We continued to get our meals at the cellar, until we left. It might be asked how good meals could be had in St. Louis as low down as ten cents, but when it is known that good fresh beef, mutton pork and flour, could be

Our manner of conducting ourselves on our way home was very different, indeed, to what it had been on the way down; we wending our way along very humbly and quietly, ordering nobody out of our way, and I am not quite sure that a well grown boy would not have been entirely safe in ordering the last one of us to leave the whole road to make way for home, which I dare say would have been acceded to, for it is very well known the depressing influence the loss of a year’s labor has on a person, more especially in a case like this, when we could borrow trouble from each other; and my troubles, were not

HENRY T. MUDD

We found no difficulty in obtaining first rate men to drive at fifty cents per day among whom we had the Hon. Alexander Mudd (we having brought his dogs), and boys nearly equal to men for twenty five cents – taking with us two large ox-wagons to haul the tired hogs, with provisions, cooking utensils, etc., for all men and boys (some ten or twelve in number) on the road. We got under way to St. Louis, January 8^th and reached there in ten days. When we got to St. Charles we had twenty tired hogs nicely butchered, only costing the "guts" and lard, which were hauled to St. Louis and put in contract at the same price, and we did not sustain a discount or loss on a single hog on the whole route.

After arranging for the butchering, I rode hastily into St. Louis to make sale; the price had been gradually rising since we commenced buying up to the day of selling and affected a sale, after a conference with all the buyers there to Messrs. Wm. And John Leigerson at the price net of $3.25 with bonus of $25 for being the largest lot taken to St. Louis that season in one drove.

I then hurried back and met Mr. Wells with the drove in good order, and on the road to the city, and when told all of the sale I had made, the man up and cracked his heel and after some shouting knowing that his part of the profits on the hogs would be more than his whole estate was worth at that time.

Arriving at St. Louis, we drove our hogs direct to the slaughter house and sent back all our hands and teams, except one gentle horse with plow gear and rope lines, having purchased of a boy a poorly made Yankee jumper to come home in, the weather being very cold, and sleighing time. We, then put up at a Mr. Hovings, whom I had known before, and who kept a rough sort of entertainment at what was known as the "Wedge House", where drovers were in the habit of stopping

We had to conform to the custom at that time not having our

hogs butchered and left on the hooks two days before weighing the hog separately on the stand.

Mr. Palmer, their clerk and my self, keeping tally and footing up the final weights.

I had not met with esb oysters before since leaving the oyster shoals on the Patuxent River in Maryland, where they could be obtained at all times of the season for one dollar per wagon load with a shell and nose exposed to air. Wells to Erke proposed a stew with me, to which he readily agreed saying he was very fond of them and upon taking the best it seemed his hunger ran out of steam, relating he had a hungry time satisfied, saying he thought he was out of oysters, but he was not. This not only amused me, but gave me two plates instead of one, which I found not the least difficulty in getting away with, as I had not tasted the delicious flavor of fresh oysters for five years.

When we had finished weighing and footing up, it was nearly three o’clock. We were about half a mile from the old State Bank of Missouri, which I believe was the only bank in St. Louis at that time, and all hands were hurrying up to reach the bank before the time of closing, it being a dark, rainy evening. Mr. Palmer had kindly proposed to go to the bank with us to show us the way, and the better to enable us to reach the bank before it closed. We ran nearly the whole way, reaching there sweating and tired, and found Mr. Childs, who was cashier at that time, had just locked the door and was starting away, but he returned and let us into the bank.

Our check was for about $2,950, which we of course wanted and demanded in Missouri bank paper, which, strange to say Mr. Childs positively refused to give us on account of some matter or proposition then pending before the legislature, then in session in regard to renewal of their charter, and could not put out any more of their paper until the matter was settled. We then asked for gold, which was also refused, which we were

compelled to take the whole amount in silver, and to hurry up at that, as the banking hours had passed and Mr. Childs wished to lock the door, and accordingly two heavy oak boxes, securely screwed down and containing $1,000 each, were shoved at us and large trays already counted out in hundreds were also presented to the amount of $900.00 without recount, only counting the odd part of the hundred and we were then politely invited to take them and get out of the bank. About this time, however, silver dollars didn’t seem in our vision to be quite as big as a cart wheel or even the bottom of a bushel, but by the time we had each filled every pocket in our clothing with silver dollars, placed the heavy oak boxes on our shoulders and gotten ourselves out to the street, with the rain pouring down, we began to think, we had at least the weight of a cart wheel to tote or carry until we could find some relief. We reminded Mr. Childs of our condition and asked what we should do, and he told us there was a broker’s office several blocks below. Putting Mr. Wells in the lead, I followed him down to the little one story broker’s office. Mr. Wells, not being very well at the time, wabbled and wriggled considerably under the weight, which gave me a good opportunity to remind him of his political principles, he being for a life time an old bullion or Benton man and in favor of a metallic currency, and I told him, was the carrying his principles on his back, at a weight and pressure of about a hundred pounds, which was very nearly up to his own avoirdupois.

Keeping our management we would make an offer which was at ninety percent exchange in gold and take it or leave it [ ] [ ] on an that both were amiable to get it all, not so were [ ] would we had no dinner was one to our people [ ] [ ] had not and would not pay my money on the hogs until our return. We made the exchange for $2,500, which reimbursed the most of our

silver in weight, but when the question arose about taking the oak boxes at $1,000 each, Mr. Childs who seemed to have been looking on with interest and perhaps amusement at our predicament, very opportunely dropped in and assured the broker that the county would be found all right and they were then taken without recount.

It will be found if any person will try it, that $2,500 in gold just fills a shot bag, with convenient room for a handhold, where the string is tied, and weighs just about ten pounds, which was no very convenient baggage even after there change. The $450 yet remaining we swapped off to the merchant for jagged one and two dollar "wildcat cross road Illinois bills", who which the scheme was a hundred at that time but went out of existence soon after, a good portion of which was redeemed or paid with losses on other portions.

It now being about eight, we wended our way out to Loving’s at the "Wedge House" with our shot bag of gold and our pockets entirely full of the small wildcat bills, being entirely unarmed for nobody carried arms then and perfect strangers in this bit and having to sleep in a large room upstairs, where a half dozen or more beds were placed for a promise on` all sorts are of people, we felt our situation as not a very pleasant one for the time being, but agreed to go to sleep before any one else and hide the money under and between our heads and hold on as best we could. But shortly after retiring Father Wheeler and my brother Alex whom I had been with in St. Louis, called for me [ ] [ ] and told me that John wanted to go to Millwood with [ ] [ ] his brother, Robert who was with us as our first located Catholic priest at Millwood and of course he made Journal accounts with our finances and banking [ ] [ ] to the room and got him to move [ ] [ ] bed to ours.

The next morning after a good breakfast for Loving kept a right good house, we put the plow gear and rope lines off the little horse and all three got in the jumper and started for home, the roads being still covered with ice and snow which was standing from the rain on the previous evening. But somehow at time of starting out, it was found that a large list got situated in one corner of our jumper by the side of the baggage gold, and it was also found before we had gone five miles that the jumper began to settle on one side and turned over, and the further we went the more it settled, and at one stop and turned over, the load in it being more than bargained for with the boy, when we paid fifty cents for it. Before we got to St. Charles it had settled very considerable on the same side and was turning over very frequently. We had concluded in the outset to take a small turn at the black bottle every time we turned over, we soon found that by keeping that as a programme, we might get turned over ourselves whether the jumper turned over or not. We reached old man Trently’s at Dardenne, about 8 o’clock with our jumper, which by that time was leaning a little too much by then by the rising sun to proceed in any further. Thus, one or more of us had to walk most of the way from St. Charles to Trently’s, but we had the good luck there to effect a trade with another boy, at fifty cents bought for a sort of light wood slide which we boxed up and got home in the next day, with the gold and wildcat notes all right but if my memory serves me we were entirely minus the contents of the black bottle, with very good news and most kindly greeting from our wives and little ones, after an absence of fifteen days.

This will probably close all I may have to say about my old time trips to St. Louis, though I made another trip to St. Louis in the winter of 1844, with my neighbor Mr. George L. Dyer, with beef cattle. I thought of writing some account of it, but as he partly unintentionally made all the funny part of it, we might not like it if I were to write of it, and would be sure to say it was all a lie, consequently this will be probably my last.

HENRY T. MUDD

When school turns out, the streets are full of merry, laughing children. How happy is childhood.

The three preceding letters as will have been found in their perusal were written for the Free Press to give to its readers some little reminiscences of the past, and in such language and style as I thought could make them of sufficient interest to be read by the people, for which I have not only been complemented by a number of people, but especially through the paper by Mr. Will I. Knott at the time its able and dignified editor and whose suggestion and request, I wrote them.

EDITOR FREE PRESS: Judge Alex Wilson, Mr. Wm. Achor and myself had been contemplating for some time back, on taking a ride on our Short Line road to Hannibal, and through our old friend Mr. F.C. Cake, now at Silex, an arrangement was made for the three of us and himself to start to Hannibal last Tuesday morning and return on Wednesday evening ---Judge Wilson and myself to stay the preceding night at Mr. Achor’s under the promise of good, square meals, fair treatment and to be taken to Silex in time for the six o’clock morning train; but upon reaching Mr. Achor’s, we learned, much to our regret that Judge Wilson was suffering from an attack of rheumatism and could not be with us. After spending a pleasant night with Mr. Achor and his kind family we were taken in due time for the morning train to Silex, friend Cake going with us to Hannibal.

Although Mr. Achor and myself are quite old citizens and have seen many summers and winters here, neither of us had ever seen the city of Hannibal. Feeling, no doubt, a commendable pride in the completion of our Short Line road, upon which we had never traveled a mile before, it was, as may be supposed more for the purpose of a ride on our road and seeing the country along the road, than for anything else, that we made this little trip, and supposing that we were going to meet.

We spent the night (taking supper and breakfast) with our friend, Mr. Cake – or might be better, perhaps, to say Mrs. Cake, as she is at present very ably conducting that end of the line. We also found there Mr. and Mrs. Pilcher from Troy and Miss Birdle Parker, who had gone up on the train with us. We spent a most enjoyable time with Mr. And Mrs. Cake, whose hospitality is quite well known by many old friends as well as ourselves. We all went with Mr. Cake and family that night to hear a two hours oration from Gov. St. John, of the State of Kansas. We found the governor quite an orator, and he made a very forcible speech in support of the great cause of temperance and prohibition of the manufacture

H. T. MUDD

EDITORS FREE PRESS: We can see that the late redistricting of our state into congressional districts has given us Franklin instead of Monroe county, which throws out Mr. Alexander, a prominent candidate; and if it is true that our present able representative (Judge Buckner) does not intend to be a candidate again, why is it that we of old Lincoln do not assert our rights in the premises? It is surely not for the want of the proper material, for certainly we have several gentlemen in our county who would reflect credit on our district and state in Congress, among whom I see from several papers throughout the district the name of Mr. R. H. Norton has been most favorably mentioned outside of our county. Why, then, is it that we are keeping quiet? It is certainly true that among the aspirants whose names have been presented for that important office, there are none superior in point of all the requisite qualifications to make a good and able member in Congress, and I am very much inclined to doubt if his equal can be found in either of the eight counties in our district.

ONE OF THE PEOPLE

CORRESPONDENT

Judge Mudd, Hon. Aleck Mudd and Sam Motley were in town together Tuesday in response to a an invitation from H. H. Higginbotham to range over his fields and inspect the outcome of his fertilizing experiments with bone dust. They complimented the High School with a short call in the morning, and after dining with Mr. H. and making a general round of observation, especially comparing results as to the wheat exhibit – under the old and the new regime. They returned in the afternoon accompanied by Mr. Dora Mudd, a former pupil of the editor’s and the writer’s in Troy. It was a pleasure to see him and know that he has gone on building up his intellectual fortunes and will soon appear on the World’s broad field of battle in the role of Esculapius. (Greek God of Medicine) The Judge paid a tribute to the public spirit of the young men whose $25, $20 and $10 subscriptions towards the erection of the building for the High ‘School, which reinforced by the more liberal among the older citizens, secure the hearty co-operation of the masons and completed the edifice which now ornaments town, accommodates the wants of both institutions and is a respectable monument to the credit of its owners and to the charity, intelligence and civilization of the times. There is more to be done in this behalf and it is believed that the community will not only not be found wanting but will pride itself more than ever in contributing to the finishing touches. The Judge says the Hon. Aleck coinciding and Mr. M. being on the verge of conversion ---"almost persuaded," that Mr. H’s fertilizing scheme is a center shot on farming reform as to lands somewhat or a good deal worn out. Their comparison between fields of wheat, along side on fertilized and non-fertilized the prospective yield is three to one in favor of the former. We have noticed that Mr. H. also been quite go-ahead-active and liberal in outlay for stock, machinery, etc., in the interest of improved farming, and doubt not that the spread of these facts so reliably authenticated and confirmed by impartial observers, themselves grown gray and old (though still good looking, all of them as everybody knows) in agricultural experience will give a new impetus in the county, and maybe beyond. Come again gentlemen.

The above article signed Correspondent was written by myself, and Louisville Sprinkles by Capt. Thurmond of the high school. The other as will be seem is an advertisement of our present business at Millwood.

H.T. Mudd

My Dear Sir:-- Your paper, the MAIL, has been a regular visitor to my house ever since you started it. You are indeed, making it a most excellent paper – I believe it to be one of the very best country papers in the state.

After your labors for four years among us, and building up what we consider one of the best papers in N.E. Missouri, the FREE PRESS and doing so much for the elevation of our old (Lincoln) county and its people, and having made, I am sure, very many friends for you and yours among our best people, we thought you ought to have stayed with, and continued to be one of us. But I am very sure you meant all you said in your very kind letter to me before going to Nevada, that you were leaving many friends behind you here that you would never cease to remember – but thought there was a better prospect for you in the newspaper business in Vernon, and I sincerely trust your most sanguine hopes may be fully realized.

Vernon I know to be one among the best counties of our state; and I have perhaps been the means of some of our Lincoln county people going there.

I was through Vernon county in August 1861, in company with my old friend, General David Stewart, and was in hearing of the artillery at the little battle of Drywood in your county – and also through the town of Nevada, and onto the western boundary of your county, near Fort Scott, where we found General Price encamped with his army.

Nevada had at that time, I would recon, small frame houses enough for about 300 inhabitants, but the little town had bee "gutted" a short time before by what were then called Kansas "Jayhawkers," a cognomen, I suppose you would hardly like to use now with present good will and

kindness toward a neighboring state. There was not a window or door left unbroken, nor a single inhabitant to be seen in or around the place.

But I hardly remember to have passed through any county in our state that I thought more susceptible of supporting a dense population. And with the present growth of your city, and the quite rapid filling up your county by immigration and your railroad facilities, you will surely in the near future stand second to but few counties in the state.

As you, of course exchange with the FREE Press (your old paper) and I suppose with our Herald and Advance, I need not say anything in regard to any local news here.

As to whether you can make any money at the exceedingly low price you are furnishing so good a paper, I should say "no," but of that matter, (with your long experience in the business) you would know much better than myself; but there is one thing I fully believe – that with your industry and ability in the newspaper business, you will do very much to build up your city and surrounding country.

Wishing you the best of success in your new surroundings, I am your friend.

HENRY T. MUDD