USA > Missouri > Centennial history of Missouri (the center state) one hundred years in the Union, 1820-1921, Volume I > Part 17
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Allan Hinchey is authority for a tavern experience of Louis Houck when the latter was building his gridiron of railroads in Southeast Missouri. Houck built a railroad in places where swamps were so deep "that great piles of logs had to be thrown into the water to make resting places for his cross ties and when the first trains ran the water would 'squish' up from under the sinking ties as high as the box cars. One day, soon after this stretch of road was put through two men and a woman were riding on the train. They had been given a pass, round trip, for the right of way across a quarter section of swamp and were riding it out. The old lady remarked she was sorry the railroad had come through her land: she 'had hearn tell railroads made a country mighty sickly to live in.' Mr. Houck reached a cross-roads tavern one night just at dusk, tired out after a hard day's prospecting for a crossing through a swamp. It was not much of a place for looks, but a sign on the front of the shack announcing 'Travelers Hostilely Entertained' was sufficient argument to cause him to accept the invitation. He was in the right humor just then to scrap for his entertainment, if necessary."
Isaac H. Sturgeon's Distinction.
"A fish," Thomas H. Benton once called Isaac H. Sturgeon, indulging in his favorite form of sarcastic humor to tickle the ears of a crowd. Yet Mr. Sturgeon had the distinction of holding offices in greater number and variety than any Missourian of his time. At the end of his eighty-seven years, sixty- two of them in Missouri, Mr. Sturgeon had been appointed or elected to posi- tions of public trust during fifty-three of them. In 1848, two years after com- ing to St. Louis, he was elected alderman and held that position until elected state senator, in which capacity he had an important part in Missouri's railroad legislation before the Civil war. President Pierce made Mr. Sturgeon assistant United States treasurer at St. Louis. Although of southern birth, Mr. Sturgeon . was a Union man and was active in upholding the government's interests in Missouri as against the states' rights party. Later, Mr. Sturgeon was a special agent looking after the railroad building which was being aided by government subsidies. He held appointment by action of Presidents Lincoln, Johnson and Grant. The last named made him collector of internal revenue, and Presidents Garfield and Arthur continued him in that office. President Harrison made Mr. Sturgeon assistant postmaster at St. Louis. The next office filled in this extraordinary record was comptroller of St. Louis when Cyrus P. Walbridge was mayor. Mr. Sturgeon was reelected in the Ziegenheim administration. He retired to private life in 1901. His summing up of all of this experience was advice to young men to shun office-seeking.
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FRITZ TAVERN " ON THE BOWLING GREEN TURNPIKE ONE OF THE HISTORIC OLT LAND MARKS OF PIKE COUNTY
THE OLD TAVERN AT ARROW ROCK Restored by the Daughters of the American Revolution
OLD COUNTY JAIL OF ST. LOUIS
Located on Sixth and Chestnut streets. From this jail the Montesquieus were saved by Isaae H. Sturgeon and Bishop Hawks from threatened lynching
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The City Hotel Tragedy.
The courage and resourcefulness of Mr. Sturgeon saved St. Louis from a stain of mob violence early in his career. When St. Louisans regained their poise they realized what a miscarriage of justice the community had escaped through the prompt action of Mr. Sturgeon. Thereafter they regarded this suave, cool Kentuckian as a man to be trusted in emergencies. In an address before the Missouri Historical Society, in 1878, Charles Gibson, then the only surviving counsel, said of the Montesquieu case :
"No event in the criminal annals of St. Louis ever created such an intense feeling in the community as the Montesquieu murder, or City hotel tragedy, as it was popu- larly called. On the morning of Sunday, Oct. 28, 1849, two young French noblemen, Gonsalve and Raymond de Montesquieu, arrived in St. Louis and stopped at Barnum's City hotel. They had come to this country the preceding June for recreation and pleas- ure, and had traveled leisurely westward, Chicago having been the last stopping place. Gonsalve was about twenty-eight years old, and his brother was two years his junior Both were liberally supplied with money. Among their effects were capacious ward- robes, a number of guns and an extensive hunting equipment. They were assigned a room situated on a hall leading from a back piazza. Directly opposite, but in a room opening directly on the piazza, Albert Jones, H. M. Henderson and Captain William Hub- bell slept; and in another room, the window of which overlooked the piazza, were T. Kirby Barnum, nephew of the. proprietor of the hotel, and Mr. Macomber, the steward.
"Between eleven and twelve o'clock, on the night of Monday, October 29th, while young Barnum and Macomber were preparing for bed, they were startled by a tapping upon the window pane, and the curtains being drawn aside they saw the two young Frenchmen on the piazza, one of them armed with a gun. Simultaneously with the dis- covery, one of the Frenchmen fired, the contents mortally wounding Barnum and giving Macomber a flesh-wound on the wrist.
"Aroused by the report of the gun, Jones, Henderson and Hubbell opened the door of their room and were immediately fired upon, Jones being instantly killed and the others slightly wounded. The brothers returned to their room after the shooting, and were subsequently arrested there.
"The homicide was at first regarded as a mystery, as the Montesquieus were per- fectly sober, and had no intercourse or communication whatever with the five men who were shot. At the time of their arrest the younger brother stated that Gonsalve had recently displayed symptoms of insanity, and the latter, exculpating his brother from all blame, said he was controlled by an irresistible inclination to kill two men; that he started out to do so, and that his brother merely followed to prevent a tragedy, but it was consummated before he (Raymond) could interfere."
How Mr. Sturgeon Thwarted a Mob.
Gonsalve said later that God told him to do the shooting. There were two trials. the first occupying four weeks resulted in a hung jury. The second trial. after the jury had deliberated forty hours, resulted in failure to agree. A few weeks later, the governor set both men free, Gonsalve on the ground of insanity. Raymond was freed because of "a general belief that he did not participate in the homicide whereof he stands indicted, and that a further prosecution will not accomplish any of the objects of public justice, but will result only in renewed trouble and increased expense to the state." The brothers left for New York immediately after being freed and sailed for France. Gonsalve died violently insane. The vital part which Isaac H. Sturgeon had in the Montes-
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quieu case was told by him a few days after Mr. Gibson had given his recollec- tions. Mr. Sturgeon wrote :
"Albert Jones, one of the parties shot by Gonsalve Montesquieu, was a personal friend of mine and a patron of mine in business when I was in the lumber trade and he a manufacturer in carriages. He, as well as Kirby Barnum, who was killed at the same time by Gonsalve, were estimable and popular young men and their unprovoked murder excited the deepest sympathy for them and their relatives and the bitterest feelings for their murderers in this city. On the night of their murder, before Gonsalve and Ray- mond de Montesquieu could be got into the hands of the police and to the jail, they were kicked and cuffed and very roughly handled, as reported to me.
"I satisfied myself the day after the murder that it was the act of an insane man and my deepest sympathy was aroused for the poor unfortunate Raymond, who had so suddenly thrust upon him the insanity of his brother and the danger of losing his life for the act of his insane brother. I earnestly thought, what can I do to help these un- fortunate men and save my city from the lasting disgrace of taking the life by mob violence of one crazy man and another innocent man for this murder, and the thought was upon my heart, how terrible it was for a poor young brother like Raymond to be far from home, in a strange land, without any one to sympathize with him. The fact that they were reported to be counts, to be of the nobility, helped to fan the flame of preju- dice that was then running so high that the mob could scarce retain their impatient desire for the blood of the murderers until after Barnum and Jones were buried. I at- tended the funeral of my friend Jones to the cemetery, and in going out in the carriage with three others one of the party revealed that a well-organized arrangement was per- fected for mobbing the jail that night, taking them out and hanging them. I listened attentively to all that was said, and without revealing it to anyone resolved within my- self what I would try to do. The thought crossed my mind to leave the carriage under some pretence and return to the city and take steps for the removal of the Montesquieus to a place of safety, but I feared that this would arouse suspicion, and I went on, trust- ing that I might get back in time to save the lives of the poor innocent Raymond and his crazy brother, and save my city the disgrace of murdering one innocent and one crazy man.
"I hastened to the court-house, and was fortunate enough to find my friend Louis T. LaBeaume, called 'Tat' LaBeaume, the then sheriff of the county, and revealed quickly to him all I had learned. We at once ordered a carriage and drove to the residence of Judge J. B. Colt, then judge of the circuit court, and were fortunate in finding him in, and at once explained all to him and how important and precious every moment was, as the sun was down and the shades of evening gathering. He entered the carriage with us and at once came to the court-house to write the order for the removal of the Montesquieus from the jail to a place of safety.
Bishop Hawk's Part in a Good Night's Work.
"Whilst he was making the order we sent a secret messenger to the jailer, or for him, who returned in breathless excitement, saying it was useless to try to take them out of jail, as it was surrounded by thousands already, and they would be taken from the officers and hanged. That to attempt to bring them out through the crowd was cer- tain death, and that it was as well to let them remain and abide their fate. We at once sent back to see if there was not a way from the jail into the alley back of the jail to get out, and found that there was, and that if we could take them out in that way, and get permission to take them into the back yard of the residence of the Rt. Rev. Bishop Hawkes, the rear end of the lot on which his residence stood fronting the alley-gate of the jail, and then let them go up into Bishop Hawkes' residence, and two at one time come down, and after a little two more, that we could get them away. Bishop Hawkes' family were seen and all arranged. Tat. LaBeaume, the sheriff, went to Bishop Hawkes' house to meet and explain to the sane Montesquieu their terrible danger, and our kindly efforts to save them, and how they must act. He being a Frenchman could explain all to them
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fully, and yet I think the sane brother felt great trepidation and fear that we might not be the friends we professed. Whilst LaBeaume went to receive the prisoners at Bishop Hawkes' residence, I by arrangement went and obtained cabs which were in vogue at that day, and by agreement had them in waiting on Walnut street, corner of Fourth street. The prisoners were safely got into the cabs and taken to the arsenal. When we arrived there the officer in charge told us that he had no force there by which he could protect the men from a mob, and that our only safety was to take them to Jefferson barracks, where United States troops were then stationed. This was a great disappointment to us, as our cabs were too light and one horse in each not deemed strong enough to make the trip of near thirty miles there and return, so we got aside and sent back to Walton's livery stable, in the southern part of the city, and got two carriages, seating four persons each, and proceeded to the barracks, getting there after midnight. The garrison was aroused, and we were ushered into the presence of the gentlemanly officer then in com- mand, who very kindly agreed to take charge of the prisoners and protect them from all harm and keep them safely, and we returned to the city, getting back next morning about daylight.
"I was informed that after we left the mob demanded the keys of the jailer and examined every cell to satisfy themselves that the prisoners had really been removed before they would disperse.
"I have always believed that if it had not been for my prompt action and my good fortune in finding both the sheriff and the judge at home, saving all delay, there would have been no trial or pardon of the Montesquieus, as the mob would have put them to death.
"When the prisoners returned I caused some meals to be sent them from a restaurant, but soon their character became known and they had hosts of influental friends and needed no further any attention from me. I do not think they were ever aware of the service I rendered them, for I was content to have done what I regarded as my duty to them and to my city, and never informed them of my action. In some way they seemed to have learned that I had taken some especial interest in them, and after their pardon Raymond Montesquieu called with two other persons at my office to thank me for the interest I had taken for them in their troubles."
Hotel Hospitality and Andrew Johnson.
President Andrew Johnson was escorted to St. Louis September 8, 1866, by a fleet of thirty-six steamboats, which met the party at Alton. With the President were General Grant, Admiral Farragut, Secretary of State Seward and General Hancock. Andrew Johnson was the first President of the United States to visit St. Louis.
At the Lindell hotel there was a welcoming address by Mayor Thomas, to which President Johnson responded. This took place on the portico over the main entrance. Then followed a reception in the drawing room, and President Johnson made another speech. In the evening a banquet was given at the Southern hotel, the menu for which filled a half column in the news- papers. There President Johnson spoke again at considerable length. These St. Louis speeches were used by the House of Representatives in the prosecu- tion of the impeachment charges. L. L. Walbridge, who reported the speeches, was summoned to Washington to testify in the trial to the accuracy of the report. The speech which gave the most offense to the Republican party in. Congress was one President Johnson delivered from the Walnut street front of the Southern hotel shortly before going in to the banquet. Stimulated by the Missouri hotel hospitality of that day, and by the encouraging interrup- tions of the audience, the President used very bitter language in describing
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his controversy with the Congress. His visit to St. Louis, the President described as "swinging 'round the circle."
The Free State Hotel.
An historic hotel in Kansas City was known variously as the Western, the American and the Gillis. It was built by Benoist Troost in 1849 and was on the river front, between Delaware and Wyandotte streets. In two years, 1856 and 1857. there were 27,000 arrivals at the hotel, which was enlarged by additions until it was an architectural curiosity. In May, 1856, this hotel was the hiding place of Governor A. H. Reeder of Kansas, when he was a fugitive, trying to escape from the Missourians. Friends disguised the governor as a laborer and gave him an ax to carry. In this way they got him out of the hotel and out of town. H. W. Chiles kept the hotel at that time. He was a strong pro-slavery man and became the landlord of the Gillis house to save it from destruction. The property had been owned by the New England Emigrant Aid Society of Boston and was intended to be operated to encourage migration of anti-slavery settlers to Kansas in order to make that a free state. It became known among Missourians as "the Free State hotel." As the border troubles increased, the Emigrant Aid Society fearing that the property would be destroyed put it in the hands of Chiles under a lease.
Pro-slavery travelers made another historic hotel their stopping place in Kansas City. That was the Farmers' hotel, built in 1856 and run by E. M. McGee, a leader of the pro-slavery party. "The Wayside Inn" was the first name of this tavern. The location was on Sixteenth street between the river landing and Westport. Overland stages started from the Gillis House. The purchase of the Gillis for the Boston people was made by S. C. Pomeroy, after- wards a United States senator from Kansas. Pomeroy had come out with the first party of anti-slavery immigrants from New England. The colonizing of Kansas was to be on such a scale that it seemed to the leaders in the movement necessary to have a headquarters in Kansas City. This investment by the New Englanders, in 1854, had much to do with arousing the pro-slavery Missourians to the magnitude of the Boston plans.
About the time that the New Englanders began coming to Kansas City, Thomas H. Benton and his son-in-law, John C. Fremont, arrived by boat and stopped at the hotel. They were on one of the strangest business propositions of that period. Among those who met the visitors and discussed the project with them was Dr. Johnston Lykins. The wife of Dr. Lykins, afterwards the wife of George Bingham, the Missouri artist, told this :
"Benton and Fremont had arrived in order to complete arrangements for an experi- ment with camels as beasts of burden in crossing the plains during the hot season. Colonel Benton entered heartily into the plan and gave his assistance in every way possible. He thought that camels would stand the travel over the sandy plains better than oxen or horses. Owing to the shortness of the season in this northern latitude the project failed, although camels were imported for the purpose. Late in the evening Dr. Lykins returned to the house to inform me that he had invited the gentlemen to dine with us the follow- ing day. Colonel Benton and Mr. Fremont came, also Lieutenant Head, and the day was one long to be remembered. The conversation was mainly upon the great possibilities of the West. At the conclusion of the dinner we stepped out upon the porch, which
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commanded a delightful view of the river and surrounding country. Colonel Benton ap- peared in the height of good spirits and turning to me said: 'Mrs. Lykins, you will take a trip to California on one of the camels, won't you?'
"'Hardly,' I replied, laughing, 'I would prefer a more comfortable mode of travel.'
"The great statesman's face grew solemn as if in a spirit of prophecy; he said: 'You are a very young woman, and you will live to see the day when the railroad will cross the plains and mountains to the Pacific coast.'
"'Colonel Benton,' I replied, 'with all due deference to you as a prophet, your pre- diction is as visionary as a trip to the moon.'
"'I will not live to see the prophecy verified, but the next generation will,' he re- sponded firmly. That was the last visit of Colonel Benton to Kansas City. The party left by steamboat for St. Louis on the evening of the same day."
The Gillis house, in the days when it was known as the American, was four and one-half stories in height and had a cupola or tower in which was a bell. The ringing of the bell gave notice that meals were ready. Guests sat at a table sixty feet long accommodating sixty people. Three times that number were fed frequently, in relays. In one long room there were twenty beds. To take care of the overflows, the parlor floor was covered at night with shake- downs.
For a special dinner, in 1860, the National hotel in St. Louis printed on silk the bill of fare-menu came in later years-with seven courses, including sixty- three entrees, champagne or Rhine wine, all for one dollar.
The McCarty House in History.
Through two generations much Missouri history was made in the McCarty house of Jefferson City. John N. Edwards said of it :
"What crowds it has seen and combinations, caucuses and conventions! Secesh, union, claybank, federal, confederate, radical, democrat, liberal, republican, prohibition. tadpole, granger, greenback, and female suffrage, have all had their delegates there who wrought, planned, perfected and went away declaring a new dispensation in the shape of a hotel, and that Burr, McCarty was its anointed prophet. If that old house could think and write what a wonderful book it could publish of two generations of Missourians, the first generation having to do with the pioneers. The state knows it. And to the politicians of the state it has been a hill, a ravine, or a skirt of timber from behind which to perfect their ambushments. Its atmosphere is the atmosphere of a home circle. It has no barroom and therein lies the benediction which follows the prayer."
Burr Harrison McCarty, or "McCarty of the McCarty's" as Judge Henry Lamm liked to call him, came to Missouri when the state was only fifteen years old. Interested in stage lines with Thomas L. Price, Mr. McCarty built a fine home in Jefferson City in 1836. Of Virginia birth and a born host, he made his home such a favorite and popular place with Benton and Linn and the pioneer statesmen and lawyers, that he drifted into the hotel keeping, making additions from time to time to the old residence. He became the model Missouri host, with a friendly greeting to all comers. He set the pace for the landlords of a whole state with what one of his guests of many years called honest coffee. honest butter, honest eggs, cornbread baked in the skillet, poultry and game. From the McCarty house came the ways of making chicken dinners for which Missouri landlords gained fame far beyond the borders of the state. For
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more than half a century Burr Harrison McCarty made the McCarty house a Missouri institution. After his death, a daughter, whom a later generation of Missourians knew affectionately as "Miss Ella," maintained the traditions. When the doors closed there were Missourians in every part of the state who recalled the open wood fires, the scrupulous cleanliness, the old-fashioned cook- ing, and asked themselves, as did Major Edwards, "Why can't a landlord like him renew his youth and make that old house of his endure forever."
Experiences of Globe Trotters.
James Stuart, a Scotchman, who wrote "Three Years in North America," devoting his attention to "a faithful and candid representation of the facts which the author observed and noted in the places where they presented them- selves."-those are his words-said :
"We arrived in St. Louis on Sunday, the 25th of April (1830), on so cold a morning that the first request I made on reaching the City hotel, in the upper part of the town, was for a fire, which was immediately granted. The hotel turned out a very comfortable one. It contains a great deal of accommodation. The only inconvenience I felt arose from the people not being accustomed, as seems generally the case in the western country, to place water basins and a towel in every bedroom. The system of washing at some place near the well is general, but the waiters or chambermaids never refuse to bring everything to the bedroom that is desired. It is, however, so little the practice to bring a washing apparatus to the bedrooms that they are very apt to forget a general direction regularly to do so. We had a great quantity of fine poultry at this house; and the table, upon the whole, was extremely well managed."
Melish. an English traveler, gave high praise to American taverns. He told of one place he visited where there were sixty houses of which seven were taverns. He described a breakfast table on which there were "table cloth, tea tray, tea pot. milk pot, bowls, cups, sugar tongs; tea spoons, castors, plates, knives, forks, tea, sugar, cream, bread, butter, steak, eggs, cheese, potatoes, Deets, salt, vinegar, pepper,-all for twenty-five cents." . .
Religious services were held in taverns. Not infrequently the tavern was conducted by a woman, usually a widow. In the earliest days of the American colonies the house of entertainment was known as "the ordinary." But when that term went out of use, Americans did not take kindly to the English name of "inn." "Tavern," of good full volume of vowel sound, was adopted and it was applied universally in Missouri as settlement spread. When a Missouri community reached metropolitan pretensions, "tavern" gradually gave place to "hotel." But "tavern" continued to be the popular term along the rivers and the stage coach routes.
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