USA > Missouri > Bates County > The old settlers' history of Bates County, Missouri : from its first settlement to the first day of January, 1900 > Part 18
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In the spring of 1866 many of the Bates county refugees began to return and improve their land which was all that was left. With few exceptions not a vestige of former homes were left standing, and the chimneys of their homes could be seen looming up above a forest of rank weeds. The rich land however could not be destroyed. This fact was noted by the soldiers that marched over it during the war, and numbers of them and emigrants from other states settled in the county and, money being plentiful, they bought the prairie at $8.00 and $10.00 per acre, and soon improved the country better than it was before the war.
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OLD SETTLERS' HISTORS'
In November, 1864, a number of the refugees assembled at Johnstown and reorganized the county government by electing the necessary officers. (n the 4th of July they oc- cupied the viliage of Pleasant Gap and transacted the county business there. In April, 1866, they removed to Butler. A temporary court house and clerk's office was erected. At this time nothing but the brick chimneys could be seen standing above the high weeds ; the dry, rank weeds were ten or twelve feet high ; they had to be cut down to allow a wagon to pass through them.
ROCKY MOUNTAIN LOCUST.
On the 2d day of October, 1866, the county was first visited by grasshoppers or Rocky Mountain locust. They ap- peared to come down from the sky like snowflakes till the face of the earth was covered with them. They devoured all green vegetation, which was but little, as there had been but few people here in the spring to plant anything. They deposited their eggs that fall in the roads, mostly one inch under ground by boring down. They seemed to select the bare ground, where there was no sod for this purpose, and the harder and drier the ground the more numerous the deposits were. Each deposit contained from ten to thirty eggs min- gled with a glutinous substance which formed a sack or coat- ing enclosing the eggs from which they hatched out the next spring-continuously from about the first of April to the middle of May. When those first hatched began to shed off their shell, at which time they were about three-fourths grown, they shed the outer covering of legs, head, body and all. Just before shedding the insect became mopish or stu- pid, would crawl upon some object heavier than itself, fasten its claws into it and remain there for ten or twelve hours until split open on the back, a full fledged grasshopper with wings. They began to hop and eat immediately after being hatched. and seemed by instinct to travel in swarms in the same direc- tion, eating everything green, except castor beans. As soon as they obtained their wings they commenced flying off in swarms up into the heavens from whence they came.
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201
OF BATES COUNTY.
They made their appearance again in the county in the fall of 1874, but, as before, nearly all the products of the soil were matured and dry and no damage was done except to the fall wheat that had been sowed, but as the people had been apprised of their gradual approach across the state of Kansas for about six weeks before, there was not much wheat sowed in the county. In the spring of 1875 the young ones covered the face of the earth and devoured everything green. They went as they got wings as before in 1867, being nearly all gone about the 20th of June, 1875 .. The excretia of the grasshoppers seemed to have fertilized the ground so that everything plauted after that grew more luxuriantly than ever before. A great many expedients were resorted to war against the grasshoppers, but only one thing that was ever tried seemed to succeed-that was by cutting a ditch around the land and burning the hoppers with straw thrown upon them. In this manner one fariner saved all the vegetables he had planted on one acre, which not only supplied himself but he had some to spare to his neighbors.
MASSACRE AT THE MIAMI FORD, MAY 18, 1862.
On the ist of April, 1862, one regiment of cavalry, com- manded by Col. Fitz Henry Warren, was stationed at Butler. Soon after the Sternburg Bros. established a store a :. d trad- ing house ; also bought and sold mules. The narrator of this sketch was employed by them to assist in the business. On the 17th of May, William Jennings sold a mule to the Stern- burgs and as he lived in Walnut township he had to ride the mule back home. The narrator went with him in order to bring the mule back and remained with him all night. The next morning we mounted our horse and attempted to lead the mule, but no amount of forcing and coaxing could induce it to go. So Mir. Jennings said he would ride it to Butler, so we started and crossed the river four miles from Mr. Jennings' house on the ferry boat. Then our ronte lay over the wide undulating prairie ; the weather was delightful and pleasant ; the prairies at that time of year were bedecked with a luxu. riant growth of grass and flowers, and perched on the big rosin
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OLD SETTLERS' HISTORY
weeds the prairie larks were singing as merrily as if no war was going on. Our sense of the beautiful was thus regaled, little thinking of the shocking and bloody scene we were to see in the next half hour.
We traveled on in this way until we passed the planta- tion of Oliver Elswick, our route led us down into a small valley. When we got to the river at the bottom of the valley, we discovered on the brow of the hill about 200 yards ahead of us a troop of mounted soldiers. One of their number, bare headed and with pistol in his hand, left the main body and came in a gallop toward ns, when within a few feet of us, de- manded if we had seen any men that morning over that way, pointing the way we had come. We replied that we had seen none but the man that set us over the river at that point. He made no reply, but wheeled around and rode back to his com- panions on the hill, who waited until we came up to them. I was recognized by Captain Balos, who was in command of the squad. Seeing the men all with their pistols in their hands, I asked Captain Balos what had happened. He replied that the rebels had killed some of his men at the ford of the creek just ahead of us. When we arrived at the ford there were probably 100 soldiers riding about through the woods with their revolvers in their hands and they looked very much excited. One dead soldier lay in the road on his face in a pool of blood. Another dead soldier lay in the bed of the wagon that stood in the middle of the creek, and the so dieis were lifting another ont of the water that had fallen into the creek. Upon the high bank a covered wagon stood lodged against a stump. The mnles to this wagon were badly shot and tangled in the harness and were bleeding and trembling. It took some considerable time to get the wagons turned around and fresh mules with the harness adjusted and the slain soldiers in the wagons. Jennings and I were compelled to stay until they all got started. Half a mile from the fork we passed the home of G. W. Pierce, here we found the ser- geant who had been in charge of the party that were killed. He had several gunshot wounds about the face and neck ; he
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OF BATES COUNTY.
was taken with the others to Butler, where he soon after re- covered.
The names of the soldiers that were killed were : J. Bird, M. Meredith and A. Foust, all of Company A, First Iowa Cavalry. The dead soldiers were taken to Butler and neatly dressed in new uniforms and laid on the green grass in the hospital yard, and were then buried about one-half mnie east of the square with military honors. On this occasion Gen. Warren delivered a pathetic address which caused the tears to run down the cheeks of the soldiers. After the bodies had lain there thirteen years they were taken up and interred in the National cemetery at Fort Scott, Kansas.
The next day we had an interview with Mr. Bumgard- ner, the only man that escaped from the massacre unhurt. This is his story of the affair : "One company of General Warren's regiment, which had been stationed at Montavalla, Vernon county, were ordered to join the regiment at Butler, which they did about the 14th of May. After their arrival they had to get an additional supply of forage. The quarter- master received the information that there was a large pen of corn at Oliver Elswick's farm, six miles west of Butler. On the 17th day of May he sent a small detachment with two wagons to get the corn. The wagons were loaded and re- turned to Butler without being molested ; the next day, May ISth, two wagons, each drawn by four mules, with a soldier and one man in each wagon, the party numbering five men, of which I was one, conducted by a sergeant on horseback. We arrived at the ford on the Miami creek. The sergeant had gone ahead of the wagons about one hundred yards or inore into the heavy timber. After one wagon had crossed and the second one was in the creek a deadly volley was fired from the thicket of buckeye brush a few feet away. The foremost driver was riddled with bullets but was able to dismount and started to run, but only got a few feet and fell dead. It was lucky for Bumgardner that he was in a covered wagon and was not seen by the bushwhackers. The mules at the discharge of the volley naturally swung around to the right and drew the wagon after them, so the rear end was
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OLD SETTLERS' HISTORY
toward the bushwhackers. Bumgardner took advantage of this circuinstance, leaped out of the front end of the wagon and plunged into the thicket and made his escape unharmed. He made his way up the bank of the creek about one-half mile, crossed it and proceeded to Butler safe. He says the two men in the hindmost wagon were riddled with bullets and killed. The sergeant on hearing the volley suspected the cause and rode back in a gallop. He found the road full of armed men and attempted to make his escape by firing his pistol among them, and plunging into the creek, but when he had reached the opposite bank, one of the bushwhackers who had only discharged one barrel of his shotgun fired the other barrel at the sergeant, hitting him in the arms and neck, but not wounding him mortally.
I afterwards learned who did the shooting and the mo- tive therefor. In the spring of 1862 the County of Bates was in a state of terror and confusion truly frightful, and over- run by bands of maranders and bushwhackers who held the lives and property of the people at their mercy. As has been before stated, about the first of April, 1862, one regiment of cavalry, under Col. Fitz Henry Warren, arrived and were sta- tioned at Butler. On the arrival of this regiment the bush- whackers, who up to this time had undisputed possession of the county, retired to the dense thickets and brush on the different streams. Capt. Bill Trueman and his gang took up their abode on the island in the Marais des Cygnes river, about nine miles from Butler. The island is about three miles long and one mile wide. On the north side is the river and the south side is bordered by a deep muddy slough. The in- terior was covered with a dense growth of heavy timber and undergrowth of vines, trailers and the wild Indian plun. Those who had taken up their abode in this gloomy haunt were fed and harbored by the people of the surrounding neigh- borhood, which was thickly settled. It was the custom of the Federal authority, when a body of troops were stationed at a place, for them to forage on the farmers of the surround- ing country. They would go out and take corn and hay, and if the farmer from whom they took it could prove he was
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OF BATES COUNTY.
loyal to the government they would give him a voucher with the promise to pay at some future time. If he was a Southern sympathizer they took it away without any compensation, and the farmer, his family and stock left to suffer or starve.
This state of things did not suit Capt. Trueman and his men, nor their friends living in the vicinity of the island, and he managed to send information to the quartermaster at But- ler that if he would not take hay and corn from the west side of the Miami creek he would not disturb the command at Butler ; but if they continued to take it anyhow, he would take measures to resent it. Thus matters stood when the Federals began to hani the corn from the pen at Oliver Els- wick's on the 17th of May. When this was reported to Capt. Trueman he immediately called a meeting at the house of one of the farmer's, with a view to ascertain what was the best course to pursue to prevent the Federals from taking their corn and hay.
Trueman made a speech to the meeting, in which he said he and his company could waylay and kill the foraging par- ties, but he was afraid of the consequences to them ; that they might return and burn their houses and property, which ca- lamity he did not desire to bring upon them. They were, it seems, in great doubt as to what to do, when one of the farm- ers arose and said to Capt. Trueman, that if he and his men were ready to risk their lives in killing the Federals he was willing to loose his property, and so could answer for all of thein. This speech removed the difficulty. Capt. Trueman .and his men immediately made their arrangements, loaded their guns and pistols and marched before day and concealed themselves near the base of a large walnut tree in a dense thicket of buckeye brushes at the ford of the Miami creek, where he knew the foraging party would pass the next morn- ing, with the result above narrated. After the massacre the bushwhackers did not stay longer than to take the pistols off the bodies of the dead soldiers.
J. C. HAGEDORN.
The subject of this sketch was born at Wedel, near Hamburg, province of Holstein, Germany, May 30. 1852. Educated in the national schools at Hamburg. He was engaged in photography from his 13th year, and until his removal to America in IS70, just prior to the Franco-German war. Soon after landing in this country he joined a U. S. surveying corps, and served as photographer in the service for about one year and nine months, and traveled through the Southwest before the building of the Santa Fe railroad, and covered nine states and territories. Was naturalized at Emporia, Kan- sas, in 1871. lle then returned to Germany, and was arrested on arrival at his old home as a deserter from the German army, and had he not been a U. S. citizen he would have landed in prison at Spandau. and would have been put to hard labor. He says that he still feels proud that he was and is still a United States citizen. The Consul of the U. S. told him that his room of 24x28 was the United States, and to make himself at home there. which he did. He remained in the old country two years, and returned to America in ISSo. Worked at his profession in New York, and also in St. Louis; and established himself in business in Jefferson City in the latter part of ISSo, and canie to Butler in ISSi, and established his art studio and gallery where it still remains. He is recognized as one of the leading artists in his line in the state, and has been honored by the State Photo- graph Association. lle was Vice-President of the association for several years. He has twice served the people of this city as councilman from the First Ward, elected in IS92, and re-elected in 1894.
He is a scholarly gentleman, and speaks and writes three languages- low Dutch, German and English. He is fond of out-door sports. likes fine dogs, a good gun, andquail. jack snipe and duck hunting, and no season is allowed to pass without his enjoyment of these sports in company with a few congenial companions. His art studio is one of the finest in the state.
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OLD SETTLERS' HISTORY
ANN DOBBINS.
The subject of this sketch was born fifty miles below Knoxville and sixty miles above Chattanooga in Meigs county, Tennessee, on the south side of the Tennessee river, May 24, 1819. My parents were Thomas Carter and Joanna Hiden, they married young, neither being 20 years of age. They went to work and built themselves up a home in that new country and gained the love and respect of all who knew them. In 1833-34 the Missouri fever struck that country ; my father, with the rest, resolved to leave his little home and go west. In )837 he loaded his two wagons, put his wife and little children in, who were all girls, except one little baby boy, and started. Our wagons were drawn by two span of oxen and horses. When we left we started for Nashville, Tenn., froin there to Barker's ferry, the crossing of the Ohio river ; thence to St. Louis, Mo., thence to Boonville, and then to Pleasant Hill, Cass county, Mo.
When we arrived there we found four or five of our former friends. And so my father took a claim there, and we had nothing to do but talk of the fine grass and crops and the shooting of the deer. We thought we surely had reached the promised land. But the next July told the story when we all took to chilling. We wished we were back on the old hills of Tennessee; but Sappington's pills soon did away with all sickness and we rejoiced that we had come. Our cattle and hogs ranging in the woods and on the prairies got fat enough without feeding to eat any time. We fared fine.
In IS39, a man named Samuel Dobbins, came from Gal- latin, Tenn., and purchased a farmi from my father. About this time iny father died after an illness of seven days. This left us all very lonely and sad. But my mother being a goed manager, overseeing everything, all moved along nicely. In November, 1840, Mr. Dobbins and I were married. We im- proved our land and built us up a good home there ; but the great drawback to that country was it had never been surveyed or sectionized. My hopes were never so completely destroyed as when my husband, with other smart inen, went and traced the sections up and found the section line to run through the
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OF BATES COUNTY.
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middle, and the section corner to be in the center of our land. So we concluded to sell it. Soon afterwards we were offered $500 in silver and we took it. It was worth $1,000 though. That was in September, 1842. We moved into the bottom and spent the winter. At that time we thought we would moved to Texas, but the spring of '43 was so bad we concluded to go to Bates county, Mo. My husband went horseback through the woods and prairies for the purpose of purchasing us a home. Finding an old friend on the head of Nab's creek he told him his business. He said : " Well, Dob bins, I know where one is that will just suit you." And so he went with him to the very spot where Sam Dobbins, my son, and John Woody, my son-in-law, live now. And the minute he laid his eyes on it he said : "Here is my home and I expect to raise my family and live and die here." He purchased it before he returned. He gave $300 for it. There were two pretty good log houses on it, a little bit of orchard, some old boards, and fence, and seven acres of broke land.
On the 13th of April we loaded our wagons, gathered np all our little lambs, pigs, horses and cattle and started. When I saw it I thought, "Oh ! man, where were your eyes ? I'll never live here. You can if you want to." But I did all the same, and owned it until last September, which was Septem- ber, '99. I hold no interest in the old homestead now. But it seemed as if nature did its best to induce us to stay. The streams abounded in beautiful fish, and the hickory and wal- nut trees were just loaded down-such times as the girls and boys had in autumn, gathering nuts. They had their nuts instead of apples. There wasn't any fruit, except that which was wild ; but there was plenty of that. In the fall the trees would just be black with wild grapes ; as to plums just bush- els and bushels, such as couldn't be found in any orchard at this day and time. And water melons in season. I have seen with my own eyes forty full grown water melons on one vine. And when we got out of honey, we just took an axe, went to the woods and with but little trouble secured enough to last us a round year. We had vegetables in abundance. It was nothing uncommon to have turnips and cabbage that wouldn't go in a wooden bucket. With such products it isn't any wonder we stayed. The first year we came Mr. Dobbins went to work and of all the making and hauling of rails, you
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OLD SETTLERS' HISTORY
never saw the like; and that year he fenced in eighty acres in pasture and one hundred acres in a field. And so every- thing proclaimed prosperity.
The worst drawback to our new home was that we could not buy a yard of cloth between our house and Inde- pendence. Money was scarce and goods high. As far as that was concerned it didn't bother us any, for we had plenty of cotton, hemp. flax and wool, a loom, wheel, and other neces- sarries, and we well understood the art of converting it into cloth, and, therefore, our family fared well; but I couldn't say as well for neighbors who were not so well prepared. Our neighbors were Messrs. Cooper, Snow, Linch, Brumfield, Hawkins, Courtney, Guns, Fishers and Adanis by the half dozen families.
Now, I suppose you think we didn't have any religion those times, but we did. We had no such idea as living in heathendom, without any church houses. Our husbands went down into the timber, cut out every old black oak they could find, and soon erected a building twenty-two feet long, at what is now called the old Conway place. I wish you could have seen them ; some hewing, some chopping, others making mortar, some one thing, some another, all hard at work. They cut a log out on one side and fixed it so it would slip in and out for a window, split "lin" logs, bored holes and put legs in them, and we all had seats. I have seen people confess their sins, change their way of living and show deeper love for their master there than I ever saw any where else.
But alas! Ten years to a day after we had been there my husband died. I was left a widow with six little children, John, Will, Sarah, Jane and little Sammie. We lived there happy enough until the war came up, but I am not going to enter into any of the details of that. My children were all about grown by this time and we moved out of Bates county and stayed five years. Then we returned, built up our home anew, and if you will look around you can find things to this day to show what Ann Dobbins did with her poor old hands. But praise God! He always blesses us, and I am living hap- py enough, two and a half miles east of Mound City, Kansas.
Now, I expect you folks will laugh at the way us back woods folks used to live, but we enjoyed life as much or more than people do to-day.
ANN DOBBINS.
By her grand-daughter, RENA NEEL ..
JNO. D. MOORE, Rich Hill, Mo.
Born in Tuscarawas County, Ohio, February 21st, 1855. Came to Missouri in 1858, went to Illinois in 1863 and lived there until 1870 when his family located in Vernon County. Came to Bates County in April, 1877, and took charge of the Rich Hill School (old Rich Hill). Was the Rich Hill correspondent of the Bates County Record in 1877, at which time the coal fields were beginning to attract the attention of capital and; the papers were using their best efforts to attract the attention of railroad people to the advantages of a railroad through Bates County.
Farmed in summer and taught school in winter until twenty- five years old. Was principal of the East side school at Rich Hill in 1882-3 and soon after the close of that school year, engaged in the real estate and insurance business at Rich Hill and is still engaged in that business. Vice-President of the Farmers and Manufacturers' Bank and Secretary of the Rich Hill Fair.
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OF BATES COUNTY.
INDEX TO ILLUSTRATIONS.
PAGE.
Newberry and Wix
Frontispiece
Frank E. Kellogg . 14
L. R. Purkey 25
Lewis W. Moore 31
J. C. Clark . 43
David A. DeArmond
51
Geo. P. Huckeby 53
L. B. Allison 63
N. A. Wade 70
J. Frank Chambers 74
Phineas H. Holcomb 84
Judge Samuel Levy 92 Santford Hardy . 118
Judge Sam West . 120
Lorenzo D. Wimsatt . 124
George W. Stith .
126
Charles A. Denton
132
Jacob D. Allen
138
John Emery Dowell .
142
O. D. Austin
146
S. T. Broaddus
150
R. E. Pritchard
152
Geo. Templeton
164
Dr. J. T. Hull
166
Henry Speer
168
Jolını Atkison
1 80
James Drysdale .
186
William E. Walton
188
V. B. Vandyke .
196
W. F. Hemstreet
61
W. W. Graves
20
W. O. Atkeson
30
S. W. Dooley
35
E. D. Kipp
81
H. C. Clark 116
E. C. Mudd 37
T. W. Silvers 21
J. C. Hagedorn . 205
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OLD SETTLERS' HISTORY
INDEX TO CONTRIBUTORS.
PAGE
S. C. Sturtevant . 14
Prof. L. B. Allison
Ed S. Austin 65
John B. Newberry 76
C. I. Robords .
121
133
C. C. Blankenbaker
139
Edmund Bartlett 143
Mrs. E. M. Clark
147
Allen Blount 151
John Bowman I53
J. N. Laman 155
John H. Thomas 164
Washington Park 165
Jason S. Woodfin 166
J. J. Ohler 167
Clark Wix .
168
Henry Speer 169
S. H. Weddle
Jolın A. Deviney 173
178
John Atkison
180
R. G. Hartwell
184
J. S. Pierce . 188
187
James Drysdale . 189
W. E. Walton
George Sears . 195
V. B. Vandyke 197
Mrs. Ann Dobbins 206
Sectional County Map
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OF BATES COUNTY.
GENERAL INDEX. -
PAGE
History of Missouri to 1821 IO Organization of County . 14
Bates County from 1821 to 1860 . 20 Harmony Mission 21 Pappinsville . 24
Sketch of Eli J. Cline 25
Northeastern Bates 26
Johnstown 27 Other Settlements and West Point 28
Butler
30
Border Troubles
32
Pioneer Life .
35
History from 1860 to 1865 . 37
General Ewing's Order No. 11 41
History from 1865 to 1870. 44
History from 1870 to 1900 52
Mineral Products - Coal 54
Other Minerals 57
Court House -- cut . 58
Cities, Towns, Villages, Post-offices 58 Public Schools . 65 The Press of County .
71
Crimes and Casualties 76
Old Settler's Society 81
First Annual Meeting 85
Second Annual Meeting 88 Third Annual Meeting 91
Roster of Old Settlers . 92
Spanish-American War 117
County Directory 118
Financial - Valuation 119
Surplus Products 120
212
OLD SETTLERS' HISTORY
Growth from 1853 to 1861 124
Character, Habits, etc. 126
Education® 127
Mirthin and Amnsing 12S
Fifty Years Ago. I33
A Model Log House 134
My Watermelon Patch 136
Takes Two to Shoot Wild Turkey 137
Sign Language of Birds. 138
139
Judge Edmund Bartlett
143
In Northern Bates.
45
In West Point Township.
147
In Deer Creek Township
151
Early Settlements.
53
When County was Young
155
The Nottingham Murder 161
Early Incidents. 164
Since the War 369
Early Times in Bates and Cass
173
Interview of J. A. Deviney
- Details Historical Facts.
I SO
R. G. Hartwell's Letter
Battle at Fort Toothman. IS4
W. E. Walton's Contribution IS9
George Sears- Interview 195
V. B. Vandyke Reviews Old Times 197
Rocky Mountain Locusts. 200
Massacre at Miami Ford. 201
Mrs. Aun Dobbins-Letter 20S
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Pioneer Life in Bates County
Incidents 142
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حماد
JUN 2 0 1973
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