Three county histories tell the border war from different sides of the old line: The History of Jackson County, Missouri (1881), The History of Cass and Bates Counties, Missouri (1883) and the 1911 History of Vernon County, Missouri. They follow the trouble from the Kansas elections of 1854, through raids by Kansas troops and Missouri guerrillas, to General Order No. 11 of August 25, 1863, which ordered nearly everyone out of Jackson, Cass, Bates and part of Vernon. Each book leans toward its own county's people. This page tells what each one says happened, and to whom.
Written from 3 old histories, all free to read on the Internet Archive: The History of Jackson County, Missouri (1881); The History of Cass and Bates Counties, Missouri (1883); History of Vernon County, Missouri, Vol. 1 (1911). Everything below comes from those books, and where they give an opinion, we say so.
The Kansas troubles, 1854 to 1858
The 1911 Vernon County history opens its chapter on the border troubles with numbers. In 1854 the Missouri counties next to Kansas held some 80,000 white people who owned 12,000 slaves, and they wanted the new territory to protect that kind of property. At the first Kansas election, on November 29, 1854, the judges at Fort Scott were Colonel Wilson, William Godfrey and Thomas B. Arnett. The count was 105 votes for the pro-slavery candidate, General Whitfield, and none for anyone else.
A secret pro-slavery order had councils at Nevada, Balltown and Montevallo. The Nevada council had about fifty members and was organized by Alexander B. McDonald. The 1911 writer says no Vernon man was ever the aggressor, though he grants that very many pro-slavery men denounced the illegal voting in Kansas.
On the free-state side the same book names three leaders. James Montgomery, born in Ashtabula County, Ohio, in 1814, was a Campbellite preacher and, in its words, a rank abolitionist. It calls Dr. Charles R. Jennison a dreaded leader of an entirely different type, and John Brown a fanatical abolitionist. It also admits that harm ran both ways: Missourians burned the free-state towns of Lawrence and Osawatomie, abolitionists destroyed pro-slavery settlements, and pro-slavery men called the free-state leaders murderers and thieves.
By the Vernon book's account, the raids into Jackson, Cass, Bates and Vernon began about 1858. That May a band of thirty pro-slavery men led by Charles A. Hamilton took eleven free-state men from near Trading Post in Linn County, Kansas, and shot them. Five died, five were badly wounded and one was unhurt. John Brown later printed their names in a letter the Vernon book reproduces: William Robertson, William Colpetzer, Amos Hall, Austin Hall, John Campbell, Asa Snyder, Thomas Stilwell, William Hairgrove, Asa Hairgrove, Patrick Ross and Elder B. L. Reed. “The only crime charged against them,” Brown wrote, “was that of being free state men.”
Raids across the line, 1858 to 1860
That December Montgomery and 100 men rode into Fort Scott, killed United States Marshal Little and freed Ben Rice, one of their own. Slaveholders on the Vernon side grew uneasy. John La Rue, on Duncan's Creek, held five slaves; David Cruise, just south of the Osage, held two; and Harvey O. Hicklin had charge of five from the estate of his father-in-law, James Lawrence.
On the night of December 20, 1858, raiders from Kansas came for them. At the Cruise house one of them shot David Cruise, and he died within minutes. His young son Rufus ran three miles, almost naked and barefoot over frozen ground, to a relative named Mitchell. Brown's letter counted the people freed “with but one man killed.” The 1911 historian calls the raid an outrage against law, decency and human rights. The governor offered $1,000 for each of Cruise's killers, and in May 1859 a grand jury indicted Brown and his men for murder and robbery, but nothing came of it.
Ten days later, on December 30, 1858, Kansas men led by Capt. Eli Snyder, a brother of the wounded Asa Snyder, burned the store of Jere Jackson in Bates County. Jackson, his son Thomas, a young man named Frank Meek and Mrs. Jackson were inside. Some 250 men, mostly from Bates and Vernon, gathered on Duncan's Creek afterward and then went home.
In 1860 the killing came from Jennison's side. A vigilance committee had hanged one of his band, Hugh Carlin, for horse stealing. On November 10, 1860, Jennison arrested a group of pro-slavery men in Linn County, Kansas, and hanged Russ Hindes from a tree on Mine Creek, four miles from Missouri, for having helped Lewis B. Reece return a runaway slave in the fall of 1859. His cousin James West of Bates County took the body down and buried it in Missouri. Jennison shot Mr. Moore as he sat on his bed, and his band hanged Samuel Scott, a former sheriff of Bates County.
“His family lived in Butler during a part of the war and were the last to leave in obedience to order No. 11.”
Kansas troops and Missouri guerrillas, 1861 to 1862
The 1881 Jackson County history begins its war chapter by saying both sides did things that “disgraced the fair name of American freemen.” It says Jennison's Kansas Volunteers entered Jackson County in the autumn of 1861 and committed many atrocious crimes, roughing up Union men as well. It also grants that the Kansans' own people had probably been treated unjustly.
Colonel Henry Younger was waylaid and killed five miles from Independence on July 20, 1862. The robbers got only about $400 of the $2,000 or $3,000 he carried. John Fristoe lost his country house to fire and his stock to raiders, and his widow still lived on the homestead near Lee's Summit when the book was written. Dr. Lee was shot on his own place, and Esquire Hink's house burned with a dozen others nearby. Later, the book says, Mrs. Younger was forced at bayonet point to set fire to her own house. Lowe and Jennison's Kansas cavalry also attacked Independence.
The book's Kansas City chapter sorts the bands. On the Kansas side were Montgomery's old free-state men and Jennison's 7th Kansas; on the Missouri side were bushwhackers under Todd, Parker, Jackman and Quantrell. The Red Legs, it says, were Kansans with a grudge against Missouri from the struggle of 1855 to 1856. The 1911 Vernon history follows the burning back and forth in 1861. Confederates under Tom Livingston and John Mathews raided into Kansas as far as Humboldt. Kansas troops attacked W. H. Ervin's recruits at Morristown in Cass County, and their own Colonel Johnson was killed. Lane's men burned Osceola and called it retaliation for Humboldt, and later answered another Confederate raid by burning Dayton, Morristown and other Missouri villages.
The 1883 Cass and Bates history adds its own losses. Dayton, in Cass County, was burned to ashes on January 1, 1862, all but one house, by men in Federal uniform. At Butler a squad of Kansas cavalry sent by Colonel James Montgomery burned the church and the business houses around the square in 1861, the reason given being to keep Southern sympathizers from harboring rebels. Colonel Sidney Jackman's Confederates rode in while the town burned. Dr. Joseph S. Hansbrough of Butler was killed by bushwhackers from Kansas.
Ambush, execution and the burning of Nevada
In the spring of 1862, says the 1883 book, Bates County was in terror. When Union soldiers at Butler went after a pen of corn at Oliver Elwick's, a man named Strains told his neighbors that if they would risk their lives killing the Federals, he would risk his property. They hid in the buckeyes at the Miami ford and killed three soldiers; a Mr. Bomgardner jumped from his wagon and got away. The book names the attackers as Bill Turman, Tom Cantrall, Bud Cantrall, Doc Carpenter, Doc Pierce, Tom Ramey, Nick Ashley, Jim Payne and John Toothman. Headboards in a small graveyard read M. Meradeath, A. Foust, J. H. Bird and J. Stone, Company H, First Iowa Cavalry, May 17, 1862.
The other side had hard measures too. Major White, who the book says boasted he would shoot every bushwhacker he caught, took a man named Slater at a farmhouse on Grand River. What Slater had done was never known. He was shot at Butler the day before Christmas, 1862.
The Cass biographies record more deaths. Mr. Steen was taken by Kansas Jayhawkers and shot at the edge of Coldwater Township on April 7, 1863, with John W. Todd and James Thruwitt. Two sons of Mr. and Mrs. Judy, John J. and James B., were killed by Quantrell's men in 1862. The Jackson book says Cole Younger and a party burned Pleasant Hill. In Jackson, John Hagan met Federal soldiers in the summer of 1863 who were angry over a cut telegraph wire; they marched him into the woods and shot him. Two young men, Ed. Hink and Sam Jones, then vowed to kill the next man they met and shot a young medical student just home with his diploma.
In Vernon, guerrillas under Captain Marchbanks rode into Nevada and killed two militiamen, an elderly man named Shuey and an old settler named Whitley. Militia under Capt. Anderson Morton of St. Clair County then burned Nevada City on May 26, 1863: some seventy-five houses, the stores and the courthouse, sparing about a dozen, the homes of Austin and Moore among them. The militia then caught a band of guerrillas at the Gabbert place and killed seven: William and John Campbell, William and John Crockett, Frank Mashaney, Bill Bridgman and John Evarts. The Mayfield girls, Ella, Jennie and Leonora, with Mary Bradley and Eliza Gabbert, helped bury them.
“At Nevada City a few scattered houses remained; the same was true of Balltown, and on the road between the two places, not a house was left, while Montevallo was utterly wiped out.”
Order No. 11, August 1863
The Jackson book says the order came “just one week after the memorable butchery at Lawrence” by Quantrell's band, and that its object was to deny Quantrell a refuge in the Missouri border counties. Dated at Kansas City on August 25, 1863, and issued by order of Brig. Gen. Ewing, it told “All persons living in Jackson, Cass and Bates counties, Missouri, and in that part of Vernon included in this district” to leave their homes within fifteen days. People within one mile of Independence, Hickman's Mills, Pleasant Hill and Harrisonville were exempt. Those who proved their loyalty could move to a military station or into Kansas, though not its eastern border counties. “All others shall remove out of this district.”
The books judge the order very differently. The Jackson history prints a letter by Col. Theo. S. Case, Ewing's quartermaster, who admitted the measures were harsh but said that under a later order about 250 loyal men had already come home. The 1883 Cass and Bates history calls it “that heartless and inexorable order.” After the deadline, it says, the western sky glowed at night from burning homes, and Bates suffered worse than Jackson or Cass because freebooters and soldiers from either army burned the property of absent families. The Jackson book's Kansas City chapter says the order was rigidly enforced and dates it to the 23rd of August; the order as printed gives August 25.
Old Harmony Township, which once took in about half of Bates County, shows what that meant. The Jackson book says nearly every inhabitant was gone when the fifteen days ran out, and the township's history was a blank for three years. When some came back in the spring of 1866, little but chimneys stood above the weeds. Near Lone Jack, the steam mill of John Daniel and Nathan Hunt was abandoned under the order in 1863 and burned a few days later.
Where the families went, and the coming home
The 1883 biographies record where Cass families went. Mr. Aldridge left his farm next to Pleasant Hill for the military post. William Adams went to Johnson County, and Philip Fulkerson spent 1863 to 1866 in Kentucky. The Britt family lost their house to militia in February 1863, waited near Harrisonville, then moved to Saline County under the order.
In Bates, the family of Samuel Pyle, one of the very few county officers who favored the Union, were the last to leave Butler, and they saw the smoke of their burning house before they were five miles away. James McCool moved to Henry County and died there in 1865. William Ludwick moved near Montrose.
Peace came slowly. The Jackson book says there was trouble and bloodshed for a year or two after the surrender in April 1865, and the iron-clad oath made voters swear at Independence to eighty conditions about their wartime conduct. In Vernon, armed resistance ended when Henry Taylor's band surrendered to Colonel Vittum. A few houses stood at Nevada City and Balltown, and Montevallo was wiped out. The county court met again on October 17, 1865, at Nevada City, with Enoch S. Weyand and David Redfield as judges and John L. Wilson as clerk.
In Bates, the 1883 book says, farmers had to begin anew. William L. Ludwick came home to Deepwater Township in 1865, only to have Union soldiers take his oxen and a horse; he found the oxen in Kansas City but never the horse.
Finding your border family in these books
Each book holds lists worth reading. The 1911 Vernon history prints John Brown's letter naming the eleven men shot near Trading Post, the names of the Gabbert dead and the women who buried them, and the officers of the first county court after the war. The 1883 Cass and Bates history names the Miami ford attackers and the headboards of four Iowa soldiers, and its biographies say again and again where a family went under the order and when it came back. The 1881 Jackson history prints Order No. 11 in full, Colonel Case's letter, and the Jackson families hurt early in the war, from the Youngers and Fristoes to the Hagans and Hinks.
Watch the wording. The same men turn up as jayhawkers, Red Legs, Kansas troops, bushwhackers, guerrillas or Confederates, depending on who is writing. And a single line in a biography, that a man went somewhere “on account of Order No. 11,” may be the only record of where a family spent the years 1863 to 1865.
The counties in this history
Where to look next on this site for families from Jackson, Cass, Bates and Vernon Counties.
- Jackson County: Biographies from the county histories · Research guide · Independence and Westport, Missouri: Outfitting the Santa Fe Trade
- Cass County: Biographies from the county histories
- Bates County: Biographies from the county histories · People in the county history
- Vernon County: Biographies from the county histories
Finding your ancestor in Jackson, Cass, Bates and Vernon Counties
- Census records (free through 1950) list each person's occupation and town, so a work family shows up decade by decade.
- Death records: search our Missouri database by surname.
- The county histories themselves: the biographical sections of The History of Jackson County, Missouri and The History of Cass and Bates Counties, Missouri hold hundreds of family sketches.
- Newspapers on the Library of Congress's Chronicling America carried obituaries, accidents, and local news.
Tell us one grandparent's name. We'll take a free first look at the records and email you back.
Ask about my family →Frequently asked questions
What was General Order No. 11?
It was issued at Kansas City on August 25, 1863, by General Thomas Ewing. It told everyone living in Jackson, Cass and Bates counties, and in the part of Vernon in his district, to leave home within fifteen days. People within one mile of Independence, Hickman's Mills, Pleasant Hill and Harrisonville were exempt. Those who proved their loyalty could move to a military station or into Kansas; all others had to leave the district.
Which towns were burned in the Missouri border war?
The 1883 Cass and Bates history says Kansas cavalry sent by Colonel James Montgomery burned Butler's church and business houses in 1861, and that men in Federal uniform burned Dayton on January 1, 1862. The 1911 Vernon history says militia burned some seventy-five houses at Nevada City on May 26, 1863. The 1881 Jackson history says Cole Younger and a party burned Pleasant Hill.
Where did families go under Order No. 11?
The biographies in the 1883 Cass and Bates history name many places: the military post at Pleasant Hill, and Johnson, Henry and Saline counties in Missouri, with one family going as far as Kentucky. Some came back after the war. The 1881 Jackson history says nearly everyone left old Harmony Township and that some returned in the spring of 1866 to find little but chimneys.
Do the three county histories agree about the border war?
No. Each leans toward its own county's people. The 1911 Vernon history says no Vernon man was ever the aggressor and condemns John Brown's raid. The 1881 Jackson history says both sides disgraced themselves and prints a Union quartermaster's defense of Order No. 11. The 1883 Cass and Bates history calls the order heartless. Even the date differs: one chapter says the 23rd of August, the printed order says August 25.