Goose Creek
[Formerly] Rockford Township, Caldwell County, Missouri
Samuel Miles left the following account pertaining to Goose Creek. [In 1836, after a short layover in Richmond, our family] continue[d] our journey into the new County being occupied by the Saints. Father entered 80 acres of land at the land office being mostly prairie land with several acres of good timber situated 2 1/2 miles south of Far West. Father erected a comfortable log house so that we were prepared for winter. My brothers, Ira and Joel, in 1837 came to make it their home and assisted father in opening up the farm. [Samuel Miles, MS 5096, LDS Family and Church Historical Department, Salt Lake City, Utah].
Following the battle [of Crooked River], General Lucas moved his troops "forward for Goose creek, one mile south of Far West, taking the old Richmond and Far West road, which ran a mile or more east of the present road from Mirabile to Far West, and may still be seen." [History of Caldwell and Livingston Counties, Missouri, 133].
Solomon Wixom described events leading up to the surrender of Far West,
". . . under color of law [the Militia], came near Far West, pitched their camp on Goose Creek, surrounded the dwelling house where Brother Sharer used to live. There was at that time 5 or 6 women and children living in it, among them was my wife, Sarah and child of only 2 years old. My wife was then almost to the time of delivery with the second child. On or about the last of October the heads of the church were . . . " [surrendered]. [Journal and Day Book of Solomon Wixom, MS 1559, f5, LDS Family and Church Historical Department, Salt Lake City, Utah].
In 1836, the Bozarth brothers, Albert and John, from Kentucky, both members of the Mormon fraternity of Far West, in Caldwell County, a few miles east, located on shoal Creek, four and a half miles south of Cameron, a water power grist mill, with one run of burrs. On the expulsion of the Mormons, the mill ceased to be operated, and in the course of subsequent years, all traces of this pioneer enterprise were effaced, and the memory of whose existence is fast fading from the minds of their descendants or successors.
-[The History of Clinton County, Missouri (St. Joseph, MO: National Historical Co. 1881), 246.]
Goose Creek was located in Rockford Township, Caldwell County, Missouri during the 1830s. Rockford Township was originally much larger than it is today. All of present day Kidder, Mirabile, and Rockford townships were then Rockford Township. Settlers were attracted to the desirable wooded groves and prairie lands surrounding the upper reaches of Goose and Log Creeks south and Shoal Creek north of Far West.
. . . Milo acquired fifty acres of land on sight of Far West- forty acres of good prairie land and ten acres of heavy timber that bordered the prairie. There he built a log house, chinked and muddied, with a dirt floor, a door, and a chimney. He also plowed and fenced a parcel of land and planted corn, beans, and a garden. He spent the last money he had (twenty-four dollars) for a cow and a calf.
The prairies furnished excellent forage for cattle, sheep, and horses. Milo and other ambitious Saints hauled timber for fences and cabins, from the forested banks of Shoal and Goose Creeks. Abigail, with other women and children, went into the woods to pick nuts from the hickory, hazel, and black walnut trees. The papaw, wild grapes, persimmons, and crab apples were abundant, and honey bees swarmed over the land gathering nectar from the flowers to make ample honey that the settlers could acquire.
The land around Far West consisted of rolling plains, with rich and loamy soil to a depth of several feet. It yielded wheat, corn, oats, hemp, sweet potatoes, and cotton abundantly. . . .
When Milo struck his plow into the prairie soil and turned the sod, he said, chuckling, "How pleasant it is to farm land that is devoid of timber. . . ."
By the time the Woods and other relatives arrived in the late summer of 1838, Lyman [Stephen Wood] stated that his two uncles had "built substantial log homes and had a large crop of grain, which at the time of our arrival had been, and was being harvested."
. . . I well recollect of hearing my people say that my Uncles James and Judson Daley were with the company of Mormons who were attacked by the mob of Missourians at the Battle of Crooked River. . . It was on a Sunday afternoon (I think it was the twenty-eighth day of October, 1838). My father was living as before stated in the same house with my Uncle Isaac Nelson, some eighty rods distance from where my grandfather, John Daley, lived. My mother placed a small tin pail in my hands and requested me to go up to my grandmother's after the milk. On my return home with the milk, I looked behind me and saw a large number of men on horseback heading in the same direction I was. My Uncle's house, where we lived, stood out in an open place no fence whatsoever around it. It was a log house with a small attic which was reached from the inside by means of a ladder in the corner by the fireplace. The horsemen came near overtaking me before I got to the house. [Ivan J. Barrett, Trumpeter of God: Fascinating True Stories of the Great Missionary and Colonizer, Milo Andrus (Covenant Communications, 1992)].
Rich Branch
Reminiscences on Log Creek