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Archiver > IADECATU > 2005-02 > 1109204757


From: "Sherry Balow" <>
Subject: ELIZABETH HILL, Part 5
Date: Wed, 23 Feb 2005 16:25:57 -0800


After May 10, 1861 Miller County, Missouri was a crossroads for the State
Guard troops reporting to Jefferson City. These men were Confederates and
lived off the land. The known Union sympathizers suffered most by losing
cattle, crops and other items needed by the State Guard and often items
that the troops could not use. The first Union Home Guard Companies were
organized primarily to protect inhabitants from the Confederate Home Guard.
Complaints filed in the court house include; Callaway Wyrich lost a mule
and several cattle that were shot and killed. Robert Reed lost a gelding
and a horse that were stolen. J. C. Casey lost a black sow and a boar.
Levi Whittle lost a number of swine to armed men. W. Ponder lost a sorrel
mare, a bay horse, his gray mare and a gelding, a good blanket, his rifle,
household utensils and other items from his cabin. Wm. S. Irvin lost a
wagon, two mares, harness and bridles, 160 bushels of corn and a saddle and
rifle. John Williams lost a rifle, four lasso roped, a saddle, four horse
bridles and one mule bridle. August 26, 1861 was high tide for the
Confederacy. Secession Companies spread all over Missouri like prairie
fires in a high wind. Headlines: Secession Companies Rip Miller County
Apart. In the space of a few days many men from Miller and Cole Counties
took horses with them and hastened to join General Sterling Price on his
march from Springfield to Liberty, Missouri but there is another picture
described by Uncle Jimmie Miller. He watched his mothers and grandmothers
agony as they stood in the Simpson yard listening to the big guns booming
down at Jefferson City for they knew that their son and brother was in
that fight. While they stood helplessly wringing their hands at every boom
of the cannon and expecting the worst, a very large sized panther jumped
the rail fence into the front yard, raised his front paws upon a large
tree, yawned lazily and sharpened his claws in the bark. Who was the beast
of prey, man or panther?

Miller County, Missouri did not suffer too much from Ol Pappy Prices
army because it operated mostly in the Western part of the state, nor from
the Union State Guard under Captain Jacob Capps, Captain Daniel Rice or
Colonel Emly Golden for these Union leaders were local men and their armies
had some discipline. The Confederate Guerillas and Bushwhackers of Miller
County, who were really gangs of criminals terrorizing the citizens,
operated uncontrolled in the area. Mothers dealing with disobedient
children scared them into obedience not by saying, The devil will get
you, but by saying, Crabtree is coming. The Confederate Guerilla
General Crabtree and his men became the most hated and feared men in
Missouri. It is said that Crabtree killed more people, burned more
buildings, stole and destroyed more property than any other man in Miller
County before or since the Civil War. Crabtree was finally killed on
August 30, 1864.
Horse stealing on the frontier was still considered the worst of crimes.
When Squire HUGH GARTIN found his horse in the possession of Mr. Shumate,
one of Crabtrees men, he brought charges in court. The gang had made the
caves on Wet Bottom of Big Tavern Creek their headquarters. They could not
be dislodged. In Court Mark Jones (note: Elizabeth Hills step-son -- SB)
informed the justices that he was with Crabtree on August 18. Crossing the
river the same day somewhere near the Wet Bottom of the Big Tavern he had
seen Mr. Shumate with Crabtree. First he had seen the horse at about the
same time they were crossing the river. Mr. Shumate was riding Mr.
Gartins horse with which Mark Jones was well acquainted having known the
horse for three years and Mr. Shumate held possession of the horse for two
more days. Two days later Mark Jones had seen Milton Stepp in the Crabtree
Company.
John Bond testified, I intercepted Crabtree at James Smiths place in
Cole County. I joined Crabtree of my own free will and accord. I went
with Crabtree to Thomasville taking recruits for the South. The day
before I left home I saw Shumate and he had no horse then. I know Mr.
Gartins horse. I saw him in Crabtrees Command. The first man I saw in
possession of the horse was Crabtree. (note: HUGH & RACHEL GARTIN were
the grandparents of Stacy West Hill, wife of Jackson Hill. --SB)
This was 1862 but when Crabtrees men were caught in August 1864 Mark
Jones name was not on Crabtrees list.

The Kansas City Daily Journal of Commerce dated July 2, 1864 reads,
Guerilla Outrages in Miller County -- A few days ago the town of
Tuscumbia, Miller County, Missouri was visited by a band of Guerillas who
held it until they had robbed the stores of nearly all the goods and
valuables they contained. After accomplishing the objective, they retired
without molestation. We understand that none of the inhabitants were
killed. Neighbors were afraid to help neighbors for fear of Crabtree
revenge. Crabtree captured 12 Union men. He let five go but lined the
other seven up and shot them. One did not die. On John P. Starlings
tombstone is the inscription, Murdered by Bushwhackers in 1864.
Finally in September 1864, the very month in which Ulysses Grant Jones was
born, the Union Militia subdued the Confederate leaders and Southern
sympathizers in Miller County with savage ferocity. Military service ended
in January 1865 but angry defeated rebels took revenge by burning the
barns, fields and homes of their Union neighbors as they returned home.
One thousand men from Miller County took part in the Civil War. Seven
hundred served the Union and Three hundred served the Confederacy.

What happened to Grandma Betsys family during this period? The Hill
family was a clannish group. They seemed to move as a group and each
member of the family was ready to help out other members. Elizabeths
father, John Hill, must have died during this period because Polly Kizzire
Hills name appears alone with her children in the 1870 census.
Elizabeths brother, John A., had married Pauline (Polly) Burrell and she
had three children, FRANK, LEWIS AND LUCY J. HILL. Johns wife died soon
after Lucys birth. Elizabeths brother JACKSON HILL had married LEVI
HAMPTONs sister (*Mary) around 1856 and they had two children. Nancy was
born in1857 and Johnnie (Wild John) born in1858. Jacksons wife died and
the children were raised by relatives. JOHN HILL (*Wild John, age 12) was
with Lewis and Betsy Jones in the 1870 Census and Nancy (*age 13) was with
her grandmother, Polly (*Kizzire) Hill (note: Alex & Jemima/Zemineah/Levi
also living with Polly in this census. --SB) JACKSON HILLs second
marriage was to STACY WEST, daughter of WILLIAM & SUSAN WEST. (note:
Susan (Brazier) West was Williams second wife, stepmother to Stacy.
Stacys mother was VINA GARTIN, b. 1812 in VA; m. 3/Nov/1834 in Miller Co.,
MO; d. May, 1846 in MO--SB) Elizabeths brother WILLIAM survived the Civil
War but took the red measles after he was home and died. Elizabeths
step-daughter, LUCY ANN JONES married WILLIAM BURRELL. The fate of William
Burrell has not been determined but later Grant Jones said that Lucy Ann
Jones had married a man by the name of MESSERSMITH and had gone West with
him. Grant Jones knew Lucy Ann Jones very well and had a deep affection
for her. Mary Anns sister, (*Lucy Ann?), MARGARET JONES, who had married
JAMES ROARK, was just a name to him. Margaret and her husband James Roark
had evidently gone to Colorado earlier. Elizabeths sister, ELIZA HILL,
married ROBERT HAWK, a hero of the Civil War who marched with Sherman
through Georgia from Atlanta to the sea, who had many stories to tell of
his experiences. After Lewis and Elizabeth Jones had moved from the Wells
Farm to the Berry Farm their little daughter (*Eliza) died of a foot
infection. She was never counted in the census since she was only eight
years old. Elizabeths sister, MARY HILL, had married JAMES HAMILTON.

Grandma Betsy Jones was named as Housekeeper in the U. S. Census, Her
son Grant Jones described their house;
It was a double log house. Each room measured 16 feet by 24 feet. A
separate log house was a kitchen and it had a small bedroom off the side of
it. Kitchens in the south were usually outside the main house because the
use of fireplaces for cooking and other tasks caused many fires. The house
was all of logs instead of lumber. The logs were hewed flat on two sides.
The cracks were chinked up with little blocks of wood about a foot long.
These plastered up with clay. Most of the houses then were made of round
logs but hewed log had a flat surface inside and out. These houses were
more easily covered with siding when time permitted and the inside could be
finished with wainscoting, paneling or plaster and paper. The floors were
made of lumber sawed out of oak or hard maple trees. These boards were
rough on both sides and were not tongued and grooved but were laid very
close together.

His mother and sisters had to scrub these floors for cleanliness and the
cleaner was lye water or water with soft soap made from wood lye. Corn
cobs were used in place of brushes to scrub the floors. Scouring with sand
and wear often made the floors smooth.

Cooking took much of the womens time and Grant Jones described cooking for
me:
We had a large fireplace and chimney made of stones and a very wide stone
hearth in the kitchen. There were two trammels made of iron which fastened
in the wall of the fireplace. The trammels held the big iron pots used
for cooking. The bar was hung so it could be swing in or out of the fire.
If the fire got too hot, or if something needed only to be kept warm the
heat could be adjusted by swinging the pot away from the fire. The big
iron pots were used for making stews, soups, boiled meat and vegetables
and for heating large quantities of water. Bread was baked in dutch ovens.
This was one of the most useful cooking utensils. It was a round iron pot
with a handle and an iron lid that had a half inch lip all around the edge.
It was often called Old Bread Oven. Live coals were pulled from the fire
onto the hearth and the oven placed in the coals. One must be careful
that the coals under the oven were not too hot. Sometimes three short
legs held the pot above the hearth. The iron lid could be hotter than the
bottom since the food was not in direct contact with the lid. When the
lid was covered with live coals the lip kept the coals from tumbling off.
The oven was preheated and then carefully greased with a piece of pork rind
. The sides and bottom inside were sprinkled with corn meal to prevent
sticking foods. The oven was then ready for baking and corn bread or
johnny cake could be poured in or biscuits placed in the over. Other uses
include baking potatoes, cakes, cooking meats and heating stews. Sometimes
our meat, including fish, sausage, bacon or ham, was fried in skillets over
coals on the hearth. Some foods such as potatoes, corn, onions and nuts
were baked in hot ashes.

There was a cold spring house for milk and butter, a smoke house for cured
meats and a back yard pool for keeping fish alive. The pool was fed by a
spring and it was about 20 feet long, 12 feet wide, and around 6 or 8 feet
deep. I remember seeing as many as 10 or 12 catfish in there at one time.
These fish weighed from ten to fifty pounds a piece. They were fed on corn
and were only taken out when it was time to eat them. The fish were
caught on trot lines in the river and stored in the pool for future use.

The rafters of the kitchen were used for storage. Dried fruits and
vegetables such as green beans, navy beans, lentils, corn and peppers were
hung there and also apples, peaches, pears and berries.

Nearly everyone bleached fruit using burning sulphur as a preservative.
To bleach fruit fill a 10 gallon tub with sliced apples then put two
tablespoons of sulphur in a saucer and strike a match setting the sulphur
on fire. Cover the tub with the burning sulphur and apples with a cloth
and let it stay all day. At night take the sulphur out. Repeat the
sulphur treatment for three days. Transfer the apples to a large jar and
tie a clean cloth over the top of the jar. The apples could be eaten
anytime without further preservation.

Vegetables were also preserved by burying them in the ground. To
preserve cabbage dig a shallow circular trench on a gently sloped plot of
ground. The diameter of the trench will depend on the number of cabbage
heads one plans to preserve. Dig a drainage ditch leading down hill away
from the circular trench. Throw some of the dirt from the trench into the
center of the circular trench and pat into the shape of a low mound. Cover
the mound with straw. Pull up cabbages roots and all. Place the cabbages
in the trench on the circular mound so that the root of each is covered by
the head of another. Cover the circular trench with straw and dirt. The
dirt had to be deep enough to prevent the cabbage from freezing. Since the
temperature was relative mild the straw hole could be opened from time to
time to remove the cabbage. The same method could be used for potatoes,
turnips, apples and some other fruits.

The pattern of the meals was described by Grant Jones. Our breakfast were
always fried ham and eggs or bacon and eggs with hot biscuits, butter,
maple syrup or molasses and fruit of some kind. When buckwheat cakes were
served instead of biscuits we might have some homemade cured sausage. The
morning drink was coffee for the grown ups and the youngsters had spice tea
or sassafras from the bark of the tree that grew wild in the woods.
Sassafras and spice tea were said to clean the blood and was said to be a
health tonic. Our dinners, I suppose, were boiled meat, beans or potatoes,
sometimes turnips, cabbages or wild greens. The bread was always made from
corn. Suppers were nearly always much and milk or bread and milk.
Can you imagine spending a day with Grandma Betsy Jones back in 1868? Her
alarm clock in the morning was the sunrise. Since the men wanted to go to
the woods or fields early, breakfast always came first. The fires had been
banked at night to hold the live coals for starting the fire in the
morning. If the fire went out the children must be sent to a neighbor to
bring live coals home on a shovel. If this wasnt possible only the use of
a flint and steel or perhaps later matches were available. Both these
methods would be slower and delay the breakfast. A hot bed of coals was
needed for biscuits to be cooked in the dutch oven and also for heat for
the skillet to cook meat. After the breakfast there were cows to milk and
the poultry to care for. The money crop in the poultry line was the flock
of geese, 100 strong, kept for its feathers. Feathers for feather beds,
pillows and feather comforters were secured from the flock of geese.
Surplus feathers could be sold to Branham and Shorts store for money.
Store records reveal the following purchases; Bond for feathers-$14,
Dickerson 6 pounds of feathers $2.40 and Bilyeu 6 1/2 pounds of feathers
$2.40. Grant Jones remembered that the feathers brought 50 cents a pound.
The beds were straw ticks made usually of rye straw and also feather beds
from the geese. The bed steads were 3 1/2 to 4 feet from the floor. There
were no springs or slats but rope cords were fastened with wooden pins
along the rails and drawn tight. At house cleaning the ropes were removed
and boiled and washed and then put back on the bed. Sometimes the rails
had holes bored for the ropes rather than pins. Sometimes the headboards
also had holes and the rope was weaved back and forth about 4 inches apart.
The children had trundle beds that were pushed under the big beds to get
them out of the way during the day. The beds had six foot high posts which
were used to hang mosquito netting curtains to protect the sleeper from
malaria carried by mosquitoes. Sometimes the trundle beds were left under
the big beds to provide the children with protection from mosquitoes.
Those beds were difficult to make. It was necessary to stir the straw
which tended to pack down. The feather ticks were lighter and could be
shaken for the same purpose. If the bed looked lumpy it was smoothed with
the handle of a abroom. The sheets were usually made of home spun cotton
that was prepared by the women. Bleaching was accomplished by spreading
them on the ground to receive the dew during the night.


--continued in Part 6




Sherry Balow




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