Osage Township

Osage Township

Osage township is composed of congressional township 37, range 31, and the two southern tiers of sections of township 38, range 31. The greater part of the surface of the township is prairie, but the existence of the two streams, the Little Osage and the Marmaton, causes a considerable area of timbered land, which is found exclusively along their banks. The Osage enters the township a little more than three miles from the southern boundary and flowing in a general direction to the northwest leaves the township two miles from the northern boundary line. The Marmaton comes in from the southwest and empties into the Osage near the southwest corner of section 11.

The land along the streams and in the peninsula between the Osage and the Marmaton is marshy and subject to overflow, but the remainder is fine and fertile. The northern portion of the township is underlaid with coal, the stratum in some instances being several feet in thickness. The immense valuable mines at Carbon Center, in the extreme northern part, are noticed else¬ where.

Early History

Osage is an historic township. It is the site of many scenes and incidents, some of which are of more than local interest. Here on the Osage, just below the mouth of the Marmaton, is that famous promontory known as the "Timbered Hill," a con¬ spicuous object for miles, massive and solemn and crowned with timber and verdure. Here, too, are the locations of the old Osage villages, where at one time the "braves" of that brave nation dwelt and from whence they sallied forth to do battle against their enemies or to secure the spoils of the chase. Many a time in the long ago has the valley of the Osage in this quarter re¬ sounded with the shrill cries of the war dance, the shouts of victory and the wailings of defeat. Here, too, came and rested the French voyageurs and Couriers du Bois, the Spanish traders and the gallant American explorers of Pike and Wilkinson. Here, too, is "Balltown," the first village in the county, once the county seat and a town of more importance than Nevada.

William Modrel was the first American settler in this town¬ ship. In the spring of 1832 he left Harmony Mission and came to his claim, on section 17, a mile east of Balltown, where he lived nine or ten years and then moved to Balltown, buying the land of Milton Morris, the first settler on the site. Morris made his claim and built his cabin in 1838. According to the testimony of Martin L. Modrel, his son, when William Modrel came to this township there were but three families living in what is now Vernon county, viz.: those of Moses, Jesse and Allen Summers, who were living three miles or more to the westward, the first two named on the north side of the Osage and the last named on the south side.

A Frenchman named Augustine De Ville, a blacksmith, who had lived at Papinsville, made a settlement on the south side of the Marmaton, a little south of the Timbered Hill, in 1835 or 1836. He set out an orchard on his place, which bore for fifty years.

In August, 1838, there landed at Ball's Mill and soon after settled in the vicinity a party of immigrants, composed of Peter Weyand, Tsaae Yocum, Mr. Quay, Robert Quay and Henry (or Henri) Letiembre. All were from Ohio but Weyand and Yocum, who were brothers-in-law, and were natives of Perry county,

Pennsylvania. William Quay located north of the Osage, on sec¬ tion 7, and his brother Robert on section 8, about two miles east of north of Balltown. Robert S. Quay, Jr., located subsequently, on section 8, east of the railroad, where Levi Welch, Esq., later lived. The older Quays died here within a comparatively short time after settling in the country. William Quay died in 1843 and his wife in 1845. A young man named Henry Wolf came with the Quay brothers.

Letiembre was a Frenchman, but came directly from Warren county, Ohio, to Missouri. He first settled in the county in 1837, opening a farm and cattle ranch at the base of the Brushy Mound (now called the Timbered Hill), on the south side of the Marmaton, near the farm and orchard of Augustine De Ville. In the spring of 1838 he returned to Ohio and purchased a herd of fine stock, with which he returned to Missouri, in company with Weyand, Yocum and the Quays. In 1839 Abraham McKnight located on or near the Letiembre ranch, at " Letiembre 's hill. ' ' The famous hill was at first called " Brushy Mound," but after M. Letiembre's settlement it was known as Letiembre Hill, or Tiembre Hill, which designation was finally corrupted into the very appropriate title, Timbered Hill, by which name it is now universally known.

One account is that M. Letiembre never actually resided here, but built a house and opened a small farm, which he stocked with cattle and horses, some of which were blooded, and that he placed the whole in charge of Abraham McKnight, who lived here until 1843, when Letiembre sold out. M. Letiembre himself boarded with Peter Collen until the spring of 1840, when he went up to the head of the Tebo, in Henry county, where he married an American lady, and afterwards engaged in merchandising. M. DeVille was a man of education and moral character. He refused to have aught to do with Indian squaws? for either wives or con¬ cubines, and keeping himself generally aloof from society of any sort, lived and died unmarried on the farm he first settled, near the Timbered Hill. He was a devoted Catholic and lived up fully to his professions.

Abraham McKnight was an employee of the Harmony Mis¬ sion. Peter Weyand was born November 29, 1798, and died Jan¬ uary 7, 1846. He was married July 12, 1821, to Rebecca Yocum,

In the year 1836 Daniel II. Austin, one of the missionaries at the Ilarmonv Mission, removed to this county with his family, one of whose members was his son, Josiah, and settled half a mile east of Balltown. He built the first mill in Vernon county. It was a water mill, and Austin afterwards sold it to Cecil D. Ball, the founder of Balltown, who came in the year 1837 and re¬ constructed it.

In the fall of the year 1838 there were living in the vicinity of Balltown, within Ihree miles, in Osage and Metz townships, the following heads of families: William Modrel, Daniel H. Austin, C. D. Ball, Rev. N. B. Dodge, Dr. Leonard Dodge, Edward Dodge, Mrs. Elvira Dodge, widow of N. B. Dodge, Jr. ; Milton Morris, Moses Summers, Jesse Summers, Allen Summers, Hardin Wright, Joshua Ewell, David Cruise, William Summers, Nelson McDermitt, William Pryor, Jonathan Pryor, Ezekiel Rhea, Daniel Smith nnd Ira Summers.

In 1839 Col. Anselm Halley came from Lynchburg, Va., to St. Louis, where he met the Frenchman Letiembre, before mentioned, who prevailed upon him to come to Vernon county. He settled just below the Timbered Hill, on the bluffs which yet bear his

Albert F. Nelson settled on a tract of land, one mile north of Balltown, in section 7, in the year 1842. His wife, Mrs. Susan P. Nelson, and his three children, Oscar M., Hardin and Julia, were with him. Mr. Nelson came originally from Stokes county, North Carolina, which he represented one term in the State Leg¬ islature, and he afterward served two terms as county judge of Bates county. lie died January 29, 1852. His son, 0. M. Nelson, was sheriff of Vernon county after the Civil War.

William Modrel, the first American settler in Osage township, was born in Cocke county, Tennessee, near the famous "Kit Bullitt's mill on the Big Pigeon," February 28, 1805. In 1819 he came with Rev. William Horn to Lafayette county, Missouri, where he remained until about the year 1825, when he came to the Harmony Mission. Here, October 5, 1826, he married Philena

Dodge, a daughter of Rev. Nathaniel B. Dodge, and in 1832 came to Vernon county. He had received some instruction before locating at the Mission, but it was here that he received the prin¬ ciples of a good education. He afterwards taught the first school er o c ounty in a log building, a mile and a half west of Balltown, south of the Osage, within the present limits of Metz township. The term was of three months' duration and sustained by subscription. Mr. Modrel was a member and for many years a deacon of the Presbyterian Church, and a man universally esteemed. He was connected with nearly all matters of interest tending to the good of the community, and his opinion and ad¬ vice were often sought for in matters of church and State. Some¬ time before the war Esq. Modrel removed to Deerfield, where he resided, half a mile west of the present village, during the greater part of the troubles. He died June 22, 1881. His wife died Feb¬ ruary 3, 1875.

As the first white settlements in Vernon county were made in this quarter, so the first mills, shops and stores were here. In 1839 Capt. William Waldo established a store on the south side of the Marmaton (sec. 33), near what was then and long after¬ wards known as the Cephas Ford, exactly where is now the bridge across the Marmaton of the Pleasant Hill, Nevada and Joplin branch of the Missouri Pacific Railroad. The previous year Captain Waldo had put up a considerable mercantile estab¬ lishment at the Harmony Mission. Daniel and James Johnson had a small store on the Osage, a mile below Balltown, in 1839, and continued in business until 1844.

Until Ball's mill was established the settlers usually resorted to the mill at the Harmony Mission, or to Charette's mill, better known as Park's mill, on the Marais de Cj^gnes, two miles above tlie Mission. In time, however, the Bates county settlers came down to Ball's mill, and the people of this tovmship had a mill at home.

During the Civil War there occurred a few incidents of note in Osage tovmship. The burning of the mill and bridge at Balltown was, perhaps, the most notable event of the war period.

General Ewing's "Order No. 11" extended to the north bank of the Osage ; but when it came there were but few families resid¬ ing in the upper portion of this township north of the river. Jesse Ewell and Priestly Ray sought the protection of the mili- tary at Balltown. Hugh Cox, who had settled on the southeast quarter of section 26 (township 38), remained on his farm throughout the war. The first settler to locate in this portion of the township after the war was George Smith, who came from Saline county in 1866, and located a little northwest of Carbon Center (nw. *4 sec. 27, tp. 38), on the county line. At that time there were living in this township, on the north side of the river, but three families, those of Ewell, Ray and Cox, above men¬ tioned.

Sampson Farris, a citizen of this township, was killed near his home by Dick Parmenter in the fall of 1863. The killing was really the result of a personal grudge, although Farris was a rebel and Parmenter a Union man. The latter claimed that Farris abused him when he could do so with safety. Farris had been forced to leave the country and move his family eastward. He returned to look after his crop. Near Muddy bridge Parrnenter came upon him and shot him down.

A class of the Methodist Church was organized in this town¬ ship before the division of that church. Among the pioneer mem¬ bers were William Quay and wife and two or three children ; Robert Quay and wife, Isaac Yokum and wife, Peter Weyand and wife and their two sons. The first meetings were held at private houses, but about 1840 a frame building for church and school purposes was erected at Balltown. This building was all made of native lumber, sawed at Ball's mill. It stood some hun¬ dreds of yards south and east of the village, on the site of the present graveyard.

Dodge was the first minister; he also preached to a small con¬ gregation at Deerfield, often swimming his horse across the Marmaton to reach his appointment. After Mr. Dodge's death services were conducted by Elders Bradshaw, Newton, Powelson and others.

A rather noted preacher of early times was "Uncle Dicky," a good old negro slave of Balltown. Well informed in the Scriptures and zealous in the cause of the Master, and gifted with a rude but powerful eloquence, tlie old bondman converted many persons, white and black. Fie often preached in the Bates county settle¬ ments and elsewhere. He was a Presbyterian, but very liberal toward other denominations. It is said that " Uncle Dicky" died in Liberia, whither he had gone as a preacher with a colony of his fellow-negroes sent over by the American Colonization Society.

The village of Little Osage - or "Balltown," as the place was for many years better known - is located on the south bank of the Osage, in the western part of the township (se. sw. sec. 18 and ne. nw. sec. 19, tp. 37), about midway from north to south. Although at one time a place of much importance and well known throughout the country, Balltown has dwindled to insignificance - almost to obliteration. Time and the progress of events have well nigh accomplished its complete destruction. There is at present some business carried on there. Population about 100.

The first settlement on the site of Balltown was made by Daniel IF. Austin, a member of the Harmony Mission Company, who in the year 1836 came over from the Mission and began the erection of a water mill on the Osage. It was both a grist and saw mill, but at first the grinding apparatus was adapted only to grinding corn, which was practically the only kind of grain then in the country. The saw mill was of great value to the country. Prior to its establishment the only home-sawed lumber in the neighborhood was whip-sawed. The first frame house in the county was built by Edward Dodge, out of lumber sawed at this mill. Austin's mill was a well known institution to the first settlers of Vernon and Bates counties. Mr. Austin died at Balltown in 1852.

But the real founder of Balltown was Cecil D. Ball, a nephew of Rev. Nathaniel Dodge, who in the year 1837 came to the county first on a visit to his relatives. After a stay of a few months he went to St. Louis and was employed by a number of wholesale merchants as a traveling collector. He returned to Austin's Mill in 1839 and decided to engage in business and permanently locate at that point. He first purchased and then repaired and reconstructed Mr. Austin's mill and set it to sawing lumber with which to build a new mill. This was soon ac¬ complished and without delay the old mill was supplemented by a new establishment, in complete repair, well built, and with a capacity apparently quite beyond the necessities of the country at that day. But the judgment and foresight of the enterprising owner were soon made manifest. The mill was crowded with cus¬ tomers and some years later steam was introduced. The days of corn bread alone were past. The farmers could now raise wheat and have it ground and bolted into good flour, which they had hitherto been unable to do, without a long and toilsome journey to a mill in a distant locality.

Daniel II. Austin had previously been the carpenter and mill¬ wright at the Harmony Mission and had there built a water-mill on the Marais des Cygnes; but the volume of water proved to be too large and the current too powerful for the machinery, and in time he abandoned it and built a horse mill.

While Mr. Austin was operating his little mill on the Osage, two men named Barnhardt and Paper opened a little store here. But business was bad and after an experience of some months they left the country. Soon afterward Mr. Ball established a country store, erected a good two-story dwelling, a barn and other buildings and opened a large farm. At first Mr. Ball kept his goods in his dwelling house and in the room which Barnhardt & Raper had occupied, but his business increased so rapidly and so extensively that it was not long before he was compelled to build a large and commodious building expressly for a store¬ house.

The locality was at first called Austin's Mills; then Ball's Mills; then Balltown. But in 1851 Mr. Ball entered the land and laid out a town which he called Little Osage. In about 1842 the postoffice was established here and called Little Osage, having previously, about 1840, been located at the residence of Dr. Leonard Dodge, who was the first postmaster. This was the first postoffiee in Vernon county.

Cecil D. Ball was a prominent and most useful citizen of the county. Ilis business enterprise was of advantage to the com¬ munity. for it was imitated by others and led to the progress and development of the country to no small degree. Mr. Ball died November 24, 1860.

Milton Morris, an employee at the Harmony Mission and a son-in-law of Rev. Nathaniel Dodge, located at Balltown perhaps in 1838, possibly earlier. He settled upon and improved a tract of land on a part of which the village was afterward built. Mor ris sold his claim in about 1840 to his brother-in-law, Esq. William Modrel.

Col. R. W . McNeil located at Balltown in 1852, coming from c o unty in 1843, where he farmed for nine years. He engaged in business at once, opening a large general store, and soon acquiring an extensive trade.

In the year 1850 Col. R, A. Boughan came to Little Osage from Bates county, and afterward entered into partnership with Col. McNeil in merchandising and also in the ownership of the saw and grist mill. Josiah Austin was a resident of the place at that time, and the other citizens were " Governor " Ball, Colonel McNeil, Colonel Boughan, and a few mechanics, millers, etc. " Governor' ? Ball was postmaster.

Messrs. Boughan and McNeil continued the extensive trade already built up by Colonel McNeil. Some of the customers of their mill and store came from sixty miles away. The Indians were at different periods among their best customers. They often came in companies of fifty and encamped in the vicinity for several days, trading and bartering. Their visits were generally of more importance soon after receiving their annuities. All came, of course, from their then reservation in Kansas. The greatest number of these Indians wTere Osages, but the Delawares, Pottav attamies, Sacs and Foxes and Senecas were represented. Their chief articles of "country produce" were buffalo hides, tallow and skins and furs of various sorts.

To accommodate their Indian customers McNeil and Boughan employed as one of their salesmen and as interpreter Newell Dodge, who spoke the f Osage and its kindred dialects very fluently. The Osages called Colonel McNeil "Pah-hin-skosh-incah," signifying, it is said, "Little-Horse-with-White-Mane-and- Tail. They also termed him "Good-Heart," or "Big Heart," because he frequently invited the braves and chiefs to dinner and uniformly treated them with kindness and liberality.

His name of "Little Horse,"' etc., was given him by an Indian who bore it himself and gave it away to his white "brother," thus placing the Colonel under obligations to the shrewd savage ever after. It cost the Colonel many a square meal and many a present," for he could not well refuse anything to his copperhued brother who had bestowed one of his names upon him.

In 1851 the first Masonic lodge in the county was organized at Balltown. The first cemetery was the graveyard here, and the first interment, of an adult at least, was that of Samuel Newell Dodge, in March, 1838. Mr. Dodge died from a wound received in the Indian fight on the Marais des Cygnes.

"When during the alarms of the winter of 1860 the infantry company of Capt. Emmett McDonald and Capt. Jackson's battery were stationed at Little Osage, or Balltown, the people who had beef, cattle and other military supplies to sell reaped a fair profit and found a ready market for their produce. Colonel McNeil had the contract for supplying the commissary department, and "William Pryor was a sub-contractor.

The Civil War had not progressed far until its effects and con¬ sequences were felt by the village of Little Osage. McNeil's mill and the bridge over the Osage were burned by a detachment of Federal troops from Kansas, and the place became untenable for a time. The circumstances attendant were as follows:

The Federals came in from the north or northwest. On the Stinson farm, north of Balltown, on the prairie, they had a slight skirmish with the battalion of Confederates under Colonel Cum¬ mins, who went out to reconnoitre, and who after a few shots fell back to the mill, losing two men killed. Colonel Cummins said he had information that another force of Federals, 1,000 strong, was advancing on him from Ft. Scott, and so he hastily evacuated the mill and the village, taking with him the most of his supplies, and rejoined the main army in safety.

Captain Williams had with him perhaps 150 men and the fa¬ mous Moonlight 's howitzer. Nearing the village he was met by Colonel McNeil with a white flag. McNeil was a loyal man and the owner of the mill. lie asked that his property might be spared. But tlie howitzer was already unlinibered and in posi¬ tion, loaded with a shell and pointed at the mill, and Captain A\ illiams replied: "We don't load cannons for nothing; that mill has ground its last grist for the rebels - fire into her, boys!"

Captain V illiams pursued Colonel Cummins and his forces southward to the Marmaton, then returned to the north side of the Osage and encamped that night on the farm of Lewis Wil¬ son, a Union man. The next morning the Kansans returned to B a lit own and some of them burned both the mill and the bridge over the Osage. Then, after gathering up Colonel McNeil's and Mr. Ball's negroes, and a considerable herd of cattle, horses, mules and hogs, Captain Williams returned to Kansas.

The mill was a valuable one and of great service to the com¬ munity. The bridge was a fine strong structure, built of hard¬ wood lumber, chiefly walnut, was covered and sided, and its de¬ struction occasioned great inconvenience among the people and a considerable financial loss to the county. But its burning cer¬ tainly damaged the Confederate cause, and interfered materially with the army of General Price on two occasions - on the retreat from Lexington in 1861 and from Westport in the fall of 1864. On the latter occasion General Price had to cross the Osage on its upper waters and the detour he was forced to make enabled the Federals to come up with him and defeat him so completely at Mine creek.

Previous to the destruction of McNeil's mill the rebel troops under General Rains had fairly gutted McNeil's store as they passed through on their way to Carthage. McNeil was a Union man and his store was well-nigh stripped. General Rains de¬ sired also to burn the bridge, but was prevailed on to spare it.

After Company A, third Wisconsin cavalry, was stationed at Balltown from the early summer of 1863 to the close of the war, there was complete protection for the people. Indeed, so solicit¬ ous were some of the soldiers for the welfare of certain ladies of the neighborhood that they solemnly promised, in the pres¬ ence of witnesses, to become their protectors for life. There were half a dozen or more soldier weddings in the neighborhood. Captain Carpenter set the example by wedding the accomplished daughter of Dr. Leonard Dodge. One or two of the soldiers took their wives to Wisconsin after the war, but finally returned.

In September, 1863, a foraging party from Companies A and F, third Wisconsin, were bushwhacked by some of Quantrell's guerrillas up on the Marais des Cygnes, in Bates county. One man, Josiah Davis, was killed and four others were wounded.

Immediately after the war Little Osage became a place of some importance. It was the only village in the county worthy of the name, for Nevada and Montevallo had been shriveled up in the dames of the conflict. It was temporarily the county seat, until a suitable place could be had for storing the records andfor transacting the public business at Nevada. At one time a rail¬ road route was surveyed through the village, and it was believed that the Lexington & Southern road would be built via Balltown, but the location of the road a mile and a half to the east permanently injured the condition and prospects of the place.

After the destruction of the bridge the only method of cross¬ ing the river was by fording or ferrying. In December, 1866, W. W. Tibbs operated the ferry here, under license from the county court. Another fine bridge was thrown across the Osage here some years since. The first bridge was built by the Bates county court, while this territory was a part of Bates, but in June, 1858, the county court of Vernon appropriated $600 for its repair, and during the year this amount was increased to $1,000.

The Christian influence of the old Presbyterian settlers in this community was felt in after days. This township was the first prohibition township in the county. On December 7, 1857, Dr. Leonard Dodge presented a petition, signed by a majority of the citizens of the township, praying the court not to grant a dramshop license in that township for the period of one year. The prayer was granted.

Dr. Leonard Dodge was a very prominent citizen and valu¬ able member of this community. lie was a son of Rev. Nathaniel Dodge. He was brought up in the wilderness and passed 11 is life on the frontier; but he was a gentleman of education and culture, a physician of rare skill and ability, a man of strict rectitude and morality and of estimable character. During the Civil AVar Dr. Dodge was a stanch Union man, never wavering in his devotion to the "old flag"; but he was of invaluable serv¬ ice to many a Confederate sympathizer, whose property he often saved from conscription or destruction and whose life he often

Arthur. The village of Arthur, on the Lexington & Southern railroad, now the Pleasant Hill, Nevada & Joplin line of the Missouri Pacific railway system, in this township, was laid out by Frank P. Anderson, March 30, 1881. It is surrounded by a good country and considerable shipping is done from the railroad station. It is at present a prosperous little town of 100 inhabitants.

Carbon Center, a flourishing mining town, was laid out March 3, 1881, by Col. R. A. Boughan and John Mitchell. The survey¬ ing was done by Charles A. Suck. The village is located in the center of the coal region in the northeastern part of the township (southeast northeast and northeast southeast section 27-38-31), and is almost exclusively a coal mining community. A switch some two miles in length connects it with the Gulf railroad. The coal mines here are excellent. The country generally is under¬ laid with coal at a depth of from three to five feet from the sur¬ face and in veins of considerable thickness.

Marion. The railroad station on the Lexington & Southern, in the southwestern part of this township, half a mile north of the Marmaton. It was first called Blaine, for the " plumed knight," then Marion, for the "swamp fox," and latterly Hum¬ ble, for Mr. Charles Humble, the enterprising gentleman who presided over its destinies. In 1890 the townsite was abandoned and the railroad station was moved two miles north and the name changed to Horton.

Panama, a coal mining town located on section 29, range 37, township 31, was a prosperous community owfing to the extra thickness of the local veins of coal. But after these had been thoroughly worked and some bad fires had swept over the town it had a setback, though at the present time it is quite a shippingpoint and new discoveries of oil and other natural products have been made ; there is considerable interest being taken in this part of the county.