USA > Missouri > A History of Missouri from the Earliest Explorations and Settlements Until the Admission of the state into the union, Volume III > Part 7
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"7 U. S. Statutes at Large, vol. 2, P. 751.
28 U. S. Statutes at Large, par. 4, p. 812.
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HISTORY OF MISSOURI
the government making such grant, such persons shall be con- firmed and are hereby confirmed in their claims." And finally, claims which were not confirmed merely because they were not inhabited on December 20, 1803, were confirmed; but this did not include claims which the commissioners found were antedated or otherwise fraudulent.20
Edward Hempstead, the first delegate from the territory of Mis- souri, no doubt aided greatly in securing this most liberal legislation. He took his seat in January, 1813, and at once introduced several bills looking to the adjustment of the Spanish land claims. In the only speech he made while member of the House, he strongly urged the equity of the concessions made by the Spanish officers after the treaty of San Ildefonso ceding the country to France, but before France took possession of the country, and assailed the former acts of Congress, declaring null and void these grants so made by the Spanish government while in actual possession of the country, and which nullified "not only the treaty with France but every known principle of international law." "Would," he asked, "the Spanish government have sanctioned the grants made by its officers? If so, they ought now to be sanctioned; without the solemn stipulations to support it, policy alone would dictate such a course?" Then referring to the former acts of Congress he said: "They had been so amended and altered by so many different statutes that difficulties had been increased instead of diminished. It could not be denied that the people of this territory were in a worse situation in that respect than others. It now remains for me, Mr. Speaker, to con- sider very briefly whether the present bill will do full and complete justice to the claimants. During the ten years of scrutiny and inves- tigation, few have made improvements. Many families, despairing of obtaining their equitable claims, and tired of the uncertainties attending their titles, have abandoned a country which cannot prosper without the fostering aid of the government, and if the delay of justice has not in all cases been equal in its consequences to an absolute denial of it, still it has caused much distress and injury. The present bill will quiet the apprehensions of most of the claimants and although it will neither satisfy nor do justice to all, yet it will restore that confidence which has been much impaired, and will do what the national faith is pledged to do."
The fact also should not be overlooked, that a large party of the 2º U. S. Statutes at Large, vol. 3, par. I, p. 121.
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FREDERICK BATES
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country after the purchase of Louisiana did not look favorably upon the extension of the settlements west of the Mississippi, and hence legislation tending to settle the Spanish land titles for a time probably received but scant attention. In 1816, Easton writes that "a dispo- sition has manifested itself, and as far as practicable supported, since Louisiana was first acquired, not only to discourage but to prevent the extension of the settlements west of the Mississippi and north of the state of Louisiana. It is but a short time that a contrary opinion prevailed."
Frederick Bates, who had been appointed recorder under the Act of 1814, made a report under the several acts of Congress in 1816, showing that 2,555 claims were presented and of which all were con- firmed except 801. William Russell alone filed 309 claims, but of these only 23 were confirmed.
The claimants, however, of the rejected, illegal and unauthorized grants did not abandon their contention or demands, or surrender their claims or even abandon possession, where they held posses- sion, or their claim or right to the possession. These unconfirmed claims were made a political question, and Benton was finally elected to the United States senate over Lucas, because he diplomatically favored the confirmation of those claims, most of which were held by very influential residents of the new state, claims which Lucas was known to have unalterably opposed as a member of the board of commissioners. Marie Philip Leduc, a member of the first legislature, and doubly interested in these claims, because as secre- tary he had antedated some of these claims, and a large bene- ficiary of the illegal acts of DeLassus, was urged to vote for Benton as senator by Auguste Chouteau, and other beneficiaries of these grants, so Darby says, "because if Judge Lucas was elected senator the French inhabitants would never have the grants to their lands con- firmed; that Judge Lucas, as member of the board of commissioners for adjusting the titles under these grants to the inhabitants of upper Louisiana had been inimical to, and had warred against the con- firmation of their claims for fully 20 years; that Benton was friendly to, and would take an active part in passing the laws confirming them in their titles to their lands." 30
The continued clamor of the owners of these claims, purchased in many instances by speculators from the simple and unsophisticated French settlers, for merely nominal sums, finally induced Congress,
" Darby's Personal Recollections, p. 51.
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HISTORY OF MISSOURI
in 1832, to create another board of commissioners to examine and classify all unconfirmed claims on file in the office of the recorder.31 In 1833, by a supplementary act, the law was so enlarged as to embrace any other claim under the Spanish government, arising by virtue of settlement and cultivation. The new board of com- missioners was at first composed of Dr. Lewis F. Linn, A. G. Har- rison and F. R. Conway,"2 but before the conclusion of its work Dr. Lewis F. Linn resigned, having been appointed United States senator in place of Senator Alexander Buckner, deceased, and A. G. Har- rison also resigned, having been elected a member of the 24th Con- gress.$$ To fill the vacancies thus occasioned, James S. Mayfield and Dr. James H. Relfe " were appointed commissioners. This board in 1834 made a report, recommending the confirmation of certain claims and the rejection of others. In 1836, the claims favorably recommended by the board were confirmed by Congress. To the claimants of the rejected claims was saved the right "to assert the validity of their claims in a court or courts of justice," but the act expressly and distinctly provided that nothing in it shall be so construed as to confirm 28 claims which are set out and named in the act of Congress.
Thus the Spanish land claims were finally settled and adjusted by a liberal and generous government, although many of these claims undoubtedly were antedated, if not of a fraudulent character.
31 These claims became the subject of political controversy, and were used by Barton to discredit Benton. In a letter to Lucas in 1827 about these Spanish claims, Barton gives expression to his bitter personal feelings as follows: "I view these claims now as a subject of almost sheer speculation by a few lawyers, including a corrupt Senator and common swindler of whose re-election we have just heard."
32 Frederick Rector Conway, a nephew of Gen. Wm. Rector. In 1833 lived in St. Louis and married Miss Caroline Smith of Washington county.
" Albert G. Harrison was born in Kentucky, where he was admitted to the bar; he removed to Missouri shortly after the admission of the state into the Union; settled at Fulton in Callaway county and began to practice law; after he was appointed one of the Commissioners to adjust the Spanish land titles under the Act of 1833 he was elected a member of the 24th Congress and re-elected to the 25th Congress. Died while a member of Congress in 1839. Harrison county was so named in his honor.
" James H. Relfe was a native of Virginia. He came with his father John Relfe to the Missouri Territory in about 1816 and with the family settled in Washington county near Caledonia. Although he had received only a limited education he studied medicine and began to practice at Caledonia and was successful in the practice. Upon the resignation of Dr. Lewis F. Linn as Com- missioner to adjust the Spanish land claims, he was appointed to fill the vacancy. In 1836 he was appointed United States Marshal of Missouri. In 1843 was elected member of Congress and re-elected in 1845. His sister Elizabeth married Dr. Lewis F. Linn in 1818.
CHAPTER XXV.
Social and Political Changes-An Era of Lawlessness-Non-observance of Sunday-Noted People of Various Settlements-Pioneer Tavern-keepers -Ferries-Postal Service, Postage, Postmasters-Newspapers-Schools -Private and Public Libraries-Gambling Mania-Carrying Weapons -Duels, between McFerron and Ogle-Graham and Farrar-Fenwick and Crittenden-Geyer and Kennerly-Benton and Lucas-Martin and Ramsay-Browne and John Smith T .- Carroll and Gentry-Berry and Leonard, etc .- Pioneer Physicians-Roster of Revolutionary Soldiers, Pioneers of Missouri-Notable Residents of Territorial Missouri.
As can be well imagined the change of government following the American acquisition at once produced a great change in the social and political conditions in upper Louisiana. Before the cession the Lieutenant-Governor and several district commanders practically wielded an unlimited despotic military and civil power, and their families and friends occupied the most prominent social positions in the settlements. These commandants were directly or indirectly interested in the fur trade, the only business of importance in the country. Political discussion was unknown. Trade and traffic and social life moved along well defined channels. The recent immi- grants from the United States, although at the time of cession almost as numerous as the French inhabitants, did not live in the villages, but in the country, and were busy clearing and cultivating lands in order to perfect their titles under the Spanish regulations. They were not familiar with the official language. A wholesome fear of the Spanish dungeons of Cuba and the mines of Mexico was well calculated to quell any lawless disposition. Although more insub- ordinate than the French habitants of the villages the Spanish officials maintained strict order among these heterogeneous pioneer immi- grants from the United States. With the change of government, however, all this changed. The repressed spirit of the early settlers, in many instances, became manifest, and lawlessness became ramp- ant. Great numbers of adventurous men flocked into the country and among them were not a few persons of depraved character, "who had fled to escape the lash of justice of their native states."1 Such men as John Smith T. became conspicuous and attained notoriety.
Scenes of riot, contention and violence were not uncommon. 1 Schoolcraft's Travels, p. 244.
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HISTORY OF MISSOURI
The oppression which some of the early American settlers fancied they had endured from the Spanish commandants they now en- deavored to repay by suing them in the new American courts. These ex-officials were thus made to realize that conditions had changed. The first grand jury of the Cape Girardeau district found a "true-bill" for horse stealing against Don Louis Lorimier, the Spanish commandant of that district. The case, of course, was never tried, but it indicates the feeling that must have existed among the settlers of the district. The sale of spirituous and intoxicating liquors, which the Spanish government had kept under strict control, was now allowed without restriction. The Indians, who had been protected and treated with great consideration by the Spanish of- ficials, as soon as the restraint of their protectors was removed, also began to feel the effect of American hostility. Bold and bad men invaded their villages, took their property and stole their horses, a thing unheard of during the Spanish dominion. For the peace and quiet that prevailed in these Spanish settlements, agitation, loud and boisterous discussion of politics - national and territorial - drunkenness, profanity, abuse of constituted authority and govern- ment, the floating of fraudulent land titles, lawyers fomenting litiga- tion, duels, mayhem, assaults with intent to kill and murder, became the order of the day.2 New commercial enterprises were daily in. augurated, often ending in quick bankruptcy. All kinds of specula- tions and swindling schemes were launched; new towns were laid out everywhere, and the mania to get rich quick animated all classes.
It would be a mistake, however, to suppose that at that time there were not also many refined and intelligent American residents of the new territory. St. Louis, especially, possessed a refined and cultivated society. As early as 1805 we find a number of respectable American families settled there and Edward Hempstead says, that "society is good."" But in 1810 he writes that "the manners of the people are far from being so chaste as with you."" Schultz says in 1807, that the ladies of St. Louis were celebrated through all the lower country for their beauty, modesty and agreeable manners "as well as for their
' The mine country, an unpleasant place of residence, "a constant scene of warfare." Schultz's Travels, vol. 2, p. 53. Frederick Bates writes Madison, September, 1807, that he was not present as reported at the "wild, indelicate, etc., conduct, on July 4th, held at the Mines."
' Hempstead Letters, August 5, 1805, in Missouri Historical Society Collec- tion.
4 Hempstead Letters, November 20, 1810, in Missouri Historical Society Collection.
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SOCIETY
taste and the splendor of their dress,"" and that he accepted an invi- tation to one of their balls, on the first Sunday evening after his arri- val, having previously attended chapel, "for the express purpose of being able to form some judgment with respect to their claims," and to which reputation he concludes they were entitled. Miss Easton, in a letter to her father, dated 1816, refers to numerous balls and parties she had attended at the homes of the Garniers, Carrs, and others. Then Mrs. Peebles "who keeps tavern where Mr. Austin formerly did" gave entertainments and so also Mr. Solomon, "where every one pays $1.50, and is admitted to eat tough pancakes and dance as long as they please.""
In 1816 Sibley remarks that "in general the society of St. Louis is pretty good, and daily improving," that the utmost harmony pre- vails between the French and American families; and that the danc- ing assemblies were attended by "from forty to seventy-five ladies and as many gentlemen, American and French in about equal pro- portion."7 In 1817 James Kennerly laments that "there is no house for balls and that the inhabitants of St. Louis for the first time will spend a dreary winter.""
In Ste. Genevieve, too, according to Schultz, one ball followed another in the winter, these balls generally opening at candle-light and continuing until 10 or 12 o'clock on the next day.º "In this place," says Flint, "we were introduced to amiable and polished people, and saw a town evidencing the possession of a considerable degree of refinement." 10
Sunday, at that time, was much better known in all the old Spanish settlements "as a day of general amusement than of wor- ship," and no kind of work was then suspended on account of the day. Carts and wagons from the country came to town to market and provisions were sold at retail throughout the village as late as 1818.11 In fact, more trading was done on Sunday than on any other
' Schultz's Travels, vol. 2, p. 41.
' Letter of Mary Easton to her father, dated February 11, 1816, in Archives of Missouri Historical Society.
" Letter of Sibley, dated September 28, 1816, in the Archives of the Missouri Historical Society. Sibley also says the French inhabitants of St. Louis have but little influence in public affairs and Americans and French do not associate much together in private circles on account of difference of language.
'Letter of Kennerly, dated December 19, 1817, in the Archives of the Mis- souri Historical Society.
'Schultz's Travels, vol. 2, p. 60.
1º Flint's Recollections, p. 99.
" Life of John Mason Peck, p. 87.
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HISTORY OF MISSOURI
day of the week, nor did the day often pass without fighting. On one occasion Peck says that Governor Clark was compelled to call out the militia to suppress a riot among the negro slaves on Sunday.12 He says in 1817 that one half, at least, of the Anglo-American population were "infidels of a low and indecent grade and truly worthless for any useful purpose of society," and that this class despised and vilified religion and boasted that the "Sabbath had never crossed, and should never cross the Mississippi,"13 that the Sabbath was a day of hilarity, given up to billiards and other sports. Sparks, in his letters, says that on Sunday the people amused them- selves playing billiards, ninepins, dice, cards, dancing and playing the fiddle, roulette and shuffle-boards, &c., and that if any one desired to raise a building he must do it on Sunday with negro slaves "who have Sunday for their own day, and will work for three or four shillings." 14
The first Sunday on which Flint preached at St. Charles a horse race took place, starting from the front of the house where religious services were to be held. But six years afterward the members of the legislature remarked upon the manifest influence of religion in the town.15 Then there was in the town "an agreeable society" and "a choir of good singers."16 At New Madrid were some "cultivated and distinguished French families," who "among the bears and Indians" had discovered the wide difference between the Arca- dian residence as described in romance, and "the actual existence in the wilderness." 17 Travelers were surprised to find so many people who had latent and intrinsic claims to distinction in such a place. Only two years before Flint visited New Madrid he says that "a German nobleman, a professor of Göttingen, a man gifted in the highest degree, left behind him volumes of scientific remarks upon the natural history of the country," and died there, an object of charity. But he gives no name, and no trace can now be found of these "volumes of scientific remarks." Describing the accomplish- ments of a certain Mrs. Gray, "not the smallest wonder of the place," he says "that she was familiar with Plato, well versed in history, had all the great ancients, their exploits and respective merits en- tirely at command," read French. well, and that her daughter lived
12 Life of John Mason Peck, p. 88.
13 Ibid., p. 19.
14 Letter of John Sparks in Archives of the Missouri Historical Society.
18 Flint's Recollections, p. 126.
" Ibid., p. 215.
17 Ibid., p. 221.
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HOSPITALITY
in the great world "in Natchez and New Orleans" in the family of Mr. Derbigny.18 But Jackson he thought "a fine range for all species of sectarians." Of the North Carolina "Dutch," the Ger- mans settled on Whitewater, he says that they had all the habits of the race, "a taste for permanent building," a "disposition to build with stone," a "love of silver dollars and contempt for bank bills," the. "disposition to manufacture every necessity among themselves," and he adds that he counted "forty-five dresses hung around my (his) sleeping room, all of cotton raised and manufactured and colored by the family." 19
Almost universally, strangers were received with generous hospi- tality in town and country, in the settlements and in the wilderness.20 . Schoolcraft records that when he traveled through the Ozarks he was uniformly received in the cabins of the "hardy, frank and inde- pendent hunters" with a hearty welcome, and "experienced the most hospitable and generous treatment." 21 When Flint and Matthews on their trip to Bellevue were lost in the Maramec hills, although they came to a cabin at "an unreasonable hour" they were hospi- tably received and entertained, and Flint remarks, "Indeed I have very pleasing recollections of the hospitality from all the inhabitants of these remote regions, wherever we called." 22 The only instance of positive rudeness and inhospitality that he experienced in all his extensive travels, was from a comparatively rich German, on the waters of the Cuivre river, who turned him away at night and compelled him to travel through a deep and dark forest amid "the concert of wolves howling" until he heard the barking of dogs and found refuge about midnight at the cabin of a very poor man, who provided him with supper and gave him a "most cordial reception." The backwoods- men were a hardy, hospitable, rough, but sincere and upright race of people.23 But on the "old Boonslick trace" Peck, on his mis- sionary tour to north Missouri, found a more hospitable German.24
1º Flint's Recollections, p. 229. See Ante, vol. 2, p. 140. Full name, Auguste Charles Bouisgay Derbigny; married a sister of DeLassus; was elected fifth governor of Louisiana in 1828, and died at New Orleans, Oct. 6th, 1829, killed by being thrown out of a buggy.
" Ibid., p. 236.
20 In Ist Niles' Register, page 214, it is said that "a tavern among them is but a late thing"-this in 1811.
" Tour in Interior of Missouri and Arkansas, pp. 49, 50. (London, 1821.) 2 Flint's Recollections, p. 128.
" Letter of the Rev. Nicholas Patterson, in the Archives of the Missouri Historical Society.
" Life of John Mason Peck, p. 126.
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HISTORY OF MISSOURI
During the Spanish dominion public taverns or houses of entertain- ment were hardly known in upper Louisiana. When Moses Austin came to St. Louis in 1799, there was no tavern in the town, but for- tunately meeting someone able to talk English he secured a boarding place in a private family. After the acquisition of Louisiana, Alex- ander Bellisime and Andre L'Andreville opened a tavern where the farmers of the country found food for themselves and horses. 25 Ac- cording to Sibley the storekeepers, in 1807, most of whom were without families, in many instances kept bachelor's hall in their places of busi- ness and cooked their own meals. Resin Webster, in 1808 in St. Louis, opened the Eagle Tavern in the house "lately occupied by General William Clark," where, he says in his advertisement, "a few genteel boarders can be accommodated." Horace Austin kept a tavern at Herculaneum in the same year, but in the year following entered into the mercantile business at Ste. Genevieve with a stock "purchased in New York," which he offered to sell for "cash or lead." In 1812 St. Louis had Toussaint Benoist as its baker. In 1815 Christian Smith also had a "bake-shop" there, so also had Abijah Hall & Company; and in 1819 a distinct advance is notice- able, because Sarrade "has now a confectionery on Main street." Mrs. Peebles succeeded Horace Austin as tavern keeper at Her- culaneum. Tavern keepers were also retailers of liquors although intoxicating spirits were sold at retail in stores. What we now euphoniously name a "saloon " was then called a "grocery." Among the early taverns outside of St. Louis, the "Kentucky Hotel" at St. Charles may be noted. At one time this house was conducted by H. L. Mills; then by Uriah J. Devore, and afterward by James Emmons. Of this hostelry the proprietor, in 1821, boastfully said that it was "superior in point of extensiveness to any house north of. the Missouri." In 1821 Henry V. Bingham had a tavern northwest of the public square in Franklin, with the sign of the "Square and
28 During the territorial government the following tavern keepers and retailers of liquor secured license to do business in St. Louis: Calvin Adams (1805), William Sullivan (1805), William Christy (1806), Resin Webster (1809), Joseph LeBlond (1809), Charles Bosseron (1809), Baptiste LeBeau (1809), F. J. La- Brosse (1810), Henry Capron (1810), Charles Shewe and Frederick Weber (the first Germans in that business-1811), Lambert La Joie (Salle-1811), Joseph Phillibert (1812), Michael Marti (1812). In 1809 William Christy offers to keep a few horses by the week or month. James H. Audrain also opened a tavern in St. Louis in 1819, in "Cerre's large storehouse." Joseph Charless in 1809 received boarders by the day, week, or month, "on moderate terms," and had "stabling for eight or ten horses." Colonel Timothy Kibby, from St. Charles, opened Washington Hall some time before his death. Evarist Maury "conducted the first Planters' Hotel" on Second street in 1817.
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TAVERNS
Compass." John Shaw, Robert W. Morris, Foster Freeman, Vibert Pinet, Price Arnold, John Nanson, Daniel and William McKinzie, Beatty and Armstrong, Michael Collier, Larrent Vibert, William Pipes and Thomas Hickman were all licensed tavern keepers and retailers of spirituous liquors in Howard county in the same year, and Isaac Donahue, James Ross, Lewis White and Isaac Campbell in Chariton. In about 1817 or '18 Thomas Rogers opened a tavern in Boonville. Shortly afterward Justinian Williams built a large building for the same purpose there. John Ervine conducted the "Green Tree Hotel" at Jackson in 1820, named evidently for the Green Tree Tavern at St. Louis, conducted by H. C. Davis in 1816. James Russell was the proprietor of the "Eagle Hotel" at Jack- son. William Brown and William Sublette successively managed the "General Jackson Tavern" and James Lockhardt, James Seavers and William Montgomery were likewise engaged in this business there. In 1811 Ellis kept tavern at Cape Girardeau, and when Stephen Hempstead, the father of Edward, came up the river he stopped with Ellis; so also did the Rev. J. M. Peck several years afterward. In St. Louis Kimball and Ward in the "Gazette" advertised their "reading room and punch house," evidently thus intending to satisfy the literary as well as the bibulous demands of their patrons. Medad Randall kept tavern and sold liquors at Bainbridge. Dr. Ezekiel Fenwick kept "a house of entertainment" opposite Grand Tower where the town of Wittenberg is now located.
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