Waldo Buell Stansbury, 98, Humansville and Stockton area, passed away Saturday, July 10, 2010. He was born Friday, April 24, 1912, the second child of Daniel Webster Stansbury and Nancy Belle (West) Stansbury.
He began school in 1918 at Bluff Springs and attended there through part of the seventh grade. That Nov. 11 was the end of World War 1 (now Veteran’s Day) and he and his dad, D.W., came out of the house’s east door (that is still standing) and his dad fired one barrel and then the other into the air and heard many other guns in the neighborhood going off in celebration. That was also the year of the great influenza epidemic, which he had but recovered while many others he knew didn’t. Recently it was discovered he had pneumonia at that time.
Around 1920, Buell’s great uncle, Josiah Stansbury, came and stayed and visited with their family and his grandfather, Daniel Stansbury, Josiah’s brother. He came by train from Mound City in Holt County, northwest of Saint Joseph, were all of Josiah’s and Daniel’s brothers and sisters (except one) came west from Parton, Baltimore County, MD, around 1880. After that, the family lost contact until 2006 when Josiah’s grandsons were located by Buell and Dean. Joe, from Raytown, later attended Buel and Henrietta’s 60th anniversary which he was very pleased.
Buell grew up through the 1920s and early 30. He witnessed the Great Depression, Dust Bowl and the rise of Germany and what led to World War II. He began working with his father, Daniel Webster, who was a farmer, carpenter and stone mason on several houses and barns across the country. One of these barns is located on the now Don Rains farm and one of the houses is the now Joe Phillips house on 39 Hwy. that was built in 1936 near Pankey Cemetery.
When Buell was 14 years old, he began working for Bert Smith on his farm east of Stockton, Max’s grandfather, and has seen seven generations of their family and six generations of the Stansbury family. He also worked for Henry Ibach on his farm near Caplinger Mills and witnessed the two wettest years on record, back to back in Missouri, 1927 and 1928, until 2008 and 2009 broke the record and he had lived to see this.
He was very fond of Percheron draft (work horses) and witnessed the transition to tractors but he kept and worked his team, Joe and John, (a gelding he had from a colt) until the mid 1950s and he was interested and very pleased with the comeback they are making today.
Buell attended church from a youngster at Old Union which, at that time, the women sat on one side and men sat on the other with no Sunday School and no piano in the singing. Later, at Fairview and Mt. Enon Baptist Church at services and revivals, he remembered Luther Tucker, W.T. Atwood, W.E. Counts, A.M. Wynkoop and Ed Elliott and many other preachers. Ed lived in the house that Buell’s Grandfather Stansbury built in 1896. Buell was saved around 1930 while working on Finis Huber’s farm, about a mile north of Stockton, while cutting wood and had been attending a revival at Mt. Enon. He was baptized, along with Henrietta, in 1948 by Brother Amos Jackson after they were married.
Buell’s mother, Nancy, and Henrietta’s mother, Myrtle Anderson, were best friends and Buell watched her and her brothers and sisters grow up. Buell and Henrietta were married on Feb. 21, 1948, by Judge George Anderson at the Osceola Courthouse and to this union three sons were born. They lived in several homes in St. Clair and Cedar Counties and their house and farm in St. Clair was the last carpentry work that Buell and his dad did together before D.W.’s death in 1955.
Buell and Henrietta milked cows. In the late 1950s, he helped build and, later, worked at Samsel’s Seed Company in Stockton, retiring in 1974. He later worked on other projects including Kenneth and Randy’s houses.
He was in the process of moving completely to the D.W. Stansbury Century farm where he was born (and left 62 years ago).
Buel was proceeded in death by his father, mother, two sisters, one brother and his second son, Randy.
He is survived by his wife of 62 years, Hester Henrietta, of the home; sons, Kenneth Buell, and wife, Bonnie – Stockton, and Dean Darrin, and wife, Kathy – Humansville; grandsons, Daniel Stansbury – fort Collins, CO, Lucas Stansbury, and wife, Sabrina – Girard, KS; granddaughter, Makenzie – Mulberry, KS; great-granddaughters, Kaitlyn and Abigail – Girard, KS; brother, Sam; sister, Lee; and other family members in the Northwestern Missouri area, Argonia, KS, and Baltimore, MD.
Services were held Thursday, July 15, at Brumback Funeral Home, Stockton, with Elder Bobby Budd officiating. Burial followed in Pankey Cemetery.
Pallbearers were -Josiah Stansbury, Hal Garrett, Kevin Mein, Lucas Stansbury, Henry Beachy and Elder Larry Sherman.
Arrangements were by the Brumback Funeral in Stockton.
