Centennial history of Missouri (the center state) one hundred years in the Union, 1820-1921, Volume I, Part 61

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 61

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MUSEUM OF MASTODON RELICS EXCAVATED NEAR ST. LOUIS

Courtesy Missouri Historical Society

THE BIG MOUND AT BROADWAY AND MOUND STREETS, ST. LOUIS From a daguerreotype taken in 1850.

Vol. 1-36

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The colored population of Missouri is comparatively small. It is scattered. It has schools and churches and as a whole is much further advanced in intel- ligence and morals than the large negro element of southern states. Yet Mary Alicia Owen of St. Joseph gathered information about voodooism in Missouri, showing this state to be a surprisingly rich field for that branch of folklore study. Gaining the confidence of the priests and priestesses of voodooism, this lady received from their own lips the story of voodooism, its rites and practices. Much of her information was given to her personally by the King of the Voodoos in the Missouri Valley, a negro named Alexander, who died some years ago.

To become a voodoo it is necessary to take four degrees, according to Alex- ander. The instruction in the use of persons and remedies, in the significance of dreams, the names of things which go to make up the charms into which the "power" is most easily attracted-all of this is merely preparatory.

"Any fool," Alexander said to Miss Owen, "can know the way to mix sul- phur, salt, alum, may apple, clover, feathers, needles, blood, or rags the color of blood, and he may say the four times four times four, but he can't throw his own spirit made up from Old Grandfather into them."

To make a voodoo priestess of a woman who had gone through the prelimi- naries, Alexander commanded her to hide herself and fast for many days at the same time keeping her thoughts, not on her deprivation, but on the great glories that would be hers when she attained high rank. He commanded her at other times to go cheerfully among people as if she fasted not. He commanded her again to eat all she wanted of pleasant food and then to swallow anything loathsome to the eyes and palate. He required her to go sleepless, to go cold and weary, to burn and cut and bruise and lash herself and think not at all that she suffered. She was made to drink awful mixtures and to swallow tobacco smoke. Then she must walk in cemeteries, in dense woods, beside bean hills, through deserted streets, at night when the moon was on the wane and ghosts were strongest and most threatening. All of these are bits of courage by which the voodoo initiate is tried. Next come the dances until feet are bleeding and mind is frenzied. These are the dances of the Snake, of the Moon, and the Fire.

Having gone faithfully through all of this preparation of self-conquering, which takes months and sometimes years, the candidate receives the final instruc- tion. And it is-

"Never obey any one. Never know any will but your own, except when you are helping another voodoo against a common enemy. Make every one give in to you. Never change your purpose once it is fixed. If you do, you will form a habit of scattering power and will bring against yourself Old Grandfather Rat- tlesnake, who never changes, never forgets."

So the initiation into voodooism seems to be along the lines of theosophy and faith cure in savage forms.

Miss Owen says the great gods of American voodooism are old Grandfather Rattlesnake, who, in this country, corresponds to the green serpent in Africa, Old Sun, Old Boy, Old Boy's wife, who has no name, but is sometimes referred to as the Old Mistress, and the Moon. Below these come hosts of "hauts," "boogers," "rubber devils," "free jacks" and the sorcerers, Old Woodpecker, Old Rabbit, Old Blue Jay, Old Wolf, Old Perarer Chicken, Old King Catfish.

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CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF MISSOURI

King Alexander's Story of Voodooism.

King Alexander gave Miss Owen the story of the founder of voodooism as the American voodoos believe it.

In the old, old times Old Sun took a notion to make some live things. He squatted down on the bank of a river and began to make all sorts of birds and animals and folks from clay. He stopped a moment and tore a fragment from his body and flung it into the weeds. It came forth hissing, a great rattlesnake, and watched Old Sun work. When Old Sun's work was done-that is all ex- cept making people, for the first attempt in that direction was a failure-he breathed life into the creatures without going to the trouble of "stepping in cir- cles or saying words." When each began to move in its own way and to cry out in its own peculiar voice, the delighted creator leaned over his work, breath- ing flames of joy. All caught fire. At this juncture the watching snake bored a hole in the moist earth and saved himself. Old Sun put out the fire, and Grand- father Rattlesnake came out to condole with him, but Turtle, who had been the despised one, was there ahead, with his hair singed off, his eyelids shriveled and his eyes weakened by heat and smoke.

"Hello, my child, do you still live?" cried Old Sun.

The Turtle replied :

"Oh, yes ! my fine daddy ! oh, yes ! oh, yes ! But my back is dried hard as a gourd in the fall, And my inwards is all swivelled up like the grass, Can't you spit on my back, my daddy so fine ; Can't you spit on my back and cool me off?"

Old Sun said :

"Oh, yes, my child, I can cool you off ; Oh, yes, my child, I can cool you off ; But if I spit on your back to cool you off You will live so long you won't know your name."

But Turtle insisted :

"Oh, I won't mind that, my old daddy, so fine. Oh, I won't mind that, my old daddy, so fine, If you can make out, oh, why shouldn't I? If you can make out, oh, why shouldn't I? So, just spit on my back and cool me off."

Old Sun spat on Turtle's back and cooled him off. The sacred spittle gave poor homely Turtle a great increase of vitality, a gift Old Sun never thought of bestowing in the first place because Turtle was his first experiment at forming man. When the clay image was made alive and wabbled about, the large-bodied, small-limbed, hairy, awkward creature on two legs, Old Sun was so mad he hit him a slap, knocked him down on all fours and said: "There, you, crawl! you ain't fitten to walk."

After the bestowal of long life on the Turtle he found favor in the sight of Old Sun, who asked him if he wanted anything more. He said he would like a fine plumy tail, and Old Sun was about to give it when Grandfather Rattlesnake

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. chipped in and said that such an appendage would be a great mistake, because the plumy tail would get draggled. Turtle was sent off without the plumy tail. Old Sun resented Grandfather's interference and tried to kill him, but couldn't. because he was part of himself. He drove him back into the hole, from which Rattlesnake peered out and watched the progress of creation. As soon as Old Sun had made everything over again he climbed back into the sky to prevent a second conflagration. Everything created had a mate, except Grandfather Rat- tlesnake. The latter married an Ash Tree, but there were no descendants. Grand- father crawled into a cave and "worked his mind a long time." When he came out he had perfected voodooism and was able to make himself a wife out of a dead limb. Then he had plenty of children. He was satisfied until he dis- covered that jealous Ash Tree poisoned some of his children and the other crea- tures wouldn't allow their children to associate with his. He worked his mind again. When he found himself full of strength and "poison" he organized a voodoo circle, taught the mysteries and the dances to all of his enemies and then "thought death" to them. After that he organized another circle which handed down the power. When old Grandfather Rattlesnake found he must go away he made a promise to his followers to "fling himself outen his hide," which is something all high voodoos can do, and to come back at intervals. This promise, Alexander told Miss Owen, had always been kept. And such is the origin of voodooism according to Missouri folklore.

The Philosophy of Voodooism.

Miss Owen found a philosophy in voodooism, something more than the ex- ternal forms. She says it is hypnotism, it is telepathy, it is clairvoyance-in a word, it is will. Its motto is "control yourself perfectly, and you can control the world-organic and inorganic."

Old Alexander, the Missouri voodoo adept, put it in this way: "Make up your will strong against yourself and you will soon have it strong enough to put down everything and everybody else."

He claimed that the conjurer needed no tricks, balls or luck stones for him- self. He ought to be able to look a man dead, or make him see things that were not before him, or do what his heart despised. "I'm the snake man," Alexander would boast, "and my enemies are flapping, squeaking birds."

The voodoos are great travelers. They have their organization, called the circle. The purpose of it is to disseminate knowledge and to try strength. Voodoo men and women wander from town to town from New York to Texas, and cir- culate among themselves a vast amount of information about their clients, white as well as colored. Miss Owen frankly admits it is astonishing to her how the voodoo news travels so rapidly. She tells of one instance where the informa- tion of the death of a voodoo on Long Island was known in Missouri as soon as it occurred, although the papers did not announce it for two days afterwards. She tells of voodoos receiving vivid impressions of coming events, although this is never quite reliable for more than one impression. She is sure that telepathy is an agent of voodooism and that clairvoyance is another. But hypnotism is the great reliance. There was a voodoo circle in Missouri which met in an out of the way church, the use of which was kindly given by the sexton. A part of

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the voodoo circle programme is "willing." One of the voodoos stood at the front of the church and the others grouped at the back. The one in front "willed" the others one by one to come to him, and they did it. Suddenly a strange negro arose in a corner of the church and willed the whole crowd to come to him. Then he put them asleep and went through their pockets. The next year the same thing took place with the same circle. Miss Owen suggested to the voodoo who told the story to her that this might have been a spirit possessing unusual power of control. The voodoo didn't think so, because they wouldn't have gone to sleep so readily in the presence of a ghost. He thought the unknown must be a traveling voodoo king. The most disgusted member of the voodooed circle was Alexander, king of the Missouri voodoos. Alexander couldn't get over the fact that he had been "done up." His theory for the wholesale hypnotizing and robbery was that "some low-down Arkansas nigger had sneaked into the church and had prevailed by surprising the folks and scattering their will."

The Mamelles.

A landmark which received much attention from early travelers and scientific explorers was known as the Mamelles. It is north of the Missouri river and about three miles from St. Charles. Brackenridge, the pioneer newspaper cor- respondent of Missouri visited the place and wrote a letter on what he saw. The Mamelles are two large circular mounds which project some distance eastward from the range of hills and overlook a great expanse of prairie :

"To those who have never seen any of these prairies, it is very difficult to convey any just idea of them. Perhaps the comparison to the green sea is the best. Ascending the mounds I was elevated about one hundred feet above the plain; I had a view of an immense plain below, and a distant prospect of hills. Every sense was delighted and every faculty awakened. After gazing for an hour I still experienced an unsatiated delight, in contemplating the rich and magnificent scene. To the right the Missouri is concealed by a wood of no great width, extending to the Mississippi the distance of ten miles. Before me I could mark the course of the latter river, its banks without even a fringe of wood; on the other side the hills of Illinois, faced with limestone in bold masses of various hues and the summits crowned with trees; pursuing these hills to the north, we see, at the distance of twenty miles, where the Illinois separates them in his course to the Mississippi. To the left we behold the ocean of prairie with islets at inter- vals, the whole extent perfectly level, covered with long waving grass, and at every mo- ment changing color, from the shadows cast by the passing clouds. In some places there stands a solitary tree of cottonwood or walnut, of enormous size, but from the distance diminished to a shrub. A hundred thousand acres of the finest land are under the eye at once, and yet on all this space there is but one little cultivated spot to be seen. The eyes at last satiated with this beautiful scene, the mind in turn expatiates on the improve- ments of which it is susceptible, and creative fancy adorns it with happy dwellings and richly cultivated fields. The situation in the vicinity of these great rivers, the fertility of the soil, a garden spot, must one day yield nourishment to a multitude of beings. The bluffs are abundantly supplied with the purest water; these rivulets and rills which at present, unable to reach the father of waters, lose themselves in lakes and marshes, will be guided by the hand of man into channels fitted for their reception, and for his pleasure and felicity."

The Pictured Rocks.

In a history of Boone county printed in 1881 are described "the pictured rocks," as they have been known since the time of the Lewis and Clark expedition. The

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pictures are on a high cliff four miles from Rocheport. The cliff is about 100 feet in height, the top overhanging some ten feet, in such manner as to protect the pictures.

"All along the face of the cliff under the overhanging ledge are the remarkable representations. At the height of nearly fifty feet above the spring is the largest visible group. This comprises, among other pictures and hieroglyphs, two rudely executed draw- ings of human figures, perhaps twenty inches in height, with arms extended; one small human figure with a staff in its hand; numerous circles with dots and crosses in the centre; spots within semi-circles, half resembling the human eye. Other figures, at different places on the rocks, are those of a wild turkey; of a man wearing a jockey cap, from which a plume or feather depends; of numerous circles; fantastic figures, some of an arabesque character, others plain; of a square or cube; of a Masonic compass and square. About five feet below most of the figures runs a narrow ledge on which the artist or artists must have stood when the pictures were made. The ledge is reached from points east and west but it requires a person of some nerve to climb to it. Some of the figures, however, are fifteen feet above the ledge, and could not have been made without the aid of a ladder of some sort. The drawings seem to have been made of a paint composed of ground 'keel' mixed with water or grease, and applied with the fingers or a rude brush. Not all of the pictures can now be seen, as a great portion of the cliff is covered with ivy. Who the artists were that sketched these pictures, and what if anything, they represent cannot now be conjectured. They have existed since the first white man told of this county. The first printed mention of them is made by Lewis and Clark who saw them in 1804. Doubtless they are the work of the mound builders or of some other race akin to them."

Tower Rock and Tower Hill.

A few more than one hundred miles below St. Louis nature has wrought wonderful effects in great masses of rock. Travelers have pronounced these formations even more impressive than the cliffs along the Hudson. On the Illi- nois side are palisades curved and carved by the waters of the period when the Mississippi was forcing its way southward from the glaciers. One section of the rocky bluffs was given the name of "The Devil's Backbone" away back in the early days of river navigation. This section is divided into vertebræ by little gap-like openings. In one place the opening in the bluff bears the non-picturesque name of "The Devil's Bake-oven," resembling, as seen from a passing steamboat, an old Dutch oven of prodigious size. On the Missouri side of the river the mountainous formations are detached in such manner as to suggest the names of "Tower Rock" and "Tower Hill." Tower Rock stands out in the river far enough fron either shore to justify the United States government in calling it an island and claiming jurisdiction. This saved Tower Rock from destruction a few years ago. Quarrymen were about to blast down this landmark and use it for riprap work on the river stretches below when a nearby resident, J. W. Chapin, appealed to Wash- ington. The war department sent engineers who circumnavigated the rock, pro- nounced it an island and as such the property of the United States. Mrs. Chapin, an artist, had painted a picture of Tower Rock. Praiseworthy sentiment prompted her husband to make his appeal to Washington. Tower Rock rises more than one hundred feet above the water, is nearly round, with sides so precipitous that it has been scaled but few times. Tower Hill, on the Missouri side below Tower Rock, is said to have been even more impressive than Tower Rock, but the quarrymen

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have made inroads upon it. Robertus Love, traveler and poet, visited these land- marks some years ago and wrote of them:

"Rivermen tell me there is no place along the entire lower Mississippi, from St. Louis to New Orleans, where such rock formations occur on both sides of the river. They say these palisades and the towers on the Missouri side have been beloved by every generation of rivermen. Mark Twain beheld and gloried in them many times as he piloted steamboats up and down. Thousands of river voyagers have been thrilled by them. I know of no place more beautiful than the Tower Rock vicinity, unless it be the half- moon curve of the beach at Avalon bay, Santa Catalina Island, off the coast of Southern California. That place has its 'Sugarloaf' which suggests Tower Rock standing out in the water."

Missouri's Topographical Freaks.

Nature has scattered freak work generously in Missouri. Time and the ele- ments have wrought marvels above and below the ground. Riding out of Spring- field to the southward the traveler looks from the car window upon what at first sight appears to be the fossilized form of a prehistoric monster. Body, legs and head are there in massive proportions. The animal, as it appears to be, stands. firmly on its feet. But nearer inspection reveals that the mammoth is a product of the wearing work of water course upon an enormous mass of lime rock.

Along White river, about twenty miles below the town of Forsyth, is a collec- tion of strange effects. The water has moulded and left standing erect pillars of rock thirty and forty and fifty feet high.

On Pine mountain, near the Missouri-Arkansas border, are scattered the "Murder Rocks," as they are known far and wide. Fragments of iron ore have rusted and blotched the gray limestone like splashes of blood. It was among the Murder Rocks that Alf. Bolen, a bushwhacker of the border during the Civil war, killed forty men and made the name seem historically appropriate.

In Iron county is a collection of immense red granite boulders worn smooth by the glacial action. One of these boulders is twenty-two feet wide and thirty- five feet long. It looks like an immense potato. The group of boulders is known as "The granite potato patch."

The Cascades, the Shut In and the Stony Battery are landmarks in Iron county.

In St. Charles county is Cedar Pyramid, a mass of rock over one hundred and fifty feet high. For a long time there was a single cedar tree growing on the top of the pyramid.

The Pinnacles in Saline county are lofty bluffs fronting on the Missouri river. They rise from the bottom lands near Miami and suddenly sink into a wonderfully fertile prairie. On one of the highest points of the Pinnacles can be traced the grass covered mounds of an old fortification. The Petite Saw . Plains, Saline county's other topographical marvel, form a very level tableland.

Knob Noster obtains its name from a mound which stands isolated on the prairie.

Pinnacle Rock stands one hundred feet high in a valley of South Bear creek, Montgomery county. By a narrow path along one side the moss-covered summit is reached.

DEVIL'S TOLL-GATE, NEAR ARCADIA

OPENING AN INDIAN MOUND IN THE VICINITY OF ST. LOUIS

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Lost Treasure Traditions. -

As late as 1895 men were still looking for lost treasure in Southwest Mis- souri. One of them who came to Springfield had explicit directions given to him, he said, by an old sailor whom he befriended in Michigan. This sailor in return for the friendship shown him by the Michigan man turned over two maps with drawings and explanations. One map it was claimed represented the outside and the other the inside of the mine. With the map went these directions :

"Go to the southwest corner of the public square of Springfield, Mo., and then fol- low the directions of the outside map three miles. There you will find some broken coun- try. Hunt for a limestone rock on the surface of the ground, marked with three turkey tracks and an arrow. Follow the direction indicated by the arrow 200 paces to a native oak, which you will find marked as the map shows. From the tree measure carefully 150 paces as the map directs, and you will find another stone, on the side of a small ravine, marked with three arrows, pointing different ways. Follow the arrow pointing southeast 250 paces and look for what seems to be the entrance to a natural cave in the bluff. The opening is small, and would hardly be noticed by one passing through the ravine. When you have found the cave follow the directions of the inside map and hunt for the silver. There is enough ore in that cave to make twenty men rich."

The Michigan man who came to Springfield bringing the maps had this experience as he told a correspondent of the St. Louis Globe-Democrat in 1895 :

"I followed the directions given by the Spaniard in explaining the maps, and went from the southwest corner of the public square into the country. I hunted for the rock with the three turkey tracks, but could not find it. Then I began to inquire of the farm- ers in that settlement and found such a stone bearing similar carvings had been quarried and used in walling a well in the neighborhood. The turkey tracks had been noticed by several workmen when the stone was taken up. From the spot where the rock was moved I followed the map and found the stump of the tree. The oak had been cut down several 1 years before, and the stump was much decayed. Two of the landmarks named in the story and indicated on the map had now been found, and I confidently hunted for the last rock with the three arrows. This I failed to discover, nor could I ever find any trace of a cave, though the nature of the country fitted very accurately the description of the region given in the story of the mine. I have spent much time and money in trying to locate this lost silver mine, and still have faith in the statement which the dying sailor told me in Michigan."

In Taney county a similar tradition located silver in the Woody Cave. Con- siderable exploration was done there. An Indian was said to have written a letter telling that when his tribe lived in that vicinity they found silver in vast quantities near the White river. For many years the settlers in the vicinity of White river, which crosses the Missouri-Arkansas border seven times, believed firmly in the existence of silver mines. There were rough maps of the country along the White indicating the locality where the ore would be found. Men came from long distances and spent weeks prospecting in various directions from Forsyth. They had descriptions of ravines and caves to help them. The treasure was never found.

CHAPTER XVII

MISSOURI'S UNDERWORLD

Roark Peak-The Devil's Den-Fate of the Guerrilla-The Sentence of the Home Guards -Nature's Ammonia Completes the Work-Henry T. Blow's Exploration-Tradition of Spanish Treasure-A Visit with Truman S. Powell-The Shepherd of the Hills- Descent into the Amphitheater-Great White Throne-Through Registry Room to the Gulf of Doom-Lost River Which Makes Onyx-Fat Man's Misery-Rest Room- Mystic Lake and Mystic River-Blondy's Throne-Mother Hubbard-The Dungeons- Sentinel Rock and Shower Bath Room-Thirty Miles of Passages-Tales of Marvel Cave-Wonders of Hahatonka-Bishop McIntyre's Lecture-A Pretty Stretch of Boone's Lick Road-The Caves and Bottomless Pit of Warren-Grandeur of the Canyon at Greer-Old Monegaw's Self Chosen Sepulchre-Devil's Lake-Fishing Spring-The Lost Rivers-Senator Vest's Experience-Cave Decorations by the Indians-Persim- mon Gap-Mark Twain's Cave-Dr. McDowell's Grewsome Experiment-Tragedy of Labaddie's Cave-Perry County's Subterranean World-Missouri's Long and Varied List of Underground Wonders-Morgan County's Variety-Looking for the Prehis- toric Man.

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Centennial history of Missouri (the center state) one hundred years in the Union, 1820-1921, Volume I, Part 61

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