BUSINESS DIRECTORY. Physicians-W. E. Frick, J. J. Fulker- Furnishing Goods-M. K. Farmer. Saddles and Harness-J. M. Turpin. Miss Theo King. Blacksmith and Wagon Shop-H. A. Blacksmith-M. Clemons. Livery Stable-J. R. Youree. We will give below a statement as received from R. P. Price, the accommodating agent at this place, from January 1st, 1880, to December 31, 1880: This town was laid off by Joseph Peters, September 5, 1878. It is described as follows: Commencing 58 feet south of the northwest corner of the northeast quarter of the southwest quarter of Sec. 35, Tp. 49, R. 30, thence north seven hundred and fifteen feet, thence east four hundred and forty feet, thence south to the railroad, thence following the railroad west 120 feet, thence south to the southern limits of the town, thence west to the place of beginning, making an inclosure of four acres. This little village is situated on the Chicago & Alton Railroad, in the central southern portion of Sni-a-bar township. It was laid out in the fall of 1878, by James Lucas, three-quarters of a mile from Sni-a-bar Creek and five miles from Blue Springs. It being in the heart of the valley, its future promises most encouraging results. Surrounded by a farming country of unsurpassed fertility, it will soon become a place of considerable commercial importance. The following persons are at present engaged in business at Grain Valley: Physician, James H. Daniels. Drug store, G. U. Keener. Post-office, J. H. Cannon, P. M. Shoe repair shop, Geo. Kreigel. The business of this little place is said to be at least $75,000 annually. Their shipment of products of all kinds was last year 235 car loads. PINK HILL. The little village of Pink Hill is situated in Sni-a-bar township, on the line dividing ranges 19 and 20, in township 49. Its plat bears date of November 5, 1854, and is signed by George W. Love and D. A. Neer. Some years ago there was a little post town called Stony Point, situated in the southern part of the township. What Jacob Gregg says about an ex-Justice of the Peace marrying a couple : "When the territory, now Jackson county, was first settled, she was under the jurisdiction of Lafayette County. The county court of Lafayette county laid off the townships of Fort Osage, Blue and Kaw, and appointed the Justices of the Peace and constables in each township. After a time, 'Squire term of office expired, he changed his place of residence into another part of the county, but he still bore the title Esquire. It so happened that he had a near neighbor, and he had a full grown daughter, and she had a beau. They concluded to make themselves one, and, looking around for a suitable person to join them together for life, their neighbor Esquire was proposed and accepted. So Esquire was sent for, and he performed the marriage ceremony with full confidence that he had the right to do so. In about four weeks the marriage certificate was presented to the clerk to be recorded. The clerk refused to record it, knowing it was not a legal marriage. The parties were then informed of their condition. They then sent for a legal parson and were married over. The groom is still living in this county, raised a respectable family, but lost the first wife some years ago, and has been married three times since, but never made any more mistakes about getting the legal parson." Mr. Daniel Joyce says: "I came to Missouri and settled in the neighborhood of Oak Grove in 1837. James Welch, Red Head Cox, and a Mr. Cummins, Caleb Darby, John H. Hudson, Phillip Cantrell, Addison Philpot, were among the first settlers in this part of the county. There were no churches in the county for several years after that time. Gotril Fithew, Henry Bowers, William Housley and John Warden were the only ministers that preached through this part of the country for a number of years. They preached at people's houses, and in summer time not unfrequently in the shady groves. The first church built in Oak Grove neighborhood was in 1850. It was built as a Union church, cost $500, and was a frame. For a number of years the nearest physician to be had was at Independence. Drs. Flournoy, Troost and Wilkinson did the practice in this part of the county, all of whom lived in Independence." The first post-office in Sni-a bar township was Oak Grove. Jonn McKinney was post-master. The office changed hands several times, and moved each time it changed hands, until it finally got into the village of Oak Grove, about three years before the war. The town of Oak Grove is situated on the Chicago & Alton Railroad, and derived its name from the post-office. I am not able to tell the exact date when Sni-a-bar township was organized. John H. Hudson was the first Justice of the Peace in the eastern part of Sni-a-bar township, and Joseph Crawford was the first constable. The heads of some of our Justices in those days were not any too well stored with legal lore. There was a certain Justice in Van Buren township, who sold his property and moved to Cass county, and consequently had to resign his office. He accordingly took his books and papers to the Clerk's office at Independence, delivered them up to Mr. Lucas (who was then County Clerk), and told him he was going to move to Cass county and wished him to swear him out of office. On another occasion there were two men who swapped horses, one was by a certain time to deliver the other a cow as boot in the trade. The time passed and the cow was not delivered according to agreement. The man that was to receive the cow brought suit for the worth of the cow in money. The Justice after hearing the evidence decided that a cow he was to have and a cow he should have, that a judgment in that case without a cow in it would be a violation of both law and contract. During the Civil War of 1861-5 bands of bush-whackers and lawless desperadoes infested this township. They were called "Sni Hill Rangers." Many of these outlaws had relatives in Sni-a-bar and often secreted themselves here when pursued by the county civil authorities or United States soldiers. Most of those who had been engaged in guerrilla warfare took advantage of the amnesty granted them by the statute of the State, and have since become worthy and law abiding citizens. Occasionally, however, there have been outbreaks since the war and fights and personal encounters have occurred, probably on account of some old feud engendered during the war, but as a general thing all those feelings are dying out and will soon be forgotten. There was a shooting affair at the Pink Hill M. E. church during service one night in the fall of 1871, men having indulged in carrying deadly weapons till a general protest was circulated in the township, a copy of which herewith speaks for itself. It bears the date of October, 1871. PROTEST, BY THE CITIZENS OF SNI-A-BAR TOWNSHIP, AGAINST CARRYING FIRE ARMS. We, the undersigned, citizens of Sni-a-bar township, Jackson county, Mo., deeply regret the homicides lately committed in our township, by which Elijah Gardner, Robert St. Clair and Grandville Love lost their lives; and believing that no justifiable cause existed for any of the said homicides, and feeling it our duty, as peaceable and law-abiding citizens, to do all in our power to prevent any future occurrences of the same sad and disgraceful character. We hereby enter our solemn protest against the practice of carrying pistols and other deadly weapons in a peaceable community-believing as we do, that no necessity exists for any man to so arm himself, we regard the practice as destructive to the good morals of the young men and boys of our township, and productive only of evil, by setting bad examples as well as killing men. We, therefore, respectfully ask all persons to desist from such debasing prac tices, and abandon habits that only produce evil and immorality, and we hereby pledge ourselves to use all means in our power to put a stop to said practice and all other like evils: Britton M. Capell, G. M. Campbell, John A. Williams, E. H. Wyatt, Jos. Pollock, Its Location and First Settlement on Big Creek-First Entries of Land-First Cabin--First Settler at Lone Jack-Pioneer Life-Going to Mill-Preachers, Preaching and Churches-Lone Jack Church-New Liberty Church—Sni Mills' Church-The Christian Church- The MethodistsThe Presbyterians-Schools-Doctors and Lawyers-Mails and Newspapers-First Township Officers-Lone Jack—Retrospect—The Oldest Man-The Oldest Woman-Physicial Features The township of Van Buren, as now constituted, lies in the southeastern corner of Jackson county; being nine miles north and south, by eight miles east and west. The first organization for municipal purposes was in May, 1834; embracing, in addition to its present territory, the whole of what was called the Big Creek Settlements in Jackson county; which then included, or had jurisdiction of all the territory now included in Jackson, Cass and Bates counties. The Big Creek country, or the Big Creek Settlements so called, also included the few inhabitants on the contiguous head branches of Sni-a-bar. The first settlement, or first cabin made on the creek was by David G. Butterfield, in the autumn of 1827, in what is now Prairie township, near the head of the creek or branch on which Pleasant Hill is now situated. This cabin was R. 31. built on or near the east half of the northwest quarter of Sec. 25, Tp. 47, The farm has since been known as the old Connor farm. Butterfield was from Lafayette county; an old resident of Missouri, and had recently married Nancy Graham, a widow, also a resident of the State since 1816. His nearest neighbor when settling, as stated, at the head of the creek, was on Little Blue; but who that neighbor was, or whereabouts is not known. The whole country lay in its native wildness; no white man lived between him and Harmony Mission, which was a small government school for the Indians, in the present County of Bates. The Mission Road from Lexington and Fort Osage to Harmony, ran near the house; as also did the Shawnee trail, a small trail made by the Shawnees in moving from the Lower Mississippi to their homes west of the Kansas River; and this lone cabin served as a house of entertainment for many a lost, belated and weary hunter and traveler, though the entertainment may not have been sumptuous, it was better than none. How long it was that he was the only settler on the creek is not certainly known. From the best information David Creek was the next at or rear the Vanhoy farm, north of Pleasant Hill. Joseph Walker is also said to have located near the same place, at or about the same time, but remained only a short period. During the years 1829 and 1830 several families came and settled on that and other branches of Big Creek, among whom may be mentioned Jeremiah X. and Alfred G. Sloane, both yet living in Cass county; Thomas, James and Joel Biddle; Isaac, Austin and Gaven Bledsoe; David and Henry Burriss; the Wardens, Butlers, Burgens and others. The first land entered, or bought from the Government, in this part of the county was in the Butterfield neighborhood, on the 12th day of January, 1830. On that day William Adams entered the west half of the northwest quarter of Sec. 36, Tp. 47, R. 31; and on the same day Thos. Hamlin entered the west half of the northwest of Sec. 25, same township; James Wilson now owns the first and Mary C. Hicklin owns the second. On the 20th of the same month Joab Powell entered the east half of southeast quarter of Sec. 35; and on the 31st Butterfield entered his home, east half northwest of 25; and on the 3d of February John Powell entered the west half of the southwest quarter of Sec. 30, Tp. 47, R. 30, now owned by I. J. Russell. Those lands are now in Prairie township. The first settlement, or the first cabin built in the territory now included in Van Buren, was built by Isaac Dunnaway in the spring of 1830. It was a short distance west of the present village of Lone Jack; on Sec. 23, Tp. 47, R. 30, on the farm and a short distance from the residence of George Griffith. The same spring Daniel Graham, a son of Nancy Graham, who had married Butterfield as above stated, built his cabin a short distance south of Dunnaway on the west half of the southeast quarter of Sec. 26, it being eighty acres that his wife had entered a short time before marriage, and only a short time before settlement. The same spring, also, Redden Crisp settled across the creek west of Dunnaway and Graham, on the Keersey farm, on the west half of southwest quarter of Sec. 27, which he entered the same day that Celia Edmundson did the tract on which Graham built, January 26th, 1830. These three families were all that resided within the present limits of the township that year. Some others bought lands or made claims and did some work during the summer and autumn but did not move until the spring of 1831. Of this number were William Crawford, Charles Hopper (Big Charley) and Joshua Hitchcock. Crawford broke prairie and planted corn, with no fence, on the farm now owned by Wesley Yankee, Sec. 31, Tp. 47, R. 29. He gathered his corn in the fall, but the turkeys it is said, ate it up during the winter. Hopper selected his home a short distance east of the lone tree, where John Shawhan now lives, on Sec. 18, and Hitchcock a little farther east, a part of the Miller Easley farm, same section. In 1831 and 1832, the Lone Jack settlement received an addition of several families among whom may be mentioned Warren P. Reavis, Charles Hopper, Jr., A. H. Helms, Thomas McKnight, David L. Cadle, Thomas Hamlin, Squire Bridges, George Larrison, William and Samuel English, John Beeler and James Noel. In the mean time a few families had settled in the northeastern part of the township, a short distance south of Oak Grove, and in and near the Round Prairie; William Cox, Elihu and Silas Cox, Parson McKinney, Jephtha Crawford, Robert, Stephen and Joseph Austin, Elijah Thompson, Thomas Sharp, Jacob and Abram Roger, some of the Webbs, and also John S. and Martin Corn. In the fall of 1833 the writer of these collections, a youth of nineteen, came with his father and father's family, and built a cabin where he now lives, on Sec. 29, Tp. 47, R. 29. It was while building that cabin that the Mormons were expelled |