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 25

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 25
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 25

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

I then proceeded at once to re-organize the E. M. M. of the county ; I organized two companies of the E. M. M. under the command of loyal officers, and armed them. I did not arm the companies of citi-

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HISTORY OF CLAY COUNTY.

zens, having had no occasion to call on them for repelling an invasion. In ten days from the time of the organization, there were no outlaws left in the county. We caught a good many and turned them over to the civil authorities. On several occasions I made details from the companies of citizens, and placed them under the command of my officers, of the regularly enrolled companies of the E. M. M.

Of these captured outlaws there are men claiming to belong to all political parties, but about four-fifths of them are Southern bush- whackers, thieves and outlaws. In addition to these captures, I have banished from the State a number of citizens that had connection with these outrages and outlaws.

A further reason for reorganizing these companies of enrolled mil- itia, now called "Paw-paws," was, that my old regiment, the Forty- eighth, was virtually broken up; some of the companies reduced down to 25 or 30 men, and some without officers.

I enrolled three companies of E. M. M., and put two of them into service.

The citizens were not organized by me direct; they formed their organizations in the different neighborhoods by my direction, and under my authority, so as to be ready when I should have occasion to call on them. The whole object of calling on the citizens en masse was to prevent an armed invasion from Kansas, and co-operate with the companies in active service in ridding the county of rebel bush- whackers and outlaws. One of the most desperate outlaws in Mis- souri was caught by us and is now in jail.

Q. Did your men, the " Paw-paws," interfere with runaway slaves ? A. Never. Orders were given to all the military in the State to have no connection with slaves, and this has been complied with.

Q. Has your force interfered with the enrollment of slaves? A. They have not; but, on the contrary, I recommended the enrolling officer, Lieut. Holmes, to Col. Broadhead, and have furnished him all the assistance in my power, in the way of protection and transporta- tion, purchased supplies and furnished him money out of my own purse to aid in recruiting.

On one occasion there was a controversy between a recruited negro (belonging to a man by the name of Keller) and a citizen by the name of Cravens. Mr. C. owns a negro boy of about 14 years of age, who had been induced to go up to the recruitiug office by the negro al- ready recruited. Cravens meeting this recruiting negro in the street, asked him why he was attempting to get that boy of his to enlist. The negro replied and denied that he had made the attempt ; Cravens replied : I saw you take him up into the recruiting office. The negro said : He ( Cravens ) was a liar. Cravens knocked him down; consid- erable excitement was occasioned, and the affair was immediately reported to my headquarters. I went down to the locality and or- dered the recruited negroes to be taken to their quarters, and gave instructions that there should be no acts of violence committed upon the recruits, and any such cases should be reported to me imme- diately.

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HISTORY OF CLAY COUNTY.

The recruiting officer (Holmes) became alarmed, and without ap- plying to me, ordered some of my soldiers to guard his door. I un- derstand the men refused ; they were not subject to his orders, and had none from me. Some such language, it was reported, had been used by them. I saw the recruiting officer myself, and told him there should be no obstacles in his way ; and there has been no difficulty since. I believe he recruited some fifty negroes in one day, and sent them to the railroad.

Q. What were the antecedents of Holmes? A. He was a Seces- sionist at the outset, said to have acted as Quartermaster to Thomp- son ; but he has been an enthusiastic Union man for some years, and calls himself a Radical now.

Q. Do you know W. E. Rhea? A. I know him well.

Q. What were his antecedents? A. He is a Union man and has been for two years - and a Radical Union man now; there is no question as to his loyalty now ; he started out on the wrong side, was in a rebel company just before Price's retreat from Lexington ; we got him out of the company, and he has been an exemplary Union man ever since.

Q. Do you know Robert Fleming? A. Yes. He is a Union man, a Radical Union man, he calls himself. He has been a Union man for over two years. He was for a short time in a company of " State Guards," under Claib. F. Jackson.

Q. Do you know Capt. Garth? A. Yes. He started out a rebel, but is now a good Union man, and has performed his duties in the militia very efficiently.

Q. Who is Capt. Prixley? A. He was an officer in Price's army ; I do not recollect when he came home. When I called on the citizens for assistance he offered his company of citizens to me, which I re- fused to accept, not wishing to have a man from Price's army com- manding a company. The company has been disbanded and has never been in service.

Q. Has your force never interfered with runaway slaves? A. Two men from Jackson county had kidnaped a fugitive negro and brought him over to Clay county ; one of my officers, Capt. Thomason, re- ceived a line from Gen. Ewing stating the facts, whereupon my men arrested the kidnapers and the negro, and returned them to Kansas City.

Q. What is the character of the men in the Paw-paw companies as to loyalty? A. I will state that they are now, and during the entire term of their service have been, loyal ; some, in the early part of the rebellion, were disloyal, and connected themselves with the rebel ser- vice. The men all willingly and cheerfully took the oath of allegiance. I made them take an additional oath, to war upon Southern recruit- ing officers and bushwhackers; they took the oath cheerfully and have conducted themselves in a manner which satisfied me of their sincerity. They have not only hunted bushwhackers and Southern rebels who were in arms, but they have reported acts of disloyalty and disloyal language of citizens, who (the citizens) have been pun-

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HISTORY OF CLAY COUNTY.

ished by me in consequence thereof. I refer to the men I have in service and belong to my regiment.

Q. What proportion of the men in the two companies of Clay county have been in the rebel service? A. Each company has 85 men ; my impression is that from 15 to 20 in each company are of that class.

Q. Have any brigands or armed bands from Kansas invaded the Missouri border for plunder? A. Yes. There has been a system of plundering going on since the war commenced ; outlaws from Kansas and Missouri have carried on a partnership work of plundering, mur- dering, arson, robbery, etc., which has ended in the desolation of the border counties, on the south side of the river, down to Arkansas, and the loss of life and property on the north side of the river. That system was in full operation when I took command in Septem- ber last. The counties of Clay and Platte were being daily and nightly ravaged by armed men, white and black; some of them in the garb of Federal soldiers. On one occasion after I took command, a squad of my men caught some of Gen. Ewing's soldiers at night, committing depredations in my county, who were sent to the General's headquarters. Many other outrages and robberies were committed by soldiers ; one of the most extensive was by men under Capt. Ryan, of the Fourth M. S. M., on their way from Buchanan county ; they stole horses, money and jewelry, from men and women they met on the road.

Q. Have murders and robberies been committed by the enrolled militia previous to their disbanding? A. Not in my county ; the companies I found in service in Platte and Clay, when I took com- mand, were favoring the system of plundering practiced by the Kan- sas outlaws, and refused to fight them. They openly refused to fight these outlaws, who came with impunity into these counties, night and day.

NOVEMBER ELECTION 1863.

At the general election in Missouri in November, 1863, but two tickets were voted for, both " Union," of course. One ticket, headed by Barton Bates, W. V. N. Bay and John D. S. Dryden, for Judges of the Supreme Court, was called the Conservative ticket, and was voted for generally by the Democrats ; the other, headed by H. H. A. Clover, Arnold Krekel and David Wagner, was denominated the Radical Republican or Charcoal ticket. This election is remarkable for being the first in Missouri at which, under a general law, the voting was by ballot and not vive voce.

The vote in Clay county was more than twelve to one in favor of the Conservative candidates, as follows : -

Conservatives - Bates, 1,328 ; Bay, 1,324 ; Dryden, 1,323.

Radicals - Clover, 92; Krekel, 92; Wagner, 87.

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HISTORY OF CLAY COUNTY.

For circuit judge, Geo. W. Dunn, Conservative, received 1,220 votes, and D. P. Whitmer, Radical, 148.

" SONS OF MALTA."

In the fall of 1863 the extraordinary order of " Sons of Malta," or as it was here called, " Knights of Palermo," had an organization or " council " in Liberty, with many members. This alleged " or- der " was a most stupendous and at the same time a most ludicrous and laughable humbug. It pretended to have a ritual, signs, grips, etc., similar to Freemasonry, but really was no order at all. The in- itiation was all there was of it. The poor candidates, unsuspicious and confiding, were always blindfolded and tied and then put through a series of practical jokes - tossed in a blanket, deluged with dirty water, made to assume a variety of ridiculous postures, etc., and finally were fearfully and ponderously armored, panoplied and equip- ped, led in front of a mirror and the bandages on their eyes removed.

MURDERS COMMITTED.

Up to the 1st of January, 1864, there had been eighteen citizens of the county murdered by the military forces of both sides. Four Union men had been killed by the bushwhackers, and the Federals had killed fourteen men of Confederate proclivities. Of the latter Penick's men killed six, enrolled and provisional militia six, and the Twenty-fifth Missouri Infantry two.

CHAPTER X.

DURING THE YEAR 1864.

Jayhawker raid on Missouri City - The Federal Draft - Bushwhacker's Raid - Fletch Taylors' First Raid, and Murder of Bond and Daily - He Kills the Bigelows - His Letter to Capt. Garth - His Skirmish on Fishing River with Capt. Kemper - Mis- cellaneous War Items - Ford's and Jennison's Visit which They were not Invited to Repeat - Bill Anderson - Other War Incidents - Census - Presidential Elec- tion.

On the night of the 20th of January, 1864, a company of 40 thieves led by a man calling himself " Maj. Sanders," of Jennison's regi- ment of Kansas jayhawkers, crossed the river from Jackson county and captured Missouri City, then held by a small force of enrolled militia, under Capt. Geo. S. Story, of this county. Capt. Story was made prisoner and guarded, though in attempting an escape he was shot at. The robbers then plundered B. W. Nowlin's store of $2,000 worth of goods and fled.

In February the Federal draft caused no little disquietude in the county. Public meetings were held to encourage voluntary enlist- ments in the U. S. service, and the county court offered a bounty of $200 for each recruit so enlisting from this county. Under calls from the President previous to December 19, 1864, the full quota of men required from Clay had been 398, and the number furnished 407, making a surplus of 9. Under the call of December 19, 1864, the quota was fixed at 98, and 47 were furnished, leaving a deficiency of 51.

Up to February 20, 1865, the county had paid in bounties the sum of $9,000.

BUSHWHACKER RAIDS.

In the early summer of 1864 bands of bushwhackers and guerrillas invaded Clay county and began operations. Many Clay county men belonged to them, and they found numerous friends and sympathizers here who aided and abetted them when it was possible to do so with reasonable safety. The war had been in progress so long, and had been waged with such bitterness on the border of Missouri, that people had come to possess the most intense hatred and animosity on the sub- ject. Many Confederate sympathizers favored anything that would

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HISTORY OF CLAY COUNTY.

injure the Federal cause, and as the bushwhackers claimed to be fighting that cause exclusively, and did really fight the military repre- sentatives occasionally, it was deemed proper to aid them by at least feeding them, sheltering them, giving them information, etc. On the other hand some of the Unionists deemed it possible and laudable to kill " rebels " at all times and under all circumstances, and aided all bodies of troops that were pro-United States and anti-Confederate.

About the 1st of June four bushwhackers - said to have been Chas. F. Taylor, Arch. Clements, Peyton Long and James Bissett - drew the first blood in Clay county. Long and Bissett had their homes here. Chas. F. Taylor (or " Fletch " Taylor, as he is commonly called) was from Independence, and Clements, the cruelest, most desperate guerrilla of the war, was from Johnson county. Fletch. Taylor was the leader. June 5 these four, all dressed in Federal uni- form, came to the house of Bradley Y. Bond, a quiet, reputable citi- zen of this county, called him out and shot him. Mr. Bond had been in the Federal service in 1862, but was taken prisoner at Lone Jack, paroled, and had been at home subsequently.

The next day the same men, with one or two recruits, went to the house of Alvis Dailey, called him out of the field where he was at work, marched him before them, and as he was crossing a pair of bars shot him dead. Mr. Dailey was about 23 years of age, and had been a member of Capt. Garth's company of militia. The bushwhackers went to the house and said to the family that they had killed Dailey, and the one who claimed that he did the shooting said he had done it because Dailey belonged to the squad that killed Park Donovan, another bushwhacker, in the night fight the year before.

Now began that series of frightful scenes that occurred in Clay county in the summer and fall of 1864 when murders and killings were numerous, and robberies, plunderings and thefts were of such frequent occurrences as not to be mentioned, except as matters of course and of small consequence. Men were slain before the eyes of their wives and children, or else shot down without mercy by the roadside and their bodies left to fester and corrupt in the sun. Property was taken and destroyed on every hand, business of all kinds was prostrated, values were unsettled, everything was disturbed. Many people left the county, or had left, for the gold mines of Montana and Idaho ; others went to Iowa and Nebraska for safety, others fled they knew not whither.

Verily, those who had clamored so loudly for war in the beginning, and would be satisfied at naught else, should have listened to the in-

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HISTORY OF CLAY COUNTY.

junction of good old Chaucer who, 500 years before, had said of war (or " werre ") in his quaint old Saxon : -

Ther is ful many a man that crieth " werre ! werre !" that wot ful litel what werre amounteth. Werre, at his beginning, hath so greet an entre and so large, that every wight may entre whan him liketh and lightly finde werre ; but what ende schal falle thereof it is not lightly to know. For sothly whan that werre is oones bygonne, ther is ful many a child unbore of his mooder that schal sterve yong, by- cause thilke werre, or elles live in sorwe and die in wrecchidnes; and therefore, er that eny werre be bygonne, men mosti have gret coun- seil and gret deliberacioun.

The bushwhackers swarmed through the county, crossing back and forth from Jackson when they pleased, and roaming where they listed. A negro, belonging to Abijah Withers, was shot by them in cold blood near Beauchamp's farm, south of Liberty. He was returning from town where he had sold a load of wood, and was shot, as al- leged, " for fun."

Stables were robbed everywhere. In certain neighborhoods, the farmers slept in their barns and horse, lots, thoroughly armed, and carefully guarding their horses. Money and other valuables were hid- den away. Quite often the bushwhackers robbed Southern men as readily as " Feds.," one man's money being considered as good as another's.

June 15, George Shepherd and six other Jackson county bush- whackers rode into Missouri City, but did no damage. Other bands here were not harmless.

During the last week in June Fletch. Taylor's band, numbering now it is said 40 or 50 men, killed two men, Simeon G. Bigelow and John Bigelow, brothers and Union men, living in the northeastern part of the county. The Bigelows were Union men, and had come originally from one of the Northern States. Two years before they had be- longed to Col. Moss' regiment of militia. The next day Bishop Bailey, another Union man, and a citizen of Smithville, was killed by Taylor's band, while on the road from Smithville to Liberty and four or five miles from home.

A day or two before the killing of these the Federals had killed a Mr. Smith, of Fishing River township, and left his body lying in the road, some miles north of Liberty. David Coffman, a bushwhacker, had been killed in the southern part of Clinton. He and a comrade named Davis came to Jeff. Pryor's and demanded horses and money. A few hours afterward he was overtaken in a lane near a Mr. Smith's,

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HISTORY OF CLAY COUNTY.

on the road between Haynesville and Plattsburg, and killed by a squad led by a son of Mr. Pryor. Davis jumped his horse over a fence and escaped, but Coffman's horse, which belonged to Ambrose Stone, could not make the jump.

A short time after the killing of the brothers Bigelow and Bailey, Fletch. Taylor sent the following letter to Capt. Kemper, in Lib- erty : -

To Capt. Kemper, Commanding Post at Liberty :

SIR - In accordance with promises I made to Mr. Gosney, one of the peace committee, in relation to leaving Clay county, if the Radi- cals would also leave (which, I believe, was the understanding), I got my men together and proceeded toward Clinton county, and had got there when I heard about Coffman being killed. I immediately re- turned to avenge his death, and I did by killing the two Bigelows. I then started for Platte with some of my men, intending to stay out of these counties according to promises ; but hearing of one of my men being killed, I have come again to avenge his death - and I will do it. You now know why I returned, and I am going to stay here until the Radicals all leave this county ; and furthermore, I am going to fight all soldiers sent after me if they fall in my way. Sir, if you wish the peace of Clay county, you will use all your influence in keeping the Radicals out of here. And furthermore, I have found out that there has been citizens interrupted, imprisoned and driven from their homes, which is calculated to ruin this county more than any thing else ; for if the citizens are to be sufferers by you, I will make the Union party suffer as much, if not more - for by your interruption of them it re- cruits my company - whereas, if you and I would let them alone, we could fight one another, and we will be fighting men who have put themselves out for that purpose, and not fight the unsuspected citi- zen who is not in arms and deserving the fate which you wish to bring on him and his family.

Now, sir; in conclusion, I will let you understand what I am going to do : I want peace, if it can be gained by honorable terms - and you can give it to the citizens or not. In the first place, if the Federals leave this county, I will leave also ; but if they stay, I will be about, and if you don't interrupt the citizens, I will be equally as kind. I will carry war on as you carry it on. You can't drive me out of this county. I will await your actions. You can make peace or war - I will leave it to your choice. If I find that you are warring on the citizens, so be it ; I will retaliate -if you fight me alone, I will return the compliment. Your actions shall be my answer, or answer as you want.

I remain, sir, yours, CHAS. F. TAYLOR, Captain Commanding the Country.

To CAPT. KEMPER.

Commanding the Town.

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HISTORY OF CLAY COUNTY.

The Bigelow brothers were killed only after a desperate resistance. Cornered in their house they refused to surrender and fought to the last as best they could. When their guns were empty they seized pieces of furniture and struck at their assailants until shot down. It is said that in this fight Jesse James, then a newly recruited member of Taylor's company, had his finger shot off.

SKIRMISH ON FISHING RIVER. -

On Saturday, July 2, 1864, Capt. B. W. Kemper, of Co. C, Ninth M. S. M., who had been in command of the post at Liberty for some weeks, set out into the country after the bushwhackers. He struck straight for the Fishing river country, a locality rough, broken into hills, hollows and defiles by the river and its numerous little branches, and withal wooded and timbered - a favorite place for the " knights of the brush."

At first Kemper had a considerable detachment, but this he divided into three or four squads, the more effectually to scour the country. Sunday night a shower fell, and Monday morning a trail showing that a considerable number of bushwhackers had passed was struck by Kemper's party of about thirty men, and they followed it hard and fast.

A short distance below the ford over Fishing river, where the road leading from Liberty to the old Laidlaw farm crossed, a high, over- hanging bank caused by a sharp curve in the stream overlooked and commanded the crossing. Upon and behind this bank about twenty- five guerrillas, under Fletch. Taylor, were in ambush awaiting their enemies. Unconscious of immediate danger the Federals rode into the ford and halted to allow the horses to drink. Immediately the bushwhackers from their place of concealment opened at almost point blank range a withering fire on the soldiers, who, surprised and ter- rorized no doubt, wheeled about in disorder and fled.

Two Federals were killed. Sergt. J. W. Kirby was killed instantly, and Private James Colston died in an hour. Capt. Kemper himself was severely wounded in the leg; Corporal John R. Ruberson was severely, and Private - Colston slightly wounded. The bodies of the two killed were buried at Liberty the next day. The bushwhack- ers did not lose a man.

MISCELLANEOUS WAR ITEMS.

On the 28th of June Capt. John S. Thomason had reorganized his company of militia, which with Garth's and Younger's, and Capt.

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HISTORY OF CLAY COUNTY.

Kemper's Ninth M. S. M., composed the only Federal troops in the county. Capt. Story's company had been disbanded in March. Gen. Roscrans issued order No. 107, allowing the people in districts where the bushwhackers were numerous to organize companies for protec- tion and defense. A mass meeting was held at Liberty, July 11, and attended by all parties, for even many of Confederate proclivities were opposed to bushwhacking. It was determined to keep one or two companies of militia composed of citizens of the county constantly in service.

July 20, another very large mass meeting composed of 1,500 citi- zens from all parts of the county was held in Liberty, and the follow- ing resolution was one of many others adopted : -

Fourth. That guerrillas -whatever the name they assume - and bushwhackers are the ravenous monsters of society, and their speedy and utter extermination should be sought by all brave and honorable men - and that all who knowingly and willingly sympathize with, harbor, conceal, assist and feed them should be uniformly and rigidly held accountable and punished in accordance with the laws of war among civilized nations ; and we hereby distinctly, respectfully and emphatically protest against the action of the assistant provost mar- shals and others in authority in turning loose upon this and other communities men whose previous outrages and disloyal conduct called for a proper and salutary measure of punishment, many of whom have gone to the brush and are now fighting against the government and against their peaceable and loyal neighbors.

July 12, four or five of Catherwood's disbanded men, or men on furlough, had an encounter with about the same number of Capt. Thomason's company of militia in Centerville (now Kearney ). Thom- ason's men were in a house when Catherwood's came up and fired on them. The Clay county men ran out and returned the fire, Cather- wood's galloped off; Thomason's men followed them and killed one and wounded another.

Before Kemper's company left, Lieut. C. H. Gordon, its second lieutenant (now prosecuting attorney of Boone county ), had a skirmish on Clear creek with two small companies of bushwhackers, Peyton Long's and Nin. Litton's. One of the latter's squad, James Justus, was killed.

July 15, 1864, Col. J. H. Ford, of the Second Colorado cavalry, was sent into this county at the head of a body of 300 Federal troops, consisting of detachments of the Second Colorado, Ninth Missouri State militia, and Jennison's Sixteenth Kansas. Ford marched straight for Liberty and encamped. His troops, or at least the Colo-

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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