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 80
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 80
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).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95 | Part 96 | Part 97 | Part 98 | Part 99 | Part 100 | Part 101 | Part 102 | Part 103 | Part 104 | Part 105 | Part 106 | Part 107 | Part 108 | Part 109 | Part 110 | Part 111 | Part 112 | Part 113 | Part 114 | Part 115 | Part 116
804
HISTORY OF HOWARD AND COOPER COUNTIES.
the part of the mayor elicited much unfavorable comment from many of the best citizens of Boonville and the surrounding country. The mayor, however, was sustained by his friends, who thought the cir- cumstances justified his interference.
From a published report, made by a committee appointed at the time, by the temperance organization of Boonville, we take the follow- ing in reference to the police force, which acted upon the occasion mentioned : -
Who made up that (so-called ) police force? Everybody in Boonville knows ! Whisky traders, grog-shop keepers and their bloated customers, black-legs, infidels - some known long and known truly, to be infidels alike towards all that is divine in Christianity, and pure and sacred in the principles of a well-ordered domestic and social life. When Mr. Ross, together with his peaceable, forbearing, but deeply outraged andience, assembled at that church-yard gate, around the church enclosure, and looked over, they saw men who for weeks before had been breathing " threatenings and slaughter " against Mr. Ross (for no other reason than this only : that he had assaulted within the walls of the churches of this city, the hydra monster whisky ), herded together, all who heartlessly trade in, and fatten upon the profits of the poison.
Large numbers of ladies, with the general multitude, lingered around the gate and gazed with mingled feelings of pity, suppressed indignation and contempt upon the motely mass of disgusting, animal and moral putrescence that made up almost the entire number of the legalized mob that invested, by barbarian, bacchanalian authority the peaceful premises of that deeply dishonored sanctuary.
KANSAS TROUBLES OF 1856.
August 20, 1856, a call was made in Boonville for men and money to aid the pro-slavery party in Kansas. One of the posters announcing the call, reads as follows : -
KANSAS.
A meeting of the citizens of Cooper county will be held at the court-house, in Boonville, on Saturday, the 23d, for the purpose of raising men and money to aid the law and order men in Kansas. Let every pro-slavery man attend. Bring your guns and horses. Let us sustain the government, and drive back the abolitionists who are murdering our citizens.
The above was signed by some of the prominent citizens of the town, who sent men and money to Kansas.
CHAPTER XX.
SAMUEL COLE.
His Birth and Parentage - His Early Recollections - His Reminiscences as a Hun- ter - Hunting Bee Trees.
Having spoken of this old pioneer in the first chapter of the history of Cooper county, and having given of him some interesting and amusing incidents, we will now speak of him more fully.
The first settlers in any new country pass through an experience which no succeeding generation will ever be able fully to appreciate. The time is already past when the youth of the present, even, have any proper conceptions of the vicissitudes, dangers and trials which the pioneer fathers and mothers are compelled to undergo to main- tain a footing in the states west of the great Mississippi. Every new settlement wrote a history of its own, which differed from others in the nature of its surroundings ; but the aggregate of the experience of all was one never again to be repeated in the same territory or country. The mighty woods and the solemn prairies are no longer shrouded in mystery, and their effect on the minds of the early comers are sensations which will be a sealed book to the future. Year by year the circle of these old veterans of civilization is narrowing. All that is most vivid and valuable in memory is rapidly disappearing. Gray hairs and bowed forms attest the march of time. Fresh hillocks in every cemetery are all the marks that are left of a race of giants who grappled nature in her fastnesses, and made a triumphant con- quest in the face of the greatest privations, disease and difficulty. The shadows that fall upon their tombs, as time recedes, are like the smoky haze that enveloped the great prairies of the early days, sad- dening the memory and giving to dim distance only a faint and phantom outline, to which the future will look back, and must often wonder at the great hearts that lie hidden under the peaceful canopy. It is for this reason, therefore, that no personal sketch of pioneer settlers, however rudely drawn or immature in detail, can be classed as the work of mere vain glory. On the contrary, the future will treasure them, and as the generations recede they will become more
(805)
806
HISTORY OF HOWARD AND COOPER COUNTIES.
and more objects of interest and real value. The memory of the pioneer is one that the world will never consent to let fade. Its trans- mission is a priceless gift to the future, and the addition of a fresh sketch should be esteemed by the reader as of great value.
BIRTH AND PARENTAGE.
The subject of this sketch was born in. Wythe county, Virginia - a state whose population did as much in the early settlement of cen- tral Missouri to give a permanent impress to the character and civil- ization of the Boone's Lick country, as any people east of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. His father was William T. Cole, and his mother was Hannah Ellison. From this union nine children were born. Samuel was the youngest, and first saw the light of day in January, 1801. When he was but four years old his parents emi- grated to Kentucky, and settled in Wayne county. Remaining there until 1808, the family came to Missouri and located in Osage county. During the second year of the family's residence in Osage, his father was killed by Indians. Soon after that unfortunate event the widow, with her nine children, came to Cooper, she and her children being one of the first two families that pitched their tents within the limits of the county.
HIS EARLY RECOLLECTIONS.
The author having visited and conversed with Mr. Cole, while preparing this history, and finding him still possessed of a vivid mem- ory, albeit eighty-two years have passed over his head, will here give the result of the interview, detailing the facts and incidents as narrated by him, and, as nearly as we can, in his own style :-
" We came up on the other side of the river from Osage county in a two-horse wagon. The time was a few days before Christmas. The river was running full of ice. We halted our team about where Old Franklin was afterwards built, and came over the river in a pirogue, leaving our wagon on the other side and swimming our team. After arriving on this side we continued our journey for about a mile east of the present town of Boonville, and stopped on the old site of Hannah Cole's fort, where we remained. The river contin- ued to be so full of ice, and was so swift, that we could not return to the opposite shore for eleven days. We left our provisions in the wagon, and during this time ( eleven days ) we had nothing to eat but some acorns, slippery-elm bark, and one wild turkey. The river was not as wide then as it is now, and appeared to be much more rapid at
807
HISTORY OF HOWARD AND COOPER COUNTIES.
Boonville. As soon as the ice had somewhat disappeared, we got in- to the pirogue aud recrossed, but the current and ice carried us two miles below before we could make a landing. After doing this we slowly worked our way up on the other side, reaching a point where we had left our wagon with some difficulty. We took the wagon apart (the boat not being large enough to carry it any other way), and came back on this side of the river.
" We put in a small erop of corn in 1810 and in 1811, and tended it the entire time with a cow, which we worked in a plow ; we had no other team. The first winter of our arrival, Daniel Boone came to see us, or rather stopped at our house, on his way home to Nathan Boone's, his son. He had been at the mouth of the Lamine river, trapping and hunting. He had caught two beavers. Their skins were worth nine dollars each at that time in St. Louis. He was a cousin to my father. I knew him well, and saw him a great deal while we were in Osage county. He was afflicted with rheumatism, and would ask me ( I was a small boy about eight years old ) to rub his back, which I always did. The hunting and trapping expedition to the mouth of the Lamine was the last that the old man ever took.
" After living in Cooper county for two or three years, the war with England commenced. The fort which had been erected where my mother lived was not considered safe, and the settlers on this side went to the forts in Howard county ; we went to Fort Kincaid. We remained in the fort until the war was over. While living in the fort, my brother, James, and Miss Betsy Ashcraft were married. The first marriage that took place in Cooper county was the marriage of my brother, Holbert, and Miss Annie Son.
" The first child born, was the son of William Savage and wife ; his name was Hiram.
" The first physician was Dr. George Hart, of Boonville.
" I was the first shoemaker and occasionally made shoes for eigh- teen years. Shoes were cheap, being worth only thirty-five cents a pair. I made one hundred pairs of shoes one season out of deer skins, for Zachariah Waller, who was then trading at Santa Fe, New Mexico. He paid me one dollar a pair, and sold them for three dol- lars in Mexico.
" The first preacher in the county, was a Baptist, by the name of Peter Woods.
" The first church was erected by the Baptists and called Con- cord.
808
HISTORY OF HOWARD AND COOPER COUNTIES.
" The first mill was built by a man named James Geyer, on Petite Saline creek, and was called a 'band mill.' It was located at the Jake McFarland place. The second mill was also a band mill, and erected by JJake McFarland, on the same creek.
" The first school was taught by John Savage, in 1813, about one mile east of Boonville, on Lilly's branch, and about half a mile from the mouth of that stream. The pupils numbered fifteen and were the children of the settlers who resided in the neighborhood of Han- nah Cole's fort. The pupils' names were Benjamin, Delany and Wil- liam Bolin, Hiram and William Savage, Hess and William Warden, John and Wm. Yarnell, JJohn and Win. Jolly, Joseph and Win. Scott, John and Wm. Rupe. The children sat upon a log in the open air, (there being no school house and the weather being warm ) and the teacher occupied a stump in front of them. This school was discon- tinned, after a month had passed, in consequence of the Indians having begun about this time a series of depredations upon the settlers.
" During the next spring after we came to Cooper, we were joined by Wm. Savage, L. Bolin, William Warder and Gilliard Rupe. We were glad to see them as we wanted their company as neighbors. For two years we were not disturbed by the Indians, but after the break- out of the war of 1812, the Sacs and the Fox Indians left the county and went east of the Mississippi river. They, however, returned during the war, and stole everything from us they could get. I was acquainted with a number of Indian chiefs, particularly with Keokuk and Quashgami ; the latter lived on Moniteau creek. I was also ac- quainted with Blackhawk, who afterwards became so noted as a brave and cunning warrior. I often hunted and fished with the Indians, and found them not only friendly, but accommodating. All the neigh- bors we had on this side of the river, when we moved over, were the Indians."
HIS REMINISCENCES AS A HUNTER.
" Seventy-one years ago, when I was about twelve years old, I started one morning to hunt for game. My brothers had an old flint- lock rifle, which I carried with me. It was a large and heavy gun, and was so heavy that I could not shoot it without taking a rest. I came up the river, keeping near the bank, until I got to where the court-house now stands in Boonville. Under the trees, which then covered the ground in the court-house yard, I saw five deer standing together. I selected one of the finest looking ones and fired. At the crack of my gun he fell ; but upon going up to where he was, he jumped to his feet, and would have followed the other four deer to-
809
HISTORY OF HOWARD AND COOPER COUNTIES.
wards the river, had I not run up and caught hold of him, putting my arms around his neck. He pawed me with his sharp hoofs and horned me - his hoofs making an ugly gash on my thigh and his horns strik- ing me on the forehead. The marks of both hoofs and horns I carry with me to-day. I held the deer until my dog came up. I then loaded the gun and shot him again, this time killing him. This was the first deer I ever killed, and although it was a dangerous undertak- taking, the experience only spurred me on to gather trophies of a sin- ilar character.
" I killed five bears just below the town - where Boonville now stunds- and killed twenty-two bears in three days. I killed four elks in less than one hour's time. There were a few buffaloes in the county when I came, but these were soon killed or driven further westward. I never killed a buffalo, but caught five calves of a small herd near the Pettis county line. I have seen as many as thirty deer at one sight ut Prairie lick. One day I went out upon the prairie, in the spring of the year, and saw about twenty deer -all lying down ex- cept one ; this one was a sentinel for the herd. I approached within about 300 yards of them and took my handkerchief, which was a large red bandanna, and fastened it to the end of a stick and shook it a little above my head, when they all sprang to their feet and came towards me. A deer has much curiosity, and they were determined to find out, if they could, what the red handkerchief meant. When one of the largest of the number came within gunshot distance, I shot and killed it. I often repeated the handkerchief ruse with great suc- cess. I have killed and carried to the house three decr before break- fast.
" When I was living in Fort Kincaid, and being still a boy, I went out hunting many times. One morning I went down the river bank, and after getting a short distance from the fort I heard the gobble of a wild turkey near the river. I went under the bank and went down to about the place where I thought the turkey was, and ascended the bank. When I got on the top I saw, as I thought, a large black wolf running along on a log. I fired and killed it, but upon going up to where it lay, I saw that it was a bear - a cub - and a very fine one it was. I took it home, and we had of it many ex- cellent meals. The flesh of a young bear is tender and finely flavored.
"In the summer of 1812, when we were in the fort, Stephen Cole, Muke Box und myself left on a hunting expedition, crossed the river where Boonville now stands, and penetrated the forest to Petite Saline creek. After we had hunted and fished for three days, we
6
810
HISTORY OF HOWARD AND COOPER COUNTIES.
were preparing to return, when we heard the report of guns. We knew that there were no white men on this side of the river, and nat- urally supposed that the Indians were hunting near us, and would kill us if they could get a chance. We were soon convinced that the Indians were after us, because we saw their dogs, which came up near us. These dogs were so well trained by their masters that they never barked. Indian dogs never bark. We immediately started back, and when we arrived at the place where Delany Bolin afterwards located, we discovered that the Indians were pursuing us. We separated, thinking it was better for us to do so, agreeing to meet where we had left our canoe. When we arrived at the river we found our canoe gone, the Indians having taken it. We lashed three large chunks and logs together, placed our guns, clothes, etc., upon this raft and swam the river, pushing the raft before us. We landed about two and a half miles below Boonville. That evening we reached the fort in safety and reported our adventure with the In- dians, at the same time advising the inmates of the fort to be prepared for an attack at any time.
" Next morning the settlers discovered tracks of the Indians near the fort, and found it had been reconnoitred during the night by a band of eight Indians. They immediately sent to Cooper's and MeLean's forts for reinforcements, as there were, at that time, very few men in the fort, and they supposed that this band of eight was but the scouting party of a large band of Indians. Reinforcements, to the number of forty-two, soon arrived from the other forts, and they, together with the men belonging to Kincaid's fort, started in pursuit of the Indians, whom they had by this time discovered to be but a small band.
" After pursuing them some distance they surrounded them in a hollow, near Monroe's farm, about four miles west of the present site of New Franklin. The Indians concealed themselves in the brush and thickets and behind the timber, and not being able to see them, the firing of the settlers was a great deal at random. The fight con- tinued for a long time ; four Indians were killed and the remaining four, though badly wounded, escaped. None of the settlers were killed and only one, named Adam Woods, was severely wounded, but he afterwards recovered.
" Night coming on they were forced to defer the pursuit of the surviving Indians. The next day, not satisfied with their work the day before, the rangers started on the trail of the Indians, which was plainly marked with blood.
811
HISTORY OF HOWARD AND COOPER COUNTIES.
" They followed it to the river and there found the canoe which the savages two days before had stolen from us. The sides of the canoe were covered with blood, showing that the Indians had attempted to push it into the river, but on account of being weakened by the loss of blood, could not. After hunting them for some time in vain, the party returned to the fort.
" I have hunted a great deal in my life. I almost lived in the woods for seven years, and continued to go upon hunting expeditions for forty years, after coming to Cooper county. I should enjoy a hunt now, but my eyesight has failed me so much that I cannot see to shoot. I naturally loved the forests, the hills, the valleys, the water courses and everything that reminded me of nature in its rustic and unpolished state. Could I find such a country as this was seventy years ago, and was ten years younger than I am, I would go to it."
HUNTING BEE TREES.
" Where Boonville now stands, there was an immense forest. While hunting bee trees, I found nine in one day, on the very spot where the town is now located. One of these trees was a large burr- oak which stood upon the west side of the road from where Dr. Wm. H. Trigg now lives. We found a great quantity of honey in this tree ; it was hollow and we got the honey out by climbing up a short dis- tance and chopping into it with an axe. We took honey from that tree for three years in succession. Honey constituted one of our most indispensable, as well as most delicious articles of diet, taking the place, as it did, of sugar and syrup. When I grew tired of hunting, I could gather honey, and when I got tired of searching for honey, I could fish. A man could live and clothe himself out of the woods and the streams right around him. The richest and most delicate food of to-day would not compare with our unbought venison, which could be had wherever you sought for it, nor can you find now an article of clothing which is more durable and more comfortable than the skins of the wild animals, with which the whole country then abounded.
" I have been living on my farm for fifty-nine years. I married Miss Sallie Briscoe in 1821, by whom I had fifteen children. Mv second wife was Mrs. Catharine Patrick, by whom I have had four children. Fourteen of my children are still living. The last time I counted my grand-children and great grand-children - which was two or three years ago - there were ninety-six. I suppose the number has increased to fully 100 by this time."
812
HISTORY OF HOWARD AND COOPER COUNTIES.
Mr. Cole, although, not the oldest man in the county, is the oldest living settler. There may be a few others who came about the time or soon after he did, who are living elsewhere, but they are few, and can be counted upon the fingers of one hand.
He told us that the friends and companions of early days - of his early hunting days - were either all dead or had moved else- where, except Henry Corum, who was his near neighbor and who is now in his eighty-eighth year.
We felt, as we passed out from beneath the old man's roof, that after a little longer waiting and watching, he too, would join -
" The innumerable caravan, that moves To that mysterious realm where each shall take His chamber in the silent halls of death."
CHAPTER XXI.
ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY.
Prefatory Remarks - Baptist Church -Concord - Mount Nebo - Big Bottom - Pisgah - Providence - First Baptist Church at Boonville - Church at Otterville - Pilot Grove Church -Second and Sixth Colored Churches at Boonville- Methodist Episcopal Church South at Boonville - Bell Air Church - Prairie Home -Pilot Grove - Church at Bunceton -German Methodist Church at Boonville - Presbyterlan Church at Boonville - New Lebanou -Mount Vernon - Highland Church -New Salem - Union Presbyterian Church at Bunceton - New Zion - Lone Elm Christian Church -Lamine - Second Lone Elm Church - Walnut Grove-St. Peter's Church- German Evangelical Lutheran Church of Clear Fork - Christ's Episcopal Church at Boonville - Catholic Churches.
ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY.
"You raised these hallowed walls, the desert smiled, Aud Paradise was opened in the wild."
The settlement of the county and the organization of the first churches were almost contemporaneons. The plow had scarcely be- gun to turn the sod when the pioneer preachers commenced to labor in the new field. In the western country, as well as in the Orient and the isles of the sea, marched the representatives of the Christian reli- gion in the front ranks of civilization. Throughout the centuries which comprise this era have the Christian missionaries been taught and trained to accompany the first advance of civilization, and such was their advent in Cooper county. In the rude cabins and huts of the pioneers they proclaimed the same gospel that is preached in the gorgeous palaces that, under the name of churches, decorate the great cities. It was the same gospel, but the surrounding made it appear different, in the effect it produced at least. The Christian religion had its rise, and the days of its purest practice among an humble- minded people ; and it is among similar surroundings in modern times that it seems to approach the purity of its source. This is the best shown in the days of pioneer life. It is true, indeed, that in succeed- ing times the church has attained greater wealth and practices a wider benevolence. Further, it may be admitted that it has gained a firmer discipline, and wields a more genial influence on society ; but it re- mains true, in pioneer times we find a manifestation of Christianity
(813)
53
814
HISTORY OF HOWARD AND COOPER COUNTIES.
that we seek in vain at a later period, and under contrasted circum- stances. The meek and lowly spirit of the Christian faith - the placing of spiritual things above vain pomp and show - appears more earnest amid the simple life and toil of a pioneer people than it can when surrounded with the splendors of wealth and fashion.
But we may take a comparison less wide, and instead of contrast- ing the Christian appearances of a great city with the Christian appearances of the pioneers, we may compare the appearances of forty years ago, here in the west, with those in the present time of moder- ately developed wealth and taste for display, and we find much of the same result. The comparison is perhaps superficial to some extent, and does not fully weigh the clements involved, nor analyze them properly. We simply take the broad fact, not to decry the present, but to illustrate the past. So looking back to the early religious meetings in the log cabins we may say : " Here was a faith earnest and simple, like that of the early Christians."
It is our purpose to give as full and complete a history of the churches of the different religious denominations of Cooper county in this chapter as we can. From the best information we have obtained, the representatives of the Baptist church were the first to bear aloft the banner of the Christian religion in Cooper county, beginning their labors with Concord church.
Concord Church .- On the 10th of May, 1817, a meeting was held among these cross-bearing disciples, which was attended by Elders Edward Turner, William Thorp and David McLain, who proceeded to organize theConcord church with the following members : - Luke Williams, Polly Williams, William Savage, Mary Savage, Delaney Bolen, Judith Williams, Absalom Huff, Susanna Savage, Joseph Baze, Lydia Turner, Charles Williams, Patsey Bolen, Sally Baze and Eliza- beth Williams,- in all fourteen.
The following is a copy of their Articles of Faith :
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.