USA > Kansas > Johnson County > History of Johnson County, Kansas > Part 20
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"Olathe at the time of the raid had three saloons. The first one was built on the north side of the square. where the old livery barn stands now. A man by the name of Mayfield built it, and ran the saloon. John M. Giffen had a printing office just east of this saloon, and printed the Olathe 'Herald.' Quantrill's men broke up his press, threw out his type and destroyed everything possible in the office. The 'Mirror' office also came in for its share of pillage and destruction, but the press, being a strong one, their efforts to break it failed, and it continued to print the news for years afterwards. The site of the present Peck building was occupied at the time of the raid by a frame structure in which was the postoffice and a grocery store. The building fronts the west. Where the concrete building stands at the northwest corner of the square a residence stood, and just south of the building where the city hall now stands, a butcher shop was conducted. Henderson Boggs built a hotel on the west side where the Avenue House stands, ran it a while and sold it to Thurma & Scott, who sold it again to Benjamin Dare. Mr. Dare got into trouble by opening a letter belonging to L. F. Crist and taking a check therefrom. Mr. Crist found out in some manner who the guilty party was, had him arrested, but he got out on bond and before trial secured his bondsman and left the country. The building now occupied by "Dick" Weaver as a grocery store at the southwest cor- ner of the square was at this time, 1862, the Johnson county court house, the upper story being used for offices, while the lot at the south-
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east corner of the square, now occupied by the First National Bank building owned by J. L. Pettyjohn & Company and had two houses on it, one a stone, the other a frame building. C. M. Ott ran a bakery in one of these buildings at a later date and certainly understood the act of turning his money often by making quick sales and small profits. Mr. Ott started in business with a capital of fifteen dollars, a level head, pleasing manner and unbounded energy. In a few years he became a wealthy and highly respected citizen. I always did believe, though, that a man who got up at 2 o'clock in the morning to start a fire in the oven, and kneaded fifty or a hundred pounds of flour into a nice dough, and then baked it before breakfast, ought to get something out of it besides a bare living, and here is one Johnson county man who did.
Mr. Ott before opening the bakery had been in the saloon business on the north side of the square, prior to his bakery venture, but quit that and started a bakery on the top of the hill east of the square on Santa Fe Street, and afterwards moved to a lot on the southeast corner of the square. He may have had a reason for this, for Mr. Milhoan says: 'A half dozen of the boys went to his former location one night and started a rough house and when they were through everything inside the building was broken up. The boys had nothing against Mr. Ott but they had been drinking a little too much liquor that flowed so freely in Olathe at that time."
J. H. Milhoan was born in Tyler county, Virginia, not over ten feet from the Ohio river bank. This naturally suggested fishing to the writer and Mr. Milhoan smiled and said : "Well, yes, I do like to fish," and he was in earnest too. He came to Kansas in 1856, married Belinda Wood December 2, 1860. The wedding occurred on a farm two miles west of Olathe. They have one son born at St. Joseph, Mo., December 6, 1862.
QUANTRILL PASSED THROUGH JOHNSON COUNTY ON HIS WAY TO RAID LAWRENCE.
The Lawrence raid occurred on August 23, 1863. Quantrill en- tered Johnson county before sundown with a force variously estimated at from two to three hundred, and camped for supper a few miles west of Aubrey. They stated to people of the locality that they were recruits on their way to Leavenworth to be mustered in. Mr. Waterhouse, who had visited Quantrill's camp with Jackson to secure Trahern's and Dunn's release, saw them during the evening, and knowing they were guerillas mounted his horse and rode in hot haste to Aubry and reported what he had seen to the captain in command of the post. The latter forwarded the intelligence to General Ewing in command of the district at West- port. . Had proper steps been taken then, Lawrence would have been saved the death of its citizens, or at least, been avenged. Ewing was one of the class of officers selected on account of family connections.
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social standing, or a celebrity in some pursuit of civil life. He was the son of Hon. Thomas Ewing, and a lawyer of rising fame. What other attributes were necessary for a good general? None; but Lawrence was burned, its citizens murdered and the murderers escaped, while this general was getting up his line of defense, and reviewing the evidence before him. It is very easy to find fault, and to tell how a thing might have been done after it is done; but still, how those who saw the sad events of the day chafed at stupid delays and timid pursuits ; and sighed for a Phillip Sheridan, or even the decision, dash and daring of a common red leg.
G. B. Alger, who was with James H. Lane in his efforts to capture Quantrill after the Lawrence raid, says that if Lane had been permitted to have his way about it, he would have gotten the whole bunch but Colonel Plumb, being in command, took the pursuit very leisurely and when the bushwhackers slowed up. Plumb would slow up too. The further fact that Quantrill's horses and men were worn and jaded from their long ride, while the Union forces were recruiting from the territory through which they passed, gave them a decided advantage if Plumb had forced the issue. "Twenty times during the day opportunities were. offered for a gallant charge," says Gregg's history, "that would have sent mourning and desolation to many a Missouri home, but no such charge was ever made." Loaded down with plunder the rebels passed leisurely out of Kansas as securely as though returning from a picnic and to this day the account remains unbalanced.
Some of the bushwhackers, overcome with fatigue on the march, dropped out of line and concealing themselves in thickets and cornfields, made their way through to Missouri alone, after enjoying a rest. Of these, one was captured near Spring Hill by some farmers and brought to headquarters at Olathe. He was a young man of good appearance and address, with a cool, quiet manner that marked him as one who had faced death too often to feel fear at its approach.
After obtaining his name, age, place of residence and some other par- ticulars, he was taken to the prairie east of town and shot by volunteers. The shots took effect in his breast, and for a moment before falling. he- stood erect cooly looking around to see if more shorts were to be fired. His bones now lie in an unmarked grave where he fell.
QUANTRILL'S START FOR LAWRENCE.
Carrie V. Love, now Mrs. Jonathan Mize, of Olathe, Kan., was a girl of fourteen at the time of the Quantrill raid at Lawrence. She. lived then with her parents at Lone Jack, Mo., and two nights before the attack on Lawrence she was sitting up with a sick daughter of James Noel, a neighbor. She was upstairs in the large two-story house. The
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moon was shining brightly. During the night she heard a noise outside, and looking out, she saw the barnyard full of men and horses. A num- ber of men were in the kitchen below getting a midnight lunch.
The next morning she said to Mr. Noel: "Uncle Jim, who were all those men around the house last night?" "You didn't see any men
around the house last night," was the reply, but when he was convinced that she had he said: "Well, now, I'll tell you but don't say one word about it. It would be worth my head to let it be known," and then he told her they were Quantrill's men. "How many?" she asked. "O, a hundred or two," he replied, "I suppose they are going to have trouble on the line." Mr. Noels' two sons, Alvis and Joe, were with Quantrill and they were starting for Lawrence then. They stayed near the Kansas line in the timber on Big Blue the day following, and the next evening after dusk camped at a spring on the Newton farm' near Spring Hill.
SPRING HILL LOOTED.
During the winter of 1863 troops were stationed at Olathe, Aubry and Westport for protection against the raiders from Missouri. The protection extended only to the towns in which troops were stationed. Spring Hill at this time was left unguarded.
Quantrill's second in command, George Todd, took advantage of this in February and left it in the same condition, financially, as its neigh- bors, Olathe and Shawnee. Todd had but ten men, but as its citizens were taken by surprise, no resistance could be offered. The postoffice, Thomas Parker's store and L. D. Prunty's store, the only business houses of the town, were thoroughly overhauled and such goods taken as could be conveniently carried away on horses. Mr. Prunty reported his loss at about $1,500. On the way back to Missouri they stopped at the home of Nathan Darland, one mile east of town. Mr. Darland's son, Achilles, a member of the Twelfth Kansas regiment, was lying on his death bed, and A. P. Trahern, Will Thahern and Benjamin Sprague were there to render neighborly attentions. Their horses were tied in front of the house. Hearing horses approaching, Will Trahern mounted his horse and escaped. The other two were not quick enough for this maneuver, but managed to get away by crawling away on their hands and knees to a nearby cornfield. The bushwhackers entered the house and after inquiring where the riders of the horses were, went away taking the the horses with them.
This being Albert Trahern's second loss of a horse at their hands, he decided to make an effort for the recovery of his property. He went to Westport the next morning and laid the matter before Major Ransom and a squad of thirty-seven soldiers was detailed to accompany him in the search. Taking the trail and following it many miles through the hills and brush of Missouri, just at night they came to a small pole cabin
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in a dense thicket. Several men were seen, but owing to thick brush they easily escaped with their horses. Trahern found his bridle in the cabin, but no horse anywhere. Shirts and drawers hanging up to dry showed that the bushwhackers had procured a change of clothing at Spring Hill, and were giving their old underclothing the benefit of a wash. After burning the cabin the soldiers called on a farmer living within half a mile to learn something regarding its occupants. Although it stood on his own land, the innocent soul did not know that it was there, and was not aware that any guerrillas had ever been in the vicinity.
During the spring and summer, life and property were held by slight tenures outside of the military posts. The bushwhackers in small squads roamed the country at will. The timber of the Blue, Tomahawk, Cof- fey and Indian creeks on the east side of the county afforded safe retreats, from which they could sally forth to take in the luckless traveler or attack scouts and pickets. The results were limited, how- ever, as no one had the temerity to traverse that part of the county.
THE RED LEGS.
Gregg says "George H. Hoyt, who became captain of the Red Legs, was a young man of Massachusetts parentage and training, and having breathed the abolition air of that State all his life, was naturally a Republican of the deepest dye ; a radical supporter of Free State rights and the Union cause, and correspondingly a hater of the South and its institutions."
At the time of John Brown's arrest in Virginia, Hoyt, then a young law student, hastened to the place where he was imprisoned, and vol- unteering his service as counsel, remained with the old man until the last act of the bloody drama was ended. Thenceforth John Brown, to him, was a hero and martyr. The cause he fought and died for was sacred. Such an event at his impressible age was enough to set for life his abolition views and principles. He hated slavery and its adher- ents with a good hearty hatred that would have delighted Byron when expressing his liking for a "good hater."
Hence it was but natural that he gravitated to Kansas with the com- mencement of national difficulties. Kansas was the scene of John Brown's perils and triumphs, and here he would attempt to do his part toward carrying out the work of the martyr. But the outlook was not particularly promising. The Government still had some timid scruples about giving offence to the erring brethren, and army operations were conducted on a conciliatory plan far from satisfactory to the enthusias- tic followers of John Brown. Hence Hoyt did not go into the army.
Kansas at that time was not lacking in a goodly supply of those rest- less, energetic young gentlemen whose star of empire is forever lead-
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ing them westward. Among this class, Hoyt found some whose enmity to the "divine institution" rivaled his own. He conceived the design of organizing a company of this material. As the men would not submit to the restrains and routine of the regular army, their chances for engaging in active operations were not promising, until the difficulty was settled by the provost marshal, who agreed to accept them as a provost guard. They were employed in scouting, dispatch carrying, and accom- panying the troops on expeditions as guides, etc. No company of better fighting material was ever organized. The men were all young, inured to western life, splendid horsemen, thoroughly accomplished in the use of weapons, rashly reckless and fearless, and, as an old Missouri lady once remarked, "as full of the devil as a mackerel of salt". They wore, as a distinguishing mark, by which to recognize each other when scouting in the enemy's country, leggings of red morocco, and hence the name of "red-legs." The most prominent members of the gang were, Bloom Swayne, well known under the name of "Jeff Davis", Jack Bridges, as "Beauregard", Al. Savers, and Joseph Mater.
These four, in company with several others, had gained some noto- riety, previous to the organization, by an expedition engaged on their own personal account. They started from Wyandotte to reconstruct the neighboring counties of Missouri, and to accomplish this, gathered some eighty negro slaves, and, we believe, about an equal number of horses and mules, and attempted to run them into Kansas. They suc- ceeded in getting them to the river bank, opposite Wyandotte, where a boat was to be in readiness to ferry them over. The owner of the boat failed, however, to keep his part of the contract. The Missouri militia, in the meantime, had started in pursuit, overtaking them while they were waiting for another boat. A volley fired from brush was the first intimation to the jayhawkers of danger. A bullet in the breast stretched Al Savers on the sand, and Bloom Swayne also received one or two severe wounds. The remaining members of the party, supposing the assailants to be United States troops, offered no resistance, and were soon surrounded and captured. They were taken first, to Liberty, and afterwards to Plattsburg and placed in confinement to await trial. As the Missouri code, at that time, contained very stringent laws in regard to running off slaves, our jayhawkers had prospects of the most flatter- ing character for a long sojourn in the penitentiary. After some weeks' confinement, Joe Mater frustrated the whole arrangement. Through his instrumentality, a hole in the wall, a few broken locks, and a fav- orable night, an exit was made, and the Missourians awoke one fine morning to the fact that their county was saved many dollars' expense, in the way of a trial. This incident, as before stated, occurred previous to the Red Leg organization, and is given simply to illustrate the busi- ness characteristic of the company members.
Just what particular acts the Red Legs did in Missouri have never
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been recorded, but in some way, they soon gained a widespread noto- riety. The Missourians represented them as monsters of blood-thirsty cruelty, and told horrifying and hair-raising tales of their outrages and deeds of violence. In the absence of records, and with due respect for the exaggerating style of the times, we must dissent from the majority of the statements; but it is certain they soon inspired the whole Mis- souri border with terror, and were more dreaded than the entire Union army.
Their fighting qualities and reckless daring were speedily known, and no force could be collected that would dare to face them. This dread was inspired, in a great measure, by the fact that if a Red Leg met a bushwhacker or known rebel, during a scout, the results resolved simply into the question as to how long a man would live, with a certain num- ber of bullet holes through him. No quarter was asked or given. It was a savage style of warfare, it must be confessed, but it is scarcely possible for one who did not reside on the border to conceive how completely the amenities of civilized life were dispensed with in those troublous days.
It was charged that they were robbers of the worst class, but this accusation was unjustly applied. It is true they did a good deal of con- fiscating in the enemies' country, but it was always in the face of the enemy, and from known enemies. No quiet citizens were ever molested. On one occasion a member of the company stole a pair of shoes, and on proof of the fact, was promptly dismissed from the command, though it appeared that he did it more for fun than anything else, as he gave them away to the first person he met. We are speaking now. of the command, while acting as an organized company, but cannot say what might have been done by individual members in aftertimes.
There was some excuse, however, for popular belief, from the fact that the thieves spoken of elsewhere soon commenced turning Red Leg reputation to personal account. Gangs of them would don the red leggings and sally forth to rob and steal whenever an opportunity pre- sented, shrewdly judging that few would resist or attempt to recover their property when supposing them to be the veritable terribles. In this way many thousand dollars' worth of property went, that the wrong parties were accused of taking. Owing to repeated complaints of this nature, the organization was dissolved, and the members, generally, joined the regular volunteer army, and enjoyed enough fighting, before the close of the war, to satisfy the most belligerent.
BATTLE OF BULL CREEK.
The battle of Bull Creek, or Bull Run, as it was locally called by the early settlers, was a bloodless battle, although a few shots were ex- changed. Lane, by marching his men past a certain point in view of the
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enemy and then under cover of the woods, sending them back to reap- pear again, convinced General Reed that he, Lane, had as many Free State men as Reed had. Reed ordered his men to fall back, and they did not stop until they reached Westport, thirty miles away.
"BATTLE OF BLOWHARD."
This battle, that never was fought, was one of the earliest hostile acts of the Civil war in Johnson county. It was in 1861, and a meeting had been held at Gabriel Reed's residence, near the Mis- souri line, for the purpose of selecting men to patrol the border, and guard against any surprise from Missouri bushwhackers. An old man named Franklin, living on Tomahawk creek, was against An old man named Franklin, living on Tomahawk creek, was against the proposition, and the Free State men at once suspicioned him as being in sympathy with the Missourians. About three weeks after the meet- ing, Pat Cosgrove, the sheriff of Johnson county, and Joe Hutchins, a constable, went to Little Santa Fe, just over the State line, expecting to return the same evening. They did not return, however, on time, and a rumor was started the next morning that they were held as prisoners, and the Missourians were going to hang them. The word spread rapidly, and soon 100 or more men gathered, armed with every kind of conceivable weapon, and started for Little Santa Fe, to rescue Pat and Joe. A halt was made near the Franklin residence, and two men were sent to Little Santa Fe, to find out what had been done, while the rest of the crowd talked in groups, of what would happen to the Missourians in that Santa Fe town, if a hair on the head of either Pat or Joe was injured. In an hour or so a long line of men on horseback was seen, coming from Missouri, and headed toward the rescuers, who were waiting. No sooner was this made known than a retreat was made, toward Olathe, by the rescuers, with a much faster gait than the forward movement had been made. On the top of a hill, on the way back, some pioneer had piled up some logs, preparatory to building a cabin. Now, Mr. Sawn, self-constituted leader of the rescurers, ordered all hands to throw up the timber into breastworks, and some twenty or thirty-five. went to work, while the rest of the bunch sped on to Olathe, as fast as they could go. A half hour's work completed the breast- works of logs, about two feet high and sixty feet square, and here the gallant twenty or twenty-five awaited the attack, which did not come. After waiting a half hour, F. W. Case and Evan Shriver volunteered to go back and find out why, and they soon returned, with the joyful news that the Missourians had returned to Santa Fe. They had come out to escort the old man Franklin and his family over the line to his Mis- souri friends. Then the rescuers returned, joyfully, forgetting Pat and Joe, and arrived safely in Olathe, hungry and footsore. Pat and Joe
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arrived an hour later. They had been detained in Little Santa Fe, but had been released, and had been in no personal danger.
SOME WAR-TIME CLIPPINGS FROM OLATHE "MIRROR."
January 9, 1863 .- We are sorry to chronicle the fact that Captain Milhoan's company has been ordered away from this place. This com- pany was raised in Johnson county, and is composed of our best citi- zens. They are men of property, and the protection they gave was a hundred-fold more valuable to us, as they were doubly interested in the peace, prosperity and protection of the border, from the frequent raids of the unknown guerillas. It is not necessary to land the officers and men of this company, for where they are known their acts speak for themselves. No company has given such entire satisfaction and received the unbounded confidence of the people as this company has done. Our interests were their interests, our safety their safety, our protection their protection. The citizens of this county can never be ungrateful to the officers and men of this noble company. The kind wishes of the citizens of this county will follow them wherever they go, whether upon the tented field or amid peace and prosperity of our country.
July 11, 1863 .- We have been asked why we don't revive the "Mirror" in full. During the past two years we have been promised protection by our governors, generals and senators, notwithstanding the fact that every town in our county has been sacked from one to three times. Last spring, believing we would have the protection so long sought, we made arrangements to renew our paper in its old shape. But the protection we anticipated did not come and we have come to the con- clusion not to start out anew until we can see fair indication of the end of our troubles, when our paper will be renewed on a permanent basis and not subject to such changes in its size and quality of reading mat- ter as our readers now witness. We have given it a circulation of 500 in order to accommodate the business of the county and merchants who wish to advertise. We shall make the "Mirror" after the war what it was before, the largest and best newspaper in the State.
July 11, 1863. Notice .- There will be a petition presented to county board of Johnson county, at its next session, the first Monday of July next, praying for a road to accommodate the travel from Olathe to Westport, commencing where the Shawneetown road leaves the Old Santa Fe road, and run on a line the best for the country to the half section corner next north of the south corner of sections 7 and 8, in town- ship 12 south of range 25.
January 7, 1864 .- Ferry across the Kansas river on the Telegraph road from Ft. Leavenworth to Ft. Scott.
This ferry is located on the Telegraph road from Leavenworth to Ft. Scott via Olathe, Paola and Mound City and is the most direct route between the two places. Teams crossed at any time day or night.
Isaac Parrish.
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May 28, 1864 .- The Wyandotte bridge has been and is now in good crossing order. Remember there is no toll to those going to Wyan- dotte. We are under obligations to Senator Lane for a package of gar- den seeds. Accept our thanks, General.
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