USA > Missouri > Jackson County > The History of Jackson county, Missouri, containing a history of the county, its cities, towns, etc., biographical sketches of its citizens, Jackson county in the late warhistory of Missouri, map of Jackson county > Part 16
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Howard county remained with the above described boundaries from January 23, 1816, to December 17, 1818, when a part of it was laid off and named Cooper. The act entitled "An act establishing a part of the county of Howard into a separate and distinct county by the name of Cooper county," was as fol- lows : " Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the Territory of Missouri, that all that part of the county of Howard bounded as follows, to wit : beginning at a point in the middle of the main channel of the Missouri River opposite the middle of the main channel of the Osage River at its mouth, and running thence to the middle of the main channel of the Osage River at its mouth ; thence up the Osage River along the middle of the main channel thereof to the Osage boun- dary line; thence north with said boundary line to the middle of the main channel of the Missouri River ; thence down the middle of the main channel of said last named river to the beginning, is hereby laid off and established into a separate and distinct county, which shall be called and known by the name of Cooper county. William Weir, Luke Williams, Julius Emmons, Abel Owen and Charles Canole be, and they are hereby appointed, commissioners of the said county of Cooper, with full power and authority to point out and fix upon the most suitable place in the said county of Cooper whereon to erect a court house and jail for said county of Cooper.
Approved December 17, 1818."
From December 17, 1818, to November 16, 1820, the boundaries of Cooper remained unchanged, but at the latter named date a county called "Lillard," in honor of a State Senator by that name, was laid off, including the territory now included within the present counties of Lafayette, Johnson, Henry, part of St. Clair, Bates, Cass and Jackson.
An act establishing the county of Lillard : "Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Missouri that, all that part of the county of Cooper lying and being within the following bounds, to wit: beginning at a point in the middle of the main channel of the Missouri River opposite the range line between ranges twenty three and twenty-four ; thence with said line to the termination thereof ; thence due south to the middle of the main channel of the Osage River ; thence up said river in the middle of the main channel thereof to the western boundary line of the State, and thence north with said boundary line to the mid- dle of the main channel of the Missouri River; thence down said river in the middle of the main channel thereof to the place of beginning, shall be, and the same is hereby laid off and erected into a separate and distinct county, which shall be known and called by the name of Lillard. John Duston, James Bounds, Senr., David McClilland, James Dillard and David Ward, be, and are hereby appointed, commissioners with full power and authority to select the most suitable place in said county whereon to erect a court house and jail, and the place which they, or a majority of them, shall agree to erect a court house and jail on, as aforesaid, shall be, and is hereby declared to be, the seat of justice of Lillard county.
Approved November 16, 1820.
By the act of the Legislature February 16, 1825, the name of Lillard was changed to Lafayette, and the western boundary thereof was the middle of range
117
HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY.
number twenty-nine. By an act of the General Assembly, approved February 16, 1825, the county of Jackson was laid off. The act was entitled " An act de- finining the limits of the several counties in this State;" section 30 reads as follows : be it enacted, that all that portion of the country bounded as follows, to wit : beginning at a point in the middle of the main channel of the Missouri River due north of the termination of the line running through the middle of range twenty-nine west; thence due south with said line to the middle of the main channel of the Osage River; thence due west to the western boundary of this State; thence north with the said western boundary line to the middle of the main channel of the Missouri River ; thence down said river in the middle of the main channel thereof to the beginning, shall comprise the county of Jackson. Provided, That the territory included within the bounds above named shall con- tinue to be attached to and form part of the county of Lafayette for all civil and military purposes until the same be established and organized as a separate county by law.
Approved February 16, 1825.
The organization of Jackson county, though also including the present counties of Cass and Bates, was effected by an act entitled, " An act to organize the county of Jackson," approved December 15th, 1826, which was as follows :
" Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Missouri, that the county of Jackson, heretofore attached by law for all civil and military purposes to the county of Lafayette, be, and the same is hereby declared to be erected into a separate and distinct county, and that all rights and privileges granted by law to separate and distinct counties, be and the same are hereby extended to the said county of Jackson.
2. David Ward and Julius Emmons, of the county of Lafayette, and John Bartleson, of the county of Clay, be and are hereby appointed Commissioners for the purpose of selecting the seat of justice for said county, and the said Commissioners are hereby vested with all the powers granted to Commissioners under the law entitled 'an act to provide for organizing counties heretofore established.'
Approved January 14th, 1825.
3. The said county of Jackson shall be added to and form a part of the first judicial district and that the circuit courts for said county shall be held on the third Mondays of March, July and November in each and every year until oth- erwise provided for by law.
4. The courts to be holden in the said county shall be at the house of John Young, until the tribunal transacting county business shall fix on a temporary seat of justice for said county.
5. The Probate Court shall be holden in the said county of Jackson on the second Monday of March, June, September and December.
6. The said county of Jackson shall be attached to and compose a part of the Thirteenth Senatorial District. and shall, in conjunction with the counties of Clay, Ray and Lafayette, elect one Senator at the general election in eighteen hundred and twenty-eight.
This act shall take effect from and after the passage thereof. December 15th, 1826 "
1 The reader will now inquire how and when it transpired that Jackson county was circumscribed within its present limits. The answer is briefly as follows : When by act of the Legislature March 3d, 1835, the county of Van Buren was defined then the present southern boundary of Jackson county was established and in the following language: Beginning at a point on the middle of range twenty-nine, where the same intersects the township line between townships
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HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY.
forty six and forty-seven thence west with said township line to the State boundary.
It will be remembered that Van Buren county was subsequently named Cass. In the same act it is further stated that : "The northern boundary of Van Buren as constituted by the foregoing section shall be the permanent southern boundary of Jackson county ; and all the territory included in the county of Bates shall be, for all civil and military purposes, attached to the county of Van Buren (now Cass) until the said county of Bates shall be organized into a separate and distinct county by law. David Ward, of Lafayette, Samuel Hinck and William Brown, Jackson county, are hereby appointed Commissioners to select the permanent seat of justice for said county."
March 3d, 1835.
We have thus followed the organization of counties in which Jackson was concerned, from December 13, 1813, to March 3, 1835, during which time the counties of which Jackson formed a part, were reduced from the size of the State of Massachusetts to its present limits. The organization, early settlements and first elections have been alluded to in a former chapter ; but in order that a county should be fully organized, and legally qualified to transact business, the county court must be qualified, accordingly we give herewith the names of the Judges appointed by Governor John Miller, together with their commissions and oath of office. When this has been perused the student of Jackson county history will have followed each step in the laying off and organization of the county.
ORGANIZATION OF THE FIRST COUNTY COURT.
STATE OF MISSOURI,
COUNTY OF JACKSON.
At a special term of the county court, for the county of Jackson, begun and. held at the house of John Young, in said county, on the 21st day of May, 1827, agreeably to public notice, where (in pursuance of an act of the Legislature of this State, entitled an "act to amend and alter an act entitled an act to establish Courts of Justice and prescribe their powers and duties," approved 2d January, 1827,) the following gentlemen, to-wit: Abraham McClelland, Richard Fristoe and Henry Burris, Esquires, being appointed Justices of the County Court, for this county, and each of the said parties having been duly qualified according to law, produced the following commissions, and the said commissions being read in open court, took their seats as the Justices of the County Court within and for the county of Jackson.
COMMISSION OF JUDGE ABRAHAM M'CLELLAND.
"JOHN MILLER,
GOVERNOR OF THE STATE OF MISSOURI.
To all who shall see these presents Greeting :
Know ye, that reposing especial trust and confidence in the integrity, learn- ing and abilities of Abraham McClelland, I have nominated, and by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, do hereby appoint him a Justice of the County Court of the county of Jackson, and do authorize and empower him to discharge the duties of said office according to law ; to have and to hold the said office with all the privileges and emoluments of the same of right appertaining unto him, the said Abraham McClelland, for the term of four years, and until his successor is duly commissioned and qualified., unless sooner removed for misdemeanor in office.
In testimony whereof I have hereinto set my hand and caused the great seal of the State of Missouri to be affixed. Done at the city of Jefferson, this first
119
HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY.
day of May, A. D. 1827, of the independence of the United States the fifty-first, and of this State the seventh.
(Signed) JOHN MILLER.
THE GREAT SEAL OF THE STATE OF MISSOURI.
By the Governor,
SPENCER PETTIS, Secretary of State."
COMMISSION OF JUDGE RICHARD FRISTOE.
"JOHN MILLER,
GOVERNOR OF THE STATE OF MISSOURI.
To all who shall see these presents Greeting :
Know ye that reposing special trust and confidence in the integrity, learning and abilities of Richard Fristoe, I have nominated and by and with the advice and consent of the senate, do hereby appoint him a Justice of the County Court for the county of Jackson, and do authorize and empower him to discharge the duties of said office according to law. To have and to hold the said office with all the powers, privileges and emoluments to the same, of rights appertaining unto him, the said Richard Fristoe, for the term of four years, and until his suc- cessor is duly commissioned and qualified unless sooner removed for mis- demeanor in office.
In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the great seal of the State of Missouri to be affixed. Done at the city of Jefferson this first day of May, A. D. 1827, of the independence of the United States the fifty-first, and of the State of Missouri the seventh.
(Signed) JOHN MILLER,
THE GREAT SEAL OF THE STATE OF MISSOURI.
By the Governor, SPENCER PETTIS, Secretary of State."
COMMISSION OF JUDGE HENRY BURROWS.
"JOHN MILLER,
GOVERNOR OF THE STATE OF MISSOURI.
To all who shall see these presents Greeting:
Know ye, that reposing special trust and confidence in the integrity, learn- ing and abilities of Henry Burrows, I have nominated, and by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, do hereby appoint him a Justice of the County Court for the county of Jackson, and do authorize and empower him to discharge the duties of said office according to law. To have and to hold the said office with all the powers. privileges and emoluments to the same of right appertaining unto him, the said Henry Burrows, for the term of four years and until his succes- sor is duly commissioned and qualified, unless sooner removed for misdemeanor in office.
In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the great seal of the State of Missouri to be affixed. Done at the city of Jefferson, the first day of May, A. D. 1827, of the independence of the United States the fifty-first, and of the State the seventh.
(Signed) JOHN MILLER.
THE GREAT SEAL OF THE STATE OF MISSOURI.
By the Governor,
SPENCER PETTIS, Secretary of State."
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HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY.
The following is the oath of office taken by Abraham McClellan and in- dorsed on his commission.
"STATE OF MISSOURI, COUNTY OF JACKSON.
ss.
Personally appeared before me, Joel P. Walker, one of the acting justices of the peace for said county, the within named Abraham Mcclellan and took an oath to support the constitution of the United States and of the State of Missouri, and to demean himself truly, faithfully and impartially as a judge of the County Court for the county of Jackson during his continuance in office. Sworn to before me this 18th day of May, 1827. (Signed)
JOEL P. WALKER, Justice of the Peace.
The following are the oaths of office taken by Richard Fristoe and Henry Burrows and indorsed on their commissions :
"STATE OF MISSOURI, 7 COUNTY OF JACKSON.
‘s.
Personally appeared before me Abraham McClellan an acting justice of the County Court within and for the County of Jackson the within named Richard Fristoe, and took the oath to support the Constitution of the United States and of this State and to demean himself truly, faithfully and impartially as a judge of the County Court for the County of Jackson during his continuance in office.
Sworn to before me this 21st day of May, 1827.
[Signed. ] ABRAHAM MCCLELLAN."
"STATE OF MISSOURI, Į
COUNTY OF JACKSON, SS.
Personally appeared before me Abraham McClellan an acting judge of the County Court within and for the county of Jackson the within named Henry Burrows, and took an oath to support the Constitution of the United States and this State and demean himself truly, faithfully and impartially as a judge of the County Court for the County of Jackson during his continuance in office.
Sworn to before me this 21st day of May, 1827.
[Signed. ]
ABRAHAM MCCLELLAN."
The court thus qualified appointed Abraham Mcclellan president thereof and Lilburn W. Boggs clerk pro tempore. The court being now organized pro- ceeded to the discharge of public business.
COUNTY AND TOWNSHIP SYSTEM.
Some of the general properties that belong to counties and townships will doubtless be interesting and profitable to the intelligent reader. So much depends in business and civil transactions upon county limits and county organizations that for the general reader we should not do justice without giving some explana- tion, before proceeding further, of the county and township system.
" A county," says Webster, " is a circuit or particular portion of a State or kingdom separated from the rest of the territory for certain purposes in the admin- istration of justice." It is legally defined to be " A civil division of a State or kingdom for political and judicial purposes formerly governed in England by the earl or count from whom it derived its name." Another authority says: "In Great Britain and some of the British colonies and in all the States of the Union except Louisiana which is still divided into parishes, a county is a political divis- ion nearly corresponding to a province of Prussia or a department of France."
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HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY.
It is synonymous with shire with which designation it is often interchanged in England but never in Ireland. This division in England though popularly attributed to Alfred was probably earlier since several counties as Kent, Sussex and Essex, are nearly identical with ancient Saxon kingdoms. There are fifty-two counties in England and Wales, thirty-three in Scotland and thirty-two in Ireland. The county is an administrative division and its principal officers are a lord-lieu- tenant who has command of the militia; a castor rotulorum, or keeper of the rolls or archives; a sheriff, a receiver-general of taxes, a coroner, justices of the peace, an under sheriff and a clerk of the peace. The assize court, county court and hundred courts are the chief judicial tribunals. There are in England four counties, Palestine, Chester, Lancaster and Durham, the earl of which had all the jura regalia, or rights of sovereignty in the shire. The first two of these have been long annexed to the crown, and Durham previously governed by its bishop was annexed in 1836. In the United States there are in each county, officers who superintend its financial affairs, a county court of inferior jurisdiction and stated sessions of the supereme court of the State."
With regard to the origin of dividing individual States into county and town- ship organizations, which, in an important measure, should have the power and opportunity of transacting their own business and governing themselves, under the approval of, and subject to, the State and general government, of which they both form a part, we quote from Elijah M. Haines, who is considered good author- ity on the subject.
In his "Laws of Illinois, Relative to Township Organizations," he says : " The county system originated with Virginia, whose early settlers soon became large landed proprietors, aristocratic in feeling, living apart in almost baronial magnificence on their own estates, and owning the laboring part of the population. Thus the materials for a town were not at hand, the voters being thinly distributed over a great area.
" The county organization, where a few influential men managed the whole business of the community, retained their places almost at their pleasure, scarcely responsible at all, except in name, and permitted to conduct the county concerns as their ideas or wishes might direct, was moreover consonant with their recollec- tions or traditions of the judicial and social dignities of the landed aristocracy of England, in descent from whom the Virginia gentlemen felt so much pride. In 1834 eight counties were organized in Virginia, and the system extending through- out the State, spread into all the Southern States, and some of the Northern States ; unless we except the nearly similar division into "districts' in South Carolina, and that into ' parishes ' in Louisiana, from the French laws.
" Illinois, which with its vast additional territory, became a county of Vir - ginia on its conquest by General George Rogers Clark, retained the county organ- ization, which was formally extended over the State by the constitution of 1818, and continued in exclusive use until the constitution of 1848.
" Under this system, as in other States adopting it, most local business was transacted by those commissioners in each county, who constituted a county court with quarterly sessions.
" During the period ending with the constitution of 1847, a large portion of the State had become filled up with a population of New England birth or char- acter, daily growing more and more compact and dissatisfied with the compara- tively arbitrary and inefficient county system. It was maintained by the people that the heavy populated districts would always control the election of the com- missioners, to the disadvantage of the more thinly populated sections-in short, that under that system, ' equal and exact justice ' to all parts of the county could not be secured.
"The township system had its origin in Massachusetts, and dates back to 1635.
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HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY.
"The first legal enactment concerning this system provided that, whereas, ' particular townships have many things which concern only themselves, and the ordering of their own affairs, and disposing of business in their own town, there- fore the freemen of every township, or a majority part of them, shall have power to dispose of their own lands and woods with all the appurtenances of said town, to grant lots, and to make such orders as may concern the well ordering of their own towns, not repugnant to the laws and orders established by the general court.
" They might also (says Haines) impose fines of not more than twenty shil. lings, and ' choose their own particular officers, as constables, surveyors for the highways and the like.'
" Evidently this enactment relieved the general court of a mass of munici- pal details, without any danger to the power of that body in controlling general measures of public policy.
" Probably, also, a demand from the freemen of the towns was felt for the control of their own home concerns.
"The New England colonies were first governed by a General Court or Legis- lature, composed of a governor and a small council, which court consisted of the most influential inhabitants, and possessed and exercised both legislative and judi- cial powers, which were limited only by the wisdom of the holders.
" They made laws, ordered their execution by officers, tried and decided civil and criminal cases, enacted all manner of municipal regulations, and, in fact, did all the public business of the colony. Similar provisions for the incorpora- tion of towns were made in the first constitution of Connecticut, adopted in 1639 ; and the plan of township organization, as experience proved that it was remark- ably economical, and that it was adapted to the requirements of a free and intel- ligent people, was universally adopted throughout New England, and went west- ward with the emigrants from New England into New York, Ohio and the West- ern States."
Thus we find that the valuable system of township and county organization had been thoroughly tested and proven before there was need of adopting it in Missouri or any of the broad region beyond the Mississippi River, but as the country began to settle up, and eastern people began to move westward across the mighty river, county and township organizations followed in quick succession, and those different systems became more or less modified as the tastes and requirements of the people demanded. Experience and the demands of the people brought about these changes-not suddenly, but gradually, until the sys- tem reached its present state of efficiency and perfection.
The subsequent subdivision of territory into separate and distinct counties was not the work of a day. It was in the interests of the older counties to retain the territory attached to them and the movement to detach territory and form new counties usually originated with the settlers living in the sparsely settled regions. Of course, these movements were not at first successful.
The Legislature began by organizing counties along the Mississippi River. As each new county was formed it was made to include, under legal jurisdiction, all the country bordering on it from the west, and required to grant to the occi- dental settlers electoral privileges and an equal share in the county government.
GOVERNMENT SURVEYS.
No person can intelligently understand the history of a country without a the same time knowing its geography, and in order that a clear and correct idea of the geography of Jackson county may be obtained from the language always used in defining different localities and prices of land, we insert herewith the plan of Government Surveys as given in Mr. E. A. Hickman's Property Map of Jackson county : "Previous to the formation of our present Government the
HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY. 123
eastern portion of North America consisted of a number of British colonies, the territory of which was granted in large tracts to British noblemen. By treaty of 1 783 these grants were acknowledged as valid by the colonies. After the Revo- lutionary War when these colonies were acknowledged "Independent States," all public domain within their boundaries was acknowledged to be the property of the colony within the bounds of which said domain was situated.
Virginia claimed all the northwest territory including what is now known as Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana and Illinois. After a meeting of the representatives of the various States to form a Union, Virginia ceded the northwest territory to the United States Government. This took place in 1784 ; then all this northwest territory became Government land. It comprised all south of the lakes and east of the Mississippi River and north and west of the States having definite boundary lines. This territory had been known as New France and had been ceded by France to England in 1763. In the year 1803 Napoleon Bonaparte sold to the United States all territory west of the Mississippi River and north of Mexico, extending to the Rocky Mountains.
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