THE OLD BLOCKHOUSE
By JESSIE CHILDERS WILLIAMS
Troy Free Press, June 7, 1918
Lincoln county has had a most interesting history. And from time to time, the Free Press has tried to put in bits of that history which held the greatest interest for the readers of the paper, thinking that old-time reminiscences might bring pleasure to the older readers and might prove desirable reading for the younger ones as well Many of the chief events connected with the different epochs of history of the state and county have centered around Troy and the town spring. Several weeks ago the paper had a sketch of the old Wood's Fort, built during the outbreak of the war of 1812. This week we have a short article on the old blockhouse which stood on the same site as the fort during the Civil War. Mrs. W. A. Campbell, of Silex, sent the picture of the old blockhouse to the Free Press, and inspired the writing of the story. And to T. W. Withrow of Troy the main facts of the article are due. No written fact concerning the old blockhouse could be found, but Mr. Withrow gives us several interesting recollections of it.
The old blockhouse was built in the year 1862 by citizens drafted by Union soldiers to do the work. Troy's citizens were divided in their sympathies in those days, but, as the Union soldiers had the upper hand the rebels were forced to keep their opinions to themselves most of the time. The blockhouse was built of immense logs, hewn with a broadaxe and the building when completed was very strong and well built. As the above engraving shows, the house was of two stories, and the second story was set diagonally on the first story, thus forming corners through which the men could fire downward and in all directions. There were also two rows of portholes, one in each story, through which to fire. On top of the building was a flagpole with the Stars and Stripes floating to the breeze.
The soldiers who had charge of military rule in Troy in the Civil war days made their homes there. They had a big stove on the second floor and slept both upstairs and down, most probably. As things were never very exciting in those days in Troy, the officers and men very likely found that time dragged for them in quite a bit in the blockhouse. So the long evenings were whiled away at cards and story-telling and the soldiers must have even longed sometimes for a little excitement to break the monotony.
The first soldiers that came to Troy were not quartered in the blockhouse," says Mr. Withrow, "for the simple reason that it was not built in the very first days of the war. The first soldiers were mostly Germans, and they camped up on College street where the Grammar school is now. Well, they had just about gotten settled when a bunch of town boys--I can remember some of them--Tobe Woolfolk, Dee Perkins, Toll Bragg, among them, decided to go up there and drive the soldiers out of town. All three of the above were hot rebels, and the mere thought of Union soldiers made their blood boil. So they arrayed themselves for war and went up in the camp, and used such good persuasive powers that the Federal soldiers decided not to settle in Troy after all, but packed up and left.
"In 1861 or '62 continues Mr. Withrow, "the militia was formed and their headquarters were then at the old blockhouse. The young men of Troy were forced to form a company and to stand guard in the town part of the time. George Jones, who taught the school up there where the Presbyterian church is now, was the captain, and John Gordon, who married Betty Block, was the lieutenant. I was then a boy of perhaps twenty-one or two and I was in the militia as was Henry Withrow, Will Wells and many others whose names I do not just now remember.
"My father built, and owned the building that is now Tupholme's Garage, in those days, and I slept in one of the rooms upstairs. One day a colonel from Iowa--I don't remember his name--came to me and informed me that he liked the looks of my room and would take possession of it from then on. Of course there was nothing to do but give it up to him. He then went around throughout the county and took possession of a lot of whiskey and brandy and the guns and ammunition in the country. These he stored, in the room just back of the one in which I had always slept--and in which he now slept. One night he called me and told me he was leaving Troy and that all the whiskey, guns, etc., which were in the back room were mine to do with as I pleased. Well, I don't remember just what became of all of them. It made no difference to me where they went or who got them."
Mr. Withrow says there was never any trouble between the civilians and the soldiers at the blockhouse, although sometimes it would look like there was going to be. One night he said while he was standing guard a bunch of the rebel sympathizers—Brody Hull, Shel Cochran, Ras Woods and Kale Dorsey among them—came down town and told the guards, who were of the ''forced' militia that they were going down to the blockhouse and take it and "clean up those Germans." The guards were very much alarmed at this talk, for, if the boys had attempted such a thing, the militia at the blockhouse would have thought that the guards were allied with the civilians and against the militia; and it would be the "forced militia" that would suffer the consequences of the act.
"We guards could do nothing with them, though," says Mr. Withrow, "for we were too young, and they would not listen to our reasoning. So we asked them to wait just a little while, and, in the meantime, some of the guards started out to find older heads to reason with the fight-inspired young men. We went to the home of Elias Norton, who then lived in a log house just back of where Avery's Drug Store is now, and roused the household to tell Mr. Norton of our perplexity. He knew the boys intimately, and had influence with most of them, so we felt he was our means of salvation. And indeed he proved to be just that, for he argued the boys out of their rash intention and sent them all home to behave themselves."
The old blockhouse stood for a few years after the war, but it was in the way of the growing town, and so, sometime in the years between 1865 and 1870, Sandy Martin bought the old house, had it torn down and moved the logs to his farm south of Troy, on the place where the family of Harry Brummel now live. There he had a house constructed for his family, but this old edifice burned down several years after it was built, and, so not even a part of the old blockhouse remains at the present time.