USA > Missouri > Buchanan County > The history of Buchanan County, Missouri > Part 25
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95 | Part 96 | Part 97 | Part 98 | Part 99 | Part 100 | Part 101 | Part 102 | Part 103 | Part 104 | Part 105
"So live that when thy summons come to join The innumerable caravan which moves To that mysterious realm where each shall take His chamber in the silent halls of death, Thou go not, like the quarry slave al night, Scourged to his dungeon, but sustained and soothed By an unfaltering trust, approach thy grave, Like one that wraps the drapery of his couch About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams."
The chairman then said that he first knew General Loan thirty-five years ago, when he was struggling to earn his first town lot. In those days he had traveled the circuit with him, had observed his course dur- ing the war, and had known him intimately as a Congressman, and he had always found him honest. During the days of political corruption that followed the war, no man had ever dared to say that General Loan had taken a dollar that was not his own. His home life was full of ten- der affection, one long honeymoon. It has been said that he was not without a presentiment of his approaching end, and on Tuesday called
25.
HISTORY OF BUCHANAN COUNTY.
at the bank and transferred some bonds from his own name to that of his wife. In all the relations of life he, General Craig, had never known a better man than Benjamin F. Loan.
Mr. J. F. Pitt said that he was with the deceased in his last labors, and gave some details of his sudden illness. Mr. Mosman paid a brief tri- bute to the worth of General Loan, and the meeting adjourned to meet at the funeral to-day at 2 o'clock."
Among those who attended the first courts in this judicial district at Old Sparta and St. Joseph was
GENERAL A. W. DONIPHAN,
who was born in Mason County, Kentucky, July 9th, 1808. His ances- tors on both paternal and maternal lines were of English extraction. His father and mother were natives of Virginia, his father being a revo- lutionary soldier. His mother was a woman of extraordinary mental powers and sparkling wit. He graduated at Augusta College, Kentucky. at the early age of eighteen years, with distinction, especially in the classics. He studied law in the office of Martin P. Marshall, of Ken- tucky. After a period of two years he was licensed to practice law by the Supreme Court of Ohio. In March, 1830, he came to Missouri, and was licensed to practice by its Supreme Court, at Fayette, in the suc- ceeding month. On the 19th of April, 1830, he settled in Lexington. Missouri, and began his long, successful and brilliant forensic career. At the age of twenty-two, without experience, he was placed in collision with Abiel Leonard, Robert W. Wells, Peyton R. Hayden and others. gentlemen eminent for ability and legal attainments.
His maiden speech at the bar was made in 1830, in defense of a man indicted for murder. His conduct in this trial was modest, and gave evidence of the dawning of that reputation as a criminal lawyer which he afterward attained.
In 1837, he removed to Liberty, Missouri, Which he made his home for the succeeding thirty years. There he found, already established in the practice of law, those distinguished lawyers, D. R. Atchison, Amos Rees and James M. Hughes. His experience at Lexington had been preparatory ; at Liberty his reputation attained its zenith. Doniphan was young, ambitious, highly cultured, and his mind expanded with ease to meet the magnitude of each new occasion. The faculty of ready, powerful and tempestuous speech-the flashes of brilliant thought had come to him, and the people of the state at once recognized him as an orator.
In 1836, 1840 and in 1854 he represented Clay County in the Legis- Jature without opposition. He was a member of the Peace Conference of 1861. In 1846, occurred the war with Mexico, and in May, 1846, he was elected Colonel of the First regiment Missouri Mounted Volunteers.
252
HISTORY OF BUCHANAN COUNTY.
The laurels won by Colonel Doniphan and his men during the Mex- ican war are among the brightest that grace the American arms, and the memory of them will be as enduring as time itself.
In the varied circumstances of life Colonel Doniphan has exerted a great influence. In parliamentary bodies he has done this mainly through social impress and personal contact. He is fascinating in conversation, and his society is sought wherever he goes. His mind acts with quick- ness and precision. His temperament is poetic, even romantic, but is guarded by fine taste and the most delicate sense of the ludicrous. His mind is so well organized, so nicely balanced, its machinery so happily fitted, its stores of information so well digested, and so completely made a part of the brain, that its riches, without apparent effort, flow or flash forth on all occasions, and it places each subject or object it touches in a flood of light.
Nature has endowed him munificently. He now leads a quiet life at Richmond, Missouri, devoting himself entirely to the amusements of reading, correspondence and converse with his myriad of friends.
We have given short biographical sketches of only those members of the bar who came to St. Joseph and the " Platte Purchase " at an early day. In addition will be found below a short and incomplete list of names of other members of the St. Joseph bar. There have been many itinerant lawyers and journeymen counselors, many of whom are doubt- less still living and known to the reader, and others are dead or have removed elsewhere, that have practiced at the St. Joseph courts. We should be glad to give them all, but our limited space will preclude us from doing more than merely chronicling their names.
ATTORNEYS WHO LIVED AT SPARTA.
Amos Rees, Henry M. Vories,
Wm. B. Almond,
Benj. F. Loan,
Lawrence Archer,
Wm. Cannon,
Jas. B. Gardenhire,
W. P. Hall,
Robert M. Stewart,
Andrew Hughes,
Peter H. Burnett.
AT ST. JOSEPH.
Sol. L. Leonard, Jonathan M. Bassett,
Washington Jones, W. A. Cunningham, M. Jeff Thompson, A. P. Hereford, 1. B. Hereford.
Sam'l Ensworth, John Wilson, W. Broadus Thompson,
B. M. Hughes, Thomas P. Conner,
Thomas Harbine, Isaac C. Parker,
253
HISTORY OF BUCHANAN COUNTY.
J. J. Wyatt,
George Baxter, John C. C. Thornton, A. W. Slayback, E. I. Montague.
T. A. Green, G. D. Green, H. L. Harrington, A. D. Reed,
Thomas Thoroughman, Alex. Davis, S. Judson, Charles W. Wright, Thomas Parish,
T. W. Collins,
A. D. May,
Wm. H. Miller,
Peter T. Able,
Murat Masterson,
John T. Baldwin, L. L. Richmond,
Wm. H. Campbell,
Wm. Moore, Theodore Wheaton,
Geo. H. Hall, B. O. Diskoll,
Jas. M. Dunning. C. M. Lincoln,
Bruce Toole, W. G. Swan,
W. C. Smith,
J. M. Breaker,
A. Y. Shields, Wm. Loan, Philloman Bliss,
Capt. Lee,
A. D. Maderia. Jos. Terrill, Hunter,
Jos. H. Burnett, J. Hodges, Wm. H. Fagan, John Ritchie, Fred. Brown,
L. M. Lawson, Bennett Pike, Jeff Chandler, S. A. Young. Jos. Early, W. S. Everett,
E. O. Hill, Jas. M. Strong, Wm. Henry, Andrew Royal, W. D. Webb,
F. Van Waters, Tobias Mitchell,
David Rea,
Wm. T. Hughes,
Daniel Sullivan,
John R. Boyd,
P. V. Wise,
Wilson Shannon,
Foote,
Wise,
Frank Ransom,
F. Babcock,
Samuel Irvine,
D. M. Johnson,
James C. Roberts,
John Donovan, Warren Toole,
Samuel Word, James Shields,
James Davis,
Jas. T. Beach,
C. C. Colt,
Wm. Bliss, Thomas Parker,
A. W. Terrill,
James Hunter, James Lucas,
Wm. M. Albin, John K. Cravens,
Jas. A. Owen,
John B. Rea, John Jones, R. Lewis, 16
254
HISTORY OF BUCHANAN COUNTY.
Wm. D. O'Toole,
Fin. R. Hanna,
R. H. Lykins, Mordicai Oliver, Sr.,
W. Gilbert,
R. P. Giles.
C. A. Mosman,
E. C. Zimmerman,
E. S. Gosney,
J. C. Heddenberg,
S. B. Green,
James Ringo,
H. E. Barnard,
Litt R. Lancaster,
Joseph P. Grubb,
E. H. Fudge,
O. M. Spencer,
W. P. Hall, Sr.,
L. E. Carter,
Vinton Pike,
James W. Boyd,
W. D. B. Motter,
W. E. Sherwood,
W. Fitzgerald, W. K. James,
John S. Crosby, Suffler, James H. Pratt,
John M. Stewart,
Franklin Porter,
B. R. Vineyard,
Minor Shortridge,
A. D. Kirk, E. G. Adams,
W. H. Sherman, John Doniphan, W. C. Toole,
W. Hoynes,
James Sutherland, James W. Porch,
- Anderson,
Allen H. Vories,
H. M. Ramey,
F. S. Winn,
A. D. Vories,
Thomas F. Ryan,
L. H. Moss, H. Tutt,
Harrison Branch,
George Burgess,
M. A. Reed, Benjamin J. Woodson, J. L. Sutherland, M. R. Singleton, George W. Burgess.
M. Oliver, Jr.,
John D. Strong,
Henry Martin,
A. D. Green,
Enos Crowthers,
A. Saltzman, H. K. White,
W. P. Hall, Jr., Stone,
John F. Tyler,
James F. Pitt,
Winslow Judson,
Robert Musser,
John Ryan,
James P. Thomas,
Silas Woodson,
T. E. Battoin, S. A. Gilbert,
CHAPTER XVI.
CRIMES, INCIDENTS AND ACCIDENTS.
All organized counties and communities, it matters not what may be their geographical location or what may be their general moral and religious status, have a criminal record. Some of these records are replete with deeds of violence and bloodshed, while others are not so bad.
Buchanan County is no exception to this universal rule, yet from the date of its settlement to the present time it has been comparatively exempt, not only as to the number of crimes committed in proportion to population, but in the degree of atrocity with which they have been per- petrated. There are, however, some facts of a criminal character which belong to the legitimate history of the county, and are of such import- ance that they may be narrated in this work.
The most noted murder ever committed in the county was that of
EDWARD H. WILLARD.
The facts connected therewith are, we presume, all set forth in the con- fession of Augustus Otis Jennings, one of the parties to the murder, and who was executed near St. Joseph on the second day of September, 1853. Before, however, giving the confession, we shall here insert the letter of Sterling Price, at the time Governor of Missouri, written to General Bela M. Hughes and others, declining to commute the death sentence which had by the courts been passed upon Jennings.
The following is a copy of the Governor's letter which we take from an old number of the Jefferson City Examiner of that date :
EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, CITY OF JEFFERSON, MO., August 20, 1853. )
To Captain Bela M. Hughes, and six hundred other citizens of Buchanan County:
SIR : Having received from yourself and many other citizens of Buchanan County, very large petitions praying the commutation of the sentence of death which was passed upon Augustus Jennings, convicted at the last term of the Circuit Court of said county, and whose day of execution is rapidly approaching, I embrace the opportunity thus afforded of presenting my conclusions, after having bestowed upon the subject that serious consideration which its great importance demands.
1
256
HISTORY OF BUCHANAN COUNTY.
In the exercise of the varied powers with which I have been clothed by virtue of the responsible position to which my fellow citizens have called me, it is needless for me to say more, than that I have endeavored to discharge them with an eye single to the honor of our state, and with a proper regard for the supremacy of the law. Among the multiplied duties which surround me, there are none which demands greater inves- tigation, or more serious thought, than such cases as are presented to my consideration, growing out of the enforcement of the criminal code. The executive officer who will undertake a disposition of the almost numberless cases of this character, which are from time to time pre- sented for his action, must necessarily clothe himself with the great attribute of mercy. But notwithstanding its claims, there is still another attribute-justice-which cannot be disregarded without a sacrifice of the great ends of good government. And here permit me to add that my own experience has taught me that nothing is more natural, or savors more strongly of true nobility of heart, than exhibitions of true sympathy for other's woes ; while on the other hand a few dangers are greater than such as grow out of a too liberal disposition to witness the violation of law. In this day we too frequently see the gross offender escaping the penalty which he has justly incurred.
Crimes of the deepest dye are being constantly committed, and in far too many instances, for the public good, the offender goes unwhipt of justice. Is there not, then, great danger, judging from the increasing amount of crime throughout our land, that the too frequent interposition of executive clemency will have the effect to increase, rather than dimin- ish, the number of those who seek to become its subjects ? Impressed with these considerations, and believing that our laws are based upon the great principles of human justice, it rarely occurs that executive interpositions are attended with happy results. With reference to the case of young Jennings, after a strict examination of the evidence, I am unable to see one extenuating circumstance-but, on the other hand, the whole plan of murder seems to have been conceived in cold blood and executed with a love of vengeance which is absolutely astounding and revolting. The deliberation of the act, the cruel and tortuous manner which was selected of murdering the deceased, surpasses anything in the annals of crime. With a due regard, therefore, to all the facts, which in this case assumes far more than ordinary consequence, involv- ing, as it does, human life itself, my best convictions of duty prompt me to decline any interference with the course of justice which has already been prescribed by the properly constituted authorities under our law. I have the honor to be very respectfully.
Your obedient servant, STERLING PRICE.
The following is the confession of Jennings :
ST. JOSEPH, Mo., September ist, 1853.
The following is the voluntary confession of Augustus Otis Jennings, condemned for the murder of Edward H. Willard, made in the presence of several witnesses :
I have thought that the ends of justice, the claims of humanity, and the honor of my family require this, a frank confession on my part, of
257
HISTORY OF BUCHANAN COUNTY.
the part I and others acted in the unfortunate murder of Willard. My conscience prompts me to such a course, and although a man in my con- dition -condemned to die for a high crime, may not enjoy the public confidence, so far as his word is concerned, I am persuaded, corroborated as my confession is by the testimony of others, the power of simple truth will place me right before the bar of public opinion.
In the fear of God, with the certain prospect of death before me in few days, I make this confession and exposure.
I became acquainted with Willard, if my memory serves me right, in the spring of 1852, some four or five months before his death. I never saw his family-his wife, that I know of, nor did he ever see my family. They were never acquainted ; and his acquaintance and mine was what we might call a street acquaintance-knew each other on the street. We also had some little business transaction, as the sequel will develop.
With Langston, Jones and Anderson, who stand charged with the sume offense with myself, I became acquainted at different periods. With Langston about twelve months, with Jones and Anderson only a few days before Willard's death. Between them and myself, or their families and mine, there never has been any particular intimacy.
Willard professed to be a carpenter by trade, but was doing business in St. Joseph as an auctioneer. He was also settling up the business of a Mr. Miller, deceased, at least so I understood from him, and as such employed me to make and set a paling round the grave of the deceased Miller. For that labor I charged Willard twenty dollars. In addition to this I had another account charged on my books against him, of two dol- lars and a half-making in all twenty-two dollars and fifty cents. This debt was incurred in June, 1852.
I believed him to be an honorable man, and had no doubt that he would pay me for this labor. He promised to pay me as soon as the work should be finished. I had to pay the money out of my own pocket for the materials. I was poor, and had a family to maintain entirely by my own labor, and consequently needed the pay. I called on him at a suitable time and told him my wants, and he promised to pay me soon. I called again, and again, and he always told me the same thing. I soon began to have doubts about his paying me at all. I thought he had means and was able, but did not intend to pay what he justly owed me. This somewhat soured my feelings, and led me into, or to take that part I did in the affair that unfortunately ended in his death. For here, per- mit me to anticipate the sequel by remarking that in all that painful affair, my only and constant motive was to use some coercive measures to terrify Willard and make him pay me what he owed me-not even to lynch, much less to kill, but merely to frighten, was my whole object when I began the affair. Nor did I, up to the very moment of his death, intend doing anything else than frighten him into the payment of his debts. I believed him to able, but unwilling to pay. Subsequent developments have, however, satisfied me that the poor fellow had not means to pay his debts.
The very first intimation that I had, from any source whatever, that Willard was to be lynched till he would pay his debts, was in the office of Craig & Jones, on the morning of his death. The first explicit declara- tion of an intent to whip Willard was as we went out to the woods, where he was whipped to death. If Langston, Anderson and Jones either or
258
HISTORY OF BUCHANAN COUNTY.
all of them intended anything more than terrify him, or perhaps whip him, they would have told me of it.
With the cowhide and rope which I purchased, circumstantially as related by the witness on my trial, I intended to frighten Willard, and if used at all, only in lynching him.
Before we started out to the woods Langston told me that Willard said that he had forty-five dollars hid out there in the neighborhood of the grave yard ; that he had buried it there while I was setting the paling around Miller's grave. I asked Willard in Langston's presence if he had, and he answered, " I said it."
I understood from Anderson, on the day of Willard's death, that Willard owed him fifteen dollars, borrowed money. Of Langston I understood that he went Willard's security for license to auctioneer, per- haps forty-five dollars. From Jones I never understood that Willard was in his debt at all.
With this preface, I will go back and detail the transactions of that day, that ended in Willard's death.
Of the sale of Willard's property, and the confusion and scramble among his creditors, that took place the day before Willard's death, it is not necessary for me to say much, as that is all well known to the pub- lic, and, in fact, I know but very little about it. I was there but a few moments. The sale was entirely over when I went to the railroad depot. Purchasers were then carrying away the property when I came up.
Of the many threats against Willard, said to have been on that occasion, I heard none. I heard Dr. Harding using scurrilous language and contemptuous epithets to Willard, and I saw the doctor wring Wil- lard's nose. I told the doctor to let him alone ; that he owed me more money than he did him, that it was best to let him alone, &c., about as detailed by the witnesses on my trial. If Copeland made any threats against Willard that day, I did not hear them ; nor did I ever hear him make any. Willard seemed to be drunk, and made no reply to Harding, nor to anybody, that I heard.
That night I expected that some division would be made of the result of Willard's sale, and being unwell myself, I went to see my partner in business, Mr. Beal, to get him to go and attend to getting our propor- tion of Willard's property, or the money that it brought at the sale. Beal was himself unable to go ; he was that evening sunstuck danger- ously ill, and he could not go. Then I returned home, and, after spend- ing a few minutes, went to the depot to learn what had been done, or what was likely to be done. Here I learned that Willard had gone to his residence and reported himself sick, and had sent for a physician, and that the doctor (Howard) had reported him to be drunk, or that Willard's wife had put her head out of the window and stated to persons outside that he was drunk, and when drunk he was a fool, and to wait till morning, and all things should be right. With this information, satis- fied that matters would be satisfactorily arranged in the morning, I returned back home. I should suppose it to have been between ten and eleven at night, when I returned home. I did not leave my residence till after breakfast next morning.
I did not see, hear from or correspond with Langston, Anderson, Jones, one nor all, nor with any body else that night, in reference to Willard.
259
HISTORY OF BUCHANAN COUNTY.
I was not apprized of any design or intent to coerce Williard into a payment of his debts. I had not then thought of such a thing myself. I was acting only with the view to secure my own rights. I was not very well. I remained at home through the night, and till after breakfast the next morning.
The next morning, early after breakfast, I saw Langston, Anderson and Willard, all three together, going in the direction of McNew's cab- inet shop. After they entered McNew's shop I went across the street to the shop and met them coming out of the shop. McNew was not in at the time. As they came out they saw McNew coming up, and they wanted to see McNew. Willard and McNew went into the wareroom for a private conversation. They remained ten or fifteen minutes in the private room before they came out. During this private conversation, Langston and Anderson walked across the square, I do not now recol- lect where. I remained in front of the shop till they came out.
Of the purport of that private conversation, or what Willard wished to see McNew for I then had no idea.
*
At the time they came out I was walking back and fro before the shop door. I was a stranger to McNew-never had spoken to him, and was waiting to speak to Willard on my own business. Up to this hour there was no concert among us ; at least none that I knew of in refer- ence to taking Willard to the woods.
Some eighteen paces from McNew's shop, as they came out I met them, and asked them "where they were going." One of them, (I do not know which) said " they were going up street." I paused about the shop door awhile to see where they were going, thinking they were going to get something to drink. After they passed all the drinking- houses without stopping, I then started after them. They walked slow, appeared to be engaged in conversation, and I overtook them about the time they entered Craig & Jones' law office.
Their business in Craig & Jones' office I did not know, nor have I since been informed. Nothing that occurred during the subsequent part of the day threw any light on that part of their conduct. McNew, he understood, went with him from his shop to the law office.
During the time that Willard was conversing in the back room with Craig or Jones, McNew, Langston, Anderson and myself were sitting in the office, and there was no remark, as I recollect, made by any of us in reference to Willard at all. Langston made some remark about the "jewelry," "if they were ready," or something to that import. Ander- son then by the movement of his hands towards his pantaloons pocket, which he partly opened, exposed partly to view what I then supposed to be a pair of handcuffs. I afterwards learned that they were handcuffs. This was the first intimation I had of any intent even to frighten Willard. I remarked to Anderson that he had better not show that. He then pushed it back into his pocket. I knew that McNew was an officer-as such it flashed into my mind, immediately, that they intended to take Willard into the bushes and frighten him till he would agree to pay his debts, and I thought it was foolish to expose these handcuffs before McNew, was my reason for cautioning Anderson not to show them.
I here formed in my own mind, what I have since found was a very imperfect idea of what was intended to be done with Williard. Had I
260
HISTORY OF BUCHANAN COUNTY.
been aware of the results I never should have gone into it. Believing it was only to take him out and frighten him, and at furtherest only to lynch him, I connived at it. Here my guilt began. Up to this hour I was an innocent man. In conniving at this I lost my innocence. I have ruined myself. I have ruined my family. I shall lose my life. Would to God I had left the room, left the company, and gone to my business.
About the time that Anderson exposed his handcuffs, Langston called me across the room to him, and privately slipped a dime into my hand, making no remark whatever. I had an idea that he meant some- thing by that act, but was not certain what; but thought it meant to go and treat myself. I went out a square or two, meditating on the mean- ing of the act of Langston. It had something peculiar and undefinable about it. I returned without treating myself. They appeared to be waiting for my return. And Langston asked if I had the instrument. I asked what instrument ? He whispered to me and said, "a cowhide and a rope, too." He said he had no more change or he would give it to me. I told him I had change enough to buy a rope-pretty nearly as detailed by the witness. I then went and bought the rope and the cowhide. Whilst gone after the rope and cowhide, or on my return with them, I came up the alley to the Copeland House, and went into the side door into the billiard room, passed through the bar-room, out at the door, and there I saw Finney, the Deputy Constable; asked him if he had seen Copeland within an hour or so. He said he had not. I told him Copeland wished to see him down on Main Street. This I told him, to get him off in another part of town, that he might not see what was going on. Copeland was township Constable.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.