History of Johnson County, Missouri, Part 3

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

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Other provisions of the treaty provided for a store of goods and a blacksmith to be kept at the point for the protection of the Indians' hunting grounds and for general relations between the United States and the Indians.

The total purchase price for "the lands relinquished by the Great and Little Osage was $1200 in money already paid and the yearly pay- ment at Fire Prairie of $1500 in merchandise at the first cost thereof." Thus was Johnson county bought at a cost of less than four cents a square mile cash and five cents a square mile annually in trade.

After this treaty the Osages for a number of years frequently returned on hunting expeditions. Many of the old settlers now living in Johnson county often saw Indians here. They were peaceable and friendly and on these return trips were never known to do any greater wrong than to sell baskets and to beg.

The character of the Indians was like that of the white men, the black men, the brown men and the yellow men. There were good Indians and bad Indians. Physically, Morse says, the Osages were of remarkable height, not many being less than six feet tall, and said to be athletic, well formed and robust, and it is said on good authority that they frequently walked from their villages to trading posts, a distance of sixty miles a day.

They talked little, in conversation did not interrupt each other, and except when intoxicated were not noisy. They were not drunkards and were greatly and favorably distinguished from other Indians in their sobriety.

Insanity was not known among them. They bore sickness and pain

HISTORY OF JOHNSON COUNTY

with great fortitude, and were more skilled in medicine than most other Indian tribes.

Their chief dependence was hunting but they raised small crops of corn, beans and pumpkins. They entered upon the summer hunt in May and returned about the first of August to gather their crops which had been unattended, unfenced and uncultivated throughout the summer. Each family raised from fifteen to thirty bushels of corn and from one to two bushels of beans and a quantity of dried pumpkins. After the harvest of their crops, about September, they started on another hunt- ing expedition which lasted until about Christmas. They then returned to the villages, where they remained until February or March and during that time they would make frequent short hunting trips. In February or March the spring hunt would begin. It started with bear hunting and ended with the beaver hunt. Then the Osage returned to his primitive farm, planted his corn, beans and pumpkin seeds, and began again his yearly circle.

CHAPTER III .- TRAILS AND ROADS.

ORIGIN OF TRAILS AND ROADS-INDIAN TRAILS-THE OLD INDIAN TRAIL-EARLY ROADS-FIRST PUBLIC ROADS-STAGE COACHES-ROAD DEVELOPMENT- ROADS TODAY-ROAD CONDITIONS IN GENERAL-ROAD IMPROVEMENTS- COUNTY GRADES-INTER-COUNTYSEAT HIGHWAYS-CONCRETE CULVERTS- STEEL BRIDGES-INTEREST IN ROAD WORK.

Origin of Trails and Roads .- Man follows the beaten track. As these words tell the story of much of our lives, they also tell the story of our early roads. Very early there were recognized lines of travel by the Indians between distant points. Their particular location is due to the interesting but not widely known fact, viz .: A man can travel from two to five miles on smooth, level ground easier than one mile on rough or steep ground. This is also true of most animals. And beyond doubt many of the Indian trails followed paths made by the buffalo and other wild animals, and for the reason given these usually followed the level ridges, crossed streams at the most accessible fords, passed from low land to high land by gradual grades and generally avoided difficult places of all kinds. And as the Indian followed in the track of wild animals so the white man followed the path of the Indian where there was one. Where there was none, he located his early roads on the same principle-the easiest way. It is interesting to note that later this principle was changed and modified for other reasons in the case of our dirt roads, but never in the case of the railroads, and the mighty engines and long trains still follow substantially the tracks of the buffalo and Indian.

Indian Trails .- There appears to be reliable proof of two Indian trails in Johnson county. Mrs. Ben W. Grover, who moved to Warrens- burg in 1844 and lived here till her death many years after the Civil War, remembered an Indian trail that passed close to their house, which stood within a few feet of the present Grover residence. Mr. W. E. Crissey was much interested in these trails and from Mrs. Grover and others secured much valuable information. The following inter- esting account is from Mr. Crissey direct.

HISTORY OF JOHNSON COUNTY

The Old Indian Trail .- (By W. E. Crissey.)

Probably very few know that an old Indian trail once traversed Johnson county. It ran from south to north in a northwesterly course, entering the county southeast of the city of Warrensburg, and passing through the city at Gay street near the Grover dwelling just east of Miller street, thence north toward Lexington on the Missouri river. This trail was from the Osage river at or near where the city of Warsaw now is, and following the line of least resistance avoiding difficult hills, marshy spots and bad fording places, made its way to Lexington, a bare trail with room for but one at a time. * * When in the dim and misty past the selection of this trail was made will remain a mystery locked in prehistoric silence.

When the white man came he desired a roadway from Warsaw to Lexington. At that time Lafayette county extended south from the Missouri river to the Osage river, in shape a long ribbon. Part of it had been surveyed, but not all of it; there were no farm lines, no fence- rows to interfere and the old trail seeming to be well adapted for ease of travel, the state highway was located on the trail.

A small part of this old road is at the west end of the farm owned by W. L. and P. A. Jones, about a mile southeast of Warrensburg. Other stretches of the road ran angling across tracts of land now en- closed and in cultivation.

Two other well identified parts of this road and frequently traveled by Mr. Crissey many years ago are: First, the present public road from the southeast corner of section 18, township 46, range 25 north, east to the north line of the section and about one-fourth mile west of the northeast corner, and second, the present public road as it climbs around and up the hill by the old James M. Shepherd (now owned by T. J. Trapp) place, about one-fourth mile north of Warrensburg on the Lex- ington road, and we who now whirl over these bits of road are today following the path of the red man for no telling how many centuries before us.

Another Indian trail was the Shawnee Indian trail in the southwest part of the county, and is described in the Johnson county history of 1881. Shawnee mound in Henry county was one of the favorite Indian resting places. From this mound the trail passed by the old residence of

HISTORY OF JOHNSON COUNTY

Wilson D. Carpenter in Chilhowee township and thence northwest through Rose Hill township to Center Knob near Kingsville. The old Clinton and Independence road followed this trail, and for many years those who traveled it shared the hospitality of Wilson D. Carpenter.

Early Roads .- Before there was any permanent settlement within the present borders of Johnson county, there was a recognized line of travel across the county from east to west although there was very little regular travel over this road as the line of main travel was farther north, along the river. (This north road extended from Old Franklin to Santa Fe, New Mexico, and was known as the Santa Fe trail, and is well marked out today.)

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The first main-traveled roads connected the frontier settlements of Johnson county with the nearest trading points, grist mills and other places where the settlers made infrequent but necessary trips. At that time, of course, the section lines were not laid out and these roads were trails directly across the country following the straightest and easiest lines.

First Public Roads .- The first public road established by law in the county was that running northwest "from Warrensburg to the Inde- pendence road." To us who are familiar with the square turns and the description of our roads by sectional lines, the order of court establish- ing this early road presents an interesting contrast. This is the order verbatim :

"December, Monday, the 13th day, eighteen hundred and thirty-six.

Jester Cocke, Joseph Cockrell, viewers appointed to lay out a road from Warrensburg in a Direction to Independence. The aforesaid view- ers having been appointed at the October term of this court and having failed to make report at the last term of the court now comes at this day and makes the following report, to-wit: Beginning at Warrens- burg, running down the ridge with the same road that now runs down, Crossing Post Oak at the upper crossing thence through the bottom run- ning up a Point between a little lake and Post Oak, thence crossing Devil branch at same bottom woods, thence through the Perrari leaving the high point of Perrari East of Jack Houxes to the left thence Cross- ing Black Water below Wade's mill, thence the direct road to Jester Cocke, thence the direct road leading to Thomas Windsor's so far as to the divide leading by the right hand corner of McMin's field, thence

HISTORY OF JOHNSON COUNTY

intersect the Road leading from Columbus to Independence, the nearest rout & the Brushy Knobs.

Joseph Cockrell, Jester Cocke, Viewers.

which report being seen and examined by the court and approved of. Therefore, it is ordered that the said view as marked and laid out be opened twenty feet wide, cleaned of limbs and trees and be bridged as the law directs and from thenceforth be a public highway." (Book A, page 15.)

At the same time two other roads were located, one from Honey Creek to Independence and the other from Warrensburg to Blackwater town (about a mile south of Columbus). (See book A, December 13, 1836.)

The following are other early roads in the county: In 1836 there were three recognized highways leading from Warrensburg, one ran north to Lexington (following the Indian trail); another one south to Clinton, the county seat of Henry county, and the third to Jonesboro by way of Gallaher's mill.

An early public road running east and west was established from Warrensburg to Bluff Spring in Kingsville township. Henry Colbern. the saddler, father of George Colbern, the early banker, traveled this road to Benjamin Longacre's tanyard. This road was discontinued in 1856.

An old road, located about 1852, ran from Knob Noster to Inde- pendence through Grover and Simpson townships crossing Blackwater at the old Davis, or Kirkpatrick mill near what is now Valley City.

Stage Coaches .- One of the principal highways that became what was known as stage routes in the early days when the mail was carried by that means was the Georgetown-Lexington road. A mail route was established on this road in 1857. It ran through the northeastern corner of the county and served Bee Branch postoffice or what was later known as Dunksburg. The Jefferson City-Independence road was an- other recognized stage line. Stage lines also ran from Warrensburg to Lexington and from Warrensburg to Clinton. The regular schedule trips of the stage coach over these lines varied from daily to weekly. As the country through which these lines passed became more thickly settled the frequency of the regular mail delivery was increased.

Johnson county depended altogether upon the stage coach for its mail delivery prior to the Civil War. And. even after the Pacific Railroad was built in 1865, many parts of the county continued to re-

HISTORY OF JOHNSON COUNTY

ceive their mail through the medium of the old stage coach. But with the building of other railroads, after the completion of the Pacific, and the introduction of the rural delivery, the stage coach as a star route performer made its final bow and disappeared.

Road Development .- Systematic improvement of the public roads of the county began some time after the Civil War. These improve- ments were of five distinct classes: First, leveling and widening; sec- ond, straightening and squaring; third, steel bridges; fourth, concrete culverts; and fifth, "county" grades.

1. The cutting down of the hills and filling of the hollows was the first step in regular road improvements. It has been going on steadily all the time, and today more than ever. Hills that the writer knew as famous long, steep pulls are today merely gentle inclines.

2. As the land became more cultivated the owners naturally did not care to have their fields cut up by roads streaking across them. This has resulted in the roads gradually being put on the lines of the sections or subdivisions, and has put them in straight lines. It has also resulted, however, in making them considerably longer. And the loss entailed on a whole community traveling around these corners, instead of in a diagonal road, has undoubtedly been a great deal, and will in- crease as travel increases. Today, of the old roads that ran the nearest and best way, there is only one of any length left in the county. This is the road from the old Masonic hall in Chilhowee township northeast to Warrensburg, for a distance of about five to six miles. It follows the watershed between the two main branches of Post Oak creek and has good natural advantages of shortness and grade. A shorter road of the same character runs south from Montserrat along Bristle ridge.

3. Steel bridges have been gradually put in over the larger streams ever since the reconstruction period following the war. Today these, wherever feasible, have concrete floors. Today there are 583 steel bridges in the county. (See report of County Engineer McGuire fol- lowing for full details.)

4. The history of the concrete culverts and "county road grades" in Johnson county is given in the following extracts from the report of February 1, 1917, of David Moliler, on his retirement from eight years service as county engineer :

"W. A. Stephens was presiding judge of the county court, and R. H. Wood and W. B. Pemberton, associate judges, and J. R. Grinstead, county clerk. These men began to look around to see if the road and

HISTORY OF JOHNSON COUNTY

bridge conditions could not be improved. The question of building concrete culverts was introduced by Judge Stephens and was soon put into effect by ordering the engineer to build four-foot concrete culverts in order to ascertain their cost in a practical way. Finding the price was reasonable and the culverts good they let a contract for sixty four-foot culverts to be built in the year 1908. In the next eight years they built 896 concrete culverts equally distributed throughout the county.

"In 1911, the question of building what were named county grades was taken up by the court. The members were Presiding Judge Tracy, B. F. Summers and D. L. Day, associate judges, with J. R. Grinstead as county clerk. A plan was formulated to build sixty miles per year for five years, and to distribute the work over the main roads of the county. This part of the agreement is now finished and we have three hundred miles of county grades.

"Five years ago the county court did for this county what the state is now taking up, under the Hawes bill (a system of roads for the state). No project can be successfully carried out without a definite system, and I attribute our marked success to having a definite system and impartially following it up."

Roads Today .- The best description of road conditions today is found in the following specific and complete report made by County Engineer Joseph F. McGuire, at the end of 1917.

Road Conditions in General .- Road work in a general way has progressed nicely. The greater portion of our mileage has been graded, culverts kept in repair and in certain localities, bad stretches have been thoroughly worked that had not been worked for years.

Road Improvements .- There were forty-five road improvements in 1917, where citizens of a neighborhood deposited with the county treas- urer $50 or more and the court added $50 to improve a mile or more of road.

County Grades .- There were built within the year forty-five miles of county grade, which gives us 345 miles of this class of road, and one more year's work will finish np the total number of miles outlined some five years ago by our county court. When completed. no farmer or taxpayer need live farther than three miles from one of these special grades.

Inter-Countyseat Highways .- We have 105 miles of this class of

HISTORY OF JOHNSON COUNTY

roads in the county, as has been located by the Inter-countyseat Road Board. These roads have been kept well dragged under their manage- ment by funds appropriated by the state.

Concrete Culverts .- There were built in 1917, 112 concrete cul- verts, eighty-two of which are three or four-foot openings and twenty feet long, five-foot wing walls and concrete floors, arch top; twenty-four are from twelve to sixteen feet, flat top, with fourteen-foot roadway, five-foot wing walls; six are two-foot openings, twenty feet long, with flat top and wing walls. We also built eleven retaining walls and repair jobs. We now have 997 concrete culverts equally distributed through- out the county.

Steel Bridges .- In the year 1917 there were built sixteen steel bridges ; all have concrete abutments and concrete floors, with fourteen- foot roadways. There are now 583 steel bridges in the county, of which 281 have wood floors and wood backing: 122 have concrete abutments, with wood floors; 123 have concrete abutments and concrete floors; thirty-three are on tubes and twenty-four on stone abutments.

County Bridges Refloored .- There were in the year 1917 fourteen bridges (spans ranging in length from eighteen feet up to fifty feet) refloored with wooden floors; also one thirty-six-foot span (wooden floor) replaced with concrete floor.

There was, in the year 1917, some special work done in the forni of straightening creeks, where they crossed or menaced our public roads.

Johnson county's general road system is undoubtedly one of the best in the state. It has not yet decided the next step it shall take. Rock, oiled and other roads are being considered. Whatever is selected will probably be carried on in the same systematic way as heretofore.

The forty road overseers have 1,494 miles of roads to take care of and do their work with forty-nine graders, thirty-eight plows, ninety- three scrapers, seven wheelers, twenty-five spades and shovels, thirty- nine picks and mattocks, thirteen crow bars, eleven axes, thirty chains and many other tools that are furnished by the overseers and their people. In many of the rural districts the amount of donated work equaled or surpassed the amount set aside by the court for the different districts.

Interest in Road Work .- The vast amount of volunteer work done

HISTORY OF JOHNSON COUNTY

throughout the county evidences the fact that our people want to keep pushing forward in the interest of better roads.

District, Township, Overseer and Receipts follow:

1. Grover, H. F. Dittmers, receipts, $362.95; 2, Grover, C. D. Hulse, $477.39; 3, Simpson, J. H. Reggers, $335.75; 4, Simpson, M. D. L. Jones, $361.95: 5, Simpson, Ben F. Bell, $633.44; 6, Hazel Hill. J. J. Fox, $260.25 ; 7, Hazel Hill, J. L. Smith, $544.50; 8, Columbus, D. Brock- man, $571.34; 9, Columbus, Geo. Brockhaus, $250.00; 10, Columbus, Charles R. Smith, $375.00; 11, Jackson, C. S. Hampton, $629.90; 12, Jackson, S. E. Ballard, $600.87; 13, G. E. Shanhan, $557.84; 14, Kings- ville, Russell Talley, $398.08: 15, Kingsville, R. E. L. Sanders, $605.88; 16, Rose Hill, Levi Surber, $525.85; 17, Rose Hill, R. G. Nichols, $885.59; 18, B. L. Whiteman, $631.68; 19, Chilhowee, T. A. McCormack. $451.51; 20, Chilhowee, T. S. Doak, $676.13; 21, Chilhowee, J. E. Rob- bins, $832.78; 22, A. B. Bills, $465.00; 23, Centerview, D. S. Smith, $1,570.50: 24, Post Oak, H. H. Howard, $499.59: 25, Post Oak, J. N. Livingston, $466.14: 26, Post Oak, Frank Langham, $1.111.35; 27. Jefferson, Leonard Clear, $351.41: 28. Jefferson, D. E. Powell, $606.15; 29, Jefferson, J. D. Cooper, $431.87; 30, Jefferson, J. O. Sutherland, $595.80: 31, Washington, L. S. Conner, $873.96; 32, Washington, A. L. Berry, $777.89: 33, Montserrat, John H. Owens, $486.91: 34, W. H. Drinkwater, $476.50: 35. Warrensburg. R. D. Mohler. $2.370.80: 36. Warrensburg. G. S. Carter, $2,369.25: 37, Madison, J. P. Sherlock, $2,569.48: 38, Hazel Hill, J. W. Workman, $288.37: 39, Grover. F. A. Lazenby, $432.64: 40, Centerview, Perry Fulkerson, $633.50; total, $28,- 339.79.

The disbursements are practically the same as the receipts. Total road expenditures by the county for 1917 are :

Bridges (county revenue fund), $10,027.38; common road fund, $11,655.46; road improvements, $4,592.00; concrete culverts, $16,815.87 ; county special road work, $18,947.97 ; roads and bridges fund, $38.992.92; inter-county seat fund, $1,362.40; forty road districts, $28,339.79; total, $130,733.79.

CHAPTER IV .- EARLY SETTLEMENTS.

PRIMITIVE MODES OF TRAVEL-SANTA FE TRAIL-EXTRACT FROM "PIONEER FAMILIES OF MISSOURI"-FIRST SETTLEMENTS IN JOHNSON COUNTY- PLEASANT RICE-NICHOLAS HOUX-JOHN H. INGRAM-JONATHAN AND BALDWIN FINE - WILLIAM CHEEK - WILLIAM NORRIS - JUDGE HARVEY HARRISON-STEPHEN BLEVINS-LIST OF HEADS OF FAMILIES IN MARCH, 1831-REMINISCENCES-CHILHOWEE OLD SETTLERS' REUNION.

Early Settlements .- The early settlers in Johnson county came by flatboats, keelboats and steamboats, in wagons, on horseback and on foot. The first steamboat on the Missouri river made its first trip to Franklin, Missouri, about 1819.

About this time there were prospects rapidly developing for a large trade in the Southwest, and the Santa Fe trail was established by act of Congress.

Along this road came many of the early settlers of Johnson county until they reached points north of this county and there struck south to the places where they finally settled.

The following from "Pioneer Families of Missouri" is one of the best summaries of early settlements that the writer has seen

"In the early days there were no railroads or steamboats or even stage coachies, and the early settlers had to provide their own means of travel. Some built flatboats and keelboats, into which they loaded their goods and families, and floated down the Ohio and its tributaries, to the Mississippi and then toiled up that stream and the Missouri, and up the latter to their destination, dragging their clumsy boats by tow- lines or forcing them along with oars and poles. Others packed their goods, wives and children on horses and came through the wilderness, supplying themselves with meat from the wild game which they killed with their rifles as they came along and still others, too poor to own horses or build boats, shouldered what few articles of worldly goods they possessed and came on foot.

"They all located in the woods, near the water courses, and built their houses near some nice cool. bubbling spring. The idea of set- tling on the rich prairies never occurred to them. They imagined that

HISTORY OF JOHNSON COUNTY

the prairies never could be cultivated, because there was no water on them and no timber to fence them.

"Their houses were built of rough logs, with puncheon floors, clap- board roofs, and great broad flaring chimneys, composed of sticks and mud. Sometimes they had no floors in their houses, except the ground, beaten smooth and hard and swept clean every day. Iron nails were not to be had. and the boards of their roofs were fastened with wooden pins or weighted with poles and stones."

The first buildings were not like the log cabins which required some help and considerable labor to build-they were a cross between "hoop cabins" and Indian sack huts. Many pioneers lived in these round-pole cabins for the first few years before enough men could be gotten together for building a log house.

Very few, even of the log cabins, had a window with a sash and glass. Sometimes they made a window with greased paper, but more often there was nothing over the window, or the inmate omitted the window altogether and depended for light on such as came through the cracks between the logs where there was no chinking or daubing. The doors were fastened with wooden latches and swung on wooden hinges. The chinking was done with blocks of wood and the daubing with mud made from the top soil."

A cupboard was built in the side of the wall and a "one-legged bedstead" erected. The latter was a primitive article of furniture, which as its name would suggest, was necessarily built in the corner. Clap- boards were laid in the rude frame, or hickory bark woven from side to side. Upon this rested the feather-bed. There was no such thing as a cookstove in those days.

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History of Johnson County, Missouri, Part 3

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