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FRANCIS FAIRBANK AUDSLEY
Francis Fairbank Audsley was born at Burley, near Leeds
Yorkshire, England, on May 26, 1835, the first child of Joseph
and Mary Hodgson Audsley. Both parents were also natives of
Yorkshire. Francis's mother died in 1838. His father then
married Mary Margaret Whitehead in 1842. In 1846 the family em�
migrated from England, but young Francis remained in England
with relatives so he could finish school. In 1851, when Francis
was 16, he too emmigrated, with the trip from Liverpool to
Brunswick, Missouri taking seven weeks. He joined Joseph, Mary
Margaret, his younger brother Joseph Edward, Sr., and his half-
sister Eleanor on the family farm in Saline County, Missouri.
He spent his young adulthood working for his father, just a few
miles east of Miami, Missouri.
On January 5, 1860, he married Harriet Elizabeth Sullivan,
who was born May 29, 1840 in Saline County, the youngest of
eleven children of Samuel W. and Mary Mayfield Sullivan. Her
father was a native Pennsylvanian and her mother was a Virginian.
Francis and Harriet remained in Saline County until 1864,
when they moved to a Carroll County, Missouri farm where they
raised their children and lived the remainder of their lives.
Their firstborn, Edward, was born in Saline County on February
22, 1861, and died September 16 of the same year. Mary Ellen,
the second of their eight children, was born November 12, 1862,
while they were still in Saline County.
The Civil War interrupted their lives. Francis enlisted in
the Missouri Militia in August 1862. In 1864, Francis and his
younger brother, Joseph Edward, Sr. enlisted in the Union Army.
Joseph Edward was sent back home as part of the "Home Guard."
Francis was first assigned to Company F, Forty-Fourth Missouri
Volunteers. Joseph Edward returned home with the story that
when the army learned that Francis had been educated in England
until he was 16, they almost immediately commissioned him a
Second Lt. and assigned him to Company A.
Life was difficult for all concerned, especially for many
families left behind in buffer zones, such as along the Missouri
River in western Missouri. Researching through histories writ-
ten of that time, particularly the "Carroll County History of
1911", we can see that civilians had to contend with near an-
archy, as roving bands of desperadoes (bushwhackers) pillaged
and burned almost at will. Possibly the worst, at least he was
most notorious, was the infamous William T. ("Bloody Bill")
Anderson. "Gran", as Harriet E. was to be called in later years,
had the bad fortune to receive a visit from him and some of his
followers, and the good fortune to survive it. We �pieced to-
gether� this account from Ruth Auwarter, Grace Audsley, and her
son Eugene, who had heard the story told by Francis Fairbank's
daughter, Emma 0. Audsley Ballew.
The �story� as we know it: Francis Fairbank left to join
the Union Forces, leaving his expectant wife and their two-year
old daughter, Mary Ellen on the family farm they had lived on for
less than a year. He made it a point to leave her with $20 to
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