted the front cockpit to a grain bin and called it Miller Flying Service sewing rice and wheat from the air and herding ducks. He flew under the power lines to keep from hooking his tail wheel and to get coverage at the ends of the fields.

He trained pilots in WW1. He flew the mail over the mountains crashing twice in one day.

Meanwhile, Grandma Miller fed herself, Reba and June after Grandpa Miller abandoned them.

The Boultiinghouse family, Zachariah and Lettie and their son, Albert Alvin (6/3/1894), arrived in El Dorado Springs after traveling by covered wagon from Washington state. Their young son, Alvin, met and married Erma (6/19/1894 – 2/22/1977).

They settled on the land still owned by a Boultinghouse and Alvin milked about 10 cows by hand. Their son, Royston, helped milk when he was growing up. Grandpa sold the milk and cream to Arch Walker who ran the store at Osiris. Arch sold Alvin a cream separator which made them both some money.

Grandpa set it on the interior south porch when I was a kid but I never knew what it was – just an aluminum globe. We were only there for lunch and visiting every other Sunday so Grandpa Boultinghouse wasn’t using it. Never saw his work horses, but he never had a tractor.

He and Grandma added two babies – Royston (9/12/24-10/13, 98) and Verla Mae (2/7/28 – 7/3/2016). They took their family to Glade Springs Missionary Baptist Church where Grandma played the piano. Reba, June and Royston were saved there.

Debbie said, “I do not know if Mom was saved there or some other place, but she did have a strong faith and trust in her Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”

I remember Grandpa Boultinghouse as an old man who sat in a wooden wicker rocking chair on the west side of the heating stove in the living room. He packed his corncob pipe out of a tin of Prince Albert. To light it, he always struck a kitchen match under the left front corner of the chair.

Aunt Reba eloped with Uncle Russell Ingram. They had five children: Stan (May 10, 1935 – Aug. 19, 2003), Bonnie (Noblett) (Jan. 5, 1938 – Dec. 22 2010), Jerry (Feb. 15, 1942 – Oct. 12, 2015), Bill (Apr. 23, 1939) and Murneth June Ingram Fast (Dec. 9, 1945 – May 7, 2024). Murnie was named after Uncle Russell;’s sister, Murneth, and Aunt Reba’s sister, June, who became my mother.

Only Bill survives. Bill married Joyce Mincks (born Sept. 23, 1942). They already had two sons, Cletus and Cirtus, when I stayed at their house when I had the summer internship at Webb Publishing in Minneapolis – St. Paul, MN. They later had two daughters, Melissa and Kimberly.

They moved to Minneapolis – St. Paul from El Dorado Springs where Bill worked at Witt Printing. Joyce said that the winter after I was there they had 88 inches of snow on the ground.

The Lord called Russell to preach. One of the Missionary Baptist Churches that called him to be their pastor was Liberty at Virgil City. A widow lady, Ruth Rapps, lived about a block north of the church. The church wasn’t air conditioned so the church kept its windows open on summer evenings. Ruth sat on her front porch and listened to Russell preach. When someone gave Ruth a ride to church, she tried to seek the Lord, but couldn’t get anywhere. Finally the Lord revealed to her that He had convicted her right there on her front porch, she had repented and He had saved her.

Teke Cox introduced June to Clifford Long and they began dating. After awhile, as was her practice, Grandma Boultinghouse told June, “I think you have dated him long enough.”

June told her mom, “This time you waited too long.” They were married in the home of Dude Pace, Clifford’s uncle, a Missionary Baptist preacher. His wife, El, was Clifford’s mom, Nettie’s, sister.

They waited until WWII was over to bring their first bundle of joy, me, into the world on Dec.14,1946. They had Margaret Ellen on March 21,1950.

Royston married Myrtle Hamby (3/7/24 – 12/10/2013) and they had five boys: Earl (5/27/47), Charles (11/16/1949), Roy Lee (6/28/52 – 2/12/2022), Donald Ray (12/30/54) and Alan (2/18/62). Aunt Myrtle wanted a girl so bad she would let each new baby’s hair grow to a shoulder length, blond, curly mop before she would have it cut.

Only Roy Lee has passed away.

Aunt Verla married Eddie Hydeman (4/29/1924 – 3/13/1989) in Kansas City and they had three children: Doug (5/23/1949)), Deborah Hjydeman Swirczynski (7/30/1950) and Coleen Hydeman Bennett (11/26/1954).

After Uncle Eddie’s death, Aunt Verla married Earl A. Thompson (6/27/1915 – 9/13/2008)./

June, my mother, told me several times she watched Alvin to see if he treated his own children differently than he treated her and Reba and he did not.

On 7/21/71, Glade Springs church ordained Royston Boultinghouse and Ernie Steward to be deacons and ordained Clifford Long to be a Missionary Baptist preacher.

One year, Grandpa Miller brought me a BB gun for Christmas. Loved that gun. I’d hide in the hog house. When one of the English sparrows that feasted on the corn that Dad fed the hogs landed in the window, I’d shoot it with my BB gun.

For awhile, Mom and Dad had 500 laying hens. They had at least one big White Rock/White Vantress rooster that would flog me any time he caught me out in the yard. Mom and Dad said I’d just have to deal with it. He didn’t bother them.

One day I was carrying my BB gun out in the yard and here came the rooster to flog me. I gripped my BB gun by the barrel and swung as hard as could at his head breaking the stock. Knocked the rooster out cold. Finally he came to enough to flop on the ground, then get up. Never flogged me again. My BB gun wasn’t as accurate without its stock but I could safely walk in the yard.

I never saw any fishing equipment or guns at Grandpa Bouiltinghouse’s so I don’t think he hunted or fished.

If anyone knows the current location of Grandpa Boultinghouuse’s cream separator or one like it or the instructions, please call Donald Ray Boultinghouse at 417/296-3255.

On Jan. 13, 1959, in the middle of the night,. Grandma detected something was wrong with Grandpa. She used a flashlight to walk the half mile or so to Eugene Walker’s, Arch’s son’s, residence around the corner. She shined the light in the window until she woke him. Eugene took her back to her house and they discovered that Alvin had died in his sleep. He was 64.

No one alive today knows why the Boultinghouses migrated from Washington state to El Dorado Springs by covered wagon, but we are glad they did. Don’t rule out

Devine Intervention like what happened during the assignation attempt on President Trump when God caused him to slightly move his head so that the bullet only hit Trump’s ear. God may have caused the Boultighouses to make the trip because He needed them here.