USA > Missouri > Encyclopedia of the history of Missouri, a compendium of history and biography for ready reference, Vol. I > Part 15
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ASYLUM HOME-ATCHISON COUNTY.
incorporated October 18, 1899. The officers and executive committee then elected were : W. C. Scarritt, president ; Rev. H. Hopkins, D. D., vice president : Rt. Rev. J. J. Glennon, D. D., vice president ; S. A. Pierce, secretary ; I. E. Bernheimer, treasurer. The societies constituting the associated charities are: The Provident Association, the Helping Hand In- stitute, the Salvation Army, the Volunteers of America, the Protestant Door of Hope, the George H. Nettleton Home for Aged Women, the Humane Society, the Mattie Rhodes Day Nursery, the Hebrew General Relief Society, the Woman's Christian Association. the Visit- ing Nurses' Association, the Young Men's Christian Association, the Day Nursery Asso- ciation, the Colored Old Folks' and Orphans' Home, the Children's Home Society, the Flor- ence Crittenton Mission and Home, the Jew- ish Woman's Charitable Association, the North End Day Nursery, the Colored Chil- dren's Orphan Home, the Kansas City Boys' Orphan Home, the Robert Kirtley Mission, the Catholic Ladies' Aid Society, the St. Vin- cent de Paul Society, the House of the Good Shepherd, St. Joseph's Female Orphan Asy- hum, the Catholic Home for the Aged, and St. Anthony's Home for Foundlings.
Asylum Home .- An institution estab- lished in St. Louis during the Civil War, for the purpose of caring for the refugees who came to that city from all parts of the South. It was at first supported by assessments upon Southern sympathizers, but later by the con- tributions of loyal and generous people in St. Louis and elsewhere.
Atchison County .- A county in the northwestern part of the State, being one of the six counties carved out of the Platte Pur- chase, and named after David R. Atchison, a United States Senator from Missouri. It is bounded on the north by the Iowa line : east, by Nodaway County ; south, by Holt County, and west, by the Missouri River and the State of Nebraska. It is in the same latitude with Philadelphia, and in the same longitude with Lake Itasca and Galveston. It has an area of 521 7 8 square miles, or 334,000 acres. The surface is mainly undulating prairie and river bottom, the rich alluvial land of the Missouri River bottom extending eastward for a dis- tance of four to eight miles, and constituting more than a fourth of the area of the county.
The Missouri bluffs are steep and broken into peaks, presenting a picturesque appearance, and from the summit of these a fine view is ob- tained of a great part of the county. The soil is black, deep and very productive, yielding large crops of all the grains that grow in the latitude of northern Missouri, including corn, wheat, oats, rye and barley, and being equally adapted to grass. About one-fifth of the county is prairie, and there was at the first an abundance of good timber along the streams- black walnut, oak of several kinds, maple, ash, elm and wild cherry-and this made house- building to the first settler a simple and easy task. There was a line of timber along every stream, and occasionally an isolated grove. The county is abundantly watered. The Nish- nebotna River, Big and Little Tarkio Creeks and Rock Creek flow through it, and, with their affluents, give an ample supply of run- ning water ; and, in addition to this, springs are found all over the county, and wells sunk to the depth of thirty feet strike underground streams. The Missouri River borders the county for fifty miles. Atchison County was set apart by act of the Legislature passed in 1844, which defined the limits of the new county, gave its name, and appointed Alex- ander MeElroy, David Hunsaker and Elijah Needles commissioners to organize the county. These commissioners met, in obedi- ence to this law, at the house of Conrad Clif- field, on April 14, 18.45, and chose Alex. McElroy president of the court, Alex. A. Bradford clerk, and L. T. Tate sheriff. Five townships were named and defined, Clark, Nishnebotna, Polk. Tarkio and Bluff. The first meeting of the circuit court of the new county took place September 1, 1895, Honorable Solomon L. Leonard presiding. A. A. Brad- ford, who had already been appointed county clerk, was appointed circuit clerk also; Wil- lard l'. Hall was made circuit attorney, and L. T. Tate was recognized as sheriff. John Wil- son, James B. Gardenhire, T. D. Wheaton, Levi Carr, John C. Morris, D. G. Price, P. L. Hudgens, James Foster, John W. Kelly, James Craig, F. M. Warmcastle and Willard P. Hfall were enrolled as attorneys. H. B. Roberts and Thomas Wilson, both single men, the former from Illinois and the latter from Clay County, Missouri, put up a cabin and made a crop, on ground which afterward be- came the site of Sonora, on the Missouri River, in the year 1839, and they were the first
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ATCHISON COUNTY.
settlers in Atchison County. There were two other men, Hughes and Alley, already in the county, trading with the Indians, but they were not settlers, and soon disappeared. Roh- erts, after living in the county several years, moved to Nebraska, and thence to Hamburg, Iowa. November 11, 1839, Callaway Mill- saps, coming from Saline County, Missouri, but originally from Cocke County, Tennes- see, came in and settled near Roberts and Wil- son. Along with Millsaps came Charles Beauchamp and Archibald and Alexander Handley, from Clay County, all three in Mill- saps' employ. Roberts had a wood yard on the river, and Mr. Millsaps was accustomed to . tell how cheerful a sight it was in the spring of 1840, after a long and severe winter, to see a steamboat land and take on a supply of wood. In the spring of 1840 John Matthews, an Englishman, settled at a place afterward called English·Grove, in honor of him, eight miles southeast of Rockport ; and the follow- ing year a colony of Irish people, under Mar- tin Murphy, froin Canada, settled in the same township, in a place which was afterward called Irish Grove. In the fall of 1842 John Bender, from Platte County, Missouri, located on the east bank of the Missouri, about a mile above the place where Brownville, Nebraska, now stands; and shortly afterward George Harmon, from Illinois, located at Sonora. A little later in the same year E. D. Scamion, from Lafayette County, Missouri, settled two miles southeast of Rockport; and William Hunter, from Clinton County, Missouri, set- tled on Rock Creek, three miles southwest from Rockport, at a place afterward called "Hunter's Ridge." In 1843 Elijah S. Needles, from Indiana, located near him, at a place af- terward called "Needles Bridge." Both Hun- ter and Needles became judges of the county court and prominent citizens. Another early settler was Richard Rupe, from Lafayette County, whose neighborhood was afterward called "Rupe's Grove," about six miles south- east from Rockport. Mr. Rupe afterward be- came county judge also. About 1843 John Fowler put up a sawmill on Rock Creek, two and a half miles south of where Rockport now stands. The same year Nathan Meek began the building of a gristmill on the ground where Rockport stands. All these early set- tlers were in the territory before Atchison County was organized. In the year 1846 a colony of Germans, ten in number, established
themselves a mile and a half north of Rock- port, and attempted to form a socialistic com- munity ; but a heavy rainfall swept away their mill, their first crop turned out poorly and the colony broke up, some of the members locat- ing claims, each for himself in the county, and others seeking homes elsewhere. The early settlers in Atchison County did not need to bring a supply of provisions with them, for there was never, probably, a place on earth where forest, prairie and stream afforded finer game, or more of it. The buffalo had disap- peared, indeed-crossed the Missouri River and were then roaming in vast herds on the plains beyond-but deer and turkey were so plentiful that one could not go amiss for them. An oldl resident used to tell that in 1841, while going a distance of six miles, he counted as many as seventy-three deer in herds of six and ten. Wild ducks and geese were still more abundant, and squirrels were not worth kill- ing. The streamns were full of fish, and both forest and stream afforded beaver, otter, mink, muskrat, raccoon, fox, wolf and wild-cat in such numbers that a little trapping and hunt- ing yielded a stock of furs which were as good as gold and silver at the nearest town. A settler who was handy with his rifle generally managed to pay his taxes in wolf scalps and have the skins of the animals over. Wild honey was so abundant in the hollow trees along the streams that the taking of it was a common business, and both honey and bees- wax always commanded a good price at the neighboring store. William Millsaps, who was born December 14, 1839, was the first white child born in Atchison County, and his sister, Elizabeth Millsaps, in December, 1842, when she was ten years old, accidentally burned to death, was the first white person to die in the county. In 1841 Mr. Millsaps built a boat of boards, hewed out with his axe, and established a ferry across the Nishnebotna, the first in the county. Dr. Richard Buckham, one of the first physicians in the county, was an early settler in Clay Township. William Sickler, who settled in the limits of what is now the town of Rockport, about 1841, made the first plow manufactured in the county. The first distillery in the county was put up in Clay Township by Samuel King in 1843. The first mill in the county was in Clay Township. on Rock Creek, put up by John Fowler in 1842. King's Mill, a water-power gristmill, was afterward erected on the same site. The
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ATCHISON COUNTY.
first postoffice in the present limits of Atchison County, was Fugitt's Mill, and the first post- master was named Booth. Before this there was a postoffice at High Creek, and another at Austin, both supposed to be in Atchison County, but afterward found to be in the State of lowa. The seat of justice in Atchison County was first established in 1846, at the town of Linden, in what is now Polk Town- ship, about five miles north of the present town of Rockport, and there the first court- house was built, a frame edifice, twenty by thirty feet and two stories high, costing $475. At the time of the selection of Linden for the county seat it was near the center of the county, but when the Iowa boundary was afterward remarked, a ten mile strip of Atchi- son County was transferred to Jowa. This left the county seat too close to the northern line of the county, and on the 21st of June, 1856, on petition of three-fifths of the tax- payers of the county, an election was held on the proposition to remove the county seat. The proposition was carried, and commission- ers appointed for the purpose selected Rock- port for the permanent seat of justice, and on the 19th of August the county court met at Rockport for the first time. In August of the following year the court appropriated $9.500 for a new courthouse, and a building of brick, two stories high and containing seven rooms, was built at a cost of $15,000.
According to the report of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the exports shipped from the county in 1898 were: 49.600 head of cattle, 61,706 head of hogs. 770 head of sheep, 333 head of horses and mules, 112,121 bushels of wheat, 20,636 bushels of oats, 885,000 bushels of corn, 20 tons of hay, 108,000 pounds of flour, 473,800 feet of lumber. 336 cords of wood. 41,000 brick, 420 barrels of lime, 4.510 pounds of wool, 399,206 pounds of poultry, 70,170 duzen eggs. 19.753 pounds of butter. 800 pounds of lard, 34,090 pounds of tallow, 121.845 pounds of hides and pelts, 4.398 bar- rel of apples, 9,823 pounds of fresh fruit. 4.130 pounds of nursery stock, 105 pounds of furs, and other products in smaller quantities.
The first sermon delivered in the county is said to have been preached by Rev. Richard Baxter, of the Methodist Episcopal Church, to a small congregation at the house of Calla- way Millsaps, in Clay Township, in the sum- mer of 1811. Rev. Isaac Odell, a Baptist minister, held several meetings about the
same time in a new schoolhouse just built on Mr. Millsaps' farm. In 1846 Rev. Jesse Al- len, from Howard County, held a protracted meeting near Hunter's Bridge. Rev. Richard Buckham and John Mullins and a minister named Foreman were among the pioneer preachers of the county. The first school in the county was kept in a dugout by Cornelius Schubert, a member of the unfortunate Ger- man colony that settled near Rockport in 1846; it did not last long, but shared the fate of the colony. In the year 1898 there were 118 public schools in operation in the county, employing 118 teachers ; estimated value of the school property, $99.500; children enu- merated, 5,042 : total receipts for school pur- poses. $84.844; permanent county school fund. $111,288. The first newspaper pub- lished in Atchison County was the "Weekly Banner," begun at Rockport in July, 1857, by L. C. Kulp & Co., who kept it up until 1859. In November of that year the "Rockport Her- ald" was started by George W. Reed, and after a time suspended. December 16, 1870, the "Rockport Sentinel" was first published. In 1872 it changed hands and was called the "Missouri Express," and two years later changed hands again, and was then called the "Rockport News." A short time after it was named "Grangers' Advocate," and in July, 1874, it suspended. In August, 1876, the "Atchison Democrat" was founded, and in 1881 the name was changed to "The Sun." In August, 1878, the first issue of the "Democratic Mail" was made, and in 1880 the name was changed to the "Atchison County Mail." It is the Demo- cratie organ of the county, and the" Atchison County Journal," first published in Septem- ber, 1863. is the recognized Republican organ, both of them spirited, enterprising and valu- able journals. The "Tarkio Blade" was started in 1881, and after a few months its name was changed to the "Tarkio Republi- can." The "Fairfax Independent" was estab- lished in February, 1882. The "Phelps City Record" was published for a few months in 1868, and the "Watson Times" for a few months in 1876. The first railroad built in the county was the Kansas City, St. Joseph & Council Bluffs, running through the western part of the county, a distance of nearly twenty- five miles, built in 1868. The Tarkio Valley Railroad. a branch of this first road, was built in 1881. It has about twenty-four miles of track in the county. The other roads in the
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ATCHISON-ATKINSON.
county are the Omaha & St. Louis, and the Rockport, Langdon & Northern. The tax- able property in 1898 of Atchison County con- sisted of real estate, valued at $5,111,825 ; per- sonal property. $2,648,665; railroad, bridge and telegraph property, $497,621; total tax- able wealth, $8,258,111. Atchison County has no county or township bonded debt. The population in 1900 was 16,501.
Atchison, David R., lawyer and United States Senator from Missouri, and for a brief time acting President of the United States, was born at Frogtown, Kentucky, 1807, and died in Clinton County, Missouri, January 26, 1886. He received a good education in his native State, and while a young man came to Missouri and settled at Liberty, where he en- gaged in the practice of law. In 1836 he was elected to the Legislature and again in 1838. In 1841 he was appointed judge of the circuit court, and in 1843, on the death of United States Senator Linn, he was appointed to the vacancy. On the meeting of the Legislature he was elected to fill out the term, and on its expiration, in 1849, was re-elected, serving until 1855. He took a prominent part on the pro-slavery side in the Kansas-Nebraska legis- lation in Congress, and on his retirement from the Senate took a still more prominent part in the scheme to make Kansas a slave State by encouraging the settlement of Southern im- migrants in the territory. When the contest was ended by Kansas becoming a free State he withdrew from public life and retired to his farm in Clinton County. He was United States Senator when President Polk's term ex- pired on the 3d of March, 1849, and as the next day, March 4th, the usual day for inaugurating the President, was Sunday, the ceremony of inaugurating President Taylor was postponed to the 5th-and this made Senator Atchison, of Missouri, who was president of the Senate at the time, acting President of the United States for a day.
Athens, Battle of .- On the 15th of Au- gust, 1861, a battle was fought at Athens, a village in Clark County, Missouri, on the Iowa border, twenty miles from Keokuk, be- tween eight hundred mounted Confederate sympathizers, under Colonel Martin E. Green, brother of United States Senator James S. Green, and four hundred Union Home Guards of Clark County, under Colonel David Moore,
supported by two hundred Union volunteers from Keokuk. The Confederates began the attack at 9 o'clock in the morning, and the fight was spiritedly maintained on both sides for an hour, when the Confederates retreated, leaving nine men dead on the field, besides a number of wounded. The Union men lost three killed and eighteen wounded.
Atkinson, Edwin Jefferson, physi- cian, was born at Emerson, near Palmyra, Ma- rion County, Missouri, July 12, 1830, son of Joel and Jane C. (Jones) Atkinson. Both his parents were natives of Garrett County, Ken- tucky, and both were descended from old Vir- ginia stock. They came to Missouri from Kentucky in October, 1828, and took up land in Marion County, developing the farm which became the homestead on which the subject of this sketch was born. They brought with them two children, and Dr. Atkinson was the third child in the family. After attending the district schools of Emerson, the latter devoted three years to the joint task of teaching country schools and reading medicine. After as thor- ough a preparatory course of reading as those early times in Missouri permitted, he entered the American School of Medicine at Cincinnati, Ohio, from which he was graduated in March, 1856, with the degree of doctor of medicine. Returning to Emerson he engaged in practice there for about a year, and then removed to Novelty, Knox County, Missouri, where he opened an office, remaining there until 1867. In that year he located near Carrollton, Car- roll County, Missouri, and continued in prac- tice until June, 1872, when he located in Nevada. Since the latter year he has enjoyed an extensive practice in the last named city and vicinity, becoming recognized as one of the most skillful of physicians, as well as one of the most useful members of society. In 1884, upon the organization of the Citizens' Bank of Nevada, he became vice president of that institution, which position he filled one year. He is now a stockholder and director in the Thornton Bank of Nevada. Dr. Atkin- son has been a member of the Masonic frater- nity since 1862, and his name is now enrolled with Ararat Temple of Kansas City, Missouri, as a Noble of the Mystic Shrine. He is also a member of the orders of Odd Fellows, the Knights of Pythias and the Ancient Order of United Workmen. He takes especial pride in the fact that he has filled every chair in every
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ATKINSON- ATTORNEYS GENERAL.
temperance order which has existed in the United States, beginning with the old Washing- tonian Society. Ile took the total abstainer's oath when he was a youth of seventeen years, which he has faithfully observed ever since ; and since his marriage he has never used to- baeeo in any form. These facts account in a large measure for his splendid physical con- dition at the age of seventy years, for he is now apparently in the prime of his manhood and bears little indication of having attained that age. He has been a member of the Chris- tian Church since 1847, and for a long period held office in that society. Dr. Atkinson was married at Emerson, Missouri, February 3, 1852, to Eliza C. Kelly, daughter of John and Minerva (Mann) Kelly. She is a native of Ken- tucky, and a representative of an old family of the Blue Grass State. They have been the parents of five children, of whom three are liv- ing-Minerva Jane, wife of W. S. Creel, of Nevada ; Edwin K., a coal merchant of Ne- vada, and Mary Joel, wife of John T. Harding, who is associated in the practice of the law with Honorable Charles G. Burton, of Ne- vada. Dr. Atkinson is one of the oldest and most highly esteemed medical practitioners in southwest Missouri, and his practice in Ne- vada, covering a period of twenty-eight years, has been attended with success such as has fallen to the lot of few of his contemporaries. He is a man of very high moral character, and his career has been of a nature, viewed from any point, such as to render it a splendid model for the youth of the twentieth century.
Atkinson, Henry .- A distinguished of- ficer of the United States Army, who saw much service in the West and died at Jefferson Barracks, June 14, 1842. He was born in 1782, and was appointed to the army from the State of North Carolina in 1808, being assigned to duty as a captain of the Third In- fantry. In 1813 he was made inspector gen- eral and became colonel of the Forty-fifth Infantry in 1814. In 1821 he was made a brigadier general, and a little later adjutant general of the army. He commanded the regulars engaged in the Black Hawk War and defeated the Indians in the battle on Bad Axe River.
Atlanta. - A village in Macon County, on the Wabash Railroad, twelve miles north of Macon. It was laid out in 1858. The town
has a good publie school, Baptist and Method- ist Episcopal Churches, a bank, flouring mill, a hotel, and about twenty stores and other business places. A paper, the "News," is pub- lished in the place. Population in 1899 (esti- mated), Soo.
Atterbury, G. B., a pioneer of DeKalb County, was born in South Carolina in 1799, and died in DeKalb County, Missouri, in 1882. In 1803 he was taken with his father's family to Kentucky, where he lived until 1817, when he came to Missouri. He lived three years in Cooper County, and then crossed the Missouri River into Howard County, where he lived until 1844, when he removed to De- Kalb County and engaged in farming. He held various offices and was an influential and honorable citizen.
Attorney General .- The chief law of- fieer and counselor of the State. He gives his opinions in law points and on the meaning of statutes when requested by the Governor and other State officers, and represents the State in all cases in which the State is a party in the Supreme Court, and has authority to institute and prosecute, in the name of the State, suits necessary to protect its rights and interests. The Attorney General is elected by the people and holds office for four years.
Attorneys General .- The following is a full and accurate list of the Attorneys Gen- eral of Missouri from 1820 to 1900:
Edward Bates, St. Louis .- Appointed by Governor MeNair, September, 1820. Re- signed in 1821. Died March 25, 1869.
Rufus Easton, St. Louis .- Appointed by Governor McNair, December, 1821. Died January 21, 1826.
Robert W. Wells, Cole County .- Appointed by Governor Miller, January 21, 1826, and continued in office to September, 1836, ten years, and died at Bowling Green, Kentucky, September 22, 1864.
W'm. B. Napton, Howard County .- Ap- pointed by Governor Dunklin, September, 1836. Resigned February, 1839, and died January 8, 1883.
Samuel M. Bay, Cole County .- Appointed by Governor Boggs, February, 1839, contin- ued to March, 1845, six years, and died in July, 1849.
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ATWOOD.
Benjamin F. Stringfellow, Chariton County. Appointed by Governor Price, March, 1845; resigned January, 1849, and died in Chicago while on a visit to a son-in-law, April, 1891.
Wm. A. Robards, Boone County .- Ap- pointed by Governor King, January, 1849. Died in Jefferson City, of cholera, September 3, 1851.
James B. Gardenhire, Buchanan County .- Appointed by Governor King, September, 1851. Elected by the people, August, 1852, for four years. Total term of service, five years. Died in Fayette, February 20, 1862.
Ephraim B. Ewing, Ray County .- Elected for four years, August, 1856. Resigned Sep- tember 1, 1859. Died June 23, 1873.
James Proctor Knott, Scotland County .- Appointed by Governor Stewart, September 2, 1859, in place of E. B. Ewing, resigned. Elected August, 1860, for four years, but failed to qualify. Now a citizen of Kentucky.
Aikman Welch, Johnson County. - Ap- pointed by Governor Gamble, December 21. 1861, in place of J. Proctor Knott, who failed to qualify. Died July 29, 1864.
Thomas T. Crittenden, Lafayette County. Appointed by Governor Hall, September 3. 1864, in place of Aikman Welch, deceased. Is yet living in Kansas City.
Robert F. Wingate, St. Louis .- Elected November, 1864, for four years. Died in St. Louis, November 12, 1897.
Horace P. Johnson. Cole County .- Elected November, 1868, for two years. Do not know whether living or dead.
A. J. Baker, Putnam County .- Elected No- vember, 1870, for two years. Resides in Iowa.
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