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 4
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From the foregoing facts, it will be seen that, although the Delawares were in this region as early as 1806, and hunted over southern and eastern Greene county, they had no treaty rights until 1818, and that in 1829 they gave up all their territory and were removed farther west.
They were originally a bold, daring and numerous people, but were gradually reduced by war, removals and smallpox. It was a well-known fact that they were ever ready to assist and protect those who were weaker than themselves, as evidenced by their friendliness to individuals of various other tribes.
Besides their principal villages at Delaware Town, in Christian county, just south of Greene, there were, according to Escott,* some suburban towns scattered along up and down the James and on the banks of Wilson creek. One of these (before referred to) was probably southwest of the present city of Springfield, another probably near the Big Boiling Spring, on the Winoka Lodge property, southeast of the town of Galloway, and another at the old James river mines near Kirshner's, as described by Schoolcraft.
THE KICKAPOO INDIANS.
The Kickapoos belonged to the Algonquin family, and are first referred to in history by Allouez ** as living in what is now, probably, Columbus county, Wisconsin, about 1667. No traditions exist in regard to their earlier origin. LeSeuer, in 1669, refers to the Quincapous (Kickapoo) river, just above the mouth of the Wisconsin, which he stated was so called from the name of a nation which formerly dwelt on its banks.
The Kickapoos were driven to the southward by northern tribes in 1765, and remained for a short time at Peoria, Illinois. Some of them were as- sociated with Tecumseh in his war against the whites, and a portion of them
** "Eighteenth Annual Report," United States Bureau American Ethnology, Part II, pp. 692, 724.
* "History of Springfield," G. S. Escott, p. 19.
** "Handbook of American Indians," United States Bureau American Ethnology, Bulletin 30, Part I, p. 684.
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GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI,
migrated east to a reservation on the Wabash river in Indiana, some of these being again moved to a reservation in Missouri, as will be later told.
Mooney and Jones* state that the Kickapoos lived in fixed villages, oc- cupying bark houses in the summer and flag-reed oval lodges during the win- ter. They raised corn, beans and squashes, and while dwelling east of the Mississippi they often wandered out on the plains to hunt buffalo.
The Kickapoos are first noted in Missouri as living just north of the mouth of the Missouri river. By a treaty with the United States, July 19th, 1819,1 they received, as a reservation, that tract in southwest Missouri which was bounded as follows: "Beginning at the confluence of the rivers Pomme de Terre and Osage, thence up the said river Pomme de Terre to the dividing ridge which separates the waters of the Osage and White rivers, thence with said ridge westwardly to the Osage line (a point about in the northeast cor- ner of Newton county ), thence due north on said line to Nerve creek, thence down the same to a point due south of the mouth of White Clay, or Richard, creek. thence north to the Osage river, thence down said river to the be- ginning."
This territory, it will be noticed, included what is now the northern two- thirds of Greene county, which they occupied from 1819 to 1832. Mooney says the meaning of "Kickapoo" is, "He stands about, or he moves about, standing now here, now there."
About 1812, a band of Kickapoo Indians built a village which tradition locates near the site of the present city of Springfield, and which was called "Kickapoo settlement." From the best information obtainable, the writer be- lieves this to have been near what is now known as Phelps Grove Park. They are said to have had about one hundred wigwams, and they cultivated, as farms, portions of the tract of land now called "Kickapoo prairie." Barnes* states, in speaking of Springfield, that "the lands on the south and west are beautiful prairies, which, in early days, were cultivated by the aborigines."
A Kickapoo village existed in 1828 just north of what is now the town of Strafford, in Greene County .**
In 1832, the Kickapoos ceded the reservation before described for one in Kansas, northwest of Fort Leavenworth.
Members of this tribe were probably more intimately associated with the pioneer white hunters of this region than those of the two tribes previously referred to, and the early settlers relate many stories regarding them. Mrs. Rush Owen, of Springfield, states that when her ancestors, the Campbells, came to Missouri in the fall of 1829, or later, members of this tribe had a
* United States Bureau of American Ethnology, Bulletin 30, Part I, p. 685.
i Eighteenth Annual Report, Bureau American Ethnology, Part II, p. 700.
* "Commonwealth of Missouri," p. 873.
** Eighteenth Annual Report, Bureau American Ethnology, Part II, map 38.
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MAP OF GREENE COUNTY
Showing early roads and Indian trails, villages and mounds. Drawn by A. M. Haswell. Aboriginal data by Edw. M. Shepard.
LEGEND.
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(1) Settleme inGreene Co. By Jas. Patterson. 1011. (d) companion by John Pettijohn. 1919 or 1820.
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GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI.
village situated in the tract between the present streets known as Campbell, Pearl, Madison and Grand avenue; that there was a sunken spring east of South street, one hundred and fifty feet from Madison, where the Kickapoos used to get their drinking water. She remembers that in her early childhood she used to watch the Indians lean over to dip the water out. The spring referred to was destroyed at the time of the building of the new city sewer.
. The Piankashaw and Pawnee tribes were occasional visitors rather than permanent dwellers in this region. There was a small village of the former just west of Forsyth in 1828; also a village of Peorias and Piankashaws east of Forsyth in the same year. There were a few Piankashaws around Spring- field, who associated with the Delawares and were known by the early settlers. La Salle, in 1682, mentions this tribe as one of those gathered about his Illinois fort. They were also referred to by Cadillac, in 1695, as living with the Kickapoos and other tribes on the St. Joseph river, in Michigan. Later, they migrated southward to southern Indiana and Illinois. They were probably driven westward into Missouri by the Iroquois. They were never a large tribe and in 1806 they merged with the Peorias, so that there are prob- ably no pure-blooded Piankashaws now living. Many interesting stories are told of these Indians by the early settlers of Greene county.
Schoolcraft refers to the Pawnees as hunting through this region, and they, with the Osages, were much feared by the early pioneers on the White river. They had no villages here, and were only occasional predatory visitors in this part of the country.
INDIAN TRAILS.
The natural routes of travel for the aborigines, as well as for the early explorers, and later for the pioneers coming to the great western country, was by water, the Ohio river being the great highway leading up to the settling of the West, while the Mississippi was the natural gateway for the French voyageurs from the north and the Spanish explorers from the south. Later. the Missouri river became the outlet for western immigration, and still later, its tributaries (especially the Osage) opened new regions to the south and west. The White and Arkansas rivers were also natural routes of travel into the Ozark region. When this area came to be settled, it was by means of the Osage on the north and the James and White rivers on the south. Where the watercourses were not available, the aboriginal traces, or trails, were utilized. Most of the early roads in the Ozark region followed the old Indian trails, . and the modern fisherman, as he travels along our streams, pursues, in the main, the paths that were outlined by his aboriginal predecessor. The early explorer also took advantage of these tracks, which were originally made by men on foot or on horseback, and which were not only sometimes obscure, but
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GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI.
were also frequently turned from their course by fallen trees and washouts. Still later, these trails became, in the main, the general course of state and county roads, though as the region became more settled, these were often turned to follow section lines. It is an interesting fact that some of our rail- roads now follow the general direction of old Indian trails.
For many years, in connection with his geological work in the State of Missouri, the writer has, both by personal observation and reading, studied these old Indian highways. Many of these have been mapped by Houck* in lis valuable work on the history of this state, and two of them will be here described. That author refers to a map published by James Smith in 1720, which outlined a path, or trail, running through southwest Missouri, evidently the continuation of one starting on the Atlantic coast in Virginia, and known as "The Virginia warriors path," leading across the Cumberland mountains, thence to the falls of the Ohio and across what is now southern Indiana and Illinois, to the Mississippi, and west through southern Missouri to the Rocky mountains-a veritable "Indian Appian Way across the continent." He be- lieves that it crossed the Mississippi near what is now Gray's Point and also at Grand Tower, and states that the trail crossing at, or near, Grand Tower would, on the west side, follow Apple creek, or the dividing ridge between the waters of the St. Francis and Meramec rivers, but that the lower trail would hug the edge of the great alluvial St. Francis basin, gradually ascending by way of Otter, Big Barren and Pike creeks to the plateau of the Ozarks. Sub- stantially on this route, a railroad is now in operation. This trail extends through the counties of Carter, Shannon, Howell, southwest corner of Texas, southern Webster, to what is now Springfield near the center of Greene county, and is largely followed by the course of the Kansas City, Springfield & Memphis railroad. This Virginia Warriors Trail extends southwest from what is now Springfield, following essentially the 'Frisco railroad southwest through McDonald county into Oklahoma.
From such sources as county histories, gazetteers and maps, the writer also finds that the 'Frisco railway from Springfield to St. Louis follows, in the main, another aboriginal trail.
Houck locates still another trail extending from the Osage village, in the southern edge of Bates county, through Vernon in a southeast course through Cedar, the southwestern corner of Polk and through the western part of Greene county. The writer, however, differs from him in believing that this trail extended in a more southeasterly course through Greene, following prac- tically what is now the Melville road to the site of the present city of Spring- field.
Just where these trails entered the territory now occupied by the last named city, it is difficult to say. That this area was a famous camping ground
* "History of Missouri," Louis Houck, Vol. I. p. 226.
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GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI.
for different tribes of Indians, is a well-established fact. They liked to camp near water, and the numerous springs within and close to the present city limits were popular places for the location of villages. The Jordan, Jones and Country Club springs on the southeast ; the natural well, the Lyman, Kick- apoo and Brewery springs on the south; the cotton mill spring, the Puller spring, the Doling Park springs, the Ritter springs on the west ; the Fulbright spring on the north, and the Sander spring on the northeast, all bear evidence of having been the sites of Indian camping grounds.
Both the Melville road and the Bolivar, or .Boonville," road, essentially outline the two old Osage trails into Greene county. The "Wire," or Fayette- ville road, follows, in the main, one of the Indian trails to the southwest down Wilson creek and the James river to one of the White river hunting grounds. It is probable that the Delawares and Kickapoos followed a trail that passed due south of Springfield about a mile west of the "Wilderness" road. The Osages, it is certain, followed another trail to their hunting ground on the White river, a road now partially outlined by the Chadwick branch of the 'Frisco railroad, past Sequiota Park (Fisher's Cave), through Galloway along the road to the ford below the bridge which crosses the James, to about a mile south of the bridge, where the old Linden road begins, following the latter in a general course southeast toward Chadwick, then down Swan creek to For- syth, or the mouth of Big Beaver creek.
Another Osage trail branched from the beginning of the Linden road southward down to Bull creek and on to the White river.
The writer has endeavored to outline these trails, Indian mounds, vil- lages and early roads on the accompaning map.
Keemile and Wetmore* state that the Creeks, or Muskogees, and the Chasseurs du Bois, of Louisiana. hunted along the Niangua river, which abounded with beaver, making it probable that they passed from the south- west along the Virginia Warriors Trail through what is now Springfield, and thence north by a route now followed by the old Jefferson City road.
The Bolivar, or Boonville, road followed the old Osage trail, as indicated on the map, and was known among the first settlers as the "old road." or the "military road." It extended from Palmyra, on the Mississippi,* through Boonville, Springfield and Fayetteville, Arkansas, to Fort Smith, and was the chief route of travel from the upper Mississippi to Arkansas. Louisiana and Texas. It was regularly located and cut out to the legal width by Act of March 7th, 1835.
* "Gazetteer of Missouri." Keemile and Wetmore, 1837.
* "History of Benton County," James H. Lay, Hannibal, Mo .. 1876, p. 15.
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GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI.
EARLY EXPLORATIONS.
It is very interesting to note that there is a strong probability that the white man penetrated into what is now known as Greene county nearly three hundred and seventy-five years ago, or nearly seventy-five years before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock. Authorities are pretty generally agreed that one of De Soto's exploring bands, in the famous trip from Florida across to the Mississippi, through the southwestern slopes of the Ozarks to the Arkansas river, in 1541, passed north into what is now Greene county. Neither Bancroft. Sparks nor Shea, historians who have written of these early days, believe that any of this band went west or north of Greene county. One local evidence seems to confirm the view that they were in this region. Some years ago the writer was shown a silver medallion, or amulet, of Spanish design that was found in cleaning out a spring near the town of Ash Grove, and which bore an obscure date in 1500. It is a reasonable presumption that this was lost by some one of the De Soto band, though it may have been dropped by some Indian who had become possessed of it.
Long before the State of Missouri was carved out of the Louisiana Pur- chase, the region of the Ozarks was known, from nearly one side of the con- tinent to the other, as being a land of great promise. Rich in all natural re- sources, abounding in game and food-fish and a profusion of wild fruits, with prairies easily responding to primitive cultivation, numerous clear, cold springs and streams of water, finely wooded bottomlands and much mineral wealth, its fame, spread by the Indians, soon attracted those early adventurers who, com- ing from other countries in search of wealth, found it easy to believe more than the truth about this justly-praised section of the continent. No doubt, the Indians, seeing their greater interest in the tales of mineral wealth, were quick to take advantage of this and lead the newcomers on. Not only did De Soto's bands, penetrating everywhere in search of treasure, journey as far northward as southwestern Missouri, but Coronado, coming at the same time from Mexico on the west, his imagination inflamed by the reports of the In- (lians, after he had found the fabled "Seven Cities of Cibola," and still jour- neying to find the city of Quivira, which the Indian guide had told him was so rich, also arrived so near to what is now the Ozarks that it is quite prob- able that these two great explorers, without knowledge of each other, were, at one time in their respective journeys, no more than a day or two apart. And this was only fifty years after the discovery of America by Columbus !
After the departure of these early explorers, we have no evidence that what is now Greene county was visited by the white man from 1541 to 1710 or '18, or until the time of the establishing of the "Mississippi Company." which was to exploit the Louisiana territory for the benefit of the French treasury. When, under the lead of Law and Crozat, the greatest scheme of financial inflation ever known became a failure, the bursting of the "Missis-
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GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI.
sippi Bubble" left stranded thousands of people who had come to this country in good faith, but who were then thrown on their own resources for support. These people scattered everywhere, and sent exploring parties all through the Ozarks to search for the mineral wealth they had been led to believe was close at hand. Maps prepared for the deception of expected emigrants to this country pointed them to this more northern region.
In St. Gem's "Annals of Ste. Genevieve," as quoted in the History of Greene county, published in 1883, we read, on page 125: "The first white men to visit the county were some of the early French voyageurs, who came out occasionally from Ste. Genevieve after 'the year of the great waters,' 1715, and made certain explorations in search of gold and silver. Returning, they reported plenty of lead indications, but none of the precious metals. These Frenchmen belonged to the colony at Ste. Genevieve, and seemed to have gone as far west from time to time as Barry, or perhaps McDonald county, from the descriptions which they gave. 'It is a land very rough, mountainous, and hard to travel through,' said they, 'and there are plenty of springs, caves and fresh water'." It is very probable that the course followed by these trav- elers from Ste. Genevieve would have taken them throughi Greene county. These explorations must have given rise to the traditions in regard to the old French and Spanish mines and smelters for silver which have been treasured throughout the whole Southwest-stories that have been so frequently met with as to justify a belief that there was some foundation in fact for their ex- istence. There is scarcely an old miner in all this region who does not have more or less implicit faith in the old French and Spanish silver mines, ancient maps of which some of them claim to have seen.
There is abundant evidence that all these French and Spanish explorers searched here for gold and silver. Northwest of the present town of Willard, in Greene county, a considerable area is pitted with old diggings made before the memory of recent settlers; and in other parts of the county similar evi- dences of early searching parties are found. Some six miles southwest of Springfield, in Wilson township, some partially smelted lead was found in a primitive furnace, no doubt constructed either by one of these early explorers or by Indians who had learned the process from them. Another such fur- nace was described by the explorer, Schoolcraft, as being near the James river mines at Kirshner's, southeast of Springfield, which was rediscovered and photographed by the writer some twenty years ago .* Quoting from School- craft, "A View of the Lead Mines in Missouri, 1819," we read: "Twenty miles above the junction of these streams (James and Finley), on the imme- diate banks of the James river, are situated some valuable lead mines, which have been known to the Osage Indians and to some White river hunters for
* "Geology of Greene County." E. M. Shepard, Missouri Geological Survey. Vol. XII, p. 182.
GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI.
many years .* The Indians have been in the habit of procuring lead for bul- lets at that place, by smelting the ore in a kind of a furnace made by digging a pit in the ground, and casing it with some flat stones, placed so. as to resemble the roof of a house inverted, such is the richness of the ore and the ease with which it melts. The ore has not, however, been properly explored, and it is impossible to say how extensive the beds or veins may prove. Some zinc in the state of a sulphuret is found accompanying it."
RECORD OF EARLY TRAVELERS.
The earliest travelers to visit Greene county and leave a record of what they saw and did were Henry R. Schoolcraft ** and Rufus Pettibone, who left Potosi November 8th. 1818, and, after studying the lead mines in that vicinity, traveled southward through the wilderness over a trail so accurately described in Schoolcraft's Journals, that the present writer has been able to fol- low it through almost every portion of its course in this state. The distance and general course of travel each day, the striking topographic features of the country and their camp each night are all so vividly described that one may easily trace this route day by day. In their progress toward this southwest region, they reached the North Fork of the White river, which the Osage In- dians called the "Unica," somewhere near what is now the town of Cabool, whence they journeyed to the White, then up this stream to the Big Beaver creek. A little beyond this locality, December 13th, 1818, they reached the last point of settlement on the White river, which he describes as follows : "The most remote bound to which the white hunter has penetrated in a south- west direction from the Mississippi river toward the Rocky Mountains. It consists of two families, Holt and Fisher by name, who have located them- selves here within the last four months." Schoolcraft and Pettibone re- mained at that point until Monday, December 28th, 1818, when they suc- ceeded in persuading Holt and Fisher to accompany them north to some mines where the Indians and hunters had been accustomed to get lead for bullets. Reaching Swan creek (The Mehausca, of the Osages), the next day, they followed an old Osage trail up the creek, crossing what is now Christian county to a point on the Finley several miles east of the branch which empties into that stream from Smallen's cave; called Winoka (meaning underground spirit ) by the Osages, of which they gave a vivid description. From this point they soon struck again the old Osage trail, or the old Linden road in
* The above fact confirms the view expressed by the writer that this region had long been known by the Spanish prospectors on the Mississippi River.
** * Scenes and Adventures in the Semi-Alpine Regions of the Ozark Mountains and Arkansas." 1818 and 1819. Philadelphia, 1853. Also, "Journal of a Tour Into the Interior of Missouri and Arkansas in 1818 and 1819," Henry R. Schoolcraft, Lon- don, 1821.
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