The history of Linn county, Missouri. An encyclopedia of useful information, Part 48

Author:
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Kansas City, Mo., Birdsall & Dean
Number of Pages: 906

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CENSUS REPORTS OF POPULATION.

White.

Colored.

Total.

1870

2,229

2,321

1880

3,133

TOWN OF BROOKFIELD.

White. Colored.

Total.

1870

388

402

1880

2,264

The aggregate assessed valuation of the property in Brookfield township in 1881 was $611,645.

THE TOWN OF FRANKLIN-NOW EXTINCT.

On the twenty-seventh of March, 1857, there was laid out, about half a mile east of Brookfield, on the south end of the southwest quarter of the the northwest quarter of section five, township fifty-seven, range nineteen,

485

HISTORY OF LINN COUNTY.

a town called Franklin. It existed as a town on the records for eleven years, but was never a place of any importance. On the third of August, 1868, it was vacated by order of the County Court. The immediate prox- imity of Brookfield forbade that Franklin should ever become a point of consequence.

LEADING CRIMES AND CASUALITIES IN BROOKFIELD TOWNSHIP SINCE ITS ORGANI- ZATION.

Killing of Peter Conick-In April, 1879, James B. Logsdon shot and killed Peter Conick. The two men were neighbors living in the southern part of the township, near the Chariton line. Logsdon's farm was on the line, in the southeast quarter of section thirty-five, township fifty-seven, range twenty. It was on his premises where the tragedy occurred. The lands of the two men adjoined, and it was this circumstance that occasioned the difficulty. They had quarreled over their boundary lines, their division fences, etc. At the time of the homicide, Logsdon claimed that Conick came on his (Logsdon's) premises and began abusing him; that he (Logs- don) warned Conick off, but that the latter assaulted him with an ax, and as he was coming toward him with the weapon uplifted, he (Logsdon) fired in self-defense. After a preliminary examination before Esquires Shep- herd and Hicks, Logsdon was bound over in the sum of $3,500 for his appearance at the Circuit Court. He was afterward tried and acquitted.

Inhuman treatment-In the winter of 1873 considerable indignation was aroused throughout the county against a Mr. S. Griffith, who lived . west of Brookfield. Griffith had a little negro boy, eight years of age, in his service, and treated him with great severity and cruelty. The boy was compelled to work out of doors in the severest weather, with insufficient clothing, and suffered greatly. Griffith placed him in the field and made him husk corn, and kept him at this work so long that the boy's feet were so badly frozen that they had to be amputated. Griffith was arrested, and soon after left the country.

FATAL ACCIDENTS.

Drowning of Louis Bevier-On the nineteenth of June, 1869, a man named Louis Bevier was drowned in Yellow Creek, at the Stain's ford. The stream was very high and Mr. Bevier either did not know or care for the danger, and rode in, attempting to cross. He was swept away by the turbid, raging current, and lost in a moment.

Shooting of Frank Whitman-September 30, 1873, a young man named Frank Whitman, living two miles north of Brookfield, was out hunting. He stopped at Mr. Coffman's to rest and was standing on Mr. Coffman's porch with his gun in his hand conversing with some member of the family. Accidentally he let the gun slip off the porch, and as it fell it became dis-

£0

486

HISTORY OF LINN COUNTY.

charged. The charge entered the abdomen of Mr. Whitman and he died in six hours, after intense suffering.

Killed by his horse-December 20, 1874, early in the morning, Mr. John Fitzgerald was thrown by his horse and killed, about one-half mile north of the Stains school-house. Mr. Fitzgerald lived about four miles south of Brookfield. From appearances, his horse had become frightened at the carcass of a dead animal by the roadside, and, starting violently, had either thrown him or fallen with him-at any rate, had fallen on him. Mr. Fitz- gerald was fifty-four years of age and left a wife and children.

Drowning of Lilly Cook-On the twenty-fifth of August, 1877, Lilly Cook, the twelve-year-old daughter of Philip Cook, who lived three and a half miles south of Brookfield, was drowned in her father's cistern. Mr. and Mrs. Cook had gone to Brookfield and were absent at the time. Lilly, impatient for her parents' return, had climbed up a water-trough leading from the eaves of the house into the cistern, to watch for them, and slipped into the cistern as she was descending. Her parents were nearly distracted at her sad and untimely death.

Suffocated by fire-damps-On the nineteenth of July, 1879, Robert Thorpe, a boy sixteen years of age, living with Dr. R. Scott, two miles south of Brookfield, went into a well to get out a bucket which had been lost. While at work he was overcome by the deadly damps and suffocated in a few moments. The body was recovered with some difficulty.

SUICIDES.

June 18, 1872, the wife of Dr. R. Scott, who lived two miles south of Brookfield, took morphine on the morning of that day, and died. She was buried at two p. M. the same day. Mrs. Scott was nineteen years old at the time of her death, but had been married three years. What the cause impelling her to take the deadly drug was never known.

On the twelfth of July, 1880, Mr. Sharp, a young man about eighteen years of age, living three miles northwest of Brookfield, committed suicide by shooting himself with a pistol. It was thought that disappointment in a love affair was the cause.

MISCELLANEOUS.

The tornado of 1876 was particularly severe in this township. An ac- count of its ravages will be found in the history of the town of Brookfield.

Two well-known ladies of this township, Mrs. S. W. Elliott and Mrs. Ella G. Newcomb, died in August, 1876, the latter on the twenty-eighth, and Mrs. Elliott on the twenty-ninth. Mrs. Newcomb was the wife of S. B. Newcomb, who lived four miles south of Brookfield, and was a prom- inent Sunday-school worker. She was twenty-eight years of age. Mrs. Elliott was the wife of Sampson W. Elliott, and lived three miles northeast of Brookfield.

487

HISTORY OF LINN COUNTY.

CHAPTER XX.

CITY OF BROOKFIELD.

Its Location-The Scatters-The Usual Remarks About Game, etc .- Who Gave it a Local Habitation and a Name-Boarding Shanties and Several Other Things-Laid Out and how it Grew and Prospered-In 1861 Had Grown to about Fifteen Houses and Some Other Buildings-The First Child Born and What Followed-Deaths and Burials-Father Hogan-The First School-Brookfield in the Civil War-Some Facts and Some Rumors Upon Which Facts Were Based-Brookfield Survived-Small- pox Scare-Tragedies Growing out of the Great Strife-The New Era and the Past to be Buried in Oblivion-Churches, Schools, Societies, etc.

THE CITY OF BROOKFIELD.

The grounds upon which the city of Brookfield now stands-sections five, six, seven, and eight, in township fifty-seven, range nineteen, and section thirty-one, in township fifty-eight, range nineteen, was formerly known as " the Scatters." Along Elk Creek, in the valley where South Brookfield is, the grass grew rank and tall, affording coverts for deer and other game. The ground was marshy or swampy in the spring and fall, and a great re- sort for wild fowl, which sportsmen hunted and shot by hundreds. The location had quite a reputation as a ducking ground, and was visited by many hunters from a distance at times, even at an early day, when almost the whole country abounded in game.

Section six, township fifty-seven, range nineteen, on which the original town stood, was granted by the United States to the State of Missouri for rail- road purposes, and by the State to the Hannibal & St. Joseph Railroad Com- pany, September 20, 1852. Section seven was first owned by Edward B. Talcott, to whom it was patented by the general government October 6, 1855. Talcott sold the east half to R. S. Forbes and R. S. Watson, June 11, 1857. Forbes and Watson sold to John L. Lathrop, trustee, December 19, 1857. Talcott conveyed the west half to John Duff on the eleventh of March, 1858; Duff sold to John L. Lathrop, trustee, September 13, 1859. Lathrop conveyed the entire section to J. B. Helms, December 22, 1859.

In the spring of 1859 the Hannibal & St. Joseph Railroad was com- pleted to the town site, and on the twentieth of July following the town itself was laid out under direction of Major Josiah Hunt, the railroad com- pany's land commissioner. The company had located its division head- quarters, round-house, machine shops, etc., at Thayer, six miles east of Brookfield; but, upon the completion of the road to the site of Brookfield, it was resolved to lay out a new town and re-locate the division. The work of surveying the town was done by an engineer named John Wood Brooks, from Boston, who took precautions that his name should be remembered

488

HISTORY OF LINN COUNTY.

while the town existed. The town was named for him, and four of the principal streets were called John, Wood, Brooks, and Boston. On the twenty-third of July, 1859, the plat of this town was recorded.

Just when the first human habitations were erected in Brookfield cannot be learned, but before the town was surveyed there were two boarding shan - ties on the south of the railroad track, opposite where the round-house now stands. Here the railroad men, the track-layers and others boarded. Mr. Pat Kerrigan kept one of these boarding-houses and a Mr. Landrigan the other. Prior to the building of these houses, if houses they may be called, the residence of Mr. Holsinger, south of town, was the only human habita- tion in sight. Esquire Samuel Sumner had lived east of town from about 1855.

Soon after the town was laid out the railroad company began the erection of a hotel and dining-house now occupied by the new railroad building, and by the old cellar, on the company's grounds, on the north side of the track, just west of Main Street. Capt. E. P. Dennis took charge of this hotel when it was ready for occupancy, and, assisted by his excellent wife, the first female resident of Brookfield, kept a very creditable hotel for some years. The company stopped its trains' at Brookfield for meals, and the hotel prospered until a change in the time-table caused the trains to halt elsewhere.

In August, 1859, Major Josiah Hunt built two frame single-story houses on Brooks Street, near Livingston, and in the neighborhood of the present site of the Central Hotel. Captain Dennis, prior to this, had built a shanty where now is the middle of Main Street at about the crossing of Brooks, and another frame shanty was put up near the same time in front of where the round house now is. In the latter house Thomas Bresnehan lived. Northwest of the depot, in the neighborhood of Caldwell Street, lived a Mrs. Bracken and her two sons, Joseph and William, in a log cabin. In October the family of Mr. Hurd occupied one of Major Hunt's houses which stood in the middle of Main Street, and the family of Cornelius Slaughter lived in the other. The railroad company had a long, low shanty or building on Main Street, in which the men ate and slept.

It is impossible to state with accuracy who were all of the first settlers of Brookfield, and the order in which they came, but among them were Captain Dennis, Mr. Hurd, Patrick Kerrigan, Mr. Landrigan, Thomas Bresnehan, Cornelius Slaughter, before mentioned, Jacob Van Meter, who built a hotel, which, after many additions and improvements, is now the Central Hotel, Frederick C. Loring, a butcher, who built on Livingston Street, between John and Woods, Henry Steinhelver, James Proctor, Michael Gannon, Michael McGrale, Ed Stevens, John McCormick, Charles Davis, the first train dispatcher, Rad Dennis, James Tooey, W. T. Snow, Augustus Turner, who came in 1860 and brought a sawing machine; A. J.

489

HISTORY OF LINN COUNTY.

Tillotson, Michael Quinn, John L. Houck, who came in on the first train, as did John McGowan, then a young lad.

South of the track, on Main Street, in 1860, went up three or four shan- ties, in one of which an A. J. Tillotson kept a small store. The first store on Main Street was put up by Cornelius Slaughter in the spring of 1861; a frame, and stood on the northwest corner of Main and Brooks streets .. In March, 1859, however, before any dwelling-houses had been built the railroad company had moved up the round-house from Thayer, which had at first been intended for permanent division headquarters, and promised at. one time to be a place of considerable importance, but which dwindled into · insignificance with the progress of events, and in the course of time became. wholly extinct.

For the first months the few citizens of the place bought what groceries and provisions they needed from Captain Dennis, of the Railroad Hotel, who gave. out the contents of his pantry and cellar freely, to accommodate the people.

There was a field of considerable size on the north side of the railroad track and east of the hotel, and here the Captain and the citizens had a large garden which was practically cultivated, and used, in common. The Cap- tain was of great service to his neighbors. He officiated as a sort of post- master until Mr. Tooey was commissioned, taking charge of a considerable amount of mail handed off the train, and mailing all matter entrusted to him. The hotel was not only the principal building of the place for some years, but its manager was the most important personage.

In July, 1860, Mr. James Tooey came up from St. Catharine and built the first store in the place. It was a frame two-story affair, and stood on Brooks Street, between Main and Livingston, in block six, and on lot nine or ten. Upon the completion of the building, Mr. Tooey opened a stock of general merchandise, and thus became the first merchant in the place, and was one of its most prominent citizens.

In August, 1860, the first post-office was established. James Tooey re- ceived the appointment of postmaster from President Buchanan. Mr. Tooey turned the office over to W. T. Snow, who has been postmaster ever since.

Up to the breaking out of the civil war Brookfield improved but slowly, and after that period until the close of hostilities, none at all. There were perhaps fifteen families in the place when Fort Sumter was fired on, and about the same number when General Lee proffered his sword to General Grant under the famous apple tree of Appomattox.

The first white child born in Brookfield was a son of Cornelius and Alice Slaughter. It was born January 7, 1860. The birth of this child was re- garded as an important event in the history of the place, and there was great concern manifested. Captain Dennis stood as a sort of god-father, and declared that whatever other name the child should bear it should also

490

HISTORY OF LINN COUNTY.

be christened Brookfield. Accordingly, the child was named William Brookfield Slaughter. Unfortunately, it only lived four days, dying on the eleventh. The weather being intensely cold and there being no cemetery near, the body was buried near the house where it had been born.

In November or December, 1859, James McKinney, an Irishman and a railroad man, died at the residence of Mrs. Bracken, in the little old log cabin on the hill. This was the first death in town. The second death was that of Slaughter's child before mentioned. Soon after, in January, 1860, a lady named Bosha, a cousin of Captain Dennis, died at the Railroad Hotel. The body was taken east for burial. In August, 1861, Mrs. Myers died. She was the wife of the proprietor of the Myers House, the hotel built by Van Meter, the site of which is now occupied by the Central House. In the early part of the war a man dressed in Federal blue, suppose to be a deserter from the Union army, stopped at the Railroad Hotel and died the same night. He was a German, but no papers were found on his person to indicate where his home was or what was his name. A few days afterwards a little child belonging to some Mormon emigrants en route for Salt Lake, died on the train and was taken off at Brookfield and buried. Both the German and the Mormon child were buried where the mill now stands, on the branch, as was the child of Mrs. Barlow, that died at about the same time.

The first marriage in Brookfield was a notable occasion, and a merry one. The couple were Frank Bernard and Nellie Mathews, both employed by Captain Dennis in his hotel. In the fall of 1860 the wedding came off. Captain Dennis gave up his parlor for the occasion, and the ceremony was witnessed by nearly all the citizens in that place. Esquire Sam Sumner performed the rite. Congratulations were showered upon them by every- body, and the young couple began life with the best wishes of all who knew them. Mr. and Mrs. Bernard lived in Brookfield more than a year after their marriage. They had a child born to them in November, 1861, and not long after they left for St. Joseph. Their present abode is unknown.

In the neighborhood of Brookfield probably the next marriage was that of Wilder Rickerd and Ellen Hall, the latter a daughter of Andrew Hall, which was performed at the residence of the officiating magistrate, Esquire Carter, in the winter of 1862.

In January, 1861, Jim Gallagher went down to St. Louis and there married Ellen Shea. The couple returned in a few days and made their home in Brookfield. Another early marriage of a Brookfielder was that of Mike McKinney, who went down to Carrollton and there married Mollie Hanovan. Before he went away Mike had built for himself and Mollie a snug little cottage on the hill, for he believed in securing the cage before capturing the bird. Mike was one of " the boys," and his companions re- solved upon giving him a high old reception upon his return. On the night

491

HISTORY OF LINN COUNTY.

when he was expected, pickets were out watching for his return, and abun- dant preparations made for a grand charivari or " shivaree," as it was termed. At last the pickets gave the alarm and the fun began. The crowd met Mike and his bride, who were on horseback, and escorted them to their residence with wild shouts and cheers, much jingling of bells, tooting of horns, beating of drums, pounding of boiler iron, discharge of fire-arms, and all of the noise, din, and discord it was possible to make. Mike bore his reception in good part. He soon procured plenty of whisky, and treated the boys freely and liberally, and all ended merrily if not so wisely.

Brookfield was never wholly without religious influences. When there were but Kerrigan's and Landrigan's boarding-shanties, the hotel, the two families Hurd and Slaughter in Major Hunt's houses, and Mrs. Bracken's cabin, along came Rev. Father James Hogan,-then a poor, humble priest of Mother Church, now the Rt. Rev. Bishop Hogan, of the diocese of Kansas City and St. Joseph,-bearing the missal and crucifix, and remind- ing the early settlers of their dependence on and duty toward the Divinity who shapes the destinies of towns and communities as well as the affairs of men. It was about the twentieth of December, 1859, when Father Hogan first appeared in Brookfield and held the first religious services in the place. . The Catholic portion of the community assembled in Landri- gan's boarding-house, and here the good father elevated the mass, per- formed the other rites of the church, and pronounced the pax vobiscum in the presence of a humble but devout congregation, whose service was as acceptable as though it had been performed in cathedral or St. Peter's. Many a time thereafter Father Hogan came to Brookfield to minister to the little flock of Catholics there congregated.

Landrigan's boarding-house was first used as a chapel by Father Hogan, and next the house of Michael McGowan. In August, 1860, the church was completed and dedicated, Father Hogan officiating. The building is still standing, but has been enlarged (see church history). It was the first church building erected in Brookfield.

The first Protestant meeting in Brookfield was held by the Congregation- alists, over James Tooey's store on Main Street, where H. Emanuel's build- ing now stands, corner of John and Livingston streets. Rev. Charles Pratt conducted the services. This was some time in the summer of 1863. The Methodists held a meeting in the school-house in the fall of 1865. The first sabbath-school was organized by Ephraim Banning, over Tooey's store, in 1863. He acted as superintendent and had about twenty scholars. Books were furnished from the East.

Soon after the first settlement of Brookfield, or in 1861, Miss Lizzie Clark taught school in her father's residence, where St. Mary's Academy is now; but the first school taught in the town proper was by Miss Lizzie Renick, in the spring of 1863. The school-room was over Tooey's store on

492

HISTORY OF LINN COUNTY.

Brooks Street, and Miss Renick had about fifteen pupils. She began her school in the previous January, but was forced to close it on account of the prevalence of small-pox in the place.

The first public school-house in the place was finished in 1865, and stood on the site now occupied in part by the Episcopal church. Soon after came along a traveling dramatic company and stopped in Brookfield. This troupe comprised the " celebrated Carey family." The good people of the place resolved to gratify their æsthetic natures and have an entertainment, and they believed, like Shakspeare, that " the play 's the thing." This was- the first dramatic company that had visited the place, and the populace was fairly a-hunger and a-thirst to witness this performance. Accordingly, the new school-house was seized upon and converted into a theater for the time being. It had been just completed and the fragments of mortar had not been swept out. Moreover, there were no seats in the room. How- ever, the room was soon' cleaned out, seats improvised out of boxes and planks, a "stage," so-called, put up, the people turned out en masse, men, women, youths, and little ones, and the play went on. It was voted a big thing by the Brookfielders of that day. So much for the first school-house in Brookfield, the first use to which it was put, and the first show of any kind in Brookfield.

The first physician to locate in Brookfield was Dr. Banning. He came into the place in January, 1861, and had his office in the Myers House. Just how long Dr. Banning remained in the place is not known. Probably the next after him was Dr. Shook, although Dr. Rider, of the Railroad Brigade, attended on some of the citizens during the war. Before Banning came, people were forced to send two miles into the country, south of town, for Dr. Rooker, who ministered to their ills, in connection with Dr. Harris, from Laclede.

All of the houses in Brookfield were either of frame or logs up to June, 1863, at which time Mr. James Tooey finished constructing a brick building · on the northwest corner of John and Livingston streets. It is still standing.

Society was not of the quietest, most orderly character in the early days of Brookfield. There were a few hard cases among the inhabitants, and lawless personages appeared from time to time. Esquire Sam Sumner's court was often resorted to and the majesty of the law invoked to punish transgressors; but quite frequently the law-abiding, well-disposed citizens of the community took the law into their own hands and administered jus- tice according to their own ideas thereof.

On one occasion the place was visited by a brace of swindlers who set up a " wheel of fortune " and tried other devices to entrap the unwary, and beguile the unsophisticated railroaders of their hard-earned money. A committee of good citizens soon had the "fakirs " in custody, and they were speedily tried in a court-room improvised out of a box car that stood

493

HISTORY OF LINN COUNTY.

on a side-track, convicted, and sentenced. The judgement of the court was speedy, sharp, and imperative. The culprits were sentenced to leave town within ten minutes and never to return except at the risk of forfeiting their worthless lives.

During the presidential canvass of 1860 the town was visited by the two rival candidates for the legislature, E. H. Richardson, the Democratic nominee, and A. W. Mullins, the candidate of the Bell and Everett party. The town was Democratic. There was a good crowd in attendance from the country when the two aspirants for legislative honors met on this occa- sion to hold a joint discussion, and all shades of political opinion were rep- resented in the audience.

Brookfield at that day was probably as quiet and orderly as most towns of one hundred souls, but there were occasionally sprees by those who in- dulged in too much of the ardent, which resulted in the violation of law and town ordinance, and was punished accordingly.

BROOKFIELD IN THE CIVIL WAR.

At last the civil war came and broke upon Missouri. Her people were divided in sentiment, and many well-meaning and honest patriots made strenuous efforts to avert it. The Hannibal & St. Joseph Railroad was an important thoroughfare at this juncture, particularly to the Federal anthor- ities. If it were kept intact, troops could be moved rapidly from one side of the State to the other, supplies and munitions of war sent, and all of northern Missouri kept under Federal or Union domination. The great thoroughfare would also be of incalculable service in keeping open commu- nication with the first line of defense adopted by the Union commanders- the Missouri River. It was of the utmost importance, therefore, that the road should be well guarded and kept in running order continuously.

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The history of Linn county, Missouri. An encyclopedia of useful information, Part 48

Author: Publication date: 1882 Publisher: Kansas City, Mo., Birdsall & Dean Number of Pages: 906

Author:
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Kansas City, Mo., Birdsall & Dean
Number of Pages: 906