USA > Missouri > A History of Northeast Missouri, Volume I > Part 80
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The first school house in the county stood a few miles south of the present site of Downing. In this rude cabin Miss Hathaway, afterward Mrs. Edwin French, taught the first school in the county in the spring and summer of 1841. The second school was taught at the old town of Tippecanoe, the same summer,.by Jesse K. Baird. In 1842 James Johnson began teaching at a point about a mile northeast of Lancaster. He died about the middle of the first term and Miss Hathaway finished the term.
Log school-houses then sprang up in various parts of the county where there were enough settlers to sustain a school. The schoolhouse of the forties was built of logs, generally hewn, and was in size perhaps sixteen feet square. A fireplace took a large part of one end of the
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house. The chimney was made of sticks and clay. The roof was made of clapboards and at first these were kept in place by weight poles. The seats were split logs supported on sticks which were fitted into holes bored into the ends of the logs. Such a thing as an individual desk was unheard of. A long board fastened against the wall slantwise and held in place by pegs was the writing desk and the pupils would line up to this desk in a row for instruction in penmanship. The ordinary school-house had two small windows in which oiled paper was used for panes, but sometimes light was furnished by leaving out a log from the side of the house. Log school houses were not uncommon as late as 1880. Reading, writing, spelling and arithmetic constituted the course of study. Any desire for more learning was gratified by taking more work in arith- metic. The teacher who could do fractions was considered a very learned person.
By an act of the legislature approved March 12, 1859, John M. Minor, Reuben Whitewell, E. M. Bradley, Richard Caywood, William Buford, R. J. Christie, Q. B. Alverson, William S. Thatcher and William V. Rippey were granted articles of incorporation for the formation of Lancaster Academy. The school was established and progressed well until the outbreak of the war. It was disorganized during the war and afterward became a public school under the free school system.
The first public school building was erected in 1869, which has since been remodeled and is now one of the most beautiful homes in town. It is owned by Dr. W. A. Potter. The old building was not used as a school house after 1886, when another house more commodious was built in the southwest part of town. This building was destroyed by fire on Monday, April 27, 1908. A modern, large, fire-proof building now stands in its place. A four year high school course is offered and it is accredited by the University of Missouri.
In 1846 the first school census was taken. This was done by a justice in each of the six townships. In 1854 one district added orthography. geometry and natural philosophy to the usual three subjects. The same year William Casper was appointed the first county school commissioner in Schuyler county. He was paid $1.50 per day, not to exceed forty-five days in the year.
At the present time there are rural schools and one high school, offer- ing a four-year course.
COUNTY FAIRS
In 1859 there was presented to the county court a petition to permit the organization and incorporation of a society known as the Schuyler County Agricultural and Mechanical Society, the purpose of which was the improvement of agricultural and mechanical arts. It was signed by fifty names of freeholders. The court granted them the right to incor- porate. They leased from Elias Brown land for a fair ground. The first fair was held in the fall of 1859. During the Civil war they were discontinued. The last fair was held in 1867.
In 1872 another society was organized under the name of "The Schuyler County Agricultural and Mechanical Association." The society bought fifty-five acres of land from Edwin French and James Roley in the suburbs of Lancaster. The following year the ground was fitted up and a fair held annually until 1881, when Louis Schmidt ยท became the sole owner of the capital stock through a mortgage sale and the organization dissolved.
COUNTY JAIL
In April, 1847, the county appointed James M. Bryant to superin- tend the building of a jail. Before this time the county prisoners were
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boarded by some citizen; for example, James M. Bryant was allowed $1.26 for such service. A small two-story log building was erected and in 1853 was consumed by fire, supposedly set afire by Renoch Reeves, confined there on the charge of horse stealing. In 1869 the court appointed F. M. Wilcox to superintend the building of a new brick jail.
The county poor farm consists of 200 acres and is located on sections 3 and 4 in township 66 north, range 14 west. E. E. Barker was the first manager of the county farm.
THE PRESS
The first newspaper published in Schuyler county was the Lancaster Herald, established at Lancaster in 1855 by Huron Jackson of LaGrange, Missouri. It was succeeded by the Lancaster Democrat. In 1861 it was discontinued because of the war, but in 1866 the weekly Lancaster Ex- celsior was established by H. D. B. Cutler, which later took the name of The Excelsior. In a column of the first copy of The Excelsior this item was inserted: "George Washington was first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen, but George Mann was the first subscriber to The Excelsior and J. F. Fenton the first advertiser." The paper is now conducted by Winfred Melvin and is Democratic in politics.
October 18, 1899, James L. Baker established the Schuyler County Avalanche, now Republican, which he published until April 16, 1906, when he sold to George B. Shaffer, the present editor. It is Republican in politics.
The Queen City Transcript was established in 1887 by Nat L. John- son. It is now owned by J. W. McNaught and is Republican in politics.
The Glenwood Criterion was established in 1870 by Cutler and Wil- cox. In 1872 Cutler became sole owner and published it until 1884, when he sold to G. D. Gray, who sold it the next year to Grant M. Potter. Mr. Potter ran the paper six months, then in 1887 sold it to W. D. Powell. During the campaign of 1876 H. H. Williams published it as a Democratic organ. At all other times it has been Republican. It ceased publication in the nineties and was succeeded by the Phonograph in 1894. It suspended publication in 1910. Its last editor was Mrs. Fred Crook.
Besides the Republican, Excelsior, and Transcript, the other county papers are: Downing News, independent in politics, published by J. F. Hargis; Queen City Leader, Democratic, published by Saxbury and Eason; and Glenwood Journal, independent, published by W. O. Forsythe.
WAR HISTORY
In early times the Sac and Fox Indians came to this county to hunt, but their title was thrown aside by a treaty with the United States. However, the early settlers permitted them to continue their annual hunts here. In 1835 James Myers, who had settled on Bear creek in the south- west part of the county, refused to give up the property. A fight fol- lowed. Several Indians and two white men were killed. The white men were driven back to Huntsville. Except for this one fight, the In- dians and the settlers of Schuyler county lived peaceably together.
The Iowa war was an important one and peculiar in the fact that no battles were fought and no lives were lost. It was a dispute as to the boundary line between that part of the state of Missouri and Iowa. A strip of territory about nine miles in width, between the Des Moines and the Missouri rivers, was claimed by both states. A Missourian cut three
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bee trees on this territory and was arrested. The difficulty was decided, without bloodshed, favorable to Iowa.
The first great division of Schuyler county came with the outbreak of the Civil war. In October, 1861, it was rumored that Col. David Moore was at Memphis and was threatening Schuyler county. An em- bassy was sent to entreat him not to enter Schuyler county. When they arrived at Memphis they found that Colonel Moore had not arrived. They then returned. In a short time Colonel Moore came to Memphis and on the 24th of November he took possession of Lancaster. Capt. John McCul- ley with his company of state guards took position the day before, a half mile south of town for the purpose of forcing Colonel Moore back. But the latter met with no opposition on his march through the city. He sent out a foraging party to get hay for his horses. This party met Captain McCulley and a skirmish took place, in which five people were killed, among them Captain McCulley.
The spring of 1862 was a period of strong and profound excitement on both sides of the vague and shifting line which divided the loyal North from the misguided, but honest and brave men of the South. The Civil war was now in full blast and the once quiet little towns and vil- lages were crowded with Federal soldiers. From morning until night could be heard the fife, the drum, the bugle call and the tramp of hun- dreds of soldiers marching and drilling preparatory for active service in the near future.
On Sunday, September 6,, 1862, a portion of Capt. Robert Maize's company of the enrolled militia was stationed in Lancaster with a few sentinels posted on the outskirts of the town. The guns of the company and a few men were in the court room of the courthouse, but most of the men of the company were sitting on the south side of the public square and some were scattered elsewhere, all feeling that no enemy was near. John McGoldrick, the enrolling officer, on his way "up to town," saw the enemy coming from the north just as he reached the southwest corner of the public square. He waved his hat to the men seated in the court-yard and ran to the courthouse, but was fired upon before reaching it. He ran in the court-room and aroused the few inmates and urged them to action. He was followed closely by Capt. John Baker, who immediately took charge of the firing squad. The militia men on the south side of the courthouse, unarmed. fled south- ward into the hollow for protection.
A force of the enemy, consisting of foot-soldiers, commanded by Cap- tain Searcy, and mounted men, commanded by Captain Leeper, had passed the sentinel at the northwest corner of town and had nearly reached the public square before they were discovered. On coming into the square they were fired upon from the windows of the court-room and thus checked in their advance. The firing continued for some time. during which Edwin French, one of the men in the court-room. carried water from his residence for his comrades who did the firing. thus exposing himself to great danger. Finally, the enemy, finding their attempt to defeat the men useless, left the town. There were only nine- teen men, including Mr. French, in the court-room and they did all the fighting on the Federal side.
A number of stores and farms in the county were confiscated during the war. A large number of the county's people answered the call of their nation and bravely gave their lives for the cause.
Elections were held at private houses in the different precincts in the county in the early days. The voting was done by the work of mouth There were no ballots. The law required the constable to cry the vote at the window of the voting place in a loud voice, as the voter called
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the name. The clerks registered the name of each voter and placed the vote under the name of the man voted for.
Edwin French was the first representative to the legislature from Schuyler county. He was elected twice, in 1846 and 1848.
COURT PROCEEDINGS
The first term of the circuit court of Schuyler county was held in April, 1846, beginning the ninth day. Judge Addison Reese was on the bench; James R. Abernathy, of Macon county, circuit attorney; Jon- athan Riggs, sheriff; Isaac N. Eby, clerk; and the following named attor- neys were enrolled as members of the bar for Schuyler county : James R. Abernathy, Thomas S. Richardson, James S. Green, James Ellison, Levi J. Wagner, G. C. Thompson, Joseph Wilson, William R. Jones, Samuel S. Fox, and Clare Oxley. James S. Green was afterward United States senator and Thomas S. Richardson was circuit judge of this district.
In July, 1846, the county court met for the first time in the new courthouse. Prior to 1852 the office of county attorney did not exist. In lieu thereof was a circuit attorney, representing the state in each of the counties in his judicial circuit. The present county officers are : Presiding judge of the county court, Green Drummond, Republican ; judge of the county court, northern district, L. Freeman, Demo- crat ; judge of the county court, southern district, S. M. Swanson, Repub- lican; judge of probate, C. M. York, Democrat; clerk of circuit court and recorder, P. O. Sansberry, Democrat; clerk of the county court, W. A. Geery, Democrat; prosecuting attorney, E. E. Fogle, Democrat; sheriff, G. P. Hope, Democrat ; collector, Spencer Mitchell, Democrat; assessor, E. F. Harris, Democrat; treasurer, J. H. Green, Democrat; surveyor, George Grist, Democrat.
TOWNS
The little town of Tippecanoe was established a number of, years before Schuyler county was organized and was the first town made in the present county. The little village was situated about two and one- half miles southeast of Lancaster on the land now owned by Lot Farris. The town prospered for a number of years, but after Lancaster was established, Tippecanoe began to go down and there are now no remains of the once busy little town.
The business men of the community desired to establish a county seat and two commissioners were appointed to select the location. They met in 1845 in Tippecanoe at the home of John Jones, grandfather of T. G. Neeley, who lives now in Lancaster, and selected the present loca- tion. The site selected was bounded on the north by North street, on the west by Linn street, on the south by Madison street, and on the east by Liberty street. On June 16, 1845, Edwin French entered the land thus chosen, as it was government land, and conveyed it to Schuyler county for the location of the county seat. The county court at its special term, June, 1845, made the following entry on its record: "Or- dered by the court that the seat of justice selected by the county of Schuyler shall be known and called by the name of Lancaster." The name was chosen by Robert S. Neeley in honor of his native town, Lancaster, Ohio. Edwin French was appointed commissioner and was ordered to lay off the site in squares, blocks, lots, streets, and alleys, and to offer the lots for sale. The next commissioner was James Bryant, who in turn was succeeded by William S. Thatcher.
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At the July term of court, 1851, it was found that the full amount derived from the sale of lots up to that date was $1,685. No consider- able amount was ever afterward added to the fund, the valuable lots having been nearly all sold.
Lancaster is nearly the highest point in the county. It is about one hundred feet higher than Downing, which is a few miles to the east. Good water is easily obtained by digging from ten to forty feet.
The first house built in Lancaster was a log cabin, built by Thomas Bryant, in the southeast part of town just east of where Charles Decker's house now stands. It was in this house in July, 1845, that the first session of the county court was held in the established county seat.
One of the first store-buildings was built by James Bryant. It was a log building and is still standing on the northeast corner of the square. He also put up a hotel near the store.
Thomas McCormick was another early merchant; also William Bu- ford and Shelton Grimes, who brought on a stock of goods and opened a store. James Cochrane opened the first grocery store in the town in a one-story, log house on the southeast corner of the square. Yelverton Payton established a tanyard near where W. P. Hall's pond now is. on what is known as the Charley Bunch farm. In 1848 Asa Leedom settled in Lancaster and opened a tailor shop. Dr. Jason Brown, father of Mrs. Charley Bunch, moved to Lancaster in 1856 and " Uncle" George Melvin, one of the oldest settlers, living at the present time and at one time an efficient postmaster, moved to town in 1853. In 1856 Wesley Farrell, father of Web and Dick Farrell and Mrs. George Grist, Lan- caster citizens, came from Maryland and established a tanyard in the south part of town near the railroad.
The first Fourth of July celebration was held in the year 1845, about one-half mile north of the original town. The grove is now gone and the land is now owned by Chas. Geery. Isaac N. Ebey, first circuit clerk, delivered the oration. Dr. George W. Johnson read the Declara- tion of Independence, William Blansett beat the drum, and all enjoyed themselves.
Lancaster was incorporated by a special act of the legislature in 1857. Queen City, on the Wabash Railroad, is about eight miles south of Glenwood and four miles north of Greentop. It was laid out in 1867 by George W. Wilson. The first house was built by Doctor Wilson and the first hotel by Henry Bartlett. The town was incorporated July 18, 1870.
Downing is on the Keokuk & Western Railroad, three-fourths of a mile from the eastern boundary of Schuyler county. The town was laid out in 1872. In 1874 Doctor Petty's drug store was burned, caused by the explosion of a keg of powder which had been too near the fire.
Glenwood is situated on the Wabash Railroad about five miles south of the state boundary line on the north and about two and one-half miles west of Lancaster. It was laid out in 1868 by Stiles and Alexander Forsha. The first dwelling house in the town was built by John B. Glaze in October, 1868. A number of dwellings were built soon after this. In 1869 a school house was built. In 1870 a large woolen factory was built and started by Buford and Neeley. About the same time the foundry and machine shop of Dunbar brothers was erected. The Glen- wood mill burned in 1870. Glenwood was incorporated May 4, 1869.
Greentop is a village of Schuyler county, situated on the Wabash Railroad about fourteen miles from Lancaster. The town was laid out in 1855, and in 1857 a postoffice was established. Greentop is one of the oldest towns in Schuyler county. It was incorporated in February, 1867.
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Coatsville is on the Wabash Railroad at the state line. The town was laid out in 1869 by Alexander H. Wells, John B. Holbert, and James T. Guinn. The town was incorporated February 8, 1870, with James Dowis, J. F. Fenton, Joshua Simmons, J. A. Hughes, and John Dowling as trustees.
THE COUNTY TODAY.
Schuyler is the third county west from the Mississippi river on the northern tier of counties in the state of Missouri. It is bounded on the north by Appanoose and Davis counties, Iowa; on the east, by Scotland county ; on the south by Adair; and on the west by the Chariton river. which separates it from Putnam county. In form it is nearly square. Its area is about 320 square miles or 205,000 acres. It varies in its surface features from the broken to rolling and even flat land. In the northern part of the county the rolling character seems to predominate. The southeastern corner of the county is broken, rising into rough ridges and hills in the vicinity of streams and extending a considerable distance on each side of them. Most of the broken land lies near the Chariton river. Lancaster is perhaps nearly the highest point in the county.
The greater part of the county is lightly timbered with oak in most of its varieties, common and scaly bark, hickory, elm, black walnut, ash, haw, crab apple, wild cherry, hazel, sumac, etc.
The county produces a great amount of wool. It ranks among the first in this production. Also a great amount of livestock is produced.
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CHAPTER KX SCOTLAND COUNTY By L. P. Roberts, Memphis TERRITORY AND POPULATION
What is now known as Scotland county was originally a part of the territory known as Lewis county, the latter being organized in 1832. The present boundaries of Scotland county are as follows: Bounded on the north by the state of Iowa, on the south by Knox county, on the east by Clark county and on the west by Schuyler and Adair counties. The east line of the county lies about twenty-eight miles west of the Mississippi river, and Memphis, the county seat, is about forty miles distant from the city of Keokuk, Iowa.
The territory embraced within the boundaries of this county is about twenty-three miles square, or 529 square miles. This, which is only approximately correct, means 338,560 acres of land, most of which is tillable and very fertile. The population of Scotland county accord- ing to the census of 1910 is given at 11,869, which is about 1,400 less than it was in 1900.
ORGANIZATION-COUNTY SEAT
By an act of the general assembly approved January 29, 1841, that part of Lewis county known as Benton township was set apart as a sep- arate county and was duly organized for civil and military purposes. Benton township included the present territory of Scotland county, together with a strip of the north part of Knox county from east to west and six miles wide.
Under the terms of the legislative action referred to, the governor of Missouri was authorized to appoint the first officers of the county. Accordingly the following were appointed as county judges: Hugh Henry, Joseph Davis and William Anderson. The other officers ap- pointed were : James L. Jones, sheriff and ex officio collector; Allen Tate, county clerk ; and Henry C. Asbury, assessor.
It seems that while the center of the county, geographically, lay north of where the first county seat was located, yet the center of population in the earliest days of the county's history was near the town of Sand Hill. This was, and is yet, only a small village, but in an early time was considered quite an important trading point. However, the first term of the county court ever held, was called at Sand Hill, and several terms thereafter were held at that place. Hugh Henry was by common consent of his associates on the bench made presiding judge. This court was held the 7th, 8th and 9th of February, 1842.
Volume I, of the records of the county court is now on file in the
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vault at the office of County Clerk Walter B. Scott, in Memphis. The accuracy with which the records were kept at that time is almost a marvel. Inasmuch as the state of Missouri was then a comparatively new commonwealth and at the same time educational advantages of the pioneers being limited, Clerk Tate's record was considered a model in its day. But Mr. Tate was a fine scribe and the written pages in that old book stand out as a monument of the care and accuracy with which this man did his work. The spacing was almost as nearly perfect as the printed page and the lettering was such as to excite the admiration of later generations, who have grown to regard good penmanship as a lost art.
One of the transactions recorded in this book was where fifty dollars of school money was loaned to a citizen of the county at a rate of ten per cent interest per annum. The rate of interest was so large that in this day it would be considered usury to demand so much. They could not secure a borrower now at such a rate, because of the fact that plenty of money can be secured at a much lower rate of interest.
Elections had been held in the county some years before its organ- ization. A writer of contemporary history says the first election held in Benton township was in August, 1835. Sand Hill was the polling place and the territory was the same as described heretofore. While the northern portion of the county was then but sparsely settled, it is probable that one-third of those casting their votes at that election lived in the six mile strip that was afterwards made a part of Knox county. In view of the great increase in the population since that time it will be interesting to note that only fifty-two votes were cast in this election at Sand Hill, which was the precinct for so large a territory.
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The first postmaster of Sand Hill was Robert Smith, a man who was prominent in the later history of the county, and whose name frequently appears in the public records. The first store in the place was conducted by James L. Jones, the man who was afterwards appointed sheriff and collector of the county. Sand Hill gave promise of growing into an important industrial center, but circumstances were such that these prospective developments were never realized. On the organization of Knox county, the six miles to the south were taken from Scotland county and the county seat had to be moved to a place more centrally located. Even the postoffice was taken away, giving place to the modern rural delivery route, and today Sand Hill gets all of its mail from the town of Rutledge, that is situated not far distant on the Santa Fe Railroad.
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