Posted on: Bates County Biographies Board URL: http://cgi.rootsweb.com/~genbbs/genbbs.cgi/USA/Mo/BatesBios?read=8 Surname: EVANS, ESTES, ROUPE, STEWARD, PYLE, MORRIS, BRADLEY, GUTRIDGE, BURKE, COX, PORTER, CHARLES, WESCHUSEN, WRIGHT, NEWBERRY, LUTSENHIGER, McGINNIS, WALLS, GILBREATH, GRANTHAM ------------------------- Elisha Evans : Old Settler of Shawnee Township, Bates County, Missouri As told by his son, John Evans [about 1880] Elisha EVANS, a native of Virginia, married Mary Ann ESTES, of Kentucky. Dates of births and marriages unknown. Emigrated to Saline County, Missouri, thence to Lafayette County, where their son John was born, September 30, 1820. Western Missouri being then all new they went through all the usual experience of pioneers before coming to what is now Bates County. John remembers that when a lad of ten or eleven, he came with an older brother to Grand River, on a hunting and trapping expedition. Selecting a camp near where the bridge south of Austin [in Cass County] is now, they proceeded to start a fire; but before it was fairly blazing, bees made their appearance and a short search resulted in finding a swarm with a great supply of honey in the fallen tree, against which the fire was built. They were without bread and the honey furnished a desirable addition to their bill of fare, which otherwise would have consisted of meat only. Some Osage Indians that came to their camp, ate of the honey until their girth was thereby greatly increased. The hunters caught raccoon and otter in their traps, and with the deer skins made a load for their horses in about two weeks. There were elk near Peter's Creek, but they were too wily and got away. About 1828 or 1829, a hunter named ROUPE, from Lexington, who had sometime indulged in the scalping of red men as a pastime, came to northern Bates to hunt, and when one day sitting on the top of Round Mound, all at once saw seven Indians approaching him from as many directions. Remembering his misdeeds, he concluded that his hour had come. But they probably did not know his history, for after making him prisoner, they relieved him of his furs, equipment and clothing; then turned him loose. He left them with a good will, somewhat poorer, but rejoicing over his lucky escape. Mr. EVANS, during the fall of 1835, saw from the top of Round Mound., in Shawnee Township, one of the most pleasing sights ever presented to the eye of a hunter: he saw, on the prairie below him, fifty wild deer in one herd. He carried, in those days, a flintlock rifle, the ball of which weighed half an ounce. With this gun he killed deer at a distance of 196 paces, and often, too, when they were bounding away with lightning speed. Mr Evans, with his family, emigrated to what is now Bates, (then included in Jackson County), in 1832 or 1833 and took up a claim in what is now section 11, in Shawnee Township. Their neighbors were few and far between. James STEWARD had a claim of the present day town of Johnston, which he sold in 1834, to John PYLE, James MORRIS and a man named BRADLEY lived in a cabin on the bank of Deepwater creek, near the Henry County line, on land now belonging to the Peter GUTRIDGE farm. They put in a small crop, but owing to sickness they returned to Jackson County. There was a family near Root branch, name not remembered. Lindsey T. BURKE lived where Blackwell now lives, near Altona. Burke built a cabin but did not move his family until the spring of 1833. Losing two of his children he also returned to Jackson County. The next year, two or three families by the name of COX (William and Thomas) settled in section 2, and made one crop but soon left. A great number of the very first settlers of the county were of a reckless, roving disposition that never stayed long in any one place, and never accomplished much anywhere. William PORTER, from Tennessee, came about the year 1836 and purchased the claim, which was taken and improved by the COX brothers. Porter moved from Cass County to Bates. He finally went to Jackson County, Missouri. William CHARLES immigrated from the southeastern part of Missouri in 1837 and settled on Elk Fork Creek. He removed to Cass County and died there, before the war of 1861. Among others who came early was a German, direct from his native country in Europe. His name was John WESCHUSEN. He settled on headwaters of Elk Fork Creek, but removed to Henry County in 1841 and died. These were the earliest known settlers of Shawnee Township. They suffered many privations and hardships, which were incident to the life of the pioneer; but above and beyond this, they were greatly troubled and oftentimes sorely afflicted with myriad diseases which seemed to be especially prevalent in the township in that day and time. The nearest town was Independence. There were three little cabins at Pleasant Hill, in one of which a man named WRIGHT sold goods. They had no mail as there was no Post Office. They opened out a farm, and lived on what they raised and on wild game; dressed themselves with the production of their spinning wheels and hand looms, and the furs and skins obtained by hunting. They saved their farm from prairie fires by plowing two belts around it and burning off the grass between the belts – again plowing and burning each fall. Mr. EVANS and his second son, Ellis, went to Henry County on a hunting trip and killed two bears. Ellis killed one of them with his bowie knife, the dogs having caught it in a thicket of brush. The creek near which this occurred took its name, "Bear Creek", from this incident. There were no schools for ten years. John EVANS went a short term to a school at Pleasant Hill, and then to one near Lone Jack. In 1842, the first school in Shawnee Township was held in a little log cabin near Elk Fork Creek. Who he was or from whence he came is not now remembered. Mr. Evans' oldest son, Joel, died in June, 1836. The second, Ellis, left here in 1834, for Rock River County, Illinois, and was never heard from again. The third, Ezekiel, became a farmer in Shawnee township. He must have taken up land and probably lived for a time on Deepwater, for there is in existence a deed dated July 28th, conveying land where captain NEWBERRY now lives from Ezekiel EVANS to William LUTSENHIGER, witnessed by Elisha EVANS and Jacob LUTSENHIGER, the latter being the justice of the peace who took the acknowledgement. Ezekiel went into the Confederate army, was wounded and died a soldier's death. The fourth child, a daughter, Vestino, married a Mr McGINNIS, of Vernon County. The fifth child was John. He is the only one now living. The sixth, Virilla, married Mr. WALLS, and their son, Dalton, is now a prominent citizen of Hudson Township. After Mr. WALLS' death, his widow married William GILBREATH, of Hudson Township, and died before the civil war. Mrs. John EVANS was a daughter of Major GLASS, who settled in Summit Township about the year 1839, buying out a claim of a man named GRANTHAM. He remained a resident of the county until 1863, and after the war, instead of returning to Bates, settled in Henry County, and afterward moved to St. Clair County, dying there in 1875. Another of his daughters is Mrs Sileta MORRIS, who lives west of Butler. One son lives in Pettis County. Mr. Elisha EVANS died about 1850. His widow survived him twenty-seven years, dying in 1867. The Evans had no trouble during the Kansas border war. When the civil war came on, Mr. John EVANS sympathized with the South, but remained at home till March, 1863, when he went north and remained till the war was over, then returned home and went over again with the work of fencing, building and otherwise improving his farm, and is now a thrifty, forehanded farmer and substantial citizen. He has seen this county change from a wilderness to a thrifty, growing and rapidly improving condition, then to be blighted, desolated and entirely depopulated by the war, and then again seen it blossom as the rose; seen its great and varied interests rapidly develop, its population multiply until it is now in the front rank of the counties of the state. He is yet in the prime of life, only sixty-two years of age, and working daily on his farm.