Caldwell County MO Archives History .....A RUN FOR HIS MONEY IN THE EARLY EIGHTIES 
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Karen Walker khw4@yahoo.com September 4, 2008, 4:41 pm

A RUN FOR HIS MONEY IN THE EARLY EIGHTIES
	Narrator:  R. Cravens of Polo

     Mr. Cravens tells the following story of an experience in the early 80s.  
It has to do with the days when hog raisers in Caldwell county shipped 
thousands of dollars worth of hogs to Chicago or sold them to local buyers.  
Mr. Craven was with a Primitive Baptist preacher who had brought up hogs from 
what is now Cowgill, intending to ship to Chicago from Hamilton, persuaded him 
to sell the hogs to him direct and get his pay at once.
     It was the custom those days for stock buyers to send stock into Chicago 
and then have to wait some days for the money to pay their customers, but here 
the customer the buyer could get his money at once and give it over to the 
seller.  So they accepted Joe Anderson's deal, the preacher gave his money 
over to Craven and he himself went on to a preaching engagement. 
     But first they had gone of course to the bank to get the Anderson check 
cashed.  That bank was the old Hamilton Savings Bank which stood about where 
the Farmer's store is.  Dan Booth was the cashier.  As the money was given 
out, Mr. Booth noted two rangey looking men with wide hats (strangers in town) 
lounging in the bank.  He told the stock men to be on their guard against 
those men.  They looked suspicious.  Mr. Craven having the care of the money, 
started out in his buggy.  Looking around, he saw he was followed.  The road 
led by the railroad and the horses became scared at a passing train and ran 
off furiously.  He let them run and gained a lot of ground.  Near Bonanza, he 
met Doc Hill, now of Hamilton, in a buggy somewhat like his.  There were two 
hills and he and Doc Hill went up the second while the strangers were climbing 
the first.  Thus there was a hill between him and his pursuers.  At the second 
hill, there was a cross roads.  He took one road and Mr. Hill took the other.  
The pursuers, behind the second hill, did not see which man turned in which 
road and so they followed Mr. Hill's buggy and lost the man who was carrying 
the money.
     About that time, it was a favorite game for ruffians to get news of a big 
cattle deal and then "lay out" for the man who carried the cash home.  Those 
were the days when business was done largely by cash and rarely by check.
     Interview  1935.


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