History of Clay and Platte Counties, Missouri : written and compiled from the most authentic official and private sources, including a history of their townships, towns, and villages, together with a condensed history of Missouri; a reliable and detailed history of Clay and Platte Counties --their pioneer record, resources, biographical sketches of prominent citizens., Part 19

Author:
Publication date: 1885
Publisher: St. Louis : National Historical Co.
Number of Pages: 1156

USA > Missouri > Platte County > History of Clay and Platte Counties, Missouri : written and compiled from the most authentic official and private sources, including a history of their townships, towns, and villages, together with a condensed history of Missouri; a reliable and detailed history of Clay and Platte Counties --their pioneer record, resources, biographical sketches of prominent citizens. > Part 19
USA > Missouri > Clay County > History of Clay and Platte Counties, Missouri : written and compiled from the most authentic official and private sources, including a history of their townships, towns, and villages, together with a condensed history of Missouri; a reliable and detailed history of Clay and Platte Counties --their pioneer record, resources, biographical sketches of prominent citizens. > Part 19

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Jim Lane marched through Southern Iowa into Nebraska and then down into Kansas at the head of a small army of mounted men, hav- ing with them cannon and a goodly supply of shot and shell. Cannon were smuggled into the Territory and mounted at Lawrence and Topeka. To meet these, the Missourians carried over other pieces of artillery taking them wherever they could find them.

The whole matter of the Kansas question, when viewed fairly and impartially, and when the elements of fraud and violence are contem- plated, resolves itself into the homely expressed case of " six of one and half a dozen of the other." Many things were done by each side which were very discreditable, but the faults were nearly, if not quite, equally divided, and the honors and dishonors were easy.

CENSUS OF 1850.

The total population of Clay county in 1850 was 10,332, as fol- lows : Whites, 7,590; blacks, 2,732. The number of heads of fami- lies was 1,352; number of school children, 2,403; number of farms, 1,000 ; number of deaths during the year, 151; amount of hemp raised in the county during the year, 1,232 tons. The population of Liberty was 827.

CENSUS OF 1856.

White males, 4,856 ; females, 4,327; total whites, 9,183. Slaves, 3,353 ; free negroes, 45; total colored, 3,398. Total population,

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HISTORY OF CLAY COUNTY.

12,581. Number of whites able to read and write, 5,395. Number of horses, 4,410 ; cattle, 9,585 ; mules, 1,495. Valuation of slave property, $1,496,630 ; total valuation, $5,456,595. Amount of tax for the year, $11,543.17.

MISCELLANEOUS.

From 1850 to 1855, steamboating was very active on the Missouri. Frequently four or five fine boats passed up and down daily. Some of the steamers of 1853 making trips regularly between St. Louis and Weston, Leavenworth and St. Joseph were the Banner State, Isabel, F. X. Aubrey, Robert Campbell, Timour No. 2, Polar Star, Clara, Ben West and Sonora. In August, 1853, the Polar Star made one trip from St. Louis to Liberty Landing in 52 hours and 47 minutes, mak- ing all intervening landings and losing three and a half hours. This was regarded as exceptionally fast time.

Upon the death of Dr. Wm. Jewell, in Liberty, August 7, 1852, a large public meeting was held and eulogistic resolutions of the philan- thropist's character adopted. A very large funeral procession paraded the streets.

In October, 1853, the Clay County Agricultural Society was formed. W. E. Price was the first president, and W. T. Withers, secretary. The first fair of the society was held on the grounds, near Liberty, October 12, 13, and 14, 1854. Exhibitors from all the adjoining counties competed.

A teacher's institute was formed at Liberty, June 10, 1854. Prof. James Love was the first president ; R. W. Fleming, vice-president ; N. R. Stone, recording secretary ; O. H. O'Neal, corresponding secre- tary ; B. F. Woods, treasurer ; L. M. Lawson, librarian and A. W. Doniphan, R. C. Morton, David Brown, A. D. Brooks and B. F. Haw- kins the board of managers. The organization existed some years and held numerous interesting meetings.

The drouth in the year 1854 was quite severe in this county, and the following October wheat was quoted at from $1.37 to $1.72 per bushel, and corn was worth 60 cents.

When the financial distress of 1857 came upon Clay county the people had their pockets filled with free bank paper, much of which proved worthless, and many men were pretty badly injured by the crash. However, there was plenty of good money in the country, and it was not long until the county had well recovered.

In January, 1859, there was $20,000 worth of slaves sold in Liberty in one day, the greater number belonging to the estates of John Capps

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HISTORY OF CLAY COUNTY.

and Joel Estes. Of the Capps negroes Sarah, aged 47, brought $447, Gincey, aged 28, and her children aged three years and fourteen months, $1,200 ; George, aged 22, $1,265 ; Howard, aged 19, $1,280. Of the Estes negroes, Margaret, aged 17, sold for $1,025 ; Mack, aged 9, $601 ; Carmy, 15 (unsound ), $600.

Some time in June, 1859, a meeting was held in Liberty, in aid of a railroad " from Kansas City to the North Missouri, at some point in Randolph county." The road then contemplated was to pursue sub- stantially the route over which now runs the Kansas City ofancn of the Wabash, St. Louis & Pacific, from Moberly, in Randolph county, to Kansas City. A large meeting in favor of a road on this line was held at Richmond in July.

Prof. Oliver H. Cunningham, the well known teacher, whose schools in Liberty from 1844 to about 1858 were attended by so many Clay county people, died in Richmond, in the spring of 1859.

BUILDING OF THE PRESENT COURT-HOUSE.

May 19, 1857, the county court decided to build the present court- house, on the site of the old building, and appropriated $35,000 there- for. The plan was furnished by Peter McDuff, of Weston, who was appointed commissioner and paid $6 per day.

The contractors were Crump & Thompson, and the building was finally completed and accepted November 9, 1859, but it had been oc- cupied by the courts and clerks for some time previously. The jail had also been used for the confinement of prisoners. The total cost of the building was about $41,000.

Aside from the holding of courts the first public use to which the circuit court room was put was when, in the spring of 1860, Prof. T. S. Rarey, the renowned horse-tamer, was allowed to use it for a series of lectures.

THE KANSAS CITY AND CAMERON RAILROAD.

Upon the completion of the Hannibal and St. Joseph railroad, in February, 1859 -and even before - a project had been on foot to build a branch of that road from Cameron to Kansas City via Lib- erty. The new town of Cameron had been laid out by E. M. Samuel and other Liberty men, who were interested in its prosperity almost to the extent that they were in their home town, and the enterprise was pushed vigorously.

In the early summer of 1860 the county was thoroughly canvassed on the question of the county court's making a subscription of $200,-

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HISTORY OF CLAY COUNTY.

000 to the proposed branch road. The sense of the people was to be ascertained at a special election held June 11. The towns of Missouri City and Smithville opposed the subscription, but the vote was largely in its favor, as follows :-

Townships.

For.

Against.

Liberty

595

Gallatin

286

Fishing River

400

Washington

232

Platte

282

Total

1,200

832

The county court duly made the subscription, and a month or two later (in August) an additional appropriation of $25,000. Private subscriptions were also obtained to the amount of nearly $25,000 more.

In August the contract was let for the building of the road to J. A. Quealey, of Hannibal, for $300,000. This included the grading, bridging, tieing and laying down the iron. The leading officers of the Kansas City and Cameron road at this time were Dr. G. M. B. Maughas, president ; S. W. Bouton, secretary, and E. M. Samuel, treasurer.

THE PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN OF 1860.

In very many respects the Presidential campaign of 1860 was the most remarkable, not only in the history of Clay county, but of the United States. Its character was affected not only by preceding but suc- ceeding events. Among the former were the excited and exciting de- bates in Congress over the repeal of the Missouri Compromise and the Kansas-Nebraska controversy ; the passage by the Legislatures of various Northern States of the " personal liberty bills," which ren- dered inoperative in those States the fugitive slave law ; the John Brown raid on Harper's Ferry, West Virginia, in the fall of 1859, and various inflammatory speeches of prominent leaders of the Republican and Democratic parties in the North and in the South.

There was the greatest excitement throughout the country, and when it was in full tide the Presidential canvass opened. The slavery question was the all-absorbing one among the people. The Republi- can party, while it had not received a single vote in Clay county, had carried a large majority of the Northern States in the canvass of 1856, and every year since had received large accessions to its ranks, and

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HISTORY OF CLAY COUNTY.

under the circumstances, there being great dissensions in the Demo- cratic party, prognosticating a split, bade fair to elect its candidates. The Democratic Convention at Charleston, South Carolina, April 23, after a stormy and inharmonious session of some days, divided, and the result was the nomination of two sets of candidates - Stephen A. Douglas and Herschel V. Johnson for President and Vice-President, by the " regulars," and John C. Breckinridge and Joseph Lane by the Southern or States rights wing of the party.

The "Constitutional Union " party, made up of old Whigs, Know Nothings, and some conservative men of all parties, nominated John Bell, of Tennessee, and Edward Everett, of Massachusetts, on a plat- form composed of a single line -" The Union, the constitution and the enforcement of the laws."

The Republican party was the last to bring out its candidates. It presented Abraham Lincoln and Hannibal Hamlin, on a platform declaring, among other things, that each State had the absolute right to control and manage its own domestic institutions ; denying that the constitution, of its own force, carried slavery into the territories whose normal condition was said to be that of freedom. Epitomized, the platform meant hostility toward the extension of slavery, non-inter- ference where it really existed.

It was to be expected that Missouri, being the only border Slave State lying contiguous to the territories of Kansas and Nebraska, should be deeply concerned in the settlement of the slavery question. Her people or their ancestors were very largely from Kentucky, Ten- nessee, Virginia and other slaveholding States, and many of them owned slaves or were otherwise interested in the preservation of slavery, to which institution the success of the Republican party, it was believed, would be destructive. There were many of this class in Clay county. There was not only a selfish motive for the friendliness toward the "peculiar institution," but a sentimental one. It was thought that it would be unmanly to yield to Northern sentiment of a threatening shape or coercive character. If slavery was wrong ( which was denied) it must not be assailed at the dictations of Northern Abolitionists.

The canvass in the State was very spirited. The division in the Democratic party extended into Missouri. The Democratic State convention nominated Claiborne F. Jackson, of Saline county, for Governor. The Bell and Everett party nominated at first Robert Wilson, of Andrew, and, on his withdrawal, Hon. Sample Orr, of

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HISTORY OF CLAY COUNTY.

Greene county. Judge Orr was selected in the room of Mr. Wilson by the central committee.

Very soon the politicians began a series of maneuvers designed to develop Jackson's views on the main question before the country, and especially as to which of the two Democratic presidential candidates he favored. For a long time the wily Saline county statesman suc- ceeded in evading the question and defining his position ; but at last the Missouri Republican and other Douglas organs " smoked him out." He announced in a well written communication that he was for Douglas, because he believed him to be the regular and fairly chosen nominee of the party ; but at the same time he announced himself in favor of many of the principles of the Breckinridge party. He was called by some who disliked him " a Douglas man with Breckinridge tendencies," " a squatter sovereign on an anti-squatter sovereignty platform," etc.

When Jackson's letter appeared soon thereafter the Breckinridge men called a State convention and put in nomination Hancock Jackson, of Howard, for Governor, and Monroe M. Parsons, of Cole, for Lieutenant-Governor.

Being encouraged by the feuds in the Democratic party, the Bell and Everett men had high hopes of electing their gubernatorial can- didate at the August election, and carrying the State for " Bell, of Tennessee," the ensuing November. To this end they did everything possible to foment additional discord and widen the breach between the two wings of their opponents ; but they overdid the business. The Democrats saw through their tactics, and agreeing to disagree as to presidential candidates, practically united in the support of Jackson and Reynolds at the August election, and triumphantly elected them by a plurality of about 10,000. The vote stood: C. F. Jackson, Douglas Democrat, 74,446 ; Sample Orr, Bell and Everett, 64,583; Hancock Jackson, Breckinridge Democrat, 11,415; J. B. Gardenhire, Republican, 6,135.

In Clay county at the August election the vote was as follows : -

Governor - Sample Orr, 943; C. F. Jackson, 586 ; Hancock Jack- son, 134.

Congress - John Scott, " Union," 977 ; E. H. Norton, Democrat, 710.

Legislature- L. W. Burris, "Union," 887; J. C. Garner, " Union," 29 ; A. Harsell, " Union," 199 ; J. S. Huston, Democrat, 540; G. W. Withers, Democrat, 88.

Sheriff-R. A. Neeley, " Union," 1,640 ; no opposition.

Norton was elected to Congress by a majority of 5,000.

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HISTORY OF CLAY COUNTY.

PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION.

Nothing daunted by their defeat in August, the Bell and Everett men in Missouri kept up the fight for their Presidential candidates, and came within a few hundred votes of carrying the State for them in November, the vote standing : -

For the Douglas electors, 58,801; for the Bell electors, 58,372; for the Breckinridge electors, 31,317; for the Lincoln electors, 17,028. Douglas' majority over Bell 429, over Breckinridge, 27,484.

It is said that many Democrats voted for Bell because they thought he was the only candidate that could beat Lincoln. In the October elections the Republicans had carried Pennsylvania, Ohio and In- diana, and Lincoln's election was almost inevitable. Fusion tickets against the Republicans had been formed in New York, New Jersey, and other States, and many thought the Tennessee statesman might be elected after all.

Following was the vote in Clay at the Presidential election, 1860: Bell, 1,036; Douglas, 524; Breckinridge, 304; Lincoln, none. For circuit attorney D. C. Allen received 782 ; Samuel Hardwick, 662 ; John W. Otey, 212; A. C. Ellis, 20. Mr. Allen was elected.

During the campaign, October 22, there was a large meeting of all parties at Liberty. Gen. David R. Atchison, Senator James S. Green and Col. Samuel Churchill spoke for Breckinridge ; Messrs. Hovey and J. H. Moss for Bell, and Col. Jones for Douglas. A day or two later Hon. Henry Clay Dean, of Iowa, spoke for Douglas.

AFTER THE ELECTION OF LINCOLN.

The news of the election of Lincoln and Hamlin was received by the people of Clay county generally with considerable dissatisfaction ; but, aside from the utterances of some ultra pro-slavery men, there were general expressions of a willingness to accept and abide by the result -at least to watch and wait. A number of citizens avowed themselves unconditional union men from the first-as they had every year since 1850, when they met in convention from time to time, and these were men who voted for Bell, and men who had voted for Douglas, and even men who had voted for Breckinridge. Upon the secession of South Carolina and other Southern States, however, many changed their views. Indeed, there was nothing certain about the senti- ments of men in those days, but one thing - they were liable to change ! Secessionists one week became Union men the next, and vice versa. There was withal a universal hope that civil war might be averted.

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HISTORY OF CLAY COUNTY.

Already the best men of the country feared for the fate of the re- public. Northern fanatics and Southern fire-eaters were striving to rend it asunder. The former did not want to live in a country (so they said ) whereof one-half depended on the begetting and bringing up of children for the slave market, and so the constitution which permitted slavery was denominated an instrument of infamy, and the flag of the stars and stripes was denounced as a flaunting lie. The fire-eaters of the South were blustering and complaining that their " rights " had been or were about to be trampled on by the North, and therefore they were for seceding and breaking up a government which they could not absolutely control.

A majority of the people of the county, it is safe to say, believed that the interests of Missouri were identical with those of the other slave-holding States, but they were in favor of waiting for the devel- opment of the policy of the new administration before taking any steps leading to the withdrawal of the State from the Federal Union. " Let us wait and see what Lincoln will do," was the sentiment and expression of a large number. A respectable minority were in favor of immediate secession, and so declared publicly.

" Missouri is a peninsula of slavery running out into a sea of free- dom," said Gov. Bob Stewart, in 1861. It was bounded on three sides by Free States, and " Black Republican " States at that - Kan- sas, Iowa and Illinois. Should she secede and become a part of a foreign nation her condition, as suffering from Northern Abolitionists and slave liberators, would be aggravated. When one negro ran away while the State remained a part of the Union, ten might be ex- pected to "skedaddle" if she seceded. Thus argued many Pro- Slavery men at the time.

The Liberty Tribune said that Lincoln had been fairly elected Presi- dent, and that there was no ground whatever for secession. " Lincoln is powerless to do harm if he would," argued the Tribune, " since both houses of Congress and the Supreme Court are against him, and he can have no legal power to interfere against the institutions of the South. Let the Union men stand firm."

Always attached to the Union, editor Miller was especially zealous in its defense at this critical juncture. The Tribune of December 7, contained reflections and aspersions against the motives that actuated the Secessionists of the Cotton States. A leading editorial charged that the Secessionists were taking steps to lead their States into seces- sion : -

Not because they feel their rights to be endangered by the election

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HISTORY OF CLAY COUNTY.

and consequent inauguration of Lincoln, but because of deep-seated and long-cherished hostility to the Government in which we live. They have long desired a dismemberment of the Union ; their desire to secede existed long before the establishment of the Black Republi- can party. Their actions are not based on the apprehension of danger from Lincoln, but they urge prompt action at this time because they believe other States, incensed at the result of the late presidential election, are now prepared to go with them. If they were satisfied that a justifiable cause for disunion would be furnished by any act of Lincoln's administration, they would wait for its occurrence, because they know that then there would be no division in the South.

A financial crash was imminent in this State and throughout the West, owing to the disturbed and menacing condition of affairs, and a public meeting at Liberty, November 28, declared in favor of a sus pension of specie payments on the part of the banks, especially of the State bank and its branches at Lexington, Paris and Liberty.

As time passed, the spirit of alarm diffused itself more and more among the people. At a public meeting at Liberty, December 24, Col. H. L. Routt and Hon. J. T. V. Thompson were the speakers. They bade their hearers to prepare for action, for there was no proph- esying then what they might be called upon to do. Thirty men enrolled themselves as " minute men," and elected H. L. Routt, cap- tain ; L. L. Talbott, John C. Dunn and G. W. Morris, lieutenants, and A. Gillespie, orderly sergeant. There was considerable comment on this action, many deeming it untimely, others unwise, but there were many who approved it.

The close of the year 1860 found the county in a highly prosperous condition. Crops had been fairly abundant, money was reasonably plenty, the country was finely improved and teemed with wealth, good schools and churches were plenty, enterprises were opening on every hand, a new railroad had been begun and was certain of completion, and altogether it would have seemed that the temporal future of our people was of the highest promise.

But a fell spirit of distrust and malevolence toward that vast section of our common country called the North had found lodgment in the minds of many. Prophecies of evil were continually shouted in the ears of the unwary. Memories of injuries suffered at the hands of the anti-slaveryites were revived, and every Northern gale and every Southern breeze fanned into flame the fires of sectional hate which had for a time been smoldering. The clear sky was overcast with clouds, and they were dark and lowering.

CHAPTER VII. HISTORY OF THE COUNTY DURING 1861.

The Legislature of 1861 - Election of Delegates to the State Convention - The Work of the Convention -After Fort Sumpter -Capture of the Liberty Arsenal - Maj. Grant's Reports - After the Arsenal's Seizure-Preparing for War in Earnest - Organization of Military Companies - Gen. Doniphan Declines a Military Appoint- ment - Departure of the Secession Companies for the War -The First Federal Troops - Events of the Summer and Early Fall of 1861 - Proclamation of Gen. Stein - Rallying to His Standard -The Battle of Blue Mills-The Killed and Wounded - Reports of the Leaders-Col. Saunders, Hon. D. R. Atchison, Col. Scott - List of Killed and Wounded in the Third Iowa - War Incidents of the Fall and Winter of 1861 - The Neosho Secession Ordinance.

THE LEGISLATURE OF 1861.

On the last day of December, 1861, the Twenty-first General As- sembly met at Jefferson City. The retiring Governor, Robt. M. Stewart, delivered a very conservative message, taking the middle ground between secession and abolition, and pleading strenuously for peace and moderation. He declared, among other propositions, that the people of Missouri " ought not to be frightened from their pro- priety by the past unfriendly legislation of the North, or dragooned into secession by the restrictive legislation of the extreme South." He concluded with a thrilling appeal for the maintenance of the Union, depicting the inevitable result of secession, revolution and war. Many of Gov. Stewart's predictions were afterwards fulfilled with startling and fearful exactness.

The inaugural of the new Governor, Claiborne Fox Jackson, in- dorsed the doctrine enunciated in his famous resolutions of 1849 - that the interests and destiny of the slaveholding States were the same; that the State was in favor of remaining in the Union so long as there was any hope of maintaining the guarantees of the constitu- tion, but that in the event of a failure to reconcile the differences which then threatened the disruption of the Union, it would be the duty of Missouri " to stand by the South ; " and that he was opposed to the doctrine of coercion in any event. Gov. Jackson concluded by recommending the immediate call of a State convention, in order that " the will of the people may be ascertained and effectuated."

In accordance with the Governor's recommendation, the Legisla-

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HISTORY OF CLAY COUNTY.

ture, on January 17, passed a bill calling a convention, to be composed of three times as many members as in the aggregate each senatorial district was entitled to State Senators- that is, three delegates from each senatorial district in the State - and appointing February 18 as the day on which they were to be elected, and February 28 the day on which the convention should assemble. Hon. J. T. V. Thompson and Hon. Luke W. Burris, respectively the State Senator from this district and Representative from this county, voted for the convention bill. The tenth section of this bill contained the following important provision : -

No act, ordinance or resolution of said convention shall be deemed to be valid to change or dissolve the political relations of this State to the government of the United States, or any other State, until a majority of the qualified voters of this State, voting upon the ques- tion, shall ratify the same.

Mr. Thompson voted especially for this section, which was intro- duced in the Senate by Hon. Charles H. Hardin, then the Senator from the Boone and Callaway district, and afterward Governor of Missouri in 1874-76. Thus the secession of the State was made an impossibility without the consent of a majority of the voters, al- though Hardin's amendment was adopted by the close vote of 17 to 15. After a much disturbed and very turbulent session the Legisla- ture adjourned March 28.

ELECTION OF DELEGATES TO THE STATE CONVENTION.

The Thirteenth Senatorial District was composed of the counties of Clay and Platte. On the 28th of January the Unconditional Union men of Clay met in convention at Liberty, with Dr. W. A. Morton chairman. Resolutions favoring the Crittenden compromise and opposing coercion were unanimously adopted and Col. A. W. Doniphan and James H. Moss, of Clay, and Elijah H. Norton, of Platte, nomi- nated for delegates to the State convention.

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Author: Publication date: 1885 Publisher: St. Louis : National Historical Co. Number of Pages: 1156

Author:
Publication date: 1885
Publisher: St. Louis : National Historical Co.
Number of Pages: 1156