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 51
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I am myself a descendant of a race of pioneers, different in many respects from the one I am speaking of. The first settlers of the valley were French, yet they did not come here from France. In the latter part of the seventeenth and early part of the eighteenth century, the fur trade of the valley of the Mississippi became an object of commercial importance, and the Canadians were the first persons who came here, and did so as fur traders. Canada was then a colony of France, and remained so till the treaty of Paris of 1763. The early Canadian pioneer is, therefore, the original settler of this country. They remained, how- ever, on the east side of the Mississippi, and settled the towns of Caho- kia, Prairie du Pont, Prairie du Rocher, Kaskaskia, and Fort Chartiers, and crossed the river only towards the latter part of the eighteenth century.
After the treaty of 1763, by which the east side of the river was ceded to England, they came over the river in large numbers, believing that it yet belonged to France, although the same treaty had ceded it to Spain. I will not detain you with the details, and only mention them to explain the different character of emigrants who first settled our state. At the time Louisiana was organized, in 1803, by Mr. Jefferson, the popu- lation of this country was, I may say, entirely French. Soon after the acquisition a large emigration came from Virginia, the great old mother of states, and from Kentucky, the first daughter of the glorious old mother, and from the old North State of Carolina, and from Tennessee,
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HISTORY OF CLINTON COUNTY.
and settled in the counties of New Madrid, Cape Girardeau, Ste. Gene- vieve, St. Louis and St. Charles. This emigration continued, not very rapidly, till the admission of Missouri as a state, when our population was only 56,000. I well remember the excitement about the Boone's Lick country, when I was a boy in my native town. Wagons filled with women and children, followed by cattle, horses and hogs, were passing through the town every day. Many of the little boys in the wagons became, in after times, leading men in our state, and no doubt many of the innocent little girls became the mothers of other men who also became distinguished and played their parts in the drama of life. Boone's Lick was settled by a noble lot of men and women. Old Dan- iel Boone himself came to our state and settled here. Boone, Callaway, Howard and Clinton Counties were settled at this period. A few years afterwards the tide moved towards the northwest and settled the coun- ties of Clay, Ray, Carroll, etc.
In 1836, a most remarkable, and, under the political condition of the country, a most singular event took place. The section of country known as the Platte country, being the triangle lying west of the west- ern line of our state and the Missouri River, was by act of congress added to our state. I well remember the newspaper controversy which took place at the time in relation to it. Benton and Linn were in the senate-both being senators of commanding influence-Benton being then considered the Ajax of the administration, and Linn, personally, the most popular man in the senate, for he was as lovely as a woman, yet possessing the true characteristics of one of the knights of old. Ashbury was in the House-a man of high character and large wealth, which he expended with princely liberality. Benton and Linn claimed a measure of credit for the passage of this law, which Ashley denied. On the other hand, he claimed that which they denied. The truth is, that not one was entitled to great credit for the passage of the measure. It required the combination of talent and personal popularity and per- sonal influence which they had to secure its passage, and to each and to all are we indebted for this great measure.
This section of country now embraces the counties of Holt, Atchi- son, Nodaway, Andrew, Platte, and Buchanan, and this beautiful and growing city of St. Joseph, its metropolis, was founded by an old friend of my boyhood-Joseph Robidoux-who was really the first pioneer of the Platte country.
Up to the passage of this law, this was an Indian country, and by treaty had been set apart forever to the Sioux and Fox tribes of Indians. As soon as this most bountiful and rich country was acquired, as already mentioned, and opened to settlement, a wave of emigrants immediately poured into it, and soon this country, which but a short time before had been the home of the Indian and wild beast, was transformed into mag- nificent farms, and the home of as fine and noble a race of men as any country can boast of. In many respects the later emigrants had the advantage of the first settlers, and certainly greatly the advantage of the early Canadians. They left the old country after they or their fathers had had time and opportunity to acquire property, and also to obtain educations, which was an impossibility with the early settlers. Many of them, indeed, were men of wealth and the owners of many stores, and also possessing liberal educations. Many of the women were
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HISTORY OF CLINTON COUNTY.
highly educated and accomplished. I visited the section when a young man, and I never shall forget the favorable impression made on me at the time, not only by the robust and intelligent men I met. but by as charming, handsome and accomplished ladies, young and old, as I ever met elsewhere.
I have thus, ladies and gentlemen, in a brief and desultory manner, given you a sketch of the early settlers of our country.
Each generation has, no doubt, its allotted duties ; ours is to trans- mit to those who are to come after us as the rich legacy we inherited from our forefathers-and this is not only in the political order, but in the social and moral order-and as your fathers left you honored names, you should do nothing to tarnish them ; nay, you must not, no matter at what personal cost, permit any one else to place a blot on the fair fame of the brave men and women from whom you have sprung. And, as you inherited high social positions, transmit the same to your children. Do this, and you, like your fathers, will have discharged the duties of your day and generation to them, to your sons, and to those who are to come after you.
Ladies and gentlemen : Permit me in conclusion to say a few words of a personal nature. The people of my state have honored me with the highest office in their gift. A seat in the senate of the United States is truly one of the most distinguished and elevated positions which man can hold in this or any other country. When elected to this high posi- tion I felt the measure of my ambition was full, and the dreams of a long life realized. Yet I felt, as but few can feel, a sense of gratitude to the generation of the present day for selecting in my humble person a descendant of the old hunters and settlers of this portion of the New World. In the name of my early forefathers, the old hunters of this Western World, and with the recollections of their primitive and humble virtues fresh in my heart and soul, I return thanks to my generation for this, its great act of generosity to one of their descendants.
General Craig then introduced General B. F. Stringfellows, who spoke briefly and to the point. He referred to the fact that he was a citizen of Kansas ; he said there was no act in his life of which he was so proud as the fact that he was once a member of the firm of Atchison, Stringfellow & Co. He here saw the Co. around him in the faces of the old settlers. He referred to the brilliant career of Colonel Doniphan, and the acquisition of Texas, Mew Mexico and California, to the early set- tlements of Kansas and the men who were then called border ruffians. They were rightly described by a young lady as the last remains of chivalry. He had only to say he was sorry they were whipped. He accepted the situation brought about by the new order of things.
Hle did not propose to shed any useless tears over the past, but to accept the new order of things, and make the best of it, and the most of it. He referred to the prejudice formerly existing against Northern men, and was glad that the old prejudices were worn out, and that the people of the Missouri Valley were a homogeneous people. His speech abounded in anecdotes, and was frequently applauded by the immense audience in attendance.
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HISTORY OF CLINTON COUNTY.
Uncle Henry Vories was then introduced, and spoke in his pleasant, old-fashioned way :
MR. PRESIDENT, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN AND OLD SETTLERS OF MISSOURI .- I decline making anything like a speech on this occasion, but I propose relating a few incidents in my life which, doubtless, will be personally recollected by not a few old settlers before me.
I came to Missouri from Indiana in 1844, the memorable year of the flood. I started with nothing, and arrived here with less, with my family sick into the bargain. Some time before leaving Indiana, on examining the map of the Platte Country, I placed my finger on the spot, in the bend of the Missouri, where St. Joseph was marked down, and where she now stands, and said, "That shall be my home."
I started for the new land of my hopes and arrived at last in Clinton County. There I became sick from the fatigue and labors of the journey, and could proceed no further. I was without money and almost entirely destitute. An early settler of that country, many of you know him, Mr. Bagley, took me and my family into his house, giving us the best quarters he possessed, and took care of us while I was sick, his wife waiting upon me as tenderly as my own mother could have done. It was there, while lying sick, before having reached my journey's end, that I first saw the face of my friend, Judge James H. Birch, now before you. Doctor Essig had come to wait on me. I told him that I had no money, and did not know when, if ever, I could pay him for his professional services, and that unless he felt able to give his services to me without certainty of ever getting any pay, he had better not spend his time with me. He said he would do the best for me he could. The next morning who should come to my bedside but Judge Birch. I was in a very dilapidated condition, which he could not help observing as he looked at me, and he said to me : " You are a stranger here, and in straightened circumstances, which I fully appreciate ; permit me to loan you some money." That was my first introduction to Judge Birch.
I finally got into a cabin with my family ; I could throw a dog through the cracks of the door. One of my children was sick, and one morning a blue-coated boy of the neighborhood, who had become acquainted with her, came to see her. That boy now is the Hon. Wil- lard P. Hall. In a few days the Hon. James B. Gardenhire called to see me, and I formed his acquaintance.
After a while the time for court to sit came round. I wanted to go, but had no money. I owed a girl, a servant in the house, fifty cents, and she wanted to leave, and I was determined not to let her go unpaid. One day old Bob Duncan came to me and asked me if I was going to court ; I told him no, that my family was sick, and I didn't want to leave them. I wanted to go, but I had no money ; but I didn't want to tell him any more. He suspected the real trouble, and said : "Now, Vorics, don't you need a little money ? Take this and go to court," and he handed me several good sized coins. I did go to court.
The first fee I got was a horse, which I sold for $40. The next day I took the money and went to Plattsburg to pay my friend Birch. I met Bela Hughes and told him my mission. He said, "don't look so down hearted." My hat was old and very dilapidated, for a member of the legal profession, and Hughes noticed it, and said : "Hold your head up ;
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HISTORY OF CLINTON COUNTY.
there are good people here, and the man who rides forty miles to pay a debt will succeed."
Here I met many of these old men, and got acquainted with them. Afterward I was, for a brief moment, captivated with the stories about California, and made a visit there. But I could not stay. On my return I met the question on all sides, "what makes you come back," and I said to them, "the men I meet here, when I speak to them, stood about six inches closer to me than they do out there." I said to my partner, in California, before leaving there, that if I knew that I could live only two years longer, and it would take me eighteen months to get back to Mis- souri, I would spend that eighteen months in getting home just to live the other six months among the people of Missouri. And now, all I ask is, that when it is all over, my grave may be made among the graves of my old benefactors.
General Craig then said that they had kept the best of the wine to the last of the feast, and then introduced Judge James H. Birch, Sr. The venerable and venerated Judge Birch, of Clinton County, then spoke as follows :
He commenced by an allusion to the kindly reference which had been made to him by Judge Vories, in respect to a circumstance occurring some thirty years ago, in which he had been so befriended by the speaker as to satisfy him that he had come to the right county to find men, and which had actuated him ever since. The Judge had regarded it simply as the duty of a lawyer and citizen, who happened to have a few dollars at the time, toward another lawyer (and a sick one), who was in a strange country, and was out of money, to divide with him. But as demonstrat- ing exactly the man that Vories was, whether with or without money, the judge went on to say that, when it afterward came to the ear of Vories that he was strapped for spending money in one of his races for congress, Vories had opened his pocket book to him, although he had been a member of the convention that had nominated another candi- date. Nor was this all-for when he was so chronically bedfast, two or three years ago, as to render it probable that he would never again get away from home, Vories had sent to him a basket of his "Virginia Seed- ling," and was preparing to send him another of Catawba, when he learned that Birch had anticipated him by ordering it from his agent.
The whole of it was, that whatever risk the speaker had incurred in leav- ing all the money he had (and that borrowed money) with a sick brother lawyer and his family, it turned out to be the most encouraging instance he had ever met with of "casting his bread upon the waters" for the poor, high-headed creature had never got done with reciprocating it, and never would. Such was Henry M. Vories, now an honored justice of the supreme court-then a sick and downcast lawyer, without comforts for his family-and such is but an average type of the "old settlers" of the "Platte Purchase," by whom he found himself surrounded to-day.
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HISTORY OF CLINTON COUNTY.
Yes, gentlemen, continued the speaker, all the loose talk in the world cannot keep it out of history, that the "old settlers" who have passed the gate to-day on the "complimentary" of the self-possessed and far-seeing president of this great exposition, are of the type or class of men, who in all ages, from the conquest of Julius Caesar to the settlement of California and Colorado, have been the founders of society, of counties and of states-and we ask no higher recognition than that we did not ingloriously "die out" amongst those we were born with, but that we took our chances to build up an equal, if not an improved, society amongst those of equal self-reliance with ourselves.
And here, if anywhere, it is appropriate to remark that amongst those whom you have so encouraged with your good will that their names are recorded as successful lawyers, and judges and legislators, in both houses, (both state and national), there is not one of us who has a black mark against another one, whether we remember each other as professional or political associates, or rivals. No, gentlemen, (said the distinguished speaker, turning to the ten or dozen who were occupying with him the speaking stand), no! and more than that, there is not a man amongst you who was not naturally "born and bred" in the full appreciation and recognition of General Jackson's sententious measure of unquestioned mediocrity, namely, the desire to detract from the repu- tation of your rivals, in the ignoble and mistaken assumption that to concede their "cleverness" was so much subtracted from their own. In this sense, at least, we were all Jackson men, whether agreeing or disa- greeing in other respects, and in that sense we look into the faces of each other to-day, as I saw Harrison and Johnson look into the faces of each other, when meeting for the first time during the quarter of a cen- tury which had elapsed since the battle of the Thames. Each had dis- charged his duty according to his theory of it; and the respectful, yet stately look of each made an absolute end of the misjudged calumnies which the unreflecting friends of each had heaped upon the other during the political canvass of 1840.
Having no time before the horse race, of which he had heard the sound of the bugle, to speak of the other noble attributes of the repre- sentative men who surrounded him, as he would not scruple to do, even in their presence, did time permit him, the speaker took up and amplified the allusion which had been made by General Atchison to General Hughes, as the inaugurator of the Platte County addition to the State of Missouri, by referring to what it had happened to him to know upon the subject. Producing from his portmanteau a copy of the Western Moni- tor and Boone's Lick Correspondent, a small newspaper which he estab- lished and edited at Fayette six and forty years ago, (and which was then the westernmost newspaper office in the United States . he mod- estly referred to his connection with it as having given him his first polit-
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HISTORY OF CLINTON COUNTY.
ical influence, and that it was, therefore, that the late General Andrew S. Hughes, then the agent of the Indian tribes who had had the Platte country assigned to them as their reservation or territory, had addressed him a letter on the subject of having it annexed to the State of Missouri. This letter was accompanied by a rude diagram of the country, drawn up by the late General Cornelius Gilliam, from his hunting recollections of it, and was inclosed to Colonel Benton, (our then senior senator), with such an additional letter from the speaker as he hoped might help along the project ; and in due course of mail he had the satisfaction to receive from our then distinguished and subsequently illustrious senator, a reply, which he published in his paper, to the effect that both the President and the Secretary of War were in favor of adding the then Indian reservation to the State of Missouri, for military considerations connected with the peace of our original frontier boundary.
Such having been the simple and unadorned inauguration of a project which added a congressional slave district to the State of Missouri, it is but justice to add that the measure was finally carried through both houses of congress, on the unanimous report of the House Com- mittee on Indian Affairs, of which that life-long emancipationist, Horace Everett, of Vermont, was the chairman. May it not be added without offense, that in this case, as in previous and subsequent ones, the great Democratic reliance upon the ultimate sense of "justice and right" of a majority of our countrymen is at least the safest panacea for "the ills we feel," instead of "flying to others we know not of?" and that our recent unhappy experience of the opposite theory, where the sections as repre- sented in congress were too mutually deaf to these appeals of fraternity and of reason to avert the ultimate arbitrament of the sword, should be referred to in no other spirit, and, for no other purpose, than as an admonition for the future.
God grant that we may live forever, not only as one people (as we must live), but as the fraternal, prosperous and free people we ought to be.
The renewed notes of the race come, and a whisper from the highly courteous executive of the day's programme, that but three minutes remain of the time allotted to these ceremonies, will but necessarily condense even the condensed remarks to which I had restricted myself.
I have spoken of the "Old Settlers" and their descendants, who, with all others, have so courteously listened to my gleanings-for I have but essayed to tread where others left me room-of the men I have spoken of as the class who founded society on the basis of right, and who so lived to be ready to " lay down the mace," in good conscience and peace, at the summons of the Great Maker. So lived Andrew Jackson, the frontier " settler" of Tennessee, to whose destiny it fell to so. improve the opportunities of his time as to reach the most exalted posi- tion of the Republic. The bell rings again, and I must again condense.
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HISTORY OF CLINTON COUNTY.
If his character in life was a grand one, his character in death was still grander-as it may be the fortune of each of us to be-each in the sphere to which providence has allotted him.
For more than a year before he obeyed the final summons, he was "on guard," (so to speak,) in view of the last enemy he had to vanquish, and the reflections it suggested were so accepted and acted upon as to turn aside the terrors of the destroyer, or to so improve them as but to gild his entrance upon "the life eternal." His last words were :
"I have finished my destiny upon earth, and it is time this worn out body should go to rest, and my spirit to its abode with Christ, my Redeemer."
Then, turning in the last intenseness and ferver of his mighty soul, the Christian patriot prayed :
" May my enemies find peace ; may the liberties of my country endure forever ; may I meet you all in Heaven, both white and black.''
I will but reverentially repeat a paraphrase of this, as a parting benediction to those who have so often and so variously honored me with their ear-and to whom, and to their posterity and mine, I thus give over, in common with all others, the future of a common country :
May our enemies find peace ; may the liberties of our country endure forever ; may we all meet in Heaven, both white and black.
At the close of Judge Birch's speech, Colonel Burnes announced that. the Old Settlers' Meeting was adjourned until the next St. Joseph Exposition. The band then played Dixie and Yankee Doodle, which were received with tremendous applause by the large crowd in attend- ance. This was a shaking of hands across the bloody chasm, that was eminently appropriate to the occasion, and the manner in which this meeting closed shows that the people of the Missouri Valley are a homogeneous people ; one in sympathy, and one in purpose ; united and inseparable. The occasion will long be remembered by the old settlers in attendance as one of the happiest reunions in their lives.
THE VETERANS.
The following is a list of the veterans who reported to the secretary, at the meeting of September, 1874, and the dates of their settlement in the Platte Purchase :
BUCHANAN COUNTY.
Mrs. S. L. Leonard. 1837
Mrs. S. Connett. 1837
S. S. Connett ..
1839
H. T. Connett .. 1839
M. C. Riley.
1837
Geo. G. H. Brand. 1835
Geo. W. Tolin.
1839
Evan Jordan. 1840
John B. Ritchie.
1838
Abner Copeland. 1839
Marian Copeland.
1838
Dr. Silas McDonald. 1838
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HISTORY OF CLINTON COUNTY
James J. Reynolds. 1838
Cornelius Day. .1838
James B. O'Toole.
1837
Simeon Kemper . . 1840
Alexander Poe .. 1841
Colonel John Doniphan
Judge Thos. A. Brown ..
1838
Calvin James
John R. Johnson.
1838
Moses Pyle.
1837
Jeremiah Burnes.
1837
William Kirkham.
1838
F. C. Hughes.
Jule C. Robidoux
1838
C. W. Davies.
1840
E. M. Davidson.
1837
Calvin F. Burnes
1837
Ben. C. Porter. 1839
James E. Wallace.
1838
Elisha Gladden. 1834
David C. Munkers. 1837
D. A. Davidson.
1837
Husselton Compton. 1840
Isaac Lower
Samuel E. Hardy
1838
G. M. Patton.
1834
William B. Poe. 1843
R. T. Davis.
1838
W. F. Davis.
1840
ANDREW COUNTY.
Judge John McDaniels, Upton Roohrer.
Elias Hughes,
Robert Elliott,
Hugh Lewis,
Jeremiah Clark,
Jonathan M. Cobb,
Major E. S. Castle,
Dr. P. P. Fulkerson,
Joshua Bond.
George N. Castle,
A. J. Demens.
S. T. Brooking. Daniel P. McKissock, Caleb McGill, John Whitson,
George Funkhouser.
NODAWAY COUNTY.
I'm. V. Smith.
W. R. Trapp, Jack Albright.
HOLT COUNTY.
Hon. James Foster, Geo. McIntyre.
PLATTE COUNTY.
Capt. John B. Wells, Theodore F. Warner, W'm. Clay, Col. Geo. Gabbert, Joseph Todd, James Stultz, W. W. Williams, John S. Woods,
Ben Yocum,
Joel Ryan, John W. Martin,
Eli Gabbin, Isaac T. Lewis,
Maj. J. W. Hardisty, IV. Cooper, Maj. G. W. Hood,
Felix Blakely, Sidney Risk, Col. G. W. Belt, John McLain, W'm. A. Singleton,
Smith Adams, Gen. J. Morin, James N. Boydston.
Gen. D. R. Atchison, Judge Jas. R. Coffman,
Jonathan Robert,
Abraham Funkhouser,
Maj. James Cochrane, Hon. E. W. Turner, Wash. Huffaker, son of Judge James H. Birch, Ist Collector of Clin- Ex-Gov. Geo. Smith,
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