The History of Pettis County, Missouri, History of Sedalia, Part 49

Author: Demuth, I. MacDonald
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: [n.p.]
Number of Pages: 1148

USA > Missouri > Pettis County > Sedalia > The History of Pettis County, Missouri, History of Sedalia > Part 49

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People crawled into their cellars and under their houses, as they had during the cannonade. They thought they would be safer where they could not be found so readily.

About midnight, Gen. A. J. Smith, in command of about 2,500 Federal cavalry, made his appearance in the town. The feet of nearly all his horses were muffled in rags to prevent the sound of their tramp from being so loud. He had hoped to come on to Thompson unawares, and either flank him or engage him until the other forces came up.

The people of the city, when they knew it was a Union force, were as happy a lot as was ever seen. It was the first time they had breathed freely from the time they heard the first cannon boom.

Maj. James C. Wood, a resident of this city, and one of the most daring and efficient soldiers in Price's army, burned the Otterville bridge twice, and he it was who guided Gen. Thompson's forces to Sedalia on this occasion. He and some of the men who fought him that day are now excellent friends, and often recall the events of the day when they meet in a social way.

Mr. Rod Gallie still has in his cellar one of the shells fired into the city that day, which struck the ground without exploding.

There are a number of interesting stories connected, directly and indi- rectly, with the history of Sedalia during the war that cannot be properly classified as to dates, and all of them are therefore placed together at the conclusion of the war history. These stories and facts, all of them, con- tain more or less of the tragic element. Upon reading the accounts of bloody and desperate deeds committed nearly twenty years ago, the reader will doubtless learn, for the first time, of the dangers and trials through which the people of Sedalia and Central Missouri passed during the war. It will also doubtless surprise many to learn that a number of men who are now seen daily on the streets, quiet, practical business. men,

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were during the war active soldiers or men who, as citizens, went through many a scene of trial and danger.

In addition to one or two incidents which have already been mentioned, the story of the assault upon the house of Mr. Mentor Thompson, now President of the Sedalia Savings Bank, and one of the oldest and most respected citizens of the county, will best illustrate the terrible condition of the country during the war. Mr. Thompson resided on his farm two miles northwest of the town in May, 1863. He was a man well advanced in years then, and known throughout the county as a quiet, peaceable man, possessed of large influence and considerable wealth. He took no active part in the war.

Those who had personal intercourse with the Confederate and the militia soldiers during the war know from some sad personal experiences that there were a few low-bred, brutal, unprincipled ruffians, who went into the army on both sides and made the gray or blue uniform a disguise to cover the thief, the coward and the murderer. Men who were common farm hands, hostlers and jack-of-all-trades went into a suit of soldier clothes and blossomed into cold blooded murderers and systematic thieves and robbers. In Central Missouri honors were even between the blue and gray. The desperadoes among the militia were most given to theft and plunder; the bad men among the Confederate bushwhackers delighted most in savage and unprovoked murder. The masses of the honest soldiers on either side should not be made to bear the blame, and there were just as brave, faithful, honest, intelligent soldiers in the Missouri Home Guards, Paw Paw militia and enrolled and regular volun- teers as there were in any part of the Union army. Col. Hall's regiment was stationed at Sedalia in May, 1863. There were a few bad men among them, as the sequel will show.

At midnight, in the above month, Mrs. Mentor Thompson was aroused from her slumbers by the sound of loud knocking at the back door of the house. She did not at once awaken her husband, for in those dark days it was much safer for a woman to answer such midnight calls than it was for a man, who might have been greeted with a revolver or musket shot as soon as he became visible. She went to the back door without a light and inquired who was there. A couple of gruff, strange voices answered: " God d-n you, strike a light and open this door, or we will break it in, kill every one in the house and burn it down afterwards." At this terri- ble answer she went in and awakened her husband and then went up stairs to a back window to see who and how many the men seeking admittance were. When she put her head out of the window, in the clear light, she saw a man standing beneath the window. The moment she raised the window she saw the man raise a revolver and point it at her with the stern command: "D-n you, put down that window or I'll

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blow the top of your head off." She put it down in haste, as she heard the sound of trampling feet on the front steps. She ran to a window in the front of the house, in the second story, to call to a man named Rhodes, from Bates county, who was sleeping in an office near the front of the house, about one hundred paces distant. As she raised the window and cried out to Rhodes, she saw three or four dark forms gathered near the front porch, and one standing beneath Rhodes' window. When Rhodes put his head out of the office window, the ruffian beneath it said: "If you don't take your head in I'll put a ball through it." He took in his head. Mrs. Thompson was again ordered to go away from the window by threats of having her brains blown out, and by the sight of three or four revolvers leveled at her. She rushed down stairs to the front room, on the left hand side of the hall, where her husband, Mr. T., had $1,500 in cash in the house. As his wife passed the front door there came a sound of kicking and pounding on the door as with a big bludgeon. Mr. T. had, at this noise, got out of bed and put his pantaloons on. Mrs. T. had barely time to get into her husband's room, slam and bolt the door behind her, when the door gave way with a crash beneath the blows of six ruffians, who stood on the front porch. When they got into the hall they yelled at the occupants of the room to open the door if they valued their lives. Mr. T. had just time to get to a corner of the room where there stood a small shot gun loaded with shot. The gun had been loaded a month before, and had been left there by one of the civil engineers on the Missouri Pacific Railroad, who had boarded with Mr. T., who was himself a surveyor and civil engineer. Mr. T. seized the gun and got it to his shoulder, just as the second door was broken open. The opening of the door revealed two soldiers in the hall, and one with his face all daubed up with dirt and lard, as a disguise, standing just outside of the front door. Mrs. T. stood in the doorway and wildly appealed to the men to do them no harm, and tried to block the door against their entrance. The cowardly scoundrel outside stuck his disguised face just inside the front door, and cried out to his companions, three times: "D-n that woman, make her get out of the way! Shoot her, d-n her; kill her!"

Mr. Thompson was fighting for his wife and his fireside and his life, alone at midnight, against six armed men.

As the soldier at the door cried out the last time, "kill her", Mr. Thomp- son took hasty aim at him, poking his gun right over his wife's shoulder. He fired; there was a loud report, a flash of fire, a cloud of smoke, and the next moment the man at the door lay on the porch, with the whole top of his head blown off, and a big revolver held in his death grasp. The load of shot struck him just above the center of the forehead.

Before the smoke had cleared away the two men in the hall sprang out

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of the front door, and as one of them turned to fire, Mr. Thompson sent the second load of shot into his body, just about the top of the hip. The man ran and staggered about one hundred yards, fell into the fence corner, and was dead in a few moments.

Mr. Thompson knew there were four more men outside in the dusk. He had no more ammunition and expected the others would return to avenge the death of their comrades, and murder both himself and his wife. He knew there was ammunition in the little office occupied by Rhodes.

He started to walk towards it rapidly. As Mr. T. approached it the soldier who had been guarding Rhodes, advanced on him with his revolver raised and called on him to halt.

Before he could stop. the soldier fired on him, at close quarters, and sent a ball through the fleshy part of the arm, next to the shoulder. Mr. T. saw there was but one way to save himself; he rushed on the soldier and grappled with him. The soldier was a young man. Mr. Thompson was old but large and still strong, and fighting for his life. He struck at the soldier with his fist; knocked off his hat; confused him by the blow; got a firm grip on the fellow's hair; and then began to fight for the pos- session of the revolver. In the meantime the other three men had fled. After a short struggle the soldier broke from Mr. T.'s grasp, but before the fellow could get his revolver leveled on him, Mr. T. seized his gun made a desperate stroke at his opponent, and the latter turned and ran. Mr. T., whose blood was up by this time, followed the fellow to keep him from turning on him. The soldier seemed bent on shooting if possible, but he was so closely pressed by Mr. T. who was striking at him every time he got near enough, with his clubbed gun, that he found no oppor- tunity to do so. Mr. T. got out of breath from his exertions and weak from the pain of the wound in his arm, and the soldier managed to out- run him and made his escape.

Mr. Thompson, not knowing what might happen further, went back to the house to his wife, had his wound bound up, and then sent word to Col. Hall, at Sedalia, to come out and take him into custody if he wanted him.

By ten o'clock the next morning Col. Hall and Captain Rice, the com- mander of one of the companies in the regiment, and many soldiers came out. They found the soldier on the porch with the top of his skull blown off. In his hand he grasped a revolver. Capt. Rice bent over the soldier and on a close examination found that the man had smeared his face with grease and then rubbed the dust of black loam over it, making him look like a negro. In spite of this he recognized the dead man as a member of his own company, and the revolver in his cold grasp as one that had been stolen from him. The other man was found dead in the fence cor-

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ner with a horrible hole in his side and hip, made by the contents of the shot gun fired by Mr. T.

Mr. Thompson told the officer his story which was corroborated by that of his wife. Col. Hall said he would not put him under arrest as he had served the infernal scoundrels just right, and it was a great pity he had not killed more of them. The other four men who participated in this midnight assault were not discovered. It seems from the circum- stances that these men must have known that Mr. T. had $1,500 in the house and they were bent on getting it at whatever cost.

Mr. Thompson to-day carries on his arm the marks of the ball which went through his arm and was evidently aimed for his breast, and it is not probable that the recollection of the terrible encounter of that midnight long ago, will ever fade from his memory.

A few days later a coroner's jury investigated the case, as it was deemed best to observe all the outward forms of justice, as much as was possible under the circumstances. Among those who were on the jury were James Blackmore, coroner, Maj. Wm. Beck, Maj. Wm. Gentry, two of the most prominent and intelligent citizens of the county, Dr. Logan Clark and H. R. Dobyns, another old and respected citizen.

The substance of the verdict returned by the jury was: That Mr. Thompson was fully justified in doing what he did.

On March 4, 1864, occurred a terrible fire, the first great conflagration in Sedalia. Previous to this, the old District School House, which had been built sometime in 1856, and was the oldest building in the town, was consumed by fire. In 1861, a boarding house or hotel kept by C. Brock- schmidt, a brother of Wm. Brockschmidt, of this city had been burned, causing a loss of $3,000. But the burning of the Missouri Hotel, on the date first mentioned, was an event which resulted not only in a loss of $40,000, but in the loss of no less than eight human lives.

The Missouri House was a large square, two-story frame hotel, located on the southwest corner of Main and Osage streets. The proprietor was J. Mills. Mr. Grissom, the U. S. Assessor, was a guest of the house on the night of the fire. He was a man of convivial habits, and the fire is supposed to have originated in his room. First, the stairway burned, cutting off all means of exit from the building. In an incredibly short time, the whole building, with its inmates and contents, was an uncontroll- able mass of seething flames. Grissom, the U. S. Assessor, was burned to death. Mrs. Mills and two children, and three strangers, of whom nothing ever was known or learned, suffered horrible deaths. In one of the buildings adjoining a negro man was burned to a crisp. A regi- ment of soldiers was camped out on Muddy Creek, and when the extent of the fire was known, their gallant commander ordered them to come to town and aid in the extinguishment of the flames. Hundreds

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of them came and did gallant service. John Hancock's dwelling house, a good two-story frame dwelling, was on the south side of the block, about the middle between Osage and Kentucky streets. The soldiers lit- erally covered this house with blankets, and then saturated the blankets with water and saved the building. Ben B. Lyon, Jr., did brave and judicious service on this occasion, and was directly instrumental in saving the large wholesale store of Taylor & Co. Maj. Wm. Beck was also on hand to aid and direct the efforts to stay the flames. A number of other residents of the town, then and now, remember this terrible and tragic scene. Everything from Osage to Kentucky street was burned, except Hancock's house. Fourteen buildings and their contents were destroyed. The total pecuniary loss was over $40,000. Not a man had a cent of insurance but two. Maj. Beck received a check for $2,000 from the Franklin Insurance Company, of St. Louis. He saved most of his goods. William and Theo. Bloss received $5,000 from the United States Insur- ance Company, of St. Louis, without any investigation of the matter. There was nothing to investigate. This was a terrible visitation, but the people of that time had become so much accustomed to the horrors of war; the witnessing of deeds of bloodshed and death, that they did not regard it so seriously as the people of the present day would.

There was no fire department in those days-not even an organized bucket brigade-and the only water that could be procured was that which came from cisterns and wells.

It was in the early part of 1863, that the people of Sedalia began active work to procure the removal of the county seat from Georgetown to Sedalia. One of the first things necessary to do was to raise money to build a court house. A very novel method was resorted to in order to procure the first installment of funds. The citizens got up a grand Fourth of July celebration in 1863.

An immense arbor was built upon the present site of Broadway, and was made of the green boughs of trees. Over one hundred wagons were employed in hauling the boughs to build this pavillion or arbor. There was a large force of soldiers in the town and they assisted the citi- zens in making the arrangements for the affair. There were two military bands in attendance to furnish music. An extra excursion train ran from Jefferson City to Sedalia for the accommodation of visitors. The Gov- ernor of the State and many other State officials attended and delivered appropriate addresses. The little prairie village on that auspicious occa- sion contained over three thousand people. A magnificent feast of sub- stantials was served and all the provisions were furnished by the people of the county and city. There were eighteen stands for the sale of beer on the grounds, but everything passed off pleasantly and in peace.

This celebration was gotten up under the management of a "citizen's

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committee" composed of Wm. E. Bard, Maj. Wm. Beck, Ben B. Lyon and Richard Hulland. The celebration of the Fourth of July in the year 1863, when the country was filled with guerrillas, and no one knew when the terrible contest would end, was a most novel and curious sight. The committee were the best known business men and citizens of the town. They undertook to pay all expenses. They went to the commander of the post and told him their plan,-in time of war to celebrate the anniversary of the declaration of independence, make every American citizen pay fifty cents to witness the ceremonies on the occasion, and then to take the money thus made and use it to build a court house in Sedalia, a structure which was the very embodiment of the idea of peace.

The grounds were surrounded by a single rope and located on Broad- way. A cordon of soldiers fully armed were placed on guard at regular intervals along the rope. The amount realized was $860. This was put into the hands of some county officers. The committee feared the money would not be properly cared for from the then peculiar condition of affairs. Mr. Bard invested it, at his suggestion, and with the consent of the committee, in 5-20 U. S. bonds, and it thus remained until it was necessary to use it.

In 1864, Col. Nugent's Kansas regiment arrived in the city and pitched their tents on the rising ground just west of town. Some kind of an arrangement was made between the officers of the regiment and some citizens to give a concert at the camp grounds. About one hundred waggish citizens banded themselves together and went out to the camp as the "concert troupe of trained birds and beasts." Every man repre- sented some domestic animal or fowl. They formed in line and gave their overture. The bull bellowed; the donkey brayed; the horse neighed; the calf bawled; the pig grunted and squealed; the peacock shrieked; the goose united with its melody; the guinea hen clattered; the hen cackled; the rooster crowed; the cat mewed; the dogs bayed and howled, the turkeys gobbled; the ducks quacked; and so on through the whole list. It was done with such vigor and skill, and produced such a tremendous and grotesque symphony that it produced a perfect furor of merriment.

Before closing the necessarily brief outline of the events of 1864, a few important and significant facts will be mentioned. It was in August, 1864, previous to the raid of Gen. Jeff Thompson, that the first permanent news- paper was established in Sedalia. It was called the Sedalia Advertiser. Messrs. Geo. and Ben. Lingle, still well known journalists of this section, assisted by younger brothers, under the firm name of Lingle Brothers, established this paper. They were all practical printers. The paper was published weekly and owing to the then still unsettled condition of the country and the town, the undertaking was a difficult and hazardous one, and these pioneers of the Sedalia press worked under very great diffi-

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culties, and the publication and issue of the journal were often times very irregular. And yet, the publication of this, the first newspaper, had an arousing influence on the people of the town, for it awakened thoughts of peace and hopes that the time was drawing near when the ballot would take the place of the bullet and bayonet, and life would no longer be full of fear and misery, but made tolerable by confidence and happiness. The paper struggled on until the spring of 1865, when it was bought out by Stafford & Magann, the former still a respected citizen of the city.

On January 25, 1864, Sedalia Lodge 236, of Masons, was opened in Sedalia, under dispensation. It was regularly constituted in June, 1864. In the summer of 1864, the Christian Church was reorganized by the Rev. G. W. Longan. It was first organized in 1861. On the 15th day of February, 1864, Sedalia was granted a charter, and it was at the session of the same legislature that the bill was passed authorizing the removal of the county seat, from Georgetown to Sedalia. It did not become the county seat until nearly a year later, in fact and law.

In the latter part of 1863 a bloody fight occurred in the city between members of the Twenty-Sixth Indiana Regiment and a number of artillery- men belonging to the First Missouri Artillery. It resulted in the killing of three privates of the Indiana regiment and in the wounding of several others. Col. Wheatly was then the commander of the post, and but for his cool and determined course there might have been a terrible slaughter. The Indi- ana regiment was camped in the hollow in the northwest suburbs of the town. The First Missouri Artillery was camped in the southeast suburbs nearly a mile off. Four or five members of the artillery got into a fisticuff among themselves on the corner of Ohio and Second, where the First National Bank is now located. While they were fighting a squad of the Indiana men stood near watching the contest. At this moment Capt. Flannagan of the artillery rode up. He watched the fight a moment and then began to curse his men and ask them if they could not find any one else to fight but their own comrades. The Indiana men who stood near enjoying the scene and urging on the combatants, caught his eye and it enraged him. He told his men they had better turn their attention to the Indiana men. The two squads began to chaff each other, and before many minutes a dozen men were fighting like tigers. While the men were all mixed up in the struggle, a huge Indianian, over six feet in height, seized a big knot of cordwood and hurled it among the fighters. The Indiana men had no arms but the artillery men had their revolvers.

When the billet of wood was thrown among them, they drew their revolvers, and in a few moments did bloody work. They fired several volleys into the Indiana squad. Three men fell to the prairie sod dead, and several went off bleeding from wounds. The fight then stopped, and the parties engaged in it scattered and went to their respective camps.

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Captain Flannagan ordered his lieutenant to bring out the battery of six pieces of artillery. In a few moments came the rumble of wheels, the rat- tling of trace chains and the tramp of many horses, and the six field pieces. were wheeled into position on the rising ground about Lafayette street and Third. The town was wild with excitement. Officers were gallop- ing hither and thither, and citizens pale and terrified were gathered in squads on the streets preparing to flee from the town. The Indiana regi- ment got under arms, came to the town on the double quick, with fixed bayonets, and by the order of Col. Wheatley were stationed in squads in the protection of the houses all around the artillery. A regiment of cav- alry was camped on the Muddy over near Georgetown. An orderly was sent post haste for this regiment, and in a half an hour the entire com- mand came thundering over the prairie from Georgetown, and completed the circle of troops around the battery. While the two bodies were standing awaiting some hostile movement, it was a period of the most intense anxiety. One shot or one hasty command would have produced a bloody fight, for the men on both sides were roused to fury, and ready for any desperate deed. But the artillerymen were outnumbered and surrounded, and the subordinate officers, including the lieutenant, disen- clined to let the men fight. Col. Wheatly sent word to them that if they did not go back quietly to their camp in half an hour that he would open fire on them with his infantry, order the cavalry to charge the battery, and that he would not stop until every man in the battery was shot, sabred or bayoneted. Reluctantly and sullenly the guns were coupled up and slowly dragged back to camp and peace restored. This was the most exciting event of the war history in Sedalia, except the attack on the town by the Confederates in October, 1864.

On October 1, 1864, just two weeks before Jeff. Thompson's raid, the Sedalia Advertiser, with an enterprise that was most commendable, and a foresight that would do justice to the keenest and most foreseeing, newspaper man of the present "fast" days in journalism, published a price list of staple articles. For this paper, the only one in existence, so far as the writer could learn, we are indebted to Mr. William E. Bard, one of the settlers and business men of 1861 .. The following is the price list of October 1, 1864: Coffee per sack, $55@$57; sugar per barrel $25@ $28; salt per barrel or sack $5.50@$5.75; washed wool $1.00 per pound; uncleansed wool 45@50 cents per pound; hams, sides and shoulders of bacon 17@18 cents per pound; corn, $1.00 per bushel; wheat $1.25@$1.50 per bushel. Lumber: joist, from $15@$50 per thousand cubic feet; scantling from $40@$47 per thousand; flooring from $60@$70 per thousand; siding $42.50 per thousand; shingles from $6.50@$7 per thousand; laths $10 per thousand. This was the common wholesale rate, (it is supposed,) furnished by Cloney, Crawford & Co. These were decidedly "war rates"

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The History of Pettis County, Missouri, History of Sedalia, Part 49

Author: Demuth, I. MacDonald Publication date: 1882 Publisher: [n.p.] Number of Pages: 1148

Author: Demuth, I. MacDonald
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: [n.p.]
Number of Pages: 1148