County has some loose cannons

By R.JEAN\Daily Journal Assistant Managing Editor | Published: Tuesday, June 8, 2004 12:00 am

You've heard the saying loose cannons. It seems the county has a few loose cannons of its own - for real.

The County Commission has asked for some help from county historians to find four cannons that were shipped to St. Francois County in 1916.

The cannons were obtained by the Picket Post 215 Dept. of Mo. G.A.R., an organization consisting of Civil War veterans. G.A.R. stands for Grand Army of the Republic.

The post was organized in Bonne Terre Oct. 11, 1884, according to Jack Clay, a local historian with access to the post's old minutes.

The post moved to Farmington in about 1887.

In 1916, the minutes recorded their efforts to procure a cannon for the county. Four of the 12-pound mountain howitzers were ready for shipment once freight was paid, according to the Feb. 26, 1916 minutes.

The March 11 minutes reported that the four cannons had been shipped from the Rock Island Arsenal and would arrive soon. The shipping cost was a grand total of $33.40.

There is no specific notation in the minutes that the cannons were actually received by the post, nor anything mentioning their disposition.

However in a May 1916 news clipping the cannons are mentioned as having been installed just in time for the Memorial Day services.

"Picket Post G.A.R. secured four instead of one of the old civil-war cannons to be mounted on the Court House grounds," the short article reads. "Concrete foundations upon which to mount them were put in the past week and the guns placed in position to be unveiled next Tuesday, National Memorial Day. One stands at each corner of the Court House yard, and remind one somewhat of a fortification. The guns are old 12-pound mountain Howitzers."

At the ceremony, the Picket Post "paraded with a column of children bearing floral offerings in the early afternoon, marching up East Columbia street to the martial strains of the Bower boy band, to the Court House, on the four corners of the grounds of which the old cannons that had been presented by the Government had just been mounted, thence around the Public Square and to the Monarch Theatre."

The veterans who marched in the ranks according to the newspaper clipping were A.J. Pearce, commander of the Post, 68; D.J. Doughty, adjutant, 74; I.L.F. Pond, 82; Henry J. Rickus, 78; John Fry, 78; S.G. Counts, 75; Ell D. Hopkins, 74; Robert Denby, 74; Geo. M. Wilson, 73; Henry Fry, 72; E.K. Hopkins, 72; W.A. Kennedy, 71; James Boling, 70; C.C. Chandler, 70; Richard Adams, 70; M. Boord, 70; Carroll J. Harrelson, 69; Wm. Lee, 68; E.I. Henry, 74.

A picture of the cannons was taken about two years later, a group of men lined up around one of them. The identities of the men are unknown.

From there the trail of history grows cold and the cannons have disappeared from view. There is no mention of their fate in the minutes of the county commission, and the Picket Post faded from view with the onset of World War I.

The courthouse was rebuilt in the mid-1920s by McCarthy Bros., a St. Louis construction firm.

It's not known if the cannons remained in place at that time or were removed, but obviously, they are not at that location today.

Presiding Commissioner Jim Henson said they are interested in the fate of the cannons, and if anyone has information about it, they may contact him, the library or Clay.

"It's kind of interesting," he said. "We don't have any idea what's happened to them, or where they went. It would be nice to know where they are."

Clay suggested one possibility is that the cannons were melted down during World War II. It was common during that period to recycle things for the war effort.