Centennial history of Missouri (the center state) one hundred years in the Union, 1820-1921, Volume I, Part 65

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 65

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DRYGOODS

WHOLESALE

CARPETINGS

OIL CLOTHS

CARPE TINGS I

HATS, CAPS & BONNETS

KENNARD&SON!

ITUTTLE &BROWN

POMEROY& BENTON POMEROY S BENTON. ROGERS &MECORMICKE. A. M. DOWELL&CO ROSENHEIM&COLLINS / CHASE &BROTHERS

ESWARDS

FOURTH STREET, BETWEEN WASHINGTON AVENUE AND ST. CHARLES STREET, THE SHOPPING DISTRICT OF 1857

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will rise to within fifty feet of the top and then sink to a depth of eighty feet. These changes take place, according to those who have lived in the neighborhood, with the rise and fall of the Upper Missouri in Montana. Many years ago there was an oak tree leaning over the lake. It was cut at a time when the water was low and fell nearly one hundred feet before it struck water. It passed below the surface and never came up. Several engineers state that the level of this lake is higher than most parts of the Ozarks and that the underground supply of water must come from great distance. One of the stories told of the Devil's Lake is that two or three cedar logs appeared upon the surface. They were larger than any cedar trees which grow within a hundred miles.

Senator Vest had an experience with the mysteries of the Ozarks. He had heard of the Robideau River. "Old man Haskell" was a well-known Ozark guide in his day. The senator engaged Haskell. They took the Robideau about twenty miles above Waynesville, the county seat of Pulaski. After several days of interesting experiences the senator asked Haskell if they could not make the run down to the Gasconade. "I reckon we kin, sure enough, by sundown," the guide said. The senator and the guide, after two hours' floating and pulling found themselves in a strong eddy which nearly upset the little boat and which finally landed them on a bar. There was the end of the river. The senator appealed to Haskell. "What have you got to say about this? You are the guide. You said you knew all about this country and especially this river. Now where has it gone?" Haskell got out on the bar, put his hand over his eyes and looked up the stream and then looked down where the stream should have gone but where there was only dry ground. There was a road within a short distance and when Haskell saw a farmer coming up he shouted: "O mister, did yer see a river running anywhar down that way? I'll be danged if we hain't lost one." The farmer looked pleased as he took in the situation and answered, "About five miles down the road. Reckon you'uns want a lift. I'll take ye an' yer traps fur $3. - Better look out ; you'uns may get sucked under whar ye air now."

"What do you mean?" shouted Senator Vest.

The farmer replied, "That river don't go no further on top until you get below here five miles. It jist slips inter the gravel whar you are and don't show up till ye git ter Waynesville."

The senator, the guide and the farmer lifted the boat into the wagon and rode to the vicinity of Waynesville, where the Robideau makes its appearance, coming to the surface in the form of a splendid spring.

Lost rivers in Missouri are innumerable. In fact, the stream which does not lose itself several times before it concludes to run along on top of ground in an orderly fashion is an exception. A ride of half a day along some of the Ozark valleys will furnish repeated illustrations of the peculiar character of the chan- nels. A creek running half way to the wagon hubs will be in sight for a mile or two. Then will come a crossing where the channel is a bed of gravel, dry and dusty, without water in sight above or below. A mile farther on the creek is pursuing its joyous, rippling way. Stretches of dry bed and of dancing water alternate. The water sinks noiselessly and entirely into a bed of sand at one place and appears without any fuss oozing up from another bed farther down.

There are few of the caves of considerable size which do not have their

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"lost rivers." Through them flow streams of considerable volume. The lost river comes out of one side, crosses the cave and disappears in the other side. Often there is not a sound, not as much as a ripple. Of all the strange thrills which come in an exploration of these underground passages there is nothing quite so weird as when the torch casts its light upon one of these silent rivers flowing by with nothing to show whence it came or whither it goeth.

The Hannibal Mystery.

"Mark Twain's Cave" is in the Missouri cliffs overlooking the Mississippi about a mile southeast of Hannibal. Since "Sam" Clemens crawled into the crevice high up the bluff and had the adventures to be utilized later in his books, the cave has been modernized. A beautiful river road passes the park which surrounds the entrance now used. The hole through which Mark Twain crawled is boarded up. It was above the present entrance. The visitor now walks into a broad level corridor. The guide leads the way, pointing out such localities as "Straddle Alley," "Fat Man's Misery" and "Bat Alley." There is enough hard going, as the cave is explored, to satisfy the adventurous. There are passages leading downward to levels below the Mississippi river.

Dr. Joseph N. McDowell, a famous but eccentric surgeon, founder of McDow- ell's College at St. Louis, gave the Hannibal cave a mystery some years before the Civil war. He had very strange ideas about the disposition of the dead. When Dr. McDowell thought he was going to die, he called to his bedside Dr. Charles W. Stevens and Dr. Drake McDowell, his son. He exacted from them a solemn promise that they would place his body in a copper receptacle and fill the space with alcohol. The receptacle they were to suspend in Mammoth Cave, Kentucky. Permission to do this the doctor claimed he had already ob- tained. This eccentric demand was not a great surprise to Dr. Stevens. Com- ing to McDowell's College to study medicine, Stevens had learned quickly some- thing of his preceptor's strange fancies. A child of Dr. McDowell died a few days after Stevens entered the college. The coffin was lined with metal. The body was placed in the coffin. All space remaining was filled with alcohol and the coffin was sealed tightly. A year or so later the body of the child was removed from the coffin and placed in a large copper case. This was Dr. McDowell's method of treating the bodies of his children. No religious service of any kind was performed. The copper cases were carried at night attended by a procession formed by the medical students and friends of the family. Each person carried a torch. The place of disposition was a vault in the rear of the residence. The thought of a natural cave as a final resting place was a favorite one. Dr. McDow- ell bought the cave near Hannibal. He had a wall built across the opening and placed in it an iron door. The vase or case containing one of the children was taken from St. Louis to this cave and suspended from the roof. Only ordinary local interest had been felt in the cave up to that time. But when Dr. McDowell barred entrance everybody wanted to know what was inside. Boys found crev- ices and crawled in. They gave such accounts of their discovery that an investi- gation seemed to be justified. Men broke down the iron door. The curious public visited the place. In the effort to find a plausible explanation for this use of the cave the theory was advanced that the surgeon wanted to see if the

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cave would bring about petrification. Whatever had been his purpose, Dr. Mc- Dowell removed the body of the child. He bought a mound across the river in the American Bottom, not far from Cahokia, in view with a spyglass from the cupola of the college. There he constructed a vault in which he placed the body of his wife. Years afterwards Dr. McDowell and his wife were buried in Bellefontaine.

Caves in Endless Variety.

Labaddie's Cave in Franklin county obtained its name from a hunting tragedy. A man named Labaddie with his boy about twelve years old followed a bear which had been wounded to the mouth of the cave. Labaddie crawled in, think- ing that the wound was mortal. The boy waited some hours. The father did not come back and the boy returned to St. Louis. A rescuing party went out to the cave, which is near Labaddie station, on the Rock Island road. The search was fruitless. Many years afterwards the cave was examined and the skeletons of the hunter and the bear were found side by side. Fisher's Cave, in Franklin county, is near the station of Stanton on the Frisco. It is a spacious opening in the bluffs on the Meramec. A long passage leads to a chamber one hundred feet in diameter with stalactites and stalagmites of beautiful dark colors. In another room one of the stalactites has grown until it has just met a stalagmite, the two forming a great column seeming to support the roof. A mile from the entrance is the "dripping spring" where the water continually falls from the roof into a large pool. Below Fisher's Cave is Saltpeter Cave, where gunpowder was made in the early days. Garrett Cave is near Sullivan. Persimmon Gap is a hole ten or fifteen feet wide passing through a spur of the Ozarks about three miles south of Stanton. This hole or tongue is one of the strange freaks in Franklin county. It is located west of Detmold. At the bottom of a depression is an opening in the rock fourteen inches wide and four feet long. Descending through this hole the explorer finds the well widening to ten or twelve feet square. About eighty feet down the water of a large underground lake is reached.

Perry county has so many caves that it was described by an early traveler as having "a little subterranean world, full of rippling rills, vaulted streets, palatial caverns and grottoes, filled with monuments of stalagmites, and festooned with stalactites." One Perry county cave has been penetrated four miles. Stone county abounds in caves, more than twenty-five having been explored. Mason's Cave, in Greene county, was first known as the Cave of Adullam. Knox Cave, in Greene county, was discovered in 1866 by J. G. Knox and given his name. Alum Cave, in Washington county, was given its name at the time alum was mined there.

In Shannon county is Sinking Creek. It passes for a distance of one mile through a hill six hundred feet high. Boats can navigate through the hill. Oregon county has a depression one hundred and fifty feet below the surrounding country. It is called Grand Gulf. The cascade on the border of the Arcadia Valley drops from the top of Cascade Mountain a distance of two hundred feet into a gorge. Ste. Genevieve county has a cave in which there are, apparently drawn on the limestone, pictures of birds. Simm's Hole is near the town of

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Ste. Genevieve. In it is the mouth of Dead Men's Cave, eight feet high. There are passages in the cave several miles long.

Two natural bridges, many caves and springs of wonderful clearness are among the natural features of Greene county. One of the caves, the Lincoln, seven miles northwest of Springfield can be explored to a depth of over half a mile. Through it flows a river ten feet deep of perfect clearness.

Morgan County's Variety.

Morgan county has a variety of caves. One of these, known as Cave Mills on the Gravois, is in the form of a complete tunnel, about 1,500 feet long through a hill. Walls, roof and floor are of rock. If railroad engineers had planned a tunnel they could hardly have improved on this work of nature. At each end is a large opening. The roof is about thirty feet above the floor.

The entrance to Wolf cave is downward from the surface. A tree slid into the mouth of the cave making descent easy. Up and down this tree trunk wolves in packs made their way in the early days.

Price's cave has an entrance so large that a man on horseback can ride into it. The cave extends back more than a mile with many rooms, some fifty feet from floor to roof.

The Purvis cave is even more extensive, it being traversed more than two miles in depth. The pioneer explorers of this cave found indications that it had been frequented by the Osage Indians. Considerable lead was taken out of this cave.

Strange vocal effects, due to echoes, are heard in a Morgan county cave at the mouth of Big Gravois. The opening is fifty feet wide. The cave runs back . 300 feet. Persons talking in the cave can be heard on the hill above, through an opening.

A miner digging a shaft several miles south of Versailles suddenly. found the bottom dropping into a large cave to which the name of Jacob's cave was given.

A Community of Caves.

Ha-Ha-Tonka natural park, on the Big Niangua river, in Camden county, is a community of caves. There are Island cave, just why so named cannot be ex- plained; Counterfeiters' cave, with its tradition of having been the hiding place of a band who manufactured banknotes in the financial wildcat days; Bear cave, in which the last bear of the vicinity is said to have been killed; Robbers' cave, which suggests its own christening ; River cave, with its lost river flowing through ; Cullins' cave, named for an early explorer ; Onyx cave, abounding in the beautiful dripping decorative art of the Ozarks; Bunch cave, Griffith cave, Bridal cave. In Bridal cave, which is entered by a very small opening, a romantic couple were married once upon a time. The ceremony took place in the midst of one of the most wonderful wildernesses of stalactites and stalagmites. These formations are of gigantic dimensions, the stalagmites rising from the floor of the cave until they seem to tower like church steeples above the visitor. The narrow passages lead from one vast cavern to another. In not few places are massive stone columns reaching from floor to roof as if supporting the great domes. Some who have made the trip of miles from the railroad to view the wonders of Bridal cave

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think it surpasses Kentucky's Mammoth cave. In River cave, the stream flowing through abounds in blind fish. The sights of Hahatonka include Big Spring gushing eighty feet wide and five feet deep from the side of Sunset Hill, down through Trout Glen, abounding in fish, past Balanced Rock and spreading into a lake covering sixty acres of land, at last finding its way into the Niangua river. Beyond Sunset Hill, to the east is Natural Bridge 180 feet high supporting a roadway above while beneath is the passage to the Coliseum, a natural amphi- theater in which some day 10,000 people may assemble to marvel over Haha- tonka. The Devil's Fireplace has room for a whole pine tree, with a chimney to match, and the Red Sinks drink in the hardest floods without an apparent outlet.

Walter Williams on Missouri's Wonders.

Walter Williams found at Hahatonka "more natural curiosities than in any other similar share of the earth's surface." His visit prompted him to say of it:

"At Hahatonka the big cave was seen by night. The entrance is made by boat under an overhanging weight of rock, which looks always ready to topple over. It suggested the River Styx, with Charon, the boatman. Once inside the cave and there were rooms of various sizes, shapes and oddities, a massive pillar, river disappearing, echoing cor- ridors and other wonders. Bridal Cave, some distance away, is pronounced by cave ex- perts to be the most wonderful in the world. If Hahatonka were on a railroad it would have thousands of visitors where it now has one. Here is a cave more wonderful than Mammoth Cave, a spring surpassing in size any in the state, a natural bridge superior to the famous Virginia Natural Bridge. The ignorance of Missourians regarding the natural wonders of their own state is shown when reference is made to Hahatonka and other places of less attractiveness. The existence of these is scarcely known, and yet Mis- sourians will wander off to the distant sections of the country to see caves, waterfalls, lakes and mountains far inferior in beauty. The Garden of the Gods is far-famed. It is surpassed by the Hahatonka regions. The Cave of the Winds is not the same high class as the Bridal Cave. Some patriotic Missourian should get up an expedition to explore Missouri. It would be a fine contribution to knowledge and understanding of the state and its greatness. Within the borders of the dozen counties lying in the south central portion of the state between the Missouri Pacific, the Missouri, Kansas and Texas rail- way and the St. Louis and San Francisco railroad may be found territory that would require months to investigate and explore."

There is wide difference in human interest about caves. Walter Williams told of traveling through Missouri with a college professor whose lack of enthu- siasm for underground exploration was summed up in, "All caves look alike. They are damp, muggy, smell of malaria. Bats live in them, and they taste of the flood. To see one cave is to see them all."

On the other hand, Henry Robbins, the editor, said of the late Bishop McIn- tyre, the educated and eloquent bricklayer : "His lecture on 'Wyandotte Cave' has probably never been surpassed in spoken English as a sustained effort. Ingersoll, who surpassed him in delivery, gave brief descriptions of superior polish, but McIntyre's lecture of two hours in length was entirely descriptive. The only criticism was that its very brilliancy palled. Like Bulwer-Lytton, he kept continually on the mountain-top without the relief of valleys. When the bishop was in St. Louis the writer told him of a traveling man who had been so charmed with the McIntyre description of Wyandotte Cave that he had, at

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considerable expense, made a special visit to the cave itself. His conclusion was : 'That man McIntyre is the biggest liar in America.'"

Looking for the Cave Man in Missouri.

Evidences of the prehistoric or cave man are to be found in Missouri, the archeologists believe. The search is still going on. During 1919 Gerard Fowke, working under the direction of the bureau of ethnology at Washington, pursued the quest along the Big Piney. He gave special attention to caves so far removed from general settlement as to have remained undisturbed by white people. In one cave he found a vast accumulation of ashes, estimated at a thousand wagon loads. The conditions showed occupation of the cave for ten centuries, perhaps. In the valleys were the traces of many villages. But nowhere were the human relics such as to reveal the prehistoric man. They indicated a low degree of culture, the commonest kinds of utensils and shell beads. The skeletons were those of Indians with flattened skulls and high cheek bones. The burial places in essential features were the same as constructed by later generations of Indians. Some indications of cannibalism were found. But the conclusions of the season's investigation were that these people who built the fires in the caves for winter quarters and lived in villages in summer were nomadic tribes, similar to those who were found in Missouri when the white people came, and not prehistoric cave men. Taking all that can be called caves, the scientists estimate there are 100,000 of them in Southern Missouri.

Vol. I-39

M. M. Marmaduke, 1844

John C. Edwards, 1844-1848

Austin King, 1848-1852

Sterling Price, 1853-1857

Trusten Polk, 1857

Robert M. Stewart, 1857-1861

GOVERNORS OF MISSOURI

CHAPTER XVIII

MISSOURI CAMPAIGNS

The Days of Political Songs-A Cartoon at Rocheport-Isaac Martin's Winning Speech- How Providence Elected a Congressman-Bingham's County Election-An Incident at Old Chariton-The Man Who Broke a Tie-When Abraham Lincoln Shocked Missouri Whigs-The Actor in Politics-The Jackson Resolutions-Benton's Defiance-John Scott's Letter-Benton's Campaign in 1849-The Climax at Fayette-When Norton Averted Bloodshed-Missourians in Kansas-Price and the Governorship-Good Stories from Walter Williams-How Rollins Got the Best of Henderson-Senator Schurz and Eugene Field-The Know Nothing Days-St. Louis Riots-Boernstein and the Forty- eighters-A Reporter's Impressions of Polk, Rollins and Stewart-Missouri's Longest Campaign-Claiborne F. Jackson's Opportunity-A Newspaper Ultimatum-William Hyde's Graphic Narrative-One of Fayette's Greatest Days-John B. Clark, the Politi- cal Adviser-Sample Orr, the Unknown-A Moonlight Conference-Douglas or Breck- inridge ?- Jackson Declares His. Position-A Campaign of Oratory-Blair's First Speech After the War-A Thrilling Scene at the Pike County Forum-Blair at Mexico -The Republican Split of 1870-Birth of the Possum Policy-Holding the Wire- Freedom of Suffrage-Judson on the Liberal Movement-New Parties in Missouri- Greenbackers and Wheelers-Campaign Stories-How Telegrams Saved an Election- Vest on Party Loyalty-Champ Clark on Politics and Oratory-The Barber Shop Barometer.

You jolly brave boys of Missouri, And all ye old Jackson men, too, Come out from among the foul party, And vote for old Tippecanoe, And vote for old Tippecanoe. -From a Missouri Campaign Song of 1840.

Singing was a feature of early political campaigns in Missouri, and some of the songs were of local composition. When Jackson was elected, Ewing Van Bibber was the author of this :

"Should auld acquaintance be forgot And never brought to mind, Since Jackson is our president And Adams left behind?"

- Feeling ran so high in Missouri over the result of the election that the song gave great offense. Alexander Graham, son of Dr. Robert Graham, threatened to whip Van Bibber for his musical levity.

Judge David P. Dyer, when he was United States district attorney, about 1875, used with telling emphasis against a slippery witness a stanza from an old Mis-

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souri campaign song of the Tippecanoe and Tyler year of 1840. The song was used by the democrats and was directed against Henry Clay. Judge Dyer did not quote the first line but he applied the three lines following with telling effect against the witness who had made a very unfavorable impression as to sin- cerity :

"There's Henry Clay, a man of doubt, Who wires in and wires out; And you cannot tell when he's on the track, Whether he's going on or coming back."

The Whig Insult to Benton.

A cartoon of the campaign of 1844 provoked almost a riot. It was used by the whigs and wherever displayed provoked the democrats to expressions of unbounded indignation. Upon a portrait of Thomas H. Benton painted on a banner and carried at the head of the whig procession there appeared the corner of a ten dollar bill sticking out of the large cravat which the senator invariably wore. The banknote recalled to all who saw it something that had taken place when Benton was a student at Chapel Hill college in North Carolina.

This whig insult to Benton was carried to the convention held at Rocheport, one of the most notable political gatherings held in Missouri before the Civil war. Three stands were erected for the campaign orators. The' meeting lasted three days and three nights. Rocheport could not begin to take care of the throngs. Several steamboats came up from St. Louis. One of the orators was a relative of Daniel Webster. The attendance was estimated at from 6,000 to 10,000. The hills back of Rocheport were covered with the camping parties. But, notwithstanding the enthusiasm of the whigs, the democrats carried Mis- souri, electing Thomas Reynolds governor over John B. Clark.

Some Pioneer Campaigners.

James Winston, a lawyer who practiced in the western part of the state, won fame as the author of "a turkey was a very inconvenient bird, being too much for one man and not enough for two!" He was a candidate for governor in the forties and made a canvass of the state. Like some other men of unusual ability. Winston was careless of his personal appearance. When he came to St. Louis in the course of the campaign, the Winston men were so ashamed of their can- didate that they outfitted him from head to foot,-a high hat, swallow-tailed coat, and broadcloth trousers. Winston accepted the garb and went out into the state, traveling most of the time on foot. He wore those clothes until they were as shabby as the suit in which he had visited St. Louis, apparently oblivious of their condition.

Election days, unless the contest was too exciting, were enlivened by practi- cal jokes. Solomon Tollerday kept a place of refreshment in Mercer county in the forties. He also dealt in a few staples, such as salt. One election day, several of the customers became so drunk they lay down on the floor and fell soundly asleep. A citizen who had been celebrating, but not to such an extent as to want to sleep it off, came into the place and looking at the men on the floor, said in a tone of remonstrance, "Tollerday, your bacon will spile without any salt on it,

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if you leave it lying around such a hot day. I'll salt it down for you." He dragged one of the drunks to the wall and proceeded to pour a liberal supply of salt over him. Then he piled another drunk on top of the first and poured more salt from the sack. He kept on until he had all of them in a heap and well covered with salt. As he went out he remarked to Tollerday, "I reckon that thar bacon will keep now."

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Centennial history of Missouri (the center state) one hundred years in the Union, 1820-1921, Volume I, Part 65

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