Centennial history of Missouri (the center state) one hundred years in the Union, 1820-1921, Volume I, Part 5

Author: Stevens, Walter Barlow, 1848-1939
Publication date: 1921
Publisher: St. Louis, Chicago, The S. J. Clarke publishing company
Number of Pages: 1074

USA > Missouri > Centennial history of Missouri (the center state) one hundred years in the Union, 1820-1921, Volume I > Part 5

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).

"My name, actions and character were made the subjects of unkind comment, and so great a prejudice was excited against me that my agent in Franklin closed my store and wrote to me in Chariton most despondingly. I resolved to meet the crisis. The bat- talion muster was to take place at Franklin, the seat of the excitement, the day after the next. I put on my uniform and rode to Franklin, in full dress. The next morning a Mr. Tompkins, one of the leaders in the movement against me, made an effort to pro- voke a personal quarrel. I told him that my purpose was to reply to their protest before the parade that day and that I would meet him there. Some one whispered to me that the lieutenant-colonel was parading the battalion at Fort Hempstead. I immediately mounted my horse and rode to the parade ground. I directed the lieutenant-colonel to perform some evolution. He could not give the word. I said, 'If you will permit me I will take the command.' I looked along the line and did not see a single person whom I knew save a lieutenant whom I had known in Kentucky. I called to him and said, 'Can I rely on you?' He replied, 'You can, sir.' I said, 'Can you detail a guard of twelve men on whom you can rely?' He said, 'I can.' I then said, 'Detail them.' He did so and marched them in front of the parade. I said, 'Load your guns with ball.' They did so. I then said to the lieutenant, 'Detail a good fugueman.' He did so. I then said, 'Attention the parade! I am told that many persons in this battalion have united in a protest against my appointment as your colonel and that some have pledged themselves not to obey my orders as such. The governor, in the exercise of his legitimate authority, has given me the appointment. I do not come before you now to apologize or explain, but to discharge my duty as your commanding officer, and to enforce obedience, and therefore if any one in the ranks dares to disobey my orders I will put him under guard.' I then, after taking them through the manual exercise, gave the word for several evolu- tions, when, a shower coming up, I handed over the command to Colonel Hickman who dismissed the parade.

On the Stump.

"After the rain I got upon a large stump and called the attention of the battalion. They all collected before me. I took the printed remonstrance; I read it. and replied to, and commented upon it. I proved that my appointment had been made by the gov-

CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF MISSOURI

ernor in the proper exercise of his official duty. To the charge that I had been imported for the purpose and appointed to the exclusion of other aspirants, I showed that while most of the many aspirants were in their forts, or elsewhere in Kentucky, I had surveyed the country which was then occupied by Indian hunting parties, and that I had resolved to move to the county and was on my way for my family when the appointment was tendered to me, and explained the cause of my delay in coming. In reply to the personal remarks which had been made against me, I pointed to the motives and conduct of my accusers, one of whom, a Mr. Benson, had threatened that if I used his name he would drag me from the stump and cowhide me. He had been an aspirant, and when I came to speak of him, he came rushing through the crowd with a whip in his hand. I saw him coming; I drew my sword, poised myself on the stump, and would, if he had come near enough, have endeavored to cut off his head. He threw up both hands and retreated.

"When I came to speak of Colonel Cooper and his letter, he came before me much excited and said, 'Do not use my name, for if you do, I will drag you from that stump.' I stopped speaking, looked him sternly in the eye until I saw that he faltered, and then I said, 'Colonel Cooper, you are the patriarch of this settlement. You have grown gray in the confidence and respect of those who know you. You are here surrounded by your friends and my enemies, who, to flatter your vanity, and use your name and in- fluence to my injury, have tendered you a nomination to the senate, and you have no opposition. I am a young man just entering into life-my character has been assailed by a wicked combination, and it is necessary that I should use your name in my defense. You know that what I am going to say is true, and no threats or violence shall prevent my using your name and stating the facts as they are.' A Mr. Hancock, Colonel Cooper's brother-in-law, here said, 'Go on, sir, I will stand by you.' I continued, addressing the colonel, 'It has been charged that you did not request me to write your letter of resigna- tion. You know that you did come to me and request me to write, and that I wrote precisely the words which you wished to be written.' He quietly took a seat outside of the crowd and did not speak in reply.

"Two of the committee who had published the remonstrance replied to me. I then said, 'Gentlemen, you have now heard me in reply to my accusers. You have heard their response to my reply. Under the circumstances you cannot expect me to resign the command, and I would not resign if every one in the regiment were to request me to do so. But I claim that an expression of your opinion is no less due to yourselves than to me, and it is therefore my wish that you should say whether you are willing that I should continue in the command of this regiment. Therefore, all of you who wish me to command will please move to the right, while those who are opposed, if there are any, will please go to the left.'

"The men threw up their hats, and moving in a body to the right, shouted, 'Hurra! hurra, for our colonel !' Even Benson went with them. Seeing him, I said, 'Mr. Benson, you don't belong to that crowd, please go to the left.' He said, 'The men do not under- stand you.' I replied, 'Gentlemen, Mr. Benson thinks you do not know which is to the right and which is to the left. To satisfy him that it is he who is in the wrong, I renew the proposition, and respectfully request all those who wish me to command this regiment to move to my left, leaving Mr. Benson where he is.' With a shout for 'Our Colonel!' the whole mass moved to the left. My triumph was complete-all opposition to me ceased-my popularity and influence were established, as indicated by my election as a member of the convention which made the state constitution, and then as a member of the house of representatives and of the state senate."

Cooper was asked afterwards why he stopped as he was advancing toward Duff Green. The answer of the sturdy old pioneer was, "I saw something in Green's eyes that warned me to keep hands off."

The French Missourians.

Brackenridge told of the social conditions as he found them in St. Louis. Of the French he said :

ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO

"Their amusements were cards, billiards, and dancing; this last, of course, the favorite. The dances were cotillions and sometimes the minuet. Children have also their balls and are taught a decorum and propriety of behavior which is preserved through life. They have a certain ease and freedom of address, and are taught the secret of real politeness- self-denial.

"Their language, everything considered, is more pure than might be expected. Their manner of lengthening the sounds of words, although languid and without the animation which the French generally possess, is by no means disagreeable. They have some new words and others are in use which in France have become obsolete.

"In their persons they are well formed, of an agreeable, pleasant countenance, indi- cating cheerfulness and serenity.

"The dress of the females was generally simple and the variations of fashion few; though they were dressed in much better taste than the other sex. The American costume is generally introduced into the best families and among the young girls and young men universally. I never saw anywhere greater elegance than at the balls in St. Louis."

Fourth of July at Murphy's Settlement.

"Murphy's Settlement" was the first name of a pioneer community which later became Farmington. Uncle George Murphy preserved the story of the first dance held in the settlement. The "Farmington Times" resurrected the narrative from an old scrapbook :

"It was on the 4th of July, 1822. Some brought bread and some brought a whole hog and a number of them brought a quarter of beef and lots of good corn. All meat was barbecued over a furnace by an old colored man. Now comes Halbert's Major, a man of color, with his fiddle, an entirely new sight to most of the youngsters of Murphy's Settlement. Having tuned his fiddle, he spoke as follows: 'Now ladies and gentlemen, I am going to do my very best for you. I have never drawn this bow across these strings for any one to dance since I left Old Carolina. Now draw your partners.' Major began the old tune :

"'Joe cut off the pig's toe, hung it up to dry ; The gals begin to laugh at Joe and Joe begin to cry.'

"I. myself was in a perfect ecstacy of joy and delight. I forgot to mention that one gentleman had bullet buttons on his coat and epaulettes on his shoulders and they rattled while he danced. Another danced with his spurs on. After a reasonable time dinner was put on the table, but before partaking of it, John D. Peers read the Declaration of Independence, and made a speech appropriate to the occasion. Now comes the dinner, good enough for a rail mauler. Captain Bashe was there. He was a candidate for Con- gress and made the first political speech ever made in the Murphy Settlement. He was dressed in full uniform with sword by his side, epaulettes on his shoulders and a blue scarf girdled around him. The country tarheels were perfectly amazed to behold him. His speech was said to be very fine by those who had sense enough to comprehend it. Just in the middle of the speech, old man Shumate applauded him and Neely Stewart said to him, 'Shut your old fool mouth.' Upon which Shumate replied, 'Who is Neely Stewart? Because you married a Poston in a big family, and a brother-in-law to Isaac Baker, you think you are somebody and you ain't no account, nohow.' At which Neely Stewart knocked Shumate down with a shoulder of beef.

"The first raisin that was ever brought to Murphy's Settlement was brought by Hagan from Yankeetown, and while Captain Bashe was in a big way of speaking, there was a lad remarked, 'Oh, Lord! There is a box of things in that cart yonder they call sweetened grapes.' The young chap went to try them. He got his hand in the box and as he did so, Hagan looked around. The boy jumped from the cart, upset the raisins and skedad- dled as hard as he could.

Vol. I-2

CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF MISSOURI

"Now the question was where can we dance at night. Aleck Younger was living right close to the place in Granny Murphy's house. They asked permission of him. But Younger being an excellent man, he said, 'No, you can't dance there, for in that house the first sermon was preached, and you shan't dance the first reel in it. Besides poor old Uncle Davy is mad enough that you had the dance in the neighborhood. I won't mortify him by letting you dance in his mammy's house.'

"But George Robinson, who lived in Tommy George's house, was there and he gave them leave to dance there. The next thing was what to do for a light. Adam Younger, a colored man, said if they would give him three picayunes, and could get Amy, a colored woman, to spin him some wick, he would make them five slubs which would last all night Now you that have coal oil and sperm candles may not know what a slub is, so I had bet- ter explain. It is a string like that for a candle mould, and instead of moulding, you soften the tallow and squeeze it around the string.

"After the slubs were made, all repaired to George Robinson's and the dancing again commenced. About ten o'clock refreshments were handed around. There was a lady there with a pretty, changeable silk on, and a young chap undertook to be very polite; he says to the young lady, 'Madam, won't you have a piece of ham?' Then some chap ran against him and the contents of the dish were spilled in her lap. At that he asked pardon and she said, 'It is all granted for I am not going to get mad; for I will go and put on Betsey's calico dress if my changeable silk is spoiled. I am not going to have my fun . spoiled, for I am going to dance all night if Major's strings don't wear out.'"

A Commercial Review of the Metropolis.

What the metropolis of Missouri had and had not, from the commercial and industrial view, Colonel Charless set forth in the Missouri Gazette:

"The opulent town of St. Louis may boast of a capital of nearly one million, and has few manufactories, no respectable seminary, no place of worship for dissenters, no pub- lic edifices, no steam mill or boat, no bank, and, I was going to say, no effective police. Mr. Philipson has lately established an excellent brewery, where excellent beer and porter are made. Mr. Wilt erected a red and white lead manufactory and threw into the mar- ket several tons of that useful article; his red lead has been admired as superior to that imported. Mr. Hunt's tanning establishment is of primary importance. Mr. Henderson's soap manufactory would be of great utility if it only received that patronage the proprietor so richly merits.

"I have no doubt that brickmakers and bricklayers, carpenters who could be satisfied with a moderate compensation for their labor, black- and whitesmiths, silversmiths, woolen and cotton carding and spinning machines and managers, tobacconists, nailers, gunsmiths, coopers, pump-makers, stocking weavers, wagón-makers, stone-cutters, boat-, barge- and ship-builders, rope-makers, cutlers and tool-makers, skin-dressers and many other em- ployments would do well here. A man of capital and enterprise would soon accumulate a large fortune by erecting a steam flour- and saw-mill in this place; wheat sells here at one dollar per bushel (abundance raised in the country), and good merchantable flour is sure to command from eight to ten dollars per barrel. Corn generally rates at from twenty-five to fifty cents and will bring in meal from fifty to eighty-seven and one-half cents a bushel. Pine boards sell at four dollars and oak and ash at two and three dollars per hundred feet. Saw-logs could be brought to town at one dollar each. Five thousand barrels of whiskey are annually received here from the Ohio and sold at seventy-five cents a gallon, while thousands of bushels of grain are offered at a low price to any enterprising man who will commence a distillery."

St. Louis as John F. Darby Found It.

John F. Darby left his recollection of St. Louis as he saw it for the first time in 1818. He was a small boy, the family coming from North Carolina that year :

ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO

"The town of St. Louis, at that time, contained about two thousand inhabitants, two- thirds of whom were French and one-third Americans. The prevailing language of the white persons on the street was French; the negroes of the town all spoke French. All the inhabitants used French to the negroes, their horses and dogs; and used the same tongue in driving their ox-teams. They used no ox-yokes and bows, as the Americans did, in hitching their oxen to wagons and carts; but instead had a light piece of wood about two or three inches thick and about five feet long, laid on the necks of the oxen, close up to the horns of the animals, and this piece of wood was fastened to the horns by leather straps, making them pull by the head instead of the neck and shoulders. In driving their horses and cattle they used the words 'chuck!' and 'see!' 'marchdeau!' which the animals all perfectly understood.

"Colonel Auguste Chouteau had an elegant domicile fronting on Main street. His dwelling and houses for his servants occupied the whole square bounded north by Market street, east by Main street, south by what is now known as Walnut street, and on the west by Second street. The whole square was enclosed by a solid stone wall two feet thick and ten feet high, with port holes about every ten feet apart, through which to shoot Indians in case of attack. The walls of Colonel Chouteau's mansion were two and a half feet thick, of solid stone work; two stories high, and surrounded by a large piazza or portico about fourteen feet wide, supported by pillars in front and at the two ends. The house was elegantly furnished, but at that time not one of the rooms was carpeted. In fact, no carpets were then used in St. Louis. The floors of the house were made of black walnut, and were polished so finely that they reflected like a mirror. He had a train of servants, and every morning after breakfast some of those inmates of his house- hold were down on their knees for hours, with brushes and wax, keeping the floors pol- ished. The splendid abode with its surroundings had indeed the appearance of a castle.

"Major Pierre Chouteau also had an elegant domicile built after the same manner and of the same materials. He, too, occupied a whole square with his mansion, bounded on the east by Main street, on the south by what is known as Vine street, on the west by Second street, and on the north by what is now known as Washington avenue, the whole square being surrounded by high solid stone walls and having port holes, in like man- ner as his brother's."

The Years of the Ferry.

In 1817 St. Louis had attained the degree of importance which demanded two ferry landings. Boats continued to bring travelers from the east side to the place where Auguste Chouteau had made the first landing near the foot of Market street. But another line ran to the other depression in the rocky front near the foot of Morgan street. The service, under competition, being regular, it continued to be primitive. Two kinds of boats were used. The slow-moving flat-bottomed craft without covering was employed to cross over horses and wagons. A keel boat with four oars made quicker passage. Ferry transporta- tion at St. Louis became progressive when John Day fixed up a boat with a stern wheel which was turned by a horse in a treadmill. As the patient animal climbed, the paddle wheel went round and the ferry churned its way across the Mississippi. In those days, when rivalry did not lead to cut rates, the tolls for ferriage were twenty-five cents for a human being; fifty cents a head for cattle and horses; fifty cents for a wagon or other vehicle; twelve and one- half cents a hundred for lumber and other heavy freight.

With 1818 came a new era in ferrying. Samuel Wiggins with his family arrived from Charleston, South Carolina. He had some means. He connected himself with the ferry business. He bought John Day's- horse-power stern- wheeler. He acquired the interest of the Piggot heirs in another line. Gradu- ally he consolidated and improved the service. He did not come too soon. In

CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF MISSOURI

1816 one of these frail ferry boats was upset by bad handling in the middle of the river. Dubay, the ferryman, two assistants and two passengers were drowned. As soon as the steamboat navigation demonstrated its value, Captain Wiggins put into service a steam ferry. Other boats were added as the business grew. The "Wiggins Ferry" became an institution of the city. It met public needs. If it had not been so well conducted St. Louis would not have waited until 1874 for the first bridge.

"The Irish Crowd."

The coming of the McKnights and the Bradys was an event. John McKnight and Thomas Brady were the leading spirits in this lively crowd. Of the Mc- Knights there were John, Thomas, James, Robert and William. The McKnights and the Bradys bought a boat at Pittsburg. They rowed down the Ohio and up the Mississippi to St. Louis. The boat carried a stock of goods as well as the two families. The store of McKnight & Brady was opened. For a short time after their arrival, the McKnights and Bradys were spoken of as "the Irish crowd." Before the second year was out the McKnights and Bradys were a power in the community.

The second season after their arrival they were able to buy a lot sixty feet front on the corner of Main and Pine streets, in the business heart of the city. Here they did business successfully until they were able to erect in 1816, an imposing structure of brick, the first in St. Louis for a public house. There were stores downstairs, a hotel upstairs where was held in 1817 the first cele- bration, west of the Mississippi, of Washington's birthday. McKnight and Brady amassed enough money at trade.to go into real estate. They laid out part of what is now East St. Louis and called it Illinoistown. McKnight served on the grand jury. Brady presided at the first meeting of Irishmen to organ-" ize the Erin Benevolent Society. Thomas Brady married a daughter of John Rice Jones, who became one of the first three justices of the supreme court of Missouri. One of Thomas Brady's daughters married Ferdinand Rozier, the Second. The standing which the McKnights and Bradys quickly obtained in the community was shown by the selection of Thomas Brady to be one of the commissioners to obtain subscriptions to the first bank established under charter from the territorial legislature. John McKnight was a commissioner to receive subscriptions to the second bank chartered, and Thomas Brady was elected a member of the first board of directors of the bank. St. Louis never had occa- sion to regret the coming of the McKnights and Bradys.

The McKnights were enterprising in many directions. Robert, one of the four brothers, in 1817 went on a trading expedition to Sante Fe and Chihuahua. This was at the same time that Jules DeMun and Auguste P. Chouteau went out with a stock of goods to do business with the Mexicans. The three young men from St. Louis were robbed of their goods and thrown into jail. There they remained two years. Their treatment was inade the basis of a claim against Mexico by the United States. An indemnity of about $100,000 was paid by Mexico. Another of the McKnights, John, a nephew of Robert, went out to Chihuahua in 1826 and accumulated a fortune in trade there. When he returned to make his home near St. Louis he brought with him ten thousand dollars which

Courtesy Missouri Historical Society

GEN. WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON Governor of Northwestern Territory in 1803

DON CARLOS DE HAULT DELASSUS Last Spanish Governor

FIRST GOVERNMENT HOUSE AT ST. LOUIS With jail at the end. The site is marked by tablet on Main Street between Market and Walnut streets

ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO

Governor Armijo had given him to place to his credit. As the Mexican handed the money, he declined a receipt, saying "All that I want is your word." The McKnight road, one of the thoroughfares in the western suburbs of St. Louis, was named in honor of this family.

The Weather of 1819, 1820 and 1821.

Jacob Matthews was of the innumerable caravan which came out of Ken- tucky and into Missouri in 1818. He settled in the vicinity of Hannibal, bring- ing the first wagon that crossed North river. His son, George W. Matthews, was the first white child born north of North river. But what is especially interesting to this generation is that Mrs. Matthews kept a diary of that which impressed her about Missouri one hundred years ago. In the years of 1819, 1820 and 1821, Mrs. Matthews made this record :

"During the past summer there was more sickness and deaths in proportion to the population than I ever knew. At Louisiana there was eleven out of sixty inhabitants died. At St. Louis for awhile there died from six to ten a day, and sickness was very general throughout the country.

"December 19, 1819 .- The past season has been fine and warm. There was fine crops raised this season. To day there fell a snow twelve inches deep, and it is cold in the extreme."

"January 1, 1820 .- It continues very cold. The snow is from twelve to fourteen inches deep.

"February 28 .- The winter has commenced breaking up; the snow has disappeared and we have the appearance of fine spring weather.

"July 1 .- We have had a fine warm spring and very good crops this season, and it is not as sickly as last year. The fever and ague is very common, but not as many deaths as in the previous season. I didn't hear of more than five or six deaths this side of Salt river.

"September 1 .- We had the warmest weather I ever felt in the last two months, July and August.

"November 9 .- We have had frost from the last of September until today, when there fell a snow twelve inches deep, and it is very cold.

"January 1, 1821 .- It still continues very cold and the snow continues on the ground. "March 30 .- Still cold and wet.

"April 15 .- Very little more sign of vegetation than there was in the middle of the winter. Snow on the ground twelve or thirteen inches deep.

"April 25 .- Still cold and no sign of a bud on the trees.

"May 15 .- Fine spring weather. The trees begin to look green and the grass grows fine. The farmers are all engaged in planting corn."

The Christening of a County.

The creation of Lincoln county was one of the acts of the Missouri territorial legislature in 1818. The first settler of that part of Missouri, Major Christopher Clark, was a member of that territorial legislature. He was a fine pioneer but not much given to public speech. According to the late Joseph A. Mudd, the historian of Lincoln county, Major Clark put through his bill with this unanswer- able argument, which not only establishes the origin of the name of the county but corrects the impression held by some people outside of Missouri that this state honored Abraham Lincoln in the title of a county :

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Centennial history of Missouri (the center state) one hundred years in the Union, 1820-1921, Volume I, Part 5

Author: Stevens, Walter Barlow, 1848-1939 Publication date: 1921 Publisher: St. Louis, Chicago, The S. J. Clarke publishing company Number of Pages: 1074

Author: Stevens, Walter Barlow, 1848-1939
Publication date: 1921
Publisher: St. Louis, Chicago, The S. J. Clarke publishing company
Number of Pages: 1074