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 36

Author: Union Historical Company
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Kansas City, Mo. : Union historical company
Number of Pages: 1068

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 36

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In June, 1838, Sidney Rigdon preached a sermon taking strong ground against the dissenters and the Missourians. This sermon was construed as a dec- laration of war against the apostates and of reprisal against the citizens. Mr. Hunt states that in this state of things the citizens apprehended wrong-doers against them, but having to go before a Mormon justice and jury they failed and were abused by the Mormons for bringing vexatious suits; and that the Gentiles were not idle in "setting afloat their grievances, and probably exaggerating them."

Mr. Rigdon is said to have delivered an oration July 4th, 1838, at Far West, before a gathered multitude, which was called a treasonable speech. This oration we have carefully read, and can now see that the passages construed as treas- onable and dangerous, may have been but the indignant protest against violence that a possible enthusiast might unadvisedly use. They are as follows : "And that mob that comes on us to disturb us, it shall be between us and them a war of extermination ; for we will follow them till the last drop of their blood is spilled, or they will have to exterminate us, for we will carry the seat of war to their own houses and their own families, and one party or the other shall be utterly de- stroyed. Remember it, then, all men! We will never be the aggressors-we will infringe on the rights of no people, but shall stand for our own until death. We claim our own rights, and are willing that all others shall enjoy theirs. No man shall be at liberty to come into our streets, to threaten us with mobs for if he does, he shall atone for it before he leaves the place ; neither shall he vilify or slander any of us, for suffer it we will not in this place. * * * *

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Neither will we indulge any man or set of men, in instituting vexatious law-suits against us to cheat us out of our rights; if they attempt it, we say woe be unto them."

August Ist, at an election in Davies county, a quarrel ensued between some citizens and Mormons. One of the latter was badly stabbed, and others on both sides wounded. From this occurrence, rumors flew in every direction. The Mormons at Far West were told that several of their number had been killed, and two hundred of them went into Davies county, to inquire into it. They found no one killed ; but Mr. Adam Black, a justice of the peace of Davies county, stated under oath, before John Wright and Elijah Foley, fellow justices, that Mr. Smith and others, to the number of one hundred and fifty-four, exacted from him about August 8th, 1838, a written promise to support the Constitution of the State and the United States ; and not to support a mob, nor to attach himself to any mob, nor to molest the Mormons. To answer to this charge, Mr. Smith, L. Wight and others were arrested, and recognized to appear for trial. Other dis- turbances followed, and upon representation of a deputation of citizens from Davies county, Major-General Atchison, at the head of a thousand men of the Third Division of Militia, went to the scene of trouble. The Major-General found the citizens and the Mormons in hostile array. He dispersed both parties, and reported to the Governor, with the further statement that no further depreda- tions were to be feared from the Mormons. Almost simultaneously disturbances occurred in Carroll and Caldwell counties. The citizens determined to drive the Mormons out of the State ; the Mormons refused to be driven. A number of the citizens made representations to General Atchison, on September 10th, that the citizens of Davies had a Mormon in custody, as a prisoner, and that the Mor- mons had Messrs. John Comer, Wm. McHamy and Allen Miller prisoners, as hostages. Certain of the Mormons, and other citizens of Carroll county, peti- tioned the Governor from De Witt, stating the committal of lawless acts against them, among which was the ordering them to leave the county, giving them until October Ist, and asking interference and relief. This was dated September 22d, 1838.

From reports filed with the Governor, by Generals H. G. Parks, David R. Atchison and A. W. Doniphan, copies of which accompanied the message of the Governor to the Assembly, it appears that when the proper authorities of the State appeared on the scene of difficulty, the Mormons gave up, not only the prisoners they had taken in reprisal, but their arms, and also the men of their number against whom civil processes were pending. General Parks, in a report dated Mill Post, September 25th, 1838, states : " Whatever may have been the dispo- sition of the people called Mormons, before our arrival here, since we have made our appearance, they have shown no disposition to resist the laws, or of hostile intention." *

* * "There has been so much prejudice and exaggeration concerning this matter, that I found things, on my arrival here, totally different from what I was prepared to expect. When we arrived here, we found a large body of men from the counties adjoining, armed, and in the field, for the pur- pose, as I learned, of assisting the people of this county against the Mormons, without being called out by the proper authorities." General Atchison wrote the Governor from Liberty, Missouri, September 27th, 1838: "I have no doubt Your Excellency has been deceived by the exaggerated statements of designing or half crazy men. I have found there is no cause of alarm on account of the Mormons ; they are not to be feared ; they are very much alarmed."

Hostile feeling culminated rapidly. The citizens, in absence of the militia, gathered their forces together, and, on the night of October Ist, attacked Dewitt. A committee of citizens of Chariton county went into Carroll county and found Dewitt invested by a large force, the Mormons in defense and suing for peace, and wishing for the interposition of the civil authorities. They reported October

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5th, 1838. General Atchison reported October 16th that the Mormons had sold out in Carroll county and left, and that a portion of their assailants were on the march to Davies county with one piece of artillery, "where, it is thought, the same lawless game is to be played over, and the Mormons driven from that county, and probably from Caldwell." "Nothing, in my opinion," wrote this general in his report, " but the strongest measures within the power of the execu- tive will put down this spirit of mobocracy."

The Mormons resisted, and in their turn plundered the store of Jacob Stol: lings at Gallatin, removing the goods, burned the store and other buildings in that place and Millport. The citizens of Ray, Davies, Carroll, Jackson, Howard and some other counties gathered, and apprising the governor that the Mormons, now growing desperate, had become the aggressors, the governor, L. W. Boggs, moved thereto by the representations made to him, issued orders to General John B. Clark, placing him in command of all the force necessary, with instructions that he was in receipt of information of the most appalling nature, " which entirely changed the face of things, and places the Mormons in the attitude of an open and armed defiance of the laws, and of having made war upon the people of this State. * * * The Mormons must be treated as enemies, and must be exter- minated or driven from the State, if necessary for the public peace-their out- rages are beyond all description."

In obedience to this order, General Clark, associated with General Lucas, proceeded to the seat of war, and, without much resistance, disbanded the armed forces of the Mormons, demanded and received their arms, took Joseph Smith, Sidney Rigdon, Hyrum Smith and fifty other leading men prisoners for trial upon various charges-high treason against the State, murder, burglary, arson, robbery and larceny. These men were examined before Austin A. King, Judge of the Fifth Judicial Circuit in the State of Missouri, at Richmond, beginning Novem- ber 12, 1838. At this examination some were discharged for lack of evidence to hold them, but Joseph Smith, Lyman Wright, Hyrum Smith, Alexander McRae and Caleb Baldwin were held for trial and committed to jail in Clay county; some others were recognized for trial and gave bonds. A further demand was made to the effect that the Mormons make an appropriation to pay their debts and indemnification for the damage to citizens done by them. The property said to have been taken by them was mostly restored upon demand of the officers.

The Mormons began leaving at once, and continued to leave until all were gone, except now and then a recalcitrant member, or one who had some personal friends among the citizens. Many sold out for what they could get, and many were compelled to go without selling at all. Their leaders were taken prisoners, their means of defense, as well as offense, were taken from them by law, and by the will of the citizens, enforced by the order of the governor, some twelve thou- sand people were driven from the State. The number of killed in this Mormon war is stated by the official report of the general in command in the following language: "The whole number of the Mormons killed through the whole diffi- culty, as far as I can ascertain, are about forty, and several wounded. There has been one citizen killed and about fifteen badly wounded." This is rather a damaging result against the State after the terrible character given the Mormons by those opposed to them, and upon whose reports the governor ordered their suppression. Messrs. Smith, Rigdon and his comrades in jail in Liberty took change of venue to Boone county, but the officer charged with their delivery in Boone in his return of the order of removal to Davies county states that the prisoners escaped. They afterward reached Illinois in safety.

Such in brief is the history of that strange people called Mormons, in Mis- souri; the events succeeding their departure from the County of Jackson and settlements in Ray, Clay, Caldwell, Davies and other counties, have been hurried over as not properly belonging in our history of Jackson.

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HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY.

After this expulsion from Missouri, the Mormons settled in Illinois, where in six years, from 1838 to 1844, they increased rapidly, and laid the foundation for a magnificent city. They began the erection of a stone temple upon a sightly location. Trouble followed them, the citizens were again aroused: Process was issued for the arrest of Joseph and Hyrum Smith, on charge of treason ; awaiting trial upon which charge in the jail of Hancock county, Illinois, June 27th, 1844, they were attacked and killed by a mob. Two years after that, the Mormons, under the leadership of Brigham Young, were expelled from Illinois, and Utah and polygamy are the outcome.

There is now in Jackson county, a body of people calling themselves Latter Day Saints. They are in fact a branch of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, of wltich church Joseph Smith, Jr., the eldest son of Joseph Smith, the putative father of Mormonism, is the president. The present headquarters of this church is at Plano, Kendall county, Illinois; where they have a printing house, containing engine, presses, type and other facilities for car- rying on quite an extensive business. They number some fifteen thousand mem- bers now, dispersed through the United States in over four hundred congregations, including branches in Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago, St. Louis, Salt Lake City and many other prominent cities ; and are most numerous in Illinois, Iowa and Missouri. In many places they have houses of worship, which they by the en- couragement and aid of the citizens have built; one of these buildings is in Inde- pendence.

This church, under Mr. Smith's presidency, has kept an active ministry at work in Utah, endeavoring to disabuse the Mormons of that territory of the dogma of polygamy, which they assert to be no part of primitive Mormonism; and from the history of the sect during its stay in Missouri from 1835 to 1838, it would appear that these organizers are correct; for not a single charge of such dogma being held or taught appears in the many statements made against them, or in the published orders and reports of the officers engaged in expelling them from the State. They, at all events, oppose the tenet, and are directly antagonizing Utah Mormonism.

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HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY.

CHAPTER XIV.

INCIDENTS OF THE WAR.

Politics in Jackson County from 1857 to 1860-Missouri Men and Families Abused-Colonel Henry Younger and John Fristoe-Cole Younger's Revolution to Avenge His Father's Death-Dr. Lee and the Summit, Etc .- The County Officers-Two Silly Young Men- Capt. Quantrell and His Men-He Dashes Upon the Headquarters of the Troops and Escapes Again-The Community.

The enormities of violated law in Jackson county will never be recorded ; figuratively speaking, the half has never been told and the history of the important- events alone would fill a book.

At this late day when our country is sailing over the smoothest seas of pros- perity, and when all is favorable and inviting for at least a succession of years to come, men are beginning to be disposed to remember that unfortunate period in our history as a dream, as some story of romance that they remember to have read years ago. Therefore there is some difficulty in getting men to agree to live that life over again in the way of telling men what they saw and suffered during those times.

It is not so much our wish to learn which individual was guilty and thereby establish the innocency of his neighbor, or which party was just and right while the other was wrong and deserving of annihilation, but to know and record the facts, in the case, as the attorney would say, in his pleading at the bar. The harsh and unreasoning world is by no means in sympathy with historians; but to the contrary, often times, there is the bitterest feeling toward them, simply because they endeavor to solicit and place on record the truth. In the following sections on the civil and criminal record of Jackson county, from the spring of 1860 to the autumn of 1866, the charity and good will of all are sought, and their assistance is earnestly desired that true and reliable facts as they really occured might go down to coming generations.

It is not the trouble to find something to write about, as much as it is what to write, and what not to write. There is not a more prolific period for a multi- plicity of interesting subjects in the history of Missouri than in that of Jackson county during the years 1860-6. Crime and blood-shed held high carnival for some time outside of the above indicated years, a part of which has found its way into the history of our country, but the great part is yet unwritten and remains within the minds of those who were unfortunate enough to experi- ence it.

There must be a difference made between crimes. As a matter of course, rebellion and treason are more or less reprehensible wherever found, yet quite frequently in the history of nations do we find very respectable and plausible rebellions and revolutions. No particular illustrations are necessary to prove this observation ; it is almost understood as a condition of man's energies in behalf of liberty. Consequently, it need not be expected by either North, East, South or West for the late Civil War-in the great Rebellion, as some choose to call it-to be considered as a crime in these pages; not that there were no crimes committed during those troublesome times, for both sides of that desperate struggle did things that have disgraced the fair name of American freemen. So, if any have charges to make, let them be made against the times and not against the men ; and hardly so much against the times as against the culmination and development of certain counter and exceptional principles that enter the constitutions of all Republics.

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Most certainly, if men did wrong as individuals, they are responsible, and their names will ever be praised or blamed, according to what they did.

There has been more or less interest taken in politics in Jackson county ever since the border troubles in 1857 and some time afterward. About the year of 1858 there were quite a number of new settlers in Jackson county, an important majority of whom were first class citizens, and consequently were cordially wel- comed by the people of the county. Along with this number came others who strenuously contended for the notions and prejudices of the sections from which they came, whether North or South. It would not take a very imaginative mind, therefore, to perceive that if there was much persistence on the part of either class of citizens, there would be trouble. These two classes, the slaveholders and the non-slaveholders, continued to increase, as also did the feelings concerning the abolition question. By the time of the Presidential nominations in the spring of 1860, matters took a definite course, and it only took the example of the earlier seceding States to throw the country into party lines. All during the summer of 1860, as the campaign of the several Presidential nominees was going on, some considerable feelings were being aroused throughout the country, to the extent that the election of Lincoln in the autumn of 1860, and his inauguration in the spring of 1861, sounded the key-note of what was to follow.

Of course, as the question of slavery was the hinging issue of the election, its success in the election of Abraham Lincoln was at once manifest; consequently the feelings between the border counties of Missouri and Kansas were almost at once raised to blood heat. The least infringement upon the rights of any of either party were causes whose effects, before the troubles were over, were destruction of much property and the cruelest blood-shed and murders. In the autumn of 1861 the Kansas Volunteers, under Colonel Jennison, entered Jackson county and committed many atrocious crimes, which should, and perhaps would, had circum- stances been favorable, have convicted any man in the Criminal Court of the county ; but as things were then going, revenge and retaliation were about the only measures adopted.

Many citizens of the county, who were, in fact, good, law-abiding men, Union men, were roughly handled, their families abused, and property confiscated by those robbers and marauders who came into the county from Kansas, under the pretense of protecting property and the people. Had they proven true to the purpose for which they were sent, and faithful to the authority that sent them, perhaps hundreds of their own men, and scores of the country's best citizens, as well as millions of her property, would to-day be blessing the world. But alas ! they are no more; only the little biographical pamphlets and stories of the wrongs of the Civil War remain. It might not be of much use to mention any of the several families, that fell victims to this first attack and storm of violence, for they have been given to the world in many different forms; but as this chap- ter is exclusively devoted to incidents of the late war in the whole county, the names of Colonel Henry Younger, old Esquire Lee, the Wilsons, etc .; can- not well be omitted. There is no doubt that the above named families and many others that could be mentioned as well as not, were unjustly and unmercifully treated by those men from Kansas. It is highly probable that the people from among whom these Volunteers came, had been unjustly treated ; but the moral that "Two wrongs never make one right," should have been considered by the United States authorities before they commenced to destroy and kill in the way they did. And then, after that was done, the other side should not have taken the desperate steps it did, by any means in the world ; for it inaugurated a strug- gle of annihilation, that has not been surpassed since the days of the memorable crusades. Were the National Volunteers responsible for what they did? Were the people of the county responsible for what they did? are questions that will have to be answered at the judgment, and perhaps they will never before. . We may

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form whatever conjectures we will, notwithstanding; but besides this high handed species of crime, in which many people were engaged, there were many lesser crimes, or, to be more explicit, many personal and individual crimes, such as murdering, killing, thieving, etc., trespassing upon the rights of others, violating the written and unwritten laws of the county and State.

Colonel Henry W. Younger and Mr. John Fristoe were living, when the war broke out, on the Independence and Harrisonville road, a few miles from what is now known as Lee's Summit-at least they owned valuable property in that neigh- borhood. Judge Younger was County Judge for eight years and afterward was twice elected to the State Legislature; it seems that when he, his family and his property were first attacked, he was a United States Mail Contractor and had his transportation outfit stationed at Harrisonville, Missouri. The first dash of Jenni- son through Jackson and Cass counties swept the lovely property of Colonel Younger away; this gained, of course, for the Federals, eternal hatred from the Younger family ; they espoused immediately the Confederate cause, though they were primarily Union men. The next year brought its full harvest of death and crime. On the 20th of July, 1862, Colonel Younger was waylaid and assassin- ated five miles from Independence. As he had been trading in town the day be- fore rather extensively, the presumption is that he was killed for his money. Though he had some $2,000 or $3, 000 about his person, the robbers did not get but about $400. It would have been good for the world and Jackson county had the assassins that killed Colonel Younger never been born. For this and other insults that have been offered to the Younger family brought to the front one of the most daring and dangerous characters that ever drilled beneath the black flag. Coleman Younger, more hastily called Cole, son of Colonel Younger, while be- holding the agonizing tremors of his delicate mother and sisters over the dead body of his dear father, made resolutions the faithful carrying out of which has cast a shadow over his father's family and good name, made hundreds of widows and fatherless children, and scattered forgotten graves over the entire portion of Western Missouri and Eastern Kansas. Many a noble son and brother that vol- unteered to fight for the glorious stars and stripes of our native land melted and went down before the remorseless anger and resolutions of that injured son and brother. The historical narrative and connection would be entirely broken, were the deeds and crimes of the Younger brothers to be followed.

Mr. John Fristoe, who was related to the Younger family by marriage, was the owner of considerable land, stock and residences, by his relation to the guerrillas, the presumption was that he offered them aid and comfort. Consequently his fine country mansion was burned to the ground, his stock driven off, etc., to the extent that his creditors came upon him and nearly broke him up. His troubles and anxieties, exposures and melancholy had a fatal effect upon him, so much so, that he died a few years afterward of pulmonary consumption ; his widow still lives on the old homestead near Lee's Summit.

Doctor Lee, also, suffered much from those troublous times, and shortly afterward was shot upon his own premises in cold blood. He lived upon and owned many of the broad acres of land in and around the station on the Missouri Pacific Railroad, now known as Lee's Summit. If there was any cause for the maltreatment of the doctor and his property, more than that his sons and nephews were in the Confederate army, it has not come to light; neither does it appear that he made any resistance, but suffered those men who were actually enemies to law and order, in whatever cause, to lead him forth in his own yard and before his own family, and shoot his head full of lead. How completely must those times have been a reign of terror! The house of Esquire Hink was also burnt with that of a dozen others, in that part of the county. Thus far, it might be observed, that the names above given were in sympathy with the Confederacy, as many others may be given, who were badly treated and some of whom were

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killed. By the summer and autumn of 1862, cases of murder and other crimes were occurring frequently and fast all over the county, many cases of which were completely in the dark and are until this day. It is quite likely, that can- vassers for this very book, as they travel over the county, will find many families that lost a husband, a father, or a brother concerning whose death and for what they died they cannot give the remotest idea. One thing they can tell, however, and that is, that my husband, my brother, or my son on a certain day in 186- left home, to go and see our neighbor beyond the Blue or the Kaw, and he never returned. Ah! how sad must the helpless have felt, when there was no assurance that their loved ones would ever return again. The mother with her little ones did not know how much to fear or how much to dare; perhaps, her stay and protector would be met by the " Red-legs " or the guerrillas, the Federals or the Confederates and be murdered or hung like a dog. Some citizens of Jackson county during those times, disappeared under circumstances like the above, and have never been seen or heard of since. They surely must be dead, but how can we know it, where will the widowed wife and orphan children go and weep; what wound will they dress, and strew with garlands of spring-where will they scatter beautiful flowers, upon the grave of a husband, a father, or a brother ? No, no, no, that is impossible, he was mortally wounded and was burnt to death in his neighbor's dwelling, or was hung in the midst of a lone and desolate forest, where none would visit him but the fowls of heaven; or was mangled and muti- lated and his body was buried in the rough sands of the bottom of the Blue. As for who killed the poor man, or innocent youth it is as much a mystery as where they left him, or where he lies to-day. It seems as if all the furies of infernal hell had been let loose in Jackson county, there would not have been more agen- cies bent on the destruction of human life. The " Red legs," might have done it ; or the bush-whackers, or guerrillas, or desperate Confederate scouts might have done it, it is absolutely impossible to determine; but one thing we are quite sure of, and that is, that it was done, and too frequently in cold blood. It was cold blood murder in many cases as far as the unfortunate individual was concerned; but the men who did such things, (and they did frequently,) were very often in close places; perhaps more than a dozen times had the surging breath of death and destruction scorched their blood-stained garments, and it was in the cowardly act of killing the innocent that they took revenge.

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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 36

Author: Union Historical Company Publication date: 1881 Publisher: Kansas City, Mo. : Union historical company Number of Pages: 1068

Author: Union Historical Company
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Kansas City, Mo. : Union historical company
Number of Pages: 1068