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EPIDEMICS IN CALDWELL COUNTY 
GOING TO TOWN BEFORE AUTOMOBILES CAME 
OLD WELLS AND SPRINGS IN HAMILTON AND VICINITY 
THE 1874 DROUGHT IN CALDWELL COUNTY 
EARLY SCHOOLING BOTH IN CALDWELL AND RAY COUNTIES 
HE VOTED FOR LINCOLN 
A PUBLIC HANGING 
ELECTING A PRESIDENT IN THE LATE SEVENTIES AND EARLY EIGHTIES
AN EX-SLAVE SPEAKS 
BEFORE THE DAYS OF BANK CHECKS 

EPIDEMICS IN CALDWELL COUNTY 
Narrator: Emma Brown of Hamilton and Others

Miss Brown is the daughter of George Brown and Jane Wilkinson who
lived in Vinton County Ohio till in 1873 they joined the Ohio
immigration to Caldwell County. They bought a farm in the Lovely
Ridge District west of Hamilton. There were several Vinton County
folks there: Dan Booth, Ike Dunkle, Sam Bay, Hi Smith, Block
Doddridge, and Henry Clark (father of Mrs. Elwood Rogers). When
George Brown died 1880, the family moved to Hamilton into the home on
South Broadway where Miss Brown still lives. She is a sister of the
late Dr. Tinsley Brown who began his practice here 1876, hence she has
been interested in watching and hearing about various epidemics which
have gone through this community. One of the earliest epidemics
of which the oldest old timers mentioned by hearing is the typhoid
epidemic of 1835. It broke out in the southern part of Daviess County
just over the line, among the McCrary family who had come there about
1830 from North Carolina. In 1835 about seven or eight of the McCrary
family died of what was later found to be typhoid fever; but before
the Doctor gave it a name, the neighbors called it "McCrary fever"
because of the large number of sick in that family. Grandfather
McCrary (then the head of the clan) died of it and his burial started
the McCrary Cemetery. There were several severe epidemics in the
earlier years of Caldwell County which took a heavy toll of children's
lives; the older cemeteries show a large proportion of children's
deaths often belonging to certain years. There was a Small Pox
epidemic in the 1840's reported by the Jones family in which their
grandmother died. In 1856-57 there occurred a hard Scarlet Fever
epidemic. In the summer of 1856 the family of Allen Tobban in Davis
Township was visited by it and five children died from July 28 to
August 6th. The little graves in White Cemetery tells the story. Mr.
Andrew McCray (92) says that Dr. J.B. Gant of Knoxville was the
doctor. Mr. and Mrs. McCray (Andrew's parents) as neighbors helped
care for the children; being careful not to take it home to their own.
By January 1857 it had spread up to Hamilton and two of A.G. Davis'
children at Hamilton died of it. All had it. In 1872 came a
diphtheria epidemic; there are many 1872 tombstones of children. In
1873 came another Small Pox Epidemic. This run of Small Pox is
reported to have started by some negroes who dug up Small Pox clothes
which had been buried. People yet living here lost children the R.D.
Dwight and son, Kenny had it and received resulting pocked faces.
Little Ora Hare, son of T.H. Hare died of it and was buried in the old
cemetery. The old story is that he was privately buried at night to
prevent spread of the disease. A dog from a Small Pox home carried
the germ to him. In the Fall of 1873, black or virulent measles
struck Hamilton and Dan Booth who had come from Ohio on a prospecting
trip almost died of them. In 1874 there was a bad run of typhoid
fever in the late summer. The people those days explained typhoid as
due either to the poison that came from newly turned virgin soil or to
the dry prairie grass. Irwin Brown aged twenty two brother of Dr. T.
Brown died of typhoid 1874 and three members of the Watson family at
Nettleton. In 1875 Sarah Low and Leon Low were among the victims. In
1875 again Scarlet Fever came and Dr. Stoller's own child was among
the many victims. In 1879 Diphtheria came and whole families were
taken off. The Pittman children buried in Highland cemetery are well
known examples. Parents hung bags of asafetida around children's
necks to ward off the disease. In 1883 came Measles again,
starting mildly but it acquired such virulence that even grown up
people died of it. There must have been a Small Pox scare 1881 for
middle aged people now can recall being vaccinated then as children
and also the agony when it "took." There was an epidemic of
Chicken pox about the same time that caused serious illness but no
deaths as far as the narrator recalls. In April 1884 there was a
epidemic of Seven Years Itch here in town which caused the schools to
close without final examinations. This was not as serious as it was
embarrassing to the very respectable people who had it.

Interviewed July 1934.

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GOING TO TOWN BEFORE AUTOMOBILES CAME 
Narrator: John Bennett, 66, of Hamilton, Missouri

In the days before Farmers possessed automobiles, going to town
was quite an event. Such trips were usually on Saturday so the
children could go too. The old farm wagon was the usual vehicle,
although some people had a two-seated spring wagon which seated six if
needed. Mr. Bennett's folks began with a lumber wagon and finally the
father bought the spring wagon. In a wagon, the parents sat on the
seat, the children might sit on a board laid across the wagon or on an
additional wagon seat or in the wagon bed itself which was filled with
straw covered over with old quilts. Mr. Bennett's mother hardly ever
went to town on account of the numerous youngsters, so one of the
older girls sat up with the father Thomas Bennett. When the
family went to town, they took their lunch and ate in the shade of
some big tree, feeding the horses at the same time. The water was
carried in one of their own buckets from some public well in Hamilton.
Their father disliked to have his horses drink out of the trough by
public wells lest they catch some disease. There used to be a public
well and trough just south to the Orville Parker grocery store and
another was located south of the old Houston, Spratt and Menefee Bank
(which has recently been restored to its old usefulness in the 1934
drought). Some town folks did not like to have country folks eat
under their front trees because it called flies, but some country
people have recalled that there were some town people who even brought
out fresh water to them and would invite the country women into the
house till time to go. If the men went by themselves they were
apt to buy crackers and cheese and eat in the store, sitting on a
cracker barrel. Or they might drop into a restaurant for a bite. At
Fourth of July celebrations and the old Hamilton Fair, the family went
as a whole, excepting Mrs. Bennett. They started to the fair early so
the father could see the stock in the morning. At noon they laid
their dinner out on the ground on a table cloth and were always proud
of the dinner prepared by Mrs. Bennett and the Bennett girls. Such
dinners were a matter of family pride. 

Interviewed August 15, 1934.

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OLD WELLS AND SPRINGS IN HAMILTON AND VICINITY 
Narrators: Mrs. Gertie Cavanaugh, Joe Davis, and Guy Thompson

The 1934 drought has brought back many abandoned wells and
springs and caused much discussion among older folks on the subject.
Guy Thompson says that his father Asa Thompson came to Hamilton 1867.
He was a cabinet maker (furniture maker) but there was little demand
for his work. He knew something of well digging so he and a partner
bought a hand-bore with a board fastened at the top. By the two
pushing at the ends of the board, they bored a well. One of Asa
Thompson's well was on the premises of the present J.M. Hill home,
then occupied by the shack of Carr Taylor, a negro here in the
seventies. Mr. Thompson made a good living out of wells for a few
years for the new homes established here in the 1868 boom.
Another well digger of the late sixties was Martin Christiansen,
father of Mrs. Cavanaugh. He came here as a farmer and used the well
digging to help out his earnings. Two well known wells were dug by
him and his brother John. One was on Mill street south of Parker's
grocery, now covered by the pavement. This had a chained tin cup and
a horse trough on two or three sides. Many people in this section got
their water at this public well, till they sank a cistern or well. It
was good water. Another Martin Christiansen well was the old one just
south of the old Houston-Spratt and Menefee Bank (present C.A. Martin
stand). This well served thousands of people for a refreshing drink
and thousands of weary horses too at the horse trough. During the
drought of 1934 it has been restored to usefulness and shows a steady
stream of water even when subjected to a heavy drain. An old well
dating to the seventies now closed up, stood on the partnership line
between the Moore home (Houghton Funeral Home) and the George
Rohrbough home (Mrs. Mary Kautz house) on Broadway. The old McCoy
well dug about 1870 by Wm. McCoy when he started his general store on
South Broadway was closed up when the Hawks garage was built on that
site. The old McCoy cistern by the McCoy home on same lot is still in
usable shape and stands in the garage about half way back.
Another very old well still going strong was the old A.G. Davis well
dug for the Davis family use when they left the Davis hotel and moved
about 1859 to a house across the street on the present site of
Citizens Trust Company. This well 80 feet deep was put in good shape
several years ago when Eb Galpin built the brick building now occupied
by the George McPherson Produce store. It stands inside by the south
wall. Another old well still much in use is the one built by O.O.
Brown in the early seventies by his two store buildings on south
Broadway. Its water is so excellent that today you may see people
taking a walk to get a drink there. It was long known as the Stoller
well and now the place is Souders property. An old well recently
was brought to light on the Will Gay farm near Mirabile. This well
may well be nearly 100 years old. It is on the old Lexington trail,
and probably many a Caldwell county pioneer of the thirties and
forties drank there. It is going strong. Abner Frazier of the
New York township recently dug out an old spring for the sake of his
neighbors. The exact location of the well had been forgotten but he
had heard his father say that grand father Frazier used it, and
knowing its general location it was re-discovered and flows very
strongly today. Another old spring which has come back in 1934 is
Ponce de Leon. In the early eighties, this was a well known spring at
Bonanza, then in a boom. Picnics were held there for the water was
held to be medicinal (Bonanza just missed being a real town because of
quarrels among the leading men). Then Ponce de Leon ceased to flow
for Shoal Creek changed its course and hid the spring. In 1934,
owing to dry weather, the creek went down and the spring appeared
again and is giving a fine volume of water.

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THE 1874 DROUGHT IN CALDWELL COUNTY 
Narrator: John T. Lane of Braymer, Missouri

John T. Lane who has lived in this community for over sixty years
remembers the 1874 drought here he says "It is the next to the worst
time I ever saw in this section. The worst was the drought year of
1874. In that year, it stopped raining in April and didn't rain again
till October. All vegetation was dead, and it became a very serious
problem to get the necessities of life. There was no way to get
commodities into the county. Railroads had not been built down here,
trucks had not been heard of and the only shipping method was the team
and wagon. People in that day, thru necessity, had to raise or make
nearly everything used." "During the fall of 1874, there was no
old corn left in the county and no way of getting it. People did not
have the money to buy with. There was not even any seed corn. My
father happened to have a little ready cash, so he sent a team and
wagon to Iowa to buy a load of seed. The trip required nearly three
weeks. But the next year was different. That 1875 year saw a bumper
crop of all kinds in this section. One farmer who was a heavy feeder
had volunteer corn came up in an old feed lot that made sixty bushels
to the acre and was never cultivated.

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EARLY SCHOOLING BOTH IN CALDWELL AND RAY COUNTIES 
Narrator: Mrs. Lena Baker, 67, of Hamilton, Missouri

Mrs. Lena Baker, daughter of James and Ella (Wyatt) Lukey was
born in Clay County, Missouri near the town of Smithville. James
Lukey came from England when he was eighteen years old with his
parents, who settled near Smithville. The Mother (Ella Wyatt) was
born in Illinois. She came to Smithville to visit a sister and while
there the Civil War broke out so she decided to remain with the sister
rather than try to go home during such a turmoil. While there she
fell in love with Mr. Lukey and they were married 1862. Soon
after this they moved to Lisbonville, a small town in Ray County just
a few hundred yards from the Caldwell County line, and bought the Mill
from Isom Allen. This Mill was located on Crooked River and was
considered a very unhealthy place to live. The people who had lived
there were troubled with "Agur" or "The Chills" as was called
sometimes. Mr. Lukey bought a farm of eighty acres a short distance
from the Mill but on higher ground, so as to get away from the "agur."
He paid $12 an acre for this tract of land. He rode back and forth to
the Mill each day but this soon became tiresome so he sold out farm
and all and moved to Lawson. He worked in lumber yards for several
years and finally moved to Plattsburg in Clinton County and it was
here he retired. Both Mr. and Mrs. Lukey are buried in the Plattsburg
Cemetery. Mrs. Baker attended several schools when she was a
child. The country schools would have school for two or three months
according to the money they had. She would go to one school for their
term, to another for a few months or their term and then on to
another. They studied what they wanted to and as long as they wanted
to. She recalls studying long division at one school and then
changing to another school and decided she did not like division and
could not learn it so wouldn't try it any more cause she hated it any
way. She went one term to Prairie Ridge to Tip Jones, an old time
teacher. Mr. Lonin Cooper was a pupil there at the same time.
Dr. Jimmie James was the old time Doctor at Lisbonville. He married
Eliza Cates. The Lukeys attended church at "Slip Up" church in
Ray county. As Mrs. Baker became older she decided to teach
school. While visiting in Lawson with a sister, she decided to "get
up" a Subscription School or Select School, which she did. Miss
Lillie Smith (Mrs. Ben Kemper of Denver Colorado) and Mrs. Baker had
their school. They received $1.50 a month per pupil. At the end of
this term they had a basket dinner and of course had their pictures
taken. Mrs. Baker has in her possession a picture of this event,
which is very interesting both for styles and photography. Mrs.
Baker married W.P. Baker of Ray County. They have lived in Hamilton
most of their married life. Mr. Baker worked in Dr. Tiffin's Drug
Store for several years and after Doctor's death started a Drug Store
for himself. Mr. Baker died in 1933 and is buried in the Hamilton
Cemetery. Mrs. Baker lives with her only son John who now has the
Drug Store. 

Interviewed August 1934.

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HE VOTED FOR LINCOLN 
Narrator: Philip J. Burger, 91, of Hamilton

Mr. Burger was born 1843 on the Rhine, Germany, the son of John
C. and Mary Frances (Issler) Burger, who were married 1829. In order
to have more freedom, they came to the United States. The father was
a cutler by profession and of course, located in a big city to
practice his trade. The home was in Philadelphia and little Phil was
sent to a German Lutheran school where he recited in German. In 1854,
the father decided to go to Iowa and the children were of course sent
to school but alas! it was an English school and little Phil knew no
English so he had to go back in the first reader and learn his a-b-c's
with little fellows while he was twelve years old. Soon however, he
overcame this obstacle and went where he really belonged. When
the war came, he enlisted in the 26th Iowa Cavalry. He had no
hesitation; to him, the country was his country and secession was
wrong. Many of the fellows were not so eager "to fight for niggers"
which was the feeling common at the beginning of the war. He
tells with great earnestness of the evening dress parade in which the
adjutant read the offer to the Southern States to keep their slaves if
they would withdraw from secession. Then three months later, again
there was a dress parade and again the adjutant read orders to the
company. The South had rejected the offer made by the U.S.
Government. Now the Adjutant asked all who were ready to preforce the
war with shot and shell to step five paces forward. Every man moved
forward. From that time on, it was a deeper spirit that moved the
soldiers; they were fighting for a union. I asked him why he
voted for Lincoln. It was Lincoln's second term and Phil Burger's
first vote for a president. He said because in the conduct of the
war, he (Lincoln) had shown that he was a great leader. Mr. Burger
had no past politics to settle the matter for him. He saw Lincoln at
a public demonstration about 1862. He said he was homely, but no one
saw that because he looked grand. When Mr. Burger decided to
leave Iowa and come to Breckenridge, Mo., to farm in 1878, his Iowa
friends joked him about going down among the Rebels but he told them
that the war was over, there now were no Johnny Rebs. 

Interviewed June 1934.

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A PUBLIC HANGING 
Narrator: Elwood Rogers, 67, of Hamilton, Missouri

In these days when hangings are conducted with as much privacy as
possible within walls, the description of a public hanging in 1886 at
Gallatin as given by Mr. Rogers, is of interest. The criminal to
be hanged was Jump. He and another fellow Smith had killed in a
drunken quarrel the foreman of the construction work on the railroad.
They had used a Pitman rod of a threshing machine and had disposed of
the dead man in a well out by the old Grand River College. The body
was found and the crime laid on Jump and Smith, who denied the charge.
One of the two wore a hat which when removed by Mr. Davis father of
the druggist Davis of Gallatin showed the railroad bills in the sweat
band. They were both condemned to hang, and at the last minute Smith
was reprieved (but later hanged). A double scaffold was built on
a flat ground by the railroad tracks. Two hills rose on two sides.
Mr. Rogers rose early to start to Gallatin for the event. As he got
to Honey Creek, he came on campers who had slept there all night on
their way to Gallatin. Hamilton sent a big delegation; in fact it was
a dead town that day. People went from Lexington and even Carrollton.
When he got to Gallatin, Mr. Rogers saw the hills about the scaffold
crowded with people. Box cars at the tracks held people on their tops.
The scaffold itself was built very high, so one could not miss the
sight. Every where were refreshment stands set up and drinking water
sold at five cent a glass. Presently the train pulled in from
Maysville where they had kept Jump in jail (The Gallatin jail was
burnt, if Mr. Rogers recalls correctly). Jump, handcuffed, was
removed from the train, hustled into a buggy and taken to the
scaffold. He sang "IS MY NAME WRITTEN THERE?" and "WASHED IN THE
BLOOD OF THE LAMB," then the black cap was adjusted and he swang into
eternity. After it was over, people bought bits of the hangman's
rope. Some men took their sons there as a lesson never to drink and
commit murder. It is also interesting to note that the Pitman rod
with which the murder was committed was used as a lever to spring the
trap for the execution of the murderers. Likewise, it is of interest
that the old well in which the murdered man was thrown was covered
with logs and was never used from that time till now. 

Interviewed August 16, 1934.

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ELECTING A PRESIDENT IN THE LATE SEVENTIES AND EARLY EIGHTIES
Narrator: Mrs. Mabel Gwynn McBrayer, Hamilton, Missouri

The business of electing a President was a more exciting matter
in former times than now. First the Civil War was near enough to
color all politics. The Republicans were Black Republicans to the
Democrats and the Democrats were rebels to the Republicans; and even
the children felt the hatred at Election times and yelled ugly words
at one another. Again preparing for election day was quite a show
in itself here at Hamilton. There were numerous torch light parades
in "rallies"; each party gave a rally at night and on that occasion
there would be a long procession of torches, horse back riders, floats
and four sided transparencies showing slogans. Always there was a
fair young lady as goddess of liberty with forty eight girls as States
and Territories. Bands played and people yelled. Along the line of
march, the homes of the opposing partisans were black as night but the
homes of the party giving the rally would be bright with candles and
Chinese lanterns. Every curtain in the house had to be taken down and
the windows filled with boards on which rested candles. The yards
were strung with clothes line, trunk ropes and Chinese lanterns. Some
of the family went on Main street but some always stayed at home to
watch the candles. Of course it cost money but it was worth it, and
the Chinese lanterns were used year after year for church lawn
socials. Then if your party won in the election you had a still
bigger time at the ratification which was held just as soon as the
returns had clearly shown what side really won. That was sometimes
not known for days, for they did not have the quick counting then to
get returns. On Election day, there was a rough crowd in town and
the men did not like for their women folks to go by the polls; it just
did not look nice. Men drank and became noisy. At one Rally at
Hamilton - the Cleveland-Thurman - every one in the parade wore red
bandanas on their head, around their necks etc., because old Allen
Thurman, the Vice President candidate was supposed to use one. When
Ben Harrison ran for President the Republicans had an old log cabin in
the procession (echoing his grandfather's slogan) while the Democrats
ridiculed him by having a small man wear a hat much too big, "Trying
to wear Grandpa's hat". When Cleveland was defeated for re-election
the Republicans had a float with E.H. Daley, who resembled Cleveland
rowing a boat "going up Salt River".

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AN EX-SLAVE SPEAKS 
Narrator: Doc (James) McGill, 74, of Hamilton, Missouri

Jim McGill was born in slavery and was five years old when he was
freed. He is the son of Mary Martin McGill and George McGill. Mary
was owned by Jack Martin, six miles north west of Richmond, Missouri,
who ran a grist mill. George was owned by Mr. McGill also of
Richmond, Missouri. The couple were married by a colored preacher and
had five boys and give girls who were the property of Martin, since he
owned the mother. These were his only slaves. McGill also had but
one slave family. Martin sold one of Mary's girls to a Richmond man
named Hamilton for about $1000. She afterwards came to the town of
Hamilton with her son Green Thompson who is a respectable colored
hostler etc. here. The colored family lived in a log cabin and
were well treated. Mr. Martin told them whenever they needed flour or
corn meal to go to the sacks and get what they wanted. Mary spun and
wove for her mistress as well as for her own children. Her girls
worked in the mill, in the fields, cut wood like men. Doc McGill
recalls the day they were freed. The Richmond negroes visited back
and forth and laughed loudly for they thought they would not have to
work any more. Then the negro father went down to Camden on the
river and rented a cheap farm and set his boys to work; harder than
they had worked before. The river kept coming up on his crop every
year; and although he had bought the land he was glad to sell it and
come back to Caldwell County about fifty years ago. Jim worked
for over twenty years as a handy man to Dr. Tiffin which gave him his
nick name "Doc." He never had a chance to go to school a day for
there was no colored school near Camden. He can not read nor write
but can count money and laundry pieces in his job as laundry man. He
recalls several of the old ex-slaves of the Hamilton vicinity. There
was Tony Huggins who could read. He was a preacher. He owned his own
farm east of town and had a rock quarry where he employed other
darkies. He as well as Uncle Charley Dunn both peddled hominy and
horse radish. Uncle Charley gave a yearly possum and sweet potato
dinner at which the aristocratic white folks paid fifty cents a plate.
No trash were invited. Jim McGill sang a song which he learned
years ago. He sang slowly with many a twirl and rest in his voice.
"The day is past and gone, the evening shades appear May we all
remember well, the night of death draws near." I wonder how old
the song and the tune were. 

Interview taken June 1934.

~~~~~~~~~~

BEFORE THE DAYS OF BANK CHECKS 
Narrator: Wm. Stinson, 73, of Hamilton, Missouri

Mr. Stinson was born in Illinois 1861 and came with his parents
into Caldwell County in 1872. His parents were John J. Stinson and
Mary Madden Stinson. They bought forty acres of land for eight
hundred dollars from the Hannibal and St. Joe Railroad. The land lay
two miles west and one and one-quarter mile north of present site of
Braymer, Missouri. They were too late for the bargain prices of
Missouri land. For instance the Turpin estate near by had six hundred
and forty acres in one place alone while much of it was timber but
some very rich soil bought from the government at twelve and one-half
cents an acre. Joe Mayes bought some of that estate when it was
settled in 1882. Mr. Stinson, as well as several others older
people interviewed, recalls the days when few or no checks were used
even in big money deals. One case illustrates: On one occasion some
men in the Black Oak country were sending twenty five thousand dollars
to Chas. Schultz of Chillicothe for cattle. They did not dare carry
it for the transaction was known and the road led through the Marshall
Mill country between high crags and woods. It was not uncommon for
robbers hearing of cattlemen's deals to lay and wait for the money on
the route. So the cattlemen rode on ahead empty handed while two
miles behind rode young Stinson - an unpretentious fellow with twenty
five thousand dollars on his person in notes. He had a swift horse
and at the least suspicion was to ride to Breckenridge. The money got
through safely. A neighbor sent his fifteen year old boy to the
Hamilton bank for two thousand dollars to be paid to him for cattle
for the same reason. A woman carried two thousand dollars in her bag
from Hamilton to Ohio for she did not know about checks.

Interview taken July 1934.

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