General history of Macon County, Missouri, Part 2

Author: White, Edgar comp; Taylor, Henry, & company, pub
Publication date: 1910
Publisher: Chicago, H. Taylor & company
Number of Pages: 1106

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HISTORY OF MACON COUNTY

form of public function. Yet, in 1835, he presided over the convention that was called to revise the constitution of North Carolina, and ren- dered his last political service to the country as a member of the elec- toral college of that state in 1836.

Mr. Macon was always a firm and consistent Democrat. He had an unlimited confidence in the capacity of the people for self-government. A favorite saying of his was that "If left alone, they will always do what is right." He was, therefore, what in later times has been called a strict constructionist. He was disposed to hold the federal govern- ment and all state authorities within the narrowest limits of the powers granted to them ; and used to insist on a complete responsibility to the people by a frequent return of all trusts to them. He voted for the embargo, and for the declaration of war against Great Britain, but withstood many of the seliemes of the administration for carrying it on. He held that the war should be defensive only, and so refused to enlarge the naval force beyond what was needed to guard the coasts. voted against the systems of fortifications, against privateering, etc. He also voted against all schemes of internal improvement to be under- taken by congress, spoke in 1795 against a grant to the Count De Grasse, and in 1824 against a grant of lands to General LaFayette for revolutionary services. In the convention of North Carolina he spoke against giving free negroes the right to vote; against a land qualification of voters; against the state engaging in any works of internal improvement; against all religions tests as a condition of holding office; in favor of annual, instead of biennial, sessions of the general assembly; and in favor of voting vivå roce at all elections. As a speaker, while he was in no sense an orator few were really more effective. His longest speech occupied hardly more than half an hour. Few men in congress were listened to with more respectful attention. Two sentences were enough to express his thanks for an election to the chair of the house of representatives, and seven words to announce to his constituents that war had been declared against Great Britain. It is hardly to be wondered at that a character so self-reliant, and with so many salient points, should have retained the public confidence so long that Mr. Jefferson called him "the last of the Romans"; and that Mr. Randolph pronounced him "the wisest man he ever knew." He died after only a few hours' illness, but found time to give directions to a neighbor to make for him a plain coffin, to be paid for before his inter- ment, selected for his burial a barren ridge, where the plough could never come, and ordered the spot marked only by a pile of stones from the field.

HISTORY OF MACON COUNTY

"Mr. Macon was a student of few books beside the Bible, and was a member of the Baptist church."

A representative southern newspaper thus described the great North Carolinian :

"Amid the shallowness and demagoguery of today, the simple greatness of this man stands, a striking specter. Rugged of nature; firm of conviction, though not infallible; true democrat in life, thought and loyalty ; he is a type of the southerner produced by the momentous events of two merging centuries."

CHAPTER I.

"THE STATE OF MACON"-SHERIFF HAD WIDE JURISDICTION-TROUBLE- SOME INDIANS-IMPORTATION OF BLUEGRASS FROM KENTUCKY-FIRST COTSWOLD SHEEP AND SHORTHORN CATTLE-ORGANIZATION OF MACON COUNTY-RIVALRY FOR COUNTY SEAT-LOG HOUSE FOR COURT ROOMS.

This term was formerly used in referring to Macon county because of its extensive area, as compared with most counties of Missouri. It takes a swift-running passenger train the greater part of an hour to cross Macon county in either direction. Until Adair and Schuyler connties were organized, the Macon county authorities had jurisdiction clear up to the Iowa line. The whole district was spoken of as "Macon county" or "The State of Macon." Its first sheriff, Jefferson Morrow, frequently had to serve process thirty or forty miles outside the legal border of his county. It was the same way with Randolph county, which was organized in 1829, eight years previous to Macon connty's. organization. There were many settlers here quite a while before the county was organized, and a number of subordinate officers acting under the jurisdiction of Randolph county. Taxes paid by the settlers went down to the Randolph connty treasury. A while before Macon county was created an officer residing near Bloomington or old Winchester was sent ont on a tax-collecting expedition clear up to the northern border of the state. Returning, he reported that he had succeeded in collect- ing every tax bill he presented, but explained that one "poor widow woman" didn't have her dollar-which was the amount of her tax- and to make his record clean, the ambitious tax-gatherer paid her dues ont of his own fees.

Once the tide of immigration began land was entered very rapidly. The first obstacle was the Indians. Residents of Virginia still retained a wholesome dislike for the Red man, a prejudice handed down from their fathers. The Kentuckians who came here first became homesick over the absence of bluegrass, which was the pride of their state. The Indian spectre did not last long after the frontiersman got down his fowling piece and showed his markmanship. The exodus of the home- sick Kentuckians was prevented by the strategy of the late Captain William Smith, who settled sonth of where the city of Macon is now, in

HISTORY OF MACON COUNTY

1839, only two years after county went on the map of Missouri. When a young man of twenty-two Captain Smith left Clark county, Ken- tucky, for Missouri. He had $1,200 in his pockets and was offered a large slice of the village of St. Louis for his money, but declined the bargain, and never regretted it. He took up land here, along with a number of other Kentuckians. There was nothing but tall, wild prairie grass in these parts then, and it didn't look cheerful to the men who had been raised among the bluegrass hills. They were discontented and talked seriously of returning. Captain Smith judged there were many other Kentuckians of the same mind in northern Missouri, so he hitched up his team and drove back to his old home for a load of bluegrass seed. This he distributed among his neighbors, and soon the country about here began to look very much like old Kentucky. The Ken- tuckians quit grumbling; they were satisfied. Captain Smith made other trips for Kentucky bluegrass and before many years the greater part of northern Missouri was carpeted with the development from his importation. Captain Smith also introduced to this section the first Cotswold sheep and Shorthorn cattle. In his latter days he spoke of these enterprises with pride, saying that much of the finest stock now found in this county were descendants from his herds. Captain Smith died at Macon, March 18, 1909, being but a few months short of ninety-two.

In the winter of 1836-7 the General Assembly at Jefferson City passed the act organizing Macon county, with boundaries as follows: "Beginning at the southeast corner of township 56, range 13 west of the principal meridian ; thence north, on the range line, to the northeast corner of township 59, in said range; thence three miles west on town- ship line to the southeast corner of section 33, township 60; thence north on section line to the northeast corner of section 4, in said town- ship 60; thence west on township line to the northwest corner of town- ship 60, range 17; thence south on the range line to the southwest corner of township 57, in said range ; thence east on township line to the northwest of section three, township 56, range 16; thence south on the seetion line to southwest corner of section 34, in same township; thence east on township line to the place of beginning," which gives an area of 830 square miles. Since then two Macon county townships were added to Adair county, reducing Macon county's area to 810 square miles.

The act appointed as commissioners to select the county seat Joseph Baker and Henry Lassiter. The villages of Winchester, Box Anche (Bloomington) and Moccasinville were all considered as eligible

HISTORY OF MACON COUNTY

sites for the honor, and it is said the rivalry was pretty keen, each asserting some distinct advantage over the other. In the summer of 1837 the commissioners decided on Bloomington, in what was then called the Owenby settlement. That same year the civil government of the county was organized. A two-room log house served the purposes of the County and Circuit courts.

CHAPTER II.

THE PIONEERS-JAMES LOE-WILLIAM BLACKWELL-CAPTAIN WILLIAM GRIFFIN-CAPTAIN WILLIAM SMITH-SQUIRE HOLMAN-ATTACKED BY WOLVES-SAVED BY BLAST FROM A HORN-MAJOR JOSEPH D. BUTLER-LEVI COX-ABSENT FROM HOME TWENTY-ONE YEARS-R. L. SHACKLEFORD-BILL TO RUN STEAMBOATS UP CHARITON RIVER- CLEVER ELECTION RUSE-FREDERICK ROWLAND-ENCOUNTER WITH INDIANS - WILLIAM MORROW - ROBERT GIPSON, OLDEST MAN IN UNITED STATES-MRS. POLLY BASKETT.

The section which afterwards became known as Macon county began settling up about ten years before the county was organized. Indians were yet numerous in these parts and there were frequently skirmishes between them and the whites.

The first white man to erect a cabin home in what is now Macon county was James Loe. Mr. Loe was a Kentuckian. He immigrated from that state in 1820 and came to Missouri, locating in Howard county. He remained there until 1827, when he moved northward and built his cabin south of the present town of Callao, in section 13, town- ship 57, range 16. For a long while after the arrival of Mr. Loe's family they saw no human being save the Indians. During the hunt- ing season the Sioux passed the cabin almost every day, and frequently camped on the Chariton river with a retinne.

William Blackwell, one of the most noted pioneers of Macon county, was born in Madison county, Kentucky, January 13, 1797, four years after the Reign of Terror in France. He came to Missouri at the same time Mr. Loe moved up into Macon county, in 1827, locating first in Boone connty, and later moved to Howard county. Mr. Blackwell made a final move on April 12, 1831, when he came to Maeon county and set- tled six miles north of where Macon is now. He was a vigorous, ambi- tions man and soon a little settlement clustered about him which became known as the "Blackwell Settlement." When he came here, Mr. Black- weli recalls the following as being residents of Macon county at that time: Major William J. Morrow, Joseph Morrow, Jeff Morrow, after- wards sheriff and collector of Macon county; Jolm and Jesse Morrow, Archibald Chambers, Andrew Millsaps and the Loes, the real pioneers.

HISTORY OF MACON COUNTY

At that period the Randolph authorities were taking care of the state's business clear up to the Iowa line, which then extended further north than it does now.

Captain William Griffin was born in Lincoln county, Kentucky, May 28, 1797, the same year Mr. Blackwell was born. He was married to Susan Buster in September, 1821, in Pulaski county, Kentucky. In 1828 he came to Missouri, settling in Ralls county near New London. A year later he moved to Marion county, close to Hannibal. At that time all the houses of Hannibal were of log. There was but one two- story structure in the place. That was the tavern of Joseph Brazier. Captain Griffin came to Macon county in 1839, two years after the county was organized, and located in Ten Mile township near La Porte. He says at that period the county was without roads, churches, schools, mills or blacksmith-shops.

Captain William Smith, referred to in a previous chapter, was born in Clark county, Kentucky, May 4, 1817, and came to Missouri in March, 1839. He was one of the most enthusiastic of the Kentuckians. Right from the start he had faith in this country and showed it by his earnest attempts to make his fellow Kentuckians feel at home. He died March 18, 1909, full of years and usefulness to his fellow-man.

Squire Holman was born in Madison county, Kentucky, October 31, 1807, and with his father's family came to Missouri in 1817. They first settled near Franklin in Howard county, but in the following spring they moved to Silver Springs, Randolph county. Squire Hol- man, William Holman, Joseph Dysart and Joseph Holman were the first settlers of Randolph county. Long before Macon county was organized Mr. Holman went to the Loe settlement and raised hogs there, selecting the place because of the abundance of mast. Hog raising was then the principle industry of the pioneer and he was always on the lookout for timber sections where his product would thrive well. The early court cases abounded in trials of parties charged with hog stealing and with marking hogs. In those days the crime was. regarded almost as serions as was horse-stealing on the frontier in later years.

Another danger to the owners of hog ranches was the wolves, which were very numerous. One night, while making a journey to look after his stock, Mr. Holman stopped at a deserted log cabin. He was almost instantly surrounded by a great herd of snarling, snapping wolves. He had no arms of any sort with him; nothing with which to build a fire and was practically defenseless. The wolves were kept at bay for a while by the barking of Mr. Holman's dog, but they were

HISTORY OF MACON COUNTY

hungry and getting bolder and bolder all the time. Then Mr. Holman thought of his hunter's horn which he carried about his girdle. He seized it and blew several sharp blasts, and was tremendously sur- prised as well as relieved to see his dangerous enemies take to their heels.

The state and county authorities offered premiums for wolf scalps, and they were legal tender in some counties for the payment of taxes.

Major Joseph D. Butler was born in Prince William county, Vir- ginia, September 2, 1792. His father's family moved to Fayette county, Kentucky, when he was in his thirteenth year. Kentucky was in a fever of excitement during the war with Great Britain, in 1812. Mr. Butler promptly responded to the government's call for volunteers. He became a member of Captain John McKee's company, 4th Regiment Kentucky Volunteer Infantry. Colonel Robert Paine was commander. After a number of movements his regiment received orders to join General Winchester on the Maumee, but before reinforcements could arrive General Winchester was disastrously defeated at the River Raisin, and was captured, together with a large number of his soldiers. Many of these were inhnmanly butchered by the Indians, the acknowledged allies of the British. This repulse caused great grief throughont Ken- tucky, as some of its best blood was in General Winchester's army. Mr. Butler's regiment was moved about to various forts and posts and finally disbanded at Lebanon, Ohio. For his services Mr. Butler received a land warrant giving him 160 acres. He was married to Ellenor Hay- den in Nicholas county, Kentucky, January 18, 1818, and remained in that county until 1835, when he moved to Missouri and settled in Marion county, six miles north of Palmyra. In 1839 he came to Macon county and settled on a farm, where he long resided. He entered land at Fayette in 1836. While there entering his land, the polls being open, he voted for Van Buren for president.

Levi Cox was born with the nineteenth century in North Carolina, on March 22. His parents first moved to Kentucky and there Mr. Cox was married in 1828 to Miss Elizabeth Wade. Mrs. Cox died in 1835 and in 1838 Mr. Cox married Miss Lucy Wine. In 1842 Mr. Cox moved from Kentucky to Macon county. There were only one or two schools in the county then, and but few mills and churches. Here and there was a subscription school. The people depended on circuit riders for preaching and in pleasant weather services were held in groves. On April 16, 1850, Mr. Cox, Joseph Snodgrass, Oliver Stewart and a Mr. Gee took the overland trail for California in quest of gold. The journey was made in 120 days. Mr. Cox's Inek was varied. Sometimes

HISTORY OF MACON COUNTY

he was a few thousand dollars ahead and he would think of returning home. Then his Inek would change and his little horde of gold dust disappear. He kept at it this way for twenty-one years. His little family back in Missouri gave him up as dead. He had written home several times, but his mail seemed to have been miscarried. Nor did he receive the letters his wife wrote to him. Finally at the end of the twenty-one years Mr. Cox decided to come back. The journey ont, which had required four months, was made back in eight days, the Pacific railroad having been constructed while he was in the far west. When Mr. Cox left Macon county it was yet in the primeval stage. The town of Macon was yet eight years in the future. Neither the Northern Missouri or the Hannibal & St. Joseph railroad had been built. La Plata, Callao, Bevier, New Cambria and Atlanta were not even on the threshold of life. Naturally, when Mr. Cox returned twen- ty-one years later he found himself in a strange land; there were rail- roads, thriving towns and busy farms where he had only seen boundless prairies and forests. He felt more like a stranger than he did when he had arrived in California. He didn't know where to get off the train, and was carried by his old home place to Clarence. There he astonished a man by asking him where Levi Cox lived. Mrs. Cox was found in the same log cabin where he had left her. She had worked hard, and from the history of the first interview with the prodigal, didn't seem to be over excited, for she greeted him with these words:

"Well, you're back, are you? Come in. You'll find us all in the same old cabin you left here 21 years ago. How have you been getting on ?"

Mr. Cox did not remember his children. They were small boys and girls when he left there and now they were grown up young men and women. It was soon noised about the neighborhood that the California miner had returned and quite a crowd gathered at his house that night. They had an old-fashioned house warming. It was good to be at home, and Mr. Cox's rennion with his family, he declared, was the happiest event of his life.

Roderick Lyne Shackleford who was destined to become one of Macon county's most famous characters, was born in King and Queen county, Virginia, June 13, 1805. He was married to Miss Mary Tilley of Bloomington, on September 21, 1843. A. L. Gilstrap, who at that time was justice of the peace and later on became an editor of Blooming- ton's first paper, performed the ceremony. Mr. Shackleford's marriage ocenrred two years after his coming to Bloomington. He had been sent there by his brothers to take charge of a store of goods. The brothers then resided at Hannibal. In 1844 Mr. Shackleford was elected to the

HISTORY OF MACON COUNTY

legislature on the Whig ticket by a majority of 15. The Democrats claimed the county by a majority running from 175 to 200. How Mr. Shackleford broke this majority is one of the most interesting features of early day polities. His opponents were Capt. William Griffin and Judge Frederick Rowland. The law provided a three days' election. The voting was done on the first day in the townships and on the other days in the court house at Bloomington. It was in Bloomington where the excitement developed. The race became so close that Captain Griffin withdrew on the second day so as not to embarras his friend Rowland. But even that did not save the Democratic candidate.

Before the election the opponent of Shackleford undertook to put him out of the race by stating that he was in favor of a Don Quixote scheme of making the Chariton river navigable for steamboats. It was thought that the idea would be so ridiculous to the people that they would langh Shackleford out of the race. But it happened that there were a whole lot of folks over on the other side of the river who believed in steamboats and wanted them to come from St. Louis into Macon county. When he became aware of the trend of the sentiment of these people, Shackleford boldly admitted the charge and said if they sent him to the legislature he would certainly have something done along the Chariton river by the "government." Then Shackleford's main lieutenant, John Blankenship, put in exeention a scheme which clinched the election for his man and won him the victory. The Chariton river was a raging flood; the people to the west could not get across to hear the candidates. Blankenship had a large black horse, an animal that conld swim the worst flood that ever came down the valley. He ten- dered it to Shackleford in order to make a spectacular campaign play. Shackleford was game. Blankenship sent a man over on a raft to drum up the people to the water's edge, and when Shackleford and his fiery steed plunged into the river they were given an ovation by the voters on the other side. Enough votes were changed by this perform- ance to give Shackleford the victory.

Mr. Rowland, Shackleford's main opponent in that race, came to Macon county in 1829 and located in the southern part of the county near Woodville. He was born in Chatham county, North Carolina, March 2, 1805. Mr. Rowland became famous as a hunter and a man of courage. The hunting grounds were almost without limit. In the very early days Missouri extended up to the Des Moines river and fre- quently the nimrods would go that far for their game. One night a gang of Indian brawlers came to Mr. Rowland's cabin, announcing the honor by a blood-curdling war-whoop. There were no doors to the cabin

HISTORY OF MACON COUNTY

and the only barrier to keep the red men out was Mr. Rowland, who stood in the doorway with a musket in one hand and a butcher knife in the other. His wife and children stood trembling behind. The Indians started in, and the leader felt the cold steel of the musket against his breast. He looked into the eyes of Mr. Rowland and saw that the pioneer meant death. The Indian decided he didn't want to die and instead of reaching for his tomahawk he held out his hand for a shake. He used some words in Indian lingo intended to convey the impression of himself and other members of his tribe that Mr. Rowland was a good warrior. The Indians on that occasion robbed every family in the neighborhood save that of Mr. Rowland's.

Mr. Rowland was elected justice of the peace in 1847. He was one of the county judges. In 1850 he was elected to the Lower House of the General Assembly and was re-elected for one or two succeeeding terms. In 1854 he was elected to the State Senate and in 1861, the first year of the Civil war, he was elected delegate to the state convention. Mr. Rowland's great strength and popularity lay in the fact that he was a fair minded, honorable and sensible man. Although defeated on one occasion by Mr. Shackleford, yet he always retained his influence in the county, and his opinion on politics and things in general was accepted with the authority of a court decision.

Among the leading settlers of Macon county was William Morrow. He came from Clay county, Kentucky, to Missouri in 1819, and located within a few miles of Glasgow, Howard county. Three years later he moved to Marion county, Tennessee, and stayed there six years. Then he returned to Missouri, settling in Randolph county. And a year later, in 1831, he came to Macon county and located on the southeast quarter of section 2, township 56, range 16, Chariton township.

Mr. Morrow put up the first grist mill in the county. And also · established the pioneer blacksmith shop. His neighborhood became known as the Morrow Settlement. Maj. William J. Morrow and Jeffer- son Morrow, Sr., were his sons. Jefferson Morrow enjoyed the dis- tinction of being Macon county's first sheriff. His name will be noted frequently in the early court records. He died Marchi 17, 1900. Mr. Morrow would have been 87 years of age had he lived until the 13th of October of that year.

Jefferson Morrow served as sheriff of Macon county from 1837 to 1842. The first Circuit Court was held, as appears in another part of this history, in the home of Dabney C. Garth, with Judge Thomas Rey- nolds on the bench. The cases for trial were suits over debts and four state cases for gambling. Sheriff Morrow's fees for the first term of

HISTORY OF MACON COUNTY

court amounted to $9.00. Mr. Morrow was also tax collector and rode over the county on horseback, carrying his collections in his saddle bags. To him belongs the honor of naming the town of Bloomington, Macon county's first capital. Many a term of court, during the early days, was held under trees, the judge sitting on a box or a bench. Occasion- ally court would adjourn to enable the judge to help the landlord of the tavern get a mess of venison for supper, deer being plentiful then, and the Court was said to be a good hunter. Sheriff Morrow and his wife, who was Miss Minerva Summers, lived in one house for 62 years. They moved to that habitation in a sled drawn by one horse. Sheriff Morrow was best known during his later years as " Uncle Jeff," and he loved to relate incidents of early days. Every Macon county citizen who knew him speaks of him in the terms of highest respect.

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General history of Macon County, Missouri, Part 2

Author: White, Edgar comp; Taylor, Henry, & company, pub Publication date: 1910 Publisher: Chicago, H. Taylor & company Number of Pages: 1106

Author: White, Edgar comp; Taylor, Henry, & company, pub
Publication date: 1910
Publisher: Chicago, H. Taylor & company
Number of Pages: 1106