USA > Missouri > St Charles County > History of St. Charles, Montgomery, and Warren counties, Missouri, written and comp. from the most authentic official and private sources, including a history of their townships, towns and villages, together with a condensed history of Missouri > Part 63
USA > Missouri > Montgomery County > History of St. Charles, Montgomery, and Warren counties, Missouri, written and comp. from the most authentic official and private sources, including a history of their townships, towns and villages, together with a condensed history of Missouri > Part 63
USA > Missouri > Warren County > History of St. Charles, Montgomery, and Warren counties, Missouri, written and comp. from the most authentic official and private sources, including a history of their townships, towns and villages, together with a condensed history of Missouri > Part 63
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The Whigs of the country took advantage of the situation, and conducted their campaign with unexampled ardor and enthusiasm. Mass conventions of unprecedented numbers were held, in some instances remaining in session for several days, which were addressed by distinguished speakers, whose object seemed to be to influence the popular enthusiasm and carry the election by music, banners, pro- cessions and stump oratory. Some of the Whig out-door meetings in the Ohio valley numbered 20,000 and were addressed by Gen. Harrison in person. At these monster assemblages miniature log cabins and veritable coons and hard cider were displayed, and cam- paign songs sung, exciting the wildest enthusiasm ; so that the contest took the name of the " Log Cabin, Coon Skin and Hard Cider Campaign."
To counteract the influence of the meetings and the party para- phernalia employed by the Whigs to captivate the masses, the friends
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of Mr. Van Buren held their conventions also, and, invoking the name and influence of " Old Hickory," who ardently supported him for the Presidency, adopted hickory boughs and the chicken-cock as their party emblems, the former gracefully waving and the latter defiantly crowing everywhere.
The Whigs and Democrats of Missouri caught the prevailing en- thusiasm and conducted the canvass with unusual spirit. Mass conventions, accompanied by the splendid pageantry of processions, brilliant banners and martial music, to say nothing of political discus- sions unexcelled in fervid eloquence, abounded everywhere. The State was wild with excitement, and many and interesting and graphic are the scenes which our older citizens are able to recall of the cam- paign of 1840.
In Montgomery the excitement was of the prevailing character throughout the State. Although the population was small, it was enthusiastic. Large meetings were held at Danville, Loutre Lick, and one good meeting was held at Middletown. The candidates for gov- ernor, John B. Clark, Whig, and Thomas Reynolds, Democrat, addressed the people. At Danville the Democrats put up a " dummy," the figure of an old woman with a ragged, coperas-striped dress, an old bonnet, etc., and labeled " Granny Harrison."
The Whigs carried the county for their candidate by what was con- sidered a handsome majority, the vote standing: Harrison, 344 ; Van Buren, 262. But the Democrats carried the State by nearly 7,000 majority.
" HARD TIMES."
Times were very hard upon the people of the county in 1842-43. Money was scarce and very hard to get, and produce and wages ridicu- lously low. The market report in the fall showed that the best flour per barrel, even in St. Louis, was only $2.50 in gold, and $3 in " city money." Wheat was only 45 cents per bushel, and went down to 35. Potatoes and corn were 18 cents per bushel each. Nice, well- cured hams brought 5 cents per pound. Tobacco, " firsts," brought only $3.10 per hundred. On the other hand, groceries were propor- tionately cheap. Coffee was 101/2 cents per pound ; the best sugar 7 cents ; molasses 25 cents per gallon ; whisky, by the barrel, 18 cents per gallon ; by the single gallon, 25 cents ; by the pint, 5 cents. In this county prices were even lower. Pork sold at Danville for $1.50 per hundred ; beef, $1 per hundred ; corn, 621/2 cents per bar- rel, or 121/2 cents per bushel; bacon, 2 and 3 cents per pound. A
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good steer was considered well sold at $10. Cows brought propor- tionate prices. Horses and mules were a little better in price, as certain local dealers were wont to buy up these animals and drive them South into Arkansas and Louisiana, where there was a demand for them at good figures. Occasionally, too, teams were purchased by the movers, who were about the only customers the farmers had for their produce.
MURDER OF JOHN PEARSON BY HIS SON-IN-LAW, JOHN FREEMAN -
HANGING OF FREEMAN.
Some time in the first years of the decade, beginning with 1840 - not earlier than that year and not later than 1843 - a desperate mur- der was committed in the eastern part of the county, which resulted not only in the death of the victim, but of the conviction and execu- tion of his murderer.
This was the killing of John Pearson, who lived in the vicinity of Price's branch, by his son-in-law, John Freeman. Pearson was an old man, and Freeman was middle-aged. Freeman was afflicted with a cancer which had eaten off his nose and a portion of his upper lip. He presented a repulsive and, distressing appearance, and his case would have excited universal sympathy, but for the fact that he was of an ill-temper and always had been, especially when drinking, of a quarrelsome and vindictive disposition. This infirmity of his nature was seemingly aggravated by the terrible, loathsome character of his disease.
Freeman's wife became estranged from him. Whether she became disgusted with him because of his miserable appearance, which the ravages of his complaint had caused, or whether she could not abide his evil temper, is not certain. Perhaps both. At any rate she left him, taking a daughter with her, and returned to her father, Mr. Pearson. This action on the part of his wife enraged Freeman greatly. After a time he went to Pearson's and demanded that his wife and daughter, or either of them, should return home with him.
A quarrel resulted and Freeman assaulted his wife with a long, keen knife. He stabbed her twice or thrice, once in the lower part of the body, "cutting her to the hollow," as one old settler, rather indecorously, expresses it, and making a serious wound. Her father interfered, and Freeman cut him so severely that he died soon after. He also wounded his mother-in-law, Mrs. Pearson. Mrs. Freeman fell across a bed and lay insensible for some time.
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Dr. Forshey was called, and he sewed up her wounds and she recovered.
Freeman was arrested and committed to jail at Danville. From here he contrived somehow to escape for a few days, but was appre- hended in this county and reimprisoned. He was tried, convicted of murder, and sentenced to be hung. No efforts seem to have been made for a commutation of the sentence. Three of the jury who tried Freeman were Judge R. G. Snethen, Alonzo Wade and Edward Bush, all of Loutre township. Judge Snethen is still living at his old home, but, strangely enough, can not remember when the trial was, who the judge and attorneys were, or who it was that Freeman killed, whether his wife or his father-in-law, or both. He only re- members that the trial lasted three days, and that he. was heartily tired of it, being impatient to get home to a new wife !
Geo. W. Crane was the sheriff who hung Freeman. The execution came off north-east of Danville, at the borders of town, and under the hill, on the west side of the Montgomery City road, as it now runs, and south of the branch. A big crowd was present, and though the writer has interviewed dozens who saw the hanging, not one remem- bers the year it occurred. It is probable, however, that the hanging was in 1844, and the murder a year previous.
Freeman stood in a wagon with one end of a rope about his neck, the other end being fastened to a beam overhead. He made a few re- marks just before he was hung, but owing to the effects of the cancer on his mouth and tongue, they were unintelligible to . all except those nearest him. It is said his last words were: "Farewell, and fair warning."
Some time afterwards a sister of Freeman's came into the county and made investigation into her brother's case. She was quite wealthy, and said if she had heard of it in time she would have employed the best counsel and done everything to save his life. She seemed to have some of her brother's temper, and was very severe in her de- nunciation of all who were at all concerned in her brother's death, claiming that he was insane and beside himself, and not responsible for what he did.
It is stated that some time after the hanging of Freeman reports against the good character of Mrs. Freeman were circulated. In a quarrel over this matter Beverly Camp struck John Archer on the head with a handspike and killed him. This occurred at a house- raising in Warren county. It is believed that Mrs. Freeman married again and removed to Texas and died there.
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HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.
THE "JACKSON 'RESOLUTIONS."
In the Legislature of 1849, when a vote was taken on the famous " Jackson resolutions," 1 Hon. D. W. Baker of this county, Whig, voted against all of them from first to last. These resolutions were passed to furnish an excuse for turning Thomas H. Benton out of his seat in the United States Senate, and they accomplished their object. They denied the right of Congress to prohibit slavery in the Terri- tories, or in the District of Columbia, and that any organization of the Territorial governments preventing slaveholders from settling therein with their property would be inconsistent, unjust, insulting, and calcu- lated to bring about strife and disunion. They asserted that the right to prohibit slavery in any Territory belonged " exclusively to the people thereof." The resolutions closed with the significant declara- tion : -
5. That in the event of the passage of any act of Congress conflict- ing with the principles herein expressed, Missouri will be found in hearty co-operation with the slave-holding States, in such measures as may be deemed necessary for our mutual protection against the en-' croachments of Northern fanaticism.
The Missouri Senators, one of whom was Benton, were instructed to act in conformity with the resolutions. As "Old Bullion " was known to be opposed to the spirit if not the letter of the resolutions it was certain he would not obey the instruction of the Legislature, and a reason would be presented for refusing to return him to the seat he had filled for 30 years. He did refuse the instructions, appealed from the Legislature to the people of Missouri, and stumped the State against the resolutions, which he declared breathed " treason and secession " in every section and were the prelude to civil war. He hoped the next Legislature chosen would be friendly to him and re- turn him to the Senate; but it did not, and Henry S. Geyer, a Whig, was chosen.
MISCELLANEOUS EVENTS FROM 1844 TO 1852.
The high water in the Missouri river in 1844 was not very destruc- tive in the lower part of Montgomery county. One reason for this
1 So called from their being introduced by Hon. C. F. Jackson (afterwards Gov- ernor, then Senator from Howard county), though their real author was Hon. W. B. Napton, of Saline, who with the assistance of Judge Scott, Carty Wells, and George W. Hough, prepared them.
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HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.
was that the bottom was not generally settled and improved at that time. In the neighborhood of Bluffton, and in many places lower down, the water rose over the bank and flooded the country, doing some damage. The flood was at its highest from the 14th to the 20th of June. It was, so far as this county was concerned, simply an ex- traordinary "June rise." Elsewhere it was far more destructive.
In the Mexican War only four men from Montgomery county are known to have taken part. These were A. V. Davis, Samuel T. Sharp, Louis Jones and Ewing A. Van Bibber. They belonged to Capt. Charles Rogers' Co. H, of the First Missouri Mounted volunteers, commanded by Col. Alex. W. Doniphan. Rogers' com- pany was nearly all from Callaway county. Col. Doniphan's regi- ment is well known in history. Ewing A. Van Bibber became regimental commissary sergeant; all the rest of the Montgomery county men were privates. Lewis Jones died on the grazing ground in New Mexico ; the rest returned home in safety, and one of them, Samuel T. Sharp, is the well known banker of Montgomery City.
At the Presidential election in 1844 the vote of Montgomery stood : Clay and Frelinghuysen ( Whigs), 359 ; Polk and Dallas (Democrats ), 232.
In 1848 the vote was : For Taylor and Fillmore (Whigs), 379 ; for Cass and Butler (Democrats), 186.
When the California " gold fever" broke out in 1849-50 this county did not escape. Many people caught it the first year, and set out at once for the Pacific coast. In 1850 more went. Some returned " dead broke," others came back with their fortunes improved.
The Boone's Lick road was crowded with the gold seekers, whose white covered wagons dotted the road constantly during the temperate months. On one day in May, 1850, Jacob L. Sharp, the county clerk, counted the emigrant wagons that were going West, and they numbered from the time he came to his office in the morning, about seven o'clock, until he left at six in the evening, 142, an average of one wagon every five minutes during the day.
The California emigration was of much benefit to the farmers living on the line of the Boone's Lick road. The gold hunters bought feed for their teams and supplies for themselves from all who had it to sell, and paid good prices too. Every store in Danville advertised " movers supplies," and kept them too.
The Presidential election of 1852 resulted : Scott and Graham (Whigs), 386 ; Pierce and King (Democrats), 265; Whig majority,
.
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HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.
121. This was the last election when the Whigs, as a party, put forth a Presidential candidate. The " old-line " Whigs of this county chiefly entered the Know-Nothing party.
MURDER OF CAROLINE SCHOLTON BY JOHN HUTING -- EXECUTION OF THE MURDERER.
In June, 1851, occurred another terrible murder in this county, which eventually resulted in the trial, conviction and execution of the murderer. In this case the victim was a young German girl, named Caroline Scholton, and her murderer was a German man, named John Huting, who had become infatuated with her and shot her, because she would not marry him. The girl lived with her brother, and Huting lived in the same house, down on the Missouri river bottom, in the German settlement.
It is said that Huting had furnished a portion of the passage money which brought Miss Scholton to America, expecting that she would marry him, but she laughed at his proposals and would not listen to his suit. The despised and derided lover determined to kill not only his sweetheart but himself, and nearly succeeded in both attempts. He killed Miss Scholton outright, and then wounded himself very badly.
Although the circuit court records of this county are no longer in existence, it is fortunate for the purpose of this history that this case was taken to the Supreme Court, where the particulars were recorded. In the 51 Missouri Reports it is reported in full. From these records the following facts have been learned: -
At the September term of the Circuit Court, 1851, John Huting, the defendant, was indicted for the murder of Caroline Scholton. The prisoner was brought into court from the custody of the jailor. The court assigned counsel to assist the prisoner in his defense, and also appointed an interpreter, who was duly sworn as such in the cause. The prisoner was then arraigned and pleaded not guilty, and the trial was continued until the April term following. The illness of the judge prevented the meeting of the court at the regular term in 1852, and consequently there was no April term of the court. 1
The trial of this case commenced at the September term, 1852, and the record shows that it was not completed, owing to the illness of the judge of the court, that the court discharged the jurors, and remanded the prisoner, and continued the case.
The case was again called at the April term, 1853, and submitted to a jury, but the jury failed to agree in their verdict and were by the
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court discharged The prisoner was again remanded, and the case continued.
At the September term, 1853, the case was called up for trial, and a part of the jury sworn, and on the fourth day of the term, the court being unable to complete the jury, those that had been sworn were discharged, the prisoner remanded to jail, and the case con- tinued.
At the April term, 1854, the case was again called up for trial, the prisoner, by his counsel, moved the court to discharge him, under the twenty-fifth section of the sixth article of the act, concerning criminal proceedings, because the prisoner had not been brought to trial in ac- cordance with the provisions of said section. This motion was over- ruled, the defendant excepted, and filed a bill of exceptions.
The prisoner was then tried and found guilty of murder in the first degree ; judgment was rendered on the verdict. The prisoner moved for a new trial ; also, in arrest of judgment. The motion being over- ruled, the case was taken to the Supreme Court, where the judgment and sentence were affirmed in July, 1855.
The Supreme Court refusing to disturb the verdict of the jury (Judge Ryland delivering the opinion ), Huting was hung at Danville in the early fall afterwards. His gallows stood near where Freeman had been hung, by the side of the present Montgomery City road, at the north-east corner of town. Before his execution the condemned man made a written confession, which was published in pamphlet form at Troy and circulated throughout the county. If a copy of this pamphlet is now in existence the writer was unable to find it. The type was set by Tyler W. Parker, afterwards editor and proprietor of the Montgomery City Democratic Picket Guard, and now (1884) foreman of the Montgomery Standard.
THE NATIVE AMERICANS.
The Native American or " Know Nothing " party deserves particu- lar mention, as it once was a political organization very formidable in its character and largely in the majority in this county and district. It was formed sometime in the decade of 1830, but did not become strong or very prominent until the dissolution of the Whig party, in 1853. In 1854 the first lodge was established in this county, and in 1855 lodges were numerous.
The party was a strange one, as it was a secret political order whose members were oath-bound, and which had its lodges, its signs, grips and pass-words, and worked secretly to accomplish its openly pro-
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. HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.
fessed objects. It was composed chiefly of old Whigs, although there were many ex-Democrats in its ranks. The corner-stone of its plat- form was the principle that " Americans must rule America," in other words, that none but native-born citizens of the United States and non-Catholics ought to hold office, and it also favored a radical change in the naturalization laws.
Millard Fillmore and A. J. Donelson were the Know Nothing candidates for President and Vice-President in 1856, and swept the county over Buchanan and Breckinridge, the Democratic nominees, by the following vote : Fillmore, 603; Buchanan, 365.
MISCELLANEOUS.
During the troubles in Kansas, from 1854 to 1858, a few Mont- gomery county pro-slavery men made their way thither to assist that party in the territorial elections. It is said that while no one especially distinguished himself, yet every man did his duty, and " voted early and often," and returned to his home in safety and security.
During the Pike's Peak excitement in 1858-59 only a few Montgomery men were induced to emigrate to Colorado. The Boone's Lick road was again crowded, however, and as it is an ill wind, indeed, that blows nobody any good, so this Pike's Peak delusion, while it hum- bugged and " busted " many a poor fellow, yet made a good market for many a Montgomery farmer's corn, hay, bacon, etc.
The John Brown raid and insurrection at Harper's Ferry, Va., in October, 1859, greatly excited some men in this county, who declared that the first gun had been fired in what would prove to be a long and bloody civil war. At this time a few, and only a few, Republicans were in the county, two of whom, Mr. Walter J. Lovelace and Dr. W. B. Adams, were prominent citizens, and were bred and born on Southern soil. A few of the Germans in the southern part of the county were also avowed Republicans. Up about Middletown there was also a small number.
CENSUS OF 1860.
The aggregate population of Montgomery county in 1860 was 9,718, as follows : Whites - males, 4,186 ; females, 3,875; total, 8,061. Slaves - males, 805; females, 842; total, 1,647 ; Free colored - males, 5 ; females, 5; total, 10. Total, 9,718.
THE PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN OF 1860.
In very many respects the Presidential campaign of 1860 was the most remarkable, not only in the history of Montgomery county, but
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HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.
of the United States. Its character was affected not only by preced- ing, but by succeeding events. Among the former were the excited and exciting debates in Congress over the repeal of the Missouri Com- promise, and the Kansas-Nebraska controversy ; the passage by the Legislatures of various Northern States of the " personal liberty bills," which rendered inoperative in those States the fugitive slave law ; the John Brown raid on Harper's Ferry, Va., in the fall of 1859, and various inflammatory speeches of prominent leaders of the Repub- lican and Democratic parties in the North and in the South.
There was the greatest excitement throughout the country, and when it was in full tide the Presidential canvass opened. The slavery question was the all-absorbing one among the people. The Republican party, while it had not received a single vote in Montgomery county, had carried a large majority of the Northern States in the canvass of 1856, and every year since had received large accessions to its ranks, and under the circumstances, there being great dissension in the Democratic party, prognosticating a split, bade fair to elect its candidates. The Democratic convention at Charleston, S. C., April 23, after a stormy and inharmonious session of some days, divided, and the result was the nomination of two sets of candidates - Stephen A. Douglas and Herschel V. Johnson for President and Vice-President, by the Regulars, and John C. Breckinridge and Joseph Lane, by the Southern or State's Rights wing of the party.
The " Constitutional Union " party, made up of old Whigs, Know Nothings, and some conservative men of all parties, nominated John Bell, of Tennessee, and Edward Everett, of Massachusetts, on a plat- form composed of a single line - " The union, the constitution and the enforcement of the laws."
The Republican party was the last to bring out its candidates. It presented Abraham Lincoln and Hannibal Hamlin, on a platform, de- claring, among other things, that each State had the absolute right to control and manage its own domestic institutions ; denying that the constitution, of its own force, carried slavery into the territories, whose normal condition was said to be that of freedom. Epitomized, the platform meant hostility toward the extension of slavery, non-in- terference where it really existed.
It was to be expected that Missouri, being the only border slave State lying contiguous to the territories of Kansas and Nebraska, should be deeply concerned in the settlement of the slavery question. Her people or their ancestors were very largely from Kentucky, Ten- nessee, Virginia, and other slave-holding States, and many of them
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HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.
owned slaves or were otherwise interested in the preservation of slav- ery, to which institution the success of the Republican party, it was believed, would be destructive. There were many of this class in Montgomery county. There was not only a selfish motive for the friendliness toward the " peculiar institution," but a sentimental one. It was thought that it would be unmanly to yield to Northern sentiment of a threatening shape or coercive character. If slavery was wrong (which was denied ), it must not be assailed at the dictations of North- ern Abolitionists.
The canvass in the State was very spirited. The division in the Democratic party extended into Missouri. The Democratic State convention nominated Claiborne F. Jackson, of Saline county, for Governor. The Bell and Everett party nominated at first Robert Wilson, of Andrew, and on his withdrawal, Hon. Sample Orr, of Greene county. Judge Orr was selected in the room of Mr. Wilson by the central committee. Very soon the politicians began a series of maneuvers designed to develop Jackson's views on the main questions before the country, and especially as to which of the two Democratic Presidential candidates he favored. For a long time the wily Saline county statesman succeeded in evading the question and in defining his position ; but at last the Missouri Republican and other Douglas organs " smoked him. out." He announced in a well-writ- ten communication that he was for Douglas, because he believed him to be the regular and fairly chosen nominee of the party ; but at the same time he announced himself in favor of many of the principles of the Breckinridge party. He was called by some who disliked him " a Douglas inan with Breckinridge tendencies," " a squatter sover- eign on an anti-squatter sovereignty platform," etc.
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