Appendix XXIX 
44.Benjamin Ulpian Massey: Recollection of his father
6.Benjamin F. Massey: Remembrance of His Lost Autobiography

Foreword: B.F.Massey's Lost Autobiography.

Circa 1875, Sally Jones Massey, wife of 42.Frank Raliegh Massey, read a passage in the Autobiography to the effect that: "Sally keeps a neat house, but it is not a comfortable home." So, she threw the Autobiography into the fire.

In April 1907, 44.Benjamin Ulpian Massey, replying to Dr. J. F. Snyder's request for a sketch of his father's life, wrote: "About my father; he left an autobiography, or sketch of his life, containing the most important of its incidents.  I have only a portion of it and do not know what has become of other sections.  Much however I remember and many of these incidents I recall from hearing him often speak of them." Benjamin Ulpian Massey then added to this 1907 letter what amounted to a Biography of Benjamin Franklin Massey.

Although B. U. Massey claims that he possessed portions of B. F. Massey's Autobiography, he never quoted any of B.F. Massey's wording, leading me to infer that although he may have seen the portions he had referred to, he, in fact, did not possesss them.

B. U. Massey's Biography of his father contains many indefinite dates concerning his fathers trip to Santa Fe and to California, leading me to believe that he was relying entirely on his recollection of his father's reminiscences.  His listing of his father's political attainments were accurate and have been confirmed, and, in one case, he states positively that B.F. Massey arrived in St.Louis Mo. in his trip from Maryland on 21 July 1931.

However, I cannot help but feel that B.U. Massey was writing entirely from memory, and that a more accurate Title of this Biography of B.F. Massey would be: Benjamin Ulpian Massey's recollections of Benjamin F. Massey's Reminiscences of his Autobiography. But, to give Benjamin Ulpian Massey his due, I see no reason to question his intention to write an authentic record of B.F. Massey's life history, and of his own part in it as Associate and Son.

B.F. Massey's obituary and published biography both read as though they were written from memory by Benjamin Ulpian Massey and contain a number of minor variations from his Biography.

I am content to refer many times to Benjamin Ulpian's biography of B.F. Massey as containing basically factual notions as Benjamin Ulpian Massey remembered his father's recollections.

"About my father; he left an autobiography, or sketch of his life, containing the most important of its incidents.  I have only a portion of it and do not know what has become of other portions.  Much however I remember and many of these incidents I recall from hearing him often speak of them. "He was born in Kent county, Maryland January 23, 1811 and died in the hospital at St. Louis in Dec. 1879, not quite 69 years of age.  Thrown upon his own resources at 17, he first went in 1828 to Philadelphia and there found employment as a store boy; afterwards was in the employ of his brother in a country store in Maryland.  Growing tired of home surroundings and with letters from his former Philadelphia employers, he started west and on the 21st day of July 1831 landed in St. Louis and there entered upon employment from Joseph and Peter Powell.  In 1833 or 1834 he took charge of a merchant's train sent by his employers from St.Joseph,Mo. to Santa Fe, Mexico, arriving at Santa Fe in the fall or '33 or '34.  He disposed of the goods, made his way overland to Vera Cruz, and took steamer to New Orleans, thence up the river back to St. Louis.  I do not recall whether it was one or two trips of this kind he made.  After the return to St. Louis from the last trip to Mexico, if he made two, he went back home to Maryland on a visit.  While on this visit he was stricken with rheumatism and for two years thus early in life was confined to his room with this malady, most of the time in bed perfectly helpless.  Upon recovery he came west again, but this affliction was his constant attendant through life; mild generally, though at times rendering him perfectly helpless. "Shortly after returning to St. Louis, his faithful friends, the Powells, furnished a stock of goods to carry up the river and establish a business at such place as he might select.  He chose Fayette, in Howard county, and there opened a general retail store in 1837.  Boonville was then the river port for all central Missouri and the only town of importance in the State outside of St. Louis.  His business at Fayette frequently called him to Boonville and there he met Miss Maria Hawkins Withers who became his wife in 1839.  My mother was born at Warrenton, Va. in 1822 and when but ten years of age came with her mother, then married to her second husband, Col. Peter Pierce, to Boonville in 1832, arriving in Missouri one year later than my father. "Soon after the marriage my parents removed to Sarcoxie, Mo.  My father, I believe, platted that little village.  He there engaged in the milling and merchantile business with one William Tingle. "Very early in life my father became interested in politics, an inclination which no doubt proved disastrous to his business and financial advancement. "In 1844, I think it was, he was elected to the State Senate.  In 1848 was chief clerk of the House of Representatives. At that time the office of Secretary of State in Missouri was an appointive one.  Austin A. King had in that year been elected governor of this State.  My father was an applicant for the position of Secretary of State at the hands of Governor King.  Col. Robert E. Acock was a State Senator at that time from your old county of Polk, and was a strong friend of my father.  Through Acock, as the story runs, in our family, my father was promised this appointment.  Some hitch occurred and E. B. Ewing, subsequently attorney general and later Judge of our Supreme Court, was appointed, much to the disappointment of my father and to the great anger of Col. Acock.  I may remark, by the way, that Mr. Ewing was the last appointee to that office.  Mr. John M. Richardson, then of this city, was the first elected Secretary in this State.  This was in 1852 when Gen. Sterling was elected governor. "My father went overland to California in 1850, remained there but a short time, was brought back via Isthmus of Panama in 1851, a helpless invalid, suffering again with the affliction of his early life, rheumatism.  As soon as he was sufficiently recovered, he again engaged in the mercantile business at Sarcoxie.  I think he was a candidate just before he went to California for the State Senate and was defeated by W. Claude Jones. After his return, he was again defeated for the office of Senator by Gen. James S. Rains, the Know Nothing candidate in 1854.  In August 1856, my father was elected Secretary of State on the Democratic ticket headed by the Hon. Trusten Polk of St. Louis.  He was inducted in to his office the following October, three months before governor Polk entered upon his office, thus serving the first three months of his office under Gen. Sterling Price, the predecessor of Polk.  Polk was in Jan.'57 elected to the U.S. Senate; Hancock Jackson, the Lieutenant Governor, filled the gubernatorial chair until R. M. Stewart was elected in 1857.  My father was re-elected as Secretary of State in 1860 on the Democratic ticket headed by Claiborne F. Jackson and was with Jackson and his administration ousted by the "Gamble Convention" in 1861.  It will be noticed that during the brief incumbency of my father he served under five governors: Price, Polk, Hancock, Jackson, J. Stewart and C. F. Jackson, and I might also add Thos. C. Reynolds.  C. F. Jackson died in the spring of 1862 at Des Arc, Ark.  Thos. C. Reynolds had been elected in 1860 as Lieutenant Governor, and upon the death of Jackson in'62, while we were running the Missouri State Government in Arkansas, Reynolds was acting as governor and my father through me as his chief clerk, was Sec. of State of that itinerant government. "After the war, in fact before it closed, in 1863 and 64 my father and family resided upon a farm in Howard county, Mo. near Fayette.  My mother died at Boonville July 1864, where she had 25 years before been married.  After her death the family was broken up, the children all scattered and so far as I can recall, have never all been together since.  After the break up of the family my father farmed some in St. Louis and Cooper counties and later lived with his son Frank at Neosho, Mo.  When the "test oath" imposed by the Drake Constitution was removed, he was a candidate before the Democratic and Liberal convention in 1870 for the nomination of Sec. of State.  This convention nominated B. Gratz Brown for governor.  It was considered too soon, however, at that time to endorse for office the "ex-rebels" and my father was defeated in his aspiration for that nomination.  In 1875 he was elected as a member of the constitutional convention held that year over which Mr. Waldo P. Johnson presided and at which our present constitution was framed and afterwards adopted by vote of the people. "After this convention he was a never again in public life.  For a short time he edited a weekly newspaper at Pierce City in Lawrence county, Mo. where he made a temporary home.  Early in '79 he became a confirmed invalid and for a while lived at my home in Springfield, Mo.  requiring the constant care of a trained nurse which it was difficult to obtain at Springfield, he was taken to the Sisters' Hospital at St. Louis, where he died nearly fifty years after his first coming to that city. "My father was never a vigorous or robust man.  He was small of stature,  only about five feet seven inches in height and never weighing over 137 pounds.  He suffered a great deal during his life from rheumatism and during the war period was in a constant state of mental distress about and concerning his large and dependent family and I have no doubt this constant anxiety aggravated much the physical infirmities and afflictions which hastened to the end a life which had borne some honors and had been burdened with many sorrows. "Very Truly yours,                             (signed) BENJ. U. MASSEY."

44.Benjamin Ulpian Massey's "Recollections of His Father 6.Benjamin Franklin Massey's Reminiscences of his Last Autobiography"

Quotes from "Recollections"/// Interpretations of "Quotes"

B.F. Massey was born 23 Jan.1811 in Kent County Maryland.

B.F. Massey was upon his own resources at age 17.

His father 5.Benjamin Massey, was "insolvent" in 1828 and could not pay a Judgment on a Bond.

B.F. Massey first went to Philadelphia and there found employment as a store boy.

His employer was no doubt a supplier of New England cotton goods and manufactured metal products to St Louis Merchant Traders, and B.F.M. must have gotten his idea of getting into the Missouri and Santa Fe Trade from his experience in Philadelphia.

Afterward, B.F. Massey was in the employ of his brother in Country Store in Maryland.

His brother [was] 23.Ebenezer Thomas Massey.

Growing tired of home surroundings ...

B.F.M.'s brother [23].Ebenezer Thomas Massey, was eleven years senior to B.F.M., and had assumed the position of Head of the Family at the death of their father, 5.Benjamin Massey, in 1828.  He appears, from the fragments of his Diary to have been a stern and domineering man, hard to work for.  Furthermore, B.F.M. had his mind set on migrating to Missouri, and did not care to remain in Maryland.

With Letters from his former Philadelphia employers, he started West.

Although B.F.M. had started as a Store Boy, he had obviously moved up in the esteem of his employers, and that the "Letter" was Letter of Recommendation possible actually directed to the Powell Brothers.

On the 24th Day of July, 1831. B.F.M. landed in St Louis and entered upon employment with Joseph and Peter Powell.

B.F.M. had no doubt "landed" after a River boat trip from Kent County, Md.  Riverboats were operating all over the Southern States, and as early as 1821 were operating on the Missouri river as far West as Yellowstone Creek.

As the date 24 July 1831 is the only spelled out date in these entire "Recollections," I believe we are safe in counting on its accuracy; important both to B.F. Massey and to B.U. Massey.

I think that we also are safe in assuming that the "Letter" to the Powells listed B.F.M.'s experience and knowledge of the Trade Goods being shipped West, that he had found favor in their eyes, and that he was an ambitious man, worthy of their recommendation.

Judging by the scope and form of the 1834 contract between the Powells and J.S. Colbin, the Powell brothers were established, experienced Mexican Traders.  We have searched unsuccessfully, for any Historical or Financial records of the Powell brothers as Merchant Traders.  It is possible that they were among the established St. Louis traders who entered into the Santa Fe Trade when Mexico opened the door to American Traders in 1821.  And we know that the Powell brothers were still active as Merchant Traders when they served a Judgment against B.F. Massey in 1844.

In 1833 or 1834, B.F.M. took charge of a Merchant Train sent by his employers from St. Joseph, Mo. to Santa Fe, Mexico.

B.U. Massey's "Recollections" were in a letter to J.F. Snyder in 1907, when there was a St. Joseph, Mo.  But in 1833-1834 it was a village surrounding a Trading Post that had been established by Joseph Robidoux, a French half-breed trader in 1821, and it was not until 1843 that he laid out the town and named it St. Joseph in honor of his Patron Saint.  It was an important trading center for the Western and Pacific trade.

B.U.M.'s use of the uncertain 1833-1834 dates raises the question: What duties for the Powell brothers did B.F.M. perform in the years 1831, 1832, 1833 and 1834?

I have answered this question, to the best of my ability in:         Appendix LVII - B.F. Massey's Experiences with the Powells.

For reference purposes, I had added the results of my research:         Appendix XXXVIII - Political Climate of Mexico in the 1830's and         Appendix LII - The Santa Fe Trail.

After the return to St. Louis from the last trip to Mexico, if he made two, he went back home to Maryland on a visit.

This appears to have been early in 1835.

While on this visit, he was stricken with rheumatism, and after two years this early in life was confined to his room with this malady, most of the time in bed perfectly helpless.  Upon recovery he came West again, but this affliction was his constant attendant through life; mild generally, though at times rendering him perfectly helpless.

B.U.M.'s uncertainty about whether B.F.M. was in charge of a Powell Brothers Merchant Train requires a close examination of a Santa Fe trading Contract between the Powells and another trader, J.G. Collins made 14 Apr. 1834:         Appendix LIV - Powell Brothers - Collins Santa Fe Venture Contract.

B.U.M.'s uncertainty about the 1833-1834 date raises another large question:- Between his arrival in St Louis in 1831 and through the years 1834, what duties did B.F.M. perform for the Powells?

I have reasoned out the answers to this question, to the best of my ability in:         Appendix LVII - B.F. Massey's Experiences with the Powell Brothers.

Trying to answer related questions, I have added:         Appendix XXXVIII - Mexico's Political Climate in the 1830's and         Appendix LII - The Santa Fe Trail.

After his return to St. Louis from his last trip to Mexico, if made two, he went home to Maryland on a visit.

I am convinced that B.F. Massey did, indeed make two trips to Mexico, and his last trip appears to have terminated in St. Louis at the start of the year 1835.

While on this visit (to Maryland) he was stricken with rheumatism, and for two years this early in life was confined to his room with this malady, most of the time in bed, perfectly helpless.  Upon recovery, he came West again.

For more about B.F.M.'s health problems, see:         Appendix LIV - B.F. Massey's Health and Physique. &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

Shortly after returning to St.Louis, his faithful friends, the Powells, furnished a stock of goods to carry up the river and establish a business at such a place as he might select.  He chose Fayette, Howard County, Mo., and there opened a general retail store in 1837.

It would appear that B.F. Massey, now familiar with the profitability of Trading in Missouri, had elected to branch out for himself, and that the Powells, wanted to aid him as a retail customer, had consigned him his initial stock of merchandise.

Boonville was then the river port for all central Missouri, and the only town of importance in the State outside of St Louis.

Fayette was about 20 miles from Boonville.

His business at Fayette frequently called him to Boonville, and there he met Miss Maria Hawkins Withers, who became his wife in 1839.  My mother was born at Warrentown, Va. in 1822 and was but ten years of age, came with her mother, then married to her second husband, Col. Peter Pierce, in 1832 arriving in Missouri one year later than my father.

For details about her and her mother, see Excursus Withers.

Soon after this marriage, my parents moved to Sarcoxie, Mo.  My father, I believe, platted that little village.  He then engaged in the Milling and Mercantile Business with one William Tingle.

For details about B.F.M.'s association with Wm. Tingle, see:         Appendix XLIII - B.F. Massey's Land Speculation Ventures With Wm. Tingle, and         Appendix XLIV - William Tingle, Business Partner of B.F. Massey.

Very early in life my father became interested in politics, an inclination which no doubt proved disastrous to his business and financial advancement.

I must disagree with B.U. Massey.  We have found no evidence that B.F. Massey had any interest in politics, or and played any part in politics, until after the Bankruptcy of his Business Venture in 1844.

I believe that the evidence is very strong that B.F. Massey and Wm. Tingle failed in their joint money-making Venture because, either they, neither of them, had had inadequate training or experience in handling the financial problems of business; or that they were two venturous in their handling of the proceeds of their Venture.

In 1844,I believe it was, he was elected to the State Senate.  In 1848 was Chief Clerk of the House of Representatives.  At that time the  office of Secretary of State in Missouri was an appointed one.  Austin A. King had in that year been elected Governor of the State.  My father was an applicant for the position of Secretary of State at the hands of Governor King.  Col. Robert B. Acock at that time from the County of Polk, and was a strong friend of my father.  Through Acock, as the story runs, in our family, my father was promised that appointment.

Some hitch occurred, and E.B. Ewing, subsequently Attorney General and later Judge of the Supreme Court, was appointed, much to the disappointment of my father, and to the great anger of Col. Acock.

I may remark, by the way, that Mr. Ewing was the last appointed to that Office.  Mr. John M. Richardson was the first elected Secretary in this State.  This was in 1852 when Gen. Sterling Price was elected Governor.

During the period between 1831, when he started to travel the State of Missouri in the employ of the Powells, and when he was in the Mercantile business with Wm. Tingle, B.F. Massey had the opportunity of meeting a great many men in many firms, and this, no doubt, was a big help to him when he actively entered the political scene in 1844.  For a resume of his early career in politics, see:         Appendix XLVI - B.F. Massey - Calendar of Political Offices Held.

My father went overland to California in 1850, remained there but a short time.

I surmise that he was disappointed in not being appointed Missouri Secretary of State in 1850, and hoped to strike it rich in the newly discovered California gold fields near Los Angeles.

B.F. Massey was fortunate that he travelled West the year after the devastating Cholera Epidemic of 1849.  He, no doubt travelled the Santa Fe Trail, with which he was already familiar.

He remained (in California) but a short time, was brought back via the Isthmus of Panama in 1851, a helpless invalid, suffering again with the affliction of his early life, Rheumatism.  As soon as he was sufficiently recovered, he again engaged in the mercantile business at Sarcoxie.  I think he was a candidate just before he went to California for the State Senate and was defeated by Wm. Claude Jones.

This defeat might have been the one that sent him to join the gold  rush.

After his return, he was again defeated for the Office of Senator by Gen. James S. Rains, the Know Nothing candidate in 1854.

In August 1856, my father was elected Secretary of State on the Democratic ticket headed by the Hon. Trusten Polk of St. Louis.  He was inducted in to his office the following October, three months before Governor Polk entered upon his office, thus serving the first three months of his office under Gen. Sterling Price, the predecessor of Polk.  Polk was in Jan.'57 elected to the U.S. Senate; Hancock Jackson, the Lieutenant Governor, filled the gubernatorial chair until R. M. Stewart was elected in 1857.  My father was re-elected as Secretary of State in 1860 on the Democratic ticket headed by Claiborne F. Jackson and was with Jackson and his administration ousted by the "Gamble Convention" in 1861.  It will be noticed that during the brief incumbency of my father he served under five governors: Price, Polk, Hancock, Jackson, J. Stewart and C. F. Jackson, and I might also add Thos. C. Reynolds.  C. F. Jackson died in the spring of 1862 at Des Arc, Ark.  Thos. C. Reynolds had been elected in 1860 as Lieutenant Governor, and upon the death of Jackson in'62, while we were running the Missouri State Government in Arkansas, Reynolds was acting as governor and my father through me as his chief clerk, was Sec. of State of that itinerant government.

For the details of this period, from before the Civil war, during the War, and during the Reconstruction years, see the Massey Appendices: Appendix XLVII - B.F. Massey Letters to John F. Snyder. Appendix L -  B.F. Massey and the Civil War. Appendix XXXI - Nina Massey Hough - Autobiographical Recollections of the life of My Father, B.F. Massey. Appendix XXXII - Benjamin Ulpian Massey - Autobiographical Recollections of his life With His Father, B.F. Massey. Appendix XL - B.F. Massey - Missouri's Defense Bonds.

After the war, in fact before it closed, in 1863 and 64 my father and family resided upon a farm in Howard County, Mo. near Fayette.

I infer, that B.F. Massey had left Des Arc, Arkansas before the death of Gov. Jackson, perhaps because of discouragement, perhaps because of another of his periodic attacks of rheumatism, perhaps to rejoin his wife.  We do not know whether he formally or informally resigned his Office of Secretary of State, or whether he was dismissed, but we do know that Gov. Reynolds immediately upon assuming his Office appointed Warwick Hough as Secretary of State to replace the missing B.F. Massey.

We have been unable to document the location of their Fayette farm, as B.F. Massey left no record of buying it.

My mother died at Boonville July 1864, where she had 25 years before been married.  After her death the family was broken up, the children all scattered and so far as I can recall, have never all been together since.

B.F. Massey, in letters to J.F. Snyder, accounts for the whereabouts of his children during the last years of his life in:         Appendix XLVII - B.F. Massey Letters to J.F. Snyder.

After the break up of the family my father farmed some in St. Louis and Cooper counties and later lived with his son Frank at Neosho, Mo.

The locations of these farms have not been discovered, they also were apparently rented.

When the "test oath" imposed by the Drake Constitution was removed, he was a candidate before the Democratic and Liberal convention in 1870 for the nomination of Sec. of State.  This convention nominated B. Gratz Brown for governor.  It was considered too soon, however, at that time to endorse for office the "ex-rebels" and my father was defeated in his aspiration for that nomination.  In 1875 he was elected as a member of the constitutional convention held that year over which Mr. Waldo P. Johnson presided and at which our present constitution was framed and afterwards adopted by vote of the people.

B.F. Massey was persuaded by friends to run for a low County office, but he was defeated.

For a short time he edited a weekly newspaper at Pierce City in Lawrence county, Mo. where he made a temporary home.

He also clerked in a small country store.

Early in '79 he became a confirmed invalid and for a while lived at my home in Springfield, Mo., requiring the constant care of a trained nurse which it was difficult to obtain at Springfield, he was taken to the Sisters' Hospital at St. Louis, where he died nearly fifty years after his first coming to that city.

For further details of B.F. Massey's terminal years, refer to:         Appendix L - B.F. Massey and the Civil War.

My father was never a vigorous or robust man.  He was small of stature,  only about five feet seven inches in height and never weighing over 137 pounds.  He suffered a great deal during his life from rheumatism and during the war period was in a constant state of mental distress about and concerning his large and dependent family and I have no doubt this constant anxiety aggravated much the physical infirmities and afflictions which hastened to the end a life which had borne some honors and had been burdened with many sorrows.

Dr. John F. Snyder, B.F. Massey's long-time friend and confidant, had this to say about B.F. Massey: "Col. Massey was dark complected; had black hair, black eyes, and heavy black eye brows.  His face always had a peculiarly pleasant expression; and he had a sunny, affable and social disposition.  In Mexico he learned to make and smoke cigarettes, a habit he continued through life.   He drank whisky, but very moderately.  In conversation he spoke deliberately and very distinctly, and was a forcible speaker, logical and argumentative.  Liberal, generous, hospitable, he was not a financier or money-maker; but conscientiously honest and honorable in all things.  An adept in politics, but could not descend to the low arts and tricks of the common office-seeker.  True to his friends, liberal and fair to his political opponents, just to all men, he was an exemplary citizen, esteemed by all, and without a personal enemy."

On learning of the particulars of B.F. Massey's painful and trying last days, Dr. Snyder added this to his description of his much-admired friend: "What a sad end for so noble a man."