St.
Clair County
Remnants Of The Past
St. Clair County Courier
29 April 1976
Bicentennial Corner
The Benton Green Farm
By Floe Pasley Summers
Roy Smith, a fourth generation owner of the Benton Green farm located on
Highway E midway between Roscoe and Monegaw Springs, recently registered
125 acres of the original 605 acres in the Bicentennial Farm
recognition.
Historically the land was homesteaded in 1838 by Mr. Huffman, a ferry
boat operator on the Osage River at Roscoe, Missouri. The small
settlement was then located on the bluff of the river.
In 1851 Joseph Henry Green purchased the land for a dollar and a half an
acre. He brought his wife Jane and their ten children from Lafayette
County where he had operated a store. He came to the area seeking the
medicinal qualities of the sulpher water found in Monegaw springs and in
Mud Lake Springs located on his own farm.
A state-county receipt written on a piece of tablet paper shows Mr.
Green paid two dollars in taxes in 1851. A bill of sale lists various
yard goods purchased by Jane Green at the Weidemeyer General Store in
Roscoe. An order for a marble tomb stone carved with an open Bible and a
Scripture verse and embellished with roses and lilies cost 34 dollars.
It was delivered by Benwell’s Marble Works in Boonville, Missouri, for
Joseph Green when he died in 1855 at age 60.
A massive walnut four-poster Cannon Ball bed with four by four railings
pegged to fasten the rope underpinnings is a treasured family heirloom.
It was made in Tennessee and brought to Missouri when the family
migrated in the early 1800s.
Joseph’s youngest son, Nicholas Benton Green born in 1838, was 13 when
he came to St. Clair County. He lived on the family farm until his death
in 1913. He and his wife Elizabeth had 11 children. Their youngest
daughter, Bessie, married to Frank Smith, lived on the farm until her
death in 1940.
In 1861 young Benton sat on a rail fence and watched the Bushwackers
steal and ride away with all his horses leaving him a broken down mule.
They also took his boots. At another time one of his neighbors concealed
himself among the lily pads growing in Mud Lake while the Bushwackers
searched for him.
Later Benton joined the Confederate Army and fought in the Battle of
Lone Jack where he was severely wounded. His wife Elizabeth, along with
a neighbor woman whose husband had also been wounded, traveled in a
covered wagon to the battlefield where they stayed six weeks and nursed
their husbands back to health and then brought them home. The
muzzle-loader gun carried by Benton Green during the war is another
prized family possession. Made in 1849 and bearing the government stamp,
the gun is in excellent condition.
In 1872 Benton built the present two-story house near the site of his
parents’ log cabin. Receipts for 1876 show he paid $29.08 for state and
county taxes and he gave one horse valued at $11.00 in payment for his
township taxes. The History of St. Clair County says, “Nicholas Benton
Green is one of the leading farmers in his township feeding 82 head of
cattle on a well-improved farm in a state of high cultivation.”
Trapping wild turkeys was a resourceful sideline. A covered rail pen
built around a hole filled with shelled corn spelled the doom of the
turkeys as they lowered their heads and ate their way into the trap. The
birds were hauled to Sedalia twice a year and traded for flour, lumber,
boots, square nails, and other necessities.
Benton Green Cemetery, located on the farm, dates from 1854 when James
Carlyle, a son-in-law of Joseph Green, was buried there. He was struck
by lightening.
A stone marks the grave of Joseph H. Green, who died October 16, 1855.
His was the second grave in the Benton Green Cemetery.
Benton Green School, adjoining the Green farm, was located on land
donated by Theodoric Snuffer, remembered for his role in the great
battle of the Younger outlaws. He declined the honor of having the
school named for him. In time it became known as the Benton Green
School.
The Greens knew the James and Younger boys who often visited in the
area. Their motto – “Rob the rich and give to the poor” – was once
demonstrated when Benton’s wife found a twenty dollar gold piece under
the pillow that a Younger guest had slept on.
After the death of Bessie Smith, the homestead passed to her only son
Roy. He and his wife Wretha Pasley Smith kept the farm, living there
part of the time, until their daughter Dorsha and her husband Paul
Hooper moved there in 1961.
The home of the Roy Smiths of near Roscoe was built in 1872 and, except
for the addition of other rooms, remains as it was originally. The
fireplace was installed when the house was built and is still in use.
The Hoopers have three sons, Greg, Danny and Alan, making six
generations who have lived on the Benton Green farm since 1851.