USA > Missouri > A History of Northeast Missouri, Volume I > Part 68
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Such was the "State of Pike" and such were its boundaries until 1820, when Ralls county cut off a big chunk on the north and sixteen years later Audrain county on the west was cut off. For three-fourths of a century Pike has neither gained in size nor lost any of the 620 square
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miles within her borders. Let us not be too critical of the legislature then sitting in St. Charles for the indefiniteness of the boundaries. They did the best they could, never dreaming of the extent of the empire which was theirs to cut up and apportion out among the thousands then hunting homes in the West.
The second war with England closed with the year 1814. Many of those who sought homes here were soldiers of that war and quite a num- ber of soldiers of the Revolution also came, older in years, but drank in just as joyously freedom for the second time. Both of these wars were nominally with England but in each case in the West and Northwest the fighting was with Indians who were incited to bloodshed by whites. Those who fought in the War of 1812 were known as "Rangers." Some who had ventured to make homes in the county several years before the war, but had abandoned them and gone to St. Louis or other places of security, now came back.
NOT THE HOME OF INDIANS
Let us here correct an impression that almost universally prevails,- that this and contiguous territory were ever the real homes of the Indians, if they can be said to have had homes. It was their hunting ground in- stead and perchance their battle ground in conflicts between the tribes. The Sacs, Foxes, and other tribes lived to the north on Rock river in the Selkirk regions, on both sides of the river. Black Hawk, Keokuk, and other famous chiefs lived there, while to the south, near St. Louis, and on the Missouri river lived the Winnebagos, Osages and other tribes. But they had no homes in Pike. Here they hunted buffalo, deer and bear for food and the skins of which they bartered at the trading posts or used for clothing. They hunted other game, too, such as wolves, panther, elk and turkey. The prairies were the feeding places for the buffalo and their trails going to and from water courses are yet to be seen in various places, one distinct, one two miles northwest of Bowling Green. For centuries perhaps countless thousands of buffalo would go in herds and in course of time made deep road beds from two to six feet deep. The graves that have been found in a number of places, especially along the bluffs and water courses, belonged to previous races, as evi- denced by the method of burial and by the contents buried with the bodies.
As the whites increased, the Indians became less frequently seen. although as late as 1856 Indians were seen coming single file into town, having their bows and arrows. They would shoot at coins set up in split sticks. Persons still live who saw them coming into Louisiana bringing nuts, game and trinkets, and they always walked single file. the squaws carrying the burdens. I started to school one morning in 1856. The school house was on the opposite side of the village from my home. The teacher was A. P. Rodgers, who still lives in Bowling Green. I did not know Indians were near and as I always had great fear of them, I fled, not home, for they were on that side, but to the school house. I was followed by a big buck, the biggest man I ever saw. I ran inside and closed the door. He followed and bolted in without ceremony and laughingly pointed me out to the teacher and said "him big fraid." Full fifty years passed when a few years ago I took coach at Yankton. South Dakota, to go out near the Rosebud reservation. I was on a big land deal, by which I was to get the hotel, store, mill and most of the little town. The deal had been worked up by letters to near the closing and I began to count my gains. We reached the place about nightfall and I, not knowing Indians were near, was greeted by a hig
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Sioux about four times bigger than the one I saw when a boy. His "how-how" and the sight of hundreds of tepees on the hillside brought back that same old tremble of a half-century before, with added interest.
THE FIRST WHITE SETTLER
In the last days of December, 1790, a young man lacking a few months of his majority, bade his parents goodbye, seated himself in a little boat and started from the Falls of the Ohio, Louisville, Kentucky, and went down the Ohio river, His father sixteen years before had come from Fairfax, Virginia, and built the first house at Louisville. He went up the Mississippi river and landed at Ste. Genevieve, Missouri, January 1, 1791. That old French town for a week had been aglow with Christ- mas festivities. This unostentatious young man was destined to play a goodly part in starting a westward trend. He was a practical dreamer. More than a hundred years before that time his Huguenot ancestors had been driven from France because of their Protestantism. Three hundred years previously his forefathers had left Spain, near Biscay Bay, for France, that they might earn a more reputable living than by piracy and robbery, then practiced in that mountainous country. After a few days at Ste. Genevieve and Mine LaMotte, thirty-five miles inland, he went on up the river to St. Louis, a trading post containing about five hundred people, mostly French. From there he resumed the journey up the river to Fort Madison, stopping off in Pike county, where Louisiana now is. Returning, he made St. Louis his home for twenty-seven years or until March, 1818. He made frequent trips to the "upper country" and was frequently in Pike. It is said that he knew every man, woman and child in the Missouri territory when the land was purchased. The news of the transfer of ownership reached St. Louis March 10, 1804. He and John Allen, his old friend, were chosen to make the transfer of flags. That evening the Stars and Stripes were hoisted and the next morning the foreign flag was lowered. St. Louis then contained 825 people, all French except about 150. It was almost exactly one-half as large as Bowling Green is today. The name of John Walter Basye is in the list. That year a daughter was born to his wife and she was named Louisiana.
When he moved to Pike county in 1818, John E. Allen, his friend's son, accompanied him. Many others were attracted by the opportunities in Pike county. The records of St. Louis show several of his clearing out sales of land, preparing to take his permanent abode elsewhere. He entered the southwest quarter, section 13, township 54, range 2, near Louisiana, and at the same time the land where Bowling Green now stands. Louisiana, plat filed December 10, 1819, but was laid out in the spring of 1818. At the suggestion of John E. Allen, his friend's son, the town was named Louisiana, for the rollicking girl born at the time of the transfer of flags at St. Louis. The old family Bible bears out the date, and the facts given by John C. Basye, then seven years old, Joseph J. Basye, twenty years old, and Ann Watson, a daughter of David Watson, all of whom were present.
The statement sometimes made that the town was named for Lucinda Walker is not correct. She had married John Venable nearly a year before and had moved away. Besides the names are not alike.
EARLY SETTLERS
Judge T. J. C. Fagg says that in the year 1800, James Burns, of Kentucky, effected the first temporary settlement of what is now Pike county, at or near the present site of Clarksville. He returned to
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Kentucky, then came back bringing his family and his brother, Arthur Burns, in the year 1808. This time he settled a little above Clarksville and erected the first log house in the county. Our public records show that on June 4, 1802, Frederick Dixon, a celebrated hunter and Indian trader, brother-in-law of James Burns, applied to the lieutenant-governor of Upper Louisiana, for a grant of eight hundred arpens, 680 acres, im- mediately on the north bank of Grassy creek. The grant was made, but Dixon never made settlement. Instead, he settled where Clarksville now stands and established a trading post with the Indians. In the years 1808, 1809 and 1810, other settlements were made by immigrants from Kentucky and the Carolinas.
The first families after the Burns brothers, if indeed not contem- porary with them, was a colony in 1807 from York district, South Car- olina, and Lincoln county, North Carolina, destined to leave distinct footprints in our history. There were four brothers, John, James, David and Samuel Watson. In this colony also were John, James and Robert Jordan, brothers; Alex. Allison, William McConnell, Thomas Cunning- ham, John Walker and Abram Thomas. John Watson settled where Watson Station now is. James settled near the mouth of Noix creek ; David, farther up the creek at what is now known as the Andy Scott
A VIEW AT STARK BROTHERS NURSERY
farm. John Jordan settled where Buffalo church now is; Robert, on the Fry farm adjoining, and James, a mile south of Louisiana, between the two creeks. William McConnell settled on the Shy farm and Alex. Allison on the Isrig farm near by. John Turner located on Little Calu- met, John Walker on Grassy creek, and Thomas Cunningham on the Price farm. In each and every case, a spring of water was the objective point, more attention being paid to this than to the quality of land. Two years later, in 1810, another colony came from Kentucky and settled on Ramsey creek. In this group were Joseph McCoy, a noted Indian fighter, Eli Burkalen or Burkaleo, George Myers, Daniel McQuie, Andrew Edwards and Joel Harpool. In 1811 came John Mackay, James Templeton and his nephew. Mijamin Templeton, the latter eleven years old, all settling on Buffalo.
TROUBLE WITH THE INDIANS
The Indians were numerous and peaceably disposed, but by nature they were easily incited to depredations by the British agents similar to the "hairbuyer" (scalp purchaser) of Old Vincennes. In December, 1811, a conference was called of all the settlers, as trouble seemed to be portending by the mysterious actions of the Indians.
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A fort was settled on and immediately commenced on the Alex. Alli- son farm, two miles south of Louisiana. Into this fort, called Buffalo, more than twenty families were gathered, taking turns at guarding and cultivating crops the next year. An underground passage was made to a spring not far away. In the year 1812, no harm came to them and they were thrown off their guard. They went farther away to work and began to think their preparation for defense was unnecessary. But in the following March, Capt. Robert Jordan and his son, James, were shot and scalped by the Indians while working on their farms. They were buried where they fell and were the first persons in the county to die, except a small child of John Jordan, several years before. Today a memorial stone at their graves in the old Buffalo cemetery keeps the visitors continually reminded of those dangerous days.
The people were now thoroughly alarmed and requested Governor Clark at St. Louis to, send soldiers for protection. Samuel Watson, one of the oldest, went to St. Louis to intercede with the governor, who refused, but agreed to send a guard to conduct the colonists to St. Louis. They bundled up such goods as they could, put them in a flat- boat and took refuge in St. Louis.
One of the soldiers, Peter Brandon, and Mary McConnell were mar- ried in the fort, and this is probably the first marriage in the county. There was no minister nor officer to legalize the marriage and it was performed by the good old Samuel Watson.
The settlement farther south also called a meeting at the Clarksville fort to devise means of defense. At this meeting was James O'Neil, who had come, four years before, and while at the meeting his wife and nine children were most brutally murdered and scalped. The youngest child, about one year old, was thrown alive into a large oven and baked. This settlement went to Fort Woods at Troy, or Fort Stout at Auburn. A few of the braver ones remained in the fort at Buffalo, and others came to them from nearby settlements. There were probably no women or children left. In July, 1814, a company of sixty-four volunteers, known as rangers, came up from Cap-au-Gris, commanded by Capt. Allen Ramsey, for whom the creek was named. They started to go to Fort Mason, near Saverton, and stopped at Buffalo Fort.X From there, for some unknown reason, part of them returned to Cap-au-Gris. The others, under command of Captain Ramsey, continued toward Fort Mason.
Somewhere between the two forts they encountered a band of Win- nebago Indians, who were lying in ambush. A fight ensued, in which Captain Ramsey, David Whitesides, Levy Lansy, Mr. Duff and one other were killed. Alex Matthews, Daniel Griffith, John Lucas, and in fact most of the others were wounded, but their names are unknown. This battle, about which we know so little, is thought to have taken place on Mud Lick prairie. Some of the wounded got back to Buffalo Fort. Some friendly Indians took David Whitesides, who was wounded, in a canoe, and started down the river to Cap-au-Gris, but he died before that place was reached. About six months after this battle, and in the early days of 1815, the war closed and the Indian hostilities ceased. The refugees began making preparation to return, bringing with them many new set- tlers.
There was as yet no Pike county nor was there to be such for nearly three years. At that time there was no Louisiana or other named town or creek, though they have been mentioned. The names of early settlers mentioned herein were, of course, not all who then lived in Pike county. There were many others.
Vol. 1-38
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SOME PIONEER SETTLEMENTS
From 1817 to 1820 there was a great rush to this new field, none doubting at that time but that the settlements were to be really per- manent. Daniel Draper came from Smith county, Tennessee, in 1816, stopping first in Lincoln county, bringing his six sons, at least three of whom were to become prominent in the county affairs-Daniel, Edward and Philander Draper, who were eminently fitted as leaders and business men.
Early in the same year came John Bryson and John Venable with their families from York county, South Carolina. They met the Jordan refugees at St. Louis and arranged to occupy the cabins already built until their return the next year.
This year also came Richard Matson and his brothers, Enoch and Peyton. They brought with them mill stones for grinding corn and the next year erected a mill at Peno creek. Prior to that time the settlers used hand mills or went to St. Charles, sixty miles away. Ninety-two years after the Matson mill was built, a grandson, A. P. Matson, took out a log that had been used in making the dam across Peno. The log, having been weighted down by stones, was perfectly sound.
About this time, possibly two years later, Mulharin, a brother-in-law of the Rev. Stephen Ruddle, built a mill on Ramsey creek. John and James Patterson, sons of the Revolutionary soldier, William Patter- son, came in 1817, and that year erected a small mill near Rock Ford. These stones, as well as another mill, are yet at the place known as the Patterson farm. The Matson mill proved inadequate and he built a horse-mill on Spencer and still a larger one on Salt river. Near this mill, which ground most of the corn for many miles for both white and Indian, salt was manufactured and sold to the settlers through the stores at Louisiana, at 61/4 cents a pound.
In 1816 there came from Bourbon county, Kentucky, a county which furnished many newcomers, James Stark, who later became a county judge. The next year he returned to his old home and brought back, in a pair of saddlebags, seeds, scions and rootlets. He was an enthusiastic fruit grower and the contents of the saddlebags were the foundation for perhaps the largest nursery in the world, at Louisiana, now operated by the third and fourth generations of descendants of the founder.
Another settler came from Scott county, Kentucky, the Rev. Stephen Ruddle, who organized the first Baptist church on Ramsey creek in 1817. In 1780, when he was twelve years old, he with many others were captured by the Indians and most of his companions were mur- dered. Colonel Bird, having six hundred British and more Indians, claimed he could not control the latter. Ruddle grew up among them, married a squaw and did not return for years. He was tall, athletic, straight as an arrow, and wore his black hair hanging down his neck. He said he had accompanied the Indians on many expeditions and "had murdered and scalped many white captives, often continuing the use of the tomahawk until his arm would give out from pure exhaustion."
Others who settled in these parts were John Mulharin, William and Joseph Holiday, William Biggs, David Todd, who became the first cir- cuit judge of Pike county, Benjamin Gray, John and William McCune.
In the same year came Joseph Carroll, father of Thomas M. Carroll, from York district, South Carolina. He was a blacksmith, brought a bellows and other tools with him and opened a shop a few miles south of Louisiana. With him came from Kentucky, the Caldwells, Maidens. Browns, Shaws, William Campbell, father of one of Pike county's truly greatest and best men, Rev. James W. Campbell, and grandfather of our
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well-known governor, Robert A. Campbell. This year also came Maj. James Jones, first surveyor, later senator and sheriff and an all round good citizen, Elijah Hendrick, a Revolutionary soldier, John Walter Basye, from St. Louis, first explorer of the county and founder of Bowling Green. Mr. Basye came from Louisville in 1791. John E. Allen, the progenitor of the Allens and Rowleys, also came from North Carolina. Isaac Orr settled at Antioch, upon whose farm the first Cum- berland Presbyterian church was built. That first church was organized in 1819, under a walnut tree, still standing on the farm of Robert Fullerton.
In 1818 from Bath county, Kentucky, came Joab Smith. In 1819 from Virginia came William Stephenson, school-teacher and first judge of the county court, settling on Grassy creek. About this time came George Reading, a Revolutionary soldier, who later went to Lewis county and died there. Other soldiers of this war came in the early years and though well on in years they still possessed the nerve to commence life anew. Let us bow our heads in reverence to these heroes, who are buried in our county, some of them on the farms they tilled, this custom being quite common until later years.
REVOLUTIONARY SOLDIERS
John Poenix, buried in the family burying ground on Sugar creek, was born in Virginia, September 2, 1757, and died in Pike county September 11. 1839. He served under General Green and was present at the surrender of Cornwallis.
William Patterson, buried on his farm nine miles from Louisiana on the road to Eolia, was born in North Carolina, came to Pike county in 1818, and died in 1849.
Roland Burbridge, born in Virginia, died in Pike county in 1842, was buried at Buffalo cemetery. His tombstone inscription states that he was in the battle of Cowpens.
James Mackey, born in South Carolina in 1743, died in Pike county in 1855, was buried at Buffalo. The inscription on his monument reads : "An American patriot who lived to see the success of the American arms."
James M. McElwee, buried at the McElwee cemetery five miles west of Louisiana on the Paris road, was born in Greenville, Virginia, July 24, 1776. His name last appears on the pay roll of 1780, which reads : "Regiment in garrison at the siege of Charleston."
The Pike county records of March 6, 1821, show that Elijah Hen- dricks applied for pension and made affidavit that he "enlisted and served on the continental establishment March 7, 1776, to some time in 1781, was with General Sullivan in his Indian expedition, marched to New Jersey to join Washington, was taken prisoner at Charleston and remained such until honorably discharged. I have a wife, Nancy, aged 62, and with me one son, Mose, aged 14. As to myself and wife, we are neither able to manage for ourselves, being quite infirm and of worn-out constitution. My son is and has ever been of a weakly nature and is in no wise able to render us any assistance." He and his wife are buried on the farm on which he lived, four miles southwest of Bowling Green. They were the parents of the late Moses, Johnson and Wesley Hendricks.
Cornelius Beasley, born in Carolina county, Virginia, was a soldier in the War of 1776, lived in Virginia until 1836, when he came to Pike county. He died in Bowling Green October 24, 1840, in his eighty-
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fourth year and was probably buried at Bowling Green by the side of his daughter, Mrs Jacob Rhodes.
On August 9, 1819, Reuben Smithers presented to the circuit court a petition asking for a pension from the United States. The petition was accompanied by his affidavit and also that of Jonathan Oyler.
Samuel Baird died near Louisiana December 22, 1840, at the age of eighty years. He was a native of Virginia and served with the Virginia militia at the battle of Yorktown and the capture of Cornwallis.
William Sherwood, a Revolutionary war hero, came to Pike county in 1818, but no further record is found of him.
Descendants of nearly all the persons mentioned are now to be found in the county, to say nothing of many who have gone to almost every country of the world.
RECORDS OF A PIONEER MERCHANT
In the day book and ledger of the first store ever kept in Pike county, covering a period from September 12, 1818, to December, 1826, are found the names of a number of pioneers of the county. These books, aside from the mere entries showing who then lived in the county, contain perhaps the most valued history.
The store was at Louisiana and was kept by Uriah J. Devore, who came from St. Louis to establish the branch of a St. Louis store. The Louisiana store was kept in a log house on the southwest corner of Georgia and Second streets. Later the eccentric John Schwimmer bought it and twenty-six years afterward erected a brick building on the spot where he had so long kept store.
In the old books we find the name of Moses Kelly. Of him Judge Fagg says: "There was no better citizen. It seems to be generally understood in the early days that if a man could get to be sheriff and fill the office with credit, the next step in his advancement would be a seat in the legislature." Kelly served two terms as sheriff, 1832-36, and then served, with A. B. Chambers, as representative.
The name of Willis Mitchell appears as a patron. He performed the first marriage ceremony at Bowling Green, marrying the girl for whom the town of Louisiana was named, Louisiana Basye, to David L. Tombs. October 14, 1818, Samuel K. Caldwell bought goods. He, with Joel Shaw, came for the purpose of laying out a town and did so. He was admitted to the bar at the first session of the circuit court. April 12, 1819, together with Augustus Le Grand and Ezra Hunt. He was the first assessor of Pike county, receiving his appointment from Gover- nor Bates January 1, 1819. His bondsmen were Maj. James Jones, John E. Allen and John Campbell. Col. James Johnson purchased $58.75 worth of merchandise. He, together with Andrew Edwards, John Jordan, James Bryson and Peyton Matson, was appointed by the legislature to fix on "suitable places for courthouse, jail and permanent seat of justice," at Louisiana in 1818.
On October 17th Samuel Watson bought merchandise. To this man Ashley, by his munificent gift, is indebted for the famous Watson Semi- nary. He served on the first grand jury and was appointed by the court to locate a road from the salt works or the "lick" to Louisiana. Boru in 1766, he served. though young, in the War of the Revolution.
John Mathews bought goods next day. He was an Old School Pres- byterian preacher. the first of that denomination in the county. He taught the first school in the county, except the rather informal one taught in the fort. He organized the first Bible society at the county seat, performed most of the marriage ceremonies of those times, among
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which were the following : James Templeton and Jennie Mackey, January 26, 1818: John Venable and Lucinda Walker, February 6, 1818; Andrew Jordan and Peggy Henry, October 18, 1818; Carroll Moss and Miss Mackey, December 18, 1818; John Hymen and Betsy Moss, February 7, 1819; James Orr and Betsy Campbell, May 11, 1819; James Lanes and Maria Phillips, June 22, 1819. He was asked by the court to pass on the fitness of applicants for the first surveyor. This office fell to Maj. James Jones.
There appears in the old store books also the name of John Walker He owned part of the ground on which the town of Louisiana was built. There appears also the names of the Rev. Joseph Jackson Basye, son of John W. Basye, of whom it is stated that he was the first Methodist to preach in the county. He was an eccentric man and minister of the type of Peter Cartwright, with whom he often held meetings in Illinois. He married Ann Watson, daughter of David Watson.
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