Campbell continues to pass Bourbon County history down

As part of an historical tour of Bourbon County, at the end of May, local resident and historian Fred Campbell visits with students from Fort Scott Christian Heights and the Christian Learning Center about some of the prominent people who are buried in the Evergreen Cemetery. (Tribune photo/Rayma Silvers)

For more than 20 years, local historian Fred Campbell has been passing an historical heritage down to youth in Fort Scott.

Each year, Campbell, a retired teacher and former USD 234 superintendent, takes the fifth-grade students from both Eugene Ware Elementary School and Winfield Scott Elementary School on historical tours of Bourbon County.

"It is so amazing," he said. "We are such an historic county. This is one way of passing it on to the next generation. It's an appreciation of the lives of those who have gone on before us that has made Bourbon County a fine place to live."

During some of the tours Campbell conducts the students are guided through Evergreen Cemetery to learn about some of the county's founding fathers and past prominent members of the local society. Other stops on Campbell's tours often include the Barnesville Cemetery and the Magic Mile, which is the only road left in the county that was a military road. The military road and the state road intersect at the Barnsville intersection, according to Campbell.

"This was the busiest intersection in Bourbon County up to the Civil War," he said.

The students also visit the Little Osage River where they get to see a natural whirlpool. According to Campbell, years ago, before a bridge was created over the water, many people drowned in the swirling waters.

The Fort Lincoln Military Fort, which was a Union fort during the Civil War that helped protect the border between Bourbon and Linn counties, is another stop on the tour. In addition, Campbell shows the students a field which used to be the site of an old Freedom Colony, which was run by a group of socialists. One resident of the colony, Carl Dryden Brown, invented the Rotary Wheeled Flying Machine, which was part helicopter and part airplane. According to Campbell, when Brown tried to fly his machine, all he was able to do was to go around and around on the ground in the middle of a field because the engine he used was too heavy for the airplane to lift off of the ground. Not long after Brown's failure, the Wright Brother's, learning from Brown's mistakes, successfully flew the first airplane. Campbell explains to the students that had Brown's contraption worked, Bourbon County would have been famous for producing the first airplane instead of Kitty Hawk, N.C.

"History pivots on fine points," Campbell said.

Along with making stops at several other historical places in the county, Campbell also teaches the students about a couple of local legends. One of the legends Campbell tells the students is about a Confederate officer named Peter Duncan, who helped kill several of the Union soldiers by helping to spread smallpox to the men in their camp. Campbell said he shows the students the tombstones that are believed to be those of the Union soldiers who died of smallpox. Although some local historians do not believe in the Peter Duncan legend, Campbell said there is a lot of fact in the legend.

Another legend Campbell told the students about involved the curse that took place on Guthrie's Mound. Local resident Bob Webster often goes with Campbell to help tell the students about the curse school teacher John Guthrie placed on the men who killed him. According to Campbell, a posse of vigilantes caught a local school teacher and mistook him for a horse thief. When the posse was hanging Guthrie, he told them if they killed him, they would be killing an innocent man. Guthrie also told the men if they hung him they would all die with their boots on suddenly and violently. According to Campbell, each of the men that took part in Guthrie's hanging did indeed die suddenly and violently with their boots on.

For the first time ever, this year Campbell took the students from Fort Scott Christian Heights and the Christian Learning Center on the tour. Campbell said he has also taken several adult groups on the tour.

FSCH student Patricia Schafer said she really enjoyed learning about the history of the local area on the tour.

"It was a good experience," she said. "I think I appreciate Fort Scott and its history now that I know more of it."