Chapter 7 continued
During the spring and summer of 1862 Brother Bud was with us in Portland Mills. He had become acquainted with a number of the young people of the town, among whom his special friend was Mr. John Sage who was about Bud’s age and a fine young fellow. He had a dry goods store in a frame store building just across the street from our house and I am not sure, but I think Bud worked some in his store that spring and summer. I know that he and Bud were intimate associates and Bud was at Sage's store every day. So, I think he must have been employed by Mr. Sage. But there was to be a great change in their lives. One night Sage’s store caught fire and was completely destroyed in a short time. I think though that a part of the stock of goods was salvaged by the bucket brigade who had been unable to save the building. This was the first time I had ever seen a house on fire and I was very much frightened. Being so near our home we feared our house would be burned too. There were no houses near Sage's store on that side of the street and the work of the fire-fighters I think prevented ours and other buildings on our side of the street from burning. I do not know what became of Mr. Sage after his fire loss. He did not rebuild his store building or resume business again in any other location in Portland Mills. In fact I do not remember to have seen him after the fire, and as many were volunteering then he probably enlisted in the army.
Some time during the fall of 1862 Brother Bud went away from Portland Mills, but we did not know where he had gone until Father received a letter from him, about two or three weeks after his departure from our home, announcing his safe arrival at Buffalo, Missouri, and that he had enlisted in the army and had become a member of Captain Kelley's Company in the 6th Regiment of the Enrolled Missouri Militia, which at that time was stationed at Buffalo. Later this regiment did military service in various sections of southwest Missouri and northwest Arkansas. Brother Bud was later assigned to duties of Hospital Steward of the Regiment and had the care of the sick and wounded of the command. We were exceedingly glad to hear from him and to know that he was well but as in the military service he was constantly exposed to unexpected attacks of the enemy, we greatly feared that he, too, would lose his life before the dreadful war had come to an end.
After we left Missouri in August 1861 we did not hear from Brother Joe, who was still practicing medicine at his location on the Osage Fork of the Gasconade River when the Civil War began and the last we heard from him was before the Battle of Wilson Creek. I think it was after we got to Indiana that I knew he had written to Father. He might have written letters to Father while we were in Illinois but if so I did not hear any mention of it. Soon after our arrival in Indiana, I knew Father had received a letter from him. He was in the Federal Army or rather in a branch of the Missouri Militia which was cooperating with the regular federal forces. It was not expected of the militia that they would do service for the Union outside of the state of Missouri, but as a matter of fact they did in cases of emergency go into Arkansas, Kansas and perhaps other states. Joe was assistant surgeon of the 6th regiment of that branch of the service; a calvary regiment and did military duty principally in Webster County.
Father was very busy during the year of 1862. His practice was increasing constantly and I am sure he was having excellent success as a physician. There was no drug store in Portland Mills but I think some of the general merchandise stores kept some medicine. Dr. Jack Slavens had an apothecary shop in a small frame one story building near his residence and he kept quite a supply of medicine in bottles and jars on several shelves in his shop and he had quite a large library of medical books and he and Father had their office in the apothecary shop. I was in the shop a few times while we lived in Portland Mills. One thing that attracted my attention was a large mortar and pestle, made from some kind of white stone, probably marble, in which they compounded medicines. I was very much interested in seeing them do this kind of work. I also saw a number of surgical instruments, many more, and many of them much larger than those Father had before the war and which he brought with him to Indiana. When Father was not gone to visit patients he spent considerable time reading medical books at this office.
There was a street running east and west through Portland Mills that crossed Main Street just south of the house in which we lived, so that our residence was on the corner and facing on both streets. Just across this street from our house was the store of Mr. Robert Spencer, the largest store in the town. Just north of us was the store of Mr. William Byerly and south of our place on the opposite side of Main Street was the store of Mr. Hart and the harness shop of Mr. Jeff Sigler. These were all of the business houses in the town as far as I remember. There was a good farming community around Portland Mills and the merchants there all did a very fair amount of business.
I remember that one day the next summer after we located in Portland Mills, I was playing with some boys near and just west of our house when we were considerably frightened. We saw three or four singularly dressed, half grown persons coming toward us on the street from the west; I think there were three boys and one girl. They were all dressed in clothes much too large for them, evidently it appeared, the cast off clothing of some older persons. One of the boys I recall had on a battered bee gum hat. They all carried some kind of agricultural implements, such as hoes, rakes and pitchforks. As they came nearer to us they began to yell in a kind of gibberish, but uttered no words that we could understand. As they advanced more rapidly toward us, still uttering their unearthly yells and brandishing their several implements, we became alarmed, believing they were probably crazy and intended to kill or injure us. We fled precipitately to our house for protection. The yelling hoodlums continued their wild parade to Main Street, where some men, who happened to know them, apprehended them and in a short time, in charge of these men, they were escorted back on the street in the direction from whence they came. We learned that they were the foolish children of a family living a few miles from town. They were always kept confined in a kind of stockade fence with long poles set in the ground, making it impossible for them to get outside the gate, the only opening being usually securely fastened. While in there they frequently dressed themselves in discarded clothing such as those in which they were arrayed when they made their visit to town on this occasion. The vigilance of their keeper seems to have been relaxed from some cause and they gained their liberty with the result I have related. They were generally regarded as harmless lunatics, were all unable to talk and possessed very little intelligence. Fearing they might become dangerous if permitted to run at large, their parents had them confined as stated and constantly under surveillance. My companions and I got a good scare that day and we were afterward on the watch out fearing they might return to town again but they did not as long as I lived there.