USA > Missouri > Howard County > History of Howard and Chariton Counties, Missouri : written and compiled from the most official authentic and private sources, including a history of its townships, towns, and villages, together with a condensed history of Missouri > Part 12
USA > Missouri > Chariton County > History of Howard and Chariton Counties, Missouri : written and compiled from the most official authentic and private sources, including a history of its townships, towns, and villages, together with a condensed history of Missouri > Part 12
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By N. Patton, Jr. - The Missouri territory - Its future pros- perity and greatness cannot be checked by the caprice of a few men in congress, while it possesses a soil of inexhaustible fertility, abou- dant resources, and a body of intelligent, enterprising, independent freemen.
By Maj. J. D. Wilcox - The citizens of Missouri - May they never become a member of the union, under the restriction relative to slaverv.
By Mr. L. W. Jordan -The towns on the Missouri river - May they flourish in commerce, and, like those on the Ohio and Missis- sippi, witness the daily arrival or departure of some steamboat, ascending or descending this majestic stream.
By Mr. J. B. Howard - Robert Fulton - May his name and the effects of his genius. be transmitted to the latest posterity.
By Dr. J. J. Lowry - ( After the president had retired )-The president of the day.
By Maj. R. Gentry - (After the vice-president had retired ) The vice-president of the day.
The Independence continued her voyage to Chariton.
THE SECOND STEAMBOAT.
The government of the United States projected the celebrated Yellowstone expedition in 1818, the objects of which were to ascer- tain whether the Missouri river was navigable by steamboats, and to establish a line of forts from its mouth to the Yellowstone. This expedition started from Plattsburg, New York, in 1818, under com- mand of Colonel Henry Atkinson. General Nathan Ranney, a well known citizen of St. Louis, was an attache of this expedition, also Captain Win. D. Hubbell now a citizen of Columbia. It arrived at Pittsburg in the spring of 1819, where Colonel Stephen II. Long, of the topographical engineers of the United States army, had con- structed the Western Engineer, a small steamboat to be used by him and his scientific corps in pioneering the expedition to the mouth
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of the Yellowstone. The vessel reached St. Louis, June 9, 1819, and proceeding on the voyage, arrived at Franklin, July 13, same year. The following gentlemen were on board : Major S. H. Long, com- mauder ; Major Thomas Biddle ( who was killed August 27, 1831, in a duel with Speneer Pettis, on Bloody Island, and after whom, Biddle street, St. Louis, was named ) ; Lieutenants Graham and Swift, Major Benj. O'Fallon, Indian agent ; Mr. Daugherty, assistant agent and interpreter ; Dr. Wm. Baldwin, botanist ; " Thomas Say, zoolo- gist ; Mr. Jessup, geologist ; Mr. Seymore, landscape painter; and Mr. Peale, assistant naturalist.
On Monday, July 19, the vessel proceeded on its voyage up the Missouri and reached Council Bluff's on the 17th of September, where it remained for the winter.
Owing to the peculiar construction of the Western Engineer, as well as to the fact that a water craft of any kind, and especially one propelled by steam, was a novel spectacle, its progress up the river excited the greatest wonder among the Indians, many of whom flocked to the river banks to see it, while others fled in fear to the forests or prairies, thinking it an evil spirit, a very devil with serpent's head, and breath of fire and steam. The St. Louis Enquirer, of June 16, 1819, contains this description of it : --
THE STEAMER WESTERN ENGINEER.
The bow of the vessel exhibits the form of a huge serpent, black and scaly, rising out of the water from under the boat, his head as high as the deck, darted forward, his mouth open, vomiting smoke, and apparently carrying the boat on his back. From under the boat, at its stern issues a stream of foaming water, dashing violently along. All the machinery is hid. Three small brass fiekl pieces, mounted on wheel carriages, stand on the deck; the boat is ascending the rapid stream at the rate of three miles an hour. Neither wind, nor human bands are seen to help her ; and to the eye of ignorance the illusion is complete, that a monster of the deep carries her on his back smoking with fatigue, and lashing the waves with violent exertion.
ADDITIONAL MAIL FACILITIES.
During the first ten years of the settlement of the Boone's Liek country, there were scarcely any mail facilities and in fact, there was not a post-office within the present limits of Howard county, until in 1821. The news was carried by the traveller or
* Owing to illness Dr. Baldwin abandoned the expedition at Franklin, and died there, September 1, 1:19.
10
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special courier, from one settlement to another, but sometimes weeks and months would intervene before the pioneers could hear from their former homes or from their more immediate neighbors. It was with great pleasure, that the Intelligencer, of April 23, 1819, announced the following bit of news : -
It is contemplated, we understand, shortly to commence running a stage from St. Louis to Franklin. Such an undertaking, would, no doubt, liberally renumerate the enterprising and meritorious indi- viduals engaged, and be of immense benefit to the public, who would. doubtless, prefer this to any other mode of travelling. A stage has been running from St. Louis to St. Charles three times a week for several months past. Another from the town of Illinois ( now East St. Louis), to Edwardsville ; a line from Edwardsville to Vincennes, we understand is in contemplation. It will then only remain to have it continued from Vincennes to Louisville. When these lines shall have gone into operation, a direct communication by stage will then be opened from the Atlantic States to Boone's Lick, on the Missouri.
IMMIGRATION.
In 1819, immigrants began to come in large numbers. They came in wagons, in carriages, in pirogues, and finally on every pufling steamer that ascended the turbid waters of the Missouri. Embryo settlements had been made along the banks of the mighty river from St. Charles to Glasgow. This portion of Missouri, had already been seen by the immigrant. Favorable reports had been made of its great beauty, its fertile hills and valleys, its bountiful supply of timber, its perennial springs and numerous water courses. It was not only a new country, but its forests abounded with game, and its streams tecmed with choicest fishes. Here were found :
The bright eyed perch, with fins of various dye ; The silver eel, in shining volumes roll'd; The yellow carp, in scales bedropt with gold; Swift trouts, diversified with crimson stains, And pikes, the tyrants of the watery plains.
The Franklin Intelligencer of November 19, 1819, in speaking of the subject of immigration said : -
The immigration to this territory, and partienlarly to this county. during the present season, almost exceeds belief. Those who have arrived in this quarter are principally from Kentucky. Tennessee, etc. Immense numbers of wagons, carriages, earts, etc., with families, have for some time past, been daily arriving. During the month of October, it is stated, that no less than 271 wagons and four-wheeled
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carriages, and fifty-five two-wheeled carriages and carts passed near St. Charles, bound principally for Boone's Lick. It is calculated that the number of persons accompanying these wagons, etc., could not be less than 3,000. It is stated in the St. Louis Enquirer, of the 10th inst., that about twenty wagons, ete., per week, had passed through St. Charles for the last nine or ten weeks, with wealthy and respectable innigrants from various states, whose united numbers are supposed to amount to 12,000. The county of Howard, already respectable in number, will soon possess a vast population. and no section of our country presents a fairer prospect to the immigrant.
FIRST COUNTY COURT.
Although the county was organized in 1816, there was no inde- pendent tribunal known as the county court held in the county till February 26, 1821. This court met and organized at Old Franklin. The judges were Henry V. Bingham, David R. Drake and Thomas Conway. Hampton L. Boone was appointed county clerk pro tem.
Among the proceedings of the court the first day was the appoint- ment of Robert Cooper guardian of the minor son of Sidney Carson. de- ceased. The minor son's name was Robert Sidney Carson, who was the father of Kit Carson, the brave scout. Elias Bancroft was appointed county surveyor, Nicholas S. Burckhartt, county assessor and Joseph Patterson, collecter.
The circuit court, sitting as a county court in 1816, had divided the county into four townships, to-wit : Monitean, Bonne Femme, Chariton and La Mine. The county court at its first term, five years later (the term of which I am now speaking) again divided the county into seven townships, named as follows: Franklin, Boone's Lick. Chariton, Richmond, Prairie, Bonne Femme, and Moni- teau. Since then a new township called Burton, was created out of territory taken from Bonne Femme, Prairie and Richmond townships. With this exception the townships remain about as they were when first erected.
CHAPTER IV.
PIONEER LIFE.
The Pioneers' Peculiarities - Conveniences and Inconveniences -- The Historical Log Cabin -- Agricultural Implements -- Household Furniture - Pioneer Corn-bread - Hand Mills and Hominy Blocks - Going to Mill -- Trading Points - Bee Trees - Shooting Matches and Quiltings.
The people in the early history of Howard county took no care to preserve history -- they were too busily engaged in making it. Historically speaking, those were the most important years of the county, for it was then the foundation and corner - stones of all the county's history and prosperity were laid. Yet, this history was not remarkable for stirring events. It was, however, a time of self-re- liance and brave, persevering toil ; of privations cheerfully endured through faith in a good time coming. The experience of one settler was just about the same as that of others. Nearly all of the settlers were poor : they faced the same hardships and stood generally ou an equal footing.
All the experience of the early pioneers of this county goes far to confirm the theory that, after all, happiness is pretty evenly balanced in this worldl. They had their privations and hardships, but they had also their own peculiar joys. If they were poor, they were free from the burden of pride and vanity ; free also from the anxiety and care that always attends the possession of wealth. Other peo- ple's eyes cost them nothing. If they had few neighbors, they were on the best of terms with those they had. Envy, jealousy and strife had not crept in. A common interest and a common sympathy bound them together with the strongest ties. They were a little world to themselves, and the good feeling that prevailed was all the stronger because they were so far removed from the great world of the east.
Among these pioneers there was realized such a community of interest that there existed a community of feeling. There were no eastes, except an aristocracy of benevolence, and no nobility, except a nobility of generosity. They were bound together with such a
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strong bond of sympathy, inspired by the consciousness of common hardship, that they were practically communists.
Neighbors did not even wait for an invitation or request to help one another. Was a settler's cabin burned or blown down? No sooner was the fact known throughout the neighborhood than the set- flers assembled to assist the unfortunate one to rebuild his home. They came with as little hesitation, and with as much alacrity as though they were all members of the same family and bound to- gether by ties of blood. One man's interest was every other man's interest. Now, this general state of feeling among the pioneers was by no means peculiar to these counties, although it was strongly illus- trated here. It prevailed generally throughout the west during the time of the early settlement. The very nature of things taught the settlers the necessity of dwelling together in this spirit. It was their only protection. They had come far away from the well established reign of law, and entered a new country, where civil authority was still feeble, and totally unable to afford protection and redress grievances. Here the settlers lived some little time before there was an officer of the law in the county. Each man's protection was in the good will and friendship of those about him, and the thing any man might well dread was the ill will of the community. It was more terrible than the law. It was no uncommon thing in the early times for hardened men, who had no fears of jails or penitentiaries, to stand in great fear of the indignation of a pioneer community. Such were some of the characteristics of Howard county.
HOUSE AND HOME COMFORTS.
The first buildings in the county were not just like the log cabins that immediately succeeded them. The latter required some help and a great deal of labor to build. The very first buildings constructed were a cross between " hoop cabins " and Indian bark huts. As soon as enongh men could be got together for a " cabin raising," then log cabins were in style. Many a pioneer can remember the happiest time of his life as that when he lived in one of these homely but comfortable old cabins.
A window with sash and glass was a rarity, and was an evidence of wealth and aristocracy which but few could support. They were often made with greased paper put over the window, which admitted a little light, but more often there was nothing whatever over it, or the cracks between the logs, without either chinking or danbing, were
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the dependence for light and air. The doors were fastened with old- fashioned wooden latches, and for a friend, or neighbor, or traveller, the string always hung out, for the pioneers of the west were hospita- ble and entertained visitors to the best of their ability. It is notice- able with what affection the pioneers speak of their old log cabins. It may be doubted whether palaces ever sheltered happier hearts than those homely eabins. The following is a good description of those old landmarks, but few of which now remain : -
" These were of round logs, notched together at the corners, rib- bed with poles and covered with boards split from a tree. A puncheon floor was then laid down, a hole eut in the end and a stick chimney run up. A clapboard door is made, a window is opened by cutting out a hole in the side or end two feet square, and finished without glass or transparency. The house is then ' chinked ' and ' daubed ' with mud. The cabin is now ready to go into. The household and kitchen furniture is adjusted, and life on the frontier is begun in carnest.
" The one- legged bedstead, now a piece of furniture of the past, was made by cutting a stiek the proper length, boring holes at one end one and a half inches in diameter, at right angles, and the same sized holes corresponding with those in the logs of the cabin the length and breadth desired for the bed, in which are inserted poles.
" Upon these poles the elapboards are laid, or linn bark is inter- woven consecutively from pole to pole. Upon this primitive structure the bed is laid. The convenience of a cook stove was not thought of, but instead, the cooking was done by the faithful housewife in pots, kettles, and skillets, on and about the big fire-place, and very frequent- ly over and around, too, the distended pedal extremities of the legal sovereign of the household, while the latter was indulging in the luxuries of a cob-pipe and discussing the probable results of a con- templated deer hunt on the Missouri river or some one of its small tributaries."
These log cabins were really not so bad after all.
The people of to-day, familiarized with ". Charter Oak " cooking stoves and ranges, would be ill at home were they compelled to pre- pare a meal with no other conveniences than those provided in a pioneer cabin. Rude fire-places were built in chimneys composed of mud and sticks, or, at best, nudressed stone. These tire-places served for heating and cooking purposes ; also for ventilation. Around the cheerful blaze of this fire the meal was prepared, and these meals were not so bad, either. As elsewhere remarked, they were not such
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as would tempt an epicure, but such as afforded the most healthful nourishment for a race of people who were driven to the exposure and hardships which were their lot. We hear of few dyspepties in those days. Another advantage of these cooking arrangements was that the stove-pipe never fell down, and the pioneer was spared being subjected to the most trying of ordeals, and one probably more pro- ductive of profanity than any other.
Before the country became supplied with inills which were of easy access, and even in some instances afterward, hominy-block> were used. They exist now only in the memory of the oldest settlers, but as relies of the " long ago" a description of them will not be uninteresting :--
A tree of suitable size, say from eighteen inches to two feet in diameter, was selected in the forest and felled to the ground. If a cross-cut saw happened to be convenient, the tree was " butted," that is, the kerf end was sawed off so that it would stand steady when ready for use. If there were no cross-cut saw in the neighborhood. strong arms and sharp axes were ready to do the work. Then the proper length, from four to five feet, was measured off and sawed or cut square. When this was done the block was raised on end and the work of cutting out a hollow in one of the ends was commenced. This was generally done with a common chopping ax. Sometimes a smaller one was used. When the cavity was judged to be large enough, a fire was built in it and carefully watched till the ragged edges were burned away. When completed the hominy-block some- what resembled a druggist's mortar. Then a pestle, or something to crush the corn, was necessary. This was usually made from a suitably sized piece of timber, with an iron wedge attached, the large end down. This completed the machinery, and the block was ready for use. Sometimes one hominy-block accommodated an entire neighborhood and was the means of staying the hunger of many mouths.
In giving the bill of fare above we should have added meat, for of this they had plenty. Deer would be seen daily trooping over the prairie in droves of from twelve to twenty, and sometimes as many as fifty would be seen grazing together. Elk were also found, and wild turkeys and prairie chickens without number. Bears were not un- known. Music of the natural order was not wanting, and every night the pioneers were lulled to rest by the screeching of panthers and the howling of wolves. When the dogs ventured too far out from the cabins at night, they would be driven back by the wolves chasing
.
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them up to the very cabin doors. Trapping wolves became a very profitable business after the state began to pay a bounty for wolf scalps.
All the streams of water also abounded in fish, and a good supply of these could be procured by the expense of a little time and labor. Those who years ago improved the fishing advantages of the country never tire telling of the dainty meals which the streams afforded. Sometimes large parties would get together, and, having been provided with cooking utensils and facilities for camping out, would go off some distance and spend weeks together. No danger then of being ordered off a man's premises or arrested for trespass. One of the peculiar circumstances that surrounded the early life of the pioneers was a strange loneliness. The solitude seemed almost to oppress them. Months would pass during which they would scarcely sce a human face outside their own families.
On occasions of special interest. such as clection, holiday celebra- tions, or camp-incetings, it was nothing unusual for a few settlers who lived in the immediate neighborhood of the meeting to entertain scores of those who had come from a distance.
Rough and rude though the surroundings may have been, the pioneers were none the less honest, sincere, hospitable and kind in their relations. It is true, as a rule, and of universal application, that there is a greater degree of real humanity among the pioneers of any country than there is when the country becomes old and rich. If there is an absence of refinement, that absence is more than compen- sated in the presence of generous hearts and truthful lives. They are bold, industrious and enterprising. Generally speaking, they are earnest thinkers, and possessed of a diversified fund of useful, practical information. As a rule they do not arrive at a conclusion by means of a course of rational reasoning, but, nevertheless, have a queer way of getting at the facts. They hate cowards and shams of every kind, and above all things, falsehoods and deception, and cultivate an integrity which seldom permits them to prostitute themselves to a narrow policy of imposture. Such were the characteristics of the men and women who pioncered the way to the country of the Sacs, Foxes, Kickapoos and Pottawatomie Indians. A few of them yet remain, and although some of their descendants are among the wealthy and most substantial of the people of the county, they have not forgotten their old time hospitality and free and easy ways. In contrasting the present social atiairs with pioneer times, one has well said : --
" Then, if a house was to be raised, every man . turned out,' and
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often the women, too, and while the men piled up the logs that fash- ioned the primitive dwelling-place, the women prepared the dinner. Sometimes it was cooked by big log fires near the site where the cabin was building ; in other cases it was prepared at the nearest cabin, and at the proper hour was carried to where the men were at. worl . If one man in the neighborhood killed a beef, a pig or a deer. every other family in the neighborhood was sure to receive a piece. " We were all on an equality. Aristoeratie feelings were unknown and would not have been tolerated. What one had we all had, and that was the happiest period of my life. But to-day, if you lean against a neighbor's shade tree, he will charge you for it. If you are poor and fall sick, you may lie and suffer almost unnoticed and unattended, and probably go to the poor-house ; and just as like as not the man who would report you to the authorities as a subject of county care would charge the county for making the report."
Of the old settlers, some are still living in the county, in the enjoyment of the fortunes they founded in early times, "having reared an hundred fokl." Nearly all, however, have passed away. A few of them have gone to the far west, and are still playing the part of pioneers. . But wherever they may be, whatever fate may betide them, it is but truth to say that they were excellent men, as a class, and have left a deep and enduring impression upon the county and the state. " They builded better than they knew." They were, of course, men of activity and energy, or they would never have decided to face the trials of pioneer life. The great majority of them were poor, but the lessons taught them in the early days were of such a character that few of them have remained so. They made their mistakes in business pursuits like other men. Scarcely one of them but allowed golden opportunities, for pecuniary profit, at least, to pass by unheeded. What are now some of the choicest farms in Howard county were not taken up by the pioneers, who preferred land of very much less value. They have seen many of their prophesies fulfilled, and others come to naught. Whether they have attained the success they desired, their own hearts can tell.
To one looking over the situation then, from the standpoint now, it certainly does not seem very cheering, and yet, from the testimony of some old pioneers, it was a most enjoyable time, and we of the present live in degenerate days.
At that time it certainly would have been much more difficult for those old settlers to understand how it could be possible that sixty- five years hence, the citizens at the present age of the county's pro-
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gress would be complaining of hard times and destitution, and that they themselves, perhaps, would be among that number, than it is now for us to appreciate how they could feel so cheerful and contented with their meagre means and humble lot of hardships and depriva- tions during those carly pioneer days.
The secret was, doubtless, that they lived within their means, however limited, not coveting more of luxury and comfort than their income would afford, and the natural result was prosperity and con- tentment, with always room for one more stranger at the fireside, and a cordial welcome to a place at their table for even the most hungry guest.
Humanity, with all its ills, is, nevertheless, fortunately charac- terized with remarkable flexibility, which enables it to accommodate itself to circumstances. After all, the secret of happiness lies in . one's ability to accommodate himself to his surroundings.
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