CHAPTER XIX

INTRODUCTION -- MINGO TOWNSHIP -- SETTLE FORD -- COVE CITY -- MAYESBURG -- GRAND RIVER TOWNSHIP -- ALTONA -- DEER CREEK TOWNSHIP -- ADRIAN -- CRESCENT HILL -- EAST BOONE TOWNSHIP -- BURDETT -- PARKERVILLE -- WEST BOONE TOWNSHIP -- ROSIER -- WEST POINT TOWNSHIP -- WEST POINT VILLAGE -- VINTON -- AMSTERDAM -- ELKHART TOWNSHIP -- ELKHART POST OFFICE -- MOUND TOWNSHIP -- PASSAIC -- SHAWNEE TOWNSHIP -- CULVER

In this chapter we give briefly such data as seems to be of historical value touching the early settlement in the several townships, beginning with Mingo township in the northeast corner of the county, and following west and east back and forth, ending with Howard township in the southwest corner of the county. This seems preferable to an alphabetical basis, as the townships are more familiar in that order.

Bounded on the north by Grand river, which separates it from Cass county, on the east by Henry county, on the south by Spruce township, and on the west by Grand River township. It is not quite a full congressional township of thirty-six sections, all of sections 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 lying north of Grand river in Cass county, and also parts of sections 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, and 12, all in township 42, range 29 west.

The land is rich and rolling, and more or less rugged, and is drained by Grand river on the north, and by Cove and Peter creeks, with Elk Fork touching the northwest corner of the township.

H. M. White came from Wayne county, Kentucky and settled on Elk Fork creek in this township in 1844, and died there in 1872. His son, J. M. White, was born there in 1846. Austin and Joseph Reeder settled between Elk Fork and Peter creeks in 1832. Alexander Earhart a native of West Virginia, opened a farm on Elk Fork in 1851, and his brother, Stronger, came at the same time. Among other early settlers were Robert Davis, Jefferson Lake, Morgan Settle, Nicholas Poage, Martin Hackler, Hamilton Burris, Joel Sparks, Jonathan Starks, Reece Hackler, Fred Hackler, James Settle, John C. Gragg, George Earhart, A. M. Gragg, Stephen Williams, the Ashcrafts, Shatleys, and Chadwells.

The first mill was erected at Settle Ford by Nicholas Poage. Cove City, in the north-central part of the township, back in the seventies, was a business point, but has practically taken its place with the forgotten cities. Mayesburg in the southeastern part of the township was founded in 1878, and Mayes & Carlton, merchants, built the first house and conducted a mercantile business there for many years. L. O. Carlton was the first postmaster. R. D. Gerdon the first blacksmith, and Dr. M. Duttler the first physician. G. A. Poage and G. W. West conducted a drug store there in the early days. The building of the Kansas City, Clinton & Springfield railroad through Urich a few miles distant in Henry county affected the development of Mayesburg, and the establishment of the rural mail delivery eliminated the post office at that village. It is still a trading point, but little more.

This township lies directly west of Mingo, and is also bounded on the north by Grand river, which is the line at this point between Bates and Cass. It is a rolling prairie, broken more or less by the following principal streams which flow in a general northerly direction into Grand river: Elk Fork, Mingo and Little Deer creek.

Among the early settlers may be mentioned Louis C. Haggard, Joseph Hilly, George Sears, Richard Dejarnett, John Sigler, Jake Lefler, Kimsey Coats, William Crawford, William Edwards, John and Joseph Pardee, Hiram and D. C. Edwards, Martin Owens, Martin Owens, Jr., Crayton Owens, Sarah White, M. M. Tucker, James Williams, Hardway Harrison, James and S. E. Harrison, and William France. Many of these names are still familiar in the township, being children or grandchildren of the pioneers.

The village of Altona is situate in the south-central part, and it was laid out in January 1860, by William Crawford, the owner of the land. A man by the name of Scoggin erected the first business house in the village. In 1868, Harrison and Shoube erected a grist and sawmill, which was afterward removed to Cass county. In 1878, the Missionary Baptists built a church edifice there. J. D. Wright and wife, George Moles and wife, August Warford and Mitchell Warford and family were among its early members.

Deer Creek township lies directly west of Grand River township. The Missouri Pacific railroad runs nearly directly through the township, north and south. This township is principally an undulating prairie, with very little rough or waste land, and is principally drained by Mormon Fork into Grand river, which forms for a short distance the northern boundary, and Deer creek, after which the township takes its name.

Among the prominent and known pioneers of this township may be mentioned the following: Joseph J. McCraw, a native of Halifax county, Virginia, came from Jackson county, Missouri, and settled in Deer Creek township in 1849. There were eight children in the family. He died in 1853. Other than the McCraws in 1850 may be mentioned: Richard Barker, Moses Barker, Matt Hill, William Mitchell, Bhuford, Stephen and Alfred Haynes, Brown C. Seagraves and a Mr. Adams; John Moudy came in 1856; Henry and John Rogers came the same year; John P. Wells came in 1855; John Murphy came in 1856; John Blunt in 1861; James Howerton in 1855; W. S. Hughes in 1854. Other old settlers, the exact date of whose coming is not known by the writer, are: Oliver Mitchell, Eli T. Sullins, M. C. Hiser, Emanuel Lemon, L. F. Kiser, L. C. Oder, Henry Hughes, Samuel Sligar, Isaiah Prebbel, Daniel Goodin, Jonathan Adams and Allen Ingle.

Adrian is situate in the extreme south-central part of Deer Creek township on the Missouri Pacific railroad, and is a town of such considerable importance that it should be treated separately in another part of this book.

Crescent Hill was located near the center of the township, and before the coming of the Missouri Pacific railroad in 1880, was a thrifty village but the railroad did not come through the village and when Adrian was surveyed and platted the business formerly done at Crescent Hill naturally drifted to the new and rapidly developing town; and Crescent Hill may fairly be said to have taken its place among other extinct and almost forgotten cities.

This township is situate in the north tier and its northern boundary is the county line between Bates and Cass. The land is generally prairie of good quality, but high and somewhat broken up by Mormon Fork and its tributaries. Mormon Fork runs in an easterly direction nearly through the center of the township. There are timber and building stone and water.

William R. Marshall, who came from Kentucky, settled on Mormon Fork in an early day. Mormon Fork gets its name from the fact that some Mormons driven out of Jackson county in 1833 made a settlement on the creek in this township. Barton Holderman was a pioneer, coming from Illinois. Gaugh L. Smith, Enoch Boiling, John M. Galloway, Joseph Cook, Samuel Stewart, David Hufft, John Puffer and Elias Baldwin were early settlers.

About the close of the Civil War population increased rapidly, and among others came Joseph Mudd, Isaiah Brown, Morris and James Roach, James and William Bagby, J. D. Masterson, Wilson Swank, A. D. Robbins, J. W. Hurdman, Peter Black, P. G. Lightfoot, Richard Richardson, John Fenton and R. F. Canterbury.

The village of Burdett is situate in the western central part of the township on Mormon Fork. It was founded in 1870 by Daniel Cauthrien and Oliver B. Heath. The first business house was built by Tumbleson & Shorb. The first postmaster was F. M. Tumbleson. A mill was erected the year the town was laid out, but destroyed by fire in 1874. This first mill was built by A. D. Basore, and a second one by Lewis Adams, which was moved to Archie, Cass county, in 1881. Burdett is a community center and considerable business is still carried on, but it is an inland village.

Parkerville was one of the oldest towns in Bates county founded in June 1857, by Wiley Parker, after whom it took its name. It was situated about one and a half miles directly south of where Burdett stands, but not a vestige remains to mark its grave. It is totally extinct yet history records the facts that John Frazier was the proprietor of a grocery store in its early and ambitious days; that John T. Peck was a pioneer; that Wilson & Feely were merchants, and Doctor Thomas F. Atherton was the first physician, and W. H. Atherton the first blacksmith. "The town was destroyed during the war of 1861" but it is not recorded how. There is absolutely nothing left to tell of its life or death.

West Boone is the northwest township of the county. It is generally a high, rolling prairie, little broken by streams, and is practically the watershed of both the Mormon Fork and Miami creeks; the one running northeasterly into Grand river, and the other southeasterly into the Marais des Cygnes river. It is distinguished for being the highest elevation in Bates county, about 1,000 feet above sea level, or about 400 feet higher than the lowest levels in the county.

The first settlers in this township were Alexander, Wilson and Norris Feely, brothers; the former two coming in 1842 and Norris in 1849. It is recorded that "Alexander Feely served in 1861 as one of the county court judges, his associates being Edmund Bartlette and Samuel M. Pyle. He died August 27, 1877." Frank R. Berry, a Kentuckian, came from Jackson county, Missouri, and settled on the headwaters of Mormon Fork creek in an early day, and soon after a relative by the name of T. E. Strode came and settled near by. Then came Joseph Clyner, Joseph and J. P. Taylor, all early settlers, but the exact date is not known. Soon after the close of the Civil War, John S. Stewart, James A. Stewart. Jacob and William Groves, G. L. Sayles, J. N. White, A. Rosier, J. H. Boswell, R. M. Feely, W. B. Akin. Jesse Nave, John Riley, Luke Gage, O. W. Stitt, J. C. Berry, and George Karter, came and settled in this township.

The only mill erected in the township was erected at the village of Rosier, now extinct, in the older days. Rosier was founded in 1881, and Bryant Brothers & McDaniel conducted a general merchandise store, and L. R. Robinson established a drug store about the same time.

This township joins the state of Kansas on the west, and like West Boone, is one of the border tier of townships. It lies directly south of West Boone, north of Homer, and west of Elkhart townships. It is a part of the most elevated portion of Bates county; an undulating prairie, cut by many streams of fine water, among which the principal are the Miami, Mulberry, Plum and Willow branches.

West Point is among the oldest settled parts of the county. Israel Brown was one of the earliest settlers, and he sold his farm to Vincent Johnson, a Kentuckian, in 1851. Covington Cooper was an early-day settler and died there in 1851. Coming in the late forties, were Benjamin Sharp, Henry Schuster, who later settled near Double Branches, in south Bates; John Green was an old settler who died during the Civil War; then, entitled to a place in the list, there were William Scott, Edgar C. Kirkpatrick, William Lamar, Jackson Clark, Nathan and Thomas Sears, James McHenry, J. E. Mooney, Samuel and James Forbes, Emberson Keaton, George Walley, William and Wiley Reed and William Adams.

The village of West Point is now extinct, with scarcely a land mark to indicate where this western post of civilization once stood, while the traffic of the savage and the adventurous pioneer poured through its marts and made its streets hum with real trade and commerce. Back in the fifties, it had a population of about 700 people, and it was the center of a large and growing trade. It was the last "outfitting" place after West Port Landing on the Missouri river and hither came that numerous line of adventurers and settlers going south and west into the Territory of Kansas. It was located on one of the highest points in the township, if not, in fact, the highest elevation in Bates county, and the vast view in every direction was unobstructed, limited only by the horizon. The point is about 1,000 feet above sea level, and overlooks a beautiful country in all directions.

It was situate less than a mile from the Kansas line in the extreme northwest corner of the township. The land on which it was located was entered by Thomas B. Arnett and Sydney Adams and the conveyance of the first lot was signed by Arnett and his wife in 1850. Arnett was the first clerk of Cass county. Adams sold out to Arnett prior to the sale of lots. J. A. Fox was among the first purchasers. West Point was the commercial and trading capital of a wide territory. Harrisonville and Papinsville were its closest and only rivals. It was on the Texas cattle trail. The Kansas Indian tribes visited it and traded there. Among its early merchants and business men may be mentioned: Curd & Barrett, druggists; a dry goods merchant; Judge Alexander Feely; William Scott; James McHenry; Chil. Lovelace; Thomas Sears and Dr. T. J. B. Rockwell, who were all in business some years before the war broke out. William and Joseph Potts, and Slater & Stribbens were blacksmiths. John Martin ran a saloon, then called a grocery. William R. Simpson and John Roundtree were also business men. Henry Schuster erected a mill to grind corn only and ran it by ox-power on an inclined plane, or a "tread mill." John Green also had a mill at an early day. Wyatt Sanford was postmaster in 1856, and afterward James McHenry and Irvine Walley. The first hotel was kept by Mr. Hedges, who later sold to Judge Alexander Feely.

This hotel was a two-story frame, and was the largest hotel in all the western country, having no less than forty rooms; which fact indicates somewhat the great travel and business of the town. Besides, there were three other hotels, and sixteen business houses.

General Clark came to West Point in the fall of 1856, during the border troubles between the pro-slavery and anti-slavery men, with about five hundred men, and remained in town about ten days. During the war the town was burned and scarcely a stone was left to tell where it had been. After the war a small business house and a post office were established there and with a few scattered residences the village had a precarious existence until the Kansas City Southern railroad crept stealthily by under the hill to the east, and the new town of Amsterdam was established a couple of miles south. Then the historic town of West Point gave up the ghost, and only debris remain to speak its former glory. It is a pitiful story, but one not uncommon in this western country. But here was really the westernmost post of civilization for a number of years, and if the real history of men and women who resided there in the fifties, were known it would doubtless be one of tragedy and sorrow. And they had a big school and a weekly newspaper.

The village of Vinton was founded in 1867, in the eastern part of the township by a Mr. Swink, who built a corn-grinding mill there which was run by steam. Swink sold it to William Morrison in 1872 and he took the mill to Sugar Creek, Kansas. A. J. Christler established a mercantile business there. Then followed Felix Cox, and later J. P. Willis. The first postmaster was A. J. Christler and the first blacksmith was Thomas Hackett. The village now is only a memory but it doubtless had its aspirations.

The town of Amsterdam was laid out by John L. Rankin, September 30, 1891, in the western central part of the township, on the Kansas City & Southern railroad, and is one of the leading business points on that railroad in Bates county. It has a bank, a newspaper, and all the industries and commercial establishments to be found in towns of its class. It has been rebuilt since a disastrous fire about a year ago. It is a prosperous village.

Elkhart lies east of West Point and may be said to be an interior township. It is watered by the Miami, Knabb's creek, and Lime-branch, tributaries of the Miami.

Elkhart had few settlers prior to the war, and remained very sparsely settled until about 1866. It is more nearly level than any township in the county, and is little broken. Among those who are recalled as pioneers we mention Jesse Lovelace, Vinson Martin, Elias Barnett, Robert Clinging, Torraine Browning, John Ferguson, Richard Westover, A. J. Satterlee, Hugh Mills, Robert Evans, John Baker, and his sons, Griswold and James, and a man by the name of Montgomery who settled on the Raybourn place. Among the first permanent settlers were the Keatons. Wiles Keaton, of North Carolina, is said to have settled in what is now Elkhart in 1845, and Mrs. Keaton died there in 1847, leaving a numerous family, some descendants still residing in that vicinity.

After the war and between 1866 and 1869, the following located in different parts of the township: F. A. Cox, P. A. Allen, I. N. Raybourn, Frank Evans, F. M. Neafus, Charles Lee, W. B. Whetstone, William Tarr, Thadius Cowdry, John Nuble, and George Pubels. The first sawmill was built by Merrit Zinn & Co. about 1870.

What is known as Elkhart Post Office, is about the center of the township, and is the community center of the township.

Mound lies directly east of Elkhart, south of Deer Creek, north of Mt. Pleasant and west of Shawnee, township 41, range 31.

It is a typical prairie country, undulating, and not much broken. Bones creek in the southwest portion, an affluent of the Miami, is the only stream worth mentioning, but the township is abundantly watered by wells, ponds, and small streams.

Being practically a woodless prairie in the early days, settlement was slow. It was preeminently a cattle and grazing territory. History records the fact that Boston H. Bowman and family settled on Bones creek in the south part of the township in 1855, and remained there till he died. He reared a family and left a widow who told the historian that when water was not plentiful in Bones creek, they often had to go to Balltown, then on the Little Osage in Vernon county to mill, and wait a long time for their grist. She recollected that at one time it took a week for her husband to go to mill and return. The family went to Illinois the latter part of the war, but returned to their home in Mound afterward, and he died in 1868.

Passaic was laid out July 14, 1891, by Charles S. Conklin, situate on the Missouri Pacific railway, about half way between Butler and Adrian. It is a good shipping point. It has a store, elevator and hotel, and it is the community center of south-central Mound township.

Shawnee lies east of Mound. It is almost wholly a rich prairie, broken by no considerable streams. It is drained by Elk Fork and Little Deer creeks, which run north to Grand river, and Mound branch, which runs south to the Miami. There was little or no timber in the early days and like Mound, Shawnee was regarded as grazing land.

The story of the early settlers of Shawnee is shrouded in doubt and uncertainty as to date and the permanent settlers, but it appears that about 1828 a hunter named Raupe from Lexington had occasion to be on Mound, and seven Indians captured him, and after robbing him of his gun and equipment, set him free. Then it appears that a Mr. Evans was on top of the same mound in the fall of 1835, counting the deer within his vision, and viewing the beautiful landscape in all directions from that favorable elevation. It is claimed that he came to what is now Shawnee in 1832 or 1833 and took up a claim. William Charles settled on Elk Fork in 1837. A man named John Weschusen, directly from Germany, came and settled on the headwaters of Elk Fork. There are others mentioned in a general way, but nearly all, after a year or two, went elsewhere. Along in the forties James B. Sears, a native of Kentucky, came and settled. The historian alleges that the first apple orchard planted in Shawnee was planted by Elisha Evans, and that he raised the first wheat crop in that township, "and possibly the first crop in the county, outside of the Harmony Mission settlement." Upon these meager data and unsatisfactory details hangs the claim that the second settlement in the county was in Shawnee township, the first being Harmony Mission in Prairie township in 1821.

Culver has one store, and is a community center and trading point. It is located in section 25. or near the southeast corner of the township.