USA > Missouri > Centennial history of Missouri (the center state) one hundred years in the Union, 1820-1921, Volume I > Part 36
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Of the young Germans whom Dr. Duden's enthusiastic description drew to Missouri, were Alexander and Henry Kayser and their sister, who became Mrs. Bates. The Kaysers were from the Rhine. To Dr. Duden the banks of Missouri, about Hermann, were the American Rhine. The father of the Kay- sers was, during twenty-eight years, a magistrate of high repute under the Duke of Nassau. The Kaysers came in 1833, bringing little but good educa- tion, industry and high-mindedness. They farmed; they bought, they were in the land office; they had to do with the civil engineering of the growing city ; they advanced rapidly in the estimation of their fellow citizens. Alexander Kayser became a lawyer in 1841; a lieutenant in the Mexican war in 1847; a presidential elector in 1852. With Thomas Allen he took up grape culture and offered prizes for the best products of Missouri wines. He allied himself with one of the oldest families in St. Louis, marrying Eloise P. Morrison, a grand- daughter of General Daniel Bissell.
Julius, Herman, Emile and Conrad Mallinckrodt were members of a group of German families coming about 1833. They were highly educated people and had acquired a knowledge of English before leaving their old world homes for America. The only trouble with their English was the unfamiliarity with the pronunciation in Missouri. Julius Mallinckrodt, meeting a man on the street in St. Louis, addressed him in English but the man shook his head. Thinking that the trouble was with his pronunciation, Mr. Mallinckrodt tried German and then Latin, but with no better result. Both men were growing
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excited when Mr. Mallinckrodt asked, as a final effort: "Parlez vous Francais?" The stranger threw his arms around Mr. Mallinckrodt's neck and wept. It de- veloped that he, too, was a new arrival in the country, a Frenchman, and was as despondent as was Mr. Mallinckrodt because of inability to talk with the Americans.
Polish Exiles.
Polish exiles came to Missouri after their revolution in 1831. They fought desperately until the Russians took Warsaw. Those who were not captured fled to France. Thence, in 1832, they were deported to the United States. When they arrived in New York, each of them was given $50 in gold and told to seek his fortune. These Polish exiles were highly educated young men, grad- _ uates of universities, civil engineers, architects and physicians. Quite a num- ber of them came to Missouri and settled, leaving many descendants in the present generation.
Whom Kossuth Found.
Missouri was the home of many who came to escape religious as well as political intolerance. Kossuth, the Hungarian patriot, on his visit in 1852 made this interesting discovery as told by his secretary :
"Reality is sometimes as strange as fiction, and persons meet in life in a way which astonishes in a novel. In the summer of 1848, the convent of the Jesuits in Vienna was attacked by the people, led by the students, and the 'patres' were expelled. Europe, with the sole exception of England, was at this time not favorable to the Jesuits; but England was sufficiently stocked with thiem, and so they went farther west until they reached St. Louis; six remained here in the convent, and one of them now instructs the republican youth of the Mound City. But the students of Vienna were in their turn expelled by the soldiers, and one of them who had played a part in the attack on the convent was now also in St. Louis, engaged as printer in the German printing-house."
St. Louis, at that early period, had its growing colony of those who had been conspicuous in political agitation at Vienna. The secretary of Kossuth wrote :
"We found here several of our former friends and acquaintances. Mr. Rombauer, late director of the iron mines in the county Gomor, and then of the musket manufactory in Hungary, is now a farmer in Iowa. If ever the iron mines in Missouri shall be developed, he will see a great field open for his activity. Mr. Bernays, formerly attached to the French embassy at Vienna, keeps a store in Illinois. Mr. Boernstein, the popular German author, the Paris correspondent of the Augsburgh Gazette, is the editor of the most influential German paper in the west. They related to us all their adventures, since we had lost sight of them-novels of real life."
The Emigres of Guadaloupe.
From the West Indies in 1848, came a notable infusion. Guadaloupe had been all but ruined by an earthquake three years earlier. The colony was slowly recovering when revolution occurred in France. Louis Philippe fled. The re- publican government demanded of the colonies recognition of its authority. Agents of the new order declared slavery abolished in Guadaloupe. Industry
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was paralyzed. Excesses were threatened. Old families, who represented the best blood of France, faced emigration as the least of the evils. America was the unanimous choice of these emigres from Guadaloupe. The first of them sought St. Louis. Others followed until, in 1849, they formed an accession strong in character. Among them were the de Laureal, Boisliniere, Tetard, Du Pavillon, Cherot, Bourdon, de Pombiray, Bouvier, Gibert, Ladevaiz. Du Clos, Peterson and Vouillaire families. Not a few of these emigres of Guadaloupe, who sought St. Louis were descendants of the old French nobility. They were people of thorough education deep religious conviction and charming refinement. They brought into the population of St. Louis a strong strain physically. They were people who showed ready adaptability. Edward de Laureal, who was, perhaps, the leader of the movement, was an amateur painter of no little merit. Several of the ladies of these Guadaloupe families became teachers in St. Louis.
Dr. Adam Hammer, Well Named.
The German patriots, who added elements of great influence to the popula- tion of St. Louis, included some characters born to make war on the existing order whether in politics or in the professions. One of these was Dr. Adam Hammer. He was a man of medium height, slender, sallow. Below a high round forehead were a long sharp thin nose. and a pointed chin, emphasized by chin whiskers. Dr. Hammer had keen black eyes. Members of the pro- fession said Dr. Hammer looked like the pictures of Harvey, who discovered the circulation of the blood. Hammer had been well educated in German uni- versities. He came here with considerable reputation as a surgeon. He had performed some wonderful operations. So long as he resided in St. Louis he was the chief figure in frequent professional disputes. At the meetings of the Medical society, Dr. Hammer could be depended upon to start. something before the evening was over. These scenes at last became so disagreeable to the other members that the presence of the reporters was dispensed with. Dr. Hammer was for a time the dean of the Humboldt Medical college, which was located opposite the city hospital. Afterwards he was offered a chair in the faculty of the Missouri Medical college. It was something of a relief to the pro- fession in St. Louis when Dr. Hammer, after dividing his time between this country and Germany, decided to take up his permanent residence in the father- land.
St. Louis, American City.
From 1830 to 1850 the population of St. Louis was multiplied by ten. In the latter year, 22,340, one-third of the inhabitants of St. Louis, were of German birth. Ten years later, in 1860, St. Louis city and county had 50,510 people "born in Germany." In two-thirds of a century St. Louis received a strong in- flux of German immigration. In 1890 there were 66,000 of German birth. The result was not the Germanizing of St. Louis, but an assimilation which con- tributed notable elements of strength to an American city. "The young man Absalom" has given the minimum of concern to this community. No other large city has shown a larger proportion of sons well worthy of their sires. Degen- eracy, in descent, has been the very rare exception. Traditions, public senti-
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ment, family ideals, have contributed to the improvement, generation by genera- tion. Sons of St. Louisans, grandsons of St. Louisans, great-grandsons of St. Louisans, hold places in the foremost ranks of professions 'and vocations. In the present generation there is no reaction from this admirable and hopeful characteristic of the city, for which much credit is due the German infusion.
Dr. Niccolls' Tribute to German Churches.
In his sermon on "The Ministry of Religion in St. Louis," preached Cen- tennial Sunday, 1909, Rev. Dr. Samuel J. Niccolls said of the German churches :
"In St. Louis there is a large and influential part of our citizens speaking the German language and using it in their public worship. The first Protestant church among them was the German Evangelical Church of the Holy Ghost. It was organized in 1834, and became the nucleus of the Evangelical Synod of the West, which has churches throughout the United States.
"In 1838 a body of Lutherans who had been bitterly persecuted by the Government of Saxony, sought refuge and liberty in the United States, and came to make their home in this city. They established the first Lutheran Church, adhering to the Augsburg confes- sion. Their growth was rapid, and they have now a large number of strong and influential churches in the city. The Concordia College and Theological Seminary, a large printing house, and a number of hospitals and asylums are in connection with this denomination. Lutheran churches belonging to the different synods represented in this city have had a powerful and widespread influence in the nurture of the religious life of the large German population in our midst. Their testimony for evangelical truth has been strong and clear, and their method of religious instruction in training children second to none. Difference in language, more than any doctrinal disagreements, has kept them from close affiliation with the English-speaking churches, and for this reason many among us are ,unaware alike of their large numbers and their power for good."
German Support of Public Schools.
The character of support which Germans gave the public school system was illustrated about 1888. Up to that time German was an important part of the curriculum. When the language was dropped, friends of the system looked with some apprehension for the effect. The president of the board announced :
"The unselfish devotion of our fellow citizens of German ancestry was signally illus- trated in that the schools suffered no perceptible loss of attendance in any part of the city, and the most urgent demands for new school accommodations continued from what were known as distinctively German districts."
Forty years Professor Frank Louis Soldan was connected with the public schools of St. Louis one-third of the time occupying the highest position-super- intendent. When Professor Soldan died William T. Harris telegraphed from Washington : "
"Dr. Soldan has been a tower of strength all these years for wise education. His death is a great loss, not only to St. Louis but to the United States. Thousands who respect his memory will mourn with you today."
The Icarians.
In the colonizing experiments which had their Missouri try-outs, the Icarians have place. Etienne Cabet, the man whom King Louis Philippe said he feared Vol. 1-21
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more than any other in his kingdom, rests in Missouri soil. The loyal followers of this leader of the French communists made their last stand in Cheltenham, as it was then known, just west of the old city limits of St. Louis. The ideas advanced in Victor Hugo's "Icaria" were given faithful application but every- day life in Missouri presented too many opportunities for individualism to make of communism anything practical. The grave of Etienne Cabet in Old Picker cemetery of South St. Louis was a place of interest to the curious during many years. At the head of the grave was a stone inscribed "La Memoire de Cabet." And at the foot of the grave was a triangle of iron supports on which rested a crown of thorns.
In 1797 two Frenchmen of royal rank passed a part of their exile in St Louis. They were entertained by the Chouteaus and other French families and were made to feel welcome by the entire community. The duke of Orleans and the duke of Montpensier they were called at that time. The duke of Orleans became King Louis Philippe with the restoration of the French mon- archy. In 1848 he fled from France. While he was on the throne he had re- ferred to Cabet, son of a cooper, as the man he most feared. Cabet had risen to great influence in France. He had become a learned jurist and had been accepted as the leader of the communists. After King Louis Philippe fled, Cabet assembled 10,000 communists and marched through the streets of Paris to present demands to the provisional government. Such was Cabet's influence that President Lamartine went to call on this leader of the communists and made terms with him.
Not long after this truce with the new government, Cabet gave up the idea of carrying out the principles of communism in France and came to the United States with a considerable following to found an ideal community. The colony stopped temporarily on the banks of Red River in Texas, but soon .moved up the Mississippi to Nauvoo, "beautiful situation for rest," in the Indian tongue. The Mormons had been left without leadership by the murder of Joseph and Hyrum Smith in Carthage jail three years before the Icarians reached Nauvoo. Brigham Young had assumed the headship of the church and had led away to Utah a large following.
During several years the Icarians held Nauvoo and the principles of com- munism were given trial with a common home with a great dining hall in which the 1,200 members took their meals. There were accommodations for bathing and provisions for entertainment which amazed the Americans. There was an orchestra of fifty pieces which a government official sent out from Washington to investigate conditions at Nauvoo reported to be rendering the best music in the United States. Work was limited to six hours a day in summer and to eight hours the rest of the year. The sciences and languages were taught. A paper called "The Icarian" was published. But while hundreds came from France to join the colony, the number of active members did not increase. The ambi- tious and the energetic left to take farms in Iowa and elsewhere as rapidly as newcomers came. Some who remained saw opportunities for making money and clashed with Cabet. Seeing the drift away from his ideals, Cabet wanted to be made "supreme director" for life. This wish was denied him. Taking
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200 members who had remained loyal, Cabet moved to the vicinity of St. Louis where he died in 1856 of an apoplectic stroke.
Of the man's ability and honesty there was no question. He published two books which were accepted as among the best expressions of communistic principles of that day. He was made attorney general of France in the new republic. But he sacrificed personal ambition and left France in his devotion to the principles he maintained and in his hope to show that they were practical. While he was in this country he was charged with embezzlement in France and in his absence was tried and convicted. He went back to France, obtained a new trial and was acquitted. He came back to St. Louis and did not long survive.
After the death of Cabet the colony at Cheltenham dwindled. As late as 1870 the few Icarians held occasional meetings in St. Louis. Alcander Longley, a printer, was looked upon as a leader. He published a little paper called "The Altruist." The significant fact about the Icarians was that while some clung to the philosophy through years and made pilgrimages to the grave of Cabet, the attempts to put the ideals into practice were given up as failures long ago.
The Bethel Colony.
One of the most satisfactory colony experiments in Missouri was the Bethel, of Shelby county. The founder was William Keil, of Prussia. This colony numbered about 500 men, women and children, Germans, or of German de- scent, coming from Western Pennsylvania and Eastern Ohio. It included some Rappists, as the sect was called, after Rapp, the founder. But the theory of the organization was practical co-operation rather than religious belief. The colony summed up its theology in "Gott mit uns." There was a common treas- ury. The members kept up family relations. They lived in clay-walled houses. About 4,000 acres , of land was cultivated successfully. The colony grew and established branches at Mamri, Hebron and Elam. At Elam a hall was built for dancing, a form of recreation which the colony approved. The Nineveh branch was in Adair county. The colonists showed considerable public spirit. They cleared out North river, which at one time was considered navigable. Their relations with other settlers were quite satisfactory. During the Civil war period the colonists, who had been supporters of Benton, were loyal to the Union, but they refused to spy and tell on secession neighbors. The leader of the colony, Dr. Keil, conducted a party of 75 to the Pacific coast. About 1880, the colonists, on the advice of Judge D. P. Dyer, made an equitable di- vision of the accumulated property and thus wound up the affairs which had been held in common.
The land was divided. The personality was distributed on the basis of the number of years each member of the colony had worked. Each man received $29.04 for. each year he had worked and the women received one-half of that amount.
Aurora was the name given to the Oregon colony. Keil had a favorite son who had planned to go with the Oregon party, but he sickened and died. The son exacted a promise that his body should be taken. The promise was kept.
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The body was placed in a metallic coffin filled with alcohol and sealed. It was put in the first wagon of the caravan, a wagon drawn by six mules, and thus transported to Oregon. Keil never came back to Missouri. His successor as head of the colony was Christopher C. Wolf. The Missouri organization con- tinued thirty-five years. Among the industries besides farming was the manu- facture of gloves from deerskins which took the prize at the New York World's Fair of 1858. Shoes were made and a distillery was conducted. One field of 1,100 acres was tilled.
Pocahontas, in Cape Girardeau county, was settled in 1856 by a colony from North Carolina.
A number of descendants of King William IV of Holland live in Livingston county.
A mild and practical experiment in socialism was tried in Dallas county begin- ning in the spring of 1872. Friendship Community was incorporated by some people who agreed to hold all property in common for the general good. Sav- ing clauses in the agreement stipulated that the community should in no way interfere with the social, religious or political affairs of its members. The community started with five hundred acres of land a few miles west of Buffalo, the county seat.
Community Experiments.
Missouri has had its share of community experiments. Perhaps the most notable of these was the town of Liberal in Barton county. George H. Walser was a lawyer and a well-to-do business man who had lived with a colony of free thinkers at Paris, Illinois. He moved to Missouri near the close of the Civil war and lived at Lamar. Land was very cheap in Barton county ; some of it was classed as swamp land and held at twelve and a half cents an acre. It proved to be very productive and also to have underlying it coal measures. Walser bought several sections of this land and gradually organized a settlement which he called Liberal. He gave town lots on long time to those who believed, or disbelieved, as he did. A hall was constructed for Sunday meetings to which Walser gave the name of Universal Mental Liberty hall. A building was erected for educational purposes and that was called "Drake Normal Liberal Insti- tute." A paper was started with the title of "The Liberal." Many followers of Ingersoll settled in Liberal and it was advertised as the only town on earth where there was no church, no saloon, no God and no hell. In time, however, some of the people wanted Sunday preaching. They built what they called Union church and met there on Sunday to hear the Bible read, to sing and to have preaching. Walser insisted on taking the pulpit and criticising the sermon. This resulted in trouble; the community divided into factions. The free think- ers organized a secret society which they called "The Brotherhood." A rival town was started adjoining Liberal on ground not controlled by Walser. This was given the name of Jennison. For years there was friction between the communities. The experiment was not successful. Gradually religion and ir- religion ceased to be an issue.
The original motive for the founding of Liberal was set forth in a pros- pectus : "To give an asylum for those noble men and women who are willing
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to sacrifice the comforts of life and joys of social intercourse, rather than live a life of deception and falsehood, was the incentive which actuated us in start- ing the town of Liberal, where we could enjoy the full benefits of free American citizens without having some self-appointed bigot dictate to us what we should think, believe, speak, write, print or send through the mails."
The Prosperous Mennonites.
Mennonites settled in the northeastern part of Morgan county fifty-five years ago. An early account of them said: "They organized in Holland and early came to this country. They recognize the New Testament as the only rule of life, deny original sin and maintain that practical piety is the essence of re- ligion. They object to the application of the terms Person and Trinity, as ap- plied to Godhead. They strenuously deny war under any circumstances, are non-resistants, and never take an oath. In their sacred meetings each member is allowed to speak; and they have no hired clergy. They baptize only adults, by pouring, and advocate universal toleration: In this country there are two divisions of this denomination, differing only in some points of experimental re- ligion. They are an industrious and honest class of citizens, attending strictly. to their own business and allowing other people to do the same. They pur- chased farms, improved and unimproved, and went to work. They prospered finely."
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TRAPPERI
PIONEER STEAMBOAT ON THE MISSOURI
KEEL BOAT ON THE OSAGE RIVER
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CHAPTER X.
THE WATERS OF MISSOURI
Boatable, Potable, Powerful, Medicinal-Robert Fulton's Proposition-Navigation by Pirogue -Arrival of the Pike-The Missouri Mastered-Trip of the Independence to Franklin- A Great Celebration-Newspaper Congratulations-Captain Joseph Brown's Reminis- cences-Primitive Construction and No Schedules-Firing a Salute-Famous Missouri Pilots-The Record of Disasters-The Edna, the Bedford and the Saluda-Search for Sunken Treasure-Lost Cargoes of Whiskey-Captain Hunter Ben Jenkins-The Shift- ing Channel-The Missouri Belle and the Buttermilk-Up Grand River-The First Steamboat on the Upper Osage-Uncle John Whitley's Hunt for a Mysterious Monster- Some Notable Captains-Rise and Decline of Missouri River Traffic-Seventy-one Steamers in the Trade-The Rush of the Forty-niners-Jonathan Bryan's Water Mill- Possibilities of Power Ignored-An Expert's Facts-Mammoth, Springs-The White River Plant-Beginnings of Hydro-Electric Development-Lebanon's Magnetic Water- Benton's Bethesda-Monegaw's One Hundred Mineral Waters-Meanderings of the White-Navigation at Forsyth-Lines on "Two Ancient Misses."
I believe this is the finest confluence in the world. The two rivers are much of the same breadth, each about half a league, but the Missouri is by far the most rapid, and seems to enter the Mississippi like a conqueror, through which it carries its white waves to the opposite shore without mixing them. After- ward it gives its color to the Mississippi, which it never loses again, but carries quite down to the sea .- Charlevoix on the Mouth of the Missouri.
Running water is the most valuable natural asset of the people .- President Roosevelt's Message to Congress, February, 1908.
Missouri has a little more than one acre of water to one hundred acres of land. This is surface, running water. Missouri has few lakes. The under- ground rivers and veins are not taken into account.
Missouri has water for transportation. The entire eastern frontage and half of the western frontage is on navigable water. The state is bisected by navig- able water.
Missouri has water for power. No other state, perhaps no other country, presents conditions so encouraging to the coming energy-the hydro-electric.
Missouri has water for medicine. The spas are many and of endless variety in constituents.
Governor William Clark and Thomas H. Benton, in the days before steam- boats, undertook to estimate what they called "the boatable waters" of the Mississippi and tributaries. They made the navigable distance 50,000 miles- 30,000 above and 20,000 below St. Louis. "Of course," wrote Mr. Benton, long afterward, "we counted all the infant streams on which a flat, a keel or a bateau could be floated." The pirogue was the freightboat on the Mississippi before steam. It was built like a barge of a later period. The length varied from thirty- five to sixty feet ; the depth from twelve to fifteen feet. One of these craft could
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