History of Saline County, Missouri, Part 19

Author: Missouri Historical Company, St. Louis, pub
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: St. Louis, Missouri historical company
Number of Pages: 1008

USA > Missouri > Saline County > History of Saline County, Missouri > Part 19

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Speaking of the Osages, Lewis and Clark said of them in 1804:

Their present name seems to have originated among the French traders; for among themselves and their neighbors they are called "Wabashes." They number between 1,200 and 1,300 warriors, and consist of three tribes, the Great Osages, of about 500 warriors, living in a village on the south bank of the river; the Little Osages, of nearly half that number, residing six miles from them; and the Arkansas band, a colony of Osages of 600 warriors, who left the main tribe

*Dr. Beck.

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some years ago under command of a chief called Big Foot, and settled on Ver- milion river, a branch of the Arkansas. In person, the Osages are among the largest and best formed Indians, and are said to possess fine military capacities; but residing as they do in villages, and having made considerable advances in agriculture, they seem less addicted to war than their northern neighbors, to whom the use of rifles gives a great superiority.

Wetmore, in his Gazetteer of 1837, commenting on the foregoing says: "Since these remarks were written by Lewis and Clark, little or no improvement has been made by these Indians, notwithstanding the patron- age of the government and the great exertions of the mission establish- ments in the country of the Osages." The Osages, once the denizens of Saline county, now occupy a part of the northern portion of the Indian ter- ritory, on the Arkansas river, and have made considerable advancement in civilization since Wetmore wrote of them.

There is related by the early settlers, an account, not very well authenti- cated, and largely traditionary or legendary, of a portion of a tribe of Indians, known as the Welsh Indians, whose origin is given as follows : "Before the English had penetrated into the western wilds, a colony of Welsh had advanced as far west as Saline county, and been captured by the Indians and adopted into the tribe. In the course of time, after a series of inter-marriages with the Indians, their children and children's children, became a distinct branch of a tribe known as the Welsh Indians. Many years later a Welsh minister was captured by this tribe and con- demed to death. When about to be executed he exclaimed in Welsh language : "Oh, Lord! Have I passed through so many dangers to perish at last in this manner?" An old Indian, a descendent of the Welsh- men, heard and understood the unfortunate minister, ran up to him, threw his arms around him, swore to protect him, and succeeded in not only saving his life, but actually had him adopted into the tribe. Honi soit qui mal y pense.

Besides the Osages, the other Indians who were at different times, and for different periods of different degrees of length in the county, there were the Sacs, Foxes, Iowas, and Pottawattamies inhabiting the territory far to the north, who made frequent incursions into the county, invariably with evil intent; the Kaws, Kickapoos, and Shawnees. from Kansas; the Otoes, from Nebraska, not forgetting, of course, the Missouris, and the Miamis, whose camp is described, and whose history is given on other pages of this volume.

The northern Indians were the most troublesome and dangerous to the early settlers. It was they who waged warfare against the settlers of this part of Missouri during the war of 1812, and, indeed, for some time prior and subsequent to that struggle. Stimulated by the British emissaries from Detroit and Canada, sent out by Proctor and Tecumseh, they waged - open warfare against the American settlers with what means and forces

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they could command. So repeated and formidable were the assaults of the Indians, and so few in numbers were the white settlers of the county, that from 1812 to 1816 they nearly all abandoned their homes and sought safety and security in the Howard and Boone county forts, erected by the settlers of those districts some time previously.

It was during this period that Mr. Gregg, one of the very first white settlers of the county, was killed by the Indians. About the year 1815, another white man, named Turney, was killed. He was crossing the Missouri in a canoe, paddling to the Saline county shore, when he was fired upon by Indians, and, falling into the water, and being unable to swim, he was soon dead. It is not certainly known where this happened. Other prominent settlers killed by Indians, at different times and places, were Captain Sarshell Cooper, Braxton Cooper, Jr., Jonathan Todd, Wm. Campbell, Thos. Smith, Sam'l McMahan, Wm. McLane, John Smith, James Busby, Joseph W. Still, and Joseph Brown, the latter a colored man.

Peck's "Annals of the West" says that none of these murders excited so deep a feeling as the tragic end of Captain Sarshell Cooper, who was assassinated at his own fireside, in Cooper's fort, in the bottom, near Boone's Lick salt works, nearly opposite the present town of Arrow Rock. It was in the evening of April 14, 1814, a dark and stormy night. Captain Cooper was sitting by the fire, holding his youngest child in his arms. His other children were playing about the floor, and his wife was engaged in domestic duties. A single warrior, as daring as he was cold-blooded, crept to the wall of Captain Cooper's cabin, which formed one side of the fort, and made an opening between the logs barely sufficient to admit the muzzle of his rifle, which be discharged at the brave pioneer with fatal effect. The child in Cooper's arms escaped unhurt.

Cooper's fort was a favorite resort of the settlers in time of trouble, as was Cole's fort, which was about two miles east of Booneville, and com- manded by Capt. Stephen Cole. Cooper county was named in honor of Capt. Cooper, and Cole county in honor of Capt. Cole.

One incident of the Indian war, never before printed, may here be related. In. pursuing a retreating party of Iowas that had been repulsed in one of the many attacks made on Fort Cooper, the whites captured an Indian, said to be the fastest runner among all the Sacs, Foxes, and Iowas. He gave up his gun when taken, but retained his hunting knife, which he kept concealed under his blanket. One man rode on either side of the warrior, who was as crafty and treacherous as he was agile, and four men followed. Suddenly the Indian struck at John Peak, who was on his right. The Indian's blanket frightened Peak's horse and it jumped aside. On the left of the savage rode Townsend Brown, and behind came Dan'l

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Durbin, Hiram Fugitt, Mitchell Poag and Ewing McClain, all from Mad- ison county, Kentucky. As soon as the Indian struck at Peak he ran. The four men in the rear dismounted and fired, and four bullets were put in between the warrior's shoulders in a space easily covered by a man's hand. The Indian was buried where he fell, and his faithful dog guarded his grave and refused to leave its master's resting place until it starved to death.

The Indians continued to remain in the county long after the whites came in. Straggling parties of them visited the county from other local- ities, and were seen at Arrow Rock, Jefferson, and other parts of the county as late as the year 1840. They were invariably lazy, worthless, and thievish, and to the settlers their room was preferable to their com- pany.

Among the Kaws who visited Saline county in the, years 1833-4 was the celebrated chief Henry Blue Jacket, who uniformly accompanied the hunting parties of his tribe. He had a good English education, and was most gentlemanly and agreeable in his deportment with every one. He was a man of magnificent proportions, and presented a fine appearance. His dress was a loose sack hunting-jacket of blue cloth, with fringed buckskin leggings and moccasins, and a fox-skin cap. Contrary to the : usual custom among Indians, the Kaws generally wear caps on their heads made of fox, raccoon or wild-cat skin.

The Indian of nature and he of whom poets sing and novelists drivel, , are quite different beings. The latter is kingly in mien, noble in sentiment, brave in spirit, grandiloquent in speech, disdainful of peril, ignor- ant of fear, and a model of true manhood in general. The former is cruel, treacherous, thievish, brutish, lazy and nasty. The natural Indian is as unlike the Indian of Cooper's novels as it is possible to be. He is coarse, licentious and vile, and always will be. Instead of going about making the top-lofty speeches of Metamora and other characters, he is more likely to be found about frontier towns and settlements begging for stale food, or food of any kind, or proffering to barter away the virtue (?) of his squaw for fifty cents.

Yet, after all, there is something that calls for sympathy in the history of this unfortunate (for it is an unfortunate) race. The same lust of gold which impelled Pizarro to the conquest of the Incas of Peru, and Cortez to the destruction of the empire of the Montezumas, although in a newer and perhaps less revolting form, has driven the red man from his hunting grounds, from the homes of his ancestors for generations, and given him- what? The inheritance of extinction; the certainty of ultimate oblitera- tion; an existence brief, cheerless and Ishmaelitish.

The Indians were rather than they are. The only hope of their per- petuity lies in their civilization, and civilization means the death of every-

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thing Indian-like. The former denizens of this county, the Osages, together with the Choctaws, Cherokees, Creeks, and Chickasaws of the Indian Terirtory, have attained some, if not a considerable, degree of civilization, and their future seems promising. The most of the other tribes, however, seem surely approaching extinction. Even the proud and once mighty Dakotas (or Siouxs) are melting away, and in a few decades this once powerful tribe will have dwindled to a mere handful of vagabonds, abiding in squalor and clothed with wretchedness.

"Lo! the poor Indian ! "

EARLY RELIGIOUS ORGANIZATIONS.

Writing upon the subject of pioneer preaching and preachers, as well as of early religious organizations in this county, the Hon. Wm. H. Letcher says that the command, "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature," was pratically observed in the early settlement of Saline county. Nearly every pioneer preacher was as expert in the use of the rifle as any of the laity. Services were usually held in a neighbor's cabin. Notice of the "meeting" were promptly and generally circulated, and the people generally attended, uniformly bringing their rifles, to guard against possible surprises, or to procure game going and coming. The assertion of scripture that he who will not provide for his own, "and speci- ally for those of his own household, is worse than an infidel," found cre- dence with the pioneers. The practice of carrying fire-arms was not abandoned even on the Sabbath.

An old pioneer states that on one occasion religious services were held in this county when the preacher proclaimed the gospel of peace with his hands and his clothing covered with blood from a deer that he had killed and butchered on his way to the meeting that morning! The circum- stance did not tie his tongue nor cause his hearers to abate one jot or tittle of their attention. This man was perhaps not a graduate of any theolog- ical school, but he was devout, and the simplicity and power with which he expounded his text and proclaimed the truths of the gospel, had an effect upon his congregation which clearly showed that the spirit of his Master was with him.

The pioneer preachers worked without money and without price. They gained their subsistence as did their neighbors, by the rifle and by their daily toil in the clearings and corn-field. They did not make mer- chandise of what they conceived to be their mission. Freely had they received, and freely they gave.

The names of some of the pioneer preachers of Saline county are here given, together with the dates when they worked. It is not certainly known who was the first minister. Several names have been presented for the distinction.

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HISTORY OF SALINE COUNTY.

Probably Rev. Peyton Nowlin, and Rev. Thos. Kinney (or Keeney), both Baptist ministers, were the first preachers in the county. Mr. Kin- ney, it is reasonably certain, was here as early as 1516, and Rev. Nowlin soon followed him. They preached in Cox's and the Big bottom, on Edmondson's creek, and wherever "two or three were gathered together." Upon the authority of Esq. Ish, who was here, and " speaketh that which he doth know," it may be stated that Rev. Nowlin (" Old Man Nowlin," as he was called), was a sedate, formal old gentleman, dry as to manners and sermons, but with a kind heart, and all good intent. His colleague, Kinney, however, was a jocular sort of gentleman, and very popular. He was without literary attainments, but invariably succeeded in preach- ing his congregation into laughter. Nowlin took him to task upon one occasion for his levity. Kinney answered: "Well, I'd rather preach to laughing devils, than to sleepy ones, as you do! You make them sleep, and I make them laugh. My congregations will pass yours on the road to heaven-and I'll bet you a coon-skin they will!"

Thos. Fristoe, Baptist, 1819. Preached in the Edmondson creek set- tlement.

Henry Renick, Cumberland Presbyterian, 1819.

Thos. Cavanaugh, co-worker with Renick.

Finis Ewing, and W. B. Wear, both at a very early date. Denomina- tion unknown.

There is, however, a claim that Justinian Williams, a Methodist, preached the first sermon ever delivered in the county by an ordained preacher.

Finis Clark, Baptist Reformer, was here in 1817.

Jesse Green, a cabinet-maker during the week, and a Methodist minis- ter on Sundays, was a pioneer preacher who lived near Arrow Rock. In his shop Geo. C. Bingham, Missouri's greatest artist and one of her best sons, first worked, and here sketched his first pictures with chalk, before he went to Booneville.

Other pioneer proclaimers of the gospel were:

Harris,

Dixon, Thos. McBride,

Ebenezer Rogers,

Robt. King,

Caleb Weedin,

Jno. B. Langdon,

Archibald McCorkle,

Jacob Chism, Pace (Methodist),

Fred B. Leach,

Barnett Wear, Wm. Leach, Luke Williams,

Wm. Nichols, Duke Young,

David Anderson,

Robt. Renick,

Hugh Dodds,

Robt. Sloan,

Robt. Morrow,

Kemp Scott,

Henry Weedin,

Anthony Berley,

Daniel Bone,

Stephen Boggs,

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HISTORY OF SALINE COUNTY.

Hugh R. Smith, Abbott Hancock, John Scott, Moses Day,

John Morrow, Martin Trapp, Ben Johnson,

John L. Yantes,

Abner Gevinn.

The first church organized was Zoar church, in Arrow Rock town- ship, about the year 1827, or possibly two years earlier, with Rev. Peyton Nowlin as pastor. It was of the Baptist denomination, and contained originally nine members. Its full history will be found in the sketch of Arrow Rock township.

High Hill, Baptist; Good Hope, Baptist; Antioch, Baptist; Grand Pass, Methodist; Cambridge, Methodist; Smith's Chapel, Methodist; Mt. Car- mel, Methodist; Rehoboth, Baptist; Bethel, Baptist; Rock Creek, Meth- odist; Fairview, Baptist; church on Blackwater, near Hunt's or Finley's, Cumberland Presbyterian; church in Reis' neighborhood, Cumberland Presbyterian (built in 1825, of logs).

Rev. Fred B. Leach was the first circuit rider of the M. E. church.

It is claimed that Rev. Hugh Dodds, Methodist, preached the first ser- mon in Marshall, in the year 1840.

Camp-meetings were common after the county had become tolerably well settled. All denominations participated, and interesting times were invariably had. The favorite places for holding these meetings were near Bethel, at Hawpe's, in the vicinity of Arrow Rock; at Kiser's; in Tebo grove, and across Blackwater. Afterwards, grounds were established at Henry Weedin's, on Cow creek, and at Richard Durrett's, on Rock creek. At Tebo grove a camp meeting was held many years since, which is yet remembered by many old settlers with pleasure.

In 1835 the Methodist Episcopal conference for this district was held at Arrow Rock. Over one hundred preachers were in attendance. The boundaries of the conference extended on the south to the Arkansas line, and there were ministers present from all parts of the district. During the session there was an average daily attendance of about 1,000 people, a large concourse of people for that day. The conference lasted ten days, and the interest manifested by the outside world was improved by the zealous ministers present, and many accessions were made to the church. The venerable Bishop Roberts presided, and the services were, for the most part, of an impressive character. Many of those in attendance had never before seen a real, live bishop, and long remembered the occasion.

Among those in attendance were many Christianized Indians from the western part of the state, and from the farther west. They belonged to the Delawares, Wyandottes, Shawnees and Kickapoos. Clad in their Indian costume, but paying close attention to the services and deporting themselves in every particular as devout Christians, these "poor Indians,"

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who saw God in the clouds and heard Him in the wind, were objects of much attention. The occasion was one long remembered by the people.

INCIDENTS.

At one time, in an early day, a meeting was in progress in Grand Pass township. A lady in attendance was busily engaged in knitting, so busily that when prayer was being offered she kept at her work-literally "stuck to her knitting." The preacher severely reprimanded her for what he deemed her irreverent conduct; whereupon sundry male members of the congregation forced the minister to make ample apology under penalty of being taken out and given a sound "hiding." If the action of these gen- tlemen in the premises is deemed reprehensible, it may be said that the chivalrous devotion of the men of Saline for lovely woman is a quality that has always existed to an extent passing human understanding, and yet prevails of a character and an amount equaling the golden days of romance in the middle ages.

One of the first preachers in the neighborhood of where Brownville now stands, at least in Salt Pond township, was a negro man named Jacob Montgomery, a slave belonging to James Montgomery. In 1830-31, he was considered a very good preacher. He held his meetings for the most part at private houses, and whites and blacks, in about equal numbers came to hear him. It is said that on one occasion a party of young white people concluded to go and hear "Nigger Jake" preach and "have some fun." They went, but like many others who have gone to religious meet- ings "to scoff," as Goldsmith expresses it, " they remained to pray." One of the party, a young lady of a respectable family, afterward an honored wife and mother. who died not long since in this county, became very much and plainly visibly affected during "Nigger Jake's" discourse, and three out of the five members of the party shortly afterward made open profession of religion-converted no doubt by the poor, illiterate black man who could not even write his own name. One of the male members declared there must be a God, and religion a reality, and that Jake was inspired thereby, or else he could never preach with the force and effect which he did.

At one of the early cam-pmeetings in the county, Col. Thos. H. Ben- ton, then Missouri's famed senator, was present. Knowledge of the pres- ence of such a greatman as "Old Bullion" was held to be by Missourians, having come to the preachers, they were somewhat embarrassed. No one of them seemed to be willing to preach in the immediate presence of him who had won immortal renown as a speaker and a leader of men. At last a venerable, but yet zealous old minister, rose and said to his colleagues: " Brethren, we ought to be ashamed; Tom Benton is a greater man than any of us, but God Almighty is greater than Tom Benton. Let brother -, whose turn it is to preach, get right up and preach, and the Lord

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will strengthen him. From what I learn, Tom Benton needs preaching to about as bad as anybody on this ground, and who knows but that the sermon of to-day may save his soul!"

The meeting proceeded. Colonel Benton was an attentive listener to the sermon and expressed his entire approval of its sentiments. He was then engaged in stumping the state against the "Jackson resolutions."

EARLY SCHOOLS.

As early as 1817, John Hurd taught a school in John Kinnear's house, in the Big bottom. He was succeeded by Ebenezer Rogers and Wm. Hampton. About the same time Dan'l Johnson, Laban Garrett and Wm. Rogers taught in the Edmonson creek settlement. Mr. Garrett claimed that he taught the first school, in the cabin that Edmondson built. A full account of this school is to be found in the history of the Edmondson creek settlement.

Subsequently, near where Concord church now stands, Edward Mul- holland, a veritable Irish schoolmaster, taught, and some time thereafter David Howard at Mrs. Howard's, and John Robinson on Camp creek. In the Nowlin neighborhood Josiah Grigg, Jr., and young Peyton Nowlin were among the early teachers. In 1827, John Pulliam taught a school near Wm. Smith's, and John Scott one at Wyatt Bingham's, near the Blackwater.

As soon as settlements were made across Blackwater, schools were taught-first by David Wooden, and afterward by Thornton Rucker, Thos. Thorpe, and others. All of these were private subscription schools. The branches taught in these early schools were usually the Hoosier's three r's-" 'readin,' 'ritin,' and 'rithmetic." The school houses, the text books, and the methods of teaching were far different from those now in vogue. Usually a vacated log dwelling house was used as the school house. The books used were the Bible, the New Testament, and almost any kind of book for reading; Pike and Daboll were the authors of the arithmetics, with an occasional Western Calculator, while writing was taught with quill-pens and home-made ink-the latter usually a strong decoction of oak bark into which a piece of iron had been dropped-and the writing was done on what would now be considered a very poor article of paper. The school furniture was of the very simplest sort. Rude benches served for seats; a huge fire-place furnished warmth in cold weather; desks there were none, and black-boards, globes, etc., were not needed. The teachers, while they did a good work, and no doubt did it well, were, as a rule, not persons of profound scholastic attainments. Occasionally an excellent

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scholar was found among them, but he soon abandoned the vocation for some other, more agreeable and more lucrative.

The first boarding-school in the county was established by John Dug- gins and his wife, Mrs. Frances E. Duggins, on the farm latterly known as the "Mose White farm," three miles west of Marshall. They came to that place in 1834, and soon after established the school, which they main- tained for ten years. Mr. Duggins first built a house, part log and part frame. He hauled the lumber for the flooring of his house from Cham- bers' mill, over on the Big bottom. As the number of pupils increased, so did the size of the Duggins mansion. Among some of the pupils who attended this school were Paris, Pleasant, and Jane Walker; Royal and Dr. Addison Brown, Samuel and Mary Miller, John Wall, Thos. W. Gaines, Liberty Green, David, Rebecca, and Mary Vanmeter, Georgia Bruce, Mrs. Sanfley (then Miss Brown), Elizabeth and Edwin Oliver, Mary and Wallace Finley, Samuel, Joseph and Ezekiel Scott, David and Marshall Durrett, Miss Susan Bates, of Virginia, and Miss Mary Howard, of Tennessee.

The Rev. Dr. Yantis's school, at Brownville, was the next high school in the county after Mr. and Mrs. Duggins'. Mr. Yantis' school was begun in 1848, and was not only the first institution of the kind in the county, but one of the very first, if not the first in western Missouri.

Although the general government had made liberal provision for the support of a public school system, by setting apart for that purpose the sixteenth section of overy township of land, yet not much use was made of it until quite a late day, in the history of the county. The schools were usually private or "subscription" schools. Those who could afford it employed tutors or governesses for their children.

The early records of the common schools were lost during the civil war, and were very imperfectly kept for some years thereafter, and no authen- tic account of the first establishment of the common schools can be given.

EARLY MARRIAGES.

Probably the very first marriages taking place in this county were never recorded; or, if they were, are to be found in the records of Cooper county, of which this county was for some time a part. The first mar- riage that occurred in the county of which a return was made in proper form and recorded, was that of John Tarwater and Ruth Odle .* This event happened on the 13th day of September, 1820. The officiating magistrate's return is in these words:

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History of Saline County, Missouri, Part 19

Author: Missouri Historical Company, St. Louis, pub Publication date: 1881 Publisher: St. Louis, Missouri historical company Number of Pages: 1008

Author: Missouri Historical Company, St. Louis, pub
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: St. Louis, Missouri historical company
Number of Pages: 1008