Many stories abound from the Civil War era in Missouri; some like this one have been handed down these several generations in my family. One of those stories involved my Great Grandfather being hanged at the age of eleven by Union forces for not “cooperating” with them.
A relative, Glenn Kelley, wrote a book titled “Civil War in Ripley County”. Other relatives, Patricia Lindgren Kelley and Julian Kelley Smith included some of that book’s narrative in their book “Kelleys In Missouri 1800”.
Here is the recounting of my Great Grandfather’s experience during the Civil War with some background information.
“The Confederates formed a Missouri State Guards Regiment under Colonel Timothy Reeves, pastor of the Doniphan Baptist Church, which operated in Ripley County (MO). Wm. L. Russell, the County Clerk and Recorder upon hearing of the order to occupy Doniphan by Union forces, took all the Ripley County record books and hid them in a cave on the east side of Current River a little south of town. In 1867, G.H. Hutcherson, County Clerk, retrieved the records.
Foraging, marauding and plundering on both sides practically wiped out Ripley County. Many houses were burned, stock slaughtered or driven off, fields burned. Those citizens who refused to support one side or the other were harassed and some were killed.
The worst incident of bloodshed happened on Christmas Day, 1863 when a large force of Union troops happened on a group of Colonel Reeve’s men and some civilian guests, perhaps members of the soldiers’ families, who were eating their noon Christmas meal. The Union forces slipped up on them and a massacre followed. Civilian guests as well as soldiers were killed.
The Union Home Guard officer, Captain Leeper from Wayne County, was in command of a company which killed two Ripley County citizens in 1863 along the Pocahontas-Van Buren Road. Leeper, for whom a small town is named in the area, was responsible for much of the misery of the citizens of Ripley County. In an attempt to obtain hidden horses and food, his soldiers would sometimes hang the young boys left in charge of their homes by fathers away at war. If the unfortunate lads were cut down in time they survived. Some did not.”
It has been told, that my Great Grandfather, Julian Russell Kelley, was one of those lads. In early 1865, at the age of eleven, he was left in charge of the family’s horses and farm while his father, James Wesley Kelley, was away from home. Julian found a hiding place on the farm where he kept the horses. Captain Leeper and his men raided the Kelley farm but could not find the horses. In an attempt to force someone to tell him where the animals were, he strung up a noose and hanged my Great Grandfather. Having been told where the horses were hidden Captain Leeper and his men rode off leaving Julian hanging. As quickly as possible the other family members cut young Julian down! He survived.
Julian Russell Kelley lived to be 69 years old, fathered ten children and had many other experiences which I hope to write about in future posts.
