USA > Missouri > Clinton County > The History of Clinton County, Missouri : containing a history of the County, its cities, towns, etc., biographical sketches of its citizens, Clinton County in the late war, general and local statistics, portraits of early settlers and prominent men etc > Part 25
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In the month of September, 1881, the freight and passenger depot of the Wabash road, at Lathrop, was entirely destroyed by fire. The same was, however, speedily rebuilt.
TURNEY STATION
is a small place on the line of the Cameron and Kansas City branch of the Hannibal & St. Joseph Railroad. It is in Lathrop Township, five miles due north of the town of Lathrop, and includes, in its site, the east half of section 25, township 56, range 31-its northern limits extending
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HISTORY OF CLINTON COUNTY.
to the line of Shoal Township. It was laid out in 1869, when the first house in the place was erected by William H. Moore. This combined a store house and dwelling. Jas. Murdock was the first to sell goods in the village. The first railroad station agent in Turney was Hugh Sturdy and the first appointed postmaster, Ben Byers. E. Dudley, in 1870, built, in the place, the first hotel, and a grain elevator, which he subsequently moved to Lathrop. He also, at one time, kept the railroad station. There never were more than two stores at a time in the place. In 1881, James E. Potter, the postmaster, was keeping one, and McWilliams Brothers the other. The station house at this place is one of the best on the line of the Hannibal & St. Joseph road. Its cost was two thousand dollars. The first church built in the village was the M. E. South. It is a neat frame structure, built in 1872, at a cost of about $1,500. Rev. Mr. Grimes was its first pastor. In the following year, the Methodist Episcopal Church erected an edifice of similar dimensions and corres- ponding cost. Rev. Wm. Hanley was the first minister in charge.
Four and a half miles east of the town of Lathrop, and in Lathrop Township, is Crooked River Baptist Church. It was organized January 31, 1857, with sixteen members, and Rev. W. C. Barrett, pastor. The other ministers of this church, in regular succession, were, Rev. J. D. Black, Rev. Wm. Johnson, Rev. J. W. Luke, Rev. Dr. Chambless and Rev. J. P. Martin, in 1881. Josiah Baker was first clerk of the congrega- tion ; William Lewis and John North were first deacons ; R. J. Dunlap, J. Q. A. Kemper and M. Gidley are the present (1881) deacons. The church membership is 135. The church edifice is a neat frame structure, thirty-five by fifty feet. The organization is out of debt.
CHAPTER XIII.
SETTLEMENT OF SHOAL TOWNSHIP.
CAMERON-ITS HISTORY-ITS EARLY SETTLERS-FIRST BUILDING-FIRST HOUSE OF PUBLIC ENTERTAINMENT-FIRST STORE-COLONEL TIERNAN-DR KING -- PIONFER BUSINESS HOUSES-POST OFFICE-MILLS - FOUNDRY - BURNING OF CAMERON- PUBLIC HALLS-HOTELS-TOWN INCORPORATED-OFFICIAL DIRECTORY-STOCK IN CHICAGO, ROCK ISLAND & PACIFIC RAILROAD-MUSSER'S BLOCK-SCHOOLS- CHURCHES-NEWSPAPERS-BANKS
Shoal Township, the northeastern division of Clinton County, is bounded on the north by DeKalb County ; on the east, by Caldwell County ; on the south, by Lathrop Township; and, on the west, by Platte Township. It is an exact square, measuring seven miles on each side. The general surface of the township is prairie. It is, however, beautifully diversified with timber, which grows in ample luxuriance along the bottoms of Shoal and Brushy Creeks, affording all the neces- sary wood for fencing and fuel. Unmistakable evidences of the presence of an excellent quality of bituminous coal have been discovered in the neighborhood of Shoal Creek, in this township. Sufficient interest in the matter has, so far, however, not been awakened as to warrant a proper investigation of the status of this element of wealth and con- venience.
Shoal Township, though one of the last settled sections of Clinton County, is to-day ( 1881) the most densely populated portion of the same. The subsequent rapid development of the township after its reorganiza- tion into its present limits, was due undoubtedly to the completion of the railroads through its midst. Its splendid natural resources became readily apparent to the traveling public and settlers flocked in from all quarters. Though about the period of the completion of the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad the settlements were sparsely distributed, and only found in certain localities of the township, there were still a few who had in an early day penetrated its wilds and effected permanent settlements therein.
The first of these enterprising pioneers was undoubtedly Isaac D. Baldwin, of Tennessee, who, in 1830, settled on a quarter section of land, six miles south of the present town of Cameron. This was on the south side of Shoal Creek, on the Haynesville road. A post office, the first ever established in the township, was located there in a very early day. It was styled Mount Refuge post office. Isaac D. Baldwin, who also
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HISTORY OF CLINTON COUNTY.
kept a primitive house of public entertainment for the convenience of the few who, in those days, traveled that road, was post master here, and enjoyed the reputation of the first who ever achieved that dignity within the present limits of Shoal Township. The appointments of this office, doubtless in correspondence with its emoluments, are reported by the few now living, who have any recollection of the matter, to have been simplicity simplified, and consisted in toto of two ordinary horse buckets. In one of these was deposited the down mail, and in the other the up mail, while both served indiscriminately the purpose of a general deliv- ery. It may be added that, aside from its dignity, the office was for many years, as might be supposed, a sinecure.
Isaac D. Baldwin, the pioneer, also put up the first mill, a small, horse power concern, near Mount Refuge. This was only operated a short time. In 1836, the Bozarth brothers, Albert and John, from Ken- tucky, both members of the Mormon fraternity of Far West, in Caldwell County, a few miles east, located on Shoal Creek, four and a half miles south of Cameron, a water power grist mill, with one run of burrs. On the expulsion of the Mormons, the mill ceased to be operated, and in the course of subsequent years, all traces of this pioneer enterprise were effaced, and the memory of its existence only remained with the few contemporaries of those early settlers, the very memory of whose exist- ence is fast fading from the minds of their descendants or successors.
The second post office in Shoal Township was located two and a half miles south of the site of the present town of Cameron. It was established in 1850. J. P. McCartney was the first postmaster appointed. He continued to hold his position, not a very valuable one, as may be inferred, till the completion, in 1858, of the Hannibal & St. Joseph Railroad to Cameron, at which period the office was abolished, in view of the establishment of one in the new town of Cameron.
Samuel McCorkle, one of the founders of that town, came, in 1836, to Clinton from Clay County. He was a native of Kentucky, and came, with his parents, in an early day, from Kentucky to Missouri. He died in 1856, at the age of over sixty years. His residence, at the period of his death, was just beyond the line, in DeKalb County.
Among the early settlers of Clinton Township was William G. McDaniel, who came from Kentucky to Missouri, settling within the limits of what is now Shoal Township, in 1836. Mr. McDaniel was a wealthy man and a popular citizen. He was assassinated on his way home to his residence, a mile and a half east of Cameron, in June, 1867. The author of this assassination was never discovered, and the murder has since remained a mystery, as it was not known that the victim had an enemy in the country capable of such a deed. Mr. McDaniel was a brother of A. McDaniel who was the victim of a cold blooded murder, at his home on Rock House Prairie, during the civil war.
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HISTORY OF CLINTON COUNTY.
Sylvester S. Lynch came with his family, including a son, Isaac, then thirteen years of age, from Bath County, Kentucky, to Clinton County, and settled in what is now Shoal Township, June 15, 1839. Ilis family at that time consisted of a wife and three sons, Isaac, Aaron and J. D. Lynch. Aaron died some years ago. The original Lynch farm was two and a half miles southwest of Cameron on the Plattsburg road.
In the fall of 1843 was built the first school house within the limits of the present township of Shoal. Its location was one mile and a half south of the site of the present town of Cameron. The edifice was original in design and primitive in construction, being built of round logs, chinked with mud; the floor was of puncheons; the chimney of sticks and mud, and the roof a nondescript. The internal appointments of this pioneer temple of the muses was in correspondence with its sightly exterior ; the desks and benches were of split bass-wood logs of a weight and solidity that abundantly warranted their freedom from any tendency to warp. The blackboard in that day was an innovation that had yet hardly crossed the Father of Waters, and its appearance would doubtless have been hailed with as much wonder in our Little Brushy Creek school house of that day as the ivory pig with two tails excited in the minds of Deer Slayer's Indian embassadors. The honor of having been the first to teach the young idea in this initial institution of learn- ing belongs to Dr. James Kirkpatrick, of Kentucky, who, combining the administration of calomel and castor oil with that of the liberal arts, also enjoyed the distinction of having been the first to practice the healing art within the present limits of the township of Shoal. Among the early members of that first and original school were the McBaths, Mrs. Hiram Steveson, Sylvester Lynch's three sons-Isaac, Aaron, and J. D., and others of both sexes. In that early day of magnificent dis- tances, a resident three miles off was accounted a near neighbor. As a consequence, the attendance at these early established schools was very limited as to numbers. Dr. Kirkpatrick taught several terms in this school, and was accounted a popular teacher.
Among the early settlers of Shoal Township was Eldridge Potter, grandfather of Doctor T. E. Potter, now (1881) one of the most popular and successful physicians of Cameron. Originally from Tennessee, he settled in Missouri in an early day, and in 1833, moved from Clay County to Clinton, settling in the neighborhood of what is now Cameron. A son of his, and uncle of Doctor Potter, was among the earliest to teach in the schools of this part of the county. His school was six miles south- west of Cameron.
Probably the oldest living settler of Shoal Township is (1881| Hiram Steveson, a native of Kentucky, who moved from his native state to Indiana; thence to the lead mines of Galena, and, in 1836, to within three and a half miles of the present town of Cameron, where he has
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HISTORY OF CLINTON COUNTY.
since continued to reside, on the line of the old Plattsburg road. William P. Harlan, a brother-in-law of Hiram Steveson, came from Indiana to Missouri, and settled in Shoal Township in 1839. He continued to reside there up to the period of his death, which occurred in 1879.
William Williamson, another early settler in the township, after- wards moved to Texas.
George Rhodes, formerly from Indiana, but since dead, lived many years in Shoal Township.
The Evanses also settled in an early day in the township, but, subse- quently, moved away, as did the Creasons, and others.
William T. Reed, from Kentucky, still a resident of Shoal, is among the early settlers.
James McBath, of Kentucky, who afterwards moved to Iowa, settled in 1835, in the township.
John Snow, who came in 1836, has since died.
A man by the name of Character was among the early settlers of the township. He came from Kentucky, in 1835, with his son Joshua.
Franklin and Dickey Jones came to the township, from Kentucky, in 1845.
Miles Bragg, since dead, settled in 1847.
Davis Duncan and family, and Ezekiel Duncan and family, settled in the township in 1845.
About the same period, came Asa Moore, Squire Haywood and the Buckhardts.
Jacob Hooper came from Platte County to Shoal Township, in 1847.
John Loman, a German, settled between 1840 and 1842, about three miles southwest of Cameron, on the Plattsburg road. He first lived in a "dug out." By industry and economy he has achieved success, and is now among the prosperous farmers of the county, occupying as a resi- dence on his farm an excellent brick house.
Another prominent settler of the township was William McCord, of Tennessee, who came in 1838, and resided here up to the period of his death.
David O'Donnel came from Ohio, and settled in Shoal Township, in 1840.
The first to preach in Shoal Township was the Rev. Jonathan Stone, of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Probably the first church erected within the present limits of the township, was a log house, built about 1858, by the German Methodists, three and a half or four miles south of Cameron. In 1879, they built near the site of this old building a hand- some frame church, at a cost of between $2,500 and $3,000.
At Keystone Station, on the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Rail- road, about six miles southwest of Cameron and less than a mile from the line of Platte Township, is a religious institution, known as the
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HISTORY OF CLINTON COUNTY.
Church of God. It was organized in March, 1870, by R. H. Bolton. The original members were Samuel Kendig and wife, William Rowe and wife, David Wolf and wife, George Sudsbury and wife, George Shut and wife, John Powley, Philip Hefflefinger and wife. The church edifice, a neat frame structure, was erected in the spring of 1879, at a cost of $1,200. It was dedicated October 12, 1879, by M. S. Newcomer, of Mendota, Illinois, with a membership of thirty. R. H. Bolton was the organizer of the church. S. B. Sterner was its first regular pastor. His successors have been C. B. Roukle, C. S. Bolton, Joseph Moorland, S. D. C. Jackson, D. Blakely and W. J. Howard, the present pastor. The present (1881) membership of this church is forty. The organizers of this church were formerly members of a similar institution in Pennsyl- vania. A prosperous Sunday School, under the able management of George Sudsbury, is connected with this church.
J. P. McCartney, who now (1881) resides in the neighborhood, just across the line in Caldwell County, started, in 1855, at Elmont post office, a tree nursery. This, the first one established in this part of the county, he continued to keep until 1875. Mr. McCartney came to this country in 1848.
In 1865, John Zimmerman started, in Shoal Township west of the town of Cameron, and in the neighborhood of the junction depot. It is now managed by his sons, John Zimmerman and brother, and bears an excellent reputation.
About one mile south of the corporate limits of the town of Cam- eron, is Clover Hill Cheese Factory, an enterprise of no inconsiderable importance in this county. The factory is located on section 25, town- ship 57, range 30, on the farm of H. B. Fales, and is owned by the said H. B. Fales in partnership with M. E. Moore. These enterprising gentlemen own, besides, three other factories, one in Andrew County, another in DeKalb County, and a third, in Caldwell. Clover Hill Fac- tory was started in 1874. The premises include two buildings, the workshop and the curing house, the latter twenty-four by forty feet in extent and with a capacity of holding seven hundred cheeses. The work building measures twenty-six by thirty-six feet, one and a half stories high, with a box factory on the second floor ; all the timber used in the manufacture of these boxes is shipped from Michigan, specially to supply the demand of this factory. Their machinery includes a six horse power boiler, and a four horse power Baxter engine. The factory is also provided with one of Wires' circular vats, patented in March, 1881, and valued at, and costing, $375. Its capacity is 13,000 pounds. They use between ten and eleven thousand pounds of milk per day, the yield of over five hundred cows, and they have facilities for pressing fifty cheeses at one time. The bulk of the yield of this factory is shipped, for sale, to Nave, McCord & Co., of St. Joseph. The importance
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HISTORY OF CLINTON COUNTY.
of this element of enterprise is one of which the neighboring farmers entertain no small appreciation.
The manufacture of cheese is ultimately destined to become an important element of wealth in this county. The facilities afforded for grazing, and the quality of milk yielded, to say nothing of the various other advantages which go to make up a successful dairy business, all point to this end.
To go back a little in our history.
The first attempt to start a town within the limits of Shoal Town- ship, was about 1854. It was on the McCorkle farm, at the old Mormon cross roads, about a mile and a quarter east of Cameron, and was called Somerville, in honor of a member of the firm of Ray & Somerville, who had built a store and opened a stock of goods there, which were placed in charge of Theodore Fowler, of St. Joseph. There were two other houses in the place. One of these was the property of Dr. King, the first physician established in the town, and afterwards in Cameron. The third was the property of Miles Bragg. These three buildings were all moved to the site of the new town of Cameron, by Judge John Stokes and his son, E. D. Stokes, the latter still (1881) a resident of the place. Judge Stokes used, in effecting this removal, eight yoke of cattle. The house of Ray & Somerville, measuring twenty-two by sixty feet, while in transitu to the site of the new town, was purchased, with its contents, by Major A. T. Baubie, who opened then the first store in Cameron. It included a stock of general merchandise. It is said that the rear room of this building contained a barrel of whisky, in consequence of which many were attracted to witness the phenomenon of a house with a stock of goods being moved across the prairie. Judge Stokes also moved, in the same way, the store of Miles Bragg, and afterwards, the residence of Doctor King, to the site of the new town, which thus got its start. Ed. Crosdell's store was also moved to Cameron, and located on Walnut Street, where it was subsequently swept away in the great fire of 1871. In 1861, Crosdell moved to Kansas City. At the period of the fire, his old building was occupied by other parties. Somerville, thus stripped of her habitations, soon passed to the oblivion of abortive enterprises, and few now of the present residents of Cameron, and vicinity, have any recollection of such a place.
Judge John Stokes, above referred to, was born in the State of Ten- nessee, April 12, 1807. In September, 1832, he moved to Missouri, settling in St. Louis, which he continued to make his home till 1838, when he moved to Platte County. In 1852, he left Platte, and settled in DeKalb County. In 1861, he moved to Cameron. He was, during a period of four years, Judge of the DeKalb County Court. In the several counties of Platte, DeKalb and Clinton, he filled at different periods, the office of justice of the peace for upwards of thirty-two years. The judge,
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HISTORY OF CLINTON COUNTY.
who is a man highly respected wherever known, has had, in some partic- ulars, rather an unusual experience in life. He is the father of thirteen grown children, seven sons and six daughters, all living and in the enjoy- ment of robust health. He has also, forty-eight grand-children, and four great-grand-children. The judge himself, though having nearly accom- plished three-fourths of a century, is yet in the apparent enjoyment of sound health, and in full possession of his faculties, bids fair to see many more days. He has been a constant subscriber to, and reader of the St. Louis Republican since 1839.
While providing habitations for the living, the pioneers of Shoal Township were not unmindful of the claims of the dead, and at a very early period land was set apart for a neighborhood burial ground, in the vicinity of the then prospective town of Somerville. This land was donated for that purpose by William G. McDaniel. It is about a mile east of the boundary line of the present town of Cameron, and has long continued to be used for the purpose to which it was originally set apart. Many years subsequent, a cemetery was laid out about a mile and a half southeast of the town site of Cameron, by Charles Packard. In this cemetery the Masonic fraternity own a large lot, set apart for the burial of deceased indigent brethren of the order.
One of the recent developments of special interest and prospective value in Shoal Township is the
MCCARTNEY MINERAL SPRING,
three and one-half miles due south of the town of Cameron. Though known for many years, but little value was attached to the spring till a recent experience disclosed the curative properties of the water. A company was soon formed, and forty acres of the land on which the spring rises was leased, as the ground was the property of the unsettled estate of Hiram McCartney, deceased, and consequently could not be purchased. The parties so leasing this land are J. F. Harwood, Major A. T. Baubie, J. R. McCartney, J. J. Osborn, C. D. Redecker, J. S. Rogers, A. O. Risley, and Judge E. T. Walker. These gentlemen organized themselves into a company, styled the McCartney Spring Association. The following parties were elected officers of said asso- ciation: A. O. Riley, president ; J. J. Osborn, vice-president : J. S. Rogers, treasurer ; A. T. Baubie, secretary. The improvements so far are (1881) of rather a primitive character, and consist chiefly of a brick work tank about three or four feet deep and five or six in diameter. From this tank, at the base of a bluff apparently about ninety feet high, gushes the pellucid stream of which the following analysis was made by Wright & Merrell, of St. Louis, Missouri : Reaction, acid ; specific gravity, 1.007 ; temperature, 54 deg. Fahrenheit ; total solids, per gal-
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HISTORY OF CLINTON COUNTY.
lon, 79.115 grains ; carbonate lime, 17.510 grains ; carbonate magnesia, .550 grains ; carbonate iron, 2.150 grains ; sulphate magnesia, 13.279 grains ; sulphate soda, 29.010 grains ; sulphate lime, 11.147 grains ; chloride sodium, .646 grains ; allumina, .864 grains ; silica, 1.544 grains ; organic and volatile matter, 2.412 grains ; crenic acid, a trace ; carbonic acid, 46 cubic inches. Springs of medicinal virtue are often situated in. inconvenient and comparatively inaccessible localities, with, at best, unfavorable surroundings. Such, however, in the instance of the McCartney spring has by no means been the case.
The approach from the town of Cameron is over a smooth and well kept road, affording, for a considerable distance, a grateful shade from the. groves of timber through which it runs. The locality itself is generally level, and shaded with a majestic growth of timber, beneath which the underbrush has been cleared.
On the west side of this natural park runs Little Brushy Creek, and,. fifteen or twenty feet beyond, rises the fountain from the base of the abrupt bluff, above mentioned. This bluff, symmetrical in outline, is several hundred feet in length, rising from the surrounding level, on the north extremity of the campus, till it reaches its maximum altitude. directly over the fountain, when it descends as gradually to the south side of the enclosure.
A comparatively moderate expenditure of means, coupled with judicious taste, would render this spot one of the most attractive in the state. The present improvements on the grounds are limited to a rather rudely constructed story and a half building, which serves the. present purposes of a hotel. It is contemplated, however, to add exten- sive improvements in the coming spring.
The important business point of Shoal Township is
CAMERON.
It is the largest and best built town of Clinton County, and now (1881) includes a population of 3,000. Its location is the northeast corner of the county, and a portion of one of the additions to the town extends to. the limits of DeKalb County, and is partly included within the area of that county. Its peculiar position constitutes it the geographical center of Clinton, DeKalb, Daviess and Caldwell Counties, a territory which embraces a tract of highly productive and well developed country,. aggregating in extent some forty-five miles square. The town of. Cameron extends to and beyond the junction of the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad, with the Kansas City branch of the same, and the- Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific, sometimes called the Chicago and Southwestern, traverses its center from the northward nearly to the southward limits. It is thirty-five miles east of St. Joseph and about
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HISTORY OF CLINTON COUNTY.
forty miles northeast of Leavenworth City. The Kansas City branch of the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad connects it, in a distance of fifty- five miles, directly with Kansas City. This branch was completed in January, 1868. Cameron is said to be the most enterprising point on the line of the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific between Davenport and Leavenworth, a distance of 280 miles. It is regularly laid out, with wide streets, and is one of the most compactly and substantially built towns of its size and population in the state.
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