USA > Missouri > Vernon County > History of Vernon County, Missouri : past and present, including an account of the cities, towns and villages of the county Vol. I > Part 16
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).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46
.
180
HISTORY OF VERNON COUNTY
William Profit and William Horner, who came a little later. On the Big Drywood, in 1837, lived John Chorn, whose place was afterward bought by Gabriel M. Stratton, later sheriff of and representative from Bates county. His wife, a half-breed Osage, was related to the Chouteaus and was a woman of fine Christian character, a devoted wife and mother and a true helpmeet to her husband.
Glowing accounts of the country, the fertility of the soil, the natural advantages to be had for the taking, the resourcefulness and bountiful possibilities, all combined to spread the fame of the region, and served to attract settlers from various quarters less favored. To the northern part of Dover township came John Branson. Isaac D. Smith was prominent among those who found homes in Badger township, while in Montevallo Joseph Martin and others made permanent settlement in the early forties. It was at this time, too, in the fall of 1840, that John Hale and his family of sons and sons-in-law came from Pulaski county and formed a settlement just west of Nevada in the edge of the tim- ber that came to be known as Haletown. A sturdy, stanch and devout Methodist was he, and his place was the scene of the first camp meetings in the section, where he is remembered for his open-handed and warm-hearted hospitality that were freely dis- pensed with generous and cheerful liberality. And as one of the first zealous promoters of the Methodist Episcopal church, south, it is but fitting to speak a word in praise of his worthy, unselfish, devoted and consistent Christian character and life.
In 1841, in the northeastern section of the county, the broth- ers, Nelson, William and Joseph Lady, settled near the mouth of the stream known as Lady's Branch, while a little to the east of them Nelson Mckenzie made a home on Mckenzie's Branch. 1842 found J. B. Logan and Samuel Son on the Marmaton, north of Nevada, not far from Caton ford, where Noah Caton had set- tled in 1839. In a settlement south of Nevada, on Moore's Branch, was to be found William Moore, David Teel and Judge William Hudson; while to the west, near the border of the county on the same stream, Judge William Profitt had his plantation and slaves, and near the Kansas line, also, John Wentworth established his home on the west branch of the Drywood in 1842.
It was but natural that these first comers selected their home sites in the timbered tracts along the Marais des Cygnes, the
181
THE FIRST SETTLERS
Osages, the Marmaton, and other smaller streams throughout the country because of the difficulty in subduing the prairie lands and the lack of suitable implements for breaking up the thick. heavy, tough sod. Then, too, the timber served as a protection. And it was here that grew in abundance the tender, juicy, nourishing pea vines that kept fresh and green through the winter months, and the large, sweet, rich acorns on which the settlers' hogs and cattle fed and thrived and fattened, as they ran at large for the most part, caring for themselves. The small patches of prairie adjoining the wooded tracts that some of the first settlers culti- vated and planted with corn were made tillable with much difficulty.
THE GADFLIES.
A serious drawback and obstacle in the settlement of both the bottom and upland prairies in the earlier days were the myriads of gadflies that swarmed and infested them, the moisture and coolness of the tall, thick grass, especially in the sloughs and bottoms, being peculiarly adapted to their breeding and multi- plying. No mention of these pests is made by any of the early explorers and traders in the country, and it is supposed they came with the wild bees, not long before the coming of the white set- tlers. Be that as it may, they were there, and that, too, in such numbers and with appetites so voracious that they were a menace to any animal they attacked. The cattle, while by no means im- mune, on account of their tougher skins, were less affected by the sharp stings and bites than the horses. Swarms of them would attack a horse entering the tall grass, and if they did not actually kill the helpless beast, which sometimes occurred, so ravenous and merciless were they, that the poor animal was ren- dered frantic with pain, and it was customary in the warm sea- sons to suspend traveling across the prairies on horseback or with teams of horses in the daytime, and trips at night were made only in cases of positive necessity. But these conditions gradually changed and improved with the settlement and development of the country, the pasturing of the prairies, the improvement in agricultural facilities and the increase of the people's means.
It is to be remembered that these first settlers had at the first no title to the lands on which they settled, government entry in few, if any, cases, being made before the year 1850. But although
182
HISTORY OF VERNON COUNTY
these pioneers at the first held no deeds to the land, paying no taxes and having only "squatter's rights," those rights and in- terests were recognized and respected, and he would have fared ill who had attempted to jump a legitimate settler's claim.
LACK OF MARKETS IN EARLY DAYS.
In these early days there was little market for products, and with comparatively few exceptions, the first settlers contented themselves with raising what was needed for their own use. Prod- ucts were cheap and a barrel of bacon sold for a dollar and fifty cents, while milch cows brought about $10, and $6 was an average price for marketable three-year-old steers. In favorable seasons there was usually sufficient corn and wheat raised for home con- sumption, but in case of scarcity from drought or other causes, breadstuffs were secured from more favored localities, being brought in wagonloads and ground at Ball's mill, and sometimes flour and cornmeal were procured at other more distant mills. As the years passed, conditions improved, nearly all of the set- tlers raised more or less stock, and by 1845 stock buyers began coming in. In that year a buyer from Ohio gathered up a herd from the more extensive farmers, paying $5 and $6 for three and four-year-old steers and drove them to Ohio via St. Louis and the old National Pike. One of the early stock buyers was Col. R. A. Boughan, who for a number of years was accustomed to buying herds of several hundred cattle and driving them to Vir- ginia and Maryland for the eastern markets and taking two months for the journey.
With the increasing influx of settlers, accommodation to meet and supply their needs sprang up at various points and stocks of goods were brought in and stores opened. About 1836 Messrs. Barnhart and Raper opened a store at Balltown. A little farther down, on the Osage, Daniel and James Johnson started a store in 1838, and the next year Capt. William Waldo established his store at the Cephas ford on the Marmaton. These were the first regular stores with general stocks of goods established in the limits of the territory which is the subject of this writing, leav- ing out of account the various trading posts of French and other Indian traders, and that of Pierre Chouteau, on the Osage near the Collen ford, established about 120 years ago.
Referring to these earlier traders it is quite in place to state
183
THE FIRST SETTLERS
that Pierre Laclede Liguest, who came hither from France in 1763, founded St. Louis in 1764. He enjoyed the exclusive right of trading with the Indians in Louisiana territory as far north as St. Peters river and exercised the rights granted by his license for several years. But after Spain assumed control of the terri- tory the system was changed and licenses to trade with certain Indian tribes were granted to individual traders, and trading posts sprang up at various points. It was under this system, about 1782, that Pierre Chouteau, who for many years had a monopoly of the trade of the Osages, established his post on the south bank of the Osage river near Halley's Bluffs in Vernon county. Pierre Chouteau was a natural son of the founder of St. Louis and Madame Theresa Chouteau, who had separated from Aug. Rene Chouteau after the birth of her son, Auguste Chou- teau, Sr., but who, under the rules of the Catholic church, could not be so divorced as to resume her maiden name. Under the formal civil separation granted her the children of her marriage with Laclede Liguest, though legitimate, were required to take her name, Chouteau. Some twelve years after Pierre Chouteau had established his post Manuel de Lisa succeeded him as exclu- sive trader, but shared with him the trading privileges with the Osages. This monopoly system was broken up after the United States came into possession of the territory, in 1803, and by the establishment of government posts, trade with the Indians in- creased. De Lisa and Chouteau continued as leading spirits after the change of government, and, with others, in 1808, formed the Missouri Fur Company, opening negotiations and establishing trading posts among the various tribes in Missouri, Kansas, Ne- braska and western Arkansas.
This company was short lived and after its dissolution in 1812 some of those connected with it established independent posts and traded on their individual accounts. The most ad- vanced post of the government at that time was Fort Osage, in Jackson county, Missouri, but De Lisa went 1,200 miles up the Missouri river and opened a trading house.
THE AMERICAN FUR COMPANY.
As an outgrowth of the Missouri Fur Company Pierre Chou- teau, Sr., his half-brother, Auguste, Sr., Pierre, Jr., and his brother, Francis, and some others, in 1813, formed the American
184
HISTORY OF VERNON COUNTY
Fur Company and took possession of the posts formerly occupied by its predecessor in an endeavor to monopolize the trade. In the prosecution of this purpose Francis spent several years in Kansas. The post known as the Four House, built on the four sides of an open court, was established on the north bank and twenty miles above the mouth of the Kaw, or Kansas river. An agency established at the mouth of the Kaw some years later fur- nished supplies to the various houses and was the headquarters whence men were sent to the Neosho, the Osage, and other points. Another Chouteau brother, Cyprian, joined Francis in 1825. in building a post on the south side of the Kaw, opposite- where Muncie now is. Five years later another house was opened on Mission creek, in what is now Shawnee county, Kansas, by Fred- erick Chouteau, and still later other trading houses were estab- lished at different points between the Platte and Arkansas rivers.
When the missionaries came, in the fall of 1821, although the fur company's post near the Osage village had, apparently, been abandoned some time during the disturbances of the War of 1812. French traders were still in this section, there being then stores on the Marais des Cygnes, where Papinville was laid out in 1847. and on the north bank of the Osage near the Collen ford. Well- known stores in the early thirties were those of Michael Gireau and Melicourt Papin, but Gireau, in 1839, changed his location to a point on the Marais des Cygnes, in what is now Linn county, Kansas, some five miles west of the Missouri line. This place called Trading Post passed into the hands of one of the Chou- teaus in 1842, and thenceforward was known as Chouteau's trad- ing post and came prominently into notice during the Kansas troubles preceding the Civil War.
From about 1834 till 1840 there was a store on the north side of the Marmaton not far from Deerfield, conducted by Auguste Chouteau, Jr. He was succeeded' by his son, Edward Chouteau, who was joined by his brother Charles in 1845, and they con- ducted the store as partners with a general stock of goods. Charles died the latter part of 1849 from the effects of dissipation and the brother Edward died of a malignant cancer. Papin and Edward Chouteau had Indian wives, and for this reason secured a large part of the Indian trade, although the brothers, Daniel and James Johnson, and Capt. William Waldo, American traders,
185
THE FIRST SETTLERS
heretofore mentioned, had among their customers many of the Indians, whose barter they took in exchange for goods.
THE FIRST POSTOFFICE.
The first postoffice in this section called Little Osage was established at Balltown in 1840, and the first postmaster was Dr. Leonard Dodge, who also is said to have taught the first school, kept in a log schoolhouse built near Balltown in 1835. This was supplanted in 1840 by a frame building, which was used for school and church purposes. There were also private schools; one taught by a Miss Pixley in Captain Woodruff's house in 1838, and another in a log schoolhouse built by Colonel Douglas on his farm, and first taught by Mr. Freeman Barrows, who was the first county clerk of Bates county.
Preaching services began as early as 1821, when Rev. Na- thaniel B. Dodge, of the Harmony Mission, preached in White Hair's village to the Indians. But Rev. Amasa Jones conducted the first service before a white audience in William Modrel's house in 1832. During this year, also, occurred the first wedding in the community, the contracting parties being David Cruise and Fanny Summers, and the ceremony being performed by the Rev. Jones at the home of Allen Summers, the bride's father. The Summers families had the further distinction of having the first children born within the present limits of the county, when, in 1830, Mrs. Allen Summers gave birth to twin boys who were named Jesse and Hardin, and their twin cousins, Sarah and Hugh, were born to Jesse and Charlotte Summers. At the mis- sion station the twins, Benjamin and Joseph Sprague, were born in 1822. A little later a daughter, Eliza, came to Rev. Amasa and Roxana Jones. Elizabeth Austin was born to Daniel H. and Lydia Austin. Mrs. Samuel B. Bright became the mother of a son, William Bright, and Galveston Newton was born to Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Newton. The last child born at the mission was Martin Modrel, in 1827.
It is interesting to note that these first settlers differed in many respects from the generally accepted opinion regarding pioneers, as a class of ignorant, rough, uncouth backwoodsmen. While it is true that the most of them were people of moderate means who found it necessary to economize and deny themselves, to work diligently and hard to supply their daily needs, to en-
186
HISTORY OF VERNON COUNTY
dure privations and hardships, they were, as a class, industri- ous, hardy and thrifty, and possessed of those domestic and homely virtues that are fundamentals in the formation of society and the groundwork of good citizenship. Many of them were people of refinement, educated and cultured ; some were of means, and all were intelligent, and with comparatively few exceptions, ambitious to better their conditions. And in view of all they did in laying so well the foundations on which their descendants and others have built, it is no more than their due that those who have come into the rich heritage of the fruits of their lives of industry and hardship, privation and virtue, should recognize the debt of gratitude they owe to them and keep in lasting and loving remembrance the record of their deeds so well and nobly wrought.
-
CHAPTER XVII.
ESTABLISHMENT OF FORT SCOTT AND INTERESTING INCIDENTS.
An important event as affecting the development of Vernon county and neighboring sections was the establishment, in the spring of 1842, of Fort Scott as 'a government military station. The site of the post was fixed about midway between Fort Gib- son, 160 miles to the south, and Fort Leavenworth, 140 miles to the north. Five years prior to this, in 1837, the secretary of war had published a plan, devised by Mr. Charles Gratiot, of St. Louis, strongly recommending the protection and defense of Missouri's southwestern frontier. Pursuant to this recommenda- tion and in furtherance of the project, a commission comprising Capt. Benjamin Moore, First United States Dragoons, and Dr. Mott, assistant surgeon, United States Army, was ordered by General Zachary Taylor, and on April 1, 1842, started out from Fort Wayne, in the Indian Territory, under escort of Lieut. John Hamilton and nineteen men. What was regarded by the commission as a suitable site was first hit upon some fifty-five miles south of that finally selected on Spring river. But being limited to the expenditure of not more than $1,000 for a site, and the owner of the land fixing his price at $4,000, the com- missioners were obliged to look elsewhere. Before doing so they resolved to ask the advice and aid of Col. George Douglas, whose reputation and standing were well known, and for this purpose made their way to his home on the Marmaton. Rumor has it that Colonel Douglas, had le desired it, could have had the fort located in this vicinity. But from whatever motives, he advised the selection of a site on government land farther up the river and outside the state. Acting on this suggestion and accom- panied by Colonel Douglas and Mr. Abram Redfield, the com- pany at once proceeded to the place indicated, then a barren prairie, and on April, 1842, fixed the location of what was then
187
188
HISTORY OF VERNON COUNTY
known as Camp Scott, the name being changed to Fort Scott some two years later. The purpose of the commission accom- plished, Lieutenant Hamilton with his men, who were left in charge, at once constructed for temporary quarters a rude, one- story log cabin, filling the chinks with mud. Two years later a sawmill was built two miles to the west and here was sawed the lumber for the buildings that were afterward erected at a cost to the government of more than $50,000 and then regarded the finest quarters in the army. Returning to the post on June 10, Captain Moore was in command till the fall of 1842, when he was relieved by Maj. William M. Graham, who came with two companies of the Sixth United States Infantry. The first quar- termaster was Captain Swords. Rev. M. Clarkson was first chap- lain of the post, and Mr. John A. Bugg, who was made Sutler, was also postmaster from March 3, 1843, to February 26, 1849, when Col. Hiero T. Wilson, his business partner, succeeded him. Fort Scott was maintained as a government military post till 1854, Captain Hamilton and Colonel Wilson and their families continuing in the government's employ till the troops were with- drawn. In May, 1855, the buildings were sold at a public sale for $1,755, and two years later a local company platted and laid out the town of Fort Scott, which became the scene of many stirring events, and a center of influence tending to the develop- ment and growth of all the country round about.
Vernon county people, especially, were benefited by the es- tablishment of the military station from the beginning. Not only did it give employment to a large number of mechanics and la- borers in the construction and maintenance of the buildings and in keeping up and caring for the place, but also large quantities of supplies, required by the garrison, were furnished by Vernon county farmers, and everything was paid for in cash. It fur- nished a ready market and trading place for the settlers in the southwestern section of the county, more convenient than Ball- town, which had been the principal trading point, and the store of Messrs. Bugg and Wilson became famous as headquarters for everything in the way of general merchandise required by the settlers and Indians, as well as supplying the wants of the sol- diers, some of whom, on the expiration of their terms of en- listment, selected home sites and became permanent settlers of Vernon county.
189
ESTABLISHMENT OF FORT SCOTT
DEVELOPMENT RETARDED.
The remoteness from the large markets and the lack of trans- portation facilities retarded rapid development of the country in the early days. Goods and supplies shipped up the Missouri from St. Louis to Independence, Jefferson City and Lexington had to be hauled by teams and wagons across the country, and although the question of navigating the Osage was long discussed, nothing was actually done till 1844, a year memorable in the history of this section. It was in the spring of that year that a little steamer, called Maid of Osage, and commanded by Cap- tain Bennett, laden with goods' from St. Louis, came up the Osage as far as Osceola. Later that season the same boat or one named Flora Jones (accounts differ as to which) commanded, it is said, by Capt. William Waldo, and coming from Jefferson City, ascended the Osage and made a landing at Harmony Mis- sion on the Marais des Cygnes, unloading and taking on freight for the return trip. Other boats made numerous trips that year, the season being especially favorable to navigation till midsum- mer on account of the heavy floods that had prevailed. From this time on for many years boats navigated the river, though not regularly. Captain Waldo, with the Wave came up as far as Papinville in 1847 with salt and lumber for Philip Zeal, a well-known old-time merchant. United States mail was brought by steamer to the same place in 1856. In the spring of 1862 the steamer Silver Lake brought to Osceola 20,000 rations for federal soldiers stationed there under Capt. William Leffingwell, of the First Iowa Cavalry. . In 1868-9 the Tom Stephens made four trips to the same point. The uncertainty and difficulties and the failure to secure government aid to improve the navigation of these upper waters of the Osage finally led to the abandonment of the project and the coming of the railroad did away with the necessity.
FLOODS OF 1844.
The year 1844 is further remembered on account of the floods that prevailed throughout the Missouri river valley and adja- cent country. It rained almost incessantly during the spring and early summer and in the month of June there were but eight days without showers. The Osage, the Marmaton, the Marais
190
HISTORY OF VERNON COUNTY
des Cygnes and all the smaller streams and creeks throughout Vernon county and neighboring sections overflowed their banks, and small lakes and pools covered the lowlands and filled the marshes and sloughs. Seeding and planting were not only greatly retarded, but also many farmers had their crops flooded and drowned out and had to plant their corn two, three and in some localities even four times. The price of seed corn, owing to the scarcity, went up to three dollars and even three dollars and a quarter per bushel. And as a consequence of these conditions, many gave up heart and hope and left the country in disgust. Even a Fourth of July celebration at Balltown that had been planned for this year proved a failure on account of the high water and a party of Bates county men who started thither on the third had a perilous experience and only by heroic effort saved themselves from drowning. They had crossed the Osage at Papinville in skiff's and were passing over the submerged bot- tom when a fierce gale caught their light crafts, tossing them about and dashing the water over them so that they must have been swamped had not the men by herculean effort been able to row to a sheltering clump of trees, where some steadied the boats by holding onto the limbs while others bailed out the water and kept them from sinking. A notch cut in one of the trees by one of the party as a high water mark was to be seen many years afterward, thirteen feet above the ground.
Another unusual event was what was known as the Big Sleet of November, 1848, when the ground was covered with sleet and ice to a thickness of three to four inches, and travel was ob- structed by fallen branches and trees in the roadways, broken down by the weight of the ice and sleet, and for days travel had to be suspended, the horse being unable to stand. And in some sections people who could not get to the mill had to sub- stitute the mortar and pestle and other primitive means to pro- vide themselves with bread.
Notwithstanding the failure of the Fourth of July celebra- tion that was attempted in 1844, the patriotic spirit of the people, though dampened, was not quenched, and a grand celebration of the day, attended by some 300 people, was held at Balltown in 1848. According to the most reliable accounts, Nathaniel B. Dodge presided and the Declaration of Independence was read by Dr. Leonard Dodge. Judge Alfred F. Nelson, who came from
191
ESTABLISHMENT OF FORT SCOTT
Stokes county, North Carolina, and settled with his wife and three children near Balltown, in 1842, and who served two terms as county judge of Bates county, delivered the oration of the day, which has been preserved and is given here, in full, as the first speech of the kind delivered in this section. Judge Nelson spoke as follows :
JUDGE NELSON'S SPEECH.
Ladies and Gentlemen: I appear before you today in com- pliance with the request of the committee of arrangements for this occasion, and I feel wholly incompetent to discharge the task in a manner that will be satisfactory to those that imposed it upon me, and I never should have undertaken it had I not felt it to be my duty to comply with their wishes. But I feel encouraged from' the fact that you know I make no pretensions to those powers of elocution which generally characterize Fourth of July orators, and I trust that this polite and respectable audi- ence will for this day be governed by those liberal views and sen- timents which immortalized those whose deeds we have this day assembled to celebrate.
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.