His family had ties to not only the Civil War but also to Harry Truman and his family" Strode, a former Grandview postmaster, died in August 2007. Harbert and much of the remaining Strode family have left the area. The Strode family had lived on the property until the farm was lost in the Depression, said Kay Harbert, a descendant, but John Strode, her father, visited from time to time. Beckner said the Strodes returned at night, collected the bodies and buried them in a shallow mass grave near their own family plot. The Strodes at the time, deeply religious, wanted to give the departed a proper burial, but the Union soldiers told them they’d kill them if they did. Jim Beckner, a local history buff, said that Union soldiers killed the bushwhackers just down the road from the property, leaving them in the sun to rot. Buried nearby are as many as 15 slaves and several Civil War "bushwhackers," Missouri’s guerrilla soldiers. The graveyard holds the remains of members of the Strode family going back generations. But due to a legal technicality, he didn’t own that bit of land. A Civil War graveyardĬonstruction was delayed by another situation that Turnbaugh described as a "brouhaha." Just days after buying the property, Bauer learned of an old family graveyard there dating back to the Civil War. In addition to the mansion under construction, the 96-acre property includes a pond, a covered bridge and a Civil War burial ground. Court records show that Bauer has been involved in dozens of lawsuits over the last 30 years. He said that Bauer is the kind of man you don’t want to cross, and that he took one of their other neighbors to court over a dispute. Then Bauer decided he didn’t like the rounded tops of the fence, so he had them all taken off and replaced with pointed tips. You think he’s done, but he’s not."Īt one point, half the fence had been installed around the property when Bauer decided it wasn’t how he wanted it, Harris said. Jay Harris, a neighbor, said he once asked Bauer how he made his money, and Bauer told him, "Oh, I have people who do that for me." Harris described his neighbor as a stoic man, close-mouthed but not unkind. At one point, a man with a large rottweiler approached Ruhl and “ordered” him to leave the property.īauer has been waging a protracted legal battle ever since. Earl Ruhl, who was hired to serve Bauer, tried multiple times to approach the owner, but Bauer would quickly leave without acknowledging who he was. It’s not just reporters who have a hard time getting in touch with the owner.Īccording to court records, a stucco contractor sued Bauer in 2017 for about $30,000, and lawyers found it nearly impossible to actually find the man to serve him with a summons. "He’s been building on that thing for 20 years," said Annette Turnbaugh, a Grandview alderman and local historian.
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