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 9
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As it was the custom of the Chickasaws to mark every place of importance, peculiar marks of a certain description were cut
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on rocks and trees so they could easily find the cave when they returned.
Leaving their White river hunting grounds with the intention of returning, the little band started towards "the setting sun," and had gone only a short distance when they were attacked by a band of Spanish gold hunters and were driven back to their old hunting grounds where all in possession of the secret of the location of the silver cave soon died of a fatal disease which swept the camp.
SAND AND GRAVEL.
Missouri is fast taking the lead in the annual production of commercial sands and gravel, having advanced two points since 1907, and is now holding fifth position. The 1909 sales of this natural material brought the snug sum of $1,001,331, as com- pared with $726,984 for 1908, representing a gain of nearly $300,- 000, or about 38 per cent. No other high ranking state made a gain as great.
For Missouri it can be said that the sand and gravel industry is still in its infancy, and is at present only one of its many well- paying sidelines, but five years hence, when the state will have surpassed all others for quantity and value of the annual produc- tion. of these natural materials, this business will have assumed larger proportions and thousands will be devoting either their capital or labor to it, and the output will then be shipped into the states which now rank higher.
The Ozark regions are full of deposits of various kinds of commercial sands and gravel, and a hundred years from now the supply will be almost as abundant as it is now, regardless of all which has been shipped out annually for use between now and then. Just how rich Missouri's natural storehouse is, in the com- modities under consideration, it is necessary only to cite, for comparative purposes, that while the amount sold in the year 1909 by this state was only 4,328 252 tons; it took 144,275 cars, each holding thirty tons, to haul this quantity of sand and gravel to market, and yet this whole mass would only make a small sized hill, if all were heaped together.
In the south half of this commonwealth there are many thou- sands of such and even larger deposits, still untouched, not con- sidering the ordinary building sands in the beds of the Missouri
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and Mississippi rivers, and the gravel beneath the waters of the smaller streams. In fact, a thousand years from now, if sand and gravel will then have commercial values and uses, Missourians will still be working these same deposits and the end will not be in sight.
STRAWBERRIES.
Missouri strawberries, large, red, tasty and tempting, were in such demand in 1909 that shipments were made as far away as Winnipeg in Manitoba, Canada, not to mention other distant cities in this country, like Denver and Pueblo in Colorado, La Crosse in Wisconsin, Grand Forks and Watertown in North Da- kota, Detroit and Grand Rapids in Michigan.
It is estimated that the strawberry crop of the 114 counties for the last year amounted to 1,070,253 crates, and was worth $2,- 065,588, at the average price of $1.98 per crate. The surplus was placed at 869,589 crates, valued at $1,678,307. There is hardly a county in which this delicious small fruit is not raised.
The chief outside consumers of the strawberries of 1909 live in Minneapolis, Lincoln, Omaha, Milwaukee, St. Paul, Denver, Grand Forks, N. D., Davenport, Topeka, Winnipeg, Rockford, Ill., Des Moines, Chicago, Indianapolis, Kansas City, St. Joseph, Peoria, Detroit, Albertlea, Minn., and Wichita. Strange to say, very few; strawberries from southwest Missouri were sent to St. Louis to be sold. Minneapolis had such a fancy for Missouri strawberries that it bought 43 carloads; Chicago also showed its appreciation of something tempting and tasty by purchasing 36 carloads di- rect from the Ozark regions; Omaha took 36 cars, faraway De- troit 35 cars and Milwaukee 38 cars.
The Ozark Fruit Growers' Association, consisting of nearly all the horticulturists of the chief strawberry producing counties of southwest Missouri, reported that their members alone in 1909 shipped 397 cars of strawberries, containing 206,259 crates, which sold for $396,898. The first car left Seneca, Mo., May 20, and the last cars were shipped from Marionville and Sarcoxie June 17. There was an improved mode of packing the product, therefore the berries reached the markets in a first-class condition, at once causing a demand for more. The railroads rushed the shipment, everything else save the mail giving away to the strawberry
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trains, and in consequence there was a second morning delivery in Chicago.
BLACKBERRIES.
Blackberries are raised by nearly every farmer of the state, and in addition, are found growing wild in every county. St. Louis county leads in this respect, and all from there are easily sold in that city. The shipments are small because the crop is plentiful everywhere, but there will be a better market when fruit canneries are put in operation all over south Missouri.
NURSERIES.
With the largest plant nursery in the world within its bor- ders, and an output of nursery products for 1909 valued at nearly $2,000,000, the indications are that Missouri ranks second or third among the states for this class of commodities. The 114 counties of Missouri last year placed on the market nursery products to the. value of $1,570,547. When the output of the hothouses of St. Louis, Kansas City and St. Joseph are added, valued, in round numbers, at about $400,000, it will be found that the total worth for the whole state was $1,970,547.
Properly divided, according to classes, the 1909 products of nurseries, outside of St. Louis, Kansas City and St. Joseph, were : Cut flowers, 1,052,294 pounds, valued at $526,147; strawberry plants, 2,100,000 pounds, valued at $42,000; miscellaneous nur- sery stock, 20,047,999 pounds, valued at $1,002,400.
ROOTS AND HERBS.
While not exactly belonging to nursery products, the Bureau of Labor Statistics has also completed its figures for the com- modities which it includes under the heading of "medicinal products," which line embraces all kinds of roots and herbs, mint, bark, ginseng, peach and melon seed. The surplus of these com- modities of the 114 counties of the state for 1909 sold for $93,667. Ginseng, the Chinese panacea for all ills, led in value, the surplus of the crop of last year, amounting to 7,652 pounds, and the value. at $7 a pound, being $53,529. Most of this mysterious root, after it had been properly dried and otherwise prepared, was shipped to New York for the use of the denizens of "Chinatown," who will- ingly paid a high price for all they could get, and then could not
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get enough. Some Missouri ginseng found its way to the Celestial Empire, through San Francisco, and some was used by the Chinese of St. Louis, Kansas City and Chicago.
While the Chinese have great faith in the curative powers of ginseng, it is not used to any great extent by the chemists of this country and Europe, which is probably a good thing, owing to the fact that the root is hard to raise, needing much attention, proper protection, soil, climate and moisture, and therefore the output of the world is not very large.
WATERMELONS.
Large, luscious watermelons, of the dark green variety, which have made Georgia famous, are now grown in Missouri, and to such an extent that millions are shipped out annually from the producing counties to the markets of St. Louis, Kansas City, Chi- cago, Indianapolis, Milwaukee and other large northern central cities.
The watermelon crop of the 114 counties of Missouri for 1909 amounted to about 9,170,100 melons, each large, luscious and delicious when properly iced and served in large slices with the rich, red, tempting meat, thickly bespeckled with black seeds, turned up. It was probably the largest crop of melons Missouri has ever raised, and so great was the demand for them from the commercial centers, that they could not be shipped out fast enough. With the prevailing price at 10 cents apiece this vast quantity of Missouri melons was worth $917,010, almost enough money to make a millionaire out of anyone who could have raised the entire crop alone.
So favorable is the climate and soil of Missouri for water- melons that about eighty counties produce more or less of them every year, but the majority only enough for home consumption. More would be raised if farmers only knew that there is a market for all they can ship out, and, it is safe to say that the wholesale price per melon will never again be under 7 cents, a profitable figure for growers.
The sugar and muskmelon and cantaloupe crop of Missouri is also an extensive item, amounting up annually into the thousands of crates, and bringing in nearly as much wealth as the water- melons. It is figured that 500,000 crates are raised every year in the 114 counties and marketed, bringing in about $500,000.
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MISSOURI CEMENT.
The cement industry is still in its infancy in Missouri, but, regardless of this fact, the state already ranks sixth in number of barrels of this necessary commodity produced annually, and will, in two years, rank fourth, if the gains of 1909 over the pre- ceding year continue. Two years ago Missouri only had two cement manufacturing plants, one then being located in Ralls county, near Hannibal, and the other in St. Louis county.
In 1909 there were four cement manufactories in full opera- tion in the state, one of the two new ones being in Jackson county, not far from Kansas City, and the fourth just outside of St. Louis.
Figures from the four cement factories of Missouri show that the 1909 output amounted to 3,412,160 barrels, valued at $2,808,- 916. For 1908 the production was 2,209,504 barrels, valued at $2,571,236. The gain in one year, therefore, was 482,656 barrels, and in value, $237,680-quite a snug sum of money to come from one of Missouri's many side lines.
Missouri is well supplied with the shale, limestone, silica. alumina and iron oxide so necessary in the manufacturing of high class Portland cement, hardly a county, save those in the southeast corner of the state, being free of these valuable deposits. In fact, in some counties the supply of material is so great that a fifty-year drain would not visibly affect the quantity on hand in Nature's storehouse. In a hundred years cement will be produced in Mis- souri, if there is still a market for it, and nothing else has been found to take its place, so well supplied is this state with all of the material needed in its making. A pure white, non-staining cement is now being put on the market, and it is of great value in surface finishing, architectural and art work, giving a pure white color to everything it is applied to. In building, cement is being used more and more, replacing wood, metal and stone, not only in concrete houses, but also in brick, stone and even frame structures ; mantels, friezes, cornices, statuary, urns, lamp bases, pedestals, lawn seats, tables and many other ornamental pieces being made of it and finished off with the new pure white variety.
The four cement plants of Missouri represent an investment of $8,937,627. Of this large sum $4,117,050 is in grounds and build- ings, and $4,563,280 in machinery and tools. The material and
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supplies used in 1909 in producing 3,412,160 barrels of cement were worth $1,174,582.
For 1909 the four cement plants had a small army of employes. consisting of 1,956 men and twelve women, to whom were paid $1,188,644 in salaries and wages. Such was the cement industry of Missouri for last year.
MISSOURI COBALT.
Missouri leads the country in the annual production of that valuable and mysterious mineral, cobalt, and is one of only three states known to have deposits extensive enough to be worked.
Madison county, which is in the lead, iron and zinc belt of southeast Missouri, is the present center of the cobalt industry, but traces of this useful substance have been found in Wayne and other surrounding counties, inixed with lead, iron, copper, zinc and nickel ores, with here and there a speck of silver. So closely is the cobalt of this section allied with copper and nickel that when the smelting and separating is done the three minerals are always "recovered" together and, of course, saved for the market, the other two being almost as valuable. Right here attention must be called to the fact that Missouri is also the chief nickel produc- ing state of the country, only two others, one of which is Oregon, having in late years put this ore on the market.
In all, 1,242,000 pounds of copper, cobalt and nickel, valued at about $255,000, were shipped from Madison county in 1909, or about the same as in 1908. The figures do not, however, represent a full year, as one of the producing companies, and its smelting plant, only operated about six months in 1909. Still this is a vast sum of money to come from sulphite ores, which a few years ago were thrown to one side after only the lead had been "recovered." The cobalt shipments amounted to 58,000 pounds, or about two car loads, and the value $75,000; nickel, 84,000 pounds, value, $35,000; copper, 1,100,000 pounds, value, $145,000.
An interesting legend is related in connection with cobalt, dat- ing back many centuries ago, long before this mineral was found to have a commercial use and to be almost as valuable as silver now is. For ages it was considered worthless and had no name until the old Saxon miners began calling it "Kobold," the name of the chief one of their evil spirits, meaning by this term that the part of the mine this mineral existed in was haunted and
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unsafe and liable to cave in. Cobalt being brittle and liable to crumble, imparts, in the mines, these faults to any mineral it is found mixed with. Therefore, it is unsafe to have it directly over- head in any shaft or tunnel, unless props and other supports are used. These defects, added to its ghastly color and lustrous ap- pearance, together with the fact that it was considered worth- less, soon made it the demon of any mine it was found in. When subterranean toilers came across it they generally changed the direction of their tunnels or shaft to avoid its treacherous prop- erties and to escape the "evil spirit."
Brandt was the first to class cobalt as an element, and Scheurer to discover, or rather rediscover, that it had a commercial use and value. It is now supposed that cobalt was the agent employed in the days of Sodom and Gomorrah to color the blue pottery, which has, in late years, been dug out of various ancient ruins. If such was the case this art was lost to the world before the middle ages, when it was the "evil spirit" of all mines, only to be rediscovered by Scheurer when he was experimenting with cobalt.
Like iron, cobalt has magnetic powers, and experiments are now being made with it in storage batteries, which, if successful, will revolutionize the world. For years scientists have sought for a substance easily and quickly "charged" with a vast amount of electricity, which will hold it indefinitely and then freely release the fluid, at the will of man, for commercial uses, and the "evil spirit" of the ancient Saxons may be the element which possesses all these necessary qualifications. The day may not be far distant when the gnome of our forefathers will be one of the most useful minerals of the earth. If that day does come the cobalt of Missouri will then be worth its weight in gold, unless more abundant deposits are found elsewhere.
But all this is a dream of the future. At the present day cobalt has many uses. It is used weekly in almost every house- hold, and yet the average person has never heard of this mys- terious mineral, much more seen it. It gives the blue color to common "wash blues," so necessary in laundry work to change the yellow of newly washed linens into the proper whiteness. Paper manufacturers use cobalt as a blue pigment to color writ- ing, wrapping and wall papers. Compounded with oxygen, it becomes oxide of cobalt, used exclusively to color porcelain, pottery and glass. A thousandth part of cobalt blue will give
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clear glass a decided blue tint. Painters, artists and copyists use cobalt blue in their daily work. In different quantities and mixed with other minerals, it produces all shades of blue known in art. It even has the power to give ordinary iron vessels a blue tint, when it is mixed with the molten iron.
Chloride of cobalt, dissolved in sufficient water, forms a sympathetic ink, which, when used on ordinary paper, is not visible until heat is applied, when the writing stands out in blue, only to disappear again when anything damp is rubbed over it.
Cobalt, in ore form, is of a steel gray color, lustrous, crys- talline, nearly white when polished, hard, slightly malleable, very ductile at red heat and it does not lose its magnetic powers in any stage of heat. In Missouri cobalt is found associated with copper and nickel and lead, with here and there traces of silver. It requires a high grade of smelting and refining to separate it from the nickel. In Canada it is found well mixed with silver.
PEARL BUTTON INDUSTRY.
The pearl button industry of Missouri during the year 1909 experienced its most prosperous year since the first factory began operations here, the value of the output exceeding that for 1907, the previous record year, by 56 per cent and that of 1908 by 136 per cent.
Five pearl button factories, four of which are in Lewis county, and the other in Pike county, report an output amounting to 149,815,728 buttons and blanks, valued at $267,794, for the twelve months in question. Thousands of rough and ugly mussel shells were consumed in turning out this vast array of smooth, shining, round pearl buttons, of sizes varying from a diameter of a quarter of an inch to those which measure an inch and a half across and which are used chiefly for ornamental purposes to lend a finishing touch to female wearing apparel, were produced. The blanks are the plain round discs, which are cut from the rough shells and need finishing touches in the way of the last polish and the four holes for the thread, before they become buttons and have the luster and name of pearl.
One Missouri factory shipped its output as far east as Germany and England, which fact speaks highly for the Missouri pearl buttons, as further east there are many factories, past which our product had to be shipped before it reached those foreign coun-
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tries. In addition, nearly every state in the union used our output in 1909 and during the early part of this year.
In former years a goodly portion of the shells used by the Missouri factories came from the bed of the Mississippi river north of the mouth of the Missouri, but now the state must depend upon the mussel diggers of the Wabash, Black, White, Cumber- land, Tennessee, the Illinois and other streams for their supply. Shells are still obtained from the upper Mississippi, but not in quantities of former years. Occasionally shipments are received from fishermen who operate in smaller streams in the interior of Missouri. In late years the price per ton of shells has steadily increased in value. Of course, all these streams belong to the Mississippi as tributaries, and therefore all shell taken from them are credited by Uncle Sam as being the output of the Mississippi valley. For 1908 the crop, according to the federal authorities. amounted to 76,265,700 pounds of shells, worth $386,120. But, of course, all these shells did not come into Missouri. The 1909 figures have not been compiled as yet, but will probably be as great, both in quantity and value.
At its best, the life of a mussel digger is a monotonous and hard one, exposed as he is to all grades of weather, and being obliged constantly to toil in and above water, but occasionally there comes a gleam of sunshine in the shape of a pearl, which, when placed in the hands of a jeweler, brings a snug sum of money, depending on the size, shape and color of the find. It is estimated by the federal authorities that the pearls and slugs found in the 38,137 tons of mussels placed on the market by the "diggers" of the Mississippi river and its tributaries in 1908 were worth $299,800 to the finders. This sum, when added to the worth of the shells, gives a total value of $685,920 for the mussel fishermen for one year of work. It must, however, be remembered that the pearls and slugs brought much more, in the finished state, to the jewelers, who bought the raw article. The same authority gives the first value of pearls and slugs for 1906 at $381,000, and for 1907, $264,500.
In color the fresh-water pearls are white, cream, pink, purple, blue and, rarely, black. The shapes are irregular, being either button, round, oval, pear and of drop forms. For pearls the prices vary, ranging from $1 to $2,000 each, and for slugs from $1.50 to $60 an ounce. In 1909 several large pearls, valued at
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between $1,000 and $2,000, were "recovered." One found near New Albany, Ind., in the Ohio river, was half an inch in diameter. Another, found near Williamsport, Ind., weighed 87 grains and was valued at $2,000. Another, found near Dubuque, Ia., weighed 165 grains and was given a value ranging from $2,000 to $6,000. It is said that a pearl develops in two years' time and is then dropped from the shells. If this is true, then in the mud of the Mississippi river, in front of northern Missouri, are thousands of pearls of varying sizes and values. A fortune is in store for anyone devising a way of recovering these lost jewels.
The pearl button industry of Missouri will last as long as mussel shells can be readily obtained. The federal authorities are now wrestling with the problem of artificial propagation, but laws are needed to protect the mussel clams. The factories in which the blanks and the buttons are made are all well built, generally of brick, and are full of intricate steel machinery. The workers are skillful and well paid. their occupation being far from monotonous, owing to the active lives they lead and the interesting and many stages each shell passes through before it finally appears as a string of lustrous buttons of varying sizes, ready to be sorted and stitched on to cards for the market.
In the five factories which reported for 1909 to Labor Commis- sioner Hiller, there were employed 268 male workers and 102 females, who, in that year, drew $109,189 in wages for an average of 300 days. For raw material and supplies the disbursements were $109,667. The capital invested was $145,008, of which $40,908 was in machinery. For rent, taxes and insurance the amount paid out was $2,809.
In six years the pearl button factories of Missouri have turned out buttons to the value of $979,479, and at the same time paid out in salaries and wages $416,369. And yet the industry is only one of Missouri's many side lines. The mussel itself is now being used as food for hogs. The flesh is cooked to preserve it and then fed in a mixed state. The portion of the shells, which remains after all useful parts have been cut into button blanks, has many uses, such as lime food for chickens. The lime can be converted into cement.
Various kinds of pretty ornaments are made by one of the factories from the shells, and at times campaign emblems have been manufactured therefrom.
ANDERS
CUMBERLAND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH.
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MISSOURI'S CORN COB PIPE INDUSTRY.
Missouri's unique industry, the converting of crude and prac- tically worthless corn cobs into a valuable commodity, known to the world over as "Missouri corn cob pipes," broke all previous records for quantity, quality and value of production during the year 1909.
Missouri's production of corn cob pipes, the modern pipes of peace which make tobacco taste its sweetest, amounted in 1909 to 27,733,260 pipes, as compared with 24,671,460 pipes for the year of 1908. This was the output of seven factories located at Washington and Union, in Franklin county; Owensville, in Cas- conade county ; Bowling Green, in Pike county, and Holstein, in Warren county. In addition, there were manufactured by these same establishments 454,236 wooden pipes, 152,784 pipe cleaners and 1,881,484 extra stems.
This vast array of figures furnishes the basis for the most vivid "pipe dreams" when it comes to determining just how many corn cobs were consumed in this gigantic industry. Even allow- ing two pipes to the cob, it took nearly 14,000,000 cobs for the bowls, not considering the thirteen or fourteen millions of feet of reed needed for the stems. One thoroughly posted on the average yield of corn per acre could go deeper into this interesting subject and establish almost to a certainty how many acres of Missouri's richest bottom lands were used to raise this amount of maize.
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