iOMBON CODK- 
 
r^i^'^t^ 
 
 
 h^. 
 
 -^ 
 
 
 
 
 *c'--^.vfe' 
 
 "■^^'w-: 
 ^.^ ^^'K 
 
 %m.^ 
 
 ^<^*.' 
 
 J»I!tiL% '^ 
 
 Nb. ■ Miit lift *L£^ y ^ tfiT 7>U ■ i I 
 
 .-^ 
 
 '^ 
 
 
 <f 1 i- ^v:^ / r' ». V \ I ^ > 
 
.,. -^^A 
 

 9-// 
 
HISTORY OF 
 
 Bourbon County, 
 
 KANSAS. 
 
 TO THE CLOSE OF 186S. 
 
 
 By TV F. R O B L E Y. 
 
 FORT SCOTT, KANSAS. 
 1894. 
 

 Copyright: 
 
 By T. F. RoBi^EY, Fort vScott, Kansas. 
 
 1894. 
 
 
 PRESS OF_ 
 
 The Monitor Book & Printing Co., ' 
 Fort Scott, Kansas. 
 
CK 
 
 I fi? 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 J 
 
 FN preparing this book I have departed in many par- 
 B ticulars from the ordinary course and established 
 custom of compilers of county histories. I have 
 endeavored to give the causes which led up to our 
 ^ early troubles, and to delineate, to some extent, 
 the public sentiment and feeling of given periods. 
 I have kept in touch with the various Territorial Gov- 
 ernments, Administrations, Legislatures and prominent 
 public men, in order that the reader may have an intel- 
 ligent understanding of the situation. I have intended 
 this book to be of refreshing interest to the old settler, 
 and to be especially interesting and instructive to the 
 young men and women of Bourbon County. 
 
 T. F. ROBLEY. 
 Fort Scott, Kansas, December, 1894. 
 
SYNOPTICAL INDEX. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 CHAPTER I.— Louisiana Purchase— Missouri Territory— Mis- 
 souri Compromise — Platte Purchase — Santa Fe Trail — 
 Cherokee Neutral Lands — New York Indian Lands 8 
 
 CHAPTER II.— Fort Scott Located— Colonel H. T. Wilson- 
 Sergeant John Hamilton — Military Road Completed — Bar- 
 racks Erected — Relics of a Past Era 17 
 
 CHAPTER III.— Annexation of Texas— Mexican War— Wilmot 
 
 Proviso — Compromise of 1850 21 
 
 CHAPTER IV.— 1853- Postof Fort Scott Abandoned— Some of 
 the Early Settlers of Bourbon County— Time from 1854 to 
 1855 — Description of Frontier Life — Climate — Indian 
 Summer 29 
 
 CHAPTER v.— 1854— Mill of the Gods— Kansas-Nebraska Bill 
 
 — Kansas Territory Organized 33 
 
 CHAPTER VI. -1854— First Governor— First- Elections— First 
 Fraud — First Legislature — Bogus Statutes — Samples of 
 Legislation — Government Buildings Sold 42 
 
 CHAPTER VII. — 1855 — Bourbon County Organized First 
 
 County Officers— Neutral Lands in Bourbon County — Fort 
 Scott Incorporated as a Town — More Elections — Second 
 Governor — Political Atmosphere of Bourbon County 53 
 
 CHAPTER VIII— 1856— Tone of Pro-slavery Papers— Topeka 
 Constitution — Trouble Commences— Texas Rangers — Expe- 
 dition to Middle Creek— Topeka Legislature — Governor 
 Shannon Resigns — Governor Geary Appointed— Territorial 
 Legislators for Bourbon County— Close of 1856 60 
 
 CHAPTER IX.— 1857.— Bourbon County Officials— New Towns 
 — Sprattsville— Mapleton — Rayville— Means of Communi- 
 cation 64 
 
vi SYNOPTICAL INDEX. 
 
 PAGE 
 CHAPTERX.— 1857— Some More Politics— Dred Scott Decision 
 
 — Slaves in Bourbon County— Governor Geary Resigns — 
 
 Governor Walker Appointed— More Immigrants — Fort Scott 
 
 Town Company — U. S. Officers — Tenderfeet — Free State 
 
 Hotel 77 
 
 CHAPTER XI.— 1857— Public Sentiment— Lecompton Consti- 
 tution — Election of October 5, 1857 — More Trouble — 
 Squatter's Court — Protective Society 86 
 
 CHAPTER XII.— 1857— The Conservatives— U. S. Troops at 
 Fort Scott — First Election on Ivccompton Constitution — 
 Close of 1857 90 
 
 CHAPTER XIII.— 185S— The Second Election on Lecompton 
 Constitution — First Newspaper Established - First Grand 
 Ball — Trouble Begins Again — Object Lesson in Surgery — 
 Origin of Jayhawker 96 
 
 CHAPTER XIV.— 1858— First Manufactory in Fort Scott- 
 Marmaton Town Company — Uniontown — Leavenworth 
 Constitution — English Bill — Jayhawking Reduced to Plain 
 Stealing — Fight with U. S. Troops 104 
 
 CHAPTER XV.— 1858— Some Old Settlers of 1858— Improve- 
 ments Begin — Border Ruffians have an Inning — Marais des 
 Cygnes Murder — Efforts at Capture — Effects on the Border 
 —Feeling Against Fort Scott 114 
 
 CHAPTER XVI.— 1858— Public Meeting- Election by"Tail- 
 ment" — Meeting at Rayville — Protocol of Peace — Mont- 
 gomery Sized Up 119 
 
 CHAPTER XVII.— 1858— Some More Arrivals— After the Am- 
 nesty — Improvements Continue — Exit Lecompton Consti- 
 tution — Kansas is Free 125 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII.— 1858— Territorial Election Governor Den- 
 ver Resigns — Samuel Medary Appointed — Amnesty Broken 
 — Ben Rice Arrested — Meetingat Rayville — Release of Rice 
 —Death of John H. Little 133 
 
 CHAPTER XIX.— 1859— Militia Organized— Jayhawkers Cap- 
 tured — Lawrence and Fort Scott get Acquainted — Amnesty 
 Law — County Seat Moved— Preparing for Another Consti- 
 tution—An All Around Good Year 141 
 
SYNOPTICAL INDEX. vii 
 
 PAGE 
 
 CHAPTER XX — 1859— Delegates to W3'andotte Convention 
 — Big 4th of July — Grand Ball— Fort Scott Democrat 
 Revived — Vote on the Wyandotte Constitution — Other 
 Election Items . . 146 
 
 CHAPTER XXI.— 1860— Legislature Meets— Dayton Incor- 
 porated — Fort Scott Town Company Incorporated — Fort 
 Scott Incorporated as a City — First City Election — County 
 Election — Last Border DiflSculties — Law Inaugurated. .... 151 
 
 CHAPTER XXII.— 1860— Arts of Peace— Population— First 
 Fair Association — N. Y. Indian Lands— ^Neutral Lands — 
 Troops Arrive — Land Sales — The Great Drouth 160 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII.— 1861— Kansas Admitted— State Govern- 
 ment — City Affairs — Impending Crisis — Public Meetings 
 — War — War Feeling in Bourbon County — First Troops Or- 
 ganized 168 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV.— 1862— Fort Lincoln Fortified— Troops Con- 
 centrated — -Battle of Drywood — 6th Kansas — Fort Scott a 
 Military Post — More Politics 1 74 
 
 CHAPTER XXV.— 1862— Movement of Troops— Various Items 
 —Fall Elections 178 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI.— 1863 -County Seat Returned to Fort Scott 
 
 —City Hall— Elections— County Officers 182 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIL— 1864— Political Feeling— Fortifications 
 — Raids on Drywood — Railroads — Politics — Price Raid — 
 Raids by Guerillas — Marmaton Massacre — Fort Scott in 
 Suspense — Public Meeting— General Election 198 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII.— 1865— Lincoln— City Election— Muster 
 Out — The Schools— Business and Improvements— Fall Elec- 
 tion — Statistics — Population — The Close 210 
 
HISTORY OF 
 
 Bourbon County, Kansas, 
 
 By T. F. ROBLEY. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 
 
 iNE of the most important events in the history of 
 ^^ the United States was the purchase of Louisiana 
 Territory from the Republic of France. The 
 treaty of cession was concluded at Paris on the 
 30th day of April, 1803, by and between the min- 
 isters of President Thomas Jefferson and Napoleon 
 Bonaparte, then First Consul of France. The far- 
 reaching effects of this cession on the future of the 
 whole civilized world, and its immense advantages to 
 the United States as a Nation, can scarcely be realized. 
 By this acquisition the United States added to its terri- 
 tory 1,160,577 square miles to the 820,680 square miles 
 of the original thirteen colonies, for which it paid a 
 sum amounting to less than twenty million dollars. 
 By this acquisition it added a grand inter-oceanic zone. 
 
2 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. 
 
 reaching down from the rugged coast of the North 
 Pacific to the crescent shore of the Gulf; down from 
 the regions of eternal snows to the clime of eternal 
 flowers. 
 
 The Republic moved at once into its place on the 
 map of the world as a Power of the first class — a 
 Nation with a big N. This was one of the few grand 
 victories won by the pen instead of the sword. 
 
 Conceive, if you can, the consequences if President 
 Jefierson, without the authority of Congress or of con- 
 stitutional law, had failed at the supreme moment to 
 say, in eflfect, to Bonaparte, '■'■VEtat c' est mot.'''' "I 
 will take it." 
 
 England would undoubtedly have taken it from 
 France as she had successively taken Canada, Cape 
 Breton, New Foundland, Nova Scotia and portions of 
 Asia, and as she finally from Napoleon "wrenched the 
 the sceptre with an unlineal hand." The fear that this 
 territory would ultimately fall into the hands of Eng- 
 land, coupled with his great need of money at that 
 time, induced Bonaparte to make the proposition to 
 Jefferson to sell the entire province, just as he had 
 acquired it only a short time previously by retrocession 
 from Spain. And Jefferson, realizing its vital import- 
 ance to his country, and also the danger of delays, at 
 once closed the bargain on his own responsibility, as 
 has been seen, without the authority of the constitution, 
 which made no provision for incorporating foreign 
 territory, without the authority of Congress, which was 
 not then in session, but by an act as arbitrary and auto- 
 
MISSOURI TERRITORY. 3 
 
 cratic as could have been done by the Czar of Russia. 
 On that subject Jefferson himself wrote : 
 
 "The less that is said about any constitutional diffi- 
 culty the better. Congress should do what is necessary 
 in silence. I find but one opinion about the necessity 
 of shutting up the Constitution for some time." 
 
 Nevertheless, for that act alone, if for no others, 
 future generations of his countrymen will place his 
 statue the very next to Washington's in the line of 
 historic marbles. 
 
 The territory was bounded on the east by the Missis- 
 sippi river south to the 31st parallel — about one degree 
 north of the city of New Orleans — thence east to the 
 Pardido river, which is now the west boundary of 
 Florida. The west country was the east and north 
 boundaries of Texas to the looth meridian ; thence 
 north to the Arkansas river ; thence along the Arkan- 
 sas river to the "divide" of the Rocky Mountains to 
 and along the io6th meridian, to and along the 42nd 
 parallel to the Pacific ocean. The north line being the 
 present boundary between the British Possessions and 
 the United States. 
 
 MISSOURI TERRITORY. 
 
 In 1812 the territory then known as the Territory of 
 Orleans was admitted into the Union as the State of 
 Louisiana, and by act of Congress in June, 181 2, the 
 balance of the Louisiana purchase became the Terri- 
 tory of Missouri. In March, 1819, the Territory of 
 Arkansas was created. 
 
4 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. 
 
 MISSOURI COMPROMISE. 
 
 By act of Congress known as the Missouri Compro- 
 mise, approved March 6th, 1820, the Territory of 
 Missouri was erected with a view of admission as a 
 State. 
 
 Section 8 of that act provided that in all territory 
 north of 36 degrees and 30 minutes north latitude, 
 not included within the limits of the contemplated 
 State of Missouri, slavery should be forever prohibited. 
 
 PLATTE PURCHASE 
 
 The west boundary line of the State of Missouri, as 
 designated by that law, was as it now exists, except 
 that from the mouth of the Kaw river the line ran due 
 north to the Iowa line, instead of the Missouri river 
 forming the boundary as now. This territory between 
 the due north line and the Missouri river was known as 
 the "Platte Purchase." In June, 1836, Congress 
 passed a law adding the Platte Purchase to Missouri, 
 and this tract of land became slave territory, in direct 
 violation of the compromise of 1820. 
 
 SANTA FE TRAIL. 
 
 By an act of Congress of June, 1825, Major Sibley, 
 of the United States Army, was appointed to survey 
 and establish a wagon road from Independence, Mis- 
 souri, to Santa Fe, New Mexico, known as the Santa 
 Fe Trail. This was the first highway of civilization 
 to penetrate this then unexplored and silent desert. 
 
CHEROKEE NEUTRAL LANDS. 5 
 
 And this within the memory of our old men ! But we 
 will go into no retrospect here. Get on a Santa Fe 
 train, which passes over subtantially the survey made 
 by Major Sibley, and the retrospect will come to you 
 much more forcibly than it can be written. Consider 
 that, then the valleys of the Kaw, Marias des Cygnes, 
 Neosho, Marmaton and Paint Creek were the favorite 
 hunting grounds of the Osages, Cheyennes and Arapa- 
 hoes. The wolves, deer, antelope and the migratory 
 buffalo roamed the wild prairie unfettered by wire fence 
 and unbalked by railroad crossing. And that only 
 seventy-five years ago. Even thirty years ago they 
 had not yet departed from the now confines of Wichita's 
 additions. 
 
 CHEROKEE NEUTRAL LANDS. 
 
 About 1825 t^^^ government began locating the 
 various tribes of the more nearly civilized Indians from 
 the East and South on reservations, by cessions, trades, 
 treaties, removals and retrocessions, up to about the 
 year 1852. In 1828 a treaty was made with the Cher- 
 okees, of Georgia, by which they were given the terri- 
 tory known as the Cherokee Nation, with a promise 
 also of the payment of $450,000. But this money was 
 never paid them, and in 1835 a supplementary treaty 
 was made by which they were granted, in lieu of said 
 sum of money, a tract of land bounded and described 
 as follows : 
 
 " Beginning at the northeast corner of the Cherokee 
 Nation; thence north along the Missouri state line 
 fifty miles; thence west twenty-five miles; thence south 
 fifty miles; thence east to the place of beginning." 
 
6 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. 
 
 This tract, twenty-five by fifty miles was intended to 
 contain 800,000 acres. 
 
 This grant has always been known as the "Cherokee 
 Neutral Lands." It is said that the reason it was so 
 called was that the Cherokee Nation was slave territory 
 and the Cherokees being slave holders, they preferred 
 to have neutral ground between their nation and the 
 free territory north of 36° 30', as provided for by the 
 Missouri Compromise. Consequently, instead of the 
 money due by the provisions of the treaty, they chose 
 in lieu thereof this "Neutral Land" as a bulwark 
 asfainst freedom. 
 
 As these lands were partly contained in Bourbon 
 County, occasion will be taken to refer to them further 
 along in regular chronological order. 
 
 NEW YORK INDIAN LANDS. 
 
 On January 15th, 1838, the government set apart to 
 the various tribes of New York Indians a tract of 
 country described as follows : 
 
 "Beginning at the west line of the State of Mis- 
 souri, at the northeast corner of the Cherokee tract and 
 running thence north along the west line of the State 
 of Missouri twenty-seven miles to the southerly line 
 of the Miami lands; thence west so far as shall be nec- 
 essary by running a line at right angles and parallel to 
 the west line aforesaid to the Osage lands, and thence 
 easterly along the Osage and Cherokee lands to the 
 place of beginning; to include 1,824,000 acres." 
 
 This land was intended as a future home for the In- 
 dians of New York. These various tribes of New 
 
NEW YORK INDIAN LANDS. 1 
 
 York Indians, consisting of the remnants of the Sene- 
 cas, Onondagas, Cayugas, Tuscaroras, Oneidas, St. 
 Regis, Stockbridges, Munsees and Brothertowns, were 
 called the "Six Nations." 
 
 As will be seen the balance of what is now Bourbon 
 County was contained within this tract of New York 
 Indian lands. 
 
 But it was never occupied by the tribes mentioned, 
 there having been but thirty-two allotments made to 
 them of 320 acres each, which were all on the Osage 
 river. 
 
 As this tract was not a grant in fee simple, like that 
 to the Cherokees, but designed to be allotted in 
 severalty to individual members of the tribes, and as 
 only thirty-two of them came west to receive their 
 share, the remainder of the tract finally reverted to the 
 United States. 
 
 Ivieutenant' John C. Fremont in June, 1842, left 
 Chouteau's trading post on the Marias des Cygnes 
 river, in what is now Linn County, on his first expe- 
 dition to the Rocky Mountains. He was accompaniedj 
 by Kit Carson as guide. ' 
 
 We now have a clear idea of the condition of things 
 in this country — physically and politically — as they 
 existed in that early day. The United States had 
 acquired a clear and unquestioned title to the domain; 
 many of the tribes of Indians in the Eastern and 
 Southern States, who were in the way of the rapidly 
 increasing population, had been given, and located on, 
 large tracts of land in this worthless, sterile desert, 
 totally unfit for the habitation of the white man, as it 
 
8 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. 
 
 was believed, where they could quietly work out their 
 own extinction. 
 
 The Nation was on a solid and enduring foundation; 
 peace reigned supreme, and, better than all, the 
 troublesome, vexatious and dangerous question of Af- 
 rican slavery had, in the minds of all men, been settled 
 peacefully, finally and forever. 
 
 eJ^gil 
 
 i-f- 
 
FORT SCOTT LOCA TED. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 FORT SCOTT LOCATED. 
 
 N the year 1837, ^Y ^^ order of Colonel Zachary 
 Taylor, a military Board of Commissioners, con- 
 sisting of Colonel S. W. Kearney and Captain 
 Nathan Boone, of the ist U. S. Dragoons, was 
 appointed to lay out a military road from Fort 
 Coffey in the Cherokee Nation to Fort Leavenworth 
 on the Missouri river, and to select a site for a new 
 Post to be located somewhere nearly midway between 
 those two points, for the accommodation of the garri- 
 son at Fort Wayne, a post then existing near the 
 Arkansas line, about fifty miles south of the northeast 
 corner of the Cherokee Nation, which it had been de- 
 cided to abandon. 
 
 In reference to the location of the new post, the 
 commission reported much difficulty in fixing upon a 
 site. Several points were examined along Spring river. 
 Their first choice seems to have been at the place of 
 Joseph Rogers, a Cherokee Indian, living near the 
 present site of Baxter Springs. But Rogers thought 
 he was in the midst of a " boom," and he asked them 
 $1,000 an acre for what laud they would need of his 
 claim. They were not authorized to pay any such 
 
iO HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. 
 
 sum, and considering also that it was more desirable to 
 locate the site on land not granted to Indians, they 
 moved on further north. 
 
 Bearing on the question of the selection of a site, a 
 copy is given of a letter from the War Department, as 
 follows : 
 
 "Mrs. H. T. Wii^son, 
 
 Fort Scott, Kansas. 
 
 Madam : 
 
 Replying to your inquiry of the 6th inst. as to who 
 selected the site of the military post at Fort Scott, 
 Kansas, I have the honor to inform you that the site 
 was selected in 1837 by a Board of Commissioners, 
 charged with the duty of laying out a military road 
 from Fort Coffey to Fort Leavenworth, consisting of 
 Col. S. W. Kearney and Captain Nathan Boone, ist 
 Dragoons. Their report will be found in H. R, Doc. 
 No. 278, 25th Congress, 2d Session, which report is too 
 lengthy to be copied. 
 
 There was some considerable difficulty in fixing 
 the site for the Fort Wayne garrison. The first point 
 selected was at Rogers' place on Spring river, but was 
 abandoned on account of the exorbitant price demand- 
 ed by its owner. Several other points in the immedi- 
 ate neighborhood, and up the Pomme de Terre or 
 Spring River, to the State line were examined, but 
 decided to be unhealthy. All the several points were 
 examined by Captain Moore, and other sites in that 
 vicinity had been previously examined by General 
 Taylor; and it was only after these different sites had 
 been determined as impracticable, that the position on 
 the Marmaton, which had been previously recom- 
 
FOR r SCO TT L OCA TED. 1 1 
 
 mended by the Board in 1837, was finally decided upon 
 as a site for the new post. 
 
 I am, Madam, Very Respectfully, 
 
 Your Obedient Servant, 
 
 J. C. Kelton, 
 Act'g Ass't Adj't General." 
 
 Considerable time was now consumed, presumably 
 in the process of red tape and in construction of the 
 military road from Fort Leavenworth south, so that it 
 was not until the 26th day of May, 1842, when the 
 garrison of Fort Wayne abandoned that post and took 
 up their march for the North. They arrived at the 
 new site which had been selected on the Marmaton 
 river on the evening of May 30th, 1842, where they 
 pitched their tents and called it Fort Scott. 
 
 These troops consisted of Captain B. D. Moore, in 
 command, Lieutenant William Eustis, Assistant Sur- 
 geon Dr. J. Simpson, and 120 enlisted men of compa- 
 nies A and C ist U. S. Dragoons. 
 
 This command was soon after ordered on to Fort 
 Leavenworth, and were replaced here by a part of the 
 ist Infantry. The officers with the infantry command 
 were Major Graham, Captain Swords and Assistant 
 Surgeon Dr. Mott. 
 
 Concluding the subject of the location of Fort Scott, 
 Adjutant General L. C. Drum of the War Department, 
 writes as follows: 
 
 "In reply to your letter of the 27th ultimo, address- 
 ed to the Secretary of War, asking certain information 
 regarding the early settlement of Fort Scott, I have 
 the honor to inform you that Fort Wayne, in the 
 
12 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. 
 
 Cherokee Nation, was abandoned on the 26th day of 
 May, 1842, and companies A and C, ist Dragoons, 
 (which had formed its garrison) under the command 
 of Captain B. D, Moore, ist Dragoons, three officers 
 and 120 enlisted men, marched to and occupied the 
 new site which had been selected on the Marmaton 
 river, twenty miles west of Little Osage Posioffice, 
 on the 30th of May, 1842, to which they gave the 
 name of Camp Scott, changed later to Fort Scott. The 
 only other officers present with the command on that 
 day were Dr. J. Simpson, Assistant Surgeon, and First 
 Lieutenant William Eustis. 
 
 I have the honor to be Very Respectfullv, 
 Your Ob' t Serv't, 
 
 L. C. Drum, 
 
 Adjutant General." 
 
 An army sutler came with the ist Infantry named 
 John A. Bugg, who, by virtue of his position, acted 
 as postmaster. 
 
 COL. H. T. WILSON. 
 
 On the 13th of September, 1843, Hiero T. Wilson 
 came up From Fort Gibson, where he had been located, 
 and went into partnership with Mr, Bugg in the sutler 
 business. They did business together until 1849, when 
 Mr. Wilson bought out Mr. Bugg and he went to Cali- 
 fornia. Mr. Wilson then became the sutler and U. S. 
 Postmaster. 
 
 Col. Wilson, as he was always called, was born in 
 Kentucky on the 6th day of September, 1806. He 
 went to Fort Gibson as sutler of that post soon after it 
 was established, and remained there about nine years, 
 
COL. H. T. WILSON. 13 
 
 when he came to Fort Scott, as stated, in 1843. ^^ 
 lived here continuously from that time to the time of 
 his death, August 6th, 1892. He was married to 
 Elizabeth C. Hogan, on the 28th of September, 1847. 
 They had three children, Virginia T., Elizabeth C. and 
 Fannie W. Virginia, the eldest daughter, now Mrs. W. R. 
 Robinson, was the first white child born in Fort Scott. 
 
 In Col. Wilson's residence in Fort Scott of nearly 
 fifty years, he filled a prominent place in the political, 
 social and commercial history of this part of the 
 country. He saw the insignificant military station, 
 and the wild and almost unknown surrounding coun- 
 try, with few bona fide white inhabitants nearer than a 
 hundred miles, pass through all the panoramic changes 
 from extreme frontier life to that of high civilization. 
 For many years his only associates were the few army 
 officers of the garrison; their days were j)assed with 
 few incidents or recreations, and at night they went to 
 sleep to the monotone howls of the prairie wolf. 
 
 After the Territory was organized Col. Wilson occu- 
 pied many political positions, and although he was not 
 what may be called active in politics, he was always 
 consulted, and had great influence in the councils of 
 his party. He was originally a Whig, and had great 
 admiration for Clay and Webster, but after their day 
 he associated himself with the Democratic party, and 
 during the war was a strong Union Democrat. During 
 the 6o's he was very active in promoting the organiza- 
 tion of the various railway companies forming to build 
 roads into Southern Kansas, and active in his efibrts to 
 secure their construction to Fort Scott, which town 
 
14 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. 
 
 was always his pet and especial hobby. He was also 
 actively engaged in large mercantile affairs until 1868, 
 when he quit business. His life work was done. He 
 passed the remaining days of his ripe old age in the 
 peaceful calm of the home he had established so many 
 years ago. 
 
 SERGEANT JOHN HAMILTON. 
 
 Sergeant John Hamilton of the Ordnance Depart- 
 ment of the army, came with the first troops, served 
 his term of enlistment and remained a resident of the 
 town and country until after the war. He superin- 
 tended the construction of a good portion of the military 
 barracks, stables, etc., erected at Fort Scott in 1843 
 and 1844. 
 
 The military road from Fort Leavenworth was com- 
 pleted about 1843. The pike, or grade, like a railroad 
 grade, was constructed across all river and creek bot- 
 toms, and can still be seen across the Marias des Cygnes 
 bottoms south of the Trading Post, and also across the 
 Marmaton bottom at the Osbun farm northeast of Fort 
 Scott. 
 
 BARRACKS ERECTED. 
 
 In the year 1843 preparations were made for the con- 
 struction of quarters for the officers and men, and the 
 necessary buildings for the quartermasters and com- 
 missary stores, ordnance supplies, etc. A saw mill was 
 erected about a mile up Mill Creek to be run by water 
 power. This mill gave the creek its name. A brick yard 
 was made near the mill. Then a detail of men from the 
 
BARRACKS ERECTED. 15 
 
 infantry was kept busy making brick, and sawing lum- 
 ber from the walnut, oak an ash logs cut from the 
 surrounding timber on Mill Creek and Marmaton, which 
 was very fine. Large trees, from one to four feet in 
 diameter were plentiful. A square called the Parade 
 Ground, now called the Plaza, was laid off, containing 
 about two acres of ground. It was evidently intended 
 that the points of this square should be due north and 
 south, and east and west, but they miscalculated by a 
 few degrees. 
 
 Around the northest side of the Plaza the buildings 
 for the ofl&cer's quarters were erected. These consisted 
 of four large double houses, 2^2 stories high, with 
 frame-timbers of oak twelve inches square, walnut 
 siding and oak floors. The doors, door frames, lintels, 
 window^s, mantel-pieces, etc., were of two-inch walnut. 
 The four blocks built for the ofiicer's quarters are still 
 standing, as good as ever. They were built in the 
 uniform style of architecture which prevailed at all 
 military posts at that time,, and are very superior in 
 construction. The most striking feature of these 
 buildings is the broad porches extending along the 
 entire front and also the rear of each, between the 
 second and third floors, reached by broad flights of 
 stairs at either end. The main roof projects and con- 
 tinues down over them from the attic story, and is 
 supported by seven large doric columns fourteen feet in 
 hight. These columns were made of solid walnut logs 
 turned down into perfect shape and then bored through 
 the center lengthwise to prevent checking or cracking 
 when the columns seasoned. 
 
16 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. 
 
 On the other sides of the Plaza, were the buildings 
 for quarters for the men, hospital, guard house, stables, 
 etc., and in the center of the Plaza was an octagonal 
 brick building for powder magazine. A well 90 or 100 
 feet deep was blasted down on the Plaza, which fur- 
 nished a fair supply of water. 
 
 After all this work was completed the soldiers had 
 but little to do, except an occasional scout, the guard- 
 ing of supply trains, and their daily drill which took 
 place sure., without fail, on all occasions and under all 
 circumstances. The rest of the time until taps, they 
 could play seven up, or perhaps straight poker. You 
 may not quite understand what that extinct species 
 of the game was. Well, they didn't draw. That was 
 the Mississippi steamboat game you have heard so much 
 about. It has been humed and will never, never be 
 exhumed. But it was part of western life at that time, 
 in the army, in the cabin on the prairie and in the 
 "cabin'' on the river. 
 
 RELICS OF A PAST ERA. 
 
 Those Government buildings erected fifty years ago 
 stand to-day, and will stand indefinitely, as the relics 
 and emblems of a past era. The mind can hardly 
 conceive the vast changes which have taken place 
 in this country during the half-century since they 
 were erected. At this line pf latitude the western 
 limit of the United States was the Arkansas river 
 instead of the Pacific ocean. The boundary line of 
 the Nation was almost exactly 150 miles west of 
 
RELICS OF A PAST ERA. 17 
 
 Fort Scott. California, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico 
 and Texas had not then been acquired. The country 
 towards the setting sun west of the Missouri State 
 line was called, in a general way, the "Indian 
 Country." It was wild, desolate, silent, unknown. 
 The people, even those living the nearest to it believed 
 it to be a worthless barren plain, incapable of supporting 
 a white population and fitted only for the home of Ind- 
 ians and wild animals. These had possession then, and 
 it was presumed they would never be disturbed. An 
 occasional pioneer might " 'low it was gitten too much 
 crowded" in his neighborhood, and move on a little 
 further up the creek, but the idea of a general settle- 
 ment of the country had not been considered. They 
 concluded that the limit was about reached, and that 
 the country was fringed with a frontier that would 
 remain longer years than they took the trouble to think 
 about. 
 
 But war was soon to send the volunteer soldiers 
 trailing across it, enlightening them by actual contact, 
 and through them the people, as to the great possibili- 
 ties of this region as a habitable country. The boundary 
 lines were to be adjusted and this country, instead 
 of being on the very outer rim, was to become the 
 geographical center of the Nation. 
 
18 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 ANNEXATION OF TEXAS — MEXICAN WAR. 
 
 ■S'T?HE year 1844 passed without much incident bear- 
 §Ml ing directly or indirectly on the future of this 
 section of the country. The Republic of Texas 
 was not yet quite ripe but it was rapidly maturing 
 and would soon be gathered into the Union, and 
 add its grand empire to the territory of slavery. 
 This occurred the next year — 1845 — ^^^ with the 
 annexation came the war with Mexico. The annexa- 
 tion of Texas was the cause of the Mexican war. 
 Texas claimed that its western boundary was the Rio 
 Grande. Mexico claimed that it was the river Nueces. 
 The United States "took the lawsuit with the property" 
 and made it a pretext for a war which was essentially 
 political and wholly unjustifiable. President Polk and 
 his advisers saw in this war a prospect for still further 
 acquisition of slave territory and the strengthening of 
 the slave power. The acquisition of Texas had whetted 
 the appetite of the Slave State men and the slavery prop- 
 agandists; awakened the desire and renewed their deter- 
 mination to absolutely control the future of the United 
 States. A mere equilibrium in territory and power 
 between the North and South was not enough. They 
 
WILMO T PRO VI SO. 19 
 
 must have such a pronounced advantage that hereafter 
 their wish would be the law, subject to no make- 
 shift of a compromise. The north half of the Louis- 
 iana Purchase contained too many possibilities for free 
 States, and the preponderance of territory must be 
 gained now. 
 
 It is not the design to enter into the details of that 
 war, but to catch the spirit which actuated the already 
 powerful and rapidly increasing following of John C. 
 Calhoun. It formed one of the converging lines which 
 at that epoch were beginning to sweep through the 
 Republic, dividing and materializing public thought 
 and action, and leading up to and educating the people 
 to a realization of an impending crisis. 
 
 One of the principal events of the war, however, 
 which had a bearing on the future, was the winning 
 by General Taylor of the battle of Buena Vista, by 
 which he at once broke the back of the Mexican army 
 and overthrew the Democratic party at home; for that 
 battle made him — a Whig and a restrictionist — Presi- 
 dent of the United States, and put a curb, for a short 
 time, on their high ambition. But the additional ter- 
 ritory so much desired was gained by the acquisition of 
 New Mexico, Arizona and Utah, for which, by the 
 treaty of February 2, 1848, $15,000,000 was paid to 
 Mexico. 
 
 WILMOT PROVISO. 
 
 During the war, Aug. 8, 1846, President Polk made 
 an effort to stop it by a money proposition to Mexico. 
 
20 HIS TOR V OF BO URBON CO UN TV. 
 
 He sent a message to Congress asking for an appropri- 
 ation to pay for territory to be acquired. A bill was 
 reported. David Wilmot, Hannibal Hamlin, Preston 
 King and a few other Northern Democrats, who were 
 not of those John Randolph called "Northern Dough- 
 faces," held a caucus and decided among themselves 
 that, inasmuch as Mexico had abolished slavery some 
 twenty years before, all territory acquired from that 
 country should come in free. Wilmot therefore offered 
 the following proviso to the bill : 
 
 '"'■ Provided^ That as an express and fundamental 
 condition to the acquisition of any territory from the 
 republic of Mexico by the United States, by virtue 
 of any treaty that may be negotiated between them, 
 and to the use by the Executive of the moneys herein 
 appropriated, neither slavery nor involuntary servitude 
 shall ever exist in any part of said territory, except for 
 crime, whereof the party shall be first duly convicted." 
 
 This was the historic "Wilmot Proviso." The bill 
 passed the House with this proviso, but was talked to 
 death in the Senate and went over the session without 
 a vote. And the two Whig generals, Scott and Taylor, 
 went on with the war. 
 
 The Democratic party at that time contained no gen- 
 eral officer of the army who was regarded as competent 
 to conduct the war. A bill was introduced and passed 
 one house authorizing the President to place Thomas 
 H. Benton at the head of the army. But Benton had 
 too many personal enemies in Congress and in the 
 Cabinet, and the bill was finally defeated. 
 
COMPROMISE OF 1850, 21 
 
 COMPROMISE OF 185O. 
 
 Congress in 1850 resumed its efforts to organize the 
 country acquired from Mexico into Territories but 
 without success. The whole matter was finally referred 
 to a committee of which Henry Clay was chairman. 
 The report of the committee formed the basis of a 
 compromise — sometimes called the "Omnibus Bill" — 
 the chief features of which were the admission of Cal- 
 ifornia as a free State, a territorial government for Utah 
 and New Mexico, and prohibiting the slave-trade in the 
 District of Columbia. 
 
 After a protracted discussion, a bill to organize Utah 
 was passed, but the other measures of the bill went 
 over to the next session, when they were brought for- 
 ward separately and became laws, and the wrangle 
 of 1850 was thus compromised. The effect was to 
 allay the excitement that had so much agitated the 
 country. The minds of the people were lulled to rest, 
 and as 1851, '52 and '53 passed over without more than 
 a slight increase in the boil and bubble of the political 
 cauldron, it was hoped by all and believed by many that 
 the slavery question was NOT irrepressible. 
 
 Outwardly, at least, all was quiet on the Potomac. 
 
22 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1853 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE POST OF FORT SCOTT ABANDONED. 
 
 ^"J^ORT SCOTT was garrisoned until April, 1853. 
 The troops were then withdrawn, and the post 
 practically abandoned. The buildings were left 
 in charge of a sergeant, who, it is said, had in- 
 structions to permit their occupation by any re- 
 spectable parties who would take care of them. 
 At any rate, they were so occupied as fast as people 
 came in. H. T. Wilson and John Hamilton and their 
 families were at this time the only residents and consti- 
 tuted the entire population of Fort Scott. Colonel 
 Wilson had the only store in this section of country. 
 It was in a story and a half log house situated near 
 what is now Market Square, about half way between 
 the head of Main street and the lower part of National 
 avenue. The few squatters within a radius of thirty 
 miles or more came here to do their trading, if they had 
 anything to trade. If they couldn't do any better, 
 they would trade stories about happenings "back yonder 
 in Kaintuckey" or "Injianny," or whatever haven of 
 rest they may have come from. 
 
 SOME EARLY SETTLERS. 
 
 There were, of course, but few settlors up to the time 
 
First Cabiu Built on the Osage. 15^44. 
 
 Post Sutler Store. 
 
1853] EARLY SETTLERS. 2S 
 
 the Territory was opened for settlement in 1855. What 
 few there were gravitated to the streams bordered with 
 timber. They thought no claim was any account with- 
 out a timber attachment. 
 
 It is impracticable to give the names of all of the 
 earliest settlers, or anything of their biography. Several 
 of them left before and some after the border troubles 
 began ; others before the war. 
 
 Among the very first settlers was Isaac N. Mills, who 
 located on his farm near Marmaton in 1854. He was 
 born in Kentucky in 1830. 
 
 W. R. Griffith also located near Marmaton in 1855. 
 He came from Pennsylvania. He was the first Super- 
 intendent of Public Schools. He died at Topeka, Feb- 
 ruary 1 2th, 1862. 
 
 Ephraim Kepley located on the Osage in 1854. He 
 was born in North Carolina in 1825. He built the first 
 cabin on the Osage river, in Bourbon county. 
 
 Robert Forbes and his brother David settled near 
 Dayton in 1854, from Illinois. 
 
 D. T. Ralston, John Guttry, James Guttry, McCarty, 
 Fly, Mitchell and Coyle located in what is now Marion 
 township in 1855, 
 
 J. W. Wells came in 1855 from North Carolina. 
 
 Dr. J. R. Wasson, from Tennessee, located on the 
 Osage in 1855. 
 
 Bryant Bangness settled on Dry wood in 1855, from 
 North Carolina. Wiley and Jacob Bolinger moved in 
 on Mill Creek in 1855, from Missouri. Jacob Gross 
 came in with the Bolingers and settled on Mill Creek 
 in 1855. 
 
24 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1853 
 
 William Hinton located on Osage in 1855, from Ken- 
 tucky. 
 
 Dr. T. K. Julian, from Tennessee, first visited Fort 
 Scott in 1854. Then he and his son T. B. Julian came 
 back to Bourbon county and settled near Mapleton in 
 
 1855. T. B. Julian afterwards moved to Uniontown. 
 Joseph Oakley, from New York, settled on the Mar- 
 
 maton near Fort Scott in 1856. He died after the war. 
 
 Asa Ward moved in on Moore's Branch in 1856, from 
 North Carolina. 
 
 Josiah Stewart located on Mill Creek in January, 
 
 1856. His sons, John J. and Amos came with him. 
 John J. Stewart has always taken an active and promi- 
 nent part in county affairs. 
 
 J. R. Anderson came to Bourbon county in 1856, and 
 located near Xenia. 
 
 Thomas Osborne, with his sons Robert and James 
 Osborne, moved here from Indiana and settled on the 
 Osage in 1855. 
 
 John McNeil settled on the Osage in 1856. Pat 
 Devereux in 1857. James and Timothy Hackett in 
 
 1857- 
 
 George W. Anderson and his son Jacob settled in 
 
 Marion township in 1857. 
 
 I. N. Crouch went into Franklin township from Mis- 
 souri. Joseph Oliver moved into Marmaton in 1857. 
 J. R. Myrick located near Dayton in 1857. Joab 
 Teague came in 1857 from North Carolina. Samuel 
 Stevenson and sons, I. S. and S. A., in 1856. 
 
 M. E. Hudson, Wm. F. Stone, Adam Boyd, William 
 Deeds, E. A. Roe, Wm. Baker, George Stockmyer, 
 
1854] FROM 1834 TO 1855. 25 
 
 Michael Bowers, Henry Bowers, E. P. Higby, Ed. 
 Jones, D, R. Cobb, Ben. Workman, David Claypool, 
 Walker, Huffman, Hathaway, Kelso, Atwood and the 
 Endicotts were all early settlers, the most of them hav- 
 ing settled in this county as early as 1855. 
 
 THE TIME FROM 1854 TO 1855. 
 
 Up to the year 1855 were the days of profound peace 
 and quiet. The people enjoyed themselves after the 
 manner of the frontier to the greatest extent. They 
 all had good cabins, raised by the combined efforts of 
 their neighbors, which at once became palaces of hos- 
 pitality — that hospitality now almost obsolete. They 
 had plenty to eat — game of all kinds — deer, wild 
 turkeys, prairie chickens, fish from the streams, and 
 their gardens and "patches" produced all else necessary. 
 
 As the manners and customs of frontier life are now 
 things of the past, it may not be out of place to describe 
 something of the mode of living among the pioneers up 
 to the time the Territory was thrown open for settle- 
 ment. To go into one of their cabins and take a meal 
 with the family was a real satisfaction. The cooking 
 was all done before immense fire-places. Cook stoves 
 were not unknown, of course, but you would rarely see 
 one. Their cooking utensils consisted of a big cast- 
 iron skillet, with a cover made with a flange to hold 
 live coals heaped on top, a tin coffee pot, possibly a 
 bright tin reflecting oven, with legs, and one side open 
 to be set near the fire to catch the heat, a big iron kettle 
 and some smaller iron pots, a long-handled frying pan, 
 
26 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1854 
 
 iron spoons and knives and forks and some "tins." An 
 ordinary water "bucket" was kept on a shelf in one 
 corner, with a tin dipper or a gourd in it. Quite often 
 they had instead of the bucket what many even quite 
 old people of the present day have never seen. That 
 is a "piggin." A piggin was made like a pail with one 
 stave extending up about six inches with a rounded top 
 for a handle. 
 
 Let us drop in on one of these families, say late in the 
 fall of the year, and watch the wife get supper. First, 
 a good fire is made with a back log, and plenty of oak 
 and hickory wood on the andirons, which is allowed to 
 burn down till there are plenty of coals. In the mean- 
 time a pot, hanging on the crane, containing the meat, 
 is boiling. The skillet is placed on a bed of coals with 
 coals heaped on the lid, and will soon be ready for 
 baking the corn bread. In this instance it is corn 
 bread and not dodger, the corn meal probably grated on 
 a large hand grater, from new corn. It is made with 
 eggs and shortening. Dodger and hoecake generally 
 were mixed with eggs, venison gravy and milk also, but 
 it was after supper. The meat is now taken from the 
 pot, slashed across the rind, put in the reflector and 
 baked brown. Big potatoes, sweet and Irish, are all 
 this time lying in the hot ashes until their jackets are 
 brown. The cofiee pot is on, some "rashers" are cut 
 from the "flitch" of bacon and the grease tried out; 
 eggs are fried, and "dip" is made. Everything is 
 timed to get done all at once, like the "wonderful one- 
 horse shay." Now everything is placed on the white 
 clothed table, together with dishes of cold meats, ves- 
 
r< 
 
'CuME To vSuppER AM) Bring Chkkrs. 
 
1854] FROM 1854 TO 1853. 27 
 
 sels of rich yellow butter, cream, sweet milk, butter 
 milk and honey. Supper is now ready. If like some 
 now standing on the Osage, the cabin is a double one, 
 with a wide open porch between ; the men folks will 
 be in the "sitting room," and ten-year-old Jimmy will 
 be sent in, and will announce in a loud voice, "Come 
 to supper, and bring cheers." Each man totes in his 
 "cheer" and sits at the table. Probably the man of 
 the house, brought up in the church of Peter Cart- 
 wright, will ask a blessing. If so, it may be something 
 like this : "Kind Father, we thank Thee for Thy many 
 mercies. Bless these a-nourishments to our use. For- 
 give our sins. Protect us from evil. And in the end 
 save us, for Christ's sake." The words sounded like 
 simplicity itself. Heard from the lips of an Edwin 
 Booth, they would well up all the sweet idylic senti- 
 ments of Saint James. 
 
 Neighborship and hospitality were of the strong 
 tenets of the pioneer's character. All were welcome at 
 his house. No one was turned away hungry. Gold 
 and silver he had none, but such as he had he gave unto 
 all who came, the friend, the neighbor or the unknown 
 stranger. 
 
 He had but little communication with the "States." 
 He had no newspapers, and his library contained only 
 his old school books. Pilgrim's Progress and the Bible. 
 He knew but little of politics, but he could easily drive 
 center sixty yards, offhand, at the neighborhood shooting 
 match, where "first choice" was the hind quarterof abeef. 
 He heard more or less of the increasing and ominous 
 growls over the slavery question, but not until he sud- 
 
 i 
 
28 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1854 
 
 denly found himself surrounded by vicious partisans 
 from the contending sections, did he realize that his 
 season of profound peace was over, that the harbinger 
 of a storm had appeared, which was destined to stain 
 the lintel of his cabin door with blood. 
 
 In these lame descriptions of our early settlers — 
 squatters they were to all intents and purposes — an 
 effort has been made to typify that class who kept to 
 the extreme border of our frontiers, a people whose 
 ancestors had steadily moved in westward front from 
 the Atlantic through the "dark and bloody ground," a 
 class then rapidly diminishing and who have now 
 finally disappeared forever. 
 
 This seems necessary also, in order that one may 
 realize all the conditions of a given period or situation, 
 and to understand how the people lived in all respects. 
 
 THE CLIMATE. 
 
 The climate was another feature of those days. It 
 was most delightful and enjoyable, especially in the 
 fall of the year. It has changed in these later years, 
 for civilization seems to have taken out the "wild 
 taste." The atmosphere probably contained no more 
 ozone than now, but it was wild ozone. It did not 
 smell to heaven laden with iron filings and the abrasion 
 of gold. 
 
 The immense prairies south and west — larger in ex- 
 tent than all western Europe — were annually burned 
 over. The smoke from the autumn prairie fires per- 
 meated the entire atmosphere which came up to us from 
 
1854] INDIAN SUMMER. 29 
 
 the grand pampas of the southwest toned down into 
 superb Indian summer. But the wild prairies have 
 disappeared beneath the plow, and Indian summer has 
 disappeared with the Indian. 
 
 INDIAN SUMMER. 
 
 The beauty and grandeur of those autumn days can 
 scarcely be described. One felt a lazy exhileration, 
 and life here seemed the perfect ideal of existence on 
 earth. The woods have unfurled a million banners, 
 blended in all the colors of nature. The broad rolling 
 prairies seemed as if formed by the stilled waves of a 
 former and forgotten sea. The air, soft and dreamy, 
 laden with the scent of wild flowers, went out to meet 
 the coming day, whose rosy faced morn was ushered in 
 by the songs of the mocking bird and the sweet chro- 
 matic cadence of the drumming grouse. And 
 
 "The grey ey'd morn smiles on the frowning night, 
 Checquering the eastern clouds with streaks of light." 
 
 The sun makes his daily circuit through a sea of 
 smoky haze, until, hanging o'er the west like a huge 
 illumined globe — shielded by the translucent rays of a 
 glorious corona — he sinks below the horizon to the ves- 
 per song of the whipoorwill, and the gentle whisperings 
 of the southwest wind. 
 
30 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1854 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE MILL OF THE GODS. 
 
 'qYI^t-TE have now brought up the salient points of 
 
 '-N^^K- national history from the time when the United 
 State acquired title to the domain lying west of 
 the Mississippi river, insofar as they affect, di- 
 rectly or indirectly, the soon to be formed Terri- 
 tory of Kansas. We have noted especially the 
 features affecting or bearing on the question of Slave 
 Territory or Free Soil, and endeavored to mark out, like 
 the "blaze" on trees through a forest for a new road, 
 the many conflicting impulses which dominated the 
 passions and prejudices of a great people. 
 
 It may be said that all this is unnecessary and un- 
 called for in the history of the local happenings of a 
 single county. We do not think so. These local 
 happenings, in fact the entire history of this county, 
 was essentially and peculiarly political, brought about, 
 controlled and "happened" as the resulting conse- 
 quence of national politics. The history of counties 
 in the old States might be written without so much 
 extraneous detail. But those counties had no ancestors. 
 They were progenitors. Bourbon County is their 
 child. Its history cannot be truly and fairly written 
 
1854] THE MILL OF THE GODS. 31 
 
 without going back to the base-line and bringing up 
 the field notes. 
 
 The Louisiana Purchase was the base-line. The 
 agitation of the slavery question began almost with 
 that purchase. Slow at first, but gradually increasing, 
 like the dread disease of consumption, until in the 
 beginning of 1854, it had become the fevered and hectic 
 topic of discussion in the Northern homestead and in 
 the "big house on the lawn." 
 
 The Nationa] Legislature at that time was composed 
 of the best minds of the country. The ward politician 
 had not yet broken into Congress. The august Senate 
 contained no resultant mouse from the parturition of 
 local class sentiment, and no man of questionable per- 
 sonal honor had yet gained a seat. They were natu- 
 rally and necessarily strong partisans; the men from 
 the South were becoming bitterly so. There was an 
 underlying feeling that the North was growing up to be 
 the dominant power. They realized that, however dis- 
 tasteful, their candidate for the presidency must come 
 from the North. Charles Sumner had enunciated the 
 axiom, "Freedom is National; slavery is sectional;" 
 the Northern press was using the license of printer's 
 ink; the mud-sills were talking. All this angered 
 them. Free speech and free press they no longer toler- 
 ated. They struck out, like a blinded rattlesnake, at 
 every sound. Whom the gods would destroy they first 
 make intolerant. Henceforth concessions were to be 
 thrown to the winds; hereafter the policy was to be 
 aggression. The Fugitive Slave Law was not enough. 
 The Missouri Compromise — their own child, proposed 
 
32 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1854 
 
 by them, passed by them, and approved by President 
 Monroe and his cabinet, of which John C. Calhoun 
 was one — now stood in their road and must be swept 
 away. The protesting hands of their Clays and Ben- 
 tons were raised against such action, but were struck 
 down by the spirit of Preston Brooks, The mills of 
 the gods grind slow, but they grind exceeding fine. 
 
 Tools were necessary for the work in hand, and, like 
 their Presidents, they also must come from the North. 
 
 KANSAS-NEBRASKA BILL. 
 
 On the 23rd of January, 1854, Stephen A. Douglas 
 of Illinois, introduced a bill for the organization of the 
 Territories of Kansas and Nebraska. This is known 
 in history as the Kansas-Nebraska bill. The important 
 features of the bill, affecting the Territory of Kansas, 
 are copied from Sec. 32, and are as follows : 
 
 "That the constitution and all the laws of the 
 United States which are not locally inapplicable, shall 
 have the same force and effect within the said Territory 
 of Kansas as elsewhere within the United States, ex- 
 cept the eighth section of the Act preparatory to the 
 admission of Missouri into the Union, approved March 
 6th, 1820, which, being inconsistent with the principle 
 of non-intervention by Congress with slavery in the 
 States and Territories, as recognized by the legislation 
 of 1850, commonly called the compromise measures, is 
 hereby declared inoperative and void; it being the true 
 intent and meaning of this act not to legislate slavery 
 into any Territory or State, nor to exclude it there- 
 from, but to leave the people thereof perfectly free to 
 form and regulate their domestic institutions in their 
 
1854] KANSAS-NEBRASKA BILL. 33 
 
 own way, subject only to the Constitution of the 
 United States : Provided, That nothing herein con- 
 tained shall be construed to revive and put in force any 
 law or regulation which may have existed prior to the 
 Act of the 6th of March, 1820, either protecting, estab- 
 lishing, prohibiting or abolishing slavery." 
 
 And on this Mr. Douglas addressed the Senate, out- 
 lining and advocating what he called the "great 
 principles of squatter sovereignty, or non-intervention." 
 
 On the 3rd of March following, the Act passed the 
 Senate by 37 to 14, and on May 22d it passed the 
 House by 91 to 44, and President Pierce signed it on 
 the 30th day of May. 
 
 The South had chosen her path. "Her feet go down 
 to death; her steps take hold on hell." This was the 
 high-water mark of the slave power. The solemn com- 
 pact that had stood for thirty-four years was swept 
 away like a "rope of sand." The converging lines of 
 the irrepressible conflict were being drawn closer and 
 closer until the culminating point was reached at Appo- 
 mattox. 
 
 KANSAS TERRITORY ORGANIZED. 
 
 Kansas at last had a place on the map. It had been 
 partly surveyed and the boundary lines designated and 
 described. A governor and other Territorial officers 
 were soon after appointed, and this experiment of non- 
 intervention — this child of Squatter Sovereignty — was 
 set adrift, to be buffeted, smitten, disgraced, in the con- 
 fident hope that she would acquiesce in the demand of 
 that force which instantly jumped at her throat, and 
 quietly submit to be "sealed" to the South. 
 
 3 
 
34 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1854 
 
 CHAPTER VL 
 
 THE FIRST GOVERNOR. 
 
 H. REEDER, the first Governor of Kansas Ter- 
 C^^'ritory, arrived at Fort Leavenworth, and assumed 
 the executive office October 7th, 1854. Soon after, 
 with a party of other ofiScials, he made a somewhat 
 extended tour of observation through the eastern 
 part of the Territory, and on his return that por- 
 tion was divided into "Election Districts," 
 
 The district which included Fort Scott was denomi- 
 nated the Sixth District, and the metes and bounds 
 were described as follows : 
 
 "Commencing on the Missouri State line, in Lrittle 
 Osage river; thence up the same to the line of the Re- 
 serve for the New York Indians, or the nearest point 
 thereto; thence to and by the north line of said Reserve 
 to the Neosho river, and up said river to and along the 
 south branch thereof to the head; and thence by a due 
 south line to the southern line of the Territory; thence 
 by the southern and eastern line of said Territory to 
 the place of beginning." 
 
 THE FIRST ELECTIONS. 
 
 On November loth. Governor Reeder issued a proc- 
 lamation for an election to be held in the Territory on 
 
1854] THE FIRST ELECTIONS. 35 
 
 the 29th day of November for the election of a Delegate 
 to Congress. Fort Scott was designated as the place 
 for holding the election for the Sixth District. The 
 house of H. T. Wilson was named as the polling place, 
 and the judges appointed were Thomas B. Arnett, H. 
 T. Wilson and William Godfrey. J. W. Whitfield was 
 the Pro-slavery candidate for Delegate, R. P. Finnekin, 
 Independent, and John A. Wakefield Free State. In 
 this district Whitfied received the entire vote cast, 105. 
 Whitfield resided in Missouri at this time and made no 
 pretense of being a citizen of the Territory. 
 
 On March 8, 1855, a proclamation was issued by Gov. 
 Reeder, ordering an election for members of the Terri- 
 torial Council and House of Representatives, to he held 
 on Friday the 30th day of March, 1855. There were 
 to be thirteen members of the Council and twenty-six 
 Representatives, to constitute the "Legislative Assem- 
 bly" of the Territory. The vote was to be by ballot. 
 As there were yet no county or other municipal organi- 
 zations, the election districts were provided for in the 
 proclamation. The Sixth District remained the same 
 as in the election of November 10, 1854. The place 
 designated for holding the polls was the hospital build- 
 ing on the Plaza, and the judges of election appointed 
 were James Ray, William Painter and William Godfrey. 
 The proclamation also provided : 
 
 "That the Sixth Election District, containing two 
 hundred and fifty-three votes, will constitute the Fifth 
 Council District, and elect one member of the Council. 
 Also, that the Sixth Election District shall be the Sixth 
 Representative District and elect two members." 
 
36 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1854 
 
 The result of this election was as follows : For Coun- 
 cil Fifth District, William Barbee, 343 votes. For 
 Representatives Sixth District, Joseph C. Anderson, 
 315, S. A. Williams 313, John Hamilton 36, William 
 Margrave 16. And the returns being in due form and 
 no protest filed, William Barbee for the Council, 
 and Joseph C. Anderson and S. A. Williams for the 
 House of Representatives, were by the Governor de- 
 clared duly elected. 
 
 Nevertheless this election was grossly fraudulent, not 
 only in this district, but in all others. It will be 
 remembered that the district was nearly 50 by 100 
 miles square. William Barbee, mentioned above, had 
 been appointed the January before to take the census 
 of the district, and about March i, thirty days before 
 the election, filed his report giving the number of legal 
 voters as 253. Many of these voters would have had 
 to travel forty and fifty miles to the polling place. It 
 is not reasonable to suppose that they took such a 
 journey to vote. Most of the votes cast came from 
 covered wagons camped on the Marmaton bottom, "for 
 one day only," which Judge Margrave said, "just 
 swarmed over from Missouri." But there was no pro- 
 test in this district, and the men took their seats in the 
 Legislature. 
 
 Barbee had no opposition. He and Anderson and 
 Williams were voted for by the Pro-slavery men. Ham- 
 ilton and Margrave received the feeble showing of the 
 opposition. 
 
 William Barbee came here from Kentucky at the age 
 of 29. He was a very fair man, and lived here several 
 
1854] THE FIRST LEGtSLA TURE. S'T 
 
 years. Barbee street in Fort Scott was named for him. 
 
 Joseph C. Anderson was never a resident of the dis- 
 trict from first to last. He was the author of the 
 "Black Laws" passed by this Legislature. 
 
 Samuel A. Williams was originally from Kentucky. 
 He came here first in 1854, and afterwards brought his 
 family, about six months before election, from Polk 
 County, Missouri, driving an ox cart, containing his 
 family, his chickens and two "cheers." He was no 
 "voter." He had come to stay. He was a good man, 
 a good citizen, and held many important positions. 
 He died at his home in Fort Scott, August 13, 1873. 
 
 John Hamilton was "left over" from the regular 
 army. He lived here in the town and in the county 
 until after the war, as has been stated. 
 
 William Margrave was born in Missouri, February 
 17, 1818. He came here in the fall of 1854, and was 
 appointed one of the first Justices of the Peace in the 
 Territory, and the very first one appointed in this dis- 
 trict. His commission bears date of December 5, 1854. 
 He has lived here continuously ever since that time, 
 and he is Justice of the Peace "'till yet." The Judge, 
 in his quiet way, has always performed the duties of a 
 good citizen, and always stood in the highest estimation 
 in this community. Margrave street in the city of Fort 
 Scott was named for him. 
 
 THE FIRST LEGISLATURE. 
 
 The first Legislature convened by order of the Gov- 
 ernor at Pawnee, near Fort Riley, on the 2nd of July, 
 
38 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1854 
 
 1855. Pawnee was 100 miles west of the Missouri 
 State line at Westport. Governor Reeder said he took 
 it out there to get it out of the way of political influ- 
 ence and to keep the legislators unspotted from the 
 world. That was certainly the right idea and the right 
 place if he could have made them stay there, but he 
 couldn't do it. The statesmen said it was too dry, and 
 too far from their base of supplies ; and besides, as 
 there were no houses in Pawnee, or in forty miles of it, 
 they had to sleep in their wagons, or under them ; and 
 then again they had nothing to eat but jerked buffalo 
 and Pawnee macarroni. This latter was a very succu- 
 lent dish much sought after by the Pawnee Indians. 
 It was made from the small entrails of antelope and 
 fish-worms. The origin of this war-like tribe arose 
 from this dish. Most any body would. The statesmen 
 arose from it. Said they liked the legislature business 
 all right enough but this wasn't an adjourned session 
 of the Diet of Worms ; they were not elected on that 
 ticket. Said they didn't know what other Kansas 
 Legislatures might do — no man in his right mind could 
 tell, but as for their part they could not entertain 
 such a diet, anyway, without something to go with it, 
 and they didn't even have Bourbon County corn bread. 
 Besides, they wanted to be nearer home where they 
 could hear the honest coon-dog's deep-mouthed bay. 
 So next morning they hitched up and drove down to 
 Shawnee Mission, near Westport. That was as near 
 home as they could get without going "plum over" 
 into Missouri. Reeder could do nothing but set around 
 and scratch his head and pawnee. He finally followed 
 
1854] THE BOGUS STATUTE. 39 
 
 them down to Shawnee Mission. He told them they 
 could not legally move, and could pass no valid 
 laws if they did. They told him to be quiet or they 
 would pass him — down the Missouri river on a raft. 
 That made him madder than ever and he called them a 
 lot of Border Ruffians. Then Stringfellow smote him 
 hip and thigh, "and they wrote a letter unto the 
 king," saying what a bad man this Reeder was, "and 
 the king dismissed him with contumely." But the 
 name give to them by Governor Reeder of Border 
 Ruffian stuck to those fellows, and their kind, even to 
 the third generation. Ainsi soit il. 
 
 THE BOGUS STATUTE. 
 
 The Legislature then went to work to pass laws for 
 Kansas. It was now the i6th of July. By the ist of Sep- 
 tember they had finished their labors which resulted in 
 the preparation of an immense code of "laws," which 
 have always been called and known as the "Bogus 
 Statute of 1855." This Statute was called bogus prin- 
 cipally because many of the members were not residents 
 of the Territory, and they were themselves bogus ; 
 the elections were fraudulent in nearly every case, con- 
 sequently their office was bogus. The sessions were 
 held at Shawnee Mission against the will, order and 
 veto of the Governor who had the only legal right to 
 decide that point, as he claimed, consequently the 
 whole business really had no legal status or right to be. 
 But it was the prologue of the opening drama. The 
 Pro-slavery men here showed their hand and the true 
 
40 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1854 
 
 spirit and intent of their party. They at once became 
 blustering, arrogant, defiant and overbearing, and con- 
 tinually sought to pick quarrels with, and embroil 
 every man into difficulties who opposed them. The 
 few scattering and unorganized Free State men, in 
 contemplation of such acts and such men, stood with 
 raised and outstretched hands as if warding ofif a blow. 
 
 SAMPLE OF LEGISLATION. 
 
 The Legislature did more by its drastic, ill-tempered 
 and senseless legislation to destroy the prospect of 
 making Kansas a slave State than did all the Emigrant 
 Aid Societies, John Brown and other Northern fanatics 
 put together. As a sample of their legislation and to 
 show the spirit which controlled the Pro-slavery side 
 on the threshold of the struggle, the following section 
 of their laws is quoted: 
 
 "Sec. 12. If any person, by speaking or by writing, 
 assert or maintain that persons have not the right to 
 hold slaves in the Territory, or shall introduce into 
 Kansas, print, publish, write, circulate, or cause to be 
 introduced into the Territory, any book, paper, maga- 
 zine, pamphlet or circular containing any denial of the 
 rights of persons to hold slaves in this Territory, such 
 person shall be deemed guilty of a felony, and pun- 
 ished by imprisonment at hard labor for a term not less 
 than two years." 
 
 This made it a penitentiary offense for a person to 
 take a Free-State paper, or to argue the question with 
 a neighbor, even at his own fireside. The present gen- 
 eration cannot conceive that a body of educated and intel- 
 
1854] SAMPLE OF LEGISLATION. 41 
 
 ligent American men could have seriously placed such 
 a law, and a hundred of similar tenor and import on 
 the statute books of a State. But the indescribable 
 fanaticism on the question of human slavery had made 
 them, as a people, just that intolerant. 
 
 On the other hand the Northern people, as a people, 
 said to the South exactly this : We have made a con- 
 stant, consistent and honest effort to restrict slavery to 
 its present limits, and although the sacred compact 
 which has stood for a third of a century is broken 
 down, let us peacefully abide the provisions of the 
 squatter sovereign principle. And we now say to you 
 Southern people, and you may be fully assured that, 
 although we shall not desist from those open, honest 
 efforts which we have constantly made for restriction 
 and which efforts will be vigorously continued to make 
 Kansas a Free State, we shall neither openly or secretly 
 resort to any measures which can tend to disturb the 
 tranquillity of the slave States, or thereby to affect the 
 prosperity of the Nation. And thus at the commence- 
 ment of that most momentous era was the virgin Terri- 
 tory of Kansas handed over to those two contending 
 sections, who had "come to ope the purple testament of 
 bleeding war." 
 
 It looked dark for the side of Freedom. Its enemies 
 controlled the Administration ; they controlled all the 
 branches of the Territorial Government and they con- 
 trolled the front door through which emigration must 
 enter. 
 
42 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1854 
 
 GOVERNMENT BUILDINGS SOLD. 
 
 The buildings erected and the improvements made 
 by the Government at Fort Scott were estimated to 
 have cost $200,000. They were sold at public auction 
 on the i6th day of May, 1855, by Major Howe, Assist- 
 ant Quartermaster of the U. S. Army, for less than 
 $5,000 for the whole business. The officers quarters — 
 the four principal blocks of buildings, were disposed of 
 as follows : A. Hornbeck bought the first block, on the 
 west corner of the Plaza for $500. H. T. Wilson the 
 next for $300, E. Greenwood the next for $505, and J. 
 Mitchell bought the next building on the east for $450. 
 The other buildings were sold to different parties for 
 nominal sums. Of course, this not being a Government 
 Reservation, the title to the land on which these build- 
 ings stood did not pass by this transaction, and it was 
 so understood by the purchasers. But they concluded 
 to "let the hide go with the tallow," and take their 
 chances of acquiring title either from the Government 
 as pre-emptors, or, that some time in the future when 
 the town shall have been surveyed and platted, and a 
 legally incorporated town company organized, they could 
 obtain deeds. This plan was agreed on and was after- 
 wards carried out. 
 
1855] BOURBON COUNTY ORGANIZED. 43 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 BOURBON COUNTY ORGANIZED, 
 
 ^rr?HE County of Bourbon was organized, together 
 (^ with thirty-two other counties by the act of the 
 Bogus Legislature contained in Chapter 30, of the 
 Bogus Statutes. This Act or Chapter of that code 
 was acted on and passed by the Legislature at the 
 session held at Shawnee Mission, early in August, 
 1855, to take effect from and after the date of passage, 
 although the statutes were not compiled or completed 
 and published until, probably, October 25th of that 
 year. 
 
 In Section 4 of said Chapter 30, the boundary lines 
 of Bourbon County were fixed and described as follows : 
 
 "Beginning at the southeast corner of Linn county ; 
 thence south thirty miles; thence west twenty-four 
 miles ; thence north thirty miles ; thence east twenty- 
 four miles to the place of beginning." 
 
 These descriptions are very nearly correct, except 
 that the first sectional line is not quite parallel with 
 the Missouri State line, and the border sections along 
 that line are fractional, and there is a jog in the range 
 line on the west side of the county. 
 
 The Legislature, at the request of William Barbee 
 
44 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1855 
 
 and S. A. Williams, who were both originally from old 
 Kentucky, named this county "Bourbon" — especial 
 brand not given. They thought, like the old boys used 
 to say : "Some is better than others, but it's all good." 
 So they gave it a good send off by giving it a good 
 name. 
 
 McGee county was named for old Milt McGee who 
 was then a member of the Legislature, "from West- 
 port, Missouri." Everybody knew old Milt way up 
 to the 60' s. 
 
 Anderson county was named for one of our first Rep- 
 resentatives, Joseph C. Anderson. 
 
 Wilson county was named for Col. H. T. Wilson, of 
 Fort Scott. 
 
 Bourbon County retained its original territory until 
 by act of the Legislature, approved February 13, 1867, 
 entitled, "An Act to define the boundaries of Bourbon, 
 Crawford and Cherokee counties," the boundaries of 
 Bourbon County were defined and described as follows : 
 
 "Sec. I. That the boundary of Bourbon County 
 shall commence at the southeast corner of the county 
 of Linn ; thence run south, on the east line of the State 
 of Kansas to the southeast corner of section (24) 
 twenty-four, township (27) twenty-seven, range (25) 
 twenty-five ; thence west to the southwest corner of 
 section (23) twenty-three, township (27) twenty-seven, 
 range (21) twenty-one ; thence north to the southwest 
 corner of Linn county ; thence east to the place of 
 beginning." 
 
 By this act the county was cut down to about twenty- 
 five miles square. 
 
1855] BOURBON COUNTY ORGANIZED. 45 
 
 In the Government survey of this State the base line, 
 or beginning line, for townships of six miles each was 
 made the north line of the State, and townships were 
 numbered from number one on down southward; and 
 the range lines, also six miles apart, were numbered 
 east and west from the sixth principal meridian, or 
 guide meridian, which is near the city of Wichita. 
 
 Bourbon County contains 407,680 acres of land. The 
 contour of the face of the country is high, rolling 
 prairie, with a general slope from west to east, the 
 general direction of all the larger streams being from 
 west to east, in common with the entire State. The 
 west line of the State has an altitude of between 2,000 
 and 3,000 feet. At the sixth principal meridian the 
 altitude is about 1,000 feet. At the east line of Bour- 
 bon County it is 650 feet. 
 
 The county is very well watered. The more consid- 
 erable streams being the Osage river on the north and 
 through the northern tier of townships. Mill creek and 
 Marmaton river through the central portion, and Paw- 
 nee and Drywood creeks in the southern part. There 
 is the usual amount of bottom land along these streams, 
 which are, of course, very rich, but these lands are not 
 especially desirable over those of the high prairie for 
 farming purposes, for the reason that they are colder 
 and harder to get into to work during a wet spring and 
 do not stand a dry time later in the season much better 
 than the high prairie, besides the high lands are, as far 
 as the soil is concerned, rich enough except on some 
 quarter sections scattered throughout the county on 
 which the stone is too near the surface. The soil of 
 
46 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1855 
 
 the prairie lands is, generally speaking, of a limestone 
 formation and richer of itself than a sandstone forma- 
 tion. Under the black soil is about eighteen inches of 
 a dark brown sub-soil, then a stratum of three to eight 
 feet of yellow clay, then two to four feet of shale or 
 slate stone. Under that in a good portion of the county 
 is a layer of hard bituminous coal from eight to twenty 
 inches. This is especially true of the east half of the 
 county. Under all this is a solid stratum of pure lime- 
 stone from four to six feet in thickness, then comes a 
 stratum of from sixteen to thirty feet of soapstone. 
 Under that, on a limestone bedrock, water is generally 
 obtained. These strata vary, however — and in fact the 
 entire geological formation changes in certain sections 
 of the country. About the central part of the county 
 there are sections which are pure sandstone formation, 
 which contains an almost inexhaustible supply of the 
 very best quality of sandstone flagging. Limestone for 
 the manufacture of lime, and for building stone is easily 
 obtained in any part of the county. In Fort Scott, and 
 the neighborhood, is found extensive quarries of cement 
 rock, which produces the best grade of hydraulic cement. 
 
 THE FIRST COUNTY OFFICERS. 
 
 The Secretary of the Territory and Acting Governor 
 Daniel Woodson, appointed a part of the first officers of 
 Bourbon County, after its organization, on the 31st day 
 of August, 1855, as follows: Samuel A. Williams, Pro- 
 bate Judge, H. T. Wilson and Charles B. Wingfield 
 County Commissioners, and B. F. Hill, Sheriff. And 
 
1855] NEUTRAL LANDS IN BOURBON COUNTY. 47 
 
 on the 2 2d of September, Governor Wilson Shannon 
 appointed J. J. Farley clerk of the Board of County 
 Commissioners, or County Clerk, as we call it now, and 
 John F. Cottrell, Constable, and Thomas Watkins 
 Justice of the Peace for Bourbon County. 
 
 On the 9th of November commissions were issued to 
 Wiley Patterson, Cowan Mitchell, Henry Miller and 
 D. Guthrie, as Justices of the Peace. J. J. Farley, 
 County Clerk, was appointed Register of Deeds. 
 
 Fort Scott was about this time designated as the 
 County Seat. 
 
 In November, 1855, the Board of County Commis- 
 sioners met and divided the county into townships, as 
 follows : Little Osage, Timberhill, Russell, Scott and 
 Drywood. The townships as they now exist are, Osage, 
 Freedom, Timberhill and Franklin on the north, Scott, 
 Marmaton, Mill Creek and Marion through the center, 
 and Drywood, Pawnee and Walnut on the south. 
 
 About the close of the year 1855, B. F. Thompson 
 and Branham Hill were appointed Justices of the Peace, 
 Alexander Howard and William MojQfatt, constables, and 
 H. R. Kelso, coroner, in and for Bourbon County. 
 
 THE NEUTRAL LANDS IN BOURBON COUNTY. 
 
 The county of McGee, organized at the same time as 
 Bourbon, included what is now Crawford and Cherokee 
 counties, and was all Cherokee Neutral Land. A six 
 mile strip off the south side of Bourbon county, between 
 townships 26 and 27, and between ranges 21 and 25, 
 was also in the Cherokee Neutral Land. This strip is 
 more exactly described as follows : 
 
48 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1855 
 
 The south V3 of Township 26, of Ranges 22, 23, 24, 
 25. The east part of south )^ Township 26 of Range 
 21. The north 7^ of Township 27 of Ranges 22, 23, 
 24, 25. The east part of 7^ of Township 27 Range 21. 
 
 As will be seen hereinafter, a good part of these lands 
 were squatted on by settlers in direct violation of treaty 
 stipulations with the Cherokee Indians. In many cases, 
 however, the squatters were innocent of any intention 
 to trespass. 
 
 FORT SCOTT INCORPORATED AS A TOWN. 
 
 Fort Scott was incorporated as a town by Chapter 40 
 of the Bogus Statutes, which chapter was acted on and 
 passed by the Legislature on the 30th of August, 1855. 
 
 Section i of that chapter provides that the land 
 set forth and defined in the plat of said town shall be 
 incorporated into a town by the name of Fort Scott. 
 
 Section 4 provides that "the first Board of Trustees 
 of the tov/n of Fort Scott shall consist of H. T. Wilson, 
 A. Hornbeck, Thomas Dodge, R. G. Roberts, F. De- 
 mint and Thomas B. Arnett." 
 
 Section 8 provides that the trustees shall have power 
 to collect taxes, regulate dramshops, to restrain and 
 prevent the meeting of slaves, etc. 
 
 But little is now known about some of the trustees. 
 A. Hornbeck was a merchant. He came in from Mis- 
 souri, and went back there after two or three years' 
 residence here. Dodge was an Indian trader, and had 
 been all his life. Thomas B. Arnett opened and kept 
 the first hotel ever in Bourbon county. It was in the 
 
1855] MORE ELECTIONS. 49 
 
 house on the west corner of the Plaza, known after- 
 wards as the Fort Scott, or Free State Hotel. He fell 
 dead one Sunday, sometime afterwards, while attending 
 religious services in the Government Hospital building, 
 probably because, as town trustee, he had not been 
 strict enough in "regulating dramshops." 
 
 MORE ELECTIONS. 
 
 On the ist of October, 1855, an election was held under 
 provisions of the Legislature, for Delegate to Congress. 
 J. W. Whitfield was again the Pro-slavery candidate, 
 and received 242 votes in this county. 
 
 There was no Free State candidate, and the Free 
 State men took no part in this election. 
 
 A convention had been called at Topeka on the 19th 
 day of September, to take measures to form a State 
 Constitution. An election was held for Delegates to 
 the Topeka Constitutional Convention, on the 9th of 
 October. A. H. Reeder was also voted for by the Free 
 State men for Delegate to Congress. The town of Fort 
 Scott cast 27 votes. There appears to be no record of 
 a county vote. 
 
 The Convention met at Topeka on the 23d day of 
 October. A Free State Constitution was framed, and 
 an election for its adoption held on the 15th day of De- 
 cember. Again there is no record from Bourbon County. 
 The fact of the matter is, there were but few Free State 
 men in this county at tnat time. There were not 
 enough of them to form anything like an organization, 
 or even a circulating chain of intelligence among them- 
 
 4 
 
50 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1855 
 
 selves. Each one was isolated from his kind, and lived 
 like a rabbit in a burrongh. He kept his eyes and ears 
 open, but he kept his mouth shut. There were less 
 than 300 legal votes in the entire county, and not more 
 than thirty of these were Free State men. The first 
 immigration into this county was largely from the 
 Southern States. The territory lay adjacent to a slave 
 State, and it was natural that it should assimilate with 
 the peculiar institution of the South. Further north, 
 where the parties were more nearly equal in number, 
 the Free State men went to the polls ; they protested, 
 however vainly, against the fraudulent elections ; they 
 took concerted action for self-defense. Here they could 
 do neither. As yet they were in too great a minority. 
 They could only sit down and wait ; wait to see how 
 far and to what extent the Northern people would go to 
 meet the open defiance of the maddened and blinded 
 partisans of ultra pro-slaveryism ; wait for immigration 
 to reach down this far and give them help. It seemed 
 now to them like a losing contest. The migratory 
 hordes of the Pro-slavery party had, under the faint 
 pretense of "election," taken possession of the Terri- 
 tory, driven out the first Governor — an able, fair and 
 just man — and published to the world their statute of 
 "laws," which hung over the Territory for five years 
 like the web of a mammoth spider. 
 
 THE SECOND GOVERNOR. 
 
 Wilson Shannon of Ohio, was appointed to succeed 
 Governor Reeder. He arrived at Shawnee Mission and 
 
1855] POLITICAL AT3I0SPHERE. 51 
 
 assumed the duties of his office on the 7th of Septem- 
 ber, 1855, 3. few days after the adjournment of the 
 Bogus Legislature. 
 
 Governor Shannon had nothing to do with the elec- 
 tion of March 30th, 1855, and was, of course, in no 
 way responsible for the action of either faction; and, 
 although surrounded exclusively by Pro-slavery men, 
 bravely endeavored, during his short administration, to 
 do his duty as he saw it. 
 
 POLITICAL ATMOSPHERE OF BOURBON COUNTY. 
 
 The situation of Bourbon County during the years 
 1855, 1856 and 1857 was peculiar. It was diflferent 
 from that of any other county or portion of the Terri- 
 tory. The county was away down in the southeast, 
 isolated, and as yet out of the line and track of immi- 
 gration, and as yet out of the way of the partisan 
 troubles which held full sway in the country further 
 north. There were some men — their number could be 
 counted on your fingers — drifted in during these years, 
 who hung around here more or less, who were of the 
 very worst class; border ruffians themselves, and leaders 
 above all others of that ultra, uncompromising Pro- 
 slavery element whose politics was simply extermination 
 — extermination of Free State sentiment — extermina- 
 tion of Free State men, if that were necessary. These 
 were men like Dr. Hamilton, Captain G. A. Hamilton, 
 Alvin Hamilton, W. B. Brockett, G. W. Jones, G. W. 
 Clark. E. Greenwood, Sheriflf Ben Hill and others. 
 But few of these made any pretense to citizenship, but 
 
52 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1855 
 
 made Fort Scott one of their many stopping places or 
 headquarters. Their followers — their "men" — were of 
 that class they, themselves, called "poor white trash." 
 They were never able to own a slave and never expected 
 to be. They were that grade of men who saw everything 
 through the diseased perceptions of an incomplete 
 nature and a smothered intelligence. The men 
 from the South who came here as bona fide settlers 
 to make homes for themselves and families were of a 
 diflferent grade. They were Pro-slavery, and desired as 
 a political question, that Kansas should come into the 
 Union as a slave State. They were thoroughly imbued 
 with the principles of Squatter Sovereignty, but had 
 no more idea or design of a criminal crusade in order to 
 accomplish their political ends than did Stephen A. 
 Douglas himself. They staid here law abiding men 
 during this first war; they staid here good Union men 
 during the Union war, and lived and died among us 
 under the flag of Clay and Benton, either the one or 
 the other of whom had been their household god since 
 the days of their youth. 
 
 As for the Northern men, a few of whom were now 
 finding their way into this county, they, also, were in 
 some sense difierent from their brethren further north. 
 They came without "aid" or other influence, except the 
 desire to build up a home. They came very generally 
 from Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois. They 
 were Free State men and finally voted for a Free State 
 Constitution. But they were not anti-slavery in the 
 sense of being Abolitionists. They did not want 
 slavery; they did not want free negroes; they simply 
 
]855i POLITICAL ATMOSPHERE. 53 
 
 did not want any "nigger" at all. Many of them were 
 Democrats; many were Republicans; but they had no 
 desire to interfere with the "peculiar institution" of the 
 South further than to keep it out of Kansas. They 
 came here to make Kansas a State and to make it free. 
 
 It is not within the scope and design of this work to 
 detail the historical incidents and the public acts of 
 historical men or notorious characters outside of Bour- 
 bon County, except insofar as they concern or affect, 
 directly or indirectly our own local history. So far, an 
 attempt has been made to keep in touch with the prom- 
 inent men of those times, the animus of political 
 parties and the social bias of the contending forces. 
 
 It may be possible that the accurate and complete 
 history of our State can only be thus prepared, block 
 by block, and the checquered and mosaic tablet be 
 handed down to the future as the "History of Kansas." 
 
 eJ:l®@iiL5 
 
54 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1856 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 TONE OF PRO-SLAVERY PAPERS 
 
 "S'TPHE year 1856 opened in the northeastern part of the 
 Wl Territory and along the Kaw valley, in turmoil, 
 violence and murder. Armed factions were almost 
 daily coming into the conflict. The Free State 
 men were being armed and drilled for defense. 
 The Pro-slavery men were being reinforced from 
 
 South Carolina, Alabama and the entire South, for the 
 
 openly declared purpose of overawing the Free State 
 
 men by violence and murder. 
 
 One sample of the tone of their newspapers at that 
 time is here given. The Kickapoo Pioneer, in speak- 
 ing of Free State immigrants, said : 
 
 "It is this class of men that have congregated at 
 Lawrence, and it is this class of men that Kansas must 
 get rid of. And we know of no better method * * * 
 than to meet in Kansas and kill off this God-forsaken 
 class of humanity as soon as they place their feet upon 
 our soil." 
 
 Bourbon County had as yet but little of this disorder 
 and violence. But the disturbing elements were to 
 come in very soon, and peace bid farewell for many years. 
 
1856] TOPEKA CONSTITUTION. th 
 
 THE TOPEKA CONSTITUTION. 
 
 The first political move of the year 1856 was the 
 election of oflBcers under the Topeka Constitution, 
 which took place January 15. Charles Robinson was 
 the leading candidate for Governor, and M. W. Delahay 
 for Congress. W. R. Griffith of Bourbon County, was 
 voted for as State Auditor, but received less votes than 
 G. A. Cutler for that office. Griffith was also a member 
 of this Constitutional Convention. 
 
 The Topeka Constitution was not recognized by 
 Congress. The Legislature elected under it never had 
 any practical existence, nor was it expected to have, or 
 probably, intended to have. The conventions of Aug- 
 ust 14 and September 15; the elections of October 9, 
 December 15 and January 15, the Constitutional Con- 
 vention and the Topeka Constitution, were intended by 
 the Free-State leaders to serve — like toys given to im- 
 patient children — to occupy the minds of our Free-State 
 men; to solidify the growing " Anti-Pro-slavery " 
 elements of all shades in the North, and by publishing to 
 the world their platforms, resolutions and constitutions, 
 to furnish educating exponents of the principles, policy 
 and design of the Free-State party. 
 
 As was expected, some of the ultra Abolitionists were 
 dissatisfied. The word "white" was not eliminated 
 from the new Constitution ; its tone was for peaceful 
 solution, instead of for the aggravation of conflict as 
 they desired. They kicked over the traces, but they 
 were simply "cut out" and driven away. 
 
 The Free-State leaders at this time — amonof them 
 
o6 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1856 
 
 Charles Robinson, A. H. Reeder, M. J. Parrott, Joel K. 
 Goodin, M. W. Delahay — were strong men. The Con- 
 vention and the Legislature elected under it were 
 composed of good and true men. They raised here the 
 first signal light of Freedom, against which were already 
 breaking the black, seething waves of disunion. 
 
 TROUBLE COMMENCES. 
 
 The first invasion into Bourbon County by the Pro- 
 slavery men occurred in the spring of 1856. A party 
 of about thirty South Carolinians, headed by G. W. 
 Jones, came in and stopped temporarily in Fort Scott. 
 Under pretense of looking for homes, these men visited 
 most of the settlers in the county, ascertained where 
 they were from and their politics, what property they 
 had, and their means of defense, and made a complete 
 list of all the Free-State men. Then, later in the 
 season, about July, the Free-State men were again 
 visited, and were told they must leave the Territory. 
 A system of espionage, intimidation and arrest was 
 commenced. Their stock was driven ofi"; their cabins 
 fired into in the dead of night, and they were often 
 taken under pretended arrest to Fort Scott, where they 
 would be advised that it was a much healthier country 
 further north for their class. The object was to so 
 harass and intimidate them that they would leave 
 their claims and such property as could not be easily 
 moved, and get out of the Territory, which the Pro- 
 slavery people had decided was their own by right, not 
 of discovery, but "non-intervention," and "Squatter 
 
1856] TROUBLE COMMENCES. 57 
 
 Sovereignty." The matter was actually presented to 
 the masses of the South in the light that, as the re- 
 strictive compromise law had been wiped out, this was 
 slave territory; Free-State men were interlopers, and 
 had no more rights here than they had in South Caro- 
 lina. A Free-State man would not be allowed to live 
 in South Carolina ; why should he be here? 
 
 Anyway, their plans worked well. The Free-State 
 men were not strong enough then for resistance or 
 defense, and most of them left. This was in execution 
 of the concerted plans of Major Buford and his lieu- 
 tenant, G. W. Jones, who had arrived on the 7th of 
 April, at Westport, Missouri, with a large body of 
 armed men, some three hundred in number, from Ala- 
 bama, Georgia and South Carolina. Buford was a kind 
 of brigadier general in the army of invasion, and had 
 charge of the border, with the instructions, among 
 others, to search all steamboats coming up the Missouri 
 river, for Free-State passengers, and all emigrant wag- 
 ons coming from the East and North. 
 
 TEXAS RANGERS — EXPEDITION TO MIDDLE CREEK. 
 
 Late in the summer of this year a squad of fellows 
 came into Bourbon County from the south, who called 
 themselves "Texas Rangers." They were all well 
 armed and mounted, and wore spurs as big as a tin 
 plate. Their saddles were of the regulation Texas 
 pattern, with immense saddle blankets, with the "Lone 
 Star" worked in the corner. 
 
 Altogether, they were a very "fierce and warlike 
 
58 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1856 
 
 people," and wanted to go right into the business im- 
 mediately. So, after laying around town two or three 
 days whetting up their bowie knives and running 
 bullets they got some of G. W. Jones' South Caro- 
 linians, added a few of the fellows who lived in Fort 
 Scott, and away they went, headed for Osawatomie, to 
 rout out John Brown. The company was under com- 
 mand of Wm. Barnes, G. W. Jones and Jesse Davis. 
 They got up as far as Middle Creek in Linn County 
 where, about August 25th, they were met by Captains 
 Shore and Anderson with a company of Free State men 
 of about the same number. After a lively skirmish, in 
 which three or four volleys were exchanged, they let 
 go and skedaddled back to Fort Scott, pushing on their 
 bridle-reins and with saddle-blankets flying. They 
 had such big stories to tell about being closely pur- 
 sued by 2,000 yankees, who would soon be on them to 
 burn and murder, that everybody in town, men, 
 women and children, dogs and niggers, took to the 
 woods and laid out all night. It is said the Texas 
 Rangers never stopped till they got back to Red River. 
 Geo. W. Jones buried himself in the wilds of Buck 
 Run. 
 
 One of the recruits from Fort Scott on this expedi- 
 tion was a man named Kline, who had just started a 
 newspaper which he called the "Southern Kansan." 
 He had issued only two numbers of it when he felt a 
 call to help "advance the banner of the holy crusade." 
 He laid down the "shooting stick" to take up the 
 shooting iron. But it was an unlucky exchange, for, 
 at the first fire of "leads," the "devil" fired him into 
 
1856] BOURBON COUNTY LEGISLATORS. 59 
 
 the "hell-box," and he remained in "pi" forever. 
 This was the only report in the "remark" column of 
 their muster-roll. 
 
 THE TOPEKA LEGISLATURE. 
 
 The Legislature elected under the Topeka Constitu- 
 tion met first on the 4th of March, and adjourned to 
 meet at Topeka on the 4th of July, 1856. At that date 
 they assembled and attempted to open a session, but 
 they were met by Col. Sumner of the regular army, 
 who ordered them to disperse. 
 
 SHANNON RESIGNS — GEARY APPOINTED. 
 
 Governor Wilson Shannon, who had now been in 
 office several months, became distasteful to the Admin- 
 istration and the Pro-slavery party, and retired from 
 office on the 21st of August, 1856. 
 
 Secretary Woodson, an implement of the Pro-slavery 
 people, became acting Governor until John W. Geary 
 of Pennsylvania, was appointed, and assumed the office 
 in September following. 
 
 TERRITORIAL LEGISLATORS FOR BOURBON COUNTY. 
 
 On October 6th, 1856, an election was held for mem- 
 bers of the second Territorial Legislature, which was 
 to meet the following January. In this county there 
 were to be two members elected. There were three 
 candidates in the field, who received votes as follows : 
 B. Brantly, 176 votes; W. W. Spratt, 127 votes; R. G. 
 
60 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1856 
 
 Roberts, 60 votes. Brantley and Spratt were declared 
 elected. 
 
 These men were Pro-slavery. The Free State men 
 had nearly all been driven out, as has been stated, and 
 what few were left had neither disposition or opportu- 
 nity to vote. The Pro-slavery people also voted at this 
 election for J. W. Whitfield for Delegate to Congress, 
 and voted for calling a Constitutional Convention. 
 
 The closing hour of 1856 was the darkest hour for 
 freedom in Kansas. Its closing day marked the first 
 year of the preliminary struggle of the civil war. The 
 lines were being drawn and public sentiment solidified 
 throughout the Nation by the co-efiicients of intoler- 
 ance, prejudice and hate. 
 
1857] NEW TOWNS. 61 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 BOURBON COUNTY OFFICIALS. 
 
 "srPHE county officers at the beginning of 1857 re- 
 ^ mained about as they had been in 1856. A. Horn- 
 beck was County Treasurer. The same Board of 
 County Commissioners, and B. F. Hill was still 
 Sheriff. The full representation in the Legislature 
 was : Blake Little in the Council, W. W. Spratt"" 
 and B. Brantley in the House. Blake Little had been 
 elected to succeed William Barbee, who died sometime 
 before. Mr. Little was quite an old man, and always 
 regarded as a good citizen. He was Pro-slavery in 
 politics. His son John H. and daughter Mary were 
 living at Fort Scott with him. He left here in 1859 
 and went to Arkadelphia, Arkansas. 
 
 NEW TOWNS. 
 
 The second session of the Territorial Legislature was 
 convened at Lecompton on the 12th of January. Among 
 the laws passed was an act incorporating the town of 
 Sprattsville in Bourbon County, an act establishing 
 a State road from Barnesville to Cofachique. Spratts- 
 ville was near where Dayton now is. It never advanced 
 in "growth and population" further than the survey 
 
62 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1857 
 
 stakes for corner lots. It perished. It was located by 
 W. W. Spratt, who was that year in the Legislature. 
 
 The dense population in this county at that time 
 seemed to require the "building up" of more towns. 
 Already foundations for future cities were beiug laid, 
 which in the near future were to become "busy marts 
 of trade," "manufacturing and railroad centers;" have 
 the machine shops and vote bonds, and have a mac- 
 adam tax, and a cracker factory. The probable location 
 of the depot was another question of vast moment. It 
 must not be so located that it would draw business to 
 one point of the town at the expense of another. That 
 must be guarded against. Everyone with a piece of land 
 suitable for an "addition" said he would guard against 
 it if it took half the land he had. 
 
 All these things were within the vision of the found- 
 ers, although the nearest railroad was yet two hundred 
 miles away. 
 
 MAPLETON LOCATED. 
 
 Mapleton was first located in May, 1857. The Town 
 Company were J. C. Burnett, E. P. Higby, Mr. Morton, 
 B. B. Newton, S. W. Cheever and D. Scott. This 
 Company soon afterwards abandoned the town project 
 and was dissolved. 
 
 Afterwards a new Company was organized by Wm. 
 Baker, Dr. S. O. Himoe, A. Wilson, John Hawk, 
 James Huffnagle and M. E. Hudson. This Company 
 first called the town Eldora, but after a time the name 
 was changed back to Mapleton. Dr. S. O. Himoe was 
 
1857] MEANS OF COMMUNICA TION. 63 
 
 appointed the first Postmaster on October 15th, 1857. 
 E. P. High}- was appointed early in 1858 and continued 
 the Postmaster for more than thirty years. E. Green- 
 field established the first store in 1858. 
 
 Mapleton has always been a prominent place in this 
 county. It is located in the beautiful valley of the 
 Osage, surrounded by an agricultural country unsur- 
 passed, and a thrifty, intelligent people. 
 
 RAYVILLE. 
 
 Rayville, of which considerable will be said here- 
 after, was located by the two Ray brothers. It was on the 
 Osage, about halfway between the points now known as 
 Ft. Lincoln and Mapleton. Rayville never became a 
 great manufacturing center, either; but they manu- 
 factured some Bourbon County history there. It had at 
 one time a store and a postoffice. But it finally per- 
 ished, also, and was laid "under the sod and the dew" 
 by the side of Sprattsville. It was too near Mapleton. 
 
 MEANS OF COMMUNICATION. 
 
 The means the people of Bourbon County then had 
 for mail facilities and communication with the outside 
 world were decidedly limited. They had a stage line 
 established between Fort Scott and Jefferson City, Mo., 
 and the stage, an old bob-tailed "jerky," such as is now 
 to be seen only in "Wild West shows," made the trip 
 once a week; that is, when the creeks were not up and 
 there was no other preventing providence. This line 
 brought in the Eastern mail, and its arrival and depart- 
 
64 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1857 
 
 lire were important events. Col. Arnett was the local 
 agent, and he conducted the business with characteristic 
 flourish. Three times a week they had a horseback 
 mail from Westpoint, Montevallo and Sarcoxie, Mo., 
 Baxter Springs, Osage Mission and Cofachique. These 
 radiating lines indicated the importance already at- 
 tached to Fort Scott as a distributing point. All freight 
 came on ox- wagons from Kansas City, Mo., down the 
 old military road. 
 
 There were then but three saw mills in the county: 
 one on the Little Osage, near the future site of Fort 
 Lincoln; one on the same stream above Sprattsville, 
 and one on the Marmaton six miles west of Fort Scott. 
 There was an abundant growth of black walnut, syca- 
 more, Cottonwood, oak, coflfee bean, linn, etc., along 
 the Little Osage, Mill Creek, Marmaton and Drywood. 
 
Ciooi) Hass FisHiNi; ON Mii,L Crerk. 
 
1857] MORE POLITICS. 65 
 
 K 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 MORE POLITICS. 
 
 ■)^I^^HE Territorial Legislature in February, 1857, 
 ,M§ passed an act dividing the Territory into three 
 judicial districts. The first step in the Lecompton 
 Constitution movement was taken February 19th 
 by the Legislature passing an act providing for the 
 election of delegates to a convention to frame a 
 State Constitution. The act provided for a census to 
 be taken, on the basis of which the Governor was to 
 apportion among the precincts the sixty delegates to 
 the Convention. The delegates were to be elected on 
 the second Monday in June, which was the 15th, and 
 were to meet at Lecompton on the first Monday in 
 September. Governor Geary vetoed the bill, but the 
 Legislature passed it over the veto, by a nearly unani- 
 mous vote. 
 
 On the 4th of March, 1857, James Buchanan became 
 President. 
 
 In his Inaugural Address he said : 
 
 "Congress is neither to legislate slavery into any 
 Territory or State, nor to exclude it therefrom, but to 
 leave the people thereof perfectly free to form and 
 conduct their own domestic institutions in their own 
 
66 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1857 
 
 way. As a natural consequence, Congress has also 
 prescribed, that when the Territory of Kansas shall be 
 admitted as a State, it shall be received into the Union 
 with or without slavery, as the Constitution may 
 prescribe at the time of admission. A difference of 
 opinion has arisen in regard to the time when the people 
 of a Territory shall decide this question for themselves. 
 This is happily a matter of but little importance, and 
 besides it is a judicial question, which legitimately 
 belongs to the Supreme Court of the United States, 
 before whom it is now pending and will, it is understood, 
 be speedily and finally settled." 
 
 Two days afterward the Supreme Court handed down 
 the decision in the Dred Scott case. The gist of that 
 decision is this : The Missouri Compromise, so far as 
 it excluded slavery from the Louisiana Purchase, north 
 of 36.30° was unconstitutional ; that Congress had no 
 power to prohibit slavery from any portion of the 
 Federal territory, nor to authorize the inhabitants 
 thereof to do so; that negroes are not citizens, and have 
 no rights as such. Or, in other words, that Kansas was 
 de jure Slave Territory, as it was de facto. 
 
 "Jeems" evidently knew on the 4th of March what 
 that decision was to be as well as he did on the 6th. 
 
 SLAVES IN BOURBON COUNTY. 
 
 At this time there were in Fort Scott and Bourbon 
 County about thirty negro slaves, owned by various 
 families from the slave States. They were legally held 
 as such under the Dred Scott decision. Kansas was 
 slave Territory. 
 
 Slaves were bought and sold in this county as late as 
 
1857] GEARY RESIGNS— WALKER APPOINTED. 67 
 
 August, 1857. The records of the county show that 
 Wiley Patterson purchased a negro woman slave of 
 James M. Rucker for $500.00 at that date. 
 
 GOV. GEARY RESIGNS — GOV. WALKER APPOINTED. 
 
 Early in March, 1857, Governor Geary sent his res- 
 ignation in a letter to St. Louis, the nearest telegraph 
 station, to be telegraphed from there to Washington. 
 He followed it himself soon after, and left the Terri- 
 tory somewhat hastily. 
 
 "He tuck his hat and lef ' very sudden 
 Like he gwine to run away," 
 
 Geary was a good man. He took oflfice a Pro-slavery 
 man, but he misunderstood what the Administration 
 and the leading Pro-slavery men in Kansas wanted. 
 He based his policy on the principles of justice and the 
 protection of all persons in their rights. That was not 
 what they wanted. They were also mistaken in their 
 man, and by denying him of all means of self- 
 protection in the matter of troops, etc., and by personal 
 assault and attempts at assassination, they finally drove 
 him from the Territory. 
 
 The Administration then concluded to put in a 
 Southern man for Governor, and Robert J. Walker was 
 appointed on the 26th of March. Walker, it is true, 
 was born in Pennsylvania, but he had spent the years 
 of his manhood in Mississippi. F. P. Stanton was 
 appointed Secretary and came first, in April, and took 
 charge as Acting Governor, 
 
68 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1857 
 
 MORE IMMIGRANTS. 
 
 Bourbon County had now began to attract more 
 attention and become better known to the people of 
 the East and North. The few vsettlers who had found 
 their way down here "writ back," While their letters 
 did not bear any very encouraging word about the state 
 of political affairs or the peaceful condition of the 
 people, they did tell of a beautiful country, genial skies, 
 a spring that opened in March instead of May, and an 
 opportunity for getting land enough so that "John" 
 and "Mary" could both have a farm when they "come 
 of age. ' ' 
 
 Fort Scott had also become one of the noted points 
 in the new Territory, and many young men were 
 attracted here to make this the starting point for their 
 future. A few who came were unfitted for the life of 
 pioneers. They generally came from the cities, and 
 as much on what they called a tour of adventure as 
 anything. But they found that even at the best hotel 
 the bed consisted of a straw tick and a buffalo robe, the 
 bath room was the Marmaton, and the means of washing 
 the face and hands were at the bottom of the back 
 stairs in a tin basin with hard water and soft soap. 
 They might have withstood all these luxuries, but 
 when they came to the dinner table that jarred 'em 
 loose. The "menu" consisted of cornbread, bacon, 
 fried potatoes and corn coffee with "long sweetnin'. 
 After wrestling with those delicacies for a short time 
 they would generally conclude they had seen enough 
 of the "border troubles" and skip back home fully 
 
1857] MORE IMMIGRANTS. 69 
 
 determined to "go with their States" and let Kansas go 
 Free Trade and Woman's Rights if it wanted to, or go 
 to any other place, they were going home where they 
 could get some of "mother's cooking." 
 
 During the fall of 1856 and the winter and spring of 
 1857, there were also coming in from the slave States — 
 aside from the followers of Buford — a large contingent 
 of men, who were good citizens where they came from, 
 and remained here to the end, good citizens and good 
 men. The country knew none better. 
 
 Biographies and biographical sketches of the old 
 settlers cannot be given in this volume. Their biog- 
 raphies would furnish material for a much larger book 
 than this. It may some day be prepared. An attempt 
 will be made in this book to give a slight sketch or 
 mention only of the more prominent men who took 
 hold of the throttle valve and helped turn on steam. 
 
 Among those who came in this spring were the 
 following : 
 
 Dr. John H. Couch, with his family, arrived May 30, 
 1857. Dr. Couch was born in Lexington, Kentucky, 
 April 8, 1827. H^ obtained a fine collegiate and med- 
 cal education in that State, and went from there to 
 Monroe, Wisconsin, where he married Miss Lillis 
 Andrick. He was a strong Democrat and never hesi- 
 tated to vigorously denounce what he thought wrong in 
 his party, or any other. His heart was big. Many and 
 many are the persons who have occasion to remember 
 his kind professional services, given without hope of 
 fee or reward. 
 
 John G. Stuart came July i. He was born in Halifax, 
 
iO HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [185t 
 
 N. S., February lo, 1834. He established the first 
 wagon shop in Fort Scott. 
 
 T. W. Tallman and family arrived on the 22d of 
 April, 1857. Mr. Tallman was taken at once for his 
 true worth as a man. He has held many positions of 
 trust and honor, with trust and honor. He went out in 
 the world at sixteen to shift for himself, and after these 
 long and busy years he feels that life has not been a 
 failure. 
 
 Dr. A. G. Osbun came this year (1857). Governor 
 Wilson Shannon married for his second wife Miss 
 Sarah Osbun, sister of Dr. Osbun. Dr. Osbun took no 
 active part in political affairs, but attended quietly to 
 the duties of his profession. In the latter years of his 
 life he was in partnership with Dr. Couch in the drug 
 business. 
 
 Mrs. Osbun and the family of girls and boys came to 
 the county the following year, after the doctor had 
 located here. 
 
 The following named persons also came in to Fort 
 Scott in 1857, most of whom came early in the year: 
 
 W. I. Linn, J. C. Sims, Dr. Bills and family, C. P. 
 Bullock, S. B. Gordon, Joe Price, Governor E. Ransom, 
 Receiver of the Land Office, his wife, son-in-law Geo. 
 J. Clark and family; the notorious George W. Clark, 
 Register of the Land OflEice, Tom Blackburn, Charley 
 Bull, Charley Dimon, Orlando Darling, Joe Ray, W. B. 
 Bentley, J. S. Calkins, J. E. Jones, A. R. Allison, J. N. 
 Roach and family of girls, John Harris and family, H. 
 R. Kelsoe and family. 
 
 The town at that time consisted entirely of the houses 
 
1857] FORT SCOTT TOWN COMPANY. H 
 
 around the Plaza, which had been built by the Govern- 
 ment. No new buildings had yet been erected. Imagine 
 the city, buildings, trees, etc., all cleared away and the 
 wild, unbroken prairie in their stead coming clear up 
 to the Plaza on all sides, and there you have Fort Scott 
 as it appeared at that day. 
 
 The business houses were not yet very numerous. 
 Colonel H. T. Wilson had the old post-sutler store, 
 southwest of the Plaza, Blake Little & Son occupied 
 the old quartermaster building, northwest corner of the 
 Plaza, and Hill & Son were in the old guard house. 
 There was one blacksmith shop and two saloons. 
 
 FORT SCOTT TOWN COMPANY. 
 
 About the ist of June, 1857, a party arrived at Fort 
 Scott, which had been made up at Lawrence, Kansas, 
 consisting of Norman Eddy of Indiana, Geo. A. Craw- 
 ford of Lock Haven, Pennsylvania, D. H. Weir of In- 
 diana, and E. W. Holbrook of Michigan. Their purpose 
 in coming to Fort Scott was, principally, to organize a 
 town company. The town had been incorporated by 
 act of the Legislature of 1855, as has been stated. A 
 "Town Company" had already done some wind work 
 and formed a "curbstone" organization, consisting of 
 C. B. Wingfield, G. W.Jones, S. A. Williams and others. 
 The Wingfield Company, as it was called, had no title 
 to any land described in the act of the Legislature in- 
 corporating the "Town of Fort Scott," nor did anybody 
 else. Claims had been filed on the different parts of 
 sections by different parties, and the Wingfield company 
 
72 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1857 
 
 designed to acquire title to the townsite under the 
 pre-emption laws. 
 
 On the 8th day of June, 1857, according to the original 
 record, the Fort Scott Town Company "made condi- 
 tional purchase, and took possession of the 'claims' 
 known as the site of Fort Scott," and organized the 
 company with the following named members : D. H. 
 Weir, D. W. Holbrook, E. S. Lowman, W. R. Judson, 
 G. W. Jones, H. T. Wilson, Norman Eddy, George A. 
 Crawford and T. R. Blackburn. 
 
 The Wingfield organization was kept alive, however, 
 with the view of holding good the pre-emption rights 
 of the individual members, until, on the 5th day of 
 January, 1858, at a meeting of the Fort Scott Town 
 Company the following action was taken : 
 
 "Ordered, That the idea of attempting to pre-empt 
 the property of the company under the two organiza- 
 tions of the Wingfield Company and the Fort Scott 
 Town Company be formally abandoned. And that the 
 members and interests of the Wingfield Company be in 
 form, as they are in fact, received into and merged in 
 the Fort Scott Town Company." 
 
 An outline of the early life of Mr. Crawford is given 
 at this point. From the day of his arrival in Fort Scott 
 his life is interwoven with the history of the town and 
 Bourbon County. 
 
 George A. Crawford was born in Pine Creek Township 
 Clinton County, Pennsylvania, on July 27, 1827. -^^^ 
 ancestors were well known and active in the Revolution. 
 He spent his boyhood in Clinton County, and received 
 his higher education at Clinton Academy. After he 
 
1857 J FOR r SCO TT TO WN COM PA NY. 73 
 
 had finished his education he went to Salem, Kentucky, 
 where he taught school, and in 1847 he taught in the 
 high schools of Canton, Mississippi. In 1848 he 
 returned to Pennsylvania and studied law. 
 
 Mr. Crawford was active and quite prominent in the 
 State politics of Pennsylvania, taking James Buchanan 
 as his political guide, and later, his personal friend 
 Stephen A. Douglas. And finally, in the latter days 
 of the life of Douglas, joining with him in the hearty 
 support of the Administration of President Lincoln. 
 
 As we have seen, in the spring of 1857, he came to 
 Fort Scott, where he at once identified himself with the 
 large Free-State immigration just then beginning to 
 come in from the North. He was soon recognized and 
 accepted as the head of the combined political sentiment 
 of men from all sections of the country — North and 
 South — who may be denominated, in the political 
 shading of that time, as the conservative "Anti Pro- 
 slavery party. He had, however, no better personal 
 friends than he found among such men as Col. Wilson, 
 A. Hornbeck, S. A. Williams, Blake Little, John H. 
 Little, Col. Arnett, W. L Linn and others then here, 
 whose political prejudices were at that time in harmony 
 with the great leaders of the South. 
 
 Mr. Crawford had a more extended acquaintance and 
 close personal friendship with prominent men of the 
 Nation than any man in the West. He was familiar 
 with all sections and all men. Polished and peculiarly 
 social in his manner, he was as much at home in the 
 political and diplomatic circles of Washington as he 
 was in the squatter's cabin. Had his inclinations been 
 
74 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1857 
 
 for a political career he. could have easily attained great 
 prominence. But the bent of his disposition was to be 
 at the head of large commercial and manufacturing 
 enterprises. For this, he chose this State and 
 particularly Fort Scott as the basis of his operations. 
 He succeeded well for several years, considering the 
 disjointed period of civil war, and had laid the founda- 
 tion of his future hopes. But circumstances, which so 
 often attack the affairs of men, combined with the 
 elements for his overthrow. He saw his mills and 
 factories swept away by fire in an hour's time, leaving 
 him struggling and helpless in the quick-sand of 
 unrelentive fate. The divinity which shapes the affairs 
 of men could come to him no more. It had passed by 
 his door forever. 
 
 The lives of all men "are of few days and full of 
 trouble." They pass like the shadow of a summer 
 cloud. One falls ; the ranks close up and move on, and 
 only memory glances back. So with him. 
 
 His last resting place is in the Grand Canyons of the 
 Colorado. His monument is the memory of those not 
 yet fallen. 
 
 UNITED STATES OFFICERS. 
 
 The United States Land Office for this District was 
 located at Fort Scott in the Spring of 1857. Epaphro- 
 ditus Ransom was appointed Receiver, and G. W. 
 Clark, under the name of Doak, was appointed 
 Register. 
 
 On the loth of July, Hon. Joseph Williams took the 
 oath of office before Secretary Stanton, as Associate 
 
1857] MORE TENDERFEET. 75 
 
 Justice of the Territorial Supreme Court. He arrived 
 at Fort Scott soon after, bringing with him his wife 
 and four sons, Mason, Kennedy, Joseph and William, 
 and immediately entered upon the duties of his office. 
 He had lived many years in Muscatine and Burlington, 
 Iowa, where he had been on the bench "twenty-one 
 years a judge in Iowa" as he invariably instructed the 
 jury in his charge. He was a weak man, easily 
 influenced, and without personal dignity. 
 
 MORE TENDERFEET. 
 
 About the first of August, 1857, several more people 
 arrived who were afterwards active and prominent 
 citizens. 
 
 B. P. McDonald came to Fort Scott from Lock 
 Haven, Pennsylvania. He was then a boy of 17. He 
 took up a timber claim soon after his arrival here, and 
 after the sawmill started he employed men in cutting 
 and hauling logs to the mill where he worked as a 
 hand himself, and from the proceeds of his lumber he 
 made enough to start him in business with his brother, 
 Alexander McDonald. In 1861 the firm of A. Mc- 
 Donald & Brother turned their attention to freighting 
 in addition to their other mercantile business and 
 afterwards added a banking department. In 1867 he 
 purchased the entire business and continued it in his 
 own name until 1869. He then closed out the 
 business except the banking department, which he, 
 with C. F. Drake and others afterward organized into 
 the First National Bank, He was always foremost 
 
■76 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1857 
 
 in aiding all railroad enterprises looking towards Fort 
 Scott, and in 1874 he took hold individually of a 
 railway project for a road in a southeastern direction 
 from Fort Scott, and after completing a section of 
 several miles he finally transfered it to the Kansas City, 
 Fcrt Scott and Gulf Railroad Company, and his 
 conception and original labors resulted in the con- 
 struction of the great trunk line to Memphis, Tennes- 
 see. 
 
 Charles Bull had arrived sometime before. He was 
 a youngish looking man then, and has maintained the 
 same personal appearance for the past thirty years. He 
 is now with the Zuna Indians. He was the most even 
 tempered man in the Territory, always excepting Joe 
 Ray. 
 
 Joseph Ray came from Michigan. He was another 
 of the young men who came here to seek his fortune, 
 only he didn't want any fortune except to be able to 
 give to anybody and everybody in need. That was Joe. 
 He was the life of any party or company, and had a 
 smile and a joke for every one on every occasion. 
 There is no man in the long list of the early settlers 
 who have passed away whose memory is kept greener 
 than is his. 
 
 William Gallaher arrived on the ist of August from 
 Illinois, originally from Pennsylvania. He was also 
 quite a young man. He was, however, more lucky 
 than some of the other boys, for he got a splendid 
 situation soon after his arrival. He was appointed 
 postmaster — the third one for Fort Scott — which posi- 
 
1857] THE FREE STATE HOTEL. 77 
 
 tion paid him over twenty-four hundred — cents a year. 
 But he went into the army and lost it all. 
 
 Charles Dimon came from New York. Charley was 
 a good fellow, but he had one bad habit, that was corns 
 on his feet. 
 
 Ed. A. Smith, Burns Gordon, Albert H. Campbell 
 and A. R. Allison were also boys of the class of '57. 
 They all graduated with honor in that school the like 
 of which will never again be opened. School is out, 
 and the teacher is dead. 
 
 THE FREE STATE HOTEL. 
 
 The boys who came in this year and the men who 
 had no families with them generally boarded at the 
 Fort Scott Hotel, or the "Free State Hotel," as it was 
 better known. It was under the management of 
 Charley Dimon, with Ben McDonald and Charley Bull, 
 and most any of the other boys, as clerks. Will Gallaher 
 kept his postoffice there. This hotel was the building 
 on the West corner of the Plaza, built by the Govern- 
 ment for officers quarters, and now owned and occupied 
 by Hon. William Margrave. It was first opened as a 
 hotel by Col. Arnett soon after the post was abandoned 
 in 1854, and was then the first and only hotel in the 
 county. In the Spring of 1857, it was run by the 
 Casey Bros. Later Charley Dimon took charge of it, 
 and continued in it until January, 1859. 
 
 This house is a historical landmark. In 1857 it 
 acquired the name of "The Free State Hotel," which 
 it retained for many years. If its walls could talk it 
 could beat this history all to pieces. 
 
78 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [185( 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 LECOMPTON CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION. 
 
 ^ITT was now the beginning of autumn. The spring 
 
 c^ season had opened favorably for the farmers, and 
 
 If wherever they had been permitted to stay at home 
 
 and work, the prospect was good for abundant 
 
 i^l crops. Everything seemed to be reasonably quiet in 
 
 ' this part of the Territory, although it was a forced 
 quiet, and there was much feeling of unrest and appre- 
 hension among the people. 
 
 The political talk was about the approaching Pro- 
 slavery convention to frame a State Constitution, which 
 was to be held at Lecompton. 
 
 As has been noted, the Legislature had passed an act 
 providing for the election of delegates to this conven- 
 tion, on the 15th of June, 1857. The Free State men 
 had, with something like concert of action all over the 
 Territory, let the election of these delegates go by de- 
 fault. They felt that there was no chance for an ex- 
 pression of Free State opinions, and no guarantee that 
 it would be anything but a repetition of the villainous 
 frauds and outrages which had heretofore taken place 
 under the name of "election." 
 
 The Free State men, however, began to realize that 
 
1857] LECOMPTON CONVENTION. 79 
 
 immigration had in reality now placed their party in 
 the majority. Their confidence and courage were 
 strengthened, and hope renewed. But the delegates 
 were already elected. 
 
 If the Free State men had taken prompt and vigorous 
 measures to contest the election of June 15, attended to 
 the registration and seen to it that the lists were cor- 
 rected, and then mustered their forces at the polls with 
 a determined front, it is possible that they might have 
 elected a majority of the delegates, obtained control of 
 the Lecompton Convention, presented a Free State Con- 
 stitution to the people, who would have sustained it, and 
 the State have quietly passed into the Union, and the 
 pages of Kansas history been altogether changed. 
 
 The Convention met at Lecompton on the 7th of 
 September, 1857. Blake Little and H. T. Wilson were 
 the delegates chosen from this District. Little was 
 chosen President pro tern, of the Convention. 
 
 After several adiournments the Convention finally 
 completed their work on the 3rd of November, guarded 
 by 200 U. S. troops. It was provided that the election 
 on the adoption of this Constitution should be held on 
 the 2ist of December ; that the question should be 
 divided and that the ticket should read : "For the Con- 
 stitution and Slavery," and "For the Constitution 
 without Slavery." 
 
 The time for the regular meeting of the Territorial 
 Legislature was January 4, 1858, but Acting Governor 
 Stanton called an extra session which met on the 7th 
 day of December, 1857, ^^^ passed an act providing for 
 a vote on the entire constitution — a straight proposition 
 
80 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1857 
 
 for or against — to be held January 4, 1858, and provid- 
 ing more thoroughly against fraud. 
 
 The elections were quite numerous this fall and 
 winter, and somewhat confusing unless attended to in 
 their regular order. 
 
 THE ELECTION OF OCTOBER 5, 1 857. 
 
 The election for members of the Territorial Legisla- 
 ture and for Delegate to Congress was held on the 5th 
 of October. 
 
 E. Ransom, of Fort Scott, ran against Mark Parrott, 
 the Free State candidate for delegate. 
 
 At this election there were again some indications of 
 fraud, especially at the Oxford and Kickapoo precincts, 
 and in McGee county. McGee county, for instance, 
 "cast" 1202 Pro-slavery votes against 24 votes for the 
 Free State ticket. Fraud was patent to every body. 
 There were not a hundred legal voters in the county, 
 all told. The original returns from McGee county were 
 seen by one or more of our Fort Scott men before they 
 were doctored and sent on to Lecompton. The lists 
 contained a total of exactly eighty-three names. 
 
 At this election Bourbon County voted as follows: 
 Dry wood precinct, Ransom 9, Parrott 3; Russell pre- 
 cinct, Ransom 12, Parrott 2; Fort Scott precinct. Ran- 
 som 99, Parrott 24; Sprattsville precinct, Ransom ■^'X)i 
 Parrott 47; Osage precinct. Ransom 22, Parrott 20. 
 Total, Ransom 175, Parrott 96. 
 
 The Governor issued a proclamation on the 22d of 
 October, rejecting the returns of the election precincts 
 
1857] MORE TROUBLE. 81 
 
 where the most glaring frauds had occurred. This re- 
 duced the total vote for Ransom to 3,799, as against 
 7,888 for Parrott, and the certificate of election was 
 issued to Parrott, and he took his seat in Congress the 
 next December. 
 
 George A. Crawford was the Democratic candidate 
 for Territorial Council from this District, which con- 
 sisted of Bourbon and seventeen other counties, McGee 
 among them. Mr. Crawford went to Lecompton at 
 once, and in a conference with Governor Walker and 
 Secretary Stanton he advised the throwing out of the 
 fraudulent votes, although such action defeated his own 
 election. 
 
 MORE TROUBLE. 
 
 The wave of Free State immigration which had 
 rolled in over the northern part of the Territory now 
 began to reach down into Southern Kansas, and to be 
 felt in Bourbon County to a greater extent than ever 
 before. And the troubles which had prevailed in the 
 North for so long a time were to be also transferred to 
 the Southeastern border. 
 
 The Free State men who had been driven out in the 
 summer and fall of 1856, now began to return — many 
 of them coming back armed — and as they found that 
 their strength had been materially increased by the con- 
 siderable number of new settlers coming into the 
 county they had confidence that by organization they 
 could now maintain themselves and recover their claims 
 and much of their other property. Among their leaders 
 
82 HISTOR Y OF BOURBON CO UNTY. [1 857 
 
 were J. C. Burnett, Samuel Stevenson, Captain Bain and 
 Josiah Stewart. 
 
 Notice was served on those who had wrongfully taken 
 possession of cabins and claims that they must leave. 
 Many did so at once, but others relying on aid and 
 assistance from the "Blue Lodges" of organized Pro- 
 slavery men which existed in Fort Scott and along the 
 border, refused to vacate. 
 
 As an illustration of those difficulties, the case of 
 Stone and Southwood is given. William Stone had 
 been driven off of his claim on the Osage, and his claim 
 and cabin were taken possession of by a man named 
 Southwood, a Southern preacher. When Stone re- 
 turned to assert his rights Southwood refused to vacate. 
 The Free State men, after considering the case, built 
 Stone another cabin, near Southwood' s, and moved his 
 family into it. The women of the two families, of 
 course, got into a small border war over the well of 
 water. This helped to aggravate matters and the Free 
 State men finally ordered Southwood to leave by a 
 certain time. Just before the time fixed to leave, 
 Southwood gathered a large number of his friends from 
 Fort Scott and along the border with the purpose of 
 driving Stone off. But the Free State men were right 
 on hand, and gathered at Stone's to resist the expected 
 attack. It was a first-rate opening for a good fight, but 
 the Pro-slavery party, after a feint of an attack that 
 night, drew off. They made much big talk, but they 
 found the Free State party too strong and determined, 
 and Southwood left. 
 
 The opposing forces, or factions, came near a col- 
 
1857] SQUATTER'S COURT. 83 
 
 lision several times after that. Things looked ugly. 
 But for some reason the Pro-slavery men declined to 
 open the ball, and the Free State policy was to await an 
 attack. 
 
 Finally, a resort was had to the forms of "law." 
 A term of the U. S. District Court was commenced on 
 the 19th of October, 1857. ^^ "^^^ \i^\^ in the south 
 room of the land office building, Judge Joseph Williams 
 presiding, S. A. Williams, Clerk, and J. H. Little, Dep- 
 uty U. S. Marshal. This court was in full sympathy 
 and control of the Pro-slavery party. Claimants 
 throughout the District took their cases before this 
 court, and Judge Williams in most of the "claim cases" 
 decided against the Free State man. 
 
 Free State men were often arrested on some trumped- 
 up charge and were held for excessive bail or refused 
 bail altogether. These arbitrary proceedings were very 
 aggravating to them and they instituted a "court" of 
 their own. 
 
 squatter's court. 
 
 What they called a "Squatter's Court" was organ- 
 ized for the District. A full complement of officers. 
 Judge, Clerk, Sheriff, etc., was appointed. The first 
 "court" was held at what was called "Bain's Fort," 
 a large log house on the Osage river, a little northwest 
 of the present town of Fulton. It was built by old 
 John Brown and Captain Bain. Dr. Rufus Gilpatrick, 
 of Anderson county, was Judge, and Henry Kilbourn, 
 Sheriff. Here they tried causes in due form of law, 
 and meted out justice according to their best light. 
 
84 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1857 
 
 The only reasonable ground for "exceptions" to be 
 taken to the proceedings was, perhaps, that as there 
 was no family Bible handy the witnesses were sworn 
 on "Dr. Gunn's Family Physician." But as this was 
 a court from which there was no appeal, exceptions, 
 though often taken, were rarely noted. 
 
 The existence of this rival court was not to be toler- 
 ated by Judge Williams and his friends, and on the 
 1 2th day of December, 1857, he ordered Deputy Mar- 
 shal Little to organize a posse and dissolve it. Little 
 went up there with a few men but the court failed to 
 dissolve. On the i6th he again advanced on the works 
 with a posse of about fifty men. When near the fort 
 he was met by a party with a flag of truce headed 
 by D. B. Jackman. They held a parley, and were 
 finally informed by Little that if they did not sur- 
 render at once he would fire on them. The truce 
 party warned Little that if he advanced it would be at 
 his peril. They then returned to the fort, and Little 
 advanced to the attack and opened fire. Several volleys 
 were exchanged. The attack was repulsed. Some of 
 Little's men and horses were slightly wounded. He 
 then returned to Fort Scott. On the next day he in- 
 creased his force to 100 men and returned again to the 
 attack, but he found, on arriving at the fort, that the 
 garrison had escaped during the night, and the court 
 "adjourned." 
 
 One of the posse was named James Rhoades, who 
 started back to Marmaton, where he had been em- 
 ployed in Ed. Jones' saw-mill. On the road he met a 
 Mr. Weaver, a Free State man, and they got into a 
 
1857] A PROTECTIVE SOCIETY. 85 
 
 quarrel. Weaver was unarmed. Rhoades carried a 
 loaded gun and was himself well loaded with that same 
 old Missouri whiskey. In the quarrel he attempted to 
 shoot Weaver, but Weaver got the gun away from him 
 and killed him with it. 
 
 A little before this time a difficulty began between 
 two of the Osage settlers. It was a claim fight. In 
 1856 a man named Hardwick came in there and took a 
 claim. Isaac Denton and his sons, James and John 
 Denton, came in about the same time. Hardwick per- 
 mitted James Denton to occupy a cabin on his claim 
 with the understanding that he was to vacate at a cer- 
 tain time. When the time came around Denton refused 
 to vacate. Hardwick was threatened, his cabin was 
 fired into, and he was forced to give up his claim and 
 get out. Soon after this Isaac Denton and a friend and 
 neighbor named Hedrick, were killed. Hardwick was 
 suspected of the crime and he fled the country. A year 
 or two afterwards he was arrested in Missouri for this 
 crime and delivered to John Denton to be brought 
 to Kansas for trial. On the way Denton shot Hard- 
 wick dead. Denton, in his turn, was killed at Barnes- 
 ville, by Bill Marchbanks, for the killing of Hardwick. 
 
 A PROTECTIVE SOCIETY. 
 
 Geo. H. B. Hopkins settled on the Osage in Septem- 
 ber, 1856. He lived neighbor to Hedrick when the 
 latter was called from the bed-side of his sick wife and 
 shot down in his own door. The Dentons also lived 
 in the same neighborhood. The killing of Hedrick 
 
86 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1857 
 
 and Denton on account of the threats of the Pro-slavery 
 men that no Free State man should be allowed to raise 
 a crop or stay on his claim, caused Mr. Hopkins and 
 his neighbor, Mr. Denison, to start out and organize a 
 " Protective Society." A large meeting was collected. 
 Squire Jewell was made chairman. Hopkins, Jewell 
 and Denison were chosen a committee to draft by-laws. 
 At a second meeting, three days later, James Mont- 
 gomery of Linn County was present, but took no part 
 until the men present at the meeting showed their 
 hands by passing the following resolution : 
 
 " Resolved, That we, the members of this organiza- 
 tion, pledge ourselves to protect all good citizens in 
 their rights of life and property irrespective of politics." 
 
 Montgomery then arose and in a speech said : "I am 
 now with you and will be to the end. Some men must 
 be active in defense while others work. We have a 
 hydra-headed monster to fight, and I for one will fight 
 him and with his own weapons, if necessary." And 
 from that time dated the activity of Montgomery as a 
 partisan leader of the Free State men. He now pro- 
 posed to take the saddle. 
 
 After Isaac Denton and Hedrick were killed, old 
 man Travis, also a settler on the Osage, was arrested 
 charged with having something to do with their 
 murder. He was taken before the Squatter's Court at 
 Mapleton and there found not guilty. On his way 
 home he stopped at Dr. Wasson's, and that night the 
 house was attacked and he was killed. Dr. Wasson 
 was also shot in the arm and crippled for life. This 
 was done or instigated by Jim Denton. 
 
1857] THE CONSERVATIVES. 87 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 THE CONSERVATIVES. 
 LL through these border troubles there was 
 
 v32^ naturally and necessarily what may be called a 
 conservative resident element in Fort Scott and 
 throughout the county, of both the Pro-slavery 
 and Free State parties ; men trying to attend to 
 business, improve their claims, make homes, and 
 carry on their daily avocations. These men were, as 
 they well expressed it, between two fires. And the 
 alarms, incursions, excursions and the retaliatory acts, 
 back and forth between the two parties were carried on 
 over the heads of these law-abiding men. It was a 
 diflScult position, much harder to maintain in the 
 country than in town. These men were not conserva- 
 tive in the sense of being non-committal or even 
 non-partisan but as being " non-active" in the political 
 difficulties which did not concern their private affairs. 
 
 It is of no avail to speculate now whether or not this 
 factious, partisan border trouble was necessary or could 
 have been prevented. It was simply a matter of fact ; 
 it existed, and that is all there is to be said about it. 
 The Free State men were, in a large measure, on the 
 defensive. They either had to hold their ground or be 
 
88 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1857 
 
 driven out. Get out or fight. It was a "condition and 
 not a theory that confronted them," although it was a 
 theory which, in some sense, had brought them to this 
 country in the first place; the theory that they had a 
 right to go into United States territory, take a claim, 
 make a home and speak and vote as they pleased. And 
 they proceeded at once on the theory that the condition 
 they found was a theory, and that their original theory 
 should become the condition. 
 
 U. S. TROOPS AT FORT SCOTT. 
 
 The constant alarms occurring in the latter part of 
 this year resulted in the calling of a public meeting at 
 Fort Scott on the i3tli day of December. E. Ransom 
 was made chairman. Resolutions were reported that a 
 vigilance committee of five should be appointed to take 
 measures to assist in the better execution of the law, 
 either by the organization of a militia company or an 
 appeal to the Governor and having United States 
 troops stationed here. The committee appointed was 
 H. T. Wilson, Blake Little, T. B. Arnett, G. A. 
 Crawford and J. W. Head. The committee rightly 
 concluded that it would be injudicious to try to organize 
 a military company at that time, and decided to ask 
 for troops, who were supposed to have no politics. At 
 their instance John S. Cummings, the sherifi" of the 
 county, reported to Acting Governor Stanton that he 
 required the aid of U. S. troops in the execution of the 
 law, and sent the concurrent statement of Marshal 
 Little to the same effect. In response to this request 
 
1857] VOTE ON LECOMPTON CONSTITUTION. 89 
 
 Captain Sturgis, afterwards a Union General, was sent 
 here on the 21st of December with Companies E. and 
 F. ist U. S. Cavalry, and order was restored and 
 maintained for the short time they were here. 
 
 FIRST VOTE ON THE LECOMPTON CONSTITUTION. 
 
 Governor Walker, finding that his idea of fairness 
 and justice ran counter to that of the propaganda, 
 resigned his office on the 17th of December. 
 
 He had been absent from the Territory for some time 
 and Secretary Stanton had been Acting Governor, and 
 while so acting had called the special session of the 
 Territorial Legislature to change the date and manner 
 of voting on the lyccompton Constitution, and for that 
 act, and others not in the programme, he was removed. 
 
 J. W. Denver was appointed to succeed him as 
 Secretary, and took the oath of office on the 21st of 
 December, and became Acting Governor. 
 
 On December 21, the first election was held on the 
 Lecompton Constitution. At this election the Free 
 State men again abstained from voting, or giving it 
 any attention. 
 
 The vote in Bourbon County, as returned, was as 
 follows : 
 
 For the Constitution, with slavery, 366 
 
 For the Constitution, without slavery, ... 78 
 
 There were only nine votes cast against the constitu- 
 tion in the entire Territory. These were voted at 
 Leavenworth and the tickets read "To hell with the 
 Lecompton Constitution." 
 
90 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1857 
 
 This election, besides being otherwise a farce, was 
 more or less fraudulent in every precinct in the 
 Territory, Bourbon County not excepted. 
 
 Bourbon County elected members of the State 
 Legislature under the Lecompton Constitution as 
 follows : Blake Little for Senator, D. W. Campbell 
 and J. C. Sims for the House. 
 
 EflTorts were now being made at different points, 
 notably at Leavenworth, to organize a Free State 
 Democratic party, as Free State Democrats everywhere 
 repudiated the Lecompton Constitution, but no organ- 
 ization was effected in 1857, 
 
 Among the arrivals about the close of the year were 
 Alex McDonald, brother of B. P. McDonald, and E. S. 
 Bowen, who had purchased and shipped a sawmill, 
 which was on the road and would arrive in due time. 
 The mill machinery began to arrive about the middle 
 of the next month, and was to be erected at a site 
 chosen for it near the corner of what is now First 
 Street and Ransom Street, or maybe a little further 
 West towards Scott Avenue. 
 
 Lumber was going to be in demand, for building 
 would begin in the Spring, although the year 1857 was 
 closing in turmoil, excitement and uncertainty. 
 
 \ 
 
18581 SECOND LECOMPTON ELECTION. 91 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 SECOND ELECTION ON LECOMPTON CONSTITUTION. 
 
 "sHDHE year 1858 opened politically with the now 
 ^l almost periodical election on the Lecompton 
 Constitution. This one occurred on the 4th of 
 January, as was provided for, as will be remem- 
 bered, by the Territorial Legislature in the special 
 session of December, 1857. 
 
 In Bourbon County the vote was as follows : 
 
 For the Constitution with slavery 55 
 
 For the Constitution without slavery . . . none 
 Against the Constitution 268 
 
 The total vote in the Territory, as published, was: 
 
 For the Constitution with slavery 138 
 
 For the Constitution without slavery ... 23 
 
 Against the Constitution 10,226 
 
 There was little or no deliberate or prearranged fraud 
 in this election in Bourbon County. The Pro-slavery 
 men in their turn abstained to a great extent from voting, 
 but the Free State men went at it in great shape this 
 time. 
 
 No analysis of the vote can be made. It will be noted 
 that Bourbon County cast nearly one-half of the total 
 
9^ HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1858 
 
 votes in the Territory for the Constitution with slavery, 
 as they were finally counted. But the vote proved 
 nothing as to the relative strength of parties in this 
 county. If an accurate poll of the legal voters in the 
 county that day could have been taken for the Consti- 
 tution with slavery, or against the entire Constitution, 
 it would have resulted in about 250 votes for each side 
 of the question. 
 
 FIRST NEWSPAPER ESTABLISHED. 
 
 The Fort Scott Town Company fell heir to the press 
 and material of the "Southern Kansan," which was 
 started and two numbers issued by Kline, who went to 
 war, and got killed in 1856, as you have read. 
 
 This material was afterwards stored in the black- 
 smith shop of Arnett's corral, where it remained until 
 January, 1858, when it was resurrected under the aus- 
 pices of J. E. Jones. It was removed to the south 
 room of the second floor of the Land Office building, 
 where Joe Williams, jr., and Charlie Bull — scrub typos, 
 proceed to sort the pi, and make ready for the publica- 
 tion of the Fort Scott Democrat. The first number of 
 the Democrat made its appearance on the 27th of Jan- 
 uary, 1858, J. E. Jones, editor. 
 
 The publication of the Democrat was continued by 
 Mr. Jones until sometime in 1859, when he left town. 
 
 THE FIRST GRAND BALL. 
 
 About the ist of January, 1858, W. T. Campbell, who 
 with his family, had been living at Baruesville, whither 
 
1858] TROUBLE BEGINS AGAIN. 93 
 
 he had moved from Kalamazoo, Michigan, came to town 
 and took charge of the Fort Scott or Free State Hotel. 
 Soon after, he gave what might be termed the opening 
 ball. All the elite of the city were present. One fiddle 
 furnished the music. Joe Ray "called," and "alamand 
 left" was heard at regular intervals until the "wee sma' 
 hour" of seven o'clock next morning. We don't re- 
 member very well all the ladies who were there, but we 
 do remember Miss Jemima Roach. Jemima was the 
 belle of the evening. For the benefit of the rising 
 generation we will give something of a description of 
 her ball costume, which will answer for a description 
 of all, for they were all about alike — cut off the same 
 piece in Colonel Wilson's store. Well, Jemima had on 
 a good warm linsey woolsey dress, with small check, 
 say, half-inch square, cut high neck and low sleeves, 
 trimmed with a feathery ruche of cut calico, and a dove 
 colored belt, a la cinch Mexicano. We believe the 
 dress was not cut bias anywhere, unless it was under 
 the arms. Just a good plain every day dress that would 
 do to milk in. Then good warm woolen stockings. 
 Government red tape garters, and good stout calf-skin 
 shoes, laced with buckskin strings. That's all. Sally 
 Duncan was the only one known to complain about a 
 thing at the ball. She said she "didn't like the durned 
 abolition callin'; too much cheatin' yer pardners." 
 
 TROUBLE BEGINS AGAIN. 
 
 The troops remained here until the loth of January. 
 1858, when they were ordered away, and then trouble 
 
94 HIS TOR Y OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1 858 
 
 commenced again. Some of the Border Ruffians took 
 a squad out to where Mr. Johnson lived and abused 
 him, took some of his stock, and threatened to make 
 him leave. Johnson got word to Montgomery about it, 
 and asked him to come down and see about some fellows 
 whose names he gave as the leaders, who were then 
 stopping in Fort Scott. About the loth of February 
 Montgomery was sighted by some of their scouts, com- 
 ing in sure enough, with a party of twenty men. Out 
 about the California ford on the Marmaton they were 
 met by a delegation to ascertain what he wanted. When 
 he told them who he was after, they informed him that 
 this particular man had leaked out into Missouri. But 
 Monty thought he would come in and see for himself. 
 So he did. But they were gone. Then Crawford and 
 Judge Williams and some others, invited him and his 
 forces to take breakfast at the Free State Hotel ; pre- 
 sented him the freedom of the city, so to speak — on a 
 tin platter. So the boys, who were in their "working 
 clothes," and not overly well dressed, took on a good 
 breakfast, and then went quietly home. 
 
 On the 15th, the men Montgomery had been looking 
 for returned, Brockett among them. Soon after that a 
 difficulty occurred between Brockett and Charley Dimon, 
 which might have resulted seriously, had it not been for 
 the firmness and courage of Colonel Campbell. 
 
 OBJECT LESSON IN SURGERY. 
 
 On the 28th of February a party under command of 
 Dr. Jenuison and "Rev." Stewart, alias "Plum,'' went 
 
1858] ORIGIN OF ''JAYHAWKERy 95 
 
 to the house of a Pro-slavery man named Van Zumwalt, 
 on the Osage, and routed him out. When the door was 
 being opened — which was hung on wooden hinges and 
 opened outward — the muzzle of a gun was noticed being 
 poked out through the crack near the upper hinge. 
 Some one shot at it and Van received the ball in his 
 arm. He then surrendered. It was found to be a bad 
 wound, and Jennison, who was a very good surgeon, 
 then went to work and washed and dressed the wound, 
 giving the boys a clinical lecture as he went along, 
 explaining everything, and giving them instructions 
 how to proceed in similar cases which were likely to 
 to occur in the future. 
 
 If Van had been killed it is presumed Rev. Stewart 
 would have made a ' 'few remarks' ' about the uncertainty 
 of this life, and said a few words for the repose of his soul. 
 
 The Jayhawkers always went well fixed in the matter 
 of the learned professions. They generally had a doctor 
 and a preacher along, and quite often a lawyer. 
 
 ORIGIN OF "JAYHAWKER." 
 
 On this trip the word, Jayhawker, originated. Jen- 
 nison had with him a regular all-around thief named 
 Pat Devlin. After the boys went into camp north of 
 the Osage, the next morning after visiting Van Zumwalt, 
 they noticed Pat coming in riding a yellow mule loaded 
 down with all sorts of plunder. In front of him were 
 hanging from the horn of the saddle, a big turkey, 
 three or four chickens and a string of red peppers, 
 behind him a 50-pound shoat, a sheep-skin, a pair 
 of boots and a bag of potatoes. 
 
96 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1858 
 
 "Hello, Pat, where have you been," asked Doc. 
 
 "O'ive been over till Eph. Kepley's a-jayhawking. " 
 
 "Jayhawking? What in thunder do you mean? 
 What kind of hawking is that?" said Doc. 
 
 "Well, sor, in ould Oireland we have a birud we 
 call the jayhawk, that whin it catches another birud it 
 takes deloight in bullyragin the loife out ov it, like a 
 cat does a mouse, and, be jasus, Oi bethot me Oi was 
 in about thot same business mesilf. You call it 'forag- 
 ing off the inemy,' but, begobs, O'ill call it jay- 
 hawking." 
 
 "All right," laughed Jennison. "We'll call it 'Jay- 
 hawking' from this on." And so it was. 
 
 This same Pat Devlin took a claim on the Osage 
 some time before the incident related, laid a foundation 
 for a cabin on it and prepared for pre-emption. But 
 his inclination to jayhawk overcame any desire he may 
 have had to become a farmer, and, in consequence, he 
 was away so much "on thot business" that he for- 
 feited all right to his claim. John Hinton, of the Osage, 
 then jumped the claim, built a cabin and moved his 
 father and mother and family into it. Among the 
 family was the old grand father, a man about 85 years 
 of age, who was bed-ridden and helpless from rheuma- 
 tism. One day Pat was riding by the cabin, and on 
 examination, he found that the family were all away 
 from home except the old man. What did he do then 
 but turn in and first tearing the roof off the house he 
 rolled the logs off one at a time clear down to a level 
 with the old grand pap's bed, leaving him there in the 
 weather, alone and utterly helpless. 
 
1858] FIRST MANUFACTORY. 97 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 FIRST MANUFACTORY IN FORT SCOTT. 
 
 ^BOUT the 2oth of Februar}', 1858, McDonald's 
 saw-mill was completed and steamed up for the 
 first time. The boys thought this was a proper 
 occasion to steam up likewise, and Alex, McDon- 
 ald "gave a party" that night. Egg-nog was 
 the principal ingredient. Ben. McDonald, John 
 Little and Ed. Smith were chief cooks and did the 
 mixing. They thought they had plenty of fuel when 
 they started in, but Ben said they run out of Polk 
 County sour mash, and towards the last he had to chuck 
 in some bay rum. Anyway, they laid the boys all out, 
 bottom side up. They didn't know whether they were 
 border ruffians or prohibitionists. Joe Ray said the next 
 day, they had to dust their hats with slick powder and 
 put them on with a shoe horn. 
 
 The boys had lots of fun at this saw-mill. Ben was 
 head sawyer and Joe "bore off" the slabs, when he 
 couldn't get Charlie Osbun, or some one of the other 
 boys to do it for him. Joe wasn't lazy, but he was awful 
 tired. They sawed cottonwood lumber sometimes. 
 Cottonwood was great lumber to warp. Joe said it 
 would often curl up and crawl oft in the bushes and hide. 
 
 7 
 
98 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1858 
 
 MARMATON TOWN COMPANY. 
 
 On the 6th of February, 1858, an act was passed by 
 the Legislature incorporating the town of Marmaton. 
 W. R. Griffith, W. B. Barber, W. H. Krotzer and 
 Horatio Knowles were named as the incorporators. On 
 the nth of February another act was passed incorpor- 
 ating the Town Company of Marmaton. The 
 incorporators were T. R. Roberts, J. E. Jones, Orlando 
 Darling and Charles Dimon. This Company spelled 
 the name with an "i" instead of an "a" thus: 
 "Marmiton." The correct way to spell the name of 
 the town and the river is as the Town Company had it. 
 The name was given the river by the French fur 
 traders who were here before any other white people. 
 The word means scullion, or kitchen boy, the one that 
 empties the pots and slops. But the people of the 
 town and township preferred to spell the name 
 "Marnjaton," and they petitioned the County Court to 
 have the spelling of the name changed, and it was so 
 ordered. 
 
 UNIONTOWN. 
 
 Uniontowu was laid out in 1858, by Aleph Goff, W. 
 W. Wright and B. F. Gumm, who were members of 
 the Town Company. Uniontown took the place of 
 "Turkey Creek" post office, which was a well known 
 point in the early days of the Territory, when it was 
 in "Russell" Township. It is surrounded by as fine 
 an agricultural country as there is in the county, and 
 the settlers, old and new, are of the best class of people. 
 
1858] THE ENGLISH BILL. 99 
 
 THE LEAVENWORTH CONSTITUTION. 
 
 The Legislature on the loth of February, 1858, 
 passed an act providing for the election of delegates to 
 another State Constitutional Convention. The election 
 was held on the 9th of March. W. R. Griffith was 
 delegate from this county. The Convention met at 
 Minneola on the 23rd of March, and after organizing 
 adjourned to Leavenworth, where the first session was 
 held on the 25th of March. On April 3d the "Leaven- 
 worth Constitution" was completed. The prominent 
 feature of this Constitution was that it nowhere 
 contained the word "white." 
 
 The Leavenworth Constitution did not figure to a 
 great extent in the history of Kansas. President 
 Buchanan had, on the 2nd of February, 1858, trans- 
 mitted the old Lecompton Constitution to the Senate 
 and recommended the admission of the State under it. 
 This he did in the face of the known and often expressed 
 opposition to that Constitution by both the Free State 
 Republicans and the Free State Democrats. 
 
 THE ENGLISH BILL. 
 
 Congress, being unable to agree on the question, 
 finally appointed a conference committee, and on the 
 23d of April, W. H. English, of Indiana, reported for 
 the committee what is known as the "English Bill." 
 This act provided that the Lecompton Constitution be 
 again resubmitted to a vote of the people ; provided 
 stringent regulations for securing a fair vote, and 
 provided for an immense grant of lands to the State for 
 
100 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1858 
 
 various purposes, aggregating nearly six million acres, 
 as a straight bribe to the people if they would adopt it. 
 We will vote on this proposition as quick as we can 
 get around to it. 
 
 JAYHAWKING REDUCED TO PLAIN STEALING. 
 
 Everything being somewhat quiet this winter in the 
 "political" circles of this section, Montgomery decided 
 to retire from the field, and do a little work in the way 
 of improvements on his farm in Linn county when 
 spring opened. There were others, he thought, who 
 could continue the watch on the border and keep the 
 upperhand of the Border Ruffians in this part of the 
 Territory. The man principally relied on to do that 
 was a Methodist preacher called Captain, or "Rev." 
 Stewart, the same man mentioned as having had a hand 
 in the Van Zumwalt affair. Stewart had about twenty 
 men, who mostly lived north of the Osage river, when 
 they had any home at all. For awhile everything went 
 off all right. But very soon brother Stewart "back- 
 slid," and he and his gang began stealing horses right 
 and left, and running them off up north. They gave 
 themselves up to plundering, robbing and stealing from 
 everybody and anybody. They pretended to be Free- 
 State men — called themselves so — but any man who 
 had a little property was a Pro-slavery man in their 
 eyes, and "all horses were Pro-slavery." 
 
 They committed so many villainous outrages that the 
 settlers, of all parties, began to leave the country. Many 
 came in to Fort Scott for protection. It seemed like 
 
1858] JAYHAWKING, 101 
 
 the country would be depopulated. The Governor was 
 appealed to for troops by Judge Williams and others 
 and on the 26th of February Captain George T. Ander- 
 son came down with two companies of the ist U. S. 
 Cavalry. But he could not do much good ; he could 
 not guard each individual, and he could not catch the 
 thieves. He told the settlers who applied to him for 
 protection that they must come in to Fort Scott. That 
 was a difficult matter, too, for those who had property, 
 especially stock. They could not well bring that in to 
 town. This plundering and stealing was aided and 
 participated in to some extent by a few of these very 
 U. S. soldiers, who were sent here to protect the people. 
 Edward Wiggin, who now lives on his farm about four 
 miles north of Fort Scott, came here with Capt. Geo. 
 T. Anderson, as a private in Company "I," Anderson's 
 company. He says there was a small squad of his 
 compan)', giving their names as Bill DeBost, Jim Sim- 
 mons, Henry Sadwick and some others, who soon fell 
 in with the idea of playing "Jayhawker, " and influ- 
 enced by some of the old Border Ruffians, repeatedly 
 made stealing raids out into the county, in which they 
 represented themselves as "Stewart's men," and Free- 
 State men. A. Hyde, who after the war located in Fort 
 Scott, and was at one time City Marshal, and who our 
 citizens familiarly called Cap. Hyde, was also a member 
 of Anderson's company. Through the influence prin- 
 cipally of Ed. Wiggin and Cap, Hyde the thieves 
 mentioned were driven out of the company for this 
 stealing business. 
 
 In the meantime, all this thieving and indiscriminate 
 
102 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1858 
 
 plundering was casting an odium on the Free State 
 party and giving it a bad name among those who were 
 not in the saddle. 
 
 Things came to such a pass that Montgomery again 
 took the field to straighten them out. As soon as he 
 appeared Stewart and most of his gang left this part of 
 the Territory for a while and that sort of business 
 ceased for some time. 
 
 FIGHT WITH U. S. TROOPS. 
 
 Montgomery remained in the field. The Southeast- 
 ern border was infested by Border Rufiians of the worst 
 class, many of whom had been driven down by the 
 Free State men further north and had lodged along the 
 Missouri State line. They were making their last 
 stand here. Hamilton was their General-in-chief. It 
 was an idea of theirs to use the United States troops to 
 accomplish the capture of old Jim Montgomery. They 
 had out their spies, and on the 21st of April it was 
 ascertained and reported to them that Montgomery was 
 in the Marmaton valley. Captain Anderson was at 
 once urged by the Border Ruffian crowd to go out and 
 bring him in. Anderson, like many of the regular 
 army officers, was himself an ultra Pro-slavery man 
 and would have liked nothing better than to have 
 gotten hold of Montgomery. He did not require much 
 urging, and soon started out with a detail of men to 
 capture him. About six or eight miles out, in the 
 Isaac Mills neighborliood, they sighted old Jim sure 
 enough, riding leisurly along, with about twenty men, 
 
Western House, or Pro-Slavery Hotel. 
 
 -*. 
 
 ii»8i«i tf* 
 
 Narrow Defile on Taint Creek. 1S58. 
 
1858] FIGHT WITH U. S. 7 R OOPS. 103 
 
 and they took after him full tilt. It had not yet 
 become customary to fight United States troops by 
 either faction, and Montgomery having no desire to 
 commence the practice "skeedaddled." But being 
 close pressed he turned up Yellow Paint Creek to a 
 good narrow defile for defensive purposes which he knew 
 of, quickly dismounted his forces to fight as infantry, 
 and coolly awaited the onslaught of Anderson's troops. 
 Anderson paid no attention to the order, three times 
 given, to halt, but opened fire without dismounting, 
 badly wounding one man, John Denton. Montgomery 
 replied with a volley, killing one soldier named Alvin 
 Satterwait, wounding one or two others and killing a 
 soldier's horse, which fell on him pinning him to the 
 ground, and also killing Anderson's horse. The 
 regulars then retreated to town, and the irregulars went 
 on about their business. 
 
 This was the first and only time United States troops 
 were fired on during the border troubles. The Free 
 State party had always been careful to avoid placing 
 themselves in the light of rebels, or as resisting the 
 bogus Territorial laws. This affair was not similar to 
 that of Thermopolyae or the Alamo, for "Thermopolyae 
 had one messenger of destruction; the Alamo had 
 none," but it might easily have been, had Anderson's 
 force been of similar disproportion. 
 
 Captain Anderson resigned soon after this, and when 
 the war broke out he went into the rebel army and 
 became a Brigadier General. He had a brigade at 
 Pittsburg Landing. Captain Hyde was also in that 
 battle as a private in the regular army. On the first 
 
104 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1858 
 
 day of the battle Hyde was wounded and left in the 
 hands of the Confederates, where he was accidentally 
 thrown into the presence of General Anderson. They 
 knew each other at once, and Anderson caused him to 
 be taken care of until the second day, when the tide of 
 battle, surging past where he was, left him in the 
 hands of his friends. 
 
 The second in command under Montgomery in the 
 Paint Creek fight was Aaron D. Stevens, then going 
 under the name of Captain Whipple. More will be 
 said of him hereinafter. 
 
1858] SOME OLD SETTLERS. 105 
 
 CHAPTER XV.. 
 
 SOME OLD SETTLERS. 
 
 tMONG the men who settled in this county in the 
 Spring of 1858, was James F. Holt, who went out 
 to where William Holt was located on Turkey 
 Creek. Mr. Holt was born in Tennessee, April 
 15, 1819. He was postmaster at Turkey Creek, 
 and held other important positions and was a well 
 known figure in our county affairs. William Jackman 
 came from Pennsylvania and settled at Rockford. Guy 
 Hinton, A. Wilson and his brother M. Wilson came out 
 from Ohio, and located at Mapleton. Frank M. Smith, 
 from Tennessee, settled near Mapleton. Charles Elliott, 
 from Ohio, was quite a prominent man; he served as 
 County Treasurer one term. D. B. Jackman, Attorney- 
 at-Law, first went to Anderson county, but located "all 
 along the Osage" in 1858. He was prominent in 
 "Squatter Court" afiairs. E. G. Jewell and D. Jewell 
 settled on the Osage. E. G. Jewell, a very promi- 
 nent man, was one of the vice-presidents at the organ- 
 ization of the Republican party at Osawatomie, May 
 18, 1859. H. Hickson, from Ohio, settled on Mill 
 Creek. W. R. Clyburn, from Indiana, settled on Dry- 
 wood. The Custard family, from Pennsylvania, and 
 
106 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1858 
 
 J. B. Caldwell from the same State, settled on Drywood. 
 
 C. H. Haynes and family as noted by the Fort Scott 
 Detnocrat^ arrived in March, 1858. He soon afterwards 
 purchased an interest in the saw-mill, and some time 
 afterwards he and Mr. Jenkins moved the mill to the 
 Marmaton river, northeast of the Plaza. Captain 
 Haynes entered the service at the beginning of the war, 
 as a lieutenant in the 6th Kansas, and in 1862 raised 
 and commanded Co. B, 14th Kansas. He was married 
 to Miss Jennie Hoyle, December 20, 1855. 
 
 John J. Stewart, who has already been mentioned as 
 having come here in January, 1856, had now grown to 
 manhood, and taken a claim on Mill Creek near Cen- 
 terville. He married Miss Elizabeth Harbin in Febru- 
 ary, 1856. During the war he served first in the 6th 
 Kansas, and afterwards raised and commanded Co. C, 
 of Colonel Eaves' battalion, and was all through the 
 Price raid of October, 1864. He has repeatedly repre- 
 sented the Mill Creek District in the Legislature, and 
 has served two terms as County Treasurer. He finally 
 moved to Fort Scott, and was one of the principal 
 founders of the well known State Bank. 
 
 Charles W. Goodlander arrived in Fort Scott on the 
 29th of April, 1858. He came in on the first trip of 
 the stage on the line between Kansas City and Fort 
 Scott, just opened by Squires of Squireville, and which 
 was to try to run tri-weekly thereafter. Goodlander 
 had learned the carpenter trade, and desired to work 
 at that business here; but not finding work just then, 
 he took the job of carrying the mail to Cofachique, 
 which then existed near where Humboldt is now. On 
 
18581 IMPROVEMENTS BEGIN. 10*7 
 
 his trip he found the postmaster at Turkey Creek away 
 from home, and the lady of the house, Mrs. Holt, was 
 washing. She gave him the key and told him to 
 change the mail himself. He did so, and found the 
 mail consisted of one lone copy of the N. Y. Tribune. 
 He got an occasional job at his trade, and would often 
 carry the necessary lumber from the sawmill on his 
 back. After a while he built a shop of his own. He 
 felt then like he was an independent citizen, and 
 dreamed of the time in the far distant future when he 
 would be worth a fortune of ten thousand dollars. 
 That was the objective point which he hoped some day 
 to attain. Like a good number of the men who came 
 to Bourbon County in an early day who are recognized 
 as among the leading citizens in the town and county, 
 he was a poor boy, with only industry, integrity, native 
 will power and good hard sense as the capital with 
 which he commenced life. And like these men also, 
 with whom he has often joined hands in local enter- 
 prises after the hardships of those disjointed times, he 
 soon became a powerful factor in the advancement of 
 the interests of the city and county. 
 
 E. L. Marble and Robert Blackett were already here. 
 George Dimon, Dick Phillips and A. F. Bicking arrived 
 in April, 1858. 
 
 IMPROVEMENTS BEGIN. 
 
 For a good while there was not much business going 
 on in Fort Scott, and the young men found it difficult 
 to get steady work. They did what they could find to 
 do in the way of odd jobs, and when business got too 
 
m HISTOR Y OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1858 
 
 slack and collections slow, they would "accept a posi- 
 tion" on the jury of the United States Court. That 
 was richness. The pay was $2.50 a day in gold. 
 
 All the boys resorted to the jury when it became 
 necessary to make a payment on board and washing, 
 especially board. The washing didn't worry them. 
 The jury was about the only means of raising ready 
 cash. 
 
 The saw mill had been running since the "opening 
 night," sawing up oak logs into flooring and dimension 
 stuff", and large walnut logs that would now be worth 
 $100 each, into siding and fencing. The cottonwood 
 lumber was all corralled or lariated out. 
 
 Building operations now commenced on Market street. 
 W. I. Linn was the first to begin. He built and opened 
 a saloon in the structure afterwards occupied by Linn & 
 Stadden as a grocery store. J. S. Calkins put up a 
 small building further east, and the town company an- 
 other, opposite the head of Scott avenue, and alongside 
 the alley running toward the corral. George J. Clarke 
 and Will Gallaher also erected a small log building on 
 the rear of the lot afterwards occupied by Riggins. 
 Further out. Roach had erected the celebrated "Fort 
 Roach." Ben. McDonald and Albert Campbell built 
 a small house on Williams, street. Market street, 
 then Bigler street, was not opened for some time, owing 
 to Ben Hill's lot fence. His house was on the street, 
 back of the Western Hotel. J. C. Linn commenced, 
 but never completed, a three-story frame on the corner 
 now occupied by the stone block on Wall and Main 
 
1858] RUFFIANS HAVE AN INNING. 109 
 
 streets. Kelly's blacksmith shop stood on the point of 
 the triangle between Wall and Market streets. 
 
 RUFFIANS HAVE AN INNING. 
 
 During the winter and early spring of 1858 there was 
 much friction between Free-State men in Fort Scott 
 and the ultra Pro-slavery party. The latter formed 
 themselves into a secret society called the "Bloody 
 Reds," which extended into the border counties of 
 Missouri. Dr. George P. Hamilton was the head. The 
 Western Hotel, then known better as the "Pro-slavery 
 Hotel,'- was their "official" headquarters, although 
 their favorite meeting place was at the house of Thomas 
 Jackson, in Vernon County, Missouri. The Pro-slavery 
 Hotel — now torn down — was on the opposite corner of 
 the Plaza, directly facing the Free-State Hotel. 
 
 The "Reds" had a special spite against George A. 
 Crawford, Will Gallaher and Charles Diraon, and they 
 decided to commence operations by driving them out of 
 town. On the 27th of April they received the follow- 
 ing note addressed to them : 
 
 'Gentlemen : — You are respectfully invited to leave 
 town in twenty-four hours. 
 
 "Geo. p. Hamilton." 
 
 Crawford sent this verbal answer : "I don't exchange 
 messages with horse-thieves," and the crisis was on. 
 There was no longer room for both factions. One or 
 the other must go. The Free State party, numbering 
 about twenty-five well armed men, decided they would 
 stay, fight all comers and take the chances. Both 
 
no HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1858 
 
 parties assembled at the Free State and Pro-slavery 
 hotels, respectively, and neither ventured out. B. F. 
 Brantley and J. H. Little called on the Free State party 
 and informed them that if the worst came they could 
 count on them. But they felt doubtful about the 
 soldiers, as, it will be remembered, Montgomery had 
 killed one of them only a few days before, but E. A. 
 Smith went into their camp and ascertained that they 
 would at least remain neutral. Nevertheless, Brockett 
 had secured three of them and secreted them in the 
 Western Hotel. But the next day they were arrested 
 and taken to camp under guard. 
 
 This state of affairs continued until the next night, 
 when the "Reds" raised the siege, and the most of them 
 left, never to return, and were not heard of again until 
 the Marais des Cygnes massacre, in which they were 
 the leading actors. 
 
 THE MARAIS DES CYGNES MURDER. 
 
 The Marais des Cygnes massacre occurred on the 
 19th of May, near the Trading Post. A body of 
 twenty-five Border Ruffians, under the leadership of/ 
 Captain Hamilton swooped down on the valley of Mine 
 Creek, in Linn County, and gathering up eleven Free 
 State men took them across the Marais des Cygnes 
 river to a lonely ravine, formed them in line, and 
 repeatedly fired into them, killing five outright and 
 leaving all for dead. 
 
 Ten of these Border Ruffians were well-known in 
 Fort Scott. They were the Hamiltons, W. B. Brockett. 
 
18o8J MARAIS DES CYGNES MURDER. Ill 
 
 Thomas Jackson, Harlan, Yealock, Beach, Griffith and, 
 Matlock. The others were probably here more or less 
 but their names are not certainly known. 
 
 The Marais des Cygnes murder was in some respects 
 the most atrocious that had yet occurred in the Terri- 
 tory. It was a blow from organized extermination. The 
 effect of this murder in the North was very great. It 
 was taken up with more than usual feeling by the press, 
 and the details were read in every Northern household. 
 It was the blazing text of orators and the burning 
 theme of poets. Altogether, it did much to shatter the 
 elements of conservatism in the North, and shape a 
 final crisis. 
 
 The nearest a parallel was the Pottawatomie murders 
 committed by old John Brown and his sons, on the 24th 
 of May, 1856. Brown went to the houses of his victims 
 in the dead of night, and killed them one at a time. 
 The men killed, five in number, were also unwarned 
 and unarmed. It is true they were Pro-slavery men, 
 but — a third of a century has passed away. 
 
 The actors of that time have taken their rightful 
 places in public estimation. As for old John Brown, 
 the prediction of his intimates did not take place that 
 "the gallows would become as glorious as the Cross." 
 
 About the time of the massacre Montgomery was in 
 Johnson County, but arrived that night at the Trading 
 Post, where he found about 200 men assembled. The 
 next morning a pursuit was organized with Sheriff 
 McDaniels, R. B. Mitchell and Montgomery at the 
 head. They left for West Point, a town about twelve 
 miles north, where it was believed Hamilton had taken 
 
112 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1858 
 
 refuge. But they failed to find an}- of the gang, but it 
 is believed some of them were there hidden away by 
 the citizens. Search has kept up and the border 
 guarded for sometime. 
 
 That fall Matlock was captured and taken to Paris, 
 Linn County, for trial, but he escaped. In 1863 Wm. 
 Griffith was arrested in Platte County, Missouri, and 
 taken to Mound City for trial. He plead "not guilty" 
 and set up the Amnest)^ Act as defense, but the jury 
 found him guilty, and Judge S. O. Thatcher of this 
 district sentenced him to death, and he was hanged 
 October 30, 1863. Asa Hairgrove, one of the survivors 
 of the massacre, acted as hangman. 
 
 THE EFFECT ON THE BORDER. 
 
 After the Marais des Cygnes murder the people all 
 along the border were naturally much excited. They 
 felt that this massacre was, in some sense, different and 
 more alarming than any outrage that had yet occurred. 
 They were used to hearing of murders, collisions 
 between two factions, the sacking of towns, and of 
 assassinations, but in these cases they were often 
 the outcome of personal difficulties, or the animus was 
 directed against persons or communities particularly 
 objectionable. In this instance, however, they saw this 
 armed band, sweeping in a semi-circle through the 
 country, picking up one at a time these men who were 
 absolutely inoflfensive and driving them to slaughter. 
 It looked to them like their enemy was organizing for 
 a forlorn hope, a last final struggle, the delivery of the 
 
1858] THE EFFECT ON THE BORDER. 113 
 
 last venomous stroke of expiring energy. They did 
 not know the day they, themselves, might not receive 
 the stroke. Their fears were not altogether groundless. 
 It is now known that this was only the first act of a 
 pre-arranged plan for general murder and destruction. 
 
 The people felt much incensed against Fort Scott. 
 The citizens of the town had, however unwillingly, 
 permitted these Border Ruffians to make it their regular 
 stopping place and silently acquiesced in the establish- 
 ment of their headquarters. The stigma naturally 
 attached itself. 
 
 The Governor, it is thought, realizing that there 
 might be retaliatory measures taken by the Free State 
 people, which must result in innocent bloodshed, had 
 for that reason ordered a Deputy United States Marshal 
 down to arrest Montgomery, or any other probable 
 leader in such movement, and thus nip it in the bud. 
 At any rate. Deputy Marshal Sam Walker was sent 
 down here and arrived at Rayville on the 29th of May, 
 with writs for Montgomery and some others. When he 
 got to Rayville he found a large body of men who were 
 being addressed by Montgomery in favor of proceeding 
 to Fort Scott and executing vengeance on some few 
 still there who were then believed to have been impli- 
 cated with, and known to be in sympathy with the 
 Hamilton crowd. On looking the ground over and 
 feeling the sense of the people, Walker saw that was 
 not the time or place to arrest Montgomery. But he 
 made himself known, and, addressing the meeting, he 
 informed them that if they would get out warrants for 
 the arrest of G. W. Clark and others and furnish him 
 
114 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1858 
 
 with a posse, he would go to Fort Scott and make the 
 arrests. The reply was that Judge Williams would not 
 issue the writs. He told them to get warrants from a 
 justice of the peace then, and, although it might not be 
 strictly legal, he would arrest the parties nevertheless. 
 This proposition was acted upon. He was furnished 
 with the warrants and a posse of forty-four men. 
 Montgomery went along. On Sunday morning, May 
 30th, they entered Fort Scott, found G. W. Clark, and 
 after considerable bluster on his part, arrested him. 
 By this time Clark's friends had assembled in consider- 
 able force, and Montgomery, knowing there were writs 
 out for his arrest, concluded it would be discretion for 
 him to "leak out.'' A demand was now made by 
 Clark's friends that Mongomery be pursued and 
 arrested. Walker, after consulting with Captain Na- 
 thaniel Lyon, who was then stationed here, and then 
 present, decided to do so. He turned his prisoner over 
 to the military, overtook Montgomery and brought him 
 back. After Clark's friends had taken a good look at 
 "Old Jim Montgomery," Walker left with him for 
 Lecompton for trial. But at Ray ville he was overtaken 
 by a courier from Lyon informing him that Clark had 
 been released by Judge Williams. This action dis- 
 gusted and angered Walker, and he immediately turned 
 Montgomery loose. 
 
 At the time Clark was arrested feeling was running 
 very high. It was critical. Had Clark seriously re- 
 sisted arrest, Walker would have killed him, when 
 Walker would in turn have been riddled, and there is 
 no telling where it would have stopped. 
 
1858] AMNESTY. 115 
 
 CHAPTER XVI.- 
 
 AMNESTY. 
 
 Governor j. w. denver, ou the 9th day of 
 
 June, 1858, left Lecompton for a trip down the 
 border, with a view of making a personal effort 
 for the conciliation of the people. He was ac- 
 companied by Charles Robinson, Judge John C. 
 Wright, A. D. Richardson and others. On their 
 road down they visited James Montgomery at his home 
 in Linn county, and he joined their party there. 
 
 They arrived at Fort Scott on the 13th. On the next 
 day, the 14th, a public meeting was held on the Plaza, 
 in front of the Free State Hotel. The people had gen- 
 erally been notified that the Governor would be here 
 for the purpose of trying to arrive at a basis for a treaty, 
 and if possible to conclude terms of peace between the 
 factions, and to agree on an amnesty for all past politi- 
 cal offenses against the law by men of both parties. It 
 seemed like every man in the county was there. The 
 Governor had asked to meet them, and they came, but 
 they, as well as the people of the town, were distrustful 
 and excited. 
 
 Governor Denver made the first speech in a quieting 
 and conciliating tone and manner, which had a good 
 
118 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1858 
 
 effect. He was followed by Judge Wright, of Law- 
 rence, and B. F, Brantley, of Fort Scott, in the same 
 strain. After they got through Gov. E. Ransom took 
 the stand. Ransom was quite an old man. He had been 
 Governor of Michigan, and was a man of more than 
 ordinary intelligence, although narrow-minded and 
 bigoted in his views, and had always been thoroughly 
 Pro-slavery in feeling. He began his speech by a ter- 
 rific denunciation of the Free State people for having 
 brought on the condition of affairs that then existed. 
 He had only fairly started on this tirade when he was 
 interrupted by Judge Wright who stepped in his front, 
 facing him, and denied the statements he was making 
 in a very sharp and emphatic manner. Governor Den- 
 ver, whose attention had been called away for a 
 moment, then sprang in between them, and sharply 
 told them that sort of thing must stop, and speaking 
 to Ransom, he said: "Governor Ransom, you area 
 much older man than I. I did not expect this kind of 
 conduct on your part ; I had a right to expect some- 
 thing different from you. You must stop that kind of 
 talk. You must take your seat and be quiet." And 
 he did take his seat, and kept quiet. 
 
 This account is in Governor Denver's own words. In 
 an address published by the State Historical Society, 
 Governor Denver continues the account of this day's 
 proceedings as follows : 
 
 "To make a long story short, I prevailed upon all 
 the county officers of Bourbon County to resign their 
 offices, and then I told the people, that while I had the 
 right to appoint any man I pleased to fill the vacancies, 
 
1858] AMNESTY. \Vi 
 
 that I desired an expression of their wishes in the 
 matter, and that I wanted them to hold an election 
 right then and there, and that I would receive it as 
 instructions as to whom to appoint to those offices. 
 They asked me how they should do it. I told them to 
 set up their candidates, place them out at one side of 
 the public square, one here and another there, and let 
 their friends form a line on the right and on the left. 
 They placed their candidates out, and I gave the word 
 to march. The people then formed. I then appointed 
 two men to count them. They then counted them and 
 reported to me the number they had found for each can- 
 didate. The first was for Sheriff, I think. Then for 
 the next office we went through the same ceremony, 
 and the election was held in that way. I gave them a 
 certificate of appointment, and as soon as I got back to 
 Lecompton I sent them their commissions." 
 
 This was a critical day in Fort Scott. The men of 
 all parties and shades of politics. Border Ruffian, Jay- 
 hawker, Pro-slavery, ultra radical Abolitionists, Free 
 State Republicans and Free State Democrats were all 
 here together and facing each other. Before the speak- 
 ing they had already began to divide and separate into 
 parties, and at that moment the exchange of hot words or 
 any ofiensive act would have precipitated a bloody battle. 
 
 The officers "elected" that day were as follows: For 
 Sheriff, Thomas R. Roberts; for County Commissioners, 
 or County Supervisors, as they were called, Thomas W. 
 Tallman of Fort Scott, M. E. Hudson of Mapleton, 
 Bryant Bauguess of Drywood, Jacob J. Hartley and 
 Joab Teague of Marmaton. These men were given 
 certificates of election by the Governor, who afterwards 
 sent them their commissions from Lecompton. 
 
Il8 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1858 
 
 At the first meeting of the Board, held soon after, 
 Horatio Knowles was appointed Clerk of the Board, 
 and some townships were organized. 
 
 PROTOCOL OF PEACE. 
 
 After the election the meeting was adjourned to meet 
 at Rayville on the next day. At Rayville Governor 
 Denver addressed the crowd, and after the speech" he 
 proposed the following as a basis for a treaty of peace : 
 
 1. Withdrawal of troops from Fort Scott. 
 
 2. The election of new officers for Bourbon County 
 without reference to party. 
 
 3. Troops to be stationed along the State line to 
 guard against invasion from Missouri. 
 
 4. Suspension of the execution of old writs until 
 their legality be authenticated by the proper tribunal. 
 
 5. Montgomery and his men, and all other bodies of 
 armed men on both sides to abandon the field and disperse. 
 
 After Governor Denver had concluded, Montgomery 
 was called for. Montgomery was recognized as the 
 party of the second part by the treaty making powers; 
 the leading and representative spirit of the aggressive 
 and self-protecting element of the Free State men of 
 Bourbon County. The men at this meeting were not a 
 band of marauders. They were men who lived and in- 
 tended to continue to live in this county, and they had 
 determined to have peace if they had to fight for it. 
 
 There was a hush of intense interest when Mont- 
 gomery took the stand. 
 
 He immediately accepted the terms of the Gov^ernor's 
 proposition. He continued, thanking the Governor for 
 
1858] MONTGOMERY SIZED UP. 119 
 
 the interest he had taken in their affairs, the evident 
 spirit of justice by which he seemed to be actuated ; 
 that peace, so long a stranger to this part of the country, 
 was above all things, what he and the people most 
 desired, and that if the Governor redeemed the pledges 
 that day made, he would retire to his cabin and use his 
 best efforts to prevent any further trouble. 
 
 The moderate Pro-slavery men, and the more 
 conservative men of all parties were satisfied with the 
 amnesty, as they called it, and for several months all 
 seemed to strive to preserve the peace and tranquility 
 which was thus restored. 
 
 MONTGOMERY SIZED UP. 
 
 James Montgomery in the general estimation of the 
 people, is often rated and classed with J. H. Lane, John 
 Brown and C. R. Jennison. He ought not to be so 
 held. He was a different kind of a man. Their lives 
 were in no ways parallel. He was no coward, assassin, 
 crank, fanatic or murderer. 
 
 "He wore no knife to slaughter sleeping men." 
 
 His sincere desire was to see Kansas a free State. 
 He was in spmpathy and co-operation with the men 
 who made Kansas a free State. He was an instrument 
 of the men who were holding at bay that party and 
 that principle which were attempting to force slavery 
 upon Kansas by the most outrageous violation of all 
 personal and political rights. He was of the Free 
 State party who were "holding the fort until the 
 Republican party could arrive." 
 
120 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNT Y. [1858 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 SOME MORE ARRIVALS. 
 
 N the first part of June, 1858, William Smith and 
 wife arrived at Fort Scott with their son William 
 H. and daughter Mary. The elder son, Edward 
 A., was already here. Mr. Smith was born in 
 ; Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1810. He was a printer 
 by trade and worked for some years for Harper 
 Bros, in New York, after his arrival in this country in 
 1830. "Uncle Billy Smith" was a man of strong, 
 sturdy qualities, somewhat "set in his way," but with 
 a large heart and warm sympathies. His wife, "Aunt 
 Jane," was a noble, Christian woman. Mrs. Smith, 
 with Mrs. Alec McDonald, organized the first Presby- 
 terian church in Fort Scott, in the next November after 
 their arrival. 
 
 John F. White came early in June, from Pennsylvania. 
 He was absent from Fort Scott most of the time for two 
 years or more, conducting the general store of George 
 A. Crawford & Co., at the Trading Post. Then he 
 returned and opened a store of his own. He was 
 afterward. County Treasurer for four years. Jack was a 
 noble man. 
 
 Charles F. Drake arrived June 17, 1858, from Mt. 
 
1858] AFTER THE AMNESTY. l2l 
 
 Vernon, Ohio. He came just after the Denver meeting 
 and compromise, having walked into town from the 
 Osage, and arrived here dusty, ragged and hungry. 
 Finding a rather peaceful condition of things just then 
 he decided to remain, and soon after started a small 
 hardware store and tin-shop, the first one in Southern 
 Kansas, Thus he commenced pounding and soldering 
 together the elements of his successful future. He, 
 however, always found time to "be into" and help 
 engineer nearly all the enterprises which have since 
 been inaugurated in Fort Scott. 
 
 Our railroad enterprises have all felt the necessity of 
 having the assistance of C. F. Drake, and most of them 
 his signature also. He placed the Foundry on its feet 
 and held it up for some years. He built the first 
 Cement works, aided in the details by A. H. Bourne, 
 Dr. B. F. Hepler and B. F. Gardner. He helped 
 establish the First National Bank, and later, the Bank 
 of Fort Scott ; he shouldered largely the responsibility 
 in the erection of the Water Works and Sugar works, 
 and has built his share of the fine business houses in 
 the city. 
 
 Mr. Drake is a man of much more than average 
 financial ability, and his life might well be taken as a 
 model by any young business man. 
 
 AFTER THE AMNESTY. 
 
 In the latter part of June, 1858, Capt. Nathaniel 
 Lyon, then in command of the United States troops 
 at Fort Scott, wrote to Governor Denver that: — 
 
122 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1858 
 
 "The agreement made by the people here on the 
 occasion of your late visit has been entered upon in 
 good faith, and to this time fully observed." 
 
 The newly appointed Sherifif, T. R. Roberts, at once 
 commenced active work against the horse-thieves, 
 especially the gang running with our old acquaintance 
 "Rev." J. E. Stewart, who had again returned. This 
 man Stewart and his men had rendezvous on the Osage 
 and on Drywood, and were sheltered and protected 
 quite as often by men claiming to belong to one side as 
 the other. 
 
 A considerable number of horses and other stock 
 stolen by organized bands of theives, were recovered 
 during the summer and returned to their owners by 
 Sheriff Roberts. The Fort Scott Democrat of date of 
 July 8th, has this to say: "Sheriff Roberts has recov- 
 ered nearly all the horses stolen by Rev. J. E. Stewart." 
 
 One day Sheriff Roberts and his posse were out to 
 arrest some men who had been with Stewart the spring- 
 before, and who had now slipped back again. Rube 
 Forbes was one of them, and he was one of the men 
 Roberts wanted. Dave Forbes, a brother of Rube, was 
 along with the posse. When they got up near Maple- 
 ton, they met Rube, or saw him at some little distance 
 in the road. They all knew him at once. Rube knew 
 them also, and fixed himself for a run by throwing 
 away everything loose and tucking his Sharp's rifle 
 down under his leg. Dave, as soon as he saw him, 
 rushed his horse in front of the posse and shouted to 
 Rube to run. Then facing the posse and raising his 
 revolver, he said: "Gentlemen, that man is my 
 
1858] IMPROVEMENTS CONTINUE. 123 
 
 brother; the first man that attempts to shoot him is a 
 dead man." And he held that posse until Rube had 
 time to get away. 
 
 Soon after peace was restored, Geo, A. Crawford 
 made a trip to Washington to effect the removal of Geo. 
 W. Clark, who had been so long in the Land Office. 
 This he succeeded in doing, although Clark was the 
 pet of somebody near the Administration, who immedi- 
 ately secured for him a fat appointment in the U. S. 
 Navy. But this section of country was rid of him for 
 all time. 
 
 G. W. Clark was at heart a bad man. His methods 
 were sneaking and underhanded. He held his office 
 under false pretenses and under a false name, the rec- 
 ords of the Land office bearing his name as Doak. He 
 planned and instigated more devilment among his class 
 of rabid Pro-slavery men than any other man on the 
 border. He was not in the Marais des Cygnes murder, 
 but he was in the secret council that planned it in the 
 "dark recesses" of the Western Hotel. Had he and 
 his friends then in Fort Scott ever obtained what they 
 thought to be a sufficient advantage, their first stroke 
 would have fallen on Crawford, Gallaher, Dimon, Mc- 
 Donald, Campbell, Tallman and others, instead of the 
 wholly unprotected and unwary men who formed that 
 fated line on the banks of the Marais des Cygnes. 
 
 IMPROVEMENTS CONTINUE. 
 
 During the summer the work of improvement went 
 on satisfactorily. Hill & Riggins and Wilson, Gordon 
 
124 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1858 
 
 & Ray erected their new stores on Market street and 
 occupied them. The Demoa-at had moved to the sec- 
 ond floor of the Town Company's building; the Com- 
 pany occupied the front room, and the post-office the 
 back room of the lower floor. Two Swedes erected the 
 great barn-like building at the Southeast corner of the 
 Plaza, one of them — the big one — packing most of the 
 lumber from the mill on his shoulders, and C. F, Drake 
 occupied the east room for his stove and tin store. 
 William Smith erected a dwelling at the corner of Scott 
 avenue and Locust street. Charley Goodlander put up 
 his shop on the east side of Scott avenue. 
 
 EXIT I.ECOMPTON CONSTITUTION. 
 
 Governor Denver had designated the 2nd of August, 
 1858,1 as the day for the election on the Lecompton 
 Constitution, as submitted by the provisions of the 
 English Bill. , 
 
 The election took place on that day, with the follow- 
 ing result in Bourbon County : 
 
 Against. For. 
 
 Rayville, 53 . 
 
 Sprattsville, 18 . 
 
 Mapleton, 84 . 
 
 Marmaton, 41 . 
 
 Osage, 30 . 
 
 Mill Creek, 26 . 
 
 Drywood, 50 ... 13 
 
 Fort Scott, 81 ... 19 
 
 Total, 383 . 
 
 Zl 
 
1858] EXIT LECOMPTON CONSTITUTION. 125 
 
 The total vote in the Territory was : 
 
 Against the Constitution, 11,300 
 
 For the Constitution, 1,788 
 
 Majority against, 9>5i2 
 
 And that was the last of the Lecompton Constitution. 
 It was born in iniquity and shame; left in all its squalor 
 on the steps of the White House; there reclothed, a 
 bribe for its adoption hanged around its neck and then 
 returned to the place of its nativity, only to be spurned 
 into a timely grave. 
 
 Thus perished the last hope of the incipient Confed- 
 eracy that they could ever add Kansas to their territory. 
 They gave up the fight. The struggle was over. Kansas 
 was free. 
 
126 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1858 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 AMNESTY BROKEN. 
 
 SrPHE regular election for member of the Territorial 
 b^ Legislature was held on October 4, 1858. Bourbon 
 
 County was in the 12th District. Thomas R. 
 
 Roberts was elected the member for this county. 
 
 On the loth of October Governor Denver resigned, 
 
 and Hugh S. Walsh became Acting Governor until 
 the appointment of Samuel Medary, of Ohio, Governor 
 Medary arrived at Lecompton on December ijtli and 
 assumed the office of Governor. 
 
 The truce agreed to in June had been generally ob- 
 served and nothing objectionable to any party occurred 
 until in November, when stealing commenced again. 
 The houses of Poyner and Lemons, two farmers living 
 north of Fort Scott, were robbed, and many other dep- 
 radations were committed. It is not known who com- 
 mitted all these robberies, but they were generally laid 
 onto "Montgomery's men." Some of the robberies 
 were probably committed by men who had, at some 
 time or other, been with Montgomery. There was no 
 "politics" in it more than there would be now days in 
 any plain case of stealing, nor had it anything what- 
 
1858] AMNESTY BROKEN. 127 
 
 ever to do with the amnesty agreement further than a 
 tendency to "stir things up." 
 
 About the 17th of November, 1858, a man named 
 Ben Rice, who had figured more or less as a Jayhawker 
 was arrested on old indictments for crimes committed 
 before the amnesty. It was said one indictment was 
 for the murder of old man Travis who had been killed 
 on the Osage nearly a year before. The arrest of Rice, 
 although it was made by a Free State ojfficer, on an 
 indictment found by a grand jury, partly, at least, 
 of Free State men, was regarded by many as a deliberate 
 rupture of the treaty of peace and amnesty, which 
 would be followed by the indictment and arrest of all 
 who had been active in the border difficulties, and that 
 the revival or resumption of the execution of old writs 
 for past offenses of a political nature would fall only on 
 men of the Free State party, as most of the men of the 
 Pro-slavery party who were liable under the law for 
 crimes and misdemeanors had been driven out or had 
 voluntarily left the Territory. 
 
 Montgomery also regarded the arrest of Rice on such 
 an indictment as a violation of the agreement with the 
 Governor of June 15th. He argued that all offenses 
 committed prior to that date should be "amnested." 
 The other side claimed that the agreement was, substan- 
 tially, that for past offences no arrests should be made 
 except on duly authenticated indictments by grand 
 juries. Such in fact was the real spirit and intent of 
 the Denver agreement. 
 
 Then followed a couple of weeks of uneasiness and 
 growing dissatisfaction, when a meeting was called at 
 
128 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1858 
 
 Rayville to endeavor to quiet things down again. W. 
 R. Griffith was j)resident, J. C. Burnett and Rev. M. 
 Brockman, vice-presidents, and J. E. Jones, secretary. 
 Montgomery, in a speech interpreted the June agree- 
 ment, claiming that amnesty was of the essence of that 
 treaty, etc. A motion that offenses committed prior to 
 June 15th be referred to grand juries of the proper 
 counties was lost. On the other hand, a motion to 
 forcibly release Rice was also lost. There was some 
 further discussion, but it was impossible to agree on 
 any line of action, and Montgomery determined on the 
 release of Rice. 
 
 RELEASE OF RICE — DEATH OF UTTLE. 
 
 On the night of the 15th of December, 1858, a party 
 with the purpose of releasing Ben Rice from custody 
 assembled at the house of old man Wimsett, about three 
 miles west of Fort Scott on the Marmaton river. The 
 leaders present were old John Brown, Montgomery and 
 Jennison. These men had with them their lieutenants 
 and particular followers which they had brought down 
 with them from Linn County, of about fifteen men each. 
 On the Osage they were joined by some twenty more 
 and five or six were added to their force on the way 
 down through the county, making the aggregate 
 number at Wimsett's sixty-eightor seventy men. They 
 also brought down a small cannon, then owned by the 
 Mound City people — now in possession of the State 
 Historical Society — which they called "Betsy." Alec 
 Howard, of Osage, hauled Betsy down in a two-horse 
 wagon. 
 
1858J DEATH OF LITTLE. 129 
 
 A general council was then held by the prominent 
 men to arrange details. The question of who should 
 command the expedition came up. Brown wanted to 
 lead. He claimed he was the oldest man and oldest in 
 the border war and should have command. He defined 
 his plan of campaign as the absolute destruction of the 
 town and the killing of all who resisted. Hazlett, 
 Whipple, Kagi and some few others supported Brown. 
 Montgomery claimed that he should lead; that the 
 people of the Osage country, in both counties looked to 
 him and relied on him, and he knew their wishes; that 
 he had been their representative in the Denver agree- 
 ment, and in all the public meetings at Rayville and 
 other points; that the sole and only object of the expe- 
 dition was the release of Rice, and that not a single 
 house should be burned or a man killed, and finally, in 
 the most arbitrary manner he declared that he was and 
 would continue in command. Jennison had nothing to 
 say. He was there to go in with anybody and run his 
 chances. He afterwards, in a published "sketch of his 
 life" claimed that he was the leader, but his leadership 
 began after the store was broken open and the goods in 
 sight. The party then started for Fort Scott, crossing 
 the Marmaton at the California ford. Brown remained 
 at Wimsett's. The affair had assumed too insignificant 
 proportions for the great "Liberator" to fool with, 
 especially if he couldn't boss the job. 
 
 After their arrival at the edge of town, at the house of 
 J. N. Roach, called "Fort Roach" by the boys, which 
 was a log house near the present corner of National 
 avenue and First street, they halted and there formed 
 
130 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1858 
 
 into three squads of twenty men each. It was now 
 just daylight, between six and seven o'clock. On 
 reaching the Free State Hotel, where they had previ- 
 ously ascertained Rice was kept, the first division 
 passed quietly by the right to the rear of the house, 
 the second squad to the left, and the third mounted the 
 big flight of stairs in front and passed on up to the 
 third story, where they found Rice and quickly released 
 him. While this was going on a tragedy was being 
 enacted in the building just across the alley from the 
 hotel. This building, still standing, was built by the 
 Government for quartermaster's stores. It is a long, one- 
 story frame house, and was at this time occupied by 
 Little & Son as a general store. A partition had been 
 run through lengthwise, and the part next to the hotel 
 was the storeroom, and the other part was occupied by 
 the Little family. The store had a front entrance and 
 also a side door. John Little and George A. Crawford, 
 for that night, were sleeping in the store. The noise 
 made by the rescuing party aroused their attention. 
 Just then they heard some one cry "Jayhawkers ! " 
 Then Little grabbed his gun, opened the front door a 
 few inches and, seeing an armed mob, fired on them, 
 lodging a load of duck-shot in the heavy overcoat worn 
 by Hazlett. Kagi, standing near Hazlett, instantly 
 fired at the door, putting a ball through it just above 
 Little's head. Little then locked the front door and 
 went to the side door, placed a goods box against 
 it and mounted it in order to see through the transom 
 what was going on. The glass in the window was 
 dusty and he took his white handkerchief and was 
 
1858] • DEATH OF LITTLE. 131 
 
 cleaning a spot so he could see out better, when Capt. 
 Whipple, standing about at the corner of the hotel, 
 seeing the handkerchief moving, fired at it with his 
 Sharp's rifle. The bullet struck Little in the forehead, 
 and he dropped to the floor and expired in a few 
 minutes. Then the uproar commenced. The Jay- 
 hawkers thought there were armed men in the store. 
 The cannon was brought up to bear on the house. 
 Some one shouted that there were women and children 
 in the house. Then the doors were all opened or 
 broken down, front and rear. They found no one in 
 the front part of the store but Mr. Crawford and the 
 dying Little. They assisted Mr. Crawford in carrying 
 Mr. Little around to the part of the house in which the 
 family lived. 
 
 In the meantime several citizens had made their 
 appearance, and as fast as they did so they were arrested. 
 Colonel and Mrs. Wilson, in the next house to the hotel, 
 came out on the porch and were ordered down on the 
 sidewalk among the other prisoners. Alec McDonald, 
 living in the next house to Colonel Wilson's, came out. 
 Jennison, standing on the sidewalk in front of Wilson's, 
 ordered him to surrender and come down there. Mc- 
 Donald declined the invitation and darted inside the 
 door just as Jennison let go at him with his rifle. The 
 ball is in the door now. 
 
 Montgomery, seeing Mrs. Wilson, thought he saw in 
 her face a resemblance to Dr. Hogan, who had once 
 befriended him when they all lived in Missouri. On 
 ascertaining that Dr. Hogan was her brother, he at 
 once released her and the Colonel and promised that 
 
132 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1858 
 
 their store should not be disturbed, but "requested" 
 that the Colonel furnish some of his men with break- 
 fast. The Colonel ordered breakfast at the Western 
 Hotel for thirty, but the men did not stay to eat it. 
 
 The jayhawkers on breaking open Little's store, seeing 
 the dry goods, boots, saddles, etc., began to help them- 
 selves. Jennison was in there. He took one of the 
 new saddles, turned it over on the floor and piled dry 
 goods and things on it, then buckled the surcingle over 
 them, poked his gun through the bundle, shouldered it 
 and walked off. He looked liked the cuts in newspapers 
 and hand-bills of those days advertising slaves. 
 
 C. F. Drake, Crawford and others went to Montgom- 
 ery and tried to have him stop the stealing. He did 
 try to, but the fellows had got a taste and he could not 
 control them. He did, however, succeed, like in time 
 of a big fire, in "confining it to one block." 
 
 Little made a fatal mistake in firing the first shot into 
 the mob. While it cannot be stated without question 
 that if there had been no resistance or show of arms 
 there would have been no bloodshed or firing on un- 
 armed citizens by the rescuing party, it is altogether 
 probable that such would have been the case. There 
 was a bad element along, headed by Jennison, who only 
 awaited an excuse like being first fired on to shoot at 
 any body they saw, or commit any depredation. 
 
 George Stockmyer, Mr. Tabor and Mr. Johnson, 
 living in the neighborhood of Dayton, learned of the 
 proposed attempt to release Rice the day before, and 
 with a view of preventing probable trouble, started 
 that night for Fort Scott with the intention of inform- 
 
1858] DEA TH OF LITTLE. 133 
 
 ing the proper officers and getting them to release Rice 
 in advance of the mob. But they were prevented for 
 some reason, and did not get in until too late. 
 
 The tragic death of John H. Little was much regret- 
 ted by all who knew him, not only in town, but 
 throughout the country where he was well acquainted. 
 Every body knew "Little & Son," and Little's Store. 
 He was a man of strong Pro-slavery prejudices, but of 
 late he had nothing to do with politics, but was attend- 
 ing strictly to the business aflfairs of the store. 
 
 The right name of the man who shot Little was 
 Aaron D. Stevens, who was then going under the 
 assumed name of ' 'Capt. Whipple. ' ' He had a singular 
 history. At the age of fifteen he went into the Mexi- 
 can war and, young as he was, he distinguished him- 
 self for undaunted courage. After the war his command 
 started home across the plains. One day an officer was 
 grossly abusing a private soldier. Whipple witnessed 
 it as long as he could stand it and then turned in and 
 whaled the officer nearly to death. For that Whipple 
 was sent to Leavenworth, tried, and sentenced to be 
 shot. But he escaped. In January, 1856, he turned 
 up at Topeka, got in with the boys, and was made 
 Captain. Later he joined John Brov/n and died with 
 him for the Harper's Ferry business, as did also the 
 men called Kajji and Hazlett. 
 
134 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1859 
 
 CHAPTER XIX.- 
 
 MILITIA ORGANIZED, 
 
 ■grPHE incidents which had occurred during the last 
 ^§ of December renewed the excitement throughout 
 the county. The citizens of Fort Scott and the 
 neighborhood made application to Governor 
 Medary for troops. The Governor having no 
 troops to send advi.^ed the organization of home 
 militia to act with the Marshal in enforcing the law. 
 They acted on his suggestion and the organization of 
 militia companies was begun about the first of the 
 year. John Hamilton, the old sergeant of the regular 
 army, who was here when the post was established in 
 1842, was captain of the first company, and C. F. 
 Drake lieutenant. Another company was organized by 
 Alex. McDonald, W. T. Campbell, A. R. Allison and 
 W. C. Denison. Two or three other companies were 
 started; they had plenty of men for officers, but they 
 ran out of men for privates. They finally concluded 
 that, as the weather was pretty cold anyway, they 
 would let old John Hamilton run the military depart- 
 ment. Being an old soldier he immediately brought 
 matters into military shape, with roll-call, guard 
 mounting, drill, etc. Their arms were all private 
 property and were of as heterogeneous a character as 
 
1859] MILITIA ORGANIZED. 135 
 
 could well be imagined — flint-lock muskets, rifles of 
 every imaginable pattern, shot-guns, carbines and pistols. 
 
 On application of Governor Medary a quantity of 
 smooth-bore muskets were sent to the end of the Pacific 
 railroad, whence, during the month of January, 1859, 
 they were escorted to Paris by a company from Linn 
 County. On the trip. Captain Weaver, in charge of 
 the party, in drawing a loaded gun from a wagon, was 
 accidentally shot and killed. 
 
 The greater part of the month of January was spent 
 in drilling. The force was divided into three com- 
 panies under Captains Hamilton, McDonald and 
 Campbell. J. E. Jones, A. McDonald and W. T. 
 Campbell were appointed Deputy U. S. Marshals. The 
 men were all regularly mustered and sworn in. 
 
 Sunday morning, January 30, 1859, a company of 
 fifty men started for Paris after the new arms. The 
 trip occupied four days and on their return preparations 
 were at once made to go in pursuit of the Jayhawkers. 
 The entire mounted force marched at midnight on the 
 4th of February. Hamilton's company reached the 
 Ivittle Osage, near the present Fort Lincoln, at daybreak. 
 
 For three days they scoured the Little Osage country 
 clear to its head, riding almost continuously, and 
 returned to Fort Scott at midnight of the 7th with 
 about a dozen prisoners, completely worn out. 
 
 After a few days' rest they proceeded with their 
 prisoners to Lawrence, where they were to be tried. 
 
 The difficulties in Southeastern Kansas early engaged 
 the attention of the Legislature, to whom the Governor 
 had presented his version of the matter. To remedy 
 
136 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1859 
 
 the evils in this part of the Territory the jurisdiction 
 of Douglas county was extended over the infected dis- 
 trict, and all persons were ordered to be brought to 
 Lawrence for trial, away from the scene of strife. That 
 is the reason these prisoners are being taken there. 
 
 LAWRENCE AND FORT SCOTT GET ACQUAINTED, 
 
 Continuing their journey they camped at Black Jack 
 on the night of the 14th. Next morning, at the Waka- 
 rusa. Marshal Campbell met them with the news of the 
 passage of the "Amnesty Act," and the captives were 
 turned loose. The wagons and most of the men at 
 once set out on their return to Fort Scott. Some, 
 desirous of visiting Lawrence, since they were so near, 
 and with no suspicion of the reception they would 
 receive, rode on. As they quietly pursued their way 
 up Massachusetts street, and had almost reached the 
 Eldridge House, the cry was raised in the crowd that 
 Hamilton, their Captain, was the Hamilton of Marais 
 des Cygnes fame. In a moment they were beset by a 
 fierce mob numbering several hundred. Resistance was 
 useless. Putting spurs to their horses they dashed for 
 the prairie. But the mob was ahead of them. As they 
 galloped down New Hampshire street they received a 
 perfect avalanche of bullets, brick-bats, rocks, mud and 
 sticks. In a short time they were completely hemmed in, 
 and then there was nothing for it but to surrender. But 
 everything was explained after awhile and they were 
 treated with the greatest consideration during the 
 remainder of their stay in that city. 
 
1859] COUNTY SEAT MOVED. ' 137 
 
 One good result of this affair was that Lawrence and 
 Fort Scott became better acquainted, and the bad im- 
 pressions and prejudices of both towns which had 
 existed against each other were, to a great extent, re- 
 moved. Fort Scott's opinion of Lawrence was that it 
 consisted principally of jayhawkers and thieves, and 
 Lawrence was entirely certain that Fort Scott contained 
 nothing but Border Ruffians, with Doc Hamilton as 
 Mayor and Brockett as Police Judge. When they 
 found that the Fort Scott people were, like the best 
 men of their own town, only interested in the peace 
 and prosperity of Kansas, they felt most kindly towards 
 them, and from that day both communities drew a 
 clearer line between "jayhawkers" and good citizens. 
 
 The ' 'Amnesty Act' ' mentioned was passed by the Leg- 
 islature only a short time before, and was to this effect : 
 
 Sec I. That no criminal offenses heretofore com- 
 mitted in the counties of Lykins, Linn, Bourbon, Mc- 
 Gee, Allen and Anderson, growing out of any political 
 difference of opinion, shall be subject to any prosecu- 
 tion on complaint or indictment in any court whatsoever 
 in this Territory. 
 
 "Sec. 2. That all actions now commenced growingout 
 of political differences of opinion, shall be dismissed." 
 
 This act, taking effect immediately after its passage, 
 pardoned and liberated all political prisoners then in 
 custody within the designated limits. 
 
 COUNTY SEAT MOVED. 
 
 In the winter of 1859 the county seat was moved from 
 
138 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1859 
 
 Fort Scott to Marmaton City. There was a combina- 
 tion of circumstances which eflfected this removal. 
 There was a feeling that the records and other propert}' 
 of the county would be more secure away from Fort 
 Scott. There was also considerable feeling of animosity 
 against that town, as the result of old prejudices, and it 
 is probable, also, that a scheme for a real estate specu- 
 lation, headed by T. R. Roberts, the Representative in 
 the Legislature, had something to do with it. At any 
 rate the records were moved, and the first meeting of 
 the County Board was held on the 25th day of February, 
 1859. At this meeting the townships of Freedom, 
 Franklin and Marmaton were organized. 
 
 The people of Fort Scott sat still and saw the records 
 and offices moved away without much protest, as they, 
 even then, relied on their "natural advantages" for the 
 future of their town. But C. F. Drake and a few others 
 realized the necessity for having the County Seat at Fort 
 Scott, if it was in future to be the principal town in the 
 county, and they went to work to recover it, as will be 
 seen hereafter. 
 
 PREPARING FOR ANOTHER CONSTITUTION. 
 
 On the 7th of March, 1859, Governor Medary issued 
 a proclamation calling an election for or against holding 
 a Constitutional Convention, in order to ascertain 
 whether or not the people wished a State government. 
 
 This election was held on the 28th of March, 1859. 
 It was the first step under the movement for the Wyan- 
 dotte Constitution. 
 
1859] AN ALL-AROUND GOOD YEAR. 139 
 
 Bourbon County voted as follows : 
 
 For a Constitutional Convention 333 
 
 Against a Constitutional Convention 47 
 
 Majority for 286 
 
 The total vote in the Territory was : 
 
 For a Constitutional Convention 5i3o6 
 
 Against i)425 
 
 Majority for 3, 881 
 
 This was a very light vote. There was but little 
 division of public sentiment on the question, and no 
 contest at the polls. Everybody was in favor of a State 
 government, except a few bad smelling politicians, old 
 time Jayhawkers and Border Ruffians, whose "political 
 principles" had degenerated into the sole desire to see 
 the country kept embroiled and the field kept open for 
 plundering, thieving and guerrilla warfare. 
 
 AN ALL-AROUND GOOD YEAR. 
 
 The spring of 1859 opened and continued fairly sea- 
 sonable, except there was a little too much rain. 
 Even up to June the rivers and streams, from the 
 Marais des Cygnes down, were often past fording, and 
 sometimes out of their banks. But, nevertheless, the 
 prospect for growing crops was good, and there had been 
 much more planting than ever before. 
 
 Emigrants were coming into the Territory in large 
 numbers, although that year the "Pike's Peak" excite- 
 ment was at its height, which diverted much the larger 
 
140 HISTOR Y OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1859 
 
 stream of emigration to the gold fields of the Rocky 
 Mountains. 
 
 Bourbon County, however, in spite of the troubles, 
 trials and vexations she had passed through, in spite of 
 the marauding of irresponsible men, which had cast an 
 odium on her good name, and in spite of the heretofore 
 almost lawless condition of society, was, nevertheless, 
 receiving a fair share of good farmers and good men. 
 The valleys of the Osage, Marmaton and Drywood were 
 filling up, and the high open prairie was being intruded 
 upon by the cabin and corral. Towns were springing 
 up, — Dayton, Xenia, Uniontown, Rockford, Cato, — all 
 with at least a store, and a post office. 
 
 The names of all who settled in the county that year 
 should be recorded here, but it is impossible. They 
 came in too thick. 
 
 Fort Scott received a good increase in population 
 during 1859, also. Among the many coming in that 
 year was C. W. Blair. 
 
 Charles W. Blair located in Fort Scott in the spring 
 of 1859. He was born in Georgetown, Ohio, February 
 5, 1829. -^^ studied law when a youth and at the age 
 of twenty-one was Prosecuting Attorney for his county. 
 December 25, 1858, he was married to Miss Katherine 
 Medary, daughter of Hon. Samuel Medary, who was 
 soon afterwards appointed Governor of Kansas Territory. 
 He was accompanied to Fort Scott by his old law 
 tutor, Hon. Andrew Ellison, and they entered imme- 
 diately upon the practice of law, which has been the 
 occupation of his life except the interim during the 
 late war. Blair was always a Free State Democrat, 
 
1859] AN ALL-AROUND GOOD YEAR. 141 
 
 and after Siimpter was fired on he was a War Democrat 
 in the full sense of the term. He began his war 
 service by raising the first company of soldiers organ- 
 ized in Fort Scott. Afterwards, he passed through the 
 several grades of Major, Lieutenant-Colonel and Colonel, 
 and in the latter part of the war was promoted Brigadier 
 General, at the special request of U. S. Grant. His 
 star was, in part, gained on the bloody ridge of Wilson 
 Creek, when, after the incompetent "political General" 
 Sigel was crushed and his guns taken, and he discovered 
 he was fighting Americans, the rebel host turned in 
 full force on the main line — when, after the noble 
 Mitchell and Deitzler, of the First and Second Kansas, 
 had fallen badly wounded, Lieutenant-Colonel Blair 
 took command of both those stunned and shattered 
 regiments, rallied them into line on the right of the 
 Iowa men and advanced to the ringing call of Lyon : 
 "Come on, brave men, I will lead you." 
 
U2 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1859 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 DELEGATES TO THE WYANDOTTE CONVENTION. 
 
 o'TPHE election of delegates to the Wyandotte Con- 
 ^§ stitutional Convention occurred on the 4th of June. 
 The candidates for delegates from Bourbon County 
 were J. C. Burnett and W. R. Griffith, Republicans, 
 \ and Ezra Gilbert and Hugh Glen, Democrats. The 
 ' election resulted as follows : 
 
 J. C. Burnett, 281 
 
 W. R. Griffith, 294 
 
 Ezra Gilbert, 229 
 
 Hugh Glen, 229 
 
 In the Territory 14,000 votes were cast. The Repub- 
 licans elected 35 and the Democrats 17 delegates. The 
 Convention was to meet at Wyandotte on the 5th of 
 July, 1859. 
 
 Affairs in Bourbon County were now quiet. Peace 
 had apparently come to stay. As the 4th of July ap- 
 proached the people decided to celebrate in the good 
 old-fashioned way. Meetings were held, committees 
 appointed and all the preliminary arrangements made. 
 They proposed to invite everybody to come and partic- 
 ipate, and give them a good dinner. The preparations 
 were on an enormous scale. There were loads of cooked 
 
1859] WYANDOTTE CONVENTION. 143 
 
 beef, pork and mutton, mountains of bread; immense 
 quantities of cake and pie, prepared by the ladies. A 
 four-horse wagon load of ice was brought from the 
 Marais des Cygnes at a cost of lo cents per pound, for 
 manufacture of lemonade. The ground selected was 
 in the bottom, just west of the point of the bluff back 
 of town, near the big spring. Governor Ransom was 
 President of the Day; Hon. Jos. Williams, Colonel 
 Judson, Judge Farwell, M. E. Hudson, Thomas Helm, 
 W. T. Campbell and Colonel Morin, Vice-presidents; 
 Rev. Mr. Thompson, Chaplain; Mason Williams, Reader; 
 Iv. A. McCord, Orator. 
 
 The crowd was immense; the usual proceedings were 
 had; all were filled, some of them apparently for a 
 month ahead. 
 
 A GRAND BALIv. 
 
 In the evening there was a "grand ball" at the Fort 
 Scott Hotel. Again Joe Ray "called," assisted by C. 
 W. Goodlander. The boys were supplied with "invi- 
 tations" printed on small sheets of note paper, with 
 display type and gold-tinted letters, gotten up in the 
 very best style of the job office. 
 
 The boys would take these "ball tickets," fill in the 
 name of their "first choice," and in the event that she 
 was already engaged or couldn' t go, would fill out another 
 invitation and send to some other girl. Keep trying. 
 
 The colored people had a ball that same night, just 
 in the rear of the hotel. They didn't have to go to the 
 expense of music or the trouble of "calling." They 
 just waited till the white folks started up, and then 
 went at it with a whoop. 
 
144 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1859 
 
 THK FORT SCOTT "DEMOCRAT" REVIVED. 
 
 Sometime before this, J. E. Jones had suspended the 
 publication of the Democrat^ and left town. The Town 
 Company, who owned the material, was desirous that 
 the paper should be revived, so negotiations with that 
 end in view, were opened with William Smith and his 
 son, E. A. Smith, who decided to give it a trial. The 
 first number under their management was issued on the 
 14th of July, 1859, ^^^^ th^y continued its publication 
 regularly until the summer of 1861, some time after the 
 breaking out of the war, when E. A. Smith left the 
 editorial chair and went into the army. 
 
 In 1882 he published in one of the city papers a 
 considerable amount of excerpts from the Democrat^ 
 something in the diary form, which he said "was not 
 designed as a connected narative or history, but rather 
 as data which may aid some one else in such a work." 
 These data were principally in reference to events which 
 occurred in Fort Scott, and were of great assistance in the 
 preparation of this work, especially in the matter of dates. 
 
 The advertising columns of the first number of the 
 Democrat show at that time a very respectable business 
 community. Of lawyers there were Ellison & Blair, 
 William Margrave, S. A. Williams, John C. Sims, C. 
 P. Bullock, Richard Stadden, Williams & Bro. (Mason 
 and Wm. M.,) James J. Farley, George A. Crawford, and 
 L. A. McCord ; there were doctors J. H. Couch, A. M. 
 H. Bills, and A. G. Osbun. E. A. Smith was County 
 Surveyor. General merchandise was represented by H. 
 T. Wilson, Hill & Riggins, George A. Crawford & Co. 
 
1859] WYANDOTTE CONSTITUTION. 145 
 
 John S. Caulkins was in the clothing, Malone in the 
 grocery, and C. F. Drake in the stove and tinware busi- 
 ness. Then there were Robert Blackett and Daniel 
 Funk, tailors ; C. W. Goodlander and Dennison & 
 Waterhouse, carpenters ; John G. Stuart, carriage and 
 wagon maker ; E. L. Marble, boot and shoemaker ; Tom 
 Huston, saddle and harnessmaker ; Fort Scott Hotel, B. 
 B. Dillon, prop. ; Western Hotel, Linn & Harris, props. ; 
 Harry Hartman, bakery and ice cream saloon. 
 
 WYANDOTTE CONSTITUTION. 
 
 The Wyandotte convention completed their labors on 
 the 4th day of October, 1859. 
 
 The vote in the Territory was as follows : 
 
 For the Constitution 10,421 
 
 Against 5,530 
 
 The vote in Bourbon County was : 
 
 For the Constitution 464 
 
 Against 256 
 
 This was the Constitution under which the Terri- 
 tory was finally admitted into the Union as a State. 
 
 On the 8th of November an election was held for 
 delegate to Congress, and for Territorial Legislature. 
 
 In Bourbon County the vote was as follows : For 
 Delegate, M. J. Parrott, Republican, 368; S. W. John- 
 son, Democrat, 251. For Representative, H. Knowles, 
 Republican, 359; G. Hubbard, Democrat, 259. 
 
 On the 6th day of December an election was had 
 under the Wyandotte Constitution for State officers, 
 
 10 
 
146 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1859 
 
 Representative in Congress and State Legislature, to 
 take effect when the Territory should be admitted as a 
 State. Charles Robinson was the Republican and 
 Samuel Medary the Democratic candidate for Governor, 
 Martin F. Conway, Republican, and J. A. Halderman, 
 Democrat, for Congress; W. R. Griffith of Bourbon 
 County was the Republican candidate for Superintend- 
 ent of Public Instruction, The entire Republican 
 State ticket was elected by about 7,900, against 5,400. 
 The vote in Bourbon County on Governor — and about 
 the same on the other officers — was: Robinson, 275; 
 Medary, 149. J. C. Burnett, Republican, was elected 
 for State Senator by 270, against Geo. A. Crawford, 
 Democrat, 141. Horatio Knowles was elected Repre- 
 sentative by the same vote. 
 
 A District Judge was also elected December 6th, 
 under the Wyandotte Constitution, Bourbon County 
 was to be in the Fourth District with Allen, Anderson, 
 Douglas, Franklin, Johnson, Linn and Lykins, (after- 
 wards Miami), Solon O. Thatcher, Republican, and 
 James Christian, Democrat, were the candidates. The 
 vote in this county was substantially the same as 
 for Governor, and Solon O, Thatcher became our first 
 District Judge, 
 
 Judge Thatcher served until 1864 when he resigned, 
 and Hon, D, P. Lowe, then of Linn County, was 
 appointed to fill the vacancy, 
 
 Epaphroditus Ransom died at his residence in Fort 
 Scott, Nov. nth. B, B, Dillon died on the i6th. 
 
 Mr, Rankin organized a Presbyterian church in Fort 
 Scott, It was composed of John S. Caulkins, Mrs. A. 
 McDonald and Mrs, Wm. Smith. 
 
NlCAK HaMU'.KA UN THK ?iIAKMATON. 
 
 Residence, near Maruiaton, of W. R. Griffith, iMrst vState Supt. 
 of Public Instruction. iS6i. 
 
1860] LEGISLATURE MEETS. 147 
 
 I 
 
 CHAPTER XXL. . 
 
 LEGISLATURE MEETS. 
 
 "sCPHE Territorial Legislature met at Lecompton on 
 ^^ the 2d of January, i860, but soon after adjourned 
 to Lawrence. The town of Dayton was incorpo- 
 rated by an act of this Legislature, approved 
 February 18, i860. The Dayton Town Company 
 consisted of George Stockmyer, D. J. Patterson, 
 
 E. Kepley, George A. Crawford, O. Darling, C. E. 
 
 Cranston, J. S. Dejernett and Amos Stewart. 
 
 FORT SCOTT TOWN COMPANY INCORPORATED. 
 
 On the 27th of February, i860, the Legislature passed 
 an act incorporating the Fort Scott Town Company. 
 The company had been in existence since January, 
 1857, but had not up to this time been incorporated by 
 law. Geo. A. Crawford, W. R. Judson, Joseph Wil- 
 liams, E. S. Lowman, H. T. Wilson and Norman Eddy 
 were named in the act of incorporation. 
 
 FORT SCOTT INCORPORATED AS A CITY. 
 
 On this same date — February 27, i860 — an act was 
 passed with the following title : 
 
148 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1860 
 
 "An act to amend an act to incorporate the town of 
 Fort Scott." Section First provided: 
 
 "That all that district of land described as follows, 
 to-wit : — The southwest quarter, the west half of the 
 southeast quarter, the southwest quarter of the 
 northeast quarter and the southeast quarter of 
 the northwest quarter of Section Thirty, Township 
 Twenty-five, of Range Twenty-five, be and hereby 
 is declared to be a city by the name and style of the 
 City of Fort Scott." 
 
 The act also provided that the first election should 
 take place on the second Monday of March, i860. A. R. 
 Allison, S. A. Williams and C. F. Drake were named 
 inspectors of said election. 
 
 FIRST CITY ELECTION — COUNTY ELECTION. 
 
 The city election took place according to law, and 
 resulted in the choice of the following ofiicers : Mayor, 
 W. R. Judson; Councilmen, H. T. Wilson, C. W. Blair, 
 John S. Redfield and George A. Crawford; Clerk, Wm. 
 Gallaher ; Recorder, Wm. Margrave ; Marshal, Richard 
 Phillips; Assessor, John S. Caulkins; Treasurer, A. 
 McDonald; Street Commissioner, A. R. Allison. At 
 this election, the first in the new city, 81 votes were 
 cast. W. R. Judson failed to qualify as Mayor, and 
 Joseph Ray was elected to that position, and became 
 the first Mayor of Fort Scott. 
 
 On the loth of September, i860, Joseph Ray, as 
 Mayor, purchased the town-site of Fort Scott from the 
 United States, consisting of 319 ii-ioo acres, as 
 described in the act of February 27th, incorporating it 
 
1860] LAST BORDER DIFFICULTIES. 149 
 
 as a City. The patent afterwards issued by the 
 Government for the land described is dated July lo, 1861. 
 About the ist of April, i860, a county election was 
 held at which the following named county ofiScers were 
 chosen : County Commissioners, Isaac Ford, I^ester 
 Ray, G. W. Miller; Probate Judge, H. Knowles; 
 Assessor, J. N. Roach; Treasurer, J. Aitkin; Register 
 of Deeds, W. H. Norway; Coroner, Dr. Freeman. 
 
 THE LAST BORDER DIFFICULTIES. 
 
 In May, i860, the notorious "Pickles" of lyinn 
 County, a general all-round thief, was arrested and 
 brought to Fort Scott for trial for theft. His real name 
 was Wright, but he got his nick-name of "Pickles" 
 for having, in one of his expeditions, stolen a two-quart 
 jar of pickles and devoured them as he rode along. 
 When taken into court he plead guilty to the charge of 
 horse-stealing, and was at once sentenced to the 
 penitentiary, as an act of discretion, to avoid falling 
 into the hands of an Osage Vigilance Committee, who 
 had assembled in town, headed by old Billy Baker with 
 a rope. Some of Pickles' gang came down as far as the 
 Osage and endeavored to raise a rescuing party, after 
 the Ben Rice fashion, but they soon abandoned the 
 project. The day for that sort of thing had passed. 
 The vigilance committee mentioned, or anti-horse thief 
 society, as they called themselves, which had been 
 formed up about Mapleton, came into town to look 
 after the Pickles trial, with an eye open for a possible 
 attempt at rescue. 
 
150 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1860 
 
 Pickles fared better than did a man named Guthrie, 
 who, some time before this, was found with a horse 
 supposed not to belong to him, and was taken from the 
 hands of a constable and hanged by this committee. 
 They also got hold of Hugh Carlin, who had given the 
 settlers on the Osage a good deal of trouble, and in the 
 early part of July he was taken from the house of A. F. 
 Monroe, without giving him time to dress, and that 
 was the last of Hugh Carlin. 
 
 In these hangings a young man named L. D. Moore 
 was particularly active as a member of the committee. 
 On the night of the i6th, of November he was visited 
 by Jennison, with a squad of about twenty men. Upon 
 arriving at Moore's house, Jennison kicked open the 
 door and shot Moore before he had time to get out of 
 bed. This murder was in retaliation for the hanging 
 of Carlin. Although Moore, who had settled on the 
 Osage in 1857, was a Pro-slavery man, politics had 
 little or nothing to do with his death. It was a kind 
 of an afterthought — a finishing up job of Jennison's, 
 who two days before that had started out on a circuit in 
 Ivinn county, first hanging old man Scott in his own 
 door yard, in the north part of that county; the next 
 day hanging Rus Hines near the Missouri State line, 
 east of Mine creek, and winding up with the killing of 
 Moore. The first two were killed on the pretext that 
 they had aided in the return to the owners of runaway 
 negroeSj and Moore was killed because he was, as Jen- 
 nison said, "a little too conservative." 
 
 There was, in the fall of i860, a secret society 
 organized in Linn county, which they called the "Wide 
 
1860] LAST BORDER DIFFICULTIES. 151 
 
 Awakes." It probably existed to a more or less extent 
 all along the border. In Linn county it was especially 
 strong. Nearly every Free State man in that county 
 joined it. The fundamental principles of this society 
 were opposition to the enforcement of the Fugitive 
 Slave Law; to take measures on all occasions to nullify 
 its provisions; to uphold the officers, sheriffs, etc., in 
 its nullification; to forcibly prevent the return of fugi- 
 tive slaves, and, when they got over into Kansas, to give 
 them a bag full of grub and show them the north star. 
 The society did not, however, propose to take violent 
 measures in the case of men who were aiding and assist- 
 ing in the execution of the law. But Jennison and a 
 few with him took the general feeling as a license for 
 him to do so, and the death of Scott and Hines, and 
 indirectly that of Moore, was the result. 
 
 In Bourbon County all these murders, by both 
 parties, caused a decided revulsion of feeling, not only 
 against the Jayhawkers, but all other species of mob 
 violence, vigilance committees, protective societies, 
 etc., in all forms. The point was passed where any- 
 thing more of that kind would be tolerated. The 
 disposition and determination of the public mind was 
 to inaugarate law, to establish the forms and prece- 
 dents they had been accustomed to in the old States, 
 and thus bring order out of the utter chaos which had 
 so far reigned from the day the Territory was organized. 
 It was not hoped that this could be accomplished in a 
 day, but it was, nevertheless, practically so, for these 
 were the last outrages perpetrated under the guise 
 of " Free State" or "Pro-slavery." 
 
152 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1860 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. . 
 
 THE ARTS OF PEACE. 
 
 ^rPHE idea of improving their homes, establishing 
 <^^ schools amd churches, instituting county fairs, 
 building railways, etc., began to take possession 
 of the people. Hardly a week passed that there 
 was not an enthusiastic meeting in the interest 
 of some line. Among the proposed roads were 
 the " Tebo and Neosho," afterwards the Missouri, 
 Kansas and Texas, the "Fort Scott, Neosho and Santa 
 Fe. " and the "L<ake Superior, Fort Scott and Galves- 
 ton." There was some talk of the "Hudson's Bay, 
 Fort Scott and Honduras," but they considered that it 
 would be too nearly a parallel line and would interfere 
 with the business and carrying trade of the Lake 
 Superior, Fort Scott and Galveston route, so that 
 project was dropped. 
 
 The question of an Agricultural Society, Count)' 
 Fair, etc., received due attention. At a meeting held 
 at Marmaton on the 14th of June, at which A. G. 
 Osbun was President, and W. R. Griffith, Secretary, it 
 was resolved to form an association to be known as 
 "The Bourbon County Agricultural Society." J. M. 
 L/iggitt, A. Decker, and Judge Farwell were appointed 
 
1860] N. V. INDIAN LANDS. 153 
 
 a committee to draft a constitution and report at the 
 next meeting. 
 
 At the next meeting the Bourbon County Agricul- 
 tural Society was fully organized by the election of the 
 following officers: President, Dr. A. G. Osbun; Vice- 
 President, Richard Stadden; Secretary, Wm. R. Grif- 
 fith; Treasurer, Isaac N. Mills; Executive Committee, 
 H. C. Moore, Aaron Decker, Ezekiel Brown, Harrison 
 Martin and S. B. Farwell. The first annual exhibition 
 was to be held at the residence of Mr. Grifiith, near 
 Marmaton, on the 24th and 25th of October. 
 
 The Fair was held according to programme, and was 
 better than could have been expected under the circum- 
 stances. There had been no rain for a year, but they 
 did the best they could. They were a little short on 
 big pumpkins and long corn, but the show of live stock 
 and fancy work was very good. 
 
 POPULATION — N. Y. INDIAN I.ANDS. 
 
 During the spring of i860. Will Gallaher took the 
 census of this part of the Territory, and returned the 
 following statistics: Number of inhabitants in Bour- 
 bon County, 6,102; deaths during the year ending June 
 I, i860, loi; mills and manufacturing establishments, 
 9; farmers, 1,200. Inhabitants on the Cherokee Neu- 
 tral Lands, 2,025. 
 
 As was stated in the first part of this book, the num- 
 ber of Indian claims allowed on the New York lands 
 was thirty-two, equal to 10,240 acres. This tract had 
 been located in the neighborhood of Barnesville. The 
 
154 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1860 
 
 residue of the tract, comprising a million acres of the 
 best land in Kansas, was turned over to the General 
 Land Office as public land, subject to entry and sale, 
 about the 20th of June, i860. The plats were at the 
 Ivand Office in Fort Scott, and settlers commenced 
 filing and pre-empting. 
 
 In reference to those thirty-two allotments, in several 
 instances the occupying Indians were driven ofi" at the 
 time the Free State men in the same locality were 
 driven out in 1856, and some of them never returned. 
 Their lands were taken possession of by white settlers, 
 who were afterwards permitted to acquire title from the 
 Goverment. The Indians so driven off afterwards ap- 
 plied to the Court of Claims for compensation, and 
 their claims were allowed thirty years later. 
 
 ON THE NEUTRAL LANDS. 
 
 By this time a large number of settlers had gone onto 
 the Cherokee Neutral Land, squatted on claims, built 
 cabins and made other improvements. They were 
 trespassers by law and by treaty stipulations, but they 
 claimed the usual pioneers equity in Indian lands, and 
 had the moral support, at least, of all the other settlers. 
 
 On October 27, i860, the agent of the Cherokees, 
 with a body of troops, commenced the work of driving- 
 all the settlers off the Neutral Land. Orders to that end 
 were issued by the Commissioners of General Land 
 Office in the spring, but on a representation of the facts 
 temporarily suspended. The present move was entirely 
 unexpected. From 75 to 100 houses were burned, and 
 
1860] ARRIVAL OF TROOPS. 155 
 
 as many families rendered destitute. These were in 
 outlying settlements. When the agent reached Dry- 
 wood he found the settlers united and determined, and 
 concluded to give them one month's grace. There 
 was not a Cherokee on the land, and, moreover, there 
 was no desire on the part of the Indians that the whites 
 should be disturbed. 
 
 Delegations were sent to Washington by the business 
 men of Fort Scott in the interest of the settlers on the 
 Neutral Lands in Bourbon County. Colonel Wilson, 
 who was familiar with the Cherokee people, went to 
 Tahlequa to ascertain the feeling of the head men in 
 -reference to a sale of the Neutral Land. But the 
 matter was not quite ripe. In several instances the 
 settlers on the Neutral Land married Cherokee women, 
 thereby becoming "squawmen" — legally Cherokees — 
 and entitled to a "headright," and thus securing their 
 claims. Old man Hathaway, on Drywood, was one 
 instance in this county. 
 
 As has been noted, there was a very large immigra- 
 tion into this county during the winter and spring of 
 i860, "too numerous to mention." Among the many 
 who came to Fort Scott that spring must be noted the 
 arrival of John S. Miller and family on the 5th of 
 March. Mr. Miller was from Pennsylvania, of the old 
 "Pennsylvania Dutch" stock, and was a most excellent 
 man and citizen. He was active in business circles, 
 and in the affairs of the city, township and county. 
 
 ARRIVAL OF TROOPS. 
 
 About the ist of December, i860. General Harney 
 
156 HISTOR V OF BOURBON CO UNTY. [1860 
 
 and staff arrived. The commaud came the next day. 
 It numbered about i8o men. The officers were 
 Brigadier General Harney, Captain Jones, A. A. G. ; 
 L/ieutenant Armstrong, Aid; Lieutenant Tidball, A. A. 
 Q. M. ; Swift and Brewer, Surgeons; Lieutenant Mul- 
 lins, ist Dragoons; Captain Barry and Lieutenants Fry, 
 Bargar, Sullivan and Perry of the artillery. 
 
 The Jennison "circuit" detailed some pages back, 
 had occasioned a great scare, and the troops came here 
 for the purpose of protecting the border. The Governor 
 of Missouri had also sent a brigade of Missouri militia 
 to the State line under command of Gen. D. M. Frost, 
 afterwards of the rebel army, and of "Camp Jackson" 
 fame. One purpose of having troops at Fort Scott was 
 to be present at the land sales which occurred on the 
 3d of December, i860. Only fourteen 80-acre tracts 
 were disposed of, at prices ranging from $1.25 to 5.50 
 per acre. The attendance was very large. The lands 
 were all offered by 12 o'clock, and the people went 
 home satisfied their claims were safe for another year. 
 
 THE GREAT DROUTH. 
 
 The year i860 is known as the "dry year." The 
 long drouth really commenced in the latter part 
 of 1859. The year 1859 up to August or September 
 was very seasonable. Crops were all made and the 
 yield was immense. It was most fortunate they were 
 so, for the crops of 1859 saved the people in the next 
 year. Corn turned out from sixty to ninety bushels to 
 the acre. Even sod corn made an immense yield. 
 
1860] THE GREAT DROUTH. 157 
 
 The Fort Scott Democrat of November lo, 1859, is 
 the authority for the statement that "Mr. Bnckner, 
 living between Marmaton and Mill Creek, this season 
 raised six hundred bushels of corn on seven acres 
 of sod." Wheat and oats were good. Prairie grass 
 grew to a height of from three to four feet. 
 
 The immigrants coming in that spring and summer, 
 seeing the rich overflow of a bounteous harvest, and 
 the summertide of glorious verdure, hearing on every 
 side the gurgling springs and brooks as they trilled in 
 limpid silver down the ravines, thought that this was 
 in truth the Elysian fields, the abode of the blest, and 
 they felt like sending up their voices in grand diapason 
 of the vox humana. If such was the natural condition, 
 they thought, if vegetation existed in such luxuriance, 
 if every "draw" contained a spring and every ravine 
 was a creek, it certainly surpassed any country of 
 which they had ever dreamed. 
 
 But the scene was to change. 
 
 About the ist day of September, 1859, it quit rain- 
 ing. The ist of January, i860, came, but still no rain 
 or "falling weather." The winter crept along, not 
 very cold but very dry. Spring came, and still no rain. 
 The farmer plowed as usual for crops, which were 
 planted at the usual time, but no rain yet. Corn and 
 other crops sprouted and came up, but no showers 
 gladdened the tender shoots. The wind blew inces- 
 santly from the southwest. Occasionally a cloud would 
 come over about the size of a ten-acre lot, and it would 
 sprinkle a little. Sometimes a bank of clouds would 
 loom up in the northwest in the evening, shake their 
 
158 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1860 
 
 heads and disappear. On the i6th of June a thunder 
 shower came up, and it lightened and thundered and 
 blowed and raged, and it rained — a little; so little that 
 it was only an aggravation. 
 
 Corn made a brave eflfort to grow. It was pitiful to 
 look at. It held up its withered blades as if imploring 
 the brazen heavens to let down rain. The poor, little 
 spindling stalks grew up about three feet high, tasseled 
 out, and then died. During the first part of July the 
 thermometer ranged from 98 to 104 degrees in the 
 shade. In the sun at midday is was 132°. By the 
 middle of July the heat was simply awful. It is a 
 matter of record thai on the 13th, and for weeks after 
 that, the thermometer often went up to 112, 113 and 
 114 degrees in the shade. There was a wind — almost 
 a gale sometimes — but it came up, seemingly, with a 
 spiral twist — hot, scorching, withering, like a blast 
 from a seething furnace. People sought their houses 
 and closed the doors and windows to keep it out. The 
 foliage on the trees withered up and blew oflf. The 
 prairie grass, which had grown up about three inches 
 high, turned brown and was dry enough to burn. It is 
 said that eggs would roast in the sand at midday — were 
 actually so roasted. There is no doubt of it. The 
 thermometer was 146 degrees in the sun. Thus the 
 terrible drouth continued day after day, week after 
 week, month after month. 
 
 Springs, wells, water everywhere, gave out. The 
 farmer sought the lowest "draw" on his place and dug 
 down for water, sometimes with partial success. The 
 creeks and larger streams were perfectly dry except in 
 
18601 THE GREAT DROUTH. 159 
 
 the large "holes," which, ordinarily from ten to fifteen 
 feet in depth, were reduced to muddy, stagnant puddles. 
 There would often be a stretch of a mile or more be- 
 tween these pools in which the bottom of the river was 
 dry and dusty, and the dry leaves, lately fallen from 
 the trees, would rustle and swirl in the little whirl- 
 winds as they swept up and down the river bed. 
 
 In the latter part of September or first part of October 
 the drouth was partially broken. It rained a little. 
 The rains were not general or heavy, but it rained 
 enough to freshen up the stagnant pools, and form 
 many small ones. Stock water was not so scarce, and 
 once more the cow and yoke of steers could have 
 enough to drink. 
 
 The drouth had lasted for more than a year. Dates 
 of its beginning and ending vary with localities, but 
 it may be said, in general, that there were from 
 twelve to fourteen calendar months during which time 
 the total rainfall did not exceed one inch. 
 
 Of course all crops were practically a failure. In 
 fields around the base of the mounds, which in ordinary 
 years are wet and springy, and in some places in the 
 low bottom lands some corn was raised, in some 
 instances as much as five bushels to the acre, of little 
 wormy-ended nubbins. Sorghum sugar cane did better 
 than any other crop. In fact, it made a fair yield 
 where planted, and all that fall the creak of the cane 
 mills could be heard in neighborhoods where they had 
 been fortunate enough to have planted cane. 
 
 In the year before, a good crop of cane had been 
 raised on a small patch of ground on the farm of Dr. 
 
160 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1860 
 
 A. G. Osbim. In harvesting the cane that fall the 
 seed had rattled out over the ground and in the spring 
 it came up quite a thick "volunteer" crop. It grew 
 that season about four or five feet high, being so thick 
 on the ground, and was cut and put up like hay, and 
 fed to the horses and other stock that winter. 
 
 Unfortunately but few farmers in this county had 
 sorghum seed, and but little was planted. In Linn 
 County this crop was quite general and very good. The 
 farmers there made any amount of molasses, but some 
 had nothing to "put it on." Children were often seen 
 eating sorghum molasses ofif a chip instead of their 
 much loved crust of corn bread. 
 
 This general failure of crops of course caused much 
 suffering, especially as winter approached and the store 
 of old corn in the country became more nearly ex- 
 hausted. Many were compelled to leave the country 
 temporarily, to seek subsistence. In such cases where 
 the family had a claim it was the tacit understanding 
 that their claims should be protected until their return 
 the next year. 
 
 Efforts were begun that fall in the direction of secur- 
 ing aid. Delegations were sent East to represent the 
 facts and solicit help. Considerable aid was received 
 in this county, but not as much as in that part of the 
 country contiguous to the Missouri river, up which all 
 freights had to come at that day. From here it was a 
 round trip of two hundred miles to Wyandotte. 
 
 There were a few intermittent rains and snows during 
 that fall and winter, but the flood gates were not opened 
 and the streams flushed until early in April, 1861. 
 
1861] STATE GOVERNMENT. 161 
 
 CHAPTBJt XXIIL 
 
 KANSAS ADMITTED. 
 
 ^I^ANSAS was admitted as a State on the 29th day 
 A^ of January, 1861. It came to the fireside of the 
 Union only to witness the frowning and wayward 
 sisters of the South departing, one by one, across 
 \ the threshold, out into the darkness — out into the 
 coming storm. But Kansas came not in the 
 innocence of childhood, nor like "a fair young girl, 
 with light and delicate limbs and waving tresses," but 
 "like a bearded man ; armed to the teeth, one mailed 
 hand grasping the broad shield and one the sword ; its 
 brow, glorious though it be, is scarred with tokens 
 of old wars." On its shield was written. Ad Astra per 
 Aspera ; on its sword, Excalibur Expurgatorius. 
 
 The Territorial probation was at an end. The 
 untried and unexampled task set before it had been 
 accomplished, not as designed by the spirit of the past 
 ages, but as marked out by the advancing rays of the 
 Nineteenth Century. 
 
 STATE GOVERNMENT. 
 
 The Territorial Legislature adjourned on the 2nd 
 day of February, to meet no more. 
 11 
 
162 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1861 
 
 Governor Charles Robinson was sworn into office on 
 the 9th day of February, as the first Governor of the 
 State of Kansas. He convened the State Legislature, 
 elected under the Wyandotte Constitution, on the 26tli 
 day of March. The members of that Legislature from 
 Bourbon County were : J. C. Burnett, of Mapleton, 
 Senator. Horatio Knowles, of Marmaton, S. B. Ma- 
 hurin, of Scott, and J. T. Neal, of Osage, were the 
 Representatives. James H. Lane and S. C. Pomeroy 
 were elected United States Senators on the 4tli day 
 of April. 
 
 CITY AFFAIRS. 
 
 The population of the City of Fort Scott was now 
 about 500. At the regular spring election for muni- 
 cipal officers the result was as follows : — Mayor, Joseph 
 Ray ; Councilmen, H. T. Wilson, J. S. Redfield, A. 
 McDonald and Chas. W. Blair ; Clerk, William Galla- 
 her ; Treasurer, C. W. Goodlander ; Recorder, J. S. 
 Miller ; Assessor, A. R. Allison ; Marshal, R. L. Philips; 
 Street Commissioner, J. G. Stuart. 
 
 The vote was 83, which indicated about the popula- 
 tion of 500, as stated. 
 
 IMPENDING CRISIS. 
 
 The Southern States had now nearly all seceded and 
 their Provisional Government was in full operation at 
 Montgomery, Alabama. 
 
 Still, the people of Bourbon County, in common with 
 the entire North, laid the flattering unction to their 
 
1861] IMPENDING CRISIS. 163 
 
 souls that in some way, or by some means, the impend- 
 ing war might yet be averted. The Governor of the 
 State had appointed four commissioners to the Peace 
 Convention, two of whom had voted for peace and 
 compromise. Meetings were held in various parts of 
 this county, all of which expressed sentiments of con- 
 servatism, and especially a spirit of conciliation towards 
 the people of the neighboring State of Missouri living 
 along our border. The leading Democratic citizens of 
 Fort Scott united with the Republicans in a letter to 
 James H. Lane, inviting him to come down and make a 
 speech. He accepted, and came about the 15th of 
 March, and spoke at a public meeting that day. 
 
 The attendance at the meeting was very large, 
 and included many citizens of the adjoining portion of 
 Missouri. Lane advocated the cultivation of amicable 
 relations between the people of the two States. He 
 advised the belligerent portion of the Kansas people to 
 "get a bag of meal under the bed, a ham in the cellar, 
 and a dress for the baby," before engaging in a war 
 which would be certain to desolate and impoverish the 
 whole country. 
 
 A few days afterwards — about the 20th — a large and 
 enthusiastic meeting of the citizens of Linn and 
 Bourbon Counties, Kansas, and Vernon County, Mis- 
 souri, was held at Barnesville. It was presided over by 
 H. G. Moore, Sheriff of Bourbon County. Byron P. 
 Ayres, of Linn County, was secretary. James H. 
 Lane, W. L. Henderson, A. B. Massey, J. T. Neal, 
 Ben Rice, George A. Crawford, Chas. W. Blair, C. W. 
 McDaniel, Geo. A. Reynolds, and A. Burton were 
 
164 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1861 
 
 appointed a committee on resolutions. The resolutions 
 were conservative throughout. General Lane after- 
 wards addressed the meeting in about the same tenor as 
 in his speech at Fort Scott. 
 
 The circumstances attending this meeting, — the con- 
 gregation of a mass of men who had been so long in a 
 whirling eddy of sectional discord, — the appointment 
 on working committees of men who had heretofore 
 entertained such widely differing opinions, — is worthy 
 of historical note. 
 
 The old order of things had passed away. The 
 public mind was adjusting itself on new lines ; the 
 political atmosphere was clearing up — clear as a bell, 
 and the bell had but one tone. 
 
 WAR. 
 
 On the I2th of April, 1861, was fired the first gun ot 
 the civil war. By a singular coincidence the deed was 
 performed by an old fellow with whose name we have 
 become quite familiar. It was Ruffian. He was 
 probably not the "Ruffian" of our acquaintance, but 
 his act in pulling the lanyard over that old smooth- 
 bore Napoleon gun, which fired the first shot against 
 Fort Sumpter, was the climax of the political doctrine 
 that had been taught, not only to our Border Ruffian, 
 but to the entire people of the South. The firing of 
 that gun was the natural and logical sequence and 
 culmination of that spirit — that political essence — 
 which the people of Kansas had contended against for 
 four long years, and which the Government, and the 
 
1861] IVA/e FEELING. 165 
 
 people of all the other states were to now take up on an 
 appeal, and enter into a gigantic trial of another four 
 year's duration. 
 
 The artillery "heard around the world" on that 
 April day opened the greatest conflict the world has 
 ever seen. It was the grandest, most momentous 
 sound ever heard on earth. Artillery is God's own 
 music. The reverberating thunder of artillery, the 
 steady tread of contending hosts — fierce, bloody war — 
 these are God's instruments for the advancement and 
 civilization of the human race, and have been since the 
 days of Joshua. 
 
 Every war in every nation, — every war between 
 nations, — cuts through the film of ignorance on the 
 eyes of the people, and advances the banner of regener- 
 ation and disenthralment. The real camp followers 
 are freedom, tolerance, invention, science. War breaks 
 the fetters of the serf and the slave ; it unyokes the 
 woman from the plow team ; it casts off the wooden 
 sabots of the listeners to the Angelus. 
 
 THE WAR FEELING IN BOURBON COUNTY. 
 
 After the war had actually commenced, — after the 
 first "overt act," as we called it, the conservatism, the 
 doubts, the hesitation, of our people were laid aside, 
 together with their politics. The Democrat^ the only 
 newspaper in the county, came out early and declared 
 that it abandoned all party affiliations and announced 
 itself "for the constitution and the union, and a 
 supporter of the new Administration so long as it shall 
 
166 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1861 
 
 labor in the direction of their perpetuity." That was 
 the universal sentiment. If war must come the feeling 
 was not only to prepare for it but to prosecute it to the 
 end. Our people realized, also, more nearly than 
 those of other sections of the North the full import 
 of what was to come. The "Ninety Day" theory 
 of Secretary Seward met with no believers. The 
 opinion was, also, often expressed, that the war would 
 result in the extinction of human slavery on this 
 continent. 
 
 On Thursday night, April 24th, there was a Union 
 demonstration, the most enthusiastic yet held in the 
 town. The demonstration was entirely impromptu — 
 nine-tenths of those who took part in it being aroused 
 from their slumbers at midnight. As each one joined 
 the procession he was greeted with three cheers, 
 followed by three times three for the Union. "The 
 Red, White and Blue," "Star Spangled Banner," 
 "Yankee Doodle," "Hail Columbia," and other 
 patriotic airs were sung amid the wildest applause. 
 All party feeling was buried beneath the glorious plat- 
 form of National Union. It was a scene worthy of our 
 town, and one long to be remembered with feelings of 
 deep emotion by every true and loyal citizen. 
 
 At a meeting held in the office of C. W. Blair, Esq., 
 Wednesday evening following, two volunteer com- 
 panies were organized and the following officers elected; 
 First company — Captain, C. W. Blair; First Lieutenant, 
 A, R. Allison; Second Lieutenant, R. L. Phillips; 
 Third Lieutenant, Chas. Bull ; Ensign, Wm. R. Judsou. 
 Second company — Captain, A. McDonald; First Lieu- 
 
1861] IVAI^ FEEL/JVC. 167 
 
 tenant, Charles Dimon; Second Lieutenant, William 
 Gallaher; Third Lieutenant, A, F, Bicking; Ensign, 
 O. S. Dillon. The oflScers were elected by the com- 
 bined vote of both companies, leaving each man to 
 decide afterwards with which company he would con- 
 nect himself. 
 
 There were two companies formed in Drywood town- 
 ship about this same time, under command of Captains 
 Henry CofFman and H. J. Boring, and one company on 
 the head of Lightning Creek officered by John T. Mc- 
 Whirt, Roswell Seeley, John Tully, John F. Gates 
 and Sam McWhirt. 
 
 The first two Fort Scott companies were finally con- 
 solidated, and called themselves the "Frontier Guard. " 
 The boys started for Lawrence to be mustered into 
 the service, x^t Lawrence Captain Blair was promoted 
 to Lieutenant-Colonel of the 2d Kansas, which was to 
 be the regiment of the Fort Scott company. After a 
 few days rest at Lawrence, the regiment left for Kansas 
 City for muster-in. When they got to Wyandotte, 
 about June ist, most of the Fort Scott boys concluded 
 they had seen enough service and returned home. 
 The larger part of them, however, went into the army 
 afterwards. "Frontier Guard No. 2" was raised soon 
 afterwards by W. T. Campbell, and a company was 
 raised on Mill Creek by Captain Hall. 
 
 All this was the usual preliminary business that 
 occurred at that time all over the country, with the 
 object of not only testing who really wanted to go to 
 war, but who were prepared at short notice to leave 
 home for an indefinite time. 
 
168 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1861 
 
 The Fourth of July had now come, and was quite a 
 gala day in Fort Scott. It had been arranged that Fort 
 Scott Guards, Nos. i and 2, should have a parade and 
 drill, and several companies from the surrounding 
 country were invited to join them. The company from 
 Dry wood (cavalry,) Capt, Boring, and Mill Creek com- 
 pany, (infantry,) Capt. Hall, responded to the invitation. 
 
 At 10 a. m. the Guards formed at their respective 
 armories, and after a little marching and counter- 
 marching, went out to meet and escort in Captain 
 Boring's company. The field music was excellent. 
 The Drywood boys were received with hearty cheers 
 and escorted into town, where the Mill Creek boys 
 were met and received with like cordiality. After din- 
 ner the cavalry was drilled by Captain John Hamilton, 
 and the infantry had a battalion drill under E. A. 
 Smith. At five o'clock the battalion was dismissed, 
 and all parties returned to their homes, mutually 
 pleased with the Fourth of July and each other. 
 
 On the 5th day of July the battle of Carthage 
 was fought. This occasioned great alarm and appre- 
 hension. We had a war sure enough and it was 
 getting uncomfortably close. 
 
 Shortly after the Carthage affair General Lyon 
 authorized Captains W. T. Campbell and W. C. 
 Ransom to raise two companies of one hundred men 
 each, to serve as Home Guards. Then two other com- 
 panies were raised by Captains Z. Gower and Lewis R. 
 Jewell, and these four companies were the origin and 
 foundation of the Sixth Kansas Cavalry. 
 
1861] BATTLE OF DRYWOOD. 169 
 
 CHAPTER^XIV. 
 
 BATTLE OF DRYWOOD. 
 
 ^'TPHE proximity of war in Missouri led J. H. Lane, 
 ^^ who was posing as Brigadier General of Volunteers, 
 in command of Kansas troops, to "fortify" Fort 
 Lincoln, on the Osage River. The work done 
 there, in a military or common sense view, was 
 simply idiotic. He went down on the very 
 lowest bottom land of the river, where he threw up an 
 earth-work about the size of a calf-pen and then 
 blazoned it forth as a great military fortification. 
 
 In the latter part of August a considerable force was 
 being concentrated at Fort Scott. Old Jim Mont- 
 gomery had of course, by this time, gotten a regiment 
 together, and five companies of the Third Kansas 
 under him arrived on the 20th of August. Other 
 Kansas troops arrived from time to time until the 
 aggregate force was about two thousand men. Fort 
 Scott was now headquarters f0r General Lane's brigade. 
 
 The rebel Generals, Price and Raines, were operating 
 in Western Missouri with several thousand men, and 
 contemplated an attack on Southeastern Kansas. On 
 the ist of September General Raines with his division 
 approached within twelve miles of Fort Scott, on the 
 
170 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1861 
 
 southeast, and a scouting party came within two miles 
 of town and captured a corral full of mules, and drove 
 in Lane's pickets. A force of 500 cavalry with one 12 
 pound howitzer, was sent out the next day to reconnoitre. 
 They ran into the rebel pickets and drove them across 
 Drywood creek, where '.Dey were reinforced, and quite 
 a rattling good skirmish was fought, until the ammu- 
 nition of the Union forces gave out, when they fell 
 back in good order on Fort Scott. The ofi&cial reports 
 give the Union loss in this action as five killed and 
 twelve wounded. The rebel loss was about the same. 
 In the meantime the infantry force occupied the 
 heights east and southeast of town. These troops were 
 reinforced by an impromptu company, organized that 
 morning, of such men as McDonald, Drake and the 
 other citizens who were not already in line on the hill. 
 This company was sworn into the service, drew arms 
 and ammunition, and marched to the front in two rows 
 like regulars. They still belong to the army. They 
 were never mustered out. Some of them have their 
 arms yet. Drake says his old musket is down in the 
 cellar now, with the same load in it he put in on that 
 day. Some of these days a little Lieutenant may come 
 along and order them out on advance picket with three 
 days' cooked rations, or he may order them to the 
 Soldier's Home. They never drew pay. They are 
 presumably entitled to back pay and bounty up to date. 
 They are certainly all entitled to pensions by reason of 
 rheumatism, superinduced by exposure while in line of 
 duty. But they did their full duty that day, and if there 
 had been a fight would have held on as long as anybody. 
 
1861] THE SIXTH KANSAS. 171 
 
 The entire force waited on the crest of the hill until 
 night for the expected attack of General Raines. About 
 dark a raging thunder storm — which follows after all 
 great battles — came up, and the boys, concluding that 
 it would affect the rebels just as it did them, returned to 
 town and sought shelter in camp. 
 
 That night General Lane ordered the entire force to 
 fall back on Fort Lincoln, twelve miles north, on the 
 Osage, leaving Fort Scott to the mercy of anybody 
 that might come along. A scouting party of fifty men 
 could have gutted and burned the town without oppo- 
 sition. Lane displayed here his usual cowardice when 
 confronted by real danger. It is said that he would 
 have burned the town himself — had actually ordered 
 the torch applied — but he was prevailed on by the 
 citizens to wait at least until the rebel force had crossed 
 the State line. Of course, there was great commotion 
 in town. The non-combatants, women and children — 
 excepting Mrs. Wm. Smith, Mrs. H. T. Wilson, Mrs. 
 John S. Miller and one or two others, w^ho decided to 
 wait awhile, — were loaded into wagons and driven out 
 west toward Marmaton. The torch was ready to be 
 applied to every building in town on the first appearance 
 of the rebel troops on the summit of the eastern hills. 
 But they did not appear. General Raines was at that 
 moment mrking a forced march on Lexington, Mis- 
 souri, by n 1 order that day received from General 
 Price, and Fort Scott thus escaped utter annihilation. 
 
 THE SIXTH KANSAS. 
 
 The Sixth Kansas Cavalry was organized at Fort 
 
172 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1861 
 
 Scott on the 9th of September, 1861. A large part of 
 this regiment was Bourbon County men. W. R. Judson 
 was Colonel. The first Lieutenant-Colonel was Lewis 
 R. Jewell, who was killed at the battle of Cane Hill, 
 Ark., November 28, 1862. W. T. Campbell was then 
 promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel, and served through 
 the war. Wyllys C. Ransom was Major. C. O. Judson 
 was Adjutant until March, 1862. Isaac Stadden was 
 then Adjutant until August, 1862. The Quarter- 
 masters were successively Geo. J. Clark, S. B. Gordon, 
 Charles W. Jewell and Levi Bronson. Dr. John S. 
 Redfield was surgeon until February 21, 1865, when 
 he was mustered out and returned home. Capt. John 
 Rogers, Captain of Company K, was killed by bush- 
 whackers near the south line of this county on the 2nd 
 of June, 1864. John G. Harris, lieutenant of Company 
 K, was badly wounded at Cane Hill, Ark., by a ball 
 passing clear through his neck. He recovered, and 
 after the war was Sheriff of Bourbon County. The 
 other line officers of the Sixth Kansas who lived in 
 this county have been mentioned. 
 
 Jewell County in this State was named in honor 
 of Colonel Lewis R. Jewell, when that County was 
 organized in 1867, at the instance of Samuel A. 
 Manlove, who was that year a member of the Legisla- 
 ture from Fort Scott. 
 
 Fort Scott was again established as a military post 
 and a depot of supplies. From two thousand to ten 
 thousand troops were making transitory stops here, 
 arriving and departing and shifting about as the 
 necessities of the case seemed to require. Long wagon 
 
1861] SOME MORE POLITICS. 173 
 
 trains of Government supplies, — hardtack, bacon, 
 beans, rice, coffee and sugar, of the Commissar}^ depart- 
 ment, and blue uniforms, boots and shoes, blankets, 
 etc., of the Quartermaster department were constantly 
 coming and going, and the grand chorus of a thousand 
 voices from the mule corral was the first thing heard in 
 the morning and the last at night. 
 
 SOME MORE POLITICS. 
 
 In October, 1861, the Republican State Committee 
 was petitioned by a large number of voters to nomi- 
 nate a State ticket, and a special and emphatic request 
 was made in the petition that a patriotic and energetic 
 man be named for Governor on a war platform. They 
 claimed that Governor Charles Robinson was impotent 
 and ineflScient, and that by the terms of the State 
 Constitution his term of office expired January i, 1862, 
 notwithstanding the enactment of the Legislature 
 extending the term. The committee in response to 
 these petitioners nominated a full State ticket with 
 George A. Crawford, of Bourbon County, for Governor. 
 There was no other ticket in the field for State officers. 
 The location of the State Capital was to be voted 
 on, and members of the Legislature were to be elected. 
 The election was held on the 5th of November. Mr. 
 Crawford and his ticket received more than one-half as 
 many votes as the total vote polled on the State 
 Capital question, but the State Board of Canvassers 
 refused to canvass the vote. Mr. Crawford took the 
 case to the Supreme Court, and it is the first case 
 
174 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1861 
 
 reported in the First Kansas reports. It is held by the 
 Court that the act of the Legislature of May 22, 1861, 
 provided for the election of Governor at the general 
 election of 1862, and that the election of the Crawford 
 ticket was null and void. 
 
 Topeka received the majority of the vote cast for 
 State Capital. 
 
 Eli G. Jewell and Geo. A. Reynolds were elected to 
 the Legislature from Bourbon County. 
 
 On the 2nd of December, 1861, General J. W. 
 Denver was ordered to Fort Leavenworth, and placed 
 in command of the Kansas troops. 
 
1862] VARIOUS THINGS. 176 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 VARIOUS THINGS. 
 
 } 
 
 N the Spring of 1862, a considerable force was con- 
 ^ centrated at Fort Scott, consisting of the ist and 
 6th Kansas, the 9th, 12th and 13th Wisconsin, the 
 2nd Ohio Cavalry and Captain Rabb's 2nd Indiana 
 \ Battery. The 5th Kansas Cavalry, which had been 
 camped at Barnesville all winter was placed under 
 command of Col. Powell Clayton. In the early spring 
 this regiment was marched through Fort Scott to Dry- 
 wood. It remained there a few days, when Clayton got 
 permission to take the regiment out of this department, 
 and he hustled it off down on the lower Mississippi. 
 Sam Walker, who has been mentioned several times 
 during the border troubles was Major of this regiment. 
 James Montgomery was Colonel of the 3d Kansas, and 
 afterwards he was transferred to the command of a 
 colored regiment in South Carolina, where he probably 
 renewed his acquaintance with Buford and the Ham- 
 iltons, or at least with their kinfolks. 
 
 Speaking of the Hamiltons, nothing reliable is known 
 of that particular group, after the war began. They all 
 probably went into the rebel army. It is said that in 
 the fall of 1861, Captain Bain, with a portion of the 
 
176 HISTOR Y OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1862 
 
 6th Kansas, captured several persons over in Missouri, 
 and on his way up he camped one night about two 
 miles south of Arcadia. The next morning, after they 
 had broken camp and started on the march, Bain took 
 a detail of men, and, selecting out seven of the pris- 
 oners, took them off to one side of the road and killed 
 them. Bain gave it out that they were with the Ham- 
 ilton gang at the Marais des Cygnes murder. That was 
 possibly true, but it was more probable that they were 
 Bain's personal enemies 
 
 The Kansas troops had now been in the service sev- 
 eral months, and they began to think they were old 
 veterans. Most of them had quit writing letters to 
 their folks more than twice a week, and they had all 
 learned the best manner of cooking beans, and pre- 
 paring hard-tack so that it would seem like something 
 else. Their ideas of war were somewhat changed 
 before they got through with it. 
 
 On the loth of May, 1862, a small newspaper called 
 the Fort Scott Bulletin was established. 
 
 In the spring of 1862 the people of Fort Scott let the 
 city election go by default, and it was not until in 
 August that they discovered they had missed a chance 
 to vote. Then the council ordered an election to be 
 held on the 25th. J. S. Miller was elected Mayor, H. 
 T. Wilson, P. P. Elder, William Smith and C. F. Drake, 
 Councilmen; J. E. Dillon, clerk: J. F. White, Marshal; 
 C. W. Goodlander, Treasurer; A. R. Allison, Assessor, 
 and J. G. Stuart, Street Commissioner. 
 
 On the ist of June Lieutenant Colonel Lewis R. 
 
18621 VARIOUS THINGS. 177 
 
 Jewell was placed in command of the Post of Fort 
 Scott. 
 
 About July, 1862, Rube Forbes, whom we have 
 already had occasion to mention, and a man named 
 Troy Dye robbed the store of E. S. Scott, at Xenia. 
 This caused a great commotion among the settlers 
 of that neighborhood, and they raised a posse, headed 
 by Captain Vansycle, late of Co. "I," Sixth Kansas, 
 and Lieutenant Ford of the same company. They got 
 after the thieves in close chase. Dye got away but 
 they run Forbes into a very dense brush patch about 
 four miles south of Mapleton, where he was sur- 
 rounded. The brush was so thick they could not see 
 Rube but they charged in as far as they could and fired. 
 Rube instantly returned the fire and Captain Vansycle 
 fell dead. He fired again and Lieutenant Ford fell 
 badly wounded. The lieutenant was at once taken up 
 by Charles Love, J. R. Anderson and others, and 
 carried on a coat to a house about half a mile distant, 
 and was soon afterward taken to his home near Union- 
 town where he died. At the third fire by Rube, E. C. 
 Buck was badly wounded in the neck, and came 
 near dying. About that time a company of soldiers 
 arrived, who fired a volley into the brush where Rube 
 was and his dead body was dragged out. 
 
 On the 15th of July, 1862, the first number of the 
 Bourbon County Monitor was issued at Marmaton by 
 David B. Emmert. 
 
 The Second Kansas Battery was raised in Bourbon 
 County by C. W. Blair, early in the summer. 
 The officers were C. W. Blair, Captain ; E. A. Smith, 
 
 12 
 
178 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1862 
 
 D. C. Knowles, A, G. Clark, and A.Wilson, Lieutenants. 
 This was known through the war as "Blair's Battery." 
 
 FALL ELECTIONS. 
 
 The general election in the State was held on the 4th 
 of November, 1862. Thomas Carney, Republican, of 
 Leavenworth, was elected Governor. He received 
 exactly 10,000 votes. The opposition candidate was 
 W. R. Wagstaff, of Paola. His vote was 5,463. 
 
 The vote in Bourbon County for Governor was 413 
 to 86. This county was the Fourteenth Senatorial 
 District. Isaac Ford was elected Senator by 431 votes, 
 against 33 votes for E. Williams. There were four 
 Representative Districts in this county, the 50th, 51st, 
 52nd and 53rd. In the 50th D. B. Jackman received 
 41 votes, L. D. Clevenger, 26. In the 51st J. Hawkins, 
 62 ; W. T. Jones, 37. In the 52nd, D. R. Cobb received 
 the entire vote, 97. In the 53rd, C. F. Drake received 
 the entire vote, 205. 
 
 t ' ^^^ ' l 
 
City Hall and Court House, 1865. 
 
]863] COUNTY SEAT RETURNED. 179 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 COUNTY SEAT RETURNED TO FORT SCOTT. 
 
 T THIS session of the Legislature C. F. Drake 
 introduced and had passed a general county seat 
 law, providing for elections for county seats on 
 petition to the County Court, etc. On the passage 
 of that law the City Council of the City of Fort 
 Scott, of which Mr. Drake was also a member, 
 proposed to the County Court that the city would build 
 a City Hall and in the event that the people, at the 
 proposed election, voted to re-locate the county seat at 
 Fort Scott the use of the City Hall would be given to 
 the county for county purposes. The proposition was 
 accepted by the Board of County Commissioners, and a 
 special election for county seat was held on the nth 
 day of May, 1863. The result of the election was as 
 follows : Fort Scott received 700 votes ; Centerville, on 
 Mill Creek, 279 votes; Mapleton, 14 votes; Fort Lincoln, 
 I vote, and at a meeting of the Board of County Com- 
 missioners on the 1 6th of May 1863, ^^ ^^^^ °^^ ^^^^ 
 at Marmaton, Fort Scott was by proclamation declared 
 the county seat. At this meeting there were present 
 T. W. Tallman, Isaac Ford and E. A. Toles, Commis- 
 missioners and David R. Cobb, County Clerk. 
 
180 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1863 
 
 The city council then took steps for the erection of 
 the City Hall. The location decided on was the 
 South-east corner of Locust and Jones streets, now 
 Second Street and National Avenue. The building 
 was to be of stone, two stories high. The contract was 
 let to Goodlander & Allison for the sum of $3,900. It 
 was completed that fall, except the railing around the 
 spiral stairway, which was never finished. Good- 
 lander made one for it but it didn't fit, and he threw it 
 under the work bench, then he convinced the council 
 that railings were out of style, anyhow. 
 
 At a meeting of the City Council held on December 
 14, 1863, it was on motion, ordered "That the City 
 Marshal notify the county officers that the City Hall 
 was in readiness, and request them to occupy the same." 
 
 The county officers then moved in. The County 
 Clerk, Treasurer and Register of Deeds occupied the 
 lower story. The District Court was held in the upper 
 story. And that was the Bourbon County court house 
 for nearly thirty years. When court was not in session 
 the upper story was subject to be used for miscellaneous 
 purposes. Religious services were held there nearly 
 every Sunday by some Denomination which had, as yet, 
 no home of their own. Political meetings and con- 
 ventions caucused and pulled wires, and long-haired 
 itinerant cranks would occasionally loosen the plaster- 
 ing in expounding their wonderful theories. During 
 the 60' s amateur dramatic clubs often "played" under 
 the management of John R. Morley, Geo. Clark and 
 Ken Williams, in a repertoire from "Black-eyed 
 Susan" to "Hamlet." A "Masquerade Ball" was 
 
1863] COUNTY SEAT RETURNED. \%\ 
 
 given at least once a year. The "Masques" were 
 varied, most life-like, and always thoroughly original. 
 
 But few incidents of local interest transpired during 
 the year 1863. There was not much done in the way 
 of improvement either in the town or county. The 
 erection of the woollen factory by Geo. A. Crawford 
 was the most important. Fort Scott being a military 
 post, a telegraph line was constructed from Fort Leav- 
 enworth, and the people had means of communication 
 with the outside world, without having to depend on 
 the often delayed trips of the old "jerky" stage, which 
 the boys said was a "tri-weekly, — it went out one week 
 and tried to get back the next." Sometimes it didn't 
 do it. The stage fare between Kansas City and Fort 
 Scott was "ten dollars and carry a rail." Sometimes, 
 when the roads were real good, a man passenger would 
 not have to walk and carry a rail more than a third 
 of the time. When they were very bad he walked all 
 the way, carried his rail, and paid his ten dollars just 
 the same. So. But then he had the privilege of being 
 whirled into town and landed at the Wilder House 
 with a grand flourish. That was worth something. 
 
 A good portion of the men of Bourbon County, in 
 common with those of the balance of the State, were 
 in the army. The total number of Kansas troops in 
 the field by the middle of this year was 9,600. A large 
 number went in after that date. Nearly every man 
 living in Kansas during the war was in the service in 
 some shape. If not in the volunteer service he was in 
 the home guards or State militia. 
 
 On the 4th of July, 1863, E. A. Smith was pro- 
 
182 HISTORY OF BOURBOhl COUNTY. [1863 
 
 moted to Captain of the 2nd Kansas, or Blair's Battery, 
 and Blair was assigned to the 14th Regiment of Kansas 
 Volunteers as Colonel. He was soon after promoted to 
 Brigadier General, and ordered to Fort Scott as com- 
 mandant of the post. He remained in command of 
 this post until April 28th, 1865, when he was succeeded 
 by Gen. U. B. Pearsall, who remained in command 
 until the close of the war. 
 
 ELECTIONS. 
 
 The general election in the State was held on the 3rd 
 of November. District Attorneys, Legislators, and a 
 part of the county officers were to be chosen. Samuel 
 A. Riggs was elected District Attorney for the Fourth 
 Judicial District, consisting of the counties of Allen, 
 Anderson, Bourbon, Douglas, Franklin, Johnson, Linn 
 and Miami. The Representatives for Bourbon County 
 were Wm. Stone, R. P. Stevens, D. R. Cobb and J. G. 
 Miller. County Treasurer, James Aitkin; Sheriff, H. 
 G. Moore; Probate Judge, Wm. Rose; Register of 
 Deeds, E. B. Norcross. The new County Board was 
 organized on the next January: T. W. Tallman, E. A. 
 Toles and J. F. Holt, Commissioners, and J. S. Em- 
 mert, County Clerk. 
 
'%.. 
 
 Fort Blair, Built iu the Street at the Corner of Scott Avenue and 
 First vStreet iu the Spring of 1864. 
 
1864] POLITICAL FEELING. 183 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIL 
 
 FORTIFICATIONS. 
 
 N the early part of 1864 several extensive fortifica- 
 ) tions were commenced, and finished that spring. 
 These were quite heavy, well constructed earth- 
 works. "Fort Henning" was located on Second 
 ^ street, between National Avenue and Judson street. 
 "Fort Blair" was on First street between Main 
 street and Scott Avenue, and contained the block house 
 now standing across from the post oflfice. ' 'Fort Insley' ' 
 was on the extreme point northeast of the Plaza. There 
 were some barracks and fortifications commenced on the 
 hill southeast of town, and some rifle pits on what we 
 now call Tower Hill. The old Government Hospital 
 building was used for a hospital, and the old guard 
 house was again utilized for the original purpose. 
 
 Dr. Van Duyn was the surgeon in charge of hospitals 
 at this post during 1864. 
 
 POLITICAL FEELING. 
 
 There was but little partisan political feeling in this 
 County at that time. Public sentiment may have 
 found vent, to some extent, in the action of the City 
 Council at a meeting held January 2, at which Coun- 
 
184 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1864 
 
 cilmen Dimon, White and Drake caused the following 
 order to be spread upon the minutes : 
 
 ^''Ordered: That the Street Commissioner cause 
 a sidewalk to be built from the corner of Wall Street, 
 etc., and provided., that said walks be of two planks 
 one foot wide, 12 inches apart, 2j/ inches thick, 
 slightly elevated, and pinned to terra firma like h — 1. " 
 
 The old party organizations were kept up, but the 
 sentiments of all were simply for the Union and 
 for the suppression of the rebellion. 
 
 At a large Democratic convention held May 23rd, 
 1864, i^ t^^ City Hall, for the purpose of electing 
 a delegate to the State Democratic Convention to 
 be held at Topeka, the following resolution, among 
 others, was passed : 
 
 ''''Resolved^ That we will vote for no man for Presi- 
 dent or Vice-President who is not pledged to devote all 
 his powers to the suppression of the rebellion, and 
 maintain and defend the Constitution of the Union 
 from all aggression from secession traitors of the South 
 and conspirators of the North." 
 
 The meeting was presided over by Robert Blackett. 
 O. DiefFenbaugh was secretary. Charles Bull was 
 chosen delegate to the State Convention. 
 
 John E. Himoe, of Mapleton, brother of Dr. S. O. 
 Himoe, while on a trip up the Missouri river, about 
 April I, 1864, was taken down with the smallpox. He 
 was landed at Boonville with a nurse. While there he 
 became delirious and one night, escaping from the 
 house in that condition, he tried to break in through 
 the window of a neighboring house, and the man inside 
 
o 
 
 w 
 o 
 
1864] RAIDS ON DRY WOOD. 185 
 
 naturally took him for a burglar and shot him dead. 
 Mr. Himoe was at that time County Surveyor of 
 this county. 
 
 RAIDS ON DRYWOOD. 
 
 About the 20th of May, 1864, Henry Taylor, a noted 
 guerrilla of Vernon County, Mo., made a raid in the 
 Drywood valley. He had a large company with him, 
 some say as many as eighty men. He entered Bourbon 
 County on the south, and first went to the house of 
 William Custard, about ten o'clock at night. Custard 
 had been in bed, but by some means he got warning of 
 their approach, and he and his brother, Rufus, made 
 their escape, just in the nick of time. Taylor run into 
 the house and, in the search, he felt in the warm bed, 
 which Custard had just left. 
 
 Taylor then robbed several families and committed 
 other depredations. Finally, on his return out of the 
 county he went to the house of Louis L. Ury, at the 
 place where Garland is now, and surrounded it. There 
 were in the house, Mr. Ury and his wife, his son Joe 
 Ury, and the young children. Newt and the two girls, 
 now Mrs. Homer Pond and Mrs. John Withers, and a 
 Mr. T. Cartmell. Taylor had with him Mike Kelley, 
 John Gwynn and several other prisoners that he had 
 picked up, and intended to get Mr. Ury and his son 
 Joe. After capturing the men folks he moved Newt 
 and the two girls out into the corner of the yard 
 preparatory to burning the house. Just then George 
 Pond, James Pitts and Fred Carpenter, a scouting party 
 from the 3d Wisconsin Cavalry, run onto them and 
 
186 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1864 
 
 commenced firing, and Joe Ury, as soon as he heard 
 the guns, picked up a stick of wood and knocked 
 Taylor down. When Taylor got up, he called out 
 "shoot the prisoners," and made for his horse. Some 
 of the others of the gang fired at the prisoners, two 
 balls striking Mr. Louis Ury, who was standing in his 
 door. Then the entire party lit out for Missouri, 
 leaving all the prisoners. Mr. Ury's wounds were 
 found to be very serious. His leg had to be amputated 
 and he lingered until the 2nd of July, when he died. 
 
 The summer before this occurred, this same Taylor 
 captured a man by the name of Tom Whitesides from 
 the house of Mrs. Beal's, east of Fort Scott, and took 
 him to near the " Line House" and killed him, firing 
 twelve shots into him. After the war Taylor was 
 elected sheriff of Vernon county. 
 
 About June \, 1864, a dozen or more bushwhackers 
 made a raid into the county, up on the head of Pawnee 
 Creek, and captured Rev. Mr. Harryman, Mr. Potter, 
 and two or three colored people, and robbed and burned 
 Mr. Harryman' s house. The robbers took alarm at the 
 approach of some parties and hastily left without their 
 prisoners. 
 
 RAILROADS — POLITICS. 
 
 On the ist day of June, 1864, ^ railroad convention 
 in the interest of the Border Tier railway was held at 
 Paola. The delegates from Bourbon County were Geo. 
 A. Crav/ford, Geo. Dimon, H. T. Wilson, Isaac Stad- 
 den. Dr. Freeman and A. Danford. D. P. Lowe and J. 
 D. Snoddy were among those from Linn County. 
 
1864] THE PRICE RAID. 187 
 
 This was the first concerted effort in the direction of 
 building railroads in this section of the State. Speeches 
 were made and various committees appointed. One 
 committee was appointed to memorialize Congress to 
 grant lands to a border road, setting forth in their me- 
 morial the vast importance of such a road in a military 
 point of view. The people had sat down to an indefi- 
 nite siege of war. The end seemed far off in the dim 
 future, and they had come to accept it as almost the 
 natural condition. 
 
 President Lincoln was nominated for re-election. An 
 immense ratification meeting was held on the 20th day 
 of June, 1864, at Fort Scott. T. T. Insley was Presi- 
 dent, and J. R. Morley, J. F. White, W. A. Shannon, 
 B. P. McDonald, S. A. Manlove, and Wm. Margrave 
 were Vice-Presidents. 
 
 At the Democratic Convention of Topeka, J. Thomas 
 Bridgens of Fort Scott, was appointed one of the can- 
 didates for Presidential Elector. 
 
 A Republican State Convention met at Topeka on 
 the 8th of September, 1864. On the first ballot for 
 candidate for Governor, George A. Crawford was in the 
 lead, but the opposition concentrated on Samuel J. 
 Crawford, and on the sixth ballot the vote stood: Sam- 
 uel J. Crawford, 51; Geo. A. Crawford, 31; and Samuel 
 J. Crawford was declared the nominee. 
 
 THE PRICE RAID. 
 
 In October, 1864, what is called the Price Raid took 
 place. General Price passed up from Arkansas through 
 
188 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1864 
 
 Central Missouri, in the direction of I^exington, on the 
 Missouri river. He recruited his army as he advanced 
 until he had about 20,000 effective men. General S. R. 
 Curtis was at Leavenworth, in command of the Depart- 
 ment of Kansas, General Curtis' s command consisted 
 of part of the 14th and all of the 15th and i6th Kansas, 
 a battalion of the 3rd Wisconsin, a section of the 2d 
 Kansas Battery, a Colorado battery, and the 9th Wis- 
 consin Battery, a total of about 4,500 men. On the 8th 
 of October he proclaimed martial law, and ordered all 
 the U. S. troops into the field to resist Price. Governor 
 Carney called out the State Militia, and ordered them to 
 the Border under General Deitzler, Major General of 
 State Militia. At Fort Scott there were assembled from 
 various points 1,050 men. The most of these were 
 formed into the 24th Regiment of State Militia, with 
 the following field and staflf officers : Colonel, Isaac 
 Stadden ; Lieutenant Colonel, John Van Fossen ; Major, 
 Joseph Ury; Adjutant, A. Danford ; Quartermaster, J. 
 Thomas Bridgens ; Surgeons, B. F. Hepler and S. O. 
 Himoe. 
 
 The companies in the 24th Regiment were officered as 
 follows : Company A, John F. White and C. B. Hay- 
 ward ; Company B, W. C. Dennison and R. D. Lender ; 
 Company C, J. B. Skeen, Thomas Barnes and C. B. 
 Maurice ; Company D, J. C. Hinkley and Robt. Stalker ; 
 Company E, H. T. Coffman, R. Adams and W. P. Gray; 
 Company F, J. C. Ury, J. B, Cabiness and S. Streeter. 
 
 Lieutenant Colonel George P. Eaves, of Uniontown, 
 had a battalion of mounted men, which he raised in the 
 various townships of the county, consisting of seven 
 
18fi4] THE PRICE RAID. 189 
 
 companies, which had the following named officers : 
 Company A, D, D. Roberts, I. Burton and C. W. Camp- 
 bell ; Com.pany B, Dyer Smith, D. R. Radden and B. R. 
 Wood ; Company C, John J. Stewart, John Blair and E. 
 M. Marshall ; Company D, S. B. Mahurin, John Ham- 
 ilton and J. C. Andrick ; Company E, B. F. Gumm, 
 Nathan Baker and William GofF; Company F, Isaac 
 Morris, R. S. Stevens and A. S. Potter ; Company G, 
 W. A, Shannon, N. J. Roscoe and D. McComas. 
 
 These troops were soon reinforced by militia from 
 Allen and Coffey counties, under Colonel Twiss and 
 Major Goss. 
 
 With Colonel Eaves' force and all the mounted troops 
 he could pick up. General Blair left for the field to join 
 Blunt's division, then near Westport, Missouri. 
 
 Generals Pleasanton and Sanborn, with about 4,000 
 menhadleft Jefferson City, to join the general pursuit. 
 
 On the 20th, 2ist and 22d, engagements took place 
 respectively at Lexington, Little Blue and Big Blue. 
 The Union troops were victorious. Price was rapidly 
 retreating down the Missouri border, fighting almost 
 continuously. He had 15,000 veteran troops, plenty 
 of field artillery, and such lieutenants as Shelby, Mar- 
 maduke, Cabell, Slemmon, Fagan and Graham. Price's 
 army first entered Kansas in Linn county, and a part 
 of it camped, on the 24th of October, just north of the 
 Trading Post, on the exact spot at the base of the big 
 mound near old Jackey Williams' farm, where, on that 
 beautiful May day in 1858, the forerunners of this army 
 of invasion had enacted the prologue of the bloody and 
 disastrous scene which was to follow on the next day. 
 
190 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1864 
 
 The old gray haired General could still see on that 
 hallowed ground 
 
 "The blush as of roses 
 Where rose never grew ; 
 Great drops on the bunch grass 
 But not of the dew." 
 
 And in his troubled sleep that night, when the 
 lights burned blue, at the dead of midnight, there may- 
 have come to him the visions of those murdered men, as 
 
 "With no vain plea for mercy, 
 
 No stout knee was crooked; 
 In the mouths of the rifles 
 
 Right manly they looked. 
 How paled the May sunshine, 
 
 Green Marais du Cygne, 
 When the death-smoke blew over 
 
 Thy lonely ravine!" 
 
 On the 25th of October, after a sharp skirmish, the 
 rebel forces retreated to the south side of the Marais 
 des Cygnes, and the entire army was brought to bay, 
 and was formed in line of battle in Mine Creek Valley, 
 near where now stands the City of Pleasanton. It was 
 a grand field for a battle. The open prairie was four or 
 five miles in extent, with only gentle undulations, and 
 the entire force, as well as all the maneuvers of either 
 army, could be plainly seen. The troops under Gen- 
 eral Blair, Colonel Moonlight and Colonel Crawford 
 were in position nearly on the left flank of the enemy, 
 with Generals Pleasanton, Sanborn, McNiel and Ben- 
 teen on the center and right. The engagement was 
 general, and for some hours well and hotly contested. 
 
1864] RAIDS BY GUERILLAS. 191 
 
 Finally, a brilliant movement was made by Colonels 
 Philips and Benteen, and a brigade under General 
 Cabell of nearly looo men was captured, together with 
 nine pieces of artillery. Generals Marmaduke, Cabell, 
 Slemmer and Graham were also taken prisoners. The 
 enemy now rapidly retreated, their deflection into Mis- 
 souri, to the southeast, being forced in a great measure 
 by the field maneuvers of General Blair and Colonel 
 Crawford. 
 
 Another stand was made by the enemy on the Little 
 Osage in Bourbon County, but McNiel and Pleasanton, 
 who were in advance, soon routed them out ; and still 
 another on Shiloh Creek in this county, where we 
 captured two pieces of artillery. 
 
 RAIDS BY GUERILLAS. 
 
 On the 20th of October, just before the battle of 
 Mine Creek occurred, a squad of about twenty-five 
 men, belonging to the command of the old guerilla, 
 Jo Shelby, struck the Osage river about the State line, 
 and went up on the north side. When they got up to 
 Fort Lincoln, they halted in front of the store in that 
 place, owned by Knowles & Green. Andrew Stevens 
 and W. H. Green were near the store door. The bush- 
 whackers at once opened fire on the two men, and 
 Stevens was instantly killed. Green escaped by slip- 
 ping down under the river bank and making for 
 the brush. Then they plundered the store and burned 
 the building, and the residences of Mr. Knowles, Mr. 
 Green and Mr. Hopkins, after robbing Mrs. Hopkins. 
 
192 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1864 
 
 They then crossed the river, and robbed all the families 
 living as far west as Primm's and Armstrong's, and 
 burned the dwellings, hay stacks, and barns belonging 
 to Dick Stafford. Turning back down the Osage, and 
 dividing up into squads, they killed Mr. Woodall 
 and Mr. Miller. 
 
 MARMATON MASSACRE. 
 
 Another raid by guerrillas was made into Bourbon 
 County on the 22nd of October, 1864. On Saturday 
 night of that date, about midnight a company of from/ 
 forty to sixty men, under command of Allen Matthews 
 and Major Courcey, came up from a southern direction 
 to the neighborhood of Marmaton. Before they reached 
 town some of the neighboring farmers had discovered 
 them and came in ahead and gave the alarm. That 
 night there were about thirty Home Guards quartered 
 in the church, under command of Captain Harding, 
 First Ivieutenant Ramsey, and Second Lieutenant J. G. 
 Roush. By order of Captain Harding these men were 
 scattered out in squads of eight or ten to picket the 
 several roads leading into town. In the meantime, the 
 guerrillas, presuming such would be the case, left the 
 main road and charged across lots into town, which they 
 thus found without any defense at all. They then com- 
 menced capturing every man they could get hold of, 
 and firing on any they saw trying to run away. They 
 first picked up Colonel Horatio Knowles, Daniel M. 
 Brown, Dr. L. M. Chadwick, Joseph Stout, Abner 
 McGonigle and Warren Hawkins. These men they 
 murdered in the most cold-blooded manner, as fast as 
 
186-1] MARMATON MASSACRE. 193 
 
 they came to them, in some instances taking hold of 
 their victim with one hand and putting a bullet through 
 his head from a revolver in the other. In other cases 
 they would repeatedly shoot into their prisoners while 
 they were down and begging for mercy. 
 
 Nelson Ramsey, Wm. Holt, brother of Judge Holt, 
 Rev. Mr. Prigmore, and others, were on the street, and 
 were repeatedly fired at, but they slipped away some- 
 how and hid in the deep ravines near by. 
 
 The stores in town were those of Aitkin & Knowles, 
 and Cobb & Jones. These they robbed and then 
 burned. The residence of Mrs. Schoen, widow of 
 Lieutenant Schoen, of Company E, loth Kansas, the 
 Methodist church, and other buildings were burned. 
 
 As soon as possible after the attack. Lieutenant Roush 
 started for Fort Scott to give the alarm and get help in 
 the pursuit of the ruffians. Some of them discovered 
 him and gave him close chase as far as the Catholic 
 Cemetery, when they probably concluded they were 
 near the Fort Scott picket line, and turned back. Lieu- 
 tenant Roush reported the affair to Colonel Stadden, 
 who ordered out a force in pursuit, but the bush- 
 whackers had too much the start, and being well 
 mounted they got away. In pass'"ng out of the county, 
 near Cato, they killed another m.an, a Mr. Simons, 
 whom Matthews had a special grudge against. They 
 then continued their flight into th:; Cherokee Nation. 
 
 Reliable information is furnished that this Matthews 
 with about twenty of his men, left soon after for the 
 Rocky Mountains, going in a north-westerly direction 
 into the country of the Osage Indians. At a crossing 
 
 13 
 
194 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1864 
 
 of the Verdigris river, near where Independence now 
 is, and just after they had crossed, they were met by a 
 large body of Osages who informed them that the Osage 
 people had orders to arrest any and all persons attempt- 
 ing to pass through their country and take them to 
 Fort Scott. Matthews told them they were friends of 
 the tribe, but that they would never submit to be taken 
 alive, especially as prisoners to Fort Scott, A battle 
 then opened, and Matthews and every one of his men 
 were killed. This is the statement as m^de by Little 
 Bear, who was then Chief of the Osages."' 
 
 The murders recounted in these raids were the 
 most atrocious and cold-blooded of any that had ever 
 occurred in Bourbon County. The men killed were 
 all good, quiet, peaceable citizens, not identified in any 
 way as partisans, or even active in politics, excepting 
 Horatio Knowles, who had been in the Legislature 
 several years, as has been noted. It was probably not 
 known at the time to what particular rebel command 
 these murderers belonjjed who raided the Osage vallev. 
 The statement is made here that they belonged to the 
 command of the rebel General Jo Shelby, although he 
 was not present in person. The proof of it is given in 
 the following extracts from page 447 of a book pub- 
 lished in 1867 by authority of Shelby, called "Shelby 
 and His Men; or War in the West." The author 
 says, in speaking of these raids into Kansas : 
 
 "No prisoners were taken, and why should there 
 be? * * Shelby was leaving Kansas and taking terrible 
 adieus. * * Hay stacks, houses, barns, produce, crops, 
 and farming implements were consumed before the 
 
]864] SUSPENSE. 195 
 
 march of his squadrons, and what the flames spared the 
 bullet finished. Shelby was soothing the wounds 
 of Missouri by stabbing the breast of Kansas. For 
 the victims of Lane and Jeunison he demanded life for 
 life and blood for blood. The interest had been com- 
 pounded, but he gathered it to the utmost farthing. 
 Fort Scott lay before him like a picture, mellowed 
 by haze and distance, and the orders for its destruction 
 had gone forth." 
 
 And the orders for its destruction would have been 
 fully carried out had it not been for the prompt organi- 
 zation and assembly of the militia. 
 
 Price had also determined on the total destruction of 
 the City of Fort Scott. Marmaduke and other rebel 
 officers, while prisoners of war here, repeatedly stated 
 that Price had given orders for the annihilation of 
 Fort Scott as soon as they could get to it. 
 
 SUSPENSE. 
 
 On the day of the battle of Mine Creek, and for some 
 days previous, the people of Fort Scott and the troops 
 here were naturally in a state of great suspense. They 
 knew, indefinitely, that there had been fighting up north, 
 and that Price was retreating down the border. They 
 had good reason to fear the worst. They had no dispo- 
 sition to cry wolf when there was no wolf, and they 
 fully realized their danger if the rebel army should get 
 at them, and they were nerved up to defend themselves 
 to the best of their ability. They probably did not 
 know at that time of the especial determination and 
 order to destroy the town, but in a general way they 
 
196 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1864 
 
 knew Price and his men and his methods, and they had 
 every reason to believe that he would attack and destro)^ 
 Fort Scott, which was then rich in supplies and plunder. 
 
 A part of the defensive force was posted on the hills 
 north of town. Entrenchments were thrown up at the 
 river fords, and preparations made for moving the women 
 and children. 
 
 About 3 o'clock on the morning of the 25th the 
 cannon boomed forth the alarm. A scout had just 
 arrived with the news that the enemy was at the 
 Trading Post, and it was presumed that their march on 
 Fort Scott would be unchecked. Every man was at 
 his post, and all exhibited the coolness of veteran 
 troops. The morning was rain> , but it cleared up later 
 in the forenoon, Up to 3 o'clock that afternoon no 
 definite news was had of the operations of the two 
 armies. They could hear the boom of the cannon, but 
 they did not know the result of the day. All kinds 
 of rumors were flying. Late in the day large bodies 
 of troops were seen marching on the city. But it was 
 soon ascertained that they were Union troops under 
 Colonel Moonlight. They then learned of the victory 
 at Mine Creek, and that General Blair's command and 
 other forces of the Union army would soon be here. 
 The revulsion of feeling cannot be described. The 
 tense, rigid feeling of suspense and anxiety which had 
 so long held the courageous militia to their work, gave 
 way to exultation and joy. 
 
 That night Generals Curtis, Pleasanton, Blunt and 
 Sanborn and their forces came in, bringing the captured 
 rebel Generals and other prisoners, and the captured 
 
1864] PUBLIC MEETING. 197 
 
 cannon. The next morning they again took up the 
 march in pursuit of Price, except General Pleasanton 
 and his command, who, after remaining a few days, left 
 for St. lyouis with the prisoners and captured artillery. 
 On the 28th, Colonel Stadden of the 24th regiment, 
 issued the following order : 
 
 Gen. Order No. 5. 
 
 The Colonel commanding takes pleasure at this time 
 in thanking the brave men under his command for the 
 heroism and fortitude displayed during the late crisis. 
 Although not actively engaged in the field, the cheer- 
 fulness displayed is certainl}'^ worthy of a veteran corps. 
 
 * * * * Ai^ain he assures you that no one will 
 have occasion to blush for being a member of the "First 
 Bourbon." I. Stadden, 
 
 A. Danford, Adjutant. Colonel Commanding. 
 
 PUBLIC MEETING. 
 
 On the next Saturday evening a large public meeting 
 was held in Fort Scott. S. A. Manlove was chosen 
 President, and J. R. Morley, George Dimon, G. A. 
 Reynolds, N. Z. Strong and William Margrave, Vice- 
 Presidents. General Blair, who had returned to his 
 post as Commandant, was called on to speak. The 
 General said he was not there to make a political speech, 
 as he had nothing to do with politics since the war be- 
 gan, and would not have until it closed. He said he 
 desired, however, to do justice to the brave men who 
 had left their homes and kept in the front until Kansas 
 was out of danger. He closed with a detailed descrip- 
 tion of the battle g. Mine Creek, and the military 
 operations along . iu. Border. 
 
198 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1864 
 
 As has been stated, General Curtis continued the 
 chase after the rebels, pursuing them to their final de- 
 struction as an army. 
 
 This was the last time Bourbon County was threat- 
 ened by the invasion of an armed enemy, and the people 
 soon settled down to some degree of peace and quiet. 
 
 The general election was held on the 8th day of No- 
 vember. Samuel J. Crawford was elected Governor and 
 Sidney Clarke, Congressman; A. Danford was elected 
 State Senator from Bourbon County. The Represent- 
 atives were: Fiftieth District, L. D. Clevenger; Fifty- 
 first, D. L. Campbell; Fifty-second, N. Griswold; 
 Fifty-third, N. Z. Strong. D. M. Valentine was elected 
 Judge of the Fourth Judicial District. D. B. Emmert, 
 District Clerk; Wm. Margrave, Probate Judge, and 
 Nelson Griswold, Superintendent of Schools. 
 
 Bourbon County cast 960 votes for Lincoln electors 
 and 126 for the McClellan electors. 
 
 The year 1864 had been a season of more than usual 
 disquietude and apprehension, in this county. Besides 
 the operations of the regular Confederate armies, there 
 were many roving bands of guerillas, bushwhackers 
 and marauders swarming along the Missouri border, 
 who took every opportunity to slip into Kansas and 
 commit murder, robbery, theft and any depredation 
 that took their fancy or that occasion permitted. 
 
 The bordering section of Missouri was practically 
 without law, civil or military, and these men held full 
 sway in their reign of terror. This state of affairs 
 continued until Price's horde was swept down the 
 Border, and the last remnant of rebellion disappeared. 
 
1865] CITY ELECTION. ]9§ 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 
 LINCOLN. 
 
 ^'TPHE year 1865, while it was laden with eveius of 
 ^? vast import to the Nation, bore to us but few 
 marked incidents of a local nature. President 
 lyincoln was re-inaugurated on the 4th of March, 
 and was assassinated on the 14th of April. He had, 
 however, lived to see the surrender of Appomattox, 
 and to smilingly approve of Grant's direction to the 
 paroled army of North Virginia: "Take your horses 
 and mules home, you will need them on the farm." He 
 had lived to see the rebellion crushed, and to realize 
 that government by the people should not perish from 
 the earth. Nor will his name. He had reached the 
 apex of human greatness. The Infinite fittingly or- 
 dained there should be no descent. 
 
 CITY ELECTION. 
 
 In the spring of 1865 the regular election was held 
 in Fort Scott for city officers. Isaac Stadden was 
 elected Mayor. The Councilmen were A. R. Allison, 
 S. A. Manlove, Charles Rubicam and J. R. Morley. 
 City Marshal, H. C. Jones ; Treasurer, C. F. Drake ; 
 Recorder, Wm. Margrave ; Assessor, J. W. Coutant ; 
 
200 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1865 
 
 Street Commissioneiv C. W. Goodlander ; Attorney, 
 A. Danford. 
 
 J TiK SCHOOLS. 
 
 Ill January, i860, S. W. Greer, Superintendent of 
 Schools, made a report of the condition of the schools 
 in the Territory at that date. His figures for Bourbon 
 County are as follows : Number of districts organized, 
 seven. Number of children between the ages of 5 and 
 21, seventy-four. 
 
 The first school district in this county was organized 
 in December, 1859. It was what was afterwards Dis- 
 trict No. 10. None wire organized in i860, and only 
 45 v/ere organized until after the war, when in 1867 the 
 organization of districts again commenced. At the 
 close of 1865 ther-^ were 3,261 children of school age in 
 the county. Many of these were children of refugees 
 who had come in to Fort Scott from Missouri and 
 Arkansas. Through the efforts of C. F. Drake, and a few 
 others, school rooms were furnished and fitted up in the 
 old hospital building and in the old City Hall. 
 
 The few school buildings in the county were poorly 
 furnished. The appliances were meager. There was 
 nothing like uniformity in books. The children 
 brought the books which had been used by their par- 
 ents fifteen or twenty years before, and represented 
 nearly as many different States and kinds of books as there 
 were children. The daily routine was something like 
 this: The reading class would form in line; one scholar 
 read a verse from an old reader commencing, "Rome 
 was an ocean of flame;" the next would read one about 
 
1865] COST OF PROVISIONS. 201 
 
 "Lo! the Poor Indian;" the next, not having anything 
 but Webster's Spelling Book, read about one of the 
 pictures in the back part, where the girl failed to be 
 able to buy a new dress because the cow kicked over 
 the pail of milk, Ar.'i so on down the line, until the 
 last one, a little fellow, read the best he could about 
 the wonderful cat. 
 
 The facilities for acquiring an education in those 
 times compares but feebly with our grand institutions 
 of the present day. Our trained, competent and effi- 
 cient professional teachers, with the paternal aid of the 
 State, have wrought a wonderful change. Working 
 through our Normal Colleges and High Schools, they 
 have brought our common school system wellnigh 
 to perfection. Not only that, they have caused the 
 word "Teacher" to take its rightful place at the head 
 of the list of the learned professions. And also, like 
 Abou Ben-Adhem, "of those who love their fellow- 
 men, their names lead all the rest." "May their 
 tribe increase." 
 
 COST OF PROVISIONS. 
 
 In July, 1865, J. S. Emmert, County Clerk, left among 
 the records of the County an itemized account of the 
 expenses of housekeeping, from which the following 
 extracts are made : 
 
 One-half bushel apples, $1.50; one dozen beets, 50 
 cents; four pounds of butter, $1.25; four dozen eggs, 
 $1.30; four heads of cabbage, 50 cents ; twelve pounds 
 of sugar, $3.00; five pounds of coffee, $5.00; one-half 
 gallon kerosene, $1.00 ; one bushel of potatoes, $2.00; 
 
202 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1865 
 
 six bars soap, $i.oo ; two chickens, 80 cents ; one peck 
 of onions, 75 cents; one-half pound tea $1.50; fifty 
 pounds flour, $3.50. 
 
 MUSTER-OUT. 
 
 The Kansas troops had been or were being mustered 
 out. Their old yellow parchments said they were 
 "honorably discharged." "No objection tore-enlist- 
 ment known to exist." But many of them knew there 
 were objections known to exist — dressed in calico — and 
 they were going to meet those objections, just as soon 
 as possible. A farewell glance was given the faithful 
 old camp kettles and mess pans, in which they had so 
 often cooked coffee and beans and rice and desiccated 
 potatoes, or the chickens and sweet potatoes, turkeys, 
 and pigs, and geese, which somehow found their way 
 into the company messes. They were going home. 
 The orderly sergeant called the roll for the last time. 
 He skipped many names on the original muster-in roll. 
 Some had been discharged for wounds or other dis- 
 ability; many had left their bones in one or the other 
 of a dozen States from Kansas to the Sea. 
 
 The record of Kansas in the war is grand. The State 
 sent more soldiers to the war than it had voters in 1861. 
 Its quota under the calls for troops was 12,931; it sent 
 20,151, without conscription. Nineteen regiments and 
 three batteries participated in more than a hundred 
 engagements, six of which were on Kansas soil. The 
 battlefields from Wilson Creek to the Gulf are conse- 
 crated by their blood. Provost-Marshal-General Fry, 
 in his final reports of the Union Army Roster, wrote 
 
1865] BUSINESS AND IMPROVEMENTS. 203 
 
 this: "Kansas shows the highest battle mortality of the 
 table. The same singular martial disposition which 
 induced about one-half of the able-bodied men to enter 
 the army without bounty may be supposed to have in- 
 creased their exposure to the casualties of battle after 
 they were in the service." 
 
 The regiments and batteries had all made an honor- 
 able record. In the many battles in which they were 
 engaged, there were none of which they were not entitled 
 by General Orders to emblazon the battle-name on the 
 white stripes of "Old Glory." 
 
 BUSINESS AND IMPROVEMENT. 
 
 The people of our county were now turning their 
 attention more than ever before to the pursuits of peace. 
 
 For ten years there had existed among our entire 
 people a sense of insecurity and apprehension. It was 
 an epoch of unrest, — a decade of bloody strife. No one 
 on retiring to rest at night knew what might occur 
 before another sun. An enemy was always in striking 
 distance. They became accustomed to this state of 
 affairs at times, when the recurrence of some bloody 
 deed would again raise up the nightmare of border 
 strife or civil war. 
 
 But all that was at an end. The war was over, and 
 the receding tide had taken with it the flotsam and jet- 
 sam of border war. 
 
 Fort Scott was rapidly improving. The "Wilder 
 House" and the stone "Miller Block," opposite, had 
 been built sometime, and they were classed among the 
 architectural wonders of the State. 
 
204 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [18(55 
 
 The Wilder House was thus named in compliment to 
 A. C. Wilder, who was Congressman from this State, 
 and afterwards stationed for a time ?t Fort Scott in the 
 Commissary Department, and who was, also, a great 
 friend of the Dimon brothers, who built the house. 
 A. C. Wilder was a brother of D. W. Wilder, who is 
 not only well known in Fort Scott but throughout 
 the West. 
 
 The "Miller Block" was built by Dr. J. G. Miller, 
 who, as stated, was a Representative in 1865, and a 
 prominent man until his death, some time afterwards. 
 
 The military telegraph had been run down the road 
 from Leavenworth in 1863, and its last months of use 
 here by the military, the office was conducted by J. D. 
 McCleverty as chief operator. George A. Crawford 
 had erected a year before a large flouring mill of four 
 run of burrs, probably the largest mill then in the State. 
 Early this year he commenced the erection of a large 
 woollen factory, the largest and best appointed of any 
 one in the West. By fall of this year there could be 
 heard the whirr of a thousand spindles, and the inter- 
 mittent thump and bang of many looms. The best 
 grade of merchant } arns, blankets, and woollen cloths 
 were manufactured. The wheat and wool of this and 
 adjoining counties were worked up here which found 
 a ready market. This mill and factory were totally 
 destroyed by fire on the night of November i, 1870. 
 There was no insurance on this property and its loss to 
 Mr. Crawford caused much financial embarrassment. It 
 was also a severe blow to the city of Fort Scott. These 
 mills were the pride of the town, then struggling for a 
 
- ^..if ^^ 
 
 Section of Market Street, 1865. 
 
 I 
 
ISfi.i] BUSINESS AND IMPROVEMENTS. 205 
 
 place in the front rank of the manufacturing points in 
 this State, and ambitious even then, to be rated as the 
 principal city of Southern Kansas. 
 
 The establishment of a military post at Fort Scott 
 during the war was, of course, of material advantage 
 to it. While much of the business was of a transitory 
 nature, a very considerable amount of it was of legiti- 
 mate wholesale trade, and the retail trade with the 
 surrounding country was very extensive. 
 
 Among the largest business houses at the close of 
 1865 maybe noted 'he following: Dry Goods — Wilson, 
 Gordon & Ray, A. McDonald & Bro., J. F. White, J. 
 R. Morley & Co., Wm. Roach, Rosenfield & Co., San- 
 derson & Thomas, Shannon & Seavers, A. J. Lagore, 
 and Jones & Cobb. Groceries — Linn & Stadden, G. R. 
 Bodine, A. Cohen, Ernich & Lender, E. M. Insley, 
 Van Fossen Bros., Parker & Tomlinson, and Penning- 
 ton & Secrist. Hardware — C. F. Drake and Rubicam 
 & Dilworth. Bankers — A. McDonald & Bro. Book 
 vStore — S. A. Manlove. Livery Stables — Beuj. Files, 
 P. Clough, H. Dimon, S. A. Olds, and Chas. Walker. 
 Watch Maker — D. Prager. Tailors — R. Blackett and 
 J. Winter. Harness Maker — Hartman & Co. Plas- 
 terer — A. Coston. Shoemaker — John Crow.. Cabinet 
 Makers — S. O. Goodlander and Wm. C. Weatherwax. 
 Wagon Maker — ^John A. Bryant. Blacksmiths — W. H. 
 Dory, Moses Boire and C. J. Neal. Drug Stores — D. 
 S. Andrick & Co. and W. C. Dennison & Co. Barbers 
 — Ed. Henderson and Joe Barker. Carpenter — C. W. 
 Goodlander. Masons — John Higgins and Billy Shan- 
 nehan. Physicians — B. F. Hepler, J. H. Couch, J. S. 
 
206 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1865 
 
 Redfield, S. O. Himoe, L. M. Timmonds, J. C. Van 
 Pelt, etc. Lawyers — Too many, as usual. 
 
 The rest of the fellows kept saloons. 
 
 The principal business part of the town was then on 
 Market street — called Bigler street then — and North 
 Main street. A. McDonald & Bro. 's store was in a long 
 one-story frame house, fronting on Scott avenue, and 
 running along Wall street to the alley. The "Banking 
 House" was in the rear end of it, with an entrance on 
 Wall street. 
 
 The other business houses, on Market and Main 
 Streets, were all one and two story frame buildings, 
 many of them but little better than board shanties. 
 Most of the business houses on these streets were burned 
 in the great fire of April 23, 1873. 
 
 A very good county fair was held at Fort Scott on 
 October 12, 1865. G. A. Crawford, David Gardner, 
 A. Goff, and N. C. Hood, were the officers. 
 
 The general election for 1865, was held on the 2nd 
 of November. In Bourbon County D. B. Emmert was 
 elected as State vSenator to fill a vacancy. The Repre- 
 sentatives elected were as follows: 50th District, W. H. 
 Green; 51st, J. L. Wilson; 52nd, Nelson Griswold ; 
 53rd, C. W. Blair. General Blair ran against W. A, 
 Shannon, a very popular republican, and was elected 
 by a vote of 264, as against 145 for Shannon, 
 
 The ruling prices of some of the staple provisions in 
 the fall and winter of 1865, in the Fort Scott market 
 were as follows: Wheat, $2,50 per bushel; flour, |io 
 per hundred; corn meal, $2.75 per bushel; oats, $2 per 
 bushel; corn, $2.50 per bushel; sugar, 2,}^ to 50c per 
 
1865] BUSINESS AND IMPROVEMENTS. 207 
 
 pound; coffee, Rio, 66>4C per pound; coffee, Java, 
 75c per pound; teas, 1^2.50 to $3.50 per pound; rice, 
 30c per pound; molasses, $1.50 to $3 per gallon; butter, 
 50c per pound; cheese, 40c per pound; eggs, 60c per 
 dozen; potatoes, $4 to $4.50 per bushel; turnips, $2 per 
 bushel; green apples, $3.50 to %\ per bushel; dried 
 apples, $5 per bushel. 
 
 In the summer of 1865 the Kansas & Neosho Valley 
 Railroad Company was organized at Kansas City, Mo. 
 The initial point of this road was to be at Kansas City. 
 The Southern terminus and direction was undetermined. 
 Official communication was opened with our County 
 Board with a view to having Bourbon County take 
 $150,000 in stock of the Company. After some cor- 
 respondence the Board finally required that the name 
 of Fort Scott be incorporated in the name of the 
 Company and road, and suggested "Missouri River, 
 Fort Scott & Gulf" as such name. The Company 
 at once agreed to make the change, and at a meeting 
 on November i8th, the Board ordered an election to be 
 held on the i6th day of December, 1865, on the question 
 of voting $150,000 in county bonds. The election 
 resulted as follows : Osage Township voted 41 for, 
 none against; Freedom 65 for, 4 against; Timberhill 
 49 for, 33 against; Franklin 4 for, 87 against; Marion 
 17 for, 67 against; Marmaton 36 for, 29 against; Scott 
 493 for, none against. Total, 705 for, and 220 against. 
 And the first preliminary struggle for a railroad through 
 Bourbon County was over. This road was completed 
 to Fort Scott in the fall of 1869. 
 
 In November, 1865, County Assessor, Mr. E. Brown, 
 
208 HIS TOR Y OF BOURBON CO UN TV. 1 1 SG5 
 
 made his official returns, from which the following 
 figures are taken: 
 
 Population — White males, 4,954; white females, 
 4,282; black males, 379; black females, 418. Total 
 population of the county, 10,033. Fort Scott con- 
 tained about 1,800 inhabitants, who were actual citi- 
 zens. The total valuation, real and personal, (which 
 the assessor returned together) of the entire county, 
 was $1,442,687.00. During the fiscal year of 1865 
 there was harvested and manufactured the amounts and 
 articles following : Wheat harvested, 28,676 bushels. 
 Rye, 3,621; Corn, 206,297; Oats, 15,352. Irish pota- 
 toes, 5,591; sweet potatoes, 821. Butter, 14,498 lbs. 
 Cheese, 11,907 pounds. Sorghum molasses, 7,606 
 gallons. Hay, 15,565 tons. Total number of acres 
 of laud fenced ,34,344. 
 
 Acres of land improved, 25,687. Number of horses, 
 2,702; num.ber of mules, 301; number of milch cows, 
 3,630; number of oxen, 603; number of other cattle, 
 5,209; numberof sheep, 6,345; number of swine, 2, 638. 
 Value of live stock, $476,295. 
 
 The population of the county had increased about 
 4,000 since the enumeration of i860. 
 
 There was no census, even approximate, of the popu- 
 lation (yf Fort Scott in 1865. There was a large "float- 
 ing population" of refugees and indiscriminate and 
 indescribable people, white and black, who had, prac- 
 tically, no home or residence anywhere, to the number 
 of 1,000 or more. The actual number of bona fide 
 citizens was probably less than 1,800. The tax roll 
 of the city bears less than 400 names. 
 
1865] THE CLOSE. 209 
 
 THE CLOSE. 
 
 The close of the year 1865, is deemed the fitting 
 period to close this volume of the History of Bourbon 
 County. It is the closing point of an Era. Old "Time" 
 here rested his scythe for a moment, and turned the 
 sand in his glass. 
 
 A final tribute should be paid to our men and women, 
 one and all, the living and the dead, who came to this 
 county in early times to help found a State. 
 
 They sacrificed all the established comforts of their 
 homes in the old States to found new homes in this 
 semi-wilderness. They came with no misunderstanding 
 as to the state of the country or the political and social 
 conditions. They came with their eyes wide open, 
 each well knowing that his life here, for many years, 
 must be and would be a life of hardship, self-denial and 
 danger. As a class, they were a superior people ; 
 superior in that stamina of character ; superior in that 
 native manhood and womanhood which goes to make 
 up the "salt of the earth." Poor they were in purse, 
 but rich in integrity of purpose. 
 
 At the old fireside, a young man, "the flower of the 
 flock," the one widest between the eyes, stood out from 
 the family circle and said : "Sis, pack my carpet-bag, 
 I'm going to Kansas." "Sis" was probably to follow 
 as soon as a certain young man had a cabin and ten 
 acres of sod corn. 
 
 And so they came. Sometimes one, alone, sometimes 
 the entire family. 
 
 14 
 
210 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1865 
 
 Many have passed over to the other side. Many 
 have reached what the man of Avon called the "chair 
 age." A few are still in the vigor of life. All passed 
 through a life's experience such as will come to no 
 other people. They all played a part in that grand 
 drama which closed the heroic epoch in politics and 
 war. They watched, step by step, the political legis- 
 lation, and the unfolding, like the bloom of the deadly 
 night-shade, of the divergent sentiments among the 
 people of the two great Sections. They saw the result- 
 ing partisan strife, of which Bourbon County was the 
 storm-center, and the culmination in bloody civil war. 
 They saw the primal cause — that exudation from the 
 dark ages — go down forever on the very spot of its 
 origin, "the Plantations on the river James." They 
 saw the wayward sisters, as from a pathway through a 
 burning forest, emerge into the sunlight. They saw 
 civilization, — cradled on the rock of Sinai and crowned 
 on the rock of Plymouth, — plant here another guidon 
 under the rising battle-smoke of 1865. 
 
 THE END. 
 
Ks" 
 
 :a^ yr ^ £=^ < ^ 
 
 J. F. GOTTRELL, 
 
 WHOLESALE AND RETAIL 
 
 ^^UMJ^ 
 
 SteitionGr 
 
 ^^WALL PAPER DEALER, 
 
 ISlo. 6 fioPth ]\«ain Street, 
 
 pipst Doof flofth of Opera J4ouse, 
 
 FORT SCOTT, KANSAS. 
 
 j^ 
 
 
 m^ t-^. "^ 
 
 ■^ 
 
-V- ESTABLISHED 1865. 
 
 ^W 
 
 DEHIiHH If* POlJiSHHD 
 
 Plate arid WiridewBlass 
 
 WAlili PAPER, 
 
 Wiodow Shades, Paints, Oils and Varnisli, 
 
 --^•-^K^-^-- 
 
 ^-^«-.>— 207 Wall Stt^eet. 
 
 Established 1869. -^-^(^"^t- Incorporated 1888. 
 
 W. H STOUT, President. R. J. HARRIS, Vice-Pres-t. W. H. FOX, Sec. & Treas. 
 
 THE FORT SCOTT 
 
 GRfllNtlMPLEMENT COMPANY 
 
 (SueoeesoPS to DOFJi^EE & STOUT,) 
 
 il IlIIDklI?21ll8, 
 
 CARRIAGES, BUGGIES, 
 
 GRAIN AND SEEDS.' 
 
 FORT SCOTT, - KANSAS. 
 
John Glunz, 
 
 WHOI^ESAI^E DEAI,ER IN 
 
 , » UEBT « 
 
 Saddlery, Shoe Leather and Fiuding. 
 
 Manufacturer of H7MARKETST., 
 
 nonsH couuRHS. \J^ I Q£3 FORT SCO TT, KANSAS. 
 
 5, rtunter, 
 
 PRESCRIPTION DRUGGIST, 
 
 AflD 
 
 MaDuiacturer ol Well Rdowd 
 
 Pharmaceutical Preparations and Proprietary Remedies. 
 
 DRUGS, CHEMICALS, 
 
 Perfumery and Toilet Articles of Every Description, and Physicians' Supplies. 
 
 Corner Main and Wall Streets, 
 
 FORT SCOTT. KANSAS. 
 
FOflT SCOTT FyemfiE COMPMiy, 
 
 Nos. 10, 12 fP 14 Scott Avenue. 
 
 Furniture ^ Undertaking. 
 
 Carrying the Largest and 
 Best Selected iStock of 
 
 MEDIUM AND HI&H GRADE FUEITDRE 
 
 In this Section. Buying all goods in car load lots for CASH 
 
 enables us to undersell all competitors. We can sell 
 
 Furniture at same price it costs small dealers, and 
 
 Guarantee to Save You at Least 20 per Cent. 
 
 
 ^^^ 
 
 Undertaking 
 Department. 
 
 (Uii 
 
 %, 
 
 
 Scientific Embalming. 
 
 COFFINS AND CASKETS,^^- 
 
 -= IroD, Metallic, Copper and Zinc. 
 
 SHROUDS, ROBES, Etc. 
 
 A complete equipment of Hearses, Pall Bearers' Wagonette , 
 Carriages, Hacks and Undertaker' s Wagons. 
 
 No Extra Charge for Hearses in the Country, 
 
 This Department is under the direct supervision of C. W. Good- 
 lander, Jr., — 18 years practical experience in this city and adjacent 
 territory. 
 
CHAN. B. CMPBELL 
 Insurance 
 
 lioans. 
 
 flfiD 
 
 • • • 
 
 FIIE, LIGHTNING, CYCLONE, HAIL,____^ 
 WIND STORM, PLATE GLASS, LIFE AND ACCIDENT. 
 
 All classes of Insurance at equitable rates. 
 
 Loans promptly made on Farm and City Property. 
 
 All kinds of Conveyancing and Notarial work done. 
 Rents collected and properties cared for. 
 
 Call and see me when you want business in my line. 
 
 FORT SCOTT, KANSAS. 
 
 D. PRAGER, 
 
 
 CM^ 
 
 ©'^if'^llff'W 
 
 UNION BLOCK. 
 
 No. 18 fflaifl Street, - FORT SCOTT, KANSAS, 
 
C. C. pBIiSOr*. • W. p. SMITH. 
 
 C. C. NELSON & CO., 
 
 LOANS. 
 
 Lsaas Proitlj Neptiated on Farm M City Properly. 
 
 Low Rales of Meresl aofl Easy Paymeils on Priicipal. 
 
 Office 
 
 Km 
 
 .112 E. First Street, FORT SCOTT, KANSAS, 
 
 J. V. DABBS, 
 
 The Old Reliable 
 
 n ^ ^ ^ 
 
 GHOUflD FliOOH STUDIO. 
 
 New Process Portraits, Crayon Portraits, 
 
 Water Coiored Portraits, Frames and Mouldings, 
 
 Colored Pictures, Photogravures. 
 207 Market Street, - - f-ORT SCOTT, KANSAS. 
 
1858. 
 
 1894. 
 
 Pioneer Lumber Vard 
 
 C. W. GOODLANDER, 
 
 .DEALER IN. 
 
 Sash, Doors, Blinds, Cement, Llme^::^ 
 
 — = A11 Kines of Bnilding Material. 
 
 Port Scott, Kansas, Arcadia, Kansas, Unicntown, Kansas, Garland, Kansas, 
 Bronson, Kansas, Liberal, Mo. 
 
 ^ 
 ^=^ 
 
 -fe-> 
 
 mm 
 
 ^ < s 
 
 W. A. C08T0N. 
 
 No. 103 South Main Street, 
 FORT SCOTT. 
 
 KANSAS. 
 
 -^ 
 
 
H. L PAGE L^^ GO. 
 
 DEALERS IN 
 
 ALL KINDS OF VEHICLES. 
 
 They buy direct from the manufac- 
 turers, therefore are able and do give 
 their customers the benefit of as low 
 prices on all the different grades and 
 styles of vehicles, as can be had of 
 any dealer in the State. They carry a 
 large stock of 
 
 Spring Wagons, Phaetons, 
 
 Biiggies, Road Wagons. 
 
 Also, a fine line of Harness. They 
 sell the celebrated BAIN WAGON, 
 
 Their long experience enables 
 them to select from the different 
 factories the best articles made lor 
 Farm JIachinery. Their NEW 
 IDEAI, MOWER, with ball ad 
 roller bearing journals, serrated 
 ledger plates, is without doubt tht- 
 best Mower now made. 
 
 No. i Market Square, 
 
 TlieNcTV Deering 
 
 Pony Binder, 
 
 With ball and roller bearing. 
 
 Fort Scott, Kanass. 
 
 Warn Hardware Co., 
 
 DEALERS IN 
 
 HARDWARE, 
 
 Cutlery, Stoves and Tinuuare, 
 
 21 SOUTH MAIN STREET. 
 
 JAVOBITE STOVES AND RANGES, 
 
 AGENTS FO 
 
 The most durable, convenient, economical and best operating Stoves 
 and Ranges sold in this city or county. 
 
1B71, 
 
 1834, 
 
 H. BROWN, 
 
 
 PINE TAILORING A SPEGIALI!, 
 
 NO. 211 MARKET STREET. 
 
 Fort Scott, - Kgir|sgis. 
 
 T. W> Tallman Lumtei" Cofnpanf, 
 
 DEALERS IBT 
 
 M 
 
 liUjWBER, 
 
 ^ 
 
 » 
 
 New and Complete Stock of Builders' and Plasterers' 
 Material Always on Hand. 
 
 Yards, Cor. National Ave. and Third St., 
 Opposite Court House, » ; • > w "^ 
 
 FORT SCOTT, KANS. 
 
I870. 
 
 1894. 
 
 OFFICE OF THE 
 
 Fort Scott Marble aod Gfaoite Wofks, 
 
 Cor. Third and 
 ^^Main Streets. 
 
 M. E, FARNSWORTH, 
 
 Proprietor. 
 
 dealer ir) Quirjcy, IBarre, Clark's Island, ©ak 
 Hill, Hallowell, Concord, "©lack Oiarrjond, ped 
 ■^each) ar)d "©ay of Furjdy @rar)ites. Irrjportep 
 of Scotch ©rarjite, Statuary Figures, Italiar) 
 Njarble and Finished Njonurrjerjts. 
 
 COKRESPONDING OFFICES : 
 
 Aberdeen, Scotland, . . . and . . . Carrara, Italy. 
 
 All communicatious should be addressed -, ..i ii]r/%i^«%x> itir ~ -^ -^^ _. ^ ^ 
 and remittances made to I. W. ^VIOODY, f/lSinSlQeV. 
 
 All parties desiring work in our line would do well to call and see our stock and 
 C3-ET OXJE/ FZEtTCES, 
 
 C. W. GOODLANDER, President. C. H. OSBUN, Vice Pres't. C. B. McDONALD, Cashier. 
 
 ORGANIZED IN 1884. 
 
 
 f 
 
 If 
 
 
 Citizens 
 
 flational 
 Bank. 
 
 
 PAID DP CAPITAL, $100,000. ADTHORIZED CAPITAL, $300,000. 
 
 T\\ vs«/^+ (^*^pl T.W.Tallman,G,W. Katzung, W. P. Dilworth, C. W.Goodlander.C. H. 
 JJircCLOro. Osbun.F. M. Brickley, B. P. McDonald, Leo I. Stadden, W. C. Perry. 
 
 Bank on Main Street, FORT SCOTT, KANSAS. 
 
(W 
 
 o 
 
 DRY GOODS, NOTIONS, 
 KID GLOVES, 
 CLOAKS, 
 
 J£>-> 
 
 Complete Line of Seasonable Goods 
 
 AT ALL TIMES, 
 Can be pound at ouf Store. 
 
 GOODSELL, CALHODN k CO. 
 
 DAVID F. COON, 
 
 President. 
 
 J. J. STEWART, JAS. R. COI^EAN, 
 
 Vice President. Cashier, 
 
 The State Bank, 
 
 COR. OF MAIN AND FIRST STREETS, 
 
 FORT SCOTT, KANSAS- 
 
 Capital, 
 
 $100,000. 
 
 X)TiaECTOE,S. 
 
 C. H. Haynes, 
 John H. Mead, 
 W. H. Harris, 
 
 C. C. Grain, J. J. Stewart, 
 
 Thornton Ware, D. F. Coon, 
 
 Henry J. Butler, Jas. R. Colean. 
 
Druggist, 
 
 FORT SCOTT, KANS. 
 
 The Best is the Ctieapest! 
 
 Prescriptions 
 
 Filled 
 
 at all hoars : 
 
 Day 
 
 or 
 
 Night. § 
 
 Ouality Pays! 
 
 We Jiandleonly 
 reliable , floods of 
 the best wakes, 
 and sell them at 
 prices as low as 
 may be consist- 
 ent with good 
 quality. 
 
 TOILET 
 
 ARTICLES, 
 PEEFUMES, 
 
 BRUSHES, 
 COMBS. 
 
 MIREORS. 
 
 C. E. HALL, Druggist, 
 
 112 S. MAIN STREET. 
 
C. p. Dt^ni^B, CHAS. riHIiSOH. C. p. fHAI^Tirl, 
 
 Ppesldent. Vise Pfesldent, Casbiep, 
 
 ORGANIZED UNDER STATE LAW. 
 
 Tie Bail li Firt Sci 
 
 ESABLiSHED, 1881. 
 
 Paid-up Capital, ^ $125,000, 
 
 111 WALL STREET, 
 
 FORT SCOTT. 
 
 KANSAS, 
 
 idie,ecto:rs. 
 
 C. F DRAKE, CHAS. NELSON, C.F.MARTIN, 
 
 J.H.RANDOLPH, J. F. COTTRELL. 
 
■^Jjlpm^f^^.-^