Dade County, Missouri - Chapter 16, 1917 (part 2 of 6)

On the northeast corner of Main and Garrett streets was the Presbyterian church of brick, since torn down and replaced by the present structure. A short distance north was the residence of Dr. Bowles, since remodeled by J. L. Wetzel, its present owner. On the west side of the street and a half mile north of the square was the house owned by Matthias H. Allison, then, the residence of Columbus Talbutt and family. It was in this house, the first session of the Circuit Court was held, after Greenfield had been located and established as the county seat of Dade county. The first building south of the square on Main street (after the frame at the southeast corner, before described) was the home of Win. H. Brasington, the first furniture dealer in the town after the war. This house was a part log and part frame, since remodeled an^ now owned by Silas Montgomery. Across the street south was the residence of Wrn. Griggs, father of J. L. Griggs, now owned by C. W. Montgomery, Judge of Probate. Opposite, on the west side of the street was a one-story frame occupied by Robt. L. Butterworth and family. On the southeast corner of the block where Jos. Rubenstein has built his residence stood a one-story frame occupied by Temple E. Bell and his sisters, Annie and Nannie. South of Win. Grigg's residence on the east side of the street was a story and a half log house, afterward remodeled and now owned by G. L. Carr. South and on the west side of the street is the

John F. Johnson place, then owned by Nelson McDowell. The east end was of log with oak siding, on the west a one-story frame has been added with a two-room ell on the south. Judge McDowell afterwards added a story to the first two rooms and the building still stands there, but so changed by alterations and additions that it bears no resemblance to the original structure. Although nearly fifty years, have passed, my mind's eye can see, so clearly, those two rooms, for it was there I courted and married the brown eyed girl, who now sleeps so peacefully in (iivoiifield's beautiful little cemetery.

East of the Silas Montgomery corner, on the brow of the hill where P. L. Montgomery now lives, was the log house of his father, J. M. Montgomery. Down the hill northeast on the east side of the alley was a two room log house and on the west side another log, but unoccupied. About the rear end of Jas. Tiubenstein's brick at the southwest corner of the square, there was a small one-story frame, unoccupied. On the southeast corner of the block, R. B. Cook, had his blacksmith shop, with Joseph H. Kimber, his partner. On the opposite side of the street in the rear of the now opera block, there was a two-room log house fronting the street where Win. Griggs had a wagon repair shop, and south on the corner, was Henry Grigg's blacksmith shop. About where the water tower stands, there was a frame building with a loft used by Mr. Kimber as a stable. South across the alley from R. B. Cook's Shop, Arch M. Long lived with his family. About the spot where Howard Wetzel's cottage stands was a three or four room house occupied by Mr. Kimber and family, with whom I boarded several months after arriving in Greenfield. At the west end of South or Water Street on the site of the present M. F]. Parsonage was a one-room log house with a "lean to" of frame, unoccupied. Near the north end of the depot grounds and close to the present track was W. G. McDowell's residence with a broad lawn on the north and east shaded by a natural growth of oaks. On west College street where County Clerk Webb's residence stands, a three-room cottage was being repaired and later, occupied by Francis Clark and family. West of the place now occupied by Mrs. W. K. Pyle, W. H. Mc- Bride lived with his family and across the street in a onestory frame was the two brother, Jas. S., his wife and daughter. D. B. Bailey lived in a small frame on the lot where he built the present two-story brick. Farther west near the electric light plant, was the house where the owner, Benjamin Ragsdale, Sheriff, lived. On the north side of this street, east of the square and two-thirds of the way down the hill was a two-room log house unoccupied. Mrs. Sarah M. McCluer with her children, Kate and H. II., lived in a one-story frame on the lot where the brick now stands and occupied by the owner, Uel Murphy. Opposite on the corner of the alley where J. E. Shaw erected his garage, R. S. Jacobs had a small frame stable. At the then north end of the street, on the lot where Dr. Weir lives, was the two-story and ell frame of W. K. Lathini and family. On Garrett street that Reverend had just finished a two-story frame, since added to and now the residence of Jno. E. Scroggs. Northwest of this and nearly opposite the present residence of Judge Talbutt, stood a one-story building of four or five rooms, owned and occupied by Dr. Samuel Bender, wife and daughter. Coming back to east Garrett street and on the south side was the log house of John Harrison, since remodeled and changed out of all resemblance to its old self. A one story frame stood on the lot where Amos Helphenstine built the present two-story brick. In the school lot east, was the twostory brick, facing west, and called "in ye olden time." The Masonic Academy occupied the lower floor as a school room and the upper by Washington Lodge No. 87, A. F. & A. M. owner of the building. Opposite on the south side of the street there was a small frame where Prof. W. R. Bennington lived with his family.

In this sketch I have to the best of my recollection named every residence, business, church and school building as they stood in April, 1867. Several were outside the town corporations, but are now within the corporate limits. Saturdav has alwavs been a bus}- day in Greenfield, and on that day every tree in the court yard would have one, sometimes three or four animals hitched to it. What struck me forcibly was the absence of vehicles. Each visitor came in on a horse or mule. The young people of that day may vizualize the town as it was then while those of the present cannot, with the most vivid imagination, see those detached buildings with the waste places between. There were no graded streets, no walks of any kind, only here and there a few boards or "platforms" in front of the store buildings. There was a great sufficiency of loose rocks in the streets from the size of a basket ball down. The only street work of that year consisted in picking ii]) the larger ones and dumping them into gullies on the side of the hill east of the square. Nearly all the citizens liable for poll tax worked it out that year. As before related the Circuit Court sessions were held in the east room of the brick, since rebuilt and called k<The Delinonico." Imagine, if you can, the scene in that room when an important case was up for trial. There was the judge, John C. Price, with his six feet of brawn, often with a stubble of gray on his face of three or four days' growth, a home made corn-cob pipe in his mouth, the clerk at his side at a table about large enough to hold a minute book and ink bottle; on the west side a jury of twelve men, some smoking, the Circuit Attorney, Joseph Estes, Benj. Ragsdale, Sheriff and his deputy, Decatur (Dick) Underwood, the lawyers on both sides, perhaps a half dozen at a table some larger than the clerk's, a chair for witnesses and as many spectators as could crowd in, standing around. All this and these in that room not larger than eighteen by twenty feet. Can you imagine it ? Strict order prevailed, however, no matter how crowded. Besides the officers named above, the County Court consisted of K. (I. Travis, Presiding Justice; J. L. TTembree and Sam 'I. A. llarsbarger, Associates; Benj. Appleby, Judge of Probate; \Vm. I,. Scroggs, Public Administrator. My memory Tails as to the treasurer, surveyor and coroner. I think I have named the head of every family living in the town when I arrived, with one notable exception. Dr.

Wm. H. Jopes. Quite likely he lived in the house, which stood on the site now covered by the M. E. parsonage. The population of the town did not exceed two hundred. Some of these had their peculiarities, and striking ones. Dr. Bender was a very eccentric person. Pages could be filled with an account of his peculiar ideas. One is sufficient here and is inserted by request of Mr. States. The Doctor was partial to the perfume of the polecat and would extract it from the animals' gland and bottle it. He was bitterly opposed to the use of tobacco and should a man enter his office smoking he would immediately uncork the polecat bottle and sprinkle the contents over the floor, saying "You like your stink, I like mine." "Nuff Sed." October, 1916.

Uncle Daniel Wentworth Scott

Born in Kentucky on the 21st day of January, 1826 near the Cumberland River. The farm home was in Kentucky, while the barn and other farm buildings were in Tennessee. His father's name was Daniel Wentworth Scott. Elizabeth Flinn-Scott was the mother. The subject of this sketch was the second child. In 1830 the family moved from Kentucky to Morgan County, Illinois and remained there until 1837 when he moved with his family to Dade County when Uncle Bud was about twelve years old. He settled in the western district of Pennsylvania Prairie near where Pennsborro now stands. The son still owns a part of that old home. The Snadens came to this district about two weeks after the Scotts arrived. Lewis Spain was already here at that time and had a home in the same district. There were but few families in this portion of Dade County at this time. The newcomers in those early days were from Kentucky, Virginia and North Carolina. The Scotts came to this country in a wagon drawn by oxen. It took them nearly five weeks to make the journey from Illinois. Horses were then scarce. Oxen were used almost exclusively. The man who owned a span of good horses was considered a rich man. There was not a buggy in the entire country. The nearest mill in those days was at Orleans over in Polk county. When they had corn to grind it was taken to a little mill on Turnback which was owned by Tom Beardon. In those days the citizens depended upon Sarcoxie for their mail. One of their number would go about once a month after the mail for the neighborhood and to mail his neighbors letters. Some of the mail was gotten at Springfield. At the time the Scotts came to Dade County there was not a home from Orleans to Turnback, the Frye ford.

In those days the Indians were numerous. In the upper Limestone district there were at least five1 hundred Indians camped the most of the time and they were at most all times friendly with the new settlers. At one time t'ncle Bud and Kufus Hudspeth heard that the Indians were fond of dogs and having a good supply of their own they determined to do a little trading with the Indians. One night these two, then youngsters, went over to the Indian cam]) where there were many hundred of the red skins and bantered them for a trade. They failed to do any trading, the Indians saying they had dogs enough. There was a real Indian trail from the Cherokee Nation to the northern country. They would go north in the spring and in the late fall return with loads of fur and buffalo hides which they would sell to the settlers. This they kept up until the beginning of the Civil 'War.

The father of Hide Bud died in July, ISfJO, the mother died in lSf)(5, August IHth, during an epidemic of flux which sent terror to many a home at that time. They were buried in the cemetery near Pennsboro. The first one buried in that cemetery was Mathias Speer, an old bachelor who died about 1*40. lie was a lover of sports and took great delight in horse racing. There were several milt- tracks in those days and when Mr. Speer died he requested that he be buried as near a race track as possible. David Hudspeth who owned the land between the Scott home and where Pennsboro now stands, permitted the

On the fifteenth day of October, 1848 Mr. Scott and Miss Mary Ann Springer were married in the little old cabin that stands just north of Pennsboro. Soon after marriage he made the trip to California just after the famous forty-nine enactments. Made the trip in a schooner which was drawn by oxen. They were four months and ten days making the trip from Greenfield to Sacramento. When they arrived there the most of their provisions were gone and a part of their stock was dead. They had to sell what remained of their stock in order to get things to eat. They remained in California a little over a year and then proceeded to return home via the Isthmus of Panama. When they got to a point in the Mississippi River their boat collided with another boat and it was some days before he was able to buy a horse in order to make his way home. He was reasonably successful in his Californa trip. "When he got home with his horse and his little budget, he went to his farm duties and when the war came, thieves came also, and took his horse. He was present at the Dildy Mill meeting in 1861, when the people met to declare on what side of the rebellion they were interested.

Uncle Bud remained absolutely neutral. He says he never killed a man in his life and he never had any desire to take life in times of war as well as in times of peace. The most of the people were in sympathy with the Confederates. He lost his first Presidential vote in being for Lewis Cass of Michigan. His second presidential vote was for Franklin Pierce in 1852. He has been a true Democrat all his life with the exception of casting his vote in 1864 for Lincoln. At that time he and the late Perry Farris were going across the country to Illinois. When they got to Quincy over in Hickory county, they were anxious to get a place to stay over night. They went to a home and asked for accommodation, the master of the home asked Uncle Bud who he would vote for and the reply came, "LTncle Abe, of course." This gave him a

The old Antioch Church was organized in 1844 and in later years Uncle Bud became a member. It was a log structure with an old fashioned fire place on one side. This old church has a history. The Stampers, the Saters, the Willis' and the Gambles, the Mallorys and the Funks. Harland Mulkey was one of the pioneer preachers and he is still remembered because of his sweet singing and he was a most excellent preacher. Allen Scott was another old minister, who still lives in the minds of the old timers and especially in the mind of Uncle Bud.

The temporary capital of Dade County was near the Scott home. It was located near the big spring. He was present at the first circuit court that was ever held in Greenfield. The county seat was moved from Dacleville to Greenfield in 1841. 'This was in the year 1842 or 1843. Judge Yancey was then on the bench. Joe Allan was then the county and circuit clerk. The famous Asa G. Smith was then sheriff. He is the man who absconded with the funds of the county, being county tax collector as well as sheriff. He attended the first 4th of July celebration ever held in Greenfield and he attended the last one. The first one was in 1841. Is there another living man who can say this? He was present at the first dance ever held in Greenfield. It was at the home of William Latham, just before he had completed his new house. The house still stands. Uncle Bud says when a man once gets music in liis feet lie cannot keep still. The first jail in Greenfield was built of logs and it stood near the old spring. It was built high and there was a trap door near the roof. A prisoner was taken to the top of the roof and then he was compelled to descend a ladder into the jail. When he was once safely inside the sheriff would take the ladder out and close the trap door. In this jail the notorious Pete Douglas was confined, waiting his trial for the murder of Mr. and Mrs. Douglas, his master and mistress. This jail had three walls and it was impossible for a man in those days to get out unless aided by man or the law. Pete was found guilty and he was hanged about a mile south of Greenfield by Sheriff Hedspeth. He was driven to the place of hanging sitting on his coffin, and when the wagon arrived at the right place the rope was tied around his neck and the wagon was removed leaving the body dangling in the air.

Mr. Scott is the only one living that was living in the Pennsboro district at the time he came there. He and Mrs. Scott lived happily together sixty-four years, seven months, and six days. This is by far the longest period of wedded life that has ever b?en alloted to any Dade county couple and it is doubtful whether or not there is another instance covering as many years in the history of the southwest. They courted three years and still courted sixty-four years afterwards. It touches his heart every time these days are mentioned to him. The memory of his wife is still very sweet to him and he loves to speak of her many splendid sterling qualities. She was a most excellent woman and her going is still lamented by the scores of friends who remember her as a true woman and a true companion to her husband and her home. There were eight children born to this home. Two died in infancy. The rest are living in or near the old vicinity. Tom who lives in Kansas City, is the only child away from home. Mr. Scott was a director in the Honey Creek School for thirty years and he at one time was township collector of Smith township. George Carmon brought the first reaper to the Pennsboro district some years before the war. Uncle Bu$ says it was a wonder. He saw the first railway train at Tipton in the latter fifties. He is well acquainted with the flint in making morning fire and many times he was sent by his parents to a neighbor to borrow fire. He is of Scotch-Irish descent. The old homestead was entered by the father and he and Uncle Bud have owned it ever since. Xo trouble to get abstract. While justice of the peace he was present at the marriage of one couple, Thomas Stovall and Martha Jane Douglas. The young" couple rode up to Mr. Scott's front gate and told the errand. Mr. Scott climbed on top of the fence and pronounced them husband and wife while they were seated on their horses. He has perhaps been on more juries than any other man in Dade county. He could not serve on a murder jury because of the fact he does not believe in capital punishment.

He is making his home with his daughter, Mrs. Thomas Poindexter over in the Antioch district, his youngest daughter. The elder daughter, Mrs. Lucy (Scott) Sater lives at Miller. Dennis, is the youngest son and he lives at Pennsboro. Thomas lives in Kansas City, Mrs. Amanda Speer is a stister. There are twenty-three grandchildren and twenty-five great grand-children. In 1839 there was a school house built of round logs in twenty feet of the present home of Dick Daigh. The neighbors assembled and in less than a day the house was built and daubbed inside and out. There was no such thing as a nail in those days. He attended school in that building. The Moores, the Penns and the Pritchards, the Allisons, the Myrics, the Finleys and the Snadons also attended this school. They went to school early in the morning and stayed until late in the evening being in study for at least ten hours. His first church was Antioch. Hiram Sampsel and his wife, John Adams and C. C. Coble were among the charter members. The first lights were made by obtaining a flat rock with a hole in it and then fill the hole with grease and place a string wick in it, the forerunner of the tallow dip and the common candle. These lamps were extensively used in the early primitive days.

The first lumber was sawed by a whip saw. His father and Thomas McBride sawed the first lumber in Dade county. Some of the first plank ever sawed in the county are still in existance on the Scott homestead in Pennsboro. The scales in those days were rudely made and rocks were used as weights. In those days about all that was needed was to plant, the crop would sure follow without much cultivation. The soil was new and rich and crops never failed. The hospitality of those days was never equalled. He delights to talk about the generosity and the faithfulness of the people of that early day.

The Poindexter home is one of the best country homes in the Pilgrim-Antioch district. Mr. Scott is tenderly cared for by his daughter and her family and here is where he will no doubt spend his last hours. He has been ill for some months, the result of old age. He has been a reader of the St. Louis Republic since 1848. He was married in a brown green coat with the elbow out.

The coal belt of Dade County is located in the northwestern portion and consists of a large, uneven tract or territory underlaid with a vein of bituminous coal, of excellent quality from five to fifty feet beneath the surface. It was discovered by accident. About the year 1850, Robert Courtney, an early settler in the Sons Creek neighborhood was hunting wolves in the prairie near where Sylvania now stands. After an unusually long tramp he sat down on the ground to rest and in examining a craw fish hole noticed that the out-put was filled witli fine cuttings of coal. The next day he returned with tools and uncovered a wagon load which he hauled to Springfield and sold for $1.00 per bushel. It was then used exclusively for blacksmithing. This load of coal was taken from section 17-32-28.

Since that time coal has been mined extensively for local use, mostly by stripping and in some cases by slope or drift. In 1854 when the Homestead Company was formed in Allegheny City, Pa., headed by John Dyer, Sr., for president; Hugh McCluey, Alexander Pitcairn and John P. Flemming as agents of the company came to Dade county and placed land warrants on several thousand acres of land in the vicinity of Sylvania. The promoters intended to build a manufacturing city at Sylvania to be supported by a surrounding population of farmers. The civil war blasted the enterprise and the ideal city was never built.

Robert McCluey is a son of Hugh McCluey, one of the original Homesteaders, and has been identified with the coal industry of the country from the beginning.

Samuel Jackson Weir, Jr

Samuel J. Weir, Jr., was born in Cooper County, Missouri, on December 27, 1830, some eighteen miles south of Booneville. Booneville was then a prosperous little village town. The father, Samuel Weir, Sr., went to Cooper County from Tennessee in 1818. He was a young man and had lately married Miss Polly B. Stevens, of Kentucky. The elder Weir established a home in Cooper County and lived there until the spring of 1840, when he moved to Dade County and established the Weir homestead near the northeast limits of the city of Greenfield. While a citizen of Cooper County, Father Weir first began the ministry, but did not enter the profession to any great extent until he became a citizen of Dade County. It is said that Father Weir married the first couple ever married in Dade County. He at once entered a large tract of land, and most of it is still very fine in productiveness, and it is now furnishing homes for many of their descendents. He was a hardworking man and a splendid financier, very successful in everything he undertook. He1 built the old log church on the Weir Camp Ground about 1842. Alexander Long was one of the elders of that congregation. Father Lon<? was the father of the late Arch M. Long, who is still remembered by all the older citizenship. Rev. Jeff Montgomery was one of the ministers of this church. He came here in the early forties. Rev. Mr. Smith and Rev. Mr. Johnson were ministers of the Cumberland Presbyterian church at that time. Joseph Davidson, the great-grandfather of .raincs Davidson, did some preaching for the Methodist. Rev. Pensor, a teacher as well as minister, was the first Presbyterian minister. The latter forties, Rev. Mulkey came to this section and ministered for those of the Christian church faith.

The old log church on the Weir Camp Grounds was open to all faiths, including the Baptist, who were led by Messrs. Buckley and Buckner, two splendid pioneer ministers, whose work shows to this day. The old log church remained on that camp ground until about 1861, when it was torn down and moved to the Jonathan Weir farm, where it was used for school and church gatherings. While the old building stood on the camp ground it was used for a schoolhouse, and here is where Helm Wetzel, Pies Montgomery, Arch M. Long and his brother, the Allisons, the Hoyles and the Weirs attended school. Tom Rankin was one of the early teachers in that school. He was afterward made County Superintendent of Schools, the first one Dade County ever had. Rev. Rankin and Rev. Samuel Mitchell, and Luther Mitchell, all prominent in the early church work in the ministry, went to this school in their young days. In the year 1840 there was standing a log cabin, where the business house of Ed Shaw now stands, and this cabin was used for school purposes, a subscription school. Uncle Sam went to that school along with the McDowells, the Allisons, the Lacks, Aunt Matilda, the Latham girls, all attended this school. Aunt Matilda caused the entire class to hustle in order to keep up with her in the spelling class, as well as in the other branches of study. She is still living and is dearly loved by a host of people. There were eight children born to the Father Weir home. They were all born in Cooper County. The family was brought to Dade County in ox wagons, with one little horse cart drawn by a horse, in which the mother rode the entire journey. They were nearly a week on the way. They grazed their cattle along the way. He had a good lot of cattle that he brought with him, some sheep and horses. When^they arrived at the place where Greenfield now stands there was not a house there. The Allison house was standing in the northern portion of what is now the town. Father Weir, Nelson McDowell, a Mr. Anderson and John M. Rankin, the man who laid out the city of Greenfield, composed a committee to look for the county seat site. After much investigation, they determined that the site where Greenfield stands was the most feasible and, therefore, recommended that the county seat be located there. The old town spring was then a gusher and it attracted the attention of all the people, and was one great

There were but few homes in the country then, the Lacks, the McMillans, the Wetzels, the Longs, the Landers, the Allisons lived in the country. They were all newcomers and the country was new to each of them. The McMillans came in 1838 and the Scotts over on the Pennsylvania Prairie came in 1837. The Wetzels came about the year 1837. The nearest mill was then at Hulston. It was then called Campbell's Mill. During a dry season they were compelled to go to Bower's mill over on Spring River. The mail in those days came from Bolivar, and the nearest store was at Springfield and Bolivar. Jones and Wilson erected the first store building where the Dade County Bank now stands, about 1842. This was the first store in Greenfield. William K. Latham, who became postmaster, the first one, was at last given charge of this store. The first mail after Greenfield had a postoffice was brought from Bolivar once a week. The first courthouse was on the ground where the Grether store now stands. It was a frame structure. Afterwards a brick was built, which was destroyed during the war. The father and mother are buried in the Weir Cemeteiy. The father died in 1S48; the mother died in 1884. Transfer of land was made from father to son only once.

Judge Yancy was the first judge; he was a Springfield citizen, and among the first attorneys, Little Berry Ilend ricks, John C. Price, Robert Crawford, a man by the name of Payne Otter, and one by the name of Finch. The early doctors were Tuttle and Chinneyworth.

lie was present at the hanging of Pete Douglas. On the day of execution Pete v/as attired in white garments and driven to the place of execution. Uncle Samuel was there and witnessed it. He says it was the most revolting scene in his whole life. Rev. Mr. Gould made the prayer just before the execution.

The old wooden wheel clock furnished the time for the most favored, while those not so well favored depended upon the sun. They carded, spun and wove the cloth that made their garments. Hemp still comes in the Weir or- chard, where the seed was sown nearly seventy-five years ago. The hemp was used to make ropes. The old saddle hags Father Weir used are still in possession of Uncle Sam. In IS 53 William Wilson moved with his family from Tennessee to the Limestone country, and remained there one year and then sold out and went to Greene County. At this home is where Sam first met his wife, Mattie Wilson. After their going to Greene County Uncle Sam went too, every once in a while, until he returned with Miss Wilson as Mrs. Weir. This marriage occurred nearly sixty years ago, in 1858.

The first one huried in the Weir cemetery was John Davidson, an old bachelor, who was huried there before the year 1840. Father Weir planted an orchard when he first came here, and some of the old trees are still standing. They made their horse collars out of corn husks, and the names were made of wood. The shoes were home-made and all the garments they wore were home-made.

Father Weir had five slaves and when he died he left them to his widow. He was a Jackson Democrat. He was a self-made man and never quailed at any responsibility that met him. lie possessed a good library in those early days, one of the best in the history of Dade County.

The flies were so bad in this country at that time that the horses had to be kept covered during the summer and fall months. The old log house, now weather-boarded, the one Father Weir built in 1840, is still standing, and here is where Uncle Sam still lives. The family lives surrounding the old homestead, except Don and Frank; Frank in Wichita and Don in Lamar, Colorado.

In the year 1838 James Wheeler, the Grandfather of "Jim" Wheeler, was the first Wheeler to come to Dade County. Samuel Wheeler, Sr., father of Samuel Wheeler of Polk Township, went to Illinois from Tennessee in 1836, and came to Dade County in 1841. He put up a cabin in

Polk Township, east of the river, and entered a large tract of Ir, nd between where the city of Everton now stands and Dado vi lie. Samuel Wheeler and his brother, Francis Marion Wheeler of Everton, are the only living representatives of this pioneer. Samuel was only 17 years old when his father came to Missouri. He was born in 1824 and now resides on the place where he has lived since 1866. He recalls the fact of the Kirby family being here when they came, and the Tarrant family coming a year or so afterward. John Tarrant was particularly an interesting pioneer, being one of the early assessors and tax collectors of the county. It was the practice in those early days to make the assessment and the collection at the same time, and then to carry the revenue in gold or currency, horseback, to Jefferson City. In 1841 the nearest postoffice was Springfield, where his father, Samuel Wheeler, and his uncle, James Wheeler, did most of their trading. The first schools in the county were subscription schools and located at Pennsylvania Prairie. In 1842 Samuel Wheeler, Sr., started a subscription school on the old Wheeler homestead, and taught the same two years. Afterward he taught school at several different places. The first church was a Baptist church, located northeast of Dadeville, and was destroyed during the war. It was called Mt. Pisgah. One of the early churches of the county was the Sinking Creek church. Four different buildings have been erected on this site. Rev. Thomas Kelley was one of the early preachers and married most of the early settlers. He died many years a.u-o. In the early forties there was a traveling preacher in these parts, but his name and denomination has escaped the memory of the oldest settler.

In those early days gourds were used universally as drinking cups, salt and soap vessels and other purposes where metal is now employed. The school houses were built of logs, having but one door, and a "chink" removed for a window. The desks were planks put on pegs driven in the walls and held in place by notches in the ends of the pegs. The seats were split saplings, and the floors made of puncheons. Xo particular course of study was followed,

In clearing out the land the old "bull-tongue" plow was used and oxen the only teams. Horses were used only to ride. Mr. Wheeler recalls going to church in a large ox wagon. Each young fellow would get his best girl and pile into the Wheeler wagon with chairs. This wagon was drawn by two yoke of oxen, and since the traveling was slow it furnished a splendid opportunity to "spark," both going and coming.

Corn was ground largely by hand until the advent of mills. The usual method was grating the soft corn on a tin punched full of holes. The first mill on the Hulston site was known as the Pemberton mill. This was erected in 1840. Henry Pemberton was the miller, and ground wheat and corn. The bolting was done by hand. The threshing was done by tramping with horses. A hard piece of ground would be cleared off, the wheat piled on and the horses ridden in a circle. In the harvest, hand sickles were used, and a good hand could cut and bind one acre per day. One dollar per day was counted big wages for a harvest hand, many working for less. Rails were cut and split of a uniform length of ten feet, all the timber beingsmall. Very little saw timber was to be found any place. The present growth of black oak were mere saplings in those days. Guy Clopton was among the very early settlers, coming in 1882. Also John Crisp's father and Ingalls came at about the same time. Guy Clopton set out the first orchard in Dadc County, and tradition says that at one time the largest peach tree in the United States grew on the ground where Joseph Rubenstein's house now stands in Greenfield.

The largest apple tree in the state of Missouri was located on the old James Wheeler farm. It was 9 feet 10 inches in circumference, 7 feet from the ground.

Wild game, deer and turkey, were very plentiful in 3842. There were no bear here then, no Indians, and fishing was good. Uncle Samuel Wheeler freighted from Kan-

Doctors being scarce in those days, medicine was largely of home manufacture. A favorite pill was made from white walnut bark, which when peeled upward, acted as an emetic, and if peeled downward was used as a physic. Among the early doctors to practice in Dade County, Dr. Perkins and Dr. Bender were about the first. Midwifery, which today is almost a lost art, was practiced extensively then. Xancy Julian and (Irandma Wheeler traveled many miles on horseback and stayed for weeks at a time with patients on these errands. Large families and few deaths were tbe rule.

Samuel Wheeler says that in 1842 money was very scarce, there being no gold and only a little silver. Cows sold for $.1.00 each; hogs were very cheap, and $40 would buy a fine horse. Corn sold at 10 cents per bushel, and whiskey, either corn or rye, could be had for 25 cents per gallon, and there was very little drunkenness.

Samuel "Wheeler was born November 20th, 1824, son of Samuel and Margaret (Cowan) Wheeler. He had three brothers and six sisters, all of whom are dead execpt his brothci-, Francis M., living at Everton. Tie was married in 1859 to Mary Driskell, a native of Michigan, who was born August 16th, 1840. They have three children, two boys and one girl :

(.')) Lewis, born in 1873, married Annie Hurst, daughter of Joe and Belle Hurst. Her father is dead, mother a widow and lives in Everton. They have four children:

Samuel Wheeler is a Republican, a member of the Baptist church, served in the Home Guards during the war. In 1851 he was engaged in freighting from Kansas City westward, and in 1852 he and his brother Marion went to the gold fields of California. They arrived in 1853 and left in 1857. He returned to Dade County via the Isthmus of Panama, bringing $1,500 in glittering gold with him, with which he purchased a home in Dade County.

Sa'nuel Wheeler is still hale and hearty for a man of his years, and delights to talk of the old days in the county when their voting precinct was located on Sinking Creek, a distance of 12 miles, and when the voting was done vice I'oce, from president down, each man yelling the name of his candidate, which a clerk recorded. All buildings were put up out of logs, and without nails. In making a roof they used a log for what they called an eave-pole, and upon this was put a log called a butting pole. Against this pole the roof boards were ended and the process followed till the roof was complete. All cooking was done on the fireplaces, and pot-hooks were in common use. The crane was considered a wonderful invention. Horses, mules, hogs and cattle were driven to St. Louis and other distant places to market. Salt was brought from Sedalia. For many years Springfield was their nearest postoffice, and later, Greenfield.

Military Affairs

Public Sentiment. - The groat majority of the people of Dado County have always boon loyal to the Government of the United States, notwithstanding the fact that many of them were' reared under the influences of the institution of slavery. During the Mexican War the county furnished a company of soldiers under command of Capt. J. J. Clarkson that did excellent service.

When the late Civil War began, in 1861, the pooplo of the northern half of the county were generally loyal to the Union, while many in the southern half were in full sympathy with secession and in favor of the Southern Confederacy; but, upon the whole, a great majority of the citizens of the county were loyal to the United States. Some of the recent immigrants from the Eastern states - especially Illinois - moved back, and there enlisted in the Union Army. Soon after the war began, John T. Coffee and other Southern sympathizers enlisted a number of men in Dade County, but, owing to the vigilance of the loyal citizens, who wore forming organizations for the Union army, they were mostly taken beyond the limits of the county to be organized, and later a largo number of men followed Price's army southward, and became Confederate soldiers, but then- is no way of ascertaining their numbers.

Troops. - Several companies were organized within the county for the Union Army, of which mention is made as follows: Companies A and 1), of the Sixth Regiment Cavalry Missouri Volunteers, were raised almost wholly within the county of Dade - their organizations being completed July 4, 1M!1. About the same time Company E, of the same regiment, was organized, having been recruited equally from Dade and Cedar Counties. Clark Wright, the principal mover in the organization of Company A, became its first captain, but was made colonel of the regiment upon its organization, and Thomas A. Swit/ler was mustered as captain of the company. John II. Paynter and Thomas Stockstill were mustered in as first and second lieutenants thereof. The first officers of Company 1) were: Captain, William H. Crockett, and lieutenants, Jesse C. Kirby and John C. Porter. The first officers of Company E were: Captain, Austin Ilubbard, and lieutenants, Thomas Astloy and Jasper Burris. Company L, also of the same regiment, was raised, in July, 1862, from Dado, Polk and Greene Counties - more than one-half of the company being from Dade. The first officers of this company were: Captain, Jesse C1. Kirby, promoted from first lieutenant in Company I), and lieutenants, J. W. Cormack and Luther I). Porter.

The companies comprising; this regiment were first formed into three battalions, commanded by Major Wright, "Major \Vood and Captain Hawkins. Wright's battalion fought in the skirmishes of Copridge's Mills and Wet Glaize; Hawkins' in the battle of Fredericktown, and Wood's in the battles of Salem and West Plains. These three battalions were organized as a regiment, February .14, 18(52, Major Clark Wright being appointed colonel; Major S. X. Wood, lieutenant-colonel, and Captain Hawkins, first major. The field of war occupied by this regiment was Southern Missouri, Arkansas and portions of Louisiana and Mississippi. It was often separated, the companies being detached and sent to many different points, and were often engaged with the enemy. The regiment fought in the battles of Champion's Hill, Black River and Bridgeport, in Mississippi; fook part in the seige and capture of Yicksburg, also in the movement upon and capture of Jackson, and in many other movements. During the years 1864 and 18(55, u]) to the time of muster out, it was stationed in the Department of the Gulf, where it participated in several engagements. Companies B, C, F, G, II, 1 and K were mustered out at expiration of term, in the months of December, 1864, and January, 1865. The remaining companies, A, 1), E and I, composed of the veterans and recruits of the regiment, were mustered out September 12, 1865.

Late in the spring or early summer of 1862, a State militia company (Union) was organized in Greenfield, and on the day that the officers were elected and the organization completed, and all were sworn into the service by Enrolling Officer John B. Clark, of Dadeville, it was reported by a volunteer courier from the country, who came in "under whip and spurs," that a rebel force under Joe Shelby and John T. Coffee were advancing upon the town. At this instant the faithful enrolling officer, Clark, knowing that he was the one most desired and likely to receive the harshest treatment by the enemy, went to the home of W. K. Latham and asked the good lady of the house to hide him. This she did by putting him into a hole under the building - where vegetables were kept - through a trap door in the floor, over which she hastily spread a carpet. The enemy rushed into town and captured all of the new company, except a few who had retired to their homes in the vicinity, and searched eagerly for John B. Clark, but did not find him. All of the militiamen captured were sworn not to take up arms against the so-called Southern Confederacy. Afterward, upon being exchanged, nearly all of them volunteered in the United States service.

Company M of the Eighth Regiment Cavalry Missouri Volunteers was mustered into the service in August, 1862, about one-half of it having been recruited in Dade, and the other half in Polk County. The first captain of the company was X. S. McCluer, who died at Forsythe, Mo., January 24, 18G.'>. His successor was Capt. Alfred Kennedy, who resigned February 24, 1865. lie was succeeded by Capt. X. B. McDowell, who was mustered out with the regi ment. The first lieutenant was Samuel G. Appleby, and the second, David L. Burnes. The regiment to which this company belonged operated mostly in Southern Missouri and Arkansas and down the Mississippi, and participated in many different engagements. It was mustered out at expiration of service at Little Rock, Ark., on the 20th day of July, 1865, moving thence to Benton Barracks, Mo., where, on the 2nd day of August following, it received final pay, and the men dispersed to their respective homes.

Companies E. and I of the Fifteenth Regiment Cavalry, Missouri Volunteers, were raised in Dade County early in 1863. The officers of the former were Capt. Edmond J. Morris and Lieutenants George F. Alder and Joel T. Hembree. The officers of the latter were Capt. John H. Howard and Lieutenants Robert Cowan and William K. Pyle. All of these officers served until the regiment was mustered out of service. Eight companies composing this regiment were, on the 1st day of April, 1863, organized at Mt. Vernon, Mo., into what was known as the Second Provisional Regiment. On the 10th day of May following it was changed from the Second to the Seventh Provisional Regiment, and, in September and October following, another battalion was added to it. Afterward, under orders of the War Department dated June 10, 1864, the Seventh Provisional Regiment was mustered into the United States service as the Fifteenth Cavalry, Missouri Volunteers, for the term of twenty months dating back from November 1, 1863, from which time the men had been doing actual service as State troops, without pay. This regiment did excellent service in Southwestern Missouri and Northwestern Arkansas, in fighting and extinguishing guerrillas and bushwhackers. It was mustered out at expiration of service July, 1, 1865.

Effects of the Strife. - Dade County suffered terribly from the ravages of the war. On one occasion, during the early part, while the Union State Militia were occupying Greenfield, a party of guerrillas, in the interest of the Southern cause, and for the purpose of plunder, made a raid upon the town. So sudden was the charge that the militiamen had not time to* assemble for defense, but each one, from the several houses where they happened to be, fired upon the enemy, killing one and compelling them to fall back. They fled southward and burned the houses of many Union men on their way. This and other depredations so enraged the militia that squads of them, sent into the country, soon surpassed their orders and resorted to desperate measures in retaliation, such as burning the houses which harbored bushwhackers, whereupon both sides became infuriated and more or less indiscriminately applied the torch and killed defenseless men. A number of citizens were killed in tlieir fields, or at their homes, or on the public roads, by unknown bushwhackers, and many dwellings and much other property throughout the county was laid in ashes. The capture of Greenfield and burning of the courthouse has been mentioned elsewhere. Greenfield was occupied a portion of the time during the war by the militia, and at other times by detachments from the cavalry regiments previously noted. The many cruel depredations, the killing of individuals, and other atrocities committed in Dade County during the war period would furnish material sufficient in itself to fill a volume. Time, however, has served to mitigate these evil effects, and those who once fought as enemies, divided by bitter prejudices, have long since ceased to harbor ill feeling, and now work side by side1, united in sentiment, with the one sincere ambition of promoting public good.

Civil War Records And Personal Life Of Raleigh J. Shipley

I will try and give an outline of the names of the field officers and the names of the men that were in Company M of the Eighth Missouri Volunteer Cavalry. I was the first man that volunteered in the company. Field Officers:

Berry G. Thukmax

The above is a complete list of officers and privates of Company M, 8th Missouri Voluntary Cavalry. I was the first man that volunteered in this company. It was the first company that was made up in Greenfield, Missouri for the United States service and out of 65 men that went into this company, there are only three of that number now living in the county. Uncle James Taylor is living in Lockwood. He is about 90 years old ; John A. Mitchell, 79. He is living on a farm six miles northwest of Greenfield on the Coal Bank road, and the writer of this history, Raleigh J. Shipley, is living on a farm one-half mile west and one mile north of the Public Square of Greenfield, the County Seat of Bade County, Missouri. I am living about one mile from the old farm that my father settled on in the fall of 1852, but he came here from Warren County, Tennessee, in the fall of 1850, almost 66 years ago. I was six years old the 26th of June, when we landed in Dade County, the first of November, 1850. I lived with my parents until the war broke out, but didn't enlist in the regular army until the 30th of August, 1862. My father was a cripple and I was put to plowing when I was only ten years old. I never had any schooling. I never was in school over two months in my life. What little education I have I got by studying the school books that I bought for my children to go to school. I have always been in favor of good public schools. I served twenty years out of thirty on the School Board after 1 went to housekeeping. This picture was taken for the History on the 24th day of October, 1916, on the south side of our home on the east side of the Greenfield and Stockton road. I was 72 years old the 26th of last June and Mrs. Shipley was 70 the 7th day of last April. The object of this picture is to show to this generation and to the next generation just how we had to work and make a living. My wife and I moved to an 80-acre piece of land two miles east of Lockwood. There was an old log building on the land when I bought it. The house was about the center of the eighty, but the roof, floor and doors were all rotted down and taken away. I took the house down and moved it to the northeast corner of the eighty and rebuilt it. I made clapboards two feet long, went to the timber and cut my rafters. They were post oak and black oak poles. I scalped off one side of them to straighten the top side of them. I put the rafters up and made out to get rough edge sheeting enough to nail the two foot boards on. I put them on shingle fashion; that is. it just showed eight inches. I boxed up the gable ends and we moved into the house without windows or door shutter or chimney. Now I am going to tell you about our furniture. My father and I went to my grandfather's Son's Creek farm and got some walnut rails out of the fence and made a bedstead and bored holes through the side and head rails and also some rope cord to hold up the bedding, and the other bedstead I took a two-inch auger and bored one hole in the back wall and one in the side wall just back of the door and then I took a round pole about four inches through and three feet long and bored two holes into it, and then took a pole six and one-half feet long and put it in one hole in the wall and the other end in the bedpost. .Then I put one four feet long in the other hole in the wall and the other end in the post and then I nailed a piece of timber to the wall to hold up my slats and that was our other bedstead. Our table was made out of rough oak plank about 3x4 feet in length. I bought three or four country-made chairs, and we have also in our house a small arm chair that I got Squire Warren to make for our oldest child, Anna. She was born the 10th day of March, 1867. It has been 49 years since I had the chair made. She was eight months old and that would make the chair 49 years old. Every piece of the chair is good yet. TVe raised seven children and they all used it and several of our grandchildren use it. Our boy Albert wore the front and back post almost into the rounds. He would turn it down and push it all over the house learning to walk.

Now I will get back to the old log cabin. We moved in this cabin without any floor or door shutters. I bought a stone chimney of Marion Holder about two miles east of my house, and took my father's ox team and wagon and would haul stone all day and at night I would build up a fire on one side of the house and I would chink the cracks in that side before we went to bed and the next night I would build my fire for a light to work by and chink, and mother says I kept moving around in this way until I got the house all chinked. I got enough flooring plank from my uncle George Shipley, which they had taken out of a barn, that had been used for a threshing floor. I also got enough lumber from him to make two doors. I made the doors out of rough oak lumber. I went to the timber and ciit some small logs and hued one side of them and put them in for sleepers then laid the floor; then father and I drug up a lot of logs and rolled them together and hauled a few loads of lime stone rock and put on the logs then set it afire and burnt lime to point my house and put up my chimney. I hired Uncle James Mitchell, a brother to my mother, to help me put up the chimney and point the cracks in the house and make and hang my door shutters. We lived in this house about seven years. We cooked our grub in these old pots that is shown in this picture, and Mrs. Shipley carded the cotton and spun the thread on the old spinning wheel that is shown in the picture and then wove the cloth on an old home-made loom that made our under bed ticks, table cloths and hand towels. The scythe and cradle is what we cut our wheat and oats with. I have cut hundreds of acres with one of them. I cut, bound and shocked fifty dozen a day and T have mowed, raked and shocked ten ton of prairie hay a day with a mowing blade and pitch fork. 1 never plowed with two horses to a breaking or stubble plow before the Civil War. We did all of our breaking with a yoke of oxen. My father always kept a big yoke of oxen to plow and do our hauling- with and I have driven as many as five and six yoke of oxen to a prairie plow. I hauled hundreds of loads of wood from my father's old home place to Greenfield right along the Old Papinsville road that runs right by my door with old Buck and Berry. We chopped the timber and split the rails to fence our farm. I have chopped the timber and split thousands of rails in my life. I cut, bound and shocked six acres of wheat the year I was 66 years old. That was six years ago last harvest and I have my doubts if there is another man in the county or maybe not in the state that can cut that amount of grain by hand. The forty acre tract of land my father bought in 1852 had two small log rooms on it and four or five acres of land in cultivation. The land was timbered land, so we would clear the timber and brush off three or four acres every winter and we would make rails out of the best of the timber to fence the land, the rest of the timber we would use for fire wood and we hauled some to town and the big rough logs we rolled up in log heaps and burnt them to get them out of the way. I have seen lots of better timber burnt up than we have to use for saw timber now. My father built a good log house on the place a few years after we settled on the place and lived in that house as long as he lived. He died when I was thirty-six years old and my mother died about three or four years later. My mother's maiden name was Mitchell. Her father, James Mitchell, had six boys and four girls. My mother was the third child in the family. The first child was a boy, William Mitchell, the second a girl, Mary Mitchell and my mother's name was Lucinda Mitchell. The Mitchell family are all dead but one, that is Elizabeth Cartwright. She is living in Lockwood now, with her oldest daughter, Sarah J. Larence. She is 81 years old. My grandfather was 85 years old when he died. He was of Dutch descent and my grandmother was of Irish decent. Her maiden name was Martha McGregory. On my father's side my Grandfather Shipley was of Irish decent. His father came from Ireland in an early day. He was among the Puritans, the first settlers in America. My grandfather, Raleigh Shipley, was born and lived in North Carolina, but moved to Waren County, Tennessee when a young man and was among the first settlers of

Tennessee. He was in General Jackson's army in 1812 and went with General Jackson to Mobile, Alabama. He lived to be 85 years old. My grandmother Shipley was of Dutch decent and she had been dead several years before we left Tennessee. Father came to Dade county in the fall of 1851 and settled on a farm two miles southeast of Greenfield, Missouri. His family is all dead except two girls and one boy. Aunt Lucinda Mitchell, the oldest girl that is living, is in Greenfield. She is ninety-some odd years old, the other girl is living out near Golden City in the west part of Dade county. She is eighty odd years old. George M. Shipley is 72 years old and is living in Lockwood, Missouri. He served three years in Company A, Sixth Missouri Volunteer Cavalry in the Union Army.

My father lived on his farm three miles northwest of Greenfield all through the Civil War. He had the last horse taken, two or three times during the war, and Price's Army took about everything that he raised on the farm in the summer of 1862. One brigade of Price's army camped on old Uncle Clement C. Malicoat's land just southeast of my father's farm on what is now the Gass farm. One good thing was that the Confederate Army never took our big yoke of oxen nor our milk cow and father had a small bunch of sheep and mother carded and spun the wool and made cloth to clothe the family and one thing I remember my mother had spun the thread and wove the cloth - it was mixed Jeans. She had it laved away to make me a suit of clothes out of and my mother and her mother, old Grandmother Mitchell were right good tailoresses and they cut and made me a suit of clothes and I was married in them, and kept that suit of clothes for Sunday suit and there was one other thing that took place while T was at home on a furlow, after I had the measles. I was at Springfield, Missouri with the measles when Marmaduke came there on the 8th of January, 1863 and I was detailed and sent to Greenfield the ninth day after the measles broke out on me. I took cold on the measles and was confied to my bed four weeks, was not able to get out of bed only as I was helped in and out and didn't got back to my regiment until the second day of April, 1863. The regiment was at Lake Springs twelve miles southeast of Rolla, Missouri. It was then that I was taken prisoner by Kinch West and his little band. There wasn't but six of the little band, and they had just started out to equip themselves for their warfare. They took some of my clothing and my blanket and Kinch told me they were watching the road to get arms and ammunition and clothing and horses. When Kinch put on my cavalry jacket he said: "Now I am as good a government soldier as you are." He had a pair of government pants when he took me prisoner. I didn't have any arms with me. He said it was war times and that if I ever got any of them prisoner I could treat them just like they had treated me. They kept up this watching and robbing: government soldiers over on that old Springfield road until the Seventh Missouri Militia was camped at Greenfield and a squad of them went out on the Springfield road where Kinch 's father lived and burnt his house and that caused Kinch to burn some houses and then the militia boys went and killed Kinch 's father and then Kinch killed several soldiers and got to be quite a bushwhacker and after they killed his father he swore vengenance against the men that killed him and Kinch had friends living in and near Greenfield that got the names of the men that killed his father and after the war was over he hunted them up and killed them. I was told by good authority a few years ago that he was the man that killed Mclnturf and AVilson down in the Indian Territory 20 or 25 years ago. Wilson was a soldief in the company that was camped at Greenfield at the time old man West was killed and the man that told me about the killing said Kinch told the people down there that when he killed Wilson that he had got the last of them.

Now I want to tell another little thing" that happened while I was at home that time. I had brought a gun home with ine and a few nights after I came home (we had a dog there that would give us warning if there was any one about the place) one night just after dark he com- menced barking out south of the house. So I said to my father: ''There is some one out in the brush or timber," so he took my gun and a good old rifle he had and went down just south of the barn and crawled under an apple tree and sat down against the body of the tree and he hadn't been there very long until he heard some one climb over the gate about 50 yards south of the barn so he let the man get within about 30 yards of him and he said he could see that he had a bridle or halter in one hand and he was satisfied that he was aiming to get a horse out of the barn, so he raised one of the guns up and shot at him. He said when he shot the man jumped up in the air three or four feet high and as he run off he grabbed the other gun and shot at him. So the next morning as soon as it was light enough so my two brothers could see they went out where my father said the man was. They wanted to see if there was any blood there or any sign of him being hurt, but the boys couldn't see any blood but brother Will saw a little piece of newspaper on the ground. He picked it up, unfolded it, and there was a ten dollar greenback folded up in the paper. The boys came runningback to the house. Mother says, "What did you find?" Will says, "We didn't find any blood but I found a ten dollar bill father shot out of him." We had a right smart wood lot that took in the spring and we had a little field that joined the lot that they gathered the corn out of, and they turned the cows and the horse out in there every day, so about three days after he had shot the ten dollar bill out of the man the horse was stolen out of the stalk field. So we always thought that it was the man that was shot at that got the horse.

F have been a Republican politically. I cast my first vote in 1864 for Abraham Lincoln. I think the best man that tliis American government ever produced. I served two years as road overseer in the south half of North Township about twenty-five years ago, and I served years as road commissioner in Center Township about twelve years ago, and when the County came under Township organization 1 was elected member of the township board as member for West Center and at the next election was reelected for two years again, and I served two years as Justice of the Peace before I was elected a member of the board and I was elected Justice both terms that I served on the board making six years I served as Justice of the Peace in Center Township. The above writeup was done

Guerrillas On Greenfield In 1864

About September 1st, 1864 I was at home from my service in the Sixth Cav. Mo. Vols. at Melville (now Dadeville) Missouri. From there I visited Greenfield to see some friends. At that time General Sterling Price was in southwestern Missouri organizing his rebel forces for a raid through the state and the citizens of Greenfield were very much excited believing the town would be visited and probably burned during the raid. I was delegated by them to go to Springfield to see General Sanborn, who was in command in this territory, and to appeal to him for troops to protect Greenfield. I went and made my plea in their behalf. He asked me if I would help to organize the militia in Da$e county for protection against the raid. I told him I would do all in my power in recruiting and organizing for defense. He then said, "Go back home and make ready, and in a few days I will furnish you with proper credentials and instructions."

Price Raiders Threatened; and a Defense Company Is Organized. - I returned to Melville and in a few days received my commission and instructions and was ordered to report to Captain J. M. Kirby of the enrolled militia for conference as to organization. After conferring with Cap- tain Kirby we made a call upon the men available for military duty in Bade County to meet us in Greenfield, September 16th, 1864, and on that date we organized a company as follows :

Some of the Enrolled Missouri Militia soldiers who were subject to call and out on leave, were then called in by Captain Kirby which swelled our number to 103 men.

Munitions from Springfield Are Stored in the Old Wells Hotel. - Now being fully organized with muster-in roll complete, the next thing- was to procure rations, arms and ammunition. I was again delegated to see General Sanborn in Springfield and armed with the proper credentials I went and made requisition and was furnished rations for the command for 30 days, also with eighty 70- calibre muskets and 8,000 rounds of ammunition. Returning with the supplies we stored the commissary supplies in the Shields hotel, afterwards the Delmonico, and stored our arms and ammunition in the second story of that building.

The Price raid was on in earnest by this time, but had not yet been molested at this point. However, reports were current that Greenfield would be burned during the raid. We found out all we could of our situation and said but little, keeping our eye on the focus and our ear to the ground and making ready for any emergency.

West-Roberts Guerrillas Appear Along Turnback and Lynn Branch. - Soon Kinch West and Fate Roberts, with their gang of bushwhackers and robbers, began to roam along Turnback creek and Lynn Branch, just east and south of our headquarters. So far as we knew they might have been on a fishing trip, as no one was being molested by them that we could learn. We did not meddle ourselves with their business methods; just let things take their course, keeping our eye on the focus and ear to the ground.

Day after day they became more conspicuous but seemed very unconcerned about the surroundings. Price's raiders came nearer and nearer. We paid no attention to General Price, thinking he had force sufficient to care for himself but still kept our eye on the focus and ear to the ground.

Kinch West's Sister Comes to Town; Warns Officers of Coming Raid. - On the 15th of October, 1864, in the afternoon, a young lady on horseback rode into Greenfield, dismounted and made a casual tour around the town. Upon her return toward her horse I made it a point to meet her and accosted her saying:

"Kinch sent me here to see if the soldiers had been reinforced last night and said if they had not he was going to take breakfast in Greenfield tomorrow morning and then burn the town."

She said, "they sent a note last night by a boy to Kinch at Jesse M-cClain's telling there were only 4C militiamen in Greenfield and Kinch sent me to see if any more had come in last night. I wish you men would get out of Greenfield. Kinch don't want to kill you men, but if you stay here and interfere you will get killed. He says he has burnt Melville and intends to burn Greenfield tomorrow morning. ' '

I said to her, "Consider yourself under arrest and go with me to Captain Kirby's headquarters and tell him your mission and the story you have told me." I took her to the captain and she made no change in her story to him.

"[ said, "Captain, give her her horse and let her go home and tell Kinch there is nobody here but us and that we will have breakfast ready for him tomorrow morning."

The next thing was to call the company roll and inform our men of the warning we had received from Kinch's sister. We also notified the citizens of Greenfield who had asked us to furnish arms and ammunition for them to help to defend the town in case we were attacked by these outlaws. Next in order was to meet at the armory and open up our ammunition, load and stack our guns in the hotel.

A Night Alarm Spoils a Card Party; Causes Fruitless Investigation. - At night all things were quiet. As usual most of the men lay on their bunks, without undressing, awaiting developments. Being of a nervous temperament I did not go to bed but went with W. R. Lawrence and Nathan Dinwiddie to Aunt Julia Wills' parlor, where she joined us in a game of whist. About 11 o'clock Judge Nelson McDowell rapped on her door, having seen a light in the parlor. I met him at the door. He had run from home and was almost out of breath, to tell us that his wife had heard an unusual knocking and other noises down in the hollow near the Wells Grove. W. B. Lawrence and I jumped on our horses, taking our pistols in hand, and rode quietly out a half-mile to the southwest, then circled round to the Coffee farm, now occupied by George Wilson, southeast of Greenfield, and came in from there, having neither seen nor heard anything unusual. The facts in the case were, as we afterwards discovered, that West and Roberts and their gang were at the time hidden in the Wells Grove, and we went entirely around them unmolested. The noise that Mrs. McDowell heard was the gang hacking down the hedge row on the east of the Wells grove, making a gap to get through into town without being exposed to view.

The Attack of October 16th; Raiders Get a Warm "Breakfast" - At dawn on October 16th, 1864, as Samuel S. Acuff and I were feeding our horses in the southeast corner of the court house square, three of four men charged upon us from behind the livery barn, south of the hotel, firing a volley at us as they came. One shot killed Acuff and another shot killed my horse. After firing they ran down the hill to the east. I ran to the hotel and rang the bell, to give the alarm. At that the whole outfit raised the yell and came on a charge down South Street. On nearing the hotel they were greeted by volleys from muskets blazing out of the port holes made in the brick walls. This brought them to a right about and a fall back in hot haste. They made a stand at Judge McDowell's carriage shed, where they lost one killed and three wounded. The Judge's carriage and harness were in the shed. They put their dead and wounded in this carriage and ran it down the hill, where they hitched a team to the carriage and took them off the field. Our force was of sufficient numbers not only to drive them out of town and save the village from destruction, but we immediately dispatched a messenger to Melville for re-inforcements to help drive them further, and in about three hours, Lieut. Cowan came with 25 men. With the aid of this detachment we drove West and Roberts and their gang some 20 miles. In the engagement we lost two men killed and one wounded. We could not tell how many of their forces were killed and wounded, as they bore their 's away, while much of the time we were housed up and could not see all the damage done. One man was shot in the hand, which was almost torn off, according to the story told by Mrs. McBride. The circumstance was this: Two of the West gang got behind an unoccupied dwelling house just west of the Lyngar drug store. They would load their guns behind the house and then ride around the corner of the building and fire at two of our men who were near Dr. .Bender's office, at about the east lot now occupied by the opera house. The men at the office got a rest against the corner of that building, and when one of the gang rounded the corner to shoot they let them have it. One charge struck one of the raider's hand and tore it badly, and tore the stock off his gun, which dropped to the ground. His horse whirled round with him to run, when the other man at the office shot his horse down dead. The comrade who was with him behind the house dismounted, put the wounded man in the saddle and got on the horse behind him and rode to the house of Mrs. McBride and asked for a cloth to bandage the torn hand. She took a hand towel from the rack and bound up his wound. The men at the office could not reload their guns and pursue them in time to catch them, but went to the house and picked up the gun that was broken with the bullet, then to the horse that was killed and took the saddle. That gun and saddle have been souvenir keepsakes for those men to this day. Now if any of that wounded man's comrades on the raid will tell who he is and his whereabouts, if living, we will send him his gun and saddle.

Citizen Soldiers Fail to Respond, Except One - Arch M. Long. - We were sadly disappointed in the help of the citizen soldiery of Greenfield. They had promised us that when the alarm of attack was given by the ringing of the hotel bell they would rush to the hotel, where their arms were ready, loaded. When the alarm was sounded it was a lively time. Instead of running to the hotel the citizen soldiery of Greenfield (except Arch M. Long) ingioriously fled to the brush. Mr. Long came to our rescue with his shotgun in hand and played a gallant part. After we had driven Kinch and Fate out of the country, we made a move upon the Price raiders and. captured 42 men of his command and turned them over to Gen. Sanborn of Springfield. When we arrived at Springfield with them their commander said, ''This is our second visit to Greenfield."

I do not know whether that was true or not. That was what he said. His name, as he gave it, was K. B. F. Twyinan of Boone County, Missouri. The reason I remember his name is this: He was a very large man, about 240 pounds. The horse he was riding had a sore back. He swapped that horse to Capt. Kirby for one he could ride, giving the Captain a bill of sale for the animal, signed K. B. F. Twyman, Boone County, Missouri. His commander called him lieutenant. I do not wish to cast any reflections upon any party I have mentioned in this article, but am recording historical events as they occurred during those troublous times.

It Cost the State a Tidy Sum to Save Greenfield From Burning. - It cost the State of Missouri something to save Greenfield from being burned during the Price raid. For services of the men and their horses the cost was $2,555.15. How I know this: The company was relieved and mustered out, roll was made October 31, 1864, embracing all items of service for both men and horses. In April, 1866, I took this roll, went to Jefferson City and made settlement with the state auditor for all service done by the company during said time -of our organization. I have before me his invoice of every item for each man. I went to the state treasurer, who paid me the above stated amount and took my receipt for the' same. The money paid me was state money, just in sheets of different denominations as it came from the press without being torn apart. In paying it out I had to clip off the sheets according to amounts due (we called it "Lizzard-skin"). I do not write this for the benefit of those who know about it but for the benefit of the rising generation, that they may know about the fun we had in the days before their being. I would tell you more about it but I fear I would tire the patience of the devil in the printing office.

After having been discharged, November 1st, 1864, from service in the 76th Regt., E. M. M., I was again commissioned as First Lieutenant in the Veteran U. S. service and placed in charge of a recruiting camp at Springfield, Mo., recruiting for the 14th Vet. Cal. "Mo. Vols." to go against the Indians on the plains, at this camp. Three companies wore organized, viz: Capt. Lucian Roundtree, Capt. Harry Mitchell, Capt, J. P. Robinson. The day before the assassination of A. Lincoln, we received orders to take no more recruits. I was then assigned as Provo Marshal with headquarters at Mt. Vernon, Mo. The regiment then had nine full companies. J. J. Gravley was commissioned as Lieutenant Colonel of the Regiment and took charge, preparatory to moving against the Indians. When they were ready to move I was relieved as Provo and joined the regiment to act as Adjutant, leaving St. Louis in June, 1865, under command of Gen. J. B. Sanborn, pursued the Indians through Colorado, where a treaty was agreed upon with them. The regiment then moved back to Fort Leavenworth for muster out service, Oct. 20, 1865. The records and men were placed in my charge and sent to St. Louis, Mo., where we received our pay for services by Col. Bonneville, Paymaster for the U. S. A. This being the last service of the 14th Cav. Mo. Vols., we disbanded and all set sail for home. Later on after returning home, I was again commissioned as a First Lieutenant, Enrolling Inspector and Mustering officer for the State Militia of Missouri. I organized and mustered in three companies in Dade County, viz: Capt. Thomas Hopper of South Township, Capt. James M. Travis of North Township and Capt. E. V. Lafoon of Morgan Township. In 1866 I was relieved from military duty. During my service I had filled most every position known to the service.

Preface: Having been selected by the historical committee to write a history of the Confederate Veterans of Dade County from 1861 to 1865, I accepted the invitation with some hesitancy, from the fact that I have no written data or memoranda to guide me in this task, and since more than fifty years have taken their flight since those memorable events occurred, and knowing the frailty of human memory, I shall only attempt to tell the simple story as I now remember it in looking through the long vista of years which have elapsed, and should I fail to mention any name or event of importance it will be an error of head and not of heart, for it is my sincere desire that all who are entitled to be mentioned in this sketch should have their proper place.

In the early Spring of 1861, at the breaking out of the Civil War, several companies of state troops for the Confederate service were raised in Dade County. They were mustered in for six months. John T. Coffey was elected Colonel for one regiment and Colonel James Clarkson for another, but their regiments were not all made up of Dade County men, but these officers were residents of the county when the war broke out. The following Captains raised companies in Dade County: John M. Stemmons, F. M. Hastings, Tilman H. Lea, I. J. West and Captain Bell. They all had full companies and were mostly comprised of Dade County boys. These companies all took active part in all the battles fought on this side of the Mississippi River. The most important battle fought by them while in the state service was the battle of Wilson's Creek, in which the Dade County boys suffered many casualties. Captain Bell was killed, also Lieutenant David Vaughn, Colonel Buster was pinned to the ground with a bayonet through his side, inflicted by a Dutchman, after which he was shot, several bullets passing through his body. I remember that when some of our boys went to pull the bayonet from his body our Surgeon, Dr. Dunn, rushed up and would not permit it until his body was turned over and the dirt wiped from the bayonet. The bayonet had encountered a rib and had never pierced his stomach, and in a few weeks he was able to return to his command, apparently in as good shape as ever. The Colonel was engaged in selling goods in Greenfield at the beginning of the war, arid as far as is known he is still a live and lives in Texas. Tie was an exemplary man in every respect, and during the remainder of the war he never received another scratch. The battle of Wilson Creek was a hot fought battle on a very hot day - August 10th, 1HG1. Several Dade County boys were killed there, Colonel Buster was the only Colonel from Dade County wounded, and Captain Bell the only Captain from Dade County, killed.

Our next enagement of importance was at Lexington, where we captured General Mulligan and his entire command. That was no before breakfast spell. General Price was in command of the Confederate forces. We tried for a day and a night to capture the fort, but was unsuccessful, but finally General Price adopted a plan which proved a success. Hemp bales were rolled up for embankments and we starved them out. I think it was on the third clay of the siege that General Mulligan capitulated. Two victories in succession filled our boys with courage insomuch that many of them thought Price's command could whip the whole Yankee army. Several Dade County boys were killed in this battle.

After the battle of Lexington we came back south, where we had several small engagements, among them Cow Skin Prairie, Crane Creek and a few others, after which we returned north and engaged in the battle of Marshal, which proved quite severe.

I recall now the loss of one brave Dade County man in this battle - his name was Stoveall, Tom Courtney's grandfather. He was shot through the head and killed instpatly. My brother, Shelby, was standing by his side at the time.

One of the hottest encounters in this campaign was at Lone Jack. We finally captured the town but our losses were heavy. The number engaged on each side was comparatively small but they fought like demons. The Union forces were commanded by Major Foster, as brave a man as ever wore a uniform, while our forces were under the command of General Cockerel. I have received several letters of late years from men who participated in that battle and all ascribe great bravery to both Major Foster and General Cockerel. I think General Cockerel is still living in Texas. Major Foster has longsince gone to his reward, which I hope is one of eternal rest, for while a prisoner I became attached to him by reason of his manly qualities, and still have great respect for his memory.

Among the Dade County boys to fall in this battle, I recall Jim and Bill Gillispie. Their father was the owner of the Gillispie Mill on Turnback. Lieutenant Willis Taylor was killed there also. He was a son-in-law of Judge Hoyle, owner of the farm and mill of that name on Turnback about two miles east of Greenfield. After the battle of Marshal we had but a few minor skirmishes until we wrent into winter quarters at Springfield, Mo., where our army was re-organized and entered the Confederate service. The enlistments were for three years or during the war. It was about the middle of February, 1862, when General Price, then in command, hearing of a large Union force marching from Rolla toward Springfield, ordered stakes pulled, and we headed for the south. We were reinforced by General McCullough and General Mclntosh at or near Elk Horn, where the Elk Horn Prairie battle was fought. This was later in February or early in March, 1862. The weather was severely cold for that latitude and the ground was covered with snow. Dade County lost some of her brave boys in this battle. After this battle Captain John M. Stemmons went from tlie cavalry to the infantry and became Captain of Company G, 16th Missouri Infantry. Ho was mustered out at the close of the war as Lieutenant Colonel of this regiment. A few years ago he died at Dallas, Texas.

Both Captain Stemmons and Billy Williams were wounded at the battle of Lone Jack, each being shot through the shoulder. As soon as he was able, Captain Stemmons returned to his command. Captain Stemmon's wife was an Allison, who was raised in Greenfield, being a daughter of Judge Mathias Allison. After the war, Billy Williams married Miss Lou Beachley. lie died a few years ago at Dallas, Texas. Each of these two men were lawyers and after the war they formed a partnership and practiced in Dallas, Texas, wh'ere they became very wealthy.

In the early summer of 18432 a part of the Missouri Confederate troops went across the Mississippi river, among them General Price, General Joe Shelby, who was then a Colonel, Colonel Buster and Colonel Clarkson. General Price and General Shelby returned some time in the fall, and Shelby was promoted to the rank of Brigadier General. I don't know just how this happened for Colonel Coffey was senior in rank, but by some hook or crook the plum went to Shelby. After this, Coffey resigned his command and was never in the service again. His wife was a sister to Uncle Samuel Weir of Greenfield. Colonel Coffey was one of the leading lawyers of southwest Missouri and at one time represented Dade County in the State Legislature.

George Wilson, residing one mile southeast of Greenfield, lives on a part of the old Coffey homestead. Colonel Coffey died some years ago at Georgetown, Texas.

After the resignation of Colonel Coffey, CM eon Thompson was elected Colonel and placed in command of the regiment, which was the 3d Missouri cavalry. By reason of numerous losses by death, sickness and mining, the Dade County boys were consolidated into four r-ompanies/ three of cavalry and one of infantry. Captain T. H Lea commanded Company A, I. J. West commanded Company F, F. M. Hastings commanded Company T and John M. Stemmons commanded Company G, all of the 16th Missouri Infantry, composed almost exclusively of boys from Dade county. The greater part of these boys never returned to Dade County. Many of them are qr.ietly sleeping on the battle fields, others are residents of other states, mostly Arkansas and Texas. Colonel James Clarkson never came back across the river, but was promoted to the rank of Brigadier General. After the war while making his way back home, he was murdered at Dead Man's Lake near the Mississippi River. Robbery was supposed to be the motive. General Clarkson was i veteran of the Mexican war and perhaps the greatest military man that ever went out from Dade County. He was an uncle of Fred Clarkson Eastin of Greenfield. He has a number of relatives and descendants in the county. His brother, Vncle Davy Clarkson, as he is familiarly called, served in the Confederate arm durin the entire wa^ re- turned to Dade County and died there several years afterward Each of these men had sons in the Confederate army. Some were killed in battle and others were wounded I recall that young Davy had an arm shot off. The Clarksons were pioneers in Dade County.

I have a complete roster of but two companies which I made from memory many years after the war, and a roster of Company F, 3rd Mo. Cav , made by Hon S. P. Mills, Orderly Sergeant of that company, which will be given herein, and a partial list of the members of Company G, 16th Missouri Infantry, which I will also attach to this sketch

Captain F, M. Hastings of Company I, 3d Mo. Cav., recruited his company mostly in Arkansas, but there were a few Dade County boys in this company. I remember that some of the Janes family from this county belonged, but I am unable to recall their names and have been unable to locnte any of the members of this company who could give me the information. Captain Hastings was a good, brave man and had a splendid company, which always responded when called upon in times of danger. Captain Hastings was Sheriff of Dade County when the war broke out. He had a horse killed from under him by a cannon ball at the battle of Little Rock.

An incomplete roster of Company G, 16th Mo. Tiif., C. S. A.., made from memory after more than fifty years have elapsed, assisted by T. B. Rountree of Cane Hill and Charles Winkle of Greenfield. In the first organization of the company:

In 1863 Stemrnons was elected Major. Rather than to become Captain both W. R. Snadon and W. R. Moore resigned and went to the Cavalry, and John West being wounded, the company was reorganized, and T. M. Mc- Patt was elected Captain; Guss Wetzel, First Lieutenant; Dick Grout, Second Lieutenant; D. R. Mallory, Third Lieutenant; Napokon Parnell, Orderly Sergeant

List Of Dead That Went Out From Dade County

The following is a list of killed from Dade County as I remember, there are others I am sure that I cannot recall their names, as I have nothing to go by and have to trust my memory:

This roster was made out by Hon. S. P. Mills, who was Orderly Sergeant of this company, who represented Mellon County, Texas, in the Legislature two terms and two terms from that Senatorial District, was killed accidentally February 8th, 1916.

Some Of Our Old Confederates

Charley Winkle was of Co. Gr 16th Missouri Infantry - a Tennessean by birth but a Missourian by adoption, being one of Dade County's pioneers. He served through the entire war, and is still young for his age, 64.