Civil War Memories

 

Memories Of Frightening Visits During The Civil War

More happened in Crittenden County during the Civil War than can now be recalled or documented. Much has been simply forgotten. A Crittenden Press article in 1893 noted “There were not any battles fought on the soil of Crittenden County, but the county was over run by the troops of both armies, who often plundered the citizens of anything necessary for their comfort. Horses were stolen, houses ram sacked for all the food, and whatever the soldiers wanted to take.

Some history of this turbulent times in our county has been preserved through stories handed down through the generations, such is the following story, told by Harriet Cassandra Belt to her great granddaughter, Mary Evangelina Hosick.

Harriet Cassandra Belt, was born December 28, 1843 to Jonathan and Mary (Wilson) Belt. When she was 2 weeks old, they left their home about 10 miles NW of Cave-In-Rock and moved to a farm just this side of Marion, near Freedom Church and Cemetery. And thus began a life that spanned over one half of the 19^th century and more than one third of the 20^th century, from December 28, 1843 to July 28, 1935.

Harriet lived through the Civil War, Spanish American and World War I. She often said she hoped she would not have to live through another war. Her wish was granted, she died July 28, 1935, 4 yeas before the beginning of World War II.

Ma was married on March 14, 1860 to John Marion Gregory, who lived on a neighboring farm in the Freedom community. He, her father, her brother's, that were old enough, uncles and other family members, served in the Union Army during the Civil War. Her father, Jonathan Belt, was Captain of Company C, Fifteenth KY Volunteer Calvary, her husband, John Gregory, was 1^st Lt. Co. A. 48^th, KY Inf., and her uncle Logan Belt was 2^nd Lt. of the company, all Union men.

Some of her most vivid memories were of the Civil War period. She would tell of the times their home (her parents home), as she lived there after her husband went away to war, was raided by the Confederates and sometimes by the bushwackers. She was under arrest on 4 different occasions. They would force her, a girl of about 20 at that time to go before them and carry a candle, it was always night when they came. They would search the house from attic to cellar, slashing open feather beds, and messing things up generally. They would even go to the barn and search looking in stalls and breaking open bales of hay.

However, they never found anything, as their silverware and anything else of value, was hidden in an underground hide-a-way, dug in the Freedom cemetery, located only a few yards from the house. The hide-a-way was large enough so that the men could hide there also, as they did on several occasions. When they would be home for a few days rest, and the raiders would come, somehow, they always seemed to know when the men were home.

On one of these occasions, the men were upstairs sleeping and the women downstairs keeping watch, when they heard the Confederates coming. They ran upstairs and woke the men. The father told the boys “go out the back way to the hideout”, which they did, while the father knelt at an upstairs window with his musket. When the Lt. in charge of the detail rode through the yard gate, he, Jonathan, shot him off his horse, killing him. Jonathan escaped during the ensuing confusion and made it to the hide-out in the cemetery.

The soldiers searched everything, even the haystacks in the fields, but they did not find the men. So when daylight came, they ordered the women to load the body of the shot Lt. on their farm wagon and drive it into Marion to their Headquarters.

Shortly after this incident Jonathan got word of a scheme to kidnap his younger son, Claiborne “Cub”, they knew that would bring him out where they would have a chance to kill him. But hearing of this plan, Jonathan crossed the river to Illinois, where he bought a farm and soon after moved the family across the river when he felt they would be safe.

(added note by BU. After reading Harriett's story of the visit to their home in the Freedom community, I found some additional information about this event. The information was found in an article by James E. Jacobsen while researching the “Civil War In Crittenden County.” He sates that one Union refugee from the county was Jonathan Belt. Confederate Col. Nathan Bedford Forrest raided through the river counties in November and December 1861 and carried with him a “Hit list” of Union guerrilla commanders who were to be arrested or otherwise eliminated. Belt's name was on that list and he was visited in the night by armed men. Belt shot one of the men and fled out the back way. Interesting to find out that it was Col. Forrest at the Belt's house that night.) 

 Harriett Cassendra Wilson Belt, passed away Dec. 28, 1935 and is buried in the Gregory family plot in the Old Methodist Cemetery in the center of Cave-In-Rock, only a couple of blocks from her home. And so passed, not only a remarkable life, but an era.

Thomas S. Croft of Tolu, remembers the end of Hemp Growing In Crittenden County.

 This interesting article appeared in The Crittenden Press

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This article appeared in the Crittenden Press August 13, 1981. It is a great piece of history as it was told by told by people that actually remember the hemp growing period in our past.

No one seemed to think much about some of the stranger qualities of their crop when they grew marijuana legally in Crittenden County during World War II.

Thomas S. Croft, 55, of Rt. 9, Marion, can remember waking up with puffy eyes and a stuffy nose the day after he worked in his father's hemp fields near Tolu.

It had a gummy feeling to it, Croft said, rubbing his fingers together at the memory. Handling hemp was like touching the sap of a cedar Christmas tree, he said. "

You could stand on a hill, and the bottoms smelled like they were full of skunks," Mrs. Roe Williams, remembered. Her husband, along with most of his neighbors in the Cave-In-Rock area grew hemp for the government in 1942-43 to produce a seed supply. Seeds were then grown elsewhere to produce the fiber needed for rope and other uses.

At the time it was being grown, we had just lost Manila in the war, farmers in the area considered it their patriotic duty to grow the plants for the "strong cordage" needed by the Navy and for packing between a ship's hulls. Hemp had a tendency for plugging holes. Its the only crop that was known to be grown for the government on contract, so it must have been a pretty crucial thing.

We didn't even think about the value of it, Mrs. Williams said, when she was reminded of he plat's worth on the drug market today. We thought we were being patriotic. When you said marijuana to us, we didn't know what you were talking about.

Not just anyone could grow the hemp, Mrs. Williams said. The federal government inspected the character of the grower before he obtained the seed. It was considered a narcotic even then, although most people probably weren't aware of it. We knew it was something they didn't want you to have around. When they traveled to Lexington to obtain the seed allotment, the government had a supply piled in the center of a tobacco warehouse, surrounded by guards. They considered it a very crucial item.

The county extension agent held meetings to teach farmers how to tend their new crop. Growing hemp was a primitive process, even by 1940 standards. The stalk was too long to go through a combine, so all the work had to be done by hand. The growing season was similar to that of corn. At harvest time the plants could have grown to be 12 feet tall with stalks as thick as a man's arm.

They were sown in 42-inch rows, three to six feet apart. After the male plants pollinated the females, they died and had to be cut out by hand. During the harvest, the plants were cut off close to the ground with corn knives and were dried in shocks for two to four weeks. Then the shocks were placed on a canvas sheet and beaten with sticks a little longer than broomsticks until the seeds fell from beneath the leaves where they clustered. The plants seemed to do especially well on rich, river bottom soil.

Farmers took the seed to a Sturgis milling company for cleaning and selling back to the government; which gave them to farmers up north to be grown for the hemp fiber.

Many acres of the hemp fell victim to river flooding. Most farmers made a better return on their crop the second year they tried it , but some got kind of disgusted and just quit. It wasn't that good a cash crop. The farmers were paid about $10.00 a bushel for the seed. Birds like to eat the seed, and the hemp had a "lot of competition" from giant ragweed, which looked a lot like marijuana and grew nearly as tall, Croft said.

Back then, we didn't have any chemicals. We had the hoe. Come a rainy season, those horse weeds really did like to get up and go.

By 1944 the farmers who were finally getting the hang of growing hemp were out of luck. There wasn't any market for it, Nylon, which was cheaper and easier to produce, took its place.