USA > Missouri > A History of Northeast Missouri, Volume I > Part 63
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90
SCHOOLS AND BANKS
The public schools at Paris were organized in 1867, and the Paris high school in 1873, the latter by B. F. Newland, a German scholar and
-
472
HISTORY OF NORTHEAST MISSOURI
a graduate of Heidelberg, still lovingly remembered. W. D. Christian has been its superintendent since 1886, a period of twenty-six years, and the school has been notable in the character of men and women it has sent out into the world. Prior to the public schools the old-time academy for boys and seminary for girls constituted the town's educational plant, as they did in most southern communities of that day. The Paris Female Seminary, which stood on Locust street, the town's main resi- dence thoroughfare, was noted in its time, and the young ladies educated there possessed all the graces and just as few of the essentials as it was necessary to get along without. Just prior to the war S. S. Bassett, recently returned from Bethany college, opened up an academy for boys on the hill east of town, and it flourished for a season, most of its pupils casting aside book and rule to respond to the call of bugle and tap of drum.
The Paris National Bank, the town's oldest financial institution, was first organized in 1871, being preceded by the old Monroe County Sav- ings Association, organized in 1865, the moving spirit in both being the late David H. Moss. It has continued, with one reorganization, under practically the same management until the death of Judge Moss in 1907. Associated with him all these years was W. F. Buckner, who retired in 1912. The latter's son, A. D. Buckner, a member of the executive committee of the American Bankers' Association, is now at the head of the institution.
The Paris Savings Bank was organized in 1885, and W. M. Farrell has been cashier practically all the time since, his son, J. F. Farrell of the Ft. Dearborn Bank at Chicago, being associated with him as assist- ant for several years.
THE OLDEST NEWSPAPER
The real history of Paris and Monroe county would be incomplete without mention of its oldest and most historic institution, the Paris Mercury, possibly the oldest weekly newspaper in the state, under a con- tinuous name. The Mercury was founded by Lucien J. Eastin in 1837, and without its files, preserved in a score of Monroe county households, authentic account of the stirring events entering into the county's history would be impossible. Beginning with Eastin the Mercury has had a suc- cession of unusual men as editors, among the most notable being James R. Abbernathey, famous as a Whig lawyer in the forties, and James M. Bean, state senator following the reconstruction period. Associated with Bean was A. G. Mason, whose hospitality and geniality are still a matter of tradition, and kindly remembered Joe Burnett. The paper is at present published by Alexander & Stavely, and, valuing its historical associations, makes an effort to live up to its traditions.
No less potential is the Monroe County Appeal, though not so old, being moved to Paris from Monroe City in 1873. The Appeal is now owned and edited by B. F. Blanton and Sons and has been in the family practically since it was founded.
The history of Jackson township is largely the history of the county and in the names that appear in its beginnings-Crutchers, Curtrights, Buckners, Gores, Vaughns, Batsells, Fields and others already men- tioned is to be found the moving cause behind the county's social, polit- ical, and religious development.
MONROE TOWNSHIP
Monroe township has a larger infusion of nothern and eastern blood than any other township in the county, though Monroe City, its only town, is distinctly southern in its ideals and standards.
.
473
HISTORY OF NORTHEAST MISSOURI
The town of Monroe City was laid out in 1857 by E. B. Talcott, a contractor building tracks for the new Hannibal & St. Joseph Railroad, then in process of construction, and was born in time to acquire a most eventful history, being the scene of the biggest battle fought on Mon- roe county soil during the bitter civil strife that followed.
This checked its growth, but on the restoration of peace it speedily recovered and in 1910 was the largest town in the county, having a population of over two thousand. The first church in the town was St. Jude's, an Episcopal congregation organized in 1866. The Christian church followed in 1869, the Baptist in 1870, the Presbyterian in 1871 and the Methodist in 1876, the large Catholic church there coming at a comparatively recent date. Its public schools were organized in 1867, and the Monroe City Bank followed in 1875, John B. Randol being presi- dent and W. R. P. Jackson, cashier. The latter organized the Farmers and Merchants Bank in 1886, and the two institutions, Mr. Jackson still being at the head of the latter, are among the strongest country banks in the state. The old bank is now in charge of Dr. Thos. Proctor, a . member of the family which has been identified with the growth and development of the township from the beginning, mainly as farmers, stockmen and financiers. The first house in Monroe City was built by J. M. Preston and the first regular dry goods store was owned by John Boulware. Dr. Proctor, above mentioned, was its first physician.
The most famous institution in Monroe City from a historical stand- point was the old Monroe Institute, erected by a stock company in 1860. It was in this building the Federal troops took refuge to beat off the attack of General Harris and his raw Confederate recruits during the Civil war and an examination of the names signed to the articles of incorporation discloses that Monroe City, like the rest of the county, has changed little in blood strains and in family lines. There were then the Baileys, Proctors, Warners, McClintics, Boulwares, Sheets, Fuquas and Yates and the same names and the same families continue today. Monroe is a fine cattle producing township and enjoys an especial ascend- ancy in the Hereford strain, an outgrowth of the Monroe Hereford Association organized in 1874.
INDIAN CREEK
Closely identified with Monroe township, and associated with its growth and development, is Indian Creek township, home of the first Catholic colony to settle in Monroe county and which yet preserves both its racial and religious solidarity. Indian Creek is an inland township merely skirted by a railroad and there has been little perceptible change in it for fifty years. There history has unfolded evenly, without the too sudden exception, and in most respects it remains today pretty much as it was when the historic spire of St. Stephens, visible for miles across the rich prairie, was first reared by the devout Celts who came to make the rich land their own. The names of Yates, Parsons, Mudd, Buckman, Miles, Lawrence and McLeod are connected with its material develop- ment, as well as its social and religious growth, and they are still asso- ciated with its life and its activities. Swinkey, or Elizabethtown, once a village of 350, has dwindled with the coming of rural routes, but at one time was an important trading center, laid out by a man of the same name in 1835, and subsequently changed to Elizabethtown, in honor of his first wife, whose name was Elizabeth. The history of St. Stephens church is not obtainable, but it is one of the oldest religious bodies in Monroe county, dating back to 1833, and has exer- cised a profound influence over the lives of the generations that have
474
HISTORY OF NORTHEAST MISSOURI
grown up within its shadows. Indian Creek township, if the legend be correct, has never had an inmate in the county infirmary, and for years elected neither constable nor justice of the peace, two facts showing the character and quality of the religion inculcated by the succession of good fathers who have ministered to the people of this little Arcady. All events in Indian Creek are reckoned from the destructive cyclone which occurred there March 10, 1876, and which practically destroyed the village of Elizabethtown. Historic St. Stephens church-the first house to be built-was crumpled up like a straw and of the entire town there remained, when its fury was spent, but four houses, among them the parochial residence. In all fourteen people were killed, the storm cutting a pathway of death and destruction practically through the entire township, and the little community never fully recuperated. St. Stephens was rebuilt, the new church being a beautiful building capable of seating eight hundred people, but was burned in 1907, being rebuilt in 1908-09 and dedicated by Archbishop John J. Glennon in one of the most notable services of the kind ever held in this section of the state. Its present shepherd is Father Cooney.
UNION AND MARION TOWNSHIPS
These townships lie along the western edge of the county and next to Jackson and Jefferson are of most interest historically.
Among the early settlers of Marion township were the Farrels, Over- felts, Swindels, Davises and Embrees.
Madison was laid out by James R. Abbernathey in 1837, and the ninety lots brought him $1,100. The first house was put up by Henry Harris, who came from Madison county, Ky., and was used as a tavern. James Eubank came out from Tennessee in 1838, and started the first store, Dr. Nicholas Ray being the first physician. Among its first citi- zens were Joel Neel, James Ownby, Ezra Fox and other Kentuckians.
Madison Masonic lodge was organized in 1844 and the Madison Christian church in 1838, by Elder Henry Thomas and Martin Vivion.
Holliday, the second town of this township, both being on the Mis- souri, Kansas & Texas Railroad, was organized in 1876 and was laid out by W. B. Holliday and Brother, sons of that Holliday who was among the commissioners appointed to organize the county over forty years before. No man of the name, save a former negro slave, remains in the county at this time.
Union township was the home of the Fox and Whittenberg settle- ment, referred to elsewhere, and was settled largely by Virginians, Mid- dle Grove being one of the points of real historic interest in the county. It took its name from two facts-first, because it was a half way point between the Mississippi and Missouri rivers on a route much traveled in those days, and second, that it was the most central point on the first mail route established between New London and Fayette. It was located in a belt of timber bordering on the Grand Prairie, from which came the Grove part of the name and was famous as a stopping point for the early travelers en route from river to river, the old Glasgow and Hannibal road, it is presumed, being one with the Fayette and London road, known earlier as the "London trace." The town was properly laid off in lots by John C. Milligan in 1840, and soon became a thriving village and one of the best trading points in Northeast Mis- souri. It is notable in Paris, the county seat, that nearly all of its established families came originally from Middle Grove or Florida. Most of the county's moneyed men of the older generation laid the foundation of their fortunes at Middle Grove and its place in local his-
475
HISTORY OF NORTHEAST MISSOURI
tory and tradition is fixed. Milligan, who was a Virginian by birth, was its first postmaster and first hotel keeper and John Myers was the first mail carrier over the London-Fayette route, going as far as old Franklin on the Missouri river. Edward Tucker was the town's first tailor and Henry Lutz the first carpenter. The first school in the town- ship was established in 1830 and its teacher was William Maupin from Howard county. The Christian congregation built the first church as early as 1825, and William Reid was the officiating minister. At Middle Grove also was opened the first store in the county, its owners being Glenn & Parsons.
Among the famous early homes of the township was that of Ashby Snell, called "Hunter's Rest," and noted for its hospitality. Here gathered the wit and beauty, the culture and courage, of an early day and mine host was never so happy as when his house was filled. A famous hunter himself, many pleasing traditions yet exist regarding the quality of his venison and the fame of his pack. Owner of a hun- dred slaves and the father of six handsome daughters, his home was a retreat for travelers and the resort for the socially elect living between the two rivers. Mrs. Snell was in her maidenhood Susan Woods, eldest daughter of that Anderson Woods who was among the most noted of the county's pioneer citizens. It was to "Hunter's Rest" Colonel Lebius Prindle, of fame in Price's army, came to get his bride-Miss Nora Snell-and the romance of the wooing of the young Virginia soldier is still one of the pleasing legends of the county.
Union township, in an early day, was the scene of one of the most revolting and for a time mysterious crimes in the county's history-the murder of Mrs. Amanda Davis by a negro slave who had become in- fatuated with her. Mrs. Davis was a daughter of that Joel Stephens who had been seven times elected to the legislature from Monroe county, and in some manner offended the slave, who was overseer on the farm and one of her husband's most valuable men. He slew her with an axe, beheading her completely, and when the husband returned, being absent from home at the time, he found her body lying across the well top. The negro disappeared and a week's hunt with blood hounds failed to locate him. It was believed he had escaped to free territory, but years afterwards his skeleton was found in a grove adjacent to the house, where he had shot himself.
It was in Union township near Middle Grove also that Alexander Jester is supposed to have murdered Gilbert Gates, younger son of Asa Gates, and brother of the late John W. Gates, of Steel Trust fame. Jester was an old man-an itinerant preacher-who fell in with young Gates in southwestern Kansas in the fall of 1871, both being on their way back home, one to Indiana and the other to Illinois. Young Gates had a span of good horses and a buffalo calf which he was exhibiting, and the two traveled together as far as Middle Grove, where the boy mysteriously disappeared. His father took up the trail and finally ran Jester down, finding him in possession of his son's clothing. The accused man was placed in jail in Paris, took a change of venue to Audrain county, and in 1871 escaped from jail at Mexico. Nothing was heard of him until the summer of 1899, when he was betrayed to the authorities by his sister, Mrs. Street, the couple then living to- gether in Oklahoma. How the trail from Kansas to Indiana was picked up by the Pinkertons after thirty years, and the money spent by the older brother, then a multi-millionaire, in his effort to convict the aged murderer, need not be retold. Jester was tried at New London the following summer and acquitted, dying a few years later in Nebraska without throwing any light on the grim mystery.
1
-
476
HISTORY OF NORTHEAST MISSOURI
An instance of primitive justice in Monroe county is embodied in the story of John Burton, one of the pioneer justices of the peace in Union township. His brother, Reuben Burton, had lost a hog and finding it in possession of one Rious, a free negro, brought suit before his brother John to recover it. Plaintiff was present with his lawyer, J. C. Fox, but defendant had no attorney. After all the evidence had been heard Justice Burton arose and asking Pleasant Ford, another prominent citizen, to swear him, gave testimony on his own account, declaring himself in pos- session of evidence that had not been brought to the court's attention. He had hunted with the negro, he testified, knew the hog to be his, and reascending to the seat of justice decided the case against his brother. There was something Roman in the act and modern judges stumbling over the obstacle of "judicial knowledge" might well copy his example.
SOUTH FORK TOWNSHIP
South Fork township, the richest agricultural section of the county, was organized in 1834 and Santa Fe, its one town, was laid out in 1837 by Dr. John S. Bybee, a Kentuckian. The first business house in the town was built by Henry Canote and was followed by Clemens Hall with a general store. South Fork is an inland township, settled mainly by Virginians, and Santa Fe has been an important trading point from the beginning. Its first physician was Dr. D. L. Davis and its first tailor Alvin Cauthorn. The Methodists had a church house there as early as 1840, South Fork Presbyterian church was organized in 1853 and the Santa Fe Christian church in 1855. Among the pioneers of this rich township were the Criglers, Prices, Bybees, Tanners, Hannas, Hizers and Davises. Later came the Trimbles, Creighs, Cowherds, Quisenberries and others whose names still figure largely in its life and activities. From South Fork came Colonel Pindle of sharp-shooter fame in Price's army, before mentioned, and there lived Dr. William Houston, who, amid re- bellion on all sides, continued to uphold the Union cause during the Civil war. Dr. John S. Drake, Kentuckian, has been one of the re- vered figures of this fine community for fifty years. The names of Bates, Vaughn, Brashears, Fleming, Peak, Ragsdale and others of the early fam- ilies continue in perpetuity and Monroe county possesses no finer or more progressive body of people. At Strother in the northern portion of South Fork township was once located one of the county's chief institutions of learning. It was established by John Forsythe, Jacob Cox, Joseph Sproul, William Vaughn, Hiram Bledsoe and others before the war and continued up until the late seventies, when it burned, having in its time many renowned instructors, the last being Prof. French Strother, now making his home in Virginia. South Fork has had the educational im- petus from the beginning and has furnished the county with some of its most illustrious citizens.
WOODLAWN AND CLAY TOWNSHIPS
Woodlawn township lies along the northwestern border of the county and is also an inland township, as is Clay, its neighbor on the southeast. Its early settlers were the Atterburys, Millions, Robinsons. Jen- nings, Stephens and Woods. It has two villages, Woodlawn and Dun- can's Bridge, the latter in the western end of the township. For many years Woodlawn had the oldest Masonic lodge in the county outside of Paris and many of the names familiar to the student of local history originated there. It is a rich farming country and has as large an in- fusion of northern and eastern blood as Monroe, the flat lands early at-
477
HISTORY OF NORTHEAST MISSOURI
tracting buyers. Woodlawn's history has been uneventful in a measure, its most potential figure in days past being Judge Woods, one of the mem- bers of the county court in the eighties and a man of fine native ability and much force of character.
Clay township, which lies just northwest of Jackson, was named for Chas. Clay and its history is closely associated with that of its neighbor. Among its early settlers were the Hangers, Stalcups, Henningers, Sid- ners, Sparks, Kippers, Bartens and Webbs.
Granville was at one time one of the county's most prosperous towns and is still a good trading point. Its earliest religious body was the Christian church, organized in 1858, Rev. Alfred Wilson being its first pastor. Tirey L. Ford, ex-Attorney-General of California, hails from Clay and his family was among the pioneers who settled there. The roll-call and reunion of the Granville Christian church, an annual event, brings home-comers each year and observation leads to the conclusion that Clay township has furnished the country at large a multitude of useful and potential people, active in all the walks of modern life.
WASHINGTON TOWNSHIP
Among the oldest townships in the county, and one about which tradi- tion clusters in myriad forms, is Washington, settled by the Coombs, Maupins, Raglands, Crutchers, Harts, Dulaneys and Bufords.
Old Clinton, famous as a muster point, was established in 1836 and was laid out by George Glenn, Samuel Bryant and S. S. Williams, who built the first store and operated the first mill in the town. Jacob Kirkland was a pioneer blacksmith there and among its early citizens were Major Howell, afterwards the county's leading lawyer, and Daniel Dulaney, muster captain, subsequently the Hannibal lumber king, legends of whose doughty plume still survive among the older men who remember it and the man who wore it on these annual events. Clinton was at one time an enterprising town, but the completion of the Hannibal & St. Joseph Railroad a few miles north, resulted in towns like Shelbina and Hunnewell and it soon began to decay. Today nothing remains of it but a few ramshackle buildings and ragged cabins to speak a former glory. It is located in the North Fork hills, one of the most picturesque sections in north Missouri, and long ago lost even the likeness of a town.
Jonesburg, Clinton's rival, built by Colonel Gabriel Jones in 1836, and separated from its neighbor by only a narrow alley, died along with its more ambitious rival, and nothing but the merest legend remains con- cerning it or the unconscious element of grotesque humor that led to its organization. Among the first merchants at Jonesburg were Blakey & Lasley and Coombs & Gough. The names still survive in the life of the county today, as does that of Ragland, the founder of which family be- came famous as keeper of the historic tavern at Clinton, which, in its day, entertained United States Senator James S. Green and many other hon- ored guests. It might be mentioned in this connection that Senator Green, when a young man, spent several years at Paris as a hatter's ap- prentice, and that he never failed to capture the suffrage of Monroe county.
JEFFERSON TOWNSHIP AND MARK TWAIN
Jefferson township, lying along the eastern border of the county, has more actual history perhaps than any other township in the county unless it be Jackson, but the wealth of legend regarding its early life, particularly that at Florida, is lost sight of and obscured by the one supreme fact of its existence-it was the birthplace of Samuel Lang-
478
HISTORY OF NORTHEAST MISSOURI
horne Clemens, known to American letters as Mark Twain, who first saw light at the then busy little village in 1834.
In the shadow of this important event the historian is prompted to overlook and ignore the dry facts and details of lives not known outside the traditions of the county, and would in a measure perhaps be justi- fied. Yet while Florida, by some sort of accident, produced the king of American letters, it was not lacking in other good human stuff, which might have shown genius fully as commanding under like circumstances.
One of the earliest settlements in the county was at the point where the great humorist was born and the names written on the headstones in the burying ground there today are those that were prominent in the day when the town was thought to have a future and when it drew set- tlers from far and near led by the belief that the dream, later embodied in "The Gilded Age," might by some happy chance, come true.
Among the early pioneers in this oldest of townships was Major Will- iam Penn, whose wife was god-mother to Clemens and whose oldest daughter, Miss Arzelia, afterwards Mrs. William Fawkes, was the first sweetheart of America's greatest literary genius. Along with Penn were the Hickmans, Stices, Scobees, McNutts, Buckners, Violetts, Poages, Merediths, Chownings, Quarles and a host of others whose names are readily recognizable to Monroe countians.
Florida is located upon a high point of land between the middle and north forks of Salt river and seems to have been looked on as a likely spot even by the prehistoric people who inhabited this continent, as so- called Indian mounds in various states of preservation are to be found all around it.
Owing to the presence of water power it was in the early days a great milling point. The first mill, that on South Fork, was built by Peter Stice, a German whom legend describes as "jolly"-all millers in ye olden time were jolly-and that on North Fork by Richard Cave. The Stice mill was purchased by Captain Hugh A. Hickman in 1830 and was op- erated by him for nearly forty years. The Cave mill was bought by Aleck Hickman from Dr. Meredith, a New Englander, in 1852, and from 1845 to 1860, the two plants were the most famous in this section of the state, doing the largest milling business perhaps ever done in the county. They shipped flour to Hannibal, Mexico and other surrounding points, and the fame of their product finally reached the St. Louis market, with the result that several boats loaded with flour were run down Salt river to the Mississippi by Hugh Hickman and floated from there to St. Louis, where it found a ready sale. Captain Hickman was a large, handsome, muscular man, a gentleman of the old type, and is still remembered lov- ingly, though his dams have washed out and his burrs are dust. Among the early merchants at Florida were John A. Quarles and John Marshall Clemens, father of Mark Twain, who were brothers-in-law. Clemens was a visionary, but Quarles was an essentially practical mau and one of the strongest figures and most forceful characters in the history of the county. Both were Tennesseeans and both married Lamptons, who were Kentucky women. Quarles came to Florida first and later sent back for his improvident brother-in-law and family. Clemens failed at Florida, as he did subsequently at Hannibal, and Quarles, alternately merchant and farmer, finally hotel keeper at Paris, attained a measure of success, though dying poor.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.