Encyclopedia of the history of Missouri, a compendium of history and biography for ready reference, Vol. I, Part 68

Author: Conard, Howard Louis, ed. 1n
Publication date: 1901
Publisher: New York, Louisville [etc.] The Southern history company, Haldeman, Conard & co., proprietors
Number of Pages: 856

USA > Missouri > Encyclopedia of the history of Missouri, a compendium of history and biography for ready reference, Vol. I > Part 68

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BRIGANDS OF MISSOURI.

told on the train that he was going to seek farm work in the neighborhood where the mother of the Jameses lived, and before he got through he would know something about them, little dreaming that his words were heard by some friends of the outlaws who would inform them, and thus place him com- pletely in their power. What the detective did in pursuance of his scheme, how he met the Jameses, if he met them at all, and what took place between them, is all unknown, but shortly afterward a dead man, with two bul- let holes in his head, was found in the woods in Jackson County, not far from the river bank, with the name "J. W. Wyncher," in India ink, on the right arm. At the coroner's investigation there was a single witness, the ferryman near by, who testified that a few nights before the body was discovered three men, one of them with his hands tied behind him and his legs bound to the horse, came to the ferry, and he crossed them over the Missouri River from Clay County to Jackson. Not a word was spoken by the prisoner, and very few by the others. It was a cold night. and the prisoner stamped his feet briskly, as if to make them warm. The dead man had a strong, bold face, which even in death showed a courage that would falter at no danger. Wood Hite, who was from Tennessee, and with his brother, Clarence Hite, had joined the gang, was killed by Dick Little in a fight about the division of the booty secured at the Blue Cut robbery. Their combat took place in the house of a mutual friend, three miles from Richmond, in. Ray County, Missouri. The Jameses, Frank and Jesse W., were born in Clay County, Missouri, Frank in 1843, and Jesse in 1845. Their father was Rev. Robert James, a Baptist preacher of good character. who, with his wife, Zerelda Cole James, came from Kentucky and settled near Kearney, in Clay County. In 1849 the father removed to California, and died there the following year. In 1857 the mother married Dr. Samuel, ? respectable citizen of Clay County, to whom the boys became warmly attached. The fam- ily were Southern sympathizers in the Civil War, and Frank, though but eighteen years of age, joined the Missouri State Guard, and served in Colonel John T. Hughes' regiment. Steen's division. A party of Union Home Guards made a visit to the Samuel home the first year of the war. and by violent treatment tried to force Dr. Samuel and his stepson,

Jesse, to tell where Frank was; and, accord- ing to their statement, it was this that drove the brothers into the wild and lawless career which they took to, as a means of vengeance against the Union cause and the established order in Missouri. They both became guer- rillas, Frank joining Bill Anderson's band. and Jesse. Quantrell's, and became distin- guished for daring, skill and address. even . among these desperate fighters and riders. After the war they did not return to their home in Missouri, but sought a safer shelter in Nelson County, Kentucky, where they had relatives and friends ; but they soon grew weary of quiet life, and took to the saddle. and then began the daring daylight bank rob- beries and hold-ups of railroad trains and ex- press cars, which imparted to crime in the West and Southwest a picturesque and thrill- ing feature it had never possessed before. According to his own statement, Frank James lived with his wife near Nashville, Ten- nessee, from August, 1877, to April, 1881. engaged in farm work as a hired man, driv- ing a team, and cultivating on his own ac- count a rented farm, passing under the name of B. J. Woodson. On one occasion he took the first prize for Poland China hogs at Nash- ville. His boy was born on the Walton place, in that neighborhood. While he was living there his brother, Jesse, was living, unknown to him, at Box Station, in Humphrey County, Tennessee. Their first meeting was on the occasion of a visit made by Jesse, in company with Jim Cummings, to Nashville, where they encountered one another in a store. After that, in 1880, Jesse. with Cummings and Dick Liddell, came to Nashville, and were fol- lowed shortly afterward by Jack Ryan, Jesse training horses and following the race course. The four managed to live quietly and unsus- pected at Nashville. and in the vicinity, for a year longer, Frank so completely concealing his identity that he was taken for a "Yankee," and on one occasion it was with no little diffi- culty and self-control he managed to avoid a fight with a drunken man who attempted to excite him by repeated provocations. After a time Cummings suddenly disappeared with- out a word of explanation, and shortly after- ward Ryan, while intoxicated and making a disturbance, was arrested and found to be heavily armed, not with a single revolver, held to be proper enough in the apparel of a Southern gentleman, but with two revolvers

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and a cartridge belt, which showed an equip- ment for desperate business. The disappear- ance of Cummings and arrest of Ryan warned their companions that there might be danger ahead, and, with the promptness of decision and action which marked their whole career, they mounted their horses one night and rode off. Jesse and Diek Liddell going one way and Frank another. Citizens of Davidson County, Tennessee, living in the same neigh- borhoods where the Jameses made their so- journ, remembered them well. Jesse was always heavily armed, and this, in connection with a constant look of determination and readiness for anything that might come, marked him as a desperate man, whom it was wise to let alone ; and this dread was increased by a mystery which no one could penetrate. He was frequently absent for several days at a time, usually returning with an abundance of money, which he spent with profuse liber- ality, and it was remembered afterward that one occasion, when he returned thus abun- dantly supplied, was just after the bank rob- bery at Russellville, Kentucky. There were other times when his means were not so abundant, when he was forced to borrow to relieve his necessities, and he was not careful to maintain a good credit by paying back. An old farmer, who had a claim against him, was compelled to sue him, and the suit, ending adversely to Jesse, and appealed by him to the Supreme Court of the State, was still pend- ing at the time of his death. After Jesse left Box Station and joined his brother near Nashville, the two continued their habits of occasional absences, which their neighbors could not account for, and no one thought it prudent to attempt to account for. During the four years that Frank lived near Nash- ville, with the exception of his unexplained disappearances and returns, his conduct was declared by his neighbors to have been ex- emplary, and toward the close of the period he joined the Methodist Church. Jesse was addicted to gambling, and spent much of his time in Nashville, at the faro banks. After his acquittal, Frank lived in Kansas City, in Nevada, Missouri, in Texas, and in St. Louis, being well known at the last named place as the doorkeeper of a local theater. How many and desperate were the dangers encountered in these years of lawless conduct, may be imagined when it is stated that he bore seven- teen scars of fight on his body, four of them

made by minie bullets that passed through him. His manners were easy, his demeanor cheerful and affable, and his conversation conducted in language that showed a fair ed- ucation and an acquaintance with good au-

thors. He was accustomed to say that the books he read mostly were the Bible, Shake- speare and Plutarch's Lives. The indiffer- ence of the Missouri brigands to local advantages and disadvantages distinguished them from all brigands before them. They operated over a wide area, seven States, and were as much at home in one as in another, in Mississippi or Minnesota, as in Arkansas or Kentucky; and the records of human achievement furnish few more wonderful ex- hibitions of courage, endurance and mastery of conditions than the successful flight of the wounded James brothers after the attack on the Northfield bank, through Minnesota, Da- kota, Iowa and Missouri, six hundred miles, to their unknown place of safety. Detectives and officials were constantly on the watch for them, but they were so skillful in deceiving them that detectives were sometimes watch- ing a house in which they were supposed to be hiding, when they were, in fact, three hun- dred miles away. They traveled openly on railroad trains, without attracting attention, and were accustomed to write letters to the newspapers denying participation in a recent robbery, and offering to prove an alibi if their statement was questioned. The Youngers were of a respectable and influential St. Clair County family, one of the elder members of which had been presiding judge of the county court. They possessed a fine manly appear- ance, and were noted for courage and fidelity to their friends. The full outfit of the Jameses and their confederates, when mounted for work, was a belt, with two revolvers-large Remingtons-and a Winchester rifle, all of the same calibre, so that the same cartridges would serve for both revolvers and rifle. When not mounted, the Winchester was laid aside, but the revolvers never; they were their inseparable companions, and could be worn unseen, by the simple device of button- ing the coat at the waist so as to hide the belt. The revolvers were carried one on each side, and it made no difference which side had to be drawn from, as the outlaws were equally expert with the left hand and the right. Their wild guerrilla experience, to- gether with constant daily practice, had

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taught them to shoot from the saddle as well as on foot, in a gallop, or at a rest, and whether pursued or pursuers. The belt which Frank wore through the eighteen years of his outlaw life was taken from one of the dead Union soldiers of Major Johnson's battalion in the battle of Centralia, in September, 1864. D. M. GRISSOM.

Briggs, Corona Hibbard, a promi- nent clergyman of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and a conspicuous member of the Masonic fraternity, was born July 27, 1849, at Elkader. Clayton County, Iowa. His parents were Amasa AAlton and Luvan Ma- tilda (Childs) Briggs, the former a native of Ohio, and the latter of New York. They were married in Wisconsin, and lived succes- sively in that State, in lowa and in Illinois, until 1868, when they removed to Barton County, Missouri, and there died. the father in 1878, and his wife in 1881. Their son. Corona Hibbard Briggs, was educated in the graded schools in Centralia, Illinois. At va- rious times he assisted his father in farming. fruit-raising and growing nursery stock, and for a time in house-building. For two years he clerked in a store in Centralia, Illinois. When twenty years of age he taught school in Harrison Township. Vernon County, Mis- souri, for four months. When ten years of age he became a Methodist, and in Septem- ber, 1870, he was admitted to the St. Louis Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. The same year the Confer- ence was divided, and he has since been con- nected with the Southwest Missouri Confer- ence. In the first year of his ministry he traveled the Ozark and Osceola Missions. In 1871 he was appointed to Sedalia Station. His successive appointments were, Harrison- ville, 1872; Independence, 1874: Boonville, 1876; and Springfield, 1880. He was ap- pointed presiding elder of the Neosho Dis- trict in 1883, and presiding elder of the Kan- sas City District in 1886. Ile received the honorary degree of doctor of divinity, in 1894, from Central College, of Fayette, Mis- souri. In 1890 he was assigned to Nevada Station. From 1891 to 1894 he gave valuable aid to Central College in the capacity of financial agent. He was appointed presiding elder of the Boonville District in 1894, and of the Kansas City District in 1808. His minis- terial life has been eminently active and use-

ful, particularly in the higher places to which he has been repeatedly called. Possessed of those personal qualities which command con- fidence, he has been enabled to conduct the affairs of church and district with rare discre- tion, while his ability as a pulpiteer has af- forded him an unusual scope of influence. He has a comprehensive knowledge of the church history of western Missouri. covering nearly a third of a century past, and his arti- cle giving a history of the Methodist Church, South, in Kansas City, in the Encyclopedia of the History of Missouri, is of much value as an authoritative record. Dr. Briggs is known throughout the State for his zealous and intelligent interest in Masonry, and few members of the fraternity have served so long in such honorable stations in that ancient order. He became a member at Boonville in 1879. For some years previous to 1895 he served as grand chaplain of the Grand Lodge of Missouri. In that year he was appointed grand senior deacon, and by successive elec- tions he became grand junior warden in 1896, grand senior warden in 1897, deputy grand master in 1898, and grand master in 1899. In the latter capacity he has laid the corner stones of various notable public edifices, and he has delivered many addresses upon occa- sions of Masonic ceremony. He became a Royal .Arch Mason at Springfield in 1883, and he was elected high priest of Independence Chapter in 1891. From 1884 to 1891 he served as grand chaplain of the Grand Chap- ter ; and he was elected grand scribe in 1891, grand king in 1892, deputy grand high priest in 1893, and grand high priest in 1894. He was knighted in St. John's Commandery, Springfield, in 1883, was prelate of Palestine Commandery at Independence from 1887 to 1890, and eminent commander of Temple Commandery, Fayette, from 1896 to the pres- ent time. In 1888 he was made a member of the Council of Royal and Select Masters at Harrisonville, and in 1889 a Noble of Ararat Temple of the Mystic Shrine, at Kansas City. He was married, September 25. 1873, to Miss Cornelia F. Nicolds, of Howard County, Mis- souri, who died August 14, 1874, leaving an infant daughter, who survived her less than a month. September 14, 1876, Dr. Briggs married Miss Mattie A. Wyatt, of Independ- ence, Missouri, a daughter of Henry S. and Sarah A. Wyatt. She was educated at Wood- land College and Independence Female Col-

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lege, at Independence, Missouri. Three chil- dren have been born of this marriage. Frank Ansel, aged twenty-three years, was gradu- ated from Central College, and taught music for three years in Kansas City and Fort Scott. He is now ( 1900) a theological stu- dent in Vanderbilt University. Ada Virginia, aged twenty years, a graduate of Howard- Payne College, and of Central College, is now a student in Vanderbilt University, and is an accomplished musician. Charles Hibbard, aged seventeen years, is a junior student in Central College.

Brinkerhoff, William E., banker, was born August 12, 1832, at Jamaica, Long Is- land, New York. His parents were John L. and Sophia (Platt) Brinkerhoff, both natives of New York. The father was descended from a Holland family, which settled on the site of the present city of New York in 1638, thirteen years after the erection of the first building on that ground. The sympathies of all were with the American Revolutionists, but none were of sufficiently mature years at the time to render military service. William E. Brinkerhoff was educated at a military academy in his native town, and upon leaving school learned the furniture business. At the outbreak of the Civil War he enlisted in Gen- eral Sickles' Excelsior Brigade, and with that command served a three years' term in the Union Army. He was then commissioned quartermaster, with the rank of first lienten- ant, in the Fifty-sixth Regiment of New York Infantry Volunteers. While in the service he participated in nearly all the campaigns of the Army of the Potomac, in its various oper- ations directed against Richmond, the Con- federate capital. In front of that city, in 1862, he suffered from a sunstroke, from the effects of which he was disabled for a short time. He resigned his commission after the surrender of the armies of Generals Lee and Johnston. He then removed to Missouri, lo- cating at Clinton, where he established a real estate and loan business, at the same time engaging in a furniture business in associa- tion with his brother. In 1869 he retired from the latter business. continuing his real estate and loan operations. In 1887 he merged his interests in a corporation called the Brinkerhoff-Faris Trust and Savings Company, of which he was president and manager. This business he disposed of Oc-

tober 1, 1890. In 1882 he bought the Trad- ers' Bank of Carthage, which had succeeded to the liquidated First National Bank of the same city, and the same year he removed to Carthage. In August, 1883. he reorganized the Traders' Bank as the First National Bank of Carthage, increasing the capital to $100,- 000. He was made president of this bank, and has since filled that position, being now (1900) the oldest bank president, in point of service, in Jasper County. This was the first financial institution in that place to operate with adequate capital. Under his manage- ment it has taken rank with the most pros- perous and substantial banking houses in southwest Missouri. September 7, 1899. its official statement showed a surplus of $16 .- 447.19; circulation, $31,500 ; deposits. $303 .- 408.84, and loans, $198,184.00. Mr. Brinker- hoff has occupied various positions of honor and trust, discharging with scrupulons fidel- ity and signal ability every duty imposed upon him. From 1865 to 1867 he was deputy circuit clerk and recorder of Henry County, and from 1868 to 1872 he was county sur- veyor. In 1872 and 1873 he was United States commissioner, having been appointed under President Grant's administration. Ile has always been deeply interested in educa- tional concerns, and for ten years, beginning in 1872, he was a public school director in Clinton, during his official term instituting and carrying to success various measures of material advantage to the interests which he held to be of paramount importance. He was formerly a Democrat, and an adherent of the Tammany organization in New York. In 1864, convinced that the preservation of the Union depended upon the re-election of Lin- coln, he connected himself with the Repub- lican party, and from that day has been one of its most sincere and zealous members. In September. 1866, he was married to Miss Eliza Wicks, a daughter of Captain Hiram Wicks, of Bayport. Long Island, New York. Of this union were born ten children, of whom two are deceased. Beatrice is the wife of Samuel P. Jones, member of a wholesale vinegar firm in Louisville, Kentucky. Mary B. is the wife of Alvah M. Tebbetts, of the Mansur & Tebbetts Implement Company of St. Louis, Missouri. Cora is the wife of F. V. Norton, formerly of Champaign, Illinois, and now residing in Louisville, Kentucky. Anna W., Ida C .. Grace D. and Edith S. were edu-

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cated in the Carthage schools. Elwyn is a student in a military academy at Bunker Hill, Illinois. Mr. Brinkerhoff gives his personal attention to the management of the banking house which he practically established. He is of robust frame and commanding appear- ance, and his personal qualities are such as to win the respect and confidence of all who come in contact with him.

Britton, James H., at one time mayor of St. Louis, was born July 11, 1817, in Shenandoah County, Virginia, and died at Ardsley, New York, January 28, 1900. He received a plain practical education, and be- gan his business career as clerk in a store at Sperryville, Virginia. In 1840 he came west and established his home at Troy, Missouri, where he engaged in general merchandising. From there he came, in 1857, to St. Louis, and became cashier of the Southern Bank of that city. He retained that position until 1864, when he was made president of the bank. He had marked ability as a financier, and later was made president of the National Bank of the State of Missouri. The first pub- lic office which he held was that of secretary of the Missouri State Senate, in 1848. In 1852, and again in 1854, he represented Lin- coln County in the Legislature, and during the session of 1856-7 he was chief clerk of the House of Representatives. For several years he was treasurer of Lincoln County, and also served as postmaster of Troy, the county seat of that county. In 1875 he was elected mayor of St. Louis on the Democratic ticket, and held that office until February of 1876, when he was unseated as the result of a contest, which had been instituted by Henry Overstolz, who had been a candidate against him for the mayoralty at the preced- ing election.

Britts, John Henry, physician, was born November 1, 1836, in Montgomery County, Indiana, son of Dr. George Mathias and Mary Jane (Rogers) Britts. His par- ents were married December 10, 1835, and of six children born to them afterward, Dr. John H. Britts was the only son. His great- grandfather, Adam Britts (or Britz) emi- grated to this country from Germany about 1750 and settled in Franklin County, Penn- sylvania, where, in 1768, he married Mar- garet Stover, a sister of Dr. Stover, whose

parents had also come from Germany. Adam Britts was the founder of this branch of the family in the United States and if he ever had either brothers or sisters in this country it is not known to his descendants. His children were John Britts, grandfather of the subject of this sketch, who was born in Franklin County, Pennsylvania, in 1773, and died in Montgomery County, Indiana, i11 1850: Henry Britts, whose descendants still reside in Virginia ; Barbara Britts, who married Thomas James; Susan Britts, who married Henry Snyder ; Margaret Britts, who first married Jacob Wagner and afterward Chris Vineyard: Elizabeth Britts, who mar- lied Nicholas Vineyard; Mary Britts, who first married John Gist and afterward John Crumbaker, and Christina Britts, who mar- ried Joseph Anderson.

Either while the Revolutionary War was in progress or shortly afterward. Adam Britts removed from Pennsylvania and settled on a farm on Craig's Creek in the Valley of Virginia, where he lived to the good old age of ninety-nine years. After the family removed to Virginia, John Britts, the son of Adam Britts, lived at Fincastle, in Botetourt County, and married Susan Eck- els, who was born in 1778 and died in Indi- ana in October, 1835. Their children were Elizabeth, Samuel, Catherine, Margaret, Joel, John, David, George Mathias, the father of Dr. John H. Britts ; Mary and Sarah Britts, ten in all. John Britts, the head of this family, was of an inventive turn of mind and without serving a regular apprenticeship be- came a skillful and ingenious blacksmith, making his own tools to work with and also many useful articles that were hard to ob- tain at that early day. Some of these are still treasured as heirlooms in his family. He was the inventor of the wooden mold- board plow, which he afterward changed to iron, and which did such excellent work that it was known far and wide as the "Britts plow." He was urged to patent this inven- tion, but neglected to do so and the idea was patented by some one else who reaped the benefit therefrom. About 1832 or 1833, the entire family of John Britts, all his chil- dren being grown, with some of their kins- men and neighbors, most of whom belonged to the Dunkard Church, determined to emi- grate to the then new State of Indiana. Their caravan, for such it was, moved out of

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Virginia in wagons which had great curved beds and were known as "mountain schoon- ers." They were drawn by four to six horses and carried the household goods of the im- migrants and the women and children. Passing out of the valley, through the Alle- ghanies and down the Great Kanawha River they crossed the Ohio River at Gallipolis and traveled through Ohio by way of Dayton to their destination at Ladoga, Indiana. There they bought and entered land and estab- lished what is to-day one of the most pros- perous communities in that State. Many of the adherents of the Dunkard faith after- ward settled in Indiana, and their principal church is located at Cornstalk, in that State. December 10, 1835, George M. Britts mar- ried Mary Jane Rogers, daughter of Dr. Henry Rogers, who had shortly before that immigrated to Indiana from Winchester, Kentucky. The children born of this mar- riage were Dr. John H. Britts, Susan Eliz- abeth Britts, Sarah Jane Britts, Sophia Alice Britts. Mary Isabel Britts and Georgiana Britts. George M. Britts studied medicine after his marriage, under the preceptorship of his father-in-law, and practiced his profes- sion in Park and Montgomery Counties in Indiana until 1842. In that year he and Dr. Rogers, accompanied by their families, moved overland to Henry County, Missouri. At that early day this county did not meet their expectations, and in 1844. "the year of the great flood," they all returned to Indi- ana, except Dr. John A. Rogers, who re- mained at Clinton, Missouri, where he prac- tieed medicine until his death in 1867. After the return of the family to Indiana, the elder Dr. Britts established himself in practice first at Parkersburg, later at Bainbridge. and finally settled on a farm near Cornstalk. He lived on this farm until the spring of 1857. when he again came to Missouri and bought what became the family homestead, four miles northwest of Clinton. There he prac- ticed medicine and engaged in fruit-grow- ing until his death, which occurred June 3. 1883. He lived somewhat beyond the al- lotted three score years and ten, and his life was a useful one and one which commanded for him the honor and respect of all who knew him. He never aspired to political honors. but held decided views on all public questions. In early life, contrary to his teachings and the example of his kindred, he

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Encyclopedia of the history of Missouri, a compendium of history and biography for ready reference, Vol. I, Part 68

Author: Conard, Howard Louis, ed. 1n Publication date: 1901 Publisher: New York, Louisville [etc.] The Southern history company, Haldeman, Conard & co., proprietors Number of Pages: 856

Author: Conard, Howard Louis, ed. 1n
Publication date: 1901
Publisher: New York, Louisville [etc.] The Southern history company, Haldeman, Conard & co., proprietors
Number of Pages: 856