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 14

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 14
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 14

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The counties first organized along the eastern borders of the state were given for a short time jurisdiction over the lands and settlements adjoining each on the west, until these localities became sufficiently settled to support organizations of their own.

GOVERNMENT SURVEYS.

No person can intelligently understand the history of a country without at the same time knowing its geography, and in order that a clear and correct idea of the geography of Howard county may be obtained from the language already used in defining different localities and pieces of land, we insert herewith the plan of government surveys as given in Mr. E. A. Hickman's property map of Jackson county, Missouri : -

Previous to the formation of our present government, the east- ern portion of North America consisted of a number of British colonies, the territory of which was granted in large tracts to British noblemen. By treaty of 1783, these grants were acknowledged as valid by the colonies. After the revolutionary war, when these colonies were acknowledged independent states, all public domam within their boundaries was acknowledged to be the property of the colony within the bounds of which said domain was situated.

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HISTORY OF HOWARD AND COOPER COUNTIES.

Virginia claimed all the northwestern territory, including what is now known as Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana and Illinois. After a meeting of the representatives of the various states to form a union, Virginia ceded the northwest territory to the United States government. This took place in 1784 ; then all this north- west territory became government land. It comprised all south of the lakes and east of the Mississippi river and north and west of the states having definite boundary lines. This territory had been known as New France, and had been ceded by France to England in 1768. In the year 1803, Napoleon Bonaparte sold to the United States all territory west of the Mississippi river and north of Mexico, extending to the Rocky Mountains.

While the public domain was the property of the colonies, it was disposed of as follows : Each individual caused the tract he desired to purchase to be surveyed and platted. A copy of the survey was then filed with the register of lands, when, by paying into the state or col- onial treasury an agreed price, the purchaser received a patent for the land. This method of disposing of public lands made lawsuits numer- ous, owing to different surveys often including the same ground. To avoid these difficulties and effect a general measurement of the terri- tories, the United States adopted the present mode or system of land surveys, a dseription of which we give, as follows :

In an unsurveyed region, a point of marked and changeless topo- graphical features is selected as an initial point. The exact latitude and longitude of this point is ascertained by astronomical observation, and a suitable monument of iron or stone to perpetuate the position. Through this point a true north and south line is run, which is called a principal meridian. This principal meridian may be extended north and south any desired distance. Along this line are placed, at dis- tances of one-half mile from each other, posts of wood or stone, or mounds of earth. These posts are said to establish the line, and are called section and quarter-section posts. Principal meridians are numbered in the order in which they are established. Through the same initial point from which the principal meridian was surveyed, an- other line is now run and established by mile and half-mile posts, as before, in a true east and west direction. This line is called the base line, and like the principal meridian, may be extended indefinitely in either direction. These lines form the basis of the survey of the country into townships and ranges. Township lines extend east and west, parallel with the base line, at distances of six miles from the base line and from each other, dividing the country into strips six miles wide, which strips are called townships. Range lines run north and south parallel to the principal meridian, dividing the country into strips six miles wide, which strips are called ranges. Township strips are numbered from the base line and range strips are numbered from the principal meridian. Townships lying north of the base line are " townships north ;" those on the south are "townships south." The strip lying next the base line is township one, the next one to

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HISTORY OF HOWARD AND COOPER COUNTIES.

that township two, and so on. The range strips are numbered in the same manner, counting from the principal meridian east or west, as the case may be.

The township and range lines thus divide the country into six-mile squares. Each of these squares is called a congressional township. All north and south lines north of the equator approach each other as they extend north, finally meeting at the north pole ; therefore north and south lines are not literally parallel. The east and west boun- dary lines of any range being six miles apart in the latitude of Mis- souri or Kansas, would, in thirty miles, approach eack other at 2.9 chains, or 190 feet. If, therefore, the width of the range when started from the base line is made exactly six miles, it would be 2.9 chains too narrow at the distance of thirty miles, or five townships north. To correct the width of ranges and keep them to the proper width, the range lines are not surveyed in a continuous straight line, like the principal meridian, entirely across the state, but only aeross a limited number of townships, usually five, where the width of the range is corrected by beginning a new line on the side of the range most distant from the principal meridian, at such a point as will make the range its correct width. All range lines are corrected in the same manner. The east and west township line on which these corrections are made are called correction lines, or standard parallels. The surveys of the state of Missouri were made from the fifth principal meridian, which runs through the state, and its ranges are numbered from it. The State of Kansas is surveyed and numbered from the sixth. Congressional townships are divided into thirty-six square miles, called sections, and are known by numbers, according to their posi- tion. The following diagram shows the order of numbers and the sec- tions in congressional township.

---- 6

4 -

- 3

-10

-)1

-16-

-15

-13

-24

30-

26-

-25-

31-

-32

-33

- 34-

-35

-36-

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HISTORY OF HOWARD AND COOPER COUNTIES.

Sections are divided into quarters, eighths and sixteenths, and are described by their position in the section. The full section con- tains 640 acres, the quarter 160, the eighth 80, and the sixteenth 40. In the following diagram of a section the position designated by @ is known as the northwest quarter; ¿ is the northeast quarter ; of the northeast quarter; d would be the south half of the southeast quarter, and would contain 80 acres.

14 Sec. post

Sec. post

160 acres

44 Sec. post

14 Sec. post

Sec. post

'4 Sec. post

Congressional townships, as we have seen are six mile squares of land, made by the township and range lines, while eivil or municipal townships are civil divisions, made for purposes of government, the one having no reference to the other, though similar in name. On the county map we see both kinds of townships - the congressional nsually designated by numbers and in squares ; the municipal or civil township by name and in various forms.

By the measurement thus made by the government the courses and distances are defined between any two points. St. Lomis is in township 44 north, range 8 east, and Independence is in township 49 north, range 32 west ; how far, then, are Kansas City and St. Louis apart on a direct line? St. Louis is forty townships east - 240 miles - and five townships south - thirty miles ; the base and perpendicular of a right-angled triangle, the hypothenuse being the required distance."

ORGANIZATION OF TOWNSHIPS.

The " township," as the term is used in common phraseology, in many instances, is widely distinguished from that of " town," though many persons persist in confounding the two. " In the United States, many of the states are divided into townships of five, six, seven, or perhaps ten miles square, and the inhabitants of such townships are vested with certain powers for regulating their own affairs, such as repairing roads and providing for the poor. The township is subor- dinate to the county." A " town " is simply a collection of houses, either large or small, and opposed to " country."

The most important features connected with this system of town-

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HISTORY OF HOWARD AND COOPER COUNTIES.

ship surveys should be thoroughly understood by every intelligent farmer and business man ; still there are some points connected with the understanding of it, which need close and careful attention. The law which established this system required that the north and south lines should correspond exactly with the meridian passing through that point ; also, that each township should be six miles square. To do this would be an utter impossibility, since the figure of the earth causes the meridians to converge toward the pole, making the north line of each township shorter than the south tine of the same township. To obviate the errors which are on this account, constantly occurring, correction lines are established. They are parallels bounding a line of townships on the north, when lying north of the principal base ; on the south line of townships when lying south of the principal base from which the surveys, as they are continued, are laid out anew ; the range lines again starting at correct distances from the principal meridian. In Michigan these correction lines are repeated at the end of every tenth township, but in Oregon they have been repeated with every fifth township. The instructions to the surveyors have been that each range of townships should be made as much over six miles in width on each base and correction line as it will fall short of the same width where it closes on to the next correction line north ; and it is further provided that in all cases, where the exterior lines of the townships shall exceed, or shall not extend six miles, the excess of deficiency shall be specially noted, and added to or deducted from the western or northern sections or half sections in such township, according as the error may be in running the lines from east to west, or from south to north. In order to throw the excess of de- ficiencies on the north and on the west sides of the township, it is necessary to survey the section lines from south to north, on a true meridian, leaving the result in the north line of the township to be governed by the convexity of the earth, and the convergeney of the meridians.

Navigable rivers, lakes and islands are " meandered" or surveyed by the compass and chain along the banks. "The instruments employed on these surveys, besides the solar compass, are a survey- ing chain thirty-three feet long, of fifty links, and another of smaller wire, as a standard to be used for correcting the former as often at least as every other day, also eleven tally pins, made of steel, telescope, targets, tape measure and tools for marking the lines upon trees or stones. In surveying through woods, trees intercepted by the line are marked with two chips or notches, one on each side ; these are called

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HISTORY OF HOWARD AND COOPER COUNTIES.

sight or line trees. Sometimes other trees in the vicinity are blazed on two sides quartering toward the line; but if some distance from the line the two blazes should be near together on the side facing the line. These are found to be permanent marks, not wholly recognizable for many years, but carrying with them their own age by the rings of growth around the blaze, which may at any subsequent time be cut out and counted as years ; and the same are recognized in courts of law as evidence of the date of the survey. They cannot be obliterated by cutting down the trees or otherwise without leaving evidence of the act. Corners are marked upon trees if found at the right spots, or else upon posts set in the ground, and sometimes a monument of stones is used for a township corner, and a single stone for section corner ; mounds of earth are made when there are no stones nor timber. The corners of the four adjacent sections are designated by distinct marks eut into a tree, one in each section. These trees, facing the corner, are plainly marked with the letters B. T. (bearing tree) cnt into the wood. Notches cut upon the corner posts or trees indicate the number of miles to the outlines of the township, or if on the boundaries of the township, to the township corners.

CHAPTER VI.

BOONE'S LICK TOWNSHIP.

Boundary-Physical Features - Lakes - Salt Springs - Indian Mounds - Early Set- tlers - The Name -Daniel Boone- The Dale of His Visiting the Township -He Never Manufactured Salt-Historie Ground-Character of the Early Settlers - Their Troubles - Supplied Themselves with Many Things - After the War of 1812 - Biograpical Sketch of Major Stephen Cooper - Boonsboro - Its Early History - Incident.

We shall begin the township history of Howard county, not alpha- betically but chronologically, giving each as nearly as we can in the order of their settlement, commencing with Boone's Lick town- ship.

BOUNDARY.

This township, which was re-organized in 1821, has suffered no dimunition of its territory since that period, nor has its area been increased. It occupies the southwestern corner of the county, and is bounded on the north by Chariton township, on the east by Rich- mond and Franklin townships, on the south by Cooper county and the Missouri river, and on the west by Saline county and the Missouri river.

PHYSICAL FEATURES, ETC.

The township was originally heavily timbered and a great abun- dance of the best of timber is now standing, but much of it has been cleared off preparatory to the opening of the farms, which are now located on almost every quarter section of the township. The sur- face of the township is undulating and in many places hills and ridges abound. Limestone is found in different portions of the township. It is well watered by Salt, Bowen's Simpson's, Brown's and Clark's branches, and by Sulphur and Bartlett's creeks, all of which flow into the Missouri river, which forms the southern and western border of the township. Besides these streams of water the township, many years ago, was noted for its lakes, known as Cooper's and Nash's lakes. The latter was quite an extensive body of water, and at one time covered portions of sections 27, 28, 29, 30, 32, 33, 34. It has

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HISTORY OF HOWARD AND COOPER COUNTIES.

been ditched and drained, and its entire area is now under fence and paying a rich tribute to the farmer. Cooper's lakes were located on sections 2 and 11, but, like the one mentioned, they have been drained and are now properly classed among the tillable lands of the township.

In this township there are a number of salt springs, the most celebrated of these being Boone's Lick. From the date of their orig- inal discovery, a great quantity of salt has been manufactured from the brine and shipped to St. Louis and elsewhere throughout the country. A few years since a well was bored to the depth of 1,001 feet at this "lick " from which flowed a stream of brine sufficiently strong and rapid to produce one hundred barrels of superior salt in twenty-four hours.

A number of Indian mounds are found in the township.

The soil is generally fair on the highlands and exceedingly fertile in the river bottom. The bulk of the tobacco raised in the county is produced in this township.

EARLY SETTLERS.

There is probably more historical interest connected with the early history of Boone's Lick township than with any other municipal division of the county. The great dramatist intimates there is nothing in a name. A name, however, sometimes means a great deal, as it does iu this instance. Had the township received its name by accident, or had it been given as the mere result of some man's capricions or idle whim, then it could have had no significance. But when we know that it was bestowed upon the township after mature deliberation, then it is that we begin to realize something of its import, and naturally ask ourselves the question, " Why the name of Boone's Lick?"

Would that we knew more of the brave hunter whose daring ex- ploits illumine the pages of the pioneer history of two States ! Espe- cially of his connection with Boone's Lick township, and the Boone's Lick country, in honor of whom the entire region took its name. Without stopping to discuss the seemingly apparent conflict between tradition and the meagre historical facts relating to the probability of his once residing within the present limits of Howard county, we shall simply state, as we did in a preceding chapter of this book, that Daniel Boone erected a cabin and camped one winter in the immediate vicinity of Boone's Lick. The date of his doing this is not known. He had doubtless visited the " licks " quite often in search of game before he had concluded to camp there. We are, however, confident, from the

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HISTORY OF HOWARD AND COOPER COUNTIES.

most authentic records we have examined, that the date of his coming to Boone's Lick township was not far from the beginning of the present century. That Daniel Boone ever made salt here or elsewhere we are disposed to doubt. He was a hunter, both by habit and inclina- tion, and followed exclusively the life of a hunter as a livelihood, and it is very improbable that he would turn aside from his legitimate avocation, and one that he esteemed above all others, to pursue, even for a short season, any other employment, which at that early day, promised no such remuneration as inured to the benefit of the active and vigilant hunter and skilful trapper. His sons Nathan and Daniel, however, manufactured salt in the township some years later - in 1807 - and conveyed the same to the river in hollow logs, so imper- fect were the facilities then for transportation.

Every acre of Boone's Lick township is historic ground, hallowed to the memory of the most distinguished pioneer that ever pitched his tents in the forests of the great west. Its hills and its valleys first echoed and re-echoed to the crack of his unerring rifle. And it may be that its soil had never been touched by the feet of the white man until pressed by his. As Daniel Boone was bold in adventure and fearless in his character, and possessed many of the sterling character- istics of a noble manhood, so were the early settlers of this township, fearless in their attempts to conquer the wilderness, and so did they possess in a large measure, the distinguishing traits of a superior manhood. As heretofore stated (and the fact is obtained from the first recorded deed in the county ), Joseph Marie, a Frenchman, had made a settlement and improvements in Boone's Lick township in 1800, in the neighborhood of Eagle's Nest, and about one mile south- west of Fort Kincaid. Col. Benjamin Cooper came in 1808, and located at Boone's Lick, but his settlement there being regarded as an infringement npon the Indian lands, he was ordered by the govern- ment to return to a point below the mouth of the Gasconade, and in doing so he established himself on Loutre island. After remaining on the island for two years, and being joined there by about twenty- five families, he returned with a large portion of these in the spring of 1810, to Boone's Lick, where they erected cabins and put in crops in the succeeding fall. This was the first permanent settlement of the township, and the embryotic settlement of Howard county, which has widened and widened, until like the waves of the sea, it has long since reached the remotest limits of the county, having increased more than a thousandfold.

Among the names of the early settlers we find the following :

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HISTORY OF HOWARD AND COOPER COUNTIES.

Col. Benjamin Cooper, and sons, Frank, Benjamin, David, and Sar- shall ; Sarshall Cooper and sons, Joseph and Braxton ; Braxton Cooper and his son Robert; John and Abbott Hancock, John and William Berry, John and Henry Ferrill, Peter Popineau, William Wolfskill and sons, Joseph and William ; James Anderson and sons, Middleton and William ; John O'Bannon, Stephen Jackson, Josiah Thorp and sons, William and John; Grey Bynum, Robert Brown, Robert Irwin, James Coil, James Jones, Adam Woods, Gilead Rupe, Amos Ashcraft and sons, Otho, Jesse, James and Alexander.

The settlers had to contend with many difficulties, even before the war of 1812, chief among which was the opposition of congress to their occupying lands within the limits set apart as belonging to the aborigines, who, however, acquiesced in their remaining. The settlers determined they would not surrender their claims, if they could help it, and continued to occupy the lands they had purchased, derived from a Spanish grant, which had been obtained by Ira P. Nash in the year 1800. They manufactured their own powder and salt, and supplied themselves with a fabric, which was made from wild nettles, and which served to them the purposes of cotton goods. They obtained their meats from the woods and the streams, the former abounding in choicest game, and the latter swarming with varied tribes of multitudinous fishes.

By chase our long-lived fathers earned their food ; Toil strung the nerves, and purified the blood; But we, their sons, a pampered race of men, Are dwindled down to three-score years and ten.

They not only had to contend with the hardships and privations which fall to the lot of the pioneer in their heroic struggles to dissipate the gloom of the forest ; but scarcely had they completed their cabins, beneath whose humble roofs they were about to enjoy the first fruits of their labors, when a more terrible ordeal, through which they were destined to pass, suddenly confronted them. War had been declared against Great Britain, and that nation had incited the Indians upon our frontiers to deeds of violence. It was so here, and to protect themselves against these savages they were compelled, single-handed and unaided, to build a fort ( Fort Cooper), where they remained the greater part of three years. [For further history in reference to Fort Cooper see preceding chapters. ]

When peace was concluded (1815), the settlers commenced the

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HISTORY OF HOWARD AND COOPER COUNTIES.

work of improvement in earnest. They were principally from Ken- tucky, and were noted for their liberality and kindness, and for the high standard of morality which they brought with them, and which they maintained even when they were no longer a law unto them- selves, and after they had become subject to the jurisdiction of terri- torial laws. John and Henry Ferrill and Robert Hancock were from Tennessee ; James Kyle from Virginia ; Grey Bynum from South Car- olina ; Stephen Jackson from Georgia.

MAJ. STEPHEN COOPER.

Maj. Stephen Cooper, who now resides in Colusa, California, was one of the pioneers of Boone's Lick township, and being one of the very few men living who shared with the early settlers the dangers and difficulties of that eventful period ( the first settlement of Howard connty ), we publish in this connection a sketch of his life, feeling con- fident that it will be perused with great interest : -

My parents emigrated from Virginia to Kentucky at a very early day. My father's name was Sarshall Cooper. My mother was in the fort at Boonsboro at the time it was besieged by the Indians. My father was at some other station, the name of which I do not now re- member. I was born in Madison county, Kentucky, March 10, 1797. In 1810 my father emigrated to Missouri and settled at Cooper's fort in Howard county. St. Louis was then but a small French village, with a few miserable houses, mostly thatched with straw. At that time, and for several years afterwards, the settlers generally lived in fortified houses, or forts, as they were called, on account of the In- dlians. My father had command of three forts, viz : Cooper's fort, Hempstead and Kincaid. The two latter were ten miles from the former. For several years we had no organized government ; each did what he thought right in his own eyes, and we had very little trouble in our own fort - in fact we never had any. Sometimes my father and uncle would be sent for to go to the other forts to settle some slight difficulty, but never anything serious occurred. On one occasion a Frenchman had stolen twenty dollars - a large amount at that time. He was ordered to leave the settlement. He begged hard to be permitted to come back at the end of a year, and he promised so faithfully to behave himself well, if he were allowed to, that the desired permission was given, and after serving out his term of ban- ishment he returned, and was ever after a good citizen.

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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