Alfred & Pauline (Shafer) Axsom
Alfred Elmer Axsom was born near Andover, Mo on December 27 1913 to Johnnie Turner
and Daisy Olive (Boyd) Axsom. He grew up on farms in the Cainsville/Saline area
and in South Dakota. Returning to Missouri in 1933, he married his neighborhood
sweetheart, Mary Pauline Shafer, on August 29 1939 at the home of U.M. Bolar, Justice of
the Peace, in Bethany, Mo. His 91 year old grandmother Anna (Dobson) Axsom attended
the ceremony, wearing a long black taffeta coat on that hot day. Her picture was in the
Bethany paper. Alfred's grandmother "Susie" (Elliott) Boyd, age 75, made the wedding cake.
Pauline, born May 20 1922 was the daughter of Ross and Amanda (Craig) Shafer.
Alfred and Pauline started their married life at the home of his parents, while
renovating a nearby house to live in. They also lived in "Uncle Willie" Axsom's
house on Pea Ridge, near Cainsville, Mo. The roads were so bad they had to use horse and
wagon to get out sometimes. They didn't have electricity until they moved to the Axsom
farm off Route A, near Trenton , Mo. in 1951. They farmed for many years.
In 1964 they moved to California with their youngest son, buying a house in San Jose.
Pauline lived there until her death from cancer December 6 1992. Alfred lived on his own for
some time, later living with his daughter Freeda. He died February 7 2001.
They had four children, Mary Jean Axsom Beck Johnson (of Independence, MO) born May 29 1940;
Freeda Darlene Axsom Haggard (of Redding, CA) born December 30 1941; Bernard Charles
(of Spickard, MO) born June 17 1944; and Roger Dale March 30 1952.-Jan 12 1987 in San Jose,
Ca.
Alfred and Pauline loved growing flowers in their yard, entertaining, and being surrogate
grandparents to all the neighborhood grandchildren. They were a very loving couple, writing each
other poems, holding hands on walks. They kept up voluminous correspondences with family.
[327 words]
written by Deb Axsom Dailey for grundy county history book jan 2006
Rt. 1 Box 38
Mercer Mo 64661
660 382 5809
dailyknd@grm.net
[aunt mary axsom johnson called me jan. 8 to offer revisons on the original i'd sent her. she generally liked the
essence of my biography, just had a few little things....aunt mary wanted grandma to have an appendectomy instead
of having her appendix out....so i removed it just for spite....clarified that grandpa grew up in south dakota from
1919-1933, and that the farm was OFF route A, and had them 'renovate' a house instead of 'get it ready to move
in to.' i myself don't consider throwing up some wallpaper renovating, but whatever. after the nightmare of the
Uncle Roger biography, this was pretty mild! deb_dailey]
aunt mary sent me a letter from her sister freeda: in the amount of words for Dad/Mom flowers and neighborhood children-
it would have been better (I think) to put no. of grandchildren and great grandchildren. This was omitted.
No comments:
Post a Comment