USA > Missouri > History of southeast Missouri : a narrative account of its historical progress, its people and its principal interests, Volume I > Part 19
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on the Maumee or the lake, and from there we proceeded to Detroit where everything was delivered up to my uncle. I followed my shipment by land by myself some three weeks after they started. I went by the way of Kaskaskia, Ill. After leaving that village, settled by French not a sign of a white in- habitant did I see until I got to Fort Vin- cennes out three nights. I expected at Vin- cennes to have found several traders ready to leave by land for Detroit. They, like myself, generally followed their shipments of skins by land. They had left some five days be- fore I got there and I was obliged to continue the journey by myself.
When I left Vincennes I took the Terre Haute route. At that place I found an In- dian village and two French traders. I spent the night with them and the next morning proceeded on my journey. I crossed a stream not far from Terre Haute, called Vermillion and the next place I came to was an Indian village where I found a Frenchman, a trader by the name of Langlois. The next place of note was the Missionary town where I found my old friend Godfrey, spoken of on my trip out from there. My next point was Fort Wayne. I had then been out six nights from Vincennes and four of these nights I lay out by myself and from Fort Wayne to the foot of the rapids. two nights. This was a hazard- ous undertaking for a youth of only about 16 years. From the foot of the rapids to De- troit, the country was more or less settled by the French. I remained at Detroit some two weeks and started back by land the same route I went out. I made three trips by wa- ter and three by land and worked and steered my own pirogues and continued in the trade until the war broke out between this country and Great Britain in 1812. The war stopped all communication between this
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country and Detroit, and I was then com- pelled to seek another channel of trade for my peltries and furs. In 18- I made a large shipment of peltries and furs in a keel boat, the largest shipment I ever made from this country, by the way of Chicago. The keel boat left New Madrid in March with a freight valued at $14,000. They went up the Mississippi, then up the Illinois, then up a stream I think they call Fox river, up that to within six miles of Chicago; my object in sending my skins that route was to mect a government vessel which the goverment gen- erally sent out at the opening of navigation in the spring, with provisions and stores for the troops stationed there, but. unfortun- ately, when my furs and peltries got there the government boat had been there and left some five or six days before for Detroit. The hope of getting them to Detroit that season was hopeless. No vessels running the lake with the exception of one government ves- sel, spring and fall. My skins remained there all summer expecting to ship them in the fall. When we examined and commenced preparing them for shipment we found them all destroyed by moths or bugs. I did not realize one cent from the amount stored there. While at New Madrid trading with the Indians and shipping my skins to Detroit until 1812, I purchased stock and produce from 1808 up to 1825 and shipped it to New Orleans in flat boats. My first visit to New Orleans was in the year 1809 having con- signed my first shipment in 1808. I loaded two flat boats with assorted articles of pro- duce and steered one of them myself, but un- der the control and management of a pilot of Pierre Depron. I got to the city on my flat boats, but how to get back was the next question. No steam boats running at that time and but few barges and keel boats on
the river. I bought a horse and started back by land; crossed Lake Ponchartrain in an open boat with my horse and took the road from Maisonville to Nashville, Tenn., pass- ing through the Cherokee and Choctaw In- dian country (owned and claimed by them) to the Tennessee river. In getting to New Madrid I was out six weeks, suffering much for the want of provisions for myself and feed for my horse, having to pay $1 per meal for myself and $1 per gallon for corn. My men had to wait some time at New Orleans before an opportunity offered to get back, and then they had to work their way home on a barge. From that period up to the present time I have continued visiting New Orleans every year and am of course well posted in being an eye witness to all improvements made in the city and coast since my first visit there. In 1810-11 I came up the Mississippi river in a pirogue with my hands that I had taken down on a flat boat. We left New Orleans the latter part of July with scant provisions or allowances of any kind for our trip having to rely on our guns and fishing tackle for a supply, not being particular as to what we killed or ate-Hobson's choice, that or none. Cranes, pelicans and cat fish, we considered a delicacy. We had not a tent or umbrella to protect us from the in- clemency of the weather; when it rained so . liard that we could not travel we put ashore and peeled the bark off the trees to make shelter from the rain. We were out 45 days. From 1808 to 1812 but few inhabitants were on the river. At Point Chicot we found two Frenchmen at White river and one at the mouth of St. Francois, Phillips and Mr. Joy, and a Spaniard on the side opposite Men- phis. (Then Memphis was not known or spoken of.) One or two Indian traders were there at that time. At that early period the
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banks of the Mississippi were settled by rob- bers and counterfeiters. Flat boats descend- ing the river then had to go in convoys well armed and under the lead of some experi- enced commander; if they did not they were sure to be attacked, killed, or robbed of their effects by these robbers who were settled at different points on the river. In returning in a dug out with my hands, in 1810, we were followed by one of Mason's and Murrell's men from a little below Lake Providence un- til a few miles below Point Chicot. He came np within half a mile of us and no nearer ; he continned his pursuit by following us two days. He was going as we thought to apprize some of his colleagues of our approach near Point Chicot, and that we were no doubt in possession of considerable money, proceeds of produce shipped to New Orleans. This rob- ber was one of Mason's surviving confeder- ates in crime, etc. He was a French Cana- dian by the name of Revard, and his location was on the island below Lake Providence ; there he watched and saw everything that passed up and down. We tried to pass in the night hoping not to be discovered but we could not. He was too watchful of us to evade his notice. We had some confidential advisers who instructed us how to act in the neighborhood of Lake Providence, where Ma- son had his general rendezvous, on or near Bayou Mason, back of Lake Providence, a re- mote and secluded place where he kept his headquarters. Nothing saved us that trip from being killed by the French robber only my crew being French and he, Rivard, being a Canadian, disliked attacking, robbing and killing us, being French, he having heard my French crew singing French songs which was a custom among the French boatmen. After following us two days he abandoned the chase. My long residence at New Madrid
gave me an opportunity of becoming ac- quainted with a great many people and their acts whether good or bad. Not a day from 1809 to 1815 but some innocent man, the owner of some flat boat loaded with produce, had been imposed on by some of this class by pur- chasing of them for money, which they called good, and on good solvent banks, when in fact it was nothing but the basest kind of counter- feit money. There was scarcely a day but what there was large amounts presented to me for examination and inspection. Our whole country from Evansville, Indiana, to Natchez was full of such people. In fact they ruled and controlled the country at that period. They had the sway. We were from the necessity in the minority they being the strongest party and to express our opinion against them and their actions placed our lives and property in a dangerous situation. After an elapse of a certain time a better population commenced coming in. We saw after counting these we considered honest and would take an interest in securing and driving out of the country the despised class, we had from necessity to consult with the citi- zens of the country and ascertain from them what course we ought to adopt in order to get rid of this description of population. They put at defiance all laws proving themselves innocent of every crime and charge brought against them. A general meeting of the citizens of the country was called and the matter laid before them. They came to a conclusion and that conclu- sion by a unanimous vote of the people then in public council. "That these people must leave the country" and a committee was ap- pointed by the meeting to carry the resolu- tions into effect, which was done and the country cleared of thieves and counterfeit- ers. The last difficulty we had with them they
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had their rendezvous at different places in ness. It appears that during the progress of the country, in the interior and on the river ; they kept up a constant correspondence night and day with their leaders and strikers. They were numerous and their acquaintances on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers intimately connected with them in extending their dis- honest operations was unprecedented in the history of this or any other country. We owe in a measure our complete success of clearing the country of this description of population to the energy and perseverance and determined action of a few honest and resolute men, one of them I will refer to with feelings of respect and pride as being one of the principal actors in accomplishing our ob- ject, that person was the deceased Capt. Dunklin, whose virtues and standing as a man and citizen is yet recollected and appre- ciated by a number of persons, yet in exist- ence who were witnesses to his valuable ser- vice.
In the years 1812-13-14 being at New Or- leans cach of those years, I returned home as a passenger on board of a barge or keel boat, 50 and 60 days out. I preferred this mode of getting back to the land route. In the year 1815 I visited Cincinnati, Ohio, on my way to Detroit, Michigan. I bought a horse and outfit at Cincinnati for my trip. Cincinnati was then a small place; the Court House was upwards of a quarter of a mile out of the city. I visited the Court House to see what was to be done having seen in the morning posted np at the different corners of the street hand bills that a certain gentleman, a lawyer of some distinction, a resident of the city, by the name of Binhem, would address the citizens at the Court House at a certain hour of that day on the subject of charges brought against him and published while he was absent from the city on professional busi-
the war with Great Britain he was drafted as a soldier to join the U. S. Army but from some cause he failed to comply with the request of the draft and the charges I think made against him were cowardice and not willing to expose his life in defense of his eountry. In addressing the citizens he proved to them conclusively that he had used every exertion to raise means to equip himself and proved that he was a minor and under the guardian- ship of a near relative of his and who had control of his person and his means, although he had made frequent applications to him for means, but in all cases refused to furnish him with any and was opposed to his joining the army. His appeal to the people was a very feeling one and being an able speaker his appeal was listened to with every attention. His excuse was approved of. The same trip I became acquainted with the agent of the United States Bank at Cincinnati. The bank owned and claimed considerable town property, vacant lots on which they built family residences and offered them for sale through their agent. I was offered one or two lots with their improvements on thein on Second and Third streets for from $1,000 to $1,200, each lot. The improvements must have cost the money. The same property cannot now be bought for $60,000. I had means at the time and if I had bought this property at the time and let it re- main it would have proved a source of con- siderable revenue to me now. My objeet was to take General Harrison's road through the black swamp to Detroit. Urbana was then a frontier town, there was a new county laid off and a county seat located at a place called Bellefontaine. Some few log cabins were put up in place, but there was no publie house in the place at that time. Next morn-
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ing I took the road cut by General Har- rison through the black swamp and traveled by the Northwestern army, and where he en- countered so many difficulties in getting along as commander of the Northwestern army. His object was to attack and beat back the British army that had crossed over and at- tacked the American army at the river Rai- sin, under General Winchester. I had to travel one hundred miles through this swamp until I got to Fort Meigs, on the Maumee river, foot of the rapids. I found three houses in crossing the swamp, where a trav- eller could stay all night about 35 miles apart. My object is to show you the great changes in the country now to what it was then-comparatively not known. In 1806 I visited St. Louis, a small French village. Little or no business was done, the principal men in the place were two Chouteaus. Their descendants are still there. all respectable and influential men. Fred Bates filled an of- fice about that time under the territorial gov- ernment, a recorder of land titles or secre- tary of state, under the acting governor. I knew him at Detroit, Michigan, in 1803 or 1804, one of those years Detroit was destroyed by fire, and I assisted Mr. Bates in saving from the devouring elements a few of his small effects. He was then a citizen of that place. I was intimately acquainted with him at St. Louis from his arrival up to his death. He was an intelligent business man and a gentleman in every sense of the word. The earthquakes visited New Madrid county in December, 1811. Their effect was felt all over the U. S. and more particularly in this and adjoining counties. and the injury pro- duced from the effects was more combined to this county than any other, producing alarm and distress, depopulating generally the whole country. Plantations, stock of all
kinds, cribs of corn, smoke houses full of mneat, were offered for horses to live on. At that time I was carrying on the Indian trade pretty extensively. The whole white population, or all that could leave as well as the Indians, left largely in my debt, leaving me considerably indebted to persons here and in other places and little or no means to pay with. What little was left me I had to subsist on and divide with those that re- mained and could not get away. We had a trying time, our population having all left, no business doing and no capital to do busi- ness with. Heavy losses at different times at Chicago and on the Mississippi river in prod- uce sent to New Orleans in flat boats and by the earthquakes upwards to $30,000, leaving me destitute and without any capi- tal to operate on ; and on having a small fam- ily to support. I came to the conclusion, after consulting with my wife, to remain in the country and await the result of circum- stances. To leave without means and move to a new country, among strangers and be de- pendent on them for support, I could not rec- oncile it to myself. I proposed remaining and awaiting with patience the result of what was to take place, which I have done. I never left but stood up and persevered, in prosperity and adversity, contending against the misfortunes and privations of a new coun- try, the Mason and Murrell counterfeiters and horse thieves, earthquakes, and with all these reverses and misfortunes staring me in the face, it never produced the least change in my general course of conduct, but stimu- lated me to additional exertions. The mis- fortunes and privations I endured at an early period would have driven hundreds to acts of desperation. With me they never pro- duced the least change. I am what I was forty years ago. Nothing ever induced me
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to resort to dissipation, to take a glass of grog or smoke a eigar more than I did then. My general habits, if good or bad, are the same now, to which a long residence in the country and a general acquaintance with those now settled in the country, can testify. My friends who knew me, and I never deceived them, came forward to my assistance and re- lief; to them I owe the means I am in posses- sion of. The staple of this country from 1805 to 1812 was cotton. The average yield of an aere was from 1000 to 1200 pounds of seed cotton. Since 1812 there has been a great change in our elimate; the winters have grown colder and the other seasons more changeable. The raising of cotton has been entirely abandoned for the last thirty-five years; our staple, now, has been principally corn. Prejudices to some extent exist now in some of the states against this country. At an early period they had some grounds to speak rather lightly of this country, it being siekly and visited by earthquakes; inhabited by counterfeiters and horse thieves and but few inhabitants in the country. To a eer- tain extent our country has been overlooked and misrepresented. Things have changed since then. The country has become healthy, our soil the best in the United States. It cannot be surpassed.
Doetor Samuel Dorsay, a native of Mary- land, was appointed surgeon of the military post at New Madrid, a position which he held until the transfer to the United States. The position had attached to it a salary of $30.00 a month. On January 17, 1795, Dr. Dorsay was married to Marie J. Bonneau, a native of Indiana. He was afterward married to a daughter of Jeremiah Thompson of Cape Girardeau distriet.
Joseph Story, of Massachusetts, was one
of the surveyors brought by Morgan to New Madrid, he assisted Morgan in laying off the city. Ile married a daughter of Jacob Beek in 1794.
Andrew Wilson, a native of Scotland, and a minister in the Presbyterian church, was also one of the early settlers. He seems to have given up his ministerial work before coming to New Madrid. Ilis son, George W., was the first sheriff of the distriet.
Some of the other early settlers were John Summers, Joseph and Louis Vandenbenden. These brothers were merchants, and the widow of Lonis afterward married Richard Jones Waters.
Jacob Meyers, Joseph MeCourtney, David Gray and John La Valle were other of the early settlers. La Valle was the last com- mandant under the Spanish government; his descendants still live in New Madrid county.
Doetor Robert D. Dawson, who was a na- tive of Maryland, came to New Madrid at an early date and engaged in the practice of medieine. He was, for a number of years, the leading physician of the town, and was a very popular man. His activities were not confined to the praetiec of his profession, but he had a great interest in polities. For a number of years he represented New Madrid county in the general assembly of the terri- tory, and was elected a member of the Con- stitutional convention.
During the Spanish regime there were three military organizations in New Madrid. Two of these were companies of militia and the other was a dragoon company. One of the militia companies had for its officers La Valle as captain, La Forge as lieutenant, and Charpentier as ensign. The other militia company was officered by Captain McCoy, Lieutenant Joseph Hunot, and Ensign John Hart. Richard Jones Waters was captain of
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the company of dragoons, George N. Reagan was lieutenant, and John Baptiste Barsaloux was ensign.
Cuming, who visited New Madrid in 1808 gives the following description of the town at that time: "New Madrid contains about a hundred houses scattered on a fine plain two miles square on which, however, the river has so encroached during the twenty-two years since it was first settled, that the bank is now half a mile behind its old bounds and the inhabitants have had to move rapidly back. They are a mixture of French Creoles from Illinois, United States Americans and Germans. They have plenty of cattle but seem in other respects to be very poor. There is some trade with the Indian hunters of furs and peltry but of little consequence. Dry goods and groceries are enormously high and the inhabitants charge travelers immense prices for any common necessaries such as milk, butter, fowls, eggs, etc. There is a militia the officers of which wear cockades as a mark of distinction although the rest of their dress should be only a dirty ragged shirt and trousers. There is a church going to decay and no preacher and there are courts of Common Pleas and Quarter Sessions from which an appeal lies to the Supreme Court at St. Louis, the capital of the territory of Up- per Louisiana, which is two hundred and forty miles to the northward by wagon road which passes through Ste. Genevieve which is 180 miles distant. On account of this distance from the capital New Madrid has obtained a right to have all trials for felony held and ad- judged here without appeal. The inhabitants regret much the change of government from Spanish to American but this I am not sur-
prised at as it is the nature of mankind to never be satisfied." *
Alliot who visited Louisiana in 1803 says : "A hundred leagues farther up the river the traveler comes to that charming river known by the name of Belle Riviere (the Ohio) which, like so many others, pays its tribute of respect to the mortal Mississippi by giving its limpid waters to it; at that place is built the fort l' Ance à la Graice where a command- ant and 150 soldiers are stationed, there is a hamlet there inhabited by three score per- sons. That place is so much more remarkable in as much as its inhabitants were the first along the river to engage in the cultivation of wheat. Excellent meadows are seen there on which cows and steers feed, its inhabitants rear many logs and fowls, the forests are full of all sorts of game and fallow-deer."t
Nuttall who visited New Madrid in 1820 has this account of the town: "We arrived before noon at New Madrid, we found both sides of the river lined with logs, some sta- tionary and others in motion and we nar- rowly avoided several of considerable mag- nitude. New Madrid is an insignificant French hamlet containing little more than about twenty log houses and stores miserably supplied, the goods of which are retailed at exorbitant prices, for example, 18 cents per pound for lead which costs 7 cents at Her- culaneum, salt $5.00 per bushel, sugar 311/4 cents per pound, whiskey $1.25 per gallon, apples 25 cents per dozen, corn 50 cents per bushel, fresh butter 371% cents per pound and eggs the same price per dozen, pork $6.00 per hundred, beef $5.00. Still the labor of the land seems to be of a good quality but
# Cuming's "Tour to the West," p. 281.
+ Robertson, "Louisians," Vol. I, p. 133.
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the people have been discouraged by the earthquakes which, besides the memorable one of 1811, are very frequent experiences, two or three oscillations being sometimes felt in a day. The United States in order to eom- pensate those who suffered in their property by the catastrophe granted to the settlers an equivalent of land in other parts of the ter- ritory." #
Besides those whom we have seen lived in the town of New Madrid itself and immedi- ately about it, there were other settlements within the present territory of New Madrid county ; some of these were made on Lake St. Ann, along the St. Johns Bayou, at Lake St. Mary and on Bayou St. Thomas. Some of the early settlers at these places were : Benja- min Meyers, Hardy Rawls, Lewis Van Den- benden and Joseph Story. These men opened up farms at the places mentioned and some of them erected mills and others were engaged principally in hunting and trapping.
The district of New Madrid, as we have scen, ineluded not only New Madrid county, as it now exists, but also Pemiscot county, Mississippi county, Seott county and even the counties lving further west. During this period which we are studying settlements were made within the district in all the eoun- ties mentioned except those lying west of St. Francois river.
The first settlement in Pemiscot county was made at Little Prairie, a short distance be- low the present town of Caruthersville. The settlement was made in 1794 by Franeois Le Sieur, who came to Little Prairie from New Madrid where he had formerly lived and on receiving the grant of land laid out about * " Nuttall Journal," p. 77.
two hundred arpents into a town divided into lots each containing an arpent. Here a fort was also constructed ealled Fort St. Fer- nando. Among the early residents of the town and country in the immediate vicinity were : Francois Le Sieur, Jean Baptiste Bar- saloux, George and John Ruddell, Joseph Payne, Lewis St. Aubin, Charles Guibeault, Charles Loignon, Franeis Langlois and Peter Noblesse. The site of Little Prairie was well chosen it being situated at a place where the great ridge, of which we have previously spoken, touches the river, and the surround- ing country was rich in soil, timber and game. There was considerable trade with the In- dians; and the town, because of these ad- vantages, prospered. The population was seventy-eight in 1799 and in 1803 it num- bered one hundred and three. It continued to grow until the earthquakes of 1811 and 1812 by which it was almost destroyed. This earthquake seems to have had its eenter about Little Prairie and the shoeks were probably more violent here than anywhere else. The greater part of the population moved away at the time of the earthquake so that the vil- lage was practically deserted, the only eon- spicuous settler who remained in the vicinity was Colonel John Hardeman Walker.
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