Now and Then – Reminiscence
By Rev. B.F. Lawler
Page 4

Reminiscence:
In 1840 St. Louis was a small town, Mr. LaClede, himself marking out some of the principal streets. James Human, the founder of Humansville rode on horseback to Boonville, then a village, leaving his horse and took boat to St. Louis to lay in a stock of goods which he easily stored in two small rooms built of logs on the high ground east of railroad there now.
I was curious enough when in St. Louis to want to know how far out from the great Mississippi river Mr. LaClede ventured in laying out his street, for the city now is a wilderness of streets, blocks, and car lines over a great portion of St. Louis county, a great city.
New York then began to be called a city, but no reader could think of what would be now – London being the only city many heard of, in that early day.
And yet St. Clair County has history reaching back, back to early days in Missouri, and men of great ability lived here.
The first newspaper I remember was published by William J. Mayo, though there may have been one earlier.
One of the “ditties” I read in Mayo’s paper was like this:
Said the blackbird to the crow
If you are not black I do not know,
Ever since old Adam was born
You’ve been accused of stealing corn.
Mr. Mayo wrote many good things and gave us the news for a number of years, and I remember when I was a large boy that I brought a great bundle of printers paper from Warsaw to him and the rain damaged some of it as I had no good way to protect it.
I thank God for a glad heart, and for being at home again to take up my usual work except outside appointments. B.F. Lawler

Reminiscence:
The fine bridge Messrs. Bledsoe and Alspach are building near Crow island brings to mind Philip Crow from whom the island was named.
My oldest brother William Lawler helped Phil Crow build the first house in Osceola nearly seventy-five years ago. Our home was nine miles from the town site in the direction of where Collins now is. My brother was then not twenty years of age. Neighbors were far apart in those days but far more accommodating than one would think, the distance being so great. Strange it is that none of our family except one daughter, Mrs. Drusilla Baily are buried in the ground they loved so well. Father and mother who were great helpers in making it possible to live in comfort in St. Clair County were forced by the rigors of war to leave their dear home in their old age to find graves among strangers, not being permitted to close their eyes in death upon the lovely lands they had toiled so hard to own.
The buildings they had erected perished in the flames of war and their children have nearly all found graves far from the grounds of consecrated toil, family ties and the sacredness of early Christian vows – all buried away from the places they loved so well. Is any sorrow like that?
Hundreds of pioneers of St. Clair county shared in early trials and triumphs together and then saw their fortunes take wings and disappear. I ask that no tears be shed for them, though my eyes fill as I write, but I do ask you will think of them sometimes. Social life was a factor in the formation of a great community and social life involved a hospitality that would amaze the modern citizen. No hotels or boarding houses then and on occasions the homes of the people would be taxed to a limit to entertain people to far from their own homes when dinner time or night would come.
If Mr. Crow could see the great bridge near his chosen island on the beautiful Osage he would rejoice with us and tell us what a fine time to live in the world with so many and so great advantages to our comfort and convenience, and so say I that most of you, If not all were born at the right time to live well in the world. B.F. Lawler

Reminiscence:
In 1840 there were very few saddles for men or women to ride upon horses in St. Clair county. When the first saddle with horns came to be used they were regarded as a great advantage, in the use of the saddle to help mount the horse, to help to “hold on” after mounted and to fasten the halter strap while riding. Double rein bridles were regarded as a great advance by some people who took pride in being ahead of their neighbors. Long before bought saddles were common in the country “saddle trees” were made by rude mechanics, and these first covered with rawhide closely fitting and durable, then covered with sheep skin wool-side out, furnished a very good seat on a horse’s back. Any boy who could call one of these his own was well fixed.
In 1846 a few fine horses could be seen and were the properties of the sons of well-to-do citizens.
A few ladies had fine saddles and a “riding habit” which was a complete robe or a skirt only, but this in either case came far below the feet when seated upon the horse, a flowing skirt and being then thus seated on a beautiful horse appeared in elegant and graceful style, which was an accomplishment worthy of being classed with the fine arts. A few of these fine horses were kept for riding on horse back and called saddlers. The old blue back spelling book said that “riding horse back is good exercise:.
It seems doomed to be a lost art, the more’s the pity. A man who knows how to sit upon a horse as he ought to sit can exercise the biceps and triceps, even all the muscles o f the body in a most helpful manner without using dumbbells or turning poles or any other athletic device. For many years I kept a horse and phaeton, and after ten years use my phaeton sold for $75, half its original cost, because I went on horse back in bad weather when roads were bad except on rare cases. Then coming home it was much easier to lead a horse into a stable and not have to wash a muddy buggy before putting it in its house.
In 1850 fine horses were common and many farmers had more horses than they needed.
A few families in Osceola and a few families in the country rode in carriages. Coon Creek church ten miles south or east was a place where crowds of people met on the third Sunday in each month and in Summer time campers from Osceola and from other sections could be seen under the shade of the great trees not far from the great spring near the place of meeting. What a congregation! what a compliment to the preacher! It seems to me now that one fourth of an acre of ground was densely occupied by people listening to what the preacher said while groups were here and there in the beautiful grove. Jack and Scharlott had the unpaid for privilege of selling the finest cakes (ginger cakes) in the world, their booth being situated between the great congregation and the great watering place near by.
Fine ladies accompanied by fine gentlemen, farmer people, old men and boys, all these formed a fine panoramic show to a student boy who had never read “Innocent abroad” or William Mathews on “Men and books” nor hardly knew why he gazed at the crowds and meditated.
But the carriages, the people, the grove nor the great spring kept the sermon from having its place in the heart and creating a feeling that all was not “well with the soul” But even then great numbers of people did not seem affected by the preaching, boys on the same long bench were differently impressed or not impressed at all, while whole sections of the great congregation seemed to be profoundly interested. James T. Wheeler was pastor eight years. L.R. Ashworth a shorter time. Moses Preston was baptized about that time.
In 1860 the changes were great and in 1861 the congregation was broken up and the gloom of war shrouded the land. B.F. Lawler

Early Days in St. Clair County
Far between were the little farms
Where the early settlers dwelt.
And many were the fierce alarms
Some timid people felt.
The Indians on the border land
Scarcely seemed content,
And fears of some marauding band
Through many hearts were sent.
The wolf was howling on the hill
Through many a lonesome night
And fearful wives could hear them still
Until the morning light.
For husbands oft should journeys make
To city or town or mill,
The journey long would often take
The day and night to fill.
The Doctor lived so far away
His calls were very few
And few were sick in that fair day
Of rosy morns and dew.
But when death came with sickle keen
To reap in shadowy gloam
No horse was spared the road between
The sick one and his home.
B.F. Lawler

Reminiscence:
Fifty-eight years ago bob Morrow lived at the edge of the prairie north of Gallinipper three miles from Osceola.
Twelve miles across the prairie came the Reed timber where the Reed house was the only “country inn” in all that distance to Grand river.
Dr. Browning came next and some of his house remains to this day north of the rail track between Brownington and Grand river. In going to Boonville by wagon we camped near the Reed house beside the public road.
Late in the night when the horses drooped their heads in sleep they were startled by a man coming up to our camp fire asking to remain by our fire till morning. We were frightened and did not have sense enough to let him stay with us. We asked him how he came to be so late on the road, he answered that it was because he was “belated in the prairie”, with a fine accent in his words and said he would be glad if we would permit him to remain by our fire till morning. We were afraid he would steal a horse while we slept and so we told him he could not stay. October chill was in the air and he was so weary. It was a pity we could not see that he could return after going a short distance and, finding us asleep do, even bodily harm to ourselves. The timber was tall and thick but the moon shone brightly and I remember the forlorn step of that poor man as he limped away under the shadow of the trees down the long hill toward the Reed Branch as we called it then – that figure haunts me yet. Mr. Reed came to our camp next morning but we got no comfort from him by turning the man away, as he himself often had calls late in the night. We never saw our man again, but we may see him when many will be “turned away from the beautiful gate” but how we can explain our turning him away from a camp fire will not be easy to explain.
On our return we camped on the South side of Grand river late in the evening, and one of the party asked at Dr. Browning’s for a loaf of bread and was promised a skillet of warm corn bread as the best the cook could do for us that night, and an hour was agreed upon for the time we could get the bread. By that time the waning moon was slow to come up to give us light, but our want of supper pressed upon us till we preferred the dark road for the bread rather than go to bed without supper. We found Dr. Browning still awake to deliver us the bread and I wondered that he could be interested in us at all.
When Gallinipper bank just below where the wagon bridge now is, should be slippery from recent rains we had to double teams in order to reach its top with our heavy goods.
In most Fall weather the Osage was easily forded and a few teams were dashed up the steep bank where the old mill site now is, but the more sane driver found time to pass out the lower fording place and drive past where the base ball ground now is and where the cattle yards now are, and by where Whitlows blacksmith shop, was to town.
Several business houses were along not far from Wilson’s Drug store, Dorchester’s Tinshop and Hardware being one of them. But the main, heavy business was transacted on the West side of the square South of and including the site of the Johnson Lucas Bank.
The wagons then were of light build much like those brought from Tennessee and Kentucky. I remember well when heavier wheels came into use.
I remember also when one more lone settler was found between Osage and Grand river, his name was Tooly, if I get it rightly, and he lived in the valley about two miles North and East of where Lowry City now is.
I had then turned my attention to books and began to let go the threads of business affairs and for more than fifty years other people have seen to business and I thank them for it. B.F. Lawler

Reminiscence, 1 May 1913:
Many of the early settlers of St. Clair county built their little houses close to the spring. Mr. George Wheeler’s father was an exception, his great new house being built on high ground. One of the first out-buildings would be a spring house, build over or near the spring, the cold water running through troughs or vats inside the little house in which the milk and butter for the family were kept cold until a few minutes before using. This proximity to the spring made it very convenient for “fetching water” to the house all the year around, and for milk and butter in the summer.
Chills and fever were common in the fall and some people began to suspect the locality of the house was too low, that the fog in the morning did not clear away early, so many of them built new houses on higher ground. One man living on the south side of a creek noticed the fog being drawn toward his house as he thought by the sun, so he built his new house on the north side of the creek. A Tennesseean bought one of the claims having a snug little house close by the spring – only a few steps away, and the little spring house and the water all seemed good, but he built a larger house quite a distance from the old one. The baby boy of that home was named Jake. Jake had two mamas, one being white, his own mother, and one was black. Jake liked to stay in the cabin with his black mama, and one of the older boys said it was because the black mama and the night were of the same color.
The reader could appreciate this more if it could be known that in many cabins there was no light at night except the fire on the hearth, and in summer, at best, a flickering flame, and many times none at all. So, little Jake grew up with many special privileges.
He had but little opportunity to attend school and not inclined to books. Few people talked about the advantages of an education to the young people and general indifference was great. One poor fellow was troubled about learning “his letters”, as it was called. One man asked him, saying “Bill are you ever to learn you’re a,b,c’s?” “I dunno”, said Bill, “they are nothing but a pesterment”, using a wicked adjective in connection. Before little Jake, as we may call him, had past his teens a violent fever took his young life away, after a few days of delirious suffering. We laid him in a deep grave and heaped the soft earth over his lowly bed. The weather was extremely cold and the moist earth was freezing before we left the burying ground. Nothing was said at the funeral and I think there was no memorial service followed. I have often thought of poor Jake and how little he was missed and how short a time he had to live, to enjoy or to suffer as compared with many of his fellows. And yet he must have been dear to his God.
And here is a verse some of us studied under a master in Elocution:
“Answer me, burning stars of night,
Where has the spirit gone
That passed the reach of human sight
Even as a breeze hath flown?
And the stars answer me:
We roll in light and power on high
But of the never dying soul
Ask things which cannot die.”
B.F. Lawler

Reminiscence, 11 September 1930:
[Reprinted by request, from The St. Clair County Democrat of September 22, 1910.]
In 1838 Matthew Boswell came from Tennessee, and settled on the east side of Little Weaubleau, about two miles from its junction with Big Weaubleau.
He was a most exemplary citizen. His children were Robert, James and Elizabeth.
Robert and James were in school with me, but in classes older than myself. They rode horse-back to Union school house one-half mile west of the present school house in the Elliot Grove, a distance of six miles.
Robert died recently, loved and respected by all the community, leaving children who rise up and call him blessed. A son of James, who was also named James, moved west a few years ago. Elizabeth married Rymer Williams, who started out before the war as a thrifty farmer and money maker. I have not known him since then.
Matthew Boswell owned property and had servants.
Mrs. Boswell was an excellent wife and mother, as well as a reasonable mistress of servants.
I remember the baptism of a woman house servant on a clear day, with crowds of people to witness the baptism, when I was a small boy. I do not recall the death of either Mr. or Mrs. Boswell, nor the cemetery where they are buried, but their lives were well spent and made a good impression upon the people.
They must have enjoyed their new home, not suffering the inconveniences of many less fortunate than themselves.
Well-to-do settlers had a decided advantage over the poor settlers of that time.
I remember them in ripe age, and Robert, their eldest son, also greatly advanced in years, (nearly eighty), and still my own strength has not abated. What a book is spread out before me! How varied are the colorings of the moral and mental scenery! My friend, Mr. Ed Hall, will bear me witness to this. And he, too, will agree that we have had a wonderful field for observation.
I had given it all up, as forty-six years had rolled away since I lost all and found a new home elsewhere – most of the time West; but since coming home again, the “films” all seem to have been preserved and the “fond recollections” easily reproduce the scenes of ante-bellum days. Let it be so, and let me profit by all the good, and, as much as possible, forget the bad. B.F. Lawler

Submitted by Stacy Kelly

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