A History of Missouri from the Earliest Explorations and Settlements Until the Admission of the state into the union, Volume III, Part 21

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 21


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The only other villages in the interior south of St. Louis, prior to the admission of Missouri into the Union, were St. Michael (Fred- ericktown) and Potosi. St. Michael was originally established about a mile and a half from the present town in 1802, by a few French families. They had received grants of land, and according to the French custom, instead of building separately on the land granted them, they built a village, or rather a cluster of log houses, not far therefrom, along a stream of water known as Saline creek. In 1814, owing to a great overflow of the stream, this original village was abandoned by most of the people and a new one established about a mile and a half north, but, as usual, not all the residents moved to the new village. However, these French settlers built a Catholic church there in 1820. In 1819, when Madison county was organized Fred- ericktown was laid out on the opposite side of the creek from the new St. Michael village, on land belonging to Colonel Nathaniel Cook. The place was selected by commissioners appointed to locate the county seat of the new county. The new town was named "Freder- icktown," in honor of George Frederick Bollinger of Cape Girardeau county.87 The first merchants of the town were S. A. Guignon, S. B.


" Cuming's Tour to the West, p. 283.


17 Theodore Tong, John Burdett and Henry Whitener were appointed the commissioners to locate the county seat and established it at the present Fred- ericktown, on the opposite side of the creek from the old settlement of St. Michael. William Easum, James and Samuel Campbell, John Mathews, John L. Petite, "William Crawford, Daniel Phillips, Thomas Crawford, and Elijah O'Bannon settled in Madison county in 1818. The Whiteners and Mousers settled on the creeks known by these names in the same year.


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HISTORY OF MISSOURI


Pratte and Moses and Caleb Cox. The town, however, did not grow rapidly. The trail or road into the Southwest and into Arkansas from St. Louis and Ste. Genevieve passed through St. Michael; and in 1819 there was also a road from Cape Girardeau, Jackson and St. Michael to St. Louis. In 1820 Fredericktown had about fifty houses.


We have seen how Mine à Breton became a "mining camp." " during the Spanish government. After Austin settled there and established his furnace and saw mills the village assumed a more


POTOSI IN 1819-ACCORDING TO SCHOOLCRAFT


permanent character. In 1807 Mine à Breton had about 40 houses and the village of Old Mines, situated about seven miles from Mine à Breton, in the little bottom of a fork of Big river, was composed of about fifteen cabins.89 In 1812 Washington county was organized. The county seat was located opposite Mine à Breton,


88 Vol. I, p. 367.


8º Among other early settlers of Potosi, we find John Brickey, first clerk of Washington county, who was born in Virginia in 1782 and settled in Potosi in 1812. John S. Brickey, also born in Virginia, but not related to John Brickey, was also an early settler, and the first resident attorney of Washington county. He died in 1872. Job Westover, who lived on the Saline during the Spanish government, a millwright by trade, after the cession moved to Potosi. He was a native of Plymouth, Massachusetts, born in 1773, and died at Potosi in 1838. Abraham Brinker was an Indian trader at Potosi. On one of his trading expe- ditions southwest from Potosi, he was killed by the Indians. Timothy Phelps settled in Washington county in 1811. He was a native of Vermont. His daughter married Smith B. Breckinridge.


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POTOSI


and named Potosi by Moses Austin, separated from the old mining camp only by Breton creek. Schoolcraft says that Potosi was built in better style than that prevailing in the other villages of the country, that it had a neat and thriving appearance and contained several handsome edifices; a Courthouse built on the Doric order, costing seven thousand dollars (then a large sum) gave much importance to the town. At this time Potosi aspired to become the capital of the new state. "The seat of Austin," Durham Hall, was also in this village. The town had three stores, two distilleries, one steam flour mill, nine lead furnaces, one saw mill and a post-office. A weekly mail was received from St. Louis and Ste. Genevieve; a mail from Arkansas once a month, and from the Boonslick country once in two weeks. Moses Austin and Stephen F., his son, Samuel Perry, John Rice Jones, Elijah Bates, Brickey, Elliott and Honey were among the principal early residents of the town. The total output of the local lead mines from 1798 to 1818 amounted to 9,360,000 pounds.


The Murphy settlement founded in about 1800, greatly increased in population after the change of government; so also did the one known as Cook's settlement; and those on the Saline in Bois Brûle, on the Plattin, the Joachim and the Maramec. Every- where there was a marked increase in the value of land, and the larger opportunities opened by the new government were generally welcomed.


The public lands were rapidly surveyed, and the government established a land-office at Franklin, at Jackson and St. Louis, in 1818. To facilitate land purchases, by order of William H. Craw- ford, Secretary of the Treasury in 1818, notes of the bank of George- town (District of Columbia) were made receivable in payment for land at these offices. George Bullit,90 of Arkansas, was appointed Register, and John Trimble of Kentucky, Receiver of the Jackson land-office. Tunstall, also from Kentucky, was Receiver in 1820. Alexander McNair was Register, and Bernard Pratte, Receiver of the St. Louis land-office. Charles Carroll was Register of the Frank- lin land-office, and General Thomas A. Smith,"1 Receiver. Colonel


9º Afterward removed to Ste. Genevieve and was elected representative of the county in 1812 to the legislature of the territory; married a daughter of Judge Richard S. Thomas.


"1 General Thomas A. Smith, a brother of John Smith T., was a native of Essex county, Virginia. He entered the army in 1800 as ensign, in 1803 was appointed Lieutenant, in 1806 Captain. He saw service on the Canadian


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HISTORY OF MISSOURI


John Miller succeeded Carroll as Register in 1821. Land sales at the Franklin land-office in 1818 and 1819 produced seven million dollars; the average price being five dollars an acre.


The crowds of emigrants arriving and settling in the territory at this time, not only along the Missouri river, but many other points in the territory, was unexpected and unexampled. In 1819 according to the St. Louis Enquirer 120 wagons per week passed through St. Charles on the way to the Boonslick country for nine weeks in succession. In 1820 a large quantity of cotton was raised in that region by these new immigrants.


It was an era of town enterprises. Apparently every promising location along the rivers, as well as for some distance in the interior, was seized upon by some speculator to locate a town. Most of these early town enterprises have vanished from the map - Chariton, Thorntonsburg, "Louisville on Missouri river" as one town was named, Monticello, Washington, one mile from the present town of Overton, Houstonville opposite the present Rocheport, Nashville, Rectorville, Missouriton, Roche au Pierce, Gasconade at the mouth of the river of that name, Columbia at the head of the Petite Osage (Titsaw) bottom, and the town of Osage at the mouth of this river. Evidently it was thought that this town of Osage would become an important town and perhaps the capital of the future state, for we find as proprietors of the town, Angus Lewis Langham, William Rector, Alexander McNair, Samuel Hammond, Richard Gentry, Thomas Rector, Talbot Chambers, John McGunnegle, Henry W. Conway, James T. Beall, Stephen Glasscock and Thomas H. Ben- . ton, all aspiring politicians and office-holders. These towns all located on the Missouri, have disappeared, and in many instances the site even has been washed away by the treacherous current of the stream. Boonville, laid out in 1819 by Asa Morgan and Charles Lucas alone survives. On the Mississippi, the proprietors hoped that Wocondo, in Pike county, would become a great metropolis and they advertised that "its advantages are not surpassed by any


frontier. Was appointed Colonel and in 1814 Brigadier General. In 1815 he was in command of the western military department with headquarters at Belle- fontaine. He resigned in 1818 when he was appointed Receiver of the Franklin land-office. He purchased large tracts of land in Saline county. The first county seat of Boone county, about a mile from Columbia, was called "Smith- ton" in his honor. He married a daughter of James White of Knoxville, a sister of Hugh L. White, long a distinguished senator of Tennessee. General Smith lived in Saline county for twenty years before his death on his farm "Experiment " where he died in 1844.


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JEFFERSON CITY


site on the river above the mouth of the Missouri." On the lower Mississippi William Shannon, a merchant of Ste. Genevieve, laid out Belfast, opposite the present site of Chester. Still farther down, Thomas Moselly, Jr., J. N. Copper, Medad Randall and Jenifer Sprigg, the latter at one time United States Deputy Surveyor- General, in 1820 platted the town of Bainbridge, and this remained a river landing with a single warehouse for many years. Far in the interior on the great military road leading from the Mississippi into Arkansas, on the Current river, Jesse Cheek and Ben Rogan mapped a town and in their advertisement they say that "the imagi- nation can scarcely conceive a situation by nature more handsome." Portage des Sioux, an old Spanish post, at that early period was considered a situation very favorable for a large town. About 1815 it had fifty or sixty houses, but it is recorded that the French settlers were extremely jealous of the Americans, and would not sell them property.92


The permanent seat of government on the Missouri river above St. Charles, McFerron, the representative of Cape Girardeau, sug- gested should be called "Missouriopolis." But it was located in 1820 in Cole county, and named Jefferson City, and, consequently, the county seat was moved from Howard's Bluff to the new state capital. The first house was built in Jefferson City in 1819 and erected near where is now Lehman's foundry. Newport, on the Missouri river, was then the county seat of Franklin county. Gas- conade was the county seat of the county of that name. Jefferson, located at the head of the Big bottom, ten miles above Chariton, was then the county seat of Saline county, and Beck says that "it is one of the most beautiful sites on the Missouri." 93 Here one Robert I. McMullin, a native of Ireland, settled in 1808. The county seat of Lillard county (afterwards changed to Lafayette) was at Mt. Vernon on the Missouri at a point below Talbot creek; on the opposite side at Bluffton, two miles from the river, was located the county seat of Ray.


On the Mississippi river Hannibal was founded in 1818 by Thompson and Abraham Bird of Bird's Point who had acquired the land under a New Madrid certificate. Moses D. Bates was their agent and a pioneer settler of the place. At that time, he ran a keel-boat between Hannibal and St. Louis and Ste.


92 Beck's Gazetteer, p. 310.


" Ibid., p. 285.


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HISTORY OF MISSOURI


Genevieve, and traded with the Indians who still resided in the neighborhood. In 1819 the first lots were sold there. Louisiana- ville, now shorn of the "ville" was the original county seat of Pike county and platted by Samuel K. Caldwell and Joel Shaw in 1818. Clarksville, a few miles below Louisiana, was laid out in 1819 by Col. John Miller - and who afterwards was elected Governor of the state. Alexandria, located one and one-fourth miles from the Cuivre river, and twelve miles from the Mississippi, was the county seat of Lincoln; and Pinckney, on the north side of the Missouri river near the line dividing ranges two and three, the county seat of Montgomery. This town was laid out on land belonging to Alex- ander Mckinney in 1818. In 1819, Herculaneum was the county seat of Jefferson county, "promising to become a place of promi- nence in a few years," because all the lead trade of the country centered there, and two towers for making shot were in operation and others were commenced. It is described as a most beautiful location, built in a semi-circular cove where the edges of strata of limestone are worn away so as to resemble the seats of an amphi- theatre. From this circumstance, Moses Austin, the founder of the place, and, according to Featherstonhaugh "a fanciful as well as an enterprising person," gave it the name of the ancient buried city near Naples.


Winchester, in 1812, was the county seat of New Madrid county. This old county seat as well as some of the others named are now corn fields. Greenville, still the county town of Wayne, was laid out in 1820 by David Logan and Elijah Bettis at the ford . across the St. François, known as "Bettis' Ford." This place, Featherstonhaugh, in 1834, describes as "a poor wretched collec -. tion of four or five wooden cabins," and he says he found there "that indispensable rendezvous of every settlement, a dirty look- ing store, where all the vagabonds congregate together to discuss politics and whiskey."" He, however, admits that the settlement is "beautifully situated on a rich bottom of land on the east fork of the St. François, a fine clear stream about eighty yards broad."


The first settlers of Missouri sawed out the lumber they needed by hand, but after the acquisition of the province, saw mills were located at favorable points on water courses and operated by water power. The product of some of these mills was floated by rafts " Excursion through the Slave States, vol. I, p. 335.


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IRON WORKS


down the river." Tanyards were located in every settlement. Thus we find that Theo. Hunt had a tanyard in St. Louis on south Second street in 1818 and John Frazier advertises that he has a tan- yard at St. Charles with twenty-seven vats and "a fine stream of water running through it." The observation made by Michaux when he passed through Kentucky and Tennessee that he found tanmills everywhere, applies to the first settlements of Missouri." No ready-made boots and shoes were for sale then. Every town had its boot and shoe maker. In 1811 Badgly and Stubblefield were engaged in that business in St. Louis. Ropewalks were operated by Nicholas S. Burckhart at Franklin, and by Albert Bish at Ste. Gene- vieve. A similar establishment was also in operation in St. Louis. In 1808, William Harris carried on the business of "hatter in all its branches" in that town; and in 1814, Price and Shull were in the same business there. M. Prewitt and James Barnes were in the "hatting" business at Franklin; and George W. Roberts, as successor of George Morrow, followed the same trade at Jackson. Claiborne S. Thomas operated a wool-carding machine at Jackson. John McDonnell who had an establishment for similar purposes six miles from Franklin on the farm of Colonel Trammel on the road leading to Chariton, says in the "Intelligencer," that his terms are ten cents a pound, but peremptorily adds "bring one pound of hog's lard or oil for every pound of wool." N. S. Burckhart was also engaged in this business at Franklin. In 1820, Olly Williams built a cotton gin in St. Louis and set up the first double wool-carding machine. A tobacco manufacturing company was organized by William Lamme and William Bingham at Franklin in 1821, but Richard and Quarles had such a factory in St. Louis in 1817. These were only small establishments, and no one dreamed of the huge tobacco concerns of our day.


The old "Massey" or "Maramec Iron Works" were established in what is now Crawford county, and the product of these iron works was hauled by ox-wagon to near Herman on the Missouri. In 1817, William Harrison and Reeves had a small iron furnace on the Thickety, in the northwest part of that county. But in 1815 one Ashbran had a furnace near Pilot Knob at the "Shut-in."


Blacksmiths and gunsmiths then controlled the business now carried on by hardware stores, as well as all the most important


" Long's Expedition, vol. I, p. 79.


" Travels in Tennessee and Kentucky, p. 270.


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HISTORY OF MISSOURI


iron trade of the territory at that time. John Howland of St. Charles advertises that he "continues in the blacksmith business" and that he has "plow shares, moulds, rag-wheels, firedogs and cart and wagon boxes for sale." James Baird, in 1811, James Barlow in 1814, and Solomon Migneron, were in the blacksmith business in St. Louis. Jacob Hawken, of Hagerstown, Maryland, gunsmith, came there in 1819; afterwards he made the celebrated Hawken rifle, a favorite gun of the Rocky mountain trappers and hunters. Peers was a gunsmith in St. Charles, and George Castner in 1812. James Duke, in Cape Girardeau, made kettles and tinware. John Dowling in 1816, and Reuben Neal in 1817, were in the same business in St. Louis; so also were Joseph White and Company in 1819. John Delap advertises that he makes "bells for cattle, sheep and hogs," at Jackson. D. Stewart had a nail factory, in 1814, in St. Louis, of course making nails by hand. In 1819 W. L. Scott at Franklin advertises that he will sell "cut nails and brads wholesale and retail at his factory" there. Joseph Bouju was a clock and watch maker in St. Louis in 1812, but the business cannot have been very profitable, as he had for sale "as a side line cherry- bounce, ratafia-de-Grenoble, whiskey, etc., etc." In 1817, Charles E. Jeanneret "from Europe" was engaged in the same business. In 1818, Henry Gallagher and Charles Billon from Philadelphia, opened a business there as watch makers; and so also Robert Logan in 1819, and Israel B. Grant.


Harness and saddlery during this period was all made by hand, and practical saddle and harness makers were in every important town and settlement. John Chandler and Company made saddles, bridles and harness in St. Louis in 1812; and in 1816 we find John Jacoby in the same business, but he removed to St. Charles after- ward. Jacoby in his advertisement in St. Charles says that he "keeps on hand a general assortment of saddles, harness and bridles for sale," and in connection with this business he also conducted a livery stable, "price for a horse 24 hours, fifty cents, and for a week, two dollars." This scale seems also to have obtained at Franklin.


In St. Charles Barber and Company announced, in 1820, that they were engaged in the chair making business. Heslep and Taylor advertised, in 1818, that they were "Windsor and fancy chair makers" doing work "superior to any in the west," penciling and gilding their work "in the finest Philadelphia fashion." Isaac Allen also had a chair factory in St. Louis.


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MILLS


At this time ready-made clothing was unknown, and custom tailors, therefore, flourished. In 1809, Peter Primm was a tailor in St. Louis; and Calvin Burns advertises, in 1808, that he wants two or three journeymen tailors "immediately." In the "Missouri Herald" William M. Bateman "advises the ladies and gentlemen of Jackson and vicinity, that he carries on a tailoring business, and that he has obtained a complete mechanical mode for cutting gar- ments," and he says that he "will receive the fashions quarterly from Philadelphia via Nashville." But in St. Louis in 1809, Ber- nard Lalende, lately arrived from Bordeaux, says that he has the "latest fashions of London and Paris." J. H. Boyer in 1817 in the same town recommends himself as a "tailor from Europe." Simon and Bates tell the people of Jackson that they are tailors from New York and Philadelphia, and that they "have an apartment in the Courthouse," and express a hope "to receive a share of the . public patronage," and add, "ladies' pelisses and riding dresses carefully attended to." David Brown at this time carried on the tailoring business at Cape Girardeau. In St. Louis, L. T. Hampton gives notice that he is engaged in the "skin dressing and breeches- making business." Pain and Armstrong were in the same business. Michael Dolan had his tailor shop with Hampton, and in 1817 was in partnership with McDaniel.


Horse and water mills of every kind and character were estab- lished by the Americans, generally, in each settlement, even during the Spanish regime, but in 1820 the St. Louis "Enquirer" states and editorially comments on the fact, felicitating the people that Mr. Fellows "would shortly have a steam gristmill in operation in St. Louis to run several pair of stones." But in Ste. Genevieve Edward Walsh built a steam mill in 1818 which he operated until 1824. He then moved to Fredericktown, and built another mill. From there he removed to St. Louis and where he became one of the most conspicuous and influential citizens.97 Levi Faux and J. W. Johnson in 1820 formed a partnership to carry on the millstone cutting business thirty miles above St. Charles.


The country was not without distilleries, providing the favorite


"7 He was born in county Tipperary, Ireland, December 27, 1798, and.emi- grated to America in 1818, arriving in New York in June of that year, and in October following came to Ste. Genevieve. After he moved to St. Louis, he engaged in steamboating on a large scale, and at one time owned 21 vessels on the river, and had over a million dollars invested in floating property. He died March 23, 1866. In 1822, he married Miss Mary Tucker of Perry county and upon her death in 1840, Isabella De Mun, daughter of Julius De Mun.


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HISTORY OF MISSOURI


stimulant and beverage of the early pioneers in ample quantities, and consequently, it seems that competent distillers were in demand. For instance, Valentine Haffner " of Dardenne (no doubt a German) advertises that he is in want of a distiller, and naively says "one from Kentucky preferred." Matthew Dugan also wants a man "who understands the art of making whiskey out of corn." Small distilleries were in operation at this period in the country on many farms. Beer was brewed as early as 1809, by one Habb, who established a brewery in St. Louis.


Sam. Bridges made brick in 1811 in St. Louis; and in 1816, George W. Ferguson established a pottery there. P. Flanagen "intimates to the people" in the "Missourian" at St. Charles, that he "intends to carry on the brick-laying business," and that he will "undertake jobs upon reasonable terms."


R. Terrel advises the people in the same paper "that he will follow sign painting."


John Keesacker it seems in 1816 opened the first barber shop in St. Louis. In 1820 the "Missourian " says that "a good barber will find liberal encouragement in St. Charles."


The lead mines of Missouri, now within the counties of Jefferson, Ste. Genevieve, St. Francois, Washington and Madison were worked industriously at that time and the output was considerable. In 1809 John N. Macklot had a shot-tower in operation at Herculaneum, "the first in the west," at Rocky Place below the town. In 1810 Moses Austin erected the second shot-tower, there and in 1814 Christian Wilt and John Honey had a shot-tower near the place now known as Illinois Station. While the lead was worked with ease and little labor and was found in abundant quantities, the cost of trans- portation from the mines to the river was a constant problem agitating the minds of the early mine proprietors in southeastern Missouri. The average cost of transporting one hundred weight of lead from Mine à Breton or Potosi to the Mississippi, in 1818, was seventy-five cents for the distance of thirty-six miles, and the cost of conveying the same quantity of lead from the storehouses at Herculaneum or Ste. Genevieve to New Orleans, by steamboat, was only seventy cents, for the distance of a thousand miles.ºº


Lead, peltry and salt were the principal articles of export when


"8 Afterwards resided at Fredericktown, where he killed one Chevalier.


" 3d Public Lands, p. 498. Letter of H. R. Schoolcraft to John C. Cal- houn, Secretary of War.


.


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CURRENCY


Louisiana was first acquired by the United States. Debts were generally paid in these articles. The people of New Madrid, in 1818, petitioned that cotton, at two-thirds of its value at Nashville, might also be made legal tender to pay debts. Peltry had been a legal tender from the earliest history of the country. A note, for instance, of one hundred dollars was payable in peltry, unless expressly stipulated to be paid in Spanish milled dollars, during the Spanish government, and one dollar in specie was considered equal to one dollar and twenty-five cents in peltry.100 To get an idea of this fur trade and amount of peltry annually secured at that time, it need only be stated that in 1819 fifteen hundred buffalo skins were brought to St. Louis alone.101 As late as 1819 one hundred and forty beaver skins were taken on Blue Water in one season. Although during the Spanish government all fine skins were shipped to Canada because they brought a better price there, with the American occupation of the country this business was concentrated at St. Louis. One of the factors in this trade was the organization, in 1812, of the Missouri Fur Company, at St. Louis. This company had a capital of fifty thousand dollars, divided into fifty shares of one thousand dollars each. It was the first business corporation, and then, at any rate, the most important business enterprise of St. Louis. Sylvester Labadie, William Clark and Manuel Lisa of the old company took twenty-seven thousand dollars of the stock, representing the goods they had on the Missouri, and solicited twenty-five thousand dollars additional subscription, so as to increase the capital to $50,000 and enlarge the operations of the company.




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