Jasper County Democrat, Volume 1, Number 13, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 July 1898 — AN OLD SPANISH SWORD. [ARTICLE]

AN OLD SPANISH SWORD.

ha Young Revolutionist Captured It from Three Spanish Soldiers. . xhere are none now living who remember the first battle, if such it might be called, by the exercise of a Cfittle imaginative latitude, between KR American citizen, a resident of the pjd trading post, now St. Louis, and half a dozen troopers belonging to the j*rmy of his majesty, King Charles 111. nf Spain. But among the relics of the Missouri State Historical society ({here hangs an old-fashioned sword, (fhkh, if it could speak, would resent tlje tale told here: ' How the sword got into the poeapeeion of the society the secretary .floes not know, but it is there, and [frith it its interesting history. It has brown black and rust-covered from ige, and perhaps did duty in many an incounter before its capture by the Ivave young American who later Ifrecame its possessor by right of con-

fcneet. r The “battle” occurred in the lattpart of the year 1776, a 1? months morable to all loyal Americans. Euri was at the time a part of the iana tract and owned by Spain, government, in 1767, had estab- [ a fort at the mouth of the Misjpouri river, where the Big Muddy empties into the Father of Waters, 'About 18 miles north of St. Louis.

• In honor of the heir apparent to she Spanish throne, the post com(piandant, Capt. Francisco Rise, had jfiamed the fort “Fort Prince St. Charles,” The Spaniards, naturally tarogant and overbearing, were anything but well thought of by the comparative handful of people then comprising the trading post of St. Louis, ffbere was a constant friction, and jjpore than one serious encounter resulted in the clashing of the citizens And soldiers.

This condition of affairs continued a number of years. Rumors of ihe threatened revolt against England occasionally reached the little boat and the ears of the soldiers. JThey were not slow in denouncing the proposed efforts for freedom as treachery, and its instigators as only fit subjects for the jibbet. The 4th of July, ’7(l, had passed j*nd its record was written indelibly jn the pages of the world’s history. Late in that year there arrived from jibe far eastern states a young fellow ijbamed Elmer Thornton. He had the lugged, hardy appearance of a youth accustomed to anything but the easy baths of life, and he made no secret of ©is determination to make for him•elf a home and a fortune on the franks of the big river. ' He brought with him the latest frews of the revolt against England, ft* 1 his enthusiasm and confidence in [the success of the cause of the revolutionists was so pronounced that he poon became an object of hatred to the Spanish soldiers. He was warned to keep his ideas to jhimself, but he in giving greater vent to his republican ideas of Some government and home > rule, [Xho Spaniards grew exasperated, and jOB6 night half a dozen of his majesty’s troopers, after listening to some pariScriuurly rabid revolutionary talk by young Thornton in a public house in obe post, determined to lay in wait for the young man and teach him a I'es<om. It was after ten o’clock when /Thornton started for his home. He hod quite a distance to go, and had fcaarly reached his destination, when [three of the Spanish soldiers sprang On him from ambush. Thornton had frothing hut a abort side dagger, but fre Used it to good effect. The .three soldiers ran away, their companions frot caring, evidently, to take a chance it getting a dig in the ribs from the wonag fellow** tooth pick.

next morning, on um wirf vo im* village, Thornton, in passing the scene of his previous night’s adventure, picked up a sword that had been the property of one of his assailants. The owners initials, R. A., were plainly and deeply cut in the outer side of the hand guard. No effort was ever made to return the weapon to its owner, and after a lapse of nearly a century and a quarter Hie old sword has found its way to the relic rooms of the Missouri Historical society, where it hangs in a glass case, with other warlike pharaphernalia. The Spanish owner’s initials are on the hilt, and on the two-edged blade is stamped the motto of the arms of Spain: ’Tor El Key Carlos 111.,** translated, ’Tor the king, Charles m.” Somebody, possibly Thornton, scratched the date 1777 on the reverse side of the blade, which was one used by the Spanish infantry. King Charles’ troops continued to occupy Fort Prince St. Charles until after the Louisiana purchase, in 1803, when this section of the country passed out of the hands of the Dons and became free American soil.— St. Louis Republic.