This site is dedicated to my parents, Madison & Docia Garrison Swofford —Bettie Swofford Heatherly
Hello to all you Ozark folks (Please don’t be offended by the term) scattered from Boston to California and from Florida to Alaska. We hope you will enjoy learning more about your ancestors who came to these beautiful Ozark hills to make their home over 150 years ago. They cleared the land, built roads, towns, established the farming communities and churches in what was first Wayne, then Taney, and finally Polk, Greene, Stone, Christian, Douglas, Wright, Barry and Ozark Counties in Missouri.
They were mostly Scotch / Irish—-some French, and probably some Indian, though difficult to prove. They were hard working folks. People who started their day at day break and didn’t quit until the sun went down in the evening. As the years went by, and younger generations built on their foundation, they were and still are, profiled by some areas of the country as not being as “modern” nor “up-to-date” as others. But you will find Doctors, Lawyers, Superintendents, Engineers, IT Experts, and Directors in businesses (both nationally and globally), Business owners, Bankers, Pilots, Teachers, Nurses, Vice-Presidents of Companies, and Co-owner of one of the largest Poultry processing companies in the world. There are farmers and many others who build homes and businesses and support the local communities and state economy. Oh, yes, we do have “running water” and “inside toilets” now and you will find a special little town in Taney Co called Branson, which has taken the music and Ozark folklore all the way to the bank!
So we hope you will be proud of the ancestors you find here as I know they would be proud of you.