An Ozarks Minute The Real Story?

What do you do when you have two stories, both in books, about one ancestor? Most people don’t have information that goes very far back into their family tree, but I seem to have dueling stories. I can trace branches of my family tree in the Ozarks (specifically Howell and Ozark County) back to 1838. I didn’t realize that it was kind of rare for ancestors to stay in one place for that many generations. Thanks to the genealogists and writers in my linage I know the names, important dates, and places they lived. I can see who they married and all their children, and most importantly the stories of their lives. In my story of the Martin clan that began in 1602 in Scotland, I am to the year 1776, when Samuel Gilbert Martin was born in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina. His wife, Elizabeth, born in 1779, in that same area were the great grandparents who got us to Missouri. But just how is a matter of debate. There are two published accounts of how they came from North Carolina and they differ quite a bit until the family arrived in what would be Greene County, Missouri in 1828. The first tells that Samuel and seven other men set out on foot to explore the Ozarks. They had the clothing on their backs, a flintlock rifle, lead for bullets, a hunting knife, gunpowder in a horn, salt, a frying pan, and a tinder box. They also had a blanket or buffalo skin since it was early spring. At Paducah, Kentucky, they “secured” two boats which carried the eight of them down the Ohio and across the Mississippi. When they landed, this account says, they walked through a “forest swamp” and pushed in a northwest direction each day. They climbed up higher and higher ground through the roughest parts of the Ozarks until they finally emerged from the forest and saw a broad open prairie of buffalo grass (later to be Springfield, Missouri.) At the extreme northwest corner was a large spring that Samuel “staked out” by making the “proper markings that would secure the land against any newcomers.” When the others had finished claiming and marking their land, they returned to Paducah where they had left their families. The author of this story states that “staking out” land was an unwritten law among pioneers- a warning to those who came later to find another home. But the problems of getting their families back to their claims proved to be a formidable task. Taking the same route as they had done before, they built rafts to float down the Ohio and Mississippi. Traveling in ox-carts through the Ozark Mountains on Indian trails, carrying tents, bedding, farm tools, and provisions was treacherous and slow going. Much to Samuel's consternation, it had taken six months to return to their claims. I had to chuckle because the writer was so descriptive (and a little corny at times) when he told this story. He described the state of the travelers towards the end of the journey as having an “odor that defies olfactory imagination, one that repelled all except the less-respecting flies and mosquitos.” I’m not sure what prompted him to include this detail. The last day of travel found the group arriving to their “Promised Land” only to find two families feuding over the land Samuel had previously staked out. As Samuel joined in “asserting his authority in having the earliest claim” he could see that real trouble was brewing- “the shooting kind.” The author states that a Mr. Fulbright became bellicose (demonstrating aggression and willingness to fight-I had to look that one up.) He adds that Samuel, being a peaceful and God-fearing man (or Fulbright fearing) withdrew from the situation.