USA > Missouri > Henry County > History of Henry County, Missouri > Part 10
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A movement was on foot to adopt stock law. Brownington had a disastrous fire.
On July 17 the mercury is said to have reached 102 in the shade.
An May of 1884 Anheuser-Busch built a warehouse near the Missouri, Kansas & Texas depot to handle an average of six carloads of beer a month.
Rev. Ben Deering was denounced for having made a prohibition speech in the court yard, linking the Germans up with the business. The news- paper referred to his utterances as a species of fanaticism of extremists. But the prohibition convention which was held in Sedalia August 21 de- manded the submission of an amendment to the State Constitution, and the W. C. T. U. advertised a free reading room in Clinton.
Mr. S. Goodin wrote an article urging county supervision for the schools. Prof. E. P. Lamkin was conducting Clinton Academy.
Late in the year the county was startled by the murder of a man named Wells near Windsor. At the September term of court, 1884, Judge R. E. Lewis, now of the United States Court of Denver, assisted by George P. J. Jackson, prosecuted Brownfield and Hopkink for the murder. They
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were defended by M. A. Fyke, C. A. Calvird, W. S. Shirk, B. G. Boone, Judge Foster P. Wright, C. C. Dikinson, T. M. Casey and N. K. Chap- man. The report of the trial occupies several pages of the weekly paper and is reported by sessions. Defendants were found guilty, but after- wards pardoned by the Governor.
Horse stealing was annoyingly prevalent, resulting in the organiza- tion of the Anti-Horse Thief Association, one lodge of which is still intact in the county.
The Democratic "organ" of the county boastfully announced that one local speaker, still living in Clinton, made a speech at Huntingdale, occupying one hour and forty minutes. For obvious reasons his name is not mentioned here.
One firm in Clinton advertised "Pure white corn juice for sale." That man is in business in Clinton now.
A creamery for Clinton was talked of.
L. J. Terrell, near Brownington, was killed by a son, who escaped and was captured at Garden City, Kansas.
Besides the agricultural products of the county, which assumed large importance, deposits of coal were being worked for local consumption, and different kinds of clay began to attract attention and people began to take notice.
Some people began to talk about mining operations and the "Peace- ful Valley" feeling began to give way to a feeling of healthy unrest.
This county was naturally tributary to Kansas City, but there was no direct means of access or communication. Col. John I. Blair of New Jersey and George H. Nettleton of Kansas City, Ft. Scott & Memphis railroad, seemed to have heard about Henry County about the same time, and conceived the idea of connecting this territory, with such vast pro- ducing possibilities, with the markets of the coming metropolis of the west. Scouting parties of strange men drove through the county, whose peace, contentment and quietude were transformed into commotion, dis- content and turmoil.
Soon these strange men made confidants of a few to the effect that if favorable inducements were offered a railroad might be built. A hint was enough. The somnolence that had gripped the county vanished like a morning fog. The spirit of 1849 was abroad in the land. A new found placer deposit in Grand River, or the striking of a gusher oil well, would hardly have created a greater stir. Meetings were held in churches,
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school houses, and on the street corners. Men who hitherto were content to sit on the fence and squirt tobacco juice at a grasshopper clamored to be put on committees to farther arouse their neighbors. Even the "Nail Keg Clubs" were decimated, and only a few chronic cranks were left to say: "It can't be did. Only another trick to get something for nothing."
But the headquarters of the Kansas City, Osceola and Southern were established in Clinton. Col. William Bailey took charge and the con- struction gang closely followed the surveying party. Colonel Nettleton directed his forces from Kansas City, building the Kansas City, Clinton and Springfield. It was a race as to which road should run the first trains. On September 3, 1885, Col. William Bailey invited a party of Clinton peo- ple to go with him on his first trip to East Lynne. The road was then extended to Brownington and later to Osceola, which was the terminus for some years, and was later built to connect with spur of the Frisco at Bolivar.
Colonel Nettleton soon completed his line from Olathe, Kansas, to Ash Grove, Missouri, intersecting the main line at the two points, and Clinton had high hopes that this would become the main line, but their hopes long since vanished.
The Clinton Eye is a weekly paper established in November, 1885, by T. O. Smith. The paper grew from the first and has continued under the same ownership and management to the present. It is rightfully classed among the newsiest county weeklies in the State. New equip- ment has been added until now it is one of the most modern offices in this section of the country. The latest acquisition was a new Linotype in 1918. Miss Ella Smith, the oldest daughter of the proprietor, has learned every detail of the business even to operating the Linotype and is qualified to take over the management of the business.
Along with the railroads came numerous booms.
What is now the Dickey Clay Works asked for a small bonus to locate at Clinton. The bonus was refused, and the owner of the land where Deepwater now stands saw the opportunity. The tile factory was located at Deepwater. It is now the parent plant of the Tile Trust of America, and said to be the largest factory of its kind in the United States. It is the life of Deepwater, a beautiful little city of 1,500 people.
Hartwell was laid out west of Clinton with the intention of making it the shipping point for that section, but the people would not have it
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that way. November 13, 1884, a petition numerously signed was pre- sented to the officials asking the location of a depot on sections 15 or 16, where Urich now stands. The depot was not located at once, but the town was on land belonging to T. J. McClung and J. L. Wright. The inland village of Urich crowned a beautiful eminence about two miles north of the site for the new town. The scramble was on between build- ing houses and moving those already built. Soon the town on the prairie that had been fathered by Jonathan Miller, Mr. Wells and Capt. William Porter was a real deserted village, the name even going to its new rival on the railroad and river, but the recollections of the happy bygone days and the magnificent, generous people of the former village will linger. The Urich of the upland prairie was a delightful village, surrounded by a fertile country. The Urich of the woods and railroad is a delightful bustling town of a thousand fine folk. If not the identical persons, the descendants of the other village, Henry, Jake, Will and Rhote Miller are four brothers now living in Urich, who were citizens of the deserted village. Other good men were attracted to the new town, among the most progressive being Doctor Noble, who established a bank which has had a continuous period of prosperity and is serving the public now.
This year Montrose erected $50,000 worth of buildings, Windsor $75,- 000, and Clinton $123,000. Among the substantial improvements in Clin- ton was the Britts Block and the Salmon Bank.
J. West Goodwin, the veteran newspaper man of Sedalia, visited Clinton, and telling of his trip in his "Bazoo" he suggested an immigra- tion boom, which in 1888 resulted in an enthusiastic gathering in Clin- ton, where an unknown school teacher, J. K. Gwynn, of Versailles, in one brief speech lifted himself out of obscurity by naming Clinton the "Ar- tesian Princess of the Prairies," and became commissioner of Missouri at the Columbian Exposition in Chicago and is now a leading officer in the American Tobacco Trust in New York. Another man whose prospects for the nomination for Governor were fine, committed political hari kari by referring to this section of the country as an area of rocky, hilly wood- land which might become a dairy country if proper attention were given to the growth of certain species of clover.
The year closed with much merrymaking even if hogs were selling at four cents.
B. G. Boone, attorney general elect, left Clinton with his family for a four years' residence in Jefferson City.
EFE FEF 201 11
HIGH SCHOOL, MONTROSE, MO.
MOTORI IN
MAIN STREET, MONTROSE, MO.
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The first honor that came to Henry County in 1885 was the election of E. R. Vance as the official reporter of the Senate and House of the General Assembly.
More excitement was brought to the confines of the county by a topographical engineer of the Missouri, Kansas & Texas railway inves- tigating the coal deposits.
At the beginning of the year wheat was quoted at sixty cents, corn twenty cents, butter sixteen cents, dressed chickens $2.00 per dozen, dressed turkeys eight cents per pound on the St. Louis market. Sweet cider was plentiful at fifteen cents per gallon.
Judge F. E. Savage represented the county in the House and intro- duced a bill requiring all persons selling intoxicants in less than five gal- lon quantities to take out dram shop license. This was considered a radi- cal temperance measure.
Among the toll of the grim reaper early in the year was William B. Means, Aunt Betsy Godwin and Benjamin Barker.
The Home Dramatic Company of Montrose presented "East Lynne" at the City Hall in Clinton. Some of the citizens of Montrose who took minor parts in the play now play second fiddle to no one.
Clinton was visited in February by Dr. John A. Brooks, who lec- tured on temperance, and by Hon. Belva Lockwood, the woman candidate for President on the suffrage ticket. Of course they both drew a fusilade of ridicule.
Attorney General Boone gets a headliner in the St. Louis Repub- lican as "Boone's Bold Move" by filing quo warranto proceedings against Jay Gould for operating parallel lines of railroad in Missouri.
Brownington gets in the limelight claiming to have shipped more live stock than any other town of its size in the county, and Osage desig- nates itself "The Banner Live Stock Township."
March 5 was not a very summery day but the Clinton Cornet Band paraded in honor of President Cleveland and the first Democratic Presi- dent in twenty-four years.
At this term of the Circuit Court Mr. McDowell, a petit juror from Montrose, found that he had met Judge Gantt before at the battle of Cedar Creek, Virginia, October 19, 1864. McDowell's company met an advance of Judge Gantt's in that engagement and the judge received a minnie ball in his knee which permanently stiffened his leg.
Professor Lamkin's Academy had met with such success that other educational institutions began to look toward Clinton.
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H. T. Baird, of Hardin College, proposed to start a female college. A bonus and scholarships amounting to $40,000 were subscribed. The site was selected April 16 and a contract let to Harry Kemp on June 8 at $33,462 to be completed September 20 following. The work was done and the building stands today without a crack in any of its walls, mute but eloquent testimony to the quality of material and work.
Baird College came into immediate popularity. Its first opening had more than 100 boarding pupils. Many from Texas, Colorado, Indian Ter- ritory and other far away States. And the young women who came for instruction returned to their homes to be moulders of thought and leaders in all good works.
Clinton Academy, directed by Prof. E. P. Lamkin, took on new life, was incorporated, and its attendance a little later reached 150. Among its alumni are found ministers, lawyers, teachers and business men of prominence. One of these, Ralph H. McKee, a consulting chemical engi- neer of New York City, has recently attracted wide attention by announc- ing that he has developed a method of dehydrating fish, meats, vegetables and fruits to such a point that the cost of transportation would be re- duced to a negligible figure. When this process is perfected the aeroplane may supersede the expensive food products trains.
In May of this year Clinton and Osceola were connected by rail, but the new town of Deepwater had only a stage line leaving Clinton every morning at 8 o'clock.
The towns of Garland and Maurine were laid out on the Kansas City & Southern, and active building continued at Urich.
Clinton citizens agitate the building of water warks, and locate some of the hydrants, but the mains are not laid, the water supply is not se- cured, nor are any offers made for bids on the contract for building the plant.
Ruffin & Putnam buy the Tebo Mill and Elevator in Clinton and be- gin the manufacture of fine flour and foodstuff.
Professor Price made a successful ascension in his balloon named "Belle of Clinton." A precursor of the aeroplane.
Storms visited the county doing damage at Calhoun, in Bronaugh neighborhood and elsewhere. William Walters, of Fields Creek town- ship, was killed by lightning.
T. W. Hall, son of David Hall, of Urich, is pressed into Canadian military service, which threatened international complications.
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In June the farmers had troubles aplenty. The season had been so wet that the corn acreage was decreased, and the army worm and Hessian fly are reported as attacking the crops and the peach crop was a failure.
Dawson B. Anderson, of Leesville township, visited McDonald county and was killed while he slept. Irvin Grubb was suspected as the murderer.
On June 24 the cornerstone of the Christian Church at the corner of Third and Green was laid with impressive Masonic ceremonies. This building was abandoned in 1913 for the beautiful commodious building at Second and Jefferson.
It was mentioned in the local press that the oldest brick house in the county is well preserved, standing on section 7 in Tebo township, and built by Dr. Richard Wade, the first practicing physician of Henry County.
The commissioners to locate a State asylum visited Clinton and asked for a bonus of $200,000. Clinton precerred to make some improvements of her own and proceeded to improve a tract of land on Colonel Colt's farm for a Fair Grounds.
Blairstown was located on July 9 and active building begun at once. It is now a thriving little city of 1,000 of the best people on earth.
The spirit of progress had a strong hold on the people. Agitation for a pottery in Clinton began. But in the materialistic hubbub the ar- tistic is not neglected, and Miss Griffin put on an exhibition of the prod- ucts of her brush at the home of Col. J. B. Colt.
August 12, 1885, marked an epoch in the anti-booze fight. The prosecuting attorney on that date filed numerous suits against the saloon keepers for selling intoxicants to minors.
The Clinton Band reached such proficiency that it put on a success- ful concert, and the Lilly Division of the Knights of Pythias gave nu- merous exhibition drills.
Squire R. L. Avery of Tebo township, who taught school in Missouri in 1840 at $10 per month, and who remembered a visit from Gen. Andrew Jackson to his father's home in Sparta, Tennessee, moved to Clinton. His son, H. F., later became mayor of Clinton, and after that mayor of Colo- rado Springs, Colorado.
Dr. W. H. Gibbins located in Clinton in September of this year. In subsequent years he gave the city splendid service as alderman, presi- dent of the board of education and president of Clinton National Bank .. He died full of good works May 16, 1916.
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Nine good and true Democrats announced their candidacy for the Montrose postoffice.
A dearth of houses in Clinton was announced and the Lingle and Avery addition was surveyed and a lot sale was put on.
In the race for supremacy in other lines of effort, Henry County was not neglectful in the improvement of the grade of its live stock. Fore- most among those who entered this laudable enterprise was George M. Casey. He had added to his famous herd of Shorthorn cattle until, with choice goods at its head, he captured first premiums at all the State fairs. This herd became a terror to all fancy cattle exhibitors. The manager of the great herd belonging to the Taft Brothers, of whom ex-President Taft was one, once remarked that they did not expect many blue ribbons when competing with the Choice Goods Herd.
It may be of interest to note some retail quotations of commodities. Good table linen thirty cents per yard, bleached muslin five cents, twenty- four pounds choice white fish fifty cents, twenty-four pound pail mackerel fifty-five cents, seventeen pounds sugar $1.00, thirteen pounds good cof- fee $1.00.
The County Fair, which opened October 7, is largely attended and 120 children gave the fairy opera, "The Naiad Queen," at the Opera House.
T. G. Cheesman, of Windsor, shipped a lot of cattle to Chicago that averaged between 1,900 and 2,000 pounds in weight.
The agitation for a new court house continued, also the building of a $30,000 hotel.
John Shobe and George Jackson returned from a hunting trip near White Sulphur Springs, bringing venison, and reported they killed a doe and a buck eight years old.
The Brownington Milling Company announced that it was turning out fifty barrels of fancy grade of flour per day. Adler and Gebhardt shipped a car load of hickory nuts.
On November 15 the Kansas City, Clinton & Springfield railroad ad- vertised its through train service to Ash Grove.
The United Brethren built Brushy Church in Bogard township. tI stands about midway between Urich and Blairstown and is an important spiritual center.
While other parts of the county were busy with affairs pretaining to the several localities, Keith and Perry were working overtime develop- ing the natural resources at Deepwater and building the town. It is
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claimed that $50,000 had been spent in opening up the coal. Large amounts of money had been spent on the clays and shales. A reservoir cost $15,- 000. A saw mill had done a capacity business for months, about sixty houses were built or under course of construction. Two lumber yards were doing a rushing business, and numerous brick yards supplied bricks for the more ornate and substantial buildings.
If there had been a fuel administrator in the early winter of 1885 he would have had an easy time as oak and hickory wood is advertised at $1.50 to $2.00 per cord of four foot wood.
A great union Thanksgiving service was held in the Cumberland Presbyterian Church.
The apple crop was pronounced a bumper one, bringing the orchard- ists handsome returns. The amount of the crop was indicated by the fact that three cars of cooperage were received from November 1 to No- vember 20, and four cars of apples were shipped at one time and eight cars at another.
In November a franchise was granted for the installation of an elec- tric light system in Clinton. This franchise probably lapsed as the light plant was not built.
Windsor had become so important that a hand fire engine was bought and a fire company organized for the protection of the city. This seems to have been the beginning of fire protection in the county.
On December 10 S. D. Garth received the appointment as postmaster at Clinton and James R. Bush, now of the "Montrose Tidings," was the deputy.
About the tenth of December R. B. Casey started for the cattle ranches in Texas and New Mexico, owned by Henry County people, with four carloads of Hereford and Shorthorn bulls that had been raised in Henry County. Many of the stockholders in these cattle ranches of the southern plains had all their savings of many years invested in these enterprises, which at first promised returns more than satisfactory, but the final results were disastrous. The full effects were not felt until the failure of the Salmon and Salmon bank many years later.
The Christian Church of Clinton had a great revival, closing in De- cember with fifty-two additions. At the close of this meeting the pastor, Elder N. M. Ragland, accepted a call to the pastorate of the church in Fayetteville, Arkansas, where he removed his family and for almost a quarter of a century stayed in one place as pastor. He is living now in
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that famous educational center, full of years and good deeds and is truly loved by all the people.
The grim reaper had among his toll the present year Col. E. C. Mc- Carty, who died in August; Rev. William Birge, of La Due, of whom the paragrapher said at "the ripe old age of sixty," in September; William Blizzard also died in September, and James R. Rivers in November.
CHAPTER XIX.
-
THE LAST OF THE DECADE
AN INTERNATIONAL INCIDENT-BOOMS IN SEVERAL TOWNS-THE DAILY DEMO- CRAT-WATERWORKS AND ELECTRIC LIGHT PLANT IN CLINTON-THE MAC- ADAM MATTER-VARIOUS ITEMS OF PROGRESS-THE ARTESIAN WELL AT CLINTON-THE LEWIS COAL MINES-WINDSOR BOASTS OF ITS BUTTER-THE SOUTHWESTERN IMMIGRATION ASSOCIATION - OLD SETTLERS MEET IN WINDSOR.
The year 1886 came in with much excitement throughout the Nation. An American citizen named Cutting had been imprisoned in Mexico. The United States was becoming deeply interested and the interest in Henry County was great. Dr. Noble of Urich, a veteran of the Civil War, pro- posed to raise a company to get into the fray. Peace by arbitration prevailed and matters began again to assume normal conditions when a general strike of railroad men was declared. This proved more exciting, more disastrous and of more local interest than the recent war excite- ment. Trains were stopped, travel was uncertain and threats of violence were uttered. At the division points the excitement ran high, and in some places riots and bloodshed resulted.
Henry County with the rest of the States suffered the inconveni- ences attending irregular train service and disappointing mails. But the spirit of progress was not quenched. It is true that almost con- current with the strike there was a money panic. Banks did not sus- pend payments locally, but they did cease lending for a time. This worked a great hardship, as the preceding season had been a bountiful crop year, and stock feeders needed money. But they pulled through and when the labor and financial storm clouds vanished a brighter day commercially seemed upon us.
Farmers generally had caught the building fever and throughout
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the country new houses and barns were erected. Better machinery was introduced and the last of the ox teams was used to haul coal into Clin- ton from the mine on the Noble farm four miles south of town. Four yoke of cattle were hitched to one wagon and a load of many tons was thus freighted by the owner of the farm and mine to town.
New school and church houses were built throughout the county.
Montrose had a sidewalk boom, Urich built a new school house, a bank was established at Blairstown, some new potteries were established at Calhoun, Windsor became the fine horse center for western Missouri, as well as the capital of the Star Route Mail service of the United States, and Deepwater continued to develop her coal and clay.
J. C. Beedy and Mr. Morse had been employes of Elkins, Kerens and others in subletting mail contracts all over the United States. For years the business was a paying one to those who mastered the details and several fortunes were amassed in the business, but most of them were lost by reckless bidding and overreaching on volume of business. A few years later by virtue of a ruling from the postoffice department the busi- ness was sent to the scrap heap.
Clinton came in for its share of hustle.
The "Daily Democrat" was established in connection with the weekly by George R. and T. J. Lingle. It has never missed an issue, except on holidays, since the first one came off the press, and is now running under the management of C. H. Whitaker & Son, the son being a veteran of the great World War, a musician of more than local repute, a clever cartoonist and C. H. III in the conduct of the paper. Other dailies have come and gone in Clinton. May the "Democrat" long continue.
After a prolonged contest, which at times became acrimonious, a contract was let to Colonel Perkins, of Springfield, Missouri, to build a water works system. Up to that time municipal ownership had not been much discussed and many meetings of the city council and many pow wows of the citizens were held before the document authorizing the work was signed. At first water was to be brought from Grand River two miles west of town. At the beginning it was somewhat satisfactory, but when the river reached a low stage much sediment was carried through the mains. A year later when a flowing well was brought in, the water problem was solved and drills were soon at work seeking the fountain, and as a result the city was finally supplied with clear sparkling water from 800 feet below the surface. Barring a slight mineral content prin-
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