Liberty Tribune February 23, 1883

“Early Days in Clay County – Editor Tribune: – I have carefully read the articles which have recently appeared in our county papers in regard to early days in the county, and while I do not agree with the writers in some respects, yet I think they are entitled to the thanks of the people. Their writings, moreover, show that there is a spirit of inquiry among us as to the early history of the county. Thinking that the facts, or at least, a part of them, in my memory, connected with those early days, might amuse or instruct those taking an interest in such matters, I make bold to give them to the public through your journal, which I have been regularly reading since you established it in Liberty in the Spring of 1846.

I was married to my husband, Col. Shubael Allen, in Howard County, MO, on the 19th day of September 1922, and, after remaining at the house of my father, Gen. Stephen Trigg, until in the early days of October in that year, we then came up to my future home in Clay County. My husband, myself, and my “black waiting girl” rode up from Howard County, of course, on horseback, and consumed three days in the journey. Our wardrobes were not extensive, and those we brought up in saddlebags and old-fashioned reticules. We crossed the Missouri at old Chariton and staid the first night at the house of a gentleman in Saline County. We again crossed the Missouri at Jack’s Ferry, about a mile from old Lexington, and staid the second night with Judge Billy Martin in the town of Bluffton, in Ray County. The town of Bluffton at the time contained two or three hundred people and was the county seat of Ray County. It stood about a mile west of Camden. I suppose the present generation in Clay County never heard of Bluffton. Every trace of it had disappeared twenty-five years ago. Ealy in the evening of the third day we arrived at our home five miles southwest of Liberty. It was a log house, containing two rooms, with passage between, situate in the valley of Big Shoal Creek, near a splendid spring of water which bubbled up clear and bright under a shelving rock through sand and pebbles. It had been built by my husband and my brother-in-law, Col. Jno. Thornton, some while previously. They had come to Clay County in May 1820, some five or six months after Col. T.’s marriage to my sister, Elizabeth Trigg. The brick residence built by Col. T. in after years is near half a mile east of where the log house stood. My sister Elizabeth, often called Betsy, and I lived, side by side, in that log house for three years.

When I arrived in Clay County in October, 1822, I found already settled close by us the persons who were my neighbors for many after years, viz: Andrew Robertson, Sr., and his wife, Mrs. Mary Robertson, Andrew Robertson, Jr., and his family, Robert Murray and his wife, Mrs. Polly Murray, Andrew Russell and his wife, (her name I do not recall0, Humphrey Best, Samuel Telford and family, Col. John Bartleson and family, Henry Mailes, (I can’t remember that he was then married), John Dean and family, Ennis Vaughen and family, Edward Pyburn and family, and Robert Pearce and family. Robert Murray was the father of Andrew R. and Eli Murray. Mr. Pearce was a wheelwright and made big and little wheels for all the country round about. Mrs. Mary Robertson and Mrs. Polly Murray were remarkable women and were possessed of the most sterling qualities. They were very pious and were among the best housewives I ever saw. Mrs. Robertson, without any exception, made the best butter I ever saw. With Andrew Robertson, Sr., was a granddaughter, Ruth Moore, who was then a young girl. She afterwards married John D. Ewing and was the mother of Robertson and Chatham Ewing and Margaret Pryor, who are now in the county. She and I were neighbors for thirty years. Those Robertsons and Murrays and Moores were Presbyterian in religion. – My other old neighbors, Michael Arthur and his wife, Mrs. Amanda Arthur, William Collins and his wife, Mrs. Sally Collins, and Maj. Joel Turnham and his family, came to the county some years later.

When I came here there were settlements nearly all over the county. I found the people in the midst of plenty. They had an abundance of corn and pork, with some wheat. – Cattle and horses were plentiful, and nearly all the families had milk cows. I saw no want of butter or milk. In the families of my acquaintance there were coffee and sugar in ordinary use. The coffee, it is true, was sometimes mixed with rye, but in a few years that passed away. Many families for a while had to use maple sugar, of their own manufacture, instead of Orleans sugar saw but very little of the use of honey with coffee in place of sugar. Even then most articles of necessity could be bought in Liberty, where there were one or two small stores. I know that my husband did buy some pots and skillets there for use in our family. Many things could be bought at the trading houses then kept at the mouth of the Kaw River by Curtis & Ely, and the Chouteau’s – such as blankets, robes, &c.- These things were brought up the river in flatboats or from Old Franklin in wagons. The families settled in the county had brought in their wagons all necessary domestic implements. Besides, the population of the county, as of the West generally, depended more on itself and less on manufactories elsewhere than it does now. The mechanic arts were more common in families. It was no uncommon thing for a family to have a member who could make a good shoe. Andrew R. Murray, when a lad, could make a good shoe, and yet he never called himself a shoemaker.

I might say that it was the luxuries and some of the conveniences of civilized life that were wanting, but none of the real necessities and few of the comforts. There were inconveniences, of course. I remember one in particular. It was this: Col. Thornton and my husband had a horse-mill – put up before I came to the county – which did the grinding for all our part of the county, but they had no bolting machinery, and hence could not make flour. To obviate this difficulty, they took out the wire gauze of a meal sieve, and in its stead put book muslin. They would then first pass the ground wheat through the meal sieve and then through the book muslin. This process was called ‘sarching’ the flour, and the muslin sieve a ‘four-sarch.’ I remember well that, in a short time after I came to the county, Mrs. Burnett – mother of Hon. Peter H. Burnett, of San Francisco, California – sent Peter, who was then a little boy, to my house to ‘sarch’ some flour for her. The process was slow, for it tool Peter hours to ‘sarch’ much of a pile of flour on the table in my room where he was ‘sarching.’ I suppose ‘sarch’ was a corruption of search.

Mills were matters of great importance. When old Humphrey Smith – known as Yankee Smith – built his large water mill on Smith’s Fork of Platte River, where Smithville now stands – which was about 1823 – great numbers of men from all over the county went out voluntarily to aid him. Col. Thornton and my husband both went.

Many think that nearly everybody in the county at that time wore ‘buckskin.’ This is all a mistake. I saw few persons dressed in buckskin. Gentlemen fond of hunting would have a buckskin coat, cut and trimmed with fringe in the Indian style as being more serviceable in the woods. Gentlemen who rode a great deal would frequently have the parts of their pants next to the saddle covered with buckskin. This was called ‘reinforcing’ the pants. The clothing of the people was good, substantial homespun. A great many families had looms.

I never felt any fear whatever of the Indians, and I suppose my feelings were those of the people of the county. The people of the county certainly did not consider their condition a severe one, but the reverse. 

There were no hardships encountered in the settlement of Clay County. True, the men had to work pretty hard in clearing the county and the women had to stir themselves somewhat, but there was no suffering, no hunger, no danger, and good, honest work without those things could not be called a hardship. Aside from luxuries, the people were in the midst not only of peace but of the greatest plenty I ever saw. Besides what they raised from their flocks and fields, they had the resources of hunting and fishing. The woods were full of deer, wild turkeys, prairie chickens, and other wild game, the streams and lakes were alive with fish and at the proper seasons of the year covered with swarms of waterfowl. The quantity of game and fish was incredible. It was no trouble at all for a poor man and his family to get along comfortably. During several years, Black John, my brother-in-law’s negro man, who was very fond of hunting, kept the tables of both families abundantly supplied with game, by simply going out with his gun at odd times. I have frequently cut off the breast of a wild turkey for cooking and thrown away the residue of the bird. Venison, fresh and cured, was in every house. Those who loved honey, could find it anywhere. Under such circumstances a people were necessarily happy. Those early years were among the happiest of my life. Could I return to them with the youth, health, appetite and digestion which I then had, I should most cheerfully be willing to go over them again. And in this I feel sure that every old lady in Clay County would be willing to join me. In traveling up to the county certainly there was no hardship. I was used to and fond of horseback riding; so were all of the young women. Immigration by families, if the weather was fair, was next thing to a pleasure trip to all in health – young or old. I came out from Estill County, Kentucky, with my father in the fall of 1818 to Old Franklin, in Howard County, Mo. It took four weeks to make the trip. The weather was delightful – it was the softest of Indian summer – and the woods were laden with ripe nuts. I rode the larger portion of the way on a horse but would from to time change to a seat with my mother in the Dearborn. The whole family were delighted with the entire trip.

I was not in Liberty for a year probably after I came to the county. It was then very small and had I suppose, from 50 to 75 inhabitants. I put up with my friend, Mrs. Wm. L. Smith. Her first husband had been killed by lightening at Old Franklin. Wm. L. Smith was clerk of the Circuit Court many years, and was one of the softest-mannered, most elegant gentlemen I ever knew. I suppose there were in Liberty then no more than 12 or 15 houses. I think there were two stores: Wm. L. Smith’s and Curtis & Ely’s. There may have been one other. They were quite small.

I was at the first ball ever given in Liberty. That was in 1825. It was given at the ‘Owens House,’ that is the house at the N.E. corner of the square, now called the Green House. The supper – which, was very nice – was prepared by a Mr. Simms – and was set out in a room on another part of the square. My husband attended the ball with me. Among those there were these: Col. Thornton and wife, my sister Betsy, James Winn and lady, Rice B. Davenport and lady, William and James Duncan, and their ladies, Cyrus Curtis, Mr. Ely, Dr. Ware S. May, Miss Elizabeth Wirt, George Lincoln and lady, Mrs. Julia Anne Lincoln, Miss Mary Campbell, and Samuel Ringo. Mr. Ringo was very much devoted to Miss Wirt, and they afterwards married, as everybody about Liberty may know. Mr. Curtis a few years afterwards married Miss Benoist, of St. Louis, and for many years owned and lived on the place where the Editor of the Tribune now lives. Not a great while after the ball Miss Campbell was married to Abraham Croysdale. She is now Mrs. Price and is known to us all. There were two violins at the ball for music, and we all danced until three o’clock in the morning. Thenceforward the balls and parties at Liberty increased in their elegance. After the establishment of Ft. Leavenworth, – which I think was in 1827, the officers of the Fort and their ladies always attended them in full force. Many a young officer, afterward famous, danced until past the ‘small hours’ at balls in Liberty. This reminds me that in 1831 was the first time I ever saw Col. Croghan, of the army, who was an old acquaintance, however, of my family. This was the Col. Croghan who was so brave and gallant in the war of 1812. He was at the time Inspector General of the army and was on his way to Ft. Leavenworth. He was occasionally given to too much drink. Shortly after he was tried by a Court-martial and sentenced to dismissal from the army. Gen. Jackson refused to approve the sentence, and it was said at the time, swore that Col. Croghan had fought enough for his country to be entitled to keep drunk, if he wished to, the balance of his life.

It was about three years after I went to Clay County before I had an opportunity to hear preaching. At that time a Presbyterian minister preached a sermon or two at the residence of Andrew Robertson, Sr. That was where John Lightburne, now lives. About a year, or thereabouts, after that I heard a sermon by a negro preacher at the residence of Col. John Bartleson. He appeared to be a very sensible man and had the respect of the white people. I think he was a Methodist. Col. B. resided where Michael Artur afterwards built his brick residence Southwest from Liberty. Preaching then was at dwellings because there were no church edifices.

In 1825, my husband built a part of the two-story log dwelling which now stands above Liberty Landing at the west end of the railroad tunnel, and we moved down. I lived there until the spring of 1850. That house originally stood nearly a quarter of a mile south from where it now stands, but the river encroached so much that in 1837 or 1838 my husband was compelled to move it, which he did by mounting it on large wooden rollers. That part of the county has been subject to very great physical changes. No one who sees it now would believe how beautiful it was 50 years ago. I will call attention to what was a most lovely sheet of water, called the ‘Big Lake.’ In the Missouri Bottom, midway between my second residence – called Upper Liberty Landing – and the residence of Col. Thornton. The lake is not visible now. It was then 6 or 7 feet deep, fringed around its margin with flags and rushes, its bosom covered with wild fowl, its northern bank a mass of wild roses, the whole surrounded by forests which were reflected in its waters. Near the west end of the lake some years later than the matters of which I have written, it was said Gen. David R. Atchison Killed three deer at one shot.

In 1826 occurred the first great overflow of the Missouri River. It was not so high however, that year as it was in 1844. The year 1826, is also noted as being the first year that a steamboat came up to Lower Liberty Landing and discharged merchandise there-at. I can’t call to mind its name, whether the Globe, Diana or Crusader, but I think it was one of those. From year to year, they increased in number and by the year, 1830, they had become frequent in their trips. As soon as steamboat navigation had fairly opened my husband established Upper Liberty Landing and built his warehouses there. I saw the boats pass that carried the first troops to Ft. Leavenworth. I think they were infantry.

In 1827 or 1828, a very remarkable fact occurred with reference to the Missouri River. At the time of the June rise, probably in the earlier part of it, large cakes of ice were seen floating down the river. I cannot call to mind that the fact has ever been noted as occurring before or since, but did occur at the time stated by me, and was seen by my husband and a number of laborers that he had, and others.

There was a peculiar charm about life and society in Clay County during those early days. All was so new and fresh. Everything seemed bright. The forest had not lost their wild primitive look. At my first home – where my first three years of married life were spent – as well as for some years after I removed to my second home, the wild roses grew in great clumps almost at the house doors, and housework was done if I may so express myself, in the midst of the songs of the wild birds.

I found good society in Clay County, when I went there. There were a great many men of force of mind. There were a few finely educated. Many of the ladies were from the best social circles in Kentucky, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, and elsewhere. In 1833 I doubt if there was a town of its sire in the United States that had so many brilliant men and women in it as Liberty.

I have accomplished now, Mr. Editor, in a very imperfect way what I intended. I could say more but will stop here, and I hope that my recollections will be pleasing as well as profitable to your readers. They have the merit, at least, of presenting things substantially as they were. If I have been somewhat irregular in my mode of presenting the above matters and have introduced some things which are irrelevant, I hope those things will be pardoned in a woman who was eighty years old on the 18th day of this month.

Dinah A. Allen. February 21st, 1883.”