DAVID CRUISE

1887 History of Vernon County

p. 158:

     The first marriage [in Vernon Co., MO] was that of David Cruise and Fanny Summers, the latter a daughter of Moses Summers, at whose house the wedding occurred in 1832.  The ceremony was performed by Rev. Amasa Jones.  Mrs. Fanny Cruise died, and Mr. Cruise remarried and was living with his second wife, Lucinda, when he was murdered by Kagi and his fellow Abolitionists, in 1858.

p. 228-232:

The Robbery and Murder of David Cruise

     Kagi and his party came down the Osage valley, passing silently along the bases of the big mounds, and making their way unobserved to the house of David Cruise.  A mile and a half to the westward they crossed the road from Kansas City via Butler to Ft. Scott.  Reaching the premises they at once assailed them, seeking admission into the houses.  The party was guided by Bill Beckford, a former resident of Missouri, and a desperate character.  He knew the country well and hated Cruise personally. 

     Cruise's family consisted of himself, his wife Lucinda (who was his second wife); two sons named Ralph and Rufus, the former a young man, the latter a mere boy; and two slaves, a woman of middle age and a likely man named George.  Mr. Cruise himself was 60 years of age, having been born in Oldham county, Ky., in 1798.  He was an old settler of the county, having located here shortly after the Black Hawk War, in which he was a soldier.  He owned several hundred acres of land in this county and a large amount of personal property, including a number of horses, mules, cattle and other stock.  On the night of the raid Ralph Cruise, the older son, was absent from home.

     The raiders found the door of the house fastened and demanded that it be opened immediately, or they would demolish it.  [Footnote: One version among some of Cruise's neighbors is, that the jayhawkers obtained entrance into the house by representing that they lived in Bates county and had been to Ft. Scott and were on their way home, but finding the Osage impassable wished to stay all night.  But those best acquainted with the circumstances say that this story is untrue, and that the robbers broke into the house as stated above.]  Mr. Cruise had feared trouble of some sort and had procured a revolver, which he then had in the house.  His son Ralph had carried this weapon and had tied a loop of ribbon about the handle, partly for ornament and partly to suspend it by.  The old man sprang out of bed, seized his revolver and attempted to shoot through the door at the robbers, but the ribbon caught in the cylinder and became entangled about it in such a way that it would not revolve and the weapon could not be discharged.  The robbers broke in the door, and one of them (said to be Bill Beckford) fired and shot down Mr. Cruise, who fell near the fireplace and died almost instantly, his blood flowing out upon the hearthstone. [Footnote: It is stated that when Mr. Cruise was shot he was unarmed, having thrown his revolver on the bed when he found it would not work, and that he was trying to escape from the house when his murderers fired.  That mendacious bigot, Redpath, in his "Life" of Brown, says that when Mr. Cruise "learned the purpose of the party, he raised his rifle to fire at it, but was shot dead before he could pull the trigger."  This statement is altogether untrue.  Mr. Cruise had no rifle, and as previously stated when he was shot he was in his night clothes and wholly unarmed and defenseless.]

     The "liberators," in their heroic efforts in aid of the cause of freedom, now began a systematic pillage of the entire premises.  Mrs. Cruise was made to assist in the search for plunder, without being allowed to dress herself.  Alarmed at the murder of his father, and at the terrible oaths and threats of the robbers and their dreadful proceedings, little Rufus Cruise run out of the house in his night clothes and made his way over the rough frozen ground, in his bare feet and almost naked condition, three miles, to the house of Mr. Mitchell, a relative, where he was taken in and cared for.  The negro man, George, was also badly frightened, and he too ran away, and succeeded in making his escape from his would-be rescuers.  The slave woman was unable to escape; perhaps she was unwilling, but at any rate she was unable.  A few days later she gave birth to a child.

     Kagi and his party took from Mr. Cruise the slave woman mentioned, two yoke of oxen, one wagon laden with provisions and clothing, eleven head of good mules, two horses, and a number of articles found in the house and elsewhere about the premises.  They did not succeed in finding any money.  The raiders also went to the house of Hugh Martin, half a mile ease of the Cruise place.  Martin had no slaves, but they got from him a valuable mule.  But for lack of time they would have undoubtedly "looted" the entire neighborhood.  As it was they returned to Bain's fort with what booty they had.  Arriving at the fort they united with Brown's party and there was great rejoicing over the successful issue of the expedition.

     Brown's eulogists have attempted to gloss over the character of this murderous, larcenous, and freebooting raid, and have so distorted the facts that many persons have indorsed it.  When the truth is known, surely none but the bigoted will find excuse or justification for it.  Let the fact of the willful and flagrant violation of statute law not be mentioned or considered; or let the case be tried by the Abolitionists' "higher law," and it is still black and bloody.

     In the first place the negroes taken away were not and had not been badly treated.  Lawrence, Larue, Cruise, and Hicklin were all considerate men and kind masters.  If the negroes had been abused, and were tired of their condition, they were but a few miles from Kansas, had abundant opportunities for escape, and in two hours could have been in the territory and free from their masters.  The negro men frequently went unattended into the territory, mounted on good horses, hunting for stock, and always returned.  Save the rascal "Jim" and one or two others, it is highly probable that the slaves were actually kidnaped (sic) and forcibly abducted.  Some of them were heard crying as they left their homes, and "George" Cruise actually ran away from his would-be liberators and would not be taken by them.

     The citizens who were thus outrageously assailed and robbed, were all of them quiet, peaceable men.  Isaac Larue and David Cruise were both old men, incapable of harm; but neither Larue, Hicklin, Cruise or Martin was a "border ruffian," or had taken any part whatever in the affairs of Kansas, for or against the Free State cause or for or against slavery in the Territory.  They were Pro-Slavery men, it is true, but they were law-abiding, and many strong Free State men knew them and respected and esteemed them.  The old gray-headed pioneer, David Cruise, who was so ruthlessly slain in his own dwelling, in the immediate presence of his wife, was guilty of no offense whatever.  He was a good citizen, a kind neighbor, hospitable and generous, and he had never taken up arms against his fellow-men, save against the savage Indians of the forest, and the equally savage cohorts of John Brown who murdered him.  And even this latter occasion was when the marauders were beating down the door of his house with curses and threats and he arose from his sick bed to defend it; and when he was shot down without warning he was unarmed, not half clad, and entirely defenseless!  Yet John Brown, who justified, and even applauded, his murder, coolly says he was killed because "he fought against the liberation!"  Yes, he "fought against the liberation" of his faithful man-servant, who himself would not be freed, but ran away from the kidnapers; and he "fought against the liberation" of his bond-woman, who was much attached to her master and mistress, and who was "liberated" because she was so far advanced in pregnancy that she could not help herself; and he "fought against the liberation" of his horses, his mules, his cattle, and his household goods!

     Literally, however, Mr. Cruise did not fight.  He strove at first to keep the brigands out of his house, but when he was shot he had thrown down his weapon and had not hurt a hair upon the head of any of his assailants.

     But if Brown and his men could find it in their hearts and consciences to excuse themselves for carrying off the slaves because they were slaves, and if their admirers can excuse them for the same reason, how shall they hold themselves blameless for the carrying away of the other property?  Why were the horses, the mules, the cattle, the wagons and such articles as harness, saddles, log chains and farming implements taken?  Brown and his men said, and their eulogists yet say, that the clothing and provisions were taken to feed the poor slaves.  They took in all about 1,500 pounds of pork, 300 pounds of beef, 100 pounds of lard and a lot of flour and meal, and yet in a few days afterward, Brown's biographers tell us, the Abolitionists of Franklin county, Kansas, were supplying the negroes with food and clothing, "of which they were greatly in need."

     Why, too, was such a ravenous search made for money?

     The truth is that the raid was made mainly for the benefit of the raiders.  The taking of the negroes was merely to give another color to the real character of the expedition so as to raise up apologists for it among the Northern Abolitionists.  He who is deceived thereby is not wise.  The idea that the expedition was purely philanthropic is preposterous.  Fancy Bill Beckford, Jim Steele, Al. Hazlitt and other noted cut-throats in the role of philanthropists, riding throughout a long cold winter's night solely to free a dozen negroes!  The property was taken for the use of those who took it.  The horses, mules and cattle, the wagons, harness, saddles and log chains were for the raiders themselves, and the provisions, clothing, bedding and other household articles were for their families.  Whosoever denies this denies the truth. 

     [Read the entire article from the 1887 History.]

THE TRUTH OF HISTORY

Mrs. M. Beckford Denies That Her Husband was a Party to the Killing of David Cruise.

Ft. Scott Monitor:

     A communication to the Nevada Mail charges that William Beckford, who resides in Osage township, in this county, from 1857, to the time of his death, in 1877, was a party to the killing in the spring of 1858, by a party to the killing of David Cruise, who was killed in the spring of 1858, by a party of men supposed to be followers of John Brown.  Cruise lived in Vernon county, about four miles from the state line, and was shot in his own house in the night by unknow[n] men.  Mrs. M. Beckford, the widow of Wm. Beckford, was in the city yesterday, and indignantly protested against this charge being made against her dead husband.  She lived with her husband about five miles from Cruise, and remembers the time of his murder well.  She heard the party who killed Cruise pass her house.  Mr. Beckford and Ralph Cruise, a son of the old man Cruise, were sitting with a Mr. Synder, about a half mile from Beckford’s, Snyder being sick at the time.  Beckford and young Cruise, both of whom are now dead, also heard the party pass, but for the fact that young Cruise was away from home, he would have been killed also.  The day after the killing Mr. Beckford and Mr. Bailey, a near neighbor of the Cruises, and four or five others took care of the body, and Mr. and Mrs. Beckford held watch over the body the Wednesday night after the killing.  Mrs. Beckford is a well preserved and intelligent lady, and her memory as to the facts stated above are very clear.  Mr. Beckford was a free state man and Cruise a pro-slavery man, but Mrs. Beckford is certain that they were on friendly and peaceable terms.  Mrs. Beckford also speaks of Mr. Cruise as being a good man and a good neighbor.  She had never heard such a charge hinted by anyone until this communication was published in the Nevada Mail, and called and stated the foregoing facts, in vindication of the truth of history and the memory of her husband.  Will the Nevada papers please copy.

The Daily Mail, Nevada, Vernon Co., MO.  March 19, 1887

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