USA > Missouri > Linn County > The history of Linn county, Missouri. An encyclopedia of useful information > Part 38
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The social life of the early settlers was every whit as pleasant and agree- able as that of the people now-a-days, if not more so. Every man realized that in a certain sense he was dependent, and must rely for assistance on his neighbors at certain times, and he always felt willing to do what he could for his fellow man, whether he was his brother, his neighbor, or a wayfaring
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HISTORY OF LINN COUNTY.
man and a stranger within his gates. When a house was to be raised it was understood that everybody that heard of it was invited, and expected to be present, if not unavoidably kept away. Many a house has been raised in this township when there were present men from territory now in Sullivan county', fifteen miles away. The first cabins were usually of small round logs, and could be put up by two or three men; but after a while, as people grew wealthy and high-toned (!) hewed log houses, a story and a half high, and sometimes double, came into vogue, and to put up one of these re- quired the help of several men.
There were house-raisings, and log-rollings, and corn-huskings in plenty ; and while the men were at their work, often the women would have a quilt- ing or a wool-picking in the house. These occasions generally terminated with a dance at night, where the " old folks " were not extra pious and did not hold dancing in abhorrence; and where it was that master and mistress " belonged to meeting," and "did not believe in dancing," there was a "play party " instead, with any amount of fun and lots of promiscuous hugging and kissing and jollity commingled. Sometimes there was whisky -maybe often-but sobriety was the rule and drunkenness the excep- tion. Occasionally there was a fisticuff. A ring was formed, the fighting was fair but spirited, the one that was whipped acknowledged it, both par- ties washed the blood from their noses, shook hands, and were as fast friends as before.
As before stated, the first houses in the township were of round logs cov- ered with clapboards, and very unpretentious affairs they were too; the cracks between the logs filled with chinking and daubing, the chimneys of mud and sticks, the roof kept on by " weight-poles," and the floor of split puncheons. Then, after awhile, as the pioneer prospered, he built his pre- tentious hewed log house, with its shingled roof-not of pine shingles, but good solid oak shingles, rived and shaved in the woods, and lasting as slate almost; and the new house had a floor made of boards sawed either with a whip-saw or at some pioneer saw-mill; and the cracks between its logs were stopped with neatly cut chinks cemented with lime mortar and looking neat, and the whole structure standing ever so solid and comfortable,-and standing to-day, many of them.
ORGANIZATION OF THE TOWNSHIP.
At the first session of the first County Court, in February, 1837, Linn county was divided into three townships, and Locust Creek was the name given to one of them. Its boundaries are set out on another page of this volume. The first election was at Thomas Barbee's store, and Thomas Russell and David Mullins were the first justices of the peace for the town- ship.
The township has been divided and subdived and its metes and bounds
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HISTORY OF LINN COUNTY.
changed so frequently, that it would be a task of considerable magnitude to hunt out and give all the changes in its boundaries,-so great, in fact, that the result would not compensate for the work. Suffice it to say that from a township ten miles in width at the widest place, and running from the south boundary of the county to the Iowa line, it has shrunk to one very modest in size. The present boundaries of the township are: Begin- ning at the southwest corner of section fourteen, township fifty-eight, range twenty-one, thence along the section line to the northwest corner of section fourteen, township fifty-nine, range twenty-one; thence east on the section line to the northeast corner of the northwest quarter of section sixteen, township fifty-nine, range twenty; thence south on the half-section line to the middle of the north line of section four, township fifty-eight, range twenty; thence east along the section line to the northeast corner of section five, township fifty-eight, range nineteen; thence south along the section line to the southeast corner of section seventeen, township fifty-eight, range nineteen; thence west along the section line to the place of beginning. (See map.)
In 1845 the boundaries were: The south line was the same as at present; the west line was the middle of Locust Creek; the north line extended from Locust Creek due east to the southeast corner of section eight, township fifty-nine, range nineteen; the east line ran from the southeast corner of section eight, township fifty-nine, range nineteen, to the southeast corner of section seventeen, township fifty-eight, range nineteen, where the present southeast corner of the township is.
ORGANIZATION UNDER THE TOWNSHIP ORGANZATION LAW.
Under the State law of 1879, ratified or adopted by Linn county at the November election, 1880, Locust Creek township was organized as a municipal township in the spring of 1881. At the election held April 5, the following officers, the first under the township organization system, were chosen :
Trustee and ex officio treasurer, G. K. Denbo.
Collector, Beverly Neece.
Justices of the peace, W. P. Menifee and T. T. Easley.
Township clerk and ex officio assessor, S. D. Sandusky.
Constable, T. T. Woodruff.
The township clerk qualified April 6, and then notified the other officers that he had done so, and requested them to appear before him and take the oath of office, which, soon thereafter, they did. The township was laid off into road districts at the first meeting, and road supervisors appointed.
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HISTORY OF LINN COUNTY.
DURING THE CIVIL WAR.
Locust Creek township took its full part in the civil war. It furnished many brave soldiers for both armies. Numerous organizations of Federal soldiers were perfected at Linneus, and the Confederate companies of Cap- tain William Sandusky, and Thomas H. Flood contained men from the township. In addition there were many men who took service on each side in foreign companies.
At the breaking out of the war excitement ran high at Linneus. Both parties held meetings in town. Secession speeches were made by Hon. E. H. Richardson, then the member of the House of Representatives from this county; by Hon. Wesley Halliburton, and others. The Union meetings had many local orators, the most prominent, perhaps, being Judge Jacob Smith. On one occasion there came very near being a serious difficulty. In the spring of 1861, Hon. E. H. Richardson, who was a tailor by occupa- tion, had made a secession flag, which the secessionists proposed to raise in Linneus. The flag was in Richardson's shop, and was an object of much curiosity. Many persons called to see it. The Union men of the place de- clared that the flag should not be raised. Judge Smith announced that he would shoot the man that attempted to raise it. The secessionists persisted that it should go up, and matters for a time wore a serious aspect. At last the secessionists were induced by certain peacemakers to forego their de- signs, and no blood was shed, and the affair passed off without disastrous re- sults, winding up by many persons of different shades of opinion calling and inspecting the flag and passing jocular remarks upon it.
Shortly after the Federal troops occupied the line of the Hannibal & St. Joseph Railroad, a detachment of them came to Linneus one night and arrested L. W. Clark, a Mr. Grill, who was a merchant in the place, Judge Wesley Halliburton, Mr. Williams, editor of the Bulletin, and William Sandusky. Grill was charged with having on hand a large quantity of musket caps to be furnished General Price's State Guards; Sandusky, it was alleged, had a large supply of gunpowder hidden away intended for use against the Federal authority; Halliburton, Williams, and Clark were accused of being active secessionists, and were arrested on general princi- ples. The prisoners were taken first to St. Joseph, treated somewhat harshly, then conveyed to Quincy, Illinois, where they were eventually re- leased by Colonel John M. Palmer, (afterward governor of Illinois,) nothing being proved against them. Sandusky however, had several kegs of powder hidden away in the ceiling of the Odd Fellows' Hall.
Soon after the town was visited by a detachment of the Sixth Kansas- or "Kansas jay-hawkers." A great many horses were carried off, the chicken-roosts were quite vigorously attacked, and a few citizens in the country made prisoners, but no serious damage done.
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HISTORY OF LINN COUNTY.
At different periods during the war Federal troops were stationed at Linneus, but not regularly and continuously. The companies were always home militia, except in the last days of the war when a company of the Seventeenth Illinois Cavalry, under Lieutenant Smith was quartered in the town. No very pleasant reminiscences are held by the people of Linneus of this company. The majority of its members were great thieves and pillagers. They raided the smoke-houses, corn-cribs, and chicken-roosts of the citizens more frequently than the lairs and rendezvouses of the bush- whackers, against whose maraudings they were sent to protect the country.
For some time the people of the town and township had no soldiers or militia furnished them to keep off bushwhackers and other marauders, and they were compelled to organize and protect themselves. At one time some twenty -five or thirty men were under the pay of the citizens and stood picket on the roads leading into town and did other duty of a military character in defense of the place. The company of "exempts," composed of those not liable to military duty, and commanded by Judge Jacob Smith, had muskets furnished them by the State; but at last all arms were taken away from the citizens by some ill-advised military order, and the people were at the mercy of any prowling band of robbers and cut-throats. Many of the citizens were detailed for and did duty in the construction of block-houses on the Hannibal & St. Joc, and performed other important services for the Federal cause. Sometimes this duty was performed rather reluctantly, as the laborer was often a sympathizer with the Confederates.
GUERRILLA RAIDS AND RAIDERS.
Bands of Confederate guerrillas or bushwhackers raided through Locust Creek township at different times during the civil war; but, as their num- bers were always small, and their stay limited, no very considerable damage was done. In August, 1862, a detachment of Col. J. A. Poindexter's Con- federate recruits passed through the southwest corner of the township, carrying off' a few horses, but doing no further damage.
FIRST BUSHWHACKER RAID ON LINNEUS.
In April, 1863, a sınall force of bushwhackers, supposed to belong to Clifton Holtzclaw's band, entered Linneus, visiting the residence of Judge Smith, then in the southeastern part of town, where Mr. Purden now lives. They made anxious inquiries for the Judge, but he was not at home. A young man was encountered and robbed of a blue military blouse. The militia were then in town, but quartered in the court-house, and before the alarm could be given the bushwhackers disappeared.
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HISTORY OF LINN COUNTY.
SECOND RAID-ROBBERY OF PREWITT'S STORE.
In November, 1863, four well-mounted horsemen, wearing Federal uni- form with the exception of hats, rode into Linneus one evening about dusk. They came in from the south, on the Laclede road. Riding straight to the store of Henry Prewitt, on the west side of the public square, three of them hitched their horses and entered, while the fourth man remained on the outside. Mr. Prewitt had gone to his supper, leaving his clerks, John Hedrick and J. W. Colgan, in charge of the store. After warming their hands at the stove a few minutes the three men suddenly covered Colgan and Hedrick with dragoon revolvers and ordered them to deliver up their arms. One of the robbers stationed himself at the door; the other two robbed the cash drawer of eighty-six dollars and began to help themselves to such goods as they fancied. The one on guard suffered all persons that . passed by the door of the store to do so unmolested, but woe to the unsus- picious wight that entered! He was ordered to march to the rear of the store and shell out with scarcely any ceremony. In a few minutes some twelve or fifteen citizens had entered the trap and stood about the stove in the back part of the room, laughing at the consternation that fell upon every luckless victim that entered and found out what was the matter.
Presently Mr. Prewitt, the proprietor of the store, returned from supper, bearing a cup of milk for the store cat. He too was ordered to "march back there!" Judge Jacob Smith entered, wearing a fine gold watch. In a few seconds the watch had changed owners and the Judge was standing back among the other captives. Grandison Payne came in. " March back there!" Uncle Tommy Hayes had been to Brookfield and sold hogs to the amount of five hundred dollars, which sum he had in his pocket, when he was ordered to " march back there!" In some way Mr. Hayes contrived to secrete his pocketbook between two bolts of domestic.
In another room was a safe containing upwards of $4,000 in cash, but the bush whackers were induced not to examine it by the assertions of Mr. Prewitt and Mr. Colgan that it was broken, not in use, and contained noth- ing of value. They succeeded in getting about $500 in goods, watches, and money, and, walking backwards out of the store, with their pistols pointed at the captives, they bade the latter "good-bye," and were soon galloping away unmolested in the direction of Laclede.
The four desperate spirits who made the second raid on Linneus were sup- posed to be a portion of Holtzclaw's band, although they represented them- selves to some parties south of town as members of Colonel Hale's regiment of Carroll county militia. Had the citizens been allowed to bear arms they might have been captured or killed before leaving the place.
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HISTORY OF LINN COUNTY.
JIM RIDER'S RAID-KILLING OF JUDGE SMITH AND MR. PENDLETON.
In the winter of 1864- 65 Jim Rider and his band of Confederate bush- whackers, to the number of about fifteen, had an encampment on an island in the Missouri River, near the Carroll county side, not far above and on the opposite shore from the town of Waverly, Lafayette county. The river was frozen over for a portion of the time, the weather being very cold, and Rider could easily reach either mainland when he wished. From his re- treat, which was a snug and secure one, the daring bushwhacker made fre- quent forays into the country on both sides of the river, in search of plun- der more than for the purpose of shedding blood, and uniformly returned successful and in safety to his covert well hidden in the thick willows of the Missouri River island.
On the night of the ninth of January, 1865, Rider at the head of about a dozen of his band, made a raid upon Linneus. It was about ten o'clock when the bushwhackers reached the town. The moon was in the first quarter, and, save that it was occasionally obscured by flying clouds which scudded across it face at intervals, gave a fair light. There was a light fall of snow upon the ground and objects could be seen with tolerable distinctness. Rider and his men came into town from the west. Stopping first at a place where whisky was sold they partook freely and then rode on the square. Quite soon they had a bevy of prisoners, the most of whom they robbed. They made earnest inquiries for Capt. T. E. Brawner, then of the militia, now the Democratic editor of the Bulletin. Had they found him he would have been summarily put to death, for Rider bore him an old grudge. For- tunately Brawner was in St. Louis.
One of the bushwhackers was a young man named John Lane, who had been born and reared in Linneus. At the breaking out of the civil war he went south of the Missouri River, joined the State Guard, and fought at the battle of Wilson's Creek, or Oak Hill, where he was so severely wounded in the hand that he was discharged from the service, after which he re- turned home, took the oath of allegiance to the Gamble government, and lived quietly for some time. Suddenly he disappeared and no one knew where he was until he made his appearance in Linneus with Rider's bush- whackers, whose guide and pilot he doubtless was on this occasion. Soon after entering the town, young Lane made his way to the premises of Judge Jacob Smith and appropriated a fine horse.
Upon the appearance of the bushwhackers in the place the alarm was given, and there was great excitement and commotion. Several shots were fired; some shouted " fire!" others cried " robbers!" and some made as lit- tle noise as possible. The bushwhackers first made a descent upon the store of Messrs. Brownlee, Trumbo & Dillon. They ascertained that Dr. Dillon had the key to the store safe, (in which was a considerable sum of
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HISTORY OF LINN COUNTY.
money,) and so some of them went to the Doctor's residence after it. The Doctor became suspicious and alarmed when his visitors knocked on the door, and slipped out the back way to avoid and escape them. Just as he was climbing the fence at the rear of his premises the bushwhackers dis- covered him and fired upon him, one revolver ball striking him on the head, glancing off but knocking him down. Presuming they had killed him, the bushwhackers returned to the square.
Meantime Judge Jacob Smith, then judge of this circuit, had secured a musket belonging to a company of "exempts " of the place, of which lie was captain, and was on the lookout for the maurauders. He was seated on a wood-pile in front of a house that stood about where the residence of Mr. Colgan now stands, near the northeast corner of the square, and a little west of the railroad track. Along came John Lane, mounted on the Judge's horse, and riding eastward. Smith raised his musket, fired, and mortally wounded Lane, the charge of buckshot striking him in the leg, and sever- ing or penetrating the femoral artery; one or two shot also struck the horse, and it galloped away. Smith immediately started for the court-house where some of the arms belonging to the "exempts " were stored, shouting " come on, boys; rally at the court-house!" As he reached the court-house fence the bushwhackers fired on him, shooting him through the bowels, and lie fell. He made his way, unassisted, to the residence of Dr. D. I. Steph- enson, who lived in the western part of Linneus, and was afterward re- moved to his own house, on the east side of the square, now occupied by Major Mullins as a law office, and by S. D. Sandusky as his office, where he died on the eleventh, two days later.
About the time Judge Smith was at Dr. Stephenson's, Mr. William Pen- dleton, who lived in the northeast. part of town, hearing the disturbance, siezed his gun and started for the public square. As he reached a point op- posite the M. E. church, two of Rider's men met him and asked him where he was going. Mr. Pendleton replied that hearing an uncommon noise in town he had come out to investigate. He was taken toward the square and a few rods south of the church Rider and some others of his followers were met. "Here 's a man with a gun, who is out after us; what shall we do with him?" said Pendleton's captors to their leader. "Shoot him down!" replied Rider. Pendleton started to run, but the bushwhackers put three balls into his body and he fell dead.
By this time the town was pretty well alarmed. John Lane was bleeding to deatlı, there was no prospect of making a rich haul of plunder, and so Rider prepared to retreåt. Going to a livery stable the bushwhackers se- cured a horse and buggy, and into the latter placed Lane, whose life-blood was ebbing fast, and started out of town, going south. At Ennis Reed's, a mile and a half from town, they stopped and got some water. At Mr. Cox's, near the line of the Hannibal & St. Joe Railroad, they again stopped,
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HISTORY OF LINN COUNTY.
and by this time Lane was dead. Carrying his body to the door, they said to Mr. Cox: "Here's a dead bushwhacker. We have been to Linneus and killed about a dozen men. You take this man's body back there and have those fellows bury it decently, or we will come back and kill a dozen more!" Then they passed on and away to their rendezvous, which was shortly af- terward broken up by the Carroll county militia.
The citizens did not pursue Rider. Ammunition was scarce, and what arms there were in the place could not be considered effective. The condi- tion of Judge Smith and the dead body of Pendleton engaged the atten- tion of nearly everybody in the town for a time. Lane's body was decently buried in the Linneus cemetery. A company of the militia, the next day, made pursuit, but it was ineffectual.
The bushwhackers carried away a few watches, (one gold,) some goods, a pistol or two, and a few dollars. The loss by their raid in property was but trifling; but the loss of the lives of Judge Smith and Mr. Pendleton was irreparable. Judge Smith. was a valuable man to the county and country. His death was greatly deplored throughout north central Missouri, and other parts of the State where he was well known.
It is said that a few days before Rider's raid, the town was visited and thoroughly invested by a well-dressed, handsome young lady, who was mounted on " a gallant steed" which she managed with great dexterity. She visited among other places, Brownlee, Trumbo & Dillon's store, and took in the situation very completely before leaving. Wherefrom she came and whereto she went, no one in Linneus seemed to know; but it was charged that she was a spy for the bushwhackers. The same lady was seen in different parts of the country at other times.
Upon the disappearance of the bushwhackers a young man of Linneus, who had at different times enlisted in the Federal service and as often de- serted, and who had been employed in a livery stable, also disappeared; and it was charged that he, also, was an agent of Rider's raiders. Not long after he was killed in Andrew county.
MISCELLANEOUS INCIDENTS.
Farmers' club-One of the first farmers' clubs in the county was organ- ized at the Woodview school-house, district number three, township fifty- nine, range twenty, in March, 1872. It was called the Woodview Farmers' Club, and resulted in much benefit to its members. Samuel Thorn was the first president, and H. A. Trowbridge was secretary.
Saw-mill explosion -- On the twenty-seventh of November, 1873, the boiler of Peery & Talley's saw-mill, three miles northwest of Linneus, exploded with fearful force, fatally injuring W. L. Kemper, and badly scalding George Shelton. Kemper was blown thirty feet into the air; he died two days later after suffering greatly. The mill was torn to pieces.
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HISTORY OF LINN COUNTY.
Wind storm -- A heavy wind storm passed over the township on the first of August, 1874. The house of Mrs. Cassity, a two-story brick building, two miles north of Linneus, was blown down. None of the inmates were injured.
The first reaper-The first reaping and mowing machine in Linn county was brought in by Col. A. W. Flournoy, in 185-, some years before the war. It was the old " McCormick," made under the first patent; it was painted blue, and was an enormous machine, which required six horses to draw it. When it was first set to work in the Colonel's field men came from far and near to see it operate. It excited a great deal of comment. Some of the spectators admired it, but the majority shook their heads dis- approvingly and went back to their cradles and sickles, contented to " let well enough alone."
Fat cattle-In the spring of 1881 Mr. S. P. Bowyer sold to Joe Crain, a Brookfield stock-dealer, thirteen head of two-year-old steers whose average weight was 1,312 pounds. Two steers were shipped from Linneus in the winter of 1878, one of which weighed 1,680, and the other 1,578 pounds. They were three-year-old.
Protesting against the railroad tax-On the first of February, 1878, a meeting of the taxpayers of Locust Creek township was held in the court- house at Linneus to take action in resisting the payment of the railroad tax. Mr. Silas Hale was chairman of the meeting. Resolutions were unanimously adopted that the election in Locust Creek township "held for the purpose of voting a tax on less than four-fifths of the taxpayers (the one-fifth being exempt under the law by paid up stock previously subscribed to the railroad) was fraudulently conducted throughout," and not carried in any sense by the legally qualified voters of the township; for the reason, as the resolutions stated, that " the judges of the election carried two ballot-boxes, letting all illegal voters vote for the. tax and depositing their ballots in the ballot-box, and causing those who voted against the tax to deposit their ballots in another box." Those composing the meeting pledged themselves, by reso- lution, not to pay the tax unless it should be compromised; and if their property should be exposed to sale in default of the payment of the tax, they would not bid themselves, or suffer others to, upon the property so exposed.
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