USA > Missouri > Saline County > History of Saline County, Missouri > Part 16
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* * Are written in furrows.
Oh, sires and mothers of my West! How shall we count your proud bequest? But yesterday you gave us birth. We eat your hard earned bread to-day, Nor toil, nor spin, nor make regret, But praise our pretty selves and say How great we are! and all forget The still endurance of the rude, Unpolished sons of solitude!
- Joaquin Miller.
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HISTORY OF SALINE COUNTY.
ACTUAL SETTLEMENTS.
The first settling of Saline county was by settlements. Eligible loca- tions were discovered, and half a dozen or more families, usually from the same district in Kentucky or Tennessee, would congregate together. This was for the reason that not only was life more enjoyable by the means afforded for social intercourse, but it was necessary, in order that the set- tlers might be the more able to defend themselves from attacks by hostile Indians by banding together. . In union there is strength, and the early settlers of Saline practiced the precept thoroughly.
From Cooper's and Howard's forts numerous small hunting expeditions had crossed the river to the Saline side and explored the territory. These expeditions invariably reported that, save along the river and its tributa- ries, the country was almost worthless; that it was largely destitute of timber, and consequently could never be worth much either for hunting or agricultural purposes; that, although there seemed to be plenty of game there then, it was undoubtedly only there temporarily, attracted by the salt springs, and would soon go back to its natural haunts in the tim- bered regions of the country. It must be borne in mind that even in this year of grace, A. D. 1881, according to statements of reliable persons, who speak understandingly, there is at least three times as much timber in the county as there was in 1815, notwithstanding the improvement and " clearing " that have been done.
Notwithstanding the unfavorable report given by the Joshuas who were sent to "spy out the land" across the "Jordan" of the west, many of the settlers of the Boone's Lick country were attracted westward to it, and soon began to organize settlements and begin to possess the land. The first of these settlements was
THE SETTLEMENT ON COX'S BOTTOM.
Above the " Arrow Rock," as it was then spoken of, and opposite from Cooper's fort, in Howard county, on the north side of the river was, in the early part of the present century, a considerable expanse of fine bot- tom land, covered with a heavy growth of timber and abounding in game, which was called Cox's bottom.
Jesse Cox was a native of Madison county, Kentucky. He left that state in an early day and settled in Illinois. Afterward he came to Mis- souri, and located in the settlement on Loutre Island, in the Missouri, below the mouth of the Gasconade. In 1810, about one hundred and fifty families left the island, under the leadership of Col. Benjamin Cooper, and came to the Boone's Lick country. Cox's family was one of these. The same year he crossed the river to the Saline side, and, according to J. R. Letcher, built a cabin and cleared a " patch" of land. The follow- ing year he removed his family to his new home, to which he was accom-
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HISTORY OF SALINE COUNTY.
panied by his son-in-law, William Gregg (pronounced by some old settlers Grag). Cox's cabin stood in the upper end of the bottom. It was built of unhewn logs, was about sixteen feet square, a single story in height, had a clap-board roof, a fire-place built of undressed stone, cemented with mud and topped by a mud-and-stick chimney, and both the floor and the door were made of roughly hewn puncheons. Both cabin and garden, as well as the "truck patch " adjoining, have long since disappeared; for over the site where once they stood the mighty Missouri rolls on its way to the sea, and has rolled for many lustrums of years.
During the next two years or more-that is to say after the breaking out of the war with Great Britain, in 1812-Cox was frequently " run in" to the forts on the opposite side of the river, by the savage Indian allies of the British. He always kept a sharp look-out and escaped danger quite frequently. The settlers across the river tried to induce Cox and Gregg to remain with them, at least until the war was over, but the latter had eluded the savages so often that they had no fear of them, and grew to imagine that they could not be harmed by their crafty foes, whom they considered less crafty than themselves. But, alas! the pitcher went to the well too often.
The Indians, who were either Sacs, Foxes, Iowas or Miamis, were very numerous and annoying. About the year 1813, Wm. McMahan, then living in Fort Cooper, crossed the Missouri to this side to hunt. Not far from the river, just out from Cox's bottom, he shot a fine buck. He was in the act of cutting the animal's throat, when he was fired upon by an Indian. The ball struck his shot-pouch and luckily stopped among the other bullets. The operation of butchering the stricken deer immediately ceased ! McMahan caught up his gun, which had not been reloaded, and started for his canoe and Fort Cooper, with the Indian in hot pursuit. In the race for the river McMahan won. He jumped into his canoe and was a considerable distance out in the stream when the savage reached the bank. The latter fired at McMahan, but missed, and McMahan was soon at Fort Cooper relating his adventure, and declaring that there was plenty of game on the other side of the river, some of which a white man might hunt, and some of which would hunt a white man !
It seems that no attempt was made to settle the bottom until after the war, besides that of Cox and Gregg, save by William and Frank Cooper, who were cousins, and who crossed in the year 1813, and made " clear- ings " near Cox and Gregg.
In Christmas week, 1814, the little settlement was attacked one after- noon by a band of Sac and Fox Indians. That morning the Cooper boys had started on an exploring expedition to " the mountains." It is to be regretted that no very full account of the affair can be given. The particulars do not seem to be remembered alike by the old pioneers. Mr. 10
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HISTORY OF SALINE COUNTY.
J. R. Letcher took great pains to get at the exact facts, but his labors were illy requited. This much is certain: The Indians killed William Gregg, Cox's son-in-law, and destroyed the settlement. One account is that Gregg was shot down in his own door-yard and dragged into the house by the women, who barred the door against the savages, and held them at bay until relief came from Cooper's Fort. The other and more probable story is that Gregg had gone out from the house to drive in some calves, when he was shot and tomahawked by the Indians, who came on to the house, robbed it, and carried Miss Patsy Gregg, daughter of Wm. Gregg, away with them as a prisoner; that Cox was also from the house at the time, but returned in a short time and sounded the alarm to the fort. A party was soon organized at the fort and hurried in pursuit of the savages. The latter crossed the Missouri, and the party from the fort overtook them on the Chariton river, in what is now Chariton county, and recaptured Miss Gregg.
She was on horseback, seated behind an Indian warrior, to whom she was tied by one hand. The horse they were riding lagged behind all the rest of the party, by reason of its extra burthen. Miss Gregg was con- stantly looking back, hoping to see some friendly rescuing party. At last she discovered some horsemen, and with her freed hand motioning to them to be cautious and careful, she prepared to escape. She waited until the white men were within fifty yards of her, when with her unbound hand she suddenly seized the Indian's knife, drew it from its scabbard, cut the thongs which bound her other hand and sprang from the horse's back to the ground and into the brush at the side of the trail-all this in almost an instant. As soon as Miss Gregg alighted, the pursuing whites fired at the savages, and the latter retreated with great precipitation. Miss Gregg was soon in the hands of friends, and speedily carried back to the fort, where she was joyously received by the inmates, who, while sorrowing over the tragic death of her father, were glad to know that his daughter had escaped from a fate worse than death.
The very excellent memory of Mr. Jesse McMahan, one of the oldest settlers of the county now living, is authority in part for the latter version of the story of the attack on the settlement in Cox's bottom. Other old settlers remember to have heard the particulars from the lips of the pioneers when they were alive, substantially as here given.
At all events, Cox removed to the fort, where he remained until the close of the war, when he returned with his family to the bottom.
Cox is described as a muscular man, weighing about 180 pounds, with dark complexion, hair, and eyes. "He was a man of but few words," says one who knew him. "He had a quiet, Quakerish look," says another. It may here be remarked that when a pioneer had black hair and eyes, and a "quiet, Quakerish look," he "wouldn't do to fool with," as the
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HISTORY OF SALINE COUNTY.
darkey remarked of the 120-pound cannon. Cox sold out in 1818, and settled in Terre Bean Grove, (now called Tebo or Tabo) in Lafayette county, where he died.
In June, 1816, Daniel Thornton, Isaac Clark, and William Clark set- tled with their families in Cox's bottom. They were from Tennessee. They had made a wearisome, toilsome voyage of twelve weeks in a keel- boat, propelled, as circumstances demanded, by oars, poles, sails and cor- delle. Following these, from the same state, and in November of the same year, came Henry Nave, Abraham Nave, John Thornton, Jacob Nave and William Collector, with their families. They made the jour- ney all the way by land. There was no road worthy of the name between St. Charles and Boone's Lick, and they lost their way. They experienced much difficulty in getting through by reason of high water, and, their pro- visions running out, they suffered some from hunger. Subsequently Fred Hartgrove, who had been engaged in running a ferry at the Arrow Rock, John Hartgrove, and James Sappington joined the settlement.
Daniel Thornton was a native of South Carolina, and grew to manhood in that state. He was born October 26, 1788, and died August 31, 1855. His wife was a sister of Henry and Isaac Nave. Their step-mother changed the name from Nave to Neff, as it is now generally written and known.
The settlers in Cox's bottom were mostly East Tennesseeans. It was said that every man in the bottom, when asked where he was from, would answer: "Old Tennessee-Cocke county-Kit Boler's mill, on Big Pigeon, where there's better whisky and purtier gals than anywhar else in creation!" They were universally brave and warm-hearted, hospitable and jovial.
Soon after the settlement got under headway its members were nearly all taken sick. The miasm of the Missouri was very abundant and very noxious. Chills and fever, or "the shakin' ager " prevailed almost univer- sally, and fevers, from the intermittent to the deadly typhus, were frequent. Doctors and medicines were hardly to be had, and there was considerable suffering. Many a settler, as he sat in his cabin, shaking with ague, or lay burning with fever, heartily wished himself back among the green hills and the pure air of old Tennessee. Nearly all the settlers moved away -either up the river to the Big bottom, or across into Howard county. Some of them went up and settled in Clay county.
In September, 1820, Isaac Neft, a Mr. Neal, one Ekel, Abraham Neff, and a Mr. Hill arrived at the bottom. Hill's wife was with them. The party was from Cocke county, Tennessee, and had come all the way in a keel-boat built by the Neff' brothers, and laden with a cargo of iron cast- ings, brandy and whisky. The boat was forty or fifty feet in length. It was "cordelled" all the way up the Mississippi and Missouri rivers.
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HISTORY OF SALINE COUNTY.
When this party arrived there were in the settlement Jacob and Henry Nave (Neff), Fred Hartgrove, and two or three other families. The set- tlement now became identified with the history of the county in general, and does not need separate or especial mention.
The second wagon or wheeled vehicle ever brought into the county was by Henry Nave to Cox's bottom, in 1816 .* It was of the very old fash- ioned kind, with wooden axletrees, a stiff tongue, and a very capacious bed, turned up behind and before, and resembling the hull of an old schooner. Nave lived in this wagon until he built his cabin. The first orchard ever planted in the county was also planted in this settlement, by Henry Nave, on section 13, township 50, range 19. He brought some apple and peach seeds with him from Tennessee, selected from the best t orchards there, put them in a gourd filled with earth and kept it near his fireplace through one winter. The next spring there were some young sprouts, which were set out and ultimately became a first-class orchard.
Mr. Nave and Daniel Thornton are entitled to the distinction of having raised the first crop of wheat in the county, which was sown on the first t piece of prairie ever ploughed in the county. They sowed about three ' pecks of seed and harvested twenty bushels. This was in the year 1819. .
Previous to this experiment the opinion prevailed that the prairies could 1 never be successfully cultivated. Indeed, this opinion has obtained long ; since that date. At one time application was made to congress for the : donation of one entire township of land for experimental purposes, to test t whether or not the prairies could be profitably cultivated, by first ascer- . taining if timber would grow in the soil; for it was held that nothing ben- . eficial could be raised where timber would not grow. The first settlers : in this county, and, indeed, throughout Missouri and the entire west, ; when they first came to the country, avoided the prairies as " bad lands," ; and plunged into and settled in the thickest, heaviest bodies of timber they could find. A farm would never be good for anything, they argued, unless it was made by clearing the land of thick, heavy growths of tim- ber, burning the logs and brush, grubbing, etc. For in this way had they seen farms made in Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, Indiana and Pennsyl- vania. They would not settle on the best body of prairie land that lay under heaven's canopy.
Thornton and Nave's experiment was known of far and near. Its suc- cess was a thing of great marvel. It was a subject of comment in the city of St. Louis, then a town of a thousand or more inhabitants, but the metropolis of the far west. "The prairies have actually been cultivated ! They return a yield of twenty fold ! Well, there is no telling what a day or Missouri soil will bring forth!"
*Thos. Keeney had passed through a few days before on his way up the river with the first wagon.
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HISTORY OF SALINE COUNTY.
From Cox's bottom the first exports of produce from the county were made. In the fall of the year 1820, Henry Nave, Jas. Sappington and John Hartgrove built a queer craft by making two dug-outs of cotton- wood logs and fastening them together-a sort of catamaran-loaded it with bacon, floated down the river to St. Louis, bartering along the way. Not finding a ready market for their cargo at St. Louis, the party pro- ceeded on down the Mississippi to Herculaneum, where they sold out. Returning, they traveled on foot to Washington county, where they pro- cured horses. One of these soon died, and Sappington and Nave "rode and tied" time about, until they arrived at home. The whole trip occu- pied about three weeks. There is something of a contrast between the manner in which Mr. Henry Nave conducted a traffic in provisions, and that now pursued by his son, the head of the extensive house of Nave, McCord & Co.
SETTLEMENT OF THE "BIG BOTTOM."
In the fall of 1815, James Wilhite and Wm. Hayes came from West Tennessee to Cooper's Fort with wagons containing their families and all their household goods. On the road from St. Charles to the fort they ran out of provisions, and lived on parched corn. They were warmly wel- comed at the fort, and well provided for. Mr. Wilhite told Mr. Jerrold Letcher that during the winter of 1815-6 he and Hayes crossed the river and explored the country on this side to find homes for themselves. In Octo- ber, 1816, they moved over with their families and settled near the lower extremity of the "Big Bottom." Mr. Wilhite's house was on section 19, township 51, range 18, and Mr. Hayes' on section 18 of the same town ship and range. Their camp fires were the first that ever blazed on those sections, save those made by the Indians. They did not succeed in com- pleting their cabins in time to be fully prepared for winter, and they and their families suffered greatly in consequence.
On the 1st of January, 1817, Charles Lucas entered the southwest quarter of section 18, township 51, range 18. This land is in Clay town- ship, about a mile from the Missouri river, and is now owned by A. Miller, Bettie Wilhite and J. P. Duncan.
Peter Lausson entered all of section 19, township 51, range 18, on the 4th of April, 1817. This is also in Clay township, and occupied now by J. Thornton, P. Thompson, E. P. Colt and others.
Lucas formerly lived at New Madrid, and being driven away by the great earthquake, settled his land on a " New Madrid certificate." Laus- son was a Frenchman, and also from New Madrid.
Some time in the year 1817, George Tennille, afterward county judge, entered, on a New Madrid certificate, a tract of land in section 4, town- ship 51, range 18. Tennille entered this land on a certificate owned by himself and one owned by Charles Castonget. Portions of this land
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HISTORY OF SALINE COUNTY.
were afterwards settled by Robert Stone and other parties. Stone lived thereon in 1818. Tennille sold part of the land to Duff Green, who in turn sold to Wm. Job, the date of the latter sale being September 18, 1818. "Gen." Duff Green was afterward known throughout the United States as the editor of the Washington Telegraph, at Washington, the personal organ of Gen. Jackson. This tract of land was long ago washed into the Missouri, and indeed but a small portion of the section now remains.
Wm. Kincheloe came to the county in 1817, and settled on the "Big Bottom."
In the fall of 1817, Jacob Ish came into the settlement. The new col- ony had now a population of near three hundred. There had been a large immigration from Indiana and Kentucky the previous summer, and to use the words of Mr. Wilhite, as reported by Jerrold Letcher, the cabins stood along the river "just far enough apart to enable the women folks to raise chickens," from near Glasgow to where Cambridge now stands.
The settlers were in a certain sense communists, Their work was largely on the co-operative plan. They cleared and fenced in a large field, which they divided into lots, without any partition fences, whereon each man planted his crop. The entire settlement contributed toward making the "big field," as it was called. It contained at first but about forty acres, but it grew until at last it contained as much as a thousand acres, if not twelve hundred. Each settler was entitled to cultivate what he cleared, and helped to fence-that is, made rails for, etc.
Mr. William Hayes took the first wagon into the Big bottom. It was a rather shackly affair, and would hardly compare with the Studebakers, the Schuttlers, or the Mitchells of to-day. The women walked and car- ried their babies in their arms, and assisted in driving the few head of stock during the day, when on their way to the settlement, and upon camping at night built the fire and prepared the evening meal. To them belongs fully as much credit for the settlement of this county as to the men. They endured all the privations of pioneer life with scarcely a murmur, and performed their part of the labor incident to the develop- ment of the county willingly, and even zealously.
The country abounded with all sorts of game, and wild meat of some kind was always to be found on a pioneer table. In the interior of the county, near and at the Salt Springs, were always buffalo, although not in large numbers. Elk were not very rare, while deer, turkeys, raccoons, opossums, squirrels, rabbits, etc., were so plentiful as almost to be had for the taking up anywhere. The hollow trees in the woods either contained raccoons or honey. The few hogs in the settlement ran wild, as did the cattle. The former fed largely on the wild potatoes, which grew very
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HISTORY OF SALINE COUNTY.
abundantly. These animals were brought over from Cooper's fort, and occasionally they were known to swim the river and return to their old haunts. In the first settlement hogs were very scarce. Henry Nave had none; but his wife had a side-saddle which she had brought with her from Tennessee. He heard that a young man across the river, in Howard county, desired a side-saddle, and would trade some young hogs or "shoats " for it. Nave crossed the river on the ice, with the saddle and traded it for five little shoats, which he brought home with him. In 1876, when he told this to Jerrold Letcher, Mr. Nave said: " And my smoke- house has never been without hog-meat since."
It was almost impossible to raise hogs and sheep when the county was first settled, and it was difficult to rear cattle. The woods were infested with wolves, catamounts, panthers, and bears, and they evinced a decided fondness for beef, pork, and mutton au naturel. Eternal vigilance was the price of pork and beef in those days. However, this state of affairs did not last long, and bacon soon became a leading article of export.
In the fall of 1816 a drove of elk, numbering about 30, crossed the river above Arrow Rock. They had been chased by the Howard county settlers and were met by the hunters of Saline, some of them killed, and they turned down into Cooper county and recrossed the river, swimming it in both instances. Some of the men from the Big bottom managed to secure a carcass or two of these animals.
In the latter part of the summer of 1816, a bee-hunting party was organized at the Big bottom. Mr. Hayes, Daniel Thornton, Wm. Mc- Mahan, and James Wilhite composed the party. They took a canoe and went up the Missouri, landing at the Little Rush bottom, below Frankfort. There they found a number of bee-trees and plenty of honey. They had a jolly time. They were gone just a week and got 58 gallons of pure strained honey. They left seven fine bee-trees standing for the benefit of the next hunting party.
An incident connected with the arrival of Jacob Ish in the Big bottom is worth preserving. Mr. Ish arrived in the fall. The long bottom grass, taller than a man on horseback, was dry and sere, and would burn readily. He had driven his wagon into the tall grass, and made his camp. He turned his horses out to graze, and that night they strayed away. The next morning, accompanied by his son, Mr. Ish started in search of them. He had not long been gone when suddenly six painted Indians appeared at the wagon, and began talking wildly and gesticulating alarmingly to and at Mrs. Ish. The poor woman was frightened, and did not know what they meant. Directly she saw a volume of black smoke rising in and approaching from the west. Still she did not know what to do. Then the Indians caught up fire-brands, and, setting fire to the grass, soon had quite an area burned over. Into this cleared place they rolled
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HISTORY OF SALINE COUNTY.
Ish's wagon, and removed all his other property and his family. Hardly was this done when the conflagration was upon them; but the fire passed them by on either side, and there was not even the smell of fire upon their garments
Mrs. Ish was so overjoyed at the deliverance of herself and her chil- dren from what would have been a most horrible fate, that she gave her dusky but noble deliverers the last bit of tobacco her husband had; and, when Ish returned and found what had happened, he shook each Indian heartily by the hand, and told him to consider him his best friend forever. The Indians remained firm friends of the family ever after, and visited Ish's cabin frequently, where they were always welcome. It is said that Ish afterward bought them a whole caddy of tobacco, of which they were very fond.
In the summer of 1826 came the "big rise" in the Missouri. The water covered all the bottoms to a depth varying from three to ten feet. Cox's bottom was entirely submerged, all but about half an acre. The Big bottom was also almost completely overflown. This did great dam- age, and caused many of the settlers to remove to higher ground, and thereafter to avoid the bottom. As the water subsided there was a great deal of malaria, and much sickness and suffering resulted.
The first birth of a white child in the county was in the Big Bottom. It was a daughter, born to Jacob Ish and wife, some time in the year 1817. She was taken back to Tennessee by her mother's sister, and there grew to womanhood and married.
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