USA > Missouri > Greene County > Past and present of Greene County Missouri, early and recent history and genealogical records of many of the representative citizens, Volume I > Part 23
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The census of 1860 shows that the wave of immigration had run its course, and that the county was practically at a standstill in population. Of course we must remember that further territory had been taken from Greene county since the last census, several populous townships having been thrown into the formation of Christian county and Greene reduced to the bounds which she retains until this day. So that the slow growth is far more ap- parent than real. The figures total 13,186, only 401 more than at the pre- ceding census. Of this total 1.668 were slaves. By precinct and township the figures were as follows :
Boone Township 1,034
Pond Creek Township 808
Campbell Township (including
Robberson Township 1,933 Springfield) 3,442
Taylor Township 916
Cass Township 1,259
Wilson Township 1
850
Center Township 1,147
Clay Township 678
Jackson Township 1,124
.
213
GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI.
Before the next census, that of 1870, Greene county had passed through four years of devastating civil war. We have no means of knowing the popu- lation remaining in the county at the close of hostilities, but it is sure that the number was far below that at the time of the census of 1860. The growth from that time to the census year was rapid, almost phenomenal, for the num- ber given is a total of 21,549, a gain f 8,363 over that of 1860, an increase of only a little less than 65 per cent, and this in less than half of the decade, for the real growth did not begin until well into 1866. Of the total as given, 3,249 were negroes.
By townships, the figures are as follows :
Boone Township 1,692
Campbell Township 3,139
Cass Township 1,53I
Center Township 1,68I
Clay Township 840
City of Springfield -5,555
Jackson Township
1,759
The census of 1880 probably created more dissatisfaction in Springfield and Greene county generally than any that had preceded it. Charges were made that it was so loosely and carelessly taken that a large number of in- habitants had been missed entirely. There was some talk of appealing to Washington for a recount, and a good deal of correspondence to that effect. But nothing resulted, and the count stood as first given.
The figures given as the total for the county were 28,817. Those for the city of Springfield were 6,524. As the city had been steadily growing, al- though somewhat checked by the panic of 1873 and the dull times following it for several years, this growth of only 969 in ten years was bitterly de- nounced as far short of the true figures. Of the total. 2,808 were negroes.
By township and precinct the figures were as follows :
Boone Township (including
Ash Grove) 2,160
Pond Creek Township 1,009
Robberson Township 1,299
Brookline Township
1,82I
Campbell Township 3,254
Cass Township 1,945
Washington Township 1,094
Center Township 1,746
Clay Township 1
852
Springfield City 6,524
Franklin Township
1,464
North Springfield City 997
Jackson Township
1,725
Pond Creek Township 882
Robberson Township 2,419
Taylor Township 998
Wilson Township 1,053
Taylor Township 896
Walnut Grove Township 921
Wilson Township I,IOI
214
GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI.
The population of Springfield by wards was as follows :
First Ward
1,426
Second Ward
Third Ward 2,152
1,265
Total
6,524
As the city had taken a census for its own purposes in 1878, which showed a population of 6,878 at that time, or 354 more than shown by the government enumerators two years later, there was certainly room for doubt- ing the correctness of the Federal figures.
But time passed and the census of 1890 drew near. Three years prior to the taking of this census Springfield and her neighbor to the north had united as one city, and this, together with a steady and healthy growth, is shown in the new figures for the city.
SHOWED AN INCREASE.
The total for the county was 48,616, an increase in ten years of 19,815, or over 66 2-3 per cent for the entire county. The ratio of growth for Springfield is still more impressive. The figures for 1880 were, as we have seen. 6.524. Those for 1890 were 21,850, or an increase of 334 per cent. During this decade Springfield had at last thrown aside her swaddling clothes, and started toward her destiny of becoming a metropolitan city.
The population by townships and wards is given as follows :
Boone Township 2,923
Republic Township 1,327
Brookline Township 900
Robberson Township 1,475
Campbell Township 5,262
Taylor Township 896
Cass Township .2,260
Walnut Grove Township 1,360
Clay Township -1,239
Washington Township 1,022
Center Township
2,355
Franklin Township 1,686
Springfield City 21,850
Jackson Township
2,078
Pond Creek Township 1,009
Total
48,616
Of this number, there were 3,441 negroes.
Springfield by wards shows the following figures :
First Ward 1,772
Sixth Ward 3,633
Second Ward
2,840
Seventh Ward
2,616
Third Ward
2,31I
Eighth Ward
1 2,936
Fourth Ward
I 2,115
Fifth Ward
3,627
Total
21,850
1
1
1
1,68 I
Fourth Ward
Wilson Township 1,129
215
GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI.
During the next decade came the frightful panic of 1893, and the four or five years of stagnation which succeeded it, and the effect of these lean years are shown in the reduced growth both of Greene county and the city of Springfield, although in greater proportion in the city than in the country districts.
The total for the entire county was 52,713, a growth of only 4,097 in ten years. Of this growth Springfield had 1,417 and the rest of the county 2,680. The percentage of growth for the city was only a fraction over 6 per cent. For the county as a whole it was only a little over 81/2 per cent. Of the total number, 3,298 were negroes.
The record by precincts and city wards follows :
Boone Township
2,815
Pond Creek Township 900
Brookline Township
1,939
Republic Township 1,696
Campbell Township
2,672
Robberson Township 1,656
Cass Township
1,474
Taylor Township 1,183
Center Township
2,634
Walnut Grove Township 1,532
Clay Township
1,288
Washington Township 1,170
Franklin Township 1
1
1,632
Wilson Township
1,224
Jackson Township
1 1
2,274
Springfield City
23,267
Murray Township
88I
N. Campbell Township
3,424
Total
52,713
The city of Springfield by wards is as follows :
First Ward
2,095
Sixth Ward
Second Ward
3,116
Seventh Ward
Third Ward
1,989
Eighth Ward
Fourth Ward
1,996
Fifth Ward
4,089
Total
-23,267
A PROSPEROUS DECADE.
The decade from 1900 to 1910 was, with Springfield and Greene county, as with most of the United States, the most prosperous in history up to that time. The increase in population for the county as a whole was 15,215. This was divided between the city and country as follows: Springfield increased 6,400; the country districts increased 8,815. The rate of increase for the whole county was very nearly 33 1-3 per cent. For Springfield it was almost 25 per cent. By precincts and city wards the following are the figures :
Brookline Township
814 Center Township 2,258
Boone Township
2,715
Clay Township
1,159
Campbell Township
3,337
Franklin Township
1,582
Cass Township
1,213
Jackson Township 2,217
3,691
3,134
3,157
1
:
GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI.
Murray Township
901
Walnut Grove Township 1,592
N. Campbell Township 4,834
Washington Township 974
Pond Creek Township
716
Wilson Township
1,105
Republic Township
1,631
Springfield City 35,201
Taylor Township
1,048
Total 63,831
By wards, the city of Springfield makes the following showing :
First Ward
3,976
Sixth Ward 5,544
Second Ward
5,379
Seventh Ward
4,448
Third Ward
2.395
Fourth Ward
2,307
Fifth Ward
6,458
Total
35,291
Of this total, there were 2,625 negroes. By this census Springfield passed her only rival for the place of fourth city in the State of Missouri, Jop- lin, by several hundred, and her rate of increase since these figures have been published has placed her beyond any danger of losing her standing in com- parison with other Missouri cities. Conservative men, who are posted upon the growth of the capital of Greene county, do not hesitate to place her pres- ent population at over 40,000.
It is interesting to compare some of the figures in these seven Federal: censuses, in which Greene county has had a separate enumeration. Take, for instance, the number of negroes at the various periods :
The census of 1850 is the first one where the separate figures are given for whites and blacks. In that census the percentage of negroes (nearly en- tirely slaves) to the entire population was almost 10 per cent. Ten years later the census of 1860 shows that the negro population was almost 121/2 per cent of the whole. In 1870 we see the effects of freedom, which brought many negroes from other counties and states to Springfield. The ratio is practically 16 2/3, about one-sixth of the population. In 1880 it had dropped back to almost 10 per cent. In 1890 it was 7 per cent .; in 1900, 6 per cent, and in 1910 a fraction over 4 per cent.
"Firsts" in Greene County-In any history telling the story of a com- munity from its beginning, much interest naturally attaches to the dates at which various enterprises had their first beginnings in the region under con- sideration. The following list has been made with much care, to cover at least the principal of these beginnings, and an effort is made to arrange them in their chronological order as nearly as possible :
The first house built by a white man for a permanent home in Greene county was undoubtedly the log cabin erected in 1822 by Thomas Patterson, near the spring which still is called, in his memory, the "Patterson spring." . As told in the appropriate chapter of this work, Patterson and the several
Eighth Ward
4,787
1
217
GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI.
other families that had settled around him in 1822 were compelled to aban- don their humble homes and remove from this region on account of the Indian title to the lands not yet being extinguished. Whether this first cabin re- mained standing when Patterson returned with his family in 1830, we do not know, but, at all events, it was certainly the first white man's house in the county.
The first marriage was celebrated in 1831, when Lawson Fulbright wedded a daughter of David Roper, a settler some five miles east of the subsequent location of Springfield. This was quickly followed in the same year by the wedding, on August 7, 1831, of Junius Rountree and Martha Miller. The same year saw Junius T. Campbell married to Mary Blackwell.
The first male white child born in the county was Harvey Fulbright, a son of John Fulbright, born in 1831. The first white female child born in the county was Mary Frances Campbell, a daughter of John P. Campbell, for- ever held in honor as the founder of Springfield.
The first death was that of a child of Joseph Miller, in 1831.
FIRST SCHOOLHOUSE AND CHURCHI.
The first schoolhouse in the limits of Springfield was a rude structure of logs, which occupied the ground now covered by the old frame building on the northwest corner of Main and College streets. This old building was. itself used for school purposes, and also was the house of worship of the First Christian church for many years. This first schoolhouse was built in 1832. A small log cabin one mile west of Springfield was used as a school- house in 1831.
The first building put up for church use was a log building, and stood in the then woods north of Wilson creek, near the present intersection of Phelps avenue and North Jefferson street. This building was occupied by the Methodists and Cumberland Presbyterians alternately.
The first mill was that built by a man named Ingle on the James river in 1822. The location was about the old wooden bridge across the James on the Ozark road. This mill was sold by Ingle to an old Indian trader named Wilson, and was by him removed to a site at the mouth of the Finley on the James, when Ingle and the other first settlers were compelled, to leave the country.
The first jail was built by several citizens as a free gift, the county at that time having no funds to use for such purpose. This was in 1834, about one year after the organization of Greene county. The building stood on the west side of Boonville street between the Public Square and Wilson creek. Afterward, when funds from the sale of town lots came into the hands of the County Court, almost the first money paid out by them was to.
218
GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI.
refund the outlay of those public-spirited men who had furnished the jail out of their own pockets.
The first court house, so-called, was the residence of John P. Campbell, which was selected by the County Court at its second session in June, 1833.
The first term of Circuit Court was held beginning August 11, 1833.
The first pauper was granted relief by the county in December, 1833.
The first general election was held in August, 1834, and continued three days to afford time for those citizens residing at a distance to reach the county-seat to vote.
The first assessment was finished early in 1834. The assessor was John Williams, and it took him eighty-six days to reach and assess the five hundred families scattered over the immense territory then included in the county.
The first prisoner ever sent to the penitentiary was Wilson Edison, sent up for two and one-half years in the last of May, 1834. It is a strange fact that this man Edison was not only the first prisoner from Greene county, but also the first one to occupy the new penitentiary at Jefferson City. It is said that he was the sole occupant of the cells of the penitentiary from the 8th of March to the 28th of May, 1834.
The first county warrant ever drawn by Greene county was for the sum .of $5.00, and was given to Martin B. Brame in payment for the building of a table and "pigeon boxes" for the use of the County Court. This was in the last of January, 1833.
Springfield was first incorporated as a town on the 19th of February, 1838. It was afterward reincorporated, for what reason nobody seems at this day to know, but this second incorporation was the source of much trou- ble, as it gives the boundaries of the city in a very loose and confused manner.
The United States land office was first opened in Springfield on the Ist of September, 1836. At that time, and subsequently, there were such offices at Ironton. Boonville and other points in the state. As the land was sold out the offices were discontinued one by one until for the past four years the only one left in Missouri is the Springfield office, and, as there are less than 1.500 acres of government land left in the entire state, the days of the re- maining office may be said to be numbered.
The first postoffice was established in Springfield in the autumn of 1834. The postoffice building was a log house that then stood on the west side of South Jefferson street about midway between Walnut street and McDaniel avenue. The first postmaster was Junius Campbell, who at the time of his appointment was just twenty-two years of age. His duties were not very heavy. as the mail came by horseback from Little. Piney, one hundred miles to the northeast. only twice a month. From such humble beginnings has grown the immense postal business of Springfield, that now occupies the great stone government building, employs several scores of men and handles hundreds of tons of mail every month.
219
GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI.
FIRST NEWSPAPER.
The first newspaper was published in the spring of 1837 by J. C. Tuber- ville. It was called the Ozark Standard, but soon changed its name to the Ozark Eagle.
The first United States census after the formation of Greene county was that of 1840, at which time the population of the county, covering more than twenty times its present area, was only 5,372.
The first murder in Greene county was perpetrated on the 28th of May, 1837. Strangely enough, the man who did the killing was an official of the county, being Judge Charles S. Yancey, of the county court. Yancey had fined the man he afterward killed, John Roberts, for a misdemeanor, and Roberts had threatened his life for so doing. Afterward he attacked Yancey on the Public Square and the judge drew his pistol and shot Roberts dead. After a regular trial, Yancey was acquitted on the plea of self-defense. He lived many years afterward, an honored judge of the Circuit Court and citizen of the county.
The first commissioner of public schools was A. H. Matthias, appointed in 1853.
The first (and last) legal execution was that of Willis Washam, who was hung on the charge of killing his stepson. The date of execution was the 25th of August, 1854. The prisoner denied his guilt almost with his last breath, and opinion as to the justice of his fate was much divided. Long years after he was hanged, the report was circulated that his wife, on whose testimony he was put to death, had confessed upon her death-bed that she had killed her son herself and had sworn the crime on to her husband in self-protection. This report has been denied and reiterated time and again, and at this distance of time it is very unlikely that the mystery will ever be unravelled.
The first Probate Court was established in 1834, the governor appointing Hon. P. H. Edwards as judge and S. H. Boyd as clerk. Prior to this time probate business had been a part of the duties of the County Court.
The first bank was the Springfield branch of the State Bank of Missouri, opened in Springfield in May, 1845, with J. H. McBride as president, J. R. Danforth as cashier and C. A. Haden as clerk.
The first temperance organization was a division of the Sons of Tem- perance, which was formed as a result of a great temperance revival in 1849. This was a strong and active organization, and some time after its organiza- tion succeeded, with the help of its friends, in erecting a two-story brick building, which stood for many years on the northeast corner of the Public Square and St. Louis street. This building was destroyed by fire in 1876.
In August, 1851, the County Court, in response to a largely signed peti-
220
GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI.
tion, made an order that no further dramshop licenses should be issued in the county. This was the first prohibition action of the court. It should be stated that the court quickly reversed itself on receipt of another and opposing pe- tition, again reversed and refused license, and so for several times. The judges, apparently, were lineal descendants of John Bunyan's famous char- acter, "Mr. Facing Bothways."
The year 1858 saw a foundry established by Mr. Ingram. This was the first in Greene county and one of the first in this part of Missouri.
In March, 1859, J. E. Smith and W. H. Graves started the first steam planing mill in Greene county.
The telegraph was first opened to Springfield on the 3d of April, 1860. It was built, by way of Bolivar, from Jefferson City, and was later extended to Fayetteville and Fort Smith, Arkansas. At the close of the war the line was discontinued until after the railroad reached Springfield, when it was permanently re-established.
The first railroad reaching Greene county was the Atlantic & Pacific (now for many years the St. Louis & San Francisco). It was opened to Springfield May 23, 1870.
On May 13, 1870, the first of many victims was killed by the cars in North Springfield. He was an Irishman by the name of Patrick Dorland, and he was probably a deliberate suicide.
The first issue of the Springfield Leader was dated April 4, 1867. This paper continues to prosper until this day.
The first through train from Kansas City came into Springfield May 25, 1881, and was welcomed with every demonstration of joy. This was the first train into the actual limits of Springfield as they then existed.
The market quotations at various periods of a community's growth af- ford an interesting study, and a few are here inserted :
The records of market prices in the county for the first decade of its ex- istence are not to be found. It is doubtful if any .ever existed. Money was a scarce article among the pioneers, and a large part of traffic was carried on by bartering one article for another. Up to about 1845, or until the establish- ment of the first bank, we have little information as to prices. From then until about 1850, we are told by old citizens and in a former history of the county which probably drew its information from the same sources, that wheat was worth from 30 cents to 40 cents a bushel ; corn, 50 cents per bushel, or 60 cents per barrel (of corn in the husk) ; pork, from $1.25 to $1.50 per hundredweight, and other things in proportion.
In the history of the county above referred to is given a table of prices of some of the standard articles in 1851. This was made out by Sheppard & Kimbrough, one of the pioneer firms of merchants in Springfield, and is as follows :
22I
GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI.
Sugar, 10 cents per pound ; coffee, 121/2 cents ; salt, $3.00 per sack ; nails, 15 pounds for $1.00; rolled steel, 40 cents per pound ; castings, 5 cents per pound ; wagon boxes, 5 cents per pound; domestic (muslin), 7 and 10 cents per yard; spun cotton, $1.00 and $1.10 per bunch; bacon, 8 cents per pound ; flour, $1.25 and $1.50 per hundred; feathers, 25 cents per pound ; beeswax, 20 cents per pound.
CROP FAILURES AND HIGH PRICES.
The season of 1856 had brought an almost total failure of crops in the county, and the following year, 1857, brought almost a famine to southwest Missouri. Greene county was much better off than some of her neighboring counties, but even here prices soared. Sweet potatoes sold as high as $7.00 a bushel; Irish potatoes, $2.00 per bushel; seed corn, $1.50, and the poorest "nubbin" corn readily sold at $1.00 per bushel. The long distance from rail- road or river transportation made a short crop a serious matter in those days.
During the four years of war, 1861-5, prices were almost wholly gov- erned by the fortunes of war. When the Federals were in full possession, with the route to the railroad open and daily followed by trains of wagons with supplies, prices, while high, were not prohibitive. But when contending armies were ravaging the region in and around Greene county prices were, as an old-timer once said to the writer, "all a fellow was a mind to ask!"
With the return of peace, matters adjusted themselves somewhat, al- though the wide margin between the prices of home-grown articles and those from abroad was very striking. In 1868, for instance, sugar. the brown article, very readily brought 162/3 cents per pound, while the best Winesap apples were worth only 15 cents a bushel and corn 25 cents. Muslin was from 15 to 20 cents a yard, calico 10 cents to 121/2 cents, and wheat from 50 to 60 cents a bushel.
In 1874, four years after the coming of the railroad, the quotations are as follows :
Sugar (brown), 8 pounds to the dollar; sugar (white), 6 pounds for $1.00; coffee, from 25 cents to 35 cents per pound ; salt, $2.50 per barrel : brogan shoes, $1.50 per pair ; muslin, 121/2 cents to 15 cents per yard ; calico. IO cents per yard ; wheat, from 60 to 70 cents per bushel ; corn, '25 cents per bushel; timothy hay, $7.00 per ton.
To close, we will give the market quotations as published in the Spring- field Republican of July 11, 1914:
Eggs, 16 cents per dozen ; butter (creamery) 27 cents, country 20 cents ; sugar, 23 pounds (light brown) for $1.00; flour, 100 pounds for $2.20: sweet potatoes, $1.25 per bushel; new Irish potatoes, 85 cents per bushel : Wheat, 85 cents per bushel; oats, 45 cents ; timothy hay. $14.00 to $17.00
222
GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI.
per ton ; corn, 70 cents to 80 cents per bushel ; cattle, beef steers, from $5.00 to $6.50 per hundredweight ; hogs, from $6.50 to $7.75 per hundredweight.
The Rough Side of Life-Like all other communities, Greene county has had its share of evil happenings. As long as men are human beings, anger, intemperance and lust will drive some of them into excess and bloodshed. In a work like the present it would be worse than useless to try to enter in detail into all the sordid facts of crime for the eighty-five years of the cor- porate existence of the county. Here and there stands out some crime that, for a fair understanding of the past, should have mention, but the vast mass of crimes are, and should be, ignored in such a permanent record as this.
As has been stated in this chapter, the first homicide in the county was when Judge Charles S. Yancey, one of the justices of the County Court, on the 26th day of May, 1837, shot to death John Roberts, who had attacked liiin after many times threatening his life. Judge Yancey was tried and ac- quitted of the crime. It is a singular fact that twenty years after being him- self freed from the charge of murder, Judge Yancey pronounced the death sentence upon Willis Washam, the only man ever legally executed in Greene county.
In the summer of 1838 J. Renno was stabbed to death by Randolph Britt in a whisky shop in Springfield, the first of a long and appalling list of such deeds in just such places in Greene county. Britt was tried in Benton county and sentenced to the penitentiary for manslaughter. He was soon pardoned out by the governor, who thus early set an example followed only too well by most of his successors in office.
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