USA > Missouri > Bates County > The old settlers' history of Bates County, Missouri : from its first settlement to the first day of January, 1900 > Part 14
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I am to be shot I want to see the man who shoots me." They asked for arms, amunition and horses. My father said; "If you want to know anything about me, there is Mr. Cook who has known me since I was a boy." Bell turned to Dave Cook and said: "If you know this man, what do you know about him?" Cook straightened up in his saddle and said: "I have known him ever since I was a boy and he has always been a straightforward and peaceful citizen until this rebell- ion." My father said: "Well, what have I done since?" Cook answered: "I understand you have been in the Rebel army." Bell asked him if he had been, and what he was do- ing. Father replied; "I was wagon boss." Bell asked who he was with. "General Price." father replied. Then Bell said: "A man who could stand before such a crowd as this and tell the truth as you have done, is too brave a man to die; we knew all about where you had been and what you had been doing, and came here to kill you." Then turning
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to his men he said: "This man shall not be hurt nor any of his property molested." But next morning some of his meu came back and took our horses, nine head in all. They went. from our house up the creek about a half mile, to the house of a man by the name of Tannahill. They took him out in the road and killed him.
Some time in the spring of 1862, a band of men, supposed to be Lane's, came to Ham Kazes house, on the farm known as the Isaac Conkling farm. They surrounded the house and demanded the surrender of Lock and Woolly. They re- fused to come out, and the band set fire to the house. Lock fired both barrels of his gun out at the door, then dropped his gun and ran to the rear window and fired several shots with his revolver. then went to the front door again and ran out through the men. jumped off a bluff and escaped from them in the darkness. He ran to our house, dressed only in his shirt and drawers. My father let him have a suit of clothes. They took Woody prisoner, and next day took him out on the prairie and killed him.
In the spring of 1862. a party of bushwhackers caught Loft Cook on the mounds near old Parkerville. They took his saddle and bridle, and stripped him to his shirt and drawers and left him a rope to ride his horse with and told him to ride for his life. He obeyed them and came to our house, a distance of four miles. He was nearly frozen when he got there. . My father gave him clothes to wear to Butler.
When I was a boy. we always dressed our hogs and loaded them in the old-fashioned Santa Fe wagons, hitched on three or four yoke of oxen and hauled them to Osceola, on the Osage. At that time boats came up as far as that placc. We would sell our pork and bring back flour and other gro- ceries.
As soon as Bell took our horses we began to load our household effects in two ox wagons, and started to Henry county, and then went to Morgan county and stayed one year. In the fall of 1865 we came back to our home on Bones Fork. At that time there were only two buildings in Butler, and they were stables. In the spring of 1866, Ben . White opened a store in one of them and lived in the other one. In 1866 we went to Pleasant Hill, Cass county and we paid $10.00 per hundred for flour. We then had flour bread
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only on Sunday, and later, when flour came down to $5.000 . per hundred. we could have it for breakfast every morning.
Before the war we did much of our trading at West Point.
WHEN THE COUNTY WAS YOUNG.
For The Old Settlers' History, by J. . \. Laun.n.
As I am considered one of the old settlers of Bates County I have been requested to write a short sketch of "The good oid days" when this country was young. - and so was I.
I was born in Tennessee. In the spring of 1 40 my father concluded to go west and grow up with the country-but that was before Greeley used those famous words of advice. So we boarded an old land schooner and started for what was then considered the land of the setting sun. We crossed the Cumberland mountains and journeyed westward over bad roads, fording the unbridged streams, and finally reached the banks of the great river that was wending its undisturb- od way along the cast side of the little town of St. Louis. We drove on the ferry boat and were rowed across to the Missouri side. The only thing I can remember about the town was seeing an old darkey who was scraping the sugar from the bottom of a barrel. Oh! how I did long for a lump of that sugar-but I did not get it. The journey from there to the south-west occupies a blank space in my memory-the sugar barrel incident having completely overshadowed it. When next memory comes to my aid we were living in a cab- in which was situated on the banks of the beautiful White River, in Taney county, Mo. In the fall of 1:41 we again "pulled up stakes" and crossed the Ozarks, going through the old town of Springfield. Green county, and then across the beautiful prairies, and some hills. until we crossed the Osage River. into what is now Bates County. near the Osage, or Harmony. Mission. We then followed the old Missouri trail to the Grand River. We secured a room in a log house which belonged to Allen Ingle. This country at that time was in Van Buren county.
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During the winter of 1841-2 my father bought a few im- provements which had been made on land situated in what is now Deer Creek township, (The land not being in the market yet no title to it could be secured.) where he lived on Uncle Sam's land until 1853, when he sold out his claim to E. D. Sullens, and then pre-empted a half section of land in the same township. Here he made his home until the breaking out of the great civil war.
Could the present generation see this country as it was in those early days it would be the most beautiful sight their eyes ever beheld. They would look across a beautiful flower garden, stretching as far as the eye could reach: could travel for miles in any direction and it would be the same. with here and there a little farm along the edge of the timber of some stream. The first settlers never got away from the . timber, and if a person had told them those vast plains, (they were sometimes called), would ever be covered with houses, farms and cities, and the beautiful natural flower gardens be blotted out of existence. they would have considered him to be crazy and wanted to have him restrained for fear he would do some one harm. Now imagine these vast gardens filled with song birds of every description, all sounding praises to the Great Creator-heavenly music indeed !- on the different little organs which God had given them for that purpose and taught them to use. They never missed a note or made a discordant sound! Compare that music with what we now hear ground out of some instrument of man's device. Oh! carry me back to that garden, filled with flowers and birds, once more. But. alas! those days are gone, never to come again. Those were the days when the country was young! I, also, was young; we have grown old together!
The greatest danger to the early settlements, and the one thing most dreaded. was fire. When those vast stretches of grass began to dry the people began to devise means for the protection of their homes. Every piece of cultivated ground had a rail fence around it, such a thing as wire fence being unknown. If a man had but one hog he would tara it out and fence against it. In a short time these rails became very dry and the old dry grass would accumulate in the fence corners and if fire once caught, it was there to star as long as any rails and grass were left to stay with it. The
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best protection and the one usually adopted, was to plow two or three furrows on each side of a strip of land, about thirty feet wide, entirely around their farms: then just as soon as possible they would burn the grass off the strip. They were very careful not to let the fire get out on the prai- rie for fear their neighbor would not have his farm similarly protected. Once in a great while a farmer would let the fire get the start of him. on account of a little carelessness or a hard puff of wind. and then it took a good horse to outrun it if the wind was blowing like it frequently does in the fall of the year. No road that was then in the country offered any resistance, and it would cross small streams and not make a halt. Of all the scrambling of deer, rabbits, birds and other wild animals to get out of the track of the devouring flames!
Neighbors were few and far between in those old days, but they were usually true and faithful. If a man or some mem- ber of his family got sick the neighbors would go miles to aid them. If anyone had a cabin to raise, all they had to do was to let the neighbors know and they would always get there to help them. If one had a large house or barn to raise they would usually invite the whole neighborhood, and the ladies would make one or two quilts while the men were raising the building. Very often the young people-and some of the older ones-would have a dance at night. On those occasions the ladies wore their best dresses, the ma- terial of which they had. generally. manufactured them- selves. I have seen as pretty and good young ladies as ev- er walked the earth, who helped raise the cotton, pick, card and spin it. and weave all their wearing apparel. That made of wool was clipped from the sheep and converted into linsey and jeans, and nearly every family kept a few sheep for their own use. They also usually raised a little patch of hemp or flax for the lint. and would first run it through what they called "the brake." That would mash the woody part off the stalks. Then they would take it to the "shuck- ing board." which was set in the ground and stood about three feet high. They would hold it over that board and strike downwards with a wooden knife until they got all the woody substance out .. It was then ready for the "hackel," and when it went through that it was ready for the spinning wheel. The long. straight lint was used for the warp, and
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the tow for filling. If we had that kind of clothing for boys now you would often find them hanging on some barbed-wire fence; if the wire did not break and let them loose, some- times you might be so late in finding them that their clothes would have to go to their younger brothers. The writer has seen many a boy, from three to eight years of age. wear a suit of clothes made of that kind of cloth, all in one piece with only one button on it, and that under his chin.
The first school house in the north part of the county I have any knowledge of, was built in a grove about a mile north-west of the old town of Crescent Hill, about fifty-seven years ago. It was built by donation of work. There was not a dollar in money paid out on it: everything was manu- factured in the timber near the building site. The floor was of split logs, the seats were made of logs split open and the flat side dressed with the ax and holes bored in the ends and legs stuck in. The legs and the seits were all nicely turned. that is they were turned the other side up after the leg; had been driven in the auger holes. Then they were ready for the polishing: this was done by the scholars during school hours and it was a slow process. The seribe did his part of polishing during the summer season for a number of years. but did not get all the splinters o.T. Our writing desks were made the same way, only the pins were put in the wall, just below the window-one log out of the side of the house-'and a broad slab split out and laid on these pins.
If we had to close the window, which was frequently the case in the spring-time. all we had to do was to turn the slab ou edge and it formed a shutter. The house was cover- ed with boards split from large bur oak trees, laid on poles and held in place by other poles on top of them. The house was not complete until there was a large fire-place and chim- ney in one end, built of sticks and plastered over with mud. The spaces between the logs in the walls were also treated with mud. When the mud was dry the house was ready for use.
Schools in those days were different from what they are now. The teacher was employed by the month, and had to teach from the first of one month until the first day of the next-putting in every day except Saturdays and Sundays- and they would commence school as soon as there were
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enough pupils present to form a class and hold until very late in the evening. The teacher generally boarded around with the patrons of the school. There was no escape: every one had to keep him one week until he got around, then he would start in again.
The school the writer attended for a number of years was what was called "open school:" that is. the pupils all studied out loud. Just imagine thirty or forty boys and girls trying to see who could read or spell the loudest: and the teacher hearing a class recite at the same time. But it seems that everything has to undergo a change, and when the old fash- . ioned school was done away with and we were ushered into a "silent school" and kept there all day it seemed to us that We were in a "dead" school. as well as a silent one. But we lived over it, as we have lived over a great many changes that have come to pass since we walked two miles to school through grass waist high and no road except where a log had bon dragged back and forth until the weeds and grass were beaten down sufficiently to form a respectable path. But still the grass was wot with dew in the morning and full of snakes, and the children were all bare-footed: but they were on the alert and comparatively few suffered from snake bite. The bite of a large number of these reptiles was harmless, but the rattler. copperhead and viper were dreaded.
The country was just as full of game of all kinds as it was of snakes. Deer could be seen galloping over the prairie any day. in gangs of from two or three to ten or a dozen. Turkeys! the timber was full of them. You could hear them gobble in the spring of the year, and call to each other from all sides. It was no trouble for a hunter to get all the deer and turkey he wanted.
Kansas was then inhabited by the indians, and they would come over into the border counties every fall and winter to hunt. The squaws would make baskets and trade them for provisions. The men would hunt until they got all the meat they could carry back with them. They generally brought a lot of ponies to pack their meat and camp fixtures on. I have seen one old buck indian carry two deer as far as two miles to the camp.
The indians along the border were a very quiet, inoffensive people: seldom touched anything without permission, and if
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any one told them to get out they would "get up and git:" but the settlers seldom interfered with them. Agreat many of the indians could converse in our language, but if a half dozen came to the house you could only get one of them to talk. I have known them to stop and eat dinner at my fath- er's house and leave a little child tied on a pony's back out in the road, and another papoose tied to a board, and the board set up against the side of the house. No attention would be paid to them and they did not once make a sound. But poor Lo! he has gone, as have the birds and the flowers, the deer and the turkeys! And the prairie chickens, I for- got to mention them: and the quails! They were nearly as thick then as the chinch bugs are now. The chickens could be caught in traps in the winter season, hundreds of them; but the quails were hard to trap. They could be driven in- to nets, however, and thousands were caught in that mas- ner. A great many wolves, also, were caught in traps, or wolf pens, as they were sometimes called. . Many different kinds of fur-bearing animals were caught in traps, or dead- falls, and their hides passed as readily as cash at the stores.
The next subject that presents itself to my mind is our old time preachers and churches. The first church building was fashioned after the school house, only iarger, but for many years meetings were held at houses or in the shelter of the forest trees, "God's first Temples." The Baptists. Method- ists and Cumberland Presbyterians were the only denomi- nations represented here then-if iny memory serves me rightly. Our preachers in those days were old fashioned followers of that meek and lowly Nazarine, like Paul and Peter, and that disciple Jesus loved. They were all right in those days, but they would not answer the purpose in this enlightened day and age of the world. They were just plain God made preachers-they had not been to William Jewel to prepare for their labor, but had to depend on the Lord for the message they were to deliver to the people. They labor- ed on the farm during the week and preached on the Sabbath: and about once each year, when they got their work in good shape, they put in two or three weeks preaching, and the people would come from miles around, to the house selected for the services. And then we would have one of those old- fashioned revivals which we now hear about but never sec.
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But those brave old volunteers, who were preaching for the good of the people and laboring for love of the Master-they are gone with the birds and flowers! If a church had put the question to one of them as to what salary he would ex- pect, he would have been insulted. They looked to the Mas- ter, who called them to preach, for their pay:and He never failed them if they performed their work according to the pattern He had given them.
THE NOTTINGHAM MURDER.
I can not close this sketch without giving an account of the first revolting crime committed in the county, and the ouly one for which the perpetrator has paid the life penalty by legal execution. The spot where this crime was commit- ted is not now in the county limits, but is near the east line of Vernon county, some twelve miles from the Osage River, which now forms the boundry line between the counties. This territory was at that time, however, in Bates County, and Papinsville, on the river, was the county seat. It ap- pears that the records of this case are lost, but from my own recollections, aided by those of a few other persons who were living in the county at that time, I submit the following :- It was about the first day of April, 1854, late in the evening, that Wmn. H. Nottingham killed his wife, Sarah. He after- wards gave the details of the crime about as follows: "I had just returned home and my wife went to milk the cows. I went out to help her as I usually did, when at home, and when I came near enough she squirted milk on my clothes. I caught some of the milk in my hand and tried to rub it on her face, and she called for help. I did not know until then that she was angry. She then got up and said she would go to her father's. I told her she should not go. But she started and I followed: about one-half mile from the house I got in front of her and hit her in the face with a rock and knocked her down. She then said she would go back to our. home, and I would have gladly picked her up, carried her
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back and dostored her woands, but was afraid she woall toll her people and kaew that they would kill me. So I took the rock and beat her to death. I then picked her up and car- ried her some distance from the road, and hid her there. until the next night: thea I went back to thoroughly conceal the body. I found. to my surprise that I could not lift her al- though I had carried her. easily. the night before: so I had to cut her in two pieces. I then carried the body to a more se- cladad place, dng a hole in the ground and buried it. Then I covered the spot over with dry leaves in order to hide all trace of the grave. I then went home and placed in circula- tion the report that my wife had left me, and I thought she had gone to her father's home."
After a few days Mrs. Nottingham was missed and the neighbors began to suspect that all was not right. A revi- val meeting was in progress nearby, and Win. Nottingham took a very prominent part in it. At length oav of the neigh- . bors concluded. for his own satisfaction, to investigate the matter. and went to Mrs. Nottingham's father and made in- quiry concerning ber. When it was found that she was not there, steps were taken to ascertain what had become of her. Her father swore out a warrant for Nottingham, and he was taken into custody. Then a searching party, composed of neighbors of the family, was organized and began to scour the woods in search of the body-as all now believed that a murder had been committed. This was on April. 15th. and on the 16th inst. her father, by some unseea hand, was led to the spot where the body of his child lay concealed. Al- though the searchers could find no evidence of any recent changes there, the father insisted in his belief that the grave must be near that spot. Finally one of the party. br prob- ing the ground with a stick, discovered the spot where the soil had been disturbed. The leaves were raked away and the father, himself. uncovered the inntilated remains of his daughter.
Then came the tedious waiting and the excitement attend- ing the trial. A carefully selected jury, composed of some of the best citizens of the county. after hearing all the evi- dence in the case, pronounced him guilty of murder in the first degree, and the judge passed the death sentence, which was duly carried out in the old town of Papinsville, on the
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north bank of the Osage River. Of those now living who took part in this trial are: Edmund Bartlett, who was a mem- ber of the grand jury which found a bill against Wm. H. Nottingham for murder in the first degree: J. S. MeCraw; a member of the jury which found accused guilty, as charg- od in the indictment: J. B. Newberry, who made the hand- cuffs which were placed on the wrists of the prisoner. Mrs. L. J. Lamon, who is still living, was a neighbor of, and friend to Sarah Nottingham. the woman who was so brutally mur- dered.
While not claiming that the deed was done while he was under the influence of liquor, Dr. Nottingham attributed the depraved moral condition, which made such conduct possi- ble, to the effects of strong drink, and from the gallows warned young women against linking their lives with any- one who partook of the product of the still.
CONCLUSION .- In couclusion I will say that there are only a few of the old pioneers, who were here when this country was young. left among us. There is only one in this township who was here when I came, J. S. McCraw, whose father was living here when we came. We old fellows seem to be different from the balance of the community: we seem to be drawn together and have more love for each other than is found in the younger generation. But we are passing away, one by one, and soon our children and the young peo- ple growing up around us will be called "The Old Settlers of Bates County."
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EARLY HISTORY AND INTERESTING INCIDENTS.
Short Sketches by Many of The Olilest Liring Settlers. Con- tributed to The Old Settlers' History. .
JOHN H. THOMAS: The founders of Harmony Mission came from New York, in 1821, as missionaries to the indians. There are none of them now living. The Mission was aban- doned in 1837, when the indians were moved West. The Government paid $8000 for the property and the money went to the society which had sent out the Missionaries. The first postoffice established in the county was at the Mission, but was called Batesville. It was afterwards moved to Pap- insville. Harmony Mission was also the first county seat, so established in 1841, but moved to Papinsville in 1848. The first court house was at Papinsville, completed in 1835. When the county seat was removed, in 1857, the court house was sold to Philip Zeal. It was burned in 1862. The first bridge across the river was built at Papinsville in 1853 or 4, and was burned in 1861 by General Price's men. A commis- siou appointed by the General Assembly located the county seat at Butler, in 1856, and a court house was built there ju 1857. This was burned during the war, and a frame house was built in 1866. This was in turn replaced by the present court house in 1870. The first voting precinct in the county was at Harmony Mission, and the first election held there was in 1841. The first grist mill I remember was the Char- rett mill, 1833. He also run a saw mill and was succeeded by John Parks. William and Aaron Thomas had a grist mill in 1848; the first mill in the county run by a tread wheel. They worked oxen on the wheel. George Thomas had a carding machine, run by the same kind of power, and work- ed horses on it. It was erected in 1848. He also bought a threshing machine at West Point in 1859, which was the on- ly one I knew of before the war. Coal was dug out of the ground in several places as far back as I can remember, for use mostly in blacksmithing, but was not mined to any ex- tent before the war.
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