History of Dade County and her people : from the date of the earliest settlements to the present time, Part 4

Author:
Publication date: [1917]
Publisher: Greenfield, Mo. : Pioneer Historical Co.
Number of Pages: 1128

USA > Missouri > Dade County > History of Dade County and her people : from the date of the earliest settlements to the present time > Part 4

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Nathan Boone when he came to this country did not come without first having looked the country over. Years before, while in the employ of the Government as a Gov- ernment surveyor, he had surveyed over this country and had fallen in love with the Ozark Hills, and as he grew old, and had retired from active life, in the year 1837 he brought his family and slaves and settled just two miles north of Ash Grove. Here he engaged in farming, and became very wealthy. At the time of his death he owned some twelve hundred acres of land and many slaves, and other personal property. Aunt Mary says, when she was young and when her father was in the Government serv- ice, he was, in addition to being a surveyor, a Captain of a Company of Dragoons and that his trips often took him among the Indians. He also surveyed and made a plat of the Canadian River for the Federal Government. His last years were spent in the quiet of his home. He lived a life of retirement and in 1856 died and was buried on the old homestead. Then followed the Civil War. The Boone family went with the South. Franklin T. Frazier, a son-in-law of Nathanial Boone, was a State Senator from this district. He voted for secession from the Union and later went with that part of the legislature that went to Neosho, Missouri, to set up another State Capital and pass and act of secession and failed. After the war and the Boone family returned, nothing was left, their slaves had been set free, all personal property gone, and just the land was left. The Boone family had been reared in ease and luxury and knew nothing of work before the

HISTORY OF DADE COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE

war; their slaves tilled the soil and the income was a mat- ter of course. The result was, the Boone family had hard luck financially and with the exception of Aunt Mary Hosman and Mrs. Franklin T. Frazier lost the for- tune that their father had left them. They left again for the South so that today none of the family of Boone remain, who bear the name of Boone. It is true the Hos- man family and the Frazier family remain, but the name of Boone has passed away, and Nathan Boone, that great character of early Missouri, who was one of the most prominent men in the making of this state, sleeps in an unmarked and almost unknown grave among the hills of the Ozarks.

JOHN CRISP.

In the year 1818, Redden Crisp and his son, John, came to Cedar County. From there they went out cast of Dadeville to what is now known as Crisp Prairie, and settled. About the year 1820 John Crisp married Malinda English. John Crisp and his wife went to what is now known as the old home place, about one-half mile north- east of the Crisp store. There they raked up the leaves, spread out their blankets and spent the first night. Next day, both helping, they started to build a little log house which served as their home for the next few years. Dur- ing the year 1849, he went to California to dig gold. Mrs. Crisp with her children was left at home in charge of the farm and a few slaves. One day while he was away, she saw a savage approaching the house. She went in and closed the door. It was fastened with a wooden pin. There was a way of reaching in from the outside and opening the door. This the savage tried to do, but Mrs. Crisp kept striking at his hand with a wooden poker until she broke the Indian's arm. In order to gain revenge, he shot off his gun with one hand into the grass to set fire to the cabin. Only the path around the house saved it until the slaves in the field got there and put the fire out.

John Crisp was very successful in the gold fields. He returned by the way of the Isthmus of Panama and New

HISTORY OF DADE COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE

Orleans. His gold he brought back in a leather trunk. There were many thieves on the boat, and all the rest he had for twenty-four days and nights, was sitting astride his leather trunk. He had been gone three or four years. Of course he had gone to California along with one of the numerous wagon trains of that day. While in New Orleans he bought more slaves to cultivate his farms.

Mrs. Crisp died soon after his return. They had nine children. Only one of these, Aunt Lettie Baldwin, is left. About the year 1855 he married Millie O'Connor. Ten children were born to them. Five of whom are still liv- ing. John Crisp had 1,600 acres of land all in one body. He had entered all of this except the 160-acre homestead. Mrs. Crisp died in 1874. Mr. Crisp, 1876. His sale lasted for three days.

FORTY MILES ON AN OX.

Experience of John Crisp, Dade County's First Settler.

The following scrap of history taken from the Spring- field Leader and dated at Cane Hill, Mo., may be of interest:

In last week's issue of the Leader I noticed, under the head of "Scraps of History of Southwest Missouri," that John Crisp was the first settler of Dade County and that he had to go forty miles to the nearest justice to get married. I was well acquainted with "Uncle John." His fine farm is just two and one-half miles west of this town. He settled it in 1820. It is one of the finest tracts of land in Southwest Missouri. His wife, a Miss English, lived at that time one mile southwest of this place. He mounted his intended wife on a large ox and took his rifle on his shoulder and walked by the side of the ox to Justice Fulbright's at Springfield, where the justice made then man and wife. After getting married he bought his outfit for housekeping, consisting of two tin cups, two tin plates and two knives and forks, in Springfield, and his wife carried it home on her ox. The old gentleman has been dead eighteen years. He was an uncle of Hon. John T. Crisp, of Jackson County, Missouri.

Chapter 3 REMINISCENCES OF J. W. CARMACK.

Dadeville, Mo., January 20, 1917.

I have been solicited to give a statement of myself, also of some facts to my knowledge of Dade County, Mis- souri. And in response to the solicitation I submit the following statement for publication in the Dade County History :

May 26, 1838, I was born in Overton County, Ten- nessee, near Livingston, where my father, John Carmack, resided until April 1st, A. D. 1853, when he embarked for the west with his family of wife and seven children, three boys and four girls, equipped with two yoke of oxen and wagon, one horse and carriage, two cows and two dogs. My mother, grown sister and little brother, three years old, rode in the carriage, the three little sisters rode in the wagon. My father and larger brother walked and drove the cows, the dogs followed. I was mounted upon the rear wheel ox upon a new saddle, with line in hand tied around the horns of the lead ox. This position I held from Tennessee to Dadeville, Missouri, landing June 14, 1853. I was then 16 years old, had been conductor of this train the entire march (conductors are very im- portant). Here we met Col. Thos. Dale, Dr. Samuel Bender, and Reverend N. Fisk, who were Tennesseeans. They prevailed upon my father to locate here. We drove two miles west of Dadeville and camped at W. A. McMaster's. Next day my father went to look for a location. My

brother, 14 years old, took care of our teams. I hired to James G. Berry to work in harvest. He paid me 35c per day. In a few days my father had bought of David Pyle his homestead claim. Then entered the land in Sec- tions 5 and 8-32-25. Mr. Pyle vacated and we moved in at once, where he remained until his death, December 24, 1856. In this neighborhood, Dr. J. H. Mulky, Peter Gear- heart, Burket Jones, JJ. M. Gaunt, James G. Berry, W. G. Dodson, Alfred Divine and Bird Hombree, had located.

HISTORY OF DADE COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE

They all had children and no school to send them. The above named parties resolved to have a school. Burket Jones gave a school house site upon his land near a spring. All parties went to work cutting and hauling logs for the building. My father made the boards to cover it with, while others put up the building. Levi Jones and I made rails for 25c per hundred to get money to get nails to put the roof on with and to pay for muslin to make the window lights. The windows were made by cutting a log out of the sides of the house, then stretching cloth over the openings, writing desks were made by boring auger holes in the logs of the building, driving wooden pins in the holes and laying boards on the pins; the seats were made of split poles with wooden legs. The gables of the house were weather boarded up with clab-boards. Door shutter made from side boards of old wagon box and fastened with chain and padlock; no floors in the building, no stove. Being anxious for school the building was pro- claimed ready and christened as West Center School House, this being the sixth week in construction from the stump to completion. At this juncture, Mrs. Burket Jones prepared a sumptuous dinner and spread to all par- ticipating in the building work. When summoned all par- ties and their families appeared on the scene of action. The men folks bringing their guns for a deer drive after dinner. After dinner the men with guns and Uncle Burket Jones with dogs marched to a clump of bushes a half-mile from his house. The gun men took stands near by, uncle Burket went to the opposite side of the thicket with the dogs and ran the deer out (about twenty in number). John H. Dill, John M. Gaunt and my brother, Hardin, each shot a deer. Uncle Burket came to the house, hitched his horse to a bobsled and went for the deer, brought them in, unloaded them at his door yard, where they were dressed and divided and the hides sent to the tan yard. Carter S. Pyle was at the feast, here he pro- posed to teach a three months' subscription school and would take in any kind of stock or produce. This propo- sition was accepted, and on the following Monday morn-

HISTORY OF DADE COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE

ing he opened school with 26 scholars (warm weather), no floor in the building, no stove, and in a few weeks had more pupils. His school was a success. When the term was ended and subscriptions paid up, he was the best prepared man for the winter in the neighborhood. He had corn, potatoes, onions, turnips, cabbage, beets, to- matoes, hay, oats, pumpkins, chickens, sheep, hogs, pigs and calves (choice calves worth $2.50 each).

School district then organized under the law. Levy made to run three months school next year, also for in- cidental expenses, flooring the house and buying a stove. Mr. Pyle then proposed to teach the next school and wait for his pay until the taxes levied was collected. This proposition was accepted and the school taught. At tax- paying time the taxes were promptly paid by all except J. G. Berry, who was opposed to the organization and levy. He was sued for his school tax, the board obtained judgment and execution against him, then sold a horse under execution for $3 to pay said tax; then the name of the house was changed from West Center to that of Point Victory. Later a move was made and carried to change the site one-half mile and to build a new school house. In this wrangle two of the board had a fist fight, but pro- ceeded to move the site and build a new school house. Then christened the building as War Eagle. Some years later the name was changed to Jones, which name it now bears, still situated on the Jones land. This district has turned out some very efficient teachers.

FIRST SETTLERS.

In the first settling of this neighborhood the settlers had to labor under many disadvantages, go through vari- ous hardships. We had good land, but covered with wild grass about knee high. When broken out would produce all kinds of grain and vegetables we needed to live on, no money to pay for labor (John Tyler was president of the U. S.) I made 10 feet rails at 25c per hundred to fence a good sized farm, took most of my pay in bacon at 3c per pound for my father's family. My father was unable

SHERIDAN B. PYLE.

HISTORY OF DADE COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE

to work for some time before his death. After his death I had to look after my mother and family. During my father's life time, we had fenced and broke out 20 acres of land. He had a few sheep, hogs and cows and two yoke of oxen at his death. In the spring following his death, I broke ground with oxen for a crop, Eber E. White let me have a horse to make my crop. My brother, Hardin 17 years old, took our teams and wagon and freighted goods for the merchants at Dadeville and Greenfield from Boonville and Syracuse, Missouri. We raised cotton from which my mother and sisters manufactured our wearing apparel. Mr. Wright Graft had a tan yard that furnished leather for shoes for the neighborhood. The demand for shoes was very urgent. Mr. Sammy Mack, the shoemaker, would take the hides from the tanner before they were blacked and just as they were rubbed out of the tan, oose and dried, would make the shoes. When finished they were about the color of a bull frog. Then the polish was put on by disolving copperas in water. Pour this upon the bottom of an iron wash kettle then rub with a cloth to polish. This shoemaker also manufactured horn combs for all the neighbors. At that time I was not acquainted generally over the county, but as far as I was concerned the conditions seemed to be about as that of our neighbor- hood. The west half of Dade County was sparcely settled prior to the war of 1861. Of my father's family of nine that landed in Dade County, Missouri, June 14, 1853, only three are living. My eldest sister, Mrs. Dr. Hamilton, who is 85 years old, living in St. Louis, Missouri. Myself, now near 79 years old, J. G. Carmack, 67 years old now at San Francisco, California. My mother lived to the age of 93 years. She was the last Revolutionary daughter of Dade county, daughter of Paul Chapin of New Jersey, who was a drummer boy in Washington's Army and was a command- ing Major in the war of 1812.

My educational experience before leaving the State of Tennessee: I had attended school nine months, could spell, read and write. After establishing our school at Point Victory in Morgan Township, I attended two, three

HISTORY OF DADE COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE

months terms, where I mastered the old Blue Back Speller, the Fourth Reader, Smith's Grammar and Smiley's Arith- metic. Later on I hired to John M. Gaunt to work for three months at $10 per month. With this $30 I went to Profess- or Rhea who was teaching in Springfield in a little brick school house on St. Louis street near what was called the Dead Sea (a place they made whiskey). This was called a High School. He took me in for three months giving me board and tuition for my $30. He advanced my studies in addition to reviewing, gave me history, algebra and geography. In studying this geography and with his ex- planation, found that this earth was not flat as supposed. When the term closed, he gave me a very complimentary grade card, which served me well later on. I got a job of work and got me some more clothes. Alexander Rutledge was then County School Commissioner, I approached him for examination for teacher's certificate to teach in Dade county. He took my examination, granted the certificate, then proffered to help me get a school. In a very short time he wrote me telling me he had a school for me in his neighborhood at a school house near the old Bates Mill on Limestone Creek near Smith Pelt's farm. I went, took and taught the school with success. By this time the Civil War was at hand, so I taught no more until after the close of the war, then taught in the Public Schools in this county for six years. Since that time, I have worked at various avocations, farming merchandising, milling and livery. My home had been in Morgan township since 1853. Cast every vote I have given in Morgan township except one I gave in the field while a soldier in the late war. What I could say of Dade county politics would not be of much interest as all are aware that dishonest politicians, the boodlers and inefficient officers have lowered our financial standing.

J. W. CARMACK.

HISTORY OF DADE COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE

ATTACH TO MY STATEMENT MADE OF MY FIRST SETTLING IN DADE COUNTY.

J. W. Carmack, March 18, 1917

In the year 1853 my first acquaintance in Dade county the following named persons were most prominent char- acters: Nelson McDowell, Col. Shields, John T. Coffee, Arch M. Long, Peter Hoyl, Thos. J. Bishop, Andy Hud- speth, John and Bob McGuire, Joseph Lawrence, R. S. Jacobs, Jack Stumbeaugh, John Wetzel, Sam Appleby, J. T. Hembree, S. E. Shaw, Silas Seybert, Judge Travis, Rev. Murphy, E. E. White, Thos. Dale, Chas. Montgomery, Sr., J. M. Clabough, Silas Hobbs, John T. Crisp, Dr. H. Mulkey, Rev. N. Fisk, Dr. S. Bender, J. M. Tarrant, Pierce Aspbell, H. P. McPeak, J. Lindley, M. Craft, L. L. Carlock, H. Edge, J. D. and W. F. Ragsdale, Isiah, J. C. and T. C. Kirby, Daniel McGee, B. Logan, Rev. J. D. Montgomery, Rev. Garrett, L. H. Hembree, Mart Rector, F. M. Compton, Henry, Doc. and J. C. Pemberton, Rufus and W. A. Mc- Masters, J. G. Berry, W. G. Dodson, J. B. Clark, Alex. Patterson, Jesse Potter, Bennett Pyland, B. Maxwell, Rev. Chas. Cox, Peter Gearheart, J. M. Finley, W. N. King, Burkett Jones, Reuben Cantrell, W. B. Landers, Wash Cotner, Alex. Douglas, Dr. S. Bowles, W. K. Latham, M. Allison, J. P. Griggs, Dan Bailey, J. M. Stummons, Sol. Wilson, Jas. Wheeler, James Hoover, W. Y. West, John Stockton, J. McClam, Jordan Grant, L. T. Dunaway, Thos. Stockhill, Col. J. M. Smith, W. and R. Cheek, F. Delosier, Rad Scott, Capt. Pedro, J. H. Stanley, Ed. Hayward, J. C. Woody, J. W. Frieze, A. and W. W. Divine, E. S. Rook, A. Morgan and Samuel M. Wheeler.

The only one lving of the entire list is the last name mentioned and he is nearing the century mark in years. Many of my acquaintances at that time who were then young men are still living in Dade county at this date, 1917. One young man at that time of my acquaintance, I will mention viz: Thomas McConnell, a neighbor of mine

HISTORY OF DADE COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE

who died just after the close of the Civil War, June 14, 1864, when Kinch West's guerrillas burned Melville. When leaving the town, they passed by his house (he in bed sick). They carried him out into the yard with his wife and two children, then set fire to his house burning it to the ground with contents. The neighbors joined in and built him a little house upon the premises where he remained until his death. His family consisted of wife and two little boys. T. A. McConnell, late sheriff of Dade county and J. B. McConnell now occupying the home. His widow, N. C. McConnell, later on remarried to Eldridge Miller. To this union were born C. I. and Clarence Miller. Mr. Miller died and she was again left a widow and as such died after having lived a long and useful life, and was highly respected by all who knew her.

GREENFIELD AND ITS PEOPLE IN 1867.

by Seymour Hoyt.

After a dreary ride over the rocks which lay between this town and Bolivar I landed in Greenfield, April 8, 1867. The "Greenfield House," located on the southwest corner of Main and Garrett Streets, where the neat little cottage occupied by Postmaster Bowles, stands, was the only hotel in the town, and my first stopping place in Dade county. The building was a two-story frame, two rooms long facing Main Street. The upper story was reached by an outside stairway leading up from the porch which extended along the front of the building. The hotel was conducted by John W. Murphy and wife. Across Main Street was the two-story frame residence of the Rev. W. R. Fulton, pastor of the Presbyterian church. D. W. Edwards now owns the residence and has added to and changed its ap- pearance materially. On the next block south and near the Public Square was, and is, the house owned by D. C. Easton, and now the residence of his daughters, Misses Ollie and Frank. Across the street was the residence of

HISTORY OF DADE COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE

R. S. Jacobs; the broad porch added by its present owner, J. E. Shaw, makes a decided change in its front. On the corner south, fronting the Square was Mr. Jacob's one story frame, where he had his general merchandise store, with John Bell, clerk. The building was about twenty by forty feet with a ware-room on the west about fifteen feet wide. West and near the center of the block was a one- room frame building unoccupied. On the corner where the Dade county bank stands, was the one-story frame where John F. Garrett had a general store. On the lot occupied by Eastin's "Daylight Store" was a low two- story frame, two-rooms long, fronting the Square, with a one-story frame at the northwest corner. Nelson Mc- Dowell and Robert McBride, owners. In the lower south room Robert McBride and John W. McDowell had their stock of goods. Mr. McBride lived in the north lower room, and also had two rooms above with the one story frame for a kitchen. In the third room of the second story Judge McDowell had his Real Estate Office. South of this building was a one-story frame, some thirty feet deep. It had not been occupied for some years, and the front had nearly disappeared, what was left had a distinct leaning to the south. Newton H. McClure bought the building straightened the frame and made it into a neat store from which he dispensed a stock of general mer- chandise. The C. E. Tarr brick now stands in its place. Sonthi and on the corner fronting the square was a two- story brick, the south two-thirds owned by Wm. K. Lathim and stocked as a general store. On one side in front was the post office, John J. Lathin, post master. Its furniture consisted of perhape a dozen boxes for letters, as many, only larger for papers, a cancelling stamp, pens and a bottle of ink. When the tri-weekly mail came in from Bolivar, we were all scooted into the street, while the mail was being distributed. I think it was in the latter part of the year, that the west end of that part of the build- ing from the roof to the second floor dropped out and was not repaired until bought by Jesse W. McBride and re- arranged for a drug store on the first floor and a residence

HISTORY OF DADE COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE

above. The north one-third was owned by Dr. Samuel B. Bowles and on the ground floor, he dispensed drugs. The entire second floor was vacant. On the south side of the square on the corner where Mr. Snead had his drug store was a little one-story frame, some fifteen by twenty feet, where Dr. Samuel Bender had his office. On the lot where Harrison Bros. now sell furniture, there stood a one-story frame about fifteen by twenty-five occupied by J. S. and Win. H. McBride, twin brothers, as a general store. Jesse W., a younger brother, was their clerk. On the corner where the people now go for their mail was a two-story brick with an attic. The building was about forty-five feet long, fronting the square, two rooms deep with a one-story ell at the southwest corner. A broad hall ran through the center of the main building. The east lower front room was used by all the courts, Circuit, County and Probate and was also the office of Nelson B. McDonnell, county clerk. The rear room was the office of Arch M. Long, clerk of the Circuit Court, and ex-officio Recorder of Deeds. The west lower part of the building was occupied by R. B. (Unele Dick) Cook and family, also the east rooms on the second floor. The west front room, second floor, was Shafer and Merrills' Law office, and the rear room, the Vedette office, John W. Murphy, owner and editor. Mason Talbutt and John P. Griggs compositors. The attic was used by the McBride Bros. as a store-room. East across the street was a low-story frame, some thirty feet long, fronting west. The lower story just being fitted up by Lewis M. Murphy for a tin and stove shop. The upper story was vacant. North, across the street, on the site of Grether's Hardware Store, Watson had kept up a small one-story frame, where he sold whisky. His license ex- pired July 4th and was not renewed. About where the "Bijon" stands was an old frame of one-story, with a side room on the south which Jesse Cartwrite used as a stable. The main room was not occupied. Next north, in the center of the block stood the fourteen by fourteen foot law office of W. C. McDowell. Next, a one-story frame where John Harrison made and sold harness and saddles.

HISTORY OF DADE COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE

Next and on the corner, a frame house of four or five rooms, the residence of Jno. H. Howard and family. Across the street, on the corner now occupied by the R. S. Jacobs Bank building, there was a one-story frame about sixteen by forty feet filled with a stock of general mer- chandise owned by John H. Howard and Company. There was a shed room on the north where Temple E. Bell had a harness and saddle shop. The square was a picture of desolation. In the center a pile of broken brick and plaster, what was left of the courthouse, burned during the war, and around it stood a lot of apparently dead locust trees, used as hitching posts, the ground tramped and cut up between. Not a vistage of grass or fence to be seen.

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History of Dade County and her people : from the date of the earliest settlements to the present time, Part 4

Author: Publication date: [1917] Publisher: Greenfield, Mo. : Pioneer Historical Co. Number of Pages: 1128

Author:
Publication date: [1917]
Publisher: Greenfield, Mo. : Pioneer Historical Co.
Number of Pages: 1128