Newspaper Articles

1901

The Carthage Press

November 14

Submitted by: Kathy Sidenstricker

Dr. J. W. Stewart delivered his lecture, "Old Bachelors" at Diamond last night and Howard Fitzer gave a chalk talk. They had a crowded house and arrangements were made for a return engagement next week.

If you have catarrh try Dr. Cohen's salve at Caffee's drug store.

The talk of Carthage.

We the undersigned agree to prosecute all parties found hunting or fishing without permission. C. A. Post, L. D. Gresham, E. R. King, Fread Gresham, J. C. Miller, F. M. King, M. N. Miller, O. Frost, Jasper Ricer, J. S. Scritch, Thos. Scritch, A. C. Post, O. Little, J. A. Wine, A. F. Gresham, Jasper, Mo., Oct. 28, 1901.

Dr. Gibson, dentist, does all kinds of high class dental work. Office over Edel's drug store, east side square. Phone No. 439.

Wanted, a man and wife, no children, to work on farm. Woman to do housework. Mrs. St. John at Press office.

Albert Rogers, who was called here yesterday from Texas by the unfortunate affliction of his wife has given up his position as traveling salesman and since the first of last month has been in the Exchange National bank at Dallas. Mr. Rogers was for many years a valued member of the Bank of Carthage force and has now gone back to his old occupation. He will have his little son Elton cared for here for the present, either at the home of his father northeast of town or by some trustworthy person in this city.

C. F. Stephens of Carthage and his son-in-law, Walter Cass, recently made a lucky purchase of a prospect on the Cornfield lease at Carterville. The first week's turn-in paid the cost of the property, the expenses and left a good balance in the treasury.

W. O. Wheeling of Prosperity and Miss Annie Apple of near Carthage were wedded at the court house later yesterday afternoon by Judge Marion Brown. They will reside at Prosperity.

The Mineral News

November 15

Submitted by: Kathy Sidenstricker
Neck City Mine Doings--Bring us the news from the mines; Lee Ryan is now working at the Little Em.

"Rabbit" Russell has resigned his job at the Monte Cristo.

The Sphinx sold about 120,00 lbs of jack this week, we understand.

Robert Hodson, the owner of the fee at the Smith coal mine in South town has been back from Indiana for the past week looking after his interests here. He returned Wednesday.

W. E. Smith the genial lessee and manager of the Southtown coal mine still continues to dig up the black diamonds at a live gait. He has already paid out to the owners of the land $2000 in royalities.

J. D. McIntyre, formely Adams express agent at Grand Island, Nebr., and one of the principal stock holders in the Jack D. mine, has returned to Neck City and is in charge of the work at that mine, Mr. Smith having resigned. Bert Holcomb, Milt Sidenstricker and Ed Windlin are his assistants in sinking the shaft.

Jim Hopper and Bart Mynatt, had a very narrow escape Wednesday at the Neck City mine. They were boing lowered to work by hoisterman Moore and his machine got out of order and they took a fall of 150 feet and escaped injury to any great extent. Bart tried to climb the rope and Jim staid (stayed) in the tub until it struck bottom. It is said they said all kinds of prayers while going down.

Burton School Report

For the month ending Nov. 8, 1901, the number of pupils enrolled 40. Average number of pupils attending each day 34. Average number of days attended by each pupil 18. Cases of truancy 0 and of corporal punishment 0. Those who were either abest or tardy for the month are Miss Lulu Worrell, Lou Ytell, Bertha Osborn, Ruthie and Lucy Newby, Elma and Lyla Betz, Pearl Betz, Clarence and Bertha Betz, Leba and Harry Ytell. Resp'y Florence Chapin, teacher.

Aurora Mining Plant Swallowed by Cave-In!
Oronogo Experience a Very Exciting Catastrophy on Wednesday Morning.
Seventeen Workmen Narrowly Avert Being Entombed Alive!
At about 8 o'clock Wednesday morning there occurred at this place one of the largest cave-ins that has taken place in this district, in which the plant of the Aurora Mining Company and five flat cars belonging to the Missouri Pacific railway company were buried beneath hundreds of tons of earth and tailings. The Aurora mine is located about three blocks northwest of the business part of town between the Klondike and Little Circle mines. The Missouri Pacific has a switch running through the Aurora ground over to the Little Circle which is used for the purposed of removing the tailings and ore from these mines. Five cars were standing on the Aurora ground filled with tailings which went down with the track into the chasm below. The destroyed mine and engulfed plant is one of the oldest in the district and employed about 20 men. Dirt was noticed falling all day Tuesday, but nothing serious was thought of it by some. On Wednesday at 7 o'clock employees went down a shaft into the mine, but the ground was giving way so rapidly that ground boss Jess Hudson, ordered the men to the top. They came out about 7:30 and at 8 o'clock the ground was noticed to be sinking. A number of the men who had congregated in the engine room sought places of safety as soon as it was seen the boilers were sinking, and not a moment too soon, for they had barely reached solid ground until the mud and earth for 8 rods in every direction sank from sight. J. C. Holmes, the superintendent, fortunately was at Aurora on business at the time of the accident. Had he been here, in all probability he would have been in the office and would scarecely have had time to make his escape as the office building was about the first thing to drop out of sight. The following are the names of the ground men who went down to work on the fatal morning and made their escape from the ground in time to save their lives: Ground boss Jess Hudson, Jack Carney, Frank Adams, Dick Stockstill, Ed Owens, Bud Barnes, Jim Wilson, Joe R. Williams, William Fisher, Bob Breeden, Sam and Scott Alfrey. The men in the mill and on top whose lives were also in peril and just had time to get out from under the falling mill were: Engineer G. B. Meck, Abe Dunham, hoisterman; Will Duty, repairman; Coss Fetters, Walt Owens, and Hiram Robinson, platform men.
Notes of the catastrophy:
Not a life lost is the miracle of the cave-in.
The only thing saved was the hoister and derrick house.
About 20 tons of good jack in the bin went down with the mill.
Walter Pringel mourns the loss of several new hammers just made.
The concussion blew the roof off the Little Circle derrick house 200 yards away.
The engine and two 80-ton boilers went down with a dull thug-an explosion of one of the boilers being distincly felt and heard in the ground after being engulfed.
Engineer Meck had no time to go back after a good suit of clothes left in the engine room--a $65 gold watch and $1.50 in coin and a good dinner are buired as trophies to help him remember the occasion.
Dr. J. A. Cottingham and A. L. Tuttle, of Aurora, who are the prinicpal owners of the fated plant and mine, were in town Wednesday looking over the situation. They estimate the loss of plant about $7000. Their former earnings from this investment has made them over $100,000 it is stated. They are congratulating themselves over the fact of no loss of life.

The Carthage Press

November 28

Submitted by: Kathy Sidenstricker
Misses Annie Bellin and Gusta Luke of the Pond laundry, discovered last night that their home in the big double Clarkson house on Maple street had been entered during their absence and a gold watch and chain and some cash had been stolen. The watch was last seen Monday evening, and the house was entered since that time, apparently with a door key, for no evidence of forcible entrance was found. The police are working on the case.

The Carthage Press

December 12

Submitted by: Kathy Sidenstricker
Pioneer Tales As Yet Untold
The formation of a historical society in Carthage and Jasper county has been suggested and urged by some of those loyal old residenters who believe in perpetuating the stock of local tradition that is being handed down from mouth to mouth, and from generation to generation. Joplin has already begun such a movement and it is urged that the recollections and reminiscence of such old timers as Judge Onstott and R. J. Dale, as published in part in the Press from time to time, would make a most excellent foundation for a history not only of Carthage and the county, but would throw valuable side light on a story of the development of this entire section of the middle west. In fact the copy of the Press containing Judge Onstott’s recent interview has already been sought by the Missouri historical society now compiling a history of the state.

White Girl As Indian Captive
R. J. Dale, now 81 years of age, is still living quietly on West Mound street in Carthage, on the very spot where sixty odd years ago he saw wild deer roam at will. His life story is fraught not only with romance, but with valuable historical observations. For instance he recalls his experience as an early Jasper county boy in the recovery of a white girl from the Comanche and Osage Indians who had stolen her from her mother, after killing her father and of the final return of the girl, after a long residence in Carthage to her mother in Texas, as a result of the merest accident incidental to the fortunes of the civil war. But this is a story of itself and will be told in a future issue of the Press. First Steamboats in Missouri Mr. Dale and his father saw the beginning of the development of the young Louisiana territory, the purchase of which is now about to be celebrated by the word’s fair of 1903. In 1824 the Dales settled in the Boon’s Lick country made famous by the discovery of a salt spring by Daniel Boon on the Missouri river. There he saw the first steamboat (the old "Globe") which ever plied the waters of the Missouri river, and soon afterward the "Yellowstone." Pirogues of furs, peltries, buffalo robes and barrels of honey were floated down stream to St. Louis in the spring.

Father Ran the Gauntlet
Mr. Dale’s father was born in Woodford county, Ky., fought in the war of 1812 under Gen. Harrison against the British, and at the age of seventeen was taken prison by the Indians at Dudley’s defeat, Kentucky, and compelled to run a gauntlet of Indian warriors 100 yards long. Most of his companions perished in the ordeal, or were tomahawked afterward in the bull-pen.

Settled Here in 1838
In 1837 the elder Dale prospected in the present Jasper county (then part of Barry) and in 1838 moved here bringing his son, R. J. Dale. They settled at the head of Turkey creek, east of the future Joplin, and found elk horns, buffalo wallows, and other indications of the great game that had departed, besides deer, turkey, wolves, etc. No schools or churches existed among the three settlers ahead of them on Turkey creek, but the people of this section already here were good and moral. The lived in log houses with puncheon floors, clapboard roofs, stick and clay chimneys. The first sawed lumber used in Jasper county was cut with whip saws "logs hewn square and placed on a scaffold" one mad about and one on the ground" pulling and pushing the saw up and down.

Crude Farm Tools
The development which Mr. Dale has witnessed in the Louisiana territory itself is no greater than the mechanical and industrial progress made since the Louisiana purchase assured the United State its great prosperity and future. The farm tools then used in the present empire county were not the self binder, thresher and steam plow of today. Instead the pioneers used the barshear, shovel plow, reap hook, scythe and cradle. Threshing was done by horses on tramping floors, the straw was pitched off the wooden forks, and chaff was separated from grain by a home made riddle, the chaff being blown off with a sheet.

Drove Stock to Louisiana
"Our markets were wide-spread," says Mr. Dale, "but our buying places were few. Our nearest wholesale point was Boonville on the river, from whence goods came by ox wagon. Two stores were soon opened at Sarcoxie, the first in this country. We drove our hogs, mules and horses on foot to Louisiana. Our cattle we drove to Illinois and Ohio in the same way. Then trade soon opened up wit the friendly Indians to the west of us, we trading calico and wampum for their robes, peltries, tallow, etc. The was no post office west of Sarcoxie till one was established at my father’s house near Joplin in 1841."

Early Mill Building
"In the early forties an ear of mill building set in. Myers and Doil built a saw mill on Turkey creek northwest of the present Joplin, after which we substituted plank for puncheon floors, and weatherboarded our log houses. Joel Jackson built a grist mill at the present Redding mill site on Shoal creek, and his brother Isaac, a grandfather of Mrs. S. A. Stuckey, built one on Center Creek, near the present Lehigh. Wm. Laxton built a grist mill east of the present Lakeside. Now we had mills, and such advanced machinery as threshers’ rig, old straw piler, wheat fans" and as a result had plenty of flour. This was greedily bought by the Osage Indians, to whom we hauled flour in ox wagons and came back with their robes, peltries and tallow which we hauled on to Boonville, and brought back necessary supplies from the river. Thus we acted as feeders for the great pioneer fur traders and steamboaters of the Louisiana territory. Later lead furnaces were opened up at Granby, Leadville, Oronogo or Minersville, and Moseley furnace on Shoal Creek, furnishing us with a regular wagon freight service to Boonville in addition to our Osage traffic."

Wolf Scalps For Taxes
"In those early Jasper county days we citizens raised and manufactured our own bread, made our own molasses out of pumpkins and watermelons till sorghum seed was introduced at 10 cents per spoonful. We grew, picked, carded, spun and move our own cotton and wool for clothing, plated our own straw hats, and tanned skins and made our own shoes for winter wear."

Social Equality
"The only barrier to social equality in those hard days was the lack of moral integrity and industry. If a man was unworthy from such shortcoming we simply gave his the cold should, and he soon drifted into more congenial company elsewhere, perhaps joining some outlaw band. Up to the civil was Jasper county sent only three men to the state penitentiary:their three crimes being horse stealing, attempted rape and attempted murder."

Names of Streams
"Early exploring parties paid a tribute to this section as a great game country by the names they applied to the streams, for instance Coon, Possum, Deer, Buffalo, and Turkey creeks were they found the respective game plentiful; Spring river was fed by springs, Shoal creek abounded in shoals or shallows, Center creek was half way between Spring river and Shoal creek, Northfork was north of Spring river; a dead cow’s skin gave rise to the name of a stream; at Sugar creek they saw Indians making sugar, they found wild hone on Honey creek, and Short creek was only five miles long."

Jasper County