CHAPTER XXV

OLD SETTLERS AND EARLY INCIDENTS -- INTERESTING FACTS -- RECOLLECTIONS OF HARMONY MISSION -- BATES COUNTY IN THE FIFTIES -- SIXTY-EIGHT YEARS AGO -- EVENTS OF LONG AGO -- TALKS AND TALES OF OLDEN TIMES

The recollection of a conversation with Mr. William Harkins on the porch at his home near old Rich Hill in the summer of 1887 leads the writer to think that possibly others may be interested in simple incidents and folk lore of former days. Mr. Harkins had been a soldier of the War of 1812 his home at that time being in the wilds of western New York state. A typical pioneer he soon found that the environments of that vicinity were changing too fast for him and he gradually drifted with the tide of emigration west until he reached his last abiding place near Rich Hill when Bates county was still in the wilds. He loved to tell of the incidents of the early settlements of the country from New York state west to Bates county, Missouri. He died near Rich Hill about 1886, one of the last survivors of the War of 1812. He was a type of the first settlers, honest because it was natural to be so, he wore his rough side out, and what would have appeared to the refinement of the present day, as bruskness was simply the influence of surroundings that called for positive actions and resolutions to meet conditions; and under the hardened exterior there glowed a kindly disposition that had none of the cultivated exuberance bred by hope of gain. He was neither rich nor poor as we term it today. When the conversation turned to acquiring property he would say, "I have always been careful and have succeeded in keeping enough property to be independent." That sentiment prevailed largely with the early settlers. To him "independent" meant the having of enough to eat and wear and be comfortable in his home and sufficient land and stock to reasonably assure the continuance of that condition. I use him as a type because he was one of the most typical of the type that formed the better element of the first settlers. 

Mr. James Rand, another old settler, typified another class of old settlers in that he occupied a position between the real pioneer class and the modern settler. Mr. Rand and Mr. H. P. Robinson entered land early, in the vicinity of where Rich Hill now stands, and soon after the war settled on this land. Mr. Rand took great interest in the development of the country and had much to do with the making of the present west road between Rich Hill and Butler and superintended the making of a dirt grade across the bottom, much of the work yet remaining after more than forty years of use. W. H. Ratekin, another pioneer, should be mentioned in this article as he was the moving spirit in securing the establishment of the post office of Rich Hill. Mr. Ratekin was a carpenter and farmer and not only built many of the first houses built in the neighborhood but also made many of the coffins in which the dead were buried. He had traveled quite extensively and being a great reader, being one of the very few who regularly took metropolitan papers, he was a man much sought in the country post office gatherings because of his knowledge of events. To disabuse the mind of any who have it in mind that "carpenter" did not signify a workman as applied to pioneers I will just add that just prior to his settling at Rich Hill, Mr. Ratekin had personally fitted and superintended the fitting of every door and window in the finest hotel then building that St. Louis had at that time. I mention this because it is a fact that younger people too frequently form an idea that everything pioneer was on crude or ignorant lines while the facts are that many of the men whom we now call pioneers were familiar with college curriculum or were skillful in their lines. It may sound strange to many when I say that I took lessons in vocal music in a country school house from the same teacher who taught Ira D. Sankey in a musical conservatory, but such is the fact. Many men of experience and standing in their lines in older settled countries tired of the confinement or limited opportunities in their country and came West for greater opportunities. Such a one was the late H. Philbrick who settled near Rich Hill soon after the war. He was a college-bred engineer and a man of affairs. Few men had a larger acquaintance in Bates county and none knew the county better than he. He was county surveyor for many years.

In about the year 1867 or 1868 the Missouri, Kansas & Texas railroad was projected and it being generally assumed that it would follow near the old Booneville-Fort Scott road by way of Papinsville, W. A. Newton thought he saw that it would be necessary for shippers of stock to have a feeding station between Denison and Hannibal and he determined in his mind that this station could well be located near where the road would come out of the Marais des Cygnes river bottom onto the high land. Following this conclusion to the practical point he purchased several thousand acres of land southeast of where Rich Hill now stands and proceeded to get ready to carry out his well laid plans, but he did not reckon with Nevada's money and influence and the railroad missed him in its route. He then set about making a stock farm of his land which later came to be known as the "McGinnis Ranch." Mr. Newton being disappointed in his first plans did not show the white feather and give up but on the other hand he pushed on and became one of the most influential men in Bates county and when the railroads were built into Rich Hill he sold his holdings to good advantage and died at the ripe old age of nearly ninety-one years one of the wealthiest men in the county.

O. Spencer was another old settler that requires more than passing mention. He was a well educated man and a minister by profession. He settled near Rich Hill in an early day and divided his time between farming and preaching. Later in life he was largely engaged in coal business and breeding fine horses, many of his horses taking high rank on the great tracks of the country. Mr. Spencer engaged in the horse business purely from his love of fine horses. He was largely instrumental in the establishing of the Rich Hill track which became one of the best known tracks in the state. Mr. Spencer died at his home adjoining the city of Rich Hill in 1916.

Among the old settlers, few were better or more favorably known than William Wears, in whose home the post office of Rich Hill came into actual working condition under the administration of Mr. Ratekin, the first postmaster. It was at the home of Mr. Wears that most of the railroad promoters and coal prospectors made their headquarters. Here the engineers stopped when in 1887 a road was proposed from a point near LaCygne to Springfield, the proposed route being between Brushy Mound and the lake of the same name, thence south-easterly along the first high land along the river past where old Rich Hill was located. Mr. Wears kept abreast of the times in those days and was wide awake to the opportunities that the building of a railroad would give to the people here. While the road proposed at that time did not get further than a paper road Mr. Wears lived to entertain the road builders when both the present roads were projected and built. For many years after realizing the ambition he had of living near a live town, he lived in peace and plenty.

Considering the high standing of the class of people who early settled here it is not difficult to see why Rich Hill school was one of the best in Bates county. While the three R's were the basis of the rudiments taught, it is still a question which is best. Here the pupils learned to spell and the higher classes would soon put down the best high school team of today. They also learned to "figger" and sought, rather than evaded difficult "sums." And write, yes, they learned to write a neat, smooth hand, writing that would pass anywhere. It would not be correct to say that all who went to school did these things but the percentage of those who left school prepared for future schools or for actual life, would compare favorably with our most enlightened communities of the present day. The very surroundings bred an independence of action and thought that produced results. The annual school "exhibition" was the great event of the year in the neighborhood.

It would be too much to assume that there were not many ludicrous situations, many arising from ignorance and others bred by the independent happy-go-lucky surroundings of new countries. While as a rule people "got along" with each other amicably there were exceptions to the rule and one of the principal methods of expressing one's dissatisfaction or contempt of another was "not to speak" to the offender. The custom of the country being to speak to every one you met, it was a sure sign of enmity when one person would meet another and not speak.

Speaking of ludicrous situations this story, a fact, will illustrate one such case. Names omitted. T. and W. lived on adjoining farms. T. raised corn in summer and taught school in winter. W. raised hogs and had somewhat of contempt for his neighbors. W.'s hogs got into T.'s corn too often to keep up good feeling of friendship. With the aid of dogs and clubs T. was making it unpleasant for W.'s hogs when W. took a shot at long range with bird shot into mixture of hogs, dogs and Mr. T. Mr. T. proceeded at once to get out a "state warrant" for W. W. H. Cotten, who still lives near Rich Hill, then a young man, held the exalted position of constable. The warrant being delivered to him he forthwith arrested Mr. W. and brought him before the "squire," who instructed the officer to take the prisoner to Butler jail. Mr. Cotten seeing the humorous side of the question protested that the offense was a bailable one and stated that the prisoner was ready to give bond, whereupon Mr. T. rose and addressed the court in this manner: "May it please your honor this is not a bailable case, it is murder in the first degree and I object to prisoner being released on bond." At this the "squire" said he did not know what was best to do and told the constable to take the prisoner. Mr. Cotten took the prisoner and laughingly told him to go home till he was called for.

Coming now to the city of Rich Hill, proper, Col. Ed Brown has been, and properly, too, called the "Father of Rich Hill." A graduate of an Eastern college, an officer in the army in the Civil War, a promoter of rare ability, he it was who succeeded in enlisting capital to build the Missouri Pacific railway from Pleasant Hill to Joplin. It is said that he went to New York and called on Jay Gould and informed him that he was going to build a railroad through the Rich Hill coal fields and after showing the advantages of such a route to Mr. Gould he told him that if he would furnish the money to build the road it could be made a part of the Missouri Pacific system, but if he did not care to consider it, then it would be an independent line. The result was that the road was built. The Kansas City, Ft. Scott & Gulf Railway Company had long had an eye on the coal fields here and as soon as it was known that another road would be built they set to work to build in from Miami, now Linton, Kansas, hence both roads came in the same year. As stated above, Colonel Brown was a high-class man in his line. He planned well, possessing the energy of a dynamo he inspired those around him with the same spirit and everything went with a rush under his guiding hand. Having secured the financial aid to build the railroad, he proceeded to secure coal lands and organized a coal company and the land for a town site and laid out the town, so that while the railroad was building the coal fields were being opened up and the town was building up all in the Colonel's own way, with a rush that surprised everyone. It was said of him that he seldom slept, and then with one eye open. He would work all day in his office in Rich Hill and then drive forty or fifty miles to other work during the night so as to be on the job at the other place when business started for the day. Like so many other men of ability, he did not possess that equilibrium that make men permanently successful for it was not long before the quarter of a million dollars made in the venture had faded and a few years ago he died in comfortable poverty.

Before the railroads were built John Greenhalge and J. S. Craig were farming and stock raising just east of Rich Hill. Soon after the town was laid out they started a brickyard in the southeast part of the city, which soon grew into a large manufacturing enterprise under the name of Craig & Greenhalge, and for many years they manufactured large quantities of brick which were not only used in buildings in Rich Hill but were shipped in large numbers to Kansas City, Wichita and other places and through their effort Rich Hill came to be known as one of the large brick manufacturing centers. This enterprise had a large pay roll and in many ways contributed to the upbuilding of the city. Mr. Greenhalge died a few years ago on his farm on the Rich Hill-Butler road. Mr. Craig still lives in Rich Hill.

About the year 1890, Maj. D. H. Wilson, T. B. Farmer and Ben Evans, all pioneers of Rich Hill, started manufacturing paving brick and drain tile on a limited scale. While the product of the plant proved to be of fine quality it was, from lack of finance, closed down and finally sold to Mr. H. M. Booth, who interested Mr. James Hedges, of Springfield, in the enterprise and after operating the plant for some time they sold to W. S. Dickey at Kansas City and the plant is now being extensively operated by the Dickey Clay Manufacturing Company of Rich Hill.

by John H. Thomas.

The founders of Harmony Mission came from New York in 1861, as missionaries to the Indians. There are none of them now living. The Mission was abandoned in 1837 when the Indians were moved west. The government paid $8,000 for the property and the money went to the society which had sent out the missionaries. The first post office established in the county was at the Mission, but was called Batesville. It was afterwards moved to Papinsville. Harmony Mission was also the first county seat, so established in 1841, but moved to Papinsville, in 1848. The first court house was at Papinsville, completed in 1855. When the county seat was moved in 1856, the court house was sold to Philip Ceal. It was burned in 1862. The first bridge across the river was built at Papinsville in 1853 or 1854, and was burned in 1861 by General Price's men. A commission appointed by the General Assembly located the county seat at Butler, in 1856, and a court house was built there in 1857. This was burned during the war, and a frame house was built in 1866. This was in turn replaced by the court house built in 1870 and that one was torn down and replaced by the present one, built in 1900. The first voting precinct in the county was at Harmony Mission, and the first election held there was in 1841. The first grist mill I remember was the Charrett mill, built in 1833. He also ran a saw-mill and was succeeded by John Parks. William and Aaron Thomas had a grist mill in 1848; the first mill in the county was run by a tread wheel. They worked oxen on the wheel. George Thomas had a carding machine, run by the same kind of power, and worked horses on it. It was erected in 1848. He also bought a threshing machine at West Point in 1859, which was the only one I knew of before the war. Coal was dug out of the ground in several places as far back as I can remember, for use mostly in blacksmithing, but was not mined to any extent before the war.

In addition to the foregoing borrowed from the "Old Settlers' History" we give the following interesting facts gathered from a biographical sketch of John H. Thomas, written by this author and approved by him at the time and published in the "Butler Free Press," September 24, 1897: "In the spring or summer of 1839 my parents, George and Mary Thomas, came to Lone Oak township and settled in section 11 and built the first frame house on the prairie. Everybody told father he could not build a house strong enough to stand the prairie winds, but he thought he could. There was a famous spring on the place and he wished to build near it. Nearly everybody since has hauled water from the spring in a dry time. The timbers in the house were all hewn; the sills were 10 x 11 inches; the plates 8 x 10; the studding faced six inches, the joists eight inches and the braces 6x6 inches. It had a large chimney built inside the house. In a few years the early settlers began to build little houses on the prairie. They braved many hardships to get homes for their families and they shared all dangers in sympathy with one another, and were always ready to lend a helping hand. Most of them were God-fearing men. They did not try to see who could acquire the most wealth, but were willing their neighbors should share with them. Oh! for the spirit of the olden time!

"My father owned and operated a carding machine on the farm now owned by A. M. Thomas (since dead), and when a boy I knew many of the old settlers who came there with their wool. Among others I remember Mark West, father of Gent. West; John Woodfin, father of A. H. and Jason Woodfin; Melvin Dickey, who lived near "Dickey Ford" on the Marais des Cygnes river. We lived and worked in peace until the war broke out in 1861. On August 9, 1861, my brother and myself were ordered to report at the Confederate camp somewhere near Butler; but instead of obeying we left for Mound City, Kansas, and in August 1863, I enlisted in the Fifteenth Kansas Cavalry Volunteers, and served throughout the rest of the war. Our father was taken from home in December 1861, and killed somewhere near 'Dickey Lake' on the river, as near as we could learn. His body was never found, nor do any of us know to this day the place of his burial, if buried at all. I returned to Bates county in 1869, and have seen it grow from small beginnings to wealth and power. The past is past; and the bitterness of the war and the separation and estrangement of neighbors are ended."

by J. N. Barrows, of Rich Hill.

I was born within three miles of Harmony Mission site in 1847, and have lived all my life in Bates county, and in the vicinity of Papinsville and Harmony. As a boy, youth and young man, I was familiar with the site of the Mission and the habitations of the Grand Osages. I played about the apple trees planted by the missionaries, drank out of the well they digged, and remember the Mission house well. It was a large two-story building, weather boarded with walnut which had been sawed out by a whip-saw, dressed, but never painted. The sills and other dimension lumber were all hewn out or whip-sawed. It was all builded from trees cut right at their door from the tract of land ceded to them by the Grand Osages. I can recall that there were other smaller houses, built on the log cabin order, scattered about the premises when I was a boy.

Harmony Mission was situate about one and a quarter miles up the Marais des Cygnes river northwest from where Papinsville was afterward laid out and now is. In 1852, a Mr. Scroggins bought the main Mission dwelling, in which he lived until 1856. at which time he moved the building to Papinsville, where it, with two other buildings, was burned by unknown parties in the winter of 1863 and 1864, some months after General Ewing's "Order No. 11" became effective and everyone had left Bates county. The town of Papinsville had been principally burned by a battalion of a Kansas regiment under Major Anderson on December 20, 1861 -- I think that is the correct date -- about that date at least.

I can remember back to 1854-5 and I know that there were some Indians, mostly half-breeds, scattered along up the Marais des Cygnes river, where they fished and hunted unmolested. They were peaceable and harmless. This was not Indian country after the treaty of 1825; but I have always understood that the main body of the Grand Osages did not move beyond the borders of this state for several years after the treaty -- in fact, somewhere about 1836 or 1837; and they returned and temporarily dwelt and hunted along the Marais des Cygnes and Little Osage as late as the latter fifties -- a sort of nomadic life, living in tepees and few together. A good many would come out of their own country in Kansas Territory, spending the summer and autumn along these rivers, and return to their principal village for the winter.

The missionaries arrived in August 1821, got their cession from old White Hair and the lesser chiefs, and settled on the margin of the Marais des Cygnes river at the point stated above. I ought to state that Harmony Mission was about three miles from the junction of the Marais des Cygnes with the Marmiton river almost directly south of the village of Papinsville; thence east from this confluence it is the Osage river proper, which finds its way to the Missouri river at Osage City about eight miles east of Jefferson City.

The missionaries continued their labors at Harmony Mission until the body of the Grand Osages had gone West into their own country, and did not abandon the mission until 1837 or 1838.

I know there has been some confusion among writers as to the exact location of the principal village of the Grand Osages at the time the missionaries settled at Harmony in 1821 and thereafter until they went further West. On this point I can give only my best information and the reader will take it for what it is worth. While many of the incidents making history for southern Bates county come directly under my own observation, much has been obtained from my father and mother, my father having come to Harmony Mission in April 1838, where for two years he assisted Captain William Waldo in the sale of goods. In 1840. Bates county was first organized into a county. My father. Freeman Barrows, was elected the first county clerk and by virtue of this office became ex-officio recorder and circuit clerk, which office he held for twelve years. During this period father bought and improved a farm two miles east of Papinsville, where I was born, December 17, 1847. He continued to occupy this place until his death, April 26, 1861. My mother was a Miss Asenath A. Vaill, daughter of a Presbyterian minister, a graduate of Yale College, who under the auspices of the Board of Foreign Missions, established in 1819 the Union Mission fifteen miles east of what is now Ft. Gibson in the state of Oklahoma, where mother was born, January 5, 1822. After her education was completed at Munson and Mount Holyoke seminaries in Massachusetts she returned to western Missouri to visit her sister, wife of Capt. William Waldo. There she became acquainted with and married Freeman Barrows, August 23, 1842. Hence the early arrival of my parents to this country put them in a position in after years to give me an account of incidents occurring before my time and recollection. The main town of the Grand Osages was one-quarter mile north of Papinsville, which would fix the village about three-quarters of a mile a little southeast of Harmony Mission, on the high land there, in the edge of the timber, some of which is still there; and as a boy and young man, living within two miles of the spot, I often visited it. It was perfectly plain then where the principal village had been. They had killed out the timber in a considerable tract where their houses had been and where their ponies had been kept.

In 1853, the contractor who built the first brick court house in Papinsville discovered suitable soil right where the Grand Osage village had been, for brick-making and erected his kilns there, and made the brick there that went into the walls of the first brick court house in Bates county. The Indians always built their principal villages on high land, above overflow, and mostly in the timber, but close to the edge of the open prairie. This was that kind of a location. Of course, the Indians were doubtless scattered about, as was their custom, but I always understood, and so did all the early settlers, that here was the principal Grand Osage village when the missionaries settled at Harmony and builded their school house and opened their school for Indian children in 1822. There may have been other villages south of the Osage and on the Little Osage river in what is now Vernon county, at an earlier date. The fact that the missionaries selected, in conference with the chiefs, the place they did select, is strong presumptive argument that the principal village was not far away, or where I say it was. For, if the main body of the Grand Osages lived near the junction of the Marmiton creek with the Little Osage river where Gen. Z. B. Pike's crude map locates them in 1806, a distance of about eight miles as the crow flies from Harmony, and ten or twelve miles around by rivers, by land it would have been necessary for parents and children to come through a heavily timbered swampy bottom covered with tall grass, full of surface lakes and lagoons, and to cross the Little Osage, Muddy creek and the Marais des Cygnes river to get to the Mission school. It is not reasonable that a school and a religious establishment, bottomed upon the purpose and hope to reach these Indians, men, women and children, would have been located so far from the main village of the tribe. So, whatever may be thought of Pike's map, or wherever the principal village may have been in 1806, it is certain that the main body of the Grand Osage dwelt about a quarter mile north of the present village of Papinsville and about three-quarters of a mile from the Mission school and other buildings, on the Marais des Cygnes river, at least three miles north of the head of the Osage river, in Bates county, in 1821, and thereafter until they moved to their new country further west.

I have read what some of the missionaries and travelers have said about a "solid bed of stone coal" existing in the bed of the river, but I never saw, or heard of any such thing; and I am sure I would have known about it, if true, during the half century that I lived in the immediate vicinity. There was, and I presume there is yet, a thin outcropping in the bank of the Marais des Cygnes river just in front of the Mission buildings: and this may have been the basis of the story.

There was quite a settlement in an early day at Rapid de Kaw, or Colin's (Kolee's) Ford on the north bank of the Osage river about a mile from where I was born, about three miles southeast from Papinsville, and when a boy I frequently picked up arrow heads and the conchoidal chips of flint thrown off in the making or manufacturing of arrow heads. I have also picked up similar relics across the river about the base of Halley's Bluff.

Among the early events or occurrences of southeast Butler county was the enterprise of Captain William Waldo in bringing two steamboats up the Osage loaded with merchandise from St. Louis to Harmony Mission -- the "Wave" in 1844, and the "Maid of the Osage" in 1845. Captain Waldo was in the mercantile business at Harmony from 1837 to 1846. It was through his enterprise and foresight that the navigation of the Osage was greatly improved by the construction of "wing dam" which threw the volume of water that spread over a broad shoals into a narrow channel. This was done in removing by a primitive dredging system the gravel and other stony formation from this artificial channel for the formation of the wing dam. To carry out this plan Captain Waldo secured an appropriation by the state of the sum of $25,000 to complete the work. This improvement proved to be of very material aid to navigation in times of low water. At the time of these events, which occurred between 1840 and 1848, the county seat of Bates county was at Harmony Mission and might have remained there indefinitely; but on account of the narrow channel of the Marais des Cygnes (the river on which Harmony Mission was located), it was thought best to lay out a town for the county seat at some suitable place on or near the banks of the main Osage river, which was a convenient stream and navigable for boats most of the time. This plan was conceived by three men of this portion of Bates county, William Waldo, George Douglass, and Freeman Barrows. Accordingly, a site was selected on the north half of the northeast 1/4 of section 23, township 38, range 30, two miles east of Papinsville, and one-half mile north of the banks of the Osage river at Rapid de Kaw. This place was agreed to, there being no apparent opposition. This was in 1842. The town was laid off in lots, blocks and streets, and named Selden; and settlement of the townsite commenced; but when it came to moving the county seat from Harmony Mission, there arose an opposing faction, which was headed by John McHenry, Bates county's representative in the Legislature, and the leader of the Democratic party of the county. The opposition claimed it should be more centrally located in the county; and another argument was introduced against the establishing of the county seat at the new town of Selden was the fact that its three projectors were all "old line Whigs." The matter of the locating of the county seat was very hotly contested. In one of McHenry's speeches he called it the "town of Seldom," and said it was appropriately named, as it was very "Seldom" that anyone ever went to the place. The factions however finally compromised the matter by placing it at Papinsville, Mr. Papin, of St. Louis, one of the American Fur Company, donating forty acres of land for the townsite, this point being once famous in Indian history as one of the most celebrated Indian towns and the home of the most noted Indian chiefs. All that had been done for the laying out of the town of Selden was promptly revoked. Freeman Barrows, one of the promoters, bought the land and much of that adjoining it. upon which he built a house.

The steamer "United States Mail" came up from St. Louis to Harmony Mission in 1858, stopping at Papinsville on its way up and down. Harmony was only about a mile or two by water up the Marais des Cygnes river. Then the Civil War came on and no more steamboats arrived until 1867, when the large steamer, "The Osage," came as far as Rapid de Kaw and there unloaded, not being able to get up over the rapids to Papinsville. She made, two trips up, and the "Tom Stephens" made three that year, and being a lighter boat was enabled to reach and land at Papinsville. In 1869 the "Tom Stephens" made six trips from St. Louis to Papinsville and that was the end of merchant marine service on the Osage and the Marais des Cygnes. But about 1905 or '06, Congressman David A. DeArmond and a party of friends chartered a little steamer at Monegaw Springs and came up the Osage, thence up the Marais des Cygnes to a point near Cornland or Athol, where they disembarked and the congressman took the Missouri Pacific railroad train for his home in Butler, about six miles north, and the party of friends returned on the steamer to Monegaw Springs, stopping at the towns and villages along the way. Since then no attempt has been made to navigate the Osage above Osceola, and for some years not above Warsaw, the county seat of Benton, and in fact nothing like regular transportation by water above Tuscumbia in Miller county is maintained on the beautiful Osage. Railroads reaching Bagnell, Warsaw, and Osceola, put river service out of business.

by Hon. J. B. Newberry.

To the Reader. -- The following personal recollections have been written wholly from memory, and as I have not attempted to write anything like a history of Bates county, many incidents of interest have been left out which are matters of record. The effort to recall and record some of the incidents connected with my early residence in Bates county has awakened many pleasant memories of the past, for truly I can look back to those early times with the very pleasant conviction that they were among the most happy of my life and, if I have succeeded in writing anything which will interest or amuse the reader of the history of Bates county, I shall feel amply repaid for the effort. I think I can safely claim the indulgence of the reader to overlook the faults and shortcomings of the writer in his efforts to contribute, however slightly, to the history of Bates county previous to the war of 1861 to 1865.

Bates County As I Saw It in 1853. -- I came to Bates county in the spring of 1853, and located at Papinsville. There were seven families living there at that time: S. H. Loring, F. F. Eddy, F. H. Eddins, Geo. L. Duke, S. S. Duke, D. B. McDonald and James McCool. S. H. Loring was engaged in merchandising, as was the firm of Eddy & Eddins. James McCool kept a dram shop. Geo. L. Duke operated a wool carding machine, the motive power of which was an inclined wheel. S. S. Duke worked at the carpenter's trade. D. B. McDonald was clerk in Eddy & Eddin's store. There were several others employed at work of various kinds about town. Papinsville was at that time the county seat of Bates county, which at that time comprised the territory out of which Vernon county was erected. I shall not attempt to give a history of the changes in the county lines of the causes which led up to the same. An old log building was serving as a court house at this time. In 1854 a new brick court house was erected, which enlivened and greatly added to the business of the town. Newcomers began to arrive, new buildings were erected and the population continued to increase until the county seat was removed in 1856. During the year 1853 Richardson & Onay brought in and operated a saw-mill, for which eight or ten horses furnished the motive power. Onay was accidentally thrown against the saw in the summer of 1854, receiving injuries from which he died in a few days. Richardson, assisted by Eddy & Eddins, soon changed the motive power to steam and operated it until his death, when it was taken charge of by others.

In the season of 1854 or 1855 a bridge was built across the river, which was a great convenience to the traveling public as well as to the community.

In 1852-3-4 and 1855 there was considerable immigration to California and thousands of cattle were brought to be driven across the plains, leaving thousands of dollars of gold coin in the hands of the people, which made prosperous times for the country. In fact, it was sometimes boastingly said that the people all had their pockets full of twenty dollar gold pieces.

The immediate vicinity of Papinsville was sparsely settled at this time. Freeman Barrows lived about one and one-half or two miles southeast of town; Peter Colin (pronounced Collee), lived about one mile south of him; J. N. Durand lived about three miles due east from town. There were quite a number of settlers living along Panther creek and its tributaries, among whom I remember W. H. Anderson. James S. Hook, who still lives at the same place, Jacob Housinger and several members of his family who had families of their own, Robert Bilcher and family, William Milton, John Gilbreath and sons, William, Simeon and Stephen, were living in what was called Round Prairie, as did Richard Stratton, Peter B. Stratton, who was afterward elected circuit and county clerk, lived farther west and on the north side of the creek and William Hedrick, who is still living and has passed the ninety-fifth mile-stone on life's journey, and is hale and hearty. John D. Myres, also afterward elected circuit and county clerk. Col. George Douglass, George Rains, Widow Blevins and family, mother of Judge C. I. Robards; hers was the first house I saw the inside of in Bates county, and I have greatly held in remembrance her kindness, and also the cup of cold coffee she gave me, for I was very thirsty as well as weary, and was greatly refreshed by it. The next settlement north of Panther creek was on Deepwater. Among the settlers I might mention Hiram Snodgrass and his sons, Isaac, Richard, William and James V., the latter of whom and two sisters, Mrs. White and Mrs. Jennings, are still living in Bates, widow Lutsenhizer's family, two of whom, T. B. Lutsenhizer and Mrs. Simpson, wife of J. R. Simpson, are still living here, George Ludwick and family of whom John L. and Mrs. Vanhoy are living in this county, and William is temporarily staying in Colorado, Oliver Drake, Peter Gutridge. W. B. Price, Samuel Scott and Joseph Beatty.

On north Deepwater at Johnstown and vicinity, were living John Harbert and family; John Hull lived in the town; R. L. Pettus, J. B. Pettus, Samuel Pyle, James McCool and others.

In the north part of the county on Peter creek. Elk Fork and Grand river there were settlements, among others whom I remember, Martin Hackler, J. Leakey, Alexander Erhart, Austin Reeder, Joseph Reeder, J. C. Gragg, Joseph Highly, George Sears, William Crawford, Martin Owens, Hiram Edwards, William France, R. Dejarnett, Lewis C. Haggard, John Pardee, John Evans, John S. McCraw, the last two of whom are still living at the same place they were then, Enoch Rolling, George L. Smith, Barton Holderman, Alexander Feely, Frank R. Berry, Joseph Clymer, Vincent Johnson and John Green.

On the Miami, Mulberry and Marais des Cygnes there were a number of settlers, among whom were Samuel Dobbins, Clark Vermillion, Oliver Elswick, H. B. Francis, Bluford Merchant, Messrs. Ramsey, Jackson and J. Rogers.

On Mound Branch lived Major Glass and widow Hersell and family and probably others.

About Pleasant Gap and Double Branches the following names are remembered: James Ridge, Joseph Wix, William Deweese and sons, Jesse, Evan and Elijah; Livy Bethol. Peter Trimble, Doctor McNeil, Cornelius Nafus, Hugh Campbell, John Dillon, Dr. William Requa, William, George and Aaron Thomas, John, Lindsey and Thomas Wine, James Coe, Enoch Humphrey, George Requa and family including Austin, James, George and Cyrus, Jesse Rinehart, J. O. Starr and John Hartman.

On Mission branch and Sycamore I remember George Weddle, Abraham Goodwin, Widow Zimmerman and family, Mrs. Charette and family, also an Osage Indian half-breed named Gesso Chouteau, who had been educated at Harmony Mission, but who still retained the Indian characteristics of shiftlessness and laziness and was fond of whiskey, and while possessing a fairly good education, gave little evidence of it except when his tongue got limbered up with liquor.

Of those who were living on the south side of the Marais des Cygnes river I remember M. Parks, Jeremiah Burnett, William. Thomas and B. F. Jennings, O. H. P. Miller, Widow West and family, Edmund Bartlett, Jason and A. H. Woodfin.

In the foregoing list of names I have intended to include only those who were living in the county at the time of my coming to the county, but as it is written from memory it is possible it may contain names of some few who came to the county after 1853.

There are many left off for the reason that their names have escaped my memory at the time of writing, but whom I formerly was well acquainted with.

From this time (1853) on, the county settled up very fast. Many immigrants came from other states every year, aside from those who came from other counties within the state. New farms were opened up, new houses built and improvements of all kinds were added. New settlements were made out on the prairie, miles away from timber, which was a surprise to some of the old settlers most of whom came from sections of country heavily timbered, and I have heard more than one of them sagely assert that the wide open prairies of Bates county would always remain so, as people could not settle them up and live upon them so far away from timber; and furthermore, there was not enough to support more than a small area near the streams. How greatly those first settlers were mistaken in the capability of the county for the support and maintenance of a large population we can now realize when we see some of the finest and best improved farms miles away from timber and the owners not caring to possess any timber land. It has been abundantly demonstrated that much less timber is needed than the early settlers supposed was the case. Hedges and barbed wire supply the place of rails for fences, and the railroads bring in building material for other improvements, thereby lessening the demand for native timber.

From 1853 to 1861 the county continued to increase rapidly in population and wealth. By the end of 1857 practically all government land had been entered, and mostly by actual settlers.

The border troubles between Missouri and Kansas which commenced in 1856 over the question of slavery in Kansas, retarded the growth of the country somewhat but probably not to a great extent, but when the war commenced in 1861, the people began to move away from the border on the west, some going south and some north, while others further away from Kansas into the interior of the state; the movement gaining impetus as the war progressed, until the promulgation of General Thomas Ewing's celebrated "Order No. 11," which was on August 25, 1863, then all went, and stood not on the order of their going. Such property as they were not able to take with them was left behind, and the amount so left was neither small in bulk or insignificant in value and most of which was an utter loss to the owners, it afterward being either stolen or destroyed. In the fall of 1863 there was not a single family left within the confines of Bates county which three short years before contained thousands of contented, prosperous and happy people. As a proof of the number of citizens in the county at that time, I will mention that more than 1,200 votes were cast at the general election in 1860.

I shall not attempt to write about the return to and resettlement of the county after the war was over, by those who had been compelled to leave their homes by reason of the war, to find in a majority of cases that their houses were burned or destroyed together with the other improvements on their places, finding a waste and desolation in place of any of the comforts or conveniences of the home they had left behind them when they were compelled to abandon the county.

The early settlers were generally honest, industrious, frugal and contented. They were also very free hearted, charitable and always willing and ready to assist their neighbors or others needing assistance such as they were able to give. There were very few of great wealth but nearly all in circumstances to live comfortably according to the customs of the country. Nearly all had some education, there being some highly educated, while there were others whose educational advantages barely enabled them to read and write.

Newspapers were not so plentiful or cheap as at present. Neither were mail facilities equal to those we now enjoy. The mails were carried on horseback and once each week only, but quite a number of papers were taken, and those who received none got the news from their neighbors, and the people were generally well informed about the world's doings. Generally a goodly number of people went to town on Saturday, for the purpose of trading at the stores, to get their mail, have their plows sharpened or work done, hear the news, meet their neighbors and some went on general principles and to have a good time.

As there were no means of transporting farm products to market there was no inducement to open up large farms and raise large crops as there is at present, in consequence of which, the people had more leisure for visiting and hunting; and game, such as deer, turkey and waterfowl, was abundant, and fish were plentiful in the streams and lakes. Visiting was indulged in as if it were a duty as well as a pleasure. Neighbors living ten or fifteen miles apart would often exchange visits, while those who lived from three to five miles from each other would go still more often, frequently spending a day and night or a longer time with their neighbor. House raising, corn-shucking and such like occasions called out the neighbors for miles around, and after the work was done, usually a dance would follow, when all both young and old, participated if they chose to do so, and usually kept it up all night.

Shooting matches were frequently arranged when the people for miles around would meet and contest for the championship, sometimes a beef would be contested for, with first, second, third, fourth and fifth choice, the hide being fifth. Occasionally, one person would win all five parts and could drive his animal home if he chose to do so.

Education for their children seems to have been early looked after and provided for by the early settlers. Schools were established in each district, where from three to six months school was held each year. Subscription schools were frequently provided for when the public funds were inadequate. While the public schools of that day were probably not up to the high standard of the present, yet they were sufficient to furnish a really good and useful common school education, quite as helpful and practical as that obtained in our more modern schools; and very few children were permitted to grow up without having at least the rudiments of an education.

The interest taken by the early settlers in education has continued to grow and increase with those who came after them until at the present time I think it no exaggeration to say that no county in the state has better public schools, or where the people more liberally and earnestly support them, materially and otherwise, than in Bates county, and her citizens all feel proud of them and the excellent public school system of the state, and no fears need be felt but that they will be kept at their present high standard.

by Judge C. I. Robards.

No man will ever be able to imitate the beauty of landscape and variety of scenery of the natural prairies of the great West, because of their vastness and their variety of products, many of which are extinct.

Flowers that grew spontaneously and occupied every season, from earliest spring to latest fall, excelled any collection man could gather in a lifetime. Lilies, roses, phloxes, violets, wild chrysanthemums, single petunias, crimson asclepias, snow drops -- brilliant and gorgeous flowers for every season -- were here to be enjoyed for their beauty as landscape decorations, or to be plucked at will. The air was redolent with their perfume; their sweets were free for the honey-makers.

The grass that grew everywhere was more nutritious than any meadow of modern days. Fruits in great variety grew in the wooded districts along the water courses and ripened in succession -- an abundant supply for the wants of all. Strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, dewberries, wild apples, blackhaws, grapes of large size and excellent flavor, persimmons, pawpaws, pecan nuts, black walnuts so plentiful that they could be scooped up with a shovel.

Bees stored their honey in hollow trees so abundantly that it could be gathered by the barrel-full. Everywhere nature provided so abundantly for man's wants that no one could doubt the Bible representation of "The land that flowed with milk and honey."

Apple and peach orchards planted in those primitive days knew no insect pests and no failure of crops. Watermelons and muskmelons planted in freshly turned prairie sod covered the ground with the luxuriance of their vines, and without cultivation produced monstrous melons so abundantly there were more than could be consumed. Water, pure and fresh, stood in the open prairie in sunken basins or pools that seemed to have neither inlet or outlet. Fish occupied these natural ponds. Wild animals and fowls found food, water and shelter in these great natural fields. Wooded streams afforded protection and water for fish and fowls. Along the margins of these water courses grew wild climbing roses; in the ponds and lakes grew water lilies, and beavers and otters had their homes here.

When this immense growth of vegetation was killed by frosts in the fall, grand and wonderful sights were presented in the burning prairies, for the wild grass grew in some seasons' to the height of eight or ten feet. Then these furious fires would create destruction to the lives of stock and occasionally a human life would be sacrificed by the intense heat. But as the prairies became more densely inhabited, better regulations were established for protection, and whole neighborhoods would form lines of men armed with different weapons of defense against these dangers. In the highest fury of these fires the flames would leap over creeks and rivers, destroying houses, fences and trees. Then the only means of defense was to build counter fires to advance and meet the oncoming flames until the two lines united and there was nothing more to destroy.

But man's progress and civilization have destroyed that which can never be reproduced. The plow and the railroad have developed a different order of things and whether better or worse, it remains for those who loved the beautiful prairie to know them only in memory.

A Model Log House. -- In the eastern part of Bates county, in Hudson township, there stands a log house in a good way of preservation, now owned and occupied by Thomas J. Pheasant, that was built on my father's farm almost fifty-five years ago. All the logs in this building are of white oak or black walnut hewn with smooth surfaces by the broad ax and adz, leveled at top and bottom, dove-tailed and matched at the end. As the logs were laid in place each one was bedded in mortar, and to add to the security of their position, holes were bored through every log from top to bottom of the whole wall on each side of every door and window, on each side of every corner and held in place by an inch iron bolt the full height of the wall. This log house has been re-roofed four or five times, first with black walnut rived boards, then with best sawed shingles and now with pine. The flooring was all cut with a whipsaw, the log being placed on a strong frame and one man standing above the log to pull the saw up while another stood beneath the log to pull it down. The upper floor was cut from large pecan logs, the lower floor large black walnut timber. The reason my father had for having this house built so substantially was to resist high winds.

I do not remember that we feared cyclones in the early settlement of this country, but we could often see the tracks of terrific tornadoes and hurricanes in the timber districts. Our house was built and stands on a high limestone table-land at the head of Panther creek. From this eminence we could view a beautiful landscape five miles in extent in nearly every direction.

Game of nearly every kind was abundant and from our hill we could see deer every fair day in the year. Indians from different tribes came to visit us every spring and fall to ask permission to hunt game, until we became so accustomed to seeing them that we did not fear them.

My father settled in Bates county when I was ten years of age. I had four sisters. When the Indians came to see us, sometimes a dozen or more at the same time, we would go out and meet them and exchange pork or corn or some article that they wanted, for their venison. They invariably had one interpreter or spokesman, all other members of the party giving us to understand that they could not speak our language. When they returned the next season some other member of the party would act as interpreter and the speaker of the former season would be silent, pretending not to understand. But they were jovial among themselves and much given to laughter.

During our early acquaintance with the frontier tribes of Indians we never heard of more than one act of hostility. About the year of 1840 a band of Osage Indians obtained permission from their agent, located in what is now Kansas, to come over the border into Missouri to hunt. While hunting game in the woods they killed some hogs belonging to white settlers. In haste, and angered at the depredations of the Indians, an armed band of whites suddenly appeared at the Indians' camp to bring them to account for their conduct. The first unfortunate impulse of the Indians was to fly to their arms and resist what they supposed to be a determination to butcher them. The Indians opened fire on the white men and killed a Mr. Dodge, one of the most useful and influential pioneers of the county. Finally the Indians were induced to surrender, and after being informed that they must not return, the locks were removed from their guns and they were sent back to their agency in disgrace. The Indians' visits were not so frequent for several years after this event, but finally under promise of good behavior they began to return in small bands and always asked permission when they came to hunt.

One day a wounded deer came bounding into my father's cornfield. My dog gave chase and soon caught it. Just then a large Indian with a gun in his hand ran to me and gave me to understand that it was his deer, and pointing to its hind foot showed me it had been shot off; of course I could but submit. He proceeded to dress the deer in a hasty but neat way, and after it was all ready to pack he cut off one of the hind quarters and gave it to me as my portion for the service my dog had rendered. I thought then, as I now think, he proved himself to be better than most white men in manliness and gratitude.

My Watermelon Patch. -- I planted a little watermelon patch in the center of the cornfield where from the hill-top at the house I could look down into it. As I looked into my melon patch one day I discovered that a number of deer and wild turkeys had taken possession of it and that after they had dined on melons at my expense were engaged in a little innocent dance among the vines. The turkeys would flap their wings and strike and jump against the deer, while the latter danced and jumped around the turkeys like lambs at play.

They were so intent on their amusement that they did not notice me as I quietly crept down among the corn to within a few feet of the little open square. Here I lay quiet a few moments, then raising my head discovered that a turkey was my nearest game. Leveling my gun I pulled the trigger, but to my disappointment the gun had been loaded so long that it failed to discharge and I feared the explosion of the percussion cap would scare the game away. I remained very quiet for a little while until assured that there would be no general alarm, then placed a fresh cap on the tube. By this time a deer stood, broad-side, within a few feet of where I lay. I took steady aim, but to my increased aggravation my gun again failed to do service. I now felt sure I should lose all opportunity to capture any of the game, although within reach of it. The turkeys began to be suspicious and I knew by their notes of alarm that they were warning each other to be on the lookout for danger. I determined, however, that as long as the game remained within reach of a shot I would continue to try the obstinate gun. The third time I took more care to prepare my gun for service. Having come prepared with powder-horn and shot, I opened the tube with a pin, poured in fresh powder and primed it to the top, then placed on a new cap and raising my head cautiously, saw a fat, half-grown deer less than twenty feet away. This time my gun did full execution and there immediately occurred a rushing flight and stampede of all the game except the animal at which I had aimed, and that one I dragged proudly home.

Shooting Wild Turkey. -- We kept a flock of tame turkeys. One fall a wild turkey came from the woods and, although it always seemed a little shy, stayed all winter with the tame ones. In the spring he became discontented and began to evince a disposition to return to his haunts in the woods. He would make frequent attempts to lead our whole flock of tame ones away to the place of the home of his wild companions. I then determined that if he was so ungrateful as to desert us after all our kindness and after having shared our hospitality a whole winter I would rather have his dead body than to have his living memory. I carefully loaded my rifle, but to my great chagrin, found that my cap box was empty. In those days it was not easy to obtain supplies when they were exhausted, as it was six miles to the nearest store.

I had determined to shoot that turkey, however. By this time the turkey had perched himself on a fence within twenty feet of the house. Having raised the window quietly, I told my mother to take the tongs and bring a coal of fire from the fireplace and when I raised the hammer of the gun as I took aim at him, to touch the live coal to the tube of the gun. The discharge, of course, was simultaneous with the application of the coal. My mother was greatly frightened; but we shot the turkey and ate him for dinner.

Language of Birds. -- I noticed a remarkable proof of the communication of the wishes of birds. As I stood on our hill one day at noon I noticed a large hawk slowly and laboriously approaching the limestone bluff to the west of the house. The direction the bird was flying was bringing it nearly over my head. The hawk was evidently carrying a heavy prey for its young and as it came nearer I discovered that its burden was a rabbit hanging down from its talons. At this moment I noticed the hawk's mate dart rapidly away from the cliffs and fly directly under its mate at a distance of fifteen feet or more below, then suddenly the upper hawk dropped its burden, I supposed accidentally, but it was caught by the mother hawk, as I believed the lower bird to be, who turned herself feet up in the air and received the rabbit as dexterously as ever baseball catcher caught a ball, then turned and hurried back to feed her brood, while the tired master hawk flew slowly after.

by William E. Walton.

You ask me to write about Bates county as it appeared twenty-seven years ago.

I came here in July 1870, and began the making of a set of title abstract books. Butler was a small village, and Bates county one big prairie with timber along the streams.

Where Rich Hill, Adrian, Hume, Foster, Merwin and Amsterdam now stand was then wild prairie land. Our court house was being built by John B. Tinklepaugh, a contractor, but he failed, and it was completed by his bondsmen. None of the streams were bridged, unless there was one bridge at Papinsville. After big rains we had three ways of crossing, viz.; wade, swim, or wait for low water.

Times were good and everybody making money. Non-residents owned the big prairies and paid taxes while our farmers and stock raisers grazed thousands of cattle on the land and grew rich on "free range." Immigrants with money were coming from everywhere, but principally from the north, buying the rich, low priced land, plowing up the sod, building houses and making farms. In fact, we were at the high tide of prosperity in 1870.

The war lasted four years and had closed five years prior to that time. During its continuance it brought sorrow and death to a million homes, and reduced the South from a condition of affluence to that of poverty. On account of the war the government had paid out hundreds of millions of dollars, and this vast sum was in the hands of the people. True, the government had borrowed this money by selling to Europe interest-bearing bonds, but we had the money and they had the bonds and pay day was a long ways off. It was an era of speculation and money making. The mints were open to the free coinage of both gold and silver, but neither metal was in circulation. Gold was at a premium, and had been for years. This was before the crime of 1873. Our money was all paper. We were getting rich and getting in debt both. In 1873 the Jay Cooke bank failed. This startled the country and was the beginning of a panic that covered the United States and ruined thousands that were in debt. Although money was plenty and business good, in 1870 interest rates ruled high. Money was active and in great demand, for everybody speculated. From 15 to 18 per cent, was the rate for short-time loans, and on five-year farm loans from 12 to 15 per cent. I frequently borrowed money then, and was considered fortunate when I could get it at 15 per cent.

The first bank in Butler was owned by the "Dunbaugh Brothers." It failed in October 1870, owing its depositors $70,000. Immediately after this failure, Mr. Cheney, F. J. Tygard and P. A. Burgess came from Holden, Missouri, and opened the Bates County Bank, which was for several years the only bank here. There are now (1918) fifteen banks in Bates county, and two trust companies.

Courts were held upstairs in the room now occupied by Sam Levy Mercantile Company. Church services were frequently held in the same room. Politically, times were hot in 1870. Our congressman was S. S. Burdett, a lawyer living at Osceola. He was a Republican, and had defeated for Congress John F. Phillips, late federal judge at Kansas City. During the Bryan-McKinley campaign he visited Butler after an absence of twenty-five years and spoke in our opera house. Our circuit judge was David McGaughey. The writer was clerk of election in Clinton, Missouri, in 1868, and counted the votes when he defeated Judge Foster P. Wright. Both are now dead. John D. Myers was county clerk, circuit clerk and recorder of deeds. He was the father of Mrs. Judge Steele of Butler. Judge Myers was "Southern raised," but was a "Union man." He had troubles during the war and sincerely believed he had been badly treated. He was positive and outspoken. Such men always have enemies. He was an honest man, always true to a friend. Our county judges were B. H. Thornton, who owned and lived on the Badgley farm two miles southwest of Butler, L. E. Hall of Homer township, and J. N. Crigler, of near Johnstown. Wesley T. Smith was sheriff and tax collector. He was a defaulter for $18,000, but $10,000 was paid by his bondsmen. H. C. Donnahue, who recently ran for Congress on the Populist ticket, was county treasurer.

C. C. Bassett, A. M. Christian, C. F. Boxley, A. Henry, William Page, P. H. Holcomb, Sam Riggs, L. D. Condee, T. J. Callaway, C. H. Wilson, N. A. Wade, A. T. Holcomb, J. K. Hansburg, J. K. Brugler and J. J. Brumback were our lawyers. Bassett was a candidate for circuit judge in 1872, but was defeated by Foster P. Wright. Henry and Bassett were each candidates for Congress several times, but neither secured the Democratic nomination.

Doctors Boulware, Pyle, Frizell, Carnal, Martin, Patten and Heath were the physicians. All are yet living except Frizell and Carnal. A. H. Lamb was postmaster and kept the office in a one-story frame that stood on the lot now covered by the west half of the Palace Hotel, now American Clothing House.

The Republicans held all the offices. They had passed a law in 1865 that "Confederates" and "Southern Sympathizers" were disfranchised. This law was not repealed until 1870. In that year the Republican party of Missouri "split" on the question of enfranchisement. B. Gratz Brown and Carl Schurz, both original old line Republicans, bolted the convention and became leaders in favor of restoring the ballot to all Southerners. They were called "Liberal Republicans" to distinguish them from the "Regular Republican party" that opposed enfranchisement. The Democrats of Missouri made no nominations but voted the liberal ticket. The result was B. Gratz Brown was elected Governor and Carl Schurz elected to the United States Senate. The Republicans lost control in Missouri and the ballot was restored to all Confederates and Southern sympathizers. In Bates county the ticket elected was a combination of "Liberal Republicans" and Democrats, viz.: John B. Newberry, sheriff; F. V. Holloway, treasurer; John R. Walker, representative; S. H. Geisel, circuit clerk; William Smith, county clerk. All were Democrats except Geisel and Smith.

John R. Walker was then a young, wealthy farmer living eight miles, northeast of Butler. He is now United States district attorney at Kansas City.

O. D. Austin was then editor of the "Record." W. A. Feely had recently begun the publication of the "Democrat." The writer in October 1870, assisted John R. Walker, N. A. Wade and others in carrying the type and material of the "Democrat" up-stairs in a frame building that stood where the Missouri State Bank now is, and from that room was published the "Bates County Democrat." Feely died several years later and is buried in the old cemetery. There was much of bitterness in politics then. The Republicans called the Southerners "Rebels." The Southerners called the Republicans "Radicals," neither side showing much liberality. We had not then learned this truth -- that each man's peculiar views are the natural outgrowth of his environment -- that education and surroundings in youth largely mould and shape opinions.

Had Jeff Davis been born and raised in Maine he would doubtless have been an abolitionist, and John Brown if born and brought up in South Carolina would in all probability have been a secessionist.

We had no railroads but our people were anxious to secure one. Under the law. bonds could be voted by the tax-payers to aid in building railroads. In a year or two almost every county in Missouri had issued two or three hundred thousand dollars in bonds, sold them in the market for cash and afterward paid the money to wild cat companies that had nothing to build railroads with outside of this money. The roads were half finished when the money gave out. Litigation followed for years. The courts generally held the bonds legal.

In September 1874, grasshoppers came. Being late in the season but little damage was done crops. They deposited their eggs in the ground and early in the following spring hatched out by the million and proceeded at once with voracious appetites to devour everything green. The whole country was covered with them. They were as thick on the ground as bees sometimes get on the outside of a hive. Our people were much discouraged for it looked as if nothing could be raised. But to our great joy one day late in the spring the "hoppers" took flight, and we have never seen them since.

by Clark Wix, of Deepwater Township.

My father, Joseph Wix, came from Fulton county, Illinois, and settled in Bates county (being then only nineteen years old), in October 1839, two miles northeast of Pleasant Gap, where I was born February 5, 1850, on the farm where my youngest brother, Seth Wix, now lives. My father bought a claim and continued to live on the same farm until his death in February 1895, except three years during the Civil War we lived in Jefferson county, Kansas. We returned to the old home, the well and land still there, April 10, 1866; and by hard work and close application soon had several hundred acres fenced with eight-foot rails hauled with ox-teams two and three miles; and I had some of the honor of the rail-hauling and splitting, too. Deer and wild turkey were plentiful; also prairie chickens by the thousands. I have seen my father many times shoot wild turkeys off the oat stacks with a trusty old rifle, as they were among our tame ones on the stacks. On one occasion we had hauled shock corn out to our cattle. There was a big snow on the ground. I saw my father kill two big deer feeding among the cattle at one shot with a rifle -- got them in range.

Among the first settlers that I can remember in and around Pleasant Gap in my childhood days were Uncle Joe Smith, the merchant at Pleasant Gap; James S. Ridge; Horace Melton; Jesse, Ivan and Elijah Deweese; Levi Bechtal; Peter Trimble; George and Boly Rains; Richard Andrew; Jonathan and Riley and Daniel Blevens; Jacob Freeman and three sons, Jonathan, Jake and William; Judge John D. Myers, his son, John, and four step-sons, James H., Elihu, W. B., and George Raybourn; John M., W. G., Ben and Alvis Cumpton; Hillery Pitts; the Doyles; John Dillon; Doctor McNeal; John Wix, R. B. Wix's father and a brother to my father. He settled on the farm that his son, Robert, now owns in the year 1840, and died in 1862. Corneal Nafus and Daniel Smith and my uncle, Joseph Beatty; Uncle Martin White and his three sons, James M., Wesley and Griffis; Uncle Billy Campbell, Judge Campbell's father; and a Mr. Beckelhammer -- all were among the very early settlers that I can remember. Uncle Martin White was an "old school" Baptist preacher, and a good man. I can remember on one occasion he came to preach at the Wix school house. He preached for about two hours, while I sat in the line on a puncheon seat. Uncle Martin went home with us for dinner; and before dinner was announced my father, knowing the hard work of a two hours' effort, got the old five-gallon demijohn from under the bed, and Uncle Martin took a glass tumbler full and remarked that it was a good article. Most every man kept it in those days to ward off chills and fever and to cure snake bites, and very poisonous snakes were plentiful. So were the chills, also, in those days.

We would butcher eighteen to twenty-five big hogs for our meat and what we could not use would trade the bacon to some fellow for his work making rails or hoeing corn. There was no market for hogs on foot as there is now. All the neighbors were good, honest people and would go for miles to help each other butcher or build a log cabin. I remember going to mill, with a sack of corn, eight miles north. Went to a little tread mill owned and operated by Thomas and Jesse Fowler -- Thomas being Isaac Fowler's father; on the farm where Willis Walbridge now lives. It was a very industrious little mill, as fast as it ground one grain it jumped on another one at once and ground it. I have waited all day for my grist. I told the miller one day I could eat it all as fast as it ground it out and he said, "How long would you live and eat all that?" I told him until I starved to death. In going to this mill on an old sorrel mare I went as the crow flies and only passed two houses in the eight miles, all open prairie and tall prairie grass. Saw lots of deer, wolves and prairie chickens on the way. Land was then worth three dollars to five dollars an acre; now all fenced and fine houses and barns on it and selling for sixty-five to one hundred dollars an acre and more; and it is owned by a prosperous and up-to-date class of people. Many of them are the descendants of the very early settlers, who came mostly from Tennessee via Kentucky, North and South Carolina, and a few from Illinois and Indiana. As a boy I have been in old Pleasant Gap on Saturday afternoons, and have seen a dozen drunks and soon some fellow would announce that he was the best man in town and it was sure to be disputed; and from one to a half a dozen fights would follow as a result of a lot of bad booze; but all this has changed and Pleasant Gap is surrounded by a good, law-abiding, Christian people, who frown on such things; and all are prosperous, good citizens and all believe in good roads, good churches and school houses, and neat, well-improved farms.

I well remember when I was about seventeen years old I fell in love with a little golden-haired girl over in Lone Oak township and I learned, by note of course, that she would be at my aunt's. Bob Wix's mother, on a certain Saturday night. So I greased my shoes with sheep's tallow, put some bear's oil on my raven locks and walked over there to meet her, only a five-mile walk, and I made good time. She had to milk the cows; so I went along to mind the calves away while she pailed the cows. She said there was to be a "singing" at Major Hancock's just north over the creek, and said: "Hadn't we better go?" and I bit my finger and said, "I 'spect so." So after supper several young people came by my aunt's on their way to the singing -- Bob Walters, Bob Wix, and others -- so we all started. The girls ahead of us caught the boys in the elbow; then I was scared and walked apart from my girl but she did look sweet to me. There was a big foot-log to walk across the creek on, and water was high. I lived on high, dry land and had never walked a foot-log -- nor had hold of a girl's hand; but I saw the other boys take hold of their girls' hands and lead them over. So I tremblingly took a firm hold on my girl's hand and got as far as mid-stream. My head began to swim and I went off that foot-log and forgot to let loose of her hand. But while all the boys and girls laughed we waded ashore and got to the singing and dried our duds by the big fireplace by standing in front of it; but my raven locks never appeared to appeal to her after that.

The first mowing machine I ever saw in this country was an old John P. Manny, one big wheel, bought by my father, and hauled from Boonville, Missouri, in 1857. It took four horses to pull it to cut prairie grass. People came for ten miles to see it cut grass, it beat a scythe so bad. We made a wooden rake.

The first railroad engine I saw at Otterville, in 1862, after night. I was scared and looked closely to see if that train was coming end-ways or side-ways, for I knew if it did come up side-ways it would kill us all.

I have threshed wheat and oats with a hickory flail and rode one horse and led another to tramp out wheat and oats when a boy. We had no saddle and some days I would make the horse's back very sore. Those were trying times for the early settler, but after all, we look back to those days with a degree of pleasure. If a neighbor needed $50 or $500 no chattel mortgage was needed or given, nor bankable note required. They all did what they agreed to do with each other; but this was in the days before the wooden nut-meg was put on the market. At this date almost all of the early settlers I have mentioned above have long since been called home. I will mention a few more early settlers that I have overlooked: William, Simeon, and Stephen Gilbreath; Ava E. Page; Uncle Jim Hook, father of Emmett and Ed; Henry Myer; John Klostermier; Capt. John B. Newberry; Davis and Charles Radford; James M. Simpson; T. H. Dickison. Most of these men came to Bates in the early forties.