Nicholas Long Part III
Classification: Obituary
Surnames: Long
Nicholas Long, son of James and Nancy Patterson also served in the Home Guards
and later as a First Lt. in his brother's (Capt Wm) Company of militia. He
married (1) Cornelia Ireland in Miller Co in 1861. She died in 1866, also
buried in the old cemetery. They had 3 children before her death. He married
(2) Izora Carter in Henry Co Mo where he had moved after the civil war. They
had 3 children. He then married (3) Elizabeth Lytel in 1905. Nicholas died in
Henry Co Mo in 1892 and is buried at White Oak cemetery near Clinton.
There are descendants of the Long family living in the Big Richwoods today.
One branch of the family are descended from Sarah Long, dau of James and
Germina Patterson, Sarah married Benjamin Adams in Miller Co in 1866. The
families of Mace, Farnham, Dickerson, Cross, Perkins, Livingston, Gardner,
Casey, Burgess and others are descendants of Sarah Long Adams
Another brancho of the Long family are descendants of George W. Lons, son of
William Otho and Ruthy who married Sarah Stewart, Mary/Polly Pennington and
Mary Unknown. George Long settled southwest of Iberia near the Madden/Pleasant
Hill community. He had at least 17 children and perhaps 20 by his three wives
including Andrew Jackson born ca 1834, Alexander born ?, Nancy born 1837, Mary
born 1839, Nicholas born 1842, Jane born ca 1843, James born ca 1844, Amos
born ca 1846. Allen born ca 1850, Elizabeth born ca 1851, Sarah born ca 1852,
Martha E. b ca 1854, Josiah b ca 1855, Willis V. b ca 1857, Margaret b ca 1857
twin to Willis V., William Riley b ca 1859, Talitha Caroline b ca 1861, Sarah
b ca 1870. There were 3 other children who may have been children of his 3rd
wife, Ruth, Minnie and Thomas/Tommy Long.
The Allied families of the George Lond descendants include Shelton,
Bankenship, Atwell, Wall, Adams, Whittle, Stewart, Rook, Smith, Shadwick,
Hale, Slone, Keeth and Carroll.
ALL ABOVE WAS FROM PIONEER FAMILIES OF MILLER CO MISSOURI. 'JOURNEY TO THE
PAST'
PEGGY SMITH HAKE RT. 1, BOX 52, ST. ELIZABETH, MO 65075.
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Iberia Shoot-Out, Miller Co.
Classification: Obituary
Surnames: Long, Madden, Chappel, Elsey, Smith, Melton, Mashburn, Hickman, Strutton, Boren, Shelton, Runnels, Carroll, Carter, Ferguson, Spearman, Rowden, Arnold, Cochran, Harrison, Bailey, Stone, Lowe
Shoot-out Climaxed Iberia Fued
By Peggy Smith Hake
(printed in the Miller Co. Autogram-sentinel Feb. 11, 1988)
She is an average, small American town, quietly progressing to the late 20th century.
Iberia, once called Rocktown, sits upon the rolling hills of southern Miller County trying
to project the image that Harsch treats, businesses and systems are cast in able to of
peaceful content in the stage of modern technology! There are ghosts from the past under
that peaceful façade, my friends. Those hunting ghosts of writing roughshod overnight
mind as irate this story...the blacksmithÂ’s white-hot forge steaming; saloon doors
swinging; horse hoofs echoing over the dirt streets of the town; fists flying; blazing
guns...that was the scenario of peaceful Rocktown/Iberia on Christmas Day, 1865....
The Civil War had officially ended only a few months earlier, but Miller County the
hatreds were still raging fiercely across the countryside. Neighbor suspected each other of
supporting the opposite side of the war faction. A old-timer once said...” Miller County
with a read this place on earth”. He was referring to the fighting, suspicions, hatred and
bushwhacking that continued on for more than a decade after the close of the war. The
old saying “sleeping dogs would not lie” described the situation perfectly.
For some reason, which I have not been able to determine, a group of southern
sympathizerÂ’s spent much of their time and energy harassing the Long family of southern
RichwoodÂ’s Township. They certainly or not the only family in the big Richwoods who
favored the northern ideology of the day. Even more confusing is the fact that the Long
family integrated from the southern states and donÂ’t slaves. They lived in the vicinity of
the Madden/Pleasant Hill community and some of their neighbors were the Maddens with
room they thought on Christmas Day, 1865 on the streets of Iberia.
During the Civil War, a union for to was built in Iberia and was under the command of
Capt. William Long, son of James and Harriett Long. This old fort stood where the
Farnham and Sons Lumber Co. once existed in the 1940s and ‘50s when I was a child
growing up in Iberia. Capt. Long was killed during the Civil War at his parents bomb
home a few miles southwest of Iberia. While using his family, a group of bushwhackers
rode up to the Long Homestead and ordered Capt. Long outside. He helped his father,
mother, and old slave gentleman to escape from these marauders, but they set the house
on fire and as Capt. Long fled from the flames, he was been downed in the yard, killed
instantly. Perhaps this was the beginning of the harassment the Long family injured over
the next few years.
Christmas Day, 1865, while family should have been together celebrating the birth of their
Lord, blood was billed on the streets of Iberia. Over one of the southern Hills surrounding
the talent, horse foods were at going on the ground as several men routed to talent with
guns on their hips and fire in the ice. They were shouting “death to all the Longs and their
friends”. According to court records, I witnesses related what they soft and heard during
the did the tragedy. The following names of men and women who appeared in court
records, some giving their side of the story... Wm. H. Madden, Anderson Chappel, Ruel
Elsey, John Smith, George Long, John Arnold, Joshua D. the Cochran, John Long, Wm.
Harrison Smith, Julius Bailey, J. B. Stone, Cornelius Lowe, James Madden, Wm. H.
Melton, Wm. Madden, Francis M. Elsey, Peter Mashburn, Thomas Hickman, Calvin
Elsey, Polly Ann Elsey, Elisha Strutton, James Boren, Louisa Jane Shelton, Caroline
Hickman, Joseph Melton, James Runnels, henry Carroll, John Carroll, Dr. James Carter,
Albina Elsey, James G. Smith, George W. Smith, John Ferguson and Ed Spearman.
I am going to try to reconstruct the story the best I canÂ’t as a try to fully understand what
actually happened....The trouble did not begin on Christmas Day, the earlier before the
Christmas holiday. William Harrison Smith stated he had been at a “house raising” at Mr.
and Mrs. Stone (John B. and Samantha Bailey Stone) in the big Richwoods, northwest of
Iberia. About 10:00 that night, Anderson Chappel, Ruel Elsey, and several other a road
up on the horses. There was a lively party going on because the work was finished in the
folks were having a dance to celebrate the “house raising”. Ruell Elsey set word into the
house for the Long ways to send their slave outside to fight him, but the Longs went out
instead and gunshot touring out. One of the men who was shot that night was the son of
William H. Melton who lived over near the Pulaski County line. We rode out the next day
to get his son to haul him home and he enlisted the aid of the Madden boys to help him.
IÂ’m presuming that the Melton by was killed. The fight set the stage for the Christmas
Day shoot out in Rocktown!
When the crowd of gunmen rode into Iberia Christmas Day, John Arnold was at
ThompsonÂ’s blacksmith shop. William Madden came there was Ruel Elsey and several
other men. Elsey took a gun from George Long. Joshua D. Cochran said he was talking
to George Long 15 or 16 men came riding up. George Long was asked by Elsey were
young Johnnie Long was, but George did not known. George had told Joshua Cochran
that he feared of being killed.
William Harrison Smith was in Rocktown on Christmas Day when Madden any other rode
into town. Julius Bailey cornered Smith and told him to steer clear of the group because
they considered him a friend of the Longs. Bailey suggested he stay out of the way, Smith
said, “ A few days before, some of the Longs to me they were afraid in Rocktown”.
Evidently he was one of their comrades from the war. Smith was a former union solider
(he was also my great grandfather, born in Pulaski County in 1841 to John Wesley Smith
and his wife, a former Nancy Stinnett of Tennessee. psh)
Francis M. Elsey, called Bud, owner grocery and saloon in Rocktown and it stood at the
corner of Main St. and St. Louis Street(side of the Roy Porter store in the days of my
childhood). Evidently several men had spent the better part of the day in and around the
solo. Had were gotten out that today is the day of reckoning? Was old scores ready to be
settled? The Smith boys, George and James, had tried to raise a fuss with Mr. McMillen
all day, but each time they managed to get their problems quietly settled. They also had
tried to pick fights with Bud Elsey. Peter Mashburn was with the Smith boys and he was
in the thick of it, too.
William Madden was among the writers could come to town and was inside ElseyÂ’s store
talking with Elsey. He opened front door to leave and George Smith said something to
him. Madden replied..”I want no fuss”, but words continued between them. One called
the other a cowardly Rascal any other yelled your a no good rebel. The Smith boys
throughout their coats and rushed towards Madden who had been joined by Anderson
Chappel. They yelled..go bold face against the world! and began a fight that became
vicious and finally ended in a cloud of smoke as a recover was fired. James Smith fell
dead. Francis/Bud Elsey had run from his store to his all nearby aimed at his revolver.
Albinia Elsey, his wife, had run out into the yard beside him to see what was happening.
All of a sudden, Elsey jumped over the fence and fired his gun, killing James Smith
instantly on the street. Albina Elsey had a gun also and she fired it at George Smith. He
fell, almost instantly dead as well. She turned and ran back toward her house but was shot
as she tried to get to safety. She fell through her front door. In the meantime, James
Runnels had shot Francis Elsey. For five men began chasing Runnels in Calvin Elsey
through the film towards MoorelandÂ’s stable. To the delay they made it safely to the
stable. Packet Francis ElseyÂ’s called, the sister, Polly Ann Elsey, had a revolver when she
appeared at the front door and she fired it into the crowd of man outside. They scattered
it all directions but the same man who had shot Albina, her sister-in-law, also shot Polly
Ann. Her sister, Louisa (Elsey) Shelton, so what happened in she started to run to Polly
Ann, the demand for her to go back what should you too.
In the meantime Peter Mashburn in James Runnels carried Bud Elsey infamous filled
where he had been shot and threw him over the yard fence. Elsey was not did in big to be
carried in the house, but some of the men told him to just lay outside with the other dead
man in the street. Albina, his wife, was morally wounded but did not die at the scene.
Someone carried her to her uncle Isaac CrimsonÂ’s farm in Maries County and she died
there. There is record their young brother, Bob Page, age about 16 years, was then back
to Iberia to get medical help for her, but he was been down and killed off so. Back at the
horrendous seem of the murder and mayhem, the bodies of the two Smith Brothers were
carried from the public road to the home of Thomas and Caroline (Rowden) Hickman in
Rocktown.
As a sunset over the Western horizon of Christmas Day, 1865, Rocktown was in a
shambles. Three men and one woman laid dead: a woman and another man were severely
wounded: a few days earlier another man and deli had been killed in a feud type argument
the continued through Christmas Day.
IÂ’ve tried to research the various families involved in the story and thousand interesting
data....
The Long family, who became the target of Southern sympathizers came for Eastern
Tennessee quite a number of years prior to the Civil War. The family was originally from
Clupepper County, Virginia; had migrated into Eastern Tennessee and moved on West and
to Missouri in the late 1830Â’s and 40Â’s. There were several families in the Long plan to
each had numerous children. Their Allied families were the Stewarts and Castlemans
colossal settled into big Richwoods. They were close knit, early American family. The
Elsey family came from Dekalb County, Alabama in the 1840Â’s and for settled in Maries
County (then Osage County) near Mrs. ElseyÂ’s family, the Rowdens. John Elsey varied
Rachel Rowden,.or a of Asa and Margaret (Hannah) Rowden, in Dekalb Co., Ala. in
1839. Her family originated in Henry County, Virginia; move to Eastern Tennessee; and
then move to DeKalb County, Alabama where she met and Mary John. John Rachel had a
large family of 13 children, between 1850-1860the, they moved from Maries County to
southeastern Richwoods Township and settled out of prairie which later was called Elseys
prairie. During the Civil War, a battle was thought on their prairie in it was called the
Elsey Farm Fight. Migrate, grandfather, Levi Whittle, a Union Solider, was killed in the
fight in buried near the battleground. Francis M. (Bud) was the oldest son who married
Albina Page in Miller County in 1861. The oldest daughter, Louisa Jane Elsey, married
Shelton, and Polly Ann Elsey was not married in 1865 when the fight occurred. All three
Elsey children named were involved in issued out at Rocktown/Iberia as well as some of
the other children including Ruel, Calvin and Thomas Elsey. Rachel Rowden ElseyÂ’s
cousin, Caroline Rowden Hickman, daughter of Nathaniel Rowden, was also involved in
the fighting that day. It was to her whole the bodies of the slain Smith boys were carried.
The Elsey family left Miller County and move to Franklin County, Arkansas in the yearÂ’s
following.
The two Smith Brothers have been the missing link of the puzzle, I have searched in the
Miller and Pulaski County records trying to determine who these boys were, that not been
a bold to definitely identify them. I believe they were the sons of John and Telitha Smith
of Pulaski County, but I cannot prove it. They were the only Smith family who had sons
named George in James. If they are their sons, George died at the age of about 17 years
and James was about 26 years old. William Harrison Smith, mentioned in this story, was
my great grandfather, son of John Wesley and Nancy (Stinnett) Smith, born in Pulaski
County, in 1841. He was probably it doesnÂ’t to dismiss brothers who were killed. Several
of the others mentioned were living and Pulaski County including Peter Mashburn, James
Boren, James Runnels, Cornelius Lowe, and Mr. McMillen.
Francis (Bud) Elsey survived his gunshot wounds. He left Miller County with some of his
brothers soon after the Christmas Day fight in Rocktown. He went to Franklin County,
Arkansas and married his second wife, a Arkansas girl named Molly Berry. Calvin Elsey,
BudÂ’s brother, married Callie Painter in Franklin County also. By 1871, most of the Elsey
family were gone for Miller County.
THE END!
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