Potosi can hardly he called a
village, though it has long been a center for
the citizens to collect, get their tri-weekly
mail, and trade. When the post office was
established,. it was, for a time, kept by
citizens at their houses. Some thirteen years
ago, Dr. H. W. Green, a recently-diplomaed
physician, came here, looking for a place to
practice, and soon after, started a drug
store, which grew into his present large
general trade in merchandise. The post office
was removed to his store. Dr. Green, in
addition to his extensive medical practice and
his general merchandise, takes a lively
interest in the religious affairs of the
surrounding country. He is an ordained Elder
of the Christian denomination, and preaches
almost every Sunday in some locality within a
few miles' ride of his home. In his daily life
and labors, he fully exemplifies the great
amount of labor and usefulness an educated and
earnest man can accomplish even while
attending faithfully to his own secular
affairs. J. E. Whitney carries on a
blacksmith-shop. and A. D. Taylor a shoe-shop,
at Potosi.
One of the most exciting occasions in the
history of Potosi, was the speck of war over
the " butternut pole " which was raised by the
Democrats on the occasion of a political rally
during the campaign of 1868. . Owing to the
color of the Confederate army uniform, which
was brown, of a butternut shade, the butternut
bad come to he accepted by the soldiers of the
Union army as a symbol of "secesh" doctrines.
Some person, either out of pure "cussedness,"
or for some unknown reason, put a few
butternuts on the pole. This was thought, by
some returned soldiers, to be a taunt. and was
taken in dead earnest, as tending to spread
treasonable sentiments, and they declared it
should come down. The party who raised the
pole, declared they would defend it even unto
death. The excitement spread, and there was
talk, on both sides; of "enlisting for the
war" to bring down or to sustain that pole.
Arms were collected and stored in convenient
places. Men became as thoroughly in earnest as
they ever were on the fields of Dixie. The one
side declared that no butternuts should ever
be permitted to wave (or shake) over the four
corners at Potosi, and the other just as
energetically affirming that that pole should
not come down while they lived to defend it.
At this juncture, some of the Republicans
thought of the company of "Tanners," organized
and officered to help carry on the Grant
campaign, and went to get their assistance. As
Capt. McDowell and his company of Tanners had
never been sworn into the State service, he
did not feel like volunteering to put down
rebellion or butternuts at Potosi without an
invitation from the Governor. He consulted
Maj. Osman, who was in command of a Democratic
Company, and the two agreed to lay the matter
before the Governor and be guided by his
order. They therefore sent a message to Gov.
Oglesby, laying the matter before him, and
asking advice or orders; Capt. McDowell, for
the Republicans, and Maj. Osman, for the
Democrats. agreeing that his orders should he
complied with. The Governor was absent from
Springfield, and it was not until a day after
that he sent his reply, which was to the
effect that the Republicans should go home and
thus save the majesty of the law, and the
Democrats should take down, and thus save,
their butternuts. The order was obeyed, and
the butternuts were taken down and turned over
to Capt. McDowell and Maj. Osman, who
expressed them to the Governor, who kept them
safely in the archives of State.
Thus ended what bid fair to be at one time a
serious riot.