The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-08-09
BLoTTED OUT FAMILIES.
THRILLING EVENTS OF THE
"SLTCKER WAR" IN OZARK
COUNTRY.

Correspondence ST. Louis Globe-DemOcrat.
A few white hunters had built their rude
cabin homes in the Ozark country as early
as 1870, but it was nearly ten years later
before the real pioneers OF an agricultural
civilization began to form settlements
west Of the Gasconade. One of the first
companies OF homeseekers that entered the
hunting grounds Of the Osages for the pur-
pose of tanning the mountain soil ascend
ed White river in fiatboats. propelled by
oars and poles. to the mouth Of the James,
where they found a land of rugged beauty.
Astounding in pure, living water, plentiful
forests and eXhaustless ''range'-the three
gifts Of nature which then constituted the
East Tennessee movers ideal country.
Most Of the early settlers Of Southwest
Missouri We're from Tennessee. Now and
then family of some aristocratic preten-
tons came into the new country, shield
ed somewhat from the hardships of the
wilderness by the loyal services of sturdy
negroes. but as a rule, the men and wo-
men who crossed the Mississippi three
score years ago and toiled over the Ozark
mountains in huge covered wagons drawn
by oxen belonged to the simple yeomanry
Of the Allegheny region. They were rugged
mountaineers. many of them, trained from
infancy TO meet resolutely the physical
hardships of life incident to the age of
the hOminy mortar the reap hook and the
spinning wheel.
Naturally many old feuds were brought
from Tennessee to the western frontier,
as the home of the Delawares. Kickapoos
and OsageS was then called. The new set
Elements were frequently divided into hos
tile factions, sometimes the result of her
editary quarrels, which had begun in
bloodshed generations ago, and not all per-
sonal violence among the early settlers
OF TINS region was open and manly. Ven
geance sometimes wore mask in logging
helpless victim or aimed a deer gun at
an unsuspecting enemy from ambush.
Whipping obnoxious persons was a prac-
tice common in many Of the pioneer settle
ments of the Ozark country. This method
Of torture afterward so extensively en-
ployed by the Bald Knobbers in the same
territory did not originate in Missouri. 1t
came from Tennessee and Kentucky, with
the other usages which the movers
| brought with them when they sought
homes along the tributaries Of the Usage
and White rivers. In the new country this
method of regulating an offensive settler
or getting satisfaction out CT an enemy
was called sticking. How this name came
into use, tradition does not tell, but in all
the vocabulary of the Ozark mountaineers
fifty years ago there was no word that
| conveyed a more terrible meaning. To be
''siicked" was considered the seVerest pun
ishment that could be inflicted on a stall
wart young settler, and the victim of the
outrage usually left the country or sought
revenge on his prosecutors, according TO
the character of the man. When two fac
lions became vengefully hostile Sticking
was apt to be a feature OF the strife, and
once inaugurated as means of gratifying
partisan hatred retaliatory blood was sure
to flow.
Among all the feuds that provoked the
ha We Of
! what is known as the "Slicked war;
| claims pre-eminence on account OF Its
persistent Vindictiveness and deadly re-
suits. In all of the counties south of the
Usage and west of the Gasconade men
ton of this ante-bellum strife will call up
a picture of terror in the mind of every
old settler The "Slickers" and anti
Slickers" left a history in Benton, HEX
ory and Polk counties which even chc
thrilling events of the civil war did not
efface although Gen Fremont marched
his splendid army right through the ter
ritory, where those fierce and relentless
partisans had fought twenty years be-
fore
Near EIkton, on one of the little tribu-
taries of the Weaubleau, branch of the
Pomme de Terre, lives Uncle Matte Me-
Cracker, who knows perhaps more about
the "Slicker war" than any other man
alive to-day. This old settler Of Hickory
county was born in Tennessee six months
after the battle of New Orleans, AMI
came to the ozark country in 1888, ana
soon after that time married Arrissa
Gates, who reared eleven children, eight
boys and three girls The wife of the
aged pioneer died last year. Uncle Matte
has remarkable memory. He never for
got an event of any interest that came
under his observation and to-day the ola
man can give the texts of sermons heard
in Tennessee seventy years ago. He set
tied in the Ozark country when Spring
field was only cluster Of log cabins, and
his father-in-htw, Gates, lived in three
counties-Crawford, Greene and Hicx-
ory-without moving the site of the family
dwelling.
The ''Slicker war" began near Quincy,
in Benton in the summer Of 1913. The
first families involved in the feud were
the Turks Hobbses Norvels and Joneses.
Near Quincy was noted gambling resort.
A race track was made on the prairie by
dragging a log over the wild grass, and
. thereby marking the course for the horses. |
At this place the more reckless element
of the surrounding country gathered from
week to week and tried the speed of their
horses. There was not much money in
the Ozarks at that time, but guns and
bowie knives, with now and then COW
or a horse at stake, gave to the races all
the interest needed to make them very at
tractive to men who loved instinctively all
kinds of outdoor sports. Card playing
naturally accompanied the races, seven
up or "old sledge," as the game was call
ed in the dialect of the Tennesseean at
that time, being very popular among the
young men of the new settlement.
The Hobbses and Turks were prominent
among the gamblers that visited the race
track near Quincy, and at the beginning
of the "Slicker war" the friendship be-
tween these two families had never been
broken Tom Turk became the most con-
spicuous representative of his family in
the feud, and Isham Hobbs led all other
participants in the war by his daring
spirit and the deadly record of a famous
deer gun, known throughout the settle
unent as "Old Abram." Tom Turk was
the giant Of his party, measuring fully 6
feet and inches, and weighing nearly 300
pounds. Use" Hobbs, as Uncle Matte
McCracken describes him, was an ideal
athlete, the most perfect specimen of
physical manhood in all the country He
was a little short of 8 feet in stature.
weighed 100 pounds, with a symmetry and
Htheness of figure that would have de-
lighted an artist seeking a gladiatoriaI
model Uncle Matte declares that he saw
Use" Hobbs spring from the ground and
turn three somersaults at one bound He
was the fieetest runner in the settlement
The gamblers around Quincy finally be-
came very obnoxious to the more moral
element OF the community, and the Turks
and TTobbses we're the objects of much OF
this enmity. At last a lawsuit before a
Justice Of the peace. involving a small
debt. caused an open quarrel between the