Stone Gardens: Simple headstones in Bellefonte Cemetery mark the final resting place of Old West cattle drover and wife
- Dennis McCaslin
- 1 day ago
- 3 min read
Born on April 10, 1849, in Ohio to John and Christina Preston, Henry "Rufus" Preston was one of seven children in a family drawn to the opportunities of the West.
By 1870, seeking milder winters, the Prestons settled in Otterville, Cooper County, Missouri, with six children and a grandson, having already lost Rufus’s brother, William Smith, at age 15 in 1863.
In Missouri, Rufus, then 21, met Alzona Faye Bell, the youngest of 12 children born to James and Caroline Bell in Arkansas in 1854. They married on July 28, 1870, in a ceremony officiated by Rev. J.H. Ross, uniting Rufus’s adventurous spirit with Alzona’s youthful determination at age 16.
Their early years were shaped by the cattle trade. Rufus and his brother John worked as drovers, herding cattle along trails like the Chisholm Trail from Texas to Missouri, a grueling three-month journey.
At one point, the Preston brothers worked for a Texas-based outfit and their trail boss was none other than the legendary outlaw John Wesley Hardin
Sedalia, Missouri, a key railhead, served as a base, allowing Alzona for stay near her parents during Rufus’s absences. In 1872, their first child, Nettie, was born in Texas, where the couple settled near Henrietta in Clay County, drawn to the vast, cattle-friendly plains.
Rufus’s father secured 160 acres, and the family established a foothold on the frontier.
The plains were unforgiving. In 1875, Rufus’s mother, Christina, died in a field fire near Henrietta, a grim foreshadowing of later tragedy.
By 1877, Rufus and Alzona, now with Alzona’s niece, Cynthia Vance, returned to Texas, settling near the family ranch.
Their family grew with the births of Irvin, Taylor, Ada (1878), Levi (1880), and Wesley (1883), each child a testament to their perseverance.
In 1884, family ties beckoned the Prestons to Bellefonte, Boone County, Arkansas, a 335-mile journey northeast prompted by Alzona’s sister, Priscilla Melissa Holland “Hollan” Sharp, and her husband, Ed Sharp.
The Sharps, residents of Bellefonte, enticed them with promises of abundant hunting and fishing.
The spring weather eased their relocation, and that January, Rufus and Alzona welcomed their seventh child, Alfus. In Bellefonte, they found a tight-knit community and solace in their proximity to the Sharp family.
Hollan Sharp, born in 1845 in Arkansas, was Alzona’s sister, and her husband, Ed Sharp, played a pivotal role in the Preston family’s story.
However, their significance emerges after the tragedies that struck the Prestons.
After Rufus’s death on August 23, 1890, at age 41--listed as being from natural causes--Ed Sharp filed for guardianship of the six minor Preston children (Wesley, Levi, Alfus, Ada, Irvin, and Taylor) in Boone County Probate Court on the same day, likely at the urging of Rufus and Alzona to secure the children’s future.
Nettie, then 18, was not included, possibly due to her age or an oversight.
The Sharp family’s role intensified in 1891 when a catastrophic house fire claimed Nettie’s life at age 19, on the eve of her wedding. Alzona, attempting to save her daughter, suffered severe burns and died in May 1891.
The 1891 fire that killed Nettie and led to Alzona’s death in May of that year was a devastating blow to the Bellefonte community. The fire’s cause and circumstances remain undocumented,.
The Preston children, raised by Ed and Hollan Sharp, carried on their parents’ legacy. In 1967, Bonnie and Odessa, daughters of Levi, honored Rufus and Alzona by placing tombstones in Bellefonte Cemetery, inscribed with their years of death.
