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 69
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 69
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 69
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Then the terrible scene opened. The guerrillas, with yells and shouts, charged the citizens, firing and riding upon them, and killing every living thing in view. M. A. Gilbert and Henry L. Diggs were both shot down and killed near the sidewalk. Through the back streets then ran the brigands searching for other victims. The stores were broken into and robbed of whatever the robbers wanted ; where the proprietors could be found their money was taken first.
Now began the firing of buildings. Matches were lit and thrust into cotton batting or other inflammable goods, and speedy blazes sprang up in every building about the square. The public square was nearly surrounded by large, fine buildings, and all but Nunnelly's hotel were soon in flames. The county records of Montgomery county from 1818, priceless in value and inestimable in their impor- tance, were stored in Watkins & Drury's store, and were, of course, lost.
Private houses were visited on the back streets and set on fire, the inmates ordered out roughly, and not allowed to remove their goods. The house of Sheriff Ira C. Ellis was set on fire three times, and each time the flames were extinguished by Mrs. Ellis. Soon the whole town was one lurid glare of burning light. Vast clouds of black smoke rose in such density as to obscure the moon. Gusts and col- umns and jets of flame shot athwart the sky, and great showers of sparks and bits of burning wood were carried far off and up into the canopy. All over town it was so light that one could see to pick up a pin.
Noctesiræ! The roaring of the flames, the crashing of the burning buildings, the pistol shots and yells and cries of the guerrillas, the
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screams and shrieks of women and children, all made a most dreadful scene, so dreadful that even at this day those who witnessed it are loth to think of it, and mention it with extreme reluctance.
Every man was shot at that did not yield prompt and implicit obe- dience, and some were shot who did. Benj. Palmer was shot while standing in his kitchen door. He fell forward outside, but was not killed, though his house was soon in flames. Crawling into the back yard he pulled a board child's " play-house" over himself to screen himself from the terrible flames, and no less terrible guerrillas. Two ladies, Mrs. Ford and Mrs. Hughes, subsequently assisted him to a place of safety.
When the first alarm was given Dr. Samuel J. Moore, a lifetime resident of the county, who was then living in the southern part of town, sprang up and seizing his shotgun and revolver, started for the scene. His young, beautiful and highly accomplished wife, the daughter of Rev. L. T. McNeiley 1 entreated him not to expose him- self, but he ran immediately towards the first squad of guerrillas he saw, unhorsed one, giving him a terrible wound in the thigh. Half a dozen fired at him, and he fought back to the last. He was killed near a stable, shot two or three times, and his head terribly beaten with the butts of revolvers.
THE SCENES AT THE FEMALE COLLEGE.
Prof. Robinson's Female College had opened in September pre- viously, and as it was the only institution of the kind in the county, it was largely attended. Nearly 100 young ladies from this and sur- rounding counties were present at the time of the raid. A guerrilla calling himself " Capt. Stewart " and some followers rode down to the college boarding house and ordered the inmates out. The white- robed girls fluttered about their rooms, half-packed their trunks and hustled them into the yard and into the woods, and then seated beside their trunks, sat shivering in the thickets till daylight. Miss Maggie Pegram, now Mrs. Maggie Payne, of Montgomery City, who was a student at the time and a witness of these scenes, says the woods were full of trunks and girls. But some of the girls welcomed the guerrillas. " We are rebels," they glibly called out, and for their sakes the college was spared.
Prof. Robinson was not present at the time, and Prof. Watts had charge of the college. Miss Ella Brizandine was thought to be a spy
1 Now the wife of Hon. E. F. Perkins, of Linneus, Mo.
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in the service of the guerrillas, as she wrote and received mysterious letters, and when the raiders came to the college she spoke familiarly to some of them. Some time afterward she was arrested, charged with being a spy, and taken to Mexico. It is not known what dispo- sition was made of her case.
But more serious affairs were transpiring in other parts of the place. The town was in flames, and to arson and robbery was being added murder, and child murder, too! At the widow Chinn's, in the eastern portion of town, her little boy, Ira, 10 or 12 years of age, sat in the door-way gazing out upon the frightful scene, with something of boyish wonder. A squad of guerrillas rode up, and one of them taking aim with his pistol in the bright moonlight shot the lad through the body.
It was about 9 o'clock when the guerrillas entered Danville. They remained about two hours, and then departed to carry out Gen. Price's order in regard to destroying the North Missouri Railroad, and to " go as far east as practicable." Every house was burned that was believed to belong to a Union man. The court house had been torn down some months before, and the bricks had been put into a house which Mr. Knox had built. The published statement that the court house was burned, therefore, is not literally true. There was no court house to burn; the building in which the county records had been deposited was burned and records with it - a loss of not less than $50,000 to the county.
The material for a Radical printing office, belonging to one Orin A. A. Gardener, was burned. The newspaper had not been issued, but Gardener had made the preliminary arrangements and was away at the time procuring certain necessary adjuncts.
The guerrillas at last got ready to leave. The wounded man whom Dr. Moore had shot was placed in Mrs. Powell's buggy and driven off west up the Boone's Lick road. A few of the prisoners that had been collected were released, and told that if they left town before sunrise they would be shot. Wm. C. Ellis, now a blacksmith, living in Wellsville, and Merrill S. Simons were both placed on one horse, and made to ride to the western part of town, in front of Mrs. Powell's. Here Simons dismounted.
Merrill S. Simons was a school teacher and surveyor, and for a time he had been a member of Co. C, Ninth M. S. M. When he dismounted in front of Mrs. Powell's, Arch Clements questioned him as to whether he had been in the Federal army. Upon his answer-
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ing in the affirmative and giving his company and regiment, Clements raised himself in his stirrups and shot Simons dead.1
The guerrillas now rode west of town a mile on the Boone's Lick road. There they halted, and while here the buggy with the wounded man passed, going west. On they went towards New Florence. The distance was soon compassed. Four miles away the light of the burn- ing town was plainly visible, smoldering though the fire was then.
INCIDENTS OF THE VISIT.
The town of New Florence reached, the business of the raiders was transacted with neatness and dispatch. The depot building was ran- sacked and some boxes of Federal uniforms, intended for Kendrick's militia company, at Rhineland, were broken open, and those of the guerrillas not already so supplied were soon clad in bright, new uni- forms.
The stores were broken into and gutted sans ceremonie. Such things as the brigands had failed to supply themselves with during the burning of Danville they took now. The post-office was robbed, and one enterprising thief sat quietly and systematically opening the letters and abstracting their contents by the light of the burning depot, until he had examined every one. The depot and two cars were also burned.
Dr. Milton, who had been a surgeon in the Confederate service, was taken prisoner. New Florence was then but a hamlet, and there were few prisoners to take and no one could be found to kill. The depot and cars being " permanently destroyed," the other clause of Gen. Price's orders was to be obeyed, and Anderson prepared to go on east. High Hill was the next objective point ; and after a stay of an hour or more in New Florence, the band set out on the road leading into the Boone's Lick road.
Anderson and his men rode into High Hill at sunrise, and scatter- ing through the town began to sack it thoroughly. First the depot was set on fire and destroyed ; then the water-tank was fired, but not consumed. It was said that every watch and revolver in town were taken. Abner Bigelow's safe was robbed of $800; Tom Klise's and Frank Craig's stores were pillaged ; Emil Rosenberger's saddle and harness shop was stripped, and Rosenberger and other citizens whipped with the whips there found (see History of High Hill, in the
1 From statement by a member of Anderson's band who was present, now a resident of Randolph county .
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chapter on Bear Creek township). Prof. Abe. Davault had $200 taken from him at the mouth of the pistol.
A number of the citizens were guarded under John B. Jennings' porch, and parties of three and four scoured the surrounding country and brought in others. One party went to the residence of Hance Miller, a strong Union man, who lived a little south-east of town, but Mr. Miller and his son had fled to the woods. Mrs. Miller, yet living in High Hill, says that the brigands then ordered her to get breakfast for 20 men, and rode away in a gallop, leading the horses.
No other buildings or structures were attempted to be burned be- sides the depot and tank. The many led horses, loaded down already with plunder, were made to bear additional burdens, the spoil of Craig's and Klise's stores, and then the band started to return. They took the Boone's Lick road going westward.
As they filed out of town Eugene Rosenberger says he counted 35 guerrillas in line. There were perhaps ten more who did not fall in at once. Five went back to Callaway from Danville.
On David Baker's farm, on the Boone's Lick road, Anderson turned south. Here the guerrilla chieftain led his men down three miles south of New Florence, on the Joshua Morris farm, where, in a piece of woods, near the road running south, they went into tempo- rary camp.
When the morning of the 15th of October broke upon Danville what a scene was there! The town in ashes, five of her citizens killed, the women and children in a state of distraction, the mnen fugitives, and no one knew how many of them had been found and killed. No one had slept through all that night of horrors, and with the first peep of day came forth women peeping from about the corners of fences and walking slowly up toward the square casting furtive glances up and down the streets. The bodies of Diggs and Gilbert lay in the angle formed by the junction of the street on the east side of the square with the Boone's Lick road. The large buildings on two sides of them had burned and the heat had scorched and black- ened their corpses so that they were drawn and twisted and distorted and presented a frightful appearance. Citizens throughout the country, at Montgomery City and elsewhere, had seen the smoke of the burning, and by 8 o'clock many had come in.
The five persons killed were Michael A. Gilbert, unmarried ; Henry L. Diggs, unmarried ; Dr. Samuel J. Moore, married ; Merrill S. Simons, married ; Ira Chinn, school boy.
Benjamin Palmer was seriously wounded.
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THE PURSUIT BY THE MILITIA - KILLING OF FIVE INNOCENT CITIZENS.
As soon as possible after Danville was attacked word was sent to Wellsville, where Col. Canfield was. stationed with the Sixty-seventh Enrolled Missouri militia, 500 strong. Before sunrise he started Capt. George Pew and Lieut. James McIntyre, with 50 picked men armed with double-barreled shot-guns and revolvers, for Danville. The militia reached Danville in two hours and learned the situation. After remaining in town till after dinner, they started after the raiders, swearing vengeance and declaring they would not return until one or both parties were annihilated. Some 12 or 15 citizens of Danville volunteered to accompany them and their services were accepted. The party took the Boone's Lick road and followed it to where the road turned south which the guerrillas had taken. The militia kept on the trail, following it to the Joshua Morris farm.
Near the Boone's Lick road a guerrilla picket was discovered on horseback, but succeeded in escaping, although fired at and given a close chase.
McIntyre and Pew now moved their men down to the vicinity of Anderson's camp. Then they turned east, flanking the camp. The militia now dismounted and while one-fourth of the men were detailed to hold the horses, the others formed in two lines, the men ten feet apart, and advanced upon the thicket in which the guerrillas lay.
Within the guerrilla camp were some half a dozen or more citizens of the county, who had been passing up the road and made prisoners by the guerrilla pickets and taken before Anderson, who ordered them detained until he got ready to leave the country that night.
The previous day Capt. Kendrick, of the Rhineland militia, had ordered F. M. Ellis, John Marlow and Ira Tatum, all reputable citi- zens of the neighborhood of New Florence, to haul some rations for his company from New Florence to Rhineland. They did so, and while down in the bottom Ellis induced Marlow and Tatum to haul some corn back with them from a farm which he owned. They were driving home and in front of the camp were halted by the guerrillas, made prisoners and their corn taken to feed the hungry, jaded guerrilla horses.
Christopher Logan, a farmer, living in the southern part of the township, had left home that morning and gone to New Florence. He was returning home, when he and his little son were also made prisoners by Anderson's men. John Anderson, Mr. Hatton and a young lad named William Whitesides (now in Saline county ) were
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other prisoners held in the guerrilla camp. It is believed that all of the prisoners save Marlow lived south of New Florence.
Anderson had been warned by his faithful sentinel of the approach of the militia and his men were all saddled up and mounted when they appeared in sight. The guerrilla leader, for some reason, gave the order to retreat, and when the firing began the guerrillas re- treated in great confusion and disorder, leaving behind much plun- der.
The militia advanced directly into the camp, firing and cheering. The citizen prisoners were in a sad plight. They were between two fires, for some of the guerrillas were shooting back. Young White- sides sprang over the fence, the bullets buzzing about his ears in every direction. He and F. M. Ellis made their escape.
But alas ! for the other unfortunate, innocent men ! John Ander- son, Hatton, Marlow, Tatum and Logan were all killed ! All but Logan were shot down in the camp. The militia allege that they were mistaken for bushwhackers, and that it was impossible to dis- tinguish them amid the brush and the confusion incident to the occa- sion. But two of the men were killed deliberately. Christopher Logan had been wounded and was sitting in the fence corner holding his son in his arms, when he was fired on by a militiaman and given a mortal wound ; as to the killing of John Marlow there are two dif- ferent accounts.
After it was discovered that the guerrillas had fled entirely the militia gathered up seven of their horses and plunder taken from the stores, etc. Some revolvers were also found. The body of John Marlow, who was not yet dead, was put into a wagon and hauled to New Florence, whither the troops now repaired. At New Florence the body was delivered to Mrs. Marlow. Mr. Marlow died the next day, October 16, at 12 o'clock. He was aged 36, and left a wife and seven children. The bodies of the other unfortunate men who were killed were buried by their friends and broken-hearted families.
The militia went from New Florence to Wellsville. South of Wellsville they met Col. Canfield with the balance of the regiment. The next morning Lieut. McIntyre, at the head of a picked company, started again, and taking up the guerrilla trail at the scene of the fight, he followed it into Callaway county, and was in the saddle for three days and nights.
After being routed by the Wellsville militia, Anderson and his band rode rapidly westward, crossed the Loutre at or near the Baker
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ford, and soon after struck a road that lead to Readsville. The next morning they were in Callaway. Passing on up the Missouri river, Anderson robbed Glasgow, after its capture by Clark and Shelby, and proceeding still westward, he was killed, October 27, 13 days after he burned Danville, at a point near Orrick, or Camden, in Ray county. The killing was done by the Daviess county militia, under Col. Cox and Maj. Grimes. Six human scalps were found attached to his horse's bridle, and on his body were six revolvers, $300 in gold, $150 in silver, two gold watches and some orders from Gen. Price.
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CHAPTER X.
LEADING EVENTS FROM 1865 TO 1870.
Enrolling in the Militia -" Richmond has Fallen " - The War Over -A Robber Raid - Al. Gentry's Expedition into Callaway and Fight with, and Defeat by Bush- whackers - Encounter with Barker's Bushwhackers at Sayer's Mill - Killing of Sergt. Bunch -Adoption of the "Drake " Constitution - Help for the Suffering South - The Political Campaign of 1866-67 - Fatal Affrays - Building the Present Court House-1868 -The Political Campaign - Presidential Election, 1868.
1865 - ENROLLING IN THE MILITIA.
By an act of the Legislature, approved February 10, 1865, all adult male inhabitants of the State, except under certain exemptions, were made liable to enrollment in the militia of the State and subject to military duty. An enrolling officer was appointed for each county and the able bodied male citizens over 18 years of age and under 45 were required to attend upon his order for the purpose of enrollment. In Montgomery county, Capt. L. A. Thompson was appointed enrolling officer, and in March he issued notice by posters to the men of the county, stating that he would be at certain places on certain dates for the purpose of enrolling all male inhabitants between specified ages, etc.
There was a very general response to the call and a full enrollment. Some time afterwards, July 18, Gov. Fletcher commissioned L. A. Thompson, colonel and Wm. P. Fisher, lieutenant-colonel of the Seven- ty-third M. M., or Montgomery county regiment; but the positions were merely nominal, as the regiment was never mustered.
" RICHMOND HAS FALLEN !"
About the first of April news came that Gen. Lee's army in Virginia was in a bad way. April 9, four years, lacking three days, from the capture of Ft. Sumpter by the Confederates, Gen. Lee surrendered to Gen. Grant at Appomattox. A few days previously Richmond had been occupied by the Federal troops, and when this intelligence was received there was the wildest rejoicing among the Unionists of the county. Even many of Confederate sympathies were not sorry that peace was in prospect, though the terms might not have been to their liking.
(656)
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HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.
The hearts of the Southern sympathizers of the county now sank heavily, for it was apparent that defeat, utter and complete and over- whelming, would soon overtake those who followed the stars and bars. The Confederate people of the county became reconciled to the inevitable, and waited with resignation, for the end.
And the end soon came. A few days after Lee had surrendered to Grant, Gen. Joe Johnston's army surrendered to Gen. Sherman, .and May 13, Kirby Smith's Trans-Mississippi army, except a portion of Shelby's brigade and some other Missourians, gave up to Canby. Gen. Price, Gen. Shelby and certain other Confederate Missourians to the number of 500 or more went to Mexico for awhile. Very soon thereafter the Confederate soldiers began to return to their Missouri homes. The returned Confederates, having fought a good fight and been fairly defeated, philosophically accepted the situation and set to work to retrieve lost time and mend their broken fortunes. That is, those who did return. For many a Montgomery county soldier who wore the gray lost his life in the cause he deemed right, and filled a grave in the Sunny South.
A ROBBER RAID - AL. GENTRY'S EXPEDITION INTO CALLAWAY AND FIGHT WITH AND DEFEAT BY BUSHWHACKERS.
Notwithstanding the war was over there were a great many acts of lawlessness perpetrated in this county in the spring and summer of this year. The war had demoralized people until those of them who were depraved by nature became inexpressibly bad. The same was true of other parts of Missouri. Bands of men combined for the sole purpose of plunder and robbery, and in the defenseless condition of many of the people - their arms having been seized by the military authorities - there was a fine field for their operations.
About the 5th of May, 1865, Capt. Samuel W. Hopkins, of the Montgomery and Warren militia ( " Fletcher's militia"), stationed at Warrenton, received word that a band of bushwhackers or brigands was operating in the southern part of Callaway county, and that it was threatening and encroaching upon the western part of Montgomery. The captain called for volunteers acquainted with the country to go up and assist the authorities of Callaway in suppressing the marauders.
Albert Gentry, a Montgomery county man, and an ex-member of Co. C, Ninth Missouri State militia, volunteered, and with him four or five others. The party set out under the leadership of Gentry, all well mounted and armed. At Danville they stopped, and remained
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all night, the guests of Co. L, Ninth Missouri State militia. Here Laban Ford, a citizen, volunteered to accompany them. Leaving Danville quietly, the men made their way by well known but not open routes to Thomas Cole's, two miles south-east of Readsville, in the territory where the bushwhackers were reported.
Here Gentry and his men concealed themselves in the woods all that day and the following night, watching the roads for the brigands. The next morning they moved to Capt. Smith's, two miles north of Reads- ville, where they again concealed themselves in the woods and watched the roads that day and the following night. Monday morning, May 8, the men mounted and rode up to Readsville. Here they learned that some suspicious characters had crossed the river at Portland, and that they had bridles but no horses. Conjecturing that they were horse thieves Gentry concluded to go down and try to head them off. He first went to the residence of William Davis, west of Readsville. Here Joseph Davis, a son of William Davis, and William Hutz volun- teered to go with the party. Hutz was a son-in-law of William Davis and a former member of Co. C, Ninth Missouri State militia.
Gentry and his party, now composed of himself, Laban Ford, Richard McCarty, Wick Miller, David Hall, Madison Filkins, William Hutz, and Joseph Davis, eight men in all, moved on, and three and a half miles west of Readsville, near Jackson's mill, they met twelve men, part of whom were dressed in Federal blue, and all heavily armed, chiefly with revolvers. It is claimed and believed that Ab. Barker was the leader.
Each party halted the other, and a parley ensued between the com- manders, who rode out midway between the two commands. The two parties, however, agreed to unite their forces and go in pursuit of the thieves and bushwhackers. They started off together, eight of the Gentry party riding in couples with the same number of Barker's party, and four of the latter in the rear. Gentry and Barker rode side by side in front. Gentry agreed to turn back, and the cavalcade rode about two and a half miles in an easterly direction, passed Jack- son's mill, and there saw some citizens whom Gentry had left in Readsville with instructions to stay there until the afternoon. The men were chatting pleasantly together, laughing occasionally, and seemed to be old friends well met.
At a point in the road about two miles south of Readsville, on the head of Tavern creek, and about 100 yards from the residence of John Gill, Barker suddenly placed his pistol in Gentry's face and called out " Surrender!" Immediately the other members of Barker's
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band opened on Gentry's men with revolvers, and William Hutz and Wick Miller were killed instantly. Miller was shot through the heart and Hutz through the brain. David Hall was wounded in the mouth and side ; Joseph Davis was shot through the shoulder ; Laban Ford surrendered ; Dick McCarty handed his gun to a bushwhacker named Dempsey, and three galloped away. All who were not killed outright put spurs to their horses and fled, the bush- whackers, all disguise thrown off now, chasing them and firing upon them.
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