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Past and Present
OF
Livingston County
Missouri
A Record of Settlement, Organization, Progress and
Achievement
By MAJOR A. J. ROOF 1
ILLUSTRATED
VOLUME I
CHICAGO THE S. J. CLARKE PUBLISHING COMPANY 1913
PUBLIC LI 99249B
A
4
1
THE AUTHOR'S PREFACE
A great author once penned these words: "Real lives are lived not written." To these words the author of this volume must take exceptions. Is it not true that the lives of many of the greatest men of this earth have passed into oblivion for the want of some historian to record their deeds? The written life will live forever, whether it be splendidly penned with glow- ing and thrilling rhetoric or lacking in the fire and spirit of the chronicler or annalist.
It is much to be regretted that the compiler of this volume could not have been given more time in the preparation of the work; nevertheless, it will be found worthy of perusal and preservation for present and future generations. To collect the necessary data from the various sections of the county, pio- neer residents, old musty memorandas, "shop-worn" county records and old histories have been consulted, while not a few former residents, including the Hon. Luther T. Collier, now of Kansas City, Dr. Clayton Keith of Louisiana, Missouri, to- gether with the historical, agricultural, horticultural, and in fact all societies of the state have been appealed to in supplying data. In the preparation of the work the author has become con- vinced of the fact that in the paternal relationship of town- ship, county and state with the national government there is established a quasi-fatherly relation to the people, involving strict and intimate supervision of their business concerns upon the theory that they are incapable of managing their own af- fairs. This is paternalism as defined and outlined by the late Professor Porter of Yale University and makes us-the town- ship, county and state-the offspring, or figuratively speaking, the State of Missouri the child, the counties within the state the grandchildren and the several townships the great grand- children of our quasi-father,-the national government.
iii
iv
PREFACE
Keeping this in mind, the author appends herewith reviews historical and biographical, complimentary to our paternity and their offspring.
Under the drawbacks encountered in the preparation of the work it is with a deep sense of regret that we have not been able to give full justice and fulfill the high expectations of our many warm and earnest personal friends and admirers, whose kind and considerate indulgence and sympathy we ask.
Respectfully yours, A. J. ROOF, Editor.
CONTENTS
Geological Review I
General Section of Outcrops in Livingston County. 5
Climatological Data
Red Men 16
Grand River Valley 21
Livingston County 23
Early Settlers 32
Missouri Governors 35
Missouri Soils 37
Mormons
40
First Courthouse
49
County and Circuit Courts 51
First Bridges and Ferries 54
First Stores 55 55
First Mills
The County and County Court
55
Politics and War
62
Know-Nothing Party
79
Question of Emancipation
82
Case of Rev. J. E. Gardner
85
Drake Constitution 92
Military Organizations in the Mexican War
95 -
Militia Musters
IOI
Civil War Organizations
103
Privates . 97, 103, 106, 108 Spanish-American War 105
Company "I," Fourth Regiment Infantry, National Guard Missouri. 107
Progressive Party
108
Bridges in the County
109
County Officials
IIO
Railroads . III
Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad III
The Wabash-Old North Missouri. 129
Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad Co. I32
Chillicothe and Des Moines Road I34
Missouri Roads
I34
Old Trails 136
V
13
vi
CONTENTS
Cross State Highway 139
Missouri, The Quality Queen 140
Farm Crops and Live Stock I48
Summary of Crops for 1912. 152
Surplus Shipments from Livingston County .
154
Flood of July, 1909
155
Population of the County in 1910.
I59
Assessed Valuations
160
County Infirmary 162
Industrial Home for Girls
163
Livingston County Press 170
Educational
174
Chillicothe High School
194
Religious Denominations
196
First Methodist Episcopal Church
196
First Baptist Church, Chillicothe
198
Grace Episcopal Church, Chillicothe 199
M. E. Church, South, Chillicothe
. 200
Christian Church, Chillicothe
. 201
Catholic Churches 20I
Free Methodist Church, Chillicothe
206
Pleasant Grove M. E. Church, South
207
A. M. E. Church, Chillicothe 208
Old Settlers' Day Tale .208
Heatherly Family
214
Captain Joe Kirk
218
The Late Thomas Hutchinson-A Centenarian. . 223
Some Old People .230
Pioneer Marriages
.233
All Over Reminiscenses
234
Townships and Sections
246
Blue Mound Township
249
Welsh Congregational Church
250
Welsh Calvinistic Methodist Church 251
Sampsell Township .251
Mount Pleasant Church 252
Monroe Township 253
Mooresville Township
255
Cream Ridge Township
.256
Medicine Township
257
Jackson Township
257
Zion Baptist Church, Jackson Township. .258
.259
Fairview Township 261
Avalon Presbyterian Church 262
Wheeling Township 263
Baptist Church, Wheeling 265
Greene Township
Rich Hill Township 268
CONTENTS
vii
Union Baptist Church, Sturges 269
M. E. Church, Chula 270
Baptist Church, Chula 27I
Olive Branch Baptist Church 272
Grand River Township 273
M. E. Church, South, Bedford 274
City of Chillicothe 276 283
Municipal Electric Light Plant
283 284
Poultry Fanciers' Association 285 285
Chillicothe Fire Department
Famous Empire Ball Team
289
Beautiful Elm Park
. 290
Our Manufacturing Interests 292
Banks and Banking . 295
Exchange Bank, Chula, Missouri 295
296
Farmers and Traders Bank, Dawn, Missouri. 296
Farmers National Bank, Ludlow, Missouri .
297
Mooresville Saving Bank, Mooresville, Missouri
297
Bank of Bedford, Bedford, Missouri .
. 298
First National Bank, Ludlow, Missouri.
298
Farmers and Merchants Bank, Wheeling, Missouri.
. 299
Bank of Utica, Utica, Missouri
. 299
People's Exchange Bank, Sturges, Missouri
300
People's Savings Bank, Chillicothe, Missouri. 300
Farmers and Merchants Bank, Chula, Missouri
30I
Citizens National Bank, Chillicothe, Missouri.
. 302
First National Bank, Chillicothe, Missouri.
. 303
Recapitulation .303 People's Bank Robbery 304
Jackson University .309
Chillicothe Business College
.310
Lodges and Clubs 316
Concluding Tribute .325
Additions to Chillicothe
Chillicothe Officials
Citizens Bank, Avalon, Missouri
Bank of Chillicothe, Chillicothe, Missouri. . 302
GEOLOGICAL REVIEW
Livingston county is located near the central part of that section of Missouri which lies north of the Missouri river. Its altitude above the level of the sea varies from about six hun- dred and seventy-five feet in the river bottom to the south- east, to about nine hundred and seventy-five feet toward the northwest corner. At Chillicothe it is about eight hundred feet; at Mooresville, Springhill, and in the Mound country to the south it is about nine hundred and twenty feet. The up- land to the north rises to eight hundred and fifty feet or more. At Wheeling it is seven hundred and thirty-six feet, but rises northward to about eight hundred feet. The stratified rocks of Coal Measure Age are covered by a mantle of clay, sand, gravel and bowlders, mostly clay, deposited during the Glacial and Champlain epochs. The thickness of these deposits varies from a few feet on the higher places to one hundred and fifty feet or more where deep channels have been eroded or scoured out by glaciers and filled with glacial debris. Small areas of Coal Measure Strata are exposed however in places.
These drift clays form the basis of the rich black loamy soil which justifies the claim that the northern Central States supply the world's granaries; and Livingston county is not inferior to any portion of this rich domain. Being located near the southern margin of this rich drift area in latitude thirty-nine degrees forty minutes to thirty-nine degrees fifty- eight minutes and longitude ninety-three degrees twenty-eight minutes to ninety-three degrees fifty minutes the compara- tively mild climate is such as to favor the production of a great variety of grains and fruits.
1
2
HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY
The Coal Measure deposits underlying the drift vary from about three hundred feet to six hundred feet or possibly more in thickness owing to difference in surface elevation at differ- ent places, and the uneven and much eroded Mississippi lime- stone bed rocks. Coal mining at this time is limited to the working of shallow beds, eighteen to twenty-four inches thick, in a small way for local consumption, but well drillers' reports indicate the existence of thick beds of coal in the county. For convenience in description, the later writers on the Missouri and Iowa coal fields have divided the deposits into the upper, or Missouri series, and the lower, or Des Moines series. Over large areas in the eastern section of the county, the upper series and part of the lower series have been removed by erosion and glacial scouring; but part of the upper series yet remains, over large areas in the western and northwestern sec- tions of the county. In the lower part of the upper series there are several heavy beds of limestone belonging to the so-called Bethany Falls System of limestones. These limestones crop out at Mooresville where the Kirtley quarries are located and at Breckenridge, and furnish an inexhaustible supply of stone for building purposes. These rocks also crop out at Spring- hill, and thence along Indian creek to the northwest for five or six miles.
In that locality these rocks dip to the southeast from about the northwest corner of the county to Springhill where they seem to be abruptly cut off-hence the fine springs at that place. These rocks are found again at Gallatin and Pattons- burg more than a hundred feet lower than at the head of In- dian creek. This indicates an anticlinal fold or deep-seated upward flexure of the earth's crust in the northwest part of the county since Coal Measure time. If oil and gas exist in com- mercial quantities in northwest Missouri this is a very favor- able locality in which to prospect.
These Bethany Falls limestones have recently been reported as cropping out five miles northeast of Chillicothe along the Medicine creek hills at an elevation still about a hundred feet lower than at Springhill, and dipping rapidly eastward into Medicine creek valley where a synclinal fold appears to
3
HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY
exist. At the old Gillespie mill site on east Grand river nine miles north of Chillicothe, on the recently proposed route of the Cainesville & Chillicothe Railroad there is a sand rock bluff where an inexhaustible supply of stone of excellent qual- ity for building purposes is easily accessible. The sand bars along east and west Grand river and on the main river below the junction furnish sand and gravel in abundance. The smaller streams doubtless furnish sand in places. A layer of sand in the drift deposits, which crops out along the river bot- toms just south of Chillicothe furnishes moulding sand of su- perior quality for all kinds of moulding, and the upper part of this bed at one place is a good plasterer's sand.
The county is watered by the east and west forks, and by main Grand river, Medicine, Honey, Shoal, Mound and In- dian creeks and other small streams which furnish an abund- ance of water. At from three hundred to five hundred feet from the surface an abundant supply of stock water is found. This probably applies to the whole county. The water at these depths is slightly saline, but farmers who are using it say there is not more salt in it than their stock should have. It rises in the wells to about seven hundred to seven hundred and twenty-five feet above sea level, so that in the lowland it flows from the surface.
In the deep channels filled with drift clay, etc., thick beds of bowlders, gravel and sand are found at the bottom, which furnish abundant supplies of good fresh water. Chillicothe is located over such a channel on a drift terrace bordering on the Grand river flood plain on the south; and the water hori- zon is from thirty to forty feet lower than the bed of Grand river in the southern section of the city. As the bed rocks seem to dip southward it is probable that the gravel beds thicken in that direction. The gravel and sand in a well at the Munic- ipal Light Plant is fourteen feet thick and the water rises to sixty-five feet below the surface, or a little higher than the low water gage in Grand river. There are doubtless other deep channels in the county filled with drift clays, with gravel and water at the bottom.
There are reasons to believe that gas and oil exist in com-
4
HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY
mercial quantities in the county. Deep drill holes show an oil and gas horizon at about nine hundred or one thousand feet in granular limestone or sand rock; but the exact localities where nature has concentrated them into "pools" have not yet been found. However a drill hole about three miles southeast of Chillicothe developed considerable gas at about nine hun- dred feet but the flow was not thought to be sufficiently free to warrant the expenditure of money in its further development. There appeared to be a small local "uplift" at that point, but the stratified rocks were so obscured by drift clays that it was difficult to locate its axis. Deep drill holes at Kansas City and at other points seem to indicate that the earth's stratified crust overlying the igneous granitic rocks in this locality is about two thousand five hundred feet thick. Drill holes to a depth of one thousand two hundred feet here show the rocks below the Coal Measures to consist of the Mississippian limestones and other older rocks, mostly limestone and sand stone, but the limits of each formation and its correlation with the rocks in other parts of the state have not been determined. During the Coal Measure Age the surface in this coal field was near the sea level, sometimes a little above and sometimes below, while westward an extension of the Gulf of Mexico covered western Kansas and eastern Colorado and reached to an un- known distance northward. Following this age a long period of time elapsed in which thousands of feet of sedimentary rocks were deposited in the marginal sea to the west. These deposits belong to the Permian, Jurassic, Triassic, Cretaceous and Tertiary subdivisions of the earth's crust and are entirely absent here.
In conclusion it may be of interest to say that the Coal Measure rocks of the county are rich in minerals,-especially lead and zinc in a widely disseminated condition. Some of the well drillers say, however, that they have penetrated deposits of lead and zinc in a sufficiently concentrated condition to jus- tify mining especially in Jackson township.
Prof. H. A. Buchler, state geologist, has kindly furnished proof sheets covering the coal resources of the county as de- termined by a recent survey of the coal field of north Missouri.
5
HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY
The forthcoming reports of this survey, soon to be published, will contain some very interesting facts concerning the geo- logical features of the county. These reports are too volumi- nous for this article, but an extract is hereto appended. In this extract the general section of the Coal Measure strata of the county is given with local names of the smaller subdivi- sions as now adopted for descriptive purposes.
For the information of the general reader, attention is called to the changes in the names adopted in the more recent surveys. The Bethany Falls system of limestones is called the general section of the Kansas City limestones. The Cherokee shale in the lower part takes its name from the formature in Kansas and Oklahoma which yields the oil and gas in these regions. The strata of the general section are not all found at any one place but are taken from outcrops at different places; and each strata is identified by its character, and the overlying and underlying rocks. The extract follows:
GENERAL SECTION OF OUTCROPS IN LIVINGSTON COUNTY.
Kansas City Limestone-
Feet.
Inches.
I. Limestone, thin-bedded and cherty in lower part, heavy-bedded in upper, maximum thickness about
20
. . . .
2. Shale, blue at top, black and "slaty" below.
3 9
3. Limestone, nodular at top, oolitic in places, with shale partings near base (Bethany Falls) ....
21
. ...
4. Shale, blue in greater part, black and "slaty" at base.
6
6
. . . .
IO
5. Limestone
6. Shale and sandstone, IO to 30 feet, average 20 · ...
7. Limestone, ferruginous (Hertha, base of Missouri group) 7
.
. . ..
Pleasanton shale-
6
HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY
Feet. Inches.
8. Shale
14
. . . .
9. Coal (Ovid), maximum 20
6
IO. Sandy shale and sandstone, about 80
. . . .
II. Limestone, blue or gray, hard or nodular 2 to 6
12. Shale, drab
16
. . . .
13. Coal
. . . .
4
14. Shale, red and clayey, or sandy and with sandstone, about .....
70
. . . .
15. Coal (Mulberry), absent in south- ern part of county o to 2
. . . .
16. Clay and shale. o to 20
Henrietta formation-
17. Limestone, gray, massive. 4 to 5
18. Shale, blue, red and green, with thin beds of limestone, limestone nodules near base. 1 5 to 20
19. Limestone, buff, with shale part- ings, about 8
. . . . Cherokee shale-
20. Shale, blue, with black layer (horizon of Lexington coal) ..
6
...
21. Limestone, blue, weathering buff or brown . 3 to 4
22. Shale, clayey at top, sandy. 20
. . . .
23. Limestone, hard, blue, even-bed- ded, generally in 2 layers. ..
2
. . . .
24. Shale, black, soft at top, "slaty" and calcareous below 3 to 4
6
25. Coal (Summit)
o to 6
26. Clay and shale. 5 · .. .
27 Limestone, buff, nodular 2
28. Shale, dark to black, with concre- tions of limestone and thin shreads of coal (horizon of Mulky coal) . . .. . 3
. . . .
. . . .
. . . .
. . . .
.. . .
. . . .
inches . . . .
7
HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY
29. Shale, sandy, with thin coal seams and sandstone
30. Coal (Bedford) cut out by sand- stone in places. . . . .
50
. .. .
3I. Shale, sandy, with clay at top and black "slaty" shale below .....
14
....
32. Limestone, black, pyritiferous, fossiliferous ... o to IO
33 Coal (Bevier)
oto 4
34. Clay .
2 to
4
. . . .
. . ..
36. Shale, argillaceous.
7
6
37. Limestone, drab, weathering brown 2
38. Shale, blue above, darker below. .
14
. . . .
39 Limestone, dark blue, weathering buff
6 to 10
40. Shale, black, "slaty," some clay at base 2
6
41. Coal (Tebo) . .
16 to 20
42. Clay and shale.
5
. . . .
43. Limestone, bluish, nodular I
. . . .
44. Coal
. . . .
I
45. Clay and shale.
4+
46. Interval to base of Coal Measures,
not exposed, about. . 175 to 225 ...
Many small mines are found in Livingston county, but all of them produce coal for local use only. Over most of the county the outcropping rocks belong to the Henrietta forma- tion and Pleasanton shale. There is an area of Cherokee shale along Grand river, and high table-lands capped by the Beth- any Falls and associated limestones in the southern and west- ern parts of the county. A thickness of about four hundred and seventy-five feet is exposed, with probably two hundred feet lower Pennsylvanian found only in drillings.
The distribution of the Kansas City, Pleasanton, Henrietta, and Cherokee formations is shown on the state geologic map.
o to 28
35. Limestone, gray, nodular at top. . 2 to 5
6
. . . .
8
HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY
In general, the beds lie horizontal, but the geology of certain areas is complicated by low dips. A syncline, or trough- shaped area in which beds lie at relatively low levels, probably accompanied by a little faulting, appears to traverse the county in a northwest-southeast direction from near Wheeling to the northwest corner. At Graham's Mill, Springhill, Utica and other places, irregular dips occur.
The Ovid coal probably occurs under all the high land in the "Blue Mound" region, in the vicinity of Mooresville, and in the northwestern part of the county. It has been re- ported up to twenty inches thick, but its average thickness is probably not over six inches. It is of little importance.
The Mulberry coal occurs in parts of the county covered by the Pleasanton formation, except the south row of town- ships. Its thickness ranges from six inches to two feet. Its distribution is irregular and the character of the roof is changeable. It has been mined at Utica, north of Chillicothe, and northwest of Wheeling, and has been the source of most of the coal produced in the county.
The Bedford coal outcrops in many places in the south- eastern part of the county and has been mined near Bedford. Its thickness is variable because of the nature of the roof, being twenty-eight inches in one place and little or nothing where the outlying sandstone cuts down into it. In many places the sandstone rests directly on the coal, but in a few shale inter- venes. This seam is thought to have been found near Chilli- cothe, where it varied from nothing to thirty-three inches, and at Utica, where it was twenty-six to thirty inches. The Bed- ford is probably the same as the upper Bevier bed of Chariton and Linn counties.
The Bevier coal, where it outcrops, is not over four inches thick, but may possibly increase to the west, as it is a persistent horizon and commonly productive.
The Tebo coal is exposed in a few places in the extreme eastern part of the county, where it has been mined. Its thick- ness ranges from sixteen to twenty inches and it is generally overlain by clay that in places pinches out so as to permit the black slaty shale above to rest directly on the coal. The lower
9
HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY
part of the bed contains considerable pyrite in places. Its extent north and west of the area of outcrop is unknown.
The absence of extensive mining developments in Living- ston county makes an estimate of its resources very difficult. It appears probable, however, that there is at least an average of thirty inches of coal in beds fourteen inches or more in thickness. An estimate would make the total coal reserve of of county 1,532, 160,000 tons.
The south bluffs of Grand river show many fine exposures of the various coal seams and the accompanying strata. Be- ginning on the road down the branch to the northeast corner of Sec. 11, T. 56 N., R. 23 W. a measurement made included all of the beds from Nos. 16 to 34 of the general section. All the coal beds are less than six inches thick except the Bedford, which is fourteen to eighteen inches, is overlain with massive sandstone, and is underlain by a considerable thickness of clay and shale. The nature of the roof indicates that the thickness of the coal in this vicinity is variable. The coal is absent in places, but where it is overlain with shale, as it is locally, its thickness is more constant. Much coal has been mined for local use in the N. E. 14 Sec. 11, T. 56 N., R. 23 W. At the slope of J. W. Kimber in the S. W. 14 N. E. 14 of this section the coal is reported to be fourteen to twenty-four inches thick, averaging eighteen inches. It was overlain with shale and un- derlain with clay.
West of Bedford, near Grand river (N. E. 1/4 S. W. 1/4 Sec. 31, T. 57 N., R. 22 W.) is the shaft of Wm. Kelly, abandoned at the time it was visited. The shaft is reported to be thirty- three feet deep and the coal (Bedford) to be eighteen inches thick.
Up the hill southeast of the shaft, Nos. 21 to 28 of the gen- eral section are exposed, the horizon of the Lexington coal lying eighty feet above the coal mined. About one-half mile west of this is Monroe Ford, near which is the stripping of John Plaster in a seam thought to be the Bedford (N. E. 1/4 S. E. 1/4 Sec. 36, T. 57 N., R. 23 W.). This coal is reported to be three or four feet thick, but the present stripping shows only twenty-six inches, the upper part of the bed having been
10
HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY
removed by recent erosion and replaced by alluvium. The coal appears to be clean and free from "sulphur." The reported thickness is unusual for the Bedford seam. Fifteen feet south only sandstone and shale and two very thin coal beds are ex- posed fifty feet above the creek, the thicker coal beds prob- ably being a few feet below the water.
Coal has been mined in the N. W. 14 Sec. 18, T. 56 N., R. 21 W., but nothing is done now. Across the road, in section 13 near Grand river, the Bedford horizon appears to be barren.
In the N. 1/2 Sec. 29, T. 56 N., R. 21 W., Broadhead cites the occurrence of twenty inches of coal at the Tebo horizon. Above it are thirty inches of clay overlaid by the same amount of black, "slaty" shale capped with a thin limestone layer. At the mouth of Toe String creek he noted eighteen inches of coal in the same bed, ten feet above Grand river level. Here there are six feet of shale between the coal and its six inch limestone cap-rock, and four and one-half feet between the coal and a thin limestone below it.
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