USA > Missouri > Randolph County > History of Randolph County, Missouri > Part 3
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From the beginning all the colonists took part in making the laws, and in a few years Lord Baltimore granted them the power of originat- ing those laws. In religion, absolute freedom of worship was given to all Christians, but to Christians only. No other colony in this country the nenjoyed such liberty, and it was wholly unknown in Europe.
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In 1636 Roger Williams, an exiled minister, from Massachusetts with others established a colony at Providence, Rhode Island. Other colonists soon followed and founded Portsmouth and Newport. From the beginn- ing entire freedom of conscience was given to every settler, "soul liberty" Williams called it. Maryland had granted such liberty to all Chris- tians, but the colony of Providence did not limit it, not Protestants and Catholics only, but Jews and unbelievers were protected. Roger Wil- liams laid down and put into actual practice what we may call the "American principle," that is, that government has nothing to do with the control of religious belief. This idea so new, strange and startling at the time, steadily grew and spread until in time it became a part of the constitution of the United States, where it now appears in the language following :
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of reli- gion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof."
And again, "No religious test shall ever be required as a qualifica- tion to any office or public trust under the United States."
The first permanent settlement in New Hampshire was about 1627, four years later, in 1631, Portsmouth was settled. The first permanent settlement on the mainland of Maine was effected in 1625. Saco and Biddeford were founded in 1630, and Portland in 1632.
In 1663 Charles II of England granted an immense tract of land south of Virginia to a company composed of Lord Clarendon and seven associates. This territory was called Carolina. On the coast it embraced the entire region now included in the states of North and South Carolina, Georgia, and a part of Florida; westward it extended to the Pacific.
At the time this grant was made there were a few farmers in the northern part who had moved in from Virginia. These settlers were formed into a colony in 1663 called Albemarle. North and South Caro- lina was settled by emigrants from Virginia, by English and also by Huguenots, or French Protestants who came to escape persecution to which they were subject in their native land. General Marion, a descen- dent from a Huguenot family, a revolutionary patriot, won renown in the American cause.
Charleston, founded in 1690, at the time of the revolution, was one of the chief cities of America.
In 1861 Charles II gave to William Penn a territory of forty-eight thousand square miles, fronting on the Delaware river.
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The first emigrants sent over by Penn arrived in 1681. The next year (1682) Penn himself came over, together with a hundred English Quakers, and took formal possession of his vast estate. The same year he founded Philadelphia.
Less than two months thereafter Penn called an assembly, and he with the people enacted the "Great Law."
"That constitution had a two-fold foundation, liberty of the people to make their own laws, and obedience to the laws they had made;" for, said Penn, "Liberty without obedience is confusion, and obedience without liberty is slavery."
By the great law it was provided, first: That all Colonists should be protected in their worship of God, but that no one should be com- pelled to support or attend any form of worship against his will.
Second: That all resident taxpayers should have the right to vote and that every member of any Christian church might hold office, and become a member of the legislative assembly.
Third: That every child after reaching the age of twelve should be brought up to some trade or useful occupation.
Fourth: That the death penalty should be inflicted for two crimes only, murder and treason, and for the first time in the history of the world, it was further provided, that every prison should be made a workshop and a place of reformation. Penn's next act was a treaty with the Indians.
Penn met the Indians under the branches of a wide spreading elm in the outskirts of Philadelphia. There solemn promises of mutual friendship were made, but no oaths were taken. Each trusted the other's word. That treaty was never broken, and for sixty years, as long as the Quakers held control, the people of Pennsylvania lived in peace with the Indians. Voltaire, the French historian, said that it was "the only treaty which was never sworn to and never broken."
In 1732 General James Oglethorp, a member of the English Parlia- ment, obtained a charter for settling the country between the Savannah and Altamaha rivers. Oglethorp was a man of high character and ability. His prime object in establishing this colony was benevolent.
Imprisonment for debt obtained in England and thousands of honest hard working men, who through sickness or misfortune had contracted some debt, however trifling, that he was unable to pay, had been cast into prison, where many of them remained for years. These men were
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in prison, yet they had committed no crime. Oklethorp's scheme was to select the most deserving, discharge their debts, to furnish them and their families transportation to America and thus give them a chance to begin life anew.
The English government and private individuals contributed money and the first emigrants were sent out. This first settlement was made on the Savannah river and the town named Savannah. Later, German Protestants, persecuted in their own country, and sturdy Scots for the Highlands made settlements in Georgia. With the settlement in Geor- gia effected, the entire Atlantic coast from New Brunswick to Florida was held by the English colonist.
In the summer of 1608, Champlain, a French explorer, sailed up the St. Lawrence to Quebec and there established the first French colony planted in North America. Other settlements followed. In New Bruns- wick at Louisberg on the island of Cape Breton, at Montreal, Kingston and other places.
The French, not the English, were the explorers of the West. The Jesuit Missionaries set out to convert the Indians, and in their zeal for this work, they braved all danger, and every hardship. They made friends of the Indians and sought to do them good. The fur traders, seeking gain, followed on the heels of the missionaries, oftimes they came with him. Next came the fort builders, and after the friendship of the Indians had been secured all came together.
The Jesuits reached the western shore of Lake Michigan in 1669 at Green Bay. There they established a mission. Prior thereto mis- sions had been established at Sault St. Marie and Mackinaw. In 1673, Joliet, a French explorer and fur trader, and Father Marquette set out from Mackinaw to find a great river which the Indians told them was west of Lake Michigan. Making their way to Green Bay, in birch bark canoes they paddled up Fox river to Portage. They carried their canoes across, less than two miles, and started down the Wisconsin river, and on a June day they floated out of the mouth of the Wisconsin onto the waters of the Mississippi. Down this stream they descended past the mouths of the Missouri and the Ohio rivers and south to the Arkansas. Here they turned back and laboriously paddled their way back to, and up the Illinois river, and thence across Lake Michigan.
Six years later, in 1679, La Salle, the greatest of these French ex- plorers, set out from Montreal to complete the work of Joliet and Mar-
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quette. He sailed to Mackinaw, and from thence he and his companions went in canoes to the St. Joseph river, near the southeastern corner of Lake Michigan. From thence they crossed over to the headwaters of the Kankakee river, and down this stream to the Illinois river. Con- tinuing their descent to a point where Peoria now stands. They built a fort. Leaving a small garrison, La Salle, although it was winter, returned to Canada on foot for supplies. While he was gone, Father Hennepin, a priest in his expedition, set out from this fort to explore. After many adventures he finally reached the rapids of the Mississippi, where Minneapolis now stands, which he named the Falls of St. Anthony.
The next year La Salle returned to Illinois, landing where Chicago now stands, he crossed over to the Illinois and going down the river, entered the Mississippi in February, 1782. The weather was bitter cold and the river full of floating ice; La Salle did not hesitate, but started with his company on his voyage. Nine weeks later he reached the Gulf of Mexico. There he set up a wooden cross on which he fastened a metal plate bearing the arms of France, and took possession of the entire territory watered by the Mississippi and its tributaries as French territory. He gave the name of Louisiana to this vast territory, which included all the valley of the Mississippi and extended from the Alle- ghenys in the East to the Rockies in the West. In 1718 a French colony was established at Mobile, on the Gulf of Mexico, and in 1718 New Orleans was founded by the French.
We have seen that by reason of the exploration of the Cabots that England claimed all of the Atlantic coast from Nova Scotia to Florida and the territory westward to the Pacific ocean Several of the early grants made by the English sovereigns granted all this terrtiory westward to the Pacific.
We have also seen that French explorers, La Salle and others, laid claim not only to Canada, but to the Valley of the Mississippi as well, and France stood ready to make good these claims by force of arms.
In Europe the French and English had been long at enmity, and their rival claims to territory in America did not make them better friends, and eventually led to conflicts, four in number, known in the histories of the colonists as the "French and Indian Wars."
The Iroquois Nation of Indians in northern New York were, through- out, the steadfast allies of the English during all of their wars.
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RANDOLPH COUNTY SANITARIUM
PIONEER MOTOR POWER
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HISTORY OF RANDOLPH COUNTY
The Algonquins, comprised of kindred tribes in southern Canada, Michigan and extending west as far as eastern Minnesota, together with other tribes west of the Alleghanies, were fast friends and allies of the French. The first war began in 1689 and lasted eight years.
Frontenac, the French governor, sent a force of French and Indians to attack the English colonies along the Hudson. They secretly marched from Montreal in mid-winter, and at midnight fell upon the village of Schenectady, New York, burned it and massacred most of the inhabitants.
Thus was the war begun, and thus was it, and the next two wars, in the main, prosecuted. The second war began in 1702 and lasted until 1713.
After an interval of thirty years, the third one of these wars began in 1744, and ended in 1748. Like the preceding wars it led to a series of forays, destruction of outlying towns, pillage and massacre, and one, or more, pretentious military attempts by the English colonists, that in the end obtained no lasting results.
By this time the French had got possession of the two chief rivers of the country, the St. Lawrence and the Mississippi. To clinch their hold, they had built fort after fort until they had a line of sixty, extend- ing from Quebec to Lake Michigan, and thence down the Illinois and Mississippi rivers to the gulf. The French and the English both claimed the valley of the Ohio river.
Before 1749, no English settlements had been made west of the Alleghanies. In the year 1749 the kind of England granted to the Ohio Company, 600,000 acres of land in the Ohio Valley, situated in south- west Pennsylvania and West Virginia.
The French determined to stop this movement and began to erect a new line of forts extending from Erie on Lake Erie southward to the juncture of the Alleghany and Monongahela rivers, where the Ohio river is formed.
These movements speedily brought about results, namely the fourth and last French and Indian war. The struggle began in 1754 and was finally terminated, in fact, by a bloody battle fought under the walls of Quebec in the autumn of 1758, Montcalm, noble and chivalorous com- manded the French. General Wolf, gifted and gallant, led the English. The English won and Quebec surrendered. Both Montcalm, aged 40, and Wolf, age 34, fell in this battle; thus two loyal and intrepid spirits, foes in life, together passed into the land of perpetual peace.
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The fall of Quebec was a turning point in the history of North America. On the night that Wolf and his army climbed the rocky heights behind Quebec, to the plains of Abraham, the whole of the country west to the Mississippi, and the valley of that river to New Orleans and the gulf belonged to France. When the sun went down the next day, the sun of France had already set in the new world. Her hold on America was lost, gone forever. But this seven year war did not come to an end until Spain had taken up arms in aid of France. Then, in 1762, England conquered Cuba and the Philippine Islands. When peace was made at Paris, in 1763, England gave all these islands back to Spain and took Florida in exchange. France to indemnify Spain for the loss of Florida, ceded to Spain the city of New Orleans and the territory of Louisiana.
By the treaty of Paris, 1763, all of the territory, including Florida, New Orleans and westward to the Mississippi, all of Canada west to the Pacific and north to the frozen ocean, except Alaska became English territory. The territory of Louisiana was ceded to Spain in 1762.
Less than seventeen years after the capture of Quebec, the Ameri- can revolution began and seven years later the thirteen colonies had gained their independence. Shortly thereafter the constitution was framed and adopted, the thirteen colonies became states of the Union, and the United States of America appeared upon the map, and took their place among the nations of the earth.
In 1800, Louisiana territory was retroceded to France, but Spain was in actual possession until November, 1803.
The first permanent settlements made by the French were situated along the eastern bank of Mississippi, five in number, in the state of Illinois, extending from near the mouth of the Illinois to the Kaskaskia river. They were Kaskaskia, settled in 1682, View Rocher, Fort Charters, Phillippi and Kahoki. The white population of these five posts did not exceed eight hundred.
From these points exploring parties were sent forth, and one such party from Kaskakia having crossed the Mississippi in search of the pre- cious metals, found lead instead. This discovery led to the establish- ment of the first white settlement on the west bank of said river, in 1684, at St. Geniveve, in the state of Missouri.
St. Louis was founded by Pierre Laclede Siguest, in the year of 1764; he was a native of France, and a member of a trading company to which
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HISTORY OF RANDOLPH COUNTY
a royal charter had granted an exclusive trade with Indians as far north as the St. Peters river. This colony grew rapidly by accessions from Kaskakia and other towns on the east side of the river and its trade correspondingly increased. The next settlement was made at Potosi, in Washington county, by Francis Breton, who discovered the mine nearby.
Five years after St. Louis was founded, Blanchette, a Frenchman, established a settlement and built a fort at St. Charles, the first in north Missouri. Soon thereafter the old French village of Portage dis Sioux was located on the Mississippi, near the south of the Illinois river.
In 1781, New Madrid was settled by French Canadians, and there- after, in 1801 Cote San Dessein, on the Missouri river in Callaway county was settled by the French. This village at that time was considered the outpost.
Prior to the acquisition of Louisiana territory, a number of adven- turous spirits from the older states of the Union, attracted by the liberal proffers of land grants made by the Spanish authorities, or by the call of the wild, or by both, had come to Missouri. Among these was Moses Austin of Virginia who in 1795 received a grant of a league of land from the Spanish government, on condition that he would establish a lead mine at Potosi and work it. At this place the first shot-tower and sheet- lead manufactory was erected.
Big River Mills, St. Francois County, was settled in 1796, by Andrew Baker, John 'Alley, Francis Starnator and John Andrews, each locating claims. The next year a settlement was effected near Farmington by Rev. Williams Murphy from East Tennessee.
In 1796 settlements were made in Perry County by emigrants from Kentucky and Pennsylvania. Birds Point, opposite Cairo in Mississippi County, was settled in 1800 by John Johnson, who received a land grant from the Spanish authorities. Norfolk and Charleston were settled in 1800 and 1801. Warren County was settled in 1801.
Daniel Boone, a pioneer in Kentucky, secured a grant of land in St. Charles County and located thereon about 1797. He was then an old man, but strong and vigorous, and so remained for many years there- after, and hunted and trapped up and down the Mississippi river, depend- ing upon his traps and rifle solely for his wants. When Hunt, in his expedition across the continent, early in the year of 1811, touched with his boats at Charlotte, one of the old villages founded by the French, he met with Daniel Boone, who was still leading a hunter's life at the
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age of 82 years. He had but recently returned from a hunting and trapping expedition and had brought with him about sixty beaver skins, trophies of his skill. He was still erect and strong of limb and his cour- age unabated. Prior to 1807, Nathan and Daniel M. Boone, sons of Daniel Boone, had joined their father and they were living together, about 25 miles west of St. Charles. Daniel Boone died in 1820 in his ninety- second year.
CHAPTER IV
LOUISIANA PURCHASE.
SCOPE OF LOUISIANA TERRITORY- NECESSITY OF AN OCEAN PORT-JEFFERSON'S NEGOTIATIONS-LIVINGSTON AND MONROE TO PARIS-PURCHASED FROM NAPOLEON-TERRITORY OF THE UNITED STATES DOUBLED-ORGANIZATION OF TERRITORY-COUNCIL PROCEEDINGS-POPULATION-TERRITORIAL LEG- ISLATURE.
Prior to 1803 the territory, entire, of the United States included Maine and extended thence south to Florida and thence westward to the Mississippi, thence up the Mississippi to its source, thence north to Canada. Immediately after the revolution immigration westward be- gan and settlements were effected along the Mississippi and to a greater extent along the Ohio and its tributaries. There were no railroads then, nor steamboats. The way to the ocean, and the only way that surplus products could find a market, was by way of New Orleans and the mouth of the Mississippi; hence the fact that New Orleans and the way to the sea were controlled by a foreign country, caused discontent and loud clamor from Pittsburg, down the Ohio and Mississippi, to the last set- tlement on its eastern bank. So insistent and importunate were these settlers, citizens all, so unnecessary did it seem, that the present and future interest of these settlers be conserved, and so imperative, if the peace of the nation be maintained, that in the early part of the year 1803 President Jefferson, assisted by Madison, framed careful instructions, and appointed James Monroe, envoy extraordinary, to treat with France for the purchase of New Orleans. Shortly before, Robert R. Livingston had been appointed minister to France and was sent January 11, 1803. Jefferson fully realized the importance of the acquisition of the mouth of
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the Mississippi, and his master mind conceived the plan to acquire, for the west, this outlet to the sea by purchase.
In a letter to Monroe he wrote, "If we cannot by a purchase of the country, insure to ourselves a course of perpetual friendship with all nations, then as war cannot be far distant, it behooves us immediately to prepare for that course without, however, hastening it."
When Monroe later arrived with more extensive powers, Livingston had already begun negotiations and was waiting to conclude terms for the purchase of not only New Orleans, but both upper and lower Louis- iana, at a price within the reach of the United States treasury.
Napoleon was at the time on the verge of a war with England and he needed money, besides by reason of the supremacy of the English upon the sea and war inevitable, he deemed the colony of Louisiana lost already. The time was auspicious and the terms were speedily agreed upon and as speedily concluded. Napoleon urged that the business be closed at once lest, he said, "I shall only transmit an empty title to those republicans whose friendship I seek."
At Paris, France, the treaty and the two covenants were signed in French on April 30, 1803.
Four days later, after these documents had been translated into English, they were again signed. This was the final act and the pur- chase was completed. After thus completing their task an exalted senti- ment seemed to animate and inspire the three ministers who had nego- tiated this compact. As soon as they had signed they rose to their feet and shook hands. Livingston, in expressing the general satisfac- tion said: "We have lived long, but this is the noblest act of our whole lives. The treaty which we have just signed has not been obtained by art, or dictated by force; equally advantageous to the two contracting parties, it will change vast solitudes into flourishing districts. From this day the United States take their place among the powers of the first rank. The instruments which we have just signed will cause no tears to be shed. They prepare ages of happiness for innumerable generations of human creatures. The Mississippi and Missouri will see them succeed one another and multiply, truly worthy of the regard and care of Provi- dence, in the bosom of equality, under just laws, freed from the error of superstition and the scourage of bad government."
When Napoleon heard that the treaty had been made final he said: "This accession of this outlet strengthens forever the power of the United
.
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States; and I have just given to England a maritime rival that will sooner or later humble her pride."
This stupendous land transaction was concluded within two months after Monroe had sailed from New York. This treaty so manifestly ad- vantageous, was not so speedily ratified. Grave doubts arose as to whether new territory, and up to that time foreign territory, could be legally annexed.
The constitution, it was contended, was formed for the government of a certain known and defined territory and could not be extended to other territory without the consent of each of the states. President Jefferson himself was of the opinion that the acquisition of any addi- tional territory whatever, under the obligation to admit such territory as a state to the Union, was not warranted by the constitution. He con- fessed that in lending his approval he had "stretched his power till it cracked." These old time statesmen had the utmost respect for the constitution, and no doubt construed it strictly, and sought to shun the least infraction of this sacred covenant.
But the people were for it, and in the end, the treaty was ratified by the senate on October 21, 1803, by a vote of yeas 24, and nays 7.
The formal transfer of the possession of Lower Louisiana was made by the representatives of the French government, and accepted by those of the United States on December 20, 1803, at New Orleans, and the French flag was hauled down and the flag of the United States hoisted instead.
Twenty-five days later, on January 12, 1804, the formal possession of North Louisiana was likewise transferred to this country in the city of St. Louis, and the stars and stripes hoisted in place of the colors of France.
The acquisition of this vast territory thus obtained doubled the area of the United States and more than doubled its natural resources. The Mississippi had now become ours and its every tributary, and the right of way down its broad bosom to the open sea was likewise ours, beyond dispute.
The magnitude of the two Louisianas can be realized only by tracing their boundaries. On the south it included the gulf short of Louisiana, west to Texas. Thence northwest with the undefined eastern boundary of Texas to the Red river; thence up the Red river to the 100th meridian, at the southwest corner of the present state of Oklahoma; thence along
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HISTORY OF RANDOLPH COUNTY
said meridian, north to the Arkansas river; thence up this river to its source, and on to the main crest or divide of the Rocky Mountains; thence northwesterly, along said divide to the Canadian line, at about the 113th meridian, west; thence east, along said Canadian boundary about 900 miles to a point on the south shore of the Lake of the Woods, directly north of the source of the Mississippi; thence south to said source, thence down said river to the state of Louisiana, the place of beginning.
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