History of Howard and Cooper counties, Missouri : written and compiled from the most authentic official and private sources, including a history of its townships, towns, and villages : together with a condensed history of Missouri, a reliable and detailed history of Howard and Cooper counties-- its pioneer record, resources, biographical sketches of prominent citizens, general and local statistics of great value, incidents and reminiscences, Part 11

Author: National Historical Company
Publication date: 1883
Publisher: St. Louis : National Historical Co.
Number of Pages: 1198

USA > Missouri > Cooper County > History of Howard and Cooper counties, Missouri : written and compiled from the most authentic official and private sources, including a history of its townships, towns, and villages : together with a condensed history of Missouri, a reliable and detailed history of Howard and Cooper counties-- its pioneer record, resources, biographical sketches of prominent citizens, general and local statistics of great value, incidents and reminiscences > Part 11
USA > Missouri > Howard County > History of Howard and Cooper counties, Missouri : written and compiled from the most authentic official and private sources, including a history of its townships, towns, and villages : together with a condensed history of Missouri, a reliable and detailed history of Howard and Cooper counties-- its pioneer record, resources, biographical sketches of prominent citizens, general and local statistics of great value, incidents and reminiscences > Part 11

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).

RATE OF TAXATION.

The following order made by the circuit court in 1816, shows the rate of taxation at that tune : ---

" Ordered by the court that the following rates of taxation for county purposes for the year 1816 be established in the county of Howard, to wit :

On each horse, mare, mnle or ass above 3 years old .25

On all neat cattle above 3 years old . .06 1/4 On each and every stud-horse, the sum for which he stands the

.06 1/4

season

On every negro or mulatto slave between the ages of 16 and 45 years . .50

For each billiard-table . . $25.00

On every able-bodied single man of 21 years old or upwards not being possessed of property of the value of $200 . . 50 On water, grist-mills, and saw-mills, horse-mills, tan-yards and distilleries in actual operation 40 cents on every $100 valuation."

EARLY SUIT.

Among the early snits we find the following, which we copy, be- cause of the peculiar and ancient contract upon which the suit was instituted :

Wesley G. Martin VS. In debt.

Ezekiel Williams, Braxton Cooper and Morris May.

The defendant, by M. MeGirk, their attorney, comes into court and defends the wrong and injury, and craves oyer of the said writ- ing obligatory mentioned in the said plaintiff's declaration, which was read to them in the following words, to-wit :

" JULY 24TH, 1814.

" On our arrival at the post of Arkansas, we, or either of us, " promise to pay, or cause to be paid unto Fraceway Licklier or his

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HISTORY OF HOWARD AND COOPER COUNTIES.

" assigns, the just and full sum of three hundred dollars, it being for

" his services to the above place, as witness our hands and seals. EZEKIEL WILLIAMS, SEAL. BRAXTON COOPER, [SEAL. ] MORRIS MAY." SEAL. ]

لايالا

FIRST DEED RECORDED.

The following was the first deed placed on record in Howard county : -

Know all men by these presents that I, Joseph Marie, of the county and town of St. Charles, and territory of Missouri, have this day given, granted, bargained, sold and possession delivered unto Asa Morgan, of the county of Howard, and territory aforesaid, all the right, title, claim, interest, and property that I the said Joseph Marie have or may possess or am in anywise legally or equitably eu- titled to in a certain settlement right on the north side of the Mis- souri river, in the aforesaid county of Howard, near a certain place known and called by the name of Eagle's Nest, and lying about one mile, a little west of south from Kincaid's Fort, in the said county of Howard, which said settlement was made by me sometime in the year 1800, for and consideration of value by me received, the receipt whereof, is hereby acknowledged, and him the said Asa Morgan for- ever discharged and acquitted. And I do by these presents, sell, transfer, convey and quit-elaim to the aforesaid Asa Morgan all the claims and interest which I might be entitled to either in law or equity from the aforesaid improvement or settlement right, together with all and singular, all the appurtenances unto the same belonging, or in anywise appertaining to have and to hold free from me, or any person claiming by or through me.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and seal, the 13th day of April, 1816. JH. MARIE. [SEAL. ]

Signed, sealed and delivered in presence of Urh. I. Devore, A. Wilson.

SECOND DEED.

" To all to whom these presence shall come greeting : - Know ye that we, Risdon H. Price, and Mary, his wife, both of the town and county of St. Louis, and territory of Missouri, for and in considera- tion of the sum of four thousand eight hundred dollars, lawful money of the United States to us in hand before the delivery of these presents well and fully paid by Elias Rector, of the same place, the receipt whereof is hereby acknowledged and thereof, we do hereby aequit and discharge the said Elias Rector, his heirs and assigns forever. Have given, granted, bargained, and sold, and do hereby give, grant, bar- gain, and sell unto the said Elias Rector, his heirs and assigns forever, subject to the conditions hereinafter expressed, one certain traet and parcel of land, containing one thousand six hundred arpens, situate in the county of Howard, in the territory of Missouri, granted origin-

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HISTORY OF HOWARD AND COOPER COUNTIES.

ally by the late Lieutenant-Governor Charles Dehault Delassus, to one Ira Nash, on the 18th day of January, 1800, surveyed the 26th day of January, 1804, and certified on the 15th day of February, of the same year, reference being had to the record of said claim in the office of the recorder of land titles for the territory of Missouri, for the con- cession and for the boundaries thereof as set forth in and upon the said certificate or plat of survey thereof will more fully, certainly and at large appear, and which said survey is hereto annexed and makes part and parcel of this deed, and being the same tract of land which the said Risdon H. Price claims as assigned of the sheriff of the county of St. Charles, who sold the same as the property of said Ira Nash, as by deed thereof dated the 5th day of October, 1815, reference thereto being had will more fully and at large appear.

To have the said granted aud bargained premises with the appur- tenances and privileges thereon, and thereunto belonging unto him, the said Elias Rector, his heirs and assigns forever. And it is hereby declared to be the agreement, understanding and intention of the parties aforesaid, that should the said tract of land be finally rejected by the United States within three years from this date, or should the same not be sanctioned and confirmed by the government of the United States, at or before the period last mentioned, or in case the said Elias Rector, his heirs, executors, administrators, or assigns shall by due process and judgment at law, he evicted, dispossessed and definitely deprived of said tract of land, then and in that case, the said Risdon H. Price, his heirs, executors, or administrators, shall only pay or cause to be paid to the said Elias Rector, his heirs, executors, adminis- trators or assigns, the said sum of four thousand eight hundred dollars, lawful money of the United States, with the lawful interest thereon, at the rate of six per centum per annum, from the date of this deed, until the time of such rejection, not being sanctioned as aforesaid, or until such eviction as aforesaid, with the legal costs upon such snit or suits at law, and which shall be in full of all damages under any cov- enants in this dead, and if such claim shall be rejected as aforesaid or not confirmed as aforesaid, or in case the said Elias Rector, his heirs, executors, or assigns, shall be evicted therefrom as aforesaid, that then, and in either of these cases, the said Elias Rector, his heirs, executors or assigns, shall by proper deed of release and quit-claim, transfer to said Risdon H. Price, his heirs, executors, administrators and assigns, the claim of said Elias Rector, his heirs, executors and assigns to the said premises at the time of receiving the said consid- eration money, interest, and costs aforesaid.

In witness whereof, we have hereunto set our hands and seals, this 22d day of June, 1816.

RISDON H. PRICE, [SEAL. ]

MARY G. PRICE, SEAL. ] ELIAS RECTOR. SEAL. ]

Signed, sealed and delivered in presence of Jerh. Connor, M. P. Leduc."

The above deed was acknowledged before Mary Philip Leduc,

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HISTORY OF HOWARD AND COOPER COUNTIES.

clerk of the circuit court within and for the county of St. Louis. It is quite an ancient deed and quite a lengthy one, and the old Spanish phraseology is used - the word arpents in the description of the land.

FIRST MARRIAGES.

Below will be found verbatim copies of some of the earliest cer- tificates of marriages that oceurred in Howard county. In the names of the parties assuming the marital relations, some one or more of our readers, may recognize their maternal or paternal ancestors :- -

TERRITORY OF MISSOURI, COUNTY OF HOWARD.

to-wit.

Be it remembered to all whom it may concern, that on the 10th day of May, 1816, by virtue of the power and anthority vested in me by law, a preacher of the gospel, etc., I joined in the holy state of matrimony Judiah Osmon and Rosella Busby, of the said territory and county, as man and wife. Witness my hand, this 3d day of July 1816. WILLIAM THORP.

I hereby certify, that on the second day of June last passed, I celebrated the rights of matrimony between John Cooley and Eliza- beth White, both of the county of Howard and territory of Missouri. Given under my hand, this tenth day of June, 1816.

JAMES ALCORN. J. P.

I do hereby certify, than on the 27th day of March last, I cele- brated the rights of matrimony between Elijah Creason and Elizabeth Lowell, both of the county of Howard and territory of Missouri.

Given under my hand, this 12th day of April, 1816.

JAMES ALCORN, J. P.

TERRITORY OF MISSOURI, ? to-wit.

HOWARD COUNTY.

Be it known, to whom it may concern, that on the 26th of April, 1816, by virtue of the power and authority vested in me by law, a preacher of the Gospel, I joined in the holy state of matrimony Abra- ham Barnes, and Gracy Jones of the said territory and county, as man and wife, satisfactory proof having been given of the legal notice as requested by law and parents' consent obtained.

Witness my hand, the 22d of April 1816.

DAVID MCCLAIN.

The marriages above mentioned occurred sixty-seven years ago. In those primitive days, among the early settlers, marriages were the result of love. There was not only a union of hands, but a union

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HISTORY OF HOWARD AND COOPER COUNTIES.

of hearts. The pioneer maiden made the faithful wife, and the sturdy baekwoodsman the fond and trusted husband.

From that day forth, in peace and joyous bliss, They lived together long without debate ; Nor private jars, nor spite of enemies, Could shake the safe assurance of their state.

Eleven marriage certificates were recorded in the year 1816. One hundered and sixty-two marriages were recorded in 1882.

OLD FRANKLIN - LOCATION OF COUNTY SEAT.

The town of Old Franklin was laid off opposite the present site of Boonville, in " Cooper's bottom," in the fall of 1816. It was lo- cated on a traet containing 100 acres. Benjamin Estill, David Jones, David Kincaid, William Head, aud Stephen Cole were appointed com- missioners to locate the county seat, which was first located at Hannah Cole's fort, as stated above. On June 16, 1817, the commissioners settled upon Oid Franklin as the most suitable place for the location of the county seat, and to that place the records, documents, etc., were removed on the second Monday in November, 1817, the court being opened by the sheriff ou that day at 2 o'clock p. m.

The land office for the district of Missouri was located at Old Franklin in 1818. Gen. Thomas A. Smith was appointed receiver and Charles Carroll register. The land sales occurred in the same year, November 18, 1818. The crowd in attendance upon these sales was said to have numbered thousands of well-dressed and intelligent men from all parts of the east and south.

MEMOIRS OF DR. PECK.

Wishing to give our readers the benefit of all the taets we have collated, in reference to that early period (1818 and 1819) in the his- tory of Howard county, we here insert some extracts from the memoirs of James M. Peck, D. D., a pioneer Baptist minister who visited this portion of the Missouri territory at the period mentioned. What he says was written from his personal observation, and is therefore not only reliable but deeply interesting : - . * On Monday, December 22, 1818, I rode through the coun- try to Franklin, found a Baptist family by the name of Wiseman, where I had been directed to call. A hasty appointment was cireu- lated, and I preached to a roomful of people.

Franklin is a village of seventy families. It is situated on the

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HISTORY OF HOWARD AND COOPER COUNTIES.

left bank of the Missouri, and on the border of an extensive tract of rich, alluvial bottom land, covered with a heavy forest, except where the axe and fires had destroyed the undergrowth, "deadened " the timber, and prepared the fields for the largest crops of corn.

If any one wishes to find the site of this flourishing town, as it then appeared to promise, he must examine the bed of the river di- rectly opposite Boonville. Repeated floods, many years since, drove the inhabitants to the bluff, with such of their houses as could be re- moved, where New Franklin now stands. At the period of our visit no town west of St. Louis gave better promise for rapid growth than Franklin. There was no church formed in the village, but I found fourteen Baptists there.

The country on the north side of the Missouri, above the Cedar, a small stream on the western border of the present county of Callaway, was known as Boone's Lick from an early period. Also under the same cognomen was the county designated on the south side and west of the Osage river. The particular salt- lick to which this appellation was first given was ten or twelve miles above Old Franklin, and about two miles back from the river. Tradition told that this spot, in a secluded place among the bluffs, was occupied by the old pioneer, the veritable Daniel Boone, for his hunting camp. But the name came from the late Maj. Nathan Boone, who in company with the Messrs. Morrisons, of St. Charles, manufactured salt at the spring in 1806-7. Abont the same time a settlement was made on the Loutre and on Loutre Island. This settlement, except Cate Sans Dessein, was the veritable " far west" until 1810.

During the spring of 1810 several families from Loutre settle- ment, and a large number then recently from Kentucky, moved westward and planted themselves in the Boone's Lick country, then reported as the El Dorado of all new counties. Off from the river bottoms the land was undulating, the prairies small, the soil rich, and the timber in variety and of a fine quality. Deer, bears, elk, and other game were in abundance, and furnished pro- visions, and, in many instances, clothing, until the people could raise crops.

There were in all about one hundred and fifty families that came into the Boone's Lick country in 1810-11, when the Indian war stopped further immigration until 1815 or 1816. Twelve families settled on the south side of the river, not far from the present site of Boonville, and several more formed a settlement south of the Missouri, some ten or fifteen miles above Old Franklin.

Amongst the emigrants, both from Loutre and Kentucky, were not a few Baptist families and two or three preachers. A church had been organized in the Loutre settlement, a majority of which, with their church records, were amongst the emigrants, and became re- organized, and I think took the name of Mount Zion.

Soon the hostile Indians broke into these remote frontier settle- ments. It was in July, 1810, that a hostile band of Pottawatomies

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HISTORY OF HOWARD AND COOPER COUNTIES.

came stealthily into the settlement on the Loutre, nearly opposite the mouth of the Gasconade river, and stole a number of horses. A volunteer company was raised, consisting of Stephen Cole, Wm. T. Cole, Messrs. Brown, Gooch, Patton and one other person, to follow them. They followed the trail across Grand prairie to Boone Lick, a branch of Salt river, where they discovered eight Indians who threw off their packs of plunder and scattered in the woods. Night coming on, the party disregarded the advice of their leader, Stephen Cole, an experienced man with Indians. He advised setting a guard, but the majority exclaimed against it, and cried " cowardice." About midnight the Indian yell and the death- dealing bullet aroused them from sleep. Stephen Cole had taken his station at the foot of a tree, and if he slept it was with one eye open. He killed four Indians and wounded the fifth, though severely wounded himself. Wm. T. Cole, his brother, was killed at the com- muencement of the fight, with two other persons. Next morning the survivors reached the settlement and told the dreadful tidings, and a party returned to the spot, buried the dead, but found the Indians gone.

This was the first of a series of depredations, murders and robber- ies in these remote settlements that continued five years. The dis- trict of St. Charles had the Cedar for its western boundary. The Boone's Liek country was not recognized as within the organized ter- ritory of Missouri. The people were " a law unto themselves." and had to do their own fighting. Every male inhabitant of the settle- ment, who was capable of bearing arms, enrolled and equipped him- self for defence. Each one pledged himself to fight, to labor on the forts, to go on scouting expeditions, or to raise corn for the commu -. nity, as danger or necessity required. By the common consent of all these volunteer parties, Col. Benjamin Cooper, a Baptist from Madison county, Ky., was chosen commander-in-chief.

Col. Cooper was one of Kentucky's noblest pioneers. He had also been a prominent man in the war with Indians in that district, pos- sessed real courage, cool and deliberate, with great skill and sagacity in judgment. He had also been an efficient man in the affairs of civil and political life, and a man of firmness and correctness as a member of the church.

Among the principal officers who occupied subaltern positions as the commanders of forts and partisan leaders for detached field ser- vice, were Capt. Sarshall Cooper (a brother of the colonel), William Head and Stephen Cole.

To guard against surprise, the people, under the direction of their leader, erected five stockade forts :

1. Cooper's fort was at the residence of the colonel, on a bot- tom prairie.

2. MeLain's fort ( called Ft. Hempstead afterward ) was on the bluff, about one mile from New Franklin.

3. Kincaid's fort was near the river, and about one and a half miles above the site of Old Franklin.

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HISTORY OF HOWARD AND COOPER COUNTIES.

4. Head's fort was on the Moniteau, near the old Boone's Liek trace from St. Charles.

5. Cole's fort was on the south side of the Missouri, about a mile below Boonville. Here the widow of W. T. Cole, who was slain by the Indians on Boone's Lick, with her children, settled soon after the murder of her husband.

These forts were a refuge to the families when danger threatened, but the defenders of the country did not reside in them only as threatened danger required. Scouting parties were almost constantly engaged in scouting the woods, in the rear of the settlements, watch- ing for Indian sigus, and protecting their stock from depredations.

With all their vigilance during the war, about three hundred horses were stolen, many cattle and nearly all their hogs were killed. Bear meat and raccoon bacon became a substitute, and even were en- gaged in contracts for trade. They cultivated the fields nearest to the stockade forts, which could be cultivated in corn with comparative se- curity, but not enough to supply the amount necessary for consump- tion.

Parties were detailed to cultivate fields more distant. These were divided into plowmen and sentinels. The one party followed the plows, and the other, with rifles loaded and ready, scouted around the field on every side, stealthily watching lest the wily foe should form au ambuscade. Often the plowman walked over the field, guiding his horses and pulverizing the earth, with his loaded rifle slung at his back.

With all these precautions, few men but would tread stealthily along the furrows. As he approached the end of the corn-rows, where the adjacent woodland might conceal an enemy, his anxiety was at its height. When these detachments were in the cornfield, if the enemy threatened the fort, the sound of the horn gave the alarm, and all rushed to the rescue.

It was in the autumnal season of corn-gathering that a party of these farming soldiers were hard pressed by a party of savages. A negro servant drove the team with a load of corn. He knew nothing of chariot races among the ancients, but he put the lash on the horses, and drove through the large double gateway without touching either post as had been too often his unlucky habit. The Indians were on the opposite side of the clearing, saw their prey had escaped, raised their accustomed yell, and disappeared in the woods. "Oh, Sam!" said the captain, whose servant he was, " you've saved your scalp this time by accurate and energetic driving."

" Yes, massa, I tink so, " at the same time scratching his wool as if he would make sure that the useful appendage was not missing. " De way I done miss dose gate-posts was no red man's business. I never drove trew afore without I hit one side, and sometimes bose of dem."

These pioneer Boone's Lick settlers deserve to be kuown and held in remembrance by the present generation in that populous and

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HISTORY OF HOWARD AND COOPER COUNTIES.

rich district of the State. I regret exceedingly, now it is too late, that I did not gather many more facts, and record the names of the principal families. They suffered as many privations as any frontier settlement in western history. The men were all heroes and the women heroines, and successfully and skillfully defended their families and the country about three years without the least aid from the na- tional or territorial government. Throughout the war but ten per- sons were killed by Indians in all the settlements about Boone's Lick. Several other persons, besides those already mentioned, were killed in the Loutre settlements and below.

Those killed in the Boone's Lick country were Sarshall Cooper, Jonathan Todd, Wm. Campbell, Thomas Smith, Samnel McMahan, Wm. Gregg, John Smith, James Busby, Joseph W. Still, and a negro man. Capt. Sarshall Cooper came to his tragic end at Cooper's fort, where his family resided. It was a dark night ; the wind howled through the forest, and the rain fell in fitful gusts, and the watchful sentinel could not discern an object six feet from the stockade. Capt. Cooper's residence formed one of the angles of the fort. He had previously run up a long account with the red-skins. They dreaded both his strategy and his prowess in Indian warfare. A single brave crept stealthily in the darkness and storm to the logs of the cabin, and made an opening in the clay between the logs barely sufficient to admit the muzzle of his gun, which he discharged with fatal effect. The assas- sin escaped and left the family and every settler in mourning. Among a large circle of relatives and friends, the impressions of their loss were vivid at the period of our first visit.

After nearly three years of hard fighting and severe suffering, congress made provision for raising several companies of " rangers "- men who furnished their own horses, equipments, forage and provi- sions, and received one dollar per day for guarding the frontier set- tlements - when a detachment was sent to the relief of the people of Boone's Lick, under command of Gen. Henry S. Dodge, then major of the battalion. The mounted rangers included the companies of Capt. John Thompson, of St. Louis, Capt. Daugherty, of Cape Gir- ardeau, and Capt. Cooper, of the Boone's Lick. An expedition under command of Capt. Edward Hempstead, was sent in boats up the Missouri. In the companies were fifty Delawares and Shawnees, and two hundred and fifty Americans, On the south bank of the Missouri, at a place now known as Miami, was an Indian town of four hundred, including women and children, who had migrated from the Wabash country a few years previous. They were friendly and peaceable ; but bad Indians would report bad tales of them, and Maj. Dodge under instructions, guarded them back to the Wabash country.

THE FIRST NEWSPAPER.

Scarcely had the pioneers emerged from their forts, wherein they had been immured for three years, before they began in earnest to establish schools and to set up in their midst the printing press.

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HISTORY OF HOWARD AND COOPER COUNTIES.

On the 23d of April, 1819, Nathaniel Patten and Benjamin Holli- day, two enterprising citizens, issued the first number of the Missouri Intelligencer in Franklin. This was the first newspaper published west of St. Louis. A full account of this paper is given in the chapter entitled " The Press."

ARRIVAL OF THE FIRST STEAMBOAT.

Perhaps one of the greatest events that occurred in the year 1819, in the then brief history of Howard county, was the arrival of the steamer Independence, Capt. John Nelson -the first steamboat that had ever attempted the navigation of the Missouri river. The Independence had been chartered by Col. Elias Rector and others of St. Louis, to ascend the Missouri as high as Chariton, two miles above Glasgow. She left St. Louis, May 15, 1819, and reached Franklin, in Howard county, on May 28. Among the passengers were Col. Elias Rector, Stephen Rector, Capt. Desha, J. C. Mitchell, Dr. Stewart, J. Wanton and Major J. D. Wilcox.

Upon the arrival of the Independence, a public dinner was given the passengers and officers. A public meeting was held, of which Axa Morgan, was chosen president and Dr. N. Hutchinson, vice-presi- dent.

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Author: National Historical Company Publication date: 1883 Publisher: St. Louis : National Historical Co. Number of Pages: 1198

Author: National Historical Company
Publication date: 1883
Publisher: St. Louis : National Historical Co.
Number of Pages: 1198