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- : Martin Van Buren TRAPP Upon the marriage of Martin Van Buren Trapp to Sophronia Ann Day they made their home in Johnson Co., MO. Early in the Civil War a company of soliders from the South passing through the state, reached the Trapp farm, established headquarters in the house, told the family to remove into the smoke house, and began killing the stock and poultry to feed the soliders. Mr. Trapp lost his temper and was threatened to be shot. His wife came to the rescue, begging them not to shoot as she also was a Southerner. The soliders released him but warned him that he must do as they said. So Mr. Trapp hitched his oxen to his covered wagon, took his family and started to Lexington to cross the Missouri River. A ferry was waiting so he drove his team aboard. About half way across he overheard some talk about killing a spy who was on board. He concluded they were talking about him, so he drove his team off the ferry just as it was stuck on the sand. Shots were fired, so in order not to endanger his family he threw the lines to his wife, jumped into the swift running river, grabbed a floating log, and was soon ashore where he joined his family. Then and there Mr. Trapp decided to join the Army of the North. However they continued their journeying to the north. One night they stopped at a farm to buy milk for their children. Martin knocked. A man came to the door. Martin asked if he could buy some milk for the children. The man just looked at Martin and said no. Martin said "Eternal Durn. Why don't you move out and let some one else move in that will sell me milk." The farmer laughed and said "You can have it. Drive in and put up for the night." The farmer would take no pay but instead as the Trapps continued on their journey next day they found canned goods and cured meats hidden in their wagon. At last Mr. Trapp found a school in Leon, Iowa, where he taught all winter at ten dollars per month, cut wood on Saturdays and Sundays, and hauled it to a mill where it was traded for floor, feed and meal.
The next spring the family returned to Johnson County where they were left on a farm while Mr. Trapp went to Lexington, Mo., and enlisted on May 1, 1863 in Company H, 4th Regiment of Missouri Calvary. Discharged November 1863, at expirix months' service.
When Sophronia Ann and Martin had been married a couple of years, they added a couple of rooms to their log cabin. They had both worked hard all day and were tired, but at last it was finished. Sophronia Ann was putting the children n Martin leaned his new ax against the corner of the fireplace and said he would take the bell and go out and get a turkey for dinner the next day. He took the old musket, too, but game was not shot if it could be had any other way. At night he would take a cow-bell, ring it and walk right up to the turkey roost and get one. The turkeys thought it was a cow. As Martin walked out of the house he said "Sophronia Ann pull in the string." She was busy and thought she would in a moment. Then she heard some one raise the latch. She turned and three big Indians stepped into the room. One of them looked at her a moment and started for the ax. She thought he would just pick it up and walk out with it. (Axes where valuable tools and not many of them in the country.) It made her so mad that she grabbed up the ax and stood there looking him in the eye. He stopped and looked at her a moment, then said "Pale squaw brave," turned to the others, said something, and they all three walked out.
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