This pertains to State, not local history, but I thought some might find it of interest. In what had to be one of the funniest episodes in our state history, the State of Missouri & Iowa Territory fought what became known as The Honey War. A result of a disputed border, the area in question was mostly forest, & the hundreds of bee trees gave the conflict its name. Honey & molasses were the preferred sweeteners of the day, & honey on the comb was selling for 25 cents a gallon. Pure honey was 37 1/2 cents a gallon, & hundreds of barrels were being taken from this region. Since 1819, several surveys had established different boundarys. To complicate matters, they werent sure if the boundary was supposed to be the Des Moines River rapids or the Des Moines rapids of the Mississippi River. And once that was determined, the border followed the old Indian boundary, which had been erased through time. And with Iowa free, & Missouri a slave state, the dividing line took on added significance. But it came to a head in October, 1839. Missouris Clark County Sheriff went into the disputed area to collect taxes, & he was run off by farmers at the point of a pitchfork. Not to be swayed from his duties, he returned, & was arrested by the Sheriff of Iowas Van Buren County. This infuriated Missouri Governor, Lilburn Boggs, & he called out the State Militia. Hearing of this, Iowas Territorial Governor, Robert Lucas did the same. In mid-December, 1839, the two small armies faced each other in knee-deep snow. Having no tents, & few blankets, each group built bonfires to keep from freezing. But the men from Iowa were particularly ill-equipt. The better armed men carried flintlocks & muskets, but others had what ever they could find. One man made a broad-sword out of sheet metal. Another had a plough blade, attached to the end of a chain. And newspapers of the day said another man had as his weapon, an old-fashioned sausage-stuffer. I dont know what that might have looked like, but if it was considered old fashioned in 1839, I can only imagine. And to be quite honest, Id like to think I have enough courage to stand my ground if someone is charging me with a musket. But if someone is running at me with an old-fashioned sausage-stuffer, Id run like hell. Fortunately, cooler heads prevailed, & it was decided to let the Federal government decide the issue. The two groups held their respective Governors responsible for the wartime preparations & their personal suffering, so they took a deer, & split it. Labeling each half with their Governors name, they hung them from a tree, peppered them with bullets, buried them, & headed home. When the boundary was finally determined, a strip of land, ranging from 12 to 15 miles across the entire border was awarded to Iowa. In the end, there were two casualties in the Honey War. One was the aforementioned deer. The other was Dodge County, Missouri. Under the Missouri Constitution, each county had to be at least 400 square miles. Losing much of its land to Iowa, Dodge County fell below this limit & was dissolved. Its remaining land was added to Putnam County. And this, in fact, is how I learned of this bit of Missouri history. Twenty years ago, in my genealogical research, I found an individual who had been born in Dodge County, & being unable to find it on a map led me to find out why. It helps to understand the combative nature of the two governors in question. In the year prior to this conflict Missouri had chased the Mormons out of the state when its Governor, Lilburn Boggs, issued Missouri Executive Order 44, known to many as the Mormon Extermination Order. Robert Lucas, the Territorial Governor of Iowa, had been the Governor of Ohio just a few years earlier, & he led that state in a border war against the Territory of Michigan. The area in question, centered around Toledo, became known as the Toledo Strip. In order to attain statehood, Michigan had to cede the disputed land to Ohio. In return, Michigan was given what is now referred to as the Upper Peninsula. Thought to be worthless at the time, I guess we know who got the last laugh. For fans of college football, this border dispute was the basis for the intense rivalry between Michigan & Ohio State.
Posted on: Sun, 29 Jun 2014 06:15:18 +0000
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