USA > Missouri > Missouri the center state, 1821-1915 > Part 10
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"In eighteen hundred and seventy-one The city of Joplin was first begun. Moffett and Sargent, from Minersville, Sunk the first shaft near Moon-range Hill. With pick and shovel and tub and rope And windlass they brought the dirt on top. Imagine the one in the shaft saying, 'Hoist!' To his buddy on top whose brow is moist From pulling the tub well filled with soil, While day after day alone they'd toil. When they'd sunk the shaft about forty feet 'They struck big lead,-their joy was complete ; But the windlass kept moving both forward and back, And under the lead they struck big 'jack.' It soon got out that some one had found A big paying mine on the Moffett ground. Ere long the report was proved to be true, And then the excitement, like wildfire, flew Until many men had gathered around; And, like the first, sunk shafts in the ground. Many struck lead and many struck 'jack.' Most of them staying, never moved back, They built themselves houses and shops and stores
With the money they made from selling their ores, Till Joplin to-day is quite a large town Builded by 'jack' whose fame is renown."
Joplin today is "quite a large town," far beyond what the poet saw or foresaw, when '5,000 people were living in tents.
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The world used to hear a good deal of Moffett & Sargent in connection with Joplin mining interests. That firm had the swing for a long time. Moffett and Sargent came to Joplin from Oronogo, a camp some miles east. They had been miners together with about the usual ups and downs. But from the time they started operations at Joplin they began to rise. They leased a lot of land on terms exceedingly favorable to them, when the value of the product at that time is considered. It is said they paid a royalty of only $2 a ton on the ore they mined. Putting up a small furnace, they were able to net $14 a ton. They had a mint, or something almost as good, and as the lease gave them control for five years, they grew rich faster than they could place their income. They built a railroad to Girard, stocked banks and were the lead kings of Southwest Missouri. At one time a check for $625,000 was made out and tendered Mr. Moffett for his interests, but he only laughed at it.
Fortune Finding in Joplin.
There have been some notable cases of fortune-making in the Joplin district. One of these was that of William J. Schwindle. The pioneers of 1876 say that Schwindle was the luckiest of all the early comers. He came with nothing; actually footed it into Joplin. Like the rest of the fortune-hunters he took a strip of ground and went to work on shares. His location was in what is called Pitcher's field. In two years Schwindle had taken out $125,000. "He fooled it all away" is the reply to the question "What did he do with it?" It must not be inferred from this that the lucky miner became dissipated. He went to work honestly enough to make the best of his fortune. He bought farms and built houses and invested right and left in the region which had yielded him his wealth. Somehow luck seemed to turn "dead against him." He lost on every venture. In befriending those less fortunate he made big holes in his bank account. One year the security debts he was called upon to pay for those who had left him in the lurch amounted to $40,000. He opened a store and stocked it, putting in an active partner to run the business. He gave this partner the money to pay for the goods. One day Schwindle went to see how his mercantile speculation was getting on. He found the store closed and the shelves empty. The wicked partner had gone and taken the stock with him. What made the case more aggravating was the later discovery that the money advanced to pay for the goods had never got beyond the wicked partner's pocket. Schwindle had to put up a second time for the stock, after it had been carried off. The unfortunate capitalist got little sympathy in Joplin. His acquaintances, when he went to them for advice, told him to go into court and get his name changed to "Swindled," and offered to appear as witnesses to justify such action.
A singular case was that of Grasshopper. Nobody knew him by any other name, and he accepted that good-humoredly. Grasshopper came over from . Kansas. The locusts had cleaned him out, and lead-mining was his forlorn hope. The eligible locations were all taken when Grasshopper arrived. But indications were nothing to him. He went down in the valley near the white lead works, where nobody had ever found, or expected to find, mineral. It was good enough for him, he said, when surprise was expressed at his choice. Experienced miners had many a good laugh at Grasshopper's expense for a few weeks. Then some- thing happened that caused a change of sentiment. The Kansan struck ore, and
LEAD MINE IN THE JOPLIN DISTRICT
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pretty soon he had plenty of neighbors. In about a year Grasshopper had $40,000 to his credit. Then he loaded his effects into a prairie schooner and sailed back to his old home in Kansas.
Mr. Lloyd was a civil engineer in the employ of the Missouri Pacific Rail- road. He had an interest in 400 acres in the vicinity of Joplin. He prodded and prospected, but no mineral could he find on his land. Just over his line miners were taking out galena by the ton. The owner had become pretty well dis- couraged. One day there came into Joplin a gaunt Arkansan, with "the old woman" and a wagon-load of youngsters. His name was Walker; he had heard there was to be a circus in Joplin, and he had driven the whole sixty miles from his home in the mountains to give his family a treat. The fact was, two shows had billed Joplin. They were to appear a month apart. Walker had got the dates mixed up, or else had been misled by a last year's almanac, for he drove his travel-worn team into the mining camp just twenty-four hours after the first circus had pulled up stakes and moved on. He swore a little at first when he discovered the situation, but soon took a philosophical view of it. If he was too late for one show he wouldn't be for the other. Mrs. Walker and the little Walkers should see a circus, if it took all summer. So the family camped on Mr. Lloyd's land, and made themselves as comfortable as possible while they waited. Walker went to Mr. Lloyd, and, telling him all he wanted was to make expenses, offered to go to work. He hadn't seen a mine up to that time. Mr. Lloyd carelessly told his squatter that he hadn't any use for him, but if he really needed work he would pay him 50c a day and give him a quarter of what he found.
"All right," said Walker, "where shall I dig?"
"Dig where you blamed please," replied Mr. Lloyd. "I've been trying a year and haven't found anything. I don't know any more about it than you do."
"Well," said Walker, "I reck'n this will be as good a place as any," and he marked off a square for the shaft right where he was standing. He was so green that he didn't know how to fire a blast, and the other miners had to come over and show him. But before the next circus pitched its tents in Joplin Walker had struck it rich on Mr. Lloyd's land. His quarter of the mineral paid him $14,000. He cleaned up with $16,000 in cash, went over into Kansas, bought two farms and enjoyed life. Mr. Lloyd cleared over $30,000 on the mineral which the Arkansan struck.
White Lead from Fumes.
One day, when a great deal of reducing was done around Joplin, a young Jerseyman came along and asked a furnace owner:
"What is that going out of the top of your smokestack?"
"Arsenic, I guess," replied the furnace-owner indifferently.
"No, it isn't," said the Jerseyman, "it's white lead."
The furnace man laughed, but the Jerseyman went on and made a deal with Moffett, who was then in the zenith of his greatness as a lead king. In a word, the process condensed fumes from the furnace. The inventor was O. E. Bartlett, who died in 1914. He had about the usual uphill struggle to get recognition for a new and a good thing. After the plant was built it was possible to stand at a distance and see only now and then a slight film of smoke escaping from the stack. One might conclude that the works had been shut down. But in the
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buildings at the foot of the stack the furnaces were roaring, massive machinery was in operation and a daily product of 47,500 pounds of pig lead and 11,250 pounds of white lead was being turned out. By an elaborate arrangement of pipes and blowers and hoppers and flues, the gas and sulphur were allowed to escape, but every substance carried in the fumes was caught and deposited for treatment which produced white lead. When this finally came from the hoppers it looked like flour.
Ten O'Clock Run.
The records of the United States land office show that nearly fifty years ago, not long after the Civil war, lead mining capitalists made an exhaustive mineral survey in South Missouri. They carried their investigation from Granby in a southeasterly direction nearly one hundred miles. They prospected with shafts and satisfied themselves so well the land carried lead in profitable quantities that they "cash entered" from the government a long string of forty-acre tracts. Among the names which appeared of record as purchasers of these government lead lands in Taney county were United States Senator Lewis V. Bogy, Amadee Valle, Henry T. Blow, Eben Richards and Edwin Harrison. Many of these entries were made in 1872. Some of the land descended to the heirs of these men. Much was allowed to go for taxes. It is an interesting fact that these entries were located upon the Ten o'Clock Run.
"Ten o'clock run" is Ozark vernacular. "Eleven o'clock run" is another mining term which has been handed down from pioneer times. To this day the mineral prospector will say that a certain discovery is on Ten o'clock run, or on Eleven o'clock run. The terms were the inventions of Missouri miners of a past generation. They belong to the period of the compass and the sun-dial. Without having a scientific explanation for it these early prospectors in the Ozarks, when they had found a vein of lead, looked for the continuation of the deposit to the northwest or to the southeast of the point of original discovery. If they found the course of the mineral in either direction was on the line of the shadow which the sun throws by the dial at ten o'clock the vein or prospect was a Ten o'clock run. If the mineral lay along the shadow line of an hour later by the dial it was described as being on the Eleven o'clock run.
The pioneers in the Ozarks who gophered for lead fifty years and more ago used these terms to designate the locations of mineral. But the lead runs were of comparatively restricted limits. Later the prospectors for zinc applied these terms to their mineral, but gave them much more extensive significance. With Joplin as a starting point, prospectors traced a Ten o'clock run southeast through Aurora, one of the zinc-mining centers. The run passes through the corner of Barry county, where there have been discoveries of zinc ore. It bisects Stone county on a line near Galena, another hopeful locality, and crosses the corner of Taney. Eleven o'clock run, of course, approaches nearer the north and south direction, as the dial shows. It has been followed by prospectors and miners from the vicinity of Springfield, in Greene county, southward through Christian and Taney counties.
The Twin Camps.
Webb City and Carterville are only a mile apart. Between them, in a valley, are the mines. Webb and Carter were two farmers whose lands joined. In 1875
INTERIOR OF OLD LEAD FURNACE IN WASHINGTON COUNTY
OLD CHICK HOME
First house built in Kansas City.
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they were growing crops in this valley. Joplin and Oronogo had been discovered and were booming camps, but all that Webb and Carter were realizing from the mining excitement were the better prices which butter and eggs and other products brought them. One day Webb plowed up some mineral in his field. That started the prospecting, and it wasn't long until the riches of the valley were laid bare. The Carter family sold their farm when the first rise came, and those who bought retained the name for the town which was started on the elevation east of the valley. Webb held his land and let miners go in and work it under leases for a percentage of what they found. Webb's policy proved the wisest. He was soon able to leave the farmhouse and move into a fine brick residence, which, surrounded by extensive grounds, became the heart of Webb City on the rise west of the valley. Webb started a bank as his money accumulated, and when he died he left his children an estate of $500,000, including the original farm, which was still worked under leases by the miners, and yielded a handsome income. Before the plow turned up "the float" that lucky day the farm could not have been sold for more than $10 or $15 an acre.
This generation does not know that Morgan county was once famed for its lead mines. Travelers passing over the gently undulating prairies in the vicinity of Tipton, almost the geographical center of Missouri, can hardly appreciate the historical fact that only thirty miles to the southward are lead mines which earned their owners hundreds of thousands of dollars. The period of that local prosperity was nearly half a century ago. Twelve smelters reduced the product of forty Morgan county mines. The output was hauled by wagon many miles to the railroad. It paid handsome profits. That was before the discovery of the true value of "jack." When the lead miner of those days found his shaft blocked by a body of zinc ore he lamented the "fault" in strong Missouri words and moved away. It was so all over Southwest Missouri. The Morgan county lead miner turned from zinc as worthless just as did the lead miners of other Missouri camps.
One of the oldest mining camps of Southwest Missouri was Oronogo. It had a furnace, and was an important place before the war, and a great deal of lead ore was taken out near the surface and hauled overland to the Missouri River. "Ore or no go," a prospector replied when his "pardner" at the windlass tried to persuade him to come out of the shaft and go to a circus at a nearby town. The ultimatum resulted in a discovery and Oronogo was for years a great producer. Then operations ceased. The deposits were supposed to have been worked out. Later, at the bottom of a shaft 140 feet deep, about 80 feet lower than where the earlier mining was done, ore was being taken from a body 30 feet wide and 70 feet high. As the excavation went on the miners left behind them a great chamber like the interior of a cathedral.
"The chatter" is a character in the camps. He is a scalper and he travels in pairs. He prowls around until he finds a dump of refuse in which his sharp eye detects the presence of considerable ore. He goes to the owner of the dump and makes a proposition to work over "the chat" and clean out the ore for a certain percentage. Like enough the owner agrees, for what he gets will be so much clear saving. "The chatter" sets up his hand-jig, plants some poles and arranges some boughs for a temporary shelter and goes to work. In the earlier rush many dumps were left with much mineral in them, and "the chatters" to
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the number of several hundred found all-summer jobs without much hunting. They are their own masters and work as they please after getting control of a dump, and make very fair returns. "The chatter's" work is entirely legitimate. if he is the scavenger of the mineral fields. "The chatters" were more numerous in the early days than they are now with the mining done largely by companies and with improved machinery. Moreover, "the chats" in vast quantities are now hauled away by the railroads for ballast.
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ST. LOUIS IN 1786
When the settlement was under the Spanish flag and bore the name of San Luis de Hinoa.
CHAPTER V.
ABORIGINAL MISSOURIANS.
Archaeologists Disagree -- Puzzling Stone Implements-Broadhead's Theory-A Prehistoric City -- Amazing Fortifications-Adobe Brick-Cave Dwellers on the Gasconade-Dr. Peterson on the Mound Builders-Evidences of a Numerous Population-Laclede and the Missouris-A Far-reaching Indian Policy -- The Nudarches-Friends of the French -Massacre of a Spanish Expedition in Missouri-Attempts at Civilisation -- The Murder of Pontiac -- Chouteau Springs-The Osages' Gift to the Son of Laclede-A Spanish Governor's Narrow Escape-Gratifications-The Shawnee Experiment-How Peace Wl'as Made-The Execution of Tewanaye-Good Will Transferred with Sovereignty-The Advice of Delassus-Pike's Diplomatic Mission-British Influence Checkmated-Wisdom of William Clark -- Activities of Manuel Lisa-"One-eyed Sioux" -- The Treaty of 1812 -- Elihu H. Shepard's Tribute-"Red Head," the Friend of the Indian-The Council Cham- ber -- Governor Clark's Museum-Ceremonial Calls-The Freedom of the City-Indian Coffee-Home Coming of the Osages-Migrations of the Delawares-The Rise of Colo- nel Splitlog-An Indian Capitalist.
More than half a century has since transpired and probably every person engaged in that embassy of six nations is dead, hut that aet of General Clark alone should make his name immortal .- Elihu H. Shepard on Governor William Clark's Indian Treaty of 1812.
A marvelous collection of Indian workmanship in stone fills many cases of the Missouri Historical Society. The quality varies greatly. Garland C. Broad- head, the geologist and archaeologist, analyzing these evidences, inclined to the theory that a superior race preceded the red Missourians known to white men. He said: "On the surface in many places are found flint arrow-heads, both small and large, some roughly made, some very finely worked; also axes of exquisite workmanship. The rougher flints may have been shaped by the present Indians, but there is no evidence that any of the present tribes could shape and polish these stone implements in any way but roughly. Other persons of higher artistic attainments must have shaped them, and these may have been driven off by the present races several hundred years ago. The Toltecs of Mexico have legends that they were driven away from a country inhabited by them, away to the northeast, hundreds of years ago."
A Prehistoric City.
In a History of Missouri by Walter Bickford Davis and Daniel S. Durrie, published in 1876, is an account of a prehistoric city in New Madrid County. At that time, forty years ago, the evidences of a dense population were said to exist :
"The city was surrounded by fortifications, the embankment with covered ways con- necting the outworks of which have been traced for several miles. The remains of mounds, serving either for outlooks to watch an enemy, or as cemeteries for the burial of the dead, in which are found skeletons, associated with drinking vessels, are also found distributed
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about the area of the ancient encampment. The indubitable traces of the dwellings, streets and avenues, were also traced over large portions of the grounds, the proper survey of which would doubtless tend to throw new light on the origin of this people. The houses were quite small, from eight to twelve feet in diameter, and located about twelve feet apart. They existed in regular rows with streets and avenues running through the city at right angles, at proper distances apart. The foundations of the dwellings, if not the entire structure, were made of a kind of adobe brick, of a red color like a modern brick, but of coarser material. The brick specimens have transverse holes passing through them, supposed hy some to act as ventilators to the dwellings. The bricks being laid flatwise in the wall, the sides of the house would be, thereby, pierced with a multitude of holes for the admission of the outside air. Another, and more probable, theory is that the bricks in a malleable state were pierced with round sticks, for the more readily handling and burning; and the same having been burned out, left the impression of their form in the shape of a hole. The sites of these ancient habitations are plainly observed by a sunken depression of several feet in the ground, leaving evidence of cellars like those seen in modern times. At first sight of these habita- tions, the observer might be led to believe that these ancient people lived in cellars, and built their houses underground; but this impression will vanish on reflecting that accu- mulated debris of ages had entombed these dwellings beneath the surface. Besides, on one side of the ancient city, there is still a lake or marsh which at some remote period may have overflowed its banks, submerged portions of the site of the ancient city long after its extinc- tion, and added its deposits to the accumulating debris. The site of the city is now covered with trees, mostly oak, of an ancient growth, showing that thousands of years rolled around before the handiwork of these early Missourians was exhumed. The pottery consists largely of drinking cups, culinary utensils and bottles of a gourd shape. There are also rude trowels and tools used for fashioning and ornamenting the pottery, and whetstones for sharpening the stone axes and other instruments. But the fantastic character of the orna- mentation of the vessels is what strikes every one with surprise. There are very accurate figures of fish, frogs, hedgehogs and such animals as existed at the time; besides among the feathered tribe are the goose, duck, owl, hawk and probably, from his comb, the rooster. There are miniature busts of male heads carved out of clay, representing a type of face more resembling the ancient Aztec race than the modern American Indian."
A theory of prehistoric civilization on the Gasconade river was advanced by an early writer. The pioneer settlers found saltpeter in the caves along the river. They shipped it to St. Louis with some profit. They established several powder factories in the county and utilized the saltpeter. This writer said:
"Some of the caves are very large, consisting of a succession of rooms joined to each other by arched walls of great height. The walls are uniformly of limestone and often present the most beautiful appearance. When these caves were first discovered it was not unusual to find in them Indian axes and hammers, which led to the belief that they had for- merly been worked for some unknown purposes by the savages. It is difficult to decide whether these tools were left here by the present race or by another and more civilized which preceded them. It is unusual for savages to take up their residence in caves,-consid- ering them places to which the Manitou resorts,-and they, not being acquainted with any of the uses of saltpeter, would rather avoid than collect it. The circumstance of finding these tools in the caves would of itself, perhaps, furnish slight evidence that the country of the Gasconade was formerly settled by a race of men who were acquainted with the uses of this mineral, or who exceeded them in civilization, or the knowledge of the arts; but there are other facts connected with these about which there can be no mistake. Near the saw- mills, and at a short distance from the road leading from them to St. Louis, are the ruins of an ancient town. It appears to have been regularly laid out, and the dimensions of the squares and streets and of some of the houses can yet be discovered. Stone walls are found in different parts of the area, which are frequently covered with huge heaps of earth. Again, a stone work exists about ten miles below the mills. It is on the west side of the Gasconade, and is about twenty-five to thirty feet square; it appears to have been originally built with
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THE BOTANICAL GARDEN AND HOME OF DOCTOR SAUGRAIN
DR. GEORGE J. ENGELMANN
OPENING AN INDIAN MOUND
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an uncommon degree of regularity. It is situated upon a high bald cliff, which commands a fine and extensive view of the country on all sides. From this stone work is a small footpath leading to the cave, in which was found a quantity of axes. The mouth of the cave commands an easterly view, and also a view of the path to the building referred to, which may have been erected to some imaginary deity."
Missouri Antiquities.
Dr. C. A. Peterson, former president of the Missouri Historical Society, devoted a great deal of time to the study of Missouri "antiquities." He summed up his conclusions in this forcible language: "But credulity has been taxed to the utmost, and columns of crude ideas and inane arguments have been published, by half-baked archaeologists, to establish a great antiquity for the mounds and an advanced civilization for their builders, and the extreme and ridiculous flights which the imagination has been permitted to take in building up the story of the mythical mound builders may be well illustrated by this case: About thirty years ago an amateur archaeologist in exploring quite a modern Indian mound reported that he had found the skeletons buried beneath it to be a proper com- plement in number and arranged in proper order and position to represent the principal officers of a Masonic Lodge at work, each offcer being equipped with implements and insignia of the craft. To those attached to a contemplation of mystery, and to revellers in the occult, this was the most marvelous and enter- taining discovery ever reported in American archaelogy, but there were a few incredulous, unfeeling scoffers who would not accept the story as true because the discoverer did not produce the bones of the candidate and the goat. In con- clusion, let it be reiterated that there was never an iota of evidence in existence tending to establish the contention that some people, other than the American Indian, erected the mounds and other earthworks found in connection with them, and the physical condition of the abandoned works, and their contents, does not justify a belief that any of them were erected more than one thousand years ago."
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