PIONEER LIFE IN SULLIVAN

The following is a letter written by Sarah Simmons to the editor of a Franklin County newspaper. Apparently she is writing in response to an article about the history and pioneers of Franklin County.

 Sullivan, June 29, 1914

 Editor of the News:

 Your account of the pioneers of Franklin county greatly interested me.

 In looking over the names I saw many I was familiar with in my young days.  The Andersons were my parents. Father’s name was John Anderson and mother’s name was Nancy Ayers. They were natives of Indiana and came to Missouri and settled on Cedar Fork near Boeuf Creek. The trading post was called Newport. The Bailey, Greenstreets, Cantleys and Davis were our neighbors. The Sullins were related to us. I am 84 years old and next to the youngest in a family of eight. Their names in the order of their birth are: Betsey, Jim, Henry (father of the Anderson boy of Sullivan), Sarah (the writer), and Elisha of Eldorado Springs, MO. We were all born on the old homestead. Only Elisha and myself are now living.

 The houses we lived in were made of logs. They were one story with pucheon floors. The doors were made of clapboards hung on wooden hinges. On still mornings one could hear them squeaking quite a distance. The windows consisted of a hole in the wall with shutters of boards. Sometimes they were hung on wooden hinges; often they used buckskin for hinges.

 The only religious denominations I knew were Methodist and Baptist. The dance of those days was the reel. The men stood facing the women and the couple dancing between them. Then they swung those on each side. Children from eight to fourteen years in summer danced bare-footed on the puncheon floors. Buckskin breeches were common. Dried venison and honey were abundant.

 It seems to me that people were happier than they are now. I have often compared the life of today with the life in those days. In my young days when neighbors visited each other they went Saturday evening and stayed over night. These old people would talk over their troubles and share in their sorrows, and rejoice over their successes. Such a thing as a neighbor charging a neighbor for help was unknown.

 When my parents died I came with my brothers and sister to Spring Creek, at the age of 15. In 1853 I was married to Green Calbert and we moved onto the farm on the Meramec river near Fisher Cave where I have resided ever since-61 years. Mr. Calbert lived but five years when he died leaving on son, John H. Calbert. In 1860 I married again to John Simmons who died in 1898. Mrs. Mary E. Thurmond, James and Anvil Simmons are my surviving children by this marriage. When we moved on this farm there was no Sullivan town; the Frisco railroad had not been built yet. There was a settlement at Reedville and one about the Copper mines in Copper Hollow. The mine was operated by Dr. Reed, for whom Reedville was named. A log house with a stone chimney stood near the cave (Fisher Cave) in which Augustus Martin and Frank Martin were born. On the river was a big camp ground where meetings were held once a year lasting a month or so. People came from long distances to camp and attend these meetings. But many of the landmarks of these early days are gone and the people mostly dead.

 When I came to the place where I now live there were two stores, one kept by Jacob Clark on the old Clark farm near what is now Sullivan, and the other at Judah Springs near where Stanton is, which was kept by a man named Clymer, (I think that was his name). About the time the Frisco railroad was being built a store was built above Stanton by Gus Wangler.

 The mill that did all the business for the community was owned by Gallaher Bros., on the Meramec river on the farm now owned by Mr. Saucier and sons.

 There were three mines. Two were lead mines and the copper mine at Copper Hollow. There was quite a village at the copper mine, a hotel and quite a number of private residences, also a smelter. Dr. Reed was the manager. The two lead mines in may immediate neighborhood were the Enloe and Murphy Hollow mines. They were classed as one mine. Benjamin Enloe owned the richest of these mines. The Tom Thomas mines were between Reedville and Sand Ford. Thom Thomas owned a large part of those mines. The place where those mines were is still called Thomas Hill. Reedville mines and the Herrington mines and others were developed afterward.

 The religious denominations were Presbyterian and Methodist. Jacob Clark wa the leading Presbyterian minister, a man esteemed and loved by everyone. He conducted some soul stirring meetings at the old camp ground at the mouth of Brush Creek on the Meramec river. At that time it was called the Whitmire Camp Ground. People came from quite a distance to attend these meetings and would camp on the ground. I attended several of those meetings. I remember being there in a dry time and they prayed for rain. About two hours afterward there fell as hard a rain as I ever saw.

 Those people were not left to worship God unmolested. There was crowd of roughs from Fourche-a-Renault under command of Tom Livingston who was their captain. His band numbered from fifteen to thirty.

They were armed and well loaded with whiskey. They would carry on all kinds of mischief. I saw Livingston donned with a long frock coat, hanging only by the collar, ripped from the collar to the bottom. He would go up into the stand with that garb on and sometimes take a drink of whiskey. At night those men would run wagons and carriages off into the river and ride their horses up to the table while the people were eating and let them eat off the table. This man, Livingston, was a fine looking man and intelligent. I have been told that he was killed during the war somewhere in the western part of Missouri.

 I often think of the many good meetings that have been held on the old camp ground and the people who are buried in grave yard there. The first church was built of logs with a big arbor in front of it. After the war a frame church was built and it, too, has gone to decay. I wonder if it will remain in this neglected state or will those whose loved ones who are buried there come together and erect a house of worship to the glory of God an to commemorate the righteous lives of those who stood for Christianity. I hope this will be done before my body is lasid to there.

 The people don’t celebrate the Fourth of July with the patriotic spirit that they die in those days. They would have several patriotic songs sung. The most popular song was the one named “The Fourth of July”. James Hogan, who is about my age and who is still living near Potosi, MO, was sought by the people to sing this song.

 The Baptists came into the community I live in, and on Indian Creek, after the war. There has been many good preachers of this faith in the community, but I’ll give the names of first and ones that stood highest in the minds of the people. The first was William McMurtrey who came from the west and lived on Brush Creek for a while; Julius Emmons, the pastor of the Reedville church of which I am a member; James Rose, the father of C.C. Rose, a good man and an able man, and Br. J.R. Hamblin who is still living.

 With love to all who may read my account of the past, yours truly for Christ and his cause, ‘till he says, “Well done, thou faithful ones, enter into the joys of your lord.”

                                                                         Sarah Simmons

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