History of St. Charles, Montgomery, and Warren counties, Missouri, written and comp. from the most authentic official and private sources, including a history of their townships, towns and villages, together with a condensed history of Missouri, Part 20

Author: National Historical Company (St. Louis, Mo.)
Publication date: 1885
Publisher: St. Louis, National Historical Company
Number of Pages: 1166

USA > Missouri > St Charles County > History of St. Charles, Montgomery, and Warren counties, Missouri, written and comp. from the most authentic official and private sources, including a history of their townships, towns and villages, together with a condensed history of Missouri > Part 20
USA > Missouri > Montgomery County > History of St. Charles, Montgomery, and Warren counties, Missouri, written and comp. from the most authentic official and private sources, including a history of their townships, towns and villages, together with a condensed history of Missouri > Part 20
USA > Missouri > Warren County > History of St. Charles, Montgomery, and Warren counties, Missouri, written and comp. from the most authentic official and private sources, including a history of their townships, towns and villages, together with a condensed history of Missouri > Part 20

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

After Dr. Johnson's effort to organize Southern troops in this

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county, there was no further attempt made here in that direction during the remainder of the war. A large number of volunteers, however, left the county from time to time, singly or in squads of two, three, or more, and joined different commands, some east of the Mis- sissippi and some in the Trans-Mississippi department. Some who proved to be as gallant soldiers as served under the three-barred banner of the South, enlisted from St. Charles county. It would be invidious to mention any without naming all, for none proved themselves un- worthy the profession of arms or the county that gave them birth.

But the war is over and has been closed for nearly 20 years. The issues involved in that unhappy strife are settled beyond all further question. Brave men and true fought on either side, men loyal and patriotic to what they believed to be their duty to their country. Those who survived the struggle returned to their homes after it was over, and almost without exception have made good and useful citi- zens. The past is forgiven if not forgotten, and all are re-united in bonds of fraternal union not less enduring than the Union of States, and with patriotic hearts striving for a future for the Republic more happy than the past has been and far more splendid of achievements.

To close the account of the Civil War closes the account of the war record of the county ; and it is to be hoped that he who comes to write its events of the future, will have no occasion to speak of any further war experiences. Citizens of this county had no part in the Mormon War so far as we have been able to learn, nor in the Kansas Troubles, just preceding the Civil War.

CHAPTER VI.

POLITICAL RECORD.

First Legislators from St. Charles County - Whom They were and Their Prominence and Influence - Maj. Benjamin Emmons, Col. James Flaugherty, Col. John Pitman and Judge Robert Spencer-St. Charles County the Home of the First Missouri Congressman or Territorial Delegate in Congress, Hon. Edward Hempstead - Only Five Counties Then in the Territory -The Continued Prominence of this County in the Legislature - Her Members Secure the Location of the Seat of Government at St. Charles after the Adoption of the State Constitution - Sketch of the Legis- lature and State Officers at that Time - National Politics Little Discussed Prior to the Formation of the State Government-Judge Rufus Easton, of St. Charles, Succeeds Hon. Edward Hempstead in Congress and Serves two Terms - Hon. John Scott Then Elected upon the Pledge that He would Secure the Admission of Missouri into the Union -His Zeal and Success - Rise of the Missouri Question, or the Opposition to the Extension of Slavery - The " Missouri Compromise," and the Admission of the State into the Union - Attitude of the People of St. Charles County on the Slavery Question -The Grand Jury Make a Formal Presentment Against the Congress of the United States -Copy of the Presentment- Constitu- tional Convention of 1820-Members From St. Charles County - Political Issues Between the Democrats and Whigs after the Temporary Settlement of the Slavery Question - The County Largely Democratic- Democratic Sentiment of German Immigrants - Early Public Men of the County After the Organization of the State Government-Public Men of a Later Period, and Until the Outbreak of the Civil War-Col. Ludwell E. Powell, Hon. John D. Coalter, Maj. Wilson L. Overall and Hon. William M. Allen, Whigs-Judge Carty Wells, Hon. James R. McDearmon, Dr. William G. McElhiney, Joseph Wells, Col. Pines Shelton and Judge Arnold Krekel, Democrats-Suspension of Politics During the Civil War - Abandonment of. the Democratic Party by the Germans - Growth of the Republican Party - Former Whigs Generally Become Democrats- Political Attitude of the County Since the War-Leading Democrats -Leading Republicans - Register of Public Officers Since the Formation of the State Government - Bonded Indebtedness.

From the earliest times in the political history of the State, St. Charles county has wielded a marked and enviable influence in public affairs by the ability, prominence and high character of her represent- ative citizens. In the first Legislature of the Territory were four members from this county - two in the Council and two in the House - men who would have been recognized as leaders anywhere. Benjamin Emmons and James Flaugherty represented the county in Council, and John Pitman and Robert Spencer in the House. That was a time when men were required whose judgment and sagacity could be relied upon implicity to lay the foundations of a new govern-

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HISTORY OF ST. CHARLES COUNTY.

ment wisely and with an eye to the future development of the coun- try, its growth and prosperity and its varied interests.

Benjamin Emmons, the senior member of the first Council, was a native of New England, and came to St. Charles county with his family a number of years prior to the organization of the Territorial government. He was a man of education and wide and varied infor- mation, and gifted with many of the stronger and better qualities for a popular leader. He was a man of unimpeachable integrity, great public spirit, and, withal, of a genial disposition and pleasing man- ners. In the Council he was looked upon as one of the able and influential men of that body, for he was not only a man well read in, and a close observer of, public affairs, but of original ideas and sound views on the science of government. He was a clear, forcible and logical speaker, and the influence of his high character contributed much to make him a successful legislator. He served in the War of 1812 as an adjutant, and was a member of the first State constitu- tional convention from this county. Afterwards he served with dis- tinguished ability in both branches of the State Legislature. He was the father of Col. Benjamin Emmons, present circuit clerk of this county.

Col. James Flaugherty, Maj. Emmons' colleague in the Council, was a native of Virginia, and of Irish descent. Though a man by no means of the mental culture of Maj. Emmons, he was a natural orator, and fairly electrified the Council and the people by his elo- quence. He was a man, however, of great modesty and a most retiring disposition, seemingly unconscious of his genius, and unfor- tunately too much devoid of self-confidence or assurance to make him a leader. He had no desire for political preferment, and, indeed, uniformly avoided it when possible to do so. His prominence in that early day was solely a tribute to his ability and purity of character. His name is now almost forgotten, but the fame of his magic elo- quence has been handed down by his contemporaries who heard him, in wrapped admiration, nearly a century ago. If he had been ambitious, his name would unquestionably stand to-day among those of the first orators of the country.

John Pitman, who represented the county in the House, was not a public speaker or politician. He was one of those sturdy, clear- headed, thorough-going men who invariably make energetic, industri- ous and safe legislators when called to the work of legislation. He was careful, painstaking and judicious in investigating every proposed

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HISTORY OF ST. CHARLES COUNTY.

measure, and his good judgment was greatly relied upon by his colleagues. His vote for a bill always had a strong influence upon others for its support. In 1821 he was commissioned colonel of the Fifteenth Missouri State militia. Subsequently he removed to Montgomery county, where he served as county judge for a number of years. Col. Pitman was a lineal descendant of one of the Penn Colony of his name, who subsequently removed from Pennsylvania to Campbell county, Virginia. The Pitman family are now very numer- ous in Missouri, Virginia and Kentucky.

Judge Robert Spencer completed this quartette of St. Charles county's members in the first Legislature. He was a lawyer by pro- fession and one of the pioneers of the county. He was the first judge of the Common Pleas Court for the district of St. Charles, having received his appointment in 1804. He was a man of ability and of considerable property, and built the first brick house in this county below St. Charles. He was chairman of the committee on legislation in the House, and many of its wisest and best laws were originated by him. He was a man of a genial, hospitable disposition, a fine mind, but not a hard student ; and what he accomplished was effected more by the natural strength of his talents than by any efforts on his part. However, as a legislator he was earnestly solicitous for the enactment of wise and just laws, and was very active in his work while in the House. He was a man whom every one liked that knew him, and the hospitality of his home was unbounded.

Such were the four first legislators from this county, a quartette known in the Legislature as the " Irresistible Four," from the fact that their influence in shaping legislation was considered hardly less than irresistible.

But St. Charles county also secured the first representative in Congress for one of her citizens, the Hon. Edward Hempstead. He was one of the distinguished lawyers of Missouri in that day, and a man whose career forms an honorable page in the history of the State. He will be spoken of further along, however, in a chapter devoted to the " Bench and Bar." Hon. Rufus Easton was another distinguished citizen of this county, a noted lawyer and jurist. He was a candi- date against Judge Hempstead for Congress, and afterwards was twice elected.

At that time there were but five counties in the territory - St. Charles, St. Louis, Ste. Genevieve, Cape Girardeau, and New Madrid. These, however, included an almost limitless territory west of the

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HISTORY OF ST. CHARLES COUNTY.

Mississippi. But at the second session of the Legislature the county of Arkansas was formed, which then contained a population of 827 inhabitants.

By each succeeding Legislature new counties were formed from the territory of former ones as the country continued to settle up. But during all this time St. Charles county maintained a commanding po- sition in public affairs. The personnel, however, of each of her members of the Legislature and her other public men can not, of course, be discussed in a work like the present one, for want of space. But suf- fice it to say that they were almost invariably men of such character and ability that they never failed to reflect full credit on their county and on the public affairs of the Territory. Such, indeed, continued to be the prominence and influence of the county in legislation that, after the formation of the State constitution and the admission of Missouri into the Union, the city of St. Charles was made the seat of govern- ment; and here the Legislature held its sessions, and the great officers of State performed their varied official duties. Speaking of the State government of St. Charles, a former writer gives the following sketch of the condition and events of the times : -

" The constitution had made liberal provisions for remunerating the Governor and Supreme Circuit Judges, but one of the first acts of the Legislature was to reduce the salaries of these officers to a very low figure, in conformity with the stringency of the times. The Gov- ernor was allowed $1,500, the Supreme Judge, $1,100, and the Cir- cuit Judges, $1,000. It was expected by many that this reduction of salaries would prevent men of ability from seeking those positions, but at the next election there was as great a scramble for office as there had been at the preceding one, under the large salaries fixed by the constitution. Those salaries seem small and mean to us now, and would hardly be sufficient to support the family of an ordinary me- chanic ; but they were sufficient for those primitive times, when a family could live in considerable style on five or six hundred dollars a year. They had ' hard money ' and 'hard times' then ; and if the hard money advocates of our own day succeed in driving the country into the adoption of their suicidal policy, we may have to go back again to the condition of our ancestors. 'Hard money,' low prices, and ' hard times ' are inseparable.

" Most the members of the first Legislature, as well as the Gov- ernor and other high dignitaries, rode to St. Charles on horseback, and their horses were kept during the session by Mr. Archibald Wat- son, a farmer, who lived a few miles below St. Charles, on 'the

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HISTORY OF ST. CHARLES COUNTY.

point.' The members boarded at private houses, and at the few hotels that were in the town at the time, at the rate of $2.50 per week. The remuneration proved to be insufficient, and those who kept boarding-houses generally lost money. Uriah J. Devore, who boarded a number of the members, lost everything he had. Pork was worth 1 1/2 cents per pound ; venison hams, 25 cents each ; eggs, 5 cents per dozen ; honey, 5 cents a gallon ; and coffee, $1 per pound. Sugar was not in the market, and those who drank coffee sweetened it with honey. Some of the members were rough characters, and they all dressed in primitive style, either in homespun and home-made clothes, or in buckskin leggins and hunting skirts. Some wore rough shoes of their own manufacture, while others encased their feet in buckskin moccasins. Some had slouched hats, but the greater por- tion wore caps made of the skins of wild cats or raccoons. Governor McNair was the only man who had a fine cloth coat, and that was cut in the old " pigeon-tail " style. He also wore a beaver hat, and endeavored to carry himself with the dignity becoming a man in his position.

" The seat of government was removed to this place by an act of the first Legislature and continued here until the increase of popu- lation further west necessitated its removal to the interior, Jefferson City being selected as the site, where the capital was located in the fall of 1826."*

Prior to the admission of Missouri as a State, questions of national politics were little discussed in the county or in the territory, candi- dates being chosen for office more through their personal popularity and fitness for official duties than from any other considerations. The principal question that engaged public attention then was to secure a State government for and the admission of Missouri into the Union. At the time of Judge Hempstead's service in Congress the population of the Territory was hardly sufficient to justify a hope for its admission as a State. Col. Hempstead having declined re-election, Judge Rufus Easton was elected to succeed him. Judge Easton was an ardent Democrat (or Republican as Democrats were then called ), and a warm supporter of Madison's administration, as he afterwards was of Monroe's. He was elected for two terms and was succeeded by Hon. John Scott, of Ste. Genevieve.

Mr. Scott made his canvass on the ground, principally, that Judge Hempstead had not shown the energy and ability to have been

* Pioneer Families of Missouri.

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HISTORY OF ST. CHARLES COUNTY.

justly expected of him in obtaining authority from Congress for the organization of a State government and the admission of Missouri in- to the Union. Two years before, his race against Judge Easton was very close ; and, indeed, he obtained a certificate of election, but Judge Easton was given the seat by Congress. Mr. Scott worked with great zeal for the passage of an enabling act for the organization of a State government in Missouri, but was not successful during his first term. Re-elected for a second term, a bill was again introduced which he supported with great ability, and which finally passed both Houses of Congress and became law. It was on the passage of this bill that the slavery issue first assumed commanding and threat- ening importance. For nearly a year it was discussed in the House and Senate with extreme bitterness, the effort having first been made by those who opposed slavery to prevent the State from adopting a pro-slavery constitution, and finally to prevent slavery extension fur- ther north and west. At last, what was known as the " Missouri Compromise " was agreed upon and the bill became a law.

The people of Missouri unquestionably favored the maintenance of slavery at that time, for it had been recognized as one of the institu- tions of the country from the earliest times of the Spanish colonists. St. Charles county, in common with her sister counties, was ardently and almost beligerently pro-slavery in sentiment. Indeed, to such a point did this feeling go that the grand jury of the county felt called upon to take cognizance of the machinations of those who sought to make Missouri a free State, and a bill of indictment (for a criminal prosecution to be based upon ( !) we suppose) was formally and solemnly drawn up and presented against Congress. The following is a copy of the bill : -

A QUAINT DOCUMENT.

We the undersigned grand jurors, from the body of the county of St. Charles, Missouri Territory, and summoned to attend the sitting of the Circuit Court for the county aforesaid, beg leave to present to the Honorable Court, that we deem it our privilege and duty to take notice of all the grievances of a public nature ; that amongst the various duties assigned us, we do present that the Congress of the United States, at the last session, in attempting to restrict the people of Missouri, in the exercise and enjoyment of their rights as American freemen, in the formation of their State constitution, assumed an un- constitutional power, having the direct tendency to usurp the privi- leges of our State sovereignties ; privileges guaranteed by the declara- tions of American rights, the constitution of the United States, the treaty of cession and the blood of our fathers who achieved our in-

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HISTORY OF ST. CHARLES COUNTY.

dependence. That it is a restriction heretofore without precedent or parallel, as it regards the admission of Territories into the Union of the States, and if persisted in by those members of Congress who at the last session proved themselves opposed to the growth and pros- perity of our happy land and luxuriant country, will be, in our opin- ion, a direct attack and infringement on the sacred rights of State sovereignty and independence, and the tocsin of alarm to all friends of Union under our republican form of government. Although we much deplore any existing political differences of opinion with the majority in the House of Representatives of the last Congress, who introduced and supported the restriction, yet, we consider it our bounden duty as freemen, and as Republican members of the great American family, to take a dignified stand against any assumption or usurpation of our rights from whatever quarter it may come, and to support the con- stitution of the United States as the anchor of our political hope. Thomas Dozer, Wm. S. Burch, Wm. Keithley, Randal Biggs, James Baldridge, Francis Howell, James Smith, Antoine Raynal, Warren Cottle, James Clay, Samuel Wells, foreman, N. Howell, T. D. Stephen- son, David Lamaster, Edward Hinds, Joseph Sumner, Antoine Der- rocher, Armstrong Kennedy, Chas. Parmer, Joseph D. Beauchamp.

What effect this presentment had upon the Congress, we are not able to say with certainty ; but if we are to judge by results, we must confess that it hastened the settlement of the question in favor of slavery in the new State, for the presentment was made July 6, 1819, and the following winter the bill was passed by both Houses of Con- gress - which was as soon, in those days of horse-back and river travel, as the full import and meaning of the awful, ominous document could be received and comprehended by the National Legislature. No one, however, could tell what the result would have been if Congress had disregarded the action of the grand jury, or treated it lightly.

The constitutional convention of the Territory or State, authorized by the enabling act of Congress, met at St. Louis, in the summer of 1820, with forty-one delegates, and by it a constitution was framed, which was afterwards adopted by the people, and the State was ad- mitted into the Union. There were then fourteen counties in the State, and St. Charles county had three delegates, Maj. Benjamin Emmons, Col. Nathan Boone and Hiram H. Baber.

Of Maj. Emmons we have already spoken. Col. Boone was a son of the old pioneer Daniel Boone, referred to in a sketch of the latter, on a former page. He was a man well educated, though self-educated, and was an accomplished surveyor. He died in this county November 16, 1856, in his seventy-sixth year. Mr. Baber was an early settler of the county, and one of its leading and influential citizens. He was

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HISTORY OF ST. CHARLES COUNTY.

sheriff of the county for some years, back in the " twenties," and was a man of great popularity.

After the admission of the State into the Union and the slavery question was settled for a time by the Missouri Compromise, questions of national politics, such as the tariff, internal improvements by the general government, and the United States Bank act began to elicit attention, and the people divided themselves into two parties - Dem- ocrats and Whigs. Political parties, however, did not assume definite form until the Presidential and State elections of 1828, when Jackson and Adams were the candidates for the Presidency. The Democrats polled 8,272 votes for Jackson, and the Whigs 3,400 for Adams. St. Charles county supported the Jackson electoral ticket by a large ma- jority. The State afterwards continued to be Democratic, and St. Charles county as a rule remained in political accord with the State. German immigration to the county contributed very materially to the power of the Democrats, for until the slavery question again became the leading issue, the Germans were almost without exception Demo- crats. On a strict party test the Democrats rarely failed to carry the county, up to the time of the change from them by the Germans. But notwithstanding the Democrats were in the majority, one or more can- didates of the Whig ticket were not unfrequently elected, through their personal popularity.

Among the earlier public men of the county was Felix Scott, who was also something of a "character." Though a man of culture and good breeding, he partook largely of the spirit of the times on the then frontier of civilization, as Missouri was regarded, and was noted as a fighter, being considered the " best man " in all the country round about. Once challenged to fight a duel, such was his courage and his contempt for his antagonist that he quietly stood with his gun pre- sented without offering to fire, and, after his opponent had fired at him, coolly laid his gun down and gave the latter a sound drubbing with his fists. In 1826, after having served for several terms in the House of Representatives, he was elected to the State Senate ; and such was his prominence and recognized ability, that he was made President of the Senate pro tem, or presiding officer of that body in the absence of the Lieutenant-Governor. He was originally from Monongalia county, West Virginia, and was educated for the profession of law. In 1846 he removed to California, and became one of the leading and wealthy fine-stock raisers of the country. He was finally murdered, however, by a hired man while returning from Kentucky with a herd

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HISTORY OF ST. CHARLES COUNTY.

of blooded cattle, and when within a day's journey of his home in Oregon.

Between 1815 and 1835 or '40, William Christy, Jr., was an active leader in county politics. He held the position of quartermaster at Bellefontaine during the War of 1812. Afterwards he removed to St. Charles, where he was elected clerk of the county and circuit courts. He was also clerk of the Supreme Court for a time. He held the office of circuit clerk in this county for over twenty years continu- ously, and until he was succeeded by Col. Ludwell E. Powell, mentioned in the sketch of the Mexican War, on a former page.

But above all, the most distinguished citizen of St. Charles county in the early history of the State, or at any other time, and one of the greatest and best men whose life adorned public affairs, was Hon. Edward Bates, who rose from the position of youth without means and obscure to a place in the Cabinet of President Lincoln. He represented St. Charles county in the Legislature in 1828, and was the father of the Whig party in this county. He also represented his district in Congress, and in 1856 was the president of the National Whig Convention at Baltimore. Mr. Bates held various official posi- tions, being in public life throughout most of his long and active career. But he was, nevertheless, more of a lawyer than a politician ; for his whole life, from early manhood until the shadows of old age had settled deep and heavy about him, was devoted to his profession. A sketch of his career, therefore, belongs more properly to the suc- ceeding chapter - the " Bench and Bar" of St. Charles county.

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History of St. Charles, Montgomery, and Warren counties, Missouri, written and comp. from the most authentic official and private sources, including a history of their townships, towns and villages, together with a condensed history of Missouri, Part 20

Author: National Historical Company (St. Louis, Mo.) Publication date: 1885 Publisher: St. Louis, National Historical Company Number of Pages: 1166

Author: National Historical Company (St. Louis, Mo.)
Publication date: 1885
Publisher: St. Louis, National Historical Company
Number of Pages: 1166