USA > Missouri > History of southeast Missouri : a narrative account of its historical progress, its people and its principal interests, Volume I > Part 30
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Immediately upon the beginning of steam navigation, a suggestion was made to Fulton and his associates that the Clermont should be put in the Mississippi river trade. It was already known in the East that this trade was very extensive, and it seems that Fulton con- sidered the question of bringing the Clermont to the Mississippi. It is not known how he
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expected to do this, and if he ever really in- tended it. He soon gave up the idea because the Clermont was put into use on the Hudson river, where it found waiting for it the great- est river traffic in the world. But, if the Mississippi river was not to have the Cler- mont for its trade, it was not long to be de- prived of steamboats. In 1811 a company of men built in Pittsburgh a boat which they called the New Orleans. This boat made the trip from Pittsburgh to New Orleans and was for some time concerned in the traffic on the Mississippi river.
In a very short time other boats were built and in 1816 the first steamboat passed up the Mississippi above the month of the Ohio. This was the General Pike and was com- manded by Captain Jacob Reed. This steam- boat was looked upon by all of the inhabitants as a very remarkable and wonderful thing indeed, but it was only a little while until there were a great number of steamboats in operation. They possessed such remarkable advantages over the keel-boat that they were adopted for traffic as fast as possible. The second boat to come up the river above the mouth of the Ohio was the Constitution; it reached St. Louis in 1817.
The change produced by these steamboats was remarkable. They lowered not only the time necessary for the journey, but they low- ered in a remarkable way the expense of transportation. The rates on the steamboats, even, were enormous, but they were lower than the rates on the keel-boats. In 1819 a contract was entered into between the owners of two steamboats and the United States gov- ernment to carry freight from St. Louis to Council Bluffs and the rate charged was $8.00 a hundred pounds. This is enormous com- pared to our present rates, but seemed reason- able in those days when compared to the rates
necessarily charged by other means of trans- portation.
Flint, who was a minister and traveled up and down the river very many times, has recorded the feeling of pleasure with which he took his first voyage on a steamboat. In speaking of his experience, he says: "It is now refreshing and imparts a feeling of energy and power to the beholder, to see the large and beautiful steamboats scudding up the eddies, as though on the wing; and when they have run out the eddy, strike the cur- rent. The foam bursts in a sheet quite over the deck. She quivers for a moment with the concussion, and then, as though she had collected all her energy and vanquished her enemy, she resumes her stately march and mounts against the current five or six miles an hour." And lost in admiration at the won- derful advance from the slow upward move- ment of the keel-boat, at the rate of six miles a day, he says, "A stranger to this mode of traveling would find it difficult to describe his impressions upon first descending the Mississippi in one of the better steamboats. He contemplates the prodigious establish- ment, with all its fitting of deck, common, and ladies' cabin apartments. Overhead, about him and below him all is life and movement." Then, speaking of the time when he first trav- eled on these western waters, and before the era of the steamboat, he says, "This stream, instead of being plowed by a hundred steam- boats, had seen but one. The astonishing fa- cilities for traveling, by which it is almost changed to flying, had not been invented. The thousand travelers for mere amusement that we now see on the roads, canals and rivers, were then traveling only in books. The stillness of the forest had not been broken by the shouting of the turnpike makers. The Mississippi forest had seldom resounded ex-
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cept with the cry of wild beasts, the echo of thunder, or the crash of undermined trees, falling into the flood. Our admiration, our unsated curiosity at that time, would be a matter of surprise at the present to the thous- ands of hackneyed travelers on this stream, to whom this route and all its circumstances are as familiar as the path from the bed to the fire."#
It has been said that among all the settlers of Upper Louisiana there existed comparative quiet and freedom from disturbance, under Spanish rule. The French were by nature and by the circumstances of their relation- ship and close connection in the towns, peace- able and law abiding people, and little effort was required to keep peace among them. The Americans were scattered over the country, and while they were bolder in some respects and a more difficult population to govern, the troubles that arose among them were usually settled by an appeal to physical strength, with the use of nature's weapons, so that there was little crime which needed the attention of the officers of the law. They stood, too, as we have said, in wholesome respect of the Span- ish authorities and had a dread of Spanish dungeons and mines. When the territory passed under the dominion of the United States, however, and when large numbers of immigrants from the states further to the east had filled up the country, there ensued a period of considerable lawlessness. It was, perhaps, the natural feeling of reaction after the repression of the Spanish government. Quarreling, fighting, and occasional crimes were present in all the settlements in the ter- ritory. The officers of the law had much to do in some of the settlements and the popula-
tion was far from being as quiet and free from disturbance as it had been under the government of Spain.
We have seen that one of the subjects which early occupied the attention of the territorial assembly was that of the suppression of vice and immorality on the Sabbath, owing to the lack of religious teaching, and to that free- dom of restraint of public opinion found in new communities. There was not a great deal of attention paid to the observance of the day of rest. so that the legislature endeavored to correct this evil.
One of the prevalent vices of the popula- tion was gambling. There seems to be some connection between the life of a new country and the existence of the gambling spirit. Something of the exhilaration of the free life and of the spirit of taking chances which is cultivated by the daily circumstances under which the people live seem to incline large numbers of them to the gaming table. Gam- bling was exceedingly popular; it was, per- haps. the most prevalent form of amusement. The territory itself authorized a lottery, so that gambling was regulated and authorized by the law.
But, perhaps, the thing that most impressed itself upon travelers from other countries with regard to the lawless condition of the terri- tory was the habit of dueling. Men were accustomed to settle differences between them by an appeal to arms. Some one has pointed out that this method was not in use among all classes of people in the territory, the laboring class not being accustomed to resort to the duel, but professional men, especially law- yers and all those who regarded themselves as higher up in the scale of society were ac- customed to look with contempt upon the man who appealed to the law for the settlement of
* Houck, Vol. III, p. 199.
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difficulties. Gentlemen were supposed to settle their own troubles. The slightest ground for quarrel was sufficient to bring the parties face to face in a duel. These duels were not such as are said to exist in France . today ; they were not arranged for show, and there was nothing of the spectacular in them ; the meeting was almost certain to result in the death of one or the other of the par- ticipants. The weapons most commonly used were pistols. The meeting between two per- sons was arranged by seconds and at the ap- pointed time they met and proceeded to shoot at one another. Ordinarily the exchange of one or more shots or the wounding or killing of one or the other of the antagonists was looked upon as satisfying the code of honor which governed the duel. Not infrequently after an exchange of shots the parties shook hands and the quarrel between them was at an end; very many duels, however, resulted fatally. It was a time when men were ac- customed to firearms. Most of those who en- gaged in duels were expert shots with the pistol and there were very many chances of being at least wounded in one of these duels. Some of them are famous. There came to be recognized dueling places that were resorted to frequently. One of these places, not, how- ever, in Southeast Missouri, but one to which persons from this part of the state sometimes resorted for the purpose of dueling was Bloody Island, in the Mississippi river near St. Louis.
In 1811 a duel was fought in Ste. Genevieve between Dr. Walter Fenwick and Thomas T. Crittenden. Crittenden was a lawyer and had. in the course of a trial, denounced Ezekiel Fenwick, who was a brother of Dr. Walter Fenwick. Ezekiel Fenwick thereupon chal- lenged Crittenden, who, however, refused a meeting on the ground that Ezekiel was not a
gentleman. The challenge had been carried to Crittenden by Dr. Walter Fenwick and this reply affronted Dr. Fenwick, who, there- upon, issued a challenge on his own behalf. The duel was fought on Moreau Island just below Ste. Genevieve. Dr. Fenwick was killed at the first fire. This duel was fought with pistols.
In 1807 Joseph McFerron and William Ogle fought a duel on Cypress Island oppo- site Cape Girardeau. McFerron was an Irish- man, possessed good education and was clerk of the court in the Cape Girardeau district. Ile had been a teacher, but before accepting the position with the court he was a merchant in Cape Girardeau. For some reason there arose difficulty between these men and Ogle challenged McFerron to duel. It seems that McFerron had never even fired a pistol, but accepted the challenge. Ogle was killed, while McFerron was unhurt. The most famous duel, perhaps, fought in this period was not between citizens of Southeast Missouri, but took place between Thomas H. Benton and Charles Lucas. The first duel between them was fought in August, 1817. At this meeting Benton was wounded in the knee and Lucas in the neck. According to the usual custom of duels this exchange of shots would have ended the matter, but when Benton was asked if he were satisfied he declared that he was not and demanded a second meeting. Efforts were made to bring about a reconciliation be- tween the two men but all of them were futile. Benton seems to have been determined to fight another duel with Lucas. The second meet- ing was held on Bloody Island on the 27th day of September, 1817, and resulted in the death of Charles Lucas.
In 1819 John Smith T. and Lionel Browne, the latter a nephew of Aaron Burr and a lawyer of Potosi, fought a duel on an island
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opposite Herculaneum. Browne was instantly killed, while Smith escaped. There are but a few instances of the use of these barbarous methods of settling disputes. They came from false ideas of honor; there had grown up in the minds of men a notion that a man was in some way sullied if he did not resent an in- sult of any kind, even to the point of killing his antagonist. It required long years of con- stant agitation to displace this false notion that caused so many deaths.
One of the virtues which distinguished the early settlers was hospitality. Any traveler was sure to be received with kindness in any part of the country. The reason for this is to be found, in part, in the character of the people themselves and, in part, in the fact that there were no other provisions for trav- elers. It was not until after the transfer to the United States that public taverns, as the places of entertainment were called, were to be found except in a very few of the towns. The traveler, even up to the admission of the state to the Union, must depend either upon his own resources and sleep in the open and prepare his own food, or else be received into the homes of the people; it was usually the latter that happened. It was regarded as a duty and also a pleasure to care for the traveler, a duty because they were unwilling to turn those away in need of shelter and food, and a pleasure largely because of the fact that the inhabitants depended for news upon the traveler. Newspapers were very scarce and, as we have seen, postage was so high and mail so irregular as practically to forbid any but the most necessary correspond- ence and for these reasons such news as was received was brought by persons traveling. It has been said that a traveler was rarely ever turned away from any door. His reception
was not the most cordial in manner, the usual response to a request for accommodation be- ing the laconic reply : "Well, I guess we could keep you ;" but though the welcome was not as cordial as might have been expected it was, nevertheless, a welcome and ample pro- vision was made for the unexpected guest. The best the house afforded was his. The mis- tress of the house, dressed in the garb which was made in the house itself, quiet and re- pressed in manner, without many of the graces of refined society, was yet kindly atten- tive to all the wants of the traveler. Any at- tempt at pay for these accommodations was repulsed and often looked upon as something in the nature of an insult. The head of the house disclaimed any idea of keeping tavern. Flint and Peck, both of them famous min- isters in the early days, recount their ex- periences as travelers and the almost uniform kindness and hospitality with which they were treated. Flint records as the most remark- able and unusual circumstance that at one place he was refused accommodation.
The people, while not religious for the most part and in many settlements rude and bois- terous in their behavior, had a respect for re- ligion that prompted them to treat with con- sideration the ministers who came to hold services; this was trne even of the roughest classes. The tavern-keepers, themselves, were frequently kindly disposed toward preachers. Both Flint and Peck were received in taverns and cared for.
These taverns, or places of public enter- tainment, combined a house for the care of travelers with a place for the sale of liquor. A place where liquor was sold apart from the inn was called a grocery. Taverns were not numerous in the early days. They were licensed by the Spanish officials and careful instructions were given as to the number of
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taverns permitted in any community. Effort seems to have been made to reduce the num- ber as low as possible. In a number of in- stances licenses for keeping tavern were re- fused on the ground that the community was already sufficiently supplied. After the or- ganization of the territorial government, ac- companying the growth of population, there was an increase in the number of taverns.
By 1805 the United States government had established postoffices at Ste. Genevieve, Cape Girardeau and New Madrid. Provision was made for the carrying of mails between these points and for connecting these mail routes with those east of the river. The weekly mail which reached these and other points in the territory was, necessarily, irregular ; the roads were very poor, and many of those engaged in carrying the mails had very long journeys to make. It is rather curious to observe the constant complaint of the inhabitants of the territory concerning the mails, they were too irregular and at too infrequent intervals. Even settlers at the oldest of the towns, who had seemed to be content under Spanish gov- ernment without any mails at all, were unable to be satisfied with one mail a week after the transfer to the United States. Doubtless the establishment of these postoffices and the reg- ular delivery of the mail into even remote communities was one of the powerful agencies by which the government fostered the growth of population in the new territory. Men who have enjoyed the advantages of the regular postal system are often unwilling to settle in a community where no postal facilities are provided. The government could have done nothing that would have offered greater in- ducement to many prospective settlers than to arrange to keep them in contact with civili-
zation by providing for the delivery of mail.
The rate for carrying letters and parcels was, of course, very high compared to the present rates. The roads over which the mails were carried were very bad, and in many cases hardly existed at all. As a consequence, all mails were transported for a time on horse- back and this was for many years the prin- cipal method of earrying them. There was no fixed rate of postage for a letter at that time. The price was not fixed then as now by weight. The distance it must be carried de- termined the cost and not its weight. In no case was the amount charged by the govern- ment small. The ordinary rate on letters was from twenty-five to seventy-five eents.
The first newspaper published in Southeast Missouri was the Missouri Herald. It was established at Jackson in 1818 by Tubal E. Strange. It was a weekly newspaper, but its publication was discontinued in 1819; it was revived in 1820 under the name of the Inde- pendent Patriot, published by Stephen Rem- ington & Company. In 1825 a paper under the title the Ste. Genevieve Correspondent and Record was established at Ste. Genevieve.
While these were the first papers actually published in Southeast Missouri, the first Missouri paper was established in St. Louis in 1808 by Joseph Charless; this was the Mis- souri Gazette. It is still published under the title, The St. Louis Republic. This paper had some eirculation in Southeast Missouri, even at this early date. The publication of news- papers in a new territory such as this was at- tended with very great difficulty; it was al- most impossible to seeure sufficient subscrib- ers to pay the expense of publication. For this reason we find a constant change of proprietors taking place in almost all the early papers.
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It is not now possible to fix the exact date of the first school taught in Southeast Mis- souri. There is some evidence that members of the Russell family conducted private schools in Cape Girardeau county about the year 1800; however, this date is not definitely determined. In 1806 Benjamin Johnson opened a private school on Sandy Creek in Jefferson county. In 1808 a number of citi- zens of Ste. Genevieve established the Ste. Genevieve Academy, and employed as teacher Mann Butler, afterward a distinguished teach- er and writer of history. In 1815 Joseph Her- tich opened a school in Ste. Genevieve. Her- tich was the first to introduce the new prin- ciples of education and methods of teaching which had been worked out by Pestalozzi. Ac- cording to Houck, Hertich was a very able man and his school in Ste. Genevieve exer- cised a remarkable influence for several years. A number of his students achieved consid- erable reputation, three of them having be- come, afterwards, members of the United States senate .*
There was a school conducted in Hercu- laneum in 1815 and one at Potosi in 1817. A number of persons conducted private schools in Jackson in the years 1817 to 1820. Flint, the minister who has been referred to often, was one of these. In 1820 Thomas P. Green, a Baptist minister, opened a school in Jackson which he conducted for a number of years. It was in 1818, as we have seen, that St. Mary's Academy was established near Perryville. We may be sure that all these early efforts at conducting schools were lim- ited in scope. Equipment was exceedingly meagre or altogether absent. The number of students was small, and the compensation of the teachers correspondingly small. Some of those who undertook to teach were very poorly qualified for the work. The subjects of in-
struction in most cases were simply the merest rudiments of education. The terms of school were short, and perhaps the greatest handicap of all was the lack of continuous instruction. Perhaps a settlement had school for a few months in one year and then would have no school for two or three years. Under these conditions it was impossible for any systematic education to be secured. There were excep- tions, of course, to this. Some of the men, notably Hertich and some of the ministers, were highly educated men and quite capable of conducting schools.
This lack of proper means for education was one of the great drawbacks to the country. Part of these conditions which were so un- favorable were inseparably connected with life in a new country ; they could not be removed. One of the great difficulties, however, was in . the failure of many people to appreciate the necessity for education. The life of the fron- tier has little in it to inspire children with desire for learning; it also fails to disclose the necessity for an education. A living was very easily made by manual labor, and there seemed to be little demand for educated men. Physical strength and skill and native shrewd- ness were sufficient to enable a man not alone to live, but to accumulate property. Some of the wealthy men in the time which we are considering were unable to read or write and others had the most meagre and limited educa- tion. It was possible for a boy, if taught in the ordinary things of life, to care for him- self and family and yet have no knowledge of books at all. Flint, who was from the East, and perhaps not altogether free from preju- dice in the matter, says that many of the people living in the more remote districts made no effort to teach their children; that boys at fourteen or fifteen had learned to use the axe and the rifle, to perform the simple
* Houck, Vol. III, p. 68. Vol. I-13
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operations of farming as it was then prac- ticed, and that thus equipped they were inde- pendent and scorned any notion that they needed to know more than these things.
Peck says that "after having gained correct knowledge, by personal inspection in most of the settlements, or by the testimony of reliable persons *
* the conclusion was that at least one-third of the schools were really a public nuisance, and did the people more harm than good. Another third about balanced the ac- count by doing about as much harm as good, and, perhaps, one-third were advantageous to the community in various degrees. Not a few drunken, profane, worthless Irishmen were perambulating the country and getting up schools, and yet they could neither speak, read, pronounce, spell or write the English language."*
Peck further says that there existed a cus- tom of turning the schoolmaster out of the house at Christmas and Easter. He records one instance of a schoolmaster who provided a treat for the children, in order to be per- mitted to re-enter the house. The treat con- sisted of a drink known as "Cherry Bounce." Both teacher and pupils were partly intoxi- cated by their treat and the teacher was dis- missed. Peck gives this picture of the life of some of the people in the frontier settle- ments. He is careful to discriminate and point out that not all the people, by any means, were like those described. After la- menting their deplorable condition, religious- ly, and their ignorance of the Bible, and their indifference to the calls made upon them, and saying of them that few could read and fewer had Bibles or other books to read, he says that they were almost equally as poorly off con- cerning other matters. A small corn field, he says, and a truck patchi was the height of their ambition. Venison, bear meat, and hog meat
dressed, cooked in a most slovenly and filthy manner, with corn bread baked in the form of a pone, and when cold as hard as a brick bat, constituted their provisions. Coffee and tea, he says, were prohibited articles amongst this class, for had they possessed the articles, not one woman in ten knew how to cook them. He adds, however, "doubtless in a few years, when the land came into market, this class of squatters cleared out."
In June, 1808, the territorial assembly char- tered the Ste. Genevieve Academy with the following as trustees: James Maxwell, John Baptiste Valle, Jacques Guibord, St. James Beauvais, Francois Janis, John Baptiste Pratte, Joseph Pratte, Walter Fenwick, An- drew Henry, Timothy Phelps, Aaron Elliott, Nathaniel Pope, Joseph Spencer, Jr., William James, Frank Oliver, Joshua Penniman, Wil- liam Shannon, George Bullett, Henry Dodge and Harry Diel.
The trustees were authorized to receive and expend money for the use of the academy, and they were bound to have instruction given in both French and English. One clause of the act of incorporation forbade their making any distinction in the employment of teachers, or in filling vacancies in the board of trustees, regarding religious beliefs. The academy was a necessity for all people and no religious dis- tinction was to be made. The trustees were further commanded to admit poor children and children of Indians to the academy free of any charge for instruction. Power was conferred on them, also, to arrange, when- ever it seemed best to them, to open an insti- tution for the instruction of girls.
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