USA > Missouri > Clay County > History of Clay County, Missouri > Part 4
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The first person ever hanged in Clay County for murder was a negro woman, owned by a man named Pryor, residing near Greenville, in the northeastern part of the county. She murdered, by throwing two (or three) of her children into a deep pool formed by a small water-fall, and was chasing an elder child to drown when she was apprehended. The proof was positive against her and being tried in the circuit court for the crime, she was found guilty and Judge Todd sentenced her to be hung on the 23rd day of August, 1828. There was no appeal of the case, no pardon, no commutation, no postponement of the execution, and on the day appointed was executed by Colonel Shubael Allen, then sheriff.
The first State Senator from Clay County was elected in 1826, was Martin Parmer, a great grandfather of the noted and famous Allen Par- mer, brother-in-law of the James boys, and celebrated "Bushwhacker" of Civil War times. Parmer discounted all men of his generation, or for that matter, any other generation, in his conversation and ways, and had attached to him the sobriquet of "The Ring Tailed Painter". He was a man of more than ordinary shrewdness, unlettered, but more cultivated than he ordinarily exhibited. Wetmore's Gazetteer gives the following incident that occurred during Parmer's career as State Senator:
"When the time approached for the meeting of the Legislature, Par- mer loaded a small keel with salt on the Missouri, above Hardeman's plantation, and having taken the helm himself, manned the vessel with his son and a negro. Uniting, as he did, business and politics, while afloat on the river he stood astride of the tiller with a newspaper in hand (not more than six weeks old) out of which he was spelling, with all his
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might, some of the leading points of a political essay. At this critical period the assemblyman was reminded by his vigilant son in the bow, of a break of a 'sawyer head'. 'Wait a minnit', said he, 'until I spell out this other crack-jaw; its longer than the barrel of my rifle gun', but the current of the Missouri was no respecter of persons or words, the 'river went ahead', and the boat ran foul of the nodding obstruction and was thrown on her beam ends. The next whirlpool turned her keel upper- most. The cargo was discharged into the bowels of the deep, and there his salt lost its savor. The negro, in a desperate struggle for life, swam for the shore, but the steersman, who, like a politician, determined to stick to the ship as he would to his party, as long as a timber or a fish floated, continued to keep uppermost. Having divested themselves of their apparel to be in readiness for swimming, the father and son con- tinued astride the keel until the wreck was landed at the town of Frank- lin. Here the old hunter, who was a lean citizen, was kindly supplied by a stout gentleman with a suit of clothes, which hung like the morals of the politician, rather loosely about him. The sufferers by shipwreck were invited into the habitation of a gentleman who dwelt near the shore on which they had been cast.
"While recounting their perils at the breakfast table, the lady who was administering coffee, inquired of the politician if his little son had not been greatly alarmed. 'No, madam', said he, 'I am a real ring-tail painter, and I feed all my children on rattlesnakes' hearts, fried in painter's grease. There are a heap of people that I would not wear crape for, if they was to die before their time, but your husband, marm, I allow, had a soul as big as a court house. When we war floating, bottom upper- most (a bad situation for the people's representative) past Hardeman's garden, we raised the yell, like a whole team of bar-dogs on a wild cat's trail, and the black rascals on the shore instead of coming to our assist- ance, only grinned up the nearest saplin as if a buck possum had treed. Now, madam, I wish God Almighty's earthquakes would sink Hardeman's d-ned plantation-begging your pardon for swearing, madam, with my feet on this kiverlid you have spread on the floor to keep it clean; I'll go to the door-we don't mind putting anything over our puncheon floors.' 'The river, marm,' continued the guest, 'I find is no respecter of per- sons, for I was cast away with as little ceremony, notwithstanding I am the people's representative, as a stray bar-dog would be turned out of a
ยท
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city church; and upon this principle of Democratic liberty and equality it was that I told McNair, when I collared him and backed him out of the gathering at a shooting match, where he was likely to spoil the prettiest kind of a fight. 'A governor,' said I, 'is no more in a fight than any other man'. I slept with Mac once, just to have it to say to my friends on Fishing River that I had slept with the governor."
There was no fixed and determined place for holding courts until 1832, when the first court house was built. Generally courts were held at the house of John Owens but oftentimes, the weather permitting, under the shade of trees standing in the present court house yard. The cost of the erection of the first court house was paid from the sale of lots in Liberty and from voluntary donations by the public. This building was built of brick. After a few years two brick offices were erected, one on the east and one on the west of the main court house. The accidental destruction by fire of the court house in 1857, led to the erection of the present edifice in 1858, one of the most convenient court houses in the state, yet it must be admitted that it is not now sufficiently com- modious to meet the requirements of the increased population of the county. The vaults for the deposit of valuable records, books and papers in the different offices, county clerk, circuit clerk, pro- bate, recorder of deeds, collector of the revenue are now completely filled with records and documents, and the time is at hand when provision must be made for the preservation of these valuables, and for the accommoda- tion of others to come. A stone jail, the first built in the county, was built just north of the Presbyterian church in 1823, by Elisha Camron, at a cost of less than six hundred dollars. This jail served for the in- carceration of criminals until 1853, when the present jails were placed in the court house basement. As a jail this stone building was demolished a few years ago. It was here that Joseph Smith, the Mormon, so-called prophet, Hiram Smith, his brother, Sidney Rigdon and other followers of the prophet were imprisoned. When these men were in jail here, an at- tempt was made by them to escape. As James H. Ford, deputy sheriff and ex-officio jailer, was opening the door of the jail one evening to hand to the inmates their supper, a rush to the door was made by several of the prisoners to make their escape and it was only by a timely shot and wounding of one of them was the escape of all the prisoners prevented. These prisoners were sent to Liberty for safe keeping, from Gallatin, in
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Davies County, where they had been indicted for various violations of the laws of the state. Until the old stone jail was demolished, it was a kind of Mecca for faithful Mormons, especially that branch of Mormons from Utah, who came to see the old jail. Jake Hicks, the old time photog- rapher of Liberty "reaped an annual harvest" from these followers of Joe Smith, for years selling them pictures of the jail.
In the fall of 1823, a road had been established through the county to "the Council Bluffs and the following year another road was ordered laid out from Liberty to the Missouri River "at a certain blue bank" (Blue Mills Landing).
Liberty township was created by the following order of the county court at its March term, 1825:
Ordered, That the following boundaries hereafter constitute the town- ships of this county :
All that part of this county which lies between the line dividing Ray and Clay Counties to the sectional line running north and south, dividing sections 9 and 10, in the tier of townships in range 31, be and constitute Fishing River township.
All that part of the county which lies between said sectional line dividing sections 9 and 10, in townships 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56 and 57, in range 31, be and constitute a new township to be called and known as Liberty township.
All that part of the county which lies west of said sectional line divid- ing sections 1 and 2, in townships 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56 and 57, in range 32, to the western boundary of the county constitute and hereafter known and designated as Gallatin township.
August following the court changed these boundaries. The western boundary of Fishing River was made the section line between sections 2 and 3, in range 31, which is now (1920), the eastern line of Liberty. The western boundary of Liberty was made the line between sections 2 and 3 in range 32, a mile west of the present boundary of the township. Gal- latin township comprised the western part of the county. All the town- ships extended from the Missouri River to the northern boundary of the state, each township about 100 miles in length.
The county court ordered a number of roads laid out in the early spring of 1825; one from Liberty to Thornton's ferry on the Missouri River; another from Liberty to the Missouri River "at the boat landing at
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the town of Gallatin". Another from Liberty "to the mouth of the Kan- sas River".
A number of ferries across the Missouri River had been previously established and others were licensed during the year 1825, "from the bank near where Wyatt Adkins lives"; one "from where Louis Barthelette now lives", as well as others. The rates were uniform: "For a loaded wagon and team, two dollars; empty wagon and team, one dollar and fifty cents ; loaded car and team, one dollar; for a Dearborn and horses, or gig and horses, sixty-two and one-half cents; horses, each eighteen and three- fourths cents; man and horse, thirty-seven and one-half cents ; single per- son, eighteen and three-fourths cents; sheep, hogs and cattle, three cents each".
The value of negroes at this early day may be approximated by an appraisement made of a number of slaves belonging to an estate: "Jiney, a cripple girl, thirty years old, $100; Anthony, Jiney's child, one year old, $100; Susan, fourteen years old, $300; Henry, thirteen years old, $336; Isaac, twenty-five years old, $450; George, thirteen years old, $316. Other personal property had the following sworn values: A horse and side- saddle, forty dollars ; cow and calf, seven dollars and fifty cents ; sow and five pigs, one dollar and fifty cents; sheep, each, one dollar; a flax wheel, three dollars; a cotton wheel, three dollars; flag-bottomed chairs, fifty cents each ; skillet, one dollar and twenty-five cents ; a good horse, twenty- five dollars.
Because steamboats began to make regular trips up the Missouri in 1830, Col. Shubael Allen established a warehouse and landing on his farm, near a ferry across the river operated by William Yates and the next year Colonel Allen obtained the ferry and operated it from the warehouse. Soon after the erection of this warehouse and landing, Allen's Landing became the shipping or starting point of a large number of the employees of the American Fur Company; boats brought vast quantities of goods and merchandise which were taken by wagons to the northeastern part of the state. One informed writing of Allen's Landing has this to state: "Until Colonel Allen's death (1841), Allen's Landing was the main point of exit and entrance of nearly all the business and travel of Northwest Missouri, in its communication with the outer world by the river, and hence there were visible at that point a degree of activity and a multitude of commercial transactions utterly unknown in these days of the degener-
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acy of the river traffic in Missouri. It was for many years the starting point of a large number of the employees of the American Fur Company in their expeditions to the plains and mountains of the great northwest. The scene presented annually on the assemblage of these employees- embracing as it did, swarthy French voyageurs; tall, half-breed Indians, straight as arrows, and dressed in wild garbs; the display of arms of all kinds, the tents scattered over the lawn, the picketed animals, the many- colored garments-the scene was unique, semi-barbarous, but animated and highly picturesque." Colonel Allen was a colonel of militia, sheriff of the county and father of a family of sons, all of whom became very prominent, quite prominent not only in the county, but well known as men of more than ordinary intelligence and enterprise throughout the northwest part of the state; two of the sons, Dr. J. M. Allen and Hon. D. C. Allen had reputations for ability everywhere in Missouri. A daughter was the wife of Major General Dyer, quarter-master general of the United States army. Col. Shubael Allen was born in the state of New York, went to Kentucky when a young man, remained in that state a short time, but sufficiently long to be made a Master Mason in 1819; came to Howard County, Missouri, married Miss Dinah Trigg, then removed to Clay County.
A dastardly attempt to murder Mrs. Dinah Allen, widow of Col. Shubael Allen, was made early in the morning of April 1, 1850, in her house. About three o'clock that morning Mrs. Allen was aroused from sleep by a blow from an axe, she having been struck in the face with the sharp edge. She ran into the room of her sons, awakening them; she announced that she was bleeding to death. It was at first thought that the wound would prove fatal. The citizens were greatly aroused and per- sistent efforts made to discover the perpetrators. At last they were found out. Mrs. Allen owned a negro woman named Annice, upon whom suspicion rested. She was arrested and placed in jail. A few days there- after she voluntarily made a confession, in which she implicated one Mc- Clintock, a white man living in Liberty. This confession was reduced to writing and published in the Liberty Tribune, in its issue of May 17, 1850, and was as follows: "Four days before the commission of the act, Mc- Clintock told me that there was a good deal of money in the house of my mistress and that I ought to kill her; that he would assist me; that we could get the money and with that we could go to California and that I would be his wife and be free. On Sunday night, the night of the com-
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mission of the crime, he came to the kitchen where I was sleeping, waked me up and we proceeded to the house. McClintock hoisted the window and got in the house and pulled me through the window after him. He approached the bed, found my mistress asleep and said to me, 'She lays right'. I took the axe which belonged to McClintock and made the lick. McClintock had the axe in his hand when I took hold. My mistress made a noise and we both ran out of the house; he went to his own house, a few hundred yards off and I went back to the kitchen and laid down on the bed."
After the confession of Annice, McClintock was arrested and placed in jail. . Recently and prior to this terrible attempt to assassinate one of the most prominent and popular women in the county, several attempts to commit murder of whites by negroes had been made and the concensus of opinion was that speedy justice must be meted out to the guilty, in order to remedy this condition of affairs. The day after the arrest and imprisonment of McClintock, a mass meeting of the citizens was held to determine what should be done in the premises. Under the laws of the state no slave testimony could be taken in court and in this case, the only evidence was that of Annice. She was brought before the meeting as- sembled and face to face to McClintock firmly declared that he was the sole instigator of the attempted murder. No better class of men ever assembled to consider any matter and no men ever calmer and more deliberately considered any case than these citizens did this one. They knew that under the laws of Missouri, a slave like Annice could not testify in court; they knew there was no law for their action; but justice must be meted out; that the law was not adequate to bring to justice the perpetrators of this infamous crime; that an outrageous crime had been committed, and the guilty must suffer and it was so determined. A vote was being taken as to the guilt of Annice, when a cry was made, "Hang both of them! Hang Mcclintock too". The vote for hanging both of them was unanimously carried. They were hanged about a mile north- west of Liberty, near the road running from Liberty to Plattsburg, the old line road. The meeting was composed of all classes of citizens, farm- ers in large numbers, lawyers, doctors, merchants, mechanics and others. Its proceedings were endorsed generally by the best classes of citizens, though they admitted there was no law for their action and their course irregular. No attempt was made to interfere with them.
A writer in the Liberty Tribune of December 19, 1846, thus writes
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of Clay County. Who the writer was can not be stated, as he is not now known. He signed himself "Old Settler".
"In the month of December, 1829, I saw for the first time the county of Clay and the town of Liberty. I remember it well. I entered the county by way of Meek's (then Jack's) ferry, and I had not ridden more than a mile or two before I saw an opossum and I got off my horse and killed it.
"What changes have taken place since that day! The whole Platte Vcountry was then inhabited by the Iowa, Sac and Fox Indians; there were only one or two families in what are now Clinton, Dekalb, Gentry, Cald- well, Davies and Harrison Counties. Clay County was the ultima thule of Western emigration and Liberty was regarded as the paradise of West- ern towns. Compared to the neighboring towns it was so, for Richmond, Lexington and Independence scarcely deserved the name of towns and Plattsburg was not then in existence.
"In these days Liberty was a thriving town. It was the headquarters of the Upper Missouri, and Liberty Landing was the head of navigation, except occasionally steamboats would go up to Fort Leavenworth. There was no warehouse then at our landing. The arrival of a boat was an- nounced by the firing of a cannon four or five miles below and by the time it reached Colonel Allen's all the merchants would be there, as well as half the town and neighborhood. Freight was high, but money was plentiful and everybody thought there was no other such a place as Clay County. The thought of ever being in want of a market for the surplus production of the county never once entered into any of our minds.
"The change is wonderful in this and the surrounding country since 1829. The Indians have left the Platte country and now there are at least three counties in it that contain as heavy a population as Clay, viz : Buchanan, Platte and Andrew.
"In 1830, an election for senator, representative and sheriff took place. I attended a muster at Judge Elisha Cameron's and heard the candi- dates speak. Jacksonism at that time was in its zenith and rode over everything else. A candidate had but little else to say besides declaring himself 'a Jackson man'. That was enough to defeat the best men who 'were opposed to Jackson. I recollect the speech of the famous "Neal" G-(Cornelius Gilliam) at the muster above spoken of. He was a candidate for sheriff and of course was elected. He mounted a big elm
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log and said: 'Fellow Citizens-I am a Jackson man up to the hub. I have killed more wolves and broke down more nettles than any man in Clay County. I am a candidate for sheriff, and I want your votes.' He then dismounted and a 'Hurrah for Neil' was given by the crowd. In 1832, the Jackson spell was somewhat broken, as the Clay County Whigs succeeded in electing Dr. Woodson J. Moss to the Legislature along with Col. Thornton. The Whigs have been in the ascendancy ever since."
CHAPTER IV.
INDIAN TROUBLES.
PROXIMITY OF INDIANS-THE VASSER FAMILY-INDIANS AT MCELWEE'S PLACE -MARTIN PALMER-A FIGHT WITH INDIANS-TWO INDIANS KILLED-BLACK HAWK WAR-TROOPS ORGANIZED-THE "HETHERLY WAR".
In close proximity to Clay County were a number of bands or tribes of Indians, yet not hostile, no outbreaks or collisions between them and the pioneers until 1821. Several versions of a hostile character on the part of Indians toward the white settlers have been given, but the most authentic statement of the facts of the acts of a party of Indians during this year is as follows and as published by The National Historical Company :
"Up in what is now the northwestern part of the county lived the Vesser family, whose adult male members were not above suspicion in many regards. Especially were they accused of frequently acquiring property by questionable means. Their fondness for horses was a peculiar weakness. On one occasion in the summer of 1821. they visited a camp of Iowa Indians up in the Platte country and carried away some horses belonging to the savages.
"It was some time in the month of August of that year, probably when nine Iowa Indians came down into the Clay County settlements to take reprisal for the horses stolen from them by the Vessers. To the south- eastern part of the county, three miles northeast of where Missouri City now stands (northwest quarter section 31, township 52, range 30), David McElwee had come from Tennessee the previous year and had built a house and opened a farm. At the time of the visit of the Indians. how-
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ever, he was back in Tennessee on a visit, having taken with him his wife and daughter, the latter now Mrs. Margaret Howdeshell. He left behind to care for the house and farm his sons, James and William and his daughter Sarah, all young unmarried people.
"The nine Indians came to Mr. McElwee's one evening and took three horses belonging to the settler from the stable, and seized another which they were prevented from carrying off only by the stubborn and plucky interposition of young James McElwee. The Indians seemed greatly elated at the ease with which they had "got even" with the whites in the matter of horse stealing, and at once sent off the three captured animals in charge of two of their number, to the tribe. The other seven Indians went into camp for the night within fifty yards of Mr. McElwee's house.
"The young McElwees were in great terror to be sure. But when their father left he had charged them that if ever in danger from Indians they had only to let the nearest neighbor know of it, and they would soon be relieved. On this occasion they contrived to let Mr. Tom Officer know their situation, and soon the entire settlement was informed that seven Indians had already taken three horses from the McElwee young folks and were threatening them by their presence with further damage and injury.
"The next morning early came okl Martin Parmer, and with him Patrick Laney, Thomas Officer, James Officer, David Liles, William Liles, James Woollard and Brummett. With them were Mrs. Jane Laney, wife of Patrick Laney, and Miss Mary Crawford, who had come for companionship for Miss McElwee.
"The Indians were a little startled by the appearance of the settlers, but stoutly maintained that what they had done was justifiable and alto- gether proper. Old Martin Parmer was not in a mood to discuss the principles of the lex talionis and its applicability to this case. He never let an opportunity pass to have a fight with the Indians. Two years be- fore, in a fight of his own bringing on, down on the Wakenda, in Carroll County, he and his party killed three Indians and wounded a number more. His voice was always for war, or at least for a fight, when there was the smallest provocation.
"The discussion in McElwee's door-yard grew warm, and at last Par-V mer said something to one of the Indians which so incensed him that he
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presented his gun at Parmer, and cocked it, but before he could fire Par- mer shot him dead. A fierce and stubborn little fight then came off in the door-yard. Both whites and Indians ran to cover. Two of the In- dians ran into the house where the ladies were, but seeing them coming, Miss McElwee ran out doors, and Mrs. Laney and Miss Crawford took refuge under a bed. The Indians outside were defeated and scattered, one of them being wounded. Those in the house closed the door tightly and bravely held the fort. But at last the whites climbed to the top of the house and began tearing away the roof, when the savages suddenly opened the door and sprang forth, hoping to escape by swift running. Some of the settlers were waiting for them, and one was shot dead be- fore he had gotten twenty feet from the door; the other escaped.
"The fight was over. Two Indians had been killed, and one, at least was wounded. Three of the unharmed survivors made their way in safety back to the tribe, but the remaining one was never heard of. It was believed that he, too, was wounded, and crawled off into the woods and died. The one known to have been wounded made his way to Fort Osage, where he was cared for until he recovered, and was then sent back to his tribe.
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