USA > Missouri > Livingston County > Past and present of Livingston County, Missouri : a record of settlement, organization, progress and achievement, Volume I > Part 18
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a young local preacher who was appointed by the district elder. The first board of trustees were T. B. France, L. D. Turner and H. Hull. The church was dedicated by Rev. B. Winget. The following preachers have served as pastors of this church: Chandos Smutz, Frank A. Reeves, J. W. White, Wm. Vimont, F. N. Ahern, John R. Bales, Robert B. Ralls, S. B. Leatherman, Frank C. Smutz, C. W. Lent, Chas. Wickam, and A. W. Nichoalds. The pastor now in charge is Rev. X. Atchinson; trustees, Dave Mallet, John Cornelius, and George Samuels. The church is located on the corner of Graves and Curtis streets.
PLEASANT GROVE M. E. CHURCH, SOUTH
was organized at the Wolfskill school house, three-fourths of a mile south of the present edifice in the fall of 1860, by Rev. Samuel L. Alexander in charge, assisted by the Presid- ing Elder Rev. W. G. Caples. Following were the charter members: David Mumpower and wife, Joseph Wolfskill and wife and John A. Mumpower. These were all of the first members. John A. Mumpower was licensed to preach in Chillicothe, August 19, 1862, and was soon after admitted into the Missouri Annual Conference and has been engaged in active work fifty years, filling every appointment made by the conference. He served as presiding elder in nearly every district in the conference and is still an active member now stationed at Shelbyville, Missouri. The ministers who have occupied the pulpit of this church since its organization in 1860 up to the present time follow: Revs. W. T. Ellington, - Metcalf, E. K. Miller, John Garr, R. H. Jordan, W. P. Caples, A. M. Keirgan, Westey Hatton, J. W. Huffaker, M. G. Gregory, A. J. Wosley, W. E. Dockery, H. C. Bolen, R. H. G. Keisan, H. H. Craig, W. C. Maggart, J. C. Carney, B. F. Hall, R. M. Dameron, J. S. Rooker, W. A. Smith, L. P. Siceloff, S. H. Renfrow, John H. Hubbard, J. B. Rice, J. A. Mitchell, C. W. Herly, W. P. Owen, E. M. Capp, Henry Neighbors, J. D. Hunt, Geo. W. Mast and E. F. Cooley, now in charge of the church.
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A. M. E. CHURCH, CHILLICOTHE
The followers of Richard Allen and John Wesley of the negro race assembled themselves together in Chillicothe in 1869, with Rev. Sylvesta Dines, of Brunswick, Missouri, for the purpose of organizing the First African Methodist Episcopal Church. Jacob Crews, Sr., James Southers and - Baker, officers. The first pastor was Rev. B. F. Watson, who further perfected the organization by adding Phillip Crews, Henry Graham, Henry Williams, William Moore and Charles Crews to the list of church officers. The present officers are as follows: Stewarts: Henry Williams, Edward Brown, Benjamin Longdon, Clem Brown, Benjamin Bland, Chauncey Curry, Lloyd Clark and W. B. Longdon. Trus- tees : William Ballew, William Botts, Henry Williams, Charles Woods, and Henry Blackwell. Pastors have served the church in the order named: Corbin, Parks, Hubbard, Ousley, Stewart, Triplett, Bird, Terrill, Taylor, Hawkins, Taylor, Henderson, Sexton, Alexander, McDonald, Triplett, Runyon, Richardson, Guy, Bias, Page, Brown, Anderson, Richardson, Peck, Leach, Doby, Rogers, Longdon, Ponder, Harris and Oakes. The church and Sunday school is prosper- ous with good membership and attendance. The present pas- tor is Rev. Wm. B. Longdon.
OLD SETTLERS' DAY TALES
The late Col. W. F. Switzler, a former resident of Chil- licothe and editor of the Daily Constitution, contributes some reminiscences of the early settlers of Missouri, many of them in a humorous vein :
Cole's Fort was one of several stockade forts established in central Missouri in 1812 for the protection of the early settlers. Hannah Cole, a widow, with nine children, aided by her several grown sons, established the fort on the Mis- souri river bluff about a mile below the present city of Boon- ville, Cooper county, and on the south side of the river. This fort in 1816, the year before Boonville was established and
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INTERIOR OF ST. COLUMBAN'S CHURCH, CHILLICOTHE
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a short time after Howard county was organized, was the capital of that county and David Barton, July 8, 1816, held the first circuit court there was ever held in central Missouri. In 1820 Barton was elected one of the United States Senators from Missouri. Thomas H. Benton was the other.
After the close of the War of 1812, Gilliard Rupe built a cabin at the mouth of Rupe's branch in Boonville. Bart- lett's tavern soon became the center of dancing frolics and other social functions, which were largely attended by the young people, as well as by many of the older, of the region round about. Fashion, as we understand it, was unknown, and therefore both lads and lassies "tripped the light fan- tastic," to the inartistic but soul-stirring music of the fiddle, in the heavy shoes made by a neighborhood cobbler and in the rustic gowns and homespun and homemade coats and trousers of the settlers' cabins.
Sam Cole, the youngest son of the widow of the Fort, re- solved one summer's afternoon to attend a dance at Bartlett's tavern. Not having been invited "cut no ice" with Sam, for in that respect he was on an equal footing with all the young men of the neighborhood. He, however, had neither coat nor trousers, his wardrobe consisting only of a tow-linen shirt which extended to his heels. His mother protested he must not appear at the dance in this garb, but Sam determined otherwise. He had a fat, sleek young bull perfectly tractable, which he rode everywhere instead of a saddle horse. Mount- ing the bull, he rode up the river to Bartlett's, dismounted, and hitched "Ball" to a tree on the river bank.
Those about the tavern gave Sam a cold reception. They guyed and made fun of him fearfully. Very soon he quailed before the storm of jibes and threats of ducking in the river, beat a hasty retreat to his bull, and mounting drove him into the river. Obeying the command to swim down stream, Ball, the bull, "struck out" for home, Sam slipping from his back into the water and holding to his tail in safety until his return to the Fort.
Sam Cole died in Cooper county soon after the close of the Civil war.
Vol. 1-14
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Previous to the Revolutionary war, two brothers, Peter and Isaac Vanbibber, emigrated from Holland to America, and settled in Botetourt county, Virginia. James, one of the sons of Peter, came to Missouri in 1800 and settled in St. Charles county; afterwards in Callaway county. Isaac Van- bibber, Sr., brother of Peter, was killed in the battle of Point Pleasant, Virginia, in 1774, leaving a widow and four chil- dren, among the latter Isaac, then only about three years of age. He was adopted and reared by Daniel Boone and in 1800 came to Missouri with Nathan Boone and settled in Darst's Bottom, St. Charles county. Afterwards marrying, he settled at Loutre Lick, on Loutre creek, Montgomery county, where he built a large two-story frame house, as a tavern. It was situated on the main road from St. Charles to the Boone's Lick country and was the stopping place of travelers and emigrants. The tavern was extensively patron- ized and Vanbibber realized a large amount of money out of it.
Isaac Vanbibber was very eccentric and became a very noted citizen. He omitted no opportunity to declare and en- force his belief that every six thousand years there was a recurrence of the same events in the world's history and of course in the history of all of its inhabitants. He was active and persistent in the defense of this peculiar philosophy. Neither the process by which he reached this strange con- clusion nor the reasons he gave to defend it, have descended to this generation. He died in 1836.
A few years before his death, three young Kentuckians rode up on horseback to his tavern and stopped for the night. After supper Vanbibber, as was his custom, boldly declared his six thousand years recurring philosophy and defended it as best he could against the objections, ridicule and quibbles of the disbelieving Kentuckians.
Next morning, when preparing to leave on their journey westward, the Kentuckians concluded to play a practical joke on Vanbibber and to subject his professed faith in his phil- osophy to a business test. They said: "Now, Mr. Vanbibber, you believe we will all be here again, just as we are now, six
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thousand years hence; to test your belief in this doctrine we propose to give you our joint note for the amount of our bills, at 10 per cent interest, payable six thousand years after date." For a moment Vanbibber was in an embarrassing dilemma. Recovering from it, however, he replied: "You are smart young fellows all the way from old Kaintuck, and I would at once accept your note and let you keep on, but I remem- ber all three of you were here six thousand years ago and left without paying your bills and now I am afraid to trust you. So you will have to 'shell out.'" And "shell out" they did.
Chauncey M. Depew in his speech at the 119th annual banquet of the New York Chamber of Commerce, at Del- monico's, November 15, 1887, referred to a student society in his college days organized to promote extemporaneous and sententious oratory; and to the fact that on one occasion the professor of rhetoric, who presided, called for him and said, "Sir, your time is three minutes; your subject, 'The Im- mortality of the Soul.'" I was present at the banquet and heard the speech.
During the old settlers' days in Central Missouri, and in Howard county, the writer was a member of a society, which met at the schoolhouse, to stimulate a love for poetry and to cultivate a talent for producing it extemporaneously. Each member on being called for was expected to pronounce at least a couplet of his own composition or selection or pay a fine. J. H. H. had no taste for poetry, original or selected, and was never known to be inspired by "the divine afflatus" to the extent of attempting its composition. Evidently he ex- pected to use a certain couplet; but in the crisis of the call by the president he got the lines mixed and misfitted, and much to the amusement of the entire club and his own dis- comfiture gave out this laughable specimen of pioneer prose on stilts :
"She slips and she slides along;
A faithful friend is hard to find."
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The paroxysm of laughter into which the club was thrown threatened it with disrupture and drove "the poet laureate" incontinently from the house, never to return.
During pioneer days in Missouri, there occurred a serious scrimmage over a flock of geese in which both sexes engaged between the families of Robert Pickett and Smiley Lewis, who were near neighbors.
In the spring of the year the geese of the families ran at will in the bottom lands of a neighboring creek, and when feather picking time came it was the practice of the settlers to send to the creek bottoms for their flocks and drive them home. Of course the flocks often became so mixed that trou- ble sometimes arose in determining property rights in the premises. Thus it developed in respect to the geese of the Pickett and Lewis families.
One bright spring morning Mrs. Pickett sent Margaret Ann, the colored servant woman, to the creek bottom to "round up" her geese for picking. "Marg" was not quite as careful as she might have been or in every instance didn't know the Pickett from the Lewis geese. At all events Mrs. Lewis claimed that "Marg" had driven from the bottom some of her geese, and demanded that they be surrendered then and there. Mrs. Pickett refused to give them up and a lively tongue-lashing between the parties ensued. Finally Mrs. Lewis declared she would have her geese or she would "whip the whole shooting match." Then she returned home, but soon came back with her husband and again demanded her geese. Mrs. Pickett again refused, and Marg seconded the motion. Harsh and angry words, in fact a fierce quarrel, followed. Mr. Pickett happened to be in the house, and hearing the quarrel came out and ordered the whole Lewis gang off the place. But Mr. Lewis swore in big round early settlers' phrase he would not go till his wife got her geese, whereupon Pickett rushed upon him with a piece of plank, knocking him down. Then Charles, a young son of Lewis, whizzed a rock at Pickett and made him bite the dust. See- ing this, the colored woman, Margaret, came to the rescue with an axe and flew at Charles, who at once took to his heels,
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jumped the fence and ran through the woods to the house of Reason Richards. He seemed almost scared to death and reported that "Bob Pickett had killed pap and I have killed Pickett, and I expect several more are dead by this time as I left them fighting."
Tom Richards, a son of Reason, hastened to the reported scene of slaughter and found nobody killed or even seriously wounded. Pickett was sitting in a chair in the house and his wife was bathing his forehead with camphor, the Lewises had left for home, and Margaret Ann was in the stable lot feeding the geese with shelled corn.
In pioneer times in "the wild and woolly west" the early settlers tanned their own leather and a shoemaker of the neighborhood manufactured all the footwear that was used. Store shoes were unknown and in many places even stores themselves.
"Uncle David Finley," as everybody in his part of Mis- souri called him, became indebted to the neighborhood shoe- maker for making shoes for his family and the debt was to be discharged at hog killing time by a dressed hog. The killing occurred and "Uncle Davy" was anxious to pay the debt. But he had no wagon or sled and the shoemaker lived about three or four miles away. How to get the hog to him therefore was a perplexing question.
It soon occurred to him, however, that he had a pair of gentle work steers, and he determined to fasten the hog on the back of one of them and lead him to the shoemaker's. This he did, with ropes, and "Buck" seeming to be all right the prospect was good to accomplish the journey.
"Uncle Davy" with one end of the lead rope in his hand, led the way and the steer with the dressed hog on his back followed. Unfortunately, however, after a few steps, "Buck" turned his eye to his side, took in the situation, became thor- oughly frightened, sprang into the air with a loud snort, broke away from his master and went through the adjacent woods jumping, bellowing and kicking with might and main.
Very soon the hog got under his belly and the situation became more frightful and "Buck" seemed beside himself.
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Finally he ran back into the yard from which he started, when "Aunt Abby" came out of the house and tried to pacify him by a kindly "suke, suke." But this did no good, and when last reliably heard from the bay steer with the dressed hog under his belly was running and rearing and bawling as if old nick was after him horns and hounds.
Be this as it may the people in that neighborhood, al- though now of a new generation, have been laughing for more than fifty years over the incident here recited.
THE HEATHERLY FAMILY
In the summer of 1836 occurred in Northern Missouri cer- tain incidents known in the aggregate as the "Heatherly War." With these incidents it is proper to deal in this vol- ume, since certain companies of volunteers from this county took part in the war, and at the time the entire population was greatly excited and at times apprehensive.
From the official records of Carroll county, from the statements of living witnesses, and from other sources of in- formation, it is learned that in the spring of this year a band of desperadoes, robbers and thieves lived in that part of Carroll county known as the Upper Grand river country, and now included in Mercer and Grundy counties. This band had for its principal member a family named Heath- erly, from Kentucky, composed of the following persons: George Heatherly, Sr., the father; Jenny Heatherly, the mother; John Heatherly, Alfred Heatherly, George Heath- erly, Jr., and James Heatherly, the sons, and Ann Heatherly, the daughter.
The Heatherlys lived far out on the frontier, and their cabin was a rendezvous for hard characters of all sorts. The antecedents of the family were bad. Old George Heatherly was regarded as a thief in Kentucky, and Mrs. Heatherly was a sister of the notorious Kentucky murderers and free- booters, Big and Little Harpe. The women of the family were prostitutes, and the men were believed to be villains of the hardest sort. It is said that one of Mrs. Heatherly's chil-
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dren was a mulatto, whose father was a coal black negro, that accompanied the family from Kentucky to Missouri. Bad as they were, however, the Heatherly's were perhaps not as black as they were painted, and many crimes were attributed to them of which, in all probability, they were innocent.
Living with the Heatherly's as boarders, visitors, or em- ployes, were three or four young men whose reputations were none of the best, and who had doubtless drifted westward from the older states as they fled from officers of the law from crimes committed.
Old Mrs. Heatherly is said to have been the leading spirit of the gang, prompting and planning many a dark deed, and often assisting in its execution. Tales were told of the sud- den and utter disappearance of many a land hunter and ex- plorer, who visited the Upper Grand river country and was last seen in the neighborhood of the Heatherly house. These stories may or may not have been true, but all the same they were told, and gradually gained credence.
Early in the month of June, 1836, a hunting party of the Iowa Indians from Southern Iowa, came down on the East fork of Grand river on a hunting expedition. As soon as the Heatherly's heard of the proximity of the Indians they re- solved to visit their camp, steal what horses they could, and carry them down to Missouri river counties and sell them. Taking with them James Dunbar, Alfred Hawkins and a man named Thomas, the four Heatherlys visited the scene of the Iowa's hunting operations and began to steal the ponies and horses which had been turned out to graze. Fortune fa- vored them and they managed to secure quite a lot of ponies, and escaped with them to the forks of Grand river. Here they were overtaken by a pursuing party of the Iowas, who de- manded a return of their property. 'The demand being either refused or not instantly complied with the Indians opened fire on the thieves. The first volley killed Thomas. Other shots being fired the Heatherly gang retreated, leaving the ponies in the hands of their rightful owners.
Upon the defeat of their scheme the Heatherlys returned home, and began consulting among themselves as to the best
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course to pursue under the circumstances. Being much alarmed lest the Indians should give information of the affair to the whites and have the true story believed, it was resolved to anticipate a visit to the whites on the river, and go first them- selves and tell a tale of their own. Dunbar had for some time shown symptoms of treachery to the party, or rather of a de- sire to break away from his evil associates. Soon after he was murdered and his body secreted, but afterwards found.
In a day or two the Heatherlys made their appearance in the settlements raising an alarm that the Indians were in the country murdering and robbing, and claimed that they killed Dunbar and other white men in the Upper Grand river coun- try. The news was at first believed and there was great ex- citement throughout the country. A part of the story that the Indians were in the country was known to be true and the rest was readily believed. Carriers were sent to Ray, Clay and Clinton counties, and the people were thoroughly aroused.
Gen. B. M. Thompson, of Ray, commanding the militia forces in the district, ordered out several companies, and at the head of a regiment from Ray and Carroll, moved rapidly to the scene of the reported troubles. The whole country north of Carroll county was thoroughly scoured. An advance scouting party penetrated the section where the Indians were, visited their camp and found them quiet, and perfectly peaceable, and wondering at the cause of the visit of so many white men in arms.
Two companies from Clay were ordered out by General Thompson. The battalion, numbering about one hundred and fifty men, was commanded by Col. Shubael Allen. There ac- companied the militia some volunteers, among whom was Gen. A. W. Doniphan. Obedient to orders Colonel Allen marched his battalion almost due north, nearly along the then western boundary of the state, to a point in what is now DeKalb county, and then turned east to the reported troublesome section. This was done to discover whether or not there was a movement of the savages from that quarter, or to flank the supposed hostile band which was thought to be advancing down Grand river.
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Arriving at Grand river the battalion crossed and encamped one Sunday on its banks.
After thorough examination and investigation of the situ- ation and circumstances, General Thompson became perfectly satisfied that the Indians were not and had not been hostile- were innocent of the offenses alleged against them, but on the contrary, had been preyed upon by the Heatherly gang in the manner heretofore described. After consultation the officers returned the men to their homes and disbanded them and the great scare was over.
The depredations and crimes alleged against the Indians were now traced directly to the Heatherlys. A warrant for their arrest was issued, and July 17, Sheriff Lewis N. Rees, of Carroll county, with a strong posse, apprehended them, and their preliminary examinations came off before Squire Jesse Newlin, who then lived at Navetown, now Spring Hill, Liv- ingston county. The examination attracted great attention and lasted several days. The result was that the accused were found to be the murderers-either as principals or accessories -of James Dunbar, and on the 27th day of July, they were given into the custody of the sheriff of Ray county for safe keeping. Old man Heatherly, his wife, and their daughter, Ann, were released on bail.
October 27, 1836, in obedience to a writ of habeas corpus, issued by Judge John F. Ryland, in vacation, the sheriff of Ray county brought into the circuit court at Carrollton, the old man, George Heatherly, his wife, Jenny Heatherly, their sons, John, Alfred, James and George, Jr., and Alfred Hawkins, all charged with the murder of James Dunbar. The accused were returned to the custody of the sheriff.
The grand jury found bills of indictment against the Heatherlys, and a separate indictment against Alfred Haw- kins. Austin A. King took his seat on the bench, as judge of the circuit, in the room of Judge Ryland, at his term. Thos. C. Birch was circuit attorney, but having been counsel for the accused in the preliminary examination, was discharged from the duties imposed upon him by the law in this case and Amos Rees was appointed by the court special prosecutor.
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On Tuesday, March 17, 1837, John Heatherly was ac- quitted. There being no sufficient jail in Carroll county, the Heatherlys were sent to Lafayette county jail, and Hawkins to the jail of Chariton county for safe keeping. Bills to the amount of $530 were allowed certain parties for guarding the prisoners.
It being apparent to the prosecutor that no conviction could be had of the Heatherlys, nor of Hawkins, unless some of his fellow-criminals would testify against him, at the July term, 1837, before Judge King, a nolle pros. was entered against the Heatherlys, and they were discharged. Where- upon Hawkins was placed on trial and the Heatherlys tes- tified against him. He was ably and vigorously defended by his counsel, who induced some of the jury to believe that the Heatherlys themselves were the guilty parties, and the re- sult was that the jury disagreed and were discharged.
At the November term, 1837, Hawkins was again tried, at Carrollton, and this time convicted of murder in the first degree, and sentenced to death. The sentence was afterward commuted to twenty years in the penitentiary, whither he was taken, but after serving about two years of his time he died, thus terminating "the Heatherly war." What eventually be- came of the Heatherly family is not known.
CAPTAIN JOE KIRK
The subject of this sketch, Capt. Joseph B. Kirk, is a highly respected resident of Chillicothe, but the historian would be derelict in his work did he not make a record of the operations of Captain Kirk which is of more than local in- terest. Therefore we glean the following from the O. P. Williams & Co.'s History of Livingston County, issued in 1885 :
After a brief term of service in the army of General Price, south of the Missouri, Captain Kirk returned to his home, in Jackson township, with a commission authorizing him to recruit for the Confederate service. A man of middle age, with the attributes of undoubted personal bravery, sagacity,
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