History of Boone County, Missouri., Part 52

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

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534

HISTORY OF BOONE COUNTY.

The Encrinital limestone abounds in caves and under-ground streams. Connor's cave, a large cave in the bluffs of the Missouri, below Rocheport, the one at Rock bridge, Rock bridge itself, and several other caves in the county, are in this limestone. The country underlaid with this rock abounds in sink-holes, through which the surface water reaches subterranean streams; as shown along the course of Connor's cave. The great amount of clay and sand in this cave was washed in through these sink-holes.

Bold perennial springs abound in the Encrinital limestone. The famous Rollins's spring, on the College farm, is a good sample of the springs flowing from this rock.

The flint concretions of this formation furnished the mound-builders and their successors, the Indians, with materials for their plow-points, knives, spears and arrow heads, as shown by many specimens placed in the University by Mr. Lawson Stuart and others.

There were several extensive manufactories of flint implements in this State. One near Bolivar is described in my second geological report. Hatchets were usually made of a harder and stronger rock ; but I have one made of this limestone which I found in this county.

The joints of crinoidal columns so abundant in this rock, and so like button moulds, were used strung on sinews as an ornament by the Indians. These curious fossils are sometimes called " St. Cuthbert's buttons " from the legend that represents this saint as spending his time seated on the western bluffs of England whittling these unique fossils from the rock. If he made all that are found in the rocks, he must have been the prince of whittlers.

The Archimedes Limestone which rests upon the Encrinital, is litho- logically much like the latter, but presents an entirely new set of fos- sils. The one most noted, and from which the rock takes its name, is the axis of a reticulated coral in the form of a screw. This limestone is found on the Perche below the railroad bridge. It is but sparingly developed and of but little consequence in Boone ; although it con- tains nearly all the lead and zinc mines in southwest Missouri.

The Coal Measures underlie nearly or quite half the county, to the north and northeast. The southern boundary of these rocks extends from south of Thrall's prairie in a very irregular line through Colum- bia and southeast to the Cedar ; and all north and east of this line is underlaid with coal. From one to five successive beds of this valua- ble mineral underlie all this part of the county. Some of these beds

535

HISTORY OF BOONE COUNTY.

furnish an excellent article for domestic and manufacturing purposes. In two of the beds we have the black coal, so much valued by manu- facturers for furnace work, since it will burn without coking, which saves the expense of coking. This coal consists of thin lamina of mineral charcoal and bituminous coal. The charcoal prevents the blocks from melting and choking the furnace. The coal measures are made up of numerous beds of limestone, clays, shales (soap- stone ), sandstone, iron ore and coal.

The sandstones are very irregular and of little value. . One bed is shown at Dripping Springs, where it is very thick. The limestones are used for all the ordinary purposes, and some of them are emi- nently hydraulic.

The coal will in time be appreciated at its real value. If a bushel of coal is worth a cent in the mine, then the coal of Boone county is worth more than the whole county would sell for at the present time. Farms sell for $10 and $20 per acre which have coal on them worth a hundred dollars per acre. In a few years the value of this mineral will be better appreciated and men will wonder why they did not see it sooner.

The formations belonging to the Quaternary Age are the Drift, the Lacustrine, the Terrace, and the Recent.

The Drift is a gift of the glacial period of little importance in Boone ; since it consists of a few feet of gravel and pebbles and here and there a boulder often called lost rock or nigger heads so odd and . hard are they.

The Lancustrine, or Bluff, is by far the most valuable of all the for- mations of Boone county, and it underlies all the uplands and renders them inexhaustibly fertile for all future generations. This formation is usually called clay and lies immediately below the soil, forming a substratum above the consolidated rocks from five to fifty feet thick. These beds of silicious marls were deposited in a lake which covered North and Central Missouri just after the glacial period. The Mis- souri and other rivers to the north and west washed out from the ground-up rocks of all the northwest the best soil material and distrib- uted the same over the bed of this great lake, where Boone county then was. Thus the soils of Missouri are made up of the best ma- terials of all the rocks of the States and Territories now drained by the Missouri and Upper Mississippi.

The Terrace was formed where this lake was drained and the waters were reduced to the immediate valleys of our rivers, where the bottom

536

HISTORY OF BOONE COUNTY.

prairies and wooded bottoms were formed, yielding the very best sub- strata for soils yet discovered ; since they are rich in plant-food and pervious to the river waters, which moisten the soil and prevent the dire effects of droughts.

The Recent consists of such beds of loose materials as the rivers and other causes are now forming. Sand-bars, deltas, slides, and soil are some of the beds belonging to the Recent period in Boone County.

The soils are by far the most important formation in the county. All the varieties of the State, save the very poorest, the black-jack soil, is represented in the county. The hackberry and crow-foot lands at Thrall's prairie. The elm lands at various localities be- tween Thrall's prairie, Rocheport, Columbia, and Ashland. The hickory lands are abundant about Columbia and the white oak lands are represented in the bluffs and ridges of the principal streams of the county. All of these soils have about the same subsoil and all rest substantially upon the same foundation, and have certain char- acteristics in common.

To show at a glance the amount of plant food in the soil itself, and then in each foot of depth below the soil, I have prepared the follow- ing table, which presents an average of all the varieties of soils rest- ing on the bluff, from the richest hackberry land to the poorest white oak, and the amount for each foot in depth for the first three feet, and also for one foot at the depth of twelve feet below the surface. Other portions between the third and twelfth foot and below are equally rich.

TABLE SHOWING THE AMOUNT OF THE VARIOUS ELEMENTS OF PLANT FOOD IN EACH FOOT OF THE MISSOURI SOILS RESTING ON THE BLUFF.

First Foot.

Second Foot.

Third Foot.

Twelfth Foot.

Lime.

19.166 lbs.

16.117 lbs.

29.494 lbs.

26.484 lbs.

Magnesia

13.329

30.927

18.184

18.818

Potash.

13.310

32.234

17.413

40.420

Soda

7.157

7.405

11.343

104.544

Phosphoric Acid.

12.868

11.157

13.996

1.491

Organic Matter.

269.636

253.381

142.310

46.787

Sulphuric Acid.

3.180

2.990

4.051

not known.

Chlorine.

.405

.429

.664

not known.

Carbonic Acid.

not known.

44.605 lbs.

This table shows these soils as rich in plant food, save the organic matter, at a depth of three feet as they are at the surface, even a lit- tle richer in phosphoric acid, soda, potash, chlorine and sulphuric

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HISTORY OF BOONE COUNTY.

acid. At twelve feet below the surface the amount of plant food is still greater except in organic matter and phosphoric acid.

Farmers usually cultivate less than one foot of their soils, and when the plant food in that is exhausted they use fertilizers at great ex- pense of money and labor to supply the plant food. But the farmer on these Missouri soils, when the surface soil is exhausted, has an abun- dance of the best fertilizers in his subsoil ; and instead of buying fer- tilizers and spreading them over the surface, he sets his plow a little deeper and turns them up from his own stores in the subsoil. And when the plants have consumed the supply thus obtained, there is still lower down, enough of the same costly materials to replenish his soil a hundred times ; for it goes all the way down to depths varying from 10 to 200 feet, all about equally rich as the table shows it to be at a depth of twelve feet.

To show the money value of this store of plant food in the subsoil of all these lands, we may reckon the commercial value of the phos- phoric acid for a single foot in depth on one acre. The second foot of these soils, that is, the subsoil from the depth of one foot to two feet, in every acre, contains 11,157 pounds of this acid At ten cents 1 a pound this would cost $1,115.70. The next foot below, that is, from two to three feet in depth, contains in each acre 13,996 pounds of phosphoric acid, which would cost $1,399.60. Thus it is seen that two feet only of these subsoils, contain on each acre as much phosphoric acid as could be bought in commercial fertilizers for $2,515.30.

The soils as above shown, from which these results are obtained, were selected as representative soils from the lands of all grades and from all parts of North and Central Missouri. The soils of Boone county give the same results.

If we should calculate the commercial value of the other fertilizers, as potash, soda, sulphuric acid, chlorine and organic matter found in the subsoils of a single acre, and if the calculation be extended to a depth of ten feet or one hundred feet, the result would be somewhat startling. Such a calculation would not fall far short of a demonstra- tion of the often repeated assertion, " Our Boone soils are inex- haustible."

The experiments at the College farm fully establish the value of these scientific deductions and prove the soils, - the poorest soils- of the

1 The commercial value of phosphoric acid is twelve and a half cents per pound.

538

HISTORY OF BOONE COUNTY.

county practically inexhaustible under intelligent culture. On the College farm we had extensive areas of soils exhausted by some fifty years' ordinary culture, mostly in corn. , These lands had been turned out as exhausted and were washed full of gullies and sustained a scant growth of grass, mullen, and sassafras. Such exhausted land was plowed and subsoiled to bring up the plant food of the subsoil and planted in corn for ten successive years without a particle of any kind of fertilizer. This corn was from year to year equal to the best raised in the county ; as many witnesses can testify.

Mr. Maddox has tried the same kind of experiments with wheat on the white oak ridges east of the farm house which had been so ex- hausted by corn as to preclude the hope of a renumerative crop and had been turned out to mullen and sassafras. When Mr. Maddox commenced cutting out the grubs and filling gullies preparatory to put- ting these exhausted lands in wheat, he was told by some of our best farmers he would lose his labor, as it would produce no wheat. But the subsoil was stirred and the wheat for the first year yielded less than five bushels per acre. But it has steadily increased until this, the sixth year, when the yield was over forty bushels per acre and furnished the only No. 1 wheat shipped from the county this year to. date.1

Such a discovery, so completely sustained by these experiments on the college farm by myself and Mr. Maddox more than repay the county and State for all they have expended on the college, however adverse the circumstances under which we have labored.

These analyses of the bluff and subsoils and the experiments show- ing the presence of so much available plant food in our subsoils and underlying marls, fully prove our soils may be successfully cultivated indefinitely without resort to fertilizers by subsoiling and thus utiliz- ing the immense quantity of plant food which has been placed in our subsoils and underlying marls, to the depth of from five to fifty feet.

If wheat is cultivated and the stubble plowed under by deep and thorough culture the yield will improve as the years roll on ; but corn requires more organic matter, and if the stalks are removed, the soil will in the course of years need clovering or other green manures. Stable manure will answer the same purpose though a greater expense.

Such are the geological features of favored old Boone.

1 No fertilizers were used in any of these experiments.

539

HISTORY OF BOONE COUNTY.

CHAPTER XV.

BOURBON TOWNSHIP.

Position and Description - Geology and Archeology - Early Settlements - Items of Early History - Organization - War Times -Burning of the Sturgeon Bridge- Destruction of the Railroad -Skirmish in Riggs's Pasture - Sentenced to be Shot - Jim Jackson's Fight- Hanging of Amos Judy - Anecdotes - Miscellaneous -Stories by "Uncle " Durrett Bruce - " Uncle " John Alexander - Railroad Fires - The. Shroyer Murder - Shooting of Rowland by Wade -Old Petersburg - McCauley's Mill - School Houses - Country Churches- Cemeteries - The Town of Sturgeon - Early History - " Buena Vista" -The "Firsts" - Early Days in Sturgeon - In Time of War - Fires - Stur- geonites in "Nigger Wool" Swamp - Killing of Benj. Croswhite - Industries, Institu- tions, Associations, etc. - Court of Common Pleas - Official History - Churches - Civic Orders-Schools -Cemetery - The "Leader" - Biographies of Old Settlers and Prominent Citizens of Bourbon Township.

POSITION AND DESCRIPTION.

Bourbon township is the northwest corner township of Boone county. It comprises all of township 51, range 12, and township 51, range 13, and fractional township 51, range 14, -running to the Howard County line on the west, and to Centralia township on the east. It is bounded on the north by Randolph and Audrain counties, and on the south by Perche and Rocky Fork townships.

Its surface is mingled prairie and timber. Some of the timber land is covered with thin soil, as is a portion of the prairie, but in general the land is very fertile. The few tracts of bottom land are remark- able for grass. In 1872 Mr. W. G. Ridgway, of Sturgeon, cut three tons of hay from one acre of meadow, which he sold for $26. The grass was fully five feet high, and was so rank and heavy that it fell and " lodged " and could not be cut with a mowing machine, but was mown with a scythe. From sixteen acres Mr. R. secured a crop of about forty tons. The land was rich bottom.

SOME GEOLOGICAL AND ARCHEOLOGICAL FEATURES.

Coal and Iron Ore. - Along Perche Creek and in the vicinity there is a considerable quantity of a good article of coal. Banks have been opened and worked successfully. A great deal of the coal has been shipped to Sturgeon and Rocheport. Iron ore is also to be found, but not in sufficient quantities as yet to justify the erection of furnaces.

540

HISTORY OF BOONE COUNTY.

Red Granite. - Some substantial and valuable deposits of fine red granite are to be found six or seven miles southeast of Sturgeon, in this township and in Rocky Fork and Perche. The stone is to be found in great abundance. It was discovered by Dr. A. Titus and W. H. Welch -or first developed by them. Red Rock Church, in Perche township, is named from the abundance of this peculiar kind of stone in its neighborhood.

Plaster Sand. - On the premises of Mr. Wm. Dinwiddie, that gentleman dug a well twenty-six feet deep. At the depth of thirteen feet below the surface, a vein of fine white sand was struck which ran down about thirteen feet further, when a stratum of gravel was reached and the water. The sand proved to be excellent for plaster- er's use.

Remarkable Cave. - In the northwest quarter of section 34, tp. 51, range 13, is located a cave with some very remarkable character- istics. It has been explored to an extent of 200 yards, where is reached a house, naturally formed of solid rock. In its greatest breadth it makes a very good sized room. This cave was stopped up by some railroad men, who built a culvert and filled up the mouth, or entrance at which used to flow a large spring of very cold water. On one occasion, in early days, some dogs chased a panther into this cave, and their owners were forced to enter after them in order to save them. There are many incidents narrated in connection with the history of this cave, which must be omitted for want of l'oomn.

Panther Cave. - About half a mile north of the cave above described is Panther Cave, so called from the fact that in pioneer days it was infested by panthers in dangerous numbers, and their fierce howlings and snarlings many a time chilled the blood of many a traveler who came upon the den unawares. It is not so large as the first cave, but is well worth a visit to see. Not far from it, and within a short distance of the larger cave are two cylindrical openings, in the earth called " sink holes, " having the appearance of walled wells, and being of considerable depth.

Fine Spring. - On the northeast quarter of section 34, tp. 51, range 13, on the premises now owned by Willis Brundege, Esq., there is a very large and fine spring of good water.

The Mound-Builders. - Evidences of the presence at one time in this township of that mysterious race known as the Mound-Builders, are plenty. Numerous mounds exist and have existed, specimens of

541

HISTORY OF BOONE COUNTY.

pottery have been found, and flint arrow-heads can be picked up in great abundance. John Alexander has quite a collection of arrow and lance heads, which were gathered in this township.

Along Roche Perche Creek, starting from Perche Church and following the creek down about two miles, are numerous mounds, the work, undoubtedly, of the famed mound-builders. These mounds are from three to six feet in height, and, on an average, are from 100 to 200 yards apart. They number about twenty well-defined speci- mens. Dr. Davis, of Sturgeon, and Wm. Prowell opened one of these mounds on the farm of the latter. In the center they found a perfect vault, the roof of which was covered with stones. In this vault lay a large skeleton. It measured seven inches across the fore- head and the size of the other bones was in proportion. The general form and character of the mounds indicate that they are of the sepul- chral kind ; that is, they are merely resting places for the dead. Several other skeletons and parts of skeletons were taken out of other mounds in Mr. Prowell's field. Many of the mounds are covered with heavy timber, some of which is hundreds of years old, per- haps. There is a peculiar yellow or mulatto soil along where the mounds occur, but the elevations themselves seem to be of common earth.

Mr. McCauley says that in 1876, on opening one of the mounds, a. pipe was found. It was made of clay and had been burned or baked like a piece of pottery. It was of ordinary size, and seemed to have been placed in the hand of the Indian with whom it was buried. The bowl was thought to contain ashes and soot, as though it had been used and not well cleaned just before burial. The mouth-piece of the stem was considerably worn as if by the teeth of the owner. The pipe was sent to the Centennial Exhibition at Philadelphia, in 1876.

EARLY SETTLEMENTS.

It is stated that the first settler in this township was a man named Riggs, who located three miles south of where Sturgeon now stands and built a cabin, as early as the year 1818. This property now be- longs to Mr. Daniel Mayer, of Sturgeon. Again it is asserted that Jack Lynch and - Runnels were the first settlers in what is now Bourbon township. Nothing very definite or explicit can be learned, however, regarding these settlements.

Robert Rowland settled on the northeast quarter of section 35, township 51, range 13, near the Perche line, about the year 1827.

542

HISTORY OF BOONE COUNTY.

Robert Schooling came to the southeast quarter of the section where Rowland settled in 1831,1 and Woodson Evans settled near Schooling about the same time, as did also Wm. Kincaid. Rowland and School- ing were from Kentucky. North of Schooling's settlement, in the northeast quarter of section 26, township 51, range 13, Nicholas S. Woods settled in 1832. Ira Taylor located two and a half miles southwest of Sturgeon some time between the years 1845 and 1848. Near here the first house in the Grand Prairie was built by Wm. Green ; date not learned, neither has the date of Green's settlement been ascertained.

In the Schooling settlement the first marriage reported is that of Sam. Rowland and Emeline Schooling, in 1832. The marriage. oc- curred at Schooling's, and the ceremony was performed by the dis- tinguished Baptist minister, Rev. Fielding Wilhite. The first death was that of a child of Woodson Evans, about the year 1831. The body was buried on section 2, township 50, range 13, now Perche township.

The first physician was Dr. Alex. Robinson, who practiced in 1835, coming directly from Columbia, and to Missouri from Kentucky. He finally went to St. Joseph. During his residence in Boone, Dr. Rob- inson represented the county in the Legislature, and after his removal to St. Joseph, he was sent from Buchanan county to the same body. He was an excellent physician and very popular. Dr. Hiram B. Johnson located in 1849 or 1850, about two and a half miles south- east of Sturgeon.

Very soon after the settlements were effected, religious services were held. The pioneer preachers trod hard upon the heels of the first cabin builders, and often were among the latter class themselves. Dr. Provines, an Old School Presbyterian, held the first services in the neighborhood, in 1832. Another pioneer preacher was Wm. Crockett. Dr. Provines preached the first sermon at Ed. Graves's, just across in the corner of Rocky Fork township, section 1, township 50, range 13.

The first school-house was built on section 35, about 1837. It was not an elaborate affair, but answered very well at that day. The name of the first teacher has not been obtained, nor have the first names of his scholars ; but it is known that the latter were the children of Esq. Schooling, Rowland, Evans, Woods, and others.

1 One account says in 1835.

543

HISTORY OF BOONE COUNTY.

ITEMS OF EARLY HISTORY.

It is claimed that the first physician in this township was Dr. Wells. In the year 1843, a Dr. Taylor practiced in Pittsburg. The first house in the prairie below Sturgeon was built by W. D. Kelly on the north- east quarter of section 20, township 51, range 12, in the year 1837. Mrs, Elizabeth Kelly, wife of W. D. Kelly, is probably the oldest living female born in Boone county. She is the daughter of Zadok Riggs, and was born in the southern part of the county, not far from Providence, February 1, 1819.

ORGANIZATION.

For many years after the organization of the county, Bourbon township was included in Perche and Rocky Fork townships. At last, however, its population had increased to such an extent, and its interest demanded that the territory now comprised therein should be erected into a separate township. At the June term of the county court, 1854, (to be exact, on the 19th of the month), the court made the following order : -

Ordered by the Court, That a new municipal township be erected in this county out of parts of Perche and Rocky Fork; to be taken out of said townships by a line running with the township line between townships 50 and 51 across the county, and all that territory lying north of said line in this county to compose the said new township, to be denominated Bourbon Township ; and it is ordered that the place of holding elections in said township be the town of Bourbonton.

" The town of Bourbonton " was also called Buena Vista, and is referred to in the sketch of the town of Sturgeon, on another page. The boundaries of Bourbon township remained the same until the creation of Centralia township. It is said that the township took its name from Bourbonton, then its chief town; and that the town was named by some of the citizens who were from Bourbon county, Kentucky, their neighborhood being called Bourbon. It is also re- ported that the town was named from the leading brand of whisky on draft in the place.

INCIDENTS OF THE CIVIL WAR IN BOURBON TOWNSHIP - BURNING OF THE STURGEON BRIDGE.

The first act of war, or act connected with the war history, in this township was in June, 1861. As related to the compiler, on Saturday, the 15th of the month, the railroad bridge over Sailingtown branch near Sturgeon, was burned about 12 o'clock of that day by Sergeant

544

HISTORY OF BOONE COUNTY.

R. Bruce Ball, who claimed to be acting under special orders from Gov. C. F. Jackson. The bridge was soon rebuilt, and trains were running as usual.

DESTRUCTION OF THE NORTH MISSOURI RAILROAD AND SKIRMISH IN RIGGS'S PASTURE.1

On the night of December 20, 1861, detachments of the companies of Captains James Watson, J. J. Searcy, M. G. Corlew, Francis Petty, W. F. Robards (and perhaps of F. Carson), all of the Confederate service, amounting to about 250 men, under command of Capt. Watson, raided the North Missouri Railroad and destroyed a consid- erable portion of the track of that thoroughfare in order to prevent the passage of Federal troops, the transportation of supplies, etc. The track was injured considerably, but not very seriously, as it was soon rebuilt. Some bridges and trestles were burned. The men en- gaged in this work looked upon the affair as a sort of frolic to be par- ticipated in without serious consequences to themselves, but to work great injury to their enemies and consequent benefits to the Confeder- ate cause.

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History of Boone County, Missouri., Part 52

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