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 27

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 27
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 27

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).

262

HISTORY OF CLAY COUNTY.

The vote stood : Brown, 625 ; McClurg, 245. For the enfranchising amendments to the constitution, 838 ; against, 17. ·

In 1872 the vote was : For President - Greeley, Democratic and Liberal Republican candidate, 2,207 ; Grant, Republican, 528 ; Charles O'Conor, " straight " Democrat, 27. For Governor - Silas Wood- son, Democrat, 2,472 ; John B. Henderson, Republican, 527. For Congress -A. S. Comings, Democrat, 2,477; D. S. Twitchell, Republican, 524.

In 1876 the vote for President was : For Tilden, Democrat, 2,848 ; Hayes, Republican, 509 ; Cooper, Greenback, 57.

In 1880 the vote was : For President - Hancock, Democrat, 2,969 ; Garfield, Republican, 589; Weaver, Greenbacker, 193. For Gov- ernor - Crittenden, Democrat, 2,979 ; D. P. Dyer, Republican, 586 ; Brown, Greenbacker, 196. For Congress -D. C. Allen, Democrat, 1,650 ; John T. Crisp, Democrat, 1,377 ; R. T. Van Horn, Republican, 547; Clark, Greenbacker, 179.

In 1884 the vote stood : For President - Cleveland, Democrat, 3,179 ; Blaine, Republican, and Butler, Greenbacker, fusion electors, 919 ; straight Blaine, 22 ; St. John, Prohibitionist, 58. For Governor - Marmaduke, Democrat, 3,093; Ford, Fusion, 903; Brooks, Prohi- bitionist, 136; Guitar, straight Republican, 9. For Congress - Dockery, Democrat, 3,217; Harwood, Republican, 803 ; Jourdan, Greenbacker 108.

RAILROADS.

The branch of the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad through this county was completed in the latter part of the fall of 1867 and first part of 1868. It was completed to Liberty about October 15, 1867 .. William J. Quealy, of Hannibal, was the chief contractor. This road was chartered before the war, and was originally called the Kansas City, Galveston and Lake Superior. Afterward the name was changed to the Kansas City and Cameron. It was merged into the Hannibal and St. Joseph February 14, 1870, and is still a part of the same. The first regular train over the bridge across the Missouri at Kansas City passed July 4, 1869. The " old reliable " Hannibal and St. Joe has been of incalculable value to Clay county. Besides giving our people an outlet to the markets of the world, at all times and seasons, it created in this county five new towns and villages, and caused the development of many tracts of unimproved land, and added largely to the value of much land already in cultivation.

The Wabash, St. Louis and Pacific -then called the St. Louis,

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HISTORY OF CLAY COUNTY.

Kansas City and Northern - was completed through the county in the fall of 1868.

The Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific began running its trains over the track of the Hannibal and St. Joseph, from Cameron. to Kansas City, in the summer of 1871. It is not allowed to take on or dis- charge passengers or freight in this county, or even between Cameron and Kansas City.

THE GRASSHOPPER YEAR.

The year 1875 will long be remembered in Clay county as the " grasshopper year." In May vast swarms of grasshoppers, or Rocky Mountain locusts, made their appearance in this quarter of Missouri and devastated entire regions of country of vegetation, and of almost every green thing. In Clay they were, indeed, a burden. They made their appearance in such numbers that in many places the ground and entire surface of the earth was completely covered with them. Entire fields of wheat, and young corn, and meadows were devoured in a few hours. Gardens disappeared as though a fire had passed over them. Fortunately the pests departed from the county in a few weeks. Corn was replanted, and in the fall very good crops were raised.

HANGING OF SAM WALKER.

October 14, 1873, a negro named Samuel Walker shot and killed his wife, Katie, who at the time was employed as a domestic in a family at Liberty. Walker claimed that his wife was unfaithful to him. He came to Liberty from Platte county. One night he waylaid, shot and badly wounded a negro whom he suspected of visiting his wife, and a few nights thereafter shot the woman herself as she stepped out of doors for a bucket of water.

Walker was apprehended the same night in the chimney of a negro cabin down in the river bottom. He was indicted and arraigned in November following, and his trial continued to March, 1874, when he was tried and convicted, and sentenced to be hung May 15, two months later, a short shrift, certainly. On his trial he was defended by Col. Rucker. The evidence was conclusive against the prisoner, and he even confessed his guilt.

The execution came off at the appointed time, on what is called the show grounds west of the railroad depot, in Liberty. A large crowd of both sexce ces, and all ages was present. The details occupied fully four ho 5 The condemned man had been visited the day before

264

HISTORY OF CLAY COUNTY.

by two Catholic Sisters of Charity, and then professed the Catholic religion, but on the scaffold he seemed to have gone back on Catholic- ism and to have become a good Protestant. He prayed, sung, exhorted, talked and bade farewell to all who would come up and shake hands with him, and the scene was by no means an attractive one. Sheriff Patton, the one-armed ex-Confederate soldier, had charge of the hanging.

THE FLOOD OF 1881.

In the spring of 1881 the Missouri river was higher than it had been since 1844. The bottoms were overflowed and much damage resulted. Harlem was all under water, and many buildings were destroyed. Some old settlers declared that the river was even higher in 1881 than it was in 1844. Certainly the damage was greater, for there was more to destroy. The ensuing season was drouthy, and crops were a partial failure. The next fall corn rose to $1 a bushel.

CENSUS AND OTHER STATISTICS OF 1880.

The total population of the county in 1880, according to the official census, was 15,572, of which 8,132 were males and 7,440 were females. The whites numbered 14,059 ; the colored people, 1,513. By town- ships the population was as follows : -

Townships.

Population.

Fishing River, including Missouri City

.. 2,885

Gallatin

2,772

Kearney, including Holt and Kearney

2,667

Liberty, including Liberty Town

3,714

Platte, including Smithville

2,352

Washington

1,212

Total

15,572

The population of the incorporated towns and villages was as fol- lows : -

Liberty, 1,476; Missouri City, 581; Kearney, 465 ; Smithville, 231; Holt, 162.

The native born population was 15,127, of which number of per- sons 10,586 were born in Clay county, 2,053 in Kentucky ; 333 in Tennessee ; 253 in Ohio ; 244 in Indiana, 240 in Illinois, and the re- mainder in other States. The number of foreigners was 445, of whom there was born in Ireland, 166 ; in the German Empire, 117 ; in En- gland and Wales, 53; British America, 35 ; Sweden and Norway, 16 ; Scotland, 14; France, 8.

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HISTORY OF CLAY COUNTY.

The number of voters in the county was 4,018.

The number of farms in 1880 was 2,015, and the number of acres of improved land, 184,455. The total value of the farms, including fences and buildings, was $4,860,571, the value of stock on the farms June 1st, was $1,250,961. The estimated value of farm products in 1879 was $879,411, consisting in part of 2,204,376 bushels of corn, 257,887 bushels of wheat, and 134,311 bushels of oats. The number of head of horses owned in the county in 1880 was 6,832; mules, 2,086 ; cattle, 19,743; sheep, 18,402 ; hogs, 53,516.

In manufactures the total value invested was $129,125 ; the value of products, $378,915. The number of operatives employed was 142 males and 11 females; amount of wages paid, $32,513.

RACE POPULATION IN 1860, 1870 AND 1880.

1860.

1870.

1880.

Whites

9,525

13,718

14,059

Colored

3,498

1,846

1,513

Totals

13,023

15,564

15,572

THE JAMES BROTHERS.

No attempt will be made in this history to give a detailed history of the noted bandit brothers known familiarly, not only throughout the United States, but in Europe, as the James' boys. It is only from the fact that they were natives of the county and for a time resided here that they are mentioned at all. Other publications profess to nar- rate their exploits and their career correctly, but whether they do so or not is no affair of the publisher hereof, and perhaps of but little conse- quence to any one. What is set down here may be relied on as accurate, however, and is given with the partial knowledge of its truth on the part of a large majority of the readers.

Alexander Franklin James was born in this county, January 10, 1843. Jesse Woodson James was born in the house where his mother now lives, in Kearney township, September 5, 1847.1 Both boys were raised on their mother's farm, in this county, to their early man- hood, except for a time during and immediately subsequent to the Civil War. What little education they possessed was obtained at the common county schools of their neighborhood. Neither of them ever attended any other sort of school.

In 1850 their father, Rev. Robert James, as mentioned elsewhere,

1 Both dates are taken from the record in their mother's family Bible, and were set down by their father.

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HISTORY OF CLAY COUNTY.

went to California and there died soon after his arrival. He was a Baptist minister, a man of good education, and universally respected.

In 1851, the widow James - whose maiden name was Zerelda Cole - was again married to a Mr. Simms, also of this county, a widower, with children. At the time of her second marriage she was 26 years of age, and her husband was 52. The union proved un- happy, and in less than a year was terminated by a separation. The lady alleges that the chief trouble arose from the fact that her three little children, Frank, Jesse and Susie, whom she had always humored and indulged, gave their old step-father no end of annoyance. He in- sisted that she should send them away, and to this she once agreed, but her near relatives informed her that if she did so they would never more recognize her, and so she separated from Mr. Simms, who, she yet alleges, always treated her with kindness, and for whose memory . she still has great respect. He died not long after the separation, and some time afterwards Mrs. Simms was married to Dr. Reuben Samuel, her present husband.

In the fall of 1861, when 18 years of age, Frank James volunteered in the Confederate service, becoming a member of Capt. Minter's company, Hughes' regiment, Stein's division. He was present at the capture of Lexington, and marched with Price's army into Southwest Missouri. At Springfield he was taken with measles, and on the re- treat of Price's army before Gen. Curtis, in February, 1862, he was left behind in the hospital. The Federals, when they captured Spring- field, took him prisoner, paroled him, and he returned home to his mother's farm in Kearney township. He was arrested by Col. Penick in the following early summer and released on a $2,000 bond. He returned to his home and went to work.

From time to time Frank James was accused of having aided and abetted the Confederate cause, in violation of his parole. The accu- sations may or may not be true, but in the early spring of 1863 he was again arrested, taken to Liberty and cast into jail. From here he contrived to make his escape, and soon afterwards, while a fugitive he determined " to go to the brush," as the phrase then was, and ac- cordingly joined a small band of bushwhackers, under the leadership of Fernando Scott. This was in May, 1863, and a few days later he . took part in the raid on Missouri City, when Capt. Sessions and Lieut. Grafenstein were killed. Thereafter he was a bushwhacker until the close of the War, winding up his career with Quantrell in Kentucky. During his career as a guerrilla Frank James participated in three or four skirmishes with the Federals in this county.

267

HISTORY OF CLAY COUNTY.

In May, 1863, soon after Frank James had gone to the brush, a de- tachment of Capt. J. W. Turney's company of Clinton county militia,1 under Lieut. H. C. Culver, accompanied by Lieut. J. W. Younger, with a few Clay county militia, visited the Samuels homestead in search of James and his companions. Failing to find them, they sought by threats and violence to force the members of the family to give them certain information they desired. Dr. Samuel was taken out and hung by the neck until nearly exhausted, and the boy Jesse, then not quite 16 years old, who was plowing in the field, was whipped very severely.

A few weeks later, Dr. and Mrs. Samuel were arrested by the Fed- erals and taken to St. Joseph, accused of " feeding and harboring bushwhackers." This was the charge preferred against Mrs. Samuel ; but no charge whatever was ever filed against Dr. Samuel. Miss Susie James was not arrested. Mrs. Samuel had her two small children with her at the St. Joseph prison, and three months later another child was born. She was released by Col. Chester Harding after two weeks' imprisonment and sent home on taking the oath. Dr. Samuel was released about the same time. While Dr. and Mrs. Samuel was absent in St. Joe their household was in charge of Mrs. West, a sister of Mrs. Samuel.

Jesse James remained at home during the year 1863, and with the assistance of a negro man raised a considerable crop of tobacco. The next summer, in June, 1864, a year after he had been cruelly whipped . by the militia, he too " went to the brush," joining Fletch. Taylor's band of bushwhackers, of which his brother Frank was a member. He was present when the Bigelow brothers were killed, and took part in the capture of Platte City, where he and other bushwhackers had their ambrotype pictures taken. The original picture of Jesse James is yet in possession of his family, but copies have recently been made and sold throughout the country. While with Bill Anderson's com- pany on the way to Howard county, in August, 1864, Jesse was badly wounded by an old German Unionist named Heisinger, who lived in the southern part of Ray county, at Heisinger's Lake. Three or four bushwhackers went to Heisinger's, got something to eat and were looking about the premises when the old man fired upon them from a sorghum patch, put a bullet through Jesse James' right lung, and routed the party. This practically ended his career as a bushwhacker.

1 Co. F, Fourth Provisional Regiment.

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HISTORY OF CLAY COUNTY.

His companions hid him away and one Nat. Tigue nursed him for a considerable time. 1

It was a long time until Jesse was able to be in the saddle again. In February, 1865, in the rear of Lexington, when coming in with some others to surrender, he was fired on by a detachment.of Federals belonging to the Second Wisconsin Cavalry, and again shot through the right lung. From this wound he did not recover for many months. He was nursed first by his comrades, then by his aunt, Mrs. West, in Kansas City, and at last taken by his sister, Miss Susie, to Rulo, Nebraska, where the Samuel family had been banished the previous summer by order of the Federal military commanders in this quarter. At Rulo, Dr. Samuel was making a precarious living in the practice of his profession - medicine - and here the young guerrilla lay until in August, 1865, when the family returned to their Clay county farm. Jesse united with the Baptist Church sometime in 1868.

When, as is alleged, the James brothers entered upon their life of brigandage and robbery, their associates were those of the old guer- rilla days, and it is but true to say that this life succeeded to or was born of the old bushwhacking career. Not every old Confederate bushwhacker became a bandit, for many of the most desperate of Quantrell's, Todd's and Anderson's men became quiet, reputable cit- izens, but at the first every bandit in Western Missouri was an ex- guerrilla.

After the Gallatin bank robbery the civil authorities of this county began the chase after the now noted brothers and kept it up for years, or until Jesse was killed in April, 1882, and Frank surrendered. The pursuit was considered by each Clay county sheriff as a part of his regular duties and transmitted the same as the books and papers of his office to his successor.

Lack of space forbids an enumeration of the many adventures of the officers of this county in their efforts to capture the James boys and their partners. One fact must be borne in mind. Every sheriff worked faithfully and bravely to discharge his duties. The heroic and desperate fight near the Samuel residence 2 between the intrepid Capt. John S. Thomason and his brave young son, Oscar, and the

1 While serving with the bushwhackers Frank was known as " Buck," and Jesse was called " Dingus " by their companions. While in a camp one day, shortly after he went out, Jesse was practicing with a revolver and accidentally shot off the end of one of his fingers. Shaking his wounded hand, and dancing about with the pain, he cried out, " O, ding it! ding it! How it hurts! "

2 December 14, 1869.

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HISTORY OF CLAY COUNTY.

two brothers, when the Captain's horse was killed ; the night fight made by Capt. John S. Grooms ; the many expeditions by night and day, in season and out of season, by Thomason, Grooms, Patton and Timberlake, can not here be detailed, interesting as the incidents thereof may be.

Connected with the career of the bandit brothers, may be briefly mentioned the attempt of Pinkerton's detectives to effect their cap- ture - an attempt blunderingly and brutally made and ignominiously ailing, resulting in the killing of little Archie Peyton Samuel,1 the tearing off of Mrs. Samuel's right arm, the wounding of other mem- fbers of the family, and the complete discomfiture of the attacking party of detectives. Whether or not, either or both of the James boys and another member of the band participated in this melee, and whether or not one of the detectives was killed, can not here be stated.

The murder of Daniel Askew, the nearest neighbor of Dr. Samuel, which occurred a few weeks after Pinkerton's raid, has always been attributed to one or both of the James brothers, though the charge is stoutly denied by their friends. Askew was called out one night and shot dead on his doorstep. A detective named J. W. Whicher, who, as he himself avowed, came to this county to plan in some way the capture of the brothers, was taken across the Missouri river into Jackson county and killed by somebody, in Jackson county, March 10, 1874.

That any considerable portion of the people of the county ever gave aid or comfort or countenance to the bandits who infested Missouri, whether the James boys, or who ever they were, is so preposterously untrue that there is no real necessity for its denial. Not one person in one hundred of the people of the county knew either of the James boys by sight, and but few more had ever seen them. After they en- tered upon their career of brigandage their visits to the county were so unfrequent and unseasonable and so brief that only the very fewest saw them, and it was not long ere those who once knew them inti- mately would not have known them had they met them face to face in open day; for from smooth-faced boys they were growing to bearded men, and no change is more complete than that from adoles- cence to manhood.

Moreover, it is most absurd, and most unjust, too, that any consid- erable number such as live in the county of Clay should be supposed to have any sympathy with villainy and villains of any sort. The

1 Named by Jesse James for Archie Clements and Peyton Long, two desperate and notorious guerrillas during the war.

270

HISTORY OF CLAY COUNTY.

county is and has now been for years full of school-houses and churches and abounding with Christian men and women who fear God and keep His commandments, and keep themselves aloof from evil associations. Morality and love of the right are the rule among our people ; immor- ality and viciousness the exception.

At any time within the past fifteen years five hundred men could have been raised in an hour to capture the James boys. Dozens of the best citizens of all classes have frequently volunteered to accom- pany the officers in their search for the bandits, and have lain night after night in the woods and watched roads and bridges, and done everything in their power to vindicate and uphold the law. Even when Jesse James was shot at St. Joseph a public meeting at Liberty applauded the fact and indorsed the manner of his taking off.

That the James boys had a few confederates in Clay county is barely possible. Who they were, however, can now never be known. It is probable that if they existed at all they were few in number, and their services and the character of their connection unimportant and uncon- spicuous.

CHAPTER XII.

MISCELLANEOUS.

Clay County Schools - County Teachers' Institute - William Jewell College, etc.

The first schools taught in the county were made up by subscrip- tion and taught during the summer or autumn. The school-houses were generally hastily improvised without much attention being paid to comfort or convenience. Sometimes a winter school was provided if a house could be found comfortable enough.

In township 52, range 30, -in the southeastern portion of the county - the people first thoroughly organized for school purposes. In February, 1836, the township was organized into two school dis- tricts, with Fishing river the dividing line between them. The south- ern district was called Franklin, and the trustees were James Dagley, George Withers and Sam Crowley. The northern district was called Jefferson; trustees, Winfrey E. Price, Michael Welton, Joel. P. Moore. In the spring Jefferson was divided into two districts, and the western or northwestern was called Clark, in honor of Jesse Clark.

In April, 1836, township 52, range 31, lying northeast of the town of Liberty, was divided into four school districts, Clay, Washington, White and Bell. Schools were established soon after in all these dis- tricts, and already there were good schools at Liberty. From the earliest period of its official existence Clay county has always taken a leading part in school matters among the best counties of the State.

The sixteenth sections in every congressional township in Missouri were from the first set aside for public school purposes, to be sold to the best advantage and the proceeds thereof properly applied, upon petition of two-thirds of the inhabitants of said congressional town- ship. The Clay county court, in February, 1831, appointed Ware S. May to select the sixteenth sections in this county. Samuel Tillery was appointed commissioner, and he made sales from time to time up to the spring of 1834.

Under the act of February 9, 1839, public schools were instituted, and were aided from the interest of the township fund arising from the sales before mentioned. In 1842, the State began the distribution of a small fund. These schools were rather meager in their results

(271)

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HISTORY OF CLAY COUNTY.

until the act of February, 1853, set apart twenty-five per cent of the State revenue for the support of common schools. This act also created the office of county school commissioner, and Col. A. W. Doniphan was appointed to the office in November, 1853, which he filled until August 8, 1854, when he resigned, having been elected county representative. George Hughes was then appointed to fill the vacancy, and has held the office up to this writing (February, 1885, ) with complete satisfaction to all.

The first annual report to the State Superintendent, by County Commissioner Hughes, was made November 4, 1854. The whole number of white children over 5 and under 20 years of age in the organized school township for that year was 2,426, and in the unor- ganized territory the children of school age were estimated to be about 500. The number of public schools was 32, and the number of teachers employed was 34. The average number of children attend- ing public school was 1,264. The average salary paid teachers was $29 per month, and the length of school term was about five months and a fourth.

According to the report for 1884, the number of children in the county, between 6 and 20 years of age, was 4,708 whites and 420 colored. The total number attending public schools was 3,530 white children and 227 colored. The average number of days' attendance by each child was 80. The number of teachers employed during the year, 42 males and 53 females. The average monthly salary paid males was $47.82, and females $34.16. The whole number of white schools in operation during the year was 63, and for colored children there were eight. The total number of pupils that might be seated in the school rooms of the county was 4,125. The number of school houses was 61, of which 55 were frame, and six were brick. The total value of school property was $44,770.00. The average rate per $100. levied for school purposes was 49 cents. The whole amount received from public funds was $8,340.31, and the whole amount realized from taxation was $19,044.68. The amount paid teachers during the year was $20,445.45. The cost for tuition of each scholar was seven and a half cents. The average length of school term in each district was 1241/2 days.

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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