C. THE SLICKER WARS OF ST. CHARLES COUNTY AND LINCOLN COUNTY MISSOURI IN THE 1840s
Following is a story written in 1876 from A History of the Pioneer Families of Missouri which recounts events that began in Missouri around 1841 (20 years before the U.S. Civil War) and eventually involved the two oldest brothers of my father’s grandmother Ellen Nancy Pitts Allen who would have been about eight or nine when her brothers Benjamin Pitts (who was about 25) and Oliver Pitts (who was about 24) joined the “anti-slickers” of St. Charles County. At least four grandsons of my fourth great grandfather William Allen (my first cousins four times removed) were also involved.
(Note: the Pitts and Allens who were residing in St. Charles County, Missouri, were not related until Ellen Nancy Pitts married Robert Alexander Allen thirteen years later in December of 1860, just before the Civil War broke out.)
Captain of the Anti-slicker company was James Shelton (34 in 1847) son of Frances Allen Shelton Abington (my third great grandaunt). Others in the company included James’s half-brother William A. Abington (25 in 1847) the son of James’s mother (Frances Allen Shelton Abington) and her second husband William F. Abington; and James’s first cousins, brothers Joseph Allen (about 27) and John P. Allen (about 29), sons of Joseph Smith Allen (my third great granduncle and the brother of Frances and of my third great grandfather Pines Allen). **See the family tree which follows this narrative for easier reference.
THE SLICKER WAR
Only a few of the older citizens of Lincoln and St. Charles counties remember anything about the “Slicker War,” as it was called, that occurred between rival organizations in the two counties, beginning about 1844, and closing about three years afterward. It was a civil war of considerable dimensions and well deserves a place in this history.
The organization known as Slickers originated in Benton county about 1841. The name came from their mode of inflicting punishment, which was to tie the culprit to a tree and “slick” or whip him with hickory withes, and then give him notice to leave the country in a designated time. The Slickers were organized for the purpose of breaking up a band of horse thieves and counterfeiters, who had their headquarters among the hills and mountains of Benton county. Similar organizations were formed in various parts of the State for like purposes, and were known by the same general appellation of Slickers. In some instances bad men, and even the very thieves and counterfeiters against whom they were warring, contrived to become members of these societies and through their evil influence and false and malicious representations innocent and unoffending persons were severely and cruelly punished. This led to the organization of anti-Slicker companies, and in some parts of the State actual war raged between the opposing factions, and many persons were killed, wounded, or maltreated.
During the high water in June, 1844, several small steamers ascended Cuivre river to Chain-of-Rocks, in Lincoln county [from Wikipedia: “a 17-mile (27 km) series of rock ledges that began just north of St. Louis and was extremely difficult and dangerous to navigate.” It wasn’t until the 1900s that a bridge and then a canal were built to help navigate the area.], where there was a small village consisting of several stores, a mill, one or two shops, etc. One of these boats, called the Bee, made several trips between St. Louis and that place, and on one of her trips landed a man at the Chain-of-Rocks who gave his name as Hal Grammar, and who proved to be a counterfeiter, horse thief, and bad character generally.
The next time the Bee came up she brought a peddler, who landed from the boat and proceeded to the hotel to get his dinner. He left his pack in the office of the hotel and passed into the dining room, and while engaged in eating his dinner Hal Grammar and his confederates, who at that time were unknown, stole the goods and left. Grammar was captured soon after, but had disposed of the goods, which were never found. He escaped from his captors, and it soon became evident to the citizens that there was a regular organization of thieves and counterfeiters in their county, and that Grammar was doubtless the originator and chief of the band.
The county became flooded with counterfeit money; horses, cattle and hogs were stolen and run out of the country; and the thieves finally became so bold that they butchered beef cattle on the farms of their owners, and shipped the meat to St. Louis in boats prepared for the purpose.
The evil having become unendurable, the citizens organized a company of Slickers for the purpose of ridding themselves of their grievance. Many of the best men of the county joined the organization … among whom, as was afterward ascertained, were several of the counterfeiters and thieves …
The thieves and counterfeiters were hunted out and tried, and most of them were whipped and ordered to leave the country, which they were glad to do; but a few of the ring leaders were executed.
These vigorous measures soon restored peace and security to the honest people of the county, and the Slickers ought then to have disbanded, but they kept up their organization, and, as usual with such bodies, soon began to punish some that were innocent along with the guilty.
In the spring of 1845 reports came to the Slickers that the sons of Mr. James Trumbull were in sympathy with counterfeiters, and were encouraging and abetting them in their unlawful business. The reports were not true, but were made by malicious and evil minded persons, and led to a serious and deadly affray. The boys were ordered to leave the country, which they positively refused to do. The Slickers therefore determined to enforce their order, and one day about the middle of April, 1845, a party of them went to Trumbull’s house for that purpose. They arrived about noon, and found the family, who had expected an attack, armed and barricaded in their house. Mr. Trumbull and his daughter Sarah came out to expostulate with the Slickers and entreat them to go away, declaring that they and their relatives were entirely innocent of the charges made against them. But their appeals were unavailing, and they were told that they must immediately leave the county.
The slickers at once attacked the house, and John and Malachi Davis endeavored to enter together. The former was wounded on the head by a corn knife in the hands of one of the Trumbull girls, and the latter received two gunshot wounds from one of the boys, named Squire, from the effects of which he died next day. John Davis, though suffering severely from his wound, shot both Squire Trumbull and his brother James, shattering the thigh bone of the former with a rifle ball, from the effects of which he died several weeks later. James Trumbull was shot through the mouth and neck, and fell apparently dead, but finally recovered from his wounds, though he remained paralyzed the rest of his life. He died several years afterward, in Arkansas. Several Slickers were wounded, but not seriously, and they finally withdrew without having accomplished their purpose.
Among the Slickers engaged in this affair was Kinchen Robinson, who was a great gasser [possibly meaning someone who is loud and likes attention], and who styled himself the “lamp-lighter of the twelve apostles.” When the fight was over he retreated with considerable haste, and just as he sprang over the yard fence one of the Trumbull girls cut the tail of his coat off with a corn knife. His acquaintances enjoyed a good deal of fun at his expense after that adventure.
This unfortunate affair became noised over the entire country, and opposition at once began to manifest itself against the Slickers. Many who had previously been in full sympathy with them now denounced them without stint, and demanded that their organization should be broken up, as they had accomplished their object and were now going beyond the bounds of reason, and even becoming outlaws themselves.
A company of anti-Slickers was organized in St. Charles county, in the vicinity of Flint Hill, with the avowed determination of dispersing the Slickers of Lincoln county. They stationed a guard at Trumbull’s house, to prevent further bloodshed, and warned the Slickers not to cause any more trouble. Mr. James Shelton was elected captain of this company, and among his men were David McFarlane, Robert Sheley, Bob Woolfolk, Joseph Allen, Perry Custer, George W. Wright, Sam Carter, Scott Evans, Sam Newland, Benjamin and Oliver Pitts, George M. Coats, Jeff Dyer, George McGregor, Archibald M. Wade, John T. Daniels, Elliot Lusby, Lewis and Peter Daniels, Dr. William Coleman, S. L. Barker, Thomas, Amos and Joseph Dyer, William A. Abington, John P. Allen, and many other leading men of that part of the county. They were all citizens of St. Charles county, while the Slickers were all citizens of Lincoln, and on that account considerable enmity arose between the people of the two counties. Both organizations were composed of good men actuated by honest motives, but through misrepresentations and the excitement of the times they were brought into antagonism, and several fights and skirmishes ensued, in which a number were wounded, others were whipped, and one or two lives were lost. But the excitement finally died away, and both companies were eventually disbanded.
About two years afterward Captain [James] Shelton, while crossing Cuivre river in a skiff was fired upon by some person concealed in the brush on the Lincoln county side, and his arm was broken. One Jacob Boone, who had been a Slicker during the late trouble, was accused of the crime, arrested, and taken to Troy for trial. When his trial came off he was acquitted, as there was no direct evidence against him. But the friends of Shelton, a few of whom had attended the trial, declared that he had escaped justice through the connivance and influence of his friends in Lincoln county, who had been his companions in the Slicker war; and an angry discussion arose in regard to the matter, during which the old Slicker and anti-Slicker difficulties were revived, and much bitterness was manifested on both sides. That night as Shelton’s friends were returning home, several of them were waylaid and fired upon, but fortunately none were hurt. The same evening, about dusk, two young men, nephews of Mr. Levi Bailey, who had expressed anti-Slicker sentiments, were fired up by parties in ambush just as they were entering the outer gate that led to their uncle’s house, where they were going on a visit. One of their horses was shot through the jaw, and several buckshot passed through a shawl that one of the boys wore.
These events again aroused the old excitement, which ran high for some time; and several years elapsed before the matter was forgotten and friendly feelings restored.
And such was the great Slicker war, which threatened for some time to array the citizens of two populous counties in deadly hostility against each other, to bathe their hearth-stones in blood, and lay waste their farms and homes. It teaches a practical lesson that should not be forgotten, viz.: that good men, with the best intentions, may be led into the commission of unjust, unlawful and cruel deeds when they take the law into their own hands and attempt to punish criminals and allay crime by summary proceedings.
Almost sixty years after these events, on June 1, 1901, Joseph Bensin Allen, my great granduncle, published the following about the involvement of his father’s cousins in Vol. 1, No. 4 of The Troy Record, a periodical he published for a few years.
There is … one peculiarity of our family … they are all fighters in time of war. You’ll find them in the war of the revolution and that of 1812, the Indian wars, the one with Mexico, while in our now old unpleasantness [the Civil War] they took sides, I believe most of them the wrong side [The Troy Record states that “Its politics, if any, will be Republican” and therefore its writer and publisher, Joseph Bensin Allen, would have been on the side of the Union.] but espousing the cause of their respective localities, many of them offered up their lives upon the gory battle-field. In the Spanish war they were all united and ready for the fray, in the Philippine tussle some of them talked lustily against expansion while their boys were with the flag storming the jungles around Manila. There is however one war to which I’d like to give a little more notice than our space permits, it is the Slicker war which occurred in Lincoln County during the 40s involving the eastern portion of the County in general turmoil. There were two sides to this as in all other wars … Some of the old citizens inform me that they passed through the wars of the early 60s [Civil War] with less anxiety than through the Slicker period. At last there was organized at Flint Hill, St. Charles Co., a counter organization of which James Shelton was Captain, his brother Pines H. and all the Allens who could shoulder a musket were enrolled. This company proceeded to read the riot act to the Slickers. There was much marching up the hill and marching back again, but the companies never met in a pitched battle. Captain Shelton was seriously wounded by some one, who so covered his tracks that he was never brought to justice, which was the only blood shed after the opposition became organized, although a number were severely whipped and several killed before. The organizations were both wrong because both illegal. Wrong that has to be regulated by mob law is usually regulated wrong, and why the Allens and Sheltons, whose mother was an Allen, took sides either way, the lord only knows.
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