USA > Missouri > Saline County > History of Saline County, Missouri > Part 22
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Many of the settlers, being from Kentucky and Virginia, and other slave-holding states, had brought with them their servants. There was a considerable slave population, which was constantly being increased, and it became necessary to appoint patrollers. At the May term, 1824, of the county court, the following patrollers were appointed for the county :
Arrow Rock Township-John Hargrove, captain, and Wm. Chick and Alexander Galbreath.
Jefferson Township-John McMahan, captain, and Thomas Rodgers and Thos. Shackleford.
Miami Township-Nally Thomas, captain, and George Davis and Lewis Rees.
The stock of the settlers "ran wild." That is to say there were no herd laws or stock laws to cause vexation and breed dissension, and the hogs and cattle grazed and roamed at will. Herds began to be numer- ous, and although not of the best strains, were very valuable. Every set- tler had his " mark " or " brand," and if he was inclined to be particular he had it recorded. There was a great deal of danger that otherwise it might be appropriated by another party animated with no good intent. And so it came to pass that every settler knew his neighbor's " mark " as well as he knew his name; and it was made a crime to change a "mark "
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or brand with evil purpose, almost as serious as to alter the face of a promissory note. As early as the first year of the county's organization -1821-Wm. McMahan made haste to record his mark and brand as follows :
Wm. McMahan's mark is as follows, viz: A crop and slit in the right ear and a swallow-fork in the left. His brand is the letter O.
And on the 4th day of September, 1822, the county clerk, Benjamin Chambers, recorded the fact that-
B. Chambers has for his mark a slit in each ear; his brand the letter G. The practice of thus marking animals for purpose of identification long remained, and indeed is not yet utterly extinct.
The county government was now fully and completely organized, and its machinery in perfect running order. It had passed from its condition as a portion of Cooper county through the confusion incident to its forma- tion; its wildernesses had been made to bring forth grain and fruits abundantly; its waste places to blossom and to bear; its pioneers had become "old settlers;" it had engaged in the conflict for existence inter- minable, and it took its place-and not a second place either-among the other counties of the state, to soon become the peer of the proudest of them, and the superior of very many of them.
SETTLEMENT OF THE COUNTY FROM 1820 TO 1840.
It is impossible to give the name of every settler who came into the county after the year 1820 for the next twenty years, or even to mention in detail all the settlements that were made during that time. Fol- lowing, however, is a general sketch of the settlements made, names of very many of the settlers, etc., etc., which, it is believed, will be found of interest, if not of value, in many instances. This sketch may also be depended upon as being in the main authentic and correct. A few mis- takes may have occurred, but they are not many nor important. Very many of the facts and much of the information have been derived from the historic papers of Mr. Jerrold Letcher, some of which were compiled by his father, the Hon. Wm. H. Letcher, and much of the matter has been compared with statements obtained by the publishers, and found to be correct.
Prior to 1820, as has been already narrated, the settlers kept to the heavily wooded bottoms, where they had the conveniences of timber and water navigation "unvexed to the sea," if they willed it. But settlers came pouring into the county in such numbers that there was no longer room for them in the timber, and they must perforce go to the prairies. Thornton and Nave had demonstrated that the prairie lands were suscep- tible of cultivation, and they began to be chosen as favorite locations. But in almost every instance these prairie farms adjoined the timber grow- ing on the water courses, up which the settlers had pushed. Farms
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might be made outside of tracts of timber, but not without plenty of that article.
In 1819, Asa Finley went out on the Salt Fork, and two years thereafter settled at the mouth of the stream. Many years thereafter, speaking of the prevalance of timber in the region of the salt springs he said: "Rails and house logs now grow where then I could not cut a riding switch."
In 1823, Wm. Hayes removed from the Big bottom to the bluff, and before this date Thos. Shackleford and Drury Pulliam were living on the high ground or bluff near where the Glasgow and Lexington road leaves the bottom. In the summer of that year, Anthony Harvey located in a tract of land which includes the present town of Arrow Rock.
In 1821, Alexander Gilbraith located and built a mill at the present site of Jonesborough, with Wm. Edwards and Mr. Chapman for very near neighbors.
In 1824, Abram Smith had located on Camp creek, and Joseph Rob- inson, Samuel Davis, Richard Scott, Henry Gilbraith, and Wyatt Bing- ham had located near Alex. Gilbraith's mill. Isaac Odell settled on the place known as the Robert Y. Thomson place. The Wheelers, Harrises, and Wolfskills ventured up Edmondson's creek. Hughes, where Bethel chapel is now, and the McReynolds families, in the Grand Pass region, did not hesitate to trust the prairie soil and kind Providence to bring them a subsistence, a seedtime and a harvest.
In 1826 the "big rise" in the Missouri covered all the bottoms with water and drove out the settlers. In this year Green McCafferty was set- tled on the headwaters of Cow creek. Geo. Rhoades and Nathaniel Walker had settled near Frankfort. Bartholomew Gwinn is reported to have settled on the present town site of Frankfort in 1817. Quite a set- tlement was soon formed here known as the Gwinn settlement. Including North Rock creek and Bear creek, this settlement contained, shortly after the coming of Rhoades and Walker, both Wm. and Bartholomew Gwinn, Benj. Hawkins, Col. Jno. Smith, Bartlett Gwinn, Col. Ben. Chambers, first county clerk and described by the old pioneers who knew him as " the politest man in the county," Jno. Jackson, Thos. Shackelford, R. Y. Thomson, Adam Ham, and probably a few others. Many of these were refugees from the submerged Missouri bottoms.
In 1827, James Wilhite, who had removed to Lafayette county, returned and settled on Fish creek with his old friend Wm. Haes, and James Crossland and Hugh Tennille for neighbors. Henry Nave moved out of Cox's bottom and settled south of Bryan post office.
In this year-1827-there was a very heavy immigration into the county, especially in the fall of the year, and the ferry at Arrow Rock was kept very busy transporting immigrants to the Saline county side. The newcomers were principally from Virginia and Kentucky. The Lewises,
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the Millers and the Kisers, from the valley of the Virginia, came in force. Mr. Finley, from Kentucky, located on Salt Fork, on what was recently known as the Jarvis Smith farm. The same year Ephraim McLean came over from Howard county and settled near James Sappington and John Shipton, who had preceded him.
In 1828, Capt. Daniel Kiser settled on Straddle creek. The origin of the ineuphonous, not to say inelegant, name of this stream is thus given by an old pioneer: Three hunters were pursuing an elk up the stream, at an early day, by trailing him. At one time they lost his track, but pres- ently one of them found it and exclaimed to his companions, "Boys, I've found him! Here he goes straddle of the creek, and he just keeps strad- dling along."
John and Samuel Miller opened and settled a farm on the north of Salt Fork, for a long time known as the Judge Story farm. About the same time John Baker settled on a tract between Kiser and Col. Lewis, his only other neighbors being Abram Smith on the east, on Camp Creek, and another man living on the Marshall Durrett farm; on the north Wm. Huffman, and George Davis, up in the Petite Osage plains.
With the exception of the Kiser settlement and Jones at the Big Salt Spring, the entire region from McCafferty's to the settlement of the Reavises, on Blackwater, and from Gilbraith's mill, on Salt Fork, to George Davis' farm, up in the plains, was in 1828 an unbroken wilder- ness. There was an encampment of 400 or 500 Osage Indians, about two and a half miles northeast of Malta Bend and numerous bands of Iowas, Sacs and Foxes, with occasional Kickapoos, and Kaws from the west, roamyd over the country at will in quest of game. There were none to molest them or make them afraid, and none whom they molested. Game was abundant and easily secured, and water was plenty. An Indian makes a god of the belly, and to it offers abundant sacrifice when the opportunity presents itself, and there was here a magnificent opportunity for that species of worship.
The grass on the prairies was in most places as tall as a medium sized man, while on the Petite Osage plains it grew so tall that a man on horse- back could easily tie it over his head. Fire set out would spread rapidly for miles away, driving out hundreds of deer, wolves, rabbits, and other animals, which would leap from their grassy coverts and bound away to find shelter and safety. The hunters frequently fired the prairies in order to drive out the game, a very destructive practice, as it retarded or prevented the growth of timber, and frequently burned up valuable property.
The only road through the county that was much used, was the one from the Arrow Rock to Grand Pass, which crossed Cow creek and ran about a mile south of Mt. Carmel church, and which is probably the one that the county court in January, 1822, ordered Lewis Rees, Dan'l Thorn-
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ton, and Green McAfferty "to view and mark out." At the same session, Cornelius Davis, Wm. Hays, old Natty Walker, and others were directed to "mark out a road from the Blackwater salt works to the ferry at Chariton;" and Dan. Mann, Wm. Jobe, and Wm. Hampton, to "mark out a road from the ferry at Chariton to the town of Jefferson;" and Almond Gwinn, Wm. Shipley and Joseph Burleson, to "to mark out a road from Jefferson to the upper end of Rush bottom, (so called from the great number of rushes,) where Daniel Tilman now lives." Yet these latter roads could hardly be termed public ones, since they were only used for local travel.
In 1828, Dr. Geo. Penn located on the hill immediately above the town site of Jonesborough and began the practice of his profession. The field of his labor extended from his residence to the Grand Pass and all along the Blackwater and Hetch's creek. Previous to his coming, Dr. John Sappington had been the principal minister to the ills to which Saline county flesh had fallen heir. A little before the coming of Dr. Penn, Samuel Hays, Jas. Montgomery, and Moses Johnson had settled in the Salt Pond country, where they were joined by Logsdon.
In 1829-30, to this settlement came James Fitzpatrick, Robert Owens, Isaac Parsons, and his sons, the doctor, and Edward, who settled a mile and a half southeast of Brownsville, where the senior Parsons erected a mill. At this time the only persons north and east of Parsons were Benj. Prigmore, Anderson Reavis, Joseph Dixon, Fielding Pennell, Hays, John- son, Montgomery, and Logsdon.
Prior to this, Nathan Harris and Stephen Trigg were making salt, down on Blackwater, near Harris' mill, and still carried on the business, with Benj. Willow in their employ. They did quite a business, and set- tlers, miles and miles away, used salt made by them. At the Big Salt springs, John A. Jones had been extensively engaged in salt manufacture for some time. He was quite a personage in his day, although a little " off color," in his complexion. He claimed to be a Portuguese, but many believed him to be an octoroon. On one occasion an Indian “grabbed wrists" with Jones, and after the grasps were relaxed, the red man, after smelling his fingers, with a contemptuous expression of countenance, exclaimed: "Ugh! You no Portugee. You d-n Nigger-gee!"
In 1830, Jesse Lankford settled a mile or so east of Marshall; the McClintics, father and sons; the Lewises-Jno. M., William, and Wash- ington-reached the county, the last two settling in the Grand Pass country the same year, and Col. Jno. M. three years later; and the DeMosses, John and William. Two years later, Mr. Brown settled near where Mt. Carmel church now stands, and the next to settle in this neighborhood was Maj. Thos. H. Harvey. After him came Daniel
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Snoddy, Joseph Gaulden, Col. John Brown, P. G., Hugh, and James Swan -the last, however, not till 1838.
In 1834, came Washington Lucas into the Gwinn settlement, where he found, in addition to those already named, Thos. Monroe, James Garrett, Abner Gwinn, and Allen, Harrison, and Elijah Gwinn, three brothers, who occupied the tract whereon Frankfort stands. Subsequently came Matt. Ayres and sons, Alexander, Jas. Jones, Hickerson, and William S. Field. Between 1829 and 1834, there settled at Arrow Rock, Wm. Brown, O. B. Pearson, Burton Lawless, Jesse McMahan, Judge Joseph Huston, and Mrs. Henry Bingham, the mother of Geo. C. Bingham, afterward one of the most prominent men of the state, renowned for many things, who painted his first pictures in the little shop in which he used to work, sketching them with chalk, or "keel." In 1833, the Van Meters had settled near the "Pinnacles." In 1834, John Duggins settled southwest from the present town site of Marshall. His neighbors were Cornelius Davis, old Natty Walker, and Henry Pemberton. In 1834, Jeremiah Odell, Dr. Read, Stephen Smith, Aaron F. Bruce, and Samuel Wall, went upon the high prairie, beyond the Salt Fork, in the direction of Old Jefferson.
In 1833, John McDonald settled on Heath's creek; he sold out to James Witcher, who had for neighbors, Gearin Head, who had come in the fall before, and Wm. Corn, the latter four miles northwest, and McClure, beyond him north of the Blackwater. Mr. Witcher found game plenty, and often killed a deer in the morning before breakfast. When asked, many years after, what induced him to select this place, he replied: "I was looking for good water, good timber, and good land, and found them all right here."
Isaac Neff visited Ft. Cooper, in 1820, but did not make a permanent removal until 1836, when he settled the place afterward known as Bryan postoffice. When he came, Benjamin Brown was already in the neighbor- hood, and soon after there were Ezekiel Scott, Burnis Brown, Mortimer Gaines, and Rice Wood. Maj. Thos. H. Harvey settled, the same year, in the Mt. Carmel neighborhood, and built and occupied the house where his son, Thomas, afterward resided. Robert C. Land also settled in the Shackelford neighborhood. Here were Wm. T. Gilliam, Geo. Hawkins, Dr. Kinear, Peter Huff, and Almond Gwinn. Joseph and Samuel Grove came soon after. This settlement was near old Jefferson, at which place, at this time, the residents were F. H. Gilliam, Thos. Lewis, Wm. A. Wilson, Dr. John A. Hix, J. Davis, Nicholas Land, Perry Scott, and Spencer Vaught.
In 1838, there were two more of the Reavis family, Overton and doctor, in the Salt Pond country, and also John Berry, Thos. and Robert Hickin- son, James G. Beatty, Thos. Hunter, John and Robert Owens, James Yantis, Asa, Henry and Simeon Pennington, Ed. Armentrout, old Capt.
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Bright, Charles, Murray, and George Francisco, and Wm. B. and Geo. Kincaid, who lived about three miles east of the site which Brownville occupies. Thos. Miller settled here this year, and his son, Calvin J., the following year. About this time, John McAllister located at the springs since bearing his name.
In 1840, Beverly Carey moved down and settled at Hazel Grove; Ben- jamin Miller and Wm. Brown were his neighbors. The Lynches, Dr. Yantis, Ostrander, the Fergusons, and others, were on the Blackwater.
About 1839, Judge W. B. Napton settled at "Elk Hill;" T. C. Dug- gins, on Edmondson's creek; Henry and Tillman Weedin settled on Cow creek, where Henry built a mill about 1843.
FIRST CIRCUIT COURT.
Before the first term of the county court was held there was a term of the circuit court holden at Old Jefferson, February 5, 1821. Hon. David Todd was judge; Hamilton R. Gamble, afterwards provisional governor of the state, etc., was district attorney; Chambers was clerk, and Joseph Goodin, sheriff. The following attorneys were in attendance: H. R. Gamble, Cyrus Edwards, George Tompkins, John S. Buckey, John F. Ryland, Dabney Carr, Abiel Leonard, and Duff Green. At least four of these attorneys -- Gamble, Ryland, Leonard and Green-afterward became men of prominence in the affairs of the state and the country.
There were no cases tried at this term of court, notwithstanding the array of lawyers present. A grand jury was impanneled and sent out "to inquire into all offenses within the body of this court." It was com- posed of Drury Pulliam, foreman; Abel Garrett, Bartholomew Gwinn, Jonathan English, William McKissick, Joseph Robinson, Hosea Hamp- ton, Alexander Goodin, Jacob Ish, John Lamb, Peter Huff, William Hays, Geo. Baxter, William Ramsey, John Colvin, John Jackson, John Sutton, Almond Gwinn, Baker Martin, Jacob Wilhelm, Wm. D. Hamp- ton, Jeremiah Odell and David Warren-twenty-three in all. "After being out some time," says the record, "the grand jury returned into court, and having nothing to present, were discharged by the court." The court thereupon adjourned until "court in course."
At the June term, 1821, of the same court, there was some business transacted, however. A grand jury, of which Joseph Robinson was foreman, found indictments against Rev. Peyton Nowlin, for usurpation of the office of justice of the peace; against Sarah Shockley, Jane Day, and Rebecca Shockley, for assault and battery; against James Millsap and Benjamin Goodin, for an assault and an affray; against Jeremiah Odell, for an affray; two bills against John B. Wall for assault and battery.
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Two civil suits were begun-Samuel Walls vs. Jacob Ish, "in debt," and Holdeman & Co. vs. Sterling Nuckolls, " in debt."
Court was in session two days, when it adjourned "until court in course."
At the October term, begun on the first of the month, the parties indicted at the June term were tried. The first criminal conviction in the county (tell it not to Phœbe Cozzens) was of a woman! Sarah Shockley, indicted at the June term for assault and battery, was convicted and fined three dollars. Her sister-in-law, Rebecca Shockley, had her case con- tinued, and the case against Jane Day was dismissed. The jury that tried and convicted Miss Shockley was composed of John Jackson, Jacob Wilhelm, Robert Davis, Wm. McKissick, Wm. Hughes, Harrison Vaughn, Elijah Gwinn, Edwin Hicks, John Copeland, John Brummet, Almond Gwinn, and Wm. A. Gwinn.
Rev. Peyton Nowlin was tried on. the charge of usurpation of author- ity, and acquitted. James Millsap plead guilty to being concerned in an affray, and was fined three dollars. Benj. Goodin, indicted with Millsap, plead not guilty, was tried, convicted, and fined five dollars. Jeremiah Odell plead guilty to being concerned in an affray, and was fined five dol- lars. John B. Wall was fined five dollars for an affray in one case, and acquitted in another.
On the civil calendar, Samuel Wells obtained judgment against Jacob Ish for the sum of $15, and the case of Holdeman & Co. vs Sterling Nuckolls was discontinued.
Other cases disposed of were David Warren vs. Ira A. Emmons; Joseph Haslip vs. George Tennille; Ira Emmons vs. George C. Hartt, and Simon Leland vs. George C. Hart and George Tennille.
It has been impossible to ascertain further particulars regarding these early sessions of the court, but perhaps enough of general interest has been given.
At the March term, 1824, Abiel Leonard presented a commission from Gov. McNair appointing him to the office of district attorney in the room of H. R. Gamble, who had resigned. At this term a singular suit was begun. "Jack," a slave, brought suit against Wm. Chick, Sr., Wm. Chick, Jr., and Robert Wallace for damages for assault and battery and for false imprisonment. Abiel Leonard, "Jack's" attorney, asked leave for his client to sue as a pauper, which was granted; and the Chicks were especially cautioned by Judge Todd to " permit Jack, the plaintiff herein, to have a reasonable liberty of attending his counsel and this court when occasion may require, * * and that he be not taken or removed out of the jurisdiction of this court, or subjected to any severity by reason of the application herein to this court to sue for his freedom." Before the next term of the court, at which the case was to be tried, the Chicks released
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Jack, and he dismissed his suit against them, upon their agreeing to pay the costs, which they afterward did in open court.
It seems somewhat strange that Judge Todd should have allowed Jack to sue for his freedom in this, then a slave state, when thirty-five years there- after the supreme court of the United States declared that a negro had not the legal capacity to bring a suit in any court of the United States. The celebrated Dred Scott decision announced principles decidedly in contradiction to those contained in Todd's decision certainly, for he gave the Chicks to understand that Jack, though a negro and held as a slave, had "rights that they were bound to respect."
The first and second terms of court were held in a log cabin, minus a portion of the "chinking." The grand jury deliberated at the first term in the kitchen of a dwelling house, being in season but an hour or two. At the next term that body transacted its business under the spreading branches of a white oak tree.
FIRST REPRESENTATIVE.
Prior to the organization of the county, as has been stated, it was inclu- ded within the territory of Cooper. The first representative in the legis- lature from the county was Martin Palmer, a very eccentric character and withal a very notable one. The stories told of him would fill a large volume. He was of the frontier genus and David Crockett species, or rather of the " half horse and half alligator " kind of men. He called himself "the Ring-Tailed Panther," or as he expressed it, "the Ring- Tailed Painter," and he rejoiced in the cognomen. He was uneducated, unpolished, profane, and pugilistic. At musters and other gatherings Palmer would invariably get half drunk and as invariably have a rough and tumble fight. At the first session of the legislature he attended, held at St. Charles, some of the members engaged in a free and easy knock- down. Governor McNair ran out and into the crowd and commanded the peace " in the name of the state of Missouri," when Palmer hauled off and knocked him down, sending his excellency " galley-west," and half a rod away.
Wetmore's Gazetteer (1837), relates the following incident in the career of the ring-tailed member from Saline: As the time approached for the second meeting of the legislature, of which he was a member, Palmer loaded a small keel-boat with salt from the works in this county, and set sail from the mouth of Blackwater for the capital, intending to accomplish two things-legislation for his constituents and a profitable commercial transaction for his own benefit. Having taken the helm himself, Palmer manned his craft with his son and a negro, and started on his voyage. Uniting as he did, business and politics, while afloat on the river, he stood
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astride of the tiller with a newspaper in hand (about six weeks old), out of which he was spelling with all his might, the leading points of a politi- cal essay.
While engaged in this labor, the boat reached a point in the river oppo- site the famous Hardeman's Garden, five miles above Old Franklin, and the assemblyman was warned by his vigilant son, who was on the look- out, that there was a " sawyer ahead." Deeply engrossed with a string of polysyllables, Palmer replied, "Wait a minute until I spell out this other crack-jaw word; it's longer than a gun-barrel." The current of the Mis- souri, however, was no respecter of persons or words; the river "went ahead," and the boat ran afoul of the nodding obstruction, and was thrown on her beams-end. The next whirlpool turned her keel uppermost. The cargo was discharged into the deep, and the salt not only lost its savor, but its identity. The negro, in a desperate struggle for life, abandoned the ship and swam to shore; but the steersman, like a true politician, determined to stick to his craft, as he would to his party, and succeeded in keeping uppermost for some time. Having divested themselves of their apparel, to be in readiness for swimming, the father and son continued astride of the keel until the wreck was landed at the town of Franklin. Here the member from Saline, who was long and lean, was supplied with a suit of clothes by a gentleman who was short and fat. Palmer's new raiment hung as loosely about him as the morals of the average politician.
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