USA > Missouri > Vernon County > History of Vernon County, Missouri : past and present, including an account of the cities, towns and villages of the county Vol. I > Part 20
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Back of these illegal proceedings, and as a means of foster- ing the pro-slavery sentiment, a secret organization, known by various names, Blue Lodge. Social Band, etc., was formed in the South after the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska bill, the mem- bers being bound by ironclad oaths, and governed by stringent rules and regulations and having secret pass-words and signs. With the Knights of the Golden Circle, an order made up of slave owners. and with which it was allied. this lesser organiza-
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tion made common cause for the extension of slavery. Its mem- bership comprised men of pro-slavery sentiment, both slave owners and those who were not, residing in Missouri and other sections of the South, and its primary object was the carrying of slavery into Kansas and Nebraska.
In furthering its work, besides sending bands of men into Kansas to carry the elections, many favoring slavery were in- duced to permanently settle there, and money furnished by the stay-at-homes was used to prosecute its plans, and provide arms and munitions when needed. Councils of the order existed in Vernon county, at Nevada, at Balltown and at Montevallo; that at Nevada, which was the first in the county, had a membership all told of about fifty and was organized by Mr. Alexander B. McDonald, then an influential citizen of Fort Scott, who after- wards became a republican and from 1868 to 1871 served as United States Senator from Arkansas.
As was to be expected these opposing factions in Kansas were often in fierce conflict during the years just preceding 1859-60, but aside from a few raids into the Territory, prepared to fight if occasion demanded, there is no account of Vernon county men taking part in any of the numerous skirmishes.
While the pro-slavery people were keenly alive in the interests of their favorite institution, and active and aggressive in prose- cuting their purposes and plans, for its perpetuation and ex- tension, let it not be supposed that they had not a worthy foe in those who opposed them-the men who espoused the free- state cause, and who were prepared and ready to resist to the death all encroachments of slavery into the new Territory. Brave, courageous, daring and skilled from long training, in horsemanship and the use of arms, as they were, and sharing the popular sentiment regarding the supposedly non-combative and even cowardly natures of the anti-slavery men in the Territory and those of the North who sympathized with and supported them, little wonder they were surprised, as they were, when their eyes were open and they discovered that the despised and hated abolitionists were far from being craven, cringing milksops, but on the contrary were sturdy, stalwart men who, like themselves, had the courage of their convictions and who were ready if need be to give their lives in the cause of freedom. If the Mis- sourians found pleasant pastime and exhilarating sport, invading
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the Territory and trespassing upon the rights and harrowing the feelings and sensibilities of the free state citizens, no Jess did the latter enjoy the self-imposed duty of retaliating in kind. And the time came when the objects of the Missourians' acts of ruffianism and outrageous lawlessness themselves became the aggressors and committed like depredations, making bold sallies into the precincts of their enemies, pillaging their premises and carrying off cattle, mules, horses, slaves and provisions, with little fear that the owners would have the hardihood to risk their lives in a bootless pursuit.
It was about 1857 when there appeared on the scene a man whose very name became the synonym of courage, bravery, dar- ing and indomitable boldness. James Montgomery, born in Ash- tabula county Ohio, in 1814, lived in Kentucky fifteen years after attaining his manhood, and in 1852 went to Missouri, whence he removed five years later to Linn county, Kansas. He was a Camp- bellite preacher and a rank abolitionist. Six feet in height, slightly built, alert and supple, with a frank, open countenance, high forehead and piercing blue eyes, an expert horseman and dexterous in the use of arms, he was withal-a man of iron will, with a genius for leadership. He was a man of deep religious convictions, who believed in prayer and who always carried his Bible with him. When aroused, his righteous indignation found expression in loud denunciations, though he was never given to profanity or indulged in immodest speech. It was this man who, as leader of the anti-slavery men, drove the slave element from the upper Marais des Cygnes in the summer of 1857, and who also had a leading part in expelling from Bourbon county the pro-slavery men who dwelt along the Marmaton and Little Osage rivers, and who continued his activities on his own account at first, and later under government commission, to the close of the Civil War.
Dr. Charles R. Jennison was another dreaded anti-slavery leader, but of an entirely different type. Fearing neither God, man, nor devil and glorying in flagrant wickedness, he could recklessly violate the most sacred injunctions of the decalogue with no compunctions of conscience.
But the man most widely known among the anti-slavery lead- ers who were prominent in these border troubles was John Brown, a fanatical abolitionist, who from early life had been
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an ardent devotee of the abolition cause, and whose uncompro- mising enmity to slavery was intensified, it was said, by the murder of his son at the hands of pro-slavery men.
Incited and inspired by leaders of these types, the free state men, instead of being held in contempt, came to be dreaded and feared. The owners of the comparatively few slaves in Vernon county during these times were in constant unrest, and" throughout the county such was the feeling of insecurity on the part of pro-slavery men that they held themselves in almost con- stant readiness to resist invasion or attack.
For every pro-slavery outrage there was undoubtedly a coun- terpart by the opposition. Freesoilers drove out of the terri- tory settlers who had come hither from Missouri; Missourians turned back and prevented from coming into Kansas prospective free state settlers. Free state towns, Lawrence and Osawatomie, were burned by Missourians; abolitionists destroyed pro-slavery settlements. Each faction ruthlessly murdered and pillaged and each claimed that the end sought justified the means used. And thus justified in their own estimation, each charged the other with responsibility for the troubles. Brown, Montgomery and Jennison were lauded as patriots and heroes by the freesoilers, who never ceased to execrate the acts of Sheriff Jones, Colonel Buford, Captain Reid, Hamilton and others, while the doings of those last named were glorified by the pro-slavery men who, in unmeasured terms, denounced as murderers and thieves the freesoil leaders.
These raids into the border counties of Jackson, Cass, Bates and Vernon began about 1858, and it was in June of that year that John Brown and two of his lieutenants, J. H. Kagi and A. D. Stevens, arrived at Lawrence. In May just prior to this had occurred the Marais des Cygnes massacre, in which eleven free state men living near Trading Post in Linn county had been taken by a band of thirty pro-slavery men, led by Charles A. Hamilton, who had a claim in that quarter, to a deep ravine twenty miles west of Butler and a quarter of a mile west of the Missouri line and deliberately shot down at Hamilton's com- mand. In the belief that all their victims had been killed, the company left them, five being actually dead, five severely wounded and one uninjured. All of the wounded recovered. Hamilton returned to Georgia, his native state, thence went to
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Texas in 1859, and during the Civil War served as colonel of confederate regiment in Virginia. He was sent to the state legislature from Jones county, Georgia, in 1878, and two years later died of apoplexy.
Near the scene of this tragedy, in the side of a bluff. Brown built of six-inch hickory and pecan timbers a two-story cabin, fourteen by eighteen feet in dimensions, the lower part being banked with earth and stones to a height of four feet and a stream of spring water flowing through it.
Just prior to this Brown and Kagi had gone from Lawrence to southeastern Kansas where Montgomery was. The latter and his men had gone to their farms. the Fort Scott troops had re- tired from that section, and for the time being, under an agree- ment between Governor Denver and Montgomery. the turmoil in Bourbon and Linn counties had been quelled and quiet reigned. But Brown was disappointed and displeased when Montgomery showed an unwillingness to disturb the quietude. During this lull Brown and his men stayed in his cabin till August, when, fearing a sudden attack and capture, being so near the Mis- souri line, he and Kagi went to Osawatomie and the others stayed in Linn county. The arrest of Ben Rice. one of Montgomery's men, on a charge of murder, led to the renewal of hostilities later in the fall. Returning, Brown and Kagi built another cabin on Little Sugar creek, near Mound City, in Linn county, and here his men were attacked by a strong force, late in November, Brown being temporarily absent, it was said, and the day was saved to them and their assailants dispersed only by the timely arrival of Montgomery, who had again taken the field with forty men. Early in December Brown with twelve picked men re- turned to Bourbon county to what was known as Fort Bain. a cabin-fort built by Captain Bain, who was prominent among the free state men. This famous rendezvous was some eight miles from the Missouri line on the north side of the Osage river, and it was from here, as has been stated, that Brown planned to in- vade Missouri and end the incursions into Kansas. It was in- tended that Brown and his men should join Montgomery to re- lease Ben Rice, who was confined at Fort Scott. But because Brown favored burning the town, Montgomery sent him back to Fort Bain and himself with 100 men on December 15 entered
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Fort Scott, killed United States Marshal Dr. J. H. Little and released Rice.
These fresh outbreaks in Kansas awakened anew the fears of the slaveholders in Vernon county. This was especially so in the northwestern part of the county. John La Rue had lived half a mile north of the Osage. on Duncan's creek, had five. slaves; David Cruise lived a little way south of the Osage and owned two slaves, and five slaves belonging to the estate of James Lawrence were in charge of his son-in-law, Harvey G. Hicklin, who lived little less than a mile north of La Rue's place ; and none of them were more than three miles from the state line. Fearing a raid from Brown or Montgomery and the loss of the slaves in his charge, Mr. Ilicklin arranged with Peter Duncan, who was administrator of the Lawrence estate, to take and trans- fer all the slaves on the plantation to Jackson and Lafayette counties and hire them out till the troubles in Kansas subsided. This arrangement was to take effect January 1, 1859, and was well understood by the slaves themselves. One of them, a good- natured, fun-loving fellow named Jim, who was somewhat crafty and a notorious liar, not fancying being taken back to the hemp- breaks of Jackson county, conceived the idea of thwarting the plan. Accordingly he rode over to Fort Bain on Sunday, De- cember 19, and regaled Brown and his men with a skillfully con- cocted story of cruelty and wrongs suffered by himself and his wife and two children, and alleging that it was intended to take all the slaves in the neighborhood to Texas in a few days and sell them, and imploring Brown to come right away and free them. Jim's fanciful tale readily appealed to Brown and his men and he went away happy in the assurance that relief would be forthcoming, accounting for his absence to Mr. Hicklin by saying he had visited the Osage Indian camp in Kansas, but warning his wife and fellow slave, Sam, to get ready for the day of jubilee that was at hand.
On the night following this a band of twelve to fifteen men led by Brown, and another company of eight or nine, under the leadership of Kagi, the two parties aggregating twenty to twen- ty-four men, well mounted and armed, left Fort Bain, Brown and his band heading for the Lawrence farm and La Rue's and Kagi with his men for David Cruise's. It should be said to Montgom- ery's credit that when invited to join the expedition he refused
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to invade Missouri soil for any such purpose. The doings of Brown and his men after reaching Hicklin's house on the Law- rence place, where they arrived about midnight, are detailed in a statement prepared by Mr. Hicklin himself, dated at Hume. Bates county, Missouri, August 9, 1886.
"On the night of December 20, 1858, about 11 or 12 o'clock, I was awakened by the cry: 'Hello! D-n you, get up and make a light!' I jumped out of bed, and as the moon was shin- ing bright, I saw the yard was full of armed men. At that time I had $52 in gold and silver in my pocketbook, which was in a small table drawer in the southwest corner of the room. My bed was in the southeast corner. Believing the men I saw were robbers, I rushed to the fireboard in the north end of the room, got the key of the table drawer, got out my pocketbook and again put the key back on the fireboard. The men were now battering in the east door of the room. Our two small chil- dren were sleeping in an old-fashioned trundle bed in the middle of the room. I raised the feather tick of the trundle bed and slipped the pocketbook with the money into the straw tick under the children. All this was done in double-quick time, and just as I stepped away from the bed the east door flew open. I had not put on my pantaloons nor had I struck a light, but there was some light from the old-fashioned fireplace.
"The men entered the room, covered me with their Sharp's rifles and ordered me to surrender. I replied, 'I am unarmed and will have to surrender; but if I was armed maybe it would be different.' They answered 'maybe not,' or something of the sort. Instantly one of their number that I recognized as James Steele, who lived near the head of the Little Osage, went to the fireboard, got the key of the drawer where I had kept my money, went to the table and unlocked it, presuming, as I suppose, that my money was still there. I think he saw me through the win- dow get the key and go to the table, and I suppose he thought I was putting the money in instead of taking it out of the drawer. But there was a larger book in the drawer, in which I kept my papers. This he took out and they went through it, but not finding anything of value to them they threw it down. They then went through all four rooms of the house. They took all the beds and bed clothing off of the bedsteads, made my wife get out of her bed, and examined even the straw ticks very
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STEMMONS
NEVADA CITY VIEWS.
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carefully in their search for money. I was afraid they would search the children's bed next, but they did not disturb it at all. Then one of them said, 'Where is your money? We know you have it somewhere. Only a few days ago you sold eighty acres of land to William Gates and you got the money for it. Now, where is it?' I replied that I had loaned the money to William B. Fail and James Bartlett that very day; but they would not believe me until I showed them the note, then they said, 'D-n the luck.'
"By this time John Brown himself came into the room. He said to me, 'Well, you seem to be in a pretty tight place. But you shan't be hurt if you behave yourself,' etc. He said he knew I was only a tenant there, but he was going to take off all of the negroes and free them, and he was also going to take provisions for them and property enough to bear their expenses to freedom. . He talked with me rather pleasantly for thirty minutes or more. He said he was doing the Lord's will and was not ashamed, etc. At last a man came to the door and said, 'Captain, the wagons are loaded and all is ready.' Then Brown rose and left, as did all of his men but two, who were left as guards over me with orders to stay with me for two hours, and to shoot me if I attempted to escape during that time. Brown and his men left my house just at 2 o'clock in the morning. The guards stayed only about an hour, when they seemed to get frightened and left, too.
"As soon as the guard left I slipped out the back way and ran about three-quarters of a mile up to the house of Peter Dun- can; it was half past 3 in the morning when I got there. I called up Mr. Duncan and told him what had happened. We went down to John La Rue's and found the old gentleman, Isaac La Rue, sitting by the fire. John Brown and his party had been there and had done about as they did at my house; they had also taken John La Rue and Dr. A. Ervin prisoners and taken them off with them. They had not been gone long, as we could still hear the rattle of the caravan on the way to 'poor, bleeding Kansas.' It was not yet daylight when we got to La Rue's.
"Brown and his party took from me or from my possession five negroes, James and his wife Narcissa, and their two chil- dren, and another young negro man named Samuel; also, two horses and harness, one yoke of oxen, and some other articles
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belonging to the estate of my father-in-law, James Lawrence, deceased; also some provisions, pork, lard, tallow, etc., and a saddle, shot gun, overcoat, pair of boots, two or three bed blan- kets, and some other articles which I cannot now remember, be- longing to myself individually.
"They took from the old man Isaac La Rue five negroes, in- cluding two men named George and David; also six head of good horses, one wagon, 800 pounds of pork, a lot of bedding, clothing, and many other articles.
"Nothing that was taken away was ever recovered. I learn that it was stated by John Brown that he made his men return all the property they had taken from me; this is not true. They did not give anything back. Brown said to me that we might get our property back if we could; that he defied us and the whole United States to follow him. He and his men seemed anxious to take more from me than they did take, for they ran- sacked my house in search of money, which I suppose they would have taken if they had found it.
"About two weeks afterward five more men from Bain's fort, who. I suppose, were with Brown on the first raid, came back to my house one night and took from me four head of horses, one of which I valued at $300, and two good horses from Mr. Martin and one from George Hanway, two men who were old acquaintances of mine and were stopping with me that night. They lived in Kansas, but had got scared and left their homes for a time. Both of them were strong free state men then. This raid strapped me completely of horses, and I believe Martin and Hanaway, too.
"I am a southern man, and always have been, but I make this statement without prejudice against any one. What I have stated is the truth, as I verily believe, and I am willing to swear to it. I do not hold any particular malice or prejudice on ac- count of these old transactions. Old things have passed away, but the truth can never pass away. H. G. HICKLIN."
The smaller band of "liberators" under Kagi, guided by a former Missourian, known as Bill Beckford, a desperado, and a personal enemy of Cruise, passed quietly down the Osage valley in the shadow of the big mounds, and without attracting atten- tion, reached the home of David Cruise.
Mr. Cruise, who was a native of Oldham county, Kentucky,
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was born in 1798, had fought in the Black Hawk War, and had settled here soon after that struggle. He was a large land owner and besides had his farm well stocked with horses. mules and cattle, and owned other personal property, and was a highly esteemed citizen. As before mentioned, he was the first bride- groom in Vernon county, but was now living with his second wife. Of his two sons, the elder, Ralph, was a young man, and was absent from home at this time, and the younger was a mere lad. His two slaves were a man named George and a middle- aged woman.
As a precaution against attacks which be feared, Mr. Cruise had provided himself with a revolver which he kept in the house. The son Ralph, who sometimes carried this weapon, had fastened to the butt a ribbon by which to suspend it.
On reaching the house and finding the door fastened, the marauders threatened to break it down if not opened at once. Mr. Cruise was in bed. Hastily getting up, he got his revolver and tried to shoot through the door, but the ribbon became en- tangled about the hammer and cylinder and prevented a dis- charge, and he threw it on the bed. At this moment the door was broken open, and rushing in, one of the assailants, said to have been Beckford, shot the old man, who fell across the heartlı- stone mortally wounded and died in a few minutes. Not satis- fied, the marauders, with oaths and threats, began pillaging the premises, compelling Mrs. Cruise in her night clothes to help them in their search for plunder. In the confusion and terrified by the horrible proceeding, Rufus, the young boy, escaped from the house, and almost naked and barefooted, ran three miles over the frozen ground to the home of a relative named Mitchell and gave the alarm. The slave man George, in terror, took to flight and made his escape, which the negro woman was unable to do, being far advanced in pregnancy, her child being born a few days later.
Failing to find any money, the freebooters took the slave woman, two horses, eleven mules, two yokes of oxen and a wagon loaded with provisions and plunder secured about the place. Then going to Hugh Martin's place, a half mile east of Cruise's, they took a valuable mule, and only lack of time · pre- vented further depredations before their return to Bain's fort,
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where they and Brown's party had great rejoicing in gloating over the success of the expedition.
In the light of facts as thus briefly related respecting these outrages against law and decency and human rights, what can be said in mitigation or palliation? From no standpoint can they be justified. The negroes, in whose interests the raids were alleged to have been made, were not dissatisfied or dis- contented with their lot, save perhaps the rascal Jim. Their masters all were kind-hearted, considerate men, and had they wanted to be free, they had abundant opportunities for escape from bondage, and one of them, Mr. Cruise's man, George, even fled from his would-be liberators. All of these men, La Rue, Cruise, Hieklin and Martin, were law-abiding, peaceable citizens, universally respected and esteemed throughout the community for their uprightness of character, and among their friends were many free state as well as pro-slavery men.
La Rue and Mr. Cruise were men advanced in years, capable of offering little resistance against such unequal odds, and if. David Cruise had it in his heart to defend his own home against the unlawful attack of a band of ruffians, he was certainly jus- tified, and had he succeeded in his purpose, he would have been exonerated in the eyes of the law and all law-loving people everywhere.
If one views these gross outrages in the most charitable light possible and excuses the perpetrators on the ground that their alleged purpose of liberating the slaves was in itself praise- worthy, yet why was it necessary to murder, pillage and plun- der? To drive away cattle, horses and mules and carry off wagonloads of provisions, clothing and everything in the line of goods and chattels they could find or lay their hands on ? Do not the facts themselves controvert any assumption that the raid was made for any laudable purpose and disclose that plun- der and profit to the plunderers was the main purpose of the invasion ?
The affair was generally condemned by the free state people in Kansas and even Montgomery, whose righteous indignation was stirred when charged with having had a part in it (a charge of which he readily cleared himself) in the bitterest terms de- nounced and condemned the whole proceeding.
Leaving Fort Bain, some of the raiders went to their homes,
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carrying their plunder with them. Brown with seven men and the slaves went to the southeastern part of Franklin county, where the negroes were sheltered in cabins on Pottawattomie creek some four miles from the village of Lane, Brown and Kagi living. in another cabin in that quarter.
The following letter, known as "John Brown's Parallels," and purporting to have been written at Trading Post, but which he actually wrote from this cabin, was published in the New York "Tribune" and in the Lawrence "Tribune," as showing Brown's view of the situation :
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