One Good Poke Deserves Another

The first chapter in my latest book, Gangster Queen Bonnie Parker and Other Murderous Women of Missouri https://amzn.to/4sc3ZtR, is about a Black woman named Mary Ball. Late on the night of December 11, 1867, a man giving his name as Charles Rannells and a companion called at a house of ill repute in downtown St. Louis where Mary was an inmate. 

While another woman of the night entertained Rannells's companion, Rannells wandered into an adjoining room occupied by Mary. After a while, Rannells told Mary to knock on the door to see whether his companion was finished with his "business" and was ready to leave. When Mary refused, saying she didn't make it a habit of knocking on other people's doors, Rannells grew angry and started hitting and choking her.

About that time, Rannell's companion opened the door separating the two rooms, and Rannells started to leave. As he was walking away, Mary picked up a poker and hurled it at him with such force that the pointed end stuck in his head. 

Rannells removed the poker himself and then sought medical aid at a nearby pharmacy. He told what had happened, but he refused to identify exactly where it had happened or to give the name of the woman who had struck him. No doubt he didn't want it known that he had patronized a house of ill repute, particularly one occupied by Black women. 

When he left the pharmacy, Rannells seemed not to be gravely injured, and he and his companion returned to the sporting house they had recently left. The madam allowed them to spend the night, since they'd been locked out of the boardinghouse where they'd been staying. However, Rannells and Mary did not see each other on this return visit.

The next morning, Rannells woke up feeling bad, and he was taken to the City Hospital, where he lingered a few days before dying from his head wound. The investigation into his assault was hampered by the fact that, in a strange coincidence, two men in St. Louis had been hit in the head with pokers by women on the very same night and also by the fact that Charles Rannells was an alias. The victim's real name was Charles Ross, and Mary Ball was finally arrested and charged with first-degree manslaughter.

She was convicted in the fall of 1868 of fourth-degree manslaughter and sentenced to two years in the state prison. After serving three-fourths of her term, she was released and given a full pardon, based at least partly on her good behavior while incarcerated.

This is a condensed version of Mary's story. For a fuller account, please check out my new book. 

 

Cole Camp, Missouri

The Cole Camp area was settled in the early to mid-1830s, and the community took its name from Cole Camp Creek, which in turn was probably named after Captain Stephen Cole, a famous Indian fighter who had camped in the area in the early 1800s and who later served in the Missouri Legislature. A general store opened on Cole Camp Creek sometime before or during the year 1839, when a post office was established at the store under the name Cole Camp. Later, the post office was moved a short distance away to the current location of Cole Camp when a new store opened at that location, with the post office retaining the Cole Camp name. 

The town of Cole Camp was laid out in 1857, and it became a flag stop on the Butterfield Overland Mail route, or the Butterfield Stage route as it was informally called, when that mail service began in 1858. The Butterfield Stage operated until 1861, when it was discontinued because of the Civil War and because of advancements in transportation and telecommunication. 

Many of the early settlers in and around Cole Camp were of German ancestry.

On June 19, 1861, near the outset of the Civil War, a skirmish, sometimes dubiously called a battle, took place at Cole Camp, when Southern-allied Missouri State Guard forces, on their way to southwest Missouri after their defeat at Boonville, routed a Union Home Guard force northeast of Cole Camp. The local Home Guard, composed mostly of German soldiers, suffered considerable losses while the number killed, wounded, or missing Southerners was relatively small. 

By 1874, Cole Camp had grown to a village with five stores, one hotel, one flour mill, one sawmill, and one church. By 1900, the town had a population of about 650, and in 1910, it boasted a population of over 900 residents.

When a reporter for the Springfield Missouri Republican visited Cole Camp in the fall of 1911, he considered the town "the heftiest municipality in Benton County." He went one step farther and called it "the best town between Springfield and Sedalia" on the route that would become US Highway 65. He said the only thing about Cole Camp he could find to criticize was its name, because a lot of people, when they heard the name, thought it was "Coal Camp" and assumed that the area was rich in coal. 

Among the going concerns in Cole Camp in 1911 were a water works, an electric power plant for lighting, a telephone company, a newspaper, two banks, several general stores, a lumber store, a restaurant, at least two hardware stores, two saloons, a jeweler, a couple of real estate agents, a bakery and confectionery, a theater, a grist mill, a couple of drugstores, three doctors, at least one attorney, a public school, several fraternal organizations, and four churches (one Congregational, one Catholic, and two Lutheran).  

When Highway 65 was built, it passed through Cole Camp, following the old Butterfield Stage route through the county, but the highway was later moved west, bypassing Cole Camp. It's been that way as long as I can remember, because I have traveled Highway 65 between Springfield and Sedalia numerous times, but I've never been to Cole Camp.

After the Springfield reporter's visit to Cole Camp in 1911, the population of Cole Camp fluctuated slightly over the next 60 years until it passed 1,000 inhabitants in 1970. The population has since remained fairly steady, as the number of residents according to the 2020 census was slightly over 1,100.

 

A Fatal Affray at a Religious Service

On the evening Saturday, July 2, 1932, twenty-two-year-old Emmett Culver and a friend were sitting on the front steps of the National Schoolhouse southeast of Marshfield (MO) waiting for time to go into the revival meeting that was about to begin, when Culver's father-in-law, sixty-year-old Ike Carpenter, and other members of the Carpenter family showed up. Culver and his friend got to their feet, and a confrontation between Culver and the Carpenters, who had been on the outs for some time, ensued. Carpenter fired several shots at Culver and his friend as they fled around the corner of the school, with two shots striking Culver. Carpenter later claimed that Culver made a motion as though going for a gun or knife, but Culver, who was unarmed, said Carpenter just started shooting. 

Culver, who had married Carpenter's seventeen-year-old daughter, Edna, two years earlier, was hospitalized in Springfield with grave wounds. He told a newspaper reporter the next day, "My father-in-law has hated me since I started sparking his daughter." Culver's young wife was at the hospital with him and was said to be taking her husband's side in the dispute. According to one report, the young couple had recently been estranged but had reunited shortly before the shooting affray.

The elder Carpenter was charged with felonious assault the day after the shooting, and his son, John, and another young man who was with the two Carpenters were later charged as well. Although it was thought at first that only Ike Carpenter had fired shots, an investigation revealed that all three men had fired at least one shot.

Culver died on July 6, and the charges against Ike and John Carpenter were upgraded to murder. The charges against the young man who was with them remained at felonious assault, and a second Carpenter son, Albert, was also charged with felonious assault.

Ike Carpenter was found guilty of second-degree murder at trial in September 1932 and given a two-year prison sentence. His son John was fined $200 for being an accessory. I assume charges against the other son and the Carpenters' friend must have been dropped or else they were let off very easily, since I have not found any further mention of their cases.

A Fatal Affray Near Brighton

The February 13, 1879, edition of the Springfield Leader reported that a young man named H. L. Maylock had been shot and killed by another young man named Bud Low at a party at a residence near Brighton (MO) the night before. Low was arrested, said the Leader, and brought before a justice of the peace, to whom he admitted the deed, before making his escape. A special dispatch from Springfield to the St. Louis Globe Democrat described the incident in similar terms, claiming that Maylock struck Low in the face and that Low immediately drew his revolver and shot Maylock dead. 

Another report the next day said that Low's body had been found dead in the woods between Brighton and Springfield. A brother of Maylock and another man had supposedly gone in search of Low after his escape and had returned, saying they could not find him, but it was presumed that they did find Low and had "inflicted this summary vengeance." 

The only problem with these initial reports was that they turned out to be entirely erroneous. It was left to the Springfield Weekly Patriot to straighten out the story in its February 20 edition. It was, in fact, Maylock who had killed Low after Low got drunk and boisterous and started threatening people at the party. Low was being escorted from the room by his brother when he, in some way, bumped against Maylock. Maylock made some remark in return, and Low struck him a blow above the eye. However, Maylock, who was described as a normally peaceful young man, abided even this insult and did not fight back. 

Later in the evening, though, Low became boisterous again, and someone at the party said to him, "Low, you've blacked one eye, and you had better be quiet." Maylock, who was standing nearby, added, "You must not black mine again." In response to this remark, Low "rolled up his sleeves" and made a lunge toward Maylock. According to some witnesses, Low had a knife in his hand at the time. Matlock stepped back until his retreat was blocked by a bed, at which point he drew his revolver and shot Low, killing him almost instantly.

Maylock was arrested and brought before two justices of the peace a week later for a preliminary examination. After a two-and-a-half day hearing, he was dismissed without charges, as nearly all the testimony showed that he had acted in self-defense. 

Norwood, Missouri

Early in my teaching career, I taught at Houston, Missouri, for a year, and almost every weekend, my wife and I would drive to Springfield to see our two families., both of whom lived in the Springfield area. We didn't always take the same route, but most of the time we came by way of U.S. Highway 60, which took us through Norwood. I remember that, either during the time I taught at Houston or somewhere near that time, there was a big controversy at Norwood High School because a boy had been expelled from school for refusing to cut his long hair. 

Those trips between Springfield and Houston and the hair controversy are the two main things I tend to associate with Norwood, but there's a little more to the town than that. Norwood was laid out along the route of the Kansas City, Springfield, and Memphis Railroad when it was built through the area in 1882. The town was named Norwood after the novel of the same name by Henry Ward Beecher. 

Norwood didn't exactly boom in the months and years after its formation. At least, that's the conclusion one can reasonably draw from a brief mention of Norwood that I found in a March 1892 issue of a Springfield newspaper. A reporter visited Norwood and asked an old man he encountered what the population of the town was. The old codger supposedly said, "About ten, reckonin' the children, two cats, and one dog." This statement, of course, was made in jest, but it still gives an indication that Norwood did not amount to much, even ten years after its creation. The reporter opined that Norwood could hardly be called a village. 

Norwood did experience growth after 1893, though. In 1911, when a Springfield Leader reporter visited Norwood, he estimated the town's population at about 500. The newspaperman had previously visited Norwood about six years earlier, and he estimated that the town had grown by about 65% during the interval. A lot of farming, stock raising, and fruit raising were taking place in the outlying areas around Norwood, and the town itself boasted a bank, three general merchants, a lumber store, two drugstores, and a hardware and farm implement store.  

In 1930, Norwood had a population of about 350. Over the next 80 years, it reached a low of about 260 in 1960 and a high of over 660 in 2010. In 2020, the population stood at 578.

The Murder of George Patrick

After attending a show in Reeds Spring (MO), 19-year-old George Patrick and his date, 16-year-old Goldie May, were on their way home on the road between Reeds Spring and Galena on the evening of November 1, 1924, when they were hailed by two men on foot. As soon as the car came to a halt, the men jumped in and ordered Patrick, at the point of a gun, to drive. When he refused to turn where they told him to, one of the men conked him on the head and then shot him in the left side.  

Goldie jumped out of the car during the confrontation and took off down the road. Meanwhile, the highwaymen took a watch from Patrick's wrist, pulled him out of his Ford automobile, and sped away in it themselves.

Goldie was rescued by a passing motorist. Together she and the motorist returned to where Patrick had been shot, picked him up, and took him to a doctor in Reeds Spring, where he died within minutes. 

Goldie said the two gunmen were both wearing khaki clothes and had heavy beards and that one was a lot taller than the other, but she was unable to give a more detailed description because the darkness prevented her from getting a good look at them. 

A manhunt for the two murderers was organized, but it turned up no sign of the culprits. After a couple of days, the fugitives were tentatively identified as Ed Young and a man named Cotton who had worked in a cannery in Reeds Springs the previous season. The identification was based on the fact that the two men had called at the home of an aunt of Young's late Saturday night, after the murder, both of them armed with revolvers. The aunt had already heard about the crime, and she suspected that her nephew, whom she knew to have a violent streak, and his companion might be the perpetrators. So, she refused to admit them and called police after they left. 

After another day or two, Young and Cotton had still not been located, and the manhunt was called off under the assumption that they had somehow escaped the dragnet.

On the night of November 8, however, exactly a week after Patrick was killed, the two suspects were arrested at Harrisonville when they were found sleeping in a car that had been stolen at Humansville a few days earlier. Some weapons were found hidden in the vehicle, and the two men were charged with carrying concealed weapons. 

The two suspects gave phony names at first, but the Stone County sheriff traveled to Harrisonville and identified Young and his sidekick, whose name was eventually established as Odess "Cotton" Yandell. The two men were brought back to Stone County and charged with murder. At their trial in early December, they pleaded guilty and were sentenced to life imprisonment, and they were transported to Jefferson City a couple of days later.

Young, 33 at the time of his imprisonment, escaped in mid-November 1932 by walking off a prison farm, but he was recaptured a week later in southeast Missouri and brought back to the state pen. Yandell, who was only 21 when he checked into the big house, was paroled in late 1940, while Young was granted a parole two and half years later. 

Summersville, Missouri

Summersville, straddling the Texas-Shannon County line about 23 miles southeast of Houston, was platted in 1870 and named after early area settlers Jesse and Thomas Summer. The village got a post office the following year and has had one ever since.

In 1885, the population of Summersville was about 100 residents. Businesses in the town included two or three general stores, a drugstore, a hotel, a land agent, a wagonmaker, and a cabinet maker, as well as the post office. The community also boasted a Methodist church and an I.O.O.F. (Oddfellows) lodge.

The population was 187 in 1900, and by the time a Springfield Leader reporter visited Summersville in 1913, the population had grown to about 250. To reach Summersville, the Springfield man traveled first to Cabool (presumably by rail), and from Cabool he took a stage to Summersville. The 35-mile second leg of his trip took nine hours, but he claimed that he enjoyed the scenery so much that he didn't mind the long journey and arrived "without any great fatigue." 

Only about four months before the Leader man's visit, Summersville had suffered a fire that destroyed several business buildings and one "handsome residence." One store had already been completely rebuilt, and a couple of other buildings were under construction. The Springfield visitor opined that the fire had turned out to be "a blessing in disguise," because the new buildings were of better quality and more fireproof than their predecessors. 

Land around Summersville was very good for agriculture purposes, said the reporter, and land close to town was selling for $30 to $50 an acre. Farther out of town, farmland was selling for $10-$25 an acre, while unimproved land could be had for $5 to $10 an acre. Four or five miles outside of town, the land became free range, and cattle were turned out on it during the summer months so that farmers only had to feed their stock about five months out of the year. 

According to the Leader representative, Summersville had "a good school system" and "churches of various denominations." There were several church-affiliated societies as well as at least one fraternal lodge.

Among the town's businesses was the Summersville State Bank, which had a capital of $25,000. Other businesses included a pharmacy, a real estate agency, a clothing store, a hotel, a hardware and furniture store, a telephone company, a combination lumber store/insurance agency, two general stores, and a combination livery, feedstore and sale barn.

One of the pressing needs around Summersville was better roads, and a Good Roads movement was underway in the area when the Springfield man visited. On his trip back to Springfield, the reporter took a surrey to Mountain View, site of the nearest railroad depot. The trip took only three hours, and at Mountain View, our man presumably caught the train home to Springfield.

Summersville continued a gradual growth throughout the twentieth century, reaching a peak population of 571 in 1990. It has since decreased slightly in population to 453, as of 2020.