USA > Missouri > Mercer County > History of Harrison and Mercer Counties, Missouri : from the earliest times to the present : together with sundry personal, business, and professional sketches and family records : besides a condensed history of the State of Missouri, etc > Part 37
USA > Missouri > Harrison County > History of Harrison and Mercer Counties, Missouri : from the earliest times to the present : together with sundry personal, business, and professional sketches and family records : besides a condensed history of the State of Missouri, etc > Part 37
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When first occupied the prairies were covered with the wild grasses usually found upon them, but since they have been brought under cultivation and pasturage those grasses have been superseded by blue- grass, which grows and flourishes as though it were indigenous to this soil. Indeed, this section rivals the famous blue-grass region of Kentucky, and no finer grazing country can be found in the world.
Timber, Fruits, Live Stock, Agricultural Products, etc .- The tim- ber which, as before stated, lines the banks of the streams, consists of elm, oak, hickory, ash and beech, the oak predominating. Dur- ing the past few years; large quantities of railroad ties and bridge timbers have been cut, and should the present rate of consumption continue a few years longer, the timber lands will be entirely denuded of their valuable growth. Wood is largely used for fuel, and during 1879 there were cut and consumed about 40,000 cords.
The principal agricultural productions are Indian corn, oats, wheat and hay. The acreage and production of these crops in 1879 were as follows: Indian corn, 54,676 acres, and 1,761,648 bushels; oats, 13,211 acres, and 380,329 bushels; wheat, 6,885 acres, and 82, 653 bushels; and hay, 25,264 acres, and 25,502 tons. During the same year there were also produced 29,779 pounds of tobacco, 53,127 bush- els of Irish potatoes and 65,111 gallons of sorghum molasses. The raising of tobacco as a crop is quite rare in Mercer County, neither the season nor the soil being well adapted to it. Irish potatoes yield abundantly, but are little raised except for home consumption.
Of fruits, the apple, perhaps, attains the greatest perfection, but pears, cherries, quinces and small fruits are grown without difficulty. The peach is not hardy enough to withstand the extreme cold winters. That fruit-growing as a business can be made a success in this sec- tion has been demonstrated. A large nursery and fruit farm was
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established about twenty years ago by H. R. and S. M. Wayman. It is situated three and one-half miles north of Princeton, and now comprises 346 acres, upon which are 150,000 apple trees, from one to four years old, 1,500 pear trees, 1,000 peach trees, 500 cherry trees, 1,000 grape vines, 400 plum trees and an assortment of small fruits. There are also forty-five acres of bearing orchard, and twenty-five acres more of growing trees. The first car load of apples that ever left the county was shipped by S. M. Wayman, in 1885. In 1883 $1,000 worth of apples were sold from eight acres of orchard. In 1887 3,000 bushels of apples were shipped from these orchards.
The county is especially well adapted to the raising of live stock, and constantly increased attention is given to that industry. The follow- ing statistics are from the census of 1880: On January 1, of that year, there were in the county 7,339 horses, 700 mules, 6,937 cows, 16,620 other cattle, 19,130 sheep and 41,685 swine. During the pre- ceding year there were produced 92,112 pounds of wool, and 383,629 pounds of butter.
The following additional statistics will furnish some idea of the condition of the agricultural interests of the county in 1880: There were then 2,148 farms, embracing an area of 255,526 acres, of which 117,204 were tilled, and 49,056 in orchard and permanent pasture. The unimproved land embraced an area of 89,266 acres, of which 74, - 650 were in woods. The aggregate value of the farms was placed at $2,853,265, the value of live stock at $997,961, and of all the farm products for the year at $736, 199.
ERA OF SETTLEMENT.
Circumstances of the Settlement .- The permanent settlement of Mercer County was not begun until 1837, and a considerable por- tion of it remained almost entirely unoccupied for nearly twenty years after that date. The settlements began in the south, and gradually extended northward along the streams. Nearly all of the first settlers had been accustomed to hills and forests in their native State, and it was with the greatest reluctance that they located upon the prairie lands. The settlement of Mercer, like other border counties, was not rapid, owing to its position. Emigrants from the free States of the East rarely settled in Missouri because it was a slave State. They preferred to locate in Iowa, or the Territo- ries beyond. On the other hand, those who came from the Southern States with their slaves did not care to place them in a position so favorable for their escape, and this prejudice against the border coun-
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ties extended even to those who owned no slaves, and whose poverty precluded the possibility of their becoming possessed of such property. The first settlers were mainly from Virginia, North Carolina, Ten- nessee and Kentucky, many of whom had spent one or more years in some of the older counties in Missouri.
For the first few years the pioneers lived a life of extreme simplic- ity, without either the cares or comforts of modern civilization. Money was very scarce, and except in the purchase of Government land was lit- tle used. The principal trade of the country consisted in the exchange of produce for a few household necessities and powder and shot. The nearest market was Brunswick, on the Missouri River, some seventy- five miles distant, and country produce taken there did not sell for enough to pay for the hauling. Clothing, furniture and nearly every article of domestic utility were manufactured at home from raw ma- terial also produced upon the farm.
So far as a circulating medium was required, the demand was sup- plied by wolf scalps and beeswax. A bounty was paid by the county for the former, which made it good for the amount of the reward, and being small and pliable it was not inconvenient to handle. So valu- able did this commodity become, that the killing of a she wolf was looked upon by the hunters as a misfortune, since her annual brood of whelps was thus lost.
The dwellings of the pioneers were usually rude log structures, with little furniture, and void of decoration, but they were comfortable, and their inmates were contented and happy.
As stated above, the permanent settlement of Mercer County was begun in 1837, but one or two settlements of a temporary character had been made prior to that time. One of them was made by a family, who fifty years ago became notorious as the originators of what was termed the "Heatherly War," an account of which forms one of the most interesting chapters in the early history of the Upper Grand River country. The facts contained in the following account of this episode were verified by Samuel Loe, the only man now living in the county who participated in the so-called war .* He was then a resident of Livingston County, and a member of Capt. Pollard's company of militia.
The Heatherly War .- In the year 1831 a family named Heath- erly came to Missouri from Kentucky, and settled on Grand River near the present site of the city of Chillicothe. This fam- ily was composed of the following members: George Heatherly,
*The above account of the "Heatherly War" is substantially as written by a prominent historian of the State.
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Sr., the father; Jenny Heatherly, the mother; John, Alfred, James, and George Heatherly, Jr., the four sons, and Ann Heatherly, the daughter. At the time of their settlement in Missouri, George Heatherly and his wife were nearly sixty years of age, and their children were grown. The daughter, Ann, the youngest child was about sixteen. The antecedents of the family were bad. In Kentucky old George Heatherly was known to be a thief, while Mrs. Heath- erly was said to have been the wife of the notorious murderer, Little Harpe, who, with the Big Harpe, was a terror to the people of Ken- tucky and Tennessee, for a number of years, nearly a century ago. The family were thoroughly bad, but for a time after their first set- tlement in Missouri, to all outward appearances they led a fairly rep- utable life. Not much is known of them during the time they lived on Grand River. The country was new and almost unbroken, and they had few neighbors. It was noted, however, that the men were nearly always away from home, that they were unsociable, and, unlike the majority of pioneers, were exclusive, and disposed to be unfriendly. But in a few years settlers came to the rich Upper Grand River country in considerable numbers. Locations were made all around the Heatherlys. At once they resented the intrusion and removed. Starting out one evening they went about forty miles north, and locat- ed beyond the confines of civilization in the midst of a forest on the West Fork of Medicine Creek in what is now Medicine Township, Mercer County. There they erected a log house, a story and a half in height. To this building an addition was subsequently made. Stables were built easy of access from the house. The family kept no stock other than horses, and beyond clearing and cultivating a small garden, there were no attempts at agriculture. The entire aspect of
the premises was forbidding. Occasional reports made by hunters living in the forks of Grand River, who had come upon the Heatherly abode, while on their hunting excursions, caused the locality to be re- garded as a veritable robbers' roost. Three or four large and savage dogs kept constant watch and ward. A settler could be readily identi- fied as such, and if one approached the house he was met fifty yards from it by one of the inmates usually around, and asked what he wanted. Rarely was he admitted, but a stranger, a land hunter, or prospector or some other wanderer, who rode a good horse, and seemed to have money, was always welcomed. The woods at that day contained little underbrush; the annual fall fires, set out by the In- dians, kept it down, and one could ride easily through the timber without a road, and see and be seen a level distance for half a mile.
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There had come from time to time to live with the Heatherlys, as boarders, visitors, or retainers, three or four young men of bad appear- ance and suspicious deportment. They were unknown, but it was be- lieved they had drifted westward from the older States as they fled from officers of the law for crimes committed. A bad reputation soon settled upon the Heatherly gang. Tales were told of the sudden and utter disappearance of many a land hunter and explorer who vis- ited the Upper Grand River region, and was last seen in the vicinity of the Heatherly house. Even yet the aged pioneers relate black and bloody legends of crime connected with the old log mansion; of shrieks and cries heard in the hollows near by; of pools of blood found in se- cluded places, and occasionally one hears a tradition, weird and uncanny, of specters seen in the sombre, gloomy bottom of Medicine Creek after nightfall.
Old Mrs. Heatherly is said to have been the leading spirit of the gang, prompting and planning many a dark deed, and often assisting directly in its execution. The daughter, Ann, was useful in many ways. Her chief role it is said was to lure some susceptible stranger into the timber, where an assassin in ambush blew out his brains with a rifle and afterward robbed his body. The young men of the family made frequent trips to the Missouri River towns with horses for sale, which were believed to have been stolen, and they were said to have disposed of gold watches and other articles taken from the bodies of men they had murdered. They seemed always to have plenty of money, and one or two men who had been the guests of the Heatherlys, and lived to tell of it, said that the family "lived well, had coffee at every meal, store sugar to sweeten it, and every fellow had his own jug of whisky."
Early in the month of June, 1836, a party of the Iowa tribe of Indians, from the Des Moines River, came down into the country on the East Fork of Grand River, in what is now Grundy County, on a hunting expedition. Indian hunting parties from the north frequently came into the country at this period, and seldom gave the settlers any trouble. Learning of the proximity of this particular party of Indians, and that they had a number of horses with them, the Heath- erlys resolved to visit their camp, not many miles away, steal the best horses, carry them down into the Missouri River counties and sell them. Taking with them three of their associates, James Dunbar, Alfred Hawkins, and a man named Thomas, the four Heatherly boys made their way to the vicinity of the Indian encampment, secured about twenty horses and ponies, which had been turned out to graze, and drove their spoil down on the Weldon Fork of Grand River.
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There in a thick body of timber they corraled the animals and stood guard over them. The Indians soon discovered their loss, and about twenty armed warriors set out in pursuit of the thieves. The trail was fresh and easily followed. In a short time the robbers were overtaken. The Indians demanded the instant return of their prop- erty, and the demand being refused raised the war whoop and opened fire. The first volley killed Thomas, and mortally wounded John Heatherly. The attack was pressed, and the gang retreated, leaving the ponies in the hands of the rightful owners.
Upon the defeat of their scheme, the Heatherlys returned to their rendezvous, and consulted upon the best course to pursue under the circumstances. Fearing that the Indians would first give informa- tion of the affair to the whites and tell the true story, it was determined to anticipate their visit to the settlement, and to tell a tale of their own. For some time James Dunbar had shown symptoms of treach- ery to the party, and now he evinced a desire to break away from his evil associates. Dead men tell no tales. The next day after the return from the Indian raid, Dunbar was inveigled into the woods and murdered. His body was secreted, but was afterward discovered.
Passing by the cabins in the Forks, in a day the Heatherly band appeared among the settlers further down, with a wild tale of terror and alarm. "Indians!" "Indians!" A thousand painted warriors had come from the northward, they said, and were sweeping down Grand River, burning, plundering and murdering. They had mur- dered Thomas and John Heatherly. They had murdered Dunbar. They had driven the people in the "Forks " to the woods and burned their cabins. They would certainly exterminate all the whites in that quarter, and who could tell what they would do next.
The wildest excitement resulted, couriers dashed away in every direction to warn the exposed settlers, and to notify the authorities. From Linn County on the east to Caldwell and Clinton on the west, among the Mormons, the alarm spread; many fled for safety to the older and denser settlements along the Missouri, others formed mili- tary companies and "forted up." Some isolated and apart in the wilderness abandoned their cabins and hid in the woods. The further the story went the more terrifying it became. South of the Missouri it was believed that all of North Missouri had been invaded by. hordes of copper-colored Goths and Vandals from the Iowa country, bent on slaughter and rapine.
Gen. William P. Thompson, of Ray County, commanding the militia district, was prompt to act. Hastily mustering the Twenty- .
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HISTORY OF MERCER COUNTY.
second Regiment of militia, composed of companies from Ray and Carroll, he sent it under its commander, Col. Hiram G. Parks, to the seat of war. Two well-mounted and armed companies of scouts, un- der the brave and experienced. Indian fighters, Capt. John Sconce and Capt. William Pollard, were dispatched in advance with orders to move night and day until they encountered the enemy; Col. Park's regiment was to follow close behind. A battalion of two companies, numbering 150 men from Clay County, was commanded by Col. Shubael Allen, and the captain of one of the companies, the Liberty Blues, was David R. Atchison.
The troops from Ray and Carroll, with some from Chariton, marched straight for Upper Grand River. The Clay County battalion rode due north, along the then western boundary of the State, into what is now De Kalb County, and then turned east toward the reported scene of the troubles. This was done to discover whether or not there was a movement of the savages from the northwest, or to flank the hostile bands supposed to be advancing down Grand River. Accompanying the battalion were a score of volunteers, one of whom was Gen. A. W. Doniphan. In Clay, Chariton and Howard, the other militia organizations were directed to hold themselves in readi- ness to march at an hour's notice.
These preparations were reasonably magnificent, and, doubtless, had there been any real danger would have averted it in a great measure, but when Capts. Sconce and Pollard reached the white settlements in the "Forks" they found the people about their usual vocations, instead of lying here and there upon the ground, stiffened corpses, mangled and scalped, as they had expected to find them. Inquiry revealed the fact that only a portion of the settlers in that locality had even heard of any trouble. Pushing on they soon came to the Indian encampment, and found its inmates, all of whom, men, squaws and papooses, did not number more than 100 souls, perfectly quiet and peaceable. It was the 4th of July and a hot day. The bucks lay in the shade snoozing the time away; the women were about their ordinary drudgery, the girls were weaving baskets, and the boys shaping bows.
To say the Indians were amazed at the sudden appearance of so many armed and mounted white men does not well express their sensations when Sconce and Pollard with their men rode upon them. They were members of Old Mahaska's band of Iowas, and it is said that Mahaska (" White Cloud") himself was with them. They were extremely friendly to the whites on all occasions. Now, as fast as their
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limber tongues could talk, they explained that they had harmed no one, but some "d-n hoss tiefs, much d-n hoss tiefs!" The incident of the horse stealing and the pursuit were related fairly, and it was pointed out that ever since they had been compelled to keep watch over their ponies as they grazed by day, and to tether them securely at night. That they were all good Indians, "much good Injun," they protested vehemently. The great "sell" was appar- ent. "Why didn't you follow up the scoundrels, and kill and scalp the last one of them ?" asked Capt. Sconce wrathfully. Word was sent back to the approaching column under Col. Parks, and it was stopped. Gen. Thompson and some other officers came up and interviewed the Indians, and learned the truth, which had begun to dawn upon them when they reached the white settlements. The Clay County battalion came up, crossed Thompson's Fork of Grand River, and encamped one Sunday on its banks. After a thorough examination and investigation of the situation and the circumstances, .Gen. Thompson and his associates became perfectly satisfied that the Indians were completely innocent of the offenses alleged against them, and that they had been preyed upon by the Heatherly gang as has been described. After a brief consultation the officers returned their men to their homes, disbanded them and the "war" was over. The stampeded pioneers soon returned to their homes, and the recon- struction period did not last more than a week. The expedition of Gen. Thompson cost the State $4,000. *
Apprehension of the Heatherlys .- The crime of the murder of James Dunbar, imputed to the Indians, was now traced directly to the Heatherlys. A warrant for their arrest was issued, and on July 17, 1836, Lewis N. Reese, sheriff of Carroll County, with a strong posse, apprehended them. Alfred Hawkins was captured at night as he lay sleeping in an abandoned cabin. Their prelim- inary examination came off before Squire Jesse Newlin, who then lived at Navetown, now Spring Hill, Livingston County. As Liv- ingston, Grundy and Mercer Counties had not then been created, all of the territory now included within their several boundaries was within the limits of Carroll County. The examination attract- ed great attention, and lasted several days. The accused were ordered to be committed to jail to await the action of the next grand jury of Carroll County. As there was no sufficient jail at Carrollton, they were, on the 27th of July, given into the custody of the sheriff of Ray County, and placed in jail at Richmond, but in a few days old
*See Acts XII, General Assembly, page 90.
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HISTORY OF MERCER COUNTY.
George Heatherly, his wife and their daughter Ann, were released on bail. In October all the parties in obedience to a writ of habeas corpus were brought before Judge John F. Ryland (afterward of the supreme court) at Carrollton, but almost immediately returned to the custody of the sheriff. The Heatherlys had money, and retained able counsel to defend them. The grand jury returned indictments against the Heatherlys, and a separate bill against Alfred Hawkins. In March, 1837, George Heatherly was tried and acquitted. The other members of the family were sent to the La Fayette County jail, and Hawkins to Chariton County.
It became apparent to the circuit attorney, Hon. Thomas C. Burch, that no conviction could be had of the Heatherlys, nor of Haw_ kins, unless some of his fellow criminals would testify against him, and at Carrollton, in July, 1837, before Judge Austin A. King, a nolle prosequi was entered in the case against the Heatherlys, and they were discharged. Mr. Burch had been of counsel for the accused in their preliminary examination, and his action was severely commented upon. Alfred Hawkins was placed on trial, and the Heatherlys now testified against him. He was ably defended by his counsel, who induced some of the jury to believe that the Heatherlys themselves were the guilty parties, and the result was a mis-trial, or disagree- ment of the jury. At the November term following Hawkins was again put upon trial at Carrollton. The Heatherlys were present, and testified more strongly than before, and this time he was convicted of murder in the first degree, and sentenced to death. He had no money, and could take no appeal, but Gov. Boggs commuted his sentence to twenty years in the penitentiary, whither he was taken, and where he died after having served but two years of his term. It is said that to some of his fellow convicts he confessed that his real name was not Hawkins, but that he belonged to a reputable family in Tennessee, and that his half-brother was a congressman.
Old "Fort Heatherly" was either burned or rotted down many years ago, and its existence is now forgotten, except by a few of the earliest pioneers. Those who do remember it locate it in the extreme southern part of Medicine Township. Its inmates are said to have moved first to the Platte Purchase, and subsequently to Oregon.
The Indians .- Indians continued to visit the country along Grand River and its tributaries until 1842, when they were removed farther west by the Government. They belonged to the Fort Des Moines agency. They usually came in the fall, and camped along the streams wherever they could find sufficient pasturage for their droves of ponies.
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They spent their time in hunting, fishing and trapping and in raising horses. The furs and skins which they took were generally sold at St. Joseph, and almost the only cash that came into the country came through these Indians. They were always peaceably inclined, rarely giving any trouble, except when under the influence of "fire water."
The First Settler and Others .- The honor of making the first permanent settlement in Mercer County belongs to James Par- sons, who recently died full of years, and most highly respected by all who knew him. He came to the county in the fall of 1837, and erected a cabin upon the farm where he continued to reside until his death. He was a native of Tennessee, and of humble origin. An orphan without friends and without means, at the age of seventeen years he came to Illinois, where he remained for a few years, acquiring such an education as could be obtained in the common schools of that day. With the small means saved from his wages as a farm hand, he came to Mercer County, selected the site for his future home, and having made a small improvement went back to Illinois to spend the winter. Upon his return the following spring he found two or three other settlers in what is now the southern part of the county. One of these, Samuel Loe, had come very soon after his first arrival, and located near a large spring, about two miles south of the present town of Mill Grove, upon the farm now owned by Smith. He occupied a house which had been built in the spring of 1837 by a squatter named Thomas Brown. He con- tinued to reside there for a short time, after which he removed to the place where he has since lived. He is now an old man infirm in body, but of sound mind.
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