USA > Missouri > Henry County > History of Henry County, Missouri > Part 2
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To serve therefore only to mark the continued course of immigration to the entire West, is it recited that the first permanent settlements made in what is now Missouri, were at Sainte Genevieve in 1735 and in St. Louis in 1764. Earlier, temporary settlements had been made, one of these being at Fort Orleans on the Missouri River; the exact site of which can not be determined, but in all probability it was not far from the mouth of the Grand River, or about where Charitan, Saline and Carroll counties join. Early in the eighteenth century, men had been sent into Missouri to search for silver. French trappers and hunters from Illinois had made their way up the Missouri River on hunting expeditions. The Spanish at Santa Fe in 1720 fitted up an expedition to explore this region and counteract the influences of the French in these explorations. This organization of the Spanish was given the name of the Spanish or Great Caravan and was destroyed by the Missouri Indians and their kindred tribes, all of them allies of the French. Possibly as a result of this expe- dition, the French settled at Fort Orleans, which was the nearest of any of the early white settlements to the present boundary lines of Henry County, although it was not a permanent one.
Neither will it be the purpose of this history to make an extended inquiry into the peoples who lived within the present boundary lines of Henry County prior to the coming of white men. Some authorities say that the people who lived in this section of Missouri-the so-called mound- builders-were at least of as high a type as those who lived in the Pueblo country or in Mexico, Central America or Peru.
We know more about the Indians who succeeded the mound-builders and who lived in this southwestern territory at the time of the coming of the white men. In his remarkable work, "The History of Missouri," on which Hon. Louis Houck, of Cape Girardeau, spent much of his energy of recent years, the author gives us a fine description of the Osage Indians, whose territory extended from the Great Bend of the Missouri down to the Arkansas River and east to the Mississippi. The Osages were of re-
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markable height, not many being less than six feet high. "The instances of deformity were rare among them; they were fleet in their movements." It is hard to believe the things which are told as to their activity; it was not uncommon for them to walk a distance of sixty miles in a day. A Little Osage chief claimed that he was at Braddock's defeat with all the warriors that he could muster and that in the expedition they were absent from their villages but seven months. The Osages possessed all the characteristics of the Indian; they talked little; they were not noisy except when drunk ; they were generally distinguished from other Indians by the fact that they were not given to drunkenness, for among the Osages it was rare and ridiculed.
They had knowledge of astronomy, knew the Pleiades, the great dipper, the morning and evening stars; the moon regulated their calendar; insanity was unknown among them, the blind were cared for, sickness and pain were borne with great bravery. As to definite settlements of these Indians, we know nothing. Their main dependence was, as one may surmise, on hunting and fishing and the small crops of beans and pump- kins which they raised. They hunted bears and beavers, after which came what we might call their farm life. The wild fruits, the nuts, such as walnuts, hazel-nuts and pecans, added to their rations. They were, as many Indians, of unattractive appearance. With buffalo robes thrown over their shoulders, some with limbs exposed and others with no covering but the cloth about their loins, they presented a disgusting appearance. A few of the women were daubed with red and adorned with beads. The dress was usually composed of moccasins for the feet with leggins for the legs and thigh, a breach cloth, an overall or hunting jacket slipped over the head, all made of leather and softened by applications of fat or oil. The women allowed their hair to grow long and parted it on the top of their heads, letting it hang over their shoulders. The Osages were kind and hospitable. They lived in lodges generally constructed with upright posts planted firmly in the ground about twenty feet in height with a crotch at the top, and placed about twelve feet distant from each other. In the crotch of these posts was a large pole over which they bent small poles, bringing the ends down and fastening them to a row of sticks five feet in height, which formed the flank walls of the lodges; they covered this shell of a building with a matting made of rushes. The doors were at the ends; the fire in the center of the building, the smoke going through a hole in the roof, left for that purpose.
The cooking utensils were very simple in kind and very limited in quantity. Everyone carried a knife, used at mealtime or for self-defense.
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They had no regular time for eating their meals and very little variety for their food. In common with all Indians, the laborious operations were performed by the women.
The domestic institutions were different from those of any other Indians west of the Mississippi. There were three classes of men-some were warriors or hunters, others cooks, others doctors; the doctors were also priests and magicians. The cooks were either of general service or were attached to some particular family. Very frequently, warriors who had outlived their usefulness would take up the duties and profession of a cook and would live the remaining portion of their lives, attached to some particular patron. The government was an oligarchy; the chiefs were hereditary. The Osages had no regular code of laws.
In common with all other Indians, they adorned their ears with ear- rings, shaved the hair of their head except a lock on the crown which they platted and ornamented with wampum and feathers, decorating and painting their faces. They usually ornamented their necks with a pro- fusion of wampum and beads.
These former inhabitants of Henry County were a war-like nation of savages. They were remarkable for their skill in the use of the bow and arrow; the bows were about four feet long and made out of hickory or similar wood, using for a cord a buffalo or elk sinew. The arrow was some two feet long with an elongated, triangular spear-head made of sheet iron; the difference between the hunting and the war arrow was that the spear- head of the war arrow was lightly attached, so that when withdrawn from the wound this spear-head would remain. According to Pike, the country around the great village of the Osages, which is near the present site of Papinville in Bates County, is "one of the most beautiful the eye ever beheld, the Osage River winding round and past the village, giving advantages of wood and water and at the same time an extensive prairie crowned with rich and luxuriant grass and flowers, gently diversified by rising swells and sloping lawns, present to the warm imagination the future sight of husbandry, the numerous herds of domestic animals which are no doubt destined to crown with joy those happy plains."
It was in this section of Missouri, in 1821, that the Harmony Mission was established, on the banks of the Marais Des Cygnes, about six miles from where it joins the Osage. This Mission was about fifteen miles from the great Osage village, suggested above as being near the present town of Papinville. The location is described as follows:
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"Our limits embraced excellent timber in abundance, vast prairie for plowing and pasturing; the only minerals known in this vast country, stone and coal, on the surface of the ground and within a few rods of our build- ings, and a large region of limestone sufficiently near for convenience. Our river bottoms are rather low for cultivation, without draining; but our prairies are high and inclining toward the creeks which receive and carry off all the surplus water. The soil of our prairies is a dark, rich loam about two feet thick, beneath which we have clear clay as deep as we have yet penetrated. We shall depend on wells for water for family use. The grass of the prairie varies from two feet to seven in height and forms an impediment to traveling equal to that of snow, from eight to ten inches deep."
As to the field for missionary work, it is aptly summed up by some of the missionaries: "It is painful to reflect on the condition of the In- dians to whom we have come; the moon, they call Heaven, to which we are all going at death; the sun, they call the Great Spirit which governs the moon and the earth. The moral darkness in which these people are involved is greater than has yet been communicated to the Christian world. It has been commonly reported that they worship God and ac- knowledge Him as the first great cause of all things; this, however, will, I believe, be found to be a misrepresentation. From the best information I can obtain, it appears that they are an idolatrous race and that they worship the sun, the earth, the moon and the stars. They worship these creatures of God as creators. If asked who made the sun, moon, earth, etc., they can not tell. It is no uncommon thing to see them start imme- diately after their morning devotion on some mischievous and atrocious expedition-perhaps to murder some neighboring tribe or to steal their substance. Many of them are playing cards around me while I am writing and uttering in broken English the oaths which are so commonly uttered at the card table. Both card-playing and profanity, they have doubtless learned from the traders who pass much of their time in the village."
The above account of the Osage is included in order that we may know something of the people who undoubtedly lived in Henry County prior to the coming of the white man. No doubt, the road from Jefferson City to the Harmony Mission crossed the present limits of Henry County and missionaries who came out to work in this early Christian establish- ment so well described in Atkeson's History of Bates County, traversed many times the fields of the western part of Henry.
CHAPTER II.
FIRST SETTLEMENTS
CESSION BY FRANCE - POPULATION - FIVE DISTRICTS - THE TERRITORY OF LOUISIANA.
It is not necessary to trace the history of Missouri prior to the time when, as a part of Louisiana, it was ceded by the French to the United States. At the time of this session, the actual transfer of the territory by Spain which had been agreed upon in 1800 had not been made. In April, 1803, the agreement was entered into by France to sell this country to the United States, the treaty being ratified by Congress in October of the same year. This accounts for the fact that when Captain Amos Stoddard of the United States Army went from New Orleans to St. Louis, to act as an agent of the American Government in accepting formal possession from France, he also acted as an agent for the French Government and accepted formal possession from Spain, on the same day lowering the Spanish flag and running up in its place the emblem of France, which was immediately permanently displaced by the Stars and Stripes as the symbol of the permanent authority of the United States Government.
At the time of this transfer, Missouri had a population of ten thou- sand, due, in great part, to migrations from regions east of the Mississippi River. These migrations came from two different sources-first, from French settlements in the Illinois country and second, from more recently established American settlements in Kentucky and Tennessee. More than a half of the population of Missouri in 1804 were Americans. Very few Spaniards had settled in the province, especially in the State of Missouri, even though Louisiana had been controlled by Spain for thirty- five years prior to its purchase by the United States. Until the coming
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of the American, the population of the Missouri country was almost ex- clusively of French descent. By 1810, the population had grown to be twenty thousand, this primarily due to American immigration.
At this period in the history of Missouri, it was divided for purposes of administration and settlement, into five districts. The St. Charles district included all the territory lying between the Missouri and the Mississippi Rivers, the oldest settlement being St. Charles, which was founded in 1780.
The territory between the Missouri River on the north and the Meramec on the south, extending indefinitely to the west and including the country now known as Henry County, was included in the St. Louis dis- trict. At the time of the transfer, St. Louis had a population of about one thousand. Several other settlements, all of them in the extreme eastern part of the district along the Meramec River, had been made by this time.
South of the St. Louis district lay the St. Genevieve district, in which was located the first permanent white settlement in Missouri. This was the most populous part of the State at the time of the transfer. South of the St Genevieve were the Cape Girardeau district, in which Cape Girardeau was the first settlement, and the New Madrid district, which extended as far south as the present site of Helena, Arkansas, and in which district the town of New Madrid was the first settlement.
At the time of this transfer Spain had divided the colony, for local administration, into two provinces called lower and upper Louisiana, Mis- souri being included in the upper province, for which there was a lieu- tenant-governor residing in St. Louis. Shortly after the ratification of the Louisiana Purchase treaty Congress passed an act providing for the government of the newly-acquired territory. Acting in accordance with the provisions of this act, the President appointed Amos Stoddard as Commandant of upper Louisiana. In 1804, Congress divided the territory, all south of the thirty-third parallel being designated as the territory of Orleans, while all north of that line was to be known as the district of Louisiana, which for purposes of administration was put under the government of the territory of Indiana.
In response to a petition of remonstrance, Congress provided, in 1805, for a separate territorial organization for the district of Louisiana and changed its name to that of the Territory of Louisiana. Executive authority was vested in a governor appointed by the President for a
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term of three years and legislative power was to be exercised by this governor and three judges who were appointed by the President for a term of four years. There was no provision for a delegate to Congress nor for elective officers of any sort in the territory. In 1812, the terri- tory of Orleans was admitted into the Union as the State of Louisiana, at which time the name of the territory of Louisiana was changed to Missouri. There was created a Legislature of two houses composed of a legislative council of nine members, appointed by the President, and a House of Representatives made up of members elected for two years by the people. In 1816, there was another change made in the government of the Territory of Missouri, the legislative council being elected instead of appointed by the President, the Legislature to hold biennial instead of annual sessions.
In 1819, that part of Missouri which lay south of the present boundary line of Missouri and north of the thirty-third parallel, was detached and named the Territory of Arkansas.
Shortly after the above-named changes, came the struggle of Mis- souri for admission as a State.
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Court House, Clinton, Mo.
HENRY COUNTY COURT HOUSE, CLINTON, MO.
UNITED STATES POSTOFFICE, CLINTON, MO.
CHAPTER III.
SOME MEN OF EARLY MISSOURI HISTORY
WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON AS TERRITORIAL GOVERNOR-DANIEL BOONE-LEWIS AND CLARK-PIKE-GOVERNOR BENJAMIN HOWARD-EARLY SETTLERS.
It is no doubt interesting to know, although the fact has no par- ticular historical significance, that at the time Upper Louisiana was at- tached to the territory of Indiana, the Governor of Indiana Territory was William Henry Harrison, afterwards President of the United States. When the separate territorial organization was granted to the territory of Louisiana, the first governor appointed was General James Wilkinson. As secretary, Dr. Joseph Browne, a brother-in-law of Aaron Burr, was appointed at the request of the latter. Wilkinson was succeeded by Cap- tain Merriwether Lewis of the celebrated Lewis and Clark Expedition.
There are several picturesque characters appearing in Missouri his- tory prior to its admission to the Union. In every way, the most notable and most picturesque, was Daniel Boone, whose family had come from England to Pennsylvania, where Daniel was born the same year (1732) that marked the birth of George Washington.
From Pennsylvania, the Boones went to western North Carolina and from thence to Kentucky, where he established Boonesborough, in 1775. Without going into details of the explorations and adventures of Boone, it may be noted that he came from Kentucky to Missouri and explored and hunted over the central part of the State.
Soon after the purchase of Louisiana, President Jefferson sent out a party of exploration under the leadership of Capt. Merriwether Lewis, who was private secretary to President Jefferson, and Capt. William Clark of the United States Army, the latter a brother of George Adams Clark of Revolutionary fame. This company, composed of nine Revolutionary
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soldiers, some boatmen and interpreters, began the ascent of the Missouri River in 1804. They proceeded on up the river to its head waters, ex- ploring the surrounding country and collecting such facts as they could about the Indian tribes, the fertility of the soil and the tributaries of the Missouri River. They spent the winter of 1804 and 1805 east of the Rocky Mountains. They then crossed the Rocky Mountains and proceeded to the Pacific Ocean. Both Captain Lewis and Captain Clark after- ยท wards became territorial governors of Missouri, the former succeeding Governor Wilkinson as stated above. Two Missouri counties were named for these two explorers, and their wonderful journey will ever be re- counted as a part of the history of the State.
Another explorer, no less noted, and whose services to the State of Missouri were almost as distinguished as those of Lewis and Clark, was Capt. Zebulin Montgomery Pike, in 1810. The account of these journeys in which the head waters of the Arkansas, the Platte and the Kansas Rivers were visited, was published together with the maps and atlases of the country. These journeys of Captain Pike served to quiet any lingering disturbance over the cost of the Louisiana Purchase. Pike County, Missouri, is named for the famous explorer, as is the famous Peak of the Rockies.
Governor Merriwether Lewis is said to have committed suicide in 1809, while on his way to Congress, although it has been doubted as to whether or not he did so. President Jefferson, in his biographical sketch, credits the rumor. As his successor, President Madison appointed Gover- nor Benjamin Howard, whose last official act was to issue a proclamation calling an election in November for a delegate to Congress. The "Mother of Counties" was settled during his term of office and was named for him.
Governor Howard was succeeded by Captain William Clark, the other leader of the exploring party named above. Governor Clark remained as territorial governor until the admission of Missouri into the Union. He was a candidate for first governor of the new State, but was defeated by Alexander McNair by a vote of 6,576 for McNair to 2,556 for Clark.
After 1815, there was a greater immigration to Missouri than ever before. From Virginia, Tennessee, Kentucky and North Carolina, came numbers of pioneers who pushed their way out through St. Charles up the Missouri River. They brought with them stock of all kinds and numbers of slaves; there were of course, no railroad nor were there
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any steamboats. The wagons filled with the household goods and fol- lowed by herds of cattle and sheep, wended their way over scarce broken trails to the place where their owners would make their future homes. When they reached the spot where the pioneer decided to locate, a log cabin would be erected surrounded by a rail fence, and the settler would hunt and trap until he could raise his first crop. He found food and clothing in the forests around him. The Indians whom he met were not all friendly. He had few books and papers and little money. He raised his own food and exchanged the things which he made for other products which he wanted. The only money which he had was the Spanish dol- lar, which he proceeded to divide into halves, quarters and lesser amounts. One of these, the eighth part of the dollar, came to be known as a "bit" and the common expression of today designates twelve and a half cents as a "bit," or a quarter as "two bits."
The house of the early pioneer was made of large logs hewn into proper shape and fitted into each other by notches in the ends. They hung the doors on wooden hinges and fastened them with a latch on the inside from which a latch-string ran through the door to the outside. Greased paper served in place of glass to admit light into the room through the window.
The first division of Missouri was into five districts named in a preceding chapter. In 1812, these five districts were reorganized into five counties, the State of Arkansas being nominally a part of what was New Madrid County. In 1815, Lawrence County was created out of New Madrid County and in 1816 all the territory north and west of the Osage River and was made a new county and called Howard County, in honor of the Governor. This County of Howard has since been known as "the Mother of Counties," because out of her boundaries have later been made thirty-one Missouri counties and part of ten or twelve counties of Iowa. As constituted, this county was larger than Vermont, Massa- chusetts, Delaware and Rhode Island. From 1818 on, many more counties were formed, as the population increased and the means of communi- cation grew better. When the State was admitted into the Union in 1821, there were twenty-five counties in the State. The population, how- ever, was confined to the territory along the Mississippi River and up the Missouri.
CHAPTER IV.
MISSOURI ADMITTED AS A STATE
THE FIRST PETITIONS-THE MEMORIAL OF THE LEGISLATURE-THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE-BOUNDARIES-THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION-THE SEC- OND COMPROMISE-DATE OF ADMISSION-THE FIRST GENERAL ASSEMBLY.
The story of the State's admission to the Union is told in detail in Shoemaker's "Missouri's Struggle for Statehood." Only a brief ac- count will be given here. Two years had not elapsed after Congress had created the territory of Missouri with the highest degree of terri- torial organization, until petitions began to pour in upon the Congress- men asking that Missouri be admitted to the Union. On the eighth day of January, 1818, the third anniversary of the Battle of New Orleans, the first one of these petitions was introduced. Early in April of that year a bill was presented authorizing the people of Missouri to form a constitution. It did not pass either house.
In November of 1818, the Legislature of Missouri drafted a me- morial asking the admission of the State. No other instance is recorded where a territorial Legislature applied to Congress for the admission of the territory as a State in the Union. The bill which was introduced in Congress as a result of this memorial failed. in the Senate because of an amendment which provided that no more slaves should be brought into Missouri and that all slave children in the State should become free upon reaching the age of twenty-five years.
The third bill regarding admission was introduced early in Decem- ber, 1819. It was at this session of Congress that Maine sought ad- mission into the Union. The Senate joined the two bills and added an amendment which provided that slavery should be prohibited in all the territory ceded by France, commonly known as the Louisiana Purchase,
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north of the parallel 36 degrees and 30 minutes, the southern boundary line of Missouri, except the State of Missouri; this was the celebrated Missouri Compromise. After considerable conference, the enabling act was approved on the 6th of March, 1820, by the terms of which the inhabitants of the territory of Missouri were authorized to form a con- stitution and government. The boundaries of the State, beginning where the thirty-sixth parallel crosses the Mississippi River, ran north of the St. Francois River, thence north along that river to the parallel 36 degrees and 30 minutes, thence west to a line running due north and south to the mouth of the Kansas River, thence north to the parallel inter- secting the rapids of the Des Moines River, thence along that parallel to the Des Moines River, down the Des Moines River to the Mississippi and down the Mississippi River to the place of beginning. It will be noted that the above boundaries did not include the northwestern part of the State of Missouri, including the counties of Platte, Buchanan, Andrew, Nodaway, Atchison and Holt; these were added through the so-called Platte Purchase, nearly twenty years later.
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