History of Randolph County, Missouri, Part 2

Author: Waller, Alexander H
Publication date: 1920
Publisher: Topeka : Historical Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 940

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UNITED STATES POSTOFFICE, MOBERLY, MO.

History of Randolph County

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTORY.

EARLY EXPLORATIONS AND DISCOVERIES - THE NORTHMEN - CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS-SPANISH, FRENCH AND ENGLISH EXPLORERS-ST. AUGUSTINE, THE OLDEST TOWN IN THE UNITED STATES-SANTA FE-RESULT OF EARLY EXPLORATIONS.

This work will be essentially a history of Randolph County. But the history of no state, nor part of a state, of this Union would be com- plete if all earlier historic events are omitted.

The first European visitors to North America were Northmen about the year 1000 A. D., under the leadership of Leif Ericsson, son of Eric the Red, an adventurous navigator and explorer. The place where he and his companions landed, and later spent one or more winters cannot be determined. They called the region Vineland be- cause of the abundance of wild grapes. This point may have been somewhere along the North Atlantic coast from A PIONEER HOME Labrador to Massachusetts or Rhode Island. But, however interesting it may be to us to know that the North- men (Danes and Norwegians), visited our shores at this earlier date, still their discovery led to nothing. No attempt was made by the Northmen

HISTORY OF RANDOLPH COUNTY

to colonize the country, and in course of time their descendants, less adventurous, had lost all remembrance of any tradition or record of that far off shore. If any legend survived, it had become a mere fable, im- potent to inspire action and obtain results.

Nearly five hundred years later Christopher Columbus, an Italian, born at Genoa about the year 1436, through the generous encouragement of Queen Isabella of Spain, received from the Spanish government the necessary help, together with the rank of admiral, to enable him to sail in search of the East Indies by sailing west. No thought of a new world, a Western Continent, had entered the mind of Columbus or any one else.

On Friday, August 3, 1492, half an hour before sunrise, he set sail from Palos, Spain, with three small vessels, and one hundred and twenty men.

No one understood navigation better than Columbus; he had a chart of the globe made by himself and based on the highest authorities. Next, he had the compass for his guide. Finally, he carried with him an im- proved astrolabe, or instrument for determining his position by observa- tion of the sun. But these were not all. He had the conviction that he was engaged in a providential work, and that he was certain to ac- complish it. There are occasions in life when such a faith is worth every- thing; this was one.

Nine weeks after his embarkation, and not too soon, because the crews of his ships had become discouraged, almost mutinous, an event occurred, which led to results. On October 2nd, a flock of land birds was seen flying to the southwest. At the instance of Alonzo Pinzon, one of his captains, Columbus, who had been sailing due west, turned the prow of his ship and followed these winged guides.

Five days later on Friday, October 12th, a small island, one of the Bahamas was sighted, and the flag of Spain hoisted thereon.

Columbus believed the island to be a part of the East Indies, hence he called the native inhabitants, Indians, a name they still bear in this country. Columbus made three more voyages to the Western continents, but never found out his mistake, but died in 1506, firmly convinced that America was part of Asia, and that he had discovered a short and direct all sea westward route from Europe to the East Indies.

On this, his first voyage, Columbus discovered Cuba, and San Domingo; on his second voyage, Porto Rico, Jamaica and the islands of the Caribbean Sea in 1493; on his third voyage, 1498, the island of Trin-

HISTORY OF RANDOLPH COUNTY

idad off the coast of Venezuela, and the mainland of South America at the mouth of the Orinoco river. On his fourth and last voyage he ex- plored Central America and the Isthmus of Panama. Columbus raised the Spanish flag and claimed the country for Spain wherever he went.

In the spring of 1497, John Cabot of Venetia, an Italian then resid- ing in Bristol, England, encouraged by Henry VII, King of England, set sail westward and discovered the continent of North America.

On a map drawn by his son Sebastian is found the following inscrip- tion :

In the year of our Lord 1497, John Cabot and his son Sebastian, discovered that country which no one before his time had ventared to approach, on the 24th of June about five o'clock in the morning.

Cabot planted the English flag on the coast, and took formal pos- session of the country for the English King.

The next year Sebastian Cabot made a voyage and explored the coast from Nova Scotia to Cape Hatteras, perhaps even farther south. He likewise asserted the title of Henry VII to the land.

Upon the discoveries of the Cabots the English based their claim to this country.

The fact that the western hemisphere, the two Americas, north and south, was no part of Asia, was made known by Magellan in 1517- 1519, sailing under the flag of Spain, who sailed around the south end of South America, through the straits that bear his name, thence north along the west coast for some distance, thence west across the Pacific Ocean. One of his ships sailed entirely around the world.

Then the eyes of Europeans were opened and the truth made known. America was an immense continent, to them a new world. In 1509, Diego Columbus, son of Christopher Columbus was appointed governor of San Domingo, where a colony had been already established, who speedily thereafter conquered the Island of Cuba.

In the spring of 1513, Ponce De Leon, an elderly Spaniard, went upon an exploring expedition, under the auspices of the Spanish govern- ment and on Easter Sunday discovered the mainland of North America. De Leon landed near the mouth of the St. John river, planted the cross and raised the Spanish flag, and named the country Florida. It was upon this discovery that Spain laid claim to Florida and afterward made this claim good. In 1565, a fort was built at St. Augustine by the Spaniards and a settlement effected. St. Augustine is the oldest town

HISTORY OF RANDOLPH COUNTY

in the United States. Santa Fe, in the state of New Mexico, the second oldest town, was settled about 1582 by Spaniards.

During the year 1534, Cartier, a Frenchman, discovered and named the St. Lawrence river and ascended the same to Mount Royal, so named by him, the site of the city of Montreal, raised the French flag and claimed this territory for France.

In the spring of 1539 Hernando De Soto with a force of six hundred picked men, two hundred horses, three hundred hogs for meat, sailed from Cuba, landed at Tampa Bay, and began his march of exploration and violence toward the natives. For two years this march went on. During that time De Soto and his men traveled upward of fifteen hun- dred miles through the now states of Florida, Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi. Their quest was for gold and they found little. In the spring of 1541, they came to the Mississippi river at a point in the north- west corner of the state of Mississippi and there they crossed over into the then wilderness, now the state of Arkansas, and resumed their march. How far, and whence they journeyed, is of little consequence now. In May, 1542, they came back to the great river, at the mouth of Red River. This was the end of De Soto's career. There he died and was secreteiy buried at midnight in the muddy waters of the Mississippi. Only about half of those who had landed in Florida were alive, a miserable remnant of a once proud array, half naked, half starved, the survivors at length reached the Spanish settlements in Mexico. De Soto and his followers were the first white men to stand on the banks of the Mississippi river.

As late as the year 1600, there seemed small promise that this coun- try would ever be settled and governed by the English-speaking race. Look at the situation. More than a hundred years had passed since Columbus landed; yet the only white inhabitants of the territory now embraced in the United States were a few hundred Spaniards in St. Augus- tine, Florida, and perhaps a few hundred more in Santa Fe, New Mexico, the second oldest town. Over the rest of the country, embracing more than three millions of square miles, the Indians ruled supreme. France had tried to get a foothold on the Atlantic coast and had failed; England had tried and failed, likewise. Spain alone succeeded. In 1600, it cer- tainly looked as though her flag was destined to wave over the whole land from sea to sea.

Confining ourselves to the territory now included in the United States, let us see what the explorers of that, and also of a later age, found

HISTORY OF RANDOLPH COUNTY

America to be. In great measure it seemed to them Europe repeated. It had practically the same climate and the same soil. It produced, or was capable of producing, the same trees, the same fruits, the same crops, with the valuable addition of cotton, sugar, and rice. In all ways it was equally favorable to human health and life.

But this is not all. In two important respects America is superior to Europe. That continent commands the Atlantic only; this commands two cecans, the Atlantic and the Pacific. Ships can be sent direct to Europe and Africa from our eastern coast and direct to Asia and Australia from our western. That is the first advantage. The second is that though America repeats the natural features of Europe in its lakes, moun- tains, plains, rivers, and forests, yet it repeats them on a far grander scale. Europe has nothing to compare with the Sierras and the Rockies, the Great Lakes, the Mississippi, Niagara, the Canyon of the Colorado, Yellowstone Park, or the western prairies. "America," says a distin- guished English statesman "has a natural base for the greatest continu- ous empire ever established by man." Such was the land spread out before the explorers. It seemed to offer to all who were disappointed with the Old World an opportunity to try what they could make of life under new and broader conditions.

CHAPTER II

INDIANS.

SOLITUDE OF THE WILDERNESS-CHARACTERISTICS-MODE OF LIVING-FORM OF GOVERNMENT-RELIGION-ENDURANCE TESTS-TORTURE OF CAPTIVES-A CRUEL ENEMY, BUT STEADFAST FRIEND-WHAT HE TAUGHT THE WHITE MAN-ALLIANCES WITH EUROPEAN NATIONS-INDIAN WARS.

One strange fact about the country was, that east of the Mississippi the whole vast area was well nigh a solitude. Where today fifty millions of white men live, there were then only two or three hundred thousand Indians. In going through the forests, the explorers would sometimes travel for days without meeting a human being. The truth is, that the Indians cannot be said to have occupied the land; they simply possessed it. To them it was mainly a hunting-ground to roam over or a battle- field to fight on.

Columbus called the natives Indians, but they called themselves simply "Men," or "Real Men"; "Real Men" they certainly often proved them- selves to be. The most numerous body of Indians in the east was the Algonquins ; the ablest and most ferocious was the Iroquois. They were a tall, well-made race, with a color usually resembling that of old copper. Their hair was like a horse's mane, coarse, black and straight. Their eyes were small, black and deep set. They had high cheek bones and a prominent nose.

The women let their hair grow long. The men cut theirs off close to the head with the exception of a ridge or lock in the middle. That was left as a point of honor. It was called the "scalp-lock." Its object was to give an adversary-if he could get it-a fair grip in fight, and also to enable him to pull his enemy's scalp off as a trophy of the battle.

HISTORY OF RANDOLPH COUNTY

That lock was the Indian's flag of defiance. It waved above his head as the colors do over a fort, as if to say, "Take me if you can !"

The Indians were savages, but seldom degraded savages. They lived by hunting, fishing and agriculture. Their farming, however, was of the rudest kind. For weapons they had bows and arrows, hatchets made of flint and heavy clubs.

The Indian believed in a strict division of duties. He did the hunt- ing, the fighting, and the scalping; his wife did the work. She built the wigwam or hut of bark. She planted and hoed the corn and tobacco. She made deerskin clothes for the family. When they moved, she car- ried the furniture on her back. Her housekeeping was simple. She kindled a fire on the ground by rubbing two dry sticks rapidly together; then she roasted the meat on the coals, or boiled it in an earthen pot. There was always plenty of smoke and dirt; but no one complained. House-cleaning was unknown.

The most ingenious work of the Indians was seen in the moccasin, the snow-shoe, and the birch-bark canoe. The moccasin was a shoe made of buckskin, durable, soft, plain and noiseless. It was the best covering for a hunter's foot that human skill ever contrived. The snow-shoe was a light frame of wood, covered with a net work of strings of hide, and having such a broad surface that the wearer could walk on top of the snow in pursuit of game Without it the Indian might have starved in a severe winter, since only by its use could he run down the deer at that season.

The birch-bark canoe was light, strong, and easily propelled. It made the Indian master of every lake, river and stream. Wherever there were waterways he could travel quickly, silently and with little effort. If he liked he could go in his own private conveyance from the source of the Ohio to the Gulf of Mexico or from the mouth of the St. Lawrence to the Falls of Niagara.

Politically the Indian was free. Each tribe had a chief, but the chief had little real power. All important matters were settled by coun- cils. Socially, the Indian had less liberty than the white man. He was bound by customs handed down from his forefathers. He could not marry outside his tribe. He could not sit in whatever seat he chose at a council. He could not even paint his face any color he fancied; for a young man who had won no honors in battle would no more have dared to decorate himself like a veteran warrior, than a private soldier in the United States

HISTORY OF RANDOLPH COUNTY

army would venture to appear at parade in the uniform of a major-general.

The Indian usually believed in a Great Spirit-all-powerful wise and good; but he also believed in many inferior spirits, some good, and some evil.

Often he worshipped the evil spirits most. He reasoned in this way: The Great Spirit will not hurt me, even if I do not pray to him, for he is good; but if I neglect the evil spirits, they may do me mischief.

Beyond this life the Indian looked for another. There the brave war- rior who had taken many scalps would enter the happy hunting-grounds ; there demons would flog the coward to never-ending task.

It has sometimes been said that "the only good Indian is a dead Indian," but judged by his own standard of right and wrong, the red man was conscientious. He would not steal from his tribe, he would not lie to his friends, he did not become a drunkard till the white man taught him.

The Indian rarely expressed his feeling in words, but he frequently painted them on his face. You could tell by his color whether he. meant peace or war, whether he had heard good news or bad. He sometimes laughed and shouted, he seldom if ever wept. From childhood he was taught to despise pain. A row of little Indian boys would sometimes put live coals under their naked arms, and then press them close to their bodies. The game was to see which one would first raise his arms and drop the coal. The one that held out longest became the leader. If an Indian lad had met with an accident and was mortally wounded, he scorned to complain ; he sang his "death-song" and died like a veteran warrior.

Generally speaking, the Indians tortured their captives. They wanted to see how much agony they could bear without crying out. The surest way for a prisoner to save his life was to show that he was not afraid to lose it. The redman never failed to show his respect for courage. An instance is found in the case of General Stark of New Hampshire. He was taken prisoner by the Indians in 1752, and condemned to run the gauntlet. Two long rows of stalwart young warriors were formed. Each man had a club or stick to strike Stark as he passed. But Stark was equal to the occasion. Just as he started on the terrible race for life he snatched a club out of the hands of the nearest Indian, and knocking down the astonished savages right and left, he escaped almost unhurt. The old men of the tribe, who stood near, roared with laughter to see the spruce young warriors sprawling in the dust. Instead of torturing Stark, they treated him as a hero.

HISTORY OF RANDOLPH COUNTY

The Indian was a treacherous and cruel enemy, but a steadfast friend. He thought at first that the white man was a celestial being who had come from heaven to visit him. He soon found out his mistake, and acted accordingly. The Indian could return good for good, but he knew nothing of returning good for evil; on the contrary, he always paid bad treatment by bad treatment, and never forgot to add some interest. If he made a treaty, he kept it sacredly ; it is said that in no instance can it be proved that he was first to break such an agreement. Those of the early white settlers who made friends with the redman had no cause to regret it.

The Indian's school was the woods. Whatever the woods can teach that is useful-and they can teach much-that he learned. He knew the properties of every plant, and the habits of every animal. The natives taught the white man many of these things, but the most useful of all the lessons the American barbarians gave the civilized Europeans was how to raise corn in the forest without first clearing the land.

They showed them how to kill the trees by burning or girding them. Then, when the leaves no longer grew, the sun would shine on the soil and ripen the corn. There were times in the history of the early settle- ments of white men when that knowledge saved them from starvation, for often they had neither time nor strength to clear the soil for planting.

But the results of contact between the two races did not end here. The alliances formed between the Indians and the English on the one hand, or the Indians and French, who were rivals and enemies of the English, on the other, had important historical results. The hostility of the Iro- quois Nation, five tribes, of New York to the French in Canada, prevented the French from getting possession of the Hudson river, and so separating the English colonies of New England from those of Virginia and Pennsyl- vania. This was a decided advantage to the English settlers, who thus got a firm foothold on the Atlantic coast.

Finally, the Indian wars prevented the English from scattering over the country. These contests forced them to stand by each other, and thus trained them for union and for independence.

CHAPTER III

EARLY EXPLORATIONS AND SETTLEMENTS.

FIRST ENGLISH COLONY -SETTLEMENT OF MANHATTAN - THE MAYFLOWER - PLYMOUTH COLONY-LORD BALTIMORE-RELIGION -PENN-LAWS -CHAM- PLAIN-THE JESUITS-FRENCH AND ENGLISH ENMITY-FRENCH AND INDIAN WARS-FALL OF QUEBEC - TREATY OF PARIS - LOUISIANA TERRITORY - DANIEL BOONE.

The first English colony that endured was sent out by the London Company on New Year's Day, 1607. It consisted of 105 persons, all men. They sailed up a river of Virginia which they named the James river about the middle of May and settled at Jamestown. Fortunately there was a young man of decided ability among these colonists. This was Captain John Smith. His energy and courage saved the settlers from starvation and in the end perpetuated the settlement. The start was discouraging, but the colony lived to lay the foundation of a prosperous, powerful and independent state.

In 1609, Captain Henry Hudson, an Englishman then in the employ of Holland, crossed the ocean and entered what is now New York Bay and was the first Englishman who sailed up the river that today bears his name.

In 1626, the Dutch West India Company sent out a colony and landed on Manhattan Island. The governor bought from the Indians the entire island and established a settlement thereon. Later the English King, Charles II, claimed the whole country on the ground that the Cabots had discovered the coast and planted the English flag on it in 1497. Suddenly one day in 1664 a British fleet appeared off New Amsterdam, as the set- tlement was called, and demanded its surrender, promising at the same time

HISTORY OF RANDOLPH COUNTY

full protection of life and liberty, freedom of trade, religious liberty and a representative government. In consequence the Dutch flag was hauled down, the English colors were run up, and the name changed to New York.

Thus was the first colony planted in the state of New York, and the city of New York founded.

On a morning late in November, 1620, the Mayflower, bearing the Pil- grim fathers, 102 in number, all told, sighted Cape Cod, and cast anchor In what is now Province Harbor. While the Mayflower was at anchor Captain Myles Standish, who was with them, but not of them, with a boat load of men went out to explore. A few days later the Mayflower sailed into Plymouth Rock Harbor, and the pilgrims went ashore on the mainland of the now state of Massachusetts. They immediately erected cabins and went into winter quarters, but such was the hardships they had to bear that by spring just one-half of the colony were in their graves. But when the Mayflower went back, not one of the Pilgrims returned ; they had come to stay.

The colony increased but slowly. Even at the end of ten years there were only 300 people in Plymouth. Massachusetts Colony, founded in 1630, overshadowed and finally absorbed it.

In 1628, John Endicott assisted in planting a colony at Salem, Massa- chusetts. Endicott was a Puritan and his purpose was to establish a place of refuge for the oppressed people of his own faith, and of his own faith only. But great immigration to New England began in 1630 when John Winthrop, a wealthy English Puritan decided to emigrate.

He came with a fleet of eleven vessels, bringing a colony of over seven hundred persons, with horses, cattle, and all things necessary for establishing a thriving settlement. John Winthrop was appointed Gov- ernor, and thus became the first sole and resident Governor. From the outset all public matters were settled in town meetings. When the colony grew too large, the towns sent representatives. Church members only were allowed to vote.

In 1635 provision was made for the establishment of a public school in Boston. In the course of a few years free instruction was provided for every white child in Massachusetts. This was the beginning of the com- mon school system of the United States. In 1636, money was voted by the General Court to found a college. Two years later the Rev. John Harvard left his library and half of his estate of about 750 pounds to the college. Such was the origin of Harvard University, the first English college in America.

HISTORY OF RANDOLPH COUNTY

During the years 1634-1635 the rich lands of the valley of the Connec- ticut attracted settlers from Massachusetts, and several towns were founded. In 1639 the people of these several towns met at Hartford and drew up the first constitution, or form of government "known in history."

This compact made no mention either of the King of England or of the English company which held a royal grant of the Connecticut lands. It was in reality the constitution of a republic.

One reason why the Connecticut emigrants had left Massachusetts was that they did not believe in the principle of limiting the right of voting to church members. The Hartford constitution imposed no such restriction. Every citizen was politically equal with every other, and was at liberty to take part in making the laws.

Today the United States and every state of the Union has a written constitution, and the right of suffrage is general as to every citizen.

In the year 1634 a company of Catholic pilgrims came to America that they, too, might build up a state where they could worship God without molestation. This colony consisted of about 300 persons led by Governor Leonard Calvert, a younger brother of the second Lord Baltimore, landed on the northern bank of the Potomac near its mouth and founded the town of St. Marys. Prior to this time Charles I had granted to Lord Baltimore that part of northern Virginia, north of the Potomac river, and named it Maryland in honor of his queen, who was herself a Catholic. A part of these colonists were gentlemen of wealth and standing and probably Catholics. The rest of the emigrants were laborers and seem to have been chiefly Protestants.

Father White, a priest who accompanied the expedition, had ro sooner landed than he got permission from an Indian chief to convert his wigwam into a chapel. This hut was the first English Catholic church in America. Virginia would not have permitted that church to stand, New England would not. It was only in the wilderness of Maryland, in that mixed population of Catholics and Protestants that it was safe.

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History of Randolph County, Missouri, Part 2

Author: Waller, Alexander H Publication date: 1920 Publisher: Topeka : Historical Publishing Company Number of Pages: 940

Author: Waller, Alexander H
Publication date: 1920
Publisher: Topeka : Historical Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 940