USA > Missouri > Boone County > History of Boone County, Missouri. > Part 38
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President, Warren Woodson; Secretary, Robert L. Todd; Treasurer, R. B. Price; Librarian, Thomas Y. Gentry; Executive Committee, Jonathan Kirkbride, Moss Prewitt and W. F. Switzler; Library Committee, J. J. Jacob, X. X. Buckner and Joseph K. Rogers.
The association established a circulating library, purchased a large number of books, and for several years held a prosperous career, but in time its members failed to hold meetings, and the books were finally deposited in the University library, where they now are.
PRICES OF NEGROES HIRED AND SOLD IN 1859.
It will be interesting as a matter of history, especially to the younger readers of this volume, to record the prices at which slaves were publicly hired for one year and sold for life, in Columbia, on January 1, 1859, Wm. Lampton, auctioneer, as follows : -
· BELONGING TO WILLIAM SUTTON.
Ellen, aged about 12 years . . $50 00 | Harrison, aged about 8 years $1 00 BELONGING TO MORGAN BRYANT'S ESTATE.
Harriet, 15 years to April 1st, 1859 $8 00 | Nancy 12 years, to April 1st, 1859 . $2 25 Henry, 14 years, to April 1st, 1859 . 22 00
BELONGING TO J. H. WILKERSON'S ESTATE.
Milly and child $90 00 | Charlotte . $46 00
BELONGING TO JOHN SHOCK'S ESTATE.
James, aged 24 years
$201 00 | Kirk, aged 13 years.
. $56 00
Elijah, aged 16 years
156 00
Nat, aged 11 years
20 00
Green, aged 15 years 151 00
BELONGING TO MARY SHOCK'S ESTATE.
Mary and child . $55 00 | Peter $202 00
J. S. Clarkson's Mary, 23 years, to
NEGROES SOLD. Estate Rev. Dr. Hall, Alex, to J. F. Burnham. $336
H. R. Cowden . $1,110
Willis, to J. H. Waugh . . 310
W. H. IRWIN'S NEGROES, SOLD ON TWELVE MONTHS' CREDIT.
Eliza and child, to T. C. Parker . . $1,140 John, 10 years old, to Robert Lemon . 610 Jack, 9 years old . . 660
Mary, 7 years old, to W. D. True 467 Martha, 7 years, to J. M. Samuel . . 220
J. F. Burnham's Dave, 9 years, to
J. Maddex
$450
A. Sublett's Mary, to H. R. C. Cow-
den
1,000
TOWN CLOCK.
The inauguration of the enterprise which resulted in the purchase of a town clock for Columbia, and which now can be seen in the
394 .
HISTORY OF BOONE COUNTY.
cupola of the Court House, is largely due to James L. Stephens. He made the suggestion and contributed a large amount of the means in July, 1859, and before the end of that year the clock was in posi- tion, paid for and performing its office.
CHAPTER X.
THE CIVIL WAR COMMENCED -HISTORY FROM 1860 TO 1863.
Presidential and Congressional Election of 1860- Contest between Rollins and Henderson for Congress -" Minch or Munch," which ? - A Laughable Anecdote - The election of Mr. Lincoln - Boone County Southern Rights Meeting, in 1861- Union Meeting in Boone, in 1861 - Capture of Camp Jackson - First Federal Troops in Boone - Swee- ney's Raid on Rollins' Farm -Attempt to Assassinate Col. Switzler - Gen. Prentiss Visits Columbia - Cols. Glover and Birge's troops in Columbia - Fight at Mount Zion Church - Federal and Confederate Accounts- "Merrill's Horse" - Arrest of Citizens Oath of Loyalty - Union Military Display - A Federal Soldier Disgraced - Arrival of Col. Odon Guitar in Columbia-Military Suppression of the Columbia Standard Newspaper- Columbia Trustees Ousted- Flag Presented to " Merrill's Horse "-Death of Lieut. Theo. Brooks - Col. Guitar at Jefferson City - Roster of his Staff and Officers - July 4, 1862, in Columbia - Pursuit of Porter -Fight at Moore's Mill - Battle at Kirksville - Fight at Compton's Ferry and Yellow Creek -Rebel Guerrillas visit Columbia and Release the Prisoners from Jail -They go to the Statesman Printing Office to Destroy it, but are Dissuaded from Their Purpose- Col. Switzler Appointed Military Secretary of Arkansas -Burning of Mount Zion Church - Flag Presentations - Gen. Guitar's Head- quarters at Columbia - Sword Presented to Him -61st Regiment Enrolled Missouri Militia - Col. Joseph B. Douglass.
ELECTION RETURNS FROM 1860 TO 1863.
* Those thus marked were elected.
AUGUST 6TH, 1860.
GOVERNOR.
Sample Orr 1,522
Hancock Jackson. 68
*C. F. Jackson
1.066
Total. 2,656
LIEUT .- GOVERNOR.
T. J. C. Fagg 1,501
M. M. Parsons 50
*T. C. Reynolds 1,086
Total 2,637
REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS.
*James S. Rollins.
1,514
J. B. Henderson
1,062
Total.
.2,576
SENATOR.
*C. H. Hardin ..
1,431
J. L. Stephens
1,193
Total
.2,624
395
HISTORY OF BOONE COUNTY.
ELECTION RETURNS - Continued.
REPRESENTATIVES IN LEGISLATURE.
*John W. Harris.
1,438
John P. Horner. 1,232
*J. M. Gordon. 1,287
J. W. Roberts.
1,025
SHERIFF.
*John M. Samuel (no opposition) 2,598
ELECTION FOR PRESIDENT, NOV. 1860.
Stephen A. Douglas (Democrat). 578
John Bell (Union). 1,671
John C. Breckinridge (Democrat) ..
652
Abraham Lincoln (Republican). 12
FEBRUARY 21ST, 1861.
DELEGATES TO STATE CONVENTION.
*Eli E. Bass. 1,865
*Joseph Flood. 1,964
P. H. McBride.
397
*Warren Woodson.
1,764
F. F. C. Triplett.
334
Jefferson F. Jones
348
NOVEMBER 4TH, 1862.
CONGRESS.
*J. S. Rollins.
1,024
Arnold Krekel.
3
Rollins' majority in the District
5,426
STATE SENATOR.
* J. M. Gordon.
975
Thomas Ansel.
11
REPRESENTATIVES - TWO ELECTED.
* Dr. W. B. Todd.
616
* ,Vm. Slade.
603
F. T. Russell.
544
J. G. Shelnutt
64
SHERIFF.
* James H. Waugh
694
James R. Harris
397
COUNTY JUDGE.
* David Gordon (no opposition).
939
COUNTY TREASURER.
* Ioss Prewitt (no opposition).
935
1860. - Population of Boone County
19,486.
Nothing of very startling public interest occurred in Boone County during the year 1860. The most notable event of the year in the county, and in the nation as well, was the Presidential election - in some respects the most remarkable in the history of the Republic, and will long live in our public annals with the freshness of a new event. It was immediately preceded by the most important proceed- ings in Congress and among the people which, up to that period, had occurred since the adoption of the Constitution. " Switzler's His- tory of Missouri" says that " among these may be mentioned, as of the greatest significance, the renewal of unexampled violence of the slavery agitation, the repeal of the Missouri compromise of 1820, the Kansas-Nebraska controversy, the passage of the per- sonal liberty bills by several of the Northwestern States, the John Brown raid at Harper's Ferry, in Virginia, and the belligerent and disunion utterances of various distinguished and trusted leaders of the South.
"While the popular excitement occasioned by these events was at its height, the Presidential canvass of 1860 was opened. In the number of the parties to it, and the character of the gentlemen composing the
1
396
HISTORY OF BOONE COUNTY.
tickets presented for the support of the American people, the canvass was a faithful reflex of popular sentiment, for while it is true the slavery question was the chief issue in the struggle, it assumed a mul- tiplicity of forms, and separated the people of the United States into four grand divisions, each represented by its national convention and nominees for President and Vice President. It was, therefore, a quadrangular contest ; and could not fail, on account of the inflam- mable nature of the questions discussed and the highly respectable character of the tickets presented, to excite the profoundest interest in every State in the Union."
In Missouri, so far as the State ticket was concerned, the contest was quadrangular, for the Republican, or Lincoln party, presented J. B. Gardenhire as a candidate for Governor, -the vote for pres- ident in the State being: Douglas, 58,801; Bell, 58,372; Breck- enridge, 31,317; Lincoln, 17,027. Whole number of votes cast, 158,579 ; the Douglas electors carrying the State over the Bell by only 429 votes. More than half the votes given to Mr. Lincoln (9,945) were cast for him in St. Louis. He received only twelve votes in Boone County, one in Columbia, three in Ashland and eight in Claysville.
For Governor, each of the parties ( Lincoln excepted) had candi- dates : Sample Orr, Bell-Everett or Union ; C. F. Jackson, Douglas Democrat, and Hancock Jackson, Breckenridge Democrat, who, it was understood, represented the more ultra pro-slavery wing of the Democratic party. Orr's majority over C. F. Jackson, 456.
Boone County felt an unusual interest in the State and Congres- sional canvasses, because two of her distinguished citizens were candi- dates - Odon Guitar for attorney-general, against J. Proctor Knott (D.) and James S. Rollins for Congress, against John B. Henderson (Douglas Democrat). Both Guitar and Rollins were candidates on the Bell-Everett, or Union ticket. Guitar's majority in Boone, 399, Rollins', 452 ; in the district, 253.
The Bell-Everett national ticket was nominated at Baltimore, and the platform adopted. It was comprised in a single sentence : -
THE CONSTITUTION OF THE COUNTRY, THE UNION OF THE STATES AND THE ENFORCE- MENT OF THE LAWS.
Col. Switzler was a delegate from Missouri to the convention, and it was on his motion that Edward Everett, of Massachusetts, was made the candidate for Vice-President.
397
HISTORY OF BOONE COUNTY.
Great enthusiasm was excited in Boone County and in the State in the Presidential, Gubernatorial and Congressional candidacy - one of the national political ditties of the campaign used by the Bell-Ev- erett Union party, being the following : -
Friends of the Union, from each mountain and valley. Now let your glad voices responsively swell ; From hamlet and cot, let Freemen now rally, And list to the notes of the NATIONAL BELL. Our glorious Eagle spreads his wings now asunder, Which Democrats strive to fetter and chain ;
But the peal of our BELL, in tones of loud thunder, Shall teach them that all their corruption is vain.
"The Constitution - The Union - the Enforcement of Laws."
No Congressional canvass in the State ever attracted more interest, was characterized by more excitement or conducted with more ability than the canvass between Rollins and Henderson. Both of them were leaders of acknowledged statesmanship and eloquence, tact and courage, and large concourses of enthusiastic and admiring friends flocked to their appointments, and made the welkin ring with their applause. The anti-slavery agitation was rapibly reaching a climax, and the institution of slavery - its history, its constitutional guaran- tees, its influence upon the destiny of Missouri, and the measures and parties most likely to secure it against interference, were topics of universal and angry debate. Very naturally, therefore, one of the questions at issue between Rollins and Henderson was, as the district in the aggregate was largely pro-slavery, which was the more worthy of being trusted in the national councils by a constituency largely in- terested in the stability of the " peculiar institution." Each charged the other with being unsound on the question, with having Freesoil, if not Abolition, sympathies, and therefore unworthy of support. But there were two counties in the district, St. Charles and Warren, in which there was a large German or Freesoil element, Republican in sentiment, whose support was essential to the success of one or the other of the candidates.
Therefore the effort of both candidates seemed to be to conciliate and receive this independent or Freesoil vote, residing mainly in Warren and St. Charles counties. But it was extremely dangerous, as both of them well knew, for either of them to go too far in the work of conciliation, lest they might be seriously prejudiced in the minds of the voters in other parts of the district, which were known to be generally and violently pro-slavery in their views.
398
HISTORY OF BOONE COUNTY.
Both of the candidates were known to be liberal in their views on the slavery question, and yet at that critical period of its discussion it required a good deal of adroit management and skilful eloquence to steer clear of the breakers which presented themselves on the sea
224
GEN. JOHN B. HENDERSON.
of party politics, lest in attempting to avoid shipwreck on the Scylla of Freesoilism on the one hand they did not go to the bottom on the Charybdis of Pro-slaveryism on the other.
They had an appointment to speak in the village of Marthasville in
399
HISTORY OF BOONE COUNTY.
Warren county, and as good luck to Rollins would have it, Henderson was too ill to be present ; but Frederick Muench, the leader of the Ger- man Freesoilers, was, and he and his friends gave a very attentive hearing to the eloquent address of the Major. After its close Mr. Muench politely waited on the Major, and they discussed not only a bottle of German-made wine together, but the political situation of the district. Mr. Muench frankly complimented him on his speech and told him he thought the Germans could safely intrust the princi- ples advocated by them to his hands, and therefore would use his in- fluence with them to support him, all of which was " flannel " to the Major's anxious and patriotic heart.
This was the first meeting between Rollins and Muench, but pre- cisely what passed will pehaps never be known, as Mr. Muench is dead and the Major may have forgotten. Beyond doubt, however, it was this meeting and Henderson's absence from the speaking that de- cided the contest in favor of Rollins, whose majority in the district was only 254.
But we are now about to touch " the funny bone " of the subject. A few days after the meeting and while he was yet under the influence of Rollins' liberal views on the slavery question and his finely turned periods, Mr. Muench, without Rollins knowing anything of his intentions to do so, wrote a letter to a German Freesoil paper at Hannibal in which he expressed a preference for Rollins over Henderson, saying he believed the Germans might safely support him, that he had met him and found him a very interesting and persuasive gentleman, etc.
The letter to the Hannibal paper was translated into English, and for Henderson's benefit re-published in the St. Louis Republican, which advocated his election ; and on the morning of their joint dis- cussion at Sturgeon, reached there a short time before the hour of speaking. Rollins did not know it had appeared in print, but Hen- · derson got hold of a paper containing it, and in his opening address made a terrific onslaught on Rollins for having been bargaining with the German Freesoilers of Warren and St. Charles to vote for him on the ground of his Freesoil principles.
Rollins promptly jumped to his feet and defiantly denied it. Hen- derson responded - " I will prove it on him ; I charge that one Mr. Minch, a German, has written a letter urging the Germans to vote for him, and after he had an interview with Minch." Rollins denied
400
HISTORY OF BOONE COUNTY.
he knew any such man as Minch; thereupon Henderson read the letter somewhat to Rollins' embarrassment. Portions of the crowd hurrahed for Henderson, but Rollins rose with much equanimity, real or assumed, and said defiantly -" Read the name of the author." Henderson did it, " Frederick Minch." "Spell it," said Rollins, and Henderson spelled it - " M-u-e-n-c-h." Rollins - " The name is Muench not Minch; you can't cheat the people ; you can't play such tricks on me with impunity ; you have changed his name !"
About this time Henderson's hour expired when Rollins took the stand and said : " Fellow-citizens, you see the advantage Henderson is taking of you and of me ; I denied I had ever heard of such a man as Minch, and he changed his name to Minch to entrap me into that denial. It was Munch not Minch; I know him; he is a gentleman and a patriot and a man of sense, which I fear Henderson is not."
All the Whigs were satisfied and shouted for Rollins, and Mr. James Palmer (since deceased ), one of the largest men in the county and an ardent Henry Clay Whig mounted the stand and shouted, " Rollins is vindicated triumphantly. Henderson changed the name of the writer of the letter and thus attempted to mislead our gallant leader, Rollins. No man who will do such a thing is entitled to the votes of Whigs or Democrats, and I now move that we all vote for Rollins." And he put the vote and there arose in response a thun- dering aye, and Palmer (without putting the other side) declared it carried unanimously, and in the midst of the excitement and uproar moved that the crowd adjourn to the nearest saloon and take a drink, which they did, leaving Henderson discomfited and crestfallen, and Rollins triumphant and cock of the walk.
And all because Henderson said Minch instead of Munch.
THE ELECTION OF MR. LINCOLN.
The election of Mr. Lincoln to the Presidency spread the wildest excitement throughout all the slaveholding States, and fanned to a flame the smouldering fires of disunion and civil war. Very soon after it was announced, the State of South Carolina seceded from the Union, and thus placed herself in the vanguard of those States which sooner or later madly leaped into the vortex of revolution and anarchy. This event greatly excited and deeply moved, not only the people of Boone
401
HISTORY OF BOONE COUNTY.
County, but of the entire State, for it was quite natural that a large slaveholding county like Boone, in the interior of the only border slaveholding State west of the Mississippi River, should give evidence of much concern in regard to every movement calculated to shake the foundations of the Federal Union or the stability of the institution of slavery.
Near the closing scenes of the year 1860, the people of the county anticipated the future with kindred emotions of hope and despair, fearing that the Union was in imminent peril, and that the torch of civil war might very soon blaze in skies hitherto cloudless and serene. And the sequel proved that their forebodings of evil were not ground- less. The secession of South Carolina on December 20, followed during January by the secession of Mississippi, Florida, Alabama and Georgia, were events of dire portent and well calculated to disturb the foundations on which reposed the public peace and security.
1861 .- Chronologically, we are now approaching in this history the abyss of that bloody and fratricidal civil war into which our country was plunged ; and we realize that in attempting to record the exciting and rapidly occurring events of the period we tread " between burning plowshares," and are liable from various causes to unjust criticism and misapprehension. Nevertheless, it will be our purpose to record impartially the events of the war, and not to manufacture them ; to do justice to its participants on both sides, to record facts as we find them, and to record them as a historian and not as a commentator. No opinion or prejudices of our own shall distort or color them, but it will be our purpose in collating the stirring events of this period to accomplish it with perfect fairness and impartiality.
The firing upon the Federal garrison at Fort Sumter by Gen. Beau- regard, on April 11, 1861, was an event the sound of which rang through the country like a fire-bell in the night. It came with the speed of lightning on the wires to Boone County, followed very soon after by a call on Missouri by the President for four regiments of men for immediate service, the refusal of Gov. Jackson to furnish them, the organization in Columbia, on Wednesday, April 24, 1861, of the " Columbia Home Guards," a volunteer company for the protection and defence of Columbia. Officers - Prof. E. T. Fristoe, Captain ; Prof. J. J. Searcy, First Lieutenant ; Richard H. Carter, Second Lieu- tenant ; James H. Waugh, Third Lieutenant ; Wm. H. Tillery, First Orderly Sergeant; W. H. Northcutt, Second Orderly Sergeant ; 26
1
402
HISTORY OF BOONE COUNTY.
Joseph B. Douglass, Third Orderly Sergeant; John M. Samuel, Treasurer.
BOONE COUNTY " SOUTHERN RIGHTS MEETING."
Something of the temper and sentiments of a portion of the people may be gathered from the proceedings of a " Southern Rights Meet- ing " held in the Court House on Saturday, April 20, 1861. While it was in session three different flags floated in Columbia : the Stars and Stripes, the Border State flag, and the flag of the Confederate States. The following are the proceedings of the meeting : -
BOONE COUNTY MEETING.
Pursuant to previous notice, a large and enthusiastic meeting of the citizens of Boone County was held at the Court House in Columbia on Saturday, the 20th of April. On motion, Dr. C. Q. Chandler was temporarily called to the chair, whereupon S. Turner moved that a committee of five be appointed to report back a permanent organiza- tion for the meeting. The chair appointed Messrs. S. Turner, Samuel Kennon, Wm. H. Duncan and Arthur P. Clarkson, who retired for the purpose named. During the absence of the committee, Capt. F. F. C. Triplett, by the request of the chair, explained the object of the meeting in a clear, forcible and satisfactory manner, the substance of which is set forth in the resolutions annexed. The committee on permanent organization reported as follows : -
Chairman : Judge P. H. McBride. . Vice Presidents : Dr. C. Q. Chandler, David Powell, James Ryan, Col. E. E. Bass, Isaac Williams, Judge Alexander Persinger, Allen B. Orear. Secretaries : C. Maupin, F. K. Lynch, Dr. Alex. Spence.
The report of the committee, on motion of Capt. Triplett, was adopted, and the persons named repaired to their respective stations. On motion of Col. John W. Rollins, a committee of two from each civil township was appointed to prepare and report resolutions ex- pressive of the views and sentiments of the meeting. Just as the committee retired, a number of gentlemen, bearing aloft the flag of the Confederate States, with fifteen stars emblazoned thereon, edged their way into the crowded court room and were greeted with three cheers for Jeff. Davis and the Southern Confederacy. S Turner was called upon to address the meeting, which he did, alluding briefly to the causes of our National troubles, and reviewing in an eloquent and
403
HISTORY OF BOONE COUNTY.
patriotic manner the many insults and injuries which have been heaped upon the South by the fanatics of the North; appealing to his countrymen to rise in their majesty and vindicate Southern honor, concluding amid great applause and cheers for "" Old Virginia," and the addition of another star to the Confederate States. Calls for " Dixie" by the band, etc. The committee on resolutions then made the following report : -
WHEREAS, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, by a warlike policy to- wards the Confederate States of America, in sending an armed fleet to the port of Charles- ton and in notifying the authorities of South Carolina that he " would provision and rein- force " Fort Sumter peaceably if allowed, but forcibly if necessary, thereby provoking an attack by the Confederate troops on Fort Sumter, and involving us, regardless of the wishes, prayers and entreaties of every patriot throughout the length and breadth of our prosperous and happy country, in all the horrors and devastation of a civil and servile war; and
WHEREAS, He has withdrawn the Federal troops from our frontier posts, and placed them in a position for active service against our brethren, leaving our frontier citizens in & defenceless condition and exposed to the ravages of the merciless savage ; and,
WHEREAS, He is actively engaged in fitting out and sending to the Southern coasts armed vessels ladened with provisions and munitions of war, with orders sealed. to all but himself and his counsellors and other minions of destruction ; and in divers other demonstrations of a warlike character, in the movements of both land and naval forces, exciting just apprehen- sions in the minds of the people of South, that he intends an invasion of their soil and the sub_ jugation of them into obedience to the Federal laws. And in open defiance to the warning voice and solemn admonitions of the border slave States, to stay his hand and avoid the shedding of blood, while they were engaged in a noble, patriotic and self-sacrificing strug- gle to adjust our National difficulties, preserve our once glorious Union, and save our gov- ernment and our people from the inevitable ruin and devastation that must necessarily fol- low in the train of a civil war, he has called on the Governors of the several States for seventy-five thousand men to accomplish his diabolical work of destruction, turning loose upon us the dogs of war, thirsting for blood and carnage, and thus blasting forever all hopes of a reconciliation between the belligerent sections of our country; he has forced upon the border slave States the alternative of taking their position in the fearful struggle, either with the fanatical Abolition and negro-worshipping States of the North, in the subjugation of their brethren of the South, with whom they are identified by the strongest and most in- dissoluble bonds of interest, honor, institutions and blood, or of uniting their destinies with their sister Southern States and resisting to the death the tide of Northern fanaticism and aggression which threatens to overwhelm and annihilate the dearest rights and liberties of a free and independent people. Be it, therefore,
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