Now and Then – Reminiscence
By Rev. B.F. Lawler
Page 3

Reminiscence:
Mrs. Holsapple of this city handed me two packages of documents coming from the library of Jacob Holsapple, father of William Holsapple, the papers being yellow with age and intensely interesting in matter. In the church minutes of Primitive Baptists occur many familiar names as George Fain, Eld. Daniel Briggs, Robert Briggs and others.
A written order of the county court at its November term in 1850 reads as follows:
State of Missouri
County of St. Clair ss
Ordered that an election be held in Washington township at a school house near King Allens in said township on the first Monday in December 1850 for the purpose of electing a circuit and county clerk for St. Clair county and that Isaac Culbertson, Hugh Hall and Jacob Holsapple be appointed as judges of said election.
A true copy. Attest,
W. Donell, clerk.
On the back of this paper is the following: Notice, Judges of Election, copy.
Some of the church papers are of meetings in Kentucky as far back as the thirties of last century and may be of historical value to somebody. The papers pertaining St. Clair county in 1850 and earlier should be kept and I do not know of any one who would be more interested than Rev. William Briggs of Leesville, Henry county.
The county paper should find a place in the court house in Osceola.
The time will come when all such papers and documents will be eagerly sought.
I was not personally acquainted with Mr. Donell, the clerk in 1850, but Isaac Culbertson was my neighbor and Hugh Hall, Jacob Holsapple and King Allen were as familiar as any friends you may know. King Allen was a young man when I was a small boy. He rode upon a fine bay horse, sleek and fat, no harness being allowed upon him. No horse brushes were then to be had but the curry comb and “rub rag” were greatly in evidence in the stable in which young Allen kept his fine saddler. The young man, the horse, the stable, curry comb and “rub rag” are as plain to my mind as when I saw them in that early day.
Al Gash had another fine bay horse and there were others.
King Allen married a sister of Al Gash, a beautiful woman. Charles Allen married another sister and Danbury A. Whitlow still another. Whitlow lived in Osceola, but soon lost his beautiful wife by death and her body was taken out to the old home for burial on a hot dusty day.
The judges of the election held in Washington township were among our foremost citizens. Isaac Culbertson was a quiet man of few words, but whose judgment was relied upon by all who knew him. Jacob Holsapple was a preacher of the gospel, a good man.
Hugh Hall lived a little south of Panther Creek. He was widely known and his house was a veritable country Tavern. Hugh Hall was an all around business man and controlled fine property before the war. “How far to Hall’s” was as familiar as the morning bell, without checking the horses, travelers would inquire as they passed and any boy at the road side could answer “nine miles”. B.F. Lawler

Reminiscences of Rev. B.F. Lawler:
The Road 70 Years Ago
That Was Surveyed From Lexington to Springfield.
When I was a small boy there was a state road surveyed from Lexington to Springfield. The surveyors camped close to my father’s house and ate their breakfast in our kitchen one stormy morning.
I have written about this in these papers and given many particulars concerning the road and its general direction; but that a new highway is now to be established between Kansas City and Springfield there is good reason for saying something more, and more especially since five hundred men met at Clinton last Saturday for no other purpose than to establish the
“Osage Valley Highway”
from Kansas City to Springfield. If these surveyors of seventy years ago could have known that five hundred citizens assembled in conference now would practically adopt their survey throughout they would have felt complimented on their choice of location for a great road.
At Osceola the crossing of the new road is one mile below the old ford of the first road. Now a free bridge makes crossing safe, instead of the uncertainties of deep and sometimes impossible crossing. South of Osceola for several miles the old road was a mile west of the present road, following the timber, as the custom was, instead of the prairie, but practically uniting again in a little valley below Collins. South of Humansville the survey veers to the west of the old and follows the Dunnegan valley some distance before touching the old survey again at Bolivar.
Marked By Notches.
The state road was known by a certain number of notches on trees by the roadside, and in the early settling of the country to follow the road was to see the number of notches on the trees.
My father was a farmer and a mail contractor, and his sons had to know much about the roads, and the Bolivar route was mine. No bridges or culverts then, more than a pole an ddirt crossing, which furnished a dangerous accommodation; but mainly, in rainy weather, the mud holes would try the strength of our best horses.
About five years ago from the platform of a car near Walnut Grove I had full view of the Osage valley, following Sac river and away across up, up Grand river, until I could see almost to Kansas City from Walnut Grove if I had a “field glass”. It was in May or early in June and in the golden afternoon, with not a cloud to fleck the sky. I was charmed and thrilled. I had seen the mountains and the plains – had seen the waves of the mighty ocean and been lost in the vision of the nation’s charm and God’s mighty wonders – but these were my own dear childhood lands – the choice of my father and delight of my mother, when the wild animals ventured close to our houses. I cannot describe my feelings when I stood on the platform of that car and beheld that vast valley all decorated with groves, farms, meadows, creeks and rivers and the beautiful Osage treading its way northwestward, draining the beautiful landscape I was beholding in all its beauty. And was it all mine after an absence of so many years? Yes; I felt that I could say “My Country”. But I had no idea that so soon as this a great highway was to be established clear across this great valley uniting two prosperous cities of our great state.

Reminiscence:
In the early fifties Waldo P. Johnson stood easily at the front as a Lawyer in St. Clair County – Prosecuting Attorney, when a young man, Judge of his district in more mature years and at the beginning of the war was United States Senator and then in the Senate of the Confederate States.
I remember him in the bright forenoon of his career and heard him when at the zenith of his fame, and I am glad to give him a large place in my estimate of him and as to his standing among those who knew him in those days of high attainment in learning and Statesmanship.
He was partner also in business with W.L. Vaughn, the firm owing and operating steam boats between Osceola and St. Louis. Mr. McClain has been mentioned in these reminiscences together with other lawyers.
The last time I heard Mr. Johnson speak to the public was early in 1861.
He was standing on a goods box at the North door of the court house while crowds of men packed the court house square to hear him.
He told of his experiences in the Senate trying to bring about peace measures and how war seemed to be inevitable – a sad day in this town.
Mr. Johnson had a “tenor voice” and verily it rang so as to be heard and understood by the vast assemblage that day while many faces glowed with intense feeling of a war like nature there were others who felt that great and serious things hung over us, and so did Mr. Johnson feel and speak that day.
Sitting by the riverside
Watching its onward flow; -
Hearing the “swish” of its rippling tide
It tells me where they go.
Onward toward the mighty sea
These waters haste away
Nor heed the charm of cliff or tree
Which greets them every day.
But we are passing with the tide
Of life and thought and deed;
We are moving onward still,
And whether we hark or heed.
B.F. Lawler

Reminiscence:
Very few people now remember that Christmas and “Old Christmas” each had claims to be the day on which Christ was born, and later some of us learned that even when shepherds would be watching their flocks by night would hardly be in winter; but Jesus was born and the prophetic touches given long before his coming completed the likeness when all was fulfilled.
No picture of Him since His coming is nearly so exact as the description of Isaiah and other prophets before He came. But for some reason in the early days of St. Clair County the practices of the people did not give an exalted view of what should have been whether “old” or new Christmas was being observed. I think the 6th of January was claimed for Old Christmas when I was a boy.
The “Yule log” was not then known to me, but the “Christmas gem” was often an auger hole in a log filled with powder and a fuse into which a wooden pin was driven. The explosion was more like a big gun than one might suppose.
Hunting, feasting, visiting and sometimes a “hilarious stunt” called together a crowd of people, in which anything but pious sentiments about the birth of the Savior might be expected.
“Christmas wood” was prepared so that black folks nor white folks were expected to do work on Christmas week more than feed the stock and make the fires.
“Hog killing time” often came just before Christmas and “corn bread and cracklings” and sausages made fine eating except on Christmas morning, biscuits, rich coffee, ham and red gravy with milk and butter made a fine breakfast.
On New Year’s day, after a fine turkey, baked in the good old way occupied one end of the table. So you see we had something good to eat in those days. This was not a religious day, but business or pleasure might be freely indulged. Small boys often found a delightful pass-time in trapping both quails and rabbits, a quail trap if weighted and low would press the rabbit so close to the ground that he could not scratch out nor gnaw a trap stick. The hazel thicket was a prime place for a trap. When visiting traps early in the morning we expected rabbits, in the evening partridges often called “patridges”. My mother corrected my vernacular and taught me correctly.
But the Christmas joys were great in those early days in St. Clair county and the homes were made bright in the evenings with great fires roaring in the chimney and the happy smiles of father and mother – home the best place in the world. B.F. Lawler

Reminiscence:
Seventy years ago in St. Clair county the corn-fields were small and wheatfields were scarce and mills were many miles away from many homes.
Especially in summer, bread was very scarce and at our house we were not permitted to throw away any thing in the fire that a pig, a cat or a dog or even the cow would eat, for often the milk cow would drink the dish water and scraps from the table would be eaten by her.
This economic idea prevailed in many homes without our knowing that it was economy.
After corn-fields were larger and hogs were more common there began a careless waste that has been kept up by many people to this day. This waste was encouraged by hard sayings against any man who was called close in regard to his expenses.
I have heard men abused as being too stingy to eat enough and many a poor fellow tried to make himself liberal by being extravagant about something for fear he would be called stingy.
And yet my young eyes saw that some of these so called stingy men had homes of their own and were able and willing to help those who were in distress while some who called themselves liberal worked in other mens harvest fields to get bacon and meal for support.
Laying aside both of these extreme vies is it not time for people to come back to more economical habits especially in furnishing their tables?
I know one man who has gone from being a respectable merchant to that of being a janitor, and is now keeping offices and club rooms for wealthy people.
He left his store in the hands of others to take in the Worlds Fair and soon failed in business; his beautiful young wife did not know how to make bread though she came from a well-to-do family; her swill pail often had whole biscuits enough in it for a full meal if they had been fit to eat. Many people do not know how to make a good food of left over bread or anything else.
No wonder schools for domestic science are being promoted in many places and it is my opinion this is helping to reduce the death rate in the whole country, better food, better health; go back to those pioneers seventy years ago, scarcely any deaths among them.
Most of my life I have given this subject no thought, trusting to my wife for all the economy we needed and for the excellent food she prepared; but since her health and her vision failed her in part I have had occasion to “take notice” and I have reason to call attention to this important subject.
First, the time has come now in St. Clair county when there is no surplus of grain and many needy people have not seen this, though scare of the many good things which ought to be found on the table – good things; and these same good things may not be the dearest things if we know how to have them.
Meat, perhaps is our dearest food and this again comes from lack of corn.
Then another alarming thing comes to a man who thinks and that is the thousands of people who are quitting the farm and flocking to cities where the struggle for bread is increasing and bread riots are frequent, just think for a moment of a strong man standing in line with hundreds of others waiting for his time to get a charity loaf of bread for his children.
More people ought to learn how raise corn and still more people ought to learn how to gather up the fragments that nothing be lost “as the Lord commanded for he is the great economist.”
Economy comes from two words meaning ‘The Law of the House’. B.F. Lawler

Submitted by Stacy Kelly
 

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