Dear in the Face

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By Dr. Jim Foster

 

“Prayer is innocence’s friend; and willingly flieth incessant ‘twist the earth and the sky, the carrier-pigeon of heaven.~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Cordelia Perry Dobyns’ dress color changed to black on March 24th, 1896. The death of her husband, the former Senator Benjamin Franklin Dobyns was caused by pneumonia in his 58th year. As she sat with their six children ranging from 23 years to 9 years, she reminisced about their life and now the future that was before all of them without Ben. She was reminded at the Shelbina cemetery of their son Edwin whose life only lasted six months, a pain they shared between along with the joys of their living children.

Cordelia may have worn black, which was tradition in those days during a period of mourning, however, she set aside her grief to make sure that her family was well taken care of financially. The letters “B.F” were removed from the B.F. Dobyns Lumber business located along the railroad tracks in Shelbina, Missouri and she inserted her own letters, “C.P.” taking full charge with the help of a business manager. In the months that followed, she realized that Ben was not there to watch her three young sons. Ben would not be there to walk anyone of their three daughters down the a wedding aisle, nor would he hear the sweet piano music of his daughter Gertrude at her graduation piano recital at the nearby Shelbina Collegiate Institute.

The name C.P. Dobyns became well known as she maintained the family business. She also was a major force in the days of prohibition fighting against the use of alcohol and she supported women in their efforts to gain the right to vote. Cordelia also worked in the community efforts to beautify Shelbina which included the cemetery where the loves of her life were buried. In 1904, on the lot south of her home located on the southeast corner of East College and South Center Street, she had multiple large poultry houses and wire pens built to house four hundred breeding pairs of pigeons. C.P. Dobyns had entered the pigeon industry, sending young pigeons by train to Chicago where they brought top prices as they were considered a delicacy especially in high-end restaurants. The labor was a small amount of time each day and her youngest son Latrelle was still at home to help.

By 1906, the children had left the nest and Cordelia spent time riding the train east to Hannibal, Mo to check on her mother. Cordelia faced her own health issues in the spring of that year as her daughter Mabel, now Mrs. Jack Weil and mother of her granddaughter and namesake Mary Cordelia, made frequent trips home to Shelbina from the Weil’s home in Dallas, Texas. It was decided that Cordelia would spend the winter months in Dallas to rest.

On June 10th, 1907, a twenty-year-old man from Dallas, Texas got off the Burlington passenger train at the depot in Shelbina where Cordelia was eagerly waiting. Mabel had made the arrangements for her mother to have an assistant. Cordelia was met with a cheerful grin and big brown eyes that looked up at her through eyeglasses. He bowed to her as he greeted her with the word “Konnichiwa.” He stood straight up at a height of five feet and three inches as Cordelia saw the “dear in the face” which was the description written on the immigration paper of this young Japanese man who had come to America from Tokyo in search of a better life. His name was Keizaburo Moriyama. “Dear in the face” meant “childlike innocence look.” He had left a country where sixty percent of the population were poor, and many were destitute. She saw a young boy. Cordelia used her influence to enroll him at the Shelbina High School across the street west from her home where he entered the freshman class in room 7. He was one of the top students.

K. Moriyama left Cordelia’s employ for a business school in St. Louis in 1909. Before he left town, he performed a Japanese Sword Dance before a live audience at the local Opera House. In 1913, The Shelbina Democrat Newspaper shared the news that Cordelia had received that Keizaburo had married Setsuko Yada in Colorado.

The Moriyamas made their home on Bush Street in the San Francisco Assembly Dictrict 30 in San Francisco, California where Keizaburo worked in business eventually having his own import business by 1920. It is unknown at this time what became of them in the following years. However, this writer will continue to look.