USA > Missouri > Pike County > The history of Pike County, Missouri : an encyclopedia of useful information, and a compendium of actual facts > Part 26
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HISTORY OF PIKE COUNTY.
found its market in Kansas and northwest Missouri. The capacity of this kiln does not exceed two hundred bushels per day, and during the first sea- son sales at low figures were found for most of the lime manufactured. In February, 1882, M. S. Goodman bought a half interest in the above named property and remained associated with Capt. Parker until the September following, when on account of the dulness of the lime market, the small de- mand, and the conviction that the business could not be made to pay two men, he sold his interest to Parker at a small advance over the original cost. Some lime from this kim has been sold in the St. Louis market, but, on account of the sharp competition and the more favorable location of other kilns, at prices that did not justify its manufacture. The lime is every- where acknowledged to be first class, and those who have used it once are certain to try it again, and nothing but the unfortunate location of the quarry, at a great and abrupt remove from the railroad, can prevent the general introduction and use of this very superior and necessary article. The late state geologist, Ilon. G. C. Swallow, says " it will make a very fine quick lime which will slake very quickly and completely." "You can rest assured no limestone in the country will make a better mortar than the sub- crystalline limestone you sent me." The quarrying of rock, burning of lime, and manufacture of barrels gives employment to abont fifteen men, and Capt. Parker is now preparing to enlarge the works, and will, possibly, during the ensuing season, add such improvements as will very materially enlarge his capacity for supplying the demands of all who desire a quick, strong, pure, and cool-working mortar, and whose whiteness and hardness alike recommend it as plaster and mortar of superior beauty and durability.
OLD SETTLERS OF CUIVRE.
In the general history of the county mention is made that the Basyes came in 1818. From J. C. Basye we learn that his father, J. W. Basye, came to Missouri in 1791 and settled in St. Louis county, coming to Pike as stated in 1818, and settling in what was then a veritable wilderness. The map of original entries shows that he took up as his claim, in December 23, 1818, the very ground on which the county seat is now located. As the county was not organized until December 14, 1818, he was here and bad located his claim when the county was just nine days old. Neighbors were then few and far between, but fortunately through the assistance of such elderly gentlemen as the Rev. J. W. Campbell, Cyrus Watson, J. C. and W. M. Basye, we can give our readers some clue as to who these neighbors were from 1815 to 1820. Three miles west of J. W. Basye was Giles Til-
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lott. and one mile southeast of G. Tillott was William Campbell. Joseph Bell lived three miles south of Bowling Green, and two miles further south was William MePike, who came in 1817. Bell had both a farm and store. Two miles south of Bell was also Elijah Hendricks. Six miles west of . Bowling Green were Robert Irvine and Samnel A. Tombs, adjoining farms. A little west of these again were David Tombs and Daniel Haynes, join- ing farms. From that point for sixteen miles west there was no house. Joseph Holliday and John Tully were not far off, northwest of Bowling Green. Eight miles northwest of Bowling Green were Gilbert Thompson and Davis and William Biggs. This Davis Biggs was the father of Wil- liam Biggs, and the grandfather of William K. Biggs, near Curryville. About one mile further was John MeCune, father of Joe McCune of McCune's Station. Further to the east were John and Thomas Hedges. These were the principal families up to the Louisiana road on Noix Creek. Here three miles from Bowling Green was settled Willis Mitchell, and joining him John Watson, father of C. B. Watson, still living on the same ground, north of his residence, and John Lindsay.
REV. JOHN MATTHEWS'S SCHOOL.
While Mr. Patton lays elaim to the honor of having tanght the first school within the limits of the county, in 1812, and that, too, in a place of no less renown than Buffalo Fort, all concede that the second school was taught by Rev. Joli Matthews. . I. N. Bryson was his pupil in 181S. A year or two later, however, J. C. Basye enjoyed the instructions of this emi- nent divine and rigid pedagogne. This latter pupil still lives to tell of this primitive school and its old-time teacher.
The house was about twenty by thirty feet, and was built of hewed logs. It was covered with elapboards held in their places by weight poles. The walls of the house were chinked and daubed with mud. It was heated with an old tin-plate stove, which stood on a floor of puncheons. The seats were hewed logs with wooden legs. The writing desks consisted of large linn logs split, hewn level, and pinned to the wall on one side, and supported by long wooden peys on the other. For windows one log was taken out almost its entire length on each side of the house. Instead of glass, foolscap paper was oiled and inserted ingeniously all along. The door was about six feet wide, made of clapboards, fastened to cross- pieces with wooden pins. This building once stood near the present site of the old cemetery at Lonisiana.
Reading, writing, and spelling were the principal branches in the eurric- nlnm of this first " people's college." Noah Webster's spelling-book then,
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HISTORY OF PIKE COUNTY.
as many years afterwards, was the standard in orthography. This book, too, pioneered the way for our large unabridged quarto dictionary of to-day. Pike's arithmetic was the authority in mathematics.
It seems that this reverend gentleman, with all his Christian graces. was somewhat stern and even severe, if not cruel, to pupils who failed to recite well or behave properly. His faults, however, if he had any, were like the crimes of the Puritans, the blemishes of the age in which he lived. Life here, as well as in New England, is not now what it was then, and school discipline, likewise, has changed for the better. He evidently did much good in his day, not only when he preached the gospel of love and peace, but when he united many hearts by Hymen's silken ties, of which he had well nigh a monopoly; for, in those early days, preachers were scarce, and it sometimes fell to the lot of those who were neither divines nor justices to celebrate these sacred ceremonies. There are doubtless many living now who owe, perhaps, their legitimate being to his kindly offices, and are ready . to rise and call him blessed.
EARLY MODES OF LIVING.
. Whatever uncertainty there may be about dates and genealogies. there is no question as to the manner in which these old pioneers lived. All of the survivors of the period of which we are writing agree in testifying to the mortar and pestle in which their corn was prepared for meal or hominy. The mortar was made out of a large block or the stump of a tree. The cav- ity was made by first boring a few holes of different depths, and then com. pleting it by burning away what was necessary to give it the cup-like form. Sometimes, for a pestle, an iron wedge was driven into a piece of wood, secured from splitting by an iron ring. One pioneer is said to have had a hole burned into the top of a stump for a mortar, the heavy pestle being at- tached to a sweep, by means of which much manual labor was avoided. In this way was their corn prepared as a matter of necessity, for there was no mill at first nearer than St. Charles. At first hand-mills were very common. There was then. as in the still more "olden time," the " upper and the nether millstone." The upper one had a wooden peg in it, which served as a handle for women and others who knew how to turn it about. This mill was superseded by the horse-mill. Of this there were at least two kinds. In the one case the horse moved in a circle, turning a vertical shaft, which had a wheel overhead which moved the burs. In the other kind the horse was kept walking on an incline plane which kept moving from under him. Thus motion was communicated to the driving wheel.
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The meal was bolted by means of a box about two by six feet, with a cloth bottom. This was shoved by hand to and fro, with sufficient celerity to answer the purposes of a sieve, at least.
A novel substitute for bread consisted in slieing tolerably thin the hams of deer, placing these slices on thin pieces of wood, supported by forked timbers set in the ground for posts. A gentle fire beneath was sufficient to dry the venison, which would then make a savory substitute for bread, and was familiarly known as "jerked venison."
MOUNT PISGAH BAPTIST CHURCHI.
Monnt Pisgah was the first organized Baptist Church in Cuivre township. It was instituted December 5, 1833, at the house of Harmon Hawkins, some four and a half miles northwest of the town of Bowling Green, and within three hundred yards of where the church-house now stands.
The church was a colony, principally from the old Peno Church, about four miles north, which was organized in territorial times, or in the year 1819. In the organization of Mount Pisgah Church there were nineteen members, all of whom save three-Colonel William G. Hawkins, Mrs. Shepherd, of Bowling Green, and Benjamin B. Moore, of Audrain county --- have " passed over the river " and into the "great beyond." . To preserve the names of the noble men and women who constituted the early mem- bership of this old ehureh, we give them below in full: Harmnou Hawkins, Edward Bondurant, Benjamin B. Moore, Benjamin F. Hawkins, Thomas T. Johnson (afterwards their pastor), Diggs Luck, William G. Hawkins, George Hardin and sisters, Jincy Hawkins and Naney C. Moore, Lavina Bentley, Elizabeth Tinker (now Shepherd), Jemima Thomas, Lucy Luek, Mary Luck, Margaret M. Johnson, Rachael Moore, and Jane and Milly, two colored women. Elder Davis Biggs, William Fuqna, and Walter Mc- Quie were present by invitation, and assisted in the organization. After the usual exereises and inquiries by the above-named ministers, and satis- . factory answers by the brethren, they proceeded to organize upon the arti- cles of faith, church covenant, and rules of decorum then and there set forth. After the organization the church was named, and Harmon Hawk- ins and Thomas T. Johnson were elected deacons, and William G. Hawkins chosen as church elerk. On the first sabbath in February, 1834, the church called Thomas T. Johnson to become their pastor, after he should have been set apart by ordination, and agreed to call a presbytery to meet at the church on the first, Wednesday in April to attend to that service. After meeting on the day named Mr. Johnson urged a postponement, which was
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agreed to. At the following June meeting. however, a presbytery, consist- ing of Elder Davis Biggs and Walter MeQuie, met with the church and proceeded in the usual form to set apart Thomas T. Johnson to the Gospel ministry by prayer and the laying on of hands, who was then recognized as the duly installed pastor of the church. In June, 1835, Edward Bondurant was chosen deacon, to supply the place made vacant by the promotion of Mr. Johnson to the ministry. For twelve years Elder Johnson continued to serve this congregation faithfully and acceptably. At the February meeting, in 1844, Elder Walter MeQuie was chosen to succeed Mr. John- son, the latter declining to serve longer, and for five years he served as the overseer of the church. In February, 1851, Elder James F. Smith became the pastor of the church, and in the same year, having removed his family into the neighborhood, he and his family became members here. Elder Smith resigned his pastorate in 1855, and was succeeded by Elder William W. Mitchell, who resigned his charge, after having officiated as pastor for the period of one year and eight'months. Elder John T. Williams was now called by the church, and after serving the church for one year, was suc- ceeded by Elder A. P. Rogers, who had but a short time before been or- dained a minister. At the May meeting, in 1862, Elder Rogers resigned, after a term of three years' service, and at the June meeting following Elder Rogers was recalled and accepted.
Early in 1864 the church, owing to a military order of General Rose- crans, decided to suspend business meetings, which suspension continued until December of the same year. In the meantime Elder Rogers had again resigned, having served the last time about two years, or in all about five years. In November, 1864, the church employed Elder M. M. Modis- sett, who remained in charge until 1872, a period of eight years. From October, 1872, until November, 1876, Elder Albert G. Mitchell was the preacher in charge. In December, 1876, the church, by a unanimous vote, called Elder Wiley J. Patrick, who accepted, and who continues to serve the church at the present time.
At the February meeting in 1844, Deacons Hawkins and Johnson having taken letters and left the church, Henry Sisson and Robert Gooch were chosen in their stead. In July, 1$51, the church took steps looking to the erection of a better house of worship, the old one, a structure of hewn logs, having served its day. A building committee of three members was ap- pointed, namely, A. P. Miller, Henry Sisson, and James M. Frier, who were instructed to build a substantial frame house, forty by sixty feet, and to push it to as early completion as possible. In May, 1852, the church held its
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first meeting in the new house. although in an unfinished condition; but in the August following the committee reported the house completed. The cost of the house in cash was $1,036. A considerable amount of the ma: terials, such as shingles, laths, and building stone for the foundation, were furnished, while much of the work, especially the hauling and putting in of the foundation, was not taken into the account of cost, but was done by the friends and members of the church outside of their cash subscriptions. Iu February, 1852, Colonel W. G. Hawkins tendered his resignation as church clerk, and Judge A. P. Miller was elected to succeed him, and con- tinued to discharge that duty in the most satisfactory manner until 1877, when he also resigned, and was succeeded by his son-in-law, W. B. McPike. In 1871 Benjamin H. McPike and M. R. K. Biggs were elected deacons to fill the vacancies occasioned by the death of Deacons Rowland Gooch and Henry Sisson.
In September, 1851, the church dismissed twenty-five members by letter to form a new church on North Cuivre. afterwards called Concord, but in a few years the church planted here dissolved its organization. In June, 1854. the church again granted letters of dismissal to fifteen or twenty members to enter into a new constitution. or church organization, at Bowling Green. This church has prospered, and is in a healthy state of spiritual life. In October, 1575. letters were granted to ten or twelve members to enter into a new organization for the purpose of establishing a church at Curryville. The object of their withdrawal has been fully accomplished, and a good church has been built up by the efforts of these few members, assisted by their brethren of the mother church. Thus has Mount Pisgah, after fifty years of laborious effort, accomplished some effective work in the " Vine- yard of the Lord." Commencing with but nineteen members, she now has about one hundred and forty communicants, while no less than four hun- dred and sixty-seven persons have held their membership with this grand old church. Into her fellowship two hundred and seventy persons have been received by baptism, one hundred and sixty-four by letter. five by relation, two hundred and twenty-one dismissed by letter, forty-one excluded, four restored, and seventy-eight died out of the church militant to enter the church triumphant. There have been six or eight revivals of religion in the history of this church that were noticeable events in the religious world, and to which many refer as the occasions when they passed from darkness into the " glorious light and privilege of the Son of God."
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HISTORY OF PIKE COUNTY.
SCHOOLS.
The schools of this township differ in no essential respect from those of other portions of the county. In the long ago, when the settlers were few, and the facilities for acquiring an education were alike poor and meager, the people adopted such methods as they believed to be adequate to the intellec- tual wants of the few children of the different settlements, or communities, and the log-house, with its low ceiling. rude seats, its single window, and enormous fireplace, constituted alike the common school, the academy, and the college.
The teachers who presided over these schools were in perfect harmony with their surroundings. They were men of limited acquirements, but what they lacked in education they made up in vigorous common sense. If they taught but little. they taught that little well and thoroughly; if their reading was confined to a few books. their thinking powers were exercised upon innumerable subjects. They were probably not classical, but no one will deny that they were eminently practical. With the increase of popu- lation, and the general development of the country, the schools gradually improved. although for many years the system remained unchanged. With the accumulation of wealth came better houses. an enlarged curriculum of study, and men of more liberal education. The regular district school now succeeded those which the exigencies and necessities of an earlier pe- riod had forced the people to adopt. In these latter institutions, destitute of either pretension or ambition, many of the best and strongest meu of the county were educated. But progress is the watchword of the nine- teenth century, and the claims of education have been pushed with wondrous rapidity from one degree of excellence to another. The private school was soon made to succeed the other systems, and those who were seeking ad- mission to the learned professions became its earliest patrons.
This is a brief outline of the schools of the country prior to 1879, when the public school law as it now exists was adopted by the state. Under its wise and liberal provisions, predicated upon the conviction that the prop- erty of the state should educate its children. the people have since acted. and such care and attention have been bestowed upon these "colleges of the people," that at this time the opportunities of a thorough English edu- cation are brought within the reach of all the children of the state. Under this system of education Cuivre township is now proceeding. and the intel- lectual training which the youth have, and are receiving. is conclusive evi- dence of the wisdom of the change. Within the township are no less than ten school-houses where pupils daily attend from tive to eight months of
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each year, and where the branches prescribed by the law are patiently and successfully taught by teachers of liberal culture and large experience. The education here acquired very fully meets the business wants of the masses, while those desirons of classical and scientific instruction can be accommo- dated at other schools within the limits of the county.
The school at Bowling Green, under the efficient management of Prof. W. J. Rowley, assisted by a corps of competent and painstaking teachers, is accomplishing a good work for the community in which it is situated, and is in a manner the academy for the further prosecution of the studies of those who have been in attendance at the public schools of the county.
Independent of the branches prescribed by the law of the state, there is here taught higher algebra, physical geography, philosophy, book-keeping, rhetoric, etc., constituting the higher branches ordinarily taught in the acad- emies, or local colleges, of the state. There are five teachers employed in this school, and the grading has been done with such care and circumspec- tion that the promotion from one department to another is both easy and natural. Two hundred and fifteen pupils daily attend here, and as all are assigned as much work as they can successfully accomplish, and as the term runs through a period of eight scholastic months, the progress of the pupils is both rapid and thorough. To avoid passing over anything which they may not rightly understand, both oral and written examinations are had at the close of each quarter, and the advantages of the system have been plainly manifested. This school begun its career eleven years ago, and although it has succeeded very well, its efficiency has probably been some- what impaired by the too frequent change of principals, for we observe that within the limits of its short existence no less than cight gentlemen have officiated in that important position. Prof. Lawry, the present chief assist- ant, has, however, contrived to serve the people for eight of the eleven years mentioned, and still continues to do work of which he need not be ashamed.
Besides the schools above enumerated there is a school in Bowling Green for the education of the colored youth which has for years been conducted with the use of the money derived from taxation, as wisely provided by the legislature of the state. The school has been fairly taught, is generally well attended, and considerable proficiency has been made in the ordinary English branches by many of the pupils.
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HISTORY OF PIKE COUNTY.
BOWLING GREEN.
Bowling Green, the capital of Pike county, is situated in the center of Cui- vre township and at no great remove from the center of the county. Its loc :- tiou is all that could be desired so far as elevation and beauty of scenery are concerned. More than four hundred feet above the surface of the Missis- sippi, and twelve miles distant from it, with neither swainps nor lagoons in its immediate neighborhood, it is free from malaria and other disease pro- dneing causes incident to the proximity of submerged lowlands and stay- nant waters. On the west and south are grand stretches of beautiful undu- lating prairie; on the north the timber line approaches to within a mile of the town; while on the east the hills, covered with forests, partially gird the city. Viewed from either side the town, with its magnificent reach of coun- try, presents a beautiful, peaceful, and pastoral picture. Bowling Green was laid out as early as 1826 by C. C. Trabue and William MePike, com- missioners, and embraced but a small area, being in length but 160 poles. or 2,640 feet, and in width 75 poles, or 1,2373 feet. Since that time sun- dry additions have been made and the territory now embraced within its limits is amply sufficient for the growth of a city of twenty thousand souls. In 1871 both Parker's and Moseley's additions were made to the town; in 1872 A. C. Sheldon's addition was attached; in 1876 Dr. S. J. Reynolds's addition was annexed, and in 1877 James M. Martin's and D. L. Caldwell's were added. Should the time ever come when these several additions shall be crowded with factories, stores, or residences, there will be found waiting miles of rolling prairie and acres of beautiful woodland ready to be admit- ted as a part of a growing and prosperous municipality.
The town is well laid off and comparatively well built, both the business houses and residences comparing very favorably with towns of its size, either in Missouri or the west. The building of some honses upon the ad- ditions above named, which were not all contignous to each other, has de- tracted somewhat from the regularity and compactness of the place. But even this apparent defect is being rapidly overcome, as the buildings con- structed from year to year are gradually approaching each other and the town is constantly presenting more and more the appearance of oneness and solidity. The town is possessed of excellent commercial facilities. The Chicago & Alton Railroad and the St. Lonis, Hannibal & Keokuk cross each other here, and each has a depot in the town for the transaction of its business. The Louisiana & Ashley gravel road also passes through the town and furnishes admirable facilities for travel and local busines .. Within the last five years the town has doubled its population, erected a number of
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BOWLING GREEN.
substantial business houses, added many excellent residences, and largely increased its general business. It has a class of active, enterprising, and aggressive business meu, who are possessed of energy. faith, and persist- ence, who are employing every means and agency within their reach to advance the growth and prosperity of their town.
Among the few drawbacks to the present and complete frution of the hopes of its citizens may be mentioned the thinly settled country and the want of mannfactories. The tide of immigration which has recently set this way will, ere long, overcome the first complaint and make our present valuable, but vacant, lands to bloom with beauty and blossom with fruit, while the unemployed capital of the township and county will, in the near future, provide for manufacturing the abundance of material already pro- duced in the country adjacent to the town.
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