Trenton State Gazette
New Jersey
December 15, 1875

An Enormous Land Swindle

The grand jury of Shannon County, MO., have indicted Dr. THOMAS K. HARMON, DAVID S. BINGHAM, and JAMES L. LAWTON for complicity with fraud….

Columbus Daily Enquirer-Sun
August 17, 1878

Carver Outdone

ADAM GOLDIE is a man in the prime of life, about 5 feet 11 inches in height and with a most wonderful physique. Some of the feats he had performed seem impossible. He has broken 299 glass balls of 300 in 12 minutes with a 44 calibre Winchester rifle. (long article about his shooting skill; he was from Shannon County, Missouri)

The Daily Inter Ocean
Illinois
February 28, 1889

Killed While on Duty

Winona, Mo., Feb. 27: About noon today F. TURLEY, sheriff of Carter County, was instantly killed, and his deputy badly wounded and perhaps fatally wounded, at Low Wassie, a small station on the Current River RR in Shannon County. The best information is that a man named THOMPSON, who formerly kept a salon in Van Buren, had forged a note and the sheriff intended to arrest him. Today THOMPSON and a man named TAYLOR, who is said to be a half-brother of Thompson, got on the train at Winona and were met at Low Wassie by the sheriff. Thompson stayed on the train till it started to leave the station and then jumped off. The sheriff followed and caught hold of him when he called for help. Taylor then ran up and shot the sheriff four times. Then the deputy came up and Taylor shot him through the thigh and ran. The deputy shot and it is supposed he wounded Taylor. A posse is in hot pursuit. A later rumor has it that Taylor was found dead in the woods.

St. Louis Republic
March 17, 1894

West Plains, MO., March 16: WILLIAM A. PAYNE of this county was tried this week in the circuit court of Shannon County for killing his daughter over a year ago… sentenced to ten years.

Omaha World Herald
Nebraska
March 20, 1895

The jury at Eminence, Shannon County, Mo., in the case of GEORGE W. BRITTAIN, charged with killing CHARLES ANDERSON at West Plains, Mo., discharged.

St. Louis Republic
October 17, 1895

Through Ignorance

MEREDITH MAHAN met his death by asphyxiation at the Ridgway Hotel Tuesday night, and FRANCIS CHILTON had a narrow escape. Chilton is the Collector of Shannon County and lives at Eminence and Mahan was in his employ. ..the body of Mahan was discovered at the hotel and Chilton was found on the floor with his face pressed against a crack at the bottom of the door leading to the hall…. The two men went to the hotel in the company of COMMODORE PERRY CHILTON, a brother of Chilton, and J. C. MCCASKILL, and asked for rooms…Yesterday morning Perry Chilton got up and went to the room of his brother and knocked… no answer.. took a seat in the hall to await his brother. McCaskill, employed at the East St. Louis Stock Yards, had left the hotel. Chilton knocked several times… the manager’s wife, Mrs. RIDGWAY, checked and Mahan was dead and Chilton nearly dead. … examination of the gas jet in the room was made and the jet was wide open and gas escaping… supposed that Mahan had put out the light without turning off the jet… Mahan’s body was shipped to Eminence where a couple of his brothers will look after funeral expenses. …

St. Louis Republic
January 31, 1896

JACOB KISSEL Supposed to Have Been Dead

Article about Jacob Kissel includes a letter written by JACOB KISSEL at Winona, Shannon County to Judge GEORGE W. WOLFF, probate judge of St. Louis County…. Being informed by JOHN F. GRIMM that letters of administration were filed in your court the estate of Jacob Kissel. I will inform you that the dead Jacob Kissel is alive and the writer of the letter. I was born in St. Louis in 1844. My father, JACOB KISSEL, died when I was a boy. There were five of us children. JOHN KISSEL, my half brother, was the oldest. GEORGE KISSEL, the second son, died in St. Louis in 1879 or 1880. The others were VALENTINE, JACOB (myself) and HENRY, the youngest. GEORGE KISSEL had three sons, GEORGE A., ALBERT, OSCAR and a daughter EMUNDA H. Oscar died. My mother, MAGADALENA, married VALENTINE BOLLMANN in St. Louis while we boys were young. She had a daughter by her last husband, MARGARETTA who married FRANK MEYER in St. Louis. I left St. Louis in 1880. I have been all over the U. S. and finally settled in Winona, Shannon County, Mo. I married in 1880.

On application filed in St. Louis County Probate Court at Clayton by MARGARETTA KISSEL, GEORGE A. KISSEL and EDMUNDA H. KISSEL, Judge Wolf granted to public administrator T. F. ACKERMAN letters of administration on the estate of Jacob Kissel…Mrs. MARGARETTA MEYER, half sister to Jacob Kissel and widow of Frank Meyer, was found at her home, 1225 South 8th St…. surprised to be informed that Jacob is living…

St. Louis Republic
April 26, 1897

An Old Soldier Arrested

JOHN HICKS, an old Shannon County farmer, was lodged in jail yesterday by deputy U. S. marshal FITZPATRICK, charging him with trying to extort money from Uncle Sam by means of a false pension claim. Hicks was arrested at his home at Winona. “I am wrongfully accused,” he said to a Republic reporter who called on him at the jail. “I am old soldier and served over three years in the Union Army. I enlisted in the Eighth Missouri and fought many a hard battle. About four years ago I made application for a pension and put my claim in the hands of attorney J. W. MORRIS of Washington City. I never heard from it until several weeks ago.”

St. Louis Republic
Missouri
January 11, 1899

Baker Paid the Penalty

Eminence, Mo., Jan. 10: OSCAR H. BAKER was hanged here today for wife murder. ..Sheriff JAMES DEATHEREDGE adjusted the black cap and rope… The murder was committed on March 29, 1896/1898 at their home in Winona, this county, to which place they had removed two months previous from Crawford County, Pennsylvania. Baker and his wife were Germans and indulged in drink, and he, at least, was under the influence of liquor at the time of the murder.

Washington Post
Tuesday, April 30, 1907

Death Sentence Affirmed

The U. S. Supreme Court affirmed the decision of the Supreme Court of Missouri in the appeal of WILLIAM SPAUGH, Jr., under sentence of death in Reynolds County, Missouri, on the charge of murdering Sheriff POLK of Iron County, while resisting arrest.

Belleville News-Democrat
November 18, 1913

Volunteers to Fight Mexico

Jefferson City, MO., Nov. 18: ED. J. SHUCK of Shannon County has applied to Gov. MAJOR for a commission to raise a company of Missouri troops just as soon as the government declares war against Mexico. Mr. Shuck did not set forth his military qualifications in his application.

Kansas City Star
May 7, 1919

Wife Slain; Held as Bigamist

Eminence, Mo.: FRANK WELTON, a farmer living near Teresita, alleged common law husband of Mrs. CARRIE HOFLAND/HOLLAND, the confessed slayer of Welton’s wife last January, was bound over to the circuit court, charged with bigamy. The charge was brought at the instigation of J. T. TYLER of Louisville, Kentucky, father of the murdered woman. The principal witness against Welton was Mrs. HOFLAND, who is being held in jail at West Plains pending her trial here in June. Mrs. Hofland testified that she and Welton had entered a common law marriage contract in Nebraska 15 years ago and lived together until 3 years ago when Welton deserted her and came to Missouri.

Paris News
Paris, Texas
February 21, 1944 

Backward Glances by A. W. NEVILLE

Told How to Get Missouri Cattle

Having told Colonel GLOVER, Federal commander in Rolla, MO., that he would give details of the killing of several Confederate sympathizers, August 28, 1861, Lt. Col. J. WEYDEMEYER, commanding at Salem Military Post, wrote:

“The prisoners Lt. REED brought in were delivered to Captain AVERY for transportation to Rolla. Soon after they started, report came in that one of them, JAMES GALLIAN, when about a mile from town, had tried to run and was shot dead. I ordered the officer of the day to take a couple of men with spades and picks to the place to bury the man and ascertain the facts. Soon after that Lt. LACY came in and reported that about a mile and a half further the balance of the prisoners had found their end the same way. I went out myself.

Gallatin was already buried where he was found, a few yards from the road, shot through the head. A mile and a half further I found near the road two of the dead prisoners together. Then about 60 yards in the same direction, in an opening in the woods, the former state senator and judge, JOSHUA CHILTON. The three mentioned before were ALEXANDER CHILTON, WILLIAM CHILTON, and HENRY SMITH. JACKSON HERON, the sixth prisoner, likely escaped. We could find his body nowhere and a farmer in the neighborhood said he had seen a man run past his house about the time he heard shots fired. Examination of the ground convinced me the dead were laying where they were killed, a small pool of blood under them, no other traces near, evidence to me that they had not been dragged from one place to another.

In regard to the character of the prisoners, I wrote you already, and nobody doubts they fully deserved their fate. I have to say nothing more about JOSHUA CHILTON, the state senator. In the possession of ALEXANDER CHILTON a government saddle and two government horses were found. He was known as a way-layer, assisted in robbing trains, killing stragglers and continued this trade with more eagerness since he took the oath of allegiance to the U. S. WILLIAM CHILTON served in Price’s army and continued to be a rebel afterwards; never took the oath. HENRY SMITH, one of the most desperate characters, was accused of the murder of WORTHINGTON, was a member of COLEMAN’S band and twice robbed the store of WILLIAM COPELAND in Barnesville, Reynolds County, Mo. JAMES GALLIAN was heard bragging about having murdered a man on the road from whom he took a horse, equipment and $80 in money, was a regular horse thief.”

The Federal cavalry having the prisoners in charge were all Missouri men, volunteers and the shooting was just one of the many such affairs, some of which were done by Confederate sympathizers when Federal sympathizers were captured.

Logansport Pharos-Tribune
Indiana
December 24, 1956

Pony Express Operated by Missouri Grandma

Eminence, Mo.: A 45 year old grandmother in Shannon County, Missouri operates her own pony express. Three days a week, she dons a pair of overalls, saddles her horse Dan, and carries the mail to 15 families along 15 miles of Blair Creek Valley.

The mail carrier is Mrs. GRACE WILSON. She’s had her own adventures, including a forest fire. That time she put Dan in a gallop and, just as in a Hollywood script, raced down the road through flames raging on both sides.

To Mrs. Wilson, nothing stops the mail, except high water. She doesn’t mind getting her feet wet, but the road she travels is under water most of the time. She puts her horse across Blair Creek 45 times. That’s just one way. She crosses it 45 times going home, too.

This mother of nine children gained her wary respect for high water the time she got trapped on the wrong side of the creek. Now, Mrs. Wilson and Dan take a good long look at the water before venturing in.

“When I can see bottom,” she said, “I cross, otherwise, the mail has to wait.”

She delivers the mail every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. She’s been doing it for the past three years, taking over the route from her husband. His health was poor.

That first trip was rough, she recalled. For the 15 families along Blair Creek, Mrs. Wilson is a link with the outside world. The valley is rugged and wild, thick with timber. Electricity is not available. The mail carrier’s services include advice, if not actual aid, in the delivery of babies.

When she isn’t delivering the mail, Mrs. Wilson doesn’t find time hanging on her hands. She keeps busy with such chores as ploughing on the 175 acre farm.