USA > Missouri > Saline County > History of Saline County, Missouri > Part 18
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about 1,000 acres of land in the bottom, where he collected and herded his cattle until ready to deliver them. The other settlers were farmers and hunters mostly, at first.
About the 16th of December, 1837, a notable and tragic incident occurred, to which the settlers always reverted with sorrow, mingled with horror. On the evening named John McMahan and Perry Harris, who were running the ferry at De Witt, then as now, a small town on the north side of the river, started to cross over to their homes on the Saline county side. McMahan was running the ferry for Rev. Eli Guthrie, a Cumberland Presbyterian minister, who lived in De Witt. Harris was a young man, aged about nineteen, and boarded with McMahan. The river was running with ice, which was "gorging" at some point below. The boat in which the men were to cross was a flat-boat, capable of car- rying across a team, at any rate. It was propelled by oars and poles.
As the undertaking seemed to be an extra-hazardous one, Rev. Guth- rie urged McMahan not to attempt to cross the river that night, for in addition to the difficulties mentioned, the weather was extremely cold and growing colder. But the two boatmen had had much experience with the old Missouri, and scouted the idea of danger. Rev. Guthrie was so impressed with the thought that there was danger, that he followed McMahan and Harris to the water, and entreated them to remain. They would not listen to him, and launched away. A few yards from the shore they became entangled or fastened in the almost solid mass of mov- ing cakes of ice, some of which were very thick. The boat became unmanageable and floated down the river at the mercy of the current. Seeing their predicament, Mr. Guthrie and some other parties followed along the bank down stream to see what the finale would be. It came all too soon. The boat drifted upon a huge "sawyer " and upset. McMa- han and Harris climbed out upon the tree which had a large fork some feet above the water, forming a sort of platform. Upon this platform they climbed and shouted for assistance. Their perilous situation was soon dis- covered. In an hour or two dozens of people had congregated upon both shores of the river, all eager and anxious to do something for their unfor- tunate brethren, but seemingly powerless to do anything.
Rev. Guthrie started back for DeWitt as soon as he saw the men in their fearful position, and arriving at the town about dark, started in a skiff to try and effect their deliverance. Accompanying him were Wm. Smith and Lilburn Barns, two other Carroll county men. The attempt was a most disastrous, a most distressing failure. The boat reached the " sawyer," but McMahan, in his eagerness to save his life, caught the chain of Guthrie's skiff, and pulled the bow of the boat high upon the sawyer, causing the stern of the little craft to sink and the boat to capsize and throw its occupants into the icy current. Lilburn Barns, who was in
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the bow, sprang upon a cake of ice-from that to another-then to another-and so on until he actually reached within a few feet of the bank on the Carroll county side, seventy-five yards from the sawyer, when he jumped into the water and waded out, falling exhausted when he reached the dry ground, to be taken up by kind and tender hands. Rev. Guthrie and Smith went down and never rose or were seen again.
" The proper place for man to die is where he dies for man."
The death of Mr. Guthrie and Mr. Smith added to the horror of the situation; for it was now almost certain that the rescue of the men on the "sawyer " was not to be effected by any poor human means. The news spread rapidly, and by ten o'clock there were nearly three hundred people gathered on the icy banks of the river, trying to devise some way to save their comrades, but trying in vain. It was bitter cold and large fires were built to keep from freezing, and in some degree, to cheer McMahan and his companion. Messages were shouted back and forth. From the shore exhortations not to lose all hope, for everything posssible would be done. From the " sawyer " entreaties for help, but at the same time assur- ances of trust in the friendship and love of humanity of those on the shore. And still the mighty Missouri rolled remorselessly on, the cruel, craunch- ing ice pounding and grinding against the perilous refuge, if refuge it could be called, of the distressed men, as if begrudging them even that frail and unsubstantial tenure of life, and anxious to send them to keep company with the brave, but unfortunate Guthrie and Smith. So the night passed away.
About day-light Harris shouted to the shore that Mc Mahan was dying and wanted his friends to know that he died resigned to the will of Him who doeth all things well. At seven o'clock Harris again called out that McMahan was dead. He laid the body on the fork of the tree, securing it as best he could. Relatives of the dead man told Harris to take the clothing from the body of McMahan and cover himself to avoid perishing, which he did. This was a dreadful thing to do, but the circumstances excused it.
It was Tuesday evening when the men were wrecked. Wednesday afternoon parties went to the Miami ferry, let the boat loose and three or four experienced river men started with it to rescue Perry Harris. They struck a sawyer before they reache dtheir destination. Their boat came near being upset; it "shipped" a large quantity of ice and water, and the accident so frightened the crew that they made their way to shore as soon as possible. A lump of lead was tied to a string and repeated efforts were made to throw it to Harris and thus furnish him with the means to draw a rope to him. Many a boat was launched, but it could get but a few feet from shore.
Perry Harris remained on the "sawyer " for three days and five nights
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more than 84 hours-exposed to the icy blasts and freezing tempera- ture, with the dead body of his comrade, McMahan, at his feet. Death encompassing him about every moment, and life, safety, home and friends only a few hundred feet away-so near and yet so far. The people on the shore, especially the relatives and friends of McMahan and Harris, were rendered almost frantic by the spectacle before them .. Strong, fear- less men were there, ready to do everything and anything to rescue the brave young Harris, who certainly showed heroism and fortitude if ever man did. But the strong men had as well been prattling babes, for all that they could do. The mighty, and in this instance, the murderous, Missouri mocked them, and scorned them as it held its heroic young prisoner in its horrible embrace, and, aided by the Ice King, began to kill him.
Poor Harris' feet and hands became frozen, and he could not assist himself. At last, in the morning of the fourth day, the ice began to gorge below the sawyer, and faint hopes were entertained that a bridge would be formed which would enable the prisoner to be extricated. But, alas ! The ice "chugged " up, as the settlers, in their rough, but descriptive phraseology, expressed it, and the benumbed and helpless young man was caught between the huge masses and crushed to death. McMahan's body was thrown into the water by the gorging of the frigid boulders, and, like the corpses of Guthrie and Smith, was never seen again. The next day the ice had formed a bridge across the river, and Harris' body was taken out and buried in the grave-yard, near Miami.
McMahan was the son of Wm. McMahan, the first settler in the Miami bottom. He left a wife and one or two children.
Perry Harris was nineteen years old at the time of his death. He was a son of Moses Harris, and was born in either Saline or Howard county.
The memory of the noble, humane and brave Rev. Guthrie, and his companion, Smith, should ever be preserved and revered. Not often are such instances of heroism to be recorded. Not often can such an instance of self-sacrifice be noted. Their bodies were never recovered, and never will be seen until that Great Day, when the deep shall yield up its dead. No marble pile was ever reared to commemorate their noble, heroic con- duct, but their names ought to live long in the annals of Missouri his- tory. "Greater love hath no man than this-that a man lay down his life for his friend."
[NOTE .- The publishers desire to return acknowledgments to Mr. Alfred Wheeler, of Miami, for the details of this incident. Mr. Wheeler was a relative of both McMaban and Harris, and an eye-witness of the sad occurrence here narrated. Other old settlers corrob. Orate his statements.]
THE SALT POND SETTLEMENT.
In the fall of 1817, Edward Reavis ascended the Lamine and the Black- water in a flat-boat, and made the first settlement at the salt springs, two
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miles east of the present town site of Brownville. His party numbered about fourteen souls, one-half being his own family, and the other half his negro servants, or slaves. Reavis engaged in the manufacture of salt. His facilities were not the best, but he made a very fair article, and considerable quantities of it. He supplied the most of the salt used in the early days, and continued in the business of salt making for fifteen years.
It was something of a hazardous undertaking to make a settlement at that time where Reavis did. The country was infested with roving bands of Indians never to be confidently trusted, and to guard against possible danger from this source, Mr. Reavis constructed his house after the fashion of a block-house. " A man's house is his castle," Lord Coke long ago said. Mr. Reavis' house was his fort. It had a heavy door, was pierced with port-holes, and was quite well calculated to protect its inmates from an attack by a body of savages not too numerous. For- tunately its defensive qualities were never tested, as it was never at- tacked.
Subsequently to Reavis' settlement, John and Matthew Mayes located at the springs now known as the McAllister Springs, and about the same time Isham Reavis came in.
In 1820, Duke Prigmore, Sr., joined the settlement, making at least five families up to that time.
HUNT'S SETTLEMENT ON BLACKWATER.
In the year 1818, Arthur Hunt, from North Carolina, settled the prairie farm near Napton's bridge, on the Blackwater. His nephew, Oliver Hunt, settled in the same vicinity at or about the same time. Afterward Arthur Hunt, with his son John, settled on the place now known as the Dr. Smith farm. Here, subsequently, Arthur Hunt died. A certain Mr. Tramwell was then making salt at the mouth of Finney's creek, on the Blackwater.
In the year 1819, Charles Lockhart commenced prospecting all over the Blackwater country in search of valuable minerals, and continued his labors at intervals for nearly two years. He was induced to make this search by seeing the traces of Renault's diggings, made one hundred years previously. Lockhart thought Renault's men had not made their investigations sufficiently thorough and complete, and he dug over many of the pits of the Frenchmen. Lockhart employed sometimes as many thirty laborers. He worked faithfully and zealously, but finally was induced to abandon his search by his repeated failures to attain anything like success.
SETTLEMENT IN THE SAPPINGTON NEIGHBORHOOD.
The first attempt at settlement in this locality, in Arrow Rock town- ship, it is said, was made by Wm. McMahan, in the year 1811. Like
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Cox and the young Coopers, however, he was "run in" to the Howard county forts, where he remained until after the war. He did not return to his claim then, but joined the other settlers in the Big bottom, as it appears; for in 1816 he is named as one of the members of the party that went up in canoes to the "Little Rush Bottom," after honey, returning with fifty-eight gallons of the pure, limpid nectar, and considerately leav- ing seven bee-trees "for the use of the next comers." Soon after, he set- tled in the Miami bottom.
In 1810, Samuel McMahan and others had located six miles south of Arrow Rock, and built a strong block-house, or fort, called Fort Ander- son. The fort took its name from three families: William, Ambrose, and George Anderson, who were Mr. McMahan's nearest neighbors. The other settlers were David Jones, Jos. Wolfskill, Stephen Turley and Wm. Reid. From this settlement Mr. McMahan came to his claim. During the war of 1812 the Indians drove the settlers, in and about Anderson's fort, across the river to Cooper's fort, and burned Fort Anderson. While Mr. Samuel McMahan was at Cooper's fort he was killed by the Indians. He had brought his family over to this side of the river, in 1811, and had accumulated some property in stock. The same week that Gregg was killed, up in Cox's bottom (Christmas week, 1814), Mr. McMahan re- crossed the river to secure his cattle. He had gotten them together, and was driving them down to Booneville, in order to cross the river with them, and had nearly reached the place (then Cole's fort) when he was attacked by the Indians. The savages were in pursuit of another white man, named Mukebox, who had climbed a tree, and they had lost him. While they were stealthily looking for him McMahan came along. They fired upon him and killed his horse. He started to run, but hearing a voice which he supposed to be that of a chief whom he knew, and whom he supposed to be friendly, he stopped, turned and faced the savages, and was shot down. The savages scalped and mutilated the body, cutting it into three pieces. It was afterwards found, taken to Booneville and buried. Mr. McMahan's widow died in 1872. Their youngest child is Mr. Jesse McMahan, so frequently alluded to in these pages.
In 1819 there came to the locality where Mr. McMahan settled, or were there at the time, Alexander Gilbraith, Asa Finley, Sanders Town- send, Richard Marshall, Rev. Peyton Nowlin, and Dr. John Sappington. From the latter named gentleman the settlement took its name. He set- tled on sections S and 9, in township 49, range 19. The land is now owned and occupied by his descendants.
Among other settlers, in this neighborhood, were Andrew Brownlee, Joseph Robinson, John Bingham, Nathan Holloway, Bradford Lawless, Burton Lawless, - Reese, Judge Beverly Tucker, and Gov. M. M.
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Marmaduke. The most of these were here in 1820, and the remainder very soon thereafter.
The town of Arrow Rock at that time was nothing more than a crossing- place on the Missouri river. There was a good ferry at the place, the first regular ferryman being Captain Becknell; afterward the captain of a company of Saline county men in the Black Hawk war. Becknell's predecessors were Jerry Lecky and Frederick Hartgrove, or Hartgrave, who had lived in a log cabin on the river bank, called the ferry house.
SETTLEMENT ON THE PETITE OSAGE BOTTOM.
This bottom has a lateral extent of about eighteen miles. It was long ago named by the French, but whether it was called originally by them Petite Osage or Petite Saw, is a matter not definitely settled. It is prob- able, however, that the original name was Petite (or Little) Osage in con- tradistinction to the Osage plains proper. At this day the locality is inva- riably called "Tite Saw" (pronounced Teet Saw) plains.
The first settlers here were Elijah Arthur, an old soldier of the war of the revolution; Robert and William White, and John Dustin. They came in the latter part of the year 1815 or early in 1816, according to the best information obtainable. Prior to this, one Rev. Gilham and his sons Hugh and Neely, from the Howard county settlements, had hunted and trapped throughout the bottom and taken back descriptions of it to the settle- ments. In 1816 came George Davis and settled the farm long thereafter known by his name. In 1818 Anthony and Notley Thomas settled near to the Grand Pass church. The farm of Notley Thomas is said to have been immediately back of the one now occupied by his son, Baltimore Thomas.
Other settlers soon followed, the most of them being from Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee. A few were from New York. The sickly season of 1820 drove the majority of the settlers away. Some of them emigrated to Clay county, then beginning to be settled, and some to other portions of the county and the country. Among those left were the Thomases, McDowell, Berry Estes, and William White. The latter was from Tennessee, and during the revolutionary war was charged with horse stealing, and imprisoned by order of General Washington. At the close of the war he was released.
Other early settlers in this part of the county were John Lincoln, Elisha Evans, and Andrew Russell, who came from Kentucky in 1819. John Lincoln is alleged to have been a brother of President Abraham Lincoln. He is remembered as an industrious young bachelor blacksmith, who fol- lowed that avocation in this county till 1829, when he removed to Clay county. He was tall, angular, rather rough looking, and uneducated. After his removal to Clay county he married a Miss Duncan.
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A Mr. John Gregg, with a family of twenty-one children, is said to have been a settler in this bottom as early as 181S.
THE INDIANS OF SALINE COUNTY.
Sometime in the remote past, so long ago that no man's memory for centuries hath run back to the time, that mysterious race of beings, the Mound-builders, occupied Saline county. A long time after them, and immediately prior to the possession of the soil by the whites, were the Osages, who sang their songs, and danced and hunted over its surface with none to molest them or make them afraid. About 500 of the Miami tribe of Indians were encamped on the Missouri in the northern part of the county, near the present town site of Miami, by permission of the Osages, and the grace of the other Indian tribes, the French and the Americans. Very reputable Indians for Indians, these Miamis seem to have been, too, notwithstanding the early settlers had them driven from the county for keeping a " fence " for goods stolen by the Sacs and Foxes and other rascally savages.
In the year 1719 war broke out between France and Spain. Although the contest in America was chiefly confined to the posts on the Gulf of Mexico, the upper settlements felt the effect of the struggle. These two nations had always been competitors for the Indian trade, and as continual disputes arose concerning the rights of territory, they kept up a preda- tory warfare for several years. In 1720, the year when M. De Renault was engaged in the search for minerals down on Finney's creek in the southern part of this county, the Spaniards, in New Mexico, formed a design for destroying the nation of the Missouris, who occupied the terri- tory on the north bank of the Missouri river, and of forming a settlement in their country, the object being to divert the current of Indian trade, and to confine the settlements and operations of the French to the borders of the Mississippi. The Spaniards believed that, in order to put their colony in safety, it was necessary that they should entirely destroy the Missouris, who were the warm and faithful friends of the French. But the Span- iards feared that they were not able to accomplish this by themselves, and so they resolved to enter into an alliance with the Osages, who occupied the south side of the Missouri river, including Saline county, and were the mortal enemies of the Missouris.
Stoddard's Annals of Louisiana, says that with these intentions the Spaniards organized an expedition at Santa Fe, consisting of men, women, and soldiers, having a priest for a chaplain and an engineer captain for their chief conductor, with the horses, cattle, etc., necessary for a perma- nent settlement. The expedition set out in 1720; but, being unacquainted with the country, and not having proper guides, they mistook their way.
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They wandered about for some time in the wilderness, and at length arrived at the Missouris, whom they supposed to be Osages. Under this impression, the leader of the expedition, with his interpreter, immediately held a council with the chiefs. He explained to them the object of his visit, telling them that he had come to form an alliance with their tribe in order to destroy their common enemies, the Missouris. The great chief of the Missouris, concealing his thoughts upon this proposition, evinced the greatest joy. He showed the Spaniards every possible attention, and promised to act in concert with them. For this purpose he invited them to rest a few days, after their tiresome journey, till he had assembled his war- riors and held a council with the old men. The Spaniards acceded to this proposal; a council of war was held, and the result was that they should entertain their guests and affect the sincerest friendship for them. They agreed to set out in three days. The Spanish commander immediately distributed several hundred muskets among them, with an equal number of pistols, sabres, and hatchets. But the very morning after this agree- ment, the Missouris came by break of day and killed every Spaniard, except the priest, whose singular dress convinced them that he was the " medicine man" of the expedition, at least not a warrior. They kept him for some time among them, but he finally made his escape to the white settlements.
It is quite probable that the massacre of the Spaniards, here detailed, occurred within the boundaries of Saline county. In the western part of the county, near "the Pinnacles," as narrated by some of the old settlers, traces of some sort of battle in which bullets were used, were distinctly to be seen at the first settlement of the county. Many bullets were picked up, and a broken bayonet was found. Fragments of human bones were also found.
The boldness of the Spaniards in thus penetrating into a country of which they had no previous knowledge, made the French sensible of their danger, and warned them of the necessity of providing against further encroachments. Accordingly, the next year a considerable force was sent up from Mobile Bay, under M. de Bourgmont, who ascended the Mis- souri and took possession of an island in the Missouri, on which was built Fort Orleans. At that period the Indian tribes of the west were engaged in a bloody warfare, which diminished trade, and rendered intercourse with them extremely hazardous. In 1724, De Bourgmont made an extensive exploration from Fort Orleans to the northwest, accompanied by a few French soldiers and a large party of friendly Indians. His object was to secure a general peace among the surrounding tribes, and establish and foster trade among them, which he finally accomplished. Some of the Indian chiefs were taken to France on a visit and highly entertained, and their attachment to the French was fully confirmed.
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A sergeant among the French soldiers, named Dubois, had become enamored of a women of the Missouri tribe of Indians, and married her. He accompanied the chiefs to Paris, and upon his return with them he was placed in command of Fort Orleans. In 1725 the fort was attacked, totally destroyed, and its inmates all massacred. Singularly enough, it has never been put upon record by whom this bloody work was done.
It is reasonably, if not absolutely, certain that Fort Orleans was situ- ated in the river, opposite Saline county. Stoddard, in his "Annals of Louisiana," says it was located " some distance above the mouth of the Osage." Dr. Beck's Gazetteer, as quoted by Wetmore's Gazetteer, of 1837, incidentally alludes to its location as follows. Speaking of the streams of the state, Dr. Beck says:
Round Bend Creeks. Two small streams meandering through the southwest- ern part of Chariton county and emptying into the Missouri on the left side, near each other, about five miles below the mouth of Grand river. Between them is a prairie, on which once stood the ancient village of the Missouris. * * Opposite the plain there once was an island and a French fort, but there is now no appearance of either, the successive inundations having probably washed them away. Willow Island, which is in the situation described by Du Pratz, is small, and of recent formation.
"Five miles below the mouth of Grand river" is opposite Saline county. If on the prairie described there once stood the ancient village of the Mis- souris, and opposite to this village there was a French fort, it must have been Fort Orleans. For, (1), The Missouris were the allies of the French, and the latter would be likely to construct their fort in the neighborhood of their chief town, so as to have their assistance in case of attack. Dubois, too, doubtless preferred to be near his dusky kindred; (2), There is no other French fort mentioned in early history or tradition as being above the mouth of the Osage but Fort Orleans.
It is probable that Fort Orleans and its garrison were destroyed when the Sacs, Foxes and other Indian tribes from the north attacked the Mis- souris and killed two hundred of them at the village above described, some time in the first quarter of the last century .* The Missouris sought refuge from their fierce adversaries near the Little Osage, on the south side of the river, in the territory of their former enemies, the Osages, who gave them an asylum, and some time thereafter retired with them, being forced away by other incursions of the northern tribes.
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