USA > Missouri > History of southeast Missouri : a narrative account of its historical progress, its people and its principal interests, Volume I > Part 27
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In March, 1814, the court, as reorganized, met at the house of Samuel Phillips in Big Prairie, and the June term was held at the house of Jesse Bartlett. In November, 1814, the commissioners for the seat of government selected fifty aeres of land in Big Prairie
which was donated by Steel Ross and Moses Hurley. This land lay about one-fourth mile south of the present town of Sikeston. Joseph Story was the county surveyor, and he was ordered by the court to lay the fifty acres off into lots. These lots were sold at public anetion in November and December of that year. The money thus derived was used for the ereetion of a jail which was built in 1817. This place continued to be the county seat of New Madrid county until the organi- zation of Seott county, when the county seat was removed to New Madrid. On the removal to New Madrid a new court house and jail became necessary ; the old jail was sold on the orders of the court and the new commission, consisting of Mark H. Stalleup, John Shanks, Thomas Bartlett, Franeois Le Sieur, and John Ruddell, were appointed. They proceeded to erect a court house and jail. This was the first court house in the county; they were both frame structures. The court house was used until 1854 and the jail until 1845.
This organization of New Madrid county into townships was maintained until 1822. In that year the area of the county having been very greatly reduced by the ereetion of new counties, townships were formed as fol- lows: Big Prairie was all that part of the county north of a line running in a westerly direction north of Rawl's old mill to the western boundary of the county. New Madrid township was to consist of all of part of the county lying south of Big Prairie township and north of a line beginning on the Missis- sippi river and running west so as to divide the surveys of Robert MeCoy and Joseph Vandenbenden; thenee to the west just south of the plantations of Robert G. Watson and Aaron T. Spear on Lake St. Ann to the west-
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ern boundary of the county. Le Sieur town- ship was to include all the remainder of the county.
New Madrid county was made a part of the southern circuit at the time the territory was divided into judicial circuits, the presid- ing judge being Hon. Richard S. Thomas, of Jackson. The first session of court in New Madrid county was held in December, 1815, in the house of William Montgomery in Big Prairie. Colonel John D. Walker was sheriff and Greer W. Davis was circuit attorney. The most important case was that of the United States vs. William Gordon, for mur- der. Gordon was convicted and, afterwards, hanged.
In 1831 St. Johns township was formed in the eastern part of the county to include the territory along St. Johns Bayou. In 1834 Little Prairie township was organized and in 1839 Pemiscot township; in 1842 Woodland was erected from the south part of Big Prairie township and at the same time Big Lake township was formed from parts of Le Sieur and Little Prairie; Woodland township was divided in 1845, a part of it being attached to Big Prairie and the other part to New Ma- drid. When Pemiscot county was organized in 1851 the size of New Madrid county was considerably reduced and no more townships were organized until 1874, when Portage township was formed.
The court house was destroyed by fire in 1895 and since that time no special building for the use of the courts has been provided by the county. An effort has been made on sev- eral occasions to vote bonds for the erection of a court house and the measure has always been defeated. The last attempt was made in 1911; it failed, however, through the oppo- sition of Lilbourn, Marston and some of the cther towns of the county which desire a
change of the county seat from New Madrid. At the present time the court offices are dis- tributed in various buildings in the city of New Madrid.
We have seen that in 1815 the territorial legislature divided the county of New Madrid and established, out of the western part of that county, a new county to be known as Lawrence. Its boundaries were described as follows: "Beginning at the mouth of Little Red river on the line dividing said county from the county of Arkansas; thence with said line to the river St. Francois; thence up the river St. Francois to the division line between the counties of Cape Girardeau and New Ma- dried; thence with said last mentioned line to the western boundary of the Osage pur- chase ; thence with the last mentioned line to the northern boundary of the county of Ar- kansas; thence with the last mentioned line to the place of beginning." A commission was appointed to fix the seat of justice, but in December, 1818, an act was passed which abol- ished this county and created another one.
The new county was to include the eastern part of Lawrence county and the southwest part of the county of Cape Girardeau. Its boundaries were described as follows: "Be- ginning at the southeast corner of the county of Madison running southwesterly on the road which divides the waters of Crooked creek and Castor until it strikes the edge of the Big Swamp between Jenkin's creek and Castor; thence west to the river Castor; thence down the main channel of the said river Castor until it strikes New Madrid county line; thence south so far that a due west line will leave the plantation of Edward N. Mathews on the north; thence west to the Osage boundary line; thence north with the said line so far that a due east line would in-
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tersect the place of beginning." This county so bounded was called Wayne county and on account of its great size was often spoken of as the "State of Wayne." The commission- ers to fix the seat of government were Over- ton Bettis, James Logan, Solomon Bollinger, William Street and Ezekiel Ruebottom. The courts were held at first in the house of Ran- som Bettis.
When Wayne county was organized, in 1818, the commissioners selected as a site for the county seat the place where Greenville now is. The town was laid out in that year and has been the county seat ever since. For a number of years the courts were held in rooms rented for the purpose.
The first court house was a two-story log building which was replaced in 1849 by a brick structure; this was burned in 1853 and the county appropriated $2,500 to rebuild it. Jeremiah Spencer and L. II. Flinn were ap- pointed to supervise its construction ; they completed its erection in 1856. The first jail in the county was built of logs and stood on the south corner of the public square. It was moved away and a brick building erected in 1849: this was used until 1873, when a new jail costing $9,000 was built. The present court house was erected in 1894 at a cost of $7.000.
The first clerk of the courts in Wayne county was Solomon R. Bowlin. Another elerk in the early period of the county was Thomas Catron, who resigned the office in 1849; among his successors were Nixon Pal- mer and George W. Creath. One of the first sheriff's was Wiley Wallis.
Madison county was created by the territo- rial legislature by an act passed December 14. 1818. At that time, as in other counties. the principal court was the circuit court,
which transacted much of the business of the county. The first meeting of the court was held in the house of Theodore F. Tong on July 12, 1819. Judge Thomas was on the bench; Charles Hutchings was clerk, but was afterwards succeeded by Nathaniel Cook; Jos- eph Montgomery was the sheriff. A grand jury was summoned and it returned indiet- ments against a number of persons for larceny. The courts for a number of years were held in private houses. The county court of Mad- ison county was organized in 1821; it met at the house of J. G. W. MeCabe; William Dillon and Henry Whitener were the judges of the court, and Nathaniel Cook was clerk. The county boundary on the west was Black River, and up to the meeting of the county court in this year it had been divided into three town- ships: St. Michaels, on the west, Liberty, on the north, and Castor, on the east. In this year two new townships, Twelve Mile and German, were erected. In 1822 a court house was ordered to be erected and was built in the same year. It was built of brick and is still standing. The jail was built in 1820, and it was built of logs on the present jail lot.
From the organization of the county until the year 1822 the courts were held at private residences. In that year, however. the present brick court house was completed; it is the old- est structure of its kind now in use west of the Mississippi river. It was well built and is still in a good state of preservation. A jail had been built before the erection of the court house. It stood on what is still known as the jail lot. It was burned by an escaping pris- oner and a new building of brick was erected ; it was also destroyed by fire and since that time the county has never erected a jail.
In 1845 the township of St. Francois was erected : Arcadia township in 1848 and Union township in 1850. On the organization of
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Iron county in 1857, Arcadia township, Union and Liberty were cut off to form a part of Iron county. Another township, known as Liberty, was later erected in Madison county and a new one created called Hope township.
The county early incurred a debt of more than $12,000 for the erection of the Frederick- town and Pilot Knob gravel road; the total indebtedness of the county in 1859 was $14,- 946. In the same year its receipts were $4,542, and expenditures $5,931. This shows a gain over the year of 1822, at which time the total receipts were $249.42 and the ex- penditures were $343.72.
Jefferson county was created December 8, 1818. Parts of Ste. Genevieve and St. Louis counties were cut off to form the new county. It was named in honor of Thomas Jefferson. William Bates, Peter MeCormack, Thomas Evans, Henry Metz, Jacob Wise and William Noll were commissioners to select the perma- nent seat of justice for the county. They decided upon Herculaneum. This decision was made because Herculaneum was the prin- cipal town in the county, though at this time, as we have seen, it consisted of only a very few houses. The first court room was in the log cabin owned by a negro named Abe. After a time court was held in the back room of a store occupied by Mr. Glasgow. The officers of the court rented offices in various parts of the town, sometimes holding their delibera- tion, as we are told, in the shade of the trees.
The first county court met March 22, 1819. The members of the court were H. B. Boyd, Elias Bates and Samuel Hammond. A lot in Herculaneum was donated by James Bryant as a building site for the county buildings, and upon this lot a log jail was erected; no effort was made, however, to build a court house. After considerable agitation a vote
was taken in August, 1832, on the proposition to establish the county seat at Monticello. When the returns of this election were finally canvassed in 1833 it was declared that the proposition had been defeated, but in Septem- ber, 1834, the returns were again gone over and the court declared that the proposition had carried. Commissioners were appointed to look after the erection of a log court house. Delays, however, occurred and it was not until April 7, 1838, that a building site was ob- tained in Monticello. Hugh O'Neil and Sam- uel Merry donated fifty acres of land for this purpose. On February 8, 1839, the general assembly passed an act establishing the seat of justice at Hillsboro, the name Monticello being changed because it was the name of the county seat of Lewis county. The court ap- pointed John J. Buren as commissioner to erect a court house. The building was of brick and stood near the present public school building and cost $4,600. The first meeting of the court was held in this building in April, 1840. A jail was built in 1841, and in 1865 the present court house and jail were erected at a cost of $16,000.
The first circuit court in Jefferson county was held in 1819 by Judge Nathaniel Beverly Tucker, who was judge of northern circuit.
The territory now composing Washington county was a part of the Ste. Genevieve dis- triet and so remained until August 21, 1813, when Washington county was organized by an act of the territorial legislature. As it was organized it included a great amount of territory, being several times as large as the present county ; its limits were gradually re- duced as new counties were formed and in 1868 its boundaries were finally fixed as they are now. The act creating the county ap- pointed Lemuel Brown, Samuel Perry, John
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Hawkins, Martin Ruggles and John Andrews to select the permanent seat of justice. They held a meeting in the fall of 1813 and selected Mine a Breton as a temporary meeting place for the court. The first judges of the court of common pleas were Martin Ruggles, William Sloan and John Stanton, who met on the first Monday in January, 1814, in the house of Benjamin Elliott, with John Brickey as elerk. The first sheriff was Lemuel Brown. Brown was a nephew of Colonel Burr and was after- ward killed in a duel by John Smith T. The first business transacted by this court was the appointment of an administrator for the estate of William Blanford; John Perry was appointed. At a meeting on the 13th of Jan- uary, 1814, Charles Lucas was granted per- mission to practice law before the courts of the county ; he was the first lawyer admitted to the bar. For two years there was no court except the court of common pleas, but in 1815 the county court was organized and also the circuit court. At the time of the organiza- tion of these new courts a log jail was ereeted on the public square in the original town of Potosi. This town was laid out on a traet of land northeast of the old town of Mine a Breton and donated by Moses Austin and John Riee Jones. Lots were sold in this new town and the money from their sale was used for the building of a court house, the total cost of which was $5,595. The citizens of Potosi at this time wished to make the town the capital of the state and the court house was designed to be used as a capitol building. The contractor for the court house was unable to finish the work and the upper story was never completed. In 1849 a contraet was let for the building of the present structure at a cost of $10,000.
The first term of the court was held at Mine a Breton in April, 1815, by David Bar-
ton, judge of the northern eircuit, and Rich- ard S. Thomas of the southern circuit. The lawyers who practiced before the courts of Washington county were, many of them, very able men ; among them were Israel MeGready, Daniel Dunklin, David E. Perryman, John S. Briekey, Phillip Cole and Henry Shurlds.
The county was divided into eleven town- ships: Belgrade, Bellevue, Breton, Concord, Harmony, Johnson, Kingston, Liberty, Rich- woods, Union and Walton.
Potosi was made the county seat. It was originally a mining camp near Mine a Breton. Potosi was separated from the old village of Mine a Breton by a fork of Breton ereek. It was a typical mining village in the early days and contained several rather pretentious dwellings and was rather better built and a more pleasant town than other towns of the district. There were three stores, two distilleries, a flour mill, some lead furnaces, one saw mill and post office. The mail was brought from St. Louis and also from Ste. Genevieve onee each week. There was also a monthly mail from Arkansas. The most pretentious and commodious residenee in town was Durham Hall, which we have previously described as the home of Moses Austin. Austin and his son, Samuel Perry, John Rice Jones, Elijah Bates, and Brickey, were among the principal residents of the town in the early times. The town grew slowly and was supported almost entirely by the lead mines. These mines in the immediate viein- ity of Potosi produced in the period from 1798 to 1818 nearly ten million pounds of lead.
Perry county was created by the legislature by a law passed November 16, 1820, but the county court was not organized until May 21. 1821. The meeting was held at the house of Bede Moore, who lived about two and one-
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half miles north of the present site of Perry- ville. The judges of the court were: Louis Cissell, D. L. Caldwell and Samuel Anderson.
The first clerk of the court was Cornelius N. Slattery. The county was divided into three townships: Brazeau, including the territory between the Cinque Homme and Apple Creek ; Bois Brule, in the northeast part of the county, and Cinque Homme, which included the remainder of the county. Robert T. Brown was the first sheriff, and Joseph Tucker was the first assessor. Commissioners were appointed to locate the seat of justice, and they selected the present site of Perryville. Provision for the building of a court house was not made until 1825. Up to this time the courts met in rooms which were rented for the purpose, though a log jail had previously been erected.
The second court house was erected in 1859. The court appropriated $8,000 for the build- ing and John E. Layton was appointed as superintendent of construction. This court house still stands and is in a fair state of preservation. A jail was erected about 1825; it was built of logs. This jail was used until 1839, when it was superseded by a briek build- ing 32 feet long and 22 feet wide, which was put upon the public square near the court house.
Judge Thomas organized the circuit court of Perry county June 4. 1821. There seems to have been but little business transacted by this court for a number of years. The first case of importance was the trial of Ezekiel Fenwick for the killing of William R. Bel- lamy ; this was March 29, 1824. The circum- stances under which Bellamy was killed are said to have been about these: Bellamy, who was a constable, had attempted to attach goods belonging to Fenwick, but found, the goods on a boat about to be removed across
the Mississippi river. Fenwick resisted the constable's efforts to tie the boat up. A strug- gle ensued between the two men and during an exchange of shots Bellamy was wounded in the arm; the wound finally resulted in his death. Fenwick escaped to Cape Girardeau county, but afterwards surrendered himself on a promise made by Judge Thomas that he would be admitted to bail. It was this prom- ise of Judge Thomas that formed one of the charges in the impeachment case against him. Fenwick was afterward tried and acquitted.
This was the last of the counties organized before the admission of the state into the Union. The county was formed after the organization of the state government, but before the proclamation of the President ad- mitting the state into the Union.
After the transfer to the United States in 1804 there was very little trouble with the Indians until just before the breaking out of the war of 1812 with Great Britain. About 1811 the British agents in the north and west began to stir up the Indians and induce them to commit depredations on the western and northern frontier. This brought the Indians upon the inhabitants of Missouri in the dis- trict of St. Charles. Every effort was made to induce the Indians to give up their raids and in May, 1812, an assembly of the chiefs of a large number of tribes was held at St. Louis. Later these chiefs visited Washington and endeavors were made to pacify them. Tecumseh's influence was too strong over them and many of the Indians, including the Saes, Foxes, Iowas, Sioux and some of the Shawnees, decided to go on the warpath. Most of the Shawnees and the Delawares were either neutral or assisted the settlers in Mis- souri. This determination of the Indians caused a very great increase in outrages and
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disturbances in the north part of the state. The militia of the St. Charles distriet did all that it could to protect that part of the terri- tory and a large number of forts were built there and troops stationed to garrison them. These troops were, however, entirely inade- quate to protect all the settlers, and accord- ingly a call was made on the districts south of the river for assistance.
In response to this call for help, companies were organized to take part in the Indian wars. One of the first of these companies was recruited in Cape Girardeau district by An- drew Ramsay, Jr .; this was in the spring of 1813. The officers were Andrew Ramsay, cap- tain ; James Morrison, first lieutenant; Peter Craig, second lieutenant ; Drakeford Gray, third lieutenant; William Ramsay, ensign ; Wilson Able, Edward Spear, John Giles, John Gray and James Ramsay, sergeants; Daniel Harklerood, George Simpson, Willis Flanna- gan, Michael Ault, Alexander Scott and Ed- ward Tanner, corporals, and Solomon Fossett, trumpeter. This company took part in some of the Indian troubles, but soon was dis- banded.
In the summer of 1814 General Henry Dodge of Ste. Genevieve, collected a force of about three hundred, including some forty or fifty Shawnee Indians. The force consisted of a company from St. Louis under Captain John Thompson; one from Cape Girardeau under Captain Abraham Daugherty; one from the Boone's Lick settlement under Cap- tain Cooper; one from Ste. Genevieve under Captain Bernard Pratte, and the Indians who were under command of Captain J. B. St. Gem. This body of troops marched into the St. Charles district, were joined by another company under Captain Edward Hempstead, and attacked the camp of Miamis on the south side of the Missouri river. The camp was
captured and the Indians, who had scattered in the woods, were taken prisoners; there were 152 of them. These were first sent to St. Louis and then to the site of every nation on the Wabash river. The company from Cape Girardeau and those from St. Louis then marched to Cape au Gris; they were then returned home. The officers of this Cape Girardeau company were: Abraham Daug- herty, captain ; Medad Randol, first lieuten- ant; Andrew Patterson, second lieutenant; Robert Buekner, third lieutenant; Frederick Keep, ensign ; Michael Rodney, William Cox. James Thompson, Benjamin Anthony, ser- geants; Jacob Yount, Henry Shaner, Hall Hudson, John Davis, Nero Thompson and John Ezell, corporals.
The most famous of these expeditions was that made in 1814 by a company of mounted rangers raised by Peter Craig of Cape Girar- deau county. Many of the members of the company had served under Captain Ramsay in 1813; they were now enlisted for a period of one year to serve on the frontiers of Mis- souri and Illinois, and they became a part of a regiment commanded by Colonel William Russell. This company did very much serviee during these Indian troubles, and fought the famous battle of the Sink Hole. The officers of this company were: Peter Craig, captain ; Drakeford Gray, first lieutenant; Wilson Able, second lieutenant ; Edward Spear, third lieutenant ; John Giles, ensign ; John Rodney, Enos Randol, Daniel Harklerood, William Fugate, William Blakeney, sergeants; Abra- ham Letts, Perry W. Wheat, Jeremiah Able, William McCarty, Charles Sexton and Thomas S. Rodney, corporals.
The privates of the company were: James Atkinson, John Able, Stephen Byrd, Jona- than Brickey, John Brown, Tessant Barkume, James Brown, William B. Bush, George P.
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Bush, Peter Barrado, Francois Barraboe, Thomas Boyce, Burrel Castly, John Cameron, Charles Cardinal, William Crump, John Cooper, Jesse Cochran, Baptiste Cotie, Alex- ander Cotie, James Cowan, Hugh Dowlin, Elias Davis, Ludwell Davis, John Dotson, Samuel Foster, Able Galland, Alexander Giboney, Louis Guliah, Charles Hamilton, Louis Heneaux, Abijah Highsmith, John Houk, Benjamin Hall, John Holcomb, James Hamilton, Frederick Hector, Thomas Hail, John Hodge, Stephen Jarboe, Jehoida Jeffrey, Andrew Johnson, Baptiste Janneaux, Jr., Baptiste Janneaux, Sr., William King, Charles Lloyd, Francis Lemmey, Joseph Lem- mey, John Langston, Baptiste La Croy, Bap- tiste Labeaux, Stephen MeKenzie, James Mas- sey, Nathan MeCarty, James Masterson, Mark Murphy, William Martin, Benjamin Ogle, Samuel Parker, James Putney, Samuel Philip, John Patterson, Antoine Pelkey, John Roach, Tessant Reeves, Robert Robertson, Joshua Simpson, John Sorrells, John Shepherd, Alex- ander St. Scott, Joseph Sivwaris, Edward Stephenson, Solomon Thorn, Hubbard Tayon, John D. Upham, John Vance, Louis Vanure, Pascal Valle, George Wilt, John Watkins, Isaac Williams, John Wiggs, David Wilt, William Wathen, Jenkin Williams, William Wells, Levi Wolverton. Michael Wigo, Fred- crick Webber, Isaac Gregory, George Vanleer.
the fort, to bring in a grindstone. In conse- quence of back water from the Mississippi they went in a canoe, and on their return were fired on by a party supposed to be fifty In- dians, who were under shelter of some brush that grew along at the foot of the bluff near Byrne's house, and about fifteen rods distant from the canoe at that time. Three of the whites were killed and one mortally wounded, and as the water was shallow the Indians ran out and tomahawked their victims. The peo- ple of the fort ran out and fired on the In- dians across the back water, a few inches deep, while another party of about twenty-five ran to the right of the water with a view of inter- cepting the Indians, who seemed to be making toward the bluff or high plain west and north- west of the fort. The party of twenty-five and Captain Craig's soon united. On the bluff was the cultivated field and deserted residence of Benjamin Allen. The field was about forty rods across, beyond which was pretty thick timber. Here the Indians made a stand and here the fight began. Both parties fired, and as the fight waxed warm the In- dians slowly retired as the whites advanced. After the fight had been going on perhaps some ten minutes the whites were reinforced by Captain David Musiek, of Cape au Gris, with about twenty men. He had been on a scout toward the head of Cuiver river and had returned to within about one-half a mile of scene of the conflict, and had stopped with his men to graze their horses when, hearing the firing, they instantly remounted and dashed toward the place of battle. Dismounting in the edge of the timber on the bluff, and hitch- ing their horses, they rushed through a part of the Indian line, and shortly after the enemy fled. a part bearing to the right of the sink hole toward Bob's creek, but the most of them
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