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 25
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 25
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 25
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 25
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STATE OF MISSOURI.
R. Crain, William McGinnis and John A. Lapsley. At the October term, 1838, of the county court, the road leading from Luray to Waterloo was established upon receipt of the report of John B. Landers and Edward Mosely, two of the reviewers appointed. At the following December term of said court a road "leading from Waterloo to Kent's Ferry on the Des Moines, was established on the report of reviewers Joseph Benning and Lewis C. Cordell. At the June term, 1839, of said court, a road "leading from the crossing of Fox River to Wayland's Ferry on the Des Moines," was established upon receipt of the report of Reviewers Cornelius Elson, L. B. Mitchell and Charles O. Sanford. The point of commencement was designated as " the present crossing of Fox River " without locating it, and the entire route was designated by objects thereon belonging to certain individuals. At the same time a road leading from Isaac Gray's Ferry, on the Des Moines River, to the ford on Fox River where the Black Hawk road crossed the same, was established upon receipt of the report of reviewers A. W. Daggett and Jonathan Taylor.
The foregoing constitutes the principal highways established in the county prior to the year 1840. It is beyond the scope of this work to make mention of the many roads that have been established since that date. It is proper, however, to say that a sufficient number of roads have since been established and opened up to meet the convenience of the people, and that new roads are still being established as fast as the improvements of the county create the necessity for them. When the country was new and the lands were cheap the pioneer settlers established their highways in a general direction from point to point on the most available ground, and without any regard to section lines. The reviewers marked the lines of the highways through the timbers by blazing trees and through the prairies by set- ting temporary stakes, and then described them as "the road, leading from A to B, etc." Surveys of roads were seldom, if ever, made, and if made were not properly recorded. Many portions of these old roads have been vacated, or changed to run on section lines. The indefinite descriptions of the early estab- lished highways remind the writer of the traveler who rode up to a farmhouse, and asked the mistress thereof to tell him the
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way to the next town, when he was thus directed: " You go down by the fence corner thar, then round by the black stump, then down the hill to the old black hen's nest, then keep on that thar direction, and you'll be on the right road."
EARLY ACTS OF THE COUNTY BOARD.
At the October term, 1838, the county court was composed of the newly elected justices, John Taylor, Jesse McDaniel and David Hay. John M. Childers was then appointed commissioner of the county seat to succeed Samuel D. South, whereupon he filed his official bond in the sum of $10,000, and assumed the duties of his office. Notes held by the county against purchasers of county town lots to the amount of $2,678.93 were then put into said commissioners' hands. The contracts for building the courthouse were let to S. H. and H. H. Taylor for the comple- tion of the mason work, and to Markle and Eakle for the car- penter work. No record of these contracts having been preserved, their contents can not be stated here. The writer is reliably informed that the first appropriation of $4,700 previously noted was exhausted, and another appropriation made before the build- ing was completed. It was built of brick, two stories in height, upon a stone foundation four feet high. It was forty-three feet square, and contained the courtroom on the first floor, and the county offices on the second. It was completed in the summer of 1840.
A NEW TOWNSHIP.
In the formations of the civil townships as heretofore noted, it seems that the county court had recognized the Indian bound- ary line as the northern boundary of the State and county. But a strip of land, a few miles in width lying north of this line being then claimed by both the State of Missouri and Iowa Ter- ritory, the county court created a new township comprising all of this disputed strip of land lying north of said Indian boundary line which is now the State line. This township was created at the June term 1840, of said court, and was described as follows: " All that part of Clark County bounded on the west by the range line between Ranges 9 and 10 west; on the south by the old Indian boundary line which passes through Township 67
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STATE OF MISSOURI.
north; on the northeast by the Des Moines River and on the north by the true boundary of the State of Missouri." It was named by said court, Jessamine Township. The August election of that year was then ordered to be held in all of the townships of the county, and judges of the same were appointed. Then appeared before the court Peter Kenleyside, a native of Scot- land in the kingdom of Great Britain, and declared his inten- tions to become a citizen of the United States. He was the first naturalized foreign citizen of the county. In the following month John and Edward Daly, natives of the Emerald Isle, also appeared at said court, and declared their intentions to become citizens of the United States.
At the August election in 1840 the following local officers were elected: Justices of the peace, John Bonnefon and George A. Wilson for Des Moines Township; Alex. Smith and William F. Northcraft for Jessamine Township, Charles Coolidge for Madison Township. Constables, Daniel M. Smith for Jessamine Township, John Bedell for Sweet Home Township, Lewis Drew for Jefferson Township, William Daggs for Washington Town- ship, Ignatius S. Small for Madison Township, George M. Meason for Des Moines Township.
REMOVAL OF THE COUNTY SEAT.
On the 7th day of July, 1847, a petition was presented to the county court, praying for the removal of the county seat from Waterloo to Alexandria. And on the 5th day of the following month, a remonstrance against the petition, and also a motion to dismiss it was filed. The motion to dismiss was overruled, and the names of certain petitioners, upon their request, were stricken from the petition. And the court, after due examination of the matter, found "that three-fifths of the taxable inhabitants of Clark County," were still praying for the removal of the county seat, and thereupon appointed Stanton Buckner, William Carson, William Ellis, James M. Lillard, and John Mattingly commis- sioners to select the most suitable place in Clark County, within one mile of the town of Alexandria, on which to erect the public buildings of the county, and to report their proceedings, accom- panied by a deed of perfect title to the land so selected, to the
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judge of the circuit court at the next term thereof. The sher- iff was then ordered to give proper notice to the people of the filing of the said petition, and of the action of the court thereon. Afterward, at the November term of said county court, the cer- tificate of A. Reese, judge of the circuit court was filed, setting forth the facts that the aforesaid commissioners had made their report to said court at the October term thereof, and had accom- panied the same with the deeds, abstract, and evidence of title to the land on which the courthouse was proposed to be located at the town of Alexandria, and of the lands donated to the county for county purposes, and that the report was approved by said judge.
Elections were then ordered to be held at the several voting places in the county on Monday and Tuesday, the 13th and 14th days of December, 1847, for the purpose of voting for or against locating the seat of justice in the town of Alexandria. The elections were accordingly held, and the returns thereof made to the county court at a special term held in the same month, when it was found that a majority of the inhabitants of Clark County who paid taxes on land, and the householders, had voted for the said selection of Alexandria for the seat of justice of said county. And thereupon the court ordered "that the said town of Alexandria should be the permanent seat of justice of Clark County." James S. Hening was then appointed commissioner of the new seat of justice. The lands and lots donated by Robert E. Hill and his wife, Ellen E. Hill, to the county for the new seat of justice, consisted of twelve and a half acres, and Lot 3, in Block 7, and the north half of Blocks 15, 19 and 23, and the whole of fractional Block 25, and Blocks 12, 16, 20, 24 and 26 in the town of Alexandria, all of which was conveyed to the county by deed dated September 29, 1847. At the February term, 1848, of the county court, Commissioner Hening was ordered to cause to be laid out into town lots all of the land donated for that pur- pose that had not been laid out into town lots, in the town of Alexandria, and to file a plat thereof, including the lots previously laid out, at the adjourned term of the court, to be held on the third Monday in March following. "A good and substantial gaol" was then ordered to be erected in the town of Alexandria, and
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STATE OF MISSOURI.
the sum of $1,200 was appropriated for that purpose, and Daniel Markell was appointed to superintend the construction thereof. The said "gaol " was erected by Simeon Conway in 1848, for which the county paid him the sum of $1,803.50.
SALES OF TOWN LOTS.
The purchasers of county town lots in Waterloo, the former county seat, were allowed to and did re-convey the same to the county, and received certificates of credit for the amount or amounts paid thereon to the county, which certificates were after- ward accepted in payment for lots purchased from the county in the town of Alexandria. A public sale of lots in the new county seat was made on the 12th day of June, 1848, when twenty-one lots were sold for the aggregate sum of $716.50, averaging $34.12 per lot. Another sale was made September 30, following, when thirty-five lots were sold for the aggregate sum of $556.25, aver- aging $15.89 per lot. These sales were reported by Commissioner Hening to the county court, and by that body approved. The balance of the lots, ninety in number, were sold on the 13th and 14th days of May, 1850, for the aggregate sum of $320.35, aver- aging only $3.89 per lot. This sale was also approved by the court.
The courthouse at Alexandria was built by the citizens of that town, and donated to the county in consideration of the location of the county seat of that place. It was a plain and cheap two- story brick building, with the county offices on the first floor, and the courtroom on the second. The county court convened therein for the first time on the 11th day of June, 1849. Afterward, at the October term, 1852, of said court, it was ordered that the in- habitants of Clark County be granted the right to use the old courthouse of said county in the the town of Waterloo, for a house of public worship and seminary of learning; and that the management and control of the same be vested in a board of five trustees, viz. : Isaac N. Lewis, James Cowgill, Washington J. Pierce, Asphaxad Musgrove and Robert A. McKee.
HIGH WATER, ETC.
For a number of years prior to the location of the county seat
18
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HISTORY OF CLARK COUNTY.
at Alexandria, that town and the bottom lands in its vicinity had been comparatively free from overflow from the Mississippi and Des Moines Rivers, but after that time the place became subject to overflow again. In the year 1851 the Des Moines River rose nine feet higher at St. Francisville than it had ever been known to by the oldest inhabitant, and the water rose at Alex- andria until the town was so submerged that many people moved away from it, and those who remained were compelled to live in the second story of their buildings. At this time the bottom lands were so overflowed that a steamboat ran across the same, between Alexandria and Sand Ridge for a period of six weeks or more. On this occasion the water was the highest that has ever been known since the first settlement of the county. The erroneous idea then prevailed, to some extent, that the Missouri River had broken through into the Des Moines at some point near the source of the latter and was flowing down through its channel, and thus causing the unprecedented high water. people, in their imagination, attributed to the cause of the high
Some water the breaking out of lakes which lay higher than the sources of the Des Moines and Mississippi Rivers. These con- jectured causes, however, were erroneous. It is said that the water of that spring was unusually clear, which is evidence that the most probable cause for the high water was the melting of extensive snows along the line of these rivers and their tributaries above the points overflowed. Following the year 1851 the vicinity of Alexandria continued to be overflowed annually in the spring for a few years. The place was thus rendered unfit (or at least was so considered by a majority of the people) for the further continuance as the county seat.
SECOND REMOVAL OF THE COUNTY SEAT.
On the 9th day of November, 1853, the matter of the petition for the removal of the county seat back to Waterloo came on for hearing, and the court found that three-fifths of the taxable inhabitants of Clark County had petitioned for such removal; and thereupon appointed James L. Jones and Lloyd W. Knott of Scotland County, and John N. McCutcher, Horatio McKim and Joseph Steele of Lewis County as commissioners to select a site
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STATE OF MISSOURI.
whereon to locate the seat of justice of Clark County. Said com- missioners were to meet at the house of W. J. Pierce in the town of Waterloo, on the first Monday in February, 1854, to com- mence their proceedings. The commissioners met accordingly, and selected the town of Waterloo as the site for the county seat, and made their report, as required by law, to the circuit court at the April term thereof. This report, together with the approval of the judge of the circuit court, was certified by Willis Curd, clerk of said court, to the county court at the May term following. Elections were then ordered to be held at the several voting places in the county on the second Monday of June, 1854, "for the pur- pose of voting for or against locating the seat of justice of Clark County at the town of Waterloo." The elections were accord- ingly held, and the returns thereof made to the county court at its August term following, when it was found " that a majority of the taxable inhabitants of Clark County who paid taxes on land, and of the householders of said county, had voted for the said selection of Waterloo for the seat of justice of said county. And thereupon the court ordered that the town of Waterloo should be the permanent seat of justice of Clark County."
At the July term, 1855, of said court, Aaron Bechtol, superin- tendent of the new jail at Waterloo, reported that the contractor, Lycurgus Wilson, had completed the same. The building was accepted by the court, and the balance of $452.25 due said con- tractor, was ordered to be paid. Whiting Johnson was then appointed to superintend certain repairs to be made on the court- house and public square at Waterloo. These repairs having been made, the county court moved from Alexander to Waterloo, and held its first session in the newly repaired courthouse, be- ginning on the 5th day of November, 1855. Here the county seat remained unmolested for the next decade of nearly ten years, and until some parties interested in the sale of real estate at or near the town of Kahoka procured the passage, by the Legisla- ture of the State, of an act entitled " An act to re-locate the county seat of Clark County, and other purposes."
This act was approved February 20, 1865, and its sections read as follows:
SECTION 1. The county justices of the County Court of Clark County are
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HISTORY OF CLARK COUNTY.
hereby authorized to remove the county seat of said county of Clark from the town of Waterloo, the present county seat, to the town of Kahoka, or within two miles of said town of Kahoka, whenever a majority of the legal voters of said county, by petition, require the same to be done.
SEC. 2. The public records and public movable property shall be removed to the new county seat as soon as convenient buildings, such as court rooms, jury rooms, county officers' rooms and jail house can be procured by building or otherwise, for the courts of said county, which shall be determined by the county court of said county.
SEC. 3. All courts for said county shall thereafter be held, and public bus- iness transacted at the new county seat.
SEC. 4. The county court of said county of Clark, at such time as it may think best, and upon such terms as it may see fit, shall sell off any town lots, im- provements and public buildings or other property belonging to said county, the proceeds of such sale or sales to be used for county purposes.
SEC. 5. The county court is hereby authorized to negotiate any reason- able loan for the purpose of procuring or building the necessary buildings on account of the removal of said county seat.
SEC. 6. The act entitled "An act to provide for the removal of seats of justice," approved November 20, 1855, so far as the same may be applicable and not inconsistent with this act, shall be in force and apply to the new county seat, and the county court shall be in like manner governed thereby.
SEC. 7. This act to take effect and be in force from and after its passage.
On the 7th day of April, following, a petition was presented to the county court praying for the removal of the county seat from the town of Waterloo to the town of Kahoka, in accordance with the provisions of the foregoing act. And the court, after fully considering the matter of said petition, found " that a majority of the legal voters of the County of Clark had signed said petition," and thereupon ordered "that the county seat of said county of Clark be and the same is hereby removed from the town of
Waterloo to the town of Kahoka in said county and State, and the same is hereby declared duly and legally lo- cated at the said town of Kahoka, in said county and State." B. P. Hanan, one of the justices of the court, dissented from the foregoing order, and objections thereto were filed by Aaron Bech- tol and others. The objections were overruled by a majority of the justices of the court, and C. W. Meryhew was appointed, commissioner to receive by donation or acquire by purchase in the name of the county of Clark, any land or lots in or near the town of Kahoka upon which to erect the courthouse and other public buildings of said county-also to receive by donation any money or property of any description to aid in the construction of said buildings.
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STATE OF MISSOURI.
On the 8th day of June following, the court removed Com- missioner Meryhew and revoked his authority. The same day a petition was presented to the county court, praying for the re- moval of the seat of justice from the town of Kahoka, to the mid- dle of the southwest quarter of Section 21, in Township 65 north, Range 7 west, in said county of Clark. And the court, after examination of the matter, found that more than three-fifths, to wit, 1772 resident tax payers of the county, had signed said petition, and thereupon Joseph Miller, Aaron Matley, James Means, E. C. Sparks and Joseph Sparks, residents of Scotland County, were appointed commissioners to select the most suitable place in said county, within one mile of the place designated in the petition whereon to erect public buildings, and to acquire title by pur- chase or donation to such tract of land or town lots, including the place selected as a seat of justice for the county. The said com- missioners met in accordance with the foregoing order, and select- ed certain blocks in Clark City on which to erect the public buildings, and procured title thereto for the county from Aaron Bechtol and Christenia, his wife, for the consideration of $1 and the location of the county seat at that place, and reported their proceedings to the circuit court at the next term thereof. The same was reported by the clerk of that court to the county court at its October term, 1866. Elections were then ordered to be held at the several voting places within the county, on the 6th day of November, following, to ascertain the sense of the people upon the proposition of removing the seat of justice of Clark County from Kahoka, its location by law, to Clark City.
The elections were accordingly held, and the county court, on the 9th of November, 1866, found that a majority of the votes cast were in favor of establishing the seat of justice at Clark City, and thereupon ordered " That the seat of justice of Clark County be and is hereby legally and permanently established, as the law directs, at Clark City in the County of Clark and State of Mis- souri." Afterward, at the December term of said court, a motion was filed to set aside the foregoing order made on the 9th day of November, which motion the court overruled, and a bill of excep- tions filed by William W. Johnson and others, was signed by the court and made a part of its record. During all this time, and
1
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HISTORY OF CLARK COUNTY.
for a long time following, there was great excitement and much controversy over the removal of the county seat-Kahoka and Clark City being the rival points-each doing its utmost to secure it. Meanwhile the county officers and the public records remained at Waterloo. On the 3d day of February, 1869, Sam- uel Spangler, Hiram M. Hiller, George M. Ochletree and others, applied to the court, in due form, for the appointment of five com- missioners to select a site whereon to locate the public buildings and fix the seat of justice, as provided by the act of 1855. (R. S. 1855, page 514, Sec. 1.) The court overruled the application, and declined to make the appointment. Afterward the said Spangler and others, petitioned the supreme court of the State for a peremptory mandamus requiring the county court of Clark County, to make an order appointing five commissioners to select a site * whereon to locate the seat of justice of said county, and to discharge the duties enjoined upon it by the act of the Legislature, passed February 20, 1865. The prayer of this petition was granted by the supreme court ( Missouri Reports, Post 3, page 217), and the writ of mandamus was issued.
The county court, at its July term, 1869, in obedience to said writ, appointed Thomas Woods and John M. Pugh, of Lewis County; and W. G. Allen, of Knox County; and Sterling Mc- Donald and William M. Purdy, of Scotland County, as commis- sioners "to meet at Waterloo on the 19th day of August, 1869, and after being duly qualified, to proceed to select the most suit- able site in said county at Kahoka, or within two miles thereof, whereon to erect public buildings and to report their proceedings to the circuit court." On the 3d day of the following month, the county court appointed William Jackson commissioner to con- vey to Aaron Bechtol all the real property in Clark City, which the said Bechtol and wife had previously conveyed to the county for county seat purposes. The aforesaid commissioners appointed to select a site whereon to erect public buildings, etc., met and performed their duties, and reported their proceedings as required by the order of appointment. And thereupon the county court at its October term, 1870, made the following entry upon its record, to wit:
WHEREAS it appears to the satisfaction of the county court that the commis-
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STATE OF MISSOURI.
sioners appointed by said court to re-locate and remove the seat of justice of Clark County, and select a suitable place for the erection of public buildings of said county, have selected the most suitable place for the erection of public buildings; therefore be it ordered that the place so selected, to wit: Block num- ber five in Johnson's addition to the town of Kahoka, shall be the permanent seat of justice of Clark County. And that the donation received by said com- missioners, to wit: block five in Johnson's addition to the town of Kahoka, by William Johnson and wife, and also the donation of $12,000 in cash by John Hiller, be and the same is hereby accepted by the county court of said county, and that the report of said commissioners be and the same is hereby approved.
According to the foregoing order of the court the reader would understand that William Johnson and wife donated the square on which the courthouse stands to the county. This, however, is not strictly true for the reason that Messrs Hiram M. Hiller, John M. Hiller, C. B. Matlock and John E. Stafford had pre- viously bought the land on which the courthouse stands, and taken a bond for a deed for the same from the said Johnson, so that the donation was actually made by Hiller & Co., and by their direction the title was made directly from Johnson and wife to the county. However Mr. Johnson is entitled to credit for making a large donation, besides doing a vast amount of work in order to secure the location of the county seat at Kahoka. The county court would not accept a donation of town lots, but wanted a donation of money with which to erect a courthouse. In order to raise the money Mr. Johnson and others donated to Hiller & Co. about forty town lots, and the citizens sub- scribed $2,000, to be paid in cash. This subscription was also turned over to Hiller & Co. This firm then furnished $12,000 in money to the county, and had in satisfaction therefor the aforesaid town lots and the $2,000 promised on the subscrip- tion list, and of which about one-fourth has never been paid to them. P. S. Washburn was then appointed superintendent of the public buildings of Clark County. Messrs J. G. Orr and P. H. Conner, of Quincy, Ill., secured the contract for building the courthouse for the sum of $18,985, and on the 19th of January 1871, they filed their bond in the sum of $40,000, conditioned to build said house according to the plans'and specifications which were a part of their contract. The courthouse was accordingly erected by said contractors during the year 1871, and the first term of the county court was held therein, beginning January
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