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 7
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The Kansas City Southern railroad was built across the county in 1890, and it extends across the township north and south, giving the people a direct shipping route to Kansas City and points in the South. Swart is the name of the town found on the railroad in Harrison township.
HENRY TOWNSHIP.
Henry township is composed of congressional township 37, range 33, and the two lower rows of sections in township 38-33. It is the northwestern corner township of Vernon county, bounded on the north by Bates county and west by the state of Kansas. The greater portion of the township is fine, fertile prairie. Along the Little Osage, which runs through the south central portion of the township, from west to east, and on Duncan's creek, which flows from the north, through the northwestern portions of the township, into the Osage, are some tracts of fairly good timber.
The mounds in some portions of the township are conspicuous objects and are full of good stone. In the northern part not only stone, but coal, is exposed at the surface in some depressions. There is a great abundance of water, easily obtained.
The farming lands-those on the prairies, both north and south of the Osage-are simply magnificent and produce bountifully. In the growing seasons the prospect is a delightful one. The crops grow luxuriantly and there lies spread out before the be- holder a scene of green fields, pleasant pastures, undulating vales and rising mounds, interspersed here and there with tasteful residences, schoolhouses and churches, with all the other con- comitants of a community of peace and plenty.
Oil and gas are no doubt to be found in abundant quantities, as J. M. Thurley in section 34, township 37, range 33, Henry township, Vernon county, struck gas at 170 feet and has piped his house and has been burning gas for fuel and lighting for the past two years. This well when first struck had a thirty-five- pound rock pressure, and this has been increased to a forty-six-
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HISTORY OF VERNON COUNTY
pound rock pressure. This is the first gas well to be utilized in Vernon county.
EARLY SETTLERS.
Peter Duncan was probably the first settler in what is now Henry township. In the year 1839 he located nearly two miles north of the Osage, on the east side of the creek which bears his name (southeast quarter section 5), where was afterward Duncan Creek postoffice. Here he resided for many years, at last selling the land to James Lawrence. During the Civil War he was a Confederate soldier, and at the battle of Prairie Grove, Ark., was badly wounded by a saber stroke; from the effects of this wound he never entirely recovered.
William Bartlett came from White county, Tennessee, in the spring of 1842 to the central part of section 15; N. R. Marchbanks came from Overton county, Tennesse, to the same section May 9, 1841. Mr. Bartlett died in 1864. Mr. Marchbanks died in Lawrence county, Missouri, in 1872, aged sixty-eight years.
William Barnes came from Jackson county in about 1839 and settled on Duncan's creek, in section 8, south of Peter Duncan's claim. Barnes was the contractor that constructed the United States military road from Fort Leavenworth to Fort Scott. While executing his contract he visited this country on a hunting expedi- tion and was so delighted with it that he determined to make it his home. He died in Kansas many years ago. Daniel Smith settled half a mile southwest of Barnes and west of Duncan's creek in 1839 and died there.
Henry Jent settled on Duncan's creek in southwest quarter section 32-38-33, in 1844, the year of the high waters. Joseph P. Avery came to the northeast part of section 8, a little south of Duncan's, in 1850. There were very few settlers in the town- ship besides those named until after the year 1850, when a few others came in. During the Kansas troubles this section was in a constant state of excitement and alarm and settlement and im- migration were as effectually checked as they were a few years later by the Civil War.
A man named William B. Fail established a store on the Kan- sas line, just in the edge of the Osage bottom, in about 1856. It was a huge log building-a fortress as well as a storehouse. Fail's customers were from both sides. Kansas jayhawkers and Mis-
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souri border ruffians met here on neutral ground and bought their supplies, all in a friendly way, without collision and without collu- sion, either. Fail died in 1859, and Captain Staples' Vernon county company was stationed here during the famous southwest expedition from November, 1860, to May, 1861.
David Cruise, after leaving Metz township, settled in this township, south of the Osage, on section 21, northeast of Hoover, and it was here that he was killed by John Brown's liberators in 1858.
Many a time and oft did the jayhawker chiefs-Lane, Mont- gomery, Jennison and Weer-ride through this township, going on or returning from a Missouri raid. In the fall of 1863 the Confederate guerrillas, under Quantrill and Anderson, passed through the western part of this township on their way to winter quarters in Texas. A few days later the Baxter Springs massacre, or slaughter, came off.
In the summer of 1861, a band of twenty-five jayhawkers came to the field where Esq. N. R. Marchbanks was harvesting, in com- pany with Joseph Jones. The jayhawkers gave the farmers a severe tongue lashing, cut off a piece of Jones' ear and then robbed Mr. Marchbanks of everything they fancied, including all of his serviceable horses and some of his household goods. The ensuing fall or early winter another squad came over and butch- ered and carried away all the fat hogs of Esq. Marchbanks and Wm. Bartlett. During the year 1862 the same squad of jayhawk- ers took all the horses these gentlemen then had, and drove away seventy-five head of their sheep. In 1863 Mr. Marchbanks re- moved to Nebraska to avoid the harassments to which he was subject, and remained there till the war was well over. He was the father of Capt. Wm. Marchbanks and the bushwhacker "Bob" Marchbanks, and the Kansas men disliked him especially.
STOTESBURY,
On the Kansas City Southern Railroad, is a thriving little vil- lage of 200 or more inhabitants, and is surrounded by a rich farming country. Owing to its close proximity to Kansas City, and having a direct railroad line north and south, makes this a favored shipping point. The people are progressive, and fully alive to their opportunities.
Hoover, the predecessor of Stotesbury, was laid out in section
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HISTORY OF VERNON COUNTY
20, in 1883, by Jacob Rumbaugh and Richard Kaufman. But after the building of the K. C., P. & G. Railroad, now known as the Kansas City Southern, the town site was abandoned and the new town of Stotesbury absorbed it.
LAKE TOWNSHIP.
Lake township comprises congressional township 36, range 32. Marmaton river flows eastwardly through a portion of the south- ern part of the township, but away from its bottoms the entire six miles square was originally prairie. The timber in the bot- toms is generally very heavy, and in early times there grew here many valuable trees, chiefly black walnut and oak. The prin- cipal varieties now are oak. hickory, hackberry, elm, and syca- more, with many pecans and other smaller trees. The oaks pro- duce huge acorns, large as hen eggs, sweet, and nutritious; and the shag-bark hickories bear large and excellent nuts.
Back from the Marmaton bottoms, where there are many swampy and marshy tracts, the prairie lands are uniformly high and dry. The soil is sometimes excellent and often indifferent. There is some ashy, thin, and unfertile land, but the general character of the soil is good.
In the extreme southern part of this township, on the north side of the Marmaton, is a considerable lake or pond, called Tuck- er's or Stutts' lake, from Greenup Tucker, a former principal owner of the land. It is of irregular form, and including all of the land it usually covers, comprises several hundred acres. Quite fre- quently it is filled by the overflow of the Marmaton, from which stream it is distant in one place but a few hundred yards. It contains plenty of fish and in the seasons numerous flocks of water fowl resort here. The locality is very popular with hunters and sportsmen generally.
What is now Lake township was in the early days a noted hunting ground. The prairies abounded in deer and occasionally wolves and other game, while the reedy marshes and fens of the Marmaton could always be relied on to furnish ducks, geese, and other wild fowl in the proper season.
The township was but sparsely settled until after the war. On the south side of the Marmaton, near the Deerfield line, Capt.
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TOWNS AND TOWNSHIPS
H. C. Cogswell formerly had a well-known mill, which has long since disappeared.
After the war the lower part of the township settled up with reasonable rapidity, but the northern part remained untenanted until a few years since. In 1876 there were but three school houses, all in the southern part. Excellent educational facilities are now to be found in the township, while houses of worship are located at convenient points.
CHURCHES.
Ellis Cumberland Presbyterian Church. Was organized No- vember 9, 1877, by Rev. R. L. Vannice, the following being the first elders : Samuel Porter, Jacob Barracks, and Hiram Gardiner. There were forty-four original members at the organization, among whom may be mentioned D. K. Short and wife, John Bar- racks and wife, Samuel Porter, Grace and Belle Porter, Miss Kate Short, Elizabeth Ethridge, Hannah Howell, Maria Ward, Frank Porter, George Short, Robert Atterbury, Mrs. E. J. Rock- hole, Lizzie Mosby, Mary Fuller, Emma Mulkey, Hiram Gardiner and wife, George Samples, Charles Samples, Clark Fuge, John Ethridge, William Berry, Ida Samples, Frank Fuller, Alice War- den, Mark Beebee, Oscar Howell, Mrs. Jennie Samples, Daniel Hope, and John Spendiff and wife. The frame church building in which services are held was erected at a cost of $1,400, in 1882.
METZ TOWNSHIP.
Metz township is composed of all congressional township 37, range 32, and that part of township 38-32 which lies in Vernon county. It is eight miles long by nearly six miles in width, the western line of sections not being quite full.
The Little Osage runs through the lower half of the township, and there flow into it Summers' and Townsend's branches from the south, and Pryor's creek and Reed's branch from the north. The timber in the township is to be found along these streams and is not at all extensive. The belt through which the Osage runs will not average more than a mile in width. More than three-fourths of the township is prairie land. The soil is gen- erally very fertile, and is in a high state of cultivation.
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HISTORY OF VERNON COUNTY
The first American settlement in Vernon county was made in this township by the Summers brothers, in the year 1829.
David Cruise located on section 20, about two miles west of Allen Summers, in the year 1833. He married as his first wife Miss Fannie Summers, daughter of Moses Summers, and his wedding, at which Rev. Amasa Jones was the officiating minister, was the first in Vernon county. In 1843 Mr. Cruise removed to Henry township, south of Osage, where, in December, 1858, he was murdered by John Brown's "liberators."
West of Allen Summers the Charles families came at an early day and made claims. Simon Charles came in June, 1844, and settled on the Little Osage, four miles west of Balltown ; he died in November, 1863. His wife, Margaret Jane (Yokum), died September 15, 1886, aged 67 years and 10 months; she was the mother of thirteen children and at the time of her death was the grandmother of forty grandchildren and three great-grandchil- dren. Benjamin Charles, a cousin of Simon, came in 1849, and his (Ben's) brother, Joseph, came in 1852. The Charles families were from Hunter's Valley, Perry county, Pennsylvania, of which locality Peter Weyand and Isaac Yokum were also natives.
On the north side of the Osage the first settlers were Mr. Pryor, who settled on section 17, three-fourths of a mile from the mouth of Pryor's creek, in 1834, and his cousin, Ezekiel Rhea, who the same year located a mile north. Both Pryor and Rhea were originally from White county, Tennessee, but came directly from Warren county, in this state, to Vernon. William Pryor owned about 3,000 acres of land in this township. Joseph Pryor came from White county, Tennessee, to the head of Pryor's creek, a mile south of the Bates county line, in the fall of 1840.
Esq. Hoyle settled near the mouth of Reed's branch (then called Hoyle's branch), before the year 1840, Solomon and Samuel Reed and their father located on this stream in 1842 and gave their name to it. The northern part of the township did not begin to settle until after the war to any important extent.
In September, 1847, Thomas Welch and his family-one of the members of which was his son Levi-settled on Pryor's creek. The previous year he had removed from middle Tennessee to Platte county, Missouri, from whence he came to Vernon. At this time there were living on the creek Joseph Pryor and his sons, Nathan and William; Jonathan Pryor, William Pryor, Sr.,
E caffaller
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TOWNS AND TOWNSHIPS
John Robinson, an old Scotchman named William Renick, some- times called "Pap" Renick, who was a miller by trade, and Charles Nugent and his five sons-William, Linsford, Cyrus, Hugh, and Rice-and his two daughters, Mary and Martha.
At this time the settlers on Reed's creek were Solomon Reed, Samuel Reed, Dabney Davis, William McAdams, John Powers, and James Upton.
The Indians were so numerous in early days, and their inter- course with the whites so frequent, that the first settlers learned to speak the Osage and other dialects very fluently. Sometimes the Sacs and Foxes and the Miamis came in, but the Osages and the Pottawattamies were the most frequent visitors. They were always friendly, at least after the one difficulty on the Marais de Cygne, and always desirous of trading or trafficking. . A favorite article of barter with them was rawhide, usually rolled or twisted into ropes and cords. The settlers found it an easy matter to convert these into harness or "gears" for their horses, and very readily traded for them.
The first settlers in this quarter lived easily and simply. They did not work hard, did not accumulate property suddenly and largely, and did not improve the advantages they possessed as they might have done. But they secured enough to live on. They did but little agricultural work, planting small patches of corn and wheat and a few vegetables, and from the Osage they. took fish, and in the timber and on the prairies they procured an abundance of wild meat, and contrived to live comfortably. There was an abundance of luxuriant range on the Osage bot- toms, and the cattle and horses didn't require feeding until late in December; indeed, instances are remembered where the grass in the bottom kept green through the entire winter.
After a time the cattle and hogs had increased until there was a surplus, which was disposed of usually to foreign dealers, and the proceeds used in the purchase of family supplies. The first trading points were the Harmony Mission and Papinsville, until Balltown was established. Occasionally, however, the store of Dan and Jim Johnson, a mile below Balltown, and Waldo's store. still below, were visited. Before the establishment of these last named institutions, on a few occasions the settlers drove to Inde- pendence and Lexington for their supplies, taking with them a load of wheat and bacon, a few head of cattle, etc.
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HISTORY OF VERNON COUNTY
The first school in this township was taught at the house of Jesse Summers, in Pleasant Valley, near Metz, by Miss Mary Choate, afterward the wife of Dr. Leonard Dodge. The first school house, a small log building, was built at the Summers graveyard, some time after the year 1840. Mrs. Eliza Summers was one of the first teachers, but not the first. Peter Weyand was another early teacher.
During the Civil War the people in this quarter were divided in sentiment. A majority were of Confederate sympathizers, but there were some Union men. All, however, were friendly per- sonally. Perhaps twenty men from this township belonged to Colonel Hunter's Confederate regiment, while Elijah Rhea, Wash Charles and John Daniels enlisted at Fort Scott in the Union service as members of the Fourteenth Kansas. From time to time a few of the citizens were in the employ of the Government as teamsters, engaged in hauling military stores from Fort Leaven- worth to Fort Scott.
While a detachment of the Third Wisconsin cavalry was sta- tioned at Balltown a soldier named Robert Kelly, of Baraboo, Wis., rode out into the country on one occasion and on his return was bushwhacked and killed near the Whitefield school house. This was the only Federal soldier killed in the neighborhood during the war. Lane's and Montgomery's Kansans passed through the township on different occasions, and did their accus- tomed amount of jayhawking, but their depredations were not serious.
After the war the township settled slowly but substantially. In 1873 the municipal organization was effected and the township named Metz, for the town of that name. At present, it is well inhabited.
METZ.
The town of Metz, on Reed's branch, north of the Osage (sw. se. sec. 11-37-32) in this township, was established in the fall of 1870, during the Franco-Prussian war, and was named soon after General Bazaine's capitulation at Metz, and for that city. The locality was formerly known as Pleasant Valley. A fine steam planing mill gave the village some notoriety and attracted much custom.
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HOW OUR TOWN HAPPENED ONTO ITS NAME.
From Metz "Times."
[From information furnished by W. L. Yeates, T. M. Sum- mers, and L. M. Baze.]
A stranger who bears the name "Metz" may get the idea that the town's population came direct from the city of Berlin, the banks of the Rhine or some other point in Emperor William's domain. True it is a German name, but if there is a thorough- bred Deitscherman living within five miles of Metz he is unknown to the writer.
A settlement on Reed's creek, about one and one-half miles east of where Metz is now located, had been called Pleasant Valley for several years. Finally a general merchandise store was opened. In the fall of 1870 the government was asked to establish a postoffice at the place. D. P. Swearingen, whom many knew as "Uncle Dave," was the merchant and he was chosen postmaster. "Pleasant Valley" was sent to the postal authorities as the name for the office. In course of time a letter was received stating that there was an office of that name in the state and it would be necessary to select another. "Uncle Dave" appointed three leading men of the village to do the christening. A meeting was held as per agreement, and though loath to give up Pleasant Valley, they decided to leave it to the postmaster's good judgment. "Uncle Dave" favored a short name. He had been reading the "Weekly Missouri Republican" (now the St. Louis "Republic") about the Franco-Prussian War and General Bazine's capitulation at Metz, one of the large cities of Germany.
"Boys," he said, "I've got it ; let's call "'er Metz." "All right!" responded the three men in concert.
Then the merchant-postmaster pulled a jug from under the counter and passed it around, after which the dogs were called and all joined in a 'coon hunt in the Osage bottoms.
In May, 1890, the Missouri Pacific railroad was completed. It missed Metz about a mile. The inhabitants of the village found themselves isolated, within earshot of the shrieks of the locomotive, but too far away for practical purposes. Dr. G. W. Petty was the first to break away from the old town. He moved
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HISTORY OF VERNON COUNTY
his store building and contents to the present site and soon the new town of Metz was laid out. Others followed, and in a short time Pleasant Valley, as many still called it, was only a reminiscence.
TOWN OFFICIALS.
W. G. Morrison, C. O. Wilson, Harry Reed, G. P. Wolfe, and Rawley Ramsey compose the board of trustees of the town of Metz. G. P. Wolfe is chairman of the board, or mayor. The other officials are: F. I. Rucker, clerk; G. Morrison, treasurer ; W. H. Catherwood, marshal; John Kleet, collector, and J. F. Allen, street commissioner. Regular meetings are held the first Tuesday night each month.
TOWNSHIP OFFICERS.
The officers of Metz township are as follows: F. I. Rucker, trustee ; R. L. Graham and Louis Schneider, members of township board; M. A. Sheddrick, assessor; G. H. Summers, collector; J. J. Stark and J. F. Scott, justices of the peace, and W. H. Cather- wood, constable.
ASSESSED VALUATION.
Following is the assessed valuation of real estate and personal property of Metz township and the town of Metz, as furnished by Township Assessor M. A. Sheddrick :
Real Estate.
30,940 acres of land.
$316,485.00
Town of Metz 25,350.00
Personal Property.
Horses, all ages. 802
$26,655.00
Asses and jennets, all ages
31
655.00
Mules, all ages
204 6,110.00
Cattle, all ages
2,326
18,380.00
Sheep, all ages
92
93.00
Hogs, all ages
1,858
4,486.00
Money, notes, bonds, etc
12,659.00
All other personal property
97,503.00
Total land, town and personal. . $439,698.00
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METZ SHIPS MORE EGGS THAN ANY TOWN OF ITS SIZE IN THE STATE.
Missouri's surplus poultry products amount to $44,000,000 annually. And Metz certainly gets her part of it. More eggs are shipped from Metz than any town of its size in the state. This is no idle talk for we can furnish proof. Carpenter & Shafer, the wholesale produce dealers of Butler, buy eggs at every town between Butler and Iola, Kan., and their figures prove- that Metz merchants receive more eggs than towns three times the size.
When the egg season was at its best last spring the largest shipment in one week was 126 cases, or 3,780 dozen. The average for three months was 96 cases, or 2,880 dozen per week. Or a total of 34,560 dozen for the three months.
SOME EARLY HISTORY OF METZ TOWNSHIP.
The first American settlement in Vernon county was made in Metz township by the Summers brothers in the year 1829. Jesse, Moses and Allen Summers, natives of Wayne county, Kentucky, located on the Osage.
In June, 1844, Simon Charles came and located south of the Osage. Benjamin Charles, a cousin of Simon, came five years later, and Joseph Charles came in 1852. The Charles families were from Perry county, Pennsylvania.
Other settlers on the north side of the Osage were Mr. Pryor, who settled north of the mouth of Pryor creek in 1834. And his cousin, Ezekiel Rhea, who located a mile north the same year. They were from Tennessee.
Mr. Hoyle settled near the mouth of Reeds creek (then called Hoyle's branch) before the year 1840. Solomon and Samuel Reed and their father located on this stream in 1842, and it was for them it was called Reed's creek.
The northern part of the township did not begin to settle until after the war to any important extent.
The first trading points for the early settlers were Harmony Mission and Pappinsville, until Balltown was established. Be- fore the establishment of these places the settlers drove to Inde- pendence and Lexington for their supplies.
The first school in Metz township was taught at the house of
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HISTORY OF VERNON COUNTY
Jesse Summers by Miss Mary Choate. The first school house, a small log building, was built at the Summers graveyard some time after the year 1840.
MEN WHO CAME TO THIS LOCALITY AT AN EARLY DAY.
Among our oldest settlers can be mentioned Uncle Billie Yeates, who came here from Kentucky in 1867. He has resided on the place where he now lives for more than twenty years.
W. F. Long came from Kentucky to this locality in 1870. He recalls many of the early-day incidents, and especially the grass- hoppers in 1874.
Uncle Jim Hedden, another native of Kentucky, came here in 1868. He located on his place north of town and continued to live here until about two years ago, when he went to Nevada to live with a daughter. He returns occasionally to visit rela- tives and many friends.
Dr. W. Melick came to this locality from Pennsylvania in 1857. He can give many details in regard to the early days, when he practiced medicine. The doctor does little practice nowadays and is content to spend most of his time at his pretty home.
G. W. Charles came here from Pennsylvania in July, 1850. Anthony Sartorius was born here about fifty years ago.
J. H. Raines, A. H. Catherwood, A. W. Plew, John Steinbaugh, L. Fornshell and James Thomas are among the oldest settlers.
WHAT METZ HAS.
The Metz "Times," published by J. D. Williams; one bank, two mills, two hotels, one garage, no saloons, an ice man, one railroad, a newspaper, a brass band, one drug store, three painters, a harness shop, three churches, an opera house, four carpenters, good sidewalks, one undertaker, six secret orders, one lumber yard, one barber shop, three physicians, one butcher shop, no booze-fighters. a good town well, four stock buyers, good mail service, hospitable people, night mail service, one machine shop, two livery stables, a commercial club, no de- pendent poor, two grocery stores, two paper-hangers, two pho- tographers, three general stores, well improved streets, good roads diverging, one express company, two blacksmith shops, three Sunday schools, one implement dealer, three hardware
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