USA > Missouri > Scotland County > History of Lewis, Clark, Knox, and Scotland counties, Missouri. From the earliest time to the present, together with sundry personal, business and professional sketches and mumerous family records > Part 21
USA > Missouri > Lewis County > History of Lewis, Clark, Knox, and Scotland counties, Missouri. From the earliest time to the present, together with sundry personal, business and professional sketches and mumerous family records > Part 21
USA > Missouri > Clark County > History of Lewis, Clark, Knox, and Scotland counties, Missouri. From the earliest time to the present, together with sundry personal, business and professional sketches and mumerous family records > Part 21
USA > Missouri > Knox County > History of Lewis, Clark, Knox, and Scotland counties, Missouri. From the earliest time to the present, together with sundry personal, business and professional sketches and mumerous family records > Part 21
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About two-thirds of the area of the county is prairie, and the
15
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HISTORY OF CLARK COUNTY.
balance was originally timbered land. The bottom prairie lands are found only in the valleys of the Des Moines and Mississippi, below St. Francisville. About 12,000 acres of bottom land lying between the Des Moines and Fox Rivers, and reaching down to the Mississippi, are now protected by a levee, which was constructed by the Egyptian Levee Company, composed of the land owners. This work has cost about $ 4per acre, but it has been a very profit- able investment, as it has rendered tillable a large tract of as rich land as can be found in the State. A moderately heavy growth of timber, consisting of cottonwood, sycamore, hickory, the oaks (black and white), walnut, ash, linden, birch, etc., is found on the bottoms along the streams, and a lighter growth of timber, consisting principally of the different varieties of oak, is found on the higher and broken lands adjoining the former.
" The surface of the country, for the most part, varies from that of a nearly level plain to gracefully rounded hills. Occasionally, in the immediate vicinity of the streams, it is somewhat broken, but never too much so for cultivation. The highest elevations scarcely ever exceed 150 feet, while the general height is from 75 to 120 feet above the adjacent water courses." The soil of all the bottom lands along the streams is alluvial and sandy, and exceed- ingly fertile. The soil of the uplands is composed of vegetable mould and clay, is of a dark color, and rests upon a stiff clay sub- soil. And, while it is not so rich as the bottom lands, it is cap- able of great improvement by deep subsoiling and underdrainage.
GEOLOGY.
The formation of the Quarternary System in Clark County consists of alluvium bottom prairie, bluff, and drift or boulder formation. "The bluff formation constitutes an important part of the geology of the county. It is present everywhere beneath the soil of the upland prairie, and also of a large proportion of the timbered lands. In the western tier of townships it effectu- ally conceals the older formations from view, even in the deepest cuts of the streams, and hence the citizens of this part of the county are compelled to haul stone for building and other pur- poses a distance of six, and sometimes even fifteen, miles." The following section, obtained at a well sunk on the high prairie
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STATE OF MISSOURI.
near Chambersburg, will convey an idea of the general character of the formation as observed in this county :
No. Feet.
1. Dark vegetable mould. 3
2. Light-colored, loose subsoil. 3
3. Tough, yellow clay 16
4. Yellow, arenacious clay, containing small rounded pebbles and scales of mica. 16
5. Clay and sand. 1
6. Ferruginous ash-colored clay, with masses of ocher disseminated . 3
7. Coarse sand, containing pebbles and boulders of granite and green stone. 4
8. Tough yellow clay. 1
The formations of the Carboniferous System in Clark County all lie beneath the above described deposits, and are coal meas- ures, ferruginous sandstone, St. Louis limestone, and archimedes limestone. The coal formation, which is supposed to be spread over more than one-half of the county, generally lies so deep be- low a thick accumulation of Quaternary deposits, that it never has and probably never will be mined to any considerable extent. The best exhibit of the coal strata that has been observed in the county is in Grant Township about two miles west of Des Moines, in Section 23, Township 67, Range 8. The section at this place is underlaid as follows:
No.
1. Slope, probably underlaid by bluff.
Feet. 40
Inches.
2. Impure coal. . . . ·
10
3. Impure fire clay 3
...
4. Bituminous coal. 1
6
5. Dark fire clay 1
1
6. Bituminous coal
10
7. Blue ferruginous shale. 12
. ..
8. Arenaceous limestone, very thin, bedded and
passing down into St. Louis limestone .. 50
...
..
The bank has been worked to some extent on the side of a hill by means of a level. Coal has been discovered in Section 4, Town 66, Range 7, in Sweet Home Township, and mined to a limited extent. Also in Section 25, Town 67, Range 8, near the edge of the high prairie, in Grant Township, several mines have been opened on the north side of a low range of hills, about thirty feet below their summits. A thin seam of coal crops out on Fox River a short distance below the mouth of Little Fox River,
236
HISTORY OF CLARK COUNTY.
and another seam crops out on a small stream in Section 24, Town 67, Range 9, in the northeast part of Folker Township, and indi- cations of coal have been discovered at other points in the county. Cannel coal has been discovered in a bed about five feet thick, on Fox River, in Section 16, Town 66, Range 8, Jefferson Township. The lower carboniferous rocks are well represented in Clark County. They constitute the bluff of the Des Moines from the Iowa line to St. Francisville, and also the range of hills which, in the eastern portion of the county, mark the former limits of the Mississippi.
Good building stone exists in a number of localities in the county. A very handsome and superior quality of limestone abounds on the north side of Honey Creek, in Jackson Township. This rock is of light color, and breaks with a conchoidal frac- ture, and has a fine granular texture. It has been used to some extent, especially by the early settlers, for tombstones. Exten- sive beds of limestone of excellent quality for building purposes are found along Fox River and at various other places in the county. The bluffs along the Des Moines are composed largely of a fine grained limestone of sandy texture, and has been exten- sively used in the public works on that river. For paving streets the boulder formation furnishes a most excellent material. Boulders may be obtained in abundance, and of almost any required size, along the shores and in the beds of the Wyaconda, Musgrove Branch, Fox Creek and other points in the county. Coarse and fine pebbles for gravel roads may also be procured at the same localities. A good quality of sandstone, suitable for grindstones, exists along the Des Moines River, especially at a point about five miles above St. Francisville, and it has been used to a limited extent for that purpose. A thin-bedded sand- stone, of light hue, also exists on Fox River, that may be wrought into grindstones of tolerable quality. A very tena- cious clay, suitable for the potter's use, abounds under the sub- soil in almost every part of the county .*
THE MOUND BUILDERS. That pre-historic race of people, known as " The Mound Build-
*In the preparation of the foregoing, the writer has cousulted the reports of the geological sur- veys of the State, and renders acknowledgments accordingly.
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STATE OF MISSOURI.
ers," left but few specimens of their work in Clark County. A number of mounds has been found on the farm of John N. Boulware, in Clay Township, which have been opened and parts of skeletons of human beings, and pieces of crockery taken therefrom. And while parties were excavating the earth from the cellar of the house of Willis Boulware, they found two human skeletons in a tolerably good state of preservation. Other mounds have been found on an eminence near the old Baptist Church, on Fox River, where the old Tully and St. Francisville road crosses same.
EXPLORATION OF MARQUETTE AND JOLIET.
On the 17th of May, 1673, Father Marquette and Sieur Joliet, two French missionaries, together with five men, set out from the mission of St. Ignatius, on the Straits of Mackinaw, in Michigan, in two bark canoes, in search of the "great father of rivers." Eagerly they rowed their boats through the waters of Lake Michigan and Green Bay, thence up Fox River, in Wiscon- sin, to a point from whence they crossed overland (carrying their canoes) to the Wisconsin River; thence down the same to the great Mississippi, which they entered with safety, on the 17th of June following. Then, filled with enthusiasm over their great discovery, they floated down the Mississippi, observing the wild animals that sported on the shores, the beautiful birds of the air, and the fishes of the river, in a land of native and solitary wildness, until at last, on the 25th of June, they per- ceived footprints of men by the water side, and a beaten path entering a beautiful prairie. Here then we let Father Marquette tell his own story. "We stopped to examine it, and concluding that it was an Indian village, we resolved to go and, reconnoitre; we accordingly left our two canoes in charge of our people, cau- tioning them to beware of a surprise; then M. Joliet and I un- dertook this rather hazardous discovery for two single men, who thus put themselves at the discretion of an unknown and bar- barous people. We followed a little path in silence, and, having advanced about two leagues, we discovered a village on the banks of the river, and two others, on a hill, half a league from the former .* Then indeed we recommended ourselves to God with
*John C. Shea, in his valnable work, " Discovery and Exploration of the Mississippi Valley
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HISTORY OF CLARK COUNTY.
all our hearts; and, having implored his help, we passed on undiscovered, and came so near that we even heard the Indians talking. We then deemed it time to announce ourselves, as we did by a cry, which we raised with all our strength, and then halted without advancing any further. At this cry the Indians rushed out of their cabins, and having probably recognized us as French, especially seeing a black gown, or at least having no reason to distrust us, seeing we were but two, and had made known our coming, they deputed four old men to come and speak with us. Two carried tobacco pipes, well adorned, and trimmed with many kind of feathers. Having reached us at last, they stopped to consider us attentively. I now took cour- age, seeing these ceremonies, which are used by them only with friends, and still more on seeing them covered with stuffs, which made me judge them to be allies. I, therefore, spoke to them first, and asked them who they were; they answered that 'they were Ilinois,' and, in tokens of peace, they presented their pipes to smoke. They then invited us to their village, where all the tribe awaited us with impatience. These pipes for smoking are called, in the country, calumets. * At the door of the cabin in which we were to be received was an old man awaiting us in a very remarkable posture; which is their usual ceremony in re- ceiving strangers. This man was standing, perfectly naked, with his hands stretched out and raised toward the sun, as if he wished to screen himself from its rays, which, nevertheless, passed through his fingers to his face. When we came near him, he paid us this compliment: 'How beautiful is the sun, O, Frenchman, when thou comest to visit us! All our town awaits thee, and thou shalt enter all our cabins in peace.' He then took us into his, where there was a crowd of people, who devoured us with their eyes, but kept a profound silence. We heard, however, these words occasionally addressed to us: ' Well done, brothers, to visit us!'
" While the old men smoked their pipes, after us to honor us, some came to invite us on behalf of the great sachem of all the
says: " These villages are laid down on the map on the westerly side of the Mississippi, and the names of two are given, Peouarea and Moningwena, whence it is generally supposed that the river on which they lay is that now called the Des Moines " The dates and objects mentioned in Father Marquette's narrative tends to prove that these villages lay on the Des Moines, and the distance traveled from the Mississippi, where they left their canoes, leads to the conclusion that they were situated not far above its mouth-probably on the bluffs on the Iowa side, not far from St. Fran- cisville.
239
STATE OF MISSOURI.
Ilinois to proceed to his town, where he wished to hold a council with us. He went with a good retinue, for all the people who had never seen a Frenchman among them could not tire looking at us. They threw themselves on the grass by the wayside; they ran ahead, then turned and walked back to see us again. All this was done without noise, and with marks of a great respect enter- tained for us. Having arrived at the great sachem's town, we espied him at his cabin door, between two old men, all three standing naked, with their calumets turned to the sun. He harangued us in a few words, to congratulate us on our arrival, and then presented us his calumet and made us smoke; at the same time we entered his cabin, where we received all their usual greetings." A council was then held, during which the missionaries made presents to the Indians, and told them of the true God, in reply to which the sachem said: " I pray thee to take pity on me and all my nation. Thou knowest the Great Spirit who made us all; thou speakest to him and hearest his word: ask him to give me life and health, and come and dwell with us, that we may know him." "Then," says Father Mar- quette, "the council was followed by a great feast, which con- sisted of four courses, which we had to take with all their ways; the first course was a great wooden dish full of sagaminty, that is to say, of Indian meal boiled in water and seasoned with grease. The master of ceremonies, with a spoonful of sagaminty, presented it three or four times to my mouth, as we would do with a little child; he did the same to M. Joliet. For the second course he brought in a second dish containing three fish; he took some pains to remove the bones, and having blown upon it to cool it, put it in my mouth, as we would food to a bird; for the third course they produced a large dog, which they had just killed, but learning that we did not eat it, it was withdrawn. Finally, the fourth course was a piece of wild ox, the fattest portions of which were put into our mouths.
" We slept in the sachem's cabin, and the next day took leave of him, promising to pass back through his town in four moons. He escorted us to our canoes with nearly 600 persons, who saw us embark, evincing in every possible way the pleasure our visit had given them."
240
HISTORY OF CLARK COUNTY.
Father Marquette and his party then descended the Missis- sippi, passing by the territory now composing Clark County, and, after going many hundred miles down the river, they returned to the place from whence they started by way of the Illinois River and Lake Michigan. The writer has given this brief sketch of the explorations of Marquette and Joliet, to call atten- tion to the fact that the Indian villages mentioned, which these missionaries visited, were undoubtedly very close, at least, to the territory now composing Clark County, and the further fact that, 214 years ago, white men, Frenchmen, visited this immediate territory, and traveled down and along the eastern boundary of this county, and perhaps landed on its soil. Other French explorations, of which no authentic accounts have been preserved, were undoubtedly afterward made. Between the dates of the exploration of Marquette and Joliet, and that of the Louisiana Purchase, the French explored the Des Moines River and made further explorations of the Mississippi, and established mission stations and trading posts at various places along both of these rivers; but did not effect any permanent settlement as high up as Clark County. Many places having French names were named by these early adventurers and traders. In the remains of an old habitation near the mouth of Fox River, in this county, scme metal instruments were found by the early settlers, which bore a French manufacturer's name and the date of 1670. These instruments were undoubtedly left there by Marquette and Joliet or some of their followers.
PIKE'S DISCOVERIES, ETC.
The most authentic account of the early explorations, touch- ing Clark County, is that of "Pike's Voyage to the Sources of the Mississippi in the years 1805 and 1806," a full history of which is given in the Lewis County department of this work. The journal of Maj. Pike's passage up the river says: "18th August-Sunday-embarked early; about eleven o'clock passed an Indian camp on the east side. They fired several guns, but we passed without stopping. Very hard head winds during the day. Caught six fish. Distance, twenty-three miles. August 19, Monday, embarked early and made fine way, but at nine
241
STATE OF MISSOURI.
o'clock, in the turning point of a sand bar, our boat struck a saw- yer; at the moment we did not know it had injured her; but a short time afterward discovered her to be sinking. However, by thrusting oakum into the leak, and bailing, we got her to shore on a bar, where, after entirely unloading, we with great difficulty keeled her sufficiently to cut out the plank and put in a new one. But after dark we became entangled among the sand bars and were obliged to stop and encamp on the point of a beach. Caught two fish. Distance, fourteen miles .* August 20th-Tuesday-arrived at the rapids DeMoyent at 7 o'clock, and, although no soul on board had ascended them, we commenced ascending them immediately. Our boat being large and moder- ately loaded, we found great difficulty. The river all the way is from three-fourths to a mile wide. The rapids are eleven miles long, with successive ridges and shoals extending from shore to shore. We had passed the first and most difficult shoal, when we were met by Mr. William Ewing (who I under- stand is an agent appointed to reside with the Sacs to teach them the science of agriculture), with a French interpreter, four chiefs and fifteen men of the Sac nation, in their canoes, bearing a flag of the United States. They came down to assist me up the rapids, and took out thirteen of my heaviest barrels, and put. two of their men in the barge to pilot us up. Arrived at the house of Mr. Ewing opposite the villaget at dusk. Distance, sixteen miles."
Maj. Pike did not explore the Des Moines River, but accom- panied his report to the United States Government, in whose employ he was, with a map of said river, giving the names of its tributaries, some of which were French, and also the names of forts and trading posts thereon. He also gave the loca- tion of the Sac village on the west side of the Mississippi above the Des Moines Rapids. It is supposed that he got . his information pertaining to the Des Moines River from Mr. Ewing, the Indian agent.
PERMANENT SETTLEMENT.
Explorers, hunters and surveyors visited the territory of Clark
*This day he passed what is now Clark County.
ĮOpposite Keokuk.
¡Sac Village. See map.
242
HISTORY OF CLARK COUNTY.
County before its permanent settlement began. The first perma- nent settlers were Jacob Weaver, his wife, Elizabeth, and their
five children, who came from Kentucky and settled, in September, 1829, on the Des Moines River, near the site of the present town of St. Francisville. "General " Harrison, a trapper and Indian Moines, before Weaver and his family settled, but from the best interpreter and trader, had probably been up and down the Des information obtainable, he did not become a permanent settler until shortly afterward, when he settled in Marysville, where he now resides in the feebleness of his advanced age. A man by the
land, George Heywood and Samuel Bartlett, all from the same same time that Weaver and his family located. Jeremiah Way- name of Sackett settled near the site of St. Francisville about the
neighborhood in Kentucky, settled at or near the same place in November following, and began to improve the sites selected for their future homes. Their families were left behind, and did
not join them until the following spring. Jeremiah Wayland built
his cabin on the first bottom near the Des Moines, but the great flood of 1832 swept it away. He then built on the second bottom
there until his death, which occurred only recently. George Hey- within the limits of the present site of St. Francisville, and lived
wood settled by the bluff one mile from the river, and resided there until his death in 1876. Samuel Bartlett settled on the line
of the bluff one mile from the river, on the lands now occu- pied by Orr and Bates. In the spring of 1830 Giles Sullivan - settled two miles above St. Francisville, and William Bart- lett landed at the site of Keokuk, and was rowed up the Des Moines by Jeremiah Wayland, Samuel Bartlett and Peter Gillis, the latter being a single young man. William Bartlett settled about four miles south of the river, and near the present village
of Wayland, where he resided until his death in 1877. In the same year, 1830, William Clark settled and raised a crop within the present limits of St. Francisville. His marriage with Elizabeth Payne, which took place at the house of Jeremiah Wayland, was the first wedding within the present limits of
Clark County. The ceremony was performed by a preacher who was afterward found to be an imposter. Another vinner was then given, and the ceremony was again performed, this
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STATE OF MISSOURI.
time by Squire Robert Sinclair, who came from Tully for that purpose. They were then considered legally married.
The first white children born within the present limits of Clark County were John Weaver, Elizabeth Bartlett and Martha Heywood. The first death that occurred was that of the wife of Giles Sullivan in 1831, and the second was that of Mrs. Joseph Wayland. A coffin for the latter was made by Jeremiah Way- land out of the lumber of his wagon bed. In 1831 Dr. John E. Trabue settled on the south side of Honey Creek, where William Jenkins now lives, in Clay Township. He afterward built a horse mill at the same place, which was a great convenience to the early settlers, who had formerly been compelled to go to Palmyra, a distance of forty miles or over, to get their grinding done. About the same time Asa Wormington settled on the north side of Sugar Creek, where Mrs. Chapman now resides in Clay Township, and Henry Floyd on the bluffs about two miles north of the present village of Waterloo. The same year Col. . Thomas C. Rutherford came from Tennessee with his family and several slaves, and settled two miles east of Waterloo. Other settlers of 1831 were John Condiff and Jeremiah Riley, from Kentucky; William Henshaw and Charlotte, his wife, and family, and a Mrs. Worthington, and an old man by the name of Webb, who settled on the bottom below St. Francisville. The winter of 1831-32 is still remembered as the season of the deep snows, by reason of which it was impossible for the pioneer settlers to reach the nearest grist-mill, then located at Palmyra, and in consequence of which they were compelled to live on hominy and pounded corn, venison and such other meats as they could procure by hunting. A Keokuk band of Indians encamped that winter in the Des Moines bottoms, and lost nearly all their horses.
The great flood that followed in the spring of 1832, and the approaching trouble with the Indians checked immigration, so that only a few settlers arrived in that year. Prominent among them was Hon. George K. Biggs, who settled on his farm in what is now Clay Township, and where he has ever since resided, and still resides with his estimable wife, of whom further mention will be made. [See his biography elsewhere in this work. ] Mr. Biggs informs the writer that to the best of his recollection the
244
HISTORY OF CLARK COUNTY.
settlers of the county, at the time of his arrival, consisted of the following named parties, and were located as follows: Beginning on the line of the State Road, leading from Tully to St. Francis- ville, near the south line of the county, Uriah S. Gregory was residing on the farm now occupied by Judge John N. Boulware; and next to the north were Harvey and John Thompson on the farm where Ed. Connable now lives; and the next was Dr. Trabue on Honey Creek; and the next was his own humble cabin, where he now resides. The cabin, however, has disappeared, and a large and commodious brick residence has taken its place. Going northward his first neighbor was Asa Wormington, where Mrs. Chapman now resides; and the next was Stephen Heavington, three-fourths of a mile further north; and William W. Clifton, near the present Fox River Baptist Church, where James Ahern now lives; and John Montgomery, three-fourths of a mile east of said church; and Giles Sullivan, near the same place; and Peter Hay, across the river from Montgomery's. Judge John Taylor was located about three-fourths of a mile north of the church, and William Henshaw, still a little farther to the north. Then came Fielding Wayland, who settled on the farm now occupied by Mr. Spurgeon, near Wayland Station. Going north from this point was William Bartlett, of whom mention has been made; and thence a little west was the cabin and home of Col. Rutherford. Then came Jeremiah Riley; then George Heywood on the farm, where the widow of his youngest son, Albert, now resides; then Samuel Bartlett; then Jacob Weaver, where the widow Brown now resides; then William Clark; and then Mr. Sackett, where St. Francisville now stands, and Jeremiah Wayland near thereto, also Mr. Webb and Peter Gillis. Then going up the river, "Gen- eral " Harrison was found at what is now Marysville, and Daniel McMullen at Sweet Home, where he had established an Indian trading post or store.
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