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 58

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 58
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 58
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 58

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).

536

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

About the year 1722 the French ascended the Missouri, under M. De Bourgmont, and five miles below the mouth of Grand river, on an island, built a fort which they called Ft. Orleans. This fort was commanded by one Sergt. Dubois, who had married an Indian woman, one of the tribe of Missouris. In 1725 Ft. Orleans was attacked, totally destroyed and its inmates all massacred. By whom this bloody work was done has never been recorded, but it is probable that the authors of it were the Sacs, Foxes and other northern Indians, who were the enemies of the French and their allies, the Missouris. There was some passing up and down the river while Ft. Orleans existed, and it is not improbable that the Loutre was ascended during this time, as the Gasconade certainly was.

After the year 1764, when St. Louis was founded, and the great Louisiana country passed into the hands of Spain, and especially after Les Petites Cotes (the little hills -St. Charles) was settled, travel up the Missouri as high as the mouth of the Loutre was fre- quent. And then the inquisitive Spaniards and more inquisitive French, who had become the subjects of His Catholic Majesty, cer- tainly passed up into the country now called Montgomery county.

Somebody was up the Loutre before the first Americans. As late as 1820 there was in existence, on the top of a high bluff on the south side of the Loutre and overlooking the stream, a stone enclosure, evidently made with human hands, and the hands of civilized beings. This bluff stands on the north-east quarter of section 23, township 47, range 6, in the southern part of Danville township, about four miles north of Americus. The enclosure was of considerable extent and contained several chambers. It was composed of pieces of flat limestone, which had evidently been carried some distance, and these were laid one on the other, with the joints broken, " as if done by a mason who understood his business." It did not seem that the building -if it was a building - was ever completed. The early settlers did not understand it, and if the Indians knew anything about it they would not, or did not, tell what the enclosure was, or who built it. Mr. W. B. Snethen and others, who were in the county in 1815-20, have seen this remarkable structure.

Wherever the French trappers could catch an otter or beaver, or even a muskrat or mink, there they wended their way and set their traps, and Loutre and Bear creek, and Whippoorwill, and even Elk- horn and Whitestone, abounded with these varieties of fur-bearing animals in early days. There was beaver in Loutre even as late as 1816.

537

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

THE FIRST AMERICANS.

It is claimed that Daniel M. Boone, son of old Daniel Boone, was the first American bona fide and actual settler in Missouri. He came to the St. Charles country in 1794, and the next year his father came with his family. In the year 1798 Samuel Boone made his contract with M. Zenon Trudeau, the Spanish commandant at St. Louis, to bring 100 American families from Kentucky and Virginia to Upper Louisiana, for which service he was to receive 10,000 arpens of land. In pursuance of this contract Boone induced a number of Kentucky families to come out the same year and locate. These came up into the Femme Osage country, and it is believed some of them came to Loutre island. It must be borne in mind that at this time all of this country belonged to Spain, and the only banner of authority that waved over the land was the flag of Castile.

In 1803 the country passed into the hands and under the control of the United States, having for three years previously been under French denomination. ,

. In the year 1800 there were at least a dozen families on Loutre island, and in what is now the southern part of the county. One of , these was Lewis Groshong, whose son, Jacob Groshong, born in 1800, was the first white child born in this county, and there were other families named Cole, Patton, Murdock and Lewis. (See his- tory of Loutre township.) The settlements in what is now War- ren county were so closely identified and interwoven with those of Montgomery that at this late day it is difficult to separate them. Sometimes a settler would be on one side of where the county line runs now, for one week, and the next he would cross over. The few old settlers now living can not remember just where some of the pioneers lived - whether in Warren or in Montgomery.

The influx of Kentuckians under Col. Ben Cooper and others in 1808 is mentioned in the chapter devoted to the history of Loutre township. The departure of Col. Cooper and others for the Boone's Lick country in 1810 is also noted. The settlements of Laney Bow- lin at the Big Spring of John Snethen on Dry fork in 1807-08 were probably the first made in the interior of the county. Others were scattered about on Bear creek, Whippoorwill creek and the Loutre.

CHAPTER II.

DURING. THE INDIAN WARS.

First Troubles with the Indians -The Ill-fated Expedition of Five Loutre Islanders in Pursuit of Indian Horse-thieves -The War of 1812-Indian Treaties, Plans and Purposes - A General Uprising of the Savages - Harris Massey, the First Victim of the War in Montgomery County - Killing of Daniel Dougherty - Ad- venture of Jacob Groom and Jackey Stewart at Big Spring -Capt. Callaway's Defeat - Sketch of the Brave Ranger and His Company - His Encounter with the Indians, and His Death and Burial - Dr. M. M. Maughs' Account - Other Events of the War.

TROUBLE WITH THE INDIANS,

As always upon the opening of a new country the settlers had not only to subdue the wilderness, to conquer the wild beasts of the forest, but there were the cruel, crafty savages, who, human beings though they were, were more dreaded, and more to be dreaded, than beasts or brambles. The Indians fought the Americans in Missouri from the start. It does not seem that - so far as this county was concerned - there was anything like amity and good feeling between the first set- tlers of Montgomery and the Indians at any time. As to the fair right of the Indians to keep the whites out of the country, after the United States came into possession of it, the truth is such a right did not exist. The Indians did not own this country ; their homes were not here ; at the best they used it only as a hunting ground. Con- cerning the tribal ownership of the country Dr. M. M. Maughs, who made due investigation of the matter upon his first coming to the county (1812), wrote in 1837 : -

The vicinity of Loutre belonged originally to the Missouris, a tribe which appears to have been in possession of a large tract of country ; owing, however, to their wars with the Osages, Ioways [Iowas], Ottos [Otoes], Omahas, Puncas [Poncas] and other tribes, the country in this vicinity frequently changed masters ; and, at the time that the narrator (Maj. Van Bibber) emigrated to. this country, was in possession of the Sacs and Foxes. The claim of the Sacs and Foxes, however, was merely nominal ; the Spanish government allowed no Indian claims within the limits of the King's domain; and the Sacs and Foxes claimed the country as their hunting grounds only, the right to which they obtained from the Spanish government.

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539

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

But, whether they had a right to the country or not, the Indians held that they had a right to kill a white man whenever and wherever they could do so with tolerable safety, and also to deprive him of his property under the same conditions. The American settlers here were not the aggressors upon the Indians. The latter-who were the Sacs, Foxes and Pottawatomies - had their natural homes to the far north, from the mouth of the Des Moines river, in Southern Iowa, to the Rock river, in Wisconsin, and westward to the Missouri. When- ever they came down to the Missouri river country they were trespas- sers and intruders.

In 1806 a party of settlers from the Femme Osage settlement, led by Wm. T. Cole, of Loutre island, went up to the Loutre prairie to hunt elk, with which the prairie abounded. As near as can now be determined, somewhere near the present site of High Hill, they met some hostile Indians who drove them back to the settlements. No- body was killed at this time, but the event was sufficient to teach the whites what they had to expect.

THE ILL-FATED EXPEDITION OF FIVE LOUTRE ISLANDERS.

The next year, 1807, occurred the memorable expedition of the five Loutre Islanders, the Cole brothers, James Patton, John Gooch and James Murdock, after their stolen horses which the Indians had taken. This expedition resulted in the death of Patton, Gooch and Stephen Cole, and the narrow escape of William T. (Temple) Cole and Mur- dock. Rose (p. 498) gives the date of this unfortunate expedition as " the summer of 1812." Switzler (p. 174) gives it as " in July, 1810 ;" but Dr. Maughs, who wrote in 1837, and who obtained his particulars from Maj. Van Bibber, Col. Talbott, the Pattons, and others of the very first settlers who were either here at the time or came soon after, gives it as " about 1806-07." McAfee's " History of the late war in the Western Country " gives it as " the summer of 1807," and the writer has other evidence and a settled belief that this is the correct date.

Dr. Maughs' account, published in Wetmore's Gazetteer (1837), is herewith given as the best circumstantial account to be found : -

Of the earliest settlements of the country Loutre island may be considered as one of the first ; and among the first settlers of that part of the country were Temple and Stephen Cole (two brothers ), Patten, Gooch and Murdock. About the year 1806-07 a small party, consist- ing of seven or eight Indians, Sacs and Pottawatomies, stole the horses · of these settlers, and committed sundry depredations in the

540

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

neighborhood. In consequence of this foray they were pursued by the Coles, Patton, Gooch and Murdock, who came in sight of them one evening on the Salt river prairies. Towards night the men made their encampment, kindled a fire, etc., probably with the intention of dealing with the Indians next morning ; but in this they were antici- pated by the savages, who attacked them furiously in the night. Temple Cole, Patton and Gooch were killed at the first . onset. Murdock slipped under the bank of Spencer creek, near by, leaving Stephen Cole alone to contend with the enemy. Two stout Indians closed upon him; one of them stabbed him from behind, near the shoulder, the other encountered him in front. Cole, being a very powerful man, wrenched the knife out of the hand of the Indian in front and killed him ; but having to contend with such odds he sought safety in flight, and was fortunate enough to make his escape, favored of course by the darkness of the night. Having reached home he collected a party of men and returned to bury the dead. Murdock, not being acquainted with the roads, did not reach home for several days.

Some writers in narrating this circumstance (McClearey among them) made the mistake of putting down one of the men who was killed as "Temple." There was no man of that name in the party. The initial " T" in the name of William T. Cole stood for Temple, and he was commonly called " Temple " Cole. This fact and the insertion of a comma in the wrong place makes certain writers state that " the party was composed of Temple, Cole, Patton," etc.

The locality where the Indians were overtaken is not certainly recorded. Rose says : " Many years afterward the skulls of the mur- dered men were found near where they fell, and the stream upon the bank of which they had camped was named ' Skull Lick,' the latter part of the name being derived from a deer lick not far dis- tant, on the same stream." Rose further says this was "now in Audrain county." But Switzler says the white men came upon the Indians " at Bone Lick, a branch of Salt river, and within the pres- ent limits of Ralls county ."

Both Maughs and Switzler say that it was under the banks of Spencer creek where Murdock found a safe retreat, and Dr. Maughs says the Indians were found " on the Salt river prairies." It is quite probable that the men were killed in Ralls county, as Switzler says. Rose's statement as to the finding of the skulls which led to the nam- ing of Skull Lick is partially true, but they were not the skulls of Patton, Gooch and Temple Cole, as Maughs speaks of the return of a party, headed by Stephen Cole, to bury the dead, and of course if the bodies were buried their skulls could not be easily found. .

541

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

But the several accounts are mixed as to which one of the Coles was killed. Rose says it was Stephen Cole, and that Temple Cole es- caped. Switzler agrees that it was William T. Cole that fought the hard fight and escaped, but Switzler calls Stephen Cole " Samuel "- doubtless a slip of the pen. The truth is as Dr. Maughs states it. Temple Cole was killed. Stephen Cole escaped, and there is no name better known in the history of the Boone's Lick country than his, It was he who in 1812 built Cole's fort, the first county seat of Howard county, and it was for him that Cole county was named. Capt. Cole was killed by the Indians on the plains while engaged in the Santa Fe trade, about 1824.

In the years 1808-09-10-11 there was some emigration to " the Missouri country," as it was called, and Montgomery got her share of the pioneers, who were chiefly from Kentucky. The country up and down Loutre was thoroughly explored by the hunters, who kept one eye out for game and the other for Indians. While traversing the knobs in the southern part of what is now the county it is said they would crawl cautiously up on the south side to the summit and peer cautiously over toward the north, east and west, looking for Indians. At this day but few of the knobs were covered with timber ; they were mostly bare and sterile, owing to the annual burning of the woods by the Indians, and the slowness with which timber crept up the dry, stony hillsides.

Then came the War of 1812, or last War with Great Britain as it is often called, and the plight of the settlers in this quarter was a peril- ous one. From its exposed situation and the thinness of the popula- tion Missouri Territory, especially the upper portion, suffered severely from the effects of Indian and British hostility during and even previous to this war. Tecumseh had visited Malden in Canada, and had received presents and promises from the British authorities there. On his return he endeavored to engage all the Indians in common cause against the Americans. But the Indians on the Missouri con- tinued for some time to be peaceable. At last the Northern Indians - the cruel Sacs and Foxes, led by that bloody-minded and ambitious " brave " Black Hawk - descended the Mississippi and joined in the war against the whites.

With few exceptions, the Indians on the Missouri remained peace- able until the summer of 1811, when they committed some outrages in the Boone's Lick settlement, and on Salt and Cuivre rivers. Gen. Clark, who commanded this department, made every exertion to de- tect the murderers ; but, as the American force was not yet organized,

542

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

it proved unavailing. During the winter of 1811-12 murders became more frequent, and this territory began to suffer all the dreadful effects of Indian warfare. The Winnebagoes, determined to have revenge for their loss at Tippecanoe, continually displayed hostile in- tentions. From Fort Madison to St. Charles, men, women and chil- dren were continually put to death, and their habitations were consigned to the flames by their unrelenting foes.

Upon receipt of this melancholy intelligence, Gov. Benjamin Howard sent orders to Col. Kibby, who commanded the militia of St. Charles, to call out a portion of the men who had been in requisition to march at a moment's warning. An express was also sent to the officer commanding the regular forces of his district, and the Gover- nor himself immediately set out for St. Charles. On his arrival at this place he organized a company of rangers, consisting of the most hardy woodsmen, who scoured by constant and rapid movements the tract of country from Salt river to the Missouri, near the junction of the Loutre. He also established a small fort on the Mississippi, which was garrisoned by a body of regular troops detached from Bellefontaine, under the command of Lieut. Mason. With these he was enabled, in a considerable degree, to afford protection to the ex- posed frontiers.

About the beginning of May, 1812, the chiefs of the Great and Little Osages, the Sacs, Reynards or Foxes, Shawnees and Delawares met in St. Louis, in order to accompany Gen. Clark to Washington City ; a plan which it was thought would have a happy effect. After their departure few outrages were committed by the Indians for a con- siderable time; and although large parties of them continually lurked about Fort Mason and the other posts on the Mississippi, such was the vigilance of the regulars and rangers then on duty, that they were generally frustrated in their designs. But Tecumseh and his brother, the prophet, were becoming more and more popular among the Indians, and so long as this was the case, no favorable termination of the con- test could be expected. Many, it is true, were, as they always had been, opposed to his ambitious views ; but the majority in his favor was so great that these were obliged to submit.

On the 26th of June, 1812, a council was held between the follow- ing nations of the Indians, viz. : the Winnebagoes, Pottawatomies, Kickapoos, Shawnees, Miamis, Wild Oats ( from Green Bay), Sioux (from the river Des Moines), Otoes, Sacs, Foxes and Iowas. The five first named were decidedly in favor of the prophet, but some others refused any participation in the war with the United States ;

543

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

and the remainder were unwilling to give any decided answer, but rather encouraged the idea that they would unite with the hostile tribes. Thus, through the influence of the prophet, many of the tribes who had been uniformly at peace with the Americans now ap- peared in arms on the frontiers of the territory, and were only waiting for the removal of the rangers to commence a dreadful slaughter.1

FIRST VICTIM OF THE WAR - HARRIS MASSEY.

The first victim of the war in Montgomery county was Harris Massey, who was killed at Loutre Lick, in the spring of 1813. In the previous winter months his father, Thomas Massey, had left the shelter of Fort Clemson, on Loutre island, where he had settled in 1809, and came to the Lick, having leased the land from Col. Nathan Boone, to whom the Spaniards had granted it 15 years before. Massey had built a cabin on the north side of the little stream known as Sallie's branch, and had cleared a little field on the south side.

His second son, Thomas, was a member of Col. Nathan Boone's company of rangers, and Rose says that on one occasion during the war he, with others, was scouting over in Illinois, and coming upon an old Indian and his son, they took the latter prisoner, but let his father go ; that then they cruelly murdered the boy ; that in order to avenge this wrong a party of Sac warriors, to which tribe the old man belonged, went to the house of Thomas Massey's father and killed his son, Harris. This story is very preposterous, and he who is deceived thereby is not wise. It would have been more plausible if Mr. Rose had explained how the Indians came to know the names of every one of the rangers that did the alleged killing, where they lived, where their fathers lived, and whether or not they had male relatives on whom they might wreak their vengeance, and especially how it came that the Indians selected the particular brother of Thomas Massey as their victim. Black Hawk, in his " Life," states that he killed some of the settlers on the Cuivre, in Lincoln county, to avenge the murder of the son of an old friend of his, and it is probable that from this yarn the author of the story referred to above got his materials.

Young Harris Massey was killed under the following circumstances : His father had gone up the Loutre to look at some Indian signs that had been discovered the evening before. When he left he set Harris at work in the little cleared field south of the branch to plow with a team of horses. He directed the boy to tie his rifle to his back

1 Dr. Beck.

544

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

while at work, and if the Indians appeared to fire on them at once. After a time the boy, as is supposed, grew weary of carrying the gun and set it against a tree near the cleared ground. About 10 o'clock in the day a band of Indians, presumably Sacs,1 slipped down Sallie's branch and crawling under the bank approached within 100 yards of the boy. Two Indians fired and the boy fell. With savage yells the " noble red men " sprang out into the clearing, and running up to the body proceeded to offer it every brutal indignity. They tore off the scalp and then gave it a loathsome mutilation hardly to be described.

Mr. Massey's family, at the house, were in plain view of the frightful tragedy when it was perpetrated. They screamed in great alarm, and Ann, one of the daughters, seized upon the dinner horn and blew one loud, long blast after another upon it. This seemed to disconcert the Indians and they soon fled. The statement, sometimes made, that they mistook the sound of the horn for the rangers' bugle is only guesswork. Mr. Massey heard the horn and hastened home. The Indians had not taken away his horses and he gathered up his family as best he could, and started for Fort Clemson, on Loutre island, distant by the nearest trail eighteen miles-fifteen " as the crow flies." How the poor fugitives made their way that long, toil- some distance, over the rough, stony hills and through the wilderness, expecting every moment to be ambushed by the Indians, with the memory of the murder of their brother and son ever before them, can only be imagined.

A party went out and gathered up the mangled body of young Massey and buried it on the hillside, a little south of where he fell.

Thereafter, for some time, there was no attempt at settling the country on the part of the Loutre Islanders. They preferred to remain quietly close by the fort.

KILLING OF DANIEL DOUGHERTY AND ADVENTURE OF GROOM AND

STEWART.

In the spring of 1814 occurred the next tragedy in the Montgomery county settlements. A man named Daniel Dougherty was killed by the Sac Indians at the Big Spring. He belonged to the colony at Loutre fort, or Fort Clemson, and volunteered to go up to a salt

1 Dr. Maughs says they were Sacs and Pottawatomies.

545

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

petre cave on Clear Creek, about four miles south-east of Danville (about the center of section 8-47-5), to get some saltpetre with which to manufacture powder. At that time pioneers made all their own powder themselves. As he did not return at the appointed time, some of the colonists became uneasy, and Jacob Groom and Jack Stewart volunteered to go in search of him.

Groom and Stewart set out from Fort Clemson on horseback, tak- ing the trail to the cave by way of the Big Spring.1 Previous to this, Groom had lived at the spring, having purchased the claim embracing it from Laney Bowlin, its first settler. . A quarter of a mile north of the spring, and a short distance north of 'Possum branch, as the two men were riding along leisurely, Stewart suddenly called out : " Lord ! Jake, look at the Indians !" Sure enough, there they were, only a hundred yards in front, a cloud of them !

The two scouts turned to fly. The Indians, only half of whom were mounted, pursued them. Such yelling and hooting ! Crossing ' Pos- sum branch Groom's horse jumped with a mighty leap and Groom's saddle turned-his feet being out of the stirrups. But he clung to his horse, and unbuckled his saddle and let it fall. The Indians were firing and Groom's horse was slightly wounded ; as they emerged into the clearing near Groom's house, at the spring, the Indians gave them a good volley. Stewart's horse was seriously wounded, and Stewart himself was struck in the heel.

A mile south Stewart's poor horse staggered and fell. Groom stopped, and seeing that Stewart could make but slow progress with his wounded leg, took him on his horse.

Luckily both men reached the fort in safety that day. There was of course great excitement, and pickets were at once put out and all the outlying settlers warned in. There was a general appreciation of Groom's courage and self-sacrificing disposition, as there ought to be admiration for him to-day, and no wonder that Groom had so many admirers among the old settlers. Yet this is the same Jacob Groom whom Mr. Rose unfortunately saw proper to caricature so shamefully in his book !

Capt. Clemson and the people at the fort expected an attack at once and prepared for it, but it did not come. In a few days a company of rangers came out and found the body of Dougherty half way up the hill from the Big Spring (north part of section 32-47-5) and

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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 58

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