USA > Missouri > Bates County > The old settlers' history of Bates County, Missouri : from its first settlement to the first day of January, 1900 > Part 3
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In 1845 the post-office was established and mails were secur- ed two or three times per week. A school house was erect- ed, by public subscription, in '52, and the first teacher was a Mr. Kirkpatrick. The town had a large hotel and several well stocked stores. In '56 the West Point Banner was es- tablished, with T. H. Sterens editor. This was a weekly pa- per, well filled with advertisements and gained » circulation over a large scope of territory.
West Point was a typical border town, and experienced some lively scenes and incidents. A crowd made up of the average freighter, trapper and reservation Indian, made a combination that was hard to beat in raising the crop which Mrs. Lease advised the Kansas farmers to pay more attention to. Government troops were, at a number of times, stationed there to preserve order on the frontier. ·
The town was at its height when the border troubles, over 1. Severy question. broke out, and from its position, just Yer on the Missouri side of the line, was made a gathering plan, of sort of head quarters for the pro-slavery men. 'T: ore wore turbulent times in West Point those days, but the town continued to grow until the breaking out of the war although several times raided by the Free State men, from over the Kansas line, and its citizens were kept in con- stant fear of the "torch," a mode of retaliation which be- came very popular a short time thereafter.
The West Point of history existed only from 1850 to 1860,
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W. O. ATKESON.
The subject of this sketch was born in Putnam County, West Virginia. in the valley of the Great Kanawha river, and was reared to manhood there. Hle is the son of a farmer and had the usual experiences and passed through the ordinary vicissitudes of farm life in that country. He attended the country schools and quit the public schools a pupil of the Buffalo Academy. At the beginning of the college year of 1873-'74 he entered the Kentucky University at Lexington, matriculating in the Agricultural and Mechanical College and pursued a special course in mathematics, literature, history, book keeping and military training, with recitations in chemistry. He remained in the university only about 7 months, and on account of sickness returned home, and went to work on the farm. The following winter he taught school in Mason County. W. Va., and with the money so earned he matriculated in the West Virginia State Normal School at Fairmont, and graduated from the same in June, IS75. The following winter he was principal of the New Haven graded schools, and in the spring of 1876 he became one of the editors and proprietors of the West Virginia Monitor, published at Point Pleasant, W. Va. After a few months he disposed of his interest in the paper and returned to the farm and began the study of law. and was admitted to the bar in Winfield, W. Va., in 1877. In 1878 he removed to Council Grove. Kansas, where he resided and practiced his profession until he came to Rich Hill in 1882. He was elected justice of the peace in Council Grove, Kansas, and served out a term of two years. In October, 1889, he removed with his family to Butler, where he has since resided. He was elected prosecuting attorney of Bates County in 1890 and served a term of two years successfully. In 1892 he was a candidate for circuit judge on the People's Party ticket and was also nominated by electors, and carried three counties out of the four composing the 29th judicial circuit, but was defeated. The election of his opponent was contested, the opinion of the Supreme Court being recorded in 115 Mo. Repts. He became the editor of the Butler Free Press in 1894 and has been with the paper ever since, and is regarded by friend and foe as a clear, decisive writer, a fair and honorable editor, and a good citizen. He lives in a comfortable cottage home with a family of five children, having recently lost his wife whom he married in Barton County, Mo .. in 1884. He was a member of the first national committee of the People's Party and is now a member of the state committee. In 1894 the Kentucky Central Normal School confered on him the honorary degree of A. M. He is a man of varied culture, firm convictions and great tenacity of purpose ; and his home has always been an open door to all who wish to come and share its modest and cordial hospitality.
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OF BATES COUNTY.
but we leave it at the close of Period I, a flourishing frontier town.
BUTLER.
The first settler on the site now occupied by Butler was one John C. Kennett. who came there probably about 1845, at any rate, he was well established there in 1849, and he was the first inan to establish any kind of mercantile busi- ness at the place, he having put in a stock, principally whiskey and tobacco, for which he found a ready and profit- able sale, to the "forty-niners" who were about this time rushing in every conceivable manner, to the far West for the purpose of acquiring possession of their share of the "root of all evil." the glittering gold of California. He seems to . have prospered here for a time but finally falling a victim to the "gold fever" himself he sold his business to John W. Montgomery. the second settler, and went to California in search of greater wealth in 1853. J. S. Wilkins and John E. Morgan next came and settled here in 1854, and the Leg- islature having passed an act in 1851, which ordered the County Court to remove. the county seat from Papinsville to such other place as the people of the county should desig- nate by a petition bearing the names of three-fifths of the qualified voters of Bates County, and this question of remov- al now being agitated, Morgan and some others conceiving the idea that the land on which they were living being near the center of the county and well suited by nature for a town- site would stand a good chance of securing the county seat, proceded, in 1854, to lay out a town, which they named But- ler, and as an additional inducement to secure the county seat, Morgan, Wilkins and Montgomery offered to donate to the county a tract or tracts of land which agregated 55 acres, which offer was soon accepted. But notwithstanding their laying out a town and making this offer, it seems no other business was attracted to Butler until after the location of the county seat had been fixed here in 1856 by commission- ers, W. S. Sutherland and Achilles Easley, who were ap-
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OLD SETTLERS HISTORY
pointed by the Legislature for this purpose in accordance with the petition of the people.
The first business house, devoted to business, was erected by Couch & Smith in the spring of 1856, in which they . conducted a general merchandising business. They came here from Platte county, Missouri, but were originally from Kentucky. The next business house was put up by McComb & Robison in the fall of 1856, their business being general merchandise also. MeComb previously lived in Deepwater township, this county, and Robison in Platte county, this state. Dr. Joseph S. Hansbrough was the first physician to locate here for the practice of medicine.
The first school was taught in a building erected for both school and church purposes in 1856. The teacher was Mrs. Martha Morgau, wife of John E. Morgan. This building was used by all denominations for their services, people coming for fifteen or twenty miles to attend church, as the church houses were very scarce at that time.
The first hotel or tavern was kept by John E. Morgan, who was succeeded by Thomas Rice. This hotel was a log house, and the management were able to supply man and beast with the plain fare of the time, but without those lux- uries and embellishments which our modern education lead . us to expect and demand, and which our pioneer progenitors tell us is the cause of the physical and moral degeneration of the race and which will ultimately be the sure cause of our complete undoing.
When the county seat was removed from Papinsville to Butler, the latter place had no court house or other suitable place for the sessions of the courts to be held in and the first Grand Jury was compelled, for want of a better place, to meet out iu the prairie on a knoll, at which place they re- mained in session one day, but no business coming before them, they theu adjourned. These conditions rendered it necessary to build a court house, and they decided that it should be a brick building two stories high. The contract for building was let to William Hurt and a Mr. Fritzpatrick. The brick used in the building were burned at Butler, where the Lake Park now is, and the building begun in 1857, and completed in 1858, but was destroyed by fire during the war. The building cost about 89,000, and was a credit to the pro-
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LEWIS W. MOORE.
The subject of this sketch enjoys the distinction of being the youngest and most successful editor of a country paper in Missouri, having commenced his career as proprietor and editor of the Hume Telephone at the age of 16 years. Mr. Moore is a native Missourian. From the extreme tenderness of his youth he bears the euphonious title of "The Kid," but his sober and intelligent editorials make the appellation respectable. The motto at the head of his paper, viz: "A live, independent journal devoted to spreading the news and earning a few dollars in cash," embodies the warp and woof of his life's effort. Through manly foresight, judicious advertising and a ready pen, his paper has been rescued from the quicksands of disaster, while in other hands, and placed among the sub- stantial newspapers of the state.
His quaint aphorisms, unique questions, scientific deduc- tions, sarcastic and cutting paragraphs are now being copied by leading papers everywhere. In addition to the business of his own office he does special or detail work for several well known eastern publishing houses.
In a social way Mr. Moore is something of a curiosity. Sedate as a preacher and comical as a clown, never forgetting the maxim that evil communications corrupt good manners. He is widely known and pleasantly spoken of by a respectable . number of the fraternity, and nothing but a misfortune will prevent him from reaching the peaks longed for by the journal- istic world. Dictated: Steno. No. 499.
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OF BATES COUNTY.
gress and enterprise of the people of Bates County at that time, having so many inconveniences and difficulties with which to contend. Nothing but native lumber, native clay and native stone as material for building, without going an unreasonable distance for them and then bringing them bick by the laborious and tedious process of freighting by ox wagons. But the native push and indomnitable will of those people who have made Bates County what it is to-day, overcame all difficulties, surmounted all obstacles, and their efforts were finally crowned with a degree of success, in the prosperity and progress of the county, which in their wild- est imaginings they had never dreamed of attaining so soon. After the erection of the court house Butler grew rapidly un- til at the breaking out of hostilities between the states it was a considerable town, for its age, but here we will leave it for a time, and follow its history through the war and later in the common history of all the towns in the county.
BORDER TROUBLES.
The Missouri Compromise. as the act which admitted this state was called, provided that Slavery should be prohibited north of 36 degrees 30 min. north latitude, but when the ter- ritory of Kansas applied for admission, the Slavery men de- termined to force her in as a slave state. The antagonists of Slavery were just as determined that it should go in as a free state. Both sides rushed in men in their endeavor to control elections and carry their respective points. In this manner a great many reckless characters were gathered along the Kansas-Missouri line. and as a result lawlessness became rampant. These troubles commenced in 1855 and '6, and while the boni-tide settlers of Bates County took no part in them, and perhaps were not very deeply interested at first, regarding the matter as one in which they had no part, they were too close to the scene of action to escape the ef- fects of these disturbing conditions for any considerable time. The leader of the Free State men was John Brown, who for . a time made his headquarters just over the Kansas line from
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OLD SETTLERS HISTORY
Bates County, the farm generally known as the "Old John Brown Place," lying at the foot of a mound sixteen miles west of Butler, and adjoining the Missouri line. Brown rec- ognizel no law in his operations against the institution of Slavery, and no more did the leaders of the opposition in their attempts to crush him and his followers, and the strug- gle soon took the form of plunder, arson and murder. While the greater part of this sanguinary conflict was waged ou Kansas soil, the settlers on this side of the line suffered se- verely from raids by the Free State men. Small parties came over the border and threatened, and in some instances committed serious depredations. In May, 1858, a meeting was called at the place of Jerry Jackson, on Mulberry Creek, to consider the difficulties and try to find some means by which those troubles might be settled, or the settlers and their property protected. The predominant sentiment at this meeting which was attended by about 200 people, was favorable to an attempt at a peacable settlement of the troub- les, but the radical element under lead of one, Hamilton, re- fused to join in this decision and adjourned to the home of Mc Henry, where plans were laid for a raid on the Free State settlers over the Kansas line. This raid they carried out, and after gathering up about one dozen of these men, open- ed fire on them, killing five and wounding five more. The only resistance the party encountered was at the John Brown place, where Eli Snyder, a blacksmith, claims to have killed two of the party and wounded the leader. Hamilton, and es- caped from the band. The men who took part in this raid were not settlers of Bates County, but were the people who had gathered, as the crows do around a carrion, where they could indulge in lawless practices to the content of their vic- ious natures.
The Free State men vowed vengence on the perpetrators of this outrage, and several bands crossed the border in search of Hamilton and his followers. The settlers, especial- ly in the western part of the county, were kept in constaut terror of retaliatory measures, and even Butler, the county seat, was expecting a raid by the Free State men. John Brown, himself, headed several raiding parties into this state and carried away. a number of slaves, killed one, pos- sibly more, owners, and also took other property.
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OF BATES COUNTY.
Both the State and National Governments declared Brown an outlaw, and offered rewards for his apprehension. Brown, as a return of the compliment, offered a reward for the Gov- ernor of Missouri. and the President. Gathering up the slaves he had liberated. Brown took them by way of Nebras- ka and Iowa, to Canada, and the "border" knew him no more.
Hamilton escaped the Free State men at that time, but ac- cording to Eli Sasder. in an account published about two years since, he was killed, in the Indian Nation, June 17, 1877, (supposedly by Snyder) thus at last suffering death at the hands of one of his intended victims.
These raids, as a matter of course, created great excite- ment along the border. and the feeling between the partisans of the Free State leaders and the Pro-slavery men ran high.
In 1858 and '9 began an exodus from the western part of the county, which movement although at first it was not general enough to produce any great change, gathered mo- mentum as the situation continued to grow darker. As one of our Old Settlers expressed it: "It seemed like a great black cloud was hanging over the country, and everyone was waiting, breathlessly, for the breaking out of the storm."
Every man began to suspect his neighbor, and no one knew just who his friends or enemies were. At the close of 1859 there came a lull in the border troubles, but it was only the calm before the storm. the prelude to the great Civil War.
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OLD SETTLERS HISTORY
PIONEER LIFE.
We have briefly sketched the pioneer period in our county's history, and a short description of the general and social con- ditions prevalent at that time may not be out of place.
The earliest settlers. being widely separated, there was very little in their lives except the daily contact with nature in its pure and unadulterated forms, and while this life may have been solitary and monotonous. it was not without its compensations, as is shown by the testimony of the few re- maining pioneers. They grow to love their somber forests, and their gorgeously beautiful prairies, and they yet mourn their desecration by the ever increasing influx of busy, bustling humanity. Later on as more and more homeseek- ers were drawn here, the people naturally gathered in settle- ments, and enjoyed the blessings of social intercourse. The first settlements were confined exclusively to the vicinity of the numerous water courses, where they secured the mater- ial for their homes from the forests which lined the streams. The houses were uniformly built of logs, and the majority were small and rude, but some of the more pretentious were made from nicely hewn timbers, which were neatly and care- fully put together, forming substantial and comely struct- ures. Each house had one or more large chimneys, and op- en fire-places which were, in the winter season, piled high with huge sticks, or logs of wood, and the whole building was heated and lighted by the cheerful blaze.
The fields, consisting for the greater part of clearings in the timber land, were fenced by means of rails split from the timber which grew on the land. The crops consisted prin- cipally of corn, wheat and oats, and the common garden produce. They also raised cotton and hemp, and each fam- ily kept a few sheep, and from these various sources the loom, which supplied the family with wearing apparel, was fed. They made but little attempt to raise more than was sufficient for their needs, as they were too distant from market, and transportation too laborious and costly to dis-
SILAS WRIGHT DOOLEY
was born in Washington City, D. C., on the 31st of December, 1843. His father, M. T. Dooley, came to this country from Ireland when quite a young man and married Miss E. Hannah a native of Washington. The subject of this sketch received his early education in the public schools of that City, then attended Gonzaga College, a branch of Georgetown College, finishing his education at Villa Nova College just west of Phila., l'a. At the age of eighteen he began work as clerk in a retail drug store and after the war be- came a clerk in the Quartermasters Dept. Seeing no other future for him in his native place than clerkship in retail stores or clerking for the govern- ment and being ambitious for something higher, he concluded to come west and landed in St. Louis on the 3rd of May, 1868, a complete stranger with only a few dollars in his pocket. Situations were few and applicants very numerous at that time, but after repeated efforts he succeeded in get- ting a position as clerk in a Title Abstract office. in which occupation he continued until he graduated from the St Louis Law School in 1871, work- ing during the day and studying at night, although he had passed the examination before the Circuit Court and been admitted to the bar after his first year at the Law School. After graduating he hung out his shingle as a lawyer, doing work as abstracting until he had built up practice suf- ficient to give him a living and continued in the practice of his profession in St. Louis until he came to Bates County in 1883; it was in St. Louis that he met and married Miss Germaine E. Duclos, six children now living and three dead being the result of that union. About the time of his arrival in St. Louis the movement for the enfranchisment of the Southern sympathiz- ers was assuming proportions and being a democrat he entered into it with his usual energy and enthusiasm, contributing as far as lay in his power to removal of the test oath and other iniquities of the Drake Constitution and at all times while there assisted in the success of his party, giving to it his means, time and abilities. Having quite a large and growing family he concluded to seek a smaller place in order to give them more of his person- al care and attention.
Rich Hill had been spoken of very favorable by his neighbor, who was the
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OF BATES COUNTY.
pose of any surplus to advantage. They raised many hogs, which were killed and the meat cured, and this they hauled away, some to points on the Osage where the river boats took it to more distant markets; some was taken to points ou the Missouri River, and there traded for those supplies which could not be raised on the settlers' clearings. Their coru and wheat, they took to the little grist mills which were soon located at convenient points, and it was there converted into bread-stuffs. Going to mill and awaiting their turn for the grist was one of the diversions of pioneer life.
As soon as a settlement, consisting of six to a dozen fami- lies, was formed, educational and religious matters received attention. The men would meet and proceed to erect a primitive log building. which would be used for school pur- poses on week days and as a church on Sundays.
At the time (1856) the county seat was removed to Butler, only a small portion of the land of the county had been home- steaded, but within the next four years it was practically settled, and the county contained a population of between six aud seven thousand people, who were fairly prosperous and contented. Many had by this time made extensive im- provements on their farms, built more pretentious residences, brought greater areas under cultivation and gave more at- tention to the raising of live stock. The county was now a busy, prosperous commonwealth where we leave it to turn to a different scene.
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OLD SETTLERS HISTORY
PERIOD II-FROM 1860 TO 1865.
.A story of sorrow, af terror, and of retrogression. Batrs County is sirept by the fierce conflict of Cirit Warfare-Sit- tlers are driven from their homes, their buildings are ruin- ed and their fields return to their wild state, while ciiirs und towns fall victims to the torch.
In order that the situation may be thoroughly understood, we are obliged to note a few important occurrences connected with state affairs which were happening in the early days of this period.
During the presidential campaign of 1860, threats were freely indulged in to the effect that the Slave states would secede from the Union in the event of Lincoln's election, and when the expected happened, they proceeded to carry their threats into execution. While Missouri was a Slave state, but comparatively few of its citizens were slave owuers. That class, however, endeavored to force the state to join her Southern sisters in their desperate course. The major- ity of her people, however, were opposed to extreme meas- ures. The State Assembly met in January and, finding the members at variance on the question, concluded to refer it back to the people. They accordingly passed au act creat- ing a convention to be composed of delegates selected by the people, and this convention was empowered to decide as to the course to be pursued. This body, in session at St. Louis, about March 10, 1861, passed a resolution in favor of main- taining the Union, but was not in favor of war if the South- ern states persisted in their action. This, however, was a position which could not be maintained. Governor Jackson raised an army of state troops to defend the state from ag- gressions_from the Federal Government. This action brought him into conflict with the Union forces, and the state troops were defeated at Boonville, June 17, 1861.
The convention again met, this time at Jefferson City, and was controled by the Union men, who deposed Governor
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OF BATES COUNTY.
Jackson and selected H. R. Gamble to fill that position. From this time, the State Government was in the control of the Union men.
In this county the campaign of 1860 was one in which much bitterness was shown. The border troubles culminat- ing in the Hamilton and Brown raids, left the lines between the Free State and Slavery parties rigidly drawn. As in the state, the Southern sympathizers were largely in the ma- jority in this county. The reckless clement, which had pre- viously take part in the border raids, was active in stirring up animosity, and many threats were indulged in against those believed to be in sympathy with the Abolitionists and as to what might be expected by those who tried to vote for Lincoln at the November election. The anti-slavery men very discretely remained quiet, and very few of them at- tempted to exercise their right of franchise. After the elec- tion the names of those persons who were alleged to have cast the Lincoln ballots were posted at various public places over the county. and it was broadly intimated that it would be wisdom on their part to "make themselves scarce."
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