Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1885-07-16
CHAPTER ",
EVICTION

d. d.
TO-, PUBLISHERS, CHICAGO.
CHAPTER ~.
EVICTION.
HE explorers were gone ten DAYS.
returning just after nightfall on the
evening of the tenth day they paused in
Iront OF the little grove surrounding
hitchle's shanty to arrange between
themselves the route which they should
take on the morrow in notifying those
interested of their return and readiness
to report.
The Suscol Ranch is not a prairie,
out succession of low ridges or hills.
occasionally bit of the rock founda-
non crops out on some bluf.y point, but
generally the ridges are tillable clear to
their SUBMITS and produce wonderful
crops OF wheat, an average of fiftv and
sixty bushels to the acre beng consid-
cred no surprising yield even upon
fields of several hundred acres. In
their natural state they are dotted over
with little groves of white and live oak.
usually in groups of from dozen to a
hundred trees, and it was in one of these
little groves that Ritchie's shantv was
situated.
When the two men had agreed upon
their separate course for the morrow,
and also upon the place at which the
squatters were to be asked to meet and
decide upon their future action. they
separated; Richie turned his ponv's
head toward his shanty, while Parsons
Ioosened the rein upon the neck of his
beast already showing signs of uneasi-
ness at being held back when so near
home, and started at brisk pace in the
direction in which he knew his family
were anxiously awaiting his coming.
tie had gone but few yards, how
ever. when he heard an exclamation of
surprise from Richie, who almost in
stantly rejoined him and crowding his
pony close up to that of his companion
exclaimed. in a voice shaken with emo
ton and excitement:
MY God, Parsons, they We torn down
my shanty, and Heaven only knows
what has become of my wife and
child"
1t was true.
comprising thousands of acres of the
finest lands, had been given by the pur-
chased votes of corrupt Congressman
and Senators, had decided to resort to
eviction in order to obtain immediate
possession, and sent a posse of men
with orders to destroy a number of
dwellings as a warning to all others.
and Bill Ritchie's shanty had been
among those selected
For a moment the two men sat upon
their horses like statues, looking at each
other through the darkness; and then,
yzylfh how -
their animals and dashed away in the
direction of Parsons house Neither
spoke, but both leaned forward in their
saddles, and rode at full speed-rode
with bated breath, while alternate hope
possession of their bosoms.
Had they stopped to reason they
would have known that there was little
probability of bodily injury having been
done to the evicted family; but who
amount of injury when he came sud
denly upon the ruins of his home and
realized that those whom he loved bet
ter than all else in the world, defense
less woman with babe at her breast,
and had the shelter torn from over their
heads, and that they Were gone, he
knew not where or how?
Naturally they would seek shelter
with their new neighbors. the Parsons,
since they were nearer than any other,
and the two men would return together;
but suppose the Parsons cottage was
destroyed also? Surprising all the cot
tages in the neighborhood were de-
stroyed, what then?
And John Parsons? Can the suffer-
ings which he endured during that ride
be measured or told? That ride of
quarter of mile before coming up
over the intervening rise they saw lights
in the window and a campfire burning
brightly in front of the cottage?
If life were flame feeding upon the
body which it inhabits, then it would be
easy to understand how men sometimes
grow old in a day-how the hair may
turn white in night; for one man may
live more, suffer more in an hour, than
comes to others in lifetime.
The posse sent to evict the home
steaders had gone directly to John Par
sons cottage from Ritchie's: but they
were preceded by Mrs. Richie, who,
frightened by the threats of men to tear
the shanty down over her head if she
did not at once leave it, had caught her
babe from its cradle and ran directly to
the Parsons homestead, where she ar
rived almost as much dead as alive, and
had impaired the dreadful information.
believing it to be true, that every dwell
ling on the ranch was to be torn down,
and had urged Mrs. Parsons to take the
children and fly with her to some place
in the hills where they could hide from
those who were bent upon mission OF
destruction. and whom her excited i'm
agination had magnified into small
army, ready for any outrage upon the
persons as well as the property of those
against whom they were sent
Mrs. Parsons was scarcely less agi-
tated at the terrible news than was she
who brought it; and Erastus who had
listened without saying word to the
story of the outrage. made no objection
to the proposition, but helped to make
into a bundle the scanty wardrobe of
the family, and in company with the
frightened women and children crossed
the creek upon little foot-brldge made
of planks, and placed them all within
the shelter of the bluffs on the opposite
side, and a little further down, where
they would be out of sight of the posse
either from the cottage or from any
point on the road over which they would
pass in continuing their work OF de-
struetion.
This done, in spite of the pleadings OF
the little girls and Mrs. Richie, and the
almost commands of Aunt Martha,
rs he had always called Mrs. Parsons.
he returned to the cottage and careful
" examined the rifle which he had been