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 60

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 60
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 60
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 60

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).

The Independence landed at old Fort Clemson, on Loutre island, and Mr. Robt. H. Patton states to the writer that all the islanders, except some who were afraid of her, flocked to the bank to see the new and great wonder. She put off some freight- 10 barrels of whisky (? ), for a trader named Mills, who lived out in the Camp Branch country, and had a post not far from where Warrenton now is.

1 Switzler.

557

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

In 1818 the United States government projected the celebrated Yellowstone expedition, to ascertain whether or not the Missouri river was navigable for steamboats, and to establish a line of forts from its mouth to the Yellowstone. The expedition was under command of Col. Henry Atkinson. It arrived at Pittsburg in the spring of 1819, and here Col. S. H. Long, of the topographical engineers, had con- structed a small steamer called the Western Engineer, to be used by him and his corps in pioneering the expedition up the Missouri. .

June 21, 1819, the fleet of steamboats, the Expedition, Capt. Craig ; Thomas Jefferson, Capt. Orfort; R. M. Johnson, Capt. Colfax, and the Western Engineer, Lieut. Swift, and nine keel-boats provided with wheels and masts, left St. Louis for the Yellowstone. The boats entered the mouth of the Missouri with flags flying, bands of music playing, bugles blowing and the crews cheering. An accident to the machinery of the Jefferson prevented her from being the first to enter the river, as had been intended, and the post of honor was given to the Expedition. She landed at Fort Bellefontaine, four miles from the mouth of the river, and the next morning the Western Engineer took the lead, and was far in the advance when the fleet passed Loutre island.

The Western Engineer was a singularly constructed vessel. It had no cabin and but one chimney. From its prow projected the iron image of a huge serpent, painted black, with mouth agape and colored a livid red, and tongue like a glowing coal. The steam exhausted from the mouth of this serpent with a noise, the combination of a puff, a hiss, and a snort, and all the Indians- and many of the whites - were terror-stricken at the appearance of the seeming mon- ster. It is related that a band of Indians followed along the river, side by side with the boat, for nearly a whole day, expecting every moment that its strength would give out, " as it panted so," and then they would capture it ! They imagined that the boat and its crew were borne on the back of the serpent.

ORGANIZATION.

The Territorial Legislature of Missouri commenced a session at St. Louis in December, 1818. During this session the counties of Jeffer- son, Franklin, Wayne, Lincoln, Madison, Pike, Pulaski, Cooper and Montgomery were organized.1 This county was organized December

1 Also three counties in the southern part of Arkansas, then attached to Missouri Territory.

558

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

14, 1818. It was formed from St. Charles and included not only the present territory of the county, but that now included in Warren and a portion of Audrain and Callaway as well.

The county was named for Gen. Richard Montgomery, who fell at Quebec during the Revolution - or, as Rose says, for Montgomery county, Ky., from whence many of the settlers had come. At the time of its organization the county had a population of about 1,000.

The first election in the county after its organization was held at Big Spring, at the house of Jacob Groom. There was but one voting place in this part of the county, and the polls were kept open for three days to allow the voters from the back settlements a chance to come in and vote. The voting place in the eastern part of the county was at Marthasville.

Prior to its organization the territory of Montgomery county be- longed to St. Charles.

The county seat was located at a new town called Pinckney, but the first courts (county and circuit ) were held in a log cabin, three miles east of Pinckney, in the door yard of Benjamin Sharp, the first clerk of these courts.

PINCKNEY.

As has been repeatedly published in previous historical sketches, the seat of justice of Montgomery county was first located at Pinckney,1 on the Missouri river, and within the present limits of Warren county. This town was named for Miss Attossa Pinckney Sharp, daughter of Maj. Benj. Sharp, the first clerk of the county and circuit courts of Montgomery county. It was once a flourish- ing place, but the removal of the county seat to Lewiston proved its death blow, and the town disappeared many years ago. The spot where it originally stood has fallen into the river, and a post-office in the vicinity, with perhaps one store, are the only reminders of its existence.

The land upon which the town was built was originally granted to Mr. John Meek, by the Spanish government, but he failed to com- ply with the terms, and it reverted to the United States government upon its purchase of the territory. It was sold at land sales in 1818, and bought by Mr. Alexander McKinney, who sold 50 acres of the tract to the county commissioners, for the use of the county, for

1 The orthography of the word is as Miss Sharp's name was spelled. Beck and some other early writers spell it without a c, thus : Pinkney.

559

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

which he received $500. The commissioners were David Bryan, An- drew Fourt and Moses Summers.

The first public building erected in the place was the jail, which was built in 1820, at a cost of $2,500. During the summer of the same year, Nathaniel Hart and George Edmondson built a frame house there, which was the first frame house erected in Montgomery county. It was 25x30 feet in size, and was rented to the county for a court-house, at $100 a year. The rent was paid with county scrip worth 25c to the $1. The same summer Frederick Griswold built a log house, and opened the first store in Pinckney. The next house erected in the place was a mill, partly built by Hugh McDer- mid, who sold it to two Germans named Lineweaver and Duvil, who completed it.

" Beck's Gazetteer of Missouri," published in 1823, gives the fol- lowing description of Pinckney in 1822, on page 309 : -

. Pinckney, a post town, and the seat of justice of Montgomery county, on the north bank of the Missouri, about two and a half miles above where the line dividing ranges 2 and 3, west of the fifth princi- pal meridian, strikes said river. The site is low, and in some seasons of the year it is difficult to reach it, on account of the number of sloughs and ponds by which it is surrounded. It contains eight or nine houses and cabins. The county seat will probably be removed to a more central and eligible situation. This town is in latitude 38°, 35' north ; eight miles above Newport, and about 55 miles south-west of St. Charles. It is surrounded by a fertile district of country, wa- tered by Lost and Charrette creeks.

FIRST COUNTY OFFICIALS, ETC.

The first judges of the county court were Isaac Clark, Moses Sum- mers and John Wyatt. At the first meeting of the court Mr. Clark resigned, and Maj. Benjamin Sharp was appointed to fill the vacancy. He also resigned soon afterward and Hugh McDermid was appointed in his place, after which there was no other change in the court until the removal of the county seat to Lewiston. Previous to his appoint- ment as judge of the county court, McDermid was a member of the Territorial Legislature, and when the line was established between Montgomery and St. Charles counties he acted as one of the commis- sioners for the former county.

Irvine S. Pitman was the first sheriff of Montgomery county. John C. Long was appointed first county and circuit clerk, by Gov. McNair, after the admission of the Territory into the Union, but he sold the offices to Jacob L. Sharp before assuming his duties ; so that Mr.

560

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

Sharp became the first incumbent of those two offices under the State government, which he held by election for many years afterward. Robert W. Wells was the first prosecuting attorney, and Alexander Mckinney was the first county surveyor.

Andrew Fourt built the first hotel in Pinckney, and on court days he generally had a lively time. Men would come to town and get drunk, and then quarrel and fight in and around the hotel, which they re- garded as a public place, where they could do as they pleased.

The first criminal case tried in Pinckney was against a man named Jim Goen, who had stolen a pair of shoes. He was sentenced by the court to receive 29 lashes at the whipping post, which, at that time, was a familiar instrument of justice, as there was one at every court- house in the State. As soon as the sentence was pronounced, the prisoner started to run, and the sheriff ( Mr. Irvine Pitman ) gave chase. It was a pretty close race until they came to a fence, which Goen attempted to jump, but failed and fell. Pitman secured him, took him back to the whipping post, and inflicted the punishment, which was the first and last sentence of the kind ever executed at Pinckney.

THE WEATHER IN EARLY TIMES.

As to the temperature during the winters of early days, there are fortunately records in existence which give it to us exactly, so that we can know what our pioneer settlers had to encounter in the way of cold weather. The winters were about the same as those at present.

Maj. Stoddard, in his sketch of Louisiana, observes : "For three successive winters, commencing in 1802, the Mississippi at St. Louis was passable on the ice before the 20th of December each year, and it was clear of all obstruction, with one excption, by the last of Febru- ary. In January, 1805, the ice in that river rather exceeded 22 inches in thickness. There is seldom more than six inches of snow on the ground at the same time, but the severity of the weather at St. Louis is generally about the same as in the back part of the State of New Jersey. The mercury frequently falls below 0, and the cold keeps it depressed as low as 10 or 15 degrees for several weeks each winter."

In January, 1811, after several weeks of delightful weather, when the warmth was even disagreeable, the thermometer standing at 78 degrees, a change took place, and so sudden, that in four days it fell to 10 degrees below 0. This winter was also remarkable for a circum- stance which the oldest inhabitant does not recollect to have ever wit- nessed ; the Mississippi closed over twice, whereas it most usually re- mains open during the winter. We have no particular account of the

561

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

winters between this time and 1817, but if we may credit the assertions of the old inhabitants, they were generally temperate.

The mean temperature of January, 1817, was 26°, about equal to that of the same month in New York. The winter of 1818-19 was very mild and exhibited a singular contrast with the two or three pre- ceding. The mean temperature of January was nearly 39°, the weather continued mild during the month of February, and the thermometer on some days rose to 72°. At St. Louis, the Mississippi remained open during the whole season. During the winter of 1819-20, the Mississippi closed about the 20th of December and remained in this situation until the 10th of February. The mean temperature of Jan- uary was 27°, varying but little from that of the same month of 1817. On two occasions the mercury fell to six degrees below 0. From 10 to 12 inches of snow fell during the month, and continued on the ground for three or four weeks. The winter of 1820-21 differed but little from the last. The Mississippi continued closed for six or seven weeks, and the earth was covered, during the months of December and January, with from six to 12 inches of snow.

The winter of 1821-22 was less severe than the two former. About the 1st of December the cold weather commenced. On the 22d, the Mississippi closed opposite St. Louis, and during the remainder of the month, the weather was clear and pleasant, and the thermometer fre- quently rose to 60°. On the 4th of January, the mercury fell to 4º below 0; but after this the weather again became mild and continued so during the month. On the 22d the Mississippi opened, having been closed since the 22d of December. The depth of the snow this winter never exceeded six inches.

CHAPTER IV.

INCIDENTS OF PIONEER LIFE IN MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

Character of the First Settlers- The First Settlements - Objections to Prairies - Dr.

Beck on Prairies - First Mills- Game and Wild Animals: Elk, Deer, Bears, Wolves, Panthers, etc .- Sundry Adventures of Certain Pioneers with the "Var- mints" of Early Days-Crops and Crop Raising -Cotton, Flax and Nettles - Dress of the Pioneers - The Settlers' Bills of Fare - Pioneer Weddings - House- keeping Incidents - Pioneer Preachers, etc.

PIONEERS AND PIONEER LIFE.

It is customary to indulge in a great deal of gush and extravagant adulation in speaking of the first settlers of a country. Their virtues are extolled immoderately, their weaknesses-it is never admitted that they had any vices-are seldom ever hinted at. The true-hearted pioneers of Montgomery county would not wish to be written of other than fairly. Our first settlers were mere men and women, with all of the virtues and graces, and all of the vices and frailties of that number of people taken at random from rural communities. They were neither any worse or any better than their descendants.

The pioneers were hospitable and generous as a rule ; so are their posterities and successors. There was the doing of good works, the rendering of generous deeds, and there was cheating also in early days. There was industry and there was laziness ; there were thrift and penury, misery and happiness, good men and bad men, and after all, in very many respects, Montgomery county people in 1820 were about like Montgomery county people in 1880.

The life of the early settlers of this county was that of the pioneers of the West generally, which has been written of and described so frequently that it need not be detailed here. The people, while they dwelt in log cabins and were plainly appareled and fed on humble fare, lived comfortably, happily and well. It can not well be said that they suffered hardships, since the deprivation of certain modern luxuries and conveniences was well sustained by ample substitutes.

There was a scarcity of purple and fine liuen, but there was an abundance of comfortable and durable linsey and jeans and homespun cotton, much better suited to the rough and tumble life. Fine clothes and gay raiment would have been as much out of place in the primitive

(562)

563

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

log cabins and among the clearings of early days as would 'coonskin caps and buckskin breeches in the parlors and drawing-rooms of the handsome residences that stand upon the well improved lands of the county to-day. In that day, as now, people dressed and lived accord- ing to their circumstances.

In their somewhat isolated positions the settlers were dependent upon one another for many things. Men were willing to help a neigh- bor because they felt that they might at some time need help themselves. A new settler was always gladly received. He first selected his claim, cut his house logs and hauled them to the spot he had chosen for his home, and then announced his " raising." It did not take long to put up the cabin, as the neighbors came from far and near, and whoever refused to attend a raising that could do so and had heard of it was guilty of a serious offense.

The first farms were opened up in the timber. The timber was all cut down. That which would make rails or fencing was so utilized. The rest was piled and rolled together and burned. The stumps of the saplings were grubbed up, and then the land was plowed. The plow used was a very simple affair, with sometimes an iron point and sometimes without, and always a wooden mold-board. It is said that some farmers used a plow made from the fork of a tree. The soil in the bottoms was like an ash heap for mellowness, and almost anything in the shape of a plow would serve to fit it for the reception of the seed corn. There was, of course, the usual difficulty in plowing regarding the stumps, and as the most of the pioneers were not pro- fane men, their sufferings at times were intense !

It is true, however, that in early days the prairies of Missouri were deemed undesirable for homes and farms for many reasons. Mr. Lewis C. Beck, a master of arts and an accomplished scientist, in his Gazetteer of Missouri (1823), writing of the country in this quarter, has this to say (p. 244) of the prairies : -

The prairies, although generally fertile, are so very extensive that they must, for a great length of time, and perhaps forever, remain wild and uncultivated ; yet such is the enterprise of the American citizens - such the emigration to the West, that it almost amounts to presumption to hazard an opinion on the subject. Perhaps before the expiration of ten years, instead of being bleak and desolate, they may have been converted into immense grazing fields, covered with herds of cattle. It is not possible, however, that the interior of these prairies can be inhabited; for, setting aside the difficulty of obtaining timber, it is on other accounts unpleasant and uncomfortable. In winter the northern and western blasts are excessively cold, and the

564

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

snow is drifted like hills and mountains, so as to render it impossible to cross from one side of a prairie to the other. In summer, on the contrary, the sun acting upon such an extensive surface, and the southerly winds which uniformly prevail during this season, produce a degree of heat almost insupportable.

It should not, by any means, be understood that these objections apply to all the prairies. The smaller ones are not subject to these inconveniences ; on the contrary, they are by far the most desirable and pleasant situations for settlement. They are of this description in the county of which we are treating ; surrounded by forests, and containing here and there groves of the finest timber, watered by beautiful running streams, presenting an elevated, rolling or undu- lating surface, and a soil rarely equaled in fertility.

In the early history of the settlements mechanical conveniences were few and of an inferior character. Few of the settlers had been regularly trained to the use of tools, and, in consequence, every man became his own mechanic. Vessels and articles required for house -- hold use were hewn out of blocks and logs of wood. Although these articles presented a rough and uncouth appearance, they answered every purpose, and the families were as happy in their use as are the most favored people of later generations with the multiplied devices , of modern invention. The great disadvantage the pioneers labored under was the need of mills. Grain was at first reduced to flour and meal by means of a mortar. The grain was put in and pounded for hours with a pestle, and when sufficiently beaten the finer particles were separated from the coarser by a common sieve, the finer being used for making bread and the coarser for hominy. This process became slow and wearisome, and other methods were introduced.

A kind of hand-mill rapidly supplanted the old mortar. It was constructed by putting the flat sides of two large stones together, the upper one well balanced on a pivot. A hole was made in the top of the upper stone, into which was forced a round pin, used as a handle, to put the mill in motion by one hand, while the other hand was used to feed it. Simple as were mills of this kind, they were, however, very scarce at first and were used only by a few. The majority clung to the old mortar and pestle, the noise of which could sometimes be heard long after the usual hour of retiring, busy in the preparation of the meal and hominy for the morning's breakfast. The constant em- ployment of about one member of each family was required to keep the family provided with bread.

St. Charles and St. Louis were the principal trading points at first, and indeed many went to St. Louis to mill. Pretty soon, however,

565

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

horse mills were put up in various settlements, and these proved great conveniences. Patton's horse mill, on Loutre island, at Ft: Clemson, was built in 1814. Reuben C. Pew's horse mill was the first in the northern part of the county ; Dryden's, east of Danville, was the first in that portion of the county. Capt. John Baker's water mill, built in 1820, on Loutre, at the mouth of Dry fork, was the first of the kind in the county.

GAME AND WILD ANIMALS.

As has been already stated, upon the first occupation of the country the woods were full of game of all sorts. Though there were no buf- faloes here, their bones were to be found on the prairies in great abundance, showing that they had not long left the country. Their " wallows" and trails were also to be seen. Indeed there is a tradi- tion that in about 1812 a stray buffalo or two were seen in the western part of the county, returning from the Loutre Lick, as was supposed.

There were plenty of elk on the prairies up to 1830. The settlers would mount their horses when they wanted some rare sport, and chase the elk into the timber and brush through which the males could not pass on account of their long horns and became easy victims. Up about where Wellsville now is was a favorite feeding ground for the elks, and the hunters often chased them into the Whetstone hills and killed them.

Bears were numerous on Loutre and in the other timbered portions of the county. They were black bears, and the finest of their species. Some of them that were killed in this county weighed 500 pounds. The Skinners, Ben Ellis, and other bear hunters often killed them when the carcasses dressed weighed 400 pounds.

Rose says that Bear creek, in this county was named by old Daniel Boone, because he found a great many bears in that locality. North Bear creek was named by Presley Anderson, who settled in Mont- gomery county in 1817. The name originated in an adventure which he had with some bears, one day, while hunting on that stream and which nearly cost him his life. While stalking through the woods looking for game, he saw two cub bears run up a tree, a short distance from him, and desiring to capture them alive, he set his gun down and climbed after them. Pretty soon he heard a fearful snorting and tearing of the brush under him, and looking down he saw the old mother bear just beginning to climb the tree after him, with her bris- tles on end and her white teeth glistening between her extended jaws. He had only one way to escape, and that was to play the squirrel and .

566

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

jump to another tree. It was a desperate chance, but he made an immense spring and safely landed among the branches of a neighbor- ing tree. Then hastily sliding to the ground, he secured his gun, and killed all the bears. This incident led him to name the adjacent stream Bear creek, but as main Bear creek had already been named, he designated the former as North Bear creek, by which name it has been known ever since.

The bears occasionally killed a stray hog, but were usually not of much damage to the settlers. They furnished many a family with " bacon," instead of robbing them of it. " Bear bacon," as the cured bears' mneat was called, an article to be found in every hunter's larder, was an article not to be despised, either. Near Graham's salt- peter cave was a great resort for bears.

Many an interesting adventure of the early settlers of Montgomery county with bears must be omitted from this volume for want of room.

The fierce panther made its home here. Many an early settler, as he sat by his fireside, felt his blood chill as the piercing scream of a prowling panther was borne to his lonely cabin on the night wind. They were frequently encountered, and many of them killed by the pioneer hunters. Wild cats or catamounts were quite numerous.

On one occasion, about 1820, Robert Graham, of near Loutre Lick, sent his black man, " Bill," one night with a letter to Maj. James Beatty, who lived two miles north-west. The way led up the Loutre bottom, and " Bill" rode on horseback, taking some hounds with him. Near the mouth of Davis' branch a huge panther sprang out of a leaning sycamore tree ( still standing - the writer has seen it) upon the dogs. Poor " Bill" turned about and scampered for home as fast as the horse could carry him, the worst scared darkey in the county ! The panther " cleaned out " the dogs in short order. One of them, called " Blue Music," came home badly torn and mangled from the encounter and died next day.

As to wolves, the country was infested with them. There seem to have been three varieties, the large black, the gray and the coyote or prairie wolf. The first two varieties made many a foray on the set- tlers' flocks and herds, and sometimes it was a difficult matter to raise sheep and pigs on account of the depredations of these marauders. The sheep had to be penned every night and the hogs carefully looked after. Isaac Clark in the south part of the county, poisoned dozens of wolves with nux vomica, or " dog buttons."

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

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 60

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