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 3
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Complete satisfaction was given to both parties in the terms of the treaty. Mr. Livingston said :
"I consider that from this day the United States takes rank with the first powers of Europe, and now she has entirely escaped from the power of England," and Bonaparte expressed a similar sentiment when he said: "By this cession of territory I have secured the power of the United States, and given to England a maritime rival, who, at some future time, will humble her pride."
These were prophetic words, for within a few years afterward the British met with a signal defeat, on the plains of the very ter- ritory of which the great Corsican had been speaking.
From 1800, the date of the cession made by Spain, to 1803, when it was purchased by the United States, no change had been made by the French authorities in the jurisprudence of the Upper
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HISTORY OF MISSOURI
and Lower Louisiana, and during this period the Spanish laws remained in full force, as the laws of the entire province; a fact which is of interest to those who would understand the legal history and some of the present laws of Missouri.
On December 20th, 1803, Generals Wilkinson and Claiborne, who were jointly commissioned to take possession of the territory for the United States, arrived in the city of New Orleans at the head of the American forces. Laussat, who had taken possession but twenty days previously as the prefect of the colony, gave up his command, and the star-spangled banner supplanted the tri- colored flag of France. The agent of France, to take possession of Upper Louisiana from the Spanish authorities, was Amos Stod- dard, captain of artillery in the United States service. He was placed in possession of St. Louis on the 9th of March, 1804, by Charles Dehault Delassus, the Spanish commandant, and on the following day he transferred it to the United States. The au- thority of the United States in Missouri dates from this day.
From that moment the interests of the people of the Mississippi valley became identified. They were troubled no more with uncer- tainties in regard to free navigation. The great river, along whose banks they had planted their towns and villages, now afforded them a safe and easy outlet to the markets of the world. Under the protecting ægis of a government, republican in form, and hav- ing free access to an almost boundless domain, embracing in its broad area the diversified climates of the globe, and possessing a soil unsurpassed for fertility, beauty of scenery and wealth of minerals, they had every incentive to push on their enterprises and build up the land wherein their lot had been cast.
In the purchase of Louisiana, it was known that a great empire had been secured as a heritage to the people of our country. for all time to come, but its grandeur, its possibilities, its inexhaustible resources and the important relations it would sustain to the nation and the world were never dreamed of by even Mr. Jefferson and his adroit and accomplished diplomatists.
The most ardent imagination never conceived of the progress which would mark the history of the "Great West." The adven- turous pioneer, who fifty years ago pitched his tent upon its broad prairies, or threaded the dark labyrinths of its lonely forests. little thought that a mighty tide of physical and intellectual
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HISTORY OF VERNON COUNTY
strength, would so rapidly flow on in his footsteps, to populate. build up and enrich the domain which he had conquered.
Year after year, civilization has advanced further and further, until at length the mountains, the hills and the valleys, and even the rocks and the caverns, resound with the noise and din of busy millions.
In 1804, congress, by an act passed in April of the same year. divided Louisiana into two parts, the ."Territory of Orleans," and the "District of Louisiana," known as "Upper Louisiana." This district included all that portion of the old province, north of "Hope Encampment," on the Lower Mississippi, and embraced the present state of Missouri, and all the western region of country to the Pacific ocean, and all below the 49th degree of north latitude not claimed by Spain.
As a matter of convenience, on March 26th, 1804, Missouri was placed with the jurisdiction of the government of the territory of Indiana, and its government put in motion by Gen. William H. Harrison, then governor of Indiana. In this he was assisted by Judges Griffin, Vanderburg and Davis, who established in St. Louis what were called courts of common pleas. The District of Louisiana was regularly organized into the Territory of Louisiana by congress, March 3, 1805. and President Jefferson appointed Gen. James Wilkinson, governor, and Frederick Bates, secretary. The legislature of the territory was formed by Governor Wilkin- son and Judges R. J. Meigs and John B. C. Lucas. In 1807, Gov- ernor Wilkinson was succeeded by Capt. Meriwether Lewis, who had become famous by reason of his having made the expedition up the Missouri with Clark. Governor Lewis committed suicide in 1809 and President Madison appointed Gen. Benjamin Howard, of Lexington, Ky., to fill his place. General Howard resigned October 25, 1810, to enter the war of 1812, and died in St. Louis, in 1814. Capt. William Clark, of Lewis and Clark's expedition, was appointed governor in 1810, to succeed General Howard, and remained in office until the admission of the state into the Union, in 1821.
The portions of Missouri which were settled, for the purposes of local government were divided into four districts. Cape Girardeau was the first, and embraced the territory between Tywappity bottom and Apple creek. Ste. Genevieve, the second. embraced the territory from Apple creek to the Meramec river.
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HISTORY OF MISSOURI
St. Louis, the third, embraced the territory between the Meramec and Missouri rivers. St. Charles, the fourth, included the settled territory, between the Missouri and Mississippi rivers. The total - population of these districts at that time, was 8,670, including slaves. The population of the district of Louisiana, when ceded to the United States, was 10,120.
CHAPTER III.
DESCRIPTIVE AND GEOGRAPHICAL.
The name Missouri is derived from the Indian tongue and signifies muddy river.
Missouri is bounded on the north by Iowa (from which it is separated for about thirty miles on the northeast, by the Des Moines river). and on the east by the Mississippi river, which divides it from Illinois, Kentucky and Tennessee, and on the west by Oklahoma, and the states of Kansas and Nebraska. The state lies (with the exception of a small projection between the St. Francis and the Mississippi rivers, which extends to 36°), between 36° 30' and 40° 36' north latitude, and between 12° 2' and 18° 51' west longitude from Washington.
The extreme width of the state east and west, is about 348 miles; its width on its northern boundary, measured from its northeast corner along the Iowa line. to its intersection with the Des Moines river, is about 210 miles; its width on its southern boundary is about 288 miles. Its average width is about 235 miles.
The length of the state north and south, not including the narrow strip between the St. Francis and Mississippi rivers, is about 282 miles. It is about 450 miles from its extreme north- west corner to its southeast corner, and from the northeast cor- ner to the southwest corner, it is about 230 miles. These limits embrace an area of 65,350 square miles, or 41,824,000 acres, being nearly as large as England, and the state of Vermont and New Hampshire.
North of the Missouri, the state is level or undulating. while the portion south of that river (the larger portion of the state) exhibits a greater variety of surface. In the southeastern part is an extensive marsh, reaching beyond the state into Arkansas. The remainder of this portion between the Mississippi and Osage rivers is rolling. and gradually rising into a hilly and mountain- ous district, forming the outskirts of the Ozark mountains.
Beyond the Osage river, at some distance, commences a vast
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DESCRIPTIVE AND GEOGRAPHICAL
expanse of prairie land which stretches away towards the Rocky mountains. The ridges forming the Ozark chain extend in a northeast and southwest direction, separating the waters that flow northeast into the Missouri from those that flow southeast into the Mississippi river.
No state in the union enjoys better facilities for navigation than Missouri. By means of the Mississippi river, which stretches along her entire eastern boundary, she can hold commercial in- tercourse with the most northern territory and state in the union; with the whole valley of the Ohio; with many of the Atlantic states, and with the gulf of Mexico.
By the Missouri river she can extend her commerce to the Rocky mountains, and receive in return the products which will come in the course of time, by its multitude of tributaries.
The Missouri river coasts the northwest line of the state for about 250 miles, following its windings, and then flows through the state, a little south of east, to its junction with the Mississippi. The Missouri river receives a number of tributaries within the limits of the state, the principal of which are the Nodaway, Platte, Grand and Chariton from the north, and the Blue, Sniabar, Lamine, Osage and Gasconde from the south. The principal tributaries of the Mississippi within the State, are the Salt river, north, and the Meramec river south of the Missouri.
The St. Francis and White rivers, with their branches, drain the southeastern part of the state, and pass into Arkansas. The Osage is navigable for steamboats for more than 175 miles. There are a vast number of smaller streams, such as creeks, branches and rivers, which water the state in all directions.
Timber. Not more towering in their sublimity were the cedars of ancient Lebanon, nor more precious in their utility were the ahnond trees of Ophir, than the native forests of Missouri. The river bottoms are covered with a luxuriant growth of oak, ash, elm, hickory, cottonwood, linn, white and black walnut, and in fact, all the varieties found in the Atlantic and Eastern states. In the more barren districts may be seen the white and pin oak, and in many places a dense growth of pine. The crab ap- ple, papaw and persimmon are abundant, as also the hazel and pecan.
Climate. The climate of Missouri is, in general, pleasant and saluburious. Like that of North America, it is changeable, and
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HISTORY OF VERNON COUNTY
subject to sudden and sometimes extreme changes of heat and cold; but it is decidedly milder, taking the whole year through, than that of the same latitudes east of the mountains. While the summers are not more oppressive than they are in the corre- sponding latitudes on and near the Atlantic coast, the winters are shorter, and very much milder, except during the month of February, which has many days of pleasant sunshine.
Prairies. Missouri is a prairie state, especially that portion of it north and northwest of the Missouri river. These prairies, along the water courses, abound with the thickest and most lux- urious belts of timber, while the "rolling" prairies occupy the higher portions of the country, the descent generally to the for- ests or bottom lands being over only declivities. Many of these prairies, however, exhibit a gracefully waving surface, swelling and sinking with an easy slope, and a full, rounded outline, equally avoiding the unmeaning horizontal surface and the in- terrption of abrupt or angular elevations.
These prairies often embrace extensive tracts of land, and in one or two instances they cover an area of fifty thousand acres. During the spring and summer they are carpeted with a velvet of green, and gaily bedecked with flowers of various forms and hues, making a most fascinating panorama of ever-changing color and loveliness. To fully appreciate their great beauty and magnitude, they must be seen.
Soil. The soil of Missouri is good, and of great agricultural capabilities, but the most fertile portions of the state are the river bottoms, which are a rich alluvium, mixed in many cases with sand, the producing qualities of which are not excelled by the prolific valley of the famous Nile.
South of the Missouri river there is a greater variety of soil, but much of it is fertile, and even in the mountains and mineral districts there are rich valleys, and about the sources of the White, Eleven Points, Current and Big Black rivers, the soil, though unproductive, furnishes a valuable growth of yellow pine.
The marshy lands in the southeastern part of the state will. by a system of drainage, be one of the most fertile districts in the state.
CHAPTER IV.
GEOLOGY OF MISSOURI.
The stratified rocks of Missouri, as classified and treated of by Prof. G. C. Swallow, belong to the following divisions : I. Quatenary ; II. Tertiary; III. Cretaceous; IV. Carboniferous; V. Devonian; VI. Silurian ; VII. Azoic.
"The quatenary formations, are the most recent, and the most valuable to man : valuable, because they can be more readily utilized.
The quatenary formation in Missouri embraces the alluvium, 30 feet thick; bottom prairie, 30 feet thick ; bluff, 200 feet thick ; and drift, 155 feet thick. The latest deposits are those which constitute the alluvium, and include the soils, pebbles and sand, clays, vegetable mould, bog, iron ore, marls, etc.
The alluvium deposits cover an area, within the limits of Missouri, of more than four million acres of land, which are not surpassed for fertility by any region of country on the globe.
The bluff prairie formation is confined to the low lands, which are washed by the two great rivers which course our eastern and western boundaries, and while it is only about half as extensive as the alluvial, it is equally as rich and productive." ,
"The bluff formation," says Prof. Swallow, "rests upon the ridges and river bluffs, and descends along their slopes to the lowest valleys, the formation capping all the bluffs of the Mis- souri from Fort Union to its mouth, and those of the Mississippi from Dubuque to the mouth of the Ohio. It forms the upper stratum beneath the soil of all the high lands, both timber and prairies, of all the counties north of the Osage and Missouri, and also St. Louis, and the Mississippi counties on the south.
"Its greatest development is in the counties on the Missouri river from the Iowa line to Booneville. In some localities it is 200 feet thick. At St. Joseph it is 140; at Booneville 100; and at St. Louis, in St. George's quarry, and the Big Mound, it is about
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HISTORY OF VERNON COUNTY
50 feet; while its greatest observed thickness in Marion county was only 30 feet."
The drift formation is that which lies beneath the bluff for- mation, having, as Prof. Swallow informs us, three distinct de- posits, to wit: "Altered drift, which are strata of sand and pebbles, seen in the banks of the Missouri, in the northwestern portion of the state.
The boulder formation is a heterogeneous stratum of sand, gravel and boulder, and water-worn fragments of the older rocks.
Boulder clay is a bed of bluish or brown sandy clay, through which pebbles are scattered in greater or less abundance. In some localities in northern Missouri, this formation assumes a pure white, pipe-clay color."
The tertiary formation is made up of clays, shales, iron ores, sandstone, and sands, scattered along the bluffs, and edges of the bottoms, reaching from Commerce, Scott county, to Stoddard, and south to the Chalk Bluffs in Arkansas.
The cretaceous formation lies beneath the tertiary, and is composed of variegated sandstone, blueish-brown sandy slate, whitish-brown impure sandstone, fine white clay mingled with spotted flint, purple, red and blue clays, all being in the aggre- gate, 158 feet in thickness. There are no fossils in these rocks, and nothing by which their age may be told.
The carboniferous system includes the upper carboniferous or coal-measures, and the lower carboniferous or mountain lime- stone. The coal-measures are made up of numerous strata of sandstones, limestones, shales, clays, marls, spathic iron ores, and coals.
The carboniferous formation, including coal-measures and the beds of iron, embrace an area in Missouri of 27,000 square miles. The varieties of coal found in the state are the common bitumin- ous and cannel coals, and they exist in quantities inexhaustible. The fact that these coal-measures are full of fossils, which are always confined to the coal-measures, enables the geologist to point them out, and the coal beds contained in them.
The rocks of the lower carboniferous formation are varied in color, and are quarried in many different parts of the state, being extensively utilized for building and other purposes.
Among the lower carboniferous rocks is found the upper archimedes limestone, 200 feet; ferruginous sandstone, 195 feet ;
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GEOLOGY OF MISSOURI
middle archimedes, 50 feet; St. Louis limestone, 250 feet ; oölitic limestone, 25 feet; lower archimedes limestone, 350 feet; and en- crinital limestone, 500 feet. These limestones generally contain fossils.
The ferruginous limestone is soft when quarried, but be- comes hard and durable after exposure. It contains large quan- tities of iron, and is found skirting the eastern coal-measures from the mouth of the Des Moines to McDonald county.
The St. Louis limestone is of various hues and tints, and very hard. It is found in Clark, Lewis and St. Louis counties.
The lower archimedes limestone includes partly the lead bear- ing rocks of southwestern missouri.
The encrinital limestone is the most extensive of the divisions of carboniferous limestone, and is made up of brown, buff, gray and white. In these strata are found the remains of corals and mollusks. This formation extends from Marion county to Greene county. The Devonian system contains : Chemung group, Ham- ilton group, Onondaga limestone and Oriskany sandstone. The rocks of the Devonian system are found in Marion, Ralls, Pike, Callaway, Saline and Ste. Genevieve counties.
The Chemung group has three formations, Chouteau lime- stone, 85 feet; vermicular sandstone and shales, 75 feet; litho- graphic limestone, 125 feet.
The Chouteau limestone is in two divisions, when fully de- veloped, and when first quarried is soft. It is not only good for building purposes but makes an excellent cement.
The vermicular sandstone and shales are usually buff or yel- lowish brown, and perforated with pores.
The lithographic limestone is a pure, fine, compact, evenly- textured limestone. Its color varies from light drab to buff and blue. It is called "pot metal," because under the hammer it gives a sharp, ringing sound. It has but few fossils.
The Hamilton group is made up of some 40 feet of blue shales, and 170 feet of crystalline limestone.
Onondaga limestone is usually a coarse, gray or buff crystal- line, thick-bedded and cherty limestone. No formation in Mis- souri presents such variable and. widely different lithological characters as the Onondaga.
Of the upper silurian series there are the following forma-
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HISTORY OF VERNON COUNTY
tions : Lower Helderberg, 350 feet; Niagara group, 200 feet, Cape Girardeau limestone, 60 feet.
The lower Helderberg is made up of buff, gray, and reddish cherty and argillaceous limestone.
Niagara group. The upper part of this group consists of red, yellow and ash-colored shales, with compact limestones, variegated with bands and nodules of chert.
The Cape Girardeau limestone, on the Mississippi river near Cape Girardeau, is a compact, bluish-gray, brittle limestone, with smooth fractures in layers from two to six inches in thickness, with argillaceous partings. These strata contain a great many fossils.
The lower silurian has the following ten formations, to wit: Hunson river group, 220 feet; Trenton limestone, 360 feet, Black river and bird's eye limestone, 175 feet; first magnesian lime- stone, 200 feet; saccharoidal sandstone, 125 feet; second mag- nesian limestone, 250 feet; second sandstone, 115 feet; third magnesian limestone, 350 feet; third sandstone, 60 feet; fourth magnesian limestone, 350 feet.
Hudson river group. There are three formations which Prof. Swallow refers to in this group. These formations are found in the bluff above and below Louisiana; on the Grassy a few miles northwest of Louisiana, and in Ralls, Pike, Cape Girardeau and Ste. Genevieve counties.
Trenton limestone. The upper part of this formation is made up of thick beds of hard, compact, bluish gray and drab lime- stone, variegated with irregular cavities, filled with greenish materials.
The beds are exposed between Hannibal and New London, north of Salt river, near Glencoe, St. Louis county, and are seventy-five feet thick.
Black river and bird's eye limestone are the same color as the Trenton limestone.
The first magnesian limestone cap the picturesque bluffs of the Osage in Benton and neighboring counties.
The saccharoidal sandstone has a wide range in the state. In a bluff about two miles from Warsaw, is a very striking change of thickness of this formation.
Second magnesian limestone, in lithological character, is like the first.
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GEOLOGY OF MISSOURI
The second sandstone, usually of yellowish brown, sometimes becomes a pure white, fine-grained, soft sandstone as on Cedar creek, in Washington and Franklin counties.
The third magnesian limestone is exposed in the high and pic- turesque bluffs of the Niangua, in the neighborhood of Bryce's Spring.
The third sandstone is white and has a formation in moving water.
The fourth magnesian limestone is seen on the Niangua and Osage rivers.
The azoic rocks lie below the silurian and form a series of silicious and other slates which contain no remains of organic life.
Coal. Missouri is particularly rich in minerals. Indeed, no state in the union surpasses her in this respect. In some un- known age of the past-long before the existence of man-Na- ture, by a wise process, made a bountiful provision for the time, when in the order of things, it should be necessary for civilized man to take possession of these broad, rich prairies. As an equivalent for lack of forests, she quietly stored away beneath the soil those wonderful carboniferous treasures for the use of man.
Geological surveys have developed the fact that the coal de- posits in the state are almost unnumbered, embracing all va- rieties of the best bituminous coal. A large portion of the state has been ascertained to be one continuous coal field, stretching from the mouth of the Des Moines river through Clark, Lewis, Scotland, Adair, Macon, Shelby, Monroe, Audrain, Callaway, Boone, Cooper, Pettis, Benton, Henry, St. Clair, Bates, Vernon, Cedar, Dade, Barton and Jasper, into Oklahoma, and the counties on the northwest of this line contain more or less coal. Coal rocks exist in Ralls, Montgomery, Warren, St. Charles, Moniteau, Cole, Morgan, Crawford and Lincoln, and during the past few years, all along the lines of all the railroads in North Missouri, and along the western end of the Missouri Pacific, and on the Missouri river, between Kansas City and Sioux City, has systematic mining, opened up hundred of mines in different localities. The area of our coal beds, on the line of the southwestern boundary of the state alone, embraces more than 26,000 square miles of regular coal-measures. This will
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HISTORY OF VERNON COUNTY
give of workable coal, if the average be one foot, 26,800,000,000 tons. The estimates from the developments already made, in the different portions of the state, will give 134,000,000,000 tons.
The economical value of this coal to the state, its influence in domestic life, in navigation, commerce and manufactures, is beyond the imagination of man to conceive. Suffice it to say, that in the possession of her developed and undeveloped coal mines, Missouri has a motive power, which in its influences for good, in the civilization of man, is more potent than the gold of California.
Iron. Prominent among the minerals, which increase the power and prosperity of a nation, is iron. Of this ore, Missouri has an inexhaustible quantity, and like her coal fields, it has been developed in many portions of the state, and of the best and purest quality. It is found in great abundance in the counties of Cooper, St. Clair, Greene, Henry, Franklin, Benton, Dallas. Camden, Stone, Madison, Iron, Washington, Perry, St. Francis, Reynolds, Stoddard, Scott, Dent and others. The greatest de- posit is found in the Iron mountain, which is two hundred feet high, and covers an erea of five hundred acres, and produces a metal, which is shown by analysis, to contain from 65 to 69 per cent of metallic iron.
The ore of Shepherd mountain contains from 64 to 67 per cent of metallic iron. The ore of Pilot Knob contains from 53 to 60 per cent.
Rich beds of iron are also found at the Big Bogey mountain, and at Russell mountain. This ore has, in its nude state, a variety of colors, from the red, dark red, black, brown, to a light bluish gray. The red ores are found in twenty-one or more counties of the state, and are of great commercial value. The brown hematite iron ores extend over a greater range of country than all the others combined, embracing about one hundred counties, and have been ascertained to exist in these in large quantities.
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