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 30
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 30
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further west. Many of the trees on the ridges, including walnut, white oak, red oak and rock chestnut oak, attain a great size. One of the latter measured thirteen feet three inches in circumference, three feet above the ground. This tree was on the Missouri bluffs ; in the bottoms, cottonwood, elm and sycamore grow to a very large size.
The principal streams in the eastern part of the county, are Mon- iteau creek ( Maniton ) with its tributaries, and Bonne Femme. This last rises about the middle of township 52, range 15 west, and flowing in a southerly direction, empties into the Missouri about three miles below Boonville, Cooper county. The principal tributary of Moniteau creek in this county, is Hunger's Mother,* which heads in the north- west part of township 51, range 14 west ; and the principal one of Bonne Femme is Salt Fork, rising in the southeastern part of town- ship 52, range 15, and flowing southwest empties into the Bonne Femme in the northwest quarter of section 30, township 51, range 15.
Other streams flowing southward, are Salt Creek and Sulphur Creek, and those running westward, are Richland, Hurricane, Gregg's and Bear creeks and Doxy's Fork. They all run into the Missouri, and some of the smaller ones on entering the bottom, waste their waters on the flats and are lost.
* This stream, it is said, received its name from a party of hunters, early settlers, who were hunting bears, and meeting with no success, got out of meat on this creek. Bad weather came upon them, and they were prevented from hunting, and threatened with star- vation. They therefore christened the creek "Hunger's Mother."
LIST OF COAL BANKS.
In the following list there are many localities given at which the coal is too thin to work, but it must be remembered that the coal beds mentioned are only those that are exposed or very near the sur- face at each locality. Except in the cases where the lowest coal (E) is mentioned, there is every probability of finding a thicker bed by sinking shafts. Coal is found in every township, and in some of them, in nearly every section.
322
HISTORY OF HOWARD AND COOPER COUNTIES.
LOCALITY.
COAL.
REMARKS.
OWNER.
Section.
Township.
Range.
Thickness.
Number.
Worked or not.
Inches.
Q. F. Beach.
S. E. 25
52
16
?
A
Not worked at present -- covered.
S. T. Garner.
20
52
16
9
B
Not worked.
9
22
51
17
9?
?
N. E. 15
50
17
12
B. M. MeCrary. 9
4
49
17
15
Has been worked by local smiths.
S. Garvin
28
50
17
20
B?
Has been worked.
Hatfield.
50
17
B?
Near Garvin's, and is worked.
Mrs. Hackley
26
50
17
B?
Covered; worked exten- sively at one time. Not worked.
Pierce.
S. E. 7
50
15
15 18 to 30
B
=
(has been).
Mrs. Howard 9
N. W. 27
51
15
22
9
N. pt. 17
49
14
17
44
S. E. 17
51
15
8
66
20
51
15
9
M. Reynolds
N. E. 2
51
15
2
James Ware ..
S. W. 35
52
15
12
- Pattison.
16
52
16
9
Rice Pattison.
S. E. 9
52
16
9
James Sperry
N. W. 17
52
16
8
66
Richard Lee.
S. W .? 17
52
16
?
S. E. 5
52
16
S. W. 22
51
16
13
S. E. 5|
49
15
10
Not worked.
?
24?
50
16
16
This is at the Bonne Fem- me bridge, on the Fav- ette and Rocheport road. Worked but little.
?
N. W. 29
50
15
?
James McDonalds
S. W. 5
49
15
?
Barton*
S. E. 34
49
15
?
?
Covered; has been worked. Has been worked ; covered. This was covered ; has been worked.
7
50
15
N. E. 10
50
15
9
Judge McCafferty
N. pt. 16 51
15
9
66
T. B. Harris ..
N. E. 11
50
17
12
=
46
Judge McCafferty
64
60
Worked but little.
Dr. Walker. ?
Worked for domestic use.
?
66
* Mr. B.'s coal was covered, and its position relative to the general sectiou could not be ascer- tained. Everything was in a confused state. Masses of sandstone No. 1, and of the rhomboidal limestone were found, but they appear to have been transported by water. The coal is found in a valley running north and south, with the Burlington limestone on one side and the coal on the other.
HISTORY OF HOWARD AND COOPER COUNTIES.
323
LOCALITY.
COAL.
REMARKS.
OWNER.
Section.
Township.
Range.
Thickness.
Number.
Worked or Not.
McCafferty
S. E. 17
51
15
1 to 9
C
Not worked.
M. Reynolds.
N. E. 2
51
15
18?
Has been worked a little.
9
N. E. 10 51
15
12
Not worked.
J. Tatums.
W. hf. N. E. 16
50
17
24 to 33
D
Worked.
9
S. W. 7
50
14
18 to 20
Worked occasionally.
Powell
N. W. 18
50
14
18 to 28
=
Worked.
-Grigsby ..
19
50
14
William Daviss
S. E. 5
50
14
6
44
Not been worked. May thicken after going into the hill a distance.
W. hf. 8
50
14
24
Do not think this coal is known.
N. Robb
S. E. N. W. 36
52
15
16 to 24 E?
Very good coal; worked but little.
N. Pitney
N. E. 36 52
15
31
E
Not worked.
T. M. Pitney.
S. E. 25
52
15
39
Worked extensively.
Dr. J. P. Becks.
32
50
16
22| E?
Worked.
Dr. J. P. Becks
29
50
16
22 E
T. C. Boggs
4 and 5 49
16
R. Diggs
N. E. 8;
50
14
30 E
Said to reach 36 inches, and is worked exten- sively ; very good coal.
Skinner
N. E. 18
51
15
30
Worked.
T. B. Harris
N. E. 20
51
15
?
Not opened.
R. Reynolds.
S. W. 10
51
15
?
E?
.6
.€
MINERAL SPRINGS.
The mineral springs of this county, from their number and rep- utation, are entitled to notice.
They occur in nearly every portion of the county, and nearly all of them are briny, and from some of them salt was made as much as sixty-five years ago. Formerly it would pay to make salt, but facili-
324
HISTORY OF HOWARD AND COOPER COUNTIES.
ties of transportation and the low price of the imported article has superseded its home manufacture.
In importance we may regard Boone's Liek as of the first, Burck- hartt's as of the second, and that of Fayette as of the third class.
Boone's Lick is in section 4, township 49, range 17.
There are four salt springs and one well at Boone's Lick, each one affording a free supply of water, all quite strong of brine. A white deposit is found on the surface of the ground at some of the springs, and a black at others.
The first salt was made here in 1807 by Nathan Boone. His old works were on a mound in the valley northwest of the main spring, and just east of a small branch coming into Salt creek from the west. Other old salt works were on the east side of another small branch. Large beds of charcoal and ashes are almost the only remains of the former works, but salt was made here at various times, and almost constantly until about the year 1855 or 1856. The salt made here was sold in 1837 at one cent per pound, and rating a bushel at fifty pounds, this paid very well. As an evidence of former work here, we would state that for four square miles around Boone's Liek, the timber has been entirely cut off at various times for fuel for the salt works. At the present time these grounds are entirely cov- ered over with a thrifty growth of young white oak, with some wal- nut, black oak and hickory. These trees are mostly six by eight inches in diameter, but many are as much as one foot.
Dr. J. C. Heberling, W. N. Marshall and others are the present owners of the property. In 1869 they began to bore for salt water, and continued their work until the fall of 1872, when the boring had reached a depth of 1,001 feet. They then stopped work. At thirty- seven feet water was obtained ; at sixty-eight feet, weak salt water, and at 163 feet 9 inches, the size of the stream had increased a fourth, with percentage of salt about the same as the outside stream, or 4.5 per eent.
At a depth of 481 feet they report a vein of salt water, with an increased strength of one-third. At 707 feet 9 inches a small addi- tion of water was reached ; also a strong, offensive gas, with a cor- responding increase of strength of the brine from 4.5-9 per cent (double ).
A 10-inch square wooden conductor was put into the bottom of the quicksand, twenty-two feet. Below this a one and one-half-inch pipe was inserted, from which the flow is about thirty gallons per min- ute. The volume of water is sufficient for a two and one-half-inch pipe.
325
HISTORY OF HOWARD AND COOPER COUNTIES.
BURCKHARTT'S SPRING.
This spring is two miles west of New Franklin, at the edge of a small valley coming into the Bonne Femme from the west side. The water issues forth very freely from the valley clays, not very far from a bluff of Burlington limestone. A white deposit is formed in the bed of the branch. In former times considerable salt was made here.
LEWIS SPRING.
The Lewis spring, near Glasgow, is on the land of Jno. F. Lewis, one and one-half miles from Glasgow, on the west branch of Gregg's creek. The salt water here flows from clay at several places within a space of twelve feet square. In some places a white, and in others a black deposit is found in the bed of the rivulet.
There is another small salt spring on Bear creek, just outside of the limits of Glasgow.
A weak-flowing salt spring appears on the west side of Sulphur creek, near where it enters the Missouri bottoms.
On the flat below the railroad depot at Fayette, is a salt and sul- phur spring of about the strength of the Lewis spring. The cattle have formed, by licking and tramping, an extensive lick fifty by one hundred feet. This was originally known as Buffalo lick, and 2,800 acres of the neighboring lands were originally reserved as saline lands for the use of the state.
Simpson's lick, or Simpson's branch, one mile from the Missouri bottom, is a weak salt spring. No salt was ever made here, although the land was entered for " saline lands."
SALT WATER SPRINGS.
There are a number of salt water springs in the eastern part of the county, at all of which salt has been made at one time or another.
On Mrs. Wilhite's land, in northwest quarter of section 2, town- ship 49, range 15, there is a weak salt spring. This was formerly known as the Moniteau lick. Four thousand acres of the adjoining lands were originally selected for the use of the state. On the Messrs. Morris land, in section 34, township 50, range 15, there is another which affords a great deal of water, but which is also weak. Judge Wade Jackson says that he made salt from the water of each of these springs, but that it required from 500 to 600 gallons of water to make a bushel of salt. He then dug a well on his place, in section
326
HISTORY OF HOWARD AND COOPER COUNTIES.
35, township 50, range 15, to the depth of fifty feet to limestone, and then bored 250 feet. After boring 200 feet he struck salt water, but it being no stronger than the water in the springs, he bored fifty feet more, and obtaining no water at that depth, abandoned the enter- prise. It is his opinion that the water obtained by boring contained less sulphur and magnesia than that in the springs. It all probably came from the same source.
On Judge McCafferty's land, in east half of southwest quarter section 16, township 51, range 15, there is an old lick which is known as Cooley's lick. Mr. McCafferty states that salt was first made here fifty or sixty years ago, and that John Cooley made salt at the lick in 1841. He says he first saw the spring în that year, and at that time there were trees growing up from old stumps that he judged to be thirty years old. According to Mr. McCafferty's calculations, salt must have been made here as far back as 1811. Mr. Cafferty has owned the lick for twenty-five years and made salt in 1862, using the few remaining kettles that were first used fifty or sixty years ago. He was unable to state how much water was required to make a bushel of salt, but says that in making a bushel he burned four cords of wood. At one time he would obtain more salt from a certain amount of water than at another. The water has a sulphurous smell, and leaves and pieces of wood left in the spring are soon covered with a yellowish-white coating.
At Mr. Adams', in the northwest quarter, section 83, township 49, range 15, there are several salt and sulphur springs combined. In some the salt predominates and in others the sulphur. They are all close together and the water is weak, about seven hundred gallons of it being required to make one bushel of salt. Salt was made here fifty years ago.
Quarries of limestone and sandstone are found in various portions of the county. There is also iron ore, fire-clay, and rock which would make good hydraulic cement.
CHAPTER XVII.
PUBLIC SCHOOLS.
The Utility of Public Schools - Public School System of Missouri - Comparison with Other States- Teachers' Institute - Report for 1882, Showing Number of White and Colored Children- Number of School Houses and Districts - Number of Teachers - Salary of Teachers - Amount Expended for Fuel - Repairs - Past Indebtedness - Unexpended Funds- Annual Distribution.
PUBLIC SCHOOLS.
The following chapter is one which we have found hard to write, owing to the difficulty in obtaining full and accurate information. It should be the most interesting of all the chapters in the book. We have endeavored to remain in the realm of the real, and deal as little as possible in the ideal and imaginative. Comparatively little has been made a matter of record relating to the early schools of the county. What has been so made, and what has been remembered by the old settlers whom we have seen, are here given.
The schools of the county are sharing with the contents of the newsboy's bundle, the title of the universities of the poor. The close observation of the working of the public schools shows that if the in- . duction of facts be complete, it could be demonstrated that the public schools turn out more men and women better fitted for business and usefulness than most of our colleges. The freedom and liberty of the public school afford less room for the growth of effeminacy and pedantry ; it educates the youth among the people, and not among a caste or class, and since the man or woman is called upon to do with a nation in which people are the only factors, the education which the public schools afford, especially when they are of the superior stand- ard reached in this country, fit their recipients for a sphere of useful- ness nearer the public heart than can be attained by private schools and academies.
The crowning glory of American institutions is the public schoo system ; nothing else among American institutions is so intensely American. They are the colleges of democracy, and if this govern- ment is to remain a republic, governed by statesmen, it must be from the public schools they must be graduated. The amount of practica knowledge that the masses here receive, is important beyond measure
(327)
328
HISTORY OF HOWARD AND COOPER COUNTIES.
and forms the chief factor in the problem of material prosperity ; but it is not so much the practical knowledge, which it is the ostensible mission of the public schools to impart, that makes this system the sheet anchor of our hopes. It is rather the silent, social influence which the common schools incidentally exert. It is claimed for our country that it is a land of social equality, where all have an equal chance in the race for life ; and yet there are many things which give the lie to this boasted elaim of an aristocracy of manhood. Our churches are open to all, but it is clear that the best pews are occupied by the men of wealth and influence. The sightless goddess extends the scales of justice to all, but it will usually appear that there is money in the descending beam. It requires money to run for office, or, at least, it takes money to get office. The first experience of the American citizen of to-day, however, is in the public schools. If he is a rich man's son, his classmate is the son of poverty. The seat which the one occupies is no better than that occupied by the other, and when the two are called to the blackboard, the fine clothes of the rich man's son do not keep him from going down, provided he be a drone, neither do the patches on the clothes of the poor man's son keep him down, provided he has the genius and the application to make him rise. The pampered child of fortune may purchase a diploma at many of the select schools of the land, but at the public schools it is genius and application which win. That state or nation which reaches out this helping hand to the children of want, will not lack for de- fenders in the time of danger, and the hundreds of thousands of dol- lars annually expended for the common education of children, is but money loaned to the children, which they will pay back with com- pound interest, when grown to manhood. In a common, unassuming way, our schools inculcate lessons of common honesty. The boy hears his father make promises, and sees him break them. Mr. Jones is promised twenty dollars on Monday, he calls on Monday and again on Tuesday, and finally gets the twenty dollars on Saturday. The boy goes with his father to church, and frequently gets there after the first prayer. In vain does that father teach his boy lessons of common hon- esty, when the boy knows that the father disappointed Jones, and never reaches the church in time. The boy soon learns at the public schools that punctuality and promptness are cardinal virtues ; that to be tardy is to get a little black mark, and to be absent a day is to get a big black mark. A public school in which punctuality and prompt- ness are impartially and fearlessly enforced, is a most potent conser- vator of public morals.
329
HISTORY OF HOWARD AND COOPER COUNTIES.
It has been often said that the state of Missouri has not only been indifferent to the subject of education, but that she has been hostile to the cause of common schools. To prove that these are gross misrep- resentations, and that her attitude towards an interest so vital and pop- ular does not admit of any question, it is only necessary to say that the constitutions of 1820, 1865 and 1875 make this subject of primary importance and guard the public school funds with zealous care. The fact is, the constitution of no state contains more liberal and enlight- ened provisions relative to popular education than the constitution of Missouri, adopted in 1875. During the past sixty-two years of her existence not a solitary line can be found upon her statute books in- imical to the cause of education. No political party in all her history has ever arrayed itself against free schools, and her governors, each and all, from 1824 to the present time (1882), have been earnest ad- vocates of a broad and liberal system of education. As early as 1839, the state established a general school law and system.
In 1853, one-fourth of her annual revenue was dedicated to the maintenance of free schools. Her people have taxed themselves as freely for this cause as the people of any other state. With the sin- gle exception of Indiana, she surpasses every other state in the Union in the amount of her available and productive permanent school funds, the productive school fund of Indiana being $9,065,254.73, while that of Missouri is $8,950,805.71, the state of North Carolina ranking third. The state of Indiana levies a tax for school purposes of six- teen cents on the one hundred dollars of taxable values, and does not permit a local tax exceeding twenty-five cents on that amount. The state of Missouri levies a tax of five cents and permits a local tax of forty cents without a vote of the people, or sixty-five cents in the country districts and one dollar in cities and towus, by a majority vote of the tax-payers voting.
For the year ending in April, 1880, only two counties in the state reported a less rate of local taxation than the maximum allowed in Indiana, only one the amount of that maximum, and the average rate of all the counties reported was about thirty-nine cents, or fourteen cents more than the possible rate of that state. It may not be known that Missouri has a greater number of school-houses than Massachu- setts, yet such is the fact. The amount she expends annually for public education is nearly double the rate on the amount of her as- sessed valuation that the amount expended by the latter state is on her valuation, while the public school funds of Missouri exceed those of Massachusetts, $5,405,127.09.
330
HISTORY OF HOWARD AND COOPER COUNTIES.
The Missouri system of education is, perhaps, as good as that of any other state, and is becoming more effectively enforced each suc- ceeding year. The one great fault, or lack in the laws in reference to common schools, is the want of executive agency within the county. The state department should have positive and unequivocal super- vision over the county superintendent, and the county superintendent should have control over the school interests of the county under the direction of the state superintendent. When this is done the people of the state will reap the full benefits that should accrue to them from the already admirable system of free schools which are now in suc- cessful operation throughout the state.
The public schools of Howard county were organized in 1867, under the law of 1866. There had been, since an early date, public money distributed for the benefit of the children of the poor and in- digent of the county, but no distinctive public schools taught in the county until 1867. These schools were organized generally by Thomas G. Deatherage, who, though not teaching at the time, was friendly to the public schools, and was anxious to see them firmly established and bearing fruit.
The school districts at that time numbered about sixty, and in each of these a school was organized. The system was not popular at the beginning, but as time passed, and the schools have gradually grown better, it has increased in favor until the public schools are now liberally patronized.
ENUMERATION.
The report for 1882, shows the number of white persons in the county between six and twenty years of age were: Males, 2,131 ; females, 1,886. Colored persons between six and twenty years of age : Males, 711; females, 589 -making a total of 5,317. This was an increase over the preceding year.
The county is at present divided in sixty-five school districts.
To accommodate the number of pupils attending the public schools, the county has increased from year to year the number of school houses, until they now ( 1883) number about seventy, a ma- jority of which are neat, frame buildings, a few being brick, but all constructed with reference to the health, comfort and convenience of both teachers and pupils. These pupils are under the care and instruc- tion of fifty male and forty-two females, making a total of ninety-two teachers. The teachers are, in the main, not persons who have tem- porarily adopted the vocation of a teacher as a mere expedient to
331
HISTORY OF HOWARD AND COOPER COUNTIES.
relieve present wants and with no ultimate aim to continne teaching, but are men and women who have chosen their profession from choice, expecting to prosecute their labors for many years to come. The male teachers are paid a salary which averages $36.44 per month, and the females $37.10 ; the general average being $36.77. We hope the day is not far distant when Howard county will be as liberal in the salaries of her female teachers in the public schools, as Green, Dallas and a few other counties of our grand and noble state. These counties have recognized the fact, that the services of the female teachers are worth as much as the services of the male, and pay her about an equal salary. Why a woman should not be paid as much as a man as a teacher in the public schools is a problem, we frankly con- fess, we have never been able to solve upon any reasonable hypothesis. The sum paid to teachers for the school year of 1881 amounted to $20,640.43 ; paid for fuel, $678.55 ; for repairs and rent, $573.10 ; past indebtedness paid, $938. Unexpended funds on hand, $8,301.26.
ANNUAL DISTRIBUTION, 1882.
Cash on hand at settlement with county treasurer, in April, 1881 $ 4,974 49 Amount of revenue received from state fund by auditor's warrant, of 1881 3,975 78
Amount received from county fund, 1881 (interest on
notes and bonds )
2,418 15
Amount of revenue received from township fund, in 1881 (interest on notes and bonds ) 1,534 05
Amount received from district tax in 1881, as per settle- ment with county treasurer, in April, 1882 21,113 48
Amount received from all other sources, as per settle- ment with county treasurer, in April, 1882 101 30
Total amount
$34,117 25 Total amount expended, as shown by settlement with county treasurer, in April, 1882 25,815 99
Cash on hand
$ 8,301 26
Amount of township school funds, $16,537 60
Amount of county public school funds, 5,849 79
$22,387 39 Amount received during year for fines and penalties $1,159 97
CHAPTER XVIII. ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY.
Introductory Remarks - Baptist - Christian - Presbyterian and Episcopalian Churches.
For history of Methodist Episcopal church, South, the reader is referred to addendum.
INTRODUCTORY REMARKS.
The question as to which one of the religious denominations (Baptist, Methodist, or Presbyterian) first held aloft the banner of Christ, in Howard county, is extremely problematical. They seem to have all been equally zealous in the cause of Christianity, in uphold- ing and sustaining their respective churches. The most authentic record that we have found in reference to the establishment of the early churches in this county are the memoirs of James M. Peck, D. D.
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