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Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37
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ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01053 6230
GC 977.801 AT2A
BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY
ATCHISON COUNTY, MISSOURI.
ILLUSTRATED WITH FARM SCENES, VIEWS OF RESIDENCES AND PICTURES OF PEOPLE, LIVE STOCK, ETC.
ISSUED BY THE ATCHISON COUNTY MAIL, H. F. STAPEL, PUBLISHER.
"We live in deeds, not years; in thoughts, not breaths; In feelings, not in figures on a dial. We should count time by heart-throbs. He most lives Who thinks most, feels the noblest, aets the best."
Copyright 1905 by H. F. STAPEL Rock Port, Missouri All rights reserved
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E are pleased to present this biographical history of Atchison county, Missouri, the need of a work of this character having long been apparent to us and doubtless to hundreds of other citizens of our county. It has also been apparent to us that no one could be in a better situation to compile and issue such a work than the local newspaper and printing office, and the fact that in many instances such an agency has produced most excellent works of this kind will bear out our assumption. But a work of the magnitude of the present one represented so much labor and expense that we hesitated in attempting its production. Our reason for so doing will be apparent when we state that the labor, material and engravings of the work repre- sent thousands of dollars. We have spared no reasonable expense, feeling that if such a work is not complete and accurate it is of little value. The views of the representative homes in the county-of houses, barns, live stock, landscape, etc., appearing herein in the same class of work as that put out by the metropolitan publications, is a great item in itself, say nothing of the historical and biographical features of the publication. We feel that these views and pictures alone, on the center-table or in the library of the home of any present or former resident of Atchison county are well worth the price of the book, and that in years hence the families represented herein will not part with the book at all. During the compilation of this work this sentiment was made evident to us by many of our leading citizens expressing themselves about in this wise: "How I wish I had my boyhood home, even though a poor one, presented in this manner! The price of this publication would be insignificant." Fact of the matter is, this is a farming community and a majority of the sketches appearing herein are of farmers -- self-made men, in most instances, who are proud of their acquirements, the result of their own efforts- proud of their families and their comfortable homes, and where could a historical record of these matters be passed to posterity by a better medium than through this publication? Sweet the destiny of all trades, whether of the plow or the mind. Men who have rated themselves from a humble calling need not be ashamed, but rather ought to be proud, because of difficulties they have surmounted. The laborer on his feet stands higher than the king on his knees. About twenty-three years ago a similar history of Atchison county was published, but few illustrations appeared therein, however, as the present wonderful process of perfectly transferring photographic views from paper to copper was then unknown. We have never seen that history without a feeling of regret because a sketch of ourself did not appear therein. Judging others by ourself, we therefore feel that in this work we have provided an opportunity for many to gratify a desire of long standing. We also believe we have given value received in the way of an advertisement of Atchison county. What could speak louder for the county than the beautiful homes shown and productive farms described herein? As a matter of county pride this book should be in every representative home in Atchison county and also sent to friends abroad.
As stated above, the need of a work of this character was apparent to us, and we went about it after the matter was discussed in our office with old residents and prominent farmers, who also thought it was about time for another history of the county to appear. And here it is. We are thankful for the support and patronage of the good people of Atchison county, not only in this work but in the publication of The Atchison County Mail, in the organization and conduct of the Farmers' Mutual Insurance Companies and other busi- ness undertakings as well. Wishing them all the good things of life, we are
Very respectfully,
H. F. STAPEL.
Publisher Atchison County Mail.
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Sender-
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ATCHISON COUNTY.
SOMETHING ABOUT ITS HISTORY, ITS RESOURCES, ITS ADVANTAGES, ITS INDUSTRIES AND ITS FUTURE. VALUABLE INFORMATION FOR CAPITALISTS AND HOME-SEEKERS.
HE act of organizing the County of Atchison was passed during the winter of 1844. The names of the County Commis- sioners, as given by that act, were Alexander McElroy, David Hunsacker and Elijah Needles. They were authorized to meet on the 14th day of April, 1845, for the purpose of organizing the county, at the house of Conrad Cloepfil. The county was named in honor of General David R. Atchison, and was bounded as follows: "Beginning in the middle of the main channel of the Missouri River, at a point where a line running through the center of township sixty-three extended, would intersect the same; thence east with said township line to the line of Nodaway county; thence north with said line to the northern boundary of the state; thence with the same (west) to the middle of the main channel of the Missouri River; thence down said river, in the middle of the main channel thereof, to the beginning."
Whether or not the policy of naming counties after illustrious statesmen and famous generals be a good one it has nevertheless been followed, to a greater or less extent, in the various states of the Union, and in none more so than in Missouri, as is illustrated by the following named counties: Atchison, Barton, Bates, Benton, Buchanan, Clay. Clinton, Dallas, Lewis, Pike, Polk, Taney, Randolph, Washington, Webster, Jackson, Worth, Holt, and many others.
A brief sketch of the man whose name the county bears will be in place here:
Ex-Senator David R. Atchison, of Missouri, was born in Frogtown, in Fayette county. Kentucky, August 11, 1807. Being the son of a wealthy farmer of that county, he received all the advantages of a liberal education, which developed those powerful intellectual faculties that rendered his name, in after life, conspicuous in the history of his country. His father was William Atchison, the son of a farmer of Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, who moved with his parents, when six years of age, to that garden spot of the West which now constitutes the rich and magnificently improved county of Fayette, in the state of Kentucky. His mother's maiden name was Catherine Allen. She was a native of the state of Georgia, and a lady of rare natural and acquired endowments. General Atchison was the eldest of six children-four sons and two daughters.
Largely blessed with the gifts of fortune, intellectual worth seems to have been no less the heritage of this distinguished family. In 1825 General Atchison was graduated with high honor, in the Transylvania University, then the leading institution of learning in the state, and since incorporated in the new University of Kentucky. Upon receiving his degree in the arts, with characteristic energy he immediately applied himself to the study of law. Among his preceptors in the faculty were the eminent Judge Bledsoe, Charles Hun- phrey and William T. Barry, afterwards Postmaster General of the United States, during the administration of Martin Van Buren. In 1829 he was admitted to the practice of law, in his native state. Notwithstanding the most flattering encouragement and persuasion to remain, from those who knew and appreciated his talents, he determined to try his fortunes in the West, and, in 1830, moved to the comparatively wild district of Clay County, Missouri, and settled in the town of Liberty. About this period General Atchison was ap- pointed Major General of the Northern Division of Missouri State Militia .. He soon commanded a lucrative practice, and continued to
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reside in Liberty until February, 1841, when he received the appointment of Judge, by Governor Reynolds, of the Circuit Court of Platte county, and removed to Platte City during that year.
In August, 1834, as again in 1838, he was elected to the State Legislature, from Clay county. Upon the death of Dr. Linn, United States Senator, in the autumn of that year, he was appointed by the Governor to the vacancy thus occasioned in the Senate. He was elected and re-elected for two full terms in succession, the last of which expired March 4, 1855, during the administration of Franklin Pierce. In 1857 he moved to Clinton county, Missouri. He was elected President of the Senate, to succeed Judge Mangum, from North Carolina, which position he filled some years. The 4th of March, 1849, occurring on Sunday, General Z. Taylor was not in- augurated until the following morning. General Atchison, as presiding officer of the Senate, became, virtually, President of the United States, during the period of twenty-four hours. On his retirement from the Senate he continued to take a lively interest in the politics of the country, and was regarded as a leader and chief adviser of the pro-slavery party in Kansas, during the troubles which preceded her admission into the Union.
In 1856 he had command of 1,150 men, at a point called Santa Fe. On the 29th of August, the same year, a detachment from his army attacked Osawatomie. Kansas, and succeeded in killing five men and capturing seven.
At the breaking out of the late civil war Governor Jackson, of Missouri, sent him a commission as Brigadier-General, which he declined. He. however, joined the Southern army temporarily, and continued with it until after the battle of Elkhorn, and after the close of the war returned to his home, where he continued to reside in unbroken retirement.
Atchison county is located in the extreme northwestern corner of the state, bordering upon the Iowa line, which bounds it on the north. It is bounded on the east by Nodaway county, on the south by Holt county and on the west by Nebraska, from which it is separated by the Missouri river.
It is about the same parallel as Philadelphia, Columbus, Indianapolis and San Francisco, and about the same meridian as Lake Itasca and Galveston. The county contains 334,000 acres or about 5217% square miles.
The land in the county. away from the streams, is undulating prairie and presents altogether a diversity of country seldom found in so small an area. Rising to the higher points of ground, the eye commands views of exquisite loveliness, embracing the silvery course of the stream, the waving foliage of trees and the changing outlines of gentle elevations.
The bottoms of the Missouri. extending eastward across the Nishnabotna river to the bluffs beyond. range from four to eight miles in width, and include an area of about one hundred square miles. The hills east, for one or two miles, include a tract of country consisting of a number of groups of rounded hills, presenting a commanding front and rising 150 to 250 feet above the bottom land. Eastward. and extending to the east line of the county. the country slopes gently to the streams, the bottoms are tolerably wide and the uplands hilly and rolling. The Missouri bluffs are often very steep, frequently sloping at an angle of sixty degrees, often in every direc- tion; they seem like miniature mountain peaks, and present a very picturesque appearance. The views from their summits are often very extensive and beautiful. Ascending them two miles west of Rock Port, we see to the northward the wide Missouri bottom. The prairies beyond stretch out beautifully, dotted with farms and fine fields of corn.
There is not a section of country of equal extent in the state that possesses a better distributed drainage system than Atchison county. There is, proportionately, such a small area of waste and swamp lands, and the facilities for drainage are so admirable, that waste lands arising from this cause are too insignificant to be worthy of mentioning.
The county presented to the first settler an easy task in subduing the wild land. Its natural prairies were fields almost ready for the planting of the crop, and its rich, black soil seemed to be waiting the opportunity of paying rewards as tribute to the labor of the husbandman. The farms of Atchison county are generally large, level or undulating, unbroken by impassable sloughs, without stumps
or other obstructions, and furnish the best of conditions favorable to the use of reaping machines. mowers. corn-planters and other kinds of labor-saving machinery.
Atchison county is so well supplied with living streams of water, and they are so well distributed. that the people of the county could not possibly make an improvement upon the arrangement if they were allowed the privilege and endowed with the power to make a re-adjustment of the system of streams and water courses.
The principal water courses of the county are the Nishnabotna. the Big and little Tarkios and Rock Creek. There are besides these a number of smaller streams, which flow through the county in different directions.
The circumstance which. more than any other, favored the early and rapid settlement of Atchison county. was the abundance of timber. The presence of timber aided materially in an early settlement. and it aided in two ways: First. the county had to depend on immigration from the older states of the Union for its population-Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, Virginia and Tennessee. These states were originally almost entirely covered with dense forests and farms were made by clearing off certain portions of the timber. Almost every farm there, after it became thoroughly improved, still retained a certain tract of timber, commonly known as "the woods." The woods is generally regarded as the most important part of the farm, and the average farmer regarded it as indispensable when he emigrated West.
The great objection to the country was the scarcity of timber as compared to the Eastern states, and he did not suppose that it would be possible to open up a farm on the bleak prairie. To live in a region devoid of the familiar sight of timber seemed unendurable, and the average Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky immigrant could not endure the idea of founding a home far away from the familiar sight of forest trees. Then, again, the idea entertained by the early immigrants, that timber was a necessity, was not simply theoretical and ethical. The early settler had to have a house to live in, fuel for cooking and heating purposes, and fences to enclose his claim. At that time there were no railroads whereby lumber could be transported from the pineries; no coal mines had yet been opened or discovered. Timber was an absolute necessity, without which personal existence as well as material improvement was an impossibility.
As before remarked, there are two reasons why the first settlers refused to locate at a distance from the timber, and why the timbered regions bordering upon the rivers became densely populated while the more fertile and more easily cultivated prairies remained for many years unclaimed. The pioneers were, in the main, the descendants of those hardy backwoodsmen who conquered the dense forests of the South and East. When farms were opened up in those countries a large belt of timber was invariably reserved from which the farmer could draw his supply of logs for lumber, for fence rails, and fuel for heating and cooking purposes. Even at the present day a farm without its patch of timber is exceedingly rare in those countries. Having, from their youth up, been accustomed to timber, the emigrants from these timbered regions of the East would have felt lonesome and solitary deprived of the familiar sight of the tall forest trees and shut off from the familiar sound of the wind passing through the branches of the venerable oaks. Then. again, timber was an actual necessity to the early settler. In this day of railroads, herd laws, cheap lumber and cheap fuel. it is easy enough to open a farm and build up a comfortable home away out on the prairie, far from the sight of timber. But not so under the circumstances surround- ing the first settlers. There was no way of shipping lumber from the markets of the East, coal mines were unknown, and before a parcel of land could be cultivated it was necessary to fence it. In order to settle the prairie countries it was necessary to have railroads, and in order to have railroads it was necessary that at least a portion of the country should be settled. Hence the most important resource in the development of this western country was the belt of timber which skirted the streams; and the settlers who first hewed out homes in the timber, while at present not the most enterprising and progressive, were nevertheless an essential factor in the solution of the problem.
Much of this primeval forest has been removed; part of it was economically manufactured into lumber, which entered into the construction of the early dwelling houses; much of it was ruthlessly and recklessly destroyed. From the fact that attention was early given to the cultivation of artificial groves, Atchison county now has probably about as much timber as formerly, and the state much more. Among the most abundant of all trees originally found was the black walnut, so highly prized in all countries for manufacturing
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purposes. Timber of this kind was very plentiful. and of good quality originally. but the high prices paid for this kind of timber pre- sented itself as a temptation to destroy it. which the people. frequently in straightened circumstances. could not resist. Red. white and black oak are still plentiful, although they have for many years been extensively used for fuel. Crab apple. elm. walnut, hickory, maple. hackberry, ash, cottonwood and wild cherry are also found.
A line of timber follows the course of all the streams. Detached groves, both natural and artificial, are found at many places throughout the county, which are not only ornamental, in that they vary the monotony of the prairie, but are likewise very useful, in that they have a very important bearing on the climate. It is a fact fully demonstrated by the best authority that climate varies with the surface of the country.
The question is very frequently asked: "How does Atchison county compare with other sections of the country in regard to health?" To answer. "very favorably, indeed." would be strictly true; for there are no epidemics peculiar to this section, and epidemics are no more frequent, and no more severe, than in other sections of country of like extent; and, indeed, it can be said that they are much less frequent and much less severe than in many other localities.
The land, except the valleys along the largest streams, is rolling, almost hilly, indeed, and this circumstance renders drainage almost perfect. and with a little effort on the part of the citizens, could be made entirely perfect. There are no extensive bogs or marshes, and those of limited extent are. for the most part, drained.
Water for house use is easily obtained from natural springs, and from wells, which are usually from twenty to thirty feet in depth, and the water. for the most part. is of an excellent quality. The soil is a deep, rich. black loam, with here and there spots more or less sandy or gravely.
The climate is somewhat changeable, though it compares favorably with that of southern Pennsylvania, central Ohio, central Indiana, and central Illinois. Very severe dronths are not common, nor are very severe winters usual. The spring season will compare very favorably with that of other localities of the same latitude, and the autumns are generally charming.
Typical typhoid fever is seldom seen here, as it usually is of the typho-malaria form; though occasionally a case occurs as typi- cally pure as tho that occur in crowded cities or in illy ventilated hospitals, but such cases can mostly or always be traced to crowded prisons or something very similiar, and, therefore, will occur in every section of country-not one more than another-where people breathe for a considerable time air that is surcharged with the exhalations from the lungs or other organs and from the surface of the body; or where they eat pork or drink water surcharged with like poison.
Remittent and intermittent fevers prevail to some extent, but they cannot be said to be more prevalent than in other localities on the same parallel of latitude.
Malaria. so-called, is quite often associated with other diseases not generally regarded as of a malarial nature; but this is not at all a peculiar circumstance. for this association is found in all localities.
Malignant or pernicious diseases are not common, though occasionally cases of malignant diphtheria appear.
The average yearly rainfall and melted snow, for twenty-five years, has been about 42.62 inches. The average rainfall and melted snow, for each month respectively. for this period, has been as follows: January. 1.68 inches: February, 1.67: March, 2.10: April, 3.49; May. 4.39; June. 4.75: July, 4.69: August. 4.66; September, 3.30; October. 2.33; November. 1.69: December. 1.89 inches. The rain and melted snow for winter. 5.25 inches; spring, 9.25; summer, 14.10; autumn, 7.32 inches.
A little more than one-fifth of the county is prairie. and of a very excellent quality. In fact, there is no better soil in the state than that found in the prairies of Atchison county. On nearly all the divides between the running streams are found large tracts of beautiful. rolling prairie lands. well drained, easily cultivated, highly productive and conveniently located to water, timber. mills and markets, The character of the soil in these prairies is such that good crops are raised even during the very wet and very dry seasons,
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The soil is light and porous, so that ten hours of bright sunshine will dry the roads after a heavy rain and fit the plowed fields to be cultivated. The same pecularity of soil which enables crops to withstand inuch moisture and thrive during a very wet season, also en- ables them to endure prolonged drouths-the soil being very porous, is capable of absorbing a large amount of water during the rainy season, and when the drouth sets in. the forces of nature bring back to the surface the surplus moisture from the subterraneous store- houses with as much ease as the water in the first place was absorbed.
Quarterly Deposites .- The alluvium includes the soil and recent river deposites; it appears to be composed of alternations of clay, sand, marly clay beds and vegetable mould.
This formation is found on all hills. is developed on the Missouri bluffs, where it forms those curiously rounded knobs which we have before mentioned. The bluffs are probably from 200 to 250 feet in depth, and consist mostly of finely comminuted. somewhat sandy and marly ash-brown clays; when worn away, or dug into, it is generally jointed in a vertical direction; nodular, round, calcarous con- cretions are often found. The fossels found were Helix, Helicinr, Occulta and Succinea.
Beneath the bluff at Rock Port there are a few feet of sand, with boulders of quartzite. The drift does not seem to be well marked in the county. Boulders of quartzite, green-stone, etc., are occasionally found.
The rocks of the county belong to the upper part of the upper coal series, and include limestones, sandstones and shales, amount- ing to about 180 feet in thickness, divided about as follows: Fifty feet of sandstone, with only about twenty feet of limestone. the bal- ance sandy and clay shales. They have a dip, north and west, amounting to about 170 feet, from the south to the north line of the county, from east to west.
The great industy of the county and its principal source of wealth is agriculture. No wild lands remain, all being employed for cultivation and pasturage. Corn is the great staple, but small grains and potatoes are extensively produced. In live stock, cattle, horses, swine, mules and sheep rank in the order given as shown by the census. Atchison county farmers are, as a rule, as well-to-do as those of any other section of the country. 11
One of the greatest industries of the county is the growing of different varieties of fruit. Northwest Missouri h: '3 become famous in this regard, and it would appear that Atchison is the equal of any other county of the section. Apples and cherries 're raised in pro- fusion. Small fruits, such as blackberries, strawberries, raspberries, etc., are raised in large quantities, and, as a rule, prove extremely profitable. There are good markets for these, and the raising of such fruits is a most profitable adjunct to ordinary farming. In fact. the fruit industry is regarded as one of the most important resources of the county.
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