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 3

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 3
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 3

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).

The Drift formation is that which lies beneath the Bluff formation, having, as Prof. Swallow informs us, three distinct deposits, to wit : "Altered Drift, which are strata of sand and pebbles, seen in the banks of the Missouri, in the northwestern portion of the State.

The Boulder formation is a heterogeneous stratum of sand, gravel and boulder, and water-worn fragments of the older rocks.

Boulder Clay is a bed of bluish or brown sandy clay, through which pebbles are scattered in greater or less abundance. In some locali- ties in northern Missouri, this formation assumes a pure white, pipe- clay color."

The Tertiary formation is made up of clays, shales, iron ores, sand- stone, and sands, scattered along the bluffs, and edges of the bottoms, reaching from Commerce, Scott County, to Stoddard, and south to the Chalk Bluffs in Arkansas.

The Cretaceous formation lies beneath the Tertiary, and is com- posed of variegated sandstone, bluish-brown sandy slate, whitish- brown impure sandstone, fine white clay mingled with spotted flint, purple, red and blue clays, all being in the aggregate, 158 feet in thickness. There are no fossils in these rocks, and nothing by which their age may be told.

The Carboniferous system includes the Upper Carboniferous or coal-measures, and the Lower Carboniferous or Mountain limestone. The coal-measures are made up of numerous strata of sandstones, limestones, shales, clays, marls, spathic iron ores, and coals.

The Carboniferous formation, including coal-measures and the beds of iron, embrace an area in Missouri of 27,000 square miles. The varieties of coal found in the State are the common bituminous and cannel coals, and they exist in quantities inexhaustible. The fact that these coal-measures are full of fossils, which are always contined

HISTORY OF MISSOURI.

to the coal measures, enables the geologist to point them out, and the coal beds contained in them.

The rocks of the Lower Carboniferous formation are varied in color, and are quarried in many different parts of the State, being exten- sively utilized for building and other purposes.

Among the Lower Carboniferous rocks is found the Upper Archi- medes Limestone, 200 feet ; Ferruginous Sandstone, 195 feet; Mid- dle Archimedes, 50 feet; St. Louis Limestone, 250 feet; Oölitic Limestone, 25 feet; Lower Archimedes Limestone, 350 feet; and Encrinital Limestone, 500 feet. These limestones generally contain fossils.

The Ferruginous limestone is soft when quarried, but becomes hard and durable after exposure. It contains large quantities of iron, and is found skirting the eastern coal measures from the mouth of the Des Moines to McDonald county.

The St. Louis limestone is of various hues and tints, and very hard. It is found in Clark, Lewis and St. Louis counties.

The Lower Archimedes limestone includes partly the lead bearing rocks of Southwestern Missouri.

The Encrinital limestone is the most extensive of the divisions of Carboniferous limestone, and is made up of brown, buff, gray and white. In these strata are found the remains of corals and mollusks. This formation extends from Marion county to Greene county. The Devonian system contains : Chemung Group, Hamilton Group, Onondaga limestone and Oriskany sandstone. The rocks of the Devonian system are found in Marion, Ralls, Pike, Callaway, Saline and Ste. Genevieve counties.

The Chemung Group has three formations, Chouteau limestone, 85 feet ; Vermicular sandstone and shales, 75 feet ; Lithographic lime- stone, 125 feet.

The Chouteau limestone is in two divisions, when fully developed, and when first quarried is soft. It is not only good for building pur- poses but makes an excellent cement.

The Vermicular sandstone and shales are usually buff or yellowish brown, and perforated with pores.

The Lithographic limestone is a pure, fine, compact, evenly-tex- tured limestone. Its color varies from light drab to buff and blue. It is called " pot metal," because under the hammer it gives a sharp, ringing sound. It has but few fossils.

HISTORY OF MISSOURI.

The Hamilton Group is made up of some 40 feet of blue shales, and 170 feet of crystalline limestone.

Onondaga limestone is usually a coarse, gray or buff crystalline, thick-bedded and cherty limestone. No formation in Missouri pre- sents such variable and widely different lithological characters as the Onondaga.

The Oriskany sandstone is a light, gray limestone.

Of the Upper Silurian series there are the following formations : Lower Helderberg, 350 feet; Niagara Group, 200 feet ; Cape Girar- deau limestone, 60 feet.

The Lower Helderberg is made up of buff, gray, and reddish cherty and argillaceous limestone.

Niagara Group. The Upper part of this group consists of red, yellow and ash-colored shales, with compact limestones, variegated with bands and nodules of chert.

The Cape Girardeau limestone, on the Mississippi River near Cape Girardeau, is a compact, bluish-gray, brittle limestone, with smooth fractures in layers from two to six inches in thickness, with argilla- ceous partings. These strata contain a great many fossils.

The Lower Silurian has the following ten formations, to wit: Hud- son River Group, 220 feet ; Trenton limestone, 360 feet ; Black River and Bird's Eye limestone, 175 feet ; first Magnesian limestone, 200 feet ; Saccharoidal sandstone, 125 feet ; second Magnesian limestone, 250 feet; second sandstone, 115 feet; third Magnesian limestone, 350 feet ; third sandstone, 60 feet ; fourth Magnesian limestone, 350 feet.

Hudson River Group : - There are three formations which Prof. Swallow refers to in this group. These formations are found in the bluff above and below Louisiana ; on the Grassy a few miles north- west of Louisiana, and in Ralls, Pike, Cape Girardeau and Ste. Gene- vieve Counties.

Trenton limestone : The upper part of this formation is made up of thick beds of hard, compact, bluish gray and drab limestone, varie- gated with irregular cavities, filled with greenish materials.

The beds are exposed between Hannibal and New London, north of Salt River, near Glencoe, St. Louis County, and are seventy-five feet thick.

Black River and Bird's Eye limestone the same color as the Trenton limestone.

HISTORY OF MISSOURI.

The first Magnesian limestone cap the picturesque oluffs of the Osage in Benton and neighboring counties.

The Saccharoidal sandstone has a wide range in the State. In a bluff about two miles from Warsaw, is a very striking change of thick- ness of this formation.

Second Magnesian limestone, in lithological character, is like the first.

The second sandstone, usually of yellowish brown, sometimes becomes a pure white, fine-grained, soft sandstone as on Cedar Creek, in Washington and Franklin Counties.

The third Magnesian limestone is exposed in the high and picturesque bluffs of the Niangua, in the neighborhood of Bryce's Spring.

The third sandstone is white and has a formation in moving water.

The fourth Magnesian limestone is seen on the Niangua and Osage Rivers.

The Azoic rocks lie below the Silurian and form a series of silicious and other slates which contain no remains of organic life.

ECONOMIC GEOLOGY.

Coal. - Missouri is particularly rich in minerals. Indeed, no State in the Union, surpasses her in this respect. In some unknown age of the past -long before the existence of man - Nature, by a wise process, made a bountiful provision for the time, when in the order of things, it should be necessary for civilized man to take possession of these broad, rich prairies. As an equivalent for lack of forests, she quietly stored away beneath the soil those wonderful carboniferous treasures for the use of man.

Geological surveys have developed the fact that the coal deposits in the State are almost unnumbered, embracing all varieties of the best bituminous coal. A large portion of the State, has been ascer- tained to be one continuous coal field, stretching from the mouth of the Des Moines River through Clark, Lewis, Scotland, Adair, Macon, Shelby, Monroe, Audrain, Callaway, Boone, Cooper, Pettis, Benton, Henry, St. Clair, Bates, Vernon, Cedar, Dade, Barton and Jasper, into the Indian Territory, and the counties on the northwest of this line contain more or less coal. Coal rocks exist in Ralls, Mont- gomery, Warren, St. Charles, Moniteau, Cole, Morgan, Crawford and Lincoln, and during the past few years, all along the lines of all the railroads in North Missouri, and along the western end of the Missouri Pacific, and on the Missouri River, between Kansas City and Sioux

HISTORY OF MISSOURI.

City, has systematic mining, opened up hundreds of mines in different localities. The area of our coal beds, on the line of the southwestern boundary of the State alone, embraces more than 26,000 square miles of regular coal measures. This will give of workable coal, if the average be one foot, 26,800,000,000 tons. The estimates from the developments already made, in the different portions of the State, will give 134,000,000,000 tons.

The economical value of this coal to the State, its influence in domestic life, in navigation, commerce and manufactures, is beyond the imagination of man to conceive. Suffice it to say, that in the pos- session of her developed and undeveloped coal mines, Missouri has a motive power, which in its influences for good, in the civilization of man, is more potent than the gold of California.

Iron. - Prominent among the minerals, which increase the power and prosperity of a nation, is iron. Of this ore, Missouri has an inex- haustible quantity, and like her coal fields, it has been developed in many portions of the State, and of the best and purest quality. It is found in great abundance in the counties of Cooper, St. Clair, Greene, Henry, Franklin, Benton, Dallas, Camden, Stone, Madison, Iron, Washington, Perry, St. Francois, Reynolds, Stoddard, Scott, Dent and others. The greatest deposit of iron is found in the Iron Moun- tain, which is two hundred feet high, and covers an area of five hun- dred acres, and produces a metal, which is shown by analysis, to con- tain from 65 to 69 per cent of metallic iron.

The ore of Shepherd Mountain contains from 64 to 67 per cent of metallic iron. The ore of Pilot Knob contains from 53 to 60 per cent.

Rich beds of iron are also found at the Big Bogy Mountain, and at Russell Mountain. This ore has, in its nude state, a variety of colors, from the red, dark red, black, brown, to a light bluish gray. The red ores are found in twenty-one or more counties of the State, and are of great commercial value. The brown hematite iron ores extend over a greater range of country than all the others combined, embrac- ing about one hundred counties, and have been ascertained to exist in these in large quantities.

Lead. - Long before any permanent settlements were made in Mis- souri by the whites, lead was mined within the limits of the State at two or three points on the Mississippi. At this time more than five hundred mines are opened, and many of them are being successfully worked. These deposits of lead cover an area, so far as developed, of more than seven thousand square miles. Mines have been opened

HISTORY OF MISSOURI.

in Jefferson, Washington, St. Francois, Madison, Wayne, Carter, Rey- nolds, Crawford, Ste. Genevieve, Perry, Cole, Cape Girardeau, Cam- den, Morgan, and many other counties.

Copper and Zinc. - Several varieties of copper ore are found in Missouri. The copper mines of Shannon, Madison and Franklin Counties have been known for years, and some of these have been successfully worked and are now yielding good results.

Deposits of copper have been discovered in Dent, Crawford, Ben- ton, Maries, Green, Lawrence, Dade, Taney, Dallas, Phelps, Reynolds and Wright Counties.

Zinc is abundant in nearly all the lead mines in the southwestern part of the State, and since the completion of the A. & P. R. R. a market has been furnished for this ore, which will be converted into valuable merchandise.

Building Stone and Marble. - There is no scarcity of good building stone in Missouri. Limestone, sandstone and granite exist in all shades of buff, blue, red and brown, and are of great beauty as build- ing material.

There are many marble beds in the State, some of which furnish very beautiful and excellent marble. It is found in Marion, Cooper, St. Louis, and other counties.

One of the most desirable of the Missouri marbles is in the 3rd Magnesian limestone, on the Niangua. It is fine-grained, crystalline, silico-magnesian limestone, light-drab, slightly tinged with peach blos- som, and clouded by deep flesh-colored shades. In ornamental archi- tecture it is rarely surpassed.

Gypsum and Lime. - Though no extensive beds of gypsum have been discovered in Missouri, there are vast beds of the pure white crystalline variety on the line of the Kansas Pacific Railroad, on Kan- sas River, and on Gypsum Creek. It exists also in several other localities accessible by both rail and boat.

All of the limestone formations in the State, from the coal measures to fourth Magnesian, have more or less strata of very nearly pure car- bonate of pure lime.

Clays and Paints. - Clays are found in nearly all parts of the State suitable for making bricks. Potters' elay and fire-clay are worked in many localities.

There are several beds of purple shades in the coal measures which possess the properties requisite for paints used in outside work. Yel- low and red ochres are found in considerable quantities on the Missouri

HISTORY OF MISSOURI.

River. Some of these paints have been thoroughly tested and found fire-proof and durable.

SPRINGS AND WATER POWER.

No State is, perhaps, better supplied with cold springs of pure water than Missouri. Out of the bottoms, there is scarcely a section of land but has one or more perennial springs of good water. Even where there are no springs, good water can be obtained by digging from twenty to forty feet. Salt springs are abundant in the central part of the State, and discharge their brine in Cooper, Saline, Howard, and adjoining counties. Considerable salt was made in Cooper and Howard Counties at an early day.

Sulphur springs are also numerous throughout the State. The Chouteau Springs in Cooper, the Monagaw Springs in St. Clair, the Elk Springs in Pike, and the Cheltenham Springs in St. Louis County have acquired considerable reputation as salubrious waters, and have become popular places of resort. Many other counties have good sulphur springs.

Among the Chalybeate springs the Sweet Springs on the Black- water, and the Chalybeate spring in the University campus are, perhaps, the most popular of the kind in the State. There are, however, other springs impregnated with some of the salts of iron.

Petroleum springs are found in Carroll, Ray, Randolph, Cass, Lafayette, Bates, Vernon, and other counties. The variety called lubricating oil is the more common.

The water power of the State is excellent. Large springs are particularly abundant on the waters of the Meramec, Gasconade, Bourbeuse, Osage, Niangua, Spring, White, Sugar, and other streams. Besides these, there are hundreds of springs sufficiently large to drive mills and factories, and the day is not far distant when these crystal fountains will be utilized, and a thousand saws will buzz to their dashing music.

HISTORY OF MISSOURI.

CHAPTER IV.

TITLE AND EARLY SETTLEMENTS.

Title to Missouri Lands - Right of Discovery - Title of France and Spain -Cession to the United States - Territorial Changes - Treaties with Indians - First Settle- ment -Ste. Genevieve and New Bourbon-St. Louis- When Incorporated - Potosi - St. Charles - Portage des Sioux -New Madrid -St. Francois County - Perry - Mississippi - Loutre Island -"Boone's Lick " -Cote Sans Dessein - Howard County -Some First Things - Counties - When Organized.

The title to the soil of Missouri was, of course, primarily vested in the original occupants who inhabited the country prior to its discovery by the whites. But the Indians, being savages, possessed but few rights that civilized nations considered themselves bound to respect ; so, therefore, when they found this country in the possession of such a people they claimed it in the name of the King of France, by the right of discovery. It remained under the jurisdiction of France until 1763.

Prior to the year 1763, the entire continent of North America was divided between France, England, Spain and Russia. France held all that portion that now constitutes our national domain west of the Mississippi River, except Texas, and the territory which we have obtained from Mexico and Russia. The vast region, while under the jurisdiction of France, was known as the " Province of Louisiana," and embraced the present State of Missouri. At the close of the " Old French War," in 1763, France gave up her share of the con- tinent, and Spain came into the possession of the territory west of the Mississippi River, while Great Britain retained Canada and the regions northward, having obtained that territory by conquest, in the war with France. For thirty-seven years the territory now embraced within the limits of Missouri, remained as a part of the possession of Spain, and then went back to France by the treaty of St. Ildefonso, October 1, 1800. On the 30th of April, 1803, France ceded it to the United States, in consideration of receiving $11,250,000, and the liquidation of certain claims, held by citizens of the United States against France, which amounted to the further sum of $3,750,000, making a total of $15,000,000. It will thus be seen that France bas twice, and Spain once, held sovereignty over the territory embracing

HISTORY OF MISSOURI.

Missouri, but the financial needs of Napoleon afforded our Govern- ment an opportunity to add another empire to its domain.

On the 31st of October, 1803, an act of Congress was approved, authorizing the President to take possession of the newly acquired territory, and provided for it a temporary government, and another act, approved March 26, 1804, authorized the division of the " Louis- iana Purchase," as it was then called, into two separate territories. All that portion south of the 33d parallel of north latitude was called the " Territory of Orleans," and that north of the said parallel was known as the " District of Louisiana," and was placed under the jurisdiction of what was then known as " Indian Territory."

By virtue of an act of Congress, approved March 3, 1805, the " District of Louisiana " was organized as the " Territory of Louis- iana," with a territorial government of its own, which went into operation July 4th of the same year, and it so remained till 1812. In this year the " Territory of Orleans " became the State of Louisiana, and the "Territory of Louisiana " was organized as the " Territory of Missouri."

This change took place under an act of Congress, approved June 4, 1812. In 1819, a portion of this territory was organized as " Arkan- sas Territory," and on August 10, 1821, the State of Missouri was admitted, being a part of the former " Territory of Missouri."

In 1836, the " Platte Purchase," then being a part of the Indian Territory, and now composing the counties of Atchison, Andrew, Buchanan, Holt, Nodaway and Platte, was made by treaty with the Indians, and added to the State. It will be seen, then, that the soil of Missouri belonged : -

1. To France, with other territory.

2. In 1763, with other territory, it was ceded to Spain.

3. October 1, 1800, it was ceded, with other territory from Spain, back to France.

4. April 30, 1803, it was ceded, with other territory, by France to the United States.

5. October 31, 1803, a temporary government was authorized by Congress for the newly acquired territory.

6. October 1, 1804, it was included in the " District of Louisiana " and placed under the territorial government of Indiana.

7. 'July 4, 1805, it was included as a part of the " Territory of Louisiana," then organized with a separate territorial government.

HISTORY OF MISSOURI.

8. June 4, 1812, it was embraced in what was then made the " Ter- ritory of Missouri."

9. August 10, 1821, it was admitted into the Union as a State.

10. In 1836, the " Platte Purchase " was made, adding more ter- ritory to the State.

The cession by France, April 30, 1803, vested the title in the United States, subject to the claims of the Indians, which it was very justly the policy of the Government to recognize. Before the Government of the United States could vest clear title to the soil in the grantee it was necessary to extinguish the Indian title by purchase. This was done accordingly by treaties made with the Indians at different times.

EARLY SETTLEMENTS.

The name of the first white man who set foot on the territory now embraced in the State of Missouri, is not known, nor is it known at what precise period the first settlements were made. It is, however, generally agreed that they were made at Ste. Genevieve and New Bourbon, tradition fixing the date of the settlements in the autumn of 1735. These towns were settled by the French from Kaskaskia and St. Philip in Illinois.

St. Louis was founded by Pierre Laclede Liguest, on the 15th of February, 1764. He was a native of France, and was one of the members of the company of Laclede Liguest, Antonio Maxant & Co., to whom a royal charter had been granted, confirming the privilege of an exclusive trade with the Indians of Missouri as far north as St. Peter's River.

While in search of a trading post he ascended the Mississippi as far as the mouth of the Missouri, and finally returned to the present town site of St. Louis. After the village had been laid off he named it St. Louis in honor of Louis XV., of France.

The colony thrived rapidly by accessions from Kaskaskia and other towns on the east side of the Mississippi, and its trade was largely in_ creased by many of the Indian tribes, who removed a portion of their peltry trade from the same towns to St. Louis. It was incorporated as a town on the ninth day of November, 1809, by the Court of Com- mon Pleas of the district of St. Louis; the town trustees being Auguste Chouteau, Edward Hempstead, Jean F. Cabanne, Wm. C. Carr and William Christy, and incorporated as a city December 9, 1822. The selection of the town site on which St. Louis stands was highly judicious, the spot not only being healthful and having the ad-

HISTORY OF MISSOURI.

vantages of water transportation unsurpassed, but surrounded by a beautiful region of country, rich in soil and mineral resources. St. Louis has grown to be the fifth city in population in the Union, and is to-day the great center of internal commerce of the Missouri, the Mississippi and their tributaries, and, with its railroad facilities, it is destined to be the greatest inland city of the American continent.

The next settlement was made at Potosi, in Washington County, in 1765, by Francis Breton, who, while chasing a bear, discovered the mine near the present town of Potosi, where he afterward located.

One of the most prominent pioneers who settled at Potosi was Moses Austin, of Virginia, who, in 1795, received by grant from the Spanish government a league of land, now known as the "Austin Sur- vey." The grant was made on condition that Mr. Austin would es- tablish a lead mine at Potosi and work it. He built a palatial residence, for that day, on the brow of the hill in the little village, which was for many years known as " Durham Hall." At this point the first shot-tower and sheet-lead manufactory were erected.

Five years after the founding of St. Louis the first settlement made in Northern Missouri was made near St. Charles, in St. Charles County, in 1769. The name given to it, and which it retained till 1784, was Les Petites Cotes, signifying, Little Hills. The town site was located by Blanchette, a Frenchman, surnamed LeChasseur, who built the first fort in the town and established there a military post.

Soon after the establishment of the military post at St. Charles, the old French village of Portage des Sioux, was located on the Missis- sippi, just below the mouth of the Illinois River, and at about the same time a Kickapoo village was commenced at Clear Weather Lake. The present town site of New Madrid, in New Madrid county, was settled in 1781, by French Canadians, it then being occupied by Del- aware Indians. The place now known as Big River Mills, St. Fran- cois county, was settled in 1796, Andrew Baker, John Alley, Francis Starnater and John Andrews, each locating claims. The following year, a settlement was made in the same county, just below the pres- ent town of Farmington, by the Rev. William Murphy, a Baptist min- ister from East Tennessee. In 1796, settlements were made in Perry county by emigrants from Kentucky and Pennsylvania ; the latter lo- cating in the rich bottom lands of Bois Brule, the former generally settling in the " Barrens," and along the waters of Saline Creek.

Bird's Point, in Mississippi county, opposite Cairo, Illinois, was settled August 6, 1800, by John Johnson, by virtue of a land-grant

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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