A History of Missouri from the Earliest Explorations and Settlements Until the Admission of the state into the union, Volume III, Part 18

Author: Louis Houck
Publication date: 1908
Publisher: R. R. Donnelley & sons company
Number of Pages: 405


USA > Missouri > A History of Missouri from the Earliest Explorations and Settlements Until the Admission of the state into the union, Volume III > Part 18


Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).


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 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44


" Long's Expedition, p. 43. John Ordway, who was sergeant in the Lewis and Clark corps on the expedition to the Pacific, after his return took up his residence in this bottom. The journal of Clark is largely in his handwriting. He was a native of New Hampshire. A private journal of this expedition he kept has been lost. He died in southeast Missouri.


" Darby's Emigrant's Guide, p. 142.


152


HISTORY OF MISSOURI


also describes the "insular rock" called Grand Tower, the Devil's Oven near the mouth of Brazeau creek, Cornice Rock, the flourishing settlement in Bois Brûle " bottom, St. Lawrence (called by him St. Lora) creek, and finally Gabourie (by him named Gabaree) creek, on which he says stands "the old French town of Ste. Genevieve." Saline creek, where the ancient salt works were, a few miles below Ste. Genevieve, leads Long to say that here a grant of one league square was made to a Frenchman named Pegreau, evidently intended for Peyroux (the one time command- ant of Ste. Genevieve and also of New Madrid), who carried on the manufacture of salt, but that Peyroux, returning to France, leased the property to a man who neglected to operate the works, and that, after the cession, this land became the subject of speculation. During his absence his worthless tenant was persuaded to institute suit against him and secured a judgment of $9,000, on account of which the property was finally sold and fell into the hands of the pres- ent proprietor. In 1819 Henry Dodge manufactured salt here.34


Describing Ste. Genevieve a few years before, Flint said: "Here we first see the French mode of constructing houses, and forming a village. The greater proportion of the houses have mud walls, whitened with lime, which have much the most pleasant appearance at a distance. Their modes of building, enclosing and managing, are very unlike those of the Americans. Here the French is the predominant language. Traces, too, of their regard for their worship begin to be seen. You see the Catholic church. On the ridges of the houses, or over the gates, you frequently see the wooden cross." 35 Ste. Genevieve then exported lead and flour, and imported British goods, French and West India produce. Land was worth five dollars an acre.6 In 1817 Brown says that the Ste. Genevieve common field extended for nine miles along the Mississippi, and embraced 7,000 acres, but this is evidently an error, because this field at no time embraced more than 3,500 acres. The town then consisted of 350 houses, an Academy and eight or ten stores. A big road led from the place to the lead mines, and nearly all the citizens of the town were interested in this trade or employed in it in some way.37


"3 Usually now goes by the name of "Bob Ruley."


" Life of Peck, p. 118.


35 Flint's Recollections, p. 100.


" Ashe's Travels, vol. 3, p. 119.


17 Brown's Gazetteer, p. 205. According to Brown, New Bourbon in 1817 had about 70 buildings, but this too is a mistake.


153


LONG


Herculaneum, the county seat of the then recently established county of Jefferson, Long describes as a small village "depending principally upon the lead mines for business."" In 1819 three shot factories were in operation near the town on top of perpendicular precipices fronting the river; their situation obviating the expense of erecting the high towers used in the manufacture of shot. The lead mines were located about thirty or forty miles southwest from Hercu- laneum. From there, a bridle-trail near the river bluffs led to Ste. Genevieve, this trail passing through what was at the time an "immense tract of barrens." 30


Long's expedition reached St. Louis after a trip of eight days from the mouth of the Ohio, and its arrival was "noticed by a salute by a six pounder on the bank of the river, and the discharge of ord- nance on board of several of the steamboats lying in front of the town."40 In 1804 there were only three settlements of any impor- tance between the mouth of the Ohio and St. Louis. Of these the. "Account of Louisiana" published shortly after the cession says, "Ascending the river you come to Cape Girardeau, Ste. Genevieve and St. Louis; though the inhabitants are numerous they raise little for exportation and content themselves with trading with the Indians and working lead mines."" Schultz, in 1807, counted nine consid- erable settlements between the mouth of the Ohio and Cape Gir- ardeau, all made on Spanish grants; but on the eastern side of the river he found "not a single one." "2


In St. Louis, Major Long met John Bradbury, the naturalist, who, as we have already seen, several years before traveled up the Missouri river. Bradbury was then preparing to erect a residence in St. Louis.13


Long departed from St. Louis on June 21st, and going up the Mis- souri observed that the place where the cantonment of Bellefontaine had been established by General Wilkinson, in 1805, was completely washed away, and that consequently, in 1810, this military establish- ment had been removed farther back "to its present site." He describes the cantonment as being built out of logs, one story high, based upon masonry and united in the form of a hollow square.


" Long's Expedition, p. 52.


3º Life of Peck, p. 117.


" Long's Expedition, p. 55.


" "An Account of Louisiana," p. 13.


" Schultz's Travels, vol. 2, p. 33.


" Long's Expedition, p. 58.


154


HISTORY OF MISSOURI


St. Charles was then a declining town of about one hundred * houses, but containing many substantial brick buildings. Long tells us that owing to the loss of the fur trade the town for several years had been in a decaying condition, but that the settlement of the sur- rounding agricultural country "had now placed the business of the town on a more permanent basis.""


Above Point Labadie a fine field of wheat on the river belonging to a Virginia farmer attracted attention. Loutre island was then well settled, and Long makes mention of the farm of Talbot from Kentucky, who had located on this island in 1810. This farm, he says, was in a high state of cultivation, furnishing his boat an abundant supply of poultry and numerous vegetables. He mentions the immense size of the timber on Loutre island, and records that out of one walnut tree a farmer made two hundred fence rails eleven feet long and from four to six inches thick, and out of one cotton- wood tree 30,000 shingles.


The development of the country since Brackenridge and Brad- bury passed up the river a few years before is shown by the fact that now several saw mills were in operation on the Gasconade river, floating their product to market down stream, and that a town was projected at the mouth of the river to be called "Gasconade." The fact that a large claim of Chouteau at the mouth of the Osage, evi- dently the claim of Noel Mongrain, nephew of "White Hair," retarded the settlement of the country, is also noted.


At this time Franklin was a very important town and still grow- ing rapidly. Although only two and one-half years old, this place contained one hundred and twenty log houses, several two-story frame houses, two brick buildings, thirteen stores, four taverns, two smith shops, two large steam mills, two billiard rooms, a Courthouse a log prison, a post-office and a printing office issuing a weekly news- paper. Brick sold at that time, at Franklin, at ten dollars a thousand, corn at twenty-five cents a bushel, bacon at ten to twelve cents a pound, and the price of labor was seventy-five cents a day. The price of uncleared land had already advanced to ten and fifteen dollars per acre; yet in 1816, three years before, only thirty families resided on the left bank of the Missouri river above Côte sans Dessein. In this short period, the population here and in this neighborhood


" But in 1834, Featherstonhaugh describes St. Charles as "a poor tatter- demalion looking place, presenting a long street with some old French houses and shabby brick stores, where a few American shopkeepers are wasting away their lives." Excursion through the Slave States, vol. I, p. 286.


155


SANTA FE TRADE


had increased to eight hundred families. That the flow of travel in this direction was great is shown by the fact that Austin had a public road from Potosi to the Boonslick country cut out in 1817 4 in order to draw a portion of the emigration through the mining districts." Franklin was the cradle of the Santa Fe trade. In the effort to secure the Santa Fe trade the people of the Missouri territory were deeply interested. It was known to be profitable and known too that the people of New Mexico were anxious to secure merchandise from the traders on the Mississippi. Even before the cession an effort was made by William Morrison, the most important merchant in the Mississippi valley at that time, to secure some of this trade and to that end he sent an agent named Lalande to Santa Fe, but he never returned, proving a faithless servant. In 1796 the Governor of New Mexico sent Pedro Vial from Santa Fe to St. Louis to trace out a road to that town. In 1805 James Pursley started out from St. Louis to hunt and trap in the west and from the waters of the South Platte found his way to Santa Fe, where he remained and followed the trade of a carpenter quite profitably, except when he worked for the officials. In 1812 when the revolution of Hidalgo occurred and it was supposed that the Spanish dominion of Mexico was at an end Robert Mc- Knight, James Baird, and Samuel Chambers, organized a trading expedition to Santa Fe, but when they reached the town they found that the revolution had collapsed and Hidalgo executed. They were arrested and confined to prison at various places in northern Mexico and not released until the final success of the revolution under Iturbide. They returned in 1821-2.47 In 1815 A. P. Chou- teau and Julius De Mun, supposing that they would be favorably received by the authorities of New Mexico, organized another trading venture to Santa Fe and which they thought promised well, but a change of officers taking place they were on their arrival arrested, imprisoned and a part of the time held in irons, their goods confiscated and after about three years allowed to return, losing some $30,000 in this enterprise. All this deterred others from attempting any trade intercourse in that direction, although it is highly probable that an occasional trader made a successful trip into that region, and returned with large profits and no doubt stories of still greater profits to be made, if conditions were more favorable. But no well


" Brown's Gazetteer, p. 193.


"Schoolcraft's Travels, p. 245.


"7 Chambers lived and died in Taos, Mexico; McKnight and Beard became wealthy and owned copper mines west of the Rio Grande.


156


HISTORY OF MISSOURI


concerted attempt to reach this territory was made until 1821 when William Becknell, a resident of Howard county, published his adver- tisement in the Franklin Intelligencer, to enlist "a company of men destined to the westward for the purpose of trading for horses and mules and catching wild animals of every description that we may for advantage to the company;" all men joining the expedition to bind themselves by oath to submit to such orders and rules as the company, when assembled, may adopt. Only seventy signers were to be receiv- ed up to August 4th, and all men wishing to go were ordered to meet at Ezekiel Williams', the same Williams already known to us as the "Lost Trapper," on the Missouri river five miles above Franklin, to secure a pilot and appoint officers. But at this meeting only seven- teen men met and Becknell was chosen captain. It was then resolved that thirty men would be a number large enough to undertake the expedition and that the company as organized would cross the Mis- souri September first, at Arrow Rock, and which it did, returning in January, 1822, after a successful trip. It is thus that Becknell became the founder of the highly profitable Santa Fe trade, of which Franklin for a number of years was the center.


Unfortunately, Franklin was laid out in the Missouri bottom on a recent alluvial plain. Long thought that the river would encroach upon the banks and wash away the town, and this supposition was very shortly verified. Boonville, situated on the opposite side of the river from Franklin, then consisted of only eight houses, but Long thought that it "has a more advantageous situation" and that it was probably "destined to rival if not surpass its neighbor." Game was then becoming scarce on the lower Missouri, and most of the deer and larger animals, as well as turkeys, had fled from that part of the country, although "a few years since, they were extremely abundant." 48


In 1818 Chariton was founded, and "promised to become one of the most important towns of the Missouri." In 1819 the town contained about fifty houses and about five hundred inhabi- tants "on a spot where two years previous no permanent habitation had been established." "Such is the rapidity," Long observes, "with which the forests of Missouri are becoming filled with an enterprising and industrious population." "


48 Long's Expedition, p. 98. Among the first settlers of Chariton county was Col. Hiram Craig, son of Robert Craig, one of the heroes of King's Moun- tain.


" Ibid., p. 97


157


INTERIOR SETTLEMENTS


And not only along the river, but also in the interior of the coun- try, many new settlements were founded after the close of the war of 1812. Thus Augustus Thrall settled in 1816 in what is now Boone county and the neighborhood in which he established himself be- came known as Thrall's Prairie. Here John and William Berry, William Baxter and Reuben Gentry also settled. Columbia and the State University is now situated in this locality. In 1816 farms were opened on the Boonslick trace by Aaron Watson, William Coats, a Baptist preacher, and his brother, James Coats, John Logan, Joseph Callaway, Robert Read, Thomas Kitchens, William Pratt, and John Gibson, all within the present limits of Callaway. James Van Bibber then had a farm at "Van Bibber's Lick." Van Bibber married Eliza Hays, a granddaughter of Daniel Boone. On the Aux Vase, nine miles from Fulton, on this Boonslick road, another settlement sprang up.50 Martin Palmer hunted and trapped in the limits of the present Carroll county in 1817 and in 1819, John Stanley and William Turner settled near the place where is now located Carrolton. In the later year a number of pioneer im- migrants also settled in what is now Clay county.51 An Englishman named Robert Littleby, hunted and trapped on a small stream now known as Littleby creek, a tributary of Salt river, in the territory of Audrain county in 1818, but in 1822 moved to the Platte country. As early as 1808, a number of immigrants from South Carolina and Ken- tucky settled in Pike county.52 John Bozarth was the first settler near


" Among settlers of Callaway county at Cete sans Dessin were François, Louis and Jean Roy, Jos. Rivard, Jos. Tibeau, François Tayon, Louis Labrosse, Louis Vincennes, Baptiste Groza and Baptiste and Louis Des Noyer. Captain Coursault also was a resident there and appears to have been in command of a company in the war of 1812. In 1817 or a little after this date Gen. Jonathan Ramsay, Asa Williams, Thomas Smith and Jesse and George Adams settled near here.


"1 Among the first settlers of Clay county we find John Owens, Sam McGee, Ben. Hensley, William Campbell, John Wilson, Zachariah Everett, John Boaley and George Coltier.


"2 Among these settlers were James Templeton, James Venable, Andrew Jordan, Carroll Moss, John Hynem, James Orr, Jacob Lames, Joseph Holliday, Charles Montjoy, William Berry, Isaac Ash, John Bryson, Abner Hobbs, Robert Anderson, James Cox, Jos. McCoy, James Johnson, John Caldwell, Michael J. Noyes, William P. Halliday, James Watson, David James, Willis Mitchell, Jesse H. Lane, Sam Small, Sam Watson, William Lee, Moses Kelley, Sam McGary, W. K. Perkins, John Bayse, David Watson, John Turner, Hugh Gordon, James Mackey, John Lewis, John M. Jordon, Sam Kean, Ephraim W. Beasley, James Crider, Steven Clever, James Culbertson, Abraham Thomas, Thos. Cunningham, Wm. McConnell, John Watts, William Denny, James Crider, David Guernsey, William Brown, Ben Burbridge, Harrison Booth, Mathias Nichols. James Burns settled near the present town of Clarksville in 1800, and came from South Carolina; near him settled the Watsons, Alexander


.


158


HISTORY OF MISSOURI


LaGrange 58 in Lewis county. On one of the prongs of Salt river, half way between Paris and Florida, in the limits of Monroe, Jos. Smith and Alexander Smith established themselves in 1818.54 James Stark set- tled in 1811 about three miles north of New London, in Ralls county.


Between the Chariton and Grand river, a number of settlements were formed, but no settlement existed in 1816 at any point west of Grand river, and there was only one solitary trading house, and a single residence of a family, at the mouth of Grand river. The Saukees and Foxes, Pottowatomies and Iowas still hunted along the waters of this stream, and elk and deer were yet numerous. Below Grand river a ferry had been established across the Missouri at Arrow Rock by Henry Becknell. The ferry-boat was made, as was the custom with the first settlers, by two canoes lashed together with a flat frame covering them both, and surrounded by a slight rail to prevent the cattle and stock falling off into the river.55


.


The high prairie grass beyond the settlement rendered traveling difficult in that region, but the alternating forests and meadows, apparently arranged in perfect order, gave the country on this side of the river a lovely appearance, as if it was inhabited. Dr. Sappington,


Allison, the Jordans, William McConnell, Thomas Cunningham, John Turner, John Walker, Abraham Thomas, in about 1808; all these settlers coming from South Carolina. In 1809 additional settlers arrived from Kentucky, among them James O'Neal, William Reading, Ben Gray, John Watts, David Todd, William and Joseph Holliday, Mordecai Amos, Stephen Ruddle, a son of Isaac Ruddle of Ruddle's fort, captured by the Indians and who was a brother of Abraham and George Ruddle who settled in the New Madrid district during the Spanish government. Stephen Ruddle was a pioneer preacher.


Among the early residents of Pike county in 1818, we find Elijah Hendricks, who served under Washington in the New Jersey campaign, then under Gen. Sullivan in a campaign against the Indians, and finally was taken prisoner at Charleston when that place surrendered, remaining a prisoner until 1781. James Caldwell was the first sheriff of Pike county. The first court of the county was held in the house of Obadiah Dickson : David Todd was judge and S. Brickey the circuit attorney. At this term of court Ezra Hunt was admitted to the practice of the law. Jos. McCoy, Daniel McCue, Eli Burkelow, George Myers, Andrew Edwards and Joseph Harpoel settled on Ramsay's creek in 1811, and John Mackey and James Templeton on Buffalo. Col. James John- son built a mill in Louisiana after he arrived in 1818. James Burns built a mill above Clarksville and John Watson built a mill in the county in 1820.


" Robert M. Easton, Llewellyn Brown and Aaron Crane settled near Canton in 1811.


" Among the first settlers of Monroe county we find Ezra Fox, Daniel Jacob and Andrew Wittenburg, who settled near Middle Grove in about 1819. The first land entries in the county were made in 1818 by Joseph Holliday, Bennett Goldberry and in 1819 by John Taylor, Alex. Clark and Daniel McCoy.


" At St. Louis, in 1818, the ferry consisted of two small keel-boats thus fastened together. Darby well describes the manner of crossing the river there. It then took three days to transfer his father's effects across the river, and cost fifty dollars. Darby's Recollections, p. 2.


159


SETTLERS IN THE SOUTHWEST


who came to the territory in 1817, first lived near Glasgow, but in 1819 removed to Arrow Rock and was in 1819 the first physician in what is now Saline county. In his practice he first used quinine, and Dr. John Sappington's Anti-Fever Pills were celebrated in the territory. Another settler of this county was Henry Nave, who came from Cooke county, Tennessee, in 1816. He was a soldier of the war of 1812. Nimrod Jenkins from Tennessee, John Bowles and Thomas Marlin were the first settlers in Pettis county. Henry Reed settled on the Burbeuse in Gasconade in 1812, and prior to this time James Roark lived three miles south of Herman.56 At what is now called Bonnet's Mills a number of French settled in 1805 within the present limits of Osage county. In Moniteau county in 1816 the first settlers were Abram Otis, William Parker, Jackson Vivian and John Longan, all from Kentucky, and John and Curtis Johnson, Charles Mathews and George Pettigrew, Jos. Williams, Johnson McDaniels, Daniel McKenney and George Cooper who came in the following year. Thomas Stephens, Nathan Huff and Thos. Strain from Tennessee also settled in this county in 1817. In Maries county in 1820, Joseph Coates settled in what has since become known as Lane's Prairie. Here too settled Thomas Johnson and his sons, Daniel Waldo Joseph Renfro, George Snodgrass, William Land, all from North Carolina. Lane built the first distillery in that locality, and in what in now southwest Missouri John Pettijohn, Price and Augustine Friend, and others first came to make a settlement in 1820. This Augustine Friend was a resident on White river in 1819, and is men- tioned by Schoolcraft. Pettijohn was a Virginian, a Revolutionary soldier. He came up White river from the Arkansas territory with 22 others, and they all established themselves near Springfield. One Jeremiah Pierson first built a mill on the Pomme de Terre. Near him lived George Wells, Isaac Prosser, and Nathan Burrill, a son-in-law of Pettijohn. James Fisher and William Holt resided in 1819 where the town of Forsyth, county seat of Taney county, is now built. They guided Schoolcraft and Pettibone who found them there in the wilderness, to the upper branches of James Fork in what is now Green county. Zimri Carter settled on Current river in 1820, not far from the present town of Van Buren in Carter county,


" William West, Isaac Perkins, G. Packett, and James Kegans were early trappers and hunters on the Gasconade. The first real estate owners of Gas- conade county were Isaac Best and a man by the name of Callahan, who had a horse grist mill on the Gasconade, but was driven away by the Indians and swam down the Missouri eight miles to Talbot's Fort on Loutre island to escape.


-


160


HISTORY OF MISSOURI


so named for him. The Chiltons, Colemans and other families also settled in that neighborhood at that time or shortly after.


.


The rapid growth of the country is shown by the fact that in 1820, cornfields of several hundred acres in extent were noted far up the Missouri. Although the country along this river had only been settled for three or four years flat-boats loaded with produce of the country sailed from Franklin down the river to New Orleans. The St. Louis "Enquirer" says, under date of November, 1820, "St. Louis witnessed during the last week the no less uncommon and gratifying sight of several flat-boats laden with produce from the country high up the Missouri, descending the Missouri des- tined for New Orleans; these boats are the van of a much greater number on their way from the Boonslick settlement."


II.


St. Louis made the Seat of Government of the Territory-Growth of St. Louis -Appearance of St. Louis-Incorporated in 1808-Road Authorized by the Territorial Legislature to Ste. Genevieve, Cape Girardeau and New Madrid-Opened in 1813-Revenue of St. Louis-Fire Companies -First Street Improvements-Market House-Lisa builds the first Brick- house-Survey of the Town by Brown-First contested Village Election- Water Supply -Jealousy of St. Charles-Cape Girardeau laid out in 1805 by Lorimier-Road Established from there to St. Genevieve in 1806-Jack- son laid out in 1815-Appearance of Jackson in 1818-Peck-The German Settlement on Whitewater-New Madrid-The New Madrid Harbor- Scene in, described by Flint-Decline of New Madrid-The Earthquake of 1811-Extent of-Cause of Earthquake, Various Theories-Audubon's notice of it-Description of the Earthquake by Senator Linn-Noticed on the Kaskaskia-At Cincinnati-Described by Bradbury-Louis Bringier's description-The Earth opens at Various Places-River runs backward- Lands Sink-The Description of it by Mrs. Bryant - LeSieur's Descrip- tion-Flint's Observations Seven years Afterwards of its Effects-Little Prairie Destroyed-Reelfoot Lake-Continues from Time to Time for sev- eral Months-Effect in Cape Girardeau-Act of Congress for Relief -- Frauds resulting from this Act-Description of New Madrid by Nuttall in 1818-St. Michael now Fredericktown in 1820-Potosi-Picture of, by Schoolcraft-Large Sales of Public Lands-New towns founded on the Missouri and Mississippi and Names of same-Disappearance of most of these-Jefferson City Located and made Seat of State Government-Saw- mills, Tanyards-Various Industries of the Pioneer Settlers detailed-Lead Mines-Shot Towers-Fur Trade-Banks-Early Merchants-Steamboats -Change Made by Steamboat Travel-A Question whether Boats could Navigate the Missouri-Flint's comparison between Keelboat and Steam- boat Travel.




Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.