USA > Missouri > A History of Northeast Missouri, Volume I > Part 44
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The type of disease has changed very much in the last thirty, or forty years. The early pioneers suffered severely from the autumnal fevers, remittent and intermittent, and in the recollection of many now living it was no unusual thing to see whole families down with malarial fever with scarcely enough well ones to wait upon the sick. Now malarial fever is quite rare. That the health of the county has improved is due to the fact that the lakes and swamps in the bottoms have been drained and the lowlands are being filled up by the allu- vial deposits brought down from the cultivated fields. Professor Koch in his studies in South Africa indicated that malaria is conveyed by mosquitoes. These swamps and lowlands were the breeding places of these pests and by removing the cause the disease has in a great meas- ure disappeared from this section. Pneumonia and typhoid fever are not so prevalent or so fatal as they were forty or fifty years ago. Whether due to a more rational mode of treatment or a modification of these diseases is hard to say.
THE CIVIL WAR
During the Civil war it is estimated that six hundred or seven hun- dred men in this county enlisted in the Confederate army. The first com-
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pany was organized at Brunswick and enlisted as Missouri State Guards, with the following officers : Captain, E. W. Price; first lieutenant. H. L. Gaines; second lieutenant, R. A. Dickey ; jun. 2nd lieutenant, J. O. Patter- son. The officers of the second company were: Captain, Thomas H. Price; first lieutenant. John Barr; second lieutenant, John Crowder; jun. 2nd lieutenant, William McAshan. These companies were composed of about eighty-five men each. Another company composed of men from the forks of the Chariton enlisted in Company B, Third Missouri State Guard, with the following officers: Captain, T. H. Walton; first lieu- tenant, John Lampkin; second lieutenant, William Ewing; jun. 2nd lieu- tenant, John Taylor. This company was composed of eighty-five men and reenlisted in 1862 in the Confederate army, remaining in the service until the close of the war and was mustered out at Shreveport, Louisiana, in June, 1865. Captain T. H. Walton was promoted to the rank of major and belonged to General Elliott's battalion of General Joe Shelby's brigade. In October, 1862, two companies, Company A., Third Regiment Missouri State Guard, and Company I, Eighth Battalion Missouri In- fantry, consolidated and formed Company E. Eighth Regiment, C. S. A., of which regiment R. H. Musser was lieutenant-colonel and H. L. Gaines major. The following officers were elected in Company I, Ninth Regi- ment : Captain, James C. Wallace ; first lieutenant, G. T. Vaughan ; sec- ond lieutenant, J. N. Thompson ; junior 2nd lieutenant, F. F. Weed. This company was made up of men from Chariton county and participated in the engagements at Carthage, Drywood, Springfield, Lexington, and Elk Horn. At Elk Horn Captain Wallace was severely wounded in the right thigh. Among other engagements in which this company par- ticipated were at Cypress Bend, Little Rock. Gaines' Landing, Jenkins Ferry, and Pleasant Hill, Louisiana. Captain Wallace was again wounded in the knee at Jenkins Ferry. He surrendered his company May 10, 1865, at Shreveport, Louisiana.
Several companies of Union soldiers were organized in Chariton county and entered the Union army in 1861. The officers of Company B, Eighteenth Missouri Infantry, were: Captain, Peter R. Dolman; first lieutenant, Fred Partenheimer; first lieutenant, J. J. Hersel, re- signed ; second lieutenant, J. J. Abrigg. Captain John A. Vance organ- ized a company of Home Guard Militia, composed of Germans living in the southeastern part of the county. Captain Buckshardt organ- ized another company of Home Guard Militia composed of Germans and were stationed in the Bowling Green prairie south of Dalton. Quite a number of men in Chariton county enlisted in Companies E and H of the Ninth Regiment of Cavalry, Missouri State Militia, known as Colonel Guitar's regiment. The officers of Company H, Missouri State Militia, were: Captain, H. S. Glaze; first lieutenant, T. A. H. Smith ; second lieutenant, J. A. Donahoe; first sergeant, J. X. Mitchell ; second sergeant, J. Shaw; third sergeant, F. O. Boomer; fourth ser- geant, Monte Lehman; fifth sergeant, John S. Foggin.
During the last year of the Civil war there were enacted in Chari- ton county some of the darkest deeds of cold-blooded murder that were ever perpetrated in any civilized community by men who seemed to be possessed of the instinct of the savage instead of that of civilized beings. Old men who had borne the burdens of the early pioneer in this county and whose gray hairs and tottering forms entitled them to more humane treatment were shot down by the roadside by these creatures in human form for the sole reason that they were accused of being southern sympathizers. On the other hand, there were roving bands of guerillas scouting over the country, many of them not com- nected with any military organization, who retaliated by killing inof-
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fensive Union men who were non-combatants and had taken no part in the war. The Union men as well as the southern sympathizers who remained at home to care for their families suffered more from these atrocities than those who enlisted in either army. Among those who were thus shot by the militia in 1864 was Moses Hurt, who had been a Union man all during the war. He was taken a short distance from his home and killed by the roadside. Abner Finnell, one of the pioneer school. teachers in Chariton county and a captain of the state militia in 1838, was taken from his home by the same crowd and shot by the roadside a few hundred yards from his front gate. James Stark, Sr., living in the same neighborhood with Moses Hurt, was given the alter- native of going in the militia or going to prison. Being a Southern sympathizer, he declined doing either and so remained away from home. A captain of militia, with some thirty men, went to his home to arrest him. He was not there and they told his son, James Stark, Jr., to tell them where his father was or they would hang him. But none of the family could tell anything of his whereabouts. They then took James, Jr., a boy only sixteen years old, to the woods and hung him several times to the limb of a tree, while the boy protested his inability to tell where his father was. They finally hung him to a limb and rode off and left him hanging. His body was found some days later and given decent interment by his neighbors. The writer of this sketch was a schoolmate of a sister of James Stark, Jr., for several months during the summer of 1864 and often heard her tell
the story of the brutal murder of her little brother. Horatio Phil- pott, one of the pioneers of Chariton county, who came to the county in 1837 and opened a mill on the east fork of the Chariton, was known as a southern sympathizer, as were many of his neighbors. In Octo- ber, 1864, he was taken from his home by a company of militia under the command of . Captain Trueman and this aged pioneer, seventy-five years old, was shot a few hundred yards from his home. When found by his family he had on his person five gunshot wounds and two bay- onet thrusts. Two of the gunshot wounds were in the head and the others, with the bayonet thrusts, were in the breast. Dr. James Brum- mall, living in the same neighborhood, was killed the same day by the same company of militia. It is said that among the soldiers who com- mitted the bloody deeds were one or two of his neighbors who boasted that they had killed old Dr. Brummall. Jesse Rogers, an old man of more than seventy years of age, was shot the same day by the same soldiers after they had partaken of his hospitality and they refused to permit the family to bury him. As a result, his body lay two or three days before it was buried. He was a quiet, peaceable citizen and a most humble and devout Christian, whose only crime was that he was a southern sympathizer. Theophilus Edwards, aged seventy years, was another victim of this same lawless band, who left a trail of blood along their line of march through the county.
One of the most brutal and cowardly deeds committed by men claiming to be soldiers was the wanton murder of John W. Leonard, a boy only fifteen years of age, by the militia stationed at Brunswick. He was arrested by John Cox, who was raised on an adjoining farm and who had gone to school with young Leonard. Leonard was brought to Brunswick January 4, 1865, and placed in the guard house.
* The writer of this sketch met Captain Trueman in 1865 and 1866 in Ottumwa, Iowa, and often talked with him in the presence of Wm. H. Howerton and W. S. Locke about the wanton slaughter of old men in Chariton county in 1864 by his com- pany and he contended that he was merely carrying out the instructions of bis superior officers.
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At night he was taken out by a squad of militia and taken to the Mis- souri river, where a hole was cut in the ice, and, while he was pleading for his life, he was thrust in the river and held until life was extinct. The charge against him was that it was reported by some neighborhood spy that he had been active with bushwhackers and for this without trial, he was made to forfeit his young life to gratify the lust for blood. The writer of this sketch knows that the charge that John Leonard was ever a bushwhacker was a falsehood, for he boarded with the boy's mother, ate at the same table and slept in the same bed with him from February, 1864, until late in August of the same year and knows positively that he was never a member of any company of guer- rillas. The boy's mother, accompanied by a neighbor woman, came to Brunswick in an ox wagon a few days after her son's arrest and tried to find out the fate of the boy. She was informed that he had been sent to the military prison in St. Louis. The aged mother died a few years afterward in the asylum at St. Joseph. Her mental trouble was caused by grief for her devoted son. Among others who were killed in Brunswick were Judge J. J. Flood, who was shot in his own house; John T. McAshan, who was shot and his body thrown in the Missouri river; an old man by the name of Pixley, who was shot and his body left in the road near Brunswick, was partially eaten by hogs; a man by the name of Franklin, who was shot and his body thrown in Clark Applegate's yard.
Among the Union men who were killed by the guerillas, in retali- ation for those killed by the militia, were Senstra Coleman, Mr. Parten- heimer, Charles Jensin, and James Bittinger.
On September 22, 1864, the town of Keytesville was taken by Cap- tains Todd and Threldkill and their men and about fifty militia, under Captain Berry Owens, surrendered. Robert Carmen and William Young were taken prisoners and Senator A. Mackay plead with Todd to save the life of Carmen, as he was the sheriff of the county and a quiet, peaceable citizen. But they were taken outside of the town and killed.
After General Price's raid many houses were burned by the militia, among them the fine residences of John D. Locke, Green Plunkett, Capt. William Herryford, Martin Hurt, and the John Moore tavern in Old Chariton. A. Kennedy's warehouse in Brunswick, together with a large quantity of furniture and tobacco and several pianos, was also burned. The loss was more than $30,000 as the building contained the property of citizens who were leaving for St. Louis and other cities to escape the horrors of the Civil war.
SALISBURY
Salisbury was laid out April 1, 1867, by Lucius Salisbury (for whom the town was named), George W. Williams and O. W. Lusher. Judge Salisbury was one of the first storekeepers and also kept a house for the entertainment of travelers. He was elected a county judge in 1850, and was a member of the legislature in 1868 and 1870.
W. S. Stockwell was the pioneer lawyer and the Rev. William Penn was one of the first ministers of the Methodist Church South. The first church was built by the Cumberland Presbyterians. Mrs. M. A. Robin- son was the proprietress of the first hotel after the laying out of the town. Capt. James Herryford was one of the early settlers of Salisbury township, a native of Virginia, but coming from Tennessee to Chariton county in 1817. He erected one of the first horse mills, the first cotton gin and the first distillery built in the county. He was the father of Capt. William Herryford, who was a member of the state legislature
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in 1854 and again in 1880. Among the other pioneers who settled in this section were James Ryan, James Dinsmore, Peterson Parks, Samuel C. and Jonathan T. Burch, Judge Shannon, Jesse Rogers, Samuel Williams and Martin L. Hurt.
Salisbury has been visited by two destructive fires, the first June 11, 1877, when nine frame houses were burned. The second fire occurred June 28, 1882, and the loss aggregated $20,000. On June 11, 1872, a destructive tornado swept over Salisbury township, coming from the southwest and destroying the amphitheatre at the fair grounds south- west of the town, entailing a loss of more than $8,000. The annual fair was discontinued after this tornado. The Presbyterian church was blown from its foundation. The Baptist church was also badly damaged.
Salisbury is beautifully located, standing as it does on an elevated ridge in the center of a high, rolling prairie surrounded by rich farming land and as far as the eye can reach are seen fine farm houses and barns, cultivated fields and bearing orchards, the whole presenting a scene of pastoral loveliness which is seldom seen in any county. Salisbury is at the junction of the Glasgow branch of the Wabash Railroad with the main line and it has grown rapidly until it has the largest population of any town in the county. The citizens are progressive and the business men wide-awake to the advantages to be derived from all modern im- provements. They have a finely equipped electric light plant and water works, miles of granitoid sidewalks, finely graded streets and well dragged roads leading in from the country. It is a city of beautiful homes, with well kept lawns, which show that the citizens are cultured and blessed with plenty of this world's goods and know how to enjoy it. It is no unusual sight to see more than forty automobiles on the streets at one time.
The public school of Salisbury was organized in April, 1867, having at that time two teachers and an enrollment of 108. The school was taught in a frame building with only four rooms. The Salisbury high school building was erected in 1902 at a cost of $18,000. It contains thirteen rooms. There are twelve teachers and 494 pupils. It is a graded high school and articulates with the University of Missouri and the normal schools.
Salisbury has three banks. The People's Bank of Salisbury has a capital stock of $25,000. The officers are: G. W. Harhart, president ; Benjamin Hayes, vice-president ; J. W. Grizzell, cashier; W. R. Tindall, assistant cashier ; E. C. Ferguson, accountant. The Salisbury Savings Bank has a capital stock of $30,000. The officers are: Joe W. Ingram, president ; W. E. Sutter, assistant cashier. The Farmers and Merchants Bank, with a capital stock of $25,000, has the following officers: J. W. Luck, president; George G. Johnson, vice-president; R. P. Asbury, cashier; E. J. Sutter, assistant cashier.
A number of wealthy, enterprising citizens of Salisbury organized an insurance company which has been quite successful. It is called the American Life and Accident Insurance Company of Salisbury and has a cash capital of $100,000. The officers of the company are: John W. Cooper, president ; George T. Johnson, vice-president ; C. C. Hammond, secretary ; E. M. Williams, treasurer.
Salisbury has two large grain and milling companies and a large grain elevator.
There are two newspapers in the town, the Press-Spectator, started by J. M. Gallemore in 1871 and now owned by Joe Ritzenthaler. and the Democrat, owned and edited by Dismukes and Son.
The various religious denominations are well represented. The Bap- tists, Methodists, Christians, Cumberland Presbyterians and Catholics each have a church building in Salisbury.
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Among the prominent physicians of Salisbury have been Dr. J. A. Egan, Dr. B. F. Wilson, Sr., Dr. F. B. Philpott, Dr. W. H. P. Baker, Dr. J. F. Welch, Dr. J. D. Brummall, Dr. Wilhoit, Dr. Hawkins and Dr. Banning.
Among the attorneys-at-law who practiced their profession in the town have been W. S. Stockwell, J. B. Ellington, W. H. Bradley, C. C. Hammond, Judge Fred Lamb, A. W. Johnson, Gilbert Lamb, J. A. Collett and Roy MeKittrick.
TRIPLETT
The town of Triplett was laid out in 1870 by H. H. Hooper and John E. M. Triplett (for whom the town was named) and is located on the Omaha branch of the Wabash Railroad. It is a thriving town of six hundred inhabitants, situated in the center of a fine farming and stock- raising country and with the finest roads for automobile traveling in the county. It has a fine public school building, with six rooms and six teachers, and is a twelfth grade school. The average attendance is two hundred pupils. There are two banks in Triplett. The Farmers Bank has a capital stock and surplus of $15,000. The officers are: President, J. G. Bartoe; vice-president, B. F. Fleetwood; cashier, T. V. Phelps. The People's Bank has a capital stock and surplus of $15,000. The offi- cers are : President, A. C. Smith; vice-president, C. T. Collins; cashier, Wade McCallister. There are two churches, the Christian, with a mem- bership of about 180, and the Methodist church South, with a member- ship of 125. Each of these churches has a ladies' aid society in good working order. There is a Masonic lodge and a lodge of the I. O. O. F., Knights of Pythias, and Modern Woodmen of America. The Com- mercial Club has about forty members. The Triplett Chautauqua band, of fourteen pieces, organized in 1898. is one of the best in the county.
In 1906 a company was organized to sink a well for oil and, after digging to the depth of 1,500 feet on Wash Triplett's land, just east of town, work was stopped as no evidence of oil was found. An artesian well of sulpho-saline water was developed, which has fine medicinal properties and "Siloam's Pool," near the well, is a popular bathing resort in the summer. On Frank Elliott's farm, just west of town, another well some three hundred feet in depth was sunk in 1906, which is also a sulpho-saline water and also has fine medicinal qualities. Trip- lett would be a fine location for a sanitarium. The Triplett Tribune is , a hustling newspaper ably edited by Harry Spencer.
NEWSPAPERS
The first newspaper published in Chariton county was the Reporter, established in 1847 by J. T. Quisenbury. After a few months he sold the plant to Dr. John H. Blue, who changed the name to the Bruns- wicker. He continued as editor and manager until 1854, when he sold it to Col. C. W. Bell and Willis H. Plunkett. In 1856 the paper was sold to O. D. Hawkins, who shortly afterward sold it to Col. R. H. Musser. After editing it for about a year, Col. Musser sold it to Dr. Henry W. Cross, who consolidated it with the Central City and the name was changed to Central City Brunswicker. It retained this name until 1866, when it was changed to the Weekly Brunswicker. In 1858. Dr. Cross sold the paper to Robert C. Hancock, who was its editor until 1862, when it was sold to Dr. J. F. Cunningham. In 1864, Hancock bought the paper again, but in 1865 sold it to Winslow and Cunning-
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ham and they sold it, in 1866, to J. B. Naylor and Capt. William H. Balthis. In 1875, Naylor purchased the interest of Capt. Balthis and ably edited the paper until 1880, when he sold it to I. H. Kinley and Capt. J. C. Wallace. In 1888, I. H. Kinley retired from the paper and the Brunswicker Publishing Company was formed and Hon. Perry S. Rader was editor until 1896. From 1896 to 1901, C. E. Stewart was business manager and from 1898 to 1901 Dr. J. S. Wallace was editor. In 1901 C. J. Walden purchased the paper and was editor and manager until 1903, when he sold it to Robertson and Patterson. In about one year Patterson sold out his interest to J. B. Robertson, who has since been editor and manager.
The Keytesville Herald was started by T. D. Bogie in 1871. In 1874 Bogie sold the paper to William E. Jones and he, in turn, sold it to J. H. Hudson, who in 1878 changed the name of the paper to the Chariton Courier. He sold the paper to Vandiver and Collins. In 1890 Charles J. Vandiver became the proprietor of the Courier and made it one of the most aggressive Democratic papers in the state. He continued as editor and manager of the paper until his death, when his widow and step-daughter edited and managed the paper for about a year, with much credit to themselves. It was then purchased by E. B. Kellogg; who at this time is editor and proprietor.
The Keytesville Signal was started by Joe K. Robertson in 1893, and in 1905 it suspended publication and the Rev. Franc Mitchell pur- chased the plant and started the Keytesville Recorder, with his son, Homer Mitchell, as editor. The Recorder is now edited by A. M. Child, who has had charge of the paper for the past three years.
The Salisbury Press (Democratic) was started by James M. Galle- more, June 1, 1871, and was consolidated with the Spectator, July 15, 1881, and was run under the name of the Press-Spectator by the Galle- more brothers. It is now owned and edited by Joe Ritzenthaler.
The Spectator was established in November, 1880, by R. M. Williams and Whitfield Williams and continued by them until July, 1881, when it was consolidated with the Press.
The Salisbury Democrat, Democratic in politics, is ably edited by Dismukes and Son.
The Mendon Citizen is owned and edited by E. L. Wicks.
The Sumner Star, Republican in politics, is published at Sumner by C. W. and B. F. Northcott.
The Weekly Swastika, of Prairie Hill, was started in 1908, with L. Roy Sims as editor and proprietor. The paper was formerly Republican in politics but is now an organ of the Progressive party.
PUBLIC SCHOOLS
But few counties in the state possess a larger school fund than is to be found in Chariton county, or a better system of free schools, and the grades of the teachers show that they rank with those of any other county in the state. The amount of the principal of the county and township school funds of Chariton county is $200,000. The amount of the school funds received from the state for 1911 was $13,200.44. The amount of interest from county and township school fund for 1911 was $17,919.52.
The number of school children in Chariton county is 7,322. divided as follows : White male, 3,339; white female, 3,141; colored male, 434; colored female, 408. The school houses in the county number 145; school districts, 137; colored schools in operation, 12.
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BARTLETT AGRICULTURAL AND INDUSTRIAL SCHOOL FOR NEGROES
A coterie of Missouri philanthropists have been trying to solve the so-called negro problem by making of him a farmer, and they have furnished the funds to buy a farm of more than two hundred acres near Dalton, in Chariton county. Dormitories were erected through the gen- erosity of the benefactors. N. C. Bruce, a negro educator, is the prin- cipal and is a graduate of the Tuskegee Institute and Bates College. He obtained much of the support which started the institution and has been the prime mover in its organization. The object of the school, as stated by the promoters and trustees, is to give the negro boys and girls a thorough and practical education along farming and agricultural lines and domestic pursuits, as this is the one occupation open to the negro today which is not overcrowded. What the negro needs most is vocational training, which shall enable him to make a good living, have a comfortable home, own a patch of land and do scientific farming. Students from every part of the state are admitted as fast as accommo- dations will allow and the Bartlett School is working toward the redemp- tion of the negro race.
MENDON
Mendon was laid out in 1871 by Christopher Shupe and it grew to be quite a considerable village, but the Santa Fe Railroad, in running through the county, went two miles northwest of the town. A new town was started in 1887 and the old one was abandoned and most of the houses were moved to the new town, which has now some 450 inhabitants. The progressive citizens of the town have taken much interest in good roads and they pride themselves on having as good roads as any town in the county. The public school building was built in 1906, at a cost of more than $5,000. It has four rooms and four teachers. The princi- pals of the school for several years have been women. Miss Gertrude Hosey is principal at the present time, with Misses Kate Barry, Mary Stewart and Hattie Virgin as assistant teachers. The Bank of Mendon has a capital stock of $25,000. The officers are: President, W. L. Mc- Campbell; vice-president, J. A. Engleman; cashier, C. A. Felt. The Mendon State Bank has a capital stock of $10,000 and the officers are: President, B. V. Mckeever; vice-president, Joseph Ralph ; cashier, M. M. Harmon. There are two churches in Mendon, the Methodist church, South with the Rev. C. Baker as pastor, and the Christian church with the Rev. W. C. Whitehouse as pastor. There are lodges of I. O. O. F. and Rebekah, Modern Woodmen lodge and Royal Neighbors, and Knights of Pythias.
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