Lafe Shumaker, of Illinois Bend was in the city Monday and made the Graphic office a business call. Mr. Shumaker belongs to one of the oldest pioneer families in Adair county. His parents came to Adair county from Ohio in 1842. They came with ox teams and camped at Kirksville. There was only one store here at that time and it was located on West Dodson street. They watered their cattle in the slough that afterward became the lake on the Teachers College campus. His parents went from Kirksville to Newburg, near the Macon county line. Newburg was then a thriving village having four stores and three saloons. But there is nothing left of the old town site and Will Buck and Summers Elliott own the remainder. Mr. and Mrs. Shumaker came back into Adair County and located in Illinois Bend, one of the finest farming sections of Adair county, making their new home about two miles north of Newburg. Illinois Bend is a beautiful tract of land extending from the Macon county line to the wooded hills north and west, and comprising several sections. The wooded hills make a great curve to the west and southwest and because a number of Illinois people, including Uncle Jeff Dawdy, settled on this tract of land, it was called Illinois Bend. Here the early pioneers, including the Dawdys, the Shumakers, the Clems, the Woodses, and the Braggs, developed fine farms and homes and made one of the largest farming sections in Northeast Missouri.

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The Daily Express

Kirksville, Missouri

November 18, 1952

---Lafayette Shumaker, 86, of the Illinois Bend community and a life-long resident of Adair county, died this morning at 9:30 o'clock in a Kirksville hospital.

---Funeral services will be held Thursday afternoon at two o'clock in the Illinois Bend Church.

---The body is at the Robert B. Davis Funeral Home, 115 W. Jefferson.

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Kirksville (MO) Express & News

November 19, 1952

LaFayette Shumaker Funeral Tomorrow

---Funeral services for LaFayette Shumaker, who died in a Kirksville hospital Tuesday morning, will be held at the Illinois Bend Church Thursday afternoon at two o'clock conducted by Rev. A. G. Hollowell. Interment will be in the Shumaker cemetery.

---Mr. Shumaker, the son of John and Susan (Huffman) Shumaker was born Nov. 16, 1866, in the Illinois Bend community. He was never married. He was preceded in death by four brothers.

---Surviving is one brother, Sherman Shoumaker[sic].

---The body will remain at the Robert B. Davis Funeral Home, 115 W. Jefferson, until one o'clock tomorrow afternoon when it will be taken to the church.