History of Hickory, Polk, Cedar, Dade, and Barton counties, Missouri, Part 5

Author: Goodspeed, firm, publishers, Chicago (1886-1891, Goodspeed Publishing Co.)
Publication date: 1889
Publisher: Chicago, The Goodspeed publishing co.
Number of Pages: 998

USA > Missouri > Cedar County > History of Hickory, Polk, Cedar, Dade, and Barton counties, Missouri > Part 5
USA > Missouri > Dade County > History of Hickory, Polk, Cedar, Dade, and Barton counties, Missouri > Part 5
USA > Missouri > Barton County > History of Hickory, Polk, Cedar, Dade, and Barton counties, Missouri > Part 5
USA > Missouri > Hickory County > History of Hickory, Polk, Cedar, Dade, and Barton counties, Missouri > Part 5
USA > Missouri > Polk County > History of Hickory, Polk, Cedar, Dade, and Barton counties, Missouri > Part 5

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 MISSOURI.

longer be deferred. The English Government, in anticipation of a war, urged the governor of Virginia to lose no time in building two forts, which were equipped with arms from England. The French anticipated the English, and gathered a considerable force to defend their possessions. The governor determined to send a messenger to the nearest French post, to demand an explanation. This resolution brought into the history of our country, for the first time, the man of all others whom America most loves to honor, namely, George Washington. He was chosen, although not yet twenty-one years of age, as the one to perform this deli- cate and difficult mission. With five companions he set out on November 10, 1753, and after a perilous journey returned Janu- ary 6, 1754. The struggle could not, however, be averted by diplo- macy. It commenced, continued long, and was bloody and fierce; but on October 10, 1765, the ensign of France was displaced on the ramparts of Fort Chartres, by the flag of Great Britain. This fort was the depot of supplies, and the place of rendezvous for the united forces of the French, and was then the best built and most convenient fort in North America. In subsequent years the Mississippi reached and undermined its west wall; the inhabit- ants of Kaskaskia carried away much of the remaining portions for building material, and at the present day nothing remains of it but a ruin in the midst of a dense forest.

Although, as has been already seen, Fort Chartres was not occupied by the English until 1765, the treaty which terminated what is known as the French and Indian War had been arranged late in 1762. According to its stipulations France ceded to Eng- land all of her possessions in Canada and east of the Mississippi, and to Spain all that part of the province of Louisiana lying west of the same, which, although really belonging to Spain, remained under French laws and jurisdiction until 1768.

THE FOUNDING OF ST. LOUIS.

In the year 1762 M. D'Abadie, who was at that time director general and civil and military commandant of Louisiana, granted to a certain company the exclusive right to trade with the Indians of Missouri, and indeed of the whole northwest, for a term of eight years. At the head of this company was M.

HISTORY OF MISSOURI.

Pierre Laclede Liguest, Laclede as he is generally known, a man of ability, foresight and experience. He left New Orleans in August, 1763, and arrived in Missouri the following November. It will be remembered that all the French settlements except that at Ste. Genevieve were on the east side of the river, and consequently included in the territory ceded to England. At the one small village west of the Mississippi there was no build- ing large enough to contain one quarter of M. Laclede's mer- chandise. M. De Neyon, the commandant at Fort Chartres, hear- ing of Laclede's dilemma, offered him room for his goods until the occupation of the fort by the English. Laclede readily availed himself of this generous offer and repaired to Fort Chartres, where he deposited his effects, and then turned his attention to finding a site, near the Missouri River, suitable for his enterprise. Ste. Genevieve he rejected both on account of its distance from that stream and its unhealtful situation. Accom- panied by his stepson, a lad of fourteen named August Chouteau, he explored the region thoroughly and fixed upon the place of his settlement. Upon returning to the fort, he assured De Neyon and his officers that he had found a situation where he would form a settlement, which might become, hereafter, "one of the finest cities of America." Thus readily did his sagacious mind appre- ciate the advantages of this location. Navigation being open, early in the February of 1764 Laclede sent thirty men in charge of Chouteau to the place designated, with orders to clear the land, build a large shed to shelter the tools and provisions, and also erect some small cabins for the men. On the 14th of February the work was commenced. Early in April, Laclede himself arrived, chose the place for his own house, laid out a plan for his village and named it Saint Louis, in honor of Louis XV, not knowing that the territory had already been transferred to Spain, and then hastened back to Fort Chartres to remove his goods, as the En- glish garrison was daily expected.

When, in 1765, Capt. Sterling in command of the English troops, a company of highlanders, actually took possession of the fort, St. Ange, French commandant at the time, removed with his officers and men to St. Louis, which was recognized as the capital of Upper Louisiana. M. D'Abadie had died, and

HISTORY OF MISSOURI.

M. Aubry was acting governor at New Orleans. Receiving, probably, the sanction of this latter gentleman, St. Ange at once assumed the reins of government at St. Louis, and so liberal was the spirit in which he conducted affairs that a stream of immigra- tion soon set in from Canada and Lower Louisiana.

DEATH OF PONTIAC.

At the time of the founding of St. Louis, the Ottawa chieftain, Pontiac, was in the enjoyment of his greatest fame. At the breaking out of the war between France and England, he had allied himself with the former country, which had at all times followed a conciliatory policy with the Indians, and he had achieved some brilliant exploits at the ambuscade near Pittsburgh (1755) which resulted in Braddock's defeat, and on other occa- sions. He had subsequently formed a confederacy of all the western tribes, and had endeavored, by one general and combined movement to sweep the English settlers from the country west of the Alleghanies. In this effort he was so far successful that, at one time, every English fort in the west, except Niagara, Fort Pitt and Detroit had fallen into the hands of the savages. St Ange, hating the English and dreading their encroachments, was proportionately friendly to Pontiac, whom he invited to St. Louis in 1769. Here the chief was received in the most flatter- ing manner, and was warmly welcomed by the principal citi- zens. Soon, however, it became apparent that Pontiac's plans were doomed to failure.

Tribe after tribe had forsaken him; his powerful allies, the French, were conquered, and his most trusted friends among the latter counseled him to give up the unequal contest. He en- deavored to drown his disappointment in drink, and in spite of the remonstrances of St. Ange, sank lower and lower in debauch- ery. Finally, while in a state of intoxication, he was assassinated at Cahokia by a Kaskaskia Indian. His body was interred with great pomp near the tower at the intersection of Walnut and Fourth Streets. St. Ange, himself, lies buried near, but nothing is left to mark either grave. Houses have been built above them, and but few persons even know that these remains repose in the midst of the great city.

HISTORY OF MISSOURI.

SPANISH RULE.

The transfer of Louisiana to Spain was a source of great sor- row to the inhabitants of the province, and at St. Louis this feeling was deepened to one of horror when it became known that Don Alexander O'Reilly had arrived at New Orleans with 3,000 men, and, upon the inhabitants of that city making armed resist- ance to his authority, had executed several of the ringleaders of the revolt and imprisoned others. The new commandant-general soon established his authority at New Orleans, and in 1770 sent Don Pedro Piernas to St. Louis as lieutenant-governor. This official showed himself master of the situation by treating the terrified inhabitants with the utmost consideration, securing the friendship of St. Ange, whom he made a captain of infantry, and establishing all the grants of land which the latter had bestowed. St. Ange died soon after. Piernas was succeeded by Francisco Cruzat, and he by Don Ferdinando Leyba. During the early part of Leyba's administration, Laclede died while on an expedi- tion to New Orleans, and was buried at the mouth of the Arkansas River. His grave, also, is unknown, and probably has long ere this been washed into the stream.

THE WAR OF THE REVOLUTION.

War had already been commenced between Great Britain and her American colonies, and Washington, who had been active in the service of England against the French, was now in command of the forces opposed to English tyranny. On the breaking out of the Revolution, the British held every important post in the West. The Indians, jealous of the rapid extension of American settlement westward, and aroused to action by the English, be- came the allies of the latter, and while the colonies at the East were struggling against the armies of the mother country, the western frontiers were ravaged by the savages, often led by British commanders. To prevent indiscriminate slaughter in the West, some of the most daring exploits connected with American history were planned and executed. The hero of the achieve- ments by which this region was snatched as a gem from the British crown, was Gen. George Rogers Clark, of Virginia. He had closely watched the movements of the English throughout

HISTORY OF MISSOURI.

the Northwest, and understood their plans; he also knew that the Indians were not unanimously in accord with them, and that, although the forts were in control of the English, the inhabit- ants were mostly French, and retained much of their old hos- tility against their' conquerors, while sympathizing with the colonies. He was convinced that American soldiers would be wel- comed and aided, as far as possible, by the French settlers, and that the English garrisons once driven out, the natives might be easily awed into neutrality. Patrick Henry was governor of Virginia, and at once entered heartily into Clark's plans. The latter proceeded to Pittsburgh, raised his small army west of the Alleghanies, as he well knew the colonies needed all the available men farther east, for the conflict there. His plan was to go by water as far as Fort Massac, and thence march direct to Kaskas- kia. Here he intended to surprise the garrison, and after its capture to proceed to Cahokia, then to Vincennes, and lastly to Detroit. Each of these posts was in turn captured, and the plans of the English in the West entirely overthrown.

In the meantime, although the settlement at St. Louis was under the jurisdiction of Spain, it was well known that the sym- pathies of that country were identified with the colonies, and therefore the inhabitants of the little city were in constant dread of attacks from the Indians. Hearing rumors, also, of a threatened assault by the British, they at once began to fortify the place. A wall of brush and clay, five feet in height, with three gates, was built, encircling the town, the extremes termi- nating at the river. A small fort, which was afterward used as a prison, was also built. At each of the gates a piece of ordnance was mounted, and kept in constant readiness for use. These preparations were made in the summer and fall of 1779. No attack was made during the winter, and the people of St. Louis were almost beginning to hope their precautions unneces- sary, when in May, bands of Ojibways, Winnebagos, Sioux and other tribes began to gather on the east side of the river, pre- paring to fall upon the settlement on the 26th of the month. These savages were instigated by Canadian fur traders, and com- manded by officers from the British fort at Michilimackinac.

On May 25, which was the festival of Corpus Christi, a por-

HISTORY OF MISSOURI.

tion of the Indians crossed the river, but made no assault, an extremely fortunate circumstance, as many of the citizens, to- gether with their wives and children, were outside of the wall, and scattered about over the prairie, gathering strawberries. The following day the entire force of savages stole silently across the river, and crept to the rear of the town, expecting to find some of the inhabitants working in the fields. Near what is now the fair grounds, at the "Cardinal Springs," they surprised the man from whom the spring was named and another person called Riviere. The former they killed, and took the latter pris- oner. A few other settlers were surprised and massacred.

On account of his misconduct at this time, Leyba was removed from office and Francisco Cruzat once more placed in authority at St. Louis. During the administration of Cruzat, the town was thoroughly fortified, but was not subjected to another attack, although other settlements on the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers were often harassed by the Indians even after the close of the war.

THE YEAR OF THE GREAT WATERS.

In 1785 occurred a sudden and remarkable rise in the Missis- sippi River, which caused great alarm and considerable loss of property to the inhabitants of St. Louis and the adjacent settle- ments. Cahokia and Kaskaskia were menaced with entire destruction. Ste. Genevieve, which was located at first in the river bottom, three miles south or southeast of its present site, was completely inundated, and the inhabitants, unwilling to risk a repetition of the disaster, removed to higher ground and founded the present town, which therefore dates from 1785. Most of the buildings in St. Louis were then situated on Main Street, and the rise of the river above the steep bank occasioned extreme anxiety and terror. The flood subsiding, however, nearly as rapidly as it had risen, the inhabitants returned to their houses, and business was speedily resumed. This year received the name of "L'annee des Grandes Eaux," or " The year of the Great Waters." Other remarkable floods occasioning loss of life and property, and involving St. Louis and other river towns of Mis- souri, have occasionally occurred, most destructive among which may be mentioned those of 1844, 1851, 1875 and 1881.

HISTORY OF MISSOURI.

1785-1800.

Cruzat was succeeded in office by Manuel Perez, who be- stowed a large tract of land in the neighborhood of Cape Girar- deau upon friendly Indians of the Pawnee and Delaware tribes, in return they agreeing to aid the young settlements in repelling the incursions of the hostile Osage Indians. Trudeau, who succeeded Perez, devised and carried out many improvements at St. Louis, and stimulated in a great measure the fur traffic, and by this means encouraged traders to penetrate the wilderness, and make further expeditions on the Missouri River. The administration of Tru- deau was followed by that of Delassus, who, in 1799, ordered that a census be taken of the settlements in Upper Louisiana or West- ern Illinois, as Missouri was sometimes called. According to this census, the total number of inhabitants in the settlements was 6,028. Of these 4,948 were white; 197 free colored, and 883 slaves. St. Louis had a population of 925; Ste. Genevieve, 949; St. Charles, 875; New Madrid, 782; New Bourbon, 560; Cape Girardeau, 521; St. Ferdinand, 276; St. Andrew, 393; Carondelet, 184; Meremac, 115; Little Meadows, 72.

LOUISIANA PURCHASED BY THE UNITED STATES.

In 1801 Napoleon Bonaparte made a treaty with Spain, known in the annals as the treaty of San Ildefonso, the conditions of which were that Spain should surrender to France all the region known as Louisiana west of the Mississippi River, in return for certain assistance which she expected to receive from the great warrior in her European affairs. It was not, however, until 1803, that M. Laussat, a French officer, was placed in authority at New Orleans. Although Napoleon fully realized the immense value of his acquisition, it was on many accounts an occasion of per- plexity. In the first place, the American Government regarded with a jealous eye this attempt of the French to re-establish themselves in Louisiana; and the English, who had control of the seas, made it extremely difficult for men and equipments to be conveyed into the country; and rather than have it wrested from him by this powerful foe, he determined to tantalize the mother country by adding it to the possessions of the young nation, which had succeeded in maintaining its independence in the

HISTORY OF MISSOURI.

face of her authority. Accordingly, he accepted an offer made by the United States, and the transfer was accomplished during the administration of Thomas Jefferson. In December, 1803, M. Laussat, the French commandant, who had but just acquired juris- diction of Louisiana from Spain, conveyed it to Gov. Claiborne and Gen. Wilkinson, commissioners appointed by the United States. The price paid for this purchase was $15,000,000, in- cluding various claims, the payment of which was assumed by the American Government.

At St. Louis the French flag was in the ascendant only one day, Capt. Stoddard, the representative of France, receiving pos- session of the territory at the hands of Delassus, the Spanish governor, on March 9, 1804, and transferring his authority to the United States on the following day.

THE DISTRICT OF LOUISIANA.

On the 26th of March, 1804, Congress passed an act separat- ing the province of Louisiana into two parts-the southern of which was designated as "The Territory of Orleans," and the northern "The District of Louisiana." This latter included all of the province north of "Hope Encampment," a place. near Chickasaw Bluffs, and embraced within its boundaries the present States of Arkansas, Missouri and Iowa, a large part of Minnesota, and all the vast region extending westward to the Pacific Ocean, excepting the territory claimed by Spain.

The executive power of the Government in the Territory of Indiana was extended over the district of Louisiana or " Upper Louisiana" as it was popularly called. Gen. William Henry Harrison, then governor of Indiana, assisted by Judges Griffin, Vanderberg and Davis, represented the authority of the United States, under the provisions of the act of 1804, and, during the following winter, courts of justice were held in the old fort, near Fifth and Walnut Streets in St. Louis.

THE TERRITORY OF LOUISIANA.

On the 3d of March, 1805, by another act of Congress, the Territory of Louisiana was regularly organized, and President Jefferson appointed Gen. James Wilkinson, governor, and Fred-

HISTORY OF MISSOURI.

erick Bates, secretary. Gov. Wilkinson together with Judges R. J. Meigs and John B. C. Lucas, constituted the Legislature of this almost boundless territory. Gov. Wilkinson was visited in 1805, by Aaron Burr, when the latter was planning his dar- ing conspiracy against the United States.

In 1807 Capt. Merriwether Lewis, of the famous Lewis and Clark expedition, was appointed Governor, but in 1809 in Lewis County, Tenn., he committed suicide at the age of thirty-five, by shooting himself with a pistol, and President Madison designated Gen. Benjamin Howard, of Lexington, Ky., as governor in his stead. Gov. Howard served as brigadier-general in the War of 1812, and died in 1814. Howard County was named in his honor.

. LEWIS AND CLARK'S EXPEDITION.

After the purchase of Louisiana, President Jefferson, anxious to prove the value of that immense tract which had come into peaceful possession of the United States, planned an expedition for the purpose of exploring the country from the Mississippi to the Pacific Ocean. The expedition was organized with Merri- wether Lewis, Mr. Jefferson's private secretary, at its head, assisted by Capt. William Clark, of the American army. With a small party, these indomitable explorers ascended the Missouri River as far as Jefferson, Madison and Gallatin, which they named in honor of the President, Secretary of State and Secretary of the Treasury, respectively, followed the Jefferson to its source, crossed the Rocky Mountains, navigated the Columbia River, and returned to St. Louis, in September, 1806, after an absence of two years and four months, having overcome innumerable hardships and difficulties, and traveled nearly 6,000 miles. Lewis, as has been already noted, was appointed Governor of the Ter- ritory of Louisiana, which office he filled until his untimely and tragical death.

Lieut. Zebulon M. Pike also organized two successful exploring parties, one of which in 1805 discovered the sources of the Mississippi, and the other, in the two succeeding years, the sources of the Arkansas, Kansas, Platte and Pierre Jaune (Yellowstone) Rivers, and penetrated the Spanish Provinces. Pike's Peak was named from this explorer. The county of Pike,

HISTORY OF MISSOURI.

in this State, was named in honor of Lieut. Pike, who rose to the rank of brigadier-general in the War of 1812, and was killed at York, Canada, in 1813.

EARTHQUAKES AT NEW MADRID.

New Madrid has been rendered famous by the great earth- quake of 1811-12. This place was, originally, one of the old Spanish forts, and lies about seventy miles below the mouth of the Ohio River. It was settled immediately after the close of the Revolutionary War by families from Virginia and the Carolinas, and was growing rapidly in wealth and population when its prog- ress was arrested by that frightful calamity which affected not only the county of New Madrid, but also the adjacent country on both sides of the Mississippi. Streams were turned from their channels or dried up; hills, forests and plains disappeared, and lakes (one of which was sixty or seventy miles in length, and from three to twenty in breadth) were formed in their places; vast heaps of sand were scattered in various places, and whole tracts of land sank below the level of the surrounding country. Short extracts from the description of Mr. Godfrey Lesieur, who was an eye-witness of the scene, are quoted:

"The first shock was about 2 o'clock A. M., on the night of December 16, 1811, and was very hard, shaking down log houses, chimneys, etc. It was followed at intervals, from half an hour to an hour apart, by comparatively slight shocks, until about 7 o'clock in the morning, when a rumbling noise was heard in the west, not unlike distant thunder, and in an instant the earth began to totter and shake so that no persons were able to stand or walk. This lasted a minute; then the earth was observed to be rolling in waves of a few feet in height, with a visible depression between. These swells burst, throwing up large volumes of water, sand and a species of charcoal, some of which was partly covered with a substance, which, by its peculiar odor, was thought to be sulphur. Where these swells burst, large, wide and long fissures were left, running north and south parallel with each other for miles. I have seen some four or five miles in length, four and one-half feet deep on an average, and about ten feet wide.

HISTORY OF MISSOURI.

" After this, slight shocks were felt at intervals, until January 7, 1812, when the region was again visited by an earthquake equal to the first in violence, and characterized by the same frightful results." Mr. Lesieur says further that upon this second visitation, the inhabitants, excepting two families, fled from the country in dismay, leaving behind their stock, and even many of their household goods, all of which were appropriated by adventurers and carried away in flat-boats. The last violent shock occurred on the 17th of February, 1812.

During these terrible earthquakes, but two among the set- tlers were killed, both of whom were women, but many of the boatmen on the river must have perished. An act of Congress for the relief of the New Madrid sufferers was passed in 1817. By its provisions, persons whose lands had been seriously dam- aged by the earthquakes were allowed to locate a like quantity upon any of the public lands of the State, provided that no claims should exceed 640 acres. This was the origin of the " New Madrid Claims," of which speculators and sharpers gained the chief benefit, the people many of them being uninformed as to their exact privileges.

MISSOURI A TERRITORY.

The Territory of Missouri was organized by Congress, June 4, 1812, the first Council consisting of nine members, and the House of thirteen. * Its real boundaries were the same as those of the "Territory of Louisiana," but practically it consisted of only the settled parts of Missouri, comprising four districts, as follows: Cape Girardeau, embracing the territory between Tywap- pity Bottom and Apple Creek; Ste. Genevieve, extending from Apple Creek to the Meramec River; St. Louis, including that part of the State between the Meramec and Missouri Rivers, and St. Charles, comprising the settled country between the Missouri and Mississippi.

The legislative power of the Territory was vested in a Gov-

* These members were as follows: House: St. Charles County-John Pitman and Robert Spencer; St. Louis County-David Music, Bernard G. Farrar, William C. Carr and Richard Caulk; Ste. Gene- vieve County-George Bullett, Richard S. Thomas and Isaac MeGready; Cape Girardeau-George F. Bollinger and Stephen Byrd; New Madrid-John Shrader and Samuel Phillips. W. C. Carr be- came speaker and Andrew Scott clerk. Council: St. Charles County-James Flaugherty and Benja- min Emmons; St. Louis County- Auguste Chouteau, Sr., and Samuel Hammond; Ste Genevieve- John Scott and James Maxwell; Cape Girardeau-William Neeley and George Cavener; New Mad- rid-Joseph Hunter.

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History of Hickory, Polk, Cedar, Dade, and Barton counties, Missouri, Part 5

Author: Goodspeed, firm, publishers, Chicago (1886-1891, Goodspeed Publishing Co.) Publication date: 1889 Publisher: Chicago, The Goodspeed publishing co. Number of Pages: 998

Author: Goodspeed, firm, publishers, Chicago (1886-1891, Goodspeed Publishing Co.)
Publication date: 1889
Publisher: Chicago, The Goodspeed publishing co.
Number of Pages: 998