USA > Missouri > Pike County > The history of Pike County, Missouri : an encyclopedia of useful information, and a compendium of actual facts > Part 14
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BUFFALO CEMETERY.
This cemetery is situated at a short remove from the church of the same name. It is, however, older than the church, as it was laid ont as early as 1813. The first interments ever made here were those of Robert Jordan and his young son, James, both of whom were killed by the Indians on the very spot where the cemetery is located, and near to the place where, side by side, they have so long been sleeping. The land upon which this ceme- tery is situated first belonged to John Jordan. a brother of Robert, and at the time of the killing above noted he set apart an acre for a public bury- ing-ground. In 1881 three acres more were added and deeded to the elders of the C. P. Church and their successors in office. As a whole, it is a bean- tiful site, has been neatly fenced and adorned with evergreens, and beanti- fied with flowers and shrubs. There are some nice monuments, and nul- merous marble slabs mark the last resting place of the pious dead. No ac- curate record of interments has ever been kept, but it is the general opin- ion of those best acquainted with this old cemetery that no less than two thousand persons have been buried here.
OLD SETTLERS.
Buffalo township was early settled, and by a class of people justly noted for their industrious habits and moral character. These old settlers had come principally from the states of Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, and the Carolinas, and as early as 1810 some of them had built their cabins within the limits of the township. Among the earliest, as reported to the writer, were John and Robert Jordan, Samuel and David Watson, William MeCon- nell, Alexander Allison, John Watson, James Templeton, James Mackey, John Farmer, James Watson, Thomas Cunningham, Edward Byers, - Braudon, and others. There is, at this time, no means of ascertaining the
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exact time at which these early pioneers settled in Pike county, nor the or- der in which they came. About the time of the coming of those above named, or very shortly thereafter, came John Turner, Daniel Bishop, James Crider, James Barns, C. M. Thurman, Joseph Carroll, Josiah Henry, Alex. Henry, William MeLoed, James Stark, Harrison Booth, Wm. K. Pickens, Jacob and William Baxter, Jacob Frye, E. D. Emerson, Jolin Priec, John Venable, Joseph Barrett, James Culbertson, Robert Hemphill, William L. McQuie, E. L. McQnie, John E. Shannon, Samuel McGary, Robert Wallace, Silas Rhea, Sainnel Givens, James D. McElwee, William Chilton, James Chilton, William Igo, Thomas? Dodds, David James, David Gurnsey, Rev. Davis Biggs, Morris Biggs, Samuel B. Clark, William Holliday, Richie Ayres, John J. Smith, James Frier, Robert Muir, Price J. Yeater. Jeremiah Clayton, and others. These families were scattered over different portions of the township. The Henrys, Allisons, Templetons, Starks, Byers, and others were located south of Buffalo Creek, and on lands equal to any to be found in the township. The MeGaheys were located on Grassy Creek, and the McElwees and others on the Noix. The times when these parties came to the county are included between the years 1810 and 1830. At this early day the entire county was a wilderness, but these brave men went to work with a will to elear away the forests and to prepare the virgin earth for the reception of the seed from which was to spring the golden harvest. At first they labored under every disadvantage; the clearings were heavy, the im- plements for farming were of the rudest character, and the Indians were a source of constant dread. But nothing daunted by their surroundings, they went vigorously to work; they felled the forest, fenced their meager clear- ings, and planted their crops. When it was regarded unsafe to remain at their several homes they removed their families to Buffalo Fort, sitnated south of the creek of that name, and on the land now owned by Thomas Is- grig. Here a part would guard the women and children, while the rest would devote their energies to their farms. The crops raised in this way became common property of all, and though they were permitted for a while to work but little, yet so fruitful was the new cleared soil that no apprehen- sion of famine was ever felt. If the earth could be made to yield the bread, the forests could be readily induced to supply the meat. Deer, turkeys, and other game were abundant, and the hunter had little trouble in procuring all that the necessities of his household might demand. But there were times when it became extremely unsafe to travel the roads or ream the forests. The murderous Indians were on the war-path, and the safety of the white man depended alike upon his cantion and his skill. But
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the greatest care was sometimes withont avail, as the settlers were occasion- ally waylaid and shot down near their homes and in their fields. This was the case with Robert Jordan and his young son. James, who were killed and scalped while on their way to their farm near the present site of Buffalo Church. They were buried near where they had been slain, and the peo- ple, alarmned at the hostile demonstrations of the Indians, took refuge in the fort. Here they were a long time confined and forced to a dreary, monoto- nous life. Still they bore their hardships with that heroism characteristic of the early settlers, and seldom complained of their hard fate, but each did his or her best to encourage the other, while all found in their confinement some degree of social enjoyment. One of the first wed- dings that ever occurred in the county took place in this old fort.
Peter Brandon, a soldier of this war, was married to Nancy McConnell during the time that they were virtually prisoners here. This occurred in 1819, and the interesting ceremony was performed by John Jordan, an es- timable gentleman, though we can find no account of his having ever been either a preacher or justice of the peace. Mrs. Brandon, a highly esteemned lady of abont ninety years of age, is still living and resides within five or six miles of the site of the old fort. After a few years the Indian troubles came to an end and the settlers commenced in earnest to improve their con- dition. The heavy timber was cut away and farms opened up ready for the plow, better honses were prepared and out-buildings necessary for the keeping of stock and the storing of grain were erected. Responsive to their ener- gies the soil yielded abundant crops. Their necessities grew with their in- creased prosperity, and mills, schools, and churches were built up all over the country. These were rude structures at first, but they met the immediate wants of the people, and with better times came better houses and improvements.
The Jordans built the first mill in the township, and for quite a series of years it met the demands of the entire people. Soon, however, the country became more thickly settled and other mills were erected and other facilities of meeting the wants of a growing and prosperous community were intro- duced.
Among the early preachers of this township may be mentioned Rev. John Matthews, who organized Old Buffalo Church; and Rev. Davis Biggs, a Baptist divine, who was also one of the first preachers of Ramsey Creek, the very oldest church in the county.
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CITY OF LOUISIANA.
Louisiana is situated in the eastern part of Buffalo township, and just north of the confluence of the Noix with the Mississippi. The site of the towu is a magnificent one, and such as nature had seemed to prepare for the location of a beautiful city. Gently rising for several squares from the margin of the river, the surface becomes, for quite a distance, comparatively level, when, finally, it falls away with a gentle slope towards the west and south. On the north are the bluffs, which, swinging around towards the west, form a crescent shaped line of hills, which partially encircle the city. On the south, and below the Noix, is another range of hills. whose highest point is Mount Clinton, an elevation of surpassing beauty. These. like the former range, trond westward, and, first falling away into foot-hills, then into undulating table-land, make the gap through which passes both the gravel and the rail roads. The city itself is well laid out, with broad, straight streets, and sidewalks of unusual width. The town is substantially built, both the business houses and residences being of a better class and exhibit- ing more taste than is usually found displayed in cities of its size. The site upon which the town is built was first owned by John Bryson, who came from South Carolina in the fall of 1816, and in the spring of 1$17 pre-empted one-fonrtle of section 18, township 54, range 1 west. When be first commenced the improvement of his land Mr. Bryson lived on the ground now occupied by the Louisiana fair grounds, and during the ensu- ing summer built the first house ever erected within the present limits of the city. This house was located on Ninth street between Tennessee and Georgia streets. In 1818 Joel Shaw and Samuel Caldwell came out from Kentucky for the purpose of locating a town site, and being very fa- vorably impressed with Mr. Bryson's location, bought that part of his claim adjacent to the river. This was laid out into lots, and constitutes what is shown on the original plat as the town of Louisiana.
The town was laid out by James Jones, the first surveyor of the county, and was named for the state of Louisiana, and not after the beautiful face of some mythical Lonise, as many have imagined. The streets running east and west were also named after some of the more prominent southern states, such as Tennessee, Georgia, South Carolina, etc. The streets run- ning north and south were numbered from first to ninth. inclusive. First street was called Water, and Second Main street, then Third, and so on, in regular order.
The first improvements were made on Water street, both residences and business houses being erected here. These were, of course, the ordinary
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Jog structures, whose style of architecture was always the same, although the monotony was somewhat broken by the cabins sometimes being double instead of single, and it is reported that a few of the more pretentious as- pired to the height of a story and a half. The first hotel, or tavern, as it was then called, was located on the corner of Second and Georgia streets, where the National Hall now stands. This house was built in the spring of 1819, and was first kept by Obadiah Dickinson, and afterwards by Mar- shall Mann, and was conducted as a public house for twelve years.
The next building of importance was a log business honse erected by Uriah J. Devore in 1819, and located on the west side of Main street, on Georgia street (that is, on the southwest corner of Main and Georgia). This house was occupied as a store by Mr. Devore for two years, when it was purebased by John Schwimmer, who continued to use it for the same purpose until the year 1846, when he built the business house now ocenpied by Seibert & Marzolf. When Pike county had grown sufficiently to be set off from St. Charles as an independent county of the then sparsely popula- ted commonwealth of Missouri, the commissioners who were to select a site for the county seat determined that Louisiana should become the county capital, and hence a court-house and a jail became imperative. The court- house was built of brick and upon the ground now known as the Burnett Block, while the jail, which was of hewn logs, was located on the land upon which the magnificent Pepper building now stands. Abont the year 18- the old jail was torn down, and out of the logs several tenement houses were built on the south side of Georgia street, which were long known as "Duteli Row."
Up to 1835, excepting on Front, or Water street, Louisiana was almost an unbroken forest, and even where the trees had been cut away the land was covered with papaw thickets and hazel brush. From Front street to the river front was a considerable bluff and between Fourth and Fifth streets an immense gully. As they have both long since disappeared it is reason- able to suppose that the bluff has fallen into the gully and the process of evening up has been successfully accomplished. By the year 1837 Louisi- ana had become quite a trading post and the stores had increased from one or two to ten or twelve. Among the principal business men of the place at this time may be mentioned Phineas Block, Benjamin Burbridge, John Thomas, Joel Campbell, William Chilton, - Gregoire, William R. Tur- pin, and John Schwimmer, the latter doing businesss on Second street. 15 early as 1835 the enterprising citizens had commenced to improve. In this year a road was out from Water street down to the river and several loads
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of stone were dumped near the river. This constituted for some years the landing or levy of the city. It is said that Capt. Neil Cameron, a steam- boatinan, contributed to the assistance of the city by paying for the hauling of the rock; but there is no very positive evidence that the city had any help in cutting down the road, the total cost of which must have closely ap- proximated an hundred dollars. We will here mention that among the very earliest brick buildings erected in the town was the one built on the corner of South Carolina and Water streets, by William R. Turpin, as early as 182S.
In 1853 Louisiana first began to assume the appearance of a thrifty busi- ness town, and to assist in advancing both the beauty and material pros- perity of the place the contract of grading down some of the hills and open- ing up some of the principal streets was awarded to Silas Farber and W. W. English. The making of the levee, as it now is, was also included in the contract, the city having made suitable appropriations for this work.
In 1835 the following business men, whose names have not before been mentioned, came to Louisiana: I. N. Bryson, John L. Williams, Edwin aud Daniel Draper; and in 1840 came William Luce, Robert Kercheval, Jacob Block, Moras Dreyfus, and E. G. MeQuie. As early as 1820 the people of Louisiana commenced to reach ont for the trade of Illinois, and a ferry was started in this year as a means to induce the trade of that side of the river to come here. Wilson Cook owned and operated this ferry until 1830, when John and Frank Burnett became his successors, and iu 1843 their sons, Wash and Frank Burnett, succeeded them. These parties continued in possession of the ferry franchise until 1861, when they dis- posed of their right, since which time several parties have controlled it. It is, we think, at this time owned by Captain James McCarne, who continues from early spring until late in the autumn to ply between the shores of the two Pikes.
The first physician that ever located in Louisiana is said to have been Dr. Albion T. Crow, who came in 1818, and just after him Dr. Stewart also lo- cated in the town. Some years after these, in 1828, came Dr. W. C. Har- din, who for many years enjoyed a large and lucrative practice, and who is at this time one of the most genial and public spirited citizens of the place. The first minister was Rev. John Matthews, the same whom we have be- fore spoken of as having organized Old Buffalo Church. Mr. Matthews was also the first school teacher in the town. He began his labors by preach- ing at the houses of his people, which he continued until the citizens of the town built a log school-house between Fourth and Fifth streets, on Virginia
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street, where he both preached and taught for three or four years. Next to him in the ministry was Rev. Mr. Jackson, of the Baptist Church, who preached in Louisiana and vicinity as early as 1820.
Among the very earliest school teachers of the town may also be named Charles Rouse who was at the same time, or subsequently, a lawyer and who was killed some years after wards in the town of New London. Col. John- son had a small mill near the present fair grounds in 1820, but many sup- pose that the old tread-mill built by either John Allen or John Basve, ante- dates this by not less than two years. There was no steam mill in Louisi- ana before 1835, when the first was erected by Benjamin Burbridge and John S. McCune. This mill is better known at this time as the Diamond Mills. Soon after this another steam mill was built near the river at the mouth of Noix Creek, which was burned in 1840. This last was built by B. D. Brown, and Nathaniel Fuqua. The City Mill was built in 1853 or 1854 for a plow factory and was so used until it was purchased by William Luce and E. C. Murray and converted into a flouring mill.
The first marriage of which we can gain any knowledge occurred in Louisiana in 1820, and the contracting parties were Henry Yeater and Su- sannah Shields; they were married by Squire Noyes, one of the first, if not the very first, justice of the peace who ever served in Louisiana or Buffalo township.
Too little data can now be had of a reliable character to make specially interesting the early history of this city. But before turning from the Louis- iana of the past, with its miserable cabins and few hundred citizens, to the Louisiana of the present, with her splendid residences and population of more than five thousand souls, it would seem proper as a tribute to their memory to present here the names of all the old settlers that we have been able to . find out. They are as follows: John Bryson, John Venable, James Venable, John Walker, Samuel R. Caldwell, Joel Shaw, Rev. John Matthews, Moses Kelley, James Jones, Marshall Mann, Obadiah Dickerson, S. H. Bartlett, Uriah J. Devore, John Schwimmer, M. J. Noyes, John E. Allen, John Basye, John Burnett, B. F. Burnett, Ezra Hunt, Charles Rouse, John Johnson, James Johnson, Henry Yeater, J. B. Yeater, Dr. A. T. Crow, Samuel W. Finley, Dr. Stuart, Levi Pettibone, Isaac Orr, James Orr, Willis Mitchell, Samuel Kern, John Mansley, William Stephenson, James Finley, Benjamin Burbridge, Thomas Burbridge, Jolin Ferguson, Daniel Ferguson, Edwin Draper, David Draper, Phineas Block, Jacob Block, William Penix, Job Wilson, Smith Cook, George Johnson, George Young, Dr. W. C. Hardin, William R. Turpin, John L. Williams, Joel Campbell, James E. Glenn. Henry
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J. Findley, George Kennedy, William Alexander, Stanislaus Mndd, Elias Jack- son, R. M. Duke, James A. Stevens, Dr. B. W. Gorin, Robert J. Watson, J. C. Jackson, D. W. James, Dr. E. M. Bartlett, Josiah Gordon, William Luce, John Foulks, Joseph Irwin, Thomas J. Baird, Dr. Stoddard, David McAl- ister, John J. MeCune, S. W. Farber, James H. Johnson, Conrad Smith, James Watson, John S. Markley, John B. Henderson, E. G. McQnie, and James O. Broadhead.
A few of these old settlers survive and are still citizens of Louisiana, but by far the greater proportion have passed away, and the present population of the city is composed of their descendants and those who have from year to year been settling here.
For a long time Louisiana continued to improve and the hope was euter- tained that the full growth of the city would not be attained until its popn- lation had been swelled to 20,000. A combination of cireminstances has conspired to retard her progress and these now tend to keep back the prosper- ity of the place. The trade of the town has been seriously affected by the build- ing of two lines of railroad through the city. These roads permeate the country and have. contributed to build up other towns along their rontes and thus draw away a large proportion of the trade which was once tributary to Lou- isiana. The Illinois country, the best agricultural region, contignous to Louisiana, has, by the building of the Kansas City division of the Chi- cago & Alton Railroad. turned its trade from this city, formerly its natural market, to St. Louis and Chicago, to whose very gates they have been brought by the construction of the above named road. Again, Bow- ling Green, the county seat, but twelve miles west of Lonisiana, once a small village, has, within the last four or five years, grown into a town of near 1,800 people, and the stocks of all kinds now carried by her merchants make a business trip to Louisiana by the citizens of this part of the county altogether unnecessary. The building of the "Short Line" rail- road has also seriously affected the trade of the city and from more points than one. At Frankford, whose people once came to Louisiana, the citizens are furnished with railroad communication to both Hannibal and St. Louis, and hence while they may go to the former for such articles as their own vil- lage cannot supply, their produce will naturally seek its final market in the latter city. At Edgewood and Prairieville, the same state of things exists, the trade is turned either to Hannibal or St. Louis. By the building of this road the trade of Lincoln county, atso a large proportion of which once went to Louisiana, is now lost to the city. By the building of the St. L., K. & N. W. Railway sometimes called the "Long Line," Louisiana has been less injured
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EAST END VIEW OF LOUISIANA, MO, LOOKING NORTH
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CITY OF LOUISIANA.
than by cither of the other roads, and yet we imagine that few of her citi- zens have ever realized any benefit from its construction. The most injury it has done has been to establish two or three stations north of Louisiana, from which both stock and produce can be shipped direct to either St. Louis or Chicago without either seeking a market in Louisiana or being brought there for transportation as heretofore. But not only are the above state- ments true as they affect the trade of Louisiana, but what is infinitely worse, this state of things was brought about by the citizens themselves, who al- most bankrupted both the city and the township to aid in the construction of two of the lines of railroad above mentioned. But the wisdom of the cit- izens may yet save the city. They have long recognized their condition and have gone to work to improve it. It is true they cannot extend their terri- tory and bring purchasers for their wares from a distance; but they can and have to a considerable extent already changed the character of their business and are now sending their own products abroad. Instead of being satisfied with a territory so circumscribed as to include no more than a single town- ship, or so unwise as to persist in trying to longer fatten upon each other, they have established factories of different kinds and are now making the entire country pay tribute to both their skill and enterprise. In this respect Louisiana has rapidly improved and is destined, within the next decade, to develop into one of the finest manufacturing cities to be found in the whole region of the upper Mississippi. Situated in one of the finest wheat grow- ing districts to be found in the country; in the very center of the best to- bacco lands in the state; contiguous to the coal fields of Illinois; with an abundant supply of wood and water, and with unsurpassed shipping facilities to all the markets of the country or the world, there is no reason why the prediction of her future prosperity in this direction should not be fully re- alized. «
We propose now to notice somewhat in detail the manufacturing inter- ests of the city, also the schools and religions organizations, with her civic societies and other enterprises of public interest.
LA CROSSE LUMBER COMPANY.
. The extensive yards of this company are located about one mile north of the city limits. These yards were established here in 1873 by the late Gov. C. C. Washburn and others, all of whom were residents of La Crosse, Wis- consin. The business was at first conducted upon a comparatively small scale, but some years ago Col. G. A. Buffum was appointed to their control, and under his management the business has constantly and steadily in- 41
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creased, until at this time the yards are regarded as among the largest and best on the upper Mississipi. From them are now sent out annually many million feet of excellent Inmber which finds its market in western Missouri and the state of Kansas .. For the last few years Mr. Washburn was the sole proprietor and the lumber was supplied from his extensive mills at La Crosse. Since his death, which occurred at Hot Springs, Arkansas, about one year ago, this immense property is held by his estate, but continues as before to be operated by Col. Buffum. In connection with these yards is a large and valuable planing mill which is adapted to the manufacture of every character of lumber for building or other purposes. These yards in connection with the mill furnish employment to a great number of men, and both receive and disburse during the year many thousands of dollars which go to sustain the other business interests of Louisiana.
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