McDonald County, Missouri - Chapter 12: Miscellaneous, 1897

Last Saturday was a day that will long be remembered by the citizens of the Southwest as the occasion of the heaviest rainfall ever witnessed in this county. The rain here began about daylight Saturday morning and continued during the entire day, occasionally abating only to come again with increased fury, until the whole face of the earth seemed one solid sheet of water. The damage done in McDonald county is almost incalculable. The roads are washed out until in many places it is impossible to pass with wagons, while farmers who live along the various water courses in the county, have suffered, in many instances, irreperable loss, their fences having been washed away and growing crops overflowed and washed up until it is impossible for them to mature into anything like a medium yield.

Among those who have lost most heavily, commencing at Jasper Brown's saw mill on Big Sugar Creek, is the school district in which the mill was located, lost the lumber that it had bought to build a new school house, while many individuals lost small amounts of lumber they had had sawed and left stacked in the yard. The farmers along down the creek lost all their fences that were on the bottoms. I. H. Prater who lives on what is known as the St. John farm says there were 10,000 rails washed away on that farm and fifty acres overflowed. The water rose until it stood three inches deep in Abraham Price's house, and the entire bottom below was submerged. J. H. Hannah's saw mill was washed away, also all his saw logs and a lot of lumber. The Langley boys lost 1,000 bu. of old corn they had penned up near the river. Pleas Manning lost nearly all of his wheat, as did Judge Shambaugh. It is estimated that ten thousand dollars would not repay the damages done on the three farms belonging to Messers Manning, Langley and Shambaugh.

The damages on Indian and Buffalo creeks were equally as great as that on the other streams mentioned. Taking all together si 50- 000 would not more than replace the damage done in the county.

During the war, Asberry Carter, a single man twenty five or thirty years of age, was one of the residents of Pineville. He was possessed of considerable means, in cash which he kept buried at various places in the vicinity, frequently moving it. J. H. Moffett informs me that he saw one place near where Mr. Foley now lives, where Carter had dug up his money. At another time Mr. Moffett saw where he had dug it up from between two oaks or black jacks on the south side of the river near where Abe Price now lives. It is also reported that it was once buried in what is now Neff's field. The amount is s2,600, about si, 900 in gold, the remainder, I believe, all in silver.

One day in 1862 or 1863, Carter went down the river to Thomas Bradley's, who lived about two and one-half miles below Pineville on what is now known as the Bonebrake farm. While there a couple of Indians came along and he and Bradley traded, or talked of trading hats or some other small article with them. One of the Indians got hold of a handkerchief of Carter's which he did not wish to part with. He snatched it from the Indian's hand whereupon the Indian shot him dead.

As Mr. Carter had never revealed to any one the place where his money was buried, it remains a secret to this day. Some think it is on the bluff east of Mrs. Yonce's residence. Others say it was down the river bottom not far from the grave yard. Others think it is near the school house. For many years after the war hundreds of searches wTere made, and every spot that indicated that the soil had been broken was dug up and examined. As late as the summer of 1895 an old gentleman from Kansas thought he had the place located. He was seen day after day near the school house a few yards in front of the dwelling of the writer stepping off the ground first one wTay and then another, as if carefully measuring the locality. After several days surveying he located the place at the root of a small tree, claiming the money had been hidden in a hollow stump at that point.

Thus ended the last, as all former searches had ended, in disappointment, and the fortune of Asberry Carter still lies hidden near our little towrn, perhaps within a stone's throw of the home of some family wTho are suffering for the co in torts of life.

Henry Schell, father of the several men of that name who now live in this county, was one of the oldest settler of Mountain township. By his thrift and industry he had not only acquired a good farm, but had considerable money which he kept about the place. When the war came up he kept his money buried as a precaution against robbers which infested the county. The exact amount is not known, but is suspected to be something over $300. On July 11, 1863, Mr. Schell was killed by some Union scouts who were on a raid in this section of the state. He had never revealed to any one the place where the money was secreted. After the war was over the family felt that they would be safe in possession of it, and began to search for it. Every nook and corner of the premises and buildings was hunted over time and again. The garden was plowed several times and every particle of dirt examined, but years passed by without any return for their labor. Finally some of the money was found in an old stump, the amount not remembered. One day an arrangement had been made for all the interested parties to meet and continue the search. Xone came but Henry and Jessee Schell, two of the sons. They went to an old stable that was about rotted down and concluded to search there. On digging down by one of the logs they found two hundred and fifty odd dollars. Of the amount found $1 12 w7as in gold, the balance in silver. There is one package of fifty dollars that has never been found. Among the money found in the stable was a 1-frank piece, a 37 1-2 cent piece and one counterfeit 50 cent piece. Phillip Schell still has these as keepsakes which he prizes very highly.

N. C. Stafford and J. H. Cowan, both respectable citizens of Cyclone township, relate quite an interesting adventure with black wolves. When the war ended they, with a few others returned to Sugar creek and all but Stafford went down to Jack Hampton's, he being the only man then left in that vicinity. A turkey hunt had been planned for the night and the party were to meet about dark for that purpose. Stafford, instead of going down to Hampton's, went up to the Stafford premises. He found the timber all on fire and the buildings burning. On his way up he soon heard the sniff of a wolf. Soon another and another, and before he reached where the stables were on fire they were howling within a few yards and becoming more numerous. He went on to where the dwelling was on fire, but the pack grew more numerous and daring, so he made his way a short distance down the hill to an old los; building, which had been used as a school house. He took refuge in this from which he was rescued in a short time by the party who were to meet him at the Stafford place to hunt turkeys.

There was an abundance of game before the war bat during that four years it was practically unmolested and increased in great abundance. The woods were full of turkeys and it was an easy matter to find their roosting places and slip up and shoot them in the night. This was the principal way of killing them by some hunters. Such was the plan for the evening in question, and they proceeded in quest of the game. The wolves, however w e re turkey hungry too, and followed the party, keeping in the dark so as to be out of danger of their rifles. Plenty of roosts were found and many shots were fired, but in every instance where the turkey fell more than a few yards from the hunters, it was grabbed by a wolf and carried away before they could get to it. Only getting three turkeys during the night out of perhaps as many dozen, the wolves getting the balance. There were a number of dogs along, but after one or two ventures, they could not be driven from the feet of their master.

N. C. Stafford and J. H. Cowan recount an adventure with a deer that for a time looked quite serious for the parties engaged. They were out hunting and came up with a buck which one of them had wounded where the dogs had caught it in a deep hole in the creek. Mr. Cowan caught it by one horn and pulled it along the drift to the shore where they threw it on its back and prepared to cut its throat. Stafford drew his long hunting knife, but as the cold steel touched the deer's throat it struck Stafford's hand with its hind foot peeling the skin from his wrist to his knuckles, while the knife whizzed away and stuck in the ground several yards distant. This left them unarmed and they could neither hold on nor let go with safety, but they finally stunned it with rocks so it could be finished with a knife. These two men for some three or four years after the war were engaged in hunting most of the time. A favorite method of kiling deer was by "shining their eyes", as it was called. The two would hunt together afetr night, one carrying a torch while the other carried the gun. The deer would stand and look at the light as though in wonder, while the hunter would take aim between its glistening orbs and bring it down. Besides deer and turkey, they would occasionally get a bear or panther.

A few years before the war a large black bear on several occasions was seen to take refuge in a cave at the forks of Granny's branch, where is now Joe Mustine's field near Cyclone. Numerous attempts were made to get him out, but without success. One or more parties started to enter the cave and kill or drive him out. . But the bear showed fight, and they beat a hasty retreat. Fires were then built in the mouth of the cave to smoke him out. After being satisfied that the bear was overcome with the smoke, they waited until it cleared away when three men with torches started in to search for him. In a few moments they heard a faint cry and one of the three came staggering back with the word that the other two were overcome with "fire damp" and he had just strength to return and give the alarm. Seizing larger torches to drive off the foul air, others rushed to the rescue of their two comrades and brought them out perfectly limber and apparently lifeless. On being returned to the fresh air, however, they soon revived. The dead bear, which weighed about 400 pounds was afterwards taken out, but the meat had spoilt.

Mr. Stafford relates the following account of killing his first bear. His father had a corn field and bear were so numerous that they had taken to it and were destroying the corn like a gang of hogs. Claib was quite a small boy, but his father sent him around the field one day to see if all was right, allowing him to take the gun. He heard a noise in the corn near where a large log was lying, at the side of which grew a sapling. He saw something black by this little tree which he thought was a large coon. He put his gun through the fence, took aim at the center of its breast and fired. Being a little uncertain as to his game he started back home, but soon met his father who had heard the gun fire and had started to see what was up. Together they approached the log, and there lay a large bear shot through the heart. The log had concealed the lower part of its body, and its head was hid by the corn and branches of the sapling, exposing only a small part of its breast which he took to be a coon on the side of the little tree.

Tuesday morning, August 17, 1897, about ten o'clock our usually quiet town was thrown into a fever of excitement by the robbery of the Mc- Donald County Bank.

Mr. Shields was sitting under the awning north of the door, Mr. LaMance just to his left and Mr. Manning was sitting just inside of the door. All three were quietly talking when two men suddenly came around the corner of the building from the north side and told Shields and Manning they wanted the money and wanted it d - n quick. Mr. Shields began to remonstrate when he was promptly knocked over with a Winchester, and sent on his all-fours after the cash. They were followed into the vault by one of the robbers a medium sized man who kept his Winchester presented and with much profanity and threatening urged them to hurry. He produced a sack and compelled them to throw in the money. The other, a large, tall man stood in the door, guarded LaMance and kept watch of the outside movements. He was cautioned by the robber inside to keep his eye on the hardware.

LaMance stood twirling a bunch of keys and talking to the man in the door, and at one time the fellow laughed at one of LaMance's droll remarks. He would probably have been thrown off his guard had his demeanor not been observed by the leader inside, who cautioned him to watch more carefully.

They had come into town from the Big Sugar Creek road and hitched their horses at the back of Wear's lot just west of the Baptist church. A small young man, or boy, part Indian was left in the street in front of Col. Hooper's residence. Brit hooper and Mr. Case who happened to be near were held up by him, and he remarked to Brit that it was no use to get excited in a time like that.

Of course it all came like a flash of lightning from a clear sky. The first who saw it thought it was some boys scuffling, but as soon as the alarm was given men began to run for guns. But few could be found and most of them were not loaded.

Inside of three minutes they had secured the cash and started for their horses, compelling Shields and Manning to inarch at a lively trot in front of them thus preventing any shots being fired as they retreated. The robbers rode out as they came in, and a fourth of a mile above Testerman's house they met little Floyd Shields and exchanged horses with him. But one shot was fired, and that was a Winchester shot from one of then fired in the air as they rode off.

They took to the hills about a mile east of town crossed Little Sugar and made for the Indian Territory. Late in the afternoon they were intercepted by a possee as they rode down a gulch into Butler creek bottom. A fight ensued in which two of the robbers were slightly wounded and one horse killed. They abandoned the other horses and took to the brush the tall man, Whit Tennyson, having been separated from the other two by the Shields horse running away with him. Tennyson was captured the next day in the Indian Territory by Joe and Scott Yeargin of Southwest City. He exposed the plot and in a few days the other two were captured at Weir City, Kansas.

The one who stood guard at the horses proved to be Cora Hubbard, a woman in men's attire. She was taken at her father's house in Weir City a few hours after her return. The other one, John Scheets, came in a couple of days later. They were all fully identified and freely acknowledged their guilt. About $355 of the money was recovered.

Tennyson is a widower 30 years old, Scheets is a young man about twenty-two, and Cora Hubbard is a grass widow twenty-five. Their case is now pending in our circuit court, and it is probable that for this one rash act they will spend a good portion of their lives in the penitentiary.

On Sunday night, August 30, 1896, a desperate fight took place at the Lumis school house in White Rock township, between Jack Tillotson and Tom Hopper, in which the former was instantly killed and the latter stabbed in several places. The occurrence was especially deplorable from the fact that both were young men, or rather boys, about nineteen years old, and were strangers. They had never spoken to each other except on one occasion they chanced to meet in the road and spoke as they passed.

Rev. James HollowTay was holding a series of meetings at the place above named and the two boys were at meeting on the fatal Sunday night. It appears that young Tillotson had taken a girl to church the night before, and on the way home some of the boys hooted at and made fun of them. Among them was one of the Hopper boys, a brother to Tom. On Sunday night the school house was full and perhaps as many outside. Young Hopper was sitting on a rick of wood which was corded up a few yards from the house with a couple of other men. Tillotson approached and in a rude manner asked if he was the fellow that halload at him the night before. Hopper replied that he was not. Tillot- son said he could whip (applying a very foul name) that halload at him. Hopper said he was in the crowd but did not halloa. Tillotson twice more repeated the epithet, when Hopper said "You can't whip me,'' and struck Tillotson in the face, In the fight Hopper was stabbed in the breast, on both wrists, and had a cut in the the thigh some four inches deep. He threw himself back on the wood and while getting up was struck once or twice with a stick of wood. As he was getting up he drew a 44-caliber revolver and fired, the ball passed through Tillotson 's body near the heart, killing him instantly.

Hopper was indicted for murder in the second degree the following January, and tried at the August term, 1897. He was convicted of manslaughter in the fourth degree and his punishment fixed at two years in the penitentiary. The case was appealed to the supreme court where it is still pending (September 1897.)

Last Sunday night, March 14, 1897, just as divine services were closed and the congregation dismissed at what is known as Old Bethpage Baptist church, on North Elkhorn creek, and as he was in the act of putting on his overcoat, George W. Smith was coolly and deliberately shot down without warning by one John Arnold, a boy about 19 years old. The shot was fired from the outside the ball passing through a pane of glass in one of the middle windows on the east side of the church striking its victim in the right temple, passing slightly upward through the right lobe and into the left lobe of the brain, there deflecting and passing into the back of the head where it was found lying in the brain when the autopsy was made after death.

Prom the time the shot was fired at twenty minutes to nine o'clock Sunday night he lay in a comatose state until death came at twenty minutes past twelve o'clock on Monday. In his critical condition it was impossible to move him to his home, only about one hundred and twentyfive yards from the church, so that he died within a few feet of where he was shot and was buried from the church at two o'clock on Tuesday, the

Young Arnold had been seen at the window and talked with by some of the young men outside and had refused to enter the church with them. The excitement in the church at the time was intense, and after a few minutes parties started out to search for the assassin and Arnold having been seen at the window and then suddenly disappearing suspicion pointed to him. An hour or such a matter after the shooting parties went to the home of 01 Mosier, about a mile north of the church, after castor oil and found that Arnold was there and in bed. The Constable and Squire Mosier were notified, a warrant issued, and he was taken into custody by constable Hines about midnight.

Sheriff Jarrett and Prosecutor Clay were notified as quickly as possible Monday morning, and Mr. Clay being unable to go on account of trying a criminal case here that morning, Sheriff Jarrett and Judge W. E. Smith went as quickly as possible to the scene, arriving there about noon. Arnold was arraigned before Squire Mosier and waived examination and was committed to jail the Sheriff taking charge of and bringing him to Pineville, himself, prisoner and Judge Smith leaving there about four o'clock and arriving here a little after dark, and the Sheriff landed him in the Neosho jail the next day. Excitement ran quite high in the country where the assassination occured, and had the people been positive that the right party had been caught it is believed by many that he would have been lynched.

He seemed to take every thing very coolly, and that night while being guarded here made a confession, deliberately acknowledging that he did it, telling all about how he did it, and implicating other parties, saying that he was to have, or had got $25.00 for it. He said he had nothing in the world against Mr. Smith personally. His confession was reduced to writing and he swore to it. Arnold has lived in that locallity most of the time for six or seven years past, and is an orphan. In some ways he may not be over bright, but at the same time he is a cunning, shrewd fellow and by no means unaccountable. He used a 38 caliber five chamber revolver, and the same day had shown it to some of the boys, showing them that he had five cartridges in the revolver and six in his pocket. The shell of the eleventh was picked up about seventy-five yards from the church near a tree the next morning. This shell and the bullet extracted from the brain of Mr. Smith exactly fitted Arnold's revolver.

This enterprising little town was platted by S. L. Hopkins, August 6, 1881. Hopkins platted an addition in 1883, and E. W. DePue laid out another addition in 1886.

The town is situated on Buffalo creek where it crosses the State line. It has a population of about 200 people, and contains several enterprising and well conducted business establishments. Is has a good portion of Buffalo and Patterson creek valleys, besides some prarie and extensive flat woods from which to draw its custom in the State, and is adjacent to a fertile tract of country in the Indian Territory.

The name was suggested by the mineral substance of that name which abounds in the vicinity of the spring. The town was incorporated several years ago, but after an experiment of several months the city government was abandoned. During this time a number of men got on a spree and undertook to run the town. They bluffed off two or three of the officers, sending some of them home for repairs. Ed Hopkins, one of the deputies, commanded the peace and was assaulted by the rioters. He drew his pistol and shot John Caulk, one of them dead. It was in Tiff City that Minnie DePue, a girl in her teens, shot and instantly killed John Lewis, a man of family, in defense of her honor. They used to scrap a little down there, but in recent years the place has become quite peaceable and the moral element prevails.

The rise and growth of temperance sentiment in McDonald county has been somewhat out of the ordinary. To fully understand it, we must go back to the early days of its settlement. At the first, the county was largely settled by people from the Southern and Western states. The most genial, hospitable people on earth, their very qualities of bon homie and good fellowship inclined them to conviviality. There had been no temperance agitation, and none were troubled with scruples as to dram drinking or social treating. Most of the stores sold whisky, and sold it with as little concealment as they did their calicoes; every farmer brought his jug with him when he came to town to trade: every horse swapping or sale of land was confirmed by treats all around; every house and barn raising was dedicated by the passing of the whisky jug from hand to hand; the guests at every wedding grew hilarious with exhilarating corn-juice, while all toooftenthe mourners of the funeral, drowned their sorrows the same day in the oblivion of drunkenness. Picnics, elections, and holidays were days of "a general good time,' which expression covered everything from being gentlemanly foxy to lying deaddrunk in the fence corner. Thus were sown the seeds for a bitter harvest of dissipation.

Following this came the terrible period of the civil war. McDonald County was on debatable ground, and was over-ran again and again, by the contending Federal and Confederate forces. She was mercilessly pillaged and sacked, her court house destroyed, and her records burned. For years there was no restraint of either church or court. Anarchy reigned, and the inevitable demoralization that followed, could not be over come in a day nor year. The days of reconstruction, of the setting in motion of the machinery of law and order, was a time of turbulence. The war had engendered countless feuds between neighbors. The Governor had to appoint the first officers, and rival ambitions and jealousies fanned this animosity. As an instance of the unsettled state of affairs, the records show that no less than three different men were appointed in three months time to the same county office. Moral restraint, that would have alleviated much of this angry feeling, unfortunately was in abeyance. The war had been over two years before the first church was organized in the county, and it consisted of a class of but six persons, five women and one man.

All this turbulent time two and three saloons were doing a nourishing business at the county seat, then a hamlet of less than two hundred inhabitants, but from its position the center of all this turmoil. Undoubtedly much of the incitement to strife came from the same iniquitous saloons, the breeders of mischief everywhere. Then again, there came back from the war a loose, wreckless class of persons, who drift as naturally to places where the law is weak and moral force at a low ebb, as the waters run down hill. The period of 1865 - 70 was a shameful one that all of McDonald's Citizens would be glad to forget. It was a current saying that Pineville was the worst drinking hole in the state, and this fact furnishes the only reasonable explanation of how such an appalling list of crimes and misdemeanors could be committed in the midst of what had been before, and is at the present time, a most peaceful people. There were days of general uproariousness, led by the wreckless characters before spoken of who drank and caroused, and held high carnival, bullying quiet, respectable citizens, defying the law, and over-riding the peace officers. On such days bullets would fly upon the streets until sober men would leap upon their horses and flee for their lives.

of those dark days, but one tragedy stands out so black even on that dark page, that we can not pass it by. One of the carpenters employed in building the court-house, was a man originally of fine impulse; he gave way however to the dissipation all around him and became a perfect sot. In a moment of remorse, realizing the chains of drink were too strong for him to ever be his own master again, he took his own life. His wife, who left behind her this little message, "Death is better than to live the wife of a drunkard, ' ' took poison with him, and died also. This terrible deed shocked a community fast growing accustomed to crime, and sober men began to ask, "How much longer shall these things continue?" Then began one of the most effective temperance awakenings that our county has ever known. No temperance advocate has ever delivered such touching and effective pleas for sobriety, as did the shootings, stabbing and murders, that could be traced to the saloons. What men have to know and see, they feel, and the peaceful, law-abiding element began to do some serious thinking on the liquor problem. Men who had been moderate dram drinkers all their lives, began to see the dangers of indulgence, and more and more, the substantial men who are the back bone and sinew of every community, swore off from drinking themselves, and gave their influence against it. An improvement of conditions followed at once upon this change of public opinion. Drinking there was yet, and to excess, but the shameless orgies of the "60's" could not be repeated, for public sentiment would no longer tolerate them.

In 1874 a lodge of I. O. G. T. was organized at Pineville, but soon came to an end. The time was not yet ripe for public revolution. The leaven was wrorking, however, and in February, 1878, when Mrs. S. A. Williams came to Pineville in the interest of the Murphy and Blue Ribbon movement, the hour was ripe. The awakening was something phenomenal. The interest that was taken baffles description. The community became at a white heat of enthusiasm. Night after night for weeks the old Methodist church was packed to the very walls; farmers with their families drove over rough roads on the darkest nights, and stood patiently the jam and push of the crowd, a third of whom could not be seated. Blue ribbon by the bolt was cut into badges. Tipplers and teetotalers, drunkards and church members, fell into line waiting their turn to have their names recorded, and the bit of blue ribbon pinned on. Whenever some particularly hard case would fall into line the enthusiastic audience would burst into song. The ringing chorus of ' 'Throw out the life-line," "Pull for the shore," or "Hold the fort, would resound until the very walls echoed back the refrain. When this protracted temperance love-feast closed, there was scarcely an adult for miles around but what had taken the pledge, "With malice toward none, and charity toward all." "The Murphies" of Pineville had even gone with song and exhortation to White Rock and other townships, carrying the gospel of total abstinence. The better to hold the large number of reformed men who joined them, the Murphies resolved to hold a regular meeting every Thursday night, and for five years they did so.

But it was not all smooth sailing. Far from it, indeed. The power proved unresistable, and one unfortunate after another broke his pledge, until the number of defections was an open scandal. Many societies would have given up the ghost at once, but our McDonald County Murphies were not of that kind of stuff. The matter was taken up. It was decided for the children and young men's sakes to continue the meetings. Then came the question of purging the rolls. Some of those who had violated their pledge were most honored citizens, and their wives and children were in the audience. Men sat and looked at each other, each unwilling to do this obvious but unpleasant duty. Then uprose old Harmon Kenney, an officer in the church, and his hair white with the snow of three-score and ten winters. With tears falling like rain down his cheeks, he said, "What no one else will do, Harmon Kenney must do. I move that so and so, be expelled from our rolls. ' This one man's brave Christian act saved the Murphies. The remnant that was left, determined to not yield, and for those five years, line upon line they, gave instruction i n temperance doctrine until public sentiment in Pineville township became, as it remains to-day, overwhelmingly on the right side. The Murphies as an organization, have died out everywhere, but the work they did for Pineville township and through it an influence extending throughout the county, can scarcely be over-estimated. For five years after the Murphies disbanded, we find no record of any temperance society in the county . Early in 1888, temperance again became a burning question, for in February of that year a special election was held upon the Wood Local Opinion Law. The results showed the folly of attempting to pass a reform measure without an active organization working for it, for the antis or "wets,' carried the measure overwhelmingly, one township indeed, giving but one dry vote. At the eleventh hour, February, the month of the election, the W. C. T.

U. sent an organizer, C. J. Holt, into the county tc rally the temperance forces, and do the little that could be done in that short time. He at once established a W. C. T. U. at Pineville, the most central point in the county, and the now aroused workers succeeded in getting some earnest work done in some other townships.

In Pineville township the ladies served hot coffee and refreshments close to the voting place, and pinned ribbon badges on the "dry'' adherents. Without exception, in every voting precinct where the temperance people made a stand, the "drys" won; where they let it go by default, the "wets" carried the day as surely. There is a lesson in this for future remembrance.

In Elk River Township, (where the town of Noel now stands,) the sentiment against saloons was supposed to be decisive, and the temperance people made no attempt to rally their forces. The liquor men, wiser in their day and generation organized a still hunt along every by-path and up every cross-hollow. At 3 o'clock, to their astonishment, the "drys" found themselves out numbered. Thomas Marshall, Elk River's leading citizen, roundly vowed that that record should not stand. He brought out every horse and vehickle that he had, pressed drivers into service and sent them after the stay-at home temperance vote. In one part of the Township was a little body of Adventists. They were staunch temperance men, but as the election came on Saturday, which was their Sabbath, they stayed at home rather than desecrate the Sabbath day. To them Mr. Marshall sent this terse message, "This is a case of helping the ox out of the pit," and every man responded. They got there just before the poles closed, and Elk River went "dry" by exactly five majority.

The W. C. T. U. that was organized by C. J. Holt, at Pineville, consisted of 21 active and 2 honorary members. Mrs. America Chenoweth was the first President, and much interest was manifested. In March Mr. Holt organized a W. C. T. U. at Southwest City with 83 members the most prominent ladies of the town connecting themselves with it. Somewhere about this time, but whether organized by Mr. Holt we do not know, a W. C. T. U. was also established at Rocky Comfort. These are the three stragetic points, center south, and north, that any organization that intends to hold the county must first capture. These unions all contained much excellent material, and gave at first much promise; but our ladies were unsued to public work of any kind, the leaders one by one became sick or moved away, and the move came to a standstill everywhere for lack of a head.

O. G. T. at one or two points, but this also, soon came to naught. In August 1893, Mrs. May L. Woods, President of the 23rd District W. C. T. U., and Mrs. Rebecca Hall, the saintly head of the State Evangelical Department of the W. C. T. U., organized a W. C. T. U. at Southwest City. This was a smaller Union than the first, and was organized under more discouraging influences, for the liquor sentiment at that time was unfortunately strong at Southwest City. Mrs. Lucy A. Struthers, a most estimable woman, was elected President, and Mrs. E. P. Quarles was appointed the County President. January 11 1894, Mrs. Woods, our beloved District President, and Mrs. Clara C. Hoffman, the State President of the Missouri W. C. T. U., organized a Union at Pineville. Mrs. Lora S. LaMance was the first President, and served as such until September 1895, when Mrs. C. S. Manning, our present leader, took her place. In May 1894, Mrs Quarles resigned as County President, and Mrs. LaMance was appointed to her position, and still holds it. In May 1894 a Union was organized at Anderson, another good central point. Of this Mrs. Octavia Ellin2 was President until 1896, when Mrs. P. A. T. Yocum took her place. In December 1896, Mrs. Nellie G. Burger organized a W. C. T. U. at Rocky Comfort, Mrs. Fannie Kelly, President, and

The W. C. T. U. have held it as their special mission to form and crystalize public sentiment in favor of prohibition. While we work among the adults, and especially try to awaken the churches as to their duty upon this question, we pay special attention to the children. Adopting the language of one of our leaders we hold that "The star of hope for the temperance reform hangs over the school house. ' We have held in our three and a half year's existence three special meetings with the teachers at the Normal, and have pledged them to teach scientific temperance instruction in the school room, that our boys and girls may understand why alcohol and tobacco hurt the human body. We have had about twenty- live Demorest Oratorical Contests, for young people between the ages of fourteen and twenty-live. Two of these Contests wrere for the gold medal, all the competitors for which had already won a silver medal. Beside this there have been four or five L. T. L. Contests held for children under fourteen. Fully one third of these Contests, that have awakened great interest everywhere, and incidently taught our young people more about elocution than they bad ever known before have been held by our friends the teachers, in

District schools. By that means the prohibition gospel has been carried where no temperance lecturer has ever gone, and no temperance society ever organized.

We have held four very successful county conventions, at which many able addresses and papers were presented. We have enjoyed at stated periods hearing such well known lecturers as Mrs. Hoffman, Mrs. Bosworth and Mrs. Burger. We have held many public meetings that have done much to hold public sentiment to the right. We have scattered thousands of pages of temperance literature, and the most of the time for the last two years, the Unions at Anderson and Pineville have maintained a Temperance column in the Pineville Democrat and Anderson Messenger respectively. By all these things we know we have not been idlers in the Master's vineyard, and yet there is so much more that ought to be done, and that we might have accomplished, that we feel that we have no room for self praise. God granting, the W. C. T. U. of McDonald county in spite of special discouragements at this and that point, will still press on, and labor for the "good, the true and the right, "until there is no need for a temperance society in the county.

There is the best of feeling between fraternal temperance societies, so he ad vanced to no point where the W. C. T. U. was already established, but at Erie, Bethpage, Tiff City, Noel, and three or four other points he organized lodges. Some of these proved short lived, but it is thought that they at least prepared the way for some future organization. Erie and Bethpage I. O. G. T. lasted for two years each, but from lack of leaders, the common cause of failure, went down. The lodge at Donohue, however, remains in a nourishing condition, and is exerting a widespread influence. It is the George Washington Lodge, and one of its officers says it is its good name that keeps it alive and growing, but we think there is more in the stick-to-it-iveness of its officers.

Every one of these Lodges ought to take heart and reconvene themselves. The field is indeed white unto the harvest, but the laborers are few. The change in public sentiment the last few years has been gratifying to the temperance people, but if we are to cement this into strong, clear intent and purpose, we must do more and better work. Let us up, and be at our labor, while it is yet to-day!