History of Boone County, Missouri., Part 35

Author:
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: St. Louis, Western Historical Company
Number of Pages: 1220

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The store-room was a very long and large one, two stories high. Two-thirds of the building ( the front part of it) was instantly liter- ally torn to fragments !

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HISTORY OF BOONE COUNTY.

Josiah M. Short, a young man 25 years of age and residing in the northern part of the county, was instantly killed, and is the only per- son who was killed outright. His clothes were literally burnt from his body - not an article remaining upon him except one shoe and sock and a part of his cravat. Even one of the soles of the shoe on his foot was blown off. It was with difficulty he was identified, so awfully was his body disfigured.

Ben. T. White and wife were injured, seriously - the former, dan- gerously, and died the same evening. He was completely covered with the rubbish, his head resting on the sill of the front door. Mrs. Susan Duncan, wife of Dr. W. H. Duncan, was also badly burnt, and struck in the head by some missile. James Crews, a young man from the country, was considerably burnt. He happened to be passing the door of the store at the time of the accident. Mrs. Short, mother, of the young man killed, was also hurt -not badly. Miss Ada Mc- Bride, daughter of Judge P. H. McBride ; Miss Catharine Lynch (now Mrs. Catharine Clapp), daughter of John H. Lynch, of Colum- bia ; Wm. Mosely ; J. L. Stephens, owner of the store, and his two clerks, Thos. Stephens and Geo. Morris ; James Howard ; St. Clair and Perry West, sons of Bransford West, and a little son of John C. Davenport, were likewise injured, most of them slightly. The escape of Mr. Stephens was miraculous. He was standing behind the coun ter, near which the kegs exploded, and about ten feet from them. At the point where he stood the ceiling and floor above, with the broken roof of the building, fell with a tremendous crash and rested upon the counter, but for the strong framework of which he would have been instantly crushed. Yet he escaped with no material per- sonal injury.

Eliza, a negro woman of Mr. J. L. Matthews, was very badly burnt and died a few days afterwards.

The upper back room of the store was occupied by the Masons and Sons of Temperance. Most of their furniture was taken out without serious damage. The two other rooms above stairs were occupied by Mr. George Smith as a daguerrean gallery. All his apparatus and furniture were a total loss. Fortunately no person was in either of the upper rooms at the time of the explosion.

The building was on the same lot now (1882) occupied as a dry goods store, on the corner of Broadway and University Streets.

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HISTORY OF BOONE COUNTY.

PLANK ROADS.

During 1851 and several succeeding years the plank road mania prevailed in Missouri, and also in Boone County. Remarkable as it may appear at this day the proposition was seriously entertained of building a plank road from Glasgow via Columbia to St. Louis, and on April 21st, a convention was held in Danville, Montgomery County, composed of delegates from St. Charles, Warren, Montgom- ery, Callaway and Boone - Howard not represented -to promote this object, A. O. Forshey, R. S. Barr and Warren Woodson repre- senting Boone County. The proceedings of this convention, which provided among other things for the opening of books at various . points for the subscription of stock, filled nearly two columns of the Statesman. Fortunately for the people, as we can now see, but did not then, the project was a failure, but the people of Boone County, failing to secure a plank road to St. Louis, determined to build one of their own from Columbia to Providence, on the Missouri River ; and for this purpose, June 6, 1853, organized a plank road company with John Parker as president ; J. B. Douglass, secretary, and D. B. Cunningham, J. S. Rollins, Moss Prewitt, R. C. Branham, R. L. McAfee, N. W. Wilson and James McConathy, directors. Commit- tees were also appointed to solicit subscriptions for the work, and on Saturday, May 13, 1854, at a meeting of the directors held in Columbia, the road was definitely located and the president authorized to receive bids for its construction.

On June 6, 1854, John Parker was re-elected president, James Mc- Conathy vice-president, and R. L. Todd secretary, with the following directors : John Harker, D. B. Cunningham, James McConathy, J. T. M. Johnston, John F. Burnam, J. S. Rollins, Moss Prewitt, R. C. Branham and J. B. Douglass.

On Saturday, July 15, 1854, the contract for building the road was- let to Jacob Barcus and Samuel Leonard, of Louisiana, Mo., they taking $2,000 stock and giving bond to complete the work in twelve months for $30,000; and they completed it accordingly. In a few years the road was a ruin, and now not a plank of it remains.

In August, 1853, Prof. G. C. Pratt completed a survey of several routes proposed.

EXPORTS OF ROCHEPORT IN 1851.

Before the completion of the railroad to Columbia in 1867, and during the hey-day of freight and passenger transportation by the

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HISTORY OF BOONE COUNTY.

Missouri River, Rocheport was a very important business place, and was the shipping point for a large district of country. This is shown by its exports in 1851, as follows : 670 hogsheads of tobacco ; 8 boxes of manufactured tobacco ; 189 bales of hemp ; 39 coils of rope; 21,- 423 bushels of wheat; 377 bushels of oats; 1,465 bushels of corn; 408 bushels of rye; 192 casks of bacon ; 127 kegs of lard; 42 bar- rels of lard ; 77 tierces of lard ; 1,125 pounds of feathers ; 176 bush- els of flax seed ; 71 hides ; 17 barrels of butter; 19 kegs of butter ; 1,145 bushels of dried apples ; 457 barrels of green apples .; 117 bush- els of dried peaches.

FAT BULLOCKS - MONROE AND BOONE COUNTIES CONTESTING.

During the summer of 1853, great and unusual interest was ex- cited among the cattle-breeders of Central Missouri by a contest for two silver pitchers, worth $50 each, at the Boone County Fair in September, between Major Thomas Barker, of Monroe, and Major Theodoric Jenkins, of Boone, the premiums to be awarded to the lot of bullocks, three in number, which would command the largest sum of money in the aggregate, either alive or slaughtered, in the city of St. Louis. No similar contest before or since excited such universal. interest, or was contemplated by the citizens of the two counties named with such solicitude. It required several months of card- writing in newspapers between the contestants to settle the prelimin- aries, but they were finally settled as stated. The exhibition occurred on the Boone County Fair Grounds while the Fair was in progress, September 30, 1853.

Maj. Barker, of Monroe, exhibited on his part his celebrated black steer, a red belonging to Mr. Forman, and a deep red belonging to Mr. McCann. Mr. Jenkins exhibited his unapproached and unap- proachable white steer, a red belonging to A. W. Turner, and another belonging to W. C. Robinett.

Lewis Chandler, of St. Louis, failing to attend, Henry Larrimore, of Callaway, was selected in his place as one of the judges, in con- nection with John Harrison, of Callaway, and David Hutchinson, of Cooper.

All the bullocks exhibited were remarkably fine - large, fat .and beautiful. Six larger, better beef cattle (it was often affirmed by those competent to judge ) could not be found in the State.

After a thorough examination of each bullock in the presence of the assembled concourse of spectators, the judges awarded the palm

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HISTORY OF BOONE COUNTY.

of victory to Old Boone, whereupon exultant shouts went up from a thousand throats, and hundreds of hats from hundreds of heads.

The aggregate measurement around the girth of the two lots, ac- cording to the figures of the judges, was remarkably close, the varia- tion being only half an inch, as follows : Jenkins' three, twenty-five feet four inches ; Barker's three, twenty-five feet three and a half inches.

After the award was pronounced, it was proposed that the cattle be driven to town and weighed, which was done, the weights being as follows : -

Barker's -The Forman steer, deep red, 2,540 pounds ; the Mc- Cann steer, red, 2,500 pounds ; the Barker steer, black, 2,480 pounds. Aggregate, 7,520 pounds.

Jenkins' - The Jenkins steer, white, 2,800 pounds ; the Turner steer, red, 2,420 pounds ; the Robinett steer, red, 2,400. Aggre- gate, 7,620 pounds - being one hundred pounds in favor of Boone.

NORTH MISSOURI RAILROAD.

The projection in 1853, of the North Missouri Railroad, from St. Louis to Macon City (then called Hudson City), in Macon County, was a notable event in the history of the State. The question of its location through the intermediate country was one of great interest to the people along the several proposed routes, for it was a question whether they would, or would not, obtain a railroad, and thus enjoy long-needed communication by rail with St. Louis and other impor- tant markets North and South. It was, of course, a question in which the people of Boone County had and felt the liveliest concern, as was evidenced by the proceedings of numerous public meetings and by newspaper articles.

It finally became evident, that in order to divert the line of the road from both the middle and eastern routes to one which would pass through Boone County, a subscription by the county of at least $100,- 000 stock was a condition precedent. Therefore, at the May term of the County Court of that year, an order was made for an election at the various precincts in the county on Monday, June 13, 1853, to test the sense of the tax-payers of the county, as to the proposed sub- scription of $100,000 to the capital stock of said road, provided it passed through the county, said tax-payers also to express themselves by their ballots, whether such subscription should be paid by the issue of county bonds or by taxation. The canvass pro and con was very

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HISTORY OF BOONE COUNTY.

spirited, and brought our speakers to the rostrum and our writers to the newspapers. The people were addressed at various places in favor of the subscription, and of bonds, by J. S. Rollins, Odon Guitar and W. F. Switzler - one speech being made in Columbia on the same side by President Shannon. Speeches were also made in Cedar township against the subscription by Austin Bradford, James Cun- ningham and James M. Wright. Mr. Bradford also opposed it in numerous articles over his own name in the Statesman. The election resulted as follows : -

PRECINCTS.

For Subs'n.

Against Sub.

For Bonds.

For Tax.

Columbia .

335

291

330

Rockyfork ..

484

475

Rocheport .

106

105

109

Strawns

Camp Ground

175

121

Claysville

155

Perche

Totals

1,056

816

1,057

251

Whole number of votes cast, 1,872 ; majority for the subscription, 240 ; majority for bonds, 806.

This vote secured Boone County the railroad.

Three routes were surveyed : The route on which the road is located, the middle route which passed about six miles southwest of Paris, and the eastern route, which crossed Salt River east of Florida and below the Three Forks. .

For a fuller understanding of the subject it should be mentioned, that previous to the order of the Boone County Court for an election, the board of directors had located the road on the Paris route, which diverged from the present line at Benton City northwestwardly, and to the north of Mexico and south of Paris, to Goose Pond, near Clar- ence, on the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad. Major Rollins was at the time a director of the road, and protested against this location, and afterward, by the most persistent efforts, secured a reconsidera- tion. It was then ordered by the board that if the counties, towns and citizens of Callaway, Boone, Howard, Randolph, Macon, Adair and Schuyler, by corporate and individual subscriptions, would raise $500,000 to the capital stock, the road would be located through those counties to Hudson or Macon City, and thence north to the Iowa line. It was proposed that each of the three counties first

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HISTORY OF BOONE COUNTY.

named, subscribe $100,000, and an effort was made to induce them to do so. Boone was the only one of the three which responded favorably.

Major Rollins having secured a reconsideration of the vote locating the road on the Paris route, and a conditional location of it through the seven counties mentioned, his own (Boone) being one of them, took a very active interest in securing the $500,000 subscription asked for by the directors. In addition to an active agency in securing $100,000 from Boone county, and about $20,000 from private citi- zens, he visited Randolph, Adair, Schuyler, Callaway and Howard, and by public speeches, to very small audiences in the two last, sought favorably to impress the officials and people of those counties with the proposition. In the three first named, success was achieved, and by the time of the meeting of the board, he and others who had been engaged in raising the amount required, reported an aggregate sub- scription of about $485,000, and the road was thereupon located on the present route. There was almost universal apathy, if not direct. opposition on the subject, in Callaway and Howard Counties, many of the leading influential citizens of both, strange to say, positively antagonizing it.

The County Court of Callaway did order an election, and the sub- scription was voted down by almost five hundred majority.

There was such indifference and opposition in Howard County, that an election even was not ordered, and of course no subscription was made.

Nevertheless, by an increased subscription in Montgomery, the $120,- 000 in Boone, and the corporate and private subscriptions in Randolph, Macon, Adair and Schuyler, the directors were induced to divert the- road from the Paris route, and locate it through Boone County, on the present line. Parties in Boone, however, resisted the payment of the sum voted, on the ground that the location just inside of the north- ern limits of the county, and not through its center, by or near Columbia, was not in compliance with the conditions on which the subscription was made.

These parties sought in the Circuit Court, Hon. Wm. A. Hall, Judge, to enjoin the County Court from issuing the bonds ; but Judge Hall decided that the location was a substantial compliance with the law, and the bonds were issued.

But for the refusal of the Counties of Callaway and Howard to. make the subscriptions asked of them, the North Missouri Railroad

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HISTORY OF BOONE COUNTY.

would have diverged from the present route, west, at New Florence, across the Loutre, and through the center of Callaway, Boone and Howard. But the people of Callaway and Howard refused to aid in building a railroad through their counties, and thus not only lost the road themselves, but prevented the people of Boone from getting it on the route they desired.

Years ago, but too late to recover the advantages which they failed to appreciate and refused to embrace, Callaway and Howard plainly saw the great mistake they had made -a mistake which cost each of them, by subscriptions to railroad's running from north to south instead of from east to west, not one hundred thousand dollars, but nearly three-quarters of a million.

Although Boone County obtained the railroad, which was worth to her all she paid for it, and was the owner of $100,000 of its capital stock, the stock never paid any dividends ; and in the mutations incident to Western railroad property, resulting in changes of owner- ship, the stock finally depreciated in value to a nominal sum, and the Boone County Court, July 5, 1869, sold her interest in the road to Wm. M. McPherson, of St. Louis, for $8,000.

DARING ATTEMPT AT RAPE - NEGRO HUNG BY A MOB.

Near dark on Friday, August 12, 1853, a daring attempt was made by Hiram, a young negro man belonging to the late Major Edward Young, who then resided about ten miles south of Columbia, on the Jefferson City road, to violate the person of Miss Nancy Hubbard, aged fifteen years, a daughter of Mr. Eusebius Hubbard, of Cedar Township. The young lady, in company with a married sister, Mrs. Mary Jacobs, and her little daughter Amanda, were returning from the burial of Mr. Harrison Jacobs. The path they travelled led by a heavy thicket and through a pair of bars, the latter being some three hundred yards from the residence of Joseph Armstrong. Reaching the bars, the young lady dismounted and let them down. Her companions passing through, she proceeded to put them up. At this moment a negro man, entirely- naked, sud- dently emerged from the thicket, and seizing her, made a desperate attempt to violate her person. A most determined struggle ensued for some ten minutes, during which the young lady, notwithstanding she was severely bruised and frightened, made successful resistance to the hellish designs of the naked monster. The cries of murder and the desperation of the struggle so frightened the horse rode by the

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HISTORY OF BOONE COUNTY.

married sister and her little girl that they were thrown - the married sister being disabled by the fall. The little girl ran to the house of Mr. Armstrong, and he came with all speed to the scene of danger. The negro, hearing his approach, fled to the thicket. A number of negroes were arrested on suspicion and discharged, and finally cir- cumstances pointing to Hiram, he was informally brought before Justices John Ellis and Walter C. Maupin, tried and discharged. Strong convictions of his guilt being still entertained by the people, on Tuesday night following a warrant was issued for his arrest by Justice Thomas Porter, of Columbia, and he was arrested and lodged in jail.

On Saturday, August 20, he was brought to trial in the upper room of the court house before David Gordon, a Justice of the Peace, and F. T. Russell, Recorder of Columbia.

Maj. J. S. Rollins and Col. S. A. Young appeared as counsel at the instance of the negro's owner to see that a fair and full trial was given, and Odon Guitar, Esq., appeared for the prosecution. A very large concourse of citizens were in attendance, a portion of whom were much excited by the daring atrocity of the crime, and a firm conviction of the negro's guilt. This portion of the people were for summary vengeance, without waiting for the issue of the trial: Nevertheless, the trial progressed without interruption until about three o'clock, when, seemingly no longer able to resist their feelings, a portion of the crowd outside rushed into the court house, and, over- coming the importunities and efforts of the court, sheriff, counsel, etc., put a rope around the prisoner's neck, and forced him into the street. The rope was once cut, however, by Maj. Rollins, but it was again placed around the negro's neck. With an excited populace at his heels, he was hurried down Court-house Street to Broadway, and down Broadway to the bridge over Flat Branch, at the western ex- tremity of town, and thence to a wood northwest of the court house. Here an attempt was made to hang him ; some desiring to burn him, . an attempt which in all probability would have proved successful, but for the protestations of many citizens and the accidental breaking of the rope. Major Rollins and Col. Switzler protested against the pro- ceeding, and by addresses to those concerned, backed by the peacea- ble importunities and co-operation of Mr. E. C. Davis, of the Sentinel, and many other citizens, assuaged in some measure the excitement prevailing, and induced those having the prisoner in charge to take him back to jail and allow him the privilege of a legal trial. With

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HISTORY OF BOONE COUNTY.

no little difficulty and delay he was finally returned to jail - and, what is remarkable, notwithstanding the intense excitement of the occasion, no one was hurt.

On Sabbath the prisoner made a full confession of his guilt, thus removing all doubts on that subject; at the same time bringing to light the names of two other negro men of his neighborhood who had made threats, that, some time in the future and upon some white female or other, they would commit a similar outrage. In every point of view, then, as all now concede, even those must importunate for summary punishment, the counsels which remanded the prisoner to jail and prevented the hanging on Saturday, were most wise and salutary, and all appeared gratified at the result.

Monday was another day of excitement, and the people were out in large numbers. There being no longer a reasonable doubt of the prisoner's guilt, a portion of those present were unwilling to await legal conviction and punishment by the Circuit Court - contending that the punishment of the law was not adequate to the crime, and therefore they were for immediately forcing the locks of the prison and taking the negro and burning or hanging him. At the instance of the father of the young lady upon whose person the outrage had been attempted, Col. S. A. Young and Odon Guitar, Esq., stated to those determined upon summary punishment, that it was not his desire the negro should be burned, but hanged .. Mr. Guitar earnestly exhorted them, if it was their determination to hang him, to go about it coolly and do it decently and in' order. That concert of action might characterize the movements of those participating in the affair, a meeting was held in the street, in front of the court house. Eli E. Bass, Esq., one of our most respectable and influential citizens, was chosen chairman of the meeting. He put the question whether the negro should be burned, and not more than half a dozen, if that num- ber, voted in favor of burning. Mr. Bass then put the question, "All who are in favor of hanging him will say aye," and most, if not all, of those participating said aye. A large number of the citizens present did not approve and took no part in the proceedings. Hang- ing being thus decided upon, a committee was appointed to procure a rope, a cart on which to convey the negro to the place of execution, and a coffin in which to bury him. It was also made the duty of this committee to force the prison doors, take the negro out, and hang him " decently and in order." Mr. Geo. N. King was appointed chairman of the committee, with power to appoint nine committee.

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HISTORY OF BOONE COUNTY.

men to co-operate with him. The following are the names of the committee as furnished us by Mr. King, viz. : Geo. N. King, Henry Wilkinson, John Ballinger, Wm. Breakey, Wm. B. Cato, John Robi- nett, John Hume, Wm. Hubbard, A. R. Vest and R. P. Waters.

About 12 o'clock they proceeded to the jail, and under the protest of the sheriff, forced the door, took the negro out, and, followed by a large number of persons, quietly proceeded to a grove northwest of town, and there the negro was hung and buried. This grove is now the pasture of Mrs. Dr. Arnold, and is immediately west of R. H. Clinkscales'. Miss Nancy Hubbard afterwards married James Lane, and they now reside in Bates County, Mo.

ONE STUDENT OF THE UNIVERSITY KILLS ANOTHER.

About 11 o'clock, A. M., on Monday, December 19, 1853, in a per- sonal altercation at the foot of the stairway, in the east wing of the State University, between Benjamin F. Handy, of Harrodsburg, Ky., and W. W. Thornton, of Shelbyville, Ill., students, the former was shot by the latter, with a revolver, and almost instantly killed. The circumstances were these :-

About two months previously, one evening after tea, these young men were engaged in Thornton's room in a game of whist for amuse- ment, during which Mr. Thornton charged Mr. Handy with unfair play. Angry words followed, resulting finally in Mr. Thornton order- ing Mr. Handy from his room, and he went. On Sabbath morning, about two weeks after this (the parties in the meantime having no intercourse with each other), Mr. Thornton deemed himself grossly insulted by Mr. Handy at the breakfast table, for they both boarded at the same house.

Growing out of this supposed insult was a personal rencontre on the next day, Monday. The facts on this point were about these :-

Rev. Mr. Henshall, of Lexington, Ky., had been preaching in the Christian Church in Columbia, and on Saturday evening the young men had attended. Mrs. H-, the lady of the house with whom they boarded, engaging in the conversation at the breakfast table the next morning in regard to the preaching, asked Mr. Thornton how he was pleased with the sermon. He replied substantially that Mr. Henshall was an easy, graceful speaker, but that his discourses lacked point - that he (T. ) could not sometimes tell the point he was aiming to establish. Mr. Handy then remarked substantially, to a student sitting by his side at the table, but in a tone loud enough to be heard

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HISTORY OF BOONE COUNTY.

by all, that Mr. Henshall was a minister of reputation; that he accompanied Alexander Campbell during his tour in Europe, and that any man of common sense could see the points in his preaching. This, Mr. Thornton regarded as a fling at him, and an insult to be avenged.

So, therefore, next morning (Monday) he made an assault upon Mr. Handy, beating him with his fists quite severely, and making him apologize, etc., Handy offering no resistance. The matter coming before the Faculty of the University, Mr. Thornton was suspended for three weeks and had eighty subtracted from his credit marks. Nothing was done with Handy.

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History of Boone County, Missouri., Part 35

Author: Publication date: 1882 Publisher: St. Louis, Western Historical Company Number of Pages: 1220

Author:
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: St. Louis, Western Historical Company
Number of Pages: 1220