Encyclopedia of the history of Missouri, a compendium of history and biography for ready reference, Vol. II, Part 62

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

USA > Missouri > Encyclopedia of the history of Missouri, a compendium of history and biography for ready reference, Vol. II > Part 62

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

and as a man of affairs. He is a member of the Bales Chapel Baptist congregation, and is a deacon in that church. He is a Mason, and holds membership in the order of Knights of Pythias. His wife was Miss Adelaide J. Corbin before her marriage, which occurred in 1885, and her father, Ovid H. Corbin, was one of the earliest and most prominent resi- dents of Liberty, Clay County, Missouri, re- moving to this State from Virginia in a pio- neer day. Mr. and Mrs. Duncan are the parents of two sons.

Duncan's Island .- Early in the pre- vious century a low sand-bank extended from the foot of Market Street to the south- western extremity of the village of St. Louis. A slight elevation at the lower end of this bank, which was covered with bushes, insu- lated by the action of the river, developed in time into a well-defined island, which, up to about the year 1830, kept increasing by accre- tions. Robert Duncan, or, as he was called, "Old Bob" Duncan, built a cabin on the island to insure a pre-emption claim, and this gave to it the name "Duncan's Island." David Adams, a renowned hunter, mentioned by Captain Bonneville in the journal of his adventures and explorations in the Rocky Mountains, lived on the island at a later date, and died there not many years since. The portion of the island not washed away has been absorbed in the mainland on the Illinois side.

Dunkers. - A religious denomination, called also Dunkards and Tunkers, from the German tunken, to dip. The name they call themselves by is Brethren. They are a body of German American Baptists founded in 1807 in Westphalia by Alexander Meck. They practice trine immersion. Expelled from Germany in 1729, they came to this country and settled in Pennsylvania, spread- ing afterward into Ohio, Maryland, Virginia and Indiana. In their faith, practice and dis- cipline, they resemble the Mennonites, and their dress is similar to that of the Friends. In 1890 they numbered 2,090 in Missouri, with forty-four organizations and twenty- nine churches valued at $24,625.

Dunklin, Daniel, third Lieutenant Gov- ernor and fourth Governor of Missouri, was born in Greenville district, South Carolina,

Vol. II-22

338

DUNKLIN COUNTY.

in 1790, and died August 25, 1844, in Jeffer- son County, Missouri, where, on the bluff near Pevely, he is buried. At the age of sev- enteen years he removed to Kentucky, and three years later came to Missouri and es- tablished himself at Potosi. In 1820 he was elected a member of the first Constitutional Convention of the State, in 1828 was elected Lieutenant Governor, and in 1832 was elected Governor, holding the last named office until September, 1836, three months before the close of the term, when he resigned it to ac- cept the position of surveyor general of Mis- souri, Illinois and Arkansas, which was of- fered him by President Jackson. He traced the boundary line between Missouri and Ar- kansas. He was a zealous advocate of popu- lar education, and is gratefully remembered for the important part he took in establishing the common school system of the State. Dunklin County was named in honor of him.

Dunklin County .- A county in the ex- treme southeastern part of the State, bounded on the north by Stoddard, on the east by New Madrid and Pemiscot Counties and on the south and west by the State of Arkansas. Its area is 269,717 acres. The northwestern part is rolling, a ridge passing nearly across it. The remainder of the land is level, about a sixth of it prairie, with considerable slough or swamp land, interspersed with tracts of elevated flat land, dry and well covered with timber. Little River runs in a southwest- erly direction through the southeastern part and the St. Francis winds along the western border, forming the boundary line. There are many bayous and sloughs. The soil is a rich alluvial, black sandy loam, highly pro- ductive. About fifty per cent of the arable land is under cultivation. Cotton is the chief product. Wheat and corn grow well, as do all the tuberous and other vegetables. The timber consists chiefly of oak, hickory, ash, gum, cottonwood and elm. Lum- ber is the principal manufacture. Of the exports during 1898 cotton, cottonseed products and lumber were the leaders. Of cotton, the shipments amounted to 14,059,- 100 pounds ; cotton seed products, 13,826,000 pounds ; lumber, 16,021,000 feet ; 824,500 feet of logs; 24,000 feet of walnut logs; 156,000 feet piling and 253 cars of cooperage. Stock- raising is one of the profitable pursuits of the farmer, the swamps and forests affording ex-

cellent natural grasses for food. In 1898 of cattle there were shipped 5,526 head ; of logs, 4,240 head; of horses and mules, 250 head, and of miscellaneous stock 20 car loads. Of corn, 9,254 bushels, and of wheat, 20,823 bushels were exported. Other shipments from the county the same year included 78,- 800 pounds of hay ; 172,000 pounds of flour ; 37,440 pounds of poultry; 181,320 dozens of eggs; 135,503 pounds of fish and game; 24,133 pounds of hides; 13,489 pounds of furs ; 256,050 brick and 1,362,044 melons. Be- sides the products here mentioned, there were many miscellaneous exports, including sand, dressed meats, tallow, fruits, vegetables and nursery stock. The southern portion of Dunklin County was originally in the Arkan- sas district. In 1819, when Arkansas was organized, residents of what comprises the greater portion of Dunklin and Pemiscot Counties, desirous of living in Missouri, had Congress include the territory east of the St. Francis River and south to parallel 36 de- grees north in Missouri. Just who were the first settlers, and where they located in the section now Dunklin County, is somewhat obscure. The first person to locate upon lands and making improvements, is said to have been Howard Moore, a native of Vir- ginia, who had for some time lived in Ten- nessee, and in 1829 settled about four miles south of where the town of Malden is now located, where he built a house and culti- vated land. In 1831 Moses Norman, of Alabama, located at West Prairie. Prior to his settlement in Dunklin he had been a resi- dent of Bollinger County. Jacob Taylor, one of the pioneers at Bloomfield, also settled in West Prairie. Between 1831 and 1840 a number of others settled upon land within the limits of the present county. Henry Meyers and N. W. Seitz located on West Prairie, Hugh Shipley four miles north of where Ken- nett is located, and Evan Evans, four miles south. Adam Bornbardt settled on Grand Prairie, and Pleasant Cuckrum and James Baker near what is now Cockrum post-office in the extreme southwestern part of the county. John Cerude settled in the locality of Cotton Plant, Henry Horner near what is Hornersville and George Sheppard and Thomas Varner in the vicinity of Kennett. Long after white men became residents of the county bands of Delaware Indians made their homes there. One of the latest bands

339

DUQUETTE.

to leave were the Indians of Chief Chilliti- coux, and the town of Kennett was first named after him. Game of many kinds oc- cupied the forests. As late as 1835 an Indian killed a wandering buffalo. Even at the pres- ent time the killing of game for furs is a profitable occupation of many hunters who live in the county. When settlement was first made there were bands of wild horses racing over the prairie and in the forests. Dunklin County was organized by legislative act of February 14, 1845, from that portion of Stoddard lying south of parallel 36 degrees, 30 minutes, north, and named in honor of Daniel Dunklin, one of the Governors of Mis- souri. In 1853 to this was added a strip on the north a mile wide. The first county court was composed of Moses Farrar, Ed- ward Spencer and Alexander Campbell, with James S. Huston, clerk. The first sheriff was Lewis Holcomb. For a seat of justice a tract of land near the St. Francis River in the central western part of the county was selected by the commissioners, F. C. Butler, Enoch Evans and Robert Giboney. It was laid out as a town and was called Chilliticoux, after the chief of a tribe of Delaware Indians. who had a village near by in the early settle- ment of the county. In 1847 a small log courthouse was built and during the war it was burned. In October, 1857, the Legis- lature granted the county permission to use $3,500 of the road and canal fund for the building of a courthouse, but the war break- ing out, the building was not commenced. In 1870 the building of a frame courthouse was commenced and was finished in 1872. The county officers had just occupied it when it was burned with all the records it contained. A log jail was built in 1847 and a second one soon after the war. In 1882, the present one was built. A new courthouse was built in 1896. Owing to the destruction of the archives the records of proceedings prior to 1872 are lost. In September, 1874, George Koons, whos : reputation was generally bad, was taken from the jail by a mob and hanged. He killed Bartholomew Reynolds while the latter was lying in a drunken stupor in a saloon in Kennett. In the early part of 1875 a stranger was lynched for horse-stealing. On September 10, 1886, Bowman Paxton, who had shot and killed John McGilvrey, a blacksmith at Malden, was taken from the sheriff, who was taking him from Kennett to

Malden, and hanged to a tree. At the De- cember term of court in 1883, D. A. Smith, W. F. Barham and a man named Nash were tried for the murder of one Crawford. Smith was tried as principal and the other two as accessories. Barham was found guilty in the first degree. Nash pleaded guilty as accessory and was sentenced to ten years in the penitentiary and Smith was ac- quitted. In this matter, the jury was ac- cused of unfairness. During the Civil War lawless bands of guerrillas roamed over the county and many depredations were com- mitted. The sympathy of the residents of Dunklin County were solely with the South- ern cause. The county is divided into eight townships, named respectively: Buffalo, Cot- ton Hill, Clay, Freeborn, Holcomb Island, Independence, Salem and Union. The chief villages are Kennett, Malden and Clarkton. The assessed value of all taxable property in 1897 was $2,413,171 ; estimated full value $5,- 514,000. There are fifty-seven public schools, seventy-six teachers employed and a school population of 7,358. In 1897 the permanent school fund was $10,486.00. There are forty- five miles of railroad in the county, representing the lines of the St. Louis South- western and the St. Louis, Kennett & South- ern. The population in 1900 was 21,706.

Duquette, Francis .- A Canadian, born in Quebec, in 1774. He was one of the first justices of St. Charles District. It is narrated of him that he came to Ste. Gene- vieve, Missouri, about 1796. Twelve years previously a young Canadian, of whom noth- ing was known but the name he gave, Pierre Gladu, came to that place, and while hunting alone, was killed by Indians, and buried where he was found. This grave Duquette at once sought out, disinterred the body, and had it reburied in the cemetery with religious rites, he walking near the coffin, bearing in his hand a lighted taper. He then caused a large cross to be erected at the grave, and left the town without making any explana- tion. The next year he went to St. Charles, where he engaged largely in selling goods and buying lands. Among his enterprises was that of setting up a windmill, adapting to that purpose a circular stone tower, said to have been erected by Governor Blanchette as a fortification. It was about thirty feet in diameter, with walls three feet thick, loop-

340

DURHAM HALL-DUTCHER.

holed as if for riflemen. He was a devout Catholic, and contributed largely toward building up that religion in the district. His home was near the site of the stone church built later, and there, in the absence of a priest, he assembled his co-religionists and engaged in devotional services. He died February 2, 1816, and was buried in the cemetery at Jackson and Second Streets in St. Charles. His remains were subsequently removed to the Catholic Cemetery which occupied the present site of the Church of St. Charles Borromeo, and were again interred in the new burial grounds outside the city, a massive monument marking the spot. He was married in 1796 to Mary Louisa Bauvais, of Ste. Genevieve, but the union was without issue. Madame Duquette died April 2, 1841. She was deeply venerated for her many good works, and at her funeral the bells of all churches were tolled, and almost the entire population attended the remains to the grave.

Durham Hall .- An old mansion, the ruins of which are at Potosi, in Washington County. It was built by Moses Austin, in 1795, and was burned in December, 1872. When it was built it was considered the cost- liest and most magnificent residence west of the Mississippi River. In this building the scheme of colonizing Texas was planned by Moses Austin and his colleagues. It was successfully carried out by his son, Stephen F. Austin. It is also said that Aaron Burr and Blennerhassett met there, and that Moses Austin, until he discovered the trea- sonableness of Burr's designs, gave the lat- ter's plan his support.

Durkee, Dwight, merchant and banker, was born April 7, 1813, in the town of Da- rien, Genesee County, New York, and died in St. Louis, March 21, 1897. His education was obtained at a country school in New York State, and was of the practical kind usually given to the country youth of that region and period. When he left his father's home he began teaching school, and con- tinued to be thus employed a part of the time until he was about twenty-five years old. He then came west, and some time prior to 1840 began his career in St. Louis as bookkeeper in a wholesale drug house. Husbanding his earnings and taking advantage of his oppor- tunities, he some time later established him-

self in the wholesale dry goods business, as a member of the firm of Pomeroy & Durkee. Mr. Durkee then associated himself with Mr. Bullock, in the banking business, and after the death of Mr. Bullock he conducted the banking house which they established, alone, for several years, when he retired from active business, and at that time was known as one of the oldest bankers in the State of Missouri. But at the earnest solicitation of inany business friends and associates, he was induced to become president of the Valley National Bank at the time of its organiza- tion, and later was president of the Exchange Bank. During the Civil War he took a very active interest in the work of the sanitary commission, and was one of the prominent citizens of St. Louis who contributed most to the success of the great Mississippi Val- ley Sanitary Fair.

Dutcher, Charles Henry, banker and retired educator, was born February 17, 1841, in Pike County, Illinois, son of Squire and Eliza A. (Townsend) Dutcher, both na- tives of New York State. Squire Dutcher, who was born in Columbia County, New York, in 1806, was reared on a farm and worked hard all his life. While a young man he learned the carpenter's trade, at which he became expert. For some time he resided at Sand Lake, Rensselaer County, New York, where he married Miss Town- send. In 1839 Squire Dutcher, having de- termined to establish a new home in the Western wilderness, left New York State with his family, traveled by canal to Buffalo, up Lake Erie to Cleveland, Ohio, down the canal to Portsmouth, down the Ohio River to its mouth, and thence up the Mississippi until he reached the western part of what is now Pike County, Illinois. He struck out into the wild, unbroken prairie and reached a fertile spot near the present site of Barry. There he spent the remainder of his active life, rearing his family, all of whom cheer- fully endured, under his wise counsels, the inevitable hardships accompanying such an existence. The last six or seven years of his life were spent in retirement at the home of his son, Albert, at Kirksville, Missouri, where he died. He and his wife were both possessed of strong character, and intensely devoted to any duty which arose before them. Professor Dutcher was reared on the

341

DUTCHER.

farm, and began his studies in the country schools near his home. After a year's course in the Christian University, at Canton, he entered Kentucky University, at Harrods- burg, Kentucky, where he remained five years, being graduated in June, 1864, with the degree of bachelor of arts. During the war the university buildings were tempora- rily confiscated by the Confederate authori- ties for hospital purposes, and for some time thereafter Mr. Dutcher and his fellow stu- dents recited in the church, the Masonic Temple, the rear room in store buildings, or even in the street, the students seated on the curbstone. Through all these trying times, however, the university work was not abandoned, though much of the time it was very seriously interfered with. During much of the session of 1862 and 1863 the subject of· this sketch served as a volunteer nurse in both the Union and Confederate hospitals at Harrodsburg. The first year after his graduation he devoted to teaching a boy's school at Danville, Kentucky. Through the succeeding eight years he taught in private . schools and academies in Boyle, Marion and Garrard Counties, Kentucky. In 1872 and 1873 he served as principal of the city schools of Kirksville, Missouri, and from 1873 to 1877 held the chair of natural science and Latin in the State Normal School at that place. In the latter year he was called to the presidency of the State Normal School at Cape Girardeau, Missouri, an institution which had been disrupted by factional quar- rels. The conservative and businesslike methods introduced by him at once resulted in placing the school on a substantial basis. In November, 1880, having resigned the pres- idency of this school, he went to Butler, Bates County, Missouri, and, with William E. Walton, established the Exchange Bank, a private institution with a capital of $37,000. One year later it was changed to the Butler National Bank-capital stock $66,000-of which Professor Dutcher served as presi- dent the first year. It was then reorganized as the Missouri State Bank of Butler, and has since been conducted as such under the laws of this State. Professor Dutcher is still the chief stockholder therein, as well as in the Walton Trust Company of Butler, in the organization of which he was prominent. He is also a stockholder and director in the People's National Bank, of Warrensburg,

and a stockholder in the Bank of Foster, Missouri; the National Bank of Newton, Kansas, and the Kirksville Savings Bank, at Kirksville, Missouri, of which he was one of the founders while principal of the schools there in 1873. He was one of the original incorporators of the Montana Savings Bank, of Helena, Montana, with a capital stock of $100,000. This concern went into liquidation during the panic of 1893, but within two years thereafter every depositor had been paid in full, and none of the stockholders will eventually be losers. Professor Dutcher's residence in Butler was limited to about one year. In August, 1881, he was elected to the chair of natural science in the State Normal School, at Warrensburg, which he filled until 1892. Since that time he has been living in practical retirement in Warrensburg, where he owns a spacious and comfortable home. He also has a forty-acre farm, with a young orchard, a mile and a half east of the town. Besides the interests enumerated, he was at one time considerably interested in mining properties in Colorado, which proved un- profitable. He has been a Mason since Feb- ruary, 1866, and has taken the Royal Arch degree. Two years later he became an Odd Fellow. In the Christian Church he served as an elder for many years. Professor Dutcher was married, in August, 1872, to Laura A. Tucker, a native of Jeffersontown, Kentucky, who died in February, 1880, leav- ing three children. They are Lida M. and Flora B., at home, and Edwin T., now trav- eling for a wholesale house. In September, 1883, he married Mrs. Rella P. Lynes, of Boone County. It is but just to Professor Dutcher to state that his career as an edu- cator, in all that the word implies, was emi- nently successful. He displayed a rare faculty for imparting to others the knowledge he possessed. Among his pupils were many young men who have since attained promi- nence in the professional and busi- ness world, including two State super- intendents of public instruction, and presidents of educational institutions. When he began his first school in Danville, Kentucky, immediately after the completion of his university course, he was $2,000 in debt, with but $7.50 in his pocket. But by industry and economy he has accumulated a competency for himself and his family. He has adhered to two good business principles

342

DYE-DYER.

through' life : He always lived within his in- come, and made his surplus work while he slept.

Dye, Fauntleroy, was born in Cook County, Texas, September 8, 1854, son of James and Ann (Bozarth) Dye. His father was a native of Shelby County, Missouri, and a son of Fauntleroy Dye, a soldier in the War of 1812, who was born in Kentucky and was a representative of an old family of that State. His mother, who was born in Mon- roe County, Missouri, was a daughter of Elias Bozarth, a native of Kentucky. They were married in Monroe County in 1853, but almost immediately moved to Texas. It was during their brief residence there that Faun- tleroy Dye was born. Upon their return to the old home of James Dye, in Shelby County, the latter resumed agricultural pursuits there. Mrs. Dye died in 1861. The father is still living, in Monroe County, at the age of sev- years of his life on the home farm in Shelby County, where he attended school until he was ten years of age, after which he accom- panied his father upon his removal to Monroe County in 1864. There his education was continued in the public schools. At the age of eighteen years he began learning the car- penter's trade, and from that time to the present, with the exception of a brief period spent in farming, during his early manhood, he has devoted his time to the building trade. In 1880 he removed to Nevada, where he has built up an extensive business in general con- tracting and building. Many handsome resi- dences and business houses in that and other cities are monuments to his skill. Outside of his trade the only business in which he has been interested during this time is the lum- ber trade, he having conducted a lumber yard in Nevada from January, 1898, to March, 1899. Since residing in Nevada, Mr. Dye has become deeply interested in the welfare of the public schools. In 1894 he was elected a member of the Nevada Board of Education and was re-elected in 1897, and again in 1900, now having served two terms of three years each and entered upon a third term. Fraternally he is connected with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. Mr. Dye was married February 3, 1876, to Cyn- thia Ann Harbit, a native of Indiana and a daughter of Isaac and Wincy Harbit, who

moved to Missouri in 1868. Mr. and Mrs. Dye are the parents of two children, Ella Jane, wife of Lee A. Sears, of Kansas City, and Ethel, who resides at home. One son, James L., is deceased. Mr. Dye is a thor- oughly self-made man and is recognized as one of the useful and public-spirited citizens of Nevada.

Dyer, David P., prominent in public life and as a member of the Missouri bar, was born in Henry County, Virginia, February 12, 1838, son of David and Nancy (Salmon) Dyer. Of English origin, the family to which he be- longs came early to Virginia, and his grand- father, George Dyer, participated in the struggle for American independence as a sol- dier of the Revolutionary Army. David Dyer, the father of Dayid P. Dyer, was a sol- dier in the second war with Great Britain, serving in the Virginia line. He was con- spicuous also as a legislator in Virginia and

enty-one years. The son passed the early . served with distinction in both the upper and

lower branches of the Legislature, his en- , tire term of service covering a period of six- teen years. In 1841 he came to Missouri and settled among the pioneers of Lincoln County. He died three years later, but his widow survived many years thereafter, reach- ing the advanced age of ninety-five years. Reared on a Lincoln County farm, David P. Dyer led the uneventful life of a farmer's boy in a new country until he began the course of study which was to fit him for the practice of law. In his early youth he attended the com- mon schools of Lincoln County and his scholastic training was completed at St. Charles College. After teaching school a year he went to Bowling Green, Pike County, Missouri, and there read law under James O. Broadhead, fitting himself for admission to the bar in 1859. At the outset of his pro- fessional career he impressed himself upon the bar and general public as a young man of fine natural ability and superior attain- ments, and in 1860 was elected circuit attor- ney for the Third Judicial Circuit, which embraced the counties of Pike, Lincoln, War- ren, Montgomery and Callaway. In 1862 he became associated with John B. Henderson in the practice of law, this partnership con- tinuing about two years. In 1862 he was elected to the House of Representatives of the Missouri Legislature and re-elected a member of that body in 1864 as the Repre-

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

Encyclopedia of the history of Missouri, a compendium of history and biography for ready reference, Vol. II, Part 62

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