Young Brothers Massacre

9. Clouds of Disaster Gather

CLOUDS OF DISASTER GATHER It is possible that even if J. D. had lived, the Young brothers would have come to the same tragic and bloody end. Without him, however, that end seems, in retrospect, inevitable. James David "Daddy" Young, the patriarch of the family, was its stabilizing force. It was he who kept discipline. It was he who made the important decisions. It was Daddy who decided that the family should move from Missouri to homestead in Oklahoma. It was he, again, who decided that they should return to Missouri to farm in Christian County. It was he who eventually, on July 12, 1918, bought for $13,000 the 98.92-acre farm near Brookline where the infamous massacre would ultimately take place. All the decisions were made by Daddy. If anyone disagreed with him, the fact was unreported and was certainly ignored. J. D. was an ideal citizen-law-abiding and a tireless worker. He had the highest respect of all his neighbors. It was his hard work and prudence that made the farm a going enterprise. Even after he sold off 10 acres to his neighbors, the Haseltines, the remaining 88.92 acres constituted an average-sized farm in Greene County. Unfortunately, this stabilizing force and wise decisionmaker was lost to the Young family. On November 4, 1921, J. D. died at age fifty-eight. It was speculated by some people that his three errant sons, who already showed signs of their ultimate destiny, caused their father to die of a broken heart. He was buried at McCauley Cemetery, near Ozark. Management of the farm fell, suddenly and terrifyingly, to Willie ("Mom"), along with the sole responsibility of caring 54 Clouds of Disaster Gather 55 for and making decisions for the family. The farm that became her responsibility was both a valuable asset and a heavy burden . For a lone woman to manage, it was a large order. The farm lies north and south. The roadway leading to the house is from the east, Haseltine Road, and is unchanged to this day. Formerly there was a road from the north leading to the barn, but that entrance now has been obliterated. The red barn remains unchanged, but where the chicken house once was a garage now stands. Fourteen large soft maple trees stood in the lawn and were to be important in the gory drama that would be acted out there. A barbed wire fence enclosed the yard. There was a hedge fence along the west boundary line. It is one and three-quarters of a mile from that fence to the road now known as "M," along which law officers would travel to their doom. A recent owner of the house says that he cut down the last soft maple tree, and that all the trees now there were planted by him. The house is a two-story frame structure with a covered porch across the front, only three steps up. Three upstairs bedrooms offer an unobserved view from the windows in all directions. The east upstairs bedroom is directly above the kitchen, its window above the storm cellar that once existed at the rear of the house. The upstairs rooms remain unchanged , but a large room with a fireplace has been added to the east side, and a window and door on the first floor have been eliminated.1 Today the farm and house are a valuable showplace worth more than $150,000. We do not know how Willie managed to keep the farm going in the depths of the depression. We do know, however, that she was obsessed by the need to succeed. She desperately wanted to follow inJ. D.'s footsteps and to see his hopes and dreams come true. The trouble was that J. D.s physical strength and vast experience were missing. flying as hard as she could, Willie barely managed to hold on for ten years. Then, at last, she was overwhelmed by a fate beyond her control. 56 Young Brothers Massacre Oscar, who lived on a nearby farm, did what he could to help; but he had his own family to support. Willie's other sons were a heartbreak, not a help. Paul was in a Texas penitentiary in 1924, Jennings in a Missouri penitentiary in 1928 and in a federal institution in 1930. Harry was in a Missouri penitentiary in 1927 and 1928. After he murdered...