History of Johnson County, Missouri, Part 14

Author: Cockrell, Ewing
Publication date: 1918
Publisher: Topeka, Kan. : Historical Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 1234

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Early Establishments .- In 1836 John Evans opened the first store in Old Town and for the following six years there were only two stores in the village. Evans conducted a general mercantile store. selling groceries, dry goods, hardware and whiskey. This store stood in the hollow a little east of the center of the town. W. H. Davis & Co. were the first to open a store on the hill near the center of the old town. The town soon began to prosper and in a short time was an important

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business center and settlers came from a radius of several miles to do their trading here.

The town was extended eastward into the district known as New Town by the official platting of Grover's Depot Addition. October 18, 1857. It seems that according to a contract with the railroad company the depot was to be erected on Colonel Grover's land, forty acres of which were donated for that purpose. but by mistake or otherwise. it was located on Major Holden's land, one-half mile further west. Holden street, on the west side of which the depot is located, is the dividing line between Grover's and Holden's Addition. Martin Warren's old log house stood in the Grover Addition and Colonel Grover resided there for a time. The memory of the old log house will be forever perpetual in the history of Warrensburg. When they came to lay out Grover's Depot Addition it was seen that Gay street continued east past Holden street in a straight line and would go right through the old log house. So, instead of moving the house, Colonel Grover moved the street. He diverted it enough south to miss the house. Every other street running east was correspondingly diverted and the north and south streets left north and south. And today every street from Gay to the railroad and east of Holden street runs at an angle southeast and no lot in this territory has a square corner.

The general tendency of business was toward New Town and when the railroad was built and the depot established here. practically the entire business district was established in that vicinity. This was in 1845.

Fires .- Most of the business buildings were frame. Among the first merchants to establish themselves in New Town prior to 1865 were Ming & Cruce, Henry Neill. A. H. Gilkeson & Co .. Henry Bros., and De Garmo. Schmidlap & Co. All these business houses and a large part of the town were burned December 24, 1866.

On November 29, 1873. another fire destroyed the hotel. several business places and cost the lives of three persons. Since then, with the business district chiefly brick and stone, there have been no such fires.

Early Hotels .- The first hotel in Warrensburg was built in 1837 by Young E. W. Berry. It was located on the north side of the public square in Old Town and was a small log house of six or seven rooms. He sold it in 1840 to John Mayes, and he in 1842 sold to Joseph McLeary,

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and he in 1856 to John D. Smith. Smith improved it and called it the Mansion House. At the breaking out of the war, Smith died and the hotel was closed.

The second hotel, also log, was opened in 1841 by Zacariah T. Davis on the southeast side of the public square. Davis ran the place for about six or seven years, when he sold it to W. H. Anderson, who afterward rented it to Daniel Rentch. Anderson finally sold it to Thomas Ingle, who kept hotel here during the war, and was succeeded by Col. J. D. Eads. In 1876 he sold it to the Germania Club.

The third hotel was built by James Bolton in 1857 on the south side of the public square in Old Town. In 1861. it was taken by the soldiers and used for a hospital and guard house all during the war. It practically marked the end of the hotel business in Old Town.

The first hotel in New Town was in 1865, when the Redford House was built south of the Missouri Pacific railroad depot. This was de- stroyed by fire in 1868 and the Simmons Hotel was built on its site. This was finally bought by Mr. J. N. Christopher and converted into the town's first school dormitory, the Young Women's Christian Asso- ciation building, and is successfully running now.

In 1870, a building at the southeast corner of Holden and Culton streets was erected for the Cumberland Presbyterian church. In 1875,. it was bought by A. W. Ridings & Company and enlarged for a hotel. A little later it was bought by Mrs. J. D. Eads, and became for many years the Eads Hotel and only recently was replaced by Cohn's store.

Early Schools .- Maj. N. B. Holden taught what was probably the earliest school here during the winter of 1839-40. He afterward became prominent in this section. He served in the Mexican War and during the Civil War was assassinated September 12, 1862.

Joel H. Warren was one of the pioneer teachers of Warrensburg. He was a grandson of Martin Warren, from whom Warrensburg took its name. He studied medicine with Dr. William Calhoun and prac- ticed in Cass county prior to the Civil War. He served in the Union army and after the war practiced medicine at Knob Noster for a num- ber of years.

William Harrison Anderson taught a select or subscription school in Warrensburg in a private house in 1842. The instruction given by him included arithmetic, geography, reading, writing and spelling. His school numbered twenty-five pupils, who paid a tuition of one dollar

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and fifty cents a month. Mr. Anderson later engaged in the grocery business at Warrensburg and for a number of years was prominently identified with the commercial development of the city and was the father of Dr. James I. Anderson.

George W. Johnson, a graduate of William Jewel College and a Baptist minister, taught a private school in Old Town from 1857 to 1860. When the war broke out he entered the Confederate army, serv- ing throughout the war. Later he became prominent as an educator in the south and at one time was president of a young ladies' seminary at Jackson, Tennessee.

Eliza Thomas, Z. T. Davis and Robert A. Foster were also pioneer teachers of Warrensburg. A man named Jewel was teaching here when the Civil War broke out. He enlisted in the Federal army and was killed during the war.

After the Civil War .- During the Civil War nearly everything in Warrensburg and Johnson county was at a standstill, building, schools, churches and business generally. After the war everything took a new start. The best pictures of Warrensburg right after the war are con- tained in the following interview with Mr. William Lowe, written by W. C. Kapp and printed in the "Warrensburg Star-Journal" of May 5, 1916, on the fiftieth anniversary of Mr. Lowe's residence in Warrens- burg, and in the address of Maj. E. A. Nickerson at the dedication of the Odd Fellows Hall, November 12, 1917. Mr. Lowe said: "When I came, there was only one passenger train a day. It left St. Louis at 8 o'clock in the morning, struggled along with wood fuel, managing to get to Jef- ferson City for dinner. The train would make Sedalia in time for supper and my recollection is that we got to Warrensburg about 8 in the eve- ning-just 12 hours after we pulled out of St. Louis. The fare from St. Louis here was $12.50. I think there were about 1,000 people here then and fully a third of them were negroes. I stopped the first night over in the west part of Old Town. I remember when I got up next morning I saw a regular procession of negroes going by and I asked the folks if the whole population were colored folks. They explained to me that there had been a soldiers' camp in a field west of town. The soldiers had built a lot of huts for winter quarters and when they left these the negroes took possession-that's how that section of Warrens- burg came to be called 'nigger town' and it is the favorite negro haunt yet.

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"I can think of only one business man who was in business then- Uncle Ike Rogers had a harness shop in Old Town when I arrived, and he is here yet. Then there's Major Nickerson, Judge Brown, Sandy Lobban, Doctor Griggs, W. E. Crissey, John Scroggs, Tom Lawlor, Bob Mears, Clint Middleton and probably others. Oh, yes, Orl Still- well was here. Orl wasn't selling autos then. he was selling clothing for Sam Rosenthal, a brother of Henry.

"Some of the kids about town then were Ernest Johnson, Dug Eads, Merritt Simmons, Mel Moody, John A. Miller.

"How big was the town then? Well, I might say it was bounded by the railroad on the south, Gay street on the north, Holden street on the east, and Old Town on the west. There were five or six houses east of Holden street, likely, but Gay and Holden streets were about the limit. The whole third ward was a brush patch. In 1868 I built the first house in the third ward. It stood where Frank Ross now lives.

"Holden street stopped at North street. If you wanted to go north you had to go to Old Town and take the old Lexington road. If you wanted to go south, you had to cross the railroad at the depot-there were no bridges.

"There was a daily stage line to Lexington and also to Clinton and one could travel north and south from Warrensburg even better than we can today.

"What improvements did we have then? Nothing at all, except a lot of cheap frame buildings. There wasn't a brick house in New Town, and no bank until the fall of 1866. As for streets, all we had was the brush cut away so wagons could get along. Our business houses were all on West Pine street in the block between Nathan's corner and the Ross store. There were one or two little shacks on Holden street. They had made a little fill on Holden street in front of where Cohn's store is and that made a fine fish pond where the Cohn building stands. It was at least ten feet deep.

"As for morals, Warrensburg was decidedly western then, and had plenty of saloons. Almost every store had a jug in the back room to treat customers. We had two little churches, and nary a school house. The first school house here was for colored people ; it was built in 1867 by the Freedmen's Aid Society. The Reece school was built in 1868. I built the Foster school in 1870.

"The town was divided between Old and New Towns, no sidewalks

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and streets not graded. Old Town had the court house, the postoffice, and all the lawyers. But of course everything gradually drifted to New Town.

"As for rents, wages, etc., in 1866 rents were higher than now; a two-room house would rent for $15 a month, four-rooms for $30. Clothes were three times higher than now; overalls, $3 a pair; shoes, double ; flour, $10 a 100. Lumber was $5 per 100 and higher. All im- provements were the very cheapest because everybody expected to go back east as soon as they got rich or skinned the other fellow. But a few of us are here yet and our record is open to the public.

"I am doing business at the old stand where I located in 1868. I have sold lumber to several fourth generations. To the Harrison fam- ily I have sold to the fifth generation. I have seen the town of War- rensburg grow from a typical Western hamlet to the little city of mod- ern proportions. I have had the satisfaction of seeing all the saloons go, and a city of schools take their place."

Major Nickerson said:

"The New Town was commenced at the foot of Holden street where a little wooden passenger and freight depot stood on the Mis- souri Pacific railway where the passenger depot now stands, and a string of one-story wooden store-houses straggled along on West Pine street. There were no houses south of the railway except a small frame hotel that stood on the corner where the Young Women's Christian Association building now stands. An ordinary country road ran up a steep hill to South street, and then ran southeast across the grounds where the Normal School buildings now stand, to Maguire street, which was then the main road to Clinton, and from South street onward towards the south there were no streets but all was brush and woods.

"I built my residence in the woods and when I went to see the workmen, my only road was the center of Holden street along the surveyor's line, a cut of four feet with a thick brush on either side, to the place where the work was being done.

"The political and social condition of the place was in a state of civil chaos. The camp gangs that had followed in the wake of both armies lingered around and about the place, many of them having their homes in this county, rode from Texas to Iowa, robbing the people of their property and murdering strangers from other states who came to buy land and settle amongst us. When these roving

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criminals were in Texas they claimed to be Confederate soldiers, and when they were in Iowa they passed as discharged soldiers from the Union army. When any of the gang was in Warrensburg they made their headquarters at a grog shop kept by an old man whom they affec- tionately called 'Uncle Billy,' and when they imbibed their Uncle Billy's fire water and got drunk they ranged the streets of the town and shot it up in true cowboy's style; they urged their horses into the store rooms, discharged their fire arms and terrorized the owners and their clerks. When they met a man who had a good horse, mule or saddle, they forced an exchange for their worthless trappings and over- ridden, broken-down stock, at the point of the pistol, and if they resisted they insulted and beat their victim. They dominated the town in every way, and by their criminal, brutal force made Warrensburg an unfit place for human habitation."

Churches .- The Methodist Episcopal Church, South, was the earliest organization of any church in Warrensburg. A small class was estab- lished in 1848. In 1856 a building was put up, and in 1862 it was burned. Regular services began again in 1870, under Rev. C. C. Woods, and have been continued since. The present building was dedicated in August, 1908.

[Note: Full accounts of each church are given in the chapters on churches. The following is a list of them with dates of organization. etc. arranged in chronological order.]

The Baptist church was organized in February, 1850, by Elders J. Farmer, D. W. Johnson, W. P. C. Caldwell and Amos Horn, in the Masonic Hall in Old Town, Membership was scattered during the Civil War; reorganized thereafter, and then progressing steadily since. The present building was erected in 1903.

The Presbyterian church was organized May 30, 1852, by Rev. A. V. C. Schenck and Elder L. Green. Met regularly during the Civil War, and in 1873 built a fine new brick church. United July 11, 1906 with those members of the Cumberland Presbyterian church that ap- proved the union of the two churches. Built their present building in 1910.

The Christian church was organized in 1859, and reorganized Jan- uary 11, 1868. Church erected in 1867 on south side of Gay street between Washington avenue and Warren street. Present building erected.

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The Methodist church was organized August 3, 1865, by Rev. J. Wesley Johnson. Brick church built in 1871 and present church in 1893. both on the same site.

The Catholic church was organized in 1866 by Father Calmer, of Sedalia. First mass was held on the first Sunday after Christmas, in 1866, in the church building. Present building corner-stone laid in 1883 and completed in 1886.

The Cumberland Presbyterian church was organized September 23, 1866. First pastor was Rev. J. B. Morrow. Meetings were held at different places, including the Presbyterian church, until their first church was built in 1875. Present building was erected.

The Episcopal church, Christ Church parish, was organized in April, 1868, by Rev. W. H. D. Hatton. First frame church was built in 1872. Present building completed in 1900.

The Evangelical Association was organized in 1869. Rev. M. Alspaugh was . the first minister. It bought and rededicated the old Presbyterian church on north side of Gay street between Washington and Warren streets in 1873. Present building was erected.

The Reorganized Church of Latter Day Saints was organized Feb- ruary 21, 1893, northwest of Warrensburg. Dedicated their present church in Warrensburg, May 7, 1916.

The Christian Science Society is represented in Johnson county and in 1916 permanently established itself in its own building in Warrensburg at Culton and Miller streets.

The Brethren church of Warrensburg was organized in 1914. The members originally all belonged to the church two miles south of War- rensburg, and built in town for their convenience, as their numbers increased.

Of the Negro churches, the Baptist church was organized 1864, the Methodist in 1866. The African Methodists and Colored Methodists also have church organizations here.

Cemeteries .- The old cemetery contained four acres and was laid out in 1840 by the county; bought from Martin Warren by the county, and used as a county burying ground. The first person buried there was I. Davenport, and his grave marked by slab of red sandstone about four by eighteen inches. The inscription was "Dead. I. Davenport. Nov., in 1840." roughly cut as by an axe. Some other early inscriptions were :

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"Margaret, Dau. of William and Elizabeth Gilkeson, died August 5, 1845: aged 8 years, 11 months, 7 days."

"Robert F., son of W. L. and N. Poston, born Sept. 16, 1833; was drowned May 16, 1852."

The new cemetery was laid out in 1868, by G. W. Colbern, and was his own property till he gave it to the city in 1880. The first per- son buried there was the infant, John Miller, Jr., aged eight months, son of Jolın Miller.

Schools After the Civil War .- The schools of Warrensburg were practically at a standstill during the period of the Civil War, from 1861 to 1865. After the war, the public school system received prompt attention and Warrensburg soon gained a reputation throughout the state for the high standard of its schools. The first substantial public school was built in 1845 in Old Town.

Warrensburg was organized into a separate school district April 18, 1866. The names of the first school officers to serve under the new organization were: A. W. Reese, president ; Melville U. Foster, secre- tary; Jehu H. Smith, treasurer: Elias Stillwell, John Rogers and Nel- son Dunbar.

The new school board immediately organized the school system on a substantial basis, provided ample accommodations and procured competent teachers. The principal teachers selected were Rev. Matthew Bigger and S. L. Mason for the white schools, and Rev. M. Henry Smith for the colored schools. Each was paid $100 a month.

The first Reese school building was built in 1867 and the Foster school building was completed in 1870.

The first high school was started in 1870. The present high school building was erected in 1896 and its first class was graduated in 1897. At first the work consisted of a two-years course. In 1898 this was changed to the three-years course and in 1904 to a four-year course. In 1907 it became a first-class high school, receiving full credit by the State University. Its graduates are admitted to the State University as freshmen and to the State Normal School as juniors.

The school is well equipped and gives the choice of Latin and English courses. The complete list of coures given is as follows: English, 4 years; Latin, 4 years; mathematics, 4 years-advanced arith- metic, algebra, geometry, trigonometry; history, 4 years-ancient, me- diaeval and modern, English, American (and government) ; physical sci- ences, 3 years-physics, physical geography, botany and zoology.

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The following is a complete list of Warrensburg school superin- tendents : 1870-79, J. J. Campbell: 1879-1884, J. F. Starr: 1884-1891. B. F. Pettis: 1891197, F. E. Holiday: 1897-1900, Leon W. Martin; 1900- 1902, J. Matt Gordon : 1902-10, W. E. Morrow : 1910 to present, Edward Beatty.

Mills .- The first mill in Warrensburg was built about 1856, by Wil- liam Dougherty about a half mile southwest of Old Town. It was a large three-story brick building, with stone around lower story and two run of burs. This mill was kept running during the war, though several times the soldiers took all his grain. After the war he sold to his brother-in-law. John Smith, who ran two or three years and then moved the mill to Holden, where it was running successfully in 1880.

The "Eureka Mills," well known to many of us, was built in 1867 by Land, Fike and Company. It was one of the largest mills in the West, costing $40.000. Eleven hands were kept at work, besides eight or ten coopers making barrels for them, and shipped an average of a carload of 125 barrels daily. (See history of W. L. Hyer, who was with this establishment from an early day.) The Roseland Company now owns the property.

The Warrensburg Grain Elevator & Mill was built in 1869 by S. M. and E. C. Fitch. It has had many changes, was destroyed by fire, but its successor is still doing a large and increasing business at the same place. (See history of Jesse J. Culp.)

The Magnolia Mill was completed October, 1879, and owned by W. H. Hartman and Isaac Markward. It has had very few changes of ownership, has greatly increased in size and business, and is now owned by the Magnolia Milling & Investment Company. a corpora- tion in which Messrs. Daniel Bullard and H. F. Kirk are the active members. It is the only mill now in Warrensburg making flour, making one brand, the Crystal. which is very unusual and normally can always sell more than they can manufacture.

Old Miscellaneous Industries .- Among the industries of Warrens- burg that have lived and gone are :

1. The Warrensburg Brewery established in 1865 by Philip Gross ; made as high as 2,000 barrels of beer annually; was burned down by the temperance forces in 1873: rebuilt, and finally last operated about 1910 by Mr. Murche.

2. The Edward L. DeGarmo & Company, woolen mills, built in

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1867, and that used to turn out 200 yards of goods daily, besides buying annually 30,000 pounds of wool sold as yarn.

3. The foundry of David and W. Y. Urie, founded in 1874. ran on West Pine street, and used to make up 250,000 pounds of iron a year. Mr. William Urie, the last proprietor, moved to Kansas City some time in the eighties.

The first agricultural fair was held in 1857, on the ground owned by Col. Ben W. Grover and close to the house. It was soon moved to twenty acres just south of town, run successfully till the war, reorgan- ized after the war, and $15,000 spent in improvements ; failed financially, and the grounds bought by Drummond & Bros., who did a fine molasses business there. Subsequently fairs were held and race tracks built northwest of town, north of Electric Springs, there abandoned, then south of town between Holden and Maguire streets and there abandoned finally a few years ago.

The Enoch Clark Library was founded in 1875 by a contribution from Enoch Clark of $200 on condition that the citizens would raise a like amount. They did so, and a good library was established. It was burned January 10, 1877, insurance used to buy new books and reopened with 552 books besides papers.

For history of present library, see "A. B. C. Club."

Postoffice .- Warrensburg postoffice was established in 1836. John Evans, a bachelor, was the first postmaster. The headquarters in the early days were in the various stores, and so continued for many years after the war. The chief mail from the east arrived late in the evening. and the writer remembers as a boy joining in a nightly procession of the citizens, most of them with lanterns, to the store where the postoffice was kept. While the mail was being distributed in the proper boxes, the crowd gradually increased and soon became a very gay and neigh- borly party. This store was always distinctly the social center of the town. A marked deterioration was noticeable, however, when they took the postoffice out of the friendly setting of the store and put it in a build- ing by itself. Then carriers were appointed and matters became worse- we didn't have to go for the mail at all. Finally the present, big, hard, business-like government building was secured, and that was the crush- ing blow. The postoffice, as a social institution, became absolutely extinct.

The complete list of postmasters is as follows: 1836-38, John Evans;

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1838-1840, Harvey Dyer : 1840-44, James S. Reynolds : 1844, Flemming H. Brown, Mrs. O. S. Heath, John M. Beard: 1865, Mrs. O. S. Heath : 1865-66, D. W. Reed: 1866-1872, Stephen J. Burnett; 1872-76, Josiah Smith; 1876-88, John W. Brown, assistants Henry E. Griffith, William H. Beazell; 1888-1890, H. H. Russell, assistants James M. Williams, Miss Marie Vernaz; 1890-95, Ira A. Day, assistants Rudolph Loebenstein, Fred Day, Harry Day, Miss Mollie Heed; 1895-97, James M. Williams, assist- ants, Frank A. Plumer, Claud A. Frost ; 1897-1903, Peter C. VanMatre, assistants Jo. H. Smith, William T. Van Matre; 1903-06, Mrs. Nellie S. VanMatre: 1906-1914, Jo. H. Smith, assistants Jas. M. Shepherd, Ira A. Day, Charles W. Dixon ; 1914 to present, U. A. McBride, assistants James M. Shepherd, Charles W. Dixon. George H. Collins, Charles A. Bridges. T. O. Davenport.

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History of Johnson County, Missouri, Part 14

Author: Cockrell, Ewing Publication date: 1918 Publisher: Topeka, Kan. : Historical Publishing Co. Number of Pages: 1234

Author: Cockrell, Ewing
Publication date: 1918
Publisher: Topeka, Kan. : Historical Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 1234