The Sedalia weekly bazoo. [volume] (Sedalia, Mo.) 187?-1904, 1893-11-28
BETWEEN YOU ANDME'

Agent Nat Green, of the r. G.
Dunn Commercial agency, talking
with a BAzoo reporter last evening
said his report from Pettis and John
son counties showed the state of things
commercial to be pretty much what il
had been for some time past, if moi
somewhat improved. There are nc
failures to he recorded for the north,
and the prospects are that, though
times are undoubtedly tight, the mer.
chants and traders OF this section are
in good shape for weat .eriDg the
winter.
Mr.. John B. Elliott, a well known
.stockman OF Sedalia, related a little
incident to the GOsslPER yesterday
which involves bit of local history
worth repeating.
One day the past week Mr.. Elliott
visited the little village of Clifton,
situated some fourteen miles north of
this city, and while there he had &C.
casion TO cut down a large walnut
tree under whose ample shade thirty
three years ago a grand democratic
rail-, was held.
I All the Cooper county candidates
were present, including George g..
Vest, now United States senator.
Mr.. Vests Oratory was especially
brilliant then and full of the pyrO-
technics of youth.
The dark clouds of war were
already lowering overhead, and
the people were in high state
of alarm and excitement. 1t
was the last campaign carried On
ere the great guns battered away the
walls of Fort Sumter and set the
floods of carnage flowing.
Mr.. Elliott remembers that several
thousand people were present at Cliff
ton on the occasion referred to, but
of all the witnesses of that event this
old tree remained for long while
one of the few survivors and at last
it, too, fell beneath the strokes of Il
friendly hand.
The St. Louis Republic of recent
date contains an interesting account
of the military execution of Captain
Charles Browniee at Springfield, Mo-,
Immediately after the close OF the
Civil war. The GossI FER is in pos
session of IL few facts re-
garding the capture of Captain
Brownlee and companion soldier and
their subsequent escape from the
Federal prison at Boonville in 1863.
Brownlee and his comrade-Dennis
Carroll-both of whom were soldiers
i'll Prices army, were on
duty in Cooper county
and one day had a COM
bat with a party of home guards. |
The captain was severely wounded
and both were captured.
They were brought into Boonville
by their triumphant captors and were
taken to an upper room in what is
now the Thespiln opera house.
There they were kept for short
time and were then removed to the
county jail-a gloomy, gruesOme old
stone and iron building which is still
Standing.
Brownlee and Carroll were regarded
5 spies, and, after a so-called court
q artial, sentence. of death was passed
pon them. Their cases seemed hope
ess and their escape impossible.
But in Boonville there were three
of whom is now resident
+ Sedalia-whO determined to effect
heir release.
Miss Mary Carroll now Mrs.
Brooks, of Howard cOunty-was a sis
er of Dennis Carroll. She was a
andsome, daring and highly intelli- ,
ent young lady and she boldly plan .
ed the escape, even at the risk of her {
wn life. 8
Her scheme WAS to obtain lupl-
ate key to the prison by means of a
utty or plaster of Paris cast. After J
.veral visits to The jail and an al q
lost infinite deal of patience
nd perseverance, she, with her
70 lady frien ~. succeeded in manu-
lcturing KEY and one morning, l
hen the guardsvisited the cell where d
he Confederates had been immu'ed. #
icy found the prisoners gone. II
Dennis CAROLS freedom was OF n
tort duration, Tor be ioo!ishly linger- e.
not far from il,n scene OF his cap d
re, was oyerhs aled h. Federal
oops one day and killed. u
Brownlee made his way to South CO
est Missouri, wss captured in Polk
'unty, and was executed, by shoot
g. at a point on the southern out
10 4 IL