Deerfield Township

Deerfield Township

Deerfield township comprises all of township 35, range 32. It lies between the two Dry woods and immediately south of the Marmaton, and is therefore bordered with timber on three sides. A central portion of the township is gently rolling prairie, abound¬ ing in fine fertile farms.

The Big Drywood empties into the Marmaton in the north¬ western part of this township; along the banks of the former stream, a mile or so from the mouth, are considerable bluffs, where the sandstone is freely exposed. ITackberry creek is in the southwestern part and flows northwest into Drywood. The Little Drywood empties into the Marmaton half a mile from the northeast corner of the township. McCoy's branch, so named from an early settler who located near its mouth, rises in the northern part of the township and empties into the Marmaton.

In the southern part of the township, near Moundville, coal is mined very successfully; and so also in other parts of the town¬ ship this mineral is found. There is more or less " grease rock" in tlie southwest part, and in the southeast corner of section 20, be¬ tween Tucker's branch and the Hackberry is an "oil well." Recent discoveries of oil or gas have been made on the property of Parson Henry Hogan, of this township, and also at other places noted below :

Oil or gas has been struck on above named persons' farms in the townships as indicated. These as a matter of course are in addition to Dover, Richland and Henry townships. In the northern part and especially in the northwestern portion there is considerable elevation of the land with occasional mounds.

Early History

The first settlers in this township were Col. George Douglass, who came to the north side of the Marmaton (northeast quarter section 6), a mile northeast of Deerfield, in May, 1834; Abram Redfield and Capt. Alexander Woodruff, who settled near Deer¬ field in 1836; (?) John Chorn, who located near Big Drywood on section 19, two and a half miles south of Deerfield, and Gabriel M. Stratton, who bought out Chorn 's claim in about 1837 or 1838. Ebenezer C. Howe came in 1839 and settled at Deerfield, having previously come to the Union Mission in 1838.

Woodruff's house was three-fourths of a mile north and east of Deerfield, across the river from Colonel Douglass'; Redfield 's was a quarter of a mile south of the village; Howre's was half a mile west of north, nearly in Coal township. Ebenezer C. Howe was a native of Livingston county, New York. He died December 5, 1850. He was the father of thirteen children.

Old John Chorn (pronounced Corn) was a singular character. His cabin was a wretched affair, hardly as comfortable as an Indian wigwam, and he lived in it in a condition of squalor and filth. His companions were his dogs, and he hunted, ate and slept with them on terms of perfect freedom and familiarity. He was quite a successful hunter, and, aided by his dogs, caught many a deer. His claim was the land on which afterward, in Septem¬ ber, 1861, the principal portion of the Dr}rwood skirmish was fought. Where lie came from and what became of him cannot now be learned.

In 1856 Judge J. H. Requa came over from Bates county and settled on section 5 in the northwestern part of the township, nearly two miles northeast of Deerfield. The quarter section upon - which he settled he purchased from Abram Redfield, Esq., for $120. Although Esquire Redfield had entered the land, he had forgotten it and sent Requa on a wild goose chase to the land office at Clinton to enter it for himself. He was astonished when Requa returned in a little ill-humor and said: "Why, squire, you already own that land you sent me to enter. Colonel Marvin, the register, says you have owned it for five years." The honest and well-meaning Esquire Redfield then agreed to sell the land to Requa for $80 less than even the entry price - a very cheap tract indeed.

WThen Judge Requa came Esquire Redfield lived at Deerfield; William Modrel lived half a mile west ; Capt. H. C. Cogswell lived on the old Douglass farm; ex-Sherif¥ G. M. Stratton was on the old Chorn claim, at Hogan's crossing of Drywood, and Thomas Puckett was on the west side of section 4, a mile east of the iron bridge. There were absolutely no settlements on the prairies in the central and southern portions of the township. Puckett's farm was the only one between Requa 's and Nevada, or the two or three buildings at "Haletown." Mr. Puckett died on his farm after the war. Chouteau's store on the Marmaton, two miles northwest from Deerfield, was just breaking up.

In the year 1857 W. W. Prewitt and his father-in-law, Smiley H. Sample, came from the Missouri river to the north central part of the township, a mile northwest of the village of Prewitt (or Ellis). Major Prewitt had entered several hundred acres of land and sold a farm to Sample. The main portion of the Prew¬ itt farm was the northeast quarter of section 9. These were the first settlements in that quarter.

But soon after 1857 nearly all the land in the township was entered and some tracts settled. The tracts along the Nevada and Fort Scott road were in favor, but the land along Hack- berry and the Drywoods was eagerly sought after. Not, how¬ ever, until after the war were the fine prairie lands of the town¬ ship settled generally in all parts.

During The Civil War

The skirmish on Big Drywood came off in this township on section 19 at Hogan's crossing of the Big Drywood, September 7, 1861. No other hostile encounters are remembered to have occurred in the township during the war.

In the early part of the year 1863 the two companies of the third Wisconsin cavalry which were stationed on the borders of the township made their appearance. Company D, Captain Shaw, was at the Lambert ford on Big Drywood, three and a half miles south of Deerfield, and Company F, Captain Vittum, afterward lieutenant-colonel, was near the Shively ford on the Marmaton.

General Price's army made its appearance twice in this town¬ ship. The first time, in September, 1861, it entered determined and confident, and left victorious and exultant. Three years later, in October, 1864, it came again, this time crushed and de¬ moralized, and left crippled and despondent. The defeated army camped at Deerfield on the night of October 26, and the soldiers got a few hours of much-needed rest. Next morning before day¬ light the retreat was resumed, and the poor, dispirited raiders, weary, hungry and apprehensive, departed by the light of burn¬ ing wagons and to the sound of exploding ammunition. For years afterwards pieces of the debris of the wrecked army were picked up at Deerfield and on the prairie to the southward - guns of all kinds, cannon balls, shells, etc. The army crossed Drywood at the Hogan and Lambert fords, where three years before many of the same men had passed when they had driven Montgomery and Moonlight back into Kansas. The night the army lay at Deerfield General Price made his headquarters at the house of Esquire William Modrel, who then lived half a mile west of the village.

From first to last three citizens of alleged Confederate sympa¬ thies were killed in this township and one Federal soldier. It is asserted, however, that two of the three citizens were really Union men, while it is certain that the third was harmless, no matter what his sympathies may have been.

Schell City Public School

down into Vernon county on a marauding expedition. They first visited the residence of Col. Smiley H. Sample, who lived on the Fort Scott and Nevada road, a mile northwest of Prewitt. He had a considerable sum of money which his wife secured and hid away when she first heard the robbers. Colonel Sample was called out and shot down while standing on his cellar door. The ball passed through his heart, killing him instantly. The robbers failed to secure the money they were after and rode on to Deer¬ field. Here they came upon and killed Marcus Woodruff, a young man, a son of the pioneer settler, Capt. Alexander Woodruff. The killing was wholly unprovoked and unextenuated. Marcus Woodruff was a cripple, unable for military service, and not in¬ clined to take an active part on either side. Pie was, perhaps, a Confederate sympathizer, but he was not killed on account of his politics, but in recklessness and wantonness.

Colonel Sample was a quiet, unobtrusive gentleman, a good citizen and universally esteemed. He was really a a conserva¬ tive Union man. Of Northern birth and lineage, he was never a secessionist and had done nothing against his government. lie had been given " protection papers" by the military authorities at Fort Scott, in whose confidence and esteem he was. At the time of his death Colonel Sample was about sixty years of age.

The Federal commander at Fort Scott made an effort to cap¬ ture this murderous band of "red legs." They committed depre¬ dations on Unionists and Confederates alike, and a detachment of Federal cavalry hunted them through eastern Kansas and finally, after killing three or four of them, broke them up.

In the summer of 1863 a scouting party of Kansas troops shot and mortally wounded a man named Fitzwater, who lived near Deerfield. His murderers called him a rebel, but he was really in the employ of the government, under John Lambert, at the time. He was in humble circumstances, and hearing that he was badly wounded, General Blair sent an ambulance for him and conveyed him to Fort Scott, where he died in spite of all the surgeons could do for him.

In November, 1862, the Mayfield boys and others raided the Union men along Drywood, taking horses and other property, and chasing the owners into the woods. There were fifteen men in the band when they took breakfast one morning near Deerfield. Esquire Redfield went to Fort Scott on the 11th and asked Major

A Federal soldier, who, it is claimed, was either a lieutenant or a sergeant and on recruiting service, was caught by a squad of bushwhackers and hung on the Drywood. The details of this affair cannot be learned, but it is said that the killing was simply an atrocious murder of an unarmed and defenseless prisoner.

No houses were burned in the neighborhood of Deerfield by the Federal soldiers, and but little property destroyed, although thousands of them passed through the country. The citizens at¬ tributed their immunity from molestation and injury to that stanch old Unionist, Esquire Abram Redfield. Known from the first, and at all times, and under all circumstances, to be an un¬ conditional Union man, Esquire Redfield was regarded with great favor by the Federal soldiers everywhere, and his influence over them was very great. At Fort Scott he was in especial esteem, and it was said of him that he could get anything he wanted from the officers there.

Esquire Redfield used his influence for good. His generous, manly nature led him to do good at all times, and during the war he had abundant opportunities for pursuing his inclination. His neighbors came to him in their distress as children run to a father. Some of them were openly avowed disunionists, others were pro-Confederates at heart ; but when one of them lost a horse or had a son taken prisoner, or had gotten into trouble with the Federals in any way, he went straightway to Esquire Redfield for relief, and always got it. Many a horse was recovered, many a prisoner released, many a house saved, and many a life spared through the kindly offices of this good man. Abating not one jot or tittle of his Unionism, wishing eternal confusion and de¬ struction to the Confederacy, he yet sympathized with those of his Confederate neighbors when they were mistreated, as he did with all others who were in distress, and did what he could for their relief.

In the beginning of the troubles at one time some Vernon county secessionists set out from southwest Missouri with the avowed object of "cleaning out" Esquire Redfield and some other Union men, in retaliation for what the Kansas troops were said to have done, but on arriving here they were easily persuaded to forego their intentions.

An honest man before the war, upright in everything, Abram Redfield was an honest man during the war, faithful in all things and abounding in good works. When he died December 8, 1862, he died the death of the righteous, mourned by all that knew him. He was a member-elect of the legislature, but had not taken his seat. Conversing with his friend, Judge Requa, only a few hours before his death, he remarked: "I don't believe I will go to Jefferson this winter; what's the use?" Judge Requa re¬ minded him that if he went he might be able to do something for the scheme of compensated emancipation, in which the slave¬ holding Union men of the state were interested. "Ho!" (his peculiar expression) exclaimed Mr. Redfield; "well, then, I'll go; if I can do any good for the Union men I'll go; just as soon as I am well, 1 will go."

He (as was afterwards his wife) was buried in the Deerfield cemetery, and his memory is blessed by the many who recall his good deeds and his pure and noble life.

A melancholy incident in the history of this township was the drowning of George G. Weber, a young man, twenty-one years of age, who was the son of Henry Weber, a resident of the Hackberry neighborhood. The incident occurred about 5 p. m. of Wednesday, July 27, 1886. Mr. Weber, his three brothers, their father and a man named Wolf were seining near the Lambert ford when young Weber attempted to swim across the stream, just below the sein. He soon lost breath and sank. Mr. Wolf plunged iii to the rescue, but returned to the shore to remove his boots, and in the delay Weber rose and sank again and was drowned. The body was drawn to the shore with the sein, which in the excitement was not used to save the young man's life.

Singularly enough, exactly three years prior to young Weber's drowning, or on July 27, 1884, at about the same hour in the day, and near the same spot, Prof. A. L. Gibbs was drowned in Drywood. He was from New York and was a noted teacher of penmanship.

A few years after the war a man and his son traveling through the country attempted to ford Drywood farther down the stream, near Deerfield, and both were drowned.

The village of Deerfield stands on lot 2, of the northwest quarter of section 7, in Deerfield township, running up the town¬ ship line on the west, and to within a mile of the line on the north, making its location in the northwest corner of the town¬ ship. It is a station on the M., K. & T. railroad, and is a thrifty little burg of something over two hundred inhabitants, with churches and good schools, and well-stocked stores and shops of various kinds.

The town was regularly laid out December 19, 1871, by David Redfield; J. E. Harding, surveyor. A school house was built here before the war and was known far and near as one of the first in the county.

Prewitt, or Ellis, as it is now called, is located on the M., K. & T. railroad, east of Deerfield. The town was laid out July 5, 1876, by W. A. Still, and named in honor of Maj. W. W. Prewitt. In naming their station the railroad company changed the name to that of Ellis. Though a small place, it has a good general store conducted by John J. Hall.