History of Vernon County, Missouri : past and present, including an account of the cities, towns and villages of the county Vol. I, Part 31

Author: Johnson, J. B
Publication date: 1911
Publisher: Chicago : C.F. Cooper
Number of Pages: 596


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 31


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Cecil D. Ball came from Vermont in 1833 and remained a year, then moved to St. Louis, and in the year 1837 he returned and built a grist and saw mill, and laid out Balltown, acquiring a fortune by energy and industry and trading with the Indians.


Peter Collin, French, the name is pronounced Collen. I have been unable to learn what year Mr. Collin came to Vernon, but he settled at quite an early day on the Osage at the ford that now bears his name that has been pronounced erroneously, Collin when it should have been Collen, as the letter "i" has the sound of "e" in the French language. In the year 1839 he moved over the Osage and occupied the house built by M. Giraud, who was his brother- in-law and is spoken of as the French trader in previous issue of the Ledger. Mr. Collin lived there until he died in the year 1875.


Henri Devills, French, was also one of the first settlers of Vernon, and set out an orchard a little below Timbered Hill, on the south side of the Marmaton, which was still bearing a few years ago. The precise date I have been unable to ascertain, but have no doubt he and Peter Collin came to Vernon about or very soon after Squire Modrel came to Balltown.


Abraham Redfield came to Vernon and settled on the farm owned some years ago by his son, David Redfield, near Deerfield. from the Union Mission, on Grand River, Arkansas, where he served as a missionary for 18 years, going there in 1820, from the state of New York, coming to Vernon in the year 1838. He was a man of great influence and decision of character with consider- able literary attainments, and took a conspicuous part in all move-


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ments whose object was the public good. He was highly es- teemed and respected by all who knew him. In August, 1862, he was elected to the legislature to represent Vernon county, as a conservative union man, but his death, December 16, 1862, prevented him from participating in its deliberations.


Henry Letiembre, a Frenchman, came to Vernon in 1837 and opened a farm and cattle ranch at the foot of Timbered Hill, on the south side of the Marmaton.


Daniel H. Austin, one of the missionaries at the Harmony Mis- sion, moved to Vernon with his family, among whom were his son, Josiah Austin, in the year 1835, and built the first mill that ever was erected in Vernon county. It was a water mill which he after- wards sold to Cecil D. Ball and settled on the farm now known as the McNeil place, one-half mile east of Balltown.


Abraham McKnight came to the Harmony mission in 1828 or 1829 and moved to Vernon county probably in the year 1839, settling on or near the Letiembre place at the foot of Timbered Hill. He was a few years since in Nevada hale, hearty, vigorous and active for a man of his age.


Before I continue the individual history of Vernon county, I must make correction of some errors committed in the past is- sues of the Ledger, first in regard to the Harmony Mission. It was generally supposed and I was so informed that the mission was established under the auspices of the Presbyterian Board of Missions, when it was really in fact under the Board of Mission of the Congregationalist church.


The Union Mission instead of being located in the state of Arkansas, was located in the present Indian Territory, near Ft. Gibson, was established however, by the Presbyterian Board of Missions.


It was stated that Squire Wm. Modrel first came to the Har- mony Mission, when he first came to the Union Mission, then afterwards to the Harmony Mission, where he married.


In giving the account of the fight between the settlers and the Indians that occurred in 1838, I gave the location as being on the Marmaton river, near the Timbered Hill, when it should have been on the Marais des Cygnes; this would make the location to be some four or five miles north and west of where the city of Rich Hill now stands, and the fight occurred in Bates county in- stead of Vernon, though both counties were then called Bates.


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The word Marais des Cygnes applied to the river of that name is a French word and was doubtless given by the French voyagers and trappers. Its literal signification in the French language is "Swamp of the Swans." Years ago swans frequented the river and ponds in its bottoms.


George Douglass, one of the most prominent settlers of Vernon county, was born in Newcastle, England, though his parents were Scotch people. In 1798, his father emigrated to Virginia when he was very young and soon afterwards came out west and followed boating a number of years before steamboats came in vogue, and in 1820 he brought a number of the missionaries from Cincinnati, Ohio, to the Union Mission at Fort Gibson, in his boat, from which point he was engaged by the American Fur Company to attend their business in the Rocky Mountains and was in their employ some years. He afterwards returned to the Union Mission, where he married Miss Eliza Selden, who was a native of the town of Lyme, Connecticut, and came out to the Mission with her sister. who was the wife of Rev. M. Vail, one of the missionaries of the Union Mission. Mrs. Douglass was a woman of uncommon energy in her younger days and was of a noble disposition that never failed to attract the love and respect of those around her. She passed her old age in quiet and peace amongst the tender care of her children and friends in Round Prairie, Bates county, and departed this life in February, 1877. In 1833 or 1834, Mr. Doug- lass was employed by some government official at Fort Gibson to transport a large sum of money to Fort Leavenworth. It was considered a dangerous undertaking. He took an Indian trail that led from Fort Gibson towards the Harmony Mission, aiming to make his way to Lexington, Lafayette county, Missouri, and then to go by the river up to Fort Leavenworth.


In crossing the Marmaton at the farm he afterwards settled, he became impressed with the beauty of the country around, and its manifold advantages for a stock ranche. On his return he bought what was called a French and Indian claim of a French- man who had an Indian wife, 40 acres, where he removed to with his family in 1834, consisting of his wife and his daughter, Mrs. Maria Cogswell, and a son, Ralph, who died in California. The place was long known as the Douglass place, and was after- wards purchased by Mr. Bosworth.


Mr. Douglass finding game abundant and wild animals too


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numerous and very destructive to young stock he imported a pack of greyhounds from Scotland, and it is said that in one season he secured the scalps of a hundred wolves, and as every scalp was a bona fide legal tender to the state in payment of taxes of one dollar, Mr. Douglass paid his taxes in this manner, giving the hides to his negroes, who realized quite a sum as pocket money for the peltry.


The first school, perhaps, that was taught in Vernon county. was taught in the house of Mr. Alexander Woodruff, on the south side of the Marmaton, just opposite Mr. Douglass' place-after- wards Mr. Douglass built a log cabin in his pasture for a school house, and it was perhaps the first schoolhouse erected in Vernon county, in the year 1838 or 1839. A Miss Pixley, an elderly maiden lady residing near Independence, Mo., taught the school at Mr. Woodruff's and Freeman Barrows taught the school in the log cabin, he afterwards became clerk of Bates county before it was divided into Bates and Vernon.


Soon after the Indian fight near the Timbered Hill, in 1838, Capt. Sumners of the 7th U. S. Dragoons, came with three com- panies and camped on Mr. Douglass' place. Capt. Sumners had been referred to Mr. Douglass for account of the Indian outrage. Capt. Sumner, with the usual freezing hauteur of his class, abused the settlers as a pack afterwards, that he didn't believe there was an Indian anywhere around. Mr. Douglass replied with great warmth to these taunts and intimated that the Captain was not very anxious to tackle with the Indians. Mr. Douglas turning around to A. M. Stratton in his employ, who was an Indian in- terpreter, if he could not show the Captain where the Indians could be found. Mr. Stratton replied in the affirmative, and his services were put into requisition and the result was the Indians were found high up on the Marais des Cygnes, probably within the border of Kansas, in camp, in possession of quite an amount of spoils captured from the settlers, of hogs and cattle.


The Indian party was conducted back to their reservation by the military. It is said that Gen. Albert Sydney Johnson, who fell in the memorable battle of Shilo, then a lieutenant in one of the companies under Capt. Sumner.


Mr. Douglass, by great energy, industry, coupled with business habits acquired a large property in Vernon, and was said to have


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been a good citizen and a kind, obliging neighbor, died April 14, 1864.


Joseph Douglass, a brother of George Douglass, was born in Virginia and settled north and west of the Marmaton some eight miles northwest of Nevada, in 1836, or 1837, on what is known as the old Douglass place. He acquired a handsome estate by prudence and good management, though liberal and generous. It is said of him by some of the old settlers that he seldom ever charged new-comers for small favors; often furnishing them on their first arrival with seed corn, potatoes and other substan- tials, positively refusing any reward or compensation. He mar- ried a Miss Summers, a daughter of one of the oldest settlers of the county, living with her some years, when she died. He after- wards married a Miss Garrison, who survived him. He died June 12, 1882.


Noah Caton came to Vernon from Bourbon county, Kentucky, in 1839, and accumulated considerable property; and it was at his house, four miles north of Nevada, on the old Balltown road, where the first county court was ever held in Vernon county in 1855. He died in March, 1862.


John Son, a veteran of the war of 1812, who served in a com- pany from Kentucky, and did actual service in the battle of New Orleans, settled in 1837 at Belvoir, where he established the first regular ferry over the Osage in this section.


Alexander Woodruff came some time in 1838, and settled on the place occupied first by Waldo, on the south side of the Mar- maton, just opposite the place later occupied by Col. Shively, and it was in his house that the first school was probably first taught in Vernon county.


Freeman Barrows came from Stonington, Connecticut, to Ver- non in the year 1837, and taught school afterwards in a log cabin on the George Douglass place, in the year 1838 or 1839, and was elected circuit court clerk of Bates county at its organization in 1841.


Benjamin Moore came from Ohio in 1838 and settled on Little Drywood, some six miles south of Nevada.


Peter Weyand, father of Judge Enoch Weyand, formerly a resident of this county, and Isaac Yockum, Robert and Wm. Quay, settled near Balltown in the fall of 1838. Weyand, Yockum and the Quays probably all came together.


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Col. Anselm Halley came from Lynchburg, Virginia, to St. Louis, Mo., where he met a Frenchman by the name of Henri Letiembre, who had a cattle ranch at the foot of Timbered Hill. He persuaded Col. Halley to come to Vernon, which he did in 1839, and settled on the bluffs that now bear his name, upon the Osage river. He died May 1865, at Calhoun, Henry county, Mo.


John Walker settled on Kitten Creek, six miles southeast of Schell City, in 1841, and removed to Oregon.


William and Jonathan Pryor and Ezekiel Rhea came to Ver- non in 1835. The Pryors settling on Pryor Creek, and Rhea on the south side of Little Osage.


Simon, Charles and Humphrey Dickison moved from Ohio to Bates county in 1839, and in 1844, moved into what is now Ver- non. Wm. Bartlett moved into the county soon after, and was said to have been one of the most prominent settlers on the Osage, but I have been unable to obtain any particulars.


Wm. Profitt and Smith Profitt settled in 1844, on Moore's branch in the southwest part of the county.


Dr. Albert Badger, came originally from Philadelphia. Be- fore coming to Vernon he traveled around some in Yucatan and Guatemala, visited the ruins of Yucatan, in company with Cather- wood and Stevens, the great travelers, visiting also Merida and other places in that section, settled about ten miles east of Ne- vada in 1844, did years back have a large practice in his pro- fession, as he had the whole of Vernon county to ride over, was elected probate judge after the war. He married the daughter of Col. Anselm Halley. The Doctor told many humerous anec- dotes about early times in Vernon county, one of which I will give to enliven matters. After being out here a while he wrote home to some of his friends to Pennsylvania, describing the prai- ries of Vernon as natural meadows, where a man could supply himself with all the hay he wanted, without money or price, by simply the labor of cutting and stacking. This was then too much for eastern credulity to swallow. Then the query came with the assertions that, that tale of his about the meadows was a little too thin, "for, who in thunder ever cleared the meadows of tim- ber and trees."


Horatio, Alonso and Thomas Packard, three brothers, settled near the old Eaton ford, on Clear Creek, in 1842. Judge James Overstreet settled on Clear Creek the same year.


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Squire Isaac D. Smith, who settled on the Widdow Stepps place, eight miles east of Nevada, in 1844, was born in Lee county, Virginia, March 22, 1800, and emigrated to Williamsburg, Ken- tucky, in 1817, and moved there in 1820, and moved to Osage county, Mo., in 1833, and settled on the site of the present town of Linn, the county seat of Osage county, and died in 1852, raising eleven children, nine of whom raised large families.


Col. R. W. McNeil moved from Ohio in 1843, to Balltown, and opened a general dry goods store there and had a large trade with the Indians, who for years afterwards returned to hunt. He was a great favorite with them who gave him the sobriquet of ki-you, meaning the little horse with white mane, as his hairs were white, also was called Tum-thum, meaning big heart, as the Colonel gen- erally invited the big chiefs and the noted braves often to dinner. When the war of rebellion came up he was quite wealthy, for in addition to his dry goods business he carried on stock raising and also a mill business, but his stock was carried off and his mill and store burnt down by some of the federal troops that had been stationed at Balltown. It is said however, that orders were is- sued by the commanding officers that nothing should be molested, but the troops had not got out of sight until they were on fire.


Nelson McKensie settled, in 1841, near the ford that now bears his name, on the Osage, in the vicinity of Schell City.


Albert F. Nelson moved to this county in 1842, north of the Osage, near Balltown with his wife, Susan P., and three children, Oscar M., Hardin and Julia Anderson, wife of Frank P. Anderson. His son Hardin dying some years ago; and Oscar M. Nelson, who was at one time sheriff of Vernon county. Fonte Nelson was born after his father's arrival in Vernon. Mr. Nelson came from Stokes county, North Carolina-was at one time a member of the North Carolina legislature, and served acceptably as judge of the county court of Bates county two terms, and died in 1852.


The following persons were known to be living in the neigh- borhood of Balltown in the fall of 1838: Edward Dodge, Squire Wm. Modrel, D. H. Austin, Elvina Dodge, widow of Nathaniel B. Dodge, who was killed by the Indians the March previous, Rev. N. B. Dodge, Dr. Leonard Dodge, Moses, Allen and Jesse Sum- mers, Hardin Wright, Joshua Ewell, David Cruise, afterwards killed in 1858, by John Brown and his party of Harper's Ferry notoriety, Wm. Summers, Nelson McDermitt, Wm. Pryor, Jona-


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than Pryor, Ezekiel Rhea, Peter Duncan, Dan Smith and Ira Sum- mers.


The following persons were settled long before the organ- ization of Vernon county, in 1855: Dr. James White, James Bryan, Col. R. A. Boughan, Judge James McKill, Judge J. H. Requa, Milton Lady, Daniel Austin and family, T. H. Austin, Samuel Austin, Mrs. Samantha Duren, wife of Rev. Manan Duren, Mrs. Mary Burton, Mrs. Margaret Davis, James Fergus, Dr. N. M. Harding, father of Joseph Harding of the Thornton Banking Co., John K. Hale, Richard Butler, Dan Brian, Nathan Jarle, Joseph Frazier, August Baker, Daniel Pryor, Peter Welch, Joseph Martin, James Ray, Evans Lipe, Nathaniel Creek, Ben Charles, James Skaggs, John Gammon, Major W. W. Prewitt, Thos. Puckett and others.


The first male children born in the present limits of what is now Vernon county, were Jesse and Hardin Summers, twin sons of Mr. Allen and Elizabeth Summers. The first female child born in Vernon county was Sarah Summers with a twin brother, Hugh Summers, children of Mr. Jess and Charlotte Summers.


Jesse Summers settled on the Osage in 1829. There was not a house between his house and the present site of Carthage, Jas- per county ; the whole intervening distance over sixty miles was an unbroken wilderness of prairie and grass.


The first children born at the Harmony mission were Benjamin and Joseph Sprague, twin sons of Mr. and Mrs. Sprague; and the first it may be said in all this southwest Missouri in the first year of the mission-also in the same year Miss Eliza Jones, daughter of Rev. Amasa Jones, to Mrs. Roxna Jones, Galletson Newton, son of Samuel Newton; Miss Elizabeth Austin, daughter of Dan H. Austin and Mrs. Lydia Austin and William Bright, of Samuel B. Bright.


First marriage in the present limits of Vernon county was that of Mr. David Cruise and Miss Fannie Summers, daughter of Mo- ses Summers. The first marriage in Vernon county after its or- ganization. was that of Henry Gipson to Miss Latise Overstreet, April 5th, 1855.


Hugh Caton and Win. Caton. sons of Noah Caton, came to Vernon county from Carroll county, Mo., in the spring of 1838, bringing with them six yoke of oxen with which they broke prai- rie on the old Ellis farm five miles north of Nevada, on the old


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Balltown road. Hugh Caton remaining till in the year 1850, when he moved four miles south of Nevada, on the old Lamar road, and William moved, perhaps about the same time, to the old Hale place, later Scott's, northwest of Nevada-and in 1866 he removed to Lodge branch, near Belvoir; from there in March, 1883, he moved to the neighborhood of Moundville, and died the June fol- lowing, leaving a large family to mourn their loss. In the fall of 1838, Mr. Caton was hunting some stray stock over Old Town branch, east of the place he then resided on, his hound accompa- nying him. When passing by a small, closely-set thicket, the hound gave a yelp, dashed all of a sudden into the thicket and commenced baying and growling in a very energetic manner, that indicated something close at hand-too, Mr. Caton heard some wild animal responding in angry spitting growls, looked around for some missiles to use in case of necessity, but could find noth- ing but a small round pebble lying in the path. Soon a bristling huge catamount made his appearance, bristle and tail up, out of the brush, as if he would give Mr. Caton battle just as soon as not, when Mr. Caton threw the pebble with all his force and hit the catamount square in the forehead, and contrary to Mr. Caton's expectation, the animal fell dead in his tracks from the effects of the blow.


Anther incident of quite a different character happened in the same fall of the same year, that Mr. Caton sometimes told with relish, of the first wedding he ever attended in Vernon county, somewhere on classic Clear Creek, with Judge Enoch Weyand, who performed the marriage ceremony. The Judge, desiring com- pany, persuaded Mr. Caton to accompany him, which he did. They arrived on the premises late in the afternoon, and soon after their arrival a bevy of rosy-cheeked damsels made their appearance on the scene-not decked in bright-colored stockings and laced bootees, nor weighed down with flounces, furbelows, overskirts and all the usual paraphernalia of modern millinery, but clad in home-spun cotton dresses, and in their bare feet as nature had furnished them-and the bride, some of our fashionable fair friends might wish to inquire, was not decked with modern super- fluities of millinery by any means, nor did she sport any silk stockings nor satin slippers, but wore a plain pair of brogans with a pair of home-knit cotton stockings, perhaps knit with her own hands, and was dressed with a home-spun cotton dress, and in-


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stead of costly lace and delicate fichu, or snow-white bridal veil, had a small collar of the same hue and material to match the dress with a slight attempt at decoration in having this collar worked into modest fringes. The bride was then, it was said, to have been the belle of Clear Creek, and Mr. Caton affirmed that the bride was a beautiful looking woman nevertheless, and notwith- standing the simplicity of her attire. Doubtless had she been decked with all the superfluous extravagances of fashionable mil- linery of to-day, and had in prospective a few cool thousands of old Tom Benton's mint drops, would have drawn many rhapso- dies from the reportial budget, and very elaborate descriptions of bridal toilet and trousseau as well as fine frenzy, rolling fancy sketches of her many charms and highly-colored touches of the trivial incidents of the happy event.


Perhaps some of our fashionable ladies might deem it a matter of impossibility for a bride to appear even passably good looking, under such circumstances, but they must remember that beauty unadorned, is beauty still, and that the flowers of final loveliness like the flowers of earth are found in every nook and corner of God's green earth, and the modest flowret peeping out of its mos- sy surroundings in the shady nook, possessed no less the deli- cate lines of grace and beauty, than its sisters nursling bloom- ing in the gay conservatory. Having paid our devoirs to the fair bride, justice demands that we should pay our respects to the groom; a fine manly looking fellow, the very picture of strength and health, dressed in home-spun cotton pants, with a shirt of the same hue, and material to match the pants, with a pair of broad suspenders to match both shirt and pants, and as the saying goes of a fellow dying with his boots on, for our hero was duly married, according to law, gospel and the statutes of Missouri, without boots or shoes or even socks on, for his feet were bare as the floor he stood on. Imagine it you will, some of our fine society young gents of today, going through the trying ordeal, in that style, with their pedal exteremities, innocent of kips, patent leather and morocco. Perhaps some with extra pluck might face the music heroically, but we opine that not a few with faint hearts might foreswear love, sweet allegiance and ere the eventful moment should arrive, should decide on a square run for the nearest bush, or board a late night train, in disguise, for other climes the night before.


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Now, for the feast-ah yes-though our friend Shatt's culi- nary and skill and artistic confectionery were not called into requisiton, nevertheless, there were elements of good cheer at that wedding feast, that the veriest epicure could not fail to ap- preciate, particularly if he had the sauce of hunger to whet his appetite. Well, not to put the imagination of the reader to too great a tension, we must to our task be brief. The bill of fare was fried fresh venison, roasted wild turkey, sweetest of wild honey, sweet potatoes and corn dodger bread, baked in an old- fashioned skillet by a rousing fire in the wide chimney fireplace.


During the evening our friend, Caton, became the cynosure of all the goodly company present, not from any peculiarity or ugli- ness of features, but simply because he had just returned a few days before from Boonville, on the Missouri river, and whilst there, had procured a new suit of clothes and a nice pair of shoes, more in accordance with the ideal of civilization further east, and was the recipient of many thrusts of mother wit from the young- est present, about his fine clothes. He was considered by the boys to belong to the dude family and was spoken of as the chap crushed with store fixens.


The married pair thus ushered on the matrimonial sea. Under such circumstances might be objects of commiseration on the part of some, and of ridicule to others, but verily who knows but their lives may have been blessed with more genuine satisfaction, com- fort and heart-stirring pleasures, as would have been attended by all the eclat and splendor of marriage occasions, under the most fashionable auspices of high life today. Their affection may have been the pure unadulterated sort, leaving no sting of jeal- ousy, no festering canker, from the barbed arrows of wounded pride, or withering blight of cruel neglect, nor the deadening pull satiety that withers and blackens the rosy garlands, as well as the sweet expectancy, smiling on the threshold of matrimonial life, but that love budding into life under such modest beginnings may become deeper, purer, holier in zest with each succeeding year.




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