Cass County, Missouri - Chapter 8: Traders, Trappers and Hunters, 1917

Till: VANGUARD OF CIVILIZATION - FUR REARING ANIMALS OF THIS SECTION - DANGERS AND PRIVATIONS ENDURED - THE FUR TRADER - PASSING OF TRAPPERS AND HUNTERS - WILD ANIMALS WITHIN THE MEMORY OF THE WRITER - BEE HUNTING - THE COMING OF THE SETTLER - CUSTOMS - AMUSEMENTS - HARDSHIPS - "OLD TIME RELIGION" - FIRST HOUSE OF WORSHIP - THE EARLY CHURCH IN RHYME.

A class of pioneers who ought not to be overlooked, are the early traders, trappers and hunters. These were the fearless men and women who braved the early hardships and privations, which made conditions of existence possible for you and for me. They opened the paths through the unknown forests and over prairies where, in after years, civilization built the lovely homes and fields. It will never be known where the trapper first visited the present boundaries of Cass County, yet the evidences of their presence, some time, are found on every hand. We learn from past annals this domain was once profusely occupied by the furred animals, like the beaver, the otter, the wolf, the bear, the buffalo, and elk, and kindred neighbors of all. The furry coats of these inhabi¬ tants of the forest and dell have for a century past been the ornamental dress and comfort of humanity, through the daring of the early trapper. With scanty comforts and meager food, he labored on, and many have forfeited their lives in the cause of humanity, unwept and unhonored by their successors. The bones have bleached and decayed, and trodden over by their successors in settling this country. Not a trace have we preserved of their memory of the deeds, the fruits of which redound to posterity.

gun came in his time to push the trapper, the hunter and the poor Indian further back on the frontier. All gave way to the march of the plow¬ man, mechanic and merchant, in their turn. Another writer has said, "'Wild animals of almost every species known in the wilds of the west were found in great abundance. The prairies and woods, and streams and various bodies of water were all thickly inhabited before the white man came and for some time afterward. Although the Indians slew many of them, yet natural law prevailed here as well as elsewhere - wild man and wild beast thrived together.

Serpents were to be found in such large numbers, and of such im¬ mense size that some stories told by early settlers would be incredible if not for the large array of concurrent testimony which is to be had from most authentic sources. Deer, turkey, ducks, squirrels and various other kinds of choice game were plentiful and to be had at the expense of killing only. The fur animals were abundant. Such as the otter, beaver, mink, muskrat, raccoon, panther, fox, wolf, wildcat and bear.

The writer, in his boyhood days, has seen several droves of dozens of deer within three or four miles of Harrisonville, in a single day, and wild turkeys by the hundreds at roosting time, around the present fair grounds and along Muddy or Town Creek. He saw two wild deer killed along where the railroad runs, on the east side of the Ament Mound, about two miles south of the county seat. Prairie chickens, too numer¬ ous to mention, would gather in the fall season of a frosty morning on the houses, trees and fences, in and around Harrisonville.

Bee hunting was another profitable recreation of early days. There came also the professional bee-hunter. He would see his majesty, Mr. Bee, sipping the sweet from the flowers of early spring - and we had flowers in great profusion - the hunter's keen eye would watch the course of the bee and follow him to some tree - the home of the bee - in the forest. Not always nearby, by any means. Then came the frolic of robbing the bee of the fruits of his long summer work.

While all these proceedings had their doleful consequences it was not all without its reacting pleasures; mixed with privations come joys. There was the joy of recreating sports of shooting matches, and quilt¬ ing parties, both of which obtained in these very early days, and were enjoyed to the fullest extent, by both lad and lassie. The quilting parties were especially pleasant and agreeable to both girl and boy, old and young, for this particular sport excluded none. During the day men would busy themselves about, some splitting rails, others at other work, while the women remained (not indoors) but at the house to do the quilting and the cooking. When the day was past, the night would be spent in hilarious dancing, all participated in by the grandparents, as well as tottling grandbaby. And this was not infrequently kept up until the wee small hours of the night. Then when all was over guests and host would separate - some reaching their homes some twenty miles and more distant after the break of day. In the same wagon would be seen the aged grandparents, the young man and his best girl, or riding on horseback could be seen the gallant young man with his fair lady behind him on the same horse.

In those days with all their hardships, privations and lonesomeness were not without their compensating joys and pleasures. In all this there was an extreme dignity, yet in a measure equality, absolute fidel¬ ity, one to the other. The young as well as the old had for the opposite sex none but the purest thoughts and emotions. Many common faults and errors of the young were unknown. The neighbor's daughter was as safe with the neighbor young man on these long rides alone, as were the young gallants own sisters. This was socialism in its highest and purest sense. You naturally ask, what has this to do with trading, trapping and hunting? It is this, it is the touch between the advance of one civilizing force, with the receding of the preceding civilizing class. Both pioneers, in the highest sense, yet their very makeup and nature causes the one to depart on the advent of the other. This is but a repe¬ tition of the world's progressive influences.

Aside from these quilting bees, was the corn huskings, the foot rac¬ ings, and in after years the horse racings. All of these had their gen¬ uine sport and gave life, activity and joy to the otherwise humdrum life of the early settler. By and by came the church meetings at the sev¬ eral homes, before the day of church edifices, and then the old-fashioned camp meeting, where God and people met - where His name was glor¬ ified and magnified. "Old-time religion was good enough for all." These literally house to house, or home to home meetings, were inspiring to settlers in both a social and religious way.

In 1837 a house of worship was built within the borders of the county, we are not certain, but think in Polk Township. It then was the furthest church south of the Missouri River along the western tier of Missouri counties to the Arkansas line, unless we call the mission at Osage City - among the Osage Indians at Pappinville - a church.

The names of these pioneer brethren and their brothers in Israel have long since passed from these church records, and no individual memory remains of them, their histories are only upon the lettered stones in the old church yard where the bodies have so long lain.