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Full text of "Past and present of Greene County Missouri; early and recent history and genealogical records of many of the representative citizens"

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PAST AND PRESENT 



OF 



GREENE COUNTY 

MISSOURI 






Early and Recent History and Genealogical Records 
of Many of the Representative Citizens 



BY 

JONATHAN FAIRBANKS 

AND 
• CLYDE EDWIN TUCK 



VOLUME I 



ILLUSTRATED 



1915 

A. W. BOWEN & COMPANY 

INDIANAPOLIS 



DEDICATION. 
This work is respectfully dedicated to 

THE PIONEERS, 

long departed. May the memory of those who laid down their burdens by 

the wayside ever be fragrant as the l)reath of summer flowers, 

for their toils and sacrifices have made Greene county 

a garden of sunshine and delights. 



^^HOKKP.,,^^ 










FOREWORD 



All life and achievement is evolution ; the wisdom of today comes from 
past experience, and present commercial prosperity is the result of former 
exertion and sacrifice. The deeds and motives of the men that have gone 
before ha\e been instrumental in shaping the destinies of later communities 
and states. The development of a new country was at once a task and a 
privilege. It required great courage, privation and suffering. Compare the 
present conditions of the people of Greene county, .Missuuri. with what they 
were three-quarters of a century ago. From a trackless wilderness and a 
virgin prairie, less than a century ago, it has been transformed into a center 
of prosperity and advanced civilization, with millions of wealth, modern 
railroad facilities, great educational institutions, splendid industries, and 
immense agricultural productions. Can any thinking person be insensible to 
the fascination of the study which discloses the incentives, hopes, aspirations 
and efforts of the early pioneers who laid so firm a foundation upon which 
has been reared the magnificent prosperity of later days? To perpetuate 
the story of these people and to trace and record the social, political, and 
industrial progress of the community from its first inception to the present 
time has been the function of our historians. A sincere purpose to preserve 
facts and personal memoirs that are deserving of perpetuation, and which 
unite the present with the past, is the motive for this publication. While 
the actual writing of most of the work was done by Clyde Edwin Tuck, the 
data was gathered by many trained assistants and the finished product ap- 
pro\'ed by competent local authorities, to prevent possilile errors. Jonathan 
Fairbanks being the principal editorial advisor, while special chapters were 
written by Edward M. Shepard and others well equipped to prepare such 
articles. A specially valuable department has been devoted to the sketches 
of representative citizens of this county whose records deserve perservation 
because of their worth and accomplishments. The pulilishers desire to ex- 
tend their thanks to all who have aided in any way in making this under- 
taking a success, and to express their gratitude for the uniform kindness with 
which the citizens of Greene coimty have regarded their elforts and for the 
many services rendered in obtaining necessary information. 

'in placing "Past and Present of Greene County, ^lissouri," before the 



citizens, the publishers can conscientiously claim that thev have carried out 
the plan as outlined in the prospectus. Every biographical sketch in the 
work was submitted to the party interested, for correction, and therefore 
any error of fact, if there be any, is solely due to the person for whom the 
sketch was prepared. Confident that our efforts to please will fully meet 
the approbation of the public, we are. 

Respectfully, 

THE PUBLISHERS. 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER I— PREHISTORIC RACES l.\ GREEXE COUXTY 25 

Evidence of Cave Dwellers and Mound Builders — Indian Implements — 
Characteristics of the Osages, Delawares and Kickapoos — Indian Trails — 
Early Explorers — First Settlers — Under I'lags of Spain and France — The Old 
Louisiana Territory. 

CHAPTER II— GEOLOGY, LOCATION AND TOPOGRAPHY 59 

Altitudes — The Ozarks — Various Rivers and Streams — Caves — The Diflfer- 
ent Formations — The Geological Ages — An Interesting Region for the Stu- 
dent of Geology and Archaeolgy. 

CHAPTER III— ECONOMIC GEOLOGY 85 

W'ater — Springfield Water Supply — Mineral Waters — Building Stones — 
Sandstones — Limestone — Ornamental Stones — Lime — Soil — Road Material — 
Coal — Iron — Lead — Zinc— Copper— Silver — Gold— Petroleum— Local Mines. 

CHAPTER IV— ORGAXIZATION OF COUXTY 120 

Official Acts Connected with Its Formation— Beginning of the Various 
Townships— Giving Greene County a Legal Existence— Unique Court Docu- 
ments. 

CHAPTER V— EARLY SETTLEMENT 129 

Where the Pioneer Settlers Emigrated Froin— Where They First Eflfected 
Their Settlment— The Early-day Mills— Early Roads— Pioneer Schools— 
Churches— Customs and Manners— Going to Market— Mai! Facilities. 

CHAPTER VI— COUNTY GOVERNMENT >56 

First Set of Officers— Pioneer and Later Court Houses— Jails and Care for 
the Unfortunate Poor— Bond Issues— Roads and Bridges— Finances at Dif- 
ferent Periods— A Glimpse of Early Court Proceedings. 

CHAPTER VII— TRANSPORTATION V":".' ^^'^ 

Railroad Building and Freighting-How Early Merchants Obtamed Thc.r 
Goods-First Train Into Springfield-Old Gulf Railroad-The Bolivar 
Branch— Springfield Traction Company— Stage Coaches. 

CHAPTER VIII— FARMING AND STOCK RAISING 196 

Pioneer Methods of Farming-Old Time Implements-Smaller 1-arms Now 
-Greater Diversity of Crops-Improved Methods-Stock Kais.ng-Products 
Shipped Out of the County. 



CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER IX— VARIOUS DIVISION'S OF GREENE COUNTY 204 

History of Each Township — The Original Townships — ^Changes in the Civil 
Subdivisions — Population at Various Periods — Early Settlement of Each 
Township — History of Towns and Villages — Special History and Events. 

CHAPTER X— COUNTY GROWTH AND PROGRESS 211 

Miscellaneous Events of Interest — Population by Decades — Population by 
Last Federal Census by Townships and Precincts — First Events in the 
County — Market Quotations at Different Periods — The "Rough Side of Life." 

CHAPTER X!— MILITARY HISTORY 229 

Revolutionary Soldiers — Indian Troubles — Soldiers — The Mexican War — 
Beginning of the Civil War — Coming of General Lyon — Battle of Wilson's 
Creek in Detail — Springfield Under Federals and Confederates — Zagonyi's 
Charge — The Battle of Springfield — Trials and Troubles of the People Dur- 
ing the Long Struggle — Conditions Immediately .\fter the War — Greene 
County's Part — The Spanish-American War. 

CHAPTER XII— HISTORY OF PUBLIC EDUCATION IN SPRINGFIELD__ 409 
First Public Schools^High School and Various Ward Schools — Number of 
Pupils — Drury College — State Normal School — Old Normal School — Carne- 
gie Public Library — Other Schools of the county. 

CHAPTER XIII— BENCH AND BAR 443 

Prominent Early Lawyers and Jurists — Characteristics of the Members of the 
Greene County Bar in Pioneer Days and the Present — Names and Records 
of Attorneys and Judges During the Entire History of the Local Bar. 

CHAPTER XIV— THE PRACTICE OF MEDICINE IN GREENE COUNTY. 485 
Growth of the Science — Names and Characteristics of the Pioneer Doctors 
— Later General Practitioners. Surgeons and Specialists — Dentists — Veter- 
inarians — Osteopaths — Chiropractors — Hospitals. 

CHAPTER XV— BANKS AND BANKING 509 

Amount of Deposits — Annual Clearing House Figures — First Bank — First 
National Banks — Names of Leading Bankers of the Early Daj-s — History 
of Various Banks of the Past and Present. 

CHAPTER XVI— THE NEWSPAPERS OF TFIE COUNTY 519 

The First Published in What Was Originallj' Greene County — Names of 
Early and Later Publications — A Brief History of Each — Names . of the 
Publishers. 

CHAPTER XVII— SECRET SOCIETIES 524 

History of Masonry and Its Co-ordinate Branches in Greene County — Var- 
ious Lodges — Sons of the Revolution — Grand Army Organizations — National 
Cemetery — Confederate Organization — Confederate Cemetery — First Decora- 
tion— Y. M. C. A.— Y. W. C. A. 

CHAPTER XVIII— WOMEN'S CLUBS 560 

Interest Manifested in Intellectual Development After the Civil War — Names 
of Charter and Present Members of the Various Organizations — The Growth 
of the Club Movement — -Some of the Things .Accomplished. 



CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER XIX— CHURCH DEXOM IXATlOXAl, IHSToRV -_ 579 

The Methodist, Baptist, Christian, Presbyterian, Congregational, Evangeli- 
cal, Lutheran and Other Churches — Colored Churches — Catholic Church 
History. 

CHAPTER XX— MAXUEACTCKIXG 66.? 

Its Beginning, Growth and Present Condition — Early Plants and Shops — 
Modern Mills, Foundries and Other Centers of .\ctivity — A Comparison Be- 
tween Pioneer and Modern Methods. 

CHAPTER XXI— CITY OF SPRIXGI-TELD ...682 

Its Founders — Incorporation — Early-day Business Interests — Growth — Re- 
cent Years — City Governments — List of Mayors — Street Making — Fire De- 
partment — Water Works — Electric Light and Power Plants — Other Items 
of Interest. 



HISTORICAL INDEX 



Agriculture 196 

Altitude of Springfield 59 

Ash Grove 208 

Banks and Banking 508 

Growth of Banks in Springfield 508 

First Banks 510 

National Banks 512 

North Side Banks 515 

Trust Companies 516 

Banks of the Smaller Towns 516 

Baptist Young Men's Organization. 652 

Baptist Young People's Union 617 

Bench and Bar 443 

Early Lawyers 443 

Early Judges 443 

Brief Mention of Former and 

Present Practicing Lawyers 471 

Criminal Court 451 

Congressmen 464 

Lawyers in Springfield Before the 

War 457 

List of Present Active Practition- 
ers 483 

Oldest Member of the Bar 469 

Bois D'Arc 210 

Boone, Nathan 140 

Brotherhoods 617 

Campbell Camp 552 

Carnegie Public Library 428 

Cave Spring 208 

Chiropractors 499 

Christian Endeavor 616 

Churches, Catholic 618 

Immaculate Conception 619 

Sacred Heart Parish 622 

St. Agnes 635 

St. Joseph's 638 

Churches, Protestant 579 

Christian 585 

Baptist 595-650 

German, and others 608 

Methodist Episcopal —579-600-639-644 



Methodist Protestant 584 

Congregational 603 

Protestant Episcopal 607 

Presbyterian. 588-646 

Colored, Baptist 611 

Other Denominations 660 

Country Churches 639 

Civil War 239 

Before the War Began 239 

News of Ft. Sumter 242 

Federal Troops 245 

General Lyon 249 

Expedition to Forsyth 252 

Engagement at Dug Springs 253 

Confederate Troops 256 

Federal Account of Battle of Wil- 
son's Creek 257 

Battle in Detail 266 

Death and Burial of Gen. Lyon 270 

Col. Sigel 274 

Confederate Account of Battle 281 

McCuUoch's Fight with Sigel--- 288 

Losses 290 

Care of Wounded and Burial of 

Dead 292 

Greene County Men in Battle — 293 

Federals Evacuate Springfield 295 

Confederate Troops Enter Spring- 
field 297 

Influence of Battle 30C 

Col. T. T. Taylor 309 

Gen. John C. Fremont 311 

Major Zagonyi 312 

General Hunter 324 

Gen. Sterling Price 307 

State Militia ^ 3.V) 

Greene County Men at Pea Ridge- 337 

Military Hospital 341 

Fortifications 342 

Battle of Springfield 344 

Col. Sheppard's Account 360 

Losses 362 

Provisional Regiment 368 

Gen. J. B. Sanborn 378 



HISTORICAL INDEX. 



After the War ^ 382 

Farewell to the Military 387 

Clans, Gathering of 244 

Confederate Cemetery 554 

Confederate Monument 555 

County Government 156 

Permanent County-seat 158 

First Court House Burned 161 

Historic Court House Torn Down 164 

County Court 16/ 

Plans and Construction of Present 
Court House 169 

Daughters of the American Revolu- 
tion 577 

Delaware Indians. The 38 

Dentists 496 

De Soto 48 

Divisions of Greene County. The 

Various 204 

Drake Constitution. The 385 

Drury College 417 

Organization 417 

Location 419 

Scholarships 422 

Presidents 424 

Early Explorations 44 

Early Hunters and Pioneers 52 

Early Settlement 129 

Pioneer Settlers 129 

Settlements 131 

Delawares 131 

Frontier Life 143 

Early Roads 145 

First Churches 147 

Log Cabin Schools 149 

Early Travelers, Record of 46 

Ebenezer 207 

Education 409 

First School Building in Spring- 
field 409 

First Public School 410 

Movement to Establish a System 

of Public Education 410 

Present School Buildings 414 

Enrollment in Schools 415 

Teachers 416 

Members of Board of Education.- 416 
Epworth League 617 

Fair Grove 208 

Farming 196 

Pioneer Methods 196 



Smaller Farms 199 

Improved Methods 200 

Products Shipped Out 202 

Crop Failures 221 

High Prices 221 

Federation of Churches 614 

"Firsts" in Greene County 216 

General Election in Autumn of 1864 380 

Geology 66 

Stratigraphy 66 

Cambro-Ordovician Age 66 

Stones 67 

Devonian Age 69 

Carboniferous 70 

Tertiary Age 11 

Pleistocene 11 

Geology, Economic 85 

Springs 85 

Springfield City Water Supply — 89 

Mineral Waters 90 

Stones 90 

Soils 94 

Coal 101 

Road Material 100 

Clays 101 

Moulding Sand 104 

Iron 104 

Lead and Zinc 106 

Mines Worked Long Ago 107 

Deposit of Ore 110 

Local Mines 113 

Copper, Gold and Silver 118 

Petroleum 119 

Grand Army of the Republic 546 

Greene County Sunday School As- 
sociation 661 

Growth and Progress of County 211 

Statistics 211 

Guerrilla Raiders, The 375 

Headlee Murder, The 226 

Hospitals 500 

Springfield 501 

Burge Deaconess 503 

Southwest 505 

St. John's 506 

P'risco Employee's 50/ 

Indian Implements 29 

Indian Trails 41 

Ingram's Mill 138 

Journal. A Pioneer's 135 



HISTORICAL INDEX. 



Kickapoo Indians, The 39 

Kickapoo Settlement 40 

Levy-Wolf Dry Goods Company — 1685 

Manufacturing 663 

Early Growth 664 

Primitive Industries 666 

Metropolitan Improvements 672 

Public Service Corporations 675 

Medical Profession 485 

Pioneer Physicians 486 

Present Active Physicians 488 

Mexican War 235 

Survivor. The Only 237 

Military History 229 

Mob Violence 222 

National Cemetery 548 

First Decoration 550 

Newspapers 519 

Nichols 210 

Organization of County 120 

Boundaries of First Townships — 125 
Formations of New Townships 205 

Osage Indians, The 30 

Dress 31 

Characteristics 32 

Lodges 36 

Favorite Haunts 36 

Treaties 3/ 

Osage War 230 

Osteopaths 498 

Pawnee Indians, The 41 

Percy Cave 946 

Piankashaw Indians, The 41 

Poorhouse, The 1'' 

Prehistoric Races in Greene County 25 

Cave Dwellers 25 

Mound Builders 26 

Regulators, The 224 

Republic Township 702 

Republic 209-703 

Public School 704 

Flour Mills 705" 

Banks 705 

Custom Mill 706 

Revolutionary Soldiers 229 

Rough Side of Life, The 222 

Salvation Army, The 61S 

Sampson Bass' Mill 151 



Sanitarium, Johnson 1622 

-Sarcoxie War 233 

Schools of Greene County and Out- 
side of Springfield 4.10 

First School 432 

Schools of the Different Town- 
ships 434 

Sequiota Cave 955 

Societies, Secret 524 

Fremasonry 524 

Odd Fellows 531 

Woodmen 533 

Benevolent and Protective Order 

of Elks 536 

Improved Order of Red Men 537 

Knights of Columbus 539 

American Yeomen 540 

Court of Honor 541 

Loyal Order of Moose 542 

Eagles 542 

Knights of Pythias 543 

Sons of the Revolution 544 

-Spanish-American War 388 

Maine Disaster 390 

Roosevelt's Rough Riders 391 

National Guard Requirements 393 

Farewell Reception 394 

Off for Chickamauga 396 

Epidemic of Typhoid 398 

Officers of Company K 404 

Officers of Company M 406 

Springfield 682 

First Settlers 682 

Incorporation 690 

Traveling Facilities 692 

After the War 695 

Municipal Bonds 697 

Wholesale Center 701 

Springfield Baking Company, The.- 680 
Springfield Jobbers' and Manufac- 
turers' Assn. 6/3 

Springfield Normal School, The 428 

Springfield Wagon Works 676 

St. Agnes School 637 

Stage Coaches 692 

State Normal School 426 

Enrollment 426 

Graduates 426 

St. De Chantal .A.cadeniy 1907 

Straflford 209 

Topography 59 

Watercourses 60 



HISTORICAL INDEX. 



Hydrography 63 

Caves. Sinks and Natural Bridges 64 

Transportation 184 

Steamboats 184 

First Railroad 180 

Stages 187 

First Train 188 

Old Gulf Railroad 190 

Bolivar Branch 193 

Missouri Pacific Railroad 193 

Springfield Traction Company 195 

Townships, Original Boundaries of- 125 
Tucker-Ferguson Warehouse and 

Transfer Co. 1926 



Under Three Flags 57 

L'nion League. The 377 

V'cterinarians 497 

Walnut Grove 209 

Water Power 144 

Welsh Packing Company 678 

WiUard 210 

Woman's Missionary Union 615 

Women's Clubs 560 

Young Women's Christian Associa- 
tion 558 

Young Men's Christian Association- 557 



BIOGRAPHICAL INDEX 



Abbott, Alfred S 1273 

Albert, Jake 1896 

Albright, M. D., Wm. E 1871 

Alden. John 850 

Allebach, Newton V 1291 

Allen, Charles H 443 

Allen, John D 1071 

Anderson, Henry S 1699 

Anderson, Joseph G 1911 

Andrew, Paul E 1533 

Anthony, George W 711 

Anthony, James 854 

Armstrong, Frederick W 1882 

Armstrong, Tom W - 1255 

Arnett, R. L 1290 

Atherton. M. D., J. LeRoy 1550 

Atherton, M. D., Mary Jean 1556 

Atteberry, James O 1789 

Atwood, George Albert 936 

Atwood, George Hammond 936 

Aumoth, Joseph G. 822 

Ausherman, Martin 8i76 

Bacon, Rev. John T 1522 

Bair, James 1356 

Baker, J. 454 

Baker, S. A 1664 

Banfield, Lewis F. 920 

Banister, Theodore 988 

Barnes, M. D., George W 1436 

Barrett, John 1840 

Barrett, Robert Franklin 1252 

Barron, Willard M 1704 

Barton, James H 776 

Barton, William H 778 

Bass, Sampson 1008 

Bassett, Louis N 1092 

Bassett, Samuel H 1093 

Bates, Percy J 1305 

Baxter, Hendry 1727 

Baxter, Kirk 989 

Beal, Daniel N 772 

Beat, M. D., Edward L 764 

Beal, George T 764 



Beal, Capt. George T.__ 771 

Beatie, Maj. John W. F 1676 

Beckerleg, John 1799 

Bennett, H. S 867 

Benson, Richard H 1733 

Berry, James A 1120 

Berry. James Blaine 1333 

Berry, Gustavus F 1756 

Beyer, Frank .\ 1050 

Billasch, William C 1195 

Bishop, Franklin T 1722 

Bissett, James 1124 

Blanchard, Green I ! 1846 

Bodenhamer, Andrew J 1496 

Bodenhamer, Emsley L 1091 

Bodenhamer, Joseph J 1499 

Bodenhamer, Louis F 1498 

Bomgardner, D. V. S., George I 1399 

Eon, Ira Carl 1310 

Booth, Waldo Cornwell 1669 

Bowland, Robert A 1187 

Bowman, Benjamin 1570 

Boyd, M. D., John R 970 

Boyd, S. H 447 

Beyer, Ray C 1841 

Bradley, Thomas H 1047 

Brazill, James B 1749 

Briggs, Cecil Alvin 1504 

Bright, John C 1823 

Brewer, Madison A 1845 

Brown. Addison 1875 

Brown, Frank E 1588 

Brown, Harry F 1334 

Brown, James M 1317 

Brown, John D 1044 

Brown, Joseph Addison 1043 

Brown, Thomas T. 1472 

Brown, M. D., William McF 1040 

Bryant, Arthur W 1221 

Burge, Mrs. Ellen A 708 

Burge, George W 707 

Burge, James T 709 

Busch, Charles R 1314 

Butler, Xelson Garrett 1502 



BIOGRAPHICAL INDEX. 



Butler, Stephen E 1303 

Butts, James M 1344 

Can;p. Warren N 1811 

Camp, William P 1738 

Campbell, Trvin H 1194 

Campbell, John Polk 1478 

Cantrell, James T 1374 

Carroll. Frank P 1299 

Carter, Charles W 1613 

Carter, M, D., William C 1697 

Cass. Dudley 1768 

Cass, Mason 1768 

Chaffin, John C 1741 

Chalfant, Ephraim 893 

Chappell, Lewis E 1660 

Clark, M. D., James W^ 1818 

Clark, Clarence M 906 

Chavose, Charles C 1901 

Claypool. Luther M 1888 

Chrisman, John Maloney 1632 

Christman, Matthias 1294 

Childress, James G 1806 

Clements, M. D., Christopher C 1428 

Clements, Oscar S 845 

Cloud, Daniel E. 1539 

Cloud. William B 1643 

Coffelt, M. D., Theodore A 1245 

Cole, Stephen Henry 1495 

Collier, P. V 1163 

Colvin, Hugh P 1804 

Condon, George W 1147 

Constance, Walter 1323 

Coon, Walter A 781 

Cooper, George 1307 

Cooper, Harry 1597 

Cornell. William C 1214 

Counts, Benjamin B 1834 

Cowan, John 993 

Cowan, John Maxwell 992 

Cowden, James S 1798 

Cowden, M. D., William H 1409 

Cowell, John 1337 

Crane, M. D.. Thos. V. B 1873 

Crawford. A. B 918 

Crawford, William J 1161 

Crenshaw, Louis A. D 1406 

Crenshaw, Thomas T 1711 

Crow, J. W 945 

Crowdus, Charles 1645 

Culler, George W 942 

Curran, Rev. Father Francis 623 

Curry, Rev, Father George 628 



DeBoard, Elisha 1856 

DeGrofif, Moses R 840 

DeLange, William 1886 

DeWitt, Edward J 1843 

Dabbs, Thomas E. 1675 

Dade, Davney C 870 

Daggett, William A 1226 

Daigler, George 759 

Dale, Harris K 1858 

Dando, Charles E 1283 

Daniel, William R 980 

Danzero, Domino 1219 

Darby, Ezra Faucett 1170 

Darby, D. D. S., Robert Ezra 1168 

Dark, Melville E 1552 

Davis, Eniil O 1812 

Deaton, John P 856 

Deaton, John W 856 

Deeds, James C 1748 

Delaney, T. J 460 

Delzell, M. D., William A 1554 

Demuth, Capt, Albert 808 

Dennis, Benjamin F 1760 

Dennis, John E 1672 

Dennis, William A 833 

Devereaux, James 864 

Devereaux, Mrs. Mary 865 

Dewey. M. D., James E 1765 

Dii¥enderfTer, David M , 1714 

Diffenderffer, David R , 1714 

Diffenderfter, Harry W 1715 

Diggins, Hiram W 1642 

Dillard, George E 1779 

Dingeldein, Edward P 1509 

Dingeldein, Sebastian 1216 

Donnell, Francis M 1894 

Donovan. William F 1394 

Doran, Thomas H 1682 

Douglass, Gaylard 1877 

Dozier, Duerrett W 848 

Dozier, John 848 

Draper, Charles . 825 

Draper, John 824 

Draper, Joseph N 824 

Dritt, John R 1302 

Drury, Charles J 1094 

Dulin, James E 1102 

Duncan, Andrew B 1826 

Durst, Harry D 1752 

Eagleburgcr, Joseph S 1625 

Earnest, C. W 1535 

Earnest, James Howard 1460 



BIOGRAPHICAL INDEX. 



East, Howard B 7S7 

East, Sidney 788 

Eaton, Henry 1362 

Edmonson, Walton E 1529 

Eisenmayer, Andrew J 1380 

Elson, Edwin Wiggins 1006 

Elson, William Penn 1064 

Emerson, Walter P 982 

Emery, Alonzo W __1101 

Emery, Edgar T. 1628 

Ennis, Edgar E 1619 

Ernst, Louis P 1531 

Eslinger, Jas. E 1766 

Eslinger, Samuel L 1766 

Evans, M. D., E. L 1074 

Evans, Owen M 1188 

Everett, Richard E 1610 

Fairbanks, Jonathan 961 

Fallin, Walter Augustus 1011 

Fallin, Wilbur M ' 1010 

Farmer, Edward 1318'. 

Farmer, Oscar F 1583 • 

Farmer, Samuel A 1594 ' 

Farmer, William C 1640" 

Farrington, J. S 456 

Fawcett, Leonard 1431 

Fay, Edwin L 1788 

Fellows, Erastus 737 

Fellows, Col. Homer F 1364 

Fellows, Norris W , 736 

Fenton, Jeremiah 1917 

Ferguson, Ernest N 1890 

Ferguson, George W , 1758 

Ferguson, John R 1115 

Fielder, Benjamin F 1128 

Finch, Edward Swayzee 997 

Finch, Harry H 1430 

Fine, Alphonsus F 1055 

Fink, Charles H 752 

Fink, Richard M 752 

Finley, Elder Newton 882 

Finney, Frank L 1621 

Fitch, James W 1571 

Fogarty, Thomas 1500 

Fortune. Rev. Father T. J 626 

Foster. Jr., Jesse J 1 1455 

Fowler, J. W 1627 

Frame, M. D., Homer G 1470 

Freeman, John Guy 1651 

Freeman, Rederick F 1648-49 

Freeman, William 1648 

Freeman, William B 1648 



I'-rench, John I33I 

I'rey. Frank A 1184 

Fricke, George W 842 

Fry, William A 1512 

I'ulbright, Charles R 757 

Fulbright, John L 741 

Fulbright, John Y 758 

I'ulbright. WilHam 741 

l''ulbright. Willam H 740 

I'urrow, Calvin 1005 

Gallagher. Francis A 1138 

Galloway, Jesse E 1696 

Gann, J. W 1288 

Gardner, James Coleman 1037 

Carton. Jacob W 1708 

Carton. John H 1536 

George, C. M 1149 

Gideon. James J 1131 

Gideon. Thomas J 722 

Gideon. William C. 722 

Gififord, M. D.. Anson H 1537 

Glass, Albert M 1820 

Glass, John Baker 896 

GIassmo3'er. Howard S 1850 

Goode, R. L 455 

Goodwin, Oliver Smith 880 

Gorman, Daniel C 790 

Gorsuch. William R 1341 

Gosney, Napoleon 1206 

Granade, John A 912 

Grant, William W^ 1475 

Gray, James H 1336 

Gray, Josiah J 1584 

Green, George 1293 

Greenwade, John T 1384 

Greenwade, Weldon 1386 

Grier, Azzo B 1104 

Grier, Samuel S 1328 

Griffin, John P 1688 

Groblebe, Charles I 1067 

Grubel, Frank 1254 

Crustin, Walter P 1899 

ll.-ill. John M 1376 

Hall. William Alexander 1417 

Halstead, Capt. John 1925 

Hammond, Clyde L 1898 

Flankins, William T 1296 

Hannah, Ezra F 844 

Hansell. Jefferson E 1166 

Hansen. William M 1783 

Hanson. Albert N 1076 



BIOGKAPHICAL INDEX. 



Hanson, M. D., Richard H 984 

Harman, M. D., William Roby 904 

Harrison, John B 1098 

Hart, Andrew Thomas 1510 

Hart, Roswell K 1630 

Hartt, John W 1209 

Hasler, Thomas L 1117 

Hasten, John H 1150 

Haswell, Alanson M 720 

Haswell, James M 720 

Haun, George N 1719 

Haun, Walter 1463 

Hawkins, Kirk 929 

Hayden, John C 850 

Hayden, Joseph H 853 

Haynes, Ernest D i389 

Hayward, Hubert H 1923 

Headlee, Blondville D 1034 

Headlee, Claude Leslie 1033 

Headlee, Judge Elisha 1411 

Headlee, James Ward 1034 

Headlee, Samuel W 1032 

Headley, Frank E 933 

Healy, Rev. Father D. L 632 

Heckart, Henry M 1197 

Heckenlively, James L 1837 

Hedges, James H 716 

Hegarty, John 872 

Henderson. Walter H 1782 

Hendricks, Littleberry 445 

Hendrickson, George W 1229 

Henshaw, John E 1566 

Herman, Daniel H 1027 

Herrick, Samuel 1848 

Hiatt. Reuben J 1803 

Hibler, Elihu 1227 

Hickman, Isaac M 909 

Hilderbrand, James N 782 

Hinerman, J. H 1618 

Hobbs, John J 1424 

Hogeboom, M. D., R. W 495 

Holden, Harry Clyde 991 

Holland, Charles 1827 

Holland, Gen. Colley B 1744 

Holland. T. Blondville 976 

Hood, James D 1520 

Hooper, Samuel A 1932 

Hoover, John W 1573 

House, Merton C 1842 

Houston, Jerome A 1324 

Howard, Harvey W 1448 

Howell, William 1403 

Hubbell, Lucius W 1377 



Hubbard, W. D 449 

Hudnall, John R 828 

Hudnall. M. T)., M. L 828 

Hummel, Lynn 897 

Hard, Rev. Fayette 1144 

Insler, Hugh B. 1702 

Jackson, George W 1691 

Jackson, John S. C 1700 

James, David 1088 

James, Jason R 1089 

James, Nancy : 1090 

James, Thomas 1089 

James, William C 900 

James, Winfrey 1090 

Jaquith, Jesse D. 1297 

Jared, Flemin T 1516 

Jenkins, Robert 1222 

Jennings, William T 799 

Jewell, Harry Sanford 1371 

Johnson, John H 836 

Johnson, M. D., Samuel A 1622 

Johnson. Silas M 1791 

Johnson, U. G 479 

Johnston. A. J 1808 

Johnston, James B 1634 

Jones, Capt. George M 792 

Jones, Henry B 1889 

Jones, Henry T 794 

Jones, James 792 

Jones, John 1807 

Jones, John H 1154 

Jones, Joshua L 1703 

Jones, William J 1602 

Kanning. Charles F 1258 

Kauffman, Stanley K 1900 

Keller, W. Robert 1785 

Kelley, Prof. Edwin H 1562 

Kelley, Jesse Marion 1559 

Kelly, John 1276 

Kemmling, Ernst 1725 

Kennedy, Henry F 863 

Kennedy, Lee C 1743 

Kerr, .Andrew B. 1099 

Kerr, Charles W 1449 

Kerr, M. D.. Ulysses F 1922 

Kershner. Capt. Wm. H 797 

Kilkenny, Rev. Father Peter 627 

King. Charles L 1208 

King. M. D., Thomas M 1526 

Kinser. Jefferson 1739 



BIOGRAPHICAL INDEX. 



Kinser, Jolin 1739 

Kirby, Guy D 975 

Kirkey, William L 1332 

Kirkpatrick, Robt. A 1770 

Kissick, Robert F 1029 

Kite. Robert B 1S7S 

Klingensmith, Peter 1862 

Klingner. John W 1408 

Klingner, M. D., Thomas O 1238 

Knabb, M. D., Enoch 1586 

Knelle, George 885 

Knighten, Ammon 1824 

Knowles, M. D., John T 739 

Knox. Alexander 1024 

Kohler. Edward F 1557 

Kucker. L. S 1038 

LaBounty, Charles F 1918 

LaFollette. Ransom S 1763 

Lane. John M 1157 

Langsford. John 1565 

Langston. Jackson P. C 1218 

Lee, Bert S. 1666 

Leedy, Joseph W. 766 

Leeper, George 1590 

Lehr. John Henry 1122 

Levy, M. 1685 

Lilly. Rev. Father John J 621 

Lincoln, Azariah W 1230 

Linney. William Byrts 1387 

Lloyd, Charles Lee 1929 

Lloyd. Samuel Mack 1422 

Love. Robert 1048 

Love. D. V. S.. Robert B 1051 

Love. Thomas B 784 

Love, Col. Thomas C 784 

Lowe. M. D.. H. A 1490 

Luper, James E 1810 

MacElveny, Andrew W 1647 

McAfee. Judge Charles 922 

McCammon, John P 1351 

McCarty, Luther Q 1056 

McClernon. Flugh 1515 

McCluer, James H 755 

McCluer, John 756 

McCollum, George A 826 

McConnell, John Aaron 1568 

McConnell, Milton C 1713 

McCraw, Gabriel 1735 

McCrory, James 1729 

McCroskey, Charles W 1904 

McCurdy, Thomas 1121 



McCutcheon. I,. C 847 

McCutcheon. O. J 847 

McDonald. .-Mexander' 873 

McElliany. George LaFayette 1440 

McGinty. William H 1736 

McGuire. Guy H II39 

McHaffie. M. D., Charles H 735 

Mcllvin. James S 1018 

Mclntire. Cyrus B 830 

Mcjimsey. Elmer E. E 1345 

McKay. Elmer A 1926 

McKee. Roy 1379 

McKerall. William lOtX) 

McLinn. Albert S 1432 

McMaster. Cyrus J 1426 

McMaster. Walter Weir 1396 

McMehen. John A 1165 

McMehen, William A 1158 

McMillan. Otho D 958 

McMurtry, James Gilmer 1353 

Mc\abb. John T 1488 

McNeill. E. B _'._.1289 

McQuiston. Brandt 1118 

Mack. Clarence S 1087 

Mack. Clyde B 126D 

Mack. J. W. D. L. F 458 

Mack. Rowan E. M 996 

Maddox. Elisha B 1780 

Magill, James G 1860 

Major, Will J 1014 

Malley, John P 1301 

Martin. Harry E 1205 

Mason. James H 1717 

Mason, John F 1831 

Mason, Robert T 1717 

Massey, Frank R 1914 

Massey, Richard 1927 

Maxwell, William M 1624 

Mellon, Henry G 919 

Mercer, Carver O 1541 

Meyer, B. E 1372 

Meyer, John F 1816 

Miller, William S 1797 

Mills, Andrew D 1287 

Ming, Emmett M IO6S 

Minto, Robert 1775 

Mitchell, Harry H 901 

Mitchell, Obadiah C 1192 

Moomaw, H. M 1152 

Moon, James A 1518 

Moore, Anderson T 1916 

Moore, George W 1105 



BIOGRAPHICAL INDEX. 



Moore, Robert A 986 

Morckel, Charles W 1921 

Morgan. Harry C 1066 

Morice, Leon 1635 

Morton, William M 1549 

Moser, John A 1329 

Murry, Harvey 1223 

Murray, Thomas 1404 

Murphy, William C 1480 

Murray. William Penn 1080 

Murphy, Lawrence J 744 

Murphy, Michael J 1285 

Nee, Daniel Martin 1241 

Nelson, Marion A 1183 

Newbill, John Glenn 1433 

Newton. Edward F 1360 

Newton, Job 1786 

Nichols, A. D 763 

Nichols, Capt. Danton H 760 

Nichols. George W 883 

Nichols, Matthias H 760 

Niederhuth, George W 1135 

Noland, George L 1450 

O'Bryant, George W 1456 

O'Bryant, James H 973 

O'Byrne, James 1178 

Olendorf, George F 1270 

O'Neal, Andrew J 1694 

O'Neal. George W 1686 

O'Neill, Rev. Father Francis 622 

O'Reilly, Rev. Father J. J 629 

Ormsbee. M. D., James L 725 

Orr, W. J 480 

Orr, William J 866 

Ott, Theodore 1146 

Owen, Charles J 1605 

Owen, John S 1878 

Owen, Joseph L 1592 

Owen, Stephen A. D 1596 

Owens. Jerry W 1919 

Page. Judge Alfred 1350 

Patterson, M. D., Wm. P 746 

Paxson. Ely 1016 

Peak, M. D., Oscar L 1062 

Pepperdine, George 467 

Perkins, Leonard B 858 

Perkins, Judge Wm. H 1339 

Peterson, Harvey E 953 

Phelps. Hon. John S 1175 

Phillips, Lorenzo 1039 



Pickering, Charles B 1893 

Pickering, Clayton R 1801 

Pierce, M. D., Charles E 1693 

Pigg, Herbert \V 1653 

Pike. M, D.. Columbus J 1212 

Pipkin. Lewis 1*' 1853 

Pollack. Calvin 1545 

Porter. Henry Webb 1654 

Potter, M. D.. Ambrose 1474 

Potter, James Elmer 1358 

Potter, Nicholas 1479 

Potter, W. C 1368 

Potter. W. H. F 878 

Powell. William P 1311 

Preston, L. W 1659 

Price, Isaac 1321 

Price. Thomas W 1867 

Price, W. C 444 

Proserpi, Henry 1136 

Prugger, August F 1507 

Pursselley, M. D., Walter L 1524 

Putman. Mansel 1160 

Quinn, John 1600 

Quinn, James 1600 

Race. Edward F 1865 

Ragsdale, Howard 1012 

Ramsey. James A 1608 

Ramsey, Robert L 979 

Rathbone. B. F 1163 

Rathbone, William H 1468 

Rathbun, Col. George S 889 

Rauch, Fred William 1022 

Raum, Egmont 1493 

Raymond, George E 1880 

Redfearn, Jesse O 1851 

Rebori, Louis L 1680 

Reed. Samuel A 1398 

Reilly. James W 1211 

Renshaw, Moses M 1553 

Rhodes, Clarence J 1275 

Rhodes, C. L 1256 

Rhodes, Eugene J 1107 

Rhodes. Jr.. Eugene J 1263 

Rhodes, Ira G 1107 

Ricketts, Lemuel C 1002 

Risser, Omer E 1190 

Ritter, Aaron M 1864 

Ritter, David M 1832 

Robberson, M. D., Edwin T 718 

Robberson, Walter B 713 

Roberts, John 1046 



BIOGRAPHICAL INDEX. 



Roberts. Prof. John R 1348 

Robertson, Charles L 1232 

Robinson, David H 832 

Robinson, Henrj- D 1343 

' Roper, William Fry 1513 

Rosback, John 1772 

Rose, John W. 1277 

Rose, Reuben R. 1684 

Ross, Bennette J 804 

Ross, David Edward 1443 

Ross, J. B. 926 

Ross, LaFayette A. 1248 

Ross, M. D., Leonidas C 1242 

Roudebush, Marshall 959 

Ruffin, J. B 1114 

Rule, Charles W 1577 

Rullkoetter, William I038 

Rupprecht, George C 1086 

Russell, Columbus B 1678 

Ryan. Rev. Father James 625 

Salts, Robert A 1823 

Sanders, Emiel 1434 

Sanford. William B 800 

Sanford. Wyatt 801 

Sartain, James S 983 

Scharff, Max 1180 

Schofield, Albert L 1320 

Schofield, Thomas 1143 

Schreiber, William H 1910 

Scott, Andrew J. 868 

Self, William R 1773 

Shackelford. John H 1236 

Sheedy, Mike 1269 

Shelton. W. B 916 

Shepard, Edward M 728 

Shepard, Harriett E 732 

Sherman, M. D.. David U 1662 

Sheridan, Rev. Father J. M 636 

Shumaker, George M 754 

Sidman, Wesley C 1225 

Sidman, Rev. Wm. D 1202 

Sisk, John M 1616 

Sjoberg, John 1486 

Skelley, W'iUiam W 1312 

Small. George W 1217 

Smith, David 1282 

Smith. Harrison Milton 1416 

Smith, Isaac N 1777 

Smith, James E 1084 

Smith, James M 810 

Smith, M. D., John R 1280 

Smith, Mitchell C 1383 



Smith. M. D., Onas 1390 

Smith, Russell G 1391 

Smith, William F 1306 

Smith, M. D., William M 1234 

Smith. William Y 1673 

Snider, Otis Everett 1438 

Southworth, Marvin H 1724 

Spandri, John 1072 

Spencer, Edward A 875 

Spencer, George W 940 

Spencer, James D 888 

Squibb. Elmer D 1829 

Squibb. James Caleb 1581 

Stafford. Bertha 1758 

Stafford, S. R 1757 

Stahl. Charles H 1252 

Stahl, W^illiam F 1251 

Staley, Weldon E. 1543 

Stancill, Godfrey C 1266 

Starks, Charles L 708 

Steinert, John A 1721 

Stemmons, F. B 1173 

Stephens, John G ; 1742 

Stephens, William M 1906 

Steury, Rudolph 1615 

Stewart, William R 1446 

Stone, M. D.. Murray C 727 

Stoughton, James A 886 

Studley, Joseph 1903 

Stutzman, Frank P 1272 

Tatlow. W. D - 472 

Teflft, M. D., J. E 487 

Tegarden, Benjamin F 1883 

Terry, M. D., Norman F 714 

Thompson. Abner D 1458 

Thompson, William E 1547 

Thurman, George W 1689 

Tillman, Joseph A. M 1731 

Tillman, Samuel T 1731 

Tracy, Isaac T 1869 

Trenary, Alvin B 1279 

Trevitt, Claudius E 1728 

Triece. George 1035 

Trogdon, John Parker 1504 

Trogdon, William C 1528 

Tucker, Edward G 1822 

Turk. Joseph Henry 1030 

Turner, Granville W 1078 

Turner, M. D., William L 1657 

Underbill. John F 1730 

ITnderwood, Flavins J 1082 

Underwood, John J 1814 



BIOGRAPHICAL INDEX. 



Van Bibber. Alfred H 1572 

Van Bibber, James D 1563 

Vaughan, Judge James R 449-1413 

Vestal, Charles W 837 

Vinton. Madison C 1112 

Vogel, Rev. Father William 628 

Waddell, James S 1637 

Waddill, John S 446 

Wadlow, Charles E 1466 

Wadlow, Elijah G 775 

Wadlow. Elmer G 774 

Wadlow. John W 1454 

W'alker, James T 1392 

Walker. Leonard 1400 

Walker, Robt. H 1754 

Wallis, John A 1870 

Walsh. James T 1421 

Washburn, Mason C 1579 

Watson, Gilbert R 779 

Watson. James 928 

Watson, M. D.. Lorenzo 813 

Watson, William R 1792 

Watts, Henry T 1181 

Watts, James 812 

Watts, James W 820 

Wear, A. H 462 

Wear. Sam M 1930 

Weaver, Samuel 768 

Weaver, Maj. Wm. M 768 

Westmoreland. 11. H 1264 

Whalen, Jr., Richard F 132(} 

Whaley, William W 1261 

White. J. .\ 972 

Whitlock. Arthur L 1096 

Whitlock. Lambert L 1097 

Whitlock, Thomas J 1096 



Whitlock, Williamson P 861 

Wilder, Frederick C 1025 

Wiley, George P 807 

Wilhoit, Sidney Edwin 1268 

Wilkerson, M. D.. James M 1462 

Williams. Elwood A. 1019 

Williams, Frank B. 1200 

Williams, John W 750 

Williams, M. D., N. C.^-f.^ 1243 

Williamson, John P 1855 

Willier, Thomas E 1913 

Wingo, Irvin W. 1155 

Winters, George F 1198 

Wilson, .Alfred H 914 

Wolf. David 1750 

Wolf, Martin V 1750 

Wood, Albert 1204 

Wood. James G 816 

Wood. John 816 

Woodson. James A 1126 

Woodward, Jacob 1836 

Woodward, Ransom B 1835 

Woodruff, John T 473 

Wooldridge, Edward W 1140 

Wright, Foster P 444 

Wright, Marion D 1603 

Wrightsman, Timothy J 1003 

\\'ygal. Frank 120! 

Yancy. Charles S 444 

Yeakley. George 1491 

Yeakley. John 1483 

Yeakley. Thomas 1482 

Young. Henry C 1794 

Young, Walter B 1710 

Youngblood, James P 747 

Youngblood, Theodric B 748 




z 



K 

2 



3 



HISTORICAL 



CHAPTER I. 



PREHISTORIC RACES IN GREENE COCNTV. 
By Edward M. Shepard. 

In every inhabited part of the world we find abundant evidence of occu- 
pation by more than one race of people. In many cases, there has been a series 
of occupants, each passing through a cycle of settlement, growth and matur- 
ity, followed by a gradual decay, a migration or an absorption into tlic hotly 
of some more powerful race. 

Everywhere in Greene county, as well as throughout the State of Missouri, 
we find e\-i(lcnces of prehistoric dwellers. The earliest instances of such, in 
the section now known as Greene count}', exist, probably, in some of the 
caves of this region. That a race of people called Cave Dwellers once in- 
habited parts of the Ozarks is undisputed by archaeologists, and that they 
antedated another race known as Mound Builders, is also very generally 
believed. 

Caves abound in Greene county, and in at least one of them is seen ob- 
scure evidence of human occupancy. Some years ago the writer's attention 
was called to the fact that in the southeast of section 35, township 30, range 
22, a cave had been discovered in which many strange bones were found. 
Excavations were made which uncovered numerous other bones that bear evi- 
dence of belonging" to the Quaternary Period, and some traces of cbarcnal were 
obser\ed. The bones were not gnawed, as would have been the case in a wild 
•animal's den, and most of the thigh bones were broken, as for tlie obtaining 
of marrow, of whicJT the aborigines were very fund. Some of these remains 
may now be seen in the Museum of Ditiry College. 

In Butternut Canyon, on the Winoka Lodge property, southeast of the 
town of Galloway, a shallow cave exists which was walled up with loose 
stones, as a place of burial would lia\-e been, though, on investigation, it dis- 
closed no human remains. As the Osages. who were known to that region by 
the whites, buried their dead only on bluffs and sightly places, c<n-ering their 
bodies with flat stones, the inference that this cave was used by a race antedat- 



26 GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 

ing them is a natural one. In the cave east of the town of Ozark, just o\'er the 
Greene county line, remains of ashes and charcoal, intercalated with cave de- 
posits, and indicating prehistoric occupancy, have been found. While it has 
not been possible to pass, with absolute certainty, on the character of the 
remains found in the above locations, or in ca\'es reported on from time to 
time in various parts of the county, the e\idence favoring the presence of a 
race of Cave Dwellers here is strengthened by the fact that adjoining counties 
present undisputed proof of their prehistoric existence, one instance of which 
will ser\'e for illustration (if the point in (piestion. Conant* describes very 
full}- the exploration of such a cave in I'ulaski county, to the east of 
Greene. In this cave, beautifully situated in a bluff overlooking the Gas- 
conade vallew Cdusiderable excavation was made in the floor deposits, 
which were found to be composed of earth and ashes, in which was 
much bri.iken potter\\ with fragments of human bone and flint chips. The 
excavation was carried on to a depth of six feet, when the rough, reddish 
clay of the natural formation was reached. The depth of the successive lay- 
ers of debris indicated a long occupancy. In the farther recesses of the cave, 
several human skeletons were found, in such a p(^sition as to indicate that they 
had been buried there. In the shallower parts of the cave, many mussel shells 
were mingled with tlie Ijones of birds and mammals — probable remains of 
funeral feasts held in honor of the dead. 

MOUNDS ARE NUMEROUS. 

The race of Cave Dwellers was apparently followed by that of the Mound 
Builders, who left traces of their occupancy in the numerous mounds widely 
scattered throughout the whole state. The writer has supplemented his own 
list of these elevati(ins by that given by Mr. I.ouis Houck,* who enumerates 
three hundred and fifty-four as located in Greene county. 

These mounds are sometimes so low as to be hardly noticeable, and they 
are rarely elevated more than from two to four feet above the surrounding- 
country. They are often twenty and thirty feet in diameter, usually arranged 
in irregular groups numbering from half a dozen to fifty or sixty, and stand- 
ing from one hundred to one hundred and fifty feet apart. They are rarely 
more than a cjuarter of a mile away from water, being mostly located in irregu- 
lar groups, or rows, in the narrow vallevs sloping toward springs or water 
courses. They are seldom found in the broader and lower valleys, either be- 
cause of the fear of ovei-flow, or for the reason that more dense forests cov- 
ered the river bottoms in primitive tin-ies than now prevail. The originally 
slis'ht elevation of some of these mounds has caused them to be often unrecog- 



* "The Commonwealth of Missouri," C. R. Barnes, p. 49. 
♦"History of Missonri." Louis Honclc. A'ol. I, p. S-1. 



GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 27 

nized, and the agriculturist, by plowing and harrowing, has demolished many 
of them or greatly reduced their size. They are frequcntl\- marked, in a lield 
of grain, as little islands of more luxuriant growth. 

Notable examples of these mounds are found in Hickory, Dallas, Polk, 
Webster, Christian and Taney counties, as well as in Greene. It is estimated 
that there are ten thousand of them in Greene county alone. Some of them 
may be seen on Drury College campus, east of the president's house. They 
are also abundant east of Springfield, on the Disision street road: in the city 
of Springfield, on the St. John's church property ; northeast corner of Benton 
and Division streets; the northeast corner of Jefferson and Division streets; 
on Wabash, between Nichols and Webster streets ; on Harrison street in the 
neighborhood of the Glenwood road; near Blaine and Spencer streets; around 
the old fort ; along the Nichols road ; and in the northwestern part of the 
county, about Cave Spring. Walnut Grove and Willard. 

Houck** locates the following: 

North part of sec. 3, twp. 29, r. 20, seven mounds. 
Middle part of sec. 5, twp. 29, r. 20, nineteen mounds. 

Southeast of northeast of sec. 22, twp. 29, r. 22. .site of Kickapoo village. 
Southwest of sec. 29, twp. 29. r. 21, eleven mounds. 

West part of sees. 6 and 7, twp. 2.S, r. 21. forty-three mounds and arrow- 
heads found. 

East part sees. 1 and 12, twp. 28. r. 22. forty-eight mounds and arrowlieaiis found. 

Northwest of sec. 6, twp. 29, r. 22, twelve mounds and arrowheads. 

Southwest part sec. 18. twp. 29. r. 22. fifteen mounds and arrowheads. 

Central parts of sees. 13 and 14, twi). 29, r. 23, fifty-flve mounds. 

Sees. 23, 24, 25. 26, 3.5 and 36, twp. 28, r. 23, battlefield of Wilson's Creek. 

East part of sec. 34. twp. 31, r. 20, twenty-two mounds. 

All of sec. 35, twp. 31, r. 20, fifty-three mounds. 

Southwest of sec. 2, twp. 28. r. 23, four mounds. 

Northeast part sec. 1, twp. 29, r. 21, eight mounds. 

Northwest part sec. 5, twp. 29, r. 21, eight mounds. 

Southwe-st part see. 33, twp. 30, r. 31, seventeen mounds. 

South part see. 35. twp. 30, r. 20, ten mounds. 

North part see. 20, twp. 30. r. 20. Ihirteen mounds. 

Southeast part see. 31, twp. 29. r. 20. nine mounds. 

Northwest half see. 29. twii. 29, r. 23. fifteen mounds. 

As to the purpose of these elevations, it is most probable thai they were 
not funeral mounds, since, so far as the writer is aware, no human remains or 
ashes have been found to indicate that they were used for burial purposes, and 
it is the general belief that they were constructed by an unknown race of Indi- 
ans for domiciliary purposes — probably as elevations on which to build their 
tepees, or wigwams, to render them drier and more healthful. An attempt 
has been made to account for them by natural causes on the theors- that they 
mio-ht be the result of the upheaval of trees by tornadoes, the dirt and soil 



** "History of Missouri," Louis Houck, Vol. I, p. SI. 



28 GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 

lifted by the roots finally dropping as the organic matter decayed and left the 
earth to fomi these elevations in irregular groups. Such mounds, however, 
can usually, though not always, be determined by their dififerent shape, being 
slightly o\-al in (jutline, and often with a slight depression on one side. 

Another class of mounds, very difficult to be distinguished from those of 
artificial origin, are those formed by the differential weathering of material 
around bosses or masses of hard, silicious lime or cherty layers, where the 
wearing away of the softer strata of rocks leaves the harder layers, covered 
with dirt and rising above the surrounding country in shapes that suggest the 
agency of human beings in their formation. Sucli examples are found in 
Polk count\-, just u\er the edge of crireene. east of Asher creek, about two 
miles south of where that stream empties into the Sac. 

Another type is found in cases where a harder stratum of rock protects 
softer layers beneath, forming buttes which are a striking feature in the 
scenery of some of the more western states. In the northeast of section 27, 
township 31, range 22, a quarter of a mile east of Presley Hill, in Greene 
county, is cjuite a noted elevation commonly called the "Great Indian Mound," 
and referred to as such in the earlier histoiy and traditions of the county. A 
\ivid imagination has discovered remains of a race track around the mound, 
and many attempts at excavation have been made in the \-ain hope of finding 
Ijuried treasure, bones or pottery. This feature of the landscape is, however, 
but a striking example of a small butte, a case in which a harder stratum of 
worm-eaten sandstone (Hannibal sandstone) has protected the softer shales 
below, and erosion, having cut away everything around it, has left this precipi- 
tous butte, about 40 feet high, 100 feet long, and 50 feet Avide on the top, 
which is capped In' the hard, protective sandstone. This natiu'al feature the 
geologist calls "a mound of circumdenudation." 

There is little doubt that the mounds scattered about Greene countv that 
cannot be accounted for by any of the foregoing theories must owe their 
origin to human agencies. From the few instances in which exca\ations have 
lieen made, they seem to be built up of soil, free from stones of any size, with 
no e\-idence of stratification, and, where cross-sections have been made, show- 
ing a line indicating the general level of the surrounding country upon which 
tlie mound was built. 

The reader must not confuse these ele\-ations with the noted mounds of 
southeast Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee and Ohio, which are frequently of 
great size and height, and often moulded in the fomi of some living creature. 
Those were burial and ceremonial mounds, which contained pottery, and fre- 
quently human remains — evidences of a type of prehistoric man unknown in 
this part of the state. 

While it is difficult to satisfactorily classify the mounds under discussion, 
there is no doubt on the part of archaeologists that many of them are the 



GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 29 

result of human handiwork, Ijut there is difference of opini(jn in regard to 
their antiquity, some arguing tliat they were built by the Osages, and others 
that they antedate that tribe. 

As the early white explorers had ample opportunity of knowing how the 
Indians whom they found in this region built their homes and buried their 
dead (customs which will be described later), the writer is strongly inclined 
to the belief that the mounds in question represent a race that existed previous 
to the occupation of the Osages, and different also from the race which 
built the great mounds of the Mississippi valley, though possibly contemporane- 
ous with them.* 

INDIAN IMPLEMENTS. 

The abundance of flint arrow-points, axes, spear-heads, chisels, mortars 
and pestles and flint chips that are found all over the county indicate a long 
occupancy by aboriginal races. The exposure of Lower Burlington limestone 
over various parts of the county, especially in the east half, made possible 



* Dr. .1. \V. Bliiukeiisbi|i. of Berkeley. Ciilifornin, a former resident of this 
county, wlio bus made a somewliat extensive study of this subject. say.s, in a personal 
letter: "They (the mounds) are nnauestiouably the remains of human habitation — 
the villages of the Mound Builders, and appear to have been 'adobe' huts of mud wall 
structures of the same general type as those of the Mandan Indians, described by Lewis 
and Clark. Sectioning such mounds, usually a line of mould about the level of the 
ground is indicative of the floor of tlie building and often remains of charcoal mark tlie 
fireplace in the but, which appears to have been built roimd, not square, and the gen- 
eral abseuce of any bones or other human remains show they' are not burial uionnds. 
The material of construction was sun-dried mud bricks, the same as the adobe houses 
of the .Southwest are yet built of. and the source from which they came is still shown 
in the great number of artificial 'ponds' still found in Greene county and the district 
adjacent— not the ponds formed by the stoppage of limestone sinks, which are also 
frequent. There is some indication of irrigation, which means agriculture, but the 
long time that has since elapsed makes this difficult to determine with cert.iinty. though 
some ponds— there is one about a mile due north of Willard. and anotlier about two 
miles— that lie on relatively high land, so they could have been used as irrigating reser- 
voirs, and I have seen another about half-way between Willard and Springfield, on the 
main road, from whichj well-defined ditches appeared to run. The older inhabitants of 
Greene county will remember that the iirairies were usually dotled with small cliunps 
of timber, often at considerable distance from the forest, tliougb most of these have 
now been cut down, on account of their occupying some of the best lands for agricul- 
ture. It seems to me probable— and the abundance of the ancient mounils within the 
clumps of tiudier (or groves), as they were usually called, appears to indicate, that the 
groves originated from the acorns bronglit in for food by this primitive pwple. I 
know of no other animal that would carry acorns thus miles from the forest and drop 
them to form the nucleus of these groves, the van of the approaching forest. 

"The general absence of any Hint or domestic utensils from tliese mounds in 
Greene county would indicate a people unwarlike and relatively low in the general 
civilization of the period of the Mound Builders, a sort of ontlying .-onunnnity on the 
west bordering a much higher civilization along the Mississippi and (Miio rivers, from 
which the character of the mounds seems to separate them." 



30 GREENE COUNTY,, MISSOURI. 

numerous quarries where, in the upper beds of this horizon, the Indians worked 
tiie hard flint that accompanies this Hmestone and which is especially adapted 
for arrow-points. One of these flint quarries is noted on the Winoka Lodge 
property, in section 15, township 21, range 28, where this flint is exposed in 
deep gorges, easily accessible, and where large quantities of arrow-points as 
well as flint chips have been found. 

The proximity of this property to large springs, as well as its nearness to 
the James river, made it especially attractive to the Indians as a camping 
ground, as is evidenced by the recent finding there of great numbers of arrow- 
points (some of them of exceptional beauty), innumerable flint chips, and the 
mortars and pestles with which they ground their corn for use. This is 
evidently the location of an old Osage camp, possibly also a later Delaware 
village, and is close to where the old Osage hunting trail toward the White 
river crossed the James. 

Another noted quarry was at Percy Cave, on the Sac creek, in sections 
33 and 29, township 30, range 22. Others are found along the Sac river; at 
Ritter's mill : along the bluffs of the James east of A\'inoka Lodge ; and extend- 
ing up the James into Webster county. 

The great abundance of these flints, scattered throughout the whole 
county, and locally exposed by every rain and fresh plowing", causes one to be 
astonished at the industry which produced so many. Yet the making of an 
axe, we are told, occupied but a few hours, and to chip out an arrow-point 
from a piece of flint probably required, relatively, little time in the hands of an 
expert. Half-formed objects are numerous, and point to frequent failure to 
succeed in the making, while arrow-points of various sizes, shapes and outline 
give an idea of the inimernus ])urposes for which thc\- were made. Some are 
massive, and suggest the killing of a deer or buft'alo ; some of diminutive size. 
with finely serrated edges, seem fashioned for the smallest victims of the bow ; 
and some show that even artistic instincts were not absent from the mind of the 
savage workman. When one remembers the centuries of aboriginal occupation 
before the coming of the white man, and the various causes for the scattering 
and disappearance of their simple weapons, implements and utensils, it is 
easy to understand why every new clearing of land or upturning of old pastures 
may be made the occasion of new discoveries concerning these people, about 
whom both history and tradition have joined in the attempt to bring within 
the grasp of modern understanding the story of their life and customs. 

THE OSAGE INDI.^NS. 

When the French and Spanish explorers first penetrated into this region, 
they found it to be the hunting ground, and at times the more or less permanent 
residence, of the Osage Indians. This tribe was the dominant one all through 
that territor_\- which lies south of the Missouri river in Missouri and in north- 



GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 3 1 

era Arkansas. From the tratlitions of their medicine men, curruboraled by 
similar traditions in other allied tribes, these Indians probably inhabited this 
country several centuries before the coming of the white man. The name 
"Osage" was a corruption of their own name, "Was-haz-he," made by the 
French, or, as the artist-explorer Catlin writes it, "Wa-saw-see." Catlin, in 
his "American Indians," says that they were the tallest race in North .\merica, 
either among the red or white men. He states that few were less than si.x feet 
in stature, and that many were six and one-half and even seven feet. They 
were well-proportioned, good looking, rather narrow in the shoulders, and, 
like most tall men, rather inclined to stoop. Their movements were graceful 
and quick. In war, or the chase, they were equal to any of the tribes about 
them. Though long living on, or near, the borders of civilization, they studi- 
ously rejected all civilized customs, and uniformly dressed in skins of their 
own preparation. They were one of the few tribes that shaved their heads, 
and they decorated and painted themselves with great care and some taste. 
Their heads were of a peculiar shape, owing to the fact that they strapped 
their infants to a board, binding the head so tightly as to force in the occipital 
bone, thus creating an unnatural deficienc}- in the back part and consequently a 
more than natural elevation of the top of the head. They explained that this 
was done because it pressed out a bold and manly front. The Flat Head In- 
dians press the head between two boards, while the Osages used only one 
board, thereby compressing to only a slight degree. The latter, also, cut and 
slashed their ears and suspended from them great quantities of wampum and 
tinsel ornaments. Their necks were decorated with great (|uantities of wampum 
and beads. Living in a warm country, their shoulders, arms and chests were 
generally naked, and they wore silver bands on their wrists and frequently a 
profusion of rings on their fingers.* \Vashington Irx'ing, in his "Tour of the 
Prairies " '^ayi, "The Osage Indians are tlie finest looking Indians I have seen 
in the West." 

Further description of the dress of these Indians is given by Idouck** 
who writes: "The dress of the Osages was usuall\- composed of moccasins 
for the feet : a breech-cloth ; an overall or hunting shirt, seamed up and slipped 
over the head, all made of leather, softly dressed by means of fat and oily sub- 
stances and often rendered more durable by the smoke with which they were 
purposely imbued. Perhaps this caused Brackcnridge to descrilie them as liav- 
ing a filthy and dirty appearance. Long says that the ordinar)- dress of the 
men was a breech-cloth of blue or red cloth, secured in its place by a girdle ; 
a pair of leggins made of dressed deer-skin, concealing the leg excepting 
a small portion of the upper part of the thigh: a pair of moccasins made of 
dressed deer, elk or bison's skin, and a blanket lo rover the up]wv jiart of the 



* Ciitliii's "Xortli American Iniliaiis." Vol. II. p. 89. 
** '■IlistoiT of Jlissouri." Louis Iloiick, Vol. I. p. 186. 



32 GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 

body. Tlie dress of the women was composed of a i)air of moccasins, leggings 
of blue or red cloth, with a bniad projectinij border on the outside and cover- 
ing the leg to the knee or a little above ; around the waist, secured by a belt, 
they wrapped a piece of blue cloth the sides of which met, or came nearly in 
contact, on the outside of the right thigh, and the whole extending downward 
as far as the knee or to the midleg: anil around the shoulder a similar piece of 
cloth was attached by two of the corners at the axilla of the right ann and ex- 
tended down to the waist. This garment was often laid aside in warm weather. 
The wiimen allowed their hair to grow long, hanging over the shoulders, and 
parted longitudinally on the top of the head. The children were allowed to 
go naked in hot weather. ]\Iany of them tattoried different parts of their 
bodies." 

History tells us that several centuries ago the Osage Indians, with allied 
fribes, forming one great family, called Siouan, after the principal tribe, the 
Siou-x, either migrated, or were driven by the Iroquois and other tribes, west- 
ward from Virginia and North Carolina, making long stops at various points 
along the Kanawha and Ohio valleys until the Mississippi was reached. While 
on the way, small bands were here and there left behind and so distributed 
themselves throughout the surrounding country. At the Mississippi, this 
Siouan band divided, one group, called the Omaha, or up-river group, going 
north up that river, and the other, the Ouavvpaw (Kwapa), or down-river 
group, going down the river. The Omaha group again divided at the mouth 
of the Missouri river, further dividing, as they went, into the Kaws (Kansas), 
who settled on the Kansas river ; the Osage, along the Osage ri\'er : and the 
Missouris, along the Missouri river. 

CH.\R.\CTERISTICS OF THE OS.VGES. 

Ethnologists ha\-e classified the Indians of North America into 56 great 
linguistic stocks, or families, which have been separated into more than 2.000 
tribes, or affiliations; and it is by a careful study of the Osage language that 
Oorsey has been able to show that this tribe belonged to the great Siouan stock, 
thereby confirming the relationship wliich the historian has pointed out in his 
account of the wanderings of the various tribes of this great family. As a 
further proof that the Siouan family was more or less homogenous in com- 
position, Nuttall* says that the language of these tribes differ little from each 
other. Major Long** states that the pronunciation of the Omahas and 
Poncas was guttural, the Osages brief and vivid, and the Missouris nasal. 

One reason for the migrations and separation into different tribes is 
found in the fact that the\- were largely dependent upon hunting for food and 
clothing, and when a village became too large, or its enemies too strong", it 
was necessary for them to break up and find new hunting grounds. 



* Nuttall's "Arkansas," p. 82. 

** "Long's E.xpedition." Vol. I. p. .S42. 



GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 33 

At the mouth of the Osage river, one group remained, while anotiie;- 
migrated to a point near what is now the southeast corner of Bates county. 

From a geographical standpoint, the Osages may be tlivided into tin-ee 
bands.t 'Tahatsi," or Great Osages, the Bates county band; the "Utsehta 
or Little Osages, the band near the mouth of the Osage river; and the "Saut- 
sukhdhi," or Arkansas band, south of the Osage. 

About 1802, according to Lewis and Clark, nearly half of the Great 
Osages, under a chief named Big Track, migrated to the Arkansas ri\'er. 
From the same authority we learn that in 1804 the Great Osages numbered 
about 500 warriors, living in a village on the south bank of the Osage river. 
The Little Osages had about 250 warriors ; and the Arkansas band, with about 
600 warriors, were on the Vermilion river, a branch of the Arkansas. 

It is with the Pahatsi, or Big Osages that we of Greene county are 
especially interested, for here was one of the most important parts of their 
liunting ground. Here were beautiful large prairies, for the timber, in those 
days, was mainly confined to the neighborhood of the water courses ; and over 
these broad expanses roamed the buffalo, elk, deer, wolf and bear, while the 
tall prairie grass was alive with all the smaller game that would naturally in- 
habit so favorable a region. In the eastern, northeastern and northwestern 
parts of the county, the streams had cut deep valleys, and their tributary spring- 
branches had worn out precipitous gorges which abounded in beaver, ducks and 
food fishes, making an earthly paradise for aboriginal man. Too much cannot 
be said of the beauty of the scenery as well as the abundance of natural re- 
sources which would appeal to him. That the Osage had a love for scenery was 
evinced by the fact that he always selected the most sightly positions — the 
tallest bluffs or promontories which commanded broad views of plain and low- 
land — for the burial of his dead. It was in such an environment of natural 
beauty, with rich soil, a great abundance of pure, clear, cold springs and 
broad, spring-fed streams and rivers, pure air, bounteous rainfall, and a food 
supply unlimited in quality and abundance, that was de\-eloped the Osage. 
who was the largest, most perfect in physique and the most admirable in 
character of any tribe of the great Siouan family, and probably of all the 
North American Indians. 

Houck* says that ''the Osages possessed all the Indian characteristics, 
talked little, in conversation did not interrupt each other, and except when in- 
toxicated, were not vociferous or noisy. They were not drunkards and were 
greatly and favorably distinguished from the other Indians by their general so- 
briety. Lieut. Frazier remarked that the Indians are in general great drunk- 

t "Handbook of American Indians." Bureau of American Ethnology. Bulletin 30. 
Pt. II, p. 1.56. 

* "Hi.story of Missouri," Louis Houeic, Vol. I, p. 1S2. 

(3) 



34 GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 

ards, but adds, I must except the Osages. They rejected whiskey and refused 
to use it." Catlin, in another work, quoting from J. M. Stanley, 1843, says that 
"one admirable trait in their character was worthy of remark, viz, their aver- 
sion to ardent spirits. Such was their abhorrence of the "tire water," as they 
termed it, that they could not be induced to drink it. It is generally supposed 
that all Indians are passionately fond of it, those particularly who are brought 
into contact with the whites. VVe note this fact as an exception to the gen- 
eral rule." 

The Osages were notable thieves, especially of horses. They took long 
trips, in the nature of forays, from their villages to the early French and Span- 
ish settlements along the Mississippi. They were the terror of the early hunt- 
ers in the Ozarks, on account of their predatory habits, though they rarely 
shot or killed the whites. Anything left in their care, they would guard and 
protect at the cost of life, if necessary. However, after the restoration to its 
owner of the property thus guarded, they would, perhaps, avail themselves 
of the first Opportunity to steal it. According to Sibley, who knew them 
well, "they were very intelligent. * * * They bore sickness and pain 
with great fortitude, seldom uttering a complaint, and Brown says they were 
most skillful in medicine." 

Mrs. Hamilton**, who lived five years among the Osages, says she never 
heard of an Osage man abusing his wife or children. As a rule, he 
was devoted to his family. The mother had control of the children. As 
soon as the girl was large enough to assist the mother in her work, she was set 
such tasks as she was capal^le of, but the boy was allowed more liberty. As 
a rule, each family lived in its own separate lodge. The women did most of 
the work, such as providing fuel, water, cooking, scraping skins and convert- 
ing them into articles of clothing and setting up the lodge. She also per- 
formed the various duties involved in their limited pursuit of agriculture. 
The man made his weapons, hunted and fished, pro\'i(led meat for the family 
and aided in the mutual protection of their village and tribal interests. 

Dorsey states that the virtues of their women were zealously guanled 
and their reputations defended. 

In regard to government, each village had its chief and sub-chief. Pike* 
says "their government is oligarchical, but still partakes of the nature of a 
republic; for, although the power nominally is vested in a small number (if 
chiefs, yet they never undertake any matter of importance witlmut first as- 
sembling the warriors and proposing the subject in council, there to be dis- 
cussed and decided on by a majority. Their chiefs are hereditary in most 
instances, yet there are many men who have risen to more influence than 
those of illustrious ancestrv bv tlieir activitv and boldness in war. Although 



** ''Missouri Historical Review." Vol. IV. p. 19. 
* "Pike's Expedition," Vol. II, p. .52G. 



GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 35 

there is no regular code of laws, yet there is a tacit acknowledgment of the 
right which some have to command on certain occasions, while others are 
bound to obey, and even to submit to corporal punishment. * * * On 
the whole, their government may be termed an oligarcliical repuljlic, wiicre the 
chiefs propose, and the people decide on all public acts." 

In 1817 Sibley reports that the Great Osages had 400 warriors and the 
Little Osages 250, which, compared with the estimate given by early his- 
torians, shows that the tribe was diminishing. 

Catlin* estimates the total number of Osage Indians to have been 5,000 
in number in 1838. 

Houck** states that "the niain dependence of these Indians was hunt- 
ing, but they raised, annually, small crops of corn, beans and pumpkins, which 
they cultivated entirely with the hoe, and in the simplest manner, planting in 
April. They entered upon their summer hunts in May and returned about 
the first of August to gather crops which had been left unhoed and unfenced 
all summer. Sibley states that each family, could save from ten to twenty 
bags of corn and beans, besides a quantity of dried pumpkins. On this they 
feasted, with dried meat saved in the summer, until September, then what 
remained was cachedt and they set out for their fall hunt from which they 
returned about Christmas. From that time, until some time in Febnian- or 
March, if the season happened to be severe, they stayed pretty much in their 
villages, making only hunting excursions occasionally and during that time 
they consumed the greater part of their caches. In February or March the 

* "Xoitli American Indiaus." Catlin, Vol. II, p. 40. 

** "History of Missouri," Louis Houck, Vol. I. p. 182. 

t lu Pike's Journal. 1804 (see "Pike's Expedition." A'ol. II, p. 385), he calls 
attention to Halley's Bluff, named for Col. Halley. in charge of Oliouteau's Fort, or 
Fort Carondelet, on the Little Osage, nine miles from the Big Osjige village, where 
some old caches in the sandstone may still be seen. These were more fully described 
by Broadhead ("Geological Survey of Missouri," Vol. I, 1S73-1S74, p. 152), who sttys: 
"They consist of a series of circular holes, twenty-three iu number, dug down in the 
lower part of a thick sandstone, which forms the face of a bluft", and is a member of 
the Coal Measures. The holes are five feet deep each, on an average; they are larger 
at the bottom than at the top. being three feet across at the top and five and one-half 
feet in diameter at the bottom. They are only from one to three feet apart, and follow 
the course of the outcrop of the sandstone, which is north and south. They appear to 
have been made by some such instrument as a pick — faint marks as of such n tool 
being still visible. At one place there are six holes, side by side, forming a double 
row; the rest are .single, following one after another. . . . l-roui tlic regularily in 
the order, and the manner in which the holes were made, in the nicely with which 
they were formed, and the regularity of size. I am led to believe them to be the re- 
mains of old caches made by former traders with Indians. (U- parties who were neces- 
sitated to conceal their goods." A careful study of these excavations made by the 
writer strongly Inclines him to the belief that they were the caches of the Big Osage 
Indians, where they stored their corn and other supplies, as they were .so near the 
Big Osage village as to have been a very convenient repository for their surplus 
products. 



36 GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 

spring hunt commenced, first the bear and then the beaver hunt. This was 
pursued until the planting time when they again returned to their village, 
pitched their crops, and in May set out for the summer hunt, taking with them 
the residue, if any, of their corn, etc. This was the routine of their life, 
broken occasionally by war and trading expeditions. Sibley further states 
that these people "derived a portion of their subsistence regularly from dried 
fruits that the country abounded with, walnuts, hazel nuts, pecans, acorns, 
grapes, plums, pawpaws, persimmons, hog potatoes and several very nutri- 
tious roots, all of which they gathered and preserved with care." 

FOND OF THE OZARKS. 

Early explorers give an account of some of the deserted hunting camps 
of the Osage people in the region which is now Christian and Greene counties. 
Pike,* in 1804, said, "Their villages hold more people in the same space of 
ground than any places I ever saw. Their lodges are posted with scarcely 
any regularity and usually very close together. Added to this, they have pens 
for their horses, always within the village, into which they always drive them 
at nig!:t. * * * The lodges in the villages are generally constructed with 
upright posts, put firmly in the ground, about 20 feet in height, with a crotch 
at the top. They are about 12 feet distant from each other. In the crotch 
of the posts are put the ridge poles, over which are bent small poles, the ends 
of vvliich are brought down and fastened to a row of stakes about five feet in 
height. These stakes are fastened together with three horizontal bars and 
form the flank walls of the lodge. The gable ends are generally broad slabs 
rounded off to the ridge pole ; the whole of the building and sides are covered 
with matting made of rushes, two or three feet in length and four feet in 
width, which are joined together and entirely exclude the rain. The doors 
are on the sides of the building and generally are one on each side. The 
fires are made in holes in the center of the lodge, the smoke ascending through 
apertures left in the roof for the purpose. At one end of the dwelling, a 
raised platform about three feet from the ground, which is covered with bear 
skins, generally holds all the little choice furniture of the master, and on 
which repose his honorable guests. They var}^ in length from 36 to 100 feet." 

On their hunting trips in the Ozark region (in which what is now Greene 
county must have been one of their favorite haunts), the}' would go to some 
point along the trail where game and fishing were abundant, and there erect 
lodges and occupy them as long as the products of the chase encouraged their 
stay. Then they would move to some other desirable point, where they would 
proceed to erect another lodge, occupying it in a similar manner for the per- 
iod of the hunting season. 



* "Pike's Expedition," Vol. II, pp. 528. 529. 



GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 



37 



Schoolcraft,* on his trip up Swan Creek in 1818, into what is now Greene 
county, describes three of these camps, the constniction of which differs some- 
what from the lodges in the villages described by Pike, and are worthy of 
attention here, since these are what this interesting tribe of Indians used for 
shelter during their hunting trips in what is now Greene county. He says, 
"We passed successively three of their camps, now deserted, ail very large, ar- 
ranged with much order and neatness, and capable of quartering probably 
100 men each. Both the method of building and the order of encampment 
observed by this singular nation of savages, are different from anything of 
the kind I ha\'e noticed among the various tribes of ajjoriginal .Americans, 
through whose territories I have had occasion to travel. The form of the 
tent, or camp, may be compared to an inverted bird's nest, or hemisphere, with 
a small aperture left in the top for the escape of smoke : and a similar, but 
larger one, at one side, for passing in and out. It is formed by cutting a 
number of slender, flexible green poles, of equal length, sliarpened at each 
end, stuck in the ground like a bow, and crossing at right angles at the top, 
the points of entrance into the ground forming a circle. Small twigs are then 
wove in, mi.xed with the leaves of cane, moss and grass, until it is perfectly 
tight and warm. These tents are arranged in large circles, one circle within 
another, according to the number of men to be accommodated. In the center 
is a scaffolding for meat from which all are supplied every morning, under the 
inspection of a chief whose tent is conspicuously situated at the head of the en- 
campment, and differs from all the rest, resembling a lialf-c_\-linder inverted. 
Their women and children generally accompany them on the hunting excur- 
sions which often occupy them three months." 

TREATIES. 

On October loth, 1808, after the Louisiana Purchase, the Big and Little 
Osage tribes made a treaty with the United States at Fort Osage, now called 
Fort Sibley, about twenty-five miles east of Kansas City, on the Missouri 
river, by which they ceded to the United States all that portion of southern 
Missouri lying east of a line extending from Fort Sibley due south to the 
Arkansas river and north of the Arkansas to its mouth, west of the Mississippi 
to the mouth of the Missouri, and following that rix'cr back to the original 
starting. For this vast tract, covering practically all of the Ozark country, 
the Big Osages were given $800.00 in cash and $1,000.00 in merchandise; 
while the Little Osages received just half this amount. On June .2nd. 1825, 
they relinquished all their land remaining in Missouri and Arkansas, and a 
portion of their Kansas possession, recognizing the right of the United States 



*"Journal of a Tour in the Interior of Missouri and Arkansas in ISIS," School- 
craft, London, 1S21, p. 52. 



38 GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 

to use all navigable ri\-ei"s in what was left in their original territory. For 
this they were to receive $7,000.00 yearly for seven years.* 

By Act of Congress, July I5tli, 1870,* the limits of their reservation in 
tin 30. Part II, p. 15S. 

the then Indian Territory were estaljlished. This reservation consisted, in 
1906, of 1,470,058 acres, and in addition the tribe possessed funds in the 
Treasury of the United States amounting to $8,562,690.00, including a school 
fund of $119,911.00, the whole yielding an annual income of $428,134.00. 
Their income from pasturage leases amounted to $98,376.00 in tlie same year, 
and their total annual income was, therefore, about $265.00 per capita, making 
this tribe the richest in the entire United States. 

By Act of Congress of June 28, 1906, an equal division of the lands and 
funds of the Osages was pro\ided for. The population of the tribe at this 
time, after the division of the trilial lands and trust fund had been provided 
for, was 1,994. 

We have given this somewhat full and extended account of the Osage 
Indians, because they were, for many years, probably centuries, the only in- 
habitants of the region now known as Greene county. 

THE DELAWARE INDIANS. 

The Delaware Indians were a group of the great Algonquin tribe, or fam- 
ily, whose early home was on the Atlantic coast, in Delaware, New Jersey, 
eastern Pennsylvania and southeastern New York, a territory including the 
basin of the Delaware river. When first discovered by the whites, they called 
themselves the "Lenape," a collective tenn for men, or, as it was afterward 
written, "Leni-lenape." William Penn bought large tracts of land from them. 
They were forced to migrate westward, and in 1751 the Hurons invited thehi 
to settle in eastern Ohio, where the government gave them a reservation. In 
1789 the Spaniards permitted some of them to come to Missouri, and with a 
band of Shawnees the}' moved to a point near what is now Cape Girardeau, 
and later to Arkansas. In 18 18 the whole tribe deeded to the government all 
their possessions in Ohio and removed to the White river in Missouri. This 
was the treaty that was in force from 18 18 to 1829. 

The first mention of the Delaware Indians in what is now Greene county 
is found in the statement quoted by Houck* from Morse's Report that "in 
1805 the Delawares had a village on White river near Forsyth, in what is 
now Taney county ; one rjn James fork, in what is now Christian county, and 
one on Wilson's creek, in what is now Greene county." 



* See ISth Annu.al Report, United States Bureau American Ethnology, 
Part II, p. G7G. 

* "Handbook of American Indians," United States Bureau of Ethnology. Bulle- 
tin 30, Part II, p. 158. 

* "History of Missouri," Louis Houck, Vol. II, p. 218. 



GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 39 

The writer of this chapter believes that this last-named \-illage was lo- 
cated southwest of and near the site of the present city of Springfield. 

On September 24th, 1829, the Delawares, by another treaty with the 
United States, ceded all claims to land in Missouri, comprised in two tracts : 
First, that known as the Cape Girardeau tract, and, second, the tract in south- 
west Missouri, selected for them under the provisions of the treaty of Octo- 
ber 3d, 18 1 8, and lying along the James fork of the White river, which in- 
cluded the tract lying south of the Kickapoo reservation (later to be described 
under Kickapoo Indians), to the present line of Missouri and Arkansas, which 
included the south half of Greene county.** 

From the foregoing facts, it will be seen that, although the Delawares 
were in this region as early as 1806, and hunted over southern and eastern 
Greene county, they had no treaty rights until 18 18, and that in 1829 they 
gave up all their territory and were removed farther west. 

They were originally a bold, daring and numerous people, but were 
gradually reduced by war, removals and smallpox. It was a well-known fact 
that they were ever' ready to assist and protect those who were weaker than 
themselves, as evidenced by their friendliness to individuals of various other 

tribes. 

Besides their principal villages at Delaware Town, in Christian county, 
just south of Greene, there were, according to Escott,* some suburban towns 
scattered along up and down the James and on the banks of Wilson creek. 
One of these (before referred to) was probably southwest of the present city 
of Springfield, another probablv near the Big Boiling Spring, on the Winoka 
Lodge property, southeast of the town of Galloway, and another at the old 
James river mines near Kirshner's, as described by Schoolcraft. 

THE KICKAPOO INDIANS. 

The Kickapoos belonged to the Algonquin family, and are first referred 
to in history by AUouez** as living in what is now, probably, Columbus 
county, Wisconsin, about 1667. No traditions exist in regard to their earlier 
origin. LeSeuer, in 1669, refers to the Qumcapous (Kickapoo) river, just 
above the mouth of the Wisconsin, which he stated was so called from the 
name of a nation which formerly dwelt on its banks. 

The Kickapoos were driven to the southward by northern tribes in 1765. 
and remained for a short time at Peoria, Illinois. Some of them were as- 
sociated with Tecumseh in his war against the whites, and a portion of them 
** "Eighteenth Annual Report." United States Bureau American Ethnology. 

Part II, pp. 692, 724. 

* "Historv of Springfield," G. S. Escott, p. 19. 

wistoij 01 oyiiug ,.,„„:, TTnitPrl States Bureau American Ethnology, 

** "Handbook of American Indians, Unitea fctates ouie,.u 

Bulletin 30. Part I, p. 6S-1. 



40 GREENE COUNTYj MISSOURI. 

migrated east to a reservation on the Wabash river in Indiana, some of these 
being again moved to a reservation in Missouri, as will be later told. 

Mooney and Jones* state that the Kickapoos lived in fixed villages, oc- 
cupying bark houses in the summer and flag-reed oval lodges during the win- 
ter. They raised corn, beans and squashes, and while dwelling east of the 
Mississippi they often wandered out on the plains to hunt bufl:'alo. 

The Kickapoos are first noted in Missouri as living just north of the 
mouth of the Missouri river. By a treaty with the United States, July 19th, 
i8i9,t they received, as a reservation, that tract in southwest Missouri which 
was bounded as follows: "Beginning at the confluence of the rivers Pomme 
de Terre and Osage, thence up the said river Pomme de Terre to the dividing 
ridge which separates the waters of the Osage and White rivers, thence with 
said ridge westwardly to the Osage line (a point about in the northeast cor- 
ner of Newton county), thence due north on said line to Nerve creek, thence 
down the same to a point due south of the mouth of White Clay, or Richard, 
creek, thence north to the Osage river, thence down said river to the be- 
ginning." 

This territory, it will be noticed, included what is now the northern two- 
thirds of Greene county, w-hich they occupied from 1819 to 1832. Mooney 
says the meaning of "Kickapoo" is, "He stands about, or he moves about, 
standing now here, now there." 

About 1812, a band of Kickapoo Indians built a village which tradition 
locates near the site of the present city of Springfield, and which was called 
"Kickapoo settlement." From the best information obtainable, the writer be- 
lieves this to have been near what is now known as Phelps Grove Park. They 
are said to have had about one hundred wigwams, and they cultivated, as 
f^rms, portions of the tract of lanil now called "Kickapoo prairie." Barnes* 
states, in speaking of Springfield, that "the lands on the south and west are 
beautiful prairies, which, in early days, were cultivated by the aborigines." 

A Kickapoo village existed in 1828 just north of what is now the town 
of Strafi^ord, in Greene County.** 

In 1832, the Kickapoos ceded the reservation before described for one in 
Kansas, northwest of Fort Leavenworth. 

Members of this tribe were probably more intimately associated with 
the pioneer white hunters of this region than those of the two tribes previously 
referred to, and the early settlers relate many stories regarding them. Mrs. 
Rush Owen, of Springfield, states that when her ancestors, the Campbells, 
came to Missouri in the fall of 1829, or later, members of this tribe had a 



* United States Bureini of American Ethnology. Bulletin 30. Part I, p. 08.5. 
t Eighteenth Annual Report, Bureau American Ethnology. Part II. p. "no. 

* "Commonwealth of Mis.souri," p. S73. 

*• Eighteenth Annual Report, Bureau American Ethnology, Part II, map .38. 









t' 55 






\im 




^^ 



GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 41 

village situated in the tract between the present streets known as Campbell, 
Pearl, Madison and Grand avenue ; tliat there was a sunken spring east of 
South street, one hundred and fifty feet from Madison, wliere the Kickapoos 
used to get their drinking water. She remembers that in her early childhood 
she used to watch the Indians lean over to dip tlie water out. The spring 
referred to was destroyed at the time of the building of the new city sewer. 

The Piankashaw and Pawnee tribes were occasional visitors rather than 
permanent dwellers in this region. There was a small village of the former 
just west of Forsyth in 1828; also a village of Peorias and Piankashaws east 
of Forsyth in the same year. There were a few Piankashaws around Spring- 
field, who associated w-ith the Delawares and were known by the early settlers. 
La Salle, in 1682, mentions this tribe as one of those gathered about his 
Illinois fort. They were also referred to by Cadillac, in 1695, as living with 
the Kickapoos and other tribes on the St. Joseph river, in Michigan. Later, 
they migrated southward to southern Indiana and Illinois. They were 
probably dri\'en westward into Missouri li)- the Iroquois. They were never a 
large tribe and in 1806 they merged with the Peorias. so that there are prob- 
ably no pure-blooded Piankashaws now living. Many interesting stories are 
told of these Indians by the early settlers of Greene county. 

Schoolcraft refers to the Pawnees as hunting through this region, and 
they, with the Osages, were much feared by the early pioneers on the White 
river. They had no villages here, and were only occasional predatory visitors 
in this part of the country. 

INDIAN TRAILS. 

The natural routes of travel for the aborigines, as well as for the early 
explorers, and later for the pioneers coming to the great western country, was 
b)- water, ihe Ohio river being the great highway leading u]) to the selthng 
of the West, while the Mississippi was the natural gateway for tlie l-'rencii 
■cwva^curs f'-tan the north and the Spanish explorers from the so-ith. Later, 
the Missouri river became the outlet for western immigration, and still later. 
its tributaries (especially the Osage) opened new regions to the somh an 1 
west. The White and Arkansas rivers were also natural routes of travel uito 
the Ozark region. When this area came to be settled, it was by means of the 
Osage on the north and the James and White rivers on the south. Where the 
watercourses were not available, the aboriginal traces, or trails, were utilized. 
Most of the early roads in the Ozark region followed the old Indian trails, 
and the modern fisherman, as he travels along our streams, pursues, in the 
main, the paths that were outlined by his aboriginal predecessor. The early 
explorer also took advantage of these tracks, which were originally luade by 
men on foot or on horseback, and which were not only sometimes obscure, but 



42 GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 

■were also frequently turned from their course by fallen trees and washouts. 
Still later, these trails became, in the main, the general course of state and 
county roads, though as the region became more settled, these were often 
turned to follow section lines. It is an interesting fact that some of our rail- 
roads now follow the general direction of old Indian trails. 

For many years, in connection with his geological work in the State 
-of Missouri, the writer has, both by personal observation and reading, studied 
these old Indian highways. IMany of these have been mapped by Houck* in 
Jiis valuable work on the history of this state, and two of them will be here 
described. That author refers to a map published by James Smith in 1720, 
which outlined a path, or trail, running through southwest ^lissouri, evidently 
the continuation of one starting on the Atlantic coast in Virginia, and known 
as "The Virginia warriors path," leading across the Cumberland mountuin>, 
thence to the falls of the Ohio and across what is now southern Indiana and 
Illinois, to the Mississippi, and west through southern Missouri to the Rocky 
mountains — a veritable "Indian Appian Way across the continent." He be- 
lieves that it crossed the Mississippi near what is now Gray's Point and also 
at Grand Tower, and states that the trail crossing at, or near. Grand Tower 
would, on the west side, follow Apple creek, or the dividing ridge between the 
Avaters of the St. Francis and Meramec rivers, but that the lower trail would 
hug the edge of the great alluvial St. Francis basin, gradually ascending by 
way of Otter, Big Barren and Pike creeks to the plateau of the Ozarks. Sub- 
stantially on this route, a railroad is now in operation. This trail extends 
through the counties of Carter, Shannon, Howell, southwest corner of Texas, 
southern Webster, to what is now Springfield near the center of Greene 
county, and is largely followed by the course of the Kansas City, Springfield 
■& Memphis railroad. This Virginia Warriors Trail extends southwest from 
what is now Springfield, following essentially the 'Frisco railroad southwest 
through McDonald county into Oklahoma. 

From such sources as county histories, gazetteers and maps, the writer 
also finds that the 'Frisco railway from Springfield to St. Louis follows, in 
the main, another aboriginal trail. 

Houck locates still another trail extending from the Osage \-illage, in the 
■southern edge of Bates county, through Vernon in a southeast course through 
'Cedar, the southwestern corner of Polk and tlirough the western part of 
Greene county. The writer, however, differs from him in believing that this 
trail extended in a more southeasterly course through Greene, following prac- 
tically what is now the Melville road to the site of the present city of Spring- 
field.' 

Just where these trails entered the territory now occupied by the last 
•named city, it is difficult to say. That this area was a famous camping ground 



* "History of Mis.souri," Louis Houcl^, Vol. I. p. 226. 



GREENE COUXTV, MISSOURI. 43 

for different tribes of Indians, is a well-established fact. Tliey liked to 
camp near water, and the numerous spring's within and close to the present 
city limits were popular places for th» location of villages. The J(jrilan, Jones 
and Country Club springs on the southeast ; the natural well, the Lyman, Kick- 
apoo and Brewery springs on the south; the cotton mill spring, the Puller 
spring, the Doling Park springs, the Ritter springs on the west ; the Fulbright 
spring on the north, and the Sander spring on the northeast, all bear evidence 
of having been the sites of Indian camping grounds. 

Both the Melville road and the Bolivar, or Boonville, road, essentially 
outline the two old Osage trails into Greene county. The "Wire," or Fayette- 
ville road, follows, in the main, one of the Indian trails to the southwest down 
Wilson creek and the James river to one of the White river hunting grounds. 
It is probable that the Delawares and Kickapoos followed a trail that passed 
due south of Springfield about a mile west of the "W^ilderness" road. The 
Osages, it is certain, followed another trail to their hunting ground on the 
White river, a road now partially outlined by the Chadwick branch of the 
'Frisco railroad, past Sequiota Park (Fisher's Cave), tin-ough Galloway along 
the road to the ford below the bridge which crosses the James, to about a mile 
south of the bridge, where the old Linden road begins, following the latter in 
a general course southeast toward Chadwick, then down Swan creek to For- 
syth, or the mouth of Big Beaver creek. 

Another Osage trail branched from the beginning of the Linden road 
southward down to Bull creek and on to the White river. 

The writer has endeavored to outline these trails, Indian mounds, vil- 
lages and early roads on the accompaning map. 

Keemile and Wetmore* state that the Creeks, or Muskogees, and the 
Chasseurs dii Bois, of Louisiana, hunted along the Niangua river, which 
abounded with beaver, making it probable that they passed from the south- 
west along the Virginia Warriors Trail through what is now Springfield, and 
thence north by a route now followed by the old Jefferson City road. 

The Bolivar, or Boonville, road followed the old Osage trail, as indicated 
on the map. and was known among the first settlers as the "old road," or the 
"military road." It extended from Palmyra, on the Mississippi,* through 
Boonville, Springfield and Fayetteville, Arkansas, to Fort Smith, and was 
the chief route of travel from the upper Mississippi to Arkansas. Louisiana 
and Texas. It was regularly located and cut out to the legal width by .Act 
of March 7th. 1835. 



* "Gazetteer of Missouri." Keemile and Vfetmore. is.37. 

* "History of Benton Countr." James H. Lay. Hannibal. Mo.. ISTO. 11. 1.5. 



44 GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 

EARLY EXPLORATIONS. 

It is very interesting to note that there is a strong probabihty that the 
white man penetrated into what is now known as Greene county nearly three 
hundred and se\"enty-five years ago, or nearly seventy-five years before the 
Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock. Authorities are pretty generally agreed 
that one of De Soto's exploring bands, in the famous trip from Florida across 
to the Mississippi, through the southwestern slopes of the Ozarks to the 
Arkansas river, in 1541, passed north into wliat is now Greene county. Neither 
Bancroft, Sparks nor Shea, historians who have written of these early days, 
believe that any of this band went west or north of Greene county. One local 
evidence seems to confirm the view that they were in this region. Some years 
ago the writer was shown a silver medallion, or amulet, of Spanish design 
that was found in cleaning out a spring near the town of Ash Grove, and 
which bore an obscure date in 1500. It is a reasonable presumption that this 
was lost by some one of the De Soto band, though it may have been dropped 
by some Indian who had become possessed of it. 

Long before the State of Missouri was carved out of the Louisiana Pur- 
chase, the region of the Ozarks was known, from nearly one side of the con- 
tinent to the other, as being a land of great promise. Rich in all natural re- 
sources, abounding in game and food-fish and a-profusion of wild fruits, with 
prairies easily responding to primitive cultivation, numerous clear, cold springs 
and streams of water, finely wooded bottomlands and much mineral wealth, its 
fame, spread by the Indians, soon attracted those early adventurers who, com- 
ing from other countries in search of wealth, found it easy to believe more 
than the truth about this justly-praised section of the continent. No doubt, 
tlie Indians, seeing their greater interest in the tales of mineral wealth, were 
quick to take advantage of this and lead the newcomers on. Not only did De 
Soto's bands, penetrating everywhere in search of treasure, journey as far 
northward as southwestern Missouri, but Coronado, coming at the same time 
from Me.xico on the west, his imagination inflamed by the reports of the In- 
dians, after he had found the fabled "Seven Cities of Cibola," and still jour- 
neying to find the city of Ouivira, which the Indian guide had told him was 
so rich, also arrived so near to what is now the Ozarks that it is quite prob- 
able that these two great explorers, without knowledge of each other, were, at 
one time in their respective journeys, no more than a day or two apart. And 
this was only fifty years after the discovery of America by Columbus ! 

After the departure of these early explorers, we have no evidence that 
what is now Greene county was visited by the white man from 1541 to 1710 
or '18, or until the time of the establishing of the "Mississippi Company,'* 
which was to exploit the Louisiana territory for the benefit of the French 
treasury. When, under the lead of Law and Crozat, the greatest scheme of 
financial inflation ever known became a failure, the bursting: of the "Missis- 



GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 



45 



■sippi Bubble" left stranded thousands of people who had come to this country 
in good faith, but who were then thrown on their uwn resources for support. 
These people scattered everywhere, and sent explorinti: parties all througii the 
Ozarks to search for the mineral wealth they had been led to believe w-as 
close at hand. Maps prepared for the deception of expected emigrants to this 
country pointed them to this more northern region. 

In St. Gem's "Annals of Ste. Genevieve," as quoted in the History of 
Greene county, published in 1883, we read, on page 125: "The first white 
men to visit the county were some of the early French voyageurs, who came 
out occasionally from Ste. Genevieve after 'the year of the great w-aters,' 1715, 
and made certain explorations in search of gold and silver. Returning, they 
reported plenty of lead indications, but none of the precious metals. These 
Frenchmen belonged to the colony at Ste. Genevieve, and seemed to have gone 
as far west from time to time as Barry, or perhaps McDonald county, 
from the descriptions which they gave. 'It is a land very rough, mountainous, 
and hard to travel through,' said they, 'and there are plenty of springs, caves 
and fresh w-ater'." It is very probable that the course followed by these trav- 
elers from Ste. Genevieve would have taken them through Greene county. 
These explorations must have given rise to the traditions in regard to the old 
French and Spanish mines and smelters for silver which have been treasured 
throughout the whole Southwest — stories that have been so frequently met 
with as to justify a belief that there was some foundation in fact for their ex- 
istence. There is scarcely an old miner in all this region who does not have 
more or less implicit faith in the old French and Spanish siher mines, ancient 
maps of which some of them claim to have seen. 

There is abundant evidence that all these French and Spanish explorers 
searched here for gold and silver. Northwest of the present town of W'illard. 
in Greene county, a considerable area is pitted with old diggings made laefore 
the memory of recent settlers; and in other parts of the county similar evi- 
dences of early searching parties are found. Some six miles southw-est of 
Springfield, in Wilson township, some partially smelted lead w^as found in a 
primitive furnace, no doubt constructed either by one of these early explorers 
or by Indians who had learned the process from them. Another such fur- 
nace was described by the explorer, Schoolcraft, as being near the James river 
mines at Kirshner's, southeast of Springfield, which was rediscovered and 
photographed by the w^riter some tw-enty years ago.* Quoting from School- 
craft, "A View of the Lead Mines in Missouri. 1819," we read: "Twenty 
miles above the junction of these streams (James and Finley), on the imme- 
diate banks of the James river, are situated some valuable lead mines, which 
have been know^n to the Osage Indians and to some \Miite river hunters for 



* "Geology of Greene County." E. M. Shepard. Missouri Geological .'Jiirvey. Vol. 
XII. p. 182. 



46 GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 

many years.* The Indians have been in the habit of procuring lead for bul- 
lets at that place, by smelting the ore in a kind of a furnace made by digging 
a pit in the ground, and casing it with some flat stones, placed so as to 
resemble the roof of a house inverted, such is the richness of the ore and the 
ease with which it melts. The ore has not, however, been properly explored, 
and it is impossible to say how extensive the beds or veins may prove. Some 
zinc in the state of a sulphuret is found accompanying it."' 

RECORD OF EARLY TRAVELERS. 

The earliest travelers to visit Greene county and leave a record of what 
they saw and did were Henry R. Schoolcraft** and Rufus Pettibone. who 
left Potosi November 8th, 1818, and, after studying tlie lead mines in that 
vicinity, traveled southward through the wilderness over a trail so accurately 
described in Schoolcraft's Journals, that the present writer has been able to fol- 
low it through almost every portion of its course in this state. The distance 
and general course of tra\'el each day. the striking topographic features of the 
country and their camp each night are all so vividly described that one may 
easily trace this route day by day. In their progress toward this southwest 
region, they reached the North Fork of the White river, which the Osage In- 
dians called the "Unica," somewdiere near wdiat is now the town of Cabool, 
whence they journeyed to the White,- then up this stream to the Big Bea\-er 
creek. A little beyond this locality, December 13th, 1818, they reached the 
last point of settlement on the White river, wdiich he describes as follows: 
"The most remote bound to which the white hunter has penetrated in a south- 
west direction from the Mississippi ri\er toward the Rocky iMountains. It 
consists of two families, Plolt and Fisher by name, who have located them- 
selves here within the last four months." Schoolcraft and Pettibone re- 
]nained at that point until Monday, December 28th, 1818, when they suc- 
ceeded in persuading Holt and Fisher to accompany them north to some mines 
where the Indians and hunters had been accustomed to get lead for bullets. 
Reaching Swan creek (The Mehausca, of the Osages), the next day, they 
followed an old Osag^e trail up the creek, crossing wdiat is now Christian 
county to a point on the Finley several miles east of the branch which empties 
into that stream from Smallen's cave, called Winoka (meaning underground 
spirit) by the Osages, of which they gave a \ivid description. From this 
point they soon struck again the old Osage trail, or the old Linden road in 



* Tlie above fact confirms the view expressed by the writer that this region had 
lung lieen known liy the Spanish prospectors on tlie Mississiiipi Kiver. 

** ".Seenes anil Adventures in the Semi-Alpine Regions of the Ozark Mountains 
nud .Vrkausas." Isls and ISin. Philadelphia, 1853. Also, "Journal of a Tour Into 
the Interior of Missouri and .\rkansas in ISIS and 1819,^' Henry R. Schoolcraft, Lon- 
don. 1S21. 



GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 47 

the south of section 26, township 2H, range 21, of Greene county, reaching 
the Russell spring branch in the west half of section 26, where they camped. 
On the I St of January, 18 19, they passed al(;ng this trail to a point just be- 
low the Ozark bridge, south of what is now the town of Galloway, where they 
forded the river and passed some four miles up the western bank of the stream 
to the James river lead mines, just east of what is now Kirshner's spring. 
With this brief introduction, we will here insert several pages from School- 
craft's journal, which, long since out of print, is inaccessible to most people* : 
He says: "On leaving the valley of the cave ( Smallen's ), and ascending the 
hills that environ it, we passed over a gently sloping surface of hill and vale, 
partly covered with forest trees, and partly in prairies. I have seldom seen a 
more beautiful prospect. The \-arions species of oaks and hickories had 
strewed the woods with their fruits, on which the l)ear and wild turkey rev- 
eled, while the red deer was scarcely ever out of sight. Long before the hour 
of encampment had arrived, the hunters liad secured the means of making a 
sumptuous evening meal on wild viands: and when, at an early hour, we 
pitched our camp on the borders of a small brook (the Russell spring branch), 
Holt, who was ever ready with the rifle, added a fat brant from this brook to 
our stores. * * * w^ []-ie,-i prepared our conches and night-fires and 
slept. The first of January, 18 19, opened with a degree of cold unusual in 
these regions. Their elevation is, indeed, considerable ; but the wind swei)t 
with a cutting force across the prairies. We were now on the princi]ial north- 
western source of White ri\-er (at the Ozark l)ridge just south of GaIlowa\' ). 
the channel of which we forded in the distance of two miles (from the Russell 
spring branch camp). The western banks presented a naked prairie, covered 
with dry grass and autumnal weeds, with here and there a tree. We pushed 
on toward the northeast. The prairie hen, notwithstanding the cold, rose up 
in flocks before us, as we intruded upon their low-couched positions in tiie 
grass. Of these. Holt, wdiose hunting propensities no cold could restrain, ob- 
tained a specimen: he also fired at and killed a wild goose from the channel 
of the river. On passing about four miles up the western banks of the stream 
(at the old Phelps mines on the banks of the James river near Kir.shner's 
spring), we observed a lead of lead ore. glittering through the water in the 
bed of the river, and detemiined to encamij at this spot, for the purpose of in- 
vestigating the mineral appearances. The weather was piercingly cold. We 
found some old Indian camps (Osage) near at hand, and jirocured from them 
pieces of bark to sheathe a few poles and stakes, hastilv put u]). to fonu a shel- 
ter from the wind. A fire was .soon kindled, and, while we cooked and par- 



* "Journal of :\ Tour Into the Interior of Mi.^^soin'i :iiiil ,VrUiins;is in Hie Ye'ir.s 
1818 and 1819." Henry R. Scboolcraft. London, 1821. ]>. ."4. and ".\dventnre.s in the 
Semi-Alpine Regions of the Ozark Mountains of Missouri and Arkansas," Henry R. 

Schoolornft, rhiladelphia, 185.3. p. 110. 



48 GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 

took of a forest breakfast, we recounted the incidents of the morning, not 
omitting the untoward state of the weather. When the labor of building the 
shanty was completed, I hastened to explore the geological indications of the 
vicinity. * * * jj-i ji^g meantime my New England companion took a 
survey of the surrounding country, which he pronounced one of the most 
fertile and admirably adapted to every purpose of agriculture. Much of the 
land consists of prairie, into which the plow can Ije immediately put. The 
forests and groves, which are interspersed with a park-like beauty through 
these prairies, consist of various species of oaks, maple, white and black wal- 
nut, elm, mulberry, hackberry and sycamore. 

"Holt and Fisher scanned the countiy for game, and returned to camp 
with six turkeys and a wolf. Their fear of the Osages had been only ap- 
parently subdued. They had been constantly on the lookout for signs of In- 
dian enemies, and had their minds always filled with notions of hovering 
Osages and Pawnees. The day was wintry, and the weather variable. It 
commenced snowing at daylight, and continued till about 8 o'clock a. m. It 
then became clear, and remained so, with occasional flickerings, until 2 o'clock, 
when a fixed snowstorm set in, and drove me from my little unfinished fur- 
nace, bringing in the hunters also from the prairies, and confining us strictly 
to our camp. This storm continued, without mitigation, nearly all night. * 
* * I found the bed of the stream, where it permitted examination, to be 
non-crystalline limestone, in horizontal beds, corresponding to the formation 
observed in the cave of Winoka ( Smallen's cave). The country is one that 
must be valuable hereafter for its fertility and resources. The prairies which 
extend west of the river are the most extensive, rich and beautiful of any 
which I have yet §een west of the Mississippi. They are covered with a most 
vigorous growth of grass. The deer and elk abound in this quarter, and the 
bufi^alo is yet occasionally seen. The soil in the river valley is a rich black 
alluvium. The trees are often of an immense height, denoting strength of 
soil. It will probably be found adapted to corn, flax, hemp, wheat, oats and 
potatoes, while its mining resources must come in as one of its future ele- 
ments of prosperity. 

"I planted some peach stones in a fertile spot near our cam]), where the 
growth of the sumac denoted unusual fertility.. And it is worthy of remark 
that even Holt, who had the antipath}' of an Indian to agriculture, actually 
cut some bushes in a certain spot, near a spring (Kirshner's spring), and piled 
them into a heap, by way of securing a pre-emption right to the soil. 

WHEN DE SOTO CAME. 

"The region of the Ozark range of mountain development is one of 
singular features, and no small attractions. It exhibits a vast and elevated 
tract of horizontal and sedimentary strata, extending for hundreds of miles 



GREENfi COUNTY, MISSOURI. 49 

north and south. This range is broken up into high diffs, often wonderful 
to behold, which form the enclosing walls of river valleys. * * * Through 
these Alpine ranges De Soto roved, with his chivalrous and untiring army, 
making an outward and inward expedition into regions which must have 
presented unwonted hardships and discouragements to the march of troops. 
To add to these natural obstacles, he found himself opposed by tierce savage 
tribes, who rushed upon him from every glen and defile and met him in the 
open grounds with the most savage energy. His own health finally sank under 
these fatigues, and it is certain that, after his death, his successor in the com- 
mand, Moscoso, once marched entirely through the southern Ozarks, and 
reached the butTalo plains beyond them. Such energy and feats of daring 
Tiad never before been displayed in North America; and the wonder is at its 
highest, after beholding the wild and rough mountains, cliffs, glens and tor- 
rents, over which the actual marches must have laid. 

"Some of the names of the Indian tribes encountered by him furnish 
■conclusive evidence that the principal tribes of the country, although they 
liave changed their particular locations since the year 1542, still occupy the 
region. Thus the Kapahas, who tlien lived on the Mississippi, above the St. 
Francis, are identical with the Quappas, the Cayas with the Kanzas, and the 
Ouipana with the Pawnees. 

"The indications of severe weather, noticed during the last day of De- 
cember, and the beginning of January, were not deceptive; every day served 
to realize them. We had no thermometer, but our feelings denoted an in- 
tense degree of cold. The winds were fierce and sharp, and snow fell during 
a part of each day and night that we remained in these elevations. We 
■wrapped our garments about us closely at night, in front of large fires, and 
ran alternately the risk of being frozen and burnt. One night my overcoat 
was in a blaze from lying too near the fire. This severity served to increase 
the labor of our examination, but it did not, that I am aware, prevent any- 
thing essential. 

"On the fourth day of nly sojourn here a snow-storm began, a little be- 
fore one o'clock in the morning ; it ceased, or, as the local phrase is. "held up," 
at daybreak. The ground was now covered from a depth of two or three 
inches with a white mantle. Such severity had never been known by the 
"hunters. The winds whistled over the bleak prairies with a rigor which 
. would have been remarkable in high northern latitudes. The river (James) 
froze entirely over. The sun, however, shone out clearly as the day advanced, 
and enabled me to complete my examinations as fully as it was practicable to 
do under the existing state of the weather. 

"It happened on this day that my companion had walked a mile or two 
west, over the smooth prairie, to get a better view of the conformation of the 
(4) 



50 GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 

land, returning to camp before the hunters, who had also gone in the same 
general direction. On their coming back, one of them, whose head was al- 
ways full of hostile Osages, fell on his returning track in the snow, and care- 
fully traced it to our camp. He came in breathless, and declared that the 
Osages were upon us, and that not a moment was to be lost in breaking up 
our camp, and flying to a place of security. When informed of the origin 
of the tracks, he still seemed incredulous, and could not be pacified without 
some difficulty. We then prepared, by collecting fuel and increasing our bark 
defenses against the wind and snow, to pass another night at the camp. 

"I had now followed the Ozarks as far as it seemed practicable, and 
reached their western summit, notwithstanding every discouragement thrown 
in my way by the reports of the hunters, from the first moment of my strik- 
ing the White river; having visited the source of nearly eveiy river which 
flows from it, both into the Missouri and Mississippi. I had fully satisfied 
myself of its physical character and resources, and now determined to return 
to the camps of my guides at Beaver creek, and continue the exploration south. 

"It was the 5th of January, 18 19, when we prepared our last meal at 
that camp, and I carefully put up my packages in such portable shape as 
might be necessaiy. Some time was spent in looking up the horses, which 
had been turned into a neighboring canebrake. The interval was employed 
in cutting our names, with the date of our visit, on a contiguous oak, which 
had been previously blazed for the purpose. These evidences of our visit 
were left, with a pit dug in search of ore, and the small smelting furnace, 
which, it is hoped, no zealous antiquarian will hereafter mistake for monu- 
ments of an older period of civilization in the Mississippi valley. When tliis 
was accomplished, and the horses brought up, we set out with alacrity. The 
snow still formed a thin covering on the ground, and, being a little softened 
by the sun, the whole surface of the country exhibited a singular mat of the 
tracks of quadrupeds and birds. In these, deer, elk, bears, wolves and tur- 
keys were prominent — the first and last species conspicuously so. In some 
places the dry spots on the leaves showed where the deer had lain during the 
stonn. * * * Frequentl}' we crossed wolf trails in the snow, * * * 
and observed places where they had pla^^ed or fought each other, like a pack 
of dogs — the snow being tramped down in a circle of great extent. We also 
passed tracts of many acres where the turkeys had scratched up the snow in 
search of acorns. We frequently saw the deer fly before us in droves of 
twenty or thirty." 

We have given the foregoing lengthy quotation from Schoolcraft's jour- 
nal, because of its vivid picture of what is now Greene county before the ad- 
vent of the pioneers — the only written record that we have preserving for us 
the knowledge of the abundance of game and the early-recognized richness of 



GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 5I 

the soil, and portraying for us the marvelous changes that have taken place 
in this region in less than a century. 

George Catlin, the great artist and painter of Indians, describes a journey 
which he made from Fort Gibson (near Muskogee, Oklahoma), north to 
Boonville, in October, 1834, with only his faithful horse for companion, and 
gives a somewhat detailed account of finding his friend. Captain Wharton, at 
Kickapoo settlement, the Kickapoo village already described as probably 
southeast of Springfield. He states:* "I struck a road (sometime after leav- 
ing the Requa Indian village) leading into a small civilized settlement called 
'Kickapoo Prairie," to which I bent my course, and riding up to a log cabin 
which was kept as a sort of a hotel, or tavern, I was met by the black boy 
(who accompanied Captain Wharton, who had preceded Catlin on the trip 
from Fort Gibson to Boonville). 

The reader of history finds it difficult to reconcile Catlin's own descrip- 
tion of this journey with geographical facts. He makes mention of visiting, 
on the way, the Requa Indian village, which was in what is now Bates county, 
and of meeting there his old friend, Beattie, who had been a guide for Wash- 
ington Irving in his travels through the region in question. Continuing his 
journey, he describes striking a trail which led into the Kickapoo settlement, 
and which was about half way on his journey to Boonville. After crossing 
various streams with steep banks, he records the fact that he reached the 
Osage river, "which is a powerful stream." He further says, "I struck at a 
place which seemed to stagger my courage very much * * * there 
seemed to be but little choice in places with this stream, which, with its banks 
full, was sixty to eighty yards in width, with a current that was sweeping 
along at a rapid gait." As the Requa village is north of the Osage, which 
at that point is a very small stream, he could not have crossed again on his 
trip to Boonville by that route, which, moreover, would have taken him en- 
tire away from what we now believe to have been the Kickapoo settlement 
and prairie. As there was no settlement of that name in the region traversed 
except that near Springfield, as far as can be learned, and as his descriptions 
of the country through which he traveled before and after reaching that set- 
tlement strikingly correspond with Ozark scenery, it seems as though he must 
have journeyed through Greene county. But his own testimony, so definite in 
statement, is thrown in doubt by his mention of visits to the Requa Indian 
village and his old friend Beattie, thus rendering the reader uncertain as to 
which of two possible routes to the north he may have taken. Another 
stumbling block in h;s description is the fact that the Osage, where he must 
have crossed before he could reach the Requa village, is a ver\- insignificant 
stream. 



* "The George Catlin Indian Gallery," Smitlisouian Report. ISso. Part II, 
pp. 325 and 495. 



52 GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 

EARLY HUNTERS AND PIONEERS BEFORE THE FIRST PERMANENT SETTLERS. 

In the historical sivetch accompanying the Atlas of Greene County, pub- 
lished by John R. Williams, 1876, page 18, it is stated that the first pioneers 
and hunters who came into this region were compelled, by the Delaware In- 
dians, to remove from the reservation that had recently been granted this tribe 
by the United States government. It is further stated that Thomas Patterson, 
a native of North Carolina, and subsequently an emigrant to Tennessee, moved 
from the latter place to the Little North Fork of the White river, in 1819.* 
Two years later he followed up the course of the James river, till he came 
to a spot which he selected as his future home — the immediate vicinity of the 
fami on which his son, Albert G. Patterson, was living as late as 1876. This 
was in the northwest cjuarter of the northeast quarter of section 27, township 
28, i^ange 22, eight miles south of Springfield, in Greene county. Thomas Pat- 
terson brought his family to this place early in 1822, and continued to live 
there until the Delaware Indians came to occupy their reservation, an event 
that occasioned the removal of the white settlers. When the government 
again removed the Delawares farther westward, Thomas Patterson came back 
to his first home. There were several families by this name who were early 
settlers in this part of the county. Alexander, the brother of Thomas Pat- 
terson, made an early settlement on what was later known as the David Wal- 
lace place, afterward as the Stutzman. and now (1915) as the Robert Mack 
place, one-half mile northwest of the James River Club House, in section 19, 
township 28, range 21. 

The names of Pettijohn, Patterson, Price, Friend, Pierson, Burrill, Pros- 
ser. Wells and Ingle appear in the story of pioneer immigration to this region, 
and the hardships borne by some of these families coming by the way of the 
Ohio, Mississippi, White and James rivers, is related by Escott,* from which 
work, as well as from Vaughan's History of Christian County, Schoolcraft's' 
Journal of a Tour in Missouri and Arkansas in 1818 and 1819, Williams' Atlas 
of Greene county and the History of Greene county in 1883. by Perkins and 
Home, we have correlated the information herein given regarding the early 
pioneers, as belonging to this chapter on exploration. Most of the above men, 
with their families, came by water, in a keel-boat, in which they had loaded 
the things most necessary for life in a new country, including field and garden 
seeds. Escott says :** They killed game on the way, which saved their pro- 
visions, but, encountering floods on the White river, they were hindered in 
their progress until all their food was exhausted and nearly all the party ill 



* The writer believes, from evidence to lie given hUer. that this ninst have been 
in 1817 or 1818. 

* "History of Springfield." George S. Escott, 1878. 

** "History of Sprinirfield. Missouri." George S. Eseott, 1S78, \<. 12. 



GREEXE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 53 

with malarial troubles. They were reduced to such extremities for food, ow- 
ing to the impossibility of landing anywhere in the broad expanse of flooded 
country, that they were obliged to consume their seeds, and even roasted their 
bearskin sleeping rugs, after having singed the hair off from them. Then 
they were practically without food for eight days, when a young deer swam to 
their boat and was promptly made use of as a gift of Providence. Another 
time of starvation then intervened, when Burrill made an expedition in a 
skiff to the canebrakes, where a mare and colt were found stranded on a dry 
elevation. The colt was captured and converted into food. So great was 
the captor's necessity that he cut the throat and drank the blood of the animal 
before skinning it and cutting it up to convey to his comrades. So they were 
again provided with food, which lasted until they could make their way to 
the mouth of the Big North Fork, where a few other families had precedeil 
them and formed settlements a short time before. 

The Pettijohn family, consisting of John, with his sons and their families, 
together with Joseph Price and Augustine Friend, were the first white men 
to locate, one at eight and another fifteen miles south of Springfield. Jerry 
Pierson went to the head of the creek in eastern Greene county which still 
bears his name, and historians are agreed that Burrill, Prosser, Wells and 
Tngle soon followed them into what is now Greene and Christian counties. 
Escott* says it is doubtful if Wells was one of the company, but Schoolcraft** 
states in his Journal of November 30th, 1818, that he met a hunter who told 
him of another hunter located at the mouth of the river (Big North Fork) 
and still another named ^^'ells. nearly equidistant on the path he was pur- 
suing—undoubtedly the George Wells referred to. He states further, "Our 
approach was announced by a long-continued barking of dogs, who required 
frequent bidding from their master before they could be pacified. The first 
object worthy of remark that presented itself on our emerging from the for- 
est was a number of deer, bear and other skins, fastened to a kind of rude 
frame, supported by poles, which occupied the area about the house. These 
trophies of skill in the chase were regarded with great complacency by our 
conductor, as he pointed them out, and he remarked that Wells was a great 
hunter and a forehanded man. There were a number of acres of ground, 
from which he had gathered a crop of corn. The house was a substantial, 
new-built log tenement, of one room. The family consisted of the hunter 
and his wife and four or five children, two of whom were men grown and 
the youngest a boy of about sixteen. All, males and females, were dressed 
in leather prepared from deer skins. The host himself was a middle-sized, 
light-limbed, sharp-faced man. Around the walls of the room hung horns 



* "History of Sprin^fielil. .Missouri." Oeorae S. E.seott. 1S7«. V. f. 
** '-Scenes and Adventures in the Semi-Alpine Regions of Mis.«-Miri and Ar- 
liansas." Henry R. Schoolcr.aft. 181S-1S10, ji. 77. 



54 GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 

of the deer and buffalo, with rifle, shot-pouches, leather coats, dried meats 
and other articles, giving unmistakable signs of the vocation of our host. 
The furniture was of his own fabrication. On one side hung a deer skin, 
sewed up somewhat in the shape of the living animal, containing bear's oil. 
In another place hung a similar vessel, filled with wild honey. 

"All the members of the family seemed erudite in the knowledge of wood- 
craft, the ranges and signs of animals, and their food and habits ; and while 
the wife busied herself in preparing our meal, she occasionally stopped to 
interrogate us, or take part in the conversation. When she had finished her 
preparations, she invited us to sit down to a delicious meal of warm coni- 
bread and butter, honey and milk, to which we did ample justice. A more 
satisfactory meal I never made. Wells recited a number of anecdotes of 
hunting and of his domestic life. When the hour for rest arrived we opened 
our sacks, and, spreading our blankets on a bear skin which he furnished, 
laid down before the fire and enjoyed a sound night's repose. The following 
morning we purchased from our host a dressed deer skin for moccasins, a 
small quantity of Indian corn, some wild honey, and a little lead. The corn 
required pounding to convert it into meal. This we accomplished by a pestle 
fixed to a loaded swing-pole, playing into a mortar burned into an oak stump." 

John Pettijohn, Sr., who had been a soldier in the Revolution, was born 
in Henrico county, Virginia, where he married and lived until 1797, when he 
removed to Gallia county, Ohio, and where he fanned until 1818. though the 
writer thinks it must have been earlier, possibly 1S17, when, probably in com- 
pany with the families of the men before named, he sought a home in Mis- 
souri. Their first settlement on the White river was not a permanent one. As 
early as 1820 and 1821 they made extended hunting excursions northward, 
and a small cabin erected, about eight miles south of what is now Springfield, 
established a claim for them there. \\'illiam Pettijohn, on his return from one 
of these excursions, stated that they had discovered "a country that flowed 
with milk and honey, bear's oil and buffalo marrow — great luxuries among 
the trappers."* 

It was in the spring and summer of 1822 that these families began to 
move to locations that they had selected on the "Jeems," within the limits 
of what are now Greene and Christian counties. Vaughan, in his histon,' of 
Christian county, says that at about the time that John Pettijohn, Sr., located 
on James Fork, John Pettijohn, Jr., made a settlement at what is now known 
as the Berry Gibson place, or Delaware Town, just below the mouth of Wilson 
creek. Joseph Price is also named among those early settlers who made their 
homes within a few miles of Springfield. 

The statements made by Escott and others in regard to Augustine Friend 

* "Histoi-y of Springfleld. Missouri." George S. Escott, 1S78. p. 15. 



GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 



55 



^re verified by Schoolcraft's Journal,** wherein we read "about five miles 
below Bull Shoals on White river, some little distance below the mouth of 
Little North Fork, January I2th. 1819, the head of Friend's settlement was 
reached, where we landed at a rather early hour in the evening at a log cabin 
■on the left shore, and were hospitably received by 'Teen' (undoubtedly Au- 
gustine) Friend, a man of mature age and stately air, the patriarch of the 
settlement. It was of him that we had heard stories of Osage captivity and 
cruelty, having visited one of the very valleys where he was kept in durance 
vile."* * * * Then he says, "Mr. Friend,** being familiar, from per- 
sonal observation, with the geography and resources of the country at large, 
states that rock salt is found between the South Fork of White river and 
the Arkansas, where the Pawnees and Osages make use of it. * * * He 
represents the lead ores on its northwestern source, which we had partiallv 
explored (the James river mines), as very extensive." 

LIFE HERE A CENTURY AGO. 

From what Schoolcraft has written about Wells and "Teen" Friend, it 
would seem that both these families must have come to this region earlier, by 
several years, than 181 8, and therefore we should infer that the date of Pet- 
tijohn's and Patterson's arrival in the White river region was somewhat 
earlier than Escott, Vaughan and other writers on the early history of this 
locality have supposed. 

William Friend came with his brother Augustine and the Pettijohn 
family, as before described, and Vaughan, in his "History of Christian 
■County," page 5, states that William Friend later settled the land on Finley 
creek, opposite Linden, in Christian county, in 1828, having evidently moved 
from the Friend settlement on White river, where Schoolcraft had visited 
his brother "Teen." Escott, in his "History of Springfield," page 16, states 
that he was the only one who remained on his fann when the others were 
forced by the Delawares to move. Therefore, during his lifetime, he was 
the oldest permanent settler in this portion of the state. His father was a 



** "Scenes and Adventures in the Semi-Alpine Regions of Missouri .■ind .\rkan- 
sas." in 181S and ISIO. H. E. Selioolciaft, pp. 105. 125. 

* In the boolv last quoted, on page 105. Schoolcraft, under date of DocemlHT 
13, ISIS, describes passing various old camps of the Osiiges at the head of Swan 
Creek, and states that "in searching the precincts of one of them, my guides (Holt 
and Fisher) pointed out a place where the Indians had formerly pinioned down 
Teen Friend, one of the most successful of the white trappers of this quarter, whom 
they had found trapping their beaver in the Swan Creek valley. I thought it wa.s 
an evidence of some restraining fear of our authorities at St. Louis that they had 
not taken the enterprising old fellow's .■scalp as well as his beaver packs." 

**A man who had been but a name to us until Schoolcraft made him so well 
"known as a pioneer of this region. 



56 GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 

captain in the Revolutionary war, and he himself had been a soldier in the 
War of 1812 and was at the battle of Tippecanoe when Tecumseh was killed, 
so he had no fears in remaining among the red men, especially among this 
friendly tribe. 

Vaughan, on page 3 of his "History of Christian County," states that 
George Wells finally settled on Finley creek on the place known as the 
Yochem or Glenn place. 

Schoolcraft states in his "Journal," page 22, under date of January 
loth, 1819, that about two miles above Bear creek, on the White river, "as 
the shades of night overtook us, a hunter's cabin was descried on the left 
shore, where a landing was made. It was proved to be occupied by a man 
named Yochem, who readily gave us pemiission to remain for the night. He 
told us we had descended the river thirty miles (from the mouth of Big- 
Beaver.) He regaled us hospitably with wild viands and, among other meats, 
the beaver's tail — a dish for epicures." Yocliem was evidently another of 
those migratory hunters who were attracted by the beauty and fertility of the 
James river district. 

Following, or accompanying, these earliest pioneers, came, it is stated, 
in the spring or summer of 1822, the Pattersons, of North Carolina, and 
later of Maury county, Tennessee, the forebears of many of the earlier perma- 
nent settlers of Greene county. They moved to the North Fork of the White 
ri\-er in 1819, or probably earlier, and later settled on the James in Greene 
county, in 1822. Escott, on page 15 of his history, says that Thomas Patter- 
son and his family, who had also lived about three years on the White river, 
came up the James in 1821 and bought the claim and improvements formerly 
made by some of the Pettijohn family on the place now ( 1878) owned by 
his son, Albert Patterson, without doubt the oldest improvement in this 
(Greene) county, although actual settlement was not made upon it until 
August, 1822. 

All of the above corroborates the statements of Williams, before cjuoted. 

Judge Vaughan also describes this place as eight miles south of Spring- 
field, and "the one now used for picnics." Mr. Alanson Lyman, an old resi- 
dent of the county, has stated to the writer that this location is about two 
miles west from the Paine bridge on the Campbell Street road, on the north 
side of the river. 

Escott further says, "Also another Thomas Patterson, a cousin of Albert 
G., settled higher up on the James, a little above Samuel Crenshaw's place." 
This place is on the south side of the river, about one mile west of Gates Sta- 
tion, and now known as the Bingham farm, in Christian and Greene counties. 
Escott* further states, "A man named Ingle settled, about 1822, where the 
bridge now stands at the crossing of the James, on the Ozark road, and there 



* "History of Springfield," George S. Escott, p. 15. 



GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 



57 



erected the first mill in southwest ^Missouri." 'I'hc remains of the uld mill- 
dam are now seen just below the Ozark bridge, south of the Inwn of Gal- 
loway. Later, the same author says,** "a man by the name of Marshall 

* * * being married to a squaw, with whom he lived until the time 
of his death, which occurred about the time the Indians were leaving here 

* * * had taken the old mill, which had jjreviously been abandoned by Mr. 
Ingle, and removed it down the river to a [joint near the mouth of Finley 
creek, where he commenced a plantation." 

Between 1823 and 1825 a man named Taggart .settled near McCrackcn's 
mill, just south of the mouth of Pierson creek. Escott also states that the 
settlers had a sort of traditionary account of the killing by the Indians of a 
man of the name of Davis, who settled on the James some time between 
1822 and 1825, but there is no record of what the circumstances were or 
which tribe was charged with the crime. 

Although treaties were made by the United States go\'ernnient with 
the Delawares in 1818, and with the Kickapoos in 1819, by which these tribes 
were given as parts of their reservations the portions of Greene county before 
described and outlined on the accompanying map, the Delawares did not begin 
to permanently occupy their territory on the south half of the county until 
about the fall of 1822, and then ci.instant contlicts began to arise between them 
and the early pioneers. To settle such disputes, Thomas Patterson, Sr.. was 
sent, by the few white families of this region, to St. Louis to make infjuiry 
as to their rights, and Escott* tells us that he was there informed, although 
it is not known to whom he referred the matter, "that the Indians were right, 
and that the white settlers must give up their claims. On his returning and 
reporting thus, nearly all the settlers abandoned their claims, some going to 
the Meramec, some to Osage Fork of the Gasconade, some back to Illinois, 
and some pressing onward still farther south and west." 

When, by a later treatv, the Delawares and Kickapoos were removed, in 
1829 and 1832, respectively, many of these earliest pioneers returned to their 
old homes and began the permanent settlements, the history of wln'ch will be 
given in a succeeding chapter of this work. 

UNDER THREE FLAGS. 

Iri closing this chapter, it may be interesting to remember the fact that 
Greene county, as a portion of Missouri, was, by right of discoveiy by De 
Soto, in 1542, claimed by the Spaniards; that La Salle, in February, 1682, 
with twentv-three Frenchmen and thirty Indians, floated down the Mississippi 
and reached the Gulf of Mexico on the 9th of the following April, where. 



** Ibitl. p. 17. 



** Ibitl. p. 17. 

* "History of Springfield, Missouri," George S. Escott. p. 16. 



58 GREENE COUXTYj MISSOURI. 

finding a suitable location, he raised a cross, planted the arms of France, and 
in a proccs acccntovcrc verbal, duly witnessed, took possession of all the region 
^^atered by the Mississippi and its tributaries, and named it Louisiana, in 
honor of his king, Louis XIV. 

Li October, 1 764. the king gave a letter to the Governor d' Abbadie, an- 
nouncing the gift of Louisiana to Spain, though it was not until March, 1766, 
.that Ulloa, the Spanish representative, arrived in New Orleans to receive the 
transfer of the colony. On the ist of October, 1800, France came again into 
possession of Louisiana. On the 30th of November, 1803, the Spanish au- 
thorities at New Orleans handed over the colony to Daussat, the French rep- 
resentative, and on the 20th of December following he. in turn, transferred it 
to General Wilkinson and Governor Claiborne, of Mississippi, who were au- 
thorized to receive it on the part of the United States, when the French flag 
that was floating in the public square was hauled down and replaced by the 
--stars and stripes. This scene was repeated on the 9th of ]March, 1804, in the 
then village of St. Louis, and thus we see* that this county has been, suc- 
cessively, under the Spanish, French, then again the Spanish, French, and, 
lastly, the American flags. 

In closing this chapter, the writer wishes to state that he has consulted 
every available authority relating to this portion of the state, especially the 
fine collection of books and pamphlets in the Mercantile and Public libraries, 
the Missouri Historical Society collections, the Missouri Botanical Garden 
Library of St. Louis, and the Pu])lic Library of Kansas City, as well as his 
own collection of Missouriana, gathered iluring the past thirty years. He 
has quoted freely from these works, and endeavored conscientiously to give 
credit, with reference to volume and page, to all the authorities from whom 
infomiation has been obtained, and he especially wishes to recognize the mas- 
terly work of Mr. Louis Houck. whose "History of Missouri," in three 
volumes, is a most exhaustive study of the period covering the early explora- 
tions and Spanish and I->ench occupations, up to the time of the admission of 
this state into the Union. 



* See American Commonwealth Series. "Missouri." Carr. p. SO. 



CHAPTER II. 

GEOLOGY OF GREENE COUNTY LOCATION AND TOPOGRAPHY. 

By Edward M. Shepard. 

Greene county is situated on the great Ozark plateau, in the southwestern 
part of the State of Missouri, about forty miles from the Arkansas line on 
the south, and about sixty miles from the western boundary of the state. It 
is bounded on the north by Polk and Dallas counties, on the west by Law- 
rence and Dade, on the south by Christian, and on the east by Webster 
county. In outline, it is nearly square, the east and west measurements being 
a little greater than those from north to south. Its dimensions are about 
twenty-three by thirty miles. 

Springfield, the county-seat, and the fourth largest city in the state, has 
an altitude, at the railroad tracks just north of the corner of Commercial 
street and Benton avenue, of 1,345 feet. The altitude at the Mill street sta- 
tion is 1,268. The United States Coast and Geodetic Survey, about 1885, 
determined the latitude as 37° 13' 15.96" and the longitude as 93^ 17' 17.58", 
erecting a small monument over the point of observation, northwest of Fair- 
banks Hall on Drruy College campus. 

The Ozark Mountains,* so-called, consist of a large plateau covering 
the greater part of southern Missouri and the northern part of Arkansas, and 
reaching an elevation of about 1,700 feet near Cedar Gap, the highest point 
reached by any railroad in the Missouri Ozarks. 

The surface features of Greene county are due almost entirely to the 
erosion of streams, modified, to some extent, by folds, or flexures. The 
rocks are very largely limestones with intercalated beds of chert and impure 
flint, and some sandstones and shales, all of which vary greatly in hardness, 
crystalline structure, texture and chemical composition. The\- are variously 
acted upon by such agencies as flexures, which produce shattering, and thus 
render the breaking down of the formations more easy; by frost, which still 
further facilitates this process ; by the chemical and erosive action of perco- 
lating waters ; and by the weathering out of soft layers, with the consequent 
undermining of superincumbent beds. These physical agencies help to modify 
the topographical features of the country, and each formation, according to 

* The origin of the name "Ozark" is given by Featherstonhaiigh in his book 
entitled "Excursions through the Slave States in 1S34 and '35, p. G3. He sji.vs: 'It 
was the custom of the French Canadians to abbreviate all their names. If the.v were 
going to the Arlvunsas Mountains, they would say they were going 'aux arcs." a term 
which American travelers have converted into 'OzarliS.' " 



6o GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 

its peculiar structure, exhibits special cliaracteristics, clue to the action of one 
or more of these agencies, as will be seen in the particular description of each 
horizon. 

The main great divide, or watershed, of tlie Ozark uplift, which, in gen- 
eral, is followed by the St. Louis and San Francisco railroad, divides Greene 
county into two slopes. The waters on the north flow into the Missouri 
river; those on the south side of the slope tind their way into the Mississippi 
through the White river. This divide is quite narrow in the eastern end of 
the county, falling away rapitUy on both sides, forming the broken area 
around the headwaters of the Pomme de Terre and James rivers. To the 
west, it rapidly broadens into a wide, rolling plateau. The narrow eastern 
portion of this plateau is rough and rugged where it falls abruptly to the 
headwaters of the Pomme de Terre and Sac ri\-ers on the north, and to the 
tributaries of the James on the south. In general, the rock strata of the 
county dip southwesterly, a condition modified, locally, by slight flexures. To 
the west of the town of Strafford, and toward Springfield, is a beautiful, rich 
farming country which extends, constantly broadening, to the western limits 
of the county. The Kickapoo Prairie stretches southwesterly from the town 
of Nogo, and forms a broad plain between Wilson creek and the James river. 
This area, with Grand Prairie to the west, is the finest farming land in the 
county and one of the most fertile areas in the Southwest. 

WATERCOURSES. 

Surrounding and penetrating this district on all sides, from the Sac and 
James, are small streams and branches, usually heading in springs or swampy 
uplands. When a low enough level is reached to allow of the escape of sub- 
terranean waters, springs of various sizes abound, always increasing in volume 
in approaching the lower beds of the Upper Burlington formation. The mar- 
velous system of underground drainage in this cavernous limestone, and its 
striking effects upon the topography of the country, is still further indicated 
by the numerous sink-holes, which are usually associated in groups, having 
the same general trend, and usually marking the course of subterranean 
streams. These sinks occasionally have small streams appearing at one end, 
flowing through the center and disappearing at the other end, as is seen, for 
example, on the McDaniel farm, south of Springfield, in the southwest quar- 
ter of section 12, township 28, range 22 ; also in the city of Springfield, at the 
southeast corner of Cherry and Dollison streets, where a large sink- 
hole was formerly used by the city for the conveyance of the sewage 
of the neighborhood. This system of underground drainage is further illus- 
trated by the great streams that flow from small caves in the Upper Burling- 
ton formation around the limits of this/ district. 

The great agent in developing the topographic features of the county 



GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 6l 

have been the reniarkaljle system of underground watercourses, wliicli lias 
fonned the sinks, so characteristic of the plateau, as well as the narrow gorges 
and ravines that penetrate deeply on all the borders of the district. A study 
of the sinks shows that they are the beginning of these gorges, which are so 
abundant. 

South and east of the great divide, before described, is another and 
smaller divide, lying between the James and Finley rivers, in Christian county. 
In Washington township, in the southeast corner of Greene county, it forms 
a narrow plateau presenting somewhat different aspects from those character- 
izing the main divide. The drainage is poor, and the surface of the country 
is mostly an elevated plain, with a slightly rolling surface covered by post- 
oak fiats. The highest point in this township is just south of Harmony 
church, where. the altitude reaches about 1,540 feet. The divide narrows 
toward the west, forming abrapt slopes and l)luffs toward I-'inley on the 
soutli, with more slopes toward the James. On the plateau of this divide 
are many sink-holes, marking underground streams, and forming one of 
the best examples of Karst* topography found in the state. The plateau is 
generally marked by an absence, in this township, of continuous valleys. The 
sink-holes are frequently greatly elongated, and simulate portions of valleys, 
which the\' really are — that is, valleys in process of formation. It has been 
stated that there is a general dip of the rocks to the southwest throughout 
Greene county. A broad bed of the hard, compact Lower Burlington lime- 
stone forms a water-table tilting to the southwest and underlying the Upper 
Burlington, which is a much softer, more porous and easily eroded layer. 
Surface water from the Lower Burlington contact has formed solution cham- 
bers to the west and south through the base of the Upper Burlington, and 
where the roof of these channels falls in, as is the case in man\- places, elon- 
gated sink-holes are fonned. Of several channels of the kind in this region, 
two may be mentioned. The first begins about two miles west of Rogersville. 
where the Rogersville road crosses a large sink-hole pond, in which a more or 
less permanent body of water is found. To the west, in the north half of 
section 20, township 28, range 20, is an elongated sink-hole, three-quarters of 
a mile long and from one-quarter to one-half mile wide, in which two cave- 
openings are found. The opening to the southwest is connected with an lui- 
derground stream which comes to the surface in the Vaughan si)ring, three 
miles to the west, in section 24, township 28, range 21. The latter flows on 
the surface for some distance, passes the Mentor cemetery, from which it re- 
ceives the drainage, then sinks to reappear in the Russel spring, in section 

* So named from the Karst mountains in Au.stria. where this peonllar type 
of topography was first studied by the geologist. Albrecht Penclv. Sep. "I'ber dns 
Karstphanomen Vortrage des Vereines zur Verbreitung naturwissen schafrlioher Kent- 
nisse." in Wien XLIV. .Thargang. Heft I, 1003. 



62 GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 

22, township 28, range 21. After running for half a mile, it sinks again, to 
come out as a spring in section 28, township 28, range 21, a part flowing 
along the surface and disappearing in a cave-sink in section 29, township 28, 
range 21, making its final appearance where the spring at Camp Cora empties 
into the James river. The course of this drainage has been worked out by a 
series of careful chemical examinations, which were conducted not only to 
show the continuity of underground drainage, but the danger of spring pollu- 
tion in regions where the Karst topography prevails. Typhoid fever cases 
from various points along this route can be traced to the Mentor cemetery. 

A second line of drainage branches off from the big sink-hole in section 
20, township 28, range 20, on the Everly farm. Its underground course may 
be marked by the sink-holes found on the Kelley place, in the southwest of 
section 17; three large sink-holes in section 18, township 28, range 20; and, 
following the course westward, four more along the middle of section 19; a 
large one in the north half of section 14; two to the west in section 15, and the 
outlet of all these in the Big Boiling spring, on the Winoka Lodge property. 

During ordinary rains, as there are no trunk-valleys in this topography, 
water is drained into these great sink-holes, from which it runs down into the 
under-channels and is conveyed away. During floods, or exceptional rainfall, 
these surcharged channels are incapable of carrj'ing away the water, and the 
sink-holes fill up, many of them covering forty acres or more. In the case 
of the Everly sink, a beautiful transient lake of 120 acres is formed. One of 
nearly eighty acres is formed on the Hooper place, in section 14, township 
28, range 21. The road, which passes through this sink, is so deeply sub- 
merged temporarily that the water covers the tops of the telephone poles. 

To the north and east of the great divide, stretching in a northwesterly 
course from Strafford, toward the junction of the Big and Little Sac waters, 
lies an area which gives us another very striking topographic structure. A 
great fold of the strata, extending from Northview, in Webster county, 
chrough Greene, to Graydon Springs, in Polk county, is abruptly faulted on the 
northern slope, with a more gentle inclination to the southwest. The summit 
of this fold is made up, largely, of long, narrow patches of level, unproduc- 
tive land, covered with post-oak. Except in the driest season, when it has 
an ash-colored, powdery soil, it is a damp, clayey, frequently cherty, upland. 

Northeast from Strafford, on the Marshfield road, a narrow ridge of 
sandstone, capped by river conglomerate, is found. This peculiar bluff rises 
to a height of no feet above the stream. A series of these ridges, or mounds, 
extends in a northwest course through the county. The one near the town 
of Fair Grove fomis quite a striking feature in the landscape. An interesting 
mound of circumdenudation is found near Presley Hill, in section 27, town- 
ship 30, range 22, a feature that will be more fully described on another page. 
The protecting influence of a harder, over a softer stratum of rock, can be 



GREENE COUNTY, JIISSOURI. 63; 

seen near the Matherly place, section 24, township 21, range 2;^. The rocks 
here rise to a height of 120 feet above the bottom lantl, and the softer layers 
of the magnesium rock fomi a vertical wall, capped by a harder silicious bed 
which, in some places, projects twenty feet beyond the wall below. 

HYDROGRAPHY. 

As already stated, the great divide, or water-shed, of this region runs 
diagonally through the middle of Greene county, the drainage on the north 
side being mainly into the Sac river and Pomme de Terre, finally reaching the 
Missouri through the Osage river. South of the divide, the James river and 
its tributaries constitute the chief drainage system, the water ultimately find- 
ing its way through White river into the Mississippi. 

James River — The territory drained by this stream and its branches em- 
braces, virtually, all the country south of the great divide. The James has its 
origin some fifteen miles to the east of Greene county in Webster county, in 
section 24, township 29, range 17, from where it pursues a northwesterly 
course toward Northview, in Webster county, and where it was, at one time, 
an extension of the Pomme de Terre — a most interesting example of river 
capture. The elevation of the great fold from Northview to Graydon Springs, 
before referred to, cut off the head waters of the then Pomme de Terre, which 
were captured by the smaller stream, the James, and added to its volume. 

Through Greene county, the James is fed by numerous large springs. 
Pierson creek, one of its largest tributaries, drains the country east of Spring- 
field and south of the great divide. Galloway creek is the only tributaiy of 
any size in Clay township. It flows south, receiving the waters of Sequiota 
(Fisher's) cave. This township is noted for its caves and sinks, and the sys- 
tem of underground drainage more fully described under the subject of Karst 
topography. 

Wilson creek drains the largest area of any of the branches of the James. 
On account of receiving the sewage from the city of Springfield, the waters- 
of this stream are very impure and turbid. In diy weather this creek dis- 
appears a number of times along its course, exhibiting a more advanced stage 
of Karst topography than that described in another part of the county. 

The Sac river drains about the same amount of territory in the north- 
west part of the county that the James does in the southeast. It empties inta 
the Osage just west of the town of Osceola, in St. Clair county, and is mainly 
made up of the West, Main and North Sac branches. The West Sac is 
formed by the union of Pickerel, Pond and Clear creeks, which drain the cen- 
ter of the west portion of Greene county. Main Sac is made up of Asher 
creek, North Dry Sac, Sims branch and South Dr}' Sac. The river has its- 
source in the Norton, Piper and Dishman springs, in Jackson township. 



■64 GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 

North Dry Sac has its source in the Headlee springs. Asher creel'C drains the 
greater part of townships 30 and 31, range 23, running nearly through the 
middle of these townships. 

Pomme de Terre River — -This stream drains the extreme northeastern 
corner of Greene county, and empties into the Osage hve or six miles ahove 
the town of Warsaw. 

CAVES, SINKS AND NATURAL BRIDGES. 

The Upper Burlington limestone, because of its soft and porous nature, 
is one of the prominent cave formation of Alissouri, and some of the caves in 
Greene county are of sufficient importance to deserve more than a passing 
mention. Chief among these is Percy cave, seven miles northwest of Spring- 
field, in section 33, township 30, range 22, formerly known as Knox cave. 
Its location is at the head of a deep, narrow gorge that extends a little less 
than one-quarter of a mile south from Sac river. The gorge represents a 
former portion of the cave, the roof of which, having fallen in, has filled up 
its former outlet. Since its discovery, in 1866, this cave has been carefully 
protected from vandalism, and is more perfectly preserved than the majority 
of such places. The present opening has been partially walled up, and is 
guarded by an ordinaiy door. Upon entering, after passing over huge blocks 
that have fallen from the roof, there appear numberless immense pilasters. 
On climbing over a small hill of fallen debris, a narrow gorge is reached, 
where the roof is exc[uisitely beautiful from innumerable slender stalactites, 
many of which are formed around the penetrating roots of trees that are 
growing on the surface of the ground above the cave. Climbing up a steep 
incline at the farther end of this gorge, a large chamber is soon reached, 
which is about thirty feet high by seventy-five feet wide, from which opens 
a smaller side-chamber, which has been explored for only a short distance. 
Penetrating more deeply into the cave, the edge of a deep gorge is reached, 
and suddenly a descent is made to a small bridge over a wet-weather stream 
which crosses the gorge at right angles. A number of blind crawfish have 
been obtained from this rivulet. Ascending the steps cut into the steep bank 
beyond the bridge, the end of the accessible portion of the cave is soon 
reached. Here the roof very rapidly inclines toward the floor, and one is 
compelled to stoop in order to pass to the large and beautiful spring at the end 
of the cave. Although hardly one-half mile in length, and with chambers of 
no very great size, this cave is still one of the most beautiful in the United 
States. The constant variety met with in tiie display of stalactites, which 
range from sparkling, creamy white to eartln- lirown in color, the splendid 
fluted pilasters, some of large size, and the beautiful rosettes of stalactitic ori- 
gin in the roof, all contribute to form a series of scenes which, in the weird 
intensity of electric lights, make a profound impression upon the obser\'er. 



GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 65 

Sequiota (Fisher's) cave, near Galloway, is another interesting point. 
It opens in a low bluff on the east side of the \'alley through which the Chad- 
wick branch of the St. Louis & San Francisco railroad passes. It is about 
eight feet high and thirty feet wide at its mouth, and enters the bluff in a 
northeasterly course. A stream of pure cold water issues from its mouth. 
About three hundred feet from the entrance, the cave attains a width of 
about sixty feet and a height of about twenty-five feet. A short distance 
farther, a spring rises from the eastern side, beyond which there is a water- 
fall of several feet, and to this point the explorer is conveyed in a boat. The 
cave forks here to the north and east. It has been explored for several hun- 
dred feet beyond the first waterfall. A second fall, of about six feet, is 
found at the end of the east branch, and beautiful stalactites are everj'where 
seen. The fine spring which has its outlet through this cave was taken ad- 
vantage of by the settlers as early as 1840. 

The Mason cave, a remarkable cavern at Ash Grove, has two openings, 
one near the summit of a hill in the northwest end of a small valley, into 
which flows a small, wet-weather stream, called Dry creek. This opening 
is about eight by thirty feet. A great mass of rock has tumbled down in 
front of it, forming a wooded point about fifty feet to the northwest of the 
entrance. An attempt has been made to dam up the outlet of the valley, so 
as to make a lake, but without success. This valley really represents a sunken 
portion of the cave. The other opening of the cavern is about one-fifth of a 
mile to the westward of the first described, and is on a bluff facing the Sac 
river. It is a round hole, about fifty feet deep, and precipitous on all sides 
but one, where a steep path leads down over the talus to the bottom. The 
vertical east, south and north sides of this opening are greatly disturbed and 
shattered, and covered with stalagmitic incrustations. The cave contains 
several large chambers, with some fine stalactitic ornamentation, which lias 
been greatly mutilated by relic hunters. 

The Doling Park cave was formerly known as the Giboney cave, and is 
one of the attractive features of a beautiful park laid out just north of the 
city of Springfield. It is not a large cave, but it sends forth a considerable 
stream of water, which, being dammed, forms a small lake that is utilized 
for bathing purposes, boating and fishing. 

Of the numerous smaller caves which abound throughout Greene county, 
only a few will be noted, viz. the Lapham caves and sinks in Cass township 
(section 23, range 22, township 30) ; Crystal cave, near tlie Sac. north of 
Springfield : the cave from which Jones' spring issues (section 27, town.ship 
29 north, range 21): the Little Yosemite cave (section 28. township 
29, range 21); Wild Cat cave, near Boiling Spring, on the Winoka 
Lodge propertv (section 15, township 23, range 21); the cave in the bluff 

(5) 



66 GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 

at Pierson creek mines: the Robberson cave (section 17, east half of north-, 
east quarter, township 30, range 21 ) ; and several interesting caves on the 
south side of the James river, east of Patterson spring, on the Yarborough 
farm. 

GEOLOGY STRATIGRAPHY. 

The rocks of Greene county consist, first, of a series of more or less 
evenly and regularly bedded deposits, largely composed of white limestones, 
with some shales ; and, second, of a sequence of heavily bedded, or massive, 
buff magnesian limestones. The former are almost entirely Lower Carbonif- 
erous rocks which bear considerable chert, and which, in isolated places, are 
overlaid by beds of sandstone. The second series, the magnesian limestones, 
or dolomites, belong to the basal portion of the Silurian Age. They are 
chiefly exposed in the ri\-er valle}-s in the northern and eastern borders of the 
county, where they have been brought to the surface through the elevation of 
the Ozark Uplift, and the vigorous trenching of the streams. Between the 
first and second' series, there is a wide interval, covering most of the Silurian 
and Devonian Ages, the latter being represented in this region by a few thin 
beds of limestones, sandstones and shales. 

TABLE OF GEOLOGICAL FORMATIONS. 

System. Series. Stage. Formatiou. 

Peiiiisylv;iui;in Des Jloines GiMydon snudstone 

Osage Upper Burliugtou limestone 

Oarbouiferous Lower Burliugtou liujestone 

Mississippiau Cbouteau limestone 

Kiuderhook Hannibal shales 

Louisiana limestone 

Phelps sandstone 
Devonian Hamilton Sac limestone 

King limestone 
James River shale 

Joachim limestone 
St. Peter sandstone 
Cambro-Onlovicirai Ozark Potosi Jefferson City limestone 

Roubidoux sandstone 
Gasoonade limestone 
Gunler saud.stone 
Decaturville limestone 

DESCRIPTION OF GEOLOGICAL FORMATIONS CAMBRO-ORDOVICIAN AGE. 

The oldest rocks exposed at the surface in Greene county are those of 
the Ozark series of magnesian limestones. Tn the extreme northeast part of 



GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 67 

the county, on the Pomme de Terre river, in section 5, township 31, range 
20, is the following section : 

5. Limestone, magnesian (Joachim limestone), 50 feet. 

4. Sandstone (St. Peter). 20 feet. 

3. Limestone, magnesian (Jefferson City limestone), 10 feet. 

2. Sandstone (Roubidoux), 40 feet. 

I. Limestone, magnesian (Gasconade limestone). 10 feet. 

The few fossils that are found in these beds are imperfectly preserved, 
and confined to the upper layers. The limestones are all dolomites, generally 
heavy-bedded. var\-ing from highly silicious lime rocks to very compact, fine- 
grained dolomite ("cotton-rock").* 

GASCONADE LIMESTONE THIRD MAGNESIAN LIMESTONE OF SWALLOW. 

This is the lowest formation exposed within the limits of Greene county, 
and the point at which the above section was taken is the only exposure in the 
county. Just beyond this county, to the northwest, it is the most prominent 
surface formation. 

ROUBIDOUX SANDSTONE SECOND SANDSTONE OF SWALLOW. 

In the bed of the Pomme de Terre, where the outcrop of Gasconade lime- 
stone occurs, a section of Roubidoux sandstone of nearly twenty feet is ex- 
posed. It is variable in structure, but usually coarse-grained, with stratifica- 
tion lines frequently visible. The grains themselves vaiy in texture, shape 
and size. Some are limpid, and some are iron-stained quartz, while through- 
out the whole mass occasional milky-white grains are found. These grains 
are all more or less irregular in shape, thus differing from those of the St. 
Peter sandstone. The calcareous cementing material is considerable — another 
point of difference between this and the St. Peter sandstone. The lower lavers 
of this formation are frequently cherty. Crossing the Pomme de Terre at the 
point of this exposure, a small bluff" is encountered on the Elkland road, a 
short distance from the ford, on a branch that comes in from the north. Here 
this sandstone has a thickness of from thirty-five to forty feet, and the face of 
the bluff shows false bedding and ripple marks. This is the only point in 
Greene county where these beds are exposed. 

It is from the Roubidoux sandstone, reached at a depth of from eight 



* For a fuller description of tlie p;eoloj;ie;i! formations of the Canibro-Ordovlcian 
(Silurian) Age and their distribution thronshout the County, the reader is referred 
to "The Geology of Greene County," E. M. Shepard, Vol. XII, Missouri Gwilcgical 
Survey, where they may be looked for either under the names or synonyms here given. 
ALSO. Water Supply Paper. Bulletin 1U5, U. S. (Geological Survey. Underground Waters of 
Missouri, E. M. Sheimrd. pip. 11-30. 



68 GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 

hundred to a thousand feet in and near Springfield, that the excellent water- 
supply of the deep wells is obtained. This formation has a thickness of about 
300 feet in these wells. 

JEFFERSON CITY LIMESTONE SECOND MAGNESI.\N LIMESTONE OF SWALLOW. 

With the exception of the northeast part of the county, this fomiation 
has a very limited distribution in the area under discussion, and at no point 
has it been possible to obtain a complete section. The upper and lower beds 
outcrop in many places, but no comprehensive outline of the middle beds, as 
a whole, can be given. To the north, and particularly to the east and south 
of Greene county, the Jefferson City limestone thickens greatly, reaching, at 
Lebanon, in the deep well, a thickness of over four hundred feet. To the 
southeast, it has a thickness of nearly five hundred feet. At the power-house 
of the Springfield Traction Company the drill passed through one hundred 
and ninety feet. In the deep well of the Springfield City Water Company, at 
the pump station, one hundred and seventy-fi\e feet was found. Wherever 
exposed, when freshly broken, this rock is a rather soft, fine-grained, com- 
pact, grayish-white, rather thin-bedded dolomitic limestone. Frequently the 
upper beds are highly silicious, and in weathering exhibit the jagged honey- 
combed peaks, or monument-like masses, similar to, though on a far larger 
scale than, the Joachim limestones. The lower beds are also almost always 
more silicious, and pitted with geode-like cavities, or honeycombed by weath- 
ering, leaving silicious skeletons in strangely contorted forms, standing up, 
in places, in jagged peaks two or three feet high, and so close together as 
to make traveling among them very difiFicult. In the eastern portion of the 
county, exposures are confined almost wholly to Taylor township, and only 
a small portion of the upper beds are seen. Where erosion has not strongly 
cut into this formation, a very beautiful rolling upland, with usually rich and 
fertile soil, is found. Where the streams cut through deeply into this hori- 
zon, beautiful bluff scenery abounds, which is rarely precipitous, the irregu- 
larity in the texture of the beds resulting in the fonnation of benches and 
slopes, rather than sharp precipices. No fossils of any kind have been found 
in this horizon in Greene county. Many of the beds of this formation could 
be utilized for building purposes as well as for the manufacture of lime. As 
an ore horizon, it is one of some importance in adjacent counties. 

ST. PETER SANDSTONE FIRST SANDSTONE OF SWALLOW. 

This sandstone is mainly confined to the northeast portion of the county, 
though it also outcrops along the James river. It has a maximum thickness 
of fort3'-five feet, but varies greatly within short distances. In color, it varies 
from a reddish to white coarse-grained sandstone, of loose texture, in decided 



GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 69 

beds from one to four feet thick, and usually associated with a very liard 
(silicious) sparkling limestone, above and below. It is a very durable rock, 
standing out prominently and forming benches and overhanging ledges in the 
beds of streams. While it is generally friable, it possesses, to a high degree, 
the power to resist the elements. Frequently the exposed surfaces are covered 
with ripple marks. In a well-section, the property of the Springfield Traction 
Company, from thirty-five to forty feet of this rock was passed through. At 
the old Phelps mine, five miles southeast of Springfield, it appears to be not 
more than two feet thick. It forms the bed of the James river along nearly 
its entire course through Taylor township. 

JOACHIM LIMESTONE FIRST MAGNESIAN LIMESTONE OF SWALLOW. 

This fomiation has a maximum thickness of about one hundred feet, but 
varies greatly at points not far distant from each other. The beds are much 
attenuated on the slopes of the grand divide. Owing to the great variation 
in the texture of this formation, erosion frequently leaves these beds in great 
blackened masses, which cover the surface of the ground for long distances. 
In other places, the softer matrix is removed and the cherty masses are smaller 
and nodular or lenticular in shape, varying in size from an inch to a foot or 
more in diameter and covered with mammillary and botryoidal surfaces, oc- 
casionally drusy with quartz crystals. Locally, these masses are called "nig- 
ger-heads," or "corn-shellers." They either lie loosely in the exposed bed- 
rock or are partially bedded in the poor, ashy soil which forms many of the 
barren post-oak glades. Such a condition is well exhibited over the top of a 
broad ridge in section 21, township 31, range 20; also in irregular patches 
from this place to section 9, township 31, range 23, ending just over the 
Greene county line, in Polk county, where is found a large glade with scant 
covering of dwarf grass and scrub post-oak. Besides the smaller masses, 
there are, in this location, numerous very much larger boulders forming the 
nuclei for low, conical bosses, which are from ten to twenty feet in diameter 
at the base, and about two feet high. These low hummocks have frequently 
been mistaken for Indian mounds, but their origin is evident. As a nile. the 
upper beds of this formation are more silicious, and form what miners call 
"sand-flint layers." The lower layers are frequently dolomitic limestones, 
forming beds of "cotton-rock." 

DEVONIAN AGE. 

A hiatus exists between the Carl^oniferous and the Silurian fnrmations. 
The Hannibal shales, from their loose texture and their readily deconiiwsable 
nature, wash down and form, almost invariably, a long and gentle slope, or 
terrace, covering the underlying formations for some distance, thus making 



yO GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 

it exceedingljr difficult to find the junction between these shales and the un- 
derh'ing beds. It is rarely, except in mines and well-sections, and in a few 
other localities, that a systematic knowledge of these beds can be obtained. 
Four horizons of this age have been fully synchronized in this and adjoining 
counties, and as they are so thin and so varied in their presence we shall but 
mention their names in the following generalized section :* 

Phelps Sandstone o to 4 feet. 

Sac Limestone i to 18 feet. 

King Limestone i to 15 feet. 

James River Shale, or Black Shale J-S to 5 feet. 

CARBONIFEROUS AGE. 

The great subdivisions of the Carboniferous Age are recognizable in 
Greene county as a lower part, or Mississippian Series, and an upper part. 
or Pennsylvanian Series (coal measures). The former, or lower part, oc- 
cupies probably nine-tenths of this county, and is represented by several well- 
marked members. The latter, or upper part, is represented only by small, 
isolated patches, outliers of the coal fields, which are situated in the western 
part of the state. 

THE MISSISSIPPIAN SERIES LOWER CARBONIFEROUS. 

This series is represented in Greene county by two subdivisions, the 
Kinderhook and the Osage. The Kinderhook is divided into three horizons, 
as follows : 

Chouteau Limestone 3 to 30 feet. 

Hannibal Sandstones and Shales 10 to 90 feet. 

Louisiana Limestone o to 8 feet. 

LOUISIANA LIMESTONE LITHOGRAPHIC OF SWALLOW. 

This is a ver}' compact, metlium-grained limestone, its surface weathering 
SO as to expose minute crinoid stems. The rock is so compact that if the 
weathered slabs are held up and struck with a hammer, they ring like bell 
metal. Exposed surfaces are frequently speckled with minute particles of cal- 
cite. Outcrops of this formation are not always easy to find in this county, 
as they are so often covered by the decomposed shales of the Hannibal series 
above. The beds are rarely more than from four to eight feet in thickness. 



* For a fuller discussion of these beds, see "The Geology of Greene County." E. 
M. .Shepard, Missouri Geological Survey, Vol. XII, pp. C5-S2. 



GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 



71 



HANNIBAL FORMATION — \-ERMICULAR SANDSTONES AND SHALES OF SWALLOW. 

This fomiation is usually made up of two nienibers. an upper one. which 
is commonly a dark, yellowish brown to buff line-grained, compact sand- 
rock, penetrated in all directions by tortuous tube-like borings, filled with a 
softer matter, and frequently called "worm-eaten" rock, and a lower mem- 
ber, which is a compact, grayish to blue, in some places greenish, magnesian 
shale. The latter varies from hard to soft in texture, decomposing into a 
clayey, sticky, greenish mud. Frequently the weathered slabs exhibit the 
■"rooster-tail," or "caudi-galli," markings. 

This formation has a thickness of from ten to one hundred feet, the 
sandstone member ranging, perhaps, from a few to twenty-five feet, and the 
shales from twenty-five to seventy-five feet. The shales seem to be always 
present, and usually increase in thickness where the sandstone decreases, or is 
absent. These rocks are exposed, first, where the streams cut through the 
overlying strata and into them : and, second, where a fold or fault brings them 
to the surface. The sandstone is quite durable, and in weathering usually 
forms benches, or terraces, protecting the softer shales beneath. In some 
cases, flat-topped mounds, or buttes, are formed, as in the so-called "Indian 
Mound," on Presley Hill — one of the best locations in the county for the 
study of this formation. 

The sandstone of this formation is largely used by fanners for founda- 
tion stones and for chimneys, as it is very durable and withstands the effects 
of fire. 

The shales, along Pierson creek, are ore-bearing, but the beds are usually 
too thin to hold large deposits of ore. These shales have, usually, a large 
amount of iron pyrites and magnesium carbonate. The former, decomposing, 
produces sulphuric acid, sets free the carbonic dioxide, and produces mag- 
nesium sulphate. Water percolating through these beds is often impregnated 
with mineral matter, and consequently springs or wells in this horizon are 
sometimes unfit for use. 

CH0UTE.\U LIMESTONE. 

While varying structurally at different points, this formation possesses 
certain general lithological characteristics by which it may be easily recog- 
nized. It is fine-grained, compact, heavily bedded, buff to yellow in color, 
frequently slightly arenaceous, much softer in the bed than when exposed to 
the air, and weathers badly, leaving the surface with deep, irregular grooves 
and prominent rounded ridges and points. These rocks are well exhibited 
along the James river, in Taylor township, where they vary from thirty to 
fortv feet in thickness. In the north half of the county they are confined 



72 GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 

mainly to the slopes of the Sac. They are too thin to form much'of an ore 
horizon, and their structure seems unfavorable for the accumulation of an 
ore body. As a building- material, some of the harder, arenaceous beds would, 
probably, justify a more general use. The color is handsome, and presents a 
strong contrast to the Upper Burlington and Magnesian limestones, which are 
so generally used. This rock should replace some of the trimmings that are 
now imported at considerable expense. From a quariy which was worked 
many years ago on the James river, in section 32, township 29, range 20, 
stones were taken which stood for many years in the pillars of the old court 
house in Springfield, where, though long exposed to wind and weather, they 
continued unmarred, except by the vandalism of man. 

The scenery produced by the weathering of beds of the Kinderhook stag-e 
is so striking that a little experience enables one to recognize them at a con- 
siderable distance. Rounded hills, with gentle slopes and terraces, are the 
characteristic features which give a very pleasing aspect to the country. On 
wild land, the sumac grows luxuriantly along these terraces. Mounds and 
low buttes frequently occur from the weathering of the softer shales beneath. 
Quite a striking series of these rounded mounds is seen north of Strafford, in 
township 30, range 20. 

THE OSAGE SERIES AUGUSTA OF KEYES. 

Tliis series includes, in Greene county, the two following geological for- 
mations : 

Upper Burlington 100 to 250 feet. 

Lower Burlington 20 to 90 feet. 

THE LOWER BURLINGTON FORMATION. 

Next to the Upper Burlington, the Lower Burlington has the widest dis- 
tribution of any formation in Greene county. The dip of the strata to the 
southwest buries it beneath the upper members in the western tier of town- 
ships. It reaches a maximum thickness of ninety feet in the eastern part of 
the county, but thins out toward the north. It averages about sixty feet in 
thickness. It is best exposed on the uplands from the James, in Taylor town- 
ship, and northwest of the town of Strafford. The upper beds of the Lower 
Burlington are made up of from five to twenty feet of yellowish-white, ver)^ 
hard chert, which breaks with a conchoidal, or splintery, fracture, some frag- 
ments being as sharp as a knife-blade. It is non-fossiliferous, which, with 
the foregoing characteristics, distinguishes it from the chert of the L^pper 
Burlington. It steadily increases in amount toward the south, from Spring- 
field. This is the material from which the Osages were accustomed to make 
their arrow-points and hatchets, as iias been described in another chapter. 



GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 73-. 

Underneath the cliert bed of tlie Lower fjiirlington is found a heavily 
bedded bluish, or slate-colored, very hard limestone, which is often interspersed 
with lenticular- masses of hard chert in the north, and which, towards the 
south, develops into a succession of numerous alternating beds of chert and 
limestone, each but a few inches thick. The Traction Company well-section, 
at Springfield, gives a thickness of about ninety feet of Lower Burlington. 

Owing to the great hardness of this formation, streams cut into it narrow 
gxillies and gorges; and because of the indestructibility of the chert and the 
excessive hardness of the limestone the formation presents the most unfavor- 
able conditions possible for the deposition and accumulation of an ore-body — 
hence the almost total absence of ore in paying quantities in this formation 
throughout the Southwest. 

As a building stone this rock can never be so valuable as it is in the 
northern part of the state. Usually it breaks in an irregular manner and 
contains much chert. There is one use for this rock, which, strange to say,, 
has been almost wholly overlooked. Everyone who has driven over the ridge 
roads in the southern counties of the state must have been impressed with 
the way in which the chert packs down and forms a natural macadam road- 
way. As a material for macadamizing, nothing could be finer than this chert, 
and its economic value in this respect should be emphasized. The Lower 
Burlington rock is not utilized for burning into lime in this area, though it is 
extensively used for this purpose elsewhere, in localities where it is less sili- 
cious. 

Between the Lower and Upper Burlington beds there is considerai^le un- 
conformity. At, or near, their contact are the finest and largest springs in this 
district. The porous, coarse-grained, cavernous Upper Burlington, with its 
numerous sink-holes, forms a fine reservoir for percolating waters, which,, 
meeting the compact Lower Burlington below, burst out as fine, cold springs. 

UPPER BURLINGTON LIMESTONE. 

By far the most important formation in Greene county is the upper divi- 
sion of the Burlington, which almost completely covers three-fourths of the 
county. The upper beds are well shown in many outcroppings, and in the 
large quarries, railroad cuts and bluflfs around Springfield. In nearly all sec- 
tions that have been obtained the upper portions are made of chert or thinly- 
bedded alternating layers of shaly limestone and chert. These limestone beds 
are more compact in structure than those below, and occasionally they are 
somewhat o51itic. Where drainage is slight the chert of the upper beds is left 
mixed with the residual clay, both from the limestone belonging to it an.l trom 
the formerly overlying beds of Graydon sandstone, in such a manner as to 
fon-n a wet^, hard-pan soil, making the post-oak flats so common in many 
townships, and especially south of the Graydon-Northview fold. 



74 GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 

The chert throughout the whole Upper Burhngton formation is usuahy 
soft, owing to its calcareous nature. It is much less compact than the chert 
■of other formations, very ferruginous, fossiliferous and easily decomposed. 
These striking features are the guide in southwest Missouri that makes this 
chert a landmark. The limestone of this formation is usually fossiliferous, 
decidedly more so than that of any of the other formations, vaiying from 
white to gray in color, and the upper beds weathering in such a way as to ex- 
pose innumerable sections of crinoid stems. The different beds of the Upper 
Burlington may be known by the following characteristics : 

1st. The heavy-bedded chert, or thin, alternating beds of shaly lime and 
chert already described, which vary from a few feet to about forty feet in 
thickness. 

2nd. The limestone underneath, rather coarse-grained, crystalline, soft 
.and greyish in color, usually having white, rather soft lenticular masses of 
chert, from a few inches to a foot or two in diameter, though the chert is 
occasionally absent. The heavy beds are the ones that form the best quarries 
in this horizon, and the rock in these often approaches marble in character. 
The middle beds range in thickness from sixty to one hundred feet. 

3rd. The lower beds are decidedly shaly in structure, though much hard- 
er than the u])per ones, and, where exposed, they form shelving ledges, giving 
a rugged and barren appearance to the country. Frequently, long slopes are 
■covered with these tumbled slabs, making a barren belt, left to the coarse 
grasses and the cacti. These shaly beds are excellent guides to the geologist 
in locating himself in this formation. The aborigines took advantage of this 
structure in making their burial mounds, which may be. found at various 
points along the Sac and James rivers, especially near Delaware Town, in the 
bluff on the west side of the James, just above the iron bridge. In these 
lower beds, which have a thickness of from fifty to eighty feet, the chert in- 
creases toward the southeast. The limestone is remarkably pure, containing 
only traces of silica, alumina, magnesia and iron. It is freer from im- 
purities than any other limestone in the county. The thickness of this for- 
mation at Springfield, as given by the well at the St. Louis and San Francisco 
car shops, is two hundred and fifteen feet, which is about the maximum. 

The decomposition of these alternating beds of limestone and chert forms 
a wonderfully rich soil. The breaking down of the very soft, porous, fossili- 
ferous and ferruginous chert, with the red argillaceous material derived from 
the weathering of the limestone, forms a most favorable condition for vegetable 
growth. This mixture of red clay and broken chert gives the stranger, at first 
sight, a very unfavorable impression: but the fine crops raised in this area, 
and the wonderful strength of the soil, bear ample evidence to the fertility 
of the region. The great springs of Greene county, which will be described 
In another connection, are all Upper-Lower Burlington contact springs. 



GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 75 

The numerous large and remarkable caverns found in the Upper Burling- 
ton formation, and the large number of sink-holes, which seem to have a 
greater or less regularity in trend, are further evidence of great erosion by 
underground streams. Even some of the surface waters sink and appear again 
as, for example, Wilson creek, which frequently disappears for short distances. 

Natural bridges are occasionally found in this formation as on the Steury 
farm, about four miles east of Springfield. By walling up a part of the bridge 
over a spring the owner of the land has made a very fine milkhouse, from 
which an underground passage leads to his dwelling. This spring was probably 
a contact spring between the Upper and Lower Burlington, as the contact 
was noted just below in the shallow ravine, made by the falling in of the 
strata of a former cave. 

Another natural bridge is found on the Mauzy farm, section 3, township 
28, range 21. This beautiful bridge abruptly heads a narrow gorge about one 
hundred feet wide, which extends up from the bottom lands of the James river. 
The county road formerly passed over it. This bridge is fifty feet long, 
fifteen feet wide and twelve feet high. The bottom of the gorge is I5urling- 
ton limestone. A fine spring issues from the blutt in the northeast corner of 
the gorge, and is conve\'ed by a trough to the interior of the bridge, wiiicli 
is now walled in and used as a milk-house. 

This fomiation is noted in the Southwest as the richest of the lead and 
zinc horizons. In the South, the rocks lieing much harder, the deposits are not 
so rich nor as extensive as in the Joplin and Aurora districts, this hardness 
being less favorable to the deposition and segregation of ore. The Upper 
Burlington limestone forms a good building stone and is largely sought after 
for that purpose in numerous quarries in and about the city of Springfield. 
The stone from many of the beds is susceptible of a fine ])olisii, the upper 
fossiliferous layers resembling marble. The rock is very beautiful and dura- 
ble, and may be seen in the Drury College chapel, the St. John Ejiiscopal 
church and other buildings in Springfield. As a road material the surface 
chert is widely used for macadamizing, but it is neither as good nor as 
durable as that from the lower formations. Its soft texture causes it to 
break down quickly and pulverize. A very important industry is the manu- 
facture of lime from this rock. In the vicinity of Springfield and at Ash 
Grove a flourishing business has been Iniilt up and large quantities of lime 
are shipped. 

PENNSVLVANIAN SERIES CO.XL ME.\SURES. 

In Greene county the coal-bearing deposits are represented liy only a few 
outliers, composed of shale, sandstone and conglomerate. Three small coal 
pockets have been found within the limits of this area. One of these is 



76 GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 

not of workable thickness, and the extent of the others has not yet been 
ascertained. 

The coal measurers are arranged in about the following" order : first, 
a rather coarse-grained, reddish sandstone, possibly the ferruginous sand- 
stone of Swallow; second, patches of micaceous sandstone and bowlder con- 
glomerate, overlying, in places, and apparently merging into the ferruginous 
sandstone, the conglomerate usually lying in elongated depressions in the 
micaceous sandstone — the Graydon sandstone, named from Graydon Springs, 
in Polk county, where it was first studied and named by the writer; third, in 
several localities small patches of alternating beds of highly inclined shales, 
from blue to greenish-black in color, occasionally mixed with thin seams 
of carbonaceous matter, and frequently containing tumbled bowlders of fos- 
siliferous limestone; fourth, and last, a peculiar knotted chert named the 
Republic chert, from its great abundance around the town of Republic. This 
covers most of the highest points and overlies, apparently, the highest forma- 
tion of Greene county. Of the shale, only a few pockets occur, and these are 
mainly confined to the western portion of the county. 

The Graydon sandstone conglomerate is made rip of two strikingly dis- 
similar deposits, and both may be present or either may be absent. The 
sandstone is usually a rather coarse-grained, more or less friable, micaceous 
rock. It varies greatly in color and texture. Usually, resting on this sand- 
stone are from twenty to eighty feet of the conglomerate, composed of 
rounded, polished, water-worn pebbles, varying from the size of a hickory nut 
up to several inches in diameter, cemented more or less firmly in a sandstone 
matrix. A typical outcrop of this formation is the well-known Fair Grove 
Mound, one of the most beautiful in the district. It stands as a land-mark for 
all the adjacent country. This mound is nearly two-thirds of a mile long 
and a quarter of a mile wide, about one hundred and fifty feet high, and is 
capped by about eighty feet of the conglomerate. Other mounds dot the 
prairie to the west and north. 

In the western part of the county the conglomerate appears in patches, 
stretching irregularly across the country. In many places the sandstone and 
conglomerate have been deposited in valleys gouged out of the Upper Burling- 
ton. This would indicate the agency of some powerful current of water, 
nothing less, in fact, than an immense prehistoric river, the course of which 
the writer has traced almost continuously from northern Arkansas to the 
Missouri, and which he has named the Schoolcraft river, in honor of Henry 
•Schoolcraft, the earliest white explorer in this region. A current that would 
transport such an amount of bowlder material must have been vcr}^ rapid 
and powerful. Its early action must have been to erode a cliannel which is 
well represented in the deep, narrow valley at Graydon, and northward. The 
trend and structure of the conglomerate deposits, in township 27, range 23, 



GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. "J"] 

already described, is what one would expect to find in the droppini^ of debris 
in rapidly flowing streams, the small ridges corresponding to the currents of 
the streams. The variation in the size of the pebbles on different sides of the 
deposit is what one would expect to find where the current was retarded on 
the inner curve of a stream, the finer material would lie deposited, and on the 
outer side the coarser would be dropped. This is well illustrated in the locality 
last referred to. Again, the deposits of clay, so characteristic in tiie depres- 
sions in this conglomerate, the tumbled bowlder masses of coal measures lime- 
stone associated with these clays, the fragmentary character of the plant re- 
mains found in this clay and shale (the last characteristic being especially no- 
ticeable in the clay deposited in the conglomerate at Billings), and the irregular 
and tilted bedding of the clay and shale, are all what one might expect to 
find in bends of great rivers and where the entering waters of tributary 
streams, retarding the main currents, would cause a deposition cf the sedi- 
ment carried by the waters. 

TERTIARY AGE. 

Deposits closely resembling the gravels that collect on river beds today, 
but lying high above and frequently so distant from the streams that their 
origin can hardly be referred to recent stream deposits, are met willi in places 
within Greene county. Several such gravel beds have been iliscoNcrcd in this 
area, notably the one found just west of Gates Station, on the Chadwick branch 
of the St. Louis and San Francisco railroad, southwest Vi, section 20, township 
28, range 21. This is situated at an altitude of from forty to one hundred 
feet above the James river, and from a quarter to about a half a mile west 
of that stream. The deposit has been exposed for about a (juarter of a mile 
along the right of way of the railroad, and the county road running south- 
west from Gates indicates its extension for something less than a mile in tliat 
direction. Other small outcrops of this deposit have been noticed not far from 
the Rockbridge road, east of the iron bridge which crosses the James: one 
thousand feet south of Brighton, on the Presley Hill road, and one on the 
road just east of Winoka Lodge. These have been named I;v th,- writer the 
"Winoka gravels. 

PLEISTOCENE. 

No evideilce of Pleistocene or glacial drift has been found in this county, 
as the area lies too far to the south. This formation is well represcnte.l, h.-w- 
ever. by the usual residuar>' deposits of soils, clays and cherts, the beds varynig 
in thickness from a few inches to thirty or forty feet, being much tlncker 
and more widelv distributed over the Upper Burlington limestone than over 
the other formations. The variations, as represented by the diHerent hon- 



jS GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 

zons and their important relations to agriculture, have been discussed in con- 
nection with other formations. 

Frequent reports have been made in regard to bones founrl in the caves 
of this region. Only one case has been investigated, and this was on the 
Owen farm northwest of Springfield, northeast Y^ section 35, townsliip 30, 
range 22. In this cave were found a large number of bones of pleistocene 
age. In 1885, in excavating just south of the round-house of the Kansas 
City, Fort Scott and Memphis railroad shops, m Springfield, a well preserved 
mastodon's tusk, eight feet long, was found in a horizontal crevice in the 
limestone. It was imbedded in black mud. 

The two following well-sections, that of the Springfield Traction Com- 
panv ar.d. the well at the pump station of the Springfield City Water Com- 
pany, give accurate vertical sections of the rocks underlying the city of 
Springfield, and \icinity. As these two deep wells are a little over four miles 
apart, they also sIkiw that slight variations occur in the thickness of the dif- 
ferent beds. 

Log of the Springfield Traction Company's second deep well, at south- 
east comer of the power house, southeast comer of Phelps avenue and IMain 
street, Springfield, Missouri, altitude 1268 feet, A. T. June to October, 1910. 

Thickness of horizon Total depth Thickness of horizon Total depth 

Feet Feet Feet Feet 

155 Upper Burlington 155 15 Joachim limestone 365 

90 Lower Burlington 243 40 St. Peter sandstone 1.05 

35 Hannibal sandstone an<l 190 Jefferson City limestone 595 

shale 280 300 Roubidoux sandstone 895 

40 Louisiana limestone 320 18- Gasconade limestone 913 

30 De\-onian Limestone, sand- 
stone and shale 350 

Log of deep well No. i of the Springfield City Water Company, located 
at the Fnlbright Spring pump station, about thirty feet south of the engine 
house, near the northeast corner section 3, township 29, range 22. Drilling 
commenced July 18. 1914, and C(jmpleted to a depth of fourteen hundred four 
and one-half feet January 2, 191 5. 

Thickness of horizon Total depth 

Feet 
Louisiana limestone-- 152^ 
Devon ian limestone, 
sandstone and shale_ 175 

Joachim limestone 280 

St. Peter sandstone 315 

Jefferson City limestone 490 



Thick 


ness of horizon Total 


depth 


Thick 


Feet 




Feet 


Feet 


10 


Soil _ 


10 


27V2 


30 


Upper Burlington 


40 


40 


Lower Bu rl i ngton 


80 




20 


Chouteau limestone 


100 


105 


45 


Hannibal sandstone and 




35 




shales 


U5 


175 



GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 79" 

Thickness of horizon Total depth Thickness of horizon Total depth 

Feet _ Feet Feet Feet 

300 Roubidoux formation. 790 121 Decaturxille, or Proc- 

168 Gasconade limestone__ 958 tor, limestone 1 1 '4 

35 Gunter sandstone 993 290'^ Bonne Terre forma- 
tion 1404^^ 

By conrtesy of Mr. H. B. McDaniel, Vice-President of the Springfield 
City Water Company, we are able to publish the following complete log of 
their deep well, a summary of which has just been given. Samples of the 
drillings from this well have been cnllected by the writer, and are preserved 
in the office of the company : 

Feet 

10 Soil, red clay and broken chert. 

10-20 Coarse-grained limestone, 20% white compact chert. 

20-30 Coarse, gray limestone, 25% white compact chert. 

30-40 Compact gray limestone, 40% white compact chert. 

40-60 Hard white, compact, knife-blade chert. 

60-70 Dark gray, hard, compact, silicious limestone, trace of white 

chert. 
70-80 Coarse-grained, bluish, hard, silicious limestone, 3% white 

chert. 
80-90 Dark bluish gray, hard, compact limestone. 5% hard white 

chert. 
90-100 Light bluish gray, compact limestone, 10% hanl white chert. 

100-105 Dark blue, silicious shale. 

105-120 Coarse fragments of light blue shale. 

120-130 Large fragments of light blue shale. 

130-140 Small fragments of light blue shale. 

140-145 Gray silicious shale and lime, some chert and considerable 

marcasite. 
1 45- 1 52 14 Coarse particles light gray silicious dolomite. 
i52j/2-i57>4 Very light gray particles silicious dolomite, with rounded 
dark, water-worn sand grains, considerable marcasite, some 
silicious particles. 
1573^-160 Dark, silicious, dolomitic lime, small rounded grains of drusy 
quartz (sand), some marcasite. a few rounded dark pebbles. 
160-162 1/2 Mixture of highly silicious gray dolomite, some silicious shale,. 

some marcasite, small rounded quartz grains. 
162^-176 Light gray, silicious dolomite. 
176-180 Dark gray, silicious dolomite, few fragments of blue shale. 



:8o ' GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 

Feet 
180-185 Gray quartzite, some dolomite. 

185-190 Mixture of highly silicious dolomite, quartzite and some white 

tiint. 
190-200 Light gray, highly silicious dolouiite, larger particles of brown 

shale. 
200-220 Coarse fragments highly silicious gray dolomite. 

220-230 Fine particles gray, silicious dolomite, trace of marcasite. 

230-240 Fine particles white dolomite (cotton rock). 

240-250 Irregular particles of bluish to light gray dolomite, trace of 

marcasite. 
250-260 Mixture of light gray dolomite, bluish chalcedonic flint and 

some marcasite. 
260-270 Light gray dolomite. 

270-280 Fine particles grayish, silicious dolomite, some marcasite, small 

amount chert. 
280-290 Fine particles mixture of light gray dolomite, white chalce- 

donic chert, some marcasite, trace of sand. 
290-300 Mixture of quartzite, sand-grains, silicious dolomite, marcasite, 

white chert. 
300-305 Mixture sihcious dolomite, white and chalcedonic flint, some 

marcasite. 
.305-307 Highly silicious, compact dolomite, some grains sandstone and 

zinc. 
307-320 Coarse crystalline dolomite, some sand. 

320-330 Fine, light gray to white dolomite (cotton rock). 

330"3SO Fine, compact, light-gray dolomite. 10% chert or quartzite. 

350"36o Light gray to white dolomite, 5% blue to brown shale. 

360-370 Light gray white sihcious dolomite, large particles, no cliert. 

370-380 Veiy fine sand-like translucent dolomite. 

380-390 Coarser-grained, light gray to white silicious dolomite, traces 

chalcedonic chert. 
390-400 Gray silicious dolomite, 5% white chert. 

400-410 Gray to white silicious dolomite. 10% white chert. 

410-420 Gray silicious dolomite, 5% milk-white chert. 

420-430 Dark gray silicious dolomite, 2% white chert. 

430-440 Dark gray silicious dolomite, trace of glass-like quartz and 

granular chert. 
440-445 Mixture gray to white silicious dolomite, 5% shaly white chert. 

445-450 Light gray to white silicious dolomite, trace iron pyrites. 

450-460 Gray silicious dolomite, lo^-^ white chert. 

460-470 Gray silicious dolomite, translucent white chert. 



GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 8l 

Feet 

470-480 Dark gray silicious dolomite, 20% white chert. 

480-490 Fine, pinkish sandstone, 10% quartzite. 

490-500 Very fine reddish sandstone, Roubidoux s. s. 

500-510 Honey-combed or pitted brown sihcious dolomite and sand- 
stone, 10% chert. 

510-515 Very fine brown sandstone, rounded to angular grains. 

515-520 Very fine pellucid sandstone, rounded to angular grains. 

520-530 Chalcedonic to white quartzite and chert, some s. s. 

530"535 Mi-xture of above, smaller particles, 20% silicious dolomite. 

535"540 Mixture of above, with sandstone, quartzite and silicious 
dolomite. 

540-550 Fine sandy pellucid silicious dolomite. 

550"55S Dark gray silicious dolomite, white quartzite, translucent sand- 
stone. 

555"56o Brownish silicious dolomite, some quartzite. 

560-565 Light gray chalcedonic quartzite, some sandstone. 

565-575 Fine-grained, light brown pellucid sandstone. 

575"58o Fine-grained sand and quartzite, trace chert. 

580-590 Fine-grained sandstone and quartzite, trace chert. 

590-595 Fine-grained chalcedonic quartzite, some oolite. 

596-600 Fine-grained chalcedonic quartzite, 20% s. s., some dolomite. 

600-618 Fine-grained grayish dolomite, some quartzite. 

618-622 Fine-grained, reddish-brown silicious dolomite, 10% white 
chert, trace iron. 

622-627 Light brown, fine-grained silicious dolomite, lo^c white chert. 

627-660 Light gray sandy silicious dolomite, some sandstone. 

660-670 Light brown compact silicious dolomite. 

670-700 Light gray compact silicious dolomite. 

700-710 Light brown silicious dolomite, some chalcedonic chert. 

710-720 Gray silicious dolomite, some sand and white chert 

720-72 5 Highly cr\-stalline siliciousc dolomite, some white chert. 

71^5-727 Same, plus 20% blue chalcedonic flint. 

7-7-7?.7 Same, with small amount of flint. 

737-747 Light gray crystalline dolomitic limestone, trace of flint. 

747-7^7 Same, plus 15% bluish chalcedonic flint. 

757-765 Same, plus 10% bluish chalcedonic flint. 

765-772 Same, plus 5% bluish chalcedonic flint. 

772'j^c Brownish silicious dolomite, 10% white chert, t':v quartzite. 

780-790 Light gray silicious dolomite, 5% chalcedonic chert. 

790-800 Coarser particles of gray silicious dolomite, 30^0 chalcedonic 
flint and white chert. 
(6) 



S2 GREENE COUNTY^ MISSOURI. 

Feet 
800-810 Light brown silicious dolomite, 15% chalcedonic flint and white 

chert. 
810-820 Light gray silicious dolomite, 20% white chert and quartzite. 

820-830 Light gray silicious dolomite, fine-grained, 10% white chert 

and quartzite. 
830-840 Fine-grained, sandy dolomite, quartzite and foetid sandstone. 

840-865 Fine-grained sandy dolomite, foetid limestone, quartzite and 

sand. 
865-875 Fine-grained dolomite, foetid limestone, quartzite and sand. 

875-885 Fine-grained pellucid dolomite. 

885-910 Fine-grained pellucid dolomite, trace chert and sand. 

910-920 Same as above, with trace of quartzite. 

920-930 Gray granular silicious dolomite, some chert. 

930-940 Mainly chert, quartzite, 10% silicious lime, trace of sand. 

940-950 Fine particles grayish dolomite, 10% chert. 

950-994 White, medium coarse, translucent to transparent, angular to 

rounded grains of quartz sand. 
994-1000 Plain bluish quartzite sands, some dolomite. 
1000-1020 Granular, bluish gray, translucent, silicious dolomite. 
1020-1040 Fine-grained to compact magnesian limestone (cotton rock). 
1040-1060 Milk-white cotton rock, slightly silicious. 
1060-1090 Missing. 

1090-1100 Silk-white cotton rock, slightly silicious. 
1100-1105 Minutely cryjitalline white silicious limestone (cotton rock). 

1105-1110 Finely granular or compact white silicious magnesian lime- 
stone. 
1110-1115 Minutely granular white silicious magnesian limestone, dolo- 

mite. 
1115-1120 Compact cotton-rock, minute translucent white silicious par- 
ticles dolomite. 
1120-1125 Same as above, but less compact. 
1125-1130 Same as above, but very fine-grained. 
I130-1140 Same as above, but very fine grained and slightly oolitic. 
1140-1146 Silicious magnesian limestone (cotton-rock), white and min- 
utely crystalline. 
1145-1150 Same as above, but more compact. 

1150-1155 Very compact minutely crystalline dolomitic magnesian lime- 
stone (cotton-rock). 
II 55-1 160 Coarser-grained translucent dolomitic magnesian lime-stone 

(cotton-rock). 
1160-1165 Same as above, but more silicious. 



GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 83 

Feet 

1 1 65- 1 170 Missing. 

1170-1180 Soft, compact doloniitic magncsian limestone (cotton-rock). 

1180-1200 Same as above, but minutely crystalline. 

1200-12 10 Same as above, chalky. 

12 10-1220 Same as above, but more granular and silicious. 

1220-1230 Missing. 

1230-1240 Soft magnesian limestone (cotton- rock). 

1240-1250 Soft, compact white magnesian limestone (cotton-rock). 

1250-1260 Soft, compact white magnesian limestone, chalk-like. (Several 
3/4-inch openings or crevices at this level and drillings dif- 
cult to obtain.) 

1260-1265 Light grayish, fine-grained dolomitic limestone. 

1265-1270 Milk-white, chalk-like magnesian limestone (cotton-rock). 

1270-1285 Light gray fine-grained silicious magnesian limestone. 

1 285-1290 Same as above, but slightly darker gray. 

1 290- 1 300 Light gray compact chalky magnesian limestone. 

1300-13 10 Chalk-like light gray dolomitic limestone (cotton-rock). 

1310-1316 Chalk-like white gray dolomitic limestone. 

1316-1320 Light brown, translucent silicious dolomitic limestone. 

1 320- 1 325 Gray fine-grained silicious dolomitic limestone. 

1325-1330 Very dark brown silicious magnesian limestone, 20% nearly 
black granulated limestone. 

1330-1335 Same, with 80% light brown granular silicious limestone. 

1 33 5- 1 340 Same as above, but finer-grained. 

1340-1350 Same as above, but coarser-grained. 

1350-1356 Dark brown silicious limestone, composed of a few very dark 
particles scattered through the lighter brown material. 

1 3 56- 1 360 Very dark silicious magnesian limestone, with a few red par- 
ticles and io7c black granules— probably chert. 

1 360- 1 365 Dark brown silicious magnesian limestone, crystalline, with 

some darker particles. 

1365-1370 Same as above. 

1370-1376 Same as above, except darker. 

1376-1380 Same as above, except coarser and darker, with more dark 
particles. 

1390-1395 Coarser, pitted impure magnesian limestone, with a mixture 
of irregularly disseminated darker or lighter particles, a 
structure producing the dilTerential weathering of honey- 
comb structure seen wherever this rock appears on the sur- 
face. 

I393-I404>< The same as above, but with more black particles. 



84 GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 

It is noticed that the Gunter sandstone, the Decaturville, or Proctor, 
limestone and the Bonne Terre formations were not described in the enum- 
eration of the geological formations of Greene county. This is because they 
are nowhere exposed at the surface within the limits of the county, and they 
have been reached, in drilling, for the first time in this well. The Gunter 
sandstone is a white saccharoidal sandstone, with grains that are somewhat 
coarse, angular to rounded in shape, loosely coherent, and translucent to 
transparent in color. The Decaturville, or Proctor, limestone varies in the 
state from 60 to 100 feet in thickness, and is the highest non-cherty fonna- 
tion of the Cambro — Ordovician series of rocks. It is composed, largely, 
of a granular, liluish-gray, translucent, silicious dolomite.* 

The beds from 11 14 feet to the bottom of the well, 1404^, the writer 
has doubtfully correlated as belonging to the Bonne Terre formation. They 
are largely made up of soft, white "cotton-rock," merging into a darker gray, 
silicious dolomitic limestone. The very small amount of chert or flint would 
seem to indicate the Bonne Terre, rather than the Potosi formation, which 
has a larger quantity of chert. 

It is very difficult to accurately differentiate these lowest beds, with only 
the drillings as a guide, since they are so far removed frijm any surface ex- 
posures. 



*For fuller description of these formntions, see "rndei'sroimrt Waters of Missouri," 
Edward M. Shepard, U. S. Geologionl Survey. Water Supply Bulletin No. 195. 



CHAPTER III. 

ECONOMIC GEOLOGY. 
By Edward M. Shepard. 

\Vater — Springfield Water Supply — Mineral \\'ater.s — Building Stones — 

Sandstones — Limestone — Ornamental Stones — Lime — Soil — 

Road Material — Coal — Iron — Lead — Zinc — Copper 

— Silver — Gold — Petroleum. 

Next to an equitable climate and pure air, the possession for which 
southwestern Missouri is most grateful is her abundant supph' of cold and 
sparkling waters, which, for the most part, come to the surface in large 
springs generously scattered throughout the whole district. 

Surface water supply. — The surface waters of the area under consid- 
eration are exceptionally pure. All have their origin in large springs, so 
that even in the most protracted drought they are never-failing. Few parts 
of the country are better watered or possess better facilities for the utiliza- 
tion of water-power than this part of the state. The growing demand for 
water-power, due to the progress in electrical science, greatly enhances the 
importance of a proper knowledge of our water-supply. The James river 
and Wilson creek, with their spring branch tributaries in the southern half 
of the county, and the various branches of the Sac and Pomme de Terre 
rivers with their tributaries on the north, afford numerous mill sites with 
practically inexhaustible reservoirs. The temperature of the various springs, 
in the hottest weather, runs from 44 to 58 degrees F., and that of the streams 
from 60 to 70 degrees. The extent and character of the water-supply of 
this county can be better appreciated after a brief consideration of some of 
the principal springs which gush forth on all sides to form the surface 
streams. 

Springs. — This region is truly a country of springs, and liicre are few 
areas which have such an abundance of fine, pure, cold water as abounds in 
this portion of the state. The majority of the farms possess one or more of 
these adjuncts to health and comfort. The largest and finest springs are 
located at or near the base of the Upper Burlington limestone. The porous, 
cavernous nature of this rock, together with its great uniformity and thick- 
ness, and the hard Lower Burlington forming a compact under layer, pre- 
sents the most favorable conditions for the accumulation, filtration and dis- 
tribution of surface waters. Spread out over the western flank of tlie Ozark 



86 GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 

uplift, fissured by flexing, and cut into b_y erosion from the drainage system, 
it would be natural to expect large and fine springs along the lower slopes. 
The sink-holes, so abundant in the upper beds of the Upper Burlington, 
form, undoubtedly, great reservoirs for the accumulation of surface waters, 
which are carried by underground channels to, or near, the impervious 
Lower Burlington below, a fact sufficient to explain the existence of the 
largest and coldest springs near the base of the upper division of the Bur- 
lington. In sinking wells in this formation, water is almost invariably ob- 
tained at shallow depths, and large underground streams are frequently 
tapped, giving conclusive evidence of the cavernous nature of the limestone, 
and the source of supply of the great springs. It has always been a difficult 
problem to account for the steady supply of water furnished by the springs 
which encircle the base of this formation on either side of the uplift; but 
this question is now solved by the knowledge that the whole formation forms 
one vast, cavernous reservoir into which the numerous sink-holes and porous 
strata convey to the underground recesses the surface drainage of the area 
occupied by the Upper Burlington formation. 

MANY GREAT SPRINGS. 

Only the most important of the immense number of springs that issue 
from the Upper Burlington can here be mentioned. First, and most note- 
worthy, because of its utilization, is the Fulbright spring, situated near 
Springfield in the northwest quarter of section 2, township 29, range 22. It 
emerges from a small cave in a bluff on the west side of the Doling Park 
branch of the Sac. The water is wonderfully pure and clear, and has a flow, 
in ordinary seasons, of eight million gallons in twenty-four hours. 

One mile to the southwest, on the Ritter farm, a large lake has been 
formed by damming the mouth of a narrow valley, into which three great 
springs empty, making one of the most picturesque points in the vicinity. 

Another important spring is the one in Doling Park, the waters from 
which have been collected into a basin, forming a lake which greatly beautifies 
that pleasure resort. 

The Woolen Mill spring, in the northwestern part of the city of Spring- 
field, occupies a site that has been selected for a public park, and in the im- 
mediate vicinity are, also, the Dingeldein spring in the western part of the 
city, the Jones spring, on the east, the Lyman spring, on Water street, just 
north of the Public Square, and the Frisco spring, north of the St. Louis and 
San Francisco railroad car shops. The last mentioned springs, owing to their 
situation in a thickly-settled region, are all more or less contaminated with 
sewage, and Jones spring, especially, is unfit for domestic purposes. 

The Sander spring, just south of the JMcCracken mill on the South Dry 



GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 87 

Sac, is another good example of a spring issuing from the base of the Upper 
BurHngton. It flows from the foot of a low blufif into a large basin, dis- 
charging, probably, eight million gallons in twenty-four hours. Since the 
dam was built at this spring it has been shown that its waters are the chief 
source of supply for Fulbright spring. 'l"he reservoir formed by this dam 
furnishes a \'aluable addition to the water supply of the city of Springfield 
in times of drought. 

Jones spring, situated about a quarter of a mile from Pierson creek, on 
the Henderson road, must not be confused with one of the same name al- 
ready mentioned. It issues from a small cave near the base of a hill, and 
has a discharge of about eight million gallons of water in twenty-four hours. 

Sequiota spring, on the old Fisher farm, issues from a cave of the same 
name, forming a stream of pure, cold water six inches deep, and from four 
to five feet wide. 

Of the numerous springs that help to add volume to the James river, 
that on the Gates farm, now the property of the James River Club, issues 
from the base of a high bluff and discharges immediately into the river. At 
Camp Cora, on the bank of the river, is another spring that undoubtedly has 
its source in a spring branch which rises several miles to the east and flows 
past the Mentor cemetery, from which it unfortunately receives the drainage. 
Continuing its course, sometimes above ground and often sinking to reappear 
several hundred feet farther on, it finally emerges at Camp Cora, a favorite 
resort for fishing and camping parties. 

Blue spring, having a flow of about six million gallons in twenty-four 
liours is also the outlet of an underground stream, the course of which is 
outlined by a series of caves and sinks trending south thirty degrees east. A 
strong current of air issuing from one of these caves is probably set in circu- 
lation by the movements of the under-ground current. 

The Haseltine spring forms the headwaters of Clear creek antl has a 
flow of about six million gallons a day. It issues from a large cave filled 
with tumbled debris, in the crevices of which considerable saltpeter has ac- 
cumulated. The Amphitheater spring, on Sac river, near Percy cave, issues 
from the center of the base of a beautiful curved mural bluff, whicii forms a 
natural amphitheater of considerable size. A quarter of a mile to the east 
of this, on the south bank of the Sac. is the Owen spring, now a part of the 
Springfield city waterworks system. The head of Asher creek has its source 
in the small Watson spring in the upper beds of the Upper Burlington, and 
the town of Cave Spring receives its name from the large stream that flows 
from the cavern sink within the limits of the village. The Hale and Nelson 
■springs, in sections nine and four, respectively, have about the same value as 
Cave spring. Rocky Point spring, in West Center township, is a popular 
place of resort, and Shaking Mound spring, near the town of Ash Grove, has 



88 GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 

long created considerable interest from the fact that the mound, from the 
summit of which the spring rises, shakes all over wlien walked upon. Poles 
are easily sunk in it through the tenacious turf and down to a distance of 
from six to ten feet, into the black muck that makes up the bulk of the 
mound. The dense mat of grass antl sedges which cover the mound remains 
green the whole year. Cattle are frecpiently mired in the bog. This would, 
undoul^tedly, be a good locality in which to search for the remains of extinct 
animals, and it is a rare example in the south of the peat bog which is not 
uncommon in the more northern regions. 

Of the Lower Burlington limestone springs, several large ones may be 
noted. One of these, the Big Boiling spring, on the property of the \\'inoka 
Lodge Club, S. E. 34 section 16, township 28, range 21, is probably the largest 
spring in the county. It flows directly from a flat orifice extending irregularly 
for nearly one hundred feet along the bank of the river. This spring formerly 
had its outlet from the cave about eight hundred feet to the northeast, and 
now, after heavy rains, quite a stream flows irom the cave along the surface 
of the ground to the present outlet of the spring. 

A few hundred feet south of the cave opening above mentioned are the 
Cotton Gin, or Roaring springs, a group of ten beautiful cold springs which 
occupy a small, narrow canyon, all on the Winoka lodge property. The 
Ingram springs, a few miles north of Winoka club house, the Spout spring, 
on the Dillard farm on the west side of Pierson creek, and the McKerrell 
spring at the head of Wilson creek, are all noted in this region. The Little 
Yosemite, otherwise known as Cunningham spring, in the N. E. 14 of sec- 
tion 28, township 2y, range 22, is also a I-ower Burlington spring. All the 
springs of this geological formation are noted for the beauty of their sur- 
roundings and the purity and coldness of their waters. 

The springs issuing from the Chouteau limestone are not very large, 
but they are usually connected with picturesque scenery and are almost al- 
ways points near which good geological sections are shown. Those of the 
Hannibal sandstones and shales are very small, frequentlv mere seepage 
springs, forming wet, clayey slopes. The water is almost invariablv impure 
and unwholesome, due, no doubt, to the decomposition of the pyrites con- 
tained in the shales. Wells sunk in this formation almost always contain 
purgative salts. The springs of the Devonian are small, and almost always 
seepage springs, frequently contaminated from the Hannibal shales above. 
The springs of the Silurian limestones are also small and the water is rather 
warm. Their size is probably due to the fact that these beds are rarely thick 
enough in Greene county for any great accumulation of water. 



GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 8^ 

SPRINGFIELD CITY WATER SITPLY. 

The water supply of Spring-field was first derived frciii I'ulhrigiu 
spring situated some three miles north of the city, and noted fur the al)und- 
ance and purity of its water. It was early known that a suhterranean cm- 
nection existed between this spring and Sander spring, av Valley Water .Mill, 
as it is now called. As the city increased in population, it became necessary, 
in times of drought, to add to the original water supply, and a dam was 
built at Valley Water Mill, forming a large reservoir which could be drawn 
upon in times of special need. The rapid increase in demand for water 
necessitated other sources of supply. The Ritter spring branch was next 
piped to the Fulbright reservoir. Later, the water from the Dry Sac was 
added, and still later, that from the large Owen spring near Percy cave. 
The severe droughts of the summer and fall of the years i<)ii, 1912, 1913 
and 1914, and the strong opposition of the city to the use of the Sac and 
Ritter spring waters (though these were rendered perfectly safe by the large 
filtration plant installed at great expense by the Springfield City Water Com- 
pany), and the fact that even all these sources together did not furnish a 
sufficient water supply, caused the company to consider the problem of deep 
wells. The first well was sunk near the power house at Fulbright spring, 
to a depth of one thousand four hundred four and one-half feet. The sec- 
tion of this well has been given in the preceding chapter. It proved to be a 
strong artesian well, having a flow of over two hundred thousand gallons in 
twenty-four hours, and the company is pumping from it a large supply of 
remarkably pure water, of medium hardness. Another well has been drilled 
about one-third of a mile north of the first, and plans are considered for 
the sinking of one or two more. 

The cachement basin for the Fulbright spring, the main source of water 
supply for the city, lies to the northeast and owing to an east and west fault- 
line, and the fact that the strata on the north side of the fault-line have been 
elevated so that they dip naturally to the southwest, the jjurer and softer 
waters of the St. Peter and Roubidoux sandstones arc brought nearer to 
the surface and form the main sources of supply for the spring. These 
waters are mingled in the reservoir with the harder water coming from the 
Sander or Valley Water Mill spring. During heavy rains, all the springs 
of the Ozarks become surcharged with earthy matter. Most of them h;ive 
large subterranean cave-channels wherein is deposited the clay which mainly 
forms the cementing material of the limestones, and which is left in the bot- 
tom of the channels after the soluble lime has been dissolved and carried away 
in the water. 

The muddv waters following heavy rains caused the company to erect 



■90 GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 

at Fulbright spring, one of the finest and most complete filtration plants in 
the country. In this plant, by a simple process, the earthy materials are pre- 
cipitated and filtered out through sand; and by the agency of minute quan- 
tities of chluride oi lime, any bacteria remaining are absolutely destroj'ed, 
making the water wonderfully clear and potable. 

The installation of the filter-plant and the supplementing of the Ful- 
bright supply with the deep wells is the solution of a problem of quantity 
and (jualitv that has been a serious one for a number of years. 

MINERAL WATERS. 

There are but few mineral springs in Greene county, three small chaly- 
beate springs being the only ones known in this area. One of them is just 
under the dam at the pond at the Ritter mill, township 29, range 22 west and 
section 4. This can only l.)e utilized at low water, as the stream overflows 
it at other times, but its waters are strongly impregnated with iron, and its 
accessibility to Springfield would make it well worth walling up. There 
is another on the east bank of the James river, just north of the boat-landing, 
between the east bank and the island, on the Winoka lodge property, near 
Galloway. This is covered by the river except in very low water. Another 
small chalybeate spring is found at the foot of the ferruginous sandstone 
blufl: in the bed of Pomme de Terre, at its head, township 30, range 20 west, 
and section 25 northeast quarter. A few miles northwest of Springfield, 
township 30, range 22 west, section 20 southwest quarter, are Bethesda springs 
wdiich have had a local reputation in the past, several houses and cabins hav- 
ing been built in the vicinity. They are situated in the lower bed of the 
Upper Burlington, and. like many others in this region, can hardly be re- 
garded as mineral springs. 

BUILDING STONES. 

The sandstones and limestones of Greene county furnish an abundant 
supply of building stones, some of them being of the highest grade. 

SANDSTONES. 

Coal Pleasures Sandstones. — As these beds usually have a very uneven 
texture, and very thin bedding planes, they are little used for any purpose 
except foundations, chimneys, fence-walls and hearthstones. 

Hannibal Sandstones. — One of the building materials most extensively 
used in this region is the Hannibal sandstone or "worm-eaten" rock, which 
is of wide-spread occurrence and easily quarried because of its even bedding. 



GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 9I 

Its durability is also very great. Broken and tumbled blocks of this forma- 
tion are so abundant along the slopes of its outcrops that farmers, who are 
among, its chief users, do not find it necessary to establish quarries for the 
purpose of obtaining it. 

The sandstones of the Silurian include the St. Peter and Roubidoux 
sandstones. As a rule, they are too soft and friable for utilization in build- 
ing, and as they are usually in close proximity to the Hannibal, tlie latter are 
naturally chosen. 

LIMESTONES. 

Upper Burlington Limestone. — This is the most beautiful as well as the 
most valuable of all the building stones of this region. It is a very thick and 
widely distributed formation which adds to its other advantages the fact 
that it is most easily worked. When free from chert, the beds are massive, 
and blocks of unlimited size can be quarried. Coarsely sub-crystalline in 
structure, with marked purity of composition and homogeneity of texture, 
the middle beds of this rock make an unusually fine stone for all construction 
purposes, needing ordinarily, only a bush-hammer dressing. It has been 
used, with fine effect, in Drun,- College chapel, St. John's Episcopal church, 
many private residences, the foundation walls of the local government build- 
ing and the wall of the Confederate cemetery near Springfield. There are 
several large quarries in and near Springfield, as well as numerous places 
where small amounts of the rock are taken out for local purposes While 
there are many small quarries throughout the county which are but roughly 
worked for lime or foundation rock, it is only at Phoenix that a systematic 
development of these beds has been undertaken. 

Phoenix Quarries. — These quarries are located near the town of 
Phoenix, in the northwestern part of the county, and were opened in 1888. 
They are in the middle beds of the Upper Burlington limestone, and the plant 
is equipped for working, handling and sawing blocks of all sizes, with a 
■quarrying capacity of eight hundred cubic feet a day. 

Ash Grove White Lime Association Quarry. — Near the town of Ash 
Grove, a ledge of Upper Burlington limestone seven hundred feet long, and 
from twenty-two to twenty-five feet thick has been exposed, and the fact 
that it has no horizontal, and few vertical seams, makes it one of the finest 
tmdeveloped properties in the state. Though used at present, for the manu- 
facture of lime only, it would be of great value for the production of dimen- 
sion stone. 

Chouteau Limestone.— This is another Greene county stone that de- 
serves a much wider use than is now accorded it. It is widely distributed in 
teds of uniform thickness which are easily worked, is durable, has a fine buff 
color and is most desirable in every way. 



92 GREENE COUNTY^ MISSOURI. 

Sac Limestone. — Another evidence of the undeveloped resources in 
which this county abounds is found in the Sac Hmestone, a formation that 
contains enough silica to make it susceptible of a good polish and which, 
where thick enough and free from pyrites, is a fine stone for architectural 
purposes. 

DOLOMITES. 

There are three distinct beds of these rocks, known as the Joachim, Jef- 
ferson City and Gasconade magnesian limestones, and they are worthy of a 
more extended knowledge and use. Most of them are of fine structure, with 
great beauty and durability, the exception being in the beds of the Joachim 
layers, which, outside of the extreme southeastern portion of the county, are 
too silicious and unevenly bedded to be of use for building purposes. The 
middle beds of the JefTerson City limestone, however, possess most desirable 
qualities, being the compact, fine-grained, white and heavily-bedded stone 
called "cotton-rock,'' which, though soft when first quarried, hardens with 
time and exposure. From a small quarry of Gasconade limestone, situated 
three miles northeast of Fair Grove, township 31, range 20 west, section 15, 
on the south side of the Pomme de Terre, an exceptionally beautiful building 
stone is obtained. A large, two-story house was constructed from it on the 
Adams place and the rock being white, compact, fine-grained and of homo- 
geneous texture, might easily be taken for marble at a little distance. The 
durability of these dolomitic rocks is very great. A number of tombstones 
in the church yard near Fair Grove date back to 1840, and the in.scriptions 
are as legible as when first carved, showing that time but serves to harden 
these stones. The total output of limestone in Greene county for 191 2 was 
worth $99,334.00; 1913, $79,701.00. Only six counties exceed Greene in 
output. 

ORNAMENT.KL STONES. 

It has been said that some oi the Greene county stones already described 
are susceptible of a sufficient amount of polish to give them a value for 
ornamental purposes. In addition to these, onyx, chiefly a stalagmitic forma- 
tion occurring in caverns, has been found. As far as exhibited, it contains 
too many flaws and irregularities of various kinds to make it of any special 
value, but it is possible that when the deposits are more fully explored more 
perfect masses may be found. The best specimens exhibited equal the so- 
called Mexican onyx in richness of color and marking. 



GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 93 

LIME. 

The manufacture of lime has become a large and important industry in 
Missouri, the state ranking fifth in the United States in 191 2, and the pro- 
duct of Greene county exceeding that of any other county in the state. Up 
to 1867, all the lime manufactured in southern Missouri was prepared in 
the rudest manner. Log heaps were built and rough blocks of limestone 
were thrown upon them to be burned in the simplest way, or rough stone 
walls sufficient to support and retain the rock were built, and the lime was 
burned in these temporary kilns. Such structures as these are scattered 
about the county, notably at the following points : on the bluff at the Pierson 
creek mines, near Ingram mill ; at the ford north of Doling Park, Springfield ; 
east of Ebenezer; and at the Patterson place north of the public square, in 
Springfield, near the present intersection of Water and Boonville streets. 

The first introduction of modern methods of manufacture was made by 
the Ash Grove White Lime Association. This company now largely con- 
trols the trade of the Southwest, shipping to Kansas, Texas, Colorado, and 
even to the Pacific coast. A history of this company is essentially a history 
of the lime industry in southwestern Missouri. In 1880. the late Gen. G. H. 
Nettleton, general manager of the Kansas City, Fort Scott and Gulf railroad, 
called the attention of Mr. J. H. Barton to the large amount and fine quality 
of limestone thrown out of the deep cut of the railroad west of Ash Grove, 
and urged the importance of establishing a lime plant on the line of this road. 
A car-load of the stone was shipped to the old Burns kiln, at Springfield, 
and burned into a fine ciuality of white lime. Mr. Barton immediately erected 
two kilns at Ash Grove and the following year Mr. \\' . B. Hill, of Carthage, 
became associated with him. Two years later Barton and Hill organized a 
stock company known as the Ash Grove White Lime Association, which, m 
addition to the nine kilns at Ash Grove, soon built several others at Everton, 
in an adjacent county and at Galloway, in Greene county. 

In 1884 Mr. James H. Smith built a kiln at the junction of the St. Louis 
and San Francisco and the Kansas City, Fort Scott and Memphis railroads, 
in Springfield and sold a one-half interest to J. G. Schermerhorn. .Another 
kiln was soon added when Mr. J. S. Atkinson purchased an interest and the 
Springfield White Lime Association was organized. One kiln was added in 
1885 and another in 1886. In 1894. this company sold out to the Marble- 
head Company, of Chicago, which continues the operation of the plant with 
a number of new kilns. 

The Burns kiln, discontinued many years ago, was situated east of the 
present site of the Marblehead kilns. It was started in 1875 and was oper- 
ated until 1890. Up to 1884, one kiln supplied all the demand for lime in 
Springfield and vicinitv- 



94 GREENE COUNTY,, MISSOURI. 

SOILS. 

Much less study is given to the soils of our country than the impor- 
tance of the subject demands. Great emphasis is always laid upon the min- 
eral resources of a region, but it is not too much to say that the wealth, 
prosperity and civilization of a country very largely depend upon the nature 
and variety of the superficial portion of the earth's crust that is made to 
ser\'e the uses of man. Such oversight is but another example of the neglect 
experienced by the common things of life. 

Most of the questions that arise in regard to agriculture are geological 
in their nature. The origin and distribution of soils ; their character and 
how originated ; how they may be improved and renewed ; the source and 
supply of mineral fertilizers to replace the loss by removal of crops — all these 
topics are true geological problems. Soils have been defined as "Those 
superficial portions of the unconsolidated materials of the earth's crust, 
usually of little depth, with the subsoils extending to variable depths beneath 
them and composed chiefly of exceedingly variable mixtures of sand and 
clay, with considerable proportions of vegetable mold and iron oxide, with 
usually smaller but very important amounts of lime, magnesia, the alkalies, 
potash, soda and phosphoric acid." The surface soil differs from the sub- 
soil mainly in containing products of the decomposition of vegetable and 
animal matter, and is made up of the more finely comminuted portions of the 
subsoil. The scene of most agricultural operations is the thin upper portion 
of the earth's crust in which seeds are planted and to which fertilizers are 
added when nature does not supply a sufficient amount of the desired 
elements. 

All soils have been derived from the mechanical and chemical disinte- 
gration of rocks. A mass of rock exposed to the air in an even tempera- 
ture and free from moisture, will remain intact for ages. A similar mass, 
exposed to changes of temperature, will crumble and break down. Rocks 
are very sensitive to thermal changes, not only those of the seasons, but the 
slighter changes between day and night. It is estimated that the former 
affects the rock-mass to a depth of sixty feet or more and the latter from 
three to ten feet. This is because of the expansion and contraction of the 
particles of which the rock is composed, the coarser rocks breaking up more 
rapidly than those of finer texture. The loosening of the grains caused by 
this constant change in temperature, together with abundant rains, brings in 
moisture as another agent, which, penetrating the mass and freezing, is a 
powerful factor in the disassociating of the mass. Water is an exception 
to the general rule that bodies expand with heat and contract with cold. 
Freezing is an irresistible force that rends, shatters, breaks and crumbles. 



GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 95; 

and rapidly forms an unconsolidated mass, which is one step toward the 
preparation of the soil. Of the various agents in the formation of soils, 
water is the most aggressive. Not only is it powerful mechanically, but it 
is an important chemical factor. The granular disassociated rock alone is 
not capable of forming food for ])lants: it must be dissolved before it can 
be assimilated by them. Water is the most important element for the solu- 
tion of these granules. Many rock constituents arc considered by the chem- 
ist as insoluble, but to the geologist all rock- forming minerals have beerj- 
proved to be soluble, since the constant action, through ages of time, and by 
infinitesimal degrees, gives, in the aggregate, a very considerable result. 
The dissolving power of water is largely due to such contained impurities as 
carbon dioxide and free oxygen. The effect of this solution is strikingly 
illustrated by the great caverns and underground waterways that are so 
abundant in this region. These show the remarkable solvent power of water 
acting through long periods of time. Water acts not only chemically, but 
mechanically as well, and that in two distinct ways ; first, in penetrating the 
loosened rock, softening it and destroying the cohesion between the grains, 
thus rendering it more susceptible to disintegration, and second, in the direct 
wear caused by the erosion and abrading of running streams. There is more 
or less constant circulation of water between the earth and the atmosphere, 
perpetual in its action. Sea beaches, mountain sides and river valleys fur- 
nish good examples of the power of running water to affect the surface of 
the earth. By it material is gathered, carried, mixed and deposited along 
river valleys, forming the rich bottom lands of our water courses. 

Air is another agent in the formation of soils. Its action is largely 
due to the carbon dioxide and oxygen which produce chemical changes. 
Mechanically, also, air is occasionally a powerful agent in disintegrating the 
rocks and in changing the soil in certain regions. In deserts, prevailing 
winds blow the sands against rock surfaces, thereby becoming powerful- 
abrading agents. 

Orp-anic life is another prominent promoter of rock disintegratioii 
Animals exert their influence solely through chemical means, while plants- 
act both chemically and physically. 

SOIL CL.'\SSIFICATION. 

Various attempts have been made to classify soils, but only two of them- 
are satisfactorv. viz; that based upon their origin and that based upon their 
physical characters. The first are the indigenous soils, or those of disinte- 
gration, directly derived by processes already described from the rocks under- 
neath, or in close proximity, these being necessarily of shallow depth: the 
second are soils of transportation, that is soils that have been carried from- 



96 GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 

their source- by various' agents and deposited in a locatron some distance from 
their origin. The soils of transportation are divided into two classes, the 
glacial or drift, and the alluvial. The former are not found in Greene 
county, as this region is situated too far south for them, but the alluvial soils, 
formed and transported by the erosive agency of water and more or less 
stratified, are our most fertile soils because of the varied nature of their 
ingredients and the fineness of their texture. They are most strikingly 
exemplified in river bottoms and deltas, and they are in a constant process of 
formation. 

In attempting to classify soils according to their physical characteristics, 
we find a wide range of differences. Gravel soil is made up of small, more 
or less water-worn fragments of rock, mixed with varying quantities (gen- 
erally about thirty per cent.) of fine earth, and it may be utilized under 
favorable conditions, for vineyards, grazing and forest areas. A sandy soil 
usually contains eighty per cent, or more of quartz sand, and is usually de- 
rived from the wearing away of sandstones. A clay soil contains not less 
than sixty per cent, of clay, mixed with sand. It may be derived from the 
breaking down of a great many dififerent rocks, and when containing from 
sixty per cent, to eighty per cent, of clay they are, as a rule, valuable, pro- 
ductive soils. Clay is impermeable to water and unless lying on a porous 
subsoil is liable to be wet and cold. A soil containing from eighty per cent, 
to ninety per cent, of clay may, under favorable conditions, be utilized for 
the cultivation of wheat and clover. Loam soils are those which have a 
more or less uniform mixture of clay, sand and lime, and there are various 
kinds of this soil; a heavy loam, containing from ten per cent, to twenty- 
five per cent, of sand; a clay loam, with twenty-five per cent, to forty per 
cent, of sand; a loam with forty per cent, to sixty per cent, of sand; sandy 
loam with sixty per cent, to seventy per cent, of sand ; and a light sandy loam 
with seventy-five per cent, to ninety per cent, of sand. Marl is a term ap- 
plied to all calcareous clays. The lime in marl must not fall below fifteen 
per cent, nor the clay rise above seventy-five per cent. Calcareous soils con- 
tain lime as a prominent ingredient, which varies from fifty per cent, to 
seventy-five per cent. Lastly, humus soils, sometimes called peat or muck 
soils are largely of vegetable origin. 

One may get a general knowledge of the soils of the area under dis- 
cussion by consulting a. geological* map of Greene. county, when it will be 
■seen that the entire county is covered with indigeneous soils which varv in 
-character with the different geological formations from which they are de- 
rived. The river valleys and stream bottoms contain alluvial soil. The 
■southwestern two-thirds of the county is covered with the lower carboni- 
ferous rocks and is largely made up of limestones with smaller deposits of 



GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 97 

sandstones and shales. Tlie soils deri\ed from the Upper Burlington lime- 
stone beds which cover most of this area, are among the most arable in the 
state. The purity of the limestone and its great porosity and thickness, 
together with the abundance of soft chert and carbonate of iron, give by 
decomposition, all the constituents of a strong and sufficiently porous, rich 
soil. Detritus from former beds of sandstone above also aids in contributing 
valuable residual material. From the decomposition of the beds of this 
limestone and chert is formed a highly ferruginous deposit of clay, called 
"geest," mixed with broken and decomposed chert, the latter generally giving 
the porosity to this clayey soil, especially where the Assuring of this forma- 
tion has taken place through underground drainage. Where this is not the 
case, the barren post-oak flats occur. One not familiar with the soil of the 
Upper Burlington formation is surprised at its productiveness, as the un- 
favorable appearance of the red clay so freely mi.xed with the broken chert, 
does not seem to indicate the great fertility of a soil that is not only rich, 
but lasting. Where the sandstones and shales of the lower carboniferous 
are mixed with the eroded materials from the superimposed formations, the 
resulting soil is very fertile. 

Cambro-ordi\'ician rocks cover the northeastern portion of Greene 
county. They consist of thick alternating beds of cherty sandstones and 
magnesian limestones. The soils derived from the cherty sandstones differ 
from those derived from the other sandstones in being far less productive, 
■owing, no doubt, to the excess of chert and the lack of that cementing ma- 
terial which exists more abundantly in the carboniferous sandstones. The 
sandstones of this region are softer and the soils more porous, which are 
also detrimental features. The Silurian limestones are all highly magnesian, 
merging both above and below, into highly silicious cherty beds. These 
cherty beds form rugged and desolate regions with scant soils and sparse 
-vegetation. The magnesian limestones, when decomposed, generally form 
an excellent and productive soil. 

GOOD F.A.RMING L.-VND. 

The physical character of the soils in Greene county or those conditions 
which render them desirable for cultivation, is an important subject for con- 
sideration. The first point to be noted is that of texture. A soil must be 
sufficiently porous to permit the access of air, moisture and fertilizers, and 
to be easily penetrated by growing roots. On the other iiand. it must be 
compact enough to prevent too rapid escape of water and fertilizers. An- 

*See "Geological Survey of Greene County, Missouri." Missouri Geological Survey. 
Vol. XII, Map. 

(7) 



98 GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 

Other consideration is that of color, an important item, as this has much to 
do with the absorption and utiHzation of heat from the sun. The light- 
colored, compact soils are liable to be cold, while the darker-colored and 
permeable soils represent the opposite extremes. Humboldt records the tem- 
perature of a white and a black sand, situated side by side, as respectively 40 
degrees and 54.2 degrees centigrade. Difference in color had been found to 
produce an average difference of over seven degrees in soil temperature. As 
warmth exerts a great influence oxer the growth of the plant from the seed 
up, it is evident that the color of the soil is a very important element in the 
raising of crops. These physical properties depend largely upon the varying 
proportions of (juartz sand, iron oxide and the products of decaying organic 
matter termed humus. An excess of quartz sand gives rise to a porous 
soil that is easy of culti\ation, but which dries out too quickly and tends 
to sterility becau.se of the leaching out of soluble material and fertilizers. 
On the other hand, an excess of clay gives rise to the opposite extreme, a 
heavv soil, hard to work, retentive of moisture and fertilizers, but cold and 
wet. .\n excess of humus gives a light soil, unfavorable for the mechanical 
support of plants, liable to be sour from excess of vegetable acids, and 
usuallv deficient in some mineral constituent of plant life. When properly 
drained, its dark color causes it to absorb heat too readily. Williams says, 
"That soil is best whose conditions, equally removed from too great com- 
pactness and too great permeability, fit it to absorb and to retain the due 
amount of moisture, while giving easy exit to any overplus, to permit the 
ready access of the air, and to absorb and utilize the warmth proper to its 
IcKation. From a comparison of many analyses, such a soil would contain 
from sixty per cent, to eighty-five per cent, of sand, from ten per cent, to 
thirty per cent, of clay and iron oxide, and from five per cent, to ten per 
cent, of humus. Where a soil, from an e.xcess of any component, does not 
naturally possess a proper texture, it stands in need of amelioration." 

Soils containing an excess of clay may be improved by thorough under- 
draining, bv deep plowing in ridges and Ijurning brush in the furrows, or 
by letting the furrows stand through the winter to be acted upon liy frost, 
or by mixing in sand, quicklime or coal ashes, where practicable. 

Too sandv soils may be improved by deep plowing, where there is a 
subsoil of clav. or bv the addition of quicklime or marl. Sandy .soils should 
rarely be tilled deeper than a few inches, and every effort should be made to 
retain and increase the original compactness. 

Humus and mucky soils should be thoroughly drained and treated with 
quicklime, sand and manure 

In the above methods of amelioration, man is aided largely by a number 
of animals. Earthworms, ants, moles, prairie dogs and marmots all assist 



GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. gg 

in such manipulations of the soil as are extremely beneficial to the agricul- 
turalist, and entirely along the line of his own efforts. Their burrowing 
habits result in bringing subsoil to the surface, thus renewing many elements 
that have been taken away by cropping. Earthworms, in particular, have 
brought about remarkalale changes. Not onI\- do they bring large (luantities 
of subsoil to the surface, but they convert it into true soil by the addition 
of organic matter. Darwin has estimated that earthworms bring to the 
surface, annually, two-tenths of an inch per acre, equivalent to an average of 
ten and one-half tons per acre. Besides this, they increase the ammonia 
contents of the soil three-fold. By their burrowing, they render readily 
accessible air. water and fertilizers to a depth of from three to six feet 
They also drag organic matter, in the shape of leaves, deep into the earth. 
By their alkaline secretion, they correct the acidity of the soil. 

SCIENTIFIC AGRICULTURE. 

One of the first steps toward scientific agriculture in Greene county 
should be to find out what plants are best suited to different soils, and this 
may be ascertained by the analysis of the soil and the analysis of the ash 
of the plant. As the constituents of the plant must be derived from the soil, 
it is important to know how to replace what is lost by cropping. .-Xs a 
rule, silica and iron are always present in sufficient amounts, and this is 
generally true of lime and magnesia, though it is a curious fact that some 
soils, as in Springfield and other parts of the county, though derived from 
a verv pure limestone, are frequently deficient in lime, since that material 
has been washed away, and only the residual cementing material left. 

The mineral constituents of soils needing most looking after are i)hos- 
phoric acid and the alkalies, potash and soda. In addition to these, an organic 
nitrogenous substance is positively essential. A high authority says : "A 
fertilizer mav be considered complete when it contains lime, potash, lime- 
phosphate and a nitrogenous substance," and another gives an example of 
how lasting in the soil even a small per cent, of one element may he. He 
says : "An average soil will gi\e about 2.000.000 pounds per acre for a 
depth of eight inches. If. then, it contains i per cent, of lime, this will 
make available, with ordinary cultivation, at least 20.000 pounds per acre. 
The tobacco is the greatest consumer of lime among the common crops, as it 
contains about nine and one-half pounds per hundred of dried leaves, or 190 
pounds per ton. It would require, therefore, one hundred crops of a ton per 
acre — much more than the usual crop— to exhaust this element from a soil 
containing i per cent, of it. 

The wheat grain requires over 28 per cent, potash : apples require t,-. per 
cent, and pears 54 per cent. Apples require 26 per cent, of sodium, while 



lOO GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 

the pear requires only 8 per cent. Wheat requires 1.5 per cent, of lime, corn 
about the same : ap]3les, 4 per cent. : pears 8 per cent, and grapes 34 per cent. 
Of magnesia, wheat requires 12 per cent.; corn, 16 per cent.; apples, 8 per 
cent., and pears, 5 per cent. Of phosphoric acid, wheat requires 57 per 
cent.; corn. 44 per cent.; apples, 13 per cent., and pears and grapes each 15 
per cent. 

The loss of these materials from the soil may be intelligently replaced 
by fertilizers, or by the rotation of crops. Nitrogen may be added to the 
soil by fertilizers containing nitrogenous substances, or by the planting of 
clover or some other leguminous plants which possess the remarkable power 
of storing up nitrates through the agency of bacteria. 

ROAD MATERIAL. 

Material for macadamizing roads is readily obtainable throughout 
Greene county. The limestone and chert from the Upper Burlington lime- 
stone has, heretofore, been mainly used for this purpose. A great mistake 
has been made in using this material, as it is so soft that it rapidly pulverizes, 
and forms an impalpable dust that is very disagreeable in dry weather, and 
the roads are also quickly cut through by heavy teaming. The use of the 
hard Lower Burlington limestone and chert is strongly recommended where 
macadamizing is to be done. The splendid natural ridge roads on the 
Lower Burlington in Christian and Stone counties testify to the superior 
qualities of the limestone and chert of this formation for road-making pur- 
poses. 

River Gravels. — Probably the best local material in Green county for ma- 
cadamizing roads is the gravel so abundantly found in the beds of the larger 
streams, such as the James and Sac, and especially that part of the gravel 
which is derived from the breaking down of the chert of the Lower Bur- 
lington. This latter is more abundant near the headwaters of these streams, 
in the northern and eastern parts of the county; consequently, the gravels 
found in these localities are much more valuable than those obtained farther 
to the west. For example, the best gravel for road purposes is that obtained 
as far west as the Galloway bridge; beyond that point, and lower down the 
river, it is softer and less desirable. 

Cementing Gravels. — A fine deposit of water-worn gravel, mixed with 
a certain proportion of cementing clay, is found just west of the switch at 
Rule station, on the Chadwick branch of the St. Louis & San Francisco 
railroad, township 28, range 21, section 20, southwest quarter. This is 
probably a tertiary deposit, and is situated at an altitude of about forty feet 
above the James river, and about a quarter of a mile away from that stream. 
The bed has been exposed for about a quarter of a mile along the right of 



GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. lOI 

wa}' of the railroad, and the road running south from Rule indicates its 
extension for nearly lialf a mile to the southeast. Another fine deposit of this 
cementing gravel is found on the Rogersville road near the Winoka Lodge 
propert}'. There seems to be an inexhaustible supply of these gravels, which 
experiment has proved to be the best and cheapest macadamizing material 
accessible to the city of Springfield. 

COAL. 

Greene county lies just beyond the limits of the great W'estern Interior 
coal field. The nearest deposits of coal which are being worked at the 
present time are situated in Dade county, not far from the Greene county 
limits. With such close proximity to workable deposits, it would be expected 
that outliers of the coal measures, and even workable pockets of coal should 
occur. This is, in fact, the case. Although in several localities coal is 
known to exist, it is only in one of these that it is pure enough to be of value. 
This is on the Kincaid farm, about one and one-half miles southeast of the 
town of Brookline, township 28, range 23 west, section 10, southwest quar- 
ter. This deposit is situated in a much-tilted ridge of sandstone. The seams 
of coal are greatly inclined, having a pitch, in places, of forty-five degrees 
north by west. But little drifting has been done. Altliough the coal of the 
middle and lower veins is quite pure, making an excellent grate coal, little 
investigation has been made regarding the extent of the beds. 

In the year i860 a vein of less than two feet of impure coal was dis- 
covered in two shafts, one-half mile southeast of the Kincaid place, on the 
Moore farm, township 28, range 23 west, section 15, northeast quarter of the 
northwe.st quarter. It is near the southern limit of the sandstone belt, and 
the carbonaceous shale is still seen on the old dumps.' The tops of these 
shafts are about fifty feet below that of the Kincaid shaft. A well sunk 
about one-half mile east passed through one hundred and thirty-seven feet of 
Upper Burlington limestone, demonstrating the abrupt limits of the coal 
area in that direction. 

At Campbell station, on the Kansas City, Fort Scott & Memphis rail- 
road, is a coal pocket which covers several acres. It was discovered in 
digging a well, which is forty-nine feet deep. In this well, under ten feet of 
slate and shale, very thin seams of coal are foimd, alternating with shale 
and gray bituminous limerock until the bottom is reached. The deposit is 
too impure to be utilized. 

CL.WS. 

One of the promising future industries of this region is the development 
of the fine bodies of clav and clay-shales of various grades found within 



I02 GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 

the limits of Greene county. These clays, unlike the purer kaolins which 
are associated with the granitic rocks, are all secondary residual deposits 
from the denudation, decomposition and segregation of different formations, 
but they are mainly derived from the coal measures, having been, originally, 
the cementing material of the sandstones, and probably, to a degree, of the 
limestones. 

Chemical composition is of great importance in the utilization of clay, 
which may be separated into its proximate constituents, such as kaolin (the 
hydrous silicate of alumina) or clay proper, water, sand, mica, lignite, 
pyrites, and salts of lime and potash. All but the kaolin is impurity, and 
may be absent or present in varying proportions. 

The important physical characteristics of clay are plasticity, density and 
fusibility. The first is a fundamental quality, the power to absorb water, 
which renders it easily molded into any desirable shape. When dry it hard- 
ens, and becomes like stone when baked, and the plasticity can never be 
restored. Density is important in its relation to the various uses to which 
clay may be put, the denser varieties being more valuable for fire-brick and 
household utensils. The fusibility of claj's depends entirely upon the relation 
of the various imimrities which they contain. 

The clay deposits of Greene county are mainly confined to three forma- 
tions, the Coal Measures, the Upper Burlington and the Hannibal. The clays 
of the Coal Measures are, by far. the purest and best of all. They- are mainlv 
confined to the townships on the western border of the county. The Kelso 
clay beds are probably the most promising of any yet discovered in the 
county. They are situated about four miles west of Willard. in township 
30, range 23 west, section 20. northeast quarter of southeast quarter. Sev- 
eral prospect shafts have been sunk, and evidence of a large and valuable 
deposit found. One shaft, at a depth of thirty feet, passed through the fol- 
lowing strata: 

Section at the Kelso Shaft. 

Feet. 

6. Soil, red clay, with imbedded clay nodules 2 

5. Limestone, with chert, dark-colored, coarse 5 

4. Shale, variegated, reddish and greeni.sh 3 

3. Shale, compact, bluish, with occasional thin seams containing fossil 

plants 18 

2. Shale, black, with crystals of selenite 4 

I. Shale, black 3 

The surrounding rock is a coarse bowlder conglomerate. The upper 
portions of the clay vary from greenish to reddish, but the great mass of the 
bed closely resembles, both in plasticity and chemical composition, that found 



GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. IO3 

at Billings, in an adjacent county. Its freedom from mica and iron makes it 
a most promising variety for the manufacture of fire-brick and all kinds of 
pottery. The nodules of clay mentioned in the first two feet of the section are 
the mineral Hallcjysite, and seem to be peculiar to this locality, at least they 
have never been seen at any other point. They vary from the size of a 
nutmeg to masses several inches across. They are imbedded in an impure, 
ferruginous clay, resembling the Upper Burlington clay soon to be descril)ed, 
and when freshly broken, are delicately and beautifully colored from a rich 
salmon color through the various shades of red, pink, yellow, blue and green. 
These nodular masses seem to have almost completely lost their plasticity, and 
they are hard and brittle. It might be supposed that they are masses of the 
clay that have been baked by surface fires, but the finding of them at greater 
depths in other shafts precludes this idea. The proximity of this deposit to 
the railroad, the purity of the clay and the size of the deposit, as indicated by 
the prospect holes, are all facts in favor of its further development. 

The clay in the ochre beds on the Long farm, township 30 north, range 
23 west, section 21, a short distance south of the Kelso locality, has at- 
tracted some notice. The fifteen feet of clay found just above the ochre 
deposit is the purest and the finest quality of clay that has been seen in the 
Southwest. It is pure white, free from grit and very plastic. If the area of 
the bed is sufficientl}- large, as is indicated, this will prove even more valuable 
than the ochre. 

Deposits of clay have also been found on the Lintner farm, on the 
south slope of a draw running into Clear creek; on the Gilmore farm, three 
miles northwest of the Kelso beds; near Evans' mill, fifteen miles northwest 
of Springfield; east of Cave spring, on the Sac river; and another two and 
one-half miles northeast of Buckley. 

The clays deri\'ed from the Upper Burlington limestone, as has been 
stated, are highly ferruginous, very impure, and mainly utilized in brick- 
making. The residual material is called "geest," and is mainly formed from 
the breaking down of the upper shaly and cherty beds of the Burlington 
formation, and in places partially derived from the sandstone that once over- 
laid the formation. These deposits are very large, scattered over the whole 
county, and are practically inexhaustible. Wherever subterranean drainage 
has been imperfect, the low, flat, swampy tracts are found, in most cases, to 
be underlaid by deposits of this clay. But few of the numerous and widely 
scattered beds have been worked. 

The Rand brick-yard has been one of the most prominent and the largest 
yard which has supplied brick for the city of Springfield. It furnishes the 
raw material for the brick-yard in the western part of the city. This clay 
covers an area of about thirty acres. It is about eight feet deep, and requires, 
practicallv, no stripping. The deposit has been worked since the year 1881. 



104 GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 

East of Springfield, on the McClure land, a small bed of clay has been 
worked for a number of years, and southwest of the city, near the old Kirch- 
graber place, on the Mount Vernon road, another brick-yard has been op- 
erated. 

At Ash Grove, the Walker yard, opened in 1886, operates the clay bed 
located at the juncture of the main line and the Clinton branch of the Kansas 
City, Fort Scott & Memphis railroad. The deposit covers about ten acres, 
varying from two to four feet in thickness, and requires no stripping. Other 
small deposits of clay are worked at Republic and Walnut Grove. 

The clays of the Hannibal sandstones and shales have not, as yet, been 
utilized within the limits of Greene county, although they are used farther 
north and there is no reason why the heavy and wide-spread deposit in the 
north half of the county should not be made into the cheaper grades of clay 
products. 

MOULDING S.\ND. 

In several localities in Greene county, fine beds of moulding sand have 
been found in the Upper Coal Measures. That on the Hibler farm and the 
adjoining Kincaid tract, next to the railroad, in township 28, range 23 west, 
section 10, southwest quarter, has been largely used by the Springfield Stove 
Works. 

IRON. 

Only a few small beds and pockets of iron are found in Greene county. 
The sandstones of the Carboniferous frequently contain nodular masses of 
limonite. As these withstand the destructive power of atmospheric and 
aqueous agencies better than the matri.x, they are left with the residual 
material, while the softer, lighter and more easily decomposable materials 
are carried away. Swallow* has given the following list of localities for iron 
ore in the form of hematite in Greene county : 

Township 2"] north, range 23 west, section 19, west half, hematite. 

Township 2^ north, range 23 west, section i, southwest quarter, hema- 
tite. 

Township 30, range 19 west, section 18, oxide. 

Township 27, range 24 west, sections 14 and 15, hematite. 

Township 27, range 24 west, section 22^, hematite. 

Township 2"], range 24 west, section 24 east, half brown hematite. 

These, as well as other localities observed, are merely residual deposits 
of ore from the Coal Measures sandstones. Many samples of these deposits 



*Geological Report nn the Southwestern Branch of the Pacific Railroad, G. C. 
Swallow, 1S59, p. 35. 



GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. IO5 

may be seen in the stone walls and fence corners of Grand Prairie. In 1SS5 
several shafts were sunk on the Hill farm, on the conglomerate ridge south 
of Eucksnort Hollow, township 29 north, range 19 west, section 5, north- 
east quarter, lot 7. A small local deposit of bog iron ore was discovered, 
evidently residual from the conglomerate. Sometimes the iron ore is found 
as residual material filling crevices, as, for example, on the Wilson farm, 
township 30 north, range 2t, west, section 32, northwest quarter, where the 
vein, which was traced for twenty feet, was two and one-half feet wide and 
about twenty feet deep. The crevice walls were of sandstone. The drill 
penetrated nineteen feet further, in calcite and iron. The ore was a good 
c[uality of limonite. 

The iron in the residual clay covering the upper beds of the Upper Tur- 
lington frequently approaches bog iron ore in composition. In the quarry 
near the old cotton mill in the city of Springfield, such a deposit was found 
filling a "flat opening" where the underground drainage had segregated it. 
The bed had a thickness of about two feet. 

In a number of places in the Coal Measures sandstone deposits, in the 
western part of the county, the residual material from denudation of the 
sandstone has been so great as to form large deposits of excellent yellow 
ochre. On the Long farm a fine bed of this ore was discovered in 1887, in 
township 30 north, range 23 west, section 31, northeast quarter. In 1892 
it was leased to the Bois d'Arc Mining Company, and v»orked for a short 
time. Altogether, six shafts, with drifts, were sunk on the tract, and in the 
deepest shaft, which reached a depth of seventy feet, thirty-five feet of ochre 
was exposed, under fifteen feet of a fine white clay. The material requires 
washing, and the ochre is, apparently, of a very good quality. The Bois 
D'Arc company discovered another deposit in township 30, range 22,. section 
31, southeast half, where, in the fall of 1891, a mill was erected. Undoubt- 
edly other excellent beds of ochre occur in the same township. 

A number of small deposits have been worked between Republic and 
BiUings. The ore, however, brings only about one dollar an<l fifty cents 
per ton loaded on the cars at Billings, and is worth about three dollars per 
ton at the smelter at Carondelet. where most of the product is sent. It costs 
about one dollar per ton to get the ore loaded on the cars, which leaves a 
profit of only fifty cents to the company. The ore from the Republic district, 
though not so abundant as that from the Billings diggings, is of better grade. 
The output of this region is principally limonite, and it is found in pockets 
varying from a few feet square to over an acre in extent. The amount of 
phosphorous in the ore is above the average, occasionally running over one 
per cent. The pockets are usually found imbedded in Graydon sandstone, the 
beds of which mark the course of the prehistoric Schoolcraft river, described 



lo6 GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 

in the preceding chapter. These deposits of iron were carried down in solu- 
tion and in small quantities, and slowly deposited by this ancient stream. 

LEAD AND ZINC. 

Greene county has never been a large producer of lead and zinc, though 
seventy-hve years before the Joplin field was discovered lead was known and 
worked, in a small way, by the Indians and hunters of this region. The 
location of the first deposit of lead discovered in these early days was on the 
James river, near Kershher's Spring, and later, the Phelps mines were located 
at this point. 

The Phelps Diggings. — The shafts here are mainly situated along two 
crevice courses about seventy-five feet apart, running in nearly parallel lines 
from the James river on the south, in a course north 25 to 30 degrees west, 
through the ridge to the Suffolk diggings on its north slope. A section of 
one of the shafts shows: 

Feet. 

8. Limestone and chert. Lower Burlington, to top of ground at shaft (.o 

7. Soil, made up of Chouteau and Hannibal 16 

6. Limestone, rather compact silico-magnesian, probably somewhat 

metamorphosed 12 

5. Sandstone, Phelps 2 

4. Limestone, King's Branch 14 

.3. Alternating beds of hard chert and silicious limestone, Joachim 15 

2. Sandstone, Saint Peter 3 

I. Shale, alternating layers of finely laminated blue and white 2 

This shaft lies on one side of the crevice, and represents the geological 
horizons at this point. The main ore-body, at the Phelps mines, lies above 
the Phelps sandstones, and is made up of segregated mineral, disseminated 
through "gumbo," the wonderfully tenacious clay formed by the breaking 
down of the Hannibal shales. Great difficulty was found in cleaning this ore 
by hand, as the peculiar gangue resists separation to a remarkable degree. 
Various experiments were made as to the effects of frost and heat of the 
•sun before hand- jigging, and roasting was also tried, all with no very satis- 
factory results, until later, the Nathalie and Suffolk companies put in steam 
concentrators. Neither the King's limestone nor the Joachim, on account of 
their hard, silicious nature at this point, are favorable for the accumulation 
of much of an ore-body, hence the upper run of mineral was soon exhausted 
in these mines. Any second run of mineral in this region would have to be 
looked for in the Joachim and Jefferson City limestones ; but owing to the 
■greater depth of these, and the narrowness of the ore-body, it would seem 



GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 



107 



that all profitable mining in the camps ui this lucality must be necessarily 
confined to the formations abuve the Phelps sandstones, viz., the Hannibal 
shales. 

The Phelps mines represent one of the oldest lead camps in the South- 
west. Schoolcraft* speaks of camping, in January, 1819, at a place which 
was, undoubtedly, this one. He writes : "Twenty miles above the junction 
of these streams (James and Finley), on the immediate banks of the James 
river, are situated some valuable lead mines, which have been known to the 
Osage Indians, and to some White River hunters, for many years. The 
Indians have been in the habit of procuring lead for bullets at that place by 
smelting the ore in a kind of furnace made by digging a kind of pit in the 
ground, and casing it with some flat stones, placed so as to resemble the roof 
of a house inverted, such is the richness of the ore and the ease with which 
it melts. The ore has not, however, been properly explored, and it is im- 
possible to say how extensive the beds or veins may prove. Some zinc, in 
the state of sulphuret, is found accompanying it." 

The ore, occurring here in the soft Hannibal shales, is easily worked and 
thus it is seen why the Indians, who are not fond of manual lalx^r, should 
take such long journeys for the sake of procuring their lead with the least 
outlay of effort. 

MINES WORKED LONG AGO. 

In 1844 ex-Governor McClurg owned a store at Linn Creek, on the 
Osage river, from which point he distributed goods throughout the South- 
west. Hearing his teamsters speak of the discovery of lead at the old Hazel- 
wood mines in Webster county, and at the Phelps mines, he told them to 
bring back ore when they delivered their goods, as the price of lead was high 
at that time. He also set men at work at both of these camps, and he erected 
a small smelter at Hazelwood, to which point ore from the surrounding camps 
was hauled overland by team to St. Louis, a distance of over two hundred 
miles. The price of lead soon declining, work at these mines was stopped 
for w^ant of cheaper transportation facilities. The Phelps mines were ai)an- 
doned until 1875, when the land was leased from its owner. Governor Pheli)s. 
by Messrs. Charles and Henry Sheppard, of Springfield, and Judge Picher. 
of Joplin. After some general mining, the old pump-shaft was sunk to a 
depth of sixty feet, and by drilling, seventeen feet more. The best run of 
mineral was found at a depth of twenty-five feet in the lower "gumlxj" de- 
posit of the Hannibal shales, and above the Phelps sandstone. Search was 
made for a deeper run of mineral, but in \ain. and the lease was soon given 
up. No further developments were made until 1885-6. when Mr. Joseph 



*"A View of the Lend Mines of Missouri." Scboolcraft. ISIO. )). 2."4. 



Io8 GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 

O'Donnel re-leased it from Col. John E. Phelps. Mr. O'Donnel worked 
these mines profitably for about one year. In the latter part of 1886 Colonel 
Phelps engaged a superintendent and worked the mines up to about 1891. In 
the early part of this work the production was about two carloads of mineral 
per week. 

The Pierson Creek JMines. — These mines are located in the southwest 
quarter of section 36 and northeast (|uarter of section 35, township 29, range 
24 ; also in northeast cjuarter of section i, township 28, range 21, in the valley 
of Pierson creek, east of its union with the James river. Mining at this point 
began about 1S85, upon land then owned by Mrs. McFarland, who leased 
eighty acres to Messrs. Ball and Thomas, of Springfield. Early in the 
spring of 1890 these persons subleased the property to Messrs. Sherman and 
Edgar, who, in November, 1892, transferred their interests to the Nathalie 
Mining Company, and these people, a few months later, sold their lease to 
Mr. R. P. Bowyer, who systematically and successfully worked this property 
until 1895. His drifting amounted to about one thousand two hundred feet 
along the ore-body. A peculiar feature of this mine was a series of faults in 
the ore-body. In following the northwesterly trend of the crevice, a blank 
would suddenly be reached, and on drifting from fifteen to thirty feet to the 
west, the continuation of the crevice would be found. Five of these dis- 
placements were encountered in drifting across the eighty-acre tract. Over 
fifty thousand dollars' worth of ore was taken from this mine. Fifteen per 
cent, of the bulk of this ore was galena. These mines were well ec|uipped 
with steam hoisting plants and concentrating works. They are situated in a 
narrow valley, mainly on the west bank of Pierson creek, on a gentle slope 
toward the Upper Burlington plateau to the northwest, and the Kansas City, 
Fort .Scott & Memphis railroad passes down the valley, crossing the creek 
just south of the principal mines. 

This mining camp is one of the most instructive points for the study 
of ore crevices and depositions, and their relations to geological horizons. 
The section given below will show the formations at this point. It is taken 
from the top of the bluff on the east side of the stream and just north of the 
master-fissure of the group, at Mr. Bowyer's "Sunrise" shaft, the fissure 
being at this point, associated with faults in which the hanging-wall is'twenty 
feet higher than the foot-wall, the reverse of the general rule for faulting. 
The course of this master-fissure is about north thirty-five degrees west, 
having a dip of about si.xty degrees northeast. The bluff is capped with ten 
to twenty feet of residual Upper Burhngton chert: 



GREENE COUXTY, MISSOURI. lOQ 

Section of Bluff on Pierson Creek. 

Feet. 
5. Chert, residual, Upper Burlington 20 

4. Limestone, Lower Burlington 60 

3. Limestone, Chouteau, which extends 6 feet into the shaft 30 

2. Shales. Hannibal, the ore horizon 40 

I. Sandstone, Phelps, with fish teeth, forming the bottom of the run of 

minerals in this camp j/2 foot 

This fault shows the formation on the south side of the ore-body twenty 
feet lower down than those on the north side. Along the bluff a few hundred 
feet to the north, is another fault, and still a third is found about one hun- 
dred feet further in the same direction. Owing to the slope of the Lower 
Burlington chert, it is ditilicult to determine, accurately, the throw of the 
last two displacements. They vary from ten to twenty feet in the amount of 
dislocation. The disturbance of the strata caused by this faulting has de- 
ceived, and rendered the calculations of the miners worthless, as to the loca- 
tions of the ore horizon at a number of points in their vicinity. 

Returning to the main crevice a number of shafts have been sunk from 
the top of the bluff along the fault, and the narrow ore-body has been ex- 
posed in the Lower Burlington limestone, midway along the bluff, thus pre- 
senting the very best opportunity for the study of the fault, the fissure, and 
the worthless Lower Burlington ore-body, which is about eight feet wide. 
The hard Lower Burlington chert of the ore-body is mixed with a small 
amount of disseminated lead and blends. 

In the Chouteau, the ore-body apparently narrows, and contains but a 
little lead, in cubical crystals. As this is thickly covered with Lower Bur- 
lington slope, but little opportunity is given for its study. 

In the main shaft in the Gumbo, or Nathalie mine, about three hundred 
feet northwest from the old main shaft at the foot of the bluflf, there is an 
•excellent opportunity to study the deposition of the ore. The slope here is 
about eighty feet long, and varies in width from fifteen to thirty feet. Tiiere 
are, apparently, at this point, two nearly vertical fissures separated by a 
narrow belt of nearly barren rock. The ore in the upper part of the shales 
is mainly galena, in small cuboidal and modified octahedral crystals, dissem- 
inated in a white tallow day lying in the shattered horizontal cracks of the 
shales. The lower twelve feet of the shales, which represent about the height 
of the slope, contain mainly zinc blends in the shape of thin, massive sheets. 
intercalated between the bedding planes opened by the shattering, and 
leading, as veinlets. to the two main runs of mineral. These form the two 
nearly vertical veins before referred to. These shafts are frequently coated 
-^vith the white, compact tallow clay referred to above. The blende is also 



no GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 

found in small, disseminated crystals of great beauty in the softer shales. 
The vein-stuff consists of a very small amount of disseminated calcite ("tiff") 
and the wall-rock is the typical blue or bluish-drab Hannibal shale. 

HOW THE ORE WAS DEPOSITED. 

The ore seems to have Ijeen deposited under considerable pressure, filling 
the two main cre\ices, and penetrating the shattered wall-ruck in tortuous 
\-einlets, filling such spaces in more or less massive sheets, and then forcing 
its way into the softer portions of the shale wherever it could penetrate, form- 
ing disseminated crystals. The blende is light colored, and is of great purity. 
The ore-body varies from twent_\- to thirty-five feet in breadth, and from 
eight to fifteen feet in thickness. The roof of the slope will, undoubtedly, 
furnish a great amount of galena when taken down. The ore is intimately 
associated with the "gumbo," a \'ariety of tallow day, from which it is sep- 
arated with great difficulty, and the waste dump contains a considerable 
amount of ore. 

The Bowyer & Company Mine. — In the fall of 1895 Mr. Bowyer leased 
an adjoining forty acres across the "Gulf" railroad right of way, on what 
would be a probable extension of the ore-body of the old Gumbo and Natha- 
lie mine, in township 29, range 21, section 35, northeast of northwest. The 
first drill that was put down struck the continuation of the ore-body. Several 
months were spent in prospecting with the drill, in order to demonstrate the 
e.xtent of the ore-body on this new lease. In October, 1896, a shaft was sunk 
and mining commenced on this new tract. This ore-body, as was seen in the 
old Gumbo mine, lies between the Hannibal shales and the Phelps sandstone. 
It is very irregular in shape, having a series of blind spurs running southeast 
from the main course of the ore deposit. This new ore-body was developed 
for about three hundred feet, and found to have a width of about twenty-five 
feet, with a thickness of eight feet. This was one of the most intelligently 
managed mines in the Southwest. The extent of the ore-body w-as calculated 
by a system of both \-ertical and horizontal drilling, by the means of which 
latter new parallel crevices were discovered. By utilizing the steam from the 
engine that ran the hoisting apparatus, the expense of running the diamond 
drill for the horizontal drilling was reduced to seventy-fi\-e cents per foot. 
The ore at these mines had always been extreinel}- difficult to clean, owing 
to the fact that the disseminated crystals of lead and zinc are so closely as- 
sociated with the tenacious white tallow clay. Mr. Bowyer made a careful 
study of those conditions, and by means of some ingenious contrivances of 
his own. managed to thoroughly and economically clean this ore which was 
formerly so difficult to handle. 

The Lewis ]\Iine. — South of the Gumbo, or Xatlialie, Mr. Bowyer did 



GREENE COUNTY. MISSOURI. II T 

some prospecting- in 1895. sinking the "Sunrise" shaft at the summit of the 
bluff just east of Pierson creek: but it was not until 1896 that productive 
mining was done east of the stream. In that year. .Mr. J. T. Lewis leased 
from Mr. T. J. Kershner the forty acres south and east of the Gumbo "forty," 
and about eight hundred feet east of the "Sunrise'" shaft. The Lewis shaft 
is eighty-four feet deep, and the ore-body presents itself under, apparently, 
the same conditions as those which prevail at the Xathalie and Gumbo mines. 
The drifts ha\e an extent of about three hundred feet. 

Suffolk Shafts. — About one-half mile to the southeast of the Nathalie 
shafts are the mines of the Suft'olk Lead and Zinc Mining Com]3any. which, at 
different times, have been called the Mumford or Kershner mines, and later 
worked by Captain Leader, of England. They were first opened bv Mr. 
Kershner in 1886. They are located on the continuation of the crevices upon, 
which the Phelps mines are situated, in township 28 north, range 20 west, 
section i, northeast cjuarter. ,\ low di\'ide sejiarates the two groujis, which 
are onh- two hundred feet aijart. The following section, taken from the 
pump-shaft, gi\es the relati\e thickness of the geological formations at this 
point : 

Section of the Siiffollc Shaft. 

Feet. 

5. Soil 12 

4. Limestone. Chouteau 12 

3. Shales. Plannibal. ore horizon 30 

2. Shale, Hannibal, broken gumbo and ore 9 

I. Flint and sandstone. Phelps and Joachim 8 

The Daisy Mine.* In sections 35 and ^6. township 29, range 21, is 
located the Daisy mining property, formerly known as the old Kershner 
tract, comprising sixty-five acres. It is bordered by the main line of the 
Kansas City, Springfield and ?^Iemphis railroad, which runs a loading spur 
for ores and supplies to a point a quarter of a mile northwest of the north 
line of the property. Several successive veins, paralleling each other and sev- 
eral hundred feet apart, have been discovered and worked on this land. In 
1896, on its western slope, vein No. i was first opened by Messrs. Lewis and 
Bench, and for several years a small ore-cleaning plant, consisting of crusher 
and rolls, turned out a considerable amount of particularly rich lead and 
zinc. In i8'9Q, drilling done by INIessrs. Lines & Company, located another 
rich vein of ore, some four hundred feet east of the Lewis and Bench vein. 
This new discovery, vein Xo. 2, was worked for a total len.gth of one thou- 

*Ttie writer i.s sre.itly iiulelited to .Mr. (Jeorjie Mut.si-beler. who wjis siiporinteiulent 
for tbe Daisy aiul Bray lliuing Companies for twelve years, for iiifornintlon in reRiirJ 

to this property. 



112 GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 

sand eight hundred feet, and several thousand tons of ore were produced. 
A niih was erected at the shaft on this vein, about six hundred and fifty feet 
north of the raih'oad track. Messrs. Lines & Company sold their mining 
lease to an eastern company, which was incorporated in 1901, and thereafter 
known as the Dai.sy Mining and Milling Company. This new company took 
possession of the Lines lease in 1902, but did no work until h'ebruary, 1903, 
when drilling was begun on the Lines vein, some nine hundred feet north of 
the present mill. Ore was struck, proving the continuation of this vein to 
the north line of the Daisy property, and for over one hundred feet into the 
adjoining property. In May, 1903, a shaft was sunk to a depth of one hun- 
dred and ten feet, and was connected to the mill by cable car and tramway. 
Production on this vein began in April, 1904, and ended in December, 1904, 
a total of two hundred and fifty feet having produced zinc and lead to the 
value of twent_\--one thousand dollars, prices then being from thirty-two to 
thirty-se\-en dollars per ton for zinc. It is estimated that the total value 
produced from this vein was fully one hundred thousand dollars. For some 
months before vein No. 2 was exhausted, drilling had been begun to the east, 
and in 1904, what is known as vein Xo. 3 was struck some three hundred 
feet east of the mill. A shaft was sunk seventy-two feet deep to the bottom 
of the ore in 1905, and operations began during the winter of 1905-06, with 
an output valued at twenty-five thousand dollars. In July, 1906, the Daisy 
Company, ha\'ing Ijought the fee to the si.xty-five acres, and owning also the 
mill, leased their land to the Rathbun Mining Company, which produced from 
this shaft, from August, 1906, to August, 1907, a total output of zinc and 
lead valued at fifty-nine thousand six hundred and eighty-seven dollars. W. 
Martin Jones subsequently leased this property from the Daisy Company 
from August, 1907. to October 23, 1909, when fire destroyed the shaft build- 
ings and the mine became flooded. The production during this last period 
was valued at sixty-three tliousand two hundred and forty-four dullars. After 
a shut-down of seven months the property was reopened by the Bray Mining 
Company. Extensive drilling on vein No. 3 to the north and south proved 
the continuous ore-channel, and two shafts w^ere sunk, and two tramways, 
•eight hundred and ninety and nine hundred and seventy feet long, respective- 
ly, w-ere built to the mill. The output from November i, 1910, to May, 
1 91 3, was api^roxiniately one hundred and sixty thousand dollars. Between 
veins i and 2 a new vein was struck during the summer of 1913 and some 
four hundred and fifty feet of it worked up to October, 19 14, producing ap- 
proximately, forty thousand dollars. This vein runs in a northwesterly di- 
rection into the adjoining ]iroperty. where two mills are kept in operation. 



GREENE COUNTY. MISSOURI. II3 

OTHER LOCAL MINES. 

At present the Bray Mining Company continue prospecting on the Daisy 
Company land, with the hope of developing new ore-\eins. 

The Waverly Aline. — About 1898 a Kansas company sunk a shaft about 
one hundred and forty feet deep on land just north, and forming an exten- 
sion of the Bowyer property. This was worked profitably for about two 
years. 

The Badger Mine. — Later, in about 1907, Mr. George Mutscheler leased 
prospected and dexeloped the Badger property, situated northwest of the 
Waverly, and a continuation of the ore-body of the latter. The shaft was 
two hundred and sixty-five feet deep to the deposit of ore just underneath 
the Hannibal shales. Still later the property was worked by a Mr. Daniel, 
of Michigan, and it is stated that in two years he took out nearly one hun- 
dred thousand dollars' worth of ore. 

In 1912 Mr. A. Clas, of Springfield, purchased the property, incorpo- 
rated under the name of "The Choteaur Mining and Land Company," and 
worked from 191J to 1913, taking out some twenty carloads of zinc ore. In 
November, 1913, the Choteaur Company mo\ed its plant to the Morgan land, 
just north of the Daisy property, on a continuation of the ore-body of the 
latter, where they sunk a shaft one hundred and twenty-five feet deep, reach- 
ing the greatest width of ore-body yet found in Greene county, it being nearly 
one hundred feet wide in one place, a fact due, probably, to the merging of 
two or more runs of mineral. From this shaft, about fifty carloads of min- 
eral have been taken out. 

The Charles Meyer and Company Mines. — In July, 1914, this company 
leased land to the north of the Choteaur, on an extension of the same run of 
mineral. The ore-body worked by this company varies from thirty to sixty 
and seventv-five feet in width, and up to date about forty carloads of mineral 
have been taken from this shaft. Later, Mr. A. Clas and Company developed 
the land just north of the Meyer mine, and have taken out some fourteen 
cars of zinc ore to date. 

The Cook Mine. — On the south side of the James ri\-er, just south of the 
original Phelps mines, C. R. Cook, in 19 14, opened and developed a continua- 
tion of the Phelps run, taking out some ore and demonstrating the extension 
of the run for several hundred feet toward the south bluff of the river. 

The mines of the Pierson Creek district are unique, being the only ones 

in the United States that have been developed from the Hannibal formation. 

The ore, as has been described, is mixed with a tenacious white clay, locally 

called "gumbo," which, in the early days, was found exceedingly difficult to 

(8) 



114 GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 

separate. The ore is of high grade, and is exceptionally pure, always com- 
manding a high price in the market. 

ASH GROVE MINES. 

The first discovery of lead in the region of Ash Grove was made soon 
after the settlement of the county, and was in township 30 north, range 24 
west, section 31. Only a small amount of "float" mineral was found. In 
1859, in a well sunk on the Corum farm, one mile south of Ash Grove, near 
the center of section 28, a small amount of galena was thrown out; but it 
was not until 1867 that any serious prospecting was done. 

The mines in this locality are mainly confined to the sections lying south 
of Ash Grove and east of the Sac river. From the first prospecting, in 1867, 
by Judge Ralph Walker, up to the building of the railroad to Springfield, 
the mining industry of this region did not flourish, although many shafts 
were sunk, and a smelter built. It was the discovery of a rich prospect on 
the Hutchins land, where considerable mineral was taken out, that gave the 
real impulse to the development of this district. There were, however, great 
obstacles to successful mining at this time. The pig lead had to be hauled 
eighteen miles, over a rough road, to Brookline, the nearest railway station. 
The price of lead declined from thirty to nine dollars a thousand, the leases 
required the enormous royalty of thirty-three and one-third per cent., and 
for these reasons mining was practically stopped until about 1888, when a 
rich strike was made on the Duncan land, two miles south of the town. 

The mines of this region are all located in the middle beds of the Upper 
Burlington, and most of the ore is taken out from just above a bed of yellow 
rock thirty feet thick, which is frequently mistaken for the Chouteau lime- 
stone. This yellow rock is the same as that which forms the floor of the 
lime kiln quarry at Ash Grove. The following camps in the vicinity of Ash 
Grove will be briefly described : 

The Cnrum Diggings.; — These are in township 30, range 24, section 28, 
south one-half center. More prospecting was probably done on this land 
than on any other portion of this region, but only small amounts of ore were 
obtained. 

The Hutchins land, now known as the Murray tract. — The mines on this 
land are situated a mile and half south of Ash Grove, in township 30, range 
24. section 32. southeast quarter of northeast quarter. They were discovered 
in 1867, a"fl 3 considerable amount of nre was obtained from them, but 
owing to the discouragements already referred to, work was soon abandoned, 
and they were not reopened until 1888, when the rich deposit on the Duncan 
land, a quarter of a mile to the south, was found. The first zinc from the 
Ash Grove mines was shipped from this tract. Of the various companies 



GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. HC 

organized to develop this land may be mentioned the "Golden Eagle" mining 
company, with a capital stock of thirty thousand dollars, which took out 
about four hundred thousand pounds of lead; the "Gulf" company, which 
found good silicate at a depth of sixty-five feet : and the "Clinton" company, 
which also found a fine deposit of silicate at sixty-five feet. 

Taylor shaft, of the McCord land. — This is located in township 29 north, 
range 24 west, northeast quarter of section 6, about one-half mile south of the 
Murray land. Messrs. Taylor and Edgington discovered a rich deposit of 
mineral on this land in 1889. The shaft was sunk to a depth of seventy-five 
feet, after passing through a surface layer of about fifteen feet of ferruginous 
sandstone. The output of this shaft from February to May, 1890, sold for 
twenty-three thousand dollars. 

Dunlop Shaft. — On the lot adjoining the Taylor and Edgington shaft, 
Messrs. Dunlop and McKellop struck a rich vein of silicate at eighty feet. 
The Gilliam Mining Company sunk several shafts on this tract and did some 
drifting, the deepest point reached being one hundred and thirty-five feet, all 
in bowlder formations. The deepest run of mineral, however, was found at 
a level of eighty-five feet, just above the yellow rock. The ore-channel has a 
course N. 14 degrees W. The ore-body varies from fifteen to sixty feet in 
width, and is from six to thirteen feet in depth. Drifting along this ore-body 
has been carried on for six hundred feet. The ore consists mainly of galena 
in the upper part, followed by zinc silicate, and with zinc blende in the lowest 
run. Little or no carbonate, or "dry bone" is found. 

The Pennsylvania Company Land. — This is situated just east of the raiU 
road and south of the town of Ash Grove, in section 28. This company sunk 
a shaft, in 1895, to a depth of two hundred and fifty feet, reaching the 
Joachim limestone. On this land, as in the other camps of this region, most 
of the ore is obtained just above the yellow limestone, though at times it 
extends to greater depth, and is geologically lower. 

The Getty Diggings. — These are in the northwest quarter of section 33, 
township 30 north, range 24 west. A number of shafts were sunk liere to a 
depth of from twenty to thirty feet, penetrating the yellow limestone from 
six to eight feet. Both galena and calamine were taken out. 

PICKEREL CREEK MINES. 

These mines are located at the head of a spring liranch. which is one of 
the tributaries of Pickerel creek, and on a dividing ridge running southeast 
from the spring. They are in township 29 north, range 24 west, northeast 
quarter of section 33 and northwest quarter of section 34. They were dis- 
covered in 1S87, by John >.IcDaniel, who found some small crystals of lead 
when cleaning out the spring, and they were opened and worked somewhat 



Il6 GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 

extensively for several years by Thomas O'Banon, being finally abandoned 
because of lack of transportation facilities. Ash Grove, the most accessible 
point for shipment, is about fourteen miles distant. The conditions in which 
the ore e.xists in these mines are almost identical with those at Ash Grove. 
The large bulk of the ore was taken from the decomposed beds immediately 
above the yellow rock, or Chouteau-like layer of the Upper Burlington lime- 
stone. Some two hundred shafts were sunk at these diggings, only two or 
three of which extend below the yellow rock referred to. These shafts are 
mainly located along three more or less parallel runs that have an average 
course of twenty-five degrees north. They extend for about one-third of a 
mile, and are only a short distance apart. The west run is almost wholly 
located in the northeast corner of section 30, while the other two are mainly 
in the northwest corner of section 34. A shaft sunk to the depth of forty feet 
near the middle of the west run struck the yellow rOck at a depth of twenty- 
five feet. A crevice six feet wide in this limestone was exposed, having a 
course north, twenty degrees west, and was filled with chert and galena, 
.A.bove this limestone several drifts were made in the clay, and a large amount 
of "float" lead (galena) was taken out. Below the yellow rock, a pinkish, 
highly crystalline aragonite, commonly called cave onyx was found. The 
deepest shaft sunk was near the spring in the northwest corner of the dig- 
gings. It was sixty-two feet deep and passed through two feet of soil, six feet 
of the yellow rock, and fifty-four feet of blue, crystalline Upper Burlington 
limestone. Some zinc was obtained in this shaft, while "float" lead was found 
up the slope in all three runs in clay just above the yellow layer, and "dry 
bone," lead carbonate, was found near the surface at the highest points on all 
these runs. Some silicate was taken out of the middle run high up the hill. 
Crystals of galena, dolomite and zinc blende were mixed together with the 
chert bowlders in some of the shafts. Phosphate of lead was associated with 
"tiff" and galena at a few points. In a shaft forty-six feet deep, at the top 
of the hill, a flat opening above the yellow rock yielded sixty thousand pounds 
of "float" lead. A peculiar sandy, porous rock is associated with the mineral 
at a number of points. The porous cavities are, evidently, the casts of zinc 
blende crystals that have been eroded away. Black oxide of manganese moss 
markings are frequent in the flint, which is white, seamed and slightly fossil- 
iferous. The ore-body, in places, seems to have a width of nearly one hun- 
dred feet. It is estimated that over two hundred carloads of mineral have 
been taken out of both the central and western runs. ]\Ir. S. M. Smith, of 
Springfield, later reopened these mines and worked them for a short time. 



GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. II7 

THE BROOKLINE MINES. 

Mining in the vicinity of Rrooklinc lias not liecn carried on fur a num- 
ber of years. In the early days it was conducted by means of shallow dig- 
gings in ground that had been gone over in a similar manner two or three 
times and directly o\er an ore-body the width of which is at least fifty feet. 
with a workable depth, in the Upper Burlington limestone, of over two hun- 
dred and five feet, as shown by drill-hole sections. 

The Potter Shaft. — Of the Brookline mines, which arc in three groups, 
the oldest and most worked was that on the Potter tract, township 28 north, 
range 23 west, southeast one- fourth of section _>. ]\lineral was discovered 
here in about the year 1873, and this claim has been extensi\-ely mined to 
depths of from twenty-five to fifty feet. Mr. Bay Wilson worked the tract 
for lead from 1875 to 1876, taking out, it is estimated, over three hundred 
thousand pounds of ore, entirely supplying his own smelter which was built 
near by. One shaft was sunk to a depth of ninety-five feet. In others, 
drifting was extensively resorted to, but as both the shafts and the mines were 
so dangerous from constant caving in that it was imjjossible to work them 
properly, they were finally abandoned. 

In the deepest shaft, a run of blende three feet in thickness was struck. 
The ore-bodies are evidently wide, but it is impossible to estimate their extent 
from the surface. From observations on the shafts and ca\ed-in drifts, the 
crevice courses appear to run north to twenty to thirty degrees east. The 
galena was found associated with an abundance of calcite, dolomite and clay. 
The chert in the vein-stuff is but little brecciated and the limestone of the 
wall-rock is soft, porous and highly fossiliferous. 

In 1887, some Brookline people clul)bed together and sunk what was called 
the citizens' shaft to a depth of eighty-five feet on this tract. Digging was 
stopped in open ground, in decomposed limestone, with tallow clay and calcite.* 
About sixty feet to the north and west of this is located the "Line" shaft, so- 
called from its position on the line between two companies who used it in 
common to work their drifts. The Stogsdale company drifted north forty- 
four feet and took out the largest amount of lead on the tract. .\ litilc west 
of due north from the "Line" shaft, the old smelter was located one humlred 
and eighty feet due north of this same shaft. Bay Wilson sunk a shaft ninety- 
three feet deep, passing through bowlders and clay to a depth of seventy feet 
and struck the first 7inc at a depth of eighty-six feet. 

The Armstrong Diggings. — Immediately ,'^outh of the Potter place is a 



*Tbis sliaft wa.s .siibsequeutl.v reopput'd ami ex<avate<l to n tlepth of 125 feet. A 
powerful stream of water from tUe uoitheast stopped tlie work. The IkhI of *-la.v .•mil 
water-worn gravel iu the bottom of tlie sliaft w:is prolied five feel f.irllier. lint no oliange 
in conclition found. 



Il8 GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 

second group of mines. In the north part of the "eighty" are some large 
sinks, with cave openings in the bottom, in one of which a considerable de- 
posit of ore was found. Just to the west of these sinks Mr. Armstrong, in 
1875, discovered crystals of lead in the soil at the surface. A number of 
shafts were sunk and o\'er five thousand pounds of zinc silicate were taken out. 
These old shafts are now filled up. 

The Old Silicate Diggings. — About one-quarter of a mile to the south of 
the last described diggings, but still on the Brown "eighty," is a group of 
excavations which were worked in 1875. Subsequently, all the diggings in 
this neighborhood were al^andoned. 

COPPER, SILVER AND GOLD. 

Before closing this chapter on the economic products of Greene county it 
seems wise to speak briefly of copper, silver and gold. The first, copper, has 
never been found in the county in commercial quantities, and only the stains 
of copper carbonate and copper pyrites are rarely met with in minute traces in 
calcite and limestone. Swallow, in his geological report on the southwestern 
branch of the Pacific railroad, 1859. quotes from Broadhead the following 
localities in Greene county where copper has been found: "On section 19, 
northwest one-fourth of southwest one-fourth, township 30, range 24, very 
small traces of copper were found associated with calc spar, and traversing 
the lower silicious beds ('Turnback rocks') of the encrinital limestone in about 
an east and west direction. At William Haralson's, on the west one-half of 
section 10, township 29, range 24 west, a pit has been sunk fourteen feet deep 
through the lower beds of the encrinital limestone. The ore found here is 
the sulphuret and green carbonate, in a gangue of coarse, opaque, bufif-colored 
calc spar, adhering to large crystals of white, sub-transparent calc spar, the 
copper ore more often occupying the line between the two varieties of spar. 
Some mining has been done here, but no profitable results have, as yet, been 
derived. This shaft was sunk in the edge of a valley leading into the valley 
of the Sac river and aljout three-fourths of a mile from that stream. Frag- 
ments of copper ore have been found at several places along the valley." 

The "Turnback rocks" and "encrinital" limestone referred to above are 
the Upper Burlington limestone. There is very little probability that any 
workable bed of copper ore will be discovered within the limits of this county. 

From the earliest settling of the country to the present time, rumors and 
traditions of old Spanish mines and smelters for silver have been treasured 
up throughout the whole Southwest and these stories have been so frequently 
met with as to justify some statements in regard to the subject. No silver 
has ever been found in paying quantities in Greene county, nor is it likely that 
it ever will be found. All galena carries a greater or less amount of this 



GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. Uq 

metal, but, so far, none has been found here which carried enough to justify 
working for silver. The stories in regard to ancient mines and smelters ail 
point, undoubtedly, not to the work of Spanish miners, but to that of the 
early settlers of this region who "gophered" for lead ore. The late Senator 
Headlee stated, as far back as 1840 or 1845, that the sons of Mr. Bedell, one 
of his neighbors, used, periodically, to visit the farm owned by James Cash, 
in township 31, range 21, southeast one-fourth of section 32, where they dug 
enough lead to run out the bullets used for hunting. Of late years, the 
peculiar rocks of the Devonian beds have constantly led the "old miner" into 
a belief that they carried some of the ores of the precious metals. This had, 
apparently, been confirmed in many cases from the fact that the Sac limestone 
carries finely disseminated pyrites, which, when smelted in a blacksmith's 
forge, as has frequently been done, gives a metal called by some "white metal," 
and by others "silver," the real substance being essentially iron. At several 
points quite extensive mining has been done in these beds for the supposed 
silver. Messrs. Johnson and Cook sunk several shafts near the middle of 
township 30, range 22, section 29, one of which reached the depth of eighty- 
four feet. They claimed to have obtained considerable siher from this 
locality, although a sample of what they believed to be nearly pure silver, upon 
assay was found to be nearly pure lead, with hardly a trace of silver. The 
record kept in these shafts has been of value in determining the thickness of 
the horizons of that region. 

No gold has ever been found in Greene county and the geological condi- 
tions are such that there is little or no probability that it will ever be dis- 
covered here. 

PETROLEUM. 

It is frequently asked if petroleum and natural gas may not be found in 
this region and numerous attempts have been made to raise funds to carry on 
the work of sinking wells in search of them; but in the light that geology 
offers, it can be asserted that all such attempts are useless, certainly within the 
limits covered by this county. The reasons for these assertions are as fol- 
lows : an impen'ious or "cap" rock is essential for the preservation of both 
gas and petroleum and there is no such impervious stratum, as will I)e seen by 
the description of the rocks of this area. Again, the geological horizons of 
this territory are frequently very much flexed, folded, shattered and deeply 
fissured, furnishing favorable conditions for the deposit from below of the 
lead and zinc, while the same conditions would be favorable for the escape of 
any gas or oil that might have accumulated. Thus the veiy agent that helped 
to bring up the rich deposits of mineral, is also responsible for the escape of 
the gas or oil that might have existed. No instance is known throughout our 
•country where lead and zinc are found in the immediate vicinity of gas and oil. 



CHAPTER IV. 

ORGANIZATION OF COUNTY. 
By A. M. Haswell. 

OFFICIAL ACTS CONNECTED WITIT ITS FORMATION BEGINNING OF THE 

VARIOUS TOWNSHIPS. 

The Territory of Missouri was organized by act of Congress in the year 
1818. In the usual course of such matters the territorial form of government 
would have continued for several years at least, but the first great clash between 
the political forces of the North and South, over the question of slavery, came 
to a head within a year or two after the organization of the territory. There 
were not lacking hot heads on both sides of the controversy who would not 
have hesitated to appeal to force in behalf of their own views and conserva- 
tive and peace loving men, both North and South, sought industriously for 
some plan by which the difticulties could be adjusted without danger of civil 
strife. 

The slaveholders of the South urged their constitutional right to 
take slave property into any state of the Union ; the anti-slavery men 
just as strenuously maintained that not only should no slaves be held in the 
free states, but that all the territories remaining should be declared free soil 
forever. Out of all this controversy was evolved a measure known as 
"The Missouri Compromise." This plan admitted the territory of Missouri 
as a slave state, but prohibited slavery elsewhere in the Union, north of 
parallel 36'^ 39', the southern line of Missouri. The bill passed both houses 
of Congress, and was signed by the President. Such statesmen as Henry 
Clay declared, in their joy, that the cjuestion of slavery was "settled" forever!" 
How badly even great statesmen can err in judgment was proved years after 
Henry Clav was in his gra\'e, when a Ijloody war was fought to its final conclu- 
sion, which did, at last, "forever" settle the slavery question. 

Thus, in less than two years from its organization as a territory, Missouri 
was brought into the Union before her time, a pawn in the great game that 
was yet to be played out to its logical end. It was in 1820 that the new 
state took her place as a full-fledged commonwealth in the sisterhood of 
states, and at once changes and adjustments of the internal arrangements of 
the state began. 

When the territory was organized, in 1818, there was among the counties 
as set forth in the act which gave it a legal existence as a territory of the United 
States, one which was named after "Mad Anthony," of revolutionary fame,. 



GREENE COUXTV, MISSOURI. I2r 

"Wayne county." On the map of Missouri, as we see it today, Wayne county 
occupies a rather inconspicuous position in the southeastern part of tlic state. 
But as it was first formed it stretched away to the westward, even to llie 
w-estern boundary of the territory. Thus it included U(,)t only idl of what 
afterwards became Greene county but many other counties also. In short, it 
occupied'a large part of the south half of the entire territory. 

The territorial alignment of the counties, so far as they affected Greene 
county, continued after the admission of Missouri to the Union, until the 
year 183?. Then a huge county was carved out of the original Wayne 
county, and named Crawford. This new dix'ision covered all the soutii- 
western part of Missouri, and, of course, included in its boundaries Greene 
county with the rest. 

But immigration was flowing rajiidly into the southwest in those days. 
The sturdy settlers from Tennessee, Virginia and Kentucky were taking 
up homes upon the government lands, and new conditions called again for 
another readjustment. So in less than two years after the organization of 
Crawford county, on the second day of Januar)', 1833, the Legislature of 
Missouri passed a special act creating a new county, cut from the overgrown 
area of Crawford, and the state fathers christened this new mcmlier (jf the 
family "Greene county." So in the columns of history, the second day of 
January, 1833, should be forever marked as the birthday of Greene county. 

The act, giving our county a legal existence and an honored name, is of 
enough importance and interest to warrant entering it in full upon these 
pages. It is in the following, words : 

"BE IT ENACTED, BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY (W THE 
STATE OF MISSOURI (As follows) : 

"i. All that part of the territor}- lying south of the township line, l)e- 
tween Town.ships Thirty-four and Thirty-five, extending in a direct line due 
west from the point wdiere the said township line crosses the main Xiangna 
river, to the western boundary of the state, and southwest of the county of 
Crawford, which is not included in the limits of any other county, and which 
was attached to said county of Crawford by joint resolution of the General 
Assembly of the State of Missouri, ai^proved the i8th day of Januaiy. 1831, 
be, and the same is hereby organized into a separate and distinct county to be 
called and known by the name of Greene county, in honor of Nathaniel 
Greene, of the Revolution. 

"2. The qualified voters residing within the limits of said county, shall 
meet at the place at present apijointed by law for holding election, on the 
first Monday of February next, for the purpose of choosing three fit and 
proper persons to compose the County Court of said county, and one fit aiul 
proper person to act as sheriff; and the persons so elected shall be commis- 



122 GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 

sioned by the governor, and shall hold their offices until the next general 
election, and until their successors are duly elected and qualified. 

"3. The County Court, when organized as aforesaid, shall have power 
to designate the places of holding the County and Circuit Courts within and 
for said county of Greene, and until otherwise provided by law. 

"4. The election proposed to be holden under the provision of the second 
chapter of this act shall be governed and conducted in all respects by the laws 
relating to general elections, except that returns thereof instead of being 
made to the clerk of the County Court shall be made direct to the "Governor, 
who shall issue commissions accordingly. January 2, 1833."* 

The lines given in the act constituting Greene county inclose a tract 
extending to the west and south lines of the state. The eastern boundary is 
more indefinitely stated. We do not know just what territory- was included 
under the words of the act : "To the western boundary of the state, and southr 
west of the county of Crawford, which is not included in the limits of any 
other county." 

One record which I have seen makes the statement that these Unfits ex- 
tended "to the Gasconade on the east, and the Osage on the north." That is 
probably correct as refers to the eastern boundary being at or near the Gas- 
conade, but the northern line, as given in the act just quoted, is "the township 
line between Townships Thirty-four and Thirty-five, extending in a direct 
line due west from the point where said township line crosses the main Nian- 
gua river, to the western boundary of the state." 

That line nowhere approaches the Osage river nearer than about four- 
teen miles, and it is within even that distance for only a short distance near 
its western extremity. Most of the way it is twenty to twenty-five nfiles 
south of the Osage. And yet it will be seen a little later, in tins chapter, that 
when the newly organized court of the new county divided their domain into 
municipal townships, they gave boundaries for some of these divisions which 
reach to the Osage. The court records of Green county, both of County and 
Circuit Courts, show too that the county jurisdiction extended to the south 
bank of the Osage. All this has caused confusion in most of the historical 
statesments made in the past and tends to make added confusion in an attempt 
to write the correct account of the organization of the county. 

The explanation is, however, quite simple. The boundary on the north 
was, as first given by the act of organization, the line between the two town- 
ships stated, but for some years the territory to the north and northwest of 
that line, and reaching to the Osage was, we are told, "added to Greene county, 
for civil and nfilitary purposes." Thus we find the County Court at its first 
session, and for some years thereafter exercising jurisdiction over much terri- 
tory not included in the act giving the county its organization. 



*See ■'Territorial y.nws of Missouri," comprising all laws passed in Missouri be- 
tween 1824 and 1836. Vol. 2, page 306, chap. 235. 



GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 1 23 

A VAST REGION. 

The region covered by the act of the Legislature included all of what now 
constitutes the following counties: McDonald, Newton, Jasper, Barton. 
Dade, Lawrence, Barry, Stone, Christian, Greene and Webster. Also parts 
of Taney, Dallas, Polk, Cedar, Vernon, Laclede, Wright and Douglas. A 
principality indeed, and much larger than any one of several sovereign states 
of the Union. 

These boundaries, however, remained intact for but a short time. Immi- 
gration was coming into the county rapidly. New settlements, and increased 
population demanded new alignments for the greater convenience of the 
people. The county-seat, at Springfield, was several days' journey over the 
rough "traces" of the wilderness, for a large part of the county, and men 
required a tax paying location that did not require so long and strenuous 
a journey to reach. 

So on December 13, 1834, a new county called "Rives" was carved out 
of the northwestern part of the original Greene county. The name of this 
new division was afterwards changed to "Henry" county, the present day 
limits of which are wholly outside of anything that was ever included in 
Greene. 

January 5, 1835, another big piece was cut out of Greene and organized 
as "Barry" county. This made necessary a new adjustment of the boundar- 
ies of our county, and an act was passed by the Legislature and approved 
March 3, 1835, as follows: 

"GREENE — Beginning where the line dividing Townships Twenty- 
Six and Twenty-Seven crosses the line dividing Ranges Seventeen and Eigh- 
teen ; thence west with the said township line to the intersection of the eastern 
line of Barry county; thence along said line to the southeast comer thereof: 
Thence south to the beginning." 

Anyone trying to trace the lines as stated in the above act will find dif- 
ficulty in making them come together at all. But such they are described, 
and under the act so worded the county of Greene continued to thrive and 

grow ! 

Previous to these divisions of the original county, an election had been 
held, as directed in the act organizing the county. There is a discrepancy 
between the actual date on which the records state that this election was 
held and the day as set forth in the act of the legislature. That act names 
as the date of the election to be held for selecting the justices of the County 
Court and the sheriff: "The first Monday of February next." i. e.. February. 
1833 The records of Greene countv. however, state that the election m 
■question was had "On the 14th day of Februan-, 1833." Obviously that 
• date could by no possibility be the "First Monday in Febniar)-.' 



124 GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 

However, the election was lieltl, and it resulted in the selection of Jere- 
miah N. Sloan, James Dollison and Samuel Alartin, as justices of the County 
Court, anil John 1). Shannon as sheriff. To these men Governor Dunklin is- 
sueil commissions in due f(jrm, and on the nth day of March, 1S33, they 
met to organize their court. This first session was held, as told in Book A., at 
page I, of the County Court records, "At the house of John P. Campbell, 
within and for said county of Greene." John P. Campbell was the original 
settler in the limits of what has grown to be the city of Springfield, and is 
well entitled to the name of "The Father of Springfield." His house, where 
the first session of the court was held, was a log structure, very nearly at the 
center of the present city limits. All of which will be found more fully set 
forth in the appropriate chapter of this history. 

The various acts and orders made at this initial term uf the County 
Court will be found stated in subsequent chapters, with the e.Kception only 
(if those which divided the county into the various municipal townships. 

Right here a confusion is apt to arise in the mind of the ordinary reader 
concerning these townships. We have mentioned, in giving the boundaries 
of the county, the dividing line between certain townships as fornfing the 
northern boundary of the territory set aside by the legislative act of organiza- 
tion. How, then, some may ask, did the County Court have to divide the 
county into townships if they were already such subdivisions, as is indicated 
in the act? 

The explanation is this : The government surveys its domain into ti.^wn- 
ships, generally six miles square. These are again divided into thirty-six 
sections of one nfile square each, and containing six hundred and fortv acres, 
and numbered from one, in the northeast corner of the township, to thirty- 
six in the southeast. All legal descriptions of land in those states where this 
system is followed, locate the land by the section, township and range. To 
one fanfiliar with this method it is a matter of but a few seconds to locate 
any tract in a state if given only the figures representing the section, town- 
ship and range. To the uninitiated it seems an intricate and difficult matter 
to be able to find a certain tract from a few figures, and there are thousands 
of men who ha\e lived all their lives upon certain tracts, who are unable to 
tell you ofl:'hand the section, or township, or range, in which is their home. As 
a matter of fact, however, the system is one of great simplicity. It is the 
tradition that it was first designed by George Washington himself, and, if so, 
it is by no means the least of the many great things he did for his countiy. 

But, in the settlement of a wide space of country, the settlers naturally 
chose the best locations. Soil, water and timber were the great points they 
considered in getting a home in the new state. Thus the communities gath- 
ered, not according to the mathematically straight lines of the government 
surveys, but along the streams, at the margins of prairies, and wherever the 



GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 1 25 

conditions were such as they sought. So, when a suflicient number of peo- 
ple had located within reasonable distance of one another to require a town- 
ship organization, it became the duty of the County Court, as we see stated 
in the act organizing the county, to divide these communities by certain 
boundaries, for their own government. These are the "municipal town- 
ships," and have no relation to the boundaries of the government townships, 
as set forth in section, township and range. 

This division of the county into townships was among the first and most 
important matters transacted at this first term of the court. And it was a 
dut}' by no means easy of accomplisliment. Here was an immense territory 
of thinly settled countiy. The inhabitants were in isolated communities of 
pioneer fanners, mostly along the bottom lands of the principal streams. 
The three judges upon whom it devolved to make an equitable and conven- 
ient division of this great tract had probably among their number not one 
man who was familiar with the entire region in question. Their work could 
be at best little more than experimental, and subject to frequent and radical 
changes in the future. 

The records show us that even at the second term of the cnurt, held in 
June, 1833, only ninety days after the first, there were urgent calls for 
changing some of the township lines, and for the organization of new town- 
ships. As population increased these changes became more frequent, and 
thus the municipal divisions have, along down the years, adjusted them- 
selves in accord with the principal of "the greatest good to the greatest num- 
ber." 

The vast size of the territory, the lack of maps and the conflicting and 
selfish interests of the difi'erent communities affected, rendered the task of 
this division an onerous one, indeed, and it is a monument to the patience 
and ability of those first three judges that they were able to do as well as 

they did. 

The orders made at this term of court, and which divided the county 
into townships, are well worthy of permanent record, and I shall give them 
in full. Incidentally, I will say that if the reader will take a good map of 
Missouri as we have it today and try to follow the lines laid down in these 
orders, as shown in the records, he will realize somewhat of the difticulties 
imder which those first faithful officials labored. 

The following are the boundaries of these first townships as set forth 
in the records of this first term of the County Court in March. 1833. E\cry 
one of them covers more ground than any one county today. Some equal 
any two or more counties now included in the original limits of Greene. 
Ven^ few of them bear the names now held by townships in this county, 
but may be found here and there in widely separated counties of southwest 

Missouri. 

"Spring River Township— All that portion, of territory lymg and be- 



126 GREENE COUNTY^ MISSOURI. 

ing in Green(e) county, and included in the following boundaries: Begin- 
ning on the west boundary line of the State of Missouri west of Vivian's 
creek ; thence east on the dividing ridge between the waters of Vivian's 
creek and Oliver's creek, so as to include the settlers on Vivian's creek ; thence 
north on the dividing ridge between the waters of the Osage and Grand 
rivers ; thence on the same dividing ridge to the boundary of the State of 
Missouri ; thence south to the beginning. Elections to be held at Samuel 
Bogard's. 

"Jackson Township — Beginning at the north boundary line of Greene 
county, as now established, nmning with the dividing ridge between the 
North Fork of Sack river and the Pomada Tarr river, zvifhout limit, or so 
as to include all the settlements on both sides of Sack river. Elections to 
be held at Ezekiel Campbell's."* 

Those two words in the foregoing description, "without limit," would 
seem to introduce an element of uncertainty as to the exact boundaries of 
Jackson township sufficient to drive a conscientious surveyor to distraction. 
There is nothing in it to halt him from extending that line to the north pole, 
or, for that matter, off in space to the planet Mars ! The court evidently in- 
tended that there should be no mistake in including "all the settlements, on 
both sides of Sack river," and they certainly made their intention clear. 

Next comes Osage township, as follows : 

"Osage Township — Beginning at the mouth of Little Niangua river, 
running so as to include the place where William Montgomery now lives; 
thence to the mouth of little Pomada Tarr river ; thence west to Sack river 
and down Sack to the Osage river. Thence down the Osage river to the 
beginning. Elections to be held at William Brinegar's fern,', on Pomada 
Tarr." 

This description covers a large area not included in the description of 
Greene county as set forth in the act of organization. It is a part of the 
outlying territory temporarily under the jurisdiction of the Greene County 
Court. The line from the mouth of Little Pomme de Terre to the mouth of 
the Little Niangua is nearly sixty miles in length. This gives some idea of 
the size of these old townships. 

OTHER TOWNSHIPS. 

"Mooney TownshijD — Beginning at Pomada Tarr river where the Nian- 
gua Trace crosses ; thence taking the waters of Pomada Tarr to the mouth 



* Tbe uaiues of the rivers mentioned in this description of Jackson Township, 
seem to have been stumbling bloclis to the fathers. Pomme De Terre is here spelled 
•Tomada Tarr." In many of the old records it is rendered "Pomley Tarr." The 
.-u-tual spelling, Pomme De Terre, is French and literallly translated is "Apples of 
the Earth," or as we would say, "Potatoes." Sac too, is here spelled with a "K," 
which is not correct. 



GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 12J 

of Little Pomada Tarr; thence up the Little Pomada Tarr to the dividing 
ridge between it and Sack river; thence along tlie line of Jackson Township 
to Sack river; thence up the Dry Fork of Sack to the beginning. Elections 
to be held at John Mooney's. Judges of elections, James Smithson, Aaron 
Ruyle and John West. 

"Campbell Township — Beginning at the mouth of Finley, running 
thence to include the settlers on Finley to the eastern boundary of Greene 
county; thence north with said line to Niangua river; thence with said river 
to Niangua Trace ; thence with said line to James Ross' on Sac river ; thence 
to the Widow Leeper's ; thence to the Parr Springs ; thence to the point where 
the road leading to Washington Clay's crosses said creek ; thence in a 
straight line to the mouth of Finley to the beginning." 

This is another quaint description: "The said line to James Ross" on 
Sack river," and "thence to the Widow Leeper's," are deliciously novel. One 
can but wonder how a surveyor could locate this boundary in case James 
Ross or the "Widow Leeper" should have died or moved out of the country! 
Then, too, "the point where the road to Washington Clay's crosses said creek." 
What creek, and where was Washington Clay's? 

Today Campbell township is the metropolitan township of Greene county. 
As its importance has increased so have its limits shrunk, until from covering 
much more land that all Greene county now includes, it lias decreased till it 
comprises only the two government townships, 29 of range 21 and 29 of range 
22, a space just twelve miles by seven miles and a half, with the city of Spring- 
field nearly in its geographical center. 

"White River Township — Beginning at tlie mouth of Finley, on tlie 
James Fork of White river; thence down said James Fork so as to include all 
the settlers on both sides thereof, to the mouth of said James Fork; thence 
due south to the State line; thence with said line of Campbell township: thence 
with said line to the beginning. Elections to be held at Felch's old place on 

the north side of White river. Edward Mooney, James H. Glover and 

Newsome, Judges." 

This is another terribly mixed description. \Miite River township 
boundary, we notice, runs "due south" from the mouth of James river to the 
State line. Then comes the puzzling statement: "Thence with said line of 
Campbell fozvnsliip to the beginning." Now. the lines of Campbell township, 
as set forth in the records, would not touch the south line of the state by 
twenty miles at least! 

But to continue : "Oliver Township — All that portion of territory lying 
and being south of Spring river, and not included in any other townsliip." 

At the second tenn of the court, held in June. 1833, Sugar Creek town- 
ship was created, and described as follows : 

"Beginning on the south boundary of Missouri where Brown's lane 



128 GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 

crosses the Missouri line ; thence north with Brown's lane to the dividing 
ridge between the waters of Friend's river and Colonel Oliver's Fork; thence 
east to Elkhorn Spring ; still east to the Peddler's cabin on Flat creek. Thence 
southeast to White river; thence up White river to Roaring river and the 
Missouri line." 

Note that "still east to the Peddler's cabin on Flat creek"! Flat creek 
today heads in Barry county near the county-seat, Cassville, and after a cir- 
cuitous route empties into James river near the center of Stone county. But 
where the "Peddler's cabin" was located history does not hint, and no man 
living, probably, could positively say. 

Most of the seemingly unintelligible and confusing descriptions in 
these recorded township boundaries arose from the fact that much of the 
land included in Greene county had not yet been surveyed by the government 
at the time these townships were set ofif. So, instead of Ijeing able to say, as 
a County Court in these days would, "Beginning at such and such a corner, 
section, township and range," etc.. the pioneer court had, perforce, to depend 
upon such local landmarks and farm settlements as happened to be best known 
to themselves, or to the men appearing before them, to ask for such a delim- 
itation of territory as suited their wishes. Even in the regions where the gov-, 
ernment had sectionized the land, unless the pioneer settlers were much bet- 
ter posted upon the numbering of lands than are their descendants of the 
present day. not one man in a hundred of them could have given the correct 
section, township and range of any tract, however niiTch he might have wished 
to do so. 

Thus, with much painstaking effort, the new county was divided into 
townships. At the same term of court there were appointed numerous jus- 
tices of the peace and constables for the newly formed subdivisions, and from 
thenceforth the machinery of county government was in operation, not to be 
wholly suspended even during those four years when Greene county was in 
the verv vortex of civil war. 




C5 

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"I 
o 

a 

o 



CHAPTER V. 

EARLY SETTLEMENT. 

By A. M. Haswell. 

WHERE THE PIONEER SETTLERS EMIGRATED FROM WHERE THEY FIRST EF- 
FECTED THEIR SETTLEMENT THE EARLY-DAY MILLS— EARLY ROADS 

PIONEER SCHOOLS, CHURCHES, CUSTOMS AND MANNERS — 
GOING TO MARKET MAIL FACILITIES. 

In writing this chapter I shall endeavor to confine myself strictly to tiie 
Story of the first permanent white settlers of Greene county, leaving to others 
the interesting account of the few white men who were in this region from 
time to time, but who made no permanent homes here. In order, however, to 
write intelligibly the story of the first men who here opened their pennanent 
homes, it will be necessary to go back of them a little, and state how the way 
was first blazed, and how from one of these pathfinders the first permanent 
settler obtained land rights, that, after great trouble and several years of 
waiting, resulted finally in establishing the first home in this then wilderness. 

In the year 1818, as we have seen stated in other chapters of this work. 
Congress passed a joint resolution organizing the Territory of Missouri. 
At that time there was an old veteran of the Revolution, named John P. Petti- 
john, living in the State of Ohio. He was a Virginian by birth, and had re- 
sided in that state until 1797, when he removed with his family to Ohio, 
When this old soldier heard that Congress had opened a new territory west 
of the Mississippi for settlement, he gathered together his sons and tiieir 
families, his friends Joseph Price and Augustus (or Augustine) Friend and 
enough others to make up a total of twenty-four people, and set forth to find 
homes in the new territory of the West. 

The expedition was loaded upon a keel boat, which carried not only the 
people, but such of their simple belongings as they felt to be indispensable in 
the wild land to which their faces were turned. Some day, perhaps, an Amer- 
ican poet will arise with the genius and the will to write an epic telling of tiiat 
pioneer voyage. Certain is it that the voyage of the Pilgrim Fathers upon 
the historic old Mayflower, two centuries before this voyage, did not compare 
with this, either in the danger attending it, the time it required to make it, or 
the bravery and resolution necessary to bring it to a successful conclusion. 
Suffice it to sav here that after floating down the Muskingum river to the 

(9) 



130 GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 

Ohio, down the Ohio to the Mississippi, and down that great river to the 
White river, this intrepid expedition proceeded to force their ckimsy craft 
against the strong current of this last named stream. Marooned by floods,. 
going for eight days at a time without food, escaping by the closest possible 
margin from death by starvation, leaving two of their number sleeping in 
unknown graves in the wilderness, at length they reached a little group of 
frontier fanns and log cabins around the junction of the Big North Fork and 
White river. 

Here they remained some two years or more. Meanwhile the restless 
frontier blood of their old leader, Pettijohn, drove him on long hunting and 
exploring expeditions to the Northwest. Returning from one of these trips, 
he informed the little settlement on White river that he had discovered the 
land mentioned in Scripture, which "floweth with milk and honey." 

He had reached the plateaus of the Ozarks; his fabled land was none 
other than what we now call Greene county. The "milk and honey" of which 
the stalwart old man told, he explained, to be none other than "buffalo mar- 
row" and "bear's grease," two pioneer delicacies par excellence ! 

Either on this trip or one soon after, Pettijohn erected a log cabin close 
to a fine spring upon the north bank of the James river, the spot which was 
afterward to become the permanent home of the first white settler in Greene 
county. This spot, which is certainly entitled to be marked with a permanent 
monument, is located some eight miles southwest of Springfield, in section 27, 
of township 28, of range 22. 

Here stout old John Pettijohn came with his family, with some others, 
of his Arkansas friends, in the spring and summer of 1822. Among those 
who followed at practically the same time from the Arkansas settlements 
was Thomas Patterson. He was by birth a native of North Carolina, but 
had, by a series of those successive migrations so cjiaracteristic of the Ameri- 
can pioneer, crossed the Cumberland mountains, traversed the entire length of 
Tennessee, and finally forced his way u]) the White river into the Ozark 
country'. When he reached the Pettijohn cabin upon the James river he was 
pleased with the location, and soon succeeded in buying the "claim" from 
Pettijohn. The actual opening of Patterson's farm was in 1822. 

About the saiue time a brother of Thomas Patterson, named Alexander, 
settled upon what was afterward for many years known as the David Wallace 
place. Another Thomas Patterson, a cousin of those just mentioned, settled 
farther up the James, probably at a point south of the present town of North- 
view. A man named Ingle also moved into the country at this time and set- 
tled at a point about where the Ozark road crosses the James river. Here he 
built a mill. Some claim that this was actually the first mill in southwest Mis- 
souri, and it is probable that such is the case, although two or three other.s; 
were erected at about the same period. 



GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 



THE DELAWARES OBJECTED. 



131 



But all these settlements proved premature, and great disappointment 
and loss was to come to the pioneers. It was in the autumn of that year. i8jj, 
when everything- seemed prosperous for the little colony in the wilderness, 
that the settlement was thrown into terror and dismay by the arrival of an 
army of no less than five hundred Delaware Indians! Fortunate, indeed, was 
it for those isolated white men that these were Delawarcs, the tribe that from 
the day when they entered into treaty with William Penn have always re- 
mained the white man's friend. If these unexpected visitors had been mem- 
bers of almost any other tribe in all the continent, the history of Greene 
county would have been ended then and there so far as these pioneers were con- 
cerned. The log cabins would have been given to the tlames. the men and 
boys massacred and scalped, and the women and girls led away into cap- 
tivity. 

However, these were the gentle Delawares, and no violence or threats 
were used by them. But, with all their gentleness, they were firm, and told 
the white men that these were their hunting grounds, their reservation. gi\-en 
to them by the word of the Great Father in Washington, and that the white 
men must mo\'e oft' at once ! 

One can imagine the terror and dismay of those pioneer families on re- 
ceipt of this message. All their plans for the future, all the fruits of their hard 
work, the little homes gained after coming so far through the perils of the 
wilderness to win them, all swept away in a moment, as it were, far more 
effectively destroyed, indeed, than if the flames had consumed them. How- 
ever, these were not men to yield without taking every possible means short 
of violence to save tlieir homes, so some sort of an agreement was made with 
the Indians, and then Thomas Patterson, the elder, was sent to St. Louis to 
submit the case of the settlers to the government authorities there, and learn 
definitely the rights of the Indians and themselves. 

That was no holida>^ trip that the old pioneer was sent upon by his neigh- 
bors. It was two hundred and fifty miles to St. Louis. The roads were mere 
bridle paths; the country for almost the entire distance was of the roughest 
in Missouri. Instead of the palace car, gliding over steel rails at fifty miles 
an hour, the old man made his way on foot, or. at best, on horseback. He 
camped where night found him, in the woods, or. if unusually fortunate, in the 
cabin of some hospitable pioneer like himself. The journey was far and away 
more of an undertaking than it would be now to start for San Francisco or 

New York. 

All these things were so much matters of course that we find no mention 
made of them in the scanty records of the time. All that we do know is that 
Patterson made that journey, and that when he returned to the pleasant valley 



132 GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 

of the James, he did so with a heavy heart. For the decision of the land of- 
fice authorities had been against the settlers. The Indian rights were affirmed, 
and the white men were ordered to move out of the reservation. 

Then there was a flitting of those families. Some of them made their 
way to Illinois and never returned. Some found a stopping place upon the 
Meramec river in Crawford county, and much nearer St. Louis than the 
homes which they were abandoning. Some of them, including old Patterson 
himself, stopped upon the Osage Fork of the Gasconade, probably in the east- 
ern part of what is now Laclede county. 

Some few of the settlers rented land from the Delawares, but most of 
those who did this had come into the country with the Indian invasion, and 
were probably traders or members of their families. Among these was a 
man named James Wilson. He was what later on came to be called a "squaw 
man." In fact, if tradition is to be tmsted, he had acquired a three-fold right 
to that title. Three times, we are told, had he chosen a copper-colored "af- 
finity," and as many times did he discard his choice for another. Finally 
he journeyed to St. Louis, from whence he returned to the wilderness with a 
French bride. With her he lived several years prior to his death. This couple 
had a farm near the mouth of the creek that bears his name to this day. The 
banks of this stream were the scene of one of the bloodiest battles of the Civil 
war. This is the stream, by the way, the headwaters of which flow through 
the city of Springfield and bear the local nickname of "Jordan." 

There is a stor}' that during the Indian regime, this man Wilson had been 
intrusted by some of them with a considerable sum of money. The tempta- 
tion was too great for his honesty, and he buried the money, probably intend- 
ing to quietly slip away with it after the loss had been forgotten by the own- 
ers. But the unsophisticated red men did not propose to quietly submit to 
being robbed. They took the shrewd Mr. Wilson and, putting a rope around 
his neck, hung him in midair, a treatment that in short order unloosened his 
tongue so that he revealed the hiding place of the cash. 

But in 1830 Congress, in response to frequent and urgent petitions, finally 
ordered the Indians to give up this part of Missouri and move to other regions 
farther west, and the submissive Delawares at once proceeded to obey and 
moved on, as they ever have, all the way across the continent. 

. This Indian occupancy had greatly retarded the settlement of southwest 
Missouri. Although it was fully ten years since the state had been admitted 
to the Union, and the other parts had been rapidly settled, there were very few 
white people in this region, and the territory covering thirty or forty of our 
modern counties was still included in Wayne county as before the admission 
of the state. 



GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 1 33 

MANY SETTLEKS CAME. 

But now the doors were swung wide open, and at once immigration be- 
gan to flow in. Most of those who had been driven out eight years before 
now led the procession of the inflowing tide of settlers, and hastened to resume 
possession of the places which they had been forced to abandon. Petti John, 
who has been mentioned, returned from Ohio, but did not locate within the 
present bounds of Greene county, but settled near the mouth of the James on 
White river. 

Here the old frontiersman lived out his days, and his family retained 
possession of the land for many years. This tract is in the present limits of 
Stone county, although when Pettijohn settled upon it, it was, of course, still 
included in Greene county. 

Joseph Porter was another of those who came in immediately after the 
Indians were removed. He made his home at or near Delaware Town, upon 
the James, and in the present limits of Christian county, a short distance 
south of the Greene county line. 

Thomas Patterson, Sr., had retreated with his family no further than to 
the Osage Fork of the Gasconade, probably in the eastern limits of what is 
now Laclede county. There he waited with what patience he might, tluring 
the eight years, and he was among the first to return to the abandoned claims 
in Greene county. He took possession in that year, 1830, of the claim which 
had been located nearly ten years before by Pettijohn, and purchased by Pat- 
terson from him in 182 1 or the year following. Here this first citizen of 
Greene county lived to the end of life, and here, in the old family burial 
ground, he sleeps beside the faithful wife who had followed him into the 
wilderness. 

The "Patterson spring" still flows into the James, and over and around 
it is a grove of fine black walnut trees. Beneath their shade is an acre or so 
of as beautiful blue grass sod as any city lawn can boast. Here have gath- 
ered, in the past, hundreds of happy picnic parties, veiy few of the members 
of which, probably, knew that they were upon the first land occupied by a 
white man's home in Greene county. 

Another early arrival in Greene comity was Samuel ]\Iartin. who settled 
in Taylor, or what is now Taylor township, in the eastern part of the county, 
near the James river. When the county was organized in 1833 Mr. Martin 
was elected one of the County Court, and when, on the i ith of March of that 
year, the court met for its first term, he was chosen by his two colleagues to 
be the presiding justice. John B. Mooney and his brother Edward rented 
land from the Indians somewhere about 1827. This was located u|>on Davis 
creek, a small stream that falls into the James in Taylor township. The 
Mooneys remained in that neighborhood permanently. John B. Mooney was 



134 GREENE COUNTY^ MISSOURI. 

an active and prominent man in the early history of the region. He was a 
pioneer preacher, one of those strong and sturdy men whose influence for 
good so largely helped to mold the better forces of the new countries of the 
West. Mooney township, one of the first organized by the County Court at 
its first session, was named for this man. Mooney township in Polk county 
is a part of that original division of Greene county. 

But the man who probably did more toward building up and advancing 
Greene county than any other was John P. Campbell, a native of Maury 
county, Tennessee. Later on I propose to give in detail the story of Camp- 
bell's journey to Greene county, as written by one who shared its trials and 
perils with him. But just at this point I will only c[uote the words left on 
record by one of those who knew and honored him in life: 

"John P. Campbell was an organizer of men, a stranger to reverses. The 
touch of his hand was success to any enterprise. Kind, prompt, generous and 
benevolent, his word was as sovereign as a state statute. He amassed a large 
property, and extended his field of operations over an empire. He built up 
schools, raised churches and gave freely to the poor. He died leaving a name 
honored and respected by everybody." Surely no man could ask for a nobler 
paneg}-ric ! 

Andrew Bass, came from Tennessee late in 1829 and located close to the 
present site of Strafiford, in the southern part of Jackson township. Later he 
moved some miles farther north in the same township, near the little trading 
point now called, after his family. Bassville. His descendants compose one of 
the prominent families of Greene county, and they are largely settled around 
the original location of their ancestor. 

Alpheus Huff came from Franklin county, Missouri, with the tide of 
immigration that flowed into the southwest after the Indians were expelled 
in 1830. He settled near Andrew Bass. Alexander Chadwick also came 
from Tennessee about 183 1 and settled near Mr. Bass. 

i\Iajor Joseph Weaver arrived in March, 1830, and bought out a settler 
near Delaware Town, where he lived three or four years. He then came to 
Springfield and purchased the farm of Joseph Miller, the brother-in-law of 
J. P. Campbell, just southwest of the town. Mr. Miller had come in with his 
brother-in-law some four years before selling to Weaver. Mr. Weaver lived 
on this place some years, when he moved to a farm two and a half miles west, 
where he died in 1852. His numerous descendants have always held a prom- 
inent place in the history of both the city of Springfield and of Greene county. 

In 183 1 Daniel B. Miller, a brother of Joseph Miller, settled in the north- 
west part of what is now Springfield, at a great spring, still called for him, 
"The Miller Spring." After serving as a water supply for the first Spring- 
field woolen mill, which enterprise soon died and remained with the brick 
building standing vacant for twenty years, this spring and a fine tract of land 



GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. I35 

of twenty acres is now being turned into a city park, with a beautiful lake of 
several acres. Mr. Daniel B. Aliller only survived some nine years, dying in 
1839. Samuel Lasley came to Greene county with Daniel B. Miller anil settled 
on Little Sac at the crossing of tlie Bolivar road. Sj^encer O'Neil, who had 
been one of the first men to take up claims in the Indian countr}', and had Ix-en 
forced to move away with the others in 1822, now returned and settled in 
the southwestern part of the county. Many of his descendants are citizens 
of Pond Creek, Republic and Brookline townships to the present day. 

Joseph Rountree, born in North Carolina in 1782, first emigrated to Ten- 
nessee in 1819, and afterward to this county, in 1831. He brought with him 
to his new home a family of seven sons and three daughters. From that day 
to this the name Rountree appears with great frequency and honor in the rec- 
ords of Greene county. Probably no one name shows to any better advantage 
than this. This large family, it is recorded, made the latter part of their ard- 
uous journey to Greene county through a deposit of snow of the remarkable 
depth, for this latitude, of eighteen inches. 

A pioneer's journal. 

Among the treasures of the Rountree family there existed for many 
years, and probably exists today, a journal kept by Joseph Rountree of his 
journey from the east into Greene county. It is given here, as printed some 
thirty years ago, and is a priceless record of the strenuous life of pioneer 
days. Beginning with the arrival upon the eastern shore of the Mississippi at 
Green's ferry in Illinois, this journal reads as follows: 

"Thursday, December 23, 1830 — A cloudy day. The ice was very thick 
in the river ; we went to Kaskaskia ; the ice nearly quit in the river in the even- 
ing; at night it rained and froze over. Our expense was 37^c. 

"Friday, 24th — A wet morning. We prepared for crossing the river 
after breakfast: we removed our family to Peter Robert Derousse's. at the 
lower ferry on Sunday last — a very respectable gentleman with a peaceable 
family ; we found the ice so thick and wide on the other side that we could 
not land, and had to go down the river more than a mile, where we got a 
landing, and it took till about an hour in the night before I got my wagon and 
family over : we had to make fi\e trips ; we went about three miles and 
camped, and had a merr)- night. Expense $5." 

That touch, "had a merry night," is exceedingly suggestive. One would 
think that a long and dangerous day's work, ferrying the turbulent Mississippi 
five times, would have been but a poor prelude for a night of merriment. But 
these pioneer folk were not of the stuff that deplores and whines over the dif- 
ficulties in their way. They had at last crossed the ^lississippi ; tiiey were in 
Missouri, if only at its farthest bounds, and they proceeded to make merry 



• 136 GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 

over dangers past and to rejoice over their arrival in the hither edge of their 
promised land. 

"Saturday, 25th — We started early; proceeded to Ste. Genevieve Town; 
Mr. Beard had to get a skein mended ; my family stayed with a very friendly 
French family, Bovie by name; in the evening we went on eight miles and 
camped at Mr. Bell's. Expense $1,623^. 

"Sunday, 26th — A cloudy, cold day. We traveled on and about two 
o'clock Mr. Beard's hind axletree broke at Mr. Moreare's. We traveled 14 
miles, and camped at Mr. Barrington's. Expense, 62j^c. 

"Monday, 27th — I went to Mr. Donaldson's ; found them well, and our 
wagon waited for Mr. Beard's and then went on; camped at Mr. Baker's; 
traveled nine miles today. Expense $2.56^. 

"Tuesday, 28th — -The day was clear and cold. We traveled on veiy 
well ; found that the fore bolster of Mr. Beard's wagon was broken. We came 
through Mine a' Burton and got a new bolster ; encamped at Mr. Tucker's ; it 
began to snow before day. Expense 625^c. « 

"Wednesday, 29th — This day was snowy, rainy and freezing; we started 
and broke the tongue out of Mr. Beard's wagon ; made a new tongue and 
traveled 7 miles and encamped at Mr. Compton's. Expense $1. 

"Thursday, 30th — Started on and it was snowy and freezing; last night 
it snowed ; we had only got one mile this day when Mr. Beard's wagon turned 
over in a branch and got the most of my goods wet ; we had to take up camp 
and dry our things; it continued snowing. Expense 62 ^/^c. 

"Friday, 31st — This day we packed up our wagon and started about 
twelve; traveled 7 miles. Expense $1.9634- 

"Saturday, January ist, 1831 — A clear, cold morning; it moderated a 
little; we proceeded and crossed the Cotway (doubtless this is meant for the 
"Fourche a' Courtois"), Huzza and Dry creeks; traveled about 13 miles and 
encamped on the ridge between Dry creek and the Merrimack. Expense $2.75. 

"Sunday, 2d — Cloudy; we started early; it rained very hard this day and 
thundered ; we crossed the Merrimac ; traveled 16 miles ; encamped at Massey's 
iron works. Expense 56j4c. 

"^londay, 3d — Last night it rained, sleeted and froze all night: this 
morning it began to snow ; we continued in a cabin we had took up in ; it 
snowed all night. Expense 62i/^c. 

"Tuesday, 4th — A cold day; snow very deep; continued at the cabin all 
day. Expense $1.19. 

"Wednesday, 5th — A clear, cold day; Mr. Beard took his load about 4 
miles to Mr. St. Clair's, and we deposited it there and returned to the cabin. 
Expense 66 2/3C. 

"Thursday, 6th — Clear and cold ; Mr. Beard took his departure for home ; 
we continued in the cabin: in the evening Sidney (Ingram) and me went for 



GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. I37 

to look US out a place for to make a camp near St. Clair's; we concluded on a 
place, returned in the evening and brought home Junius and Lucius, who had 
went to another cabin on the Dry Fork of the Alerrimac the day before. Ex- 
pense $5. 

"Friday, 7th — We began to prepare for making our camps ; but in the 
evening Joseph Phillabare (Philabert) came on and we concluded to go on 
with him ; so we left the cabin and came on to St. Clair's and stayed all night. 
Expense Gzyic. 

"Saturday, 8th — We started about 10 o'clock and proceeded up the bad 
hill with some difficulty ; the day was cloudy and cold, the snow was deep and 
it snowed some more, but we traveled 18 miles. Expense iS^c. 

"Sunday, 9th — Quite cold; traveled 17 miles. Expense $1.43. 

"Monday, loth — Cloudy and cold; we proceeded and crossed RubidoO' 
(Robidoux) ; traveled 15 miles. Expense 37}4c. 

"Tuesday, nth — This morning it was very snowy; we discovered that 
Mr. Philabare had one of the skeins of his wagon to get mended ; so we stayed 
in camp until nearly 12, and then traveled about 12 miles and encamped at 
Stark's. Expense SiJ^C- 

"Wednesday, 12th — Cloudy and cold; we traveled on slowly on account 
of the snow; crossed the Osage fork of the Gasconade and traveled 14 miles. 
Expense i8%c. 

"Thursday, 13th — A cold day, but we traveled on pretty well; passed 
Eastwood and traveled 18 miles. Expense 37>'2C. 

"Friday, 14th — Last night it snowed very hard; we encamped at the In- 
dian Grave branch ; the snow increased in depth four or five inches ; we trav- 
eled with a good deal of difficulty ; we passed Tygart's. Traveled 20 miles. 

Expense 50c. 

"Saturday, 15th — It continues to snow; the day is most intolerably cold; 
we proceeded on our way and after traveling six or eight miles we met Joseph 
H. Miller and Lemuel Blanton coming to meet us. Great joy! We went on 
to Robert Patterson's, twelve miles, and got lodging for the night in his house, 
the first night's lodging in a house since we left tlie cabin at Massey's Iron 
Works. Expense $1.25. 

"Sunday, i6th— Today was extremely cold ; snowed a little ; we proceeded 
and got to Joseph A. Miller's between sunset and dark; found the people 
abou? tlie prairie all well, and glad to see us all arrive safe. Traveled 23 

miles." 

Compare that joumev with one over practically the same route, from bt. 
Louis to Springfield. Instead of more than three weeks, over rough, hilly 
roads, in cold, and flood, and snow, the traveler now lies down in his com- 
fortable berth in a palace sleeping car. goes to sleep at 10 o'clock at night in 
St. Louis and awakes next morning in Springfield! 



138 GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 

BUILT Ingram's mill. 

In company with Mr. Rountree and his family on their journey from 
their Tennessee home to Springfield, was Sidney Ingram, whose name we 
have seen once mentioned in one of Mr. Rountree"s entries. This is the first 
mention of another name that has ever since been held in honor in Greene 
county. Sidney Ingram at first settled in Springfield, or where Springfield 
was to be. He here built a cabinet and wagon building shop. In a few years 
he moved to a farm a short distance south of town, and afterward to the lo- 
cation on the James, where, in company with F. C. Howard, he built a grist 
.mill, which, with its successors, have continued to the present day, and always 
.as "Ingram's Mill." At this mill Mr. Ingram died in 1847. 

Mr. Ingram sen'ed the county in an official capacity with credit to him- 
self and satisfaction to the community. His son. Arch F. Ingram, was treas- 
urer of the county for so many years that it grew to be a standing joke that he 
was elected for life. Others of the name have served this county in the Leg- 
islature, as editors of our papers, and in many other capacities, and always 
with honor and uprightness. 

In 1 83 1, too, came Kindred Rose, ancestor of a large family, many of 
whom are still citizens of this county. Mr. Rose settled on a farm about a 
mile and a half southwest of Springfield, and there passed a long life. An- 
drew Taylor and his brotlier-in-law, D. D. Berry, located in 1831 on the 
prairie about a mile south of Springfield. Here they built a little log build- 
ing and put into it a stock of goods brought all the way from Tennessee. This 
was probably the first store in the county as now located. Taylor soon re- 
turned to Tennessee, and when Springfield began to take on the promise of 
being a town, Berry moved his store into the place and became a noted and 
wealthy merchant. 

In 1 83 1 came Peter Epperson antl his family from Tennessee and took 
possession of a farm near Joseph Rountree's, to which an overseer and some 
score of slaves had come the previous spring, to prepare it for the master's 
residence. Then there were Radford Cannefax and his sons Benjamin and 
Chesley, coming in 1831, and settling on what has for sixty years at least been 
known as "The old Cannefax place," four miles southwest of Springfield, on 
the Wire road. The Cannefaxes were originally from Virginia, but came to 
Greene county from Kentucky. 

Samuel Painter arrived here in the winter of 1831. He was a Tennessean. 
but had lived in southern Illinois about five years prior to coming to Missouri. 
Snon after reaching Springfield this family uKn-ed to a prairie farm near 
Ebenezer. and in aliout a year after that to what went by the name of "The 
Mill Bottom," on the James, where Ingle had erected a mill in 1822. When 
Springfield was laid out as a town, the old gentleman moved into town, as did 



GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 



139 



his son Jacob. The latter, of whom more wiU be said in another chapter, was 
for long years the busy gunsmith of the little town. 

The year 1S31 also saw the coming of the Alsups, Scroggins and John- 
sons, who settled upon Little Sac. In that year, too, came Thomas P. Whit- 
lock, who arrived in June from Hardeman county, Tennessee. He settled in 
what is now Frankhn township. About the same time there settled, as neigh- 
bors to Mr. Whitlock, Zachariah Simnis, Benjamin Johnson, Henry Morrison, 
David and John Roper, Druiy Upshaw and Larkin De W'itt. Nearly all these 
family names are yet borne by residents of the township where their fore- 
fathers first made their homes. The year 183 1 or '32 also saw the coming 
of John Brisco and his two sons-in-law, Jacob and Andrew Roller, who came 
from Tennessee and located in the southern part of the county. 

Bennett Robberson came from Roane county, Tennessee, in 1832, with 
his wife and family. About a year later his mother came with her sons, Wil- 
liam, Allen, John, Edwin, Russell and Rufus, as well as three daughters who 
afterward married, respectively. Rev. David Ross, Thomas Stokes and Rich- 
ard Say. The widow, with her numerous family, settled on the beautiful lit- 
tle prairie which still bears their name, as does Robberson township, wherein 
that prairie is located. 

Bennett Robberson's son, Edwin Taylor Robberson, became a prominent 
physician and honored citizen of this county. One of God's noblest noblemen, 
throughout a long and active life he was first in every good word and deed; 
with a heart large enough to take in all mankind, he was the helper of the 
helpless, the father of the fatherless. By sagacious investments in lands and 
city realty, and by a large and actively followed practice of his profession, 
Dr. Robberson amassed a large fortune. His family are still residents of 
Springfield, and among the most prominent citizens. 

The words of an old farmer, whom, among hundreds of others, the Doc- 
tor had at one time befriended, are a fitting and truthful epitaph for this no- 
ble man : "God Almighty never made a better man." 

In 1832 Humphrey Warren located in the prairie some three miles east 
of what is now the northern part of Springfield, at the extreme head of Wilson 
creek. This place was afterward owned and occupied until liis death by 
James Massey, progenitor of the prominent family of that name. 

In 1832 also came Thomas Dollison, who settled near the present three- 
story brick building owned and occupied by one part of the United Iron 
Works, in the eastern part of town. This building was built for, and occu- 
pied for some years as, a cotton factory. But for some reason the enterprise 
was not successful. Thomas Dollison was one of the first judges of the County 
Court. Dollison street gets its name from him. 



140 GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 



DANIEL BOONE S SON. 



In the extreme noi"thwestern part of the present hmits of Greene county,, 
in what is now Wahiut Grove township, there settled, during the frrst three 
years after 1830, Allen Williams, Michael Walsh, William Mallory, Joseph 
Moss, Sloane, whose son was a practising physician for many years, and 
Hugh Leeper, from whom the large and beautiful Leeper prairie in Boone 
township gets its name. 

Greene county has not been without association with one of the great 
names of American frontier history. Long before the region was open for 
the settlement of white men the county was explored by Nathan Boone, the 
youngest son of the immortal pioneer of Kentucky. Nathan Boone was a 
captain in the United States army, and was without doubt one of the first men 
of white blood to see the prairies and forests of beautiful Greene county. So 
well pleased was he with the northwestern part of what is now included in 
our county limits, that he selected some land near where the little city of Ash 
Grove now stands, twenty miles northwest from Springfield, and as soon as 
possible sent his son out to take pre-emption rights. Later on Nathan him- 
self located in the center of a fine grove consisting mostly of ash trees, from 
which the town that afterward sprang up took its name. 

Several of the Boone family have lived in the county. The sons of Na- 
than Boone were James, John, Benjamin and Howard, and two of his daugh- 
ters married, respectively, William Caulfield and Alfred Horseman. Nathan 
owned several hundred acres of fine land in the neighborhood of his home. 
He died in 1856 and is buried about one and a half miles north of the city of 
Ash Grove. 

Mr. John H. Miller, a son of Joseph Miller, wlio has been mentioned 
among the very earliest settlers, has laid all succeeding generations in debt to 
him by printing, some thirty-five years ago, in the columns of the Springfield 
Leader, a series of articles giving his personal recollections and experiences 
of the very dawning of Greene county history. The writer will quote from 
some of these articles of Mr. Miller's, for tliey are the words of one who had 
an actual part in the scenes and incidents that he describes. And in these 
words of liis it can trutlifully be said of him : "He, being dead, yet speaketh." 
In one of his sketches he says : 

"In 1831 a strange, odd and remarkable individual, in the person of an 
old and somewhat demented white man, appeared among us, named Jesse 
Bayles. He had some English education, but lived a wilderness life, among 
the wild beasts and Indians, seemed half crazy, dressed very scant and odd, 
and wore an old white wool hat tucked up at the sides, and written thereon 
in large red letters, 'Death !' 

"He carried a long butcher knife and a tomahawk, and seemed dangerous 



GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. I4I 

to look at, but was harmless and even lively. I was with him considerably. 
He was fifty or sixty years old. He said that no harm should befall me ; that 
he intended to keep the panthers, wolves and Indians from 'a"hold" of me. In 
a year or two he disappeared. He either died or followed the Indians." 

Another writer. Col. Gilmore, in a sketch in the Springfield Patriot in 
1867, says of this strange character : 

"Jesse Range Bayles was,, like Wilson, a resident among the Indians 
when Mr. Campbell came here. Poor Jesse was an educated man, but his 
mind was disordered. He was a quiet, inoffensive person, constantly wan- 
dering around the country, dividing his time pretty equally between hunting 
for lead mines and a wife, but it is said he never found either. Some wicked 
boys caught Jesse at one time, saturated his clothes with turpentine and set 
him on fire. He was shockingly burned. He wore what was then called a 
'Bee Gum,' and is now called a "stovepipe' hat, and he told his disaster by 
placarding his hat in large letters, "Death, Hell and Destruction!" and point- 
ing all he met to the inscription. He remained here when his friends, the 
Delawares, left, and died about 1835." 

Mr. Miller tells as follows of another human derelict that had drifted 
into the wilderness in those early days : 

"About the same time another extraordinary and remarkable old man, 
then over sixty years old, came 'round amongst the few settlers. His name 
was Robert Alexander; originally from North Carolina. Came west alone 
in 1825 ; lived for several years with the Miami Indians at the mouth of 
Swan (at present Forsyth, Taney county). He was well educated, had been a 
fine looking man and had been in high life, but ardent spirits had 'got away' 
with him, as it is getting the best of some of our American statesmen at tJiis 
date. This old man, Alexander, came within a few votes of being elected 
governor of the State of North Carolina, in 1824, but by domestic and politi- 
cal trouble he came west and lived a roving, reckless and dissipated life. He 
was a man of fine sense, always had fine horses, would gamble witli cards, 
race horses and drink whiskey. Finally, in 1835, he found his way to William 
C. Campbell's, in Polk county, and, drunk, undertook to swim Sac river on 
horseback, and was drowned, just below Orleans, and that was tlic last of 
poor old Bob Alexander." 

In 1832 came William Townsend, from Logan county Kentucky. Mr. 
Townsend bought out Alexander McKenzie, who had come in from Pulaski 
county, Kentucky, two years before. The sons of Mr. Townsend, A. M.. 
Thomas B. and William M. A., were long prominent in Springfield and 
Greene county. 

I will close this part of this chapter by giving a list printed in a history 
of the county published over thirty years ago, and which has with many other 



14- GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 

sources been of great aid in compiling the records of the tirst settlers in Greene 
county : 

This list is called : "A partial list of early settlers in what was then Camp- 
bell Township, Greene county, in August 1833: 

"John Roberts, Peter Apperson, John D. Shannon, James Carter, Joseph 
Porter, Chas. P. Bullock, Chesley Cannefax, Wm. H. Duncan, E. Brantly, G. 
Gay, Randolph Britt, J. P. Campbell, Samuel Alartin, John Patten Camp- 
bell, James Fielding, Daniel Gray, Thomas Caultield, E. R. Eulbright, G. 
N. Shelon, Jos. Price, Sr., Radford Cannefax, David Roper, iMoses Matthews, 
Zenas M. Rountree, A. Morris, J. R. Robberson, G. Maberry, A. Stillion, John 
Buden, Jas. Wilson, Jos. Smith, John Fulbright, Stephen Fisher, William 
Stac\-, Wash Williams, A. Shaddock, Spencer O'Neill, F. Deeper, \Villiam 
Price, Thomas Horn, \\'illiam Stout, A. S. Borne, Kindred Rose, Edward 
Thompson, James R. Smith, Cornelius D. Terrell, Newell Hayden, Larkin 
Dewitt, J. McKinney, David Johnson, Martin B. Borne, Joseph Weaver, B. 
W. Cannefax, C. Hottler, J. L. Martin, Wm. Fulbright, William McFarland, 
J. Woods, Richard C. Martin, John Sturdevant, L. Fulbright, Watson Forbes, 
John Roberts, Jr., John R. Brock, John Ross, H. C. Morrison. John Slagles, 
George Shoemaker, Abram Slagles, Jerry Pierson, James McCarroll, John Mc- 
Kay, Elisha Painter, Joseph Rountree, Alexander Younger, D. B. Miller, 
David Wilson, Julius Rountree, Thomas F. Wright, Samuel Lasley, Gilbert 
McKay, Littleberi-y Hendricks, James Cooper, John Roper, Drurv Upshaw, 
James Dollisrin, James McMahan. James Renfro, John Pennington, William 
Birdsong, Thomas Stokes, John W. Triplett, A. J. Burnett, R. Harper. S. 
G. IMartin, John Williams, James Price, Jr., Simecm Postion, Thomas Pat- 
terson, Robert Patterson, William Ross, R. Ross, Samuel Painter." 

A GLIMPSE OF FRONTIER LIFE. 

These determined, patient and industrious men, and their equall\' brave 
wi\'es, laid the foundation on which has been raised the superstructure of the 
Greene county of today. More than that, the}- laid those foundations so broad 
and strong that though the fair edifice of the queen county of the Ozarks shall 
certainly grow and increase in the future as in the past, it shall forever remain 
firm, to the days of remote generations. Before passing to other items natur- 
ally coming under the headings of this chapter I am tempted to quote again 
from the story of Mr. John H. ^Miller, as he tells something of the life lived in 
the then far backwoods of Greene county : 

"The settlers in those days were driven by necessity to use their inven- 
ti\'e wits. Doors were made of clap-boards, floors of mother earth, bedsteads 
with one leg were fastened to the walls in the corners of the houses, and wagon 
grease was made of honey, which was only twenty-five cents a gallon or about 



GREEXE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 



145 



one cent a pound in the comb. When they were aljle to afford good puncheon 
floors and two bedsteads it seemed quite Hke civihzation. 

"Bread was scarce, and what little crops were made were liberally divided, 
so that all could have a little breail. Very few hogs, and pork was very hard 
to get, but wild game was abundant, and with the faithful dog and flint-lock 
rifle everyone had plenty. The meal was made l>y pounding the corn in a 
stump mortar, the coarsest for hominy and the finest for bread, and very 
dark at that. Men worked then at fifty cents per day, and I say this to put 
a correct idea and feeling into men who now-a-days think it a disgrace to 
work at that price : Honest labor at even twenty-five cents a day. where a 
man can't do better, is far more profitable and honorable than idleness. 

"In those days neighbors were few and far between, but everybody 
was friendly and willing to divide to the last mouthful. The first grist 
of corn was ground on a little wing-dam mill that old John Marshall had on 
James, near the mouth of Finley, although Jerry Pears<jn had a little 
rattle-trap of a mill some nearer. I)ut it was iiardly competent to grind for 
his own use." 

Old timers ha\-e told me that one of the first tasks uf tlie pioneer, after 
he had found a suitable place for a home, and had thrown together some 
sort of a rude shelter to protect his family from storm and cold, was to 
fashion a mortar wherein to reduce the grains of corn to particles small 
enough to serve as food. And this, we may he sure, was no small under- 
taking to a man whose only implement for the purpose was, in most cases,, 
his faithful axe. 

The best mortars, so those wlio know have assured us, were those maile 
in the standing stump of a post oak, or white oak, tree. At the same time the 
extra labor required to form a sufficiently large cavity in the tough perpen- 
dicular grain of the stump was ten-fold that of fashioning the mortar in the 
horizontal grain of a prostrate tree or log. Hence most of these home-made 
contrivances were in logs, and the farmer who boasted of a well ])roportioned 
and deep mortar in a solid post oak stump congratulated himself on his 
own industry and good fortune. In both cases fire was used to aid the 
axe in hollowing out the necessary cavity, and the result is hinted at in Mr. 
Miller's statement, which I ha\-e quoted, that the bread "was ver>- dark at 
that !" 

After the mortar was at length completed a wooden pestle was made, and 
with this the corn was laboriously pounded until it was more or less ])ul- 
verized, when it was sifted through a thin bit of nnislin. the coarser particles 
used for hominy and the finer for meal or corn-bread. Most of these rude 
contri^•ances were soon improved by what the settlers called a "Sweep pestle." 
This was a much heavier pestle than could be worked by hand, and was hung 
on a balanced pole something after the style of an old fashioned well-sweep. 



144 GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 

A single blow from this improved machine was much more effective than a 
dozen from a hand-worked pestle. Alany of the farmers continued to use 
these springxpole mortars even after there were, here and there, small mills in 
the region. 

WATER POWER WASTED. 

The plentiful water power, running to waste in every Ozark creek, 
river and spring branch, at once suggested to the first comers the utilizing 
of some of this waste energy to grind their corn, and later to saw their 
timber into lumber. We have seen that among those who came in from the 
direction of Arkansas, in 1822, and who so soon had to vacate because of the 
prior rights of the Delawares, there was one, a Mr. Ingle, who is recorded 
to have built a mill on the James river, at about the old bridge over that 
stream on the Ozark road. This mill was probably operated by power ob- 
tained from a wing-dam, for evidently anything approaching a regular dam 
sufficient to restrain the James at that point was far beyond the ability of a 
few pioneers at that time. Long after the writer came to Greene county, 
in 1868, there was the remains of an old dam of this sort, at the ford just 
below the old bridge. It is probably there yet. This I have been told was 
the remains of Ingle's work. 

Jerry Pearson also built, at a veiy early date, a mill below the spring 
that is at the head of the creek that still bears his name. We have seen 
that Mr. Miller speaks rather contemptuously of this "mill," stating that 
it would hardly do Mr. Pearson's own grinding. Mr. Miller, too, tells us that 
the first grist was ground at a little wing-dam mill, operated by John Marshall, 
on James river near the mouth of Finley. This man, Marshall by the way, 
was a "squaw man," living with the Indians until his death, just before they 
finally removed from the region. His mill was the same that Ingle had put up 
on the James, and had been bought by Wilson and moved to the lower loca- 
tion when Ingle was forced to vacate his claim. 

Another mill was built at a ven,- early date (I have never been able to 
learn the exact time), by William Fulbright, just below the great spring 
flowing from under a bluff on Little Sac, some two miles and a half north of 
Springfield, on section 3, township 29, range 22, and which is now the source 
from which the Springfield Water Company draws the supply for the city. 

This mill, with some later impro\-ements, was standing and operating as 
late as 1870, and I think some years later. I have stood by its great over- 
shot water-wheel and heard the whirling of its old fashioned mill stones mv- 
self. Augustine Friend, one of those driven out in 1822 and returning in 
1830, had a mill at the large spring on section 27, township 29, range 21, 
about five miles east of Springfield. This was in 1832 or 1833. This spring 
was afterwards the site of Henderson Jones' distillerv, and still bears the 



GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. I45 

name of Jones' spring. Most of these pioneer mills were rude contrivances, 
yet withal constructed with marvelous ingenuity. I remember coming onto 
one of them in Stone county forty years ago, which the old settlers there- 
abouts told me it was certainly forty years old at the time. That would have 
placed its building well witliiu the time when Stone county still funned a 
part of Greene. This was a characteristic old pioneer mill, and as such it 
merits a short description. 

It was located nearly at the head of one of the tributaries flowing into 
the James from the east — I think it was Aunt's creek, but am not certain. 
Just above it a fine bold spring gushed out of the hill. This was led by 
a raceway of hewed logs to the top of a huge over-shot wheel, nearly or quite 
eighteen feet in diameter. The wheel was geared on to a horizontal shaft, 
and that to the shaft that operated the mill stones. There was not an iron 
wheel or shaft in the whole concern. The wheels were hewed out with an 
axe or an adze and fitted together with wonderfully perfect joints. The cogs 
were hickoiy pegs, vaiying from one to three inches square, and litlcd into 
holes mortised in the edge of the wheels, or upon the circumference of the 
shafts. 

This machinery had no roof over it, and had stood the storms of years 
without any protection whatever. There was no house near it, and no one 
seemed to be in charge. While we were looking over the curious contri- 
vance a boy came riding horseback, on top of a sack of corn, and dis- 
mounted at the mill. He poured his grain into the hopper and then lowered 
a gate that sent the stream along the race onto the wheel, and with creaking 
joints the ancient afifair took up its duties and a pretty fair article of corn- 
meal began to trickle from below the mill stones. That undoubtedly was a 
fair specimen of the first mills that supplanted the mortars in Greene county. 

The early routes of travel were of course merely foot paths or, at the 
best, bridle paths. Most of them followed the old Indian trails. Such 
v/ere the "Traces" which we find frequently mentioned in the descriptions of 
township boundaries and the like. 

E.^RLY-I.).\Y UOADS. 

At the very first term of Greene County Court we find the Court gi\ing 
attention to the matter of public highways. There we see on the record that : 
■"The road leading from Springfield to Delaware Town, and thence to Fayette- 
ville in Arkansas Territory, be, and the same is hereby declared to be, a 
public highway in Greene county to the State line." 

Long before the outbreak of the war, in 1861, the Fayetteville road had 
abandoned the route through Delaware Town and passed far to the westward 
■of the old road. 
(10) 



146 GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 

Another order of .that initial term of the County Court, appointed six: 
commissioners to "View, lay out and mark a public road or highway from 
Springfield, in Greene county, westwardly until it strikes the main fork of 
the Six Bulls, at or near Samuel Bogard's, thence in the direction of Fayette- 
ville, in Arkansas Territory, until it reaches the State line." 

I have made diligent search of maps and have asked many of our oldest 
citizens as to the identity of this stream, "Six Bulls," but without being able 
to locate it. Commissioners were also appointed on this first day of the 
court to lay out a road from Bledsoe's ferry, on Pomme De Terre river, 
to some point on the Twenty-five mile prairie. On the second day of the 
court, March 12, 1833, additional commissioners were ordered to view and 
lay out a road from Springfield to the Twenty-five mile prairie, in "the direc- 
tion of Boonville." This is the road still known as the "Boonville Road," 
and gives its name to Boonville street, in Springfield. Another road was 
ordered established from Springfield to Swan creek. Swan creek is now in 
Christian and Taney counties. Forsyth, the county-seat of Taney, is at the 
mouth of this stream, and the road in question was long known as the Forsyth 
road. 

On the next day of the court A. J. Burnett was named to "lay out road 
districts and apportion hands to work on the road in Campbell township." 
Campbell township, as we have seen elsewhere, covered more than twice the 
present area of Greene county, so that Mr. Burnett's ofiice was no small job. 

Thus we see that in the important matter of aft'ording easy communica- 
tion between the different parts of the county, and with the outside world, 
Greene county was active from the veiy first. Steadily, year after year, better 
roads, bridges and culverts have been built, until with the advent of automo- 
biles, and the passage of the legislation allowing of road districts issuing 
bonds for road building, the county is rapidly acquiring a system of roadways 
second to none in any part of the United States. 

From the very earliest days the people of Greene county have believed 
in, and sacrificed to obtain, the two great foundation stones of American 
institutions, the church and the school. Rev. James H. Slavens, a celebrated 
Methodist preacher, is probably entitled to being recorded as having preached 
the first sermon in the county. This was in the house of John P. Campbell, 
in what was soon to be the town of Springfield, that good pioneer father of 
Springfield being first in this as in nearly all else for the benefit of the town 
he founded. There was another Methodist preacher, named Alderson, who 
labored through this region at a very early date. 

The Rev. James H. Slavens, above mentioned, was appointed at the con- 
ference held at Cape Girardeau, Missouri, on September 15, 183 1, to what the 
conference denoted as "The James Fork of White River Mission." He at 
once started for his field of work. He had left the record that he preached 



GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. I47 

the first Sunday after conference at Greenville, Wayne county. By the next 
sabbath he had reached the Gasconade, where he again preached. About the 
middle of the next week he was in the little hamlet of Springfield, and stopped 
with William Fulbright, in the western part of town. The next Sunday, 
October lo, 1831, he preached to his new charge for the first time. I have 
stated from what seemed good authority that this first sermon was delivered 
in the house of John P. Campbell. Another source of infonnation says it 
was at William Fulbright's house. At all events this was undoubtedly the 
first sermon in Greene county. 

Three weeks later, October 31, 1831, Mr. Slavens again preached, and 
afterwards organized the first class of the Methodist Episcopal church in 
Missouri, west of the Gasconade and south of the Osage river. It is of 
interest to here record the names of these first members of a Methodist class 
in this region. They were: 

Mrs. Ruth Fulbright, Isaac Woods and his wife, Jane Woods, Bennett 
Robberson, Elvira Robberson, Samuel S. Mackey and Sarah Mackey. At the 
close of 1831 Mr. Slavens reported that he had forty-seven members on his 
circuit. This circuit covered a vast territoiy, and its boundaries give a 
strong light on the strenuous work of the pioneer circuit rider. With Spring- 
field as a center, this faithful pastor covered a field reaching from Hartville 
on the east to Greenfield on the west, and from Bolivar on the north and 
Buffalo on the northeast to James Fork on the south. A region something 
like one hundred miles square. Much of it a rough and hilly section of the 
Ozarks, and all of it just emerging out of the wilderness. 

FIRST CHURCHES. 

This first leader of the ^Methodists was a man of great force of character 
and versatility. It is told of him that he practiced medicine in Greene county 
for many years, thus being a healer of the body as well as a "cure of souls." 
An old story is that when Mr. Slavens was on his long journey from the 
conference that appointed him, to his field of work, he one noon overtook a 
party of movers who had halted at the roadside for dinner. Being invited, 
in the wholesome pioneer fashion, to alight from his horse and cat dinner 
with them the parson did so. Evidently there was a strong case of "love 
at first sight" that noon, for that family aftemard settled near Springfield, 
and within a year one of the daughters became the wife of the preacher. It is 
also of record that before he could be united to the girl of his choice Brother 
Slavens had to go to Cooper county, Missouri, a long hundred miles to the 
north, to find a preacher to tie the knot. But he certainly found one. brought 
him back to Greene county with him and was married. It would he interestuig 
to know the amount of that wedding fee. The chances are that the officiating 



148 GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 

minister would accept nothing. The preachers of the frontier were not in 
their work for the sake of the loaves and fishes. 

The first Presbyterian church in the county was organized by Rev. E. 
P. Noel, from a company which met at the home of Mrs. Jane Renshaw, 
in Cass township, some mile or two south of Cave Spring. This was on the 
19th of October, 1839. The new church was called the "Mount Zion Presby- 
terian Church of Cave Spring." It originally consisted of ten members, and 
has continued to this day. This church is one of the very oldest of the 
Presbyterian denominations in the entire State of Missouri. It claims to be 
the first church of that order in the state west of St. Louis. It is also the 
worthy mother of at least three other churches, one of them being Calvary 
Presbyterian church, of Springfield. 

In 1834 the Cumberland Presbyterians organized a church in Franklin 
township, near where Belleview Presbyterian church now stands. They first 
met under a "Brush Arbor," but after organization they gathered at the houses 
of the membership in rotation. Once every month the meeting place was at 
the house of T. J. Whitlock. Mr. Whitlock was up to the time of his death 
one of the most active and highly respected citizens of the county. He 
was a large land owner, and became wealthy. The name Whitlock ap- 
pears frequently and always with honor upon the records of Greene county. 

The Baptists are a strong denomination in Greene county, and their 
ministers were early on the ground and at work. Doubtless there were 
Baptist churches organized in pioneer days, but if so I can find no record 
thereof. John B. Mooney, who has been mentioned in this chapter as a very 
early settler in Taylor township, in eastern Greene county, was a Baptist 
preacher, and used to cover a vast territory, holding meetings in the cabins of 
the pioneers. 

Jesse Mason, described as "A Hard Shell Calvinistic Baptist," was an- 
other Baptist preacher who was very early on the ground, having settled 
on the Sac, in Boone township, before 1840. He is credited with doing much 
preaching in that township, and also with being the first to hold meetings in 
Center township, south of Boone. 

McCord Roberts is the name of another Baptist preacher of an early 
day. He was a man of commanding presence, an eloquent speaker and who 
was known from one end of Missouri to the other, and has left an enduring 
monument of work accomplished. 

The Christians are another strong denomination who had a representa- 
tive in Greene county at an early date. Rev. Thomas Potter, of this denomina- 
tion, located in Taylor township soon after the removal of the Indians. I 
do not find, however, that any churches of the denomination were organized 
in what may strictly be called "pioneer" days. Like American pioneers 
always and everywhere, from Plymouth Rock and Jamestown to the Pacific, 



GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. I49 

the pioneers of Greene county first formed the cliurcli, and next the school. 
So we find that in 1831, when there were yet hut a few famihes on tlie site 
where Springfield was to grow up, a small building of oak logs was put up 
at a point somewhat more than a mile west of the present site of the city 
for school purposes. 

LOG C-\BIN SCHOOLS. 

Here old "Uncle Joseph Rountree," whose journal we have read in 
this chapter, taught a little group, almost every child of which bore a name 
that has since become historic in this region. The settlers were quite proud 
of this, their first educational edifice. It is described by Air. John H. Miller 
as having- "a dirt floor; one log cut out for a window; no shutter to the 
door, and no chimney!" Here good old Uncle Joe taught the young ideas 
of Greene county, as they perched on the rough three-legged stools, "to 
spell, read, write and cipher in Tike's' Arithmetic." 

The next year, in 1832, a somewhat better school house was provided, 

being built about where now is the northwest corner of Alain and College 

streets, in Springfield. Mr. Aliller assures us that this building "had a loose 

plank floor; a door shutter, and a mud and stick chimney!" What more 

-could be asked? 

Other parts of the county were not much behind Springfield in establish 
ing the beginnings of our present public school system. On section 10, town- 
ship 30, range 21, in Franklin township, Robert Foster taught in 1835. This 
was a "pay school," and Mr. Foster received the munilicent sum of fifty 
cents a month per scholar. In 1837 the settlers in this part of Franklin 
township gathered and built a log school house, whether Mr. Foster still 
continued as a teacher is not recorded. Foster was also a Methodist preacher. 

In 1835 a small log school house was put up in the northeast part of 
Campbell township, and David Appleby, ancestor of the luimerous and in- 
fluential family of that name, taught here, at a stipend of one dollar per 
scholar, each month. 

Taylor township is recorded as having a school in i83r). "In an old log 
house on the Danforth farm." Nothing is said as to who was the teacher. 
The territory now called Brookline township had a school held, in the bam, 
on the farm of Thomas Hazeltine, in 1834. This was on section 4. town- 
ship 28, range 23. It is worth noting, to prevent confusion of names, that 
this Thomas Hazeltine was no relation to the prominent family of that name 
now living around Haseltine Station, only about three miles from the loca- 
tion of the school just given. This last named family came to Greene county 
from Wisconsin in 187 1. 

\\'alnut Grove township had a school taught by B. F. Walker, m a little 
lo- cabin that stood about a fourth of a mile west of the present town. This 

in 1836-37. It is but truth that each and every township of Greene 



was 



150 GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 

county is on record as having organized schools among their first public 
acts. But as this chapter is concerned only with the pioneer days we will 
not here mention others. 

Postal facilities in the earliest days of the county were conspicuous for 
their entire absence. We have noted that at the time of the general immi- 
gration into Greene county, in 1830, that Harrison's store, at the junction of 
Little Piney creek and the Gasconade river, was the nearest postoffice to 
Greene county. This was almost exactly on the location of the station of the 
Frisco, in Arlington, in Phelps county, and a full one hundred miles from 
Springfield. 

It was not until 1834 that Springfield and the surrounding territory had 
enough population to be deemed of sufficient importance to be afforded postal 
facilities. In the latter part of that year the first postoffice in the county was 
opened at Springfield. Junius T. Campbell, then only twenty-two years of 
age, was appointed as the first postmaster. The office was located in a hewed 
log house that stood on the west side of south Jefferson street, not far from 
the present location of the building of the Missouri and Kansas Telephone 
Company. 

Mail was received twice a week from Boonville, Missouri, and Fayette- 
ville, Arkansas, and twice a month from Harrison's store, on the Gasconade. 
There was not much letter writing among the pioneers. The postage was 
twenty-five cents for a letter from any point outside the state, and this was 
payable on delivery- What the postage was on letters from points within 
Missouri, history does not state. 

There were no envelopes in those days. One side of the sheet was left 
blank, and the letter was folded with the blank side out, on which the ad- 
dress was written. The letter then being sealed with sealing wax or wafers. 

As Springfield increased in size and importance it became more and more 
the commercial center for the entire region. Going to market to sell the 
products of the farm, the hides and peltry, and the medicinal barks and 
roots, was no small matter. When it became necessaiy to make the trip, 
frequently the entire family went together. More frequently than otherwise 
the mode of travel was by wagons drawn by oxen. This was exceedingly 
slow, and when, as was often the case, the distance to Springfield was fifty 
or seventy-five miles, the time involved ran into several days. The farmer 
and his family, if as usual they accompanied him, came supplied with food 
and bedding, and camped along the road, and after reaching town. Very little 
actual cash was received for the produce brought to town, nearly all the 
purchases being made in trade. 

There were also the long journeys made to St. Louis, by some men from 
each community each year. These trips were for hauling wheat or deer 
skins, and the other products of the new country, and exchanging them for 



GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. lei 

salt, sugar, coffee, calico and such other of the common necessities as were 
not yet produced by the pioneers themselves. 

Cloth for the ordinary wear of both men and women, with the excep- 
tion of a small amount of calico and muslin, was very soon after the settle- 
ment of the county began, the product of the home-made looms of the 
pioneers. On practically every front porch stood the great four posted loom. 
Hewed out with an a.xe and pinned together with mortises and wooden pins. 
These rude machines produced a strong serviceable cloth, either wholly of 
cotton or mixed cotton and wool, the last of course being the "jeans" for 
which Missouri is still noted. These cloths were woven wholly by the women 
of the farms, and were dyed with white walnut or other natural dye stuffs 
furnished by the woods. Even to this day one frequently sees the old-time 
loom standing on the porch of some houses among the hills, and many a suit 
of good old fashioned blue jeans is still worn in the Southwest. And no more 
serviceable cloth was ever fashioned into a farmer's suit than this. 

■ SAMPSON bass' mill. 

Near the Pomme de Terre river and the pretty village of Fair Grove, 
in Greene county, Missouri, may yet be seen the ruins of what in its day was 
the most useful mill in the state of Missouri, and few, if any, mills in the 
■world have had a more attractive history than the one which may there be 
seen in the last stages of decay. But there is yet enough of the crumbling 
pile to prompt the traveler to ask its history, and this is the story he learns : 

Early in the year 1858 Sampson Bass, who then, as now, was one of 
the most enterprising citizens of the Southwest, concluded that the advance- 
ment of the times warranted the building of a steam flour mill at the place 
mentioned. The country was rich in resources and the soil yielded abundant 
harvests of the finest grain, but there was no modern mill in that territory 
to make flour for its inhabitants and the markets of the world. Sam])son 
Bass thought a steam mill would pay, and so he set out to build one. What 
an undertaking that was can not be measured by the rules governing such 
an enterprise today. It was an undertaking that all men before him shrank 
from because it involved such a great venture and the expenditure of an 
immense amount of money. Indeed, if in these times of progress and com- 
mercial boldness it were necessary to haul all the machinery by wagon over 
hills and mountains, across rivers and swamps the distance from St. Louis 
to the Pomme de Terre over two hundred miles — but few men. if any, would 
care to identify themselves with the undertaking and hope for success. But 
Sampson Bass was bold and he was far-seeing and what he undertook to do 
was done, and thus it happened tliat though great trials were endured and a 



15-2 GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 

fortune risked in the enterprise he did not faUer until the end was reached — 
nor then. 

After months of hard work and many mishaps the mill was completed 
and the people from all the country side came to see, for the tirst time in their 
lives, the operation of a steam plant ; and wonderful stories of it were told 
for many a day thereafter. That was in the year 1859. At that time there 
were many water powder mills throughout the country, hut their owners did 
not pretend to run every day, nor half so often; and it was not expected that 
a mill should run every day, and few people there thought it possible to so- 
rig one up that it could be made to turn stones one day with another. But 
Sampson Bass was one of those few who believed in advancement, and was 
the only one in his neighborhood who was willing to stand by his faith in 
acts. And so it happened that he was to demonstrate to all his neighbors 
and to the residents of other counties that what was claimed for his mill was 
true. The people believed just enough of what they had heard of steam 
power in mills to regard it as a probable success, but nothing more. All old 
timers reniember the drouth of 1859-60, which disabled the water powers 
throughout the Southwest. Then it was that the people of Greene, Polk,. 
Webster, Ozark, Dallas and other counties in Missouri turned to the mill 
erected by Sampson Bass for bread. In their misfortune they hoped he- 
would succeed in running every day, and they were surprised beyond mea- 
sure to find that it was quite easy to keep the mill going one day as another. 
That settled whatever question there might have been of the success of the 
mill, for it was thereafter known as the only one in southwestern Missouri. 
to be relied upon at all times. 

And it is not surprising therefore that at the breaking out of the Civil 
war the troops operating in that part of the country should be stationed as 
near as pessible to Sampson Bass' mill. At that time it had a wide reputation 
and the soldiers knew of it. Accordingly the Federal and Confederate 
troops were massed by their commanders as near the mill as possible, the 
armies being on either side of it. That was before the battle of Wilson's 
Creek, when both armies were dexterously laying plans for the other's defeat 
in the battle which, to both, was inevitable. Naturally both belligerents be- 
lieved themselves superior in numbers and prowess, and both claimed the 
mill. At that juncture, Sampson Bass' good sense stood him greatly in hand. 
It had been a matter of conjecture with the people as to which cause the 
owner of the mill would espouse. Some thought he had a weakness for the 
Confederate cause and others were equally certain that he was a stanch Union 
man. Sampson said nothing. He gave no sign as to what he would do 
until General Lyon called on him and demanded his mill to be used in grind- 
ing flour for his army. 



GREEXE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 1 53; 

""You can not have it," said Sampson Bass, firmly. 

"Then you are a rebel"? retorted the Union general. 

"No more than you," said Sampson Bass. 

Just then a messenger from General ^McCullough put in ;ui appearance 
and notified the miller that his superior e.xpected to take possession of the 
mill at once and to use it exclusively for his army. 

"Tell him I will not agree to that,"' said the miller at once. 

The Federal officer stood a little apart from them, but in the light of 
what transpired, evidently heard what was said, and mcntallv agreed to it. 

"But we will take possession whether you agree to our request or not," 
said the Confederate officer, following instructions. 

"You will not take possession until I bid you do so," said Sampson Bass, 
and the officer who had thought otherwise a moment before was not of the 
opinion that he had been mistaken. 

At that the Confederate officer mo\'ed away, and the conversation he 
had interrupted between General Lyon and Sampson Bass was resumed. 

"You have taken a wise course," said the general, "and I respect you 
for your firmness. What do you njean to do with your mill?" 

WOULD FEED TROOPS OF BOTH .\RMIES. 

"My nn'Il," said the miller, "is at the disposal of my countrymen, InU 
not for the use of one army as against another. \\'e are all .\mcricans, no 
matter how much we may differ in opinion ; and the man frbm the North 
gets just as hungry and has just the same right to have that hunger satisfied 
as the man from the South, and as long as Sampson Bass has anything to- 
sav in the matter every American shall have an equal show for his daily 
bread." 

"Good!" said the general, "but suppose the Confederate army slimild 
march upon you, and you could not repel it?" 

"With the help of your army I would .try," said the miller delil)erately. 

"And what do you propose to do? asked the general. 

"I propose that the two armies shall take turns about using tiie nn'll, 
and that its owner act as superintendent and referee in tlie matter; and, 
furthermore, that if you are the first to agree to my proposition your army 
will be the first to use my mill for a day." 

just then the Confederate general's representative returned, and the i)ro- 
posed agreement was mutually ratified, and for several weeks the two armies 
were in sight of each other, maintaining a neutrality strange in war, at the 
dictation of an individual. 

Sampson Bass had been advised against this neutral course by friends 
of different beliefs, but realizing the critical condition in which his country- 



154 GREENE COUNTY,, MISSOURI. 

men on either side would be placed if he took sides with and delivered his 
property to the control of either army, and also realizing his own situation 
as the proprietor of a comparatively new property on which was a debt of 
three thousand seven hundred dollars, his judgment told him that it was 
better to have two friends than one enemy, while at the same time he could 
do humanity a service. And so he did, and continued to do, until the Con- 
federates gained control of the surrounding country and captured his mill, 
but even then he enforced his right to be superintendent and to grind for 
his customers on certain days. 

Shortly after the Confederates took possession of the mill a friend of 
Bass, who had early advised him to give his property into the hands of the 
Confederates and thus establish his friendship for their cause, met him and 
in a spirit of pleasantry made this remark, the answer to which will live 
longer than its author of his posterity: 

"I thought you could whip two armies, Sampson, but I see one has 
captured your mill." 

"He is a poor soldier and has been little at war who thinks he can 
defeat one belligerent as easily as two opponents." 

During the years 1862-63 the mill continued to rim day and night, both 
grinding and sawing, in order that no one should want for bread or shelter. 
But when the Confederates obtained control they put out a picket line, and it 
was not until the Union army took possession of Springfield that the Con- 
federate forces thought of surrendering the mill. Three times during these 
years of strife had a council of war decided that Bass' mill was a help to 
the enemy, and as many times was it condemned and ordered burned, but 
each time it was decided, when possession was gained, that it was a good 
thing to keep. In 1863 there was established near the mill a post office, 
blacksmith shop, dry goods store, drug store, two grocery stores and a pot- 
ter's shop. That was the commencement of the village which has but par- 
tially outgrown the appearance it took on in war times. The first election 
after the war was held in Sampson Bass' mill, which had become a famous 
rendezvous. 

In 1867 Sampson Bass sold the mill to James Gray, who moved the 
machinery away, Springfield by that time having acquired a steam mill, and 
the impression being that profitable milling days on the Pomme de Terre had 
passed. But Sampson Bass did not think so, nor does he yet. He soon after 
built a one hundred-barrel roller mill at Strafford, three miles from the site 
of the historic mill, for the possession of which armies contended. \Vhen 
asked his object in building this new mill, he replied : 

"I am building it for the benefit of my sons, my country and myself." 

The new mill cost ten thousand dollars and was a model plant but it 



GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 155 

never eclipsed the old one in point of history. Mr. Bass sold this mill and 
soon thereafter it burned down. The world may never know of all the 
heroism and the wealth of romance that was brought out within the shadow 
of that mill, but enough is known to prove Sampson Bass, the miller, was a 
Sfreat hero in the times that "tried men's souls" as even Lvon. who fell at 
Wilson's Creek, and who now sleeps 'neath a stately monument towering 
above a mound decorated with flowers, and around the base of which on 
imperishable slabs is inscribed Theodore O'Hara's immortal poem, "The 
Bivouac of the Dead." 



CHAPTER VI. 

COUNTY GOVERNMENT. 

By A. M. Haswell. 

FIRST SET OF OFFICERS PIONEER AND LATER COURT HOUSES JAILS AND CARE 

FOR THE UNFORTUNATE POOR BOND ISSUES ROADS AND 

BRIDGES FINANCES AT DIFFERENT 

PERIODS. 

On page i, of Book "A," of the records uf the county court of Greene 
county, Missouri, we read, under date of March ii, 1833: 

"At a County Court hegan and held at the house of John P. Campbell, 
within and for the County of Greene, it being the place appointed by law 
for holding said courts on the second Monday in March, in the year of our 
Lord One Thousand and Eight Hundred and Thirty-three. Present the 
Honorable Jeremiah Sloane, Samuel Martin and James Dollison, Esqrs., Jus- 
tices of said Court. John D. Shannon, Esqs., Sheriff of said county and John 
P. Campljell, Esqr.. Clerk of said Court." 

The above named men are therefore the first officials of Greene county, 
having, with the exception of the clerk of the court, been duly elected to their 
respective offices at an election called for in the act of the Legislature which 
constituted a portion of the southwestern part of Missouri as Greene county. 
Their commissions were issued to them by Governor Daniel Dunklin (John C. 
Edwards, Secretary of State). 

The first business transacted was to provide the court with a clerk, to 
keep record of its proceedings. And we find the next entry as follows: 

"Now at this day comes John P. Campbell, Esqr., who was on the 23d 
ult. duly appointed Clerk of this Court, and, it appearing to the satisfaction 
of the Court here, that the said John P. Campbell has deposited in the office 
of the Secretai"y of State his appointment as aforesaid, together with a bond 
duly allowed and approved of by the Court, for the faithful performance 
of his duties as Clerk as aforesaid. Therefore the said John P. Campbell 
is here, by the Court, authorized to perform the said duties according" to 
law." 

After the clerk was thus inducted into office we read : 

"On motion, it is ordered by the Court that Samuel Martin, Esqr., be 
appointed President of this Court, for the term of six months from this date, 
and until his successor Ije duly ap])i)inted, according to law."' 



GREENE COUNTY, MISSOL-RI. 



157 



On the second day of this first term of tlie County Court Richard C. 
Martin was appointed county assessor. A. C. Burnett was also appointed as 
collector, but he declined, and sometime later Larkin Payne was put into 
that office. Junius T. Campbell, at this lime barely past his majority, was 
made county treasurer, and Samuel Scroggins sur\eyor. At this same session 
of the court, justices of the peace and judges of election were appointed for 
the various townships, and elections were ordered held for electing con- 
stables. 

The justices of the peace mentioned above, as appointed at this term of 
court, were as follows : 

Jackson township, William H. Duncan; Osage township, Christopher 
Elmore and John Riparton; Campbell township, Andrew Taylor, Richard 
C. Martin and Larkin Payne; White River township, Samuel Garner; Oliver 
township, Thomas B. Arnett. No appointments were made at this time for 
Mooney and Spring River townships. When Sugar Creek townshi[) was 
created Samuel Vaughn was appointed justice of the peace therein. 

Treasurer Campbell and Collector Payne resigned their offices on June 
loth, and John Fulbright was appointed to serve as treasurer, and Sheriff 
Shannon had the duties of collector added to his other labors. That these 
labors were by no means trivial we can see when it is told us that this first 
sheriff frequently had to ride fifty miles to summons a witness, and for this 
received the sum of fift\ cents! Holding office in those times consisted in 
something more than simply drawing the salary. 

Thus the court was duly organized; the several officers of the county 
inducted into office, and Greene county assumed her proper place in the 
sisterhood of counties in the great new State of Missouri. 

For three days, beginning August 5, 1833, the first election was held 
in Greene county. The length of time that the polls were kept open was 
under a provision of the law of that time, in order that the voters "from 
the back districts" might have time to reach tlie polls and exerci.^e their 
rights of franchise. 

On the I2th day of this month of August the first term of the Circuit 
Court of Greene county convened, in Springfield. Hon. Chas. H. Allen. 
known in all the region as "Horse Allen," was the judge: Thos. J. Cnjvins 
was circuit attorney; Chas. P. Bullock, a son-iii-law of Judge Allen, was 
clerk, and John D. Shannon was sheriff. 

These with the officials before mentioned constituted the entire machinery 
of government in and for Greene county. 

It was quickly evident that some means must be devised for providing 
a court house and jail for the rapidly growing community. And this was a 
matter of no little concern to the County Court, responsible for devising ways 
and means to accomplish this end. For it must be remembered that although 



158 GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 

the county had an immense area it was settled only by a few scattered com- 
munities of newly arrived immigrants. People who, while willing to sacrifice 
to the extent of their ability for the public benefit, were yet so poverty 
smitten that the entire revenue collected for county purposes, amounted to 
less than $500 in any one of several years, and barely sufficed to defray the 
modest expenditures of the county, and would, even if applied in their en- 
tirety, have proved totally insufficient to pay for the needed buildings. 

Again there continually loomed up the question of where the permanent 
county-seat would be located. It was inevitable that the great territory in- 
cluded in the county limits should be divided and subdivided, as other counties 
were carved out of its overgrown domain. What shape would the bound- 
aries finally take? Would Springfield be near enough the center of the 
territory covered to hold the seat of government, or would the little town 
find itself off to one side, and so forever debarred from her ambition of 
being the county-seat? 

However, on the 5th day of January, 1835, the Legislature of the state 
passed an act appointing Jeremiah Slone (Sloan), George M. Gibson, of 
Barry county, and Markham Fristoe as a commission "For the purpose of 
selecting a permanent seat of government for the county of Greene."* 

These gentlemen duly met and selected Springfield as the "Permanent 
seat of justice, for the County of Greene." That was supposed to settle one 
part of the problem confronting the County Court, but in no way cleared up 
the weighty question of raising the funds needed for erecting the county 
buildings. 

And then there appeared the good angel of Springfield, and of Greene 
county. John P. Campbell, often mentioned in previous' chapters of this 
work, and often to be mentioned in later parts of this history, came to the 
rescue. His proposition was that he would deed to the County Court, with- 
out cost to the court, a fifty acre tract for a town site. That this site was 
then to be laid out into lots, and these lots were to be sold, all proceeds above 
the expenses of survey and sale to be deposited in the county treasurj' for 
a fimd to erect the buildings needed by the county. 

This plan, so simple and practical, at once met the approval of the court, 
and at an extra session called for the purpose, on the i8th of July, 1835, a 
plan submitted by Mr. Campbell, and, we are told, a duplicate of the plan of 
the town of Columbia, Tennessee, where he had lived before coming tO' 
Missouri, was adopted. D. B. Miller was appointed a commissioner to lay 
off the town and sell the lots. 

PERM.^NENT C0UNTY-SE.\T. 

Now although, as we have seen, the commissioners appointed by the 
state had duly decided that Springfield was to be the permanent county-seat, 



*('ha)iter 349, page 432. voliiine 2, Territorial Laws. 



GREENE COUNTY, IMISSOURI. I5C). 

there were not lacking those who wished to set aside that arrangement and 
move the seat of government elsewhere. Thus Ihe matter of selhng lots 
seems to have been held in abeyance for some months. We find that early 
in 1836 a petition was circulated by Josiah J:)an forth asking that the county- 
seat be located upon a site he offered upon his farm, some eight miles east 
of Springfield. This petition, of course, had to be acted upon by the General 
Assembly of the state. The representative in the Legislature that year was 
John W. Hancock, and, being a canny politician, Mr. Hancock refused to 
take sides in the controversy, but bound himself to work in the Legislature 
for that site whose advocates could send in the longest petition. That put 
the Campbell men actively to work, and they sent in a petition so largely in 
the majority as to forever settle the question in the favor of Springfield. 

(i). Chapter 349, Page 432, Volume 2, Territorial Laws. 

So on the 27th day of August, 1836, a deed from John P. Campbell and 
Louisa T. Campbell, his wife, was executed, giving to Greene county for 
county-seat purposes fifty acres of land, whose metes and bounds are given 
as follows : "Beginning at a point at the middle of the channel of the branch 
running through the northwest quarter of section 24, township 29, range 22, 
where the west boundary line of said quarter section crosses said branch; 
running up said branch, meandering the main channel thereof, eastwardly to 
a point where the north boundary line crosses said branch; thence with said 
line eastwardly to a point north of the spring which the said John P. Camj)- 
bell uses, on said quarter section; thence southwardly to a point immediately 
east of said spring, ten feet; thence south 23J/ degrees, 23 7-1 1 poles, to a 
black oak tree ; thence east and south for complement in the proportion that 
80 bears to 100, so as to include the quantity of fifty acres." 

There appears to be an omission in the records of the county pertaining 
to the matter of the original court house. We have seen that the court 
convened for its first term March nth, 1833, in the house of John P. 
Campbell. Li the Jtme term of that same year we find it provided that 
"The house of John P. Campbell be the place of holding courts until other- 
wise provided by law." 

Nothing further is said about a cmnt bouse until at the June term, 1834, 
a bill is allowed Mr. Campbell in the sum of $59-4''^. "For fees in transact- 
ing county business proper, ink, quills, etc., from December term 1833 to 
June term 1834, and for office rent from March term 1833 to June tenn 
1834." That evidently indicates that the Campbell house was still the only 
court house. At the appeal term of the court, July 19. 1834, the general 
election to be held in August following is directed to be held "At the court 
house, in the town of Springfield." On the same day it is ordered tliat "There 
be built a bar in the court house in the town of Springfield." and then a bar 
is described of proportions which seems entirely too large to find space irr 



IbO GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 

ihe room of a pioneer log cabin, especially as specifications for eight benches 
are also recorded. 

But unless there is some record missing, the house of John P. Campbell 
was the place where this bar and benches were installed, for there is certainly 
nothing on record of any other place of meeting for the courts until the 
■construction of the buildings from the proceeds of the sale of lots. 

When Mr.- Campbell had first made his proposal to give the county a site 
for a county-seat the court had appointed, July i8, 1935, Daniel B. Miller 
as a commissioner to lay out the town and sell lots. At this session of the 
court Mr. Campbell's plan, spoken of before, was approved "and received as 
the plan of the town of Springfield. And the county commissioner for 
Greene county is hereby ordered to lay off the town of Springfield according- 
ly, \-iz : to lay oft' the public square and one tier of blocks back from said 
square. The square to contain an acre and a half, and each block to contain 
one acre and a half, and to be divided into six lots or parts by said commis- 
sioner, or by some person for him." The size of the square was afterwards 
increased to two acres. 

As we have seen the attempts to change the county-seat to some other 
location delayed matters for over a year, but after the location was finally 
settled in favor of Springfield we find that in August, 1836, Daniel B. 
Miller was ordered to "Employ a competent surveyor to lay oft' the town tract 
of Springfield, donated to the county by John P. Campbell, and to file plats 
and field notes of the same." Mr. Miller was also ordered to sell two lots 
as soon as surveyed, by advertising for two months, by three insertions, in 
the Missouri Argtts, published at St. Louis, and the Boone's Lick Demo- 
crat, published at Old Franklin, Howard county, and also by setting up hand 
bills at the county-seats of Greene, Pulaski, Barry and Polk counties." Two 
lots were ordered reserved, one for a building site for a clerk's office and one 
for location of a jail. 

October 31st of this year, 1836, Mr. Miller filed plats and field notes of 
the survey of Springfield. The court ordered that "lot 18, block 5, where 
the present court house is situated, is hereby reserved from sale at present." 

On November 9th Commissioner Miller made a settlement for all lots 
sold up to November ist, to the amount of $649.88. Bidding on lots was said 
to be spirited, all now having become convinced that Springfield would per- 
manently retain the county-seat. Miller was allowed $131.51 as the total 
cost of survey and sales to date. 

Early in 1837 ^'I^'- Miller made a further deposit in the treasury of the 
county, to the building fund, of $847.73, proceeds of sale of lots since his 
first settlement. 

The County Court now decided that they were warranted in beginning 
to erect the new building that they stood in such need of. They therefore 



GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. l6l 

appointed Sidney Ingram superintendent thereof, and directed him to pre- 
pare and lay before tliem a plan for a court house. On the 28th of November 
Mr. Ingram's plans were submitted, examined and approved. And a court 
house was ordered erected in the center of the public square of Spring- 
field. This was to be a two story brick structure, forty by thirty-four feet. 
And the sum of $3,250.00 was appropriated for paying for it. 

FIRST COURT HOUSE BURNED. 

This, the first building in Greene county especially put up for a court 
house, was a substantial and useful editice. It was a credit to the community 
at the time it was built, and served its purpose well for more than twenty 
years. And it was finally destroyed by fire when its successor was nearly 
ready for occupancy. 

The origin of the fire that thus consumed the court house of 1837 is worth 
recording here. The day, in 1861, when the first Northern troops marched 
into Springfield was naturally a time of intense excitment in the entire region. 
Union men and secessionists had already struck blows, some of them on both 
sides, in most cowardly and bloodthirsty fashion too, and the passions which 
have always rendered civil wars the worst of all wars flamed in men's hearts. 
Naturally when these troops were approaching the Unionists were elated, 
and the Confederates correspondingly depressed. 

There lived in Springfield at the time a harmless insane man named 
Peter Ernshaw, and the common excitement worked upon his weak brains 
until he was wildl_\' exhilarated, ^^'hen he knew that the troops were near 
at hand he went out and met them and marched into town with them, leaping, 
dancing and shouting as he came. All day his excitement grew until at 
night someone, probably some of the soldiers, shut him up in one of the vacant 
TC)oms of the court house, both for his own protection and to keep him 
from harming others. In some way the poor fellow had possessed himself 
of matches, and late at night he set fire to the room where he was confined, 
and perished in the flames which quickly destroyed the building. 

In the engraving in this histor\', showing the funeral of the dead of 
Freemont's Body Guard, in Octolxr, 1861. the ruins of this court house will 
be noted to the right of the picture. 

It was at the term of County Court held on August 28, 1858. that the 
first steps were taken by the court towards the erection of another court 
house. The twenty years that had passed since the court house, in the center 
of the public square of Springfield, had been completed had been a period of 
rapid and steady growth for both Greene county and the city of Springfield. 
This can best be shown bv a comparison of the income derived from tax- 
(II) 



l62 GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 

ation by the county in 1838 and 1858. The records give these figures as 
follows : 

1838 the entire receipts of the county treasury were five hundred and 
eighty-two dollars, thirteen and a fourth cents {^82.1 yy-^). Twenty years 
later, in 1858, the assessed valuation of the county was $3,882,045, on which 
was collected a total tax of $22,118.62. Of this tax the county received 
$12,923.63. That is to say, in twenty years the income of Greene county had 
increased more than twenty-two fold. All this increase of taxable property 
meant a corresponding growth in population, and that of course meant 
greatly augmented county business and necessitated undertaking the build- 
ing of a new court house commensurate with the growing importance and 
wealth of the county. 

So at the August term of County Court a board of commissioners was 
appointed by the court to select a suitable location for the building of a new 
court house and jail, and to choose plans and report the probable cost. This 
commission consisted of W. B. Farmer, Warren H. Graves and Josiah Leedy, 
and the exact wording of the order setting forth their duties is as follows : 

"Regular term of County Court, August 28, 1858, ordered by the Cijurt 
that W. B. Farmer, W. H. Graves and Jusiah Leedy be, and they are hereby 
appointed a Board of Commissioners on Public Buildings, and they are here- 
by instructed to view all the localities in the City of Springfield that may be 
considered suitable for the erection of a Court House and jail, together with 
what said lots can be bought for. And also a plan or plans for said buildings, 
to be built separately or in connection. Also the probable cost of the same, 
and that they report to the October term of this Court." 

October 4th the commissioners made their report, and advised the pur- 
chase of the lot owned by Charles Sheppard and J. B. Kimbrough, located on 
the northwest corner of College street and the public square. The same day 
the court appropriated $3,000.00 to pay for the lot thus recommended, and 
the deed was procured and placed upon record. That day, also, the follow- 
ing order was made : 

"Present James W. Gray, P. J. Joseph Rountrce and J. R. Earnest, 
justices, A. G. McCracken, clerk, and H. Matlock, sheriff. 

"Ordered by the Court that there be and is hereby appropriated out of 
the treasury, of any money not otherwise appropriated, the sum of forty 
thousand dollars for the purpose of erecting a Court House and jail in 
Greene county." 

Next day we find: "Ordered that the sum of $163.25 be, and the same 
is hereby appropriated, to pay the bill of architect and expenses of J. Leedy 
for procuring drawing and detail of the plan for jail and court house." 

It is unfortunate that the name of the architect who furnished Mr. 
I-eedy with the plan of this building is not on record. For certainly, who- 



GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 163 

ever he was, he made a digniitied and well balanced design. .Men who have 
been trained in the arts of architecture have repeatedly pronounced this build- 
ing as almost a perfect model of that particular style of architecture. A 
fine picture of this court house appears in this history. 

In the latter part of December sealed proposals for pulling up the new 
structure were submitted to the court, and on Christmas day the contract 
was awarded to Josiah Leedy for $36,000. The highest bid having l)een 
$45,000. Leedy was given until the end of 1861 to complete his contract, 
for it is of record: "Said J. Leedy is to be paid as the work progresses, the 
last payment to be made on the last of December, 1861." 

The method of advancing money to the contractor was original, for we 
find it said: "Ordered by the court that Josiah Leedy have the loan of any 
sum not exceeding $8,000 out of county revenue, without interest, he giving 
bond and approved security for the same. And that a warrant or warrants 
issued in his favor for the same, in sums to suit his convenience, at any time 
while court is in session." 

Thus were the interests of the court and the convenience of Mr. Leedy 
efifected to the entire safety of the mone)- invested, and the aid of the con- 
tractor in promptly meeting the necessary bills. 

By the time the court met in its December term, in 1S39, it seems to 
have gotten into deep water in its building operations, for we read: "De- 
cember 19, 1859, Benjamin Kite, superintendent of public Iniildings. files a 
report that, owing to the organization of Christian county, and heavy costs 
in criminal cases against Greene county, it is found that the County Court 
cannot meet the liability and defray the ordinary running expenses of the 
county. That to protect the public faith the County Attorney \k directed to 
prepare a bill and send to our representatives in the Legislature, requesting 
them to have it passed, allowing the Court in its discretion to borrow the 
sum of $16,000." This bill was passed by the Legislature on January 10, 
i860. The minutes of the June term of the County Court of i860 tells of 
the appointment of R. B. Owen and J. W. D. L. V. Mack, as agents of Greene 
county, to negotiate a loan of $10,000, under the terms of the above law. 

So the work progressed until the spring of 1861. Mr. Leedy was evi- 
dently well up with his contract, for by this time he had the building finished 
on tlie outside and some of the offices ready for occupancy. Three rooms 
were finished April ist and the clerks .-.f the County. Circuit and Probate 
Courts moved into them at once. He would certainly have had the building 
complete by the end of that year, according to contract. 

But the spring of 1861 brought much more pressing matters into Greene 
county than even the completion of a new court house! Beauregard's guns 
were 'thundering against the walls of Sumter, in Charleston Bay. and at the 
sound the dark clouds of civil war swept over the land from Atlantic to 



164 GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 

Pacific. Through that four years of storm the new court house, in its un- 
finished state, served the contending annies ahernately as a hospital for the 
wounded, a prison for sympathizers, of one side or tlie other, and as a bar- 
racks for soldiers. Under many successive coats of paint upon the solid cot- 
ton rock pillars, in the front of the old building", are cut the names, companies 
and regiments of many scores of men, on the one side or the other in that 
great conflict. Forty years ago those pillars were veritable autograph albums 
of military names, but in the course of time most of them have been erased 
and replaced by those of the army of loafers, whose own particula'r ' resting 
place, the portico of the old building, has ever been. 

HISTORIC COURT HOUSE TORN DOWN. 

Within a week of the writing these lines (June, 1914), the last brick 
of the old court house and jail has been torn out of its resting place of more 
than half a century, and the historic old building is henceforth but a memory, 
and on its site is to rise a modern merchantile and office "skyscraper." The 
only things which will be preserved as mementoes of the old structure are 
the pillars, which are to be set up upon the lawn in front of the present 
"New Court House," there to bear silent witness to the solid character of 
work done by old Josiah Leedy in the days "before the war." 

I have mentioned the jail of the county several times, and a word about 
it is not out of place here. The first jail, as has been stated, was a solid log 
affair built by public spirited citizens, e\'en before the first court house "was 
erected in the center of the square. The county had no money for the 
purpose at the time, and a jail was badly needed, for. say what we may, 
there were bad men even in "the good old times" we hear so much about 
So the jail was built and donated tO' the county. Evidently, however, the 
first County Court considered the gift as an obligation due to the men who 
made it, for the first money paid out from the sums received for town lots 
went to repay the men who had paid for the jail in the "several amounts 
contributed by them." 

When the court house of 1858 was built it had a wing projecting along 
the side of College street, at the west side of the building. A two story 
edifice, the lower story of which was used for the jail and the upper story 
for the residence of the sherift" or jailer. After a wlnle the entire buiUling 
wasi needed and used as a jail. 

In 1889 Hon. E. C. O'Day, then representing the Springfield District in 
the Legislature, procured the establishment of the Springfield Criminal Court, 
and, the county being sadly in need of more office room, a two stoiy brick 
building was put up upon ground presented to the county for the purpose, on 
the northwest corner of Robberson avenue and Center street. The upper 



GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 165 

Story of this building was used for the purposes of the Criminal Court, and 
the lower story as a jail. In the course of a few years the jail became so 
crowded that it became necessary to fit up the entire building for the needed 
additional cells, and the Criminal Court was removed to the third story of 
the Diemer block at the corner of Commercial and Jelferson streets. It re- 
mained here for some time, but at last a case arose in which an attorney in 
defending his client raised the point that the location of the court, being out- 
side of the original "seat of justice" of Greene county, invalidated the verdict 
against the defendant. This claim being sustained by a higher court, the 
Criminal Court was hastily removed to the south, and shared the old court- 
house on the Square with the Circuit Court, which had never been moved 
from that location. 

The location of the jail and Criminal Court upon the lot at Center 
street and Robberson avenue had, however, an important bearing upon the 
final settlement of the much debated question of the location of the new 
court house, that everyone acknowledged the county was compelled to -build 
as soon as possible. This importance was recognized at once, by both parties 
to the controversy. Indeed it was the sole reason for the presentation of 
that particular lot to the county, for the purpose of erecting the new jail. 

Dr. E. T. Robberson, always an active worker in any cause to whicii 
he gave his adherence, and John H. Bouslog, who at the time was a promi- 
nent citizen of Springfield and a property holder on Center street, were the 
leading spirits in the plan to procure a lot and give it without cost to the 
county for the location of a jail. The court accepted the gift, one member. 
Judge Hosea G. Mullings, dissenting to the action. Then followed some 
efliorts to enjoin the expenditure of county funds for erecting the jail on that 
location, all of which efforts failed of their purpose, for, as has already been 
said, the jail was built there and the Criminal Court held there for some 
time. 

The question of building a new court house grew in importance, as the 
old building on the square, day by day. became less fitted for accommodating 
the rapidly growing business of the county. Indeed, the old building had 
served its purpose long and well. So long, in fact, that the county had out- 
grown it far more than the county of 1838 had outgrown the log house of 
John P. Campbell, or the county of 1858 had outgrown tlie court house in 
the middle of the Public Square. So badly had the county offices over- 
crowded the court house that the matter of a new shelter for the courts and 
county offices was the subject of perennial debate for a score of years. But 
a new element had entered into the equation. .\ mile and a Iialf away to 
the north of the Square a new town had sprung into existence, as will be 
told in detail in another chapter. Never large enough to be a formidable 
rival of the older city, it was nevertheless active, much more than in proiwr- 
tion to its size, in reachir.g after those things which its people desired. 



l66 GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 



A LONG CONTROVERSY. 



For years, whenever the question of the new courthouse was broached, 
the matter of its location instantly sprang up. The new town and its friends 
urged a location to the north of the square ; the old town and its adherents 
as strenuously advocated some point near the old building. Thus there was 
a prolonged deadlock. After nearly eighteen years of separate corporate 
existence, Springfield and North Springfield were at last, in 1887, united 
under one city government, and the one name of Springfield. The vote for 
consolidation had been all but unanimous, and many enthusiasts thought, and 
said, that all our troubles about the location of a new court house were now 
at an end. As a matter of fact, they were just fairly getting started! 

The united city had been divided into eight wards. The four south 
divisions covered a large part of what had been the old city of Springfield. 
The north four wards took in the northern portion of the old town, and all 
of the original North Springfield. In this division the four south wards 
had a vast majority of the wealth of the city, and the north four wards a 
majority of the votes. The first trial of strength came up over the location of 
the government building, which Congress had allowed to Springfield as the 
result of the labor of Hon. William H. Wade, who was then our Congress- 
man. The older portion of Springfield naturally wished to have the new 
postoffice at some point close to their center of business, the Public Square. 
The north end argued with much plausibility that the postoftice should be 
near the center of population, which would mean somewhere in the neigh- 
borhood of Boonville and Center streets. 

The fight continued for two or three years. It took delegation after 
delegation to Washington, and bombarded the national officials with hun- 
dreds of petitions, affidavits and other documents without number. Tlie 
late Paul Roulet, who was one of those sent to Washington to urge the 
northern location, about the middle of the struggle, told the writer after his 
return that when the Secretary of the Treasury, on whom he was calling, 
ordered the papers referring to the Springfield building brought in, that si.x 
attendants came bearing between them three large willow clothes-baskets 
piled high with the documents that had already accumulated in the struggle. 

But, at last, the question was decided in favor of the north end, and 
the building went on its present location, in the block south of Center street, 
on the east side of Boonville. But the settlement of this controversy by no 
means ser^•ed to adjust the difference of opinion as to the location of the 
proposed new court house. The north end men. who advocated a central 
location, were elated at their victory in getting the government building 
where they wanted it ; and the friends of a location near the Public Square 



GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 167 

claimed more strenuously than ever tiian i1k-\- were entitled to the court 
house, as their opponents had won the post office. 

Years passed; County Courts were elected or defeated on the single 
issue of their opinions on the location of the new court house. The old 
building, patched and tinkered over times without number, steadily de- 
teriorated until the paper hung flapping froiii its walls and great sections of 
plastering fell from the ceilings from time to time, to the terror of those 
compelled to frequent the place. And when a county court in self-defense 
did any repairs there was a cry at once raised that it was a waste of public 
moneys to put another dollar into the old building. 

Some time about 1903, the County Court consisted of John Y. 
Fulbright. presiding justice; Judge Charles Bennett, judge for the first dis- 
trict, and Judge O'Neal, for the second district. Judge Bennett, who favored 
the central location of the court house, said to Charles P. OUis, a leading 
real estate dealer and prominent citizen of the north side: "Mr. Ollis, I be- 
lieve if you could get the land we need at Center and Boonville, optioned 
at a fair price, that Judge O'Neal would vote with me for its purchase." 
Such a hint was all that Ollis needed and he quickly and quietly proceeded 
to get the options upon the different lots which constituted the proposed 
site. This was a task which required not onl)- full knowledge of the values 
of the property in question, but also such tact and acquaintance with Iiuman 
nature as few men possess. But Charles P. Ollis was the right man for the 
place, and he rapidly tied up lot after lot. The owner of one lot was a resi- 
dent of St. Louis, and when Mr. Ollis went to that city and called upon him. 
the price set upon the Boonville street frontage of the lot in question was 
$100 a front foot. This was double the figures at which other lots had been 
optioned, and Mr. Ollis naturally demurred at tiie figures. But the owner 
was obstinate. 

"Why," he said, "if you gentlemen down there have lost confidence in 
the future of Springfield, I have not. My property is worth a hundred dol- 
lars a foot to me today, and it will be worth more soon." Mr. Ollis finally 
g-ot around this difficulty by getting an agreement with the St. Louis man 
that he would exchange his lot for another across Boonville street. Tiien 
Ollis went home and optioned the other lot. But the matter of locating the 
new court house still hung fire. 

We find in the records of the court, under date of July 5, 190O, tiie fol- 
lowing entry : 

"At a session of the Greene County Court. July 5, 1906, present, the 
Hon. B. J. Diemer. Presiding Judge of the County Court ; Hon. T. K. Bow- 
man, Associate Judge for First District ; Hon. H. B. East. Associate Judge 
for Second District; Hon. Roscoe Patterson. Prosecuting Attorney: M. O. 
Milliken, Sheriff; H. E. Patton, County Clerk. 



1 68 GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 

"The Court took up the matter of a contract dated June 24th, 1904^ 
between Greene County and B. U. Massey. This contract sets forth : "That,, 
whereas the County- of Greene is desirous of erecting a new and suitable 
Court House for said County and of purchasing suitable property in the city 
of Springfield, the county-seat of said county, on which to erect said court 
house, and it is the intention of the County Court of said county to submit 
to voters of said Greene county, when a proper petition therefor is sub- 
mitted to the Court, a proposition to incur a bonded indebtedness of this 
county to raise money to build said Court House, and the said County Court 
will need the advice and counsel of some person learned in the law to advise 
and direct as to the technical recjuirements of the law in each particular step- 
in said contemplated proceedings and undertakings on the part of the county, 
and by agreement the County Court of Greene county, acting in behalf of 
said Greene county, does hereby contract with and employ said B. U. 
Massey, as an attorney-at-law, to aid by counsel and advice this Court in 
the matter of purchasing property upon which to build a court house; ex- 
amine the abstracts of title to said property, * * * to prepare and put 
in proper form such orders as this Court may see fit to make, and in the 
event that there is presented to this Court a petition for an election to vote 
upon a proposition to vote bonds of this county, to erect a court house, to 
give to this Court advice as to said petition, and put in proper fomi." 

The same date, July 5, 1906, an order was made as follows: "In the 
matter of the purchase of a lot or parcel of ground upon which to erect a 
new Court House at the City of Springfield, the County seat of Greene 
County, Missouri. Order to purchase lot." 

The court then sets forth at great length the urgent necessity of a new 
court house; the dilapidated condition of the old building; the fact that it was 
wholly inadequate in size and internal arrangements for the uses for which 
it was designed, and for which it was being used. The danger of the de- 
struction by fire of the records in the office of the recorder of deeds, the 
County Court records, and those of the Circuit and Probate Courts. That 
such destruction of the records "would inflict an irreparable loss upon the 
real estate owners of this county, and a loss almost as serious and severe 
upon the citizens of the county generally." "To longer neglect action on 
the part of the officers of the county, to whom is entrusted the charge, care 
and management of county affairs, in presenting to the citizens of this county 
an opportunity to build a new court house, seems almost unexcusable." 

The statement of the court goes on to set forth that the county already 
owns the lot at the northwest corner of Robberson avenue and Center street, 
upon which the county jail has been erected, and the inconvenience now and 
always of transferring prisoners hence to and from the present court house, 
"and as the property west of the jail lot, and fronting west on Boonville 




OLD COUItT HOUSE. BUILT IN INHs ANI> VACATLD IN T.lTJ. 



GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 169. 

Street, is very near the geographical center of Springlield, and very near the 
center of popnlation of said city, and as well as said locality is accessible to 
the citizens of Springfield and to the citizens of the entire county as any 
locality that can be readily acquired for a court house, and as the property 
can now be bought at a reasonable sum, that is to say for the sum of $ii,- 
825.00, it is believed by the Court that it would he the i)art of wisdom to now 
buy said property for the purpose of erecting a new court house thereon." 

NEGOTIATING FOR NEW SITE. 

After the above action the court appoints Benjamin U. Alassey "as 
Commissioner of this Court, to negotiate for and purchase from the owner 
or owners thereof the said property above referred to." 

The same date the court orders the treasurer of Greene county to trans- 
fer the sum of $6,000.00 from the road and bridge fund to the contingent 
fund. This action was taken so that there should be sufhcient money in 
the contingent fund to meet the payment upon the lots wanted. 

On the same date as the above orders we find that B. U. Massey pre- 
sents to the County Court the following decree and order from the Circuit 
Court of Greene country : 

"In the matter of the title to property proposed to be purchased by the 
Greene County Court, for a site upon which to erect a new court house: 
Now at this day comes Benj. U. Massey, heretofore appointed by the County 
Court of Greene County as Commissioner to purchase and procure a deed or 
deeds to the property hereinafter described, from the owner or owners 
thereof to Greene County, for the purpose of erecting thereon a new court 
house, and here submits to this court abstracts of title to said property. And 
said abstracts being now seen and e.xamined by the Court, the Court doth 
find and doth now certify to said Count}- Court of Greene County, that the 
title to the following described real estate (here follows detailed description 
of the several lots covering the site wanted, and including the tract from 
Boonville street to Robberson avenue, fronting south upon Center street, 
and extendmg north 263 feet, to the boundary of the lot occupied by the 
jail and the sheriffs residence)." 

The Circuit Court finds that the title to this real estate is "good and 
valid in Richard A. Ollis, and that the deed, here exhibited in Court from 
said Richard A. Ollis to Greene comity, will when delivered vest in said 
county, a good and perfect title to said property." 

Upon receipt of this decree and certificate of the Circuit Court the 
County Court directs B. U. ^lassey to accept the deed for the property, and 
orders the clerk of the court to issue to Massey a warrant "I'liou the pres- 
ent Contingent fund for the sum of $4,500.00. and further issue to said 



IJO GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 

B. U. Massey Commissioner as aforesaid a warrant for the sum of $7,325.00 
upon the Contingent fund whicii will be collected for this year, and apply 
said warrants to the payment of the consideration mentioned in said deed." 
On the same date a warrant is issued to Benj. U. IMassey in the sum of 
$500.00 "Now due upon his contract heretofore made with this Court." 

But the controversy was not yet fought out, and an injunction was 
5ued for by some of the advocates of the other location, which delayed mat- 
ters for another long space of time. Meanwhile the land as described by 
Mr. Massey was held by the Bank of Springfield, until such time, if ever, 
the site should be needed for a new court house. 

On the 27th of November, 1906, a petition was presented to the County 
Court asking for an election to be held to \ote on a proposition of increasing 
the county indebtedness $150,000.00, and of a special levy of 25 cents on 
the $100.00 valuation for four years to pay for the same. Also, that at the 
same time the question of selection of a site for the court house be submit- 
ted to a vote of the people. The court granted this petition and set the 
27tli day of December, 1906, as the date of the election. 

The form of that part of the ballot referring to a court house site was 
to be as follows : 

"For the location of a new court house on the northeast corner or 
Boonville and Center streets, in Springfield. Mo., if the indebtedness car- 
ries." 

"For the location of a new court house south of Wilson creek and 
Water street, as near as practicable to the location of the present court 
house, now standing on the Public Square, if the indebtedness proposed car- 
ries." 

To this order Judge Diemer, the presiding justice of the court, en- 
tered of record his dissent, for the following reasons: 

"i. Because a petition in due form signed by a sufificient number of 
qualified petitioners, asking for an election to vote on the issuance of $150,- 
000.00 of bonds of the county for the purpose of building a court house was 
filed before the petition now acted upon was filed, and is still pending in 
this court. 

"2. Because the Court has no jurisdiction, in my judgment, to make 
any order relative to calling said election at this term of Court. 

"3. Because said order embraces the call to vote on a court house site, 
and this Court has no authority to call an election on that question. 

"4. Because it would be a \iolation of law for this Court to spend 
any money for such an election. 

"5. Because further time should be taken by the Court to investigate 
matters, and to act now would be undue haste." 

But the advocates of the Center street location were not idle, and we 



GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 



171 



fold that A. J. Eisenmeyer, G. W. Miller and others applied to Judge James 
T. Neville of the Circuit Court for an injunction to prevent holding of the 
election. On December 11, the County Court engaged H. E. Howell, J. P. 
McCammon, J. J. Gideon and \V. T. Tatlow to represent them in the litiga- 
tion. The election was not held at the date first set, and another day was 
appointed, this time December 17, and still the pending litigation prevented 
its being held. Then on January 28, 1907, we find that the County Court, 
referring to the calling of the election, entered this order: 

"The Court is now of the opinion that said order was improvidently 
made, and without authority of law ; the order for such election is hereby 
set aside and rescinded." 

A separate order of the same date also rescinds the order for an elec- 
tion to setde the court house site. Judge J. T. Phillips goes on record as 
dissenting to these rescinding orders. The same day F. S. Heffernan, E. B. 
Bently and W. A. Reed and one hundred others ask and obtain permission 
to withdraw their petition (this is the one referred to by Judge Diemer 
above, as pending when he made his dissent against the proposed election). 
This petition was granted and the former petition was withdrawn. 

On the same date another petition was presented asking that an election 
be called to vote on a proposition to increase the county indebtedness $150,- 
000.00 for building a new court house, and carrying with it a le\y sufficient 
to pay the debt in four years. This petition was signed by G. W. Campbell. 
W. H. Wade, Delia Carter and more than one hundred others, and says 
nothing about the location of the new court house. This petition was granted 
and an election was called to be held on Tuesday. ^March 26, 1907. Judge 
J. T. Phillips dissented to this action. 

But the time had not yet come, and this proposition was defeated at the 
polls. At the election of 1908 J. P. Reed was elected associate judge for the 
first district, and S. D. Appleby associate for the second district. Judge B. J. 
Diemer being the presiding justice held over for another two years. 

And now there began to be something definite doing in the matter of 
the new court house. At the regular session held on the 4tli of February, 
1909, the court made an order setting forth at length, and in much the same 
language as that used in 1904, the urgent need of a new court house, in 
which the priceless records of the county would be safer from destruction 
by fire, and the county officials properly housed. After this recital of the 
facts that every person in the county well knew, the court took a radical step 
in advance of any action that had preceded it. They did not call an election 
to vote on an increased county indebtedness, but proceeded to announce that : 
"All obligations against the county for 1908 and all preceding years have 
been fully paid or provided for, and there remains no unpaid debt, debts, 
obligation or obligations of the county, against the general revenue fund 



172 GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 

thereof for the year 1908, or any previous year not provided for, and where- 
as after all past obhgations for the year 1908 and prior years have been 
fully paid or provided for with cash in the treasury to pay the same, there 
now remains in the hands of the Treasurer of the County, a surplus of $50,- 
000.00 from the assessment and levy for county purposes for 1908 and prior 
years, which has not been otherwise appropriated and is available for the 
purpose of building a new court house for said county; and whereas the 
circumstances as well as the best interests of said county, will admit of a 
sale of the present Court House and the land or lot on which it is situated, 
which is worth, and for which the county can obtain $50,000.00 and whereas 
the circumstances of the county will therefore permit the court to erect a 
court house to cost, together with the land on which it is located, the sum 
of $100,000.00, it is therefore ordered by the Court, that the said surplus- 
of County Revenue Fund now apportioned by the County Treasurer on his- 
books from the various County Funds, to wit, the sum of $50,000.00 now in 
the hands of the County Treasurer be, and the same is hereby set aside and 
appropriated for the purpose of purchasing a site and building a new court 
house for Greene county. 

"And it is further ordered that the present court house and the lot or 
land on which it is located be sold for the sum of not less than $50,000.00 in. 
cash, and the sum so realized be appropriated and added to the aforesaid 
appropriated sum of $50,000.00 for the purpose aforesaid, 

"It is further ordered that a new court house for Greene county be built 
with the funds so provided, to cost with the sum necessary to be expended 
for a new site therefor, not to exceed the sum so provided," 

These orders have been quoted in full because they mark the adoption 
by the court of a new and unique method of providing the funds for erecting 
the new court house. The plan of using the surplus funds in the hands of the- 
treasurer of the county for this purpose was a wise and brilliant device. 
These funds, accumulated by the care and economy of the court itself, and 
apportioned by the treasurer into their various funds, were practically idle, 
drawing but tlie low rate of interest given by the banks in which they were 
deposited. With the imperative need for a new court house, with the plan 
of issuing bonds to supply that need defeated at the polls, the court would 
seem to be at the end of their resources, until the present plan was evolved. 

That there would be strong opposition to this procedure was a matter 
of course, and the court lost no time in pushing its plan to a point where any 
interference sIk^uIcI be of the least serious delay. So at this same session of 
court an order was made appointing T. K. Bowman, of Springfield, one of 
the former members of the court, to superintend the erection of a court house. 

The order recites : "The county not owning suitable ground for such 
location the said T, K, Bowman is also ordered to select a proper piece of 
ground within the corporate limits of Springfield, and to purchase, or re- 



GREENE COUNTV. MISSOURI. 



173 



•ceive the same by donation, lor a site lor a conrt huiise, and lake a good 
and sufficient deed for the same to the county, and make a report of tlie pro- 
ceedings to the circuit court of Greene county at its next sitting-, and to 
this court for its approval." To all these orders judt;e S. D. Appleby is re- 
corded as dissenting". 



PURCHASE IS M.VDE. 



On February nth, T. K. Bowman reports to the County Court that he 
has selected and purchased, from the Bank of Springfield, a location lying 
between Boonville street and Robberson avenue, and fronting on Center 
street, for a consideration of $12,825.00 cash. From this sum the county is 
to deduct the suin of $3,500.00, that being its lien upon the property by virtue 
of a decree of the Circuit Court of Greene county, in the case of T. B. Hol- 
land et al. vs. B. J. Diemer et al. (This was one of the suits brought in the 
endeavor to prevent the location of the new court house at its present loca- 
Circuit Court of Green county, and files with his report a certificate of that 
tion.) The balance of $9,325.00 to be paid the Bank of Springfield on de- 
livery of the deed. 

Mr. Bowman also reports ha\iiig submitted the a]:)stract nf title Id the 
Circuit Court of Greene county, and files with his report a certificate of that 
court, approving the title in question. The County Court then approved the 
selection of a site as made by their commissioner, and ordered the county 
clerk to issue a warrant to the Bank of Springfield, upon the court house fund, 
"for $9,325.00. Judge S. D. Appleby again goes on record as dissenting 
against this order. 

Thus the question of the ownership of the site at Boonville .street, Cen- 
ter street and Robberson avenue was at last settled. It belonged to Greene 
county. Whether it was to become adorned with the new court house was 
still to be determined, for the opponents of that location had not >ct given 
up the fight, as will shortly be told. 

Meanwhile, the commissioner was ordered to sell si.x houses which oc- 
cupied the new purchase, and order their removal. Charles P. Ollis was al- 
lowed $150.00 "for balance due for services in purchasing the court house 
site." To both of which orders appears the familiar record: "Judge S. D. 
Appleby dissenting." 

The firm of Miller, Opel & Torbitt. of Springfield, had been selected 
bv the court as the architects for the new court house on .\pril 17. but by 
some oversight this order was not then entered of record, so it was passed 
again and duly recorded on July 31. This order sets the compensation of 
-the architects at 2>4 per cent, of the cost of the building for plans and 
■specifications, and i per cent, of the cost for the details thereof. "Judge S. 
D. Appleby dissenting." 

But, to go back a short time: Meanwhile J. E. Decker, a wealthy 



1/4 GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 

famier of Republic, and others had joined in a suit against "the judges of 
the County Court as such, to forever enjoin the court from entering into any 
contract to pay for plans, site, superintendent," in a word, anything in any 
way pertaining to the locating or building of a new court house at the Center 
street site. 

The court engaged Roscoe Patterson and E. P. Mann as their attorneys 
to defend this suit, at a fee of $500.00. "Judge S. D. Appleby dissenting." 

But the filing of the suit did not halt the proceedings of the court for a 
day. January 6, 1910, the County Court appointed T. K. Bowman as commis- 
sioner to advertise for bids for purchase of the old courthouse and the lots 
on which it stood, subject to approval of the court. Mr. Bowman is in- 
structed to retain a right for the county to occupy said building for two 
years, at a rental equal to 6 per cent, of the sum of the successful bid. 
"Judge S. D. Appleby dissenting." 

January 26, Commissioner Bowman reports that he has received bids 
on the property at the corner of the PuIjHc Square and College street, as fol- 
lows : P. D. O'Toole, $49,950.00 ; A. B. Crawford, Trustee, $50,000.00. 
The court thereupon orders Bowman to execute a warranty deed to A. B. 
Crawford, Trustee, and take back a lease for one year, with option to ex- 
tend it for two years from date, at an annual rental of $3,000.00. "Judge 
S. D. Appleby dissenting." 

On February 17, 1910. Commissioner Bowman submitted to the court 
the plans fi:)r the new court house, drawn by Miller, Opel & Torbitt, and the 
court, after examination of the plans, approves of them, and orders the com- 
missioner to advertise for bids for erecting the building in accordance with 
these plans. "Judge S. D. Appleby dissenting." 

But the com"t did not wait for any bids to be offered before breaking 
ground for the new court house. The prisoners of the county jail were put at 
work with pick and shovel to work out their indebtedness to the county in 
excavating for foundations for the new temple of justice. Not only were 
the excavations completed, Init a lai'ge ammint of work was thus done upon 
the concrete foundations, and a total of several thousand dollars was saved 
to Greene county. 

March 23, Commissioner Bowman reports to the court tliat he has re- 
ceived eight bids for the construction of the new court house, varying from 
$81,749.00, from the J. E. Gibson Construction Company, of Tulsa, Okla., 
to $100,771.59, from the Springfield Planing Mill and Lumber Company, of 
Springfield. These bids were for a building constructed of stone from the 
quarries at Phoeni.x, Greene county, thus making the building that was to 
be, wholly a Greene county product. 



GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 17^, 

WORK BEGINS. 

On receipt of this report the court instructs .Mr. liuwnian to enter into 
a contract for erecting- the bnikhng with the J. E. Gilxsun Construction Com- 
pany. "Judge S. D. .\ppleby dissenting." 

The ne.xt day the J. E. Gibson Construction Company filed witli the 
court an assignment of their bid to Hiram Lloyd, of the H. L. Lloyd Con- 
struction Company; of St. Louis, Missouri, who agrees with the court to fill 
the contract at the figures bid by the Gibson Company. The H. L. Lloyd 
Company's bid had been $85,997.00. The court approved the assignment. 
■'Judge S. D. Appleby dissenting." 

The Lloyd company quickly got to work, and the walls of the new 
court house, so long needed and wished for, at last began to rise. It was 
evident to the most casual observer that the sum of $100,000.00, which was 
all the cash the court had when this contract was let would not nearlv pay 
for the erection of such a building as shown by the plans antl specifications 
of Messrs. Miller, Opel & Torbett. In fact, tiie contract as let to the Lloyd 
company called for little more than ,the outside walls of the building, with 
enough of the inner parts divided into rooms as to furnish a partial accom- 
modation for the county offices and records. All realized, however, that 
unless the suit now pending in the Supreme Court to enjoin any ex|)enditure 
of county money on this location was decided against the County Court, the 
question of location was forever settled. All uncertainly was soon ended 
by the decision of the highest court in the State, which nut ouly declared 
that the County Court had acted entirely within its lawful authority in all 
that it had done, but went fuither and congratulated that court for the way 
in which they had brought their court house into being without so far in- 
creasing the county indebtedness by a single cent. 

At the election in the autumn of 1910 Judge B. J. Diemer was a candi- 
date for re-election to his otfice as presiding justice, but was defeated by 
W. H. Perkins,' thus, proving that not only republics, but also counties, are 
sometimes ungrateful. For certainly to no one man does Greene county 
owe her new court house so inuch as to B. J. Diemer. Without his determin- 
ation and courage, his consistent and persistent work in the face of all ob- 
stacles, the age-old deadlock over the location of a new court house would 
without doubt still be in full force. "Honor to whom honor is due." 

On the 2ist of March, 191 1. a strong petition was presented to the 
newly formed County Court, asking that an election lie held to vote once 
more on the proposition to issue $150,000.00 in bonds to comi)Iete the court 
house. This petition was granted by the court, and Tuesday. .\i>ri! \f<. 1911, 
was set as the date of a special election on the bond question. 

It had been suggested in the petition concerning this election that 



1/6 GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 

^$25,000.00 of the bonds be in the denomination of $100.00 each, tliis to 
encourage small investors to purchase them. At the election the bonds car- 
ried by a good majority, the vote being a light one and as follows : For the 
bonds, 3,716; against the bonds, 755. 

On the 20th of April the court ordered the bonds issued, $25,000.00 of 
the denomination of $100.00, to run live years; $50,000.00 of the denomina- 
tion of $500.00, to run five years, and $75,000.00 of the denomination of 
$500.00, to run ten years, all to bear interest at the rate of 43^ per cent, per 
annum. 

To meet these terms the court ordered a levy for an interest fund of 3 
cents on the $100.00 valuation for each of the first five years hereafter, and 
13^ cents on each $100.00 valuation for the next five years. Also a levy 
to provide a sinking fund, as follows: Si.x; cents on the $100.00 valuation 
for each of first five years, and 5 cents on the same valuation for each of 
the next five years. "For the faithful performance of all of which the 
honesty, integrity and commonwealth of the citizens of Greene countv are 
solemnly pledged." 

So ended perhaps the longest and hardest struggle of the sort on record 
anywhere in the Western States. A struggle fought with determination and 
vigor, by men who believed wholly in the justice of their respective causes, 
but which was fought to a finish and the result accepted in a spirit that has 
left no sore spots, no heartburnings, and which today rejoices as one man 
that the question that has been a nightmare in Greene county for so long is 
at last eliminated, and the priceless records of the county are forever safe 
from sudden destruction by flames, which had been their hourly menace for 
thirty years at least. 

Of the new court house itself, it is safe to say that there is not a person 
in the entire .county who is not proud that the old county has such a splendid 
capitol. Massive and digniiied; with its solid walls of the white Phoenix 
limestone, as near marble as possible without actually being so; with its 
superb location high above tlie surrounding streets; its marble-lined cor- 
ridors and stairways — it is, and will ever be, in great and growing ratio, a 
joy and pride to the people who own it, and forever a monument to the en- 
ergy and pluck of the court through whose persistence it was built. 

Greene county, as we have seen, was organized in March, 1833, with an 
immense expanse of territory, and but a small population, but even in its 
first year of existence we find the County Court called upon to afford relief 
to a pauper. At the December term of 1833 Mrs. Sarah Craig applied to 
the court for help, and after due consideration she was given a grant of 
$30.00, payable at the end of the year. When we remember that the entire 
income of the county for its first year of existence was less than $500.00, this 



GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. I77 

■appropriation, small as it may seem to us, was a surprisingly large percentage 
of the total means at the court's command. 

In 1835 we find record that the first insane person was hrouglit before 
the County Court. This was one James Ren fro. and after due examination 
the court declared him insane and incapalile of managing his own affairs, 
and appointed Joseph Porter antl Benjamin Chapman to act as his guardians 
and trustees. Thus from an early day has Greene county given that care 
which humanity demands to those who, through misfortune or the loss of 
their faculties, become unable to care for themselves. 

As the county increased in population the number of these grew in equal 
ratio, until it became imperative that some central place should l)e selected, 
and proper accommodations provided for them. Thus we find that in the 
April term of the County Court in 1855, Judge W. B. Farmer was author- 
ized to select a location for a poorhouse, ascertain the cost of such location 
and report to the court. 

THE POORHOUSE. 

At the July term of the court, the same year Judge Farmer reported 
that he had selected a tract of two hundred acres, belonging to Joseph Doug- 
las as the location of the proposed poorhouse, and as a farm, the products 
of which would go far toward the maintenance of the county poor. The 
price of this tract is not mentioned in the record of that term of court, but it 
is told that the court appro\ed of the selection and authorized Judge Farmer 
to pay to Joseph Douglas "the sum of $1,000.00 as part payment of the 
property." At the same time the court levied a special tax of 12^ cents 
upon the $100.00 valuation for building the poorhouse and making suitable 
improvements upon the farm. 

This farm and poorhouse continued in use until late in the year 1873. 
when an eighty-acre tract was purchased in section 19, township 29, range 
21, at that time just outside the eastern limits of Springfield. This change 
was thought desirable because by far the larger numlier of tho.se unfortunates 
who were cared for upon the poor farm came from Springfield, and the lo- 
cation of the former farm was inconvenient!}- distant from the city. A sub- 
stantial two-story brick building was erected on the new location, and oc- 
cupied for the purpose for which it was built until 1890. By that time sev- 
eral reasons combined to make another change advisable. 

In the first place, the city had grown to such an extent, and spread so 
far toward the property that it had increased very greatly in value, and was 
in demand for further extension of the city in that direction. Also, the 
increasing number of those who had to be cared for had rendered the old 
building far too small for their accommodation, and. further, the price that 
"(12) 



178 GREENE COUNTY^ MISSOURI. 

could now be obtained for the eighty acres would not only purchase a larger 
tract elsewhere, but would go far toward erecting such a building as the needs 
of the case required. 

So we find that at the February term of the County Court in the year 
1890, the court appoints George A. C. Wooley as special commissioner "to 
sell to J. W. Lisenby, W. H. Park and S. H. Horine the county poor farm, 
being eighty acres described as follows: The West 3<2 of the South East J4> 
of Section 19, Township 29, Range 21, for the sum of $25,211.30." Judge 
Hosea G. Mullings is on record as dissenting to this order of the court. It 
may be said in passing that this eighty acres has now been for years "Pick- 
wick Place Addition," in the fashionable southeastern district of Springfield, 
and is well within the city limits. 

With the proceeds of the sale of this eighty acres the court proceeded 
to purchase the J. D. VanBibber farm of ninety acres, some five miles west 
of Springfield, on the Division Street road. Here a large and well built 
brick structure was erected, and here is located to the present day Greene 
county's home for her unfortunates. The location is as fine as within the 
limits of the county, and nothing that can be done for the comfort and 
safety of these poor wards of society is left undone by those in charge of the 
institution. 

Greene county started at quite an early period of her history in the prac- 
tice of pledging the public faith for the payment of bonds for various public 
benefits, mostly toward the obtaining or hastening of the coming of railroads. 
In 1 85 1, even before the government had made the great land grant to 
the Southwest Branch of the Pacific Railroad (that grant bears date of 
1852), the people of Greene county had attempted to hasten matters by vot- 
ing at a special election which they had petitioned the County Court to call, 
instructing that court to take .$100,000.00 stock in the as yet shadowy railroad. 
The proposition carried by a very large majority. Still the railroad did not 
come. 

Then, after three years of waiting, years filled with all sorts of disquiet- 
ing rumors concerning the railroad, the people of Greene county heard that 
the entire enterprise was about to fail for want of sufficient aid in money 
from those to be benefited. That caused such pressure to be brought to 
bear upon the County Court tliat that body, at the May term, 1854, hastened 
to submit to the electors at the .\ugust election, the question of taking an- 
other $100,000.00 in the stock of the proposed road. 

Nearly two months before making this order the court had appointed 
Hon. W. C. Price, county agent, to take $50,000.00 of stock (a part of that 
authorized by the election of 1851). Mr. Price was authorized as the agent 
of Greene county to agree that $10,000.00 of this $50,000.00 was to be paid 



GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 1 79 

on the first Alonday in April, 1855, and $10,000.00 aiimially thereafter un- 
til the whole amount was paid. 

But this trifling amount of $10,000.00 was not at all to tlie satisfaction 
of those who were manipulating railroad matters, and they urged a far more 
liberal subscription to the stock. At this the court ordered the matter sulj- 
mitted at the pending election in Aug"ust, as has been stated above. 

But in July representations were made to the court that railroad matters 
were in such a perilous condition that; the company could not wait until the 
August election before knowing what they were to depend upon from Greene 
county. Thereupon the court, anxious to secure the building of the road, 
rescinded their order for submitting the matter of subscription to the Au- 
gust election, and authorized Air. Price, as their agent, to subscribe $50,- 
000.00 in addition to that which he had already offered, and at the same 
terms, with the additional stipulation that a depot should be located within 
one-half mile of the court house in Springfield. Late in August the court 
was told that to insist on these conditions would be to imperil all chance of 
getting the road, and in fear of such a deplorable result, Mr. Price was or- 
dered to withdraw them if necessary. It is very evident that the later rail- 
road bond manipulators were not the first of that ilk who had reduced the 
playing on the desires and fears of the County Courts to a science. 

The railroad company evidently had things their own way, for we 
find that at the September term of the County Court a tax of I'/l per cent 
was levied to provide payment of $20,000.00, '"the first installment due on 
the county's subscription to the stock of the Southwest Branch of the Pa- 
cific Railroad." 

Later, in September, 1856, we find Judge W. B. Farmer appointed agent 
of Greene county, "for the purpose of paying the balance due on the first 
installment of $20,000.00 on the county's subscription to the stock of the 
South West Branch of the Pacific Railroad." And for all this money, a 
princely sum considering the wealth of the county at the time, Greene 
county never received so much as one cent's return or benefit. The Civil 
war came up, anil not until it had passed into history for more than five 
years did a new organization at last connect Greene county with the outer 
world by the laying of the steel rails thnnigh her boundaries. 

But the storvof issuance of county bonds, to induce the building of 
railroads into Greene county, had hardly its first paragrai)h in those sul>- 
scriptions made in the days before the war. The history of the taking ot a 
large amount of bonds bv the County Court ; the issuance of a great sum of 
them; the long, hard fight through all the courts up to the In-ghest in the 
land, and the 'final pavment of the debt, would require a volume for their 
detailed telling. In this place can be given little more than a brief outline of 
that interesting series of events in the past of Greene county. 



l8o GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 



FIRST RAILROAD. 



It was in 1869 that the first steps were taken in the matter of a sub- 
scription for a large sum of railroad bonds. A subscription that was to lead 
to long years of e.xpensive litigation, to many heartburnings, harsh words 
and ruined political aspirations, and which finally put upon the taxpayers a 
burden thought at the time to be almost crushing, but which, with the swift 
increase of population and wealth, Greene county finally paid off and dis- 
charged so quickly and easily as to be a marvel in the eyes of her citizens. 

The Atlantic & Pacific, successor of the Southwest Branch of the Pacific 
Railroad, was rapidly nearing the boundaries of Greene county. Men who 
had seen the eflfect upon towns in other states of having but one railroad 
urged that steps should be taken to bring here a road that should be a com- 
petitor of the one now approaching, thus guarding our citizens against un- 
just impositions usually practiced by railroads when opportunity offered. 

Another point, and a strong one. too. was that the road soon to be com- 
pleted had located its depot a mile and a half to the north of the center of 
business, and entirely beyond the corporate limits of Springfield. It was 
very much in the nature of self-protection that the older town should desire 
a depot close to her business section. These and other reasons caused the 
countv court to make an order that at the Xo\-eml3er election should be sub- 
mitted to the people a proposition to take $400,000.00 stock in the railroad 
projects then under consideration, viz: $180,000.00 in the Fort Scott. Spring- 
field & Memphis Railroad, and $120,000.00 in the Kansas City, Springfield & 
Memphis Railroad. The vote on this important question was surprisingly 
light, being : For die proposition, 368 : against, 486. Thus the proposed 
purchase of stock was defeated. 

This defeat did not by any means put an end to the agitation in favor 
of making a subscription to the stock of the projected railroad, now gen- 
erally spoken of as Kansas City & Memphis Railroad. Almost at once after 
the defeat of the proposition at the polls, petitions were circulated asking 
the Countv Court to subscrilae for $400,000.00 on certain conditions as stated 
in the petitions, the principal of which was that the matter be again submitted 
to vote of the people. It is a well-known fact that nothing is easier than to^ 
get men to sign a petition, almost regardless of the request made in the docu- 
ment, and these petitions were no exception to the rule. They were numer- 
ously signed, and rolled up an impressively long list of names. Yet it is 
true that hundreds of the men who thus petitioned the court to take the stock 
were within two years the hottest advocates for repudiating the bonds that 
the\' had asked for! 

But the court did not submit the matter to an election. They had the 
petitions, and they were told by competent legal authority that they had the 



GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. l8l 

authority to subscribe for the stock on the strength of those petitions. So 
we find that the court, after two full days dexoted to discussing the question 
from every angle, made the following order: 

"Ordered by the court in full session. That the county of Greene, in 
the State of ^lissouri, take and does hereby subscribe four thousand shares 
of the denomination of $100.00 each, amounting in the aggregate tu $400,- 
000.00, to the capital stock of the Kansas City & ^lemphis Railroad Com- 
pany; provided, however, that said stock is taken and subscribed upon the 
following express conditions: 

"First. The said stock amounting tu the sum of four hundred thousand 
dollars, shall be paid in the coupon bonds of the county of Greene, maturing 
in twenty years after date thereof, bearing interest payable semi-annually, 
at the Yate of seven per cent per annum, both principal and interest payable 
at the Bank of Commerce in the City of New York ; said bonds to be signed 
by the Presiding Justice of this court, and attested by the clerk under the 
seal of this court, and the coupons attached to be signed by the clerk. 

"Second. None of the bonds shall be signed, issued, or delivered until 
the road-bed of said railroad shall be completed — that is to say the grading, 
bridging, and masonry thereon — to the northern line of Greene county. .And 
when the County Court shall be fully satisfied and officially informed of the 
completion of the road-bed. as aforesaid, to the county line aforesaid, the 
Presiding Justice of this court shall sign, issue, and deliver to said company, 
through its legally authorized agents, bonds as aforesaid aninunting to One 
Hundred Thousand dollars. And when said company shall complete the 
road-bed of said railroad to the City of Springfield, as aforesaid, then said 
company shall secure the further sum of One Hundred Thousand dollars, in 
said bonds. And when said company shall complete their road-bed soutli- 
wardlv from Springfield, to the county line in the direction of Memphis, 
Then the said company shall receive the further sum of One Hundred Thou- 
sand dollars, of said bonds to be issued and delivered as aforesaid. When 
the said company shall have their cars running to the city of Sprmgheld, 
then said company shall receive the balance of said bonds, amounting to One 
Hundred Thousand Dollars, issued and delivered as aforesaid. 

"Third. It is expressly stipulate<l that the depot of said road shall be 
located and established within one-half mile of the Court House or Public 
Square of Springfield; provided that the city or citizens of Springfield shall 
secure and place at the disposal of said company sufficient and suitable 
grounds, for the purpose of a depot and depot yards for said companv. 

"The bonds herein provided for shall be delivered by the duly author- 
ized Commissioners or Agent, to be hereafter appointed by this Court, and 
simultaneouslv with the delivery of said bonds, or any portion thereof to 
said companv, there shall be issued and delivered by said company to the 



l82 GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 

Commissioner aforesaid, a corresponding amount of the paid up stock of 
said company to Greene county." 

In the November elections of that year, 1870, the two associate justices 
of the court. Judges R. P. Matthews and Benjamin Kite, were re-elected, 
and Ralph Walker, of Ash Grove, was elected as presiding justice for a 
term of four years. Grading upon the proposed road was soon begun be- 
tween Springfield and the western boundary of Greene county beyond Ash 
Grove, and much work was done, but the road-bed was certainly not at that 
time put into the shape called for in the order of the court authorizing the is- 
suing of bonds. 

In the vast mass of material, the accumulations of years of legal battles, 
it is almost impossible at this day to explain the reasons that actuated a ma- 
jority of the County Court in their proceedings at this time. All through 
the year 187 1 there was excitement and a growing hostility to the bond 
issue. The court vacillated first toward one side and then to the other. The 
order made in 1870 subscribing for the stock was rescinded. It was re-re- 
scinded ; some of the bonds were burned, and then afterward re-issued. The 
records are a maze that the ordinary layman at least finds it an impossibility 
to unravel. But this one fact stands out clearly through all the confusion — 
$277,999.00 of the bonds were issued; they swiftly found their way into the 
hands of "innocent purchasers," and the fight was on. In all these subse- 
quent proceedings, nearly, the County Court had been divided in their votes, 
Judge Walker and Judge Matthews voting steadily for the policy that finally 
placed the bonds that were sold, and Judge Kite as steadily voting against 
every step taken by the majority of the court. 

Early in 1875 came a decision against the county in a suit against it in 
an endeavor of a purchaser to collect the amount due him. The County Court 
did not wish to appeal the suit, and a mass meeting was held at the court- 
house in June, which passed ringing resolutions calling upon the court to 
appeal the case, and, if necessary, to carry it up to the Supreme Court of 
the United States. Without doubt, many who worked for and voted for 
those resolutions had placed their names upon the petition which was the 
cause of their existence. 

TAXPAYERS BALK. 

So the struggle went on. The court had made a special levy to pay 
the bonds as they matured, and in this year, 1875, that levy amounted to 
nearly $25,000.00. Many taxpayers refused to pay this part of their taxes, 
and suits were instituted to compel them to contribute their part to the pay- 
ment of the bonds. 

To relate in detail the storv of that long struggle would be both un- 



GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 183 

profitable and tedious. Suffice it to say that always the suits went against 
the county, and finally the highest court in the land issued its fiat to the same 
effect, Greene county must pay the bonds. In a group of fiery young fellows 
in a Springfield ofiice on the day when the news of this final decision 
reached the town, one of the young men said with an oath : "Greene county 
never will pay it. She will fight first!" An old gray-beard standing near 
replied: "Well, if you young fellows want to buck agin Uncle Sam, you 
can do it, but, so fur as I'm concerned, I tried that game once and I got a 
heap more'n I wanted!" 

The final outcome of the matter was that funding bonds, bearing in- 
terest at 5 per cent., due in twenty years, and payable after ten years, were 
issued, and the whole debt, now amounting, with interest, to about $400.- 
000.00, was paid. And, as has been said earlier in this chapter, it was paid 
so easily as to be a marvel to all concerned. 

The only other issue of county bonds was that for the sum of $150,- 
000.00 issued in 191 1. as already detailed in this chapter. Thus it will be 
seen that the bonded indebtedness of Greene county is a mere bagatelle for 
so wealthy and populous a community. 

As has been told in another chapter of this history, one of the first 
duties of the County Court was the ordering of the opening of roads in all 
directions, and this has ever been, as it is today, one of the most important 
functions of that court. Never is there a term of the court which does not 
bring forward petitions for or against certain proposed roads, and a large 
portion of the time of the judges is consumed in these matters. Within the 
last few years a law has passed into force, allowing of the organization of 
road districts, which are authorized, on a majority vote of those interested, 
to issue bonds for the purpose of building modern roads. The bonds are 
paid by a moderate tax, which spreads the cost out over a number of years, 
and this method is gaining in popularity. It has already given to Greene 
county manv miles of fine rock roads, and new districts are being planned 
and organized at so fast a rate that it is evident that the county is to have a 
system of public roads unsurpassed anywiiere in the United States. 

In a county traversed, as is Greene, by several swift streams liable 
at any time after a few hours' rainfall to be wholly unfordahlc. the subject 
of bridges must be of great importance. Thus, as early as the Fcbruar>- 
session of the County Court in 1837, we find an appropriation of $100.00. 
"for building bridges across Nowlin's and Click's branches, on the State 
road leading from Springfield in the direction of .\rkansas. And for other 
necessary improvements on said road." It naturally occurs that either Xow- 
lin's and Click's branches were of ven- small proportions, or that bridges 
were exceedingly cheap in those days, jf two could be built for $100.00 and 



184 GREENE COUNTY^ MISSOURI. 

a surplus be left for "other necessar}' improvements in said road!" At any 
rate, those were the first bridges built by Greene county. 

In 1849 ^ substantial bridge was built across the James, near Cason's 
mill, costing $1,800.00. This is the old wooden bridge on the Ozark road. 
After the war bridges were put across several of the larger streams, and from 
that time until the present the county has built a long series of fine steel 
structures over the various watercourses, until almost all of the important 
roads are thus provided for. But as the new rock roads grow in mileage, 
more and mure bridges are required, and in this, as in all else, Greene county 
takes a leading position among the counties of the entire state. 



CHAPTER \-II. 

TRANSPORTATION, RAILROAD UUII/JING AND FREIGHTING. 
By A. il. IlMSwell. 

The early immigration to AJissouri naturally settled along the valleys- 
of the navigable streams. The pioneer who could load his family and house- 
hold possessions upon a flatboat and float the cargo to his chosen destination, 
took the water route as a matter of course. For, slow and toilsome as it was 
to row, or push, or tow the awkward craft against the current of the streams, 
yet the progress was more rapid and the labor less than that reipiired in 
dragging heavy wagons along the narrow and hilly trails that were the only 
paths through the wilderness. 

Early in the history of Missouri the advent of steamboats upon the 
western rivers gave great impetus to the settlement of such lands as were 
within fairly easy reach of the Mississippi, Missouri, Osage, Gasconade and 
other navigable rivers. On the rich alluvial land along the larger of the.se 
streams settled wealthy planters from the more Southern states. Bringing 
their slaves with them, these immigrants developed a great acreage of the 
most fertile lands in the state in a surprisingly short time. But these river 
valleys were of comparatively small area, and were all taken up before the 
main tide of immigration flowed into the state. 

Later a wholly dilTerent type of immigrants appeared. These to a large 
degree sought the southwestern part of the new State. They were the sturdy 
hill people of eastern Tennessee, whose ancestors had for generations wrung 
a scanty subsistence from the valleys and "coves" of the Cumberland moun- 
tains, men who rarely owned slaves, and many of whom brought to their 
new home few worldly possessions more than their good right arms. 

But they had heard of a region in southwest Missouri, known as the 
"Ozark Mountains," which consisted largely of wide, gently rolling i)lateaus 
and fertile valleys; a land of springs and swift, clear .streams; of plentiful 
timber and mild climate; a country from which the United States govern- 
ment had but lately removed the Indians; a territory vastly more fertile 
than their native mountains, yet with enough of the same characteristics to 
render them attractive to men born among the hills. 

This was the class which, in the early thirties, settled in Greene county. 
And, because their chosen home was remote from any navigalile stream, they 
came into their Canaan wholly by land. Among the vcrj- first of them prob- 



1 86 GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 

ably some came on horseback, with their few possessions upon the backs of 
pack horses. For these first comers were compelled to follow the narrow 
trails that had for ages been trodden by the red men, trails that in many in- 
stances are today followed by lines of railroads, so unerringly did these wild 
men of the past select the best routes. These trails soon developed into 
rough frontier wagon roads, and over them came the Tennesseeans in o.x 
wagons, horseback, or on foot, to take possession of their promised land. 

As the country became more populous, and the improved circumstances 
of the people demanded something more tiian the l^are rude necessities of 
pioneer life, small stores were opened, where a few of the commodities of 
■older communities could be had for cash or barter. The trade flourished 
and before long developed something approaching a regular system of trans- 
portation. There grew up a class of men, farmers of the region mostly, who 
spent a large part of every year in the business of freighting, hauling the 
deer skins, peltry, medicinal roots and herbs and other frontier products 
taken by the merchants in exchange for their goods, to St. Louis two hundred 
and fortv miles away to the northeast, and returning laden with new supplies 
to replenish the stock of the traders. 

HOW MERCHANDISE WAS OBTAINED. 

As soon as regular lines of steamboats were established on the Missouri 
river, it was much more expeditious to have merchandise sent up the river 
to Boonville, in Cooper county, some one hundred and twenty-five miles 
north of Greene county. Old Franklin was another of the points to which 
southwestern goods were sent by water. From these points it was hauled to 
Springfield with a saving of about one-half in distance as compared with 
the St. Louis route. For years this was the course for nearly all the mer- 
chandise brought into Greene county. Boonville street in Springfield got 
its name because in those early days it was the beginning of the '"Boonville 
road." Jefferson street and St. Louis street also indicate the destinations 
toward which they pointed. 

But, after a score of years had passed from the first settlement of Greene 
county, the railroads crossed the Mississippi and began that marvelous march 
that was to end only when the Golden Gate had been reached. Impressed 
with the delusion that the public domain of the United States was so large 
that it was practically inexhaustible. Congress had thought it good policy to 
••ofifer immense bodies of it to those railroads which should build their lines 
through the unsettled Western territories. There were several of these land 
grants made in Missouri, and one extended, to and through Greene county. 
These lands were donated by Congress to the State of Missouri, with the 
:stipulation that they were to be used as directed in the act establishing them, 



GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 187 

for the encouragement of railroad building-. Com])anie.s were quickly organ- 
ized to take advantage of the opportunity to obtain these great domains. One 
of these railroads was the Missouri Pacific, which ran westward from St. 
Louis. Thirty-five miles from St. Louis on this line was the town of Frank- 
lin, now for many years called Pacific. From this point the "South West 
Branch of the Pacific Railroad" started toward Springfield and Greene coun- 
ty. The land grant for this line was made in 1852. and the building of the 
road began soon after. 

The grant for this particular road comprised all vacant government lands 
upon the even-numbered sections for a distance of si.x miles on each side of 
the surveyed route. It was specified that the company had the right to take 
all vacant land, up to a distance of fifteen miles on each side of the survey, 
to make up an equivalent of six miles solid alternate sections. The sur\-ey 
crossed Greene county diagonally from about the center of the east line to a 
point but a short distance from the southwest corner of the county. The 
fifteen-mile limit was followed the entire distance across the county, and there 
were about one hundred thousand acres of railroad land in Greene county. 
Some of this was the finest prairie, for the original settlers, not being familiar 
with land that grew no trees, doubted the fertility of the prairies, and settled 
where they were sure of the two prime requisites of life, as they viewed it, 
timber and water. Thus some of the finest lands became railroad property. 
The great Haseltine orchard, five miles west of Sjiringficld. is part of a solid 
section of beautiful prairie that was originally railroad land. 

The great panic of 1857 brought railroad building to a standstill. It was 
slow to start again, and when the Civil war broke out in 1861, the terminus 
of the road was at Rolla, a scant half-way from St. Louis to Springfield. 
Freight shipped over the railroad could, of course, be delivered at the end 
of the track in a fraction of the time required to send it to Boonville by boat. 
Hence the terminus, changing from time to time as the road advanced, was 
the point from which freight and passengers were taken over one of the 
roughest sections of the entire state. 

A regular line of stages had been operated from the time that the countn- 
had become sufficiently settled to make it profitable, and delivered passengers 
and mail in what seemed then to be remarkably short time. The through line 
of stages from St. Louis to the Pacific coast passed through Springfield, hut, 
being discontinued during the Civil war. was never re-established. A regular 
line of stages was, however, maintained to Fort Smith. Arkansas, until the 
railroad, as extended to the west, made other points more convenient from 
which to reach the Arkansas city. 

Greene county is on record as voting a special tax levy of $20,000.00, a 
princely sum for such a communitx' in those days, as a bonus to the railroad 
to hasten its arrival in the countv. This tax was actually levied and collected 



1 88 GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 

in 1856. Whether the money was presented to the raih'oad company, history 
does not say. Certainly, if it was, it whuUy failed to produce the desired ef- 
fect, for when the war put an end to all railroad building, live years later, the 
terminus was no nearer than Rolla, one hundred and twenty miles away. 

The war, as stated above, halted railroad building for the four years 
which it lasted. It is, however, true that in 1864 Col. S. H. Boyd, at the time 
representing this district in C\)ngress, urged upon the government the ad- 
visability of extending the road to Springfield for military purposes. But 
the engineers sent to investigate the project reported adversely, giving as their 
reason that it would be too expensive to warrant the construction, in which 
report they were doubtless right, for time was tu prove the line for many 
miles one of the costliest description. 

But John C. Fremont, the general who commanded in the state for the 
Union during some of the earlier months of the contiict, was e\'idently im- 
pressed with the idea that a railroad into the southwest >vould be a paying 
venture, for within a year after the close of hostilities we find him at the 
head of a company and building toward Springfield. The road had been taken 
from the original company by the State of Missouri for non-fulfilment of 
contract, and Fremont purchased it. with all its equi])nient and appurtenances, 
for the ridiculously small sum of $1,300,000.00. 

The first instalment of purchase money, $325,000.00, was paid, and the 
road was finished to the eastern bank of the Gasconade river, twelve miles 
west of Rolla, where a station was built under the name of Little Piney, now 
known as Arlington. The survey called for a long and expensive tunnel on 
the western side of the Gasconade, and the Fremont company had completed 
some thousand feet of it, when they defaulted on the second instalment of the 
purchase money due the State, and the road at once was taken from them, 
reverting to the State of Missouri once more. Here on the eastern bank of 
the Gasconade the road halted until about the middle of September, 1868. 
Meanwhile another company had been organized and obtained the charter 
from the state. Another survey was run, which, by a system of sharp curves 
at a heavy gradient, climbed out of the Gasconade valley to the uplands, tlnis 
eliminating the troublesome tunnel from the problem. It is, however, a fact 
that at different times during the past twenty-fi\e years railroad authorities 
have debated the advisability of Iniilding a "cut-ofif along the old survey, 
shortening the distance several miles, and furnishing much lighter grades. 
Many are of the opinion that increasing traffic will ultimately compel this to 
be done. 

KIR.ST TR.MN .\RRIVES. 

The new company pushed the construction actively, and in the spring of 
1870 the whistle of the locomotive first wakened the echoes among the hills 
of Greene county. The first train of cars, forming the construction outfit. 



GREENE COUXTV. MlSSOLRl. 1 89 

pulled into the depul in the woods of North Springfield jnst before sunset on 
April 21, 1870. Nearly all the population of Springtield. and a large part of 
that of the nearer parts of the county, were there to greet it, an<l nnisic, cheer- 
ing and speeches were the order of the day. 

But the grand and more forma! celebration of the completion of the mad 
to Springfield did not take place until the 3d of May. On that date the first 
■excursion train that ever came into Springfield arrived from St. Louis. It 
had among its passengers the governor and lieutenant-go\erni)r vf the state, 
the speaker of the house of representatives, Francis B. Hayes, the i)resi(lent 
of the road, and other men prominent in State and nation. 

A stand had been erected in front of the court house on the Public Square, 
and from it many speeches were delivered. So, with music and feasting and 
booming cannon. Greene county welcomed the day that saw her at last in 
communication with the outside world, bv steam and steel rails rather than by 
horse power over rugged and mountainous roads. 

It must be told here that long before the arrival of the railroad there 
was great agitation in Springfield m er the location of the depot. The orig- 
inal survey, made about the year 185J, had passed along the brow of a low 
ridge that forms the northern limit of the plateau on which most of the city 
•of Springfield is built. This route was something over a nn'le from ihe 
Public Scpiare, which was the business center of the town, and ])assed througii 
an unsightly region of stony brush land. When it was evident that at last a 
company had taken hold of the railroad able and willing to build it. the ques- 
tion of the location of the depot for Springfield became at once of jirime im- 
portance. 

At that time the late Dr. E. T. Roblierson, then and until the day of his 
death one of the most prominent and best loved citizens of Springfield, owned 
a tract of some five hundred acres, extending for nearly a mile along liotli 
sides of the survey. Some year or so before the arrival of tiie road in Spring- 
field, Doctor Robberson sold an undivided two-thirds interest in this five-lnin- 
dred-acre tract to Charles E. Harwood and S. H. Boyd. The partnership was 
called Harwood, Robberson & Boyd. These gentlemen then proceeded to 
make the following proposition to the railroad company: If the road shall 
follow the original sun^ey, and tlie depot be located up<in our land, we will 
give the company a right-of-way two hundred feet wide across the entire 
five hundred acres : also the deed to a forty-acre tract on which to erect the 
railroad shops, and, lastly, we will lay out two hundred acres into a town and 
give the company an undivided half interest in it. 

On the other hand, the railroad company was approached by delegations 
of merchants and property owners of Springfield, urging that the depot \x 
located near the Public Square. .\t one time the company made an offer to 
deflect the road to the south far enough to locate the depot upon Center street. 



190 GREENE COUNTY^ MISSOURI. 

about half a mile from the Square, if the citizens would pay the added ex- 
pense, estimated at about $25,000.00. Some of those interested were in favor 
of accepting these terms, but a strong element, including some of the richest 
men of the town, were wholly opposed to paying a cent to the company, 
claiming that the charter of the road compelled it to be built into "Springfield, 
Missouri," which the fonner survey certainly did not touch. At length, early 
in December, 1868, two men reached Springfield as railroad commissioners, 
with authority to locate the depot and settle the question finally. These men 
were Andrew Pierce, of Boston, Massachusetts, a typical New England Yan- 
kee, afterward for some years president of the railroad, and Thomas ]VlcKis- 
sick, a prominent railroad man of St. Louis. Several conferences were held 
by these gentlemen with the principal residents of the town, but the faction 
who opposed any concession to the railroad company were so active in ad- 
vocacy of their point of view that the conferences developed rather into con- 
troversies. 

"Your charter compels you to build into Springfield," said one prominent 
citizen to Andrew Pierce at the last of these meetings; "you have to build into 
Springfield, and we do not have to pay you one cent for doing it!" 

At that. Pierce leaped to his feet, and, smiting the table with his fist, 
shouted: "All right, that settles it. Til very soon show you where I'll put 
that depot !" And he did ! 

Thus the depot was located on the land of Harwood, Robberson & Boyd, 
and the rival city of North Springfield came into being. It required twenty 
years of strife and jealousy before the two corporations finally decided to 
unite, and were consolidated by a practically unanimous vote in the autumn of 
1887. 

The railroad did not tarry at Springfield, but pushed rapidly to the south- 
west, anrl within a year formed a junction with the Missouri, Kansas & Te.xas 
railroad at Vinita, Indian Territory, now Oklahoma, one hundred and thirty 
miles from Springfield. 

Meanwhile, more than a year before the completion of the South West 
Pacific to Springfield, the craze that about that time was epidemic all through 
Missouri, of issuing county or municipal bonds as bonuses to secure the build- 
ing of railroads, had struck Greene county. All around us our neighboring 
counties had voted bonds for various proposed roads, most of them myths 
and destined always to remain so. and Greene county must needs keep up with 
the procession. 

OLD GULF RAILRC-KD. 

Especially after it was certain that the Pacific road was not to be located 
immediately in Springfield, did this mania spread through the community. A 
company had been organized called the Kansas City, Ft. Scott & Memphis 



GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. igr 

railroad, and in 1869 it was building south lioni Kansas City, and apparently 
uncertain just what direction it was to go. Intense interest was aroused in 
Greene county in an effort to have this road follow a route through the county 
and Springfield. Meetings were held. Petitions to the County Court were 
circulated asking that tribunal to take stock in the road and to issue bonds to 
pay for it. In September, 1869, the County Court submitted a proposition to 
be voted on at the November elections of that year, proposing that Greene 
county subscribe for $300,000.00 of railroad stock, $180,000.00 of it to be 
stock of the Fort Scott, Springfield & Memphis Railway and $1 jo,ooo.oo that 
of the Kansas City & Memphis company. In spite of the lengthy petitions of 
voters who had asked this action fr(3m the court, and although large and en- 
thusiastic meetings were held in its behalf, the measure was decisively de- 
feated at the election. 

Unfortunately for the taxpayers of Greene county, that defeat did not 
settle the matter. The next year, 1870, a mass meeting of delegates from 
several counties interested in the building of the road met in Springfield and 
held an enthusiastic session. This resulted in further meetings, petitions and 
pressure of all sorts upon the County Court to take stock. This time VS400,- 
000.00 was the amount named. The petitions asked that the proposition be 
submitted to the voters as before, but the court, under legal advice, assumed 
the responsibility, and ordered the issue of the $400,000.00 of bonds. Some 
$220,000.00 of them were sold, and work was begun on the road in Greene 
county. From that date, for many years, there was almost ceaseless litiga- 
tion. A strong element in the county were bitterly opposed to being taxed to 
pay interest and sinking fund for bonds which they declared were illegal be- 
cause not having been submitted to a vote of the i)eople. Many emphatically 
refused to pay the tax assessed against them for the bonds. There were in- 
dignation meetings, protests and suit after suit, both l)y bond holders clamor- 
ing for the interest on the bonds they had bought, and In- the county officials 
trying to rescind the former action of the court and repudiate the bonds. But 
all resistance proved in vain, and at length the United States Supreme Court 
ruled that the bonds sold were in the hands of innocent purchasers and must 
be paid. For some years after that a portion of every dollar of taxes paid in 
Greene county was applied to interest on these bonds or to a sinking fund for 
their final payment. The rapidly increasing wealth of the county furnished an 
income that wiped out the entire indebtedness in far less time than had been 
thought possible. 

But, as stated above, work had begun on the road after tlie sale of the 
bonds, and, before the panic of 1873 came to paralyse all railroad building 
for awhile, the grading had been completed through .\sh Grove to the west 
line of the county, some twenty-four miles northwest from Springlield. There 
it rested for more than four years, gradually going to ruin under the action- 
of the elements. 



192 GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 

Then, in 1877, a group of Springfield business men determined to again 
.attempt to gain another raih'oad for Springfield. They organized the "West- 
ern Missouri Railroad Company" and went bravely to work to lay the track to 
Ash Gro\-e, twenty miles away. And here it is right that the names of these 
men should find permanent and lionorable record, for, as a result of their fore- 
sight and courage, Springfield, Greene county, and, indeed, all southwest Mis- 
souri, received an impetus for good that has not ceased to this day. It was^ 
at no small financial risk to themselves that these men revived the dead and 
buried enterprise, and their names should be forever rememberd in Greene 
county. They were L. H. Murray, L. A. D. Crenshaw, Charles H. Heer, W. 
J. McDaniel, Charles Sheppard, Ralph Walker and H. E. Havens. All now, 
with the possible exception of Mr. Havens, are in their graves, but the results 
of their action stand as a peq^etual monument to their memory. 

The little twenty-mile road, promptly christened "The Jerk Water Route" 
by some irre\-erent scamp, was finished to Ash Gro\e. It was equipped with 
a hired locomotive, a passenger and baggage coach and a few freight cars. 
But it was operated regularly, and it was destined to be a vital factor in the 
future prosperity of Springfield and of Greene county. It should be stated 
here that these men who built the twenty miles of railroad had substantial sup- 
port and encouragement from their fellow citizens. Meetings were held both 
in town and country, and a total of about $35,000.00 was subscribed. For 
■every dollar the subscribers received "transportation certificates" to the full 
amount of their subscriptions. 

The first train on this little road came into Springfield about 3 p. m. on 
the 20th day of May, 1878. It was greeted by as enthusiastic a welcome as 
that which received the other railroad eight years before. Bells rang, whistles 
blew and cannons roared. And this exultation was justified, for, for the first 
time in its history, Springfield proper had a railroad within lier limits and 
could justly claim at last to be upon the railroad map. But the benefits the 
enterprise was to bring to the town and county had as yet hardly begun. 
Within less than three years this twenty miles of track and the grading done 
in 1870, put together, proved a sufiicient magnet to bring the Kansas City, 
Ft. Scott & Memphis line through Greene county and Springfield. On the 
25th of May, 188 1, the first througl: train from Kansas City rolled into 
Springfield, and the little road had fulfilled its mission. From that dav the 
future of Springfield was assured. It marked the turning point in the city's 
history. Never since then ha\e her citizens faltered in faith and courage. 
Beginning then, realty \alues have steadily risen. Factories by the dozen 
have located here as a result of improved railroad facilities. And the faith 
and pluck of the group to Springfield men to whom it was all due have been 
justified a thousand times. The Kansas City, Ft. Scott & Memphis road did 
not tarry at Springfield, but was pushed rapidly to Memphis, Tennessee, and 



GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 



193 



afterward to Birmingham, Alabama, thus adding very largely to the territory 
within reach of the city's business houses. 

In May, 1901, a consolidation was effected between the Frisco system 
and the Memphis line, and the depot in the north part of the city was aban- 
doned, all trains on both roads arriving and departing from the former "Gulf" 
depot in the older part of town. The main freight yards of the united roads 
are located in the northern part of the city and are of large extent. 

In 1907-8 the Frisco built the largest railroad shops in the Middle West 
on a fine tract of three hundred acres, about a mile west of the city limits. 
This large tract was bought by the citizens of the town for the sum of $45,- 
000.00, and given to the Frisco as a location for these great shops. 

In addition to the two main lines of railroad already described, Greene 
county has several branch lines. Of these the first built was the Ozark Branch, 
in 1882, from Springfield to Ozark, the county-seat of Christian county, twen- 
ty miles southeast. The line was soon extended fifteen miles farther, and the 
little city of Chadwick has grown up at the terminus. Several surveys have 
been made from time to time, with the view of extending the road to some 
point farther south, but none of these efforts have resulted in any more road 
building. 

THE BOLIVAR BRANCH. 

In 1885 the Frisco also built a line to Bolivar, county-seat of Polk 
county, thirty-five miles north. This line was eventually continued to Kansas 
City, and was the Frisco's only entry to that city until the consolidation with 
the Gulf road. The extension of the Bolivar branch to Kansas City was really 
a matter of self -protection on the part of the Frisco, in order to meet and 
checkmate the advance into Frisco territory of the Kansas Cit)', Clinton & 
Springfield Railroad, known at the time as "the Bailey road." That load 
was finally built to a junction with the Memphis line at Ash Grove, in Greene 
county, and was finally absorbed by the Frisco. The main line thus became 
the owner of two parallel roads, which cross and recross each other repeatedly. 
Under the laws forbidding the joint ownership of parallel roads, the p-risco 
had to dispose of its acquisition, and it is operated as an independent line, 
with offices in Springfield. 

In 1902 the Missouri Pacific extended a line from Carthage, in Jasper 
county, Missouri, to a junction with the Iron Mountain & Southern, in north- 
eastern Arkansas. Springfield worked hard for a connection with this line, 
and in 1905 sufficient inducements were made to the company, and it built A 
thirty-five-mile branch from Crane, in Stone county, to Springfield. Many 
people hope that now that this system has built into Springfield, it will continue 
the line eighty miles to the northeast, to a junction with its own Jefferson 
City branch, at Bagnell, thus realizing the dream of many years, of a northern 
(13) 



194 GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 

road, independent of the Frisco. Such a Hne would pass through a fine coun- 
try, and should be a paying venture from the start. 

Greene county has as yet no interurban electric lines. Surveys have been 
lately made for two or three such lines, and with the introduction of cheap 
electricity, generated by the exhaustless water powers of the Ozarks, it is in- 
evitable that the future will see such electric roads radiating from Springfield 
like the spokes from the hub of the wheel. 

While Greene coimty as a whole has no electric lines as yet, the city of 
Springfield has one of the most extensive and best equipped systems of street 
railway of any city of its size in the entire Union. The germ of the city's 
present street railways was planted in 1869, even before the advent of the 
first steam line. In that year a charter was granted under the name of the 
Springfield Railway & Transfer Company, to J. M. Doling, C. B. Holland, N. 
M. Rountree, C. B. McAfee, James Vaughan. Henry C. Young and W. J. Mc- 
Daniel, to 'operate a railroad on any street in Springfield, by steam, or with 
horse-power." 

For some reason this road was never built. It seems, however, that the 
"city fathers" of Springfield were in symjjathy with the eft'ort to procure street 
railways for the town, for we find that on the 8th of March, 1870, the city 
council voted in favor of an issue of $30,000.00 in city bonds, "to aid in build- 
ing street railroads." As the law did not permit the issue of bonds as abonus 
to any enterprise, these astute councilmen directed that the bonds should be 
used in "grading and macadamizing Jefiferson street from the northern bound- 
ary to Water street, and Water street from Jefferson to Boonville street." 

Thus these streets would have been turned over to the street car com- 
pany graded and ready for the ties and iron. The scheme, however, did not 
work, and the streets named were not "graded and macadamized" until years 
after this date. After this the project seems to have slept, for there is noth- 
ing on record telling of any new enterprise of the sort, until September, 1874, 
when another franchise was granted to a company of Springfield men, under 
the same name as the old organization of 1869, viz: "The Springfield Railway 
and Transfer Company." This company, too, proved able to do nothing. 
Why, history does not tell us. After this failure there is a blank in the rec- 
ords of more than six years, until October 20, 1880. At that date a fran- 
chise was granted to three prominent citizens of Springfield, under the title of 
the "Springfield Railway Company." These men were Homer F. Fellows, 
Robert J. McElhaney and James A. Stoughton. The capital stock was $25,- 
000.00, and the object of the companv is set forth to be : "To construct and 
operate a street railway, or railways, from the city of Springfield to and within 
the city of North Springfield, and to run street cars thereon, to be drawn by 
horses or mules." 

At last a company was found willing and able to fulfill the purposes of 



GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 



•95 



its charter. Within a year tlie cars were running on a belt line composed of 
the Public Square, Boonville street, Commercial street, Benton avenue, Jeffer- 
son street and St. Louis street. The road, with its humble equipment of cars 
"drawn by horses or mules," paid fmni tlic first day, and was extended and 
improved rapidly. 

August 9, 1885, ^ company, composed of Charles tl. Rogers, at the lime 
general manager of the Frisco, and R. C. Kerens, a St. Louis capitalist, to- 
gether with Charles Sheppard, L. H. Murray, C. B. McAfee, John O'Day, 
J. C. Cravens and some other Springfield men, took over the lines in opera- 
tion, changed the power to electricity and added greatly to the trackage in 
operation. In February, 1890, followed the "Union Rapid Transit Com- 
pany," and this in turn was followed the same year in July by the "Springfield 
Electric Street Railway Company." In 1895 this was succeeded by the 
"Springfield Traction Company," which, under different managements, has 
continued till the present. 

The Springfield Traction Company has now in operation twenty-three 
miles of track and a capital stock of $400,000.00. It reaches Doling Park on 
the north and the new shops on the west, both points being outside of the city 
limits. Besides these, it has a line to the city limits on the south, and covers 
all important sections of the city. The road is provided with a large mod- 
ern power plant, standing at the corner of Main street and Phelps avenue. 
This plant is now used only as an auxiliary, as the road is operated with 
power from the great hydro-electric plant at Powersite, on White river, forty 
miles away. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

FARMING AND STOCK RAISING. 
By A. M. HasweU. 

Pioneer Methods of Farming — It is a good thing for those of the present 
generation, accustomed only to the modern methods of agriculture, the multi- 
tude of various machines for lightening the labor of fanning and increasing 
the efficiency of the worker, to glance for a moment at the crude implements 
and the old-time ways with which the pioneers of Greene county conquered 
the wilderness and laid the foundations for present-day prosperity and com- 
fort. 

Looked at with the eyes of a modern farmer, the tools with which his 
forefather cultivated his crops would seem as if imported from the center of 
darkest Africa of today. Of these tools, the principal, and in very many in- 
stances the only one, was the so-called "bull tongue plow." This was a nar- 
row, fiat, somewhat curved blade of steel, sharply pointed and mounted upon 
a plow stock much like that of a double shovel of later days with one shovel 
left ofif. 

For loosening up the earth among the stumps and roots, or around the 
standing trunks of a "deadening," nothing could have been better devised 
.than this. One of our modern plows with a broad mold board would not have 
made one-tenth of the progress in a day, or have done it one-tenth as well, as 
the bull tongue ; for the narrow blade could pass through narrow spaces, 
around roots and rocks, and stir the virgin soil to a good depth, where the 
modern plow would have stalled under a tough root or been wrecked upon a 
hidden rock. 

In raising his crop of corn the pioneer not only used the bull tongue for 
preparing the land, but it was also the only tool used in planting and cul- 
tivating the crop. After he had gone over his proposed field time and again, 
crossing and recrossing it until he had reduced it as far as possible to a good 
seed bed, the old-time farmer marked off furrows four feet apart, with the 
same plow which he had used in breaking the land. Then, as he marked other 
rows at right angles to the first, there followed at his heels his son or daughter, 
or, perchance, the good wife herself, dropping at each crossing three kernels 
of corn. Behind the person dropping the seed followed another with another 
bull tongT.ie. throwing back the earth moved by the first plow and thus cover- 
ing the corn. 



GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. I97 

When the young corn had attained size requiring cultivation the ubiquit- 
ous buU tongue was again brought into use. It required four or more times 
through each row with that narrow blade to properly cultivate the corn, and 
two or three acres was about the limit of a long day's work. But, slow and 
tedious as one of our Greene county farmer Ix)ys would think that method 
today, it certainly did raise corn. The long, narrow blades stirred the earth 
much deeper than one of our modern cultivators, and the new fresh soil gave 
the corn just the sustenance which it required, and the stories told of the 
crops raised in those days are enough to make our present-day farmers do 
their modern best to equal. 

OLD-TIME METHODS. 

For raising the small grains, too, the methods were strangely different 
from those now employed. There were no grain drills, no broadcast sowers, 
no disk harrows — nothing but the immortal bull tongue ! In all justice to the 
facts of history, the coat-of-arms of Missouri, instead of two grizzly bears 
holding up a barrel of beer (as Mark Twain has described it J, should be two 
"bull tongue plows" rampant! For there was never a grizzly bear in old 
Missouri, whereas the bull tongue was the implement that won her soil from 
the wilderness, and made her a fitting home for millions of people. 

For raising the small grains then the land was more or less thoroughly 
scratched over with the bull tongue ; then the grain was sown broadcast upon 
it, and the pioneer then cut down a thick-topped young tree, and, hitching his 
team to the big end of the trunk, mounted himself upon a convenient crotch, 
and thus, riding in triumph, he "brushed in" his crop! There are many parts 
of the South where this crude method is employed today. I have seen it in 
operation in central Tennessee within a few years. I do not doubt that it can 
be found in some parts of the remoter Ozarks yet, but it disappeared from 
Greene county long ago. 

When the grain was ready for harvesting you may be sure there was no 
big self-binder waiting ready for it. Far from it. For many years the grain 
was cut with sickles, a handful at a time, and carefully laid in gavels ready 
to bind. When grain cradles were introduced, by which a strong man could 
lay three or four acres of grain in the swath in a day, it was thought that 
the last word in harvesting grain was now certainly spoken — that human 
ingenuity could go no further. After the grain was harvested, the pioneers 
Iiad no better way of cleaning it from the straw than the old-fashioned 
flail : so thev clea^ied off a space of level earth, packed it as hard as possible. 
and, laying the bundles of grain thereon, two men facing each other pounded 
at it with alternate blows from their flails until the most of the grain was 
beaten out. It was a good pair of flail men who could show twenty-five or 
thirty bushels of grain as the results of their long day of hardest labor. 



198 GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 

It was many long years after the settlement of Greene county before the 
first horse-power thresher made its appearance. It was a clumsy treadmill 
machine, worked by two horses, but it was an almost miraculous advance over 
the flail. Long afterward came the large threshing machine worked by four 
or five spans of horses upon a "sweep power." And it was, in truth, a won- 
derful machine. Then swiftly followed the great improvements, resulting in 
the steam operated machines of our day. And, unless all history reverses 
itself, our descendants in the twenty-first century will smile at the crudeness 
of our methods as we now smile at our forefather's "bull tongue" plows and 
flails ! 

After the close of the Civil war, with the influx of immigration and the 
coming of railroads, the methods of farming changed as it were in a day. 
The people of this county, and of all the Ozarks for that matter, have always 
been quick to adopt anything new which appealed to them as better than that 
which they already had. In the matter of plows alone, I remember that in 
one season — I think it was 1868 — the firm of McGregor & Murray (now the 
McGregor-Noe Hardware Company), of Springfield, sold more than seven 
hundred "turning" plows. When the thinly populated condition of the county 
is taken into consideration, that means that a very large proportion of the 
farmers of Greene changed from the old plow to the new in one year. 

Smaller Farms and Diversity of Crops — Greene county is especially 
blessed in not being a region where the farmer has to place his reliance al- 
most wholly on any one particular crop. Here he can choose for his specialty, 
if he so wills, almost any standard crop of the temperate zone. Or he can 
have crops of any and all grains, fruits and vegetables. Thus, with "more 
than one string to his bow," he can feel sure that if disaster befalls one or two 
of his crops, the others will hold him safe from harm. 

As in all the best states of the Central West, two great crops here take 
precedence of all others — corn and wheat. Greene county easily holds her 
own in the production of either. Here, as in all the rich Western States, the 
original settlers rarely used any fertilizers upon their land, and laughed at 
the idea that the productiveness of such soil could ever be exhausted. 

I have seen many places on old farms in this county where the log stables 
had been torn down and moved, again and again, to be set up in a new spot, 
because the accumulation of manure rendered it impossible to use the stable 
without cleaning it out, and it was easier to move the stable than the manure ! 
Newcomers, thirty or forty years ago, frequently found several such beds of 
well rotted manure upon the farms they purchased. When they spread those 
piles upon their fields they were laughed at by some of the old settlers, but 
when the crops they got were seen these same old settlers were quick to follow 
their example, and distributed their own neglected piles of fertilizers. 



GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. I99 

SMALLER FARMS. 

The great possible diversity of crops has a rapidly increasing tendency 
toward smaller farms. "Small farms and diversity of crops," could well be 
chosen as the motto of Greene county. Take a late map of the county, which 
shows the names of each land owner, and the size of his holdings, and you will 
be surprised to see how far this subdividing of lands has already gone. In 
one government township, taken haphazard from the map, I iind one hundred 
and forty-four farms. Of these, ninety-six, exactly two-thirds of all, are 
tracts of eighty acres or less. Fifty-one are forty-acre tracts. I have little 
doubt that, leaving out the hundreds of little truck famis that cluster around 
Springfield and the other towns, it is safe to say that fully half of the farms 
■of the county are less than sixty acres in extent. There are, of course, some 
large farms. There are also some large timbered tracts which are held by 
individual owners, but the tendency, as land rises in value, is toward subdi- 
vision into smaller tracts. 

Small Farms — Better Methods — Farm Bureau — Smaller farms call for 
greater care, more intensive cultivation, improv'ed methods. The man with a 
quarter-section of cheap land could afford to scratch over fifty or sixty acres 
and raise twenty bushels of corn to the acre, but the man today, with forty 
acres of high-priced land, would quickly go into the poorhouse if he was con- 
tent with any such yield as twenty bushels to the acre. 

Hence the incentive toward better methods of farming. The day for 
sneering at "book farming" has forever passed. Today the best farmer is 
the man who can most readily adapt himself to modern methods in his .farm 
work. Greene county has not been backward in realizing the wisdom of mak- 
ing use of every possible means toward increasing the yield of crops, bettering 
the quality of the live stock and giving her fanners all help possible in learn- 
ing- all modem methods. In 191 2 a meeting was calleil. and there was organ- 
ized "The Greene County Farm Bureau." Judge A. B. Appleby, one of the 
most practical and successful farmers, was elected president, and George W. 
Campbell, another farmer of the same stripe, secretary. 

Many Springfield business men are interested in the success of this bu- 
reau, and are aiding it with time and money. Among the things accom- 
plished by the bureau is a fine collection of the products of Greene county 
farms. This was exhibited at the State Fair at Sedalia in the fall of 191 3, 
and took first prize for a county exhibit, from the entire state. 

Other important matters which are fostered by the farm bureau are the 
boys' corn clubs and the girls' tomato clubs. The rule is that each boy enter- 
ing the contest shall plant and tend one acre of com. doing all the work him- 
self. The girls are to plant an eighth of an acre of tomatoes, also doing the 
«ntire work themselves. 



200 GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 

The season of 1913 was such a bad one for corn, on account of the 
drouth, that the contest on com was made for the best ten ears. There were 
some forty contestants, and tlie merchants of Springfield furnished a large 
number of valuable prizes, which were distributed to the winners. The credit 
for establishing these clubs is due to Professor J. R. Roberts, the able county- 
superintendent of schools. For some time he added the care of this branch 
to his many other labors, but on the organization of the bureau, turned it 
over to that body. 

IMPROVED METHODS. 

Improved methods, introduced from whatever source, are yearly increas- 
ing the yield of Greene county crops. Our standard crop, winter wheat, nat- , 
urally has been among the first to attract the attention of those who are study- 
ing and testing the ways in which the crop can be largely increased. And 
these experiments and tests have by no means been without results. The av- 
erage crop of the United States is about thirteen bushels of wheat to the acre. 
Greene county very rarely has fallen as low as that average. Occasionally 
some unusual weather conditions, or some unpreventable invasion of chinch 
bugs or Hessian flies, have cut our crop, as they cut crops at times everywhere 
else, but, one year with another, Greene county is one of the regions where 
wheat can be counted a sure crop. 

The year 19 12 was an unusually poor one for wheat, but 191 3 followed 
with a crop that could challenge any part of the world. The most careful and 
unprejudiced estimate of the crop of that year is that for every acre of wheat 
sown Greene county threshed no less than twenty-three bushels. That means, 
of course, that there were many individual crops that far exceeded those 
figures. For instance, Mr. F. S. White, who is doing more than any other one 
man in showing how the lands of Greene county can be increased in produc- 
tiveness, threshed wheat on his farm two miles south of Springfield that went 
fifty-one bushels to the acre. This was on land that had been in cultivation 
many years, and until ]\Ir. White took hold of it with his improved modern 
methods, had probably never yielded twenty bushels of wheat to the acre. 
Not a great distance from Mr. White's field, Mr. Steury raised forty-three 
bushels to the acre on a forty-acre field. There were scores of yields of from 
thirty to forty bushels to the acre, and this in the driest vear in the past twenty- 
five years. 

The corn crop of Greene county far exceeds in quantity all other grains 
combined. The soil of the entire county is emphatically "corn land," although 
that of the river valleys and the better types of prairie is, of course, the best. 
The average crop of corn will run about thirty to thirty-five bushels to the 
acre. In his report of the crop of 1912 Mr. Fitzpatrick, State Labor Commis- 
sioner, gives the acreage in corn for that year as 77,063, the average yield as 



GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 20 T 

thirty bushels per acre, and the total crup as 2,211,890 bushels. As has beea 
shown by the statistics of crops exjxirtecl from the county, nearly the whole 
of this immense amount of corn was consumed in the county. Only 31,602 
bushels found its way into the outside markets. That is, the county used six- 
ty-nine-seventieths of its crop of corn within its own borders. 

The statement that thirty bushels per acre was the average hardly gives 
a fair idea of the corn-producing possibilities of the county. Instances are 
well authenticated of large fields that produced as much as eighty bushels to 
the acre. Mr. M. J. Hubble, one of Springfield's veteran citizens, whose 
residence here dates well before the Civil war, recently published the story of 
a champion ten acres of corn, raised about 1859, in competition for a large 
prize offered for the best ten acres of corn, by the Southwestern District fair. 
Air. Hubble goes into the smallest particulars as to the method employed, in- 
cluding, by the way, the use of the bull tongue plow, of which I have spoken. 
The yield, as recorded by disinterested judges, was a fraction over one hun- 
dred and twenty-five bushels to the acre. That is, so far as I know, the rec- 
ord. But already the new methods which are being used have shown crops 
of ninety bushels per acre, and it is well within probabilities that the old-lime 
record will be broken in Greene county. 

Stock Raising — The short and mild winters, the fine natural pasturage 
of blue joint, blue grass and white clover, and the unnumbered gushing and 
unfailing springs of purest water, have rendered Greene county a fine stock- 
raising region from its earliest settlement. When the lands were largely un- 
fenced commons, the herds of cattle were, of course, larger, and as a matter 
of fact the quality of the stock was proportionately poorer. Today, with no- 
cattle allowed to run at large, the whole system of raising and fattening live 
stock has changed. 

No Greene county fanner today, with his high-priced lands, costly im- 
provements and steadily rising prices for corn and fodder, can afford to raise 
the old-fashioned, long-horned cattle, which in former times were able to 
rustle for their own living for most of the year, and could then be partially 
fattened and sold at a profit. Hence, we find today that our farmers rarely 
keep any stock that is not at least well graded up toward thoroughbreds. 

The changed conditions in the i)lains country of the far West and South- 
west, which have put an end to the free grazing of huge herds of cattle, have 
made stock raising here, as elsewhere through the Central West, a growing 
and profitable industry. Our fanners, even those with comparatively small 
holding of land, are finding that there is money in fattening a few stall-fed 
steers, and the sales of such stock are steadily increasing. 

Hogs, too, form an important part of Greene county live stock, and ex- 
ceed the cattle in value. Horses and mules are also largely raised. The horse? 
are mostly sent to the northern cities, while most of the mules find their way 



:202 GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 

to the cotton fields of the Southern states. The sheep growing industry has 
not had the attention which its importance, and the adaptabihty of the region 
to it, deserves. Of late years, however, it is slowly growing, and has at- 
tained considerable importance. For the rougher hill pastures of the county 
nothing could be better than sheep raising. Foot rot, scab and the other dis- 
eases that affect these animals elsewhere are practically unknown here. An- 
gora goats are also attracting some attention as profitable stock for these 
rougher tracts. 

PRODUCTS SHIPPED OUT. 

Mr. John T. Fitzpatrick, the energetic and capable commissioner of the 
State Bureau of Labor, has kindly furnished me with advance sheets pertaining 
to Greene county, from his forthcoming annual report, from which I quote 
the following figures : 

"Surplus Shipments, Greene County, 1912 {Nothing Consumed Loeally 
Is Included) — Cattle, 11,346 head; hogs, 35,732 head; horses and mules, 
4,384 head; sheep, 12,471 head; goats, 320 head; jacks, stallions, 12 head." 

Of farm products, Mr. Fitzpatrick gives the following. It should here 
be emphasized that these figures are of the surplus only. Our wheat, for in- 
stance, is almost wholly used in the mills of the county (see later figures of 
mill products). Corn, also, is almost all used in the county. 

"Wheat, 168,300 bushels; corn, 35,602 bushels; hay, 238 tons; buck- 
wheat, 5,500 bushels; planting and garden seeds, 19,510 pounds. 

"Mill Products — Flour, 526,792 barrels; cornmeal, 2,739,527 pounds; 
i)ran, shipstuffs, 8,159,527 pounds; feed, chops, 6,008,740 pounds. 

"Farmyard Products — Poultry, live, 5,552,214 pounds; poultry, dressed, 
3,620,295 pounds; eggs, 8,102,460 dozen; feathers, 100,130 pounds." 

These farmyard- products indicate somewhat of the importance of the 
poultry raising industry of Greene county. When it is recollected that it is 
estimated that at least one-fourth of the entire product is consumed in the 
■county, either on the farms or sold in Springfield and other towns in the 
•county, the above figures are significant. As a matter of fact, while Missouri 
IS the greatest poultry state, Greene county is the greatest poultry county in 
that state — therefore the greatest chicken county in the United States. Spring- 
field, as the capital of Greene county, makes the claim of being the largest 
initial market of poultry and poultry products in the entire Union. To con- 
tinue Mr. Fitzpatrick's statistics, Greene county shipped in 1912 of her sur- 
plus products : 

"Hides and pelts. 2,691,580 pounds: dressed meats, 13,585 pounds; tal- 
low, 32,585 pounds. 

"Dairy Products — Butter, 113,418 pounds; milk and cream, 57,536 gal- 
ions; cheese, 80,000 pounds. 



GREENE COUNTY, MISSdlKI. 203 

"IVool and Mohair — Wool, 277,390 pounds; mohair, 12,642 pounds. 

"Miscellaneous — Caiined vegetables and fruit, 4,957,500 pounds; straw- 
berries, 33,240 crates; apples, 100,771 barrels." 

One of the developments of the past decade is the greatly increased at- 
tention paid to market gardening and truck farming. The products of hun- 
dreds of these little farms does not appear in tlie statistics given in this chap- 
ter, for the reason that they are all sold in the markets of Springfield and 
other towns in the county for home consumption. Nevertheless, the total of 
such products foots up a large amount, and Springfield is probably as well sup- 
plied with fresh vegetables every day in the year as any town of its size in 
the whole country. Each of these little fanns is also a producer of chickens 
and eggs, and many of them add such small fruits as strawberries, raspberries, 
gooseberries, etc., and find the combination to be profitable. 

Taken as a whole, no county in the central west surpasses Greene in the 
variety and excellence of its farms and its farm products. And as the farmer 
learns to apply to his work the same systematic attention that the merchant or 
■manufacturer has to apply to his. the profits will increase, and the man behind 
the plow will reap greater and greater benefits from his labor. 



CHAPTER IX. 

Various Divisions of Greene County. 

By A. JI. Haswell. 

HISTORY OF EACH TOWNSHIP THE ORIGINAL TOWNSHIPS CHANGES IN 

THESE CIVIL -SUBDIVISIONS — POPULATION AT VARIOUS PERIODS EARLY 

SETTLEMENT OF EACH TOWNSHIP HISTORY OF TOWNS AND VIL- 
LAGES SPECIAL HISTORY AND EVENTS. 

As previously told in this history, the first business transacted at 
the initial term of the County Court of Greene county, at its first session, 
March ii, 1833, was the subdivision of the vast territory just set aside by 
the Legislature as Greene county. This was no light task, and while we some- 
times smile at the quaint methods of describing boundaries of these town- 
ships we have at the same time to acknowledge that those pioneer officials 
did able and conscientious work, and were not long in bringing order out of 
the chaos natural to the beginnings of such undertakings. 

The first townships were naturally of great size; any one of them 
larger than any one of the several modern counties that originally formed 
a part of Greene county. Of those townships formed from territory then 
included in Greene county but which are now parts of other counties, I shall 
mention no more than the fact of their organization and names. But of those 
which are now a portion of Greene county I will give a fuller description 
and history. The boundaries of the first townships were given in Chapter 
in. These townships were Spring River, Jackson, Mooney, Campbell, White 
River, Oliver Creek, Sugar Creek and Elk Creek. On March 13, 1837, 
Boone township was organized, covering territory described as follows: 
"Beginning at a point two miles east of the range line, between ranges 23 
and 24, on the line of Polk county, thence due south to Taney county line; 
thence west to the southwest corner of Greene county; thence due north 
♦vith the west boundary' line of Greene county to the Polk county line; 
thence with said line east to the beginning." 

This covers considerably more than one-fifth of present Greene county, 
besides a large territory now in Christian county. On August loth of the 
same year, 1837, Robberson township was created, with boundaries given 
thus: 

"Beginning at the Polk county line, at the northeast corner of Boone 
township; thence south with the said township line to the old base line; 
thence east with said base line to the western boundary of Jackson town- 



GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 20S 

ship; thence north with said hne to the Polk county hne; tlience west willi 
said Hne to place of beginning. This township to be known as Robertson 
township." 

The pioneer scribes spelled that name, Robberson, in several different 
ways : Robertson, as in the record above, Robinson, Robbisson, etc. Whether 
the fact that the record of the first creation of the township is given as 
''Robertson" was ever corrected by the court, I cannot find. However, after 
the first few years we find it correctly named, and Robberson it has been for 
seventy years at least. 

The house of Elizabeth Robberson was made the voting place for the 
new township, and Bennett Robberson, Hosea Mullings and James Wells 
were appointed judges of elections. Two other townships were organized 
this year, 1838, called Benton and Ozark, respectively. Neither of them 
now touch Greene county. In May, 1841, Polk township was organized; 
much of it outside of present Greene county boundaries, but also including 
a large part of what is now^ the southwest quarter of the county. May, 
1846, saw Cass township organized as follows : 

"Beginning at a point six miles east of the eastern boundary of Dade 
county, on the northern boundary line of Greene county; thence to the south 
boundary of Robberson township; thence east seven and one- fourth miles; 
thence north to Sac river; thence down Sac river to the range line I>etween 
ranges 22 and 23 ; thence north with said line to the northern boundary of 
the county; thence with the line dividing Greene and Polk counties to the 
place of beginning." 

These boundaries, with the exception of a small tract in the southeast 
corner of the township described, and which was afterwards added to Rob- 
berson, continued for many years until Murray township was taken off the 
south end of Cass. In 1847 two new townships were made, Dallas and Porter. 
Dallas is now wholly outside of Greene county, and only a part of the 
northern portion of Porter is included in what is now Washington town- 
ship, in the southeast corner of Greene. 

A NEW TOWNSHIP IS FORMED. 

At the April term of County Court, in 1856. a new township was cut 
■out of Boone and Polk townships, and named for one of the judges of the 
court (who happened not to be present that day). Fanner township. .\s 
soon as Judge Farmer returned he made a motion to call the new division 
"Center Township." and as such it continues to this day. 

In April, 1859, a strip se^■en miles wide was taken from the soutli side 
■of Greene county and made a part of the new county of Christian. This move 
Tiad been in contemplation for several years, but had been strenuously opposed 
by the people of Greene county, and by aid of their representative in the 



206 GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 

Legislature they were able to postpone the organization of the new county for 
some time. At last, in 1859, it was accomplished. The principal reason 
for this opposition was the fact that a railroad indebtedness had been placed 
upon the county by vote of the people. This amounted to $80,000.00, and 
it was considered unfair that a part of the people who had incurred this 
debt should be released from paying their part. 

However, the new county was an accomplished fact, and the new boun- 
daries required readjustment of the townships along the south line of the 
county, as now formed. So at the April term of the court, in 1859, three 
new townships were created, all of which continue to the present day, with 
many modifications of boundaries. These were Clay, Wilson and Pond 
Creek. As given in the original order, the boundaries are as follows : 

"Pond Creek — Beginning at the northeast corner of section 2, township 
28, range 23, thence south with the section line to the south boundary of 
the county; thence west to the Lawrence county line; thence north to the 
northwest corner of township 28, range 24; thence east with the township 
line to the beginning." Elections were ordered held at Wade's Chapel. 

"Wilson township — Beginning at the northeast corner of Pond Creek 
township; thence east on the township line between townships 28 and 29 
to the range line between ranges 21 and 22; thence south with said line to 
the Christian county line; thence west along the county line to the south- 
east corner of Pond creek township; thence north to the beginning. 

"Clay townshij) — Beginning at the northeast corner of Wilson township; 
thence east to the northeast corner of section 6, township 28, range 20 ; thence 
south on the section line to Christian county ; thence west on the county 
line to the southeast corner of Wilson township; thence north to the be- 
ginning." Elections to be held at H. Hollingsworth's. 

Within two years after the organization of these townships civil war 
was in the land; and no further townships were created until that great 
controversy was finally settled. Then in June, 1866, \Valnut Grove town- 
ship was formed from the northern part of Boone; and at the same term 
several sections from the northwest part of Center township were added to 
Boone. 

At the January term of court, in 1873, Brookline township was fomied 
as follows : 

"Brookline — Beginning at the northeast corner of section i, township 
28, range 23; thence to the southeast corner of section 25; thence west to 
the southeast corner of section 30: thence north to the northwest corner of 
section 26 : thence east to the northeast comer of section i ; thence to the 
place of beginning." All in township 28, of range 23. 

About the same time Washington township was formed in the south- 
east corner of the county, by taking thirty sections in township 28, range 20, 
from Taylor township. 



GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 207 

At the October term of court, in 1888, a new townsliip was created under 
the name of RepubHc. This was taken in part from Pond Creek, Center 
and Brookhne townships, and covered the following described territory : 

"Republic — The west half of township 28, range 23; also section 28, 29, 
30, 31, 2,2 and ^T, of township 29, range 23; also sections 6, 7, 18, 19 and 
30 of township 28, range 24." 

Some dissatisfaction arising over these boundaries, we find that at the 
July term, in 1889, the first order was rescinded and the following order 
made setting the boundaries of Republic township: 

"The west half of township 28. range 23; and sections 28, 29. 30. 31, 
3- and ^T, of township 29, range 23 ; also sections 25 and 36 of township 29. 
range 24: and sections i, 12, 13, 24 and 25 of township 28, range 24." The 
town of Republic was designated as the voting place of Republic town- 
ship. 

At a term of the County Court, held in June, 1886, an order was made 
creating a township out of territory taken from Cass and Robberson town- 
ships. This new division was named Murray, and included twenty-four 
sections off the southern end of Cass, being sections 13 to 36 inclusive, of 
township 20, range 23 ; also ten sections from the southwest corner of Rob- 
berson township. Some years later a change was made making the terri- 
tory taken from Robberson to be one and a half miles east and west, and 
four miles north and south. This makes the boundaries of Murray town- 
ship to be seven and a half miles from east to west and four miles from 
north to south. The town of Willard was designated as the voting place 
for the new township. 

The population of the various townships in Greene county will be found 
given in detail in Chapter XIX of this history, where it more appropriately 
appears, and need not be repeated here. Of the several towns and villages 
scattered through the county, however, it will be necessary to give brief 
outlines. 

THE OLDEST V1I,I,.\GE. 

The oldest of these outlying villages is undoubteiliy Kbenezer. located 
upon section 12, township 30, range 22. in Robberson township. The first 
settler here was a man named Painter, in the year 1831. In 1834 the cele- 
brated Robberson family came from Tennessee and located in the neighlwr- 
hood. This family consisted of the widowed mother, Elizabeth Robi)er- 
son, and seven sons and an e(iual number of daughters. The prairie where 
they settled took the family name, and the township afterwards organized 
also bears that title to this day. At Ebenezer was organized a church, and 
when the question of a name was up some one suggested "Ebenezer." "Thus 
far the Lord has led us on." and thus the name of both church and hamlet 
was settled. Here was. at a very early day, the site of Ebenezer College. 



208 GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 

long since discontinued. There is a church building, a flour mill, and thriving 
public school; also, several general stores. 

In the northeast part of the county is Fair Grove, also an old town. 
This is located upon the northeast quarter of section 29, township 31, range 
20, in Jackson township. It is a thriving trading point; has a number of 
well stocked stores, a fine school, two churches, and is on the lately located 
"Lake to the Gulf" highway, from Duluth, Minnesota, to the Gulf of Mexico. 
If a railroad is built northeast from Springfield, Fair Grove is logically 
upon the line to be followed. Several surveys have been run in the past, and 
all of them passed through Fair Grove. 

Cave Spring, in the central part of Cass township, is also one of the 
older villages of Greene county. It is located upon a part of the southwest 
quarter of the southeast quarter of section 4, township 30, range 23. It 
takes its name from a very fine bold spring that flows from a cave like depres- 
sion, almost in the center of the town. The first resident of Cave Spring 
was John Grigsby, who built a house of logs about 1839. A store was es- 
tablished by Alfred Staley in 1848, and stocked with goods hauled overland 
from Boonville. The Mount Zion Presbyterian church was organized a 
short distance south of Cave Spring in 1839. It afterwards built a log meet- 
ing house near the spring. This building was used much of the time during 
the war for sheltering soldiers and as a military store house. In 1869 the 
church built a good frame edifice, with a large school room on the ground 
floor and a church auditorium above, which it still occupies. This is .said to 
have been the first Presbyterian church organized west of St. Louis. 

The surrounding country is a fine agricultural region, and Cave Spring 
has a good local trade. 

In Boone township, on sections 20 and 21, of township 30 of range 24, 
is the city of Ash Grove. The first settler upon this territory was Joseph 
Kimbrough, who opened a store here in 1853. Afterwards the pioneer firm 
of Sheppard & Kimbrough, of Springfield, conducted the store. When the 
Civil war opened, this store and a blacksmith shop comprised about all there 
was of Ash Grove. But after the peace, the rich territory around the place 
and the influx of new comers started the little town to growing, and in 1871 
a plat was filed of "The Town of Ash Grove." This plat was afterwards 
re-filed, in 1879, by decree of the Circuit Court, in order to correct certain 
errors in the first survey. The census of 1880 gave the population as five 
hundred. In 1890 it had increased to nine hundred and fifty; in 1900 it had 
one thousand and thirty-nine, and in 1910, one thousand and seventy-five. 
Since that date it has grown rapidly and has built many solid improvements. 
It has a large number of stores, an opera house, hotels, churches of the 
dififerent denominations, flour mills, electric lights, good streets, and is in 
-every respect a thriving and prosperous little city. 



GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 2O9 

Just outside of the city limits of Ash Grove are the extensive works of 
the Ash Grove Lime and Portland Cement Company. This is one of the 
largest concerns in that line in the State of Missouri, and sends out annually 
thousands of tons of its products. 

Ash Grove is on the main Kansas City line of the Frisco, and is also the 
southern terminus of the Kansas City, Clinton & Springiield railroad. 

In the western part of Republic township is the little city of the same 
name. This is located upon sections 19 and 20 of township 28, range 23, 
and is a station upon the main line of the Frisco, some fourteen miles south- 
west of Springfield. The first plat of any part of what is now Republic was 
filed on the 8th of January, 1879, by William B. O'Neal. Several additions 
have been added from time to time. The present population, or rather that 
given in the census of 1910, is eight hundred and eighty-four. Since that 
census was taken there have been many additions to the city, from immigra- 
tion, and the present population is certainly well above one thousand. 

METROPOLIS OF THE PR.'MRIES. 

Republic is in the heart of the best prairie land in Greene county, and 
enjoys a fine local trade. It is one of the chief centers of the strawberry 
culture of all the southwest, and ships that fruit by many car loads every 
season. It is also noted as headquarters of the cantaloupe trade. There 
is one of the finest merchant flour mills in the State, also dry goods, hard- 
ware,' implement and general stores. An electric light system ; Baptist, Con- 
gregational and Methodist churches. With all of which the town boasts, a fine 
school system including a first class high school, housed in a fine brick building. 
Republic is in every way a prosperous and intelligent community, and has by 
no means reached the limits of its growth. 

In the northwest corner of the county is the old town of Walnut Grove, 
in the municipal township of the same name. It is located upon parts of 
sections 22, 13 and 14, all in township 31, of range 24. Walnut Grove was 
first platted in the last of December, 1859, although it was in existence many 
years prior to that date. During pioneer times it was widely known under 
the quaint name of "Possum Trot." It is a central trading point, aiul has a 
number of active mercantile establishments, a fine school, churches and lodges 

When the Frisco railroad was built into Greene county, in 1870. that 
company joined with the late John AlcCabe and located a town upon sections 
3 and 4, in township 29, range 20. and named it Strafford. The place has 
always been a good trading center, and has made a good growth. .\t pres- 
ent it has a number of stores, a mill, two churches, a fine rural high school, 
the building for which was erected in 1914 at a cost of $10,000.00. a livery 
stable, and is in everv way a thriving little town. Strafford is the nearest 
(14) 



2IO GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 

railroad station for all of Jackson township, and is an important shipping 
point. Bois D'Arc is another thriving little city, located upon a part of 
sections i and ii, of township 29, range 24, in Center township, fifteen 
miles northwest of Springfield. This place is the successor of a town of the 
same name which was located at an early date at the head of Clear creek, 
some two miles east of the present town. When the Kansas City, Springfield 
& Memphis (now a part of the Frisco), was built, in 1881, the present town 
was surveyed, and at first was known as "New Bois D'Arc," but soon dropped 
the first part of the name. Bois D'Arc is surrounded by a fine country and 
has a strong local trade. It has numerous stores, churches, a high school and 
an enterprising and thrifty population. 

Other towns and trading points in the county are Brookline, Galloway, 
Palmetto, Battlefield, Turner, Piano, Phoenix, Harold, Pearl, Bethesda, Hick- 
ory Barrens, Willard and Nichols. The two latter demand a little further 
detail. Willard is located in Murray township, nine miles from Springfield, 
on the Bolivar branch of the Frisco. It was laid out in 1884 by the late 
Dr. E. T. Robberson. It occupies a fine sightly location upon Grand Prairie, 
on sections 23 and 26, township 30, range 23. Surrounded by a fine farming 
section, it has a fine local trade and is a prosperous and growing place. 

Nichols is situated at the crossing of the old main line of the Frisco 
and its Kansas City line. It is four miles from Springfield, to the west in 
Campbell township, and on the northwest part of section 17, township 29, 
range 22. It was originally laid out by the late Doctor James Evans, in 1882, 
and was then called "Junction City." Later it took the name of Nichols, in 
honor of the late Danton H. Nichols, for many years superintendent of the 
Frisco, with headquarters in Springfield. 



CHAPTER X. 

COUNTY GROWTH AND PROGRESS. 

By A. M. Haswell. 

MISCELLANEOUS EVENTS OF INTEREST POPULATION BY DECADES POPULA- 
TION BY LAST FEDERAL CENSUS BY TOWNSHIPS AND PRECINCTS 

FIRST EVENTS IN THE COUNTY MARKET QUOTATIONS AT 

DIFFERENT PERIODS THE "ROUGH SIDE OF LIFE." 

The first federal census, taken after Greene county had a separate legal 
existence, was that of 1840. At that time the immense area first set aside 
for the new county had already been much curtailed by the formation of 
Other counties cut out of its domain, but there was still remaining a vast 
extent of territory, and the small number of inhabitants, seven years after 
the organization of the county, illustrates the thinly settled condition of the 
region. The total population, as shown in this census, including blacks as 
well as whites, was only five thousand three hundred and seventy-two. 

Ten years passed; the area of the county was still ninrc cut down by 
the organization of other counties, but the number of people in liie reduced 
boundaries was twelve thousand seven hundred and eighty-five. 

The numbers as given in the various subdivisions of the county were 
as follows : 

Town of Springfield 4" 

Campbell township 1,820 

Boone township 959 

Cass township 974 

Dallas township '''/O 

Finley township 1,640 

Jackson township 74- 

Ozark township 5^9 

Polk township 73- 

Porter township 494 

Robberson township M57 

Taylor township '•3'*'" 

Of this number one thousand two hundred and thirty were negro slaves, 
and seven free persons of color. 

Thus we see that the county, in spite of being shorn of a large amount 



212 GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 

of territory, increased its population only a little less than one hundred and 
fifty per cent in the decade just passed. 

A school census taken midway between the last federal census and the 
one five years in the future, in 1855, gives some interesting figures. This 
does not, of course, give the total population, being only a list of persons of 
school age, and of the property subject to school tax. It makes the total 
valuation of the county to be $2,912,928. Of this there are listed the fol- 
lowing classes : 

One thousand four hundred and twent_\- slaves, valued at $704,975 ; land, 
$1,449,895 : town lots, $105,917: money and notes, $239,926: other personalty, 
$512,725. The number of children of school age (this, of course, not in- 
cluding the negro children, who ha\'e already been accounted for under the 
head of "property"), was 5,980. Thus, in fifteen years after the first census, 
the white children alune numbered 608 more than the entire population, white 
and black, included in 1840. Certainly, Greene county at that time was in 
no danger from Roosevelt's bugaboo of "race suicide!" a menace, by the 
way, which the county has alwa3's carefully guarded against. 

OTHER STATISTICS. 

Some other brief statistics also give a sidelight on the rapid growth of 
the county between 1840 and 1850. In the first named year the entire county 
revenue from all sources was $1,555.56. The expenditures were $1,533.50, 
leaving a balance of $21.76 in the treasury. In 1850 the revenues had grown 
to $2,472.97, and the expenses that year ran up to $3,263.44, leaving a deficit 
of $780.47. We may be sure that the ever-present critics of all in authority 
were not slow to denounce the extravagance of a County Court which would 
thus plunge their constituency into burdensome debt! 

The census of i860 shows that the wave of immigration had run its 
course, and that the county was practically at a standstill in population. Of 
course we must remember tliat further territory had been taken from Greene 
county since the last census, several populous townships having been thrown 
into the formation of Christian county and Greene reduced to the bounds 
which she retains until this day. So that the slow growth is far more ap- 
parent than real. The figures total 13,186, only 401 more than at the pre- 
ceding census. Of this total 1,668 were slaves. By precinct and township 
the figures were as follows : 

Boone Township 1.034 Pond Creek Township 808 

Campbell Township (including Robberson Township 1.933 

Springfield) 3.442 Taylor Township 916 

Cass Tovv'nship 1.259 Wilson Township 850 

Center Township .-i7^47 Jackson Township 1,124 

Clay Township 678 



GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 213 

Before the next census, that of 1870, Greene county had passed through 
four years of devastating civil war. We have ni) means of knowing tlie popu- 
lation remaining in the county at the close of hostilities, but it is sure that the 
number was far below that at the time of the census of i860. The growth 
from that time to the census year was rapid, almost phenomenal, for the num- 
ber given is a total of 21,549, a gain of 8,363 over that of i860, an increase 
of only a little less than 65 per cent, and this in less than half of the decade, 
for the real growth did not begin until well into 1866. Of the total as 
given, 3,249 were negroes. 

B}' townships, the figures are as follows: 

Boone Township 1,692 Pond Creek Township 882 

Campbell Township 3>i39 Robberson Township -.419 

Cass Township 1-531 Taylor Township 998 

Center Township 1,681 Wilson Township i'053 

Clay Township 840 City of Springfield 5o55 

Jackson Township iv59 

The census of 1880 probably created more dissatisfaction in Springfield 
and Greene county generally than any that had preceded it. Charges were 
made that it was so loosely and carelessly taken that a large number ot in- 
habitants had been missed entirely. There was some talk of api)caling to 
Washington for a recount, and a good deal of correspondence to that effect. 
But nothing resulted, and the count stootl as first gi\-en. 

The figures given as the total for the cnunty were _'8,Si 7. Those for the 
city of Springfield were 6,524. As the city had been steadily growing, al- 
though somewhat checked by the panic of 1873 and the dull times following 
it for several years, this growth of only 969 in ten years was bitterly de- 
nounced as far short of the true figures. Of the total, 2,808 were negroes. 

By township and precinct the figures were as follows : 

Boone Township (including Pond Creek Township 1.009 

Ash Grove) 2,160 R(jbberson Township i.2ip9 

Brookline Township 1,821 Taylor Township 896 

Campbell Township 3-^54 Walnut Grove Township 921 

Cass Township i.94.=^ Washington Township 1.094 

Center Township 1.746 ^^■iIson Township MOi 

Clav Township 852 Springfield City 6,524 

Franklin Township 1,464 ^'o'-^i Springfield City 997 

Jackson Township 1-7-.5 



214 GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 

The population of Springfield by wards was as follows : 

First Ward 1,426 

Second Ward 1,681 

Third Ward 2,152 

Fourth Ward 1,265 

Total 6,524 

As the city had taken a census for its own purposes in 1878, which 
showed a population of 6.878 at that time, or 354 more than shown by the 
government enumerators two years later, there was certainly room for doubt- 
ing the correctness of the Federal figures. 

But time passed and the census of 1890 drew near. Three years prior 
to the taking of this census Springfield and her neighbor to the north had 
united as one city, and this, together with a steady and healthy growth, is 
shown in the new figures for the city. 

SHOWED AN INCREASE. 

The total for the county was 48,616, an increase in ten years of 19,815, 
or over 66 2-3 per cent for the entire county. The ratio of growth for 
Springfield is still more impressive. The figures for 1880 were, as we have 
seen, 6,524. Those for 1890 were 21,850, or an increase of 334 per cent. 
During this decade Springfield had at last thrown aside her swaddling clothes, 
and started toward her destiny of becoming a metropolitan city. 

The population by townships and wards is given as follows : 

Boone Township 2,923 Republic Township 1,327 

Brookline Township 900 Robberson Township 1,475 

Campbell Township 5,262 Taylor Township 896 

Cass Township 2,260 Walnut Grove Township 1,360 

Clay Township 1,239 ^^"ashington Township 1,022 

Center Township 2,355 Wilson Township 1,129 

Franklin Township 1,686 Springfield City 21,850 

Jackson Township 2,078 

Pond Creek Township 1,009 Total .• 48,616 

Of this number, there were 3,441 negroes. 
Springfield b\' wards shows the following figures: 

First Ward 1,772 Si.xth Ward 3,633 

Second Ward 2,840 Seventh Ward 2,616 

Third Ward 2,311 Eighth Ward 2,936 

Fourth Ward 2,115 

Fifth Ward 3,^7 Total 21,850 



GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 21 5 

During the next decade came the frigluiul panic of 1893, and the four 
or five years of stagnation which succeeded it, and the effect of these lean 
years are shown in the reduced growth both of Greene county and tlie city 
of Springfield, ahliough in greater proportion in the city than in the country 
•districts. 

The total for the entire county was 52,713, a growth of only 4,097 in 
ten years. Of this growth Springfield had 1,417 and the rest of the county 
2,680. The percentage of growth for the city was only a fraction over 6 
per cent. For the county as a whole it was only a little over S^^ per cent. 
Of the total number, 3,298 were negroes. 

The record by precincts and city wards follows: 

Boone Township 2,815 Pond Creek Township 900 

Brookline Township 1.939 Republic Township 1,696 

Campbell Township 2,672 Robberson Township 1,656 

Cass Township 1.474 Taylor Township 1.183 

Center Township 2.634 Walnut Grove Township 1.532 

Clay Township 1,288 Washington Township 1.170 

Franklin Township 1.632 Wilson Township 1,224 

Jackson Township 2.274 Springfield City 23,267 

Murray Township 881 



N. Campbell Township 3.424 Total 52,713 

The city of Springfield by wards is as follows : 

First Ward 2.095 Sixth Ward 3,691 

Second Ward 3.1 16 Seventh Ward 3. '34 

Third Ward 1,989 Eighth Ward 3.157 



Fourth Ward 1,996 

Fifth Ward 4.089 Total 23.267 

A PROSPEROUS DECADE. 

The decade from 1900 to 1910 was, with Springfield and Greene county, 
as with most of the United States, the most prosperous in history up to that 
time. The increase in population for the county as a whole was 15,215. This 
was divided between the city and country as follows : Springfield increased 
6,400; the country districts increased 8,815. The rate of increase for the 
whole county was very nearly 33 1-3 per cent. For Springfield it was almost 
25 per cent. By precincts and city wards the following are the figures : 

Brookline Township 814 Center Township 2,258 

Boone Township 2,715 Clay Township i.i59 

■Campbell Township CvS^J Franklin Township 1.582 

■Cass Township 1,213 Jackson Township 2,217 



2l6 GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 

2\Iurray Township 901 Walnut Grove Township 1.592 

X. Campbell Township 4,834 Washington Township 974 

Pond Creek Township 716 Wilson Township 1.105, 

Republic Township 1-631 Springfield City 35-201 

Taylor Township 1,048 

Total 63,831 

By wards, the city of Springfield makes the following showing : 

iMrst Ward 3-976 Sixth Ward 5-544 

Second Ward 5-379 Seventh \\'ard 4.448 

Third Ward 2.395 Eighth Ward 4-787 

Fourth Ward 2,307 

Fifth Ward 6,458 Total 35-291 

Of this total, there were 2,625 negroes. By this census Springfield 
passed her only rival for the place of fourth city in the State of Missouri, Jop- 
lin, by several hundred, and her rate of increase since these figures have beea 
published has placed her beyond any danger of losing her standing in coin- 
parison with other Missouri cities. Conservative men, who are posted upon 
the growth of the capital of Greene county, do not hesitate to place her pres- 
ent population at over 40,000. 

It is interesting to compare some of the figures in these seven Federal 
censuses, in which Greene county has had a separate enumeration. Take, for 
instance, the number of negroes at the various periods : 

The census of 1850 is the first one where the separate figures are given 
for whites and blacks. In that census the percentage of negroes (nearly en- 
tirely slaves) to the entire population was almost 10 per cent. Ten years 
later the census of i860 shows that the negro population was almost I2j/^ 
per cent of the whole. In 1870 we see the effects of freedom, which brought 
many negroes from other counties and states to Springfield. The ratio is 
practically 16 z/j,, about one-si.\th of the population. In 1880 it had dropped 
back to almost 10 per cent. In 1890 it was 7 per cent.: in 1900, 6 per 
cent, and in 19 10 a fraction over 4 per cent. 

"Firsts" in Greene County — In anv historv telling the story of a com- 
munity from its beginning, much interest naturally attaches to the dates at 
which various enterprises had their first beginnings in the region under con- 
sideration. The following list has been made with much care, to cover at 
least the principal of these beginnings, and an effort is made to arrange them 
in their chronological order as nearlv as possible : 

The first house built by a white man for a permanent home in Greene 
county was undoubtedly the log cabin erected in 1822 by Thomas Patterson, 
near the spring which still is called, in his memory, the "Patterson spring." 
As told in the appropriate chapte4^of this work, Patterson and the several 



GREENE COUNTY. MISSOURI. 21/ 

Other families that had settled aruund him in 1822 were compelled tu aban- 
don their humble homes and remove from this region on account of the Indian 
title to the lands not yet being extinguished. Whether this first cabin re- 
mained standing when Patterson returned with his family in 1830, we do not 
know, but, at all events, it was certain!)- ihe first white man's house in the 
county. 

The first marriage was celebrated in 1831, when Lawson Fulbright 
wedded a daughter of David Roper, a settler some five miles east of the 
subsequent location of Springfield. This was (piickly followed in the same 
year by the w-edding, on August 7. 1S31, of Junius Rountree and Martha 
Miller. The same year saw Junius T. Campbell married to Mary Rlackwell. 

The first male white child born in the county was Harvey Fulbright. a 
son of John Fulbright, bom in 1831. The first while female child born in 
the county was Mary Frances Campbell, a daughter of John P. Campbell, for- 
ever held in honor as the founder of Springfield. 

The first death was that of a child of Joseph Miller, in 1831. 

FIRST SCHOOLHOUSE AND CITURCU. 

The first schoolhouse in the limits of Springfield was a rude structure of 
logs, which occupied the ground now covered by the old frame building on 
the northwest corner of Main and College streets. This old building was 
itself used for school purposes, and als(3 was the house of worshij) of the 
First Christian church for many years. This first schoolhouse was built in 
1832. A small log cabin one mile west of Springfield was used as a school- 
house in 1 83 1. 

The first building put up for church use was a log buikling. and stood 
in the then woods north of Wilson creek, near the ])resent intersecti.m of 
Phelps avenue and North Jefferson street. This building was occupied by 
the Methodists and Cumberland Presbyterians alternately. 

The first mill was that built by a man named Tngle on the James river in 
1822. The location wvas about the old wooden bridge across the James on 
the Ozark road. This mill was sold by Tngle to an old Indian trader named 
Wilson, and was bv him removed to a site at the mouth of the Finley on the 
James, when Ingle and the other first settlers were cMupcIlcd to leave the 

country. 

The first jail was built by several citizens as a free gift, the county at 
that time having no funds to use for such purpose. This was in 1834. about 
one year after the organization of Greene county. The buikling stood on 
the west side of Boonville street between the Public Square and Wil.son 
creek Afterward, when funds from the sale of town lots came into the 
hands of the Countv Court, almost the first money paid out by them was ta 



2l8 GREENE COUNTY, MISSOLRI. 

refund the outlay of those pubHc-spirited men who liad furnished the jail 
•out of their own pockets. 

The lirst court house, so-called, was the residence of John P. Campbell, 
which was selected by the County Court at its second session in June, 1833. 

The first term of Circuit Court was held beginning August 11, 1833. 

The first pauper was granted relief by the county in December, 1833. 

The first general election was held in August, 1834, and continued three 
■days to afi'ord time for those citizens residing at a distance to reach the 
county-seat to vote. 

The first assessment was finished early in 1834. The assessor was John 
Williams, and it took him eighty-six days to reach and assess the five hundred 
families scattered over the immense territory then included in the county. 

The first prisoner ever sent to the penitentiary was Wilson Edison, sent 
up for two and one-half years in the last of May, 1834. It is a strange fact 
that this man Edison was not only the first prisoner from Greene county, but 
also the first one to occupy the new penitentiary at Jeft'erson City. It is said 
that he was the sole occupant of the cells of the penitentiary from the 8th of 
March to the 28th of May, 1834. 

The first county warrant ever drawn by Greene county was for the sum 
■of $5.00, and was given to Martin B. Brame in payment for the building of a 
table and "pigeon boxes" for the use of the County Court. This was in the 
last of January, 1833. 

Springfield was first incorporated as a town on the 19th of Febniary, 
1838. It was afterward reincorporated, for what reason nobody seems at 
this day to know, l.)ut this second incorporation was the source of much trou- 
ble, as it gi\-es the boundaries of the city in a very loose and confused manner. 

The United States land office was first opened in Springfield on the ist 
of September, 1836. At that time, and subsequently, there were such offices 
at fronton, Boonville and other points in the state. As the land was sold 
out the offices were discontinued one by one until for the past four years the 
only one left in Missouri is the Springfield oflice, and, as there are less than 
1,500 acres of government land left in the entire state, the days of the re- 
maining office may be said to be numbered. 

The first postoffice was established in Springfield in the autumn of 1834. 
The postoffice building was a log house that then stood on the west side of 
South Jeft'erson street about midway between Walnut street and McDaniel 
avenue. The first postmaster was Junius Campbell, who at the time of his 
appointment was just twenty-two years of age. His duties were not very 
heavy, as the mail came by horseback from Little Piney, one hundred miles 
to the northeast, only twice a month. From such humble beginnings has 
grown the immense postal business of Springfield, that now occupies the 
great stone government building, eiyploys several scores of men and handles 
hundreds of tons of mail everv month. 



GREENE COUNTV, MISSOURI. 210 

FIRST NEWSPAPER. 

The first newspaper was published in tlie spring of 1837 by J. C. Tubcr- 
ville. It was called the Ucurk Standard, but soon changed its name tu tiie 
Ozark Eagle. 

The first United States census after the formation of Greene county 
was that of 1840, at which time the jiopulation of the county, covering more 
than twenty times its present area, was only 5,372. 

The first murder in Greene county was perpetrated on the 28th of May, 
1837. Strangely enough, the man who did the killing was an official of the 
county, being Judge Charles S. Yancey, of the county court. Yance\- had 
fined the man he afterward killed, John Roberts, for a misdemeanor, and 
Roberts had threatened his life for so doing. Afterward he attacked Yancey 
on the Public Square and the judge drew his pistol and shot Roberts dead. 
After a regular trial, Yancey was acquitted on the plea of self-defense. He 
lived many years afterward, an honored judge of the Circuit Comt and citizen 
of the count)'. 

The first commissioner of public schools was .\. H. Matthias, appointed 
in 1853. 

The first (and last) legal execution was that of Willis W'asham, who 
was hung on the charge of killing his stepson. The date of execution was 
the 25th of August, 1854. The prisoner denied his guilt almost with his last 
breath, and opinion as to the justice of his fate was much divided. Long 
years after he was hanged, the report was circulated that his wife, on whose 
testimony he was put to death, had confessed upon her death-bed that she 
had killed her son herself and had sworn the crime on to her husband in 
self-protection. This report has been denied and reiterated time and again, 
and at this distance of time it is very unlikely that the mystery will ever be 
unravelled. 

The first Probate Court was establishtd i\jc r834. the governor apixiinting 
Hon. P. H. Edwards as judge and S. H. "BCij'f] as clerk. Prior to this time 
probate business had been a part of the duties of the County Court. 

The first bank was the Springfield branch of the State Bank of Missouri, 
■opened in Springfield in May, 1845. with J. H. McBride as president. J. R. 
Danforth as cashier and C. A. Haden as clerk. 

The first temperance organization was a division of the Sons of Tem- 
perance, which was formed as a result of a great temperance revival in 1840. 
This was a strong and active organization, and .some time after its organiza- 
tion succeeded, with the help of its friends, in erecting a two-story brick 
building, which stood for many years on the northeast corner of the Public 
Square and St. Louis street. This building was destroyed by fire in 1876. 

In August, 185 1, the County Court, in response to a largely signed peti- 



220 GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 

tion, made an order that no further dramshop licenses should be issued in the 
county. This was the first prohibition action of the court. It should be stated 
that the court quickly reversed itself on receipt of another and opposing pe- 
tition, again reversed and refused license, and so for several times. The 
judges, apparently, were lineal descendants of John Bunyan's famous char- 
acter, "Air. Facing Bothways." 

The year 1858 saw a foundry established by Mr. Ingram. This was the 
first in Greene county and one of tlie first in this part of Missouri. 

In March. 1859, J. E. Smith and W. H. Graves started the first steam 
planing mill in Greene county. 

The telegraph was first opened to Springfield on the 3d of April, i860. 
It was built, by way of Bolivar, from Jefferson City, and was later extended 
to Fayetteville and Fort Smith. Arkansas. At the close of the war the line 
was discontinued until after the railroad reached Springfield, when it was 
permanently re-established. 

The first railroad reaching Greene county was the Atlantic & Pacific 
(now for many years the St. Louis & San Francisco). It was opened to 
Springfield May 23, 1870. 

On May 13, 1S70, the first of many victims was killed by the cars in 
North Springfield. He was an Irishman by the name of Patrick Borland, 
and he was probably a deliberate suicide. 

The first issue of the Springfield Leader was dated April 4, 1867. This 
paper continues to prosper until this day. 

The first through train from Kansas City came into Springfield May 
25, 1881, and was welcomed with every demonstration of joy. This was the 
first train into the actual limits of Springfield as they then existed. 

The market quotations at various periods of a community's growth af- 
ford an interesting study, and a few are here inserted : 

The records of market prices in the county for the first decade of its ex- 
istence are not to be found. It is doubtful if any ever existed. Money was a 
scarce article among the pioneers, and a large part of traffic was carried on 
by bartering orle artide' for' another. Up to about 1845, or until the establish- 
ment of the first bank, we have little information as tii prices. From then 
until about 1850, we are told by old citizens and in a former histoiy of the 
county which probably drew its information from the same sources, that 
wheat was worth from 30 cents to 40 cents a bushel : corn, 50 cents per bushel, 
or 60 cents per barrel (of corn in the husk) : pork, from $1.25 to $1.50 per 
hundredweight, and other things in proportion. 

In the history rif the county above referred to is given a table of prices of 
some of the standard articles in 1851. This was made out by Sheppard & 
Kimbrough, one of the pioneer firms of merchants in S]iringfield, and is as 
follows : \ 



GREENE COUNTY, MI.SSOIRI. 221 

Sugar, lo cents per pound ; coffee, I2>4 cents; salt, $3.00 per sack; nails, 
IS pounds for $1.00; rolled steel, 40 cents per pound; castings, 5 cents per 
pound; wagon boxes, 5 cents per pound; domestic (muslin), 7 and 10 cents 
per yard; spun cotton, $1.00 and $1.10 per bunch; bacon, 8 cents per pound; 
flour, $1.25 and $1.50 per hundred; feathers, 25 cents per pound; beeswax, 
20 cents per pound. 

CROP FAILURES ANU HIGH PRICES. 

The season of 1856 had brought an almost total failure of crops in the 
county, and the following year, 1857, brought almost a famine to southwest 
Missouri. Greene county was much better off than some of her neighiioring 
counties, but even here prices soared. Sweet potatoes sold as high as $7.(X) a 
bushel; Irish potatoes, $2.00 per bushel; seed corn, $1.50, and the poorest 
"nubbin" corn readily sold at $1.00 per bushel. The long distance from rail- 
road or ri\er transportation made a short crop a serious matter in those days. 

During the four years of war, 1861-5, prices were almost wholly gov- 
erned by the fortunes of war. When the Federals were in full jrasscssion. 
with the route to the railroad open and daily followed by trains of wagons 
with supplies, prices, while iiigli, were not prohibitive. But when contending 
armies were ravaging the region in and around Greene county prices w'ere, 
as an old-timer once said to the writer, "all a fellow was a mind to ask!" 

With the return of peace, matters adjusted themselves somewhat, al- 
though the wide margin between the prices of home-grow'n articles and those 
from abroad was very striking. In 1868, for instance, sugar, the brown 
article, very readily brought 162/3 cents per pound, while the best 
Winesap apples were worth only 15 cents a bushel and corn 2^ cents. Muslin 
was from 15 to 20 cents a yard, calico 10 cents to i2'/2 cents, and wheat from 
50 to 60 cents a bushel. 

In 1874, four years after the coming of the railroad, the quotations are 
as follows : 

Sugar (brown), 8 pounds to the dollar; .sugar (white). 6 pounds for 
$1.00; coffee, from 25 cents to 35 cents per pound: salt, $2.50 i>er barrel: 
brogan shoes, $1.50 per pair; muslin, I2>4 cents to 15 cents per yard; calico. 
10 cents per yard; wheat, from 60 to 70 cents per bushel: corn, 2^ cents ikt 
bushel : timothy hay, $7.00 per ton. 

To close, we will give the market quotations as published in the Spring- 
field Republican of July n, 1914: 

Eggs, 16 cents per dozen; butter (creamery) 27 cents, country 20 cents; 
sugar,"23 pounds (light brown) for Si.oo; flour, too pounds for $2.20: 
sweet potatoes. $1.25 per bushel; new Irish potatoes. 85 cents per bushel; 
Wheat, 8^ cent? per bushel: oats, 45 cents: timothy hay, $14.00 to $17.00 



222 GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 

per ton; corn, 70 cents to 80 cents per bushel; cattle, beef steers, from $5.00 
to $6.50 per hundredweight; hogs, from $6.50 to $7-75 per hundredweight. 

The Rough Side of Life — Like all other communities, Greene county has 
had its share of evil happenings. As long as men are human beings, anger, 
intemperance and lust will drive some of them into excess and bloodshed. 
In a work like the present it would be worse than useless to try to enter in 
detail into all the sordid facts of crime for the eighty-five years of the cor- 
porate existence of the county. Here and there stands out some crime that, 
for a fair understanding of the past, should have mention, but the vast mass 
of crimes are, and should be, ignored in such a permanent record as this. 

.\s has been stated in this chapter, the first homicide in the county was 
when Judge Charles S. Yancey, one of the justices of the County Court, on 
the 26th day of May, 1837, shot to death John Roberts, who had attacked 
him after many times threatening his life. Judge Yancey was tried and ac- 
quitted of the crime. It is a singular fact that twenty years after being him- 
self freed from the charge of murder, Judge Yancey pronounced the death 
sentence upon Willis Washam, the only man ever legally executed in Greene 
county. 

In the summer of 1838 J. Renno was stabbed to death by Randolph 
Britt in a whisky shop in Springfield, the first of a long and appalling list 
of such deeds in just such places in Greene county. Britt was tried in 
Benton county and sentenced to the penitentiary for manslaughter. He 
was soon pardoned out by the governor, who thus early set an example 
followed only too well by most of his successors in oifice. 

In 1841 John T. Shanks perpetrated another saloon murder in 
Springfield, killing a man named Davis. Shanks cut his way through the log 
walls of the jail and escaped, and was never tried for his crime. 

THE WORK OF MOBS. 

In 1859 occurred the first outbreak of mob violence in Greene coun- 
ty. It was caused by that ever-present menace where there is a large 
negro population, the assault committed upon a white woman by a black 
man. Mart Danforth, a negro slave, committed this crime, for which 
the law then provided no adequate punishment. He was arrested and 
promptly indicted, and confessed his guilt without reserve. Before he 
could be brought to trial a crowd gathered, took him from the custody 
of his guards and hung him upon a tree in the Jordan valley, just east of 
where Benton avenue now crosses that stream. 

In 1871 another negro. Bud Isbell, was hanged by a mob, almost on 
the same spot, and for the same crime. In neither of these cases were any 
arrests or indictments had for any of the mob. This, not because Greene 
county is a lawless communitv, but because, anywhere in the United 



GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 22\ 

States, North as well as South, this crime coniniitted by a black ruffian 
upon a helpless white woman instantly kindles a llame that notliing siiort 
of the quick and merciless death of the guilty one can satisfy, and for 
which it has so far been impossible to convict one of the indignant slayers 
of the ra\isher. 

In 1884-5 there occurred perhaps the most cruel murder in liie his- 
tory of Greene county, followed by a lynching of the murderer that was 
certainly excusable if lynching is ever so; and afterward by a trial as 
accessories before and after the fact of two women, which was the most 
spectacular court procedure in the entire life of the county. 

In the winter of 1884-5 there came, by invitation of the church. Mrs. 
Emma Molloy, a woman evangelist, to hold a series of meetings in the 
First Congregational Church. Mrs. Molloy was a wonderful woman. .A. 
brilliant writer, she had edited and led to a great success and enormous 
circulation a prohibition paper called The Morning and Day of Reform. On 
the rostrum, either as a temperance advocate or as an evangelist, she had 
very few equals and no superiors. Her eloquence and her ability to sway 
a great audience at her will were such as to give her a reputation that 
was nation-wide. 

Her series of meetings in Springfield awakened the greatest interest, 
and after concluding at the First Congregational church she was invited 
to the old town and held a successful re\ival there. With her when she 
came to Springfield was an adopted daughter, Cora Lee, and before her 
series of meetings was closed there arrived George Graham, wlm was intro- 
duced as the manager of Mrs. Molloy's paper. Graham was a well educated 
man, and was apparently a devoted suitor of Cora Lee's. 

After ending her revival services Mrs. Molloy bought a small farm 
on the road between Springfield and Brookline, about three miles from 
the latter place. Here Graham soon brought his two little boys, and here 
he was married to Cora Lee. Soon after the marriage a sister of Gra- 
ham's first wife, came to Springfield, and at her instigation Graham was 
arrested under the charge of having committed bigamy by marrying 
Cora Lee. The sister also claimed that she was unable to find trace of 
her sister, Mrs. Graham, and that she feared that Graham had made away 
with her. The charge aroused the greatest interest, and, especially 
among the citizens in the neighborhood of Rrooklinc, suspicion against 
Graham steadily increased. 

At leno-th a party of men from Brookline went to the Molloy farm 
and instituted a thorough search of the place for any signs that murder 
had been committed. Coming to an abandoned well, they lowered one 
of their number, Isaac Hise. into the shaft, which terminated in an open- 
ino- or small cave in the rock. Here Hise found the nude and mntilaterf 
remains of Graham's first wife! 



22^ GREENE COUNTY^ MISSOURI. 

The news caused the most intense excitement, and threats were 
•openly made of lynching the murderer, for none doubted that Graham 
was the guilty party. As yet he had not been indicted, and his attorney 
was endeavoring to obtain his release from prison, where he was held 
under the first charge of bigamy. A writ of habeas corpus was applied 
for, and it was thought that it would be successful and that Graham 
would be released. 

This probably intensified the excitement, and brought deadly and 
prompt action, for that night the sherifif was aroused from his sleep, and, 
at the point of a revolver, gave up the keys of the jail to the leader of a 
small but determined company of men. Graham was then taken from his 
cell, placed in a wagon and carried to a lonely spot in the northwest part 
•of town, a short distance north of the old woolen mill, and was there 
strung up to a post oak tree, where he hnng until cut down by the cor- 
oner the next morning. 

Mrs. Molloy and Cora Lee were indicted as accessories before the 
fact, but after a long and e.xciting trial the}' were both acquitted. The 
prosecuting attorney was John A. Patterson, still a leading attorney of 
Springfield, and he conducted his difficult duties in this trial in a way that 
won him the respect of all acquainted with the facts. The leading coun-- 
sel for the defense was O. H. Travers, late prosecuting attorney of Stone 
•county, Missouri. 

THE REGUL.'\T0RS. 

There was one strange outbreak of lawlessness, at an earlier date 
than that related above, that should not be omitted in this history. This 
was the doings of the organization known as the "Regulators," in 1866, 
the year succeeding the close of the Ci\il war. That long conflict had 
trained thousands of men in the ways of plunder and license. In a single 
•day, as it were, these men found the war ended, their regiments dis- 
banded, and themselves forced to take up the peaceful avocations that 
they had followed before the beginning of hostilities. A very large ma- 
jority of them, to their everlasting honor, quietly returned to their homes 
and became at once the peaceful, industrious citizens that they had been 
before the war. But there was a small percentage that refused to aban- 
don the methods of pillage and free living that they had followed for four 
years. 

All over the Southwest, and in Greene county no less than elsewhere, rob- 
tery, attempted murder, horse stealing aufl theft of all grades was rampant. 
It became the opinion of honest men that there was an organized band 
preying upon the community. Evidence to warrant arrest was hard to 



GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 



225 



get, and even when arrested, indicted and brought to trial it seemed an 
impossibility to convict. Alibis, the defense by well-paid lawyers, and, 
perhaps, fear of personal consequences on the part of some jurymen, led 
to almost certain acquittal of the prisoners. Under these circumstances 
some of the best citizens in the county were goaded into doing that which 
history shows that men of Anglo-Saxon blood have ever done when the 
courts of law failed to afford them protection— they met and organized to 
take the punishment of the marauders into their own hands. 

This organization they christened "The Honest Man's League," al- 
though it has come down in history oftener as "The Regulators" than by 
any other name. The new enforcers of justice openly proclaimed that 
their purpose was to rid Greene county of the thieves and robbers that 
infested its borders — to do this by the forms of law if possible, but, at all 
hazards, to do it. even to the extent n{ hanging the guilty ones. 

The first victim was Capt. Green B. Phillips, who lived some two 
miles northeast of Cave Spring, in Cass township. Captain Phillips was 
an old citizen, had been a brave soldier in the Federal army and had 
taken an active part in the defense of Springfield when that city was at- 
tacked by the Confederates under Marmaduke in 1863, the last man, one 
would naturally think of as a robber or the associate of robbers. But, in 
some way suspicion attached to him, and, early one morning in May, 
1866, three men came upon him when he was husking corn to feed his 
stock, and shot him to death without mercy. 

Many at that time declared their belief that an awful mistake had 
been made, and an innocent man murdered. Others as strenuously as- 
serted their belief that Phillips was a s^anpathizer with the lawless ele- 
ment, if not, indeed, a sharer with them. At this late day there are no 
means of getting the actual truth, but to an impartial mind it would 
seem as if in this case at least the "Regulators" had acted in undue and 
cruel haste. 

But this one victim did not satisfy the avengers. Three days after 
the killing of Phillips, two young men, John Rush and Charles Gorsuch, 
were captured in the village of Walnut Grove, given a short trial, found 
guilty of theft and hanged to a tree, about a mile southwest of the village. 

The "Regulators" also assisted the sheriff in arresting several men 
accused of various minor crimes. When some of these men were bailed 
out of jail and others were shrewdly taking advantage of the law's delays, 
the "Regulators" published the following card to let all men know that 
they did not propose to have any foolishness in Greene county: 

"Headquarters Regulators. Walnut Grove, Tune 16th, 1866. 
"To the Citizens of Southwest Missouri: 
C15) 



226 GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 

"We, the Regulators, organized to assist in the enforcement of the 
civil law and to put down an extensive thieving organization known to 
exist in our midst, having succeeded in arresting and committing to jail 
a number of persons charged with grand larceny, robbing and general 
lawlessness, whom we believe to be bad men; and, finding that some of 
them have been bailed out, thereby extending to them an opportunity of 
again putting into execution their diabolical purposes of robbing, plun- 
dering and murdering their neighbors, therefore we hereby give notice 
that all persons bailing such parties out of jail will be regarded as in sym- 
pathy, if not in full co-operation, with such, and will be held strictly re- 
sponsible for the conduct and personal appearance at court for trial of 
all persons thus bailed out of jail. 

"Emphatically by the Regulators." 

About June 1st, the "Regulators" rode into Springfield in force, to 
the number of two hundred and eighty horsemen. Forming a hollow 
square in the Public Square in front of the court house, they were ad- 
dressed by Rev. Air. Brown, a Presbyterian minister from Cave Spring", 
and an active member of their organization. Other speakers, who were 
in sympathy with their movement, were Major Downing, Senator J. A. 
Mack and Col. James H. Baker. On the other hand, Hon. John M. Rich- 
ardson and Col J. S. Phelps spoke against the "Regulators" and condemn- 
ing their action. When this meeting was adjourned, the "Regulators" 
showed their grim determination to extirpate crime in the Southwest by 
riding through Springfield into Christian county, through Ozark and out 
from that town on the Forsyth road for a mile or two. Here they ar- 
rested a fugitive from Greene county by the name of James Edwards, 
tried him on the charge of theft, found him guilty and hung him to a large 
oak tree at the side of the road. All these activities on the part of the 
"Regulators" struck terror into the hearts of the thieving element, and 
very quickly rendered Greene county as free from depredations of the 
kind as any spot in any state could be. 

Nearly fifty years have passed since the "Regulators" finally dis- 
banded, with their work accomplished. But the terror of their name en- 
dures, and more than once, when some unusually wicked crime has been 
perpetrated, men have been heard to wish that the old "Honest Men's 
League" was still in existence, to mete out swift and terriljle justice to 
the criininals. 

THE HE.\DLEE MURDER. 

On the 26th of July of this same year occurred a cruel murder of a 
minister of the gospel, one of those events resulting from the angry pas- 
sions of the Civil war just ended. Rev. S. S. Headlee was the presiding 
elder for the Springfield district of the Methodist Episcopal church 



GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 



22J 



South. He had been an active partisan of the South all through the war. 
In following his calling he was undertaking to organize a church at 
Pleasant Grove, just across the line in W ebster county. There was 
quarreling between the two branches North and Soutii of the Methodist 
Episcopal church, and when Headlee gave notice that he would preach at 
Pleasant Grove he was notihed by members of the other faction tliat he 
must not do so. He, however, was on hand for that purpose at the time 
set. However, the forces against his speaking were so large that Mr. 
Headlee started for his own property, a short distance away, where he 
intended to preach to such as chose to come. But before reaching the 
place, some cowardly wretch fired on him from the brush by the roadside 
and killed him. 

Headlee was a man universally respected, and his cruel nuirder 
aroused intense excitement throughout this section. The Northern 
Methodist Episcopal pastor at Pleasant Grove, Rev. McNabb, was ar- 
rested and indicted for the murder, but was acquitted, as was also a man 
by the name of William Drake. So ended one of the foulest crimes ever 
committed in the State of Missouri. 

Other tragedies in which the old enmities of the war formed the 
moving impulse occurred. Kindred Rose, an old settler and most higiiiy 
respected citizen, a sympathizer with the South, was met and taunted 
about going South in 1861, by an old friend, a Union man, named James 
Simpson. Simpson, under the inlluence of lic|uor, attacked I^ose. and 
was killed by a blow on the head. Rose was tried and ac(|uitled <_>n the 
plea of self-defense. 

In the same year as the Simpson killing, 18o7, Judge 11. C. Christian, 
who had recently moved to Springfield, was shot dead in his place of busi- 
ness, about 9 o'clock in the evening of May 24. The murderer fled, was 
arrested and jailed, but broke jail, stole a horse from a farmer six miles 
from town, and escaped for the time. He was afterward caught in a 
blacksmith shop near Houston, Te.xas county, and brought back to 
Springfield, and again jailed. On the 24th of October he again broke 
jail and succeeded in making his escape and was never heard from again. 
The supposition is that he had acted as a hired assassin in killing Judge 
Christian, and that his employers were rich and able to use money to 
set him free. At all events, he escaped. Years after it was reported that 
he had been hung in Texas for a murder committed there. 

Several other murders blot the pages of Greene county's history in 
the few years after the war, for none of which did any man suffer on the 
gallows. In January. 1871, occurred, perhaps, the last murder in this 
region growing out of the happenings of the war. One William Canne- 
fax, a member of one of the old pioneer families, claimed the right to 
redeem a tract of land bought under sale for taxes delinquent during the 



228 GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 

war by Judge Harrison J. Lindenbower, of Springfield. This right Lin- 
denbower denied, and Cannefax brooded over the matter until he was 
ready for almost anything which seemed to him to give him revenge 
against the man who held his land. 

Meeting in a saloon, he asked Lindenbower: "Well, what are you 
going to do about that land?" To which the judge is said to have an- 
swered : "Oh, you go and see your lawyer about that, and let him attend 
to it for you." At that Cannefax stepped behind his victim and shot him 
three times. Lindenbower died in a few minutes. Cannefax was ar- 
rested and indicted for murder in the first degree. He took a change of 
venue to Taney county and the next June he and three others escaped 
from the Greene county jail, and he was not taken until June, 1874, when 
he returned to Greene county and was captured by Sherift A. J. Potter 
after a sharp struggle. Oh trial at Forsyth he pleaded guilty and was 
sentenced to the penitentiary for life. 

In July, 1873, one Buis was lynched near Walnut Grove under the 
charge of stealing sheep, which, it was said, he sold to Springfield butch- 
ers. This was another inexcusable crime. If guilty, the law would have 
abundantly punished him with a term in the penitentiary. Nevertheless, 
men chose to stain their hands with his blood, and became thus his mur- 
derers and a thousand times more guilty than their victim. There were 
several other homicides, suicides and horrors of the sort, none of which 
require stating here. And again it is to be said, none of these murderers 
were ever punished upon the gallows. Either the hearts of Greene 
county juries are unusually susceptible or the powers of our attorneys 
in defense of criminals are unusually great. 

The last murder which I shall mention in this list was of compara- 
tively recent date. In February, 1909, an inofifensive old man and his 
aged wife were shot to death by one Tucker at a little farm about half a 
mile west of the new Frisco shops. The old man, whose name was Ellis, 
had shut up some of Tucker's cows which had broken in his (Ellis') field. 
He refused to release them unless Tucker paid a trivial amount of dam- 
ages. On that Tucker flew into a fierce passion, and. without warning, 
shot the poor old couple dead. 

Tucker was tried in the Greene county criminal court and was sen- 
tenced to death, the only man who was ever so sentenced in the old 
court house then standing on the Public Square. The date of execution 
was set, and Tucker's case seemed hopeless. But there are never lacking 
those to flock to the help of a man sentenced to death, and the rule had no 
exception in this case. If ever a man deserved the death penalty, surely 
this man did, but such pressure was brought to bear upon the governor, 
Hon. Herbert S. Hadley, that he finally commuted the sentence to im- 
prisonment for life, and Tucker is now serving that sentence in the peni- 
tentiary at JefTerson City. 



CHAPTER Xr. 

MILITARY HISTORY OF C.REENE COUNTY. 
Aiiproved by Judge J. J. Gifleon and ('apt. (Jeorw .M. Jones. 

No one conversant with the facts can deny that of the one hundred and 
fourteen counties of Missouri, none has a more interesting or important mili- 
tary history than Greene county. From her earHest organization down to 
the present time, covering a period of eighty years, her citizens have proved 
their patriotism and gallantry on many a "blood red field of Mars," unliesi- 
tatingly oflfering their services and their lives, if need be, on the altar of 
their coimtry in every war; and neither this or any other state of our Union 
has produced a braver, more intelligent or effective body of soldiers. This is 
partly accounted for by the fact tliat their progenitors were military men, 
having fought in the early wars of the nation, their fathers and grandfathers 
shedding their blood in the Revolution and the War of 1812, enlisting in the 
defense of "the flag that has never touched the ground." from Virginia, Ten- 
riessee. Kentucky, the Carolinas and others of our older states. Another 
reason is that the earlier residents of Greene county were outdoor men, 
engaged in farming, for the most part, and. the country being new and well 
stocked with game of all kinds, they were hunters and familiar with fire- 
arms, most of them being expert marksmen, consequently they loved adven- 
ture, camp life and enjoyed the familiar feel of their trusted weapons. Rut 
whatever the cause, thev covered themselves with glory, and their descend- 
ants will always be proud of their war records. 

REVOLUTIONARY SOLDIERS. 

It was believed up to some two years ago that only one veteran of the 
Revolutionary war ever settled in Greene county, but. thanks to the Spring- 
field Chapter of the Daughters of the Revolution, it has been found that six 
of the soldiers who fought in our war for independence wended their way 
from the Atlantic seaboard, most of them stopping in Tennessee a short lime, 
then coming on to Greene county in tlie thirties, and here spent the rest of 
their lives. They were named as follows : William iM-ecman. who was one 
of General ^^■ashington's scouts, was the first of the pre.sent nnmerous and 
well known Freeman family here. He died about the middle of the nineteenth 
centurv and was buried in the N.'itional Cemetery here. James Barham died 



230 GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 

in 1864 and is buried in Mt. Pleasant Cemetery near Bois D' Arc. Timothy 
Scruggs died in the early forties and is buried in the Griifin Cemetery at old 
Delaware Town, four miles south of Battlefield. Samuel Steele died in the 
early forties and is buried at Mt. Comfort, near Hickory Barrens. David 
Bedell, who died in 1840, is buried in Old Salem Cemetery, near Hickory 
Barrens. His brother-in-law, Elisha Headlee. died a year later, and was also 
buried in the Old Salem Cemetery. Xathan Clifton settled very early in 
the eastern part of this county, later a part of Webster county, his death oc- 
curring near Marshfield at a very advanced age, in 186.^. His daughter Eva- 
line remained unmarried in order to take care of him in his old age, and she 
lived to be ninety-six years old, dying on April 15, 1912, just across the line 
from Greene county. 

THE OS,\GE WAR. 

The first military service in which the citizens of Greene county parti- 
cipated was the Osage war. Not much of a "war," it is true, but worthy of 
historical record, nevertheless. When the pioneers settled here in the early 
thirties this entire section of the state was occupied by the Osage Indians, 
and in the winter of 1836-37 numerous liands of this tribe lived in various 
parts of Greene county, and they became more or less annoying to the 
settlers. Governor Lilburn W. Boggs was appealed to in the matter, and 
he ordered Col. Charles S. Yancey, who at that time was in command of a 
Greene count}- company of militia, to compel the Indians to at once leave 
this country, cross the state line and remain there, on their allotted lands in 
the Indian Territory. The object in forcing the red men to retire was to 
protect the settlers and prevent a collision between them and the Osages. 
When Colonel Yancey went to notify the head chiefs of the tribe of the 
governor's order, he was accompanied by Lieut. Col. Chesley Cannefax and 
Capt. Henry Fulbright, the colonel deeming it unwise to call out his regi- 
ment until it became absolutely necessary, believing it better that he go in 
person among the Indians and inform them of his mission. The three of- 
ficers, on a clear cold morning, set out to visit the camps of the red men which 
were located to the south and southwest of Springfield. They were accom- 
panied by a negro boy named Charley, who had been reared among the 
Delawares, who had also occupied a portion of southwestern Missouri, and 
the lad was well versed in various Indian dialects, so acted as interpreter. 
The first night out the party stopped with William Brooks, near the site of 
old Linden. The following day Brooks accompanied the party, and that 
night they camped on Brwint's fork on the North fork of White river, and 
while there siK'w fell to the depth of eighteen inches. The following morn- 
ing Brooks abandoned the party, and as he was a great hunter and familiar 
with the country, Colonel Yancey tried to pursuade him to remain with them 



GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 23I 

until the Indians were found. Here tlie party debated for some time as to 
whether they should turn back, but finally pushed on over the rugged hills 
and thriiugh the deep snow hanks. 

'J hey came upon the first party of Indians near the mouth of Flat creek. 
in what is now Stone county. It was a large party, all mounted on ixjiiie.s. 
and was just starting on a bear hunt. Colonel Yancey was dressed in full 
regimentals, with cocked hat. sword, sash, epaulets and plumes, and, being a 
robust man physically, of unusual height, presented iiuite an imposing aji- 
pearance. He knew the savages' love for pomp and display, and believed 
his "armorial bearing" would make a deep impression upon them. As the 
officers drew up, the Indians halted, huddled together, gazing at the party 
a few moments without uttering a word, tlien, raising a shrill and peculiar 
yell, galloped rapidly past the cokmel and his men and disappeared in the 
forest, giving no heed even to Charley, who called to them in their own 
language. The wild yell of the hunters was answered, caught up and rc- 
l)eated, echoing from hill to hill and was sent up and down the valley, 
except to the north, a circumstance which the visitors noted and which occa- 
sioned them a great deal of uneasiness. Although they hardly knew how 
to interpret their strange conduct, the Indians were followed. Colonel 
Camiefax later said, in speaking of the incident : "I did not like the signs. 
and, as I rode up alongside Colonel Yancey, I looked to see if there was any 
change in his face, and I thought tliere was; but. if we were both scared. 
neither of us spoke our thoughts." After several surprises and nnich per- 
turbation, the ofticers finally came upon the Indian camp, where the entire 
band had gathered in the meantime, and had made a hideous savage toilet 
of feathers, paint, beads, bear-claws, deer-hoofs, and other Indian finery. 
presumably for the purpose of giving their strange visitors a proper recep- 
tion. From his dress the Indians had concluded that Colonel Yancey was a 
person of great consequence, perhaps the "Great White Father" himself 
from Washington. 

A cordial reception was tendered the officers, who were led to the tent 
of Chief Naw-paw-i-ter, to whom the governor's message was delivered 
through Charley, the interpreter. The chief expressed regret in being com- 
pelled to move at once in such inclement weather, owing to the condition of 
some of his tribesmen, who were, he said, not prepared for a long journey 
through the snow and cold. He said there were in camp about two hundred 
of his people, warriors, squaws and papooses. He asked his pale-face broth- 
ers to give him a few days' time, that the weather might moderate, so that 
the women and children would not suffer. To this wish Colonel Yanrcy 
very considerately and ver>' readil\- consented, giving a written permission 
to Chief Naw-paw-i-ter to remain WMth his people where he was for a few 
days or until the unusual cold weather had passed. The conference over the 



232 GREENE COUNTY^ MISSOURI. 

party was hospitably and bountifully entertained by the Indians, and the 
following morning the officers resumed their journey, hunting other bands 
of Osages, spending several days in a fruitless quest until, on their home- 
ward journey, they suddenly came upon a large band of Indians, composed 
of all the hunting parties in the southwestern part of the state. This was at 
a saw-mill in Barry county, about thirty-five miles southwest of Springfield. 
The red men seemed to be engaged in preparation for some important enter- 
prise. One warrior rode among his fellows brandishing his tomahawk, bow 
and arrows, and now and then making indecent gestures toward the whites. 
As the assemblage had the general appearance of a war-council. Colonel 
Yancey and his aides held a council of their own to determine what should 
be done. He and Captain Fulbright thought it better to visit the Indians 
and deal cautiously with them, and induce them with fair speeches to return 
to their reservation, as they had with the first band. However, Colonel 
Cannefax did not share their views, believing the situation demanded more 
drastic measures, wishing to return home, get the militia regiment together as 
quickly as possible and then visit the Indians, prepared to enforce any de- 
mands that might be made upon them. His counsel was finally adopted and 
the party rode rapidly back to Springfield. They were not long in thoroughly 
arousing the entire vicinity. Rifles were repaired, cleaned and oiled, bullets 
were run, provisions prepared, and ever3^thing done to place the county "on 
a war footing." Everybody lent a helping hand, the women doing as much 
as the men, and in thirty-six hours over one hundred men, well armed and 
properly mounted, were at Ozark, on the Finley, in Christian county, con- 
fronting the Osages. Although the Indians were vastly superior in numbers 
to the whites, they were armed chiefly with bows and arrows. They began 
to retreat as Colonel Yancey's regiment moved forward. They were fol- 
lowed rapidly, but cautiously, by the militia, and on the second evening over- 
took them on the west bank of the James river, near the mouth of Finley 
creek. The militia was at once drawn up in line less than one hundred yards 
from the Indians, and Colonel Yancey demanded of the chief that his men 
should deliver up their arms, as security against hostilities. This he refused 
to do for some time, but at last, seeing that he must submit or fight, he re- 
luctantly yielded, and set the example by coming forward and la}-ing his bow 
and arrows on the ground. Most of the warriors followed his example, but 
some of the younger ones refused, and were compelled with difficulty to give 
up their arms. Some of the militia behaved very rudely toward some of the 
squaws, but the colonel's reprimand was so se\-ere that no second offense 
occurred. 

After much parlev the Indians consented that their weapons should be 
temporarily put out of commission, so the flints were removed, naked bullets 
were rammed tight into the barrel of each gun, then the weapons were re- 



GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 233 

turned to the red men. who were compelled to resume their march toward 
their reservation. The two following days were bitter cold, which occa- 
sioned much suffering among the women and children, especially while cross- 
ing Oliver's prairie, where the barbed north winds had a better sweep than 
in the hill country. In about three days more the band reached the state 
line, where Colonel Yancey warned the Osages not to return again to the 
Ozark country, and started back with his militia to Greene county. The same 
day they were overtaken by a chief of the expelled tribe, who was accom- 
panied by a white man named Matthews, who begged them to return to at- 
tend a council of their chiefs, which had been called, they said, to consult 
with the white men. This Colonel Yancey refused to do, saying that he had 
no power to treat with them. Upon reaching Springfield the militia found 
that there was intense excitement all over the county and adjoining counties, 
caused bv wild rumors to the effect that a general Indian war had been 
begun, and that the community was liable to be attacked by the savages at 
any moment. Not only the women and children, but many of the men of 
the little village of Springfield, were greatly terrified, and Major Barry, who 
was at that time a leading merchant and citizen here, was preparing to haul 
away his entire stock of goods to a place of safety, probably in one of the 
caves of the county. However, no hostilities followed, and the excitement 
soon abated, the people being assured by the militia that there was no im- 
mediate danger from the Indians. 

THE SARCOXIE WAR. 

The Osage Indians failed to keep their promise to remain out of Mis- 
souri territory, and in the summer of 1837 the settlers of Greene county were 
again thrown into a state of great excitement through fear of an Indian 
invasion. The outrages perpetrated by the savages were so well known to 
the pioneers that the remotest possibility of trouble with red men at once 
excited the gravest apprehensions, and often the wildest alarm. The Ozark 
country was unprotected from raids from the Indians from their reserva- 
tions in the Indian Territorv. and often rumors were set afloat that the 
savages were on the war path. The Greene county people refused to take 
anv chances whatever with the knights of the tomahawk, and agreed among 
themselves when they began clearing the wilderness and upturnmg the wild 
prairie so.l that thev would band together and immediately crush the red 
rovers of the forests if thev made even the slightest manifestation -t bad 
faith or crooked conduct-no cabins in ashes and scalped wives and abducted 
children for them. No trouble had ever been experienced with the Dela- 
wares who were numerous in this section, and no one was atraid of them. 
But rovino- bands of other tribes occasionally caused alarm am.Mig the front- 



-234 GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 

iersmen. In June, 1837, one of the bands of Senecas came up from the In- 
dian Territory, stole horses and other property, especially just across the 
lines in Polk and Dade counties, and when asked to make restitution, re- 
fused and made certain threatening demonstrations. A settler named 
Thatcher. li\ ing on Cedar creek, was visited one day by an Indian who 
wanted to trade "squaws'" with him. He was promptly knocked down by 
Thatcher and dri\en away, but the following day while at work in his clear- 
ing, the white man heard a shot and felt a rifle ball whizz past his ear. He 
ga\e the alarm, and the county court of Polk county ordered Maj. L. A. 
Williams (who subsequently became a prominent physician in Springfield) 
to take command of a company of militia, hastily raised for the purpose, and 
compel the Indians to leave the country. The object of the expedition was 
speedily accomplished, and Major Williams' company was disbanded. 

Three-quarters of a century ago the laws of Missouri provided that 
every able-bodied man between the ages of eighteen and forty-five should 
enroll in the state militia and drill regularly three or four times annually. 
All militia officers were elected by the privates and commissioned by the 
governor. The Seventh Division then embraced southwest Missouri, and 
the militia of Greene county composed the First Brigade, while Polk and an 
adjoining county or two composed the Second Brigade. The first organiza- 
tion of these counties imder this arrangement was in 1837, and the first 
general officers elected were as follows : Joseph Powell, major-general of 
the First Division; N. R. Smith, brigadier-general of the First Brigade; 
Abner Nail, brigadier-general of the Second Brigade. 

\Miile Major Williams was expelling the .Senecas, trouble broke out 
anew with the Osages, a large number of which tribe had gathered near 
Sarcoxie, and \\ere acting in a manner as to arouse suspicion. When de- 
tailed information of this fact reached General Powell he at once ordered 
the entire militia under his command to mobilize, and soon marched his 
■division against the Indians, taking them by surprise. They were too over- 
awed by the formidable looking force of militia to offer serious resistance, 
and after some parleys and councils they were marched out of the state and 
into their own territory, and made to give solemn assurances that they would 
never return without permission. They stoutly persisted in their innocence 
•ot any e\i\ intentions in coming to the Ozark country, maintaining that they 
were merely on a hunting and fishing expedition, and that they knew nothing 
of any stolen horses or other property, averring to the last that, as previously, 
they would continue stanch friends of the whites. After an absence of two 
weeks. General Powell and his di\ision i)f militia marched back to Spring- 
field, and the Greene county troops were disbanded and jiermitted to return 
to work in their crops, and the people again permitted their "nerves" to 
:settle, and resumed the peaceful pursuits. It was subsequently learned that 



GREKNE CUINTV, JUSSOUIU. 2-^; 

the outhreak had been greatly exasgerated from the start. Tlie Indians 
had done nothing amiss, and perliaps had no evil designs against the settlers, 
and all the alarm, uneasiness, mustering, marching, were unnecessary. But 
the Greene county troops saw enough of their commanding officer to decide 
that he was not the proper man to lead them against the foe. in the event of 
actual hostilities. General Powell being no military man, either by education 
or experience, and committed many breaches of military law and discii)line, 
according to his men. Upon charges preferred by Gen. X. R. Smith, of tiie 
Greene county brigade. General Powell was afterwards tried by a military 
commission and dismissed from the state ser\ ice, being succeeded by General 
Nelson, who, in turn, was succeeded by Col. Charles S. Yancey, of Greene 
county. It is related, too, that General Smith was lacking in military (|ualifi- 
cations himself. On one occasion a militiaman, who had seen service in the 
regular army, was stationed as a guard at the camp of the First Brigade, 
when General Smith approached and was halted by the guard, who asked 
him to give the countersign ; "I don't know the countersign, but I am General 
Smith, from Springfield, and it is all right." and started on into camp, when 
the guard again halted him, refusing to permit him to pass without the coun- 
tersign. 

The abo\'e account of General Powell's expedition against the Osagcs 
was long referred to by the early settlers in this locality as the 'kSarcoxie 
war," which was one of the remarkable "wars'' of history, in that it was 
bloodless. 

GREENE COUNTY IN THE MEXIC.\X W.Wi. 

There still li\e in Springfield several men and women enjoying the 
tranquility of upwards of three score and ten years who lived in this locality 
when the Mexican war broke out. Some of them, wdio were little more than 
children, remember the stirring events of those days most vividly — remem- 
ber as if they had picked up the facts at first hand, the stories that were told 
so often that thev have come to seem like personal experiences. Those were 
exciting times in Greene county— in 1846 — and the year following when we 
invaded the land of the Montezumas to fight for Texas and won California, 
Utah, Nevada, Colorado, Arizona. New Mexico and a part of Wyoming. 
The annexation of Texas was the allegeil cause of the declaration of war by 
Mexico against the United States in .April, 1846. and the attack on .American 
soldiers by Mexicans the ground of the retaliatory declaration by the L'nited 
States. May 13. but not until the battles of Palo Alto and Re.saca de la Palma 
had been fought, on May 8th and oth. Great excitement prevailed through- 
out the country, and in no state did the fires of patriotism burn more brightly 
than in IMissouri. Not waiting for the call for volunteers, the St. Louis 
Legion, under Col. A. R. Easton. hastened to the scene of conflict and citi- 



236 GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 

zens of Greene county began to make preparations to go to the front. Dur- 
ing the month of May, Governor John C. Edwards called for volunteers to 
join the Army of tlie \\'est. an expedition under Gen. Stephen W. Kearney, 
to Santa Fe. Fort Leavenworth was the appointed rendezvous for the 
volunteers, and by June i8th the full complement of companies to compose 
the first regiment had arrived, and there Col. Alexander Doniphan's regi- 
ment, the First Missouri INIounted \'olunteers, was organized and was soon 
on the march along the historic Santa Fe trail to New Mexico. Missouri 
had sent into the field at that time, all told, one thousand six hundred and 
fifty-eight men. About a month later Sterling Price, then congressman from 
Alissouri, resigned his seat, and in August raised a mounted regiment, one 
mounted extra battalion, and one extra battalion of Missouri Mormon in- 
fantry to reinforce the Army of the West. Mr. Price was made colonel, and 
D. D. Mitchell, lieutenant-colonel, this regiment being known as the Second 
Missouri ^Mounted \'olunteer Infantry, and were soon off for the seat of 
conflict. There were more volunteers than could be accepted. In Septem- 
ber another regiment was organized at Fort Leavenworth, of which Col. 
Thomas Ruffin had command, but at that time its services at the front were 
not required. In this regiment was one company from Greene county, under 
Capt. A. M. Julian. Samuel A. Boak was first lieutenant. The company 
marched from Springfield to Leavenworth and engaged in the organization 
of the regiment, was disbanded and returned home after an absence of one 
month. The company numbered about seventy-five men. In the spring of 
1847 Samuel Boak organized another company, and was made captain. It 
was well equipped and was a fine body of stalwart men, and left Greene 
county in excellent shape, followed by the best wishes of the citizens, a great 
crowd having assembled to see the company start on its long march. A 
barbecue was given on St. Louis street, about two blocks east of the public 
square, after which speeches were made and a flag presented by the citizens. 
Captain Boak was a lawyer of considerable note, and had been in partnership 
in the practice of his profession with John S. Phelps. He made an appro- 
priate response in behalf of his company. He proved to be a good officer, 
however, but little of him is known. He had not long been a resident of 
Springfield, nor did he remain long after the war. In 1849 'i^ went to 
California and was killed at Marysville that fall. His company was mus- 
tered into the service in May, 1847, and comprised a portion of the Third 
J\tissouri Mounted Volunteers, which regiment was commanded by Col. John 
Ralls. This regiment followed the first and second regiments over the great 
plains of the Southwest and operated into the Mexican states as far as El 
Paso, Chihuahua and Santa Cruz de Rosales, at which latter place March 
16, 1848', under Colonel Ralls, seven companies of the regiment, two com- 
panies of L'nited States Dragoons, under Major Beal, and the Santa Fe 



GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 237 

Battalion, under Major Walker, constituting a force of about six hundred 
and fifty men, fought a hard l)attie with the Mexicans under General I'>eas, 
who were in the town and well sheltered by breastworks. The battle lasted 
from nine o'clock in the morning until about sundown, when the .Americans 
charged the enemy's works and defeated the Mexicans with a loss of three 
hundred and thirty killed, and a great number wounded ; and a large quan- 
tity of arms, ammunition, wagons, teams, etc., were cajitured. The Ameri- 
can troops then occupied the town, the Mexicans having surrendered a large 
number of prisoners, who were released the following day on parole. A 
few days after this battle all the American forces returned to Chihuahua, 
where they remained until the close of the war. except seven companies of 
the Tliird Missouri, that were stationed at Santa Cruz de Rosales, and occu- 
pied that post until the latter part of the year. In July, 1848. these com- 
panies were ordered to Independence, Missouri, and mustered out the fol- 
lowing October. The other three companies were stationed at Taos, New 
Mexico, during their term and never rejoined their regiment until they were 
mustered out with it, at Independence. These three companies had i)cen 
under command of Major Reynolds, who died on his return, in October, 
1848, at Fort Mann, on the Arkansas river, below the crossing of the 
Arkansas river. Conspicuous among the engagements in which the Mis- 
souri vohmteers participated in Mexico were the battles of Bracito, Taos, 
Santa Cruz de Rosales, Sacramento, El Embudo and Canada, ^\'hen Cap- 
tain Boak's company returned to Springfield, after seeing considerable hard 
service at the front, where it distinguished itself for bravery and courage, it 
was o-i\en an imposing reception and a hearty welcome. Another barbecue 
was given the troops at Fulbright's spring, where there was much speech 
making, and the veterans were lionized as heroes. 

THE ONLY SURVIV'OR. 

Of the one hundred and nine men who left their homes in the then 
sparsely settled communities of Southwest Missouri in 18^7 and gatlicred in 
Springfield to offer their services in answer to President Polk's call for vol- 
unteers to fight Mexico, only one is known to be living in 1914. He is Maj. 
William Marion Weaver, of Springfield, who is Greene county's sole sur- 
vivor of the Mexican war. He is in his eighty-fourth year, but lie is more 
active than a great many men twenty years his junior and his constant read- 
ing of newspaper dispatches touching on the Mexican situation has revived 
the patriotism and spirit of adventure that led him to fight for his country 

sixtv-seven vears ago. 

' "I guess I'm too old." Major Weaver tells his friends. 'Mnit if they need 

ine I am ready." 



238 GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 

Major Weaver was but se\'enteen years old when he enhsted for the 
war against JNlexico. In company with the other one hundred and eight 
men, representing southwest JNIissuuri's contingent, and of which he was the 
youngest, he went from here to Independence, .Missouri, where all were mus- 
tered into the Third Missouri Mounted \'olunteers, Col. John Kails com- 
manding. Colonel Ralls made him a bugler. 

He made the march nver the Santa Fe trail to Santa Fe, his regiment 
being under the command of (ien. Sterling Price. He took part in a number 
of engagements in tlie eastern and northern part of Mexico. 

"We probably were less fortunate Uian the soldiers under Scott," said 
Major Weaver, "i^'or we ne\-er were given a real good fight by the Mexi- 
cans. We had to contend v.ith guerrillas in our campaign. The Alexicans 
would fire a few \()lle_\s at us and when we got into action they would fall 
over one another in making their getaway. There were no fortified towns 
between where El Paso now stands and the city of Chihuahua encountering 
any great resistance. 

'\\buut seventv-fi\'e out of our conipanv returned to Springfield at the 
close of the war. Those wluj f(jund graves on Mexican soil, for the most 
part, died of disease. Our casualties throughout the brief war were com- 
paratively few. Most of those who were killed met death as a result of their 
venturing too far beyond our outposts. The snipers got them, just as they 
(lid the American marines at the occupation of Vera Cruz in 191 4. 

Mai or W'eaver strongly advocates not only intervention in Mexico by 
the United States, but the establishing of a protectorate in the country, just 
as England did in India and Egypt. 

For a number of years Alajor Weaver gave an annual dinner at his 
home here with survivors of the Mexican war as his guests. His last dinner 
ior the \eterans was given three years ago. At that time only five attended. 
The last of these dinners has been held. Only two or three of those who at- 
tended these dinners are alive and they are too feeble to travel. 

Major Weaver's list of the members of Company G is believed to be the 
onlv one other than that kept by the govermuent. It was secured from the 
adjutant general's ofilce in Washington. D. C. in March, 1908, by Senator 
W. J. Stone, acting on the request of Major Weaver. Addresses of the mem- 
bers were not given, as it is contrary to the rules of the office. The roll of 
the company was as follows : 

Captain. S. A. Boak ; first lieutenants, Robert Love. A. M. Brittingham ; 
first sergeant, John M. Crockett: sergeants, John Kelly, Robert A. Forbes, 
William I. Cannefax : corporals, A. B. Allison, C. S. Drumwright, G. M. 
Bedford. lames I. ISyrd; privates. H. A. Anthony. A. I. Adkins, William D. 
Anderson, \^'ill)ert Bass, Jessy Bird, G. W. Brittingham, i\I. T. Benton, 
Chestlev Cannefax. Tohn R. Cannefax. ]\Iathew Cook. Enoch Cook, Abner 



GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 23t> 

Cotter, B. .M. Cox. \\ iUi;,,,, Cral)lrce, luhvard Coker. John Craig. Lynioii 
Crandle, Barnet Deeds. William I.. Daniel, .Slia.lriek Dickens. Ennis Uick- 
son, Solomon W. Edgar, l-reenian S. fireard. James (iailoway, Jesse Gall... 
way. Charles Galloway, Rohert Hall, David ll..d-es, John Holland, Henry 
Horn, James Hughes, Jonathan l|M,,ver. Hiram Helms. Smith Helms, 
Weeden Helms. Jesse Hammons, Robert Horton. William E. Hanson, Elisha 
Hughes, Elijah M. Harpwood. William F. Henry, Samuel E. Hamilton. 
William Hale, Benona Hinson. John Innmini, Henrv Innmon, William L. 
Joyce, James Jameson, Philip Jackson, Simon Johnston, William lohnston. 
Hugh Jones, Andrew John.ston, James F. Kelly, Alexander Knepper, Theo- 
drick Layton, William C. I.ayton, George W. Lea, Frederick Lesser, Henry 
O. Lowry. James R. Long, John V. AlcMahan. John May, John W. Mitchel. 
Nicholas Misslong, John R. Maadly, Morgan .Martin. Ja.son Mobley. Christ- 
ian Mitten. James Morris. James McAlley. James Oliver, William Price. 
A. X. Pearce, Peter P. Patterson, Philip Payne, C. A. B. Quillings, Richard 
'A. Rickets, W . W. Reynolds, Lewis .M. Russell. Elisha Swift. Ximrod Smith, 
Gusta\iis R. Scruggs, James R. Sheshane, Edmond Stephens. John W. Span, 
Benjamin W. Swithson. William Sims. James Staicup, Mark Stalcup. Smith 
Turner, William Victor, James Walker, William 'SI. Weaver, Solomon Vow- 
chum. 

EEFOfiE THE CIVIl. WAR BE;:;.\N. 

The people of Greene county received the news of the election of 
Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, in the fall of i860, with 
a great deal of dissatisfaction, however not a great deal was said, the peo])Ie 
in general being willing to abk\e by the results of the election, making the 
best they could of the situation, helic\ing it better to he on the alert and t.i 
await the outcome; but there was a feeling of dark foreboding in the breasts 
of most, an inscrutable impending calamity, which they knew not the nature 
of nor how to a\ert. I*"ew seemed to know their own feelings, unconditional 
L'nion men one week were secessionists the following week, and some who 
at first sanctioned the policy of South Carolina and other S. nithem states 
upon their withdrawal from the sisterhood of states, later declared in tavor 
of the national government. However, no matter what their feelings were 
they all sincerelv hoped that war might be averted, onsefpiently they waited, 
a large number expressing the sentiment. "Let us wait and see what Lincoln 
will do." Possibly the major j)ortion of the citizens of this county were of 
the opinion that the interests of Missouri were n.it materially diflferent from 
those of the other slave-holding states, but they were in favor of waiting 
for the development of the policy of the new administration before taking 
any steps leading to the withdrawal of the state from the federal Union. 
While there were a great many slave-holders, the majority of them were 



240 GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 

known to treat with due consideration and fairness tlieir negroes. A hard 
and cruel master was practically unknown, and the blacks seemed to be 
contented. There was a stringent law against mistreating slaves, and this 
law was rigidly enforced in Greene county, those who did mistreat their 
slaves being promptly indicted, if a complaint was made to the authorities. 
In February, 1 861, the county court appointed M. J. Hubble, John Lair and 
Benjamin Kite patrols for Campbell township, their duties being- to keep 
order among the slaves for twelve months. These were the last patrols ever 
appointed in Greene county. A few months later a force of several thousand 
patrols came into the county, commanded by Capt. Nathaniel Lyon and Capt. 
Franz Sigel. Later others came, commanded by Sterling Price and Ben 
McCulloch, and the movements of these patrols were on so large a scale that 
the doings of the trio appointed by the county court were scarcely noted. 
Governor Claiborne F. Jackson called a convention in February in order to 
ascertain the will of the people of Missouri as to whether they favored 
secession or remaining by the Union, it being his opinion that the interests 
and destiny of the slave-holding state were the same; that the state was in 
favor of remaining in the Union so long as there was any hope of maintain- 
ing the guarantees of the constitution; but that in the event of a failure to 
reconcile the differences which then threatened the disruption of the Lhiion, 
it would be the duty of Missouri to stand by the South, and that he was 
utterly opposed to the doctrine of coercion in any event. The election of 
delegates to this convention was held February 18, 1861. The meetings in 
Springfield were well attended by the Unionists. Those who favored seces- 
sion were in the minority, but they were outspoken. The candidates from 
the Nineteenth senatorial district, which included Greene, Christian, Taney, 
Stone and Webster counties, were Sample Orr and Littleberry Hendricks, 
of this county, and R. W. Jamison, of Webster county, who were "uncondi- 
tional Union"' men, and opposed to the secession of Missouri tmder any cir- 
cumstances ; the candidates who were understood to be in favor of secession 
under certain emergencies were Nick F. Jones and Jabez Owen, of Greene, 
and T. W. Anderson. The result of the vote showed that the Union candi- 
dates had been selected by a large majority, a vote of four to one, each one of 
the Union candidates receiving a majority in Greene county of over one 
thousand votes. And although a number of those voting for the Union 
candidates afterwards became avowed secessionists, the election settled the 
political status of the people of this county and this district beyond any doubt, 
standing overwhelmingly in favor of the imconditional Union candidates. 
At the state convention, a few weeks later, it was decided that there was no 
adequate cause to impel Missouri to dissolve her connection with the federal 
Union, and the convention took unmistakable groimd against the employ- 
ment of militarv force bv the federal go\'ernment to coerce the seceding 



GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 041 

States, or the employment of the mihtary force, by the seceding states to 
-assail the government of the United States. Judges Orr and Hendrick, the 
members of the con\ention from Greene county, upon their return home, 
were warmly commended by the people and press for their course. 

The people of this county took a marked interest in public affairs during 
the early part of 1861, and a number of public meetings were held, but no 
important action was taken. Tlie prospect of war was freely discussed, and 
many prepared for it. A few openly sympathized with the seceded states, 
but the majority preferred to take no decided steps to aid either side. Many 
■declared that Missouri had done nothing to bring on a war and siiould do 
nothing to help it along should one break out, declaring that her citizens 
were neither secessionists nor abolitionists. But a number of secret meetings 
were held Ijy men of both sides. An effort was made to find out the politics 
of each man, and each side knew that the other was meeting secretly, but no 
interference was attempted, neither caring to voluntarily molest the other, 
and even little attempt was made to send out spies. One meeting bv the 
Union men, which was held the latter part of March, near the place where 
the battle of \Mlson's Creek was subsequently fought, was of considerable 
importance. It was attended by delegates from various counties of south- 
west Missouri to determine what was best to be done, and a general exchange 
of counsel by the leading Union men of this part of the state. Greene county 
Avas represented by Judge Hendricks and Col. Marcus Boyd. Cedar county's 
representative was Col. J. J. Gravelly, afterwards a member of Congress and 
lieutenant-governor of this state. A number of other men important in 
public life in surrounding counties of that time were present: and it is said 
that a secret agent of President Lincoln was there. The result of the con- 
ference was a determination to stand by the Union at all hazards, and if 
necessary fight for it. Those favoring the secession of the state worked zeal- 
oush', preparing for emergencies, and were encouraged from time to time by 
emissaries of Governor Jackson, and the secession cause in central Missouri, 
who promised them plenty of arms if the time should come to use them. 
While most of these men deplored civil war, they determined to do their 
best in the interests of the South if war bad come, allied, as they were, to 
that section by ties of kinship, of birthplace, of self-interest, of sympathy, 
of commonalitv of sentiment. And no men ever more honest in opinion 
or more in earnest than the secessionists of Greene county. Without making 
invidious comparisons or distinctions, it being always the first duty of the 
historian to give the facts, it is but fair to say that the leading Unionists of 
the county at that time were Henry Sheppard, Benjamin Kite. Marcus Boyd, 
Sample Orr, Mordecai Oliver, Littleberry Hendricks. R. J. McElhauey. John 
M. Richardson, John S. Phelps. R. B. Owen, and Dr. T. J. Bailey. Among 
(16) 



242 GREENE COUNTY^ MISSOURI. 

the leading Southern sympathizers were Samuel Fulbright. Junius T. Camp- 
bell, Nick F. Jones, O. B. Smith, John W. Hancock, John Lair, E. T. Frazier, 
W. C. Price, Dr. G. P. Shackelford, Charles Carleton, Capt. Don Brown, 
P. S. W'ilks, Joe Carthal, Thompson Brown and D. D. Berry, Sr. 

NEWS OF FORT SUMTER. 

When the long suspense was broken by news that General Beauregard 
had fired on Fort Sumter, April 12, 1861. the Confederates thereby precipi- 
tating the long-looked for conflict, nowhere in the country did excitement run 
higher than in Greene county, and Governor Jackson's refusal to respond to 
the requisition on Missouri for a portion of the seventy-five thousand vol- 
unteers whicli President Lincoln called for, was the paramount topic of dis- 
cussion here. Although Springfield had no railroad at that time, a telegraph 
line had been built here from Rolla, and the citizens were informed of the 
important happenings as quickly as any section of the Union. The Adver- 
tiser issued an extra edition announcing the Fort Sumter incident, and the 
people assembled in large crowds discussing the incident and its probable 
results. On April 22d Governor Jackson called a special session of the state 
Legislature to meet May 2d, and at that session a military bill was passed, 
providing, among other things, for the organization of the military forces 
of the state, called the Missouri State Guard. Under orders from the gov- 
ernor one company was raised in Greene county, and Capt. Richard Camp- 
bell was placed in command. The Unionists of the county were aggressive 
and outspoken, knowing that they were greatly in the majority, and a military 
organization was soon affected. Arms were soon procured from the Over- 
land State Company and other sources, and the stores round about were 
soon called upon to sell all their ammunition. A number of the leading men 
of the county had been in correspondence with the Union officers at Wash- 
ington and St. Louis and had received instructions to prepare for the direst 
emergencies as best they could. So leaders were ready to organize the men, 
equip and drill them. The L'nion men of this county were of all political 
parties. John S. Phelps, congressman from this district, was a Douglas 
Democrat, and he returned from Washington to his home in Spring-field 
early in the troubles and at a conference of LTnion men held in a local bank 
building on the public square, gave as his opinion that the honor and inter- 
ests of the people of Greene county commanded them to stand by the Union, 
and other Democrats joined him in this view. The Bell and Everett men 
were nearly all L'nionists. .Some time previously, at the political meeting in 
Franklin county. Sample Orr, who had been candidate for governor, de- 
clared himself to be not only a Unionist, but a coercionist — making war upon 
the secessionists at once. He was a candidate on the Bell-Everett ticket. 



GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 243 

At that time Xathan Rolnnson, a secessionist, was postmaster at Spring- 
field. Early in May, Benjamin Kite, who had voted for Lincoln, and who 
was one of the leading RepuhHcans of the community, received a commis- 
sion as postmaster, succeeding Mr. Ruljinson. It seems that the commission 
had been sent to Mr. Kite as an oiiscure country postoffice between Spring- 
field and Bolivar, and the fact that a change in postmasters at the former 
place had been made was not known to the people. It was understood that 
such a change would be resisted. Tlie new postmaster surprised Mr. Robin- 
son one morning by boldly entering the office with his commission in one 
hand and a loaded revolver in the other and demanded that Mr. Robinson 
vacate at once and haul down the Confederate flag which he h;id raised over 
the postofiice, which he did without resistance. 

About this time Gen. William S. Harney and Gen. Sterling Price agreed 
that no more troops were to be armed or organized in Missouri on either 
side, and this agreement had a tendency to quiet the minds of the people for 
a time, but they soon became alarmed again over reports to the effect that 
the secessionists were organizing, arming and rapidly preparing for hostili- 
ties. In the stage-coach at Springfield, a letter which J. S. Rains had care- 
lessly dropped, showed that negotiations were pending with the Cherokee 
Indians and other tribes to induce them to join the secessionists, and that 
it was believed fifteen thousand armed savages could be secured. It was 
also rumored that guns and troops were expected from .Xrkansas. General 
Harney telegraphed General Price relating what had been told him of the 
threatened invasion from the south and intimating the probability of iiis 
sending a regiment to Springfield to protect peaceable citizens. General 
Price replied to him that his information was undoubtedly incorrect, that 
arms and men could not be crossing into Missouri without the knowledge of 
Governor Tackson or himself, and that they had had no such information, 
and advised against sending a regiment to this part of the state, fearing 
it would exasperate the people. Price assured him that he was dismissing 
his troops and that he intended to carry out his part of the agreement faith- 
fully. The Union men at Springfield hoped that the agreement of these 
generals would be carried out, but they remained feverish and restless, and 
had no confidence in it being done. (icn. J. S. Rains began organizing seces- 
sion bands under the military bill. It was believed that secessionists were 
in Arkansas soliciting aid, and that troops from that state were mobilizing 
near the state border and entrenching themselves at Harmony Si)ring.s. The 
Home Guard was organized at Springfield about this time, eight Inmdred 
men being mustered into service, and a general mass meeting of .secessionists 
was called for Tune nth. The Unionists of Springfield decided to guard 
the town to prevent their opjjonents fmm coming in and carrying away am- 



244 GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 

munition and provisions, and consequently details were made and the streets 
patroled all night and all the roads leading into town carefully watched. 

GATHERING OF THE CLANS. 

Although the citizens of Greene county earnestly desired to evade actual 
warfare, all had felt for some time that war could not be averted. Emis- 
saries from the seat of the Confederate government visited this section of the 
state at various times and encouraged those who sympathized with the South. 
Governor Jackson sent a large quantity of gun powder to Linn creek, from 
which point it was distributed throughout southwestern Missouri to the State 
Guards and armed secessionists. Greene county's share was brought by 
stage-coach to Springfield and hidden in Campbell's barn, the major portion 
of which was finally captured by Federal troops. The Home Guards, com- 
posed of Union men, had perfected a number of organizations in this and 
adjoining counties. They were armed with squirrel rifles, navy revolvers 
and shotguns. As per previous plans, Campbell's company of State Guards 
and a large body of secessionists gathered at Fulbright's spring on June ii, 
1 86 1. Governor Jackson, in forming the state into military districts, had 
commissioned John S. Rains, a prominent politician of Jasper county, briga- 
dier-general of the Missouri State Guard of this district, called the eighth 
district, and it was understood to be ift obedience to his orders that the 
Greene count}' company mustered. General Rains was well known to the 
people of this county, and had been a candidate for Congress on the Bell- 
Everett ticket for the Unionists, against John S. Phelps in the presidential 
campaign of i860. He was also at this time a state senator. Word had 
been sent to all the Unionist companies to gather at Springfield on June nth 
and make such a demonstration as would discourage the secessionists, so 
they gathered on the Kickapoo prairie, about two miles south of Springfield 
near a small pond, and they came from all directions, bringing their arms, 
teams, wagons and provisions. The day being oppressively hot and there 
being a lack of water and shade at the "goose pond," John S. Phelps rode 
out to the meeting and in\ited the crowd to his farm nearby where it would 
be more comfortable and they accepted and soon all the companies were en- 
camped in Phelps' pasture. The twelve or more companies were formed into a 
regimental organization, of which John S. Phelps was chosen colonel, Marcus 
Boyd, lieutenant-colonel, and Sample Orr and Pony Boyd, majors. The 
regiment had no' sooner been formed than a number of the privates asked 
the officers to lead them at once to Fulbright's spring so they might roust the 
secessionists who were there organizing and drilling. Major Orr expressed 
his willingness to do so, but Colonel Phelps forbade any such demonstration, 
cautioning his men to do nothing to precipitate hostilities, as they would 



GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 



245 



come soon enough of themselves, and the people would eventually have their 
fill of bloodshed. Meanwhile the secessionists were preparing for a great 
demonstration in town, desiring to parade tiie streets with their forces and 
raise over the court liouse a new Hag designed for the occasion. Couriers 
freely passed between the two camps, and it was soon learned that if an at- 
tempt was made to raise the Hag of the secessionists over the court house a 
collision would ensue. Col. Dick Campbell rode to the Union camp and con- 
ferred with Colonel Phelps, telling him of his plans to raise a Southern flag 
over the court house, to which Colonel Phelijs stoutly objected. sa\ing that 
no such banner had a right to, and should not wave over Greene conntv if it 
could be i>re\'ented. An amicable agreement was finally reached whereby 
Col. Campbell's men raised the state flag and the otlier side raised the stars 
and stripes at the same time over the court house and both regiments paraded 
the streets of Springfield at the same time, and the day passed without blood- 
shed, however a clash was narrowly averted. The Home Guards held the 
town that night, and all was cjuiet ; however, they discussed plans to capture 
the Southern sympathizers the following day, but before an attempt was 
made in this direction Colonel Campbell led his men away, and a conflict 
among fellow citizens was a second time averted, or more properly, post- 
poned. Phelps' regiment of Home Cjuards. which had been raised without 
authority from any source, and only in obedience to the natural rights of 
self-protection, was disbanded for the tiine, each man to return to his home 
and to consider himself a "minute man." ready to be called out at a moment's 
notice, if needed. 



FIRST FEDER.M, TROOPS .\PPE.VR. 



Upon the disbanding of Phelps' regiment. S. H. Royd. Dr. E. T. Rob- 
berson and L. A. D. Crenshaw, all loyal l^nion supjiorters. determined to 
go to St. Louis and impress upon the Federal military authorities there the 
importance of sending troops, arms and general inunitions of war to Spring- 
field without delay, and assist the Union men in southwest Missouri in order 
to hold this section against the secessionists. The three men made the trip 
on horseback, each riding a white horse, to Rolla, Dr. Roblierson. wlv knew 
the country well, leading the way. They left Springfield at night and se- 
lected a path through the woods in a direction which they knew there would 
be little danger of being intercepted. On their way they passed a large num- 
ber of men, some alone, some in small bands, and all bearing arms: but 
whether they were friends or foes was never ascertained, for no questions 
were asked by anyone. The party rode rapidly, lost a horse, but reached 
Rolla in time to witness its capture by the first Federal troops in this part of 
Missouri, the Third and Fifth Missouri X'olunteer Regiments, commanded 



246 GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 

by Col. Franz Sigel. Some State Guards were in Rolla at the time, and 
being taken unawares by Sigel's Germans, many of them were made pris- 
oners. The Greene county trio had the ride for nothing, for in a confer- 
ence with Colonel Sigel they were informed that he was then on his way 
to southwestern Missouri for the purpose of holding this section in line for 
the Union, and to give special attention to Gen. James S. Rains and the di- 
vision of State Guards, then supposed to be concentrating near Sarcoxie, in 
Jasper county. A few days later Colonel Sigel resumed his march toward 
Springfield. He commanded his own regiment, the Third, while the Fifth 
regiment was commanded by Col. Charles E. Salomon, and Messrs. Boyd, 
Robberson and Crenshaw returned to Greene county with these two regi- 
ments. The long trip from Rolla over a very rough country was slow, and 
the Federals were compelled to feel their way cautiously. The country was 
well reconnoitered, detachments being sent out on either side the moving 
column. 

It was Sunday morning, June 24, 1861, when those who lived in the 
eastern part of .Springfield looked out and saw uniformed men on horseback 
riding at the head of a long column of troops marching along the St. Louis 
road, then a light breeze unfurled a banner, showing the familiar Stars and 
Stripes ; then the band struck up a national air, and in a few moments the 
entire city knew that the Union soldiers or "Yankee Dutch" were coming; 
in fact, had come and were in possession of the town, "before anybody knew 
it." Most of the people were at church on this quiet Sabbath, when the in- 
vaders reached the public square, just before noon. A pompous German 
major rode with his detachment to the Christian church, where the Rev. 
Charles Carleton was preaching to a large audience, the majority of whom 
were known to be in favor of the Southern cause. A cordon of soldiers 
quickly surrounded the church building and respectfully waited until services 
were over and the benediction pronounced, when the major entered, filling 
the doorway with his massive figure and called out in stentorian tones : "In 
der name of mine adopted gountry, der United Stades of Ameriky, und der 
Bresident, and der army, und by der orders of Franz Sigel, you are mine 
brisoners of war ! Pass out, all of you mens, und to mine headquarters in 
der gourt house go. right avay quick ! Forwart, March ! Der laties may go 
home!" The court house was soon filled with prisoners accused of being 
guilty of real or premeditated treason against the government, and some im- 
pressments of property made. The powder stored in the Campbell barn, 
which had been sent by Governor Jackson, was found and promptly appro- 
priated by Sigel's men. Pickets were thrown out on all roads leading into 
the city, and reconnoitering parties made incursions into the country from 
time to time. 

T. W. Sweeney, a captain in the regular army, who had been chosen 



GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 247 

a brigadier-general by tbe St. Louis Home Guard.s, came to Springfield on 
July I. 1861, with a force of about fifteen hundred men, including the First 
Iowa Infantry, which wore gray uniforms, a portion of the Second Kansas 
Infantry, a battalion of regular dragoons and some artiller>-. He was recog- 
nized as a brigadier-general, and thus outranked all other Federal officers in 
southwestern Missouri, and so became commander of all Union forces here. 
Sweeney was an Irishman. He had fought in the ^lexican war, where he 
lost an arm. He was an aggressive fighter, but seemed to lack coolness and 
sound judgment, and although he started at the beginning of the war with a 
high rank, he never attained much distinction as a military man. He will 
be remembered as the man who led the Fenian raid into Canada, after the 
close of the Civil war, which raid ended so ignominiously. During the early 
part of the Civil war it was the custom of the commanding generals to issue 
frequent proclamations. Many believe that they did neither good nor harm. 
They came frequently from the Federal officers who were in southwest Mis- 
souri. The Union people did not need them, and the secessionists paid no 
attention to them, unless it was to break them, and a number of men rode 
up and down the country tacking up copies of proclamations by Generals 
Price, McCulloch and Rains. We give the following from the pen of General 
Sweeney, which is a typical "proclamation." and which, it seems, had no 
effect whatever on the people of this locality : 

Headquarters Southwest Expedition. 
Springfield. Mo., July 4, 1861. 
To the Citizens of Southwestern Missouri : Your governor has striven 
to cause the state to withdraw from the Union. Failing to accomplish this 
purpose by legislative enactment, he has already committed treason by levy- 
ing war against the United States. He has endeavored to have you commit 
the same crime. Hence he has called for troops to enter the militar>' service 
of the state, not to aid, but to oppose the government of the United States. 
The troops under my command are stationed in your midst by the proper 
authority of our government. They are amongst you, not as enemies, but as 
friends and protectors of all loyal citizens. Should an insurrection of your 
slaves take place, it would be my duty to suppress it. and I should use the 
force at my command for that purpose. It is my duty to protect all loyal 
<:itizens in 'the enjoyment and possession of all their property, slaves m- 
cluded. That duty shall be performed. 

I require all troops and armed men in this part of the state, now as- 
sembled, and which are arrayed against the government of the United States. 
to immediately disperse and return to their homes. If this shall not be done 
without delay, those hordes of armed men shall be taken prisoners or dis- 
persed I request every citizen to acknowledge that he owes allegiance to the 



248 GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 

United States to aid me to prevent the shedding of blood and to restore 
peace and quiet to this portion of the state. Those who ha\'e manifested a 
want of loyalty, either by act or word, toward the government of the United 
States are recjuested to appear before me or any officer in command of any 
post or any detachment of troops under my command and take an oath of 
allegiance to our government. Gross misrepresentations of the oatli, which 
has already been administered to many of your most respectable citizens, 
have been made. No loyal citizen will decline to take such an oath. It is the 
duty of every good citizen to bear allegiance to the go\-ernment and. to support 
the constitution of the I'nited States, not to encourage secession bv word or 
act. and to obey all legal orders eminating from the constituted authorities of 
the land. No loyal citizen will bear arms against his government or give aid 
and support to the enemies of the country. Such, in brief, are the obligations 
required. 

I assure you that the government of the United States will deal leniently, 
yet firmly, with all its citizens who have been misled, and who desire to main- 
tain and preserve the best government ever devised by human wisdom. 

T. W. Sweeney, U. S. A.. 

Brigadier General Commanding. 

During the latter part of June, 1861, the forces under Go\ernor Jack- 
son and Colonel JMarmaduke marched to the southwestern part of the state- 
to join the forces of General Rains, and to be in easy distance of Gen. Ben 
McCulloch's army at Fayetteville, Arkansas. AVhen news of this movement 
reached Colonel Sigel he at once set out from S|)ringlield with his regiment 
to intercept Jackson and Marmaduke, and if possible prevent the juncture- 
of their forces with the troops under General Rains, and to attack the latter 
and de.stroy him in camp in Jasper county. Besides his own regiment, Sigef 
had the major portion of Colonel Salomon's regiment, eight pieces of Back- 
off's artillery, six and twelve pounders, and a company of regulars, and he 
"pressed' into service a number of horses and wagons, which he took from 
the people of the vicinity of Springfield. The little army left Springfield 
about July ist, taking the road westward toward Alt. W-rnon, it being sixty- 
five miles to Carthage. On July 5th the op]:)osing forces came together at 
Carthage. Against the eight companies of Sigel's regiment, seven of Salo- 
mon's and the artillery under Backoff were the State Guards under Gover- 
nor Jackson in person, and Generals Rains and Parsons. The Federals were 
defeated and fell back to Mt. Vernon, Sigel being foiled in his attempt tO' 
prevent the concentration of the secessionists. 




GEN. NATHAMKL LYON. 



GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 249- 

WHEN GENERAL I.VON CAME. 

Southwest Missnuri was becoming; ilic store center of the West. On 
July 3, 1S61, Gen. Nathaniel Lyon, wlm was destined to play a very im- 
portant role in the war drama in this part of the country, left I'.donville. 
where a battle had been tout;ht with Jackson and Marmadnke. tlirce weeks 
previously. He was at the head of some two thousand troops, leading them 
to southwestern Missouri fcjr the ]nn-pose of co-operating with Sigel. An- 
other force of about sixteen hundred men. comprising ten companies of 
Kansas volunteers, six companies of regular infantry and dragoons and live 
companies of cavalry, under the command of Mai. S. 1). Sturgis. left Kansas 
City on June 25, destined also for southwest Missouri. At Grand ri\er, in 
Henry county, the two commands formed a junction and then started to 
find Sigel. General Lyon upon hearing of the L^nion defeat and retreat 
eastward, changed his direction more to the eastward, reaching (ireene county 
about July 13th, and went into camp near Pond S])ring in the western ])art 
of the county, and on the above mentioned date Lyon rode on into .'spring- 
field. Those who saw him enter the town always remembered vividly his 
appearance. He was mounted on a splendid iron-gray horse, with an escort 
and body-guard of ten picked men fmm the First Regiment. United States 
Regular Ca\alrv. all of whom were men remarkable for their large size, 
strong physique, and fine horsemanship. The bright, neatly fitting blue uni- 
form, contrasted sharply with his red beard and long red hair. Me treated 
the citizens with kindness and courtesy, although impressing their domestic 
animals and such provisions as he needed for his army. He soon got in 
communication with Sigel. also with General Fremont at St. Louis, asking 
the latter to send him reinforcements at once, lie also busied himself with 
recruiting for the Federal service, and issued commissions to the officers of 
the Home Guard companies, and mustering in enlisted men. His arrival in 
Springfield was heralded broadcast and he was soon visited by Union leaders 
from all over this section of the state, liy men from the various counties 
within a radius of se\enty-five miles. 

The reo-iment of Home Guards whicii (ieneral Lyon accepted and which 
had been organized during the ])revious month, contained twelve companies 
and an aggregate of eleven hundred and thirty-three officers and men. and it 
.saw considerable service of a varied nature in Greene and adjoining counties. 
A number from Christian county were in the regimetit. lint all the field oft^ccrs 
were from Greene county, as follows: John S. Phelps, colonel; Marcus 
Boyd, lieutenant-colonel: S. H. Boyd, major: R. J. McElhaney. adjutant; 
Henry Sheppard. c|uartermaster. The companies from Greene county were 
as follows; Company A. John .\. Lee. captain: Ja.son T. Fielden. first lien- 



250 GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 

tenant; aggregate strength of company, fifty-eight. Company B, WilHam 
Vaughn, captain ; Isham \V. Faught, first heutenant ; George M. Kehner, 
second heutenant ; aggregate strength of the company, seventy-three. Com- 
pany C. J. T. Abernathy, captain; Hugh Boyd, first heutenant; Wilham 
Chborne, second heutenant: aggregate strength, seventy-five. Company D, 
Charles I. Dunwriglit, captain ; Wilham H. Kershner, first lieutenant ; Walter 
A. Gault, second lieutenant ; aggregate strength, ninety-six. Company G, T. 
C. Piper, captain, resigned July 30th, and succeeded by J. A. Mack, Sr. ; T. 
V. Alassey, first lieutenant ; T. B. Gibson, second lieutenant ; aggregate 
strength, fifty-six. Company K, John W. Gatty, captain, resigned July 8th; 
Hosea G. Mullings, first lieutenant : J. S. Roberson, second lieutenant : aggre- 
gate strength, one hundred and twenty-five. Company L, William H. Mc- 
Adams, captain; David C. Allen, first lieutenant; S. B. Rainey, second lieu- 
tenant; aggregate strength, seventy-five. Company M, Sampson P. Bass, 
captain; Pleasant A. Hart, first lieutenant; Stephen L. Wiles, second lieu- 
tenant; Henry Sullivan, third lieutenant; aggregate strength, one hundred 
and one. Company N, Daniel L. Mallicoat, captain; George W. Cooper, 
first lieutenant ; Francis L. Alilligan, second lieutenant ; aggregate strength, 
si.xty-two. Other companies were "E,"' Captain Nelson; "F," Captain 
Stevens (died on a scout, June 25, 1861); "H," Captain Jesse Galloway 
(killed September 29, 1861); and "I," Captain Allred, from other counties. 
The regiment was disbanded August 17, 1861, one week after the battle of 
Wilson's Creek. Many of its members re-enlisted in Phelps' regiment and 
the Twenty- fourth iNlissouri Infantry. 

A FALSE ALARM. 

A picnic and basket-dinner was held by the women of Springfield who 
were of Union families at Pond Spring near where the army of General 
Lyon was camped in the western part of Greene county. The officers and 
visitors were spending a pleasant hour at lunch under the shade of the trees, 
when a great cloud of dust was observed along the road to the west and a 
column of troops was seen to be approaching. The alarm was given and 
great excitement prevailed, everyone believing that Price and McCuUoch, who 
were known to be not far away, were marching on the Union camp with 
their armies, and the dust was supposed to be caused by the vanguard of their 
approaching commands. The long role sounded in the Union camp, bugles 
rang out, "there was mounting in hot haste,'" the infantry swung into line, 
the artillery unlimbered and formed in position, and everything was ready 
for a fight within a few minutes. The picnickers "were placed in secure re- 
treats in a deep hollow in the rear of the picnic grounds. But it was soon 
■discovered that the marching column was composed of Union refugees, with 



GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 25 1 

their wagons, cattle, household goods, men and their families who liad been 
frightened out of Barry, Newton and McDonald counties by the troops of 
Price and Rains. 

Recently other Federal troops had reached Springfield and passed on. 
Among these was the Fourth Regiment United Stales Reserve Corps, under 
Col. B. Gratz Brown, of St. Louis, afterwards a United States senator and 
governor of Missouri. When the first eight companies of this regiment 
reached Springfield on July 5th, and hearing of Sigel's defeat at Carthage 
it marched two days later on to Mt. Vernon to assist him, but returned to 
Springfield July 9th, and about a week later went back to St. Louis and was 
mustered out, its terms of enlistment having expired. When Sigel went 
west to Neosho before tlie battle of Carthage he left two companies of Salo- 
mon's regiment in .Springfield under Maj. Cronenbold, and in the meantime 
these troops had made numerous arrests among the citizens, charged with 
"disloyalty," and the court house which was used as a prison, was soon full. 
Colonel Sigel had appointed Col. John S. Phelps and Marcus Boyd a com- 
mission to examine into the cases of the imprisoned, with power to release 
or retain in custody as they saw proper. The result was that few were 
kept as prisoners. 

There was at that time a large foundr}' in Springfield and its workmen 
were set to casting cannon balls for Sigel's artillery, and these together with 
wagon loads' of provisions were hurried to him, as he was about out of both. 
This was all done under direction of Col. Phelps, who was, in a sense, com- 
mander of the post here. In the rush to get the cannon balls to the front, 
some of them left the foundry so hot that one wagon was set on fire. About 
this time Major Dorn was a special agent for the Southerners among the 
tribes in the Lidian Territory. His family resided in Springfield, and. upon 
hearing of the precarious situation here he sent for his family to join him. 
Members of the family rode in a carriage while the household effects were 
placed in wagons. When but a few miles out of town, Colonel Phelps sent 
a detachment of soldiers and brought the refugees back, making a thorough 
search of the wagons, for he had been told that they contained amnnmition 
and other articles contraband of war intended for use of the secessionists 
under Price and Rains. However, nothing was found and a few days later 
the Dorn family was allowed to proceed on its way. 

A company of Home Guards was mustered into the Union service for 
three months by authority of General Sweeney soon after the Federal occu- 
pation of Springfield. This company consisted of eigiity-nine men. and was 
-armed with muskets taken from a company of nuitineers belonging to one 
of Sigel's regiments which had Ijecome insubordinate on the march from 
Rollato Springfield. The company was an independent one and not attached 
to any regiment or battalion. It was organized chiefly for dut.v in Spring- 
field and was here during Sigel's absence and the battle of Carthage. 



GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 



THE EXPEDITION TO FORSYTH. 



Hearing tliat a large secession camp was at Forsyth, Taney county. 
General Sweeney was detailed to take about twehe hundred men from 
Springfield on July 20th to break it up. The command was composed of 
two companies of the regular cavalry under Capt. D. S. Stanley; a section 
of Captain Totten's battery, in charge of Lieutenant Sokalski; about five 
hundred men of the First Iowa Infantry, under Lieutenant-colonel Merritt ; 
('aptain Wood's ccjmpany of mounted Kansas \-ulunteers, and the Second 
Kansas Infantry under Colonel Mitchell. The little army left Springfield 
on Saturday and reached Forsyth two days later, on Monday afternoon, 
captured the town with liut little difficulty, putting to flight about two' hun- 
dred State Guards, who had been cpiartered in the court house and secured 
some guns, provisions, horses, clothing, blankets and a few prisoners ; also 
a quantity of lead was taken from a well into which it had been thrown 
when the in\aders approached the tow n. Three shells were thrown into the 
court house after the L'nionists had possession of the town. In the skirmish 
three Federals were wounded and a horse was shot from under Captain 
Stanley. It was reported that five were killed of the secessionists and ten 
wounded, among whom was a Captain Jackson. For some unknown reason 
Genera] Sweeney did not molest a C'onfederate camp of one thousand men, 
only fifty miles from Forsyth, at Yellville, Arkansas. 

The Confederates were not ignorant of the activity of the Federals in 
southwest Missouri during this period and were making every preparation 
possible to dispute the occupancy of this section of the state with their foes. 
Gen. Ben ]\IcCulloch, a dashing Texan, who had seen service as a "ranger," 
had been ordered by the Confederate government to go to the assistance of 
its allies in Missouri. He accordingly established temporary headquarters 
at Favetteville, Arkansas, where he was joined by one regiment of Louisiana 
and .\rkansas ^•olunteers and a division of Arkansas state troops. The Mis- 
souri State (Guards, under Governor Jackson and Genera! Rains, had first 
gathered near Sarcoxie, Jasper county, later pitching their tents on the Cow- 
skin Prairie, in McDonald county, where considerable time was spent in drill- 
ing, organizing and recruiting. From the latter encampment Gen. Sterling 
Frice began mo\ing the State Guards, on July 25, 1861, toward Cassville, 
Barry county, where he was to meet the troops of Generals McCulloch and 
N. B. Pearce, also Gen. J. FI. McBride's division of State Guards. Here 
preparations were to be made for a forward movement on General Lyon, 
Sigel. Sweenex' and the other L^nion commanders, whose troops were in the 
vicinity of Springfield. The junction of the secession forces was effected 
on Julv 29th, and the combined armies were soon put under marching orders. 



GREENE COUNTY, iMISSOLRI. ^53 

The First Division was coniinanded by Cicncral .McCullocli in person; Cicn- 
, eral Pearce, of Arkansas, commanded the Second Division, and the Third 
Division, under General Steen, of Missouri, left Cassville, August ist and 
2d, taking the Springhekl road. It is said that Genera! Price, with tiie major 
portion of his infantry, accompanied the Second Division. .\ few days 
later a regiment of Texas Rangers, under Colonel (ireer. joined the advanc- 
ing Confederates. The advance guard was commanded by Gen. J. S. Rains, 
the noted Jasper county politician. His was the Eighth Division and of this 
he selected si.x companies of mounted Alissourians to lead the van. Rains 
was given the advance because many of his men were residents of this section 
of the state and were familiar with the roads and general lay of the land. 
On Friday, August 2d, he camped at Dug Springs, in Christian county, about 
twentv miles southwest of Springfield. The main army was some distance 
to the westward. The Confederate army was really composed of tliree 
armies, as follows: The Missouri State Guard under General Price, a division 
of Arkansas state troops under Gen. N. Bart Pearce. and a division of South- 
ern troops under Gen. Ben McCulloch. Pearce's division was comiKised of 
the First Arkansas Cavalry, under Col. De Rosey Carroll, Capt. Charles .A. 
Carroll's independent company of cavalry, the Third .\rkansas Infantry, 
under Col. Tohn R. Gratiot, the Fourth .Arkansas Infantry, under Col. J. D. 
Walker, the Fifth Arkansas Infantry, under Co]. T. P. Dockery and Capt. 
Woodrufif's Battery, the "Pulaski Artillery." All of the infantry regiments 
had enlisted for three months only and their terms of enlistment exjjired 
about Septemljer i. They were properly state militia. Another Arkansas 
battery under Capt. J. G. Reid, of Ft. Smith, was also with (leneral Pearce. 
but later assigned to :\IcCulloch"s division. 

.\N ENGAGEMENT AT DfG SPRINGS. 

The Federal scouts duly informed General Lyon of the concentration 
of the Confederate troops, and of the intention of the combined armies 
marching to engage him in battle. His spies were bold and faithful. They 
sometimes marched in the enemy's ranks, loitered about the hca<l.|uarters of 
the commanding officers and in whatever manner possible gathered informa- 
tion that was of great value to the Federals, then left the camps unobserved, 
slipped through the line of pickets and made their way in all haste to mform 
their chief Most of these scouts and spies were residents ot tins part of the 
state and were familiar with "the lay of the land" in general. On the other 
hand the spies of General Price were just as clever and darmg, and gamed 
such information as he required from the Federal camp. They, too, were 
residents of this part of the state. A number of Greene county men acted 
as\couts and spies for both armies. Although the Southern army greatly 



254 GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 

outnumbered his own, Lyon, the fighting Irishman that he was, decided to 
go out and give battle, not waiting for the enemy to come to him, but meet- 
ing him half way. He had sent numerous messages to General Fremont for 
re-inforcements from St. Louis, but not deeming it advisable to wait any 
longer on uncertainty he got his army in motion late Thursday afternoon, 
August 1st. The forces of Sigel and Sturgis had swelled his army to five 
thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight men of all arms, infantry, cavalry 
and eighteen pieces of artillery. Mounting his white charger he led the force 
in person, taking the road toward Cassville, leaving behind a force of volun- 
teers and Home Guards to hold Springfield. That night the army bivouacked 
about ten miles southwest of Springfield on a branch of the James river. 
His subordinate commanders were Brig.-Gen. T. W. Sweeney, Col. Franz 
Sigel and Maj. S. D. Sturgis. Early the following morning the command 
resumed its march. The men suffered se\erely from the dust, intense heat 
and thirst. Most of the wells and streams were dry as a result of the 
drought. Late in the afternoon as much as five dollars was offered for a 
canteen of warm ditch water, but the column pushed on until the vanguard 
came upon General Rains' troops at Dug Springs, which is in an oblong 
valley, five miles in length and broken by projecting spurs of the hills, which 
form wooded ridges. Although the enemy was first seen about eleven 
o'clock in the forenoon, at a house by the roadside with a wagon partly laden 
with cooked provisions from which they were driven away by a shell from 
one of Captain Totten's guns, it was not until five o'clock in the afternoon 
that general fighting began. At that time a battalion of regular infantry 
under Capt. Frederick Steele, a company of United States Dragoons under 
Capt. D. S. Stanley, and two six-pounders of Captain Totten's battery had a 
skirmish with Rains' men, driving the latter away, with the loss of one 
killed and a half dozen wounded, and capturing ten prisoners. Lieutenant 
Xorthcut is said to have been mortally wounded. The Federal loss was 
four killed outright, one mortally wounded, and about thirty slightly wounded. 
Three of the Union killed were Corporal Klein and Privates Devlin and 
Givens. H. D. Fulbright, a native of Greene county, where he had resided 
most of liis life, was sun struck during the engagement and died. Another 
Greene county man, W. J- Frazier, of Captain Campbell's company, was 
slightlv wounded. Althougii Captain Campbell was at that time absent on 
a scout, the larger portion of his company participated in the skirmish. 
Rains's troops were pursued by the Federals the following morning as far 
as Curran, twenty-six miles from Springfield and almost on the county line 
of Stone and Barry counties. During the day a scouting party of Southern- 
ers, which had come from Marionville, was met, but they fled when Totten's 
artillerv opened fire on them. 



GREENE COUNTV, MISSOURI. 255. 

GENERAL LYON RETREATS. 

Upon reaching Curran. (General I. yon dccidal to return to Springlield. 
having found the forces of tlie enemy to be so overwhelming compared to his 
own, and await the re-inforcements wliich he still had some hopes of l>eing 
sent from St. Louis, deciding that he could not afford to risk a decisive battle 
tinder the circumstances, idr the possession of southwest Missouri which 
seemed to mean so much at that time. His scouts had reported that a large 
force of State Guards was marching from the direction of Sarcoxie to join 
Price. Accordingly, after a council of war with his officers, Sweeney, Sigel, 
Majors Sturgis, Sheppard, Schofield and Conant, and the artillery captains. 
Totten and Schaeffer, General Lyon concluded that it was best to counter- 
march his army and soon was on the road to Springfield, coming this time 
directly to the town, where he arrived August 5th. The main l>ody of the 
army camped about the town. Nearly two thousand of the volunteers and 
regulars under Lieutenant-colonel Andrews, of the First Missouri, and Major 
Sturgis were stationed about four miles from town, where they remained 
until August 7th. when they were withdrawn to the line of defense around 
the town. A guard was at once placed on all the roads and avenues of 
approach to Springfield. No one was allowed to pass out of the town ex- 
cept phvsicians. although everybody was admitted. No camp was ever better 
guarded and all knowledge of what was going on within the Union lines was 
prevented reaching the enemy. 

According to Col. Thomas L. Snead. General Price's assistant adjutant 
in 1861, he and General Price rode over to General McCulloch's camp at 
McCuIIoch's farm, on Sunday morning. August 4th. and in the presence of 
Snead and Col. James Mcintosh, who was McCulloch's adjutant general, 
General Price urged McCulloch to co-operate with him in an attack on 
Lyon who was supposed to be in the immediate front, the Confederates hav- 
ing not at the time been apprised of the fact that he had retreated. It seems 
that McCulloch was a man of considerable obstinacy, overestimating his 
own ability as a commander, and had no faith whatever in the generalship of 
Price, in fact, had a general contempt for the Missouri officers in general. 
Price was a major-general of Missouri militia, McCulloch only a Confederate 
brigadier. Price was somewhat boisterous in manner, had a loud voice and 
a positive address, and always spoke to McCulloch as if he regarded the latter 
to be his inferior. .\t this conference the following parley t.i.-k j.lacc: 
"Do you mean to march on and attack Lyon. General McCulloch?" Price 
inquii^ed. "I have not received orders yet to do so. sir." answered McCulloch. 
adding. "My instructions leave me in dmibt whether I will be justified in 
doino"so." "Now. sir." said Price, still in Iiis loud, imperious tone. "I have 



256 GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 

■conimanded in more battles than you ever saw. General McCulloch. I 
have three times as many troops as you. I am of higher rank than you are, 
and 1 am twenty }ears your senior in age and general experience. I waive 
all these considerations, General McCulloch, and if you will march upon the 
•enemy I will obey your orders and give you the whole command and all the 
glory to be won there." McCulloch then said that he was expecting a dis- 
patch from President Jefferson Davis and \\ould take General Price at his 
word if it should be favorable, and if after consideration with General Pearce 
the latter should agree also to co-operate, the latter having an independent 
command of Arkansas state troops. General Price immediately called his 
general officers together and told them what he had done. They were at 
tirst violently opposed to his action, but finally they gave their unwilling 
consent to what they considered an unnecessary self-abasement. In the 
afternoon McCulloch and Mcintosh came to Price's headquarters and Mc- 
Culloch announced that he had received, in the meantime, dispatches from 
Richmond that ga\e him greater freedom of action, and also that he would 
receive that night Greer's Texas regiment, comprising one thousand men as 
re-inforcements. and that he would, therefore, accede to General Price's 
]iroposition and assume command of the combined armies and march against 
Lyon. Accordingly General Price directed Col. Snead to write the neces- 
sary orders and had them published to the Missouri State Guard. Word 
had come that the Federals were retreating and the orders were to move for- 
ward that very night. Later it was discovered that General Lyon had 
escai>e<l with his army. 

CONFEDERATES ENTER GREENE COUNTY. 

The three divisions of the Confederate army were now united, General 
Rains having fallen back on the main force after his rout at Dug Springs, 
McCulloch and Price being at that time five miles away, camped on Crane 
■creek in the northern part of Stone county, and he reported to them that he 
had been assailed by a force much greater than the combined Southern 
armies. It seemed that he had been thoroughly frightened. His report 
was given greater weight than it should have been liy his superior officers. 
General McCulloch advised a retreat, but General Price counseled a forward 
movement, his ofificers and men agreeing with him and asking to be led into 
combat, Init as McCulloch was not willing to ad\ance, General Price asked 
him for the loan of some arms for a portion of his command which was with- 
out adequate arms, that the Missourians might advance alone. McCulloch 
refused and the confusion and embarrassing disagreement continued until on 
Sundav evening, August 4th, when McCulloch received orders from the Con- 
federate capital to ad\ance on General Lyon. This order greatly pleased 




GEX. STKKI.I.Xi; ruii'K 



GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 257 

General Price. A council was at once hckl at which McCulloch agreed to 
march on Springfield provided he was granted the chief command of the 
consolidated army. Price was anxious to give battle to the Federals and 
defeat and drive them from this section of the state before General Fremont 
could send re-inforcements from St. Louis, so he consented to the terms of 
the imperious Texan, although Price was by all right and justice in supreme 
command of all the Confederate forces in Missouri. And he said, "I am not 
fighting for distinction, but for the liberation of my country, and J am willing 
to surrender not only my command but my life, if necessary, as a sacrifice to 
the cause." So about midnight the Southerners broke camp and began their 
march on the Fayetteville road toward Springfield August 4. Their progress 
was slow- and cautious until August 6th, when the crossing at Wilson's creek 
was reached, near the Christian county line, ten miles southwest of Spring- 
field. 

FEDERAL ACCOUNT OF THE B.\TTLE OF WILSON's CREEK. 

Upon the return of General Lyon to Springfield from Dug Springs, he 
scattered his forces along the various roads leading into the city at a distance 
of from three to five miles. Twenty-five hundred of his force, under Major 
Sturgis were stationed on the Fayetteville road, five miles out. All avenues 
of approach Avere well guarded and every precaution taken against surprise 
and attack. General Lyon's private room and personal headquarters were in 
a house on North Jefferson street, not far from the public square. The build- 
ing was at that time the property of Mrs. Boren and later owned by Mrs. 
Timmons. His general headquarters were on the north side of College street, 
a little west of Main, in a house then owned by John S. Phelps, but which 
had been recently occupied by Major Dorn. In this same house his 
body lay after it was borne from the ill-fated field of Wilson's Creek. Tiie 
house was burned by Curtis' Federals in February, 1862. and the lot re- 
mained vacant thereafter for a quarter of a century or more. 

General Lyon had no sooner returned to Springfield from his brief e.xpe- 
dition in the Dug Springs country, than he sent a courier again to General 
Fremont in St. Louis importuning him for re-inforcements. .Alx)ut this 
time John S. Phelps was returning to Washington, D. C, for the purpose of 
attending the special session of Congress, which President Lincoln had called, 
and on his way Mr. Phelps stopped in St. Louis and urged Fremont to send 
aid to L\on at once, pointing out to him every detail of the gra\e situation 
in the southwestern part of the state. Not only men hut supplies, both of 
which were in the Mound City in abundance, were needed. Following is a 
copy of the note written by General Lyon to General Fremont, under date 
of Tulv 27, i86r, which Mr. Phelps delivered: 
' (17) 



258 GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 

"Memorandum for Col. Phelps. — See Fremont about troops and stores 
for this place. Our men have not been paid and are rather dispirited ; they 
are badly off for clothing and the want of shoes unfits them for marching. 
Some staff oi^cers are badly needed, and the interests of the government 
sufifer badly for the want of them. The time of the three months' volunteers 
is nearly out, and on their returning home my command will be reduced too 
low for effective operations. Troops must at once be forwarded to supply 
their place. The safety of the state is hazarded. (Jrders from Gen. Scott 
strip the entire W'est of regular forces and increase the chances of sacrificing 
it. The public press is full of reports that troops from other states are 
moving toward the northern border of .Vrkansas for the puri)ose of invading 
Missouri." 

General Fremont ignored all these entreaties, saying that he did not 
believe General Lyon was in anything like desperate straits ; that }iIcCulloch 
and Price could have nothing but an inconsiderable force, since the country 
in southwestern Misscniri was too poor to support a force of any formidable 
strength: that in his opinion Lyon could take care of himself; and finally 
that he had no troops to spare him anyway, as he had received information 
through Gov. O. P. Morton, of Indiana, that a large Confederate force and 
rtotilla of gunljoats, under command of General Pillow, were coming up the 
Mississippi river to attack Cairo, Bird's Point, and if successful in their 
destruction, would come on and destroy St. Louis and that he had need of 
every available man to guard those threatened points. But General Lyon 
was a man not given to leaving any gaps down and knowing the situation 
perfectlv, he consulted not only with his officers but with the leading L'nion 
men of Springfield and gained information on every phase of the situation 
and his efficient scouts brought him all details of conditions within the 
enemy's lines. He was impatient to give battle to the armies of McCulloch 
and Price in his front, but his caution made him desire additional troops for 
this purpose to enable him to have a reasonable chance of success. Nearly 
every day he sent messages for assistance and he \-isited his outposts e\ery 
day. Sometimes he would lose his temper and violently indulge in pro- 
fanitv. Two prominent Union men were with him one day when he re- 
ceived a message from r>emont stating that no more troops could or would 
be sent for the present, whereat General Lyon roundly cursed his superior 
officer and declared that l-'remont was a worse enemy to him and the LInion 
cause than Price, McCulloch and the whole tribe of reljcls in this [jart of the 
state. 

"grim \ISAGEI) w.\r." 

The people of Greene county had been told of the horrors of civil war 
l)y Benton, Phelps, Orr, Rollins, Richardson, Boyd and Hendricks, but could 



GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. ju) 

not fully grasp its significance. Finally they were bnniglit to a fnll realiza- 
tion. .\ marked change had taken ])lace. The peaceful citizens and neigh- 
bors of yesterday were at la^t arrayed against each other, with arms in their 
hands. Military camps dotted the tjuiet fields, dwelling houses were turned 
into hospitals, plow horses were drawing cannon carriages, wagons uf ammu- 
nition or bearing cavalrymen on their backs. Bands of badly disciplined 
volunteers in both armies were overrunning the country, ccjmmitting all kinds 
of depredations, plundering granaries, smoke-hon.ses. killing live stock, de- 
vastating gardens, terrifying the inhabitants and appropriating whatever 
property they desired. And everybody realized that a great and bloody 
battle was soon to be fought on (ireeue county soil. The conduct of those 
earnest but misguided men who would do nothing to ])re\ein civil war but 
everything to precipitate it, was bearing bitter fruits, ;uul ilu- end no one 
could see. 

Major Sturgis' force of two thousand and five hundred men. compris- 
ing about one-third of Lyon's army, which he had stationed on the Favettc- 
ville road, a few miles out of Springfield, on .August 5, was ordered to Ix; 
ready to move at a moment's notice and late the following afternoon they 
were in the ranks, everything in readiness to march and attack the advancing 
enemy. Soon thereafter General Lyon received a number of messages to the 
effect that Captain Stockton, of the First Kansas, and two companies of Home 
Guards had clashed with Price's cavalry on the i>rairie west of town. The 
two companies were ordered to the relief of (.'a])tain .Stockton. Fight com- 
panies of the First Ivansas Infantry, a part of the Second Kansas and Major 
Osterhaus' battalion of the Second Missouri were ordered to a certain point 
in town to await the arrival of General Lyon, w-ho w^as too deeply engrossed 
to leave his head(|uarters until midnight and he proceeded to Camp Hunter, 
having already ordered Alajor Sturgis to drive in the enemy's pickets, if 
within two miles of his own. A company of cavalry inider Captain Fred 
Steele, who afterwards became major-general in charge of Federal troops in 
Arkansas, was dispatched on this errand shortly after midnight and (ieneral 
Lyon with the troops above mentioned arrived at three o'clock in the morn- 
ino- LTntil now he had failed to consult lii^ watch and found the time to be 
two hours later than he liad supposed. Me at once called his principal ofiicers 
together and advised them of his embarrassing position and taking their ad- 
vice, withdrew the entire force to Springfield. It had been his intention 
after his retreat from Dug Springs to suddenly turn ni)on reaching Spring- 
field and march back and face the Confederates, who. he felt sure, would 
follow him up. It was his plan to fall upon them when they least expected 
it, believing his chances to defeat them would be fairly good. On arriving 
at Springfield there was evidence that the enemy was approaching from the 
west and" this caused him to wait a few hours. He obtained information on 



26o GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 

the night of the 6th that Price and McCulloch were only seven miles away 
from Sturgis' camp, and he advised to attack them at daylight. Upon his 
return to town. General Lyon remarked to Major Schofield, of Colonel 
Blair's regiment, the First Missouri, that he had a premonition that a night 
attack would prove disastrous and yet he had felt impelled to try it once and 
perhaps should do so again, "for my only hope of success is in a surprise," 
he added. It was daylight before the Federals reached Springfield. An 
ambush was formed in the timber southwest of town in case of pursuit. All 
during Wednesday continued alarms were afloat in Springfield, many of the 
citizens being panic stricken, some packing up their household belongings 
and preparing to flee to places of supposed safety. The troops were under 
arms in every quarter, and several times it was reported that fighting had 
actually commenced. However, toward night the panic in a measure sub- 
sided, but many of the people who had remained did not retire and make any 
attempt to sleep. Col. IMarcus Boyd, commanding Phelps' regiment of 
Home Guards, kept his men in readiness all night. A council of war was 
held by the leading Union officers at Lyon's headquarters which lasted until 
midnight. One of the principal matters discussed was the evacuation of 
Springfield and the abandonment of southwest Missouri to the Confederates. 
Looking at the situation from a military point of view, there was no doubt 
of the propriety and even the necessity of such a step, and General Lyon and 
the majority of his officers counselled such a movement. Some favored a 
retreat to Ft. Scott, Kansas, while others advocated going to Rolla, a point 
easier reached, notwithstanding the rugged country intervening. However, 
General Sweeney was strongly opposed to a retreat without a fight. With 
his naturally fl<:irid face flushed to a livid red, and excitedly waving his one 
arm, he vehemently protested, pointing out the disastrous results which must 
ensue from a retreat without a battle: how the "rebels" would boast of an 
easy conquest, how they would harass, terrorize and persecute the unpro- 
tected Unionists if given undisputed possession of the country, how the Union 
sympathizers themselves would become discouraged, and declared himself of 
holding on to the last minute, and of giving battle to Price and McCulloch 
as soon as they would offer it. "Let us eat the last bit of mule flesh and fire 
the last cartridge before we think of retreating," he said. Some of the other 
officers, including General Lyon, finally shared the views of General Sweeney 
and it was decided to remain, save the reputation of the little army, hope 
against hope for re-inforcements, and not evacuate Springfield and Greene 
county until compelled to. The following day when Colonel Sigel's brigade 
quartermaster, Maj. Alexis Mudd, inquired of General Lyon when the army 
would leave Springfield, the latter replied: "Not until we are whipped out." 
A false alarm on Thursday morning had it that the Confederates were 
actually advancing on Springfield and Lyon quickly drew up his troops in 



GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 26l 

line of battle, the baggage wagons were all sent to the center of the town 
and in this position they remained during nearly the entire day. Price and 
McCulloch had advanced, but only about two miles and gone into camp in the 
southern part of the county, just this side the Christian county line, their 
tents being on either side of Wilson's creek, in sections 25 and 26. town^hip 
28, range 23. The camp extended a mile or two east and south of the 
Fayetteville road. That evening the Federals were ready for marching 
orders, but a portion of the Kansas troops had been on duty all night of 
Wednesday and were unfit for service, so the night attack was again de- 
ferred, all the troops, except those on guard being ordered to retire to rest. 
The Home Guards were on duty at this time in the city. To scores of Lyon's 
army this proved to be the last night's sleep they were to take on earth, and 
soon all was quiet, only the sound of the pickets' challenges, as they hailed 
the chief guard or arrested the steps of some belated wanderer. Side by 
side slept the sturdy farmer boys from Greene and adjoining counties, the 
men who had left peaceful homes in Kansas and Iowa, and Germans from 
St. Louis. And only a few miles away were they who had come from their 
homes in the Ozarks, from the rolling plains of Texas, the mountains of 
Arkansas and the savannahs of Louisiana, under a new banner, to do battle 
for the cause they believed was right, to drive out those they considered in- 
vaders of their country and the despoilers of their homes. 

The profound quiet that prevailed in Springfield on Friday 9th was 
only the calm that preceded the storm. The alarmists had practically all 
slunk away, enlistments in the L'nion army continued rapidly and a feeling of 
security prevailed among the residents. During the afternoon Captain 
Wood's company of Kansas cavalry and Captain Stanley's company of 
regulars had a skirmish with a scouting party of Price's cavalry on the 
prairie about five miles west of town, defeating them, wounding two and 
capturing six or eight prisoners. From the latter it was learned that the 
Confederates were badly provisioned and that it was necessary for them to 
forage extensivelv in the surrounding country. Alxnit noon General Lyon 
received another message from Gen. John C. Fremont from St. Louis inform- 
ino- the former tiiat his situation was not considered critical: that he had 
doubtless overestimated the force in his front : that he ought not to fall back 
without good cause and again assured him that no re-inforcements would 
be sent, but that he must report his future movements as promptly as possible 
and do the best lie could. Lyon was an able general and he knew the situa- 
tion perfectly. He had to face a force three times larger than his own and 
much more eflicient, in a country especially adapted to the use of the move- 
ments of cavalry, with the terms of enlistment of half of his best men ex- 
pired and with but a few thousand of experienced troops under his con»- 
mand at the best— there was little hope for him. But he was .n man of cour- 



262 GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 

age. lienor forbade him to retreat: if he fought a defensive battle there was 
danger of utter annihilation, and if he attacked he invited defeat and destruc- 
tion. He did not know why Fremont refused him aid, for he knew that 
there were thousands of soldiers at St. Louis, fronton and other places eager 
to aid him, and who were apparently not needed for other purposes. But he 
quietly accepted the situation, like the bra\e. trained soldier that he was, and 
set about obe}-ing the orders of his superior officer. \\'ith Fremont's mes- 
sage before him on the little table in his headquarters he penned the follow- 
ing reply with his own hand, the last letter he ever wrote: 

Springfield, Mo., Aug. 9, 1861. 

General — I have just received your note of the 6th inst., by special mes- 
senger. I retired to this place, as I have before informed you, reaching here 
on the 5th. The enemy followed to within ten miles of here. He has taken 
a strong position and is recruiting his supplies of horses, mules and pro- 
visions by forages into the surrounding country. His large force of mounted 
men enables him to do this without much annoyance from me. 

I find my position extremely embarrassing, and am at present unable to 
determine whether I shall be able to maintain my ground or be forced to 
retire. I shall hold my ground as long as possible, though I may without 
knowing how far, endanger the safety of ni}' entire force with its valuable 
material, being induced, by the important considerations involved, to take this 
step. The enemy yesterday made a show of force about fi\'e miles distant 
and has doubtless a full purpose of making an attack on me. Very respect- 
fully, your obedient servant, N. Lyon, 

Brig.-Gen. Vols., Commanding. 

To JNIajor-Gen. T. C. F'remont. Commanding Western Department. St. 
Louis, Mo. 
It will be observed that he made no word of complaint and no murmur. 
but with the expressed knowledge that he was to be attacked, and with a 
premonition of being defeated, he courageously announced his determination 
to hold his ground as "long as possible." 

MOVEMENTS OF THE CONFEDER.\TES. 

After spending a night at Moody's Spring, Generals Price and Mc- 
Cttlloch moved their troops forward on Tuesday to the site on Wilson's 
creek, on the line between Greene and Christian counties, going into camp 
there on the 6th. They at once sent out scouting parties, principally for the 
purpose of discovering the Federal position, but with little success, while 
foraging parties scoured the country in every direction and also failed to 



GREENE COUNTV, iMISSOURI. 263 

obtain any information of valne. Tht- combined forces were at once put in 
position to advance on Sprini^tield. and only waited tbe decision of General 
McCulloch to begin the ino\e, Price l)eing impatient for a forward marcli. 
The former was irresohite and undecided for several days. From the in- 
formation he possessed as to the strength and character of Lyon's forces and 
his knowledge of his own, he was fearful of the result of an engagement at 
that time. As before stated he had but little confidence in Price and his 
Missourians, these being somewhat undisciplined and ine.xperienced and at 
one time he characterized them as ''Splendid roasting-ear foragers, but poor 
soldiers.'' He at one time decided to retreat to Arkansas ; but General Price, 
who knew that Lyon's force was inferior, and that the Southerners had little 
to risk in offering battle, urged an attack at once ; for he believed that Lyon 
■would in all probability be reinforced and it were best to attack him before 
he could be joined by additional regiments. Lyon's force was called by 
Price's men "the Yankee Dutch," and he believed the pluck of his men in 
fighting a detested foe on Missouri soil would more than make up for the 
fact that his soldiers were none too well armed and equipped and for their 
lack of discipline and experience. In his rejjort to the Confederate secretary 
of war. General McCulloch said : 

"I asked of the Missourians, owing to their knowledge of the country, 
some reliable information of the strength and position of the enemy. This 
they repeatedly promised, but totally failed to furnish, though to urge them 
to it I then and at subsequent periods declared 1 would order the whole army 
back to Cassville rather than bring on an engagement with an unknown 
enemy. It had no eiTect, as we remained four days within ten miles of 
Springfield and never learned whether the streets were barricaded, or if any 
kind of works of defense had been erected by the enemy. He even slung a 
rifle over his shoulder and mounting his horse, reconnoitered in person, but 
all to no purpose. He could not even ascertain whether the Federals had 
thrown up breastworks in front of their position. According to Gen. N. B. 
Pearce. the first information concerning General Lyon's condition was given 
by two women who secured a pass through Lyon's lines and came to Pond 
Spring, where they told the Southern leaders the desired information. At 
last General Price lost all patience and at sunrise on Friday, .August 9th, 
sent Colonel Snead over to McCulloch to say to him that if he did not give 
orders for an immediate advance that he (Price) would resume command 
of the Missouri State Guard and advance alone, be the consequences what 
they might. This led to a conference of the general officers at Price's 
headquarters that afternoon, which resulted in an order for an advance on 
Springfield that \ery night, the movement to begin at nine o'clock. 



264 GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 



GENERAL LYON MARCHES OUT TO GIVE BATTLE. 

General Lyon after being finally assured by Fremont that no troops 
would be sent him, determined to attack the Confederates, surprising them 
while in camp on Wilson's creek and trust to the fierce fighting of his troops 
together with the confusion a surprise would cause in the enemy's ranks to 
gain the day for him. He knew that his situation would not improve with 
time, and also being informed of the intended attack upon him, within four 
hours after it had been decided upon, receiving his information from one of 
his spies who was actually a commissioned officer in the Missouri State 
Guards. He did not like the idea of fighting a defensive battle at Spring- 
field, with a town full of women and children behind him and an open 
country in front, well adapted to the movements of cavalry of which he had 
but a handful and of which his enemy's force largely consisted. Accordingly 
late on Friday afternoon, the gth, word was sent to the subordinate com- 
manders that after nightfall another movement against the Confederates 
would be made. Generals Lyon and Sweeney, Colonel Sigel and Major 
Sturgis soon agreed upon a plan of attack. The army was to be divided 
into two columns. The first column, under Lyon, was to consist of three 
small brigades ; the second, under Sigel, was to consist of one small brigade 
composed of two regiments, two companies of cavalry and six pieces of 
artillery. The First Brigade of Lyon's column was composed of three com- 
panies of the First LTnited States Regular Infantry, as follows : Company 
B, Captain Gilbert: Company C, Captain Plummer; Company D, Captain 
Huston : a company of regular rifle recruits under Lieutenant Wood, the four 
companies being commanded by Captain Plummer of Company C. Then 
there were two companies of the Second Missouri Volunteers under Maj. P. 
J. Osterhaus ; Captain Wood's mounted company of the Second Kansas 
Volunteers ; Company B, First United States Regular Cavalry, under Lieu- 
tenant Canfield, and a light battery of six pieces, commanded by Capt. James 
Tolten. The First Brigade was commanded by Major Sturgis. The Sec- 
ond Brigade was commanded by Lieut. -Col. George L. Andrews, of Blair's 
regiment of the First Missouri Volunteers and was composed of the First 
Missouri Infantry Companies B and E, Second United States Regular In- 
fantry, imder Capt. Fred Steele; one company of regular recruits under 
Lieutenant Lothrop ; one company or squad of mounted troops under Sergeant 
Moraine and Lieutenant Dubois' light battery of four pieces, one a twelve- 
pounder. The Third Brigade was commanded by General Sweeney and was 
composed of the First Iowa Volunteers under Lieutenant-colonel Merritt, the 
colonel, J. F. Bates, being sick in Springfield; the First Kansas, under Col. 
George W. Deitzler; the Second Kansas, under Colonel ]Mitchell, and about 
two hundred mounted Dade county Home Guards, under Capt. Clark Wright 



GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 265 

and Capt. T. A. Switzler. Colonel Sigel's command consisted of eight com- 
panies of the Third .Missouri \-(.lunteers (his own regiment), which during 
the battle was commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Alliert; nine companies of 
the Fifth Missouri, under Colonel Salomon; one company. First Regular 
Cavalry, unde? Captain Carr; one company. C. of the Second United States 
Dragoons, under Lieutenant Farrand. and six pieces of light artillery, manned 
by details from the infantry recruits under Lieutenants Schaeffer and 
Schuetzenbach. 

THE LINE OF MARCH. 

General Lyon set his troops in motion about six o'clock Friday evening. 
the 9th, the column moving westward on the Mt. Vernon road. Captain 
Gilbert's company of regular infantry in the van. Night came on hut the 
column did not halt. There was a great deal of noise made on this march, 
although it was expected to be a silent one and the enemy was to be sur- 
prised. The Kansas and Iowa troops were especially hilarious, singing camp 
songs and giving vent to boisterous laughter all the way. Lyon, however, 
succeeded in somewhat quieting his army toward midnight. The army con- 
tinued westward about five miles, then turned south near Little York, and the 
next six miles over rough roads was somewhat difficult, but Federals came 
in due course of time within striking distance of Price's command, the center 
of whose camp was about six miles west and seven miles south of the public 
square of Springfield. Among Lyon's guides were Pleasant Hart and Par- 
ker Cox. The advance first discovered the camp-fires of the enemy about 
one o'clock in the morning. The marching troops were halted and the 
ground reconnoitered as well as possible in the darkness: when daybreak 
came Lyon again moved forward and formed in line of battle, moving a little 
southeast so as to strike the e.xtreme northern point of the enemy's camp. 

It was after six o'clock the previous evening when Colonel Sigel broke 
camp just south of Springfield and took the old "wire trail." the road lead- 
ing toward Cassville and Fayetteville. along which the telegraph wire ran. 
About four miles west of town the command left the road which led directly 
through INIcCulloch's camp, and bore south, and then along a road parallel 
with the Cassville road, and in the same general direction, until below the 
Christian county line. Colonel Sigel's guides were John Steele. .Xndrew 
Adams, C. B. Owen. Sam Carthal. and L. A. D. Crenshaw. Sigel's o-hnnn 
marched about fifteen miles, passing entirely around the extreme sonthea.'^t- 
ern camp of the enemy, and arriving at daylight within a mile of the main 
camp. Taking forward the two cavalry companies of Carr and Farrand. 
Colonel Sigel contri\ed to cut off about forty men of McCulloch's army, who 
had gone out earlv for forage and were engaged in digging potatoes, picking 
roasting-ears. gathering tomatoes and procuring other supplies for their in- 



266 GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 

■dividual commissary departments. The prisoners were taken quietly and no 
news of the l-'ederal advance from this quarter reached the camp of the 
Southerners. Still observing the utmost caution, Sigel planted four pieces 
of artillery on a hill, in plain view of the enemy's tents, which spread out to 
his front and right. The two companies of infantry advanced so as to com- 
mand the Fayetteville road at the point where it crosses Wilson's creek, 
while the two companies of cavalry guarded the flanks. In this position the 
command rested, awaiting the sound of Lyons' guns as a signal to open a 
general engagement. The prisoners were left in charge of Captain Flagg, 
who commanded Company K, of the Fifth Missouri Infantry. It had been 
.agreed by the Federals that Sigel should block the Fayetteville road, pre- 
venting the Confederates from retreating by that highway. Later ofificers of 
both armies claimed that Sigel carried out his part of the plan too well, that 
if an a\'enue of retreat had been left open the results of the battle might have 
been different. Lyon had left in Springfield the Home Guards of Greene 
.and Christian counties, with instructions that the Fayetteville road should 
be watched below where Sigel turned ofY, and send word to him immediately 
if any troops of the enemy should be seen approaching from that quarter, 
as he believed the eneni}- planned a night attack upon him. The citizens of 
Springfield were fully ready for a retreat, wagons were loaded, the funds 
■of the bank were secured for transfer and were being guarded by the reserve 
troops. 

THE BATTLE IN DETAIL. 

In view of the fact that the battle of Wilson's Creek was the second 
greatest battle during the first year of the Civil war, was the greatest event 
in all the history of Greene count}', that such a large number of citizens of 
this locality participated in the engagement, that it was of such iu(jinentous 
importance and is still a frequent topic of conversation with our people, it is 
•deemed advisable to here give an account of the battle in detail, every effort 
having been made to secure accuracy. The most reliable Federal accounts 
are those which were furnished by Major Sturgis, who assumed command 
•of Lyon's column after the battle; Maj. J. "SI. Schofield. then of the First 
Missouri : Lieutenant-Colonel Blair and Major Cloud, of the Second Kan- 
sas ; Lieutenant-Colonel Merritt, of the First Iowa ; Captain Totten and 
Lieutenant Dubois, of the artillery, and Captain Steele, of the regulars. Cap- 
tain W^right, of the Home Guards, all of Lyon's column: and General Sigel, 
Dr. S. H. Melcher, the guides, and Captain Carr, of Sigel's column. The 
most reliable Confederate accounts are the official reports of Generals Price, 
McCulloch, Pearce, Clark, Rains, McBride and Parsons ; reports of Col. 
John R. Graves, of Rains' division, and Col. John T. Hughes, of Slack's 
•division; Col. Thomas L. Snead, assistant adjutant general of Price, and 



GREENE COUNTY. MISSOURI. 267 

Lieut. \y. P. Barlow, of Guibor's battery; Col. T. J. Churchill. First .\rkan- 
sas Mounted Ritleiuen: Col. James McTnto.>^h and Lieut.-Col. B. T. Embry. 
Second Arkansas Mounted Rincmen ; Lieut.-Col. D. McRae, of Rae's Bat- 
talion, .Arkansas Volunteers; Col. Lewis Hebert, Lieut.-Col. S. M. Hyams 
and Maj. ^V. F. Tunnard. Third Louisiana Volunteers; Col. F. C.recr. South 
Kansas-Texas Regiment Cavalry; Capt. J. C. Reid. of Reid's Arkan.sas Bat- 
tery; Col. John R. Gratiot, Third .Arkansas Infantry; Col. De Rosey Car- 
roll, First .Arkan.sas Cavalry: Col. J. D. Walker. Fourth Arkansas Infantry; 
and Col. T. P. Dockery, Fifth Arkansas Infantry. There have been a great 
many sensational, improbable and overdrawn accounts of this memorable 
contest, but these have been discarded as of no value to the historian, who 
aims at telling the uncolored and unbiased truth. 

General Lyon formed his battle line at daylight, Saturday, .August loth, 
the infantry in front, closely followed by Totten's battery, which was sup- 
ported by a reserve. In this order the line advanced a few hundred yards, 
but found no' outposts, the .Southern pickets having been called in. F'iring 
was begun immediately on the ad\'ance of Rains' division. The Confederate 
camp extended in a general direction from north to south along Wilson's 
creek, and Lyon attacked the extreme southern end from the west and north- 
west, while Sigel was stationed at the southern end, over a mile away. 
When Rains' troops were encountered the I'ederal column halted, and Captain 
Plummer's battalion of regulars, with the Dade County Home (iuards on his 
left, was sent to the rear across the creek, and ordered to move toward the 
front, keeping pace with the Federal advance on the left. The main line 
then swept forward, and after crossing a ravine and ascending a high ridge, 
a full view of Rains' skirmish line was obtained. Major Osterhaus' two 
companies of the Second Missouri, and two companies of the First Missouri. 
imder Captains Yates and John S. Cavender, were deployed to the left, all 
as skirmishers. A severe fire was soon going on between the two skirmish 
lines, and Totten's battery, which had just taken a good position on the 
ridge, soon made the hills and ravines roar in the stillness of the early morn- 
ing with shrieking bombs and bursting .shells, causing much excitement in 
the Confederate camp, where preparations were Ijeing made for breakfast, 
none dreaming that they were to l)c thrown into battle liefore sunrise. Sup- 
ported by Totten's battery, the First Missouri, under Colonel .\n(lrews. 
and the First Kansas, under Colonel Dietzler, hurried to the front, the Second 
Kansas, under Colonel Mitchell. Steele's Battalion and Duljois' Battery Ijeing 
held in reserve. The First Missouri took its position in front, upon the 
crest of a low plateau, the Second Kansas taking position just to the left. 
while Totten's batten- was placed opposite the interval between the two regi- 
ments. Osterhaus' two companies occupied the extreme right, with their 
right resting on a ravine, which turned abruptly to the right and rear. Du- 



268 GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 

bois' battery, supported by Steele's battalion, was placed seventy-five yards 
to the left and rear of Totten's guns, so as to bear upon a well-served Con- 
federate battery, probably Captain Woodruff's Pulaski Artillery of Arkan- 
sas, which had come into position to the left and front on the opposite side 
of the creek, and was sweeping with canister the entire plateau upon which 
the Federals had taken position. The Missourians were rallying in consid- 
erable force under cover at the foot of the slope and along it in front and 
opposite the Federal right, toward the crest of the main ridge running 
parallel to the creek. Plummer's battalion had advanced along the ridge 
about five hundred yards to the left of the main Federal position, and had 
reached the terminus of this ridge, when he found his further progress ar- 
rested by a force of I\IcCulloch's infantry, which was occupying Ray's corn- 
field in the valley. At this time a cannon boomed a mile to the south, where 
Sigel was supposed to be posted. This fire was apparently answered from 
the opposite side of the valley, at a still greater distance, the fire of the two 
batteries being apparently east and west, and nearly perpendicular to Tot- 
ten's and Dubois' batteries. But after about a dozen shots this firing ceased 
and nothing more was heard of Sigel until about eight-thirty o'clock, when 
a brisk cannonading opened again for a few moments, about a mile to the 
right of that heard at first, and still farther to the rear. Early in the en- 
gagement the First Iowa had been brought up from the reserve to the front 
and immediately became fiercely engaged, doing good fighting and winning 
(jeneral Lyon's praise. During the march he had said that he did not believe 
these men would prove very valuable in a battle owing to their apparent dis- 
like of discipline. By this time the entire Federal line was well advanced 
and putting up a spirited fight, with every prospect of success, after thirty 
minutes of energetic fighting, the roar now being continuous, and was plainly 
heard in Springfield, in fact, over adjoining counties. Captain Totten's bat- 
tery came into action by section and by piece, as the nature of the ground 
would admit, it being wooded, with thick black-jack undergrowth, and played 
vigorously upon the Confederate lines with telling effect. The high tide of 
the battle was now reached, and no more desperate fighting was seen during 
the entire war between the states. The major portion of these troops were 
inex])erienced in warfare, but they were ^^'esterners, brave, daring, loyal; 
for more than thirty minutes the rugged ridge before mentioned, later known 
as "Bloody Hill," was the storm center. It was covered with dead, the trees 
were wrecked with cannon balls and rifle bullets mowed down the under- 
brush. The hills shook with the thunder of opposing artillery, the gray- 
blue smoke drifted up from the ravine on the close, sultry air toward the 
clouds that partly obscured the sky. It was a battle. The First Kansas gave 
way and went to the rear ; the First Iowa promptly took its place, and the- 
fighting continued. The lines of both armies surged alternately forward and 



GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 269 

backward over the ridge. .\t last the l-ederals were left in possession of the 
ground for a short time, the Southerners witlidrawing to re-form. Then 
the contest was on again as before, each side gaining a few yards to later 
lose them. All the while the fight raged with considerable loss in Ray's 
cornfield, where Mcintosh's regiment of .\rkansas ritlemen and Helx-rt's 
Third Louisiana regiment met and drove Ixick Plumnier's battalion on the 
Federal left. The Arkansas and Louisiana troops both belonged to Mc- 
Culloch's army. No doubt they would have annihilated Plumnier's men 
had not Dubois' battery opened on them, the continumis stream of shells 
making the cornfield untenable for any troops, and the two Southern regi- 
ments retreated with some disorder. The battery was supported by Steele's 
battalion. Plummer was severely wounded. 

The advantage so far was with the Federals, and as in most all battles, 
there was a cessation in the firing for a moment, and it was apparent to the 
Union ofificers that a portion of the enemy desired to retreat, but it was soon 
discovered that the camp of the Confederates had been completelv surrounded, 
at least they could not retreat, the Fayette\ille road, which Sigel blocked, 
being their only outlet, as tliere was no road to the east or the west. There 
was nothing to do but surrender or continue the battle. .Mong the right of 
the Federal line the First jNIissouri was still desperately as.saulting McBride's 
division of Missourians and was about to be overpowered, when Lyon hur- 
ried the Second Kansas to its relief and saved it. The Federal line was re- 
formed during the temporary lull in the firing, under Lyon's personal direc- 
tion. Steele's battalion, which had been supporting Dubois' battery, was 
brought forward to Totten's support, and preparations were made to with- 
stand another attack, which, as could be learned by the shouts of the South- 
ern officers, so close as to be plainly heard, was being organized. And Lyon 
had scarcely disposed his troops to receive the attack when the Confederates 
again appeared with a very large force along his entire front and advanced 
toward his center and both flanks. Firing was at once begun and for several 
minutes was inconceivably fierce along the entire line. In some places the 
enemy was in three ranks, the first lying down, the second on their knees and 
the third standing, and all the lines and every man loading and firing as 
rapidly as possible. Every available Federal battalion was now brought 
into action, and for an hour the battle raged with unabated fury, neither side 
gaining advantage, each side gaining ground now and then only to lose it 
soon afterwards. The dead lay in windrows, and the ravine ran with hi. .oil; 
the hillsides were plowed up with shells and riderless horses galloped through 
the woods. The firing was so rapid that gun barrels became too hot to touch 
them. Officers were killed but the men held their places in the ranks and 
fought on without orders, their comrades and erstwhile neighKjrs falling on 
either side of them. Despite the intense heat of an August morning, the 



-2/0 GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 

gnawing hnnger from many hours without food, and the pangs of thirst, the 
suffocating dust and pungent odor of gunpowder and sickening sight of 
blood, they stood their ground with grim determination, many of them, until 
they died. The fire of the Southerners never slackened, their lines being 
constantly increased by reinforcements. When a man fell another stepped 
promptl}' in to fill up the gap in the line. The Federal ammunition was giv- 
ing out. They could not stand in line as targets for the enemy and not fire 
back, so detachments began to give w ay. Observing this, Generals Lvon and 
Sweeney promptly brought them back. Their places were at the front. 

GENERAL LYON IS KILLED. 

General Lyon had been the spirit of the battle from the first. He did 
not establish headquarters away in the rear, out of danger, like many com- 
manding officers have done — he was at the very front all the while, en- 
couraging his men, setting tiiem examples of bravery, daring, coolness, en- 
durance. Soon after the engagement Ijegan he was walking and leading his 
famous white horse along the line on the left of Totten's battery, when he 
was wounded in both the head and the leg, and his trusted horse was killed. 
Captain Herron, who subsequently became a major-general and commanded 
this department, was at that time with the b'irst Iowa Infantry, states that he 
saw the horse fall, and that the animal sank down as if struck in a vital place, 
neither rearing nor plunging. Lyon then walked on, waving his sword and 
shouting his orders, but was limping from his wounded leg. He carried his 
drab felt hat in his hand, and looked white and dazed. Suddenl}- blood ap- 
peared on the side of his head and began zigzagging down his cheek. He 
stood still a moment, then turned and walked slowly to the rear. He was 
wearing his old uniform, that of captain in the regular arm}-. When he reached 
a position a little m the rear he sat down: an officer bound a handkerchief 
about his wounded head. He remarked despondingly to Major Schofield, of 
Blair's regiment, one of his staff: "It is as I expected: I am afraid the day 
is lost." The major replied: "O, no, (General: let ns try once more." Major 
Sturgis then dismounted one of his own orderlies and off'ered the horse to 
General Lyon, who at first declined the animal, saying : 'T do not need a 
horse." He then arose and ordered Sturgis to rally a portion of the First 
Iowa Infantry which had broken. In executing this order Sturgis went to 
some distance from his general. The First Iowa was being ordered forward 
by a staff officer, when some of the men called out: "We haxe no leader," 
"Give us a leader then." and other similar remarks were heard. Hearing 
the remarks of the Jayhawkers, Lyon immediately asked to be helped on the 
orderly's horse. As he straightened himself in the saddle the blood ran 
down his leg and (h-ip])ed off his heel on the leaves below. General Sweeney 



GREENE COLNTV, MISSOIKI. 



-'71 



then rude up and Lyon said to liini : ••.Swcniey, lead tliose troops forward." 
pointing toward the l-'irst Iowa, "as we will make one more charge." Then, 
swinging his hat. Lyon called out to the Second Kansas regiment. "Come on, 
my brave boys, I will lead you: forward!" lie had gone but a few yards 
when he was shot tlirough the Ixuly. i )ne of his orderlies, a private named 
Edward Lehman, of Com])any 1',. i'irsl I'niled States Cavalry, caught him 
in his arms and lowered him to the ground, as he faintly whisi)ere(l, "Leh- 
man, Lm going," and very soon his spirit was ushered into tiie unknown 
Be\ond, while the battle raged fiercely about him, the place where lie fell 
afterwards being called "Bloody Point." .\ cairn of stones, a few feet high, 
marks the spot to this day, after a lapse of fifty-three years. The body of 
the great general was borne to the rear by Lieutenant Schrever, of Captain 
Tholen's company of the .Second Kansas, assistetl by l.eiiman and another 
soldier. 

Major Stnrgis had in the meantime rallied the disordered hederal line 
and re-formed it, the First Iowa taking its place in the front again, where it 
fought like old veterans, according to Sturgis. .Assisted by the Kan.sans and 
i\Iissourians they dro\e the Confederates back, but they came on again with 
redoubled fury, and the situation of the Cnion forces was now desperate. 
Confronted by superior numbers, their commander-in-chief killed, with Gen- 
eral Sweenev wounded, with Colonel Deitzler of the First Kansas lying with 
two bullets in his body: with Colonel Mitchell of the Second Kansas, it was 
then thought mortally wounded, by the same lire that killed Lyon, and as he 
was being borne from the field he called out to an officer under .Major 
Sturgis' staff. "For God's sake, support my regiment:" Colonel .\ndrews. of 
the First Missouri, and Colonel Merritt. of the I'irst Iowa, were both 
wounded. But notwithstanding the fact that all of the regimental com- 
manders of Lvon's column were wounded, still the battle went on relent- 
lessly. 

The Federal officers could not account for lack of news from (.oli.nel 
Sigel, why he had apparently failed to co-operate with them. They beliexed 
that if be should join them at that time with his division of nearly one 
thousand men, a combined attack on Price's right Hank and rear might turn 
the tide of battle in their favor, but if the enemy made another general attack 
they doubted their ability to withstand it. They <lid not know but that Sigel 
had l>een defeated and was him.self retreating. Major Scliofield. General 
Lyon's chief of staff, informed Major Sturgis that their general was kille<l 
and that no news of Sigel's whereabouts could he obtained i also informed 
him that their ammunition was nearly gone, .some of the troops being en- 
tirely out Thereupon Sturgis as.sumed command and inunediately held a 
consultation with what officers of important rank that were left in the Union 
army It was soon decided that if Sigel did not join them at once nothing 



,272 GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 

was left for them to do but retreat, if indeed retreat were possible. Just 
then a heavy column of infantry was seen advancing from towards the hill 
where Sigel's battery had been heard early in the morning. These troops 
carried flags which, drooping about the staffs, much resembled the stars and 
stripes, and the troops had the appearance of those in Sigel's command. A 
staff officer who stood some distance in front of where the conference was 
being held, rode back to his superiors and informed them that it was Sigel's 
command. Each otficer immediately hurried away to his troops to prepare 
for the expected change in the program, their hearts beating high with hope 
of turning seeming defeat into victory. Steadily came the advancing column 
toward Sturgis' front coolly and silently, sweeping down the hill and across 
the hollow in front and took positions along the front of the ridge occupied 
bv the Federal lines. Now the Kansans and Towans who were in the front 
ranks and very near the new column shouted back that the visitors were 
rebels. Suddenly Cuibor's battery, which had just reached a position in 
front of "Bloody Hill," wheeled about, unlimbered and with incredible 
swiftness began pouring in shrapnel and canister into the enemy's ranks, and 
simultaneously the infantry stationed at the foot of the hill began firing and 
slowlv ascending the hill, and in a few moments the fiercest, bloodiest and 
most spectacular struggle of that terrible day was on. The fighting of the 
morning seemed but a skirmish compared to it. The roar of musketry and 
the big guns on either side was deafening and continuous, a solid sheet of 
flame leaped from both armies, the distance separating them now being in- 
significant. The troops from both sides advanced or retreated over the 
bodies of the dead and dying lying in heaps. Guibor's battery was soon 
checked bv Lieutenant Dubois' battery, on the Federal left, supported by 
Osterhaus' two companies and the rallied fragments of the First Missouri 
Tnfantrv. Totten's battery, still in the I'ederal center, supported by the 
lowans and regulars, seemed to be the main point of the Confederate attack. 
The two clouds of battle smoke mingled until they seemed but one. Fre- 
quentlv Price's Missouri .State Guard charged within twenty feet of the 
muzzles of Totten's guns only to be swept backward by the rapid charges 
of canister, the powder from the big cannons flashing full in their faces. 
But neither line would give ground. The contending lines, never wavering, 
never flinching, now stood so close that the muzzles of their muskets almost 
touched. Captain Steele's battalion, which was a few yards in front, to- 
gether with the left flanks, was in danger of being overwhelmed and cap- 
tured, but observing the precarious situation. Captain Granger, of Sturgis' 
staff, hastened to the rear and brought up as a support, Dubois' battery, 
O-sterhaus' battalion, detachments of the First Missouri and First Kansas 
and two companies of the First Iowa, in quick time, and took possession on 
the left flank, meanwhile pouring in a heavy volley on the Confederates, 



GREENE OOUNTV, MISSOURI. 273 

which was so murderous and destructive tliat tliat jwrtion of the line gave 
way. Capt. Patrick E. Burke, Capt. Madison Miller and Adjutant lliscock, 
of the First Missouri, were especially nienticnied for gallantry in this assault. 
The entire Confederate line now fell back a short distance and began re- 
forming. 

THE FEDER.'\LS RETRE.\T. 

Although it seemed that the Federals were holding their own against 
the great odds, Major Sturgis knew that without the support of Sigel and 
with ammunition nearly gone the situation was hopeless, and he took ad- 
vantage of the temporary lull in the fighting to prepare for retreat. After 
seeing that Totten's battery and Steele's battalion were entirely safe, for the 
present, and directing Captain Totten to replace his disabled horses as soon 
as possible, Sturgis sent Dubois' battery, with its infantry supports, to the 
rear, to take up a position on the hill in the rear and cover the retreat. The 
Second Kansas on the extreme right, liaving been nearly out of ammunition 
for some time, was ordered to withdraw, which it did, bringing off its 
wounded. This, however, left the Federal right flank exposed, and about 
one hundred of the Missouri State Guard at that point at once advanced, but 
were soon driven back by Steele's iwltalion of regulars. As soon as he was 
enabled to do so, Sturgis gave the f)rder for a general retreat. Fresh horses 
replaced the wounded and dead ones of Totten's battery and he retreated 
with the main bodv of the infantry, while Captain Steele met the feeble 
demonstrations of a handful of plucky Missouri skirmishers, who were still 
opposing the Federal right flank, not having witbdrawn to the rear to re- 
form with the rest of the Confederates, it was not long until the entire 
Federal column was mo\ing in fairly good order and entirely unmolested 
to the rear, striking the open prairie east of Ross' spring, about two miles 
from the battle ground. The artillery and the ambulances were brought off 
in safety. After making a short halt on the jjrairie the retreat was con- 
tinued to Springfield over practically the same route they had come to the 
ill-fated field the day previously. The advance was led i)y the remnants of 
Plummer's battalion, and came into Springfield with the drums beating, the 
flag flying, the men in four ranks, as if they had merely been out on a drill. 

\\'hile Sturgis was debating whether to withdraw entirely from the field 
or to take up a new position, after he had given the command to retreat. 
Sergeant Froelich, one of Sigel's non-commissioned officers, came up to him 
on a horse which bore e^•ery evidence of having been hard ridden, and re- 
ported that Colonel Sigel's brigade had been totally routed, his artillery cap- 
tured, and the colonel himself either killed or taken prisoner. 

When the retreating Federals reached the I.ittlc York r.-ad Sturgis 
(18) 



2^4 GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 

encountered Lieutenant Farrand, -with his company of dragoons, one piece- 
of artillery and a considerable portion of the Third and Fifth Missouri in- 
fantry regiments, all of Sigel's command, which had made their way across 
the country in order to unite with the main army and be saved from entire 
destruction. Most of these brave men who had "fit mit Sigel," many of 
whom were Germans from St. Louis, were a sorry looking sight, their clothes 
torn and faces begrimed with dust and smoke. The march was resumed and 
Springfield was reached at five o'clock in the afternoon, the armv ha\'ing 
been absent from the city just twenty-four hours. The survivors were worn 
out from the half day's battle, the march of over twenty miles, loss of sleep, 
with practically no food, an inadequate supply of water, the intense heat 
and excitement. The battle lasted from five o'clock in the morning until 
just before noon, the Federal retreat having begun abmit eleven-thirty o'clock. 

COLONEL sigel's PART IN THE BATTLE. 

In view of the fact that Col. Franz Sigel fought an independent en- 
gagement in the battle at Wilson's Creek, it is proper to give an account of 
his action in separate paragraphs from those treating of the fight by Lyon's- 
column. As pre\iously stated. Sigel moved entirely around the southern 
end of the Confederate line of camp, placed his infantry and artillery in 
position to prevent the Southerners retreating by the Fayetteville road, and 
quietly awaited the sound of Lyon's guns some two miles to the northward. 
When the firing of small arms was heard at about five-thirty in the morning, 
some two miles to the northwest, Sigel opened on McCulloch's camp with 
four guns under Lieutenants Schuetzenbach and Schaeffer. After a few 
more rounds the Confederates abandoned their tents and hastily retired to- 
ward the northeast and northwest. Both McCnlloch's infantr\' and cavalry 
soon began to form in battle line, and Sigel brought his entire line forward 
into and across the .valley, the two companies of cavalry on the right, the 
artillery in the center and the infantry on the left. When the two columns 
advanced there was irregular firing for about half an hour, the fighting being 
carried on Sharp's farm, just across the line in Christian county, the Sharp 
home standing on the countv line. The Confederates retired into the woods 
and ascended the adjoining hills. The firing toward the northwest was now 
more distinct, and Sigel was convinced that General Lyon was engaging the 
enemy along the whole line, so Sigel again advanced, hoping to drive the 
enemy before him and to get in position to co-operate with Lyon, intending 
to attack McCulloch in the rear. Sigel continued his advance until reaching 
the Cassville road, making his way through a large herd of cattle and horses, 
reaching a little hill where the enemy had been slaughtering cattle, near the 
Sharp residence, at which some prisoners were captured, who were straggling 



GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 275 

back from the front, unaware of Sigel's presence. After a brief conference 
with some of his officers, Sigel concluded that Lyon had been successful in 
dnxmg the Confederates back. He knew that this road was tlie only way 
of retreat, and believing that he had a splenditl opportunity for blocking up 
the way and of capturing several thousand secessionists, he accordingly 
formed his troops across the road, planting his artillen,- in the center on a 
plateau, and a regiment of infantry and a company of cavalry on either 
flank, and awaited the coming of what he believed to be the vanquished foe, 
large numbers of whom could be seen moving toward the south along the 
crest of a ridge about a quarter of a mile opposite the right of the Federal 
right. It was now about half past eight o'clock, and the firing in the northwest, 
where Lyon's main force was supposed to he. and where he was really 
fighting, had almost entirely ceased. At this juncture Dr. S. H. Melcher, the 
assistant surgeon in Salomon's regiment, and some of the skirmishers re- 
turned from the front, where desultory firing had been going on. and re- 
ported that Lyon's men were coming up the road, for they could plainly 
distinguish the Iowa troops, who wore gray uniforms. At once Colonel 
Salomon, of the Fifth Infantry, and Lieutenant-Colonel .Albert, of the Third 
Missouri Infantry, ordered their men not to fire on the troops coming up 
from the northwest, for they were Unionists, and Colonel Sigel himself 
likewise cautioned the artillery. All were much surprised at this une.xpccted 
turn of affairs, and the Germans of Sigel's and Salomon's regiments began 
jabbering away in their native tongue and in broken Fjiglish delightedlv, and 
the color-bearers were signalling with their flags to the advancing troops to 
"come on" — when, without warning, two batteries of artillery, one on the 
Fayetteville road and one on the hill where it was supposed Lyon's men were 
in pursuit of the flying Confederates, opened with canister, shrapnel and 
shell, while the gray-coated troojis. that were mistaken for lowans, advanced 
from the road and assaulted the Federal right, and a battalion of cavalry 
made its appearance, ready to charge. The tone of the German jabl)cring 
was instantlv changed. Consternation seized them and all was confusion in 
Sigel's ranks, which could hardly realize that they were confronted by a 
powerful enemy bent on their destruction. They thought someone had 
blundered, that their own comrades were in the front. The burden of the 
German shout, translated, was "They are firing against us! They make a 
mistake!" Some of the .American soldiers shouted. "It is Totten's battery!" 
And. all. making little effort at resistance, liegan retreating. 

All the artillervmen were recruits from the infantry, and had seen but 
little service of any kind, were with difficulty brought forward !•« scr^'e their 
pieces, although commanded by Sigel himself: the infantry refused to begin 
action until it was too late ; in fact, they could not be turned in their running 
retreat and made face the Confederates. Salomon cursed them most roundly. 



7^ 



276 GREENE COUNTY. MISSOURI. 

using English, French and German, with little effect. Sigel's threats, en- 
treaties and commands also failed to make the desired impression. Some 
of the artillerymen brought off one piece, which had not been unlimbered 
and put in position. It was dragged through the woods at a gallop, the 
wheels bounding two feet or more from the ground. 

The Confederates pursued rapidly. It was Colonel Hebert's Louisiana 
regiment that had been mistaken for the First Towa, because of its neat 
steel-gray uniforms, and this regiment was in the advance, followed by 
Colonel Docker}' and Colonel Gratiot, of the Third and Fifth Arkansas 
regiments : Colonel Greer's regiment of Texas cavalry, Lieutenant-Colonel 
Major's battalion of Howard and Chariton county men. Johnson's battalion 
of mounted Missourians and detachments from other commands. The firing 
was general all along the line, and the grays charged right up to the muzzle 
of the cannons, killing the artillerv horses, and a number of the artillervmen, 
firing fairly into the faces of the panic-stricken Germans, forcing them to 
take refuge among the u.nderbrush, behind rocks, in gullies or wherever 
they could find a place of shelter. The color-bearer of Sigel's own regiment 
was badly wounded; his substitute was killed, and the flag itself was cap- 
tured by Capt. Thomas Staples, whose home was at Arrow Rock, Saline 
county, Missouri. A\'hen the plateau was reached the cannon captured and 
the field gained, the infantry stopped and cheered, Bledsoe's and Reid's bat- 
teries fired parting salutes into the flying Union regiments, then the cavalry 
pursued, while the infantry and artillery turned back and went uj) the xalley 
to the northwest and re-inforced Price's men and shared in the final victory 
against Sturgis. Sigel's command was completely routed. They threw away 
their guns, cartridge boxes, canteens — everything that would hinder their 
flight, which was madly continued south into Christian county, the Texas, 
Missouri and Arkansas cavalry overtaking them, here and there, and slaying 
them wherever they made the least show of resistance, and taking" those that 
surrendered as prisoners. Three miles from the battle ground four fugitives 
hid under the mill dam of Xolin's mil! on the James river, and, refusing to 
come out. were riddled with buckshot. Although Sigel lost but compara- 
tive few killed, wounded or dead, men lay all over that part of the country 
after the battle. Prisoners were taken in great numbers — the Texas rangers 
riding them down and corraling them like domestic animals. Finally. Sigel 
himself caught the spirit of terror and fled to Springfield, across the country, 
accompanied by only two guards. The trio halted long enough to obtain a 
drink of water at the home of Thomas Chambers, four miles south of Spring- 
field, then rotle away rapidly on their jaded horses, the colonel reaching 
town with but one orderly. Only the cavalry under Captain Carr and Lieu- 
tenant Farrand. the one piece of artillery, two caissons and about one hun- 
dred and fifty infantry came off in anything like order, and these followed 



GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. z^J 

down the old Wire road several miles to the west, turned due north and 
awaited the main army under Sturgis near Little York, as before stated. 
Only four pieces of artillery were captured when the hill was stormed, no 
more being in position at that time, the two others being in the rear. In at- 
tempting to get one of them away, a wheel horse was killed, then the drivers 
spiked the gun as best they could and abandoned it. The gini that was 
saved was first abandoned on the bayetteville road, and hauled off at first 
by hand a short distance. Captain blagg using the soldiers and prisoners in 
lieu of artillery horses. The route of retreat taken by Captain Flagg and 
Lieutenant Farrand, and the fragments of Sigel's command, about four 
hundred in all, was down the \\'ire road a short distance then north to the 
Mt. \''ernon road. For three or four hours they were within two i>r three 
miles of the main Confederate army and could have been easily captured. 

Lieutenant Charles E. Farrand, of the .Second regular infantry, com- 
manding the company of cavalry before mentioned, had charge of that por- 
tion of Sigel's force which went westward. L'pon finding himself alone 
with his compan\ he retired in a southerly direction and accidentally met 
Crenshaw, the guide, who had directed the I'nionists to the Confederate 
camp the night previous. He was forcibly detained and after Farrand had* 
collected a number of the troops who were scattered and lost, directed the 
guide to take them to Springfield by w^ay of Little ^'ork. After proceeding 
a short distance they came upon one of the cannon which had been taken 
from Sio-el's force. The tongue of the limber was broken, one hor.se was 
gone and one of the remaining three badlv wounded, they succeeded in mov- 
ing it on. Some distance in advance of thi- they found a caisson belonging 
to Sio-el's batter}-, filled with amnumition and it. too, was taken on with the 
gun. Some of the Germans were i)revailed upon to assist in clearing some of 
the wounded horses from the harness, but they woidd not stop. But after 
considerable trouble harness was secured, two more horses ;md a pair of 
little mules were hitched to the gun and the party proceerled, but before 
reaching Springfield, when at the Robinson farm, it became necessary to 
abandon the caisson in order to hitch the animals to the cannon, '("his was 
done after destroving the animunili.m it contained. Lieutenants Farrand 
and Morris, the latter adjutant of Colonel Sigel's command, procured wagons. 
which they sent back on the road after the wounded. 

STORY OF .AN EYK WITNESS. 

Dr Samuel H :\lelcher was with Sigel's command at the battle of 
Wilson's Creek, as assistant surgeon in the Fifth Missouri Infantry under 
Colonel Salomon. He was for a long time identified with Greene county. 
later a resident of Chicago. He is well remembered by many of our older 



278 ■ GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 

citizens, and the following- account he gives of what he saw during the 
engagement comports very favorably with the official reports : 

General Sigel cautiously took a good position in the gray of dawn, his 
battery trained on the Confederate camp and waited until he heard General 
Lyon open the battle to the northwest, then gave the order to fire, which 
was responded to with rapidity, but our guns being on an elevation and the 
Confederates being in a field which sloped toward the creek, the shots passed 
over their heads, creating a stampede, but doing little, if any, damage to 
life or limb. Myself and others vainly urged the artillerymen to depress the 
guns. Either from inability to understand English, or, in the excitement, 
thinking it was only necessary to load and fire, they kept banging away until 
the whole camp was deserted. Later the command moved forward until it 
reached the Fayetteville road and Sharp's house. While the command was 
taking position, L with my orderly, Frank Ackofif, of the Fifth Missouri In- 
fantry, went into an abandoned Arkansas camp, where I found a good break- 
fast of coffee, biscuit and fried green corn. Most of the tents were open — a 
musket with fi.xed bayonets being forced into the ground, butt up, and the 
flap of the tent held open by being caught in the flint lock. At that time 
besides a few Confederate sick, there were in the camp Lieut. Charles E. 
Farrand, in command of the dragoons, and his orderly. Half an hour later 
some straggling parties from the Third and Fifth Missouri set fire to some 
wagons and camp equipage. Sigel had four guns in the front, supported by 
the Third Missouri, with the cavalry and dragoons on the left in the timber. 
The Fifth Missouri was in reser\e, e.xcept Company K, under Capt. Samuel 
A. Flagg, which was farther in the rear, guarding some thirty or forty 
prisoners. At this juncture I captured Colonel McMurtry, of Warsaw, Ben- 
ton county, Missouri, an officer in Price's army. I took his Maynard carbine, 
two pistols and his sword, turning the three latter weapons over to two 
musicians of the Fifth Missouri, but retained the carbine. Later Colonel 
McMurtry escaped by representing himself to be a Confederate surgeon. At 
this time scattering shots were heard at some distance in our front, but no 
heavv firing. Armed men, mostly mounted, were seen moving on our right 
in the edge of the timber. It was smoky, and objects at a distance could not 
be seen very distinctly. Being at some distance in front of the command, I 
saw a body of men moving down the valley toward us, from the direction 
we last heard Lyon's guns. I rode back and reported to Sigel that troops 
were coming, which had the appearance of the First Missouri, and seemed to 
be moving in a column. Presently, Sigel could see them. Not seeing their 
colors I suggested to Sigel that he had better show his, so that if it was our 
men they might not mistake us. Sigel's brigade, not being in regulation uni- 
form, Colonel Sigel then turned to his color-bearer and ordered him to ad- 
vance and wave his colors three times. As tiiis order was' obeyed. Lieutenant 



GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 279 

Parrand, with his orderly, arrived from the Arkansas camp, eacli Ijearinj,' a 
rebel guidon, which they had found, and with which they rode from the riglii 
•of the lane, near Sharp's house, directly in front of the color-bearer of 
Sigel's regiment. Then there was music in the air! A battery we could not 
see opened with grape-shot, making a great deal of noise and the balls struck 
the fence and trees, but not doing much damage, as far as observed, except 
to scare the men, who hunted for cover like a flock of young partridges, sud- 
denly disturbed. The confusion was very great, many of the men saying, 
"It is Totten's battery ! It is Totten's battery !" The impression seemed to 
be general that Totten was firing into us, after seeing the rebel guidons of 
Farrand, as it was the common understanding that the Confederates had no 
grape, and these were grape-shot, certainly. It was subsequently learned 
that it was not Totten's battery, but Reid's Confederate battery, from Fort 
Smith, Arkansas, and was well supplied with grape from the Little Rock 
arsenal. 

Colonel Sigel now evidently thought of retreat, as the only words I 
heard from him were. "Where's my guides?'' Many instances of individual 
cowardice among Sigel's officers could be given. I assisted Lieut. Emile 
Thomas, the only officer of his company that had the grit to stay, to reform 
the men. I do not know if we could have succeeded, had not a Confederate 
cavalry battalion suddenly appeared in our front, on the line of retreat. 
For a moment the two commands gazed upon each other, and then came a 
terrible rattle of musketry, and a great hubbub and confusion in the direction 
of Sigel's command, which was just around a bend in the road to our rear. 
In a twinkling, men, horses, wagons, guns, all enveloped in a cloud of dust, 
rushed toward us, and in spite of Lieutenant Thomas' utmost efforts. Com- 
pany F started with all speed down the Fayetteville road toward the Con- 
federate cavalry. The latter seeming to think they were being charged upon. 
wheeled and got out of the way very quickly. The bulk of Sigel's command 
turned to the east and were followed by a Confederate command, that cap- 
tured one gun at the creek, many prisoners and left a considerable number 
of killed and wounded along the road. Perhaps one-third of the command 
went southwest and halted at the next house beyond Sharp's on the Fayette- 
ville road, and here Doctor Smith, who was General Rains' division surgc.in. 
came up with a long train of wagons and coaches, and was captured, but at 
once released on mv intervention. Later I accompanied Doctor Smith to the 
battle-f^eld. The one gun that was abandoned on the Fayetteville road was 
really saved by Captain Flagg. whose men drew the gun by hand until they 
found some horses, and the Confederate prisoners carried the annnun.tion 
in their arms. They came into Springfield the same evening by way of Little 

York. , r 1 1 

Doctor Melcher was one of the most efficient and useful surgeons who 



28o GREENE COUNTY^ MISSOURI. 

cared for the wounded after the Ijattle, working assiduously all that sultry 
afternoon and far into the night. 

Colonel Sigel, of course. ga\e his reasons for his defeat, saying that he 
tried to obey his orders, which were to attack the enemy in the rear and to 
cut off his retreat. This he did. but he also cut off his owai retreat very 
nearly, a circumstance he seems not to have counted on. The time of service 
of one of his two regiments of infantrv, the Fifth Missouri, under Colonel 
Salomon, had expired some days before the battle and the men had insisted 
that they be discharged so they could return to their homes. On the lirst of 
August he had induced them to remain with the army eight days more. This 
latter term had expired the day before the battle. The men. therefore, were 
under no obligations to fight, except that they had marched out to do so, and 
when the time came suddenly remembered that "they did not have to fight." 
Sigel's own regiment, the Third Missouri, which had fought at Carthage, its 
time having expired, had been mustered out, and the new regiment was com- 
posed of four hundred raw recruits, only a few in the regiment having ever 
seen any service. The men serving the artillery were utterly unfamiliar with 
gtmnery anfl the general handling of a battery and were commanded by two 
lieutenants whose experience as artillerists had been confined to the Prus- 
sian army in time of peace. Only about half the companies were ofiicered 
by men with commissions, which, according to Sigel. was the fault of the 
three months' ser\'ice. But over all it is claimed that Sigel's complete defeat 
was the result of an attack by vastly superior forces, the flower of McCul- 
loch's army that was permitted to approach fatally near under the mistake 
that they were friends instead of enemies. 

Capt. E. A. Carr, who later became a general, commanding the ad- 
vanced guard of Sigel's brigade, gave the following account of the retreat 
of that wing of the command which turned to the east : 

At about nine o'clock I received word that Sigel's infantry was in full 
flight and that I was to retreat with all haste. After galloping away as best 
I could for about a mile and a half to the rear, I came upon Sigel at the 
spring where the army had halted the first night when returning from Dug 
Springs some days before. After a brief consultation it was decided to 
move south on the Fayetteville road until there was a chance to go out and 
circle around the pursuing enemy and then strike for Springfield. There 
were then present at the spring Sigel. Lieutenant-Colonel Albert, myself, 
with mv fift\'-six cavalrymen, two hundred of Sigel's badly demoralized in- 
fantrv, one piece of artillery and two caissons. After retiring rather hastily 
for a mile or two a body of cavalry was observed in front, and Sigel sent 
me up to see the condition of affairs and report at once. Arriving at the 
front I discovered that the Confederate cavalry were coming in from the 
right and forming across the road to stop the retreating Federals and send 



GREENE COUNTY, MISSOUKI. 28 1 

them back to the care of McCulloch's division again. Rei)orting at once to 
Sigel, he at once directed nie to turn off at the lirst right-hand road, which 
happened to l)e near the point where I then stood. Retreating along this road 
in a lirisk walk Sigel asked hk- to march slowly so tliat tlie footmen could 
keep up. 1 rei)lied that unless the\- hurried forward they would be cut off 
at the crossing of Wilson's creek, and that the infantry ought to march as 
fast under the circumstances as a horse could walk. Sigel then said, "Go 
on, and we will keep up. " However, on arri\ing at the creek, and looking 
back I saw that the infantry had not kept u]). but that a large body of Texas 
and Arkansas cavalry was moving down and would form an unpleasant 
junction with him in a few secimds. To use a Westernism there was no 
time for fooling then, and as 1 had waited long enough on the slow-motioned 
infantry to water my horses, and they were not \'et in sight, I lit out lor a 
place of safety, which I soon reachetl, and, after waiting another wliile for 
Sigel. I went on to Springfield. T was sorry to leave him behind, in the first 
place, but 1 supposed all the time he was close to me until 1 reached the 
creek, and then it would ha\e done no good for my company to have remained 
and been cut to pieces also, as were Sigel's men. who were ambuscaded and 
all broken up, and Sigel himself narrowly escaped. 

THE CONFEDER.ME .ACCOUNT OF THE B.XTTI.E. 

In describing a battle confusion would necessarily result if one at- 
tempted to give both .sides of the conflict in detail at once. It is just as 
essential that we give liere the Confederate side of the conflict at Wilson's 
creek as the Federal side, partly because the description of the fight would 
be incomplete did we fail to do so, and partly because a large number of 
Greene county men were in the ranks of the Southerners. The part played 
by the troops of General Price and General McCulIoch have been just as fully 
and as accurately recorded as was that of tiie I--ederals. 

\Miether General Lyon had attacked the c:.in federates or whether he 
had remained in Springfi'eld, a battle would have been fought on Saturday, 
Au<^ust lo, i86i. for General McCulloch had finally agreed to General Price's 
dei^and that the engagement, long pending, should be brought about at once, 
and thev determined to break camp at nine o'clock Friday night, August gth. 
and strike Lvon at Springfield the day following. The march was to lie 
made in four columns. Tust after nightfall a light rain came on and there 
was every prospect of a severe storm later in the evenmg. which was in- 
tensely dark McCulloch well knew that many of the troops were not sup- 
plied with cartridge boxes, or cartridges either, and that if they moved out 
from under shelter, and it rained hard, as it then promised to do, the.r 
ammunition would become wet and unservicable. carried, as much of ,t 



282 GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 

would be, in powder-flasks, shot-pouches and cotton sacks. There was also 
danger of the troops getting bewildered or lost, some of them, owing to the 
intense darkness, and not come up to the proper place at the proper time. 
So he countermanded the order to march just as some of the regiments were 
preparing to start, and the army lay down to sleep, each soldier with his gun 
by his side, holding himself in readiness to move at a moment's notice. 
However, few of the men got any sleep, for it was a most oppressive night, 
proper accommodations were lacking, and vicious moscjuitoes swarmed up 
and down the valley, invading the tents of the soldiers. This arrangement 
did not suit General Price. He wanted to proceed to Springfield that night 
over the very route which General Lyon was at that time following from 
the town, by way of the Alt. Vernon road. The two armies would have met 
about midnight near the present site of Dorchester, each being thus surprised. 
What would have been the ultimate result in the confusion and Egyptian 
darkness no one would dare venture a guess. 

AlcCulloch's official report states that his effective force at the battle 
•of Wilson's Creek was five thousand and three hundred infantry, six thou- 
sand cavalry, and fifteen pieces of artillery. The majority of the cavalry 
were armed only with rifles, revolvers, shotguns and old flint-lock muskets. 
There were hundreds of other horsemen along with the army that w'ere so 
imperfectly armed as to be of but little use ; in fact, were only in the w^ay 
during the battle. The guns were in two batteries, under Woodruff and 
Reid. The total strength being about eleven thousand, five hundred and fifty 
men. General Price's division was composed of the following sub-divisions : 
Gen. J. S. Rains — Infantry, thirteen hundred and si.x; cavalry, twelve hun- 
dred ; total, two thousand, five hundred and six! Gen. W. Y. Slack — Infan- 
try, si.x hundred and fifty-nine; cavalry, two hundred and thirty-four; total, 
eight hundred and eighty-four. Gen. M. M. Parsons — Infantry, two hun- 
dred and fifty-six ; cavalry, four hundred and six ; total, six hundred and 
sixty-two. Gen. John B. Clark. Sr. — Infantry, three hundred and seventy- 
six ; cavalry, two hundred and fifty; total, six hundred and twenty-six. Gen. 
J. H. ]\IcP>ride — Total, six hundred and five. Bledsoe's and Guibor's bat- 
teries numbered about one hundred and fifty men, making three thousand, 
one hundred and ninety-three infantry; two thousand and ninety cavalry, 
and a total of five thousand, four hundred and thirty-three men. Gen. A. 
E. Steen's division seems to have been attached tci McCulloch's army. It was 
insignificant in numbers. 

There were in the column that marched under General Lyon to Wilson's 
creek exactly three thousand, seven hundred and twenty-one men of all arms, 
infantrv. cavalry and artillery, not including the two companies of Home 
Guards under Captains Switzler and Wright. Sigel's colunm consisted of 
seventeen companies of infantry (eight companies of the Third Missouri 



GREENE COUNTY. MISSOLRI. 283 

and nine companies of the Fifth Missouri), numbering nine hundred and 
twelve men; six pieces of artillery, manned by eighty-live men; and tw.j 
companies of cavalry of one hundred and twenty-one men, making a total 
in Sigel's column of one thousand, one hundred and eighteen men. The 
total Federal strength was four thousand, eight hundred and thirty-tiine 
men, or, including the Home Guards, under Switzler and Wright, five 
thousand men. Thus it will be seen that the Confederate strength was more 
than twice that of the Federal. 

Col. T. L. Snead sat up all night on the 9th at General Price's head- 
quarters, which were on the bank of the creek, at die foot of the sloping, 
rocky, black-jack hills on whose summit the main battle was fought. About 
daybreak General Price arose from his couch in great impatience and sent 
for McCulloch, who soon afterwards arrived, accompanied bv Col. James 
Mcintosh, of the Second Kansas Mounted Riflemen, the latter being Mc- 
Culloch's assistant adjutant general. The four men sat down to l)reakfast. 
As the officers were eating, a messenger came running up from the front 
where General Rains' division was posted, a mile or more away, and in- 
formed them that the Yankees were advancing, fully twenty thousand strong, 
and were already on Rains' line, peppering his camp with musketry. "O, 
pshaw! that's another one of Rains' scares," said General ^IcCulloch, laugh- 
ingly, alluding to the Dug SpriiTgs affair, and added : "Tell General Rains 
I will come to the front myself directly." The four officers continued eating, 
and soon anotlier messenger came up and reported that the Federals were not 
more than a mile away, and had come suddenly upon Rains' men as they 
lay on their arms and had driven them back. To this McCulloch again said: 
"O, nonsense! That's not true," but just then Rains' men could be seen 
falling back in confusion. Immediately General Price arose and said to Colo- 
nel Snead, "Have my horse saddled and order the troops under arms at 
once." He had hardly spoken when Totten's battery unlimbered and sent its 
first shot and about the same instant Sigel's guns opened over a mile to the 
south. Dispositions for battle were quickly ma<Ie. The Confederate officers 
were all astir in a moment, and hurried commands were shouted up and 
down the camp, which stretched along the creek for a mile. Many of the 
soldiers were still asleep or just rising for the day and had not breakfasted. 
Fires were left burning and victuals cooking and tents in their disorder, ginis 
were seized, horses saddled with all swiftness and everyone hurrie<l as fast 
as possible through the gray dawn to the front. Price moved at once toward 
Rains with the rest of the Missouri State Guard. Pearce began fonning on 
Price's left. Very soon Totten's battery was in plain view on the top of the 
hills in front and pounding away, while Sigel's gims in the rear plainly gave 
notice that the Federals were on all sides. The surprise was perfect. The 
few pickets that were out had nearly all been called in to prepare for the 



284 GREEXE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 

early march, and this enabled General Lyon to get close upon the Southern 
camp : in fact, he reached the skirmishers before being discovered. There 
\vas some delay on the part of the Missouri State Guard in getting out the 
horses, for nearly all of them were mounted, having insisted on riding when 
they enlisted. The idea of walking was distasteful to them, partly because 
it was laborious to begin with, and partly because it was considered in a 
measure disgraceful. And the horsemen, so many of them proved a serious 
disadvantage to the Southern cause. They stripped the country in many 
parts of Missouri and other states, not only of provisions but of forage and 
provender, cumbered the roads, and often in an engagement did more harm 
than good. -\t Wilson's Creek the horses became frightened, unmanageable, 
and at one time the\- and their riders came near stampeding the entire Con- 
federate army. Hundreds of them tried to escape from the field by the 
Fayetteville road, but found it securely blocked by Sigel's troops. 

GENER.VL R.MXS OPPOSES GENERAL LYON. 

As already stated (ieneral Lyon attacked (General Rains' division first. 
The latter, instead of becoming panic stricken, as some predicted, coolly and 
promptly got his troops under arms and in line of battle, some of his men 
scattering, it is true, but the main body responded quickly to his orders and 
as soon as taking their positions in the line began replying spiritedly to 
L^nion tire. As shown in a preceding paragraph. Rains' division was a large 
one, including all the men from the populous secession counties of Pettis, 
Jasper. Jackson, Saline, Lafayette and Johnson, and it held tliat part of the 
line in front of Totten's battery. General Price at once ordered the other 
division commanders. Parsons, ?iIcBride, Slack and Clark, to move their 
infantry and artillery rapidly forward to the support of Rains, whose second 
brigade was in the extreme ad\ance and consisted of about fifteen hundred 
men, many of them mounted, and temporarily under command of Colonel 
Cawthorn. Slack's division of northwest Missourians was the first to come 
u]). and under the personal direction of General Price himself, who had 
come to the front, took position on Rains' left, and became instantly engaged. 
It was only a few moments untd General Clark's di\ision came up and formed 
to the left of Slack. Xe.xt General Parsons' division, with Colonel Kelley's 
brigade at the head, went into line at the left of Clark. Then came General 
McBride's division who took position on the left of Kelly and commanded a 
flank mo\ement on the right of the Federals, which movement was unsuc- 
cessful. These positions were taken under General Price's orders and led 
by him in person at the first, the entire line advance.d in the direction of the 
enemv. umler a continuous fire from Lyon's infantry and Totten's Battery, 
until it reached a position \\ithin range of its own guns when the Federal fire 



GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 285 

was returned. Mnny of tlie ^[issnllrians were aniieil with iloiilile-harrelcd 
shotguns, loaded with buckshot wliich now got in tlieir work very effcclisely, 
the distance being less tlian one hun(h-ed yards. But after a few minutes 
of brisk fighting the Missourians were driven liack. 

General McCulloch had in the meantime inirried to the lower or south- 
ern end of the valley where his dixision was encamped ai\d the aggressive 
Texas ranger (|uickly brought out of camp. Colonel Hebert's Louisiana regi- 
ment and Mcintosh's Arkansas mounted riflemen and hastened to strengthen 
the northern line under Rains and other division commanders. The force 
went to the east side of Wilson's creek and came up to the heavy rail fence 
enclosing Ray's cornfield, where the .\rkansas riflemen dismounted and, to- 
gether with the Louisianians, leai^ed over the fence and charged through the 
green corn higher than tlieir heads upon Pluminer's Battalion of I-'ederals, 
driving them back upon the main line with considerable loss, in fact, the 
fight in the cornfield was one of the most severe of the day, and when it was 
ended manv a dead and dying man lay in the furrows recently made by the 
plow and there was little left of that year's corn crop. No sooner had the 
Federal infantry l)een driven back than Dubois' Battery opened upon the 
Confederates in the cornfield and death gathered an abundant Iiarvcst where 
only the peaceable husbandman had reaped before. The two Southern regi- 
ments were driven back with much loss and no little confusion, but soon re- 
formed and were taken charge of by McCulloch in person, who led them to 
another part of the field. . McCulloch had also ordered up Woodruff's Bat- 
tery, which had engaged Totten and was doing excellent service. 

During the period of the fight in the Ray cornfield, I'rice's division was 
desperately fighting to hold its ground in the center and was hotly engaged 
on the sides of the height upon which the enemy was posted. h:arly in the 
engagement the First Regiment of .Arkansas Mounted Rifles, which had 
been "driven out of its camp by Sigel and had formed a few hundred yards 
to the north was brought up by Price's order to the support of Cleneral .'^lack 
and formed on his left. Here it fought during the battle, led in person by its 
commander. Col. T. ]. Ciiurchill. who was destined to Ijecome governor of 
Arkansas. During the battle he proved a most efficient ofllcer and had two 
horses shot from under him. The regiment's loss was forty-two kille.l an.l 
one hundred and fiftv-five wounded. Captain McAIexander and three hcu- 
tenants were among the killed. Col. B. T. Embry. commanding the Second 
Arkansas ^Mounted Rifles, also fought with Price's Mis.soun State (.nard 
against Lvon's column, losing eleven killed and forty-four wounded. Then 
for several hours the battle waged furiously and stubbornly along the ndge. 
each side advancing and retreating a few yards alternately Somet.mes the 
advantage was with the blue, sometimes with the gray. Tiie firmg both of 
infantrv and artillerv was incessant and a pall of heaxy smoke overlnmg the 



286 GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 

field for a mile, north and south, the lines being so close together that only 
one cloud was formed. It would require a large volume to give in detail the 
many deeds of daring, heroism and gallantry performed by the troops and 
officers on both sides. There was no difference in the courage or ability 
displayed, both sides fighting equally well whether advancing, retreating, 
firing or falling back to re-form for another assault. There were some 
stragglers on both sides, some hiding among the rocks and bushes and doubt- 
less many of these, rather than those displaying real nerve who stood in 
the front lines, later boasted of their deeds of daring. The impression has 
gone abroad and found lodgment in the minds of many that the sanguinary 
battle of Wilson's Creek was fought by neighbors, the army on both sides 
being made up principally by men from the counties of southwest Missouri, 
that brother fought brother and father son. The fact is that both armies 
were very cosmopolitan, including troops from many states and a number 
of foreign countries, a very large percentage of the Federals being Germans. 
It is true that men were there whose homes were in Greene county, who had 
long been familiar with the country tributary of the stream along which they 
fought. But they were there from the cities, St. Louis, St. Joseph, Little 
Rock and others; from the \Aarehouses, the store, the factory, the counting 
rooms, the law offices and school houses. Men fought who, when at home, 
could look over the rolling plains of Iowa, or across the muddy Missouri 
river westward over the prairies of Xebraska, then a sparsely settled terri- 
tory. Men were there who lived within sound of the Father of Waters up 
beyond Hannibal or from the region of the Kaw in the Sunflower state, from 
the bayou country of the far South, and from the region of the cypress for- 
ests of Dunklin or the swamps of Pemiscot. They were there who had only 
lately looked upon the Brazos and the Rio Grande and they came from all 
parts of Missouri. 

Early in the engagement. General Clark sent a mile and a half to the 
rear for his regiment of cavalry. Col. James P. Major, commanding: he was 
attacked by Sigel before he could get to the main line and was driven back 
into the woods with all his command. He reformed as quickly as possible 
and started toward the front to join their own division. Major's men were 
all broken up 1)\' large bodies of other horsemen, who were seeking to escape 
from Totten's grape-shot and Dubois' shells and the musket balls of the 
Kansas men. They rode through Major's ranks in all directions, dividing 
the forces and spreading their own terror to those about them, and the result 
was that Colonel ]\Iajor had but one company intact with which he could 
advance. However, he succeeded in getting together about three hundred 
men, assisted by Col. Casper ^\^ Bell, Clark's adjutant general, of Brunswick, 
Chariton county, Missouri, and Capt. Joseph Finks. Returning to the rear 
IMajor assisted in tlie defeat of Sigel. The remainder of those who could 



GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 287 

be formed into line were taken diarge of by Lieutenant-colonel Hyde and 
advanced to the front where Lyon was, but wliile preparing to cliarge the 
Federal left they were dri\en back by Dubois' Battery and some infantry. 

After nearly six hours of desperate figliting between the columns of 
Price and Lyon neither side seemed to have gained a perceptible advantage. 
Each side had advanced many times, only to be driven back later — always 
with loss. Neither side could sec victory ahead, although the more sagacious 
Union officers entertained fears tiiat they Cduld not hold out all day against 
superior numbers and with rapidly diminishing ammunition. Just when 
the issue seemed hanging in the balance, Price looked down the valley and 
saw AlcCulloch coming up with his column after having routed Sigel's 
force. So the Missouri State Guard was quickly reinforced by the troojis 
from Louisiana under Hebert ; by cavalry from .Arkansas, under Carroll : 
the Fifth Arkansas Infantry, under Colonel Dockery; Mcintosh's Second 
Arkansas Rifle Regiment, under Lieutenant-colonel Embry; Gratiot's Third 
Arkansas Regiment: McRay's Regiment; Reid's Battery, also of .\rkansas; 
and the greater portion of Greer's Texas Cavalry. \\'hen this large and 
efifective fighting force got into position, it was soon seen that it meant the 
besinnine: of the end. The entire Confederate armv threw itself furimislv 
against the concentrated Union line along the bloody ridge. The musketry 
fire was incessant and the artillery-men redoubled their efforts. Masses of 
infantry fell back and rushed again forward. The summit of the hill was 
literally covered with the dead and wounded. Each advance was made over 
the bodies of fallen comrades. Roth sides fought with reckless al)andon and 
matchless desperation for victory. Both Generals Price and McCuIlocli t<X)k 
their lives in their hands and rode up and down their lines, freely mingling 
with their troops, encouraging them to do their utmost, animating them by 
their voices and presence as well as their example for courage and bravery. 
Although Price was slightly wounded he refused to leave the field. The 
infantry had been so hard pressed for such a jm .longed jx^riod that McC"ul!<.cli 
decided to make a diversion in their favor and press the cavalry to the fr.^nt. 
Accordingly a line was formed composed of a portion of Greer's and Car- 
roll's reginients and a large number of Mis.souri mounted troops to go up the 
valley and fall upon the Federal left, but Dubois' Battery and the I'nion in- 
fantry scattered the horsemen before the line could be properly formed. 

THE TURN OF THE TIDE. 

Seeino- that "the psvchological moment ■' had arrived when something 
must be done- when a little delav might mean disaster, McCulIoch .leternnned 
to strike a vicious blow and ordered forward his reserves. Rapidly the rest 
of Pearce's Arkansas Division, Dockery's and Gratiot's regiments came up 



288 GREENE COUXTV, MISSOURI. 

cheering and un tlie run, throwing tliemselves into "the jaws of death." They 
were "stripped for action," having thrown away everything that would en- 
cumber them, including their long, heavy knives, depending solely upon their 
muskets, most of them priding themsehes as expert riflemen. Their work 
was most effective and was directed against the very center of the Union 
line. Reid's Battery was also ordered forward and Hebert's Louisianians 
were again called into action on the left of the battery. About the same 
time Guibor's Battery, of Parson's Division, opened with canister on the 
Federals and terrible was the noise and slaughter. The Union officers ob- 
ser\ed these movements and prepared as best they could to withstand the 
concerted charges, bringing forward all their available troops and guns, and 
once more the battle became general, violent and bloody, and over all blazed 
the August sun making the valley in which the Southerners fought a veritable 
furnace. \Mth grim determination neither side seemed to take notice of the 
terrible heat of the sun and the battle, of the suffocating fumes of burning 
gunpowder, or shrieking shells and stampeding horses. They were fighting 
to kill, to hold their positions — to gain a victory at all hazards. 

But it all ended suddenly, "in the twinkling of an eye," or "as quick 
as a clap of thunder ceases," as some of the men later described it. The 
Federals retreated almost in a body, Totten"s Battery, that had wrought such 
ha\oc all the forenoon, being first to withdraw and soon the entire Union 
force left the field in possession of the Confederates, but it was sometime 
before the sierred hosts of the latter realized just how the battle had gone. 
They expected another attack by the Federals and prepared for it, reforming 
their lines as best they could under the circumstances. Gradually, in the 
comparative stillness, the ground in front where Totten's Battery had stood 
was occupied, and then a line of skirmishers, pushing cautiously to the front, 
discovered that the victory was theirs. Strange as it mav seem no attempt at 
pursuing the flying columns of the Northerners was made, although McCul- 
loch had some six thousand cavalrv whose horses were fresh and rested. 
x\rmy officers were later greatly surprised that the Confederates did not cut 
off the retreat of Sturgis' army toward Springfield and capture it on the 
high prairies west of town. But the Federal officers asserted that the reason 
they were not pursued was because the Confederates were so badly cut up and 
exhausted that they could not do so. But Price urged McCulloch to pursue 
with his cav-alry, but he refused, without giving any reason. The Federals 
believed if Lyon had not lost his life the results of the battle would have 
been different. 

Mc culloch's fight with sigel. 

At the beginning of the battle when Sigel struck McCulloch upon the 
southern end of the Confederate camp the troops he encountered were 



GRKENE COUNTY. MISSOURI. 389 

Churchill's Arkansas regiment, CTreer's Texas Rangers and about seven liun- 
dred mounted Missourians, under command of Col. Benjamin Brown, of 
Ray county, Mr. Brown being at that time president of the Missouri stale 
senate. These troops were completely surprised and were quickly pushed 
back up the valley across the Fayetteville road ; McCuUoch occupied the ex- 
treme right, the troops facing the east. When General Lyon first opened 
the battle, McCulloch hastened back to Price's headquarters and t.xik up two 
of his best regiments (Hebert's and Mcintosh's), to the assistance of his 
fellow commander. The position of McCulloch was greatly weakened by 
the absence of these two regiments, and for a time Sigel had matters his own 
way. Pearce's Division of Arkansas state troops were put in position, 
somewhat in reserve. When McCulloch became fully aware that the Union 
attack was threatening danger to tlie entire camp, he brought back the Louisi- 
ana and Arkansas regiments and forming them with some of Pearce's Divi- 
sion and Brown's and Major's Cavalry, advanced to meet Sigel. The regi- 
ments of Hebert and Mcintosh had been worsted in their engagement with 
the enemy in Ray's cornfield, but they now sought to win back their lost 
laurels and fought desperately. The attack was being made on Sigel 's and 
Salomon's regiments and the four guns of Schuetzenbach and SchaefTer. 
As related on preceding pages there was only a half-hearted resistance on 
the part of the Federals, who mistook the Confederates for regiments from 
the Union lines, on account of similarity of uniform of two opposing regi- 
ments. Plowever, it was no fault of McCulloch's men that Sigel's troops 
were deceived. It was the Louisiana regiment that was mistaken for an 
Iowa regiment. It will be remembered that at the outbreak of the war be- 
tween the states the infantry uniform of the regular army of the United 
States was gray which was changed to blue when the Confederates adopted 
grav for their uniforms. During the first year of the war the similarity of 
uniforms resulted in many unfortunate mistakes. .regiments composing the 
same army not infrequently firing upon each other. The Southerners were 
surprised at being able to come almost within grappling distance of Sigel's 
men without being fired upon. When right at the cannons' mouths they 
made a well-directed and well-regulated charge, driving the Unionists from 
the field at one sweep. Then followed a vain attempt by some of the officers 
of Sigel's command to rally their troops, but a panic-stricken, headlong flight 
resulted, a great numlx^r being slain or captured by the ca\alry. especially 
by the Texas Rangers. The confusion was greatly augmented by Reid's 
Arkansas I^attery opening up on the unsuspecting Germans who made up 
many comjianies of Sigel's command. Efifective work was also done at this 
time bv Colonel Rosser. of W^eightman's Brigade with Capt. Hiram Bledsoe's 
Missouri Batterv from Lafayette county, with "Old Sacramento." a nottfd 

(19) 



290 GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 

twelve-pounder and three other guns of smaller caliber. It took but a few 
minutes to accomplish the destruction of Sigel, and McCulIoch knowing that 
he was needed at the other end of the field, left the flying fragments to be 
looked after by sundry detachments of his cavalry and returned with the 
larger portion of his cavalry and all his infantr}-- to the assistance of Price, 
and the former's troops took a conspicuous part in the last hour or so of 
fighting against the Federals, in fact, it seems certain that the victory could 
not have been won had it not have been for the appearance on the field at 
the critical moment of the tro<:>ps under McCuUoch and Pearce. Left to 
itself Price's column doubtless would have failed to defeat Lyon's army, 
although the two w'ere about equal in numbers. 

LOSS OF THE TWO ARMIES. 

The Federal loss in the battle of Wilson's Creek as officiall}- reported, 
was as follows : First Kansas Volunteers, seventy-seven killed, one. hundred 
and eighty-seven wounded, twenty missing; Second Kansas Volunteers, five 
killed, fifty-nine wounded, six missing; First Missouri Volunteers, seventy- 
six killed, two hundred and eight wounded, eleven missing; First Iowa 
Volunteers, thirteen killed, one hundred and thirty-eight wounded, four 
missing; Captain Plummen's Battalion, nineteen killed, fifty-two wounded, 
nine missing; Company D, First Cavalry, Captain Elliott, one woimded, three 
missing; Captain Steele's Battalion, fifteen killed, forty-four w^ounded, two 
missing; Captain Carr's Company, four missing; Captain Wood's Company 
of Kansas Rangers, one wounded ; Captain Wright's Dade County Home 
Guards, two wounded ; Captain Totten's Battery, four killed, seven wounded ; 
Captain Dubois' Battery, two wounded, one missing; Colonel Sigel's Third 
Regiment Missouri Infantry, thirteen killed, fifteen wounded, twenty-seven 
missing; Colonel Salomon's Regiment Fifth Missouri Infantry, thirteen 
killed, thirty-eight wounded, fifteen missing. Total, two hundred and thirty- 
five killed, seven hundred and fifty-lour wounded, one hundred and two nn'ss- 
ing. Of the wounded forty-eight are known to have died of their injuries 
afterwards, making the actual loss in killed two hundred and eighty-three. 
The principal P'ederal officers killed were Gen. Nathaniel Lyon; Capt. Carey 
Gratz, First Missouri; Capt. A. L. Mason, First Iowa, ^^'ounded. General 
Sweeney; Colonel Deitzler, First Kansas (twice); Colonel Mitchell, Second 
Kansas : Colonel Merritt, First Iowa ; Lieutenant-colonel Andrews, First 
Missouri ; Adjutant Waldron, First Iowa ; Captain Plummer, of the regulars. 

Following is the loss in the Confederate army. Price's column, (ieneral 
Slack's Division, Col. John C. Flughes' Brigade, thirty-six killed, seventy- 
six wounded (many mortally), thirty missing; among the killed were C. H. 
Bennet, adjutant of Hughes' regiment; Capt. Charles Blackwell, of Carroll 



GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 29I 

county, and Lieutenant Huglies. Colonel Rives' Brigade lost four killed and 
eiglit wounded; among the killed were Lieutenant-colonel Austin, of Liv- 
ingston county, a member of the state legislature and Captain Enyart. Gen- 
eral Clark's Division Infantr>% seventeen killed and seventy-one wounded; 
cavalry, six killed and five wounded. Among the killed were Captains Farris 
and Halleck and Lieutenant Haskins. Among the wounded were General 
Clark himself and Colonel Burbridgc, both severely, and Capt. U. H. Mc- 
Intyre, later attorney-general of Missouri. General Parson's Division In- 
fantry, nine killed and thirty-eight wounded; cavalry, three killed and two 
wounded ; Guibor's Artillery, three killed and seven wounded. Among the 
killed was Captain Coleman, of firundy county.. Colonel Kelly, command- 
ing the infantry, was wounded. General McBride's Division, total loss, 
.twenty-two killed, one hundred and twenty-four wounded. Among the lat- 
ter were Colonel Foster (mortally) and Captains Nichols, Dougherty, .\rm- 
strong and Mings. General Rains' Division, Weightman's Brigade, thirty- 
five killed, one hundred and eleven wounded. Cawthorn's Brigade, twenty- 
one killed and seventy -five wounded. Among the killed were Col. Richard 
Hanson W'eightman, commanding the First Brigade and Maj. Charles 
Rogers, of St. Louis. Two other prominent officers were killed among the 
Southerners, namely : Col. Ben Brown, of Ray county, commanding cavalry 
with McCulloch's army and Col. George \V. .Allen, of Saline county, of Gen- 
eral Price's staff. The latter was shot down while bearing an order and 
was buried on the field. Col. Horace IL Brand, of Price's staff, was taken 
prisoner, but released soon afterward. According to official reports, the 
total loss in General Price's army was one hundred and fifty-six killed, six 
hundred and nine wounded, thirty nfissing. The official report of General 
McCulloch states that in the aggregate he had in his army one hundred and 
nine killed, three hundred wounded and fifty prisoners, .\mong the officers 
killed were Captain Hanson, of the Louisiana regiment; Captain McAlcx- 
ander and Adjutant Harper, of Churchill's regiment; Captains Bell and 
Brown and Lieutenants Walton and Weaver, of Pearce's Division. .«^omc 
of the se\erely wounded were Colonel Mcintosh (by a grapeshot). Lieuten- 
ant-colonel Neal, Maj. H. Ward, Captains Gibbs. Pearsons. Ramsaur, King 
and Porter, and Lieutenants Johnson, Chambers, Dawson, King. Rainey. 
Mclvor, Saddler, Hardister and Adams. The aggregate Confederate loss 
was not far from two hundred and sixty-five killed, nine hundred w..unrlcd 
and eighty prisoners. This was a little heavier than that of the Federals. 
owing,^ partly to the long-range muskets and rifles of the latter and their 
more efficiently served artillery. Military men agreed that the Confederate 
batteries were not well served, as a rule, in this battle. The co.nbmed loss 
of the two armies was about five hundred killed and over sixteen hundred 
wounded. 



292 GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 

CARE OF THE WOUNDED AND BURIAL OF THE DEAD. 

By ten o'clock the morning of the battle the Federal wounded began 
to arrive in Springfield from the front, where the contest was hourly grow- 
ing fiercer, with the news that General Lyon was driving the enemy at all 
points. The Union sympathizers cheered lustily and bestirred themseh'es in 
giving every attention to the wounded soldiers. The court house on the 
west side of the public square, which had not long been finished and the 
sheriff's residence were appropriated for hospital purposes and by midnight 
contained one hundred men. The Bailey house was filled, the Methodist 
church building was similarly occupied. Ambulances, carriages, express 
wagons, delivery wagons of grocers and butchers, in fact every sort of 
vehicle with wheels and springs, plied hurriedly between the town and the 
battle-field all day and until after nightfall, bringing off the wounded. There 
was no "lack of woman's nursing, nor dearth of woman's tears," as we read 
of at the battle of Bingen. on the Rhine: for a large number of the women 
of the town volunteered their services as hospital nurses and assisted in any 
way as best they could. 

The dead at Wilson's Creek were not well disposed of. All were given 
hastv and rude burial. The Confederate slain fared somewhat better, being 
buried by their own comrades. The Federal dead were put under the ground 
as soon as possible and with but little or no ceremony. Fourteen bodies 
were thrown into an old well near the battle-field, and thirty-four were 
tumbled into a large "sink-hole" nearby. The others were buried in groups 
here and there, and the burial heaps marked. In many instances a few Union 
soldiers were present when the burials were made and identified certain 
graves. Some of the bodies whose graves were so marked were afterwards 
disinterred and removed to their former homes. A number of the Federal 
dead were never buried. This was particularly true regarding Colonel Sigel's 
men, who were killed over a large stretch of country, some dying among the 
thick underbrush and were not hunted out. Doctor Melcher, mentioned in 
preceding pages, said that he saw portions of the bodies of the German 
Federals strewn along near the road, several days after the battle, having 
been torn by dogs, hogs, buzzards and beasts of prey. Skulls and bones later 
gathered indicated that at least a dozen bodies had been left unburied. 
Citizens in that localitv corroborated the doctor's statement. The weather 
being oppressively hot, putrefaction soon set in and as there was a great 
scarcity of cofinns and coffin makers, perhaps the Southerners did the best 
they could under the circumstances. Their own dead, in many instances, 
were given imperfect burial. Six years after the battle, in 1867, when the 
National cemetery at Springfield was estai-)lished, the contractor for the re- 
moval of the Union soldiers on the field of Wilson's Creek, took up and re- 



GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. J93 

moved to the cemetery, one Iniiidied and eisjhiy-llirce bodies, including tliirty- 
four from the "sink-hole" and fourteen from the uld well, and one hundred 

and thirty-five from different portions of the field. 

GLOOM SETTLES OVER THE L.X.ND. 

"The widows of Ashur are loud in their wail for those whose eyes 
waxed deadly and chill," was written in describing the scenes after the 
destruction of Sennacherib's army in the ancient days of the old Scriptures. 
Something similar would not be inappropriate in an attempt to depict the 
heart-rendering scenes following the great contest of arms delineated in the 
foregoing pages, for a pall of gloom, somber, impenetrable, spread its cloudy 
wings over the land, up and down the valley of the turbid Father of Waters 
for a thousand miles, as news of the conflict penetrated to the distant homes 
of those who went down "in the valley of death" in the Ozarks. The habili- 
ments of woe draped ten thousand hearth-stones in mourning from as far 
south as central Louisiana, as far north as central Iowa and as far west as 
central Kansas and all over Missouri and Arkansas. Never again could 
they come back to the peaceful home, labor in their harvest fields or greet 
their little ones, wives or mothers at the thresholds they held so dear in days 
gone by. There they lay, weltering in their blood, gha.stly under the cerulean 
skies, the hills and vales all serene once more and with the purling stream 
near by, heedlessly hastening on — incarnadined to the sea. 

GREENE COUNTY MEN IN THE B.XTTLE. 

Capt. Dick Campbell's company of Greene county men fought in Mc- 
Bride's Division of the Missouri State Guards. Early in the engagement, 
this company, which was mounted, was sent to the westward, the right of 
General Lyon's position, and to the extreme left and a little to the front of 
General Price's Division. Here it remained, watching the Federals to pre- 
vent them from flanking the Confederate position. When the fight was 
practicalh' over, the company withdrew from its position and came on to the 
main field The men had been without water through the long morning 
hours and running down the hill to a spring to .|ue.ich their thirst which 
was becoming unbearable, they were fired upon by some lurking l-ederals; 
Martin AlcOuigg was mortallv wounded, being shot through the b.KJy and 
died in a dav or two. Dr. A. \'. Small was slightly wounded : C. T. Fraz.er s 
arm was broken bv a musket ball and Louis Tatum's horse was killed imder 
him On the whole it is rather sur,)rising how few men from tins county 
foi-ht at Wilson's Creek. On the Fe.leral side there were l>ut few who 
took part, although back in Springfield over one thousand men stood ready 



294 GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 

and anxious to engage the enemy, eagerly waiting a call to assist Lyon or 
Sigel at any stage of the fight. With Sigel were the Union guides, John 
Steele, Andy Adams, Baker Owen. L. A. D. Crenshaw, and with Lyon was 
E. L. McElhany, Pleasant Hart, Parker Cox and others. It is believed that 
a number of over-zealous Union men went out unobserved with the First 
Kansas Regiment and fought independently, but their names have never 
been made public. John E. Phelps, son of Col. John S. Phelps, and after- 
wards a brevet brigadier general, early on the morning of the battle, set 
out for his father's home south of town, armed for the fight with a Maynard 
rifle and a Colt's dragoon revolver. Accompanying him was one of his 
father's slaves, a negro man named George, another negro named Amos, be- 
longing to Major Dorn, of the secessionists and Pleasant Hall and Robert 
Russell, two young men, citizens of the county. They took the Fayette- 
ville road, Phelps in the lead, and the party encountered Lieutenant Morton 
of the Second Kansas. The squad, now numbering six, hurried along as the 
firing began and soon encountered two pickets. Leaving the others to attract 
their attention, Phelps contrived to make his way to the rear of the pickets, 
and coming upon them suddenly leveled his rifle and soon had them prison- 
ers. The party then rode on and soon encountered another picket. Employ- 
ing the same tactics as those used on the former post, Phelps succeeded in 
capturing a well armed State Guard lieutenant of McBride's Division, named 
Kell}-. who had four revolvers, a double barreled shotgim and a heavy 
dragoon saber. Buckling on the saber himself, Phelps rode to the main field 
of battle, and, encountering a detachment of Confederates, induced a negro 
belonging to an officer of the Louisiana regiment to ride out to him when, 
forcing the negro to follow and keeping him between the enemy and himself, 
Phelps retired in good order. He met a large squad at Ray's house still 
nearer the contending lines, was encountered in the house and taken in. Just 
then a newspaper correspondent named Barnes, representing the New York 
Tribune, came up, and of the event he wrote the following to his paper : 

I now determined to cross the creek and see if I could find Colonel Sigel, 
as a report reached us that he was entirely cut to pieces. I had not proceeded 
far on the eastern side of the creek, when I met the son of Hon. John S. 
Phelps, who had left town upon hearing the cannonading, with but a few 
troops, and. not discerning the exact positions of the two armies, had busied 
himself taking prisoners on the Fayetteville road and west of it. When I 
met him he had captured near a dozen, including a negro belonging to an 
officer in a Louisiana regiment. Placing them upon the trail of our guards 
and in charge of a Kansas officer, Phelps and myself proceeded, but found it 
unsafe to attempt to cross the Fayetteville road, and, seeing the army re- 
treating, we joined them and returned to the city. 

Col. Marcus Boyd had in Springfield during the battle a force of Home 



GREENE COUNTY, .MISSOURI. 295 

Guards from Greene and adjoining counties, numbering twelve liundred 
men, all under arms, and all reaily and willing to fight. But General Lyon 
looked upon them as an efficient lighting force about in the same manner as 
AJcCulloch regarded Price's -Missouri State Guard. The former liad no 
<:onfidence that any other troops but regulars could fight well or be relied 
upon at a critical moment, and so he refused to permit them to go to the 
front, saying that they would break at the first fire and demoralize the rest 
of the troops, and perhaps cause him to lose the fight. Hut in this he was 
no doubt mistaken and had these troops been placed on the field would have 
fought as well as the volunteers in either army and might have been the cause 
of victory perching upon the banners of the Federals. General Lyon evi- 
dently made a grave mistake in not employing every man that could use a 
musket against the overwhelming forces of the Southerners. He has been 
■ criticised for not using the Home Guards and for permitting Sigcl tu take a 
position at such a remote distance from his column. Had he concentrated his 
own column and these additional divisions of over two thousand men, there 
might have been a dififerent story following that fatal day. But his an.xiety 
to not leave his rear and base wholly unprotected from a cavalry dash or 
sudden movement of some sort, led to his leaving this large force in Spring- 
field, which stood in arms all the forenoon, hearing impatiently their com- 
rades fighting assiduously only a few miles away, but were forbidden to join 
them in the fray. 

FEDERALS EVACU.VTE SPRINGFIELD. 

All the afternoun following the battle, the Union regiments and de- 
tachments, batteries and ambulances poured into Springfield, all however, in 
tolerable order, but presenting on the whole quite a different appearance to 
that observed when they marched out on the previous afternoon. Begrimed 
with dust, smoke and sweat, torn uniforms and an air of dejection, they 
portrayed the day's events in an unmistakable manner. After a brief rest 
and refreshing themselves they prepared for flight. The principal officers 
held a conference, and, somewhat strange as it may seem, after the pitiable 
showing of Colonel Sigel in the battle, the conmiand of all the forces were 
turned over to him. Major Sturgis is said to have favored his selection 
because he was especially good in a retreat, although not altogether success- 
ful in an attack. The citizens were notified and hundreds of them began 
packing up and preparing to follow the army, that is. the Union sympathizers 
who dreaded the coming of the Southern troops. The Home Guards also 
got ready to move as a part of the army. The movement was not confined 
alone to the people of Springfield but many who resided in the cnnntr>- also 
prepared to mo^•e. It seemed that General Lyon had a premonition before 
he went out to give battle that the end would be disastrous to the govern- 



296 GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 

ment cause, and he ordered the large sum of money in the local bank pre- 
pared for shipment and guarded by a company of Home Guards. Merchan- 
dise of all kinds was loaded into wagons and certain officers "pressed" teams 
into serA'ice for the occasion, and commissary and quartermasters' stores 
were loaded into the wagons. According to Colonel Boyd one officer, high in 
Sigel's confidence, had no wagon or other accouterments for his regiment. 
He pressed a pair of mules and a wagon and instead of loading it with flour 
and bacon, piled it with seven barrels of whisky and one box of "hard-tack" 
for His fragmentary regiment of five hundred men on a retreat of one hun- 
dred and fifty miles. But it seemed that this far-seeing officer knew what 
he was about, and on the long march fed not only his own men but hundreds 
of refugees with the proceeds of trades and sundry traffickings for his much- 
sought after cargo, and when he reached Rolla, Phelps county, had two bar- 
rels of whisky left, besides seventeen wagons loaded with country hams, 
sugar, molasses, cofifee and diverse other articles of food. Sigel's ordinance 
officer destroyed a considerable quantity of powder because there was no 
means of transporting it. The First Iowa regiment also burned a portion 
of its baggage for the same reason. The public square and streets leading 
thereto were literally jammed with army wagons, farm wagons, cannon car- 
riages, liuggies, horses, mules, cattle, infantry, cavalry, artillery. All was 
confusion, disorder. Wild rumors of all kinds kept frightened men, women 
and children in a turmoil and tumult, which continued all the afternoon and 
far into the night. Dr. E. C. Franklin was given general charge of the 
Federal wounded and Major Sturgis left with him the sum of twenty-five 
hundred dollars in gold, with which to purchase supplies for the wounded 
left behind, to care for General Fyon's body, and for other necessary ex- 
penses. Doctor Franklin was surgeon of the Fifth Missouri Infantry. 

The army did not get ready to march until midnight. The train of 
wagons that set out for Rolla was three miles long and besides the army 
proper there was a column of refugees, men, women and children, young and 
old, including many negroes ; the citizens were in wagons, carriages, on 
horseback and afoot. Although this was practically three nights the troops 
had spent without sleep, they made a good march and reached the adjoining 
county hv daybreak. A strong rear guard momentarily expected to clash 
with the cavalry of the enemy which, however, did not pursue, making no 
attempt to capture the retreating army with its two million dollars in money 
and stores. Why, the Confederate officers themselves never explained. Sigel 
marched on undisturbed until near the crossing of the Gasconade river. 
Before attempting to cross this stream he had received information that the 
ford was not one that could be well crossed by his train, also that a large 
force of the enemy was moving across the country from West Plains to 
Wavnesville, to cut off the retreat. He was also told tliat it would take 



GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 297 

considerable time to cross the Robidoux and I'.it^ Piney and Little Piney 
creeks on the old road. In order to avoid these difficulties and to give the 
army an opportunity to rest, Sigel directed the troops from Lebanon, La- 
clede county to the northern road, passing Right Point, in the southeastern 
part of Camden county, and Humboldt, Pulaski county, and terminating 
opposite the mouth of Little Piney. where in case the ford could not be 
passed, the train could be sent by \'icnna and Linn to the mouth of the 
Gasconade, while the troops could ford the river at the mouth of the Little 
Piney to reinforce RoUa. He ordered a ferry boat from Big Piney Cross- 
ing to be hauled down on the Gasconade to the mouth of Little Piney, where 
it arrived immediately after the army had crossed the ford, and was used 
to take the artillery across. However, before reaching the ford, Sigel had 
given up the command of the army to Major Sturgis. The army reached 
Rolla on August 19th, where temporary camp was made which was named 
"Camp Carey Gratz," in honor of the captain of the First Missouri Infantry 
killed at Wilson's Creek. In a few days the First Iowa Infantry and the 
Missouri and Kansas troops, whose terms of enlistment had exjiired some- 
time previously, were sent to St. Louis to be mustered out. 

CONFEDER.^TE TROOPS ENTER SPRINGFIELD. 

It was nearly twenty-four hours after the battle of Wilson's Creek 
ended before the armies of Generals Price and McCuUoch marched into 
Springfield, the advance guard reaching there about eleven o'clock Sunday 
morning, August nth. It was composed of Texas and Missouri cavalry. 
By the^afternoon the town was pretty well filled by the Southerners and 
Price and McCulloch themselves came in. The stores were visited and the 
proprietors interviewed and there was great activity in mercantile circles for 
awhile, thousands of dollars' worth of goods being purchased in a few h.nirs. 
Everything was paid for, but in Confederate or Missouri script. Encamj)- 
ments were laid out. troops were distributed in different sections of the tovN-n 
and preparations were made to permanently occupy it. Brigadier-genera! 
Rain, confiscated the major portion of the medical sui-plics. leavmg about 
enou-h for the Union sick and wounded to last a week and although Onctors 
Franklin ^lelcher, Haussler. Ludwig and Davis of the regular army force 
of sur-eons, assisted bv several local physicians, labr.red heroically m savuig 
the lives of many of the wounded, they were often in great stra.ts on account 
of lack of proper medical supplies. 

\s intimated in the early portion of this chapter, those were days of 
frequent proclamations bv the commanders of the various anmes. and the 
day after the Confederates took possession of SprmgheM. (.en. Ben Mc- 
Culloch issued the following: 



298 GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 

Headquarters Western Army, 
Camp near Springfield, Mo., August 12, 1861. 
To the People of Missouri : 

Ha\ing been called by the governor of your state to assist in driving 
the National forces out of the state, and in restoring to the people their just 
rights, I have come among you simply with the view of making war upon our 
Northern foes, to drive them back and give the oppressed of your state an 
opportunity of again standing up as free men and uttering their true senti- 
ments. You have been overrun and trampled upon by the mercenan' hordes 
of the North; your beautiful state has been nearly subjugated, but those true 
sons of Missouri who have continued in arms, together with my forces, came 
back upon the enemy, and we have gained over them a great and signal vic- 
tory. Their general-in-chief is slain, and many of their other general officers 
are wounded. Their army is in full flight; and now if the true men of Mis- 
souri will rise up and rally around our standard the state will be redeemed. 
I do not come among you to make war upon any of your people, whether 
Union or otherwise: the Union people will all be protected in their rights 
and property. It is earnestly recommended to them to return to their homes. 
Prisoners of the Union army, who have been arrested by the army, will be 
released and allowed to return to their friends. Missouri must be allowed 
to choose her own destiny, no oath binding your consciences. I have driven 
the enemy from among you ; the time has now arrived for the people of the 
state to act. You can no longer proscrastinate. Missouri must now take 
her position, be it North or South. Ben McCulloch, 

Brig. Gen. Commanding. 

This proclamation was posted all over southwestern Missouri and it 
was well received by the people of Greene county, especially the Union sym- 
pathizers, who expected to be treated with great severity. All now looked 
forward to a season of security if not of peace. But the proclamation was 
not very carefully observed ; Unionists were arrested and their property and 
often that of their secession neighbors seized and appropriated whenever the 
subordinate Confederate officer desired to do so. General McCulloch issued 
the following congratulatory order to the troops under his command as a 
result of the battle of Wilson's Creek, at the same time he issued the above 
proclamation : 

The general commanding takes great pleasure in announcing to the 
army under his command, the signal victory it has just gained. Soldiers of 
Louisiana, of Arkansas, of Missouri, and of Texas, nobly have you sustained 
yourselves. Shoulder to shoulder you have met the enemy and driven him 
before you. Your first battle has been glorious and your general is proud of 
you. The opposing forces, composed mostly of the old regular army of the 



CREEXE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 2qg 

North, have thrown tliemsclves upon you, conlident of victory, but by great 
gallantry and determined courage, you have routed tiiein with great slaughter. 
Several pieces of artillery and many prisoners are nnw in your hands. The 
commander-in-chief of the enemy is slain and many of the general officers 
wounded. The flag of the Confederacy now floats over Springfield, the 
stronghold of the enemy. The friends of our cause who have been in prison 
there are released. \\'hile announcing to the armv the great victory, the 
general hopes that the laurels you have gained will not he tarnished by a 
single outrage. The private property of citizens of either party must be 
respected. Soldiers who fought as you did the day before yesterday cannot 
rob or plunder. By order of Ben McCulloch, General Commanding. James 
Mcintosh, Captain C. S. A. and adjutant general. 

A few days later General Price issued the following proclamation : 
"To the People of Missouri : The army under my command has been 
organized under the laws of the state for the protection of your homes and 
firesides, and for the maintenance of the rights, dignity and honor of Mis- 
souri. It is kept in the field for these purposes alone and to aid in accomplish- 
ing them, our eallant Southern brethren have come into our state. We have 
just achieved a glorious victory over the foe, and scattered far and wide the 
well-appointed army which the usurper at Washington has been more than 
six months gathering for your subjugation and enslavement. This victory 
frees a large portion of the state from the power of the invaders and re- 
stores it to the protection of its artiiy. Tt consequently becomes my duty to 
assure you that it is my firm determination to protect every peaceable citizen 
in the full enjoyment of all his rights, whatever may have l>een his sympathies 
in the present unhappy struggle, if he has not taken an active part in the cruel 
warfare, which has been waged against the good people of this state by the 
ruthless enemies whom we have just defeated. I therefore invite all good 
citizens to return to their homes and the practice of their ordinary vocations, 
with the full assurance that they, their families, tiieir homes and their prop- 
erty shall be carefully protected. I, at the same time, warn all evil disposed 
persons, who mav support the usurpations of anyone claiming to Ik- pro- 
visional or tempo'rarv governor of Missouri, or who shall in any other way 
give aid or comfort to the enemy, that thoy will be held as enenues and treated 

J. , Sterling Price. 

accordinglv. ^ . 

August 20, 1861. ^laj. Gen. Commanding Missouri State Guard. 

It will be observed that the proclamations of Price and McCulloch 
differed somewhat regarding Union prisoners or sympathizers the former 
declaring that all such should not be protected in h,s rights, while the latter 
declared that the prisoners should be released and allowed to return to their 
homes and their employments. Capt. Dick Campbell s company of Greene 



300 GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 

county secessionists, who had fought at Wilson's Creek, was assigned to 
permanent duty at Springfield and in their county over which they were well 
acquainted and were therefore able to give General Price specific information 
as to the Union families in that vicinity, which of them were entitled to 
special favors and which were not. 

INFLUENCE OF THE BATTLE. 

The battle of Wilson's Creek did much to strengthen the cause of the 
Confederates, the influence in Missouri being especially noticeable and had a 
very stimulating effect in recruiting for that army. Many who had been 
undecided as to what course to pursue took a stand for the cause of the 
South, and the news of the victory was received with great joy at the Con- 
federate capital. On November 4, 1861, when Gov. Claiborne Jackson's 
legislature, in session at Cassville, passed the Neosho secession ordinance, 
also the following resolution : 

I-Jesolved by the Senate, the House of Representatives concurring therein : 
That the thanks of the state of Missouri are hereby cordially given to Major 
General Price and Brigadier Generals Parsons, Rains, McBride, Slack, Clark 
and Steen, and the officers and troops of the Missouri State Guard under 
their command and to Brigadier General McCulloch and officers and troops 
of the Confederate states under their command, for their gallant and sig- 
nal services and the victory obtained by them in the battle of Springfield. 

The following resolutions were introduced into the Confederate Con- 
gress on August 21, 1861 by Mr. Ochiltree, who subsecjuently became a 
prominent politician and a member of Congress of the United States from 
Texas, and were passed unanimously : 

Whereas, It has pleased Almighty God to vouchsafe to the arms of the 
Confederate states another glorious and important victory, in a portion of 
the country where a reverse would have been disastrous by exposing the 
families of the good people of the state of Missouri, to the unbridled license 
of the brutal soldiery of an unscrupulous enemy ; therefore 

Be it Resolved by the Congress of the Confederate States, That the 
thanks of Congress are cordially tendered to Brigadier-general ]\IcCulloch 
and the officers and soldiers of his brave command for their gallant conduct 
in defeating after a battle of six and a half hours a force of the enemy equal 
in numbers and greatly superior in all their appointments, thus proving that 
a right cause nerves the hearts and strengthens the arms of the Southern 
people, fighting as they are for their liberty, their homes and friends, against 
an unholy despotism. 

Resolved, That in the opinion of Congress, General McCulloch and his 
troops are entitled to and will receive the grateful thanks of all our people. 



GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 



DISPOSITION OF THE BODY OF GENERAL LVUX. 



301 



Scores of accounts of the tragic death of Gen. Nathaniel Lyon on the 
field of Wilson's Creek have been published, very few of them agreeing in 
details. It was even difficult to get the true facts regarding his burial. The 
stories have been varied partly because in the e.xciteineiit of the battle those 
who really witnessed the general's death saw the matter a little dififerent 
from each other, and partly because of a morbid tendency of many who did 
not see it to desire notoriety, of having their names published in connection 
with some notable event, hence are willing to risk lying about it. But the 
corroborated and now undisputed facts in the case are substantially as 
follows : 

General Lyon was killed about eleven o'clock while placing the Second 
Kansas Infantry in position, by a rifle or navy revolver ball which passed 
through the region of the heart. He was seated on a horse and as he started 
to fall was caught by a private soldier, Edward Lehman, of Company B, 
First United States Cavalry, who assisted him to the ground. Mr. Lehman, 
two other soldiers and Lieutenant Schreyer, of Captain Tholen's company, 
Second Kansas, bore the body to the rear immediately. Death was almost 
instantaneous, but Lehman heard the general whisper as he laid him on tiie 
ground, "Lehman, I'm going." As the body was borne to the rear, Lieut. 
William Wherry, one of the general's aids, had the face covered and ordered 
Lehman, who was crying like a child, to desist from any show of emotion, 
and tried every way he could to prevent the news of Lyon's death from 
spreading through the ranks, fearing its ill effects on the troops. The body 
was placed in the shade of a small black-jack, the face covered with half a 
soldier's blanket, the limbs composed and in a few minutes there gathered 
round General Sweeney, Major Sturgis, Major Scholield. Surgeon F. M. 
Cornyn and Gordon Granger. The surgeon examined the body hastily and 
wiped the blood from the side of the face made by a wound in the head, re- 
ceived previously, the fatal wound having been the third he had received 
within a half hour. Major Sturgis ordered the body to be carried back to 
a place selected as a sort of field hospital and there to be placed in an ambul- 
ance and taken to Springfield. A\hilc the body was lying there the body in- 
cluding the face became covered w ith blood from the wounds. .About twenty 
minutes after the body had been brought back. Lieut. David Muri)hy of the 
First Missouri Infantry, who was already badly wounded in the leg. and 
Lehman placed the body in an army wagon being used as an ambulance and 
belonging to Company B, First United States Cavalry. This uagon was 
about to start to Springfield and contained in addition a number of wounded 
men. A few minutes later a sergeant of the regular army came up and 



302 GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 

ordered the body taken out, saying that an ambulance would soon be there 
for it. The corpse was then replaced under the tree where it had before 
reposed. But a few minutes more and the Federal army was retreating and 
the ambulance never came up. The body lay about two hundred yards north- 
east of "Bloody Hill'' and before the Confederates reached the spot a num- 
ber of wounded Union soldiers gathered around their dead hero, and an 
hour after the army left the field, a detachment of skirmishers from an 
Arkansas regiment, came upon the group and discovering the occasion of 
the crowd immediately spread the news that General Lvon was killed. In- 
stantly there was a great tumult and a half dozen privates bore the news to 
Generals McCulloch and Price. Many did not believe the story upon seeing 
the plainly dressed body, in an old faded captain's uniform with but three 
United States buttons on the coat and a simple cord down the leg of the 
trousers to indicate that he was in the militar)- service, they could not think 
that this was the famous General Lyon. The body was placed in a small 
covered wagon, used as an ambulance, to be conveyed to General McCul- 
loch's headquarters, when an order arrived that it should be taken to General 
Price's headquarters, and delivered to Dr. S. H. Melcher, a surgeon with the 
Fifth Alissouri Infantry. Doctor Melcher had been informed by Col. Emmet 
McDonald that Lyon had been killed and at once asked for his body. After 
the wagon reached headquarters and the body had been viewed by General 
Price, General Rains and other officers, it was turned over to Doctor Melcher. 
Lying beside General Lyon was a wounded soldier, who was now taken out 
of the wagon and then General Rains himself and some of his cavalry 
escorted the wagon to the house of Mr. Ray, on or near the battlefield. We 
continue the narrative in Doctor Melcher's own language which follows : 

Arriving there the body was carried into the house and placed on a bed ; 
then I carefully washed his face and hands, which were much discolored by 
dust and blood and examined for wounds. There was a wound on the right 
side of the head, another in the right leg below the knee and another which 
caused his death, was by a small rifle ball, which entered about the fourth 
rib on the left side, passing entirely through the body, making its exit from 
the right side, evidently passing through both lungs and heart. From the 
character of this wound it is my opinion that General Lyon was holding the 
bridle rein in the left hand and had turned in the saddle to give a command, 
or words of encouragement, thus exposing his left side to the fire of the 
enemy. At this time he had on a dark blue, single breasted captain's coat, 
with the buttons used by the regular army of the LTnited States. It was the 
same uniform coat I had frequently seen him wear in the arsenal at St. Louis, 
and was considerably worn and faded. Fie had no shoulder-straps ; his 
pants were dark blue : the wide-brim felt hat he had worn during the cam- 
paign was not with him. After arranging the body as well as circumstances 



GREENE COUXTV, MISSOLKI. 3O5 

permitted, it was carried to the wagon and covered with a spread or slieet 
furnished me by Mrs. Ray. \\hcn I was ready to start, General Rains said : 
"I will not order any to go with you, but volunteers may go" and five Con- 
federate soldiers ofifered their services as escort. One drove the team : the 
others being mounted, rode with me behind the wagon. The only name I can 
give is that of Orderly Sergeant liracket of a company of Clnirchill's Arkan- 
sas regiment. Another of the escort was a German who, in 1863, was clerk- 
ing in Springfield and during the defense of that place against the attack of 
Marmaduke, January 8, 1863, did service in the citixens" company of forty- 
two men which was attached to my "Quinine Brigade" from the hospitals. 

General Rains offered the military escort and transportation subject to 
my orders and he also assured me that all the Federal wounded should be 
well taken care of, that they could be removed under the hospital flag, and 
that the dead should be buried as rapidly as possible. 

About half way to Springfield I saw a party under flag of truce going 
toward the battle-field. Arri\ing at Springfield, the first officer I reported 
to was the ever faithful Col. Nelson Cole, then captain of Company E, First 
Missouri Volunteer Infantry, who, with what remained of that gallant com- 
pany, was guarding the outposts. I passed on to the camps of Gen. James 
Totten and Gen. T. W. Sweeney. Here General Totten relieved my escort 
and sent them back to their command and a new driver was furnished and I 
delivered the body of General Lyon to Maj. J. M. Schofield, First Missouri 
Volunteer Infantry, this gentleman finally becoming major-general in the 
United States army. The body of our chief was taken to the house that 
had been used previous to the battle by General Lyon for his headquarters. 

After the L'nion army under Sturgis had gotten well under way toward 
Springfield it was discovered that General Lyon's body had lieen left behind. 
Sturgis immediately sent back a flag of truce party under Lieutenant Canficld. 
of the regular army, with orders to go to Generals Price and McCulloch, and, 
if possible, procure the remains and bring them on to Springfield. Lieuten- 
ant Canfield and party went to the battlefield, saw General McCulloch, ob- 
tained his order for the body, and there ascertained that the body had alrea.Iy 
started back to the Union forces. 

When the corpse was deposited in the former headquarters of the gen- 
eral on the north side of College street, west of Main street, in Springfield, 
word was sent to Sturgis. He held a consultation with Schofield and otiier 
officers and decided that the body should Ik? taken with the army to Rolla. 
if possible. There being no metallic cofl^n available, it was determined to 
embalm it and Dr. E. C. Franklin, the chief surgeon was sent for. After the 
war he made the following statement regarding this event: 



_304 GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 

COULD NOT PRESERVE THE BODY. 

About ten o'clock on the night when 1 arrived at headquarters, I was 
.summoned there and then first saw the body of General Lyon lying upon a 
table, covered with a white spread, in a room adjoining the one where two 
or three of the Union officers were seated. Majors Sturgis, Schofield and 
others consulted me as to the possibility of injecting the body with such ma- 
terials as would prevent decay during its transit to St. Louis. I prepared the 
fluid for injection into the body, but discovered that instead of being re- 
tained in the vessels it passed out into the cavity of the chest. This led me 
to suspect a laceration either of one of the large arteries near the heart, or, 
possibly a wound of the heart itself. This hypothesis, coupled with the fact 
that there was an external wound in the region of the heart, confirmed my 
opinion of the utter uselessness of attempting the preservation of the body 
during its passage to St. Louis. These facts I reported to the commanding 
officer, who then gave me verbal orders to attend to the disposal of the body 
in the best manner possible. At this time preparations were being made and 
the orders given for the troops to retreat and fall back upon Rolla, some one 
hundred and fifty miles nearer St. Louis. Returning to the general hos- 
pital, of which I was in charge, I detailed a squad of nurses to watch by the 
body of General Lyon till morning, which order was faithfully carried out. 
I then disposed of my time for the best interests of the wounded and sick 
under my charge. 

Doctor Franklin was furnished with money and directed to have the 
general's remains well cared for and he ordered Presley Beal, an undertaker, 
to make a good, substantial coffin at once. Early the following morning, in 
some way, word was sent to Mrs. Mary Phelps, wife of Hon. John S. Phelps, 
that the bodv of the great Union leader was lying stifif and bloody and neg- 
lected in the temporary charnel house on College street. Soon she and the 
wife of Mr. Beal were by his side watching him. Soon came also the wife 
of Col. Marcus Boyd and her two daughters. The body was now changing 
fast, having lain about twenty-four hours in very hot weather. Mr. Beal 
brought the coftin and soon a butcher's wagon was on its way to the Phelps' 
farm with all tliat was mortal of one of the ablest warriors of the Union, and 
with no esccirt save the driver, Mr. Beal, Mrs. Phelps and two soldiers. 
Col Emmett McDonald, who had been made a prisoner by General Lyon at 
the capture of Camp Jackson, not only assisted Doctor Melcher when Lyon 
was killed in recovering the bod}-, but Doctor Franklin said of him: 

Here let me do justice to Col. Emmett McDonald, who called upon me 
at the general hospital and after .some conversation in regard to the circum- 
-stances attending the death of General Lyon, tendered to me an escort of 
Confederate troops as a "guard of honor" to accompany the general's re 



CREEXE COrXTV, MISSOfRI. ' 305 

mains to the place of burial, which I refused fmrn a too sensitive regard fur 
the painful occasion, and an ignorance of inilitarv regulations touching the 
-subject. 

Mrs. Phelps was practically alone at the time. Her husband was in his 
seat in Congress at Washington; her son, John E. Phelps had gone away 
with the lederal troops, accompanied even l)y her faithful ser\ant. George. 
But she did not hesitate to do what she regarded as her duty, and the lx)dy 
was taken to her residence and was held there some time, she believing that 
it would soon be sent for. James Vaughan, who owned a tin shop in Spring- 
field, was ordered to make a zinc case for the coffin, to assist in rendering it 
air tight. The coffin was temporarily deposited in an outdoor cellar, which 
in summer was used as an ice-house. It was covered deep in straw. It 
.was here placed about two o'clock on Sunday afternoon, the i ith. George, 
the sla\e, returned two days later. While the body of tlie general lay in 
the cellar it was visited by some citizens and many Southern soldiers. Mrs. 
Phelps asked General Price to send a detail and bury the body. This was 
done by volunteers from Kelly's and Guibor's Infantr}-. of General Parsons' 
Division, at the time encamped on Colonel Phelps' farm. It is believed the 
body was not buried until the 14th. The slave Cieorge dug the grave, which 
w^as in the garden at the Phelps home. Some of the soldiers stamped on the 
grave in great delight. 

A four-mule ambulance arrived in Sprin.gfield on the J2i\. bearing a 
three-huiulretl-pound metallic coflin and the following ])arty: Danford 
Knowlton, of New York City, a cousin of General Lyon: John H. Hasler, of 
Webster, Massachusetts, the general's brother-in-law, and George \. Lynch, 
at that time a well known undertaker of St. Louis. From Rolla to Spring- 
field, the part\- was accompanied by the gallant Col. Kmmett McDonald, who 
had been to the Federal camp to arrange for an exchange of prisoners and 
from whom Mr. Hasler said the party received many attentions and favors. 
Upon arri\ ing here they visited General Price and handed liim a letter from 
General Fremont explaining their mission, which was to bear away the body 
of General Lyon. As the letter was directed "To Whom It May Concern," 
and General Price, after glancing at the address, threw it contemi)tuonsl\- 
aside, sa\ ing he could read no document thus directed. .\t the .same time he 
ofifered to grant them every facility for securing the body of their dead rela- 
ti\e. Repairing to the Phelps farm the party disinterred the b(xly, remo\cd 
the zinc co^er and placed the body in the huge metallic coffin brought from 
St. Louis. General Parsons, whose division was encamped nearby, came 
up, introduced himself, and Mr. Hasler says, "showed us numerous civilities. 
Among other attentions he tendered a guard for the body and tent over night. 
which "was accepted." The next day the party left Springfield and was in 
(20) 



306 ■ GREENE COUNTY^ MISSOURI. 

Rolla on the 25th and in St. Louis on the 26th. Here a military escort 
joined. From thence the party proceeded to Eastford, Connecticut, the 
birthplace of General Lyon, which place was reached .September 4th, there 
being great honors paid the body in the townis enroute. On September 5th 
the body was buried in the family burying ground at Eastford. The funeral 
was held in the Congregational church and during the ceremonies, according 
to a Mr. Woodward who was present, the light felt hat which the general 
waved aloft while rallying his ranks at Wilson's Creek and also the sword, 
scarred and weather-beaten from sharing in the long hard service of its 
owner, were laid upon the coffin lid. The hat had been brought from the 
battle-field by the wounded soldier in the wagon in which the general's body 
was first placed and w^as given to Mr. Hasler by the driver who had preserved 
it. Both hat and sword were given to the Connecticut Historical Society 
and have since been in the possession of the same. 

Gen. Nathaniel Lyon was born in Eastford, Connecticut, Julv 14, 1818. 
He entered West Point in 1837, from which he was graduated in 1841, 
standing eleventh in a class of fifty. He served in Florida against the 
Seminole Indians in 1841-2 ; was in the Mexican war under Taylor and 
Scott; was in California and on the frontier from 1850 to 1861. He was 
never married. He had just passed his fort3'-third birthday when his bril- 
liant career and most promising life so tragically ended. 

THE ARMY OF OCCUPATION. 

Springfield at once became quiet after the Southerners took possession, 
but the farmers over Greene county lost a great deal of forage, and horses 
and mules were "pressed" and in some instances negro slaves forced into 
service by the scouting parties which the Confederate generals sent out. 
Finally a number of Union men were arrested and placed in jail. Some of 
these had belonged to Phelps' regiment of Home Guards. It was fortunate 
for the people that a bounteous crop was raised during the summer of 1861, 
for although three or four large armies took what they needed and wasted 
as much more, still enough wheat and corn was left to feed the citizens. It 
is authoritatively stated that the products of the farms of Greene county 
supplied the inhabitants and in a large measure the armies of Price and 
McCulloch, Lyon, Sigel, Fremont and Hunter for over two years. Claims 
were subsequently filed by the citizens here for quartermaster's stores and 
commissary supplies furnished the Federal army by the L^nion citizens here 
aggregating a sum of over three million dollars. And it is estimated that 
the Confederates seized and appropriated fully one million dollars' worth of 
local farm products. Also what the Federal troops took from the secession- 
ist element in the countv was never taken into account. No claims were filed 



GREENE C0I;NTY, MISSOURI. 



307 



from this class of citizens for damages. Several threshing machines, owned 
by Union men, were operating in the county alter the great wheat crop lad 
been harvested, and General Price gave orders that these men should not be 
arrested or their horses "pressed." The wagons of the qnartermasters fol- 
lowed up the threshers and hauled off the wheat as it was threshed, to the 
mills to be ground into flour for the use of the troops who were in the service 
of the Confederacy. The Union farmers over the county were warned and 
many of them delayed their threshing in order to escape the Kjss of tiieir 
crops, and it turned out that the Southern sympathizers lost more than their 
Union neighbors that year. As soon as the fear subsided the people sought 
to make friends of the army of occupation and began to regard them as 
their protectors. The troops from Texas and Louisiana were especially liked 
■and shown every consideration. Citizens came from long distances to visit 
them ; many of the leading officers of the armv sent for their families who 
joined them in .Springfield. While there were many joyful reunions, tiicre 
were numerous sad ones. The town was practically a vast hospital and many 
a father and mother came to visit their son who was recovering from wounds, 
many a wife came to care for her husband and many a daughter to care for 
a father or sister for a brother. Howe\er. there was, on the whole, con- 
siderable time given to festivities, social fututions and pleasures in general. 
General Price made his headquarters at the (Graves home on Boonville street, 
north of the Jordan brook, and General McCulloch's headquarters were at 
the house of the widow of Gen. N. R. Smith on the east side of Boonville 
street near the public square. These two noted chieftains were lionized, 
many coming miles for a mere glimpse of them. The chief of the Texas 
rangers had his headquarters for a time at Pond Spring west of town. Part 
of the army was camped at Fulbright"s Spring in the vicinity of the present 
"Gulf shops"; others were camped, as before stated, on the Phel[)s farm 
south of town; still others pitched their tent about half way between llie 
public square and Commercial street. 

Two weeks were spent quietly, giving wounds time to heal, new recruits 
a chance to enlist, and general preparations to be made, when Genera! Price 
deemed it his duty to march his army out of Greene county to other sections 
of the state where the Unionists were .giving trouble. I-'or example. Une 
and Montgomery were at Fort Scott, just across the line in Kansas, and 
from there were making fre(iuent incursions into Missouri, doing much 
damage to the Southerners. A number oi regiments of Home Gunr.is had 
been organized, were eager to cross the river and join their brethren in this 
part of^he state under Price. In northeast Missouri was waiting a large 
and efficient brigade under fien. Thomas Harris and Col. Martin Greene. 
In northwest Missouri Colonels Boyd. Childs. Wilfley, Patton and Saimders 
had regiments and Captain Kelly bad a battery, while smaller -letachments 



308 GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 

were in nearl}- every county north of the river awaiting the opportunity to 
rally under the flag of the grizzly bears borne by Price's regiments who had 
fought so creditably at Wilson's Creek. However, it was not an easy matter 
for all these secession troops to get together. The great Missouri river 
formed a natural dividing line, and all along that stream stretched a cordon 
of Federal military posts keeping close watch to pre\-ent any Southern troops 
from crossing. Federal garrisons were holding the fords at Kansas City, 
Lexington, Glasgow, Boonxille, Jefferson City, and so on to the mouth of the 
river above St. Louis. General Price determined to move his armv to the 
north, partly that he might gi\e the isolated troops in the northern counties 
an opportunity to join him, and partly that he might make a demonstration 
against the Jayhawkers along the Kansas border. Accordingly, his army 
in motion again on Augiist 2jd, the vanguard heading toward the north. 
The major portion of the Greene county men were left in Si^ringtield as a 
garrison, however some of them went with the army as volunteers and were 
at the l)attle of Lexington, and, as everywhere else, ga\'e a good account of 
themselves. A portion of the troops took the Bolivar road and reached the 
county-seat of Polk county on the 26th, but the majority went by way of 
Mt. Vernon. — all with Lexington as the objective point, although it was not 
the design to allow the Kansas troops to gather and follow in the rear, conse- 
quently the army moved in a sort of curve toward the west. When Drywood 
creek was reached in Vernon county, alx)ut fifteen miles this side the Kansas 
line. Rains" division had a skirmish on September 7th with some Kansas 
troops, under Lane and Montgomery, dri\ing them liack on the main position 
at Fort Scott. Captain Bledsoe, of the artillery, was here wounded. Five 
days later. Price's army reached Lexington and Colonel Mulligan, with 
nearly three thousand Federals opposed his further advance, but was forced 
to surrender on the 20th. 

General McCulloch also marched his divisions out of Springfield to 
Cassville a few days after Price's departure : some of his forces proceeded 
on to Fayetteville and some into the Indian Territory, a detachment or two 
remaining in McDonald county. The term of service of a large portion 
of the Arkansas troops had expired, and they demanded to be sent home. 
McCulloch's move was also made partly on account of the fact that he re- 
ceived orders from Generals Polk and Hardee, who, it is claimed, had been 
notified by the Confederate government that no more hel]) would be given 
Missouri until she should secede from the Union. And so all of them 
"folded their tents like the .\rab and silently stole away," the picturesque, 
long-haired Texas rangers, with their broad-brimmed sombreros, big Mexi- 
can spurs and dashing mustangs, the tall .\rkansas mountaineers, and the 
gentle-mannered, gray-coated Lomsianians. Judging from the tone of the 
following extract from a letter written bv General McCulloch to General 



GUEEXE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 



309 



Hardee from his headquarters at Pond Sprin.ij. Greene county, August _'4th, 
he was disgusted with the situation in .Missouri : 

I am in no concHtion to advance, or even to meet an enemy liere. ha\infj 
httle ammunition or suppHes of any kind, and will, in consequence shorten 
my lines by falling back to the Arkansas line, near the inch'an Territ-.ry. 
We have little to hope or expect from the people of this state. The force 
now in the field is undisciphned and kxl by men who are mere politicians — 
not a soldier among them to control and organize this mass of humanity. 
The ^lissouri forces are in no condition to meet an organized armv. nf>r will 
they ever be while under their present leaders. 1 dare not join them in my 
present condition, for fear of having my men completely demoralized. \Vc 
lost at least three hundred stand of arms in the battle of the loth. taken by 
their straggling camp followers from my killed and wounded, and before 
the engagement they borrowed of General Pearce six hundred more, none 
of which they would return after the light was over. They stole the tents 
my men left at Cassville (to facilitate their march"), and brought them after 
us the next day on the same road. In a word, the\- arc not making friends 
where they go, and from all I can see we had as well be in Boston, as far as 
the friendh' feelings of the inhaliitants are concerned. 



T.WLOK C0MM.\XI)S OAUKISO-X. 



Col. T. T. Taylor was left in charge of the garrison at Springfield when 
Price and McCulloch marched their forces away. The colonel had alxiut 
five hundred men under him. He caused a great iu!ml)er of L'nion citizens 
to be brought before him on charges of giving aid and comfort to the enemy. 
Howe\er, Colonel Taylor was usually very reasonable, and he merely re- 
primanded most of those brought liefore him, confining but few in jail. 
Meanwhile foraging parties continued to keep the commissariat well sui)- 
plied as a result of their raids into the neighboring country. Colonel Taylor 
wrote General I<>et7]ont at St. Louis on September Sth. asking for clear 
interpretation of the latter's order in hi-^ |)roclamation of .\ugu.st ^olh. that 
"all persons who shall be taken with arms in their hands within these lines 
shall be tried by court-martial and if tonnd guilty shall be shot." The 
general was asked if he really meant what he .said, and if lii.s- order ai)plied 
to woimded prisoners as well as to sound ones, for Taylor had at tiiat tiuje 
several hundred wounded prisoners under his control in the hospitals at 
Springfield, and since Fremont's jjroclamation he was at a loss t.i know how 
to treat them. Fremont's reply was. in part, as follows: "You have wholly 
misapprehended the meaning of the proclamation. T desire it to he clearly 
understood that the proclamation is intended distinctly to recognize all the 
usual rights of an open enemy in the field, and to he in all respects strictly 



3IO GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 

conformable to the ordinary usages of war. It -was not prepared with any 
purpose to ignore the ordinary riglits of humanity with respect to wounded 
men, or to those who are humanely engaged in alleviating their sufferings." 
Colonel Taylor was praised by the wounded soldiers in Springfield for the 
kind treatment which was accorded them. He had no intention of shooting 
them despite Fremont's absurd and foolish proclamation. He even sent 
supplies in the hospitals where they were being cared for that the Union 
physicians could not secure elsewhere, and this w'as done under protest of 
his fellow officers; in fact, he was the only Confederate who did furnish 
anything for the Union wounded, according to Doctor Melcher, before men- 
tioned in this chapter, although the citizens of Springfield, many of whom 
were Southern sympathizers treated them kindly, and after the funds left 
by Colonel Sturgis for the care of the wounded had been spent, William 
Massey and others raised hundreds of dollars for this purpose, not knowing 
whether they would ever be repaid. 

. The banners of the Confederacy floated unchallenged over the county 
during the month of September and everything was quiet in this locality, 
business began to be carried on as usual, and Springfield was quite a recruit- 
ing station for several weeks. From time to time detachments of Missouri 
State Guards camped here on their way to join Price's army, which marched 
southward to the Osage river from Lexington on September 30th, and on 
into Cedar, Vernon, Newton and Jasper counties. Now and then Union 
men slipped through the lines of the local troops, made their wa}' to Rolla 
and enlisted in either Colonel Boyd's regiment, the Twenty-fourth Missouri, 
making up at that jjlace, or in Colonel Phelps' regiment, these two regi- 
ments being composed largely of men from Greene county. October found 
the people of Greene and other counties in southwestern Missouri in a dis- 
turbed condition and wild rumors w-ere again afloat. On the loth of that 
month there was a skirmish between a detachment of Price's army and 
Montgomery's Kansas troops about forty miles northwest of Springfield, re- 
sulting in the latter falling back on Greenfield. After that the Southern 
troops in Springfield were kept in constant fear of an attack from the Jay- 
hawkers, as the troops from the Sunflower state were called, for they were 
known to be roving in nomad style about the country to the northward and 
northwest. Once a report reached the garrison that they were marching on 
Springfield in full force. Immediately the baggage train was rushed to the 
public square, and placed under a strong guard, and Colonel Taylor's troops 
took a position a mile and a half north of town at the Owens' farm, and 
there rested on their arms all night. At this time it was also reported that 
Fremont's army was on its way to Springfield, then another report said it had 
retreated toward Jefferson City, and the news that Price was marching his 
anny southward strengthened the belief that the Federals were pushing for- 



GREENE COUNTY. MISSOURI. 



3U 



vmrd in force, having crossed the Osage river at Papinsville. Tlie uneasiness 
increased and some of the Southern sympathizers began packing up prepara- 
tory to leaving Springfield. About this time a large force of Union men 
from Greene and adjoining counties left for Rolla. the nearest Federal 
military post promising security. Detachments of Freeman's State Guards 
and other Confederate troops were now chasing over the country the dis- 
banded company of Colonel Galloway, of Christian county, formerly of 
Phelps' regiment of Home Guards. The captain himself was killed on 
September 29. A number of men from Douglas county, under Captain 
Rd^artindale, made the trip to Rolla and joined Colonel Boyd's Twenty- 
fourth ^Missouri Infantry. So there was considerable stir over the country. 

GENER.VL FREMONT MARCHES ON SPRINGFIELD. 

Gen. John C. Fremont was severely censured for his management of 
afifairs for the Union in Alissouri. principally for failing to re-inforce General 
Lyon before the battle of Wilson's Creek and Mulligan at Lexington. He 
■was assailed with charges of incapacity, extravagance in expenditures, for 
his grandiloquent proclamations and unnecessary pomp. Both Wilson's 
Creek and Lexington was a serious blow to the L'nion cause in this state. 
Smarting under these losses, the sarcastic criticism from all over the country, 
and apprehensive that General Price would now march on Jefferson City 
and other sections of the state where there were Federal troops, Fremont 
decided to take the field in person, with the hope of defeating Price before 
McCulloch, who had recruited a large army in Arkansas, could join him 
again. Accordingly, on September 27th, Fremont's well equipped army of 
more than twenty thousand men started toward southwest Missouri. The 
force included five thousand cavalry and eighty-six pieces of artillery. His 
subordinate generals were Sigel, Pope, Hunter, Asboth and McKistry. It 
was also the plan that the Kansas troops, under Sturgis and Lane, were to 
join Fremont on the Osage. Springfield was the objective point. The various 
detachments of the army came from St. Louis, Rolla. Tipton, Jefferson City 
and other points. General Flunter was to march from Versailles, Pope from 
near Boonville, McKistry from Syracuse, and Sigel from Sedalia. All the 
troops were in motion by October 15th, and on the 22d the Osage was 
crossed at Warsaw, Benton county, which was at that time an important 
shipping point. Nearly a week previous had been spent bridge Imilding 
there. From the Osage the route was south by way of Bolivar, Polk county. 
Sigel's men were in the van. and Asboth's brou.ght up the rear. General Price 
watched the Federal movement very carefully, keeping near the Kansas 
border as he went South through Osceola and other points in that section of 
the state. In a proclamation, issued by Governor Jackson at Lexington. 



312 GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 

September 26th, tlie state Legislature was asked to meet at Xeosho, October 
2 1 St. for the purpose of taking up the matter of seceding from the Union,, 
and no <Ioul)t the main object oi Price's retreat in that vicinity was to 
protect the Legislature. 

M.\JOR ZAGONYI COMES ON THE SCENE. 

Alaj. Charles Zagomi, the dashing Hungarian ca\alry leader, of whom 
we shall have occasion to speak of frequenth- in succeeding pages, now 
comes on the scene as commander of h'remont's Bod}' Guard, an organization 
irregularly enlisted, and numbering three companies of near one hundred 
men each. While Fremont's anuy lay along the Pomme de Terre ri\-er, 
about fifty miles north of Springfield, the commander-in-chief ordered 
Zagonyi to take a detail from each of the companies in his command, and. 
uniting with Maj. Frank J. White's battalion of "Prairie Scouts," proceed 
to Springfield by a forced march, and if possible surprise and capture the 
place. This order was given after two men from the northern part of 
Greene county had made their way to Fremont's army and. finally ])enetrating 
throug'h the numerous guard to the "tent of the high chief." informed him 
that there was not more than five hundred men at Springfield guarding the 
place and that they were poorly armed. About nine o'clock Thursday even- 
ing, October 24th, the command started and the following morning halted 
about five miles north of Bolivar, breakfasted, rested, fed and watered the 
horses. Here Major White, who had with him one hundred and fifty-four 
of his "scouts." was not able to proceed on account of illness. After re- 
maining a while at a farm house he came on in a carriage, accompanied by a 
lieutenant and fi\e men as an escort. Continuing toward Springfield, Zagonyi 
saw no sign of the enemy until he came within eight miles of the town, when 
about a dozen armed men were discovered taking wheat from a barn in 
Robberson township. A platoon of the Body Guard was sent after them, 
and some of them were captured, the others succeeding in making good their 
retreat through the neighboring woods. One was badly wounded by saber 
cuts and taken to the Daniels home for treatment. Major Zagon_\-i learned 
that the men were a foraging party from a large force of State Guard at 
Spriuglield. and Union citizens in that neighborhood also informed him that 
the force he was going to meet was nnich larger than he had lieen at first led 
to believe. However, he resolved to ])ush on at all hazards. But they halted 
at Burney's still-house, on Sac river, in the same township, where they 
remained "twenty minutes for refreshments." at the end of which time they 
declared themsehes to be ready to charge and defeat Price's entire army if 
necessary. The farther they went the braver and more reckless they be- 
came, demanding to be instantlv led forward, although reassured from time 



GREENE COl'NTV, MISSOURI. i,v 

to time that Colonel Taylor's force nunibcred about twelve liiindred men. 
The Body ("luard expressed the opinion tliat tiiey were able to clean out any 
force numbering not jiiore than four to one. 

^^lajor \\'hite finally came almost up with the main force, still in liis 
carriage, but took the wrong road when a few miles out of Springfield and 
went to the right instead of following the advancing troops, and was soon 
surrounded by a force of the State (iuards and cajitured. In the melee the 
major broke his own sword, and one of his escort refused to surrender and 
had to be pulled from his horse by his captors. The major blamed Zagonvi 
for his capture, who, he says, should lia\e left a jjicket at the forks of the 
road to direct him which one to take. The pristjuers were taken to the main 
camp just west of Springfield, where they were surrounded by a crowd 
of excited secession soldiers, some of whom, according to .Major White, 
■cocked their re\ ohers and swore the\- intendetl shooting him and his escort, 
whom they cursed for Jayhawkers, but two oflicers interfered and protected 
the captives. Major White returned the profanity, saving that he was (|uitc 
sick and did not want to be disturijed. The camp of the Southern forces 
was located just west of town on the Mt. X'ernon road. They were new 
troops and had no experience in warfare, at least not many of them had. and 
they were for the most part poorly armed. More than two-thinls of the 
number was cavalry, eight hundred fonning this branch of the service, the 
rest, some three hundred, were infantry. They were well supplied with 
baggage, tents, wagons, horses and ])ro\isioiis. These forces were mnv 
under the general command of Col, Julian b'razier, of Wright county, and 
were composed of the cavalry battalion of Col, Miscal lohnston, the infantry 
battalion of Colonel Schnable and the coiiijianies or battalions of Caj^ain 
Hawthorn, of Dallas county: Captain Wickersham, oi Laclede county, and 
Colonel Turner's. The men were chiefly from counties east and northeast of 
Greene. Col. Julian Frazier was the .•senior colonel. Col. ]. .\. Schnable 
was next in rank. Lieutenant-Colonel Turner was in command of the forces 
at Springfield. Col. John H. Price, of this county, was in Springfield at 
this time in person, but with only a >mall portion of his conmiand. Tin- 
forces in caiii]) had been warned of the api)roach of the Federals by those 
of the foragers who had escajjed when the attack was made upon them by 
Zagonyi's men. Tmmediate preiiarations to receive the attack were k-gun. 
Five hundred ritlemen were placed in the woods on either side of the road 
to ambush the visitors, and an e(|ual number of cavalry was formed on the 
open ground in the encampment, the remainder being secreted in a nearby 
cornfield and in thickets in the rear. 

Zao-onyi's forces left the Bolivar road south of the Sac river and struck 
across The country in a southwest direction until they reached the Grand 
Prairie. Here Taliez Townsend, a strong ITiion citizen, was emi.loycd to 



.314 GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 

guide the force over the Carthage road to the enemy's camp, and the road 
was struck about four miles west of Springfield. Zagonyi pressed on along 
the main Carthage road until he came near the town, having been guided by 
Parker Cox. The ground was found unfavorable for the offensive opera- 
tion of cavalry, this led the major to cross over the prairie to the westward 
and come into town over the iVIt. Vernon road, which maneuver was suc- 
cessfully accomplished, but at this juncture information reached him to the 
effect that the enemy, two thousand strong, was drawn up in line of battle, 
awaiting him. Colonel Frazier's forces selected the ground for the contest 
on the Mt. Vernon road near their camp, where the old fair grounds were 
located, the road being the same over which Lyon had marched to the fatal 
field some two months previous, and here also ran Wilson's creek, a mere 
brook at this point. Skirmishers were scattered through the woods toward 
the west, the direction from which Zagonyi's force was advancing. Another 
detachment guarded the train, holding possession of the fair grounds, then 
surrounded by a high board fence. However, the main body of the force 
was drawn up somewhat in front of a hollow square, in an enclosure to the 
north, the greater portion of the infantry lying along a high rail fence, 
running nearly to the creek and also at the head of the field bordering on the 
woods ; most of the cavalry was on the other side of the field, also supported 
by the forest. The only point of attack left open to the Federals was down 
the lane on the right, and the enemy was so disposed as to command this 
approach perfectly. It looks as though the invaders would receive a warm 
reception, should the infantry have the "ner\^e" to stand. ]\Iany of them 
were deadly marksmen, having been hunters w-ith the rifle since boyhood, 
and they had safe positions behind trees: but there was doubt of their cour- 
age to stand a charge of experienced troops, led by able officers. A long 
line of infantry stood upon the simimit of the slope, and had only to step 
backward a few paces to be inaccessible to any cavalry, and there were 
horsemen enough to sweep Zagonyi's force from the face of the earth if 
the infantrv should do their share of the work creditablv. 

Z.\G0NYI CH.\RGES THE ENEMY. 

It was the middle of the afternoon when Zagonyi ordered his command 
forward. His advanced line passed the fair grounds in a trot ; soon they 
reached the corner of the lane where the forest begins, which ran close to 
the fence on the left for a hundred yards. They could now see the white 
tents of the secessionists beyond. They were half way passed the forest 
when a number of shotguns poured forth charges of buckshot from the 
bushes nearby. A number of the horses staggered and some of the riders 
reeled, but the troops pressed forward, shouting and cheering. At the further 



GREENE COUNTV, MISSOURI. 



3»5 



corner of the wood Zagonyi saw the column drawn up to nw-nt- him. Ik 
was a man of quick decision, and, there beinj,' hut one thinjj left fur him to 
do— run the gauntlet, gain the cover of the hill and the shelter of the creek 
bank, then re-form and charge up the steep, so he halted a moment, waved 
his saber over his head and, in broken English, ordered the men to follow 
him, and they dashed at a gallop down the stony road, the first company 
and most of the second of the Body Guard following him. They were targets 
for scores of shotgims and long-barrelled rifles from the left. .\ do7.en 
troopers rose in their saddles and fell to the road, while their steeds plunged 
frightened against the fences. Farther on there were larger gaps torn in 
their ranks by the guns from the left, until finally the brook was reached, 
where the column Avas halted under the shelter of its banks; The men dis- 
mounted, and, turning about, attacked the fence, which they soon leveled to 
the ground. Upon seeing that only a portion of his men had followed him, 
he believed that he was lost and became frantic, but began trying to extricate 
his men, hoping that those behind would come up. He did not have long to 
wait, Captain Foley soon joining him with his company. He had attempted 
a flank attack upon reaching the corner of the wood and noting the enemy's 
position, ordered some of his men to dismount and take down the fence. 
which was done. But owing to the severe fire that was poured on him and 
seeing that the woods was too dense for the horsemen to operate in. he 
decided to go on after the advance troops. At the same time his lieutenant. 
a tall Kentuckian. shouted to his men to come on aiid to remember old Ken- 
tucky. They galloped through a lane of fire, but escaped annihilation, which 
seemed to threaten tliem in the start. Lieutenants Kennedy and GoflF were 
both wounded, and dead men and horses were strewn up and down the road 
for some distance. Amid the briars and brambles on the banks of the stream 
Zagonvi and his officers formed the remainder of the Hotly Guard for a 
charge on the main body of the enemy, intending to reach a small open 
space and there scatter to the right and left and ride down the enemy con- 
cealed in the bushes. The State Guards continued firing down into the 
hollow but most of the bullets went over the heads of the Federals. When 
the order to advance was given. Lieutenant Maythenyi. another Hungarian. 
with a small detachment, attacked Frazier's cavalry. They dashed away 
Avith drawn sabers toward a much larger detachment of cavalry standing uih)Ii 
an eminence to the south. A line of fire along the summit of the ridge 
marked the position of the infantry. But the daring lieutenant and his men 
were not overawed by the vast host awaiting them and dashed straight for 
the center of the cavalry. Astonished, the Southerners wavered, broke, then 
scattered in flight through a cornfield in the rear, the Union trooiis pursuing. 
chased them through the field and out into the open country, some one way 



3l6 GREEXE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 

and some aiiDthtT, many coming on through Springlield, but none of them 
stopping to see liow their comrades behind in tlie main ranks were faring. 

Encouraged bv this success, Zagonvi, having in the meantime held his 
men back, ordered a second charge, and his cavalry, nearly all of whom rode 
bay horses, suddenly rode out from the bed of the little stream, forming a 
line in w Jiich each trocjper liail ;unple room to use his sword arm, and 
charged furiously. They met a fierce fire from the bushes on all sides, and 
many a horse and rider fell, but the charge was not checked. . A dozen 
horses reached a small open space a rod square and almost instantly they 
were all piled in a hea]), filling up the open space. The impetuous troopers 
dashed on, heedless of the slaughter, and now the State Guards in the main 
line began to give way, broke and began retreating into the dense woods, 
only a few of the liolder ones holding their ground, keeping up a scattering 
hre from behind trees, resisting all efturts to dislodge them for a few min- 
utes. The horsemen charged rejjeatedly into the brush, but each time fell 
back, then opened at random with their revolving rifles, each gun containing 
six cartridges. In one of the charges a lieutenant was caught by a grape- 
vine, dislodged from his saddle and left dangling in the air, like Absolem, 
whose hair caught in the branches of an oak when he fought in rebellion 
against his father. King David, but he lost his life and, doubtless so would 
have our lieutenant had not a comrade finally cut the grape-vine with his 
saber, releasing him. .\ow the entire Southern command was in retreat, or 
more properly, tfight, with Zagonyi's men close after them. Some ran 
through the fair grounds, others through the cornfield, the most of them 
keeping just within the edge of the woods, as much under cover as possible, 
striving to get to the road that would lead to Cleneral Price's cam]), where 
they knew thev would be safe. The pursuers were relentless and hunted 
them out like hounds after their (|uarry. One was cut down behind Judge 
Farmer's barn by a saber, then shot, and two of his comrades were killed 
nearbw XMiite's Prairie Scouts had come u]) on the Carthage road, through 
a blind lane running north and south. A great many ran their horses into 
Springfield, and were chased through the streets and alleys far out onto 
the ojx^n prairies beyond. Meanwhile Zagonyi rode here and there cheering 
and urging on his men. 

The Prairie Scouts consisted of Company C and Company L, of the 
First Alissouri Cavalrv A''olunteers, and were commanded by Capts. Miles 
Kehoe and Charles I'airbanks : and the Irish Dragoons, an independent 
company, under Capt. Patrick Xaughton. When Zagonyi made his detour 
to the right and came upon the main body of the Confederates, Cajitain Fair- 
banks, who was in command of the Prairie Scouts, came up in the rear of 
the B<)d\- Ciuard. the Irish Dragoons lieing in the lead. The\- recei\ed a 
spirited fire from Coli'mel lohnson'^^ and Colonel .Scbnable's infantr\- and a 



GREl^.\E roUXTV. MISSOIRI. 3I7 

portion of Colonel l-razier's cavalry. They fell hack, going toward the west. 
Some citizens, inchulinii John (i. XewhilJ. who lived at that time a lialf mile 
west of the fair grounds, saw a hattalinn of cavalry gallop hack to the west 
just after the fighting began, then turn ahoul and gallop forward, but in a 
few moments they came back, and went forward again, a portion of them 
going northward to the Carthage road. This was .undoubtedly Majoi* 
\Mnte's "scouts." In his report he says his men made three charges on (he 
flank of the rebel forces. Doctor .Melcher sa\ s they were not with the troops 
that charged through the lane but at that time were in the vicinity of the 
Farmer barn. In one of the charges made by the Irish Dragoons. Captain 
Naughton was shot in the right lung: Lieut. Patrick Connelly was mortally 
wounded through the chest, while a nuniher of jirivates were wounded. 
.Captain Naughton ne\er fully recovered, but did not die from his wound 
until 1873, his death taking place in St. Louis, .\lthough Lieutenant Con- 
nelly" was found on the field with six bullet holes in him he lived eight days. 
and was fully conscious to the last. 

Z.\GONVl's MEN WELCOMED IX SI'RI XCKIEI.!). 

Fremont's Body Ciuard galloped into Sijringlicld late in the afternoon 
and after dashing wildly al>out for some time, seeking the Heeing cavalry of 
Colonel Frazier. rode to the public stpiare and liberated the L'nion prisoners 
in the jail, but about dark they retreated, since they feared that the enemy 
would re-form and attack them. But the Unionists of Springfield urged 
them to stay, giving them a heart\- welcome, the women especially hailing 
the gallant troopers in their bright blue uniforms as their deliverers. And 
the people were delighted at the news of a large army of Federals on the 
way to take permanent possession of the town. 

As John H. Stephens, a prominent citizen of Springfield, who. with 
Thomas Green and Mr. Peachcr. had been watching the fight from the top 
of the court house, was hurrying home upon seeing the tlying troops enter- 
ing the town, he was hailed l)y <,ne of Zagonyi's men but did not stop, there- 
upon he was shot <lown in his own dooryard and instantly kille.l. It wa> an 
unnecessary and regrettable mistake. 

Major Zagonvi remained in town hut a few mimites. tor he received 
news that the meti under brazier was re-forming in large numl.er> on the 
battle-field and intended to attack him: in fact, he was evidently tnghtene.l. 
for he hurried awav to the northward to bremonfs army, without thinking 
to call in his pickets on some of the streets leading into town. 

Mthough Zagonvi claimed that he raised the United States flag over 
the court house the afternoon of the battle, he did not do so. 1 he dag .hd 
not ^o up until the following morning, when Doctor >relcher borrowed one 



3l8 GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 

from !Mrs. Sophia ^Vo^rell, and by his direction two Union soldiers, hospital 
stewards — Xewton G. Long, Company A, First Iowa Infantry, and John 
V. Bonamie, Company G, First IMissouri Infantry — raised the flag on the 
old court house, which stood in the center of the public square. Two days 
later the court house was burned but the flag escaped in a singular manner. 
As the flames ascended the cupola it burned off the halyards of the flagstaff, 
and the ascending currents of air bore the flag upward with the smoke and 
it floated safely some distance away, descending gently to the ground, only 
slightly damaged. It was returned to Mrs. Worrell, and shortly afterwards, 
when Price's army came back to Springfield, his men made many inquiries 
of her for the flag, but she sewed it in the skirt she wore in order to 
conceal it. 

The majority of Major Zagonyi's command took the road north to 
Bolivar and to Fremont's main army, with Zagonyi, only about two dozen 
remaining in Springfield, but none of them were ordered to remain. Most 
of them camped quietly at the edge of town, fearing discovery, and at day- 
break they rode out to farmers' houses, demanding breakfast. Others stayed 
in Springfield and were given every accommodation at the homes of Union- 
ists. Doctor Melcher, formerly of Lyon's army, and Doctor Hughes, of 
\\'hite's "Prairie Scouts," worked all night caring for the Federal wounded, 
assisted by some women and Linion citizens. When the Scouts withdrew 
they left about forty wounded and dismounted Body Guards at the hospital. 
The Confederates re-formed and remained on the battle-field until about 
midnight, awaiting the return of the Federals. The main body of Fremont's 
army was camped about fixe miles of Bolivar, and Zagonyi sent the following 
dispatch to his general : 

Near Bolivar, lo A. M., October 26th. 

General : I respectfully report that yesterday at 4 P. M. I met at 
Springfield about two thousand rebels, formed in line of battle. They gave 
me a warm reception, but your guard, with some feeling, made a charge, 
and, in less than three minutes, the enemy was completely routed. We 
cleared the citv of every rebel and retired, it being near night and not feeling 
able to keep the place with so small a force. ]\Iajor White's command did 
not participate in the charges. I have seen charges, but such brilliant brav- 
ery I have never seen, and did not expect. Their war cry, "Fremont and the 
Linion," broke forth like thunder. 

Ch.^rles Z.\gonyi. 
Major Commanding Body Guard. 

General Fremont forwarded the news by special courier to the Federal 
authorities at Washington by this message, which was sent all over the 
country : . ' i 



GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 3IQ, 

Headquarters in the Field, 
Xcar Ilumansville, Mo., Oct. 26. 1861. 
Captain AlcKeever, Assistant Adjutant C.eneral: Yesterday afternoon 
Major Zagonyi, at the head of my guard, made a most brilliant charge upon 
a body of the enemy, thrown up in line of battle at their camp in Springfield, 
two thousand or two thousand and two hundretl strong. He completely 
routed them, cleared them from the town, hoisted the national tlag on the 
court house, and retired upon a re-inforcement wincli he has already joined. 
Our loss is not great. This successful charge upon such very large odds is a 
noble example to tlie army. Our advance will occupy Springfield tonight. 

J. C. Fremont, 
Major-General Commanding. 

There was considerable exaggeration in the foregoing dis])aiches, as to 
the number of secession troops, the character of the fighting, the raising of 
the flag and other items, and it is said that Zagonyi's statement regarding 
the war cry given here is purely fiction, and the truth is that profanity in a 
boisterous form was about the only kind of "war cry" gi\en during the 
charge. 

Fremont's Body Guard was one of the most imposing that any Ameri- 
can general ever had, if not equal to many in foreign countries, where "the 
pomp and circumstance" of war have always meant more than in free 
America. It was an independent organization composed of three companies 
of cavalry enlisted for the special jnirpose of protecting General Fremont. 
They were Kentuckians, for the most part, but one company was coni|X)scd 
of clerks and similar men of St. Louis, but they were all stalwart and of 
splendid appearance in general, and nearly all were mounted on fine bay 
horses. Each man was armed with the most up-to-date weapons — two re- 
volvers, dragoon size, and Colt's revolving ritle, carrying six shots, effective 
at a distance of one mile, and a heavy cavalry saber. Their uniform was 
new, neatly kept and gorgeous, and every man wore a plume in his hat. The 
"charge" proved to be their last service of the guard as an organization, for 
about a month later the ^Var Department refused to recognize the enlistment 
of the men for the purpose of being solely body guards to any one. and they 
were mustered out. When taunted regarding the defeat of the Confederates, 
one of Frazier's men replied, "Well, no wonder the B(xiy (iuard whipped us; 
for we were nearly all just common soldiers, and they were al! captains." 
This imposing looking guard to the noted "Pathfinder" was occasion for a 

great deal of jest. 

When the fight began. Major Frank J. White, commander of the "Prai- 
rie Scouts," who had just previously been taken prisoner, wa^ hurried away 
bv his captors, and with his escort, was taken through Springfield and on to 



320 GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 

the residence of I). A. Dryden, eight miles south of town, just across the 
line in Christian county. The party was in charge of Captain Wroton. 
They stopped for the night there, and their host proved to be an ardent 
Union man : however, he kept quiet and made no comment. After night- 
fall he took his son, Tom, out of the house, and bade the boy, then about 
thirteen years of age, to make his way to Ananias West's home and to the 
residences of other Union men living in the neighborhood and inform them 
that some Federal soldiers, now prisoners, were at Dryden's and ought to 
be liberated while their guards were in good conditions to.be captured. The 
boy mounted a fleet horse and rode like another Paul Revere from house 
to house through the sparsely settled neighborhood, rousing up the Union 
men. most of whom had onl}- recent!}- been members of Colonel Phelps" 
Home Guards, and soon about twenty of them, ]\lr. West in the lead, were 
on their way to the Dryden home, each bearing his trusted rifle which he had 
long had securely hidden to prevent them from falling into the hands of the 
■enemy. It was daybreak before the party reached Dryden's. Mr. Dryden, 
who had patiently awaited their coming, now informed the Southern captain 
that a body of Federals had arrived, too numerous to be resisted, and Cap- 
tain Wroton and his men surrendered without a fight. Major White was 
released and his captors were made prisoners, and the entire party was soon 
■on its way toward Springfield. They reported to Doctor Melcher at the 
Federal hospital, and Major White being still indisposed, immediately went 
to bed. and the Unionists returned to their homes, before the State Guards 
under Colonel I*"razier, \\ho were numerous in the town and vicinitv, dis- 
covered them. 

THE WOUNDED .\ND DE.\D. 

After the Home Guards had dispersed, two surgeons of the Missouri 
troops came in with a flag of truce, reporting to Doctor Melcher, saying that 
.they came to make arrangements for burying their dead and for an ex- 
change of prisoners, stating that they had Major White. Captain White and 
eight soldiers to exchange. Doctor Melcher told them that the dead of the 
State Guard had already been buried, the wounded cared for and that they 
were mistaken as to having Major White as their prisoner. The doctor 
then went into the major, who was still indisposed, and told him of the \isit 
■of the bearers of the flag of truce. Upon learning that Fremont's army was 
not yet in sight. Major White dressed and came out with much decorum and 
announced to the two Southerners that he was officer of the day, representing 
a large force, under command of General Sigel. who was encamped at the 
edge of town, and stated that under certain restrictions the State Guard 
might send a party to bury their dead. Major White then detailed some of 
his men, and '■under- their direction those of the secession dead were buried 



m 





•'«n»S«. ^i^. sasf'iFvr'*-'' 



Fiiiifial Sci'iic (if MomlnTS of I'li'iiuiiifs Sliite (Junril — I'lilili.' Siiii:irc-. S|ii iiiirlli'ld. 

October 28, 1861. 

Public Square Scene — Early Day. 

FieniDiifs Shite (JumiiI. CciiiiniMudciI liy .M:i.i. Z:ii:(iiiyi. ('Ii;ir;.'iiis; ('cinfp(lfi'.ilt'.« mi Wil- 
son Creek, near Springlield, October 25. 1S61. 



GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 32I 

that had not already been so disposed of. The major's ruse seemed to liave 
the desired effect, akhough at that time he had but two dozen men under 
him and General Sigel was forty miles away with his command. It was 
Captain Wroton, mentioned in a preceding paragraph, that had saved Major 
White'e life when he was taken prisoner, and when the Home Guards of- 
fered some indignity to Captain Wroton. who was now a prisoner under 
White, the latter was prompt to resent the insult and swore he would shoot 
like a dog anyone who interfered in any way with the gallant Southerner 
who had saved him when he was in deadly peril among false brethren. 
After the flag of truce episode a defensive force was organized, composed of 
the dismounted Body Guard, some of the men who had recovered from the 
wounds received at Wilson's Creek, and a few citizens, of whom William 
Massey was one. Nearly all the Southern dead had previously Ijccn buried 
by citizens, including John Y. Fulbright. At that time Mrs. Worrell's flag 
could be seen from all o\er the vicinity and this doubtless strengthened the 
belief from am.ong Frazier's men that the town was filled with a strong 
force of Federals. 

Major Zagonyi's total loss in killed, according to official reports, was 
three corporals and twelve privates; wounded, four commissioned ofticcrs, 
and sixteen privates ; missing, one sergeant, one corporal and eight |)rivatcs. 
Total killed, fifteen: wounded, twenty-seven; missing, ten. Total killed, 
wounded and missing, fift\'-two. Those killed in the Body Guard were Cor- 
porals Chamberlin of Company A; Schneider of Company B; Norrison of 
Company C, and Privates Duthro and Franz of Company A ; Wright, Ross. 
Frei, Osburg, Shrack, Morat, Davis, Slattery of Company B : William \'an- 
way and Alexander Linfoot of Company C. The loss in Major White's 
Prairie Scouts seems to have been confined to one company — Ca])tain Pat- 
rick Naughton's Irish Dragoons. First Lieut. Patrick Connelly, of this com- 
pany, was mortally wounded, dying soon after. Private Charles Gilchrist 
was shot in the arm and Jerrold Connor in the hip. The commissioned of- 
ficers of the Body Guard that were wounded were First Lieut. N. Westcr- 
burg, in the shoulder, and right hand; Second Lieut. J. W. Goff, in the hip; 
First Lieut. Joseph C. Frock, in the leg; First Lieut, Joseph Kennedy, in the 
arm and head. R. Ml Smith, a Union citizen of Miller county, who was 
with the Body Guard, was wounded and taken prisoner. 

The loss of the State Guard, under Frazier, is problematical, as no of- 
ficial report was ever made. Some who were in the skirmish assert that as 
many as twenty-three were killed, fifty wounded, and twenty-five taken pris- 
oners, but this estimate is doubtless exaggerated. 
(21) 



2,22 GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 

GENERAL FREMONT TAKES POSSESSION. 

After Zagonyi's charge. Major White and his handful of soldiers and 
the Union citizens of Springfield spent forty-eight hours of great anxiety, 
fearing that the Confederates would again take possession of the town. 
Finally Sigel's Division, the advance of General Fremont's arnw arrived, and 
the town and the prisoners were delivered up to stronger hands on October 
27th, having marched thirty miles in twelve hours. The Unionists were 
again gleeful and proceeded to celebrate the event. It was three days later 
before the rear was brought up by Gen. Jim Lane's Kansas Brigade of Gen- 
eral Asboth's Division. General McKistry's Division was then sixty miles 
away on the Pomme de Terre river and Generals Hunter and Pope were in 
the vicinity of Warsaw, making their way slowly southward. Fremont was 
somewhat uneasy. He knew that General Price was at Neosho with a con- 
siderable army, now seasoned and experienced after two battles, and he also 
knew that General McCulloch was not so far away but that he could come 
up in a day or two. General Lyon experienced the same anxiety three 
months previously. But Price was not a man to do things without due 
deliberation and he did not try any surprises, and in a few days Fremont's 
scattered army began to rendezvous, Pope coming up on the first of Novem- 
ber, soon followed by McKistry's Division. 

It was Major Holman's battalion of sharpshooters that first entered 
.Springfield and occupied the place on the morning of the 27th. Several 
prisoners had been placed in the old brick court house, then standing in the 
center of the public square. One of the men was insane and he contrived 
to fire the building and before the flames were discovered they had made 
such headway that they could not be extinguished and the building was soon 
a mass of ruins. This was on the evening of October 28th. 

Mrs. Sophia N. Worrell, Mrs. W. H. Graves and other women of 
Springfield determined to present a flag to the Body Guard and Prairie 
Scouts upon their reappearance in town in recognition of their services in 
assisting in recapturing the place and in admiration of the gallant charge 
and fight of a few days previous. Some of Major White's men learning of 
the intention of the women told them that the Prairie Scouts alone were 
entitled to the flag, proceeding to delineate the unparalleled deeds of valor 
they had done to gain the day. The ladies agreed to give it to them and 
straightway up rode Major White's command to Mrs. W^orrell's grocery on 
the south side of the public square and received the banner. Meantime 
Major Zagonyi had been informed that he was to be presented with a flag and 
was just riding up at the head of the Body Guard when he saw White's men 
bearing off the prize and with a vigorous outburst of profanity he wheeled 
and returned to his headquarters. The donors of the flag upon learning of 



GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 323 

their mistake, were greatly mortified and in order to make amends they 
determined to present another banner to the B(jdy Guard and accordingly 
notified the fiery Hungarian cavalryman, but his pride forbade him accept- 
ing the proffered flag after what had happened and he sent the following 
dignified note: 

Headquarters Fremont's Body Guard, 

Springfield, Mo., Nov. 2, 1861. , 
To Mrs. Worrell and Other Ladies of Springfield: 

Ladies — Your flattering ofifer to present a flag to the iM-emnnt Body 
Guard is appreciated and gratefully acknowledged. Some intimation of 
such a gift reached me late yesterday afternoon and I much regret the mis- 
take or misunderstanding which prevented a proper recognition of your 
kindness at that time. But it is with far profounder sorrow that I find my- 
self compelled to decline the proffered presentation. It would be idle to 
affect ignorance of the fact that the same distinction has been conferred upon 
a body of men who, though placed under my command upon the occasion to 
which your partiality obliges me to refer, deserted me at the verv moment 
of conflict and exposed the officers and men of the Body Guard to a fate 
which the hand of Providence alone could avert. The honor of the soldiers 
under my command, dear to me as my own. I must not permit to be sullied 
or tarnished in the slightest degree. The Union women of Springfield are 
too noble and generous to misinterpret this rejection of a testimonial which, 
under other circumstances, would be so thankfully received and so highly 
prized. To the forlorn band which entered this city a few days ago, thev 
gave a cordial welcome; to its patriotism their ai)proval has added zeal; their 
sympathy and tenderness are now softening the tedious confinement of its 
wounded, and the\' will pardon that surplus self-respect which forbids the 
Body Guard to share the rewards of a victory with those who refused to 
participate in its hazards. Respectfully. 

Charles Z.\gonv7, 
■ Major Commanding Body Guard. 

LEGISLATURE VOTES TO SECEDE. 

Gov. Claiborne Jackson convened the Missouri state Legislature at 
Neosho on October 26th and on the 28th an ordinance of secession was 
passed by both houses, only one senator, Charles Hardin, from the Boone and 
Calloway district, voting against it. Senator Hardin subsequently liecame 
governor of the state. There was also only one member of the hou.se who 
voted against the ordinance, Mr. Shambaugh of DeKalb county. It was later 
claimed by some that a quorum was not present in either house. But whether 
that is true or not, the secession ordinance and the act of annexation to the 



324 GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 

Southern Confederacy were approved by the Confederate Congress at Rich- 
mond, recognized b}- that portion of the people of Alissouri who were in 
favor, of seceding from the Union. General Price fired a salute upon the 
announcement of the passage of the ordinance. F. T. Frazier, whose home 
was in Greene county and who was at that time senator from this district, 
was at the convention at Neosho and voted for secession. The two repre- 
sentatives from Greene county, J-Jeadlee and Boyd, were in the Federal 
service at that time. 

General Fremont concluded a sort of treaty with General Price on 
November ist by the terms of which no arrests whatever on account of 
political opinions or for the private expression of the same were to be made 
within the state of Missouri by either Federals or Confederates and all per- 
sons then under arrest on such charges were to be released. All citizens who 
had been driven from their homes because of their political opinions were 
advised to return with the assurance that they should receive protection from 
both armies in the field. All bodies of armed men acting without the 
authority or recognition of either General Fremont or General Price and not 
legitimately connected with the armies in the field were ordered to disband. 
Violations of either of the provisions of the treaty subjected the offender to 
the penalties of military law, according to the nature of the ofifense. The 
treaty was signed by General Fremont in person and by Henry W. Williams 
and D. R. Barclay, commissioners in behalf of General Price. A second 
clause provided for the exchange of prisoners, grade for grade, or two 
officers of lower grade as an equivalent in rank for one of a higher grade, 
and should be thought just as equable. 

GENER.\1. HUNTER SUPERSEDES GENERAL FREMONT. 

An order signed by Gen. VVinfield Scott, the great commander in the 
Mexican war, who was during the early part of the Civil war at the head 
of the army of the United States, reached Springfield on November 2d by a 
messenger from St. Louis, for General Fremont's removal from command. 
He was directed to pass over the army at Springfield to Gen. D. Hunter and 
to report by letter to the war department. The order resulted in much dis- 
satisfaction among the Union troops, especially among Sigel's and Asboth's 
Divisions, and a deputation of one hundred and ten officers from these 
divisions presented Fremont with an address of sympathy and confidence and 
asked him to lead them on to battle. 

General Hunter's Division had not come in on the evening of November 
3, and while on a reconnoiter a detachment of General Asboth's Division 
that afternoon discovered a Confederate force concentrating on Wilson's 
Creek and McCulloch's army being reported at Dug's Spring, Fremont de- 



GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 325 

cided not to abandon bis cliargc. tliongli siispeiuled from office, conchiding 
to go out and engage tlie enemy in battle before bis successor should arrive. 
He accordingly gave orders for tbe army to march on the morning of the 
4th against Price and McCulloch, who were believed by that time to have 
formed a junction. This caused tbe citizens of Springfield to again ex- 
perience the greatest fears, believing that a second battle was about to be 
fought on the little stream, which would doubtless far surpass that of three 
montlis ago in carnage, the forces being. more than doubled than on the 
former occasion. Calling a conference of his leading officers. P>emont out- 
lined a plan of battle. Aslx)th was ordered to take charge of the rigiit wing. 
McKistn- the center, Sigel the left wing, and Pope the reserve. McKistr)''s 
column was to leave camp at six o'clock in the morning and proceed by the 
Fayetteville road to the upper end of the upper cornfield on the left of where 
General Lyon had made his first attack. General Sigel who was to start 
at the same time as McKistry was to follow his old route, with the excep- 
tion that he was to turn to the right about two miles sooner and proceed to 
the old stable on the lower end of the lower cnrnfield. .A half hour later 
Asboth was to start with his division and follow the Mt. Vernon road about 
five miles, then by a prairie road reach the right of a ravine opposite the 
lower field. Jim Lane with his Kansans was to join Sigel's command and 
General Wyman was to join Asboth. Pope was to begin his march at 
seven o'clock on the Fayetteville road, following McKistry's Division. The 
different divisions were to come into their positions about the same time, 
eleven o'clock, at which hour a simultaneous attack was to be made upon 
the Confederates supposed to be in camp on the Wilson Creek battle ground. 
Each regiment was to take with it tliree twn-horse wagons with which to 
transport the wounded. The baggage trains were to lie packeil and held in 
readiness at Springfield,' where one regiment and two pieces of artillery of 
Pope's Division were to remain as reserve. If these plans had been carried 
out doubtless a great battle would have been fought, for Fremont had about 
thirty thousand men, while the combined forces of Price and McCulloch 
numbered twenty-five thousand men. however the latter were not all well 
armed and equipped and many were undisciplined. Tt was Fremont's am- 
bition to crush Price and McCulloch at one blow, push on into the South- 
land to Little Rock. :\remphis. \^icksburg and New Orleans, but these am- 
bitious plans were nipped in the bud and instead of becoming one of the 
great generals of tlie war as many expected he would, little more is heard of 
him, a'nd men then unknown came forward to do the work he should have 

done. , 

In the first place Price and McCulloch's army was not at W ilson s Creek 
—only about fifteen hundred of their cavalr>-, who could have easily galloiHfd 
awav'to safetv at the approach of the formidable hosts from the Xorth. 



326 GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 

And in the second place, while Fremont was still in council with his brfgadiers 
at midnight of the 3d, General Hunter came in and Fremont turned every- 
thing over to him. With Hunter's instructions to assume command were 
instructions from the War Department to fall back to Rolla, as the Con- 
federates in southwest Missouri were only maneuvering to draw out the 
Federals and keep them employed out in these wilds in as great numbers as 
possible, while General Pillow's army should steam up the Mississippi river 
from Columbus, Kentucky, capture St. Louis, and work incalculable mischief. 
It, however, afterwards learned that there was very little truth in these suppo- 
sitions and it was only the revival of Fremont's old idea which caused him 
to hold back re-inforcements from Lyon during the previous summer. Fol- 
lowing is a copy of Fremont's address to his army upon his dismissal : 

Head(|uarters Western Department. 

Springfield. Nov. 2, 1861. 
Soldiers of the Mississippi Army — .\greeable to orders this day recei\-ed, 
I take leave of you. .Although our army has been of sudden growth, we 
have grown up together, and I ha\-e become familiar with the brave and 
generous spirits which you bring to the defense of your country, and which 
makes me anticipate for you a brilliant career. Continue as you have begun 
and give to my successor the same cordial and enthusiastic support with 
which vou have encouraged me. Emulate the splendid example which you 
have already before you and let me remain as I am — proud of the noble army 
which I have thus far labored to bring together. Soldiers. I regret to leave 
you. Most sincerely I thank you for the regard and confidence you have 
invariably shown me. I deeply regret that I shall not have the honor to lead 
you to the victory which you are just about to win; but I shall claim the 
right to share with you in the joy of every triumph and trust always to be 
remembered by my companions in arms. 

John C. Fremont, Major-General. 

Fremont left for St. Louis on the 4th by way of Jefiferson City, ac- 
companied by the Body Guard and Sharpshooters as an escort and the most 
of his stafif and soon were dismissed from service. 

General Hunter did not advance on the enemy and the plans made by 
his predecessor were immediately dropped. One of the first things the new 
commander did was to repudiate the treaty, so far as Federal authority was 
concerned, which Fremont and Price had made a week previously. His 
Jetter regarding this follows : 

Headquarters Western Department, 

Springfield Mo., Nov. 7, 1861. 

General Sterling Price, Commanding Forces at Cassville — Referring to 



GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 327 

an agreement purporting to have been made between Major-generals Fre- 
mont and Price, respectively. 1 have to state that, as general cunimanding the 
forces of the United States in this department, I can in no manner recognize 
the agreement aforesaid, or any of its provisions, whether implied or direct; 
and that I can neither issue the "joint proclamation" purporting to have l)een 
signed by yourself and Maj.-Gen. John C. Fremont on the ist day of Xovem- 
ber, A. D. 1861. 

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

D. Hunter. 
Major-General Commanding. 

General Hunter's reasons to the War Department for the repudiation of 
the treaty were that the stipulation that no arrests were to l)e made "for the 
mere entertainment or expression of political opinions," if acceded to would 
"render the enforcement of martial law in Missouri, or any part of it, im- 
possible, and would give absolute liberty to the propagandists of treason 
throughout the state." The stipulation confining operations e.xclusively "to 
armies in the field," General Hunter said, "would practically aninil the con- 
fiscation act passed during the last session of Congress and would furnish 
perfect immunity to those disbanded soldiers of Price's command who have 
now returned to their homes, but with the intention and under a pledge of 
rejoining the rebel forces whenever called upon and furthermore blot out of 
existence the loyal men of the Missouri Home Guard, who have not, it is 
alleged, been recognized bv act of Congress, and who. it would be claimed, 
are therefore not 'legitimately connected with the armies on the field." " 

The Home Guards in Greene and surrounding counties were glad that 
Hunter rejected the treaty since they believed that the aim of Fremont was to 
destroy their organization and force them to enter the regular Federal army. 

GENERAL HUNTER MARCHES AWAY. 

On November 9, General Hunter led his well-equipi>ed army of thirty 
thousand men, the best anny ever west of the Mississipjii river, toward 
RoUa. The men were from Missouri, Kansas. Iowa. Wisconsin, Ohio. Indi- 
ana and Illinois. It also seemed that Price, too, did not desire a battle, for 
two days previously he withdrew southward to the .Arkansas line. It was 
later learned that Price had asked for and was cxi>ecting re-infi>rcements 
from General Pillow and General Polk to enable him to successfully meet 
the large Federal forces in southwestern Missouri. In order to prevent this. 
General Grant attacked Pillow at Balmont where quite an engagement took 
place. The divisions of Asboth and Sigel pushed forward to Wilson's creek. 
but not for the purpose of attacking the Confederates but as a feint to cover 



328 GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 

up the retreat of the main army to Rolla. General Price was greatly aston- 
ished upon learning of the retirement of the Federals, thus ending a much- 
talked-of three months' campaign which had accomplished practically noth- 
ing. The entire southwestern portion of the state was thereby abandoned 
indefinitely to the Southern forces. This caused hundreds of Union families 
to leave Greene and other counties and follow the Union army in much dis- 
tress and disappointment, the road for many miles being filled with the 
wagons and live stock of the refugees. The great army of Fremont had come 
into the county but a few days previous with great pomp — waving of ban- 
ners, playing of bands and fanfare of bugles, the people believing that they 
could once more return to the peaceful pursuits of life; that the occupation 
by the Federals would be permanent, and now that the army was sneaking 
away without an apparent cause, the people were again at a loss to know 
what course to follow. Many of the families who went away with Hunter's 
army to find peace and protection in the regions to the northward did not re- 
turn until the war was over and some never came back. Several merchants 
of Springfield took their goods to Rolla, where they re-established them- 
selves in business. Bushwhackers watched the refugees and robbed many 
of them as they were camped along the way. The family of Thomas Green 
who lived two miles south of Springfield, was robbed after reaching Phelps 
county, but Mr. Green's two daughters followed the brigands a short distance 
and when the thieves laid their plunder down and spent the night, the Green 
girls hastened on to the main camp of refugees and, securing help, the bush- 
whackers were seized. 

Although Fremont's army did not remain long in Greene county, it left 
a rather bad reputation behind, for it seems that it contained many lawless 
characters, plunderers and thieves. Jim Lane's men carried ofT some negroes 
with them, some of whom at the time belonged to Union families. There 
was no open pillaging, but many larcenies and a few houses were burned, 
and much foraging was done. However, whenever any kind of property 
was taken by authority from Union men, vouchers were given for its full 
value and the owners ultimately reco\'ered pay in full. 

THE CONFEDERATES IN CONTROL .\G.\IN. 

It was not long after the army under General Hunter had marched out 
of Greene county until the Confederates began to take possession of the 
country again. Governor Jackson's Legislature was in session but one week, 
closing November 7, after which Price took his army into Barr_\- and Mc- 
Donald counties. It was not until the evening of the 15th that McCulloch 
learned that the Federal army had fallen back from Springfield. He was at 
that time near the Arkansas line, seventy-two miles away. The next morn- 



GREENE COUNTY, MISSOLRI. 329. 

ing he put his army in motion toward Sprinn-ficltl wliich he readied on 
the night of the i8th and at tiiat time Price's army was also marcliing back 
toward the Missouri river, i'.ut by the last of November the major portion 
of the Southern army was encamped in and about Springfield, r.vcry 
aA-ailable house was occupied for military purposes of some kind, either as 
headquarters, hospital, quartermaster or commissary depot, barracks or in 
some cases, stables ; for in not a few instances officers were quartered in the 
front rooms of abandoned houses while their horses were .stabled in the 
kitchen. An instance of this was in the home of Mrs. W^orrcll. mentioned 
previously in connection with the Zagonyi flag incident. She lived on tiic 
south side of the puljlic sc[uare where she also maintained a grocery store. 
The Worrell family retreated with Hunter's army, but not being able to take 
all their goods, Mrs. Worrell sewed up long sacks in which she placed much 
of her goods and suspended them between the weatherboarding and the 
plastering in the spacing between the studding. Although Price's troops 
occupied the front portion of the building, converting the kitchen and rear 
rooms into stalls for their horses, they failed to discover the hidden groceries, 
however, they cut a window between two studding, but it was one of the 
few between which no sacks had been suspended and the tr<x)pers never knew 
how near they were to the stores of which they were in so much need. Some 
four months later when Mrs. ^^'orrelI returned to Springfield she was glad 
to find her goods although her house was greatly upset. During this period 
much foraging was done and a levy for supplies was sometimes made on 
citizens who openly avowed themselves to be Confederate sympathizers. 
Wagon trains were even sent into adjoining counties and brought back 
all kinds of provisions, for which pay was sometimes given in Missouri 
"scrip" when the propertv taken l)clonged t<-> a good Southern man, but no 
pay was either asked or given most of the I'nion citizens, who were glad to 
give up their property if their li\es were spared. Although General Price 
had from the first a vast herd of horses, he now impressed nearly every 
available one in the county. One of his majors visited the store of J. S. 
Moss & Company, whereupon Mr. ]\Toss informed the officer that he was 
always glad to favor the Confederates. The officer assured him that lie was 
o-lad'to meet such a man and that as he happened to control a great deal of 
money he was in position to favor Mr. ^Toss. The following mornin.i; the 
major returned to the store with two large army wagons and goods from the 
store were transferred to the wagons amounting to over five thousan.l dol- 
lars the officer not seeming to be particular as to the price, and. notmg ihis. 
the merchant charged a handsome figure for most of his goo<Is. Tie was m 
hio-h spirits until the paving time came, whe.i the officer counted out the 
aggre-ate sum in Missouri scrip, xvhicli had been issued by the Legislature 
under Gov Claiborne Tackson, for the purpose of carrying on tb.- u:,r :.nd 



330 GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 

wholly dependent for value upon the success of the Confederate cause. Mr. 
Moss gently informed his purchaser that he would prefer gold, but the officer 
stated that he had no gold. The former, not to be outdone, thanked the 
officer for his patronage and told how greatly he appreciated same, but that 
he was not a selfish man and that he would like for the major to call on 
some of his fellow merchants next time and give them a chance to turn their 
stock. 

A good many Union men over the county were taken prisoners, some 
of whom had returned from following Hunter's army to take care of their 
families and their property and soon the jail at Springfield was full, but 
they were not mistreated. 

Still desiring to invade northern Missouri, General Price marched his 
army out of Springfield on November 20, taking the Bolivar and other roads 
to the northward, intending to reach the Missouri river either at Boonville 
or Lexington and later invade Kansas. \\'hile at Xeosha, Price had issued 
an address which was printed in the Missouri Ar)ity Argus, a paper which 
his own men issued with type supposed to have been taken from the Mirror 
office in Springfield. In this address which was directed to the people of 
central and north .Missouri, he called for fifty thousand more men and said: 
"We have two hundred million dollars' worth of Northern means in Mis- 
souri which cannot be removed. When we are once free this amount will 
indemnify every citizen who may have lost a dollar by adhesion to the cause 
of his country. We shall have our property or its value with interest." This 
proclamation was freely circulated all over the state. It is believed that the 
circulation of this address in Greene county made more recruits for the 
Federal army than for Price's, and the matter was long held against the 
Confederates in this state. Price's army moved northward in three divi- 
sions. Six thousand men, the right wing, under General McBride. left 
Springfield November 26. General Rains's Division, composing the left 
wing and containing five thousand men, was commanded by General Price in 
person. General McCuUoch had retired to the Arkansas valley with his 
army from which he was soon afterwards summoned to Richmond to ex- 
plain his conduct in thus abandoning Price. Price's troops, the three divi- 
sions of which had come by different routes, concentrated at Osceola early 
in December, where a large number of recruits and many thousands of 
dollars' worth of supplies were brought in from the rich counties of the 
Missouri valley, supposed to be peopled with Southern sympathizers. Mean- 
while small detachments of Confederate troops had drifted into Springfield 
from various quarters and there was a considerable force to guard the town. 

It seems that General Hunter also failed to please the government in 
his methods of handling the army in Missouri and he was relieved from 
duty as commander-in-chief of the same just five days after he was given 



GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 



331 



charge of it, being succeeded by Gen. H. \V. llalleck. Tlie latter was con- 
stantly laying great plans and telling the people what he was about to do, but 
never did anything. Pope's Division was immediately in front of Price and 
prevented many recruits from reaching the Southern army, capturing at one- 
time, in Johnson county, about one Uiousand men under the command of 
Col. Frank Robertson and were mostly from Carroll and Saline counties. 

But Halleck finally made such disposition of his forces as to cause Price 
to turn back from the Osage country to Greene county, he preceding his 
troops in person, while (jeneral Rains covered the withdrawal. Bridges 
were burned and roads obstructed in order to detain Pope and Lane, whom 
Price believed would follow him. Among the bridges destroyed was the 
long one over the Osage at Warsaw which Fremont had built two months 
previously. However, Price was not pursued and his army came on back to 
Springfield unmolested. It was now winter and his men suffered consider- 
ably on the march and in camp. The army re-occupied Springtield on Christ- 
mas day, 1861, and Greene county was once again under complete control of 
the Confederates. The first of January, 1862, found almost the entire 
county a military camp and its outposts. The operations of the ci\il law 
were entirely suspended. No new county oflncials had Ix*en clectetl to serve 
the people under the new regime and the old officers were either serving fn 
the Union army or were fugitives. Everything was done under martial law. 
The provost marshal was the supreme arbiter of controversies between 
civilians, but frequently General Price was called upon to settle difficulties. 
Property continued to be seized for the use of the army wherever it could be 
found but both sides soon became adept at hiding things and the foragers 
had a harder task than formerly, even live stock was secreted in thickets and 

hollows. 

Money was plentiful, such as it was. The forty thousand dollars seized 
bv Price and Governor Jackson when they captured Lexington and which 
belonged to the branch bank of the .state at that place, did not last long. 
together with other "forced loans," and the Xeosho Legislature authorize.l 
the issue of ten millions of dollars of "defense bonds," in sums from one 
dollar to five hundred dollars and bonds of five dollars and ui>wards to Inrar 
interest at ten per cent. This species money, called "Missouri Scrip." was 
the current coin of Greene county by the army of General Price. It was 
en<xraved and printed in New Orleans by A. Mains and the most of it was 
prhited on the back of old uncut blank bills of exchange and un.ler mutations 
of bank note paper, the engraving being on wood and Ix.th the engraving and 
printincx were of inferior quality. Each "bond" or bill was si.gned by one 
of the three commissioners appointed to issue the bonds. Henry W. Lyday. 
William Shields or Thomas H. Murray. The state seal of \ irgin.a w,th- 



332 GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 

out the motto decorated the left end and a hunter with raccoon skin cap and 
hunting- shirt, gun, dog and a lynx appeared on the right end. 

PRICE RE-ORGANIZING HIS ARMY. (. 

It was General Price's intention to spend the winter in Springfield, 
being encouraged by the promise of re-inforcements from Arkansas under 
McCulloch and Mcintosh and by the inactivity of the Union army. Since 
the capture of Lexington, Price's army had become considerably reduced, 
now numbering about fifteen thousand which was five thousand less than 
formerly. His ranks had been depleted by death, desertions, transfers and 
furloughs. When he had become comfortably settled at Springfield he began 
re-organizing his army. When the terms of enlistment of the Missouri State 
Guards expired they were induced to enter service of the regular Confederate 
states. The original term of service of the State Guards was for six months 
and most of them having enlisted the middle of the preceding summer, their 
terms expired about the first of the year. The major portion of them were 
then enlisted in the regular Confederate army for three years or until the 
close of the war. So the month of January was spent in this work. 

Captain Campbell's Greene county company promptly enlisted in the 
regular service about the middle of December, 1861, and it was one of the 
best companys in the Southern army. It was first organized in May, 1861, 
under Governor Jackson's military bill for service in the Missouri State 
Guard, the first organization being effected at the head of Clear creek, near 
Springtield. Leonidas St. Clair Campbell, who was always called Dick 
Campbell, was chosen captain ; James McSpadden, first lieutenant ; Thomas 
Weaver, second lieutenant ; Ben Hardin, third lieutenant ; John A. Blanchard, 
orderly sergeant. The company numbered one hundred and twenty-five 
men. It was not well ecjuipped for service in the field, being armed with 
double-barreled shotguns, navy revolvers and a few squirrel rifles. Soon 
after its organization the company left Greene county where the Union Home 
Guards were greatly in the majority and they disliked the idea of fighting 
neighbors, relatives and friends. In June it went into the southern part of 
Taney county on the Arkansas line where it camped about two weeks, then 
went to join General Price on the Cowskin prairie in McDonald county, and. 
joining the army of ]\lissourians marched with it to Cassville, then to Crane 
creek. Dug Sjirings and Wilson's creek. From Cassville to Wilson's creek 
the company was in the advance guard of General Rains' Division. The 
company was engaged in the fight at Dug Springs where pri\ate Fulliright 
died from sunstroke. His horse was shot from under him and he became 
overheated in running during the retreat to prevent being captured by the' 
enemy. W'. J. Frazier, another member of the company was slightly 



GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 333 

wounded. The company took a prominent part in the battle of Wilson's 
Creek, as described in an earlier portion of this chapter. With this com- 
pan)- there also fought Captain Lotspeich's company, another Greene county 
organization, in which were Stone and Taney county men. The day after- 
the battle of Wilson's Creek, Campbell's company came into Springfield as 
escort to General Price. It remained here for some time only a few of the 
members going to Lexington with the main army. When the company 
was re-organized the latter part, of 1861, James McSpadden was elected 
captain; Jack Luck, first lieutenant; Louis Brashears, second lieutenant; 
William Merritt, third lieutenant; William Perkins, orderly. During the 
first two months of 1862, the company received a number of new recruits 
and accompanied Price's army when it left the county on the approach of 
Generals Curtis and Sigel. It fought at Pea Ridge and afterwards was sent 
east of the Mississippi and joined Beauregard's army at Corinth, partici- 
pating in the battles of Corinth and luka and remained in Mississippi during 
1862. At the desperate assault on Corinth, October 4, 1862, the Greene 
county company lost just half its number in killed and wounded. Among 
the latter were Capt. McSpadden and Lieutenant Brashears. The company 
also participated in the memorable Vicksburg campaign, fighting in the vari- 
ous- engagements of the same and always giving a good account of them- 
selves and surrendered with Pemberton's army to Grant, July 4, 1863. The 
company was never again united after the fall of Vicksburg. Some of the 
members remained east of the Mississippi, others recrossed the river and 
joined Marmaduke and Shelby, takiiig part in Price's last raid in Missouri. 
A few fought under Sid Jackson and other irregular organizations. During 
the term of service of the original organization of Campbell's company, 
either as that company or belonging to another, participated in the following 
engagements : Dug Springs. Wilson's Creek, Crane Creek, Dry Wood, Lex- 
ington, Missouri; Pea Ridge, Cane Hill, Arkansas; Corinth, luka, Saltillo, 
Champion Hill (or Baker's Creek), Grand Gulf, Big Black and \'icksburg, 
Mississippi; Spring Hill, Duck River and Franklin, Tennessee; in all the 
battles fought by Gen. Joseph E. Johnston in the Georgia campaign in 1864, 
and the survivors surrendered at Mobile, Alabama, in the last battle of the 
war east of the Mississippi. The old company was frequently complimented 
for gallant conduct on the field of battle by Generals Rains, Bowen. Mc- 
Bride, Price and Joseph E. Johnston. It was loyal, brave, obedient. It 
was a very heavy loser in killed and wounded but the few of its members 
who lived to return to their homes in Greene county made as good citizens 
as they did soldiers. 

After the re-organization of Price's army the remainder of the time 
spent in Greene county was devoted to drilling the men and scouting. In 
•order to keep the troops employed, expeditions were sent out from time to 



334 GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 

time, partly to forage. The tents of the army covered all the unoccupied 
ground in and about Springfield and outposts were established at Bois D'Arc, 
Ebenezer and other points in the county and the stay of the army was un- 
eventful. Every house in Springfield was occupied by the officers as head- 
quarters or for their families, offices or hospitals. There was considerable 
sickness and many died. The court house, churches and other similar 
buildings were filled with sick and a few wounded. They were not properly 
treated, owing to lack of proper medical and surgical supplies. But assisted 
by the women of the community the doctors did as well as they could. 

END OF CONFEDERATE RULE IN GREENE COUNTY. 

Rumors were circulated in Greene county about February loth that an- 
other Federal army was on its way from Rolla to Springfield, of sufficient 
force to drive Price out of the county. The next day the Confederates began 
preparing to evacuate. It was known now that the enemy was at Marsh- 
field, in the adjoining county of Webster, with a force supposed to be twice 
the size of that of Price and was marching rapidly on Springfield, despite the 
severe winter weather. General Price, knowing that he was not properly 
equipped to defend his position against such a formidable host as was march- 
ing out from Rolla and Lebanon, decided to abandon the town and county 
to the Federals and the retreat began after as little delay as possible. As 
the Union families had followed Hunter's army the previous summer, so 
now many Confederate families prepared to follow Price's army, two of 
them being J. S. Moss and Maj. D. D. Berry, leading merchants of Spring- 
field. 

A skirmish took place on the afternoon of February 12th near the present 
site of Strafford, in Jackson township, between the advance guard of the 
Federal army, believed to have been a portion of the First Missouri Cavalry 
and some Confederates who were stationed as an outpost for observing the 
enemy. Two of Price's men, belonging to a Morgan county company, were 
killed and a half dozen were wounded. No Federals were killed but quite a 
number were wounded. The outpost fell back to Springfield. Price's army 
marched away on the Cassville road on the night of the 12th. It was bad 
marching weather and the progress of the anny was slow. However, the 
pace of the rear guard was accelerated by the knowledge that Gen. Franz 
Sigel was for the third time leading an army into southwest Missouri and 
also that on either flank of the Confederates detachments were near for the 
purpose of closing in from both sides at an opportune time, and so it hap- 
pened that the stars and bars went out of the county to never again wave in 
triumph over it. The Blanchard family, living in the western part of the 
county, was among the refugees following the retreating army. The Federal 



GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 335 

advance overtook the wagon in which were Mr. Blanchard and his son, 
John A. Blanchard, who had been orderly sergeant of Campbell's company. 
The elder Blanchard was taken from the wagon and shot. Many families 
did not follow the army, but went due south into Arkansas. 

The Federal army had as its commander-in-chief Maj.-Gen. Samuel R. 
Curtis, of Iowa, whose promotion had been rapid for only eight months 
previously he had entered the Union service as colonel of the Second Iowa 
Infantry, resigning his seat in Congress to take the field. His army was 
now composed mainly of the divisions of Generals Sigel, Asboth, E. A. Carr 
and J. C. Davis. Carr had fought at Wilson's Creek as a captain of a small 
detachment of cavalry under Sigel. He gave a good account of himself 
and now was back in the county a brigadier-general at the head of several 
thousand men. As a member of his staff came Lieut. John E. Phelps, son 
of Colonel Phelps and afterward a colonel and brevet brigadier. Both 
Phelps' regiment and Boyd's regiment, the Twenty-fourth Missouri Infantrj', 
both having enlisted from Greene county, were with the advancing army, 
and they were gladly received by their families, relatives and Union neigh- 
bors. There also came with Curtis' army a large number of refugees, 
families who had left with Hunter who were now returning to their homes, 
having been given positive assurance that the army was returning to south- 
western Missouri to stay. Among the number were several Springfield 
merchants. 

It was found that the Confederates had greatly abused the property of 
Union families during their stay in the county, even the houses of Con- 
federate sympathizers had suffered in many instances. The amount of filth 
that had everywhere accumulated would have made the town untenable in 
summer weather, even huge piles of rubbish and trash were heaped on the 
public square. A few buildings had been burned but perhaps not inten- 
tionally. It took the new army of occupation only a week or two to clean 
the town up. Buildings were repaired and stores opened, filled with goods 
which the citizens were in great need of. Prisoners and some details were 
set to work cleaning up the public square and "police" up the town generally, 
and the town began to wear her former appearance. This work was done 
under the direction of Lieutenant-colonel Mills of the "Lyon Legion," as 
Colonel Boyd's regiment was called. Among the stores to re-open was that 
of Mrs. Worrell. There was yet enough money among the citizens to pur- 
chase what they needed, since the Federal officers had pay in greenbacks for 
supplies taken over the county. There was a movement to re-open the 
schools and on March 2d, the first religious services were held in Springfield in 
1862, when Rev. A. H. Powell preached in the Presbyterian church. About 
the same date the telegraph line was completed from St. Louis to Spring- 
field, by way of Lebanon and Marshfield, the line being built by the govern- 



336 GREENE COUNTY^ MISSOURI. 

ment, primarily for the use of the army, and extended along what afterwards 
became known as the "wire road.'' Not long afterwards the line was ex- 
tended to Cass\ille and down to Curtis" army. The postofiice re-opened and 
mail began to be regularly received. Flouring mills re-opened and paid two 
dollars per bushel for the wheat that escaped the foragers during the six 
months previous. Even new lines of business were established and a new 
paper was issued, called the Springfield Missouriaji, the first number of which 
contained practically nothing but war news. A new hostelry, the Union 
Hotel, was opened on the north side of the public square. But as with all 
large armies, there was a reckless element with Curtis' forces and they 
burned a number of houses which had been occupied by the Confederates. 
One of the buildings destroyed perhaps carelessly, was that which was used 
by Cicneral Lyon as headquarters and in which his body lay after it was 
brought from the fatal field. This house was owned by Colonel Phelps and 
stood near College and Main streets. 

ORG.\NIZING THE MISSOURI STATE MILITI.\. 

The War Department at Washington, early in December, 1861, author- 
ized Gov. Hamilton R. Gamble, the office of Claiborne F. Jackson having been 
vacated by ordinance, to organize the Missouri State Militia, the members of 
which, when engaged in active service, were to be armed, clothed, subsisted, 
transported and paid by the United States and to co-operate with the United 
States forces in the repression of invasion into Missouri and the suppression 
of rebellion therein. The militia was not to be ordered out of the state 
of J\Iissouri, "except for the immediate defense of said state." 

No steps were taken toward organizing a regiment of state militia in 
Greene county until March 3, 1862, when a mass meeting of Union citizens 
was held in Springfield, which was addressed by Col. Marcus Boyd and 
others and many recruits were oVjtained. However, John M. Richardson, 
formerly secretary of state of Missouri and a prominent politician in south- 
west Missouri, had been commissioned captain of the state militia and since the. 
first of the year had been recruiting in this part of the state. Later he was 
commissioned colonel of the Fourteenth Regiment of Militia Cavalry, and 
his company was then commanded b\- Capt. Abraham Worley. To the same 
regiment was attached two other companies composed largely of Greene 
county men — Company D, under Capt. S. A. Flagg; and Company E., under 
Capt. Stephen H. Julian. Cummissions were given Flagg and Julian about 
the first of April. 



GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 337 

GREENE COUNTY MEN AT PEA RIDGE. 

The results of the battle of Pea Ridge or as the Confederates usually 
called it Elkhorn Tavern, had a direct effect on the people of Greene county, 
for if General Curtis had been defeated there and forced to abandon south- 
west j\Iissouri, the Confederates would have again occupied this territory 
indefinitely and there would have been another change among the people 
of Greene county, in fact, the destiny of the county throughout the rest of 
the Civil war hinged on those two days of fierce fighting, March 6 and 7, 
1862. With Curtis' army which pushed on into Arkansas from Springfield 
were a large number of officers and men from Greene county, in Companies 
A, B, F, H, I and K of Colonel Boyd's regiment under Maj. Eli Weston, 
and Phelps' regiment under Colonel Phelps himself. Many from this county 
were also in the Confederate army in various organizations, the best known 
being Capt. Dick Campbell's company. Among the casualties of the Greene 
county men of Phelps' regiment at the battle of Pea Ridge were the fol- 
lowing : 

Company D — Capt. John W. Lisenby, wounded by rifie ball in left 
shoulder,. buckshot in left hip and minie ball through each leg; First Lieut. 
Robert P. Matthews, wounded through upper part of right breast by minie 
ball; Second Lieut. Charles C. Moss, right hip injured by piece of shell; 
First Sergt. Jacob Winger, right eye destroyed by buckshot ; Second Sergt. 
W. ^V. Langston, wounded in hand; Corporal James H. Cochran, musket 
ball through the right foot ; private Blanton Cargile, by minie ball in the left 
hand; James M. Logan, musket ball in the left leg; Wesley R. Logan lost 
left arm by grapeshot; William M. Patterson, musket ball in abdomen; 
Theophilus C. Piper, musket ball in right thigh ; John S. Steele, musket ball 
in right leg; Young White, rifle ball in left arm. 

Company H, Phelps' Regiment — Capt. George B. McElhannon, gunshot 
wound in shoulder, from which he died in Springfield three weeks later, 
March 29 ; First Lieut. John A. Lee, in hip ; First Sergt. Albert Demuth, in 
the right knee. 

Company A, Boyd's Regiment — Rosea G. Mullings, wounded; Daniel 
C. Putnam and W^illiam D. Popjoy captured. 

A newspaper correspondent had the following to say regarding the 
part taken in the battle by Boyd's regiment, the Twenty-fourth Missouri 
Infantry : 

On the morning of the 7th instant there were present at Sugar Creek, 
Companies A, B, F, H, I and K under command of Maj. Eli Weston. 
The^• were stationed some two miles north of the main command, at the 
(22) 



338 GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 

Elkhorn Ta\-ei"n. acting as provost guards, when it was discovered that Price 
had thrown his force, estimated at twenty thousand men, between our army 
and Missouri. This discovery was not made until the enemy was driven 
within a very short distance of us. But so wise and judicious were the dispo- 
sitions made of his command by ^lajor \\^eston, that for an hour or more, 
Price's whole force were kept at bay until re-inforcements came up. All 
day Friday, from daylight until dark were these brave men on the field and 
in the thickest of the fight. They occupied a position on the left of Colonel 
Carr's Division, and although the point on which they were stationed was 
one of the most important for strategic movements and every efifort was 
made to dislodge them, yet for nine hours did they stand their ground under 
the nnirderous fires of the multitudes opposing them, and it was only when 
the iirder ti_) fall back was repeated time and again, that they would heed it. 
When they did retire, they did so contesting every foot of the ground and 
was the first regiment in line to meet the oncoming enemy. Too much praise 
cannot be bestowed upon Atajor \\'eston, the other officers and the men for 
the truly brave and soldierly manner in which they acquitted themselves on- 
that memorable day. Another remark in regard to the regiment. It is their 
proud boast, that, notwithstanding many of them have been robbed by the- 
rebels of their all, yet not a man in the regiment has ever taken a single article 
without paying for it. To this, friend and foe will testify. You cannot find, 
I venture to say, a single pack of cards in the regiment. They all know and 
fully appreciate what they are fighting for and all remember that when this 
war is done that they are again to be members of society. They intend 
coming out of this conflict and return to their homes and families as free 
from vice as when they pledged themselves to their country. 

Colonel Phelps' wife, Mary Phelps, was one of the Florence Nightin- 
gales on the field of Pea Ridge after the fight, and rendered much valuable 
service to the -wounded, doubtless many a life being saved by her ability and 
devotion. Not all the Federal soldiers from Greene county participated 
in this battle, among this number being Company D, which was left at 
Springfield: it was then commanded by Captain \"aughan, later by Col. Baker 
Owen. All or nearly all the Confederates from Greene county were in the 
battle of Pea Ridge and many of them were killed or wounded, but no record 
was kept of them, at least so far as is now known. 

Confidence was restored an-iong the people of Greene county to such 
an e.xtent that the farmers began preparations for putting out vast crops in 
the spring of 1862. They knew that Springfield was to be the base of sup- 
plies for the Federal army in this part of the country and they did not fear 
a return of Price and his hordes, who had retreated far into the interior of 
Arkansas, and Curtis had been heaA-ily re-inforced. About one thousand 
cavalry and an equal number of infantry were already in Springfield and 



GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 339 

many more troops were known to be on their way to join them here, and 
huge piles of mihtary stores were being laid up. The farmers reasoned that 
all this force would need all kinds of supplies, for which the Union quarter- 
masters were always willing to pay good prices to Union owners. 

Southern soldiers under John T. Coffee and others had been harassing 
the people of Cedar county, and in order to escape many families were coming 
to Springfield for protection. Sigel's old regiment, the Third Missouri, 
which had fought at Wilson's Creek, arrived at Springfield, March 25th, six 
hundred strong. Among the arrivals here during March were the wounded 
from Pea Ridge who came in daily. 

COURTS AGAIN IN SESSION. 

Public matters in ^lissouri had been in a bad way since the breaking up 
of the state government in the spring and summer of 1861. Gov. Claiborne 
Jackson, Lieutenant-Governor Reynolds, secretary of state Massey and other 
officers were fugitives from the state capital, having taken up arms against 
the Federal government. Upon the reassembling of the state convention, 
July 22(1, th'at body ^•acated the places of the state officers named and ap- 
pointed in their stead, Hamilton R. Gamble, of St. Louis, governor; Willard 
P. Hall, of Buchanan county, lieutenant go\'ernor; and Mordecai Oliver, of 
Greene county, secretary of state. Mr. Oliver was well and favorably 
known in this county although he had not long resided here. Judge Patrick 
H, Edwards, circuit judge of this district, had also joined the Confederacy 
and so his post was also vacant, as was also that of prosecuting attorney. 
In the absence of officials the people felt no restraint in doing the things they 
considered right in their own sight, and, as in the early days of the Far 
West, individuals settled their own controversies, sometimes with the six- 
shooter. The Gamble government appointed Littleberry Hendricks to the 
vacancy of the circuit court bench and H. J. Lindenbower prosecuting at- 
torney for this judicial court, then known as the Fourteenth. Both these 
gentlemen w'ere from Greene count}-. They proposed to re-open the courts 
if they had to be guarded by soldiers in doing so. Not only was justice dis- 
pensed in the circuit court but county court and justice courts in each town- 
ship began work. 

On April loth and 12th the greater portion of Phelps" regiment, which 
had Ijeen enlisted for six months, was mustered out at Springfield, their 
term of service having expired. During its term of service the regiment 
had one officer, Capt. G. T. Potter, and seven men killed in action outright 
and nine mortallv wounded ; three officers and eighty-two men died of disease; 
one man was discharged for disability : eight men deserted and thirty officers 
and six hundrd and fortv-five men were honorably discharged. On the 



340 GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 

night of April 6tli, a horse was stolen from a member of one of the cavalry 
companies stationed at Springfield. He was pursued and overtaken at the 
bridge on the James river south of town and, refusing to halt, was killed. 
It is supposed that he was on his way to the Confederate army in Arkansas. 
During the months of March and April, Confederate prisoners were brought 
into Springfield from this and surrounding counties, in some localities there 
being great disorder. Marauding bands, belonging to the regular Con- 
federate service or fighting as guerrillas, infested many localities and were 
plundering and sometimes murdering, the Union citizens. Col. Clark 
Wright of the Sixth Missouri Cavalry, set out from Cassville, where two 
thousand Federal troops were then stationed, the first week in April, making 
an extensive scouting expedition and bringing a number of prisoners into 
Springfield. About two weeks later two or three companies of Captain 
Richardson's regiment, the Fourteenth Missouri State Militia, had completed 
their organization and went to Jefferson City and Linn Creek for their arms, 
after being mustered in. A private in Company A of this regiment was 
killed May 22d by bushwhackers near Sarcoxie. As a rule the troops in 
Springfield were now comparatively orderly but some drunkenness and 
rowdyism were noticeable from time to time. On the evening of May 21st, 
Capt. John R. Clark of Company B, of Col. Powell Clayton's Fifth Kansas 
Ca\alry. in company with A. J. Rice, a private, were intoxicated and called 
at the home of a Mrs. Willis, a widow, and demanded supper, which Mrs. 
Willis declined preparing for them. This refusal enraged the captain and 
his companion and they drew their revolvers on the guards that had been 
stationed to protect the family and attempted to force their way into the 
house. One of the guards shot the captain through the body, when he re- 
treated a few steps and fell dead. At the same time Rice fired at the guard 
who had shot Clark, but missed his aim and the bullet struck Mary Willis, 
daughter of the lady of the house, killing her instantly. The other guard 
then fired at Rice, mortally wounding him. Mrs. Willis was a Union refugee 
who had come to Springfield the latter part of the winter from Taney county. 
Before leaving there, two of her sons, Unionists, had been killed by bush- 
whackers. Captain Clark was a native of Ohio but had lived in Missouri 
many years and was prominent. When but seventeen years old he had served 
in the Mexican war under General Price. Afterwards he was orderly ser- 
geant of Company B. Major Gilpin's Indian Battalion and was in the fight at 
Walnut Creek. After the Mexican war he married a niece of the famous 
scout. Kit Carson, and settled in Mercer county, this state, where he was 
twice sherifif and once a representative to the Legislature. He fought at 
Dry Wood Creek after joining the Union army. He had numerous relatives 
in Greene countv. 



GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 34I 



GENERAL MILITARY HOSPITAL. 



A general military hospital was established in Springfield soon after 
Curtis' army occupied the city. A great many of the Federal wounded were 
brought from Pea Ridge here for treatment, and from time to time the 
wounded and sick from other sections were brought here. In the latter 
part of November the number of sick was thirteen hundred and deaths were 
occurring at the rate of four per day. A great majority of those wounded 
in the fight at Prairie Grove were ultimately brought here. 

As late as July, 1862, negro slaves were recognized as such by both 
the civil and Federal military authorities of Greene county, although there 
were many advocates of emancipation in the county at that time. The law 
on the statute books at the time against runaway negroes was rigidly en- 
forced. A number of runaway slaves came to Springfield from time to 
time; others were brought here by soldiers and abandoned when they 
marched on into Arkansas. 

The election in Greene county November 4, 1862, was a fair and free 
one, and was conducted without intimidation on the part of the soldiery, 
who protected but did not attempt to control the ballot-box. The emancipa- 
tion issue was one of the principal questions in this election; some favored 
the general emancipation of slaves, while others voted to compensate loyal 
owners of slaves. The latter were somewhat in the majority. Everybody 
allowed to vote was for the Union, how-ever. No one was permitted to cast 
a ballot without taking an oath to support the United States government and 
the provisional state government against all enemies, domestic or foreign. 
But the Union men were about equally divided on the emancipation ques- 
tion, some opposing, some favoring. At this election, the soldiers whose 
homes were in Greene county, and who were otherwise eligible, were allowed 
to vote; however, each military troop had a ballot-box of its own. ^lany 
of the Greene county soldiers, being at the time away in the south, did not 
vote. The result of the Congressional district was the election of Col. S. 
H. Boyd, of "Lyon's Legion" or the Twenty-fourth Missouri Infantry, over 
Col. John S. Phelps, who was a candidate for re-election, and also of Phelps' 
Regiment, and afterwards colonel of the Seventy-second Enrolled Missouri 
Militia. J. W. Mack defeated Col. Marcus Boyd for state treasurer. 

The Fourteenth Cavalry, Missouri State Militia, was in General Her- 
ron's Division at the battle of Prairie Grove, Arkansas, December 6, 1862. 
Captain Julian's company, composed of Greene county men, formed a part 
of that regiment and it was a Greene county man who fired the first shot on 
the Federal side in that division. This company of about one hundred men, 
united with twenty-five men of the First Arkansas Federal Cavalry and one 



34- GREENE COUNTY. MISSOURI. 

hundred and se\'enty-fi\-e men of Judson's Sixth Kansas, and performed 
valuable service by holding a road, thus preventing General Hindman from 
throwing his entire force of Confederates upon General Herron and crush- 
ing him before General Blunt could bring up his forces and co-operate. The 
stubborn light by the Greene county men and their allies delayed the Con- 
federates two hours, although the latter were much superior in number. 

Forty men of the Fourteenth Missouri State Militia, under Lieut. John 
R. Kelso, sixty enrolled militia under Captains Green and Sake, all under 
'the command of Capt. Milton Birch of the Fourteenth IMissouri State Militia, 
raided the Confederate saltpeter works on White river, near Yellville, 
Arkansas, on December 14th, and took Capts. P. S. McNamara and Jesse 
Mooney and thirty-six men prisoners ; destroyed thirty-five stands of arms ; a 
complete supply of provisions for fifty men three months; burnt four build- 
ings and destroyed machinery, kettles, manufactured saltpeter and other prop- 
erty to the value of thirty thousand dollars and brought their thirty-eight 
prisoners to Springfield without the loss of a man. A number of other 
similar scouts were made about this time from Springfield into various parts 
of northern Arkansas and in several counties of soutliwest jMissouri after 
guerrillas, recruiting companies and other hostile organizations. Foraging 
went on all the while and not all the material brought back to camp was paid 
for bv any means. 

SPRINGFIELD IS FORTIFIED. 

Heavy fortifications were constructed at Springfield by the Federal 
forces during the vear 1862, for the purpose of better defending the town 
and to protect the large stores of government property here. Four large 
forts were built. Fort No. i or Fort Brown was situated a little northwest 
of town aljout a mile and a quarter from the public square and it remained 
there manv vears ; Fort No. 2 was at the west end of \\'alnut street and its 
location also could be pointed out with accuracy for several decades after 
the war ; Fort No. 3 was near the residence of Judge Hendricks, in the south- 
west part of town, but it was never fully completed. Fort No. 4 was on 
South street, where the present Christian churcli stands, commanded the 
approaches to the town from the south and was the fort which General 
Marmaduke attacked the following year. Rifle pits connected Forts No. 2 
and No. 4. A covered way led from No. i to the Fulbright spring. Fort 
No. 5 was in the east part of town on the north side of the St. Louis road 
and overlooking the Berry spring. These forts were built by details from 
the various military commands, by prisoners, by impressed citizens and 
negroes, but principally by details from the LTnion soldiers. These forts 
were pretentious and effective and not hastily and carelessly built. They 
were well supplied \\ith artillery, and some heavy siege guns were mounted 



GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 343 

•on l^'ort No. i. They had been brought from St. Louis and had well filled 
magazines, quarters, and was one of the best fortifications west of the 
Mississippi river. The forts were not built by amateurs but by skilled engi- 
Jieers who carefully planned them. Springfield's defenses were constructed 
under the supervision of Col. M. LaRue Harrison, who later became the 
commanding officer of the First Arkansas Cavalry. He was a splendid civil 
engineer and a man of foresight and indomitable energy. The Federal 
commanders did not always keep Springfield well protected, although it 
behooved them to do so, for here was the base of supplies for the large 
Federal army of the Southwest, containing the general hospital, the com- 
missary's, the cjuartermaster's, and ordnance departments, etc. Few people 
■-of this generation realize how important Springfield was during the Civil 
war; how the eyes of the entire country were centered here from time to 
time; we forget that several million dollars' worth of army supplies passed 
in and out of the town, then quite small compared to, its present area of four 
miles square, and we forget that many noted and able generals and officers 
in both armies maintained headquarters here and that over one hundred thou- 
sand soldiers marched in and out on her streets ; in short, Springfield, a quiet, 
peaceable city, noted for its schools, churches and civic pride, bearing none 
of war's scars to the stranger's eye, was for a number of years the storm 
■center of the West and a vast military camp of "resounding arms." 

Gov. H. R. Gamble ordered Brig.-Gen. John M. Schofield, in command 
of the Missouri State Militia, on July 22, 1862, to organize the entire militia 
of the state into companies, regiments and brigades, and order such portions 
of the forces into active service as he deemed necessary for the purpose of 
putting down all marauders and defending the peaceable citizens of the 
state. This order was issued in the hopes that the numerous bands of 
guerrillas over the state might be put down, and to oppose the numerous or- 
ganizations of Confederates that were constantly springing up. [Three, days 
later General Schofield began his work of organizing the militia. He directed 
the militia to assemble at any post with whatever arms they had, and a good 
horse each, if they had one, elect officers, and be sworn into service, which 
was to continue indefinitely, or as long as the commanding officer of the 
district might direct, and while in service were to be paid as volunteers. A 
great many "schemes" were resorted to by the able-bodied men in different 
coimties to keep out of the militia or any other kind of military .service. 
But the Enrolled Missouri :\Iilitia when finally organized did a great deal 
-of valuable service, especially in Greene county, in which two regiments, the 
Seventy-second and Seventy-fourth, were almost w'holly recruited, organiza- 
tion beginning at Springfield, August ist. C. B. Holland was the first colonel 
■of the former, followed by Henry Sheppard, F. S. Jones and John S. Phelps. 
Marcus Bovd was the first and only colonel of the Seventy-fourth. There 



344 GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 

were five hundred and two Greene county men in the Seventy-second, which 
when fully organized, numbered thirty-eight commissioned officers and one 
thousand and forty-two enlisted men, a total of one thousand and eighty. 
The Seventy-fourth regiment contained two hundred and seventy-eight 
Greene county men, and contained in all thirty-eight officers and nine hun- 
dred and sixty-six men, or a total of one thousand and four men. Besides 
the colonels the other officers of these regiments were as follows : The 
Seventy-second — Lieutenant-colonels, John F. McMahan, F. S. Jones ; majors, 
John Hornbeck, R. K. Hart, John Hursh; adjutants, J. W. Mack, John D. 
Waddill, James F. Harchin : quartermasters, \\'illiam P. Davis, Samuel 
Turner, JNIartin J. Hubble : surgeon, Peter Barnes. Company A — Second 
lieutenants, Nathaniel Sink, D. J. McCroskey. Company B — Captains, R. 
K. Hart, William F. McCullagh : first lieutenants, Stephen L. ^^'iles, S. 
Pears. Company D — Captain, J. E. Smith: first lieutenant, G. S. Patterson; 
second lieutenants, S. B. Ranney, T. J. Kershner. Company E — Captain, 
G. A. Dillard; first lieutenants, William F. Lane, Andrew J. Potter; second 
lieutenant, Robert Love. Company F — Captain, George T. Beal; first lieu- 
tenant, Bryant Windfield ; second lieutenant, Joseph Windfield. Company 
G — Captain S. W. Headlee ; first lieutenant, Alexander Evans. Comjjanv I — 
Captains, F. S. Jones, John B. Perkins ; first lieutenant, John L. Holland ; 
second lieutenant, James K. Gilmore. Seventy-fourth Regiment — Lieuten- 
ant-colonel, John S. Coleman ; majors, J. F. ]McJ\Iahan, John Small ; adju- 
ants, Fenton Young, Jr., John R. Cox, Alfred G. Lee; quartermaster, James 
L. Rush; surgeon, F. Young, Jr.; assistant surgeon, John Hunt. Company 
A — Captain, J. M. Redferan ; first lieutenant, John McDaniel ; second lieu- 
tenant, E. Philips. Company C — Captain, Green B. Phillips ; first lieutenant, 
Isaac P. Julian ; second lieutenant, James C. Robertson. Company H — Cap- 
tains, John Small, Robert M. Hayter : first lieutenants, Lazarus H. Phillips, 
Robert M. Hayter, S. A. Harshburger: second lieutenants, M. W. Ackerson,^ 
Preston Gilmore. Company L — Captain, Jackson Ball ; lieutenants, Isham 
W. Haught, David IVIcCroskey. 

The Greene county court house had been in the almost continuous 
service of the military since General Curtis' army took possession of the town 
back in February, and on July 6th Col. John M. Richardson was appointed 
pi€ county's agent to prosecute a claim against the Ignited States for rent 
and damages of the court house and to obtain possession of the building for 
the use of the county authorities. 

THE B.'\.TTLE OF SPRINGFIELD. 

^^'hen the year 1863 dawned on Greene county it found a quiet and as- 
sured people. The Federals had so long occupied Springfield and dominated 



GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 345 

the entire county and were so well fortified that they felt no apprehension 
for the immediate future. No Confederates had so much as threatened to 
molest them. But before the first week of the new year had passed the citi- 
zens were again alarmed as a result of rumors of an advancing" host under 
the stars and bars from the Arkansas line. In the northwestern corner of 
that state was encamped the Federal "Army of the Frontier," under Generals 
Schofield, Herron and Blunt. .Springfield was the great military depot for 
this vast army, but there were comparatively few soldiers defending these 
valuable stores in Springfield, ncarl}- all the available troops having been 
sent to the front, the garrison here being composed only of a detachment of 
eight companies of the Eighteenth Iowa Infantry, under Lieutenant-Colonel 
Cook, and temporarily located here were ten companies, numbering five 
hundred men of the Third Missouri State Militia, under Col. \A'alter King. 
iXhe hospitals contained about tweh'e hundred sick and wounded, in charge 
of Surgeon .S. H. Melcher ; and about three hundred f urloughed men and 
convalescents in camp in the north part of town awaiting their pay and 
transportation. At Ozark and other points nearby were detachments of 
Missouri State Militia which might Ije called in if given a few hours' notice. 
The two regiments of Enrolled Militia, under Colonels Boyd and Sheppard. 
were scattered about at their homes in Greene and surrounding counties. 
Gen. Egbert B. Brown, of the Enrolled Missouri Militia, was in command 
of the district of Southwest Missouri, and under him was Col. Benjamin 
Crabb, of the Nineteenth Iowa Infantry, who was in command of the post. 

Gen. John S. Marmaduke, commanding a Confederate army at Louis- 

bure and Pocahontas, Arkansas, learned of the valuable militarv stores at 
Springfield and of its weak garrison : in fact, the exact conditions here were 
laid before him by efficient spies. He believed that if a sudden concentra- 
tion of forces could be effected and a swift march made. Springfield could 
be captured, the base of General Schofield's supplies would be broken, Gen- 
eral Blunt would be forced to let go his hold on the Arkansas river, and 
both himself and Herron would be compelled to abandon northwestern Ar- 
kansas and fall Iiack under disadvantages: heavy re-inforcements would have 
to be sent to this f|uarter, and it wmild take months of time and millions of 
dollars to repair the damagejnflicted by this raid, if successful. However, 
General Marmaduke states in his oflicial report that the object of his expedi- 
tion into Missouri in January, 1863, was not primarily to capture Spring- 
field, but that the purpose of the invasion was the harassing generally of 
the rear of the Federal army of the frontier, and to cause General Blunt's 
wing of that army to let go its hold on the Arkansas river and release a 
large portion of valuable territory to the Confederates; that an attempt at 
the capture of Springfield was not determined upon until after the expedi- 
tion'had crossed White river, and upon receipt of a knowledge of its cnndi- 



34t) GREENE COUNTY. MISSOURI. 

tiou fruni scouts and others, and that thus the attack on tlie place came up 
incidentally, or in secondary order. In so far as causing General Blunt to fall 
back from the Arkansas and efi'ecting the prime object of his expedition, 
General Marmaduke claims it was a success, as General Blunt did fall back. 
]\Iarmaduke divided his little army into two columns. One, under Col. 
Joseph C. Porter, was to move from Pocahontas. Arkansas, and, coming by 
way of Hartville and Marshfield. was to be in the neighborhood of Spring- 
field on the east by the evening of January loth. Porter's forces consisted 
of the cavalry regiments of Colton Green and Burbridge and a battalion or 
two besides, eight hundred men in all. The main column, under the im- 
mediate command of Marmaduke himself, consisted of Col. Joe Shelbv's 
brigade, composed of Shelby's old regiment, then led by I.icutenant-Colonel 
Gordon, of Lafayette county; CoL Gideon Thompson's regiment. Colonel 
Jeans' regiment. Col. Ben Elliott's battalion. Col. Emmett McDonald's bat- 
talion, and Capt. R. A. Collins '/ battery of two pieces, the entire brigade 
numbering not far from two thousand men. Shelb}^'s brigade, one of the 
finest force of soldiers ^lissouri e\-er sent out. numbered eighteen hundred 
men. and ^McDonald's command nuinl.iered two hundred men. All the forces, 
including Porter's, were mounted. Shelby's brigade was to leave Louis- 
burg. Arkansas, come north into Taney county, .Missouri, surprise and at- 
tack the Eederal forces at Forsyth and Ozark, inish them out of the way 
and join Porter's command south of Springfield on Januar\- loth. 

SC ifTS WAI'IN GENER.\L BROWN. 

A scouting party, composed of detachments of the Fourteenth Mis- 
souri State Alilitia and of the Seventy-second Enrolled [Missouri 3.1ilitia, all 
under command of Capt. Milton P'urch, of the Fourteenth Missouri State 
[Militia, returned hastily to Springfield on the exening of January 7th and 
reported to General Brown that a force of Confederates, perhaps si.x thou- 
sand in number, was fast marching on Springfield from Lawrence Mill, 
Tane_\- count} . and from Dubu(|ue, Arkansas. General Brown immediately 
sent out swift messengers who called up the Enrolled ?^lilitia under Colonel 
Johnston — the Twenty-sixth regiment, Colonel Sheppard's Seventy-second 
regiment, and Col. Marcus Boyd's Seventy-fourth regiment, ordering them 
to concentrate immediately at Springfield. Word was also sent to detached 
companies in Dade. Lawrence. Welister counties, and to Cassville and Mt. 
\'ernon. Springfield was at once a scene of feverish activity, and everv pos- 
sible preparation was made. Every soldier that could use a weapon was 
called out, and all of the citizens belonging to the militia were mustered. 
Even the sick and wounded soldiers who were able to leax'e their l.ietls were 
organized into companies by Surgeon Melcher. who distributed nniskets to 



GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 347 

them. They formed what was later frequently called the "Quinine Brigade," 
service. Capt. C. B. McAfee, of the Third Missouri State Militia, and others 
organized the transient soldiers. At this time Fort No. 4, on South street, 
but although far from being "able-bodied" they did efficient and heroic 
was without artillery. Early in the evening Surgeon ]\Ielcher, in charge of 
the post hospital, and Col. B. O. Carr, chief quartermaster of the Army of 
the Frontier, called on General Brow^n and from him first learned of the 
danger. General Brown, after some solicitation, consented that these men 
should assist in the defense. ]3octor Melcher suggested the importance of 
supplying artillery to Fort Xo. 4. and when General Brown said that he had 
n.one available, the doctor replied : "There are three old iron guns, two 
twelve-pounders and a six pounder, lying on the ground down by the Pres- 
byterian church ; they can be rigged up and shot off once apiece anyway, and 
that will help scare, if nothing more.'' The general finally told him to go 
ahead and get them in position. Soon afterwards Doctor Melcher went 
through the hospital and found Lieut. Joseph Hoffman, of Backoff's battery, 
First Missouri Artillery, and also a sergeant and seven privates of the same 
regiment. The nine artillerymen readily volunteered to take charge of the 
guns and serve them as best they could under the circumstances. Colonel 
Carr secured the front wheels of three army wagons for gun-carriages. 
The cannons were fastened to the axles with chains, while carpenters made 
trail-pieces, blocks and wedges as substitutes for elevating screws, and in a 
few hours the guns were well mounted and in position, supplied with am- 
munition and manned by the boys from the First Missouri and some other 
volunteers. Sergt. Christian Mhidener, of Battery L, First Missouri .\rtil- 
ler}', had charge of one of the guns. Fort No. i was occupied by a con- 
siderable detachment of the Eighteenth Iowa Infantry ; another detachment 
was in Fort No. 2. The detachments of the Third, Fourth and Fourteenth 
Missouri State Militia were stationed west, east and south of town watching 
the roads. General Brown did not have enough troops to make a successful 
defense, and the east part of town along and on both sides of St. Louis 
street, was almost wholly unprotected. It was believed that the Confed- 
erates knew the situation perfectly, that they would swoo)) down from the 
eastward and gain the center of the city in a few minutes in the first charge, 
so there was considerable excitement and apprehension on the part of Ijnth 
citizens and soldiers. It is said that General Brown first wanted to retreat, 
but in later years he denied that he or anyone else, so far as he knew, desired 
to retreat, especially after the Confederates had arrived. Other officers, 
among whom were Colonels Sheppard and Boyd, thought it might lie neces- 
sary to surrender the town, but they did not wish to do so without first 
making a fight. Colonel Crabb and Lieutenant-Colonel -Cook declared that 
if it came to the worst all should repair to Fort No. i and behind its strong 



34^ GREEJsE COUXTY,, MISSOURI. 

walls keep up the light until re-intorcenients came. ]t is no doubt true that 
General Brown, who was never regarded as a very efficient and courageous 
officer, was on this occasion especially tlustrateil and irresolute, and was in a 
verv perturbed state of mind throughout the night, declaring one minute 
that he would retreat, and the next that he would hght. Colonels Sheppard 
and Bo\-d. whose homes were here, were determined not to retreat or yield 
without first having tried in vain to stem the onrush of the dashing Marma- 
duke and Shelby. In the meantime Surgeon Alelcher had made the rounds 
of the hospitals, calling for volunteers, and about three hundred men were 
obtained, and they were organized into companies of fifty each and placed 
under the command of nurses and stewards and disabled commissioned 
officers. Then they were marched to the arsenal and furnished with arms 
and ammunition. Doctor Melcher set his cooks preparing provisions, and 
each of the convalescents was supplied with food in their haversacks, their 
various medicines, and sent out to the skirmish line. Gen. E. B. Brown was 
very skeptical of the services of these men, but after the war he made the 
following statement, in part, regarding the character and importance of 
Doctor Melcher and his "Quinine Brigade:" 

During the attack of General Marmaduke, Doctor Melcher organized 
the convalescents under his control into military companies, who, acting 
under his direction, did very efficient duty in the battle and greatly assisted 
in the defense of the post, and thereby saved several millions of dollars to 
the government of the United States in military stores deposited at Spring- 
field for the use of the Army of the Frontier, then in northwest Arkansas. 
I have always been and am still of the opinion that, as my command was 
composed entirely of irregular troops and militia, without the aid and as- 
sistance of Doctor Melcher, I could not have defended the post. 

All through the night and in the early morning hours the enrolled 
militia kept coming in, many of them, who came from Taney county con- 
firmed the report of the approach of the Confederates. The wild rumors 
still flew and the citizens of Springfield, especially the Union families, were 
thrown almost into a panic, for they were led to believe that the town would 
be captured by the enemy and that those who were Union sympathizers 
would be severelv dealt with, and their property seized. On the other hand 
the Southern families were much pleased at the prospect of a return of the 
army that would bring back many Greene county men who were serving 
mider the stars and bars. It will be remembered that the women in those 
stirring times ^\ ere [jractically all violent partisans and were very pronounced 
in their views, whichever side they favored. Many of the citizens left town, 
or at least moved from the vicinity of the forts nearest the center of the 
town : some took rfef uge in their cellars, all hid their money and valuables. 



GREENE COUNTY^ MISSOURI. 349 

It was one of the worst nights of excitement, alarm and terror that Spring- 
field had yet had. 

THE MARSHALLING OF ARMS AT MARMADUKE's APPROACH. 

January 8th dawned on a stirring scene in Springfield, mounted cour- 
iers ran their horses through the streets, the commands of officers were heard 
on the still wintry air, small squads of troops were coming in from all sides 
from the country — everybody was active and most were nervous and fore- 
boding. At dayHght there came wildly galloping into town the detachment 
of the Fourteenth Missouri State Militia which had been stationed at Ozark, 
and reported that Marmaduke, Shelby, Emmett McDonald and other South- 
ern chieftains had attacked them at their post shortly before midnight, drove 
them out, burned their fort and were still chasing them; they said they had 
ridden hard half the night and had noted the movements of the enemy and 
that he ^\•as evidently intending to strike Springfield. General Brown now 
no longer hesitated and began earnestly to prepare for the fight which he 
knew he musf face. He sent Capt. Green B. Philips' Company of Colonel 
Boyd's Regiment to Fort No. 4, where the "Quinine Brigade" and volunteer 
artillerymen under Lieutenant Hoffman, had already been stationed. A two- 
story brick college building stood near Grand avenue and Market street 
which had been used by the garrison as a military prison. It now contained 
about fifty Confederates, who were taken out and placed in the county jail, 
and although General Brown ordered that the building be filled with sol- 
diers, by some oversight this was not done. The cavalry, under Lieut. -Col. 
Walter King, of the Third State Militia, were stationed in the southeastern 
part of town. To the right of the cavalry and to the left of the fort was a 
detachment of the "Quinine Brigade." \lost of the Eighteenth Iowa In- 
fantry was at Fort No. i and as the Seventy-fourth regiment, under Colonel 
Boyd, came in it was sent to join the Iowa troops, with the exception of 
Company C, under Captain Phillips. About one hundred men of the Eigh- 
teenth Iowa had been sent to Fort No. 2 with part of the "Quinine Brigade." 
Colonel Sheppard's regiment, the Seventy-second, numbering two hundred 
and thirty-eight men, were awaiting orders at the public square. Captain 
]\IcAfee organized some men from the convalescent camps and volunteers, 
armed them and reported to General Brown for duty, and were assigned to 
the arsenal — the church building of the Methodist Episcopal church. South, 
on South street, and which at that time was piled full of tons of ammuni- 
tion of all kinds, cartridges, shot and shell, and hundreds of stands of arms. 
General Brown ordered Captain McAfee to prepare oil, shavings and other 
inflammables, and be ready to set fire to and blow up the arsenal and maga- 
zine, when ordered to, if it was seen that the town must fall into the enemy's 



350 GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI.- 

hands. Only one battalion of the Fourth Missouri State Militia was present, 
commanded by Col. George H. Hall, of St. Joseph, and under him was Maj. 
Douglas Dale. According to Doctor Melcher just as the last company of 
convalescents was being armed, the skirmishing began. Just then a com- 
pany of citizens, forty-two in number, came running up and asked to be 
furnished with arms and ammunition. They were quickly supplied, assigned 
to duty with the "Quinine Brigade" and fought gallantly throughout the 
day in Fort JN'o. 4 and in the vicinity of that fort. 

It was Marmaduke's plan to make the march in silence and take the 
Federals by surprise. His mo\'ements were unobserved from Louisburg, 
Arkansas, to the crossing of White river, at Dubuque. Porter was to come 
in from the eastward and brush away the small Union garrisons at Hartville 
and elsewhere and prevent their forming in the rear, and, knowing that this 
would delay his progress, Marmaduke and Shelby were to move leisurely and 
give the other column plenty of time to reach Springfield at the time agreed 
upon. But the unexpected happened at Dubuque when a small scouting 
party was encountered, which preferred to stand its ground and put up a 
stubborn fight rather than run away from the advance of Shelby's brigade, 
Elliott's battalion, and at the same time ascertained the character and size 
of the Confederate force and its probable destination, then hurried away to 
give the alarm, turning about and watching from time to time, all the while 
keeping swift messengers on the way to Springfield. After the skirmish at 
the ford, Marmaduke knew that he would be compelled to reach his destina- 
tion by forced march, reaching Springfield in twentv-four hours if possible. 
He started messengers across the country to inform Porter of the delay and 
change in program and to order him to turn squarely across the country by 
the first road that run eastward and he at Springfield by the evening of the 
8th at the latest: l)ut the road> that wound thr(_)ugh the mountainous country 
were little bettef than rocky trails and the messengers found it difficult to 
tra\-el swiftly and they failed to' find Porter, who passed on with his force, 
unaware of any change in the original plan. 

ft was Captain Birch, with a detachment of the Fourteenth Missouri 
State Militia from Ozark, to ascertain the truth regarding the rumored 
invasion, and it was his troops that came upon a Confederate lieutenant and 
two men near the ford at White river, the Southerners having been left sick 
in a house by the roadside. From them Birch learned that the Confederates 
were coming up in formidable numbers, led b}- such dashing chieftains as the 
austere Marmaduke, Shelbw of fighting Kentuck}- blood, and the long- 
haired, fearless McDonald, and all impatient to fight. Captain Birch lost no 
time in starting back north to the Federal post at Lawrence Mills, on Beaver 
creek, in the northwestern part of Taney county, where Major I'urner, with 
seventy-five Taney and Douglas county men, members of the Sevent'\--second 



GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 35I 

Enrolled l\Iissouri Alilitia. formed a garrison in a little block-house and 
fort. Major Turner was warned of his danger by Birch, the latter advising 
hini to evacuate the post and go on to Ozark. Turner was an old man, had 
been long in the service, but was reluctant to believe that anything larger 
than a small Confederate force of bushwhackers was in the surrounding 
country, and he made no efforts to retreat or to fight. He had scarcely de- 
livered his opinion of the true state of affairs regarding the invasion when 
the Confederate advance began firing on his pickets, and in a few moments 
Emniett McDonald, with five hundred cavalrj-, dashed up and assaulted the 
block-house and everything in it and around it, the invaders yelling like 
blood-thirsty Comanches. Turner's men made scarcely a show of resistance 
until they scampered through the woods toward Ozark; five of them were 
killed, many wounded, among them being Major Turner himself, and very 
soon nearly all of them were prisoners, but paroled at once and in a few 
minutes more ]\IcDonaId was dashing away with his men to rejoin ^larma- 
duke's main column, which had come on the main Yellville road, leaving 
Forsvth to the left and west, and striking straight for Ozark and Spring- 
field. McDonald had been sent to crush the post on Beaver creek and 
prevent it from forming and following in the rear. He did his work well. 

SHELBY REACHES OZARK. 

General Shelby's brigade reached Ozark on the evening of the 7th, 
where a stop of more than an hour was made to rest and eat supper. About 
midnight the advance galloped into Ozark, where the Fourteenth Missouri 
State Militia had hastih- abandoned the post, and gone on to Springfield. 
The fort and block-house were burned, and a few prisoners taken, and the 
column moved on with Shelby and Marmaduke at the head, with Elliott's 
battalion, on the main road to Springheld. .\ few prisoners were gathered 
along the way, mainly members of the militia. The advance reached the 
Phelps farm, which the southeastern part iif the city now covers, and where 
still mav be seen the historic elm under which General Lyon was first buried. 
Porter had not come up. A discussion ensued between M.'irmaduke and 
Shelbv as to whether they should wait for him or attack the town at once, 
but meanwhile they kept the place closely invested. Marmaduke later stated 
that his delay in attacking the town was occasioned by his waiting for Em- 
mett ?iIcDonald and his battalion more particularly than for Porter, al- 
though he incidentally admitted that he might have been waiting for both. 
But shortly after nine o'clock a line of Imttle was formed. Some skirmish- 
ers from the militia, advancing through some undergrowth, were disco\ered, 
fired on and stopped, many being severely wounded. Preparations were at 
first made to ascertain the Federal .strength at the southeast comer of their 



^5^ GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 

position on the St. Louis road and Gid Thompson's regiment was swung 
around to the right. In the edge of the timber, two miles from the pubhc 
square, Marmaduke formed his Hne for the attack. Thompson's regiment 
held the right ; Shelby's regiment, commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Gor- 
don, held the left; Jeans' regiment, commanded by Lieut. Charles Gilkey, 
and Collins" battery were in the center. These troops were all dismounted. 
Elliott's and McDonald's battalions continued to operate as cavalry, Elliott 
to the right, and McDonald to the left. The lines were formed in the open 
prairie, under fire. Marmaduke evidently made a serious blunder here. 
General Brown and his staff had been led to believe that the Confederate 
force numbered between five thousand and six thousand men, and conse- 
quently the invaders were greatly feared. Now, Marmaduke came up in 
sight of the Federals, displaying plainly his whole force, showing that he 
had but a few hundred men more than the town contained. This gave cour- 
age to Brown and his men, who now determined to fight to the last ditch. 

When General Brown became certain that the Confederate attack was 
to be made from the south, early in the morning, he ordered a number of 
houses burned in that section of town which obstructed the range and sweep 
of the guns of Fort No. 4, on South street. Twelve buildings were de- 
stroyed, half of which belonged to Mrs. J. A. Stephens, widow of the Union 
citizen killed by Zagonyi's men when they rode into Springfield after the 
iight with Colonel Frazier's force. Another house destroyed belonged to 
W. P. Davis, who was at the time in the Federal service. The expediency 
•of this action has been questioned, but Brown thought it necessary to prevent 
a lodgment of the enemy in his immediate front, and the harassment of 
his best position. But whether the destruction of these houses was a mili- 
tar}' necessity or not, they should ha\'c been paid fi3r by the government, 
which, so far as can be learned, never were. The flames added to the 
excitement of the citizens, many of whom began packing up and leaving as 
quickly as possible for the sheltering walls of Fort No. i. 

The Third Missouri, under Col. Walter King, and the Fourteenth Mis- 
souri State Militia, numbering over six hundred men, were to the north and 
south of St. Louis street. Near the public square a huge steam boiler and 
-other obstructions were placed across the street. 

THE BATTLE BEGINS. 

A force of Confederate cavalry, Elliott's battalion, had been sent to 
feel the way and to learn if the route into the city by St. Louis street and 
'down the valley of Jordan creek was practical. This force soon con- 
fronted King's regiment and a sharp skirmish ensued, the Confederates 
falling back. King's force then charged and drove the in\aders well back 



GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 333 

•onto the prairie, but fearing he would be cut off, did not follow far. King 
returned to his original position and began firing at long range upon all 
Confederates in his front, and finally made another successful charge; how- 
■ever, the forces did not come close together and little daiTiage was done 
either side. Here Alarmaduke made another serious mistake. Had he con- 
centrated his entire force uix)n the east and southeast and made a determined 
charge he could have broken King's line easily and gained the public square 
in a few minutes. The force he sent was entirely too small to be successful. 
On the- other hand, the Federals made a display of all their force in that 
quarter and fought well, did a great deal of marching and counter-marching 
to the rear, which had the desired eft'ect — to make the Confederates believe 
that there was a very powerful force in their front. The entire Confederate 
force was then formed to the southeast, where the troops waited for the 
order to advance, which was finally made without first a demand for the 
surrender of the town, or notification to remove the women and children, a 
circumstance unfavorably commented upon by the Unionists. General Shelby 
moved up the two guns belonging to his brigade, and ordered their com- 
mander, Capt. R; A. Collins, to open on the town and Fort No. 4. Collins 
was \'ery soon throwing shells in rapid succession into Fort No. 4 and near 
the public square with great precision. One shot pierced the Lyon House, 
later the Southern Hotel, which stood just south of the present Methodist 
■church on South street. Two others struck the old St. Paul's church, just 
across the street, then occupied as an arsenaJ and guarded by Captain Mc- 
Afee's men. It was not long until the old iron guns of Fort No. 4 began 
replying to those of Collins and for a time there was quite a free 'interchange 
of metallic compliments between Lieutenant Hoffman and Dick Collins. 
Captain Phillips' company of Marcus Boyd's regiment of militia and con- 
valescents in the fort also began firing with their muskets at long range. 
Collins was throwing solid shot, while Hoffman was throwing shell, as he 
had howitzers. Then came a lull in the fighting, about eleven-thirty o'clock, 
and Marmaduke conferred with his officers, who examined the field in front 
with their field-glasses, and after a great deal of riding about and consulta- 
tion, they final!}' agreed to assault the Federal works from the south and 
■southwest. Being near-sighted, General Marmaduke could tell nothing about 
the position of his enemy, but apro\'ed plan of attack, which was at once 
Legun. 

Meanwhile the troops had been drawn up in line and dismounted. De- 
priving his men of their horses at such a moment was another thing for 
which Marmaduke has been censured, for Shelby's men were true ca\alry- 
men and could give much better account of themselves upon their splendid 
horses, in which thev took great pride, and very reluctantly did they abandon 
(23) 



354 GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 

their steeds. During this interval the Federals were also maneuvering. Some 
of King's men and the Fourth Missouri State Militia were moved out upon 
the Fayetteville ruad, and then to the north of that thoroughfare, in the 
southwest quarter of town. The Seventy-second regiment of militia was 
also up from the public square to the Fayetteville road, for General Brown 
was now fully convinced that an attack was to be made in that quarter. As 
the troops were hurried from one part of town to another there was a great 
deal of galloping about on the part of officers and loud commands to the 
troops as they were shifted about in "double-quick" time. The route from 
the main part of town to Fort No. i was also thronged with fugitives 
tramping back and forth from their homes carrying over their most valuable 
articles for safety. Lieutenant Creighton was in charge of the arsenal pro- 
per and he issued muskets to many Union citizens organized by Doctor 
Melcher, who were willing to fight in defense of the town and who had 
asked for arms. But every man who had an order for a gun had to sign 
a receipt for it when it was given him. This proceeding required so much 
time that Captain McAfee interfered, drove Creighton away, after which he 
gave guns to those who asked for them as fast as he could hand them out. 
He was of the opinion that with a dangerous foe thundering at the gates of 
the town and people clamoring for a chance to defend them it was a time 
to dispense with all red-tape proceedings. 

GENEr<AL BROWN IS WOUNDED. 

General Brown was shot from his horse about three o'clock in the 
afternoon, while at the corner of South and State streets, while standing 
there with some of his staff, having ridden out for the purpose of encourag- 
ing his men. His arm was broken above the elbow, and later a piece of 
bone was taken out. He immediately went to the rear and Doctor Melcher 
dressed his arm and saved it from amputation, the operation being counted 
one of the most skillful in the surgical annals of the war. By a written 
order he at once turned over the command of the Federal troops engaged in 
defending the town to Colonel Crabb. However, he did not leave the service 
until se\'eral months later, and commanded tlie forces sent against Joe 
Shelby in his raid the following autumn. Most of the Union officers and 
men alike had little faith in General Brown's military ability or courage as a 
fighter, but the Confederates gave him great credit for courage and good 
conduct at the Ijattle of Springfield. After the war Major Edwards, in his 
book entitled "Shelby and His Men." said of him, in part, as follows: 

General Brown made a splendid fight for his town, and exhibited con- 
spicuous courage and ability. He rode the entire length of Shelby's brigade, 
under a severe fire, clad in bold regimentals, elegantly mounted and ahead 



GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 



355 



of all, so that the fire might be concentrated on him. It was reckless 
bravado, but General Brown gained by one bold dash the admiration and 
respect of Shelby's soldiers. As he rode along the front of the brigade 
two hundred voices were heard above the crashing muskets, "Cease firing — 
don't shoot that man — let him go — let him go." I take pleasure in paying 
this tribute to a brave and generous officer. 

WHEN THE FIGHTING IS FIERCEST. 

The dismounted Confederate troops began moving around to the south- 
west part of town about two o'clock in the afternoon. One of the guns of 
Collins' battery was also sent to that quarter, took up a position a littk to 
the west of Market street and opened on the Seventy-second Infantry in its 
front with grape and canister. Previously Lieutenant-Colonel Jones, of the 
Seventy-second, had made a reconnoissance down in the brush by the Fay- 
etteville road but found no enemy. Xow Collins' second gun was brought 
up and placed near the first. It was about two-thirty o'clock when the battle 
began in earnest., the Confederates advancing from the south towards the 
north and northwest, coming up the little valley at the foot of South and 
Campbell streets, and sweeping over the ground to the westward. A group 
of houses in that vicinity was called "Dutchtown," and the invaders soon 
passed through this quarter, taking the houses and their out-buildings for 
shelter as they advanced upon the stockaded college building, which had 
been inadvertently left unguarded, and captured it without losing a man, 
beating down and driving backward the Seventy-second Infantry, pushing 
on slowly from house to house, from street to street until the Seventy- 
second was forced back to College street, running west from the public 
square, and they were along West \A'alnut street. A portion of Jeans' regi- 
ment, under Gilkey, and some of Gordon's troops, in front of Fort No. 4, 
which they intended storming, when a good opportunity ofifered, but Lieu- 
tenant Hoffman's gunners served their old iron cannon so vigorously, and 
the "Quinine Brigade" kept up such a continuous musket fire that all at- 
tempts to assault the fort was given up, and the Confederates drifted west- 
ward and over about the old cemetery, about which some of the hardest 
fighting of the day took place. Fort No. 4 kept up an incessant fire, as did 
its supports also, and Sheppard and Jones rallied the Seventy-second regi- 
ment and advanced against the enemy, driving them across and a little to 
the south of Mt. Vernon street. .At the same time a squad of volunteers 
among the convalescents hurried from the arsenal to the corner of l\Iarket 
and Mt. Vernon streets and took possession of the Toney residence, from 
which point of vantage they opened on the Confederates in front. The 
house was riddled with bullets and nine of the convalescents were found 



356 GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 

weltering in their blood about this dwelling when the fight was over. Many 
dead of both sides were also found lying about the vacant lot just east of the 
Toney residence. 

For more than an hour lively skirmishing was kept up between Shelby's 
troops — Gordon's and Thompson's regiments — and Sheppard's Seventy-sec- 
ond Infantry and the convalescents, and finally about four o'clock five com- 
panies of the Eighteenth Iowa Infantry came up from Fort No. i and went 
into position along the Fayetteville road, and opened a galling fire on the 
enemy in that quarter. Three times a detachment of Shelby's troops, who 
were trying to get a position to the right or west of the Federal line, were 
charged and driven back by the cavalry on that flank which had been sta- 
tioned there early in the day to prevent the turning of the Federal right. 
Meanwhile !\Iarmaduke's men in the stockade poured a murderous fire at 
every blue coat witliin range, and an attempt to drive them out was soon 
abandoned, the officers seeing that it would be a useless waste of life. 

In b'urt X(i. i were two six-pound brass field pieces, one of which was 
manned and supported by detachments from the Eighteenth Iowa, under 
Capts. John A. Landis. William R. Blue and Joseph Van Meter, and had 
been brought o\'er to strengthen the Federal riglit just before the Confed- 
erates made their grand charge, and it went into position on State street, a 
little east of Campbell, and to the east and soutli of the cemetery, and 
opened with canister on Shelby's brigade. It had no sooner done so than a 
battalion of Gilkey's men, under Maj. John Fxiwman and a part of Gordon's 
regiment, under Captain Titsworth, started straight for this gun, bent on its 
capture at any cost, and after a short but hard fight hauleil it away in 
triumph, having driven back its supporters to the fort, through and beyond 
the cemetery. Here occurred the severest conflict of the day. Major Bow- 
man dashed up and ordered Captain Landis to surrender ; the latter refused 
and ordered Bowman to surrender. The major instantly fired, the ball tak- 
ing off the captain's shoulder straji. But simultaneously a shot from Landis' 
revolver struck Major Bowman just below the heart. A fierce fight followed, 
in which Captains Blue and Van Meter were mortally wounded, several of 
their men killed, and Captain Landis and a score of Towans were wounded 
severely, while Alarmaduke lost Captain Titsworth, Lieutenant Buffington 
and Lieutenant McCoy, five men killed and twenty wounded, including 
Lieut. Maurice Langhome. The gunner, with the primers of the piece in 
his possession, ran to the rear, thus preventing the enemy from using the 
cannon for some time, and it was hauled off to the rear by hand. When the 
Confederates started on the charge some of the Iowa troops remarked that 
they should get away as quickly as possible or they would be captured by the 
wearers of the gray. At this Captains Blue and Van Meter at once drew their 
revolvers and threatened to shoot the first men who started to retreat, and 



GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 357 

SO saved their reputation for bravery, but lost their gun and their Hves. 
Captain Blue died bra^'ely, shooting down three of his assailants before he 
himself fell. Captain Van Meter fought almost as well ; in fact, every 
officer of the lowans fought until they were stretched upon the ground with 
fearful bullet wounds. Captain Blue died four days later and Captain Van 
Meter died six days later. Their remains now repose in the National ceme- 
tery here. Maj. John Bowman, the gallant Confederate, died two days after 
the. fight. He was removed by his men to a farm house half a mile east of 
the Phelps homestead, where two of his men vainly tried to save his life, 
remaining with him until the last. 

SHELBY LEADS FINAL CHARGE. 

General Shelby led a gallant charge on Fort No. 4 at five o'clock, as the 
winter day twilight was settling down. Jeans' regiment and Elliott's bat- 
talion advanced under cover of the houses, fences and hedges to within one 
hundred yards of the fort, opened a brisk fire and made a desperate effort 
to fight their way in. But they were just as stubbornly resisted by Captain 
Phillips' company of militia, the detachments of the Eighteenth Iowa and 
the convalescents, opened such a rapid and deadly fire of small arms that 
the Confederates were driven back, and the attempt to take the fort was a 
disastrous failure. Meantime, Collins' battery continued thundering away 
at the town until dark, many shot and shell falling into the nndst of the 
town, but did not cause much serious damage. One shot passed through the 
office of the Missonrian, a newspaper published on South street, and a 
number of residences and other buildings were struck, but the inhabitants 
had already secreted themselves in Fort No. i and no one was injured. As 
long as daylight lasted the charging and counter-charging, shooting and 
skirmishing continued, and even after dark there was desultory firing until' 
midnight. From eight o'clock until late at night. Lieutenant Hoffman kept 
up a cannonade from Fort No. 4 on the different portions of the Confederate 
position. However, there was no serious fighting after dark. The Confed- 
erates were now in two wings, which formed a \-ery obtuse angle, the point 
of the angle resting on the stockade and the right arm or Confederate left, 
extended in a southwesterly direction along the Fayetteville road. The left 
arm of the Confederate right ran in a southeasterly direction across State 
street, through "Dutchtown," and past a blacksmith shop, out into the open 
prairie. 

In this position Alarmaduke decided to wait until morning, hoping that 
during the night Porter would come in or at least send some word ahead. 
The skirmishing ceased about midnight, and soon thereafter the Confed- 
erates withdrew to the prairie, and at one o'clock on the morning of the 9th 



358 GREEXE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 

a venturesome party of Federals found the stockade abandoned, and they 
speedily took possession. Some of Sheppard's regiment also advanced about 
midnight some distance to the southward of Mt. Vernon street, finding no 
enemy. Details worked all night gathering up the dead and wounded, and 
bearing the latter to the hospitals. 

Anticipating a renewal of the attack the next morning the Federals 
spent the night in preparing for it. but everything was quiet when the day 
dawned. Officers, with their field-glasses, mounted to the top of the court 
house and observed the Confederates in motion to the southeast of town on 
and in the vicinity of Phelps' farm, but the Federals could not determine 
whether they were preparing for another attack or for retreat. Gradually 
they mo\'ed away, and the Federal line, which had been prepared for either 
attack or defense, moved forward. They soon decided that the battle was 
over and they had won the victory and saved the town, with its valuable 
stores. It was not long until the Union prisoners came in. and a message 
from Warmaduke was received asking that the wounded of his command 
be cared for and that the dead be buried. He had released the prisoners on 
parole. Among them was Judge J. H. Shaw, who. with others, had been cap- 
tured east of town, when the early advance was made. There was mingled 
joy and sadness, for the victory had come at considerable loss to the Fed- 
eral cause. It was found tliat besides their commander-in-chief beine 
badly wounded, together with two gallant Iowa captains. Major 
Graves, of the militia, had been mortally wounded : Lieutenant McCroskey, 
.of the Seventy-second regiment, had been killed, and Major Hornbeak, of 
the same regiment, wounded : in fact, the hospitals were literally filled with 
the Federal wounded, officers and privates, while the Confederates were 
piled as thick as they could lie in Owens' residence in the south part of town 
and in other houses. The citizens began to return from Fort Xo. i to their 
homes, and to come out of their ceWars. Colonel Crabb was satisfied with the 
safety of the town and made no attempt to pursue the retreating Confed- 
erates, who were now mo\-ing away on the "wire road" toward Marshfield. 
Some feared a renewal of the attack, as the prisoners had learned and re- 
ported the presence of Porter's command not far from the eastern outskirts 
of the town. The cavalry was ready for the order to advance, if such a 
move was deemed liest. but only a reconnoissance to the east and south about 
a mile from town was made. As the morning wore awav order was ao^ain 
restored and all felt comparativelv safe again. 

THE SEVENTY-SECOND REGIMENT IN THE B.-\TTLE. 

To give a detailed account of the part played by each of the commands 
in the battle of Springfield would far transcend the purposes of this chapter. 



GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 359 

However, it is deemed proper to give at some length the part played by the 
Seventy-second regiment, Enrolled Missouri Militia, since it was called the 
Greene county regiment and was largely officered and composed of Greene 
county men. Its colonel, Henry Sheppard, and its lieutenant-colonel, Fidelio 
S. Jones, both of Springfield, led the regiment in person, and they proved 
efficient and courageous officers. This regiment numbered, all told, officers 
and privates, two hundred and fifty-three men, represented in Companies 
A, B, D, E, F, G, H, and I, Company C, under Captain Stone and Com- 
pany K, under Captain Moore, being absent. At daylight on the morning 
of the 8th, the regiment was formed on the public square. At about eleven 
o'clock it was on East St. I-ouis street to repel the expected attack from that 
quarter. Later it was sent at high speed out on the Fayetteville road. Be- 
tween two and three o'clock and when Shelby's men made their grand charge 
it lay along State street, to the right and south of the palisaded college build- 
ing. The men were hurried from place to place over town until they were 
nearly exhausted before they had an opportunity to fire a shot. General 
Brown had but comparative^ few troops and these he showed everywhere. 
When the main fight took place Sheppard's regiment was on the right and a 
little in front of the Federal line, unsupported by artillery or reserves, with 
two hundred cavalry to the right and rear, north of the Fayetteville road. 
The Confederate advance was dismounted and in two lines. It was com- 
posed of some of the best fighting men of either army. Shelby's brigade 
won and deserved an excellent name for its dash, coolness, bravery and gal- 
lantry in action. 

Col. Henr}- Sheppard. in his report of the engagement, stated that the 
Confederates advanced in a line of convex shape, the point nearly opposite 
Fort No. 4. and the wings were out. The line rapidly concentrated when 
near State street, advanced with a rush through "Dutchtown" and the brush- 
wood and the gardens westwardly, cheering and shouting and pouring a hot 
fire upon the Seventy-second regiment, which he had formed along the 
Favetteville road, or State street, and behind fences, near the W'orley resi- 
dence. The men were lying down, but their curiosity to see what was 
coming caused every head to bob up and lieconie a fair target. They now 
began to return the fire and a spirited fight was soon in progress. In the 
midst of the rattle of musketry and the duller crack of revolvers and all of 
the noise of battle, a calf attempted to run the gauntlet of flying bullets, and 
sent up a loud, piteous bawling when wounded. One of the boys of the 
Seventy-second sprang up and shouted to the advancing host in gray : "You 
had better take care of your calf." This caused a shout of laughter, which 
rose clearly over all the din of the fight. Shelby's men dashed on, using 
their revolvers with serious effect, and the nnlitia endeavored to move back 
a little, occasioning considerable disorder, the men losing their numbers and 



360 GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 

began to mix up. It looked as if they might break and flee to the rear, but 
Colonel Sheppard and Lieutenant-colonel Jones re-formed and renumbered 
them under fire, and induced them to hold their ground. By this time the 
regiment had lost heavily. Alajor Hornbeak was wounded, Lieutenant Mc- 
Croskey was killed, Lieutenant Lane's leg was shot nearly off, and the halt 
and maimed were already thick, and growing thicker every minute. Soon 
the regiment was again in disorder, wavered a moment and gave way, the 
men turning to the rear and seeking safer positions. Colonel Sheppard made 
a desperate effort to stop them, ordered, shouted, threatened them until his 
voice failed him. Lieutenant-Colonel Jones had lost his horse and was 
nearly exhausted as a result of his strenuous efforts to hold the men in line. 
Although badly wounded. Major Hornbeak also struggled vigorously to 
rally the men. The commander of the militia and his staff came up, and the 
officers exhorted and threatened with drawn swords and revolvers, but the 
militiamen paid little heed to any of them and continued to give ground until 
they got under cover of the little hill that slopes down to the little creek and 
stopped along College street, re-formed and began loading their muskets. 
Howe\-er, one squad, led by a commissioned officer, went on to Fort No. i, 
reporting that they were ordered to do so. At this time Maj. A. C. Graves 
was mortally wounded while trying to rally the men of the Seventv-second. 
When all was in readiness. Colonel Sheppard and Lieutenant-Colonel Jones 
ordered the regiment to advance toward the south, from whence it had 
come. \\'ith a shout it moved forward as readily as it had moved to the 
rear a few minutes previously. Some of the more daring of Shelby's troops 
had by this time reached Walnut street, firing at whatever thev saw. They 
were driven away by the militia and pushed on up the hill to Mt. \"ernon 
street, where they gained the shelter of the houses, fences, trees and in this 
position the fight continued until nightfall, the Confederates holding the 
college building and the line of houses and fences west of it, w^ith Collins'' 
battery in the rear, near the Worley residence. The college building was a 
strong position, being a substantial brick structure .and surrounded on the 
east, south and west sides with strong palisades of stout logs, driven deep 
in the ground, and pierced with numerous port holes. Failure to occupy 
this splendid position in the early stages of the battle was one of the princi- 
pal blunders of the day on the part of the Federals. 

COLONEL SHEPPARd's ACCOUNT. 

We quote the following paragraph from an account of the fight by 
Colonel Sheppard : 

When night came on my men were placed in the line of buildings im- 
mediately west of the Baptist church in the Hornbeak home — a brick house 



GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 361- 

— also at the Methodist Episcopal church, South (then the arsenal), and in 
Fort No. 4, to the command of which 1 was assigned. In the night 1 had the 
howitzer in the fort, a twelve-pounder, pepper the rascals in the palisade col- 
lege building, two hundred and fifty yards away. The moon shone beautifully 
and the Dutch lieutenant (Lieutenant Hoffman) made splendid practice. 
The "secesh" vacated it and at one o'clock in the morning 1 put a company 
in it. All night my boys, in squads, under careful officers, were crawling 
over the ground to the front, spying out the land, but daybreak showed only 
dead and wounded rebels before us. An hour later, with General Brown's 
held-glass I sat in a bastion and saw the long lines of the enemy working 
their wav eastward from the Goose jjond, where they had withdrawn during 
the night. To only one idea did it seem reasonable to attribute this move- 
ment — that the attack was to be renewed from the east and north. * * * 
My regiment was only two hundred and thirty-eight (privates) strong in 
the fight. We lost fifty-three killed and wounded. The advance of the 
enemy from Ozark was so rapid that the members of the regiment living in 
the country were cut off from town and were unable to join us. \Ve buried 
fifty-one of the enemy. We brought off the field about eighty of their 
wounded; they carried away a good many of their wounded in wagons, 
and, of course, numbers of their slightly wounded rode away on their own 
horses. Nine prisoners, armed with Enfield rifles, were taken in one house 
by a squad of the Seventy-second. Bill Frazier was with them, and badly 
shot: he was sent to the hospital. Lingow was also with them, and so e.x- 
hausted that he lay down in one of the little houses in "Dutchtown" and did 
not wake until morning. Then, supposing the Confederates had possession 
of the college, he went in and was kindly recei\-ed by Captain Small, who 
sent the gentleman over to me. He was a lieutenant of artillery. Everyone 
is of the opinion that it was my men who saved the town, protected the 
immense accumulations of government stores for the Army of the Frontier, 
and preserved the communications of that army and the (|uiet of the whole 
Southwest. 1 doubt not that my gallant boys rendered triple more actual 
valualjle service to the United States government than General Fremont's 
entire army of magnificent Body Guard. We lacked letter-writers, how- 
ever, and he had them in abundance. 

Colonel Sheppard took the gun and accoutrements from Will Ridgely, 
sixteen years old. and ordered him out of the fight, but he mounted the 
colonel's horse, which he had been ordered to lead to the rear, and galloped 
off and served all day as orderly to the commander of the militia. 

Detailed information as to the part taken in the battle by the Seventy- 
fourth regiment, under Col. Marcus Boyd, is lacking. However, it has been 
understood that only three companies of the regiment participated in the 
fight— Captain Redferan's, Captain Small's and Captain Phillips'. The com- 



362 GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 

pany commanded by the last named was in Fort No. 4, and that commanded 
by Captain Small occupied the college building at one o'clock in the morning 
of the 9th, after the Confederates had withdrawn from the town. Colonel 
Boyd himself was present and assisted in directing the movement of the 
troops and in any way he could. Some of the Confederate sympathizers in 
Springlield were greatly elated at the prospect of the capture of the town 
by Marmaduke until Colonel Sheppard informed them that turpentine, oil 
and gunpowder had been distributed in such quantities that if the town did 
fall it would soon be in flames, adding, "1 intend to fire my own store with 
my own hands." 

Seven resident printers, belongitig to the Enrolled Missouri Militia, 
took part in the fight. Major Graves, of the Journal, was mortally wounded, 
and Corporal Boren, of the same paper, was slightly wounded. Capt. W. P. 
Davis, the veteran publisher, took an active part in the engagement. Four 
printers from the otfice of the Miss our ian participated. 

A soldier from the First Iowa Cavalry, who was out on the picket line 
with Sergeant Garrison, of the Seventy-second regiment of militia, deserted 
and went over to the Confederates during the fight. He was greeted with a 
great cheer. The information he gave caused Marmaduke's troops to move 
away from Fort No. 4 to the west. 

THE LOSSES. 

The total loss of the Seventy-second Enrolled Missouri Militia in the 
Battle of Springfield was fifty-three, of which number seven were killed or 
mortally wounded, forty-five severely and slightly wounded, and one man 
reported missing. The following are the names by companies : 

Field and staff — ilaj. A. C. Graves, brigade commissary, mortally) 
wounded: Maj. John Hornbeak, slightly wounded. Company A, Capt. Jack- 
son Ball commanding — Killed, .Second Lieut. David J. ]\IcCroskey; Private 
John N. Cox; wounded, Corporal Elislia L. Elam and Privates Stephen 
Sink, John Davis, Nimrod P. Ginger, Aaron T. Bacon and D. M. Wallace. 
Company B, Capt. R. K. Hart commanding — Wounded, Sergt. John H. 
Williams, in thigh; Privates Levi E. Grimmitt, in the ankle, and Jackson O. 
Hale, in leg. Company D, Lieut. George S. Patterson commanding — • 
wounded, Sergt. John L. Rainey, in arm, mortally; Corporal J. W. Boren, 
in head, slightly : Privates Silas Digger, severely, W. J. McDaniel, in hip, 
S. M. Gresham, in shoulder, Thomas Wilson, in foot, Elisha Painter, in 
foot, W. R. Russell, in face, H. C. McKee, in hip,. N. J. Dyer, in hip, F. M. 
Chiping. Company E, Capt. George A. Dillard commanding — Wounded, 
First Lieut. W. F. Lane, leg broken, mortally; Corporals Hiram Vaughn, 
in shoulder, and John Hissey in arm ; Privates Charles Crane, in leg. severely, 



GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 363 

George W. Townlin, in head, Robert P. Ellison, in head, Josiah M. Cunning- 
ham, in arm. Company F. Capt. George T. Beal commanding — wounded, 
Sergts. W. R. M. Campbell, in head, mortally; P. G. Perkins, in leg; Pri- 
vates \V. H. O'Neal, mortally; W. Braswell, severely; Louis I'ayne, in knee; 
J. M. O'Neal, in hand and leg; W. W. Ward, J. A. Hampton, VV. R. Nor- 
man, Baker Russell and W. A. McCroskey, slightly. Company G, Lieut. 
Irwin \V. Jenkins commanding — -Wounded, Privates \V. T. Noblett, mor- 
tally, and Russell Stokes, slightly. Company H, Capt. Vincent Cummings' 
commanding — wounded, Privates Absalom Wheeler and Henry Goodnight, 
slightly. Company I, Capt. J. B. Perkins commanding — killed, Sergt. S. 
Burling; wounded. Privates John Watson, John Mills, James x^dams and 
Joseph Hursh ; missing, D. M. Bedell. 

According to the oflicial reports the Federals had one thousand, five 
hundred and sixty-six men, all told in the battle. This included convales- 
cents and the men from the hospitals. The Confederate strength was about 
two thousand. The Federal loss was eighteen killed outright, twelve mor- 
tally w'ounded, who within sixty days died from wounds, and the wounded 
numbered one hundred. The total killed and wounded on the Union side, 
including citizens, convalescents, and all, was about one hundred and twenty- 
five. The Confederate loss was much greater, but the exact number has 
never been definitely given. According to the Missourian, in its issue of 
Januarv 17th, nine days after the battle, thirty-two Confederate dead were 
picked up on the battle-field, and further stated that those of their wounded 
who had since died raised the total in killed to over forty. Dr. S. H. 
Melcher later said that he knew that altogether eighty Confederates were 
buried from first to last, and that there were left in charge of four of General 
Marmaduke's surgeons confederate wounded to the number of sixty, of 
whom only twenty-eight were alive on January 31st, showing that only the 
more dangerously wounded were left behind. Some of those who fought 
under Marmaduke and Shelby said that all of their wounded that could ride 
away did so. It was ten days after the battle that Colonel Sheppard said 
that they had buried fifty-one of the enemy. It was reported that twenty- 
seven dead Confederates were buried on Colonel Phelps' farm; fourteen in 
the local cemetery, and that twelve more died of their wounds ten da\-s after 
the fight. The Confederate officers killed were INIajor John Bowman, of 
Jeans' regiment : Captain Titsworth and Lieut. John Buffington, of Gordon's 
reeiment 1 originallv Shelbv's) : Lieutenants Steigall and McCoy, of Jeans' 
reo-iment which was led bv Lieutenant-Colonel Gilkey, Colonel Jeans not 
being in the fight. It is said that General Marmaduke came near being cap- 
tured on the morning of the Qth, be having lingered in the rear. He left 
Colonel Phelps' house about nine o'clock. He had slept there and he found 
upon arising that his command had nearly all ridden away and left him. 



364 GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 

and a company of King's Third Missouri State Militia was on a scout in: 
that vicinity at the time, but the Southerner evaded them and dashed away 
to safety. An hour later his command was well out on the "wire road" 
leading to Rolla, seeking to join forces with Colonel Porter. At Sand. 
Springs the advance of Porter was met and a halt was made. Here the 
prisoners were all paroled and sent back, and the united command began to 
retreat eastward by way of Marshfield and Hartville. A strong Federal 
force, under Col. Fitz Henry Warren, of the First Iowa Cavalry, was en- 
countered at Hartville, and a liard fight ensued on the nth. Here Emmett 
McDonald and Col. John AI. Wymer, of St. Louis, were both killed, and 
Col. Joe Porter mortally wounded, dying a week later near Little Rock, 
Arkansas; Maj. George Kirtley, Capt. Charles Turpin. Captain Garrett, 
Captain Duprey, Lieutenant Royster, all Confederates, were either killed or 
mortally wounded. After the fight Marmaduke and Shelby retreated rapidly 
into Arkansas. 

BRAVE EMMETT m'd0N.\LD. 

The death of the brave and chi\alrous Emmett McDonald was learned 
with regret in both the Eedeial and d/nfederate lines. He was known to all 
as a daring and desperate fighter when fighting was to be done, but he was- 
a kind, obliging and generous gentleman when the fight was over. His kind 
offices to Union wounded and prisouers, and his generous conduct regarding 
the body of General Lvon. a fellow-hero, though an enemy, had won for 
him great respect among the Federal troops, and the people of Springfield 
and Greene countv admired him for his many commendable attributes. 

The day after the battle of Springfield Col. James W. Johnston, with 
the Twenty-sixth Enrolled Missouri IMilitia, from Polk county, came into 
Springfield, he having been unable to get his command together and at the 
front on the 8th. He had a good force and his arrival made the Federals 
here feel safer. 

The official records show that, in addition to the list of Federal wound- 
ed already given, the Second Battalion of the Fourteenth IMissouri State 
Militia, lost two men killed — E. C. \"anbibber, regimental commissary, and 
Prixate S. H. Hvde, Company D — ten wounded, and one missing. The 
Third Missouri State Militia lost one man killed, Simon McKissick, private 
of Company B: James T. Harris, of Company D.. wounded, and James 
Pennington and H. S. Rickets were taken prisoners. The Fourth Missouri 
State Militia had two men killed — Michael Schmidt, private of Company 
C, and Reuben Parker, private of Company K. The Eighteenth Iowa In- 
fantry had six men killed outright, five mortally wounded and forty-two 
severely and slightly wounded. Capt. William R. Blue, of Company C, died 
on the 1 2th, and Capt. Joseph Van Meter, of Company H, died on the 14th.. 



GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 365 

'Capt. John A. Landis, of Company D, and Second Lieut. A. B. Conway, of 
Company C, were severely wounded. These four officers were all of the 
Eighteenth Iowa. 

The Federal dead were buried on Sunday, January nth, the battle 
having been fought on Thursday. The ceremonies were held pursuant to 
the following order from General Brown : 

Headquarters Southwest District of ■Missouri, 

Springfield, January lo, 1863. 

The general commanding is desirous that the noble dead who have fallen 
in defense of Springfield should receive in their death, that honor which they 
have purchased with their lives. It is therefore ordered that the bodies of 
all officers and men who were killed in the Battle of Springfield be Iniried on 
Sunday, the nth instant, at two olclock in the afternoon. 

Col. Walter King is hereby appointed field marshal of the day and will 
make the necessary arrangements for the funeral. 

Two companies of infantry will be detailed as an escort and will report 
to Colonel King for orders. 

The procession will form at four at Fort No. 4, and move through the 
public square and out North street in the following order: Band, escort, 
the bodies of the dead, the horses ridden by the slain, chaplains, infantry, 
cavalry, mounted ofiicers, citizens on horseback, citizens in carriages, 
citizens on foot. Officers and soldiers not detailed on special duty will join 
the procession ; they will carry their arms. 

By order of Brig.-Gen. E. B. Brown. 

James H. Steger, Asst. Adjt. General. 

Besides the honors thus shown the Union soldiers who gave up their 
lives in defense of Springfield, an appropriate monument, costing five thou- 
sand dollars, was erected in the National cemetery here in their memory, by 
Dr. T. J. Bailey of this place. 

As a result of the excitement caused by the battle, Hon. Littleberry 
Hendricks, who was ill at the time, died at his residence in Springfield two 
days after the fight. He was at that time circuit judge of this distrct and 
aided the Union cause in many ways. 

When General Curtis then in command of the military forces for the 
Union in Missouri received news of the battle of Springfield, he sent the 
following dispatch to General Brown: 

Headquarters, Etc.. St. Louis, Jan. 12. 1863. 

To Brig.-Gen. E. B. Brown — Dispatch of the nth, via Sedalia. received. 
Your gallant and successful defense of Springfield has added to the glory of 



366 GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 

the 8th of January. The troops and the people of Springfield who par- 
ticipated in your efforts have given imperishable proof of their loyal devo- 
tion to our cause and country, and the state of Missouri will ever cherish 
your memory. • .S. R. Curtis, Major-General. 

Upon receipt of the news of the attempted capture of Springfield the 
Federal authorities awoke to the necessity of properly protecting this im- 
portant post, the base of their supplies. General Herron himself came up 
from Arkansas a few days after the fight and made plans for the future 
safety of the place. When news of the battle reached the army in Arkansas 
on the loth, the Second Brigade, First Division of the Army of the Fron- 
tier, was at once set in motion, Springfield being its destination. This 
brigade was commanded by Col. William F. Cloud of the Second Kansas 
Cavalry and was composed of that regiment, the Tenth and ThirteeiTth Kan- 
sas and Rabb's Second Indiana Battery. The brigade started from near 
Elm Springs and by a hard forced march reached Springfield on the 13th. 
The Seventh Cavalry, Missouri State Militia, commanded by Col. John F. 
Phillips, joined Colonel Cloud at Cassville and came on with the ad\ance, the 
march from that place was made without stopping but once. 

After the arrival of re-inforcements the citizens of Greene county took 
up the peaceful pursuits of life again and civil law came into dominion so 
far as regarding the civil rights of the people. In a short time the courts 
were in session and a number of cases growing out of the Civil war were 
disposed of. During the Confederate occupancv of Springfield, many of 
the Union citizens of the county had their property taken by the Confeder- 
ates, some of whom were also citizens of this county and owned property. 
Certain other Unionists were arrested by the Greene county Confederates 
who were acting in obedience to orders of their superior officers. When 
the Confederate ami}- left Greene county, some under Campbell, Lotspeich and 
others left with it, and after the Federal authority was restored, suit was in- 
stituted against them by some of the Unionists living here whom they had ar- 
rested or whose property they had taken for military purposes. As personal 
service could not be had, notice of these suits was given by publication in the 
newspapers, which of course the defendants never saw until long after judg- 
ment had been rendered by default and execution issued and served, and their 
property levied on and sold. 

C0NFEDER.\TES RESENT PROCEEDINGS. 

The Confederates always claimed that these proceedings against them 
were unjust and unfair, inasmuch as they were carried on during their 
absence when they were prevented from appearing in their own defense and 



GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. ^^67 

that when executions were levied on their property it was sold ridiculously 
low and without regard to propriety. After the war all prosecutions grow- 
ing out of the military acts of either army were dismissed and forever 
barred by special act of the Legislature. 

Col. Benjamin Crabb, of the Nineteenth Iowa Infantry, was relieved 
from command of the post at Springfield in February, 1863, and was suc- 
ceeded by Col. Thomas M. Bowen, of the Thirteenth Kansas Infantry. He 
eventually became United States senator from Colorado. His administra- 
tion of the affairs at Springfield did not give general satisfaction, prin- 
cipally because he allowed his troops to do too much foraging in which he 
seemed unwilling or unable to control them. 

About this time small-pox broke out in Springfield which caused con- 
siderable excitement, but the disease was pre\-ented from invading the camps 
of the soldiers. 

The Army of the Frontier during February and March was scattered 
over southwestern Missouri. General Blunt's command of Kansas troops, 
principally, was stationed in Lawrence county a short distance from Greene. 
Owing to a great scarcity of forage a wide distribution of the troops was 
necessary. Everyw;here the farmers were called upon to feed the troops 
and their horses. Citizens from Christian county reported to the commander 
at Springfield that the L'nion soldiers were exterminating the hogs in that 
county, killing them whenever they could find them and carrying them off, 
contrary to orders. There was little excuse for this lawlessness, for the 
government provided well for the soldiers in this locality and the citizens 
had no right to expect that the}- would be plundered b}^ the troops sent to 
protect them. By March ist, the Eighth Missouri Cavaln,- X^olunteers, largely 
composed of Greene county men, was stationed at Finley, about thirty miles 
from Springfield. The scarcit}- of forage and the continued hard scouting 
required of the men had reduced the number of horses to an average of 
twenty-five to the company. There was great complaint of the want of 
'discipline in the command. Colonel Geiger w^as absent from the regiment, 
in command of the Second Brigade of General Herron's Division. Lieu- 
tenant-colonel Baldwin was under arrest for having some Confederate 
prisoners who had violated their paroles taken out and shot without a trial. 
Major Lisenby was at Springfield the greater portion of the time and Major 
Rich commanded the regiment. 

Long forage trains were often sent up and down the country as far 
north as Pettis county by the commanders of the posts in southwest Missouri. 
Joseph Gott was the chief forage-master at Springfield. He made several 
trips and never lost a train. However, about the middle of February a for- 
age train belonging to the Eighth Missouri State Militia, then stationed in 
Newton county was captured by a scouting party of Confederates, supposed 



368 GREENE COUNTY. MISSOURI. 

to be under Standwaite and Jacknian and some of the guards killed. A 
force of cax'alry was sent out from Springfield to assist in the capture of 
those who attacked the train, but returned without accomplishing anything. 

An officer of an Iowa regiment, who, disguised as a Confederate, in- 
duced Alf. Bolen to come into a house and get breakfast near the Arkansas 
line, in heljruarw antl. w hile seated at the table the officer killed Bolen. The 
latter was a desperate guerrilla and bushwhacker and was a terror to the 
Union citizens living in the southern part of Greene county, as well as those 
of Christian. Tanc}- and Stone. He had killed many men. one of his 
most atrocious murders being committed in the fall of 1861 when he cut off 
the ears of a man named Budd, seventy years of age, and tortured him in 
Indian fashion before finally killing him with a revolver. He was hated 
b}' both the Confederates and Federals. The other most atrocious crime was 
taking I sham Day a jjrisoner. tying a rope annind his neck and tying rocks 
to the rope and throwing him into White river and drowning" him. 

Times were very hard all o\'er southwestern Missouri during the spring 
of 1863. There were many \icious and unprincipled Federal soldiers who 
tlelighted in pre\ing upon the Confederate sympathizers, and the lot of many 
Union families was but little better. Persons who. up to this time, had 
struggled bravely to help themseh-es. now ga\'e up in despair and desperation. 
Gangs of women and children daily concentrated at the military posts and 
at the little towns looking for bread which they could find no longer m their 
own desolated homes. Many of the men had enlisted in the Federal army, in 
the Twenty-fiiurth Missouri, in the Fighth Missouri Cavalry, the Sixth 
Missouri, the Fourteenth Missouri State Militia and the First Arkansas, 
which regiments were chieflv recruited in Greene and other counties of this 
part of the state and hundreds were in the enrolled ^Missouri militia, and 
many of the families of these men \^ere in absolute want, for the Federal 
government had not jiaid its soldiers in this cjuarter for months and no money 
could be olitaineil from their natural ]3rotectors or honorably earned. In 
perhaps still more wretched plight were the families of Confederate soldiers. 
Hundreds of women refugees swarmed about Springfield and other posts of 
importance and became abandoned and depraved, vice of all sorts prevailing. 
Homeless wanderers were strolling about begging for food, clothing and 
shelter. Fortunately the winter was not se\'ere or there would have been 
the most intense suffering. Man\- passed night after night out in the open. 

A PROVISION.\L REGIMENT ORG.\NIZED. 

In various parts of Missouri the organization of provisional regiments 
was begun in February, 1863. It was believed that the crisis calling for 
the general arming of the people of the state had passed, and Governor 



GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 369 

Gamble decided to begin the organization of the various military districts 
of a picked force of men, to be detailed from the enrolled militia for perma- 
nent service and to consist of those who could the most easily be spared from 
their ordinary vocations. Greene county was in the fourth military district 
and in this district two regiments of provisional militia were formed, the 
Sixth and the Seventh, each regiment consisting of twelve companies and 
organized as a regiment of cavalry. The colonel, lieutenant-colonel, three 
majors, the adjutant and other officers of the Sixth regiment were mainly 
from Greene county, as were three of the companies as follows : 

First colonel, Henry Sheppard, formerly of the Seventy-second Enrolled 
Missouri Militia, commissioned April i, 1863, resigned the following Octo- 
ber. Second colonel, F. S. Jones, commissioned October 5, 1863, resigned 
January 22, 1864. Majors, John Hornbeak, R. K. Hart, and John Small. 
Adjutant, J. W. Jifack. Quartermaster, W. P. Davis. Assistant Surgeon, 
Philip M. Slaughter. 

Compan}' A — This company was detailed from the Seventy-fourth En- 
rolled Missouri Militia, Col. INIarcus Boyd's regiment. Its officers were, 
first captain, John Small, promoted to major, October 5, 1863. Second 
captain, R. M. Hayter, commissioned October 5, 1863. First lieutenant, 
Isaac P. Julian; second, Lazarus J. Phillips; third, Samuel Harshbarger. 
First second lieutenant, Lazarus J. Phillips ; second, Samuel Harshbarger ; 
third, Preston Gilmore. 

Company E — This company was detailed from the Seventy-second En- 
rolled Missouri I\'Iilitia. All the officers were commissioned April 15, 1863. 
Capt. Samuel ^^^ Headlee ; first lieutenant, Bryan ^^^infield ; second lieuten- 
ant, Samuel B. Rainey. 

Company H — This company was detailed from the Seventy-second regi- 
ment Enrolled ^Missouri Militia. Some of its members were from Christian 
county. Roswell K. Flart was the first captain; William McCullah, second 
captain ; Isham W'. Faught, first lieutenant ; O. P. Gates, first, second lieu- 
tenant; John A. Gideon, second, second lieutenant. 

During the months of April and May, 1863, many of the Greene county 
men who were in the Confederate service made raids into the southern 
counties of Missouri and visited their homes. Sometimes the raids resulted 
in no special damage, but now and then blood was shed. In May, Will 
Fulbright, a well known young man about Springfield and a member of the 
Fulbright family here, returned to the county with a dozen of his com- 
panions. The object of their raid into Greene county has ne\-er been defi- 
nitely known. The party reached the county in safety and went into camp 
on the James river. A Union citizen discovered them and reported their 
presence to the enrolled militia of the neighborhood, a squad of whom was 
(24) 



370 GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 

soon organized and were in search of the raiders. Coming upon them with- 
out warning they were soon routed by the mihtia and in the melee Fulbright 
was shot and killed. It was reported that he was ill and his comrades had 
merely accompanied him home where he could get proper medical attention, 
that no raid was intended, and that Fulbright was shot after he had signified 
his willingness to surrender. The truth of the matter will never be known. 
There being armed soldiers all over the state of Missouri during the 
autumn of 1863, it was feared that in many quarters they would attempt 
to influence the election of that fall by intimidation of voters. Major-Gen- 
eral Schofield, commander of the department in which Missouri was situated 
took steps to prevent this and issued the following order : 

Headcjuarters Department of Missouri, 

St. Louis. Mo.. September 18, 1863. 
General Order No. loi. 

The right of the people to peacefully assemble for all lawful purposes, 
and the right to freely express their will at the polls according to law, are 
essential in civil liberty. No interference with these rights, either by 
violence, threats, intimidation or otherwise will be tolerated. 

Any commissioned officer who shall incite or encourage any interference 
with any lawful assemblage of the people, or who shall fail to do his utmost 
to pre\ent such interference shall be dismissed from the service and any 
officer, soldier or ci\ilian, who shall, by violence, threats or otherwise, 
actually interfere with any such lawful assemblage of the people, shall be 
punished by imprisonment or otherwise at the discretion of a court martial 
or military commission. 

Any officer, soldier, ci\ ilian, who shall attempt to intimidate any quali- 
fied voter in the exercise of his right to vote, or who shall attempt to pre- 
vent any qualified voter from going to the polls or voting, shall be punished 
by imprisonment or otherwise at the discretion of a court martial or military 
commission. 

Special attention is called to the fifth article of war, which will be ap- 
plied to commisisoned officers of Missouri militia not in active service, as 
well as the officers and soldiers in actual service. 

By command of Major-Gener.\l Schofield. 

C. W. AFarsh, .Assistant Adjutant General. 

After the election the returns from many of the military companies of 
Greene county were rejected for irregularities. However, this was not true 
of Company E, Sixth Provisional Regiment, and three companies of the 
Twenty-fourth Missouri Infantry. 



GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 



FEDERAL TROOPS ORGANIZED AT SPRINGFIELD. 



371 



A number of companies and regiments for the Federal service was 
organized during the winter of 1S63-4 at Springfield. The able-bodied men 
of the county .had learned before this that they might expect to be in active 
service the greater portion of the time if they remained at their homes' as 
militia men. This being the case many preferred to enter the regular service 
of the United States. They did not feel safe at home where there was little 
peace. Even a number of Confederate sympathizers entered the regular 
service of the United States as a choice between two evils, for their existence 
at home was more precarious than the Unionists. 

Among the military organizations perfected at Springfield during this 
period were three batteries of the Second Missouri Artillery Regiment. They 
were known as Batteries H, I and K, and were commanded respectively at 
the first by Capt. W. C. Montgomery, Capt. S. H. Julian and Capt. W. P. 
Davis. Montgomery and Julian commanded their batteries through the war; 
David died and was succeeded by Ephraim Confare, who resigned in June, 
1864, and then Edward S. Rowland became captain. As these batteries 
were composed partly of Greene county men and were organized here, a 
brief history of each is not deemed inappropriate in these pages. 

Battery H was organized as a company of heavy artillery at Springfield, 
December 4, 1863, and left Springfield February 3. 1864, proceeded by way 
of Rolla and .St. Louis to New Madrid, Alissouri. It was commanded l)y 
Capt. W. C. Montgomery. On April 27, 1864, it was ordered to Cape 
Girardeau, this state, and remai