USA > Missouri > Buchanan County > The history of Buchanan County, Missouri > Part 32
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HISTORY OF BUCHANAN COUNTY.
ing exactly the man that Vories was, whether with or without money, the Judge went on to say that, when it afterward came to the ear of Vories that he was strapped for spending money in one of his races for Congress, Vories had opened his pocket book to him, although he had been a member of the convention that had nominated another candidate. Nor was this all-for when he was so chronically bedfast, two or three years ago, as to render it probable that he would never again get away from home, Vories had sent to him a basket of his "Virginia Seedling," .and was preparing to send him another of Catawba, when he learned that Birch had anticipated him by ordering it from his agent. The whole of it was, that whatever risk the speaker had incurred in leaving all the money he had (and that borrowed money) with a sick brother lawyer and his family, it turned out to be the most encouraging instance he had ever met with of "casting his bread upon the waters"-for the poor, high-headed creature had never got done with reciprocating it, and never would. Such was Henry M. Vories, now an honored Justice of the .Supreme Court -- then a sick and downcast lawyer, without comforts for his family-and such is but an average type of the "old settlers" of the "Platte Purchase," by whom he found himself surrounded to-day.
Yes, gentlemen, (continued the speaker,) all the loose talk in the world cannot keep it out of history, that the "old settlers" who have passed the gate to-day on the "complimentary" of the self-possessed and far-seeing president of this great exposition, are of the type or class of men who, in all ages, from the conquest of Julius Caesar, to the settlement of California and Colorado, have been the founders of society, of counties and of states-and we ask no higher recognition than that we did not ingloriously " die out " amongst those we were born with, but that we took our chances to build up an equal, if not an improved, society amongst those of equal self-reliance with ourselves.
And here, if anywhere, it is appropriate to remark that amongst those whom you have so encouraged with your good will that their names are recorded as successful lawyers and judges and legislators, in both houses, (both state and national) there is not one of us who has a black mark against another one, whether we remember each other as professional or political associates, or rivals. No, gentlemen, (said the distinguished speaker, turning to the ten or dozen who were occupying with him the speaking stand) no! and more than that, there is not a man amongst you who was not naturally "born and bred" in the full appreciation and recognition of General Jackson's sententious measure of unquestioned mediocrity, namely, the desire to detract from the repu- tation of your rivals, in the ignoble and mistaken assumption that to concede their "cleverness" was much subtracted from their own. In this sense, at least, we were all Jackson men, whether agreeing or dis- agreeing in other respects, and in that sense we look into the faces of
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each other to-day, as I saw Harrison and Johnson look into the faces of each other, when meeting for the first time during the quarter of a cen- tury which had elapsed since the battle of the Thames. Each had dis- charged his duty, according to his theory of it ; and the respectful, yet stately look of cach made an absolute end of the misjudged calumnies which the unreflecting friends of each had heaped upon the other during the political canvass of 1840.
Having no time before the horse race, of which he had heard the sound of the bugle, to speak of the other noble attributes of the repre- sentative men who surrounded him, as he would not scruple to do, even in their presence, did time permit him, the speaker took up and amplified the allusion which had been made by General Atchison to General Hughes, as the inaugurator of the Platte County addition to the State of Missouri, by referring to what it had happened to him to know upon the subject. Producing from his portmanteau a copy of the Western Monitor and Boone's Lick Correspondent, a small newspaper which he established and edited at Fayette six and forty years ago, (and which was then the westernmost newspaper office in the United States, ) he mod- estly referred to his connection with it as having given him his first polit- ical influence, and that it was therefore that the late General Andrew S. Hughes, then the agent of the Indian tribes who had had the Platte country assigned to them as their reservation or territory, had addressed him a letter on the subject of having it annexed to the State of Missouri. That letter was accompanied by a rude diagram of the country, drawn up by the late General Cornelius Gilliam, from his hunting recollections of it, and was enclosed to Colonel Benton (our then senior senator) with such an additional letter from the speaker as he hoped might help along the project ; and in due course of mail he had the satisfaction to receive from our then distinguished and subsequently illustrious Senator, a reply, which he published in his paper, to the effect that both the Presi- dent and the Secretary of War were in favor of adding the then Indian reservation to the State of Missouri, for military considerations con- nected with the peace of our original frontier boundary.
Such having been the simple and unadorned inauguration of a pro- ject which added a Congressional slave district to the State of Missouri. it is but justice to add that the measure was finally carried through both houses of Congress on the unanimous report of the House Com- mittee on Indian affiairs, of which that life-long emancipationist, Horace Everett, of Vermont, was the chairman. May it not be added without offense, that in this case, as in previous and subsequent ones, the great Democratic reliance upon the ultimate sense of "Justice and Right " of a majority of our countrymen is at least the safest panacea for " the ills we feel," instead of "flying to others we know not of?" and that our recent unhappy experience of the opposite theory, where the sections as repr
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HISTORY OF BUCHANAN COUNTY.
sented in congress were too mutually deaf to these appeals of fraternity and of reason to avert the ultimate arbitrament of the sword, should be referred to in no other spirit, and for no other purpose, than as an admonition for the future.
God grant that we may live forever, not only as one people (as we must live), but as the fraternal, prosperous and free people we ought to be.
The renewed notes of the race come, and a whisper from the highly courteous executive of the day's programme, that but three minutes remain of the time allotted to these ceremonies, will but necessarily condense even the condensed remarks to which I had restricted myself.
I have spoken of the "Old Settlers" and their descendants, who, with all others, have so courteously listened to my gleanings-for I have but essayed to tread where others left me room-of the men I have spoken of as the class who founded society on the basis of right, and who so lived to be ready to "lay down the mace," in good conscience and peace, at the summons of the Great Maker. So lived Andrew Jackson, the frontier " settler " of Tennessee, to whose destiny it fell to so improve the opportunities of his time as to reach the most exalted posi- tion of the Republic. The bell rings again, and I must again condense. If his character in life was a grand one, his character in death was still grander -- as it may be the fortune of each of us to be-cach in the sphere to which providence has allotted him.
For more than a year before he obeyed the final summons, he was "on guard," (so to speak,) in view of the last enemy he had to vanquish, and the reflections it suggested were so accepted and acted upon as to turn aside the terrors of the destroyer, or to so improve them as but to gild his entrance upon "the life eternal." His last words were :
"I have finished my destiny upon earth, and it is time this worn out body should go to rest, and my spirit to its abode with Christ, my Redeemer."
Then, turning in the last intenseness and fervor of his mighty soul, the Christian patriot prayed :
"May my enemies find peace ; may the liberties of my country endure forever ; may I meet you all in Heaven, both white and black."
I will but reverentially repeat a paraphrase of this, as a parting benediction to those who have so often and so variously honored me with their ear -- and to whom, and to their posterity and mine, I thus give over, in common with all others, the future of a common country :
May our enemies find peace ; may the liberties of our country endure forever ; may we all meet in Heaven, both white and black.
At the close of Judge Birch's speech, Col. Burnes announced that the Old Settlers' Meeting was adjourned until the next St. Joseph Expo- sition. The band then played Dixie and Yankee Doodle, which were received with tremendous applause by the large crowd in attendance.
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HISTORY OF BUCHANAN COUNTY.
This was a shaking of hands across the bloody chasm, that was eminently appropriate to the occasion, and the manner in which this meeting closed shows that the people of the Missouri Valley are a homogeneous people ; one in sympathy, and one in purpose ; united and inseparable. The occasion will long be remembered by the old settlers in attendance as one of the happiest reunions in their lives.
THE VETERANS.
The following is a list of the veterans who reported to the secretary, at the meeting of September, 1874, and the dates of their settlement in the Platte Purchase :
BUCHANAN COUNTY.
Mrs. S. L. Leonard, 1837.
S. S. Connett 1839.
M. C. Riley. 1837.
Geo. W. Tolin 1839.
John B. Ritchie 1838.
Marian Copeland 1838.
James J. Reynolds. 1838.
James B. O'Toole. 1837.
Alexander Poe. . 1841.
Judge Thos. A. Browne 1838.
John R. Johnson 1838.
Jeremiah Burnes 1837.
F. C. Hughes
C. W. Davies 1840.
Calvin F. Burnes 1837.
James E. Wallace 1838.
William Gartin
David C. Munkers. 1837.
Husselton Compton 1840.
Samuel E. Hardy 1838.
Wm. B. Poe 1843.
W. F. Davis 1840.
ANDREW COUNTY.
Judge John McDaniels,
Elias Hughes,
Hugh Lewis,
Maj. E. S. Castle, Upton Roohrer,
Geo. N. Castle,
Robt. Elliot,
Jeremiah Clark,
Dr. P. P. Fulkerson,
James R. Watts,
Joseph Walker,
Jonathan M. Cobb,
Joshua Bond,
Mrs. S. Connett. 1837.
H. T. Connett 1839.
Geo. G. H. Brand. 1835
Evan Jordan 1840.
Abner Copeland 1839
Dr. Silas McDonald 1838.
Cornelius Day 1838.
Simeon Kemper 1840.
Col. John Doniphan.
Calvin James.
Moses Pyle 1837.
William Kirkham 1838.
Jule C. Robidoux. 1838.
E. M. Davidson 1837.
Ben. C. Porter 1839.
Elisha Gladden 1834.
D. A. Davidson 1837.
Isaac Lower.
G. M. Patton. I834.
R. T. Davis 1838.
A. J. Demens,
HISTORY OF BUCHANAN COUNTY.
CLINTON COUNTY.
Gen. D. R. Atchison,
Judge Jas. R. Coffman,
Maj. James Cochrane,
Rev. J. V. B. Flack,
Wash. Huffecker, son of Ist Col- lector of Clinton County,
S. T. Brooking,
Daniel P. McKissock,
Jonathan Robert,
Caleb McGill,
Abraham Funkhouser,
John Whitson,
Hon. E. W. Turner,
Geo. Funkhouser.
NODAWAY COUNTY.
Wm. V. Smith, W. R. Trapp. .
Jack Albright,
HOLT COUNTY.
Hon. James Foster,
Geo. McIntyre.
PLATTE COUNTY.
Capt. John B. Wells, Theodore F. Warner, Wm. Clay, Col. Geo. Gabbert,
Isaac T. Lewis,
Maj. J. W. Hardisty,
W. Cooper,
Maj. G. W. Hood,
Felix Blakely,
Joseph Todd, James Stultz, W. W. Williams,
Sidney Risk, Col. G. W. Belt,
John S. Woods, Ben Yocum, Joel Ryan,
John McLain,
Wm. A. Singleton,
Smith Adams,
John W. Martin, Eli Gabbin,
Gen. J. Morin,
James N. Boydston.
One of the most interesting features in connection with the Old Settlers meeting was the presentation, by Col. James N. Burnes, of the first reunion badge issued by the association, to the widow of the late honored Solomon L. Leonard. This badge is of the most elegant white silk, and the presentation was accompanied by a few appropriate and affecting remarks. The elegant testimonial was gracefully received and pinned upon the bosom of Mrs. Leonard.
OLD SETTLERS MEETING, SEPTEMBER, 1875.
We take the following from the St. Joseph Gazette, September 7, 1875 :
20
317
Judge James H. Birch, Ex-Gov. Geo. Smith,
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HISTORY OF BUCHANAN COUNTY.
Yesterday was a grand and proud one for the old settlers of the North-west, and a day that will long be remembered. From carly morning until the noon hour they came pouring into the city from all parts of the territory of the Platte purchase, and many came from a long distance to once more mix and mingle with the friends of their youth and to grasp the hand and exchange salutations with those who with them had borne the hardships and privations of pioneer life, subduing the forests, battling with wild beasts and wild men, and above all enduring the pri- vations and exposure of hunger and the elements, until they wrought out of the wilderness the blessings of the civilization their posterity now enjoys.
As they mixed and mingled upon the Exposition grounds, there was many an old eye dimmed with tears, many an aged hand that trembled with emotion as the palms of those long separated again crossed in friendly greeting in the roll call of memory, unearthed the name and merits of those who had fallen by the wayside and passed into the tomb. Even we younger ones whose years had not yet passed the three-score mark, feel a pain upon our hearts as we cast the backward glance and note the multitude of those who began the struggle of life with us but are now numbered with the dead.
How thick are the monuments that rise above their graves ; mile stones in our journey telling us that of all who begin life two-thirds de- part before they reach the forties, and nine-tenths fail to reach the seventies ; and as the last tenth of these old folks meet and read the book of life from the finish to the preface, how sad and yet how entrancing must have been the record ; how full of sadness and yet of joy must their hearts have been and how truly must they have realized that in life at best the laugh lies close to the fountain of tears, that the brighter the rainbow the denser the mist through which the warm sun shines.
But the old people met. The sun came down upon the unshaded seats of the main stand as remorseless as hunger and thirst upon a vagrant. and, as the old fathers and mothers assembled in their places, it was evi- dent that they were scarcely prepared for this last trial, which did not fall upon their old heads exactly in the shape of a blessing, and before the speaking was over there were scores of them who would have been ready to register an oath that this identical heated term was the worst they ever saw, and that the grand stand had been erected exactly in the spot where the sun would shine the hottest and longest in a direct focus. At last it was announced that the exercises would begin and Col- onel Burnes stated that owing to sickness in his family, it would be impossible for Colonel Doniphan to meet with the old people and address them according to programme. In his place General David R. Atchison was called upon to make the opening address, and replying to the call he stepped forward and made one of his characteristic addresses inter-
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HISTORY OF BUCHANAN COUNTY.
spersed with anecdotes and adventures that always gladden the hearts of the old and give pleasure and instruction to the young. He spoke of those pioneer days, the old people were all so familiar with, and of the hardships connected with them, which now appear like a chasm and a lure to the young. After the conclusion of General Atchison's remarks, Governor George Smith, of Clinton, was announced and said that as General Atchison had in his remarks related some incidents connected with the early settlements of the western part of the state, which he said would show the condition of civilization of the west, he would in a few words relate some of his experiences and observations as an old settler. which would illustrate in one particular the progress made by and grow- ing out of the bold enterprise of these old pioneers. He said that it had been his good fortune to have passed the most of his early days on the frontier, subjecting him in early days to carrying the product of his toil as a farmer by flat-boats to New Orleans for a market. On his re- turn from his second flat-boat expedition, he came to St. Louis on the 4th of March, 1832, the city then having a population of about seven hundred persons, thence on horseback, with two boating companions, he traveled into the western part of the state; but an incident of said trip would be all he would call in review to illustrate the great progress made in the material interest of our great state. Arriving at Arrowrock, where we desired crossing, we found a ferry-boat consisting of a plat- form on two canoes upon which, by assuring the ferryman that we were boatmen, he agreed to risk ourselves and three horses, and we arrived safe about dark in the town, consisting of one double log cabin, where a religious meeting was being held. We expressed some hesitation as to remaining over night, but it being eighteen miles to the nearest house on the western trail, we accepted the kind hospitality of the proprietor and remained over, there being ample room for the entertainment and the weary traveler, as understood by those kind, hospitable pioneers. Now, old settlers and friends, let us turn our attention to the picture presenting itself to our view of the seven magnificent bridges spanning the waters of this magnificent, boisterous river, besides innumerable other facilities for crossing its turbid waters. He remarked: Nor is it a matter of wonder that such evidences of rapid progress arc to be seen when we consider the great natural resources of our state. All persons who have travelled over the state would bear evidence to the fact that by drawing a line from the northeast corner diagonally to the southwest corner and taking the country north and west of said line, it would nearly all be considered of excellent quality for agricultural products, and St. Joseph is in the very heart of the same, whilst much of the land east and south of said line was good for farm products, it would be admitted on all hands it was unsurpassed in mineral wealth and only waiting for labor and capital for development. These were attractions that
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could not escape our intelligent American citizens, consequently we may reasonably suppose the young people of the present time may have the pleasure to inform the next generation of the great and useful changes that have taken place in their day.
Senator Cockrill followed Governor Smith, whose remarks had been listened to with pleasure by all present. He congratulated himself upon being a native of the state, although of that portion lying south of the river. He rejoiced in its growth, its advancement, its wealth and its prosperity ; and he felt that he had an especial right to feel proud of standing before these old people. He had been by their aid and the aid of their posterity, elevated to a position of worth and trust, where he could stand as a pleader for their cause and a defender of their rights and liberties.
Colonel Wm. F. Switzler, editor of the Missouri Statesman, at Columbia, was then introduced. He had not expected to make a speech. A matter of business, having no connection with the Exposition, or with the reunion of the old settlers, called him to St. Joseph, and he made it convenient to come at this time, but with no expectation of occupying a place on the programme of speakers. Although not an old settler of Northwestern Missouri, he nevertheless could claim to be an old settler of the state, understanding from personal observation and experience much of its early history and the privations and trials of the pioneers of our present civilization. He could not boast, like Senator Cockrill, that he was a native of Missouri, but nevertheless was not ashamed, even in the presence of those who were to the manor born, of announcing with pride that he was a son of the mother of Missouri, the grand old Com- monwealth of Kentucky. (Applause.) As early as 1826, he came from Kentucky to Howard County, Missouri, where he was raised and located, and where as a lad, he first met a distinguished gentleman, who now occu- pies a seat on the platform-Judge Birch. Missouri was then in the sixth year of its history as a state, and did not perhaps contain more than fifteen or twenty thousand voters, and the region now embracing the happy homes of a vast majority of those present was under the almost undisputed dominion of the Indian and buffalo. Since this early period in the annals of the state what a wonderful history we have made as a member of the Federal Union, as a Nation, as a People. What achieve- ments we have made in the arts and sciences, in agriculture and com- merce, in education and means of inter-communication, in all the agen- cies and industries which distinguished the civilization of our age. Very befitting reference had been made by speakers who had preceded him to this progress and prosperity. Let it not be forgotten that to the noble and self-sacrificing efforts, singular perils and consummate wisdom of the heroic men and peerless women now present, and to their :
associates, living and dead, are we indebted for laying broad and deep
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HISTORY OF BUCHANAN COUNTY.
the foundation of our cherished civilization and great prosperity. The men and women of a state, especially the pioneers, who lead the van- guard of the world's march against ignorance and barbarism, are the state, are of more value than all our fields of coal and mines of gold and silver, than all our railroads and bridges and halls of sciences and learn- ing. Men constitute the state, and those before us to-day form the connecting link between our own eventful times and the ignorance of bondage in the bulwark of prosperity at home and respectability abroad. (Applause.)
Colonel Charles Mansur, of Chillicothe, was called to the stand, and introduced by General Craig. Colonel Manson then said :
LADIES: I must, much as I love the old settlers, name you first, ladies, old settlers and friends. I feel that I owe the high compliment of an invitation to address you, to the too partial preference of my friends, General Craig and Colonel Burnes ; and yet the swelling pulsations of my heart tell me this is one of the proudest moments of my life, and I should feel recreant to my own spirit if I did not embrace the opportunity thus offered.
While the locks of my head are yet undamaged by the snows of forty winters, you may wonder what I may know that will prove of interest to thousands of old settlers here assembled, and while I feel doubtful of the honored appellation of old settler, I can only say that if I had worn my blue coat and brass buttons I should have felt as if I could have divided the honors in that line with my venerable old friend, Judge Birch. Permit me to say that Judge Birch, in calling up his struggles for Congress, suggests to my mind that about the earliest political struggle that I can remember was in those old Democratic days when the only road to political honor was through the Democratic ranks, when two of our old and memorable friends, Judge Birch and Judge King, undertook to pluck the Democratic goose that laid the Congressional egg in this dis- trict, at the same time, and beneath their joint efforts the proud old bird was so jaded and wearied that not a Roland but an Oliver stole in and captured the coveted prize, and proved to my distinguished friends anew the truth of the old adage, that "in union there is strength." I well remember the first time I saw our honored president, General Atch- ison. It was in March, 1855. I, with a number of Rayites, werc camped at Platte City Bridge, on the west side of the river, when Gen- cral Atchison rode up at a full gallop, and with a Satanic rather than a God-like earnestness, proceeded to give us his views of our mission as border ruffians, and our duty towards our benighted Yankee brethren, sent out by Gospel societies of New England under the protection of ยท Sharpe's rifles, to subdue the virgin soil of our sister State of Kansas, and, to echo the sentiment of the general, then and there was born and begun our late internecinal war. Although not born on Missouri soil, yet the first sentiment of thought I had was of Missouri scenes and actors. My parents emigrated to this section in 1837 ; and, reared in our sister county of Ray, my memory is flooded with a series of recol- lections from say 1845, when only ten years old, up to 1850. How well . I remember the old school house of my childhood, built by the hardy pioneers without the use of nail or window glass, the product alone of
.
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his own right arm, with sturdy axe and broad-axe, a puncheon floor and log chimneys daubed with mud. Now view the landscape o'er of our North Missouri ; every village, town and hamlet vie with each other in rearing palatial structures, structures that compare with those of the older and more favored sister states.
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