Nodaway County, Missouri - Chapter 4, 1882

And after Dato had traveled over many countries, he returned to the tent of Willti, his father, with a down cast look, for behold, he could find no one that would become his wife. And when he was told of the ill success of Willti, his father, in robbing Hanoch, the son of Gyhor, of his possession, he was bowed down with grief and rage, so that he could not hold up his head for a time. And after Dato revived a little, Willti said unto him: My son, I have no rest because of Hanoch, for he hath many friends, so that he is secure, though he lifts not his hands against me. And Dato said unto him : I will go through the country and see how many of the people are Hanoch's friends, and I will tell the people that we are soldiers of Immanuel, and they will look upon us to be upright in heart. So Dato saddled his mule and commenced his journey, and examined the minds of the people, as he went to see if they were friendly towards Hanoch. And it came to pass that the people all spoke well of Hanoch, so Dato passed on until he came to the land of Gothic, where lived a man whose name was ""Manasticat," and when Manasticat saw Dato he bowed to him, and Dato bowed and lapped out his tongue. So when they had talked together a little Manasticat said unto Dato : Come down, I pray thee, from thy mule, and tarry with me, for the day is far spent. And Dato got down from his mule, and Manasticat conducted him to his castle. And it came to pass, when Dato went into the castle of Manasticat, that he spied a damsel on whom he set his heart to have her to wife, and when he had made known unto her his desires, behold she was well pleased, and said unto him, I will be thy wife.

Then Dato talked with Manasticat, a long time, and while they talked together, they opened their hearts to each other, and behold they were both alike full of evil spirits. And Dato told Manasticat concerning Willti, his father, and Hanoch, the son of Gyhor, and concerning their possessions. And Manasticat said unto him, I will come into thy country after a while, and it may be that I can help thee in thy purpose. So Dato being well pleased with his success, returned to his father's tent, to bear the glad news of his encouraging prospects. And behold ! Willti rejoiced in heart when he heard it. But Dato's mind was drawn away after the damsel, so that he could not talk with a man, without saying something about Salishta, for that was her name, and he spent the most of his time in going to the land of Gothic to see Salishta. And it came to pass on a certain day, as he was going on his way to the land of Gothic, that he met two young men who were fond of sport, and one of them said to Dato, thou shalt not have Salishta for thy wife, for behold 1 I will straddle my mule and take her from thee this night, before thou cans't reach the castle of Manasticat. And when he had so said, he started as though he would go to his stable for his mule. Then the other young man said to Dato, now do thy best, for his mule will surely outgo thee. Then Dato began to beat his mule with his rod, and to kick him with his heels, and the mule did run with all his might, and Dato still kept beating him, until he came to the castle of Manasticat and he unsaddled his mule and turned him loose to feed, and went into the castle and put up for the night. And on the morning when he went out to look for his mule, behold ! the mule was dead, for he had made him run beyond his strength and he laid down and died.

Now Dato was very sorry for the loss ot his mule, for he had to walk on foot to the land of I-o-ty, which was a long journey for the lad. Now, after this, Manasticat went, according to his promise, to the country of I-o-ty, to view the possessions of Willti and Hanoch, and when he came to the tent of Willti, he was made very welcome and soon became acquainted with the desires of Willti's heart concerning the possession of Hanoch. Then Manasticat said unto Willti, I would see the possessions of Hanoch myself. And Dato said unto him, I will go with thee, and show thee both the high lands and the plains of Hanoch. And it came to pass, that they both started and traveled first over the highlands of Hanoch, and then bent their course towards the plains, and behold ! met Hanoch returning home from the country of Fosteevus. And Manasticat said unto Hanoch, what is the cause of the shaking of thy limbs ? And Hanoch said unto him, I am sore afflicted with the palsy. Then said Manasticat unto him, wilt thou sell thy possession ? Then said Hanoch unto him, I will sell it to thee for two hundred and fifty shekels of silver. Then, said Manasticat, I will look at thy plains and return to thy tent. So Hanoch passed on and went to his tent. And after Manasticat and Dato had gone over the land of Hanoch, the}- returned to Hanoch' s tent, and Manasticat said unto Hanoch, thy possession pleaseth me well, but I cannot give thee so much ; if thou will take less, I will buy of thee. Then said Hanoch unto him, I am very infirm and cannot do much labor, and behold I am owing much silver to the people who have shewed me mercy ; therefore, if thou wilt give me two hundred shekels of silver, so I can give even- man his due, thou shalt have my possession, though it be but half the worth of it. Then said Manasticat unto him, I cannot give so much. And Manasticat and Dato left Hanoch and returned to the tent of Willti. Then said Willti unto Manasticat, what of the day, my friend ? Then Manasticat opened his mouth and said, I am well pleased with the possession of Hanoch, and I talked to Hanoch as though I would buy his possession, and he would have two hundred shekels of silver, which is a small price, but we need not purchase of him, for behold he can do nothing. I will therefore build me a castle on the plains of Hanoch, and cut him off from the plains entirely, and from the river Nodi. And thou shalt move thy landmark to the highlands of Hanoch, and cut him off from the midday sun. And behold, Dato shall cut him off towards the rising sun until he shall not have room to turn himself, and it shall come to pass that Hanoch will leave his possessions and go to some other country ; and we will possess the land of Hanoch in quietness, and surely no one will take notice of the dead dog ; and as for Strong-force, the judge, I fear him not.

So after Manasticat laid his schemes deep and wide, he returned home. And Dato went also to the land of Gothic, and took unto him Salishta to wife. And after this, Dato said unto Manasticat, I will now return to the country of I-o-ty, and Manasticat said unto him, I will go with thee. So Dato took with him Salishta, his wife, and Manasticat also accompanied them to the country of I-o-ty. And when they came to the tent of Willti, behold Willti was much rejoiced in heart, and said unto them, my heart rejoiceth to see you here, for now we are well able to possess the land of Hanoch. Then Manasticat spake unto Willti, saying : I have come for the purpose of building me a castle on the plains of Hanoch, and I will build it like unto my splendid castle in the land of Gothic, and when I have finished my castle, I will put therein all of my goods, and my wife and my little ones, and behold my cattle and my sheep shall cover the plains, and the plains shall be called the plains of Manasticat. And so we will put out the lamp of Hanoch at one blast, and he shall have no place in the country. So when Manasticat had uttered these sayings, they all went to work to build a house for Dato and Salishta to dwell in. And behold they builded the house close to the borders of Hanoch's high land, towards the rising of the sun, and the house was made very large and finished off in splendor. So after Dato's house was completed, Manasticat, with Willti and his sons, commenced the expensive work of cutting and getting out timber for the great castle of Manasticat, and behold they cut the timber very large, even sixteen feet was the length of it, and some of the timber was full ten inches in diameter. And Willti furnished, two yoke. of oxen for the hauling of the timber, and when they had continued their labor for three days and had got a great quantity of timber hauled on to the plains of Hanoch, it came to pass that Strong-force, the judge, heard thereof, and behold Strongforce gave orders for his men of war to come together and see what was going on. And many of the most mighty men of war gathered themselves together, even fifty and three in number, and presented themselves before the judge.

Then Strong-force, the Judge, said unto them, Behold, there is mischief going on upon the plains of Hanoch ; let us therefore repair to the plains of Hanoch and see what it is. And it came to pass that the Judge and his men of war started, some on horses and some on mules, and some on foot, and traveled until they came to the plains of Hanoch. And behold ! they saw a great quantity of timber spread about the plains, and they saw also many tools of cunning workers in wood lying round about. Then Strong-force said unto the men of war, Whose are these plains and what meaneth this timber ? And they answered him with many voices, saying : We are on the plains of Hanoch, the son of Gyhor, and behold ! Manasticat hath got out this enormous sight of timber to build him a castle and rob Hanoch of his plains. Then said the Judge unto them : This thing shall not be done. Ye shall make ashes of all this timber. And it came to pass, that the men of war all went to work and put the timber in a pile, and they caught one of Sampson's foxes, and put him in the midst of the pile, and behold, the timber took fire and burned to ashes. Then Strong-force, the Judge, planted his post, which he called the judgment post, on which he left his written judgment and sentence. And he caused four of his seals to be put around the foot of the post, under the sentence. Now the seals were not like any beasts of the field, neither like the fowls of the air ; but they had tails like the tails of serpents, and with their tails, they had power to sting. Now, the sentence of the Judge was, that the man or men who had made the intrusion, on the possession of Hanoch, should leave the possession forthwith, or be made to stand at the judgment post in the midst of the seals, for one hour, and that whoever should molest Hanoch thereafter, should be punished without remedy.

So when the judge had filled the duties of his office, he dismissed the men of war, and returned to his home. And it came to pass on the morrow that Manasticat went again to the plains of Hanoch, and behold his timber had gone to ashes. And when he saw what was done, he was very angry, and began to throw out bitter curses against Hanoch and the people, but when he saw the post and the writing, he said to himself, I will see what it is. And as he came near to the judgment post, he saw the seals near his feet, and behold he went backward ten paces, and fell to the ground. And after he recovered, so he could stand on his feet, he said to himself, now I know surely Strong-force has undertaken the cause of Hanoch, and I must see what he has left on the post. So he got him a stick and reached carefully over the seals and pulled the writing to him, and as he read his sentence he turned pale, and his limbs did quake. And when he had finished the reading of his sentence, he said to himself, surely I must leave these beautiful plains to Hanoch, for these sting-tail serpents are horrible ; and he looked at the plains and then at the seals, and with a wild and frantic step, Manasticat started for the land of Gothic. And Willti foamed with rage, but did not dare to molest Hanoch any more. Now it came to pass as Manasticat fled from the plains of Hanoch, the son of Gyhor, great terror seized his frame and horror ran through his guilty soul, and as it were, darkness obscured his vision, and he fell upon his face upon the ground, and he began to pray, and he prayed after this manner :

And it came to pass that Hanoch had rest round about, and Hanoch said, surely the Lord hath sent the judge to deliver me from all mine enemies.

The following communication, from the pen of Wade H. Davis, deceased, appeared in the Democnt of January 18, 1871. We reproduce the article, knowing that it will be read with interest by all our readers :

Editors Democrat : I left my home in Platte County, this state, in the fall of 1839. Platte was then quite a new settlement. I made my way in a northwest direction, for the purpose of hunting bees and looking at the country. I remember that the place now occupied by St. Joseph had' only a small hut, used as a trading post for Indians. We made our way to the house of old Mr. Bennett, of Bennett's lane notoriety. We here inquired "how far to the next house?" The reply was : "This is the last." They also informed us that there was no road north of that place ; that there had been one wagon passed up north, but did not know where it went, and did not suppose we could follow the track.

With this information, we started for the far northern country, and at night found ourselves near what is now called Heflin's Grove, where we dispatched some of our young men to hunt a camping place. We soon heard one of them hallowing at the top of his voice, "Pea Vine ! Pea Vine!" This we at once understood, camped, unyoked our oxen and turned them into the pea vine, and felt that Columbus was not the only discoverer.

The next day we moved to what is now called Shell's Grove, about seven miles west of this place. The land was not surveyed, and I laid claim to that entire beautiful grove, by scalping some of the bark on a walnut tree, and my son, Smithen H. Davis, wrote on it with a pencil : "This is my claim, taken by me on the 20th day of October, 1839, an<^ every person is hereby notified not to jump it. - Wade H. Davis." We camped here, and to our astonishment, heard the sound of an ax. We immediately made headway for it, and found a camp of about one hundred Indians. A squaw was chopping down a bee tree.

The next day we went to what is known as Clear Creek, and there we stayed three days, and succeeded in getting about one barrel of nice honey. We then went up to what was known as the Three Forks of the Nodaway River, and, as before, we had to make our own road and crossings. Just after crossing the river, I was riding on ahead of the team, and I found a bee-tree. We stopped and got about three buckets full of as fine honey as I ever saw. We got in the vicinity about one more barrel of honey.

Everything was as nature had formed it - wild, indeed. We found any amount of bear signs. We found, where they bedded, where they had torn off limbs of burr oak trees, to get the acorns, and I saw one bear. Here we saw a great many Indians. Deer and turkeys abounded.

We had about all the honey we wanted and started for home. We missed our way, and found ourselves at this grove. We camped in the timber east of where our worthy friend John Jackson now lives. Bees appeared to be scarce here, and we did not think the grove worth claiming, and passed it by.

White Cloud. One of my companions, Josiah Dorris, killed an otter in the branch about a mile south of this place. We then kept on our way south, to what is now the Prather estate, and there, to our astonishment and the unbounded joy of his wife, we found the cabin of William Bryant, the first settler in what is now Nodaway County - if, indeed, he could be called a settler. He had stopped, left his family and gone to get a barrel of whisky to trade to the Indians. I need not tell any old settler that the said Bryant had strong prejudice in favor of whisky himself. The poor woman, who was there with one or two small children, seemed overjoyed at meeting some of her own race, and would have us stay in her cabin, which, of course, was made of round logs, without floor, door, shutter or window, and had to depend on the chimney for light when the blanket was down over the door. This woman I afterward found to be a well educated lady, of a wealthy and influential family, but had erred somewhat in marrying.

We then returned to our home in Platte County, and related our great expedition to our listening neighbors, several of whom came up to look at the country, and returned, reporting it to be a very fine country, sufficient to support about twenty families.

In the fall of 1840, I made another trip to this region, and found things considerably changed. I found squatters at nearly every grove, and a great portion of the timber claimed. I came in company with Burt. Whitton and others, and, to induce Burt, to settle in this part of the country, I took him over to my claim, west of this place, and showed him my authority on the tree for claiming it, and proposed to him that if he would settle on it, I would give it to him. He accepted, and stayed several years proprietor of " Whitton's Grove." He complained of being lonesome, and sold out, I think, to 'Squire Griffith.

We then came by an Indian trail to the grove just north of this place, and found everything alive with Indians. My sons, Hiram and Smithen, then laid claims in the vicinity of where John Jackson now lives, and built a cabin across the line dividing their claims, and made one cabin answer both. I afterwards bought my sons out, and bought out Red Whitton, who also had a claim in the grove. This gave me the entire grove, and I sold the whole thing to one Thomas Adams for $300, perfectly satisfied I had considerably the best of the trade. He settled and built the house where William Saunders now lives. He then brought the first store, excepting Bryant's, to this part of the country. He, too, had plenty of whisky, and here, with a merry party of his associates, I first met Allen Mozingo.

I here met a party of government surveyors, who gave me glowing accounts of a mill seat south of this place, and directed me so that I found the place where Page & Wakefield's mill is situated, and here I filed a pre-emption. I again went home perfectly satisfied that there

I afterwards sold my claim in Platte and moved to the place on which Isaac Cox now lives, which I bought of John McLain. At this time (1842) our nearest mill was about five miles below Savannah, on the One Hnndred and Two, and to it we would go with an ox team, with the expectation of being gone from a week to ten days ; and when one returned with a load of meal - we had no flour - he was not surprised to find all his neighbors waiting with sacks to borrow meal, and my word for it, none went away disappointed.

I was, one day in the spring of 1842, at the house of my neighbor, Colonel I. N. Prather, fixing some truck-wheels on a prairie plow, when a man, who introduced himself as William Cock, came to us, and, to my great joy, informed us that he was on the hunt of a mill seat - that he. had the money and the will to put up a mill. We lost no time in going to show him my claim, and I proposed to him if he would build a mill I would give him the seat, which he afterwards accepted and prized very highlv. In support of the common theory that the watercourses become smaller as the country grows older and is cultivated, I would state that Mr. Cock was some time in deciding whether to build his mill on the One Hundred and Two or White Cloud, thinking the former was probably too large a stream, but he finally decided in favor of the One Hundred and Two, and built the first mill in Nodaway County, which now belongs to Page & Wakefield, as above stated.

For a long while after I settled on White Cloud, our nearest physician was at Savannah. Savannah was also our nearest post office, and frequently our greatest trouble in mail matters was to get the twentyfive cents to pay the postage. The trip down cost us nothing - no one thought of charging for staying over night. We suffered a great many inconveniences,. I remember my neighbor, John B. Morgan, had a son drowned, and we had to send to Savannah for a coffin - not a plank could be had nearer.

If a neighbor had the misfortune to get his fencing burned - which was frequently the case - you could see all his neighbors at his house next day, making rails and repairing his fence or gathering his crop. If one had sickness to interfere with his business, besides carefully caring for him, his neighbors were always on hand to do his work, without thought of charge. Our manners, if rude, were sincere. No one thought himself better than his honest neighbor. Any man's house you stopped at was a home. Any man's house was free to any denomination to preach in. We met at each other's houses and there worshipped a common God, with less style than the present day, but I think with certainly as much earnestness.

Those times, though hard, have still a place in my fondest recollections ; and though nearly all my old friends and associates have departed this life, still, while I live, nothing will be more pleasant to me than the memory of their many kindnesses.

And now if this should serve to give the reader an idea of border life, it will have accomplished all that is desired by the oldest inhabit ant.