USA > Missouri > Carroll County > History of Carroll County, Missouri : carefully written and compiled from the most authentic official and private sources, including a history of its townships, cities, towns and villages, together with a condensed history of Missouri ; the Constitution of the United States, and State of Missouri ; a military record of its volunteers in either army of the Great Civil War ; general and local statistics ; miscellany ; reminiscences, grave, tragic and humorous ; biographical sketches of prominent men and citizens identified with the interests of the country > Part 30
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75
258
HISTORY OF CARROLL COUNTY.
a short time until the Gentiles would be driven out of the country, and " God's people"-the Mormons-would occupy the land! This was more than the doctor could stand, and in a few moments he had driven the "saints" off' the premises, and soon after was the leader of the forces designed to drive them from the country.
Hinkle informed the commissioners that his men had driven up into DeWitt a number of horses from the bottom, among which he thought were some belonging to the citizens; if so, they would be freely given up. Some that had strayed from the camp were identified by their owners, and taken away.
·There was something pitiful in the condition of the Mormons after the surrender. The majority of them were poor, and had their all invested in the settlement at DeWitt. Winter was approaching, and they were forced from their little, but comfortable, homes into the inhospitable weather of a Missouri autumn and late fall, with their wives and children, and all they possessed on earth. But they loaded up their property on their wagons, and the long procession evacuated the place, the men with heads depressed, the women in tears, and all casting longing, lingering looks behind, as they left the place where they had hoped to live their lives out in peace, plenty, and quietude.
Pausing and looking back to gaze once more on their dwellings, Ere they were shut from sight by the winding road and the woodland. Close at their sides their children ran, and urged on their oxen, . While in their little hands they clasped some fragments of playthings.
The De Witt Mormons left for the larger settlement at Far West, in Caldwell county, where Joe Smith and the other Mormon leaders then were. As they passed through this county they received nothing but the kindest treatment at the hands of the citizens, who had lately been in arms against them, and who were determined not to allow them to remain in the country. This kindness was fully appreciated by the poor refugees, who declared they had received better treatment from the Carroll county people than from those of any other county through which they had passed. Scarcely anyone charged them for corn and provisions, of which they were in need. The people realized that they would be no more trouble with them, and as they were the conquerors, felt that they could afford to be generous.
In less than a week the commissioners were ready to make the final settlement, and met in Glasgow for that purpose. They were just ready to proceed to business, when a messenger reached the town from Messrs. Dickson, Wilcoxson, and others at Carrollton, bearing a letter for the commissioners which summoned them home at once. When the Mormons under the leadership of Col Hinckle left De Witt, they proceeded to Far West, in Caldwell county. The letter stated that the leading men of the
259
HISTORY OF CARROLL COUNTY.
Mormons at this place had annulled and set aside Col. Hinkle's agree- ment, and avowed a determination to maintain possession of their property in Carroll county. A force from Far West, it was. said, was moving south ward, and Ray county had sent Captain Bogart to the northern part of that county to prevent a movement toward Richmond, and Carrollton was unprotected. The commissioners left Glasgow shortly after noon, and reached Carrollton at midnight.
Everything at the county seat was in the greatest confusion. The few merchants of the place had packed their goods and hidden them in the woods to save them from the hand of the Mormon ravager and spoiler who was thought to be coming down upon the town "like a wolf on the fold," and with blood in his eye. Many families had fled in great alarm and with ludicrous precipitation to the country, and many more were preparing to leave. It was reported that the Mormons were coming to take fearful vengeance for the way they had been treated at DeWitt and elsewhere. Houses were to be burned, property of all kinds to be destroyed or car -. ried away, and men-and, it was feared, women and children-were to be killed. Many persons hauled their furniture and other household goods to the brush, and secreted them any place out of sight. Others learning that the town would be burned hauled their goods to an open field then on the hill east of town on the DeWitt road. This field con- tained the household effects of several families. There was much hurry- ing and skurrying about and the people came to realize how the Mormons must have felt when they were threatened and besieged in De Witt.
But little was being done toward defending the place by an armed force. Col. Wm. Claude Jones, then a leading lawyer of this section, was in command of the county militia, and was endeavoring to organize two companies to defend the town, and for home protection generally; but all his efforts were in vain in consequence of the fearful demoralization which prevailed among the citizens. Nearly everyone was drunk. Men went whooping and yelling about the streets, avowing their ability to whip any number of Mormons but making no sensible preparations to do anything. One M. P. Ellis kept a low doggery, or dram-shop, as its license called it, where a most villainous article of whisky was vended. This compound was purchased readily by the men, and it seemed to have a fearful effect upon them. Men seemed to be insane rather than of sound mind .* They were absolutely uncontrolable and would have remained so no doubt if the whisky had lasted.
Mr. A. C. Blackwell, one of the commissioners that had been ordered home, went out to stay all night with Rev. Sarshel Woods, and the next day they rode into Carrollton, where they found the situation unchanged. Rev. Woods went to Col. Jones and asked him why he did not stop the
*Blackwell's History.
260
HISTORY OF CARROLL COUNTY.
sale of whisky and organize a force for the protection of the town. Jones replied that Ellis would sell whiskey to all that called for it, and as long as this was done no organization could be effected. Rev. Woods rode to the dram-shop door and learned from Ellis that he had nearly a barrel of whisky yet on hand. "What will you take for it?" asked Woods. Ellis set a price, a high one, of course, but it was paid by the noble spirited Mr. Woods, whose next proceeding was to call to his assistance several bystanders and have the barrel rolled into the street, where it was knocked in the head and its poisonous contents flowed down the little hill which slopes to the northward from the northeast corner of the public square.
The whisky being spilled, Rev. Woods locked up the grocery, remark- ing as he did so: " I will keep this Devil's kitchen locked until we can get protection for the town. " The old grocery house was always known as " the Devil's kitchen, " ever after, as long as it stood. Its site was on the ground now occupied by the magnificent dry goods and clothing establishment of Baum & David, on the north side of the northeast corner of the public square; in Carrollton.
The two companies were now soon raised. They were commanded by Captains Wm. Hill and Wm. Kirkpatrick. There was no occasion for their services, however, as the whole rumor of the Mormon attack on Carrollton was false. It was all a big scare gotten up by excited individ- uals who imagined that dreadful things might happen and in time came to think they would happen. Order reigned in Warsaw and Israel returned " every man to his tent. " Governor Boggs had been authorita- tively notified of the troubles, and issued a proclamation calling out the militia. Gen. John B. Clark was appointed to raise a sufficient force to restore quietude, and if necessary the Mormons were to be expelled from the state. An attempt was made in the year 1841, to assassinate Gov. Boggs, at his home in Independence. It was alleged that this attempt was made by one Porter Rockwell, who it was said fired a pistol through a window at the governor, the ball striking his head, but inflicting only a slight wound. Rockwell was never indicted for this offense, and it cannot be said that he was guilty.
The two Carroll county companies commanded by Hill and Kirkpat- rick were attached to Gen. Clark's regiment, which was composed of men from Howard, Randolph, Chariton and Carroll counties. The com- panies were stationed at the best places for the protection of the county. Gen. Clark moved the regiment to Far West, but before he reached this point, however, the Mormons had already surrendered to General Lucas, of Jackson, who had participated in similar troubles in Jackson connty a few years previously. Sarshel Woods was on the staff of Gen- eral Clark, and in Far West, after the surrender, he met Col. Hinkle on the street, well armed. with sword and pistols. When within ten feet,
261
HISTORY OF CARROLL COUNTY.
Woods ordered Hinkle to halt. The latter demanded what he desired, when Woods replied: "We are now on equal footing I want your head, or you can have mine." Hinkle pleaded that he was already a prisoner, and the affair finally resulted in the surrender to Woods of the sword and pistols of the Mormon chieftain. They remained in his possession for several years, and when Wakanda Lodge of Masons, No. 52, was organ- ized at Carrollton, the sword was presented to the lodge, and at every meeting can be seen in the hands of the tyler.
The term of service of the militia in this expedition was short, and in a few days they were all at their homes, and about their usual avocations.
The "Mormon war" did not end, however, with the troubles in Carroll, nor did these troubles number all the woes endured by the unfortunate victims of a harmful, though wild delusion. Severe encounters occurred between the Mormons and the Missourians. The former were com- manded by General G. M. Hinkle; the latter by Gen. A. W. Doniphan.
One of these skirmishes took place on Crooked river, in the southwest- ern part of Caldwell county, and here David Patton, or "Captain Fear- Not," as he called himself, was killed. He was the leader of a band of Mormons . called the "Danites," or "Destroying Angels," or "United Brothers of Gideon." He was succeeded in the command of the "Danites" by the notorious and infamous Porter B. Rockwell, whose mission it was to exterminate all who incurred the displeasure of the Mormon leaders. In the execution of his office Rockwell put to death many an innocent man, woman and child.
The most serious engagement of the war came off at Haun's Mills, in the northeastern part of Caldwell county, about five miles south of Breck- enridge, on the present line of the Hannibal & St. Joseph Railroad. The Mormons of the eastern part of Caldwell county had concentrated there and intrenched themselves in the mill and in a blacksmithshop. They numbered about sixty. The Missourians, under the command of Col. Jennings, attacked them, and after a spirited little conflict captured them without losing a man killed and only one man wounded. Probably twenty Mormons were killed .* The number wounded is unknown. The Mis- sourians did not come out of this affair with clean hands. Several Mor- mons were inhumanly murdered after they had surrendered under assur- ances of protection. It is said they were taken out and shot. The bodies of the slain were thrown into an old well on the farm of Mr. Haun, of Haun's Mill,-were not even buried decently. Ten days after the tragedy a Mr. Charles Ross, latterly a resident of Kingston, visited the spot and filled up the well with its ghastly contents.
When Gen. Doniphan's militia reached Far West, in October, 1838,
*One published account says 18; another 30. (See Campbell's Gazetteer, p. 88, and p. 324, edition of 1875.) Parties conversant with the facts state about 20 .- R. I. H.
262
HISTORY OF CARROLL COUNTY.
Joe Smith surrendered, agreeing to Gen. D.'s conditions-that the Mor- mons should surrender their prominent leaders for trial, and the rest of the Mormons, with their families, should leave the state. Indictments were found against many of the leaders, with various results. The reader is referred to Switzler's History of Missouri, page 248 et seq., for particulars.
Soon after the expulsion of the Mormons from the state was decided on, they were invited to a home in Illinois, and settled the city of Nauvoo, in the Mississippi, in Hancock county. By the first of the following May (1839), scarcely a family of Mormons remained in Missouri, with the exception of some who withdrew from the colony, and who continue to this day, none, however, in Carroll county. The people of . Carroll county showed by their conduct that they entertained no hatred towards the Mormons as individuals, and only wished to save their portion of the state from being settled up by a band of people professing their doctrines. It was plain to be seen that the Mormons must be driven from the county, or else in time the county be entirely given up to Mormons, and the citi- zens of the county naturally preferred the former.
After their arrival in Illinois the Mormons found that a majority of the people of that state were not more favorably disposed toward them than the Missourians had been. Troubles broke out of a serious character, and eventually Joe Smith and his brother, Hiram, were shot and killed by a mob who had broken the jail at Carthage, Hancock county, for that purpose. This was June 27, 1844, and soon after the Mormons were expelled from the state and driven to seek an asylum in the far-off terri- tory of Utah, which they reached after much privation, and where they have founded a large and prosperous community, constantly growing larger and more prosperous, and some think more dangerous to the gov- ernment of the United States.
HISTORY OF THE COUNTY FROM 1840 TO 1850.
Every old settler remembers the presidential campaign of 1840. Gen. Wm. Henry Harrison, for president, with John Tyler for vice-president, were the Whig candidates; and Martin Van Buren, of New York, and Richard M. Johnson, of Kentucky, were the nominees of the Democratic party. The canvas excited unexampled interest and enthusiasm through- out the Union. In some states all business was practically abandoned and the time taken up with mass meetings, jollifications, and rallies. It was not an uncommon thing for political meetings to remain in session for several days.
In Missouri probably the largest political meeting in the state was held by the whigs at Rocheport, Boone county, in June of that year. Col.
263
HISTORY OF CARROLL COUNTY.
Switzler, in his history of Missouri, says that this meeting lasted three days and nights and was addressed by such distinguished speakers as Fletcher Webster, a son of Daniel Webster, Gen. A. W. Doniphan, Abiel Leonard, James S. Rollins, James Winston, Geo. C. Bingham, Missouri's artist statesman, and others.
John B. Clark, of Howard county, was the whig candidate for gover- nor against Thomas Reynolds, the democratic candidate. The demo- crats carried the state for the Van Buren electors and for Reynolds by an average majority of 7,500.
In Carroll county the canvas was probably the most exciting one had up to that time. Meetings were held at Carrollton, in "the Forks," and in Sugar Tree Bottom. In Carroll county the vote for president was as as follows:
Townships.
Van Buren and Johnson.
Harrison and Tyler.
Grand River
8
26
174
86
Wakanda Creek
.
182
112
Total.
Democratic majority, 70.
It was during this campaign that the hickory tree and the chicken cock were adopted as the democratic party emblems, while the whigs used the raccoon and buckeye boughs. This also was the beginning in the United States of what is considered "enthusiasm" in politics, which has been kept up ever since.
In 1842 there was quite' an exciting contest in the county for member of the state legislature. Robert D. Ray, now a grave and profound jurist, and a member of the supreme court of Missouri, then a young and ambitious lawyer, was the whig candidate against Col. Wm. W. Comp- ton, the democratic nominee. Col. C. was an old pioneer, well known, and the county had a good democratic majority ; yet "Bob" Ray, as they called him, made a very good race. Certain democrats would have voted for and elected Ray if he had agreed to support Hon. Lewis F. Linn for re-election to the United States Senate; but he avowed himself a whig and declared that he would, if elected, vote for the nominee of the whig cau- cus for senator, and that under no circumstances would he consent to obtain votes by selling out his party.
The contest excited no little interest, and both candidates made a can- vass of the county. The result of the election in August was the choice of Col. Compton, by the following vote:
264
HISTORY OF CARROLL COUNTY.
Township.
Compton.
Ray
Sugar Tree Bottom
20
.
13
Grand River
40
70
Wakanda.
106
76
Hurricane
37
4
Morris.
21
23
Total.
224
186
· Compton's majority, 38.
A third candidate was in the field, Mr. H. H. Miller, who received but a few votes, not enough to effect the result. He had been the regular nominee of the democrats but the party managers had withdrawn him in favor of Col. Compton, who had announced himself as an independent candidate, and was receiving the support of very many of the democrats, so many in fact, that it was evident Ray would be elected if the three can- didates remained in the field. This was the first election after there were more than two townships in the county.
Also, in 1842, a steamboat of light draft and small burthen ascended the Grand River as far up as Bedford and to a point on the west fork as high as three miles west of Chillicothe. Two trips only were made, but a project to so improve the stream as to make it permanantly navigable was much discussed at one time, but nothing was ever done.
From 1840 to 1844 there were many new settlements made in the county, and population increased considerably. Many fine farms were opened, and a great deal of produce was raised and exported. Hundreds of bales of hemp and. thousands of bushels of corn and wheat were shipped by river from Hill's and Baker's Landings, as well as from De Witt, and there was general prosperity throughout the country.
Hemp was considered the most profitable crop, and large quantities of it were grown. There being a considerable number of slaves in the county their labor was chiefly employed in caring for this crop and pre- paring it for market.
THE GREAT FLOOD OF 1844.
The extraordinary high waters of 1844 will long be commemorated in the history of the Missouri valley. The river was higher in that year than in any other now known, exceeding the great overflow of 1826. The "June rise" of that year was extraordinary, and it was reinforced by an unprecedented flood in the Kansas river.
Judge Ransom, of Kansas City, an old settler, says that the rise in the Kansas was caused by heavy rains along the Republican and Smoky Hill forks and other tributaries of the river in Kansas .. The depth of fall of the Kansas at Kansas City, where it empties into the Missouri is much greater than that of the Missouri at that point. Discharging great vol-
265
HISTORY OF CARROLL COUNTY.
umes of water day and night the Kansas cut square across the Big Muddy and broke in huge breakers on the banks on the opposite side and at last over into the Clay county bottoms, doing great damage. The weather was very peculiar. It rained a veritable "forty days and forty nights." Every evening out of a clear sky just as the sun went down there arose a dark, ominons looking cloud in the northwest. Flashes of lightning and the heaviest thunder followed, and about ten o'clock the rain would begin to fall in torrents. The bridges were nearly all washed away. The next day the sun would rise clear and beautiful, and not a cloud would fleck the sky as a reminder of the disturbed elements of the night.
In Carroll county the days on which the flood was the highest were the 14th, 15th, and 16th of June. The river was over its banks every- where, and all tbe low bottom lands were submerged everywhere.
The crops of that season were well advanced, and promised a glorious harvest. Vast fields of wheat, oats, rye, and corn were submerged, and the water receded to leave them a desolate waste. Great suffering neces- sarily followed. The corn in the bottoms was especially luxuriant, and many persons were dependent upon the successful cultivation of that staple for a living. When it was destroyed their only resource for the necessities of life was the charity of the people.
Hundreds of persons visited the river, and the sight presented was one never forgotten. On the Saline and Lafayette shores crowds daily watched the strange sights to be seen. Houses floated down the current almost intact; stable roofs sailed by on one of which, it is remembered, were some chickens, some of which crowed pluckily and lustily as they were swept away. In one instance a straw-stack was borne away on which were some hogs, and when the queer craft passed De Witt the porkers were plainly seen rooting away or lazily sleeping the time away.
The flood came up quite suddenly, and many people were unable to remove their stock, but very many thought there was no serious danger and neglected to care for their property until it was too late, and hun- dreds of their cattle and hogs and some horses and mules were lost. At "Shanghai," or Hill's Landing, Mr. Ely and others drove a lot of stock to a high mound back of the place, and kept them there till the waters subsided, bringing feed in boats from the main land.
Some idea of the extent of this great overflow may be conceived when it is known that the water extended from the foot of the bluff at Carroll- ton, where the foundry now is, to Lafayette county, a distance of twelve miles. It was possible to row a boat from Carrollton to Waverly. All over the Sugar Tree Bottom, where now are fertile farms and well improved lands, houses and other buildings, there were then waters vast and deep.
The flood had its peculiarities. Rain fell almost incessantly throughout
266
HISTORY OF CARROLL COUNTY.
its duration. The waters rose and fell. One day the water would, rise a few inches, and the next or within the next two or three days, it would fall correspondingly. Some old settlers state that on the 20th of June the water reached its greatest flood, and began to fall.
One case of drowning occurred. A gentleman named Prather, whose christian name it is believed was Thomas, was drowned in the upper part of the bottom, out on the prairie. He was riding through the water, engaged in gathering up his cattle, when his horse stepped into a deep ditch and threw him into water beyond his depth, and he was drowned. The body was recovered in a few days and buried.
THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OF 1844.
An effort was made by politicians to create as enthusiastic a presiden- tial campaign in 1844 as had been in 1840, but it was in vain. Henry Clay and Theodore Frelinghuysen were the candidates of the whigs for presi- dent and vice-president, and James K. Polk and Geo. M. Dallas were the democratic nominees. There was not a very considerable interest manifested in the campaign in this county, owing in part to the destructive flood of that summer, about whose devastations and in repairing them the people seemed more concerned than about politics. The vote in this county was as follows:
Townships.
Clay and Frelinghuysen.
Polk and Dallas.
Sugar Tree Bottom
18
17
Wakanda Creek
162
223
Grand River
51
46
Morris. .
6
10
Hurricane
5
15
Total
242
311
.
·
CARROLL, COUNTY IN THE MEXICAN WAR.
In 1846, the war between the United States and Mexico broke out, the annexation of Texas being the alleged cause of the declaration of war by Mexico against the United States in April, and the attack on Ameri- can soldiers by Mexicans the ground of the declaration of war on the part of the United States shortly afterward .* As in all other wars through which Carroll county had passed since her organization, she bore her full part in this.
At this time the army, under Gen. Taylor, in what is now south-west- ern Texas, was in a perilous situation, and Gen. Gaines, then at New Orleans, being apprised of this fact, and believing any action of the author- ities at Washington would be too late to afford relief, requested of the diff- erent states lying west of the Mississippi the aid of volunteers. Governor
*May 13, 1846.
1
267
HISTORY OF CARROLL COUNTY.
Edwards promptly responded by sending several hundred men to St. Louis, who upon their arrival, found that they were to have their trouble for their pains, inasmuch as the government had annulled the order of € Gen. Gaines, and placed him under arrest for issuing it. Somewhat mor- tified, but not discouraged, at this unexpected turn of affairs, the men returned to their homes. They were joked at by their neighbors for a time, but all this soon passed away.
Under the act of congress, of the 13th of May, President Polk called on Governor Edwards for a regiment of volunteers, to join the "Army of the West," then under command of Col. Stephen W. Kearney, of the 1st U. S. dragoons, in an expedition against Sante Fe and other Mexican pos- sessions, in the territory belonging to Mexico, and known as New Mex- ico. Corps of mounted volunteers were speedily organized, and early in June began to arrive at Ft. Leavenworth, the appointed rendezvous. By the 18th of the month the full complement of companies to compose the first regiment had arrived from various counties and the regiment was fully organized. It was denominated the First Regiment of Missouri Mounted Volunteers, and was composed of eight companies. Company A was from Jackson county, Capt. Waldo commanding; company B from Lafayette, Capt. Walton; company C, Clay, Capt. Moss; company D, Saline, Capt. Reid; company E, Franklin, Capt. Stevenson; company F, Cole, Capt. Parsons; company G, Howard, Capt. Jackson; company H, Callaway, Capt. Rogers. The field officers were elected by the compan- ies, and afterward duly commissioned. There were two candidates for the colonelcy of the regiment; A. W. Doniphan, of Clay county, and Col. Price, of Howard. Both candidates made speeches. Doniphan spoke first; Price replied. The latter had been a lieutenant-colonel in the Flor- ida war, and in the opinion of a great many, had not won very great renown, to speak mildly. When he alluded in his speech to the fact of his former service, some one in the crowd cried out, "you had better not mention that!" Doniphan was chosen colonel by a nearly unanimous vote. After an exciting contest between C. F. Ruff and Wm. T. Gilpin, for the office of lieutenant-colonel, the former was elected, and Gilpin was chosen major of the regiment.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.