Henley’s “Uncle Al” - Allen Alexander LaForce was the last of the family in the Henley community

Allen Alexander “Uncle Al” LaForce spent nearly seven decades in the Henley community of Cole County after moving there in 1870. A farmer and schoolteacher, he lived much of his life alongside his siblings, remaining single and devoted to family and community. Remembered as a man “of firm conviction and character above reproach,” LaForce was the last surviving member of his family in Henley at the time of his death in 1937. Courtesy of Jeremy P. Ämick

In rural Mid-Missouri, not every legacy is built in brick or recorded in courthouse ledgers. Some are remembered through nicknames, in steady routines, and the enduring respect of neighbors who knew an individual not by title, but by character.

To the Henley community of Cole County, Allen Alexander LaForce was simply “Uncle Al.” He was born March 27, 1850, near Brown’s Station in Boone County, an unincorporated settlement northeast of Columbia. In the mid-nineteenth century, Brown’s Station was a rural cluster of farms and timbered hills shaped by wagon roads and migration from Kentucky and neighboring states.

LaForce’s parents were natives of Kentucky, part of the steady movement that populated central Missouri in the decades before the Civil War. Growing up in Boone County meant coming of age in an agricultural world that focused on church, school and community. Those early influences followed him when, in 1870, at about 20 years of age, he moved to Cole County, settling in the Henley area southeast of Jefferson City. He would remain there for the rest of his life.

Federal census records help to provide a revealing portrait of the LaForce household across several decades. In 1880, Allen was living in Henley with his older brother, George P. LaForce, who was listed as head of household. George’s occupation was recorded as both school teacher and farmer, a combination common in rural Missouri where education and agriculture were closely intertwined. The listing suggests that teaching was part of the family’s shared livelihood.

By 1900, the household remained largely intact. George was still head of household, and Allen, then 50, was listed as a farmer. The arrangement reflected a familiar rural pattern: unmarried siblings pooling labor and resources to maintain land and stability.
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Prior to George’s death in 1911, leadership within the household shifted. The 1910 Census shows Allen as head of household, still residing in the Henley community and still farming. Living with him were brother Washington J. LaForce and sister Sallie (Sally Ann) LaForce. The census entries reveal a family unit aging together on the same land, serving as a continuity spanning more than three decades.

Though census records show farming as his primary occupation in those years, his death certificate identifies him as a school teacher, confirming his role in education. In rural Missouri during the late nineteenth century, it was not unusual for men to teach during certain seasons and farm during others.  

In her 1990 history titled “Henley, Missouri: Yesteryear and Today,” Anna Mae Whittle cited several Cole and Miller County one-room schools in the area. She explained, “Some of the schools were: Teal, White Oak, Sanning, Oak Grove, Kempker, Pleasant Ball, Jim Henry, Waterloo, Glendale, Hoecker and Spring Valley.”

It was through education that Allen and his brother George shaped the lives of generations of local children. In small communities, a teacher’s influence extended far beyond the classroom. They were disciplinarians, mentors, and moral examples, often boarding with local families and participating in church and civic life.

LaForce never married. Yet in rural communities, kinship extended beyond bloodlines. By 1937, he was widely known simply as “Uncle Al,” a title of affection that spoke to familiarity and respect. When he died in January 1937, newspapers recognized both his character and his place in the community. The Miller County Autogram, in its Jan. 28, 1937 edition, wrote: “He was a man of firm conviction and character that was above reproach, and was loved and respected by all who knew him.”

The Eldon Advertiser, in its Feb. 4, 1937 edition, carried the headline: “Allen Alexander LaForce Last of Family in Community.” The article noted that he had moved to Cole County as a young man in 1870 and had resided in the Henley community until his death. It also listed three brothers — George P., William R., and Washington J. LaForce — two sisters, Nancy Reavis and Sally Ann LaForce, and a half-sibling, Warren Frazier, all of whom preceded him in death.

By the time of his passing, Allen LaForce stood as the final representative of a family long rooted in the Henley countryside. With him ended a generational presence that had stretched back into the nineteenth century. 

His funeral service was held at Spring Valley Baptist Church, a rural congregation that had long anchored community life. Following the service, he was laid to rest in Hickory Hill Cemetery, joining other family members whose markers testify to decades of LaForce presence in central Missouri soil.

Born before the Civil War and dying during the Great Depression, LaForce witnessed nearly 87 years of transformation. He saw Missouri evolve from frontier agriculture to a more modern and connected society. Railroads crossed the countryside. Telephones linked farms. Automobiles replaced wagons. Through it all, he remained in Henley.

The Eldon Advertiser described him as the “last of the family” in the community, but his influence likely endured in less visible ways. Former students who once sat beneath his instruction would have grown into parents and grandparents. Lessons taught in chalk dust and lamplight echoed long after the schoolhouse doors closed.

In rural Mid-Missouri, businesses come and go. Buildings are repurposed, roads rerouted, and surnames gradually fade from daily conversation. Yet the legacy of those who stayed, who farmed, taught, worshiped, and lived steadily in one place are what formed the backbone of community history.

Allen Alexander LaForce left no direct descendants. Instead, he left something perhaps more enduring: a reputation for integrity, a lifetime of service to education and agriculture, and a name still remembered in the hills and hollows of the Henley community.

And in low hills of the Northern Ozarks surrounding Henley, that is legacy enough.

Jeremy P. Ämick is author of the historical compilations “Moments on the Moreau” and “Beyond the Moreau.”