USA > Missouri > A History of Northeast Missouri, Volume I > Part 52
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Railroad building in Lewis county came slowly at first. The first rail- road chartered in the county was to run from Canton to Bloomfield, Iowa. This was in April, 1860. It was helped by donations and by bonds issued, and in the latter part of the year considerable grading and bridge work was done and iron laid, and construction trains run out as far as Bunker Hill, in Lyon township, Lewis county. The Civil war stopped the building of this railroad. In 1864, the owner of this rail- road sold the iron rails on this road to the United States government, and they sent officers to remove the same. Iron was wanted for use in the South.
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There was an effort in 1866, after the war, to build this road again. In 1868, it was sought to rebuild the road under a different name and charter, with considerable deviation in the route, to call it the Missis- sippi & Missouri River Air Line Railroad, and to start it at West Quincy, Missouri, and terminate it at Brownsville, Nebraska. There was some work done on this road and the grade was completed through the county. In the year 1870, the West Quincy & Alexandria Railroad Company was chartered and took over the Mississippi & Missouri Air Line Company, and thereafter it became the St. Louis, Keokuk & North- western, and having passed through numerous changes, is now known as the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad Company. In 1871, the road was completed through the county ; in April of that year it reached Canton, adding much to the development of the county. It has been gradually improved, until today it is one of the principal lines west of the Mississippi river. The road travels the county from north to south, along the eastern boundary of the county, following closely the Missis- sippi river. The principal stations along the line in Lewis county are Canton and LaGrange.
In 1869, there was incorporated the Quincy, Missouri & Pacific Railroad Company. This road runs through the county from the west to the east, passing nearly through the entire county in a southeasterly direction. In the south part of the county the first train on this road reached La Belle in January, 1872. Along the line have sprung up several small towns and villages, among them Maywood, Durham, Ewing, Tolona, Lewistown and La Belle. Until the advent of the railroad La Belle was only a small trading point, but since that time it has developed into one of the principal towns of the county. This road is now known as the Quincy, Omaha & Kansas City Railroad.
THE COUNTY BAR
Among the leading attorneys of the early days was Thomas L. An- derson. His home was at Palmyra, in Marion county, but he was for a number of years engaged in the practice in this county. He was a man well fitted for the practice of his chosen profession. He and Stephen B. Carnegy were the first attorneys ever enrolled in the county. Stephen B. Carnegy at that time was residing at Palmyra in Marion county, mov- ing to Lewis county at an early date. He was for a number of years active in the practice in the county.
Adam B. Chambers, of Pike county, was the first circuit attorney who appeared in the circuit courts of the county; this was in 1834.
James Ellison, who was enrolled in the county in 1836, was actively engaged in the practice in the county. He was a man of fine qualities, with a large amount of legal talent and was among the leaders of his profession; his descendants seem to have inherited much of his legal talent. One of his sons, James Ellison, is a member of the Kansas City Court of Appeals; which position he has filled for a number of years with credit to himself and his profession. Another son, Andrew Elli- son, now deceased, was for a number of years judge of the judicial cir- cuit in which he resided. His home was at Kirksville, in Adair county ; he was an able and competent jurist and left behind him an honorable and upright record. Another son, William C. Ellison, whose home is at Maryville, in this state, is circuit judge of the judicial circuit in which he resides. George Ellison, who resides at Canton, is a man of fine legal mind, whose advice and counsel are much sought.
On the roll of attorneys at an early day appear the names of a large number of eminent attorneys, many of whom did not reside in the county
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but who practiced in the courts of the county. Among this number was Samuel T. Glover, of Palmyra; John S. Dryden, and Addison Reese, enrolled before 1840. In 1840, James S. Green was admitted to practice and enrolled in the county; he developed into one of the leading attor- neys in the state. He was an eloquent speaker and his arguments were clear and convincing.
H. M. Woodyard enrolled as a lawyer in 1842; Thomas S. Richardson in 1846, and James J. Lindley in 1846.
In the year 1854, M. C. Hawkins was enrolled among the list of attorneys in the county. He resided at Canton. The same year John C. Anderson was admitted to practice in the county. They were men well versed in the law and soon won distinction as lawyers of ability. John C. Anderson was called upon to fill the office of circuit attorney and afterward became judge of his judicial circuit, which place he filled with distinction and credit to himself and his profession. Another attor- ney who was admitted to the practice of law in this year was James G. Blair. He was one of the leading attorneys of Northeast Missouri for a long number of years and engaged actively in the practice up until the time of his death, which occurred in 1907. He was uniformly suc- cessful in his cases, a man capable of drawing fine legal distinction and of presenting his cases with force and effect. He served in congress one term.
Among the notable attorneys who have commenced the practice of law in the county since 1860, is Francis L. Marchand, who commenced the practice of law in 1863. He has ever since that time been actively engaged in the practice. He is a lawyer of high standing, with fine legal talent and has for many years enjoyed the distinction of being one of the leading attorneys of Northeast Missouri. John J. Louthan was an attorney of ability, and enjoyed for a long number of years a large practice in the county.
F. L. Schofield is a lawyer of high standing and attainments who has won distinction in the state and federal courts. For a number of years he was a member of the Lewis county bar. He now resides at Hannibal.
O. C. Clay, of Canton, was admitted to the practice of law in 1876. He is a man of fine legal mind, a hard worker and has forged ahead until today he is one of the leading attorneys of Northeast Missouri.
Judge B. F. Thompson, of La Belle, is a man of much ability. He for a long time was actively engaged in the court practice, but has in later years directed most of his time to banking and his office practice.
Among the notable lawyers who practiced in the county for a number of years are James T. Lloyd, of Shelby county, the present member of congress from this district; S. B. Jeffries, of St. Louis, who practiced in the county before being appointed assistant attorney general of the state under General Crow; W. G. Downing, now deceased, late of Great Falls, Montana, who served as prosecuting attorney of the county and also in the state senate.
The bar of Lewis county, at the present day is made mostly of young men, ranging in age from 30 to 50 years. They are active, energetic and well learned in the law and endowed with good judgment and dis- cretion, and are the equal of any bar in the state.
MONTICELLO
The town of Monticello, county seat of Lewis county, is located in a commanding position, on the east bluffs of the North Fabius river. It has at the present time a population of 350, which has increased but
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little for the last quarter of a century, owing to the growth of the river and railroad towns of the county, which had the effect of diverting trade.
Monticello, meaning "little mountain," was established in 1833, as the county seat. Silas Reddish surveyed and laid out the town site. In December, 1834, Judge J. A. Richardson selected a lot on which to build a jail and another for a church and schoolhouse.
The first houses were built by William Graves and William Smith; the first hotel by William Ellis. The old Pemberton hotel was built by W. S. Pemberton in 1836. Two hotels are now conducted in the town. The first school was taught in 1835-36, by Miss Bradley, in the court- house, which was a one room log building. The present courthouse is a two story brick building and compares favorably with other Northeast Missouri county buildings. It is situated in a beautiful grove of fine trees overlooking the fertile river valley and the verdure clad hills, which stretch away in every direction.
Strong sentiment prevails in and about the historic town, and much practical work has been done toward procuring an electric road here, through the town, which would revive its prestige and make it again an important center for a rich territory. It lies directly upon the line of a prospected road which will extend from Quincy to Des Moines, when completed.
The Lewis County Journal, a bright, newsy, well arranged weekly, edited by R. B. Caldwell, has been in existence for forty years. It was established December 18, 1872, by John Moore.
The town has two general stores, two hotels, two drug stores, a feed mill, livery stable, blacksmith shop, restaurant and a flourishing bank, the Monticello Trust Company, organized in 1904, as the successor to the Monticello Savings Bank, three churches, the Methodist Episcopal, South, the Christian and the Baptist, and a well conducted school and high school.
CANTON
The town of Canton is the oldest in the county. It was regularly laid out in the winter of 1830, by Edward White, Robert Sinclair and Isaac Bland. The plat was filed in the office of the circuit clerk of Marion county, on the 15th of February. Edward White built the first house, which was used as a tavern. Mr. Block had the first store, which stood on the levee, somewhere near the foot of Lewis street. Thomas Gray had the second store, in a one story log building above Block's.
Canton is beautifully situated on the west bank of the Mississippi river, within twenty-five miles of the great dam that has been built at Keokuk. It is here that the river takes its boldest sweep westward, and making a beautiful semi-circle around the town, furnishes an at- tractive landscape.
Canton's principal lines of business are manufacturing, shipping, merchandising and education. Upon the bluff west of the town stands Christian University, the first institution of learning west of the Mis- sissippi to establish coeducation. The main building was erected a few years ago at a cost of $45,000, most of which was contributed by the generous citizens of the community. Just south is the new Stockton- Culver gymnasium and dormitory; which with its heating plant, was erected in 1912, at a cost of $80,000; these buildings, with a group of modern brick cottages occupied by students, and the fine campus give the institution a property value of $150,000.
Under the brow of the hill is the St. Joseph school, erected by the Catholics of Canton and immediate neighborhood, which is also flour- ishing.
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A large planing mill, two pearl button factories and a large elevator give employment to more than two hundred people. The fishing industry also affords employment to nearly one hundred. A new button and finishing plant, built by the Canton Commercial Club in 1912, will give employment to from two hundred and fifty to three hundred men and women.
With the advantage of the Burlington railroad and of cheap river transportation, farm products bring higher prices in Canton than at any interior point for a radius of fifty miles. The public schools are flourishing. A new school building with modern appliances was com- pleted in 1911, at a cost of nearly $25,000 and is capable of accommo- dating six hundred pupils. Quite a large number of pupils from various parts of the county attend here.
Eight churches, well maintained, indicate that the citizens are preparing for the future as well as caring for the present.
Canton has her own system of electric lights and water works, fifteen miles of graded and macadam streets and many beautiful residences. It has a population of about 2,500, but its rapid growth since the census of 1910 gives assurance that by 1920 it will have doubled or trebled its population.
WILLIAMSTOWN
Williamstown, situated in the northwest part of the county, was platted in 1856, on the west half of the southwest quarter of section 21, township 63, range 8. It is an ideal site for a town, being situated on a beautiful rolling prairie and on the old Canton, Monticello and Memphis state road. At the commencement of the Civil war there was but two stores and few dwelling houses. It now has a number of good stores, a bank, a mill, and two hotels. It has a population of about three hundred. It has no railroad but undoubtedly will be connected with an electric line in the near future.
DEER RIDGE
Deer Ridge is a small village situated in the west central part of Reddish Township, between the North and the Middle Fabius. It was so named by the pioneers from the number of deer found by them. A post- office was established and called Deer Ridge in 1846; and a store was established at the same time; this was the origin of Deer Ridge. It is now a small village, has two general stores, wagonmaker's shop and mill. It has a population of about fifty.
STEFFENVILLE
Steffenville is situated in the southwest part of the county, in one of the richest farming communities in the county. It has good stores, a bank, two churches and schools.
LEWISTOWN
Lewistown was laid out in 1871, on part of section 17, township 61, range 8. The first building erected in the town was by William Fible. Mr. Fible opened a large general store which he conducted for a number of years. It has a population of about five hundred people. It has a number of good stores, two banks, mill, electric light plant, a number of churches and a good school. It is situated on the Quincy, Omaha & Kansas City Railroad.
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EWING
Ewing is a village of about 350 inhabitants situated in the south cen- tral part of the county on the Quincy, Omaha & Kansas City Railroad. The growth of this village began when Antoine Sedlemier, formerly of Steffenville, located here and started a general store. It has a number of good stores, a newspaper, a mill, electric light plant, creamery, salting works, two banks, lumber yard, a number of churches, and good schools.
DURHAM
Durham is a small hamlet laid out in 1872, and is located on a part of section 27, township 60, range 7. It is on the Quincy, Omaha & Kan- sas City Railroad; has two or three stores, a bank, creamery, churches and schools.
MAYWOOD
Maywood is situated on the Quincy, Omaha & Kansas City Railroad and is about fourteen miles from Quincy, Illinois. Its railroad station was established in 1872. It is a prosperous little town, with a number of good stores, two banks, several churches and good schools.
LA BELLE
La Belle is one of the principal towns of the county. It is situated in the west central part of the county, near the Knox county line. It is built on parts of sections 4 and 5, township 61, range 9. In 1857, William Triplett established a general store in the present site of La Belle, the first resident of La Belle. La Belle is some times called the "Queen of the Prairie." It is situated in one of the finest communities of the county and occupies a sightly position. Any direction the eye may reach you will see fine farms with commodious dwellings and other improve- ments. It increased slowly from the time of the establishment of the store by William Triplett until 1871, when the town of La Belle was regularly laid out. From that date it increased more rapidly. The post- office was established in 1858. William Triplett was the first postmaster. With the advent of the railroad, which was so far completed that the cars reached La Belle in 1872, and by the end of five years it had a population of over 350; since that time it has been gradually increasing in population until the present day and it now has a population of about twelve hundred.
It has a number of large and commodious business buildings, many beautiful dwellings; it is well supplied with good stores, has an electric light and water works system, two of the largest banks in the county, a live newspaper, and a number of churches and good schools.
LA GRANGE
La Grange is situated in the eastern part of the county, on the Missis- sippi river, a short distance south of where the Wyaconda empties into the Mississippi river. It is one of the oldest and principal towns of the county. It was laid out in 1830, by William Wright. John F. Marlowe was the first settler on the present site of La Grange. He located there some time during the year 1828. The first merchant was Campbell, who had been an Indian trader. La Grange is surrounded on the south, north and west by a fertile and productive agricultural community. La Grange gradually increased in population and business until it reached its present position. In the latter part of the forties to 1861
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it was at its most prosperous time. It commanded a large and extensive trade, it had a number of large stores, wholesale and retail, and a num- ber of other business enterprises. Trade came to it for many miles; not only to purchase from the ample stores with which it abounded but to find a market for their surplus products. The war brought La Grange's growth to a stand still, business became stagnated and demoralized; for a number of years there was no improvement in La Grange; after the war there was established some large business enterprises which flourished for a time and then were abandoned. For a number of years the town remained almost at a standstill. La Grange today has a number of good stores, two flourishing banks, a live newspaper, electric light and water works system, a number of pearl button blank factories and one finish- ing plant, a large foundry, a thriving creamery, a lumber yard and vari- ous other business enterprises. It affords good markets and enjoys a large share of trade of the surrounding community. It has good schools and a number of churches. It is becoming somewhat famous as a sum- mer resort. It has a fine spring of mineral water and a number of summer cottages have been erected by C. N. Thomas, an enterprising citizen, on the high bluff of the Wyaconda overlooking the Father of Waters, at one of the most sightly points along the river.
Here is located La Grange College, an institution for the education of both sexes. This college is supported by the Baptists. It was estab- lished in 1857, and is in a flourishing condition. A fine dormitory build- ing has just been completed.
CHAPTER XVIII LINCOLN COUNTY By H. F. Childers, Troy
PHYSICAL FEATURES
Lincoln county is bounded on the north by Pike county, on the east by the Mississippi river which separates it from Calhoun county in Illinois, on the south by St. Charles and Warren counties, and on the west by Montgomery county. It has an area of 620 square miles, or 396,148 acres.
The county is drained on the east by the Mississippi and some of its tributaries, the principal ones being Bryant's Big Sandy, McLean's and Bob's creeks, and the Cuivre river which forms a portion of the southern boundary of the county. All that part of the county lying west of the dividing ridge before mentioned is drained by Cuivre and its tributaries. This river is formed by the flowing together of Sul- phur Fork, Sandy Fork, and other small streams in the northwestern corner of the county in Waverly township. It then flows in a south- erly direction to the mouth of Big creek at the southern boundary of the county and thence north of east on a very tortuous line on the county boundary to the Mississippi.
The timbers comprise all the serviceable wood except pine and poplar. Lincoln is the best timbered county in North Missouri. In it are found oak, walnut, cherry, ash, maple, birch, elm, hickory, lin- den, cottonwood, sycamore, locust, pecan, hackberry, mulberry, willow, dogwood, hornbean, box-elder, sassafras, persimmon and some others, showing an excellent variety for domestic, farm and manufacturing purposes. Of the eighteen species of oak found in this state more than a dozen are here; of hickory, six; locust, sycamore, maple and elm, three each; walnut, two, and so on. This list embraces all that is required in nearly the whole range of manufactures, including, as it does, an admirable variety of hard, soft and finishing woods, and the supply may be said to be inexhaustible.
The minerals of Lincoln county are almost entirely undeveloped. In the southwest part of the county coal is found to the thickness of twenty-seven feet, the layers containing cannel, bituminous and block coals. An analysis of cannel coal from this mine by the chemist of the state geological board, exhibits: water 1.15; volatile matter 41.25; fixed carbon 49.60; ash 8.0. Several shafts have been sunk, but owing to want of transportation facilities, only enough coal is mined to sup- ply local demand.
Over a large area of the northern and northeastern parts Trenton limestone is found in layers of from ten to twenty-five inches in thick- ness. It is light yellowish gray or drab in color, fine crystalline, very hard and compact, with smooth conchoidal fracture and susceptible
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of a fine polish, in many cases resembling a marble. In the southeast is the St. Louis limestone, hard, fine crystalline, and of a light blue and drab color. Over the remainder of the county are the Encrinital and Archimedes limestones.
The soil of Lincoln county is varied in kind and quality. It ranges from poor to extremely rich. While none is too poor to make fair return on labor judiciously bestowed, none is too rich for care- ful and thorough cultivation to pay over slovenly tilling.
THE EARLY SETTLEMENTS
The history of Lincoln county properly dates from the first year of the last century when Major Christopher Clark erected his cabin and made the first permanent settlements within its present limits. About five years previous a few persons located on Spanish grants, in the eastern part of the county, adjacent to the Mississippi and Cuivre rivers. These were mostly French trappers and hunters, whose residence was only temporary. It is estimated that at the commence- ment of the last century only about forty acres of land had ever been put in cultivation in the county.
Major Clark was born in Lincoln county, North Carolina, in 1766. His father, James Clark, was a native of Ireland, and his mother, Catherine Horne, of Scotland. They settled first in Winchester, Vir- ginia. Christopher Clark in 1788 settled in Lincoln county, North Carolina. He married Elizabeth Adams, by whom he had six chil- dren-James, Sarah, Catherine, David, Hannah and Elizabeth. He served as lieutenant in a company of volunteers, guarding the fron- tiers of Kentucky, and also during a campaign up the Wabash river in 1790. He came to Missouri in 1798, bringing with him his horses and cattle. On this occasion he came on a prospecting tour as far north as the present site of Troy, where was then situated a small Indian village, the wigwams being placed in a kind of circle around the spring. The following year he brought his family in a pirogue, or large keel-boat, down the Kentucky and Ohio and up the Missis- sippi and Missouri rivers, and landed at St. Charles. He settled at what is now known as Gilmore. A few days after his arrival his wife died. He returned to Kentucky and purchased a black girl to do the housework in his new home and in April, 1801, he moved into the limits of this county, being the first white man to cross Big creek with a wagon, and built his cabin three and a half miles southeast of Troy, on the St. Charles road .. This was the first permanent settlement in the state north of present limits of St. Charles county. At that time his nearest neighbor was Anthony Keller, who lived on the south bank of Big creek, four miles off.
Shortly afterward came Jeremiah Groshong, a native of Penn- sylvania, who had lived a few years in St. Charles county, near the Missouri river. He settled half a mile northeast of Clark's. Next came the families of Zadock Woods and Joseph Cottle, from Wood- stock, Vermont, who settled in Troy in 1802.
At the time of Major Clark's settlement, this country was com- monly called New Spain. Its official designation was the Province of Upper Louisiana. After its purchase by the United States it was added to the Territory of Indiana, of which Gen. William Henry Har- rison was governor. General Harrison on December 21, 1804, com- missioned Christopher Clark a captain of volunteers and he was sworn into service February 9, 1805. Clark's company used to muster at Zumwalt's spring, now known as Big Spring Mills, near Flint Hill.
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