Here is the demise of James Brown, John Browns older brother on July 4, 1865

COLUMBIA -- Celebrations of the first peaceful Independence Day since 1860 were marred by a killing at Rock Bridge mills when Reuben Franklin shot James Brown because Brown refused to sell his horse, the Missouri Statesman reported.

Franklin, 18, was a private in the “Boone County Tigers,” Capt. Henry Cook’s company of Volunteer Missouri Militia. He and Brown were attending the barbecue hosted by James McConathy on the grounds of his flour mill and distillery. Two companies of the new Missouri Militia regiment from Boone County held their roll call and drill in the morning, and then they transitioned to food, speeches and dancing.

In a separate report, summarizing the celebrations in several locations, the Statesman reported that the picnic at McConathy’s “passed off delightfully” without mentioning the shooting. That version was included in William Switzler’s 1882 History of Boone County. The report of the shooting was not.

The Statesman’s report does not state what time of day the killing took place. Franklin approached Brown and offered to buy his horse, the newspaper reported.

“Brown said he was not for sale, whereupon Franklin told him to go to hell with his horse,” the Statesman reported. “Brown told him that he did not wish or intend to do that either.”

Enraged, Franklin struck Brown in the head with a stick, shot him with his revolver and fled toward Rocheport, the newspaper reported.

“The parties did not know each other previous to their lamentable altercation, one rendered particularly distressing by the fact that the murdered man leaves a wife and eight small children in dependent circumstances,” the Statesman reported.