Early Settlements, Chilhowee Township, Johnson County, Missouri

>From "History of Johnson County, Missouri," by Ewing Cockrell,
Historical Publishing Company, Topeka, Cleveland, 1918.

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The first settlement that was made in what is now Chilhowee township 
was probably in 1829.  It appears that James Hogard and William Norris
came that year and other settlers located here as follows: James Arnold
in 1830; Finis and John Foster, from Kentucky, came in 1832; George D.
and Howard A. Wright, from Howard county, Missouri, came in 1832.  
Anderson Masters, from Tennessee; Thomas Cull and sons, James and 
Thomas J., from Kentucky; John Pelle, from Kentucky; James Conaway,
from Tennessee, and George N. and Samuel H. Douglas, from Howard
county, Missouri, all settled here in 1832.  William Norris settled
here near the Walnut Grove cemetery or Carpenter graveyard, on what was
later known as Norris Fork, in 1829.  This was before the land was sur-
veyed by the government.  He had two daughters.  There were Indians 
here when the Norris family came and one of the few Indian depradations
committed here was directed against the Norris family.  One day while
Mr. Norris and his two girls were absent from their cabin and Mrs. 
Norris was there alone she was captured by the Indians and tied on a
pony and hurried out of the neighborhood.  A company of white men 
immediately gathered and pursued the Indians.  About the time the res-
cuing party were approaching the Indians who held Mrs. Norris captive,
she succeeded in escaping, as did the Indians also.  William Norris
built the first grist mill, which is said to have been the first one in
the county and pioneers came from over forty miles to have their grain
ground here.  They would frequently bring their guns and hunt and fish
for a few days while the tedious process of grinding went on.  After
operating the mill for a time Mr. Norris sold it to Marshall and Adam
Clark.  It was a horse-power mill and they received six hundred dollars
for it.  In 1837 Wilson D. Carpenter became the owner of this mill. 
George Ware came from Alabama in 1836, and James Douglas, of Tennessee,
a Missouri pioneer who settled in this state in 1816, came from Howard
county in 1834.  Thompson Chamberlain, from Tenn., came here in 1835.
William Johnson, a native of Bedford county, Tenn., settled in this
locality in 1840.  Samuel Brown, a native of Tenn., was also an early
settler in this vicinity.  Wilson D. Carpenter, who was prominent among
the pioneers here, was a Virginian and came here in 1837.  He was a 
veteran of the War of 1812 and was a pioneer schoolmaster in Kentucky.
T. N. Carpenter was quite a noted hunter and trapper in the early days,
although that was not his profession, and for a number of years he had
in his possession an old wolf trap which was an interesting relic of
pioneer days.  Jester Cocke is said to have been the greatest hunter of
the pioneer days in this section.  The first marriage in the township
was performed in 1831 when a Mr. Fletcher and Miss Hogard were united
in marriage at the home of her father, James Hogard.  Rev. Robert D.
King performed the ceremony, the witnesses were William D. King and
Elizabeth Gillum.  Samuel B. Brown was the first white child born in
the township.

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