USA > Missouri > Centennial history of Missouri (the center state) one hundred years in the Union, 1820-1921, Volume I > Part 4
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There was no use advising such a man against his purposes. Father Walker found a small unfurnished building the use of which for ten dollars a month was obtained. He saw some old benches which had been discarded, lying at the end of the court house. These he bought for a trifle, and moved them into the ten dollar house. He started preaching twice on Sundays and teaching children five days in the week. At the end of a year he had a church with 75 members. St. Louis was not such a bad field for Methodism as St. Louisans had thought.
Jesse Walker didn't announce a Sunday school at first but, at the close of his sermon, he said that "at nine o'clock .on the next Sabbath morning he would open a school to teach young people to read. He would furnish the books and give the instruction free to all that would come." The next Sunday morning ten boys were present. One of them was Robert D. Sutton who left this recol- lection :
"The school was opened by singing a verse of 'Children of the Heavenly King;' then a short prayer. Father Walker examined each scholar to see how much they knew in letters. He found five who did not know their A B C's; the other five could read a little. Father Walker then gave to each boy who could read one who could not, thus forming them into classes, one teaching the other his A B C's. While they were thus engaged Father Walker called first one and then another of those who could read and gave to each of them a short lesson of instruction and advice on religious subjects. This course was pursued for one hour and a half, when Father Walker informed them that the school must close for the present. But it would open again on next Sunday morning, and he invited them all to come again and bring as many new scholars as they could along with them. He then made them a short address on religious subjects, sang a verse of 'Jesus my all to Heaven has gone.' Then a short prayer and we were dismissed with the benediction."
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ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO
The First Directory.
In May, 1821, St. Louis arrived at the distinction of having a city directory. The publisher, John A. Paxton, called it the "St. Louis Directory and Register, Containing the Names, Professions, and Residences of all the Heads of Families and Persons in Business." In his introductory, Mr. Paxton set forth this com- prehensive review of the business of St. Louis a century ago:
"46 mercantile establishments, which carry on an extensive trade with the most distant parts of the Republic, in merchandise, produce, furs and peltries; 3 auctioneers who do considerable business; each pays $200 per annum to the state for a license to sell, and on all property sold is a state duty of 3 per cent, on real estate I and 1/2 per cent, and their commission of 5 per cent; 3 weekly newspapers, viz: The St. Louis 'Enquirer,' 'Missouri Gazette,' and 'St. Louis Register,' and as many Printing Offices, I Book Store, 2 Binderies, 3 large Inns, with a number of smaller Taverns and boarding houses; 6 Livery Stables; 57 Grocers and Bottlers; 27 Attorneys and Counselors at Law; 13 Physicians, 3 Druggists and Apothecaries; 3 Midwives; I Portrait Painter, who would do credit to any country; 5 Clock and Watchmakers, Silversmiths and Jewelers; I Silver Plater, I Engraver; I Brewery, where is manufactured Beer, Ale and Porter of a quality equal to any in the Western country; I Tannery; 3 Soap and Candle factories; 2 Brick Yards; 3 Stone Cutters; 14 Bricklayers and Plasterers; 28 Carpenters; 9 Blacksmiths ; 3 Gunsmiths; 2 Copper and Tinware manufacturers; 6 Cabinet makers; 4 Coach makers and Wheelwrights; 7 Turners and Chairmakers; 3 Saddle and Harness manufacturers ; 3 Hatters ; 12 Tailors; 13 Boot and Shoe manufacturers; 10 Ornamental, Sign and House Painters and Glaziers; I Nail Factory; 4 Hair Dressers and Perfumers; 2 Confectioners and Cordial Distillers; 4 Coopers, Block, Pump and Mast makers; 4 Bakers; I Comb Factory; I Bell-man; 5 Billiard Tables, which pay an annual tax of $100 each to the state, and the same sum to the corporation; several Hacks or Pleasure Carriages, and a considerable number of Drays and Carts; several professional Musicians, who play at the Balls which are very frequent and well attended by the inhabitants, more particularly the French, who, in general, are remarkably graceful performers, and much attached to so rational, healthy and improving an amusement; 2 Potteries are within a few miles, and there are several promising gardens in and around the town."
Population of Town and State.
The population of St. Louis, the town, in 1821-incorporation as a city came two years later-was 5,500 according to this first directory. St. Louis town and county had 9.732 by the same authority. In Missouri, on August 1, 1820, there were, by the returns of the United States marshal, 66,607 people. Mr. Paxton said, "the class who compose the respectable part of the community are hospi- table, polite and well informed." He added :
"And here I must take occasion, in justice to the town, to protest against many calumnies circulated abroad to the prejudice of St. Louis, respecting the manners and dis- position of the inhabitants. Persons meet here, with dissimilar habits, of a different education, and possessing various localities. It is not, therefore, surprising, that, in a place composed of such discordant materials there should be occasional differences and difficulties. But the reader may be assured that old-established inhabitants have little participation in transactions which have so far injured the town."
By "transactions" Mr. Paxton probably had reference to the duels on Bloody Island, "opposite Roy's tower," which had been quite frequent in the half decade preceding the issue of this first directory.
Mr. Paxton enumerated "154 dwelling houses of Brick and Stone, and 196
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of Wood in the north part of town, and 78 of Brick and Stone and 223 of Wood in the south part." From his review, he felt justified in the prediction that St. Louis "was destined to become much the largest town on this side of the East- ern mountains."
The Moral Point of View.
A century ago, St. Louis, unjustly, perhaps, had something of a wild west reputation. Not only the maker of the first city directory in 1821 felt called upon to protest against the opinion of St. Louisans held in the East, but the first mayor, William Carr Lane, addressing the new board of aldermen, in 1824, said :
"Our town is changing its physical and moral character for a better one daily. In a commercial point of view it is rapidly becoming what it must inevi- tably become-an entrepot for the seaboard and the vast and fertile country around us, affording a market for the importer and exporter and the country merchant and the planter so advantageous as to forbid their seeking elsewhere for a better. The amount of raw material is increasing and the cost of provi- sions and labor is diminishing in such ratio as to create the hope that manu- facturing establishments must spring up among us. In a moral point of view we can put to shame many of these who ignorantly vilify (us) in the East. There is as little crime here as in any town of equal population and commerce in the Union, and the people are as sober, as obedient to laws, as orderly and as decent in their deportment, particularly in their public assemblies, as anywhere. Hitherto, east of the Ohio, disease, vice and violence have been associated with the very name of St. Louis, whereas the town is very healthy three-fourths of the year. Riot, broils and wounds are as rare with us as they are amongst them."
Exploration by Major Elijah Iles.
Major Elijah Iles, who came to Missouri in the spring of 1819, exploring the interior to determine whether he should make his home here, said:
"At that time there was only one town on the Mississippi above St. Louis, -Louisiana. There was a town at Alton, one mile and a half back from the river. There were but two towns on the Missouri,-St. Charles, twenty miles; and Franklin. 160 miles west of St. Louis. After leaving St. Louis, the trail led for about 80 miles through a district in which there was scarely an inhabitant other than a few settled on the road to accommodate travelers."
He went on to Franklin, where the sales of land by the government were about to take place. Here he found the town full of land speculators. The country round about was "pretty well filled with squatters who had made small improvements and were awaiting the sale of public land. These settlers were mostly from Kentucky and Tennessee."
Sales of these lands averaged over $50,000 a month. Lots in Franklin were as valuable as those in St. Louis.
Major Iles rode horseback up the Missouri valley until he found "the most. extreme western cabin in the United States, which was only about thirty miles above Franklin, not far above the mouth of the Chariton river." On his way
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ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO
back to Franklin he found "a colony of about a dozen Tennesseans, who had enclosed in one common field more than 1,000 acres of prairie bottom-govern- ment land, designated by turning rows for each one to till. This was a grand sight. I had never seen such an immense field and such large ears of corn. Where I was raised the corn was small, the soil being thin. Here you could have a corn row to plow more than a mile long, without stones, roots or stumps to interfere."
At Franklin young Iles found employment in a store kept by the clerk of the receiver of the land office. The land sales were coming on. Iles was engaged for three years at Franklin. In his "Early Life and Times" he tells of that period of land speculation in Missouri, one hundred years ago.
Land Speculation.
"The receiver's office was in a room over the store, and as he had no safe, and nothing but a trunk to keep the money in, it was done up in packages and handed to me. I did not like to take the responsibility; but he said he knew what he was about, and wished me to take care of it. My 'safe' was a barrel filled with scraps of paper and set under the counter, in the bottom of which the packages were placed. In my safe I would have more than $100,000 at a time. Lands at that day were sold at two dollars per acre-one- fourth cash, and one-fourth in two, three and four years. Hard times stopped us from making money, and unless the payments were promptly made the land was forfeited to the general government. But when we thought we were all swamped, Congress passed an act allowing us to relinquish. For instance, if a man bought a section, he was allowed to give up three-fourths and apply the payment made to save the one-fourth."
Before Major Iles left Missouri to establish the first store on what was to become the site of Springfield, the capital of Illinois, he traveled about the brand new state looking at the prospects, not being able to satisfy himself as to a per- manent location.
"A young man named Evans, from Kentucky, joined me in this exploring trip. We prepared ourselves for camping, with some bread in our wallets, corn meal for making corn bread, and salt. For meat we depended on game, such as deer, turkey, and prairie chicken, and as we were both good marksmen, there was no danger of suffering.
"About 100 miles above the settled part of Missouri a colony had just been started, mostly yet in camps. The men had gone up in the spring and had raised small patches of corn without fencing, and had just moved their families and were helping each other to erect their cabins, some of which were already built. This colony was on the north side of the Missouri river, opposite and below the mouth of the Kansas. The settlement was in a string nearly twenty miles long. The land was well watered, sightly and none better."
Heroic Treatment for Fever.
Iles might have settled permanently in Missouri at this time, 1821, but for an experience at this settlement in the river bottoms opposite what is now Kansas City. Sprngfield might have lost its first citizen who secured for it the location of the county seat of Sangamon, who commanded the company in which Lincoln was a private in the Blackhawk war, and who was largely instrumental in the removal of the Illinois capital from Vandalia to Springfield.
"We stopped at the outermost house of this settlement, near the Indian border line. Here a young man joined us and we extended our trip into the then Indian Territory,
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CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF MISSOURI
traveling several days beyond the border, where we found still a sightly country and fertile land. On our return, before we got back to the cabin, I was taken sick with a most violent fever. As it was more than 100 miles to a doctor, and my suffering excruciit- ing, it was supposed I must die. Whilst I lay in great agony at the cabin, where I was. cared for by the woman, the young men, who were waiting until I should die, amused themselves in killing beaver, otter and deer. After I had been sick four or five days, I remembered a spring of ice-cold water that I had passed on an Indian trail a half a mile off. and as I had not lost much strength, I put out to the spring, where I lay down with my face over the water and drank until I could not swallow another drop. As soon as the water warmed in my stomach, I cast it up. This I did a number of times until my thirst was allayed and the perspiration began to flow. About this time a clap of thunder, accompanied by lightning, warned me that I had better not have it rain on me while in a perspiration; and although I did not crave more water, I drank as much as I possibly could swallow, and started for the cabin. The perspiration ran in streams from my body and limbs, every finger dripping with it, and my shoes were almost filled with per- spiration. You could have tracked me on the trail. When I reached the cabin the fever had left me, and I had no more. Next morning I was able to travel.
The Days of Pioneer Privations.
"Our aim now was to cross the Missouri river and go down on the south side. There were no settlements on the south side for more than 100 miles below, to the vicinity of where Boonville is now located. We knew there was a fort on the south side, below the Kansas river, called Fort Osage, commanded by Colonel Sibley, where we could cross. We intended to strike the Missouri below the Kansas and meander down until we found the fort, but before reaching the river we found a family living in a tent; they had not yet erected their cabin. We stopped with them for the night. The father, mother and three children were all sick with the chills, and the next morning the young man with me had a crick in his back. He seemed to suffer intensely,-most as bad as I did with the fever. Of course we had to stay for a time, and I had my com- panion and the family to care and provide for. There was nothing to begin with except some milk and honey; but I soon killed some squirrels and prairie chickens. Quail had not yet emigrated that far. The corn in his corn patch was just ripe enough to pound into meal, for which I had a mortar with a pestle and sweep. The first batch I pounded, I blistered my hands, and I was then in a bad fix to pound more; but the woman made me some pads to go on my hands, which answered a good purpose. I had to stop here a week until my companion was able to travel. The day before we left, I went twenty miles to a trader's who had some flour, corn meal, and a few groceries and patent medi- cines. Here I bought some flour, tea and medicine, and', also saw a friend who promised to go up and wait on the family. I had an Indian trail to travel, and when within a half mile of the camp, on my return, a deer jumped across my path which I shot from my horse. It was only crippled. Leaping from my horse, I laid the gun down and ran to it, cut its throat, cut out the entrails, and packed it to camp. There I dressed it, and next morning left the family well provided with eatables.
Well Entertained at Fort Osage.
"From here we followed the windings of the Missouri and found the fort about twenty miles below the mouth of the Kansas river. The officers sent soldiers with a barge to ferry us and our horses over. We were made welcome, and our horses as well as ourselves were well cared for. The wives of the officers seemed overjoyed to see some one, besides their husbands and the soldiers, that they could make inquiries of as to what was going on in the settled and civilized parts of the United States. Whilst they were located on the frontier and in forts, they saw no one aside from their husbands and soldiers, with occasionally a few trappers and fur traders passing up and down the Mis- souri river. My companion was a fluent talker and kept them well entertained in answer- ing their questions and relating matters that had been or were transpiring in the to them outside world. They did everything they could to entertain and make it pleasant for us.
Courtesy Missouri Historical Society
OLD FRANKLIN
The only building left of what was once the metropolis of interior Missouri, washed away by the Missouri river. The building was Franklin Academy.
PRESIDENT THOMAS JEFFERSON
PRESIDENT JAMES MONROE
On the 10th of August, 1821, he issued the proclamation declaring Missouri's admission to the Union to be "complete."
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ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO
Our clothes were washed and well done up, the buttons sewed on and the rips mended, and -our socks darned. We stopped with them a week, and enjoyed our visit at the fort very much."
Iles accounted for his decision to settle in Illinois, "as I thought Missouri would remain a frontier state during my life time." When he took his departure "the stores in Franklin were mostly branches of Lexington, Ky., houses. At that day the merchants went east in December and rode on horseback to Phila- delphia to buy their goods. These were hauled over the mountains and sent by water to St. Louis, and again carried by wagons 160 miles to Franklin. There were no banks in that part of the state, and the merchants carried the money in belts around their bodies or in saddlebags. I was employed by the merchants to remain until January and bring to Lexington what money might be taken in the stores."
The Rising Tide of Immigration.
The Franklin Intelligencer in an issue of November, 1817, told of prosperity in the Boone's Lick country :
"Immigration to this territory, and particularly to this county, during the present season, exceeds almost belief. Those who have arrived in this quarter are principally from Kentucky and Tennessee. Immense numbers of wagons, carriages, carts, etc., with families have for some time past been arriving daily. During October it is stated that no less than 271 wagons and four-wheeled carriages and 55 two-wheeled carriages and carts passed near St. Charles bound principally for Boone's Lick. It is calculated that the number of persons accompanying these wagons could not be less than 3,000. It is stated in the St. Louis Enquirer of the 10th inst. that about twenty wagons, etc., per week had passed through St. Charles for the past nine or ten weeks with wealthy, respectable immi- grants from various states whose united numbers are supposed to amount to 12,000. The county of Howard, already respectable in numbers, will soon possess a vast population and no section of our country presents a fairer prospect to the immigrant."
Rev. Timothy Flint described one of these caravans going into camp for the night at a spring or creek: "The pack of dogs sets up a cheerful barking. The cattle lie down and ruminate. The huge wagons are covered so that the roof completely excludes the rain. The cooking utensils are brought out. The blacks prepare a supper which the toils of the day render delicious; and they talk over the adventures of the past day, and the prospects of the next."
Franklin at Its Best.
The best description of Franklin in the days of its greatest prosperity is given in the report of the Long Expedition which stopped there in 1819:
"This town, at present increasing more rapidly than any other on the Missouri, had been commenced but two years and a half before the time of our landing. It then con- tained about 120 log houses of one story, several frame dwellings of two stories and two brick, thirteen shops for selling merchandise, four taverns, two smith's shops, two large steam mills, two billiard rooms, a court house, a log prison of two stories, a post office and a printing press issuing a weekly paper. At this time bricks were sold at ten dollars per thousand, corn at twenty-five cents a bushel, wheat at one dollar, bacon at twelve and one-half cents a pound, uncleared lands at two to ten or fifteen dollars an acre. The price of labor was seventy-five cents a day. The bottoms about Franklin are
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CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF MISSOURI
wide and have the same prolific and inexhaustible soil as those below. The labor of one slave is reckoned sufficient for the cultivation of twenty acres of Indian corn which produces ordinarily about sixty bushels per acre at a single crop."
Franklin had an axe factory conducted by Henry Knous. The "knous axe" was in general use among the Missouri settlements. One of the leading mer- chants advertised that he had "a large assortment of firstrate Hats of Castors, Rorams and Wool which he will sell low for cash, or barter for furs."
Missouri Individuality in Early Days.
Strong and sometimes eccentric individuality characterized the Missourians of one hundred years ago. One of the early judges of the court in St. Louis was Nathaniel Beverly Tucker. He was a half brother of John Randolph of Virginia, a fine lawyer, but somewhat peculiar. On his country place in the Florissant valley, Judge Tucker found a great hollow sycamore tree when he bought the farm. He had the tree cut off ten feet from the ground, put on a roof, inserted a door and a window, moved in his desk and law books and made the hollow tree his law office. Judge Tucker loved solitude. He was especially averse to mingling with the "Universal Yankee Nation," as he called the north- erners. When the first Missouri constitution was in process of formation, in 1820, Judge Tucker told the framers they ought to put in a provision to prohibit Yankees crossing the Mississippi river. Edward Bates wanted to know Judge Tucker's idea of the kind of phrasing which would accomplish that. The judge replied that every immigrant presenting himself at the ferry on the Illinois side should be asked to pronounce the word "cow." If the traveler said "keow," he should be turned back.
Judge Peck was a man of eccentricities. He was from the mountains of East Tennessee. While he stood six feet and was of fine physique, he- had brothers who towered from six inches to a foot above him. The story followed Peck to St. Louis that because he was smaller than the other members of the family and unable to do as much work as they could on the farm, he was sent to school to become a lawyer. Peck came to St. Louis in 1818. His appointment to the Federal bench occurred just after Missouri was admitted as a state. One of the judge's customs was to appear in court with a large white handkerchief bound around his head, covering the eyes. The handkerchief was put on before the judge left his home. A servant conducted him from his carriage into the court room and to the bench. The judge sat through the session blindfolded. Whenever it was necessary to present a paper to him, the contents were read aloud by the clerk or the counsel. The explanation given for this singular procedure was that the judge believed his eyes were affected and that he would go blind if he exposed them to the light. Judge Peck was a bachelor. He had at one time paid devoted attentions to a lady of St. Louis. There was another man in the case. Peck and his rival met in the street and fought about the lady. The rival was accepted.
When Duff Green was a Force in Missouri.
Contractor for survey of public lands, merchant with stores in Franklin and Chariton, member of the first constitutional convention, member of the first
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ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO
legislature, state senator, colonel of militia, owner of the St. Louis Enquirer, one of the largest holders of real estate in St. Louis, operator of a stage line westward, Duff Green was a force to be reckoned with in Missouri from 1817 to 1823. He came from Kentucky with a long line of ancestral families in that state and Virginia. He was a young man when he came to the Boone's Lick country. The territorial governor, William Clark, appointed Duff Green colonel of the militia regiment enrolled in the region around Franklin. Thereupon a storm of public opposition was aroused. Governor Clark was accused of im- porting a colonel from Kentucky and of having thereby done injustice to the former colonel, Cooper, an old settler and famous Indian fighter. In his "Per- sonal Narrative," preserved by the Missouri Historical Society, Duff Green has told how he gained his foothold in Missouri. Governor Clark had told him that he was apprehensive the old settlers in the Boone's Lick section, whose property had been destroyed and whose relatives had been killed, would provoke an Indian war; that he wished to appoint some one who would have the nerve to preserve the peace; that "from what he had heard of my character he wished to appoint me." Green had gone to Philadelphia to buy goods for his stores at Franklin and Chariton. He was caught by the ice at St. Charles and had to stay there during the winter. While he was away the opposition to his appointment as colonel reached a climax in 1817.
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