Friend Family Collection

Collection — Multiple Containers

Identifier: 1998.009

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

The collection is primarily composed of photographs, business, personal and legal correspondence, bank and insurance records, land deed transfers, and religious records. The collection also contains an extensive compilation of early American postcards, various artifacts, and recorded family histories of the four allied families.

Dates

Creation: Circa 1776-2000

Rights Statement

Materials in this collection may be protected by copyright law (Title 17, U.S. Code).

Biographical / Historical

The involvement of the pioneer Friend Family in Scott County, Missouri, dates back to 1796, when Captain Charles Friend, at age seventy-eight, and his family settled near Benton, Missouri. He and his sons accumulated considerable property from the Spanish government.

Charles Friend’s son John contracted with the Iron Mountain and Southern Railroads to build bridges and trestles. After he completed this agreement, he acted as foreman of the track-laying force until the road was completed in 1869 while managing the Friend Farm. The Farm was operated by the family from 1796 until 1998 when the land was given to Southeast Missouri State University. The Friend Family allied themselves with the Bollinger, Heise, and Heldermon families of Missouri in the late eighteen and early nineteen hundreds. In 1880, Albert and Amelia (Heise) Heldermon married, and their daughter, Bertha, married Denver Bollinger in 1902. The Bollingers’ son, Lynn, wedded Virginia Friend in 1928.

These families preserved pictures, records, documents, and correspondence, which provide a better understanding of rural southeast Missouri families’ daily lives in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

Extent

8.0 Linear Feet

1 map folders

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Abstract

Personal, business and legal correspondence, financial and legal papers, school, church and genealogical records, scrapbooks, photographs, postcards, and artifacts from the four allied families of Friend, Bollinger, Heise and Heldermon of Southeast Missouri. The Friends were a pioneering family in Scott County, first settling there in 1796, near Benton.

Provenance

Gift of Nancy Bollinger Adams, August 1, 1997.

Materials Specific Details

Friend Family Genealogy The following Friend Family data was extracted from a letter written by a Mrs. Ruby May Friend Heimbaugh of Cape Girardeau, Missouri, under date of August 19, 1938, and addressed to Mrs. Cecil Fritts of Aurora, Missouri. (Ruby May was a cousin of Virginia Friend Bollinger) Robert T. or J. Friend arrived in this district with his family, merchandise, slaves and cattle in 1798 and settled on the Missouri and cultivated Indian wheat, zooms, also have lived on the St. Francis (river). In 1800, on Mill Prairie, on road to Illinois lived John Friend, close to New Madrid. On the old Illinois road from New Madrid to Ste. Genevieve, Captain Charles Friend from Monongahela, Monongahela County, Virginia in 1788, was one of the earliest settlers on this road near the present town of Benton and at the foot of what is now known as the Scott County (Benton) hills. Captain Friend was an Officer in the Revolutionary War and with nine sons and two daughters came to upper Louisiana in the year named. The principle settlement in what was then and ever since known as Big Prairie in the New Madrid District was located on or near this old highway. The sons were named, respectively; Aaron, Israel, Tenne, Charles, Jacob, John, Alexander, David and Jonas. Jonas, John Jacob and Charles each secured a Grant of land under the Spanish government. In Tywappity School craft mentions an Augustine Friend as settlers on White River five miles below the school in 1819, and where he was treated with much hospitality. Doubtless Augustine was a member of the same family of pioneers. (Government) [?] of the Interior of Missouri & Arkansas. In 1805, Andrew Robertsons daughter Elizabeth married John Friend. Price & Augustine Friend and others were the first residence on White River in 1819 and is mention in School Craft. Hardin Friend was born in 1855 at Oran, Scott County, Missouri. Ruby May Friend Heimbaugh was his only child. My Grandfathers name is James Friend. My Great Grand Fathers name is John Friend and my Great Great Grand Father was Charles Friend. Grandfather James Friend raised the following named children: Hardin, Tom Benton, Missouri a daughter, William Francis and Francis William (twins). Copied as written by Mrs. Ruby Friend Heimbaugh (Parentheses added by M. Harmon, transcriber)

Materials Specific Details

Family Farm Property Ownership Capt. Charles Friend married Nancy Gough Managed farm: 1796-1814 Children: Aaron Friend Israel Friend Teene Friend Charles Friend Jonas Friend Alexander Friend David Friend John Friend* *John Friend married Elizabeth Robinson Managed farm: 1814-1863 Children: Andrew Friend James Friend* Margaret Friend Peter Friend *James Friend married Catherine Cotterell Managed farm: 1863-1896 Children: Thomas B. Friend Missouri E. Friend Hardin Friend Marion Francis Friend Francis Marion [F. M.] Friend* *F. M. Friend married Amelia Rosenberg Managed farm: 1896-1944 Children: Pearl Friend* Presley Friend Mayme Friend William Willie Friend Leotia Tillie Friend Virginia Friend≠ *Pearl Friend (never married, no children ) Managed farm: 1944-1966 ≠Virginia Friend married Lynn Bollinger Managed farm: 1966-1996 Children: Nancy Friend Bollinger* *Nancy Friend Bollinger married Neil Adams Managed farm: 1996-1998 No children 1998 Friend Family Farm was transferred to Southeast Missouri State University (in perpetuity)