USA > Missouri > Cedar County > History of Hickory, Polk, Cedar, Dade, and Barton counties, Missouri > Part 22
USA > Missouri > Dade County > History of Hickory, Polk, Cedar, Dade, and Barton counties, Missouri > Part 22
USA > Missouri > Barton County > History of Hickory, Polk, Cedar, Dade, and Barton counties, Missouri > Part 22
USA > Missouri > Hickory County > History of Hickory, Polk, Cedar, Dade, and Barton counties, Missouri > Part 22
USA > Missouri > Polk County > History of Hickory, Polk, Cedar, Dade, and Barton counties, Missouri > Part 22
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HISTORY OF HICKORY COUNTY. 237
William Graves and 'Lige Williams were arrested and held a long time, with no positive proofs appearing. The case against Will- iams was dismissed, and Graves was tried and sentenced to a four years' term in the penitentiary. He was taken to Jefferson City, and his case appealed, and, after serving one year, the court reversed and remanded the case. He is now at large on bail, awaiting a new trial.
In 1875, William Taylor killed Nathan Gann, in Elkton, in a street affray. He was tried and sentenced to hang, but was granted a new trial and sent to the penitentiary for a fifteen years' term.
County Court .- Commencing with the organization of the county, the county and probate court were one and the same, and the members were in law called " county justices." In 1847, the county court officials became " judges," consisting of a " pre- siding judge " and two associates. February 22, 1849, the probate court was established as a separate court, with entire jurisdiction in probate matters. This division of the courts continued until 1860, when it was again merged in the county court, and so continued until 1867, when the two were again separated, and have remained since as they exist now. By the law a probate judge may at the same time be county judge, and vice versa.
Early Meetings .- The first meeting of the county court to perfect the work of organization was at the house of Judge Joel B. Halbert. The members of the court were Amos Lindsey, Joel B. Halbert and Thomas Davis. This important meeting - important because the duty devolved on its members to start properly Hickory in the sisterhood of Missouri counties - was held in April or May, 1845, and found a room for the transaction of business in a newly erected crib or stable of Halbert's, where they were sworn into office, and where they received; examined and approved the bonds of the other county officers. A. H. Foster was clerk, and John S. Williams was in attendance as sheriff. When these preliminaries had been properly performed, then came the very vital and important question of levying a tax proper to defray the county's expenses, fix a permanent county seat, erect county buildings, and at the same time to pay the salaries of county officers. Some idea of the sound conservatism
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of this honorable body may be gained from the fact that the total amount of the county taxes for 1845 was $383.65. They were guileless on the proposition that the greater the tax the greater the public blessing. The healthy public economy then prevail- ing may be traced in the fact that the next year, 1846, the tax was $475; in 1852 it had only risen to $515.9812. In the mean- time county buildings had been erected, court house and jail, and the running expenses of the county paid. These were true nation builders - transmitting to posterity great and rich empires, void of paupers, poor-houses and asylums. To the infinite credit of Hickory County, the successors of this first honorable court have never placed taxes mountain high upon the people, and they have sternly refused, court after court, to the present time, to encourage or entertain the vast schemes of plunder of wild-cat railroad subsidies, to even the extent of sub- mitting to the people a vote on any of these Rob Roy plans of enriching the county. There are perhaps not half a dozen coun- ties in the State that have been so fortunate in the matter of wise and incorruptible courts; while nearly all of these have been about ruined by voting recklessly aid to roads that were never built.
The second meeting of the county court was held at Heard's Springs, at John Heard's house, on the northeast northeast Section 24, Township 37, Range 22, a short distance north of where Wheatland now stands. At this meeting the court pro- ceeded to divide the county into municipal townships, and pro- vide voting precincts. The latter was not a pressing necessity, because then, under the law, a man could vote at any polling place in his county. At that time the necessity arising caused frequent special meetings of the county court, as before it came questions of granting all licenses, and also all probate business, as well as those other exigencies attending the formation of a new county, and successfully putting the wheels in motion.
The third meeting, pursuant to call, was held at Hermitage. It should properly have been stated before that, at the first meet- ing, the court appointed Jacob A. Romans, county seat com- missioner, and certainly much is due to his wise economy in the public expense account. It was his duty to sell, under the order of the court, at public sale, the town lots at the new county
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seat, and from this source procure the funds to expend in the new county buildings. This he proceeded to do, and thus the tax-payers were relieved entirely in the matter of paying for the county buildings.
Probate Court .- As has been stated, this court was separated from the county court, and established as an independent court, February 22, 1849, and, as such, continued to transact all pro- bate business until its December term, 1859, when it was again made a part and one with the county court. Thus it remained merged until Monday, October 14, 1867, when, by law, it again was made a separate court.
Aaron Trippett was the first probate judge; the county clerk, Foster, being ex-officio clerk. The jurisdiction of this court extends to all matters of inheritance and the estates of deceased persons, with or without wills, and with or without heirs. The public administrator is an officer of this court, to act only in the absence of any person in the State possessing the legal right, or, possessing it, neglecting to administer on the estate of any deceased person. By law at this time, the probate judge is his own clerk, and keeps his own records. No questions possessing any public interest have arisen in this court.
Hickory County Bar .- Here, as elsewhere, are found those members of the legal fraternity whose wisdom, learning and insight into all affairs of interest have been of material benefit to the people of the community. Among the members of the bar at this time may be mentioned Charles Kroff, F. Marion Wilson, J. Houston Childers, James J. Ramsey, W. L. Pitts, M. N. Neihardt, Robert A. Vance, William N. Carpenter, W. D. Harryman, J. D. Irvine, John H. Davidson and A. J. Pickett.
County Officials .- The following list includes the names of those who, in an official manner, have served Hickory County in different capacities at the time mentioned. The list is as com- plete as can be obtained .*
Of the circuit judges, Foster P. Wright served in 1845, fol- lowed in 1851 (September) by Waldo P. Johnson; 1854 (Septem-
*. Every vestige of the records in reference to the county court and its acts from 1848 to 1860 was destroyed in the court house fire. It is only known that during that time as among the members of the courts were Urias Owens, John L. Hall, William Woodrum, and other judges whose names appear in the list given.
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ber), DeWitt C. Ballou; 1859, Foster P. Wright; 1862, Burr H. Emmerson; 1872, Robert W. Fyan (elected to Congress, 1882); 1882, Benjamin P. Alton (appointed); 1884, Washington I. Wallace.
The county judges have been: 1845, Amos Lindsey, Joel B. Halbert and Thomas Davis; 1848, Amos Lindsey, Joel B. Hal- bert, Enos Brown; 1860, A. H. Foster, judge; Jacob A. Romans, William Woodrum, associates; 1861, John L. Hall, associate; 1862, Isham B. Hastain, judge; Jacob A. Romans, William Woodrum, associates; 1863, Ephraim Dent, John Lawrence, asso- ciates; * 1865, Hastain, Lawrence and Dent; 1865 (May), John Pitts, associate; 1867, Thomas S. Morgan, judge; Hastain and Lawrence, associates; 1867, Henry C. Butler, associate; 1869, Judge Morgan, died in the latter part of the year; 1869, John A. Pare, judge; Butler and Lawrence, associates; 1869 (December), William F. Bradley, associate; 1870, John Lawrence, judge; Bradley and Pare, associates; 1871, Mansfield H. Bernard, asso- ciate; 1873, John A. Pare, judge; James H. Nunn, M. H. Ber- nard, associates; 1875, M. H. Bernard, judge; Lawrence and Nunn, associates; 1877, James H. Nunn, judge; James M. Gard- ner, John Lawrence, associates; 1879, Marmaduke E. Ferguson, judge; Joel W. Boone, W. C. Hickman, associates; 1881, Thomas H. Lord, N. K. Pope, associates, 1883, James H. Nunn, judge; William C. Hickman, James T. Wallen, associates; 1885, T. C. Anderson, James T. Wallen, associates; 1887, James A. Brake- bill, judge; James M. Gardner, Benjamin L. Mallonee, associates; 1888, Brakebill resigned (February); Joseph S. Hartman appointed; 1888, Benjamin L. Mallonee, judge; James M. Gard- ner, Achilles Morgan, associates.
The list of probate judges includes the following: 1849, Aaron Trippett (court established); 1850, Thomas Davis; 1853, William Paxton; 1853, W. H. Liggett; 1857, A. H. Foster (merged in county court); 1867, W. H. Liggett; 1871, W. H. Liggett; 1879, George S. Selvidge; 1883, Charles S. Essex; 1887, M. N. Neihardt.
Among the circuit and county clerks are: A. H. Foster, in 1845; 1852, William Paxton; 1858, A. F. Doak; 1862, William
* The records now show that the court officers were making their own ink - a significant indication of the times.
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HISTORY OF HICKORY COUNTY.
H. Liggett; 1866, William Q. Paxton; 1870, William Q. Paxton; 1874, M. N. Neihardt; 1878, M. N. Neihardt; 1882, Samuel Dent; 1886, F. Marion Wilson.
The circuit clerk's office was made separate in 1883, when William L. Pitts was elected, and also in 1888.
The first sheriff and collector, in 1845, was John S. Williams; in 1850, John Mabary; 1855, Henderson Dollarhide (died); 1856, A. F. Doak (appointed); 1858, William Young Evans; 1862, Harrison H. Jamison; 1862, George S. Selvidge; 1868, William A. Pitts; 1872, John D. Pitts; 1874, W. D. Harryman; 1876, W. D. Harryman; 1878, William L. McCaslin; 1880, William M. McCracken; 1882, William M. McCracken; 1884, Thomas H. Lord; 1886, Thomas H. Lord; 1888, George W. Lindsey.
The collector's office was separated in 1874, when John D. Pitts filled the position; 1876, E. D. Blair; 1880, E. D. Blair; 1882,. J. S. Hartman; 1884, William M. McCracken; 1886, James Vaughn; 1888, A. M. Paxton.
In 1845 the county treasurer was Thomas Davis, who held the office until 1861, when he left the county to go to war, and for two years there was no county treasurer; in 1863, E. F. Halbert (appointed); 1864, E. F. Halbert; 1866, E. F. Halbert; 1868, E. F. Halbert; 1870, James R. Wilson; 1872, James R. Wilson; 1874, E. F. Halbert, 1876, John A. McCartney; 1878, John A. McCartney; 1880, John A. McCartney; 1882, William Howard; 1884, James R. Marsh; 1886, B. F. Creed; 1888, B. F. Creed.
THE CIVIL WAR.
General View .- There were few localities in the United States that felt more keenly the prolonged agony of civil war than did Hickory County. It has been stained with brothers' blood - assassinations in cold blood of neighbor by neighbor, and the awful resort of slaughtering unarmed prisoners without any form of trial; house-burning, robbery and theft-every able-bodied man in the county driven by the awful times from home and family; and the destitute and impoverished people left at home driven to sleep in the brush, and in the open day to
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prowl and move cautiously in the often vain effort to find some- thing to eat. Those who were small children here then will never need further telling that all war is a scourge and a cruel calamity, but that all civil wars are the most unholy things that ever maddened men's brains or shed brother's blood. The people of Hickory County did not divide on the question of slavery. It was rather a question of Union and State's rights. The strong- est and most outspoken Union men, in many instances, were the largest slave-owners, while the most active rebels were men who never even expected to own slaves, but who believed in State's rights; and to-day, between those who believed this and had the courage of their convictions and went into the regular armies of the South, and the volunteer soldiers, there exists as high a respect by their old neighbors who thought the other way, as there was before the blood issue was joined.
On the other hand, there were men on both sides who seized upon the disrupted state of society, and who, in the false name of fealty to their respective sides, made the fair face of the county a blackened hell.
The emigrants to the county had been poor men - farmers and stock-raisers mostly - who had gone to work, and had just begun to conquer their way toward comfort and a competence, all to be wasted and destroyed, many killed and many crippled, and then to gather their families together and commence the work of life anew. This was the condition in which they emerged from the six years of horrid nightmare.
Organizations .- Nearly a thousand men from the county, from first to last, were in some way connected with the respective armies. Maj. John Cosgrove was a leading spirit on the Union side. The Union men had all been ordered to leave the county, and a large number started for Jefferson City to join the Federal forces. Upon reaching Warsaw, stories were heard to the effect that Hickory County was swarming with armed rebels; that a lot of Texas rangers were overrunning the country. Maj. Cosgrove and Lieut. L. Lindsey called for volunteers to return and drive them out. A squad was raised, which came down to Cross Timbers; finding no enemy, they pushed on to Preston, where a rebel squad was camped, and dispersed them.
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One man, named Mooney, was killed, and the Union forces then burned the town. In December, 1869, John Cosgrove raised Company B, Eighth Regiment Cavalry, Missouri State Militia. He was first captain, and, when promoted major, was succeeded by John Lindsay; the first lieutenant was Lycurgus Lindsey, and the second lieutenants, William W. Owens, John Lindsay and William R. Rains. This company was made up of Hickory County men. There were also a number from the county in Company C, same regiment. The second lieutenant was Preston Richardson.
In Company I, B. A. Reeder was captain, succeeded by Jacob Cossairt; Ethan Paxton was second lieutenant. This regiment was mustered out in May, 1865.
In the Sixtieth Regiment, E. M. M., Joel B. Halbert was lieut- enant-colonel, entering the service October 13, 1862. Of Com- pany C, the captain was W. H. Liggett; first lieutenant, Will- iam A. Pitts; second lieutenant, Hiram Dixon. Company D (second lieutenant, Joseph Whitaker) was composed partly of Hickory County men.
Company B, in this regiment, formed mostly of men from Hickory, had John A. Pare as captain, and W. V. Murry, lieu- tenant. Capt. W. L. Snidow succeeded Capt. Pare.
In another company William L. McCaslin was second lieu- tenant.
Among the first Union troops raised in the county may be mentioned 300 Home Guards, under Major Hastain.
In the early part of 1862 occurred the attack on the invalid Iowa soldiers, mostly at Quincy, under the noted Capt. Rafter. The men took refuge in a building, which the rebels surrounded and threatened to set on fire. One of them killed Rafter with a small pistol. On the Union side John T. Frames was killed, and Lieut. William Charlton wounded.
On the retreat of Shelby through the county, a part of his command went into camp north of Hermitage. Capt. James Coissart called soldiers and citizens, and charged upon them, scat- tering and killing a large number, who were left unburied where they fell.
At one time Capt. Robert Allen's company was camped in
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Hermitage, and had four prisoners guarded in the court house. A man entered town on horseback at full speed, and announced that the rebels were coming in force. The prisoners were shot and all killed except one, and the company retreated south across the river. The alarm was a false one. One of the prisoners, the only one known to be a Hickory County man, though badly wounded, recovered.
Review .- Some of the richest farming neighborhoods, espe- cially in the southeast part of the county, presented but a sad scene of desolation at the close of the war. It is said there were roads on which one could ride for miles and see nothing but the blackened chimneys left standing to mark the spot where were once happy homes. The people had learned to sleep in the brush, and very few dared to sleep in their houses. Lights ceased to shine through windows; women barred the doors, and, when their men would be on their chance visits to their families, there was one of the family on watch to warn of the approach of any party. If they were not dressed when the signal warning came, they went without clothes, as their lives depended upon the quickest possible movement. About all property had been destroyed; horses, cattle, hogs, sheep, and provisions and feed for domestic animals; rails about the farms went to the camp- fires, and the armies had eaten up and destroyed the sustenance of the people. Besides this was the loss of men killed, crippled and physically ruined, and the loss of six years' time, and from this point all or nearly all had to commence life and its labors anew.
The Confederates generally went off to join Price's army, or Claib Jackson's. The only regularly enlisted organization in the camp on that side was Capt. John Mabary's company. The estimates by those who were on the grounds were that about an equal number went to the respective armies. When the cruel war was over, there was no bitterness of soul between those who chose to go south and those who went to the opposite side. They had crossed bayonets in civilized war, and, when the war ended, the conquerer respected the vanquished, and on both sides no old scores or old sores remained. It was the irregular bands on both sides who seized upon the times to assassinate, and rob,
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HISTORY OF HICKORY COUNTY.
and destroy. Their days for evil were over when the vanquished Confederates in line laid down their arms and surrendered.
None of the people here on either side had any hand in plunging the country into war; on the other hand, they had done all they could to prevent it. The cruel calamity was forced upon them. And, when the storm had passed, the respectable elements in society had no criminations to make, but, shoulder to shoulder, they went to work to rehabilitate the county, to heal the wounds, rebuild their homes and be good and loyal people.
TOWNS AND VILLAGES.
HERMITAGE.
Beginning .- The first platted town in the county, Hermitage, was made a town site in 1845, under the supervision of Jacob A. Romans, county seat commissioner. Thomas Davis, who settled here previous to the selection of this point as a county seat, had made some improvement. His house was a comfortable story- and-a-half log, weatherboarded, still standing in the southeast part of town, the property of Judge Liggett. Hence the first settler in Hermitage was Thomas Davis, who kept the first hotel in the only house in the place, until William Waldo built his store and residence in the southeast corner of the square, now the residence lot of Dr. Pack. W. E. Dorman built the third house, and had the second store-room in the hamlet. The prop- erty was on the same lot east of Waldo's. The nearest mill at that time was at Buffalo, thirty miles distant. When W. E. Dor- man put up an ox-mill and ground meal and flour, even such a primitive affair was found a great public convenience. Five or six oxen were placed on the great tread-wheel, and from sixty to eighty bushels were ground in a day. Corn and wheat were ground through the same stones. When the old ox-mill was worn out, Dorman built a steam saw and grist mill on the river at the south ford, and this served for much of the country until the present steam and grist mill was completed. A man named Alexander had the first blacksmith shop in this locality. Public buildings were soon put up, and the town began to
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assume important proportions. It has not been incorporated. Mr. Dorman early opened an hotel (then a one-story) in the building now occupied as a residence by E. F. Halbert. The church meetings, schools and public meetings, as well as enter- tainments, were all at the court house; and, when court held a session, every house in town would be a place of entertainment. If the weather was good, many would camp in their wagons, and some who were so unfortunate as to lose their way would sleep the sound sleep of the innocent, in the woodpiles or public square. The timber then extended nearly down to Davis' house. In 1858, W. E. Dorman built his large two-story frame hotel on the east side of the square, and put up a dinner-bell on the top of a pole in the yard. This was a noted advance in the town.
Present Interests .- The present population of Hermitage is about 200. Two general stores are kept by Halbert & Manuel and E. D. Blair; hardware and drugs, by William Howard; drugs, James R. Marsh; hotels, George Wilson and Thomas H. Lord; flour and grist steam mill, W. E. Dorman & Son; blacksmiths, Thomas Humphrey and E. T. Johnson; wagon-makers, George Mckenzie and Henry Blair; carpenters, W. W.Hiatt, George W. Mckenzie, S. T. Johnson and H. F. Blair.
Societies .- Hermitage Lodge No. 288, A. F & A. M., com- menced work under charter bearing date of October 15, 1866. The charter members and officers were: John W. Snyder, W. M .; Ephraim Dent, Sr. W .; W. J. Snyder, Jr. W .; Samuel Miller,- treasurer; L. J. Tatumn, secretary; P. J. Snyder, Sr. D .; J. A. Morton, Jr. D. The present membership is fifty-four, the officers being: William Howard, W. M .; W. L. Pitts, Sr. W .; Peter Solberg, Jr. W .; George W. Gardner, treasurer; J. H. Childers, secretary.
McIntosh Post No. 261, G. A. R., was organized February 5, 1886, the first officers being: William McCracken, C .; M. N. Neihardt, adjutant; Noah Scott, Sr. V .; Alfred Lindsey, Jr. V .; W. H. Cooper, O. D .; G. W. Mckenzie, G .; Samuel Dent, sec- retary; James Robertson, chaplain. The first members were: W. H. Cooper, J. A. Robertson, A. D. Farr, William McCracken, F. H. Bullard, J. B. McClure, J. B. Cross, W. C. Walker, George Wilson, Alfred Lindsey, M. N. Neihardt, T. Skinner, A. J.
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HISTORY OF HICKORY COUNTY.
Young, J. J. Beal, W. W. Hiatt, W. B. Brewster, N. P. Williams, D. S. Kimmel, B. Scott, B. F. Fugate, John Lewis, Samuel Dent, J. W. C. Keener, G. W. Mckenzie and Rudolph Gather. The present officers are: R. A. Vance, C .; M. N. Neihardt, Sr. V .; W. W. Hiatt, Jr. V .; W. B. Coon, adjutant; J. B. McClure, O. D .; Isaac Smith, Q. M .; J. B. Cross, chaplain. The member- ship is fifty-four.
Newspapers .- The Hermitage Enterprise was started in 1869 as a six-column folio Republican paper, by James R. Wilson. He continued it about one year, when it passed into the hands of Henry H. McKee. In a short time he leased the office to Mr. De Jarnette. Then it fell into the hands of John R. Moore, who ran it until 1875, when it was taken out of the county.
The next venture was the removal to Hermitage of William Moore's old office, the Hickory County Mirror, from Wheatland. It made its appearance in its new home under the old name, and was the property of F. M. Wilson. He sold to Mont. Moore; the latter, to D. Pitts; and in 1878 it again belonged to F. M. Wilson, who associated with himself E. P. Baldwin. Wilson sold to Courtney M. Wilson, and, after about six months, it was taken to Humansville, and from there to Stockton.
In July, 1885, F. M. Wilson and William McCracken brought on a new outfit and started the Hickory County Index, a folio, six-column Republican paper. In December of 1885 Mr. McCracken sold his interest to A. F. Miller; and in February, 1886, Wilson sold to Halbert; Miller, in 1887, sold a half-interest to C. M. Bentley, and the next year Bentley purchased the other half, and continues the sole proprietor.
Bank .- Hickory County Bank, at Hermitage, a substantial financial institution, was organized in March, 1889. W. H. Lig- gett is president, and James Vaughan, cashier. The capital stock is $5,000.
WHEATLAND.
Historical .- Wheatland, the only incorporated village in the county, has a population of 330, and is situated on the northeast southeast and part of the southeast northeast of Section 24, Township 37, Range 23. It was platted December 7, 1869, by Frederick Kern and Joseph S. Naffziger. Their first deed to a
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lot was made to John Sutter. The first building and first store was that of M. H. Cooper. The building is still a comfortable residence, standing a little east of the southeast corner of the square. The next store was by John Sutter, who was the first tinner and hardware man in the place. Fred Kern was the first blacksmith, and E. M. Reynolds the first carpenter. The saw-mill was built in 1868, and the grist-mill added in 1869-70.
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