USA > Missouri > Encyclopedia of the history of Missouri, a compendium of history and biography for ready reference, Vol. II > Part 7
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New York. Henry F. Mitchell was appointed commissioner of the seat of justice, and on January 18, 1834, presented to the court the plat of the town. After six weeks' notice in the "Liberty Enquirer," the first sale of lots was made July 13, 1835. The first deed re- corded in the county was from Vincent and Sarah Smith to John P. Smith, all of Clay County, conveying eighty acres of land for the consideration of $200. There were four attorneys present at the first term of the circuit court, Amos Rees, W. T. Wood, D. R. Atchison and A. W. Doniphan. The first courthouse was built in Plattsburg (then called Springfield) in 1834. It was of hewed logs, two rooms, one eighteen by twenty feet, the other sixteen by eighteen, one story. Henry F. Mitchell was the superintendent and Solomon Fry the contractor. This was
Vol. II-3
34
CLINTON COUNTY.
a temporary structure, and in June of the same year, the county court let the contract for a brick courthouse thirty-two feet square and two stories high. This building stood until 1859, when a large courthouse was erected, the main building being a square with short wings projecting north and south from the western side. In 1873 the county court purchased from Daniel Thomas a farm of 156 acres at $46 per acre, and made it a pauper farm, at which the paupers dependent on the county are cared for. In 1868 the county court, in compliance with the general wish of the people of the county, subscribed $200,000 in aid of two railroads-$100,000 to the St. Louis & St. Joseph, and $100,000 to the Leavenworth & Des Moines. The first of these is now part of the Wabash system, and the other a part of the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific system. The St. Louis & St. Joseph road was completed in July, 1870, and on the 23d of that month the last spike was driven at Plattsburg with formal cere- monies and amid great rejoicing. The Leav- enworth & Des Moines road was finished in 1871, and there was a double excursion, one from Chicago, and the other from Leaven- worth, meeting at Trenton, Missouri. The Hannibal & St. Joseph road, which runs through the northern edge of the county in two places, was completed through Cameron in 1859. The roads in the county in the year 1900, with their modern names, were Atchi- son, Topeka & Santa Fe, St. Joseph branch ; Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific, Leavenworth branch, and Hannibal & St. Joseph, Cameron branch.
When the Mexican War began, in 1846, Clinton County was only thirteen years old, but its people shared the war spirit that pre- vailed in western Missouri and produced the Doniphan Expedition, and the army under General Price which followed. A consider- able number of young men went into Clay County and entered companies that served under Doniphan and Price, among them be- ing W. J. Biggerstaff, Halet Jackson, Cyrus Jackson, Thomas J. Morrow, Charles C. Birch, James H. Birch, Jr .; Hort Peak, Rom- ulus E. Culver, James H. Long and Henry Quine. In the Civil War there was the same division among the people of Clinton County that prevailed in so many counties of Mis- souri, though happily there was less violence and bloodshed than occurred in Clay and
Platte Counties. In the election for dele- gates to the State Convention of 1861, Judge James H. Birch, an avowed Unionist, was elected over Rev. A. H. F. Payne, who was put forward as representative of the Southern element. During the summer of 1861 there was active recruiting on both sides carried on, four companies, under Captain William H. Edgar, who was afterward killed at Shiloh; Captain Hugh L. W. Rogers, Captain Archibald Grooms and Captain James H. Birch, Jr., being raised for Federal service, and at least 150 young men from the county being enlisted in the bodies that joined Gen- eral Sterling Price's army. In November a body of Confederates arrested Judge Birch, member of the State Convention and the most prominent Union man in the county, and carried him off to General Price's camp, south of the Missouri River, but after a short confinement he was released. In 1863 a de- tachment of Colorado troops came into the county and plundered several merchants, John E. Shawhan being robbed of $10,000. Shortly after a body of the Twenty-fifth Mis- souri came in and killed two prominent citi- zens, Southern sympathizers, Captain John Reed and Rev. A. H. F. Payne, the last named an old minister of the Christian Church, who, two years before, had been the Southern candidate for delegate to the State convention, and been defeated by Judge Birch. The return of peace, after the pro- tracted strife marked by so much animosity, estrangement and blood, in the State, was joyfully received by the people of Clinton County, and on the 21st of April, 1866, there was a large mass meeting held in Plattsburg to commemorate the happy event. Judge Robert Johnson presided and W. J. Bicker- staff was secretary. On the 14th of May, following, there was an ovation to the dis- charged Union soldiers at the Plattsburg fair grounds. The "Clinton County News," pub- lished first at Plattsburg in 1859, was the pioneer newspaper of the county. G. W. Hendley was the publisher. It continued till the year 1862, when the office was burned and the paper ceased. During the Civil War the "New Constitution" was published for a time by W. L. Birney, and in 1866 Judge James H. Birch started the "Clinton County Register," a Democratic paper ; in 1873 the "Lever." also Democratic, was started by John McMichael, and in 1880 C. J. Nesbit
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CLINTON NORMAL BUSINESS COLLEGE -- COAL.
and Thos. G. Barton commenced the "Puri- fier," all these exhibiting ability and intelli- gence, and recognized as useful and valuable journals. In 1867 the "Chronotype" was first published at Cameron by J. A. Carothers. A year afterward the name was changed to "Observer," and it is Republican in politics. The "Cameron Democrat" and the "Cameron News," both Democratic, were started after- ward, but did not survive long. In 1867 the "Vindicator" (Republican) was begun by J. H. Frame and G. T. Howser, and soon grew into a prosperous journal. In 1881 it began the issue of a daily edition. The Lathrop "Herald" was first published in 1869, and ceased in 1871. The same year the Lathrop "Monitor" was begun and became a spirited and thriving Republican journal. The Lathrop "Herald," a Democratic paper, be- gun in 1880 by Lee & Chonstant, has become a useful and influential local organ. Ac- cording to the report of the Bureau of Labor Statistics for the year 1898, the products shipped from the county at that time were: Cattle, 33,600 head ; hogs, 70,022 head ; sheep, 3,821 head; horses and mules. 3,588 head ; wheat, 3,899 bushels; oats, 3,959 bushels ; corn, 5,997 bushels; flax, 536 pounds; hay, 49 tons ; flour, 1,446,653 pounds; corn meal, 14,891 pounds ; shipstuff, 6,100 pounds ; clover seed, 27,000 pounds; timothy seed, 3,970 pounds ; lumber and posts, 6,000 feet ; cord- wood, 1,846 cords ; wool, 23,738 pounds ; poul- try, 532,230 pounds ; cheese, 17,459 pounds ; dressed meat, 9,728 pounds; game and fislı, 1,560 pounds; tallow, 23,815 pounds; hides and pelts, 84,400 pounds; feathers, 4,337 pounds ; nursery stock, 12,410, and other arti- cles in smaller quantities. In the year 1900 the enrollment of school children in the pub- lic schools in the county was 3,868 white and 294 colored, total 4,162 ; number of volumes in the school libraries, 1,137 ; valued at $1,200. There were seventy schools in operation ; 106 teachers employed, 100 white and six colored, of whom forty-three were male and sixty- three female ; estimated value of school prop- erty, $70,000; total receipts for school purposes, $83,795; total expenditures, $55,- 309 ; permanent county school fund, $24,505 ; township school fund, $20,586; total, $45,092. The assessment of property for taxes of 1898 in Clinton County showed 265,000 acres of land valued at $3,142,747, being at the rate of $11.85 per acre; 4,000 town lots valued
at $777,045; total real estate, $3,919,792; horses, 7,913, valued at $148,285; mules, 1,488, valued at $32,951 ; asses and jennets, 34, valued at $1,620; neat cattle, 26,451, val- med at $416,548; sheep, 2,320, valued at $2,961 ; hogs, 34,327, valued at $78,542; all other live stock, $520; money, bonds and notes, $835,667 ; corporate companies, $151,- 089; all other personal property, $297,366; total personal property, $1,965,549; railroad, bridge and telegraph property, $1,076,908; total taxable wealth of the county, $6,962,249. The total taxes levied for the year 1898 against real and personal property were for State purposes, $15,983; for all county pur- poses, $34,339 ; total, $49,322. In addition to this there were taxes on railroad, bridge and telegraph property in the county, $13,457; taxes on merchants and manufacturers, $2,441 ; foreign insurance taxes apportioned in the county, $1,009; total taxes, $66,299. The bonded debt of the county in 1898 was $65,000, consisting of $50,000 in 6 per cent bonds, issued in 1880 and running ten to twenty years, and $15,000 in 6 per cent bonds, issued in 1896 and running five to ten years. The population of the county in 1900 was 17,363. 1199597
Clinton Normal Business College. A commercial college at Clinton, formed by consolidation, by Joseph Harness, of what was known as the Clinton Business College, C. E. Greenup, principal, and Smith's Bus- iness College, Ellis Smith, principal. After this consolidation the building now occupied by the institution was erected, in the year 1895. The principals of the college have been Ellis Smith. C. J. Davis, J. E. Fesler, E. W. Doran, and at the present time (1900) H. A. Harness is in charge. The college has enjoyed a good enrollment during its exist- ence and its graduates are to be found in almost every walk in life.
Coal. - Coal is the most abundant mineral in Missouri, and there are more persons em- ployed in mining it than in mining any other. It is estimated that the coal fields of the State are 25,000 square miles in area, of which 8,400 square miles are upper coal measures, 2,000 square miles are exposed middle, and 14,600 square miles are exposed lower meas- ures. The upper measures contain about four feet of coal ; the middle measures about
36
COATES.
seven feet, and the lower measures about five workable seams, varying in thickness from eighteen inches to four feet and a half, and thin seams varying from six to eleven inches -in all about thirteen feet and a half of coal. The area of over eighteen inches thick- ness of coal within 200 feet of the surface is about 7,000 square miles. The southeast- ern boundary of the coal measures runs from the mouth of the Des Moines River through the counties of Clark, Lewis, Scotland, Adair, Macon, Shelby, Monroe, Audrain, Callaway, Boone, Cooper, Benton, Henry, St. Clair, Bates, Vernon, Cedar, Dade, Barton and Jas- per Counties, into Oklahoma, and all the counties northwest of this line are known to contain coal. The regular coal rocks exist also in Ralls, Montgomery, Warren, St. Charles, Callaway and St. Louis Counties, and local deposits of bituminous and cannel coal are found in Moniteau, Cole, Morgan, Crawford, Lincoln and Callaway Counties. In 1865 the State geologist, Professor Swal- low, estimated that the coal area of the State, at an average thickness of only one foot, contained 26,800,000,000 tons of coal. But in many places the thickness is fifteen feet, and a reasonable estimate places the average thickness at five feet, so that, it is probable the State contains five times this quantity of coal, in workable beds. In 1880 the quantity of coal mined in the State was 543,990 tons, valued at $1,037,100; in 1898, 2,036,364 tons, valued at $2,295,000. Coal was mined in forty counties of the State in 1898, those yielding the largest quantities being Adair, 58,420 tons ; Barton, 13,032 tons ; Bates, 364,- 254 tons; Henry, 26,448 tons; Lafayette, 299,338 tons; Macon, 655,415 tons; Vernon, 239,554 tons; Linn, 7,218 tons; Randolph, 171,078 tons ; Putnam, 56,320 tons ; Ray, 132,- 200 tons.
Coates, Kersey, conspicuous among the few whose foresight and energy made Kansas City the metropolis of the Missouri Valley, was born September 15, 1823, in Salis- bury, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, and died in Kansas City April 24, 1887. His par- ents were Lindley and Deborah (Simmons) Coates, both members of the Society of Friends. The father, who was a farmer, afforded liberal educational advantages to his son, Kersey, who acquired a thorough knowledge of the English branches and some
of the modern languages at Whitestown (New York) Seminary, and at Phillips Acad- emy, Andover, Massachusetts. For some years afterward he taught English literature in the high school in Lancaster, Pennsyl- vania. When twenty-five years of age he began the study of law in the office of the distinguished statesman and lawyer, Thad- deus Stevens, and in 1853 was admitted to the bar. Before he could fairly enter upon practice, an unforeseen circumstance gave a different direction to his life, leading him into a field of peculiar usefulness, and eventu- ally rewarding him with fortune and distinc- tion. The struggle for possession of the Territory of Kansas between the Free-Soil and pro-slavery parties was just beginning. In sympathy with the former element were a number of Pennsylvanians, members of an Emigration Aid Society, whose purpose it was to save the Territory to freedom, and who were also desirous of purchasing pub- lic lands, solicited Thaddeus Stevens to nanie a man of capability and integrity to go thither as their adviser and agent. Upon his warm recommendation Colonel Coates was engaged, and in 1854 he departed upon his mission, which was destined to engage him for two years, during which time he wit- nessed many scenes of violence and blood- shed, while his own life was frequently im- periled. He was more than the mere agent for men of means seeking prospectively re- munerative investments. His natural in- stincts led him to abhor slavery, and his convictions had been deepened through the influence of his father, an active aider in the management of the "Underground Railway," and of his personal friend and patron, Thad- deus Stevens, an implacable enemy of a sys- tem of human bondage. Colonel Coates aided the Free-Soilers persistently and fear- lessly, and soon came to be regarded as one of their most resourceful leaders. In two instances his experiences were among the most intensely interesting and dramatic of those troublous times. In the one, he was of counsel for the defense of Governor Charles Robinson, put on trial for treason. In the other, he afforded concealment to Governor Andrew H. Reeder, whose life was in jeop- ardy, and aided his escape to Illinois. Years afterward Governor Reeder sent to Mrs. Coates an oil painting representing himself in the disguise of a woodchopper, as he ap-
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COATES.
peared at that critical time. When the imme- diate emergency had passed, Colonel Coates located in Kansas City, where he passed the remainder of his life, continually exerting his effort for its development and improvement. From the beginning he was the acknowledged leader in all important enterprises. There were a splendid few, such men as R. T. Van Horn, E. M. McGee, M. J. Payne and others, who were as sanguine of the future of their city, and as energetic in their effort, but Colonel Coates stood alone in his remarkable prescience of conditions and possibilities, and in a reserve resourcefulness which achieved success in face of apparent failure. At the close of the Civil War the population of Kansas City was less than 5,000, and the nearest railway was thirty miles distant. Leavenworth, Kansas, claiming a population of 15,000, was generally regarded as the com- ing Western metropolis. It was under these conditions that Colonel Coates and his col- leagues made their . greatest effort and achieved their greatest successes. The build- ing of the Cameron branch of the Hannibal & St. Joseph Railway was begun; a charter for a bridge over the Missouri River at Kan- sas City was procured; the Missouri River, Fort Scott & Gulf Railway was incorporated and endowed with State lands in Kansas; and railway right of way was secured by treaty through the Indian Territory. In all these great enterprises Colonel Coates was one of the ablest leaders; in awakening the interest of Eastern capitalists, and in securing means for railway and bridge-building, his efforts were the most incessant, and his influence was the most commanding. He was a familiar figure in the moneyed circles of Philadelphia, New York and Boston, in legislative as- semblages at Jefferson City and Topeka, and in Washington City during congressional sessions. His purpose was ever the same, the advancement of the interests of Kansas City, and he never failed to command attention, and ultimately to effect his purpose. Mean- time, he busied himself as earnestly in insti- tuting and advancing purely local enterprises as though he bore no weightier burden. He aided in the establishment of newspapers, banking houses, and innumerable commer- cial and industrial concerns. From the first his faith in the city had been implicit. At the close of the war period the Philadelphia investors whom he represented were dis-
couraged, regarding as a poor investment a tract of II0 acres of land bounded by the Missouri River, Main Street, Broadway and Santa Fe Street, which he had purchased for them at an outlay of $6,600. At their solici- tation, he purchased it from them, and this tract ultimately became the foundation of his fortune. The payment of a security debt at one time forced him into a mercantile business, from which he soon retired, but which developed into the present mammoth house of Emery, Bird, Thayer & Co. The most conspicuous buildings of his erection were the Coates House, one of the most ele- gant hotels in the country, and the Coates Opera House. He assisted in organizing the Kansas City Industrial Exposition & Agri- cultural Fair Association in 1870, and the Inter-State Fair Association in 1882; he was for many years president of the latter organ- ization. He was also president of the Mis- souri River, Fort Scott & Gulf Railway Com- pany at its organization, and for some years afterward. He was an original Republican, and in 1860 was president of the only Re- publican Club in western Missouri, and one of less than eighty Kansas City voters who voted for Lincoln. During a part of the war period he was colonel of the Seventy-seventh Regiment Enrolled Missouri Militia, which rendered efficient service, particularly during the Price raid in 1864. In his religious views he leaned to Unitarianism. His wife, SARAH W. CHANDLER, was born March 10, 1829, at Kennett Square, Chester County, Penn- sylvania. She was descended from the Chandlers of Wiltshire, England, a Quaker family which established its American branch in 1687, on the River Brandywine, twenty- seven miles from Philadelphia. Her parents were John and Maria Jane (Walter) Chand- ler. The father was a farmer, a man of great force of character, who, for three consecu- tive terms, occupied a seat in the Pennsyl- vania Legislature. The mother was also of English descent, a member of an influential 'family. The parents removed to a farm near Kennett Square when their daughter Sarah was an infant. There she was reared, and the influences by which she was surrounded were traceable in the years of her mature woman- hood. It was the place of birth of Bayard Taylor, and the home of his first wife, Mary Agnew. Both became intimate personal friends of Sarah Chandler, who, after com-
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COBB.
pleting her education at the Simmons Sem- inary in Philadelphia, became first an assist- ant and then a principal in the Martin Seminary. Here, in her young womanhood, she met many of the literary celebrities of the day, from whom she derived inclination to investigate social, economic and political questions, eventually abandoning orthodox Quaker reserve and allying herself with a more progressive and active element. Here, too, she first met him who became her hus- band, whose admiration she won in her delivery of an address upon the "Social Ad- vancement of Woman" before a Young Ladies' Lyceum. From the first, she gave evidence of high talent. At the age of ten years she had mastered arithmetic, and un- dertaken the higher branches. She never regarded her education as completed, and through her lifelong habit of study she con- stantly added to her store of knowledge. She was an accomplished botanist and lin- guist. After her marriage to Mr. Coates, in 1855, she accompanied him to Kan- sas City. In their journey up the Missouri River she witnessed scenes of violence which were a severe shock to one of her delicate sensibilities. In the troublous times which followed she sympathized with her husband, and encouraged him in his every undertak- ing, sharing the labors in which he engaged and the dangers to which he was exposed. Previous to and during the Civil War her home was at once a refuge for the pursued and terror-stricken, and a hospital for the sick and wounded. When peace was restored she became equally interested and equally active in promoting the material progress of the community, and in the leadership of various movements having for their object the awakening of inquiry, the dissemination of knowledge, and the advancement of edu- cation, art and science. A history class, of which she was president, was a most success- ful organization of its kind, and left a broad and enduring influence. She was an earnest friend of the Art Association, to which she afforded great encouragement and liberal pecuniary assistance. It was in the fields of social and domestic life, however, that her efforts were mainly exerted, and her influence was most strongly felt. A woman of re- markably sympathetic disposition, she sought amelioration of the condition of the suffering and oppressed, particularly of her own sex,
and her zeal at times led her to advocate measures so greatly in advance of the day, and so foreign to prevailing sentiment, that few followed her, and a lesser number aided her, until accomplished results vindicated her course. She was an inde- fatigable worker in the Woman's Christian Association-of which she was one of the founders-having for its purpose the aid of the homeless and struggling, and in the Woman's Exchange, which afforded oppor- tunity for remunerative labor to necessitous women who were unable to engage in em- ployment away from their homes. The Mothers' Club claimed a large share of her attention, and in that body her counsels were regarded as of unusual worth. Her interest in the Social Science and Equal Suffrage Societies was earnest and continuous, and led her to investigation resulting in the discov- ery of peculiarly distressing conditions. As a result, she visited the State Board of Char- ities to enter a protest against neglect and ill treatment of women committed to public institutions, and it was largely through her effort that relief was afforded to insane women sent to county poorhouses on ac- count of the overcrowding of the State Insane Asylums, and that a police matron was placed in charge of women committed to prison. Her last appearance in a public capacity was in January, 1897, in Kansas City, as honorary chairman of the reception com- mittee, on the occasion of the annual meet- ing of the Missouri Federation of Women's Clubs. She extended bountiful pecuniary aid to all societies with which she was connected, and her private charities were many and lib- eral. In religion she was a Unitarian. Her death occurred July 25, 1897. The record of her remarkably useful life is preserved in an interesting volume, "In Memoriam Sarah Walter Chandler Coates," printed by her children for private distribution, and edited by her daughter, Mrs. Homer Reed.
F. V. HEDLEY.
Cobb, John Columbus, banker, was born in Sniabar Township, Lafayette County, Missouri, March 18, 1843, son of Albert T. and Louisa (Hoskins) Cobb, and is one of the oldest living natives of the county. His father was born in North Carolina, was reared in Tennessee, and came to Missouri in 1838, becoming one of the first inhabitants of
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COBB.
Sniabar Township, where he spent the re- mainder of his life. His wife was a native of Tennessee. They raised a family of nine sons and one daughter, all of whom are still living. J. C. Cobb attended the common schools of his native place, but his studies were interrupted by the outbreak of the Civil War. In 1864 he entered the Forty-fourth Missouri Volunteer Infantry Regiment and fought for the preservationof the Union until the close of the war. Soon after peace was declared he engaged in freighting on the plains, devoting two years to this exciting life, of which he had had a taste in 1861. In 1868 he began cultivating the farm at Chapel Hill, Lafayette County, owned by A. W. Rid- ings, who had been his employer on the plains. This fine property he purchased in 1869, and has added to it from time to time until the estate now includes 430 acres. It is the seat of the old Chapel Hill College, at one time one of the noted institutions of learning in Missouri, where many of the famous men of the State were educated. In 1879, upon the founding of the town of Odessa, Mr. Cobb established a grain busi- ness there. The next year he removed with his family to the town and established the Bank of Odessa, of which he has since been president. The original capital stock was $10,000, but this has been increased to $50,- 000. Mr. Cobb continues to raise stock on his farm, which is one of the best improved and most highly cultivated in Lafayette County. Though he has always been a Dem- ocrat, he has never cared for public office. He is deeply interested in the cause of edu- cation, and has been trustee of Missouri Valley College at Marshall ever since its establishment. In the Cumberland Presby- terian Church he is an active and influential factor, and for some time he has served as treasurer of the church at large, home and foreign. He is also a member of the board of trustees of the Lexington Presbytery. Mr. Cobb was married April 12, 1868, to Lou A. Hobson, a native of Jackson County, Mis- souri, and a daughter of Lemuel Hobson, one of the early settlers of that county, who erected the first brick house in Independence .. They have been the parents of two sons and one daughter. The only living child is the daughter, Dora Lou, now the wife of Gordon Jones, president of the St. Joseph Stock Yards Bank.
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