The History of Pettis County, Missouri, including an authentic history of Sedalia, other towns and townships, together with biographical sketches, Part 7

Author: Demuth, I. MacDonald
Publication date: 1882]
Publisher: [n.p.
Number of Pages: 1154

USA > Missouri > Pettis County > The History of Pettis County, Missouri, including an authentic history of Sedalia, other towns and townships, together with biographical sketches > Part 7

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AMOUNT OF TRANSPORTATION.

Cannons and caissons

800

Wagons

13,000

Cattle.

80,000

Horses and mules

250,000

Troops

1,000,000

Pounds of military stores 1,950,000,000

Gen. Parsons thinks that full one-half of all the transportation employed by the government on the Mississippi and its tributaries was furnished by St. Louis. From September, 1861, to December 31, 1865, Gen. Haines, chief commissary of this department, expended at St. Louis for the pur- chase of subsistence stores, $50,700,000. And Gen. Myers, chief quar- master of the department, disbursed for supplies, transportation, and alry stal expenses, $180,000,000.

HISTORY OF THE STATE OF MISSOURI.

HOSPITAL SERVICE.

As a part of the war history of Missouri, the military hospitals of St. Louis claim at least a brief mention. After the battle of Wilson's Creek it became apparent that the government provision for hospitals was entirely inadequate to the emergency. A voluntary organization, called the Western Sanitary Commission, was formed, consisting of James E. Yeatman (now of the Merchant's National Bank), Rev. Wm. G. Eliot, D. D., (now Chancellor of Washington University), George Partridge, (recently Vice President of Trustees of State Blind Asylum), Carlos S. Greeley and John B. Johnson. Their purpose was to receive and distrib- ute hospital supplies furnished by the people, and in every practicable way aid and co-operate with the military authorities in the care of the sick and wounded. The first woman regularly mustered into the United States service as a hospital nurse, in Missouri, was Mrs. F. R. H. Reid, M. D., from Wisconsin, (now resides at Des Moines, Iowa). She was the woman coadjutor of U. S. Surgeon, Dr. Mills, in opening and starting the first large volunteer hospital, which was known as the Chestnut street hospital; and afterward she took the same part in the Fourth street hos- pital; and also with Dr. Melchior in the Marine hospital; also in a tem- porary post hospital at Sulphur Springs.

To give an idea of the largeness of the hospital work, we quote from a circular printed at St. Louis, Nov. 22, 1861,* which says: "There are ten military hospitals in St. Louis alone, with a maximum capacity for 3,500 patients. The number of patients varies every day, but on Wednes- day, November 20th, they reported patients under treatment as follows:

House of Refuge hospital, [Sisters of Charity nurses] 475

Fifth and Chestnut streets hospital,. 464

Good Samaritan hospital, [for measles,] 173

Fourth street hospital,. 328

Jefferson barracks hospital 72

Arsenal hospital, . 16

Camp Benton hospital, 106

Pacific hospital, [depot for the hospital cars] 30

Duncan's Island hospital, [for small-pox: cases all convalescent,] 4

Convalescent barracks, [known as Camp Benton,] 800

Total, 2,468

" (This does not include the company, regiment and brigade hospitals, of which there are several.) The average mortality has been about four per cent. A hospital car, properly fitted up and manned, passes daily over the railroad to the interior, to bring in the sick and wounded. The arrangements for decent burial, registration of deaths, identification, etc.,

* Prepared and published by H. A. Reid, Associate Member for Wisconsin of the U. S. Sanitary Commission.

HISTORY OF THE STATE OF MISSOURI.

are very complete. The body of any soldier who may die in any of the hospitals may be identified, and removed for other obsequies or burial by relatives or friends. There are no hospital chaplains; but nurses are in- structed by the sanitary commission, that every patient who asks for it, will be visited by a clergyman of his own choice, at any hour."

There were hospitals also at Jefferson City, Rolla and Ironton at this time. This circular contained a classified list, prepared by Mrs. Reid, of over a hundred different articles needed for the care, comfort and welfare of the soldiers in hospital, beyond what the general government could furnish; the whole document was reprinted by state authority at Madison, Wisconsin, and widely circulated. In a letter dated St. Louis, Jan. 14, 1862, Mr. Yeatman said: "Wisconsin has contributed most largely to- wards supplying comforts for the sick in camps and hospitals in this department, second to but one other state-Massachusetts. "

There was a prison hospital for sick Confederate prisoners, to whom supplies were furnished from the stores of the sanitary commission, the same as to the Union soldiers; and wounded Confederates were cared for in the general hospitals the same as those of the Federal troops. The writer hereof was an eye-witness to this fact; and is glad to record it as a testimony of the true Christian spirit of the sanitary commission and the magnanimity of the Federal authorities.

THE WAR-TIME STATE GOVERNMENT.

The civil authority of the state remained vested in the state conven- tion from July, 1861, until July, 1863. This provisional body held the following sessions:

1861-Jefferson City, February 28 to March 4. St. Louis, March 6 to March 22.

Jefferson City, July 22 to July 31.

St. Louis, October 10 to October 18.

1862-Jefferson City, June 2 to June 14.

1863-Jefferson City, June 15 to July 1, when it adjourned sine die.

The course of affairs had now become so far settled and pacified that civil proceedings were again possible, and the regular fall elections were held this year, 1863. On the 13th of February, 1864, the general assem- bly convened, and passed an act to authorize the election of sixty-six members to a state convention, "to consider such amendments to the con- stitution of the state as might by it be deemed necessary for the emanci- pation of slaves ;* to preserve in purity the elective franchise to loyal citizens, and for the promotion of the public good."

This convention met in St. Louis, January 6, 1865; and on the 11th of

* President Lincoln's emancipation proclamation, January 1, 1863, only applied to slaves within such states or parts of states as were then controlled by the Confederate power.

HISTORY OF THE STATE OF MISSOURI.

the same month it passed, by a vote of sixty ayes to four noes, an ordi- nance emancipating all slaves within the state, and providing that it should take effect immediately. The convention also framed a new con- stitution, in many respects quite different from the old one. The final vote in convention on the new instrument stood thirty-eight for, to thirteen against it. The convention adjourned April 10, sine die. In June the people voted on the new constitution, and the vote stood 43,670 for, to 41,808 against it.

The following are some of the most notable new features embodied in the organic law of the state, and will readily explain why there was such a large vote against its adoption: It established an oath of loyalty to the United States; and those who would not take the oath it excluded from the right to vote or hold any civil office whatever, or act as a teacher in any public school, or to solemnize marriage as a clergyman, or to practice law in any of the courts. It limited the amount of land which any church or religious society might hold to five acres of land in the country, or one acre in town or city; provided for taxing church property; and declared void any will bequeathing property to any clergyman, religious teacher or religious society as such. There was a section designed to prevent the state from giving public property, lands or bonds, to railroad compa- nies. It provided that after January 1, 1876, no one could become a law- ful voter who was not sufficiently educated to be able to read and write.

July 1, 1865, the governor, Thomas C. Fletcher, made proclamation that the new constitution had been duly ratified by a lawful majority of the people, and was thenceforth the organic law of the state. A few amendments have been since adopted; but in all important points it remains the same to this day.

HISTORY OF THE STATE OF MISSOURI.

PART II .- PHYSICAL AND INDUSTRIAL.

GEOLOGY AND MINERALS.

The geological history of Missouri commences at the very bottom of the scale, or, in what may be termed the fire-crust period of geologic time. (See chart on page 67). Dana's " Manual of Geology " is the great standard work all over the United States on this subject. In his chapter on Archæan Time he gives a map and brief sketch of our North American continent as it existed at that remote period, which was, according to a calculation made for the Royal Society of London in 1879,* about 600,000,000 years ago. And as this is where Missouri first comes to light, we quote Prof. Dana's account of the very meagre areas and points of our continent which stood alone above the primeval ocean that then enveloped the entire globe with its bubbling, seething, sputtering wavelets-an enormous caldron of boiling, steaming silicious lye, rather than water. Dana says:

" 'The principal of the areas is The Great Northern, nucleal to the con- tinent, lying mostly in British America, and having the shape of the letter V, one arm reaching northeastward to Labrador, and the other north- westward from Lake Superior to the Arctic. The region appears to have been for the most part out of water ever since the Archæan era.t To this area properly belong the Adirondack area, covering the larger part of northern New York, and a Michigan area south of Lake Supe- rior, each of which was probably an island in the continental sea before the Silurian age began.

" Beside this nucleal area, there are border-mountain lines of Archæan rocks: a long Appalachian line, including the Highland Ridge of Dutch- ess county, New York, and New Jersey, and the Blue Ridge of Penn- sylvania and Virginia; a long Rocky Mountain series, embracing the Wind River mountains, the Laramie range and other summit ridges of the Rocky Mountains. In addition, in the eastern border region, there is an Atlantic coast range, consisting of areas in New Foundland, Nova Scotia and eastern New England. In the western border region, a Pacific coast range in Mexico; and several more or less isolated areas in the Mississippi basin, west of the Mississippi, as in MISSOURI, Arkansas, Texas, and the Black Hills of Dakota."-Dana's Manual, p. 150.

*See Popular Science Monthly, May, 1879, p. 137.

¿The "Archæan cra," as used by Prof. Dana, in 1874, (the date of his latest revision) included both the "Azoic Age," and "Age of Zooliths," as shown on the chart, p. 67. When Prof. Dana wrote, it was still an open question whether the "eozoon " was of animal or mineral origin ; but the highest authorities are now agreed that it was animal; and Prof. Reid has, therefore, very properly given it a distinct place in his " Zoic Calendar."

HISTORY OF THE STATE OF MISSOURI.

GEOLOGICAL CHART;

Including the Rock Scale of Geological Perlods and the "Zoic Calendar of Creation." Compiled from the works of Agassiz, Lyell, Huxley, Hæckel, Dana, LeConte, and other first rank authorities in Science at the present time. By HIRAM A. REID, Secretary State Academy of Sciences at Des Moines, Iowa. [Published by permission of the Author.]

EXPLANATION. - The side line at the left shows what portions of gco ogical time are comprehended in the terms "eozoic," "paleo- Znc," etc. The first column shows the periods or "Ages" of geological time during which the diff rent successive types of ani- mai life predominated, or were the highest types then in existence. And these two divisions form the "Zoic Calendar of Creation."

The second column shows the great general groupings of rock strata, in which are found the fossil remains of the corresponding ani- mal types named in the first col- umn. But, at the "Age of Rep- tiles" occurs a grand divergement, for it was during this age that an- imal life pushed out into its most wonderful developments; and there came Into existence strange and marvelous forms of swimming reptiles. four-footed and two-foot- ed walking reptiles, and two-foot- ed and four-footed flying reptiles. Here also the true birds began to appear. though with reptilian pe- culiarities; and likewise the mar- supial animals, which are a tran- sitional type, between reptiles that produce their young by laying eggs and the true mammals, that bring forth their young well ma- tured and then snckle them.

The third column shows the les- ser groupings of rock beds as clas- sified by our American geologists ; but many minor subdivisions and local groups are omitted for want of space. At the top of this col- umn are shown the geological pe- riods of first appearance of races of man, so far as now authentica- ted by competent scientific au- thorities .*

The fourth column shows the number of feet in thickness of the different groups of rock layers as indicated by the braces.

This Chart is the most compre- hensive and thorough in its de- tails, and yet the most systemati- cally and graphically presented to the eye, of anything in its line that has ever yet been published. Here is the whole story of geol- ogy and the ascent of life con- densed into the space of a few inches, yet so plainly set forth as to readily fix itself in the memory like an outline map. Scientific terms in newspapers and maga- zines often catch the reader at a disadvantage; but a reference lo this chart will at once show the relative place or period in crea- tional progress to which the best authorized geological terms apply. It reaches, like a Jacob's ladder, from the lowest inklings to the highest ideals of life on the earth, as taught by modern science and the Christian Bible.

THIS CALENDAR IS TO BE READ FROM THE BOTTOM UPWARD.

AGE OF ANGELS.

See Psalms 8:5 Luke 20:36 Mark 12:25 1 Cor.15:44 Heb.2:2 to 9 Rev.22:8,9

HISTORIC PERIOD.

Hunter Tribes.

Age of MAN.

Recent.

MYTHIC PERIOD.

Rude Agricul- Lure.

Moundbuilders.)

Cave Man.

500

GLACIAL EPOCH.

Pliocene.

MAMMALS.

TERTIARY.

Miocene.

8,000

Eocene.

AGE OF

Bipes-Alares.

Birds.

CRETACEOUS.

9,000

REPTILES.

Aquates -- Quadrupes-

Marsupials.

JURASSIC.

800 to 1,000

TRIASSIC.

3,000 to 5,000

AGE OF

CARBONIFEROUS

Coal Measures.

6,000 to 14,570

AMPHIBIANS.

Sub-Carboniferous.

AGE OF FISHES.

Devonian.

Hamilton.

9,050 to 14,400

Corniferous.

Oriskany

AGE

Upper Silurian.

Salina.

6,000 to 10,000

Niagara.

Lower Silurian.

Canadian .

12,000to 15,000

AGE OF ZOOLITHS

Huronian.

10,000to 20,000

"This Age alone was probably longer in dura- tion than all subsequent geological time."-PROF. LECONTE.

Eozoon Rocks.

Laurentian.

30,000

Primordial Vegetation

Graphite Beds.

Metamorphic Granites.

Unstrati- fied.

AZOIC AGE.

Igneous/

350,000,000 years in cooling down to 200° F. at the sur- face [PROF. HELMHOLTZ], & temperature at which very low forms of vegetation can exist.

Depth un known.

* " The existence of Pliocene man in Tuscany Is, then, in my opinion, an acquired scientific fact." -- See Appletons' International Scientific Series, Vol. XXVII, p. 151. "The Miocene man of La Beauce already knew the use of fire, and worked flint." - Ib. p. 243. See also, Prof.

Winchell's "Pre-Adamites," pp. 426-7-8. " The human race in America is shown to be at least of as ancient a date as that of the European

Pliocene." -- Prof. J. D. Whitney. Similar views are held by Profs. Leidy, Marsh, Cope, Morse, Wyman, and other scientists of highest repule.

.. No Life .--- Eozolo TIME ---- PALEOZOIC TIME .--- MESOZOIC TIME .- - CENOZOICTIME -- PSYCHOZOIC TIME .... OF

I Spiritual Man of

MegalithicMan, the BIBLE.

Feet lu thick ness of the geological groups of rock form- ations.

Terrace Epoch.

AGE OF

Quaternary.

Champlain Epoch.

# Paleolithic Man.

PERMIAN.

Catskill.

Chemung.

Helderberg.

Trenton.

IN VERTEBRATES

Cambrian.

Rocks.

FIRE CRUST.

HISTORY OF THE STATE OF MISSOURI.

Thus, then, with the very first emergence of dry land out of the heav- ily saturated and steaming mineral waters of the primeval ocean, we have Pilot Knob, Shepherd Mountain, and a few smaller peaks in their vicin- ity, forming an island in the vast expanse. The next nearest island was a similar one at the Black Hills, in Dakota. There is no reason as yet known for believing that any form of life, either animal or vegetable, had yet appeared in our Missouri region. The ocean water was still too hot, and still too powerfully surcharged with mineral salts, alkalis and acids to admit of any living tissues being formed; and the atmosphere was in like manner thickly loaded with deadliest acids in the form of vapors, which would partially condense as they arose, and fall upon the iron- headed islands to form a mineral crust, and then be broken and washed back into the sea. But this process being kept up and incessantly repeated for millions of years (see Prof. Helmholtz's estimate at bottom of the chart), both sea and air became gradually purified of its excess of minerals and acids; and the water sufficiently cooled to admit of living tissues being formed: and meanwhile the condensing and crust-forming elements precipitated from the vapor-laden air or deposited directly from the bulk waters of the shoreless sea, were busily forming the solid earth. The different incrustations would each be a little different in their com- ponent elements; and then being broken up and mixed together and recombined, partly in the form of rough fragments, partly in the form of dust or sand ground into this state by mechanical attrition, partly in the form of fluidized or vaporized solutions, and partly in the form of molten masses produced directly by the earth's internal fires, the process of com- bining and recombining, with continual variation in the proportions, went on through the long, dreary, sunless and lifeless Azoic Age.

But as soon as the great ocean caldron got cooled down to about 200 degrees Fahrenheit, it was then possible for a very low form of vegetation to exist; and although no fossil remains of the first existing forms of such vegetation have yet been found, or at least not conclusively identified as such, yet graphite or plumbago, the material from which our lead pencils are made, is found in connection with the transition rocks between the Azoic and the Zoolithian ages. Graphite is not a mineral at all, but is pure vegetable carbon, and is supposed to be the remnant carbon of these first and lowest forms of tough, leathery, flowerless sea-weeds. Some small deposits of graphite are reported to have been found in connection with the iron and metamorphic granites of our Pilot Knob island; and that would indicate the first organic forms that came into existence within the boundaries of what now we call the state of Missouri. Just think of it! All North America, except a dozen widely scattered spots or islands, was covered with an ocean that spread its seamy expanse all around the globe; no sunlight could penetrate the thick, dense cloud of vapors

HISTORY OF THE STATE OF MISSOURI.

that filled the enveloping atmosphere; according to our English author before cited, this was 600,000,000 years ago, a period which the human mind cannot grasp; but the Almighty Maker of worlds had even then commenced to make the state of Missouri and its living occupants.

The earliest known forms of animal life, a kind of coral-making rhizo- pod (root-footed) called Eozoon Canadense, are not found in Missouri, but are found abundantly in what are called the Laurentian rocks, in Canada and elsewhere. (See chart). It is not to be supposed, however, that the enormous period called the " Age of Zooliths " passed, with forms of ani- mal life existing in Canada, but none in our iron island region, unless we assume that the mineral acidity of the waters coming in contact with this island was so intense as to require all that vast period for its purification sufficiently to permit the existence of the lowest and most structureless forms of protoplasmic matter known to science. Prof. Swallow says, in writing on the Physical Geography of Missouri, " below the magnesian limestone series we have a series of metamorphosed slates, which are doubtless older than the known fossiliferous strata; whether they belong to the Azoic, the Laurentian or Huronian, I am unable to say."

The labors of our different state geologists have not discovered any fossil remains in Missouri lower down in the rock scale than what is called the "Lower Silurian" formations, which form the first half of the " Age of Invertebrates " in the zoic-calendar portion of Prof. Reid's chart. The term "Invertebrates " includes all forms of animal life that do not have a back-bone, such as polyps, mollusks, worms, insects, crustaceans, infusoria, etc. By the time this age (Silurian) had commenced, our lone island had been joined by large areas northward, southwestward, eastward and northwestward, so that there began to be a continent; and several hundred species of animals and plants have been found fossil in the rocks of this period, but they are all marine species-none yet inhabiting the dry land. Our chart shows the Lower Silurian epoch sub-divided into Cambrian, Canadian and Trenton formations; but there are other local sub-divisions belonging to this period, the same as to all the other general periods named on the chart. The animals of this period were polyps or coral-makers; worms, mollusks, trilobites, asterias (star-fishes), all of strange forms and now extinct. The trilobite, some species of which are found in Missouri, was the first animal on the earth which had eyes, although there were likewise a great many eyeless species of them; but the fact that any of them had eyes during this age is considered by some scientists to prove that the atmosphere had by this time become sufficiently rarefied to let the sunlight penetrate clearly through it and strike the earth. On the other hand, others hold that this did not occur until after the atmos- phere had laid down its surcharge of carbonic acid and other gases, in the forms of limestone from animal life and coalbeds from vegetable life; that

HISTORY OF THE STATE OF MISSOURI.

is, there was nothing which we would now consider as clear sunshine until the carboniferous period. At any rate, Prof. Dana says of the Lower Silurian, "there was no green herbage over the exposed hills; and no sounds were in the air save those of lifeless nature,-the moving waters, the tempest and the earthquake." Having thus given the reader some idea of the beginnings of land and the beginnings of life in our old, old state, space will not permit us to linger with details upon the remain- ing geological periods. We have compiled the following table from vari- ous writings of our able state geologist, Prof. G. C. Swallow, of the State University :

ROCK FORMATIONS OF MISSOURI.

IGNEOUS ROCKS .- Granite, porphyry, syenite, greenstone, combined with those wonderful beds of iron and copper which are found in the Pilot Knob region.

AZOIC ROCKS .- Silicious and other slates, containing no remains of organic life, though apparently of sedimentary and not of igneous origin.

LOWER SILURIAN - Feet thick.

Hudson river group (3 local subdivisions) 220

Trenton limestone. 360

Black-river and birds eye limestone 75

1st magnesian limestone 125

200

Saccharoidal (sugar-like) sandstone

2d magnesian limestone 230

2d sandstone . 115

350

3d magnesian limestone

3d sandstone 60

4th magnesian limestone 300

Total thickness of Silurian rocks 2035

When the reader remembers that these were all formed successively by the slow process of the settling of sediment in water, he will get some idea of how it is that geology gives such astounding measurements of time.

UPPER SILURIAN- Feet thick.

Lower Helderberg formation 350

Niagara group. 200

Cape Girardeau limestone 60

Total thickness 610

HISTORY OF THE STATE OF MISSOURI.

DEVONIAN --

Chouteau limestone.

Chemung group - Lithographic limestone. 125

Vermicular sandstone and shales.

Hamilton group.

Onondaga limestone (extremely variable).

Oriskany sandstone (doubtful).

CARBONIFEROUS-

Coal measures, consisting of strata of sandstones, limestones, shales, clays, marls, brown iron ores and coal 2,000

In this formation there are from eight to ten good workable veins of coal; and the Missouri basin coal-bearing area is the largest in the world. It comprises the following:

Square miles.

In Missouri

27,000

Nebraska

10,000

Kansas

12,000

Iowa

20,000

Illinois

30,000

Total 99,000

The Sub-Carboniferous in Missouri is subdivided into:

Feet.

Upper Archimedes limestone.

200

Ferruginous (irony) sandstone 195

Middle Archimedes limestone

St. Louis limestone. 50

250

Oolitic limestone 25

350

Lower Archimedes limestone

Encrinital limestone 500

Total sub-carboniferous. 1570

CRETACEOUS .- The Triassic and Jurassic formations have not been found in this state; but Prof. Swallow has classed as probably belonging to the Cretaceous epoch, six different formations which comprise a total thick- ness of 15S feet. He says no fossils have been found to certainly identify these beds, but their geological horizon and lithological characters deter- mine their place in the scale.

TERTIARY .- The beautiful variegated sands and clays and shales and iron ores, which skirt the swamps of southeast Missouri along the bluffs from Commerce to the Chalk Bluffs in Arkansas, belong to this system.

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The History of Pettis County, Missouri, including an authentic history of Sedalia, other towns and townships, together with biographical sketches, Part 7

Author: Demuth, I. MacDonald Publication date: 1882] Publisher: [n.p. Number of Pages: 1154

Author: Demuth, I. MacDonald
Publication date: 1882]
Publisher: [n.p.
Number of Pages: 1154