JOSEPH PHILIBERT AND PERNINA YOACHUM

According to the old St. Louis Church records, Joseph was born February 13, and baptised February 14, 1804. The History of Greene County published in 1883 says Joseph Phillabert (pronounced Fillabare) and william Gilles were traders with the Indians. This was back in the days when the Delaware Indians were there, then Phillabert remained in Greene County when the Indians emigrated to Indian Territory. In a speech about pioneers of Greene County in 1876 he was the oldest of SW Missouri at that time. The Reminiscent History of the Ozarks say Joe Philibert settled at old Delaware Town, Greene Cjo. in 1822, ten years before a store was opened at Springfield, Missouri.

Greene Co. marriages list Joseph Philebert and Peniniah Yoachum on February 26, 1833. In 1837 Taney County was formed from Greene and in 1851 Stone County was formed from Taney. The 1850 census was the first to list members of the household by name, age, where born. Children of this marriage, as deciphered from the census were:

Augustus M Born 1835 in Missouri
Mary Eliza F Born 1836 in Missouri m
Elives Horn
Sarah Elizabeth F Born 1839 in Missouri m
Thomas Dotson
John Jacob M Born 1841 in Missouri
Charles Edward M Born 1844 in Missouri
Josephine M Born 1851 in Missouri m
William White
William Adolphus M Born 1852 in Missouri

Joseph died February 4, 1884. The Probate Court of Stone Co. has heirs:

Eliza Mobley, Sarah Dotson, Charles E. Philibert,
Josephine White, John
Philibert, all residing in Stone Co. and Adolphus
Philibert who resides in Nolan Co., Texas.

As Inventory:
a total of 327 acres of land,
6 cows,
r heifers,
2 calves,
5 steers,
2 horses,
1 lot shop tools,
1 grind stone,
1 maddox,
1 umbrella,
1 salle rider,
1 two-horse wagon complete,
1 set harness,
4 plows,
1 lot of corn (60 bushels, more or less),
cash on hand $392.50.

The administrators of the estate were listed as William White and Thomas Dotson.

When the government built Table Rock Dam, thereby inundating this land, they moved a cemetery found there to higher ground and named it the Philibert Cemetary. This is located 18 miles south of Galena, in the area once known as Radical. One of the headstones is inscribed:

Joseph Philibert 2-11-1802 - 2-4-1884
Perninia Philibert 1816 - 8- - 1852

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INTERVIEW WITH LITTLEBERRY DOTSON, REEDS SPRINGS, MISSOURI, CONCERNING HIS GRANDFATHER, JOSEPH PHILIBERT, JULY 11, 1954.

Mr. Dotson, 77 years of age, states the following:

Joseph Piliberet was born in the year 1800 in St. Louis, Missouri, of French parents, who came to the New World in the 1700's from France.

When Joseph Philibert was 15 years of age his father attempted to get him to become a Roman Catholic priest, but Joseph Philibert objected so strongly that his father bound him out until he was twenty-one years old. However, about the time Joseph Philibert was 16 years old, he ran away from the man he was bound to and went to live with the Indians, believed to be the Delaware. A year or so later, Joseph Philibert came to the mouth of James River with a group of Indians who established a camp on the bottom land now embraced by the Lester Loftin farm. Joseph Philibert was the first white man to come to what is now Stone County, Missouri. About 1818 James Yoachum came up White River from the mouth of Little North Fork River and landed at the mouth of James River to establish his ome. Joseph Philibert helped Yoachum unload his boats and family and assisted him in erecting a one-room log cabin on the right bank of James River at the point where James enters White River. While Philibert was unloading Yoachum's boat he was attracted to one of Yoachum's daughters, and made the statement to Yoachum, "Someday I'll marry that girl."

A short time later, probably around 1819 or 1820, Joseph Philibert established contact with St. Louis and started an Indian trading post at the mouth of James River. He erected three log buildings; two were due south of the present Philibert cemetery and are where the barn of the Lester Loftin farm is now located. The trading post building was due east of the Philibert cemetery on a terrace between the cemetery and James River. In later years, this trading post building was used as a large smokehouse. At the time Yoachum arrived at the mouth of James River, Philibert was living with an Indian woman and raised a son.

However, this woman and her son left with the Indians when they moved to Kansas about 1830. In February 26, 1833, Joseph Philibert married Peninah Yoachum. This marriage was performed by Thomas Henson, a Baptist minister, and was the fifth marriage performed in Greene County, Missouri. Greene County at that time embraced all of Christian, Taney, Stone, Lawrence and part of Barry County. Peninah Yoachum was the daughter of James Yoachum wo had attracted the interest of Philibert a few years earlier. Joseph Philibert and his wife, Peninah, raised seven children, four sons and three daughters, as follows:

Sons:
Jacob Philibert
Augustus Philibert
Edward Philibert
Adolphus Philibert

Daughters:
Elisa Philibert
Elizabeth Sarah Philibert
Josephine Philibert

Elisa Philibert was first married to Elivus Horn, he died and she married John Mobley, who died while in the Union Army at St. Louis.

Elisabeth Sarah married John Horn, who died, and later married Tom Dotson.

Josephine Philibert married a Mr. Van Hook.

Mr. Dotson has no information as to who the Philibert sons married.

After the Indians left the mouth of James River, James Yoachum entered the land from the government, and Joseph Philibert purchased land from him. Philibert later purchased what is known as the Fossett farm at White Rock Bluff on White River between the mouth of Schooner Creek and White's Branch. Philibert also owned the trading post, he freighted in ox wagons and canoes from Springfield, Rolla and St. Louis. Philibert is described as medium in size with black hair and black eyes. He was very gracious to his neighbors, and is said to have killed 30-40 head of hogs and one beef each winter and helped feed his neighbors in adverse conditions. Dotson has no information about the Yoachum Dollar, but recalls his aunt, Elisa Philibert Mobley, stating in later years that she knew what the molds were that the Yoachum Dollars were cast in.

Littleberry Dotson is a tall angular man with curly greying black hair and dark eyes.