Jasper County, Missouri - Chapter 8: Reorganization of the County, 1912

Cave Spbings, Tempobaby County Seat - Honest John Onstott and THE Treasury - Carthage Reestablished as the County Seat - Substantial New-Comers - ^Registration Under **Test Oath" - County Officers (1865-70) - The Court of Common Pleas - ^Business Enterprises at the County Seat - Carthage Banks - ^Establishment OF THE ''Carthage Banner" - Towns Founded in the 'Sixties - Town Population in 1869.

The revised constitution of Missouri went into eflEect on July 4, 1865, and immediate steps were taken by the goyemor to reorganize the counties which had been disorganized during the war, and the following officers were appointed to assume the reins of government in Jasper county : County court^W. B. Hamilton, F. B. Nichols and Thomas Caldwell; sheriff - S. H. Caldwell; county clerk - ^W. G. Bulgin; treasurer - J. H. Pullerton ; prosecuting attorney - Joseph Estus. Hon. John H. Price was judge of the circuit court.

As Carthage had been destroyed during the war and the court house burned, the governor named Cave Springs in the east-central part of the county as the temporary county seat, and here the newly appointed county officers assembled October 10, 1865, and assumed their respective offices. They at once began the task of reorganizing the county.

Officers were appointed for the several townships and road districts. Steps were taken to collect the interests on the school fund, to forfeit lands where payments had not been mMe ajid to collect the several notes which were due in payment for swamp lands with the view of reorganizi^g the schools of the county.

At the first session of the county court held after the reorganization, the closing act of one of the heroic incidents of the Civil war took place - the final transaction in the saving of the counl^ treasury.

At the election 1860 Archibald McCoy was elected county treasurer and entered upon the duties o^ the office January 1, 1861, with John Onstott, Jolfm Scott and Martin Holsey as bondsmen.

for his life. He called his bondsmen together and announced his intention of leaving the state, and asked them to take the money belonging to the county and relieve him of the responsibility before his departure. John Scott was chosen by the bondsmen to take the money. The next day Mr. McCoy was killed. A few days later Mr. Soott decided to leave the state, his life also having been threatened, and accordingly came to Mr. Onstott and turned over the money to him, two hundred and fifty dollars in Missouri state bank notes and about thirteen hundred dollars in gold.

Mr. Onstott placed the money in a large glass candy jar and buried it on his farm. After the county funds had been buried for about a year, fearing that the bills would decay he dug up the money and after removing the bank notes, which were almost decomposed, he replaced the gold in the hiding place. Shortly after removing the paper money to his house a company of Pin Indians, members of a United States Volunteer regiment, swooped down on the Onstott house and carried away the two hundred and fifty dollars besides other property.

In the spring of 1863, seeing that local conditions were most deplorable - ^the county being the scene of activity for numerous foraging parties from both armies - ^also that the hatred and bitterness caused by the war was most intense and feeling that his own life was in danger - Mr. Onstott took his son Abraham (A. W. Onstott, mining superintendent, Joplin), who was then a boy of about twelve, and confided to hiin the secret of the county treasurer. After showing him the hiding place he told his son that in the event of his death he wanted him to guard the treasure as a sacred trust and, when the war was over and the county reorganized, to restore it to the proper officers. Shortly after this, feeling that his safety was in danger the father secured a pass for himself and family for safe conduct through the Federal lines and went northeast into Dade county, with instruction for his wife and son to follow should conditions seem to demand it.

In 1863 General Thomas Ewing entered Jasper county in pursuit of General Joe Shelby, the famous Missouri cavalry leader of the southern army and after several short skirmishes went into camp in and around the Onstott farm, using the old farm place as his headquarters.

Young Onstott and his mother seeing that this was an opportune time to remove the money to a safer place, also to join Mr. Onstott, secured an escort from General Ewing 's army and after digging up the money, which was safe and sound and not a dollar missing, placed it in a sack with some produce and started to join the elder member of the family, whom they met in Dade county and with him went north to Pettis county where they lived until the close of the war.

While in Pettis county the money was securedly hidden under the floor of the house and there remained until Mr. Onstott returned to Jasper county in the spring of 1865. On his return, however, he found things still in an unsettled condition, the county court house had been burned; some of the county records had been lost and those that had been preserved were in the court house at Fort Scott, Kansas, where they had been taken for safe keeping. The county was completely disorganized ; there were no officers or county records and so Mr. Onstott again buried the county money where it remained until shortly after peace was declared and the county was reorganized.

On the day the court opened its session at Cave Springs Mr. Onstott, accompanied by his son, Abraham, went to the place designated for the assembling of that body (a tumble-down store building), and when the court was ready for business appeared before them and informed them that he had come for the purpose of restoring the county funds. Then, opening a sack in which he had brought the treasure the honest - man emptied it on the table, while the court and other officers looked^ in amazement not knowing that a dollar had been saved, the treasurer^ book having been destroyed when the court house was burned.

The court then questioned Mr. Onstott sharply as to the amount of money which the bondsmen had received from the treasurer before he had been killed, and demanded that the two hundred and fifty dollars which had been taken from the Onstott home by the Indians be made good. Mr. Onstott said that he felt in honor bound to return every cent, but thought it only right that he be allowed to return to the county two hundred and fifty dollars of Missouri bank notes, the same kind of money which he had received. The court decided, however, that as the Missouri bank had failed during the war and the money had little or no value that the two hundred and fifty must be replaced with two hundred and fifty dollars of United States legal tender notes.

Mr. Onstott said if that was the way they felt about it that he would bring in two hundred and fifty dollars of legal tender to take the place of the stolen two hundred and fifty Missouri state bank notes.

The court then passed a resolution demanding that Mr. Onstott pay the county the interest on the money for the time it had been in his possession. At this he became righteously indignant. For four years he had guarded the county fund as a sacred trust ; he had risked his life to save this money ; and now to be asked to pay interest for the use of money which he h^d so carefully guarded from spoliation was more than he could stand, and so he rose hastily from his seat and placing the money back in the sack said, ''gentlemen I had done what I thought was right, but as for the interest I wiU law you to the last court before I will pay one dollar of your unjust demand."

The court perceiving that they had made a blunder quickly decided to accept the money. Mr. Onstott then reopened the sack and left with them the money he had brought. Returning home he sold his wagon and horses for two hundred and fifty dollars and took to the court this money, to replace the state bank notes which had been stolen from his home during the war. After Mr. Onstott had turned over to the county court the two hundred and fifty dollars of paper money they reopened the question of interest and brought suit against him to recover the same.

The suit on coming on for trial was dismissed. The old timers, who appreciated the honesty of Mr. Onstott, often referred to the incident as the case where the treasurer was indicted for being an honest man.

There were no conveniences for holding court or caring for the county offices at Cave Springs. The sessions of the court were held in the old schoolhouse and there was no place that could be used for a jail, or a safe place in which to keep the records, and the people damored for the removal of the county seat back to Carthage, which was not only centrally located but had the advantage of a fairly good system of public roads which had been worked before the war.

The few remaining citizens of Carthage and the surrounding neighborhood at once began to rebuild. We are informed by J. C. Oaston, of Joplin, one of the first new-comers to Carthage after the war, that in the spring of 1866 there were less than a dozen families in Carthage. He and his estimable wife arrived there in April of that year.

the town had been depopulated and how thoroughly the old town had been razed during the battle of Carthage and the numerous raids and skirmishes which took place in and around the county seat.

From the ruins of the old county court house enough bricks and lumber were collected to build a small court house on the northwestern part of the lot on which now stands the county jail, and to this building were brought the records in September, 1866, and with the holding of court there on the 24th of that month, the reestablishment of the county seat at Carthage was completed.

The opportunities in Jasper county were exceptionally great. There were yet unsold 100,000 acres of the school lands, counting those which had been forfeited during the war, and these tracts were on the market at a small figure. The opportunity to get splendid farms at exceptionally low prices brought in a large number of new settlers, and it might be here remarked that the new comers, for the most part, were energetic, intelligent and enterprising citizens and that their thrift, enterprise and education built up a splendid social structure and gave the county a prestige which at once pushed her to the front.

We note among those who came to the county during the later 'sixties the following named gentlemen, each of whom has played an important part in the history of the county : 0. H. and W. H. Picher, W. H. Phelps, Al Thomas, M. G. McGregor, A. H. and W. H. Caffee, A. M. Drake, J. C. Gaston, John Reynolds, Pat Murphy, C. W. Elliott, J. M. Young, G W. Crow, W. H. Cloud, Peter Myers, C. A. Cassel, E. W. Harper, T. Regan, W. H. Moore and Qeorge Raider.

The revised constitution of Missouri went into effect July 4th, 1865, and contained among other provisions that as a precedent to exercising the right of franchise, serving on juries and holding ofKce, ''a test oath" should be taken and subscribed to in which the party make affidavit that he hiad been loyal to the Union. The law also provided that ministers, teachers and lawyers could not follow their vocation unless they had taken the Iron-Clad oath and a copy of such was on file in the county clerk's office.

To enforce this law a register was appointed in each county to make a list of the qualified voters and to administer the oath to such as desired to be registered.

This law, of course, disfranchised all of the citizens of the county who had been in the Confederate army, and quite a number who had taken no part in the war were not able to prove their loyalty and their names were stricken from the registration books.

There was a light vote polled in the county at the election of November, 1866, for two reasons - ^first, because only the loyal citizens could vote and, secondly, because most of the new-comers who might otherwise have registered had not yet gained their citizenship by the required one year's residence.

The only party in 1866 was the Republican party, and not much interest was manifested in the election excepting for the nomination of candidates, but in 1868 a new local party came into existence and, although not victorious, polling less than one-third of the vote of the county, put up a good fight and made the V^mpaign both exciting and intere^ing.

Many of the Republicans when the war was over advocated the policy of extending the hand of fellowship to the defeated party of the south, granting th^m the right of suffrage and restoring to them all of their civil rights. This faction was called the Liberal Republicans and those who opposed restoring the rights of citissenship were called Radicals.

The Liberal Republican party in Jasper county formed the People's Club and the few Democrats in the county who were eligible to vote afiSliated with the Liberals.

The leaders of the two factions in Jasper county were for the Radicals, Colonel W. H. Cloud, ex-colonel of the Sixth Kansas Cavalry; W. H. Garland, editor of the Banner; J. M. Young, superintendent of the Qranby Company ; J. S. Rhoades, 0. H. Picher, Charles W. Elliott and E. M. Burch.

The leaders of the People's Club (Liberal Republicans) were Norris C. Hood, L. C. Cunningham and W. Baxla. S. R. H. Rose and J. F. Hopkins were neutral, and W. H. Phelps and Franklin Davis, Democrats.

The campaign was hotly contested and was closed on October 25th by the Radicals with a rally at Carthage which was attended by three thousand people. One of the features of the rally was a horseback parade which contained ten marching dubs, some from out of the county. The registration of the county in 1868 was as follows: McDonald township, 209 ; North Fork township, 90 ; Preston township, 167 ; Jasper township, 91; Center Creek township, 97; Mineral township, 173; Jackson township, 143; Marion township, 499; Sarcoxie township, 228. Total, 1,697.

The principal interest centered in the election of representative, the Radical candidate being Colonel J. Morris Young of Minersville and the People's Club candidate, Norris C. Hood of Carthage. . The, prefsidential vote in the county was as follows: U. S. Grant, Republican, 1,199 ; H. Seymour, Democrat, 444.

On account of the activities of the People's Club Mr. Hood, the candidate of the liiberai Republican party, polled a good vote, but he was defeated by Colonel Young by a considerable majority running slightly behind General Grant, the presidential candidate.

During the later 'sixties the following officers served the county from the reorganization until 1870 which was designated the reconstruction period.

On March 4, 1869, the legislature passed an act creating the court of common pleas for Jasper county. The court exercised probate jurisdiction; appellate jurisdiction in appeal cases from the mayor of Carthage and from justices of the peace, and original and concurrent jurisdiction in cases where the amount involved did not exceed one thousand dollars. Hon. 0. H. Picher, of Carthage, was api>ointed the first judge and reelected in 1870.

The same year A. H. & W. H. Caflfee, with J. C. Young, established the drug business which before the death of the senior member of thi^ firm had grown to be the largest store of the kind in the county.

T. Began established a saw-mill at Carthage and advertised to saw lumber on shares. In the 'sixties and early 'seventies, this was a great mill and did a thriving business. One dollar and a half per one hundred feet was paid for logs and the mill turned out laths, dimension lumber and plain oak boards.

Ruffin & McDonald were general merchants and carried a large line of all kinds of wares; Grey & OTCeif and S. B. Com were the leading dry-goods firms and Mars & Cahn were clothiers.

C. A. Cassell was the president and E. W. Harper cashier of the Bank of Carthage. Both banks did a good business, enjoyed an extensive patronage and lent a financial dignity to the county.

A good newspaper has much to do in shaping the destinies of any community. Before the war the Southwest News had exerted a great influence in creating a secession sentiment in Jasper county and so, in 1866 when W. H. Garland founded the Carthage Banner, he brought into the community a great force for the Republican party. It was for years an exponent of Republicanism and a paper of the fighting kind. Mr. Qarland was a fluent writer and forceful in argument.

The Banner was also a newspaper and in its columns were chronicled all of the important happenings. It was later edited by A. F. Lewis and continued to be a power in the county until 1888, when it was sold.

In compiling this history of Carthage we have had the use of a file of the Carthage Banner kept by John Nilson, of Carl Junction, who became a subscriber to the paper in 1868 and was one of its readers until it passed to the Carthage Press.

Franklin Sides laid out an addition to Fidelity (a village which had been founded in 1856 by WiUiam Cloe) and erected a large store building. S. H. Caldwell, on closing his term of office as sheriff, began the erection at Fidelity of a large mill and for a time this little village gave promise of being a town of importance. Fellowship Lodge No. 345, A. F. & A. M., now of Joplin, was founded here in 1869.

The same year (New) Medoc was laid off, about a quarter of a mile west of the old trading point, by William A. Allison, and at once grew to be a town of importance. 1868 saw the town with approximately two hundred people and the following industries: One saw-mill, two drygoods stores, one general store, two hotels, one meat market, one grocery store, one cooper shop and two blacksmith and wagon shops.

Medoc Lodge No. 335, A. F. & A. M. (now Joplin Lodge No. 335), was organized at Medoc on June 18, 1869. During that year also four churches carried on the work of evangelization.

Georgia City was laid out January 18, 1868, by John C. Guinn and named after his native state. William A. Fugit, John C. Cox & Son started stores there, and Georgia City for a time was a flourishing town. Some years ago the town plat was vacated and is now farm land, there remaining of the original town only a store and a blacksmith shop. John

C. Guinn, the founder of the town, is rated the largest real estate owner in the county, possessing 17,000 broad acres of Jasper county land.

In 1868 Franklin Side laid off the town of Diamond, in northern portion of Diamond Grove, and erected there a large store building, hauling the lumber overland from Sedalia. Like Fidelity the business of this town did not flourish after the founding of the mining town of Scotland and is now only a memory.

Galesburg was platted 1869 by John R. Cabbanis on the site of the old Talbott mill, which was burned in 1861. Mr. Cabannis rebuilt the property, making it larger and placing therein better and more improved milling machinery. He also added to this a carding plant and his mill at once became famous. A postoffice was established at the town and Mr. Cabannis was appointed postmaster. The Galesburg dam across Spring river is one of the best in the county. The water has a free fall of some nine feet and furnishes a water power sufficient to run a much larger plant.

During the 'sixties Sarcoxie was incorporated as a village, the date being August 29, 1868. After a short period the government was discontinued for a time, the people feeling that the additional advantages to be gained did not compensate the extra cost of government. It was not reincorporated, therefore, until the 'eighties.

In March, 1869, the Carthage Boomer published a statement giving the estimated population of the several towns of Jasper county, based upon an actual count in Carthage (a special census) and an estimate of the other towns based on the number of families residing in the same. The Banner's figures on the population were as follows: Carthage, 1,782; Minersville, 350; Sarcoxie, 300; Medoc, 225; Georgia City, 200; Avilla, 160; Galesburg, 100; Fidelity, 50; New Sherwood, 30.

Sarcoxie and Carthage both had a regular stage-line making connections with Springfield, and there was also a considerable overland travel from Carthage to Neosho, Baxter Spring, Fort Scott and Sedalia, the latter point being the principal base of supplies. Most of the merchandise and other freight came to Jasper county overland, via Sedalia.

It will be readily seen how anxious the people were for a railroad and how eagerly they took up with any proposition looking to a better means of transportation.