USA > Missouri > A History of Northeast Missouri, Volume I > Part 85
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committed to jail, indicted, arraigned, and plead not guilty; but that night he and another prisoner broke jail and no trace of him was ever afterward found.
The murder that caused the greatest excitement, the most intense feeling, was that of Joseph Hunolt, near Hagar's Grove on June 4, 1886. He was one of the judges of the county court, a large land owner and stock raiser. Between five and six o'clock in the afternoon of the day mentioned, he left Leonard on horseback. Leonard is a small town and between it and Hunolt's home was a section of land owned by him and used as a pasture. As the Judge did not return home that night, a search was instituted early the next morning; his horse was found hitched in the pasture mentioned, and a little way off the dead. body pierced with two bullets, and his throat cut, was also found. Detectives were employed and Joseph and Christian Glahn were arrested. On the preliminary hearing Christian was discharged, but Joseph was held. On change of venue Joseph was tried at Paris and convicted; but on appeal to the supreme court, the cause was remanded for a new trial, and that court intimated that the evidence was too weak. The evidence consisted mainly of a few threats and the fact that the defendant was hunting not far from Hunolt's pasture that fatal afternoon. So the case was dismissed.
In 1888, also near Leonard, Andrew Howerton shot and killed his wife and then himself. They had been married only a few months.
Some years before the crimes we have mentioned, in October, 1874, Pat McCarty, who owned the mill in Clarence, was shot while in his house as he sat by the window just after supper. No clue to the guilty one was ever found.
July 22, 1897, M. Lloyd Cheuvront was shot and killed on the streets of Shelbina by Tol Smock. The murdered man was a quiet, inoffensive person, but Smock thought he had been following his (Smock's) wife. The case against Smock was taken to Macon, and at the first trial the jury hung. At the second trial the jury found him guilty of man- slaughter and assessed his punishment at six months in jail and a fine of one hundred dollars. Of this verdict the Macon Times-Democrat said : "The verdict is an outrage upon this community, and it is just such mockery as this which disgusts the people with juries and courts and causes them to take the law into their own hands and mete out justice."
June 5, 1901, a mile west of Clarence, James Stacey killed his wife, daughter, and then himself.
The last tragedy that occurred in this county was in Taylor township, not far from Leonard, in June, 1912, when Thomas Ralls shot and badly wounded Charles Upton and his wife. They were the parents of Ralls' wife, who had left her husband. A month before this Ralls started a quarrel and was wounded by Upton. After shooting Upton, Ralls fled, but a posse made pursuit, and finding himself hard pressed, Ralls killed himself.
POLITICAL MATTERS
This county was before the Civil war pretty evenly balanced between the Democrats and the Whigs in number of votes, but the former elected nearly all the officers; only occasionally would a popular Whig secure a position. About the close of the war and for a few years following, the Radical Republicans controlled the county as many Democrats were disfranchised. But after all the people were again allowed to vote, it sustained the Democratic ticket with an increasing majority until 1896, when more than two Democratic votes were cast for one Republican.
At the August election in 1841, for clerk of the county court, Thomas
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J. Bounds received 224 votes to John Jacob's 198. At the presidential election the year previous, Van Buren received 233 votes to Harrison's 226. In 1844 the votes of both parties amounted to 448, not quite so many as four years before. But in 1852, there were 511 votes cast, of which Franklin Pierce, Democrat, received 309, and Scott, Whig, only 202. In 1856, however, there was a change. The campaign was very exciting. The Whig party had ceased to exist and in its place was the Know-Nothing party. The vote gave Fillmore 432 votes to Buchanan's 373.
The campaign of 1860 was still more exciting. Everybody felt that important events were near at hand. The people, North and South, were wrought up to the highest tension. The "fire-eaters" were threaten- ing disunion, while the Republicans were preaching a crusade against slavery. The Democratic party had split-Stephen A. Douglas for the North and John C. Breckinridge for the South. The Republicans had nominated Abraham Lincoln, and the Know-Nothings, or peace party, John Bell. The vote in this county stood : Bell, 702; Douglas, 476; Breckinridge, 293; Lincoln, 90. But the state chose Douglas electors, it being the only one that did, though a part of New Jersey was for him. Thus the voting strength at this time had increased to 1,561, about five times what it was in 1841.
At the circuit court, in November, 1860, some slaves belonging to the estate of George Gains were sold at the courthouse door according to law, and a German made some strong remarks against the sale. He was arrested and placed under bond, which he forfeited by not appear- ing. Further on something will be said about "the peculiar institution."
Claiborne F. Jackson, who was elected governor of the state at the election in 1860, was for secession, and John McAfee, Shelby's repre- sentative, was also a strong secessionist. He was elected speaker of the house, yet the majority of the legislature were in favor of preserving the Union. An act was passed in February, 1861, calling a convention to consider the relation of this state to the other states. Some southern states had already seceded. But it was provided in this act that this convention could not take the state out of the Union, that this could be done only by a vote of the people. Candidates were nominated for the convention who were unconditional Union men and conditional Union men. That is, the latter were for secession in the event of certain con- ditions arising. Joseph M. Irwin was the unconditional Union candi- date in this county, and G. Watts Hillias was the conditional Union candidate. The county voted nearly three to one for the unconditional Union candidates; and the county always remained strong for the Union and against secession. The majority of the convention was for the Union, but they passed resolutions against the government's using force to coerce the seceded states. A measure was introduced into the con- vention and supported by Mr. Irwin for the emancipation of the slaves, to take effect July 4, 1876, the master to be paid three hundred dollars for each slave. This is the price Lincoln proposed in his proclamation in 1862.
During war times men change their political opinions rapidly. Some who were ultra pro-slavery Democrats in 1860, the next year found themselves Radical Republicans. This county was an uncompromising Union county and perhaps one reason that made the sentiment for the Union so strong was the position of John F. Benjamin, Joseph Irwin, Alex McMurtry, William J. Holliday, J. M. Collier, and other leading men, who early declared their uncompromising position. The elections held during the war were not strictly legal and regular, as the polls were generally surrounded by soldiers, and only such persons were allowed to vote as the commanders designated.
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In 1865 a constitutional convention was held in Missouri, controlled by the radical element. A rigid test oath was provided. Before any one could vote, teach school, practice law, sit on a jury, or even preach the gospel, he must swear that he was well acquainted with that pro- vision of the constitution, and that he never sympathized with those in rebellion. Registrars were appointed for each county, and only those whom this board, composed wholly of members of one party, admitted to register could cast their ballots. Those who carried out the consti- tution were even more drastic than its provisions. A long string of questions was asked each applicant for registration; such as, "How did you feel when you first heard of the battle of Bull Run?" One wag, Cobe Wood, of this county, replied, "I never felt so happy in my life. I rode home and the old woman and I had a regular camp-meeting shout- ing." Even if one took the oath and answered all the questions satis- factorily, still the registrars might reject him. Men who had served years in the Union army were disfranchised.
Thus in each county there was formed a ring, the members of which divided the offices, and disfranchised enough men to keep them- selves in power. Under this system there was as complete a tyranny as ever existed. B. Gratz Brown, Carl Schurz and others determined in 1870 to end this tyranny, and as the Republican convention refused to declare in favor of abolishing the test oath system, they bolted the con- vention and organized the Liberal Republican party of Missouri. Brown was nominated for governor. Col. John Shafer and the writer of this article organized the party for Brown and enfranchisement in this county, and in the state Brown was chosen by a large majority and enfranchisement was carried by an overwhelming vote.
In 1870, the total registration in this county was 1,403, and this was more than twice the number of votes cast in 1864. The vote in 1872, when all were admitted to the polls, was over two thousand. In 1896 the vote in the county aggregated 4,183. Of these Bryan received 2,878 and Mckinley 1,275, the Prohibition ticket 21, and Palmer and Buckner 9. Since then the vote has somewhat decreased.
SLAVERY
Those who lived in the far North could never fully comprehend the real situation in the South on the subject of slavery; and those who have grown up since the war do not understand how good people could own and work slaves. But two hundred years ago few people thought it wrong to bring the uncivilized African to this continent and hold him in bondage. At one time the institution existed North as well as South; but about the time of our revolt against England and following that for a few years slavery was abolished in nearly all the northern states, New Jersey alone holding on to it for some years later. By the time of the Revolution, the more enlightened men of the country, South as well as North, had become unfriendly to the institution and hoped to see it gradually die out. When Virginia ceded the Northwest Territory to the United States, it made a provision in that grant that slavery should never exist there; yet at that time that state held many slaves. In the border states, like Missouri, the slave-holder usually inher- ited these chattels. It was an institution handed down from generation to generation, and one who had slaves and had conscientious scruples against selling them as most of them had, could not easily free himself from this condition. The free negro was not favored, was considered dangerous, and was in a bad condition. For this reason the laws hamp- ered emancipation. Most of the masters in Missouri at least, treated
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their slaves humanely, and were kind and considerate. In 1860 there were 724 slaves in this county. These people were more numerous in Monroe and in all the river counties. As the prospect for war grew darker, some men fearing emancipation took their slaves South and sold them; but most of the masters kept them until the law set them at liberty. Even then some of the colored people refused to leave their old masters, and nearly all held their former owners in great respect, and continued to look to them for help in time of trouble.
The anti-slavery sentiment of the North was of slow growth, but it had been yearly increasing, and the agitation over the Wilmot Proviso and the compromise measures of 1850, including the Fugitive Slave Law, and especially the repeal of the Missouri Compromise in 1854 to permit slavery in Kansas, stirred up a very bitter opposition over all the free states. The profitable use of slaves in the cultivation of cotton had gradually changed the sentiment in the South so that by 1850 and 1860 a large element there justified the institution, declared it heaven- ordained and sacred. Thus the antagonism between the two sections had .
by 1860 become acute. If a settlement could have been made by peace- ful means, much blood and bitterness might have been spared. But war seemed to be the only remedy. The split in the Democratic party which occurred that year insured the election of Lincoln, and as many Southerners said they preferred him to Douglas, Northern men took them at their word. Some of the fiery men down there were anxious for a pretext to set up a new government; and bitter men of the North urged them on. The secession of South Carolina and other states which occurred in the winter of 1860 and 1861, and then the firing on Fort Sumter, which occurred in April, brought the country face to face with Civil war.
During the conflict the border slave states like Virginia, Kentucky and Missouri, became very largely the seat of war, and in consequence, the people of those states suffered much. Missouri had her full share of loss and bitterness.
THE CIVIL WAR IN SHELBY
Governor Jackson early took steps to organize regiments of militia, professedly to defend the state; but Union men believed these would be used to help the secessionists. Crockett Davis and Daniel G. Minter early raised a company for Jackson's forces in this county. The people of Shelby were as profoundly stirred by the exciting events occurring in the country as the people of any county. The Union men and the secessionists each began to hold secret meetings to lay plans to advance the cause they favored . They remained friendly when they met men of opposing views, but both sides began to prepare for war. Though the Union men were in the majority, the secessionists were bold. Public as well as secret meetings were held, and strong language was used on both sides. Flag-raisings were common and these were occasions for bitter talk. June 13, 1861, the Second Iowa Infantry came through Hunnewell on the train, fired on the citizens and took two prisoners. This made the excitement more intense. Captain Hughes organized a company for the Union army at Shelbina. A lot of young men from this company went to St. Joseph and enlisted in the old Missouri Thirteenth and a little later were captured with Mulligan at Lexington. July 10, the fight at Monroe City took place, and about the same time a detach- ment of Illinois soldiers from Macon went to northwest Shelby and cut down a secession flag. About this time a company of home guards was organized at Shelbyville with Joseph Forman as captain. This
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company helped for some months to guard the railroad and the govern- ment supplies at Hannibal. On July 10, a company of secessionists from Ralls county burned the railroad bridge across Salt river near Hun- newell; and soon after Brig .- Gen. John McNeal made his headquarters for a time at Hunnewell and then a short period at Shelbina. Quite a number of young men left the county and enlisted in Colonel Green's Southern regiment. Frisby Mccullough sent some of his Confederates to Shelbyville and took Captain Forman and Col. John F. Benjamin prisoners, but they were soon released. In September, General Hurlbert concentrated his Union forces at Bethel to attack Green, supposed to be at Philadelphia, in Marion county. Three soldiers of Hurlbert's command, going alone from Shelbyville to Shelbina, were fired upon by bushwhackers, one was killed and one wounded. The bushwhackers made their escape. They were all young men of this county, but are now dead; one, at least, subsequently became a good citizen of the county, but most of them were killed during the war.
About the 1st of September, Colonel Williams of Iowa, with six hundred men passed through Shelbina and went to Paris, then return- ing to Shelbina. As he returned, he learned that General Green, who had mustered all the Confederate forces he could secure, was coming from Florida, in Monroe county, with the intention of capturing Will- iams and his men. Williams reached Shelbina after dark and learned that Hurlbert had taken all his troops to Brookfield, and that Green with two or three thousand men was about to attack Shelbina. The next morning Green sent Colonel Williams a note demanding his surrender or to have the women and children moved out of town. The women and children were moved, but Colonel Green's note was not answered. The latter then opened fire with two pieces of artillery of Captain Kneis- ley's Palmyra battery. The cannon were well aimed and the shots struck near the center of the town, two passing through the hotel. The Federals had no artillery and therefore could not fight back. So the infantry took a train for Brookfield and the mounted men rode along near the train. Colonel Williams reported that he barricaded the streets for battle, but being besieged by three thousand Confederates, who had cannon, while he had none, he was unable to hold the town; that he lost one man and that Captain MeClure, of the Second Kansas, had his foot shot off. After the Federal retreat, Colonel Green took the town and captured a few knapsacks, four mules, a wagon and some guns. This was called the Battle of Shelbina. Then Colonel Green's men went east to Salt river bridge, which they burned. This was the second time it had been destroyed. At night after Green left Shelbina, some of his men returned and burned some cars on the track. Soon after the above, General Pope arrived at Hunnewell with a considerable force and made that town his headquarters for some days.
After the Federal defeat at Bull Run and after Wilson's Creek. secessionists became active in this county, and quite a number of young men and boys joined Green and later Green joined General Price south of the Missouri. In August, Captain Stacey of Hunnewell vicinity. organized an irregular squad of men which never became a part of the Confederate army. With these men he made a raid on Palmyra and took provisions and two prisoners. He also fired on a train load of soldiers near Hunnewell and wounded two.
Hon. John McAfee, once speaker of the Missouri House, Ex-Senator James S. Green, of Lewis, and Ex-Congressman Thomas L. Anderson, of Marion, did more, it was said, to incite men to fight against the government than any other men in North Missouri: yet no one of these ever became a soldier. General Hurlbert took MeAfee prisoner and
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put him at hard labor, digging trenches. Yet he lived through it all and for many years afterward was a citizen of Quincy, Illinois. The other two notables named went over to Illinois early in the war and remained there till the war was over.
In July, Colonel, afterward General, U. S. Grant in command of the Twenty-first Illinois and Colonel, afterward General, John M. Pal- mer in command of the Fourteenth Illinois, came to Salt river bridge near Hunnewell as it was important to the government to keep the railroad open. General Grant sent for substantial citizens of the vicinity and told them he was not there to injure any individual, but only to uphold the government; that the war was not to free the negro, if he thought it was, he would take his men to the South. He talked to his guests in his easy, business-like way, explained the difference between soldiers and marauders, and said that when he required any provisions he would pay for them. He acted so differently from some who had been there, that he became popular even with the Southern sympathizers. About this time a block house was made on the eastern bank of Salt river over- looking the bridge. It was so constructed as to leave opportunity for the soldiers while in it, to shoot through the corners and at the same time be mainly protected.
General Grant went from the bridge to Florida, then to Mexico, Missouri, and then further South. In his "Personal Memoirs,," the General says: "At the time of which I now write we had no transporta- tion and the country about Salt river was sparsely settled, so that it took some days to collect teams and drivers enough to move the camp. While preparations for the move were going on I felt quite comfortable; but when we got on the road we found every house deserted. In the twenty-five miles we had to march, we did not see a person, old or young, male or female, except two horsemen, who were on a road that crossed ours. As soon as they saw us, they decamped as fast as their horses could carry them. I kept my men in the ranks and forbade their enter- . ing the deserted houses or taking anything from them. We halted at night on the road and proceeded the next morning at an early hour. Harris had been encamped in a creek bottom for the sake of being near water. The hills on either side of the creek extend to a considerable heigl.i, possibly more than a hundred feet. As we approached the brow of the hill from which it was expected we could see Harris camped and possibly find his men ready formed to meet us, my heart kept getting higher and higher until it felt to me that it was in my throat. I would have given anything then to have been back in Illinois, but I had not the moral courage to halt and consider what to do; I kept right on. When we reached a point from which the valley below was in full view, I halted. The place where Harris had been encamped a few days before was still there and the marks of a recent encampment were plainly vis- ible, but the troops were gone. My heart resumed its place. It occurred to me at once that Harris had been as much afraid of me as I had been of him. This was a view of the question I had never taken before; but it was one I never forgot afterward. From that event to the close of the war, I never experienced trepidation upon confronting an enemy, though I always felt more or less anxiety. I never forgot that he had as much reason to fear my forces as I had to fear his. The lesson was valuable."
In 1884 General Grant wrote R. L. Holcomb, who was compiling a history of this county, as follows: "Long Branch, New Jersey, August 3, 1884. In July, 1861, I was ordered with my regiment, the Twenty- first Illinois Infantry, to north Missouri to relieve Colonel Smith of the Sixteenth, who was reported surrounded on the Hannibal & St. Joseph Vol. 1-41
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Railroad. On my arrival at Quincy I found that the regiment had scattered and fled. I then went with my regiment to the junction of the road from Quincy with the one from Hannibal, where I remained for a few days, until relieved by Colonel Turchin with another Illinois regiment. From here I was ordered to guard the workmen engaged in rebuilding the Salt river bridge. Colonel Palmer was there with his regiment at the same time. When the work was near completion, I was ordered to move against Thomas Harris, who was reported to have a regiment or battalion encamped near Florida, Missouri. I marched there, some twenty-five miles from Salt river, but found on arrival that he had disbanded about the time I started. On my return, I was ordered to Mexico, Missouri, by rail. Very truly yours, U. S. Grant."
Of the events of the Civil war the above are the principal ones taking place in this county during 1861.
Early in 1862, under the directions of Acting-Governor Gamble, who took the place of Jackson after he went south, H. S. Lipscomb, of Palmyra, John F. Benjamin, Dr. A. C. Priest and W. J. Holliday of Shelbyville, and others, the Eleventh Cavalry regiment was organized. Afterward this was consolidated with the Second regiment, state militia. When the leaves came out in the spring, many opponents of the govern- ment resorted to bushwhacking. They hid in the brush and shot soldiers as they passed along the road or were carried past in trains. In March, Stacey's men took J. M. Preston from his home near Monroe City to Stacey's camp in Shelby and killed him. They charged him with being a spy. This aroused the Union men and they threatened retaliation. Stacey kept eastern Shelby and western Marion disturbed for a long time. Later in the season his men fired upon Colonel Lipscomb's regi- ment as it marched from Shelbina to Shelbyville, killing two soldiers and a citizen named Lilburn Hale. A posse from Shelbyville went in pursuit of Stacey, killed two and one drowned, and Stacey just escaped capture. When the news of the bushwhacking reached Shelbyville, great indignation was manifested, Colonel Benjamin was wild with,excitement . and declared that three of the men held there as prisoners should be shot. He selected first, Roland Harvey of Clark county, who had been captured a few days before, and had him shot. Then the news came that two of Stacey's band had been killed, and the Colonel was persuaded to stay his hand.
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