Encyclopedia of the history of Missouri, a compendium of history and biography for ready reference, Vol. II, Part 40

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: 800

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men of Company L, commanded by Captain Jesse C. Kirby. These men fought in Mis- souri and Arkansas, under Grant in Missis- sippi, and about Mobile. In 1862 a Union militia company formed in Greenfield were surprised and captured, and re-enlisted after exchange. In the Fifteenth Cavalry Regi- ment were two Dade County companies, Company E, Captain Edmond J. Morris, and Company I, Captain John H. Howard; their service was in Missouri and Arkansas. · No pitched battles were fought within the coun- ty, but there were numerous encounters between small bands, much destruction of property by fire, and many outrages upon individuals. In 1865 a new population began to come in, and the county was practically rebuilt. In 1870 the county was asked to subscribe $300,000 in bonds to the capital stock of the Kansas City & Memphis Rail- way Company, as a building fund, but the amount was subsequently reduced to $200,- 000. The bonds were issued in 1873, but the road was not completed until 1881. During this period the county defaulted on the in- terest account, and numerous suits were brought to compel payment. In 1881 a proposition to refund in 6 per cent bonds, on a basis of 70 per cent, was rejected by a majority of votes. In 1883 it was found that the debt amounted to about $390,000, and at a special election a refunding scheme was adopted, as contemplated in the original proposition.

The branch railroad connecting Green- field and South Greenfield, two and three- fourths miles long, was built by a local com- pany in 1886. In 1886 an Agricultural, Mechanical & Stock Association was organ- ized at Lockwood, and began a series of annual fairs.

Dadeville. - A village in Dade County, twelve miles northwest of Greenfield, the county seat. It has a public school, and Dadeville Academy, a non-sectarian school for both sexes, with five teachers and 120 stu- dents, occupying a building which cost $5,000. There are two churches, lodges of Masons and Odd Fellows, a gristmill and a sawmill. In 1899 the population was 450. It was known as Mellville until about 1865, when the present name was given it. The first set- tler was one Johnson, in 1840. A Christian Church was organized in the vicinity by Elder

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Hazleton, in 1838; in 1866 the congregation removed to Dadeville and built a house of worship. The town was one of the most prosperous in the county until the war, when it was mostly destroyed.

Daenzer, Carl, editor, was born in 1820, in Odenheim, in the Province of Baden, Germany. He studied law in Heidelberg and took an active part in the German Revolu- tion of 1848-9. When the Revolution col- lapsed he succeeded in escaping to Switzer- land and remained there some years. He then came to this country and to St. Louis, where he found employment as associate editor of the "Anzeiger des Westens." This position he resigned in 1857 and established the "West- liche Post," a daily Republican paper. Ill health caused him to dispose of this paper in 1860, and a year later he left St. Louis and returned to Germany, he having, like others, received amnesty from the Grand Duke of Baden. The "Anzeiger" had until the breaking out of the Civil War been a tower of strength to the Republican party, but later it lost its prestige and influence, and in March of 1863 its publication was suspended. After a time Mr. Daenzer was induced to take charge of the paper by some of the leading citizens of St. Louis, and under his management it became nominally a Demo- cratic paper, but not a party organ. For several years Mr. Daenzer conducted it as an independent paper, but later it became the representative of the German Democrats, although its editor seldom acknowledged submission to party mandate. A man of strong convictions, he always dictated the policy of the paper personally, and his views were forcibly expressed at all times. After the consolidation of the "Anzeiger" and the "Westliche Post," which took place in 1898, he withdrew from editorial work and return- ed to his native land, where he has since lived.

Daggett, John D., one of the mayors of St. Louis, born at Attleborough, Massa- chusetts, October 4, 1793. At the age of twenty-two years he started west, stopping first at Philadelphia and next at Pittsburg, and reaching St. Louis in 1817. He engaged in the auction commission business and aft- erward in retail merchandising. In 1827 he was chosen alderman, and in 184I was

chosen mayor of the city. He was engaged for a time in the river trade, being part own- er in 1830 of the first steamboat, called the "St. Louis." His business was between St. Louis and New Orleans, and during his river career he commanded several fast and favor- ite boats. He was associated with the sectional docks, a very important and effect- ive accessory of the steamboat interest in its day, and was one of the organizers of the Floating Dock Insurance Company and one of the directors of the Citizens' Insurance Company-both of them influential and suc- cessful companies for a time. He was one of the founders of the St. Louis Gas Light Com- pany and was made president of it for sev- eral years. He was a zealous Freemason, a member of Missouri Lodge No. 12, in 1818, and one of the members of the convention in 1821 that formed the Grand Lodge of Mis- souri. He died in 1874 at the age of eighty- one years, universally esteemed as an upright and useful citizen.

Dallas. - See "Marble Hill."

Dallas County .- A county in the southwest central part of the State, bounded on the north by Hickory and Camden; east by Laclede; south by Webster and Greene, and west by Polk and Hickory Counties ; area 345,000 acres. The surface of the county va- ries from level prairie to undulating table lands and hills and ridges. Along some of the streams are steep, rocky hills. The country is well watered. The Niangua enters the cen- tral southern part and flows northwardly to near the center, thence eastwardly within a mile of the county line, where it again flows toward the north. The chief tributaries of the Niangua are Jones, Dusenberry and Greasy Creeks. In the western part flows the little Niangua, fed by numerous tributaries. Ever flowing springs abound in different sections of the county. Nearly one-third of the area of the county is prairie in character; the greater part of the remainder is covered with good growths of timber, principally the dif- ferent kinds of oak and white and black wal- nut, hickory, ash, elm, cherry, maple, sycamore and less valuable woods. The soil varies from clayey and gravelly to a rich black alluvial loam, sandy in places and near- ly all of great fertility and adopted to a wide range of products. Coal, lead, iron and lime-

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stone are the minerals found, though little effort has been made toward the develop- ment of mines. The manufacturing interests of the country are limited to a few flouring mills, gristmills and sawmills. About fifty per cent of the land is under cultivation. Among the exports from the county in 1898 were cattle, 2,850 head; hogs, 7,675 head; sheep, 1,850 head; horses and mules, 200 head; cross ties, 5,090; wool, 5,750 pounds ; poultry, 75,865 pounds ; eggs, 225,250 dozen ; butter, 2,890 pounds; game and fish, 4,785 pounds; hides and pelts, 3,980 pounds; ap- ples, 490 barrels ; dried fruit, 6,400 pounds ; honey, 350 pounds ; furs, 1,460 pounds ; feath- ers, 1,030 pounds. The exports here enumer- ated are taken from the report of the Bureau of Labor Statistics for 1899. As all the sur- plus products of Dallas County are shipped from various railroad points outside the county, it is a difficult matter to get exact statistics, and it is likely that the figures here given are lower than the actual shipments. The first settlement in the region that now is Dallas County was made on what is known as Buffalo Head Prairie. Just who was the first settler is a little obscure, though the claim that Mark Reynolds and family, natives of Tennessee, settled in 1832 on Buffalo Head Prairie, northwest a short distance from the Blue Mounds, is tolerably well authenticated. He lived on his claim for a year and then sold his improvements to Bracket Davidson, and afterward moved to land three miles west of the site of Buffalo, where he resided until his death. Soon after Reynolds settled in the county he placed a large buffalo head which he found on the prairie on a pole, where it remained for years as a way mark for hunt- ers and emigrants, and thus the prairie be- came known as Buffalo Head. Soon after the Vanderford, Haines, Cox, Wright, Wil- kerson and Gregg families from Ohio settled on land, and within the next few years there was a healthy increase of home-seekers from New York, Pennsylvania and other States of both East and South. The early settlers suf- fered many hardships and privations. Jour- neys of miles were made for such small things as to grind an ax, and a trip of more than thirty-five miles to Springfield for a few need- ed supplies was common. The greater part of the territory now comprising Dallas County, in 1842, was organized into a county called Niangua, the name a corruption of the Indian

word Nehengar. December 16, 1844, the boundaries of the county were slightly changed and an act passed providing that all that portion of the county heretofore known as Niangua shall hereafter compose and be known as the County of Dallas in hon- or of Honorable George M. Dallas, of Penn- sylvania, then Vice President-elect of the United States. The commissioners appointed to locate a permanent seat of justice selected the present site of Buffalo. The tract was originally located upon by Joseph F. Miles, an Irish-American who was born in New York. He built the first house on the tract in 1839, and named the place Buffalo, after his birthplace in New York. In 1876 Miles died-a bachelor-at the age of one hundred and six years. The first courthouse was built of logs. This was burned October 18, 1863, by Confederate soldiers. Another building was fitted up for court purposes and was burned July 30, 1864, and again the building occupied by the county offices was burned September 3, 1867. The county records were destroyed in the second fire, were replaced and again burned in 1867. In 1868 a substan- tial courthouse was built, with fireproof vaults, and has since been in use, slight re- pairs having been made at different times. The first jail was built in 1842, by Caleb Wil- liams, at a cost to the county of $400. This is the only jail the county has ever had. Owing to the destruction of the county rec- ords, the early transactions of the court are lost to the historian. There have been a few murders in the county, but no one has been legally executed within the county limits; in each case the accused was found not guilty, or punished by being sent to the penitentiary. In 1846 Dallas County supplied a company of soldiers to Major Gilpin's bat- talion of mounted dragoons for service in the Mexican War. More than two-thirds of the residents of the county were strong Union- ists during the Civil War. The county sup- plied a large number of soldiers to the Federal army, and a few sympathizers with the Confederacy left the county and joined the army of the South. The county was over- run with scouting parties of both the North and South, and there was considerable bush- whacking, and numerous cold-blooded assas- sinations of good citizens. The courthouse and its records were burned in 1864-it is al- leged-by Confederate sympathizers. Prior to

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1840 schools on the subscription plan were conducted in Dallas County, and in 1868 the public common school system was inaugu- rated. The first church of any denomination in the county was organized by the Metho- dist Episcopal denomination, about 1839, in a log schoolhouse at Buffalo. Methodist Episcopal, Baptist, Christian and Presby- terian Churches are now located in different parts of the county. The most important matters to occupy the attention of the courts at Dallas County were the legal complica- tions arising out of the issue of bonds by the county to assist in the building of the Laclede & Fort Scott Railroad, a line projected in 1869 to run from Lebanon, in Laclede Coun- ty, via Buffalo, in Dallas County, to Fort Scott, Kansas. August 5, 1869, the County Court of Dallas County ordered that $150,000 in bonds be subscribed to the capital stock of the company. These bonds were issued, of the denomination of $1,000 each, bearing 7 per cent interest to be paid semi-annually, and payable in twenty years. The proceeds of the bonds were to be used entirely for the construction of the road in Dallas County, and one of the provisions was that the bonds be issued upon the completion of the road- bed from Kansas to the western boundary of Dallas County. May 18, 1871, the county court issued additional bonds to the amount of $85,000 in favor of the projected road, con- sidered necessary to build the roadbed through Dallas County, complete bridges, etc., but it was specifically set forth that the bonds be issued when the roadbed be ready to receive the cross-ties. The bonds-a total of $235,000-were issued, but owing to the stringency in money markets in 1873, the road was never completed further than the grading of the roadbed, which was all that it was agreed to complete according to the pro- visions for the issue of the bonds, nor has the road ever been completed. Under the act of the General Assembly, approved April 12, 1877, entitled, "An act to authorize counties and towns to compromise their indebted- ness," August 7, 1878, the county court or- dered that an election be held on September 10, 1878, for the purpose of submitting to the voters a proposition to compromise $147,000 of the 7 per cent bonds, with accrued interest and judgments on past due coupons, at a dis- count of 221/2 per cent on the whole amount, by issuing new bonds, bearing 6 per cent in-

terest, payable in twenty years, and after five years redeemable at the pleasure of the coun- ty. The election was held and of the total votes cast, 13I were in favor of the propo- sition and 791 against. Thus the proposition was defeated and the bonds left outstanding. Then ensued suits in the Federal courts for the collection of bonds and interest. The county court, ignoring the orders of the Fed- eral court, refused to make a levy for the payment of the bonds, and for years avoided being served with papers of the United States Court by hiding from the United States mar- shals, and a number of different judges served terms in prison for contempt rather than impose on the taxpayers of the county a tax which they deemed oppressive and un- just, as no benefit had in any way accrued to the county through the company in favor of which the bonds were issued. The original bonds and accrued interest amount to more than $1,500,000. Recently efforts toward a compromise have been made, and it is ex- pected soon a satisfactory settlement will be made of what has been such an incubus to the .rich County of Dallas. Dallas County is di- vided into seven townships, named respect- ively, Benton, Grant, Jackson, Jasper, Lin- coln, Miller and Washington. The assessed value of real estate in the county in 1897 was $1,150,061 ; estimated full value, $2,300,122. Assessed value of personal property in the county, $608,835; estimated full value, $1,- 217,670. There are no railroads in the coun- ty. In 1897 there were seventy-four public schools; ninety-four teachers, and 5,286 pupils enrolled. The population of the coun- ty in 1900 was 13,903.

Dalton .- An incorporated village in Chariton County, on the Wabash Railroad, four miles west of Keytesville. It has a public school, a church, an elevator and gristmill, six stores, a hotel and a few mis- cellaneous shops. Population, 1899 (esti- mated), 330.

Dalton, James L., merchant, was born in Ripley County, Missouri, December 28, 1866, son of William and Mary C. (Myatt) Dalton. William Dalton was the son of one of the pioneers of Ripley County. He was raised on a farm, and during the Civil War served in the Confederate Army. Mrs. Dal- ton was a native of Tennessee, removing to.

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Ripley County with her parents when a child. There she was married to William Dalton in 1855. They had ten children, of whom James L. Dalton is the fifth. In 1874 William Dal- ton and his family removed to Arkansas, and there James, with the other children of the family, attended a collegiate institute. When he was sixteen years of age he left school and returned to Ripley County, where he secured employment as a salesman with the hardware firm of J. R. & E. W. Wright. In 1886 the firm established a store in Poplar Bluff, and owing to his ability as a salesman and his good business qualities, Mr. Dalton was made manager of the new store. His success as a business man has increased with his age, and soon he purchased the interests of J. R. Wright in the firm, which was then organ- ized under the firm name of the Wright & Dalton Hardware Company, of which Mr. Dalton is president. The company is the largest in the hardware business in southeast Missouri, its store occupying half a square and always carrying a heavy stock, which is kept thoroughly up-to-date. Mr. Dalton is a member of the Democratic party, but his attention is too closely demanded by his large business to take a very active part in politics. He is one of the aldermen of Poplar Bluff. He is a member of the Poplar Bluff Lodge, Knights of Pythias. In 1887 he was mar- ried to Miss Clara Wright, sister of J. R. Wright, one of his former employers. They have five living children. Mr. and Mrs. Dal- ton are both members of the Presbyterian Church of Poplar Bluff. They reside in one of the finest homes in southeast Missouri, which is beautifully furnished, and supplied with the choicest books, works of art, etc., which characterize refined tastes, and tend to develop the intellectual and the moral.

Dalton, William James, rector of the Church of the Annunciation (Roman Catholic), Kansas City, was born August 12, 1848, in St. Louis, Missouri. His parents were Richard and Bridget (Delaney) Dalton, natives of Ireland. The father was an edu- cated man, a merchant in St. Louis from 1839 to 1864, and among the first to introduce Irish linen into that market; his death occurred in 1877, and his wife died ten years later. Their son, William James, began his education in the parochial and public schools of St. Louis, and afterward entered St. Louis

University, but his studies in that institution were interrupted by its close owing to the Civil War. He completed his education in the church seminaries at Milwaukee, Wis- consin, and Cape Girardeau, Missouri ; at one or the other, he was a classmate with Bishops Bonacum, Hennessey, Cotter and Shanley, and at Cape Girardeau he was the youngest graduate of his class. Two and one-half years before attaining his majority, by special dispensation from Rome, procured at the solicitation of Archbishop Kenrick, he was ordained to the priesthood, in St. Louis, by the Right Rev. Joseph P. Machboef, bishop of Denver, then on his way home from the Vatican Council. For two years afterward Father Dalton was assistant in the Church of the Annunciation, St. Louis. June 29, 1872, by appointment of Archbishop Kenrick, he entered upon duty as rector of the lately formed Annunciation Parish, Kansas City, Missouri. In 1894, the twenty-fifth anniver- sary of his ordination to the ministry was celebrated in a manner affording eloquent attestation of the honor and affection in which he was held throughout the com- munity. The religious observances were attended by Bishops Fink, Bonacum, Scan- nell, Burke, Dunn and Hennessey, and about 150 priests. Following this, a reception in honor of Father Dalton was given in the Auditorium Theater, which was completely filled with a great assemblage, including clergymen of various denominations, profes- sional and business men, public officials, many societies, and throngs from every walk in life. The Honorable J. V. C. Karnes pre- sided, and congratulatory addresses were made by many representative citizens. While bringing his parish and its institutions to a foremost place in importance and usefulness, Father Dalton devoted himself assiduously to improving the personal conditions of his people, and under his advice and encourage- ment scores of families purchased small tracts of land in the West Bottoms and built modest homes. He constantly maintained an unwearying solicitude for his parishioners, and years afterward, when their little prop- erty was needed for commercial and indus- trial purposes, he negotiated the sales, procuring for them the best possible prices, in some instances four-fold and five-fold the original cost, and with the means so secured the greater portion of the congregation were

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enabled to establish themselves comfortably in various parts of the newer city. While caring for his own people with fatherly affec- tion, Father Dalton allied himself with the most progressive elements, and gave zealous and intelligent effort in behalf of every move- ment for the material development and moral advancement of the city. In 1889 he was one of the thirteen freeholders appointed to draft the present city charter. He was among the first to advocate a park system, and he held official position in various organizations formed to promote the object. The Humane Society and the Provident Association both command his interest ; he has been vice presi- dent of the former body from its organiza- tion, and for years he has been a director in the latter. His services in behalf of education have been unremitting and eminently suc- cessful. He was a leader in the protracted effort which finally resulted in the establish- ment of the present well equipped Kansas City Manual Training School. He was prom- inent among the founders of the Catholic Columbian Summer School, which meets an- nually at stated points to receive from capable lecturers and teachers instruction upon all topics included within the term, higher education. He has been a director and vice president of this organization from its founding in 1894; he is also president of its Board of Studies, having in charge the selection of lecturers, and president of its Reading Circle Unions, established in various places throughout the region lying between the Alleghany Mountains and the Pacific Slope, and the Great Lakes and the Gulf of Mexico, as feeders for the parent school. For many years past Father Dalton has made frequent valuable additions to the literature of the period. From 1879 to 1884 he was editor of the "Western Banner," the first Catholic journal published in Kansas City, now extinct. In 1894 he published a pamphlet containing a series of sermons and lectures on various topics of commanding in- terest, and in 1897 he published a series of discourses upon Biblical topics under the caption, "The Mistakes That Moses Didn't Make." The same year he published in book form, "Historical Sketches of Kansas City," a work of enduring value to the student of local history. During all these years, and to the present time, he has been a frequent con- tributor to leading magazines and journals,

at home and elsewhere, upon historical and other topics of abiding importance. His most important literary work is a "History of Mis- souri," in preparation for several years, dur- ing which time the author, through diligent research and much travel, has acquired a mass of valuable original material hitherto unknown or unutilized. A rich source of in- formation was open to him through direct correspondence with officials of the govern- ment of Spain, but this was closed during the Spanish-American War, losing to him one and one-half years' time. With the restoration of peaceful relations, Father Dal- ton was enabled to resume his investigations, and his work is now (October, 1900) ready for the press. In all the efforts and achieve- ments of an unusually busy and useful life, the conduct of Father Dalton has been ever characterized by intense zeal, tireless energy and the highest order of intelligent apprecia- tion of needs and remedies, and this, too, without unseemly self-assertion, but with the confidence of one who performs a labor as a matter of duty owing to his fellows. Through recognition of these traits, as well as of his unsullied character as a minister, his sturdy independence and public spirit as a man and citizen, and his warm-hearted geniality and companionability, he has endeared himself to all classes of the community, of every sect in religion, and of all shades of opinion in polit- ical and social concerns. If a higher tribute could be paid him, it lies in the genuine affection entertained for him by the older residents, who are ever proud to esteem him as one of the most useful, sagacious and un- selfish of their allies in the upbuilding of a great city.

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Encyclopedia of the history of Missouri, a compendium of history and biography for ready reference, Vol. II, Part 40

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: 800

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: 800