History of Cooper County, Missouri, Part 2

Author: Johnson, William Foreman, b. 1861
Publication date: 1919
Publisher: Topeka : Historical Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 1464

USA > Missouri > Cooper County > History of Cooper County, Missouri > Part 2

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).

796

Oswold, Joseph

1141

Painter, James

867

Parrish, John S

856

Patrick, N. D

1093

Patterson, Ed.

536

Pealer, Rolla

924

Pendleton, Thomas O.

831

Pendleton, William G.

493

Peyton & Sons, T. R

979

Phillips, Charles S.

885

Phillips, William R

889

Pigott, John T.

395

Poage, William S.

1133

Poertner, William F.

722

Popper, Joseph

562

Potter, Abraham

1000

Putnam, John M

883

Quigg, H. D. 533

Reavis, Walter W 584

Reed, Benjamin F 1122

Renfrow, W. C.

651

Rethemeyer, J. H.

697

Renken, Henry A.

520

Reynolds, George

1109

Richey, Henry L 863

Richey, John W.

863

Richey, John W. 1116

Rissler, William B

848

Ritchie, Andrew

769

Roberts, Elijah H.

646

541

Robertson, Charles E

644

Robertson, Warner W.

644

Robien, Henry P

555

Robien, William G 545

Rodgers, E. H 927

Roe, Robert S

1032

Roeschel, William E. 522

Rossen, Sonneck C.

433

Roth, Charles E.

947

Rothgeb, Richard 955

Rowles, W. H. H. 782

Rudolph, John W 420

Ruskin, Harry.

429

Russell, George

470

Sappington, John C. 649

Sauter, Augustus H 406

Sauter, Frank S

473

Sauter, Joseph L.

639

Schaumburg, LaRoy O

371

Schieber], Martin

638

Schilb, Enslie

Schilb, Fred L. 1010

Schilb, Frederick 766

Schler, Anton H

970

Schleuter, William 600

Schlotzhauer, Christopher 880

Schlotzhauer, George H.

879

Schlotzhauer, James H. 864

Schlotzhauer, John

836

Schlotzhauer, John W.

832

Schmalfeldt, William F

704

Schmidt, Herman A 495

Schmidt. Maximillian E. 418

Schmidt, Otto G. 617

Schnack, Herman. 475

Schnuck, John H 1034

Schnuck, H. E. 619

Scholle, George H

941

Schrader, Henry 534

Schubert, Charles W. 690

Schubert, Irene

658

Schupp, Curry 1080

Schupp, George

872

Schuster, Adam 792

Schuster, August R 772

Schuster, Benjamin E. 776

Schuster, Frank.

822

Schuster, Henry

1056

Schuster, William

808

Schwitzky, Robert.

606

Scott, Edward G. 462

Scott, Joshua B. 1112

Scott, William A 829

Scott, William R. 981

Sells, Joseph 794

Shannon, Eliza B. 661

Shannon, Fleming

930

839

Roberts, Samuel W

HISTORY OF COOPER COUNTY

Shannon, Robert A 1053

Shears, Clarence. 653

Shepherd, Charles M. 833

Stegner, Otto. 1153

Steigleder, G. H 640

Steigleder, W. F 640

Steinmetz, George T. 1148

Stephens Jr., A. H. 937

Stephens, Henry S. 1012

Stephens, John M 912

Stites, Charles A 866

Stoecklein, John 1127

Stoecklein, Otto 1126

Strickfaden, Peter

996

Stretz, J. H. 1038

Swap, Charles

445

Sweeney, John 914

Smith, Chris 532

Smith, Edward D. 819

Smith, Edwin K. 695

Smith, Fountain D.

818

Smith, Francis M.

426

Smith, Henry.

709

Smith, John H.

608

Smith, John R 743

Smith, Peter

596

Smith, Peter

944

Smith, Robert

712

Smith, Thomas H

770

Smith, Urban

636

Smith, William A

1003

Snider, Robert 967

Sombart, Charles A 356

Sombart, Henry E.

368

Spahr, Andrew J

645

Spahr, Lawrence

1105

Spahr, William L

1104

Sparkman, James

958

Spieler, Oscar.

404

Spillers, John L 903

Staebler, J. Louis 554

Stahl, William H 1132

Starke, Dryden L

952

Starke. H. Roger

906

Starke, John

960

Steele, Charles E 798

Stegner, August. 566

Stegner, Edward 630

Stegner, Feoder

963

Stegner, Frank C.

877

Talbott, William B. 515

Taliaferro, George

700

Talley, James P. 844

Tally, William T

8.19

Tanner, William L 498

Tevis, Robert S. 740

Thomas, Charles

954

Thomas, Millard E. 1135

Thornton, Samuel Y

784

Toellner, Christ

1157

Toler, Grover C. 710

Toler, O. K 710

Torbeck, Ernest W

591

Torbeck, Henry F.

964

Trigg, William W. 601

Tucker, Martin. 502

Turley, William H

752

Tutt, Charles P

669

Underwood, John S 466

Victor, Felix 935

Viertel, George 1057

Vieth, Berend 755

Viertel, John F. 611

Vollmer, Anthony.

852

· Vollrath, Charles L

850

Wagner, Charles F 641

Walden, Charles J 359

Wallace, Wilbur

1146

Wallery, Joseph W.

1147

Walker, James W.

909

Shepherd, James B. 1042

Shirley, Charles D.

692

Shouse, Charles Q.

805

Shouse, Walter H.

799

Sieckman, Fritz 476

Simrall, Thomas

922

Sims Brothers

1122

Sims, John 807

Sites, L. T.

948

Sloan, Marie R.

1155

Smith, Andrew C.

706

Smith, Anthony.

477

Smith, Benjamin N

1062

Stegner, Fred C. 1148

Stegner, Marion. 589

HISTORY OF COOPER COUNTY

Walther, John J. 507

Windsor, Edward B. 875

Walterscheid, John E.

491

Windsor, Eugene 736

Walz, John E. 444

Windsor, John H 732

Waterman, Henry

530

Windsor, Horace G. 656

Wear, Emmett

600

Windsor, Richard L 424

Wear, George H. 592

Windsor, Richard N 425

Weekley, Martin L 768

Windsor, Walter B 393

Wendleton, David. 676

Wendleton, Lon V. 553

Winterbower, T. H 937

West, Walter

873

Wolfe, William E. 762

Wolfrum, John G. 1014

White, A. J

703

Wood, Arthur H. 1127

White, Arthur F

778

Woodroof, Charles E. 810

White, Frank B

1120

Wooldridge, William J. 621

Whitlow, John N

706

Woolery, Joseph W. 1147

Worts, Willard A 812

528

Williams, Porter E 917

Williams, Roy D

382

Yancey, L. C.

1076

Williams, William M

380

Wilson, Charles E

871

Zeigle, Lester O

845

Windsor, Andrew H

1067

Zollinger, Conrad M.

968

Whitlow, R. W.

1161

Williams, Harry 1119

Wyan, Robert F

Yancey, Henry J 745

Wing, Henry M. 811

Weyland, George A 384

PRESENT COURT HOUSE, BOONVILLE, MO.

History of Cooper County

CHAPTER I ..

ARCHEOLOGY

DIVISIONS OF HISTORY-CONTENTS OF MOUNDS-ORIGIN OF MOUNDS-PROBABLE RACE OF MOUND BUILDERS.

History is speculative, inferential, and actual; speculative when it records conclusions based on hypothesis founded on facts, far removed ; inferential when conclusions are reasonably based on facts; actual, when facts alone are recorded. The historian deals with all three, more or less, in combination one with the other. This chapter is purely specula- tive. The editor is not an archaeologist, and does not attempt herein to arrive at, or lead the reader to a conclusion. Houck, in his "History of Missouri," claims to have located through investigators something like twenty-eight thousand mounds in the state. These mounds are usually called Indian mounds, and he does not assert that all that existed in the state were discovered by his investigators. He mentions nine in Cooper county. There are doubtless more than ninety and nine, and probably many more leveled with the plow.

The only purpose to be conserved throughout this chapter is to open up the vista to inquiring minds, that their observations and discoveries may be preserved for the future. The casual observer sees an elevation of ground. The geologist, or archaeologist, if you please, by close and careful examination, determines to a certainty, or thinks he does, that

(3)

HISTORY OF COOPER COUNTY

this is not caused by erosion, or by an internal upheaval of the earth. He concludes, therefore, that it has been raised by man. Here geology, paleontology, and archaeology, the three sister sciences, begin their labors hand in hand, "And the mind recoils dismayed when it undertakes the computations of thousands of years which have elapsed since the creation of man."

As our feet grope in darkness, irresistably down the ages to the night of the unknown, these three sister sciences hold aloft a torch that illumi- nates, in part at least, our darkened pathway through the dim vista of the vanished past.

Contents of Mounds .- By excavating these mounds we find peculiar instruments of the chase and hunt, vessels, bowls and statuary, some with peculiar markings and engravings. Such mounds have been dis- covered throughout the country in almost countless thousands, and they were here when the white man first set foot on American soil. The articles found in them were unlike those used by the Indians, known at the time of the first white men. The same Indians lay no claim to having built these peculiar structures of earth, and hold no tradition that those who preceded them had built them, and some of the tribes claim tradi- tions running back thousands of years, prior to theii acquaintance with the white man.

Origin of Mounds .- The scientists reason thus: first, the mounds are not of natural formation; second, they were built by man; third, the white man did not build them; fourth, the Indians did not build them; there- fore, it follows as a logical conclusion that they were built by a race inhabiting our country long before the red man. This, in fact, is the consensus of scientific opinion, yet not all agree. Dr. C. A. Peterson, former president of the Missouri Historical Society, and a student of Missouri antiquities, uses this forcible language: "Credulity has been taxed to the utmost, and columns of crude ideas and inane arguments have been published by half-baked archaeologists, who established great antiquity for the mounds and an advanced civilization for their builders, and the extreme and ridiculous flights which the imagination has been allowed to take in building up the stories of the mythical mound builders may be well illustrated by this case. About thirty years ago an amateur archaeologist in exploring quite a modern Indian mound reported that he had found the skeletons buried beneath it to be a proper complement in numbers and arranged in proper order and position to represent the three principal officers of the Masonic Lodge at work, each officer being equipped

HISTORY OF COOPER COUNTY

with the implement and insignia of his respective office. To those at- tracted to a contemplation of mystery, and to revelers of the occulet, it was the most marvelous and entertaining discovery ever reported in American archaeology, but there were a few incredulous, unfeeling scof- fers, who would not accept the story as true, because the discoverer did not produce the bones of the candidate and the goat. In conclusion, let it be reiterated that there was never an iota of evidence in existence tending to establish the contention that some people, other than the American Indian, erected the mounds and other earthworks found in connection with them, and the physical condition of the abandoned works and their contents could not justify a belief that any of them were erected more than one thousand years ago."

The Indian mounds are especially numerous along the Missouri River, in the townships of Saline, Boonville, and Lamine, and are found in vary- ing numbers in other sections of Cooper County. It is to be regretted that more attention has not been paid to them in the past to the end that what found therein would have been preserved for investigation and study. It is said that on the old Hopkins farm in Saline township there are five of these mounds. It is related on reliable authority that in the early seventies a young physician, fresh from college in Kentucky, and with budding honors, debonair and faultlessly attired, located in Saline township. He was smail of stature, willowy in form, a Beau Brummel, polite and obliging. Visiting at the Hopkins home one Sunday, a balmy spring day, where were gathered a few of the local beauties of the neigh- borhood, his attention was directed to a large mound of earth in the yard. He thought it strange, and had never before seen such an elevation of earth in a yard. Being deeply interested, he asked one of the young ladies present what it was for. She replied that it was an Indian mound, and that an Indian who had been killed was buried there. The young doctor was greatly interested. She told him that if he would stand on top of the mound, and say in a loud voice, "Indian, poor Indian. what did they kill you for?" the Indian would say, "Nothing at all." The doctor valiantly essayed the mound, ascending to the top, and in a stentorian voice cried, "Indian, poor Indian, what did they kill you for?" He waited a few minutes for the response, and finally realized that the young lady was right, for the Indian said nothing at all. The young doctor felt completely sold out. Following his motto of evening up old scores, he set out energetically to do so. He courted the young lady, and eventu- ally married her. thus evening the score.

The following, which is a collation of authorities and brief com-

HISTORY OF COOPER COUNTY

ments of scientists, pro and con, we take from Houck's "History of Missouri."

"The pre-historic works of Missouri attracted attention from the earliest settlement of the country. Stoddard says, 'It is admitted on all hands that they have endured for centuries. The trees in their ram- parts, from the number of their annulae, or radii, indicate an age of mort than four hundred years.' Holmes says that the manufacture of the pottery-ware found in the mounds 'began many centuries before the advent of the white race.' The Indians found by the first white explorers did not recognize these mounds as belonging to them, either by occupying them or using them, or by their traditions, although the surprising number of such mounds in some sections of the country, many of them very large, singular in form, and conspicuous in the landscape, must have attracted the attention of the most thoughtless of them. Marquis de Nadailic says that these 'mounds in North America are among the most remarkable known.' Featherstonehaugh was so im- pressed by these historic remains in Missouri that he concluded that they were to the tribes that built them what the pyramids were to the ancient Egyptians.

Probable Race of Mound-Builders .- To what particular race the mound-builders belonged has been a subject of much discussion. Abbe Brasseur de Bourbourg declares that the pre-Aztec Mexicans and Toltecs were a people identical with the mound-builder. It is also said that the mound-builders were of the same cranial type as the ancient Mexicans, Peruvians, and the natives of the Pacific slope as far north as Sitka; that is to say, brachycephalic; and Winchell thinks that 'the identity of the race of mound-builders with the races of Anahuac and Peru will become generally recognized. 'Squier supposes that they belonged to an 'extinct race.' Atwater gives it as his opinion that the 'lofty mounds'-ancient fortifications and tumuli-'which cost so much labor in their structure,' owe their 'origin to a people much more civilized than our Indian'; and Atwater was familiar with the capabilities and characteristics of the American Indian. Others, again, suppose that they were the same people who afterward came from the northeast into Mexico. Bancroft says that the 'claims in behalf of the Nahua traces in the Mississippi region are much better founded than those which have been urged in other parts of the country.' He asserts that the remains in the Mississippi valley 'are not the works of the Indian tribes found in the country, nor of any tribes resembling them in their institution, and that the 'best

HISTORY OF COOPER COUNTY

authorities deem it impossible that the mound-builders were even remote ancestors of the Indian tribes.' In his opinion, there was an actual con- nection, either through origin, war, or commerce, between the mound- builders and the Nahuas. This he infers from the so-called temple mounds, a strongly resembling the pyramids of Mexico, implying a simi- larity of religious ideas; the use of obsidian implements; the Nahua tra- dition of the arrival of civilized strangers from the northeast. And Baldwin, in reviewing the various traditions recorded by many of the earliest Spanish chroniclers of Mexico, concludes by saying that it seems not improbable that the Huehue, or 'Old Tlapalan' of their tradition, was 'the country of our mound-builders' on the Mississippi. Albert Gallatin thinks that the works erected indicate 'a dense agricultural population,' a population 'eminently agricultural,' a state essentially different from that of the Iroquois or Algonquin Indians. Yet, he also expressed the opinion that the earthworks discovered might have been executed by a 'savage people.' Brinton also thinks that these earthworks were not the production 'of some mythical tribe of high civilization in remote antiquity but of the identical nations found by the whites residing in these regions.' Schoolcraft says that the Indian predecessors of the existing race 'could have executed' these works. Lewis Cass believed that the forefathers of the present Indian 'no doubt' erected these works as places of refuge and security. Jones is of the opinion that the old idea that the mound-builders were a people distinct from the Indians is 'unfounded in fact, and fanciful.' Lucian Carr in an elaborate article says there is no reason 'why the red Indians of the Mississippi valley, judging from what we know historically of their development, could not have thrown up these works.' Dr. C. A. Peterson, in a paper read before the Missouri Historical Society in 1902, concludes that 'there never was an iota of evidence in existence tending to establish the contention that some people, other than the American Indian, erected the mounds and earthworks found in connection with them; and the physical condition does not justify the belief that any of them were erected more than one thousand years ago. In support of this view he says, 'an immense memo- rial earthwork over the body of a popular Osage chief' was erected by his tribe, citing Beck's Gazeteer. But J. F. Snyder asserts that the Osages 'built no earthen mounds,' and that the mound mentioned by Dr. Beck as having been built by them near the head-waters of the Osage was the result of glacial action. Snyder also quotes Holcomb, who states that 'the mysterious races of beings, termed mound-builders never dwelt

HISTORY OF COOPER COUNTY

in Vernon County,' and that no fragments of pottery have ever been found there, nor noteworthy archaeological specimens,, and few, if any flint, arrow-heads, lance-heads, stone-heads, etc., although he admits that the Osages erected stone heaps occasionally over the bodies of their dead to preserve them from the ravages of wild beasts.

One remarkable discovery made by Mr. Thomas Beckwith, who has devoted many years to the careful and intelligent exploration of the mounds of the Mississippi country, would seem to tend to support the contention that the more ancient mound-builders of the Mississippi valley, at least, belonged to the Nahual race of Mexico. It should be observed that in making his explorations Mr. Beckwith always proceeds with the greatest circumspection, not, like so many others, hastily digging and burrowing into mounds, looking only for perfect pottery ware, carelessly overlooking and throwing everything else away; on the contrary, nothing is too small for his notice, and it is his invariable practice to gather up and preserve every fragment, small and insignificant though it may appear. The exploration of the mound does not always satisfy him. In some instances where the surrounding country seems to warrant it, he also explores the soil for several feet below the surface at present sur- rounding the mound. In making such sub-surface explorations Mr. Beck- with, at a depth three feet below the present surface, in a number of instances, found pottery balls imbedded in the clay, near mounds ex- plored by him. During his various explorations of mounds, he has col- lected in this way perhaps a half-bushel of such pottery balls of various forms, some ovoids, some round, about the size of a walnut, others again lenticular; the ovoids being in the form of Roman glandes, as described by Evans ;that is, fusiform, or pointed. Such pottery balls of various shapes were in use as sling-stones among the Charrus of South America. The Marquis de Nadailice says that the Chimecs, who were of the Nahuatl race, in their wars used bows and arrows and 'slings with which they flung little pottery balls which caused dangerous wounds.' Such artificial pottery sling-stones, being uniform in size and weight, gave a greater precision of aim, an advantage which is recognized by the barbarous tribes of New Caledonia today, where sling-stones made out of steatite are used by the natives. The sling was an offensive weapon of the Aztecs, and the stones thrown with great force and accuracy. Among the Mayas of Yucatan slings were also extensively used. But as an offensive weapon it was unknown among the North American Indians."

The chroniclers of the past, delving into ancient lore, have pronounced

HISTORY OF COOPER COUNTY

Egypt to have the oldest written history. Man, calling to his aid the hieroglyphic records of Egypt, as well as the inscribed bricks and cylin- ders of Assyria, can trace back the annals of man's history no further than fifty centuries. Egypt was schooled in the sciences and nobler arts, and rich in knowledge when Remus and Romulus were unborn and Italy inhabited by uncouth and barbarous savages, when Athens was not spoken, nor Greece begun; when Europe, now teeming with her millions, was wilderness and sparsely inhabited by races unlettered and unlearned, yet Egypt has her ruins of unnamed cities where a people of a forgotten civilization trafficked and traded, pushed and jostled.

The prehistoric remains of Egypt are a never-ending source of his- torical revelation to the student of archaeology. Even the supposed myth of Troy vanished in the face of these established facts; yet more wonder- ful-beneath the ruins of discovered Troy, the excavator has found the ruins of another city. It would seem that wherever the soil would sup- port and the climate permit, there man has lived and had his being, and that practically every country produces evidence of a forgotten and pre- historic race.

In the Dark Ages, a few centuries back, ruthless might, with its accompanying wreck and ruin, effaced much of the world's gems of art, literature and architecture, and even the torch of learning was kept but faintly burning in the cloisters of the monk. The world is littered with the devastations of war; and ever, man has built and destroyed.

The years, as we know them in written history, may be but as a day in the eons upon eons of man's development. Generation after genera- tion of men in a ceaseless flow have passed, and the earth is filled with the graves of the forgotten, above which we "strut and fret our brief hour upon the stage." Our country's history is the history of the white man. We have but filmy traditions of the Indians, and if another race preceded it, it must be discovered in what is commonly termed the Indian mounds.

CHAPTER II.

EXPLORATIONS

THE NEW WORLD-PONCE DE LEON-DE SOTO-CORONADO-MARQUETTE AND JOLIET-LA SELLE-FRENCH SETTLEMENTS-TREATY OF ILDEFONSO- PURCHASE OF LOUISIANA TERRITORY-ORGANIZATION OF TERRITORY- VARIOUS CLAIMS TO MISSOURI.

When the new world was discovered and had wonderfully revealed itself to the adventurers and daring men of the Old World, the enterprize of Europe was startled into action. Those valiant men, who had won laurels among the mountains of Andalusia, on the fields of Flanders, and on the battlefields of Albion, sought a more remote field for adventure. The revelation of a new world and a new race, and communication between the old and the new, provided a field for fertile imagination. The fact was as astounding to the people then as it would be to us should we learn that Mars is peopled and that communication could be established between that planet and the earth.

The heroes of the ocean despised the range of Europe as too narrow, offering to their extravagant ambition nothing beyond mediocrity. Am- bition, avarice, and religious zeal were strangely blended, and the heroes of the main sailed to the west, as if bound on a new crusade, for infinite wealth and renown were to reward their piety, satisfy their greed, and satiate their ambition.

America was the region of romance where their heated imagination could indulge in the boldest delusions, where the simple ignorant native wore the most precious ornaments, the sands by the side of the clear runs of water, sparkled with gold. Says the historian of the ocean, these adventurous heroes speedily prepared to fly by a beckoning or a whis-

HISTORY OF COOPER COUNTY

pering wheresoever they were called. They forsook certainties for the lure and hope of more brilliant success.

To win provinces with the sword, divide the wealth of empires, to plunder the accumulated treasures of some ancient Indian dynasty, to return from a roving expedition with a crowd of enslaved captives and a profusion of spoils, soon became ordinary dreams. Fame, fortune, life and all were squandered in the visions of wealth and renown. Even if the issue was uncertain, success, greater than the boldest imagination had dared, was sometimes attained.

It would be an interesting story to trace each hero across the ocean to the American continent, and through the three great gateways thereof, through which he entered the wilds of the great west. The accounts. of the explorations and exploitations into the great west read like a romance. The trials through which the explorers passed were enough to make the stoutest hearts quail and to test the endurance of men of steel.

Juan Ponce de Leon, an old comrade of Christopher Columbus in his second voyage across the Atlantic, spent his youth in the military service of Spain, and shared in the wild exploits of predatory valor in the Granada. He was a fearless and gallant soldier. The revelation of a new world fired within him the spirit of youth and adventure. He was an old man, yet age had not tempered his love of hazardous enterprise to advance his fortune by conquest of kingdoms, and to retrieve a repu- tation, not without blemish. His cheeks had been furrowed by years of hard service, and he believed the tale which was a tradition, credited in Spain by those who were distinguished for intelligence, of a fountain which possessed the virtue to renovate the life of those who drank of it or bathed in its healing waters. In 1513, with a squadron of three ships fitted out at his own expense, he landed on the coast of Florida, a few miles north of St. Augustine. Here he remained for many weeks, pa- tiently and persistently exploring and penetrating the "deep, tangled wildwood," searching for gold and drinking from the waters of every stream, brook, rivulet, and spring and bathing in every fountain. The discoverer of Florida seeking immortality on earth, bereft of fortune and broken in spirit, found the sombre shadow of death in his second voyage in 1521. Contending with the implacable fury of the Indians, he died from an arrow wound received in an Indian fight. He was laid to rest on the island of Cuba.

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History of Cooper County, Missouri, Part 2

Author: Johnson, William Foreman, b. 1861 Publication date: 1919 Publisher: Topeka : Historical Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 1464

Author: Johnson, William Foreman, b. 1861
Publication date: 1919
Publisher: Topeka : Historical Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 1464