History of Caldwell and Livingston counties, Missouri, written and compiled from the most authentic official and private sources, including a history of their townships, towns and villages, together with a condensed history of Missouri; a reliable and detailed history of Caldwell and Livingston counties--their pioneer record, resources, biographical sketches of prominent citizens; general and local statistics of great value; incidents and reminiscences, Part 10

Author: Pease, Ora Merle Hawk, 1890-
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: St. Louis, National Historical Company
Number of Pages: 1260

USA > Missouri > Livingston County > History of Caldwell and Livingston counties, Missouri, written and compiled from the most authentic official and private sources, including a history of their townships, towns and villages, together with a condensed history of Missouri; a reliable and detailed history of Caldwell and Livingston counties--their pioneer record, resources, biographical sketches of prominent citizens; general and local statistics of great value; incidents and reminiscences > Part 10
USA > Missouri > Caldwell County > History of Caldwell and Livingston counties, Missouri, written and compiled from the most authentic official and private sources, including a history of their townships, towns and villages, together with a condensed history of Missouri; a reliable and detailed history of Caldwell and Livingston counties--their pioneer record, resources, biographical sketches of prominent citizens; general and local statistics of great value; incidents and reminiscences > Part 10

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

HISTORY OF CALDWELL COUNTY.

families located on Grand river, near the center of what is now Daviess county. These were named Stone, Stokes, Creekmore, Duval and Penniston.

In July, 1831, Jesse M. Mann, 1 settled on Log creek, half a mile southeast of Kingston, and about the same distance south of Jesse Mann, Sr. The two Manns and John Raglan were probably the only families living in the county at the beginning of the year 1832. Their situation was somewhat exposed, but by no means perilous. There were no hostile Indians in the country, and the wolves and panthers that infested the woods and timber lands were not very numerous or aggressive. People much accustomed to society might have deemed the situation infelicitous and extremely uncomfortable, but these first settlers of Caldwell county were pioneers to the manor born, and doubtless deemed their condition a most enviable one, having all the country to themselves and doing that which was right in their own eyes, as in the days when " there was no king in Israel."

But in the spring of 1832 adventurous pioneers began to push into the new country, unpeopled and virgin, but fertile and beautiful. Among those who are said to have come in at this time were Abraham Couts, Thomas Vanderpool, William Givens and Wallace McAfee, who settled in the vicinity of Kingston ; 2 Thornton Gwinn, David Gwinn, and Henry Gwinn, who came into Mirabile township; Frank Me- Guire, who located at Salem, or east of Kingston; Elisha Cameron, who settled in Grant township, west of Polo, and Zephaniah Woolsey, who settled near the county line, in Fairview township, Robert White came from Ohio this year and located on Shoal creek, in Fairview township, a mile from the site of where afterwards Haun's mill was built, or at the " Mormontown ford." Jacob Haun, the builder of Haun's mill, came in the spring of this year from Green Bay, Wis., to Fairview township.

In 1833 Samuel Hill, Eppa "Mann, Esq. MeGuire, and George Roland settled in the neighborhood of Kingston ; George Williams came to a claim three miles east of Kingston, section 17, New York township; Jesse Clevenger and Joseph Hightower to locations east of Goose creek, in what is now Mirabile township. Michael Turnidge

1 Old Jesse Mann had no middle name. The full name of his son was Jesse Martin Mann.

2 Of the first colony that settled in Caldwell county, east of Kingston, or in what was known as the Shoal creek settlement, there is now (December, 1885,) but one mem- ber surviving, Mrs. Elizabeth Mann, widow of Jesse M. Mann, who resides in Lincoln township, and yet retains a good recollection of pioneer days.

HISTORY OF CALDWELL COUNTY.

also came to Mirabile township and located on the northeast quarter of section 17. It was also in this year that the Lyons Brothers made their settlement at Salem.

According to Mr. Johnson's Atlas sketch, some of the settlers who came to the county in 1884 were Henry Lee and David Roland, who settled on the north bank of Shoal creek, two miles northeast of Kingston; Richard Beemer, who settled in Fairview township, and Henry Crowley, who settled in Grant township. In 1835 came Thomas Skidmore, John Fletcher, Jesse Fletcher and Thomas Fletcher to Mirabile township. In 1836, among others who came, . were William Royce, Thomas Crandall, Abe Jones, Sam K. McGee, John Taylor, Lewis Jackson and James Lee.

The life of the early settlers of Caldwell county was that of the pioneers of the West generally, which has been written of and described so frequently that it need not be detailed here. The people, while they dwelt in log cabins and were plainly appareled and fed on humble fare, lived comfortably, happily and well. It can not well be said that they suffered hardships, since the deprivation of certain modern luxuries and conveniences was well sustained by ample sub- stitutes.

There was a scarcity of purple and fine linen; but there was an abundance of comfortable and durable linsey and jeans and homespun cotton, much better suited to their rough and tumble life. Fine clothes and gay raiment would have been as much out of place in the primitive log cabins and among the clearings of early days as would 'coon skin caps and buckskin breeches in the parlors and drawing rooms of the handsome residences that stand upon the well improved lands of the county to-day. In that day as now people dressed and lived according to their circumstances.

In their somewhat isolated positions the settlers were dependent upon one another for many things" Men were willing to help a neighbor, because they felt that they might at some time need help themselves. A house-raising would start all the settlers for ten miles around. A new settler was always gladly received. He first selected his claim, cut his house logs and hauled them to the spot he had chosen for his home, and then announced his " raising." It did not take long to put up the cabin. The neighbors came from far and near, and whoever refused to attend a raising that could do so and had heard of it was guilty of a serious offense. The work of raising a cabin was often facilitated by a jug full of whisky, plenty and cheap in those days, and when the work was all done there were those not too tired

HISTORY OF CALDWELL COUNTY.

to indulge in a scuffle or other rough sport, and sometimes there was a fisticuff.

In the early history of the settlements mechanical conveniences were few and of an inferior character. Few of the settlers had been regularly trained to the use of tools, and, in consequence, every man became his own mechanic. Vessels and articles required for house- hold use were hewn out of blocks and logs of wood. Although these articles presented a rough and uncouth appearance, they answered every purpose, and families were as happy in their use as are the most favored people of later generations with the multiplied devices of modern invention.

The first farms were opened up in the woods. The timber was all cut down. That which would make rails or fencing was utilized. The rest was piled and rolled together and burned. The stumps of the saplings were grubbed up, and then the land was plowed. The plow used was a very simple affair, with sometimes an iron point and some- times without, and always a wooden mold-board. It is said that some farmers used a plow made from the fork of a tree. The soil in the creek bottoms was like an ash heap for mellowness, and almost any- thing in the shape of a plow would serve to fit it for the reception of the seed corn. There was, of course, the usual difficulty in plowing regarding the stumps, and as most of the pioneers were not profane men, their sufferings at times were intense !

It is alleged that the first prairie farm was opened by T. W. Hig- gins in the spring of 1842. In the winter of that year he built his house fairly out on the bleak prairie, and when he selected the site the snow was fifteen inches deep and the thermometer below zero. The old settlers laughed at what they deemed his folly, and declared that nobody but a Yankee would settle so far from timber. But they, as well as Maj. Higgins, lived to declare that nobody but a tom-fool would settle in the timber when there was good, rich prairie to be had !

Under the circumstances it was but natural that the first settlers should have an unfavorable opinion of the prairies as to their fitness for agricultural lands. Covered with thick, strong grass, in wet sea- sons the moisture after a rain was held in the ground near or on the surface a long time before being absorbed or evaporated, and caused the belief that the soil would always be " soggy," and that in even moderately wet seasons crops would always drown out. Then there was the tough sod, which no ordinary plow then in use would turn ; the land could not be enclosed with a brush fence, as in the timber,

HISTORY OF CALDWELL COUNTY.

but rails must be made and hauled ; there were but few springs on the prairies, etc., etc.

Those who wrote of the prairies at that day did not regard them with much favor. Mr. Lewis C. Beck, an accomplished scientist, writing in his Gazetteer of Missouri (1823), of Ray county, to which Caldwell then belonged, has this to say (p. 244) of the prairies : -

The prairies, although generally fertile, are so very extensive that they must, for a great length of time, and perhaps forever, remain wild and uncultivated; yet such is the enterprise of the American citi- zen - such the emigration to the West, that it almost amounts to pre- sumption to hazard an opinion on the subject. Perhaps before the expiration of ten years, instead of being bleak and desolate, they may have been converted into immense grazing fields, covered with herds of cattle. It is not possible, however, that the interior of these prairies can be inhabited ; for, setting aside the difficulty of obtaining timber, it is on other accounts unpleasant and uncomfortable. In winter the northern and western blasts are excessively cold, and the snow is drifted like hills and mountains, so as to render it impossible to cross from one side of a prairie to the other. In summer, on the contrary, the sun acting upon such an extensive surface, and the southerly winds which uniformly prevail during this season, produce a degree of heat almost insupportable.

It should not, by any means, be understood that these objections apply to all the prairies. The smaller ones are not subject to these inconveniences ; on the contrary, they are by far the most desirable and pleasant situations for settlement. They are of this description in the county of which we are treating; surrounded by forests, and containing here and there groves of the finest timber, watered by beau- tiful running streams, presenting an elevated, rolling or undulating surface, and a soil rarely equaled in fertility.

Up to 1835 not much farming had been done in the county, and indeed not a great deal attempted. Every settler had his "truck patch," wherein grew potatoes, a little corn, a few vegetables, etc. ; and he had also a corn field corresponding in extent to the length of time he had been in the county, his means, or his desires.

Corn was the principal crop, and if enough of this was raised to supply the family with pone and Johnny-cake the settler was satisfied. There was no wheat raised of any consequence for some years.

Cotton was raised quite successfully, although not extensively, in the first years of the settlement of Ray county. Some of the first settlers of Caldwell, the Manns included, raised small patches for the first few years after coming to this country ; but soon after the Mis-

HISTORY OF CALDWELL COUNTY.

souri began to be navigated cotton yarn could be purchased in Rich- mond cheaper than it could be grown and spun here, and cotton rais- ing was abandoned.

Flax was among the first crops raised. The seed was rarely sold, and the crop was cultivated for the bark, of which linen and linsey were made. Nearly every family had a flax patch and a flock of sheep - the dependence for clothing supplies. To be a good flax breaker was at one time considered a great accomplishment among the men, and the woman who was a good flax or wool spinner and weaver was the envy of many of her sisters.

The early settlers of this county raised almost every thing they ate, and manufactured nearly every thing they wore. Their smoke houses were always well supplied with meat of various kinds, and honey of the finest flavor. The latter was actually so abundant that it was used for axle grease. After the first year or two there was plenty of meal in the chest and butter and milk in the cellar. Very little coffee and sugar were used, and tea was almost unknown. The family that had coffee two or three times a week were considered " high livers." Often it was only used once a week - Sunday morning for break- fast.

The hogs and cattle of the settlers increased very rapidly and throve abundantly, living almost exclusively on the wild " mast" then to be found everywhere. Bacon and lard were plenty - beyond the wants of the owners ; but there was no market at home for them.

Upon the first settlement of Caldwell county the woods were full of game of all kinds and the country was a paradise for hunters. Bears, panthers, and wolves abounded. Panther creek, in the northeastern portion of the county, was named from the abundance of those ani- mals in the timber along its banks. Many an early settler, as he sat by his fireside, felt his blood chill as the piercing scream of a prowling panther was borne to his lonely cabin on the night wind. They were frequently encountered, and many of them killed by the pioneer hunt- ers. Wild cats or catamounts were quite numerous.

As to wolves the country was infested with them. There seem to have been three varieties, the large black, the gray, and the coyote or prairie wolf. The first two varieties made many a foray on the set- tlers' flocks and herds, and sometimes it was a difficult matter to raise sheep and pigs on account of the depredations of these marauders. The sheep had to be penned every night and the hogs carefully looked after. The latter ran in the woods, and the pigs were in great danger. Many a little porker was snapped up by the wolves and carried away. In time, as the hogs continued to run in the woods, and feed on the

HISTORY OF CALDWELL COUNTY.

" mast," they grew wild and vicious, and often when attacked by wolves, would turn and fight and drive off their assailants.

Deer were very plentiful. They could be found in every section. A settler could kill a deer almost anywhere and almost any time - before breakfast, if he wanted to-and the juicy venison steaks of the old time were long remembered. Wild turkeys, squirrels and other edible game were numerous and easily obtained.

In the first settlement elk were plenty. As late as in the year 1839, Mr. C. R. Ross says he saw a herd of elk in Davis township, while on his way to Camden, Ray county, with a drove of hogs. It was about this time, however, when the elk left the country.

Along the streams, in the timber, half the standing hollow trees were bee trees, and containing each from a quart to five gallons of honey. In time these trees were marked with the mark of the finder, sometimes his initials, sometimes a certain number of notches cut with an ax, and to cut another man's bee tree, no matter whose land it was on, was deemed as bad as stealing.

One serious discomfort in early days was the presence of numbers of venomous rattlesnakes with which the country, especially the sloughs and prairies, abounded. Some of the old pioneers even yet relate wonderful snake stories. Writing of this county when it was a part of Ray, in 1836, Wetmore ( Gazetteer of Missouri, p. 158) says that rattlesnakes were here then, but not much to be dreaded. Further he says : -

They are to be seen, but the infinite number of hogs that range through the forests and prairies are carrying on a war of extermination against these natural enemies of the human family. Rattlesnakes are likewise frequently destroyed by deer. An old buck makes a past- time to leap upon the coil of a snake, and cut it in pieces with his pointed hoofs. A horse will instantly take alarm, and sheer off from the rattling caution the snake is accustomed to give. Professor Silli- man very justly remarks of the rattlesnake. " That he never is the assailant ; when he gives battle, it is with previous notice ; and when he strikes his fangs inflicts a fatal wound." There are, however, within the knowledge of all medical men, antidotes for this poison; and there is a plant in almost all the prairies and barrens of Missouri called " rattlesnakes' master " (the botanical term not remembered ), that never fails to effect a cure when properly applied and in season.

THE "FIRSTS."

The first white settler in Caldwell county was Jesse Mann, who came in March, 1831. Following him, not more than two months later, came

HISTORY OF CALDWELL COUNTY.

John Raglan and Ben Lovell, and in July his son, Jesse M. Mann.

The first child of white parents born in the county was born to Joseph and Elizabeth Hightower, in October, 1832.

The first death among the settlers was that of Marilda Jane Couts, a little daughter of Abraham Couts. Her clothing taking fire, ac- cidentally, she was burned to death in the fall of 1832. Then Thos. Vanderpool, who lived on Log creek, nearly two miles southwest of Kingston, lost a child ; then Abraham Couts another ; then Thos. Van- derpool himself was accidentally killed. All these were buried in the old graveyard half a mile east of Kingston.

The manner of Vanderpool's death was particularly distressing. His father, Rev. Winant Vanderpool, an Old School Baptist preacher, had been up in the Daviess county settlements preaching in the wilder- ness and was returning to his home, in Ray county, in company with his son Thomas. Nearing the Shoal creek timber Thomas started to look at some bee trees which he had discovered a short time previously, and his father accompanied him, carrying a gun. Passing through the brush, the lock of the gun caught and the weapon was accident- ally discharged, and the unhappy father saw his son fall to the earth a bleeding corpse. Rev. Vanderpool was greatly distressed at the re- sult of his want of care, and received general sympathy. It is said the accident occurred on a Sunday.

The first wedding occurred in May, 1832, when Hardin Stone and Julia Mann were married. The ceremony took place at the resi- dence of the bride's father, Jesse Mann, Sr., half a mile east of Kings- ton, and was performed by Rev. John Stone, a brother of the groom. The widow of Jesse M. Mann, who is still alive and remembers the incident well, says that about the entire population of what is now Caldwell county was present at this wedding, and that the bride was smartly dressed in a wedding gown of white jaconet. Mr. and Mrs. Stone now live in Gallatin, Daviess county.

The first preachers were Winant Vanderpool and John Stone, both Primitive or Old School Baptists, who lived in Ray county, but who visited this county as early as in 1832, and preached at the houses of the settlers on Shoal creek.

The first schools were taught by the Mormons. In the vicinity of Kingston the first school was taught by a young lady Mormon, Miss Mary Ann Duty, in an abandoned cabin on Long creek. This was in the summer of 1838.

The first well was dug by Jesse M. Mann, on his farm east of

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HISTORY OF CALDWELL COUNTY.

Kingston (northwest southeast section 22, township 56, range 28), in the spring of 1836. Prior to this all the settlers obtained their water from springs.

FIRST MILLS.

In the early settlement of Missouri the pioneers produced the corn meal for their bread chiefly by means of a mortar. The grain was put in and pounded for hours with a pestle, and when sufficiently beaten the finer particles were separated from the coarser by a common sieve, the finer being used for making bread, and the coarser for hominy. This process became slow and wearisome, and other meth- ods were introduced. A kind of hand mill rapidly supplanted the old mortar. It was constructed by putting the flat sides of two large stones together, the upper one well balanced on a pivot. A hole was made in the top of the upper stone, into which was forced a round pin, used as a handle, to put the mill in motion by one hand, while the other was used to feed it. Simple as were mills of this kind, they were, however, very scarce at first and were used only by a few. The majority clung to the old mortar and pestle, the noise of which could sometimes be heard long after the usual hour of retiring, busy in the preparation of the meal and hominy for the morning's break- fast. The constant employment of about one member of each family was required to keep the family provided with bread.

The first settlers in this county visited the mills down in Ray county, as a rule, to procure their flour, and often to have their corn ground. The first power mill in Caldwell was that of the Lyons Brothers, at Salem, mentioned elsewhere, and built either in the fall of 1833, or in the spring of 1834.

In 1834 Jacob Haun built Haun's mill, on Shoal creek, in Fairview township, at the site of the Haun's mill massacre. The same year, but afterwards, Robert White built another mill on Shoal creek, near Haun's, which he sold to William Mann, and he to John Raglan. This mill was washed away in the great freshet of 1839. Haun's mill stood till 1845 and was then torn down by C. R. Ross, as detailed elsewhere.

On January 19, 1844, Robert White established a mill on the well known site of Filson's mill.

Some of the early mills were driven by horse power. In 1847, Samuel Ritchie built a " pull around " mill at Salem. It was turned by a sweep at the end of which a horse or team was hitched. In 1855 Judge Isaac Sumner, in partnership with Chas. J. Hughes, built a horse mill-or rather an ox mill - which was afterwards run by

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HISTORY OF CALDWELL COUNTY.

steam. About the same time Wm. Bryant erected a " pull around " mill on Log creek, west of Kingston. This was afterwards a tread mill. Bryant also had a saw mill driven by horse power.

Some time in 1837 or 1838, the Mormons began the erection of a mill on Shoal creek, a short distance above the present bridge on the road between Hamilton and Kingston, and half a mile northwest from the latter place. When the expulsion of the Mormons came they sold to Joe Wilhoit and Samuel Massingale who completed the mill and operated it for some years, or until it was washed away. Some of the old timbers of this mill are now, or recently were, to be seen.

Mr. Massingale was drowned at this mill in 1844. The stream was high and he tried to swim it on horseback. He was thrown off the horse into the stream and being unable to swim he was soon overcome by the strong current. The body was recovered. Massingale was 40 years of age and left a wife and children.

EARLY POLITICAL HISTORY.

Up to December 26, 1836, what is now Caldwell county comprised a portion of Ray. The latter county was organized November 16, 1820, out of Howard, and named for Hon. John Ray, one of the del- egates from that county to the first constitutional convention of the State. The legislative act establishing Ray county defined its ter- ritory to be, " all that part of Howard county west of Grand river to the boundary line of this State," and further declared that, " all that portion of territory lying north of the county of Ray, and west of the range line dividing ranges 21 and 22, to the northern and western boundaries of the State, shall be attached to said county of Ray for all purposes, civil, military, and judicial." The western boundary of the state at that time was a line running due north from the mouth of the Kansas river ( where Kansas City now stands) to the northern boundary, the Platte Purchase not having then been acquired.

It was provided in the organizing act that, when a division of Ray county should become necessary, its northern boundary line should be the line dividing congressional townships 55 and 56; and in 1825, it was provided that the said northern line should run between town- ships 53 and 54 ; but in time the line was established as at present - be- tween 54 and 55. In January, 1822, Clay county was formed out of the western part of Ray. The first county seat of Ray was Bluffton, on the Missouri ( now extinct), but in 1828 Richmond became the capital. The first townships into which Ray county was divided, and which included the present area of Caldwell, may be mentioned. At

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HISTORY OF CALDWELL COUNTY.

the first session of the Ray county court, in April, 1821, the county was divided by lines running north and south into 3 municipal town- ships, viz. : Bluffton, which included all the territory between range 30 and Grand river ; Fishing River, including the territory west of the range line between 29 and 30, to the sectional line running a little east of where Liberty in Clay county stands ; and Gallatin, comprising the remainder of the county west of the State boundary line. All the townships ran from the Missouri river to the northern boundary of the State. What is now Caldwell county was first a part of Bluffton township.

In 1822, after Clay had been organized, Ray county was composed of but two municipal townships. Missouriton, including all the tract of county east of the main east fork of Crooked river to Grand river, or the Chariton county line ; and Bluffton, including the remainder of the county west, to the Clay county line.

In February, 1823, Bluffton and Missouriton townships were divided and Crooked River township formed therefrom. Under the reorganiza- tion Bluffton lay between the west line of the county, and the range line dividing ranges 27 and 28; Crooked River between the line divid- ing 27 and 28, and the line dividing 25 and 26; and Missouriton com- prised the eastern portion of the county extending to Grand river. What is now Caldwell county was then embraced in Bluffton and Crooked River townships, Ray county.

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Author: Pease, Ora Merle Hawk, 1890- Publication date: 1886 Publisher: St. Louis, National Historical Company Number of Pages: 1260

Author: Pease, Ora Merle Hawk, 1890-
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: St. Louis, National Historical Company
Number of Pages: 1260