Bald Knobbers

Background

During the Civil War, Missouri as a border state experienced intense neighbor-against-neighbor bushwhacker fighting, which continued after the war. The James-Younger Gang was among the most famous examples of this ongoing violence.

Authorities struggled to control the criminal fighting because both sides retained strong partisan supporters. Between 1865 and 1885, Taney County reported 40 murders with no suspect ever convicted. The Bald Knobbers initially aimed to stop the marauding gangs, but eventually engaged in their own excesses and criminal activities.

The Taney County chapter

In 1883, a group of thirteen men, with Nat N. Kinney at the head, came together to push back against the bands of marauders that had been terrorizing the area since Reconstruction began. The original members included Kinney, James A. DeLong, Alonzo S. Prather, Yell Everett, James B. Rice, T. W. Phillips, James R. VanZandt, Pat F. Fickle, Galba E. Branson, J. J. Brown, Charles H. Groom, James K. Polk McHaffie, and possibly Ben Price. Between 1865 and 1882, more than thirty murders had taken place, with not a single conviction.

The men called themselves the Citizen’s Committee or the Law and Order League, but locals dubbed them the Bald Knobbers because they held secret meetings on a bare mountaintop to watch for spies. Their ranks swelled into the hundreds, a huge number in a county of just 7,000 people, and the original purpose began to blur. At first, people praised them for chasing off outlaws, but public opinion soon soured. Early on, they wore simple kerchiefs or nothing at all, but many later adopted white muslin hoods with tied-off corners that looked like ears, plus holes for eyes and mouths.

That frightening look only made things worse, leading to the rise of the anti-Bald Knobbers. Both groups included Democrats and Republicans. Kinney was a Democrat who had fought for the Union, despite some later claims that he was a Republican. When the county courthouse burned down, each side blamed the other, deepening the feud.

The anti-Bald Knobbers found their best symbol in 19-year-old orphan Andy Coggburn, who despised Kinney and mocked him openly. Coggburn was shot and killed by Kinney outside the Forsyth church, where Kinney had gone to preach that night, with Kinney claiming self-defense.

The Christian County chapter

Neighboring counties such as Christian, Douglas, Greene, and Stone adopted the idea of masked night riders, disregarding the strict rules that had governed the original Taney County chapter. The Christian County group became the most notorious. Chadwick was the most bustling town of Christian County due to the nearby railroad and a prime market for timber made into railroad ties, but its design as a railroad town meant saloons and brothels dominated.

The Christian County chapter was led by Dave Walker, though his seventeen-year-old son Billy Walker was a wild force within the group. It is rumored the Walkers invited Nat Kinney to help institute the chapter, but this is doubtful since Kinney had recently disbanded the original group. The Christian County group held meetings at a large cave on the edge of the Walkers' land, and members wore black hoods with cork or wooden horns protruding from the top, decorated with white or red stripes around the eyes, mouth, and horns, sometimes with tassels.

They routinely burned down saloons and were generally more threatening than the Taney County group. William Edens, a young opponent, publicly criticized the group and received several warnings, including a late-night beating. On the night of March 11, 1887, the Christian County group met at the cave to discuss disbanding, but new members were inducted and several members were incensed by new remarks Edens had made. As the meeting finished, many younger men headed toward the Edens' cabin; Captain David Walker pleaded with them not to go, but his son Billy and others, including Wiley Mathews, were headstrong.

Cultural impact

The story of the Bald Knobbers is often considered to have ended with the Kirbyville Shootout, but one final quiet lynching of an adulterer by masked men took place in 1890. Unconfirmed tales of similar vigilante actions in nearby counties continued into the 1920s. National headlines covered the Bald Knobbers during their active years, and again when the original members died. In 1887, the events were turned into a play called The Bald Knob Tragedy of Taney and Christian Counties.

Tourism in the Branson area got its start with Harold Bell Wright's 1907 novel The Shepherd of the Hills, which used generic Bald Knobbers as its villains. Later, the Mabe family created a country and western comedy show named Baldknobbers, picking the name purely for its funny sound rather than any historical connection. This show helped launch the live music scene Branson is now known for. More recently, the indoor roller coaster Fire in the Hole at Silver Dollar City offers a Bald Knobber-themed ride, though it does not follow any real events.

Since 2000, the White River Valley Historical Society in Forsyth has hosted a Law Day festival that includes a Bald Knobber pageant focused on Taney County history. The documentary Fire on the Mountain: Bald Knobbers as Heroes or Villains of the Ozarks Frontier? debuted at film festivals in spring 2007, winning a Gold Remi Award at Worldfest in Houston, and aired on OPT Missouri PBS on January 13, 2011. On May 3, 2017, Bruce L. Maggard, a descendant of the Walker family, released the historical fiction novel When the Thunder Comes, which adds fictional characters and supernatural elements to the Carroll County hangings.

Did You Know?

• On March 11, 1887, the Christian County chapter attacked the Edens cabin, killing William Edens and Charles Green and wounding James Edens with an axe blow to the head.
• After the Edens massacre, 80 men were indicted and tried in trials covered by worldwide media, and four were sentenced to hang.