USA > Missouri > Bates County > The old settlers' history of Bates County, Missouri : from its first settlement to the first day of January, 1900 > Part 15
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GEO. TEMPLETON,
a descendant of an early family of Virginia, of Scotch descent on the side of Michael Templeton. his father, and of an old Pennsylvania family of German descent on the side of Lovina Templeton, his mother, was born in Champion, Trumbull County, Ohio, on the 26th day of May, IS50, lived and worked on a farm and in a mill in his native county until he reached the age of about twenty-two years, up to which time his opportunities for an education had been limited to a few months attendance at district school. At this age, and at his own expense, he began the task of educating himself, and the following nine years of his time was spent alternately in attending lliram College and Medina Normal School, in teaching and working on the farm, spending part of the time IS78 to ISSI in reading law in the office of Senator L. C. Jones, at Warren, Ohio, and in the office of the llon. T. W. Whiteman at Carrollton, Mo., at which last named place he was admitted to the bar in January of the year last named, and in the same month located at Rich Hill where he has ever since resided and practiced his profession. He was married on December 15, 1881, to Emma J. Streator, a resident of his native neghbor- hood in Ohio and a member of one of the well known families in the northern part of said state; from this union two sons were born, George S. and Frank H.
Judge Templeton, as he is familiarly known, is a republican, conserva- tive but strong in the faith of his party. He was nominated in ISSI for prosecuting attorney and in 1898 for state representative and in both campaigns developed a strength beyond that of his party vote. As a lawyer he has enjoyed a lucrative practice, is regarded strictly upright and noted for his fidelity to his clients. The judge's early farm attachments still cling to him as is evidenced by his ample and commodious home surround- ings, he being noted for his love for fine stock, of which he is regarded an excellent judge.
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OF BATES COUNTY.
MRS. A. C. BARROWS, Papinsville: As I have lived here since 1841, I am able to give some events of early history from memory. What little I try to give prior to that date. is what I have heard from older settlers. Before the whites settled here, this section was set apart by the Government as a reservation for the Osage indians. They were an ex- ceptionally docile and quiet tribe, and the Government Agent reported that they wanted the Missionaries to come and teach and civilize them. They had been familiar with white men, as traders often came among them to buy their furs . etc. Missionaries came from the East and built houses and a school and church house. They came in 1521, but they were not settlers in the true sense. as they did not come to make homes for themselves. They all went away when the Mission was disbanded in 1837. But by that time a number of persons had settled along both sides of the riv- er. In 1847, a man named Papin gave the county forty acres of the land he had entered, situated ou the north bank of the Osage, for a location for a county seat, so the town was call- ed Papinsville. It is, therefore. the oldest town in Bates County. The first court house was built of logs. in 1845; but a brick court house was built in 1853. Also a bridge was built across the river about the same time. The bridge was burned in 1×61 by Missouri troops, and the court house by Kansas soldiers. December 13, 1>61. In 1:56, the county seat was located where Butler now is. on land entered by a Mr. Morgan, and a court house built soon afterwards. On account of the bitterness existing between the people of this section and the Kansas people, and to stop the raiding bush- whackers. General Ewing ordered all inhabitants to leave the county on September 9, 1863, and we did not see our houses again until after the war closed in 1865.
WASHINGTON PARK. Virginia: I came to Bates County in. the spring of 1858. There were, at that time, twelve or fif- teen houses in Butler, but it improved fast until the com- mencement of the war. There was a grist mill about three miles cast of Butler: also one at West Point: and a saw mill
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near Butler; all run by horse power. When war commenced there was a battalion of about five hundred southern sympa- thizers formed, and those who would not aid them had to leave the county, or be subject to innumerable persecutions, and in danger of their lives. A regiment of Home Guards was organized to protect the people. The southern men then either entered the regular service or joined the bushi- whacking bands, and kept the country terrorized. For this reason General Ewing ordered all to leave the county. From then until the close of the war the county was deserted.
JASON S. WOODFIN: Yes, I guess I am an old settler! I have lived in this county longer than any other man. I re- member a great many things about the settlement of the country-some is too good to tell, and some too bad. When I settled here this country was full of wild turkey, deer, buf- falo, elk and wild indians. If you want to know anything back of that you must hunt up some old Osage squaw. Indian Agent, William Waldo, came here in 1816; then the Mission- aries came up from St. Louis on a flatboat, loaded with gro- ceries, dry goods, beads, etc., and, if the truth were kuown, I expect a little whisky, or sod-corn jaice, which was brought aloug for the purpose of civilizing the indians. They say that those indians were a pretty decent sort of people before the whites came and sold them whisky. But after they got to living on government rations and drinking whisky they got too mean and lazy to live. The Missionary preacher was Dr. Jones. The Missionaries stayed here until the indians went farther west. Then they left and all the buildings rot- ted down. There is no sign of the settlement or Missionaries left; no, not one! A town was then started on the river, where a Frenchman had a cabin and traded with the indians, and white men also. This was named Papinsville and was the first town in the county. Along about 1850 to 55 it was quite a large town. Then Butler was started and the county seat moved there. Papinsville did not quite follow the old Mission, but there is not much of it left. Butler was a good
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DR. J. T HULL.
The subject of this sketch was born in Johnson county, Mo., April 23, 1868, near Knob Noster. He was',educated at the Warrensburg Normal. and graduated from the Dental Col- lege of the Central University, at Lousisville. Kentucky, in the class of '90. Began the practice of his profession at Knob Noster in 1890, and came to Butler in 1893, established an office and has enjoyed a lucrative practice ever since. He is recognized as one of the leading dentists of the state; and is a cultured and progressive citizen.
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sized town when the war broke out, and there were several thousand people in the county. When they commenced fighting, a great many left. Then the Army men ordered them all out. There was one man who wouldn't go and they shot him. After the war there were only a few houses left in the county: there were three in Walnut township. The first mill near here was on Jerry Jackson's farm, in 1847. Before the war our threshing was all done br "Armstrong" machines-main-force and awkwardness, like the negro got the hen of the roost! The first steam engine got here in 1 . Coal was first mined in the county by Daniel Woodfin and his brother. John, for blacksmithing purposes, in the year 1:40.
NOTE: The name of Jason S. Woodfin appears on the roll of "Our Honored Dead" for the year 1500 .- Publishers.
J. J. OHLER: When I came to this county most things were quite different from what they now are. Wm. Hughes kept a little store in Crescent Hill. where we could get meat, molasses, etc. We had to go to Pleasant Hill for flour, and got a poor quality of flour. There was not a fence between Crescent Hill and Butler. I helped to make the first fence between these two places, on J. S. McCraw's farm. I went orer into Kansas to get seed corn, and paid one dollar per bushel for it. We dropped our corn by hand and covered it with hoes. J. S. McCraw and myself went to Butler to get some dry goods. There were only three or four old huts in Butler then. We drove over the open prairie all the way. We went into Henry county to buy some chickens: paid forty cents each, and could only get one-half a dozen. Bacon cost twenty-two cents per pound: unbleached muslin. thirty-seven cents per vard: a pair of cow-skin boots, seren dollars. My wife has a quilt made of calico which cost thirty cents per yard.
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OJD SETTLERS HISTORY
CLARK WIX: While I have lived in Bates County all my life, I was too young to remember much about the country as it was before the war. I can, however, remember seeing wild turkeys, deer and wolves in great numbers, running over what is now a thickly settled country. I can remember going with my father to mill, when the Thomas brothers run a wind mill in Lone Oak township. I can also remember going to a little horse mill four miles east of Butler, run by Jesse and Isaac Fowler. I rode a horse, without saddle of any kind, and carried a sack of corn. There were too many ahead of me and I had to stay over night to get my grist. There was then only one house between our home and the mill. My father, J. S. Ridge and Jesse and Ivan Deweere built the first school house, at their own expense, there in the commu- nity. It was located near our home. Father and Ivan De- weere bought, at Boonville, Mo., the first mowing machine ever brought into the neighborhood. It was an old John P. Mannie, one wheel. It took four good horses to pull it. and people came from as far as ten miles away to see it cut prai- rie grass. I have seen my father stand in the door-way of our home and shoot wild turkeys. which had followed our tame flock into the yard.
HENRY SPEER .;
Henry Speer, whose cut heads this article, was born in Shelby county, Ohio, Sept. 5, 1841; was raised on a farm. worked in the fields in summers and attended the country school from three to six months in the winter. His father dying when he was thirteen years of age he was thrown upon his own re- sources, and was to a great extent his own master at a very early period in his career.
He saw active service in the Union army during the war. First enlisted in Co. F. Benton Cadets, or Freemont's Infantry Guard, and was with Freemont in his Missouri campaign in 1861. After Freemont was relieved of the command in Missouri this regiment, which was irregular, was ordered to St. Louis, and on January 8th, 1862, was mustered out of the service. He re- turned to his home in Ohio and remained till July, 1862, when he enlisted in Co. B. 50th Ohio Infantry, with which he re- mained to the close of the war, and has a record as a soldier of which he is justly proud. He came to Bates county in 1866 and has been a citizen of the county ever since. He has been closely identified with the fruit interests of the county and is at present engaged in the Nursery business at this place. .
Since the above was written Mr. Speer has been called to his reward beyond the dark river.
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OF BATES COUNTY.
SINCE THE WAR.
I am at a loss to know how to begin to redeem my prom. ises made you, that I would write something in regard to the settlement and development of this county since the war, particularly its fruit interests. When I first landed in Bates County in June, 1866, it was very thinly settled. Pleasant Gap was then among the largest, if not the largest town in the county. Butler had a few little offices and a store or two, and a few shacks of residences. The prairies were all lying out wild. An occasional chimney showing where the ravages of war had destroyed a once happy home-but all these were near the timber. No settler had as yet gone very far out on the prairie. At that time the land a few miles from timber was considered unfit for farming and only suit- able for grazing as timber for rails and wood was consid- ered indispensable. I made a short visit with friends in this county and then turned my face to the north and looked ov- er a considerable portion of North Missouri and Eastern Kansas. But I concluded Bates County was the place for me and I returned. I made this trip mostly on foot and alone. a small portion by wagons and cars and wound up on a cayuse. So I had a good chance to see the country.
Leavenworth was then the largest city in the West, with . St. Joe a good second and Kansas City just beginning to get after them. The changes you all know. While in Kansas I struck the grasshoppers, or rather they struck me. I pass- ed through them in countless millions and left them just at the state line as I turned east. I got to Butler just at dark and put up at the Hotel Walley, just opened. The house is still standing just north of Powers' mill. There I had the privilege of sleeping on the floor. The next day I went to Pleasant Gap where I had friends. In relating my exper- ience there I told about the 'grasshoppers in Kansas, and while none of them came square out and called me a liar, they looked as if they thought I was the d-mdest liar in
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America. This was the last of September and about October 1st, the hoppers arrived and I was vindicated, and have passed for a reasonably truthful man ever since. It was something wonderful to see the piles of hoppers. The weather was getting cool and they would pile upon the sides of the buildings and in the ruts and ditches along the road. It was a continual crush under the horses' hoofs and the wheels of the wagon while driving on the road. But they came too late to do much damage, and the most of the spring brood was hatched out in an early warm spell and then kill- ed by a hard freeze. The grasshopper visitation of 1874 and '75 is familiar to a great many and I will pass it by.
I engaged in merchandising in Pleasant Gap and continued there till the spring of 1871 when I moved on a farm on the south line of Summit township, where I engaged in farming and fruit growing. When I first came to Pleasant Gap all the goods, including lumber, were hauled from Pleasant Hill to all points through this country. From Pleasant Gap we had no direct road. I crossed the prairie east of Butler from Pleasant Gap to the Mounds several times without any road, but about May 1, 1867, a company of us started out for Pleasant Hill for goods, and concluded we would lay out a direct road. We loaded two wagons with stakes and Judge Kreger and myself went ahead on ponies to select the cross- ings on the sloughs. The wagons following set up a line of stakes near enough together to be seen from one to another. When we got to the Butler and Pleasant Hill road we put up a post and sign-board pointing down the row of stakes: Pleasant Gap, Papinville, Nevada, Ft. Scott, etc. Such was the imigration to this country and south and west of us at that time that in two weeks there was a well marked road down that line, and every stake gone for camp fires. A great many of the marks of that old road are yet visible, but as we did not pay any attention to lines, only to get there by the shortest route, it is all inclosed in farms and has dis- appeared.
There were a few orchards in the county at that time which had escaped the ravages of war, one of the most not- ed in the eastern part of the county being the John Hale or- chard. Judge Roger also had quite an orchard, then sever- al small orchards; but the apples were mostly Janetons which
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did well in those days and brought fine prices. Teams com- ing from Kansas every fall for apples and paying good prices.
There were quite a good many small peach orchards in the county, all seedlings. The peaches were good and some of them very fine. I am frequently asked why we don't have such fruit now. The seedling peaches are poor things and the Janeton apple appears to be played out. The answer is: These orchards were planted ou fertile soil. The scabs and rusts and rots and all the different fungus growths which trouble us now, had not been introduced. The insect enem- ies were kept down by the numerous birds, and some of the most destructive insect pests were yet unknown. The peach seeds from which those trees were grown had been brought to this country, had been selected from the best peaches, and nearly all the seedlings were fairly good, but as young trees came up haphazard from their seed, they have proved in most cases to be nearly worthless, as the tendency is back- ward to the original type. It is only by careful selection, and accideut, that we can get any advance. At that time there was no small fruit grown, the woods were depended upon for blackberries and raspberries, and the prairies for strawberries, which were of fine flavor and considered good enough for anybody. But in size they would compare un- favorably with the Buboch aud Jumbo and others of the present.
Those old orchards planted before the war have all prac- tically disappeared, only a tree here and there remaining; showing very clearly that we cannot expect fruit trees to live to a great age in this climate. In fact most of the trees planted soon after the war are dead or in a decaying condi- tion. The lesson we should learn from this is, plant varie- ties that come into bearing young, give them good cultiva- tion and replace them with another orchard when they begin to fail. The first orchards planted here after the war 'were selected with very little knowledge of the adaptability of va- rieties.
In 1871-72-73 I set an orchard of one thousand apple trees with some peach, pear and plumb. I knew nothing about what to plant, and there was no one to tell me, as but few varieties had been tried. My planting was therefore to a
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great extent experimental. I planted some tifty varieties of apples, all of them highly recommended and all doing well somewhere, but out of the whole list not more than eight or ten varieties were worth planting here. The result was, that while the Ben Davis, Jonathan and a few others were very protitable they had too much of a load of dead heads to carry to make the whole investment very remunerative. This was the experience of most planters at that time. A few were fortunate enough to strike the paying varieties in their setting and their orchards were very profitable.
During the 70's quite an interest was taken in orchard pianting, and perhaps more fruit trees were planted than during any other decade in the history of the county, and as the soil was new, insect pests scarce, the scab and rust and rot ouly beginning to show in a few localities, most of the trees did well and made a healthy growth, and during the 80's were bearing fine fruit, which found a ready shipping market south and west, after the Kansas wagon trade stop- ped, which happened as soon as eastern Kansas could grow. a supply. The apple shipments culminated in 1890, when with a good crop here and almost a total failure in the East. the apple crop brought more money to Bates County than any other crop grown. The crop of 1801 was also good and brought a good revenue to the county. Since then the ap- ple shipment from this county has been on the decline, ow- ing to several causes; The decline of those orchards plant- ed from '66 to '80 without a corresponding amount of young trees to take their place; An increased home demand; but more than all else, the falling off is due to the ravages of in- . sect enemies and fungus growth; such as scabs, blight, etc. Now what is the remedy of this and how can we succeed in growing good crops of fine fruit again? My answer is: By planting varieties which have proven successful, giving them care and cultivation, and fertilizing if needed. Spray- ing both for fungus growth and injurious in sects, with these instructions fairly carried out, good fruit and plenty of it will be the result. On the other hand buy high priced novel- ties and new things of the tree peddlers, stick them in the ground and leave them to take care of themselves and I will guarantee failure every time. The neglect of our trees has more to do with our failure than anything else. Who would
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. OF BATES COUNTY.
now think of planting a field of corn and leaving it to itself, expecting to return in the fall and find a crop. Yet in the early settlement of this country the soil was turned over, the corn was dropped along the edge of the furrow to be covered up by the next, or was chopped in with an ax or a spade aud a crop of sod corn was gathered in the fall. A few trees were planted in the virgin soil and with very little care crops of luscious fruit was the result. But this is all past. We must now get our bread and also our fruit by the sweat of our brow, with intelligent labor and care. I will bring my article to a close by paying a tribute to those old orchards planted by the early pioneers in this country. How much the material development of this country is due to them? How many of the settlers here from 1865 to 1870 were induced to stop and locate by their luscious fruit aud fine healthy appearance no one can tell. The Hale orchard standing as it did on the public road, trees uniform, healthy and full of fruit. who can limit its influence on the merits of immigrants. Who can say how many were induced to locate by it, and others like it. But these old orchards have pass- ed away, and likewise their owners. A chance tree now and then remains. Of the very old settlers who planted them, there is here and there to be found a gray-haired man or woman. Let us venerate both the tree and the plauter.
HENRY SPEER.
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OLD SETTLERS HISTORY
SECOND LIEUTENANT WEDDLE.
One of Our Most Respected Citizens. He Writes au Interesting Autobiography.
Early Times in Bates and Cass. Custom and Business of Early Settlers. How They got Along-Without Money. The Only Enemy He Fears Now.
The author of this sketch was born at Blue Springs, in Jackson county, Mo., March 31st. 1531. When twelve months old my parents moved to Cass county and located four miles east of Harrisonville on Camp Branch. It was here that I grew to the years of reccollection. The schools of that age were very poor. There were no free schools in those days. The neighbors got together in a radius of three or four miles and set the day to build a school house. They met in a black oak grove near the house of one Hiram Gra- ham. and there built a log cabin, and covered it with four foot boards and weighed them down with poles to keep the wind from blowing them off. They chopped the door out with an ax, and it never had any shutter. School books were a rarety in those days. Small primers of 15 or 20 pages were used. My mother made the book I started to school with. It was simply a bit of brown paste board with letters composing the alphabet, cut from old books or news- papers, pasted thereon. In about three weeks I mastered my study and had to quit school for the want of a higher grade of books. I think the school was composed of fifteen scholars. The teacher's name was Mc Cord.
In those days all able bodied men were enrolled in militia
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OF BATES COUNTY.
companies and had to drill, or muster, so many times a year.
My father would take me with him to town and would buy me a half section of ginger bread, and set me down by the old cake woman by the corner of Wilson & Brook's store. If there are any old timers around Harrisonville I veuture to say they remember the old ginger bread woman (Mrs. Burney). At this time I guess Harrisouville had three doz- en inhabitants and twelve or fifteen log houses, one dry goods store, one hotel, and a saloon. The saloon did the largest business.
In 1842 my father sold his claim and the little improve- ments for $200. There was no money in the trade. The pay was oxen, cows, sheep. etc. In the spring of 1843 we loaded our wagon and started for Bates County. We crossed Grand river at Iugel's Ford. Ingel lived there at that time, but there was no bridge or mill there theu, after leaving there we saw no more houses. We crossed Deer Creek not far from · old Cole town. From there we steered our course as near as possible to a point three and one-half miles southwest of Butler. The prairies had been burnt smooth. There was not a human or tame animal to be seen during that day, but deer, wolves and prairie chickens were numerous. We ar- rived at our destination, went to work, cleared off a building spot. and built a house and called it home. We found the settlements farther apart here than they were in Cass. Peo- ple in those days lived mostly on their own resources. They would clear up smali patches of land in the brush or timber for garden truck. and a small patch of corn. Occasionally ove would venture out and fence in ten or twenty acres of prairie. The business of the men was mostly hunting and tishing; of the women spinning and weaving. There was nothing to stimulate a man to press forward to accumulate property. for it was worth but little. Barter was the custom of the country. The groceries and dry goods they got were mostly paid for in furs, and deer hides, and the hams of . deer were salted and dried, they sold at from 50c. to 75c. per pair. Occasionally two or three neighbors spliced together and loaded up a wagon with vegetables, and attended the Indian payment by the Government. You had to get per- mission from the agent to trade with the Indians. The peo- ple would get a few dollars in this way. From 1837 to 1847
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