USA > Missouri > A History of Northeast Missouri, Volume I > Part 58
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In the latter part of the '70s there sprang up a store out on the prairie in range 15. This was called Barnesville. It was simply & necessity of a growing, thriving people, and it is still there. The start of this little town showed the growth of population and the spirit of business in the community. It is almost ten miles west of Atlanta.
Some six miles farther west there sprang up in the '90s on the eastern bluffs of the Chariton, a postoffice called Cash. There is a store there and its existence means that the Chariton bottom had begun to be drained and the farming community needed a local store.
COAL MINE IN MACON COUNTY
There had in the meantime grown up a store and embryonic village called Dodd. It lay on the north side of the prairie, on the south of which old Winchester had formerly existed.
In the ante-bellum days in township 60, range 16, there grew up a trading post called Mercyville, situated at the foot of the bluff where Sand creek wound its way toward the Chariton river, and bespoke the fact that the second bottom of the Chariton in that country was being inhabited and cultivated. The old town is still on the map, although it has been absorbed in a measure by its younger neighbor-Elmer.
This brings us to another old town. At the edge of the timber on the Richland prairie in the early days was a store and postoffice and a little community called Newberg. This must have been in existence in the '40s. In fact, it seems to have been quite an early town of some importance. It was beautifully located and it was impossible to get up the divide in range 15 without going across this prairie and striking the timber to the west.
The principal rival of old Newberg was LaPlata, some eight miles to the east on the Wabash, although it existed as a town in the early '50s. But the coming of the Wabash in '67 gave it new life and the timber was hauled past old Newberg to LaPlata, and the stock came from all directions to the pens of LaPlata. The fact is that its active
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merchants, careful traders, daring shippers and the general enterprise and intelligence of its citizens make LaPlata the second town in the county. It has some two thousand inhabitants. The town is neat and clean. The residences are nice, tasty and comfortable. It has a fine school building and some six or eight churches. The Santa Fe and Wabash railroads maintain good stations and large yards. It made money off the timber trade and the shipping trade-horses, cattle and hogs-and is the mart for the farmers who own the highly productive fields around. It draws largely from the southern part of Adair county and has a large territory to the northwest and northeast. For its size LaPlata can be safely said to be one of the most enterprising and thriv- ing little cities of the fourth class in the state.
In 1865 the Missouri & Mississippi Railroad was laid out from Macon City to Alexandria, Missouri. In Johnson township, in the northeast corner of the county, a town was laid out and called Sue City. As the road was slow in coming, the town did not wait, but moved ahead. The country around is broad prairie land with good farms and nice farm houses.
From 1858 to 1877 the Hannibal & St. Joseph and the North Missouri were the only railroads in the county. In the latter year the Santa Fe was projected, entering the county from Linn county just north of Bucklin, and running northeast for twenty-six miles, and passing into Adair county just northeast of LaPlata. The road was built in one year from Kansas City to Chicago, and the first train went over it on the 1st of January, 1888. It passed through a country that was sparsely inhabited, on west of the Chariton, and, as a matter of course, had to have stations, and that made towns. Southwest from LaPlata the first station is Lacrosse, where there has grown up an ordinary village, with stores and postoffice and doctor.
The next station to the west is Elmer, which was built just three- quarters of a mile southwest of old Mercyville, the object being, no doubt, to wipe the old town off the map and build a new one. It is certain they built a new one, and a nice town it is, with its bank, several stores, churches and schoolhouse, two or three timber factories, charcoal pits, etc. It is situated on the edge of the Chariton bottom and has a large country trade in all directions.
The next town to the west on the Santa Fe is Ethel. It is a good town. It has a large territory to the northwest and immediately to the south and draws from the western bottoms of the Chariton-a most productive agricultural district. In fact, the pressing in of the popula- tion on the Chariton and its tributaries had the effect to bring under cultivation these great bottoms, which in that part of the country are large as well as productive. Ethel is a good shipping point for live-stock and it has the distinction of being the largest turkey shipping point . in the state, the southwest of Adair, the southeast of Sullivan and the northeast of Linn being tributary to it for shipping purposes. It has quite a number of thriving stores, banks, poultry houses and school- house, churches and all the things that make a live rural village.
The next point to the west is simply a stopping point called Hart. There is a general store for the convenience of the community, which thickened up with the coming of the Santa Fe, and the store is doing well.
In the early '80s there arose on the line between townships 59 and 60, about six miles north of Ethel, a town called Goldsberry. The move- ment of the population to the northwest and the opening of farms made a trading point a necessity. A general store, drug store, physician, blacksmith shop and such things needed by a farming community fol-
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lowed. It still remains about the same and holds its own, notwithstand- ing the establishment of Ethel and Elmer.
Further up in the township, some six or eight miles to the northwest, had sprung up the postoffice of Tullvania, which meant there was a store
· and the people demanded postal facilities by reason of that growth. It still maintains the store without being specially more than a crossroads with blacksmith shop, etc.
But long prior to these two villages, there had existed up in the town- ship right on the west banks of Muscle fork, in 1848, a town called New Boston, and in its day it was something of a town. It had as many as two general stores, blacksmith shop and hotel. It continued to be a center until after the war, when its condition and unfortunate location in the bottom served to wipe it off the map, and in 1872 a town with the same name was started on the west bluff of the creek, which is in Linn county, and remains as a considerable center today. Doubtless its re- moval contributed quite largely to the building of Goldsberry and Tull- vania, to say nothing of the village of Walnut to the northeast, situated on Walnut creek, which has grown to be quite a little center.
Among the early towns in the county was the village of Old Win- chester, about half way between Old Bloomington and the Chariton river on the old stage road. It had some prominence as a tobacco center. It had a store and there was a splendid timber and prairie country, which would be attractive to early settlers, and it was close to the water and this made it still more inviting. It was some five miles north of the present town of Callao, and with the coming of the railroad and the ceasing of the stage its struggles for life began. The fates were against it, for the population to the north in the meantime began to have centers, such as Barnesville and Mercyville, to attract them, as well as the rail- road towns of the south.
Some six miles to the east of Old Bloomington was the Richardson home, situated at the crossing of the stage road and the old Bee Trace. It had received the name of Moccasinville, tradition says, because at one time the men were compelled to wear moccasins for want of shoes.
In 1837, when the commission to name the county seat was appointed, these three towns-Winchester, Moccasinville and Box Ankle-were rival claimants. Possibly Box Ankle was the least known of these claimants. But it had some advantages. Its inhabitants were pushing and in- fluential and it was situated very near the center of the county, as it was anticipated the county would be in the near future. The com- missioners reported in favor of Box Ankle, which was confirmed by the county court. The court subsequently changed the name to Blooming- ton. After these events, as a matter of course, it got to be quite a con- siderable town. It was the center of a great country, and when the war came on it was not asking favors of anybody, not even of railroads, and let the Hannibal & St. Joseph go by. The war came and with it came many things, among them being the removal of the county seat. This did good old Bloomington up and it has settled down into quite a humdrum little crossroads town. Its appearance speaks of the past and not of the future.
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In about 1900 some promoters started to build a railroad down to the Chariton river from Centerville, Iowa, called the Iowa & St. Louis Rail- road. The road was in fact built as far south in Macon county as old Mercyville. The first station in Macon county was Gifford. But so great was the boom that one Gifford was not sufficient for the community, and a new town called South Gifford was started. The towns join one another. They have a bank in each town and stores and difficulties with the United States government about the postoffice. But they are both
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HISTORY OF NORTHEAST MISSOURI
thriving little towns and while neither or both of them may ever rival St. Louis, it will not be the fault of the promoters if they do not. They are wide awake little villages and, as a matter of course, will be one town. as they ought to be.
While Moccasinville has gone off the map, the settlement still remains, a thriving community, and about two miles and a quarter away is the sta- tion of Axtel, having a postoffice and store, being situated on the Wabash, showing that Moccasinville was not a dream but a necessity and now lives in another name.
When in 1857 the railroad reached the present site of Macon City, the town was laid out and plotted just north of its depot. After the con- tractors had moved on west, the town continued to increase and became quite a thriving village during that year. In 1858 the North Missouri Railroad reached a junction with the Hannibal & St. Joseph, and laid off a town some quarter of a mile south of the junction and called it Hudson. The parties that managed the site were thrifty men, consisting of James S. Rollins, D. A. January and Porter C. Rubey and others, and the consequence was that in 1858 the two town companies, as well as the two railroads, had a friendly understanding and they laid out a new town between Macon City and the railroad junction, and the name was changed to Macon. In 1859, '60 and '61, the town grew and made strides in business. A union depot for both railroads was placed at the junction and Macon grew and got its first great boom. All the country to the Iowa line and extending a very considerable distance east and west had come to Macon to get their goods and to ship their produce. Then the war came on and the garrisons that were in the town during that time tended to keep business very lively and there were thousands and thou- sands of dollars disbursed by the government to maintain the garrisons.
In 1864 a bill was prepared it is said at Macon, changing the county seat from Bloomington to Macon. There is no indication anywhere that the matter was mooted publicly, even in Macon City or Blooming- ton. The bill was prepared, it is said, and taken to Jefferson City, and in forty-eight hours the messenger returned with the bill passed and approved and certified and the matter was then made public. One would think rather swift work. Yes, but those were rather swift days.
The next session of the circuit court was held in Macon City. The town company immediately laid out a large addition to the city, called the "County Addition," near the south line of which the courthouse was located, looking down the principal business street of the town- Rollins street. In 1865 the jail was built and also a very decent court- house for the times and conditions.
Life in Macon City during the war was not as pleasant as it might have been for the Southern people. Southern sympathizers all over the county detested the town. As a matter of course, the Union people praised it. This sentiment, however just or unjust, followed the town for years.
After the war the farms of the county began to be cultivated and provision made to take care of the surplus products. During the war large tobacco factories were opened in the city, but with the close of the war still larger ones were opened and every spring until way up in the '80s the city's barns would be loaded with tobacco and its streets crowded with tobacco wagons and its merchants were reaping something of a harvest.and getting their bills paid.
Macon today is a thriving city by reason of the great growing agri- cultural community surrounding it. Socially Macon is equal to any county seat in northeast Missouri. In civic pride she is among the foremost. She has a fine waterworks and electric light system, a large and extended sewerage system, a splendid telephone system, well con- nected with the large telephone systems of the country.
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HISTORY OF NORTHEAST MISSOURI
BUSINESS AND INDUSTRY
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The primitive industry and the substantial one of Macon county has always been agriculture. As a matter of course, in the early days the settlers derived a large per cent of their cash from the sale of pelts. But it is to be remembered that the early settler, fortunately, did not require a great deal of cash. Barter was a great means of living and when he had nothing else to barter, he bartered his labor for the necessaries of life. He dressed in homespun and the domestic duties were spinning and weaving. The men and boys wore jeans and the women linseys and woolseys, and the wives and daughters were always busy with some part of these industries. Flax was raised in small quantities by some and this furnished the various grades of homespun linen. As a matter of course, in a short time the tobacco crop became the money crop. This was hauled to Glasgow or Hannibal, according to whether the settler was west or east of the Bee Trace and he came back with groceries for the year and such goods as were necessary. As a matter of course, these supplies were quite limited. As the farms opened the tobacco trade increased and money became more plentiful and supplies were bought in larger amounts. Up to the war the loom, the spinning wheel and the flax wheel were implements of domestic industry and kept the forces well employed. It was a matter of pride whose husband was dressed the best in homespun, to say nothing of the linseys and woolseys that the women wore. It should not be forgotten that many families had their calicoes and their silks and other fine materials. The men con- tinued to wear jeans, but some had in reserve for occasions their broad- cloth and other like apparel, because your ante-bellum Missourian was, among other things, a dresser.
Timber was for many years a source of great revenue, especially after the coming of the railroads. Scarcely a station on either road but had a timber yard connected with it. Ties became necessary for the construction of the road and were always needed. As soon as the engines were run they needed fuel and long lines of cord wood were found on every hand. The tie business continued to be something of an industry, but from '60 up to the late '90s it was a great natural industry of the county. With the opening of the mines came the. need for props and that industry has flourished since 1865 and still survives. The sawmill business continues, the high price of imported lumber raising the demand for native timber. The timber business for many years appealed to the adventuresome and gave employment to the young man of the com- munity who had the nerve to risk the work, and in that respect was a great developer of enterprise and brought the farmer boy in contact with the world and also with the risks of business.
During all this time it must be remembered that stock-hogs, horses and cows-were being raised. The farmers found wide range for their hogs, and when brought up in the fall they required no great amount of corn to equip them for the market. They were collected in droves in the fall and driven to Hannibal or Glasgow. It is even claimed in the early days that hogs were driven from this county to St. Louis. These facts give a vivid view of the imperiousness of trade.
The cattle trade has always been of interest in Macon county. The broad ranges and prairies and the rich grass served in the early days to raise and fatten the cattle. The great prairies furnished hay for the winter which supplemented the rapidly increasing production of corn in the county. The cattle industry in Macon county has thrived. Thousands upon thousands of head of cattle have been shipped since the railroads came.
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HISTORY OF NORTHEAST MISSOURI
Before leaving the subject it is well to consider for a moment the part played in the early development of the county by the patient ox. He was the beast of burden, indeed. A large per cent of the hauling was done by oxen. Most every farmer could get hold of a yoke of oxen and the better-to-do had sometimes several yoke. Even the donkey could not play the part performed by the ox. While he may have had the patience, he lacked the great power of the ox. In the summer season he lived on grass to a very considerable extent, though corn was good for him. In the winter prairie hay, supplemented by corn, kept him fit for service. The ox may be termed the settlers' friend. In fact, he deserves a monument for his contribution to civilization, and it should show him in patient action and unswerving determination to move civil- ization to the front.
Out of this cattle industry has grown the creamery business. Every train takes up the cream and returns the cans at every station. Macon has a first class creamery, doing an extensive business and drawing its cream from the local farmers. Many thousand dollars' worth of cream is sold in the county every year.
The Macon county boy loves a horse and always has. More than that, he loves a fine horse, and the corisequence is the farmers of Macon county have always been great raisers of horses and mules. The sales of horses and mules are very large.
Some Macon countians have dared to claim that the Missouri hen was discovered in Macon county. At any rate she seems indigenous to the soil and perfectly at home, producing her very best results. Every considerable town in the county has a large poultry house where eggs and chickens are brought, sold and shipped, and the carloads that go out of Macon county are wonderful indeed.
The sheep industry in Macon county is large and growing and yield- ing a fine return for those who pursue it, and some of them are quite skillful.
Macon county is not wheat producing, but still quite an amount of wheat is raised by the farmers. Rye is raised in limited quantities over the county. The oats crop is largely increasing from year to year and the yield under the improved methods of cultivation is likewise increasing. The cultivation of corn in Macon county is on the rapid increase. Farmers are maintaining connection with the Agricultural College of the University of Missouri and are receiving bulletins and studying the best practices in the growth of the crop and it would not be too much to say that in the last ten years the yield in the corn crop in Macon county has increased fifty per cent per acre. Silos are coming into common use and the shredding of the stock fodder has also increased the usefulness of the crop. Macon county exports little or no corn. Rather, she imports it, because of her large demand to feed her stock, the theory of the Macon county farmer being to drive his crop to market on foot and not haul it away in wagons.
Macon is a grass country. Consequently, Macon county produces beef and butter. Timothy is grown extensively. Large quantities of millet and cane are produced every year and fed upon the farms. Soja beans and cow peas are also cultivated in increasing quantities and are fast winning their way into the esteem of the farmer.
The enterprise of the farmer and the general interest in the above matters is shown by the fact that local fairs are held where the different products of the county including the livestock are shown. Fairs are held at LaPlata, New Cambria, Callao and Atlanta within the county, and at Jacksonville across the line in Randolph county, which is also largely prompted by Macon county farmers. Macon this year inaugu- rated a fair with a success that surprised the promoters.
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Farmers in Macon county are not behind in the use of improved agricultural implements that mark this era. The implement trade is large in the county and every village has an implement house or an agent for some implement house, and the amount of implements coming into the county in the course of a year is quite large.
In 1865 the discovery of coal near Bevier in the county was followed by the sinking of three or four shafts. Large numbers of miners came to the county, a great number of them foreigners, mostly from Wales, and up until the panic of 1873 all thrived and did a good business. They helped to develop the county and put in circulation much money that otherwise would have passed by. At present the principal mines in Macon county are conducted by the Northwestern Coal & Mining Company and the Central Coal & Coke Company, both of which have offices and stores in the town of Bevier and mines to the south and pos- sibly running as many as ten mines. The coal fields of Macon county are but fairly opened and the indications are there is a great business for the future.
The miners have always been a bright and intelligent people and have made good citizens. Many of them are enterprising as far as their means will permit. They can also be said to be quiet and orderly. They built the town of Bevier, which is a substantial monument to their thrift and industry as well as their regard for law and good order.
Macon county has quite a number of valuable institutions that have grown to meet the demands of and keep pace with the community.
Atlanta has a fine wagon factory, turning out quite a large number of wagons and meeting a ready sale over the county. Mr. Holbeck, the proprietor, simply built his business up as his means permitted and his experience dictated, and it is moving forward today in health and vigor.
Miller Brothers of Macon have a growing wagon factory, turning out a fair supply and meeting the expectations of their customers and keeping outlays within income.
Macon has the Blees Buggy Company, an institution that has been run in Macon for some twelve or fifteen years. They not only supply the local demands, but ship largely to the foreign trade and maintain quite a number of laborers.
The Macon Creamery has been mentioned under another head.
Having the debt hanging over it which has been mentioned in another place, Macon county lands for quite a while moved very slowly and the advance in price was quite gradual. But for the last few years, with the increased production of the lands, came a corresponding in- crease in the value of the lands, and lands that could have been bought twenty-five years ago for $10, $15, $20 and $25 an acre bring $40, $50, $75 and $100 an acre. The last census gave Macon county a population of some 36,000. These people are living in happiness and growing rich. However, it is equally true that they would be just as happy and get rich faster if there were just twice that many people. There would be plenty of land for all and plenty of labor, and all would make more money in a shorter time. In fact, it is quite possible that children now living in Macon county may see one hundred thousand people in the county living amid plenty and surrounded by all the comforts of life.
BANKS
The banks of Macon county speak in a certain quite definite way of the wealth, enterprise and thrift of the people. In this respect Macon county will favorably compare with any of the counties of her age. There are now some twenty banks in the county. Every little town of any
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HISTORY OF NORTHEAST MISSOURI
441
size has one or two banks. These institutions are all doing a thriving, conservative business and have the confidence of the community.
We add the following items in regard to banks-Liabilities: Capital stock, $411,000; surplus, undivided profits, $162,181.69; time deposits and others, $1,994,036.14.
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