USA > Missouri > A history of Missouri from the earliest explorations and settlements until the admission of the state into the union, Volume I > Part 4
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
25 Smithsonian Rep., 1888, p, 589,
26 This river, according to Bringier, was known among the Indians as "Cho- lohollay," a Choctaw word meaning "smoke," taken from "Oca-Cholohollay," meaning "smoky water." Silliman's Journal of Science, Vol. III, p. 25. (1821.)
27 Called "Le Noir" in early days. Brown's Western Gazetteer, p. 175.
18
HISTORY OF MISSOURI
Rio Blanco of the Spaniards),28 the James Fork being fed by Wilson, Swan (called Mehauses by the Osages), Crane, and Flat creeks, and forks of the Neosho traverse a large portion of the central and south- western sections of the state. Countless rivulets, fed by innumerable springs, at all seasons of the year feed larger creeks and streams.
A glance at the map will show how well these waters are distrib- uted over the entire surface of the state. Some of the springs are large beyond the conception of those who have not seen the small rivers which rise from them. Thus, we have the Big Ozark or Greer springs, in Oregon county, discharging 486,200,000 gallons of water daily;29 Vail springs below Van Buren, in Carter county; Mill springs, evidently a subterranean channel of Otter creek, in Wayne county; Bryce's or Bennett's springs, on the Niangua, in Camden county, said to discharge eleven millon cubic feet of water per diem; Ha-ha-tonka springs in the same county affording 148,000,000 gal- lons of water daily, and the Big springs at the head of the Maramec. It has been remarked that in the Ozarks many water courses vigor- ously cut out subterranean channels, finally bursting forth as good sized streams at the foot of some cliff.30
Salt springs are abundant in many parts of the state. South of St. Louis a number discharge great quantities of briny water into adjacent larger streams. They are found on the Saline creek, in Ste. Genevieve county, and on the Maramec, in Jefferson and St. Louis counties. North of the Missouri, Salt river derives its name from saline springs along its banks. Many similar springs exist in Howard and adjacent counties, and, on the south side, in Cooper and Saline counties. Numerous springs - sulphur, chalybeate, alkaline, lithia, and others containing salutiferous waters are found in various parts of the state.
The state is nearly equally divided by the Missouri river, and in its combined topographic features are merged, in a remarkable man- ner, north of the river the plains and prairies of Iowa, Nebraska. and
28 Indian name of this river "Niska."- Coxe's Carolana. Is not the "Nilco" of Garcilasso the same river? According to Schoolcraft, the Osage name was "Unica."
29 "Without much doubt," says Dr. E. M. Shepard, "the largest cold spring in the world," a spring, to illustrate, "capable of supplying greater New York with water for many years to come." Mammoth spring, just over the state line, about twenty miles south of the Big Ozark, has a flow of 226,000,000 gallons per day.
30 8 Mo. Geo. Rep. of 1894, P. 332.
1(
OZARKS
Kansas; south of the river in the Ozarks,31 the rugged mountains of western Arkansas and Tennessee, and, finally, in the southeastern corner of the state, the flat Mississippi basin, so largely exhibited in Louisiana, Mississippi, and eastern Arkansas. "In general appear- ance, in surface relief, in drainage, in the character of the soils, in forestry, in lithological features, in geological structure, and in many particulars, the north and south portions of the state are strongly contrasted." 32 No other similar district in the whole continental interior presents in its several parts such dissimilarity of character- istics and such striking peculiarities of features. A marked difference of climate was early observed north and south of the central divide of this high and level plateau of southern Missouri.33 North of the Missouri there is a broad plain, with surface gently undulating and inclined slightly to the south, and the rivers flow in that direction in shallow valleys, presenting a wonderful parallelism to one another. South of the Missouri rises a high, nearly level plateau, starting gently from its central divide to the margin, which on one side is the Missouri river and on the other the low coastal plain of the Arkansas. The rivers leaving the central area flow in deep, narrow gorges. The strata is tilted moderately in the same direction as the general slope of the surface.34
This district is known as the Ozark country, and includes not only southern Missouri, but also northern Arkansas and a part of Indian territory. This Ozark district (up-lift) is in many respects one of the most remarkable features of the American continent. "In its general outline it is a canoe-shaped elevation, broad and dome like medially, but dying away into the surrounding country to the east in Illinois and to the west in the Indian territory." 35 Its major axis, which is over five hundred miles in length, sweeps in a broad double curve west, then southwest, and again westward. Its maximum breadth is about two hundred miles and the areal extent about seventy-five thousand square miles. In elevation this cen-
31 It would perhaps be more accurate to say "Ozarks and St. Francois mountains," because, according to later geological observation, the mountains of southeastern Missouri represent a distinct "up-lift."
32 8 Mo. Geo. Rep. of 1894, p. 320.
33 Darby's Emigrant Guide, p. 149. (1819.)
34 8 Mo. Geo. Rep. of 1894, P. 320.
35 8 Mo. Geo. Rep., P. 321.
20
HISTORY OF MISSOURI
tral divide is from 1,400 to 1,800 feet above the margin, and about 1,800 to 2,100 feet above mean tide.
The Ozark range, generally, through southern Missouri, has apparently been above the level of the sea from a very early period to the present time. The higher portions of the elevations do not seem to have been submerged since before the Silurian period, while broad areas on the flanks of the range have apparently been dry land since the carboniferous period. The absence of the fine and coarser detrital material due to glacial action, as well as all indications of the direct mechanical action of ice, prove that the region in question remained undisturbed by the various surface modifying agencies of the glacial epoch. The rocks of the Ozarks thus exposed to the undisturbed action of atmospheric agencies, present to us in their present condition one of the most instructive records of geological history.36
Aside from the Ozark region, the Mississippi basin may be properly regarded as a wide stretch of low lands, sloping partly in all directions from the margin toward the center and southward to the Gulf.37 The Ozarks extend into this Mississippi basin eastward through southern Missouri to the Ohio, and are broken into a number of well defined ridges.37 The Mississippi cuts across these ridges at various points between St. Louis and Cape Girardeau. The high, perpendicular cliffs above Cape Girardeau, Cornice Rock, and Selma Cliff above Ste. Genevieve, greatly impressed early travelers and explorers.38 These ridges, extending along and across the river into Illinois, were at one time designated by early travelers as the Oshawano mountains; 39 likely from the fact that in Missouri the Shawnee villages at the time were located on their slopes. The Ozark highlands, situated in southeast Missouri, have recently been designated by some geologists as the St. Francois mountains, just as another portion of the Ozarks in northwest Arkansas is known as the Boston mountains. 40 Among geologists it is now
36 Raphael Pompelly in Geo. of Mo., p. 8.
37 8 Mo. Geo. Rep. for 1894, p. 326.
38 Scene of the rocky bluffs on the west side of the Mississippi, "truly picturesque."- An Account of Louisiana, 1803, p. 15.
3º Schoolcraft, as late as 1825, thus designated these mountains .- School- craft's Travels, p. 194.
40 8 Mo. Geo. Rep. for 1894, p. 327. Were also known as the "Masserne Ridges."- Brown's Western Gazetteer, p. 184.
21
CRYSTALLINE AND SEDIMENTARY ROCKS
pretty generally agreed that these St. Francois mountains represent a distinct "up-lift," and are not a part of the Ozarks.
A large part of this plateau embraced in southern Missouri rises to an altitude of 1,500 feet or more above mean tide, and, trenched by many water-courses, makes "the term 'mountainous' very appli- cable." 41 Many of the streams of southern Missouri take their rise in this plateau, flowing in opposite directions in ever-deepening chan- nels. "The watershed trends first westward from the granite peaks of the St. Francois, and then bends southward in a broad, sweeping curve. While the crests of deformation and of drainage doubtless originally coincided, the erosional effects on the eastern or southern side of the up-lift, owing to the steeper inclination, as well as an eating back of the old oceanic shore, whose prolonged efforts resulted in the Mississippi escarpment, were much more vigorous than on the northern flank, and finally resulted in a wide separation of the watershed and the top of the arch. In the central part of the area is a seemingly boundless plain, the surface of which is gently rolling and billowy. Away from the crest the small water-courses unite with one another, and their valleys begin to deepen as they recede from top to slope. The hills rise higher and higher, their sides becoming continuously steeper and steeper, and the gorges often pass into true canyons with nearly vertical walls, at the foot of which are talus slopes reaching down to the edge of the swiftly running waters. * * Every- where the landscape is mountainous, and it continues to become more so until the margin of the up-lift is reached." 42
This section of the state abounds in crystalline rocks and a full sequence of valuable stratified sedimentary rocks. The bulk, how- ever, of the rocks which go to make up the Ozarks are limestone, intercalated with sandstone.43 The granites and porphyritic green- stones, piercing through the limestone, sandstone, marl, and dilu- vium, are fully exposed in what is now generally known as the Iron Mountain country. These igneous rocks are in greater part granites, gray and red in color, fine grained to coarse textured, without strati- faction, with little mica. According to Humboldt, such granites are the most ancient in both hemispheres. They are by far the old- est rocks, at any rate, within the limits of Missouri, and truly
41 8 Mo. Geo. Rep. for 1894, P. 328.
42 Charles Rollin Keyes in 8 Mo. Geo. Rep. of 1894, p. 328.
43 8 Mo. Geo. Rep. of 1894, p.336.
22
HISTORY OF MISSOURI
igneous.44 The St. Francois and Big rivers, running in opposite directions, have their most remote sources in these granite hills, and "by their rapid and brawling channels tend to give an effect of grandeur to many rugged and picturesque scenes" in this region.45
The exact geological age of the limestone of Missouri is not fully known. A portion belongs to the Archæan, but by far the greater part to the Cambrian, Silurian, and Devonian ages and in the northern and western sections of the state Carboniferous limestone partly occupies the "up-lift." " The distribution of these rocks and their commercial value are a subject which for many years to come will engage the attention of geologists.
The Ozark district is a region of only partially developed mineral wealth. The value of the lead and zinc deposits of the country can hardly be estimated. The deposits of copper, cobalt, and nickel are of great value. Veins of silver have been found at various places. The most valuable manganese ores in America exist on its southern slopes in Arkansas, not far from the state line of Missouri. Clays occur in exhaustless quantities, from varieties used for common constructional materials, to those from which are manufactured terra cotta, refractory products, and chinaware.47
Deposits of iron ore, both hematite and magnetic, are found in many sections of the state, but these ores are unequally distributed.48 Only a little iron ore is found in the state north of the 50th township line and in a range of the counties on the western border in the dis- trict covered by the coal measure. The valuable deposits are all south of the Missouri river, in Crawford, Dent, Phelps, Pulaski, Osage, Franklin, Morgan, Benton, St. Francois, Madison, Stoddard, Bollinger, Wayne, Ozark, Douglas, Christian, and Greene counties. The richest portion of the state in iron ores lies between the 30th and 40th township lines, within this zone such ores abounding in many of the counties situated between the Missouri and the upper Osage rivers.
The lead and zinc region of the state is located south of the Mis- souri river, in what may be divided into three separate districts,
#4 5 Mo. Geo. Rep. of 1894, Paleontology, Part II, p. 31.
45 Schoolcraft's Travels, p. 262.
46 8 Mo. Geo. Rep. of 1894, P. 336.
47 8 Mo. Geo. Rep. of 1894, p. 350.
48 Geo. Survey of Mo. of 1872, P. 45.
23
CARBONIFEROUS AREA
namely, the southwestern district, embracing the extreme south- western counties of the state; the central district, occupying the southern central counties, and the southeastern district, taking in a group of counties around St. Francois, the center of this district.49 Indeed, on fuller exploration, it may appear that these districts con- stitute only one mineral zone, sweeping in a wide curve from the Mississippi, in Perry and Ste. Genevieve, to the southwest corner of the state. The geological formation of these three developed mining districts is Archæan, Algonkin, and Silurian (with possibly some Cambrian), the Devonian, the Lower Carboniferous, and the Coal measure, and above these, in places, certain unconsolidated beds of probably Tertiary age.30
The Ozarks are almost completely enveloped by a carboniferous strata. The coal measure occupies an area of about 22,000 square miles of the state, embracing most of north Missouri and the greater portion of ten counties of western Missouri.51
In addition to the rich bottom lands along the banks of the Mis- souri and Mississippi, in the southeast corner of the state, the upper section of the St. Francois basin, containing over 4,000 square miles of rich alluvial land, lies within the limits of the state. This is one of the richest agricultural districts in the temperate zone.
It is certain that the greater portion of the territory now within the limits of the state was originally and for many ages prairie, with here and there comparatively narrow belts of timber, principally along the river bottoms or crowning ridges. 52 Over these prairies the
49 6 Mo. Geo. Survey of 1894, p. 267. Of this district Featherstonhaugh, who traveled through it in 1835, says: "The country in the lead district, except where it is interrupted by the valleys, presents an extensive table-land, through which a few slight streams run which are used by the miners to wash the soil taken out of the shallow pits or "diggings" which were first commenced by the Spaniards when they had possession of the country. These streams in cutting their way through the superficial soil sometimes disclosed valuable deposits of the ore, and this had induced adventurers to commence diggings in other parts of the alluvial soil, sinking their pits until it became inconvenient to throw or hoist the mineral matter out and then abandoning them to excavate others . . . Everything connected with the geological phenomenon of the metallic districts of this country concurs to show that there has been in ancient times a period of great violence, accompanied with mighty aqueous action that has ended in greatly lowering the ancient surface."- Excursion Through the Slave States, vol. I, p. 312 et. seq.
50 4 Geo. Rep. of Mo. of 1894, p. 328.
51 Geo. Rep. of Mo. of 1872, p. 6.
52 Reynolds, who was a close observer, gives this account of the origin of some of the prairies in Illinois, which equally applies to Missouri. He says :
24
HISTORY OF MISSOURI
bison ranged from beyond the banks of the Platte and Missouri to the Mississippi as far as the Ohio. In the narrative of Garcilasso de la Vega we find that, after the conquest of Capaha, De Soto sent Hernando de Silvera and Pedro Moreno, accompanied by Indian guides, to visit a region forty leagues north among certain ranges of hills - evidently the Ozarks - to explore the country and to seek salt. These adventurers returned after eleven days, their Indian guides loaded with rock salt and copper, quite spent and half fam- ished, having eaten nothing but plums and green maize, which they found in some squalid Indian wigwams. They reported that they found the country - undoubtedly the porphyritic highlands of the head-waters of the St. Francois, Saline, Castor, and Maramec - through which they had passed, sterile and thinly peopled; and further, that they were informed by the Indians that the country lying still farther north was almost uninhabited. They also reported that buffalo roamed there in such numbers that the natives could not cultivate their fields of maize, and that therefore these Indians sub- sisted principally on the flesh of wild animals.53
In 1818, when Schoolcraft traveled over these uplands from Potosi to Carondelet, he found open woods and a growth of wild prairie grass and flowers, filling the broad spaces between the trees. Beyond Carondelet the country had the appearance of a brown heath, a bushy and uninviting tract without mature forest trees. These bushes undoubtedly grew up after the partial settlement of the coun- try.54 But describing the country at the head-waters of the St. Fran- cois, Schoolcraft says: "A ride on horseback over the mine hills offers one of the most delightful prospects of picturesque sylvan beauty that can well be conceived of. The hills are, with few excep- tions, not precipitous enough to make the ride irksome. They rise in long and gentle swells, resembling those of the sea, in which the vessel is, by an easy motion, alternately at the top of liquid hills or
"In the first settlement of the country hundreds of acres of timber in some seasons were all killed at the same time by fire. These trees would fall down, rot or burn, and the prairie would soon be formed. At that time the small undergrowth was burnt out, and in many places nothing but large trees were standing. In process of time those trees would also disappear and a prairie be formed where they grew."- Reynolds's Pioneers of Illinois, p. 195. He also says that when the fire is kept out of the prairies they will soon grow up with trees, and predicts that "Illinois in twenty years will have more timber than there is at present."
53 2 Irving's Conquest of Florida, p. 127.
54 Schoolcraft's Personal Reminiscences, p. 31.
25
COUNTRY SOUTH OF THE MISSOURI
at the bottom of liquid vales. From these hills the prospect extends over a surface of heath grass and prairie flowers, with an open growth of oak, giving the whole country rather the appearance of a park than a wilderness. Occasionally a ridge of pine intervenes, and wherever there is a brook the waters present the transparency of rock crys- tal." 55 La Hontan writes, in 1688, that the country south of the Mis- souri "to the westward" of the Mississippi has "meads," that is to say, "prairies," and that he hunted there for several days with the Indians.56 But how far south of the Missouri he was when he stopped to hunt, he does not tell us. He, however, states that when he came to the mouth of the "Ouabach" (Ohio) he took care to watch the crocodiles, of which the Indians had told "incredible stories." 57 Of course he saw no crocodile, but he must have hoped that this would add interest to his narrative. Thus by interjecting what now all know to be untrue he throws discredit on his whole narrative, accord- ing to the legal maxim, Falsus in uno, falsus in omnibus; yet if we applied this rule in every case nearly every early narrative would stand discredited.
On his trip from Potosi to the north fork of White river, in 1819, Schoolcraft found timber only in the small valleys; the plateaus were uniformly bare of timber. The ridges and the mountain chain of the Ozarks, a wild and illimitable tract, he says, are "nearly destitute of forest, often perfectly so." The soil, too, looked more sterile than it was from the effects of autumnal fires. These fires, continued for ages by the Indians to clear the ground for hunting, had the effect not only of curtailing and destroying large vegetation, but of burn- ing all the carbonaceous particles of the top soil, leaving the surface, in autumn, rough, red, dry, and hard. As Schoolcraft proceeded farther to the southwest he found scarcely an object deserving the name of tree, except now and then the solitary trunk of a dead pine which had been scathed by lightning. He discovered a high, waving table-land presenting a magnificent vista; sometimes clusters of sap-
55 Schoolcraft's Personal Reminiscences, p. 38. "Occasionally small prairies, or rather natural glades, intervene, and all the hay collected by the inhabitants for their winter's stock is cut either in the open woods or in the glades. This renders these elevated open tracts, which in other respects may be considered unfavorable for agriculture, extremely advantageous for raising cattle." - Schoolcraft's Travels, p. 239.
56 La Hontan's Voyages, vol. i, p. 133. (London, 1703.)
57 Maybe the Indians only tried to describe the enormous catfish found in this river, and out of which La Hontan made "crocodiles."
26
HISTORY OF MISSOURI
lings crowning the summit of a sloping hill; rarely he passed a stunted oak. This unvaried prospect produced satiety; the land was dry and barren. But when the plow comes to be put into such a surface it throws up quite a different soil; the effect of light and the sun's heat "produced a dark and comparatively rich soil." 58 Only in the creek valleys he found briers and grape-vines and trees, and when he left the valley he was in open and naked plains, a country nearly level. But he notes that the purest springs gush from these hills; that the atmos- phere is fine and healthful, and predicts in future years it will be the theater of Alpine attractions, "the resort of lovers of mountain scenery, and valetudinarians." 59 On the north fork of White river be found a wide, open oak forest extending along the bank of the river.
All the forests were free from undergrowth, and open and park- like in appearance. Speaking of the country on the Mississippi, Captain Foucher, Spanish commandant at New Madrid in 1790, told General Forman he could drive a coach-and-four through the open woods from New Madrid to St. Louis.60 But long prior, Father Membre, who accompanied La Salle down the Mississippi on his voyage of discovery, said that the groves were so open and unob- structed that you could ride through them on horseback.61 Father Vivier, in 1750, thus describes the country: "Both banks of the Mississippi are bordered throughout the whole of its course by two strips of dense forests, the depth of which varies, more or less, from half a league to four leagues. Behind these forests the country is more elevated, and is intersected by plains and groves, wherein trees are almost as thinly scattered as in our public promenades. This is partly due to the fact that the savages set fire to the prairies toward the end of autumn, when the grass is dry; the fire spreads everywhere and destroys most of the young trees. This does not happen in places nearer the river, because, the land being lower and consequently more watery, the grass remains green longer and
58 Schoolcraft's Scenes and Adventures in the Ozark Mts., p. 48.
59 Schoolcraft's Scenes and Adventures in the Ozark Mts., p. 48.
The general assembly of Missouri has appropriated $50,000 to establish a sanitarium for consumptives in this semi-mountainous region. The exact location was determined in the summer of 1906, thus verifying Schoolcraft's prediction.
60 Forman's Journey Down the Ohio and Mississippi, 1789, p. 49 (Draper's edition).
61 Shea's Discoveries and Explorations of the Mississippi, p. 183.
27
THE "FLANDERS OF AMERICA"
less susceptible to the attack of fire." 62 Where, however, the lands bordering on the rivers were high uplands, the woods were open and park-like.
Afterwards, in 1810, Brackenridge writes of this region, that he passed through woods of astonishing, luxuriant growth, and over a plain of loose, rich soil where there was nothing to give beauty to the scene but the different kinds of the vegetation. He says: "Just as the sun was sinking below the horizon I entered one of those beautiful glades or natural meadows which are so often seen in this part of the New World, and never without producing an agreeable feeling .. The prairie spread out before me all its enchanting beauties, and, fearful of passing too rapidly, I reined my horse. I gazed with delight on the smooth, soft grass, on the numerous flowers, on the scattered shrubberies of sumac, with their scarlet berries which preserve their hues until renewed by summer, and on the close embowering woods, by which this garden of the Dryads and Hamadryads was enclosed as by a wall. How serene the heavenly vault above my head! How rich and varied underneath my feet the hues and textures of the carpet woven by the fantastic hand of nature! Cold is the heart that does not harmonize with a universal Mother when her features wear an expression like this." "Some day," he further on says, "this alluvial district will be the Flanders of America." He then describes the level country, alternately prairie and beautiful woods of tall oak walnut, mulberry, honey-locust, "perfectly open" as though, "planted by art." The shrubbery type were usually apart from the groves of larger trees; they were the plum, catalpa, dogwood, spicewood, and different species of sumac. The prairies, or natural meadows, were covered with grass and a profusion of flowers. Big Prairie, about twenty-five miles from New Madrid, was a delightful spot, inter- spersed with beautiful groves resembling small islands in a lake. It was not surpassed in beauty by the richest meadows improved by the greatest care. In the Mississippi bottoms the trees were of "tow- ering height, thick underwood, the vines enormous, binding, as it were, these sturdy giants to the earth and to each other." <3 It may be said with truth that, "for fertility of soil, no part of the world exceeds the borders of the Mississippi." 64 He also notices the
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.