Information Sheet

 

R 1260

Ponder, Jerry Wayne, 1937-2005.
Papers, 1865-2004 (bulk 1980s-2000s).
Five hundred eighty folders; one box of photographs.

THIS COLLECTION IS IN OFF-SITE STORAGE.  AT LEAST TWO DAYS' ADVANCE NOTICE IS REQUIRED FOR RESEARCH USE.

 

These are the correspondence, papers, and research materials of a genealogist and local historian from Ripley County, Missouri.  The collection covers the descendants of Abner Ponder and allied families, the history of Ripley County, and the Civil War in southeastern Missouri.  Much of the information was incorporated in publications by Ponder Books, 1987-1999.

 

A native of Doniphan, Ripley County, Missouri, Jerry Wayne Ponder was born 8 August 1937.  He was educated in Doniphan schools, at the Missouri School of Mines and Metallurgy at Rolla, and the University of New York at Albany.  He married Janice Albright at Phoenix, Arizona in 1962.  Ponder was a surveyor for the Missouri State Highway Department before joining the U. S. Army.  He worked in the field of military intelligence until a heart attack forced his early retirement, after which Ponder returned to Doniphan with his family, now including his only child, Victor Ponder.

 

Ponder became active in many different civic organizations and activities including the Current River Heritage Museum, the Doniphan Neighborhood Assistance Program, the Pioneer Heritage Homestead, and the Ripley County Chamber of Commerce.  In 1992, he was instrumental in a reenactment of Sterling Price’s Invasion of Missouri, which passed through Doniphan in 1864.  The reenactment reflected Ponder’s interest in genealogy and local history, especially the Civil War period in southeastern Missouri and northeastern Arkansas.  In 1987 the Ponders founded Ponder Books (Janice was owner and manager) to publish and distribute Jerry’s works on genealogy and history.  From 1987 to 1999, Ponder Books produced more than twenty historical titles beginning with The History of Ripley County (1987) and concluding with Fort Mason, Texas: Training Ground for Generals (1999).  The Ponders moved to Fort Mason in 1995, where they became partners in buying and renovating Victorian-era homes.

 

Jerry Ponder died 16 July 2005 near Guffey, Colorado.  He is buried in the Amity Cemetery at Doniphan, Missouri.

 

The Ponder collection is organized in topical sections.  In many cases Ponder’s notes (usually on legal sheets) and drafts appear in the files along with copies of pertinent reference materials, along with incoming correspondence.  In other cases only photocopies of materials exist, in vertical file fashion. 

 

Box 1 contains biographical information on Jerry Ponder, drafts of some letters and writings, and notes on publications by Ponder Books, followed by files on various ancestral Ponders and Ponder family history.

 

Boxes 2-5 contain Ponder’s extensive genealogical correspondence.  Much of it consists of research for The Family of Abner Ponder, (1989) compiled by Jerry Ponder and Eldon Dow Vandiver, and subsequent correspondence generated by its publication.  Abner Ponder was a veteran of the American Revolution and father of large, mobile family that spread across the southern states in Virginia, Maryland, South Carolina, Georgia, and Tennessee.  Jerry’s line, through Abner and Archibald Ponder, came to Ripley County, Missouri before the Civil War.  Well into the twentieth century, descendants moved frequently between Ripley County and Randolph and Lawrence counties in Arkansas.  The collection contains correspondence with hundreds of Abner Ponder’s descendants, including some of the foremost Ponder researchers as Elaine Halcomb (Jerry Ponder’s sister), Catherine Ponder, Fox T. Ponder, and Patricia Saupe.  Ponder also corresponded with and assisted hundreds of family historians and genealogists with roots in Ripley County and the surrounding area. 

 

Boxes 5-6 contain correspondence and research materials on families allied to the Ponders or significant to the Ripley County area, especially the Barhams, Beakleys, Dudleys, Featherstons, Keels, Pulliams, and Vandivers.  Included are several hard-to-obtain genealogical publications concerning the Archer-Ponder, Harris, Keel, McCord, Pruett/Pruitt, and Vandiver families, and computer printouts generated by genealogist Edward F. Moore. 

 

Box 7 contains photocopies of documents and published genealogical materials from several southern states that reflect the Ponder family’s westward progression.  The materials are arranged geographically by state, the most prominent being Virginia, South Carolina, Georgia, and Tennessee.

 

Boxes 8-11 contain Ponder’s files on Ripley County and surrounding areas in southeastern Missouri.  They consist of correspondence, notes, census data, marriage records, photocopies from historical and genealogical publications, newspaper clippings, miscellaneous papers, postal history, and other research materials primarily regarding the history of Ripley County, but also the neighboring Missouri counties of Butler, Oregon, Reynolds, Shannon, and Wayne, and bordering areas in Arkansas.  The files include information on individuals, families, towns, communities, churches, cemeteries, and historic sites.  Much of the material in this section formed the research collection from which Ponder wrote History of Ripley County, Missouri (1987), and Grandin, Hunter, West Eminence, and the Missouri Lumber and Mining Company (1989), as well as several of his Civil War publications.  Other Ponder writings in this section include National Register nominations for the Cedar Lodge Historic District, Doniphan Cemetery, and Ripley County Courthouse, and historical features written for various local newspapers including the Doniphan Prospect-News. 

 

In addition to historical topics on the town of Doniphan, the collection includes original yearbooks from Doniphan High School, 1907-1954, papers regarding the Doniphan Neighborhood Assistance Program and Current River Heritage Museum, 1988-1993, and papers from the Doniphan Civil War reenactment in 1992.  There are also files on other past and present Ripley County towns and communities including Bennett, Currentview, Fairdealing, Handy, Naylor, and Oxly, and on other regional places such as the towns and communities of Four Mile (Dunklin County), Fredericktown (Madison County), Grandin (Shannon County), the Irish Wilderness, and Midco (Carter County) in Missouri; and Chalk Bluff, Lawrence County, Maynard, Pitman’s Ferry, and Randolph County in Arkansas.   Most of the files consist of photocopied materials, but the Ripley County section includes original papers from the Linzey Dudley family and a ledger volume containing the World War One diary of Dr. John Hume.  There are also photocopies of letters by lumber company worker John Hunter and reminiscences by Oscar Harper, T. L. Pulliam, Martha Ann Redford, and Morris Monroe Stewart.  There are files on various families including Adams, Collins, Dudley, Kelley, Mabrey, Murdoch, Pippin, and Sheppard.

 

Boxes 11-12 consist of files on southeastern Missouri and northeastern Arkansas during the Civil War.  They contain correspondence, research notes from National Archives and other sources, newspaper clippings, and other historical materials used in writing and compiling Ponder’s Civil War titles by Ponder Books including The Civil War Battle of Fredericktown (1995) Confederate Surrender and Parole (1995), A History of the 15th Missouri Cavalry Regiment, CSA (1994), General Sterling Price’s 1864 Invasion of Missouri (1999), and Major General John S. Marmaduke, CSA (1999), and his essays “The Battle of Ponder’s Mill,” “The Burning of Doniphan,” and biographical sketch of Aden Lowe. 

 

Among the reference materials are copies of letters, memoirs and reminiscences by R. N. Ashmore, Osa Belle Bess, Joel Bolton, Linzey Dudley, George W. Ennis, W. C. S. Lackey, and Azariah Martin, and copies of the military service records of Commodore P. Coy, Elijah S. Dalton, John S. Marmaduke, Ezekiel Roney, and David Shanks.  The collection also includes copies of several hard-to-obtain local references such as Joe Huett’s “The Civil War in Southeast Missouri,” and “Reynolds Co. Missouri Widows of the Civil War Era,” and Howard Noble’s “The Battle of Pilot Knob.”       

 

Ponder corresponded with many academic and avocational scholars, local historians, authors, and genealogists interested in the Civil War in southeastern Missouri.  The collection includes his correspondence with Richard Abrams, Bruce S. Allardice, Gerald Angel, John Bradbury, Mark Crawford, Petit J. Croy, Gene Dressel, Robert L. Flanders, Phil Gottschalk, Ralph Gregory, Joe L. Huett, Paulette Jiles-Johnson, James E. McGhee, Doyle Morris, Lynn Morrow, Ray Nichols, Bob Schmidt, and Phillip Thomas Tucker. 

 

Among the topics in Ponder’s correspondence are his acknowledged sympathy for the Confederate cause in Missouri, his contention that Ripley County deserved much more attention that it received, and his belief that the history of Missouri was wholly biased in favor of the Union point of view and omitted atrocities and war crimes committed by northern forces.  First in an article for OzarksWatch magazine and later in A History of the 15th Missouri Cavalry (CSA), and General Sterling Price’s 1864 Invasion of Missouri, Ponder promulgated the story of a massacre of civilian noncombatants by the Third Missouri State Militia Cavalry during a Ripley County action on Christmas Day 1863.  Referred to variously as Battleground Hollow, Pulliam’s Farm, the Christmas Massacre, and the Wilson Massacre, Ponder believed that Major James Wilson and five men of the Third Missouri State Militia, executed by Captain Timothy Reeve’s Confederate command during Price’s Missouri Expedition in 1864, were killed in retaliation for the earlier massacre.  Some of Ponder’s research and notes on the controversial Pulliam’s Farm matter, Major Wilson, and Captain Reeves may be seen in folders 506, 557, and 570.  Burials at Union Grove Cemetery of Confederate soldiers killed in the Christmas Day action are noted in folder 499.

 

Box 13 contains modern copy prints of historic photographs used in Ponder’s various publications.  Most of the views remain in their original photo envelopes along with negatives.  Not all of the views are identified (some may be indentified by referring to Ponder’s published works), but there is also a set of copies of photographs from the Current River Heritage Museum, along with a partial guide to the museum collection compiled by Jerry Ponder. 

Index Cards for this collection
Shelf List for this collection
Questions? Use our Researcher Registration Form

Return to WHMC-Rolla's home page.