USA > Missouri > Buchanan County > St Joseph > The Daily news' history of Buchanan County and St. Joseph, Mo. From the time of the Platte purchase to the end of the year 1898. Preceded by a short history of Missouri. Supplemented by biographical sketches of noted citizens, living and dead > Part 4
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"Missouri has 6,599 miles of railroad and several navigable rivers. Its railroads have the highest order of equipment, and pas- senger and freight service unsurpassed anywhere in the world, the frequency, the speed, the elegance and perfection of its trains being the admiration of the traveling public. Upon its rivers are to be found steamboat and barge lines capable of doing at low cost an immense freight business.
"Missouri enjoys the proud distinction of having the largest available public school fund of any state in the American Union. This fund is divided as follows : Common school fund, $3, 141,538.77; State seminary fund, $1,229,260.03 ; permanent county, township and district school fund, $7,912,692.39; total permanent school fund, $12,283,491.19.
"It is a land of schools and churches, of education, refinement and culture, a land flowing with milk and honey, where the lack of bread is something unknown, where hospitality, kindness and fra- ternity prevail, where the laws are strictly and impartially enforced by a pure and fearless judiciary, and where happiness and content- ment prevail as nearly as they do in any country upon the earth."
1
THE PLATTE PURCHASE.
ORIGINAL WESTERN BOUNDARY .- PLATTE COUNTRY OCCUPIED BY INDIANS .- THE WHITE MAN NEED- ED IT .- MUSTER DAY AT DALE'S FARM .- GENERAL HUGHES' SPEECH AND ITS EFFECT. - THE PUR- CHASE MADE .- CONSIDERATIONS AND STIPULA- TIONS OF THE TREATY .- EXIT THE INDIAN, ENTER THE WHITE MAN.
When Missouri was admitted to the Union the western line of the state passed from the corner of Arkansas directly north through the mouth of the Kansas River to the Iowa line. This left a section embracing what are now Platte, Buchanan, Andrew, Holt, Nodaway and Atchison Counties in the Indian territory, of which both Kansas and Nebraska formed a part.
This section of the territory, between the Missouri River and the west line of Missouri, was ceded to the Sac-and-Fox and Ioway Indians, in the treaty of Prairie du Chien, ratified in 1830, in ex- change for certain lands in Wisconsin. These two tribes, and also a band of Omahaws and a few Sioux, located along the banks of the larger streams in the upper part of the strip, while the lower portion was occupied by the Pottawatomies, who were removed from Indiana in 1833, after the Black Hawk war.
The government had places of supply at Rock-house, near what is now the town of Agency, in Buchanan County, and at Beverly, in Platte, and General Andrew S. Hughes was the government agent. General Hughes made his headquarters with Joseph Robidoux in the Blacksnake hills, going among the Indians only on issue days. He had warehouses near the Ford and at Beverly, but these were in charge of guards.
The Indians were particularly undesirable neighbors to the people of the old Missouri border. They were drunken, lazy, quar- relsome, and altogether unworthy to occupy so valuable and so beautiful a territory. So argued the white man, who believed the heritage to be his, and who went systematically to work to secure it.
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THE PLATTE PURCHASE
It was customary in those times to have militia muster on certain days, and so it came to pass that a muster was held at the farm of Weakly Dale, near Liberty, in Clay County, in April of 1835. At these musters there were speeches, and measures for the general welfare were publicly debated. The Indian neighbor was the theme of a speech by General Hughes on this particular occasion, and the effect of his oration was immediate.
Recent correspondence between Major John Dougherty of Clay County, then an Indian agent, and Senator Linn, in reference to coveted territory, was also read. Major Dougherty had shown how the formation of the boundary had inconvenienced persons settling along the border, in what are now DeKalb, Gentry or Worth Coun- ties, from reaching the river (then the only mode of transportation) without traveling over a hundred miles to get below the mouth of the Kansas River, when the Missouri could be reached at twenty, thirty or fifty miles at Robidoux's or Weston, which were the most important river points in the Platte country.
The many streams capable of furnishing water and power, the rich soil, valuable forests, luxuriant grasses, wild fruits, thousands of wild flowers, well-filled bee trees, flocks of wild deer and turkey, all had been voiced aloud until the old Kentuckians, Tennesseeans and North Carolinians forming that military array, resolved that they must have the strip without delay. In fact, they started to obtain it in Western style, resolving that they ought and would have it, and E. M. Samuel, David R. Atchison, Alexander W. Doniphan, W. T. Wood and Peter H. Burnett were appointed a committee to obtain it. But some of those same muster-men, being doubtful about the efficacy of negotiation and red-tape, moved into the new country that fall. The government had them removed by soldiers, but they went back again, and like the Sooners of the present day, kept them- selves in evidence so as to hasten the inevitable.
The result was that on September 17, 1836, William Clark of the famous expedition of Lewis and Clark, of 1804, then agent for all of the Indians west of the Mississippi River, held a council with the Sacs-and-Foxes and Ioways at Fort Leavenworth, and made a treaty whereby the Platte country passed into the hands of the white man.
The Indians received $7,500 in cash and four hundred sections of land in what are now Doniphan and Brown Counties, Kansas. The government agreed to erect five comfortable houses for the Ioways and three for the Sacs-and-Foxes; to provide for each tribe an interpreter, a farmer, a blacksmith, and a schoolmaster ; to break up
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THE PLATTE PURCHASE
two hundred acres of ground for each tribe and to furnish each with a ferryboat ; also to provide rations for one year and agricultural implements for five years.
The treaty was signed by William Clark, superintendent of Indian affairs, for the United States. For the Ioway Indians it was signed by the following chiefs and braves: Mo-hos-ca (or White Cloud), Nau-che-ning (or No Heart), Wa-che-mo-ne (or the Orator), Ne-o-mo-ne (or Raining Cloud), Ne-wan-thaw-chu (Hair Shedder), Man-haw-ka (Bunch of Arrows), Cha-tau-the-ne (Big Bull), Man-o- mo-ne (Pumpkin), Con-gu (Plumb), Wau-thaw-ca-be-chu (One that Eats Rats), Cha-tea-thau (Buffalo Bull), Cha-ta-ha-ra-wa-re (For- eign Buffalo).
The following signed for the Sacs-and-Foxes: Ca-ha-qua (Red Fox), Pe-shaw-ca (Bear), Pe-cau-ma (Deer), Ne-bosh-ca-na (Wolf), Ne-squi-in-a (Deer), Ne-saw-au-qua (Bear), Qua-co-ousi-si (Wolf), Suquil-la (Deer), As-ke-pa-ke-ka-as-a (Green Lake), Wa-pa-se (Swar), No-cha-tau-wa-ta-sa (Star), Can-ca-car-mack (Rock Bass), Sea-sa-ho (Sturgeon), Pe-a-chim-a-car-mack (Bald-Headed Eagle), Pe-a-chim-a-car-mack, Jr., (Bald-Headed Eagle).
The following citizens of Missouri signed as witnesses: S. W. Kearney, John Dougherty, A. S. Hughes, George R. H. Clark, Will- iam Duncan, Joseph V. Hamilton, Joseph Robidoux, Jr., William Bowman, Jeffry Dorion, Peter Constine, Jacques Mette, Louis M. Davidson.
Thus was the Platte Purchase made. The red man was told to move on, and resumed his pilgrimage toward the setting sun, and the white man promptly built his cabin where the Indian's tepee erst had stood.
BUCHANAN COUNTY AND ST. JOSEPH.
CHAPTER I.
FIRST SETTLERS .- LOCATION AND NATURAL ADVAN- TAGES .- RIVERS, CREEKS AND. LAKES .- PIONEER LIFE. - FIRST DWELLINGS. - PRIMITIVE FURNI- TURE AND FRUGAL HABITS .- ONE-LEGGED BED- STEAD. - WILD MEAT AND WILD HONEY. - RYE COFFEE, THE HORSE-POWER MILL, THE HOMINY BLOCK AND THE GRITTER. - LABORIOUS AND OTHER AMUSEMENTS.
When in the summer of 1826 Joseph Robidoux pushed the nose of his keel boat into the mouth of the creek now called Roy's Branch, he began the history of Buchanan County, so far as concerns the white man, at least. The red man had made history, too, in his own way, among the Blacksnake hills and valleys, but he took it with him when he crossed the river, and it is buried with him forever, as are his weapons and his wampum.
Robidoux remained undisturbed while the soldiers from Fort Leavenworth were raiding this section for squatters, prior to the purchase. As soon as the treaty was made, and even before the Indians had taken up their march to other hunting grounds, the tide of immigration to Buchanan County set in.
History mentions only a few settlers who escaped the vigilance of the soldiers. Robidoux and his men were here by permission of the government. One of the trespassers was John Elliott, who came from Kentucky in 1833 and located this side of the former state line, in what is now Platte Township. When driven off he moved over the line, but continued to cultivate the land on this side. An- other was Hiram Roberts, who located in the vicinity of what is now DeKalb, in 1836, and who was overlooked by the soldiers. He remained in undisturbed possession until the annexation and resided
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BUCHANAN COUNTY AND ST. JOSEPH
in the neighborhood until his death, in 1881. Absalom Enyard of Clay County located in what is now the center of Platte Township in 1836 and built a small cabin, but was soon ejected. He had been visited by Judge Weston J. Everett of Clay County, who was seeking a location, and who was so favorably impressed that when the Platte purchase was completed he bought Enyard's cabin, and, in the February of 1837, took possession under the homestead law. Judge Everett was followed in a few weeks by Absalom Munkers.
From 1837 to 1840 there was a steady influx of settlers and the development of the country progressed rapidly. Immigrants came from the neighboring counties and from Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, Tennessee, North Carolina and Virginia.
Because of their early environments, most of these took natur- ally to the timbered districts that skirt the streams. This was prac- tical, too, for the early settler required wood for his houses, his fences and his fuel. Transportation was an item of great moment, for there were no railroads and few steamboats in those days.
Among the most abundant trees of all originally found was the black walnut. However, the later demand for this wood in the manufacture of furniture was so great that the forests fell before the axe, and now there is but little of it left. A line of timber still follows the course of all streams, and detached groves, natural and artificial, are found throughout the country.
Buchanan is situated in latitude 39 degrees 47 minutes north, and longitude 94 degrees 55 minutes west. Its altitude is about 1,000 feet above sea level, and it is about 400 feet above Chicago and 600 feet above St. Louis. The highest point in the county is the hill upon which are located the reservoirs of the St. Joseph Water Com- pany. It is 320 feet above low water mark in the Missouri River and is situated two and one-half miles north of St. Joseph.
The surface away from the streams is gently undulating prairie, and there is a wonderful diversity of country for so small an area. Few, if any, counties in the state possess better natural drainage, and there is consequently but little waste land. Nor could any improve- ment be made over nature in the distribution of the water courses. Platte River is a fine stream, as is also the One-Hundred-and-Two River. The name of this stream is somewhat of a puzzle. One authority asserts that it is 102 miles in length. Another authority claims that it was so named because when the river was first seen by the surveyors who were locating a military road, the distance from Fort Leavenworth was 102 miles, and they named it so, as is
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BUCHANAN COUNTY AND ST. JOSEPH
the custom-the name of Ten-mile Creek, Forty-mile Creek, etc., being similar instances. Bee Creek, Castile, Malden, Sugar and Con- trary Creeks and their various forks and feeders are all valuable and never-failing streams.
Besides these, there are numerous lakes, bordering the Missouri River. Contrary, the most extensive and beautiful of these, is located about three miles southwest of St. Joseph. It receives its name from Contrary Creek, which empties into it, Contrary Creek being so called because it flows north, contrary to the course of the Missouri River. Sugar Lake, in Rush Township, is partly in Buchanan and partly in Platte County. It is a picturesque sheet of water. Then there are Singleton, Horseshoe, Muskrat and Mud Lakes. Contrary and Sugar Lakes are fruitful ice fields, the meat-packing concerns of Kansas City and St. Joseph drawing their supplies largely from them.
That the climate is healthful is best known to those who dwell here. In fact, almost the whole of the Platte Purchase is singularly free from consumption, asthma, bronchitis and the diseases most dreaded in the Eastern states. The air is dry and pure and the malarial fevers so common to Western and Southern states are confined to the river bottoms and are comparatively mild.
The early settlers found, besides timber and water, an easy and productive soil. To these advantages the sturdy pioneer had but to apply his energies, and the reward was certain. Hence the wealthy farmers of today, whose broad acres and ample houses, whose grand orchards and blooded livestock are but the primitive establishments of the early settler amplified and developed, step by step, from gen- eration to generation, by industry and thrift, aided by natural condi- tions and a constant benediction in the climate. It can be truthfully said that there has never been a total failure of crops in Platte Pur- chase.
Pioneer life in Buchanan County was no different from pioneer life elsewhere in the West. The first settlers were plain, hospitable, brave, generous people. They were good neighbors, bound together with a strong bond of sympathy, which made one man's interest every other man's interest also, and every man's protection lay in the good will and friendship of those about him.
The first dwellings of the white man in this country were a cross between Indian bark huts and 'hoop cabins," for it took a number of inen to build a log house. The settlers generally located in bunches, for mutual protection, and when three or four families had formed a community, they began the building of log houses, each
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BUCHANAN COUNTY AND ST. JOSEPH
assisting the other. The logs were round, notched together at the corners. The cabins were ribbed with poles and covered with split boards. A puncheon floor was then laid, a hole cut in the end and a chimney made of sticks and mud. The door was of clapboard, and a window was provided by cutting out a log in the side and inserting glass or covering it with greased paper. The house was then chinked and daubed witll mud, and was ready for the occupant.
The furniture consisted generally of the one-legged bedstead, a rude table, a few plain chairs and an assortment of pots and pans for cooking the food at the fire-place, there being no stoves. The one- legged bedstead was made by cutting a stick the proper length and boring holes in the edge to correspond with holes in a log of the cabin. Rounds of wood were inserted into the corresponding holes, and what rese:nbled a ladder in a horizontal position was supported on one corner by a leg, the other end and one side being fastened to the walls. Bark was woven into the rounds, and upon this primitive structure the bed was laid.
The manner of living was extremely simple. For some years the only mills were propelled by horse power, each customer furnish- ing his own power. There were no roads and the grain was carried in sacks, horseback. In the first years very little wheat was grown, corn being the only grain. The hominy block, an improvised mortar, made by cutting a hole into the stump of a large tree, and using a heavy timber as a pestle, was one way of producing meal for bread. Another instrument was the "gritter," made by punching holes into a piece of tin, which was then nailed to a board, rough side out, and upon which green or previously softened corn was rubbed into a pulp and then baked into bread or ash cakes.
Rye and cornmeal parched were often a substitute for coffee, and sassafras root produced a palatable substitute for "store tea." Game was plenty, especially deer, elk, wild turkeys, prairie chickens, and even bear, so there was no scarcity of meat until the hog could be turned into pork.
The clothing was homespun, made by the women of the house- hold-"jeans" for the men and "linsey-woolsey" for the maids and matrons. Hunting shirts and pantaloons of dressed buckskin were also worn by men. The linsey and jeans for every day use were col- lored with hickory or walnut bark, and those for Sunday wear were dyed in indigo. A fell suit of blue jeans was considered a fine dress.
It required great industry and rigid economy to make a plain living in those times. Iron and salt, two very necessary articles, were
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BUCHANAN COUNTY AND ST. JOSEPH
high and difficult to obtain. The pioneers had no money, as a rule, and for the first few years had nothing to sell except skins, wild honey and beeswax. Along the streams there were many hollow trees in which wild bees had deposited their honey, and these were eagerly sought.
There were amusements, too. Log-rolling was a laborious sport. Rail-splitting was another. The women had quilting parties while the men enjoyed themselves with the logs and the rails, and in evening there was generally a dance, if a fiddler could be had, or games of various kinds, as in all primitive communities. In fact, the history of the early settlers of Kentucky, Tennessee and Indiana was repeated in Missouri.
In a few years the settlers of Buchanan County had made great progress, and in five years after the country was opened for settle- ment there were several saw and flouring mills, roads and other improvements.
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7
CHAPTER II.
BUCHANAN COUNTY FORMED AND NAMED .- FIRST COUNTY COURT, SHERIFF AND SURVEYOR .- FORMATION OF TOWNSHIPS .- FIRST ELECTION .- FIRST COUNTY SEAT AND COURT HOUSE .- RE- MOVAL OF COUNTY SEAT FROM SPARTA TO ST. JOSEPH.
In December, 1838, the General Assembly of Missouri passed an act providing for the organization of Platte and Buchanan Counties. James Buchanan, afterwards President, at that time represented the United States at the court of St. Petersburg. He was a popular idol at home, and this county was named in his honor.
The creative act authorized the governor to appoint three judges of the county court and a sheriff, to serve until the general election in 1840; also a surveyor. The act provided for a commission to locate a permanent seat of government, naming Peter B. Fulkerson and Armstrong McClintock of Clinton and Leonard Brassfield of Clay County as commissioners. It provided also that until this com- mission had acted the seat of government should be at the house of Richard Hill. The regular terms of the county court were fixed for the first Mondays in February, May, August and November, but the court was permitted to hold special sessions.
Buchanan County was made part of the Twelfth senatorial dis- trict, part of the First judicial district and part of the Twelfth judicial circuit, and the regular terms of the circuit court were fixed for the' second Mondays of April, August and December. County and dis- trict courts were authorized to appoint clerks.
Governor Lilburn W. Boggs appointed Samuel Johnson, Wil- liam Harrington and William Curi as the first judges of the Buchanan County court and Samuel Gilmore as the first sheriff. This court met at the house of Richard Hill, near the site of old Sparta, on the first Monday in April, 1839, and organized by electing Mr. Johnson as presiding judge and appointing William Fowler clerk.
The first business of the court was the subdivision of the county into municipal townships. This was no small task and underwent remodeling several times before it was found satisfactory. Platte;
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BUCHANAN COUNTY AND ST. JOSEPH
Tremont, Marion, Lewis, Noble, Jefferson, Nodaway, Atchison, Bloomington, Washington, Crawford, Wayne and Center are men- tioned in the early records. However, the court, at its first session, ordered an election of two justices of the peace and one constable for each township, and specifically mentions the following: Platte, Tre- mont, Marion, Bloomington, Crawford, Noble, Lewis, Nodaway and Jefferson. In 1842 we find ten townships: Bloomington, Crawford. Platte, Tremont, Marion, Jackson, Washington, Rush, Wayne and Center. As the population increased it became necessary from time to time to change the boundaries, until the present subdivision into twelve townships was reached. We have now Washington, Marion, Lake, Wayne, Center, Agency, Tremont, Rush, Bloomington, Craw- ford, Jackson and Platte. The county court met alternately at Mr. Hill's house and at the house of Joseph Robidoux.
Matthew M. Hughes, who had been appointed by Governor Boggs to survey Buchanan County, made his report to the county court on January 8, 1840. "I commenced on the northwest corner of Platte County," he says, "in the center of the main channel of the Missouri River, and ran up the same, with its various meanders, forty-two miles and fifty-two chains, which constitutes the western boundary of your county ; thence I ran a due east course, marking each fore and aft tree with a blaze and two chops, and trees on each side in the way pointing to the line, of fourteen miles and twenty-seven chains to a stake in the old state line, or the line of Clinton County, which constitutes your northern boundary ; then south twenty miles and fifty-two chains along said line to the northeast corner of Platte County, which constitutes your eastern boundary ; thence west along the line of Platte County twenty-seven miles and forty-seven chains, which constitutes your southern boundary, containing four hundred square miles." For all of this work the court paid Mr. Hughes ninety-four dollars.
The commissioners appointed by Governor Boggs to select a seat of justice did not act until May 26, 1840. On that day they met the county court at Mr. Hill's house, and, after going carefully over the ground, selected for the seat of justice the southeast quarter of section 21, township 56, range 35. This land is now owned and cul- tivated by Wm. McCauley.
Anticipating the decision of the commissioners, a small settle- ment had been made. The commissioners named the new county seat Benton, in honor of Senator Thomas H. Benton, but this did not meet with popular approval, and at the August term the county court changed the name to Sparta.
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BUCHANAN COUNTY AND ST. JOSEPH
Having a seat of justice, Buchanan County must, of course, have a court house. A log structure was erected, which is mentioned more extensively in another chapter. In 1842 $6,000 was appro- priated for a substantial court house, but this was never built at Sparta.
While Sparta was near the center of the county, the principal trading point was at Blacksnake Hills. A petition, signed by 956 (being three-fifths) of the taxable citizens, asking for the removal of the county seat, was presented to the county court at the February term in 1843, and the court appointed Winslow Turner, James Hull and James Kuykendall to select a site. These gentlemen reported on July 4, 1843, stating that they had selected the southwest quarter of section 8, township 57, range 35, "the same being on the Missouri River at the Blacksnake Hills."
This quarter section had been pre-empted by Joseph Robidoux and he lost no time in platting the town of St. Joseph after this report. At the election that followed a majority voted for the removal of the county seat to the Blacksnake Hills, but the measure failed because the claim of the county to the quarter section above mentioned was not sustained by the circuit court. Robidoux had a prior right.
In the fall of 1844 a majority of all the voters in the county peti- tioned the legislature, and an act was passed in March, 1845, under which succeeding elections were held for the removal of the county seat.
The commissioners provided by the legislature met in St. Joseph on May 24, 1845. Joseph Robidoux, who objected to giving his entire townsite to the county, was inclined to be liberal, however, and donated all of block 48, the site of the present court house. This was accepted by the commissioners.
The legislature had also provided for the reimbursement of the holders of lots in Sparta. To assist in doing this Frederick W. Smith donated one block of ground in St. Joseph and Elias F. Wells donated two lots. John Patee donated three acres of land and Sam- uel C. Hall twenty acres. To further aid this movement the citizens of St. Joseph subscribed about $1,000 in money.
The lands donated were sold for $1,370.50. They are to-day among the best property in St. Joseph and are easily worth $300,000. The amount thus secured covered the liability to the Spartans by a narrow margin, for of the $2,370.50, it required $2,185.
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