USA > Missouri > Buchanan County > The history of Buchanan County, Missouri > Part 35
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A century since, the vast area, from the Blue Ridge to the Pacific, had scarcely been marked by the foot of the white man. The painted savage and the shaggy bison were the lords of the soil, now teeming with millions of prosperous, happy, and progressive citizens, bearing the scales of justice and the cross of Christianity.
The result of the war of the revolution was the independence of the confederated states of America, extending from the Atlantic west to the Mississippi River. By treaty, made by Mr. Jefferson, in 1803, with the great Napoleon, then First Consul, France ceded us Louisiana, extend- ing westwardly to the Sabine River and northwardly to the Arkansas and its sources, to the forty-second parallel, then west to the Pacific Ocean, and north with its shores to Vancouver, including the states of Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, Minnesota, Kansas, Nebraska and Oregon, besides the vast territories of Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho and Washington. By the annexation of Texas, in 1845, that large and magnificent state with her 237,000 square miles, was added to our extended possessions, and in the war of 1846, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah and California were conquered from our sister Republic of Mexico.
While the extension of our territory has been so grand and vast, the increase of our population has been more marvelous still. Three mil- lions in 1774, it is now over forty. We were then a few feeble colonies, struggling for recognition ; we are now a mighty empire, able to combat any other nation ; our navies are known and respected in all the ports of the world, invulnerable to human missiles and bowing alone to the behests of the almighty ruler of the universe ; capable of raising an army of volunteers in thirty days, thrice as large as the contending hosts which settled the fate of Europe in the battle of Sedan, and yet they are not the supports and shadows of a throne, but the pillars of democracy ; not a standing army, but the citizen soldiery of a republic.
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The increase of wealth, population and power have been exceeded in the departments of science and economy ; the adaptation of steam to the industries of life has increased the producing power more than twenty to one. Education is as free as the flag which so proudly waves its azure set stars and broad stripes of universal freedom over us to-day.
But the great revolution of mind and thought which has evolved out of the past century ; the birth of religious freedom in faith and worship, is the grand climacteric of which statesmen and philosophers, savans and bishops ought to be proud.
The freedom of conscience and worship places America on a higher plane of civilization than any nation that has ever existed in the records of history. In all the conquests of the century, the laws have kept pace and added much to the success of our civilization. A democratic or republican government is one founded upon a stated constitution and settled laws, as distinguished from an absolute government, where the will of the ruler constitutes the canons of the law, or even where written constitutions are interpreted to suit the will of the monarch.
In our government, the laws emanate from the people in their sov- ereign capacity, and are generally executed and interpreted by wise and good men, and so long as the laws are made by good people as sover- eigns, and administered by pure, just and prudent men, the future is assured. The ancient Grecians raised temples in honor of Themis, the Goddess of Justice, and adorned her as the source of law and the embod- iment of truth.
We propose erecting here a temple, where the scales of justice will ever be evenly held, and where the oracles of truth will be guarded with vestal fidelity. We want the law as a science and study, to be in the future as the past-in the front ranks of the learned professions, and her practitioners the acknowledged leaders of liberal views and sound mor- ality, and bringing to the administration of equity a code of ethics and morals beautiful and grand in its comprehensive whole, vast yet sym- metrical in its ramified details, adorned by the genius and polished by- the wisdom of twenty centuries. This building, to be constructed by- our honorable County Court, promises to be such a temple and such a shrine, standing in the future as a monument to their wisdom and enter- prise, and esteemed by all as worthy of the growing city it will adorn, and may it long stand as a bright landmark in the pathway of progress, and when the hands which reared it are mouldered into dust, and the tongues which to-day shout its triumphs are silent in the grave, may it still be known as an altar where justice is tempered with mercy and where passion shall never blind judgment or the scales be made to bal- ance by the alloy of gold, but where the fountain and stream shall alike ever be pure.
When Missouri was admitted into the Union in 1820, the six counties of Platte, Buchanan, Andrew, Holt, Atchison, and Nodaway, and known then as the Platte country, were a part of the territory, until added to the State by an act of Congress passed in 1837. It was occupied by the Pottawattamie Indians, and what is now known as Agency, in this county, was the issue house for their annuities. By treaty with the Indians in 1837, this country was ceded to the State of Missouri, and many moved into it, that summer, in anticipation of the early passage of the pre- emption act. As soon as the passage of the act of Congress was brought
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west by the slow process of that day, many flocked from the border counties in Missouri, and from Kentucky, Virginia and Tennessee, and other states to this new land of promise, the Pottawattamies were removed to Council Bluffs and to the Kansas River, near the present City of Lecompton, and the tide of immigration entered this rich region. Several of those old pioneers are with us yet. Amongst the first to cast their tents here were Captain James B. O'Toole, Judge Tom Brown, Edwin Toole, William Fowler, Dr. McDonald and many others. Grounds were plowed and crops tended in 1838, and by fall the county was pretty well dotted over with pre-emption claims and patches of broken prairie. That fall the Legislature established Platte into a county, and attached the district of Buchanan to Clinton County for voting purposes, and established County and Circuit Courts, which were held at Robidoux's store, and in accordance with that act the first court was held in the old log house, occupied as a store room by Joseph Robidoux, standing on the present site of the Occidental Hotel, in the present limits of St. Joseph. The first court was held here on the 15th day of July, 1839, by Hon. Austin A. King, afterwards Governor of the state ; P. H. Burnett, Circuit Attorney, since Governor of California, and now an eminent banker in San Francisco. The first Clerk was our old and respected friend, Edwin Toole, (may his shadow never grow less.) The only resi- dent attorney was General Andrew Hughes, who kept his office and library (which last consisted of the Missouri Statutes of 1835 and Pirtle's Digest) in the back room of Robidoux' store. Of all the settlers of Buchanan County, none are more worthy of remembrance than General Hughes. With a polished manner, liberal education and bright talent, he combined caustic wit and a heart gentle as a woman. His fame will live with a bright radiance in the memories of all that ever heard him at the forum.
The attorneys at that court, were Wm. T. Wood, who is now an hon- ored citizen of Lafayette County ; General A. W. Doniphan, whose achievements with the Missouri troops, during the Mexican War, read like the weird stories of Arabic fiction, and who still resides in Ray County, Missouri; General Wm. B. Almond, afterwards Judge of the District Court, in California in 1849, and Judge of this Circuit in 1851. Almond was a man of prolific genius and untiring energy. Launched into the battle of life as a poor boy, in Virginia, he soon found himself, with the American Fur Company, at the mouth of the Yellowstone, and was back in a few years to settle the Platte Purchase. He left for the Pacific Coast on the first news of the gold discovery, and returned two or three times, and finally passed to the shadowy land in trying to civilize the border ruf- fians of Kansas. Besides these, there were at the first court, Amos Rees, now of Leavenworth ; John Wilson, of Platte County, and Theo- dore Wheaton, of New Mexico, all now full of years, and honored as worthy representatives of their day, and to whom much is due for shap- ing and controlling the turbulent elements in which all new countries abound
The first sheriff was S. M. Gilmore. The first suit was Andrew S. Hughes vs. Ishmael Davis, for debt. The first indictment was against Theophilus Magruder, for the crime of "betting at a game of chance," with a pack of playing cards, for which, after several continuances, he was, in July, 1840, fined one dollar and costs. Such amusements liave
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increased since that period, as other amusements and luxuries of life. The first grand jury were : Reuben R. Reynolds, John Henry, Wm. Bled- soe, Elijah Martin, Abel Evans, George S. Nelson, Ezekiel W. Smith, Job McNemara, Daniel Terrel, Hugh Copeland, Hiram Rogers, Jesse R. Barnnett, Ezra Rose, Lloyd Beall, Hugh Glenn, John Martin and James Curl. The second court was held at Robidoux' store, on November 18, 1839, and the roll of attorneys was increased by the admission of Wm. M. Paxton (now a prominent lawyer of Platte County), S. L. Leonard, afterwards a judge of this circuit, and John Platte, whose history I am unable to give. The first declaration of citizenship was made at this term by Godfrey Rental, and the first divorce petition considered was the case of Mary Johns vs. Benjamin Johns. The third term of the Cir- cuit Court was held at St. Joseph, on the 16th March, 1840.
The fist term of the County Court was held at the house of Richard Hill, on the first day of April, 1839. Present, William Harrington and Samuel Johnson, County Court justices.
The first order appointed William Fowler, County Clerk ; the sec- ond order appointed Samuel Johnson, President of said court ; the third granted a license to Edward Dodge, for six months, to vend groceries at any point in the county.
The following townships were established and bounded by an order of the court: Platte, Marion, Lewis, Jefferson, Bloomington, Crawford and Noble. At the same term, Wm. W. Reynolds was appointed County Assessor.
On the 2nd day of April, 1839, it was ordered by the County Court that the Circuit and County Courts of Buchanan County should thereafter be "held at the house of Joseph Robidoux, at the Snake Hills, until oth- erwise ordered." The second term of the County Court was held at the house of Joseph Robidoux, on the 6th day of May, 1839. At this term a license was granted to Julius C. Robidoux to keep a ferry at Robidoux' landing, on the Missouri River.
At the September term, 1839, Wm. Curl was added as a county jus- tice. At the April term, 1840, P. P. Fulkerson, Armstrong Mcclintock and Leonard Brassfield, commissioners appointed by an act approved December 31, 1838, were required to select a permanent county seat. The commissioners appointed by the Legislature having selected a quar- ter section of United States land at Sparta, for county purposes, the seat of justice was removed there by an order of the County Court, and the first term of the Circuit Court convened at Richard Hill's cabin (near a big spring) about seven miles south of here, on the 20th day of July, 1840, with Hon. David R. Atchison as Judge, P. H. Burnett, Circuit Attorney, where the court remained until 1846, when it was removed to St. Joseph.
About this time (1839), and within a year or two, there settled in St. Joseph many of those merchants whose genius and prudence have made her the second city in the state. Among these were Powell & Levy, Smith & Donnell, John Curd, the Tootles, Joseph Hull, John Corby and Saxton and others that I have not been able to get, in connection with the other facts, in the two days time I have had to look them up.
Within a short time after the removal of the county seat to Sparta, there came to this county a number of young lawyers, who, like the fabled Argonauts, were destined to arise to eminence in the profession
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and honored position in the history of the state. They were General B. F. Loan, Governor R. M. Stewart, General James B. Gardenhire, Governor Willard P. Hall, Judge Henry M. Vories and General J. M. Bassett. Most of them lived a longer or shorter time at old Sparta, where, after three years of effort, a log court house, costing three hundred dollars, was built. Its present site is as deserted as the prophetic state of Tyre is repre- sented to be, and, like its compeers of Bonntown and Jimtown, it has yielded to the inevitable.
Judge Atchison retired from the bench in March, 1844, to fill worth- ily a seat in the United States Senate, where he was President of the Senate, and by virtue of that office, on General Taylor's death, he was Vice President two years. Judge Atchison was succeeded in March, 1844, by Judge Henson Young, an able and just man, who gave place in September, 1845, to Solomon L. Leonard, a hard student, an able man and incorruptible judge. In November, 1850, W. B. Almond succeeded Judge Leonard by an election. In 1851, E. H. Norton, afterwards a rep- resentative in Congress from this district, was elected and held the posi- tion until 1859, when Silas Woodson, our present brilliant Governor, was elected, who was succeeded by Colonel William Herren, in January, 1864, now an honored citizen of Andrew County, and in 1868, I. C. Par- ker, our present Congressman, was elected and resigned in 1870, and was succeeded by Judge Bennett Pike, a worthy attorney of this city, who honored the ermine until last November, when our present esteemed officer, Joseph P. Grubb, was elected.
I regret that time forbids me to throw incense over the names of Scott, Wilson, Jones, Bela Hughes, Lawrence Archer, Tom Thoroughman, Alexander Davis, Alexander Terrell, George Baxter, John Boyd, W. A. Cunningham, Colonel Davis, Sidney Tennant, L. M. Lawson and others, who are either in the shadowy land, or else far removed from the scenes of their youthful defeats and triumphs.
We are honored to-day by the presence of the members of the highest tribunal in the state, in the persons of Judges Wagner, Adams, Sherwood, Napton and Vories ; men who have won their present high positions by long years of toil at the bar ; men alike honored by the profession and an honor to it.
To our present County Court, consisting of Judges Smith, Taylor, Fitzgerald, Sutherland and Wade, we are indebted for the elegant quarters to be soon furnished to our courts and officers of justice, let their names be remembered as deserving well of their country.
From the progress we have made in thirty-five years. and the evi- dences of permanency around us, with such an active and enterprising population, we may be permitted to anticipate a magnificent future for our county and city. This building will doubtless stand to serve as a seat of justice for a quarter of a million of population ; churches, colleges and palaces, will be scattered over miles of the adjacent country, our court house and iron bridge still standing as monuments of the giant energy of the men of 1873.
CHAPTER XXI.
CHURCHES IN RURAL DISTRICTS.
" You raised these hallowed walls, the desert smiled, And Paradise was opened in the wild."
The first settlement of the county and the organization of the first churches, were almost contemporaneous. The plow had scarcely begun to turn the sod, when the pioneer preachers commenced to labor in the- new field. In the Western country, as well as in the Orient and the isles of the sea, marched the representatives of the Christian religion in the front ranks of civilization. Throughout the centuries which compose this era, have the Christian missionaries been taught and trained to accompany the first advance of civilization, and such was their advent here. In the rude cabins and huts of the pioneers they proclaimed the same gospel that is preached in the gorgeous palaces, that, under the name of churches, decorate the great cities.
It was the same gospel, but the surroundings made it appear differ- ent, in the effect it produced at least.
The Christian religion had its rise, and the days of its purest prac- tice, among an humble, simple-minded people, and it is among similar surroundings in modern times that it seems to approach the purity of its source. This is best shown in the days of pioneer life. It is true, indeed, that in succeeding times the church attains greater wealth and practices a wider benevolence. Further it may be admitted that it gains a firmer discipline, and wields a more general influence on society, but it remains true that in pioneer times, we find a manifestation of Chris- tianity that we seek in vain at a later time and under contrasted circum- stances. The meek and lowly spirit of the Christian faith-the placing of spiritual things above vain pomp and show-appear more earnest amid the simple life and toil of a pioneer people than it can when sur- rounded with the splendors of wealth and fashion. But we may take a comparison less wide, and instead of contrasting the Christian appear- ances of a great city with that of the pioneers, we may compare that of forty years ago, here in the West, with that in the present time of mod- erately developed wealth and taste for display, and we find much of the same result.
The comparison is perhaps superficial to some extent, and does not fully weigh the elements involved, nor analyze them properly. We sim-
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ply take the broad fact not to decry the present, but to illustrate the past. So that looking back to the early religious meetings in the log cabins, we may say, "Here was a faith, earnest and simple, like that of the early Christians."
It is not our purpose at this place to give a full account of the organ- ization of all the churches of the county. Such matters of detail will be given in connection with the history of the towns. At this place it is our purpose to speak of the churches in general and more particularly the pioneer churches of the county.
One of the first sermons delivered within the limits of Buchanan County was by Bishop Marvin, in what is now known as Agency town- ship. This was in a log cabin called "Woods school house." Bishop Marvin spent the early years of his ministry in Northwest Missouri, and labored in Clay, Platte and Buchanan Counties. In a letter, dated "St. Louis, September 3rd, 1874, and written to the President of the "Old Settlers" meeting, held in St. Joseph, during the same month, (given in full in our chapter on "Old Settlers' Reunions") he says : "In 1842, I passed the present site of St. Joseph, on my way to a field of labor quite on the frontier ; it embraced all the country west of Nodaway River. You will remember, at that time, there was no St. Joseph. I shall never forget the uncalculating. unbounded hospitality of the "old settlers." Many of them were in their first rude cabins, but those cabins had the rarest capacity for entertaining both friend and stranger of any houses of their size I ever saw. I often saw them crowded, but to the best of my recollection I never saw one of them full ; there was always room for a fresh comer. I recollect once, in the Platte Purchase,* I was wedging myself into a bed occupied by five children, when one of them awaked sufficiently to exclaim, "mamma, he's a scrougin' me !"
Bishop Marvin's circuit was established in Northwestern Missouri, at quite an early day, when the larger portion of it was just beginning to be settled. The circuit was a large one, but the Bishop, being a young man and full of zeal, succeeded in making the round of his cir- cuit as often as it could possibly be done. Bishop Marvin was a self- made man, in the true meaning of that term, and by his own unaided efforts arose from one of the humblest positions in life to the most exalted place within the gift of a powerful religious denomination.
He had no advantages in early life, except the example of an honest, industrious father, and the influence and precepts of a pious and most exemplary mother. In those early days, there were but few schools in Missouri (Warren County), and young Marvin's only instruction in the rudiments of an education was received from his mother, who taught her own children and those of her neighbors, in a cabin erected for that purpose in the yard that surrounded their dwelling.
*Said to have been in Buchanan County.
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During his pastorate, in one of the St. Louis churches, he delivered his famous lectures on Catholicism, which have ever since been accepted as a standard defence of the Protestant faith. In 1876, he sailed as one of the missionaries of his church to visit the missions in foreign fields. During this trip he visited many of the countries of the old world.
While on his death bed, 1877, he finished the last pages of his last and most important work, entitled "To the East by Way of the West," giving an account of his voyage around the world, and describing the field of labor in heathen lands. This book was, his masterpiece, and gave him high rank among the most famous descriptive writers.
Another pioneer minister was W. G. Caples, who also went through the "Platte Purchase " bearing the message of the Gospel of Peace. Mr. Caples was at one time cennected with the M. E. Church South at St. Joseph. He was an earnest, eloquent preacher, and did much for Chris- tianity in Northwestern Missouri. In speaking of Mr. Caples, Bishop Marvin says : "There was a man, a minister of Christ, a large portion of whose public career belongs to the 'Platte Purchase,' of whom I must say, he was in some respects the most remarkable man I ever saw. I refer to W. G. Caples. He was another 'Agamemnon, king of men.' He was a first-class wit-a man of the finest social feeling, having positive ideas and a great end to accomplish. He did much for Northwest Mis- souri in establishing schools under Christian auspices. Now I proceed to say, that the old citizens of Platte have heard as great preaching as any other people on the American continent, and from the lips of the man Caples. I have heard more scholarly men, men whose sermons evinced higher cultivation and a better classical finish, but for power of argumentation, for philosophical breadth and sweep, for grandeur of conceptions, for greatness of imagination, for force and pungency of popular appeal, my conviction is, his superior has not appeared in the American pulpit."
Wm. W. Redman was a Presiding Elder in 1840, and preached the Gospel through the Platte country.
Thomas Chandler came in 1844, and was also a Presiding Elder. He remained one year, and returned to his native state-Ohio.
"Mount Moria" was one among the first church edifices constructed in the county. It was a rude log house, and was located near Frazer. The organization is still in a flourishing condition. Among the carly expounders of the Word at this church was George W. Rich, John C. Davis, John Stone and John Ellis.
Thomas B. Ruble came in 1840, and after remaining a few years, went as a missionary to the Cherokee Nation, where he died.
In the early history of Buchanan County, religious services were held in log cabins and in the shady grove. It was often the case, when cabin services were held, that a portion of the congregation would be in
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the house, while the balance of the audience would be seated outside on rough benches and stools. The speaker took his stand in the door, so that he could be seen and heard by all in attendance. At one of these meetings, while the preacher was making the opening prayer on his knees in the door, a pet sheep belonging to the family and which was in the habit of going in and out of the cabin at pleasure, attempted to go in. When he reached the door and saw the movement of the minis- ter's hands, he took it as a challenge, and as the sequel shows, was not slow in accepting the banter. A slight backward movement on the part of the assailant, with a perceptible adjustment of the head and neck, was immediately followed by a furious blow from the only weapon known in sheep warfare. Of course there was much more confusion than blood. The prayer was concluded without any amen. His majesty, the sheep, was hastily dragged to the rear of the building, while the minister with his, at least, seeming gravity, and without the slightest allusion to the disturbance, proceeded to dispense to his hearers the bread of life.
Next after the Methodists, and sometimes even before them, may always be found the Baptists in all pioneer and mission work. From our best information, the Baptists held religious services in the county about the same time, and contemporaneous with the Methodists.
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