USA > Missouri > A History of Missouri from the Earliest Explorations and Settlements Until the Admission of the state into the union, Volume III > Part 16
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"The Indians in the Sink-hole had a drum made of a skin stretched over a section of hollow tree and which they beat quite con- stantly, and some Indian would shake a rattle called she-shu-que, probably a dried bladder with pebbles within ; and even for a moment would venture to thrust his head in view, with his hand elevated shaking the rattle, calling out "peash," which was understood to be a sort of defiance; the same as Black Hawk, who was one of the party, says in his account of that affair, a kind of bravado to come and fight them in the Sink-hole. When the Indians could creep up and shoot over the rim of the Sink-hole they would instantly disappear, and while they sometimes fired effectual shots they in turn became occasionally the victims of our rifles. From about one to four o'clock in the afternoon the firing was inconstant, our men generally reserv- ing their fire until an Indian would show his head, and all of us were studying how we could more effectually attack and dislodge the enemy. At length Lieutenant Spears suggested that a pair of cart wheels, axle and tongue, which were seen at Allen's place near at hand, be obtained and a moving battery constructed. This idea was entertained favorably and an hour or more consumed in its construction. Some oak floor puncheons from seven to eight feet in length were made fast to the axle in an upright position and port holes made through them. Finally the battery was ready for trial and was sufficiently large to protect some half a dozen men or more. It was moved forward slowly and seemed to attract the particular attention of the Indians, who had evidently heard the knocking and pounding connected with its manufacture, and who now frequently popped up their heads to make momentary discov- eries. It was at length moved to within less than ten paces of the brink of the Sink-hole on the southeast side. The upright plank did not reach the ground within some eighteen inches, our men calcu- lating to shoot beneath the lower end of the plank at the Indians;
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but the latter, from their position, had the decided advantage of this neglected aperture, for the Indians shooting beneath the battery at an upper angle would get shots at the whites before the latter could see them. Lieut. Spears was shot dead through the forehead, and his death was much lamented, as he had proved himself the most active and intrepid officer engaged. John Patterson was wounded in the fight, and some others were also wounded behind the battery. Having failed in the object for which it was designed, the battery was abandoned after sundown. Our hope all along had been that the Indians would emerge from their covert and attempt to retreat to where we supposed their canoes were left, some three or four miles distant, in which case we were firmly determined to rush upon them and endeavor to cut them totally off. The men generally evinced the greatest bravery through the whole engagement.
"Night now coming on, we heard the reports of half a dozen or so of guns in the direction of the fort by a few Indians who rushed out through the woods skirting Bob's creek not more than forty rods from the north end of the fort; this movement on the part of the few Indians who had escaped when the others took refuge in the Sink- hole was evidently designed to divert the attention of the whites and alarm them for the safety of the fort and thus effectually relieve the Indians in the Sink-hole. At any rate this was the result, for Cap- tain Musick and men retired to the fort, carrying the dead and wounded, and made every preparation to repel a night attack. As the Mississippi was quite high, with much backwater over the low grounds, the approach of the enemy was thus facilitated and it was feared a large Indian force was at hand. The people were always more apprehensive of danger at a time when the river was swollen than in its ordinary stage. The men in the fort were mostly up all night, ready for resistance if necessary. There was no physician at the fort and much effort was made to set some broken bones; there was a well in the fort and provision and ammunition sufficient to sustain a pretty formidable attack. The women were greatly alarmed, pressing their infants to their bosoms, fearing they might not be permitted to behold another morning's light, but the night passed away without seeing or hearing an Indian.
" The next morning a party went to the Sink-hole and found the Indians gone, who had carried off all their dead and wounded, except five dead bodies left on the northwest bank of the Sink-hole; and by the signs of blood in the Sink-hole it was judged that well nigh
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thirty of the enemy must have been killed and wounded. Lieuten- ant Drakeford Gray's report of the affair made eight of our party killed, one missing and five wounded, making a total of fourteen; I had thought that the number was nearer twenty. Our dead were buried near the fort, and then Captain Musick and his men went over to Fort Cap au Gris where they belonged and of which Captain Musick had command. We that day sent out scouts and I pro- ceeded to St. Charles to procure medical and surgical assistance, and sent forward Doctors Hubbard and Wilson. It may be proper to remark that from the crossing of Cuivre river to Fort Howard was a mile; from the fort to the Sink-hole one-half mile, and nearly one- fourth of a mile from the fort to Bob's creek. The fort was an ob- long square north and south and embraced about an acre, with a blockhouse at all the corners except the southeast one. Lieutenant Drakeford Gray was left in command there; he belonged to the New Madrid region and did not long survive the war; Captain Musick resided near Florissant, and lived, I think, to a good old age." 54
Lieutenant Drakeford Gray, who after this engagement assumed command of the company, in his report to Colonel Russell, dated at Ft. Howard, May 25, 1815, agrees with the narrative of Colonel Shaw, and reports as killed, one captain, one third lieutenant, five privates, and three as wounded, and one soldier as missing. Captain David Musick of the St. Louis county rangers says that when they came up to the assistance of Captain Craig they found him closely engaged with the Indians and about equally matched as to number; that the Indians retreated into a sink, and "baffled every art to get them out, as they had a better chance to kill than to be killed."" LaBurdash, or "The Womanly," a Fox chief, claimed, in 1816, that he commanded at the Sink-hole. He was a large, heavily formed Indian, then somewhat beyond middle age, and at the head of a band residing on the upper Mississippi a little below Dubuque's grave.56 Mr. Archambeau says in a letter that Craig and Spears would both have done better in a combat with regular troops because they "evinced such a contempt of danger and death that they despised the devious mode of Indian warfare." 57 In the meantime peace had been concluded, and the time of service of the
" Wisconsin Historical Collection, vol. 1, pp. 213-18.
" Niles' Register, vol. 8, p. 312, July 1, 1815.
" Draper's Notes, vol. 6, p. 313.
17 Niles' Register, vol. 8, p. 312, July 1, 1815.
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Craig company having about expired, within ten days after this affair the company was mustered out of service.
In June, 1815, about 1,200 or 1,500 Indian warriors, near the Rock river and above and below the Des Moines, composed of "Saukees, Renards, Ioways, Winnebagoes and Fall Savoins," were still on the war path, and it was supposed that even then they were encouraged by British agents, although these agents must have received official notice of the conclusion of peace. So it was not strange that early in the spring of this year while the Indians were still hostile, the young men of Cape Girardeau, Ste. Genevieve and part of St. Louis counties to the number of 750 formed themselves into a regi- ment with a view of offering their services to the Government for the protection of the upper country. At a meeting of this regiment at Cape Girardeau John Shaw was elected Colonel, and Levi Roberts, Major. Two hundred and fifty men of this regiment embodied at Portage des Sioux, about April 15, 1816, and Shaw taking command marched up the Mississippi to Rock Island, and finding no enemy there, passed through Illinois, and from there to and across the Illinois river. In Illinois they met an express stating that hostilities should cease and that a treaty for peace was to be held at Portage des Sioux in June, to which all the Indians were invited. Shaw says that neither he nor his rangers were paid, and that he was involved in debt to the amount of $30,000 on account of supplies furnished to this expedition and eventually lost about $13,684.19.58
..
The forts, so called, erected during this war by the settlers on the Mississippi river and in the St. Charles district, were simply strong log houses with a projecting upper story, and with loop- holes for musketry, says Long.5º Fort Mason was located not far from the present city of Hannibal, Fort Howard, near the mouth of the Cuivre river and the present village of Monroe. Buffalo fort was two miles below the present city of Louisiana on what is now known as the Allison farm.60 Fort Wood was erected near the Big spring where the town of Troy in Lincoln county is now located; Fort Howell, in Howell's Prairie; Fort Cap au Gris, eight miles above the mouth of Cuivre river, and opposite Cap au Gris in Illinois; Pond fort, a short distance from the present town of Wentzville; White's fort on Big Prairie; Kountz's fort on the
" Wisconsin Historical Collection, vol. I, p. 223.
5º Long's Expedition, vol. I, p. 76
"0 History of Pike County, p. 192.
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old Boonslick road, eight miles west of St. Charles; Zumwalt's fort near the present village of O'Fallon; Castilo's fort near Howell's Prairie; Clark's fort, four miles north of Troy in Lincoln county; Stout's fort, a small stockade near Auburn in St. Charles county.61 On the Missouri river Kennedy's fort was near the present town of Wright City in Warren county; Callaway's fort a short distance from the present town of Marthasville, and not far from the old town Charette; Fort Clemson, near Loutre island; Boone's fort in the Page bottom was built by Daniel M. Boone and was the strongest and largest of all these forts in that locality. Several such forts were also located on Loutre island."2 Farther up the Missouri river in the Boonslick settlement was Cooper's fort which seems to have been a stockade flanked by log houses, near the Missouri river. It was the largest fort of the settlements, in a bottom prairie (near the present town of Glasgow). About 150 yards from the timber between it and the river, a common field of 250 acres was worked by all the inhabitants of this fort,- twenty families and a number of young men resided in the fort. McLaine's fort, afterwards called Fort Hempstead @3 was erected on a high hill, near Sulphur creek, on the bluff about one mile from the present town of New Franklin; Fort Kinkead, near the river, about one and one-half mile from the site of Old Franklin; "4 and Head's fort on the Big Moniteau near
"1 Wisconsin Historical Collection, vol. I, p. 204.
12 Long's Expedition, vol. I, p. 76.
" Connected with Fort Hempstead were the following carly settlers: Amos, Jesse and Otto Albright; Aquilla, Abraham, James, John and Shadrach Barnes; Robert Barclay, Campbell and Delaney Bolan; David and Henry Burris; Prior Duncan, Stephen and John Field; John Hunes, Usebines Hub- bard, Asaph and Daniel Hubbard; Joseph Jolly (afterward in Jolly's bottom, Cooper county), John, David and Matthew Kincaid; Adam McCord, Daniel and John Monroe; John Matthews, William Nash, Gilead Rupe, Enoch, Isaac and William Taylor; Enoch Turner, Giles and Britton Williams; Frank Wood and Henry Weeden .- History of Howard and Cooper Counties, p. 158. At this fort, if a man went to sleep while acting as sentinel, the penalty imposed was grinding as many pecks of corn with a handmill as there were widows in the fort. There were seven widows in the fort and each became the recipient of a peck of meal whenever a sentinel went to sleep on duty. History of Howard and Cooper Counties, p. 161.
" So named in honor of David Kinkead; was located in the Missouri bottom, about a mile and a quarter above Boonville, and about a mile north of the river. At Fort Kinkead, and connected with it during the War of 1812 were James Alcorn, Price and John Arnold; Joseph and David Boggs; Robert and William Samuel; Townsend Brown, Christopher and Nicholas T. Burck- harrt; Lindsay Carson and sons "Kit," Andrew and Moses; Charles and William Canole; Isaac Clark, Joseph, James and Perrin Cooley; James Cock- rell, James, John, Peter and William Gleason; James Douglas, Daniel Dur- ben, John Elliott, father of Col. N. G. Elliott; Hiram, Reuben, Sarshall and
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. the old Boonslick trace from St. Charles, not far from what was then called the "Spanish Needle Prairie," four miles above Roche- port, the most easterly fort of the settlement. Head was "a brave and useful man.""% On the south side of the Missouri the first Cole fort was located in the "Old Fort Field" about one and one- half mile east of the present site of Boonville, north of the Roche- port road." The second fort of this name was erected about one mile below the present city, and where the widow Hannah Cole, widow of William T. Cole, settled and lived after her husband had been slain by the Indians, on the bluff overlooking the river in what is now known as East Boonville. This place was selected by the settlers as the most suitable for defense, being located at the edge of a very steep bluff and easily defended, and also affording facilities to obtain a good supply of water. In order to make the supply of water, even during Indian attack, secure, the settlers ran a long log over the edge of the bluff and attached to it a rope and windlass to draw up water. After the construction of this fort the erection of other places of defense south of the river was abandoned, because it was built large enough to afford all the scattered families then living south of the river a place for protection. McMahon's fort was also located on the south side of the river, about five miles from Cooper's fort.
During the war the Indians stole so many horses from the settlers of the Boonslick settlements, that for two or three years after the close of the war they were compelled to plow out the corn with oxen, and even with milch cows.
There were fourteen white settlers and two negroes killed in the upper Boonslick country during the war, and about as many Indians, - a small number it may seem to us now, but counting the. few settlers then dwelling in that district, a large percentage of the popula- tion.67
Simeon Fugate; Reuben Gentry, Abner, John and William Grooms; Alfred and Moses Head; Robert Hinkson, who moved to Boone county; Noah Caton, Joseph, William and Ewing McLain; Joseph Moody, Mrs. Susan Mullins, Thompson Mullins, William Pipes, Christopher, James, Jesse and Silas Rich- ardson; John Rupe, Thomas Smith, John and James Sneathan; Joseph Still, John Stinson, Solomon, David and John Tetlers; Isaac and John Thornton; Jonathan Davis, Elisha and Levi Todd; James Phillips, Jesse Turner, Thomas, Joseph, William and Ewing McLean. History of Howard and Cooper Counties, p. 158.
" Draper's Notes, vol. 6, p. 313 et seq.
" History of Cooper county, by Levins and Drake, p. 21.
17 The services of Major Thomas Forsyth, at Peoria, are also worthy of note during this war. Major Forsyth in 1816 removed his family to a farm near St. Louis and on this farm he died October 23, 1833. Forsyth acted as the
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FORSYTH
secret agent of the Government at Peoria, during the war of 1812, because it was supposed that he could be more serviceable to both sides if his old friends, the Indians, did not know his true position. He did much to ameliorate the horrors of the war, and often risked his life to obtain some prisoner who had been captured. Capt. Craig from Shawneetown, however, who did not know his position, and enraged because hostile Indians fired on his boat while in the Peoria lake, captured all the inhabitants of the Peoria village, including Forsyth, placed them on his boat and took them to a point below Alton, and left them there - men, women and children - in a starving condition in the woods, without shelter and food, and all of which Forsyth did not fail to charac-
terize as it deserved. The Indians claimed that they were offered 2,000 pounds for the head of Forsyth by the English (Niles' Register, vol. 6, p. 427.) Forsyth was born in Detroit, December 5, 1771. He early engaged in the Indian trade in Michigan. In 1798 he wintered on an Island in the Mis- sissippi near where Hannibal is now located at the mouth of the Fabius. In 1802 he established a trading post at Chicago in partnership with John Mckenzie, his step-brother, and his elder brother, Robert Forsyth. In 1804 he married Miss Keziah Malotte and then established himself in the Indian trade in Peoria, and here he became the secret agent of the Government among the Saukee and Renard Indians during the war of 1812. After the war he removed to a farm near St. Louis and for many years was the trusted Indian agent of the Government among the Saukees and Renards. In 1819 made a voyage from St. Louis to the Falls of St. Anthony, and fully reported as to the lead mines on the Mississippi. His journal of this voyage has been published in the Wisconsin Historical Collection, vol. 6, p. 140 et seq. It is said that if Major Thomas Forsyth had remained Indian agent among the Saukees and Renards, the Black Hawk war would have been avoided. His son, Col. Robert Forsyth, was also largely identified with Indian affairs and was the "special confident" in 1820, of Gov. Cass, when he was superintendent of Indian affairs. In 1834 he was paymaster in the army.
CHAPTER XXVII.
Increase of Population after the Cession - Lewis and Clark Expedition - Glimpses of the Country along the Missouri-St. Charles-La Charette- Daniel Boone-Pike's Expedition up the Mississippi in 1805-Portage des Sioux-The Germ of Hannibal-Pike goes up the Missouri in 1806- His Voyage up the Osage No Vestige of Fort Cardondelet-Lisa operates as a Trader on the Osage then-Chouteau a trader there H. M. Bracken- ridge and Bradbury on the Missouri in 1811-Cote sans Dessein-The Boonslick Settlement-The Settlements south of the river-Fort Osage-G. C. Sibley-Rapid increase of Population after the War of 1812-15- Long's Expedition of 1819-Goes up the Mississippi from the Mouth of the Ohio-Appearance of the Country along the River as Reported by Him- Cape Girardeau-Ste. Genevieve Herculaneum-St. Louis-Long goes up the Missouri-Changes on this River since the Expeditions of Lewis and Clark and Pike-Franklin-Rapid Growth of this town-The Cradle of the Santa Fe Trade-Chariton-Isolated Settlement and Settlers north of the Missouri, and Names of some of these Settlers-Ferry across the Missouri at Arrow Rock-Dr. Sappington and his Pills-Beginning of the Export trade on the Missouri-Flatboats Sail south from the Missouri with Produce.
In 1805, the first year after the country had been ceded to the United States, the population of upper Louisiana increased from 6,028 to 10,120; of this number then only 3,760 were French, 5,000 Americans and 1,200 Negroes, the latter mostly slaves. This popu- lation was distributed in the various districts, as follows: St. Louis district 2,780, Ste. Genevieve district 2,780, Cape Girardeau district 1,470, St. Charles district 1,540 and New Madrid district 1,460. . In 1810 the population was 20,845, and in 1814, the census taken under an act of the territorial legislature showed an increase of 5,000, and this during the period of the war of 1812, when the frontier settlements of Missouri were greatly harassed by the Indians. Large as was this increase it was eclipsed by that which took place in the next period ending in 1820, when the total population of the territory now within the State was 70,000, showing an increase of 45,000 in six years, or nearly two hundred per cent.
To trace this growth in population and development is now inter- esting. Perhaps the best description of the country along the Mis- souri river, immediately after the cession of the country, is given in the report of the celebrated expedition of Lewis and Clark to the Pa- cific ocean. Evidently in anticipation of the acquisition of Louisiana, President Jefferson recommended to Congress, in 1803, the appro- priation of a small sum of money to explore the headwaters of the
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LEWIS AND CLARK
Missouri, and to find, if possible, a route to the western ocean. The appropriation was made, and after the cession Jefferson appointed his private secretary, Meriwether Lewis, as chief of the expedition and associated with him Captain Clark. Jefferson's detailed instructions, in his own handwriting, to Lewis, show the remarkable foresight and wisdom of this great man, as well as the comprehensive scien- tific and commercial purpose of this expedition. For the purpose of conducting this significant enterprise he could not have made a better selection than Lewis and Clark. Their successful trip established the western boundary of Louisiana on the shores of the Pacific. In the history of explorations, with the possible exception of Alexander Mckenzie's wonderful tour across the continent, this expedition must ever stand pre-eminent.
The force of Lewis and Clark was organized at the mouth of the Wood (Dubois) river, a small stream opposite the mouth of the Mis- souri. The explorers left camp there on the 14th day of May, 1804, in a keel-boat 55 feet long, drawing three feet of water, carrying one large square sail, and twenty-two oars. This boat had decks of ten feet in the bow and stern which formed a forecastle and cabin, while the middle was covered with lockers which could be raised so as to form a breastwork in case of attack. Accompanying them were two pirogues. The corps consisted of forty-three men, composed of nine young men from Kentucky, fourteen United States . soldiers, two Canadian boatmen, a negro servant belonging to Clark, an Indian interpreter and sixteen boat hands. On the 16th day of May the expedition encamped at the United States cantonment established at Bellefontaine by General Wilkinson in the previous year. Leaving here and passing northward they noted a number of small farms on the south bank of the river in the Bon Homme bottom. St. Charles is described as a small town on the north bank, situated on a narrow plain sufficiently high to protect the place from annual overflow. It was at that time more generally known to the French by the name "Les Petites Côtes." The prin- cipal street of the town was about one mile long, running parallel with the river, the town consisted of about one hundred small wooden houses, and a chapel, and had four hundred and fifty inhabitants. Ashe, in 1806, says of St. Charles, and the settlements near there on the Missouri: "Thirty miles up and on the north side of the 'Mas- sauri' is a village called St. Charles. It is of a tolerable size, and the principal trade is with the Indians. About eight miles above
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HISTORY OF MISSOURI
this, the village and settlement of Bon Homme opens to view, and twenty-six miles farther up the village of New Versailles,"1 and Brown's "Gazetteer" in 1817 notes: "At St. Charles a round, wooden tower formerly occupied by the Spaniards as a fort or guard- house,"? and says that the place "is a handsome village" with 1,000 inhabitants.
Farther up the river Lewis mentions the fact that thirty or forty American families reside on the Femme Osage and that they had settled there by permission of the Spanish government a few years previous.
LaCharette was then the settlement farthest up the Missouri river.ª Daniel Boone located near Charette when he came to upper Louisiana; and near this point he died. When Bradbury went up the Missouri river in 1811, Mr. Hunt, so he says, pointed out to him "an old man standing on the bank and informed him that it was Daniel Boone, the discoverer of Kentucky." Bradbury had a letter of introduction to Boone from his nephew, Colonel Grant, and went ashore to speak to him. Boone then told him he was eighty-four years old; that he had spent a considerable portion of his time in the back- woods, and that he had lately returned from his spring hunt with nearly sixty beaver skins.' At the age of eighty he trapped beaver with one white man and a negro on the headwaters of the Osage river, enjoining upon his companions in this hunt to take him back to his family dead or alive.5 When Peck was on the Missouri he met and conversed with Boone, and says that his impressions experienced on this introduction were those of surprise, admiration and delight; in his imagination he had portrayed a rough, fierce looking, uncouth specimen of humanity, who, of course, at this period of life, would be a fretful and unattractive old man; but that in every respect the reverse was the case. He describes him as follows: "His high, bold forehead was slightly bald, and his silvered locks were combed smooth, his countenance was ruddy and fair and exhibited the simplicity of a child, a smile frequently played over his countenance, in conversation his voice was soft and melodious, at repeated interviews an irritable expression was never heard; his
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