The history of Johnson County, Missouri : including a reliable history of the townships, cities, and towns, together with a map of the county; a condensed history of Missouri; the state constitution; an abstract of the most important laws etc, Part 60

Author:
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Kansas City, Mo. : Kansas City Historical Company
Number of Pages: 1056


USA > Missouri > Johnson County > The history of Johnson County, Missouri : including a reliable history of the townships, cities, and towns, together with a map of the county; a condensed history of Missouri; the state constitution; an abstract of the most important laws etc > Part 60


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).


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coal veins of five to fourteen inches in thickness. Sandstones exist on the little streams and bluffs near them.


Devil's Ridge received its name in 1863, from the gangs of rough char- acters who skulked in the thickets and made their dens in the bluffs where they could dash out and commit depredations and return to their favorite haunts without fear of molestation. Few men would risk their lives to penetrate these bluff thickets during the trying ordeal of the war.


The largest tributary of south Blackwater is little Brushy and flows through sections 31 and 29, entering Madison township, and soon empty- ing in the main channel of south Blackwater, all in congressional town- ship number 46, range 28.


Centre Knob, one mile east of the village of Kingsville, received its name from the Shawnee Indians, who had a trail on the southern base that they followed as late as 1850. Many Indian relics are found about it. As early as 1827 it was generally known for hundreds of miles around as a noted land mark. A good spring flows from the base a greater por- tion of the year, it has, since civilization took hold, been sunk eigh feet and now affords never failing water. Nearly four score years ago, the Mexican' trading caravans made this a stopping place over night as they were on their way to and from St. Louis to purchase and bear away goods to Santa Fe, New Mexico. In those days gold dust, from the far west, was more of a circulating medium than coin.


An incident is related, that in 1820, while a large train of Mexicans were stopping here on their way to St. Louis to buy goods, they feared an attack that night from the Indians who were in the habit of concealing themselves in the tall grass until dusk, then with a whoop they would dash down upon the train, capture their property, burn their wagons and scalp the teamsters. Being forewarned of approaching danger, they seized their gold, which was sewed in raw hides, "two double" with sinew thread, and buried the whole amount, consisting of several thousand dollars, and, to this day it is supposed that there is gold burried in Center Knob.


About the close of the Mexican war in 1848, John Hackney put up a little frame dwelling and windmill, on the south side of the Knob.


In 1851, Dr. Wm. G. King took possession here and soon became the owner of about 5,000 acres of the rich land surrounding this knob. Dr. Wm. G. King was born in Alabama, Sept. 20, 1824; and died, March 3d, 1859. His wife was Miss Mary Ann Delaney; she was born in the state of South Carolina, Feb. 22, 1825. After the death of Dr. King she mar- ried B. A. Crain, April, 9, 1867. Mr. Crain was born in N. Y., April, 3, 1823; and both are still living in the town of Kingsville. Center Knob is no doubt surrounded by the most favored spot in Johnson county, and for all time to come will stand out as an interesting landmark.


Brushy Knob, a prominent eminence, is on the dividing line between


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HISTORY OF JOHNSON COUNTY


this township and Jackson. It is a beautiful plateau on the summit, where Indians, more than fifty years ago, made this a favorite lookout. In the soil and on the surface they have left their "foot prints" behind in flint arrow-heads, and various other stone implements.


Bluff Spring Knob is an abrupt eminence from which Bluff Spring flows, which was the earliest known Spring in this section. Often to this spring came the early hunter with his dog to quench their thirst from the long and tiresome chase. Sometimes it would happen that the "red man of the forest " would there accidentally meet his "pale-faced brother" on the same mission, and with fraternal feeling they would part from the spot, both, perhaps, feeling that the one was intruding on the other, and yet, may be the good within the heart of each swelled up and subdued their hostile feelings, with the murmur that they were brothers destined for the future "happy hunting grounds." This fact shows that no human being, however wild he may be, but has some spark of good in his heart that may, by proper influence, be kindled to a flame of bitter revenge, or a holy fire of love that may consume the evil or brighten the good within the hearts of men. Near this spring cluster the fondest remembrances of the township. It was here that the first pioneer preacher, Rev. Mr. Lee, of the M. E. Church, long before its division into "north and south branches," preached the first sermon at the residence of Ben. Longacre, in 1826, to the pure minded people who highly appreciated the services of this divine, as one sent from God to direct their religious life, and lighten their burdens by the soothing influence of the gospel, set forth upon the Sabbath day.


Soon after the advent of the gospel here a Methodist organization was effected, the first in the county, and continued, down until the breaking out of the war. However, in the year 1844 when the church called for a division as "north and south branches," one of the most talented pioneer ministers of that time, Rev. Daniel K. Pell, was in charge of the circuit, and put the vote to a class'of serious thinking brethren, and when the vote was returned in the negative, i. e., opposed to a division, the able minister was not surprised, since he argued that it was natural for a people to cling to their old affiliations. It was no easy task, he said, for our forefathers to relinquish their love and high regard for the oppressive crown of England during the bitter trials of 1775-6, but when it did come, they stood boldly in the field of battle with their brave hearted leaders; Washington, Gage, Putnam, and others, proud and not ashamed to be called rebels, and during the trying scenes about the revered spot of Valley Forge in 1776-8, these soldiers of the frontiersmen's world stood bravely at their post undaunted, though in the white driven snow the crimson blood from their bruised and frozen feet were seen, their bodies shivering for clothing and food to nourish their vitality and at the same time the wolf starvation was


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HISTORY OF JOHNSON COUNTY.


stalking around their own firesides in their rude log cabins, where they had left wife and children, the dearest solace of earth, to take up arms and to give their fortunes, and lives if necessary, for independence and liberty. After the minister. further argued that they had voted wrong, he claimed that by voting against a division they had voted to make one since they were all southern people, and in order to harmonize, they should unanimously favor division and stand by their southern brerhren. The vote was again taken, this time unanimously in favor of the affirma- tive. The division was made, and the church was named Bluff Spring M. E., South. The ministers after the division, were Revs. Robt. Foster and Warren M. Pitts, the latter is still living a short distance in Jackson township. No church building was ever erected here.


The following are some of the preachers in charge of this circuit up to 1844: Revs. 'Mr. Lee, Martin Paul, W. Ferrell, Mr. Mckinney, Thos. Wallace, B. F. Love, Geo. W. Love, Maj. Jonathan Fine, Samuel Col- bern, Mr. Spratt, Geo, W. Bewley, Daniel Leaper, Mr. Ashby and Dan- iel K. Pell. Rev. Jesse Greene, was the first presiding elder of this cir- cuit and district.


Cemeteries .- There are six cemeteries within the limits of this town- ship, besides many private graves that are only in tradition. In the early settlement of the township few diseases prevailed, except the common ague, prevalent in all newly settled countries, or malarial districts. Acci- dents, of course, happened here as well as elsewhere. However, but few found their way to the grave until the sands of time were wasted. It was with burning anguish and great reluctance that the people could accede to the separation, and on the funeral obseques friends and neighbors would assemble, for miles around, to catch the last glimpse of one, who, like themselves, had come to make a home in the far west, and had mutually shared the hardships and pleasures of a pioneer life. In these early days no pompus funeral array or hearse conveyed the corpse to the tomb; but wrapped in plain white muslin shrouds, or in the last wearing garb, it was laid in a wooden box and conveyed to the burying ground in an ox wagon, where a grave lay open, but ere the "dust had been mingled with dust," and the demised covered with the clods of the valley, a hoary-headed pio- neer opened his hymn book and started a suitable hymn in which all the people joined with a fullness of heart and love for the happy world beyond the dark scenes of the grave, after which, while the people stood almost breathless, while a portion of the Holy scriptures was read, and all bowed in solemn reverence on the ground in prayer to Him in whose hands their departed associate was committed. Very often, a short sermon, or appro- priate remarks were made consoling the friends and relatives of the deceased, as a warning to those living, to prepare for the day of judgment. In many cases the interment took place with but little religious ceremony,


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or solemn feeling under cases of great emergency. Often at that time no slabs or stones were set up to mark the last resting place of the departed. However, in some old graves we find sand-stones from which the savage monster Time has almost erased the name. Whose these graves are, the oldest settlers cannot tell, nor will we know till the resurrection.


Hopper Cemetery, in section three, township forty-five, range twenty- nine, is beyond a doubt the oldest burying place in the western part of the township. It was the family graveyard of William Hopper, Houston Helms, and Thos. Savage, who resided here about 1836. A blind man by the name of Welch, who. lost his life by falling into a ditch, is sup- posed to be the first man buried here. This is in what is called the "Old Hopper farm." The graves were visible in 1840, but during the forty years since a great change has taken place. The late war, perhaps scat- tered the friends and relatives who could have looked after this spot, and others coming in and taking possession, as owners of the soil, and know- ing nothing of the bones that have long ago perished under their ground, now run their plows over the once sacred spots to some fond parent or relative, which in harvest yields a luxuriant growth over the uncon- scious dead. At present there is no trace of this cemetery except this little bit of history, and what is still lingering in the memory of those who once looked upon these little mounds.


Majors' Cemetery is quite old, and was a public burying-place in 1840. It is supposed to have been laid out in 1837; and it supposed that one of the Majors family was the first buried there. It is in the woods on Lewis or East Fork of Lost Creek, in section thirteen, same township and range as the above named cemetery. No tombstones mark the graveyard: The little hillocks or mounds are partly grown over with saplings, underbrush and briers, and ere many years this spot will be for- gotten and utilized as pasture, farm or garden, unless taken in charge and made monumental.


Bluff Springs Cemetery is probably the oldest burying-place in the northwest part of the township. It was laid out as a public place of interment in 1837, by Benj. Longacre, Sr. It contains a large number of graves, and a few are marked by tombstones with epitaphs. A wooden fence surrounds this ground, and it is still used as a burying-place. It is in section twenty-five, township forty-six, range twenty-nine, upon the divide of the waters of the Osage and Missouri rivers.


Duncan Cemetery is in section fourteen, near Pleasant Run, a small branch of Lost Creek, in township forty five, range twenty-nine, not far from the Lost Creek school house. One of the first buried here in 1840, when the ground was first set apart for burial purposes, was Gideon Cun- ningham. In 1841 the corpse of a man named Savage, was brought here on horseback for interment. The land is deeded as a public ceme-


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HISTORY OF JOHNSON COUNTY.


tery by the county court. A large number now silently sleep in this graveyard.


Hornsby Cemetery is in section fifteen, township and range as above. It is a family graveyard. It is now deeded by the court to trustees. The first person buried here was Mrs. Esther Hornsby, aunt of J. N. Fergu- son, present county surveyor, in 1845. Since then several recruits have been added to the army of the dead.


Kingsville Cemetery will be mentioned under the head of that town.


The first mills in this section were hailed with pleasure. Benj. Long- acre had the first in 1827, till he sold to Samuel Bolejack, at Bluff Creek Spring. In 1850 John Hackney had a wind-mill at Centre Knob, where he owned forty acres of land. He sold in the same year for three dollars per acre. The land is now worth twenty dollars per acre. The mill owned by Samuel Bolejack ground all the grists for many miles distant. It was an old tramp-mill, and when the grist was taken to mill, old settlers say it took a day to get it ground. If the owner of the grist did not bring sufficient treading force, he was then obliged to go to the prairie and drive in as many horses or cattle as would tramp the wheel around. No one objected if his horses or cattle were driven on the wheel. At that day farmers had unflinching integrity and believed their stock secure when in the care of their neighbors. It is said of this old tread-mill that it would crack two grains of corn at a turn, so slow was its motion. It is - said that the miller was a corpulent, clever old man, and managed to get around about as fast as his mill. The common expression from the dis- tant mill-boy when he arrived at the mill, was to cry out to the miller, " Is your stone spoilt?" to which he would leasurely reply, "not very." This mill was superseded by a steam-mill just prior to the war.


Since the termination of the war considerable changes have been made. The plain Missourian, in a great measure, has changed his style of living ยท for other habits that time forced upon the west as the country settled up. The great flow of immigration to this section from all parts of the Union since 1865 has almost made a revolution in everything pertaining to the old customs. In diet, dress, furniture, and even the government of the household, there is a marked change. Instead of the narrow strips cultivated along the streams, the whole prairie has been put into cultiva- tion. The large land holders have been obliged to cut up their land in small farms and sell in order to meet their liabilities. Where there was


one farm before the war now there is a dozen. On account of the scarcity of timber the osage orange hedge is generally used for fencing. The old log houses have given way to the more commodious farm cot- tages, all of which in the township are frame buildings, more for util- ity than ornament. From the wooden moldboard plow, which went out of use in 1855, has followed numerous improved agricultural implements;


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HISTORY OF JOHNSON COUNTY.


and now one hand has as much ease in cultivating fifty acres of land as two had in cultivating twenty-five prior to 1860. In the early days of this set- tlement Lexington was the favorite market town. Corn meal was sold there, after traveling thirty miles, at twenty cents a bushel. Corn was sold at home by the barrel, the price ranging from fifty cents to one dol- Irr. The price of many things has doubled. Farm hands labored in the harvest fields with the scythe or cradle at seventy-five cents and one dol- lar a day. Porter Duncan and Joseph Longacre each are said to have cradled three and four acres of wheat in a day. The spinning-wheel and loom are no longer in use. No longer do we see the youthful maidens singing with their milk pails or gayly riding after stock upon the prairies. Their place is now filled quite often by consumptives who sit indoors, pre- pare some delicate pastry, sew a little, gossip more, and now and then thump upon a Chickering or Steinway. The simple walking and riding habits have given way to the complete dress that robs them of their once enjoyed freedom. The feet that were wont to be free from corns and cramps and coldness at nights are now encased in "pride's prison cells." The simple beauty and rustic health of the pioneer's daughter is now in the past.


Fruits are now no longer gathered in the forest. The wild plum, crab- apple, grapes, etc., are not sought after as they were twenty years ago. The domestic fruits are extensively cultured, and found on most farms. To illustrate the change in the price of land: Dr. H. W. King purchased a tract of land at an early day for $300, sold it to C. C. King for $600, bought it back for $6,000, and now rents it for three dollars per acre. Not many families owned slaves here; perhaps fifty negroes would be the complement. It never paid the farmers to own them here, and much of the time they were idle or half a dozen did the work that one stout buck negro was capable of doing. The price of a negro was always in advance of his worth. In order to show the value of these human beings as slaves: Wm. G. King purchased a fine buck negro, paying $1,300 for him, and one Sunday while he was on Big Creek, fishing, he got into a pugilistic combat with other "darkies," who had resorted thither for the same pur- pose. Clubs were used, and a fatal stroke from his antagonist, brought the $1,300 "darkey" to the ground a ghastly corpse. The colored peo- ple, although slaves, had an easy time, far better than many of that race to-day. They were clothed and fed as their masters, and in many ways labored much the same. It is true that they had their separate dwellings, and took their meals aloof in their own quiet cabins or around the kitchen stove. The evenings were generally their own, in which they made bas- kets, brooms, etc., etc .; or learned to read and write. When it did hap- pen that the husband and wife were owned by separate families, the male was allowed the afternoon of Saturdays, and occasionally a night or two


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during the week to visit his dusky paramour, and "pickaninies," as the chil- dren were called. The Fourth of July, camp-meeting days, and election days, Christmas, New Years, and Saturday afternoons were their holi- days. On Saturdays they cultivated their melon and tobacco patches, which, with their ginger bread and hard cider, they found ready sale for on election days, that then came in August. Some few darkeys raised broom corn, and manufactured a hardy little broom which they were allowed to dispose of in connection with their baskets, on Sundays and other days that they were at liberty. A few saved money. Some learned to read and write. The whites never objected to their slaves attending meeting with them or learning to read, as some may imagine. Those that know in regard to the treatment, state that few masters ever acted indecent or cruel towards their servants. It was not to their interest to act in any other way than that presented by the law of kindness, towards one's own animals as property. These human beings were so many dol- lars and cents. To abuse one, inflict wounds, neglect physician's care, or not give them proper clothing, would not be to the interest of the owner, and all who have prejudice in any other channel should study the law of common sense and ownership. At present, the colored population will not number a dozen in the township. They have no schools nor church, but spend their leisure time in drunkenness and revelling. Almost every- thing has been made better but the unfortunate sons of Africa.


The whites have swelled the number of their schools to six with about seven months of school per year, costing about $1,500 annually. The churches now number three organizations, and Sunday-schools. No Sun- day-school was organized here prior to 1867; since several rural Sunday- schools have existed, but died out during the winter, and so far none have proved to be "wintergreen" except the U. P. Sunday-school, of Kings- ville.


When the early settlers came here they found many wild animals, such as the deer, wolf, wild cat, fox, badger, panther, gopher, mink, muskrat, opossum, raccoon, skunk, weasel, rabbit, ground squirrel, fox and gray squirrels, and mole; these abounded in their native haunts. The streams being so small, but few fish ventured in the waters only to spawn. The turkey, prairie chicken, quail, partridge, sometimes called here the pheas- ant, and the lark were also here when the first settlements were made, The common reptiles were the rattlesnake, bullsnake, garter, racer, black, glass, water and terrapin, lizard and many smaller ones.


The following are the principal trees and shrubs growing here: white and red elm, hackberry, bass, box-elder, sycamore, honey locust, soft maple, mulberry, several varieties of oak, wild cherry, cottonwood, hick- ory family, blue ash, black walnut, four varieties of willow. The follow- ing is a list of the wild shrubs: Virginia creeper, sumach family, thorn


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bushes, chinquapin oak, pawpaw, persimmon, plum, crabapple, prickly ash, dogwood, elder, burning bush, hazel, blackhaw, hops, button bush, buckeye, blackberry, dew berry, gooseberry, raspberry, buck bush, red haw, bitter sweet, burdock, witch hazel, sarsaparilla, polk, Solomon's seal, and green brier.


There being but few flowing springs here, the early settlers used water for drinking, and even all purposes, from what they called "prairie holes." Water was often hauled for miles in barrels during the dry season. But few wells were dug until about 1856. Now almost every farm has one or two wells. The water here is invariably hard. At present but few farmers have cisterns.


The early farming was indeed experimental, for many of the citizens came from states where the cultivation was entirely different. Much of this land produced second and third crops of corn with but one plowing a year, yielding upwards of seventy bushels to the acre.


P. W. Paul, one of the very oldest settlers of this section, arrived here from Tennessee in the fall of 1835. He is still living here and enjoying moderate health, and from him we get the following particulars, in which he states that he has seen one hundred deer at a time. When he settled here, all lands were wild except a few bushy patches which the early set- tlers cleared out along the creeks. Then plenty of friendly Indians were here who would camp and hunt for weeks and trade baskets for meal. They were the Osages. Wolves and catamounts were often seen. Few panthers were killed. There were wild turkey, pheasants, prairie chick- ens and quails, and millions of gophers and prairie squirrels. At that time the nearest trading point was Lexington, where the settlers hauled meal and sold it at twenty cents a bushel; wheat, twenty-five cents; corn, twelve cents a bushel, and other things in proportion. The best horses sold for eighteen dollars. Mr. Paul purchased land in section twenty-six during the year 1847, at one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre. In 1848, good cows sold for from five to seven dollars apiece. At first, because of no mills, a tree was sawed, a mortar burned out and corn beaten with a wooden pestle, and the finer mash being used for corn cake, sometimes baked on a board before the fire, and the coarser mash was made into hominy. The first grist mill was built by Benjamin Longacre, then Samuel Bolejack took it about 1844. At first it was pulled by two horses. The next mill was a tread mill, by Joe Howard, that highly 1 elated the people over their new enterprise. First post-office was Bluff Spring, and Benjamin Longacre the first postmaster. The next post- master was Samuel Bolejack. The post-office was changed to Kingsville in 1856. It was somewhere in 1850 odd that the settlers commenced to break prairie. It took from four to eight yoke of cattle to draw the plow.


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HISTORY OF JOHNSON COUNTY.


Then grass grew as high as a man on horseback in many places. No steam mills until Weaver set up after the war.


Prominent among the citizens of integrity in this township is Mr. Benj. F. Lewis, who came here in 1853. His birth place is Independence, Jack- son county, Missouri. He was born December 28, 1831. In the year 1853, he married Miss Esther Alder, Rev. J. H. Houx, now living in Warrensburg, was the officiating clergyman. He has reared a family of six healthy and dutiful daughters; three of the number were married. Mr. Lewis, to avoid the troubles of the civil war, spent from the spring of 1863, till the close of the war in Cooper county. He is the owner of a handsome farm about two miles south of Kingsville. In 1855, he became a member of the Cumberland Presbyterian church, and has remained a faithful and consistent member ever since. He was appointed president of the Sunday-schools of his township in the spring of 1880, and for faithful work was reappointed till the county meeting, which convenes in Holden, in April, 1882.




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