USA > Missouri > A History of Northeast Missouri, Volume I > Part 72
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At a special term held in March ensuing the adjournment of the first
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court, the temporary seat of justice was changed to the house of William Goggin, and the circuit court ordered notified.
The first settlement with the collector was made in May showing: Taxes collected, $253.60; delinquent, $1.25; collector's commission, $20.20. By way of contrast as showing the growth of the county in 81 years succeeding the first collection of taxes, the county collector settled for the collection of $144,552.68 for all current and back taxes and li- censes, for which his commission aggregated over $3,400 in 1910. For the succeeding year an increase of $23,117.20 was added to the tax books on account of the road and bridge fund with a further increase in commissions.
At the August term, 1830, the seal of the county was adopted with the American eagle for its emblem and that design has been continued with- out change to the present time. At the same term Robert Wilson, who was both circuit and county clerk, was appointed commissioner of the county seat and received deeds, without consideration, from William Goggin and Nancy, his wife, and Gideon Wright and Rebecca, his wife, Daniel Hunt and wife and Henry Winburn and wife, conveying four parcels of land of 12 1-2 acres each for a county seat. The four parcels fitted together formed a square cut from the four corners of contiguous quarter sections of which the division lines are the diagonals, thus revolv- ing the plat to an angle of forty-five degrees with the cardinal points of the compass and causing the streets of Huntsville to run in that di- rection. The county seat was named for one of the grantors, Daniel Hunt.
The first circuit court was held at the house of William Goggin in 1829 with David Todd, of Boone county, presiding. Robert Wilson was clerk and Hancock Jackson was the first sheriff and James Gordon prosecuting attorney.
The first grand jury returned two indictments, one for wife beating and the other against five Iowa Indians for murder. At the next court they were tried and acquitted and this circumstance was pointed to with pride, as evidence of remarkable integrity of the jury. It seems to have been contrary to the spirit of the age to let one get away. The names of the defendants are picturesque. They rejoiced in such sobriquets as "Big Neck," "Pumpkin," "Brave Snake," "Young Knight," and "One-That-Don't-Care." If, as it is said, the Indian receives his name from some personal trait of character, the latter at least might have been found guilty of contempt of court.
In this connection it may be said that only one white man and two negroes have ever suffered capital punishment in Randolph county. This may be due to the skill of the bar in preserving to the citizen his presumption of innocence when in jeopardy. Of a surety we can not claim to be wholly void of offences since the disbursements from the criminal cost fund for 1909 and 1910 amounted to $15,096.49.
Among the first officers of the county were men who afterward served in other capacities with distinction. Dr. William Fort represented the county in both branches of the general assembly. Robt. Wilson also served in both branches of the legislature and in the United States Senate. Robert Wells became attorney general. Even the justices of the peace served with distinction since fourteen marriages were recorded the first year.
The first court house was built in 1832, of brick, with a court room below and three jury rooms above. It cost $2,400, and was torn down in the winter of 1858-59. The second court house was completed in 1860, at a cost of $15,000. It was two stories high, built of brick, and was consumed by fire on August 12th, 1882, one month and a day after the
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burning of Mt. Pleasant College in Huntsville. A county seat contest between Huntsville and Moberly, for the removal of the seat of justice to Moberly in 1876, had failed of the necessary two-thirds vote by 2,453 for, and 2,271 against removal. Another contest had just been held preceding the fire in 1882 with the same result, failing by a vote of 3,481 for, and 3,068 against removal. It will be observed that the voting strength of the county thirty years ago was 400 in excess of the present count by the secretary of state. Feelings of bitterness had been en- gendered by these contests to such a crisis that the leaders of both sides effected a compromise whereby the insurance of the barned building added to private subscriptions, was used to restore the court house at Huntsville and bills were passed by the general assembly abrogating the court of common pleas, which had existed at Moberly with limited jurisdiction since 1875, and establishing instead the regular county, pro- bate and circuit courts at Moberly with full jurisdiction co-extensive with the county. No buildings were provided for the new courts, and the salaries of the new deputies, in the interest of peace and harmony, were temporarily made nominal, it being intended that "when the first bitter throbs of anguish had been softened into the gentle tear of recol- lection," such buildings and salaries would be provided. Although the old wounds have long since healed and the bulk of litigation is now at Moberly, these courts are still tenants by the leasehold.
The third court house at Huntsville was erected in 1883 at a cost of $35,000.
The first jail was a log building situated just north of the present site of the court house in Huntsville. A second jail was erected in 1865 which was found inadequate and torn down in 1871 and a new jail built of stone, with the sheriff's residence connected in front. It was constructed upon the plan of a dungeon, strong enough but cruel and wholly out of keeping with modern ideas of a sanitary jail. This latter jail was condemned by the grand jury in 1909 and a new jail and sher- iff's residence, costing $27,742.66, was erected on the same site. It was built by an issue of bonds of $25,000, which brought a premium of $1,120. It is sanitary and humane in all its appointments and contains twelve chrome steel, tool proof cells with others for juvenile and first offenders, women and insane persons.
Besides these public buildings the county maintains a county poor farm one mile from Huntsville, purchased in 1878, at a cost of $2,000, in which an average of twenty-one inmates are kept at an average annual expense of $3,100. A superintendent is employed and his accounts audited by the county court.
Among the members of the first bar of Randolph county were strong men. John F. Ryland held the office of judge of the state supreme court. Joseph Davis was a colonel in the Indian war, commanded a brigade in the Mormon difficulties and served for twenty years in the legislature. General Robt. Wilson, previously mentioned, was a member of both the house and senate, of the constitutional convention of '61 and as United States senator in 1862. General John B. Clark became a member of congress and of the Confederate congress. Robt. W. Wells served as attorney general of the state and judge of the United States district court.
DURING WAR TIMES
The history of Randolph county is a chronicle of peace rather than the annals of war, but her people have not been wanting in the martial spirit when occasions demanded. For the Indian insurrection of 1835 she furnished a company of seventy soldiers. For the Mexican war
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a company of one hundred men was raised in Randolph, of which Han- cock Jackson, the first sheriff, was captain. They were presented with a silk flag upon their departure for the front, by the patriotic ladies of Huntsville and the emblem was carried victoriously in two engage- ments, and upon the company's return home, it was deposited with the names of those who marched under it, in the court house at Huntsville. The fire, which destroyed the court house in 1882, consumed these memor- ials of their arms.
A history of the Civil war even in its local phase, can not be included in the space allotted. Out of the body of her population of 11,407 people. were enlisted between 1,200 and 1,800 men, divided about equally be- tween the North and the South. The people were not, however, divided in their sympathies by the same ratio, as fully eighty per cent favored the Confederacy after the war began. Randolph county was one of the largest slave-holding counties in the state at the beginning of the war. Approximately $2,000,000 worth of slaves were held here at the begin- ning of hostilities. A state census taken twelve years earlier shows 2,024 negroes owned by the other 6,787 whites, which would indicate the grounds of the sympathy. Their commercial aspect is brought vividly into view by the following advertisement published in the Independent at Huntsville, 1854:
SLAVES FOR SALE
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The undersigned will keep constantly on hand, negro men, women, boys and girls in Huntsville.' All persons who wish to buy negroes can make it their interest to call on the subscribers, or address them by letter, giving description of the kind of slaves desired. All negroes warranted to come up to recommendations, or taken back or exchanged. H. L. RUTHERFORD, WM. D. MALONE.
The negroes have only increased their numbers one-third in this county since the war while the whites have multiplied nine times as fast.
The names of the soldiers who took part in the Civil war must re- main, of necessity. indistinguishable in the ranks but the names of their leaders are here recalled. Those raising troops for the Southern army were: Colonel H. T. Fort, Colonel John A. Poindexter, Colonel C. J. Perkins, Captain Thos. G. Lowry, Captain John W. Bagby, Captain Ben- jamin Guthrie. For the Union army : Captains T. B. Reed, W. T. Aus- tin, C. F. Mayo, W. S. Burckhartt, W. A. Skinner, M. S. Durham and Alexander Denny.
After the departure of the regulars the worst phases of the prevail- ing social disorder were suffered by those who remained at home from the "bushwhackers" on the one hand, and the marauding militia on the other. Bill Anderson, the noted guerrilla chief, recruited a number of those who could "shoot with both hands" in this county and there are staid and sober citizens now living, who can remember how, in their younger days, they clipped the hands off the town clock in Huntsville without even looking through the sights.
One unique incident of that chieftain's visit to Huntsville on the day before the Centralia massacre, September 26th, 1864, was the spectacu- lar method of opening the store doors adopted by one of his men when the town was raided. This soldier of fortune rode a large bay horse along the sidewalk on Main street and at each store door would back his horse against it and touch the high-spirited animal in the flanks with his spurs. The doors opened. After selecting such articles of apparel as were required, the men drew their pay for that month out of the Hunts- ville bank with a crowbar, and in the evening departed for Centralia. Bill Anderson was killed just one month afterward.
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The Spanish war awakened little general interest in enlistment for service and only one company-colored troops-was recruited.
CHOLERA
Worse than the fear of war is the dread of pestilence. The health- ful environments of Randolph county are not favorable to epidemics but three times when cholera swept across the country, it has visited us, the first time in 1832, again in 1849, and again just after the close of the Civil war. The mortality resulting at its first and second appearance is not recorded. At the third visitation sixteen died in Huntsville. It made a deep impression on the public mind. Neither the cause or the cure was known to science and the suddenness and mys- tery of the death, coupled with a sense of utter helplessness created a state of dread strongly reflected in the public press of the times. All sorts of nostrums were advised and as a last resort "courage" was pre- scribed with the consolation that should death seize the victim he would have at least have escaped its fearful anticipations and acquit himself with dignity while awaiting the inevitable.
THE SEARCH FOR GOLD
The love of gold is more contagious than cholera. In the year 1848 the first discoveries of the yellow metal in California by the advance guard of pioneers were heralded across the continent and many of our citizens caught the contagion. They forgot their fight against the re- election of Thos. H. Benton in their eagerness to get rich quick. Many of them made the trip across the plains. Some took with them their slaves and set them free upon the golden coast. Few of them realized their hopes of wealth and probably more money was deported from the county than was brought back by the emigrants. At the present time much is being said and written about the high cost of living with beef on the hoof at 101/2 cents, and flour selling for $2.30 per hundred-weight, but the real thing seems to have been encountered by the '49rs who crossed over the old Santa Fe trail. A private letter written to Captain Cooper, of Fay- ette, from San Francisco in the spring of 1849 advising him to bring out a stock of goods, quotes some interesting prices and indicates why the Randolphians had to hurry back. Pork sold for $80 per barrel, lard for $50, flour for $30, blankets from $60 to $200 per pair, cotton shirts brought $10 each, cloth coats for $120, sugar for 25 cents a pound. Two barrels of whiskey, retailed by the drink, brought $14,000. These prices were in gold. I have been told that about that time on election days a barrel of free whiskey was rolled out on the street in Huntsville, the head knocked out and dippers hung aroung the barrel for the voters' use. Some of the more adept in the bibulous art would gallop their horses up and down Main street, brandishing their dippers and as they passed the barrel, would plunge these shining weapons of Bacchus to the hilt and would quaff the libation while at full speed without spilling a drop.
CHURCHES AND SCHOOLS
Before Missouri became a state and long before Randolph county be- came a separate political part of it the earliest settlers of the territory in 1819 established the first church nine miles south of the present site of Huntsville. It was at first known as Happy Zion. The name was later changed to Silver Creek church. It was of the Old School Baptist faith, as were all the churches which were organized in the county prior to Vol. I -- 35
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1834. Nearly all the first settlers were Baptists. The first church house built in the county was made of logs and built by that denomination. The first Methodist church was organized in 1834. The first Christian church was organized in 1860, and the first Cumberland Presbyterian church in 1840. These were the pioneer churches which opened the way for others to follow. Now there is not a city, town or village in the county, and scarcely a school district which does not have one or more churches. All the leading denominations are represented. The Christian Science church and a $75,000 Catholic cathedral were built this year. Churches are not listed by the assessor and their property value in the county is not known, but may be conservatively estimated at $300,000.
Prior to the constitution of '65 the educational interests of Randolph county were fostered by colleges and private schools. Mt. Pleasant col- lege was organized in the year 1853 by patriotic citizens of Randolph county, and upon the advice of William A. Hall, was placed under the care and supervision of the Baptist church. Four years later, in 1857, a building was erected at Huntsville costing $12,500. The Rev. William Thompson, LL. D., the first president, opened school the same year with one hundred and seventy students in attendance. The faculty consisted of Dr. Thompson, president; the Rev. J. H. Carter, professor of mathe- matics and Miss Bettie Ragland, principal of the woman's department. The college was destroyed by fire on July 13th, 1882. During the twenty- three years of its existence it was presided over by the following presi- dents: the Rev. Wm. Thompson, one year; the Rev. W. R. Rothwell, twelve years; the Rev. J. W. Terrill, seven years; the Rev. M. J. Breaker. three years. The Rev. A. S. Worrell was president for a brief time and was succeeded by the Rev. J. B. Weber who was in charge when the col- lege closed. It turned out during this time 109 graduates, instructed many youths and exercised an elevating and refining influence on the " entire community. J. W. Wight, Sr., of Moberly, was valedictorian of the class of 1863.
The first public school was partially organized in Huntsville some little time after the war, but the organization was not completed until 1877. At the present time this system of free education has expanded into eighty-three school districts which enumerate 9,000 children of school age, and distributes annually for their education $85,868. The county has a permanent school fund of $57,872.94, which is constantly augmented from fines and forfeitures. This fund is loaned on real es- tate security and personal collateral and the interest therefrom appor- tioned with the state funds pro rata. The county derived from the state at the last distribution, $14,000 for schools. The railroad school tax in the county, raised by the levy of an average rate of fifty-one cents, is $12,000. One hundred and fifty-two teachers are employed and receive a total pay-roll of $45,022, paid out at an average salary of $68.00 for men and $41.00 for women. There are 6,700 volumes in the school li- braries of the county. The high schools at Huntsville and Moberly are articulated with the University of Missouri. Two hundred and forty-Bix pupils have been graduated from the public schools in the past three years. Nothing indicates more plainly the vitality of Randolph than the fact that forty per cent of its population is embraced in the school enumeration.
FINANCES AND RAILROADS
The financial resources of Randolph county are held in twelve bank- ing institutions with a total of 17,300 shares owned by two hundred and seventy-two stockholders, aggregating in capital and surplus, $437.510 in 1910, of which a controlling interest of $250,000 is held by twenty
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. shareholders. The resources of these banks approximate $3,000,000. In the past twelve years the deposits have grown rapidly from the proceeds of the sale of lands to northern and eastern buyers and the removal to town of the farmers. The sale of coal rights under the lands to large eastern companies, one of which holds 43,000 acres, has contributed as . well as expanding industry to increasing our banking resources. Every town and village in the county has one or more banks and all are pros- pering.
The merchandising activities of the county are conducted by 331 merchants and fifteen manufacturers with stocks valued for assessment at $340,000. This represents but a small fraction of the actual value in- vested, as one corporation has a capital stock of $300,000 on which it guarantees a six per cent dividend.
The value of all kinds of property has more than doubled within the past ten years. The resources of the county for the year 1910, upon which a total tax rate of $1.42 for all purposes, state, county and school, is levied, aggregate $10,029,785.
The growth in population is shown by the census for the following years: 1830, 2,942; 1840, 7,198; 1860, 11,407; 1870, 15,908; 1880, 22,751; 1890, 24,893; 1900, 24,442 ; 1910, 26,182.
Few counties can boast better railroad, telegraph and telephone serv- ice than Randolph. Besides the Western Union Telegraph Company, six telephone companies with numerous private rural lines, make quick communication with every part of the county. The companies are the Buffum Telephone Company, the Missouri and Kansas Telephone Com- pany, the Moberly Telephone Company, the New Century Telephone Company, the American Telephone and Telegraph Company and the Huntsville Telephone Company.
The evening papers can announce the result of elections in every precinct as quickly after the close of the polls as in a city ward.
All of the eleven townships in the county have railroad shipping facilities except two-Chariton and Salt River.' In the early days of railroad building it was customary for railroads to receive financial as- sistance from the counties through which they ran. Usually this was rendered by a subscription of stock through the sale of county bonds. Randolph county pursued a more direct method by taxation and as a consequence escaped the pitfalls into which many counties fell, and was never burdened by a long indebtedness. The old North Missouri Rail- road, which was incorporated in 1853 and completed to Moberly Novem- ber, 1858, and to Macon City in February, 1859, was the first railroad to enter the county. After the road had been finished to Mexico efforts were made to continue it by subscriptions to its stock along the proposed route. Randolph county subscribed $175,000 of its stock and paid for it in four years. This road entered the county at its southeast corner and, following the Grand Divide, passed through its middle line from north to south. In 1858 the Chariton and Randolph Railroad Company was chartered to run from Brunswick in Chariton county to connect with the North Missouri at some convenient point in Randolph county. The war interrupted the construction of the road and its franchises fell into the hands of the older company which built it from Moberly to Kansas City. These roads now constitute the Wabash Railroad Com- pany. The machine shops for the western division are located at Moberly and were secured by the city with a donation of 818 acres of land given for that purpose. Judge Wm. A. Hall was the commissioner to represent Moberly in presenting its claims and accompanied the locating officials on their tour of inspection from St. Louis to Kansas City. The shops
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were located April 2nd, 1872, on 218 acres of this land lying in the Y of its north and west extensions and exempted from taxation for twenty years. The city of Moberly raised $27,000 by the sale of bonds for the purchase of the land. When upon the expiration of the exemption limit, the constitution prohibited its extension, an agreement was entered into between the city and Superintendent Hays, that the city limits of Moberly should be changed, excluding the shops' ground, and in consid- eration of this relief from city taxation, the Wabash would erect a $40,000 union station in the city. The contract was ratified by a vote of the citizens and was carried out by both parties. Its completion was cel- ebrated by a memorable banquet and ball in the new building. It is the most complete and handsome station between Kansas City and St. Louis and advertises the city to travelers, but upon the other hand, the local properties of the Wabash have escaped an annual tax of $3,700 for more than twenty years with benefits continuing. The Wabash has a mileage of forty-four miles in the county. It has a pay-roll of $100,000 monthly and employs 2,000 men in the county, principally at Moberly and 1,700 men are at work in its shops at that place. Within the present year the road has passed into the hands of receivers and large improvements to its road-bed and rolling stock and machinery departments are being added. A hospital is maintained by the employees' association at Moberly for the western division.
The M. K. & T. Railroad was organized April 7, 1870, by the con- solidation of the Tebo & Neosho with certain other lines. To this latter road Sugar Creek township issued its bonds for $65,000. In 1874 it acquired by purchase the Hannibal & Central Missouri, which had been chartered in 1865, and thus opened the road from Hannibal to Sedalia, passing through Randolph county via Moberly and Higbee for a distance of twenty miles. The Sugar Creek bonds were funded in 1879 and have since been paid. It passes through rich coal fields in the southern part of the county.
The Chicago & Alton Railroad enters the county at its southeastern corner and crosses the county in its southern part, passing through Clark and Higbee. It was constructed in 1871 and has a mileage in the county of eighteen miles. This road passes through some of the richest agricul- tural and coal regions of the county. These three railroads have a total of eighty-three miles of road bed in Randolph and pay a yearly tax of $25,000 to the state and county.
ROADS
Second only in importance to its railroads, are the highways of the county. Randolph county has not yet entered upon a systematic con- struction of permanent roads. It has 650 miles of earth roads reaching every section in it and the streams are spanned by one hundred steel bridges. All traces of the old plank road from Huntsville to Glasgow. built in the early '50s, are obliterated long since and its recollection serves to show the early resources of white oak now selling at $50 per thousand. Two years ago the statute authorizing county courts to levy up to twenty-five cents on the hundred for roads and bridges was adopted by a vote of the people and the limit has been levied. This sum added to the revenues of the two eight-mile road districts creates a fund of $30,000 which is annually disbursed for roads.
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