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. II > Part 11
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C. H. Miles, a man of large and successful experience in edu- cational work, was elected president, and on September 5, 1892, at the M. E. Church in Moundville, Cooper College was organized with an enrollment of fifteen students. The college building was completed during the year, and school opened in the new building September 4, 1893, with an enrollment of twenty-six students in attendance, which number during the session in- creased to forty-one. During the school year 1894-95 the en- rollment reached ninety-two, and for eighteen years the school continued to prosper, maintaining an attendance of nearly one hundred students.
During these years Mr. Miles, the president, had become owner of the property, and in 1909 poor health compelled him to give up the work and the ownership passed to other hands. The new management being unable to find a party willing to undertake the task of keeping up the school for the revenue in sight, sold the property to the Moundville village school district May, 1911.
BRONAUGH.
The village of Bronaugh, which comprises the northwest quarter of section 20, the south half of the southwest quarter and the southwest quarter of the southeast quarter of section 17, was laid out in the spring of 1886 on the building of the Nevada & Minden railroad, now the Joplin branch of the Mis- souri Pacific railroad, by the Bronaugh Town Company. It was named for W. C. Bronaugh, the owner of the land where it was built, a resident of Henry county.
The village was incorporated as a city of the fourth class in 1897. Its population in 1911 is 450. With its location and the extremely rich soil of the country surrounding, which is underlaid with heavy veins of coal, combined with the enter- prise of the people living in and adjoining Bronaugh, it is des-
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tined to become one of the leading towns, if not second in im- portance, in Vernon county.
The city school of ten grades has an enrollment of 100 schol- ars. H. A. Wise is the principal and is assisted by Miss Sicily Linthicum.
Churches. The Baptist was organized in 1895, the Christian organized in 1885, and the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.
Bronaugh has two good banks. The private bank of C. Bru- baker was organized in 1887, capital and surplus $15,000.00, and the People's State Bank organized in 1906, with a capital of $10,000.00. B. F. McReynolds, president, and Mary McReynolds, cashier. J. J. Dooris, hardware and implements ; general stores, Baker & Loud and F. L. Holland; groceries, J. L. Skaggs ; grain dealers, Lipscombe Grain & Seed Co., Charles Thompson and L. Funk ; poultry and produce, C. J. Altizer ; livery stable, Morris Fellers: A. B. Stearns buys and ships stock ; H. L. Brannon and G. E. Maxwell, blacksmiths ; A. T. Newman, photographer ; Mrs. Mollie Morran, Bronaugh Hotel; Dr. S. C. Huggins and Dr. F. C. Albright represent the medical fraternity ; lumber and build- ing material, N. Satterlee & Co .; furniture and undertaking, C. J. Jones; W. W. Zener is the druggist; notion and racket store, K. A. Berry; millinery, Miss Levta Irwin; one feed mill, C. A. Campbell, proprietor; two barber shops, George Berry and R. L. MeGruder.
The Bronaugh "Journal" is a live newspaper, which shows careful and painstaking labor for the benefit of Bronaugh and vicinity. W. W. Dorris is the editor. J. L. Skaggs and G. Funk are the real estate men. The contractors and builders are Rube Havens, John Linthicum, Arthur Stevens, T. D. Gilmore and C. R. Sheer.
Bronaugh has a home mutual telephone company, a local cor- poration, with 275 subscribers. Miss Linnie Starr is the post- mistress.
SOCIETIES.
The secret and fraternal orders are represented by the A. F. and A. M. Vernon Lodge, No. 493; T. O. O. F., No. 660; Modern Woodmen of America, Knights and Ladies of Security. Eastern Star, Rebeccas and Royal Neighbors.
The members of the Moundville Township Board are: Trus-
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tees, V. Ashbaugh, C. W. Morrison and J. S. Woods; clerk, Edward Cramer; collector, R. L. Irwin; Justices, J. L. Skaggs and - Rich. G. C. Wilcox is president of the Village Board ; Fred McReynolds, clerk.
Bronaugh Christian Church. This church was organized in June, 1904, with nineteen members. At first there were no elders. The deacons were J. C. Lucas and J. V. Shault. Myrtle Doores was secretary. In 1910 a house was built and dedicated August 21, 1910, by J. R. Crank. The ministers that have served the church are: W. G. Hearne, J. R. Crank and J. Dejarnette. The church is enjoying a steady growth and the membership is now about eighty.
Moundville Christian Church. The Moundville Christian Church was organized April 12, 1883, with sixteen members, of which seven were men and nine were women. The first board of officers was as follows: Elders, E. T. Dennly and W. S. Creel; deacons, H. W. Narvoss and R. M. Coulter. The first house of worship was built in 1884, with a dedication service conducted by M. M. Davis. The building cost $2,382. The church is in a prosperous condition.
OSAGE TOWNSHIP.
Osage township is composed of congressional township 37, range 31, and the two southern tiers of sections of township 38, range 31. The greater part of the surface of the township is prairie, but the existence of the two streams, the Little Osage and the Marmaton, causes a considerable area of timbered land, which is found exclusively along their banks. The Osage enters the township a little more than three miles from the southern boundary and flowing in a general direction to the northwest leaves the township two miles from the northern boundary line. The Marmaton comes in from the southwest and empties into the Osage near the southwest corner of section 11.
The land along the streams and in the peninsula between the Osage and the Marmaton is marshy and subject to overflow, but the remainder is fine and fertile. The northern portion of the township is underlaid with coal, the stratum in some instances being several feet in thickness. The immense valuable mines at Carbon Center, in the extreme northern part, are noticed else- where.
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EARLY HISTORY.
Osage is an historic township. It is the site of many scenes and incidents, some of which are of more than local interest. Here on the Osage, just below the mouth of the Marmaton, is that famous promontory known as the "Timbered Hill," a con- spicuous object for miles, massive and solemn and crowned with timber and verdure. Here, too, are the locations of the old Osage villages, where at one time the "braves" of that brave nation dwelt and from whence they sallied forth to do battle against their enemies or to secure the spoils of the chase. Many a time in the long ago has the valley of the Osage in this quarter re- sounded with the shrill cries of the war dance, the shouts of victory and the wailings of defeat. Here, too, came and rested the French voyageurs and Couriers du Bois, the Spanish traders and the gallant American explorers of Pike and Wilkinson. Here, too, is "Balltown," the first village in the county, once the county seat and a town of more importance than Nevada.
William Modrel was the first American settler in this town- ship. In the spring of 1832 he left Harmony Mission and came to his claim, on section 17, a mile east of Balltown, where he lived nine or ten years and then moved to Balltown, buying the land of Milton Morris, the first settler on the site. Morris made his claim and built his cabin in 1838. According to the testimony of Martin L. Modrel, his son, when William Modrel came to this township there were but three families living in what is now Vernon county, viz. : those of Moses, Jesse and Allen Summers, who were living three miles or more to the westward, the first two named on the north side of the Osage and the last named on the south side.
A Frenchman named Augustine De Ville, a blacksmith, who had lived at Papinsville, made a settlement on the south side of the Marmaton, a little south of the Timbered Hill, in 1835 or 1836. He set out an orchard on his place, which bore for fifty years.
In August, 1838, there landed at Ball's Mill and soon after settled in the vicinity a party of immigrants, composed of Peter Weyand, Isaac Yocum, Mr. Quay, Robert Quay and Henry (or Henri) Letiembre. All were from Ohio but Weyand and Yocum, who were brothers-in-law, and were natives of Perry county,
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Pennsylvania. William Quay located north of the Osage, on sec- tion 7, and his brother Robert on section 8, about two miles east of north of Balltown. Robert S. Quay, Jr., located subsequently. on section 8, east of the railroad, where Levi Welch, Esq., later lived. The older Quays died here within a comparatively short time after settling in the country. William Quay died in 1843 and his wife in 1845. A young man named Henry Wolf came with the Quay brothers.
Letiembre was a Frenchman, but came directly from Warren county, Ohio, to Missouri. He first settled in the county in 1837, opening a farm and cattle ranch at the base of the Brushy Mound (now called the Timbered Hill), on the south side of the Marmaton, near the farm and orchard of Augustine De Ville. In the spring of 1838 he returned to Ohio and purchased a herd of fine stock, with which he returned to Missouri, in company with Weyand, Yocum and the Quays. In 1839 Abraham McKnight located on or near the Letiembre ranch, at "Letiembre's hill." The famous hill was at first called "Brushy Mound," but after M. Letiembre's settlement it was known as Letiembre Hill, or Tiembre Hill, which designation was finally corrupted into the very appropriate title, Timbered Hill, by which name it is now universally known.
One account is that M. Letiembre never actually resided here, but built a house and opened a small farm, which he stocked with cattle and horses, some of which were blooded, and that he placed the whole in charge of Abraham McKnight, who lived here until 1843, when Letiembre sold out. M. Letiembre himself boarded with Peter Collen until the spring of 1840, when he went up to the head of the Tebo, in Henry county, where he married an American lady, and afterwards engaged in merchandising. M. De Ville was a man of education and moral character. He refused to have aught to do with Indian squaws, for either wives or con- cubines, and keeping himself generally aloof from society of any sort, lived and died unmarried on the farm he first settled, near the Timbered Hill. He was a devoted Catholic and lived up fully to his professions.
Abraham McKnight was an employee of the Harmony Mis- sion. Peter Weyand was born November 29, 1798, and died Jan- uary 7, 1846. He was married July 12, 1821, to Rebecca Yocum,
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who was born in Philadelphia, November 21, 1801, and died here April 3, 1860.
In the year 1836 Daniel H. Austin, one of the missionaries at the Harmony Mission, removed to this county with his family, one of whose members was his son, Josiah, and settled half a mile east of Balltown. He built the first mill in Vernon county. It was a water mill, and Austin afterwards sold it to Cecil D. Ball, the founder of Balltown, who came in the year 1837 and re- constructed it.
In the fall of the year 1838 there were living in the vicinity of Balltown, within three miles, in Osage and Metz townships, the following heads of families: William Modrel, Daniel H. Austin, C. D. Ball, Rev. N. B. Dodge, Dr. Leonard Dodge, Edward Dodge, Mrs. Elvira Dodge, widow of N. B. Dodge, Jr .; Milton Morris, Moses Summers, Jesse Summers, Allen Summers, Hardin Wright, Joshua Ewell, David Cruise, William Summers, Nelson McDer- mitt, William Pryor, Jonathan Pryor, Ezekiel Rhea, Daniel Smith and Ira Summers.
In 1839 Col. Anselm Halley came from Lynchburg, Va., to St. Louis, where he met the Frenchman Letiembre, before mentioned, who prevailed upon him to come to Vernon county. He settled just below the Timbered Hill, on the bluffs which yet bear his name.
Albert F. Nelson settled on a tract of land, one mile north of Balltown, in section 7, in the year 1842. His wife, Mrs. Susan P. Nelson, and his three children, Oscar M., Hardin and Julia, were with him. Mr. Nelson came originally from Stokes county, North Carolina, which he represented one term in the State Leg- islature, and he afterward served two terms as county judge of Bates county. He died January 29, 1852. His son, O. M. Nelson, was sheriff of Vernon county after the Civil War.
Judge Overton I. Davis, who died on section 7, a mile south of Arthur, and Chastine Morris were citizens of this township as early as 1848.
William Modrel, the first American settler in Osage township, was born in Cocke county, Tennessee, near the famous "Kit Bullitt's mill on the Big Pigeon," February 28, 1805. In 1819 he came with Rev. William Horn to Lafayette county, Missouri, where he remained until about the year 1825, when he came to the Harmony Mission. Here, October 5, 1826, he married Philena
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Dodge, a daughter of Rev. Nathaniel B. Dodge, and in 1832 came to Vernon county. He had received some instruction before locating at the Mission, but it was here that he received the prin- ciples of a good education. He afterwards taught the first school in Vernon county in a log building, a mile and a half west of Balltown, south of the Osage, within the present limits of Metz township. The term was of three months' duration and sustained by subscription. Mr. Modrel was a member and for many years a deacon of the Presbyterian Church, and a man universally esteemed. He was connected with nearly all matters of interest tending to the good of the community, and his opinion and ad- vice were often sought for in matters of church and State. Some- time before the war Esq. Modrel removed to Deerfield, where he resided, half a mile west of the present village, during the greater part of the troubles. He died June 22, 1881. His wife died Feb- ruary 3, 1875.
As the first white settlements in Vernon county were made in this quarter, so the first mills, shops and stores were here. In 1839 Capt. William Waldo established a store on the south side of the Marmaton (sec. 33), near what was then and long after- wards known as the Cephas Ford, exactly where is now the bridge across the Marmaton of the Pleasant Hill, Nevada and Joplin branch of the Missouri Pacific Railroad. The previous vear Captain Waldo had put up a considerable mercantile estab- lishment at the Harmony Mission. Daniel and James Johnson had a small store on the Osage, a mile below Balltown, in 1839, and continued in business until 1844.
Until Ball's mill was established the settlers usually resorted to the mill at the Harmony Mission, or to Charette's mill, better known as Park's mill, on the Marais de Cygnes, two miles above the Mission. In time, however, the Bates county settlers came down to Ball's mill, and the people of this township had a mill at home.
During the Civil War there occurred a few incidents of note in Osage township. The burning of the mill and bridge at Ball- town was, perhaps, the most notable event of the war period.
General Ewing's "Order No. 11" extended to the north bank of the Osage ; but when it came there were but few families resid- ing in the upper portion of this township north of the river. Jesse Ewell and Priestly Ray sought the protection of the mili-
1
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tary at Balltown. Hugh Cox, who had settled on the southeast quarter of section 26 (township 38), remained on his farm throughout the war. The first settler to locate in this portion of the township after the war was George Smith, who came from Saline county in 1866, and located a little northwest of Carbon Center (nw. 1/4 sec. 27, tp. 38), on the county line. At that time there were living in this township, on the north side of the river, but three families, those of Ewell, Ray and Cox, above men- tioned.
Sampson Farris, a citizen of this township, was killed near his home by Dick Parmenter in the fall of 1863. The killing was really the result of a personal grudge, although Farris was a rebel and Parmenter a Union man. ' The latter claimed that Farris abused him when he could do so with safety. Farris had been forced to leave the country and move his family eastward. He returned to look after his crop. Near Muddy bridge Par- menter came upon him and shot him down.
CHURCHES.
A class of the Methodist Church was organized in this town- ship before the division of that church. Among the pioneer mem- bers were William Quay and wife and two or three children; Robert Quay and wife, Isaac Yokum and wife, Peter Weyand and wife and their two sons. The first meetings were held at private houses, but about, 1840 a frame building for church and school purposes was erected at Balltown. This building was all made of native lumber, sawed at Ball's mill. It stood some hun- dreds of yards south and east of the village, on the site of the present graveyard.
The Presbyterians held meetings at Balltown as early as the Methodists-if not earlier than they. The Dodges and others from the Harmony Mission were members. Rev. Nathaniel B. Dodge was the first minister; he also preached to a small con- gregation at Deerfield, often swimming his horse across the Marmaton to reach his appointment. After Mr. Dodge's death services were conducted by Elders Bradshaw, Newton, Powelson and others.
A rather noted preacher of carly times was "Uncle Dicky," a good old negro slave of Balltown. Well informed in the Scriptures and zealous in the cause of the Master, and gifted with a rude but
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powerful eloquence, the old bondman converted many persons, white and black. He often preached in the Bates county settle- ments and elsewhere. He was a Presbyterian, but very liberal toward other denominations. It is said that "Uncle Dicky" died in Liberia, whither he had gone as a preacher with a colony of his fellow-negroes sent over by the American Colonization Society.
LITTLE OSAGE-"BALLTOWN."
The village of Little Osage-or "Balltown," as the place was for many years better known-is located on the south bank of the Osage, in the western part of the township (se. sw. sec. 18 and ne. nw. sec. 19, tp. 37), about midway from north to south. Although at one time a place of much importance and well known throughout the country, Balltown has dwindled to insignificance -almost to obliteration. Time and the progress of events have well nigh accomplished its complete destruction. There is at present some business carried on there. Population about 100.
The first settlement on the site of Balltown was made by Daniel H. Austin, a member of the Harmony Mission Company, who in the year 1836 came over from the Mission and began the erection of a water mill on the Osage. It was both a grist and saw mill, but at first the grinding apparatus was adapted only to grinding corn, which was practically the only kind of grain then in the country. The saw mill was of great value to the country. Prior to its establishment the only home-sawed lumber in the neighborhood was whip-sawed. The first frame house in the county was built by Edward Dodge, out of lumber sawed at this mill. Austin's mill was a well known institution to the first settlers of Vernon and Bates counties. Mr. Austin died at Ball- town in 1852.
But the real founder of Balltown .was Cecil D. Ball, a nephew of Rev. Nathaniel Dodge, who in the year 1837 came to the county first on a visit to his relatives. After a stay of a few months he went to St. Louis and was employed by a number of wholesale merchants as a traveling collector. He returned to Austin's Mill in 1839 and decided to engage in business and permanently locate at that point. He first purchased and then repaired and reconstructed Mr. Austin's mill and set it to sawing lumber with which to build a new mill. This was soon ac- complished and without delay the old mill was supplemented by
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a new establishment, in complete repair, well built, and with a capacity apparently quite beyond the necessities of the country at that day. But the judgment and foresight of the enterprising owner were soon made manifest. The mill was crowded with cus- tomers and some years later steam was introduced. The days of corn bread alone were past. The farmers could now raise wheat and have it ground and bolted into good flour, which they had hitherto been unable to do, without a long and toilsome journey to a mill in a distant locality.
Daniel H. Austin had previously been the carpenter and mill- wright at the Harmony Mission and had there built a water-mill on the Marais des Cygnes ; but the volume of water proved to be too large and the current too powerful for the machinery, and in time he abandoned it and built a horse mill.
While Mr. Austin was operating his little mill on the Osage, two men named Barnhardt and Raper opened a little store here. But business was bad and after an experience of some months they left the country. Soon afterward Mr. Ball established a country store, erected a good two-story dwelling, a barn and other buildings and opened a large farm. At first Mr. Ball kept his goods in his dwelling house and in the room which Barnhardt & Raper had occupied, but his business increased so rapidly and so extensively that it was not long before he was compelled to build a large and commodious building expressly for a store- house.
The locality was at first called Austin's Mills; then Ball's Mills ; then Balltown. But in 1851 Mr. Ball entered the land and laid out a town which he called Little Osage. In about 1842 the postoffice was established here and called Little Osage, having previously, about 1840, been located at the residence of Dr. Leonard Dodge, who was the first postmaster. This was the first postoffice in Vernon county.
Cecil D. Ball was a prominent and most useful citizen of the county. His business enterprise was of advantage to the com- munity, for it was imitated by others and led to the progress and development of the country to no small degree. Mr. Ball died November 24, 1860.
Milton Morris, an employee at the Harmony Mission and a son-in-law of Rev. Nathaniel Dodge, located at Balltown perhaps in 1838, possibly earlier. He settled upon and improved a tract
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of land on a part of which the village was afterward built. Mor ris sold his claim in about 1840 to his brother-in-law, Esq. William Modrel.
Col. R. W. McNeil located at Balltown in 1852, coming from Ohio to Bates county in 1843, where he farmed for nine years. He engaged in business at once, opening a large general store, and soon acquiring an extensive trade.
In the year 1850 Col. R. A. Boughan came to Little Osage from Bates county, and afterward entered into partnership with Col. McNeil in merchandising and also in the ownership of the saw and grist mill. Josiah Austin was a resident of the place at that time, and the other citizens were "Governor" Ball, Colonel McNeil, Colonel Boughan, and a few mechanics, millers, etc. "Governor" Ball was postmaster.
Messrs. Boughan and McNeil continued the extensive trade already built up by Colonel McNeil. Some of the customers of their mill and store came from sixty miles away. The Indians were at different periods among their best customers. They often came in companies of fifty and encamped in the vicinity for several days, trading and bartering. Their visits were generally of more importance soon after receiving their annuities. All came, of course, from their then reservation in Kansas. The greatest number of these Indians were Osages, but the Delawares, Pottawattamies, Sacs and Foxes and Senecas were represented. Their chief articles of "country produce" were buffalo hides, tallow and skins and furs of various sorts.
To accommodate their Indian customers McNeil and Boughan employed as one of their salesmen and as interpreter Newell Dodge, who spoke the Osage and its kindred dialects very fluently. The Osages called Colonel McNeil "Pah-hin-skosh-in- cah," signifying, it is said, "Little-Horse-with-White-Mane-and- Tail." They also termed him "Good-Heart," or "Big Heart," because he frequently invited the braves and chiefs to dinner and uniformly treated them with kindness and liberality.
His name of "Little Horse," etc., was given him by an Indian who bore it himself and gave it away to his white "brother," thus placing the Colonel under obligations to the shrewd savage ever after. It cost the Colonel many a square meal and many a "present," for he could not well refuse anything to his copper- hued brother who had bestowed one of his names upon him.
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In 1851 the first Masonic lodge in the county was organized at Balltown. The first cemetery was the graveyard here, and the first interment, of an adult at least, was that of Samuel Newell Dodge, in March, 1838. Mr. Dodge died from a wound received in the Indian fight on the Marais des Cygnes.
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