USA > Missouri > Saline County > History of Saline County, Missouri > Part 20
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I, Jacob Ish, a justice of the peace within and for the county of Saline,
*Properly and now spelled Odell.
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do hereby certify that on the 13th day of September, 1820, I joined John Tarwater and Ruth Odle in matrimony as man and wife.
JACOB ISH, J. P.
The next marriage ceremony was also performed by Esq. Ish, who made return that "on the 27th day of November, 1820, I joined Anderson Warren and Sarah J. Wilkinson in matrimony as man and wife."
The same official also reported that on January 14, 1821, he made happy John Job and Polly Clevenger; that January 26, 1821, he performed a similar service for Thomson Wall and Polly Vann.
January 18, 1821, Elijah Gwinn " was married to Rebecca McKissick," by Bartholomew Gwinn, justice of the peace.
January 25th, of the same year, "Neal Fulton was married to Lucy - Harris" by Bartholomew Gwinn, justice of the peace.
February 21, 1821, Joseph Burleson and Polly Warren were united in marriage by the aforesaid Bartholomew Gwinn.
None of these returns specify the place where the marriage service was performed. The following is the first return particular enough to so state:
STATE OF MISSOURI, Saline County.
I do certify that I did on the Sth day of March, 1821, join together by marriage Joseph Wilson and Polly Millsap, at the house of Mr. Kinney, in Arrow Rock township, in said county. Certified under my hand, April 10, 1821.
PEYTON KNOWLIN, Gospel Minister.
Other early marriages were those of David Warren and Rachel Bur- leson, by Bartholomew Gwinn, justice of the peace, May 3, 1821; on the same date, by the same, Laban Garrett and Rachel Baxter.
May 31, 1821, George Nave and Nancy Jobe, " at the house of Wm. Jobe her father," by George Tennille, a justice of the county court.
July 5, 1821, James McMahan and Nancy Young, by Levin Green, minister of the gospel.
July 5, 1821, William Ferrell and Elizabeth Clemmons, by Levin Green, minister of the gospel.
January 21, 1822, John Allen and Eliza Stone, by George Tennille, jus- tice of the county court.
January 6, 1822, Julius Emmons, of Lillard (now Lafayette) county and Thirza Smith, of this county, by Peyton Nowlin, minister of the gospel.
February 28, 1822, Pethnel Foster and Margaret Bones, by Payton Nowlin, minister of the gospel.
August 5, 1822, Robert Patrick and Ann Thomas, by Wm. McMahan, justice of the peace.
May 30, 1822, John Bogard and Mary Bones, by Rev. Peyton Nowlin.
August 18, 1822, James McKissick and Polly Ann Gwinn, by Barthol- omew Gwinn, justice of the peace.
November 22, 1822, Benj. Goodin and Sarah Osborn, by Bartholo- mew Gwinn.
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December 29, 1822, James Warren and Miss Eleanor Goodin, by Esq. Gwinn.
December 17, 1822, Wm. M. Chick and Ann Pulliam, by Ebenezer Rodgers, justice of the peace.
February 23, 1823, Thomas Mann and Mary Jeffries; March 16, Jesse McMahan and Polly McMahan; July 17, Hezekiah Copeland and Malinda Gwinn; all by Wm. M. Chick, justice of the peace of Jefferson town- ship.
June 28, 1823, Perry G. Buck and Rebecca Thomas, by Rev. Lot Dil- lingham.
June 3, 1823, Christly Houts and Mary Falls, by Rev. Peyton Nowlin.
January 5, 1823, Warren Reavis and Margaret Smeltzer, by Rev. Nowlin.
December 24, 1823, John Nave (Neff) and Elizabeth Kelly, by George Tennille, a justice of the county court. This marriage, according to the return, took place "at the dwelling house of Thornton Adams, in the Big bottom."
December 7, 1823, William Harris and Christiana Johnson, by Wm. McMahan, justice of the peace.
February 17, 1831, Claiborne F. Jackson, of Howard county, and Jane B. Sappington, of Saline, by Justin Williams, "ordained preacher of the Methodist Episcopal church." [This was Gov. Jackson's first marriage. He afterwards married Louisa Sappington, and after her death Eliza Sappington, all sisters, and daughters of Dr. John S. Sappington.]
January 4, 1826, Meredith M. Marmaduke, "late of Westmoreland county, Virginia," and Lavinia Sappington, daughter of Dr. John Sap- pington, by Rev. Peyton Nowlin. This marriage came off at the resi- dence of the bride's father, about six miles west of Arrow Rock. Some of the guests present were Col. McClure, of Old Franklin; Miss Collins, of Howard county, and members of the family of Mr. Nowlin, the offici- ating minister. The groom was afterward governor of the state, and one of its most honored and honorable citizens. He died at his home, in Saline county, in 1864. Mrs. Marmaduke had three sisters, each of whom became the wife of Gov. Claib. F. Jackson. She is still living in the county, residing with her children. Her mind is unimpaired, and she retains a vivid recollection of pioneer days in Missouri and Saline county. To this couple were born the distinguished soldier, Gen. John S. Marma- duke, one of the most gallant officers the civil war produced, now a resi- dent of St. Louis, and one of the railroad commissioners of the state, Col. Vincent Marmaduke, and Meredith Marmaduke, Jr.
Rev. Peyton Nowlin, who figures so prominently as the officiating min- ister in the early marriages of Saline county, was a Baptist, and was one of the first ministers, and preached one of the first sermons in the county
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He died in the early part of 1837. Many of his descendants are still citi- zens of the county.
It would be a pleasure to record, and interesting to read, the details of these pioneer marriages of the county, but, unfortunately, they are not obtainable. There were no newspapers here in those days to chronicle events of that character for the consideration of a piece of " soggy" cake, and sour wine, left over from the wedding feast; and the few citizens of the county who were present are not accessible at present.
A pioneer wedding in Saline county, however, would not compare, in point of elegance and finish, to one in these days. For there were lack- ing the paraphernalia of display, and the "pomp and circumstance" attendant now-a-days upon affairs of that character. In those days few people wore "store goods." Their apparel was for the most part home- spun. A "Sunday suit" resembled an "every-day suit," so far as general appearances went,-the former was clean, and looked brighter. The material of which the clothing was made was principally cotton and wool. The men wore buckskin, jeans, cotton and linsey; the women wore linsey, cotton, jeans, and buckskin!
A bridal toilet, therefore, was not expensive; neither was it elaborate, fanciful, or very showy; neither was it extensive. But it was sensible, for it was sufficient, and it was appropriate to the times, the manners, and the circumstances. And if an old Saline county groom could reappear to-day in the costume he wore on that most eventful occasion sixty years ago, he would hardly be voted dressed properly to appear at court-or at a president's levee-with his 'coonskin cap, his buckskin or jeans coat, his linsey or home-made cotton shirt, his pantaloons of the same material as his coat, his feet encased in moccasins, or in shoes made of home- tanned leather, and without a glove to his hand or to his name.
An incident is related concerning the marriage of a couple, and their speedy divorcement, by a justice of the peace. This happened in the north part of the county, about forty years ago. The couple appeared at the residence of the magistrate* one evening, and desired to be married forthwith. His honor had never performed a job of the kind, and seemed at a loss how to proceed. However, his wife being a devout Methodist, he had a copy of the discipline of that church in the house, and, turning to the form of marriage service there set down, ordered the couple to stand up and join hands, and proceeded to perform the cer- emony after the rites of the Methodist Episcopal church, and after the fashion of a Methodist Episcopal preacher.
Whether it was a judgment sent upon the couple for allowing them- selves to be married by a justice of the peace out of a church discipline, is not certain; but, at all events, the marriage " didn't stick." The next
*Mr. Thornton Strother, whose cabin was near Miami.
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morning they presented themselves before the magistrate and requested him to "un-marry them!" That worthy was equal to the occasion. Having usurped powers sarcerdotal the previous evening, he now assumed powers judicial. Commanding the pair to stand up with their backs together, he again took down the discipline and proceeded to read the marriage service backwards, from the ending to the beginning. When the reading was concluded, he said in an impressive manner: "Now, what I have tied asunder let no man put together again, and may the Lord have mercy on your souls!"
It is said that this was the first "divorce" ever granted in the county. Whether it was or not, it is to be hoped that it was the only one of the kind.
Mrs. McCausland, one of the oldest residents of Lafayette county, remembers that on one occasion, when a wedding was in progress in early days, a young lady who desired to attend, came to Mr. McCausland and borrowed his shoes, so as to appear "dressed up."* Indeed, it was not every lady that had shoes of any sort; and quite often, those who had, wore them without stockings!
But for all of this, and for all of many other discomforts and disadvan- tages, the marriages were as fortunate and felicitous and the weddings themselves as joyous as any of those of modern times. It is not a mat- ter of silk and satin, this affair of a happy marriage. The wedding was seldom or never a private one. The entire settlement was invited and uniformly accepted the invitation. To neglect to send an invitation was to give offense; to refuse was to give an insult. There were all sorts of merry-making and diversion during the day. A shooting match was quite common. There were foot races, wrestling matches, and other ath- letic sports-sometimes a pugilistic encounter. Atnight, a dance was had in which there was general participation. Many of the dancers were barefoot, it is true, and the ball room floor was composed of split puncheons, from which the splinters had not all been removed, but the soles of the feet were covered with a coating impenetrable almost as a coat of armor, and bade defiance to any fair-sized splinter. Indeed, one old pioneer says that a real merry dance always resulted in smoothing a puncheon floor, as if it had been gone over with four and twenty jack-planes!
The wedding feast was always worthy of the name. The cake was corn- pone; the champagne and claret consisted of good old Kentucky and Mis- souri whisky, clear and pure as mountain dew, unadulterated by mercenary "rectifiers" and untouched and untaxed by gauger and government. The latter article was usually imported for the occasion, sometimes from Boone's Lick, sometimes from old Franklin, sometimes from Booneville, sometimes from St. Louis, and sometimes from old Kentucky or Tennessee.
*Upon this occasion, which was about the year 1831, the bride was a Miss Collins and the groom a Mr. Warren. The wedding took place at the house of the groom's father, for whom the town of Warrensburg, Johnson county, was afterward named.
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Then there were venison steaks and roasts, turkey (wild), grouse, etc., nectar-like maple syrup, and other edibles toothsome and elegant, the bare memory of which is sufficient to make an old pioneer's mouth water when he thinks of them "in these degenerate days."
FISH, GAME, WILD ANIMALS, ETC.
In the first days of its settlement Saline county was the hunter's para- dise. The woods and prairies abounded in game, and the lakes and streams in fine fish. Even the "little prairie pots," as certain small collections of water were called, contained fish fully large enough for the pan. The principal species belonged to the carp family; there were the croppy and bass; the blue, the yellow and the " channel" cat-fish; together with the perch, the buffalo and the drum-the last a fair fish only when seasonable; at other times worthless. All of the others were good, but some kinds were superior to others. The fish here-that is those taken in the streams and lakes of the county-seemed to be of better quality that the same kind of fish found elsewhere-ascribed to the saline character of the water. But, much to the regret of the Izak Waltons of this day and generation, the fish have of late, and now, are fast disappearing.
Quite large specimens have been taken out of the Missouri, on this side of the Big Muddy, but not larger than have been caught in other counties, no doubt. One taken near Miami, many years ago, weighed 110 pounds. It was a catfish. Its mouth was exactly the width of the length of a No. 10 boot. Another, caught near Arrow Rock, some time in the forties, was much larger. But "fish stories" are hardly admissible into the pages of a veracious history.
At present the edible game of the county consists of rabbits, squirrels with an occasional deer, partridges or California quail, prairie chickens, a few turkeys, with flocks of the migratory ducks and geese in the fall and spring, and a stray pheasant or so. In the timber a few, and but a few, opossums and raccoons remain.
In the winter of 1848-9, a thick sleet covered the ground for several weeks, driving the squirrels from their snug quarters in the hollow trees to the fields and corn-cribs by thousands. Every bush had its squirrel and as many as two hundred were seen to scamper from a single crib at one time. Since then, these animals, with a few exceptional cases, have been scarce and shy, and in localities where they once were plenty it is seldom that now one can hear so much as a saucy bark. The gray and the red or "fox" squirrel are the varieties making this county their habi- tat. In early days, when larger game was so abundant, the hunters did not consider squirrels worth wasting powder and lead upon. Occa-
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HISTORY OF SALINE COUNTY.
sionally one was killed to furnish food for an invalid, and in such cases it was seldom pierced by a ball. The hunter would contrive to shoot at the animal while it was on the limb of a tree, and send the bullet just under the squirrel's head, and grazing the bark of the limb. The concussion of the ball was sufficient to bring the little animal to the ground. This was called barking a squirrel.
In the winter of 1837, Maj. Harvey's corn-pens were assaulted very vig- orously by squirrels in such numbers that he called in his neighbors to help him drive away the "pests," for such they had become. Large numbers were slaughtered; Mr. Phillip Irvine alone killed eighty in about half a day.
It does not seem that when the county was first settled there were any partridges or pheasants. These birds seem to have followed the settlers. The wild turkeys, formerly very abundant, always attained a formidable size. Hon. Wm. H. Letcher has seen them weigh twenty-two pounds dressed, and he is assured, that upon one occasion, a Mr. Herndon killed one, which, when ready for the Christmas spit, weighed twenty-six pounds. Old settlers say that in early times flocks of these fowls have been seen comprising many hundreds in a single flock.
No elk have been seen in the county since 1836. Prior to that period they were reasonably plenty; they were attracted to this county from other localities, doubtless, by the prevalence of the salt "licks." Old Uncle Natty, as Mr. Nathaniel Walker was familiarly called, a famous hunter and an old pioneer, was wont to relate, that at one time he counted a drove of fifty elk feeding on the knoll where the present court house of Saline county now stands.
The bear disappeared from the county about the year 1840. An old- time democrat said that the whigs scared the bear, deer, elk, and almost every other sort of game out of the county in that year by their infernal yelling and hallooing, firing anvils, torchlight parades, etc., in honor of Gen. Harrison, their successful presidential candidate! There were plenty enough bear in early days, however, to cause the settlers consider- able trouble. Bruin evinced a decided fondness for pork and veal, and was a frequent but unwelcomed visitor at many a pig-pen and calf-lot. Bear-hunts were frequently organized, and quite a number of the animals were killed in the county from first to last. The timbered regions of Blackwater and Salt Pond were their favorite haunts, although they were seen in every part of the county.
The last bear that was killed in the county was taken in the following very singular manner in the year 1840 Tobias Cooper, a descendant of Col. Benjamin Cooper, of Cooper's fort notoriety, with some companions, was out hunting cattle on the prairies in the western part of the county. Suddenly they came upon a full grown black bear on the plains near the
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present town site of Malta Bend. They were unarmed and had nothing to fight the bear with but their cattle whips; but with these they under- took to drive him to a house, and actually did do so, by fiercely cracking their whips and yelling at the animal and keeping him on the go. Upon arriving at the house a gun was procured and the animal soon despatched. This incident is well known as "Cooper's bear drive." In 1840, a party of hunters started a bear in the brush southeast of the house of Mr. C. L. Francisco, in Elmwood township, and ran it through the South Grove. The animal escaped.
That famous old Nimrod, old Natty Walker, killed a black bear in 1838 near Mr. Francisco's, on the Elmwood and Marshall road, near a bridge.
The fierce panther also made his home in this county, and indeed was here as late as 1838. Many a Saline county pioneer, as he sat by his fire- side in early days felt his blood chill and his heart stand still as the pierc- ing scream of the panther was borne through the forest to his lonely cabin on the wings of the night wind. The cry of a panther is something like that of a woman in distress, but is much more penetrating. It can be dis- tinctly heard a mile or more. "Nothing," said an old settler, “ever pestered me like the scream of a 'PAINTER.' It always made the cold streaks shoot over me. I never could get used to it, much as I heard it, and it always made me think of Ingins." These animals, however, would seldom if ever attack a human being, unless first wounded or suffering from hunger. Usually the panther made his rounds in quest of food at night, when he quite frequently visited the settlements and contrived to carry off a calf or a hog. A full grown panther was seen by one of the early settlers down on the Blackwater, trotting along with a one hundred and fifty pound hog thrown across his shoulder as nimbly as a cat would run away with a rat.
In the neighborhood of the Edmondson's creek settlement at an early day, as related by Messrs. Wolfskill, Wilhite and others to Mr. Jerrold Letcher, a panther was once discovered which had killed and carried away nine large hogs and concealed them in a cavity in the earth made by the uprooting of a tree by a wind storm. The animal had dispatched its victims all within so short a time that every hog was yet warm when found. It had attempted to conceal them by covering them well up with leaves. The settlers organized and made pursuit of the savage beast, but it escaped from them, crossed the river and passed into Chariton county.
On one occasion, in the early settlement of Blackwater, a Mrs. Miller started her two little daughters, aged eight and seven, to school a mile away. They had gone about one-half the distance, when they saw a
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large panther crouched on the trunk of a leaning tree, about twenty feet from the earth. The older of the little girls said to her sister:
"O! There's the bad old wolf that kills our pigs and lambs. You stay here and watch it, and I'll go back and tell daddy, and he will come with his gun and shoot it."
The other little innocent unhesitatingly agreed to the proposition because her sister could run faster than she, and confidently sat down at the foot of another tree to "watch the bad old wolf." Gathering some acorn cups, she sat about constructing "a play-house," for there was a hollow in the tree, and there was soft, velvety moss in abundance. She afterwards related that the animal frequently looked at her, and that it walked back and forth, back and forth, on the trunk of the tree, and then lay down, stretching itself out at full length, and gaping "as if it was awful sleepy!" O, the deadly peril of that child! and yet He who stopped the mouths of the lions guarded her, (who else?) and she was safe.
Meantime the elder child flew along the pathway to her home, where she soon arrived, and informed her mother regarding the "bad old wolf." Mrs. Miller, almost paralyzed with fright, with difficulty contrived to call her husband, and then clasping her little daughter that was safe, sank down to pray for the one that was in the wilderness in the power of the teeth and claws of the cruel panther. Miller and a young man named Plunkett, each armed with a rifle, sped along the little path, hardly hoping to arrive at the scene in time to rescue the child-but they did. Coming cautiously up. they discovered the panther stretched out upon the tree, apparently asleep. Seated on the ground, but a few feet away, was the faithful but innocent and unsuspicious little sentinel, amusing herself with childish pastime, but still watching the "bad old wolf."
At the word from Miller, both men fired, and the panther fell to the ground with two bullets in its brain. Plunkett ran to deal it the finishing stroke with his hunting-knife, and Miller clasped his child to his breast, from which he transferred her in a few minutes to her mother's. O, the unspeakable joy and thankfulness that abounded in that household that day and night! It is perhaps needless to say that the children did not attend school any more at the Blackwater school house.
The panther measured about seven feet. Miller skinned it, and, it is said, had the skin tanned and made into two capes, one for each of his daughters. He shortly afterward removed to Illinois, but returned to Saline county about the year 1850, remaining only a short time.
About the year 1825, two men fought and killed a panther in the Davis bottom, north of where the town of Malta Bend now stands. Mr. Geo. Davis, his son a German in Mr. D.'s employ, and a negro man belonging to James McReynolds, were one day eating their dinners on a log in a clearing in the bottom. For some days previously a large panther had
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been in the habit of approaching the men, uttering its peculiar cry, and returning to its lair at last. The men had resolved to receive their visitor with hostile hands the next time he came, and armed themselves, strange to say, with no more formidable or destructive weapons than stout hickory clubs. The German had a stout clasp knife. They had also procured . five or six indifferent dogs. Upon this occasion the panther came out and sat upon one end of the very log on which the men were eating their dinners, and uttered its peculiar screams, as if importuning them for a share of their repast. They seized their clubs, and calling the dogs, assaulted the animal. The panther sprang from the log, which was elevated somewhat above the earth, and attacking the dogs soon killed all of them, except one little fiste, which was an adroit fighter. It would snap at the panther's hind legs, and dart away when that animal would turn round, and in other ways annoy him, keeping up a furious barking all the while.
Davis and his men struck the animal with all their might with their clubs, but only bruised and exasperated him. The panther continued to show fight, until at last the German struck it in the heart with his clasp- knife when it fell over dead. None of the men were hurt. The panther measured nine feet from the tip of its nose to the end of its tail.
There seem to have been three varieties of wolves in the county; the black, the gray, and the coyote, or prairie wolf. The first two varieties named were entirely too numerous at one time, and were of all sizes and of every degree of ferocity. Notwithstanding the relentless warfare con- stantly waged against them by the citizens, wolves infested the county until 1860-and, indeed, there are said to be a few in existence at this late day. As late as 1851 a large black she wolf, accompanied by two cubs, was seen running over the hills of Salt Fork, near Mr. Wiley's.
As breeders, wolves are very prolific. One litter was found in this county containing twelve whelps. Speaking of some of the habits of these animals, Mr. Wolfskill, an old pioneer, says: "The old she-wolf howls loud and long, just at daybreak, and again at dusk, between sun- set and dark."
Hunting wolves was something of a duty to be performed, as well as a pastime in early days, for they made many a destructive inroad upon the settlers' flocks and herds. About the year 1837, a large black wolf became quite famous in Saline county, and in many of the counties of cen- tral Missouri, by reason of the number and character of its exploits. This animal had left the last part of its tail in a trap, and from this circum- stance was known, far and wide, as the " bob-tailed wolf." Its favorite haunts were on the Blackwater, although it roamed where it listed. Its boldness and daring were remarkable. Tales have been related of its maraudings that seem almost incredible. It frequently visited farmyards
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