USA > Missouri > DeKalb County > History of Andrew and De Kalb counties, Missouri : from earliest time to the present; together with sundry personal, business and professional sketches and family records. besides a condensed history of the state of Missouri, etc > Part 44
USA > Missouri > Andrew County > History of Andrew and De Kalb counties, Missouri : from earliest time to the present; together with sundry personal, business and professional sketches and family records. besides a condensed history of the state of Missouri, etc > Part 44
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The utmost success has attended the cultivation of the grape, and large vineyards are found in various parts of the county. While not so well adapted to its culture, perhaps, as the counties adjacent to the Missouri River, yet almost every variety succeeds
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well here, the crops being large and the quality of the fruit un- surpassed. The Concord, Catawba, Delaware, Martha, and many other varieties are cultivated for the market.
The cultivation of the smaller fruits, such as strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, etc., can be profitably engaged in, and the demand for them, as well as for the other varieties of fruits already named, is rapidly increasing. There seems to be no question that the small fruits can be grown here as well as else- where, and with a much smaller outlay of labor, thus reducing largely the cost of production.
" The interest in fruit growing has been constantly on the increase for some years, the demand for stock being largely sup- plied by home firms in the nursery business, and offering only such varieties as have proven to be well adapted for cultivation here.
" The attention given to vegetable raising has been mainly with reference to a supply for family use, but of late large quan- tities have been shipped to the markets of St. Joseph, Kansas City and other places.
" It is needless to say that the soil of the county is unequaled in productive capacity, and all varieties of vegetables indigenous to this climate are grown here in profusion. The yield is equal to that of any other locality; and, as in the case of fruit, there is both north and west of the county an unlimited market seemingly incapable of being over-supplied.
" To specify such vegetable crops as are adapted to extensive cultivation would seem hardly necessary. They would suggest themselves to those at all acquainted with the subject. It may not be out of place, however, to mention what are most readily grown, and for which there is a constant demand. These are potatoes, both sweet and common; onions, cabbages, beets, pars- nips, turnips and carrots, while asparagus, celery, lettuce and radishes are certain of rapid growth and large returns. Some mention should be made in this connection to that other depart- ure of horticulture-the cultivation of flowers; perhaps not remunerative in the matter of dollars and cents, but equally important if a right estimate is placed on the influence of home and its surroundings in the economy of life and morals. What
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has already been said with regard to soil and climate would sufficiently indicate the adaptability of both to the production of flowers. The long period of freedom from frost which we enjoy allows opportunity for the growth and perfection of varieties that in less favored localities either have to be carefully grown for a time under glass and then transplanted, or else they fail to bloom when the seed is planted in the open ground. No special or elaborate preparation of the soil is needed in order to have a luxuriant growth of plant or vine. Some even of the annuals that receive careful attention at the East are here indigenous to the soil, and are to be found on every roadside. Flowers are a natural production of and greatly beautify our broad prairies, giving, in their varied colors and waving masses of bloom, an added beauty to the landscape that defies the artist's power to portray or the florist's skill to imitate.
" The growing taste for the cultivation of flowers is to be seen on every hand. This love of home adornment we recognize as another evidence of an advancing civilization, and we look for- ward to a time in the near future when the industries pertaining to horticulture shall not only add to our material prosperity through 'richer acres and fairer homes,' but make labor more cheerful, and daily life more enjoyable."
STOCK RAISING.
The live stock interests of De Kalb County will compare favorably with any other section of Northwest Missouri, in fact will not suffer in comparison with any like area in the State. The following from the pen of Horace Martin, Esq., of Holt County, relative to this industry in Northern Missouri, can with propriety be applied to the county of De Kalb:
" Prof. Broadhead, assistant State geologist of Missouri, says, in his report that ' poor land is scarcely known in Northwest Mis- souri.' Prof. Swallow, State geologist, in a previous report says of the same locality: 'the fertilizing powers of the soil are almost literally inexhaustible;' therefore we have in the first a most important requisite necessary to make stock raising and feeding a financial success, not only for the present, but for all future time -a soil of unsurpassed and almost inexhaustible fertility. The
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next important consideration to the intelligent grazer and dairy- man * * is a knowledge of the grasses the soil will produce. Our rich alluvial bottoms and rolling prairies are clothed with a growth of native grasses, whose luxuriance astonishes an unaccus- tomed observer. Blades of grass not one-fourth of an inch in breadth attain a height of six feet and more. Tens of thousands of tons of as rich and nutritious grasses as are stored in the barns of the Eastern States are here annually burned. Native grasses will not endure close pasturage more than three or four years, but will make as durable meadows as timothy if left uncut till after blossoming, which occurs the last of August. When pastured, as the native grass dies out, it is replaced by blue grass spontaneously, as this is a natural blue grass region. The tran- sition from wild to tame grasses can be expedited by sowing on the sod in the early spring any kind of grass seed or clover. Clover, blue grass, timothy, red top or orchard grass grow here as luxuriantly, and can be substituted in place of wild grass as readily as they can be produced on any farm in Pennsylvania, New York or the New England States. In reality they can be produced more surely, cheaply and readily than in any of the States mentioned. As the native grasses are dying out, the soil to the depth of several inches is filled with their decaying roots, and the tender rootlets of the sprouting seed can readily permeate the soil to a sufficient depth. This method leaves a smooth firm surface, which will not heave by freezing, and clover thus sown will not winter kill.'
"Cattle and sheep are no more subject to disease here than in the Eastern States. In fact the conditions are more favorable to keep them in good health than in any of the States east of the Mississippi River. The winters are comparatively mild, with little snow. Generally a light rainfall during the three months of win- ter, when the frost in the ground, is usually unknown from about the middle of December to the 1st of March, while the surface of the ground is dry and dusty at least half of that time, so that cattle or sheep rarely need shelter until the March rains.
"Another consideration of vital importance to the stock feeder and dairyman, after investigating the capacity of the soil and its productions, is to inquire if the rainfall of the
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region is sufficient during the growing season to produce a fresh and luxuriant growth of pasture, and to keep in flourishing con- dition and mature his crops from which his herds are to be fitted for market."
The result of scientific observation in Northwest Missouri for a period of about twenty-five years, shows the average annual rain- fall for that period to have been twenty-eight inches. There have been no destructive drouths since the settlement of the country, although the years 1886 and 1887 have been marked by suffering of crops in some localities, thus proving detrimental to the stock interests. It will thus be seen that De Kalb is well fit- ted for the stock business, and its advantages have been sought by a large number of people, who make a specialty of this indus- try. The first Durhams were brought to the county in 1857, and large additions have since been made. Other fine herds have been introduced, and as a whole the county is as well supplied with fine cattle as any other county in this part of the State. The number of cattle as returned in 1887 are 22,551; assessed value, $299,840.
All breeds of sheep do well here where there is always an abundant supply of blue grass, timothy and clover. Considerable attention is paid to wool growing, and throughout the county are to be seen flocks of Cotswold, Lincolnshire and other improved breeds. The assessor's book for 1887 shows 3,779 sheep in the county. The raising of swine is also an important industry of De Kalb, and a source of considerable revenue to those who give attention to the improved breeds. Mules are raised both for domestic purposes and the market, while the horses of the county are of the finest and best stock found in the West. The following from the assessor's book shows the number of horses, mules and hogs in the county in 1877: horses, 8,137; assessed value, $280,440; mules, 1,033; assessed value, $39,660; hogs, 26,207; value, $51,760.
De Kalb County presents numerous and peculiar advantages as a point of immigration. Rich prairies, inexhaustible soil, abundant water, plenty of timber, mild, healthful climate, cheap lands, and excellent facilities for market are among the many inducements held out to those desiring homes in this part of the
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great West. Its rapid advancement in material prosperity dur- ing the past ten years speaks eloquently of future possibilities, and it is not presumptuous to predict that at no distant day the county will rival if not outrank many older and better advertised regions.
" Wide rolling prairies like waves of the ocean, Laughing with plenty for hands that will toil; Broad shady woods, mid whose wind-given motion Sunlight comes dancing down over the soil; Hill slope and river side, forest and valley, Choose ye your homes where ye like them the best. Strong arms and sinewy, up then and rally, Rally for homes to the Queen of the West."
ERA OF SETTLEMENT.
To rescue from fast-fading tradition the simple annals of the pioneers of De Kalb County is a pleasing but laborious task ; not so laborious as perplexing, the annoyances arising chiefly from there being now no connected record of their acts and doings. Many of the earliest and most important legal papers are gone beyond recovery, some were never put in a more per- manent form than mere slips or scraps of unbound paper, while in the burning of the courthouse in 1878 many were consumed, the loss of which has been severely felt by the county. To supply this loss of important papers and records with their invaluable facts and statistics is now largely impossible.
But to meet and converse with the few now living of the early settlers, those who came here as children or young men and women, and are now approaching or have passed the allotted three score and ten, stooped with age-venerable patriarchs, mostly, and their white-haired companions and helpmeets-has been the pleasing task of the writer of these pages.
The importance that attaches to the lives, character and work of these humble laborers in the cause of humanity and civiliza- tion will in the future be better understood and appreciated than now. They will some day, by the pen of the wise historian, take their proper places in the list of those who have helped to make this world wholesome with their toil, their sweat and their blood. The pioneer was the peculiar product of the period in which he
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acted, and as such laid the foundation upon which rests the pres- ent advanced civilization of our western country. If their work was done well then the edifice stands upon an enduring rock, if ill then upon the sands, and when the winds and rains beat upon it, it will tremble and fall. If great and beneficent results-re- sults that endure and bless mankind-are the proper measure of the good men do, then who is there in our country's history to take their places above these hardy and brave hearted pioneers.
To point out the way to make possible our present advancing civilization, its cheap and happy homes, its arts, sciences, educa- tion, discoveries, literature, culture, refinement, social life and joy, is to be the truly great benefactor of all mankind for all time to come. This, indeed, was the great work of these adventurous pioneers, and right nobly did they perform the task. Grant it that they builded wiser than they knew; that few if any of them ever realized in the dimmest way the transcendent possibilities that rested upon their shoulders. Grant it that as a rule their lives were in the main aimless, ambitionless, and with little more of hope or far-reaching purpose than the scarcely less tutored savages that were his neighbors. Yet there remains the su- preme fact that they took their lives in their hands, followed the restless impulses of their natures, and penetrated the desert wilderness, and with patient energy, resolution and self-sacrifice that stands alone and unparalleled, worked out their allotted tasks, and to-day their descendants and others are here in the full enjoy- ment of the fruitage of their labors.
These men and women were not a sordid folk, and in moving to the new country were influenced scarcely less by the natural beauty of the region than by the advantages it afforded to im- prove their fortunes. They came of a race who sought refuge in the new world to escape the oppression and bigotry of the old, and here, amid the influences of the forests and prairie solitudes, drew in a spirit of freedom, self-reliance and contented righteous- ness, which characterized their new settlements.
They were not saints, indeed, but the first settlers were gen- erally characterized by a sobriety of habit and judgment that- made them in many respects the peers if not superiors of their descendants and successors.
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They were emphatically enlightened children of nature, and in their simplicity they entertained a deep affection for the primi- tive charms of the new land, as of a fostering mother. To the early settlers the new and fertile country of De Kalb and other coun- ties of Northwest Missouri was a veritable Eden, for the posses- sion of which few trials and dangers were considered too great an exaction. But in all this the pioneers of our western country were not visionaries. There can be no greater mistake than the popular error which confuses the character of the founders of our commonwealth with that of the heroes of modern sensational writings, or the theatrical terrors which harrow up the imagina- tions of the young and timid. The early pioneers of Northern Missouri were not generally adventurers, simply in search of haz- ardous experiences, but on the contrary were plain matter of fact men and women who sought new homes where their families could reap the benefit of cheap lands, and where perseverance might eventually lead to comfort and competence. To this unique blending of sentiment and some practical sense, this region of Missouri appealed with captivating power. Its primitive fertility and romantic beauty entranced every beholder, springs bubbled up in various parts of the land, fine forests skirted the water- courses, while the glades and prairies flourished with a luxuriant vegetation which, with its many other advantages, made the country indeed seem the very garden spot of the great West.
A fertile soil, while an important consideration, was not any more important than others which have long since become obsolete. The demands of the pioneer grew out of the unde- veloped condition of the country, and made him in some respects a hunter as well as a farmer. His resources for the cultivation of the land were of the most limited kind, and obliged him to rely upon nature as well as art for his subsistence during the first few years of his sojourn. While he sought a locality which was likely to invite immigration, and thus lead to the apprecia- tion of his possession, his experience led him to seek a land where the meager demands of his family could be most readily supplied. This implied an abundance of game, a good range for his stock, convenient materials for the construction of his dwell- ings, and plenty of good water. These conditions were all hap-
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pily blended in this part of the great State of Missouri, and from very humble beginnings the pioneer soon achieved great pros- perity, and the present advanced state of civilization stands as an enduring monument to their energy and determination.
The settlement of De Kalb County, while not so early as some of the neighboring divisions, dates back into the twenties, though in what year the first pioneers made their appearance is now a matter of conjecture. Traces of rude log cabins were found in several places throughout the southern part of the county, where the first permanent settlers made their appearance, and the belief is current that families of hunters, trappers and adventurers, made certain localities of De Kalb a rendezvous a number of years before any attempt was made to open up and improve the country. Early in the thirties the locality began to be visited by land seekers, who laid claim to eligible sites for which they obtained patents from the Government, as soon as the lands were surveyed, and placed upon the market subject to entry. Some of the lands thus taken up were held for speculation, while other tracts were subsequently improved by the original owners, as soon as they could conveniently move to the new country.
According to the most reliable information accessible, the presence of white men in what is now De Kalb County was first known when the old military trail extending from Liberty, Clay County, to Council Bluffs, Iowa, was laid out, and used by United States troops, stationed at the latter place.
Along this trail which passed. through De Kalb, along the " divide," south from the present site of Winslow, the mails for the garrison were carried every week by soldiers from the post, who usually made the long journey to and fro on foot. It is related that some time in the winter of 1824-25 three soldiers, engaged in this service, became lost during a blinding snow, which so obliterated the trail that they were obliged to. take refuge in the timber, near the present site of Maysville. The storm raged with unabated fury, and so benumbed and confused were the poor men, who had no means of making a fire, that, in order to keep from freezing to death, they were compelled to burrow in a deep snow drift, where they spent a night of unspeakable agony. In the morning it was found that two of
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them were so badly frozen as to render walking impossible, upon which their companion started out on a journey of fifty miles to Liberty, for assistance. He reached his 'destination on the evening of the second day, with hands and feet badly frozen, but immediately related the circumstances of his companions' perilous situation, upon which a company of pioneers started out in search of the two unfortunate soldiers. Reaching the timber the poor fellows were discovered in the drift, in almost a dying condition, having lain in the snow without food or fire for a period of four days. They were taken to Liberty, and nursed back to health, but their terrible experience in the snow during those four days was such as to incapacitate them for further military duty.
The stream near which they took refuge, and which with its branches waters and drains the central part of the county, has since been known as " Lost Creek," and the divide as "Lost Divide."
About the year 1824 Samuel Vesser, a French Canadian, came to this part of Missouri, and took up his abode about 200 miles northeast of the present site of Stewartsville, where he erected a small cabin and cleared a patch of ground. He made his improvements on the northwest quarter of the northeast quarter of Section 14, Township 57, Range 32, and for several years lived with the Indians, who were at the time peaceably disposed, and who it seems were indifferent as to the coming of the lone, straggling white man and his family.
We make no doubt that Vesser was the first white man that located within the present limits of the county. He was a strange compound of white man by birth, and Indian by adop- tion. He was a self exile from civilization in his native Canada, and by choice a roving nomad, who sought the solitudes of these pathless woods and the dreariness of the prairie waste, in ex- change for the trammels of civilized society. Of the latter, he could not endure its restraints, and for its comforts and pleasures he manifested the most profound contempt. His soul yearned for freedom-freedom in its fullest sense, applied to all property, life, and everything here and hereafter. He hunted in the Indian chase, talked in their dialect, danced in their dances, and to all
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intents and purposes was a savage himself. For several years after he located here he saw no human faces except those of his red friends, and with his trusty rifle, in the use of which he was a great expert, managed to supply the wants of his family.
His cabin, which was a type of nearly all the early residences of the pioneers of our western country, is described as a dimin- utive round pole hut, with a single apartment, in which were found neither floor nor window; this served not only the purpose of a dwelling, but as a shelter or store-house for the fruits of the chase, peltries, etc., of which he at times had large amounts. But little is known of his characteristics and manner of life, save that he was skilled in all the arts of woodcraft, and found his greatest pleasure and enjoyment in the pursuit of the game with which the country at that time abounded. He lived here until the white settlers began moving to this country, when, thinking the West had more charms than civilization afforded, he aban- doned his few improvements, and with his family drifted on to- ward the setting sun, joining his red friends in one of the West- ern Territories. Of his subsequent doings and ultimate fate the oldest settlers of the county know nothing, and about the only thing remembered concerning him is the fact that he was the first actual settler within the present limits of what is now De Kalb County.
Following Mr. Vesser a few years came one Abram Stanley, who located temporarily in what is now Washington Township, on the place subsequently settled by John F. Doherty, a few miles northeast of the present town of Stewartsville. Like Vesser, he was a true type of the backwoods hunter and adventurer of fifty years ago, and did little in the way of improving or tilling the soil, depending almost solely upon his rifle for a livelihood. His little cabin stood several years after his departure, and the truck patch which he cleared was grown up with a dense undergrowth when the permanent settlers arrived a few years later. Stanley is supposed to have arrived in the country as early as 1830, and left for the far West a couple of years later. Of the oldest resi- dents of the county now living none remember of having seen him. Consequently all facts concerning him are largely matters of conjecture.
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The southern part of the county being heavily timbered and well watered was first sought by the early settlers, several of whom appear to have located claims in what is now Washington Township as long ago as 1838-39. Prior to that time, however, a few squatters and transient settlers visited the country, but having a large scope wherein to choose, and following the impulses of their restless natures, they soon drifted to other localities.
Forty-five years ago one Thomas Yallalee, a native of South Carolina, penetrated the wilderness of what is now Washington Township, and selected a home on the place now owned by Dr. Smith, about one mile northeast of Stewartsville. After residing there for a few years, he disposed of his claim and settled in the western part of the township, where he lived until his death in 1877. The year that saw Yallalee move to the country witnessed the arrival of Mr. Tinney, who emigrated from Tennessee, and settled upon the King farm, a short distance north of the present site of Stewartsville. Like the pioneers first named, Mr. Tinney was a veritable nimrod, and, like Daniel Boone, could boast of hav- ing feasted upon the flesh of every kind of beast, bird and fish with which the country at that time abounded. He constructed a rude pole dwelling, cleared a small patch of ground, which his wife cul- tivated, and for a year or two hunted and trapped over nearly every foot of territory in De Kalb County. After a short sojourn he dis- posed of his claim, and thinking to better his condition farther west, packed up his few household effects, and immigrated to Ar- kansas.
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