USA > Missouri > Encyclopedia of the history of Missouri, a compendium of history and biography for ready reference, Vol. I > Part 84
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467
CALEDONIA-CALE.
town had been laid out about a grand square, approached on its four sides by streets one hundred feet wide. In this square the build- ing of the temple was commenced. In 1838 the laying of the corner stone was the occa- sion of great rejoicing, and this ceremony was performed with great pomp and demon- stration. The fates did not decree that this wonderful temple should be built, and barely was its foundation completed when the "Saints" were driven from the county, and sought a place of refuge in Illinois, where they founded the town of Nauvoo. (See "Mormonism.") The exodus of the Mor- mons shattered the greatness of Far West, which became a deserted city, and in 1842 the county seat was moved to Kingston, about six miles southeast, a town laid out for county seat purposes, and named in honor of Governor Austin A. King. There a court- house was built. It was destroyed by fire April 19, 1860, with all the records it con- tained, excepting those of the probate court. In 1859 the Hannibal & St. Joseph Railroad was completed as far as Kingston. Caldwell ·County furnished a number of volunteers for the Mexican War, and soldiers to both the Northern and Southern sides during the Civil War. In July, 1864, Confederates under Major Thrailkill entered the county and killed two and captured a number of Home Guards. A few days later Thrailkill and his men entered Kingston, and, his forces greatly outnumbering the Home Guards stationed there, the latter, along with a number of citi- zens, left the place and went to Hamilton, in the northern part of the county. The Con- federates having possession of the town broke open the courthouse vault, from which they took about $8,000 belonging to the school fund. They destroyed all records and papers appertaining to the enrollment of the militia, but did not burn the county rec- ords. After robbing a number of stores ·of goods and money they passed on to Platts- burg, in Clinton County, stopping at Mira- bile, where they looted the stores and houses. These were the chief events in the county during the conflict. Caldwell County is di- vided into twelve townships, named, respec- tively, Breckenridge, Davis, Fairview, Grant, Hamilton, Kidder, Kingston, Gomer, Lin- coln, Mirabile, New York and Rockford. There are 56.88 miles of railroad in the .county, the Hannibal & St. Joseph passing
east and west through the northern part ; the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul through the southeastern part, and the Hamilton & Kingston running from Hamilton, in the northern part of the county, to Kingston, the county seat. The number of public schools in the county in 1899 was 84; teachers em- ployed, 146; pupils enumerated, 5,098. The population in 1900 was 16,656.
Caledonia .- An incorporated village in Washington County, twelve miles south of Potosi, founded in 1819. It is in the center of the noted Belleview Valley, surrounded by a rich farming country. There is a good pub- lic school, a college, two churches, Methodist and Presbyterian, a gristmill, sawmill, wagon factory, and three general stores. The popu- lation was about 250 in 1899. The Presby- terian Church in the town is one of the oldest west of the Mississippi River, having been built in 1825.
Caledonian Society .- This society was organized in St. Louis in 1852, by Ebene- zer McNeil, who at the present time-1898- is living in retirement on Delmar Boulevard. He, with twelve others, instituted the society at Teetotal Hall, on Second Street. He was the first president of the society in St. Louis, and continued to serve as such five successive years, with Alexander Piper as vice president, and Robert Chain, secretary. The objects of the society were to keep alive memories of Scotland, the home of romance, poetry and song ; to promote the study of its history and literature ; to strengthen the bonds of friend- ship between those of like birth and antece- dents ; and to make provision for the relief of the indigent Scotch people of St. Louis. While it has been to some extent a benevo- lent society, it has been mainly a social and patriotic organization, and its St. Andrew's Day Banquets, enlivened by toasts, speeches and song, have been notable occasions in St. Louis. In 1898 the officers of the society were: Dugald Crawford, president ; John W. Dick, vice president, and John McLaggan, secretary.
Cale, George William, railway man- ager, was born in St. Louis in 1844, son of William and Evelyn (Dutro) Cale. He grew up in St. Louis and was educated in the pub- lie schools and at Jones' Commercial College.
468
CALHOON.
He entered the railway service as a messen- ger boy in the office of the Blue Line Fast Freight Company, leaving this office after a time to accept a position with the Star Union Line, managed in St. Louis at that time by the well known Nathan Stevens. He was promoted from one position to another until he became chief clerk of the Star Union Line office, and retained that connection for sev- eral years. He then became chief clerk of the general freight department of the Pacific Railroad Company of Missouri, and held that position until this corporation leased its line to the Atlantic & Pacific Company. With- drawing from the service of this new corpo- ration, he then conducted an agency of pooled Eastern freight lines for several months and until the pool was dissolved. Immediately afterward he became head of the firm of Cale & Hudson, which conducted a general freight agency at the corner of Second and Olive Streets, and did a prosperous business for two or three years.
When the St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Railway and the Missouri Pacific Railroad were consolidated by Mr. Jay Gould, Mr. Cale was made assistant general freight agent of the Missouri Pacific, and held that position until he was offered the general freight agency of the St. Louis & San Fran- cisco Railway. He accepted this position De- cember 5, 1882, and later became freight traf- fic manager of this road, which position he retained until he was appointed by his com- pany to represent its interests as member of the board of administration of the Southwest- ern Freight Association, with headquarters in the city of St. Louis. Later he was elected member of the conference committee of the Southwestern Bureau, which was successor to the last named association.
Calhoon, William Walter, promi- nently identified with the establishment of the interurban electric railway system connect- ing the principal cities in the Kansas-Mis- souri mineral belt, was born June 8, 1854, in Beaver County, Pennsylvania. His parents were Milton and Phoebe (Mackall) Calhoon, both natives of Pennsylvania, of Scotch-Irish ancestry. The educational opportunities of the son, William Walter, were limited, being restricted to those afforded by the ordinary neighborhood schools, and the greater part of his boyhood life was occupied with farmtasks.
After leaving home his natural aptitude for business affairs led him to seek em- ployment in offices where he acquired thor- oughly practical knowledge, which availed him well in after life. He first entered the service of the Federal Street & Pleasant Val- ley Road, connecting Pittsburg and Alle- gheny, Pennsylvania, having charge of the office in Allegheny. For several years after relinquishing that position he had charge of a desk in the large establishment of William McCully & Co., glass manufacturers in Pitts- burg. In 1878 he came to Missouri and vis- ited Carthage, but soon removed to Kansas City, where for two and one-half years he was engaged with a large furniture firm. In 1881 he returned to Carthage, where he was. established for twelve years as State agent of the German Fire Insurance Company of Freeport, Illinois. In 1895 he opened a fur- niture store on the south side of the public square, which was conducted by Calhoon & Banks. During 1897 he conducted the busi- ness alone, his partner having retired. In 1898 the business was consolidated with that of George C. Howenstein, under the firm name of Howenstein & Calhoon. This house is yet in existence, and in rooms and amount and quality of stock surpasses all others in Missouri, outside the metropolitan centers. Since 1893 Mr. Calhoon has also held an in- terest in the lumber business of Harrison & Calhoon. He was one of the pioneers in the interurban electric railway development, and was foremost among the promoters of the Jasper County line, between Carthage and Carterville, in September, 1895. He was president of the company until the road was consolidated with the Southwest Electric Railway Company. The officers of the latter company were retained for a little over a year after the consolidation, when Mr. Calhoon was elected to the presidency, and served in that capacity until the road passed into other hands. He is a director in the Carthage Na- tional Bank. In 1892-3 he served as mayor of Carthage, and his administration was alto- gether practical and businesslike. In politics he is a Republican, inclining to sympathy with the free silver clement of the party. He is a member of the Presbyterian Church. He holds membership with the Knights of Pythias, and has served as chancellor com- inander and delegate to the Grand Encamp- ment of Missouri. He is a charter member
469
CALHOUN-CALIFORNIA RAILROAD.
of Lodge No. 529. Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. October 1, 1874, he was married to Miss Maggie J. Robertson, of Al- legheny City, Pennsylvania, who died Decem- ber 29, 1884. He was again married, Septem- ber 6, 1888, to Miss Annie M. Shaffer, of Sedalia, Missouri.
Calhoun .- A fourth-class city, in Henry County, eleven miles northeast of Clinton, the county seat. It has a public school. churches of the Baptist, Methodist Episcopal and Presbyterian denominations, an inde- pendent Democratic newspaper, the "Cou- rier"; a bank, a feedmill, a sawmill, and extensive pottery works. In 1899 the popula- tion was 1,000. It was founded in 1835 by James Nash, who attempted to have it made the county seat. It was named for John C. Calhoun, of South Carolina. It was incorpo- rated February 10, 1870.
California .- The judicial seat of Moni- teau County, situated in Walker Township, on the main line of the Missouri Pacific Rail- road, twenty-five miles west of Jefferson City and one hundred and fifty miles from St. Louis. It is delightfully situated upon a ridge that divides the waters of the Moniteat and the Moreau, at an elevation of 678 feet above the sea level. The town was founded in 1845, succeeding the old town of California, a short distance away, and was incorporated in 1857. About 1835 Walter Garner built a blacksmith shop on the site of the old town. A saloon and other buildings were soon afterward erected and the place called California. The first store was opened in 1836 by one McClin- tock. Upon the organization of the county, in 1845, the commissioners appointed to lo- cate the permanent seat of justice accepted fifty acres of land near the old town, donated to the county by A. T. Byler and wife, and laid out a town, which they called Boones- borough. A year later the postoffice of the old town was removed to the new, and the name Boonesborough was discontinued, and that of California, the postoffice, adopted. The first house to be erected after the laying out of the new town was built by Lashley L. Wood. Other buildings soon followed, and about the public square, when the courthouse was completed in 1849, was considerable of a row of buildings. Little progress was made during the first ten years ; in fact, up to the
close of the war there was no great growth. Fire visited the town April 2. 1863, and nearly destroyed the entire business part. March 9, 1864, the railroad depot and the goods it contained were burned, and since then nu- merous small fires have occurred. At present (1900) the town is in a most prosperous con- dition. It contains two schools, one of which, the Aurora, for white children, cost $25,000; the other is for colored children and is known as the Humboldt. There are eleven churches, as follows : Baptist (white), Baptist (col- ored), Catholic. Evangelical, Christian, Meth- odist Episcopal, two Lutheran, Presbyterian, Methodist Episcopal South, and Methodist Episcopal (colored). The town has an opera- house, built at a cost of $10,000. two banks, two hotels, a pottery, woolen mills, two flour- mills, two building and loan associations, Ma- sonic, Odd Fellows, Knights of Pythias, United Workmen and other lodges. There are numerous well stocked general stores and stores in different branches of trade, and many small shops and factories. Four weekly papers are published in the town, the "Cali- fornia Dispatch." by W. C. Tillery; "Demo- crat," by J. B. Wolfe ; the "Moniteau County Herald," by Ingersoll & Carter, and the "Missouri Push," by C. L. Phifer. The two former are Democratic, the "Herald" Re- publican, and the last named independent in principles. The town has well graded streets, and is provided with electric lights and a tele- phone exchange. The population in 1900 was 2,181.
California Railroad .-- The discovery of gold in California and the overland migration to the Pacific Coast, which began immediately afterward, caused St. Louis to become, to a large extent, an "outfitting" point for the gold hunters. The wagon trains sent out suggested railroad trains, and a trans-continental railway project took form in the minds of St. Louis people. In response to invitations sent out from that city, a con- vention met there, October 15, 1849, which held its session in the courthouse and was presided over by Judge A. T. Ellis, of Indi- ana. A committee was appointed to prepare an address to the people of the United States, soliciting co-operation in the matter of urg- ing Congress to take action looking to the construction of the railway, but nothing of importance appears to have been done by the
470
CALLAO-CALLAWAY COUNTY.
committee. St. Louis is, however, entitled to the credit of having first suggested the build- ing of a railroad to the Pacific Coast.
Callao. - An incorporated village in Ma- con County, on the Hannibal & St. Joseph branch of the Burlington Railroad, nine miles west of Macon. It was laid out in Septem- ber, 1857, by Enoch Humphrey and his asso- ciates. It has two churches-Christian and Methodist-a flouring mill, woolen mill, bank, two hotels, and two newspapers, the "Journal" and the "Herald." There are about thirty stores and shops in the town. Population, 1899 (estimated), 500.
Callaway County .- A county a little east of the center of the State, bounded on the north by Audrain, east by Montgomery, south by the Missouri River, which courses its border for about forty miles and divides it from Osage and Cole Counties, and on the west by Boone County ; area, 517,726 acres. The surface is diversified, about one-third of its area being prairie. Not alone is this pecui- liar of its topography, presenting here and there tracts of rich prairie land, interspersed with densely wooded tracts, hills and valleys, but characteristic of the soil, which is so vari- able in its composition that adjoining farms present not alone different varieties of sur- face, but soils as well. Along the Missouri River are long stretches of bottom land, ranging from a half to two miles in width, the soil of which is alluvial, porous and sandy, of wonderful fertility, year after year bearing good crops. Originally these lands werc covered with heavy growths of timber, mostly cottonwood, sycamore, walnut, elm, hickory and dogwood. These bottoms generally lie from ten to twenty feet above the level of the river, and have been overflown only a few times in the last century. The limit of thesc bottom lands is marked by the bluffs of the Missouri, which are in some places rocky and precipitouts, ranging to gradual hills, which are covered with a thin though productive soil, excellent for the cultivation of grapes, and the growing of certain kinds of cereals and tobacco. Northward from the bluffs the country is hilly and broken, with here and there rich tracts of table land or prairie. This belt is about fifteen miles in width, and is adapted to a wide range of products. North of this belt the country is more undulating,
with occasional tracts of prairie land of high fertility. The county is well watered by nu- merous streams, along which are narrow strips of bottom lands. Ninety-five per cent of all the land in the county is arable, and, while in places the soil is light, all is susceptible of high cultivation and productive of profitable crops. The county generally inclines toward the southeast, in which direction the larger streams have a general flow. Cedar Creek and its branches water and drain the western part, Aux Vasse and tributaries the cen- ter, and the Loutre the eastern part. There are numerous springs throughout the county. The minerals of the county are coal, lime- stone, fire clay, potters' clay, cement, marble, ochre and other mineral paint, and lead and iron ore have also been found, but not in pay- ing quantities. Coal and fire clay are exten- sively mined. It is estimated that there are 200,000 acres in the county underlaid with veins of coal from twenty-four to forty inches in thickness. The chief cereals grown are corn, which yields an average of thirty-five bushels to the acre; wheat, sixteen bushels ; and oats, twenty-five bushels. Potatoes and all the tuberous vegetables grow abundantly, potatoes averaging 150 bushels to the acre. About 80 per cent of the land is under culti- vation, a small part of the remainder being in timber. The report of the Bureau of Labor Statistics gives the following shipments of surplus products from the county in 1898: Cattle, 4,094 head ; hogs, 35.960 head ; sheep, 10,177 head; horses and mules, 1,055 head ; wheat, 56,158 bushels; corn. 3.305 bushels ; flour, 541,312 pounds; corn meal. 43.865 pounds : shipstuff. 137,655 pounds; clover seed, 21.500 pounds; timothy seed. 270 bushels : lumber, 571,540 feet; walnut logs, 45,280 feet ; cross-ties, 16,955 : cordwood. 937 cords; cooperage, 85 cars; coal. 240 tons ; brick, 1,016,600; stone, 24 cars ; lime, 231,133 barrels : wool, 17,162 pounds ; tobacco, 2,237 pounds ; poultry, 1,060,988 pounds ; eggs, 295.770 dozen : butter, 4,369 pounds; game and fish, 20,600 pounds; tallow, 101.380 pounds ; hides and pelts, 144,304 pounds ; ap- ples, 470 barrels ; dried fruit, 5.407 pounds ; vegetables, 3,465 pounds ; furs, 1,951 pounds ; feathers, 2,812 pounds. Other articles of cx- port are icc, cheese, dressed meats, fresh fruit, onions, potatoes, honey, molasses, vine- gar, nuts, canned goods and nursery stock. Many years before the arrival of white men
471
CALLAWAY COUNTY.
in the territory now embraced in Callaway County, Indians known as the Missouris made it their living place, and according to Indian tradition were driven out of the coun-
try by the lowas, Foxes and Sacs. Soon after St. Louis was settled, in 1765. French hunters made expeditions into the country, and some years before the beginning of the nineteenth century established a trading post and built a village on the Missouri River bot- tom, which they called Cote Sans Dessein, from a large rock which occupied the bot- tom, extending for nearly a mile and rising to a height of sixty feet. The residents of Cote Sans Dessein were a jovial lot, living by the hunt and the catch of their traps, and bothering themselves little with the serious affairs of life. The women cultivated small gardens, but no further effort at agriculture was attempted. The date of the founding of the village is not known. In 1800 the Spanish government granted the land upon which the town was built to one Baptiste Donchou- guette, as is shown by the American State papers, and the grant was confirmed to him in 1814, and two years later he transferred his title to Pierre Chontean, of St. Louis. The commissioners to locate a permanent seat of justice for Missouri at one time looked favor- ably upon Cote Sans Dessein as a site for the capital, but owing to doubt as to the title of the land abandoned it in favor of Jefferson City. Missouri River floods about 1820-30 drove the inhabitants of Cote Sans Dessein to the south side of the river, where was es- tablished what was long known as the French Village. Nothing remains of the original town to-day but the name, which is perpetu- ated by a station on the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railroad, near the site of the old town. In 1808 Nathan Boone, acting as a guide for Captain Clemson, of the United States Army, led an expedition through Callaway County on its way to establish Fort Osage. The only pathways through the county at that time were Indian trails. In 1815 Nathan Boone, with a company of fifty men, marked out the Boone's Lick Road, which for many years was the only thoroughfare, excepting the Missouri River, from St. Louis to what is now Howard County. This road passed through the country now Callaway County, and soon after it was opened many settlers located upon land along it. The pioneers were from Kentucky and Virginia and neigh-
boring Southern States. In the fall of 1815 Jonathan Crow and John Ilam settled upon land about ten miles southeast of the present site of Fulton, on Big Aux Vasse Creek, so named by Frenchmen, who, while crossing it with wagon trains, became mired. Crow and Ham were hunters, and for some time lived in camps; later they built rude cabins. In 1815 Patrick Ewing, a native of Lee County, Virginia, settled at Cote Sans Dessein, and the following year moved to near St. Aubert, where he built a house and resided for thirty- five years, when he took up his residence ten miles south of Fulton. Ile was a captain in the Black Hawk War and second sheriff of Callaway County. Captain Ewing had the distinction of building the first house outside of Cote Sans Dessein, in the county. In April, 1816, James Van Bibber, a Kentuckian, located on the Aux Vasse, at what became known as Van Bibber's Lick, nine iniles east of the present site of Fulton. Van Bibber married Elizabeth Hays, the eldest daughter of Mrs. William Hays, the daughter of Dan- iel Boone, and the first white child born in Kentucky. Van Bibber assisted Colonel Na- than Boone in surveying part of what is now Callaway County. Some descendants of Van Bibber still reside in the county. In the spring of 1816 Aaron Watson settled on Boone's Lick Road, and in the summer of the following year Rev. William Coats, a reg- ular Baptist minister, his brother, James Coats, John Logan, Joseph Callaway, Robert Read, Thomas Kitching, William Pratt and John Gibson settled in what is now the south- eastern part of the county, on Coats' Prairie. Prior to 1817, according to the most reliable records available, besides those named in the foregoing, most of whom settled at or near Cote Sans Dessein, were Francois, Jo- seph, Lewis and Jean Baptiste Roi, Joseph Rivard, Josephi Tibeau, Francois Tyon, Louis Labras, Lonis Vincennes, Nicholas Foy, Bap- tiste Groza, Baptiste and Louis Senoya and Louis Laptant, all of whom were French Catholics, and Asa Williams, Thomas Smith, Jonathan Ramsey, Jesse and George Adams, Felix Brown and John French. In 1816 and 1817 Nathan Boone surveyed the castern part of the county, and Joseph Evans much of the western part. In the section surveyed by Evans were four Spanish land grants, em- bracing an area of 11.760 acres, and twenty- seven New Madrid claims. In December,
472
CALLAWAY COUNTY.
1818, at St. Louis, the lands in the eastern part of the county were offered for sale, and in February, 1819, nearly all the lands in the western part were sold. At this time immi- gration was heavy, and the lands along the streams were settled rapidly. "House-rais- ings" were numerous, and it was common for "neighbors" to go fifteen or twenty miles to the home of another "neighbor" to assist in erecting a cabin. In 1818 the "horsemill" for grinding corn, operated within the limits of the county, and the first west of St. Charles, was built by J. T. Ferguson. Soon after an- other building was put up on May's Prairie, three and a half miles southeast of the pres- ent site of Fulton, by Henry May. The first settlers were hospitable, a happy, jovial peo- ple, who took great delight in assisting each other, and making the burdens as light as possible. Callaway County was organized by act of the Territorial Legislature, November 25, 1820, and named in honor of Captain James Callaway, a grandson of Daniel Boone, who was killed by Indians near Loutre River. Upon organization the county seat was lo- cated on Ham's Prairie, about six miles south of the present site of Fulton, and was called Elizabeth in honor of the wife of Henry Brite, one of the pioneers of the county, at whose house the first court met. The meet- ing of the first circuit court was held Feb- ruary 5. 1821, Honorable Rufus Pettibone presiding. The first county court met at the same place, February 12th of the same year, with Benjamin Young and Stephen Dorris as presiding justices. Irvine O. Hockaday was the first circuit and county clerk, and Wyn- coop Warner, first sheriff. In 1825 George Nichols donated to the county fifty acres of land for county seat purposes, and by order of the county court this was laid off in town lots. and the town was called Volney, in honor of the noted French scientist and au- thor. Later the name was changed to Ful- ton, in honor of Robert Fulton, the builder of the first successful steamboat. The town of Elizabeth was abandoned as the county seat in 1826. The town lots of the new county seat were sold at public auction. John Yates, the son-in-law of Nichols, buying the first lot sold, and he erected the first house in the town. He was the first merchant in Callaway County outside the old town of Cote Sans Dessein, having established a store at Eliza- beth when the town was started. The first
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