USA > Missouri > Boone County > History of Boone County, Missouri. > Part 14
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*Thomas W. Conyers
140
3
19
...
50
212
Tyre Harris .
76
16
71
...
...
163
James W. Moss
47
10
4
...
5
66
At this election James Barns was re-elected Sheriff of the county.
SPECIAL ELECTION, 1825.
December 8th, 1825, special election to fill vacancy caused by death of Gov. Bates.
GOVERNOR.
Columbia.
Cedar.
Missouri.
Perche.
Rockyfork.
Total.
Wm. C. Carr
21
6
27
6
3
63
David Todd
122
3
25
42
44
236
*John Miller
152
36
22
3
2
215
1
Rufus Easton .
1
...
...
...
20
Nathaniel Cook
19
1
2
..
...
8
107
150
HISTORY OF BOONE COUNTY.
After the death of Gov. Frederick Bates, August 4, 1825, the duties of Governor devolved upon Lieutenant-Governor Benj. H. Reeves, but he being absent from the State, in Santa Fe, Abraham J. Williams, of Boone,1 President pro tem. of the Senate, became Governor until an election was held, and he discharged its functions from August till December, 1825.
ELECTION, 1826.
REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS.
Columbia.
Cedar.
Missouri.
Perche.
Rockyfork.
Total.
*John Scott .
241
27
56
41
23
388
Edward Bates
191
25
79
50
42
387
Total
Senators -
A. J. Williams .
171
37
54
8 23
36
177
Peter Wright
178
2
51
55
39
325
*Richard Gentry
1
...
...
...
..
1
Total.
Representatives in Legislature -
*Tyre Harris .
238
47
96
79
15
475
David M. Hickman
181
33
13
12
23
262
Thos. W. Conyers .
189
2
40
19
47
287
Wm. Barnes .
43
3
42
15
S
111
*Wm. Jewell .
243
14
76
64
64
461
Sheriff-
*Harrison Jamison
181
26
35
43
57
342
Samuel Beattie .
91
2
74
34
18
219
James T. Moss
70
21
4
1
...
96
Ichabod C. Hensley
101
1
24
10
5
141
Total
818
4
274
83
9
26
775
Asa Stone .
777
By this it will be seen that John Scott received in the county one majority for Congress, and that Richard Gentry was elected Senator, Dr. William Jewell and Tyre Harris Representatives, and Harrison Jamison Sheriff.
1 Mr. Williams, being born with only one leg, always used crutches; was never mar- ried, and was a merchant of Columbia, his storehouse being the same now occupied as a residence by Dr. James McNutt. Some years before his death he bought and im- proved a farm-now known as the Payne or Jennings farm, six miles south of Colum- bia, on the Providence road. He died on this farm, December 30, 1839, aged 58 years, and was buried in the old grave-yard in Columbia, where his tomb of box shape is yet to be seen.
.
151
HISTORY OF BOONE COUNTY.
ELECTION, 1828.
GOVERNOR.
Columbia.
Cedar.
Missouri.
Perche.
Rockyfork.
Total.
*John Miller .
337
69
159
61
49
- 675
Lieutenant - Governor
Samuel Perry
173
23
28
20
12
256
Felix Scott
..
2
16
3
12
33
Alex. Stewart
159
30
93
33
15
330
Alex. Buckner .
...
...
2
3
5
Total
648
Representative to Congress -
233
33
66
20
9
361
*Spencer Pettis .
279
41
95
44
45
504
Total.
Representatives in Legislature -
*Sinclair Kirtley
257
33
41
12
' 22
365
* William S. Burch
302
29
114
39
33
517
William Jewell
165
38
41
11
7
257
Jesse T. Wood .
200
25
45
22
21
313
Thos. W. Conyers
218
28
45
28
30
349
Tyre Harris.
18
3
34
21
1
77
Sheriff-
*Harrison Jamison
326
63
91
43
40
563
Abraham N. Foley
224
10
66
19
15
334
Tota
897
1820. - Population of Boone County.
3,692
Missouri was not finally admitted into the Union as a State until August 10, 1821, at which time the event was accomplished by a proclamation from President Monroe. Boone, with its present limits, having been erected into a county November 16, 1820, some nine months before the admission of the State, was for that period a terri- torial county.
It will be interesting to note the preliminary steps which were taken to carve out of the immense territory of Howard the new county of Boone, and for this purpose we avail ourselves of the recital made of them by Mr. Stephens's historical sketch, published in the States- man :
" The Territorial Legislature assembled in St. Louis on September 18th, 1820, and proceeded to organize by the election of James Cald- well, of Ste. Genevieve, Speaker, and John McArthur, Clerk of the House. It consisted of forty-one members.
...
1
24
*Daniel Dunklin
10
13
Edward Bates
865
1
152
HISTORY OF BOONE COUNTY.
" It was during the session of this Legislature that Boone County was organized.
" On Tuesday, October 20th, 1820, Andrew S. McGirk presented several petitions, and a letter from the citizens of Howard, praying for the establishment of a new county. This was the first movement toward the reorganization of the County of Boone. The petitions. were referred to a special committee, who, a few weeks afterward, made a favorable report, which was adopted by both Houses, and finally approved on November 16th, 1820. The act vesting Boone with all the privileges and immunities of a distinct county, went into. effect January 1st, 1821, but it was not until February that the first court was held, and it was as late as June before the Sheriff, Assessor,. and other officials received their commissions from the Governor. The act organizing Boone County thus prescribes its limits, which,. with but very slight variation, are the same at this time : -
Beginning at the southeast corner of and running with the eastwardly line of How- ard County, to where it intersects the line between townships fifty and fifty-one, thence eastwardly to the dividing ridge between the waters of the Cedar Creek and Salt River- to the Montgomery line; thence southwardly with said line to where it strikes said. Cedar Creek; thence down said creek in the middle of the main channel thereof, to- where the range line between eleven and twelve crosses the creek the second time; thence with said line to the middle of the channel of the Missouri River; thence up. the Missouri River in the middle of the main channel thereof to the place of begin- ning.1
" Who conceived the title of ' Boone ' is unknown, but certain it is that the name was given in honor of the famous Kentucky pioneer, Daniel Boone, and it is probable that its selection was mostly influ- enced by the event of the latter's death at Charrette Village, on the Missouri, a few miles above St. Charles, just two weeks previous. (September 26, 1820, ) to the presentation of the petitions by Mr. McGirk.
" The news of his death was being spread throughout the country,. and at the time Boone County was formed, the members of the Leg- islature were wearing badges of mourning in respect to his memory. Under such circumstances it is but a natural supposition that there- should have been a prevalent sentiment to establish some lasting monument in honor of a man whose career had been so illustrious and. whose name had been so closely linked with the early fortunes of Kentucky and Missouri.
1 See Rev. Stat., 1825, vol. 1, page 238.
153:
HISTORY OF BOONE COUNTY.
" Hence, as a befitting tribute of appreciation, a county was named. in his honor."
BIOGRAPHICAL' SKETCH OF DANIEL BOONE.
It is certainly not inappropriate, but quite the contrary that, as this. county was called in honor of Daniel Boone, and for this reason will forever remain a perpetual memory of his life, a short biographical sketch of him should accompany its history.
In regard to his birth, name and death, controversies have arisen among historians and biographers. It is, perhaps, not a remarkable- circumstance that doubts and differences exist in regard to the time of Daniel Boone's birth, and as to the orthography of his name, but that. there should be any contrariety of statement touching so recent an event as his death, is a little singular.
1. HIS BIRTH : He was born in Exeter township, Bucks county, Pa., according to Bogant, February 11, 1735 ; Hartley, same date ;. Peck, February, 1735 ; the family record in the handwriting of his Uncle James, July 14, 1732; Flint (who wrote in 1840), 1746; Bogart ( who wrote in 1881), August 22, 1734 ; Switzler (who wrote. in 1877), adopts, in his "History of Missouri," the date of James. Boone's family record - July 14, 1732.
2. HIS NAME : Was it Boone or Boon? Many of his descendants who, fifty years and more ago, lived in Missouri, for examples, William, Hampton L., Nestor and William C. Boon, and some of them who yet reside in the State, among whom is William C. Boon, of Jefferson City, omit the final " e." In consequence of this fact, per- haps, the early records of this county, as well as our first county seal, spelled it " Boon." And " Boon's Lick," as applied to the extensive region in Central Missouri known by that name, and in the name of the first newspaper ever published west of the Missouri river, at Franklin, in 1819, the " Missouri Intelligencer and Boon's Lick Advertiser," it is spelled without the "e." Nevertheless, the act of the Legislature organizing Boone county, November 16, 1820; the Franklin, Mo., Intelligencer of 1819, and Lewis C. Beck's Gazetteer of Missouri, 1823, when speaking of the county add the final "e." Yet there is higher authority than either of these for the "e," viz. : Daniel Boone himself, for he thus spelled his name. We have before us now, through the courtesy of Col. Thomas E. Tutt, of St. Louis, a. lithographic copy of a letter from Boone addressed to Col. William Christian, of Kentucky, -called " Cristen " in the letter - dated
154
HISTORY OF BOONE COUNTY.
August 23, 1785, and concluding, " you will oblyge your omble sarvent," to which he signs his name as "Daniel Boone." The original letter is now in the possession of Thomas W. Bullet, of Louisville, Ky., who is a grandson of Col. Christian. In the museum of the Louisville, Ky., Public Library there is a genuine autograph letter of Boone dated " Grate Conhoway July the 30th 1789," and addressed to "Col. Hartt & Rochester," which is subscribed as fol- lows : "I am Sir With Respect your very omble Sarvent Daniel Boone." (See letter of Prof. P. A. Towne in the Courier-Journal, 1876.) In a letter of J. E. Paton, Circuit Clerk of Bourbon county, Ky., written at Paris, Ky., December 20, 1876, to the Cincinnati Enquirer, he says there are in his office a number of the genuine signatures of Boone with the final " e." In Collins' "History of Kentucky," Vol. II., page 61, there is a fac simile of a letter from Boone, which, in 1846, was in possession of Joseph B. Boyd, of Maysville, and ad- dressed to "Judge John Cobren, Sant Lewis," dated October 5, 1809, that concludes, " I am Deer Sir youres DANIEL BOONE."
These authorities settle the question beyond cavil.
3. His LIFE : His father, Squire Boone, came from England, and took up his residence in a frontier settlement in Pennsylvania, where Daniel received the merest rudiments of education, but became thor- oughly familiar with the arts and hardships of pioneer life. When he was 18 years old the family moved to the banks of the river Yadkin, in North Carolina, where he married Rebecca Bryan, and passed some years as a farmer. He made several hunting excursions into the wilderness, and finally, in 1769, set out with five others to explore the border region of Kentucky. They halted on Red river, a branch of the Kentucky, where they hunted for several months. In December, 1769, Boone and a companion named Stewart were captured by the Indians, but escaped, and Boone was soon after joined by his brother. They were captured again, and Stewart was killed; but Boone escaped, and his brother going shortly after to North Carolina, he was. left alone for several weeks in the wilderness, with only his rifle for means of support.
He was rejoined by his brother, and they continued their explora- tions till March, 1771, when they returned home with the spoils which they had collected. In 1773 he sold his farm and set out with his family and two brothers, and five other families, to make his home in Kentucky. They were intercepted by Indians and forced to retreat to. Clinch river, near the border of Virginia, where they remained for
155
HISTORY OF BOONE COUNTY.
some time, Boone in the meanwhile conducting a party of surveyors into Kentucky for Patrick Henry, the Governor of Virginia. He was afterward appointed, with the commission of a captain, to command three garrisons on the Ohio, to keep back the hostile Indians, and in 1775 was employed to lay out lands in Kentucky for the Pennsylvania Company. He erected a stockade fort on the Kentucky river, which he called Boonsborough, which is now in Madison county, and removed his family to the new settlement, where he was again em- ployed in command of a force to repel the Indians.
In 1778 he went to Blue Licks to obtain salt for the settlement, and was captured and taken to Detroit. His knowledge of the Indian character enabled him to gain favor with his captors, and he was adopted into one of their families. Discovering a plan laid by the British for an Indian attack upon Boonsborough, he contrived to escape, and set out for the Kentucky settlement, which he reached in less than five days. His family, supposing that he was dead, had returned to North Carolina ; but he at once put the garrison in order and success- fully repelled the attack, which was soon made. He was court-mar- tialed for surrendering his party at the Licks, and for endeavoring to make a treaty with the Indians before the attack on the fort; but, conducting his own defence, he was acquitted and promoted to the rank of major.
In 1780 he brought his family back to Boonsborough, and contin- ued to live there till 1792. At that time Kentucky was admitted into the Union as a State, and much litigation arose about the titles of settlers to their lands. Boone, losing all his possessions for want of a clear title, retired in 1795 in disgust into the wilderness of Missouri, settling on the Femme Osage Creek, in St. Charles County. This region was then under the dominion of Spain, and he was appointed commander of the Femme Osage district, and received a large tract of land for his services, which he also lost subsequently because he failed to make his title good. His claim to another tract of land was con- firmed by Congress in 1812, in consideration' of his eminent public services.
The latter years of his life he spent in Missouri, with his son, Na- than Boone, near Marthasville, where he died September 26, 1820, aged eighty-six. The only original portrait of Boone in existence was painted by Mr. Chester Harding in 1820, and now hangs in the State-house at Frankfort, Kentucky. His remains were interred by the side of his wife's, who died March 18, 1813, near the village
156
HISTORY OF BOONE COUNTY.
named, where they continued to repose until August, 1845, when they were removed for interment in the public cemetery at Frankfort.
The consent of the surviving relations of the deceased having been obtained, a commission was appointed under whose superintendence the removal was effected ; and the 13th of September, 1845, was fixed upon as the time when the ashes of the venerable dead would be com -- mitted with fitting ceremonies to the place of their final repose. It was a day which will be long remembered in the history of Franklin County, Kentucky. The deep feeling excited by the occasion was. evinced by the assembling of an immense concourse of citizens from all parts of the State ; and the ceremonies were most imposing and impressive. A procession extending more than a mile in length accompanied the coffin to the grave. The hearse, decorated with evergreens and flowers, and drawn by four white horses, was placed in its assigned position in the line, accompanied, as pall-bearers, by the following distinguished pioneers, viz. : Col. Richard M. Johnson, of Scott ; Gen. James Taylor, of Campbell ; Capt. James Ward, of Ma- son ; Gen. Robert B. McAfee and Peter Jordan, of Mercer ; Walter Bullock, Esq., of Fayette ; Capt. Thomas Joyes, of Louisville ; Mr. London Sneed, of Franklin ; Col. John Johnson, of the State of Ohio ; Maj. E. E. Williams, of Kenton, and Col. William Boone, of Shelby. The procession was accompanied by several military companies and the members of the Masonic Fraternity and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, in rich regalia. Arrived at the grave, the company was brought together in a beautiful hollow near the grove, ascending from the centre on every side. Here the funeral services were performed. The hymn was given out by Rev. Mr. Godell, of the Baptist Church ; prayer by Bishop Soule, of the Methodist Episcopal Church ; oration by the Hon. John J. Crittenden ; closing prayer by the Rev. J. J. Bul- lock, of the Presbyterian Church, and benediction by the Eld. P. S. Fall, of the Christian Church. The coffins were then lowered into. the graves. The spot where the graves are situated is as beautiful as nature and art combined can make it. It is designed to erect a mion- ument on the place.
4. HIS DEATH: Timothy Flint, in his biography (1840), states that it occurred " in the year 1818, and in the eighty-fourth year. of his age ; " Hartley, on September 26, 1820, in his eighty-sixth year ; Bogart, the same; Switzler, the same, except that his age was eighty- eight ; and Chester Harding, who painted from life the celebrated por- trait of him in June, 1820, and who fixes his age at ninety, also fixes.
1
157
HISTORY OF BOONE COUNTY.
his death as occurring in 1820. (See Harding's "Egotistigraphy," for a copy of which we are indebted to his son, Gen. James Harding, one of the Board of Railroad Commissioners for Missouri. )
We have, however, recently met with higher authority than either of the above writers, and one that conclusively settles the date of his death. In the Franklin ( Mo. ) Intelligencer of Oct. 14, 1820, there is copied from the St. Louis Enquirer an obituary notice of Daniel Boone, the first paragraph of which is as follows :
DIED. - On the 26th ult. [Sep.] at Charette Village [which was on Femme Osage Creek, in St. Charles County, Mo.], in the ninetieth year of his age, the celebrated Col. DANIEL BOONE, discoverer and first settler of the State of Kentucky.
This disposes of the question conclusively.
He died at the residence of his son, Maj. Nathan Boone, which was an old-style two-story house, the first of the kind erected west of the Missouri river, and it is yet standing. A good wood cut of it can be found in " Switzler's History of Missouri," page 180.
The obituary in the Enquirer also says that on the 28th September, Mr. Emmons, Senator from Saint Charles County, communicated the intelligence of his death to the Legislature, then in session in St. Charles, and that " both branches of that body, through respect to his memory, adjourned for the day, and passed a resolution to wear crape on the left arm for twenty days."
One of his sons, Jesse B. Boone, was at the time a member of the Legislature from the county of Montgomery.
LOCATION OF THE COUNTY SEAT.
The act having been passed November 16, 1820, to organize Boone County, the Statesman sketches by Mr. Stephens say that " John Gray, Jefferson Fulcher, Absalom Hicks, Lawrence Bass and David Jackson, were appointed by the Legislature commissioners to select and establish a permanent county seat. They were empowered to re- ceive donations of not less than fifty, or more than two hundred acres of land, upon which to fix this seat of justice ; and, in the event of no donations being made, they were authorized to purchase land, for which not more than ten dollars per acre were to be paid.
" Upon the reception of this land, deeds were to be taken by said commissioners, which were to be submitted to the Circuit Court, upon whose approval the commissioners were to proceed to advertise the dots for sale, in some newspaper printed in the State.
158
HISTORY OF BOONE COUNTY.
" In January, 1821, the commissioners entered upon the discharge of their duties, and in the fall of that year fixed the seat of justice at Columbia ; and henceforth the identity of Boone was recognized and permanently preserved.
The ground on which Columbia now stands was purchased at the government land sales, on November 18th, 1818, by an association of citizens of Missouri and other States, organized in Franklin, and styled the " Smithton Company." The prospect of an early forma- tion of a new county was quite evident. and the situation of this land seeming favorable, it was purchased for the purpose of securing upon it the seat of justice.
" Smithton, however, stood for over eighteen months, and it was two years from the location of the first building there when the change of the county seat was made to Columbia.
FIRST CIRCUIT COURT AT SMITHTON.
" During its existence the county was organized (November, 1820), and by an act of the Legislature, the temporary county seat was there located. There, on April 2d, 1821, the first Circuit Court (David Todd, judge1) of Boone County, was held. In consequence of its historic interest, it is deemed fitting to note the following incidents during the session of the Court :-
On the day of its meeting, the following officers appeared and pre- sented their commissions : David Todd, Judge ; Hamilton R. Gamble, Circuit Attorney ; Roger N. Todd, Clerk ; Overton Harris, Sheriff. The following is the first entry on the records of the court :
STATE OF MO., BOON[E] COUNTY.
Be it remembered, that upon the 2d day of April, in the year of our Lord one thou- sand eight hundred and twenty-one, being the first Monday in said month, at the town of Smithton, in said county of Boone (the same being the time and place appointed for holding the temporary courts for said county, by two several acts of the Legislature of said State, one approved November 25, 1820, entitled "An act establishing judicial districts and circuits, and prescribing the times and places of holding courts ;" the other approved November 16th, 1820, entitled "An act defining the limits of Howard county, and laying off new counties within the limits of said county as heretofore defined ") personally appeared David Todd, esquire, and produced a commission from the Governor of said State 2 as the Judge of the Circuit Court of said county, and as being duly qualified thereto, which was read, and is in the following words, to-wit:
X-
1 David Todd was born in Lexington, Ky., March 29, 1786, and died in Columbia, Mo., June 9, 1859.
2 Then Alex. McNair.
-
159
HISTORY OF BOONE COUNTY.
Signed at St. Louis, Dec. 5, 1820, attested by Governor's private seal, " there being no seal of State yet provided," and by Joshua Barton, Sec'y of State.
And the said Judge caused due proclamation to be made and took his seat and con- stituted a court for the circuit of said county of Boone.
Hamilton R. Gamble produced his commission as Circuit Attorney.
The following persons were admitted to practice as attorneys : -
John F. Ryland, John C. Mitchell, John Payne, Hamilton R. Gamble, Dabney Carr,
Cyrus Edwards, Chas. French, Wm. J. Redd,
John T. Mckinney, Rob't A. Ewing,
Andrew S. McGirk.
GRAND JURY.
" The following grand jury was empanelled :
Peter Bass, Foreman, Mosias Jones, Peter Ellis, James Ready,. Hugh Patten, Thomas G. Jones, Wm. Barry, Joshua Alexander, John Ogan, John Kennon, Richard Cave, Sen., Joseph Lynes, Har- rison Jamison, Riley Slocum, Hiram P. Philips, John Anderson, John Slack, Smith Turner, George Sexton, Benjamin Mothershead, Minor Neale, John Henderson, and Tyre Harris."
Having received their charge, the jury went out of court, and after some time returned and presented an indictment against Wm. Ramsey and Hiram Bryant for assault and battery (a true bill), and having nothing further to present, were discharged. Ramsey and Bryant were indicted for assault and battery. R. was convicted at next term and fined $20. Case v. B. nol. pros'd at December term. First civil suit disposed of was Obadiah Babbitt v. Amos Barnes. Appeal from Justice John Slack's court. Judgment set aside. `Criminal cases at first were all for assault and battery.
" A. petit jury was also empanelled and was composed of the fol- lowing :
" John T. Evans, John T. Foster, Michael Woods, Jesse Richard- son, Daniel King, John Jamison, Thomas Kennon, John Berry, Jesse Davis, Joseph W. Hickam, Robert Jones and Adam C. Reyburn.
" This court held two days, and was employed chiefly in appointing overseers for roads and issuing licenses. In the absence of a proper building, their proceedings were conducted under an arbor of sugar trees, constructed for the purpose and provided with accommodations, and here within this shady grove, surrounded by the luxuriance and beauty of nature's freshness, did justice have an honored birth-place- upon the soil of Boone county !
160
HISTORY OF BOONE COUNTY.
" On August 6th, 1821, was held another Circuit Court, at Smith- ton, with same officers and the following grand jury : -
" William Lientz, Foreman ; Daniel Toalson, Lewis Collins, William Ridgeway, Henry Cave, Sen., Peter Creason, James Hicks, Robert Barclay, Stephen Wilhite, Aquilla Barns, David McQuitty, James Lamme, John W. Fowler, Nathaniel Teagus, William Boyse, Richard Lanum, and James Harris.
FIRST COUNTY COURT.
" The first regular session of the County Court of Boone was held at Smithton on February 23d, 1821, two months before the sitting of the Circuit Court. The judges present were ; Anderson Woods and Lazarus Wilcox. Its only work at this session was to appoint Warren Woodson, clerk pro tem., and Michael Woods, County Assessor.
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