USA > Missouri > Cass County > History of Cass County, Missouri > Part 23
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Our near neighbors in 1843, were John Dice, west across the river from the present Grand River Baptist Church. Henry Tull lived east of us across Grand River. It was sport to carry water a half mile from a spring, which most settlers did. Our other neighbors were Andy, Sam, Henry, Hiram and Billy Wilson. They all lived on the road to town- Harrisonville. Next came Perry Prettyman who settled the farm now owned by Frank Taylor. Up the creek was Elijah Jackson. On the south of us, our neighbors were John Pulliam, located at the present L. P. Donaldson homestead. Then came Anderson Harrel, Elias Owens, Braz- ton Williamson, Jerry Jones and Elisha Buck.
Peter Franse was a young man in those days and in his prowling around found his first wife at Jackson's. Our folks, as well as the rest of the neighbors, were invited to the wedding. We had a fine dinner. All early settler women were good cooks. At this wedding the menu was, a pig roasted whole, wild prairie chickens, venison, wild turkey, with corn hoe cake and biscuits. The officiating preacher was Rev. Joab Powell. When brother Powell reached Grand River from the side oppo- site Jackson, he hallowed and he was "set across the river in a canoe". We had no bridges then. As the man paddled the boat and the preacher led his horse by the side of the boat.
The first school was taught by Ben Stephens, uncle of the writer of this sketch. This was in the log cabin, which our family first summered in. Myself and two sisters walked three miles to this school. Of the pupils, who attended this school, myself and two sisters are all that are now living. The others, without exception, have passed to the great beyond, most of them resting in the old church burying ground where our families in later day so often worshiped-located on the old Billy Brady Homestead. The next school taught in the neighborhood was two miles west of the present Wm. H. Steen homestead. This school was taught by a Mr. Carter. Aside from our family the pupils of this school were the children of Rev. John Jackson, Rev. Jeremiah Farmer, the Gard- ners and the Keetons, who lived near what is now known as Clark's bridge, over Grand River-then known as Farmer's crossing of Grand River. The names of some of these pupils were Coleman G. Farmer, Thomas B. Farmer, Mary, Louisa and Becka Farmer, Jane, Laura and Anna Jackson, Cole Farmer used to amuse us at the noon hour by preaching to us the sermon his father Jeremiah Farmer preached the preceeding Sunday.
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The school furniture consisted of logs split in half with the splinters trimmed off the top side, holes bored and legs put in them. Half a log was cut out of the side of the school room to let in the light, so we could see to write. The writing desk was a broad slab or board nailed up under the window. We wrote mostly with goose quills, and it was a task for the teacher to keep the quills trimmed.
In 1848 our family became aristocratic, quit the farm and moved to Harrisonville. We kept hotel on the north side of the square. All the buildings were then frame. The bar room was on the corner where Bar- rett Drug Store now is and was run by Bill Taylor and afterwards by Hugh Welden. John Dice used to think Bill Taylor was the same Zacha- riah Taylor who run for president and was always quite proud of voting for "Old Bill" as he would say.
John Ament had a carpenter shop where the Hotel Harrisonville now stands. I went to school to a man named Westfall in a log house east of where the P. K. Glenn Drug Store now is. Others who attended this school were B. C. Hawkins, Claud and Kelley Hansbrough, Cole and Frank Younger, Lizzie and Meck Walker. I remember being in a charivari when old Mr. Cowers was married to Mrs. Jackson. There was a pile of corn lying in the back yard and while we boys were having a good time John Cummins and John Coughenour had managed to stretch a rope across the street from the northeast corner of the court house square to the corner of the Ament Carpenter Shop. Then went to the pile of corn and began to lambast us with corn. We boys ran when Claud Hansbrough struck the rope, over he fell, the rest of us piling the same way ; when I attempted to rise the whole bunch of boys were upon me.
Bill Coats, a country gentleman, used to come to town periodically and fill up on Bill Taylor's corn juice. John Blazton, Charlie Palmer (son of Amos Palmer) and myself, in our boyish pranks concluded to have some fun out of Bill Coats, so we tied a rope to one of the locust trees along the west side of the square and put the other end through a knot hole in a goods box on the other side of the street and waited for the fun to begin. Bill, in the meantime managed to get some fire-crackers which he had in his coat pocket to exploding. That set him going, as he did not seem to know what was up. Bill was so scared and jumping so high, he cleared our rope and we lost our fun, but a good old man by the name of Dixon came along, struck our rope and fell sprawling on the walk. We all felt mean over this trick. In 1850 our family grew tired of city life and moved back to the farm.
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About this time the California gold fever was at its highest. A com- pany was formed to go to California. On the 5th day of May, 1850, our company met where the Grand River Baptist Church now stands. Many of our relatives and friends were there to bid us a last farewell, for they never expected to see us again. Starting on that two thousand mile trip with five yoke of oxen to the wagon to a then unknown world, was no small undertaking. We never saw a house after we passed the Missouri State line until we drove into "Old Fort Laramie", located in the present State of Wyoming. Many of us became blue and very homesick. It rained on us for several days after we started. I was good and sick. When out a few days, in the eastern part of the present State of Kansas, then on the edge of the great American desert, at dusk of evening, one of our party killed a fine fat buffalo. This gave us a great feast. This was near the present site of Manhattan. We were now in the Indian country. Every night some of us stood guard over camp. This we had to do to keep the Indians from surprising us and running off our cattle. But a short distance further on buffalo were plentiful and became a nuisance to us in traveling.
On one occasion Dock Stephens (a brother of Mrs. Clarence B. Price, of Harrisonville) and myself, both mere boys, staid around camp after the train had started on its march. We were cooking and eating buffalo meat, when all at once my pony threw up his head and snorted. The prowling Indians began to shoot at us with their bows and arrows. Now to say we mounted the ponies in lightning speed is to put it mildly. We boys escaped harm, yet my pony got an arrow in his thigh. A few days after this we were joined by another train of wagons westward bound.
Everything went well with us, except the intense monotony of travel, until we reached Sweet Water River (in the present State of Wyoming). Here the cholera struck us. Several of those with our train died. We were compelled to wait here until our men could so recuperate as to be able to travel. From here we had mountain climbing and sandy deserts. When we reached the Humbolt River (at a point where it sinks), there was so much alkali in the water, our men were compelled to wade into the lake to get fresh water to drink. When replenished with fresh water which took a couple of days our train strung out to cross the alkali desert. This took us two days and nights; we traveled mostly at night. As we passed over this desert we saw hundreds of carcasses of dead animals which had perished making the same kind of trip we were making. And
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thus wearily we passed across the continent, finally reaching our destina- tion.
The day we reached the mines I found a cousin of my father. He had gone there in 1849. He made me rich, at once, by paying me $100 a month to go to the valley and herd stock for him. During the winter months I acted as dining room boy at a wage of $100 per month. In those days it took a letter a month to come from Missouri to California.
On about the first of December, 1851, several of us started for home. We took sail at San Francisco on the ship "John L. Stephens." For thirteen days were were out of sight of land and everything else, except sky and water, whales, sharks and sea birds. We landed at San Juan Delmort, near the western outlet of the great Isthmian canal. We crossed over the divide to Graytown. Here we took a steamship to New Orleans. Here we had our gold minted. Then we had plenty of gold money. Our steamer up the Mississipi River could get no farther than "Cape Girard- eau", from whence we took sleighs to Boonville, thence by stage to Lexing- ton. From Lexington we walked to our homes in Cass County. We reached home about the middle of February, 1852.
Those who started west with our train in 1850 were Atha Tull who died in California, William Tull, Peter Franse, P. E. Franse, Joshua Flynn, Bill Sims, J. O. Holloway, Arch Holloway, Fleming Holloway, Thomas Holloway, Dock Stephens, Hiram Stephens (my father), and Liney Jack- son who died in California. Of this company, I am, today, the sole sur- vivor. Great has been the change since that day. Many of those I knew and loved have crossed the great divide, to that country from whence no traveler returns. A serious thought comes over me. Were all these I met and knew so well in those days so long ago, ready for their final change. Am I ready to take this trip, which from the very nature of things can not be long delayed.
In these other days oxen were our work animals, the old prairie plow our principal farm tool. Indians were on all sides. I had Indian boy chums of whom I was quite fond. They visited me at my home and I at their camp, which they were accustomed every year to make near our home. I have seen in this county wild deer by the score in a drove. Wolves by the dozens, roaming together. The reader does not get an adequate idea of the plentifulness of wild game, by reading. Game of every kind was everywhere in immense numbers.
My father was a justice of the peace for many years. In the early
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history of the county he was called upon to marry a couple. When he arrived the bride was all togged up in her yellow and blue cotton striped dress with a big sun-flower in her hair. The groom was in the yard deeply immersed in a game of marbles. When he was notified all was ready, he yelled out to wait 'til he got that game out. Everything waited on his lordship. When the marble game was completed, he put on his coat and brogan shoes and made his way to the house. You understand all went barefooted except on special occasions. He walked up to the bride, taking her right hand in his left, announcing to the waiting guests, "I am ready, if you are." The ceremony was short. The squire kissed the bride and the bridegroom resumed his game of marbles with the utmost indifference of the occasion. The squire got his twenty-five cent coon skin for the services rendered and wended his way home. Animal skins were legal tender among early settlers. On another occasion the squire received a pet deer for his services. These were more aristocratic people. No license was required in an early day. If the girl said yes on the way from church all the bridegroom, elect, had to do was to get the squire and the necessary coon skin.
Our old plows had wooden mold-boards, harness had chain tugs or trace chains with rope lines. Hay was cut by hand with the scythe and stacked with wooden pitch forks. We planted corn by hand, covered it with a hoe and plowed it both ways by single shovel. We lived mostly on corn bread and wild game. We went to mill on horseback, with a two bushel sack across the horse. The mill was a water mill. When com- pany came we sometimes had biscuits. When we wanted to telephone to a neighbor or to town, we sent a negro or boy on horse back to deliver the message. Telephones, automobiles and rural route mails were unknown. The first suit of "store clothes" I ever had was cut out by Cuthbert Mockby, who then lived where C. Kelly and Mrs. D. K. Hall now live. He charged thirty-five cents. He went across the street and bought of Granny Burnet some ginger cake and cider paying 20 cents therefor, thus leaving himself 15 cents ahead on the day's work. Granny Burnet was great on her ginger cakes and cider. We country boys thought we were well to do when we had change enough to visit Granny Burnet's and buy cakes and cider.
I remember of selling my fur catch at West Point on one occasion for $3.30, the same furs would today sell for $50.00. We didn't go by roads then. It was such and such a bridle path. We could travel twenty
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miles without passing more than two or three houses. When God Almighty created the earth He put a large slice here, intending it to be called Cass County and saved it to be settled in the first instance by God- loving and God-serving people. He imbued them with the highest ideals of honesty and, early, taught them to practice holy virtues.
NOAH M. GIVAN.
CHAPTER XLIV.
BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY
Judge Noah M. Givan .- In the death of Noah M. Givan, which occurred October 3, 1907, not only Cass County, but the state and nation lost a citizen of real worth who left his impress on many features of human affairs, both of a public and private nature. He was a man of broad acquaintance throughout the state and his friends and admirers were legion, among whom were many of the notable men of the West. He was a self-made man, and in early youth developed the strong traits of character and high ideals which characterized his entire career.
Noah M. Givan was born in Dearborn County, Indiana, December 1, 1840, a son of George Givan and Sabrina J. Hall. His father, George Givan, was a native of Maryland, born in Worcester County, December 1, 1816, and his grandfather, Joshua Givan, born July 2, 1788, and great grandfather were all natives of the same county in Maryland and descend- ants from Irish ancesters.
Noah M. Givan received a particularly careful education. He attended Franklin College for several terms and later matriculated at the Indiana State University, Bloomington, Indiana, where he was graduated July 3, 1862. He worked his way through college by teaching at inter- vals. Following his graduation from the university, he accepted the principalship of the graded schools at Lawrenceburg, Indiana, and held that position during the school year of 1862-1863. During the years 1864 and 1866 he was editor of the Lawrenceburg "Register". For three years he was school examiner for Dearborn County, and for two years served as deputy county treasurer, of that county.
In 1866, Judge Givan came to Missouri and located at Harrisonville. The following year he was editor of the Cass County "Herald", the first democratic newspaper published in Cass County after the Civil war. He
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then engaged in the practice of law at Harrisonville, continuing until 1877, and during that period formed several partnerships. He was first asso- ciated with E. P. West, under the firm name of West and Givan. Later Captain D. K. Hall entered the firm and the partnership became West, Hall and Givan; later Mr. West retired leaving the firm Hall and Givan. In 1877 Mr. Givan was elected judge of the Seventh Judicial District, and filled that office for nine years, a short term of three years and a long one of six. He was an able and conscientious judge, and while on the bench made an unusual record, in that very few of his decisions were reversed by the higher courts. About the time that he retired from the bench in 1886 he formed a partnership with a prominent St. Louis lawyer, Colonel Jay L. Torrey, and after spending about two years in St. Louis he returned to Harrisonville in 1900, and formed a partnership with Judge Allen Glenn, which continued until the time of Judge Givan's death. Shortly after this partnership was formed Judge Givan was elected Supreme Reporter of the Knights of Honor, an office outranked only by the presiding officer of that order, Supreme Dictator. He served in that capacity until his death. For a year or two after his election to that office he spent much of his time in Harrisonville, but the pressure of the business of his office and its numerous duties, made it necessary for his to spend the greater part of his time at St. Louis, the national head- quarters of the order, and he was residing temporarily in St. Louis in that connection at the time of his death.
Judge Givan was very prominent in the Masonic world, having taken all the degrees in every one of its branches, both York and Scottish rites. He was grand master for two terms, and for many years, chairman of the laws committee of the grand lodge. He was president of the Masonic Home in St. Louis, and had held that office since its organization, but the one event which brought him the widest acquaintance in the fraternal world generally, was his position as president of the movement which erected the great temple of fraternity at the Worlds Fair in St. Louis. It was largely through his personality that this great enterprise was car- ried through without any friction and made the great success which it was. His Masonic career was the most notable in the state. He was made a Mason in Manchester Lodge No. 4 at Manchester, Indiana, when but a few days past the age of twenty-one. In coming to Harrisonville, he arrived in time to become one of the charter members of Cass Lodge No. 147. Prior to 1883 he had filled the presiding offices in the blue lodge, chapter, council and commandery.
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Notwithstanding Judge Givan's crowded career as a lawyer, jurist, coupled with his manifold duties in the fraternal world, his tireless energy and unlimited ability led him in to the industrial and financial field of enterprise. He was one of the organizers of the Citizens National Bank of Harrisonville, serving as its president from its organization until his death. He was also one of the promoters and organizers of the Austin Inland Telephone Company.
No laudable enterprise ever made a demand upon him to which he did not respond with all the intensity of his vigorous capability. In 1900 he was appointed on the board of Curators of the Missouri State University, for a term of six years. After about five years service he resigned and was selected by the board as the attorney to look after the collections of the collateral inheritance tax.
Judge Givan was one of the most prominent Baptists in the State. He was elected moderator of the Blue River Baptist Association in 1892 and was chosen for the same office each succeeding year until his death. He was also president of the Blue River Missouri Board, a member of the State Missouri Board, vice president of the Central Baptist Publishing Company, and for many years a director in the Interdenominational Chil- dren's Home Finding Society of Missouri. For thirty years he was super- intendent of the local Baptist Sunday School.
On August 7, 1862, Judge Noah M. Givan was united in marriage with Miss Elizabeth C. Jackson, a native of Dearborn County, Indiana. She is a daughter of John and Mabel (Garrigues) Jackson, the former a native of Orange County, New York, and the latter of New Jersey. They were early settlers in Dearborn County, Indiana. To Judge and Mrs. Givan were born four children, one of whom is living, Mabel, now the wife of Charles E. Allen, president of the Citizens National Bank of Harrison- ville, a sketch of whom appears in this volume. Mrs. Givan resides in her beautiful home on East Pearl Street and like her late husband is held in the highest esteem by all who know her, and it has been well said that Judge Givan was particularly blessed in having a wife and companion whose high culture, devotion and sympathy were a great aid and inspira- tion to him in his strenuous life.
No biographer can do justice to such a character as was Judge Givan. He was a man of large sympathies, easily touched by the misfortunes and sufferings of others. He could rejoice with those who were happy and weep with those who wept. His broad charity and friendship knew no
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creed nor party lines. His dominant trait of character was love-love for his family, for his church and for his fellow man, and this dominant trait, he manifested in no uncertain manner by the use he made of his time, talent and purse.
DeWitt Clinton Barnett, a prominent attorney of Cass County who has practiced his profession for thirty-four years in Harrisonville, is a native of Indiana. He was born in Johnson County, near Nineveh, June 9. 1850, and is the son of Ambrose D. and Saphrona (Riggs) Barnett. Ambrose D. Barnett was a native of Nicholas County, Kentucky, and re- moved to Indiana, with his parents in 1823, when he was fourteen years of age. He was the youngest of a large family and was a son of John Perry Barnett. John Perry Barnett was the youngest of a family of seventeen brothers, sixteen of whom served in the Revolutionary war, he having served in the capacity of fifer. He was born in 1762, and died in Indiana in 1829, about six years after having settled in that state, and during the latter part of his life drew a pension for his service in the Revolutionary war.
Ambrose D. Barnett, father of D. C. Barnett, was a versatile man, and followed various occupations with a reasonable degree of success during his career. He was a carpenter and cabinet maker and also prac- ticed law for a time, although he always owned a farm and devoted his later years to that vocation. During the Civil war he served as first lieutenant of a company of the Loyal Legion. He spent his life in Indiana and died May 20, 1885.
Saphrona Riggs, mother of D. C. Barnett, was a native of Livingston county, New York, and was born near Danville, and removed to Indiana with her parents in 1823, when she was six years old. They came down the Ohio river on a raft and landed at Lawrenceburg, Indiana, and struck out from that point and made a home in the wilderness. She was a daughter of Ransom and Sarah (Tremain) Riggs, the former a native of Connecticut and the latter of Massachusetts, and descendants of old New England stock, Mr. Barnett of this review being the tenth generation, in the direct line of descent from the founder of the Riggs family in America. His great great grandfather, Jeremiah Riggs, served in the Revolutionary War with the New England troops, and thus Mr. Barnett comes from Revolutionary stock on both the maternal and the paternal sides. The mother died November 15, 1911, aged ninety-five years.
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D. C. Barnett was one of a family of nine children, five daughters and four sons, born to his parents, all of whom are living except one sister, and with the exception of D. C. reside in Indiana. The father was twice married, and to his first marriage were born four children. D. C. Barnett was reared in Johnson and Hamilton counties, Indiana, and re- ceived his preliminary and preparatory education in the public schools of Nineveh, Franklin College, Franklin, Indiana, and Butler College, Irv- ington, Indiana, Dr. Wiley being one of his instructors at the latter in- stitution. In 1871 he matriculated at the Indiana State University at Bloomington, where he was graduated in the class of 1875 with the degree of Bachelor of Arts. He then taught school for a time in the grade schools of Nineveh and was afterwards principal of the Knightstown and Franklin schools.
In 1883 Mr. Barnett came to Missouri and for a few months was at Kansas City, and on June 19th of that year settled in Harrisonville and engaged in the practice of law, having been admitted to the bar in In- . diana in 1878. Mr. Barnett has been successfully engaged in the practice of his profession since coming to Harrisonville. He is an able lawyer, both from the standpoint of his knowledge of the science of law, and in its appli- cation and as a trial lawyer. He has served four terms as prosecuting attorney of Cass county and in that capacity, as representative of the state he stood for law enforcement without fear or favor. He has also served as city attorney of Harrisonville for two terms. Outside of his professional work, Mr. Barnett has perhaps taken a deeper interest in the public schools than in any other sphere of public concern. He has been identified with the administration of the public schools of Harrison- ville, practically since coming here. He taught in the public schools here one term and has also been instructor in the Normal courses here. For thirty years he has been secretary of the Harrisonville school board and for a great many years he has been a member of that body.
Mr. Barnett was united in marriage November 4, 1886, with Miss Ida Burney, a daughter of James A. Burney, a Cass county pioneer. To Mr. and Mrs. Barnett have been born five children as follows: Dudley Burney, member of the firm of Barnett and Plank, furniture dealers and undertakers, Harrisonville; Charles Clinton, who organized the Bank of West Line, Missouri, and died at the age of twenty-one years while cashier of that institution; Mary E., married Ray Denham, Harrisonville; Henry Leonard, died in 1899 at the age of four years; and Margret Eliza- beth, a student in the Harrisonville high school.
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