Miles Standish Vardiman, 1880-1949

Shelby County, Kentucky & Saline & Chariton County, Missouri

Photos:

Miles Standish Vardiman

Mollie & Miles Vardiman

~ 1911
Vardiman Side: Click on photo for labels

Miles, John Peter, Richard Henry, Lizzie & Fannie were 5 of 11 Vardiman siblings

Luella Mae & Callie Smith were sisters who married Vardiman brothers, John Peter and Richard Henry

Ross and Phil, Farm Boys

Phil & Ross

1939 Vardiman Family Reunion
11 Adult Siblings - Children of John Thomas & Cornelia Vardiman

Left to Right: Louise & Phil, Mollie & Miles, Emily & Ross holding June.

Death Certificate
3 May 1949

Miles Standish Vardiman, 1880-1949

Miles Standish Vardiman was born on 4 March 1880 in Bagdad, Shelby County, Kentucky, during Rutherford B Hayes  presidency (19th US President).  There were 39 states at that time. Electricity had just been discovered the year prior to Miles birth in 1879.  Douglas MacArthur, to become famous as a soldier and statesman was born the same year in 1880 and past Confederate President, Jefferson Davis, passed away.

Miles was the seventh child, sixth son, of John Thomas Vardiman and Cornelia Fenwick Gaines.  He had four sisters younger than him as well.  So he was right in the middle of eleven children.  His father was 42 years old and his mother was 34 years old at his birth.  His grandparents on his father's side, Peter and Mary Vardiman, had both died prior to Miles birth.

Miles married Mary Josephine Harris on Christmas Eve, 24 December 1908 at 28 years old.  They had two boys, Ross and Phillip Vardiman.  Mollie also miscarried a daughter.  Mollie was 28 years old when Ross was born in 1913. Phillip Harris came two years later in 1915 who went by Phil. She didn’t want to have a large family because they had both come from very large families. 

Ross married Emily Burk and they had two children: June and James Wesley Vardiman.  James became a doctor and Phil became a large animal veterinarian.

Miles was an old Missouri farmer and plowed his fields with a mule.  It was a poor farm probably about 160 acres with a couple mules, some chickens, a barn to put hay in and a great big garden. They lived between Slater and Marshall, Missouri.  

Miles listened to the news on the radio and was very well informed of what was going on in the world.  He loved to talk about current events.  One time Louise remembers “Mollie came out of the kitchen and flipping her tea towel said, “Miles, Shutup.”  (Talk with Frances Louise Carter Vardiman Robinson 3 October 1997).

Phillip's oldest son, Larry Vardiman, remembers visiting the farm as a child. Their farm house had a wooden floor and they owned a black couch with buttons that made out into an uncomfortable bed. He remembers playing with an old top that would spin on the floor. Larry remembers a story about Grandpa Vardiman "He was working out on the farm somewhere and was putting up barb wire fence.  The wire broke and ripped him up pretty bad and apparently his health didn't do too well after that." (Larry Vardiman, Glimpses of My Childhood, tape #1A)

                The "Only recollection I have of him was lying in bed out in the old farm house there.  We used to go out and visit on Sundays and have chicken and dumplings that Grandma would make.  I remember Grandpa and Grandma going out on Saturday evening and cutting a chicken's head off and plucking the feathers.  Then Sunday we would have mounds of fried chicken, potatoes and gravy." (Larry Vardiman, Glimpses of My Childhood, tape #1A)  Miles Vardiman died in 1949 at the age of 69 years old  when Larry was five years old.    

                Written by Michelle Vardiman Fansler