this move to southern Missouri by the passage of the Graduation Act. This Missouri law enacted in 1854 provided that land held by the state and which had not been sold for thirty years, could be bought for twelve and a half cents per acre. John was strongly opposed to slavery but he found that he had settled in an area in which pro-slavery sentiment prevailed. So as civil war loomed John took his family back to Indiana for their safety, reasoning that if he were drafted he would at least fight on the Union side. In l869 John R. Fall again moved his family to Missouri, with Milton at age thirteen, walking barefoot most of the way and hunting small game with his rifle as they traveled. The family camped on the Sedalia prairie for several weeks while his father scouted for suitable land. Milton's father selected a homestead near the confluence of Shaver and Muddy Creeks. In later years Milton would recount to his grand children the exciting adventures of a five hundred mile trek with an ox drawn covered wagon. As a boy Milton had helped his father build an initial small log cabin for the family for the first winter, and then they built a larger and more comfortable cabin a few years later. Their early years were difficult ones, with the labor of clearing land, planting crops and building fences against the deer and other varmints which could destroy their corn and garden produce. Those were turbulent years in Missouri where much bitterness still prevailed on both sides after the civil war, and bushwhackers and bandit gangs still operated. When Milton's father died in l873, and there was no fatherly discipline in the home, it was not surprising that Milton would acquire a reputation as a tough young hell raiser around Pettis County. He did however desire to take a wife and settle down to raise a family.
Florence Augusta Kidd was the second child of Oswald Kidd and his second wife, Margaret Marshall. Florence was born in Georgetown, Pettis County, Missouri on April 18, 1860. Oswald had been a prominent business man in Georgetown, Missouri where he operated a hemp press and cordage mill, a woolen weaving mill, a commissary store and the local tavern and hotel. Oswald Kidd had also been instrumental in organizing the first public schools in Pettis County, and during the civil war he had served as Captain of the Pettis County home guard. In 1864 Sedalia rather than Georgetown had been selected for the railroad line, and soon afterwards the county seat was moved from Georgetown to Sedalia. By the end of the war his slaves had been freed, and Oswald was going blind and broke. When his hotel accidently burned in addition to his other misfortunes, Oswald's health began to fail rapidly. With the family fortunes in such a state he sold their Georgetown properties and bought a rooming and boarding house in Sedalia where housing was needed for the railroad workers. Florence took a job as a maid in the home of Will Lee who had married Milton's oldest sister, Mary Jane. Milton met Florence when he visited his sister's home, and he was soon courting the comely young maid.
Milton married Florence Augusta Kidd an January 1, 1878 in the parlor of the boarding house operated by her mother in Sedalia. Soon after they were married Milton bought sixty five