USA > Missouri > A History of Northeast Missouri, Volume I > Part 41
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DURING THE CIVIL WAR
A large number of men from Callaway county were engaged in the Civil war, the estimate being from 800 to 1,100" on the Confederate side, and 350 on the Union side. Accurate records were not kept, and probably the names of many persons from the county who enlisted in the conflict have been lost forever. The first company to leave the county was organized by Capt. Daniel H. McIntyre, afterward attorney-general of Missouri, in response to the call of Gov. Claiborne F. Jackson. Captain McIntyre was a student in his senior year at Westminster Col- lege when he left in April for the war, and though absent from com- mencement in June, 1861, the faculty granted him his degree. His com- pany contained five students t of the college.
At least fourteen other companies of Confederates (not all of them full, however) left the county during the war, their captains being I. N. Sitton, David Craig, Milton Scholl, Henry Burt, Thomas Holland, Creed Carter, George Robert Brooks, Thomas Hamilton, Jefferson Gibbs, Robert M. Berry, Preston Wilkerson, George Law, W. P. Gilbert, and Charles Austin Rodgers. In addition to these companies, a large number of men were recruited during the war for the Confederate service.
Capt. William T. Snell, Henry Thomas and J. J. P. Johnson raised companies for the Union, while many men from the county enlisted for service in companies which were organized elsewhere.
Fulton was occupied during the greater part of the war by Union soldiers and militia, and Southern sympathizers were in constant fear of imprisonment and death. A number of non-combatants were killed in the county by soldiers, most of the crimes being committed by "Krekel's Dutch," as the troops under the command of General Arnold Krekel, of St. Charles county, were called.
The name, "Kingdom of Callaway," came to the county during the Civil war through a treaty negotiated by Gen. John B. Henderson, representing the Union, and Col. Jefferson F. Jones,# representing the
* The estimates concerning the number of men from Callaway county engaged in the Civil war are taken from the "History of Callaway County" (p. 390). Sur- vivors of the war think, however, that the number of Confederates could not have been less than 1,500.
t Besides Captain McIntyre, the Westminster College students were Joseph C. Watkins, W. S. Duncan, John P. Bell and George Davis. Mr. Bell lives in Fulton, and probably is the only survivor of the group.
# Colonel Jones was one of the most picturesque characters who has ever lived in Callaway county. Born in Montgomery county, Kentucky, in 1817, he came to Fulton in childhood, was educated here, and practiced law at the Fulton bar from 1843 until near the beginning of the Civil war. He entered a large tract of land northeast of Auxvasse, and from 1859 until his death on January 24, 1879, lived on the farm. An order banishing Colonel Jones and his family from the county was issued by Federal officials during the early part of the war, only to be revoked a week later by General Schofield. One of his sons was named Southwest, another Northeast, and his eighth child, a son, was named Octave. He represented the county in the general assembly in 1859 and also in 1877. His name will live because of his connection with the incidents which gave the name "Kingdom of Callaway" to this county, though to his contemporaries at home his fame was greater because of his connection with the events attending the building of the Chicago & Alton Railroad.
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people of Callaway county. In October, 1861, General Henderson, with a considerable force of militia, started from Louisiana, in Pike county, to Callaway, intending to invade the county and bring its citizens under subjection to the Union. Hearing of the project, Colonel Jones assem- bled three or four hundred men and boys and went into camp at Brown's Spring, on Auxvasse creek, east of the present Mexico road crossing." After drilling his men a few days, Colonel Jones on the morning of Sunday, October 27, sent an envoy under a flag of truce into Wellsville, where Henderson and his men were located, and that day a treaty was made whereby General Henderson agreed not to attempt to invade Calla- way county, and Colonel Jones agreed to disband his force. Both sides kept the agreement, and thereby the county obtained a name which probably will last through the ages. The terms of the treaty were especially fortunate for the force under Colonel Jones, for his men were inexperienced in war and armed only with rifles and shotguns, and in an engagement probably would have been routed, for Henderson's men were drilled and well equipped. Part of the equipment of the force under Colonel Jones consisted of two home-made cannons, one of which was made of wood and was bound with iron hoops.
The only battle fought in the county during the war was at Moore's Mill,t one and one-half miles south of Calwood, on Monday, July 28, 1862, between forces under Col. Joseph C. Porter, Confederate, and Gen. Odon Guitar, Union. The engagement lasted from a little before noon until late in the afternoon. The Confederates lost six men and had twenty-one wounded, while the Federals lost thirteen men and had fifty- five wounded. The battle was not decisive. Porter had about 280 men, and Guitar about 680.
Overton Run, a small engagement on the Overton farm, about two miles southwest of Fulton, on the morning of July 17, 1861, resulted in the killing of George Nichols, of Callaway county, who was with the Confederate force, and several Federals. Hearing that Caldwell's men, of Jefferson City, were about to invade the county, a force of several hundred men and boys was organized to meet the enemy. The home guards camped in brush on the Overton farm, and when the Federals came in sight, fired once at them and then ran. The Federals also fired once and ran. The affair has always been the subject of jest.
CHICAGO & ALTON RAILROAD
The Louisiana & Missouri River Railroad, now known as the South Branch of the Chicago & Alton, was built from Mexico across the county to Cedar City in 1872. The county court, composed of men who, under the provisions of the Drake Constitution, were appointed by the governor and therefore were not beholden to the people of the county for their position, issued $640,000 # worth of nine per cent bonds for the
. Colonel Jones's force was augmented by troops under the command of Gen. S. B. Hatton and Captain Searcy, according to the ""History of Boone County" (p. 411). General Hatton's band was composed of about 75 cavalrymen, but the number under Captain Searcy is not given. Facts and dates given in the history referred to enabled the writer to fix upon the date of the "Kingdom of Callaway" treaty.
t Joseph A. Mudd, of Hyattsville, Md., who was with Porter, has written a book under the title, "With Porter in North Missouri," which gives an extended account of the battle of Moore's Mill, and from which the facts for the statements made here are taken.
# In an address delivered at the celebration in Fulton at which the last of the bonds were burned, Judge David H. Harris, now judge of the circuit court of Boone and Callaway counties, said that only $550,500 worth of the bonds of the county
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building of the railroad. In 1872 the people of the county refused to pay interest on the bonds, and then ensued five years of litigation to test the validity of the debt. The end came when the United States supreme court, by a vote of five to four, decided adversely to the people of the county. After the decision of the court, a convention" was held in Fulton to consider a compromise with the owners of the bonds. Some of the members of the convention advocated paying fifty per cent of the debt while others desired to pay seventy-five per cent. Much discussion ensued, and finally Richard Hord, of Cote Sans Dessein, proposed that inasmuch as only five of the nine members of the supreme court thought the bonds were valid, the county should agree to assume five-ninths of the debt. The suggestion was adopted by the convention, and afterward most of the bondholders accepted payment on that basis. The bonds were refunded twice and the last of the debt was discharged in 1906, when, on September 26, the last of the bonds were publicly burned at a celebration held in Fulton. It is estimated that the debt cost the people of the county $1,500,000 in principal and interest before it was paid. The history of the debt is the darkest chapter in the history of the county.
SYNODICAL COLLEGE
Synodical College, the successor of Fulton Female College, though thirteen years intervened between the close of one and the opening of the other, was located at Fulton by the Synod of Missouri (Southern Presbyterian) at a meeting held at Cape Girardeau in October, 1871. Several towns made bids for the institution, but the offer of $16,500 in money and four acres of ground valued at $3,500 made by Fulton was the one accepted. The present college building was begun in the spring of 1872 and finished during the summer of 1873, the cost being $25,000, including furnishings. The first session opened in the fall of 1873 with Prof. T. Oscar Taylor, of Virginia, as president. Through all of its history the college has done splendid work, and at this time plans are being made for the enlargement of its plant to meet present require- ments.
WILLIAM WOODS COLLEGE
William Woods College for girls, then known as the Orphan School of the Christian Church of Missouri, opened in Fulton on September 18, 1890. Following the burning of the orphan school at Camden Point, Fulton offered $40,000 in money and ten acres of land to have it located here, and the offer was accepted. The school opened in the Lehmann Hotel building, and during the following winter moved into the present main building of the college. When the institution became involved in financial troubles in 1901, Dr. William S. Woods, a banker of Kansas City, came to its rescue and his name was given to the college. The college has a large patronage throughout Missouri and the Southwest.
were actually delivered to the projectors of the railroad. For that occasion Judge Harris prepared a history of the bonded debt of the county, and the facts given here are taken from it.
* The convention was called by Judge Hugh Tincher, presiding justice of the county court, to whom, more than to any other person, is due credit for having the debt reduced. He was a member of the court during the time the litigation was pending and twice had to leave the county to avoid service of writs from the Federal court ordering him to levy taxes. Judge Tincher was born in Monroe county, West Virginia, on July 28, 1819, and died on his farm, southeast of Hatton, on February 29, 1888. He was married twice and had fourteen children, most of whom are still living. At the time of his death he was one of the wealthy men of the county, and besides other property, had 1,800 acres of land on Grand Prairie.
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CALLAWAY COUNTY TODAY
During the years 1892-93 the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railroad was built across the southern part of the county. It follows the course of the Missouri river.
By far the most important development in the county in recent years is the building of permanent highways adjacent to Fulton. A road district eight miles square, with Fulton almost in the center of it, was organized in 1911, and on December 30, 1911, a bond issue of $100,000 was authorized. The seven principal roads out of Fulton are being graded at this time, and during the coming year will be macadamized to the boundary of the district. From this beginning it is hoped that a system of permanent roads throughout the county will be developed.
By the census of 1910 Callaway county had a population of 24,400 people, of which 5,228 resided in Fulton. Nearly the whole area of the county has been cleared and is productive. A large majority of the people own their homes, and while none is immensely wealthy, none is miserably poor. The county is noted especially as a mule-feeding cen- ter, though its mule industry is small compared with its other live stock interests. The town of Fulton is prosperous, owning its water and light plants, and having an adequate sewerage system, besides a public library and many miles of paved and macadamized streets. From the town and county have gone many men and women who have done, or are doing, splendid work in the world.
Vol. 1-20
CHAPTER XIII CHARITON COUNTY By Dr. John S. Wallace, Brunswick PRESENT AREA AND ORIGINAL COUNTY
At a session of the legislature which met at St. Charles, then the capital of the Territory of Missouri, in the winter of 1820, an act was passed organizing the county of Chariton to embrace all the coun- try west of the Howard county line to the eastern boundary of Ray county and extending to the Iowa line. The county was given juris- diction for all civil, military and judicial purposes over a vast terri- tory embracing the counties of Linn, Sullivan, Putnam and a part of Adair and Schuyler counties.
The present limits of Chariton county as defined by the legisla- ture are as follows: "Beginning at a point in the middle of the Mis- souri river, where the line between sections 17 and 20, township 51, range 17 west, intersects the same; thence with the western line of Howard county, thence with the north line of Howard county to the sectional line which divides range 16 into equal parts; thence north to the line between townships 56 and 57; thence west with said line to a point where Locust creek crosses the same; thence down the mid- dle of said creek to the middle of the main channel of Grand river; thence down said river in the middle of the main channel thereof to the Missouri river; thence down said Missouri river in the middle of the main channel thereof to the beginning." The county was originally organized with four townships, viz: Grand River, Buffalo Lick, Prairie and Chariton.
In 1840 the county was again divided into Missouri, Bowling Green, Brunswick, Triplett, Cunningham, Yellow Creek, Salt Creek, Mendon and Mussel Fork townships. These townships were composed of what was then called Buffalo Lick township with one voting precinct located in Brunswick. There are now sixteen townships, to-wit: Brunswick, Bee-Branch, Bowling Green, Cockrell, Cunningham, Clark, Chariton, Mendon, Mussel Fork, Missouri, Keytesville, Triplett, Salisbury, Salt Creek, Wayland and Yellow Creek.
The area of Chariton county having been reduced one-third its original size to 749 square miles or 479,360 acres, one might think it has been shorn of much of its power and influence and that its present limits were too insignificant to furnish material for the compilation of an important history. It must be remembered, however, that the most noted events in ancient and modern times, transpired within the smallest territorial compass and it must also be borne in mind that this county was settled by a hardy race of pioneers, many of whom were noted in after years in the making of history of the state, some of whom had fought in the War of 1812 and many of them were
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descendants of the Scotch-Irish, whose forebears had helped to make 'history in the Indian and colonial wars in this country, as did their sires in north Ireland and Scotland during the days of religious and political persecutions.
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THE FIRST SETTLERS
The first settlers in Chariton county were the French fur traders and trappers who had a settlement at the mouth of the Chariton rivers and who gave the name to these streams. Lewis and Clark, while passing up the Missouri river in 1804, state in their report that the Chariton rivers were named by the early French explorers and fur traders. These rivers at that time emptied into the Missouri river at separate outlets, but later united as the Missouri, receded and formed one stream for more than a mile above the present outlet. In the latter half of the seventeenth century and the early part of the eighteenth century France made good her claim to all the territory west of the Mississippi river by establishing settlements and a chain of posts along the upper Missouri river. In pursuance of this plan
AFTERNOON IN HARVESTING DAYS
Captain Etienne de Bourgmont, who had seen service in Canada and Louisiana and had resided as a trader for several years among the Missouri Indians, was commissioned as commander and with Lieu- tenant Saint Ange proceeded in the spring of 1823 with thirty soldiers in three flatboats, loaded with arms, ammunition and provision, up the Missouri river to the village of the Missouris and established a fort on an island in the Missouri river opposite the Indian village said to have been located five miles below the mouth of Grand river and called it Fort-de-Orleans, in honor of Duke Philip of Orleans, brother of Louis XIV.
FORT ORLEANS
The location of this fort has been a disputed question among his- torians for many years. We will give the statements of a few writers who locate it below the mouth of Grand river.
Stoddard in his "Historical Sketches of Louisiana" says that "Ft. Orleans was on an island in the Missouri some distance above the mouth of the Osage river." A similar statement occurs in "The Annals of the West."
In the journal of Lewis and Clark the location is thus mentioned : "June 19, 1804. They passed Deer creek and five miles farther the two Charitons, the first thirty and the second seventy yards wide when they enter the Missouri at separate outlets." They made five miles
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above on the 12th, nine miles on June 13, 1804, and at four miles above their last camp passed up a bend of the river, where two creeks come in on the north, which he speaks of as "Round Bend creeks." Between the two creeks there is a prairie on which there once stood the ancient village of the Missouri Indians. Opposite there had been a French fort, now gone. Five miles above they came to the mouth of the Grand river.
Early maps show that the mouth of Grand river at that time was five miles above this bend. The burying ground of this tribe of Indians is located two miles east of the town of Brunswick and several of the mounds are still visible. The writer of this sketch has in his posses- sion two beautiful stone pipes of curious design made of red pipe stone and many flints, stone axes and parts of a skeleton taken from these mounds. About twenty-five years ago on a farm settled by John Hibler in 1831, just two miles east of Brunswick, nine skeletons were plowed up in one grave, but many of the bones crumbled when exposed to the air.
Bossu's "Travels in Louisiana" speaks of the fort being near the village of the Missouris. DuPratz speaks of Fort Orleans being on an island opposite the Missouri village. Dutisne, who visited the Mis- souris in 1719, states that "it is eighty leagues to the village of the Missouris." John Bradbury's "Travels" of 1811 says: "We passed the site of a village on the northeast side of the river once belong- ing to the Missouris tribe. Four miles above it are the remains of Fort Orleans. It is 240 miles above the mouth of the Missouri." H. M. Brackenridge says: "At 236 miles there had been an ancient village of the Missouris and near by formerly stood Ft. Orleans." Many other historians, however, locate the fort near the town of Wakenda, in Car- roll county.
The first white settler in the county of whom we have any record was George Jackson, who came before the War of 1812, and located in the southern part of the county near the Missouri river and after the organization of the county was a representative in the general assembly.
OLD CHARITON
In the spring of 1817 the town of Chariton was laid out and it was located in Chariton township, about one-half mile east of where the Chari- ton river joined the Missouri river and about four hundred yards north of the latter river. General Duff Green and Sabret Johnson were the original proprietors of the town site. It was always called "Old Char- iton," not because there was another town of the same name, but because it was the oldest and first settled town in the county. In fact, it was to Chariton county what Jamestown was to Virginia and St. Augustine was to Florida. Being the most western town on the Missouri river, in a few years after being laid out it grew rapidly and gave promise of being a rival of St. Louis in controlling the trade of the Missouri valley. So bright seemed its future and so enthusiastic its early inhabitants that it would be the great commercial center of the northwest that a shoemaker, William Cabeen, familiarly called "Uncle Billy Cabeen," sold his property in St. Louis, a block near the old court house, for $3,000 and invested the money in lots in Chariton. But alas for human hopes and expectations, the St. Louis property is now worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, while "Old Chariton," the once ambitious and hustling little village is a thing of the past and in the field of grow- ing corn one would hardly recognize the ancient town site. In the winter of 1816-17, it was the wintering ground of a tribe of the Sac and Iowa
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Indians and during the summer of 1817 three or four log cabins were built. The Iowas camped for many years in the neighborhood of where "Old Chariton" was afterwards located. Their noted chief was White Cloud, who is said to have possessed many good traits of character and was a fine looking Indian. Wahoochee was one of the prominent chiefs of the tribe of the Sacs. These Indians were not always peaceable and resented the encroachments of the whites and at times were quite hostile, often committing many depredations on the settlements of the early pioneers. Major Stephen Cooper, of Colusa, California, who served as a volunteer in the company of his father, Captain Sarshall Cooper, who had command of Cooper's Fort in Howard county, was detailed as a scout, and often was sent out to look for Indian trails and camps in the territory of the Chariton rivers. On one occasion, accom- panied by Joseph Stills, in October, 1813, they were scouting on the Grand Chariton, when they were surrounded by about three hundred Indians of the Sac nation. In attempting to charge through them Stills was shot from his horse and instantly killed, but Cooper escaped unhurt, after killing one of the principal braves of the Sac nation.
The town of Chariton could boast of as good society as any city in America, having men of great literary attainments, of skill in their pro- fessions, and of great social endowments, many of them graduates of the leading institutions of learning in this country and some even from Edinburgh, Scotland. Among the early business men were General Duff Green and Stephen Donahoe, John Ross and Company-composed of John Ross, William Glasgow and John Aull. Fred Beanbrick was the tailor and the only German settler at that time in the county. John Moore and Isaac Campbell each kept a hotel and lived for many years in the place. Mr. Moore met his death in a very tragic manner years afterwards at the hands of an assassin. General Duff Green and his brother-in-law, James Semple, were the first lawyers in the place. The latter moved to Illinois and was United States senator from that state for six years. General Duff Green was one of the most noted and prominent citizens of the place and gave tone and direction to all its leading industries. He started the erection of a two-story, fourteen- room brick house, but before its completion he returned to St. Louis to engage in the management of a newspaper that was to promote the interest of John C. Calhoun for the presidency. This enterprise having failed, he was induced to go to Washington, D. C., where he established a paper called the Telegraph, in advocacy of General Jackson's claims. General Green took an active part in politics and by his vigorous espousal of General Jackson's cause he was given credit for his election and was the director of the leading features of his administration. Col. John White owned a harness shop and made saddles for many years and it is said that the celebrated Kit Carson, scout and noted Indian fighter, worked for him for some time.
In 1818 Capt. W. W. Monroe and family, Edward B. Cabell and family, and Daniel Duvall and family reached the town of Chariton and united their destinies with the people of what is now Chariton county. When the county was organized, Edward B. Cabell was appointed clerk of the circuit court and held that office for thirty years. In 1819, Col. Joseph J. Monroe, brother of President James Monroe and a graduate of the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, a man of vast learning, became a citizen of Chariton county for a time, but afterwards purchased land near Fayette, Missouri, and died a few years afterward. In the year 1818, many prominent families came from Kentucky and Virginia and among them were Col. Hiram Craig and family. He was a gallant officer of a Virginia regiment in the War of 1812, and for many years
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