USA > Missouri > Encyclopedia of the history of Missouri, a compendium of history and biography for ready reference, Vol. II > Part 50
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which it was supposed would be found in that region. The route was through a country already made hostile by the violence. of the Spanish invader, Narvaez, and the Indians, with intent to rid themselves of the Spaniards, lured them onward by stories of wealth in remote regions. They marched northward at first and then passed into the country of the Appalachians, where they spent the win- ter. An exploring party discovered Ochus, the harbor of Pensacola, and a message was sent to Cuba desiring that in the following year supplies might be sent to that place. Be- coming discontented, De Soto's followers ap- pealed to him to return, but he refused, and in March, 1540, resumed his march, proceed- ing in a northeasterly direction. On the 18th of October they reached the village of Marilla-site of the city of Mobile, Alabama, -where in an engagement with the natives the Spaniards lost eighty men and forty-two horses. He then went to the northwest and passed his second winter in the country of the Chickasaws. In the spring of 1541 he made a demand on the chief of these Indians for two hundred men to carry the burdens of the company. The Indians refused to comply with this demand and in the night fired the village in which the Spaniards were encamped. Forty of DeSoto's followers per- ished in the flames and all their baggage was destroyed. After a delay of some weeks De Soto resumed his march in a northwestward- ly direction, and after journeying seven days through a wilderness of forests and marshes he reached the Mississippi River. After spending a month constructing barges large enough to hold three horsemen each, his army passed over to the western side and marched successively southwest and north- west until the highlands of White River, the western limit of the expedition, was reached. He then turned southward and discovered the Hot Springs of Arkansas, which his companions at first supposed to be the fabled fountain of youth. After spending his third winter on Washita River he determined to descend that river to its junction with the Mississippi. Reaching the Mississippi he was stricken with a malignant fever and died soon after, naming Luis de Moscoso as his successor. The news of his death was care- fully concealed from the Indians, by whom he was regarded as possessing supernatural powers, and the body of the great discoverer
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DE SOTO'S WINTER QUARTERS IN VERNON COUNTY-DEUTSCH.
was lowered at midnight into the mighty river, of the real character of which he had been the first European to gain any definite knowledge.
De Soto's Winter Quarters in Vernon County .- While many of the stories of the presence of De Soto in Mis- souri are without evidence, and some of them evidently mythical, there is strong presump- tion that he visited the Osage River region, within the present territory of Vernon County. The first settlers who left any record of their observations, reported the ruins of mining and smelting works, which beyond a doubt antedated Jeroux and Trudais, the French traders of 1820, or any of the occasional voyageurs who preceded them. These works were found near Hal- ley's Bluff, which overlooks the great bend in the Osage River, two miles south of the old town of Belvoir, and were thus described by K. G. Pearson in a letter to the Jefferson "Enquirer," in January, 1847: "On the prairie between the waters of the lower Dry Wood and Clear Creek, in Bates (now Vernon) County, are to be seen the signs of old mining operations, consisting of four ditches four or five feet wide, extending a quarter-mile in length, in four parallel lines, terminating at the commencement of three parallel curved ditches of like dimensions, these terminating at the commencement of two others inversely curved, and about 200 yards in length. In the vicinity of these ditches, in a branch, have been found very fair specimens of silver ore, and about twelve miles from this place, in the nearest timber, can be seen the foundations of three furnaces with quantities of cinders, among which has been found a piece of pure gold about the size of a small rifle ball." Upon the summit of Halley's Bluffs were the foun- dations of similar furnaces, and at their base, fronting the stream, were excavations in the rocks; the approaches to both were marked with the remains of works of earth and stone, evidently intended for defensive purposes. Smaller works, similar in design, were found' at other points on the river, a few miles distant. Nathan H. Parker, in a work printed in 1867, expresses the opinion that this was the field of De Soto's mining and smelting operations in 1541-2, and the burial place of several of his company, among them
his interpreter, Juan Ortiz, whose nar- rative appears in Wilmer's "Life of De Soto." Mr. Parker gives as reasons for his con- clusions : 1. Because De Soto's notes ac- curately define his route across the Ozark Range, and the location described by Pear- son is at the exact distance traversed from "the Land of Tula," the divide between the Upper Ouachita and the Little Missouri in Arkansas. 2. The numerous mounds in the vicinity, and the tomahawks and arrowheads found indicate the existence of a populous Indian village, such as De Soto found. 3. The earthworks were similar to those found elsewhere, constructed as fortifications for a settlement. 4. De Soto and his company were in search of the precious metals, and the remains indicate the presence of men familiar with the arts and sciences.
Des Peres River .- A small stream, with two branches, heading in the center of St. Louis County, running its entire course in that county, and emptying into the Missis- sippi just within the limits of St. Louis City. It is usually taken as part of the city limits, though the boundary really extends a short distance south of the river.
Deutsch, Albert B., merchant, was born May 6, 1850, in Teplitz, Austria, one of the most famous watering places of Europe. His father was Rev. Bernard Deutsch, and his mother's maiden name was Rosa Miller. He received a good education in the government schools of Austria and then served a three years' apprenticeship to the business of merchandising in a wholesale dry goods house. As he approached manhood, like many of the youth of his country, he looked toward America as a land of great op- portunities, and in 1868 came to this country. Here he engaged in the business to which he had been trained and was clerk and sales- man in the dry goods trade until 1877, when he established his home in Carthage, Mis- souri. There he engaged in business as a clothier, and soon became recognized as one of the leading merchants of the city. He aided in organizing the Central National Bank in 1890, and in 1893 was made vice president of that admirably conducted banking house, a position which he still holds. Having a nat- ural fondness for military life, he became a member of the famous company known as
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DEVIL'S DEN-DEVOL.
the Carthage Light Guard in 1879, and was one of those chiefly instrumental in building up that organization. In 1886 he was chosen second lieutenant of his company, and in 1890 was promoted to quartermaster of the Second Regiment of the Missouri National Guard, to which it was attached, with the rank of cap- tain. When the regiment volunteered for service in the United States Army during the war with Spain, in 1898, he left his family and his business to take part in the pros- pective campaign, and was with his regiment until peace was declared. He has taken an active interest in promoting the welfare of the schools of Carthage, and in 1893 was elected a member of the board of education, of which he served three years as treasurer. His political affiliations are with the Democratic party. In fraternal circles he is a member of the Order of Free Masons, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Order of Knights of Pythias, the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, the Ancient Order of United Work- men, and the Royal Arcanum. October 21, 1877, he was married in Chicago to Miss Rachael Vogel, by Rev. Dr. Adler. Their only child, a daughter, Rosina Alberta Deutsch, graduated from the Carthage high school in 1896, and from Dana Hall, Welles- ley, Massachusetts, in 1898.
Devil's Den .- A curious lake with an area of two acres, fourteen miles southwest from Marshfield, Webster County. It is on, or rather in, the top of a hill, is oval in shape, and appears to sink down into the earth to an unknown depth. The walls in- closing it are perpendicular, solidly inclosing the lake, except on the west side, where there is a gap, through which, by means of ladders, the water may be reached at a descent of forty feet.
Devil's Tea Table .- A natural curios- ity in the form of a peculiarly shaped rock on the Missouri bank of the Mississippi River near the mouth of Indian Creek, thirty miles above Cape Girardeau. It presents the ap- pearance of a mammoth table.
Devol, Hiram F., manufacturer and capitalist, was born August 6, 1831, in Wash- ington County, Ohio. His parents were Stephen and Silence (Hatch) Devol. The
father was born in 1786 at Tiverton, Rhode Island. The mother was a native of Con- necticut, born in 1795. Mr. Devol removed to Ohio when a boy seventeen years of age, and his future wife was a young woman when she removed to that State. The parents of H. F. Devol were therefore early and prominent residents of the Buckeye State. Stephen Devol first settled at Marietta, after his removal to Ohio. He was actively en- gaged in agricultural pursuits throughout his useful life, exerted a strong influence in his community as a typical man of thrift and industry, and rose to a position of local prominence and honor. The son, subject of this sketch, spent his early days and the years of his young manhood after the manner of the average farmer boy of his time, giving evidence, however, of the possession of abili- ties as a manager and of aggressive skill in pushing to quick perfection whatever he undertook. Out of these talents grew his distinction as a soldier and his strength in promoting large financial transactions and business operations above the ordinary. When he was thirty years of age, having but fairly entered upon a business career, the Civil War called him to the front. At the outbreak of the war he was in New Orleans, Louisiana, where he was engaged in com- He mercial pursuits on his own account. saw the flag taken down from the United States mint and customhouse, and the "Pelican," the banner of Louisiana, raised in its stead. Forseeing that such a substitu- tion meant bitter war, he returned to Ohio at once and was commissioned captain in the Thirty-sixth Ohio Volunteer Infantry Regi- ment. At the battle of Antietam he was promoted to the rank of major and lieutenant-colonel of the same regi- ment, whose first commander was Gen- eral George Crook. Colonel Devol's abilities as a commander were plainly marked and no less appreciated by those in higher authority. Possessing the true instinct of the soldier, in addition to peculiar qualifica- tions held by but few men, he was apparent- ly fitted for service as a manager of military campaigns and in the construction of strategic schemes so necessary in success- ful warfare. His promotion to the rank of brigadier general was therefore not a sur- prise to those who were acquainted with his strength as a leader. General Devol's mili-
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DEVOL.
tary service, marked throughout by repeated promotions and the reception of high honors, lasted from 1861 until the close of the war and included many of the most important and memorable events of the civil strife. Among the principal engagements in which he par- ticipated were Louisburg, Second Bull Run, South Mountain, Antietam, Tullahoma, Chickamauga, Missionary Ridge and others. For gallantry at Chickamauga, General Thomas recommended him for promotion to the rank of colonel. After the battle of Mis- sionary Ridge, Colonel Devol re-enlisted his regiment as veterans, and was assigned to General Crook's command in West Virginia, his service in that section including the battle of Cloyd Mountain, Lynchburg, Hunter's Raid and Kernstown. At the latter place the regiment became a part of General Sheridan's command and participated in the battles of Winchester and Cedar Creek. In these last battles General Devol command- ed a brigade and at the time of the sur- render of General Lee his command was at Staunton, Virginia. Subsequently the com- mand was ordered to Wheeling, West Vir- ginia, where General Devol was Post Com- mander until mustered out in August, 1865. After hostilities had ceased he engaged in mercantile pursuits at Waterford, Ohio, and was thus employed until 1882, when he re- moved to Kansas City, Missouri. Of that city he has been a continuous resident since the year named and has added in a great measure to the growth and prosperity of the metropolis of Western Missouri. For sev- eral years he was engaged in real estate op- erations in Kansas City and was a leader in the united and successful effort to promote the general welfare of the community and place it in an important position among the cities of the West. In 1893 the Devol-Liv- ingood Manufacturing Company was organ- ized in Kansas City, with General Devol as president. Three years later this concern, en- gaged in the manufacture of agricultural im- plements of various kinds, was consolidated with the Eagle Manufacturing Company, of Davenport, Iowa. Of the new com- pany, which took the name of the Eagle Manufacturing Company, General Devol was elected president and holds that position at this time. Of this es- tablishment, which represents an invested capital of $200,000, George H. Devol, a son
of General Devol, is the superintendent. Po- litically the subject of this sketch is a strong Republican. He was appointed Collector of Internal Revenue at Kansas City by Presi- dent Harrison. He has served as com- mander of George H. Thomas Post, Grand Army of the Republic, and is an important figure in the annual national encampments held by that organization. General Devol was married May 15, 1856, to Adelaide A. Dyer, of Marietta, Ohio, daughter of Joseph Dyer, a pioneer of Ohio and a prominent and wealthy citizen. To this union were born two children: Hattie A., wife of Arthur J. Mason, a business man of Kansas City, and Carroll A., a graduate of Chester Military Academy. The latter was appointed second lieutenant in the regular army by President Hayes and served on the frontier in the Twentieth Infantry until made captain and assistant quartermaster by President Cleve- land. He served on the staffs of both Gen- eral Merritt and General Otis, at Manila, with the rank of major, and remained in the Philip- pines until General Otis was relieved. Major Devol was then ordered to New York City, where he is now superintendent of military transportation. Mrs. H. F. Devol died July 10, 1860. General Devol was married April 3, 1867, to Harriet E. Bowen, daughter of Dr. George Bowen, of Washington County, Ohio. To this union five children have been born: George H., superintendent of the Eagle Manufacturing Company ; Mary Bowen, wife of Lieutenant Lyon, of the regular army, now serving at Manila, and a participant in the Spanish-American war ; Florence W., who re- sides at home, and two twin sons, deceased. General Devol, although he does not devote regular hours to the routine of business af- fairs, keeps in close touch with the commer- cial world and is well informed in all matters pertaining to the many interests which he represents. During his war service he be- came intimately acquainted with Hayes, Gar- field and Mckinley, and served in the same commands. He was in the Ohio Republican State Conventions as delegate, which three times nominated Rutherford B. Hayes for Governor of that State and when Mr. Hayes was President, General Devol was a frequent visitor at the Executive Mansion in Wash- ington. No resident of Kansas City stands higher in the public esteem than General Devol, and his social relations, including
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DEW.
membership in the Grand Army of the Re- public, Loyal Legion and commercial organi- zations, are of the most pleasant kind.
Dew, Jeremiah Thornton, lawyer, was born November 5, 1847, in Clinton County, Illinois. His grandfather, Rev. John Dew, was one of the pioneer Methodist min- isters of the West, a contemporary and asso- ciate of the noted circuit-rider preacher, Peter Cartwright, and a man who left a deep, lasting and wholesome impress upon the peo- ple to whose spiritual and physical wants he faithfully attended during the long years of a fruitful life. The Rev. John Dew was edu- cated for the ministry in Virginia, his native State, and came West with Bishop McKen- dree, a noted divine of the Methodist Church, and in honor of whom McKendree College, at Lebanon, Illinois, was named. These two noble men came to Kentucky when it was a comparatively undeveloped portion of the country, and afterwards went to Illinois, locating there while it was yet a Territory. John Dew was born in Botetourt County, Virginia, in 1780. His parents were Metho- dists and he embraced religion at an early age. He was admitted to the sacred calling at a session of the conference held in Chilli- cothe, Ohio, in 1812. From that time his usefulness and opportunities grew and he be- came one of the well known preachers of the time. He is affectionately referred to in the works of Peter Cartwright, and figures in the events noted in Reynold's "History of Illi- nois." These references indicate the prom- inent position occupied by Rev. Mr. Dew in the pioneer events attending the establish- ment of a strong church foundation, the building of educational institutions and the spread of the gospel in a State which owes a great debt of gratitude to men of his stamp. He helped to found McKendree College and was one of its earliest presidents. The col- lege is still in a flourishing condition, under the control of the Methodist Church, but is non-sectarian in its teachings. Rev. John Dew, although born in a Southern State, and sympathizing with the welfare of his people, was opposed to slavery, and taking his slaves with him to his Illinois home, gave them their freedom some twenty-five or thirty years before the Civil War that forever disposed of the institution of slavery in this nation. The Rev. John Dew died in the year
1840. His son, Samuel P. Dew, was born in what is now St. Clair County, Illinois. He died in 1858, at the age of thirty-six years. He was married to Eliza Walker, also a native of Illinois, and of Clinton County. Her an- cestors removed to Illinois from Georgia at an early day, and the male members of her generation rendered the Union conspicuous service during the Civil War. The Walkers were also prominent Methodists, and many of them were in the ministry. The son, Jere- miah T. Dew, was but an infant when his parents removed to and located on a farm in St. Clair County, Illinois, and he spent his early years of manhood in agricultural pur- suits on the famous Looking Glass prairie. After his war service he entered college in St. Louis, Missouri, and subsequently en- tered McKendree College, graduating from that institution in 1874. While in school he read law for a time, and later entered a law office in Nashville, Washington County, Illinois. Removing to Kansas before the required readings had been finished, he again took up the law at Topeka, in the office of Martin & Case. In 1877 he came to Mis- souri and located at Kansas City for the purpose of pursuing his chosen profession. Arriving there in September, he entered the office of Tomlinson & Ross, and in February following was admitted to the bar. About a year thereafter he was admitted as a mem- ber of the firm, which was then known as Tomlinson, Ross & Dew, his associates be- ing Colonel A. A. Tomlinson, now a retired lawyer and capitalist, and John A. Ross, both of Kansas City. This firm remained together many years. After its dissolution Mr. Dew became associated with M. R. Downs and Arthur E. Parkinson, under the firm name of Dew, Downs & Parkinson, and later the firm was composed of Dew, Park- inson (John D.) & Barnes. His time is devoted to cases covered by the civil laws. He is a member of the Kansas City Bar Association, and has served as its president. In Grand Army circles he is prominent and efficient, having served in the Union Army during the Civil War. He entered the army in 1864, although a mere boy of sixteen years, and served in Company B, One Hun- dred and Forty-fifth Regiment, Illinois Vol- unteer Infantry, of which company his uncle, Edward C. Dew, was captain. Mr. Dew has served as commander of Farragut Post, No.
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DE WITT-DICKENS' VISIT TO ST. LOUIS.
3, Grand Army of the Republic, and for many years has filled many other stations of honor in the order. He has attended the various National Encampments of the Grand Army as a delegate from the Department of Missouri, has served as judge advocate of that department and as assistant national in- spector general. He is also a prominent and useful member of the Masonic order. Mr. Dew is a Republican in politics, and works faithfully toward the best interests of his party, although he is not a strict partisan in municipal affairs, has never sought polit- ical preferment for himself, and has fre- quently declined to become a candidate or accept nominations for office. He comes of Scotch-Irish descent, and from one of the oldest Methodist families in the West, whose early members glorified . the church and accomplished a great work for the wel- fare of the community and the good of man. He was married, in 1877, to Miss Julia E. Parkinson, daughter of Alfred J. Parkinson, a prominent and wealthy farmer of Madison County, Illinois, and a former member of the Illinois State Senate. Mrs. Dew died, leaving three children-Emma E., Samuel Arthur and Julia L .- all young people of genuine merit and a credit to their parents. Mr. Dew, in character, is positive, straight- forward and upright in his manner and deal- ings, and is a worthy and highly respected citizen.
De Witt .- An incorporated town in Car- roll County, located on the Missouri River and the Kansas City branch of the Wabash Railroad, seventeen miles east of Carrollton. It has a graded school, a church, a sawmill, stave factory, large sandstone yards, a hotel, a weekly newspaper, the "Farmers' Herald," and about a dozen stores and shops in dif- ferent lines of trade. Population, 1899 (esti- mated), 600.
Dexter .- An incorporated city of the fourth class, in Liberty Township, Stoddard County, at the intersection of the St. Louis. Iron Mountain & Southern and the St. Louis, Southwestern Railroads, 180 miles from St. Louis. It was laid out in 1873. The first stores were run by R. P. Liles & Co., Ed- ward J. N. Miller, Sissel & Plant and Rig- gins & Co. The first public school was started in 1874. and in 1882 a $5,000 building
was erected. The first newspaper of the town was started in 1875, the "Enterprise," by Charles E. Stokes. The papers published in the town at present are the "Messenger," by Hill & Watkins, and the "Stoddard County Democrat," by Albert J. Thomas. The town has one of the finest courthouses in south- east Missouri-in which alternate terms of the courts were formerly held; owns its elec- tric light plant, has three hotels, two banks, two bottling works, flouring mill, two saw- mills, stave, handle and broom factory, and numerous stores and shops. The Baptist, Christian, Methodist Episcopal, Presbyte- rian and Catholic denominations have churches in the town. Population, 1899 (es- timated), 2,500.
Dickens' Visit to St. Louis .- Charles Dickens, the celebrated English novelist, visited the United States in 1842, and in the summer of that year came to St. Louis, making the trip by way of the Ohio and Mis- sissippi Rivers from Pittsburg. While in St. Louis he was a guest of the Planters' Hotel, which he described in his "American Notes," published subsequently, as being built "like an English hospital," but "having most bountiful notions of providing for creature comforts." In the work above re- ferred to he devoted some pages also to a pen sketch of St. Louis and its inhabitants, and a chapter to a trip which he made from there to see the "Looking-glass Prairie" of Illinois. He was accompanied on this trip by thirteen gentlemen, whose acquaintance he had formed in St. Louis, and described the conveyances in which they left the Plant- ers' Hotel after an early breakfast as "one light carriage with a very stout axle-tree ; one 'something' on wheels, like an amateur car- rier's cart; one double phaeton of great antiquity and unearthly construction; one gig with a great hole in its back and a broken head; and one rider on horseback, who was to go on before." Two large baskets and "two stone jars in wicker cases, technically known as demijohns," contained a supply of provisions not unlike those usually provided for a modern fishing party, and Dickens and his St. Louis escort passed over the river and started on their drive across the coun- try under favorable auspices. A sudden and heavy downpour of rain, however, changed the whole aspect of the situation, and the
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