drill, and several companies from the surrounding
country were invited to join them. The company from
Dry wood (cavalry,) Capt. Boring, and Mill Creek com-
pany, (infantry,) Capt. Hall, responded to the invitation.

At 10 a. m. the Guards formed at their respective
armories, and after a little marching and counter-
marching, went out to meet and escort in Captain
Boring's company. The field music was excellent.
The Drywood boys were received with hearty cheers
and escorted into town, where the Mill Creek boys
were met and received with like cordiality. After din-
ner the cavalry was drilled by Captain John Hamilton,
and the infantry had a battalion drill under E. A.
Smith. At five o'clock the battalion was dismissed,
and all parties returned to their homes, mutually
pleased with the Fourth of July and each other.

On the 5th day of July the battle of Carthage
was fought. This occasioned great alarm and appre-
hension. We had a war sure enough and it was
getting uncomfortably close.

Shortly after the Carthage affair General Lyon
authorized Captains W. T. Campbell and W. C.
Ransom to raise two companies of one hundred men
each, to serve as Home Guards. Then two other com-
panies were raised by Captains Z. Gower and Lewis R.
Jewell, and these four companies were the origin and
foundation of the Sixth Kansas Cavalry.



1861 ] BA TTLE OF DM Y WOOD.



CHAPTER XXIV.

BATTLE OF DRYWOOD.

•5'rPHE proximity of war in Missouri led J. H. Lane,

§Ml who was posing as Brigadier General of Volunteers,

If in command of Kansas troops, to "fortify" Fort

Lincoln, on the Osage River. The work done

<l « there, in a military or common sense view, was

t simply idiotic. He went down on the very

lowest bottom land of the river, where he threw up an

earth-work about the size of a calf-pen and then

blazoned it forth as a great military fortification.

In the latter part of August a considerable force was
being concentrated at Fort Scott. Old Jim Mont-
gomery had of course, by this time, gotten a regiment
together, and five companies of the Third Kansas
under him arrived on the 20th of August. Other
Kansas troops arrived from time to time until the
aggregate force was about two thousand men. Fort
Scott was now headquarters for General Lane's brigade.

The rebel Generals, Price and Raines, were operating
in Western Missouri with several thousand men, and
contemplated an attack on Southeastern Kansas. On
the 1st of September General Raines with his division
approached within twelve miles of Fort Scott, on the



170 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1861

southeast, and a scouting party came within two miles
of town and captured a corral full of mules, and drove
in Lane's pickets. A force of 500 cavalry with one 12
pound howitzer, was sent out the next day to reconnoitre.
They ran into the rebel pickets and drove them across
Drywood creek, where they were reinforced, and quite
a rattling good skirmish was fought, until the ammu-
nition of the Union forces gave out, when they fell
back in good order on Fort Scott. The official reports
give the Union loss in this action as five killed and
twelve wounded. The rebel loss was about the same.
In the meantime the infantry force occupied the
heights east and southeast of town. These troops were
reinforced by an impromptu company, organized that
morning, of such men as McDonald, Drake and the
other citizens who were not already in line on the hill.
This company was sworn into the service, drew arms
and ammunition, and marched to the front in two rows
like regulars. They still belong to the army. They
were never mustered out. Some of them have their
arms yet. Drake says his old musket is down in the
cellar now, with the same load in it he put in on that
day. Some of these days a little Lieutenant may come
along and order them out on advance picket with three
days' cooked rations, or he may order them to the
Soldier's Home. They never drew pay. They are
presumably entitled to back pay and bounty up to date.
They are certainly all entitled to pensions by reason of
rheumatism, superinduced by exposure while in line of
duty. But they did their full duty that day, and if there
had been a fight would have held on as long as anybody.



1861] THE SIXTH KANSAS. 171

The entire force waited on the crest of the hill until
night for the expected attack of General Raines. About
dark a raging thunder storm — which follows after all
great battles— came up, and the boys, concluding that
it would affect the rebels just as it did them, returned to
town and sought shelter in camp.

That night General Lane ordered the entire force to
fall back on Fort Lincoln, twelve miles north, on the
Osage, leaving Fort Scott to the mercy of anybody
that might come along. A scouting party of fifty men
could have gutted and burned the town without oppo-
sition. Lane displayed here his usual cowardice when
confronted by real danger. It is said that he would
have burned the town himself — had actually ordered
the torch applied — but he was prevailed on by the
citizens to wait at least until the rebel force had crossed
the State line. Of course, there was great commotion
in town. The non-combatants, women and children —
excepting Mrs. Wm. Smith, Mrs. H. T. Wilson, Mrs.
John S. Miller and one or two others, who decided to
wait awhile, — were loaded into wagons and driven out
west toward Marmaton. The torch was ready to be
applied to every building in town on the first appearance
of the rebel troops on the summit of the eastern hills.
But they did not appear. General Raines was at that
moment nuking a forced march on Lexington, Mis-
souri, by ;i'i order that day received from General
Price, and Fort Scott thus escaped utter annihilation.

THE SIXTH KANSAS.

The Sixth Kansas Cavalry was organized at Fort



172 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1861

Scott on the 9th of September, 1861. A large part of
this regiment was Bourbon County men. W. R. Judson
was Colonel. The first Lieutenant-Colonel was Lewis
R. Jewell, who was killed at the battle of Cane Hill,
Ark., November 28, 1862. W. T. Campbell was then
promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel, and served through
the war. Wyllys C. Ransom was Major. C. O. Judson
was Adjutant until March, 1862. Isaac Stadden was
then Adjutant until August, 1862. The Quarter-
masters were successively Geo. J. Clark, S. B. Gordon,
Charles W. Jewell and Levi Bronson. Dr. John S.
Redfield was surgeon until February 21, 1865, when
he was mustered out and returned home. Capt. John
Rogers, Captain of Company K, was killed by bush-
whackers near the south line of this county on the 2nd
of June, 1864. John G. Harris, lieutenant of Company
K, was badly wounded at Cane Hill, Ark., by a ball
passing clear through his neck. He recovered, and
after the war was Sheriff of Bourbon County. The
other line officers of the Sixth Kansas who lived in
this county have been mentioned.

Jewell County in this State was named in honor
of Colonel Lewis R. Jewell, when that County was
organized in 1867, at tne instance of Samuel A.
Manlove, who was that year a member of the Legisla-
ture from Fort Scott.

Fort Scott was again established as a military post
and a depot of supplies. From two thousand to ten
thousand troops were making transitory stops here,
arriving and departing and shifting about as the
necessities of the case seemed to require. Long wagon



1861] SOME MORE POLITICS. 173

trains of Government supplies, — hardtack, bacon,
beans, rice, coffee and sugar, of the Commissary depart-
ment, and blue uniforms, boots and shoes, blankets,
etc., of the Quartermaster department were constantly
coming and going, and the grand chorus of a thousand
voices from the mule corral was the first thing heard in
the morning and the last at night.

SOME MORE POLITICS.

In October, 1861, the Republican State Committee
was petitioned by a large number of voters to nomi-
nate a State ticket, and a special and emphatic request
was made in the petition that a patriotic and energetic
man be named for Governor on a war platform. They
claimed that Governor Charles Robinson was impotent
and inefficient, and that by the terms of the State
Constitution his term of office expired January 1, 1862,
notwithstanding the enactment of the Legislature
extending the term. The committee in response to
these petitioners nominated a full State ticket with
George A. Crawford, of Bourbon County, for Governor.
There was no other ticket in the field for State officers.
The location of the State Capital was to be voted
on, and members of the Legislature were to be elected.
The election was held on the 5th of November. Mr.
Crawford and his ticket received more than one-half as
many votes as the total vote polled on the State
Capital question, but the State Board of Canvassers
refused to canvass the vote. Mr. Crawford took the
case to the Supreme Court, and it is the first case



174 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1861

reported in the First Kansas reports. It is held by the
Court that the act of the Legislature of May 22, 1861,
provided for the election of Governor at the general
election of 1862, and that the election of the Crawford
ticket was null and void.

Topeka received the majority of the vote cast for
State Capital.

Eli G. Jewell and Geo. A. Reynolds were elected to
the Legislature from Bourbon County.

On the 2nd of December, 1861, General J. W.
Denver was ordered to Fort Leavenworth, and placed
in command of the Kansas troops.



1862 J VARIOUS THINGS. 175



CHAPTER XXV.



VARIOUS THINGS.



N the Spring of 1862, a considerable force was con-
) centrated at Fort Scott, consisting of the 1st and
6th Kansas, the 9th, 12th and 13th Wisconsin, the
2nd Ohio Cavalry and Captain Rabb's 2nd Indiana
; Battery. The 5th Kansas Cavalry, which had been
camped at Barnesville all winter was placed under
command of Col. Powell Clayton. In the early spring
this regiment was marched through Fort Scott to Dry-
wood. It remained there a few days, when Clayton got
permission to take the regiment out of this department,
and he hustled it off down on the lower Mississippi.
Sam Walker, who has been mentioned several times
during the border troubles was Major of this regiment.
James Montgomery was Colonel of the 3d Kansas, and
afterwards he was transferred to the command of a
colored regiment in South Carolina, where he probably
renewed his acquaintance with Buford and the Ham-
iltons, or at least with their kinfolks.

Speaking of the Hamiltons, nothing reliable is known
of that particular group, after the war began. They all
probably went into the rebel army. It is said that in
the fall of 1861, Captain Bain, with a portion of the



176 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1862

6th Kansas, captured several persons over in Missouri,
and on his way up he camped one night about two
miles south of Arcadia. The next morning, after they
had broken camp and started on the march, Bain took
a detail of men, and, selecting out seven of the pris-
oners, took them off to one side of the road and killed
them. Bain gave it out that they were with the Ham-
ilton gang at the Marais des Cygnes murder. That was
possibly true, but it was more probable that they were
Bain's personal enemies

The Kansas troops had now been in the service sev-
eral months, and they began to think they were old
veterans. Most of them had quit writing letters to
their folks more than twice a week, and they had all
learned the best manner of cooking beans, and pre-
paring hard-tack so that it would seem like something
else. Their ideas of war were somewhat changed
before they got through with it.

On the ioth of May, 1862, a small newspaper called
the Fort Scott Bulletin was established.

In the spring of 1862 the people of Fort Scott let the
city election go by default, and it was not until in
August that they discovered they had missed a chance
to vote. Then the council ordered an election to be
held on the 25th. J. S. Miller was elected Mayor, H.
T. Wilson, P. P. Elder, William Smith and C. F. Drake,
Councilmen; J. E. Dillon, clerk: J. F. White, Marshal;
C. W. Goodlander, Treasurer; A. R. Allison, Assessor,
and J. G. Stuart, Street Commissioner.

On the 1st of June Lieutenant Colonel Lewis R.



1862] VARIOUS THINGS. 177

Jewell was placed in command of the Post of Fort
Scott.

About July, 1862, Rube Forbes, whom we have
already had occasion to mention, and a man named
Troy Dye robbed the store of E. S. Scott, at Xenia.
This caused a great commotion among the settlers
of that neighborhood, and they raised a posse, headed
by Captain Vansycle, late of Co. "I," Sixth Kansas,
and Lieutenant Ford of the same company. They got
after the thieves in close chase. Dye got away but
they run Forbes into a very dense brush patch about
four miles south of Mapleton, where he was sur-
rounded. The brush was so thick they could not see
Rube but they charged in as far as they could and fired.
Rube instantly returned the fire and Captain Vansycle
fell dead. He fired again and Lieutenant Ford fell
badly wounded. The lieutenant was at once taken up
by Charles Love, J. R. Anderson and others, and
carried on a coat to a house about half a mile distant,
and was soon afterward taken to his home near Union-
town where he died. At the third fire by Rube, E. C.
Buck was badly wounded in the neck, and came
near dying. About that time a company of soldiers
arrived, who fired a volley into the brush where Rube
was and his dead body was dragged out.

On the 15th of July, 1862, the first number of the
Bourbon County Monitor was issued at Marmaton by
David B. Emmert.

The Second Kansas Battery was raised in Bourbon
County by C. W. Blair, early in the summer.
The officers were C. W. Blair, Captain ; E. A. Smith,
12



178 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1862

D. C. Knowles, A. G. Clark, and A.Wilson, Lieutenants.
This was known through the war as "Blair's Battery."

FALL ELECTIONS.

The general election in the State was held on the 4th
of November, 1862. Thomas Carney, Republican, of
Leavenworth, was elected Governor. He received
exactly 10,000 votes. The opposition candidate was
W. R. WagstafF, of Paola. His vote was 5,463.

The vote in Bourbon County for Governor was 413
to 86. This county was the Fourteenth Senatorial
District. Isaac Ford was elected Senator by 431 votes,
against 33 votes for E. Williams. There were four
Representative Districts in this county, the 50th, 51st,
52nd and 53rd. In the 50th D. B. Jackman received
41 votes, L. D. Clevenger, 26. In the 51st J. Hawkins,
62 ; W. T. Jones, 37. In the 52nd, D. R. Cobb received
the entire vote, 97. In the 53rd, C. F. Drake received
the entire vote, 205.




City Hall and Court House, 1865.



1 8B3] CO UN TV SEA T RE TURNED. 179



CHAPTER XXVI.

COUNTY SEAT RETURNED TO FORT SCOTT.

T THIS session of the Legislature C. F. Drake
introduced and had passed a general county seat
law, providing for elections for county seats on
petition to the County Court, etc. On the passage
of that law the City Council of the City of Fort
Scott, of which Mr. Drake was also a member,
proposed to the County Court that the city would build
a City Hall and in the event that the people, at the
proposed election, voted to re-locate the county seat at
Fort Scott the use of the City Hall would be given to
the county for county purposes. The proposition was
accepted by the Board of County Commissioners, and a
special election for county seat was held on the nth
day of May, 1863. The result of the election was as
follows : Fort Scott received 700 votes ; Centerville, on
Mill Creek, 279 votes; Mapleton, 14 votes; Fort Lincoln,
1 vote, and at a meeting of the Board of County Com-
missioners on the 16th of May 1863, the last one held
at Marmaton, Fort Scott was by proclamation declared
the county seat. At this meeting there were present
T. W. Tallman, Isaac Ford and E. A. Toles, Commis-
missioners and David R. Cobb, County Clerk.



180 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1863

The city council then took steps for the erection of
the City Hall. The location decided on was the
South-east corner of Locust and Jones streets, now
Second Street and National Avenue. The building
was to be of stone, two stories high. The contract was
let to Goodlander & Allison for the sum of $3,900. It
was completed that fall, except the railing around the
spiral stairway, which was never finished. Good-
lander made one for it but it didn't fit, and he threw it
under the work bench, then he convinced the council
that railings were out of style, anyhow.

At a meeting of the City Council held on December
14, 1863, it was on motion, ordered "That the City
Marshal notify the county officers that the City Hall
was in readiness, and request them to occupy the same."

The county officers then moved in. The County
Clerk, Treasurer and Register of Deeds occupied the
lower story. The District Court was held in the upper
story. And that was the Bourbon County court house
for nearly thirty years. When court was not in session
the upper story was subject to be used for miscellaneous
purposes. Religious services were held there nearly
every Sunday by some Denomination which had, as yet,
no home of their own. Political meetings and con-
ventions caucused and pulled wires, and long-haired
itinerant cranks would occasionally loosen the plaster-
ing in expounding their wonderful theories. During
the 6o 1 s amateur dramatic clubs often "played" under
the management of John R. Morley, Geo. Clark and
Ken Williams, in a repertoire from "Black-eyed
Susan" to "Hamlet." A "Masquerade Ball" was



1803] COUNTY SEAT RETUkNED. 181

given at least once a year. The "Masques" were
varied, most life-like, and always thoroughly original.

But few incidents of local interest transpired during
the year 1863. There was not much done in the way
of improvement either in the town or county. The
erection of the woollen factory by Geo. A. Crawford
was the most important. Fort Scott being a military
post, a telegraph line was constructed from Fort Leav-
enworth, and the people had means of communication
with the outside world, without having to depend on
the often delayed trips of the old "jerky" stage, which
the boys said was a "tri-weekly, — it went out one week
and tried to get back the next." Sometimes it didn't
do it. The stage fare between Kansas City and Fort
Scott was "ten dollars and carry a rail." Sometimes,
when the roads were real good, a man passenger would
not have to walk and carry a rail more than a third
of the time. When they were very bad he walked all
the way, carried his rail, and paid his ten dollars just
the same. So. But then he had the privilege of being
whirled into town and landed at the Wilder House
with a grand flourish. That was worth something.

A good portion of the men of Bourbon County, in
common with those of the balance of the State, were
in the army. The total number of Kansas troops in
the field by the middle of this year was 9,600. A large
number went in after that date. Nearly every man
living in Kansas during the war was in the service in
some shape. If not in the volunteer service he was in
the home guards or State militia.

On the 4th of July, 1863, E. A. Smith was pro-



182 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1863

moted to Captain of the 2nd Kansas, or Blair's Battery,
and Blair was assigned to the 14th Regiment of Kansas
Volunteers as Colonel. He was soon after promoted to
Brigadier General, and ordered to Fort Scott as com-
mandant of the post. He remained in command of
this post until April 28th, 1865, when he was succeeded
by Gen. U. B. Pearsall, who remained in command
until the close of the war.

ELECTIONS.

The general election in the State was held on the 3rd
of November. District Attorneys, Legislators, and a
part of the county officers were to be chosen. Samuel
A. Riggs was elected District Attorney for the Fourth
Judicial District, consisting of the counties of Allen,
Anderson, Bourbon, Douglas, Franklin, Johnson, Linn
and Miami. The Representatives for Bourbon County
were Wm. Stone, R. P. Stevens, D. R. Cobb and J. G.
Miller. County Treasurer, James Aitkin; Sheriff, H.
G. Moore; Probate Judge, Wm. Rose; Register of
Deeds, E. B. Norcross. The new County Board was
organized on the next January: T. W. Tallman, E. A.
Toles and J. F. Holt, Commissioners, and J. S. Em-
mert, County Clerk.




Fort Blair, Built in the Street at the Corner of Scott Avenue and
First Street in the Spring of 1864.



1864] POLITICAL FEELING. 183



CHAPTER XXVII.

FORTIFICATIONS.

N the early part of 1864 several extensive fortifica-

) tions were commenced, and finished that spring.
These were quite heavy, well constructed earth-
works. "Fort Henning" was located on Second

* street, between National Avenue and Judson street.
"Fort Blair" was on First street between Main
street and Scott Avenue, and contained the block house
uow standing across from the post office. l 'Fort Insley ' '
was on the extreme point northeast of the Plaza. There
were some barracks and fortifications commenced on the
hill southeast of town, and some rifle pits on what we
now call Tower Hill. The old Government Hospital
building was used for a hospital, and the old guard
house was again utilized for the original purpose.

Dr. Van Duyn was the surgeon in charge of hospitals
at this post during 1864.

POLITICAL, FEELING.

There was but little partisan political feeling in this
County at that time. Public sentiment may have
found vent, to some extent, in the action of the City
Council at a meeting held January 2, at which Coun-



184 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1864

cilmen Dimon, White and Drake caused the following
order to be spread upon the minutes :

'•''Ordered: That the Street Commissioner cause
a sidewalk to be built from the corner of Wall Street,
etc., and provided, that said walks be of two planks
one foot wide, 12 inches apart, 2 X / Z inches thick,
slightly elevated, and pinned to terra firma like h — 1."

The old party organizations were kept up, but the
sentiments of all were simply for the Union and
for the suppression of the rebellion.

At a large Democratic convention held May 23rd,
1864, in the City Hall, for the purpose of electing
a delegate to the State Democratic Convention to
be held at Topeka, the following resolution, among
others, was passed :

"Resolved, That we will vote for no man for Presi-
dent or Vice-President who is not pledged to devote all
his powers to the suppression of the rebellion, and
maintain and defend the Constitution of the Union
from all aggression from secession traitors of the South
and conspirators of the North."

The meeting was presided over by Robert Blackett.
O. Dieffenbaugh was secretary. Charles Bull was
chosen delegate to the State Convention.

John E. Himoe, of Mapleton, brother of Dr. S. O.
Himoe, while on a trip up the Missouri river, about
April 1, 1864, was taken down with the smallpox. He
was landed at Boonville with a nurse. While there he
became delirious and one night, escaping from the
house in that condition, he tried to break in through
the window of a neighboring house, and the man inside



1864] RAIDS ON DRY WOOD. 185

naturally took him for a burglar and shot him dead.
Mr. Himoe was at that time County Surveyor of
this county.

RAIDS ON DRYWOOD.

About the 20th of May, 1864, Henry Taylor, a noted
guerrilla of Vernon County, Mo., made a raid in the
Drywood valley. He had a large company with him,
some say as many as eighty men. He entered Bourbon
County on the south, and first went to the house of
William Custard, about ten o'clock at night. Custard
had been in bed, but by some means he got warning of
their approach, and he and his brother, Rufus, made
their escape, just in the nick of time. Taylor run into
the house and, in the search, he felt in the warm bed,
which Custard had just left.

Taylor then robbed several families and committed
other depredations. Finally, on his return out of the
county he went to the house of Louis L. Ury, at the
place where Garland is now, and surrounded it. There
were in the house, Mr. Ury and his wife, his son Joe
Ury, and the young children, Newt and the two girls,
now Mrs. Homer Pond and Mrs. John Withers, and a
Mr. T. Cartmell. Taylor had with him Mike Kelley,
John Gwynn and several other prisoners that he had
picked up, and intended to get Mr. Ury and his son
Joe. After capturing the men folks he moved Newt
and the two girls out into the corner of the yard
preparatory to burning the house. Just theu George