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 33
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368
HISTORY OF VERNON COUNTY
has been abandoned on the oil and gas account, but some are beginning to utilize both oil and gas on their farms. When taken into consideration that the automobile has forced a revolu- tion in road building on account of its weight and suction and makes the old established macadam and Telford systems of rock road an absolute failure and has made road building the livest issue of the day nationwide, and now the cities, states and nation are having their engineers experiment on the best road building material, as the following will show. The Citizens' Municipal Trades League of Philadelphia employed Professor Samuel P. Stadler and Mr. J. Edward Whitfield to investigate the properties of the different fluxing materials, and they re- ported there were two methods by which the petroleum residuum in asphalt paving mixtures can be done away with; the first is to find natural asphalts which retain sufficient of their original asphalt oils to make it possible to use them with no other ad- mixture than the proper amount of sand and pulverized lime- stone; the other to mix with the hard natural asphalts. Liquid natural asphalt, of which a number are found on the Pacific coast and elsewhere in the West. By the following analyses it will be seen that Vernon county has the quality called for in the above specifications, not only for the rock asphaltum, but also for the liquid asphaltaum.
ANALYSES.
Total bitumen 9.40 per cent
Mineral matter (sandstone) 90.60 per cent
100.00
This material is bituminous sandstone, carrying 9.40 per cent asphaltic base, not crude petroleum oil, but true asphaltic mat- ter. This material is suitable for paving purposes when prop- erly mixed with a mixture of asphaltic cement, as per specifica- tions for rock asphalt paving. The material is sufficiently high in asphalt to make it suitable for paving purposes.
Respectfully submitted, Kansas City testing laboratory,
By A. C. LYONS.
369
FIRE CLAY AND ASPHALTUM
COMPARATIVE ANALYSES OF THE LIQUID CRUDE ASPHALTUMS.
Vene-
Vernon
California. Cuba. Mexico. zuela. Trinidad. Co.
Bitumen
.85
.68
.94
.95
.40
98.74
Mineral matter. . .
.08
.26
.04
.02
.26
.12
Organic matter ..
.01
.01
.02
.01
.04
1.14
Water
.06
.05
.02
.30
. .
100.
100.
100.
100.
100.
100.
Asphaltum has been established for centuries as the best road building material, but the problem is to get the right quality and from the above it will be seen Vernon county asphaltum is vir- tually pure as it comes from the earth, and when we take into consideration the millions of miles of roads to be built in this country and that Ohio has put a road tax on that will create $3,000,000 each year for good road building purposes, and other states will follow. What will happen in Vernon county when these millions upon millions come knocking at her door for. the asphalts. One development will call for another, and Vernon county's great coal deposit will be opened up further, and her fine beds of molders' sand and china clays, along with her gas and oil, and Vernon county will, when under full headway of de- velopment, be a regular beehive of manufacturers. All it needs to make it go is capital and business management. We don't have to spend any money prospecting to find it, for it is here.
Iola, Kan., June 4, 1903.
Dear Sir: In connection with the analysis of fire clay shown me, which made from samples from Missouri, will say that in nine years' experience in the brick business I have never before seen a fire clay which the analysis came as near what is considered standard as the above named.
I consider that you have a proposition that you should go right after and make a thorough investigation to be sure that the whole body is of the same quality.
I have made it my business to compile a list of the fire clays of the eastern and western hemispheres and find considerable
370
HISTORY OF VERNON COUNTY
difference in the composition of the same. There are no clays in any one section that are suitable for all purposes, and our most advanced manufacturers use different grades of clay for different purposes.
Above I refer to fire clays which I will explain below. In 1840 the Mount Savage, Md., vein of fire clay was discovered and its refactory and other valuable qualities made known.
The manufacture of fire brick was begun in a small way the following year. The present site of the factory was the original site of the first blast furnace and roller mill erected in the United States.
The Union Mining Company manufacture the only original and genuine "Mount Savage" fire brick, which has held the high- est reputation for sixty years in this country, and the only govern- ment standard brick.
The other companies, manufacturers of fire brick, in some shape use the word "Savage" with the hopes of getting trade on the reputation of the "Mount Savage." The latter brand is placed on no second quality brick, and that brand has never been surpassed for blast furnace bottoms, hearths, boshes and pudding furnaces, or any other work where an open grain brick for high heat and sudden changes from heat to cold are required.
The following are the analyses :
Mt. Savage, Md. C'mb'rl'd, Coblentz, Nevada,
1888.
Md.
Germany.
Mo.
Silica
1877. 56.80
56.15
56.80
55.46
56.70
Alumina
30.08
33.29
30.08
31.74
30.30
Iron oxide
1.12
.58
1.67
.59
1.70
Lime
.00
.17
.00
.19
.45
Magnesia
.00
.11
.00
.14
.00
Alkali
.80
.00
2.30
3.17
.35
Moisture
10.50
9.68
7.69
9.37
9.80
Tit. acid.
1.15
.00
1.15
.00
.00
With the comparisons I think you will be almost convinced that you have a proposition worth looking after and placing a plant on the ground to manufacture all the standard shapes of fire brick which are ready sale at all seasons of the year.
As construction of plants and kilns for burning all kinds of brick is my business, I would like to associate myself with you and your friends interested in this project and be of valuable
371
FIRE CLAY AND ASPHALTUM
assistance to you in the purchase of machinery, locating and erecting your plant and kilns, as well as operating the whole thing when finished. Yorus very truly,
EBERT.
CHAPTER XXVIII.
GAS AND OIL IN VERNON COUNTY.
By J. B. JOHNSON.
There is no more inviting field for business enterprise and profitable investment of capital than the gas and oil proposition in Vernon county. One of the glaring mistakes made not only by the citizens of Nevada, but by many farmers throughout the county has been the sending of thousands upon thousands of dol- lars out of the county to prospect, experiment and develop out- side territory when right at our very doors and under our noses was and is vast stores of riches appealing to us to be released to add to our wealth and increase our volume of business. Nevada has been a rich field from which the promoters of most all kind of enterprises have reaped a rich harvest-copper mines, gold and silver mines, lead and zinc mines, cement plants, gas and oil wells, and many others being good, bad and indifferent, and some fakes and swindles. have practically kept Nevada especially drained of her surplus capital that should have been expended here at home in the development of our natural resources and the establishment of factories. While the gas and oil industry is not considered a very solid foundation on which to build for perma- nent and lasting improvement and progress, vet the returns are so quick and abundant and such an impetus is given to every line of industry that the opening up of gas and oil fields in a country is hailed as a blessing to all and the promoter of prosperity and growth to the community in general and every individual in par- ticular. Such being the case, we should not neglect this matter if there is a fair chance to make a hit in the undertaking, and so we will examine into the facts and see what they show. But first let us take a general view of the gas and oil territory in this county ; if you will take a straight edge and lay it on the map with one end at Oil City in Pennsylvania and the other at Bartles-
372
.
GAS AND OIL IN VERNON COUNTY . 373
ville in Oklahoma, it will be observed that the line runs through this county; that fields have been opened up just across the river from St. Louis in Illinois and just across the line west from Nevada in Kansas and on down through Oklahoma to Texas in nearly every township in this county, by reference to other parts of this work it will be seen that gas and oil have been found in greater or less quantities on W. W. Armstrong's place in Dry- wood township, on George Eaton's in Moundville township, on William Border's in Coal township, on the old Shively place now Ryburns in Deerfield township, on the Thomas place in Center, three miles east of Nevada, at Dr. Churchbell, W. L. Dayton's and other places here in Nevada and on the Parson Hogan place in Deerfield township. All this in addition to the numerous finds in Dover and Henry townships, which require more especial no- tice and first as to Dover, which seems to take the lead, as will be seen by reference to this township, and J. P. Stephenson's article in another part of this work and in addition to what is there said I will say that Dr. Brand, one of our oldest citizens and who had quite an experience in the early oil fields of Virginia, in the course of events in 1893 bought a home in section 27 in Dover township, and as a matter of course became interested in the gas, oil and asphaltum in his township, and in 1903 partly through his efforts an excited interest was aroused as to the de- velopment of these substances. Gas and oil were still noticeable in some old well dug in 1884-5. Boring was done at Doyle's Port in Barton county about two miles south of the Vernon county line and big find of asphaltum was found, but tools got fast in well and work abandoned. In this well asphaltum came in at less than twenty feet of surface and by use of mirror can be seen. At this time (1903) two companies were organized to sink wells for gas, oil and asphaltum, the "Barton and Vernon Oil Com- pany" and the "Missouri Gas and Oil Company." The Barton and Vernon Company, organized by Bishop and Wigglesworth, began work to sink a well on the doctor's place and the other company began work three or four miles southeast of Bellamy in this township. The well on the doctor's place was put down to a depth of 1,306 feet. At 1,100 feet thirty to forty feet of oil sand was struck and oil was pumped for five or six days, scented the air for quite a distance and made rainbow colors on the creek for one-half of a mile, but there were great quantities of
374
HISTORY OF VERNON COUNTY
water in this well. Mr. Wigglesworth sold out to one J. W. Lane, who after going down a few hundred feet more, stopped work in September, 1903; some suspicion was aroused, as it was understood that he was an old employee of the Standard Oil Company. The casing was taken out and the well abandoned. The other well southeast of Bellamy was sunk to a depth of 1,100. Five thousand two hundred dollars were spent on the Brand well and about $3,200 on the Bellamy well. Some other prospect holes were sunk, but these were the main wells. The doctor sent specimens to the state university and the schools of mines at Rolla and the reports from both places were quite flattering. The doctor stated to the writer that the asphaltum was from twenty-four to thirty-two feet thick, the lower part being the richest. This is underlaid with fire clay twelve feet thick, the place of contact being as smooth as glass and neither colored by the other. The doctor feels confident there is in this neighborhood eighteen square miles of asphalt and asphalt rock and probably much more.
And now as to Henry township. J. M. Turley, who lives in section 34, township 37, range 33 (Henry township), struck gas at 170 feet and has piped it to his house and has been burning it for fuel and lighting for the past two years. This well when first struck had a thirty-pound rock pressure and has increased to a forty-six pound pressure. This is the first practical use of natural gas in the county. In this section 27-37-33 five shallow wells have been sunk, with reference to which the following paper which has been handed to me will be interesting :
Log of the shallow oil well No. 5 in section 27, township 37, range 33, Vernon county, Missouri. All five wells showed oil with very little variation as to log and we give No. 5, as it is the deepest :
Feet.
Feet.
Feet.
Feet.
10
Soil
10
1 Coal 33
3 Sandstone
13
2 Black slate
35
2 Black lime
15
14 Fire clay 49
4 Soapstone 19
1 Coal 50
2 Blue limestone 21
2 Brown limestone. 52
9 Black slate.
30
12 Shale 64
2 Fire clay. 32
11% Brown limestone. .. 651%
375
GAS AND OIL IN VERNON COUNTY
Feet.
Feet.
Feet.
Feet.
61/2 Shale
72
7 Slate
169
10 Blue shale
82
5
Blue shale. 174
5 Black shale 87
5
Oil sand 179
1 Coal
88
2
Shale 181
3 Light sandstone 91
5
Gray sandstone 186.
2 Brown sandstone. 93
5
Limestone 191
10
Light shale 103
1 Coal 192
6 Sandstone 109
42
Gray sandstone 234
3 Shale 112
5
Black shale. 239
6 Blue shale 118
2
Coal 241
12 Dark blue sandy
5
Fire clay 246
shale 130
9
Black shale 255
3
Light sandstone ... 133
1
Coal 256
3 Brown limestone .. 136
3
Gray shale. 259
9 Cap rock. 145
2
Limestone 261
4 Gas sand. 149
3 Black shale 264
2 Oil sand. 151
3
Coal 267
1 Black slate 152
2
Black shale 269
10 Oil sand.
162
8 Gray shale. 277
Well No. 1 showed twenty feet of oil sand from 130 to 150 feet. The farmers. of the neighborhood are now getting their supply of lubricating oils from these wells.
I here insert two clippings-one taken from the "Richard Progress" in its issue in the last week of July, 1911, and the other from the "Schell City News" in its issue in the first week of July, 1911. One published in the Northwest and the other in the Northeast part of the county, and wish to say with refer- ence thereto that such press notices have been appearing in our county papers at frequent intervals for the past thirty or forty years :
"That Missouri will be the next oil state to be brought in is evidenced by the activity shown by oil companies in obtain- ing leases throughout the state.
"Three companies have had representatives here for some time and up to date some 5,000 acres have been leased, and it is thought that active work will be started in this field within the next two or three months."
"Fred Tschamnen of near Portia called at this office Monday
376
HISTORY OF VERNON COUNTY
and exhibited a bottle of water taken from a well he is drilling on his place. It was a six-ounce bottle and about three-eighths of an inch of clear oil on top which smelled like refined oil. Mr. Tchamnen is drilling with a hand drill and was working in an old spring which was about ten feet deep and he had only drilled about three and one-half feet when he struck the oil. He quit drilling for fear the oil would spoil the water for the stock, but is going to take up the work again this week and see how strong the flow is.
"The oil that raises on the water burns very readily and there seems to be a large percentage of it. He says the rock is a hard sand rock and slate, and it is almost impossible to drill it."
From this accumulation of evidence covering a long period of years and from practically every portion of the county it would seem that if a well organized business effort backed by sufficient capital was made that this county would be brought into the field of producers of commercial gas and oil and our citizens would reap the harvest of these long hidden fields of riches. If we don't do it I am going to risk the prediction that soon outside capital will come in and do it and get the cream that really belongs to our own citizens and with which they and our community should be enriched.
CHAPTER XXIX.
"THE BENCH AND BAR" OF VERNON COUNTY.
By J. B. JOHNSON. .
The title of this chapter is a set phrase and is both logical and euphonious, the intimate relation between the two making the one and the alliteration the other. The subject is attractive and inviting to any lawyer and he takes it up and writes with pleas- ure and as a work of love for the "esprit de corps" of the pro- fession, disarms criticism, silences envy, banishes all asperities and acrimonious feelings engendered by close and hotly con- tested cases and makes him forget he ever thought the judge partial and battered him over the head and out of court with the club of judicial discretion, so that he approaches the subject with the kindly feeling "to hide the fault he sees," acknowledge the virtues and proclaim the abilities of his adversary, his suc- cessful rival and more prosperous competitor. While the bench and bar are so intimately connected, yet they, in the nature of the case, require separate treatment, and so they will be taken in the order in which they occur in the "phrase," and first we will notice
THE CIRCUIT COURT BENCH.
By the act of the legislature dated February 27, 1855, creat- ing and establishing the county of Vernon it was attached to the seventh judicial circuit, then composed of the counties of Dallas, Polk, Cedar, St. Clair, Henry .Benton, Hickory and Laclede and was at that time presided over by Hon. De Witt C. Ballou, who lived at Warsaw, Benton county, and who had been elected to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Judge Waldo P. Johnson. This was either in 1851 or 1854. both dates being given.
377
378
HISTORY OF VERNON COUNTY
Judge Ballou held the first circuit court held in Vernon county. which convened in April, 1856. Little can be found with refer- ence to Judge Ballou, as he resigned soon after this county was added to the circuit; that is, in 1858. He died in Sedalia in the fall of 1864, being about fifty years old. Mr. Bay in his work of the bench and bar of Missouri says of Judge Ballou that "He was a man of vigorous intellect and of undoubted legal attain- inents." Possessed of these qualifications, it can well be assumed that he made a good judge.
Upon the resignation of Judge Ballou, as above stated, in 1858, Judge Foster P. Wright was elected to fill the vacancy. Judge Wright was an old light in the judiciary of this state and was no stranger to the bench of the old seventh circuit, as he was appointed by Governor Boggs in 1837 as judge of this circuit and reappointed by Governor King. He held his first court as successor to Judge Ballou in May, 1859, and his last court in November, 1860. Judge Henry Lamm, in speaking of Judge Wright, says: "He was a man of meager form, tall, with stooped shoulders, an inclination to wear an ancient tall hat and with many other amusing peculiarities of dress and speech. Judge Wright was an honest man." The latter statement all will agree as being correct who knew Judge Wright, and as to his personal appearance all who ever saw Judge Wright will recognize it as being a good description of the judge. In addi- tion to the above the writer remembers the judge as wearing a full beard, which he was in the habit of stroking with a pe- culiar motion of the hand which made his mustache and beard around his mouth incline or sweep in a certain direction. He was very quiet and mild and the demonstration he would make under deep agitation would be that peculiar sweep of his bearded mouth with his hand. His death occurred at Jefferson City, Mo., July 2, 1886. From November, 1860, to April, 1866, no court was held in Vernon county, but in some of the other counties of the circuit, court was held off and on during the war.
The next judge to hold court in this county after Judge Wright was Judge Burr Emerson, who was born September 12, 1802, in Greensburg, Ky. He was appointed by Governor Gam- ble in 1862 to fill out the unexpired term of Judge Foster P. Wright and elected in 1864, then the office was vacated after the adoption of the state constitution of 1865, known as the
BUILDING IN WHICHI COUNTY COURT FIRST MET.
379
THE BENCH AND BAR
Drake constitution. Then he was appointed by Gov. Thomas C. Fletcher and then elected in 1868, serving in all from 1862 to 1874. Judge Emerson was a man who stamped his personality upon the community wherever he went, for he was a man of great originality and practical eccentricity, and many anecdotes are told of him by the older members of the bar. His personal character fitted him for judge in those unsettled days at the close of the war. He played the violin very well, told a good joke and would take an occasional "bowl to keep down pride and promote sociability," and for this purpose would recess the court for ten minutes upon the signal of the county clerk, S. C. Hall (old Judge Hall) and they would file out of court, followed by nearly every member of the bar, to the bar presided over by Henry Morris. He would take his fiddle of evenings and play at private houses, usually at Charley Graves, as they had a piano there, or he would join the "boys" at the shanty saloon and while away the time between drinks with old familiar airs. Let no one misunderstand me about this, as Judge Emerson was in no sense a drunkard. His playing the violin was the occasion of one of his most characteristic sayings. One evening just after supper an attorney asked him if he had anything to do that evening. Thinking they wanted him to play for them, he said no. The attorney said, "Well, we are going to have a little game of poker and would like for you to join us." The judge answered, "No! no! Business is dull and you fellows want to get me in a game and rob me of my salary." "Oh, no!" said the attorney. "we are going to have an honest game, just among ourselves." "Pshaw," says the judge, "you had just as well talk to me of a virtuous prostitute as an honest game of poker," and that ended the matter. His first court was held in this county in April, 1866, being the first circuit court held in the county after the war. Mr. S. A. Wight says he would not have come and held that term of court if he had not practically been escorted from Stockton by a bodyguard, as he felt shy of the rebel county of Vernon, he being what was termed in those days a radical. So far as the records and tradition goes he made a very good judge. He died at Bolivar, Mo., on the 31st day of October, 1887.
On the 4th of March, 1869, this county was taken out of the seventh and put in a new circuit created by the act; that is, the twenty-second. Under the provisions of this act an election was
380
HISTORY OF VERNON COUNTY
held on the first Monday of June, 1869, to elect a judge for this new circuit, which resulted in the election of David McGaughey, of Bates county. Judge McGaughey was on the bench when the writer made his first appearance in court here; that is, May term. 1871. The judge was a long, lean, loosely jointed man with rather a long neck, quite social and good tempered. He had his peculiarities, but rather on a different order than Judge Emerson. No doubt every lawyer who practiced before him will remember that when a law point was argued before him his preliminary "decision" would be "pass up the papers" and about the end of the term he would have nearly all the papers in the return cases at his room at the hotel. We were under the old practice of having a return term at which the pleadings were settled. In passing on the points raised and argued he displayed a fine sense of equity and tried to equalize his decisions among the lawyers. In one instance where he intimated his decision and the attorney to whom it was adverse suggesting that he had decided twice in favor of the other attorney that term and in his favor only once he at once saw the force of the argument and made things equal. In the trial of a case before a jury and an objection was made to the introduction of evidence upon any ground and it was argued to the court we always knew what the decision would be, "Let it go to the jury ; let them have all the facts." In giving instruc- tions to the jury the law of equality prevailed as far as possible. His keen and practical sense of equity and equality made him a satisfactory judge and it can be truly said that we regretted los- ing him for our judge, but by an act of the legislature. passed March 15, 1872, Vernon county was taken out of the twenty-sec- ond and put in another new circuit, the twenty-fifth. Under this act an election was ordered to be held April 16, 1872, at which John D. Parkinson, of Greenfield, Dade county, was elected to serve until the general election of 1874, when he was re-elected for a full term of six years. Judge Parkinson was well grounded in the principles of the law and had an acute, analytical mind. As judge he often surprised the attorneys by springing some new aspect of the case which showed a deeper insight into the case than they had. He presided with dignity and administered the law with profound judgment and an even hand and gave general satisfaction. He is now living in Kansas City pretty well ad- vanced in years and does not engage in general practice to the
381
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