USA > Missouri > Encyclopedia of the history of Missouri, a compendium of history and biography for ready reference, Vol. II > Part 35
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a cost of about $11,000. This building burn- ed January 5, 1884. It was insured for $8,000. The present courthouse was erected in 1885, at a cost of about $10,000. The first Circuit Court of Crawford County was held at the house of James Harrison, May 19, 1831, Honorable David Todd, judge of the First Judicial Circuit, presiding. This court appointed James Harrison clerk and recorder, and approved the creden- tials of James Campbell as sheriff of the county. John S. Brickey, Robert A. Ear- ing, Robert W. Wells, Philip Cole, David Sterigere, John Jamison, John Wilson and William Scott, on motion, were admitted to practice as attorneys and counselors-at-law. A grand jury was impaneled. The first trial was the case of "The State of Missouri vs. James Wilson," charged with horse-stealing. He was placed under bond and his bond was subsequently forfeited. The first petition for a divorce in the county came before the court February 12, 1832, Margaret Franklin vs. Thomas Franklin. Abandonment was charged, and a divorce was granted at the August term of court, 1833. The first indict- ment for murder was in August, 1834, the case being the State vs. Ben, a slave. The following December a nolle prosequi was en- tered and the defendant was discharged. The first legal execution in Crawford County was the hanging of Mary, a slave, owned by John Brinker, of Steelville, for killing one of her children by drowning. She was hanged in the town of Steelville, August 11, 1838. There were a number of murders in the county the following half century, the par- ties to the crimes belonging to the lower strata of society, but there were no legal executions, punishments in all cases being terms in the penitentiary. One of the most horrible crimes in the history of the county was the killing of Malcolm Logan and his family near Leesburg, in 1886. Lo- gan's body was found a mile away from his home, and the remains of his wife and four children, the eldest six years and the young- est ten weeks old, were found in the burned ruins of his cabin. Pat Wallace was sus- pected of the crime. He was arrested and placed in jail at Steelville. Early Tuesday morning, October 7, 1886, an organized band took charge of the town of Steelville, broke into the jail, took out the prisoner, led him to the railroad bridge over the Meramec, two
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miles from Steelville, where he was hanged. He protested his innocence to the last and accused a colored man living in the county of the horrible crime. About 1889, one Lewis Davis, who was thought to have murdered David Miller, a farmer, for the purpose of robbery in the river bottoms, about three miles from Steelville, was taken from jail by an organized band and hanged. This was the last lynching in the county. A flood caused damage in the county to the ex- tent of about $500,000 July 8, 1898, an account of which is given elsewhere in these volumes. Crawford County is divided into nine town- ships, named respectively, Benton, Boone, Courtois, Knobville, Liberty, Meramec, Oak Hill, Osage and Union. The assessed value of real estate in the county in 1899 was $1,877,231 ; estimated full value, $2,500,000; assessed value of personal property, $586,- 032 ; estimated full value, $1,150,000; assess- ed value of merchants and manufacturers, $78,822. The St. Louis & San Francisco Railway has sixty miles of track in the coun- ty, the main line passing diagonally from the northeast to the western center of the county, and the Salem branch of the same road running from Cuba, south through the county west of the center. The number of public schools in the county is 80; teachers employed, 88; pupils, 4,624. The population of the county in 1900 was 12,959.
Crawford County Caves .- There are a number of caves in Crawford County, one of which is located six miles southwest of Leesburg, near the Washington County line. The entrance to this cave is an opening from which a large stream of water flows. En- trance is made by rowing in a boat through a subterranean waterway for about one-fourth of a mile. The cave abounds in many startling and beautiful formations. There are a great number of chambers of remarkable beauty. The cave has been explored for about two miles. It is one of the most beau- tiful caves discovered in Missouri.
Crawford County Flood .- Early on the morning of July 8, 1898, a severe storm passed over the central part of Crawford County east from the Phelps County line. Great damage by water was caused thereby; farm buildings were swept away, stock drowned and many lives were lost. The
greatest damage was at Steelville, where six- ty-three houses were swept away and thir- teen lives lost. Seven miles of the track of the St. Louis & San Francisco Railway was washed out. The total damage caused in the county was estimated at more than $500,000.
Creighton .- A village in Cass County, on the Kansas City, Fort Scott & Gulf Rail- way, twenty miles southeast of Harrisonville, the county seat. It has a public school, four churches, and a flourmill, and is a coal ship- ping point. In 1899 the population was 650.
Crematory .- One of the earliest advo- cates in the United States of the cremation of the bodies of the dead was Dr. Francis J. Le Moyne, of Washington, Pennsylvania, and near that city he erected the first crematory in the United States in 1876. Discussion of this method of disposing of the remains of the dead has been general since that time, and, notwithstanding the fact that the vast major- ity of the American people still cling to the custom of burial which has come down to us from remote generations of our ancestors, cremation has, upon the whole, steadily added to the number of its advocates and is now one of the firmly established institutions of the country. Honorable Albert Todd, Dr. E. C. Chase and other gentlemen then prominent in St. Louis, began advocating the erection of a crematory in that city, within a few years after the erection of the crematory at Wash- ington, Pennsylvania, and gradually the project gained friends until, in 1887, the Mis- souri Crematory Association was organized and incorporated under the laws of the State, with a capital stock of $20,000, divided into 800 shares, of the par value of $25 per share. Among the first subscribers to the stock were Albert Todd, Dr. Chase, August Kriekhauss, Rev. Mr. Learned, of the Unity Church; Rev. John Snyder, of the Church of the Messiah; C. A. Stifel and George M. Harker. Under the auspices of this association, the Missouri Crematory and Columbarium, at the intersection of Arsenal Street and Sublette Avenue was built, and by this association its affairs have since been controlled and directed. The crematory is a fire-proof one-story building, what is known as the "chapel" occupying the main floor. Underneath the chapel is the incinerating de- partment, which is connected with the chapel
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by an elevator. There are two separate and complete furnaces in the incinerating depart- ment, and the gases used in the process of cremation burn with a clear, bright flame, creating an intense heat. The rules of the association require that bodies to be cre- mated should be clothed simply and inclosed in a plain and inexpensive coffin. When notified to do so, the association makes provisions for religious services at the crema- tory. When the incineration of a body has been completed, the ashes of the deceased are removed to the Columbarium, or placed in possession of those entitled to them by right of kinship or friendship. The Columbarium, which is a sepulchral chamber with niches and shelves for holding cinerary urns, and which is designed to be a permanent repos- itory for the ashes of the dead, is a fire-proof structure, built of granite, iron and Roman brick, and so constructed that those of mod- erate means, as well as the rich, many find places for the remains of their dead within its walls. The minimum cost of placing an urn within the Columbarium is $10, and of niches the minimum cost is $25. Beyond this, however, there is opportunity for those wishing to pay such tributes to their deceased friends to equal the expense of the costliest monuments in the adornment of the niches in which their remains have been deposited. Up to July 1, 1897, 614 bodies had been in- cinerated at the Missouri Crematory, among the first being that of Rev. Dr. Learned, one of the founders of the institution.
Crenshaw, Giles Young, stockman and politician, was born September 28, 1839. at Equality, Gallatin County, Illinois. His parents were William Easly Crenshaw, born in North Carolina, March 4, 1804, and Casandia Footpage Crenshaw, nee Taylor, born in Richmond, Virginia, January 10, 1808. They were married, in 1827, in Galla- tin County, Illinois, their respective families having emigrated, first to Kentucky, and later to Illinois. To them were born six boys and four daughters, all of whom but one, a son, attained maturity and became well-to-do and respected citizens in different States. In 1841 the parents of Mr. Crenshaw moved to Springfield, Illinois, where his father died in 1864. His mother continued to reside there until 1870, when she removed to St. Clair County, Illinois. Here she resided until her
death, in 1884. Mr. Crenshaw was educated in the common schools of Sangamon County and later in Parson's Business College, of Springfield, Illinois. On attaining his major- ity he first engaged in the stock business, which he conducted successfully for some seventeen years in Illinois, and in Missouri- to which State he removed in 1874, settling in DeKalb County. In 1876 Mr. Crenshaw was married to Miss Annie Celestia Holmes, of Maysville, Missouri, daughter of John H. Holmes, a prosperous farmer of DeKalb County. Their union has been blessed by seven children, four sons and three daugh- ters, all of whom survive except one daugh- ter, who died in infancy. Their names, according to age, are: John H., Edith M., Claude R., Lowell W., Margaret L. and Vivian E. Crenshaw. The eldest, Dr. John H. Crenshaw, is married and living at Gales- burg, Illinois, where he is practicing medi- cine. In 1878 Mr. Crenshaw was elected circuit clerk and recorder of deeds of DeKalb County, and re-elected in 1882. So com- mendable was his administration of these offices that his constituents insisted upon electing him the third term, and were so in earnest that the Democratic County Con- vention nominated him. He, however, de- clined the nomination, insisting that he had held it long enough; believed in the Demo- cratic doctrine of rotation in office, and was especially opposed to third terms. His last term as circuit clerk and recorder of deeds expired January 1, 1887. Prior to this date, in 1886, the DeKalb County Bank was or- ganized, and Mr. Crenshaw was elected president of the enterprise. To the duties of this position he devoted himself until 1891, when he resigned to engage in the general real estate and loan business, with offices in Maysville. In 1896 he was elected president of the Town Mutual Fire Insurance Asso- ciation of the Third Congressional District. In this position he continued until March 4, 1897, when he was appointed United States marshal for the Western District of Missouri, to succeed General Joe Shelby. With his usual marked ability, tireless energy, and vigilance, he filled the marshalship until the expiration of his term, July 1, 1898. On retiring from this office he devoted his time in looking after his private business interests, and in aiding the Democratic party managers in the campaign of 1900. Mr. Crenshaw has
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been a zealous Democrat and a ready worker, and a liberal and cheerful contributor to cam- paign funds. For twelve successive years he served on the Congressional committee of the Third District while Governor Dockery represented it in Congress. Some eight years of this time he was chairman of the committee, and on him devolved the laborious work of these campaigns. To his sagacity, foresight, wise management and ceaseless effort, more than to any other one man, was dne the continued triumphs of Democracy in the Third District. He is recognized the State over as one of the party's wisest and safest leaders. The consensus of opinion among Democrats at this date (1901) is that he will be one of Governor Dockery's most trusted advisors. Immediately after Gov- ernor Dockery's inauguration he called Mr. Crenshaw to act as his private secretary, which position he fills at this writing.
Creve Coeur Lake .- A beautiful sheet of water, eighteen miles from St. Louis, accessible by two railroads. It is a pleasant resort for picnic and festive parties in the summer, having a hotel, boathouses, row- boats and fishing appliances.
Creole .- "A Creole is one born of Eu- ropean parents in the American Colonies of France or Spain, or in the States which were once such colonies, especially those of French or Spanish descent who are natives of Louis- iana and their descendants." The Century Dictionary defines the term "Creole" as orig- inally "a native descended from French an- cestors who had settled in Louisiana ; later, any native of French or Spanish descent, by either'. parent; a person belonging to the French-speaking native portion of the white race." Among the more prominent Creole families of St. Louis have been the Bertholds, Chouteaus, Cabannes, Chauviers, Chenies, Gratiots, Masures, Papins, Pauls, Prattes and Valles. (See "Creoles of St. Louis," by Paul Beckwith, published in 1893.)
Cresap, Sanford Preston, clergy- man, was born April 26, 1869, in the country, six miles east of St. Charles, Missouri, son of William Sanford and Ann Maria Cresap, the first named a native of Maryland, and the last named born in Virginia. The family to which he belongs traces its genealogy back
to Colonel Thomas Cresap, who emigrated to America from Yorkshire, England, in 1715, and settled in Maryland. From this ancestor Mr. Cresap is removed four generations. Several of his ancestors in this line, among them his grandfather, were fighters in the American Revolution. Captain Michael Cresap commanded a company of Maryland riflemen under Washington. The remains of Captain Cresap rest in Trinity churchyard in New York, and a heavy old-fashioned grave- stone marks the grave. The father of Sanford P. Cresap died when the son was twelve years of age, and he was reared and educated under the guidance of his mother, whose painstaking and conscientious care, the high ideals which she set before him, and the religious training which she gave him, strongly impressed his character. After attending the public schools he was, for a time, a student at St. Charles College, and then went to Central College, at Fayette, Missouri, from which institution he was grad- uated. At Central College he was a gold- medalist in declamation, and also in oratory. In his youth Mr. Cresap had worked for sev- eral years in a large mercantile house in St. Charles, and thus acquired some business experience. His inclination, however, was toward the ministry of the Methodist Epis- copal Church, South, of which church he became a member when he was fifteen years of age. When he was eighteen years of age he was licensed by that church to preach the gospel. He was regularly ordained when twenty-four years of age, by Bishop C. B. Galloway, of Mississippi, and admitted on trial into the Missouri Conference, thus be- coming an active Methodist preacher. He was first sent by the conference to serve a mission charge in St. Joseph, Missouri, and there gained a varied experience, which has been helpful to him in his later work. From St. Joseph he was sent to Maryville, Mis- souri, where he remained four years, filling the limit of a pastorate in the Methodist Church. His third appointment was to the pastorate of the church at Moberly, which he has since served ably and faithfully, being now (1900) in the third year of his work at that place. In this connection it will be in- teresting to briefly sketch the history of the church, of which Dr. Cresap is now the much beloved pastor.
When Moberly was young-indeed, almost
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upon the occasion of its incorporate birth- when there were hardly 150 inhabitants all told, the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, recognizing the town's present needs, and having faith in its future growth, organized the first church in the town of Moberly. The town was hardly more than a railroad camp, but the farsighted and energetic D. H. Root, minister in charge of the Huntsville circuit, saw large possibilities for the town and un- derstood the eminent needs of a religious organization. He was a strong, jovial and earnest Methodist minister. His personality and congeniality attracted and impressed the hardy settlers and the railroad workmen, and his visits to preach in their homes became frequent. About the time, immediately be- fore or after, that the original town of Moberly was incorporated, which was in May, 1868, this Rev. D. H. Root organized the first religious organization, with scarcely more than a score of members. But they were an earnest and a determined body, with faith in God and faith in men. In the fall of 1868, by sacrifice and untiring activity, in the face of most discouraging difficulties, and un- der the leadership of Mr. Root, these feeble folk, true, tried and trusty, undertook the erection of the first church house in Moberly, and completed it. The dedication was con- ducted by Rev. John D. Vincil, now an eminent officer in the Masonic Lodge of Mis- souri. The house was a neat and substantial wooden structure, thirty feet wide and fifty feet long. In three years the town had so grown and the organization had so pros- pered, that the entire time of a minister was demanded. So in the fall of 1871, the ap- pointment was taken from the Huntsville circuit and was made a station, with Rev. H. P. Bond as the station minister. A steady and constant growth followed. The minutes of the annual conferences show the following order of appointments to Moberly station for the next few years: H. D. Groves, E. M. Mann, S. L. Woody, J. A. Beagle, C. C. Cleavland, W. J. Jackson. In the third year of Mr. Jackson's pastorate an unusual occur- rence happened. It was in the winter of 1879-80. Mr. Jackson had called in the Rev. John D. Vincil to assist him in a revival he had begun. Moberly, at that time, was in great need of aggressive religious work. As is so often the case in a young railroad town, Moberly, while growing in size, had also
grown in sin, immorality and drinking. Dr. Vincil, with that manly courage that has always characterized him, and in the pointed and earnest manner of his early preaching, turned his discourse against the popular sins of the place, and especially against the saloon. It was an earnest and forceful ap- peal. Many felt and accepted the truth and were ready to stand against the evils. Oth- ers, whose iniquitous business it affected, were maddened. It was the supposed result that on that wintry night, before morning dawned, some incendiary had set fire to the building, and the light of day showed but the ashes and ruins of the former structure. This in no wise disheartened the members. It rather gave occasion for the erection of a larger and more substantial brick structure. Upon its completion the membership enter- tained in it the sixty-fifth annual session of the Missouri Conference, with Bishop Pierce presiding.
After Rev. Jackson's four-year pastorate, the following served the charge in the order named: C. Grimes, A. Mizell, L. B. Mad- ison, T. G. Whitten. Mr. Whitten was a man of strong will, unvarying courage and inex- haustible energy. Seeing the membership needed better and larger quarters, he set him- self about raising funds for a new building. The present modern and commodious struc- ture on Fourth and Rollins Streets is a mon- ument to his personality and faith. Shortly after its dedication, in 1889, the greatest revival in the history of the organization was held under the leadership and preaching of a Rev. Mr. Williams, of Georgia. Consider- ably over 100 souls were added to the church. It took on new life and larger usefulness. After Mr. Whitten's pastorate, C. M. Led- better, J. H. Pritchett, Robt. White, A. F. Smith and S. P. Cresap followed as the suc- cessive ministers in charge, the last named in his third year as the pastor at this date (1901). Large congregations and frequent additions to the membership attest the fact that the church is keeping up well with the growth and development of the city; closely identified with the city's history, it has had considerable part in conserving the moral and religious life of the community.
An accomplished and scholarly man, and one entirely devoted to his calling, the pas- toral labors of Dr. Cresap have been prolific of good, and he is regarded by all who know
Very truly Marcha Payne Creamy Cresap.
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him as one of the able and influential Meth- odist preachers of Missouri. He has a large library, and in addition to his theological studies is a close student of general literature. December 27, 1894, he married Miss Sarah Martha Payne, of Payne, Iowa. She is the only daughter of Rev. Moses U. Payne, a man widely known for his wealth and his unbounded benevolence, and his daughter possesses the noble and unselfish traits of her good old father. She is a graduate of How- ard-Payne College at Fayette, Missouri, and is a gold-medalist in art. Admirably fitted by nature and education to be the wife of such a man as Dr. Cresap, their union has been a happy one, and she has ably seconded her husband in his arduous and delicate duties as a minister of the gospel. C. S.
Crimes and Punishments .- The Missouri Statute of: Crimes and Punish- ments takes up ninety-eight pages in the Revised Statutes, being Chapter 47, and con- taining eleven articles. The first relates to offenses against the government and the supremacy of law; the second to offenses against the lives and persons of individuals ; the third to offenses against public and private property; the fourth to offenses affecting records, currency, instruments and securities ; the fifth to offenses affecting the administration of justice ; the sixth to offenses by persons in office, and affecting public trusts and rights; the seventh to offenses against public order and peace ; the eighth to offenses against public morals and decency ; the ninth on miscellaneous provisions; the . should pay, and a change of venue means tenth on the subject of local jurisdiction of public offenses; the eleventh concerning the limitations of criminal actions and prosecu- tions.
Criminal Costs .- The costs of crim- inal prosecution in Missouri have long been a subject of public concern and of discussion in the Legislature and official messages and re- ports. They fall chiefly on the State, and not on the counties where the prosecutions take place, and they form one of the largest items in the annual expenditures. The State pays all the costs in all capital cases where the defendant is convicted or sent to the peni- tentiary, or, when under eighteen years of age, he is sent to a reformatory institution, and when the defendant himself is unable to
pay them; and the State also pays the cost of boarding juries and an officer in charge of them, at the rate of $1.50 per day. The county pays, when the defendant is sent to the county jail or fined, or both imprisoned and fined. In all capital cases and cases in which the penalty is imprisonment in the penitentiary, where the defendant is acquitted, the State pays the costs; in all other trials on indict- ment or information, the county pays. In cases where the defendant is prosecuted to be subjected to fine, penalty, or forfeit, the costs are to be paid by the prosecutor, if there be a failure to convict. Of course, as the State grows in population, crime in- creases also, and there is an increase in the aggregate costs of criminal prosecutions ; but these costs have grown at a greater rate than the population, and all attempts to reduce them considerably without impairing the effi- ciency of prosecutions have been failures. In the three years 1840-1-2, when the maximum population of the State was 443,000, the costs were $44,759, or less than $15,000 a year. In 1871-2 they had grown to $344,078; and in 1897-8 to $864,551, with $13,607, in addition, for apprehending criminals. The State audi- tor, in his report for 1897-8, says: "I am of the opinion that criminal costs are, now, and have been for years, too large, and believe that the fault is in the law, which permits the worst class of criminals with money to secure continuances and changes of venue not required for a proper administration of justice. A single unnecessary continuance of a case practically doubles the cost the State
the piling up of enormous bills to be footed by the tax-payers. I, therefore, recommend that the laws be amended to bring persons charged with crime to more speedy trial."
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