It is our hope, as this newsletter continues, we will receive input from our members; please send additions and or corrections to any Association officer or to the undersigned.
PREFACE
History is the collective memory of a people, telling us who we are and from whence we came. It provides the foundation for all future endeavors, giving identity, focusing our being and setting out in bold relief our special place in relation to all other places. Our special time in relation to all other times, our special reason for being in relation to all other beings who did, who do, who will pass this way.
THE FIRST EUROPEAN SETTLERS
The Territory of Louisiana; which would include the eventual sites of the present day Missouri Army National Guard in Southwest Missouri. This area, depending on one’s vantage point, was ruled by the Spanish Crown, or by the Osage Tribal Council. (The year was 1792) George Washington had been elected to his second term as President; Gen. Anthony Wayne was the Commander-in–Chief of the Army. The Revolutionary War was just nine years in the past. It was in this setting when Jesse Killey found his way out of the Kentucky region, up the unpredictable Arkansas River, into the gentler Neosho River, into the welcoming North Fork, and stopping at a site that would become a village called Georgia City, which is now part of southern Barton County, this area came under U.S. control on March 10, 1804, with the completion of the Louisiana Purchase and the flying of the Stars and Strips over the city of St. Louis. Which then had a population of 925?
OTHER PERMANENT SETTLERS OF EUROPEAN ANCESTRY
Solomon Youcum, from Ohio, about 1800, into the valley of the White River in what would be called the Shepherd of the Hills country or the Ozark Mountain country, not far from the Forsyth and Branson area.
John Walton and George Hornback with their families came about 1810, above Spring River at Jasper Village, from which the city of Carthage would grow.
John Polk Campbell from Tennessee arrived in 1829, on the site that would become the City of Springfield.
Thacker Vivon, also from Tennessee in 1831, at a Delaware Indian campground, He called it Centerville, later renamed Sarcoxie. John Fuller, from Tennessee, in 1832, at same location as Thacker Vivon.
No militia effort was required from the settlement members until late in the year 1837, and this was due to hunger and unrest of the Osage Indians. Military forces near this area was made up of 412 men of the First Dragoons stationed at Fort Levenworth, under the command of Col. S. W. Kearney, a detachment of Dragoons, 214 men, plus 426 men of the Seventh Infantry at Fort Gibson. And the loosely organized Missouri State Militia, consisting of every able bodied man in the state. Governor Lilburn Boggs called out the militia, the 4th Division, (Missouri Militia) and was 500 mounted men under Gen. Samuel D. Lucas, who was from Independence Missouri.
Gen. Lucas was dispatched with orders to “clear the border,” they rounded up about 230 Osages, escorted them to the Kansas Territory and told them “to go home”. The Militia served for 15 days and was mustered out. Because of the unwillingness of the Osage to die of starvation, they had to be forced to return to the Kansas Territory on two more occasions, each time the Governor had to call out the Militia, the last two occasions was under the command of a Col. Charles M. Yancy. According to official military records, Col. Yancy had succeeded in ending the Osage war without bloodshed; the entire espoused went into the archival records, as the only American war in which there was no gunfire or loss of life. (See the Memorial Stone on the Carthage Courthouse Lawn) During the 1838 to 1855 time frame, southwest Missouri went through a rapid growth period both in business and population.
During the 1855 to 1861 time frame there was a traumatic experience that erupted, known as the Kansas Border War. The difference of opinions regarding whether Kansas Territory should be admitted into the union as Free State, or as a Slave State. The Missourians organized company size units called border guards and patrolled along the state boundary. Loosely formed columns of Kansas Jayhawkers clashed with the border guard. Inevitable there was loss of life, although the fullest extent of loss defies documentation, many of the men involved obtained significant experience which would stand them in good stead the following decade, when the same type of warfare became nationwide in the Civil War.
NICE TO KNOW INFORMATION # 1
How did the city of Joplin get its name? We should start with the name John C. Cox, with his wife Sarah, he moved to a hilltop overlooking Turkey Creek. The year was 1838, and founded the city of Blytheville, named after a close friend, Billy Blythe. Cox was among participants in the political maneuvering whom led to the creation of Joplin, and has long been honored as the farther of Joplin. He served 30 years as the postmaster of Blytheville, was a Township Justice of the peace, was the Jasper County Surveyor, and an Associate Judge of the Jasper County Court.
About 1839-1840 an evangelist named Harris G. Joplin and his family moved to and settled on an 80-acre tract beside a spring in a wooded area of future Jasper County, the site was not far from Blytheville. The Rev. Joplin erected a log house as a residence; which would also serve as the community worship center, in which he organized a Methodist congregation, which was said to be large in numbers. Historian F. A. North, reported that the Rev. Joplin had a clear well trained voice, was highly excitable, deeply in earnest and at times would grow most eloquent, holding his audience spellbound. He was said to be devoted, ambitious, and liberal to a fault. However, he may have neglected the farm in order to apply more of his energies to the church. Encountering financial difficulties, he moved in 1844, into Lawrence County, where he continued to preach, in 1845, he helped prepare the plat for the county seat of Mount Vernon. Soon after he moved to Springfield, again doing his church works, and where he died in 1853, at the age of 46. The ministers name gained a permanent place in each county in which he lived, the spring beside his house in Blytheville, became known as Joplin Spring, it fed a little stream which meandered a short distance through the trees before joining a creek. The creek was named Joplin Creek. More than three decades later the “boisterous mining camp” became a bonafide city, it was named for this creek, Joplin.
End of #1
NICE TO KNOW INFORMATION # 2
Why the names, Jasper and Newton counties? It was during the time that the Hornback and Walton Families and others who began to enlarge the settlement on Spring River bluff near the future site of Carthage, they adopted a name for their wilderness homes, Jasper. The choice was an easy one, perhaps the greatest military hero of the period, celebrated in print and in song and a factor in every American history book of this time. Sgt. William “Bill” Jasper, he won enduring fame during The Battle of Fort Sullivan in the state of South Carolina, later to be called Fort Moultrie.
During the Revolutionary War; and on June 28, 1776. The blue flag of South Carolina, which bore a white crescent in the upper corner and the word “LIBERTY” imprinted on the body of the banner, flew over the fort as it was attacked by nine ships of the Royal British Navy. At the height of a furious bombardment, the flagstaff was severed by a cannon ball, and the flag fell outside of the parapet. Without hesitation, Sgt. Jasper leapt over the breastwork, recovered the flag, re-mounted the wall, and while under intense artillery fire, tied the flag to a sponge staff (the instrument used for cleaning cannon barrels after discharge) and hosted it to its proud place above the wall, he rejoined his gun crew and the artillery duel continued.
The flag so bravely hoisted by Sgt. Jasper was still flying at dusk, when the British ordered topsails to be set and cables to be released and drew their ships out of range, ending the fighting. An obvious victory for the South Carolina Militia, Sgt. Jasper gained much of the credit for the victory, during a ceremony after the action he was offered a commission as a Lieutenant, but he declined, saying “I’m not fit for the company of officers, I am only a Sgt.” The Sgt. was reportedly involved thereafter in a number of heroic actions, and at one point he and his best friend Sgt. John Newton were credited with rescuing a number of patriot civilians from British captivity and potential hanging. As a result numerous new settlements established as the Americans moved westward bore the names of Jasper and or Newton, and often as neighbors, as in the case of Jasper and Newton Counties in southwest Missouri.
May 13, 1846, the U.S. Government declared war on Mexico. Missouri Governor John C. Edwards called for volunteers to join the Army of the West. Henry Zellers was 23 years old, stepson of Jasper county miller/farmer George Sly, who promptly responded, rode his horse across the prairies to Fort Leavenworth Kansas, to become a member of the 1st. Regiment, Missouri Volunteers, Army of the West. He was assigned to Co. A, Uninjured, he returned home in July 1847.
P.S. If you have a story that would make a “Nice to know Information”, send it to any Association officer or to the undersigned.
End of #2
ROWLAND C. DIGGS SR., CW-4 MOARNG (RET)
HISTORIAN, 203rd RETIREE’S ASSOCIATION
1819 GRAND AVE. CARTHAGE, MO. 64836
The Following articles have been posted by Our Unit Historian Rowland Diggs who has spent countless hours on our local, civil warr,and 203rd histories This page will be added to as time passes.