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 19

Author: Union Historical Company
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Kansas City, Mo. : Union historical company
Number of Pages: 1068

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 19

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HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY.

Settlers by Capt Turner A. Gill, of Kansas City. responded to in the most appro- priate manner by Col. S. H. Woodson of Independence. A sketch of the life of Dan'l M. Boone, of Jackson county, was given by that venerable old settler, Dr. Johnston Lykins, of Kansas City. A complete sketch of Independence, the county seat of Jackson, was read by John McCoy, of Independence. It was intensely interesting. A sketch of the lives of Judge Brooking, Richard Fristoe and others, was read by Rev. J. J. Robinson, of Raytown, and highly appreciated, as was also a sketch of the lives of S. C. Owen, Smallwood Noland and Sam'l D. Lucas, by Wm. McCoy. The historical sketch of Kansas City, by Jno. C. Mc- Coy of that place, received, and was deserving of great praise.

Just before the premiums were awarded, calls were made for Mr. Lynchburg Adams, the oldest settler in the county, who responded in a few interesting, appropriate and touching remarks.

Then came the most interesting event of the day-the awarding of premi- ums Mr. Henry Noland and Elizabeth Noland received the elegant silver pitcher, as having resided the longest time in the county as man and wife. They were married on the 11th day of January, 1826, her maiden name being Elizabeth Pitcher-so the old pioneer was a second time made happy with a Pitcher. In consequence of there being no justice of the peace in the county at that time, the couple were compelled to go to Clay county to have the ceremony performed. They were both Kentuckians, and had lived for forty-six years in this county, as husband and wife.

The splendid silver goblet was awarded to Mr. Lynchburg Adams, as being the oldest settler in the county, having been here nearly fifty-three years.

The presentations were made in a most happy and appropriate manner by Hon. A. Comingo, of Independence.

This closed the programme, and the immense throng dispersed, perfectly satisfied that a pleasant day had been enjoyed, and one that will often be reverted to with feelings of pride and pleasure. The meeting of old friends, who will perhaps see each other no more in human form, the respect paid them by the younger and still younger generation, the happy strains of music, gushing songs, and the delightful repast, all combined to render the occasion a peculiarly happy one. May the old settlers of Jackson live to witness many more scenes of a similar nature !

The following appeared in the Kansas City Journal of Commerce, Saturday, July 6, 1872 :

" The Old Settlers' celebration, at Independence, stands without parallel, in that it was not only one of novelty, but also in numbers and pleasures, a grand affair and success. The Missouri Pacific trains were crowded with parties excurt- ing to the grounds until the number had been swelled to four thousand, all with joy depicted on their countenances, and their hearts leaping with expectant enjoy- ment. The exercises were opened by the introduction of Mr. Turner Gill, who delivered a splendid oration on the Old Settlers of Jackson county, followed and answered by Samuel Woodson, who distinguished themselves by the excellent manner in which they handled the subject. Dinner was then announced, which was certainly one of unusual sumptuousness. After dinner, Mr. Lykins read an essay on "The Life of Daniel Boone," followed by Mr. John McCoy, on the " Early Settlements of Jackson County," which was filled with interesting remi- niscences in the history of the county. A silver pitcher was then presented to the married couple that had lived longest together in Jackson county. What couple received this handsome present we have been unable to learn, but did learn of the great inconvenience they were subjected to, by having to cross the river into Clay county to get the marriage ceremony performed, as there was then no justice of the peace in Jackson county. Mr. Adams, who came to this county in the year 1819, having resided in the county fifty-three years, was given

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the silver, gold-lined goblet, as the oldest resident of the county. Our space for- bids the full description we so much desire to give. Suffice it to say the affair was a perfect success."

SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF A SON OF DANIEL BOONE.

The following sketch by Dr. Johnston Lykins, of Kansas City, was read at the Old Settlers meeting at the Fair Grounds near Independence, July 4, 1872 : Ladies and Gentlemen of the Old Settlers Association, and Fellow Citizens :

" I am called upon to speak of the life and incidents in the life of the late Daniel Morgan Boone, son of the far-famed pioneer of our sister State, Kentucky. In the discharge of this duty, I can, at present, give but a glance at the character of this strange and wonderful man, whose worth and merit were only understood by his compeers, and whose memory is fast passing away. But I promised, should my life be prolonged, to gather up the facts and events of Daniel M. Boone's life, and place them in your hands for perpetuation. In order to fully comprehend the worth and character of the man of our subject, it is necessary that we should glance back to that period where the past is as dark as the future. At the time of the landing of our forefathers on the Atlantic shores and settle- ment at Jamestown, our great West was utterly unknown to civilized men. No one from the walks of literature, or culture, had ever looked upon its grandeur, or gazed upon its beauties. The mighty river which sweeps by our northern boundary had never mirrored the face of other than the wild and rude nomad of its banks. Far removed from the din of commerce and the clatter of busy man, it slumbered in the embraces of an unwritten age, powerless to assert it beauties, or to extol its munificent wealth in climate, soil, minerals and all that challenges fitness for the seat of empire.

" About the year 1673, Marquette, the French Jesuit, in pursuit of savage tribes to save or enlighten, was the first to near the shores of the mighty Missouri, and to gaze upon its angry and turbid waters. Close upon the track of this dis. ciple of Loyola and herald of the cross, followed the devotees of Mammon, the fur traders of France, Spain and other lands, were established at Portage De Sioux, St. Louis, Kaskaskia and St. Charles, and while our State was yet a prov- ince of Spain and afterward of France. The objects sought by these early comers to the Missouri Valley were purely mercenary and for the Indian trade, and in no sense in the promotion of agriculture or civilization, and hence their num- bers were small, confined for many long years to the wants of the Indian trade. It matters not that the rich and varied soil tempted to the plow and the sickle. For these the happy and volatile Frenchman, and the gay and chivalrous Spanish cavalier had no taste. They sought only the rich furs of our plains and streams, and found in Indian life a happy escape from the trammels and conventionalities of civilized socicties. For these the mighty West might have remained a wilder- ness for ages to come. At the time of which we speak no honey-bee, the accom- paniment of civilized man, had ever been seen this side of the Mississippi, or had ever sipped the honey of Missouri's flowers ; no tiller of the soil with his family had ever crossed the Father of Waters or built his rude cabin within this mighty valley. Laclede, the ancestor of the great Chouteau family, had not yet pushed his heavy batteaux against the stubborn current of the Mississippi from New Orleans to St. Louis, and long before the celebrated Lewis and Clark had reached this port in the month of June, a stranger-a strange being-was discovered on the east bank of the Mississippi opposite St. Louis making signals. After many hours of fruitless effort a canoe was dispatched for him. That stranger, strange being, a mere stripling, was Daniel Morgan Boone, the representative, the pioneer, the leader and forerunner of the noble, toiling sons of the plow and the axe who have since filled our mighty State.

" Kentucky, the dark and bloody ground, under the pioneership of the elder

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Daniel Boone, was filling up with hardy and noble men, but no white man with his family had dared to pass beyond the confines of their settlements east of the Ohio River. All the country from the Ohio to the Mississippi, was a wide wilderness, destitute alike of men or tenement, save him of the war-club and scalping-knife. Across this trackless and forbidding desert, occasionally a strag- gling trapper from the Spanish posts of the Missisippi, had found his way to Kentucky, and told wondrous tales of that far-off and goodly land. To these young Daniel Boone, our subject, listened with quiet delight, and they filled him with the same thirst for adventure which had inspired the bosom of his noble father with the desire to cross the Alleghany Mountains and penetrate the goodly land of Kentucky. The mind of young Daniel Boone was at once made up. Like his father, for him the wild beasts of the forest, nor the more fearful red savage had any terrors. He resolved to go, but there was no one of like nerve or taste to accompany him, and he determined alone to brave the dangers of the way. Being eighteen years of age, (a mere boy of his day,) in the month of May, in or about the year 1787, mounted on a pony he addressed himself to this perilous task by boldly steering without compass, chart. or path for the Span- ish post of St. Louis. When Columbus headed his little fleet out of the port of Palos, in Spain, in search of an unknown world, he had trustworthy ships and skilled companions in the art of navigation. Our young Boone when he turned his back upon Fort Hamilton, a post on the big Miami just west of Cincinnati, and plunged into the dark wilderness forest, was alone. With a courage tamely denominated heroic, he went forward, rafting streams, killing his food by the way, sleeping in the dense jungles by night undisturbed by the howl of the wolf, the hooting of the owl or the scream of the panther. On the 30th day from Fort Hamilton, and without having seen a single human being, he stood and beheld the majestic Mississippi before him. He had so far won, but closely scanning the view far and near, he could perceive no signs of human beings and human habitation. He was perplexed, and knew not whether he was above or below St. Louis, the object of his search. He encamped and rested. He reflected that St. Louis was a trad- ing post, and the tracks of the Indian horses might indicate the direction of the post. On closely inspecting a buffalo trail near by, he found that the pony tracks mostly ascended up the river. He pursued the trail, and came in sight of St. Louis on the opposite side of the river. There was no ferry and it was with great difficulty that he made his presence known. At length, to his delight, a canoe came and landed him safely in the little Spanish village where a most generous welcome was extended to him. Of the heroism of this exploit I cannot now speak, much less can I here properly dwell upon the influence his coming at that time has had upon the destinies of our now great and prosperous State. Among these simple villagers, as a trapper, he made his home for some years. But of his life and various incidents connected therewith, I shall not now speak, reserv- ing that part of my duty until a future occasion, devoting a few remaining re- marks to the influence which he exerted in promoting the early settlement of the upper Louisiana territory, now the noble State of Missouri. After having ex- plored the country from St. Louis to the mouth of the Kansas as a trapper, he devoted his attention to the procuring of the removal of his friends from Ken- tucky to this then garden portion of the world. To his noble father, Col. Boone, then an exile from the beautiful land of Kentucky, and a sojourner in the wilds of Western Virginia, he sent messages concerning the goodly land which he had found, and he came in 1795, drawing after him by his influence many of those hardy pioneers whose sons now fill our State. Daniel Boone, the younger, occupied himself in inducing emigrants to come from Kentucky and all parts of the country, he meeting the caravans of new comers in the wilderness and pilot- ing them to this Eden of the West, and that the great pioneer of Kentucky, and the younger pioneer of Missouri, with their united influence and friends came to

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HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY.

people our great State, and to found a Commonwealth destined to become the proudest and greatest of the American Union. Kentucky has re-claimed and borne back to the land he loved so well, the bones of her own great pioneer, and all that great State was moved when the remains of her noble Boone were laid to rest in her soil. The remains of our own great pioneer, no less worthy of a mon- ument, rest in our midst, near Westport, within twelve miles of this spot. in an unmarked grave. Surely the pen of some historian will not suffer the memory of one so worthy to perish. Surely the State, our own Missouri, will not fail to honor him.

"This strange man, strange in his meek and quiet spirit, strange in the great- ness and benevolence of his nature, in his heroism and disinterested goodness- first opened his eyes to the light of day, beyond the Blue Mountains, on the banks of the Yadkin, N. C. After a pilgrimage of over three score years, almost upon the western line of the State, and upon the, then, very verge of civilization, he closed them in death. Too generous to be accumulative, to liberal to hoard up. he died shorn of property and destitute of wealth. To this association I commend the task of perpetuating in history his memory, to the Legislature of our noble State, that of erecting over his remains a monument."

July 4, 1874, there was another Old Settlers' meeting at the fair grounds, near Independence, when it was estimated that at least 3,500 of the inhabitants of Independence, Kansas City,, and other places enjoyed their Fourth.

The train from Kansas City on the Missouri Pacific leaving at 9:45 A. M. was crowded to its utmost capacity. Two extra coaches were added, each seat counted its three excursionists, the aisles and platforms were thronged, and upon the "round whirligig" of each brake was perched a happy thoughtless picnicker, intent only upon getting to Independence, and of spending the day with one grand hurrah for the gay festivities, speeches, races and songs which were to con- stitute the celebration for Jackson county, 1874.

THE KANSAS CITY DELEGATION

arriving at the place of destination found the gay throng already assembled, and, in an interest common to all shook hands in friendly grasp and commenced the occasion in earnest. The grounds, though large in the extreme, were filled even to the smallest and most inconsiderable standing room. In the center of the in- closure was erected a large square lunch stand, and this was crowded around the day long. The speakers' stand had been in use for many years, the steps leading to the platform were broken and the stand itself was fast crumbling to the ground.

The amphitheater was the scene of busy life from morning till nearly mid- night. The seats were filled with thousands of visitors, each with programme in hand, watching and awaiting the ceremonies.

At about 10 o'clock the attention of the multitude was called to the speakers' stand and the speeches began. The introductory address was delivered by

MR. W. H. WALLACE,

of Kansas City, who spoke in an earnest manner, claiming the attention of his hearers from the beginning to the end of his very interesting and elaborate dis- course. He spoke as follows :

"Ladies and Gentlemen :- There are times when the feelings of the human soul are so intense that they find no adequate expression through the medium of ordi- nary language. There are occasions in the history of every struggling, aspiring young man when, suddenly becoming the recipient of some feeble token of the regard or esteem of his fellow men, there wells up in his bosom a tide of gratitude so deep and so high, that the tongue itself is drowned in its flow, and he stands perfectly mute in the presence of his benefactors. Thus stands your unworthy speaker to-day. For appearing before you as the humble receiver of the unex-

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pected and unsolicited confidence and esteem of the Old Settlers, the hoary headed sages of my county, whose bare recognition I have always regarded as a lasting eulogy, I am unable to return any fit thanks for the honor they have con- ferred upon me, but must content myself with simply assuring them that, deep down in the inmost recesses of this heart of mine, there dwells a sense of gratitude which no circumstance will ever erase, no lapse of time can ever obliterate, and which no poor words of mine could possibly describe.

" To me there is something peculiarly beautiful, as well as becoming, in those little civilities and courtesies which are generally paid by a rising to a retiring generation. Surely there is no more appropriate custom in all the code of com- mon politeness than that which requires that the young should bow in reverence to the old. Yea, I may say, no more sacred or binding duty in all the code of Ethics than that which teaches that we, who are in the morning or meridian of life, should look up with profoundest respect to those at its close-confessedly the worthiest of earth to become the objects of our veneration. Rhetoricians may talk as they please of hill and dale, and mountain and river ; of the roaring cata- ract ; the belching volcano ; the bespangled firmament above, or the surging ocean beneath, as objects of beauty, grandeur or sublimity, but to me the purest type of the grand or sublime to be found in all the wide domain of the handiwork of God, is simply the Creator's culminating work in its ripeness-the venerable gray-haired old man. To look upon one of these old warriors, who has withstood the rifts and shocks of time, and it may be for three score and ten years like some giant oak, bared his breast to the storms and forked lightnings of earth, now that the tempest is past and the quiet eve of life is about him, calmly leaning upon his staff, standing upon the boundaries of two worlds and looking back with com- placent memory to the one and forward with bright anticipation to the other, is certainly the sublimest spectacle that has ever greeted these eyes of mine.

" How eminently appropriate then, to set aside a great celebration day like this, that we who are in the prime of manhood and womanhood may turn aside from the din and hurly-burly of the world to commemorate the heroic lives of that little host of aged ones, who still honor us with their presence, to pay our grate- ful homage at their feet, hold up their noble examples once more for our imita- tion, and as they pass rapidly down the rugged hill, attempt to smooth their pathway in front of them, not forgetting at the same time to cherish a hallowed memory for those who are gone and to decorate their graves with the freshest and sweetest flowers we can pluck. As I sat at my window a few evenings since, meditating upon the sacred duty of this hour, I looked out, and yonder blazing king of day, that now hangs in meridian glory, had just finished h s fiery course and hidden himself behind the western hills; I looked up, and immediately there sprang forth upon the blue canopy of heaven a whole generation of stars and seemingly bowed their heads in reverent awe at his glorious departure. So, thought I, should the generations of men bend themselves in lowly, continual obeisance when one of our stately fathers has run his course through the brief day of life, and gone down forever in the night of death. I looked again, and the soft majestic moon rolled slowly on in her orbit, and in a few hours had buried herself beneath the horizon, and immediately another myriad of glittering orbs came silently forth, and though they shone still more brightly in the "azure glow of night," drew around them a deeper and heavier mourning as they sang together a melancholy requiem that the beauteous queen was no longer one of their number. So, thought I, should even children's children gather around and attune their voices to plaintive strains when one of our gentle mothers has accom- plished her holy mission on earth; and, drawing about her the drapery of death, lays her down to peaceful slumbers in the tomb. If there is a single one in that vast concourse of young men which I have the privilege of representing upon this occasion who does not indorse the sentiments now being expressed, but who is so-

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lost to all nobility as to attempt (as, with shame and sorrow, I have often heard them) to cast a reproach upon the dignity and sacredness of old age, he certainly deserves to be held up as the object of the just scorn and execration of every grateful being. Let him be assured that no bright future awaits him; his way is not upward, it is groveling and downward, and his end will be bitterness-yes,

" If such there breathe, go mark him well : For him no minstrel raptures swell; Living, he shall forfeit fair renown ; And, doubly dying, shall go down To the vile dust from whence he sprung, Unwept, unhonored and unsung."

If, as some have seriously feared, that accursed day shall ever arise in the history of this great republic, when the youth of the land shall have advanced so far beyond their fathers as to cease "to rise up before the hoary head," and "young Americanism " shall have gone so far as to openly scoff and jeer at the venerable Elishas in Israel, then may you bid a long farewell to all our boasted freedom ; then may you wipe completely out all that this hallowed day commemo- rates; then may you appropriately strike up the funeral dirge of moral and social happiness, and through the black darkness of universal anarchy, sound out the. death knell of American liberty.

But I am not only reminded upon an occasion like this, of the dignity of age and the veneration which is due it, but being told that it was also a time for the interchange of practical experience, I am reminded of my own checkered but mostly delightful stay in this the county of my adoption. When as a mere child, something more than seventeen years ago, I exchanged village for rural life and came with my father's family to this portion of Missouri, it seemed to me that I had suddenly been ushered into the very Eden described by the pen of Moses. And indeed if there is anything in universal prosperity, anything in overflowing abundance or aught in the rapturous intercourse of a united brother- hood, it certainly came as near it as ever did a favored spot on the broad earth. Joy then seemed to loom up in every soul; unity was the watchword upon every lip, and fraternal affection the ruling passion in every breast. Barns and store- houses were filled with plenty, and the winepresses of the land "burst forth with new fatness." Neighbor met neighbor in those days not as now miser meets miser, each to scan the purse of the other, but as brother meets brother with his heart in his hand. The very animals and rocks and hills and glens seemed to catch the joyous spirit of the times, and to revel in the all pervading beatitude.

When as a school boy I roamed our rolling prairies and gathered the flowers with which they were fretted, methinks now they breathed to heaven the fragrance of brotherly love; when as a barefoot I stood in the running brook, I can distinguish even now in its warbling waters the accents of by-gone purity, and when I lay me down to rest on the green grass under the shade, I hear piercing the silent air the mellow cooings of the dove of peace, and all around, beneath and above are bathing in the broad sunlight of happiness and prosperity.

But so delightful a reign was not destined to be perpetual. It is a sad truth, that the choicest blessings are shortest in their visits to undeserving men. After but a few years, a black and ominous cloud was seen to protrude its terrible crest above the horizon, and ere we could prepare ourselves for the coming shock it came rolling onward and burst upon us in all the wild fury of civil war. The American Janus was thrown wide open; horrid, foreboding specters stood before me in my dreams, and the hideous "dogs of war" went howling through the land. Ears till then only accustomed to the soft notes of peace, were suddenly affrighted with the loud alarum of battle,

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the rattle of musketry and the peal and roar of the wide-mouth can- non. Brother arrayed himself against brother, father against son and son against father, and, casting aside the purest love of earth for the bitterest hatred of hell, plunged into the din and smoke of the contest and amidst expir- ing groans and demoniacal yells reveled oft times hand to hand in the bloody work of death. Where once was heard the merry prattling of the child or the sweet music of a mother's voice, the widow's cry and the orphan's wail rent the air. Our fair land, accustomed only to the light tread of the sons of peace, trembled beneath the heavy tramp of mustering squadrons, and its luxuriant verdure, hitherto bedecked solely with the white hoarfrost of morning or the' silvery dew of evening, was dyed with the crimson tinge of human gore. Fire, Sword, Rapine, Death went on with their terrible work, until at length a poor, homeless fugitive, the last to cross the borders of my country, I cast back a long lingering look, not at a paradise but at a wide waste wilderness, where on many a silent chimney the solitary owl screeched out the shrill moan of our departed glory.

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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 19

Author: Union Historical Company Publication date: 1881 Publisher: Kansas City, Mo. : Union historical company Number of Pages: 1068

Author: Union Historical Company
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Kansas City, Mo. : Union historical company
Number of Pages: 1068