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West
Point Township.
BOUNDARY.
Beginning at the
northeast corner of section 1, township 41, range 33; thence west about five
and a half miles to the center of section 6; thence south six miles; thence
east five and a half miles to section 36; thence north six miles to the place
of beginning.
PHYSICAL
FEATURES.
West Point Township is
one of the oldest, one of the best watered, and one of the most valuable as an
agricultural district, in the the county. The southern portion of the township
is veined by the east fork of Mulberry Creek, with its tributaries; the east,
middle, northeast and northwest portions by the Miami, Plum and Willow
Branches. These streams are so well distributed that almost every section, and
even half section of land in the township, has the advantage of water.
OLD
PIONEERS
West Point Township had
doubtless as many settlers within its present limits before the great civil war
as any other township in the county, and the citizens who composed its settlers
were said to have been an enterprising class of people, many of them coming
from the free states.
Israel Brown came to the township among he
earliest, and located just south of the old town of West Point. He sold his
farm to Vincent Johnson, and now lives in Linn County, Kansas. Vincent Johnson
was from Kentucky, and came in the fall of 1851, and purchased, as above
stated, the claim of Israel Brown. Johnson died in 1876, at the age of
eighty-three years; Covington Cooper settled in the township at an early day,
and died in 1851; James Cooper, his brother, is now a citizen of Butler;
Benjamin Runnels settled early, but moved out of the town before 1861; Benjamin
Sharp opened a farm on the Miami, with many others; Henry Schuster pitched his
tent about three miles east of Butler, but now lives near the Double Branches,
Bates County; John Green was an old pioneer, and died during the war; William
Scott settled about a half mile northwest of West Point, and is now a resident
of Nebraska City, Nebraska; Edger C. Kirkpatrick came to Pettis County,
Missouri, from Zanesville, Ohio, in 1847, remaining there till 1851, then moved
to Henry County, and finally located in Bates County in January, 1852, locating
one mile north of West Point, where he died in October, 1857. Among other old
settlers were William Lemar, Jackson Clark, Nathan Sears, Thomas Sears, James
McHenry, J. E. Mooney, Samuel Forbes, James Forbes, Emberson Keaton, George
Walley, William Reed, Riley Reed and William Adams.
WEST
POINT
is one of the oldest
towns in the county, and was in ante bellum days, the most populous and
thrifty place in the county. It contained a population of 700 souls and was the
center of a large trade. It was located near the Kansas line, as early as 1850,
the land upon which the town was founded, having been entered by Thomas B.
Arnett and Sidney Adams in 1843. Thomas B. Arnett was the first clerk of Cass
County. Adams is now residing in Dolan Township, Cass County, and is one of the
oldest living men of that county. The land forming the two site, is the
northwest quarter of section 8, township 41, range 33. The first conveyance of
lots was made in 1850, by Thomas B. Arnett and wife, Adams having sold his
interest in the land to Arnett some time previously. Among the first to
purchase a lot in the new town was J. A. Fox.
A large section of county paid tribute to West
Point. The nearest towns of any importance to it were Papinville in Bates
County and Harrisonville, Kansas City, Clinton and Butler (after the latter
became the county seat) and was for some years the western terminus of these
mail routes. It was located on the main Texas cattle trail, and before the
border troubles with Kansas, enjoyed a good trade from the state.
Among the early business men of the place, were
William H. Barrett, now one of the wealthy citizens of Harrisonville, Cass
Count. He and a man named Curd (Curd & Barrett) were the proprietors of a
drug store, which they continued until the breaking out of the war of 1861. F.
M. Wilgus, now a banker as Paola, Kansas, was selling dry goods there at the
same time. Judge Alexander Feeley, William Scott, James McHenry, Chil.
Lovelace, Thomas Sears and Dr. T. J. B. Rockwell, were all the business for
some years previously to and at the inception of the war. Joseph and William
Potts, brothers, and Slater & Stribbens were blacksmiths. Slater went to
Morgan County Missouri, and his partner moved to California. John Martin ran a
saloon (then called a grocery). The old settlers remember Martin’s little
boy, who was then about three years of age. He had contracted the habit of
smoking tobacco, and smoked either a pipe or cigar, almost constantly on the
street. William R. Simpson, and John Roundtree were also among the business
men.
Henry Schuster erected a mill near the town for
grinding corn only, which was the first mill in the township. This mill was
propelled by ox power, the oxen being placed abreast and made to walk on an
inclined plane. It was called a “tread mill.” The same mill was
afterwards operated by Nathan Sears. John Green had a mill also at an early
day. Wyatt Sanford was the postmaster about the year 1856, and was succeeded by
James McHenry and Irvine Walley.
The town was noted for its school, which had a
daily attendance of seventy-five pupils in the summer, and about ninety in the
winter. The school building (the one that stood there at the beginning of the
war) was large and well arranged. It was erected in the addition to the town
which was then owned by a company of men who came from Yellow Springs, Ohio,
and who represented the Harrington Nursery, at that place. The building was
built by subscription. Among the first, if not the first teacher to follow his
profession in the new town was Edgar C. Kirkpatrick, who taught in 1852. He was
the husband of Mrs. Elizabeth Kirkpatrick, who now resides in Butler. Among the
pupils who attended his school were John Gilham, William Gilham, Mary Gilham,
Caroline Simpson, Jennie Johnson, T. A. Johnson, and Josie Roundtree.
The town not only had a good school, but possessed
a printing press, from which was issued a sprightly weekly newspaper called the
West Point Banner, Democratic in politics. Thomas H. Stearns, who then (1858)
resided at Butler, was the editor. Stearns died after the close of the war. His
press, type and everything belonging to the office was destroyed, in the fall
of 181, by a company of men from Kansas, commanded by Gen. James H. Lane. The
first hotel was kept by Mr. Hedges, who afterwards sold to Judge Alexander
Feeley. This hotel was a two-story frame building, and was the largest house of
entertainment in all this Western country, containing no less than forty rooms.
This fact shows something of the travel that was done through West Point at
that time. There were three other hotels in the town, and sixteen business
houses, all told.
General Clark arrived at West Point in the fall of
1856, with about five hundred men, and remained in the town about ten days.
This was during the border troubles between the pro-slavery and anti-slavery
men.
West Point was subjected to the torch during the
late war, and scarcely one stone was left to tell that the town ever existed.
Since the war a small business and postoffice have been kept there by different
parties. Mr. Burns is the present postmasters and business man. Dr. L. G. Hayes
is the physician and druggist. H. H. Tipton is the blacksmith.
The stranger when passing through the village would
never suppose that it was at one time the center of a large trade; that its
population was numbered by the hundreds, and that its people were noted for
their intelligence, public spirit and enterprise.
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