USA > Missouri > Buchanan County > The history of Buchanan County, Missouri > Part 12
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Judge Everett has been one of the prominent citizens of this portion of the county, filling various offices, from that of road overseer, to Judge of the County Court. He now resides on the farm where he first located.
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HISTORY OF BUCHANAN COUNTY.
Absalom Munkers, a brother-in-law of Judge Everett, and a native of Tennessee, came to the same neighborhood where Judge Everett settled, in February, 1837, and located on section 18, township 55, range 33. They left Clay County together, but Mr. Munkers falling in com- pany with a family in Clinton County, was detained on the road for about a week. Mr. Munkers, not being so fortunate as Judge Everett, had to build his own cabin in the woods. It is claimed that the wagons of these two gentlemen were the first to make tracks on the soil of Platte Town- ship. Mr. Munkers still lives, at an advanced age, on the land which he first pre-empted. His son David was the first white child born in the township, the date of his birth being April, 1837.
Jackson Erickson was also a native of Tennessee, but came to Buchanan County from Ray County, Missouri, in 1837, and located on section 7, township 55, range 33.
James Williams came also late in the year 1837, and located where Judge John Rohan now resides, on section 18. Mr. Williams removed to California, and died there.
Old "Uncle Jack Huntsucker," as he was familiarly called, came from Tennessee, and settled on Castile Creek in 1837.
Peter Bledsoe came also in 1837, and settled in the northern part of the township. He is still living.
William Cobb was one of the early settlers, from Tennessee, and located on section II, where he still lives.
Jesse Fletcher began to improve a farm in the northwestern part of the township in 1837, but moved to the Grand River country, in Caldwell County, and died there.
John Fletcher, a son of Jesse Fletcher, came with his brother-in- law, Asa Rockhold, in March or April, 1837. Mr. Fletcher settled the place where the widow of Richard Deacon now lives, and Rockhold where Mrs. Head now lives.
John Tobin, from Kentucky, was the only settler between the Fletcher and Rockhold places and Matney's Mill. He arrived in 1838, and located on the hill half a mile east of the mill.
John Dryden settled the same year, about one mile north of the Platte County line.
Thompson Burnham made a settlement in the southeast corner of the township in 1837.
Charles Kennaird came in 1838.
Morris Pile came in 1838, and settled on section 13, township 55. range 34, and is still living there.
James Anderson came also about this time.
Dr. Samuel Trower, from Kentucky, arrived in 1838, settled on sec- tion 12, township 55, range 34, and was the first physician to practice
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HISTORY OF BUCHANAN COUNTY.
medicine in Platte Township. He practiced his profession for many years, and died in Kansas.
Nelson Witt came early in the spring of 1838, and located where his son, Jackson Witt, now lives. He was also from Kentucky, and is now dead. He was the first Justice of the Peace (1839) in Platte Township, and was at one time County Judge.
Daniel Clark came in 1838, and his children now reside in the vicin- ity where he settled.
John Berryhill settled in the forks of Malden Creek in the early part of 1838.
James Courtney bought the place which Jackson Erickson originally settled, on the latter's death, and lived in the township till his death, which occurred in 1876, at the age of seventy-seven years, the oldest man in the township when he died.
James Fidler came into the township in 1838, and that year raised a crop on the place where the widow of his son James, now lives. He was from Tennessee and died on the place he settled.
John G. Elliott, who now resides in Platte Township, says that his father, John Elliott, came from Kentucky in 1833 or '34, and settled in the Platte Purchase, next to the Clinton County line. The country was, of course, at that date, in the possession of the Indians, and the white settlers were soon driven off by the soldiers. Mr. Elliott moved over the line into Clinton County, but still continued to carry on the farm in Platte Township.
John Commins, the father of Eli Commins, was also one of the early settlers of the township, and is said to have lived in Buchanan County several years before the Indians were removed.
The first mill built in the township was Platte River, or, as it is now generally called, Matney's Mill. It was commenced in 1838 by Harrison Whitson, an old settler, and was completed at the Platte Town- ship end of the dam, exactly opposite to its present site in Jackson Township. Mr. Whitson operated it till 1843, when John Bretz, after- wards County Judge, became its owner. It remained in his hands till February 28th, 1845, when it was destroyed by fire. It was immediately rebuilt, across the river just opposite to its present site, in Jackson Township.
Judge John Rohan, who was at one time a member of the County Court, was the only merchant who sold goods in Platte Township. His store was on his farm. He commenced business here after the war and removed his goods about 1876.
The first school-house in the township stood on the Rockhold place, less than a quarter of a mile from the house of Asa Rockhold, on a little branch that flows into Castile Creek. It was known as the Rockhold school-house, and the first school was taught by a man named Jackman.
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HISTORY OF BUCHANAN COUNTY.
There are now five good school buildings in Platte Township.
The first meeting house in the township was built by the Calvanistic Baptists, on land belonging to Judge Nelson Witt, and within a hundred yards of his dwelling. It was known as the "Witt Meeting House." It was a large structure, built of hewn logs, with eight corners, and held a considerable number of people. The first minister who preached in this church, and in Platte Township, was John Evans, a Cal- vanistic Baptist from Kentucky.
The Missionary Baptist subsequently erected a frame meeting house, called "Hebron," which was standing in 1876, not used, however, for church purposes. .
Another house of worship was erected in the northern part of the township, called "Jones' Chapel," which was burned down during the war.
Rev. Wm. Bledsoe, of the Hardshell Baptist denomination, a pioneer and Christian gentleman, ministered with the earliest expound- ers of the Word in these regions.
Henry Wetmore was the first and last postmaster in the township. The office was continued for about two years.
The first bridge at Platte River, connecting Platte and Jackson Townships, was erected about 1854. Calvert and Hodges were the con- tractors at $3,700. W. C. Maddox built the approaches at $1,050.
The second bridge in the township was built in 1870. C. Baker & Co., contractors, at $7,500, all complete. It broke down in 1878, and was rebuilt in a more substantial manner.
SETTLEMENT OF JACKSON TOWNSHIP.
Among the early settlers of this township was Pleasant Yates, who came in the spring of 1837, and settled in the vicinity of where he now lives. At the time of his arrival there were no white settlers within a dis- tance of seven miles.
Isaac Farris settled in the northern part of the township in 1837. He was a native of Lincoln County, Kentucky, removed to Indiana, and emigrated from that state to Missouri. He came directly to the Platte Purchase, and in the fall of the year settled on section 6, township 55, range 34.
The father of Isaac Farris, (Johnson Farris,) had previously been one of the pioneers of Kentucky, and is said to have built the first house erected in Warrensburg in that state.
The father of George W. Ray, who is now one of the leading resi- dents of the township, settled about half way between Matney's Mill and Arnoldsville.
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HISTORY OF BUCHANAN COUNTY.
Several families by the name of Holland made settlements at an early period to the south of Matney's Mill, and their descendants formed a considerable part of the early population in that locality.
Levi Jackson, from Kentucky, located on Platte River, above Matney's mill, and was one of the early settlers of the township.
Judge Blevins was one of the pioneers. He came in 1837 or 1838, and settled on the river bluff, south of Matney's mill.
John Johnson came from North Carolina in 1838.
Robert Prather came the same year from Kentucky, and is now living in Atchison County, Kansas.
Phillip Walker came about the same time, and is now living near the site of Old Sparta, at the advanced age of over eighty years.
Robert Wilson, of Ohio, came also at the same time with the above, and died in 1865.
There is but one church building within the limits of Jackson Town- ship. This is located about one and three-quarters miles north by east of Arnoldsville. It is styled Mount Pleasant Church, and is the property of the Missionary Baptists, by whom it was built some thirty-five or thirty-six years ago. The structure is a time-worn and weather-stained frame building, of contracted proportions ; the rude, unpretending style, proper to the day and generation when it was built. The surroundings are in harmony with the general aspect of this primitive edifice, which doubtless in the day of its erection was something of which that then sparsely settled neighborhoood had some cause to be proud.
Between the heavy body of timber to the southward of the road and the building, on a slight elevation to the northward, is a graveyard, thickly studded with mounds, in which many of the "rude forefathers of the hamlet sleep." Some of them are surrounded by fences, and dis- tinguished with monuments suggestive of a cultured taste, and more modern period of construction. Others again are of an exceedingly primitive character, while the general mass of unmarked graves have little to distinguish them from the fenceless and uncared for space which they seem to occupy, with little if any regard to order of arrangement.
The first to preach in this antique church was Rev. Mathias Cline, who came to that vicinity about the year 1844 or '45. Rev. Delany Woods is the present minister in charge.
John Ray came from North Carolina in 1838, settling first between Arnoldsville and Matney's Mill. He died in 1857.
G. W. Ray, his son, is the present merchant of Arnoldsville.
In the same year came Christopher Cunningham (since dead) and his two sons, William and John, who now live in Kansas.
Benjamin McCrary settled in the township in 1838, and died soon after the war.
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HISTORY OF BUCHANAN COUNTY.
Charles Grable, a prominent citizen of the township, now living one mile from Arnoldsville, came to the township in 1840.
Anthony Grable, his brother (now dead), who came with him, sold goods in Arnoldsville with John Chesnut for a period of two years, soon after the close of the war.
Eli Arnold came at an early day, and died since the war.
Platte River Mills, also called Matney's Mills, was one of the earliest settled neighborhoods of the township.
The postoffice at this period, called " Platte River," was established in 1848, and John Bretz appointed postmaster. This was the first post- office established in Jackson Township. Bretz was succeeded in the office by Wm. Matney, the present owner of the mills.
Joel Grable started a general store in 1851, and sold goods about one year.
In 'August, 1852, Wm. M. Matney opened, in partnership with E. Cody, a stock of goods. They continued in business together till April 1853, when Matney bought out his partner, and continued to sell goods till 1854, when he sold out to Isaac Brooks.
In 1857, Brooks moved his goods to Plattsburg. Wm. M. Matney opened another store at the mills, and did business till 1861, when he closed out. There was no store kept at the mills during the period of the civil war, and the postoffice, as above stated, was moved across the the river into Platte Township, one mile north of the mills to the house of Henry Weltner, with whom it remained until after the close of the war, when it was moved back to its original and present site in Jackson Township.
The present postmaster of Platte River, is O. D. Grable, son of Joel Grable, an old citizen of the township, and the merchant in whose store the postoffice is now kept.
William M. Matney became the sole proprietor of what is now known as Matney's Mill in April, 1857. This mill is located in Jackson Township, on Platte River, just opposite to the point in Platte Town- ship, where it was first erected in 1838.
In August, 1867, the mill was consumed by fire. Mr. Matney rebuilt a frame building, 46x66 feet, three stories above basement. The base- ment wall is stone, twenty feet high, containing more than seven hundred perch. The mill contains two run of burrs, four and four and a half feet in diameter. There is an addition to the main building two stories high. First story is used for saw mill, and contains one circular saw ; the second story contains two double custom roll carding machines, all driven by four Leffel turbine wheels, which cost about $2, 100. The mill is now in successful operation, except during very high or low water.
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HISTORY OF BUCHANAN COUNTY.
SETTLEMENT OF CRAWFORD TOWNSHIP.
William Fowler, (deceased), settled in Crawford Township, 1837.
William Harrington, (deceased), 1837. .
Edward Davidson, from Illinois, (deceased), 1837.
Caleb Bailey, (deceased), 1837.
William Guinn, from Illinois in 1837, went to California in 1846. William Lockhart, from Illinois, (deceased), 1837.
Bartlett Curl, from Kentucky in 1837, living in Oregon.
James B. O'Toole, from Illinois, (deceased), 1837.
Harvey Jones, from North Carolina, (deceased), 1837.
O. M. Spencer, from Kentucky in 1837, living in Kansas.
Widdy Henderson, (deceased).
James Curl, (deceased).
William Payne, (deceased).
Guian Brown, (deceased).
Turpin Thomas, (deceased).
Matt Ferrell, (deceased).
Judge Thomas A. Brown, living; present County Judge. Judge Brown came to Crawford Township in 1838, from Tennessee.
H. W. Baker came in 1837, from Virginia ; living.
John Hickman came in 1837, from St. Louis; living.
Levi J. Judah came in 1839, from Indiana ; living.
Columbus H. Roundtree came in 1837, from Kentucky ; living.
John, James and Cornelius McGuire, (deceased).
Captain William Fowler located here in 1837, from Delaware, on the quarter section of land now occupied by the town of Wallace. He had the honor of being the first Circuit and County Clerks of Buchanan County, having been appointed to those positions in 1839. He died in St. Joseph, in November, 1880, at the advanced age of eighty-two years.
Dr. Silas McDonald came from Kentucky in the spring of 1838, and located in Crawford Township. He was the first physician in the county. Now a resident of St. Joseph.
Major Sandford Feland came to this township in 1839, purchased a claim east of the town of Wallace, where he has continued to reside ever since. His apple orchard, one of the finest in the state, contains five thousand trees. Major Feland states when he came to his present home the bark wigwams, which had just been vacated by the Sac Indians, were still standing on the banks of Bee Creek. The Major is a native of Ken- tucky, and was an officer in the Kentucky militia.
Guilford Moultrie, who built the first log Court House at Sparta, was a resident of Crawford Township, and died at his home some years before the war, one mile east of Wallace.
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HISTORY OF BUCHANAN COUNTY.
The oldest business center in Crawford Township was known as West Point. It was a single store, kept by Joel Pennick, on a farm now owned by Milton Murphy, one and a half miles west of the present town of Halleck. Mr. Pennick came to the township with his family in 1838, and afterwards removed to St. Joseph. Here was kept one among the first postoffices established in the county.
Henry Fansher ran the first blacksmith shop in the township. This was on the present site of Faucett's mill.
The first camp meeting in Crawford Township was held by the Presbyterians, on Sparta camp ground, in the southwest part of the township, in 1848. Rev. Jesse Allen was the first Presbyterian minister. It is generally conceded that the first mill erected in the township was Clowser's mill, a water power built by Jones, and operated by John Clowser. The site of this mill was two and a half miles east of Halleck. Daniel Clowser destroyed and rebuilt the mill in 1849. In the great freshet of 1858 this was entirely swept away.
The first steam mill erected in the township was by Dr. Silas McDonald, now of St. Joseph.
Edward Davidson also built a steam mill, which was destroyed by fire in 1868.
Brown & McClanahan built, in 1856-7, a steam saw mill north of Halleck. In 1861, Daniel Clowser bought it from Brown & McClanahan and converted it into a grist mill and carding machinc. The latter feature has ceased to exist. In 1865 this was sold to Faucett & Ferril, who enlarged it and made it one of the best flouring mills in the country. It operates five run of burrs and has capacity for making one hundred barrels of flour per day and night. The present owners are Faucett, Robinson & Baker. Faucett's flour is widely and favorably known throughout the Missouri valley.
Nathan Turner built a mill in the fall of 1838, and when he had a head of water would start the mill and go to clearing ground. Mr. Turner says that his neighbor, Sneed, had a dog, which was good to hunt "coons." One day, when his mill was running (he being in the new ground at work) he heard Sneed's dog barking, and thinking he had found a "coon" in the mill, quit his work and went to him. To his aston- ishment he saw the dog was barking, not at the supposed "coon," but at the grist as it came out. The grist came out at irregular intervals and in lumps, and when it appeared the dog would snatch and eat it, and then watch and bark and wait for the next batch.
The first school in the township was kept by Francis Ferguson, on the southwest corner of section sixteen, in 1839. This was a log school house with puncheon floor ; one log cut out for a window, and paper pasted over it punctured with pin-holes, to admit the light.
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HISTORY OF BUCHANAN COUNTY.
For teaching, she charged fifty cents per pupil, for a term of six months. Money, however, being very scarce in those days, she took what her patrons could give her. Mr. Curl paid her for teaching his children, in flannel, cloth, stockings and two small pigs. The house in which she taught was erected by Dr. McDonald, Wash Taylor, James Curl, Singleton Asher, Robert Taylor, J. J. Pennick and others. It was sixteen feet square; the chimney was six feet in width and made of sticks and dirt. A paddle hung at the door, marked on one side "out," and on the other side "in," which was turned by the pupils as they came in or went out during school hours.
SETTLEMENT OF BLOOMINGTON TOWNSIIIP.
Among the earliest settlers of what is now Bloomington Township, was Hiram Roberts. He came to the vicinity of DeKalb in 1836, a year before the county was opened for settlement.
As soon as it was known that squatters had invaded the county, United States troops from Fort Leavenworth were sent to dispossess them. Perhaps, the only man who escaped the vigilance of the military, was Hiram Roberts, who happened to be overlooked, from the secluded location he then occupied.
He lived many years after in DeKalb; was a Justice of the Peace ; kept the hotel of the town for several years, and was a popular and highly respected citizen. He died in DeKalb, April 25, 1881, at the ripe age of seventy-nine years. Five days after, his wife of nearly equal age with himself, was buried. The inscription on their monument in the cemetery at DeKalb reads as follows :
"Hiram Roberts, born December 6, 1801 ; died April 25, 1881, aged 79 years, 4 months and 19 days. Rachael Roberts, born March 18, 1802 ; died April 27, 1881, aged 79 years, I month and 9 days."
Isom Gardner, Amos Horn, a native of Lafayette County, Missouri, John Underwood, Holland Jones, Thomas Hickman, William Hickman, and William Ballow, Matt Geer, Hardin Hamilton, Mrs. Sally Davis, (now deceased) F. D. Davis, her son, Thomas Hill, Major F. D. Bowen, (died 1867) Stephen Field, who built the first mill in the township, James Hamilton, and Isaac Van Hoosier, who died 1879, were all here in 1837.
The Gartens (Zachariah, who died in 1852) with his sons Uriah and John, have lived in Nodaway County since 1842. William lives just south of DeKalb and Stephen, now the oldest original settler of the town, came to Bloomington Township in 1839. Lewis Garten came to the township also in 1839, now lives in California. In 1841, Major Francis Drake Bowen, a native of Fairfax County, Virginia, settled near DeKalb. He bought from James Linville, a claim which he afterwards
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HISTORY OF BUCHANAN COUNTY.
entered, about two miles from DeKalb. He then went to Kentucky, where he taught a school five months, returning the same year to Bloomington Township, and their resided until his death, which occurred November 13, 1867, aged seventy-three years. His estate included some of the finest farms in the county, which descended to his two nephews, Peter and William A. Bowen. Major Bowen was at one time an officer in the war of 1812. He was a man of stately presence, and of superior scholastic attainments. He was never married. John Bowen, a brother of the Major, came from Virginia in 1832, with his wife and three sons : William A. Bowen, now, 1881, is Commissioner of Public Instruction in Platte County, Missouri ; Lovell, who was killed in the battle of Pea Ridge, fighting for the Southern cause, and Peter O. Bowen, now living in DeKalb. John Bowen died July 5, 1862, at the age of seventy-one years. His wife died in July, 1879. Francis Drake Davis, a cousin of Major F. D. Bowen, and now a wealthy citizen of the township, located here in 1837, coming from Fairfax County, Virginia. He now resides in the township, in the seventy-ninth year of his age. His mother, Mrs. Sally Davis, soon after came out with another son, John, who died on his way to California, in 1849. About twelve years after, Thomas Davis, a third son, came to Bloomington Township. Mrs. Davis died at the residence of her son, F. D. Davis, at the advanced age of one hundred years, having been born in Virginia, in December, 1773. Thomas Davis died in 1880, at the age of eighty years. Both this family and the Bowens were lineal descendants of Sir Francis Drake. Mrs. Davis had two daughters, Mrs. Bryant and Mrs. Peoples, both dead. The former died in Bloomington Township, and the latter in Lexington, Missouri.
Michael Gabbard, at one time a representative farmer, settled his present home on Contrary Creek, two and-a-half miles east of DeKalb, in 1838. He died in December, 1878, aged seventy-nine years. His widow survives. Benjamin Yocum, a farmer from Kentucky, settled in this township in February, 1839, where he still resides.
In 1839, Captain Richard Murphy, of Weston, Platte County, opened a saloon in Bloomington, which was attended by George W. Belt, pres- ent Recorder in St. Joseph. The sign read "Kaughphy House," and because of the originality of the orthography, it attracted universal attention.
Captain Belt has since that date filled many important offices in Platte County ; was successively Sheriff, Circuit Clerk, etc.
The first to open a store within the limits of the town was the firm or O. H. P. Lucas & Thornburg. During the same year Sandy Cun- ningham became a member of this firm. They continued in business for about three years. The store of Lucas & Co., in 1840, was robbed of $500, by James Mitchel, who kept a saloon in the place. Mitchel was arrested but one of the important witnesses failing to appear at the
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HISTORY OF BUCHANAN COUNTY.
trial, he was discharged, and soon left the county on account of his unpopularity.
Governor Robert M. Stewart immigrated to Bloomington Township in 1839, from New York, where he entered a claim and continued to reside until the breaking out of the Mexican war. He was a lawyer by profession and boarded a portion of the time while in DeKalb, with Joel Hedgpeth, Justice of the Peace. In 1845 he moved to St. Joseph, where he continued to reside until his death. Governor Stewart will be noticed at greater length further on, in chapter entitled "Bench and Bar."
James Ellison was also an early settler in the township, and died some years after the war. He was long a prominent pioneer, as was also Judge Curl, who at one time represented Carroll County, Missouri, in the Legislature.
William Moore, a son-in-law of James Ellison, came in 1839. He was Deputy Sheriff and Constable for several years. He died in 1847.
Captain William Moore, who lives near DeKalb, at an advanced age, came to the township at an early day, and was long regarded as a representative citizen.
David Brown came in 1839, and located where his widow now resides, below DeKalb. He was an enterprising farmer, and a native of Ten- nessee.
William Clasby immigrated from Calloway County, Missouri, to Buchanan County in 1838, and settled on a farm just west of DeKalb. He died some years before the war. Some of his descendants still live in the county.
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