USA > Missouri > Dade County > History of Dade County and her people : from the date of the earliest settlements to the present time > Part 3
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).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68
CLIMATE-The climate of Dade County is a happy medium between extremes of heat and cold. The winters are mild and short. Snow rarely falls before Christmas, and never exceeds but a few inches in depth, and seldom lies on the ground longer than three or four days at a time. Mereury seldom falls to zero, and is not much of the time below freezing point. This is a "sunny climate," even in winter, and, except when it is raining or storm- ing, the outdoor laborer never has to lose a day's work on account of the weather; and the contour of the country being, as it is, somewhat rolling, and well supplied with
31
HISTORY OF DADE COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE
forests, it is never visited with severe storms or cyclones. There are no swamps or stagnant pools of water in the county; consequently it is clear from all malaria, except what is caused in all new countries, by the upturning of the virgin soil. Though the summers are long, the heat is never excessive, being tempered as it is, with the high elevation and the breezes from the west. It is doubtful whether a more healthy country than the Ozark Range can be found anywhere on the continent. Fevers of the typhoid type are rare, and lung and bronchial diseases are comparatively unknown. The water is pure and healthy, and entirely free from alkali or other deleterious substances.
WILD ANIMALS AND WILD FOWL-When the first settlers landed here they found the forests inhabited by buffaloes, bears, panthers, wolves, wildcats, catamounts, elk, deer and all the smaller animals common to this lati- tude. Wild fowls, such as geese, turkeys, ducks and smaller birds, were also natural claimants of the territory. The buffaloes soon fled to the westward and became ex- tinct; the bears refused to flee, but have become extinct. The wolves, the animals of the cat kind, were very numer- ous. A war of extinction was begun on them by the early settlers, and it has been continued, so that not many of these animals now remain. The deer were so plentiful that they were found in herds or droves. They have been hunted and slain for food, but a few still remain-enough to amuse the hunters. The elk are extinct. The smaller animals, such as foxes, raccoons, rabbits and the like, abound in considerable numbers. Wild turkeys were once so abundant that the early settlers killed all they could consume. Wild geese are very scarce now,, but the tur- keys and ducks, even yet, abound to some extent. The small birds-the songsters-in great numbers, still make the groves ring with their music.
Chapter 2 FIRST LAND ENTRIES.
In order to give a more extended list of the early set- tlers, there has been compiled from the records a list of the names of those who entered lands in the several con- gressional townships in the county at or prior to certain dates; care being taken to give only the names of those who became actually settlers, and omitting reference to those already mentioned. The townships and lists are as follows:
TOWNSHIP 30, RANGE 25-The first entries were made in this township in 1844, by James Hembree, Moses Theobold, James Douglas, Lysander S. Dunn and Samuel Harris. Entries 1845 were made by William Dunn, David C. Eastin and M. E. Brown. From 1845 to 1849 entries were made by J. H. Hardin, Samuel Nickel and others.
TOWNSHIP 30, RANGE 26-The first entries in this township were made in 1840, by Thomas Box, C. J. Morris, Samuel Carr, Reuben Carter, E. F. Morris, C. Beckham, Jesse Scott, John Rice, William Mallory, William Snaden, William Williams, Sterling and John Salling, Absalom Renfro, David, A. D. and John Hudspeth, William Snaden, Rich T. Willis, Daniel W. Scott, Jas. M. Snaden, John Gamble , Jesse O. Scott, Jas. Ventioner, John Bowles, A. S. Yokum, and others heretofore mentioned. Others and succeeding early entries were made by Jacob Cox, Alex. Russell and Andrew Gilmore.
TOWNSHIP 30, RANGE 27-First entries in this township were made by Joshua and Alexander Ragsdale, Isaac Preston, Jonathan Parris, Britain Finley, William Merrick, Robert Allison, John B. Parris, Jacob Reed, An- drew Allison, David Moore and William H. King. Soon after entries were made by Jesse Dougherty and others.
TOWNSHIP 30, RANGE 28-The first entry was in 1452, by Robert Bird. Others were made in 1854 by David Crandall and Henry Bird.
BEN M. NEALE.
33
HISTORY OF DADE COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE
TOWNSHIP 30, RANGE 29-Only the eastern tier of sections was in Dade county. The first entries were made in 1856, by William Russell and John Thompson.
TOWNSHIP 31, RANGE 25-First entries were made in 1844, by E. B. Miller, Thomas Stockstell and Samuel L. and L. L. Carlock. Subsequent early entries were made by James Leeper, Reuben Carter, Calvin Wheeler, John D. Ragsdale, Daniel M. McGee, Henry H. Pemberton and John M. Tarrant.
TOWNSHIP 31, RANGE 26-Entries in this township date from 1840, made by Joseph R. Davidson, Elijah Mc- Millen, John M. Rankin, Emerson C. Scott, C. L. Bidstrap, Isaac Stockton, James West, Charles Hoover, John and Joseph Salling, and others heretofore named. Soon there- after entries were made by J. N. Weir, Isam A. Young, Ramson Cates, A. Cowan, John Tarbot, W. R. Rankin and John M. Dicus. Many other entries were made during the forties.
TOWNSHIP 31, RANGE 27-First entries were made in 1840, by Thomas A. Dale, John C. Wetzel, William Fleisher, William Arbagast, Joshua Carman, John Finley, William McMillan, and others mentioned as early set- tlers.
TOWNSHIP 31, RANGE 28-The first entry in this township was made in 1853, by Joseph Lawrence, and the second in 1854, by Thomas Smith.
TOWNSHIP 31, RANGE 29-The first entry is 1854, by Stephen L. Butterfield.
TOWNSHIP 32, RANGE 25-First entries in 1839 were made by Pierce Asbell, William P. and Thomas Hudson, James G. Berry, John C. Kirby, Jesse M. Fin- ley, Stephen Grey, Tully C. Kirby, Isiah Kirby, Joel Dobbs, James H. Gaunt, H. Rook, D. B. Baker, William and J. P. Edge.
TOWNSHIP 32, RANGE 26-First entries were made in 1840, by James Hobbs, L. T. Dunnaway, Eber E. White, William M. Roark, S. E. Seybert, John F. Johnson, Thomas Fleming and William Johnson.
34
HISTORY OF DADE COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE
TOWNSHIP 32, RANGE 27-First entries in 1840, by John Asbell, John W. Thompson, Martin L. Hembree, James Cole and Washington Farmer.
TOWNSHIP 32, RANGE 28-First entries in 1853, by William Farmer, John Acock, Benjamin Hanley, William H. Amos, and Thomas Rhodes.
TOWNSHIP 32, RANGE 29-First entry made in 1853, by D. Dewey; next in 1854, by William and Jacob Sears; the next in 1855, by Isaac Darneel and Washington Farmer.
TOWNSHIP 33, RANGE 25-First entries were made in 1845, by John Lindley, Edwin Pyle, Samuel D. Clark, Galehu Moore and L. T. Dunaway.
TOWNSHIP 33, RANGE 26-Ezekiel M. Campbell, and others already mentioned in 1840.
TOWNSHIP 33, RANGE 27-The first entry was made in 1840, by Isaiah Lynch. Subsequent entries were made in 1850, by John Underwood and Aaron Russell.
TOWNSHIP 33, RANGE 28-First entry made in 1842, by James W. Bass. Later early entries were by Asa D. Lacy and Robert Poindexter.
-
EARLY SETTLEMENT OF WASHINGTON, SMITH AND LOCKWOOD TOWNSHIPS.
by
Howard Ragsdale.
Probably the first settler in either Smith, Washing- ton or Lockwood Townships, was made by a man by the name of Box, who settled on Turnback Creek prior to 1834. William Landers, whose father settled at the bluff spring just this side of the old Hoyle Mill on Turn- back, in 1843, was then twelve years of age, and in his recollections of pioneer days, states that at that time there were but three white families in Dade County. Be- sides his father's family, and that of Guy Clopton, who
36
HISTORY OF DADE COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE
had settled on Sac River at what is now known as "Bill's Ghost House," the Glenn family, near Cory, and the Box family, some five miles further up Turnback from where the Landers family settled, in the spring of 1837, the McMillen family settled on Limestone Creek about a mile and a half below what is now South Greenfield; and at this same time the Penn family settled on what is now Pennsylvania Prairie. In October, 1837, Joshua Ragsdale came to where Penn had settled, and finding that Penn had taken up a great amount of land, decided to move further north, and with Mr. Penn as a guide, discovered what is now called Buffalo Springs, about one and one- half miles west of South Greenfield, and there he settled. About this same time App Renfro, father of Joe Renfro and Lewis Renfro, settled on Honey Creek near Pennsboro. The Sallings family had come in some earlier, the exact day the writer is unable to ascertain, but it was prior to 1837, and the exact location of their homestead is not known, except it was on Limestone. The above families constituted the settlers until about 1841, when the Daugh- tery family moved in to the settlement. Of this family ther were three families, John Daughtery, who settled on what is now the Sam Daughtery farm, about four miles south and west of Greenfield; Jesse Daughtery, who set- tled about a mile and a half west of South Greenfield; and Frederick Daughtery, who settled near Limestone Creek, near what is called the Limestone School House. About this time, possibly a little later, the Mclemore family came. Of this family there were four, John Mc- Lemore, who settled on Limestone; Arch Mclemore and Wesley Mclemore settled on Sac River, north of Green- field, and Jack McLemore, who settled near Walnut Grove in Greene County. Lewis Spain about this time settled also on Limestone, just above the John McLemore place, and the Preston family also settled in the early forties on the head waters of the west prong of Limestone Creek, in what is now Smith Township and in what is known to this day as the Preston settlement. Of this family there were three of the men that were heads of
36
HISTORY OF DADE COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE
families, to-wit: Harrison Preston, Henry Preston and Isaac Preston. In this same period the Moore family, the Snadon family and the Speer family settled on Pennsyl- vania Prairie. The Cates family also settled near the old Dadeville Spring about the same period. The Bowles family settled upon the head waters of the east prong of Limestone Creek.
According to William Landers, when his father first settled, the country had never been surveyed. He states that he as a boy assisted in making this survey, and that until the country was surveyed, there was no land office and no entries of land could be made, which retarded emi- gration. When the McMillens and Ragsdales, Peims and Renfros settled, emigration for some time was very slow on that account; but as soon as the land office was estab- lished at Springfield, emigration came rapidly, which accounts for such a rush in the early forties. There are some families who were early settlers, who have lost their identity. The Bogart family is but a memory, but they were among the early settlers in those townships. The MeNeese family, another pioneer family, has also lost its identity. They also settled in the Limestone country in an early day, but of this family there was but one boy, and after the Civil war, he never returned. Monroe Mor- ris was a pioneer of Smith Township and father of Bud Morris of Lockwood, and of Elvis Morris, Jesse Morris and Bailey Morris. Among those who also joined in the rush to secure homes in the Limestone Country in the early forties was the Davidson family. The elder David- son was a minister and one of the very first in the county and in the William Lander's recollections, he states that Davidson was the first preacher he remembered, except an Indian convert, who preached some among his people and whites when they settled on Turnback in 1834. Of this family there were four boys, George Davidson, Wesley Davidson, William Davidson and James Davidson. Will- iam Davidson now owns the old homestead on Limestone. Practically all the settlers mentioned before settled in Washington and South Townships and a few in Smith
37
HISTORY OF DADE COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE
Township. The Matlock family were among the early settlers of Smith Township, settling some two miles south- west of Kingspoint. The Simpson family, relatives of the Matlocks, settled on Horse Creek, some ten miles north- west of Lockwood, and William Wagner also settled in this same point of timber at the same time. This was in the early forties.
The Simpson family were noted for being great hunters. At that time western Dade County was infested with a multitude of wolves. They were a menace to the settlers' stock and became so bold that steps had to be taken to combat them. The Simpson boys began the work of extermination. They secured a quantity of poison, and would kill a deer, and after thoroughly poisoning it, would drag it over the prairie, and hundreds of wolves were killed in this way. William Wagner has lived up until only a few years since, the Matlocks have all passed away. Of this family Uncle Luke Matlock was the quaint- est character, he wore homespun jeans clothes to the day of his death, which has only been some ten years ago. This family was composed of Uncle Luke and some two or three sisters, none of whom ever married. It is said they clung to homespun clothes and old methods, to even cooking on the fireplace even to this generation. In this same period of the early 40's the Scott family also settled near Pennsboro, and of this family Uncle Bud Scott, a noted pioneer, who just recently died, was a member. The first settler in Lockwood Township was Jack Finley, whose homestead can be seen to this day on the Greenfield and Lockwood public road. Lockwood Township was slow in being settled up, and old-timers being slow to settle on the prairie. Alex Ragsdale and William Cunningham and Jesse Cartwright also settled in this township about the same time. Just prior to the Civil War Judge Wells, formerly a member of the Dade County court, came with a man by the name of Welty, the two coming from Iowa with a large band of sheep, and they took land in what is now Lockwood Township, and about this same time a man by the name of Churchill, settled just west of Kings-
38
HISTORY OF DADE COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE
point. He was from the same neighborhood of Wells and Welty. Churchill built what was in that day a fine house on his prairie farm, but Wells and Welty were single men and boarded with Alex Ragsdale. In the election of 1860 over the protest and warning of Alex Ragsdale, these men at Kingspoint voted for Lincoln for president. Ragsdale had lived there since 1837 and knew the danger but despite his protest they voted the night of the elec- tion. Ragsdale had secured information to the effect that they would probably be mobbed that night and came home and told them to get away. They loaded up their effects, drove up to Churchill's, assisted lrim to get a few of his effects together, and by midnight they were headed for the Missouri River. The mob came to Ragsdale's in search of Wells and Welty, and another bunch went to Churchill's, but they had just gotten away under cover of darkness. Welty and Churchill never returned. For years the Churchill homestead stood tenantless on the prairie, finally decayed and went to waste. Ragsdale sold the sheep for Wells and Welty and remitted them the money. After the war Wells came back and settled near south Greenfield, was afterwards elected County Judge of Dade County, and died at his home in Dade County a few years ago a respected citizen, but he never forgot his first vote in Dade County and his hasty flight to save his life from the Missouri pro-slavery men. Jacob Cox was an- other very early settler of Limestone. He was the father of Sam W. Cox of South Greenfield.
For most part the pioneers depended upon home in- dustry to produce everything in the way of tools that was used. John McLemore was the country blacksmith and made about everything in the way of tools. Joshua Rags- dale was the county tanner, tanning the hides for leather that was used for use in those days. He was also a cooper by trade, and supplied the country side with bar- rels, tubs, pails, etc. The Speer family were millers and had a mill on the headwaters of Limestone, and supplied flour and meal (mostly meal) to the pioneers. At this place was also a cotton-gin, where the early settlers had
39
HISTORY OF DADE COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE
their cotton prepared for use. Aunt Patsy Morris, wife of Arch Morris, one of the early settlers on Limestone, was considered a good doctor and attended to a great deal of sickness of the neighborhood. She was the mother of Dr. Morris, remembered by many of us today as a physician at Greenfield. Among some of her treatments were witch methods which were greatly believed in at that day and time. The Finley family was another very prominent pioneer family, and owing to its numerous members now residents of Dade County reference can be had elsewhere to their history. Suffice to say in this sketch that Jack Finley, as before stated, settled on Son's Creek in Lockwood Township. Another one of the older men settled some three miles southwest of Greenfield, and another, James F. Finley, settled northeast of Greenfield, Thomas Finley at Pilgrim, and Milton, who was a bachelor, settled just east of Greenfield, and one of the girls mar- ried Judge Wetzel, father of J. L. Wetzel. The aforesaid people compose the first settlers of southwestern Dade County. For the most part they came from the south, principally from Tennessee, and were industrious, honest and in most part far-seeing, and intensely religious. To many of the later day people it is a mystery why the first settlers chose what is now the most undesirable lands to make their homes, usually at a spring, with glade and rough land about; but it must be remembered that there were two things the pioneer was compelled to have and that was wood and water. The present day of drilling and blasting was unknown. The only method of fencing was by use of rails, there was practically no timber except along the water courses, and strange as this may seem it was impossible to farm on the prairie on account of a certain kind of fly now about extinct (small green fly). It was impossible to use work animals except very early in the morning and late at night, on account of the pests, and aside from all this, there was no market for anything, money was very scarce and what there was, the pioneer market except a little local market to the new settlers, who put into land as fast as he could get it together. The first
40
HISTORY OF DADE COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE
had to purchase provisions for the first year, was when the gold fields were opened in California, when there was a great demand for oxen and supplies for the great wagon trains bound overland for the gold fields. Fort Scott, Kansas, then a United States fort, also required provisions, and here the pioneers found a market for their bacon and dried fruits. This trade with Fort Scott was the first real stable market the first settlers had for their products, and in this connection might be related the most tragic events of the early days. McBride and Etter, two prominent early day settlers, had taken a load each of produce to Fort Scott to sell, and after disposing of their produce started home, near Greenfield. They reached what is called "Ruphs" Point on Muddy Creek just over in Barton County, and there camped for the night. "Ruphs" Point is a point of timber where it juts out into the prairies of Barton County. That night both were murdered, includ- ing a small son of Etter's, who accompanied them. Their bodies were never recovered, their money was found in an old "polk root" stem, where they had evidently hidden it, themselves, before retiring. Their horses were found grazing on the prairie, the wagons were found hidden in a deep pool in Muddy Creek, entirely submerged, the end of the wagon tongues being tied to grape vines, but no trace of their bodies was ever found. Jesse McBride, William McBride and Robert McBride, well known in Greenfield, being merchants there in bygone years, were sons of this McBride. Mrs. Alexander Lack of Lockwood and Mrs. Dave Burns of Marion Township, were daugh- ters of Etter.
THE BOONE FAMILY. by Howard Ragsdale.
Nathan Boone first settled in Missouri at the village of St. Charles on the Missouri River in the year 1799, and it is said that he built the first stone house ever built in Missouri. Nathan Boone was the youngest son of Daniel
----
V
LEWIS RENFRO.
HOWARD RAGSDALE.
41
HISTORY OF DADE COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE
Boone, the famous frontiersman of Kentucky. Shortly thereafter, his famous father came to live with his son, Nathan, and there he lived until his death, which occurred in the year 1820. (The writer of this article is indebted for the facts herein set forth to "Aunt Mary" Hosman, who died something like a year ago at the age of 92 years). Aunt Mary was the youngest child of Nathan Boone, and shortly before her death she wrote her own personal recol- lections of the Boone family, and requested me to put it in shape for her and write it on a typewriter. She stated that she desired to sign this statement with her own name and leave it for her children, so that they might know the true facts concerning her family. As a compensation she gave the writer of this article a copy for himself.
Daniel Boone, when he came to Missouri, came to stay. He felt that he had been badly treated by the Kentuckians. His lands had been taken from him for the reason that some way Daniel Boone could never get it into his head that he had to get a title from the Government. The old frontiersman could not understand this and failed to get his government patents, and lost his lands, and to the day of his death he never returned to Kentucky. According to Aunt Mary, if her father, Nathan Boone, had been living at the time Kentucky came and removed his remains and built that splendid memorial of marble at his tomb, their journey would have been fruitless, for she says Kentucky should never have had the privilege of taking his body back. A few years back when that State had its great homecoming many inducements were offered to Aunt Mary as the only living grand-child of Daniel Boone, to go back as a guest of the State. She refused, doubtless remember- ing the injustice, as she termed it, of having driven her grandfather almost perniless from its boundaries, when he had given the best part of his life and had done more than any other one man had ever done for that famous State. Aunt Mary Hosman during the last years of her father's life spent a great deal of time with him, and to her he told many things that have never been written, and will never be written about Daniel Boone. It is so un-
42
HISTORY OF DADE COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE
fortunate that some competent writer did not spend some time with Aunt Mary and write her history. It would have been a valuable addition not only to the local history of Missouri, but would have thrown much light on events of historic interest.
Daniel Boone was not content while living with his son in St. Charles. The settlement and village was not of his nature, and one day, Aunt Mary says, her father told her that Daniel without a word of parting, took his old rifle and a young negro slave of his son, Nathan's, and disappeared. No one knew where he had gone, days passed and no tidings came. He was at that time over eiglity years of age. The neighbors and friends of the family became very much excited and urged Nathan Boone to get up a searching party to try and hunt him up, but Nathan told them it was no use, they could never find him, and that as far as he was concerned he had no fears, because his father was so thoroughly posted in wood- craft, that it would be absolutely impossible to lose him- self so long as he stayed in the woods, and that he knew his father would never leave the timber belt. Days passed into weeks, and weeks into months and late in the autumn, as suddenly as he had disappeared, back came Daniel with the negro slave. He told them of his wander- ings and claimed that he had been up the Missouri River and thence across the State and to the mouth of the Kaw River, and that he had come back by the way of the wooded water-sheds of the Osage, and he seemed to be as happy and spry as a boy. He told of his discovery of some salt springs on his travels and fully described the whole trip. This was the last hunting trip of Daniel Boone, for he passed away shortly, and was taken by Nathan Boone and friends and buried in the Bryan ceme- tery in Callaway County, this State.
Nathan Boone was prominent in the early history of the State of Missouri. He was a member of the first Con- stitutional Convention ever held in Missouri, in 1820. Nathan Boone was also the surveyor who surveyed out the famous Boone Lick Road, the first State Highway in the State of Missouri. It ran from St. Charles, Missouri, to
4 3
HISTORY OF DADE COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE
Old Franklin, Missouri, and was the fore-runner of the Santa Fe Trail and the old Oregon Trail. Nathan Boone surveyed this out in the year 1814, some years before Mis- souri was admitted to the Union. The State Legislature, in 1913, appropriated three thousand dollars to place "markers" along this now historic trail, and yet, the man who surveyed and laid it out, and gave it to Missouri, lies in an unmarked grave in an old field on the border of Greene and Dade Counties. Not even a rough stone marks the grave, and the careless farmer plows by and the plow- share turns the soil over the grave of this historic man.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.