The original burial ground is directly to the south and east/behind the
chapel location. The original area has many buried, broken, moved/stacked
markers. It would take a great deal of attention and restoration to save/recover
many of the markers. A significant number of markers have disappeared and
more will be lost in the next few years/decades.
1902 Shelby Co, Atlas, Bacon Chapel area.
Above and below, part of T57R11
1878 Shelby Co, Atlas, Bacon Chapel area.
In 1837, the Methodist's had organized and were meeting at the Lewis cabin.
In 1838, George Bacon has S. Drain build a cabin for him at the center of the
south line of section 9. George never occupied the cabin and continued to
live in Palmyra at the time. The Methodist would continue to meet in the
Lewis cabin until moving over to the Bacon cabin.
Plat from 1878 Atlas of Shelby Co, Missouri, shows many of the
original pioneers into the Walkerville and Bacon Chapel area. Walkerville
Mill would be on the Salt River in sec18T57R10 as shown below, adjacent and to
the right of sec 13 on the above map. In 1878, the road from Shelbina
(which was not platted until into the 1850's) to Shelbyville is the road running
through the section numbers 5, 8, 17 on the map below.
Of Pioneer Walkerville and Bacon Chapel area on the
Salt River
(Reference: Personal knowledge from past projects, 1884 and 1911 and other
Shelby County histories and notes.
...The Walkerville, Bacon Chapel, Salt River flowage is in the south-central
portion of Shelby Co, Missouri.
...The Salt River was the primary factor in the early pioneer location in area
and supplied water, water power, timber, bottom land to upland habitat.
...1803, the land of Shelby Co was acquired by the U.S. government in the
"Louisiana Purchase," and was part of the District of St. Charles.
...1812, in the newly organized County of St. Charles.
...1818, part of Pike Co, when it was organized.
...1820...Palmyra in Marion Co, on what would become a direct route into Shelby
Co, was a village of 150 people. A post offices was established in 1821, with
mail coming by horse back out of St. Louis through New London.
...1820, part of Ralls Co, when it was organized.
...1826, part of Marion Co, when it was organized.
...In 1831, Major Obadiah Dickerson came from Marion Co, and settled on the north back of the Salt River,
on what would become the road between Shelbyville and Shelbina, sec10, T57R10.
...1831-1834, part of Warren Twp, Marion Co, until other Marion Co twp's formed.
...In 1832/33, George and Peter Roff located a mile north of Walkerville,
sec7, T57R10.
...1833/34, Wm Coard located on the north bank of the Salt River, a mile north
of Walkerville, sec1, T57R11.
...1833...Palmyra, a village of 600 lost just over 100 to cholera. Some
people fled toward Shelby Co to escape the disease. However, Shelby Co
would also have its share of cholera and typhoid deaths in the early years.
...1834/35, was an extremely cold, severe winter for the area. Early fall
freezes, severe winter weather, and late spring freezes killed many buds and
plants. Much sickness.
...1835, little actual farming had occurred in Shelby Co. Early settlers
would open up a small patch in a timbered area along some stream and utilize it
for garden types of plots for potatoes and vegetables, flax, corn, wheat, rye,
buckwheat plots, next to a lean-to or log cabin. Nearly everything was
'homemade,' including clothing of linen from flax and wool from sheep, or the
combination of linsey-wooly. Wild game usage was very common for food and
clothing.
...1835, Cholera again hit at Palmyra, with many families fleeing westward to
the country, camping in pole cabins along streams.
...1835, Jan, Shelby Co was organized; two townships, North River and Black
Creek. Oak Dale P.O. in the SE corner of the County would be the first
county seat, have the first store and tavern.
...1835, Aug, first election in Shelby Co, two voting places, 85 votes cast out
of 100 voters.
...1835, late fall, Abraham Vandiver, started first house/structure in
Shelbyville, lot 7, bk 8, just south of the SW corner of the square.
Finished in early winter of 1836, it was a story and a half, constructed of
'huge' hand hewed (shaped, flattened with various axes). The first Tavern
(Inn) was opened at Vandiver's by June, as well as the first goods sold and the
first court held July 6th. The structure still stood in fairly good repair
in 1884.
...1836, March, the first sale of town lots in Shelbyville. All water in
the Shelbyville area had to be hauled from Black Creek, a half miles plus to the
south. There was talk of moving the county seat to a location with water.
...1836, June, Abraham Vandiver contracted to dig (by hand, not drill) and wall in a well about 140
feet NW of the courthouse. He hauled in rock to wall the well and found a
weak source at about 100ft, intending to go deeper when heavy rains caused
caving in of the walls. Almost immediately another failed attempt was made
on the east side of lot 6, bk 9.
...1836, John B. Lewis settled his family 1mi north and 1 1/2 mile west of where Bacon
Chapel would be built. In the Fall of 1837, the first meeting of the
Methodists in Shelby Co, MO, would be held at the John Lewis cabin. John
Lewis and his wife were the leaders. (In later years, the Lewis family
would move into Hannibal and become prominent community and church leaders).
...1835-1837, Major Taylor, James Parker, Issac Tobin, Captain Nelson settled
close to the Bacon Chapel area.
...1837, spring, Joseph & Thomas Holman, Robert Blackford, Robert Brewinton, all
opened grocery stores (mercantile businesses, in Shelbyville). July, Thomas & Hamlet Eskridge opened a tavern (Inn).
...1837, Perry B. Moore, Isaac Moore, from Delaware, and their sister Mrs.
Mary Wailes, settled in NWsec10, T57R11.
...1837, The old Methodist Church at Bacon Chapel
neighborhood was organized in the fall of 1837 with John B. and Charlotte
Lewis, Charles Hunt Christian and wife Dolly Ann Wiley Christine, Mary I. Wailes,
Mrs. Margaret A. Moore, M. Wheeler, David Wood, William Wood and Stanford Drain,
Mrs. Mary Parker, Mrs. Jane Parker, Mrs. James Carroll and his wife, J.S.
Duncan, as
its original members. No schools or churches had been established in
Shelby.Co.MO until
this time.
...Bacon Chapel Charter Members were...John Lewis and wife, Stanford Drain and
wife, James Carroll and wife, Margaret Moore, P.B. Moore, Mason Wheeler, David
Wood, S.R. Gunby, James Barr, Lacy Morris, William Wood and Prettyman Blizzard.
Rev James Pryor of Ohio, held protracted services at the Lewis Cabin, and
was the first Methodist minister in Shelby Co, MO.
...1837/38, a brick courthouse was started and completed on the square at
Shelbyville. Brick had to be burned locally. Woodwork was hauled by
wagon from the Hannibal area, 40+ miles away. Mills were just starting to
appear in the county.
...1838, James and John Barr from Delaware, to sec15, T57R11.
...1838, James Carroll, from Indiana, to sec9, T57R11.
...1838, John Adam Sr. Heckart's family, from Butler Co, Penn, to
sec3&4, T57R11, accompanied by a young John Strayer and William
Boyd. The Heckart/Strayer/Boyd connection who were Penn millwrights, set up a horse mill in sec4, one of the
first mills in the county and perhaps the first in the immediate area of Bacon
Chapel, plus they started construction on a water mill in sec 4. John Adam Sr, died likely from typhoid in the fall of 1838
(likely on his lots near the M.E. church in today's Shelbyville), only a few
months after arriving in Missouri, but
the family continued the milling operation. However,
with David O. Walker and George Barker apparently funding a mill site at what would
become the Walkerville Mill site, it appears John Adam Jr Heckart, John
Michael Heckart, John Strayer and William Boyd, among others went to that
location to build the Mill and had it running by 1840. The Heckart's,
immediately taking over operating the Walkerville Mill and eventually its ownership
through the early decades. Mill ownership and operation often involved multiple
partnerships/ownerships, and required numerous local millers, sawyers,
blacksmiths, carpenters, etc. The mill's water power was often utilized by
a belt system to also operate
early woodworking 'machinery' used by furniture makers, coopers, etc.
...Walkerville
would become a hub of early pioneer 'industry' on the Salt
flowage until the rails and their 'stations' started to out-compete local
craftsman. The Walkerville Mill had a 'mule' style or straight saw
blade that moved up and down. This was common with water mills as circular
blades required the power/speed of steam. The Walkerville mill would be a
saw and grist mill combination, but also had early carding machines run from the
water power, which were used to process or comb wool.
...1838, a fall agricultural fair was established at Shelbyville.
...1838, the first school was built at the site of what would become
Bacon Chapel. The constructions was of logs, with a puncheon floor (rough
planks hand split from logs), clapboard roof, greased paper as windows, rough
log benches. John B. Lewis was the first teacher in 1838, with about
twenty students, to include Isaac, John and Mary Wailes; Anderson, Cornelia and
Mary Tobin; George and Mary Lewis. Methodist services were then moved
from the Lewis cabin to the School site, from 1838-1845, (when the first Bacon
Chapel was build on the corner area south of the original burial grounds).
....1838, Dr. John Hills came from Ohio, locating near the north line of
sec9.T57R11, and practiced over a 20 miles radius until going to California.
...Other early settlers included W.T. Coard in sec1T57R11, Dr. James Rackliff
(Ratliff?) on the NE1/4sec12T57R11. Prettyman Blizzard, James Carothers
and Michael Watkins near Bacon Chapel.
...1839...Salt River Township was organized in 1839 but would have changes
involving Clay and Lentner Twps toward the end of the century.
...1839...The first bridge crossed Black Creek SxSW of Shelbyville.
...1837-1840, movement into the Salt River flowage and tributaries was fairly
rapid with most of the good locations for pioneer farming and 'industry rapidly
taken up as the hard times, up to about 1848, set in to the county. The
first physicians were Dr. Mills of Bacon Chapel, Dr. Long of Shelbyville, and
Dr. Edmonds.
...1840...Shelby County population was 3,056. Six townships had been
established; Black Creek,
North River, Salt River, Fabius, Tiger Fork, Jackson. Up to this time
crops were generally good without pest infestations. What little livestock
as there was, ran in a free range type of environment in many cases. There
was little fruit in the area, but orchids would be established as pioneers
brought in dormant shouts. Money was always very scare on the frontier.
The first settlers generally traded products and/or services to include honey,
beeswax, venison, hams, butter, wool, linen, whisky, etc.
...1840, John S. Duncan, from Kentucky, settled in NWsec16, T57R11, after
being in the area in 1836 and continuing to prospect for locations. John
S. Duncan brought four large Kentucky draft horse which were in demand to break
the virgin prairie sod, plus he had a large schooner wagon used by an entire
area to 'go to mill.'
...1840, there were two licensed places of entertainment (place to stay, inn,
tavern) in Shelby Co,
George Gaines at Oak Dale and Joab Moberly's tavern at Shelbyville.
...1842/3...A very bad year for crops due to chinch bug infestations.
Crops short, money scarce, very hard times.
...1844...Mail from Hannibal/Palmyra came in daily by hacks and stage except
during high water. Stock raising and shipping was becoming more prominent.
There was a tanning operation, a 'tanyard' east of Shelbyville on Clear Creek
near the mill. Very high water during the spring rains.
...1845...Bacon Chapel was the first church building in the area, built by
Methodists in 1845, on the middle of the southern line of sec9, T57R11.
The construction was logs covered on the sides and roof by clapboards (boards
split by hand from logs). Father Ead's held the first service
before a clapboard floor was put in place. This initial service was after
the Pilgram's style of 'deep humility and fervent sprit.' George Bacon
(from Hannibal) deeded the site for the church, thus the name Bacon Chapel and
Cemetery.
...1853, John Byrum split lathes with a frow and Bacon Chapel was lathed and plastered.
...The first Chapel building was used until about 1870, when it was replaced by the
present building (2000, on the north edge of the original burial grounds).
...In 2005 for services were still held twice a month.
...1845...A group of German immigrants moved into government land west of
Shelbyville.
...1845, By this time most areas of the county had settlers.
...1846...First county jail built at the courthouse in Shelbyville.
Volunteers from Shelby Co. were in the Mexican War.
...1848-1861, to the civil war, the county settled into a land use similar to what
would be found for many decades, then stagnated during the war years, and
started a boom time from about 1866 into the mid 1870's when emigration into the
area slowed with the 'panic of 1873.'
...1849...A group of Monroe and Shelby Co men made a very early move into the
California gold fields in 1849.
...1853, the first newspaper, at Shelbyville.
...1855, Jan, heavy snow, followed by cold and severe drifting. May 1855,
heavy frost killed much of the hickory leaves, clover, fruit, wheat.
...1856, very high water during the spring.
...1856/57, a very wet fall followed by a wet, hard winter. Many cattle
died from exposure and lack of fodder.
...1857, Shelbina was platted along the Hannibal/St.Jo RR. Shortly after
that 'friends' of Walkerville petitioned the county to reroute the 1836 'state
road' from Paris to the mouth of the Des Moines River, from a direct N/S route
through Shelbyville to Shelbina, instead through Walkerville. A
'commission' studied the proposals but retained the direct route for the state
road, and established a county road to cross the Salt River at Walkerville.
...1859...The Hannibal-St. Joseph Railroad was completed through Shelby
Co and would bring rapid commercial/economic and social change due to the
unlimited and quick movement of people and product. The Hannibal-St.Joseph
Railroad was the first from the Mississippi River to the Missouri River.
With the movement westward, a great amount of 'history' traveled through Shelby Co,
Missouri by rail during the later part of the 1800's.
...1959, gold fever hit for Pike's Peak, but it was a 'bust,' with many not
making the full trip and returning or going elsewhere.
...1860, Shelby Co had 724 slaves, most on farms in the southern half of the
county near Monroe Co, and from the Kentucky and Virginia area. This would
be the largest slave population. At the start of the civil war, by1862/63,
many of the slaves left their owners. When totally released/freed by 1865,
most of the slaves left the county for Macon or Hannibal, or Illinois and other
states.
...1860/61, the turmoil leading up to the civil war was being felt all over
northeast Missouri.
...1860, Shelbyville, the county seat had grown only slowly, and had been
bypassed by the Hannibal-St. Joe Railroad. The coming war would have
likely crushed enterprise and advancement.
...1861-1865, Shelbyville became a Union military post. A fifteen foot
high stockade surrounded the courthouse, which housed Union troops and
prisoners, with other troops in the hotel and homes.
...1865, After the Civil War, business in Shelbyville slowly revived.
...1876 and the following few years, most of the brick and other buildings
around the square were completed.
Notes extracted from the
1884 History of Monroe and Shelby County, Missouri
page 660-661
...In July of 1838, Adam and Michael Heckart made application for leave to
build a mill on the North fork of the Salt River, five miles SW of Shelbyville,
in the NE1/3 of section 4, T57R11, but it is not remembered that this mill was
ever built. The Heckart's ran a horse mill for some time in this
neighborhood, and afterward Heckart and Strayer operated the Walker Mill at
Walkersville.
...In March, a Mr. Williams, of Marion County, entered the 80 acre tract on
which the mill at Walkersville now stands, and contemplated the erection of a
mill on the place, but died before the work was accomplished. The land was
sold by the administrator, and David O. Walker and George W. Barker purchased it
and built a mill and started the town of Walkersville, which was named for Mr.
Walker. The mill was built in 1840.
...Prior to the erection of mills in Shelby Co, and in truth occasionally
afterwards, the settlers resorted to Gatewood's and Massie's Mills near Palmyra,
and to Hickman's Mill, at Florida, for their grinding (of wheat and grains into
flour). Nearly all of the home Shelby Co. mills were but "corn-crackers"
(grinding or 'cracking' to a grist or course type of cornmeal texture) and were
not prepared to grind and bolt wheat (fine grinding and separation by size for
flour).
...Of Trails...The 'Boone Trail,' made by the bee hunters (prior to the
formation of Shelby Co and a short time after) from Boone County (going
northward and into Iowa territory), crossed the Salt River above Walkersville
(where the mill and village would be after 1840), and Black Creek SW of
Shelbyville, and came up to the bluff into the arm of prairie on which
Shelbyville now stands, bearing NE across the divide and joining the Callaway
Trail south of the North River timbers. From there it wriggled along
through the timber up to the headwaters of the Fabuis River and even up into the
waters of the Des Moines River in Iowa. A Mr. Christian (Charles Hunt
Christian) had a ferry at the "Bee Ford," over the Salt River, in 1836 (located
in the SE1/4 of the SW1/4 of the NE1/4 of the SE1/4, sec 11, T57R11, Salt River
Twp, about 1 1/2 air miles NW of the Walkerville bridge/mill). The
location was below the Warren Ford, near the mouth of Watkin's Branch. The
boat was a flat (flatboat), propelled by poles.
page 662
Families living in the vicinity of Bacon Chapel and Walkerville.
T57R10: Samuel Buckner, Anthony Blackford, James Blackford, Isaac
Blackford, Dr. Wood, George Eaton, Jefferson Gash, Col. William Lewis, John
Eaton, Charles Smith, Samuel J. Smith, Maj. Obadiah Dickerson, George Anderson,
Peter Roff and Samuel C. Smith.
T58R10: Albert B. Smith, Samuel Beal, Elijah Pepper, James Swartz, Mrs.
Elizabeth Creel, Lewis H. Gillsspy, Alexander Gillaspy, Abraham Vandiver,
Montillion H. Smith, Joseph West, Major H. Jones, John Easton, Ezekiel Kennedy,
James C. Hawkins, Dr. Hawkins, Elijah Owens, E. L. Holliday, Mrs. Nancy
Holliday, John Lemley, Josiah Bethard and Thom as Davis.
T57R11: David O. Walker, David Wood, Malcom Wood, William Wood, James
Carothers, William Coard, Nicholas Watkins, Perry B. Moore, Isaac W. Moore, Mrs.
Mary Wailes, Pettyman Blizzard, James R. Barr, Lacy Morris, Stanford Drain,
James Carroll, Barclay Carroll, John B. Lewis, James Parker, George Parker,
Capt. B. Melson, Major Taylor, Robert Brewington, and Henry Brewington.
T58R11: John Thomas, John Dunn, Elijah Pollard, Philip Upton, John T.
Victor, William Victor, Aaron B. Glasscock, Martin Baker and Michael See.
page 676
Shelby County members of Co. I, 2nd Missouri Volunteers for the Mexican War,
July 1846; , Willock's Extra Battalion: 1st Lt. James A. Corothers;
privates William H. Brown, George W. Baker, J. Calvin Carothers, Robert Clark
(died in service, Las Vegas, Feb 22, 1847), James R. Creel, Thomas S. Dunbar,
Peter P. Davis, James Parker, W.R. Strachan.
page 727+, Of the Early Civil War Years.
The 'bushwacking' near Walkerville; two soldiers and one citizen killed.
A typical account of the local fighting, hard feelings and hardships created
during the war years (Edited for easier reading, and also an attempt to make it
a bit more objective/scientific by removing some of the subjective/emotional
vocabulary, and often slight Union 'leanings' in the original verson.)
...On Wed, April 2, 1862, Co. H.S. Lipscomb of the 11th Mo State Militia and
Capt. Wilmot, with an escort of 13 men started from Shelbina heading to
Shelbyville via the Walkerville road, with a wagon load of supplies. A
little less than a mile south of the the Walkerville Mill they were ambused by
Tom Stacy's band of about 16 men. Two militiamen of the 11th Missouri
State Militia, Mr. Long and Thomas Herbst from Shelby Co, plus a citizen of Shelby Co, Lilburn Hale who lived 3mi
SE of Shelbyville, were killed by Stacy's men. Mr. Hale had been overtaken
about a quarter mile from the ambush, on his way home by the State Militia and
was riding with them. He had gone to Shelbina that morning to mail a
letter to his son J.C. Hale in Pike Co. All the men were shot in the head
at close range. It was wondered why at least a dozen were not killed.
Ring, Deener and Henning of the 11th Missouri State Militia were wounded.
...Col Lipscomb galloped on to Shelbyville to give the alarm. The Militia
at Shelbyville, Lt. John Donahue with 25 men started immediately in pursuit of
Stacy. Lt. Holiday's squad, under Sgt. Engles, went directly to the site
of the shooting and started on the trail in the muddy ground from the
Walkerville area SE. In the middle of the afternoon the next day, Lt.
Donahue came upon Stacy's group at Kincheloe bride on Black Creek, ten miles
east of Walkersville. Stacy had just crossed the bridge heading north or
northeast. The Federals were going east. The Federals charged
Stacy's men, who scattered, taking to the brush, swimming back across Black
Creek or just fleeing straight away.
...Two of Stacy's men were killed outright, one drowned in Black Creek and
another badly wounded was never found. Stacy himself abandoned his horse
and gear. Stacy's men killed were, William Carnehan who lived at
Walkerville, leaving a wife and child, and James Bradley from NW Shelby Co.
Bradley had been riding a mule and either jumped or was thrown off. He
then threw away a fine double barrel shotgun and started to run. Sgt. John
S. Duncan, alter postmaster at Shelbyville, being mounted, was immediately upon
Bradley, who stopped, threw up his hands and called out rapidly and excitedly,
"Don't shoot, I give up, I hain't done nothing," etc. Duncan replied,
"Well, I can't shoot an unarmed man," lowering his gun. As Bradley
started to go back as for his shotgun, Duncan said, "Don't run."
...Tom Phillaber, from NE Shelby Co. rode up just then, and without a word fired
a rifle ball into Bradley's chest from about 10ft, killing him. Bill
Carnehan was shot out of his saddle farther down the creek. The man that
drowned was wounded just as he entered the water.
...Tom Stacy fleeing, leaped from his horse, taking cover behind a tree with his
short rifle. Lt. Donahue fired twice at Stacy, missing both time.
Stacy without firing, slipped away into the brush and was not found by the
searching militiamen. No Federals had been injured as only a few shots had
been fired at them. The Federals commandeered a wagon and returned to
Shelbyville with the bodies.
...Back in Shelbyville, while Stacy's band was being pursued, Capt. John F.
Benjamin was enraged at the killing of Long, Herbst and Hale at Walkerville.
From a room full of Confederate prisoners in the sheriff's office upstairs at
the courthouse, he declared he would shoot three of them in retaliation to the
Unionists killed. His first selection was Rowland Harvey (alias Maj.
Jones) and elderly reputable citizen of Clarke Co, who had been captured near
Elliottsville on the Salt River in Monroe Co a few days earlier, by a scouting
party led by Capt. Benjamin, himself. Harvey was a Lt. in a band of
Confederate partisans lead my Capt. Marion Marmaduke.
...A guard grabbed Harvey out of the prison room, hurried him downstairs and
outside into the stockade on the SE corner of the square, then tied him to one
of the palisades (fortress like poles around the courthouse). Harvey
seemed to think it was a scare tactic to frighten him. In two minutes six
soldiers with Austrian rifles lined up, the command 'fire' was given and
Harvey's head dropped while his body went limp and twisted on the retaining
ropes. Benjamin made some Confederate sympthizers cut down Harvey and
carry the body into an old log building in the rear of J.B. Marmadukes's store,
off the SW corner of the Square. Harvey was prepared for burial and
interred by the citizens in the Shelbyville Cemetery.
...Benjamin selected from the now terror-strickened prisoners huddled together,
a young John Wesley Sigler, who had been captured with Harvey, for the next
execution. However, about this time more rational-minded men urged it
would be better to wait to see the results of Donahue and Holliday's 'scout'
would be. Soon Donahue returned with the wagon bearing the corpses of
Charnehan and Bradley, which were 'tumbled' into the room with Harvey.
Apparently Benjamin's wrath was mollified and nobody else was shot.
...1861/62, winter, two Union companies of Col. Glover's Regiment were quartered
at the courthouse in Shelbyville. Many local Union county men enlisted in
these companies, or to others of the same regiment. A palisade of 15ft oak
poles was constructed around the square under the direction of Capt Benjamin.
...During 1862 the people of NEMO were starting to realize with more and more
frequency the tragedies and hardships of the Civil war years. Col. Glover
adopted strong, aggressive, ruthless policies of pursuit. He advised Capt
Benjamin to confiscate twice as much property from rebel families as were taken
by rebel partisans, and to collect from local secessionists for the support of
the families of Union men killed.
...1862, April, Col. Grover advised by secret letter sent to Capt Benjamin, a
list of 65 names of partisans he felt were involved with attacking and killing
Union troops. He indicated he had six in custody, and had 'killed one of
the murderers,' William Musgrove. The partisans were scattered all over
the country, but actively pursue, capture and hold them. These men are
frequently to be found in the vicinity of Magruder's on Black Creek.
They have a habit of crossing the Salt River, SW of Shelbyville, on a bridge
on an unfrequented road (this would be the area of the Salt River bottoms from
Walkerville upstream by Bacon Chapel toward Hager's Grove). Give it some
attention. My instructions are not to bring in these fellows, if they can
be induced to run, and if the men are instructed they can make them run.
...1862, June, Col. Grover was ordered to SW Missouri. Co. John McNeil was
placed in command the Union in NEMO, stationed out of Palmyra. Gen
Schofield's Order No. 18, was now, "enjoining the 'utmost vigilance in hunting
down and destroying' all bushwhackers and marauders (partisans), who, the order
said, 'when caught in arms, engaged in their unlawful warfare,' were to be shot
down, 'on the spot.'" This would be happening often.
...1862, saw the campaign against the most successful Confederate partisan, Col.
Joseph Porter heat up and conclude with him moving into southern Missouri.
The Federals then say it proper to shoot some of Porter's men for violating
their paroles (oaths) or in retaliation for killing Union men. The Federal
retaliation would include the ten men executed in what would become known as the
Palmyra Massacre. Gen Lewis Merrill would also execute ten prisoners at
Macon. Some of the executions were Shelby Co. men.
...By the winter of 1862/63, the Missouri, Iowa, Illinois Union Troops had
control of NEMO's rails, roads, rivers, commerce, people, but hard feeling would
continue to run deep for a very long time.
***A fairly true visual look at Missouri in the early civil war years is
depicted by the movie, "Ride with the Devil.' Written by a
Missourian, filmed in Missouri, the movie is described as, "Following four
people in the turmoil of the early war years on the Missouri/Kansas border.
A staunch Union loyalist, a German immigrant's son, a freed slave, and a young
widow, who form an unlikely friendship as they learn how to survive in the
uncertain time, in a place without rules and redefine the meaning of bravery and
honor."
...1862, warm weather, the Confederate forces under Co. Joseph C. Porter from
just east of Newark in Lewis Co, were moving around NEMO recruiting troops and
disrupting Federal activities. Several hundred men from Shelby Co were in
the command of Porter as well as a hundred or more with Federal forces against
Porter.
...1870, present Bacon Chapel Church finished and dedicated.
...1897, Notes edited from a "Visit to Bacon Chapel," Shelbina Paper; The
children's exercises at Bacon chapel were attended by a large crowd estimated
between 1000 and 1500. Perhaps the largest since its dedication in 1870.
Rev. John Anderson preached a strong sermon in the morning. A collection
was taken up to help pay off a debt on the parsonage at Shelbina, which about
$80 subscribed. A noon meal was served on the ground, with a table erected
o the north side of the church with chicken, ham, pies, cakes, jellies,
preserves, pickles, coffee. All the victuals brought brought in were
placed on the table like a big family reunion where everybody was welcome to
help themselves. About 2pm the children's exercises began. All
the seats, aisles and standing room in the church was filled with hundred
standing about the windows and doors on the outside. Nathan Taylor, (Sunday
School) superintendent, conducted the exercises.
...Bacon Chapel is one of the oldest church congregations in Shelby Co, MO,
being organized in the fall of 1837. Some of its first members
were John
B. and Charlotte Lewis, Charles and Dollie Christian, Mary I. Wailes, Margaret
A. Moore, M. Wheeler, David and Wm. Wood, S. Drain, James Barr, Lacy Morris,
Perry B. Moore, John S. Duncan, James Carroll, S.R. Gunby. The first
ministers were Wm. Pryor, Conley Smith, T. Ashby, Tyson Dines, Martin L. Eads,
James M. Geen, P.M. Pinkard, Jacob Sigler, James Wainright, J.B. Calloway,
George Smith, J.B. Baker, M. Birch, W.K. Miller, W.M. Bush.
...The church was organized at the cabin of J.B. Lewis, about a half mile north
of the present Bacon Chapel. Services were held at the Lewis cabin for
some time, then held in a log cabin known as Bacon's Cabin, where the first
Sunday School was organized, with Judge P.B. Moore being the superintendent.
This (Bacon's) cabin was built by S. Drain as a residence for George Bacon, father of Judge
(George Jr.) Bacon of Hannibal. For some reason George Bacon never moved into the cabin
and it was only used as a meeting house.
(Note: In 1835, George Bacon, age 26yrs, had traveled to Palmyra,
Missouri, from his Delaware home. In 1836, he returned to Delaware,
invested $2000 in merchandise which he shipped toward Palmyra. In 1837 he
returned and settled in Palmyra, which is the same year he had S. Drain build
him a cabin on land he had apparently purchased on his earlier trip or had
bought from eastern speculators. His mother was Mary Parker. The Parker's
who entered land around the Shelbyville/Salt River very early, may have been
related to his mother, thus perhaps
this is the reason George Bacon had land in Shelby County and built the cabin at
the SW corner of section 9, T57R11.
