Encyclopedia of the history of Missouri, a compendium of history and biography for ready reference, Vol. I, Part 11

Author: Conard, Howard Louis, ed. 1n
Publication date: 1901
Publisher: New York, Louisville [etc.] The Southern history company, Haldeman, Conard & co., proprietors
Number of Pages: 856

USA > Missouri > Encyclopedia of the history of Missouri, a compendium of history and biography for ready reference, Vol. I > Part 11

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).

Anti-Horse Thief Association of Missouri .- This body was organized in the winter of 1862-3 at Luray, Clark County, by David McKee, George N. Sansom and other prominent and influential citizens. David Mc- Kee being the first president. Its object is declared to be "the better protection of our- selves against the depredations of thieves, rob- bers, counterfeiters, incendiaries, tramps, and all other criminals," and it pledges its mem- bers to "co-operate with and assist the civil authorities in the capture and protection of all such offenders, and to aid each other in the re- covery of stolen property." It is a part of and acts with the National Anti-Horse Thief As- sociation. The officers are a State president, State vice president, State secretary, State treasurer, State marshal and State organizer, chosen every year, and holding office for one

ANTI-POVERTY SOCIETY-ARCHAEOLOGY.

year. An annual meeting is held on the third Wednesday in October, except such years as the national order meets in Missouri, when the State association meets at the same place on the following day. It has subordinate or- ders in other counties, all subject to the State association. Each subordinate order keeps a "black book," in which are recorded the names and places of residence of suspicious characters and known criminals; and there is also a book in which is recorded a minute de- scription of all horses and niules owned by members of the order. The association has power to levy an ad valorem tax on the per- sonal property of members to defray expenses incurred in an emergency. The order is se- cret and has its signs and passwords.

Anti-Poverty Society .- See "Single Tax League."

Appleton .- A village on Apple Creek, in the northern part of Cape Girardeau County, formerly known as Apple Creek. There was made one of the earliest settlements in the county. It has a population of about 100.

Appleton City .- A city of the fourth class, in St. Clair County, on the Parsons branch of the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Rail- way, twenty-five miles northwest of Osceola, the county seat. It has a public school, in- cluding a high school, and is the seat of Apple- ton City Academy, a coeducational, non- sectarian school, with four teachers and 124 pupils, occupying property valued at $3,000. Newspapers are the "Journal," Republican, and the "Herald," Democratic. The churches are Baptist, Christian, Lutheran, Methodist Episcopal, Methodist, South, and Presbyte- rian. There are an operahouse, a public li- brary, two banks, flourmill and an elevator. In 1899 the population was 1,800. The town was platted in 1868 by William M. Prior, un- der the name of Arlington. It developed but little until 1870, when it was replatted under its present name.

Arbela .- An incorporated town on the Keokuk & Western Railroad, eight miles east of Memphis, in Scotland County. It has a public school, two churches, a flouring mill, hotel and a small number of stores. Popula- tion, 1899 (estimated), 200.

AArcadia .- A village in Arcadia Township, Iron County, one mile south of Ironton and eighty-nine miles from St. Louis, on the St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Railway. It had its origin in 1849, when the Arcadia High School was established, which is now the Ursuline Academy and one of the flour- ishing institutions of the State under the di- rection of the Ursuline Sisters. It contains two general stores. The first stores in the township were established by Ezekiel Mat- thews and Smith & Lave. In 1847 a steam mill was built. In 1859 a paper called the "Prospect" was established, but later was moved to Ironton and discontinued. The place is a popular summer resort. The popu- lation is about 300.

Arcadia College .- A school chartered by the State Legislature and located at Arca- dia, Iron County, Missouri. It succeeded the Arcadia High School, founded in 1849. About 1870 a large four-story brick building was erected at a cost of $40,000, and for a few years the school was run under the patronage of the Methodist Episcopal Church. It was a financial failure, and about 1878 the property was acquired by the Ursuline Sisters, and since has been a successful Catholic institu- tion, under the name of Ursuline Academy. The academy has a library of 1,200 volumes.

Archaeology .- To all those who de- light in delving into the mysteries of antiquity the most interesting features of the archaeol- ogy of St. Louis and the adjacent region have always been the extensive earthworks con- structed by a prehistoric race of people desig- nated as the "mound-builders." A writer who visited St. Louis in 1810 says there were at that time nine of these mounds on the site of the city, the most conspicuous being that known as the "Big Mound," which did not disappear until the year 1869. On the oppo- site side of the river was a famous group of these ancient tumuli, which have become known as the "Cahokia Mounds," Monk's Mound-so-called because it was for some years the site of an institution founded by Trappist monks-being one of the most inter- esting of the group. Says a writer in Scharf's History of St. Louis: "There can be no ra- tional doubt of the artificial character of the mounds in the Mississippi Valley. There can equally be no rational doubt that mound-

5-4

ARCHAEOLOGY.

builders were very different in their habits and manners of life from the wild Indians of the present day. The latter are nomads ; the former dwelt in towns and cities, had tem- ples, fortifications, and permanent structures of great extent. The Pueblo Indians of New Mexico approach to what we may conceive to have been the habits of this race, but it can not be determined, and perhaps never will, that these Indians are the descendants of the prehistoric race which, at a very remote period. peopled the Mississippi Valley from the Rocky Mountains to the Alleghanies, and from Lake Superior to the Gulf. As to the genuineness of their remains, however. all doubt must be set aside. Drift, erosion, loess, -no possible geological hypothesis can set aside the facts which prove these remains to be the work of man. This was proved long ago by Thomas Jefferson, Bishop Madison and Dr. Barton. The works of the mound- builders comprise fortifications, of which there are almost innumerable examples throughout the great valley, barrows, or places of burial, and mounds or pyramids. The fortifications are usually such an intrenched bank as we might suppose to have been thrown up to guard and make firm the base of a stockade or a row of palisades. The barrows were the ordinary burial mounds of savages, found al- ways in the vicinity of a village site. The mounds are more elaborate, perhaps more an- cient, larger, and may have served for tem- ples, burial places, forts, or all three together." Of the mounds and mound-builders of this region, Wills de Haas has written as follows : "Two grand groups of ancient tumuli loom up on the broad surface of the American Bottom. They are distant from the central figures about six miles, but connected by a series of smaller mounds, forming a continuous chain, and constituting one grand and extensive sys- tem of tumular works-unequaled for size, number and interesting features on either of the subcontinents of America. One of these groups stands within the city limits, and ad- jacent to East St. Louis ; the other six miles to the northeast, lying chiefly north of the Ohio & Mississippi Railway. These are con- nected, a series of tumuli stretching along Indian Lake and Cahokia Creek; the entire system, including those along the bluff, num- bering over two hundred. These, collec- tively, present a vast city of mounds in ruin. They undoubtedly constituted the seat of a

great power-a community a little less popu- lous, perhaps, than that now centering within an area of twenty miles of the modern metrop- olis of the West. The upper group, contain- ing the most important monuments, was doubtless the citadel of the ancient empire. It comprises over sixty mounds, arranged with great system, and in marked position to- ward each other. The great mound consti- tuting the principal feature is supported by four elevated squares and numerous large tumuli of manifest importance in the system. The mounds comprising these respective groups are conical, ellipsoidal, square, and parallelogram. Some are perfect cones, others the frustrum. They vary in height from five to ninety feet, in some instances pre- senting an angle of nearly sixty degrees. They are all of earth taken from the sur- rounding plain or bluff, and constructed with symmetry, neatness and manifest design. It is claimed as a noticeable fact that corre- sponding excavations can be observed near most of the mounds. I have noticed this quite marked in some instances, but only in such localities where the vegetable mould was found underlaid with a deposit of sand. With their rude implements and facilities for re- moving the soil the mound-builders could not make heavy excavations, but would rather avail themselves of that most readily removed. I have failed to detect near any of these mounds the fosse so frequently noticed near the Ohio Valley tumuli. They compared in general external appearance, internal struc- ture and arrangement with the ancient tumuli of other parts of the country, except those of an elliptical type. This class occurs more fre- quently here than elsewhere. The square mounds find counterparts in the elevated squares at Marietta, Ohio. A general design is manifest in all the ancient earthworks of America. In the Ohio Valley they are found in connected systems. In the Mississippi Val- ley, or in that part lying opposite this city. they occur alone in tumular erections, ar- ranged in groups, with outstanding guards, system and unmistakable design. The re- mains of art found among these mounds- stone implements, fictilia, etc .- indicate a knowledge quite equal to, if not in advance of, art remains from the mounds of Ohio, West Virginia, Kentucky, Indiana, etc. There is a decided difference between some of their stone implements, which will be more particu-

ARCHAEOLOGY.

larly noticed hereafter. This fact induces the belief that they belong to a different people. As to the object of the mound, without a :- tempting to advance a hypothesis based on incomplete observations, it may be safely as- sumed that all mounds, wherever, whenever or by whomsoever constructed, were primarily de- signed as places of sepulture. This we read alike in the simple and often scarcely distin- guishable tumuli in the valley of the Missis- sippi or the isles of Britain, as we do in the huge tumuli on the Cahokia or the vast earthen and megalithic monuments of North- ern Europe or the valley of the Nile. They are often devoted to other uses, but the first great purpose was sepulchral. They doubt- less often served a triple purpose-tomb, tem- ple, dwelling-place. The large square works possibly supported the houses of important personages, or picketed around as places of defense. The great mound probably sup- ported the principal temple, also the house of their cazique or king. Others served as guard-posts, and still others as places of defense." The writer in Scharf's History be- fore quoted further says : "The early inhab- itants on the Mississippi had three modes of burial, inhumation in a horizontal position, the body having a regular grave, generally stone-lined: inhumation in a standing or sit- ting position ; and cremation, the body burnt and the ashes and carbonized bones preserved in a vase or urn. Many cinerary urns have been discovered in the course of the explora- tion of barrows and mounds. All the art and industrial remains of the mound-builders show them to have belonged to what is called the Stone Age. But few metallic remains have been found in the mounds of St. Louis and the American Bottom, and these only copper and for ornament. Various curved shells have been found, showing the use of wampum and the fact that the mound-builders had in- tercourse with the coasts of the Gulf of Mex- ico and the Atlantic or Pacific Ocean. The mound-builders had attained great proficiency in working stone. Their weapons are often of exquisite design and perfect workmanship. Their tools were rude, chisels and hatchets, hammers and knives, of granite, hornblende, nephrite, and their arrow-heads, spear-points, knives, fluting instruments, etc., are of quartz of every grade, from black chert to opalescent chalcedony. The pottery found in connection with the mounds of St. Louis and

the American Bottom presents a great num- ber of curious and instructive examples of the fictile art. Mr. de llaas thinks that the an- cient potter of the Mississippi Valley was but little inferior in skill to the potters among the ancient Egyptians. The mound-builder did not use the potter's wheel; his ware was all hand-made ; and much of it was only sun-dried or fire-baked in a very inadequate and ineffi- cient manner. Two or three different styles of manufacture have been discovered-one, a breccia of clay and pulverized mussel-shell or white spathic carbonate of lime. The ware is of irregular thickness, tough and capable of resisting the effects of moisture, dilation and shrinking. The ornamentation is neat and plain, rude lines, dots, chevrons, and zigzags being the chief patterns. The vessels found comprise urns, vases, cups, dishes, etc., and some of them have handles made in imitation of familiar animals. They are chiefly mor- tuary in their purposes, it is probable.

A. J. Conant divides the mounds of Missouri and the American Bottom into four general classes, burial mounds, caves, or artificial cav- erns: sacrificial or temple mounds ; garden mounds ; and miscellaneous works. He first considers mounds in their relations to town sites, producing very good evidence from the explorations of Dr. Beck, in 1822-3, that St. Louis was a town site with numerous sacrifi- cial and burial mounds. In Dr. Beck's dia- gram we find two square pyramids, three large conical mounds, and six smaller cones forming a rude parallelogram, the Big Mound covering its left flank at a distance of six hun- dred yards. The late Colonel John O'Fallon's mansion, on the Bellefontaine Road, was built on one of these Indian mounds, and he re- ported that, in excavating the foundation, hu- man bones by the cart-load, with stone axes and arrow-heads in great numbers, were taken out. The woods west of the dwelling were full of small mounds, thrown up apparently by the mound-builders as sites for their houses, all having hearth-places, where on were vestiges of charcoal and ashes. Mr. Conant looks upon the Big Mound of St. Louis as a typical burial ground. If its mag- nitude and the size of its vault is to be taken for a standard. he thinks it would seem to have been the tomb of the most holy prophet or the royal race. The sepulchral chamber within it, which long ago fell in, was of un- known length, but could be traced for seventy-

ARCHIE-ARCHITECTS, AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF.

two feet. The manner of its construction seems to have been as follows: The surface of the ground was first made perfectly level and hard ; then the walls were raised, with an outward inclination, made compact and solid, and plastered over with moist clay. Over these a roof was formed of heavy timbers, and above all the mound was raised, of the desired dimensions. The bodies were placed evenly upon the floor of the vault, a few feet apart, equidistant from each other, their feet toward the west. A great number of beads and shells were found mingled with the black mould that enveloped the bones. These beads, identical with those found in the Ohio mounds, are cut, according to Professor Foster, from the shell of the busycon, of the Gulf of Mexico, though some are made of the common mus- sel-shells of the neighborhood .. The great Monk's Mound at Cahokia is looked upon as the most perfect specimen of a temple mound in the United States. It is better pre- served and the most finished model we have of the forms of the Mexican teocallis and the . temples of Yucatan. On the top of these mounds, in one corner, was always a smaller elevation, upon which the sacred fire was kept burning, and in front of which all sacrifices were made. The garden mounds, small, flat clevations, Mr. Conant thinks, were thrown up by the mound-builders for the cultivation of maize and other crops. In thin lands a richer soil was thus obtained ; in flat lands the dis- aster of floods and moisture were avoided. It is possible also that the edges of these garden mounds were defended by stakes. to prevent them from being tramped down by the deer and the immense herds of bison which roamed everywhere. Among the potteries found in the Missouri mounds are drinking vessels, moulded in the form of owls, of gourds, etc. Dr. Foster, in his excursus upon the prehistoric races of North America, thinks that the mound-builders attained a perfection in the ceramic arts that places them far ahead of the people of the Stone and Bronze Ages in Europe. 'We can readily conceive,' he says, 'that in the absence of metallic vessels, pottery would be employed as a substitute, and the potter's art would be held in the highest es- teem. From making useful forms, it would be natural to advance to the ornamental.' The commonest forms of the mound-builders' pot- tery represent kettles, cups, water-jugs, pipes. vases. They ornamented the surfaces of

these with curved lines and fretwork, and moulded them or their parts in the image of birds, quadrupeds, and the human figure. The clay which they used was finelytempered and did not crack or warp in baking. Some of their designs are said to be true to nature, tasteful, and show a degree of refined feeling which approximates to the sense of beauty. Some of the human figures indicate a study of the living model and a distinction of form and attitude such as reveal, in a rudimentary fashion, the artistic feeling. All the evidence in regard to this prehistoric race which has been so far collected tends to show : I. That the mound-builders had an organized automatic government, in which the individ- ual was merged in the state, and thus their rulers could undertake and complete the great works, the remains of which are found in this age. 2. The mound-builders were a labori- ous people. Nothing but the united labor of many thousands of men could accomplish such great works as have survived the leveling influence of time through thousands of years. 3. The mound-builders were not nomads, but had fixed habitations. 4. They were numerous and gregarious, dwelling in populous cities, as attested by the grouping of the mounds. 5. The mound-builders were acquainted with many of the practical arts of civilized life. They smelted copper, wrought stone, moulded clay into useful forms, built houses, reared mounds, which, like those of Otolum, Uxmal, Palenque, and San Juan Tectihuacan, were no doubt temple-crowned in the distant past. They manufactured salt, made cloth, and had vessels fitted for many uses. They cultivated the soil, raised corn, melons, pumpkins and squashes, and subsisted in a large degree on the fruits of the earth."

(See also "Aboriginal Antiquities," "Mound- Builders" and "Indian Mounds.")

AArchie .- A village in Cass County, on the Lexington & Southern Division of the Mis- souri Pacific Railway, thirteen and one-half miles south of Harrisonville, the county seat. It has a school, a Congregational Church and a local newspaper, the "News." In 1899 the population was 350.

Architects, American Institute of. A national organization of the architects of the United States, which came into exist- ence in the city of New York, and was char-

ARCHITECTURAL CLUB, ST. LOUIS-ARCHIVES.

tered March 19, 1867. The St. Louis chap- ter of this national organization was chartered March 8, 1890. The objects of the institute are to unite in fellowship the architects of the country, to combine their efforts so as to pro- mote the artistic, scientific and practical effi- ciency of their profession, and to establish a proper standard by which the practice of ar- chitects may be regulated in the different localities where chapters exist. The St. Louis chapter has adopted a code of ethics govern- ing the professional conduct of its members, strict adherence to which is essential to reten- tion of membership. This code of ethics pro- vides that no member shall be a party to a building contract except as owner; that no member shall guarantee an estimate of cost; and that soliciting employment by advertis- ing or the display of signs on buildings in course of erection shall be held to be unpro- fessional. Efforts have been made by the St. Louis chapter of architects belonging to the American Institute to secure the enactment by the Missouri Legislature of a law licensing and regulating the practice of architects, and it has already secured changes and modifica- tions in various ordinances relating to build- ing operations in St. Louis. In 1898 there were thirty active members and five honorary members of this chapter.

Architectural Club, St. Louis .- This club was organized in May of 1894, un- der the name of the St. Louis Sketch Chrb. In 1896 the club adopted a new constitution, under which it confined itself to the study of architecture and the allied arts. The society is composed of architects, draftsmen, artists, engineers and others interested in, or identi- fied with, architecture and the kindred arts. Meetings of the society are held at regular intervals, study classes are conducted under its auspices, and monthly receptions are held, which are open to the public. A volume of over two hundred pages, compiled under the auspices of the club, and entitled "Building Laws of the City of St. Louis," was published in 1898. At the beginning of the year 1899 there were one hundred and thirty members of the club, and its meeting place was at 918 Locust Street.

Archives .- "The documents deposited in the archives of the French and Spanish days of St. Louis comprise concessions or

grants, decds, leases, marriage contracts, wills, inventories, powers of attorney, agreements. and many miscellaneous documents pertain- ing to individuals. These papers were always executed in the presence of the Governor, or, in his absence, in the presence of his official representative, and were left for safety in the custody of the government authorities; and, as at least nineteen-twentieths of the inhabi- tants of that day could not read, much less write their names, but made their signatures with a cross, as is evidenced by an examina- tion of them, they were deemed safer in the keeping of the government than in the posses- sion of the individuals to whom they mostly belonged. At the date of the execution of these papers no other record was made of them than to register them alphabetically under proper heads on sheets of foolscap paper, loosely stuck together for the purpose, and at the close of the administration of each succes- sive Governor this alphabetical list of his offi- cial acts was certified to by him in person, and together with the documents themselves handed over into the possession of his succes- sor in the government ; and it was not until after the country had passed into the posses- sion of the United States that these loose sheets were stitched together in the order of their dates, the last of the series being that of Captain Amos Stoddard, who acted in the capacity of Civil Governor for the United States until September 30, 1804, and who, per- haps not being authorized, or not deeming it advisable to make any change in the modus operandi in regard to these matters, pursued the same course as his predecessors under the former dominations.

"Of these documents there were over three thousand, many of which still remain in the recorder's office in St. Louis to the present day. When, at the change of the government, March 10, 1804, these documents, together with such books and papers of the old French and Spanish authorities as related to conces- sions of lands and lots, came into the posses- sion of the authority of the United States, they consisted of six small books of ordinary fools- cap size, containing about three quires each, called the 'Livres Terriens' (land books), in which were entered the concessions or grants of lands and lots, and four smaller books in size, with leather covers, in which were re- corded about three thousand documents, be- tween the years 1797 and 1799.

ARKOE-ARMOUR.

"What are now designated as the 'Archives' comprise six large volumes, in which are copied the most important of the foregoing three thousand documents, particularly all those relating to real property, lands, lots and houses, and of a personal nature. These record-books were commenced in November, 1816, twelve years after the change of govern- ment. when the country began to increase in population from abroad, and a consequent in- crease in the value of lands and lots pointed out to individuals the safety of having their titles recorded, and for some years thereafter only those were put on record whose owners were willing to pay the fees for recording the same."

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

Encyclopedia of the history of Missouri, a compendium of history and biography for ready reference, Vol. I, Part 11

Author: Conard, Howard Louis, ed. 1n Publication date: 1901 Publisher: New York, Louisville [etc.] The Southern history company, Haldeman, Conard & co., proprietors Number of Pages: 856

Author: Conard, Howard Louis, ed. 1n
Publication date: 1901
Publisher: New York, Louisville [etc.] The Southern history company, Haldeman, Conard & co., proprietors
Number of Pages: 856