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 45

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 45

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The first church or worshiping assembly was constituted by the Baptists on the second Saturday in June, 1832, at the house of Warren Reavis, where A. Amos now lives, Sec. 34, Tp. 47, R. 29; or at the house of Wm. Butler, one mile south of it. It was constituted by Elders Enoch Finch and Thos. Stayton, Finch being from the present Greenton, in Lafayette county, and Stayton from near Independence. James Savage was the first pastor and Warren P. Reavis, clerk.

The earliest records of that church were lost during the civil war of 1861, and the number and names of those who first went into it are not known.

When the narrator of these incidents first came to the county in 1833, and his father and mother united with that church, it numbered near forty members. Savage was yet pastor and was living on Little Blue ; but about that time he sold out his farm and mill there and bought the farm of Isaac Dunnaway, to which he moved in the spring of 1834. Reavis was gone and David L. Cadle was clerk and the most influential member.

In addition to Cadle and wife, the following names are remembered as be- longing to the church : Thomas Hamlin and Mary, his wife, William Butler, Sr., and wife, Wm. Butler, Jr., and wife, Jesse Butler, John Butler, Wm. Savage and wife, Hiram Savage and wife, Wm. B. Savage, William Warden and wife, Hezekiah Warden's wife, Catherine Bledsoe, Nancy Hopper and Artilla Hopper. The meetings were held at private houses-most commonly at the house of Thomas Hamlin, where George Rheem now lives, Sec. 25, Tp. 47, R. 30; or at the house of Wm. Butler, three miles east of Pleasant Hill. This con- tinued until the year 1837 or 1838, when a log meeting house was built where the cemetery known as the Rheem Cemetery now is on the farm of Fred. Edmund- son, Sec. 25. That house was built by the voluntary contributions and labors of the brethren and friends. In 1837 Wm. Ousley, a Baptist minister, moved into the vicinity, and after a time became pastor of the church. It prospered until the year 1841, when it numbered over 100 members. In that year and the year following the question of missions divided it. The Lone Jack Church (first called Basin Knob) and one called Bethel being constituted out of a part of its mem-

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HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY.

bership-Basin Knob in 1842, and Bethel in 1843 or 1844. Bethel dissolved or was merged into other churches several years after.

The old Pleasant Garden church still has a name to live. After Ousley and Savage withdrew from it and formed the Bethel church, Elder Hiram Bowman served it as pastor up to the time of his death, about the year 1872. Many years ago the church sold its old log house and built a frame building about three miles 'southeast of Lone Jack, on Sec. 33, Tp. 47, R. 29, where its meetings are yet held. It now styles itself the Regular Predestinarian Baptist Church, and belongs to the Mount Zion Association of Anti-Mission Baptists, and is ministered to by Elders Mercer and McVey. That church, which may with propriety claim to be the mother church of all the Baptist churches between the Little Blue and the Osage River, numbering now less than twenty members.

LONE JACK CHURCH

Was constituted Oct. 29th, 1842, by Elders Joseph White, Wm. White, Joab Pow- ell and Henry Farmer. It was constituted with fourteen members, their names be- ing as follows : Samuel Cunningham, Wilbourne Cunningham, Stephen I. Easley, William Hopper, Morris Edwards, David Lynch, Frances Cunningham, Cath- erine Cunningham, Rebecca Easley, Mary A. Easley, Artilla Hopper, Mahala Fox, Minerva Alexander, the last named being the only one now remaining, Hen- ry Farmer (who with his uncle, John Farmer, both Baptist ministers, came to Cass county in 1837), was called as its first pastor, and served it as such uninterrupted- ly for twenty years, during which time it grew from 14 to 212 members. Its first meetings were held in a school house, in private houses, or in the groves until 1849, when a comfortable frame house was built at Lone Jack, and the name of the church was changed from Basin Knob to Lone Jack.

Since the close of the Civil War, it has had as its pastors, Jeremiah Farmer, Abram Weaver, A. M. Johnson, Solomon D. Brown, Wm. Farmer, I. B. Jack- son, Isaac N. Newman, and the present pastor, F. W. Leonard. It numbers now one hundred and twelve (112).

There are three other Baptist churches in the township, New Liberty, Sni Mills and Willow Spring ; all of which, as well as Strasburg, in Cass, Elm Spring, in Johnson, and Concord and Chapel Hill, in Lafayette, mainly grew out of the Lone Jack church.

NEW LIBERTY CHURCH

was constituted in 1859 with the following named members: Abram Koger and wife, Elias Duncan and wife, Thornton Duncan and wife, Jacob M. Adams, Sinai Koger, Alvis Lynch and wife, William Gosney, Flemming Harris and wife, and Sarah Wood.

A frame house costing $700 was erected in 1859, and dedicated by Rev. Josiah Leake.

Since then the following pastors have served the church : Edward Wood, Samuel Shepherd, David S. Miller, Abram Weaver, I. B. Jackson, A. M. John- son, and Thos. L. Powell, the present pastor ; membership 70.

SNI MILLS CHURCH

was constituted in the year 1875, with the following named members : Nicholas Hutchins, Benj. Hutchins, J. N. Hutchins, John C. Faulkenberry, Louis D. Long, Nathan Hunt, I. Faulkenberry, Lucy Hutchins, Margaret Hutchins, Re- becca Hutchins and Nancy Williams. The church built a frame house in 1877, costing about $400.

It has had as pastors, S. D. Brown, J. B. Jackson, Charles White, and Dr. L. M. Horn.

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HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY.

WILLOW SPRINGS CHURCH

was constituted in June, 1877, with the following members : Drury Davis, Joseph Haynes, M. Haynes, Joseph A. Jackson, George H. Noel, Mollie Davis, Rebecca A. E. Jackson, Rachel Noel, Sarah J. Noel, Sarah Williams, J. B. Jackson, Helen Jackson, Sidney Jackson, Noel Jackson, Frances Jackson, Frances Jackson, Jr., Elias Duncan, Mary F. Duncan, Wm. Duncan, Ellen. Duncan, Samuel Shepherd and Lucinda Shepherd. This church has no house of worship of its own.

Its pastors have been J. B. Jackson, George H. Noel, and Thos. S. Powell. Although the Baptists have from the beginning predominated in the township, other religious denominations have had a place in the community. . Even the Mormons, when their headquarters were at Independence, had a stake, as it was called, on Big Creek. Daniel Graham, one of the oldest pioneers, tells of a meeting, held in the neighborhood, at which Sidney . Rigdon, Liba Peterson, Oliver Cowdery, Lyman White, and Elder Whitman, were in attendance; and that Joshua Hitchcock, Jesse Hitchcock, and Mrs. Thomas Mcknight were con- verted to the faith, and baptized into their fellowship. Peterson, one of their elders, was for a short time residing in the township, and taught the first school ever taught in it. But when Mormonism was expelled, he and Jesse Hitchcock went also. Joshua and Mcknight remained a few years, and they too left.

THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH,

sometimes called Campbellites, were here at an early day. The first baptism that the narrator ever witnessed in the State, was by an elder of that church, whose name he thinks was Stanley or Sanders ; the person baptized was a Miss Elizabeth English ; this was in 1834. Afterward Simon Bradley, Elder Mulkey, Thos. McBride, James McBride, William Parker and others preached and organ- ized churches. Elder Parker, who came to the county in 1842, continued to preach up to near the close of his life, about 1875. Next to the Baptists this is, perhaps, the most numerous sect in the township; preaching at Lone Jack, Hicks City, New Liberty and other places.

The local church at Lone Jack was organized on the 21st of September, 1842, and they have an interest in the Baptist church building erected in 1848. The names of the original members were : Thos. Mulkey, Sion Bradley, Thos. Mc- Bride, Sr., Thos. McBride, Jr., John S. Cave, Wm. Parker, Wilson Lewis, John Wright, Robert H. Crawford, Elizabeth L. Bynum, Fannie Parker, Euphronia Crawford, Ann Wright, Elizabeth Gibson, Susan Drake, Annie Snow, Martha Bynum. Of these the only one now living and belonging to the church is Annie or Alice Snow. The pastors who have served the church in succession are Thos. Mulkey, Thomas McBride, Sion Bradley, Wm. Parker, Joel Wilmot, C. P. Arbuckle, John O. Kane, Madison Burnett, John W. Dawson, W. R. Cunning- ham, H. M. Price and Jas. L. Warren.

THE METHODISTS

Were slow to commence in the township. Elder McKenney, in 1833 or '4, set- tled between Oak Grove and Round Prairie, and William Ferrill and Patrick Talbot a short time after, near the site of Pleasant Hill, and there preached as occasion served; but there was no local church established in the township or any stated preaching till 1837.

In 1836 John Patton bought out Joshua Hitchcock and Charles Hopper, Jr., and moved to the present Miller Easly farm-a pious, good man of that faith ; and in 1837 Samuel Yankee and James Sanders also moved into the neighborhood, and a church or class was formed, consisting of these three families, Wm. Hays and family, and Charles Hopper, Sr., with perhaps one or two others. Their

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HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY.

meetings and preaching were at Patton's residence, and they were ministered unto for several years by traveling preachers in succession, as follows: Elder Lacy, George Bewly, Jesse Green, Thomas Ashley, Daniel Capell, Silas Williams (a son of the old pioneer Baptist of Cooper county), - Watts, D. A. Leeper, - Deggs, - Cummings, - - Wells, Thomas Wallace, Samuel Colburn, Warren Pitts, Henry Webster, W. M. Page, -- Danner, R. A. Foster, and their number increased as the county increased in population and they have ever since had a respectable minority of the worshiping community.

In 1844 the great division occurred in the Methodist Church, since which time a large majority of the Methodists in the township have been with the Church, South ; though the Northern branch has had its adherents, and for years kept up an organization, and were ministered unto in turn by Westerman, Dodds, Lee, Thomas Ferrill and others.

Of the original members of that church, organized in 1837, there are yet living in the vicinity James Sanders, Wm. Hays and Mrs. Parmelia Yankee.

THE PRESBYTERIANS

Have ever been weak in the township. There is, however, a number in the north- western part, and they have regular preaching at the Union church house, on the line between this and Prairie township.

The Cumberland Presbyterians some years since had a church and regular preaching at Lone Jack, but for some years it has been discontinued. They have also had monthly meetings at New Liberty, Elder Dalton and others officiating.

SCHOOLS.

The preacher was not the only useful character that was found among the early pioneers of the county. The school teacher was also here at an early day. It has already been stated that the Mormon preacher, Peterson, was the first teacher in the township.

He, it is said, was one of the first five commissaries sent out by the prophet, as Caleb and Joshua were, to spy out the land, and to select the New Jerusalem in the West. After selecting Independence as the site, he next turned his atten- tion to selecting a bride for himself, instead of selecting one for his master's son ; and his choice fell on a Miss Hopper, the daughter of an old citizen of Lafayette county. And as his wife had a brother, two sisters and other relatives near the Lone tree, he fell in there also, and at a time when the settlers began to think of sending their children to school. The fact that there was no school house did not stand in the way at all. A few of the neighbors went to work, cut a few hickory logs, split them so as to make two of one, notched them up in the shape of a pen, twelve or fourteen feet square and the height of a man's head, cut down a burr oak tree standing near by, and made it into clap-boards four feet in length; and with these boards and a few poles to hold them up, and few more to keep them down, covered the pen, and the school house was there. A doorway, how- ever, was wanted to get into it. This was soon sawed or chopped out, and nothing remained to be done but to furnish the house. A few more poles were cut and split open, the splinters hewed off, auger holes bored and legs put in, and the seats were there.

That pioneer school house was built on the east half of the northwest quarter of Sec. 32, Tp. 47, R. 29, on the Kreeger or Fish farm, southeast of Lone Jack, and the first school was taught in the summer of 1833. How long the term continued is not known, nor who all the pupils were.

Of the next school, which was taught the next summer, something more definite can be stated; as the youth who taught that school then, writes these recollections now. When the school of seventeen scholars was made up, with a promise to pay two dollars per quarter per scholar, it was determined to move

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HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY.

the site of the school house, the old one not being centrally located. The school, however, was to commence and go on in the old house, until another was ready. One week of school in the old pen, and the teacher and the other boys of the neighborhood, met on Saturday with axes and two yoke of oxen, and cut and dragged up logs enough for the house.

Another week of school in the old house, and on the next Saturday the house was raised. The boards and benches were hauled over from the old house. The new one was covered, a door cut out, and that house was done, and furnished and the school went on; and for several years the schools in that part of the town- ship were taught in that house. But after that session they managed to get a fire place and floor on it; and there are several persons now living in the township, and other parts of the county, who got the whole or the principal part of their schooling in that small house; which stood a very short distance from the resi- dence of Wesley Yankee.

The names of the pupils who attended the first school that was taught in it, as near as recollected, were : Willie B. English, Christopher McKnight, Wm. McKnight, Jonathan McKnight and sister, William Edmundson, Rufus Edmund- son, Elvira Edmundson, Spencer Rice, Isaac Rice, Elizabeth Rice, Nancy Rice, James Rice, Rachel Beeler, Mary Beeler, Joab Bridges and sister, Leannah Larrison and two sisters.

The first school ever taught at Lone Jack, or its immediate vicinity, was in a house built where the cemetery east of town now is. It was considered a good house in its day ; built of hewed logs, with floor, chimney and fire place. The first school was taught by Wesley Underwood. After that, Warren Easly, John Snow, Galen Cave, Charles Hopper, John Patton and Samuel Yankee, employed one John E. Roberts to teach a school for a whole year ; binding themselves in- dividually to pay him two hundred dollars, which was considered good wages- $16.66 per month. It was considered the best school that had been taught in the county, and no doubt it was; and better, perhaps, than some schools taught now, costing three times as much money; in houses that cost five times as much as that did. The first

PUBLIC FREE SCHOOL

taught in the township, was in 1842. Township 47 in Range 29, was organized in the spring of that year, under the school law of 1838, and the southwest fourth of that six mile square was the first district. The two houses that have been mentioned were both in that district; one on the north, and one on the south side. So a new house was built on the lands of John Hunter, on the south- east quarter of northwest quarter of section 29: a large roomy log house, in which David Harris taught the first school, for $16.66 per month.

The stove that was put into that house then is yet in use in that school dis- trict, and looks as if it might last twenty years to come; and the old house is a stable on the Miller-Easly farm.

Since then things have changed in the way of schools as well as in other things. Instead of one organized school district, and one school taught under the free school laws of the State, there are thirteen in the township, in which schools are taught on an average six months in the year, and teachers are paid more than double as much as then. The houses, with one or two exceptions, are all comfortable frame structures. But truth compels us to say, that the pupils do. not receive the same benefit in proportion to the dollars and cents expended, that they did in the little log cabin schools when the teacher's wages came out of the patron's pockets individually; and the teachers were of the old fogy style, taught themselves in the old fogy school; or else self-taught, instead of in the normal schools as at present. This may not be the fault of the school law. It may not

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HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY.

be the fault of the school officers. It may not be the fault of the teachers or the pupils; but such is the fact and the cause lies somewhere.

For many years there were neither

DOCTORS NOR LAWYERS

in the township. In fact we have never had a resident lawyer in it, except Judge Russell Hicks, who owned a good farm here and spent a part of his time upon it. When the school, Sec. 16, Tp. 47 R. 29, was sold in 1837, Russell Hicks bought the whole section, except the west half of southwest quarter; also buying a large quantity contiguous to it. He then spent a large part of the money he made in his large practice, in improving it and stocking it with live 'stock and slaves ; and no doubt lost money by his farming operations; and when the events of the war swept away his negroes and large herds, he was left almost in poverty. He was a man of giant intellect, and great legal attainments, and his history belongs to the county and State; and not to any particular township. Hicks' City, which he laid out upon his lands on the Lexington, Lake & Gulf Railroad, if it shall ever grow to be a city, will perpetuate his name to posterity.

The first doctors to practice in the township were Doctor Caleb Darby, near Oak Grove, and Patrick Talbot, near Pleasant Hill. They both came about the year 1836. Darby was a botanic or steam doctor, and was both farmer and doctor. Talbot was farmer, doctor, lawyer and preacher. They both lived and died on their first locations. Previous to their coming, in cases of emergency or extreme sickness, doctors were sent for to Independence, or wherever they could be found.

MAILS AND NEWSPAPERS.

The early pioneers labored for some years under many difficulties, among which was the want of

MAIL FACILITIES.

It was not until 1838, that a post route was established between Lexington and Harrisonville, and post-offices located at Greenton, Cool Spring ( now Chapel Hill), Lone Jack and Pleasant Hill. Stephen I. Early, was the first contractor, and A. L. and Wm. Snow, were the first mail carriers on the route. They both live yet, not far from Lone Jack. Before the opening of that route the settlers got their mails from Independence and Lexington, and newspapers were not often read, when they were, they were frequently a month or six weeks old.

In 1834 the citizens of the Big Creek country established a sort of news- paper circulating club; made three distributing offices, or agencies, and sub- scribed for three weekly newspapers: the Washington Globe, the Missouri Republi- can, and the Jeffersonian Republican ( Jefferson City). One was to be sent to Andrew Wilson, west of Pleasant Hill, one to Wm. Butler, three miles east of it, and one to Enoch Rice, near Lone Jack. These papers were to pass from hand to hand, and be read in turn. It was tried for a year; did not work well, and was abandoned.

FIRST TOWNSHIP OFFICERS.

As was said, the township was first organized in 1834, part being in what is now Cass county. The first Justices of the Peace appointed were Wm. Savage, Wm. Butler and Enoch Rice. James Williams, (a son of the noted pioneer peacher, Luke Williams, ) was constable.

The county boundaries of Van Buren county had been defined, or pre- scribed at the session of 1832, but owing to the sparseness of the population, it still remained as a part of Jackson, for all civil and military purposes.

In August, 1834, the general election for the township was held at the house of Thos. Burgin, in what is now Cass county, and the candidates at that election,

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HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY.

were Michael McClelland, Russell Hicks and Wm. Savage, for the State Senate. Richard Fristoe, Smallwood V. Noland, Thomas Jefferies and Robert Rickman, for the House of Representatives ; John King, for Sheriff; James Noel and James Williams, for Constable; ( clerks, Justices of the Peace and Judges were not then elective). McClelland, Fristoe, Noland, King and Williams were elected.

The Legislature next winter organized the County of Van Buren (now Cass), and those citizens of Jackson on the heads of Big Creek and Sni, were for a time added to Sui-a-bar township. The election in 1835, to vote for members of congress, was held at the house of James Lewis, near Stony Point, and the voters were called on to vote by general ticket for two members of congress ( that being the number to which the State was then entitled). Albert G. Harrison and George F. Strother, were the Democratic candidates, and Wm. Ashley and James . H. Birch, Whigs. Harrison and Strother were elected; receiving nearly the unanimous vote of the township. At the same election, Sam. C. Owens was elected Circuit Clerk, over Franklin Smith.

In 1836 or 1837 the township was re-organized or separated from Sni-a-bar, embracing its present territory and the greater part of what is now Prairie town- ship. Warham Easley and Wilson Alexander were the firstelected Justices of the Peace, and David L. Cadle the first constable, and, as near as we have been able to learn, the following served as Justices of the Peace in the order named : James Tucker, William Baugh, John A. Green, Samuel Yankee, T. M. Poindexter, Edmund McCraw, Wather Flournoy, Robert F. Campbell, Samuel Clark, Miller W. Easley, Samuel Crump, Nicholas Hutchins, Charles Smith, William Caryle, Alvis Lynch, John Trandle. These were the Justices before the war of the re- bellion. During those years of war civil laws were almost suspended. After the war we have had as Justices : John C. Allen, Charles Smith, Harvey G. Hickton, Daniel B. Porrow, Easthan Allen, Daniel Joyce, David Faulkenberry and James Thompson. The office of constable has been filled, in addition to D. L. Cadle, by his son, Patterson Cadle, Woodson Tucker, James Dealy, George Webb, Andrew Chamberlain, Henry Long, Jr., William Spainhower, Wilson D. Round and Milton Cash, the present incumbent.

LONE JACK.

The plat of the town of Lone Jack was made and the town laid off at the request of Warham Easley, and it is situated in Van Buren township, on the divid- ing line between ranges 19 and 20 in township 47, being a part of the northwest quarter of southwest quarter of Sec. 19, containing twelve acres 74, 1'00, including three acres owned by James Finlay, and subdivided into streets, lots and alleys. The main street runs east and west and is sixty feet wide. It bears the signatures of James Finlay and Warham Easley, and dated April 8, 1841.

When the township was organized in 1837, the place of voting was fixed at Beattie's store, on the site of the present town of Lone Jack. The first to build a cabin on that site was 'Squire Bridges. Emigrating from Tennessee he first settled and built his cabin in 1831 on Sec. 32, Tp. 47, R. 29-a part of the Fish or Kreeger farm, southeast of Lone Jack. In 1832 he sold to John Beeler, and in the winter of that year built north of the lone tree, on the southwest quarter of the northwest quarter of Sec. 19, a very short distance north of George H. Shanhan's present residence. Not having teams enough to break prairie and to hanl rails and fence it, he cleared a field a mile or two north and fenced it with the rails and brush that grew upon it, and there he made his corn for two or three years. In 1856 he sold to Jasper Hopper, and he to Pamphaey Byram.

In 1835-6 Galen Cave, Warham Easley and John Snow, three brothers-in- law, came from North Carolina, and entered the land on which the lone Black Jack tree stood, and some hundreds of acres adjoining and contiguous, and being men of energy, some means, and some help in the way of slaves, soon made

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HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY.

their mark in the way of good farms and comfortable dwellings in close proximity to each other, and also close to the lone tree.

In the winter of 1836 a Mr. Beattie built a storehouse, the first in the town- ship. This house was built of logs, a large, roomy building, and the logs were cut on what was called the condemned land in Cass county ; that is, land not yet surveyed or brought into market, and which, it was said, had been returned as not worth surveying. The goods were brought into the house in the spring of 1837. Reuben B. Fulkerson, a brother-in-law of Senator Cockrell, was the first clerk or salesman, and he still lives a few miles from the town in Johnson county. After Beattie had sold goods for three years, Jas. Findlay, a son-in-law of Hon. Judge John F. Ryland, sold goods in the same house until about the year 1846, when Major George W. Tate, and Col. John W. Tate, his son, succeeded him, and sold goods there until near the opening up of the great rebellion. In the meantime there were other rival merchants, and in 1843 or 1844 Warham Easley laid off some lots and christened the newly laid off town Lone Jack, by which name it had already been known for years. The post-office, established in 1838, bore the name Lone Jack. The store was called the Lone Jack store, and the country round was called the Lone Jack neighborhood. And why? Simply on account of the solitary lone Black Jack tree that stood on that elevated ridge, dividing the waters of the Missouri from those of the Osage. That tree could be seen for miles in almost every direction, and in the early days was a noted landmark to the hunter and traveler when no roads were in the country. But the tree is gone. It died in 1861. The men, too, who first made their homes here are gone. Bridges left in 1836 or 1837, and his intimate friends soon lost sight of him altogether. He went, none knew where.

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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 45

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