Grundy County, Missouri - Chapter 12, 1908

CRIMES, CASUALTIES AND SUICIDES - The Heatherleys - War Time Tragedies - Many Tragic Deaths in Seventies - The Murder of Jack Peffers - The Howell Trial and Sentence - Other Murders, Accidents and Suicides - S. C. Wilson Killed - Death of Bert Joiner - Other Deaths - Mrs. Ben King and Children Drowned.

HE purpose of this chapter is to make mention, briefly of a portion only of those tragic events which have sometime been of great moment to the communities in which they occurred. The record is not complete. The doings of the Heatherleys, Grundy County's first criminals, are matters of tradition rather than of record. We can only know that they were here and committed numerous depredations, horse stealing and pilfering, prior to 1837. In about itS5(S there was a double killing at the town

Much ruffianism naturally existed during the war. Rascals under pretext of loyalty would commit depredations on respectable citizens under the excuse of puiiishiiiL;- an enemy of the couiUrv. A gang of these characters caught and lianged Nathan Sharp, a good citizen, who was a southern sympathizer and liad served in the southern army, while he was ])aying a secret ^-isit to liis wife and children. Joseph Wright, an other good citizen, who lived in Marion township, was shot in his own door yard Novemher lo. iSh^. His murderers _werc never discovered.

November 24, i^yo, James L. IJirdrow, a voung 'man of thirty, was killed by the accidental discharge of a shotgun which he had taken to the field when going to husk corn on his farm in Marion t(.)wnship. On February 10, 1870, Clark Tutnam and a \\'ilmot boy quarreled at a spelling match at the Moss school, near Lindley, and on the wav home fought with knives. W'ilmot was stabbed nigh unto death. Putnam was arrested, cand the next day wandered a short distance from home with his gun. liis dead 1)odv was found shortly after, and he had without doubt shot himself. Benton Wilkerson, who lived in the north part of the county, was killed in December, 1870, bv a tree blown down by the wind.

In the same month a fight occurred between James Renfro and John ?^lcXeal, who lived near the forks of the river. The (|uarrel grew out of trouble between school children. ?^IcXeal was shot and killed in the fight. Renfro was acquitted.

Clement Merkart, a farmer who lived eight miles north of Trenton, was killed September 17, 1874, by a log which he was skidding rolling on him, crushing his hips. He was dug out from under the log by a fourteen-year-old 1)ov and lived twenty-four hours after the accident occurred.

Rev. John Evans, a Baptist minister, living eight miles north of Trenton, was burned in his house in 1875. It is not known whether or not he was murdered.

James Renfro, a Rock Iskmd car repairer, was killed while on duty July 28, 1881. He was at work under a car when the yard men threw another car against it, running it over him.

As a result of a quarrel arising over the terms of rental, Millard Adams killed JNlilton Schooler, who had rented a farm of him, near Spickard, in July, 1882. Adams was sentenced to two years in the penitentiary. The killing was done with a knife.

Susie Justis, a young girl, drowned herself April 24, 1886. In June of that year Wm. Hotchkiss, an employee of the Rock Island, was killed by a train. That July Oliver Smith, a farmer, living six miles southeast of Trenton, while mowing fell from the mower seat in front of the sickle, was dragged fifty yards and killed. Robert Kerfoot, a young man, committed suicide in November, 1876. December 10 Charles Hancock, a ten-year-old Trenton bo}', was drowned, breaking through the ice while skating.

Wm. Kirk, while drunk, knifed his cousin and brother-in-law, Robert Kirk of Franklin Township, in a quarrel starting over a dog fight, December, 1887.

In April 1889, Curt Nichols killed Jack Peffers, an old man who lived in a little house in Grand river bottom near Trenton, with a club, and buried the body in a pile of refuse near the house where it was not found for several weeks. At the time of the murder Nichols was hired to Peffers. He was sentenced to the penitentiary for life, but afterward pardoned out as a consumptive.

Joseph Howell, who murdered Mrs. Minnie Hall, her four children and set fire to their home in Linn County, January 19, 1890, was tried, sentenced and hanged in Trenton.

Sunday, Septemljer 28, 1890, Daniel Berry, eighty years old, a very prominent citizen of Myers Township, was trampled to death by his cattle in his pasture where he had gone to salt them. Frank Ellis, a young man of Franklin township, was drowned while trying to cross Muddy creek, two miles east of Spickard, August, 1890.

found in Grand river, December 3, 1891. His drowning- is thought to have been accidental. Clemens Syres, who lived near Spickard, committed suicide September 12, 1891.

Mrs. Flattie ^^IcCammeron, sick and despondent, sliot lierself, Septeml)er, 1892. Hamilton Bran(l\', in a fit of insanit\', hanged himself in ]\Iay, 1892.

In 1896 Mrs. Anna \'irden committed suicide. ]\lrs. Lon Anderson, two miles northwest of Trenton, shot herself March 7. Albert Haling, age sixteen, was (lro\Mied in Grand river, Franklin Township, August, 1896. Sam Sanders, colored, committed suicide in August of that year.

S. C. A\'ilson, proprietor of the Ron Ton restaiu"ant, Trenton, was called to his back door at night, ]\!arch 2=^, i8(j7, and knocked in the head with an ax. Nearly a vear later W'm. Ferguson was arrested for the murder, and after a long legal battle, convicted and sentenced to the ])enitentiary for life. IJaker Smith was killed bv the accidental discharge of his gun while hunting, Ajjril 12, i8()7.

Charles ^\. Payne had his neck broken by a fall while on a fox chase near Edinburg, Augwst, 1898. In the Septem1:er following J. P. Jarman, mad with

Tn i8(j9 Sam Rinard ot Trenton, assistant roadmaster on the O. (). & K. C, was killed in a wreck near Gait. May 15, Leonard Elmore, the threeyear-old son of Mr. and Mrs. S. A. D. Elmore of Gait, fell into a well and was drowned. Fire Chief Vannatta shot Ed Taylor, colored, porter of the Benlah hotel, in making an arrest, Jannary, 1899. John O. Parsons, a }-onng- l)nsiness man of Edinburg-, was accidentally shot in a scnffle in May, i89(;. In December Lloyd Deal, son of Dr. G. F. Deal, was killed by a train.

EA'ents of the character here sketched which occurred since 1900 are still comparatively fresh in the people's minds. Two tragedies, however, stand out above all the rest. One is the murder of Bert Joiner, ()ctol)er jy), 1905. He was in Trenton that day and started home, north of Trenton, at night, in his Imggv. His body, badly 1)nrned, and with a bullet in the l)reast, was found in the buggy which was on fire when the horse was stopped on the road three miles north of Trenton. His murderers ha^-e ne\-er been disco^'ered.

B. B. King, station agent at Brimson, in a carriage with his wife, daughter, granddaughter and a niece and nephew from Kansas City, visiting them, attem])ted to (lri\e across Sugar creek during an overflow. The carriage was swe])t over l:)y the water. ]\Irs. King and the ne])hew and niece were drowned, the bodv of the former not being