History of Boone County, Missouri., Part 12

Author:
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: St. Louis, Western Historical Company
Number of Pages: 1220

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The first settlement, or more properly the first cabin erected and patch of corn planted, were the work in 1812-13, of John and Wil- liam Berry, Wm. Baxter and Reuben Gentry, in the neighborhood, if not on a part, of what is now known as " the Model Farm," formerly constituting the large and rich estate of the late Hon. John W. Har- ris, and in earlier times called " Thrall's Prairie."1 In the same neighborhood, soon after, settled James Barnes, Robert and Mitchel Payne, John Denham, David McQuitty and Robert Barclay, with their families. Little progress, however, was made in the settlement of the country, now embraced by the boundary lines of Boone County, until after the subsidence of the war with Great Britain, and until after the treaty of 1815 by which the Indians relinquished all claim to any portion of the territory north of the Missouri River. In fact, it may be affirmed as substantially true that, anterior to this time, there was not a white settlement worthy of the name within the present limits of the county.

Speedily succeeding the declaration of peace and the ratification of this treaty of relinquishment of Indian title the tide of immigration set in as a flood, and Robert Hinkson ( not Hinckston ), after whom the creek on which Columbia is located was called ; William Callaham, for whom " Callaham's Fork," of the Perche, is named ; Wm. Graham, Reuben and Henry Cave, and perhaps some others, all from Madison County, Ky., settled along the old Boone's Lick trail, or old St. Charles Road, leading from St. Louis to Franklin -a " trail" which was first traversed in 1808-10 by Lieutenant-Colonel Ben. Cooper, and other

1 " Thrall's Prairie," or "the Model Farm," is twelve miles northwest of Colum- bia and four north of Rocheport, and is now in part the property of Warren A. Smith.

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HISTORY OF BOONE COUNTY.

immigrants of that name, while en route from Madison County, Ky., via St. Charles County and Loutre Island settlement to the neighbor- hood of " Boone's Lick," in Howard County.

In 1869-70, Mr. E. W. Stephens, as assistant editor of the Columbia Statesman, of which paper Col. W. F. Switzler was editor and pro- prietor, prepared for and published in that journal, a series of inter- esting historical sketches of Boone County, in which it is claimed that " Callaham, Graham and Hinkson stopped along the Boone's Lick trail and erected cabins, as taverns, for the accommodation of movers and travellers ; " that Callaham " was a noted hunter and Indian fighter, and can be justly designated as the first white man who ever settled in Boone County. Nearly the same time, however, John Graham built a cabin near the present site of Rocky Fork church ( seven miles north- west of Columbia ), and he was followed by Robert Hinkson, who lived near the source of the stream that bears his name."

The years 1816, 1817 and 1818 - the latter the year of the first land sales at Franklin, - witnessed a great influx of population into the " Boone's Lick country," and into the territory now composing the county of Boone.

In 1816, Augustus Thrall and others settled in what was soon there- after known as "Thrall's Prairie." The Stephens - Statesman sketches say that "in 1816 settlement in Boone County began in earnest. In the spring of that year a number of the inhabitants of Head's Fort, located near Rocheport, settled on what was afterwards known as Thrall's Prairie, situated four miles north of the present site of Rocheport. They settled upon " Madrid locations." " Madrid locations " were tracts of land which were granted by the government to settlers who had suffered losses by the earthquakes in the county of New Madrid, in the years 1811 and 1812. Most of the land of that section was entered by Taylor Berry, of Franklin." 1

" This settlement was made by Anderson Woods, in company with the following persons : Robert Barclay, John Barnes, William Pipes, Absalom Hicks, John Stephenson, Jefferson Fulcher, a family of Bar- tons, Jesse Richardson and several others.

1 Mr. Berry was a gentlemen of wealth and a large land speculator. On August 31, 1824, he fought a duel on Wolf Island, in the Mississippi River, with Judge Abiel Leonard, formerly of Fayette, at ten paces, with pistols. Berry fell at the first fire, mortally wounded, but lingered until September 22, same year, aud died at New Madrid. During the war of 1812 he served in the Pay Department of the Northwestern army, at Detroit.

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HISTORY OF BOONE COUNTY.

" The settlement grew with great rapidity, and soon comprised some among the best citizens of that time-men who have left their impress upon the history and development of our county. Among them we note the following : Augustus Thrall, Oliver Parker, Anderson Woods, first Judge of the County Court, Dr. J. B. Wilcox, Clayton Herne, Tyre Harris, Overton Harris, Sampson, William and Stephen Wilhite, Henry Lightfoot, James Ketchum, William Boone, William Goslin, John Slack, Wilford Stephens, Jonathan Barton, James Cochran, Reuben Hatton, Charles Laughlin, and a number whose names we have not space to give.

" In 1819, Oliver Parker had a store there and kept a post-office, which was for some time known as ' Lexington.'

" In the spring of 1817, the next settlement was begun, in Perche Bottom, in the southwestern portion of the county, by John Hickam, Anthony Head, Peter and Robert Austin, John McMickel, Jacob Mag- gard, Silas Riggs and Abraham N. Foley.

" In 1817, immigration to the county was very large, and in every section large settlements sprung up with amazing rapidity, and steadily increased during the years 1818, 1819 and 1820. It is, of course, impossible to ascertain with exactitude the date of the immi- gration or primitive abodes of these early settlers, but it is due to those hardy and worthy pioneers, who first reclaimed our county from a wilderness, that their names should be preserved as far as possible, in a permanent history of our county.

" On Southern Two-mile Prairie were Overton Harris, Peter Bass, Peter Ellis, Tyre Martin, Lawrence Bass, Mason Moss, D. M. Hick- man, Wilson Hunt, John Broughton, Benjamin White, David Doyle, Samuel Crockett, Philip and Benjamin Barns, Daniel Vincent, Lewis Woolfolk, William Shields, Wm. Simms, Noah Sapp, Ed. Bass, Abraham Barns, John Jamison, Robert and Cyrus Jones, Richard Lawrence, Durrett Hubbard, Francis Lipscomb, J. P. Lynes, John Yates, Ambrose C. Estes, Stephen Chapman, Richard and James Barns, Elias Simms, Mosias Jones, John M. Smith, Michael Hersh, Daniel Hubbard, James Harris. On the Two-mile Prairie north of the St. Charles road, were Samuel, Elijah and Sampson Wright, Elias Newman, Isaac Geyhert, Charles Helm, James Chandler, Wm. Ed- wards, Elijah Stephens, Thomas Peyton Stephens, Samuel Riggs, Absalom Renfro, Nicholas McCubbin, Wm. Wright, Wm. Timber- lake, James and Hugh Crockett; Benjamin Estill, Rev. Mr. Kirk- patrick (a Methodist preacher), Asa Stone, Thomas D. Grant, Roger

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HISTORY OF BOONE COUNTY.

N. Todd, Levi McGuire, Lazarus Wilcox, Thomas C. Maupin, Nicholas S. Kavanaugh, John Read and James Barns.

In the vicinity of Claysville lived William Ramsay, Jesse Byrant, Mark Cunningham.

From the neighborhood of Rocheport to Thrall's Prairie were lo- cated John Grey, Gaven Head, Joseph Head, John Berry, David and Andrew McQuitty, Samuel Beattie, Robert Daly, John Copher, Sol- omon and Zachariah Barnett, Wm. Baxter, James Boggs, David and James Pipes, John Copeland, David Kincaid, Wm. Lientz, John G. Philips, Michael Woods, J. R. Abernathy, Robert D. Walkup, and Tyre Harris.

East and southeast of Rocheport, more generally known as " Ter- rapin Neck," lived Granville Bledsoe, Daniel Lewis, James Lewis, Wm. Lewis, Pattison Y. Russell, Jesse Lewis, Wm. Burch, John Graves, Ichabod C. Hensley, Thomas Williams, and Richard Fulk- erson.

In the vicinity of the present site of Midway, lived John Hen- derson, Jonathan Freeman, Benjamin Mothershead, Charles Laugh- lin, W. T. Hatton, Geo. Crump, Wm. and James Y. Jones, John Ogan.

A few miles north of Columbia, resided Caleb Fenton, Riley Slocum, Hiram Phillips, David C. Westerfield, Jacob Hoover, John Slack, John T. Evans, Zachariah Jackson, John Harrison. Still far- ther north, near where now stands Red Top meeting-house, were James Hicks, Wm. L. Wayne, and Zaddock Riggs.

Northeast of Columbia, seven or eight miles, dwelt Robert Hinkson, Bibb, Thomas and John Kennon, Dennis Callaham, James W. Fowler, Samuel Johnson, Robert Houston, and Joseph Persinger.

"On Perche Creek, in the northwestern section of the county, where the old road, or ' Boone's Lick Trace,' crossed the Perche, there stood the old town of Perche, long since obliterated. Some of its inhabi- tants were George and Isham Sexton, James C. Babbitt, James Ryan, Adam E. Rowland, Peter Stivers, Nicholas Gentry, and Enoch Taylor.

" Near where Rockyfork meeting-house now stands lived John Gra- ham, Aquilla and Amos Barnes.

Where Hallsville now stands lived John Roberts and other families of the same name, Peter and Joseph Fountain, Andrew J. Hendrick, and John and Joshua Davis, and Smith Turner.

Near where Rockbridge Mills now are were Thomas S. Tuttle, the 1

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HISTORY OF BOONE COUNTY.

original settler of that place ; Peter Creason, Nathan Glasgow, Elias Elston, and John H. Lynch.

Within the neighborhood of Providence lived first Ira P. Nash, for whom Nashville was named ; then John and Robert Peters and Gilpin S. Tuttle.

A few miles northwest of Columbia were John Witt, James Turley, James Mayo, and a family of Barnetts.

Around the present site of Columbia were Richard Gentry, Lewis Collins, John Vanhorn, J. M. Kelly, Peter Wright, Dr. D. P. Wilcox, Samuel Wheeler, A. B. Lane, Thomas Dooley, James Lipscomb, David Jackson, Henry, Richard and Reuben Cave, David Todd, Warren Woodson, Thos. W. Conyers, Charles Burns, Wallace Estill, Minor Neal, William Ridgeway, Peter Kerney, Kemp M. Goodloe, John Cave, Daniel King, James Laughlin, Elijah and Abraham N. Foley, John J. Foster, Adam C. Reyburn, and Willis Boyse.

" The first church organized in the Boone's Lick country was Mount Pleasant, in 1815, seven miles north of old Franklin.

" The first church organized in Boone County was called ' Bethel,' and was situated in a northwestern section of the county, eight miles north of Rocheport. It was organized June 28, 1817; the persons forming it were Anderson Woods, Betsey Woods, David McQuitty, John Turner, and James Harris. William Thorp was its first pastor. The next church formed was Little Bonne Femme, in December, 1819, by David Doyle, Anderson Woods, Elizabeth Woods, James Harris, Polly Harris, Mourning Harris, Elizabeth Kennon, John Maupin, Elias Elston, Matthew Haley, Jane Tuttle, Lazarus Wilcox, Lucy Wil- cox, James Wiseman, Thomas S. Tuttle, and Nancy Tuttle. David Doyle was the first pastor, and continued in that position for ten years, when he became pastor of Salem Church, and so continued for thirty years, thus spending forty years in the ministry in our county, for which, it is said, he never received a dime of remuneration."

TWO IMPORTANT EVENTS : THE FIRST NEWSPAPER AND THE FIRST STEAMBOAT AT FRANKLIN.

Although Franklin is not, and never was, in Boone county, there were two events which occurred there, the first in April and the second in May, 1819, of sufficient importance in the history of " the Boone's Lick Country," of which this county was a part, to justify in this place more than a passing notice. Both of these events had an important bearing upon the development and destiny of interior Mis-

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HISTORY OF BOONE COUNTY.

souri, and of the whole State ; and a detailed account of them in an enduring form is justified by their prominence and significance.

THE FIRST NEWSPAPER.

On the 23d of April, 1819, Nathaniel Patten and Benjamin Holliday commenced the publication of the Missouri Intelligencer in Franklin, then a flourishing town on the Missouri river and opposite Boonville. The size of the sheet was 18 by 24 inches, and it was printed on what is known among printers as the Ramage press, a wooden contrivance · with cast-iron bed, joints and platen, and which at this day is a great curiosity. About twenty-five years ago Col. Wm. F. Switzler pre- sented this press to the Mercantile Library Association of St. Louis, the Missouri Historical Society then not being in existence, where it can be seen.

Recently we came in possession of full and complete files, substan- tially bound, of the Missouri Intelligencer from its initial number, April .23, 1819, to its last issue (in Columbia), December 5, 1835, embracing a period of over sixteen years, to which we are indebted for much valuable historical matter relating to this county, and which will be found in its proper place in this book.

Many changes occurred in the publishers or owners of the Intelli- gencer, the details of which we have taken the trouble to collect from its files, and to record as follows : -

April 23, 1819, to June 10, 1820, Nathaniel Patten and Benjamin Holliday, publishers. (Mrs. E. W. McClannahan, near Columbia, is a daughter of Mr. Holliday.1)

June 10, 1820, Mr. Patten retired as publisher, leaving Mr. Holli- day in charge, or owner, who continued till July 23, 1821, when John Payne, a lawyer, became editor. He was a native of Culpepper county, Va., and died in Franklin, September 15, 1821, aged 24 years.

September 4, 1821, Mr. Payne retired and Holliday again assumed control.

August 5, 1822, to April 17, 1824, Nathaniel Patten and John T. Cleaveland are publishers. Mr. Cleaveland died some years ago at an advanced age in Austin, Texas.

April 17, 1824, Mr. Cleaveland retired, leaving Mr. Patten as sole

1 Mr. Holliday was born in Spottsylvania C. H., Va., June 8, 1786; came to Frank- lin, Mo., in February, 1819, and died near Boonsboro, Howard County, Mo., April 1, 1859.

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HISTORY OF BOONE COUNTY.

publisher, which position he continued to hold until the sale of the paper by him to Mr. Fred. A. Hamilton, December 12, 1835.

Last issue of the Intelligencer in Franklin, June 16, 1826.

First issue of the Intelligencer in Fayette, June 29, 1826.

July 5, 1827, John Wilson, then a young lawyer in Fayette, is announced as editor, which position he held till July 25, 1828. Mr. Wilson died in San Francisco, Cal., February 2, 1877, aged 87 years.

In August, 1827; James H. Birch commenced the publication in Fayette of the Western Monitor.

April 9, 1830, last issue of the Intelligencer in Fayette.

May 4, 1830, first issue of the Intelligencer in Columbia.

December 5, 1835, last issue of the Intelligencer in Columbia.

December 12, 1835, first issue of the Patriot in Columbia.

December 23, 1842, last issue of the Patriot, and January 6, 1843, first issue of its successor, the Statesman, which has been regularly continued to this day under the same management.

August 1, 1881, after twelve years' experience as business manager, Irwin Switzler, eldest son of W. F. Switzler, became proprietor of the Statesman, the latter continuing as editor-in-chief.

Near the close of the year 1835 it became known that Patten, owing to failing health, intended to dispose of the Intelligencer office, and as the Presidential and State elections of the following year were approaching, the possession of the paper became an object of interest to some of the politicians and people, Whig and Democratic, about Columbia. Both parties wanted it; and the Democrats, under the leadership of Austin A. King, then a lawyer resident here and in 1848 elected Governor of the State, Dr. Wm. H. Duncan, still an honored citizen of Columbia, Dr. Alexander M. Robinson and others made some efforts to secure the office. While negotiations to this end were pending, Robert S. Barr, Oliver Parker, Wm. Cornelius, Warren Woodson, Moses U. Payne, A. W. Turner, Joseph B. Howard, John B. Gordon, Sinclair Kirtley, David and Roger N. Todd, Dr. Wm. Jewell, James S. Rollins, Thomas Miller and perhaps other Whigs, entered into a written agreement to raise the money to purchase the press and materials, and they did it with the understanding that Frederick A. Hamilton, a practical printer, should take charge of the publication, and Rollins and Miller, then two young lawyers of Columbia, the editorial conduct of the paper, the name of which, December 12, 1835, was changed to Patriot. Hamilton was was announced as publisher, and Rollins and Miller as editors. Maj.

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HISTORY OF BOONE COUNTY.

Rollins selected from Shakspeare the motto of the Patriot, " Be just and fear not ; let all the ends thou aimest at be thy country's," which it bore until it was supplanted by the Statesman in 1843, and which has ever since floated at the masthead of the Statesman.

Of the parties named in this connection all are dead except Duncan, Rollins and Payne.

Rollins and Miller finally became owners of the office and continued to edit the paper until the close of the Presidential election of 1840, when Rollins sold his interest to Wm. T. B. Sanford, a printer, and retired, leaving Col. Miller sole editor.

In July, 1841, the present editor of the Statesman became editor of the Patriot, Col. Thomas Miller having retired, but still retaining a half ownership, with the hope of recuperating his health by a trip across the plains to Santa Fe. Dying en route of pulmonary con- sumption, September 15, 1841, at " Round Mound," two hundred miles this side of his destination, where he was interred on the tree- less plain, aged 31 years, more than three months elapsed before news of his death reached Columbia. February 19, 1842, Wm. T. B. Sanford, surviving partner of the firm of Miller & Sanford, sold Col. Miller's interest to John B. and Younger J. Williams, the new pro- prietors, Sanford, Williams & Co., assuming control March 1, 1842. On the 19th of August, 1842, Dr. A. J. McKelway ( now a citizen of Marion county ) purchased Mr. Sanford's interest, became editor- Wm. F. Switzler retiring, -and in conjunction with the Williams brothers, published the Patriot till December 16, 1842, when Wm. F. Switzler purchased McKelway's half interest and he retired. At the same time John B. Williams sold his interest to his brother, Younger J., who, as an equal partner with Wm. F. Switzler, on January 1, 1843, changed the name of the paper to Missouri Statesman, under which name, with Wm. F. Switzler as editor, it has ever since been issued, now nearly forty years.

Mr. Sanford, some years afterward, went to Los Angelos, California, and just before the war was lost on the Sacramento River in a burning steamboat.

Younger J. Williams died February 19, 1843, and his interest was resold to his brother John B., who, in January, 1845, sold out to Wm. F. Switzler, who then became sole editor and proprietor. John B. Williams died in Fulton, Mo., April 6, 1882, aged sixty years, as editor and proprietor of the Telegraph.

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HISTORY OF BOONE COUNTY.

Mr. Patten was a very reputable citizen, small in stature, and quite deaf. He and his wife set the type for his paper and edited it, she therefore being the first female compositor west of the Mississippi River.1 The Patriot was first published in a little hewed log house on the northeast corner of the lot on which Mr. B. Loeb now lives, and afterwards in a small frame (destroyed by fire Oct., 1874), which then stood on Broadway, near the old brick public school building. Several of the printers' stands, made of walnut lumber, which were used in the Intelligencer office in 1819, and in the offices of all its suc- cessors, are now in daily use in the office of the Statesman.

Nathaniel Patten, Jr., a 'son of the proprietor of the old Intelli- gencer, now resides at South Fork, Rio Grande County, Colorado, and from him we have recently received bound files in good order of that paper from April 23, 1819, to December 5, 1835, a period of more than sixteen years.

ARRIVAL OF THE FIRST STEAMBOAT.

The second notable event in 1819 was the arrival at Franklin, on May 28, of the steamer Independence, Capt. John Nelson -the first which ever attempted the navigation of the Missouri River.

Col. Elias Rector and others, of St. Louis, had chartered her at Louisville, Ky., to go up the Missouri as high as the town of Chariton, now a deserted town two miles above Glasgow, near the mouth of the Chariton River. She left St. Louis May 15, 1819, and arrived at Franklin, Howard County, on May 28, occasioning the wildest excite- ment and the greatest joy among the people.

1 Mrs. Patten, formerly Miss Elvira A. Williams, was born near Charleston, Va., July 4, 1807, and died in St. Joseph, Mo. (then being Mrs. Overall), on January 24, 1878, aged 71 years. In 1823, at Old Chariton, Howard County, she first married Dr. John Holman. He dying on Monday, November 27, 1826, and Mr. Patten's wife, Mrs. Matilda Patten, dying on Friday, December 27, 1829, on Sunday, February 27, 1831, at the residence of Mrs. H. T. Peerce, in Columbia, Rev. W. P. Cochran officiating, they were married. The fruit of this. marriage was Nathaniel Patten, Jr., who now resides in South Fork, Rio Grande County, Colo. After the death of Mr. Patten, she married Maj. Wilson Lee Overall, of St. Charles (Aug. 16, 1840), by whom she had three children, namely, Mrs. John F. Williams, St. Louis (wife of the Insurance Com- missioner), John H. Overall, of St. Louis, a well known lawyer, and son-in-law of Hon. J. S. Rollins, and Mrs. L. E. Carter, of St. Joseph, at whose house she died, as above stated. Maj. Overall died in St. Charles of paralysis, December 24, 1850. Mr. Patten died in St. Charles in 1837, and at the time of his death was proprietor of the Clarion newspaper.

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HISTORY OF BOONE COUNTY.

The following were some of the passengers on the Independence : Col. Elias Rector, Stephen Rector, Capt. Desha, J. C. Mitchell, Dr. Stewart, J. Wanton, and Maj. J. D. Wilcox.

Immediately after its arrival at Franklin, a public dinner was given the passengers and officers of the boat. A public meeting was then held, of which Asa Morgan was elected President, and Dr. N. Hutch- inson Vice-President. We copy from the Franklin (Mo. ) Intelli- gencer, issued on the day of the boat's arrival, an account of the event : -

[From the Franklin Intelligencer, May 28, 1819.]

ARRIVAL OF THE STEAMBOAT.

With no ordinary sensations of pride and pleasure, we announce the arrival this morning, at this place, of the elegant steamboat " Independence," Captain Nelson, in . seven sailing days (but thirteen from the time of her departure) from St. Louis, with passengers and a cargo of flour, whiskey, sugar, iron, castings, etc., being the first steamboat that ever attempted ascending the Missouri. She was joyfully met by the inhabitants of Franklin, and saluted by the firing of cannon, which was returned by the "Independence."

The grand desideratum, the important fact, is now ascertained that steamboats can safely navigate the Missouri River.

A respectable gentleman, a passenger in the Independence, who has for a number of years navigated the great Western waters, informs us that it is his opinion, with a little precaution in keeping clear of sand-bars, the Missouri may be navigated with as much facility as the Mississippi or Ohio.

Missourians may hail this era from which to date the growing importance of this sec- tion of the country, when they view with what facility (by the aid of steam) boats may ascend the turbulent waters of the Missouri, to bring to this part of the country the articles requisite to its supply, and return laden with the various products of this fertile region. At no distant period may we see the industrious cultivator making his way as high as the Yellowstone, and offering to the enterprising merchant and trader a sur- plus worthy of the fertile banks of the Missouri, yielding wealth to industry and enterprise.

[From the Franklin Intelligencer, June 4, 1819.]

ARRIVAL OF THE "INDEPENDENCE " - PUBLIC DINNER, SPEECHES, AND TOASTS.

On Friday last, the 28th ult., the citizens of Franklin, with the most lively emotions of pleasure, witnessed the arrival of this beautiful boat, owned and commanded by Captain Nelson, of Louisville. Her approach to the landing was greeted by a Federal salute, accompanied with the acclamations of an admiring crowd, who had assembled on the bank of the river for the purpose of viewing this novel and interesting sight. We may truly regard this event as highly important, not only to the commercial but agricultural interests of our country. The practicability of steamboat navigation being now clearly demonstrated by experiment, we shall be brought nearer to the At- lantic, West India, and European markets, and the abundant resources of our exten- sive and fertile region will be quickly developed. This interesting section of country, so highly favored by nature, will at no distant period, with the aid of science and enter- · prise, assume a dignified station amongst the great agricultural States of the West.

The enterprise of Capt. Nelson cannot be too highly appreciated by the citizens of

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History of Boone County, Missouri., Part 12

Author: Publication date: 1882 Publisher: St. Louis, Western Historical Company Number of Pages: 1220

Author:
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: St. Louis, Western Historical Company
Number of Pages: 1220