USA > Missouri > Encyclopedia of the history of Missouri, a compendium of history and biography for ready reference, Vol. II > Part 94
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Free Employment Department .- A special department of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, opened in St. Louis, in 1897 by Arthur Rozelle, Labor Commissioner, and enlarged by his successor, Thomas P. Rixey. There was no law requiring the open- ing of such a department ; it was the volun- tary work of the commissioner, and the good it has accomplished will probably justify its
maintenance as a permanent feature of the bureau. As its name indicates, its object is to supply a free exchange between persons seeking employment and those in need of employes. Both classes send to the depart- ment and make known their wants, and the bureau acts as intermediary between them. The bureau furnishes a blank form for those seeking employment, giving name, address, nationality, occupation, whether married or single, number of dependent children, if any, name and address of last employer, how long employed at last place, how long idle, how long a resident of the State, wages desired, whether the applicant can read and write, and such remarks as may be called for-conclud- ing with references. Applications for help simply state what sort of help. is desired and ask for a list of applications for such po- sitions as may be on file in the department. giving applicant's name and address. No charge is made against applicants for help or employment, except two cents for postage to insure registry and reply. From October, 1897, when the department was first opened, to April 18, 1898, there were received 5,880. applications, and of these 2,800 were provided for. The department does a great deal of work once performed by the private employ- ment agencies, and in April, 1898, the num- ber of these private employment agencies in St. Louis had been reduced from sixteen to five. In 1900 an additional office was opened in Kansas City. The department's operations. are not limited to the cities named; it re- ceives and deals with applications from all parts of the State, and also from other States.
Freeman .- A village in Cass County, on the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railway, ten miles west of Harrisonville, the county seat. It has a public school, a Methodist Church, a Cumberland Presbyterian Church and a Bap- tist Church; a Masonic Lodge, a Lodge of Mutual Protection and a Lodge of United Workmen; a bank, an elevator and a flour- mill. In 1899 the population . was 450. The town was platted in 1871, by Hall & Givan, and was incorporated in 1875. Morristown, near by, was founded in 1853, and was a place of considerable business until Freeman was established, when most of the business houses were removed from Morristown to Freeman.
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FREE SONS OF ISRAEL-FREIGHTING FROM KANSAS CITY.
Free Sons of Israel .- The Independ- ent Order of Free Sons of Israel was organ- ized in New York, in 1848, is composed of persons of the Jewish faith, and is charitable and benevolent in its objects and purposes. Its chief executive officer resides in New York and directs its affairs from that city. Two grand lodges are in existence, and their combined jurisdictions cover the entire terri- tory of the United States. The total mem- bership of the order was estimated at 15,000 in 1897, and it ranks next in importance to the Order of B'nai B'rith among Jewish benevolent organizations. Like the above named order, it pays $1,000 to the family of a deceased member at his death, and also pays sick and funeral benefits. The first lodge of this order was instituted in St. Louis in 1872, and District Grand Lodge No. 2, which ex- tends its jurisdiction over Missouri, was or- ganized in 1876.
Free Trade League .- An organiza- tion formed in St. Louis in 1870, which had for its object the creation of a sentiment in favor of radical changes in the revenue sys- tem of the United States and the ultimate establishment of free trade relations between this and other countries. Its earliest meet- ings were held in Veranda Hall, at the south- west corner of Fourth Street and Washington Avenue. The first president of the league was William M. Grosvenor, who was at that time the editor of the "St. Louis Democrat," and an able advocate of free trade theories. Numerous discussions of economic questions were held under the auspices of the league, but in the course of time the members lost interest in its proceedings, and the league ceased to exist.
Freighting from Kansas City .- Before the settlement of the western part of Missouri attention was attracted to the vast territory west of the border extending across the plains and beyond the Rocky Mountains. Various adventurers formed trading and trapping expeditions to explore the country. At that time scarcely anything was known of the country west of the border of Missouri. As these parties returned with glowing accounts of the profits realized, they were followed by others, and in a few years the Santa Fe trail was a well beaten track.' The inception of this trade was from Boon-
ville, Missouri, and this was before the upper Missouri was navigated to any great extent. The country west of Boonville was largely inhabited by the Osage and other Indian tribes.
As the western part of the State settled up and the facilities on the Missouri River increased, the traders sought a nearer start- ing point for the plains. The government having established a military post at Fort Osage, which was where the town of Sibley is now located, the starting point was concen- trated at Fort Osage in the "Six Mile" coun- try. This was a tract of six square miles bought in 1808 by the government from the Osage tribe of Indians for the fort and its surroundings, and is known by that name' to this day. With the onward march of civilization another move westward was made to Blue Mills Landing, or Owen's Landing- it was known by both these names-six miles east of Independence. About this time Francis Chouteau established a warehouse on the south bank of the Missouri River, at the foot of Mensing Island, and about where Cleveland Avenue strikes the river in Kansas City. The Chouteau warehouse was the landing place for all the goods and supplies of the Ameri- can Fur Company for the various Indian tribes in what is now Kansas and Nebraska, and also for the town of Westport. All other goods were landed at Owen's Landing, and the city of Independence was the headquar- ters of this trade. In the latter part of the thirties the war between Texas and Mexico was in progress, and owing to the risks from privateers in getting goods through the Southern ports, the Mexicans sought a safer market, via the Missouri River and the Santa Fe trail.
This era, it may be said, saw the establish- ment of the freighting business from the western border of Missouri, as up to that time the transportation had been largely done on pack animals. Independence held this trade exclusively for a number of years; as the country was further settled and fenced up, a better outlet was sought for. Kansas City being the most westwardly point on the Mis- souri River, and within a few hours drive of the prairies, about the year 1846 it at- tracted the attention of the trade, and during that and the next year, a few of the traders landed their goods at Kansas City and in a
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FREIGHTING FROM KANSAS CITY.
year or two commanded the overland trade. In 1846 and 1847, owing to the war between the United States and Mexico, there was no freighting done by the citizens of Mexico, but the trade was taken up by merchants of the United States, and, under the protection afforded by the army, the trade was much larger than ever before, extending to a large part of the republic of Mexico. To this large volume of mercantile freighting should be added the transportation of supplies for the United States Army, then occupying the Ter- ritory of New Mexico and the State of Chi- huahua. In the zenith of this trade the Missouri River was lined with steamboats loaded with freight for this trade, and the levee at Kansas City was filled with freight awaiting to be loaded into the wagons. No adequate warehouse facilities existed for stor- ing the immense quantities of goods, which were loaded directly from the levee into the wagons waiting to receive them. Here it may be interesting to give some further facts that led to bringing the overland transpor- tation to Kansas City. At the inception of the trade there were no white settlements west of the State of Missouri. After passing the mouth of the Kaw the Missouri bore nearly north, and for several years was sparsely settled-the Platte Purchase only being opened in 1837 -- and in these times there were no ferry boats of sufficient capacity to ferry wagons. The Kaw River, coming into the Missouri at this point directly from the west the entire length of the present State of Kansas, formed a divide between that stream and the headwaters of the Osage and the Arkansas Rivers, a natural highway for wagons, with no streams of any magnitude to cross, with plenty of grass and plenty of water heads of the creeks for camping places. The trail, after leaving the camping grounds, now almost within the city limits, crossed the headwaters of Indian Creek, then Mill Creek, where the city of Olathe was afterwards located, Cedar Creek, Bull Creek at the present town of Black Jack, a point noted as the place of the capture of H. Clay Pate by John Brown during the border troubles, Hickory Point near Baldwin City, Willow Creek, Switzler's Creek where Burlingame is now located, Dragoon Creek, One Hundred and Ten Mile Creek, One Hundred and Forty-two Mile Creek, Rock Creek, Big John Creek and the Neosho where Council Grove
is. Council Grove was a general rendezvous for all trains before starting out across the great plains, or American desert as the early geographers called it, but now as productive a country as is found in the Union. After passing Council Grove the road led up Elm Creek, and on to Diamond Spring, Lost Spring, the headwaters of the Cottonwood, near where the town of Marion is located, thence bearing to the southwest and crossing various small streams, passing through where the city of Newton is located, thence crossing the Little Arkansas River a few miles north of the present city of Wichita, then on along the Arkansas River, passing through Hutch- inson, Great Bend, Larned and Dodge City, where the trail divided, the southern route crossing the Arkansas about twenty miles west of Dodge City, the other continuing up that stream and very nearly on the present location of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad, and leaving the Arkansas River at La Junta, passing through Trinidad, Las Vegas and on to Santa Fe. In making this journey of about 800 miles-the road gener- ally following the high lands-camping places, with stock water in abundance, were found at intervals of from ten to twenty miles.
In 1849 the California immigration added to the volume of overland transportation an amount probably equal to that of the Santa Fe trail. Without going into general details, it may be said that the California trains left Kansas City following the divides on the south side of the Kaw River, crossing the Wakarusa River from ten to fifteen miles above its entrance into the Kaw, and crossing the last named river about 100 miles west of. Kansas City. In 1857 the transportation of troops to Utah to quell the Mormon insurrec- tion, the sending of supplies to the troops, and the settlement of the country under the Kansas and Nebraska act created an im- mense travel over this trail.
In 1860 it required, to carry this freight from Missouri towns, 6,922 wagons, 7,574 mules, 67,950 oxen, 844 horses and 11,603 men, the total amount of freight thus trans- ported being 36,074,159 pounds. This busi- ness was all done by the regular firms engaged in freighting for others, and when is added probably as much more by merchants who owned their own teams, it will show the magnitude of the overland trade. When rail-
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FREMONT.
roads were built west of the Missouri River the freighters went with them and distributed the supplies to interior points until railroads covered this ground. During these years of freighting by wagon Kansas City was the headquarters of the live stock and outfitting business and governed the live stock market from Iowa to Texas. Later the live stock business was taken up by the packers, who have so successfully retained it at this point. Live stock is now received here from every State and Territory west of the Mississippi, and from several States east of the river.
J. S. CHICK.
Fremont .- See "Stockton."
Fremont, John C., soldier and ex- plorer, was born at Savannah, Georgia, June 21, 1813, and died in New York City, July 13, 1890. In early life he entered the army and was made second lieutenant of engineers. In 1841 he married Jessie Benton, daughter of Thomas H. Benton, of Missouri, and in 1842 entered the career of exploration and adventure which brought him the name of "Pathfinder," and earned for him an honor- able and enviable fame in the world. He ex- piored and marked an overland route to the Pacific coast, and defined the highest peak in the Wind River Mountains, which came to bear the name of Fremont's Peak. He took an active and important part in the Mexican War, assisting in the conquest of California, and on the admission of that State into the Union was one of its first United States Sen- ators. In 1856 he was the first Republican candidate for President. When the Civil War began he was in Europe, but was appointed major general and assigned to the Depart- ment of Missouri. He arrived at St. Louis on the 26th of June, and was in command · till November following. His administra- tion, was not marked by the boldness and en- terprise that his exploits in the Rocky Moun- tains led the government to expect. General Lyon's army in southwest Missouri was left unsupported, to be overwhelmed and defeated by the united commands of Generals Price and McCulloch, and six weeks later, Price, who had marched north to the Missouri River without resistance, was allowed to be- siege and capture the Federal garrison at Lexington, 2,700 men under Colonel Mulli- gan, together with arms and valuable stores.
These victories greatly strengthened and en- couraged the Southern cause, and proportion- ately depressed the Unionists-and the wan- ing faith of the Unionists in the commander of the Department of Missouri was not re- stored by his vigor in issuing orders, and the radical politics with which he sought to coun- teract the two disasters in the field. On the 30th of August, he declared martial law, or- dering that all persons taken with arms in their hands be tried by court-martial, and, if found guilty, shot ; confiscating the property, real and personal, of all persons proved to have taken active part with the enemies of the government, and freeing their slaves. Three days after this proclamation was is- sued, President Lincoln wrote to General Fremont, asking him to modify the clause concerning the confiscation of property and the emancipation of slaves ; but General Fre- mont in reply requested the President to is -* sue an annulling order himself-and this the President did, on the 11th of September. Be- fore the fall of Lexington, the Blairs, through whose efforts Fremont had been appointed to Missouri, began to withdraw their support from him, because of his failure to make an effort to succor Lyon and to arrest hostile organization and movement in the State out- side of St. Louis by an exhibition of the mili- tary power of the government-and when Lexington fell without an attempt to relieve it, Colonel Frank P. Blair, the recognized leader of the Unionists of Missouri, became his opponent, and carried his personal friends and adherents into the opposition. The Ger- mans, however, remained the steadfast friends and supporters of Fremont. After the cap- ture of Lexington, there was some apprehen- sion that General Price would march his victorious army on Jefferson City, and rein- state Governor Jackson and the deposed State government, and to prevent this Gen- eral Fremont rapidly organized a formidable expedition of 20,000 men in five divisions under Generals Pope, Hunter, Sigel. McKin- stry and Asboth, with eighty-six pieces of artillery, and, on the 28th of September, took possession of the State capital, and finding that General Price had abandoned Lexington and was retreating into southwest Missouri, marched in that direction to intercept him. His army, augmented now to 30,000 men, the largest and most brilliant body of troops ever seen in Missouri, crossed the Osage River at
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FREMONT RELIEF SOCIETY-FRENCH DOMINATION.
Warsaw and took possession of Springfield, in the begininng of November, General Price falling back before him. Previous to this, the government at Washington, disturbed by the reports from Missouri, had sent tle Sec- retary of War and the Adjutant General to the State to examine into the condition of affairs-and these officers, overtaking Fre- mont at Tipton, had held a protracted interview with him. On their return to Washington they reported to the President, and an order was sent out relieving General Fremont of his command, and appointing General David Hunter to succeed him. The special messenger bearing this order reached Springfield on the 2nd of November, not without some difficulty in getting through the Federal lines to the headquarters of the commander, who, it was asserted, apprehend- ing an order of removal, had given such in- · structions to his guards as, it was thought, would prevent the messenger from reaching him. When the order was delivered, Gen- eral Hunter, to whom the command was to be turned over, had not arrived, and a large number of officers of the army united in a request to General Fremont, to lead them to battle against Price, who was said to be a short distance from Springfield. General Fremont acceded to this, and made prepara- tions to march the next day; but before the hour for movement arrived, General Hunter reached Springfield, took command, and countermanded the order. General Fremont with his staff departed from Springfield. The affair caused much excitement, for, General Fremont, besides possessing a military repu- tation that led his friends to expect great things from him, had been the first Repub- lican candidate for the presidency, and the emancipation provision in his proclamation provoked an approving response from the anti-slavery element in the North, which even then, was attempting to extort from Presi- dent Lincoln the general emancipation proc- lamation it succeeded in forcing him to issue. two years later. On his arrival in St. Louis he was given an ovation by his friends, chiefly the Germans, at which speeches full of sym- pathy and admiration for him were made, and at which he himself made a speech prom- ising his friends to make an opportunity for vindicating himself before the country. A year later he was recalled into active service and commanded a division in the Shenandoah
Valley in Virginia. During his term of com- mand in Missouri, he forced the paymaster at St. Louis to turn over to him $100,000 government money with which to pay the Home Guards, and this arbitrary act had much to do in bringing about his removal. His headquarters in St. Louis was the cen- ter of a throng of foreigners in brilliant uniforms, and one of the complaints against him was that he wasted his time and ener- gies that should have been directed to the relief of Lyon and Mulligan, in the erection of useless fortifications at St. Louis and Cairo, the organization of a body guard and the "Jessie Scouts," and the arrangement of an elaborate headquarters ceremonial.
Fremont Relief Society .- A society organized by the patriotic ladies of St. Louis in October of 1861, which had for its object the relief of sick and wounded soldiers in camp and hospital, victims of the Civil War. Its first officers were Mrs. Jessie Benton Fre- mont, wife of General John C. Fremont, president ; Mrs. T. B. Edgar and Mrs. Dr. Huesler, vice presidents; Mrs. Clinton B. Fisk, secretary, and Mrs. Amelia Abeles, treasurer. Rooms for the use of the society were provided at the home of Mrs. T. B. Ed- gar, on Chouteau Avenue, opposite Four- teenth Street, and here was carried on a noble work during the earlier years of the war and until the systematic work of the Western Sanitary Commission was regularly inaugu- rated.
French Club of St. Louis .- "Le Club Francais de St. Louis" was organized in May 1899. It is a social, musical and liter- ary association. The present officers are : Alexander N. De Menil, president ; Professor Louis Breucque, secretary and treasurer, and Louis Seguenot, Francis Kuhn, Marc Cointe- · pas, A. Marchal and Joseph M. Layat, di- rectors.
French Domination .- Much confu- sion exists, even in the minds of persons more than ordinarily well versed in history, concerning the territory claimed in America by Spain, France and England by right of discovery, and the extent to which these re- spective governments exercised jurisdiction over such territory. A brief statement of the facts is, therefore, essential to a clear
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understanding of what follows relating to French and Spanish domination in St. Louis. Immediately after the arrival of Christopher Columbus at the Spanish Court in 1493, and his reported discovery of a new conti- nent, the Spanish sovereigns, Ferdinand and Isabella, thought it wise to secure a title to all that might ensue from their new dis- covery. The Pope, as Vicar of Christ, was held to have authority to dispose of lands inhabited by the heathen .. To re- move all cause of dispute, the Spanish mon- archs at once had recourse to Alexander VI, who issued two bulls, May 4 and 5, 1493. In the first the Pope granted to the Spanish monarchs and their heirs all lands discov- ered or hereafter to be discovered in the Western Ocean. In the second he defined his grant to mean all lands that might be discovered west and south of an imaginary line drawn from the North to the South Pole at the distance of a hundred leagues west- ward of the Azores and Cape de Verde Islands. Under the Pope's stu- pendous patent Spain was able to claim every part of the American Continent except the Brazilian Coast. "When the real exploration and settlement of the continent began, how- ever, neither France nor England paid any attention to the papal decree which assigned the whole of North America to Spain, but each nation laid claim to this country by right of priority in discovery, and each in practice took as much as it could lay hands upon." English settlement of America began at Jamestown in 1607, and French settlement almost simultaneously at Quebec. Nearly a hundred years earlier the Spaniards had planted a colony in Cuba, and at this time they were in undisputed possession of all the southern portion of the continent of North America. During the first half of the seventeenth century the French estab- lished their supremacy in Canada, and the English in that portion of what is now the United States lying along the Atlantic Coast, while Spanish domination was strengthened in the South and Southwest. From these vantage grounds the powers sought to ex- tend their respective dominions, England and France southward and westward, and Spain to the north and east ; and the struggle thus commenced continued for more than a century. In parceling out this territory by royal grants and otherwise, little attention
was paid to rival claims. When Robert Cave- lier de La Salle unfurled the Franch flag at the mouth of the Mississippi, in 1682, he formally declared all the country drained by that great river, from the Alleghanies to the Rocky Mountains, to be the property of the King of France, unmindful of the fact that a large portion of this territory had been formally conveyed to Sir Robert Heath by royal grant of King Charles I,' nearly fifteen years earlier, and that a still larger portion was in possession of the Spaniards. He named this vast territory "Louisiana," and in succeeding years
the French established actual domina-
tion over a limited portion of the region to which the name was originally intended to apply. French colonization of the region of the lower Mississippi began in 1698, and from that time until compelled by the for- tunes of war to relinquish all claim to Ameri- can possessions the well-defined purpose of France was to firmly establish French do- minion in Canada and throughout the vast region known as the Mississippi Valley, the heart of the American continent. Gradually the lines of demarcation between Spanish and French and French and English territory be- came somewhat clearly defined, and the name "Louisiana" was applied to the region bound- ed on the east by the Mississippi River, on the north by Canada, on the northwest by the Rocky Mountains, on the southwest by Texas, and on the south by the Gulf of Mex- ico. In addition, the French claimed the "Illinois country," embracing all the region . east of the upper Mississippi as far as Lake Michigan, and from the Wisconsin on the north to the Ohio on the south. All of Mis- souri was embraced in Louisiana, and hence was nominally under French domination from the time the French settlement of this territory began until it passed under Span- ish domination in 1763. Prior to 1711 the settlements in Louisiana and the Illinois country had been a dependency of New France, or Canada, but in that year they were placed under an independent govern- ment, responsible only to the crown of France. The government of this region was placed at that time in the hands of a Gov- ernor General, and the seat of colonial gov- ernment was established at Mobile, a new fort being erected upon the site of the present city of Mobile, Alabama. In 1712
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