A History of Northeast Missouri, Volume I, Part 38

Author: Williams, Walter, 1864-1935, editor
Publication date: 1913
Publisher: Chicago, New York, The Lewis Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 731

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Mr. Todd was a great smoker and some of his friends thought that he smoked to excess; but he insisted that if tobacco was poison, it was a slow poison. One day, a Baptist friend asked him how long he had been smok- ing and Mr. Todd told him that he had been smoking for over fifty years. The Baptist gentleman was interested in foreign missions; and he re- marked that these cigars cost Mr. Todd so much a day, which would amount to so much a year, which would amount to a large sum in fifty year, and that if he had not spent that sum on tobacco, he could have made a handsome donation to foreign missions. Mr. Todd took his cigar out of his mouth, blew a cloud of smoke across the room and said, "Well, sir, you don't smoke, have not smoked for the past fifty years; now how much have you given to foreign missions ?"

BOYLE GORDON

Judge Boyle Gordon, one of Boone county's best lawyers, was repre- sentative of the county in the legislature in 1865, and professor of law in the university from 1872 till 1882. During August, 1864, General Sterling Price was coming north to Missouri and reached as far as Jeffer- son City, and numerous bands of bushwhackers were in different parts of the county, so the banks and express companies declined to receive any money on deposit. Judge Gordon represented various Philadelphia wholesale houses and collected five thousand dollars from persons in Co- lumbia, which he intended remitting to his clients. Owing to the refusal of the banks and express companies to receive money Judge Gordon was compelled to keep this sum and carry it around for about a month. He took it to his home, just east of Columbia, and every night slept out in the woods with his valuable package. Mr. Gordon was one of the hap- piest of men when he was able to send this money to Philadelphia, and perhaps his clients were as pleased at receiving it.

Moss PREWITT

The first bank ever started in Boone county was the banking house of Prewitt & Price. Mr. Prewitt was a hatter and a merchant, came from Kentucky to Franklin in early times, then to Columbia in 1821. He began by taking care of money for his customers in his store. His store was situated in a brick house on Broadway, one door east of the present .

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Boone County National Bank. At first, he would take a man's money and place it in an envelope, and write the owner's name on it, and put it in his safe. He never had any vault. Then, he concluded that he would put the money in his safe, and write down on an account book the amount, and thus he began banking; this was in 1857. In 1867, this bank received its charter, which was the first national bank established west of the Mississippi river. In 1871, the bank acquired the name of Boone County National Bank, by which name it is still known.

While Mr. Prewitt was conducting his store, about 1830, there was a narrow passageway between his store and the building just west of it (now the bank), and a back door of Prewitt's store opened into this passage. Although nearly all of the bears had been killed in the county, a few still remained, especially out north of Columbia. One day a num- ber of men discovered a black bear near Bear creek, and with guns and dogs started a chase. The bear would fight the dogs, then run, and a new supply of dogs would be called to the rescue. Finally the frightened animal ran into town, down Eighth street, and turned into the alley just north of the bank. Mr. Prewitt, hearing the terrible noise, stepped out of his side door to see what it was, when the bear turned into this pas- sage, knocked him down, and bear and dogs all ran over him. The bear ran across Broadway, and to the southeast, and was killed on what is now the Marshall Gordon farm. While Mr. Prewitt lived in Franklin, he had a brother, who was not a success in business. As Mr. Prewitt was leaving for Columbia, the brother decided to go to Texas; and Mr. Prewitt fitted him out and gave him some money. He did not hear from the brother, and did not know that he had married till he heard of the brother's death. On his deathbed, this brother told his wife of the kindness and liberality of Moss Prewitt, and, as he had no children, he gave his wife all of his property, and asked her to give the same to Moss Prewitt at her death. When she died, Mr. Prewitt heard of their where- abouts for the first time, and learned that she had willed him a league of land, four miles square, which Mr. Prewitt afterwards sold for twenty- five dollars an acre.

Mr. Prewitt, who died in 1871, was the father of a large family. One of his daughters married R. B. Price, who, although now eighty years old, claims to be the youngest man in Columbia.

CITIZENS OF BOONE COUNTY

Boone county has always been the home of useful and distinguished men, men of state as well as national fame. James S. Rollins, lawyer, editor, congressman, senator, legislator and friend of education, stands at the head of the list. Wm. F. Switzler, editor, historian, and chief of the bureau of statistics, was one of the men who had much to do with making Boone county. W. Pope Yeaman, minister and orator, E. C. More, consul general to Mexico, Beverly T. Galloway, the plant expert, St. Clair McKelway, editor of the Brooklyn Eagle, James L. Stephens, state senator, merchant and philanthropist, Edwin W. Stephens, editor, publisher and public servant, Moss Prewitt, R. B. Price, Jas. H. Waugh, Robt. L. Todd, Jno. S. Clarkson, Jno. T. M. Johnston, Wm. S. Woods, H. H. Banks and Jno. T. Mitchell, bankers and financiers, Jonathan Kirkbride, Oliver Parker, R. H. Clinkscales, J. S. Moss, J. S. Dorsey, Victor Barth, B. Loeb, C. C. Newman, J. L. Matthews, C. B. Miller, S. H. Baker, W. B. Nowell, J. W. Strawn, B. F. Dimmitt, L. Grossman, Hulen & Hulett, Jas. M. Proctor, M. H. Harris & Son, John Parker, Bass & Johnston and John Wiseman, active and successful merchants, John A. Stewart, farmer, real estate dealer and city beautifier,

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and Attorney General Wm. A. Robards, Sinclair Kirtley, Judge P. H. McBride, Boyle . Gordon, Gen. Odon Guitar and Col. Squire Turner, lawyers of state-wide reputation, one and all have added to Boone county's fame. In the live stock business, Boone county farmers have been in the front rank, with A. H. Shepard as a breeder of Holsteins, I. C. Huntington as a breeder of Galloways, F. W. Smith as a breeder of Herefords, and R. W. Dorsey, Parker Brothers, Hickman Brothers, and Joseph Estes, Sr., as breeders of Shorthorns, Wm. H. Bass, A. E. Limerick, D. K. Crocket, and F. S. Sappington as breeders of jacks, Doctor McAlester, Doctor Keith, M. D. Brown and O. J. Moores as breeders of horses, J. H. Sampson & Sons as breeders of sheep, Geo. E. Thomson, Allen Park and Wm. E. Bradford as breeders of hogs, J. M. Stone, J. E. Bedford, W. H. Cochran and Miss Lizzie Hodge as breeders of poultry, and Dr. W. P. Dysart, Jno. S. Chandler, W. L. Greene, Jas. T. Gibbs, R. L. Keene & Sons, Tilford Murray and Abram Ellis as mule feeders.

These persons and such successful farmers as Jno. W. Harris, W. R. Wilhite, W. B. Hunt, Col. Eli E. Bass, Dr. H. M. Clarkson, A. J. Estes, Marshall Gordon, the Robnets, the Brights, the Bradfords, the Denhams, the Glenns and the Tuckers, with their Boone county products, have many times "topped the market." And D. A. Robnett's apples, Nathan King's butter and T. C. McIntyre's vinegar each enjoys a national reputation. Mention should also be made that Boone county has reason to be proud of the teachers, mechanics, manufacturers and skilled laborers in all lines of work, who have added so materially to the wealth and prosperity of our county.

It is to be hoped that in days to come Boone county, around whose memory clusters so much interesting history, will furnish even more and better citizens and even more and better farm and manufactured prod- ucts than she has in days gone by.

CHAPTER XII CALLAWAY COUNTY By Ovid Bell, Fulton "THE KINGDOM"

The Kingdom of Callaway, as Callaway county has been called since the Civil war, boasts of the patriotism and moral and mental fibre of its citizens. Whenever duty has called-whether to war, or statecraft, or hard and earnest labor-the men and women of Callaway have responded willingly and gladly. The first settlers came principally from Virginia and Kentucky, descendants of the band who

Rarely hating ease, Yet rode with Spotswood 'round the land, And Raleigh 'round the seas.

Their sons and daughters have inherited the land they settled, and though born with the pioneer instinct, have remained in the county of their birth and given its citizenship stability and worth. The manners, customs and traditions of the pioneers have been handed down through succeeding generations, and though there have been several periods of extensive immigration into the county from other sections, life in the county remains true to the kindly, helpful, neighborly ways of the fathers from the Old Dominion and the Blue Grass State.

COTE SANS DESSEIN

The first settlement of white men in the county was at Cote Sans Dessein, where in 1808 a few French traders established a village and built a fort. The historian Rose, who was not always accurate, says the settlement was founded before 1800, but cites nothing to prove his statement, while Henry M. Brackenridge, who visited it in 1811, says the village was about three years old at the time of his visit." The

* Brackenridge says: "The Cote Sans Dessein is a beautiful place, situated on the northeast side of the river, and in sight of the Osage. It will in time become a considerable village. The beauty and fertility of the surrounding country cannot be surpassed. It is here we met with the first appearance of prairie in Missouri, but it is handsomely mixed with woodland. This wooded country on the northeast extends at least thirty miles, as far up as this place, and not less than fifteen on the other side. The name is given to the place from the circumstance of a single detached hill filled with limestone, standing on the bank of the river, about 600 yards long, and very narrow. The village has been established about three years; there are thirteen French families and two or three Indians. They have handsome fields in the prairies, but the greater part of their time is spent in hunting. From their eager inquiries after merchandise, I perceived we were already remote from the settlements."-Journal of Friday, April 12, 1811. ("Views of Louisiana, " p. 209.) Switzler, in his "History of Missouri" (p. 175), said: "Cote Sans Dessein was once a village of considerable importance, contained a small block house, and during the War of 1812 was the scene of some hard-fought battles with the Indians, in which were exhibited many instances of woman's bravery and determination." The name Cote Sans Dessein means "hill without design."

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history of the Lewis and Clark expedition (1804-06) does not speak of Cote Sans Dessein, presumably because it did not exist at that time, while the Rev. John Mason Peck, positively fixes the date as 1808 .*

Grants of land in the county were made as early as 1800, however, for in that year Baptiste Duchoquette, of the city of St. Louis, obtained a grant of four thousand arpens from Spain, the cession being known even now as Survey No. 1837. Cote Sans Dessein was built on the land granted to Duchoquette.

Cote Sans Dessein has ceased to exist, even the postoffice having been discontinued. The hill on which it was located remains, but the river has encroached on the surrounding ground and washed away the old graveyard, while all of the buildings that stood in the original settle- ment have rotted down. The name has been given to the township in which the settlement was located, and in that way it will be preserved.

Cote Sans Dessein was the first site chosen for the state capital by the commissioners appointed by the general assembly to select a place for the permanent seat of government. The statute appointing the com- missioners required that the capital should be located within forty miles of the mouth of the Osage river, and also provided that the commission- ers should hold their first meeting at Cote Sans Dessein on the first Monday in May, 1821. The records of the meeting of the commissioners have been destroyed and the fact cannot be ascertained, but it is be- lieved that they selected Cote Sans Dessein for the capital at that meet- ing. It is known that after Cote Sans Dessein had been selected a question concerning the title to the land was raised, and that then Jef- ferson City was chosen. An act of the third general assembly required the commissioners to meet a second time at Cote Sans Dessein on Septem- ber 15, 1821, to complete their work, and this second meeting probably was held after the question of title came up.

Daniel Boone is credited with having crossed Callaway county in 1808 in company with Captain Clemson, who was on his way to establish Fort Osage. An oak tree still stands on Nine Mile Prairie on which is inscribed, "D. B., 1808," and local tradition says that the letters and figures were carved by Boone. Seven years after that time Col. Nathan Boone, a son of Daniel Boone, surveyed the Boon's Lick trail from St. Charles to Old. Franklin, directly across Callaway county ; and the following year Colonel Boone, with Joseph Evans, began a sur- vey of the county, which was completed in 1817.

THE FIRST PERMANENT SETTLEMENTS

Uncertainty exists concerning who was the first permanent American settler. Campbell ("Gazetteer of Missouri," p. 94) and Rose ("Pioneer Families of Missouri," p. 265) accord the distinction to the Rev. John Ham, a Methodist minister, and Jonathan Crow, who built bark cabins on Auxvasse creek, about ten miles southeast of Fulton, in the fall of 1815. In a brief sketch of James and John Estens (probably Estes), Rose (p. 328) says they came to Callaway county in 1815 and also were the first American settlers, while in still another sketch (p. 384) he says Asa Williams, of Cote Sans Dessein, settled here in the spring of 1815,

* The "History of the Lewis and Clark Expedition" (McClurg's reprint, vol. I, p. 10) tells of the explorers camping at the mouth of the Osage river on the night of June 1, 1804, and spending the next day in the vicinity "for the purpose of making celestial observations." Describing the mouth of the river, the history says: "At a short distance from it is a high, commanding position, whence we enjoyed a delightful prospect of the country." The "high, commanding position" undoubtedly was the site of the future Cote Sans Dessein. On the return trip the party spent the night of September 19, 1806, at the mouth of the Osage.

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which, if true, probably would make him the first American settler. Ham's Prairie was named for Ham, and Crow's Fork creek for Crow. During the next few months a few other American settlers came to the county, and by the fall of 1817* a number of families were established in the district which now comprises Callaway county.

Capt. Patrick Ewing, of Virginia, who later was the second sheriff of Callaway county, built the first residence in the county outside the village of Cote Sans Dessein in January, 1816. It was located a short distance northwest of the present town of Mokane. Aaron Watson lo- cated on the Boon's Lick trail in the spring of 1816 and about the same time James Van Bibber, of Kentucky,t settled on Auxvasse creek, near the present Cross-state Highway crossing. Immigration into the county was heavy during the next two or three years, and by the time the state was admitted into the Union, the county was quite generally settled.

John S. Ferguson, of Kentucky, who settled near Cote Sans Dessein in the fall of 1817, is credited with having built the first mill in the county in the spring of 1818. Previous to that time meal and flour were obtained in St. Charles county, or ground by the settlers by hand. Henry May, who located on May's Prairie, southwest of Fulton, in the fall of 1818, soon afterward built another mill and also established a race track. John Phillips, who settled on Crow's Fork creek, east and south of Fulton, in 1817, built a still house and made whiskey a short time after coming to the county. Benjamin and James Goodrich, who settled on Auxvasse creek, near the present Berry ford bridge, in 1817, built both a horse mill and distillery.

ORGANIZATION OF COUNTY

Even before Missouri became a state, Callaway county was organized out of territory that had previously belonged to Montgomery county.

* Campbell's "Gazetteer of Missouri, " p. 95, says: "The settlers prior to 1817, as far as can be ascertained, were, in and near Cote Sans Dessein, Jean Baptiste, Francois, Joseph and Louis Roi, Joseph Rivard, Joseph Tibeau, Baptiste Graza, Francois Tyon, Baptiste and Louis Denoya, [Francis] Urno [ Erno], Louis Labras, Louis Vincennes, Nicholas Foy and Louis Laptant, French Catholics; Patrick Ewing, Asa Williams, Thomas Smith, . Jonathan Ramsey, Major Jesse and George Evans. Further north were John Ham, Jonathan Crow, Rev. Williant Coats, Thomas Kitch- ing, William Pratt, Joseph Callaway, John Ward, Aaron Watson, Felix Brown and John French. "

Instead of living north of Cote Sans Dessein, however, the Americans lived north. east-some near the present town of Mokane, and more on Coats' Prairie.

Jonathan Ramsey, mentioned above, was a member of the convention of 1820 which framed the first constitution of Missouri, being one of the two representatives from Montgomery county, of which Callaway was then a part. He was the first representative of the county in the general assembly and served in that capacity until 1827. His daughter, Jane, was the wife of Robert Ewing and the mother of Henry Clay Ewing, attorney-general of Missouri from 1873 to 1875.

t It is possible that Minerva, daughter of James Van Bibber, and Elizabeth Hays (the latter a granddaughter of Daniel Boone), was the first American child born in Callaway county. Efforts made by the writer to learn of some one who was born earlier have failed. She was the wife of William J. Davis, of Coats' Prairie. Campbell's Gazetteer (p. 95) says: "She is the oldest living woman born in Calla- way county. She is (August, 1874) fifty-six years and six months old." According to these figures, she was born in February, 1818. Mr. Huron Burt, of Nine Mile Prairie, now 84 years old, thinks that probably she was the first American child born in the county. Mr. Burt lives on the farm on which he was born and is the best informed man living on pioneer days in Callaway county. His mother was a daughter of Isaac Van Bibber and a great-granddaughter of Daniel Boone. His father, George W. Burt, came to Missouri from Ohio in 1821, and, with his brother, John Burt, built the first water mill in this part of the state in Montgomery county. They later built the first water mill in Callaway county for Neal Calbreath on Auxvasse creek, near the Mexico road crossing.

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It is one of the three counties that can claim the distinction of being the twenty-third organized in the state, for Callaway, Gasconade and Saline each came into existence on November 25, 1820. The county was named for Capt. James Callaway, who was killed by Indians on March 7, 1815, while crossing Loutre creek, just above the mouth of Prairie Fork, sev- eral miles below Mineola Springs, Montgomery county, where, a year later, Isaac Van Bibber erected his famous tavern.

The first officials of the county were appointed by Alexander McNair, first governor of Missouri. Judge Irvine O. Hockaday," founder of a distinguished Missouri family, came from Winchester, Kentucky, to be- come clerk of the circuit and county courts and to act as treasurer, and Wynkoop Warner, of Nine Mile Prairie township, was sheriff and acting collector. The county court was composed of Benjamin Young, t Stephen C. Dorris and Israel B. Grant.# Robert Criswell was appointed assessor by the county court, and David Sterigere was recommended by the court to Governor McNair for appointment as surveyor, and later was commis- sioned by the governor.

The first session of the circuit court was held on February 5, 1821, at the tavern of Henry Brite, at the northwest corner of Ham's Prairie, about one-half mile northwest of the present village of that name. Rufus Pettibone, of St. Charles, afterwards a member of the state supreme court, presided, holding his commission from Governor McNair. The grand jury called for that term of court was the first to meet in the county and was composed of James Van Bibber, Samuel Miller, James Guthridge, Patrick Ewing, Thomas Hornbuckle, Robert Craghead, Robert Criswell, Josiah Ramsey, Jr., Richard Humphreys, James Henderson, John Nevins, Arthur Neal, Robert Read, William Coats, James Langley, William H. Dunnica, John Gibson, William Hall, John Evins [ Evans], Thomas Smith and Wharton Moore. Mr. Moore was foreman. The jury reported to the court that there was no business to come before it and was discharged.

A week later, on February 12, 1821, the county court met at the same place. Much of the business of the first session of the court con- cerned highways, as it does today, and has throughout the county's his- tory. One of the first acts of the court was the division of the county into two townships, the one east of Auxvasse creek being called Auxvasse,

* Judge I. O. Hockaday was the father of Judge John Augustus Hockaday, of Fulton, who was attorney-general of Missouri from 1875 to 1877, and judge of the circuit court of Callaway, Boone, Randolph and Howard counties from 1890 until his death on November 20, 1903. Judge John A. Hockaday was born on Hockaday Hill, just south of Fulton, on May 6, 1837. He was city attorney of Fulton in 1865, and in 1866 was elected a member of the state senate, but was not allowed to serve because he was not of constitutional age. He was graduated from Westminster Col- lege in 1856 and was the first person to obtain the degree of bachelor of science from the college. His widow and only child, Augustus Hockaday, live in Fulton.

t After serving on the county court nearly a year, Judge Young resigned and Samuel T. Moore, who lived on Ham's Prairie, and was founder of one branch of the Moore family in Callaway county, was appointed to take his place. Judge Young was elected a member of the state senate in 1822 and continued in that office until the session of 1834. He also was a member of the state constitutional convention of 1845.

# Judge Grant was murdered by two negroes on December 29, 1835, and they were legally executed. The murder was the first in the county. One of the negroes belonged to Judge Grant and the other to Col. William Cowherd, grandfather of William S. Cowherd, of Kansas City, former mayor of that city and former repre- sentative in congress from the Jackson county district. William S. Cowherd says the Grant negro confessed the crime and implicated the Cowherd negro, and that when the Grant negro heard the tolling of the bell which announced the execution of the Cowherd negro, he broke down and confessed that the Cowherd negro was innocent. "My grandfather felt so outraged at the result of that trial," Mr. Cow- herd says, "that he left Callaway and came to Jackson about 1837."

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and the one west, Cote Sans Dessein. When the court met in May, 1821, Round Prairie, Elizabeth (now Fulton), and Nine Mile Prairie town- ships were created. Cedar township was formed in 1824 and Bourbon in 1825. Liberty township came into existence in 1838, while the other townships of the county are comparatively modern in their origin.

The election of August 5, 1822, was the first held in the county after its organization. Judge John B. C. Lucas, father of the man whom Thomas H. Benton killed in a duel, carried the county for representative in congress, securing 146 votes, to 96 cast for John Scott, of Ste. Gene- vieve, who had been territorial delegate to congress and who was elected representative, and thirty-three for Alexander Stewart." Jonathan Ramsey was elected representative in the general assembly; Wynkoop Warner, sheriff, and Samuel T. Guthrie, coroner.

The meeting place of the first courts was designated in the statute which created the county ("Laws of a Public and General Nature of the District of Louisiana," etc., vol. I, p. 679). The same statute ap- pointed commissionerst to locate the county seat and they subsequently selected a site near Brite's tavern and named it Elizabeth,t in honor of Brite's wife. Elizabeth remained the county seat until 1825, when, by authority of the general assembly, the permanent seat of government was moved to Fulton, where it has since been located. During the years that Elizabeth was the county seat Brite's tavern was used for a court- house.

THE COUNTY COURTHOUSES

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A History of Northeast Missouri, Volume I, Part 38

Author: Williams, Walter, 1864-1935, editor Publication date: 1913 Publisher: Chicago, New York, The Lewis Publishing Company Number of Pages: 731

Author: Williams, Walter, 1864-1935, editor
Publication date: 1913
Publisher: Chicago, New York, The Lewis Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 731