Bates County, Missouri - The whole text, 1900 (part 4 of 5)

My father. B. H. Bowman, came to Bates County about the year 1S40. I was born in Mound township in 1854, on the farm now known as the Dillon place, near Rocky Ford on Bones Fork. When I can first remember, there were less than one half dozen houses in the settlement. It was several miles to the next settlement on the Miami; there were no other houses nearer than a small settlement at Crescent Hill. The next nearest settlement was near where Altona now is. The first I remfmb?r. our milling was done at Cook's mill, on Grand River, in Henry county near Clinton. As far back as 18G0 a man by the name of Medley was running a saw and grist mill on Bones Fork, about four miles north-west of Butler. The mill was burnt during the war, by some of Lane's men. At the same time the same party shot and killed old Johnnie Barnett. Some time iu the fall of 1862, Captain Bell and his Company came to our house and said to my father; "Why didn't you ran?" Father replied; "Because if I am to be shot I want to see the man who shoots me." They asked for arms, amunition and horses. My father said; "If you want to kuow anything about me, there is Mr. Cook who has known me since I was a boy.'' Bell turned to Dave Cook and said; "If you know this man, what do you know about him?*' Cook straightened up in his saddle and said; "I have known him ever since I was a boy and he has always been a straightforward and j>eaceful citizen until this rebellion." My father said: "Well, what have I done since?" Cook answered: "I understand you have been in the Rebel army." Bell asked him if he had been, and what he was doing. Father replied; "I was wagon boss." Bell asked who he was with. "General Price." father replied. Then Bell said: "A man who could stand before such a crowd as this and tell the truth as j~ou have done, is too brave a man to die; we knew all about where you had been and what you had been doing, and came here to kill you." Then turning to his men he said: "This man shall not bo hurt nor any of his property molested." But next morning some of his uieu came back and took our horses, nine head in all. They went from our house up the creek about a half mile, to the house of a man by the name of Tannahill. They took him out in the road and killed him.

Some time in the spring of 1862, :< band of men. supposed to be Lane's, came to Ham Kazes house, on the farm known as the Isaac Coukling farm. They surrounded the house and demanded the surrender of Lock and "Woody. They refused to come out. and the band set tire to 1 ho house. Lock fired both barrels of his gun out at the door, then dropp3d his gun and ran to the rear window and fired several shots with his revolver, then went to the front door again and ran out through the men. jumped off a bluiT and escaped from them in the darkuess. He ran to our house, dressed only in his shirt and drawers. My father let him have a suit of clothes. They to >k Wo >dy prisoner, and next day t^ok him out on the prairie and killed him.

In the spring of 1862, a party of bushwhackers caught Loft Cook on the mounds near old Parkerville. They took his saddle and bridle, and stripped him to his shirt and drawers and left him a rope to ride his horse with and told him to ride for his life, lie obeyed them and came to our house, a distance of four miles. He was nearly frozen when he got there. "My father gave him clothes to wear to Butler.

When I was a how we always dressed our hogs and loaded them in the old-fashioned Santa Fe wagons, hitched on three or four yoke of oxen and hauled them to Osceola, on the Osage. At that time boats came up as far as that place. We would sell our pork and bring back flour and other groceries.

As soon as Bell took our horses we began to load our household effects in two ox wagons, and started to Henry county, and then went to Morgan county and stayed one year. In the fall of 1865 we came back to our home on Bones Fork. At that time there were only two buildings in Butler, and they were stabies. In the spring of 1866, Ben White opened a store in one of them and lived in the other one. In 1*C>G we went to Pleasant Hill, Cass county and we paid $10.03 per hundred for Hour. We then had flour bread

Asl am considered one of the old settlers of Bates County I have been requested to Avrite a short sketch of "The good old days" when this country was young. - and so wasL

I was born in Tennessee. In the spring of 1840 my father concluded to ire west and grow up with the country - but that was before Greeley used those famous words of advice. So we boarded an old land schooner and start ed for what was then considered the land of the setting sun. We crossed the Cumberland mountains and journeyed west ward overbad roads, fording the unbridged streams, and finally reached the banks of the great river that was wending its undisturbed way along -the cast side of the little town of St. Louis. We drove on the ferry boat and were rowed across to the Missouri side. The only tiling I can remember about the town was seeing an old darkey who was scraping the sugar from the bottom of a barrel. Oh! how I did long for a lump of that sugar - but I did not get it. The journey from there to the south-west occupies a blank space in my memory - the sugar barrel incident having completely overshadowed it. When next memory comes to my aid we were living in a cabin which was situated on the banks of the beautiful White River, in Taney county. Mo. In the fall of ]s41 we again "pulled up stakes" and crossed the Ozarks, going through the old town of Springfield. Green county, and then across the beautiful prairies, and some hills, until we crossed the Osage River, into what is now Bates County. uear the Osage, or Harmony. Mission. We then followed the old Missouri trail to the Grand River. We secured a room in a log house which belonged to Allen Ingle. This country at that time was in Van Buren countv.

During the winter of 1^41-^ my father bought a few improvements which had been made on land situated in what is now Deer Creek township, (The land not being in the market yet no title to it could be secured.) where he lived on Uncle Sam's land until 1^53, when he sold out his claim to E. D. Sullens. and then pre-empted a half section of land in the same township. Here he made his home until the breaking out of the great civil war.

Could the present generation see this country as it was in those early days it would be the most beautiful sight their eyes ever beheld. They would look across a beautiful flower garden, stretching asfarastheeye could reach: could travel for miles in any direction and it would be the same, with here and there a little farm along the edge of the timber of some stream. The first settlers never got away from the timber, and if a person had told them thoic vast plains, (they were sometimes called), would ever be covered with houses, farms and cities, and the beautiful natural flower gardens be blotted out of existence, they would have considered him to be crazy and wanted to have him restrained for f ear he would do some one harm. Now imagine these vast gardens filled with song birds of every description, all sounding praises to the Great Creator - heavenly music indeed! - on the different little organs which God had given thorn for that purpose and tausrht them to use. Thev never missed a note or made a discordant sound! Compare that music with what we now hear ground out of some instrument of man's device. Oh! carry me back to that garden, filled with flowers and birds, once more. But. alas! those days are gone, never to com<» again. Those were the days when the country was young! I, also, was young; we have grown old together!

The greatest danger to the early settlements, and the one thing most dreaded, was fire. When those vast stretches of grass began to dry the people began to devise means for the protection of 'their homes. Every piece of cultivated ground had a rail fence around it, such a thing as wire fence being unknown. If a man had but one hog he would tura it out and fence against it. In a short time these rails became very dry and the e>ld dry grass would accumulate in the fence corners and if fire once caught, it was there to stay as long as any rails and grass were left to stay with it. The best protraction and the one usually adopted, was to plow two or three furrows ou each side of a strip of laud, about thirty feet wide, entirely around their farms: then just as soon as possible they would burn the grass off the strip. They were very careful not to let the tire get out on the prairie for fear their neighbor would not have his farm similarly protected. Onee in a great while a farmer would let the fire get the start of him. on account of a little carelessness or a hard puff of wind, and then it took a good horse to outrun it if the wind was blowing like it frequently does in the fall of the year. No road that was then in the country offered any resistance, and it would cross small streams and not make a halt. Of all the scrambling of deer, rabbits, birds and other wild animals to get out of the track of the devouring flames! Neighbors were few and far between in those old da}rs, but they were usually true and faithful. If a man or some member of his family got sick the neighbors would go miles to aid thein. If anyone had a cabin to raise, all the}' had to do was to l?t the neighbors know and they would always get there to help them. If one had a large house or barn to raise they would usually invite the whole neighborhood, and the ladies would make one or two quilts while the men were raising the building. Very often the young people - and some of the older ones - would have a dance at night. On those occasions the ladies wore their best dresses, the material of which they had. generally, manufactured themselves. I have seen as pretty and good young ladies as ever walked the earth, who helped raise the cotton, pick, card and spin it. and weave all their wearing apparel. That made of wool was clipped from the sheep and converted into linsey and jeans, and nearly every family kept a few sheep for their own use. They also usually raised a little patch of hemp or flax for the lint, and Avould first run it through what they called **the brake." That would mash the woody part off the stalks. Then they would take it to the "shucking board." which was set in the ground and stood about three feet high. They would hold it over that board and strike downwards with a wooden knife until they got all the woody substance out.. It was then ready for the "hackel," and when it went through that it was ready for the spinning wheel. The long, straight lint was used for the warp, and now you would often tind thcin hanging on some barbed- wire fence; if the wire did not break and let them loose, sometimes you might be so late in finding them that their clothes would have to go to their younger brothers. The writer lias seen many a boy, f ram three to eight years of age, wear a suit of clothes made of that kind of cloth, all in one piece with only one button on it, and that under his chin.

The first school house in the north part of the county I have any knowledge of, was built in a grove about a mile north-west of the old town of Crescent Hill, about fifty-seven years ago. It was built by donation of work. There was not a dollar in money paid out on it; everything was manufactured in the timber near the building site. The floor was of split logs, the seats were made of logs split opeu and the flat side dressed with the ax and holes bored in the ends and legs stuck in. The legs and the se its were all nicely turned, that is they were turned the other sids up aftar the legs had b?en driven in the auger holes. Then th ;»y wer.» ready for the polishing: this was done by the scholars during school hours and it was a slow process. The scribe did his part of polishing during the summer season for a number of years, but did not get all the splinters o.T. Our writing desks were made the same way, only the pins were put in the Avail, just below the window - on? log out of the side of the house - and a broad slab split out and laid%on these pins.

If we had to close the window, which was frequently the case in the spring-time, all we had to do was to turn the slab on edge and it formed a shutter. The house was covered with boards split from large bur oak trees, laid on poles and held in place by other poles on top of them. The house was not complete until there was a large fire-place and chimney in one end, built of sticks and plastered over with mud. The spaces between the logs in the walls were also treated with mud. When the mud was dry the house was ready for use.

Schools in those days were different from what they are now. The teacher was employed by the month, and had to teach from the first of one month until the first day of the next - putting in every day except Saturdays and Sundays - and they would commence school as soon as there were enough pupils present to form a class and hold until very late in the evening. The teacher generally boarded around with the patrons of the school. There was no escape: every one had to keep him one week until he got around, then he would start in again.

The school the writer attended for a number of years was what was called -*o]x>n school:" that is. the pupils all studied out loud. Just imagine thirty or forty boys and girls trying to see who could read or spell the loudest: and the teacher hearing a class recite at the saine time. But it seems that everything has to undergo a change, and when the old fash ioned school was done away with and we were ushered into a --silent school" and kept there all day it seemed to us that w«* were in a "dead" school, as well as a silent one. But we lived over it. as we have lived over a great inanv changes that have come to pass sine* we walked two miles to school through grass waist high and no road except where a log had been dragged back and forth until the weeds and grass were beaten down sufficiently to form a respectable path. But still the grass was wet with dew in the morning and full of snakes, and the children were all bare-footed; but they were on the alert and comparatively few suffered from snakebite. Tlie bite of a large number of these reptiles was harmless, but tlie rattler, copperhead and viper were dreaded.

The country was ju-^t as full of game of all kinds as it was of snakes. Deer could be seen gallopiug over the prairie any day. in gangs of from two or three to ten or a dozen. Turkeys! the timber was full of them. You could hear them gobble in the spring of the year, and call to each other from all sides. It was no trouble for a hunter to get all the deer and turkey he wanted.

Kansas was then inhabited by the Indians, and they would come over into the border counties every fall and winter to hunt. The squaws would make baskets and trade them for provisions. The inen would hunt until they got all the meat they could carry back with them. They generally brought a lot of ponies to pack their meat and camp fixtures on. I have seen one old buck indian carry two deer as far as two miles to the camp. .

any one toid them to got out they would "get up and g/it:" but the settlers seldom interfered with them. A great many of the Indians could converse in our language, out if a half dozen came to the house you could only get one of them to talk. I have known them to stop and eat dinner at my father's house and leave a little child tied on a pony's back out in the road, and another papoose tied to a board, and the lx)ard set up against the side of the house. No attention would be paid to them and they did not once make a sound. But poor Lo! he has gone, as have the birds and the flowers, the deer and the turkeys! And the prairie chickens, I forgot to mention them: and the quails! Then* were nearly a» thick then as the chinch bugs are now. The chickens could be canght in traps in the winter season, hundreds of them; but the quails were hard to trap. They could be driven into nets, however, and thousands were caught in that manner. A great many wolves, also, were caught in traps, or wolf pens, as they were sometimes called. . Many different kinds of fur-bearing animals were caught in traps, or deadfalls, and their hides passed as readily as cash at the stores. The next subject that presents itself to my mind is our old time preachers and churches. The first church building was fashioned after the school house, only larger, but for many years meetings were held at house'* or in the shelter of the forest trees, "God's first Temples." The Baptists. Methodists and Cumberland Presbyterians were the only denominations represented here then - if iny memory serves me rightly. Our preachers in those days were old fashioned followers of that meek and lowly Nazarine, like Paul and Peter, and that disciple Jesus loved. They were all right in those days, but they would not answer the purpose in this enlightened day and age of the world. They were just plain God made preachers - the}* had not been to William Jewel to prepare for their labor, but had to depend on the Lord for the message they were to deliver to the people. They labored on the farm during the week and preached on the Sabbath; and about once each year, when they got their work in grood shape, they put iu two or three weeks pleaching, and the people would come from miles around, to the house selected for the services. And then we would have one of those oldfashioned revivals which we now hear about but never sec.

But those bravo old volunteers, who were preaching for the good of the people and laboring for love of the Master - they are gone with the birds and flowers! If a church had put the question to one of them as to what salary he would expect, he would have been insulted. They looked to the Master, who called them to preach, for their pay:and He never failed them if they performed their work according to the pattern He had given them.

The Nottingham Murder

I can not close this sketch without giving an account of the first revolting crime committed in the county, and the only one for which the perpetrator has paid the life penalty by legal execution. The spot where this crime was committed is not now in the county limits, but is near the east line of Vernon county, some twelve miles from the Osage River, which now forms the boundry line between the counties. This territory was at that time, however, in Bates County, and Papinsville, on the river, was the county seat. It appears that the records of this case are lost, but from my own recollectious, aided by those of a few other persons who were living iu the county at that time, I submit the following: - It was about the first da}' of April, 1854, late in the evening, that "Win. H. Nottingham killed his wife, Sarah. He afterwards gave the details of the crime about as follows: "I had just returned home and my wife went to milk the cows. I went out to help her as I usually did, when at home, and when I came near enough she squirted milk on my clothes. I caught some of the milk in my hand and tried to rub it on her face, and she called for help. I did not know until then that she was angry. She then got up and said she would go to her father's. I told her she should not go. But she started and I followed: about one-half mile from the house I got in front of her and hit her in the face with a rock and knocked her down. She then said she would go back to our home, and I would have gladly picked her up, carried her back and doctored her wounds, but was af rai J she w;»all tell her people ami know that they would kill ine. So I took the rock and beat her to death. I then picked her up and carried her some distance from the road, and hid her there, until the next night: then I went back to thoroughly conceal the body. I found, to uiy surpriso that I could not lilt her although I had carried her. easily, the night before: so I had to cut her in two pieces. I then carried the body to a more seclnded place, dug a hole iu the ground and buried it. Thin I covered the sjv>t over with dry leaves in order to hide all trace of the grave. I then went home and placed in circulation the report that my wife had left me. and I thought she had gone to her father's home."

After a few days Mrs. Nottingham was missed and- the neighbors began to suspect that all was not right. A revival meeting was in progress nearby, and Y7m. Nottingham took a very prominent part in it. At length one of the neighbors concluded, for his own satisfaction, to investigate the matter, and went to }Jrs. Nottingham's father and made inquiry concerning her. When it was found that she wa^ uot there, steps were taken to ascertain what had become of her. Her father swore out a warrant for Nottingham, and lie was taken into custody. Then a searching parte, composed of neighbors of the family, was organized and began to scour the woods iu search of the body - as all now believed that a murder had been committed. This was ou April, lT>th. and on the 10th inst- her father, by some unseen hand, was l«*d to the siK)t where the body of his child lay concealed. Although the searchers could lind no evidence of any recent changes there, the father insisted in his belief that the grave must be uear that spot. Finally one of the party, by probing the ground with a stick, discovered the spot where the soil had been disturbed. The leaves were raked away and the father, himself, uncovered the mutilated remains of his daughter.

Then came the tedious waiting and the excitement attending the trial. A carefully selected jury, comj>os<xl of some of the best citizens of the county, alter hearing all the evidence iu the case, pronounced him guilty of murder in the first degree, and the judge passed the death sentence, which was duly carried out in the old town of Papinsville, on the

CONCLUSION. - In couclusion I will say tliat there are only a few of the old pioneers, who were here when this country was young. Irft among us. There is only one in this township who was here when I came. J. S. McCraw. whose father was living here when we came. We old fellows seem to be different from the balance of the community: we seem to be drawn together and have more love for each other than is found in the younger generation. But we are pissing away, one by one, and soon our children and the young people growing up around us will be called "The Old Settlers of Bates Count v."

north bank of the Osage River. Of those now living who took part in this trial are; Edmund Bartlett, who was a uieinber of the grand jury which found a bill against Win. H. Nottingham for murder in the first degree: J. S. McCraw; a member of the jury which found accused guilty, as charged in the indictment: J. B. Newberry, who made the handcuffs which were placed on the wrists of the prisoner, Mrs. L. J. Lamon, who is still living, was a neighbor of, audfriend to Sarah Nottingham, the woman who was so brutally murdered.

under the influence of liquor, Dr. Nottingham attributed the depraved moral condition, .which made such conduct possible, to the effects of strong drink, and from the gallows warned voumr women against linking their lives with anvone who partook of the product of the still. ,

Early History And Interesting Incidents

Joirx H. Thomas: The founders of Harmony Mission came from New York, in 1821, as missionaries to the Indians. There are none of them now living. The Mission was abandoned in 1837, when the indians were moved West. The Government paid §8000 for the property and the money went to the society which had sunt out the Missionaries. The first postoftice established in the county was at the Mission, but was called Batesville. It was afterwards moved to Papinsville. Harmony Mission was also the first county seat, so established in 1841. but moved to Papinsville iu 1848. The first court house was at Papinsville. completed in 1855. "When the county seat was removed, in 1*57, the court house was sold to Philip Zeal. It was burned in 1N>2. The first bridge across the river was built at Papinsville in 1*53 or 4, and was burned in 1*01 by General Price's men. A commission appointed by the General Assembly located the county seat at Butler, in 1850, and a court house was built there in 1*57. This was burned during the war, and a frame house was built in 1866. This was in turn replaced by the present court house in 1870. The first voting precinct in the county was at Harmony Mission, and th<- first election held there was in 1*41. The first grist mill I remember was the Charrett mill, 1*33. He also run a saw mill and was succeeded by John Parks. William and Aaron Thomas had a grist mill iu 184*: the first mill in the county run by a tread wheel. They worked oxcu on the wheel. George Thomas had a carding machine, run by the same kind of power, and worked horses on it. It was erected in 1*48. He also bought a threshing machine at West Point in 1850, which was the only one I knew of before the war. Coal was dug out of the ground in several places as far back as I can remember, for use mostly in blacksmithing, but was not mined to any extent lx>fore the war.

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, oi, the 26th day of May, 1850, 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 Hiram College and Medina Normal School, in teaching and working on the farm, spending part of the time 1878 to 1881 in reading law in the office ot Senator L. C. Jones, at Warren, Ohio, and in the office of the lion. 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 neghborhood in Ohio and a member of one of the well known families in the northern part of said stale; from this union two sons were born, George S. and Frank H.

Judge Templeton, as he is familiarly snown, is a republican, conservative but strong in the faith of his party. He was nominated in 1881 for prosecuting attorney and in 189S 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 surroundings, he being noted for his love for fine stock, of which he is regarded an excellent judge.

Mus. A. C. Bakkows. Papinsville: As 1 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 exceptionally 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 houso. They came in 1821, 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 1*37. But by that time a number of persons had settled along both sides of the river. In 1K47. a man named Papin gave the county forty acres of the land he had entered, situated on the north bank of the Osage, for a location for a county seat, so the town was called Papinsville. It is. therefore, the oldest town in Bates County. The first court house was buiit of logs, in 1*4"); but a brick court house was built in 1H7>3. Also a bridge was built across the river about the same time. The bridge was burned in l*fil by Missouri troops, and the court house by Kansas soldiers. December 13, 1M>1. In 1856, the county seat was locate where Butler now is. on laud 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 bushwhackers. Geueral Ewing ordered all inhabitants to leave the county ou September i>, 1K33, and we did not see our houses again until after the war closed in l*fio.

"Washington Pakk. Virginia: I came to Bates County in the spring of 1858. There were, at tbat.time, twelve or fifteen houses in Butler, but it improved fast until the commencement of the war. There was a grist mill about three miles east of Butler; also one at West Point: and a saw mill there was a battalion of about five hundred southern sympathizers 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 bushwhacking bands, and kept the country terrorized. For this reasou General Ewing ordered all to leave the county. From theu uutil 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 remember a great mauy things about the settlemeut 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, buffalo, elk and wild indians. If you want to know anything back of that 3Tou must hunt up some old Osage squaw. Indiau Agent, William Waldo, came here in 1816; then the Missionaries came up from St. Louis on a flatboat, loaded with groceries, dry goods, beads, etc., and, if the truth were known, I expect a little whisky, or sod-corn juice, which was brought aloug for the purpose of civilizing the indians. They say that those indians were a pretty decent sort of p:.»ople 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 rotted down. There is no sign of the settlement or Missionaries left; no, not one! A town was theu started on the river, where a Frenchman had a cabin and traded with the indians, and white men also. This was nainod Papinsville and was the first town in the county. Along about isr>0 to 55 it wa> quite a large town. Then Butler was started and tha county seat moved there. Papinsville did not quite follow the old Mission, but there is not much of it left. Butler was a good

Dr. J. T Hull

The subject of this sketch was born in Johnson county. Mo., April 23, 1868, near Knob Xoster. He was]. educated at the Warrensburg Normal, and graduated from'the Dental College 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.

sized town when the war broke out, and there were several thousand j^eople in the county. "When they commenced fightiug, 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 Jacksou's farm, in 1847. Before the war our threshing was all done by "Armstrong" machines - main-force and awkwardness, like the negro got the hen off the roost! The first steam engine got here in 1--4H. Coal was first mined in the county by Daniel Woodfin and his brother. John, for blacksmithing purposes, in the v«*ar ls4o.

J. J. Ouler: When I came to this county most things were quite different from what they now are. Win. 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 fiour. There was not<i fence between Crescent Hill and Butler. I heljxnl to make the first fence between these two places, on J. S. McCraw's farm. I went over 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 opeB prairie all the way. We went into Henry count}" to buy some chickens: paid forty cents each, and could only get oue-half a dozen. Bacon cost twenty-two cents per pound: unbleached muslin, thirty-seven cents per yard: a pair of cow -skin boots, seven dollars. My wife has a quilt made of calico which cost thirty cents per vartL

Clark Wix: While I have lived iu Bates County all my life. I Avas too young to renumber much about the country as it was before the Avar. I can, however, remember seeing wild turkeys, deer and wolves in great numbers, running over Avhat is iioav 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. 1 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 o\*er 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 community. It was located near our home. Father and Ivan Deweere bought, at Boouville, Mo., the first mowing machine ever brought into the neighborhood. It was an old John P. Mannie, one Avheel. It took four good horses to pull it. and people came from as far as ten miles away to see it cut prairie grass. I have seen my father stand in the door-way of our home and shoot Avild turkeys, which had foUoAved our tame flock into the vard.

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 resources, and was to a great extent his own master at a very early period in his career.

He saw active service in the Union arm}' during the war. First enlisted in Co. F. Benton Cadets, or Freemont's Infantry Guard, and was with Freemont in his Missouri campaign in 1K61. After Freemont was relieved of the command in Missouri this regiment, which was irregular, was ordered to St. Louis, and on January Sth, 1N62, was mustered out of the service. He returned to his home in Ohio and remained till July, 1862, when he enlisted in Co. B. 50th Ohio Infantry, with which he remained 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 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, 1836, 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 suitable for grazing as timber for rails and wood was considered indispensable. I made a short visit with friends in this county and theu turned my face to the north aud looked over 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 portiou 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 passed 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 experience 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

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 killed by a hard freeze. The grasshopper visitation of 1874 and '73 is familiar to a great many and I will pass it by.

I eugaged in merchandising in Pleasant Gap and continued there till the spring of 1871 when I moved ou a farm on the south line of Summit township, where I engaged in farming aud fruit growiug. 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, aud 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 crossings 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 i migration 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 Hues, only to get there by the shortest route, it is all inclosed in farms and has disappeared.

There were a few orchards in the county at that time which had escaped the ravages of war, one of the most noted in the eastern part of the county being the John Hale orchard. Judge Roger also had quite au orchard, then several small orchards; but the apples were mostly Janetons which

There were quite a good many small peach orchards in the county, all seedliugs. The peaches were good and some of them very fine. I am frequently asked why we dou'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 on fertile soil. The scabs and rusts and rots and all the different fungus growths which trouble us now, had not been introduced. The insect enemies 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 countr\T, 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 backward 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 growu. the woods were depended upon for blackberries and raspberries, aud the prairies for strawberries, which were of tine flavor and considered good enough for anybody. But in size they would compare unfavorably with the Buboch aud Jumbo and others of the present.

Those old orchards planted before the war have all practically disappeared, only a tree here aud 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 condition. The lesson we should learn from this is. plant varieties that come into bearing young, give them good cultivation 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 varieties.

In 1871-72-73 I set an orchard of one thousand apple trees with some peach, pear and plumb. I knew nothiug 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 great extent experimental. I planted some tifly 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 profitable 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 iu their setting and their orchards were very profitable.

During the 70s quite an interest was taken in orchard planting, and perhaps more fruit trees were planted thau during any other decade iu the history of the county, and as the soil was new, insect pests scarce, the scab and rust aud rot only beginning to show iu 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 stopped, 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 iu the East, the apple crop brought more money to Bates County than airy other crop grown. The crop of 181)1 was also good and brought a good revenue to the county. Since then the apple shipment from this county has been on the decline, owing to several causes; The decline of those orchards planted from T>G to *8J without a corresponding amount of young trees to take their place; An increased home demand; but more thau all else, the falling off is due to the ravages of insect enemies and fungus growth; such as scabs, blight, etc. Now what is the remedy of this aud 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 aud cultivation, and fertilizing if needed. Spraying both for fungus growth and injurious in sects, with these instructions fairly carried out, good fruit and plenty or it will be the result. On theotherhand buy high priced novelties and new thiugs of the tree peddlers, stick them iu 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 now think of planting a field of corn and leaving it to itself, expecting to return in the fall and tiud 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 and a crop of sod corn was gathered in the fall. A few trees were planted in the virgiu 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 nry article to a close by paying a tribute to those old orchards planted by the early pioueers 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 tine healthy appearauce no oue 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 passed 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.

Second Lieutenant Weddle

The author of this sket:*h was boru at Blue Springs, in Jackson county. Mo.. March 31st. 1831. When twelve months old my pareuts moved to Cass eouuty and located four miles east of Harrisonville on Camp Brauch. 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 mdes and set the day to build a school house. They met in a black oak grove near the house of one Hiram Graham, and there built a log cabin, and covered it with four foot boards and weighed them down with ]>oles to keep the wind from blowing them off. They chopped the door out with au ax. and it never had any shutter. School books were a rarety iu those days. Small primers* of 13 or f?0 pages were used. My mother made the book I started to school with. It was siinplj' a bit of brown paste board with letters composiug the alphabet, cut frcm old books or newspapers, 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 teachers name was McCord.

My father would take me with him to town and would buy me a half section of ginger bread, aud 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 tD say they rern?mber the old ginger bread woman (Mrs. Burney). At this time I guess Harrisonville had three dozen inhabitants and twelve or fifteen Jog houses, one dry jroods store, one hotel, and a saloon. The saloon did the largest business.

In 1842 my father sold his claim aud the little improvements for sfMO. There was no money in the trade. The pay was oxen, cows, sheep, etc. In the spring of 1843 we loaded our wagon aud started for Bates County. We crossed Graud river at Ingel's Ford. Ingel lived there at that time, but there was no bridge or mill there then, after leaving there we saw uo 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 auimal to be seen during that daj% but de?r, wolves and prairie chickens were numerous. We arrived 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 pie in those days lived mostly on their OAvn resources. They would clear up small patches of laud in the brush or timber for garden truck, and a small patch of corn. Occasionally one would veuture out and fence in ten or twenty acres of prairie. The business of the men was mostly hunting aud fishing; of the women spinning aud 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 aud loaded up a wagon with vegetables, and attended the Iudiau payment by the Government. You "had to get permission from the agent to trade with the Indians. The people would get a few dollars in this way. From 1837 to 1847 money was not considered in a dicker, iu fact there was hardly anything: that had a money price on it. I remember seeing my father buy 14 lbs. of coffee for one dollar at Harmon}*. Missouri. I remember seeing calves sell for one dollar in the fall of the year, and cows at £5.00 When the Mexican War commenced Government agents ran all over this country, bought up all the oxen they could get to freight across the couutry for the army. This stimulated the people to try and do something. On the heels ol this gold was discovered in California. In this excitement I lit out for the laud of gold in 1850.

I was nineteen years old when I started. We had many trials and hardships before we got through. We were four months on the road. I worked two years in the mines, but failed to make a Klondjke strike. After man}' ups and downs I returned to Missouri witli a little mono v. I bouirht land and commenced making a farm. I speut what little money I had for the land, and improving it. and in stock. Right at this poiut the Civil War broke out; everything was excitemeut. Judging the people from their talk and actions you would have supposed they would be of one mind. I enlisted early in the spring of 1^61 in what was called Curaming's Data lion, Missouri State Guard of three companies for six months. This organization was intended to cruise along the Kansas line to keep down trouble. Two-of these companies were from Bates, and one from Henry. Every thing moved along smoothly till late in the fall, when General Lane from Kansas swooped down on us with two thousand men, aud scattered us to the four winds (nobody was killed). I considered Gen. Lamb had discharged me, as also mauy others, so got on my horse and lit out for Texas. While on the road I came to the conclusion that I would have nothing more to do with the war. When I reached Texas the Confederate Congress had passed the Conscript law, putting every man in the service from 18 to 45 years of age. They didn't let me rest long before they got after me and I dodged and hid there for four or five months, and I b?caui3 convinced I could not stay there; so I retraced my steps (as did many others) aud came back to the southern part of Mis-, souri. Here I met up with some of the old ueighbDrs from Bates. They gave a gloomy account of affairs up there.

Here I saw" there was no way for ine to keep out of the trouble, so I took the side of 013- choice and enlisted in the Confederate army. I was made the fifth sergeant, it was iny duty to draw the rations for the company aud issue them to the men. In about twelve months our Captain was promoted to Major, the line of officers weut up by promotion, which left a vacancy of one Second Lieutenant, and I was elected to till the vacancy. I had good health all the time of the war, aud encountered considerable hardship; I was iu the battle of Prairie Grove, aud the attack on Helena by Gen. Holmes; also at Pleasant Hill against Banks; aud the battle of Jenkiu's Perry on Solian river, against Steel. The trans Mississippi was surrendered by Generals Price and Uuckner. The most of our army was at Shreveport, Louisiana. I got my parole aud weut to Texas, and staid there till the spring of 1866, and then came to Missouri. I found everything gone, and burnt up. Where the houses and fences once stood had grown up iu big weeds; everything had a mournful appearance to me. I had one little mule that I had brought from Texas, that aud my land was everything I had on earth, and five years' back taxes on the land. I went to work by the month and paid up my taxes. My kind had to keep themselves straight, I talked very little, and strictly attended to my own business, and never got into any trouble, not even insulted. I rebuilt the old farm, and am on it yet, living under my own vine and fig tree.

Captain John A. Devinny

Interviewee1., and Talks of Early Times in Bates. A United and Harmonious People. The Captain not Disposed to Discuss Unpleasant Things out His Memory Good.

Capt. Devinii}T was born in Starke county. Ohio, and was educated in the common schools. In early life he learned the carpenter's trade and has followed that business until receut years. He left Ohio in 187)6, went to Chicago, on his way to Missouri, and while there he heard Stephen A. Douglass on the Kansas - Nebraska bill and heard the people deride and hoot him. General Cass spoke on the same occasion. This was while the Kansas war was on, and he remained there until the election was over, and started the next day to Missouri. In 1862 he was appointed sheriff by Gov. Gamble, and served until succeeded by the election of Page. He was elected treasurer in 1HC4 at Johnstown. At that time county officers were more honorary than lucrative. In 1865 he was elected to the legislature to fill a vacancy caused by the resignation of M3rers, and served through one session at Jefferson City. He has served the people of Mt. Pleasant two terms as collector, two as clerk aud assessor, and iu various other capacities efficiently and honestly.

"I came to Bates in the fall of 1857, from Clinton, Henry county, and have resided here continously ever since, except a short time while in the service during our uufortunate war. At that time there were not to exceed 500 inhabitants in Butler. There were only a few stores and a blacksmith shop or two; and a little church building known as the Union church, situate on block 5, Montgomery's 1st addition and the building was occupied as a school house. The congregation which worshipped therein tiually lost title to the lot by reason of having uo church organization, and the title feH back to Montgomery. The spot of ground is now owned by Dr. J. M. Christy. The first circuit court was held in this little structure the fall I came here, by Judge -Hicks. This was before all the. records had been moved up from Papinville, the old county seat; and I remember on one occasion -while court was in session the old stove pipe fell down on his Honor, and so begrimed and besutted him that he had to adjourn court until he could clean himself up. Peter 13. Stratton was circuit clerk, and Mr. Edgar was sheriff. I remember the lawyers at this term as Starnes, Hollings worth, Barrows of Papinville and others from adjoining couuties. The contract for the old brick court house was let in the fall of 1857 and it was finished in 1858, after which court was held in it until burned in the fall of 1861. At that time General Price had his headquarters at Osceola and efforts were made to have a detachment stationed here. The Federal forces in Kansas heard of this and sent a detachment over here and burned the court house and several buildings on the west side, and perhaps others. Prior to this, early in the war, Robert L. Duncan, county clerk, had taken the records of his offise to Clinton, and after Gen. Lane, the "Grim Chieftain of Kansas," had burned Osceola and was on his way back to Kansas he passed through Butler and took the remaining records to Leaveuworth. All records were preserved and returned after the war with the loss of the marriage records only. After the famous 'Order Number 11" by Gen. Ewipg had practically depopulated Bates and other border counties, marauding parties passing through here burned what was left of Butler in 1863. The county was filling up rapidly when I came here. The Kansas trouble had not subsided in '57 but the people were peaceable and quiet. They lived much like all people do in a new and sparsely settled country. There was little crime prior to the war period; and much of the early history of the county prior to and during the war has never been written and never will be.

A few years more aud those who lived here in 1857 when I came will live here uo more. It is well that the bitterness aud animosities of thirty years ago are gone before some of

Men have changed their political beliefs, and party ties have been broken in peace. And whatever may divide us '-old settlers" now are such questions as divide the ineu of a younger generation. We are a united and harmonious people and live in one of the favored sections of the couutry.

There should be a roll call at each succeeding Old Settlers' reunion and some fitting memorial service adopted in memory of those, if any, who have passed beyond the river of death during the previous year.*'

Lieutenant John Atkison

In March 1*00, John Atkison, the author of this sketch, came to Bates County and settled at the towuof Pleasant Gap. He had come from a Free State, Ohio, aud although a citizeu of Cooper county, Mo. since 1*44, he was regarded by the Pro-Slavery men of this section with suspicion, as all men were who were known to have come from a Free State. The war spirit was getting pretty high at that time, and the Southern sentiment largely predominated among the people of this section.

There was a drunken blacksmith by the name of Watson living at Pleasant Gap. Watson notified Atkisou to leave there, and not complying he shot at him twice, afterwards claiming he did it to scare him. He left then and went to Sedalia and found Federal troops there. He recruited a platoon of thirty men aud was elected 1st Lieutenant. He then went on and recruited a full company. Col. John F. Philips was raising a regiment there, Atkison 's compauy joined his

John Atkison

John Atkison was born in Kanawha County, West Virginia, November 12, i S 1 5. He lived there until grown, on a farm, and attended school only six months, traveling three miles over a high mountain to and from. His father died when he was twenty years old. His mother then moved to Ohio with a family of seven children and settled in Mercer county. He married Miss Hannah Catterlin June iS, 1840. While living there he was elected and commissioned a Justice of the Peace. After that he was elected captain of a militia company under the existing laws of Ohio, and was comnw-sioned by the Govenor. Two children were born there. They then moved to Missouri in a two-horse wagon in 1844, and settled near Otter\ ille in Cooper county, nine children being born to them while living there. They moved to Bates county March 28, 1S60, settling in Pleasant Gap. Two children were born there, making in all 13 children. The fact of coming from a free state to Missouri he was looked on and called a black Republican and Abolitionist.

He enlisted in Co. "H." 7th Calvary, M. S. M. in 1862, and served about one year in Co. "H." as first Lieutenant. On account of disability, he was compelled to resign. Soon afterward he was appointed captain of a company of home guards for Bates county by Gov. Fletcher, with headquarters at Pleasant Gap. He was elected sheriff in the fall of 1864, and shortly afterward the legislature passed a bill disfranchising all rebels and rebel sympathisers, and declaring all the county offices vacant. Then the Governor appointed him to fill out his unexpired term. In 1866 he was elected again, and in all served the people as sheriff four years. He was also ex-officio collector of taxes. Prior to his election as sheriff the first time he was a Judge of the County Court.

regiment and was designated Company H. In l>&2 Company H was ordered to Lexington. Mo. On the ] 5th of August, 1862 Company H. with other troops was ordered to Lone Jack. Jackson county, in command of Major Foster of the 7th R«*giuient. Company H was the only company of the 7th Regiment that was engaged in the Lone Jack fight, one of tiie hardest fought battles of the war considering the number engaged in it. While on that trip Atkison was thrown from his horse* and seriously injured, on account of which he had to resign his commission. He returned and found his family living in Clinton. Henry county, Ma He then moved to Germantown iu Henry county. Shortly after that General Ewing issued his famous order known as 4iNo 11"; order ing all the inhabitants out ot Bales County. Every family in the county left, excepting Jefferson L. Porter who lived near Johnstown. It is said he and his family went over in Henry county and stayed all night .and returned the uext day to his home, and never left there again. Soon after returning home Lieutenant Atkison recruited a company of malitia. known as Home Guards. He was elected Captaiu and served it that capacity the rest of the war.

In the meat i me Hates County had lost its organization. The people petitioned the Governor to appoint judges thai they might reorganize the county. He appoiuted Jacob D. Wright, who then temporarily resided in Dresden-, Mo., and John Atkison and Jefferson L. Porter as judges! ': The judges met and organized, they appointed John D. Myers clerk. There was uo one living in the county at that time except Jefferson Porter. The court then designated Johnstown as the place where court might be held and legal business transacted. They held two or three courts in Johustown before any one moved back to Bates County. Time for election came on, notice was given temporary citizens living nearby that au election would be held in Johnstown to elect county officers. John B. Newberry had been elected sheriff of Bates County iu 1862. and was serving at that time, but temporari- Iv out of the county.

The election held at Johnstown was in August 1864. At that election John Atkison was elected sheriff, and resigned as county judge, to accept that office. C.I. Robords, John Griggs and Mr. Petemyers were elected county judges for the ensuing term of two years. John D. Myers was elected circuit clerk, and he was also ex -officio county clerk and recorder. CupL H. C. Dounohue was elected Treasurer. At that time we had no county prosecutor nor probate judge. Ou the expiration of his term Sheriff Atkison was re-elected iu 16(30, and thus served two full terms. This was during the unsettled times succeeding the war, and by the close of his last term the county had beeu fully re-populated and the civil authorities had restored order. Mr. Atkison has resided iu Butler with his family ever since, and is now in his 85th year.

An incident in his life while sheriff was the offer of xlo.OOO from some Texas cattle men who had 10,001) head of cattle iu Vernon and Barton counties, to let these cattle go through the couuty of Bates to the railroad at Hoi Jen for shipment east. There was at that time a statute agaiust driving Southern cattle through this state, on account of Texas fever. This munificent offer was rejected and the cattle had to be driven out of the state auJ across the Mississippi at Memphis.

Another incident occurred iu April 1865, during hi.s first term as sheriff, and while he still resided at Germaulowu. Heury county. Only a few meu lived in this couuty at that time. It had beeu the practice of certain marauding parties to traverse this county, stealing horses and doing other devilment. Judge J. L. Porter re]K>rted a gang in the vicinitj' of Johnstown which had tried to t »ke the Judge's horse, and did shoot and kill his horse while he was trying to getaway. Upon the report of this, and other acts of lawlessness upon the part of these traveling marauders. Sheriff Atkison summoned a posse comitatis and pursued them north to Grand river. Among the posse were J. L. Porter, A. E. Page, John Sis>on, George and Win. Warner, and Yalincount and Lafayette Griggs, and some others. On their inarch they stopped at the home of Mr. Page who had just returned to the county, where a laughable incident occurred. Here they got track of the marauders afresh, and pushing on they suddenly came upon nine of the party who were afoot, the ones on horseback having gone further up the river where they could cross. The fight opened at once by the opposing forces. At the first fire Lafayette Griggs fell dead. It beof batks corxn. IS3" came a running fight thereafter ami both parties got across the river, and the marauders made a stand in a small lake. Here the battle raged fast and furious. The captain who shot Griggs, was shot by Griggs at the same moment, the ball hitting hiui in the right hand and shattering his arm to the shoulder. It was supposed that eight men went into the lake and so far as he saw or knew, only two men ever goi out. He said he rode across the lake and the water was very crimson with human blood, but he only saw two dead bodies in the water. The two that got out escaped and the captain who had been shot was afterward killed by some of the posse. This battle occurred on April 14, and after the battle the dead body of Griggs was tied on a horse and it was taken back to Germantown for burial. The horse of Sheriff Atkisou was shot in the nose aud it bled so that it fell down. They made arrangements to put two men on one horse, supposing this horse was dead: but the blood stopped and the horse got up and overtook the party about two miles out and fully recovered. None of the posse except Griggs were hurt. The dead marauders were left where they died, some fourteen miles from the closest settlement at that time.

A report of this fight was made by Sheriff Atkisou to a Sedalja paper published by Thos. Siugleand printed by him. Several of the parties in the Sheriff's posse are still living aud would doubtless corroborate this last battle of the war within our borders.

The writer landed in Butler. April :24. isoli. in company with Capt E. P. Henry. Judge Weaver. Charley Morris and George Bartley. The Sheriff Johu Atkison and J. D. Myers who was filling the offices of county clerk, circuit clerk and recorder, were then building each of them offices on the public square, having just moved the records from Pleasant Gap to Butler. There was sup]>osed to i>e a daily stage run each way from Pleasant Hill to Ft. Scott and Ft. Scott to Pleasant Hill. Butler being the half-way station. A. H. Lnuib was the Butler stage agent. At that time there were probably not to exceed one thousand people iu the county, and not a dwelling house in Butler: but there was one or two iu process of erection. The bushwhackers and Kansas jayhawkers had left a few old bams built of native lumber, and a small part of two or three buildings, formerly used for dwellings that were not worth the trouble of setting on tire.

J. W. Cullar, Dave Forbes and Benjamine White had stores on a very small scale with ainiut a shirt tail full of goods and a barrel of whiskey; but I am uot certain that all of tbem had the barrel of whiskey. C.^cran and Shane about that lime opened up a saloon, and several old bums daily held a ghost dance on the north side of the square, having their dead. line: and woe to the poor victim they could induce to cross that hue. He was held till the bottle was replenisl*- cd. ;

That summer J. W. Hannah and Smith C. . Minturo , put up a two story building' on the corner that the Bennett & Wheeler Mercantile Co. now 'occupy, and put in a good stock, consisting principally of hardware. A two story building was also built west of the corner where the Palace hotel now stands, and occupied as a dry goods store by M.- S. Cowles & Co.

John A. Divinny, Judge Steele and J. G. McKibben were the building contractors in the spring and summer of J>i6u, and later J. B. Tinklepaugh and D. 13. Heath came. In the summer of 'lib the Bates County Record was started by D.-K. Abeel, was aiso running a paper at Harrisonville; but in the summer of V>7 0. D. Austin bought the paper and is supposed to bo still holding the fort for the Republican' pai-ty - in the newspaper line. - - '. -

E. P. Henry <v K. G^ Hartwell opened the first exclusive real estate oifice in t))e county in the summer of r66. Otliers were connecting real estate with law practice: but -soon bad all the law practice they could attend to. and dropped out.of the real estate-business. - *

Iu "07 the. jail was built, with dwelling attached, which- wras occupied by Siierifi Atkison and family, who was not oriGy sheriff butwas ex-ofheio county collector, and having. Iio batter place to keep the county money he often had from ten to twenty thousand dollars in the house, which he generally kept in a ballot i>ox. One John Walt who was in the employ of the Sheriff took a fancy to that ballot box one night when it contained about §12,000 or si 4, 000, and in the absence of Atkison. slipped it out and buried the money in the ground: and returning to his work as innocent as a suckling dove: but h^ was finally spotted, and Lamb, who was then deputy sheriff, can tell all about how aud where they found the money.

The first sermon preached iu Butler after the war was about the last of April '0G by one Callaway, sent into Missouri by the Southern Illinois M. E. Conference as a mission- ary, aud having consented to preach, next day being Sunday, we carried lumber in and improvised seats in the partly finished office of Sheriff Atkisou. The Sunday following Bro. Willard from Wisconsin Conference having come to Butler during the week tilled the Sheriff's pulpit, aud as he remained during the summer he organized what is now known as the Ohio Street M. E. Church. The next year the First Presbyterian Church was organized by Rev. S. W. Clark,, with only three members, but it grew rapidly in members and they built the first church building in the towu. There was a building put up in V>6 oy private subscription, near where the Presbyterian church now stands, and used for school, Sunday School aud public worship till the new church and school house were bailt wheu it was given to the negroes for church and school purposes.

Among the early physiciaus in Butler was Drs. Frizell, Boulware aud Cornell. The Masonic Lodge, was organized in October 1867 with about twelve charter members, of which only three are now living in Butler. Dr. J. H. Frizell was tlie first Master of the lodge. He has now gone from labor to the place where all good Masons go.

Old Time, whose scythe is always going, has gathered in a large number of the early settlers of our beautiful city, while some have moved awa3% and today one can almost count on his fingers the residents of Butler that were here in April 18Gf>. The harvest is still goiug on and in a few more years our reunion of the early settlers will be on the other side of the River. God grant that when life's curtain is lifted to us our reunion shall be one that uever ends.

The Battle At Fort Toothman

"I came to Bates County in the spring of 1*53, and have resided here ever since, except a short time during the late unhappy war between the States. Ft. Toothman was a regular U. S. fort, and garrisoned by regular U. S. troops, col ored: and must have been established there late iu 1£62. What I know about the battle was gleaned from a soldier whom I met in Little Rock. Ark., shortly after the battle, and who had participated iu it. He and other Southern men were camped, or rendezvoused on the slough island nearly directly south of the fort, and were taking care of themsel; es the best they could in the unsettled condition of the country.

"The colored troops to the number of 150 or 200, were foraging upon the country for a living; and iu order to punish them these Southern men planned an attack. They sent out a few men to approach the fort and entice the colored troops out. The rest of the force was quietly disposed for action a short distance south on the low land of the Marais de Cygne river. One man had been placed in a cottonwood tree where he could see the colored troops, and at the same time signal a charge. This was not to be made uutil the colored troops were some distance from the fort, and near the river timber. "The scheme worked. The colored troops came out in force and pursued the squad nearly to the timber, and at the proper time the man iu the cottonwood tree gave the signal, and the Southern men. numbering some 15 to 25 men, charged the colored troops, aud the battle raged fast and rurious until the few who escaped were inside Fort Toothmau. Both sides were mounted, and the Southern men had the advantage of fresh horses, and the colored troops had to retreat with fagged horses and up over the bluffs towards the fort. Hence, they were cut down mercilessly, and only one who had sustained no losses, soon evacuated tile island, and went south. The colored troops remaining were soon afterward ordered to some other jKfcst.*'

''I came to this county in lst»*\ and settled 0:1 a farm one mile west of Ft. Tooth man. I also own the 4:> adjoining the Toothman farm on the west. When I first settled there the earthworks aaJ s:>m? of tha tiinocr usej in the fort were still there. The Tooth ma u house was the center of the works, and the earth works surrounding took in about an acre of ground. This farm has since b»*eu 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 men 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 EH<wick place, adjoining the Toothman place on the north, at the time of tl. battle, and she said she saw the battle and that there were twenty -one colored troops and one white man. commanding, killed: that the colored men were buried there, and the white man taken to Mound L'ity. Kansas for interment. This battle was fought some time prior to General E wing's Order No. 11, which was dated August 23, is;>:j. and from all the information at hand, it was probably on or about the 1st of June."

Williah 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 °f l875> 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.

William E. Walton People Twenty-Seven Years Ago

I came here in July, 1870, and began the making of a set of title abstract books. Butler was a sina'l village, and Bates county one big prairie with timber along the streams.

Where Rich Hill, Adrian, Hume, Foster, Merwin and Amsterdam now stand was then wild prairie land. Our comt house was being built by John E. Tinklepangh, 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 £ood and evervbodv making monev. Non-residents 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, buying 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 J 870.

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 Soijth from a condition 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 bo^ds, 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 metal was in circulation. Gold was at a premium, and had been foi years. This was before the crime of 1S73. Our money was all paper. 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 1S70 irterest rates ruled high. Money was active dud in great demand, for evervbody 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 considered 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 failure, Mr. Cheeney, F. J. Ty^ard and P. A. Burgess came from Holden, Mo., and opened the Bates County I lank 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. Politica!ly times were hot in 1870. Our con<ressman was S. S. Bnrdett, 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 defeated Judge Foster P. Wright. Both are now dead. John D. Myers was county clerk, circuit clerk a"d 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 badlv treated. He was positive and outspoken. Such men always have enemies. He was an "honest man, always true to r friend. Our county judges were B. H. Thornton, who owned and lived on the Badgley farm two miles south- west of Butler, L. E. Hall of Homer township, and J. N. Crigler, who vet lives near Johnstown. Wesley T. Smith was sheriff and tax collector. He was a defaulter for $iS,ooo.oo, but $10,000.00 was paid by his bondsmen. H. C. Donnohue, who recently ran for congress on the populist ticket, was county treasurer.

C. C. Bassett, A. M. Christian, C. F. Boxley, A. Henry, Win. Page, P. H. Holcomb, Sam Riggs, L. D. Condee, T. J. Gallaway, C. H. Wilson, X. A. Wade, A. T. Holcomb, J. K. Hansburgh, J. K. Brugler and J. J. Brum back were our lawyers. Bassett was a caddidate for circuit judge in 1S72, but was defeated by Foster P. Wright. Henry and Bassett were each candidates for congress several times, but neither secured the democratic nomination. «

Doctors Bou 1 ware, 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 1S65 that "Confederates" and "Southern Sympathizers"^were disfranchised. This law was not repealed until 1870. In that year the republican party of Missouri "split" on the question of enfranchisement. B. Gratz Brown and Carl Schurz, both orrigina1 old line republicans, bolted the convention and became leaders in favor of restoring: the ballot to all southerners. They were called "liberal republicans" to distinguish them from the "regular republican party" thct 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 elected 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 republicans" and democrats, viz: John B. Xewberry, sheriff. F. V. Holloway, treasurer; John R. Walker, representative, S. H. Geisel,

O. D. Austin was then as now editor of the "Record." W. A. Feely had recently begun the publication of the "Democrat." 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 published the "Bat -s County Democrat." Kee'iy died several vears later and is buried in the old cemeterv. There was much of bitterness in politics then. The republicans called the southerners "Rebels." The southerners called the republicans "Radicals." Neither side showing much liberality. We had not then learned this truth - that each man's peculiar views are the natural outgrowth of his environments - that education and surroundings in vcuth largelv 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 secessionisL

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 afterwards paid the money to wild cat companies that had nothing to build railroads with outside of this money. The roads were half finished when \\\z monev jrave out. Litigation followed for vears. The courts jjenerailv 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 springhatched out by the million and proceeded at once with voracious appetites to devour everything green. The whole country was covered jrith 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 bv time." Hundreds of intimate friends then my associates have passed to the beyond. However there are many changes for the better. There is much less drunkenness now than then. Education is more 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 wa~ have to a great extent disappeared. For thirty years now the Northern and Southern people have lived here together, their childien have intermarried 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 onr standard the highest type of American citizenship and thns add to the development and renown of the most intelligent and rapid growing nation known to man.

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 forgotten, 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 became active in the movement, which in 1R74 culminated in the crusade when ladies to the number of two or three hundred 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 mouths. Finally, one by one, all the saloons and drug stores capitulated except Shaw &. Hensley. As I write now I have before me the "Women's Appeal" to Shaw & Hensley, dated April 21, 1S74, and signed by 380 ladies "ivi"g 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 tini2 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.