Encyclopedia of the history of Missouri, a compendium of history and biography for ready reference, Vol. I, Part 61

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

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United States on several occasions afterward. It began at Fort Clark, on the south bank of the Missouri River, about twenty-three miles below the mouth of the Kansas River, and ran die south to the Arkansas River, and with that river to its mouth, the Osages ced- ing all the territory east of the line and north of the Arkansas River to the United States. Joseph Brown ran this west line from Fort Clark to the Arkansas River, in 1816, and the same year Sullivan, a United States surveyor, starting from Fort Clark, ran a line for the United States one hundred miles north of the Kansas River, made a corner and then ran east, about one hundred and fifty miles, to the River Des Moines, the Indians ceding all the territory south of this line. This Osage boundary on the north and west was recog- nized in as many as fifteen treaties as the Missouri boundary; it was recognized uni- formly also by the United States Land Office, and in 1834 Congress itself recognized it in organizing the Territory north of it and bounded by it. It was shown that the State of Missouri itself had recognized the Indian boundary on the west and north by organiz- ing counties up to it, while the counties in the Territory north of it were extended down to it. Missouri recognized it also in accepting it as the boundary of the Platte Purchase. The decree of the court made the Indian line, run by Sullivan in 1816, the true boundary between the two States, which was about midway between the lines claimed respec- tively-and appointed John C. Brown, of Missouri, and H. C. Hendershot, of Iowa, commissioners. to find and re-mark it. Brown died and was succeeded by Robert WV. Wells, who resigned, and was succeeded by William G. Minor, who, with Hender- shot performed the task, Robert Walker, of Missouri, and William Dewey, of Iowa, engineers and surveyors, making the survey. They discovered the blaze marks of the line run by Sullivan in 1816 and several witnesses of the survey still living on the line, and found that the line was neither straight nor exactly east and west, being broken in its course, and bearing slightly north of east. They made it a straight line and marked it throughout, planting at the old northwest corner, in latitude 40 degrees 34 minutes 40 seconds, north, a solid cast iron pillar four feet six inches long, twelve inches square at the base, and eight inches square at the top,

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and weighing about 1,500 pounds-and a similar one on the bank of the Des Moines River. The Indian line was extended west from the northwest corner along the Platte Purchase, to the Missouri River, where, on the nearest high ground, another iron monu- ment was planted, the north face of the monument bearing the word "Iowa" and the south face "Missouri" moulded in, and the east and west faces the words "State." "Line." Between these chief monuments along the line, at intervals of ten miles, smaller iron pillars weighing about four hun- dred pounds, were planted to mark the boundary between the two States; and it might be supposed that the dispute was settled, forever. But forty years afterward, at one section of the line of about twenty miles extent between Mercer County, Mis- souri, and Decatur County, Iowa, it was re- vived by the disappearance of the pillars -- whether by willful removal or by natural causes, could not be determined, as the evi- dence was conflicting-and in 1895, the matter came before the United States Su- preme Court again, the State of Missouri filing a bill with the consent of the State of Iowa, asking the court to re-establish the boundary. The court appointed James Harding, of Missouri, Peter Dey, of Iowa, and Dwight C. Morgan, of Illinois, commis- sioners to discover and re-mark the line laid down by Hendershot and Minor in 1850. These commissioners secured the assistance of two officials connected with the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey, and met at Lineville, Iowa, in March, 1896, and began the work. They found the boundary line plainly marked, except between the fortieth and sixtieth mile posts, and the survey was limited to this section of twenty miles. They discovered that of the twenty-one Hender- shot and Minor miles posts in this survey, only nine, including three monuments, could be satisfactorily identified. The commis- sioners ascertained and relocated the twenty- one mile points between forty and sixty inclusive, and marked them with stone -- Mis- souri red granite pillars, twelve inches square at the base, and six feet two inches in length, set four feet in the ground-the north and south faces bearing the words "Iowa" and "Missouri," respectively; the cast the words "State Line," and the west the number.

For many years, Missouri was engaged in a contest with Kentucky

Wolf Island for possession of Wolf

Controversy. Island. This island lies just below Belmont and is the largest in the Mississippi River, its area being about fifteen thousand acres.

The main channel of the river runs east of it, and it is separated from the west bank by a narrow chute, so that the island has the appearance of being a part of Missouri. In 1820, the main channel of the river was west of the island, and the boundary of Missouri, defined by the act admitting the State into the Union, left Wolf Island clearly in Ken- tucky ; but when the channel shifted to the east side and left the island in its present position (1901), it came gradually to be claimed as a part of New Madrid County, Missouri, and the claim was so generally recognized in the neighborhood that a man who lived on Wolf Island was elected sheriff of New Madrid County. But the State of Kentucky had, for many years, asserted and exercised jurisdiction over the island, and, for the purpose of settling a dispute which was beginning to grow troublesome, the State of Missouri brought an original bill in the United States Supreme Court against the State of Kentucky for possession. The case was in court eleven years, John J. Critten- den, United States Senator, and Garrett Davis, a distinguished member of Congress from Kentucky, and Henry Stanberry, of Ohio, afterward Attorney General of the United States under President Andrew John- son, appearing for Kentucky, and Mont- gomery Blair, Postmaster General in President Lincoln's first cabinet, and F. A. Dick appearing for Missouri. A great many witnesses were examined, steamboat men, flatboat men, navigators, land office officials, officials connected with the government work of river improvement, and old residents on both sides of the river: and curious maps were produced, one by Lieutenant Ross of the British Army, made in 1765, as part of a report of an expedition down the Mississippi River from Fort Chartres to New Orleans ; Captain Philip Pitman's map, published in London in 1770: General Collot's map. pub- lished in 1796; Hutchins' map of 1778; and Luke Munsell's map of Kentucky, published in 1818. Extracts from books of early Western travel-Sir Francis Baily, in 1796 ..

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and Ashe, in 1806-were introduced, to de- termine which side of the island the main channel was on in the early days of navi- gation of the river. Nearly all the maps were offered by Missouri, and showed the main channel on the east side of the island. The witnesses on the part of Missouri also asserted that from 1859 back to 1830 the main channel was between the island and the Kentucky shore, and from 1830 back to 1794. both channels were navigable. The Pitts- burg "Navigator" stated in several editions that both channels were navigable, but the best was on the east side. It was further shown that the island was surveyed by United States surveyors in 1821, as part of Missouri, and in 1823 steps were taken to locate on it a New Madrid certificate for six hundred arpens ; and in August, 1834, a plat of the island was sent to the register of the United States land office, at Jackson, Mis- souri. In 1820 the sheriff of New Madrid County executed process of a Missouri court upon one Hunter, the only settler on the island, who had entered upon it before 1803, and it was shown that a judge of a Missouri court had lived on the island, while acting as judge. Captain J. C. Swon, one of the early St. Louis steamboat mien, testified that from 1821 to 1851 there were no indications that the main channel was ever on the west side of the island, and other witnesses bore sim- ilar testimony. All this evidence would seem to make out a clear case for Missouri's claim; but there were twenty-seven witnesses produced on the other side, who concurred in asserting that, down to a very recent period, the main channel ran west of the island, and one of these, Ramsey, who had lived many years on the Kentucky shore in the vicinity, testified that on one occasion, when the river was low, he had walked along the chute from the east bank to the island without getting his feet wet, walking part of the way on dry ground, and part on the drift-there being at the time plenty of water in the Missouri channel. Russell, who had supervision of river improvement work, testified that in 1830or 1831, there was not enough water in the Kentucky channel to float his boat, while, in the Missouri channel there was nine or ten feet depth ; and three years later another witness saw three steamboats back out from an attempt to ascend the Kentucky channel, and go up on the other side. But

the evidence that had the greatest weight in favor of the claim of Kentucky, was the un- disputed facts that the treaty of 1763 between Spain, France and England made the middle of the main channel of the Mississippi River the boundary line between their respective possessions on the east and west of it; and that the treaty of peace of 1783 between the United States and Great Britain, and other treaties afterward, including the treaty under which we acquired the Louisiana territory, recognized this line. When Missouri was admitted into the Union, in 1820, and again when Arkansas was admitted, in 1836, this line was further recognized as the fixed boundary line between the territory on the east and that on the west side of the river. Kentucky was originally part of the State of Virginia, whose western boundary was the middle of the main channel of the Mississippi River, and in the year 1782 arable land on Wolf Island was entered in the Virginia land office. When Kentucky came into the Union as a state, in 1792, it succeeded to the ancient rights and authority of Virginia over the island, and had maintained an unbroken jurisdiction over it ever since. In May, 1837, lands on the island were surveyed, under Kentucky authority, taxes were paid, and votes cast by residents on the island, under Kentucky laws, and in 1851, a resident on the island was elected to, and served in, the Kentucky Legislature. A curious evidence admitted by the court was that showing the soil and sylva of the island to be of a Ken- tucky, rather than a Missouri character-the trees being large poplar, oak and chinkapin, similar to those growing on the second bottom on the Kentucky side, while there were no poplar, oak or chinkapin on the Missouri side adjoining-and the Missouri soil was not suited to such trees. Another interesting fact proved was that the island was on a level with the second bottom on the Kentucky side, and four or five feet higher than the ground on the Missouri side, this topographical feature, taken in connection with the sylvan growth and soil, indicating that the primitive connection of the island was with the eastern bank, and not with the west. The official establishment of the iniddle line of the ancient main channel of the river, as the boundary, together with the continuous exercise of jurisdiction over the island by Virginia and Kentucky, extending

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back to a time before Missouri was a State, had most weight in determining the decision of the court. There had never been any siich exercise of jurisdiction by Missouri, and the court dismissed the bill and held that Wolf Island was part of the State of Ken- tucky.

Although the State of Missouri was not a party to the suit that in-

Arsenal Island Dispute. volved the title to Ar- senal Island, the city of St. Louis was, and the city's claim involved the State's jurisdiction. Neither was the State of Illinois a party to the suit, but a citizen and resident of that State was, and his claim in like manner in- volved its jurisdiction. The style of the suit before the United States Supreme Court was St. Louis vs. Rutz, and the question was whether certain land was in the city of St. Louis, Missouri, on the west side of the Mis- sissippi River, or in St. Clair County, Illinois, on the east bank. It will appear at first view that the question ought to have been easily determined since the river is nearly a mile wide between the two States ; but there was a moving island in the case, which at one time was on the west side of the river, and after- ward on the east side-and this unstable nature of the ground in dispute invested the problem with difficulties which the decision of the supreme tribunal settled, indeed, but without making the settlement conform to a previous decision in a similar case. In January, 1884, Edward Rutz brought suit against Benjamin Seeger in the Circuit Court of St. Clair County, Illinois, to recover pos- session of certain land in that county. Sceger had obtained possession of the land in question from the city of St. Louis, and the city from the St. Louis public schools, and the public schools from the United States land office at Washington-a good enough chain of title, one would think, and yet not good enough to stand the test of a judicial investigation, as the sequel will show. The land was on the east side of the Mississippi River, opposite the lower part of the city of St. Louis, and was part of the Illinois river front, and was valued at $16,000. As the suit was important, the city of St. Louis, whose tenant the defendant was, was made co-defendant and took the entire manage- ment of the case. On motion of the city, it was removed to the United States Circuit

Court for the Southern District of Illinois. The plaintiff, Rutz, acquired title from August A. Blumenthal, and Blumenthal from parties in actual possession in the years 1849 and 1850, the deed to Blumenthal describing the land as part of the common field of Prairie du Pont, in St. Clair County, Illinois. But the city of St. Louis claimed that the land had been, and still was, a part of Arsenal Island, which was once on the west side of the river, and was the property of the city. The court found that in 1853 Arsenal Island, which had formerly been known as Quaran- tine Island, and upon which the city main- tained its quarantine station, was on the west side of the river, and in 1858 joined to the Missouri shore, a mile or more higher up the river than the land in dispute ; that be- tween 1853 and 1863, the greater part of this island was washed away. and between 1865 and 1874 a bar formed every year and joined to the foot of the island, extending down the

river half a mile. This bar always appeared after the floods had passed ; willows began to grow upon it ; other bars were formed suc- cessively below it, and willows grew on them. Before the washing away of the lower and greater part of Arsenal Island, the main channel was east of it, and between it and the Illinois shore, but after that the main chan- nel was and still is west of the island and between it and the Missouri shore, and boats never run, now, east of the island or bar. Between the years 1865 and 1873 the land of the Illinois bank caved in and was washed away along the river front, during the spring floods, until in 1872 the Blumenthal house was only four or five hundred feet from the water's edge. To prevent its destruction it was moved back, but in the flood of 1873 it carried away one hundred feet more, the bank breaking off and slipping into the stream, and the erosion continued until, in 1876-8, dykes were built on the Illinois side from the bank to the bars formed below the foot of Arsenal Island, which threw the water to the Missouri side and caused accretions to form again in front of the plaintiff's land. These accretions gradually extended into the river, until the process not only restored the area which had been lost by the caving in of the bank, but gave him more land than he had before. On the facts as here stated the circuit court decided in favor of the plaintiff, and the city carried the case to the United

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BOURBEUSE RIVER-BOWKER.

States Supreme Court. which affirmed the judgment of the lower court. It held that the boundary line between the States of Mis- souri and Illinois is the middle of the main channel of the Mississippi River, and the land in dispute was on the east side of the river, in St. Clair County, Illinois, while the land to which St. Louis acquired title from the public schools was on the west side, and more than a mile higher up the river, and in St. Louis. An island in the river must be wholly in one State or the other, since the main channel of the river, along the middle of which runs the boundary line, must be wholly on one side or the other of every island. Arsenal Island was wholly on the west side in 1863-4, but the land described in the suit was never in St. Lonis: it is not an accretion to the land in Missouri which the city owned, a mile higher np, because it is on the east side of the main channel. If an island or dry land forms upon that part of the bed of a river owned by a riparian proprietor-and it is a rule in Illi- nois that a riparian proprietor owns to the middle of the main channel-it belongs to him. The court intimated that a permanent, stable island, which slowly grows in size by constant accretion, might possess jurisdic- tional dignity which the court would be bound to respect ; but a movable island, which held its attachments in such light esteem that it could go traveling a mile down the river. and from one State to another, could not be permitted to carry the jurisdiction, the insti- tutions, and the name of its original State along with it in its wanderings. The de- cision is accepted as just and right, for it would have been manifestly absurd to allow the city of St. Louis to exercise authority over land in the State of Illinois which it could reach only by crossing a great river : but it is not so easy to perceive wherein it conforms to the decision in the Wolf Island case. be- tween Missouri and Kentucky. The boun- dary line between Missouri and Illinois is the same as between Missouri and Kentucky-the middle of the main channel of the Mississippi River ; but in the Wolf Island case the court held that the shifting of the main channel from the west to the east side did not carry the original boundary line with it, while the shifting of the main channel from the east to the west side of Arsenal Island did carry the boundary line westward a quarter of a milc.

In January, 1900, by direction of the Gen-

eral Assembly, Attorney General Crow insti- tuted suit in the Supreme Court of the United States to settle a controversy between the States of Missouri and Nebraska. The land in dispute comprises 15,000 acres, valued at $150,000. claimed as belonging to Atchison County. Missouri, and also claimed by Ne- maha County, Nebraska. Meantime the resi- dents of the tract have paid no taxes in either of the contesting States. The claim set up by the State of Missouri is based upon the fact that in 1847 the Missouri River changed its course. It is contended that the original boundary line between the two States was marked by the middle of the stream, and that through its change of direction the land was left on the Missouri side.

D. M. GRISSOM.

Bourbeuse River rises in Phelps County, and flowing northeast. through Maries and Gasconade Counties, enters the Meramec in Franklin County. It is sixty miles in lengthi.

Bourbon .- An unincorporated village on the St. Louis & San Francisco Railroad, in the northeastern part of Crawford County, It was founded upon the building of the rail- road. It has two churches, a good school, and about six business places, including two stores and a marble shop. Population, 1899 (estimated). 300.

Bourbon, La Nouvelle .- A village founded about 1790 by Royalists who fled from France after the Revolution of 1789. Don Pierre Carlos Delassus was command- ant. He was "chevalier de grande croix de l'ordre royal de Sainte Michel." He was the father of Lieutenant Governor Charles Dehault Delassus, of Upper Louisiana. The village was located about two miles south of the present city of Ste. Genevieve. The settlement failed to thrive, and within a few years the settlers fixed their residence in Ste. Genevieve, and now there remain only a few faint landmarks to designate the site of the town intended to perpetuate Bour- bon royalty in the new world.

Bournesville .- Sec "Higbee."

Bowker, William MeClellan, law- yer, was born at Carthage, Illinois, May 2,

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BOWLIN-BOWLING GREEN.

1865, son of Marcus L. and Frances (Du- sher) Bowker. His father, a native of Illi- nois, was a son of Clark L. Bowker, who was born in the eastern part of New York State. The latter's father, who also resided in that section, was a soldier in the Conti- nental Army in the Revolutionary War, serving under General John Stark, of Ben- nington. Vermont, the hero of the battle of Bennington. Mr. Bowker's mother was a native of Illinois. She and her husband removed from Illinois to Missouri in 1896, settling on a farm in Barton County, where they still reside. The subject of this sketch obtained his elementary education in the schools of his native place. After the com- pletion of his preparatory course he entered Chaddock College, at Quincy, Illinois, from which he was graduated with the class of 1888. He then entered upon the study of the law. under the direction of Judge Sco- field, at Carthage, being admitted to the bar before the Supreme Court of Illinois in 1889. In July of that year he came to Ne- vada, Missouri, and opened an office, where he practiced law alone until 1897. In the latter year he formed a partnership with Levi L. Scott, the firm of Scott & Bowker still continuing and being recognized as one of the strongest law firms in southwest Missouri. They have had charge of some of the most important causes tried in that section of the State in recent years, nota- bly those of the State vs. Patten, a cele- brated murder case tried in Nevada in IS9S; and of Weltmer vs. Bishop et al., a suit for damages for libel, brought by Professor S. A. Weltmer against Rev. Dr. Bishop, of the Methodist Church. In the former case they were counsel for the defendant, and a verdict for acquittal was seenred. In the latter they conducted the case for the plaintiff, secur- ing a judgment for their client. The lat- ter case was one of the most celebrated of recent years, and created a widespread in- terest throughout the country on account of the prominence of the plaintiff and the character of the suit. Mr. Bowker has al- ways adhered to the principles of the Demo- cratic party. For several years he was a member of the Democratic County Central Committee, serving as chairman of that body in 1898. In 1894 he was a candidate for prosecuting attorney in the Democratic Convention. Fraternally, he is a member of

the orders of Knights of Pythias, the Wood- men of the World, and the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. His marriage oc- curred April 12, 1894, and united him with Nadine Scott, daughter of the late Judge C. R. Scott of Nevada. Mr. Bowker has always devoted himself closely to the prac- tice of his profession, and though it is but eleven years since he began his legal career, he has risen to a position of prominence in that calling rarely attained by men of his age.

Bowlin, James Butler, lawyer, Con- gressman and diplomat. was born in Spott- sylvania County, Virginia, in 1804. In his boyhood he was apprenticed to a trade, but abandoned it and taught school while acquir- ing a classical education. In 1825 he settled in Greenbrier County, Virginia, where he studied law, was admitted to the bar and began practice. He came from there to St. Louis in 1833. and practiced his profession there, establishing also and editing the "Farin- ers' and Mechanics' Advocate." In 1836 he was a member of the Missouri Legislature, and for some time its chief clerk. In 1837 he was made district attorney for St. Louis, and in 1839 was elected judge of the criminal court. Afterward he was elected to Congress as a Democrat, and served from December 1, 1843, to March 4, IS51, in that body. From 1854 until 1857 he was United States minister to Columbia, and from 1858 until 1859 was commissioner to Paraguay.

Bowling Green .- The seat of justice of Pike County, a city of the fourth class, near the center of the county, twelve miles south- west of Louisiana and at the crossing point of the Chicago & Alton and the St. Louis & Hannibal Railroads. It was founded in 1819, and was named after Bowling Green, Kentucky. It was made the county seat of Pike County in 1823. For many years it contained only a few hundred population, but grew more rapidly after the construction of the Chicago & Alton Railroad to it. It has a substantial courthouse. a graded public school, a school for colored children, is the seat of Pike College, has Baptist, Christian, Methodist Episcopal, Methodist Episcopal South, Catholic and Presbyterian Churches. two banks, three hotels, two grain elevators, flouring mill, shoddy mill. brick and tile

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Encyclopedia of the history of Missouri, a compendium of history and biography for ready reference, Vol. I, Part 61

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