USA > Missouri > Clay County > History of Clay County, Missouri > Part 8
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Headquarters, Liberty, Mo., Sept. 9, 1863.
Special Order:
All persons who are leaving General Ewing's district in compliance with his order (No. 11) are hereby prohibited from stopping in this county to reside. All those failing to comply with this order will be escorted beyond the lines of the county.
JOHN R. GREEN. Major Commanding Post.
By Robt. W. Fleming, Act. Post. Adjt.
Among the men who went with Quantrel from Jackson County to the City of Lawrence, were several from Clay County. It was currently be- lieved that John D. Holt, Frank and Jesse James and Ninian (Ning) Letton were among the number. There was intense alarm in the county after the sacking of Lawrence. Many Kansans were disposed to organize, go into Missouri and seek vengeance. General Ewing being apprised of the intention of these people of Kansas, notified military officials in Missouri, who took the necessary precautions to prevent the men from carrying out their designs. Troops were placed near all ferries and crossings ready and willing to meet the invaders. Ascertaining that Federal troops were
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HISTORY OF CLAY COUNTY
ready to meet these Kansans should they attempt to enter Missouri with their criminal designs, the expedition was abandoned.
Numerous raids by bushwhackers were made in the county during the early part of 1864, and the summer of that year. A body of thieves under command of one Sanders, claiming to be a part of Jennison's regi- ment of Kansas, one night in the month of January, captured Missouri City, where were located a small number of enrolled militia under com- mand of Capt. George S. Story, taking the captain and the militia prison- ers. After plundering Nowlin's store of all it contained, fled before the rising of the sun. The most notorious bushwhacker with his followers of about sixty men, was Charles Fletcher Taylor, whose home was at Inde- pendence. "Fletch" Taylor, Peyto Long, of Liberty, Arch Clements and James Bissitt, of Jackson County, all bushwhackers, were charged with killing, in cold blood, one Bradley Bond, an ex-Federal soldier, who was living quietly at his home. No positive proof, however, was ever known that these men were guilty of the crime, for crime it was, the man being called to his door and murdered. A day or two afterwards Alvis Daily was working in his field, when he was shot to death. His family were notified that bushwhackers did the deed because Daily belonged to the company which killed Park Donovan about a year before.
Lieut .- Col. J. C. C. Thornton was an officer under Col. John H. Winston, both of whom were, or had been, recruiting for Gen. Sterling Price's army, Colonel Winston had been taken prisoner at his home in Platte County and had been confined some weeks in prison at Alton, Illinois. Colonel Thorn- ton, with Threlkill, Fletch Taylor and their forces, about the 10th day of July, captured Platte City with Capt. Davis Johnson and his command of about 100 men. The news was carried to Liberty which created great alarm among the militia and the people generally. The night of the day the news was received every able bodied man in the town was required to be in the court house or the court house yard. Captain Kemper, the commander of the troops or militia, was taken from the Arthur House on a litter, he having been seriously wounded a few days prior thereto by bushwhackers in a fight on Fishing River. A few days thereafter Col. J. H. Ford, of a Colorado regiment, and Lieut .- Col. D. R. Anthony, of Jen- nison's regiment, with their respective regiments marched through Platte City to Liberty, leaving behind them death and desolation. Platte City was almost entirely destroyed by fire; peaceable and law abiding old
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HISTORY OF CLAY COUNTY
citizens, Gragg, Reddish and others called to their doors and shot to death. A meeting was called for all citizens to be at the court house to devise ways and means to get rid of all bushwhackers in the county. The chair- man of the meeting was Edward M. Samuel, a Union man of long resi- dence in the county. The chief and only spokesman on the occasion was Colonel Ford. He commenced his remark by saying, "I don't know what to say to you damned people, etc." What good resulted from this meet- ing is not known. General Schofield, commanding the Missouri Military Division quickly ordered these regiments back to Leavenworth, from whence they came. They were not permitted to return through Platte County, but were taken from Liberty Landing by steamboat to Leaven- worth. While the commands of Ford and Anthony were in Liberty they were turned loose upon the people and permitted to commit the wildest excesses upon the citizens of the place; stores were robbed. They would steal whatever they could and abused the citizens without let or hindrance. The next day after the soldiery were suffeited, for the time being, Colonel Ford issued a general order that stealing, robbing and pillaging from the citizens of these counties must not be allowed.
From July to the end of the year roving bands of bushwhackers in- fested the county and predatory squads and larger companies of state militia roamed over the county to the unrest and constant dread of peace- able, law abiding citizens.
The news of the surrender of General Lee was a quietus to this kind of warfare. The Confederate people of Clay County became resigned to the inevitable and looked forward to the future in hopes for peace.
The telegraph brought the news of the assassination of President Lincoln which was received with the greatest regret by all classes. In Liberty all stores were closed. A large meeting was held to give ex- pression to the prevailing sentiment of sorrow. A series of resolutions were unanimously passed condemning the assassin and deploring the death of the President as a great national calamity. The committee who intro- duced the resolutions were composed of Col. A. J. Calhoun (cousin of John C. Calhoun, of South Carolina), Frederick Gwinner, Maj. Samuel Hard- wicke and Judge John Broadhurst.
The last of the bushwhackers in Clay County were those under the command of Ol. Shepherd, who on the 28th day of May, 1865, surrendered in Liberty to Lieutenant Cooper, of Captain Younger's company of state
Santa le Trail
EARLY DAY TRANSPORTATION
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HISTORY OF CLAY COUNTY
militia. They were only five in number, the other members of the band having left the county. The surrender occurred after several notes had passed between the militia lieutenant and Ol. Shepherd, the commander of the bushwhackers. Those who surrendered were Ol. Shepherd, who in 1868, was killed by a vigilance committee in Jackson County ; Ninian Let- ton, who afterwards became city marshal of Liberty, and sheriff of Clay County, James and Alfred Corum and Milton Dryden.
CHAPTER VIII.
AFTER THE CIVIL WAR.
DRAKE CONSTITUTION-CLAY COUNTY SAVINGS ASSOCIATION ROBBED-DIS- FRANCHISEMENT-DEMOCRATS SUPPORT B. GRATZ BROWN FOR GOVERNOR -HOW THE NEGRO VOTE WAS SECURED-RESULT-THE WOODSON-MCCARTY SENATORIAL CAMPAIGN-RAILROADS-GRASSHOPPER YEAR - POLITICAL ISSUES AND ECONOMIC CONDITIONS-INDUSTRIES-VALUATION-ELECTION OF 1920-DEMOCRATS CARRY CLAY COUNTY.
The most drastic, undemocratic and objectionable document ever promulgated as a Constitution of a state, was the so-called Drake Consti- tution of 1865. Armed soldiers were stationed at all polling places on election day. June 6, 1865, to see that no one not loyal should cast votes against the infamous document. Thousands of men stayed away from the poles. Only 918 votes were cast in Clay County for and against the adoption of the constitution, as follows :
Liberty township
For
31 Against 528
Fishing River township
For
25
Against 102
Washington township
For
1 Against 121
Platte township
For
33 Against 26
Gallatin township
For none Against 113
90
890
Majority against constitution 800.
On the northeast corner of the public square in the city of Liberty is located a two-story brick building, originally erected by the Farmers Bank of Missouri for a branch bank, but on the 13th day of February,
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HISTORY OF CLAY COUNTY
1866, the lower story of the building was and had been for several years, occupied as the bank of the Clay County Savings Association. On this day a band of brigands from Clay, Jackson and other counties robbed this association , of about $60,000 and escaped. At the time the bank was looted a snow was falling and continued to fall so that by the time sheriff and his posse could go in pursuit of the outlaws it was impossible to fol- low the trail, the snow having obliterated or covered up their tracks. It is known that the bandits crossed the Missouri River into Jackson County the same day. Several persons believed to be implicated in the robbery were arrested charged with the crime, but on investigation there was not sufficient proof of guilt. The Liberty Tribune in its next issue after the robbery published the following account :
"Our usually quiet city was startled last Tuesday by one of the most cold-blooded murders and heavy robberies on record. It appears that in the afternoon some ten or twelve persons rode into town and two of them went into the Clay County Savings Bank and asked the clerk, William Bird, to change a ten dollar bill and as he started to do so, they drew their revolvers on him and his father, Mr. Greenup Bird, the cashier, and made them stand quiet while they proceeded to rob the bank. After hav- ing obtained what they supposed was all, they put the clerk and cashier in the vault and no doubt thought they had locked the door and went out with their stolen treasure, mounted their horses and were joined by the balance of their gang and commenced shooting. Mr. S. H. Holmes had two shots fired at him and young George Wymore, aged about nineteen years (son of William H. Wymore), one of the most peaceable and promis- ing young men in the county was shot and killed while standing on the opposite side of the street at the corner of the old Green house. The killing was a deliberate murder without any provocation whatever, for neither young Wymore nor any of the citizens of town, previous to the shooting, knew anything of what had taken place. Indeed, so quiet had the matter been managed, if the robbers had succeeded in locking the bank vault on the clerk and cashier and had retired quietly, it would likely have been some time before the robbery would have been discovered.
"The town was soon all excitement and as many as could procure arms and horses went in pursuit, but up to this writing nothing is known of the result. Our citizens exhibited a commendable willingness to do all they could to assist in the capture of the robbers and their booty.
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HISTORY OF CLAY COUNTY
"Thus has our city and people been grossly outraged by a band of thieves and murderers and that too, when the people thought they were in possession of permanent peace and a worthy young man murdered, one of the most successful and ably managed monied institutions and many private individuals have been heavy losers. We hope to God, the villians may be overhauled and brought to the end of a rope. Indeed, we can not believe they will escape.
"The murderers and robbers are believed by many citizens and the officers of the bank to be a gang of bushwhacking desperadoes who stay mostly in Jackson County. But it makes no difference who they are or what they claim to be, they should be swung up in the most summary manner. Robbing and murdering must be stopped and if it requires severe medicine to do it, so be it. Desperate cases require desperate remedies, and we believe our people are in the humor to make short work of such characters in the future The people of Clay County want peace and safety and they are going to have it.
"The robbers obtained about $60,000 in gold currency and 7:30's U. S. bonds-about $45,000 of the amount was in 7:30's.
"Although the Clay County Association offered a reward of $5,000, no one was ever arrested who was convicted of the murder or robbery. The Association was temporarily suspended, but settled with all creditors by paying sixty cents on the dollar, which was satisfactory to creditors."
Under the Drake Constitution of 1865, at least three-fourths of the men of Clay County were disfranchised. The greater part of them being the better class of our citizenship. Take as an example, the lawyers: only two of about fifteen lawyers, resident attorneys, were allowed to vote. The Democratic committee of the county for years were lawyers Thomas McCarty, Henry L. Routt, D. C. Allen, James E. Lincoln and William H. Woodson ; not one of whom was permitted to vote, a right, however, which was vouchsafed to any and all negro men in the county. For years before an election, all men who proposed to vote at the election must be first registered and unless they measured up to the standard of loyalty as re- quired by the registration officers, who, in Clay County, with one or two exceptions, were invariably of the lowest class of our people they were not permitted to register as voters. In 1868, a time when men were dis- franchised, the vote for President was, Seymour, Democrat, 320; Grant, Republican, 291. In 1872, when there was no registration of voters, the
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HISTORY OF CLAY COUNTY
vote in Clay County for President was, Greeley, Democrat, 2,207; Grant, Republican, 528 ; O'Conner, "straight" Democrat, 27. For governor, Wood- son, Democrat, 2,472; Henderson, Republican, 527.
In 1870, the Radical Republicans of the state nominated Joseph W. McClure for governor. The Democrats declined to make a nomination for the office but recommended that all Democrats support B. Gratz Brown, the Liberal Republican candidate for that office. If Brown was elected then, in that event, notice was given by the people that no longer was registration and proscription of voters wanted in this state. Great interest was manifested in the race for governor, as well as the election for minor offices. In Clay County a movement was started to secure the negro vote for Brown for governor, and for the county ticket. Every night for over a week prior to the election, the colored people, male and female were invited to come to the court house, where they were entertained with speeches by one or more of the Democratic committee, after which re- freshments, oysters, etc., were served, the evening closing with a dance. The first evening or two, there was but slight attendance of the colored people, but as the entertainments became more interesting and the speeches more and more convincing, the night before the election, it was believed that not a negro man or negro woman in the county had failed to put in his or her appearance, who was physically able to do so.
Colonel Woodson was chairman of the meeting with nineteen negro vice-presidents. Had the platform been larger, the colored people were assured there would have been more vice-presidents. Colonel Routt was the speaker of the evening and although he spoke for an hour and a half and although he signally failed to utter one single truth, yet his speech had a most telling effect on his audience. With tears in his eyes, Colonel Routt would have the chairman read, time and again, the iniquitous pro- visions of a bill the Republicans intended introducing in the Legislature of the state to become a law provided Joseph W. McClure was elected governor. The most shocking part of the bill was to levy a tax upon every colored person in the state, male and female, over the age of eighteen years in the sum of fifty dollars. The bill, when it became a law, was to take effect in thirty days after its passage. Then the assessor in every county should make the assessment and if the person so assessed did not pay the fifty dollars to the collector of the revenue within thirty days thereafter, the party should be arrested to answer an indictment to be
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HISTORY OF CLAY COUNTY
preferred by the grand jury. The penalty for the non-payment was two years in the state penitentiary. There was a preamble to the bill explana- tory to the effect, that it was to show the appreciation of the colored people to the Republican party, first, for having manumitted them and next for having given them the electoral franchise. Colonel Routt made a most pathetic appeal to his colored fellow citizens and produced a great sensation at one period of his address, when with tears streaming down his face, he cried out with agonizing voice to an old crippled colored friend who sat before him, "James Tuggles, my dear old colored friend, you with whom I played on the green in the good old state of Kentucky, where is the fifty dollars you've got to pay. Where is the fifty dollars your wife, old Aunt Nancy has got to pay ; where is the fifty dollars your son, Jim. has got to pay; where is the fifty dollars your daughter, Lizzie, has got to pay ?" and the colonel knowing exactly fourteen of old Jim's children, called out each of their names and inquiring where was the fifty dollars each one had to pay. Old Uncle Jim, looking up at the colonel, sobbing as if his heart was broken, cried out, "Mars Henry, we ain't got a d-d cent."
James Love, a former prominent educator in the county, was the Radical Republican candidate for the Legislature. Henry Smith, a prom- inent lawyer, was the Liberal Republican candidate against Mr. Love and was elected by receiving the solid negro vote of the county. Had not the negro vote been cast for Smith. Love would have been elected. The St. Louis Republic commenting on the negro vote of Clay County having been given to B. Gratz Brown for governor, among other things said: "If in the future there were any counties in Missouri anxious to get the votes of the negroes and didn't know exactly how to get them, we would sug- gest taking lessons from the Clay County Democratic Committee."
The old third senatorial district of this state was composed of the counties of Clay, Clinton and Platte. For many years prior, and subse- quent to 1872, the custom was to alternate in the selection of a state senator. The district was very largely Democratic. so much so that the Republicans never even thought of making a nomination for that office. Clinton had the senator for the four years preceding 1872, and now it was Clay County's time to select a Democrat for senator, subject, of. course, to a ratification of a convention to be held later on. Before the Democratic voters of the county, there were four candidates: Col. Lewis
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HISTORY OF CLAY COUNTY
J. Wood, Capt. Thomas McCarty, John R. Kellar and William H. Woodson. The 2nd day of June was the day selected when a mass meeting of the Democracy of the county would be held at Liberty to select delegates to a senatorial convention. The county had been thoroughly canvassed by the different candidates, and great excitement and zeal prevailed among all the people, so much so, that when the hour arrived for the mass meeting, the public square was filled with excited men, while at the second story windows of all business houses, the women could be seen; they too taking the most active interest in what the meeting would do. The crowd was entirely too great to get into the court house, and the meeting was organ- ized, and held east of the court house, with Henry L. Routt, as chairman, Judge James M. Sandusky, as Secretary, and others occupying the stone porch of the court house. To ascertain the strength of the various candi- dates, it was determined that all the friends of McCarty should go to the northeast corner of the court house yard; Woodson's friends to the south- east ; Keller's to the southwest ; Col. Wood's to the northwest. The friends of each candidate started to the respective stands. It was apparent that Woodson's friends were the most numerous. Col. Wood, seeing this, ad- vised his friends to go over to Woodson, which they did in a body. The McCarty followers, seeing the overwhelming numbers against them, did not all go to the place allotted them. The Kellar men were few in num- ber. A motion was made that the various candidates be represented in the senatorial convention with their respective strength, which. although defeated, was declared by the chairman to be carried. The convention met at Plattsburg. Clinton County, on the day appointed. Woodson was nominated; McCarty bolted the convention, and made the race as an inde- pendent democrat. Then commenced the most exciting and hotly contested senatorial race which ever took place in Missouri. All the old politicians in the district took sides with MeCarty, and wherever MeCarty made speeches. from two to half a dozen of these old "war horses" were with him, and likewise made speeches in McCarty's behalf. Meetings were held in nearly all the school houses in Clay, Clinton and Platte counties. The only speeches made in behalf of Woodson were made by himself. These political meetings continued until the night before the election in November. At Barry, in Clay; Parkville and Weston, in Platte, the audience would not permit MeCarty to answer Woodson; yet when the election took place, McCarty carried those precincts, and had sufficient majority in Platte
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HISTORY OF CLAY COUNTY
to more than overcome Woodson's majorities in Clay and Clinton. Mc- Carty's majority was small, in the district.
One branch, the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad passes through Clay County. Originally the road was chartered before the war between the states, and was called the Kansas City, Galveston and Lake Superior. Afterward the name was changed to the Kansas City and Cameron. Afterward it was merged into the Hannibal and St. Joseph, February 14, 1870, and is now known as the C. B. & Q. Railroad. This road was completed to Liberty in the fall of 1867. This enterprise was of great benefit to the county, as it gave an outlet for the produce of the county to the markets of the world. besides stimulated immigration to the county ; it created no less than six towns and villages, and added material wealth by the development of agricultural activities throughout the en- tire country.
The following year, 1868, the St. Louis, Kansas City and Northern railroad was extended through the county. The name was changed to the Wabash, St. Louis and Pacific.
Under a contract with the Hannibal and St. Joseph road, the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad Company commenced in 1871 to run passenger and freight trains over this road, but was not allowed to take on or discharge passengers or freight in the county.
In the month of May, 1875, Clay County was devastated of almost all vegetation. Great swarms of grasshoppers made their appearance, eat- ing every green vegetable, corn, wheat, oats, grass, and in many instances the leaves of the trees. So vast were their numbers that to war on them, to try to exterminate them, was futile. Farmers who did not have prov- ender in their barns for their stock were compelled to take their animals to other counties, to prevent starvation, or to be at no little expense in providing food for them. Cattle were driven to counties along the Iowa line for grass. Fortunately the grasshoppers left the county in time to replant corn, other cereals, and seeds of various kinds, so that good crops were raised.
It has been well said that Missouri politics for thirty years after 1875 seem monotonous and uneventful. Year after year the Democrats carried the state in national and state elections. The nominal issues were those of the reconstruction times ; the Democrats insisted on economy and conservation and denounced the carpet bag regime in the South, the
145
HISTORY OF CLAY COUNTY
iron-clad oath, the sale of railroads, and the heavy debt in Missouri. As the party became better united, the more positive leaders came to the front. Gov. John S. Phelps had served in Congress from 1844 to 1862, had commanded a regiment in the Union Army and aided Blair in the organization of the Democratic party. He was succeeded by another Union Democrat, T. T. Crittenden, and he in turn by a Confederate briga- dier-general, John S. Marmaduke. With Marmaduke the older line ends and the later governors are younger men who took no part in the great struggle.
After the panic of 1873, the reconstruction issues, although nomin- ally dominant in politics, were really subordinate in the minds of the people to the newer economic and social problems. Times were hard and the westerners believed, rightly or wrongly, that their troubles were due to the excessive rates and discriminations of the railroads and to a car- rency which enabled the East to exploit the West. In Missouri the de- mand that the government remedy these evils did not lead to any consid- erable third party movement, but the Assembly made some attempt to regulate the railroads through a railroad commission. The demand for the free coinage of silver was generally endorsed and found one of its earliest and ablest champions at Washington in Richard P. Bland. In the '80s the revival of prosperity temporarily obscured this economic and social unrest and the Democrats maintained their unity. Governors D. R. Francis and W. J. Stone, a former member of Congress, received sub- stantial majorities. Francis was later a member of Cleveland's cabinet and Stone has represented Missouri in the United States Senate. Until 1903 the Democrats re-elected to the United States Senate Cockrell and Vest, first chosen in 1879, two senators who worthily continued the tra- ditions of Benton, Henderson and Schurz.
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