USA > Missouri > Lafayette County > History of Lafayette county, Mo. , carefully written and compiled from the most authentic official and private sources, including a history of its townships, cities, towns, and villages > Part 27
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No. 19 .- One and one-half feet, bitumuous shale.
No. 20 .- One and five-sixths feet, bitumuous coal.
No. 21 .- Two and one-fourth feet, bitumuous and yellow shale.
No. 22 .- Five feet, hard gray limestone.
No. 23 .- Nine feet, yellow and blue shale.
No. 24 .- Sixteen feet, blue and purple shale.
No. 25 .- Five feet, bitumuous shale.
No. 26 .- One-half foot, coal.
No. 27 .- Six feet, blue and yellowish argillaceous shale.
No. 28 .- Four feet, hard blue limestone.
No. 29 .- Two feet, shale.
No. 30 .- Six feet, buff and gray limestone.
No. 31 .- Twelve feet, bluish gray shale.
No. 32 .- Two-thirds foot, coal.
No. 33 .- Four feet blue sandy shale.
No. 34 .-- Missouri river water.
The upper coal measures overlie these middle coal measures to the west, and the lower coal measures underlie them below Lexington.
The clays and shale of the coal measures usually make a poor soil as in England and Pennsylvania, but in Lafayette county, all the coal rocks are so deeply buried beneath the bluff marls, they have very little influence on the soils.
ECONOMICAL GEOLOGY-SOIL.
The usual process of forming soils on the suface of solid rocks, such as the surface of Missouri was before the clays, gravel, sands and soils were placed over the solid rocks, is a very slow process. The action of the winds, the rains, and the frosts would slowly decompose the rocks into sand, clay, and marls. Plants would grow on these clays and marls, and animals would live on the plants; and when the plants and animals died they would make up the necessary organic matter and thus the soil would be formed. But the process would be an extremely slow one. It would take a thousand years to form a foot of soil by this process. And when the solid rock is so near the surface, the soil is of small compara- tive value.
Bul if some vast mill of the gods would grind up the rocks to the depth of some fifty or one hundred feet and then sort out the finest and best material and place it on top to the depth of from five to fifty feet, a first rate soil would be formed in a few years, since all the mineral elements would be provided in vast abundance and in the best possible condition to receive the decaying plants and animals to complete the soil. This is just what has been done for central and northern Missouri.
c
238
HISTORY OF LAFAYETTE COUNTY.
The great glaciers which swept over the whole of North America from the pole to our latitude ground up the rocks and left the material to the depth of from a few inches to more than a thousand feet. A lake was then formed over Missouri and the adjacent parts of Iowa, Nebraska, and Kansas and the rivers washed the best soil material out of the ground- up rocks spread over the regions to the north and west and into the lakes, where it was deposited as the "bluffs," the best soil material in the world. Thus Missouri has in the Bluff the best soil materials of the rocks in all the States and Territories to the north and west as far as the Rocky Mountains and the Saskatchewan.
PLANT FOOD IN LAFAYETTE SOILS.
It may be well to ask attention to the vast amount of plant food in the soils of Lafayette; but more particularly to the amounts found in the sub soils resting upon and formed out of the rich marls of the bluff.
To show at a glance the amount of plant food in the soil itself, and then in each foot of depth below the soil, I have prepared the following table, which presents an average of all the varieties of soils resting on the bluff, from the richest Hackberry land to the poorest White Oak, and the amount for each foot in depth for the first three feet and also for one foot at he depth of twelve feet below the surface. Other portions between the third and twelfth foot and below are equally rich.
Table showing the amount of various elements of plant food in each foot
of the Lafayette soils resting on the Bluff as all the upland soils do.
1st. foot,
2d. foot.
3d. foot.
12th. foot.
Lime
19.166 lbs.
16,117 lbs.
29.494 lbs.
26.484 lbs.
Magnesia.
13.329
30.927
18.184
66
18.818
Potash
13.310
32.234
17.413
66
40.420
Soda
7.157
7.405
66
11.343
104.544
Phosphoric Acid
12.868
11.157
13.996
1.491
Organic Matter
269.636
66
253.381
142.310
46.787
Sulphuric Acid
3.180
2.990
4.051
not known.
Chlorine. .
.405
66
.429
.664
not known.
Carbonic Acid.
not known.
not known.
not known.
44.605 lbs.
This table shows these soils as rich in plant food, save the organic matter at a depth of three feet as they are at the surface, even a little richer in phosphoric acid, soda, potash, chlorine, and sulphuric acid. At twelve feet below the surface the amount of plant food is still greater, except in organic matter and phosphoric acid.
Farmers usually cultivate less than one foot of their soils, and when the plant food is exhausted they use fertilizers, at great expense of money and labor to supply the plant food. But the farmer on these Missouri soils,
239
HISTORY OF LAFAYETTE COUNTY.
when the surface soil is exhausted, has an abundance of the best fertil- izers in his subsoil; and instead of buying fertilizers and spreading them over the surface, he sets his plow a little deeper and turns them up from his own stores in the subsoil. And when the plants have consumed the supply thus obtained, there is still lower down, enough of the same costly materials to replenish his soil a hundred times; for it goes all the way down to depths varying from 10 to 200 feet, all about equally rich, as the table shows it to be at a depth of twelve feet.
To show the money value of this store of plant food in the subsoil of all these lands, we may reckon the commercial value of the phosphoric acid for a single foot in depth on one acre. The second foot of these soils, that is, the subsoil from the depth of one foot to two feet, in every acre, contains 11,157 pounds of this acid. At ten cents a pound this would cost $1,115.70. The next foot below, that is from two to three feet in depth, contains in each acre 13,996 pounds of phosphoric acid, which would cost $1399.60.
Thus it is seen that two feet only of these subsoils, contain on each acre as much phosphoric acid as could be bought in commercial fertilizers for $2,515.30.
The soils as above shown, from which these results are obtained, were selected as representative soils from the lands of all grades.
If we should calculate the commercial value of the other fertilizers, as potash, soda, sulphuric acid, chlorine, and organic matter found in the sub- soils of a single acre, and if the calculation be extended to a depth of ten feet or one hundred feet, the result would be somewhat startling. Such a calculation would not fall far short of a demonstration of the often repeated assertion, " Our Lafayette soils are inexhaustible."
NATURAL HISTORY-NATIVE TREES AND SHRUBS-TREES.
Ash .- White ash, blue ash, black ash, prickly ash.
Coffee bean tree.
Cottonwood-a species of poplar.
Crab-apple.
Elm-White elm, and red or slippery elm.
Dogwood-
Hackberry.
Hickory-Thin and thick shell-bark hickory, bull-nut hickory, pignut hickory, pecan nut hickory.
Ironwood.
Locust-Honey locust.
Linden-or basswood; sometimes called whitewood.
Mulberry.
Maple-white or soft maple, hard or sugar maple, ash-leaved maple or box-elder.
240
HISTORY OF LAFAYETTE COUNTY.
Oak-White oak, burr oak, post oak, rock or chestnut oak, black oak, pin oak, laurel oak, chinquepin oak, poison oak.
Persimmon.
Sycamore-or buttonwood.
Walnut-Black walnut, and white walnut or butternut.
Wild cherry-Black and red varieties.
Willow.
Shrubs-Blackberry, buttonbush, coralberry, elderberry, gooseberry, greenbriar, hawthorn, black haw, raspberry, red bud, paw-paw, hazel-nut wild plum, sumach, wahoo or staff tree, laurel bush, wild, black, or Mis- souri currant, wild roses, serviceberry.
Vines-Honeysuckle, wild grapes, woodbine.
NATIVE ANIMARS.
Bear, beaver, buffalo, catamount, chipmunk, coyote, deer, dear mouse, elk, fox (gray and red) gopher, ground mole, groundhog, mink, muskrat, otter, opossum, panther, prairie dog, prairie mouse, pouched rat (com- monly called pocket gopher), rabbit, jack rabbit, raccoon, skunk, squirrel, red gray and black varieties, swift, weasel, (wolf prairie and gray and black varieties), wild cat.
BIRDS .- Wild turkey, grouse or prairie chicken, wild goose, swan, peli- can, wild ducks (many varieties), snipe, plover, pigeon, partridge, gray and bald eagle, raven, crow, turkey buzzard, owl, hawk, finch, mocking bird, blue jay, kingfisher, gull, robin, bluebird, blackbird, bobolink, wood- pecker, oriole, sapsucker, night hawk, whipporwill, curlew, sandhill crane, blue heron, swallow, wren. These, some of which have several varieties, are the more common species of birds that have been found here ever since white men first knew the country.
The black " Missouri honey bee " is an original native.
MASTODONS IN LAFAYETTE COUNTY.
Several years ago Mrs. W. H. Bowen found a monster tooth in Gra- ham's branch, nearly under the bridge of the old Lexington and gulf rail- road grade, where Graham's branch puts into Rupe's branch. Mrs. Bowen submitted the specimen to Dr. Alexander, and he pronounced it a genuine mastodon tooth. Master Frank Lamborn, the " printer's devil," of the Lexington Intelligencer office, also has a mastodon tooth which was found in Graham's branch. And " thereby hangs a tale." Graham's branch, flowing westward along the southern border of the city of Lex- ington, is supplied with water mostly from an immense spring (the Masto- don spring), which flows out of the ironated sandbed underlying the bluff formation in all this region. At the point where this spring flows out, and for, perhaps, a hundred feet along down the stream, its bed and mar- gin are miry, or composed of quicksand-very treacherous to tread upon.
241
HISTORY OF LAFAYETTE COUNTY.
The supposition is that in the ancient time, a mastodon' strolled along up this branch to cool and refresh himself with its perennial waters, but ven- turing too far, got mired in the quicksand, so that he could not extricate himself, and so died there. The conditions there were not favorable to a long preservation of his bones, and they long since dissolved away, but the teeth above mentioned remained to tell the story of the "Mastodon spring," and its prehistoric tragedy, at the city of Lexington.
RATS.
In 1877 a petition was presented to the county for the appointment of a time for the people of Lafayette county to make a special and united effort for the extermination of the rat pests. The court appointed Thurs- day, Friday and Saturday, December 27, 28, 29; and it will never be know how many thousands of rats went to hades on those days.
In the Lexington Register of December 23, 1869, we find the following: " Mr. Robert Pucket, living in Old Town had been for some days both- ered with an animal, in many things resembling a rat. He used every means at hand to capture it, but was unsuccessful. He then laid poison for it. Two or there days afterwards, he was removing a hearth in his house, and found his strange visitor dead. It proved to be a double rat. It has two well formed heads, a large eye and a small one in each head, four ears, eight legs and two tails. Mr. P. has it on exhibition at his shop. It is to be regretted that this singular lusus naturae had not been captured alive."
LAFAYETTE COUNTY FISH STORY.
In 1868 a blue catfish, which weighed 206 pounds, was caught with a hand line, near the mouth of Tabo creek, by Jesse Hamlet. In 1869 Joseph Utt caught one, in a net, near the mouth of Willow creek, oppo- site Lexington, which weighed 218 pounds; and up to this time that was the biggest fish ever caught within the bounds of Lafayette county. In 1876, Charles Silver, a colored man, caught a channel catfish, with a hand line, right at Lexington wharf, that weighed 176 pounds. Many other "whoppers" were caught at different times, but the above three are the only ones reported as having been accurately weighed at the time.
Mr. Joseph Utt, of Lexington, followed fishing here for fifteen years, and is probably the best posted on the fish question of any man in the county. From him we obtain the following complete list of all the kinds of fishes found in these waters:
Blue catfish, crescent-tailed one hundred to two hundred and twenty-five pounds weight.
Channel catfish, dirty white color, fork-tailed, thirty to fifty pounds.
Yellow or mud-catfish, extra big head, with tail nearly square, weigh from five to one hundred pounds.
242
HISTORY OF LAFAYETTE COUNTY.
Black catfish, five to twenty-five pounds.
Pone-head or bank catfish, head narrow but deep; fish weigh from five to fifteen or eighteen pounds.
Speckled catfish, fork-tail, small fish.
Bullheads, small fish.
Spoonbill catfish, long, shovel nose-not eatable.
Channel buffalo fish, sucker-mouthed, ten to forty pounds.
Round buffalo, sucker-mouthed, ten to forty pounds.
Perch-mouthed buffalo.
Red carp, sucker-mouthed.
Drumfish, perch mouth, a game fish, good biter, etc.
Jack salmon, six to eight pounds.
Gar fish, long jaws with sharp teeth; this fish is not eatable, and is very destructive to smaller fish.
Shovel fish-not eatable.
Alewives, small fish, common in the spring-time.
Red horse, log perch, black bass, croppie, chubs, silversides, and min- nows.
Occasionally sunfish and pike are caught, but they are supposed to be estrays, and not native to these waters.
SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES.
SCHOOL HISTORY OF LAFAYETTE COUNTY.
In 1817, a settlement was formed a few miles west of where the town of Waverly now stands, by Littleberry Estes, John Evans, a Mr. Hyde, a Mr. Russell, and a few others, whose names are not known. They were mostly from Madison county, Kentucky. What is claimed to be the first school ever opened within the bounds of Lafayette county, was started in this settlement, in the winter of 1819-20, by a son of Mr. Estes. Miss Susannah Estes, a sister of this first and youthful schoolmaster, afterwards married William Fristoe, who was, for about forty years, a well-known citizen of the county. In 1822-3, this school was taught by Edward Ryland, a brother of the elder Judge Ryland, who was afterward appointed circuit judge for eighteen, and supreme judge for eight years.
But now comes John Catron, Esq., and says the first school in the county was taught by Benjamin Gooch, in 1820,* in what was called the Bedwell school-house, on the premises of the late Washington Johnson, about two miles east of Lexington, on the Dover road. Joseph Farrar
*As near as we can make out from all reports, the fact seems to be, that young Estes started a little private school on his own venture, in the fall of 1819: and Mr. Gooch's school was a more public affair, started the next fall.
243
HISTORY OF LAFAYETTE COUNTY.
taught at the same place, in 1822. In 1823-4, John Drummond taught a school about a mile further east, on the same road, about where John McFaddin now lives. James Warren taught in John Catron's neighbor- hood, in 1822. James Fletcher taught a three months' school, in 1823, at his own house, where Col. Joseph Davis now lives. Col. John Stapp, afterward county judge, taught, in 1828-9, at the Swift school-house, near where Mr. Ford now lives. James Francis taught in or near old Lexing- ington, in 1829-30. Dr. A. T. Buck taught the first grammar school in the county, using the old log court house in Lexington for a school-room. Judge James Pearson taught in the Warder neighborhood one or two years prior to 1830; and a Mr. White taught there in 1835 .* William Spratt taught, in 1833, about four miles east of Lexington, in the Catron settlement-in a house built by the father of George M. Catron, Esq., who has been county superintendent or commissioner of schools for about ten years past.
The school-houses at this time were rude log cabins with dirt floors, and seats made of slabs with pegs stuck in them for legs. They were "subscription schools," the teacher being paid $1 per month for each pupil, and boarding around among them. It was purely a private enter- prise, the teacher taking the risk of getting enough to pay him for his time; but the community at large generally provided the school-house, which was also used for Sunday preaching and other public meetings of the neighborhood. Each new settlement or cluster of families would soon have a school after this fashion, and no particular improvement was made for fifteen or twenty years; the only branches taught were reading, spell- ing, arithmetic, and writing with a goosequill pen, and often pokeberry juice for ink ; occasionally a little grammar was added. But in 1836 we find at Dover a school which had risen to the dignity of having a punch- eon floor in its log house, and was in other respects quite ahead of the. other schools in the county-hence it was known as the "Dover Acad- emy." It was at this time taught by John A. Tutt, a cousin to Judge Tutt, now of Lexington. Mr. Tutt's school was so large that he had to have an assistant; and in addition to the common branches he also taught grammar, geography, natural philosophy, geometry and trigonome- try. The pupils paid $1 per month for the "common branches," and $1.25 or $1.50, according to what "higher branches" they studied. Dr. Gordon (now of Lexington), attended this school in the winter of 1837-38, and the next year was an assistant in the same school, while also a student.
+
May 2, 1838, John Aull, of Lexington, made his will, which was wit- nessed by Young Ewing and Wm. Ward. Mr. Aull died in February,
*For these particulars about the first schools in the county we are indebted to Wm. H. Chiles, Esq., John Catron, Dr. Wm. A. Gordon, and Rev. Joseph Warder.
-
244
HISTORY OF LAFAYETTE COUNTY.
1842; and on the 22d of the same month his will was filed for record in 1 the probate court. It contained the following bequest for school pur- poses:
" I give, devise and bequeath in trust to the county court of Lafayette county, in the state of Missouri, the sum of one thousand dollars, to be loaned out by said court on real estate security, of ample value and free from all incumbrance, and at the highest legal interest, to be continued at interest perpetually-and the. interest accruing therefrom to be applied under the direction of said court to pay the tuition or education of orphan or poor children under the age of sixteen years, at or within two miles of the county seat of said county."
He also gave a similar amount for the same object and under the same conditions, to each of the counties of Ray, Clay and Jackson. James and Robert Aull, of Lexington, and Samuel C. Owens, of Jackson county, were the executors of this will.
The above explains the "Aull fund" which has so mysteriously appeared as a special item in the annual school reports for some years past, the county court having placed it with the public school resources.
We could not find in Lexington the first annual report of county super- intendent, as his returns are made directly to the state superintendent; but on applying to the latter officer we received promptly the following reply, dated Jefferson City, Aug. 1, 1881: "The records of this office show the first annual school report of your county to have been made by J. L. Minor, in January, 1842. Copy enclosed."
FIRST APPORTIONMENT LAFAYETTE COUNTY, MO., JANUARY, 1842.
Township and Range.
No. of Districts.
No. Mos. and days School tag't.
Amount paid Teachers.
Amt presenti Appor- tionment.
No. Children Taught.
No. Child'n bet 6 and 18 years.
Town 50 R 26 ...
No. 1.
7
mo ..
$119.00 96.00
$28.20 24.00
43
47
No. 2. . 9 mo.
20
40
No. 3.
26
Township 48.
Jackson
[6 mo.
165.00
41.40
43
69
Wash't n 6 mo ..
150.00
31.80
33
53
Teffers'n. 6 mo .. . .
84.00
19.80
17
33
Town 49 R 24.
No. 1. . 6 mo 7 d
150.00
30.60
30
51
Town 51 R 24.
No. 1. . |5 mo 24d
22.80
35
38
These were the only districts that sent in reports, although it is known that there were many other school districts then in the county.
The first printed annual report of the state superintendent that we suc- ceeded in finding was that of 1870-printed in 1871. From the tabulated returns from Lafayette county as given in that report we compile the fol- lowing statistics: Total number of subdistricts, 82; total number of school houses, 76-6 brick, 63 frame, 7 log; 8 new frame school houses had been built during the year. Total number of white school children, 7,388; colored children, 1,286; total, 8,674. Total number in schools, 4,574. Of
245
HISTORY OF LAFAYETTE COUNTY.
this last number 601 were in private schools, the balance in the public schools. The average number of months taught was 5. Total number of teachers, male 64, female 30; 1st grade certificate 32, 2d grade 62; average wages per month, male $55.11,-female $39.28. Estimated total value of school houses and grounds $58,273; furniture and apparatus, $4,175. At this time the school-age enrollment was between 5 and 21 years; and the total in the state was 690,250.
For some years the state school law required Teachers' Institutes to be held periodically, and made some provision for the necessary expense attending them, besides allowing teachers engaged in school their wages while attending the institute.
The first Teachers' Institute ever held in Lafayette county was at Lex- ington, in the old Masonic College, June 13th, 1867. The only names mentioned as taking part in it are G. K. Smith, county superintendent; Dr. D. K. Murphy, A. Slaughter, and A. M. Clay. The next Institute was appointed to be held at the public school house in Lexington, August 10, 1867; and others were held at the same place in succeeding years.
In November, 1873, one was held at Aullville, conducted by Prof. Bald- win, principal of the State Normal School at Warrensburg, who eight years afterwards told our present county school commissioner, Geo. M. Catron, Esq., that that Aullville Institute was the best Teachers' Institute he ever attended. We therefore make it a historic waymark in this sketch of our county's school progress. The executive committee were G. M. Catron, W. F. Bahlmann, L. B. Wright. Prof. Baldwin, conduc- tor. The Institute continued from Monday morning, Nov. 24, till Satur- day night, with from 21 to 27 separate exercises each day. We could not learn how many were in attendance, but found the following names of teachers who took leading parts in the exercises, to wit .: Miss Gussie Clowdsley, Miss Mattie Wallace; Messrs. Taylor Winn, J. G. Worthing- ton, N. T. Moore, F. Thornton; Miss Ella Shaw, Miss Aurelia Miller, Miss Lucy W. McFarland; Messrs. Samuel M'Reynolds, J. M. Bediechek, P. A. Fisher, -- Keating; Miss Bettie Arnold, Miss Lizzie Talley; Messrs. W. L. Robinson, J. B. Jones, W. E. Clark, C. O. Smith, W. T. Doyle; Miss W. J. Finley; Messrs. W. F. Bahlmann, Rudolph Erbschloe, J. F. Conner, C. F. Johnston, T. W. Carmichael, Miss Nannie Shaw, Miss M. F. Carpenter; Messrs. D. H. Hill, G. K. Smith, Alex. Graves, M. L. DeMotte, J. B. Merwin, G. W. Thornton, Rev. L. Bedsworth; Miss Bettie Drysdale, Miss Celia Rice, Miss Anna Rees, Miss Mary B. Mad- dox; Messrs. C. H. Lacey, L. G. Manypenny, W. Brown, Edgar Flem- ing, Lucian B. Wright, Hon. John Monteith, state superintendent; Miss Maggie Smith, Miss Sallie B. Smith, Miss Fannie Burke, Miss Allie Jones; Messrs. James Cather, Wm. Allison, J. A. Lee, W. H. Carter, -- Bates, J. D. Conner.
246
HISTORY OF LAFAYETTE COUNTY.
The teachers entered into the work with a zeal and enthusiasm which made this meeting, which was the largest one ever held in the county, also the most brilliant.
In November, 1874, another institute was held, under the same execu- tive committee and the same conductor, Prof. Baldwin, at the village of Dover. But meanwhile the public provision for expenses had been abol- ished; the teachers had not only to do the work but also to pay the expenses; and the good people of Dover were generous in providing free entertainment for those who attended. From this time forward the county institutes rapidly declined and soon went out altogether-and for several years past no attempt has been made to hold them. School teachers can- not afford to hold them at their own private cost.
SCHOOL STATISTICS OF THE COUNTY, 1881.
From Mr. Catron's last annual report made to the State superintendent July 1, 1881, we compile the following statistics:
Male.
Female. Total.
White children of school age* in the county
3,769
3,496 7,265
Colored
782
761 1,543
Number of white children in public schools colored יי
2,476
2,168 4,639
377
442 819
Total number of school houses in the county, 106; houses rented for school uses, 3; value of school property, $50,660; No. of white schools in operation, 90; ditto colored, 19; No. of teachers employed during the year-male, 63; female, 85.
Average of salaries per month-male, $39.97%; female, $31,27. Total of teachers' wages during the year, $27,- 740.74. Average cost per day of tuition for each pupil, 8 cents. Fuel during the year cost $1,326.21. Total assessed valuation of the county, $7,426,240; rate per cent. levied for school purposes, 33 cents on $100.
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