Prairie Home Township

Prairie Home Township

This is a small township lately organized and taken from the territories of Clark's Fork, Saline and Moniteau townships. It is mostly prairie, and the land is generally very fertile. The oldest settlers according to the best information that can be obtained, were James McClain, Lacy Mc- Clanahan, Adam McClanahan, Jacob Carpenter, Absalom McClanahan, Michael Hornbeck, Samuel Carpenter, Wm. H. McClanahan, Wm. G. McClanahan, and Jeremiah Smith.

It appears that these men were located in this township, previous to 1820, as their votes were recorded in that year. Some of them may not be confined to the limits of the township, but they were not far distant from the line.

The history of this township is so closely cormected with that of the three townships mentioned above from which it was taken, that it will not be repeated at this place. For its history, the reader is referred to that of the three above named townships.

The town of Pilot Grove is situated on the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railway, about twelve miles southwest of Boonville. It was located in 1873. It has had a very rapid growth and bids fair to make a very important town. It is located in a thickly settled country. The soil of the

Among the earliest settlers of the township were Manty Hatfield, John Miller, the father of Judge George W. Miller, Samuel Roe, Sr., John McCutchen, the father of Judge John M. McCutchen, William Taylor, James Taylor, Jr., John, George, Nicholas and Mathias Houx.

This township in early times was celebrated for its camp meeting grounds, there being two within its limits ; one held by the Presbyterians, and the other by the Methodists. These camp meetings which were held by each denomination once a year, were largely attended, many persons coming from great distances. Man}^ camped on the grounds, entertaining "without money and without price" the people who attended, and were particularly hospitable to strangers from abroad.

For a more full history of this part of the count3% the reader is referred to the following letters of Mr. William G. Pendleton, a young gentleman living in Pilot Grove township, viz :

Gentler^en. - A letter of late date, to Mr. E. H. Harris, has been placed in my hands by that gentleman, with the request that I respond to the same. This I shall proceed to do to the best of my ability, assuring you that the following information is at least authentic.

As you are probably already aware, Pilot Grove, as a postoffice and place of rendezvous, for the surrounding inhabitants, is one of the oldest in the county, and takes its name from an ancient grove of Hickory trees, located upon the high prairie in the immediate vicinity. In early days before well defined trails had been marked out, this grove served as a *' pilot" to persons traveling from Boonville and Old Franklin to points in the southwest. The name "Pilot Grove" came thus to be applied to the postoffice established near by, and kept by Samuel Roe, Sr.

This gentleman, now the patriarch of our community, aged ninety ^^ears, continued to fill the position of post master until the close of the war of the Rebellion. 'Twas while he was acting in this capacity, and at his residence, where the neighbors had gathered upon a bright afternoon in the spring of 1874, awaiting the arrival of the mail, that the dreaded "Bill Anderson" suddenly appeared with his guerrilla troupe, and forming the trembling citizens in line, proceeded to divest them of their personal valuables.

Mr. Wm. Mayo, one of the citizens, refused to deliver up his elegant gold watch, and started to flee ; passing the house he was joined by Mr. Thomas Brownfield, now of our community, and who had kept concealed. The guerrillas, of course, gave pursuit, and overtaking Mr. Mayo, who had became separated from Mr. Brownfield, they killed him by a pistol shot in the face.

One guerrilla had pursued Mr. Brownfield, who was endeavoring to reach a thicket of brush some rods distant. The guerrilla fired repeatedly upon Mr. Brownfield, wounding him in the hand, when, upon a near approach, Brownfield, who was armed, and a man of nerve, turned, and covering him with his revolver, compelled the guerrilla to retreat. This act doubtless saved his life, since it enabled him to reach the coveted thicket, from which concealment he defied his foes, who dared not penetrate the his retreat, and who, after surrounding the thicket, and being several times fired upon by the desperate man within, sought less dangerous fields of conquest.

After the war this postoffice several times changed hands, and was once removed several miles from its ancient locality, still, however, retaining its old name.

Upon the construction of the M. K. & T. railroad through our communit}^ in 1873, a depot was located near the ancient site of Pilot Grove, upon the land of Samuel Roe, Sr. This gentleman's son and business agent, Mr. J. W. Roe, superintended the laying oft' of a town and disposal of lots, which were at once in demand. The place was christened "Pilot Grove," and from the alacritv^vith which tradesmen and mechanics moved in, was seen the appreciation the people had of the brief prospects of the future village. Thinking men clearly saw that Pilot Grove occupied a position which would insure to enterprising tradesmen and mechanics a permanent and profitable business.

The village is located on the M. K. & T. railroad, eleven miles southwest of Boonville, in the township of Pilot Grove, one of the best in the county. Its situation is elevated and very healthful, surrounded on every hand by a beautiful and fertile stretch of country, having an extensive prairie on the east and south, and timber on the north and west.

The timber in the immediate vicinity is young, though vigorous and of valuable varieties, such as black and white oak, walnut, hickory, elm, with a small percentage of ash, wild cherry, &c.

The farm products embrace the varieties of grains and grasses, as corn*, wheat, oats, timothy, blue grass and clover, with the character of live stock, which such a combination of crops would suggest ; especially large numbers of prime cattle and hogs are annually produced and marketed from this vicinity.

Good brick-clay is to be found adjacent to the town. The nearest w^orked mines are two coal mines ; one three miles north, th« other one mile south, and the Collin's lead mines eight miles north. Fine indications of lead in paying quantities are found several miles west?

The town of Pilot Grove has at present three dry goods and grocery stores, one well appointed drug store, three blacksmith and wagon maker shops, one gunsmith shop, one tin shop, one saddler shop, one shoe shop, one milinery establishment, and one barber shop, two agricultural depots and one lumber yard ; there are also two public schools near this town.

Of dwelling houses there are twenty-three, with the usual number of out-buildings ; one private and no public school, one church of the Methodist Episcopal South denomination, established many years ago. A Cumberland Presbyterian, a Baptist and a northern Methodist Episcopal church within convenient distance. A good flouring and saw mill one mile south.

The professional men living here are Dr. J. W- H. Ross, M. D., and Dr. Elevens, present pastor of the Methodist church. The number of inhabitants is computed at about 150 ; and it is believed that the books of the M. K. & T. freight office at this place, will show in the amount of freight shipped from and received at this point, more business done than at an}^ other town in the county .except Boonville. This town was surveyed in July 1873, by Surveyor W. W. Trent, of Boonville.

The town is accessible from all directions by good roads, and it is the outlet of all the produce of its surrounding territory, and also of a large district lying west and northwest which is attracted here by a good road, opened for ing the late war, of citizens of our communitVj by lawless bands, upon either side is doubtless correct in the main, yet in view of the considerable lapse of time since the occurrence of these events, the fallibility of the human memory, and many other circumstances which would have their effeet, it w^ould not be strange should error exist in some of the minuter details.

Considered in order of time in which it occurred, I mention first the killing of Joseph Sifers, two miles north of Pilot Grove, which took place about the beginning of the war. He was a Union man, whose house was surrounded at night by unknown men, who demanded of him his fire arms. Purporting to have them hidden upon the outside of his dwelling, he went out intending to discover whothev were; when, doubtless, under the belief that his life was in danger, he ran, endeavoring to reach a cornfield adjacent, but in the attempt was shot down by a sentinel of the party. It was never known who perpetrated this outrage.

In the summer of 1864, during a revival meeting in the southern Methodist Episcopal church at Pilot Grove, Capt. Todd, one day during the hour of service, surrounded the building with a company of about sixty savage looking ''bushwhackers," who rudely entered the sacred house, stopped the services, and unceremoniously ejected the worshippers. After' refreshing themselves with the eatables prepared for the occasion, and selecting such horses as they desired, from the many secured to the trees near by, they departed, taking with them two citizens, Peter Mitzell and Otho Zeller as hostages, as they called them, whose safety would depend upon the good conduct of the citizens, in not pursuing, intercepting or informing on them, there being, at that time. State Militia stationed at various places around.

and their bodies found a day or two later. Zeller had belonged to the State Militia, which fact, to those who knew the character of the guerrillas," accounts for the reason of his killing. Mitzell was loyal, though a very quiet and inoffensive man ; he had, a short time previous, met a squad of guerrillas, and mistaking them for militia, had, doubtless, indiscretely expressed his sentiments, for which offense, in a time when men were killed for opinion's sake, he paid the forfeit with his life.

Vollmer, who, it seems, unfortunately fell into the same error as Mitzell, of mistaking them for federal troops, a number of them being dressed in blue.

A Mr. Nichols was killed near Bell Air, in this county, during the same summer of 1864. This act was committed by a band of Hall's State militia. Mr. Nicholas was a Kentuckian, a conservative Union man, and very quiet and peaceable. The provocation of this crime, if any, w^as never known.

Thomas Cooper, of this vicinity, was arrested in the fall of 1864, in James Thompson's store, in Boonville, by militia, taken to a secluded spot near the fair grounds, and brutally murdered and his body mutilated. Cooper was a southern man, and known to his neighbors as quiet, tolerant and inoffensive.