Johnson County, Missouri - Chapter 4: - Early Settlements, 1918

PRIMITIVE MOHES OF TRAVEL - SANTA FE TRAIL - EXTRACT FROJl 'TIOXEF-R FAMILIES OF MISSOURI" - FIRST SETTLEMENTS IN JOHNSON COUNTYPLEASANT RICE - NICHOLAS HOUX - JOHN H, INGRAM - JONATHAN AND BALDWIN FINE - WILLIAM CHEEK - WILLIAM NORRIS - JUDGE HARVEY HARRISON - STEPHEN BLEVINS - LIST OF HEADS OF FAMILIES IN MARCH, 1S31 - REMINISCENCES - CHILHOWEE OLD SETTLERS' REUNION.

Early Settlements. - The early settlers in Johnson county came by flatboats. keelboats and steamboats, in wagons, on horseback and on foot. The first steamboat on the Missouri river made its first trip to Franklin. Missouri, about 1819.

About this time there were prospects rapidly developing for a large trade in the Southwest, and the Santa Fe trail was established by act of Congress.

Along this road came many of the early settlers of Johnson county until they reached points north of this county and there struck south to the places \\ here they finally settled.

"In the early days there were no railroads or steamboats or even stage coaches, and the early settlers had to provide their own means of travel. Some built flatboats and keelboats. into which they loaded their goods and families, and floated down the Ohio and its tributaries, to the ]\Iississip])i and then toiled up that stream and the Missouri, and up the latter to their destination, dragging their clumsy boats by towlines or forcing them along with oars and poles. Others packed their goods, wives and children on horses and came through the wilderness, supplying themselves with meat from the wild game which they killed with their rifles as they came along and still others, too poor to own horses or build boats, shouldered what few articles of worldly goods they possessed and came on foot.

"Thev all located in the woods, near the water courses, and built their houses near some nice cool, bubbling spring. The idea of settling on the rich prairies never occurred to them. They imagined that

"Their houses were built of rough logs, with puncheon floors, clapboard roofs, and great broad flaring chimneys, composed of sticks and mud. Sometimes they had no floors in their houses, except the ground, beaten smooth and hard and swept clean every day. Iron nails were not to be had, and the boards of their roofs were fastened with wooden pins or weighted with poles and stones."

The first buildings were not like the log cabins which required some help and considerable labor to build - they were a cross between "hoop cabins" and Indian sack huts. Many pioneers lived in these round-pole cabins for the first few years before enough men could be gotten together for building a log house.

Very few, e\en of the log cabins, had a window with a sash and glass. Sometimes they made a window with greased paper, but more often there was nothing over the window, or the inmate omitted the window altogether and depended for light on such as came through the cracks between the logs where there was no chinking or daubing. The doors were fastened with wooden latches and swung on wooden hinges. The chinking was done with blocks of wood and the daubing with mud made from the top soil.'

.\ cupboard was built in the side of the wall and a "one-legged bedsteatl" erected. The latter was a primitive article of furniture, which as its name would suggest, was necessarily built in the corner. Clapboards were laid in the rude frame, or hickory bark woven from side to side. Upon this rested the feather-bed. There was no such thing as a cookstove in those days.

The cooking was all done at the big wood fire with a few iron pots, skillets, ovens and kettles. Before the mills were accessible "hominv blocks" were used. A log 18 to 28 inches in diameter and from four to five feet long was made square at both ends, then stood on one end and a cavity chopped in the other. When the cavity was large enough a fire was built in it to burn the surface off smooth. It was now complete and resembled a large druggist's mortar. The pestle was made of a suitable piece of timber. In the "hominy block" corn was pounded, and one block often accommodated an entire neighborhood. Sometimes a family ground their meal in a coffee mill and sometimes a grater was made by pricking holes in a piece of tin, and after the corn was softened somewhat by boiling on the ear, meal could be grated. Wheat flour was very scarce and in many families practically unknown.

The following extract from "Pioneer Days in Johnson County," published by the Elizabeth Randolph Chapter, D. A. R., in the "Holden Enterprise," is a fine account of early farming:

"A few acres fenced the first year for a corn patch, and a few vegetables, with the hunting that was expected to be done (for deer, elk and bear abounded), was all that was contemplated. This was enough, however, as the land must be grubbed, planted and cultivated and the only implements used were a 'bull-tongue' Colter plow and grubbing hoe. The plow was drawn by a pair of oxen, steady but sure. .\ rudely constructerl wooden harrow and the top of a tree for a brush, were often used to level the pulverized ground. Each succeeding year more land was opened up. and by the time a farmer owned twentyfive to fifty acres of cultivated land he had more than he could manage.

"But few employed help, except in making rails. Rail-splitting was an avocation in which numbers of young men of poor parentage engaged. They were paid on the average one dollar per hundred rails and their board. At this business some saved money and became free-holders."

In the early days, fruits and vegetables raised by the settlers were never sold. If a man raised more than he needed and his neighbor wanted any, he gave them to him. The writer's father, who was born in the county in 1834, said that potatoes, apples, and such products were given away in this manner for many years, and a sale was unknown until long after he was a grown man.

The first permanent settlement in Johnson county was made in 1828 by Pleasant Rice or Nicholas Houx, in what became Columbus township. The Johnson County History of 1881 contains the following:

"Several writers have disagreed concerning the date of the first settlement. AA^e ha\e, by close investigation, searched every avenue for a correct record of the first man who settled in the county. For a long time, the honor of the first settlement has been given to Columbus township, and a few from his prominence, have believed the esteemed pioneer, Nicholas Houx, to have l)een the first permanent settler. Not plucking any honors from this honored and respected pioneer, we find that Pleasant Rice settled in this township in the spring, and Nicholas

"It has been reported that a few hunters had camped in various parts of the county prior to this time and that a hut by John Leeper was erected in the woods on Walnut creek in that part of the county now called Grover township. Even if this be so, Indian like, they passed away before permanent settlements were made.

On the other hand, Mrs. Rachel Fulkerson Martin, daughter of Dr. James Monroe Fulkerson and grand-daughter of Nicholas Houx, says that her family was always told and believed that Nicholas Houx was the first settler, and was immediately followed by Pleasant Rice. Other members of the Houx family have the same understanding.

The record of land entries in the government plat book show that Pleasant Rice, Nicholas Houx and John H. Ingram all entered land the same day. Ma}' 1, 1828, the earliest authentic record of land entry in the county.

Following these Columbus settlements were those in the neighboring community of Jackson township around Basin Knob. Jonathan and Baldwin Fine came in 1829 and settled here. Other early settlers were :

\\'illiam Cheek, in 1831, built a water mill and sawed lumber on Clear Fork near the line of Grover and AWishington townships. He sold to James A. Gallaher in 1834, and this became Gallaher's Mill, and one of the first two voting places in the county.

The Johnson County History of 1881, under the history of Chilhowee township, says that William Norris settled near Walnut Grove cemetery, sometimes called the Carpenter graveyard, in 1829. and that year planted twenty seedling apple trees in the brush thicket, and also that he built the first grist-mill in the county. The editor has no reason to doul)t this date, but has been unable to corroborate it.

In March, 1831, Judge Harvey Harrison and his wife, and his father ;in<l all his father's family settled about two and a half miles west of the present site of Fayetteville.

In ]\Iarch, 1831. there were almut fifteen heads of families in the county. The following is a list, given liy Judge Harvey Harrison to Mr. \\. E. Crissey in 1889:

"There were at this time but about fifteen heads of families in the (Johnson) county and they were named as follow: Nicholas Houx, at Columbus; Pleasant Rice, southeast of Columlius; Richard Bradley, Uriel Murray, Richard Huntsman, father of John Huntsman, of Huntsman's favorite apple fame. Dr. Rankin. Robert King.

with her two sons, Thomas Evans. Daniel Blevins. Sr.. Daniel Blevins. Jr.. Johnson Mulkey, Andrew Blevins, .'Stephen Blevins. single man. and Martin Warren. Jr. The Martin Jr., was not the Martin A\'arren. Sr.. after whom the city, or town of Warrenslnn-g was named. These were all living in the county (now Johnson) when we came here in 1831. For about two years after that I kept track of those that came to the county and knew them all, but after that tlie\- came too fast and I was unable to know everybody."

Reminiscences. - The following edited account of our early settlements and history was given to W. E. Crissey by Harvey Harrison (Judge Harrison) in March. 1889. Judge Harrison said in his statement:

"I was born in Blount county. East Tennessee, March 7, 1806. and can remember incidents of eighty years ago. ^^d^en I was six months old, my father moved to .\labaina. I was married on the 12th da\- of March. 1829. This year, father and our family and m\- wife started for Missouri. My father had an old-fashioned \'irginia wagon hauled bv six horses and he had it full of his goods. He also had a one-horse buggv and besides this a two-wheeled gig. stout and strong. This gig I rigged up with a sort of body to it large enough to get the stuf¥ of myself and wife in it, and in this myself and wife rode, lived and slept in all the journey. We reached the Mississippi river at St. Louis and crossed it there. I would say it was a town then about as large, perhaps a little larger, than ^^'arrensburg is now. In 1831, my father and his entire family, including myself and wife, moved to what is now Johnson county. Missouri. W'e settled about two and a half or three miles west of what is now Favetteville. We unloaded on the 22nd day of March. 1831. In two davs we had a shelter, or camp, rigged up and in two weeks each familv bad a cabin of poles or logs with ground floor and clap-board roof, very comfortable. When we arrived at this place there was but one house south of Blackwater creek and that was a cabin at High Point of Tebo in the southeastern part of Johnson county as it now is. This was the house of John Brummett, a squatter.

"The country was most delightful. It was one vast expanse of undulating prairie and in mid-summer covered with tall waving grass, interspersed here and there with strips or belts of timber along the courses of the little streams. The choicest variety of game abounded. Absolutely beautiful.

"Every autumn when the prairie grasses had withered and dried, about the month of November usually, the prairies were burned. Probably these fires were started by the Indians for the purpose of driving game, or from some other unknown cause, the fires originated. The prairies would then become a vast sea of flames and woe be to the settler that had not taken the precautions to guard against them. While these fires were raging we had for from about four to six weeks what was known as Indian summer and for weeks at a time the smoke would be so dense that we could not see the sun. In the spring the ground would be free from grass and the wild flowers would spring up in endless variety and profusion and for some weeks, until the grass had hidden them from view, the prairies \\'ould be one vast flower garden. Constantly as one variety would cease to bloom others would take their places with ever changing colors and perfumes. I cannot describe these scenes in all their beauty and delight.

"After the site of Warrensburg was selected and before the ground could be platted, John Evans and James S. Raynols built a round pole cabin on the ground north of Gay street, where Joseph E. Lightner now lives, for a store house. This in 1835. This was the first merchant's store in or near Warrensburg.

"As well as I can remember, John Evans built the first store house in the corporate limits. It was at the northeast corner of Main and Gay streets, where William Brammer's house now stands."

Old Settlers' Reunion. - There are today living but few^ of the early settlers of the county. The largest gathering of them is at the Chilhowee Old Settlers' Reunion, which has been held annually for twelve years now. The following is the list of those present at the reunion in 1917. who have

The foregoing names are naturally chiefly of those who live near Chilhowee. In the two townships where the first settlements were made, Cobb Rice is said to have resided longest in Columbus township, having been born there and Airs. Lizzie Reese longest in lackson township.