USA > Missouri > Bates County > The old settlers' history of Bates County, Missouri : from its first settlement to the first day of January, 1900 > Part 17
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OLD SETTLERS HISTORY
or two survived to get inside the fort. The Southern men, who had sustained no losses, soon evacuated the island, and went south. The colored troops remaining were soon after- ward ordered to some other post"
James Drysdale, being interviewed on the same matter, said:
"I came to this county in Iets, and settled on a farm one mile west of Ft. Toothman. I also own the # adjoining the Toothman farm on the west. When I first settled there the earthworks aal some of the timber used in the fort were still there. The Toothman house was the center of the works, and the earth works surrounding took in about an acre of ground. This farmi has since been known as the Cogill farm. A short distance north of the fort there was fresh dirt thrown up and everything indicated a burial ground. Here, I was informed, was where the mon killed in the battle were buried. Recently I had a talk with a woman by the name of Wheeler, whose maiden name was Langferd, and who resided on the Oliver Ellswick place, ad- joining the Toothman place on the north, at the time of the battle, and she said she saw the battle and that there were twenty-one colored troops and one white man. command- ing. killed: that the colored men were buried there, and the white man taken to Mound City. Kansas for interment. This battle was fought some time prior to General Ewing's Order No. 11, which was dated August 25, 1853. and from all the information at hand. it was probably ou or about the 1st of June."
This is supposed to have been the only battle fought on Bates County soil in which regular U. S. troops were eu- gaged.
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WILLIAM E. WALTON.
William E. Walton was born in Cooper County, Mo., August 31, 1842, and has lived in Bates County, Mo., since 1870. He was county clerk of Bates County during the years of 1875, 76, '77 and '78. He is president of the Missouri State Bank and also of The Walton Trust Company of Butler, Mo., and has been in the banking business for 20 years.
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OF BATES COUNTY.
WILLIAM E. WALTON
WRITES ENTERTAININGLY OF BATES COUNTY AND HER PEOPLE TWENTY-SEVEN YEARS AGO.
You ask me to write about Bates county as it appeared twenty-seven years ago.
I came here in July, 1870, and began the making of a set of title abstract books. Butler was a small village, and Bates connty one big prairie with timber along the streams.
Where Rich Hill, Adrian, Humne, Foster, Merwin and Am- sterdam now stand was then wild prairie land. Our court honse was being built by John E. Tinklepaugh, a contractor, but he failed, and it was completed by his bondsmen. None of the streams were bridged, unless there was one bridge at Pappinville. After big rains we had three ways of crossing, viz .: wade, swim, or wait for low water.
Times were good and everybody making money. Non-resi- dents owned the big prairies and paid taxes while our farmers and stock raisers grazed thousands of cattle on the land and grew rich on "free range." Immigrants with money were coming from everywhere, but principally from the north, buy- ing the rich, low priced land, plowing up the sod, building houses and making farms. In fact, we were at the high tide of prosperity in 1870.
The war lasted four years and had closed five years prior to this time. During its continuance it brought sorrow and death to a million homes, and reduced the South from a con- dition of affluence to that of poverty. On account of the war the government had paid out hundreds of millions of dollars, and this vast sum was in the hands of the people. True, the government had borrowed this money by selling to Europe interest-bearing bonds, but we had the money and they had the bonds and pay day was a long ways off. It was an era of speculation and money making. The mints were open to the free coinage of both gold and silver, but neither inetal was in
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circulation. Gold was at a premium, and had been for years. This was before the crime of 1873. Our money was all pa- per. We were getting rich and getting in debt both. In 1873 the Jay Cooke bank failed. This startled the country and was the beginning of a panic that covered the United States and ruined thousands that were in debt. Although money was plenty and business good, in 1870 interest rates ruled high. Money was active and in great demand, for ev- erybody speculated. From 15 to 18 per cent was the rate for short-time loans, and on five-year farm loans from 12 to 15 per cent. I frequently borrowed money then; and was con- sidered fortunate when I could get it at 15 per cent.
The first bank in Butler was owned by the "Dunbaugh Brothers." It failed in October, 1870, owing its depositors $70,000.00. Immediately after this failine, Mr. Cheeney, F. J. Tygard and P. A. Burgess came from Holden, Mo., and opened the Bates County Bank which is now the oldest and was for several years the only bank here. There are now eleven banks in Bates county.
Courts were held up stairs in the room now occupied by Sam Levy & Co. Church services were frequently held in the same room. Politically times were hot in 1870. Our congressman was S. S. Burdett, a lawyer living at Osceola. He was a republican, and had defeated for congress John F. Phillips, now federal judge at Kansas City. During the Bryan- McKinley campaign he visited Butler after an absence of 25 years and spoke in our opera house. Our circuit judge was David McGanghey. The writer was clerk of election in Clinto-, Mo., in 1868, and counted the votes when he de- feated Judge Foster P. Wright. Both are now dead. John D. Myers was county clerk, circuit clerk and recorder of deeds. He was the father of Mrs. Judge Steele of Butler. Judge Myers was "southern raised," but was a " Union man." He had troubles during the war and sincerely believed he had been badly treated. He was positive and outspoken. Such men always have enemies. He was an honest man, always true to a friend. Our county judges were B. H. Thornton, who owned and lived on the Badgley farm two miles south-
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west of Butler, L. E. Hall of Homer township, and J. N. Crig- ler, who yet lives near Johnstown. Wesley T. Smith was sheriff and tax collector. He was a defaulter for $18,000.00, but $10,000.00 was paid by his bondsmen. H. C. Donohue, who recently ran for congress on the populist ticket, was county treasurer.
C. C. Bassett, A. M. Christian, C. F. Boxley. A. Henry, Wm. Page, P. H. Holcomb, Sam Riggs, L. D. Condee, T. J. Galla- way, C. H. Wilson, N. A. Wade, A. T. Holcomb, J. K. Hans- burgh, J. K. Brugler and J. J. Brummback were our lawyers. Bassett was a caddidate for circuit judge in 1872, but was defeated by Foster P. Wright. Henry and Bassett were each candidates for congress several times, but neither secured the democratic nomination. .
Doctors Boulware, Pvle, Frizell, Carnal, Martin, Patten and Heath were the physicians. All are yet living except Frizell and Carnal. A. H. Lamb was postmaster and kept the office in a one-story frame that stood on the lot now covered by the west half of the Palace Hotel.
The republicans held all the offices. They had passed a . law in 1865 that "Confederates" and "Southern Sympathi- zers"" were disfranchised. This law was not repealed until 1870. In that year the republican party of Missouri "split" on the question of enfranchi. ement. B. Gratz Brown and Carl Schurz, both orriginal old line republicans, bolted the convention and became leaders in favor of restoring the bal- lot to all southerners. They were called "liberal republicans" to distinguish them from the "regular republican party" thet opposed enfranchisement. The democrats of Missouri made no nominations but voted the liberal ticket. The result was B. Gratz Brown was elected Governor and Carl Schurz elect- ed to the United States Senate. The republicans lost control in Missouri and the ballot was restored to all Confederates and southern sympathizers. In Bates county the ticket elected was a combination of "liberal republica :. s" and demo- crats, viz: Jolin B. Newberry, sheriff. F. V. Holloway, treasurer; John R. Walker. representative, S. H. Geisel,
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Circuit Clerk, Win. Smith, County Clerk. All being demno- crats except Geisel and Smith.
. John R. Walker was then a young wealthy farmer living S miles north east of Butler. He is now U S District attorney at Kansas City.
O. D. Austin was then as now editor of the "Record." W. A. Feely had recently begun the publication of the "Demo- crat." The writer in Oct. 1870 assisted John R. Wa ker, N. A. Wade and others in carrying the type and material of the Democrat up stairs in a frame building that stood where the Missouri State Bank now is, and from that room was pub- lished the "Bat 's County Democrat." Feely died several years later and is buried in the old cemetery. There was , much of bitterness in politics then. The republicans called the southerners "Rebels." The southerners called the repub- licans "Radicals." Neither side showing much liberality. WVe had not then learned this truth-that each man's pecu- ;iar views are the natural outgrowth of his environments -- that education and surroundings in youth largely moulds and shapes opinions.
Had Jeff Davis been born and raised in Maine he would doubtless have been au abolitionist, and John Brown if born and brought up in South Carolina would in all probability have been a secessionist.
We had no railroads but our people were anxious to secure one. Under the law bonds could be voted by the tax-payers to aid in building railroads. In a year or two almost every county in Missouri had issued two or three hundred thousand dollars in bonds, sold them in the market for cash and after- wards paid the money to wild cat companies that had noth- ing to build railroads with outside of this money. The roads were half finished when the money gave ont. Litigation followed for years. The courts generally held the bonds legal.
In September 1874 grasshoppers came. Being late in the season but little damage was done crops. They deposited their eggs in the ground and early in the following spring hatched out by the million and proceeded at once with vorac- ious appetites to devour everything green. The whole country
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OF BATES COUNTY.
was covered with them. They were as thick on the ground as bees sometimes get on the outside of a hive. Our people were much discouraged for it looked as if nothing could be raised. But to our great joy one day late iu the spring the "Hoppers" took fligt and we have never seen them since.
In looking back twenty-seven years I am impressed with the changes "wrought by time." Hundreds of intimate friends then my associates have passed to the beyond. How- ever there are many changes for the better. There is much less drunkenness now than then. Education is inore general and the good influence of the church is making its impression more and more on the public mind as the years come and go. The asperities incident to the war have to a great extent dis- appeared. For thirty years now the Northern and Southern people have lived here together, their children have inter- married and they are brothers in the lodge and the church. Our political beliefs that differed so widely when living apart have now after years of intimate social contact shaded into each other.
May we ever live together harmoniously, having for our standard the highest type of American citizenship and thus add to the development and renown of the most intelligent and rapid growing nation known to man.
WM. E. WALTON.
I am asked to write something about events of "long ago" in addition to the foregoing communication written by me in 1897. In looking over the article I find that three of the parties named therein have since died, viz., Judge J. N. Crigler, Dr. E. Pyle and Hon. John R. Walker. Taking a retrospective view of the 30 years I have lived in Butler many events crowd my mind. One is the crusade, now almost for- gotten, that twenty-five years ago stirred Butler from center to circumference. Whiskey drinking was greater then than now. Finally after much agitation the temperance question became the leading one and war was waged against the saloons and all drug stores that sold liquor. The ladies be- came active in the movement, which in 1874 culminated in
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the crusade when ladies to the number of two or three hun- dred met daily and held temperance services and prayer meetings and then marched in a body to the saloons and drug stores where they would sing and pray and by moral suasion try and persuade the proprietors to cease selling liquor. This was kept up for weeks and months. Finally, one by one, all the saloons and drug stores capitulated except Shaw & Hens- ley. As I write now I have before me the "Women's Appeal" to Shaw & Hensley, dated April 21, 1874, and signed by 380 ladies living in and near Butler. But Shaw & Hensley defied public sentiment, the women and the law, and continued selling liquor. But the crusade was a thrilling event that will always be remembered by those who witnessed it, over a quarter of a century ago.
About this time we had the Rat law. For some cause that I have never seen explained, rats became so numerous and destructive in Missouri that our legislature passed a law requiring county courts to pay for the killing of rats. I was county cierk in 1875-6-7 and S, and issued warrants on the county treasurer to pay for thousands of rat scalps.
Those in business here then were M. S. Cowles, John W. Cullar, J. W. Hannah, Downing & Boggs, Pyle & Wilson, Dr. Martin, Philip and Sam Glassner. Geisal & Borchert, Thomas Brashear, Fred Evans, and Filor Sackett. All of them have since died or removed to other places.
Only a few are living that were here prior to the civil war, viz: John Devinney, VanBuren Vandyke, Fred Cobb, James F. White, Charley Denny, John Atkison, Judge Frank Steele, Thomas Heath and Robert and James and William Hurt. I write these names from memory, but believe it to be correct.
Respectfully,
WM. E. WALTON.
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OF BATES COUNTY.
INTERVIEW OF GEORGE SEARS.
My parents came from Kentucky to Saline county, Missouri, in the year of 1827. I was born in Saline county, November 6, 1831. My parents, came to Bates county, (then called Vernon county) in the fall of IS38 and settled on the farm known as the Richey farm, one-half mile northeast of where Altona now is. At that time there was not more than five or six families in that settlement. A. M. Trueman and J. Coffman are all the names I can now remember. My father broke the first prairie that was broke in that settlement in the spring of 1839. In the fall of 1838 he built a double log honse of hewn logs and men came from Clinton, Harrison- ville and Warrensburg to help raise it. It was a two story and was a fine house in that day and time. We then had no school house nearer than Clinton, 25 miles away and no churches to attend on Sunday, therefore we usually spent Sunday at some of the many Indian camps on the creek. About the second year we were there the county began settling up slowly, and a school house was built about two and a half miles from our house. The first school was a three months term taught by a Mr. Knuckles. Among those that came about that time were William Swift, Hiram Edwards, Robert Davis, Joe and Oscar Reeder, Dave Newland and Mose Strong. At that time we went to Lexington to mill ; we would take ox teams and wagons and take our corn, deer skins and venison and trade them for groceries. We would some times take as much as 100 bushels of corn at a time, and when we got our meal home we would put it down in large boxes and put limestone rock in it to keep it from becoming old and musty before it was used. When I was about ten years old iny father sent me to Johnstown (then called Hardscrabble), twelve miles distant, to get Dr. Thornton for a neighbor by the name of Johnson, and, as I had never seen a doctor, I wondered all the way down there what a doctor looked like. We lived in four counties-and did not move once-it was first VanBuren, then Cass, then Vernon and now Bates. At that time this county was full of deer and turkey and some
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elk-the elk came from the west and went down in Saline county to the salt pond : my father and others would follow and kill them. I have eaten their meat, but never saw one alive. At that time powder and lead were so high and hard to get, and turkeys so plentiful, that we rarely ever shot at a turkey and would not shoot at a deer, except at short range and when sure of a dead shot. In the winter of 1848-49 the whole face of the earth was covered with sleet about eighteen inches thick and as slick as glass. The whole country was then alive with deer and wolves, and we would go out with sticks and clubs and find them, and the more they were scared the less they could run, and they were at our mercy. The first morning after the sleet fell I killed seven deer in the fore- noon ; my father finally made us stop killing deer, but we killed hundreds of wolves with sticks and clubs. I hunted deer for about thirty years and I believe I have killed 1,000 deer in sight of where Altona now is. We attended court at Harrisonville until the county was changed to Vernon, and then Pappinsville was the county seat. I do not remember - much about the hanging of Nottingham, but I remember I would have gone to see him hanged if it had not been that I had seen a inan by the name of Horton hanged at Clinton for wife murder, and I did not want to see another.
In 1849 my father owned 1,000 acres of land in and around where Altona now is. He had paid $1.25 per acre for it, and iny brother, Frank, who had gone to California in 1844, and was at Suitor's Fort when gold was first discovered, wrote father that he had made as much as $1,000 in a day and for father not to fool with his land, but to get an outfit and come right on ; so father sold his whole tract to Colonel Wm. Crawford, for $1.61 per acre, and started with two four- mule teams and two ox teams and got as far as Fort Kearney, where he died of cholera. My mother, two sisters and myself came back to where Altona now is, and we lived in that vicinity until October, 1861. I then went to Hempstead county, Arkansas, and went in the army and staid all through the war.
V. B. VAN DYKE
was born in St. Clair Co., Alabama, April 1, 1830; emigrated with his parents to Cherokee County, Alabama, in 1837, where he attended such schools as existed at that time-the school house was built of pine logs, with the openings between the logs for windows. He emigrated to Bates County in 1855 and came to Butler when the place was covered with prairie grass, where he has resided ever since. Together with R. L. Duncan, who was then county surveyor, he surveyed the town when the same was made the county seat in 1856, and surveyed most of the additions made to it since. He operated as deputy county surveyor under R. L. Duncan for four years; was appointed by the county court as assessor of Bates County for the years 1862, '63 and 64, and was elected county surveyor for 1866, and also was elected assessor of Mt. Pleasant Township for two years, 1889 and 1890. Worked in county clerk's office for W. E. Walton; also in recorder's office for Capt. J. C. Martin during his term, and during his long residence in Bates county has followed various other pursuits. Was made a member of the Masonic fraternity in the first lodge that was established in Butler in 1858, and was also a charter member of Butler Lodge No. 254 when same was organized in 1868, of which he is now a member.
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OF BATES COUNTY.
On the 2nd day of March, 1862. I was married to Miss Precilla Scroggins. In 1866 I came back to Henry county, about ten miles from Clinton ; in 1867 I bought the Shaw farm, on Peter creek, and moved to it, in Bates county. That fall the wolves would come and kill our pigs and geese and scratch at the door and try to get in. Flour was then worth $5.00 per 100 pounds, and we had to go to Warrensburg after it ; butter was 25 cents per pound ; eggs, 20 cents per dozen in summer ; hens, $4.00 per dozen , calicoes, 15 cents per yard ; thread, 10 cents per spool. In an early day this country was a perfect paradise, the prairie was one vast flower bed, most beautiful to behold ; the woods were full of wild bees and in the later part of summer we would cut bee trees and get honey for winter use, and as barrels and other vessels were very scarce we would cut large linn and hackberry trees, split the logs open and hew out huge troughs to store away our honey in. The people did not possess wealth, but they were healthy, happy and contented. At the Old Settlers' Reunion in Octo- ber, 1898, I was awarded the cane for the oldest settler in Bates county.
V. B. VANDYKE
REVIEWS OLD TIMES AND TELLS ABOUT THE GRASSHOPPER SCOURGE.
Joint resolution on the celebration of the Centennial in the various counties in the United States.
Be it Resolved, By the Senate and House of Representa- tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, that it be and is hereby recommended by the Senate and House of Representatives to the people of the United States that they assemble in the several counties on the approaching Centennial Anniversary of our National Independence, and they cause to have delivered on such day an Historical Sketch of said county from its foundation ; and that a copy of such sketch be filed in the County Clerk's office of said county, and an additional copy be filed in the office of the Librarian of Congress, to the intent that a complete record may be ob-
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tained of the progress of our institutions during the first century of its existence.
Approved March 13th, 1876.
At a mass meeting of the citizens cf Bates county, held at the court house of Butler to make arrangements to cele- brate the Centennial 4th of July, 1876, in the county, and to further comply with the above resolution of Congress, the meeting appointed VanBuren Vandyke, A. Henry and J. A. Devinney to prepare an historical sketch of Bates county.
As that part of said history that relates to the physical features, streams, timber, animals, inhabitants, government, lands, pioneers, first settlements, etc .; has been related in other chapters of this book, we will only notice that part that re- lates to the banishment of the people of the county by the military order No. II, by General Ewing, August 25 1863, and the visitation of the grasshoppers in 1866 and 1874.
The condition of the people of Bates county, who to the date of the above named order, No. II, remained in the county, is difficult to describe. They had been pillaged, with few exceptions, of all their live stock and wagons, and. com- munications had been cut off so that many did not hear of the order of banishment until the time allotted was nearly out ; but so soon as they did get the information they pro- cured such wagons and teams as they could and loaded in their most necessary articles and began their march out of the country. Their furniture, honses, barns, gardens, orch- ards and fields were abandoned to certain destruction. Most of the men were in the army on one side or the other, and the move had to be conducted by women and boys. Most of them took refuge in Henry and St. Clair counties. Some families would move out and send the wagon back for others. For days and nights the roads were strewn with this mass of war ridden people exerting themselves to get out of danger. They went into vacant houses, barns and stables, and were called Bates County Refugees. The winter of 1863 was unusually cold and the suffering and privation was very great. When the fifteen days was out and the people all
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OF BATES COUNTY.
gone the county was overrun by marauders and parties from 'Kansas, who removed to Kansas what the people had left. The dry grass of the prairie was set on fire, which completed the desolation and reduced the country to a wilderness, in which condition it remained until the close of the war.
During the war parties of both armies passed over the country and many skirmishes took place between thein and many incidents took place of a very cruel and tragic charac- ter which, if related in detail, would be highly interesting and instructive, showing how some men will act during a state of wor when the restraints of law and the influence of regular society is removed and would favorably impress on the mind the blessings of peace and good government.
One little incident of an amusing kind happened during the journey of the people ont of the county. A family with what little stock and effects ethy had left, arrived at the bridge over Grand river three miles from Clinton, in Henry county. This bridge was an old style wooden one covered like a house. The flock of sheep they had could not be coaxed or driven across it, although they tried repeatedly. At this juncture Capt. John Devinney, who was on his way to Clinton with a few men on horseback, came up and seeing the predicament, dismounted and seized a ram and tied a rope to its horns and pulled him by force across the bridge; the rest of the flock seeing how readily their leader passed over followed without further trouble. This little circumstance gave the narrator a. new idea about sheep.
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