Mexico Missouri message. (Mexico, Audrain County, Mo.) 1899-1918, 1910-03-10
"REMINISCENCES.
Our Historian Tells of War Times
and of Gen. Grants Camp
in Mexico.

NISAiCO uuIliB JuG SulllHeF OI lOOA.
He was in command of the 21st
Illinois regiment. While here he
was commissioned as a Brigadier
General. John Wilkins, the father
of James Wilkins, a resident OF
LaddOnia, and of Mrs. Sam Tor
reysOn of near Rush Hill, and of
Mrs. j. R. Brown Of Centralia, and
Mrs. Fred Lehnen, Of Wellsville,
was Jailer in Mexico at that time.
Wilkins lived in a house on West
Love street, which is still stan l.
ing and which is now occupied by
Tom Barnett and family, Grant
occasionally came to this house
and took a friendly meal with NJ.
Wilkins. Grant was here but 4
few weeks.
Tom Barnett, referred to above,
well remembers Col Grant. Grant
had headquarters in a tent some
distance west Of the public square.
Mr.. Barnett lived on a farm on
the Paris road, four miles north-
west Of Mexico, and several times
drove into town with blackberries
and sold them to the soldiers.
John w. Beatty, now past his
three score and ten, who was born
and raised near Mexico and knew
the place when much of it was
covered with hazel brush, was here
when Grant was camped in the
town. He says Grants head
quarters were in a tent and that
his camp was west Of the old wool
en- mill, north of where the Shoe
Factory now stands, on the north
side of the railroads. Grant oc-
caSiOnally took dinner at his
father home, the late John Price
Beatty, who was killed in a runa
way in Mexico in 1880.
George Clark, son of the late
John P. Clark, who in his day was
familiarly known to every son and
daughter in Audrain county, well
remembers Grants camping in|
Mexico. Grant several times. up
on invitation, took meals at his
fathers house. Grant s camp was
in the west part of the town and
marks are to be seen to this day
where the soldiers dug their en-
trenchments.
After Grant s stay here, while
John Wilkins was still County
Jailer, the civil authorities had
caused a soldier to be lodged in
jaid charged with taking by force
four dollars in money and a
silver watch from a home in Mex
leo. He had been caught in st.
Louis and returned here. The
prisoner plead guilty. Judge Gill
christ Porter sentenced him to ten
years in the penitentiary. The
Iowa Thirds, quartered in town.
did not like the verdict and when
darkness came a squad of them
went to Wilkins and ordered him.
to open the Jail and let the prison
er go and for him to "report to the
army at Pittsburg Landing, >"
which was as much as to say,
"YOu heed or Wen string you
up. Wilkins did not stop long
on the order.
Wilkins not only filed the
official position of county jailer
but he was also army blacksmith.
He happened in the fight at
Moore's Hill, in Galloway county.
The COnfederates were armed
with double barreled shot guns.
loaded with fine shot, and they
fired on the Federals as they were
going up ravine. Wilkins got
few pepperingS and he told it that
the shot had singing feeling
when they came in contact with
the body. We are not able to re-
port if anybody ON either side was
killed. The same command of
Confederates camped that night
on West Cuivre, on the pasture