USA > Missouri > A History of Northeast Missouri, Volume I > Part 47
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Agriculture is the greatest among all the arts of man, as it is the first in supplying his necessities. It creates and maintains manufac- tures, gives employment to navigation and furnishes material to com- merce. It animates every species of industry and opens to nations the safest channels of wealth. It is the strongest bond of well regulated society, the surest basis of internal peace, and the natural associate of correct morals. Among all occupations of life there is none more hon- orable, none more independent, and none more conducive to the health and happiness of the individual or community. As an agricultural county Howard is the farmer's paradise, where he may always reap an abundant harvest from the soil. The soil has an open, flexible structure which quickly absorbs the most excessive rains and retains moisture with great tenacity. This being the case, it is not easily affected by a drouth. The prairie portion of the county is covered with a sweet, luxuriant grass equally as good for grazing and hay as the famous Kentucky blue- grass. The rich sandy loam soil of Howard county produces from year to year enormous crops of corn, wheat and oats, with a boundless pas- turage.
The water supply is not only inexhaustible but everywhere conven- ient. There are few cereals, only a very few, that the soil of Howard county will not produce at a profit in the mart of commerce.
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The following products 'of the soil yield in abundance, broom-corn. sorghum, beans, peas, hops, sweet potatoes and in fact, all kinds of garden vegetables. Fruits of the orchard of every variety, including the apple, pear, peach, cherries, apricots, strawberry, raspberry, and blackberry are cultivated with great success. With the building of the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railroad through the county from south to north and the Chicago and Alton Railroad from east to west, these great arteries of commercial industry and progress presaged the dawn of a brighter and grander era in the history of the county. Her fertile prairies, rich high lands and prolific valleys have been made ten-fold more productive of material profit, these additional facilities afforded by the railroad have opened wide the marts of trade and commerce. transportation to and from all parts of the country have been secured and a fresh impetus given to the growth of our towns and cities and furnishing new hopes and aspirations to all our people.
EARLY SETTLERS
The early pioneer settlers of Howard county were deeply imbued with religious convictions, for we find as early as 1816 church services were held in the county by the Baptists, being followed in 1820 by the Presbyterian church, and in 1826 by the Disciples of Christ, and in the year 1836 by the establishment of a small colony of communicants of the Protestant Episcopal church located in Fayette, the county seat.
History we are told "is but a record of the life and career of people and nations." The historian in rescuing from oblivion the life of a nation or a particular people should nothing extenuate, nor set down aught in malice. Myths, however beautiful, are but fanciful; traditions, however pleasing, are uncertain; and legends, though the very essence of poesy and song, are unauthentic. The novelist will take the most fragile thread of romance and from it weave a fabric of surpassing beauty. But the historian should put his feet upon the solid rock of truth and turning a deaf ear to the allurements of fancy, he should sift with careful scrutiny the evidence brought before him from which he is to give the record of what has been. Standing down the stream of time far removed from its source, he must retrace with patience and care its meanderings, guided by the relics of the past which lie upon its shores, growing fainter and still more faint and uncertain as he nears its fountain, oftimes concealed in the"debris of ages and the mists of impenetrable darkness. Written records grow less and less explicit and finally fail altogether as he approaches the beginnings of the community, whose lives he is seeking to rescue from the gloom of a rapidly receding past. Memory, wonderful as are its powers, is yet frequently at fault and only by a comparison of its many aggregations can he be satisfied that he is pursuing the truth in his researches amid the early paths of his subject. It cannot then be unimportant or uninteresting to trace the progress of Howard county from its crude beginnings to her present proud position among her sister counties. To this end, therefore, we have endeavored to gather the scattered and loose threads of the past into a compact web of the present, trusting that the harmony and per- fections of the work may speak with no uncertain sound to the future. Records have been traced as far as they have yielded information sought for, the memories of the pioneers have been laid under tribute and into requisition from all of which we could obtain reliable material to con- struct a truthful and faithful history of Howard county.
The first white men to visit the territory of Howard county were a colony under the direction of Pierre Laclede Liguest. who held a
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charter from the French government, granting him the right and priv- ilege to trade with the Indians in all the territory west of St. Louis and as far west as the Rocky mountains. Levens and Drake state in their history of Cooper county that Ira P. Nash with his companions visited Howard county territory in the year 1804 and established a trading post two miles northwest of Old Franklin. Col. Benjamin Cooper, of Ken- tucky, moved to Howard county in the year 1808 and he states that when he arrived in what is now known as Boon's Lick in Howard county there were no settlements in this part of the state. It is claimed on good authority that the old hunter, Daniel Boone, visited the Boon's Lick country about the year 1795 and manufactured salt from the many salt springs found in that region of Howard's territory.
The first authentic record of a permanent settlement to be made in Howard county was in the year 1800, when Joseph Marie sold and deeded a tract of land to Asa Morgan. This land was situated one mile southwest of Fort Kincaid, in what is now Franklin township. Charles Dehault Delassus, lieutenant-governor of Upper Louisiana, granted a large tract of land situated in Franklin township on the 26th day of January, 1804.
The next American in Howard county was Ira P. Nash, a deputy United States surveyor, in company with Stephen Hancock and Stephen Jackson, in the year 1804. These pioneers located on land opposite the mouth of the LaMine river in Howard county. In July, 1804, Ira P. Nash and his brother Wm. Nash, also James H. Whitesides, William Clark and Daniel Hubbard, again came into what is now Howard county and surveyed a tract of land on the site of Old Franklin. On this second trip of Nash he claimed that he had left a compass in a certain hollow tree several miles from the river and started out with two companions to find the compass which he did the following day, bringing the compass to camp with him which proved beyond doubt that he had visited the country before as he had stated. Lewis and Clark, on their exploring expedition to the Rocky mountains arrived at the mouth of the Bonne Femme in Howard county on the 7th day of June, 1804, and camped for the night. When Lewis and Clark returned from this journey in 1806, after having accomplished all the objects for which they were sent out, they passed down the Missouri river and camped on the 18th of September, in Howard county, opposite the mouth of the LaMine river.
THE BOON'S LICK COUNTRY
The next evidence we have of any white persons being in the Boon's Lick country is in 1807, when Nathan and Daniel M. Boone, sons of Daniel Boone, the great pioneer, who lived with their father in what is now St. Charles county, about twenty-five miles west of the city of St. Charles, on the Femme Osage creek, came up the Missouri river and manufactured salt at Boon's Lick in Howard county. After the Boons had manufactured what salt they wanted, they shipped it down the river to St. Louis, where it was sold. It is thought by many that this was the first instance of salt being manufactured in what was at that time a part of the territory of Louisiana, now the state of Missouri.
Previous to the year 1808, every white American who came to the Boon's Lick country came with the intention of only remaining a short time. Three parties had entered it while on exploring and surveying expeditions, two parties had been to the salt licks to make salt. In the spring of 1808 Col. Benjamin Cooper, of Kentucky, arrived in the Boon's Lick country with his family, consisting of his wife and five sons, and located two miles southwest of Boon's Lick, built a cabin, cleared a
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piece of ground and made arrangements for a permanent home. But he was not permitted to remain, for Meriwether Lewis, governor of the territory, issued an order directing him to return to below the mouth of the Gasconade river, as the governor thought he had advanced too far into the Indian territory and too far from any white protection in case Indians should go on the warpath. So he was forced to return to Loutre island, about four miles south of the Gasconade river, where he remained until the year 1810, when he again returned with his family to the Boon's Lick country.
The rich territory, however, was not destined to be left forever to the reign of the wild beasts and savage Indians. Aside from the fact that the character of the men of the early days caused them continually to revolt against living in thickly settled communities, the Boon's Lick country presented advantages which those seeking a home where they could find the richest lands and the most healthful climate could not and
ARNOLD'S TAVERN, HOWARD COUNTY
did not fail to perceive. Its fertile soil promised with little labor the most abundant harvests. Its forests were filled with every variety of game and its streams with all kinds of fish.
Two years after the settlement by Benjamin Cooper and his removal to Loutre island the first permanent settlement was made in the Boon's Lick country and this party was the forerunner for many others who soon followed. Most of the emigrants who came to the Boon's Lick country were former citizens of Madison county, Kentucky, and we will give the names of a few of the most prominent pioneers whose names are indissolubly linked with the early history of Howard county : the Coopers, Hancocks, Berrys, Browns, Thorps, Jones, Woods, Bynums and many others who left good homes in Kentucky and Virginia and came to the far west.
During the years 1811 and 1812 there was a great influx of new- comers from the east. On their arrival the first work was to erect a log cabin and to clear a small patch of ground and plant just enough corn and garden vegetables to feed their families through the winter. They knew that the country was full of Indians and that the Indians might at any time begin depredations on the whites. Therefore, they
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located in colonies where in case of danger they could render each other assistance in time of need. The county was full of wild game of all kinds which furnished meat in abundance to the settlers. There were large droves of wild turkey, elk, deer, and bear and as soon as a cabin was complete for the family occupancy the men folks turned their atten- tion to hunting and fishing. The range was good and the stock kept fat on the luxuriant grasses, while nuts and berries of all kinds furnished ample food for every species of animal.
It was during the two years of 1811 and 1812 that quite a number of emigrants came into the Boon's Lick country. Many of these new arrivals included families of wealth and culture, who left splendid homes and life-long friends in the east to take up their abode in a new country infested with savages and wild beasts. They had hardly got comfortably located in their new homes before rumors and mutterings were heard that Great Britain had incited Indians to take the warpath and with British assistance to attempt to drive the whites from the territory. They, therefore, lost no time in building log forts and stockades and making other preparations to defend themselves from the attacks of the Indians and the British. Three large log forts were built, Fort Cooper was located two miles southwest of Boon's Lick. Fort Kincaid was built about one mile north of the present Boonville railroad bridge. Fort Hempstead was built one mile and a half north of Fort Kincaid. Each fort was a series of log houses built together around an enclosure. In each house lived a family. The stock was corralled and the property of the settlers secured at night in the enclosure. Other small forts were built, but those named were the most important.
As soon as the forts were completed, all the settlers moved into them. They organized themselves into a military company with Sarshall Cooper as captain and William Mahon as first lieutenant. In these forts were 112 men able to bear arms. Life in the forts was not one of idleness and ease. It was one of constant vigilance and activity for the space of over two years until the war clouds had blown over. Schools were maintained in the forts for the children and religious exercises were held every Sunday. The first horsemills in the county were erected at Fort Hempstead and Fort Kincaid. The first dry goods store in the county was kept by Robert Morris within the inclosure of Fort Hemp- stead.
In accordance with an act of the territorial legislature approved Jan- uary 13, 1816, the county of Howard was created, being the ninth organ- ized county in the territory. Its limits were taken from the territory of St. Louis and St. Charles counties.
ORGANIZATION OF THE COUNTY
Howard county at its organization was an empire in area. repre- senting 22,000 square miles. It was one-third as large as the state of Missouri and was larger than Vermont, Massachusetts, Delaware and Rhode Island. It is from the fact that so many counties have been created from original territory that Howard county is called the "Mother of Counties" and the appellation is a just one. By an act of the legis- lature February 16, 1825, Howard county was reduced to its present limits of 463 square miles in area, instead of 22,000 square miles.
In the fall of 1816 the town of Old Franklin was laid off opposite the present site of Boonville. It was located on a tract of land containing 100 acres. Benjamin Estill, David Jones. David Kincaid. William Head and Stephen Cooper were appointed commissioners to locate a county seat which had been first located at Cole's Fort. On June 16,
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1817, the commissioners made their report to the court and recommended the site of Old Franklin as the most suitable place for the county seat. So on the 2d day of November, 1817, the court was opened for official business by the sheriff. The land office was also located at Old Franklin in 1818 and Thomas A. Smith appointed receiver and Charles Carroll register.
The first newspaper published west of St. Louis was on April 23, 1819, by Nathaniel Patten and Benjamin Holliday. The name of the paper was the Missouri Intelligencer.
The first steamboat that ever touched the soil of Howard county was on May 28, 1819. It cast anchor at Old Franklin, then a town of 350 in- habitants, and the arrival of the boat was the occasion of great rejoicing by the citizens of Old Franklin. The event was celebrated by the firing of cannon and by big toasts and speeches by her most prominent citizens.
The first postoffice established in the county was in the year 1821. Until that time the news was carried by the scout and traveler passing from one settlement to another.
The first county court was held on February 26, 1821, at Old Frank- lin. The judges were Henry V. Bingham, David R. Drake, and Thomas Conway. Hampton L. Boone was appointed county clerk pro tem.
FIRST COUNTY OFFICERS
Elias Bancroft was appointed county surveyor, Nicholas S. Burck- hartt, county assessor, and Joseph Patterson, collector of the revenue in 1821. These were the first county officers. The county from 1816 to 1821 was divided into four townships: Moniteau, Bonne Femme, Chariton and LaMine. In 1821 the county court made a second division of the county into townships and made seven townships: Franklin, Boonslick, Chariton, Richmond, Prairie, Bonne Femme, and Moniteau. Later on the county court created Burton township from territory taken from Richmond and Prairie townships.
KIT CARSON
Among the famous men who lived in Howard county and whose name and fame is world-wide is Kit Carson, the famous scout who piloted the exploring company of men under the lead of Gen. J. C. Fremont to the Pacific coast. He was born in Madison county, Kentucky, in 1809, and was brought by his father, Lindsey Carson, to the Boon's Lick coun- try in 1810 when "Kit" was only one year old. Young "Kit" when barely seventeen years old joined a party and left his home in Howard county to seek his fortune in the far West, where he remained until his death.
COUNTY ORGANIZATION
From 1804 until October 1, 1812, the territory of Missouri was divided into four districts. At that date Governor Clark issued a proclamation, in accordance with an act of Congress, reorganizing the four districts into five counties : St. Charles, St. Louis, Ste. Genevieve, Cape Girardeau and New Madrid.
Under the act of the General Assembly approved January 13, 1816, the county of Howard was created, being the ninth organized county in the territory, and was taken out of the counties of St. Louis and St. Charles. The boundaries of Howard county, as established after its or- ganization, included within its confines the following counties, which have been created and organized since February 16, 1825: Boone, Cole, Vol 1-28
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Miller, Morgan, Benton, St. Clair, Henry, Johnson, LaFayette, Pettis, Cooper, Moniteau, Saline, Clay, Clinton, DeKalb, Gentry, Worth, Har- rison, Daviess, Caldwell, Ray, Carroll, Randolph, Livingston, Grundy, Mercer, Putnam, Sullivan, Linn, Chariton, Macon, Adair, parts of Shelby, Monroe and Audrain, and the following counties in Iowa : Taylor, Adams, Union, Ringgold, Clark, Decatur, Wayne, Lucas, Monroe and Appanoose.
In the year 1816 after Howard county was duly organized the first term of court was held at the home of Joseph Jolly in Hannah Cole's fort on the 8th day of July, 1816. Hon. David Barton was the presiding judge, Nicholas Burckhartt, cheriff, and Gray Bynum, clerk of the court. The attorneys in attendance were Edward Bates, Charles Lucas, Joshua Barton and Lucius Caston.
At this term of court Hannah Cole obtained a license to establish a ferry across the Missouri river.
The first licensed tavern was kept by Harper C. Davis, in Kincaid's Fort.
The first road laid out in the county was a road from Cole's Fort on the Missouri river to intersect the road from Potosi in Washington county at the Osage river. Stephen Cole, James Cole and Humphrey Gibson were appointed to lay out and make the road.
The first elections held in the county were held at Head's Fort. Mc- Lain's Fort, Fort Cooper and Cole's Fort.
The first civil action was styled Davis Lodd vs. Joseph Boggs.
OLD FRANKLIN
About the year 1820 John Hardeman, of German extraction, came to Old Franklin and purchased land five miles above the town nearly opposite the mouth of the LaMine creek and planted a garden and filled it with every known species and variety of plants. He was a man of wealth, and he spared neither expense nor labor in beautifying the gar- den and making it attractive to the eye. It has been claimed by some that it equalled the celebrated garden of Henry Shaw of St. Louis. This beautiful garden was finally engulfed by an overflow of the Mis- souri river in the year 1826. Old Franklin was made the county seat in 1817 and the land office was also located there. The town was the most promising and prominent west of St. Louis and its population was rapidly on the increase year by year. Some of the best blood of Kentucky, Vir- ginia and Tennessee and other states flowed in the veins of its citizens. The town was noted for the intelligence, hospitality and enterprise of its people. Among the illustrious citizens whose names sparkle upon the historic page with a fadeless luster were L. W. Boggs, John Miller, Hamilton R. Gamble, C. F. Jackson, all of whom were afterwards govern- ors of the state; J. F. Ryland and Abiel Leonard, later on judges of the Supreme Court of Missouri, Gen. Robert C. Clark and Cyrus Edwards, both distinguished lawyers, Judge David Todd, David Barton, H. V. Bingham, the father of the great artist whose pencil made famous the General Order No. 11 of General Ewing of Civil war fame. The Baptists organized a church in the town in 1819 and the Methodists one year later on but no house of worship was erected.
Franklin continued to be the county seat until 1823, when the county seat was located at Fayette, the latter town being about the geographical center of the county. Many of Franklin's citizens moved to Fayette, especially the lawyers. The Masonic lodge was organized at Old Frank- lin in 1820. It was removed to New Franklin in 1852 and reorganized and known as Howard lodge No. 4, being the fourth Masonic lodge instituted in the state.
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The first postoffice was established at Old Franklin on April 20, 1821, and Augustus Stores appointed postmaster. With the flood of 1826, the town of New Franklin owes its existence. With the advent of the Mis- souri, Kansas & Texas Railroad to New Franklin it soon increased in population from 250 people to 1,500, but of late years the railroad com- pany has removed the round house and repair shops from the town and since their removal the town has gradually decreased in population until at present it has not more than 600 inhabitants.
ESTILL
Estill station is a small country village with one store and blacksmith shop and postoffice. It is situated in the richest part of Howard county and is named in honor of Col. J. R. Estill who gave the site for a depot.
FAYETTE
Fayette, the county seat of Howard county, was named in honor of General LaFayette when he was about to revisit the United States: The town was laid out in 1823. The following citizens located the present site of the county seat: Jonathan Crawley, William Head, Samuel Wallace, Glenn Owens, and Samuel Hardin. Hiram Fugate and Hick Burnham each donated twenty-five acres for the county seat. Elisha Witt built the first house of logs. The first merchant was named O'Neal. Dr. Wm. MeLain was the first physician and Mathew Semmons the first black- smith. Lawrence J. Daly was the first school teacher, as well as the first postmaster of Fayette. He was a native of Ireland and died in Fayette. In 1838 a bank, a branch of the Missouri State Bank, was established in Fayette with Dr. J. J. Lowery as president and C. F. Jackson as cashier. In 1865 A. Hendrix established a private bank which later on became the Merchants and Mechanics Bank of Fayette.
The Fayette bank was established in 1871. The Commercial Bank has recently been opened for business in Fayette. There have been three court houses in Fayette since it became the county seat. The first was built in 1824, the second in 1859, and the third in 1879. The cholera visited Fayette first in 1832 and again in 1873. The latter visit re- sulted in nearly 100 deaths.
Central College, under the management of the Methodist Church South is located at Fayette and is in a prosperous condition. Howard- Payne College at Fayette is a school for the education of girls and is also under the direction of the Methodist Church South. Both schools are well patronized.
GLASGOW
The town of Glasgow was laid out in the fall of 1836. It was named in honor of James Glasgow, one of the early settlers of the township. As Glasgow was located on the Missouri river with the advantages of river transportation, it was not long until the town was of much im- portance in a commercial sense. Glasgow has four flouring banks in active and successful operation. The Chicago & Alton Railroad has a railroad bridge over the Missouri at Glasgow for the main line of its road from Chicago to Kansas City.
Pritchett College at Glasgow, an educational institution of high repute, is in a flourishing condition under the presidency of Hon. U. S. Hall, assisted by a corps of able teachers. The Morrison Observatory, donated to the use of Pritchett College by the will of Mrs. Berenice Mor- rison-Fuller in the year of 1874, is at Glasgow.
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SCIENCE HMM., CENTRAL. COLLEGE, FAYETTE
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