USA > Missouri > Encyclopedia of the history of Missouri, a compendium of history and biography for ready reference, Vol. II > Part 74
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).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95 | Part 96 | Part 97 | Part 98 | Part 99 | Part 100 | Part 101 | Part 102
404
EX-CONFEDERATE ASSOCIATION-EXPLORERS.
shal, and J. H. Dunn, attorney. The place is one of the most widely and favorably known health resorts in the country, being the seat of a remarkable group of springs of various chemical compositions, all of demon- strated therapeutical value.
Ex-Confederate Historical and Benevolent Association .- An associa- tion organized in St. Louis in 1882, with Major John S. Mellon as president ; Judge Leroy B. Valliant, vice president ; Captain C. P. Ellerbe, secretary, and Major C. C. Rain- water, treasurer. The association lasted until 1892, but has since ceased to have any active existence or regular meetings. Its officers from 1882 to 1890 were as follows: 1882- John S. Mellon, president ; Leroy B. Valliant, vice president ; C. P. Ellerbe, secretary ; C. C. Rainwater, treasurer. 1883-5-Celsus Price, president; L. B. Valliant, vice president ; D. W. Saddler, secretary; C. C. Rainwater, treasurer. I886-L. B. Valliant, president Henry Guibor, vice president; C. A. De France, secretary ; Joseph Boyce, treasurer. 1887-Henry Guibor, president ; James N. Douglas, vice president ; C. A. De France, secretary ; Joseph Boyce, treasurer. 1888-9- Joseph Boyce, president ; Dr. John A. Leavy, vice president ; W. P. Barlow, secretary ; An- thony Boyce, treasurer. 1890 J. R. Clai- borne, president; Dr. John A. Leavy, vice president ; W. P. Barlow, secretary ; Thomas Lynch, treasurer.
Executive Department .- That de- partment of the State government which sees to the administration and enforcement of the laws. It consists of the Governor, Lieuten- ant Governor, Secretary of State, State Audi- tor, State Treasurer, Attorney General and Superintendent of Public Schools, all except the Lieutenant Governor residing at Jeffer- son City. There are also the sheriffs, prose- cuting attorneys, coroners and other local officers in the counties who take part in the execution of the laws.
Executor .- The one appointed by a de- ceased person to execute, or carry out, the provisions of his or her will. When the person appointed to do this is a woman, she is called executrix.
Executors' and Administrators' Fund .- A State fund made up of moneys
which executors and administrators, from whatever cause, cannot pay over to legatees or distributees. They are paid into the State treasury, and held until those entitled to them claim them, upon certificates of the probate court establishing their rights. The State auditor's report showed that the re- ceipts into the fund for 1897 were $7,560, and for 1898, $4,817, with a balance on hand, Jan- uary 1, 1889, of $43,590. The disbursements to legatees and distributees in 1897 were $3,350, and in 1898, $2,098.
Exeter .- A village in Barry County, on the St. Louis & San Francisco Railway, four and a half miles west of Cassville, the county seat. It is the highest point in the southwest portion of the State, rising to an altitude of 1,572 feet above sea level. It has a public school; a Union Church, occupied by Bap- tists, Southern and Northern Methodists; an independent newspaper, the "Enterprise ;" a bank, and a dozen business houses and shops. It was platted in 1880 for George Purdy, and incorporated February 7, 1881. Population, 1899 (estimated), 350.
Explorers .- Histories of the develop- ment of civilization in what is now the middle western portion of the United States usually begin with accounts of the explorations which led up to the colonization of the different portions of this region, and the names of the chief explorers are familiar to most intelli- gent persons of the present day. It is believed, however, that to group together the names of those whose explorations and dis- coveries contributed either directly or indi- rectly to the settlement of the Mississippi Valley will serve a useful purpose in this connection. Passing over the names of those explorers for whom continental discovery is claimed, or who discovered portions of the continent remote from the Mississippi Valley, and taking them in the order suggested by the dates of their most important achieve- ments, Juan Ponce de Leon should first be mentioned. In 1512, under the auspices of the Spanish government, he sailed from the port of San German-in search of "the foun- tain of eternal youth," which he expected to find in an island called Bimini-and on March 3d of that year landed near the site of the present city of St. Augustine, Florida. He was the first European to land on this coast,
405
EXPLORERS.
and gave to Florida its name. Francisco de Garay, a companion of Columbus on his second voyage, explored rivers and parts of Florida in 1523. Cabeza de Vaca was one of four survivors of the expedition of Panfilo de Narvaez, which left Spain in 1527 and was wrecked on the coast of Florida in the same year. He crossed the Mississippi River near its mouth in 1528, was held captive by the In- dians several years, traversed Texas and New Mexico, finally reaching a Spanish town in Mexico, where he gave an account of his wanderings and discoveries, which reached the Old World in due time and incited new expeditions and adventures. Francisco· Vas- quez de Coronado and Hernando de Soto, both Spanish explorers, headed expeditions sent out soon afterward as a result of Cabeza
de Vaca's representations. Coronado de- parted from Culiacan on the Pacific Coast in 1539, traversed what is now the State of Sonora in Mexico, crossed the Gila and Little Colorado Rivers, explored the region of the Rio Grande, and extended his march north-
ward nearly to the Missouri River. He visited many of the ancient Indian villages in the territory now included in New Mexico and Arizona, gaining much knowledge of the resources of the country and the character of
the natives, and altogether conducted one of
the most remarkable land expeditions of
which history has preserved any record. Hernando de Soto, who had been a com- panion of Pizzaro in the conquest of Peru, asked and obtained leave of the Spanish gov- ernment to conquer Florida in 1537, and
landed with an ample armament in Tampa Bay in 1539. In search of fabled wealth, De Soto and his followers traversed great por- tions of the region now embraced in Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi. In the third year of their journeyings hither and thither they reached the banks of the Mississippi River, crossing it above the mouth of the Arkansas. Cabeza de Vaca had crossed the river near its mouth a dozen years earlier, but believed it to be an arm of the sea. De Soto discovered the true character of the mighty stream and gained some knowledge of its general course, and his name has been handed down in his- tory as the discoverer of the Mississippi. De Soto died when he was making preparations to descend the river, and Luis de Moscoso, who was appointed his successor, had the honor of commanding the expedition that
sailed first down the Mississippi River to the Gulf. In 1582 Antonio de Espejo, a captain in the Spanish army in Mexico, organized a company of 100 horsemen and a correspond- ing infantry detachment, almost at his own expense, and undertook, in company with Father Bernardino Beltran, a journey in search of the Franciscan missionary, Augus- tin Ruiz. After traveling several days toward the north, he learned that Ruiz had been killed, but pushed on toward the East, traversing the territory of the Cumanes, dis- covering the "seven cities of the Amayes" and the town of Acomas, and reaching finally the country of the Zunis. Father Beltran and most of the party then returned to Mexico, but with less than twenty followers Espejo continued his explorations, returning to San Bartolome, Mexico, in 1583. In the course of his travels he traversed many portions of the region now included in the Territory of New Mexico and the State of Texas, and the sites of the cities of El Paso, Socorro, Albu- querque and Santa Fe were on his line of march. In 1673 Louis Joliet and Jacques Marquette, under the auspices of the provin- cial government of Canada, left Mackinaw,
and, proceeding by way of Green Bay, Fox River and Lake Winnebago, reached the Wisconsin River, which they followed to the Upper Mississippi, the discovery of which is accredited to them. They made a voyage down the Mississippi, ascertaining beyond a doubt that it empties into the Gulf of Mexico and giving the information to the civilized world. In 1674 Father Marquette set out from Green Bay to establish a mission in the Illinois country, and spent the following winter at the mouth of the Chicago River, building there the first human habitation on the site of the present city of Chicago. In the spring of 1675 he visited the Indians at Kas- kaskia and preached to great numbers of them on a prairie near the village. Robert Cavelier de la Salle, who came from France to Canada, began a series of important ex- plorations in 1669. Making his way south- ward and westward from Canada, he discovered the
Ohio River, and de- scended it as far
as the falls at Louisville. In 1677 he obtained royal letters patent authorizing him to explore and estab- lish colonies in "the great West." In 1680 he entered the Illinois country by way of Lake Michigan, and, reaching the Illinois,
406
EXPOSITION, ST. LOUIS.
proceeded down that stream to a spot below the present city of Peoria, where he built Fort Creve Coeur. In 1682 he descended the Illi- nois River to the Mississippi, and, embark- ing on the last named stream, explored it to its mouth, taking possession of all the terri- tory drained by the river and its tributaries in the name of the king of France and naming it, in his honor, "Louisiana." Louis Hennepin, a monk of the Order of Recollets at St. Francis, accompanied LaSalle on his first expedition down the Illinois, and in 1680 ascended the Mississippi from the mouth of the Illinois, discovering and naming the Falls of St. Anthony. Chevalier Henry de Tonti, who also accompanied LaSalle down the Illinois, built Fort Creve Coeur under his orders and also Fort St. Louis, on the Illinois. In 1686 he went down the Mississippi to its mouth, seeking tidings of LaSalle, who had been murdered by mutinous followers.
More extended mention of these famous explorers will be found in the biographical sketches of them appearing elsewhere in these volumes, and under the heading "Dis- covery" a condensed history has been given of the Spanish and French explorations lead- ing up to the settlement of the Mississippi Valley and the founding of St. Louis.
Exposition, St. Louis .- The St. Louis Exposition and Music Hall Association was organized in the year 1883, with a capital stock of $600,000-par value $25 per share- divided into 24,000 shares. S. M. Kennard was elected president, R. M. Scruggs, treas- urer, and Henry V. Lucas, secretary. By ordinance the city of St. Louis gave it a li- cense and right to use Missouri Park, a block of ground between Thirteenth and Four- teenth and Olive and St. Charles Streets, for a period of fifty years, the heirs-at-law of James H. Lucas consenting.
Sixty days after the organization the plans were decided upon, with the determination to complete the building for an exposition in the year 1884. It was decided by the stock- holders to build the exposition and open the same by September Ist. Bids for the exca- vation were advertised for soon after the con- tract for the masonry was awarded, and before the excavation was well under way the foundation was being laid, and long before that was completed the brickwork was begun. This same plan was pursued until every con-
tract was awarded. On the 23d day of Au- gust, 1883, the first wagonload of earth was removed, and on the 3d day of September, 1884, the doors were opened to the public. The accomplishment of this task was attend- ed with many difficulties. Extreme cold weather during January and February and frequent rains during March and April re- tarded the work. Notwithstanding these ob- stacles this great enterprise was successfully completed on time.
The first ten years of the exposition show the receipts to have been $2,046,260.22; dis- bursements, $2,043,498.58; leaving a balance of $2,761.63. The receipts for the year 1894 were $129,284.55 ; disbursements, $112,- 832.21 ; balance, $16,452.34. The receipts for 1895 were $141,625.47 ; disbursements, $113,- 165.12; balance, $28,460.35. The receipts for 1896 were $150,873.75 ; disbursements, $133,- 901.30 ; balance, $11,773.45-making the total receipts up to December 1, 1896, $2,467 .- 843.99; disbursements, $2,408,397.22; bal- ance, $59,446.77. The St. Louis exposition did what no other exposition has ever done. In the twelfth year of its existence it paid a divi- dend of fifty cents per share, and in 1896 con- tributed over $8,000 to the cyclone sufferers of the city. The average yearly attendance has been 750,000, and during the whole peri- od of its existence not a single person has been seriously injured, which in itself speaks well for the management and the orderliness of visitors.
The St. Louis Exposition is the only suc- cessful annual exposition in the United States and has been maintained by the peo- ple without any government aid, and right loyally have they stood by it, merchants, manufacturers and citizens vying with each other in their support. It is worth to the city of St. Louis each year not less than $500,000. The railroads advertise reduced rates during the period of the forty days of each year's exposition, and bring to the city immense throngs of visitors. The exposition gives fine music and affords cheap, wholesome and in- structive recreation for the home people, as well as to those living near St. Louis, at a small price of admission. It is a wonderland for the stranger, and a great advertising me- dium for the merchant, the manufacturer and the farmer. The exhibitor is best rewarded by the sale of his goods and the introduction of his wares, and the farmer by the exhibit
407
EXPOSITION, ST. LOUIS.
of what his portion of the country produces, and it is an invitation in every direction for those seeking investment or making pur- chases .. Its value is in equal ratio with the growth of the city and State. St. Louis mer- chants could afford to subscribe $25,000 a year rather than not have such an exposition. It is a reflection of the business of the city in which it is held, and marks the growth and prosperity of the people, evinces their inter- est in the liberal arts, their advances in the appreciation of the sciences and the fine arts. Each year in the art galleries are given ex- hibitions of the different schools of art, and these exhibits are looked forward to by all art lovers, being an especial feature of the annual exposition-and the most expensive, next to the music.
The exposition building is 438 feet in length, by 338 feet in width, and is 108 feet high. It required an excavation of 60,000 yards of earth for the foundation. Nine mil- lion bricks and 600 tons of iron were used in its construction. It has four batteries of Heine improved boilers, 250 horse-power each, with the necessary equipment to run the dynamos and shafting; has eight Edison dynamos of 5,000 six candle-power lamps and four arc-light dynamos of 200 lamps of 2,000 candle-power. The exposition is enabled to furnish the necessary current to run the light for the building and for exhibitors. It has a
large music hall, which has a seating capac- ity of 3,524, thoroughly equipped with the necessary scenery to produce any opera. The floor area of the exposition building for ex- hibits is 280,000 square feet.
In 1897, at an expense of $150,000, the board of directors added a "Coliseum," with a seating capacity of 7,000 persons-which can be increased to 12,000-and an arena 112 feet wide by 222 feet in length. It will fur- nish a place for all large gatherings and conventions in any season of the year, is well lighted, heated and ventilated, and furnished in every way with the latest improvements, making it both comfortable and beautiful, and meeting the necessity for a large building of this character. The Coliseum does not inter- fere with the art and photograph galleries, and it leaves ample room for exhibits in every department. The location of the exposition building is convenient, accessible by many street car lines, and is situated within five minutes' walk of Union Station and in the very center of the business portion of the city.
The officers of the St. Louis Exposition for the year 1898 were Clark H. Sampson, presi- dent ; Jonathan Rice, first vice president ; L. Methudy, secretary, and R. M. Scruggs, treasurer. Mr. Scruggs has served as treas- urer from the beginning and all the time without pay. Mr. Frank Gaiennie has served as general manager since 1890.
408
FABIUS RIVER-FACH.
F
Fabius River is formed by the conjunc- tion of South Fabius and Middle Fabius, which rise in Schuyler County, and North Fabius, which rises in Iowa, the three flowing southeast and uniting in Marion County, in the common stream which empties into the Mississippi three miles below West Quincy.
Fach, Charles, merchant, is a native son of St. Louis, having been born in a resi- dence which stood at the southeast corner of Second and Plum Streets, November 12, 1841, when that portion of the city was a handsome residence district, inhabited mainly by French and German people. At the time of his birth St. Louis was a city of only 17,000 inhabitants, divided into six wards, with Seventeenth Street as its western limit. After graduating from the high school and taking a course in college Mr. Fach entered the employ of Julius Morisse, who was a brother-in-law of Henry Shaw, and the pioneer hardware merchant of St. Louis. He remained in the employ of this house for eight years, and gained his thorough knowl- edge of the hardware and cutlery trade in all its branches in that connection. At the end of that time he transferred his services to the wholesale hardware firm of G. Bremermann & Co., engaged in business at the northeast corner of Main and Market Streets, where he was first a local and later a traveling salesman. The commercial drummer of to- day was at that time practically unknown, and selling goods on the road by solicitation and visiting the retail dealer's place of bus- iness was a novelty. Mr. Fach was one of the pioneers in this field of enterprise, and traveled throughout the West at a time when it gave the country merchant genuine pleas- ure to meet the representative of a jobbing house, to hear from him the latest city news and give his order for goods of which he might stand in need. Railroads had not then been built throughout the Western country, and these trips of commercial travelers were made principally in the old-fashioned Con- cord stages, by wagon or on horseback or on the steamboats which traversed the Western rivers. With the building of railroads travel
was rendered easier and more comfortable, and traveling salesmen became more numer- ous as a consequence. During these early visits to his customers Mr. Fach acquired wide popularity and earned the sobriquet of "Hardware Charlie," by which he became known to the hardware trade and iron manu- facturers both of this and foreign countries. For thirty-two years be continued to be identified with this trade as a traveling sales- man, and during that time it was conceded by those brought into contact with him that few men engaged in trade in the West had a more thorough and practical knowledge of the hardware business. He remained with the firm of G. Bremermann & Co., until the death of the senior partner, and then was engaged as salesman by the oldest hardware jobbing firm west of the Mississippi River-A. F. Shapleigh & Co., since succeeded by the joint stock company now known as the A. F. Shapleigh Hardware Company. Mr. Fach was connected with this house as salesman and stockholder until February 15, 1896, when he sold his interest in the establish- ment and severed his connection with the hardware trade, in which he had been en- gaged as boy and man for forty years. Since then he has given his attention to financial affairs and investments of various kinds and to the care of his estate. He has always taken a deep interest in the welfare of his native city, and feels proud of St. Louis and of the great progress and wonderful growth in wealth and population, which have made it the fifth largest city in the United States. In the old days of the Volunteer Fire Depart- ment he was an untiring and devoted mem- ber of that organization, and an examina- tion of the records of the Veteran Volunteer Firemen's Historical Society of St. Louis will convince anyone that to his zeal is to be credited a great deal of the success which has crowned the efforts to preserve its his- tory and the record of its services. He was an active and honored member of Wash- ington Fire Company No. 3, which was one of the famous companies of fire-fighters under the old regime. During the Civil War he was a corporal in the Home Guards, en-
409
FAGG.
rolled as Missouri Militia, serving under Captain E. Rice and doing duty in St. Louis and vicinity. Politically he has been identi- fied with the Democratic party. His religious affiliations are with the Episcopalian Church, he having been baptized into that church by Rev. Dr. Gassoway and confirmed by Rt. Rev. Cicero Stephens Hawks, D. D., Bishop of Missouri, in old St. George's Episcopal Church, which formerly stood on Locust Street, between Seventh and Eighth Streets. He is connected with different fraternal organizations and societies in St. Louis as a member of St. Louis Council No. 6 of the Legion of Honor, of Valley Council No. 438 of the Royal Arcanum, of the Western Traveling Men's Association of St. Louis, and of the Missouri Historical Society. He married, in 1872, Miss Cornelia Josephine Eitzen, daughter of Honorable Charles D. Eitzen, of Hermann, Missouri. On the 14th of May, 1897, they celebrated the twenty- fifth anniversary of their wedding at their home in St. Louis, and the occasion was one which brought together a large circle of friends and acquaintances to participate in the joyous event. Five sons and three daughters have been born of their union, all of whom were living in 1898, save their first- born, a son, who died at four years of age. The parents of Mr. Fach were Carl L. and Maria Catharine (Breit) Fach, both of whom were born in Germany and emigrated to this country in 1835. They settled that year in St. Louis, and there they both lived to old age, celebrating their golden wedding anni- versary at their son's residence June 15, 1881.
Fagg, Thomas James Clark, ex- judge of the Supreme Court of Missouri, and postmaster of Louisiana, was born in Albe- marle County, Virginia, July 15, 1822, son of John and Elizabeth W. (Oglesby) Fagg. John Fagg was a native of Maryland and in early boyhood moved with his parents to Spottsylvania County, Virginia, in the part of what half a century later became cele- brated as the "Wilderness," the great battle- field of the War of the Rebellion. Later he removed to Albermarle County, where he married Miss Elizabeth W. Oglesby, of an old Virginia family and a native of Albe- marle County. There he resided upon a plantation until September, 1836, when he disposed of his Virginia plantation and re-
moved to Missouri, and settled in the lower part of Pike County, near the town of Prairieville. Thomas J. C. Fagg was the fourth child of a family of two sons and two daughters. In April of 1837, with his brother, he entered Illinois College at Jack- sonville, Illinois, where it was his intention to pursue the full course of study. The death of his brother in the August following, caused him to return to his father's farm in Pike County, where he remained a year. He returned to the college where he took an irregular course until 1842. While at Jack- sonville for a few months he read law in the office of McConnell & McDougal, the last named, in later years, becoming prominent as a United States Senator from California. September 10, 1843, he entered the office of Honorable Gilchrist Porter, at Bowling Green, Missouri, and renewed his legal studies. May 5, 1845, he was admitted to the bar of Missouri, at Troy, Lincoln County, by Honorable Ezra Hunt, then judge of the Third Judicial District. For one year Mr. Fagg practiced in partnership with Honor- able James O. Broadhead, in after years United States Minister to Switzerland, at Bowling Green. In 1847 he was a candidate for county clerk, but withdrew from the field. Mr. Fagg was inclined toward politics, and it was while attending college at Jacksonville, he gained his first political knowledge by listening to the speeches made by Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas. In 1850 he became an independent candidate for the State Legislature with William English, of Louisiana, both of whom supported the cause of Thomas H. Benton, then United States Senator, and who strongly disfavored the famous "Jackson Resolutions." The in- dependent candidates, Fagg and English, had as their opponents the regular Democratic nominees, Peter Carr and Colonel T. R. Vaughan, both of Calumet, and the Whig candidates were George T. Tate and Philan- der Draper. The two last named were the successful ones. In 1848 Mr. Fagg secured many names to a petition for the establish- ment of a probate court in Pike County. A court of that character had been established in 1825, with Levi Pettibone, judge; the act had been repealed, and jurisdiction given in probate matters to the county court, which ruled until 1850, when an act approved by the General Assembly, the previous year, went
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.