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TRUE OZARK TALES FROM BYGONE DAYS
By: John Jay Chilton
Source: The Current Local Newspaper-Van Buren, Carter Co., Missouri
September 10, 1931
Sixty-nine years ago last week (last week of August 1862), the people of Shannon County were thrown into grief over the murder of John West, Mrs. Sam West, Louis Conway, James Henry Gaylon, William Chilton, Henry Smith, Sam Herring, Jack Herring, John Huddleston, John Story and Joshua Chilton. The tragedy was one of the bloody incidents of the Civil War days and was instance of what man will do when war uncovers the brutal in man.
As the story is told, by relatives of the victims, John Worthington became an enemy to Joshua Chilton over an imaginary wrong, and Dave Smith became an enemy to Alexander Chilton over a real wrong. So, they managed to get a company of Federal soldiers to come over from Rolla to the vicinity where the Chilton’s lived and the drive on the various homes was made in the dead of the night. They first caught John Huddleston , then Jack and Sam Herring and William Chilton .
The band next approached the home of A.J.(Andrew Jackson) Chilton who heard them coming in time to leap out of a window in his night clothes, and by joining a heard of sheep in the pasture he escaped by running off with them on all fours. He thought to run to the West’s home which was nearby, and warn him, but the raiders beat him there, passing close to him. He saved himself from detection by hugging closely to the opposite side of a tree as they passed him.
When the raiding party reached the West home, Sam West, whom they were seeking, crawled under a bed and some reason they did not search the house. John West, Sam’s father, stood on the porch and talked to them until they turned away. Then Sam came to the door and fired a double-barreled shotgun at them, but missed. The raiders fired back at old man West killing him instantly. Mrs. West thrust Sam back into the house and, as she came between him and the enemy they fired a charge of heavy shot into her back and hips, from which she died about two weeks later.
Next, they caught Alexander Chilton then reached the home of Joshua Chilton while the family was a breakfast. Mr. Chilton and Louis Conway ran from the house and hid among some weeds in the yard of an old house about a half a mile away. The soldiers spied Conway and killed him. Mr. Chilton slipped away and would have escaped if he had not been discovered by one of the enemy who had wandered away from the rest of the party.
James H. Gaylon had a leg broken some months before this event and, as the prisoners had to walk, his leg became sore on the first day’s travel and he realized he would not be able to travel the next day. That night, the prisoners were placed in a vacant house with two doors. One guard was placed at one door and two guards were placed at the other. One of the two guards went to sleep and James H. Gaylon whispered to Alexander Chilton to knock him down with his boot and he would hold him until the prisoners could escape. So, Chilton passed the word on to all the others so they would be ready. But, Joshua Chilton was a Free Mason and he whispered to the others not to attempt to escape, saying that as two of the enemy were Masons he thought that through their influence he could save the lives of all the prisoners.
Next morning, when ready to start, J.H. Gaylon told the guard that he could not walk any further and, they told him he must go on or they would kill him. He sat down against a tree, brushed his hair back and said, “Kill and be damned”. They shot him in the forehead. Alexander said that it was then that Joshua Chilton realized the mistake of objecting to them making an attempt to escape the night before.
The guards in charge of Henry Smith and William Chilton lagged behind just until they were out of view of the rest then shot both prisoners. Then, they caught up with the others and proposed that they kill them all. This, the guards agreed to do. They ordered the prisoners to take off their shoes. Joshua Chilton appealed to the two Masons and asked them, “Are you going to shoot me down like a brute?” They answered, “You can’t tell any difference.” Mr. Chilton said to them, “I have friends that can walk as deep in blood as any of you.” They were shot down and left lying in the road, all but Alexander Chilton, who, seeing their intention, dodged into a jungle of thick brush and escaped. They shot at him as long as they saw the brush shake, and then gave chase, but he ran through the jungle until he found a stock path, turned at a right angle and followed the path for a distance, then turned again at a right angle and crossed the road at the scene of the murder. He ran on about a mile and came to a spring where a young woman was washing clothes, and, being thirsty and exhausted, he drank and lay down to rest. The woman threw some unwashed clothes over him and in a few minutes the enemy came along and asked here if she saw him pass. She pointed in the opposite direction from Chilton, indicating that he had passed in that direction. When they had gone Chilton took to the woods again, traveling only by night and arriving home after eight days. During that time he had nothing to eat but apples.
The raiders had not taken his weapons, so when he had rested up a bit, he got Charles T. Chilton and Jack Smith, brother of Henry Smith, one of the murdered men, to go with him to settle the score with John Worthington, one of the instigators of the crime. The three went to his home in the vicinity of Round Springs, in the night, same as the enemy had come to Chilton’s in the night. Worthington resisted but was wounded. His wife assisted him onto a bed and both began to beg, but they finished him after reminding him that their people did not beg when he and his gang of murderers shot them.
Dave Smith fled to Rockford, Illinois and was running a ferryboat there when Chilton located him. He disguised himself and went on the boat intending to attend to him on the other side; but Smith recognized him as he left the boat and escaped. But, it was for a time only, for Chilton finally located him in Central Texas and told Mrs. Joshua Chilton, the only person he was ever known to speak to about it, that the last time he saw Dave Smith he was lying near the door of a saloon with a bucket hole in his head and two in his breast.