USA > Missouri > Jackson County > The History of Jackson county, Missouri, containing a history of the county, its cities, towns, etc., biographical sketches of its citizens, Jackson county in the late warhistory of Missouri, map of Jackson county > Part 21
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Levi Montgomery, 19 Francis E. Johnson, 16.
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HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY.
For the oldest continued resident of Jackson county, an easy chair, value $20.50. The entries were as follows :
Mrs. Mary A. Pitcher, December, 1821.
David Daily, January, 1822.
John Bogard, February, 1822. Larkin Johnson, November, 1822.
Mrs. Jemima Russel, May, 1823.
Mrs. Matilda Maxwell, August, 1823. John Majors, February, 1825.
As the two first and oldest names recorded had already been the recipient of one prize, and as none were allowed to receive but one, the chair was placed in the hands of the third, Mr. John Bogard, he having resided in the county over fifty-two years.
For the oldest native born citizen of Jackson county, now a resident, set of silver knives and forks. The following names were found recorded, which re- sulted in the first, Mrs. Margaret Christeson, now in her fiftieth year, having been born and lived since in the county :
Mrs. Margaret Christeson, March, 1824.
Sarah A. McClanahan, April, 1828.
C. B. L. Boonhe, April, 1829.
Nelson Adams, May, 1829.
Fannie C. Twyman, April, 1829.
Jesse Nolan, October, 1830. Landes Stayton, October, 1833.
The presentation speeches were made by Mr. Richard R. Reese, now of Leavenworth, Kansas, but for years one of the old Jackson county boys, in a fluent and acceptable manner, and as each would receive and bear off his or her prize, cheer upon cheer would ascend from the crowds around ; and though there were many disappointed faces to be seen, the utmost good humor prevailed throughout, and none. seemed to envy the other or to begrudge him the present.
Next in order came the foot race, booked for which there were six contest- ants, all of whom were over 65 years of age : Henry Donahue, Thomas Pitcher, Henry Tull, George W. Clair, Samuel Ralston, Bennett Hail.
From some unaccountable cause, however, but the first three ran for the prize, which consisted of a gold-headed cane, valued at $15, which fell to the lot of the first, Mr. Henry Donahue, aged 70 years.
This last concluded the long and very agreeable programme provided for the day's entertainment, and gradually the buggies began to fill, horses were saddled and harnessed to the old country wagons, and by twos and threes the vast crowd began to move homeward.
Many of the residents of Kansas City boarded the return train at 3:30, though the majority were determined to " see it out," and the train leaving Inde- pendence at 9:50 p. m. found many weary picnickers in waiting at the depot.
Matters, however, in the meantime were varied. A large number of the ex- cursionists received and accepted a courteous invitation from Mr. Vaughan, of Narrow gauge fame, and indulged in a delightful ride for a few miles up the road.
. Others sought the city of Independence, and time passed pleasantly in the watching of fireworks, etc., and for hours did the dull old town resound with Kansas City shouts. But when the time came to go home they were all there, and the train left the depot bearing away many a full stomach and an aching head. 1
As far as heard from none regretted the visit, and in the minds of the many thousands who attended, the Jolly Old Settlers will ever remain fresh, while "The Fourth, of 1874, at Independence," will never be forgotten by the picnicking people of Jackson county.
151
HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY.
DEATH OF DANIEL BOONE.
The following recollections were penned by Mr. J. C. McCoy on the death of Daniel Boone, one of the pioneers of this region of country :
" From a brief notice we receive intelligence of the death of Daniel Boone, one of the earliest pioneers of Jackson county, Missouri, and of the State of Kansas, which occurred at his old homestead, eight miles south of Kansas City, February 22, 1880. Deceased was a grandson of the famous Kentucky and Missouri pioneer, and son of Daniel Morgan Boone, who was, without doubt, the first actual resident householder within the limits of the State of Kansas, and who died at the same old homestead about the year 1834.
" For almost half a hundred years I had been on terms of intimate friendship with him, and honored the sterling worth and guileless life of my worthy old friend and fellow pioneer. I may not call the news of his death sad. His earthly pilgrimage had extended beyond the ordinary limit of three score years and ten. His active work on earth was finished, and believing, as I do, in the wisdom of the conclusion of the King, that a 'good name is better than precious ointment, and the day of death better than the day on one's birth,' why then should we contem, late the departure of such an one to his long home, with sadness and regret ? The same wise King hath said: 'Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was, and the spirit shall return to God who gave it.'
" Deceased was born in St. Charles county, Missouri, August 27, 1809, and in 1826, his father, Daniel Morgan Boone, lived in the lower part of Kansas City, near the mouth of the small creek below the gas works, that point being the agency for the Kanzan Indians; and at that point resided Benito Vasques, who was United States agent, and Daniel Morgan Boone, the father of the subject of this notice, with his family-the latter having the appointment of government farmer for the Kansas tribe.
"Early in 1827, they removed, and established the agency at a point about eight miles above Lawrence, on the north bank of the Kansas River. It was here that I first met my friend, who is now deceased Daniel Boone was then about twenty, while I was nineteen. From that day till the day of his recent death, through the long lapse of half a century, during which the wild wilderness of our youth had become transformed into smiling fields and busy marts of com- merce, and all the appliances of human industry and progress, we were friends in the true meaning of the term. I can use none other more expressive of our re- lations during that long period.
"In 1833 his father removed with his family, to the State of his old home- stead, where his son died where he lived in 1834.
"In 1832 our old friend was married to Mary Philbert, who is still living in the enjoyment of health and vigor, mental and physical, at that pleasant, unosten- tatious, hospitable homestead. She, too, has a personal history full of interest connected with the early settlement of these western wilds. The panorama un- rolled to our vision, and the experiences of half a hundred years, would form the subject and theme of an epic worthy of the grand old Homer. Eulogies are de- livered in set speeches, by chosen and gifted orators, on the demise of great men of the earth, and those holding high official trusts, and the inanimate clay is con- signed to earth, the rappings and blaze of funeral pomp. All proper and right, if the eulogies pronounced tell the truth, and the whole truth, and if the sable badges of mourning represent the true sorrow of the multitude.
"Not so, however, was it with our deceased old friend, Daniel Boone. His humble eulogy was more appropriate, more eloquent, and more touching, pro- nounced by tearful eyes and loving hands, and the heartfelt sympathies of life- long friends, who surrounded his bedside, and cheered him as his feet met the waters of the dark river. It would be a pleasant and grateful task to write an obituary of such an one ; but none is needed. It is already graven on the hearts
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152
HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY.
of his friends, 'Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his.'"'
MEETING APRIL 24, 1880.
The old settlers met at Kansas City, in the county court room, including men who have lived in and around Jackson county from twenty-five to fifty years, who date their arrival with the earliest pioneers who settled in this section of Missouri. At the morning session a committee was appointed to prepare the pro- gramme for the evening. William O. Shouse was selected as chairman, and C. D. Lucas, secretary. In the afternoon the old settlers again assembled, and the committee made a report, which was adopted, and the proceedings had in regular order, as suggested in the report. The first question under consideration, the advisability of forming themselves into an association, was discussed by R. N. Hudspeth, J. C. McCoy, F. R. Long, William Jarboe, and others.
They then adopted the name of "Historical Society of Old Settlers." The society was understood to include all the old residents of Jackson, Clay, Cass and Platt counties, Missouri, and Wyandotte and Johnson counties, Kansas. Jacob Gregg was elected President. He is now one of the oldest residents in Jackson county, was sheriff in an early day and has served in the State Legislature. D. C. Allen, of Clay county, was elected first Vice-President, Chas. D. Lucas, second Vice-President, J. C. McCoy, Secretary, and Joseph S. Chick, Treasurer. An executive committee was appointed with powers to appoint various sub-com- mittees to arrange for the meeting on the 22d of May at the Fair Grounds in Kansas City.' The committee consisted of Wallace Laws, Col. Theo. S. Case, Col. A. B. H. McGee, Col. R. T. Van Horn, and Judge F. R. Long. By re- quest Judge Adams, Secretary of the Historical Society of Kansas, address- ed the meeting giving valuable suggestions as to the mode of operation for the gathering of historical facts. Judge Adams was then invited to be present at the re-union May 22d.
A resolution was adopted appointing John C. McCoy, Col. Case, L. B. Dougherty, D. C. Allen and E. A. Hickman a permanent committee on history, with a view of collecting historical facts connected with the early settlement of this portion of the West.
The following is a list of the names of those present and the date at which they settled in this locality, some of them running back fifty years or more :
Allen McGee
1827 F. R. Long . 1828
C. B. L. Boothe
1829 R. A. Hudspeth 1829
William Mulkey
1829 J. C. McCoy 1830
Samuel Gregg . 1831 Walter Bales
1831
James M. Adams
1833 C. D. Lucas
1834
William J. Jarboe Larkin Steele . 1836 1836
William Stewart Bryan Wright
1836
W. J. Wright .
1837
John C. Wallace Samuel Bales
1837
Amazon Hayes
1837
1837
Myers Hale .
1837
W. O. Shouse.
1837
John J. Moore
1837
G. B. Regan
1837
J. F. Thomas .
1838
Joel Lipscomb
1839
N. B Wallace
1839
Wallace Smith William Radcliff
1843
George W. Shepherd Wallace Laws .
1844
W. S. T. Patton .
I846
John C. Agnew
1847
A. B. Earle . .
1848
J. M. Ross
1850
Isaac McCarty
1852
R. T. Van Horn
1855
D. Y. Chalfant
1855
A. M. Allen
1834
Alexander Collins
1835
1836
Josiah Davenport
1840
Joseph C. Ranson
1842
1846
William R. Bernard
1847
1855
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HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY.
By request J. C. McCoy then read an address to the society.
ADDRESS BY J. C. M'COY.
The following was delivered before the pioneers of Jackson county, April 24, 1880 :
" This reunion of Old Settlers is to me as it is no doubt to all present an occasion of great and profound interest. Aside from the opportunity it affords us for an interchange of friendly greetings and the renewal of old friendships and the expression of words of mutual sympathy and cheer as we draw near the end of life's journey, it may not be inaptly regarded as a pleasant way-station, a halt- ing place, where we may take our bearings and view the surroundings, a high point from whence we may note and fix upon land-marks that shall safely guide us to our haven of rest. Only a few years more will come and go, before such a meeting as this will cease to be held altogether, and when the small remnant of the pioneer band who first entered this goodly land shall have passed over to another and we may hope a better one. In this regard, then, this meeting of Old Settlers has no ordinary significance. It means, not only a reunion of old familiar friends, but a sort of leave taking, an adios to the scenes and the recollec- tions of our early boyhood, our mature manhood and our autumn days whose chilling blasts have so plentifully sprinkled our heads with withering frosts.
" Half a hundred years have elapsed since many who are now here first entered this beautiful, bountiful land, known then as the farthest "Far West." The broad boundless area lying westward and a very large proportion of that lying eastward and northward, was then a wide, waste wilderness, clothed in the garb of nature's own handiwork, unknown and almost untrod by civilized man undis- turbed and unmarred by the ax or plowshare, the pick and shovel. But all this is now changed. Instead of the lonely wolf howl and the scream of the panther, the hills and valleys now resound with the shrill warning of the steam whistle, the rumbling and rattle of the locomotive with its long, swift flying train, and the ceaseless hum of the busy multitude over the vast wild region from the Mississippi to the Pacific, and from the Northern Lakes to the Gulf. Civilization and enlightened human progress, like a broad wave has swept across plain and mountain, hill and valley, in its onward, resistless, westward flow, obliterating our ancient land marks, uprooting our grand old forests, spanning our rivers with iron bridges, building throughout its entire length and breadth a network of rail- roads, cities, towns and villages. Churches and school houses have sprung up until we find ourselves to-day no longer in the Far West, but in the great mid- continental center of commerce and trade. Nearly all these marvelous results have been accomplished within the last twenty years.
" Our old slow going modes of locomotion and travel, of cultivation of soil, of harvesting and handling its products, in the diffusion of knowledge, in the mechanic arts, in the contrivances and labor saving inventions to help carry on the various industries and the necessary household duties, and in all the depart- ments of trade, commerce and manufacturing, everything has been changed. The world now moves by machinery and steam and electricity-and its inhabi- tants now live, move, work, think, preach and pray by machinery-for one can now hold familiar converse with friends many miles distant, or listen to a sermon delivered in a distant city while comfortably seated at his own fireside. What think you would have been the emotions of good old Joab Powell, who emigrated from the Sni country to Oregon in 1843, and who was credited with selecting his text on one occasion from the "two-eyed chapter of the one-eyed John," or of old uncle Jimmy Savage had they been assured that this mode of preaching the gospel could, and would be practiced, during his lifetime. Little doubt we have but that in the extremity of their disgust and in behalf of outraged common sense they would have exclaimed : "Now, Gabriel, blow your horn, and take us out
154
HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY.
of this pestilent atmosphere, to where we can get a good breath of God's own fresh, wholesome air." We need only to open our eyes and look around us to realize something of the triumphs of ambitious man over nature's obstacles. The rough unsightly hills and deep gorges of primitive times, once scattered all around where we now meet have melted away, and in a great measure been leveled down before the pick and shovel of the stalwart omnipresent Irishman.
"The floor of the county court room where we meet is forty feet below the original surface of the surrounding ground; and if the earth were again restored to its original level, nothing of the proportions of the large and costly court house would be visible except its dome. All around us is the great and growing city. When we came fifty years ago the nearest newspaper office was 130 miles east of this (the Boonelick Monitor, published at Fayette, Howard county, by James H. Birch).
"I need not tell you or attempt to enumerate the number of those luminaries now shedding abroad their bright rays around us and away off toward the setting sun. Their name is legion, and the State of Kansas alone, that old American desert, now rejoices in the light of nearly three hundred periodicals and publica- tions. Leaving out of the estimate the military cantonment, Leavenworth, the entire white population of the State of Kansas fifty years ago numbered less than sixty souls. It now numbers nearly 1,000,000, and the old mythical desert has become the banner wheat producing State in the Union. The wild denizens and countless herds that once roamed over those plains from time immemorial, have all taken their flight before the shrill scream of the locomotive and the steam thresher. The long straggling line of the yearly outgoing and incoming caravans of white-topped prairie schooners with its herds and boisterous, jovial happy crowds of American and Mexican Greasers, no longer winds its slow length across those plains. I doubt whether there was then a stationary steam engine west of St. Charles. We were then destitute of a thousand things, that people nowadays consider indispensable, and yet I can't see but people were just as happy and contented then as now. I think the average man was gifted with an allowance of brains fully equal to the man of the present day, and I am very sure they were better, and came nearer the divine standard; were more honest, more given to practice of hospitality and the virtues that ennoble and adorn mankind. It is true that knowledge has greatly increased, but we may have grave doubts whether the true wisdom that looks beyond to the higher sphere of excellence has had any increase.
" Will some tell us this is the bliss of ignorance ? One can now make the journey around the earth with more safety and more expeditiously than he could then travel from the mouth of Kaw River to the Pacific. It required two years of great privation, danger and fatigue for Lewis and Clark in 1804-5 to make the journey from St. Louis to the Columbia and back with all the needful aid of the government in men and money. The world is now moved by steam, machinery, electricity and the thousand subtile and incomprehensible agencies provided by an all-seeing, wise and beneficent Creator for the well-being of his creatures. Where is the limit, the height and depth, the boundless scope that has not been reached or attempted by the daring ambition and irrepressible intellect and genius of the human race? Truly, it would seem that in this evening of the nineteenth century of the Christian era the time had arrived predicted in the last chapter of the book Daniel, 'when many shall run to and fro in the earth and knowledge be increased.' And yet, there are a few transcendently wise men, and scientists who tell us this world and the human race has existed many millions of years, and will continue to exist many more. I won't dispute it. I am only too thank- ful that they allow us to have a beginning and ending at all. But more than that, they tell us that all the stupendous results just spoken of have been accom-
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HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY.
plished by being descended from baboons. Ah! what a fall is this, my country- men, from the sublime to the ridiculous.
'They tell us * X We must
Give up our origin Divine;
We came by methods we define-
Development-from toads and swine.
The man is but a brute complete,
The maiden, laughing, loving, sweet,
Should with a cousin's welcome, greet Each kindred thing With beak and wing,
And ne'er with pride of former shape,
Forget she's but a lovely ape,
Bound down to earth beyond escape.
Must we accept this pedigree ?
This stunted, scrubby family tree ! This beauty, genealogy !'
"Never, is my unfaltering and emphatic answer in behalf of the Old Settlers, although I am sorry to confess that I have in my long experience, known a few men who did have very strongly marked characteristics of the hog. But, enough of this. When an old back-woodsman, who couldn't tell the difference between a thoroughbred Pegasus and a spavined cart-horse, takes to quoting poetry, its time to put on the brakes. I said that it was a great pleasure to me to recall the faces, the incidents and pleasant memories of by-gone years, to draw comparisons between the past and present. In doing this, the question naturally arises, whether with all the wonderful discoveries and inventions, wrought out and set in motion by scientific knowledge and the genius of man, the sum of human happiness has been increased.
" Whether the average man comes nearer the divine standard to-day than he did fifty years ago? With the increase of knowledge and wealth has there been a corresponding increase in the virtues that alone make man god-like? These are questions profoundly impressive and full of interest to the old timer -- and which we fear are fully answered " not so." We have listened to speeches and discourses as grandly eloquent and logical, in the unpretentious court house and the humble log meeting house of the backwoods, as we ever heard in the halls of legislation or under the tall church spire. There is a very large amount of knowl- edge, so called, of the present day, that it would be a great blessing to the human race were it unlearned and obliterated altogether. It would greatly thin out our over crowded penitentiaries, jails and alms houses. No my friends, we need have no fears to institute a comparison from a moral or a social stand point between the people with whom we mingled in the days of our youth, and those who now occupy their places. As for me it is a source of unalloyed pleasure and profound interest to recall the faces and scenes of my boyhood, my youth and early manhood, of the boy, the careless, joyous, happy boy, plodding along to the small log school house, embowered in the shade of the grand old forest near the cool sparkling spring, to listen again to the sonorous cow bell, to reconstruct the almost forgotten picture of the unpretentious but comfortable log house with its surround- ings of out houses and fields of waving grain, to listen again to the hum of the spinning wheel and cast shy, furtive glances toward the red-cheeked maiden who so daintily trips back and forth as she deftly whirls around the big wheel and gathers her woof on the spindle. Talk of your modern dancing schools ! was there ever a school teaching the poetry of motion and posture like unto or equal to this. Then the ceasless clatter of the everlasting loom, without which no con- siderable housewife could consent to live a day ; and the old familiar tread-mill
156
HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY.
or pull-round horse mill, and the gossipy miller, and the old log meeting house where we all went on Sundays to show our Sunday clothes and take no notice of the girls dressed out in their brilliant ginghams, calicoes and linseys. Ah! well ! no need to proceed further with this topic. Every one of you old veterans know how it is yourself. It is very true that "distance lends enchantment to the view" -and perhaps the distance of time (not place) leads us to view with undue par- tiality and favor the persons and faces familiar to us in our early life ; but we have reason to rejoice and thank God that we can do so conscientiously. We do not say that all men in our early days were good men and true, but we do say that the proportion of the bad to the good was much smaller than now ; that the vast increase of population, wealth and knowledge has also brought with these elements of civil progress a vastly disproportioned increase of crime in a thousand new and varied forms then unknown, permeating our whole land and yielding a rich and perennial harvest of rogues and criminals of high and low degree. We need then have no fear to institute a comparison between the social, moral, physical or mental standing of the men of our early days and those who swarm around us. "Nearer my God to thee." And now my old friends do we fully realize the vast changes that have been wrought all around us, for better or worse ? All, all is changed, and we old pioneers, too, are changed. Our once vigorous, buoyant, elastic step is changed to the slow, cautious plodding of the weary as we pick our way along the down grade of life. Our dark locks are changed to iron-gray and white. Our early dreams, our aspirations and our hopes are changed, a few to full fruition many to ashes of disappointment and sorrow, and the bright air castles of our youth are vanished to the baseless fabric of a vision. Our home circles and our familiar friends who have passed on before us are changed, we fully hope, in their new sphere of existence, "where the wicked cease from troubling, and the weary be at rest." That we, too, who still linger on the way may with our loins girded, and our lamps burning, in God's own good time have with them one other happy, unending re-union, is the fervent wish of one of the Old Settlers."
MEETING OF OLD SETTLERS, MAY 22, 1880.
It was a gala day for the Old Settlers of Jackson county. Their meeting was at the Fair Grounds in Kansas City. The plain, old, substantial farmer, arrayed in the primitive homespun, was there with his bright, happy, and healthful family. The old and the young mingled together in a gay and joyous holiday. Here and there beneath the great forest trees were noted groups of Old Settlers, who re- counted to each other the scenes of bygone days. The gray-haired pioneer re- counted his battle with life, and the listeners drank deep of the historic lore of half a century ago.
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