Excerpt from The Old Settlers History of Bates County, Missouri The compilers, in preparing this work, have sought to oh tain only authentic narratives, and have diligently searched the obtainable records for all such facts as in their judge ment are germane to a brief and reliable history of our county. Believing that the county 18 the nucleus of our govern ment, and that at least in some degree a knowledge of its history is imperative to the highest conception of citizenship; we have prepared a history which we believe will be inter esting as to fact, and which will be made entertaining by a. Recital of the experiences of its pioneers. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.