USA > Missouri > A History of Northeast Missouri, Volume I > Part 59
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Resources : Loans, overdrafts, real estate, $2,005,496.69; cash on hand, $526,039.46.
These figures show that they are not exact, but are, however, sub- stantially correct.
Among the men who have been bankers in Macon county and have passed off the stage of action with credit, may be mentioned John Bab- cock, who for many years was connected with the First National Bank of Macon and was a safe conservative man. Another is William J. Biggs of LaPlata, who for thirty years was connected with the LaPlata Sav- ings Bank. He was a man who had the confidence of the business com- munity and built up a great and growing institution.
In Macon, Web M. Rubey has been more or less connected with banks for many years. John Scovern, the founder of the First National Bank of Macon, has for thirty years given his whole attention to the banking business, and is today the president of the State Exchange Bank of Macon, having a capital of $100,000 and a growing surplus, and is regarded as one of the safest and most conservative bankers in north- east Missouri.
AFTER THE WAR
From the settlement to the war was a period of some twenty years in which the settler had established a home and gathered around him many of the comforts then known to rural life. He had stocked and equipped his farm and was reaching out with young and vigorous hand and with watchful eye to acquire the good things of this world. And this can be said to a greater or less extent of every portion of the county. But the war came. War means desolation, and here in Macon county where both parties came and went and where the intelligence and wealth of the community was largely with the weaker party, neither wealth nor intelligence had much protection. Returning peace was not cheered by the smoke from the chimney of the peaceful home, but too often was chilled by the lonely chimney and the ashes of the once happy home. Where the home remained, often the son and father and husband were missing. Almost always the horses and stock were missing and plows and wagons and other implements of industry were scattered. These, singly, are small items, but when taken in a mass they meant a vast sum of money that in the five years of strife had been absolutely swal- lowed up and was gone beyond recall. How slowly a community reacts from such a thing can only be known by experience. It is first a fear and trembling and an anxiety to get the necessities of today, and then all these means and implements of industry must be gotten together before a start can be made. After reassurance in some measure settles upon the community, credit is strained to the breaking point to supply the wastes of war. But in 1873 came the great panic, not so red-handed as war, but in a certain way more destructive of confidence and com- mercial activity and energy, and, as a consequence, credit is destroyed, defaults are common, the red flag flies at the courthouse door and at the cross-roads and the hard earnings of the last half dozen years are gone with but little to show for it.
Recollect, this period was not confined to '73. It hung on with a deadly fatality until in the '80s, the sun of confidence began to climb the skies and invite men to real effort and gave them real hope and inspired them with early expectations.
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From the '80s to '93 Macon county in a certain sense boomed. . Not that her progress was phenomenal, but it was steady and forward and she grew in wealth and intelligence and her roads were improved and her confidence in herself and in her people and in the future returned. Consequently, in 1893 the panic was not to be compared with that of 1873. No banks failed and there were but few forced sales and only an occasional foreclosure, and, while the flood of business was stayed in its rapidity, it moved on by the force of its momentum with a steadiness and sureness that gave the community confidence. Macon county can be said to have done well during the trying years from 1893 to 1896.
The panic of 1907 struck the country with an unusual suddenness. In that fall and winter and the following spring the ordinary sales that occur among the farmers of stock and grain were largely attended and large amounts of property were sold. The terms at such sales were cash, or note at eight per cent. It was a remark at the time in the county that the banks got very few sale notes, which is another way of saying that the vast amount of property that changed hands at these sales was paid for on the spot in cash.
For the last fifteen years the farmers have been depositors in the banks and the cattle men and wealthy farmers have been the great bor- rowers of the banks. This wealth has been grown in Macon county since 1880. From the war to that period the people had just got started and had made back a small amount of what they owned at the beginning of the war and lost during its continuance.
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CHAPTER XXI MARION COUNTY By George A. Mahan, Hannibal UNDER THREE FLAGS
Like the dashing Revolutionary dragoon captain, whose distinguished name it bears, Marion county always has been a province loving freedom and despising injustice; and if its people at any time seemed to depart, even in trifling affairs or contentions, from the lofty ideals which in- spired them, the mistake was of the mind and not of the heart. The pioneers-men and women-who made the county what it is, by their sacrifices and tribulations, were mostly descendants of the soldiers who fought against British oppression and helped to form the United States and they came to Missouri, as their forefathers had come to America, imbued with the principles of pure democracy.
Though there is nothing wonderful to relate regarding Marion, in the nature of great martial conquest or amazing mercantile aggrandize- ment, that other counties of Eastern and Southern commonwealths have not experienced in similar degree, the county has had, at least, its share of bloodshed, misery, hardship and trouble, with the lights and shades of happiness and grief boldly accentuated, and in honor the people have acquitted themselves in the transitions, often menacing, leading up to peace, comfort and progress in modern agriculture and commerce and manufacture.
Every old land or district or city has its thrilling narrative of rise and fall, of servitude and independence, of renown and shame, and the older the place the more romantic is the history. Marion county, as a settlement, is still young; but its brief life is chequered with a diversity of stirring mutations glistening with the achievements of war and re- splendent with the victories of peace. In 120 years, or the span of two or three generations, what is now Marion county has been the scene of many deeds, plans and denouements which figure with some prominence in the larger matters of the republic.
Marion county has been French, Spanish, French and American in its time and for an uncertain season it was under the British influence of territorial expansion, though never under British ownership or con- trol. Its magnificent hills and plains have re-echoed the tramp of the moccasined Indian bent on the hunt or slaughter, and the fearless wan- derings of the indomitable trapper in quest of game and fur; its rough roads and pathways in the primitive wilderness were as avenues to dar- ing missionaries; its rivers, streams and highways bore the crafts and vans of exploration and settlement; its cities, towns, hamlets and lordly hills displayed, as occasion demanded, the carmine aspect of war. And, after all the sufferings and contentions were ended, the smiling valleys
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blazoned with fields of corn and wheat, the knobs of the Missouri moun- tains or, more properly, the great hills along the Mississippi, gave forth their hidden riches for manufacture, and under the stimulus of agricul- ture and industry prosperous towns came into existence and grew into ever-increasing importance.
INDIANS AND FRENCH
Before the torch of civilization gleamed from Lover's Leap at Han- nibal up and down the silently swift Mississippi, and from summit to summit, the country was inhabitated by various tribes of Indians, in- cluding the Sacs, Foxes, Iowas, Pottawottamies, and Missouris. Some of the red men were hunters and fishermen, living the simple life and content with winning their daily livelihood from forest and stream; but others were instinctively fighters, and they shocked the primeval quiet- ude with alarms and massacres. The very earliest denizens of the wilds were the mysterious Mound Builders, whose identity is lost in the secret labyrinths of unknown ages, but who have left reminders of their habits and their artifice in scattered mounds, containing utilitarian devices made of clay and instruments of war wrought of stone.
The first white men to behold the green-clad land of Marion were the celebrated French Jesuit priest, Marquette, and the intrepid French trader, Joliet. Their hearts moved by the spirit of religion and adven- ture, the gallant forerunners of Western civilization set forth on their memorable voyage down the Mississippi in June, 1673, with the dual ob- ject of spreading Christianity and finding a short route to the South Seas; for at Montreal the governor of New France, Frontenac, had heard from Indians and adventurers startling accounts of a mighty river which pierced the heart of the continent and swept into the ocean at land's end in the South. Frontenac appointed Joliet chief of the expedition, and the party left Montreal in May.
It was in June, 1673, that the courageous party, led by Marquette and Joliet, started from Prairie Du Chien, Wisconsin, on their course down the great waterway-five .men in two birch canoes-and they passed by Marion in the summer or autumn of that year. They probably did not land, as they had no time or inclination to tarry anywhere, but they may have done so in pursuit of food, or they may have been attracted ashore by the surpassing beauty of the land before their wondering eyes. Here and there they halted and Father Marquette raised the cross and ex- plained to the Indians the truths of Christianity and it is possible that the voice of the white man, in the French tongue, was lifted in Marion 232 years ago.
Louis Hennepin, the renowned French Franciscan priest, who was an associate of the great La Salle, was the first white man to set foot in Marion. History accords him this credit. Operating from Quebec, La Salle outlined a comprehensive plan to claim the Western and Southern territory for the French throne, and with three Franciscans he made his way through the Great Lakes and down the Illinois river to Fort Creve Coeur, near Peoria, Illinois, and at Creve Coeur (Broken Heart) estab- lished headquarters. La Salle delegated Hennepin and two comrades to explore the upper Mississippi, while he reserved to himself the expedition to the Gulf of Mexico. La Salle had to return to Fort Frontenac, but Hennepin launched out immediately on the perilous excursion, leaving Fort Creve Coeur on February 28, 1680.
About a month later-recorded in the manuscripts as about April 1st -Hennepin and two friends caught glimpses of the immense hills stand- ing on the Missouri shore like giant sentinels, and they decided to land.
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They found an entrance and paddled their pirogues into the Bay de Charles, as they named it, and stepped onto the inviting land some two hundred yards north from the inlet's mouth. Hennepin exalted a cru- cifix and celebrated mass. Hennepin remained on the site two days, ne- gotiating terms of friendship with the natives, and resumed the voyage northward to the Falls of St. Anthony.
Wherever they landed, the French cavaliers nailed tablets of wood or metal to the trees, claiming whole empires for their king. By right of discovery all that vast stretch of land known as Louisiana Territory was annexed to France, and what is now Marion county, became a part of the expansive French colony in the New World. Louisiana Territory compromised, though the French statesmen, traders and soldiers of for- tune could not realize it, the richest agricultural region in the world, priceless minerals, coal, ores and a land of timber, limestone and clays. Grain and cotton, lead and zinc, iron, oil, cementing stone and innumer- able minor resources were the riches that France had won, but failed to appraise.
Gold was the guerdon that charmed the cavaliers. Spain and Por- tugal had inaugurated the era of discovery, and it was the prowess of their navigators that opened new domains to settlement and commerce. Astonishing tales related by the successful voyagers had engendered a 'get rich quick" fever throughout Europe. England, France and the Netherlands followed the example of the maritime powers of the South, and their courtiers either led or encouraged expeditions to spread the monarch's sway, and incidentally acquire wealth or additional honors in knighthood for themselves. The noble gentlemen and professional soldiers of fortune who were electrified by the truths and fabrications concerning the New World were as human as humbler creatures, and they were not above feeling keen interest in their own welfare and setting honest store on the value of the most precious of metals.
Thus it happened that most of the early heroes searched for gold, and would be satisfied with nothing else. Individuals and corporations re- ceived from their governments vast tracts of land, covering what are many states today, and surrendered their grants because they did not at once discover gold. Very valuable articles of commerce were neglected with disdain. Yet, something may be said for the slighting of the land and wares, because, in many cases, if not in most, the cost of marketing commerciable resources threatened ruination.
There was in France a certain friend of the court named Francisco Crozat. King Louis XIV, in 1712, gave Crozat the Louisiana Terri- tory by letters-patent, and Crozat appointed de la Motte governor. In the following year the governor located colonies at several places along the Mississippi river below the mouth of the Missouri. Crozat went about the work in a businesslike way, and la Motte adhered to the custom of looking carefully for gold and silver. Crozat abandoned the enterprise in 1717 and returned Louisiana Territory to the King. John Law and his Company of the West next came into possession of the territory, and there followed a season of "get rich quick" speculation. Law yielded back his charter in 1731. France ceded the territory to Spain in 1762, Spain ceded it back to France in 1801, and Napoleon sold it to Jeffer- son in 1803.
WHEN SETTLEMENT BEGAN
Settlement was begun in what is now Marion county under the French, while Louisiana Territory belonged to Spain. Though the coun- try had been deeded to Spain in 1762, the actual transfer really did not take place until 1764, and it chanced in 1763 that Pierre Liguest Laclede,
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the head of a great trading corporation known as Maxent, Laclede & Co., obtained from D'Abadie, the French commandant, rights to the fur trade in a large district west of the Mississippi and north of the Missouri. Laclede came himself to America, founding St. Louis and establishing his headquarters there. Trappers in the service of the Louisiana Fur Company operated in the present Marion county.
Zenon Trudeau, the sixth Spanish governor of Upper Louisiana, stimulated exploration, settlement and trading. He was a captain in Spain's army. While he was ruling the country from St. Louis, the first white settlement was made in Marion county. Trudeau seems to have had a progressive policy, which kindled the ambition of colonists and trappers in the promotion of commerce. He was liberal with land grants and other favors which might contribute to advancement of any kind. The movement toward Marion county had its inception under Governor Perez, in 1790, but it was Trudeau's admirable policy that gave substantial form to exploration.
COTSWOLD SHEEP
Spanish cavaliers, in 1790, penetrated the wilderness two leagues above the river Auhaha (now Salt river), as called by the savages, and to the Bay de Charles, as shown by the chart of Hennepin, and they reported their observations to Perez; but there appears to be no record of their attempting colonization. Two years later, in the spring, Maturin Bouvet, a Frenchman resident in St. Louis, led an expedition up the Mississippi in a pirogue, probably bent on organizing somewhere a small mercantile colony for his own benefit and amassing an independent for- tune.
Bouvet belonged to Laclede's party. He was registered in the direc- tory of the colony as an artisan, and the old French land book of St. Louis records him as a mechanic. From the best accounts obtainable, it must be concluded that he was a skilled workman, master of several use- ful trades.
Bouvet was the first white man to colonize Marion and make serious efforts at starting in business. From the French cavaliers who had vis ited the county, or from trappers or Indians, he had heard of saline springs in the wilderness, and he determined to examine the prospects for a salt factory, as there was a steady demand in St. Louis for salt.
Two boatmen and a guide accompanied Bouvet. The voyage was undertaken in a pirogue, according to the old manuscripts, yet it is au- thentically reported that Bouvet conveyed along three horses. Small as the expedition necessarily was, it lacked naught of heroism or prepared- ness. The head of the party evidently was resolved to overcome all dif-
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riculties, and he exercised the foresight of being situated to meet such emergencies, at least, as might be anticipated.
The voyage itself was uneventful. The quaint vessel pushed up the Mississippi with the impetus of the stout hearts that controlled it, turned into the Auhaha, or Salt river, and finally stopped at a point in Ralls county near the present town of Cincinnati. Bouvet and his comrades, carrying provisions, utensils and tools, marched in a northerly direction about a mile and a half, "'to a point in the northwest quarter of the south- west quarter of section 25, township 56, range 6, Ralls county," and located the salt spring which was the object of the quest. The place is now known as Spauldings Springs. .
Experiments with the water satisfied Bouvet as to the possibilities for salt making, and he hastened back to St. Louis, by pirogue. for more help and additional material and supplies. No time was lost in the voyage, but, upon returning, with three men, Bouvet confronted his first mis- fortune. The Indians had destroyed all of his articles and effects and stolen his horses.
Bouvet, however, was a man of will and fearlessness. Undaunted by the circumstances, the leader and his companions cleared a large area, and in the summer and autumn of 1792 built a salt furnace, a dwelling house, a warehouse and other structures.
The year's labors were concluded with the manufacture of a quantity of salt. Bouvet dispatched three of his men to St. Louis, before winter, to buy provisions, and they took along many bushels of the product of Bouvet's factory. The men, falling ill, did not return, and Bouvet cached his goods and followed them to St. Louis by land. The prospec- tor was disheartened in the spring of 1793, when he revisited the scene of his work, for the Indians had again raided his settlement, and he abandoned his project temporarily. Bouvet estimated his loss in the venture at $1,200, and March 17, 1795, he communicated his troubles to Governor Trudeau and prayed for a grant of land twenty arpens square, specifying the bastion as the center. Trudeau considerately hon- ored the petition, with the stipulation that the survey be made at Bou- vet's expense.
Bouvet resumed his enterprise. The factory and houses were rebuilt. But he decided not to reconstruct the warehouse at the Bastion, as it was called, because the difficulty of transporting the salt down the Auhaha, or Salt river, was too great. He needed a port on the Mississippi, and there he would locate the warehouse. Exploration convinced him that the best site for the warehouse was at a point near the mouth of the Bay de . Charles, and he applied to Trudeau for a tract eighty-four arpens in length, "to be taken," as specified in the grant, "six arpens above the outlet of the Bay de Charles."
The first white settlement in what is now Marion county immediately resulted from Trudeau's second concession to Bouvet. The warehouse was built at the site on the Bay de Charles and a road made from the Bastion to the port. The first settlement in Marion was begun in July or August, 1795. A large field was cleared about the warehouse, and houses were built. How many persons settled at Bouvet's port is not known, but there is no doubt that the concessionaire made earnest ef- forts to bring as many families as he deemed desirable from St. Louis.
In the journal kept by August Chouteau, one of the early settlers of St. Louis and a trusted associate of Laclede, there is the following en- try, in the autumn of 1798, concerning Bouvet's settlement: "Father Anthony returned from the settlement on the Bay de Charles this morn- ing, where he had gone to say mass and attend to some christenings. His boat upset near town, and he came near drowning."
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The site of the first white settlement in Marion county was a slight distance south of the mouth of Clear creek. It is said to have been in the southwest quarter of the northwest quarter of section 12, township 57, range 5, or in the northwest quarter of the southwest quarter of sec- tion 7, township 57, range 4, or both.
Bouvet ran his factory five years. Competition from the sons of Daniel Boone and others impaired the business. There were salt fac- tories on both the Mississippi and the Missouri, and all shipped their product by water to St. Louis. Besides the embarrassment from com- petition, there were hazards from the untamed Indians. The workmen and their families preferred the greater safety of the larger settlement in St. Louis, and Bouvet at last had only two or three assistants.
The owner of the factory and warehouse lived at the Bay de Charles settlement. In the spring of 1800 a band of ferocious Indians attacked the place, and Bouvet himself was the victim of their worst cruelty.
Charles Gratiot, another resident of St. Louis, bought the estates of Bouvet at auction the next year, and petitioned Charles Dehault Delassus, the successor of Trudeau as governor for Spain, for a concession of land "which will complete one league square in superficies, or 7,056 arpens." Gratiot said he intended to conduct a stock farm. The same day that the grant was made, Gratiot, who described himself as a merchant, ap- plied to Delassus for a modification of the terms of the original Bouvet concessions, so that the property would be regular in its lines and con- formations, and this plea was acknowledged favorably. Soulard, the surveyor-general, tried to make surveys. The Indians were causing un- usual trouble at this very time, however, and Gratiot was obliged to delay putting his plans into execution.
After Louisiana Territory was sold to the United States in 1803, some Americans settled on the Gratiot lands, and the claims required the con- sideration of a board of commissioners. Many of the old French set- tlers testified concerning Bouvet's activities. The litigation continued for many years.
Settlement in this part of the country was retarded by the War of 1812 between the United States and Great Britain. The Indians took advantage of the opportunity to persecute the French, Spanish and American trappers and settlers who had entered Marion county, and the white people were driven back to St. Louis. Carlos Friman de Lauriere, who had helped in the surveying on the Bouvet and Gratiot estates, had a salt factory near New London in 1812, and there was a James Ryan on the Salt river, at the mouth of Turkey creek, the previous year; but they and others were driven away by the cruel savages, and the district was deserted.
The annals of the county show conclusively that Maturin Bouvet was the first white settler in what is now Marion county ; the first land owner ; the first manufacturer : the first merchant; the first public officer, for he was a notary, and the first to build a hamlet. The records also show that there were births in the Bouvet settlement on the Bay de Charles. Bou- vet was earnest in his attempts to found a lucrative business and a pros- perous colony, and had he lived a few years longer, until the War of 1812 was over, he probably would have been successful. But Bouvet's was the luck of many of the original adventurers in the West.
Settlement and development in Marion county had their true be- ginning in Marion in 1817, with the arrival of daring pioneers from Kentucky. From September, of that year, dates the progress of Marion. There is some contention as to who was the first of the pioneer settlers, some holding that the honor belongs to John Palmer, and others asserting that Giles Thompson preceded Palmer. It is of record that Thompson
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