USA > Missouri > Pettis County > History of Pettis County, Missouri > Part 2
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"The District of Louisiana," composed of the country so ceded by France to the United States, lying north of the thirty-third degree, of north latitude, was organized as a territory of the United States by an Act of Congress approved March 24, 1804. By the same act said "Dis- trict of Louisiana" was placed under the jurisdiction of Indiana Terri- tory for governmental purposes (Chapter 2, Laws of Missouri 1804-1824 at page 5). The "District of Louisiana," was changed to the "Territory of Louisiana," by Act of Congress approved March 3, 1805. (Same laws, chapter 3, page 6.) The name of Louisiana Territory was changed to Missouri Territory by Act of Congress approved June 4, 1812. By the same act the "executive power was vested in a Governor, who should reside in the said territory." This act has a very interesting provision for the selecting of a legislature. It provides the representatives shall "be convened by the Governor, in the town of St. Louis on the first Monday in December next." (Same laws, chapter 4, page 8.)
CHAPTER II.
STATE OF MISSOURI
"THE CHILD OF THE STORM"-SOURCE OF EARLIEST SETTLERS-MORE AMERI- CANIZED SETTLERS-THE MISSOURIAN-EVENTS OF ITS ADMISSION-PLAN OF ADMITTING FREE AND SLAVE STATES-COMPROMISES-MISSOURI AD- MITTED BY PROCLAMATION-STRIFE OF SETTLERS-FIRST GENERAL AS- SEMBLY-SELECTION OF U. S. SENATORS-BARTON AND BENTON SELECTED -EARLY SETTLEMENTS-EXECUTIVES SINCE 1813.
John Scott, the delegate from Missouri Territory, in Congress in 1819, referred to Missouri as "The Child of the Storm." Very aptly was this name applied to the territory he represented. Not only viewing it from the stormy political questions raised when she sought admission to the Union, but also from the class of its early settlers.
The earliest settlers, coming as they did from three distinct sources, each possessing racial peculiarities, habits, prejudices and principles. When this blood was mingled there is no wonder why the offspring should be turbulent, courageous, and at the same time reasonably lovable and firm in their convictions. Convictions with these early adventurers was synonymous with action. The Spaniard came to this new world from his home then deluged with war, reaching the lower Mississippi his adven- turous spirit leading him up the "Great River" to our shore. The French- man coming by way of the great lakes to the Mississippi River and down to our shores. He, too, came from a country then in the thiroes of a bloody war.
Then there came a more Americanized people across our eastern mountains, forests and plains to settle beyond the "Great River." These were from the eastern shores of the United States, made up of a people out of the old English and other stocks. These had mingled their blood for quite a century and so amalgamated had become quite a different
71
HISTORY OF PETTIS COUNTY
stock from any of the originals. Take the offspring of such peoples and you have a Missourian.
The events of Missouri's admission to the Union as a State has much to do with the formation of the character of early settlement of the county. When Delegate Scott, from Missouri, introduced in Congress in 1819 his resolution preparatory to the admission of our State into the Union, there was a story raised relative to slavery. Jefferson is quoted as saying, "The Missouri controversy sounds like a fire-bell at midnight." The statesmen from North and South had been in the habit of admitting States into the Union by pairs. One to be slave, the other free. In 1818 Illinois and Mississippi were admitted, one slave, the other free State.
In 1819 when Alabama and Missouri applied for statehood, both ask- ing to be admitted as slave states a great hue and cry was raised through- out the Union and the strife never ended indeed until at Appomattox. The tempest was stilled for a while by cutting Maine off from Massa- chusetts and admitting her as a free State and Alabama and Missouri as slave states. Thus peace was held for a time. After furious debates both in Congress and on the hustings the peacemakers procured what was known as the first Missouri Compromise. This compromise left no ad- vantage to the slave, or pro-slavery party, and only left the country, par- ticularly Missouri, in a state of agitation. In 1820 Delegate Scott called up his resolution for the admission of Missouri. Her constitution so pre- sented called for slavery. The storm burst forth with renewed fury. This all resulted in what is known as the Clay or Second Compromise. This was as meaningless as the first Missouri compromise. It had the effect, however, of James Monroe, by proclamation bearing date of the 10th day of August, 1821, declaring Missouri one of the States of the Union. The significant fact, revealed in our histories, is that all these eventful contests admitting Missouri into the Union were all accomplished without a vote of the people.
All this wrangle left Missouri in a state of turmoil and strife. Not this alone but further brought to our shores a citizenship from the North and the South, bringing with them the bitterness and combativeness of each. It was this restless class who generally claim his home on the frontier. Statehood settled, we would expect quiet, if not peace, to reign. Not so in Missouri. Her first General Assembly meeting, even before the admission of the State, was in an apparent deadlock over the selection of the first senators to the United States Senate. David Barton was
72
HISTORY OF PETTIS COUNTY
selected with little opposition. Then followed a complete tie-up over the selection of his "senatorial yoke fellow," as we term it today, his associate in the Senate. After much acrimonious strife, it was proposed Senator- elect Barton should name his mate. This he did by the choice of Col. Thomas Hart Benton. Mr. Benton hailed from Tennessee, having been born in North Carolina. He had settled in Missouri during her terri- torial days.
During the period of seeking statehood, we had a government, in a way. The position of our State was fairly portrayed in the message of the then Governor, McNair. He said, "Since the organization of this gov- ernment (referring to the State organization) we have exhibited to the American people a spectacle novel and peculiar-an American republic on the confines of the Federal Union, exercising all the powers of sov- ereign government, with no actual political connection with the United States, nothing to bind us to them but a reverence for the same principles and an habitual attachment to them and their government." It would seem we were then in the Union, but not of the Union.
The lucky strike seems to have thus early turned to Mr. Benton. Missouri, it was assumed, was entitled to two senators, one for a four-year term and one for a six-year term. This was determined between David Barton and Thomas H. Benton, by casting lots. In this Mr. Benton received the six-year term. The man who really made him a senator had to take the short term. The long term gave Benton much prestige and great power which he fixed firmly over the fighting democracy of Mis- souri. By great force of character and the faculty to take the initiative and do the right thing at the right time Benton retained his seat in the United States Senate for thirty years.
From the earlier settlements about St. Louis and St. Genevieve, Cape Girardeau, and the eastern border of the State, this turbulent spirit of the pioneers pushed his way west, up the Missouri and Osage rivers. From the Osage, they wended their way northward and from the shores of the Missouri they came over the plains southward. From these early sources came the first settlers of Pettis County. They were different in temperament. The Frenchman came that they might mine the earth for lead and zinc and other ores about which the Indians had told such luring and fabulous stories. The Spaniard and his offspring came in quest of new hunting grounds, purely of an adventurous spirit, not to exploit, but simply as a discoverer. Thus came the earlier settlers of Pettis County.
73
HISTORY OF PETTIS COUNTY
The executives of this State since 1813 are as follow: William Clark, Governor Missouri Territory, 1813; Alerander McNair, Governor Mis- souri State (?), 1820; Frederick Bates, Governor Missouri State, 1824; Abraham J. Williams, acting Governor Missouri State, 1825; John Miller, Governor Missouri State, 1825; Daniel Dunklin, Governor Missouri State, 1832; Lilburn W. Boggs, Governor Missouri State, 1836; Thomas Reynolds, Governor Missouri State, 1840; M. M. Marmaduke, acting Governor Mis- souri State, 1844; John C. Edwards, Governor Missouri State, 1844; Austin A. King, Governor Missouri State, 1848; Sterling Price, Governor Missouri State, 1852; Trusten Polk, Governor Missouri State, 1856; Han- cock Jackson, acting Governor Missouri State, 1857; Robert W. Stewart, Governor Missouri State, 1857; Claiborne F. Jackson, Governor Missouri State, 1861; Hamilton R. Gamble, acting Governor Missouri State, 1861; Willard P. Hall, acting Governor Missouri State, 1864; Thomas C. Fletcher, Governor Missouri State, 1865; Joseph W. McClurg, Governor Missouri State, 1869; Benjamin Gratz Brown, Governor Missouri State, 1871; Silas Woodson, Governor Missouri State, 1873; Charles H. Hardin, Gover- nor Missouri State, 1875; John S. Phelps, Governor Missouri State, 1877; Thomas T. Crittenden, Governor Missouri State, 1881; John S. Marmaduke, Governor Missouri State, 1885; Albert P. Morehouse, acting Governor Missouri State, 1887; David R. Francis, Governor Missouri State, 1889; William J. Stone, Governor Missouri State, 1893; Lon V. Stephens, Gov- ernor Missouri State, 1897; Alexander M. Dockery, Governor Missouri State, 1901; Joseph W. Folk, Governor Missouri State, 1905; Herbert S. Hadley, Governor Missouri State, 1909; Elliott W. Major, Governor Mis- souri State, 1913; Frederick D. Gardner, Governor Missouri State, 1913.
CHAPTER III.
GEOLOGY AND TOPOGRAPHY
TOPOGRAPHY-GEOLOGY-FORMATIONS - RECENT-PENNSYLVANIA-DEPOSITS- MISSISSIPPI DEPOSITS-SANDSTONE-COAL-DRESDEN-LAMONTE-DRILL- INGS-CLAY-BUILDING STONE-QUARRIES-SAND AND GRAVEL-WATER.
Topography .- Pettis County lies chiefly on the northwest flank of the Ozark Dome and on that physiographic province known as the Ozark border plain. This plain encircles the Ozark Dome proper on the west and north and is upheld by a series of resistant limestones of Mississip- pian age. The characteristic topography of this plain is that of a rolling to smooth prairie surface, frequently intersected by deeply carved val- leys of narrow width. Rough and rugged country, however, may pre- vail in proximity to the streams of important size, but the wide divides are commonly of gentle relief. The topography of the county corre- sponds in every way with that of the physiographic province described.
The surface of the county slopes moderately to the north. Along its southern boundary elevations of 1,000 or more above sea level occur, while the uplands along the northern boundary lie 200 feet lower. Sedalia has an elevation of 910 feet above sea level; Green Ridge, 897 feet; LaMonte, 867 feet, and Hustonia 749 feet, while the village of Mora, just south of the southern boundary of the county, lies 1,007 feet above sea level. The maximum relief between the highest and lowest point in the county is about 500 feet.
Roughtly speaking the county may be divided into areas of broadly rolling hills, gently rolling prairies, and broken hilly zones adjacent to some of the important streams. The broadly rolling hill land occupies the southern portion of the county, chiefly south of Flat Creek, and con- sists of high but well-rounded divides and hills with broad tops and easy slopes. The stream beds lie seventy-five to 150 feet below the
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HISTORY OF PETTIS COUNTY
crest of the divides, and their valleys, ordinarily quite narrow, are in places broadened by strips of bottoms. Gently rolling or level prairies occupy large tracts in the western, northern and central parts of the county and form one of the most conspicuous features of its topography. Notable among these prairies are the level fertile areas surrounding Green Ridge and Camp Branch, southwest of Sedalia; the Smithton, Sedalia, Dresden, and LaMonte prairies along the main line of the Missouri Pacific Rail- road, and the Hughesville-Hustonia prairies, in the northwest part of the county. Much of the area between Heath's and Muddy creeks is also this type. The broken hilly zones are confined chiefly to the northern and southeastern portions of the county, and do not extend far back from the streams. Most notable of these are found in Heath's Creek and Bowling Green townships.
The drainage of the entire county is effected through streams tribu- tary to Lamaine River, which itself barely enters the county at one or two points in the northeast corner. Its largest tributaries are Flat Creek, Muddy Creek, and Black Water River, all of which flow northeast to the master stream.
Geology .- The geologic formations exposed within the county range in age from Lower Ordovician to recent. The bed rock over most of the area is composed chiefly of limestone, varying in composition from hard magnesian limestone or dolomite to pure crystalline limestone. Out- side the area occupied by the coal-bearing formations in the western part of the county, only a relatively small amount of shale and sand- stone is exposed, and these are only found in local patches. The coal- bearing or Pennsylvanian rocks, however, are constituted chiefly of shale and sandstone, both of which appear in common exposure in the western part of the county. The rock strata all dip to the northwest, at an angle which exceeds the north surface slopes; thus the oldest formations are exposed in the southeast portion and the youngest in the northwest part of the county. The following geologic table gives an outline of the rocks outcropping in the count ...
General Average Section of Formations Exposed in Pettis County.
Thickness.
Recent : Soil and residual clay
0-20
Pennsylvanian : Cherokee, shales and sandstones with seams of coal 20-150
Mississippian :
.
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HISTORY OF PETTIS COUNTY
Burlington limestone 60-150
Chouteau limestone 70-140 1 1
Phelps sandstone 0-50
Devonian: Shale and sandstone of possible Devonian age.
Lower Ordovician: Jefferson City dolomite.
250-300
Recent .- The unconsolidated deposits which form a mantle, covering the bed rock of the county, seldom attain an important thickness. Most shallow wells indicate the mantle to be only ten to twenty feet thick, though in places of course this thickness is exceeded. The mantle has been formed entirely, on the uplands, as a residuum from the disinte- gration of the underlying bed rock. It is thus over most of the area a yellow to brown or reddish clay filled with fragments of chert which have weathered out of the limestone. Locally, the residuum is sandy ; in fact, quite generally so in some parts of the county. Due to the variation of the type of rock from which it was derived, it must be naturally expected that its composition changes somewhat from one locality to another. The great ice invasions which several times covered the north part of the state did not extend into Pettis County and its surface is, therefore, free from glacial drift.
Pennsylvanian Deposits .- The main body of the Pennsylvanian or Coal Measures area extends eastward into Pettis County. The eastern border of these rocks along the north boundary of the county reaches a point approximately due north of Sedalia. From this point southward the margin extends in a sinuous line southwestward, passing shortly east of Hughesville, Dresden, and Rodelia. On both sides of Lamine River, however, it swings sharply westward, almost to the Johnson County line. The main body of the Coal Measures in the county, therefore, may be roughly said to occupy the northwest portion.
Mississippian Deposits .- The Mississippian formations directly under- lie the Pennsylvanian and appear in outcrop over a wide belt extending from northeast to southwest across the central part of the county. They form the country rock over nearly all of the northeast quarter of the county and occur at the surface over the greater part of the southwest quarter. However, south of Flat Creek only outliers of the Mississippian occur, except on the high divide and prairie, extending southward toward Ionia, Benton County, where these rocks generally underly the surface.
Where their full thickness is present a little more than 300 feet of Mississippian rocks occur. But over most of the area where they are
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HISTORY OF PETTIS COUNTY
found, the upper beds have been removed by erosion. These rocks are composed almost wholly of limestone, which throughout most of the thick- ness, is very cherty. Just below the limestone occur locally patches of white sandstone, which have been doubtfully correlated as the Mississip- pian. These sandstone patches in places reach a thickness of fifty feet, but the sandstone is not present as a persistent bed.
Three formations of the Mississippian series are known to be present, the uppermost being the Burlington limestone, below which lies the Chou- teau limestone, and below this in turn lie the local patches of Phelps sandstone which must at present be considered as a doubtful classification.
The Burlington limestone has a known thickness in the county of from sixty to 150 feet and is seen commonly in outcrop in the northeast and southwest parts of the county. It is a white to gray limestone, beauti- fully crystalline, and containing beds, lentils, and concretions of chert. It is also abundantly fossiliferous, containing many well-preserved speci- mens of brachiopods, and crinoids.
The Chouteau limestone, which directly underlies the Burlington, differs materially from it. It occurs in general in thick, massive beds with very few bedding and stratification planes. The rock is fine grained, com- pact, and siliceous, with a very uniform light drab to blue color, although upon weathering it becomes buff. Large chert nodules are disseminated irregularly through it and the stone breaks with a concoidal fracture. The Chouteau is well exposed around Sedalia and to the east and south of Smithton. It has been extensively quarried in these localities and may be seen forming bluffs shortly north of Sedalia along the Georgetown road. In places near Sedalia the lower part of the Burlington limestone still rests upon the Chouteau but for most part it has been removed by erosion. The exposures in the central part of the county indicate the Chouteau to be forty to ninety feet thick there, but the full thickness is known to exceed 100 feet. The principal difference between the Chou- teau and the Burlington limestones is found in the texture and the color, being easily distinguished one from the other by virtue of these charac- ters. The Chouteau limestone is also a fossiliferous limestone.
Phelps Sandstone .- Lying in scattered patches at the base of the limestone described above is the Phelps sandstone.
The Phelps sandstone is encountered locally in wells reaching the base of the Mississippian limestone and patches of it outcrop at a num- ber of localities south and east of Sedalia. One good exposure is to be
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HISTORY OF PETTIS COUNTY
found just on the south side of Flat Creek at the Sedalia Waterworks plant. The sandstone varies in thickness from less than a foot to over fifty feet, often appearing in lenticular patches. The size of the patches may be large or small, but it is believed that most of them cover a very limited territory. The sandstone is white, where clean, and is composed of rounded quartz grains, chiefly. It is frequently asked whether or not this sandstone would not be suitable for glass manufacture, or for core sand. No doubt it could be used to advantage for either purpose, were the quantity sufficient to justify.
Unexposed Rocks .- No rocks older than the Jefferson City forma- tion are exposed within Pettis County, and our record of these older rocks must be taken from the logs of deep borings at Sedalia and Lamonte. To the south and east higher on the flank of the Ozark dome they are of course exposed and have been studied, so their character is fairly well known.
Below the lowest Jefferson City beds a sandstone has been en- countered in all the drillings in the county of sufficient depth and this sandstone constitutes a part of the Roubidoux formation. Where en- countered by the drill it yields a copious supply of water though its thickness has not been found to exceed fifteen feet under the county. It is a coarse grained sandstone embedded between cherty dolomite and pure chert layers, all of which go to make up the total thickness of the Roubidoux formation. Directly underlying this formation the drill pene- trates more than 250 feet of crystalline dolomite, containing beds of chert and resting on a thin bed of sandstone. The whole thickness including the sandstone constitutes the Gasconade dolomite and the thin basal sandstone is called the Gunter sandstone. The Gunter sandstone forms another excellent water-bearing horizon which in the deep wells drilled at Sedalia adds its supply to that encountered in the higher Roubi- doux sandstone.
Economic Geology .- The economic mineral deposits of Pettis County are principally non-metallic, there being no extensive deposits so far as known of any of the metals. It is true that some lead and some zinc ores have been found principally in the southeastern township but the lead has been principally "float" material scattered over the surface and the zinc ore has been found only in small quantity. While it is not impos- sible that commercial deposits of one or the other or both of these metals may be found in the Jefferson City formation in workable deposits, the
79
HISTORY OF PETTIS COUNTY
possibility seems rather remote. We must, therefore, consider the non- metallics as more likely to contribute to the mineral production of the county than the metals. Of these non-metallic materials coal, clay, build- ing-stone, sand and gravel, and mineral waters have already been pro- duced, in considerable quantity, and the production of all is capable of much greater expansion.
Coal .- Coal has occasionally been mined in Pettis county for local use, but in the last few years little or none has been produced. The main coal-bearing area is confined to the western part of the county, as shown on the geological map of the State, and the Coal Measures have a maxi- mum known thickness of only about 150 feet. The coal beds present in this area are, in general, irregular in thickness and distribution.
Outside of the region mapped as Pennsylvanian are pockets of Coal Measures sandstone and shale containing bituminous and cannel coal. As much as twenty feet of coal have been reported in these, though their lateral extent and the amount to be derived from any one of them is small and the quality of the fuel is poor. Pockets have been reported in T. 45 N., R. 22 W. and southeast of Sedalia, and they probably exist in other parts of the county.
The coal beds in the different parts of the county cannot be cor- related with accuracy, but the estimate of a total original tonnage of 300,000,000 tons is believed to be conservative. This estimate does not include beds or parts of beds less than fourteen inches in thickness and is made on a basis of 1800 tons per acre-foot of coal.
Dresden .- About two and a half miles west of Dresden considerable mining was done at an early date. When Broadhead visited the locality two mines were being operated by Messrs. Newport and Westlake near the line of the Missouri Pacific railroad. The mines were only 100 yards apart and operated the same bed at a depth of about thirty-five feet. The coal varied from 27 to 30 inches in thickness. Broadhead also re- ports about two feet of coal south of Dresden (S. E. 14 N. E. 1/4 Sec. 8, T. 46 N., R. 22 W.).
LaMonte .- Two or three shafts were formerly operated one to two miles, east of LaMonte, near the Missouri Pacific railroad, but when the locality was visited in 1911 no mining was being done. R. E. Guthrie was engaged at that time in sinking a shaft on the land of H. Conway.
HISTORY OF PETTIS COUNTY
Conway Shaft Near LaMonte (S. W. 1/4 S. E. 1/4 Sec. 12, T. 46 N., R. 23 W.)
Thickness. Depth.
9
19
221/2
231/2 391/2
31%
Feet.
10
1
16
1
1
1
1
Limestone, gray, jointed
Shale, black, "slaty"
Limestone, black, hard, impure Shale, clayey
The coal, which is said to be just below the sixteen feet of shale in
the above section, is reported to be thirty inches thick. At this shaft and at others in the vicinity much trouble has been caused by the great abundance of water entering from below the 12-inch limestone. The coals at the Guthrie shaft and the other mines in the vicinity, with one exception, perhaps, belong to the Tebo bed, though the rocks above them do not correspond very closely with those above the Tebo in eastern Johnson County.
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