Michael Jose lived in Cass County, Missouri in 1850, but by the start of the Civil War he and his family moved west to California. F. Brown, an old friend of Michael Jose’s, still lived in Missouri after the War and wrote to Jose about their mutual friends in Henry, Bates, and Vernon County. Brown discusses the death of neighbors, the local agriculture, economy, and politics, and how former Confederates and Unionist were getting along living post-war. Brown’s letter highlights the changes within communities and the country tired to rebuild itself.

Freeman Barrows moved to Missouri from Massachusetts in 1841. He was one of the early prominent figures of Bates County, serving as County Clerk, Recorder, and later Probate Judge. Freeman died on April 26, 1861, but wrote prolifically about the rising political tension along the Kansas Missouri border and throughout the country. During the war, Jayhawkers stole the family’s livestock, equipment, and anything else that was portable. Though the family survived the war, they incurred a large sum of debt. The Barrows collection consists of correspondence between family members from 1837-1883, and depicts the hardships families in southwest Missouri faced during the war and the years that followed.

Judson Taylor was a private in the Confederate Army. The exact regiment he served in is unknown. On February 18, 1862 Taylor wrote his last will and testament in the case he did not survive through the War. He divided his possession between his wife Bessie, daughter Jenny, son John and his friend Jake. With the uncertainty of surviving the war, soldiers often wrote letters directing how to divide their property and possessions if they died in battle.

John Dryden wrote his wife while on a cattle drive on the Miami Indian Reserve in Linn County, Kansas in July 1863. Dryden noted in his letter about the large band of bushwhackers in Harrisonville, Missouri and how the Union troops along the Missouri-Kansas border retreated to Paola, KS. Dryden was not tied to either military, although the language he uses in his letter suggests he was a loyal Unionist.

B.L. Niggins was a businessman and landowner near Fort Scott, Kansas. Niggins and his family fearing for their safety fled Bourbon County for Shawnee Kansas in September 1861. Niggins wrote to Mr. A. Baker about his business and affairs in Bourbon County, and asked Baker to help close his accounts. Niggins noted regional events including the growing violence in northwest Missouri, but primarily discussed his business dealings.

John G. Linn was a solider in the Company E of the 8th Missouri Infantry, which later became the 11th Regiment Company E of the Missouri Confederate Infantry. He was taken as a prisoner of war and held at Fort Delaware on Pea Patch Island in December 1864. Fort Delaware served as one of the Union’s largest prisons during the Civil War. Linn wrote to his sister asking her to send money to him as he is as “destitute circumstances as man was ever placd.”

In February 1865, A. Halley wrote his daughter in Calhoun, Missouri regarding the sale of confederate property in the region. Halley forewarned his daughter that Captain Henry Jennings was “assessing the property of the copperheads in this county to pay the loss.” The term copperhead was slang used during the Civil War for a northerner sympathetic to the southern cause. Proceeds from the property liquidation would be given to civilians to cover depredation restitution from guerrilla warfare.

On January 31, 1861, John Boone wrote Albert Nelson about the value of land in Vernon County, Missouri. Nelson, a Tennessee resident, inquired about selling his land in Missouri, but Boone advised against any transaction. He stated the extreme “hard times” caused a depreciation of value in all property and he could not sell his land for a profit.

Dr. Albert Badger was among the early Caucasian settlers in Vernon County, Missouri. He built the first “modern” house in the area and owned over 2,000 acres of land. During the Civil War he served in the Missouri State Guard and Union Navy, and participated in the Battles of Carthage and Wilson’s Creek. The collection contains correspondence and records related to Badger’s military service.

In September 1863, James Morris wrote his wife, Sarah, while camp at Little Rock, Arkansas. Morris served in an unknown Confederate regiment, while his wife remained at their home in Vernon County, Missouri. Morris wrote about the deaths of family and friends and urged Sarah to send their children to school.