SOME HISTORICAL EVENTS

That Will Interest Many Old Citizens

25 October 1901

Clarence, Mo.

Editors Shelbina TORCHLIGHT

Gentlemen:

In compliance with a promise made in last week’s issue, we begin the work outlined in said issue. To begin with, we will take up first in the list the name of a gentleman who never lived in the neighborhood. Believing from the prominent part he occupied that his name is entitled to a place in the “write-up” of the men of Old Bacon chapel neighborhood. Mr. George Bacon, in the early settlement of northeast Missouri emigrated from Maryland and settled in the little village which was situated on the western banks of the Mississippi river, and but little more than a boat landing, some two miles below Old Cippio (Port Scipio), but now known not only in Missouri but in every state in this government as the city of Hannibal. Here Mr. Bacon began his western life as a merchant. He continued to grow in business and in influence until he became one of the main factors in the moral, commercial and political growth of the city of Hannibal.

Mr. Bacon is the father of Judge Bacon who so ably presided on our circuit bench as judge of this judicial circuit. Mr. Bacon became the owner of a large track of land in his county and gave the land on which Bacon Chapel was built; this gave rise to the name of the church from which the neighborhood derived its name. So in this act, if no other, Mr. Bacon has reared a monument that will perpetuate his name to a point down the stream of time, beyond which no finite mind can measure, and we, the boys of old Bacon Chapel neighborhood doff our hats and bow our heads in honor and in memory of the name of Mr. George Bacon of Hannibal, Mo.

The first in the list of citizens of this neighborhood is that of old uncle John B. Lewis, who improved the farm known as the John Minick farm, which is one mile north, one and one-half mile west of the church. Uncle John B. Lewis, as we all learned to call him, was one of the constituent members and a leading and influential member of Bacon Chapel. He was one of her first class leaders and licensed exhorters. His influence for morality and Christianity still lives in the hearts and minds of those who knew him. In after years he moved to Hannibal where he took an active part in church work. He held the office of Justice of the Peace for many years, and was one of the men of Hannibal who could always be found on the side of morality and Christianity. We will have occasion to mention his name again.

Some time in the forties a family came from New York and settled on a track of land three and one half miles west of Chapel. This family’s name was Strachan. The oldest boy in this family was named Richard and was known in after years as Dick Strachan. Dick was one of the first school teachers of the neighborhood which profession he followed for some time, was one of the first depot agents and telegraph operators of Clarence. He was elected to the State legislature and while there worked the scheme on Monroe county and her representative (William Howell) which took a strip of land six miles wide off of Monroe and added it to Shelby. Shelby county is indebted to Dick Strachan for some of the best land she has. When war broke out in ’61, Dick was one of the first to enlist in the Union army where he soon met with, and became a bosom friend of Gen. McNeal and by his influence was appointed Provost Marshal of northeast Mo., with head quarters at Palmyra. At the close of the war he settled in the city of New Orleans where he died some years afterwards, an old bachelor.

Henry Strachan enlisted in the Union army, went south and at the close of the war came back, and now lives on the old homestead an honorable and respected citizen.

In the little village of Walkersville lived a man by the name of John W. Vandiver. Some time in the fifties Mr. Vandiver invented, patented and manufactured the first successful two horse cornplanter. I have sat on one of the first makes of this planter with its wooden wheels when a small boy, and dropped many an acre of corn. Mr. Vandiver moved to Shelbina in the sixties where he lived for some time. Not having the necessary advantages in Shelbina to insure the successful manufacture of his planter, he moved to Quincy, Ill. where a company was formed, known as the Vandiver Corn Planter Co., where this planter was built and put on the market, and was known in almost every agricultural district of the United States. Mr. Vandiver was an upright intelligent gentleman coming from one of the best families of Shelby county. He died, many years since, respected by all who knew him.

One and one half miles east of the church on the road to Walkersville and Shelbina lived a man who in the early settlement emigrated from Maryland and settled on a track of land where he opened up a farm. This was Perry B. Moore. Mr. Moore sometime in the fifties was elected one of the judges of the county which position he filled with honor and credit.

In 1873 by an act of the legislature, a probate court was established in Shelby county. Governor Woodson (the first Democratic governor since ’61) appointed Judge Perry B. Moore to the position. Although a farmer, he made a fine probate judge, and served out his appointed time, which was till the next regular election.

Judge Moore never married, he spent his life in the support of a widowed sister and her three children who lived with him, Mrs. Wailes, John W. Wailes, Isaac Wailes and Miss Lucy Wailes who became the wife of James King. Three children he cared for with a father’s affection and desire. He gave them the best education the public schools then afforded, and when they married he settled them on farms near him.

Judge Moore was one of the best informed men of the county on all matters in general. With the exception of one man, he was the best scripturist I ever knew. When a small boy I learned to admire, and love him for his great knowledge and wisdom. Many were the happy hours I spent in his home listening to his words of counsel and advice. I was one of his favorites of the boys of the neighborhood, and he seemed to have a special desire that I should become a Christian and a Mason. “Uncle Perry”, as I called him, was a gentleman and Christian of the purest type and a Mason of the highest grade, and the influence he exerted over the lives of the men and boys of old Bacon Chapel neighborhood for good, can not be estimated by mortal man. Eternity alone will reveal it. Uncle Perry B. Moore lived to a ripe old age and when the summons came he was ready and reflecting on a life well spent and a bright hope to the life beyond, he fearlessly and calmly yielded up the ghost. His Masonic brethren took his body and deposited it in its present resting place with all the honors of a Master Mason. This was the first Masonic burial at Bacon Chapel. Peace be unto the ashes of a great and good man.

Not wishing to impose upon your courtesy, Mr. Editors, we close for this issue, hoping to be able to continue our task next week.

J. H. Pollard