Notes: Mariah Caroline "Aunt Duck" (Shuck) Flint (1834-1916) and Martha Ann (Shuck) Cage (1833-aft1880) were daughters of Edward Young Shuck (1803-1870/1880) and Frances Ann White (Est1805-Bef1858). Mariah's husband has also been identified as "L. Columbus Flint".
Mariah Caroline Flint was of a large family who hailed from Tennesee. They came to Missouri in the early 1800's. How- ever, of the brothers and sisters, Mariah and a sister, Martha Ann, were better known in the Dent County area. Mariah Car- oline Shuck married Columbus C. Flint and they had two daughters: Nevada (Ada) and Hattie. At an early age Mariah was deserted by her husband. She refused to relent in her attitude toward him, but slaved her life away for her daugh- ters. She wove carpets and rugs for a living and was a very self-reliant and independent woman. Mrs. Flint was among the first settlers in Salem. At that time the area on the north side of Fourth Street and the east side of the West Plains Road (McArthur) was all brush except for a lot where a log cabin stood. It was owned by Mrs. Flint. Mariah and Lucinda Wagoner, W.P. Elmer's grandmother, were great friends. They both had gone through the Civil War when it was the bitterest. They told many blood curdling war stories. The only thing they differed on was churches. Mrs. Flint was Presbyterian and Mrs. Wagoner was a Baptist. One of Mariah's daughter, Ada, married J.T. Pettigrew and Hattie married F.M. Jadwin. During Mrs. Flint's later years, she lived in a cabin on J.T. and Ada's farm and with Mrs. F.M. Jadwin, in the Jadwin community. Mariah Shuck Flint, 1832-1916, is buried in Cage Cemetery. Martha Ann Shuck married Wilson Cage and they raised a family of six children. One daughter, who was known to all as Cousin Bell, was born on January 29, 1857, and was reared in the Jadwin Community. She married John Simmons and raised a large family on a farm near Jadwin, Missouri. ["Cousin Bell" was Phelena Belle Cage Simmons.] Mr and Mrs. Simmons helped to organized the Corinth Bap- tist Church. John Simmons was born January 30, 1851 and died April 5, 1933. He is buried in Jadwin Cemetery. After the death of her husband, Cousin Bell moved to St. Louis, Mis- souri to live with her daughter, Mary. Cousin Bell sometimes visited with Dollie McNeil and the Dillards. It was one of young Rodney's greatest delights to lis- ten to Cousin Bell tell stories of the Civil War when she was a child. She told of bushwhackers coming to her home, butch- ering and cooking the Cage families chickens in an iron pot. One of the chickens was cousin Bell's pet. Due to the fact that the pot had been used to melt tar, the chickens were inedible. Cousin Bell jumped with joy saying "goodie, goodie." The Dillards wrote and recorded a song mentioning Cousin Bell's name in it. Cousin Bell lacked 22 days of being one hundred years old when she passed away on January 7, 1957. She was loved by all who knew her. She is buried in Jadwin Cemetery.