The Confederate skull gets burial

In case you didn’t know, there is a museum here in Poplar Bluff. It has tales of us, our family, and our history. I want to tell you some of those tales found within the museum walls.

During the Civil War, many communities formed companies and regiments for both North and South. Missouri was a divided state. The small town of Poplar Bluff didn’t take sides. That doesn’t mean the residents didn’t. Many men went to other cities and states and joined up.

Many more veterans, blue and gray, settled in Poplar Bluff after the war. Local veteran organizations numbered 200 in their membership rolls.

What the Civil War did for Missouri was to allow feuding families to settle old scores in the name of the Union or Confederacy. One such incident occurred in 1862.

“Ferryman” Johnson” was a self-proclaimed southern spy and bragged about hanging a Union man named “Squire” Duffy. This was the excuse a group of Union supporters used to hang Johnson from a tree in Rombauer, Missouri, according to news accounts from the time. The group warned other southern sympathizers to leave him hanging or the same thing would happen to them.

When the war ended, Johnson was just a pile of bones. Dr. Bartlett came by and collected the skull. He kept it in his office for years and later gave it to another doctor who passed it on to another doctor. The skull eventually ended up in the basement of the Courthouse, then the Poplar Bluff Museum.

In 1990, the local Veterans of Foreign Wars gave the skull a military funeral. There was a Confederate honor guard. Johnsons’ skull was laid to rest at Woodlawn Cemetery.

A photo of the skull and related articles by John Stanard and Bob McKell are on display in the Kanell Hall Veterans Museum, located in the Poplar Bluff Museum. The Museum is open every Sunday free of charge from 1-3 p.m. at 1010 Main St., Poplar Bluff (Formerly the Old Mark Twain School). Tell them Mike sent you!

<i>Mike Shane is a veteran, Poplar Bluff resident and board member for the Poplar Bluff Museum.</i>