Vonda Wilson Sheets

Absolution: a Bald Knobber Saga Vonda Wilson Sheets

Taney County, located in southern Missouri on the Arkansas state line was rough country with rolling limestone hills and ridges. It was covered with trees, underbrush and rife with steep rocky cavernous ravines. Cool clear springs and creeks flowed out of these ravines and valleys and into the White River. During the Civil War and for many years after, outlaws took refuge there. The county government was in disarray, and nearly all crimes committed were totally ignored. After the Civil War, there was a land rush as the federal government expanded the Homestead Act. Families moved here from other parts of the country and acquired property. The locals, at first, considered them "outsiders" for they had no right, in their eyes, to tell them how they should live their lives. Some of the "newcomers" came from large cities and "civilized society" and they were astounded that this area, called God's Country by the natives, had virtually no judicial system. Many of the newcomers and, even those who had lived here for many years, were hoping for change. The event that sparked that change was the murder of a businessman, by the name of Jim Everett, and the subsequent trial in which his killer was acquitted. This unjust event spawned a vigilante band of night riders made up, initially, of notable men; attorneys, merchants, lawmen, and landowners. Stories were published in national newspapers and the group became notorious. Things, however, did not turn out as expected. This story takes place between 1883 and 1891. It is eight years of brutality and corruption that, to this day, remains burned into the memories of the people of southern Missouri. But this is not just about the Bald Knobbers. It is about the people and the land, life and death during hard uncertain times, families and their children, grandfathers and grandmothers, resistance and submission, hate and love, seasons and rural life in southern Missouri during the last part of the 19th century.