USA > Missouri > Clinton County > The History of Clinton County, Missouri : containing a history of the County, its cities, towns, etc., biographical sketches of its citizens, Clinton County in the late war, general and local statistics, portraits of early settlers and prominent men etc > Part 14
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The following passage is found in the "Report of the Exploring Expedition to the Rocky Mountains, in the year 1842, by Captain John C. Fremont," page 69 :
"Here on the summit, where the stillness was absolute ; unbroken by any sound, and the solitude complete, we thought ourselves beyond the regions of animated life ; but while we were sitting on the rocks, a solitary bee came winging his flight from the eastern valley, and lit on the knee of one of the men. We pleased ourselves with the idea that he was the first of his species to cross the mountain barrier, a solitary pioneer to foretell the advance of civilization."
Gregg, in his "Commerce of the Prairies," page 178, Vol. I, says : " The honey-bee appears to have emigrated exclusively from the east, as its march has been observed westward. The bee, among western
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HISTORY OF CLINTON COUNTY.
pioneers, is the proverbial precursor of the Anglo-American population. In fact, the aborigines of the frontier have generally corroborated this statement, for they used to say that they knew the white man was not far behind when the bees appeared among them."
There were other recreations, such as shooting matches and quilting parties, which obtained in those days, and which were enjoyed to the fullest extent. The quilting parties were especially pleasant and agree- able to those who attended. The established rule in those days at these parties was, to pay either one dollar in money or split one hundred rails during the course of the day. The men would generally split the rails and the women would remain in the house and do the quilting. After the day's work was done the night would be passed in dancing.
" All the swains that there abide, With jigs and rural dance resort "
When daylight came the music and the dancing would cease, and the gallant young men would escort the ladies to their respective homes.
WOLVES.
One of the oldest pioneers tells us, that for several years, after he came to what is now known as Clinton County, that wolves were very numerous, and that he paid his taxes, for many years, in wolf-scalps. His cabin was in the edge of the timber, that skirted Castile Creek, in the western portion of the county, and, at night, the howls of these animals were so loud and incessant, that to sleep, at times, was almost impossible.
Often at midnight, all
" At once there rose so wild a yell, Within that dark and narrow dell, As all the fiends from heaven that fell, Had pealed the banner cry of hell."
At such times the whole air seemed to be filled with the vibrations of their most infernal and diabolical music. The wolf was not only a midnight prowler here, but was seen in the daytime, singly or in packs, warily skulking upon the outskirts of a ticket, or sallying cautiously along the open path, with a sneaking look of mingled cowardice and cruelty.
CHAPTER VII.
SETTLEMENT OF ATCHISON TOWNSHIP.
Having treated of the pioneers, we shall now speak, at some length, of the early settlement of the townships, fully realizing that the task of tracing out these first settlements so as to accurately and fully give a history of each individual making them, is a difficult one ; in proportion as the reader understands the magnitude and difficulty of the work, to that extent will we have his sympathy and forbearance. The data upon which we found our supposed facts consists mainly of notes taken by our agents, who have visited every part of the county, and if the narrative should, in some particulars, seem to the reader to be incorrect, we wish to remind him that the particular fact which he may question is founded on the statement of some one individual who resides in the immediate neighborhood, and, in all probability, substantiated by the best evidence obtainable. Such persons should remember that they are as liable to be mistaken as their neighbors, and that in the little circumscribed realm of their own neighborhood, even as in the boundless realm of the uni- verse, "truth is stranger than fiction."
We shall begin the succeeding chapter with the settlements proper, commencing with Atchison Township, included in what was originally LaFayette Township, which is the central of three western divisions of the county, and comprises one of the finest and best improved sections of the same. It measures six miles east and west, by seven miles north and south, and includes both prairie and timber land, with, perhaps, a preponderance of the latter, which is well distributed through its area. Castile Creek, and Roberts Branch, with their tributaries, meander through all quarters of the township, affording an abundance of stock- water, while their banks are uniformly fringed with heavy belts of the different varieties of timber generally found growing in this section of country, including large quanties of valuable walnut, which still con- tinues to be cut, for exportation, though a large proportion of the same has been culled out. The surface of this section of country is generally gracefully undulating, sufficiently so, even in its more level sections, for all the purposes of agriculture, while the most ample system of natural drainage is afforded by the streams that traverse its plain in all direc- tions. The soil, in common with that of other portions of the county, is of a fertility unsurpassed in this latitude, and the general character of
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HISTORY OF CLINTON COUNTY.
rural improvements, in the same, fully up with the average of this por- tion of the state.
Among the earliest settlers of this township were Moses McMahan, Sr., originally from Kentucky, and who came, in 1828, from Clay County, John McKowan, who located there when the red man was yet abroad in the land, and when deer and bear were as familiar a sight as cattle and hogs are to-day. Mr. McKowan is still (1881) alive. Armstrong McClintock, from Kentucky, settled there in 1831. In the same year, Samuel M. Biggerstaff, still (1881) a resident of the county, arrived from Kentucky and pitched his tent on the spot where now stands the neat and prosperous village of Gower. At that period, the nearest black- smith shop was at Agency Ford, on Platte River, in Buchanan County. James Gillmore was the government blacksmith at the time, and ran the only shop in the place. About this time, Robert Sullivan also arrived from Kentucky. He, with Samuel Biggerstaff, borrowed of General Andrew Hughes, the government agent at the Ford, a whip saw, with which they sawed the first plank that was made in the county. This plank was used for the floors and joists of their respective dwel- lings, and also for those of Moses McMahan, another early pioneer of the neighborhood. About the same time, Lewis Shelton moved to the vicinage from Clay County, and, shortly after, Stephen Jones, who went to reside in Texas after the civil war. Among other prominent settlers of that day within the present limits of Athison Township were Joseph Jenkins, Truet Davis, Mrs. Rebecca Bedford, Elizabeth Pierson, who came from Kentucky, and since died ; Samuel Nash, from the same state ; Joseph Berry, Robert Scearce, Rev. Eppe Tillery, Abraham Groom, with a large family from Clay County ; James Halsey, the noted deer hunter ; Rev. Wm. Tillery, Andrew M. Pogue, Abraham Whitson, from Tennessee; Allen Atchison, from Kentucky, a brother of the distin- guished David R. Atchison., Silas McGuire, James and Thomas Poteet. Mitchell Pogue, from Clay County ; Rueben Pogue and son, and Greenburg Pogue from the same place. Elder Abraham Enyart, the pioneer Christian preacher in the county, who held his first meetings at the residence of John Livingston, in the neighborhood of the present Starfield, a hamlet on the northern boundary of the township, was also one of the earliest settlers. It appears that the pioneers of that day were usually church-going people, and punctual in their attendance at public worship, except on occasions when snake-killing expeditions were in order, or when an especially favorable day for bec-hunting happened to occur on Sunday. Snakes, now rarely seen in the country. abounded in vast numbers and of numerous varieties in that day. Such was the damage which they often occasioned to live stock that their extermination became an object of general interest. Hence the inau- guration of death-dealing enterprises in which the entire country joined.
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HISTORY OF CLINTON COUNTY.
The destruction of as many as three hundred of these venomous reptiles in a single day was no unusual result of one of these expeditions.
. In that early day, not a very extravagant value was attached to real estate in this part of the then distant west, and some remarkable trans- fers of lands and land claims are still referred to by those of the pioneers who yet survive. Among these, it is recounted that in 1849, Lud Fagin, now (1881) a resident of Buchanan County, on his first arrival in the country, met a man on the prairie who was in the act of starting to Cal- ifornia. He held in his hand a warrant for 160 acres of land with which he had intended to enter the quarter section from which he was then in the act of moving. This warrant he offered to Mr. Fagin for an ordi- nary rifle gun, and the bargain was unhesitatingly closed. This land is now a valuable farm, in the eastern part of the township, and is the property of George R. Shepherd. At that period, the only mill within reach of the pioneers, was at Smithville, in Clay County, twenty miles from the present town of Gower.
About 1835, Calep McGill put up on Castile Creek, two miles south of the present town of Gower, the first saw mill in the township.
Shortly after, John Holman erected a horse power grist mill near the farm of Moses McMahan, Sr., in section 11, township 55, range 33. This was the first grist mill in the county. The southwest quarter of this section is now the property of D. McMahan, the youngest of a fam- ily of eight children and only surviving child of the pioneer. Mr. D. McMahan was born in 1833, on the old homestead on which he now resides, and which was settled by his father, who moved there from Clay County in 1828. It was the first farm settled on Castile Creek, and was purchased by Mr. McMahan from William Castile, who first settled on the creek which derived its name from his, and who, at the time of his transferring the land, had only cleared a half acre of ground, on which he had raised a garden. This was the first farm opened in the township. Mr. Castile was a member of the first grand jury empaneled in Clinton County, and it is related that, on the occasion of his attending in response to the summons, his appearauce was such as to necessitate a slight addi- tion to his wardrobe, which was made by the sheriff, who bestowed on him, by order of the judge, a shirt and hat, at the expense of the county.
The old horse mill has long since disappeared. The only grist mill at present (1881) in the township was put up by Calvin Graves, on Castile Creek, two and a half miles east of Gower. Its motive power is steam. It is provided with two run of burrs. The same power operates a saw mill. These mills were put up in 1874.
The pioneers of Atchison Township, in common with those of other sections of the county, were generally men of sufficient intelligence to place a proper estimate on the value of scholastic training, and, in an early day, attempts favoring that end were inaugurated.
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HISTORY OF CLINTON COUNTY.
SCHOOLS.
In 1837 or 1838, a man by the name of Stollins taught the first school in the township. The school house, a rude log cabin, stood on the farm of Moses McMahan, above referred to. In 1840, this building was acci- dentally destroyed by fire. Another school house of similar character and appearance was then erected, about one-fourth mile southwest of the site of the original building. Many years after, this, like its pre- decessor, was destroyed by fire.
Among those who were pupils of Professor Stollin's, in his first school, were William and Thomas Whitson, Moses McMahan, Jr., Jacob and Joseph Groom, all since dead. John and Moses Whitson and Wil- liam and John Stevens are among those of the members of this pioneer institution of learning who yet survive.
The first burial ground in the township was near the site of this house. About one hundred grass-grown and scarcely remembered graves yet mark the locality of this silent village of the dead.
CHURCHES.
Religious services were held in different parts of the township, for several years before the erection, within its limits, of a building specially devoted to that purpose. The residence of the pioneer, Moses McMahan. was often the scene of these meetings, as was, afterwards, the neighbor- ing school house.
In 1848 or 1849, the Regular (commonly called " Hard Shell") Bap- tists erected on the foundation of the first school house, above men- tioned, a log church. This was the first building exclusively devoted to religious exercises, erected in the township. The congregation had pre- viously been organized in May, 1846. The regular minister here was Elder Eppe Tillery, the pioneer missionary of this section. He was the only regular minister of the congregation, though others occasionally preached in the church.
In 1858, the building was sold to a man by the name of Frank White, who moved it out on the prairie, about three-fourths of a mile east of Gower, where it still (188t) stands, and is occupied as a dwelling.
Among the original members of this, the pioneer church of the township, the proper name and style of which was "Castile Regular Baptist Church." were Joel Burnham and wife, originally from Kentucky, James Ellett and wife, Chesley Woodward and wife, Woodford Tillery, William Price, Feathergill Adams and wife, George Gibson, Nelson Witt and wife, Ezekiel Fiddler, and James Groom and wife.
Elder William Tillery, now (188t) building a hotel in Gower, and his brother Woodford Tillery, residing seven miles cast of Plattsburg,
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HISTORY OF CLINTON COUNTY.
both nephews of the venerable Eppe Tillery, and men well advanced in years, are also ministers of the Regular Baptist Church. They came in 1821 from Kentucky to Clay County, Missouri, and thence to Clinton County in 1856.
In 1854, an organization of the Christian Church was effected at the residence of Alexander Newby, within the limits of Buchanan County, and about three-fourths of a mile from the site of the present edifice of Antioch Church in Clinton County, which stands about the same dis- tance north of the town of Gower. The church was organized by Elders Samuel S. Trice and Duke Young. Among the original members were the first three elders, A. W. Beck, William Poe, and Judge Weston Everett. Of these, the latter only survives. He resides, at an advanced age, on his farm in Buchanan County. Alexander Newby and wife, Morris Pyle and wife, James Cogdill and wife, Isaiah Pyle and wife, Jordan Ray and wife, and T. J. Sodowsky, with his wife and mother, were also among the membership of the church at its first organization. Samuel S. Trice and Duke Young were the first preachers. A reference to the sudden death of the former, who expired in the pulpit of Beth- any Church, may be found in the biographical sketches included in this volume. Duke Young died in Atchison, Kansas, in 1850, and, with his wife, is buried on Round Prairie, six miles southwest of that city, and in the neighborhood of the village of Mount Pleasant. He was for many years a resident of the Platte Purchase, to which he came from La Fayette County, Missouri, in 1837.
The lamented Judge Wyatt, of St. Joseph, preached at Antioch Church, from time to time, during a period of nearly twenty years immediately preceding his sudden death, which occurred in the sum- mer of 1881. Thomas J. Williamson preached a year or two at this church. William C. Rogers, and John W. Tate, are the present ministers.
The church edifice is an ordinary frame building. It was erected in 1855, at a cost of $1,500, on the farm of A. W. Beck, who deeded to the organization one and one-eighth acre of ground for a building site and church yard.
On the north boundary line, and within a mile and a half of the northeast corner of Atchison Township, is the hamlet of
STARFIELD,
a small place of less than one hundred inhabitants. The only business house in the place is the general store of Lyons & Conner, representa- tive merchants of Plattsburg. It also contains a blacksmith shop, run by a man of the name of Briggs, and the wagon shop of John Dodson. They have no regular post office, but command, by private conveyance, bi-weekly communication with the outer world.
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HISTORY OF CLINTON COUNTY.
CHURCHES.
About one mile south of the village is the frame structure of Mount Zion Baptist Church, owned jointly by the Regular (Hardshell) and the Freewill Baptists. It was built about the year 1860. On the dissolution of the Old Log Church, of Castile the congregation moved their place of assembling to this locality ; and, in connection with the Freewill Baptists, built this church, which they called Mount Zion. On the death of Eppe Tillery, their pastor, the church organization moved to Gower, where they now (1881) hold services in the public school building. Elder William W. Tillery is their pastor. The membership of this church is about twenty-five.
The ministers of the Freewill Baptist congregation of Mount Zion were, successively, Silas Carns and Claib Williams. The church is now abandaned, no meeting of any kind having occurred within its walls for some time.
MOUNT CARMEL CHURCH,
located on the southeast quarter of section 11, township 55, range 33, about two miles east of Gower, and three and a half by the road, is a neat frame building. It was erected in the fall of 1872, at a cost of $1,800. The organization was effected immediately before the erection of the edifice, and included forty members, drawn chiefly from the mem- bership of New Harmony Church, in Buchanan County. The first min- ister was Rev. Wesley Oadum. He was succeeded by W. T. Flenor. In 1874, George Everett served the church as pastor till March, 1880, when he was succeeded by the present minister, Rev. Isaiah T. Williams.
ANDERSON POST OFFICE,
two miles south of Gower, never was a place of any importance. The post office was discontinued about the period of the building of the St. Louis and St. Joseph Railroad, in 1869 or 1870, when the town of Gower was laid out.
GOWER,
the business center of the township, is about two and a half miles south of the northern boundary of the same, nine miles west of Plattsburg, and twenty miles southeast of St. Joseph. Extending about one-fourth of a mile north and south, and the same distance east and west, its western boundary is the line of Buchanan County. Daniel Smith, after laying out the streets of Gower, gave to the St. Joseph Land Company one-half the lots in the town in consideration of its being made a railroad station. This was in August, 1870, about the period of the completion to this
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HISTORY OF CLINTON COUNTY.
point of the St. Louis and St. Joseph, now (1881) the Wabash, St. Louis and Pacific Railway. The town was named in honor of A. G. Gower, division superintendent of the road. As a natural town site, Gower is not surpassed by any railroad station in the state. Its location is a prairie sufficiently rolling to be well drained, and is almost surrounded by a magnificent grove of lofty timber, sufficiently thinned out to permit a luxuriant growth to the blue grass, which here appears in that velvety sward peculiar to the natural parks which abound throughout the area of the rich and beautiful County of Clinton.
The principal business part of the town occupies the less favorable portion of the site included in the division north of the railroad track. This peculiarity is due to the circumstance that in moving the first busi- ness house from a position a mile distant, to the site of Gower, an almost insuperable obstacle presented itself in the presence of a yawning ditch, that had been temporarily excavated, in the construction of the road bed. The difficulty of crosing this ditch first induced the settlement on the north side of the track, around which other buildings naturally clus- tered. The first building erected in the town was a storehouse, which, when first built, was known as the old Woodward store. In the fall of 1870, it was moved to Gower from across the line where it formerly stood in Buchanan County. It was first occupied in its present location, by Daniel Sanders, who therein opened the first store in the place. It was subsequently enlarged, and is now occupied by the dry goods and gen- eral store of G. T. Hall.
The second building erected in the town, was the large two-story frame dwelling of James H. Harrod, which was, for several years, used by him as a hotel.
SCHOOLS.
The first school house erected in Gower, was for the accomodation of a private institution. Miss Mollie Tillery, now Mrs. Hutchinson, an enterprising and able teacher of the county, built this at her own expense, in the beautiful grove on the south side of the railroad. It is a two-story frame building. In this she taught successfully several sessions. The building, was, subsequently, occupied as a dwelling. A neat and com- modious public school building has since been erected. In this, a school is maintained about eight months in each year.
Shortly after the completion of the railroad to this point, in August, 1870, a neat and substantial depot was built. October 28, 1872, it was accidentally destroyed by fire, and the building has never since been replaced. The first station agent here, was a man by the name of O'Leary. He served about a month, when he was succeeded by W. E. Copeland, who filled the position about three months, when he was suc- ceeded by E. P. Rice, who held the office one year. In 1872, W. B.
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HISTORY OF CLINTON COUNTY.
Sanders was appointed agent. He continued to fill the position seven years, when he was relieved by D. W. Henderson in 1879. Six months after, the latter retired, and was succeeded by the present agent, J. P. Bretz, in April, 1881. Since the destruction by fire of the depot, the tele- graph and ticket office has been accommodated in the drug store of W. B. Sanders, on the west side of the park, at a point inconveniently distant from the stopping place of the trains.
The first postmaster of Gower was Ben. O. Weller. He was appointed in 1870 while clerking in the store of Daniel Sanders, the first established merchant of the place. The first meeting of the town board after the incorporation of Gower was held June 21, 1873. E. T. Smith was president ; R. T. Dusky, M. Duncan and John Westbrook, trustees. The board, in 1881, included John Westbrook, Dr. W. F. Stark, Jno. W. Hall, N. G. Cummings, W. B. Sanders and William Hammett. The lat- ter, clerk.
Since that period and the present others have, at different times, sold goods in the place.
BUSINESS AND BUSINESS MEN.
Those engaged in business, in 1881, include G. T. Hall, whose store with a considerable addition also includes the original Woodward's store building, before referred to. He carries a large general stock. Poe & Jamison also have a general store ; also Foreman & Ray. William Hammon sells drugs. These are on the north side of the railroad track. On the south side of the same, and immediately east of the public square, or park of three acres, which is surrounded by a substan- tial plank and wire fence, is the large drug store of W. B. Sanders. On the same street is the hardware store of D. S. Hall, a brother of G. T. Hall, and with him an early settler of the town, as was their father, Thomas Hall, still (1881) a resident of the town, and successor to Wil- liam Dewdney, the first blacksmith established in the town. The sad- dle and harness shop of the town, on the same street with the above last mentioned houses, is also the property of D. S. Hall. John Hink- son has long been the popular hotel man of Gower, and was making consideral additions to this house in 1881, while Elder Tillery, the minis- ter of the Regular (Hard Shell) Baptist congregation in the the town, was laying the foundation of another hotel building. N. G. Cummings is proprietor of the meat market. Abe Groom keeps the only livery stable in the place. The Misses Mason and Beck supply the ladies with millinery. John Westbrook is the boot and shoemaker of the town ; Hall & Nelson, wagon and blacksmith shop, and R. B. Agee, wagon manufacturer.
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HISTORY OF CLINTON COUNTY.
One of the earliest physicians established in Gower, was Dr. San- ders, and Drs. Stark and Hutchinson were located there in 1881. B. F. Poe, at that time, was teaching the public school.
As a shipping point, Gower though, as before stated, without a depot building, is no insignificant station, the averge shipments amount- ing, in the course of the year, to twenty-five car-loads per month. A considerable proportion of these include walnut logs, at one time, an important article of export, though of late years greatly reduced by the exhaustion of the timber.
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