Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1901-09-26

a greatest wrong. Cruelty anC
VA oppression spring from unre
F% strained power as naturally
and as certainly as fever aud
ague from the noxious air Of
darkened swamp and fen.
The power of the master over
the slave was practically unlimited,
and it bred evil enough to the land;
yet custom and the laws enacted for
very shame's sake exercised some re-
stralnt upon the one and gave the
semblance of protection to the other.
l am not prepared to dispute Col.
Lindsay's assertion that, even in sla-
very under civilized control, the negro
was better than in his savage state in
his native land; but this l do know,
that for every inch the slave was rsis-
ed in the scale of manhood, the white
master descended out of all proportion.
The wrong of slavery lay at the door
of the white man, and grievously did
he pay for it-nor is the end yet.
In the summer of 1857 two negroes
belonging to a prominent citizen in
this county broke bounds and ran
a o. dh0P nA6CL bGO LL0IC Ia az
lures incident to such ventures, crossed
the river and landed on the free soil
of Illinois. They were of course Wig
orously pursued with gun and hound,
but when word came back that the
broad Mississippi lay between them
and their pursuers, it was generally
concluded that two more ..free mig
gers" had been added to the popula-
ton of the Sucker State. Not that
pursuit was bounded by State lines, for
the Fugitive Slave law was in full force;
but, whereas, the fugitive in the States
possessing the ''divine institution"
could count upon every white mar as
active against him, when he once at
tanned free soil, knew that Indifference
il not assistance surrounded him;
where he was not helped on his way
he was not impeded, and ultimate lib
erty was in sight.
One evening about a week after the
rumored escape of the fugitives, when
I approached the store presided over by
''Uncle Davy" Humphreys I saw on
the porch q ten-gallon keg. By it
stood c. r. Peck, the book-keeper for
the firm of Tong & A%ubuchon. What
do you suppose is in thisP" he asked of
me as / anne up. "Good red liquor,
from its outside appearance" was my
nswer SWELL, something like that,
but with an addition-though I don't
know that it's flavor is thereby i'm
proved" he replied, smiling. What
do you mean?" you know those two
niggers that ran away from - and
were said to have crossed into Illinois
and made their escape? One of them
was killed by his pursuers, and his
head is in this key preserved in alco-
hal. Do you want to see it?" l told
him, "no; I'll sleep just as we'll
o'nights If / don't have that nigger's
head to disturb my dreams. Why has
it been preserved and brought back?"
''To scare the other niggers about
here, and deter them from attempting
to run away" / afterward heard that
there was some question as to the
identity of the head and considerable
doubt as to whether it had ever stood
upon the shoulders of either of the
two fugitives; that it had probably
been severed from the body Of a slave
dead from natural cause and made to
do duty in teTrOrem. Either way, it
was an incident we'll illustrating the
s'seamy side" of an establishment
claimed to have been divinely institu-
ted. But it didn't seem t be p~articu-
larly seamy in those days-so much
are w the creatures of surroundings
and custom. A slave was valued at
so many dollars, according to physi-
cal ability or form. and when you
measure flesh and blood with dollars
and cents, it can't be considered ex-
cept as is that of the dumb brute
whether enveloped in white, red. yell
low or black cuticle.
Pilot Knob, owing to it's iron bust
ness, In those days, was a bigger town
than either Arcadia or Ironton. The
site of the village was owned exclu-
sively by the P. X. Iron Co., in it's
earlier years; but when Ironton vas
established, the Company laid out a
part of it's land into town lots and sold
them and the new town of Pilit Knob
built up rapidly. The railroad from
St. Louis had just been completed to
that point. and for many years there
was the terminus. Business 1ourished,
and the saloons and resorts were toll
erably wide open until after the war.
Before the railroad was built, CONNER
cial communication with the outside
world was maintained by wagon, with
Ste. Genevieve rs port of entry. 1t
was a forty-two mile rough drive, but
somehow they managed to bring in
and manufacture and ship out with
profit. The iron furnaces burned char
coal, the wood for which lay plentiful
ly almost within their shadows. The
ore was taken from the surface we'll
up the mountain-no drifting, no tun-
neling. When the works were first
established a forge was also put up
and for some years its huge hammers
fashioned blooms from the crude cast
iron; but 1t had ceased operations be-
fore my arrival upon the scene. The
building and its machinery still re-
NAMED, however, and / think 1t was
destroyed by fire while the battle at
the fort was raging.
The Pilot Knob railway station was
an important one from the year 1857
to 1870. All the goods ami merchan-
disc for this section were distributed
from that point and hauled to destina-
lions sometimes hundreds Of miles into
the interior. This made business for
all three towns, and times were -four
ishing. The tougher characters who