USA > Missouri > Pike County > The history of Pike County, Missouri : an encyclopedia of useful information, and a compendium of actual facts > Part 4
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CITY OF CLARKSVILLE.
CHRISTIAN CHURCHI.
Previous to the time of the organization of the church in Clarksville the communicants of the Christian Church worshiped at Ramsey Creek, a church now owned by the Baptists, situated on a creek of that name about five miles south of Clarksville. In the year 1851 or 1852 Elder John Mal- herrin organized a church in Clarksville, and those who had worshiped at Ramsey and who resided north of that stream transferred their member- ship to Clarksville, and for a while condneted their services in an old brick school-house situated near the western limits of the town. In the year 1859 they erected on a beautiful lot in the southern portion of the city a commodi- ons and substantial brick structure, forty by sixty feet, where they have ever since convened and where many additions from the children of its foundersand others of the community have been made, until now it is one of the strong. est churches within the limits of Pike county, having a membership of about one hundred and twenty-five communicants. Among the original members may be mentioned the names of such men as Hendley Kissinger, William Davis, Samuel Denny, Jeptha Ousley, Mordecai Amos, and others of sterling qualities of mind and heart. The ministers who have served this church since its establishment in Clarksville are Elders John Mulherrin, J. Errell, E. V. Rice, J. J. Rice, Timothy Ford, J. M. Henry, Peter Donan, J. HI. Matthews, and E. B. Cake, representing some of the best pulpit tal- ent in this portion of the state. Sunday-school has been regularly kept up and is at present in a flourishing condition, with S. A. Drake as superin- tendent. Mr. T. H. Teague is the clerk or secretary of the church. The . present elders are S. A. Drake, J. A. Shaw, and J. C. Gillum. The deacons are T. H. Teagne, John Middleton, C. Johnson, B. F. Boone, and J. T. Smith.
CUMBERLAND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH.
This church was organized April 2, 1868, by Rev. M. M. Tucker. The constituting members were M. M. Tucker, Ann L. Theker, W. W. Crock- ett, Elizabeth Crockett, Minerva Crockett, Samuel R. Givens, Elizabeth Givens, Wilbour Givens, Alex. D. Meltosh, James H. Ballard, Lanra A. Ballard, Incy A. E. Tucker, Mary Porter, Elizabeth Patton, Mary Pattou, and Paulina Hume. Immediately after their organization the congregation elected A. D. McIntosh and S. R. Givens their ruling elders, and Rev. M. M. Tucker was employed as their pastor. For a short time the members of this church worshiped in the M. E. Church South, until they bought the northern Methodist Church for the sum of $1,500, although this substantial
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HISTORY OF PIKE COUNTY.
brick edifice had originally cost about $3,000. This church is in a reason- ably prosperous condition, having about sixty members, with preaching twice each month, weekly prayer meeting, and a well attended sabbath- school. The ministers who have served this church are Revs. M. E. Tucker, W. B. MeElwee, Taylor Bernard, James Duvall, T. L. Love, and T. Bern- ard again in charge. In 1875, for the first time in the history of the town, this church observed the " week of prayer" according to the regulations of the " Evangelical Alliance," and the practice has been kept up since that time. The church owns a parsonage costing $1,000, which, like their house of worship, has been paid for. They have an excellent organ, and such furniture and library as is necessary to the interest of the service and the use of the sabbath-school. The membership has long labored together in perfect harmony, and the object of its missions, the impartation of religious instruction, and the edification of each other has, in large measure, been ac- complished. 1
EPISCOPAL CHURCH.
Grace Episcopal Church was organized March 21, 1869. The building is a neat little frame of Gothic style of architecture, costing $1,500, and situ-, ated on Main street in the extreme southern part of the, city. The house was consecrated in the year above named by Right Rev. Bishop Robertson. The original members were Hon. G. Porter, wife and three daughters, K. H. Norris, wife and daughter, C. N. Hickerson, wife and daughter, John L. Luke, Frank T. Meriwether, W. A. Luther and wife, W. B. Carlisle and wife; II. J. Phillips and two daughters, Mrs. George Johnson, S. P. Coch- ran and wife, Ada Hemphill, W. C. McFarland, John Winn Davis, James Blain, Miss Liza Lee, J. W. Buchanan and Mrs. Charles Logan. The first vestry was composed of the following gentlemen: John L. Luke, senior war- den; W. B. Carlisle, junior warden; F. T. Meriwether, treasurer; J. W. Buchanan, secretary: Judge G. Porter, Capt. B. P. Clifford and C. M. Hick- erson. The following ministers have officiated here: Revs. A. J. Yeater, Dr. Jennings, Abiel Leonard, B. F. Matran and J. M. Curtis.
CATHOLIC CHURCH.
St. Joseph's Catholic Church was organized in the fall of 1868 by Rev. Thomas Cleary, and the house of worship, a frame building, thirty by seventy feet, was erected during the same year and dedicated in the year succeeding. The original members were Michael Rickard, Engene Rick- ard, Bartholomew Cole, Thomas Cole, John Kinney, Patrick Flynn, P.
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CITY OF CLARKSVILLE.
Wheeler, James Flannigan, Samuel Flannigan, A. Hirt, Bridget Rickard, Thomas Nickerson, W. Walton, J. Curly, James O'Donnell, John Glass, Ann Rickard, Mary Kinney, Bridget Fiynn, Bridget Nickerson, Kate Flan- nigan, Kate Glass, Mary O'Donnell! and Kate Decker. There are about thirty members at this time. This church has been served ministerially by the Revs. Fathers Kelly, Murray, Kean, Gleason, Calmit, Francis, Victor, and Nulty.
COLORED CHURCHES.
Both the Baptist and Methodist denominations among the colored people . have a church of their own. These houses are each about thirty by fifty feet in size, well framed together and costing each about eight hundred dollars. The Baptist Church was organized in 1870 and the Methodist several years prior to this date. They have each a membership somewhat in excess of one hundred communicants and for the most part conduct their services in a decent and an orderly manner. They have each a Sunday-school to which considerable attention is given, and their prayer meetings are no more neg- lected than those of other churches. Each church retains a preacher, and additions to the membership are frequent, although it is not uncommon for them to dismiss some of their number at stated intervals. These churches are doubtless doing good, and in the near future when the colored preacher shall have been prepared by proper education for the proper dis- charge of his clerical duties, they will be made to contribute much to the enlightenment and elevation of the race.
CEMETERY.
Amid all the excitement incident to an active business life the people of Clarksville have not been unmindful of their duty to the dead. Less than a mile from the southern limits of the eity and at a small remove from the gravel road they purchased in the summer of 1868 a beautiful plat of ground containing between eleven and twelve acres at a cost of $2,150, which they at once proceeded to suitably prepare as a permanent and beautiful place of burial. The ground was carefully laid out into six blocks with beautiful driveways and avenues for the convenience of the the funeral cortege. The blocks were subdivided into lots which aggregate five hundred and eight in number, and a small portion of the land, about one-half acre, was reserved as a " potter's field " where the stranger and the poor are given free sepul- ture. The city retains in its employ a sexton, who by the provisions of its ordinances is, as city officer, permitted to reside without its limits, but who
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is responsible to the city council, whose servant he is, for all his official acts. A neat house, situated within the limits of the cemetery, furnish the sexton with a comfortable home, and here he lives and labors, devoting all his time to the interment of the dead, the making of removals from other ceme- teries to this or adding additional ornamentation to the beautiful home of the sleeping dead. Up to the present time five hundred and eleven inter- ments, including removals, have been made in the cemetery proper, while two hundred and seven have been buried in the "potter's field." To each of the several-churches of the city a lot has been donated, while the Masons and Odd Fellows have each purchased two lots for the benefit of their re- spective orders. One or more lots are sold to those desiring them at a mere nominal cost, and the owners are permitted to beantify the graves of their loved ones in such manner as their own seuse of propriety may suggest, pro- vided that nothing is done to conflict with the rights or convenience of others, and where such ornamentation cannot prove hurtful to the marble or other surroundings. There is a registry of every interment, giving name, nationality, age, cause of death, and number of both block and lot in which the deceased has been buried. The blue-grass, which here grows spontane- ously and Inxuriantly, is kept reduced to an evenly shaven lawn, and in the early springtime beautiful flowers perfume the soft air with their fragrance, while blooming immortelles speak eloquently, if silently, of a life beyond the tomb, whose joy is nnending but whose gateway is death.
PAYNESVILLE.
This village of four hundred inhabitants is situated in the southern portion of Calumet township, in a beautiful little valley partially hemmed in by a circular range of hills which furnish a fitting background to one of nature's most charming pictures. The fertility of the soil, the ample sup- ply of good, pure water, and the beanty and picturesqueness of the scenery were inducements which the early settlers could not resist. As early as 1819 a few "new comers" had settled upon the lands adjacent to the pres- ent village, and Thomas Buchanan, who was evidently the first settler npon the present site of the town, had built his cabin and located here. Follow- ing him came Andrew Forgey, who settled at Paynesville as early as 1823, buying out Buchanan and preparing at once to engage in merchandising with the view of supplying the few and simple wants of the early settlers. The town did not increase very rapidly in population, for, as late as 1831, there were but three families in the place; viz, A. Forgey's, Alfred Smith's
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and Thomas Palmer's. Forgey was a merchant, Smith a tanner, and Palmer to his other accomplishments added the useful avocation of a blacksmith. About 1823 the town first came into the possession of a name, which it re- ceived from Andrew Forgey, who called it Paynesville after a Mr. Payne, of St. Louis, from whom he bought his first stock of goods. At this early day the town had neither post-office nor public road, but soon thereafter it was regularly laid out by 'Squire Noyes, at the instance of Judge Forgey, and, as the village commenced to grow, the facilities for reaching the place and receiving the mails were alike improved. Mr. Win. Vaughan was the first postmaster of Paynesville, and for several years retained the situation, more as a convenience to the public than from any considerations of profit. Paynesville has never had any town organization and hence none of her cit- izens have been dignified with the questionable honor of trustee or alder- man, but nowhere within the limits of the state has there been city, town, or village, in which more perfect order has prevailed or where there is a better moral or religions influence exerted. But while the village is small, its cit- izens are public spirited and some of the most important enterprises of the county have received their moral and active support. They gave counten- ance to the building of our gravel roads and lent their assistance to our railways. The first agricultural fair ever held in the county was at Paynes- ville, and here also convened the first medical association ever called to meet in northeast Missouri. As the outgrowth of the railroad convention held in St. Louis in 1835, which was induced by the wonderful activity in railroad building in the. older eastern states, the people of this village, led by Dr. J. H. Hughes and others, sought and seenred from the legislature of the state, in the winter of 1836-7, a charter for a railroad from Paynesville to Jackson's (now Steele's) Landing on the Mississippi. This, with the four others applied for at the same time, are the first charters for railroads ever obtained in Missouri and doubtless the first ever granted by the legislature of any state west of the Mississippi River.
Below will be found a list of the business houses, schools churches etc., at this time:
Dry goods stores 3 Harness shop. 1 Grocery store. 1 Blacksmith shops 2
Hotel. 1 Drug store 1
Millinery store. 1
Shoe shop. 1 Physicians 2
School-houses. .3 Churches 3 Mill. 1
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HISTORY OF PIKE COUNTY.
SCHOOLS.
Prior to the year 1550 there were no schools in Paynesville other than those condneted on the old and common district plan. In this year, how- ever, T. J. Forgey commenced a school of a higher order, which he success- fully conducted for several years, when he was succeeded by Prof. Marcel- lus Gorin, who was employed at a salary of one hundred dollars per month and who, for a term of years, taught a very successful and satisfactory school. After Mr. Gorin had given up his charge of the school, the old system, for a short time, was again pursued, but in 1867 Forgey Academy was built, and for a series of years, under the control of Mr. Nicholas Thurmond, this insti- tution continued to flourish and a new impetus was given to the educational interests of the community. From this time until the fall of 1870, the pub- lic school, under the management of some of the best teachers in the county, was made to meet the wants of the people; but at this time the citizens or- ganized a high school and employed Prof. Pirkcy, of La Grange, a gentle- man of scholarly attainments, to take charge of the same, and at the expira- tion of one year he resigned his place and was succeeded by Prof. Collins, who has also given place to Prof. J. P. Gass, a gentleman of liberal culture and large experience, under whose cautious guidance the school has been piloted to a higher place of usefulness than it has ever before attained. This school under its present management deserves more than a passing notice. With a curriculum of study more comprehensive than that of many of the so-called colleges; with a system of training calculated to develop the phys- ical, intellectual, and moral natures, and recognizing the individuality and idiosyneracy of every student and suiting their discipline and instruction thereto, Profs. Gass and Schell are successfully training their pupils in har- mony with that system which is at the same time the most rational and val- uable. There are about seventy young ladies and gentlemen receiving in- struction here, and the wisdom of the parents who propose to educate their
. children at home and thus avoid both the expense and possible vicious in- fluences of the boarding school cannot be gainsayed. The music depart- ment is under the control of Miss L. C. Errett, an accomplished musician who has for the last four years successfully taught in the Academy. She has at this time a class of fifteen young ladies, to whose instruction she de- votes her time and attention. But as the University follows the Academy, so also the Academy follows and depends upon the common or public school, and in this regard Paynesville is well supplied. There is a good public school building in the village, supplied with suitable furniture and
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PAYNESVILLE.
with sixty pupils in attendance. The length of the school term is five months and the branches taught are those prescribed by the school law of the state. Prof. J. A. Grimes is in charge, with Miss Sallie Beauchamp as assistant. The school has been well conducted and is meeting the expecta- tions of its patrons.
MASONIC BLUE LODGE.
Paynesville Lodge No. 49, A. F. & A. M., was organized some time in' the fall of 1877. The charter bears date October 11, of this year. The first officers of this lodge were Dr. R. T. Hawkins, W. M .; J. C. Bradley, S. W .; B. D. Woodson, J. W. The charter members were R. T. Hawkins, J. C. Bradley, B. D. Woodson, Austin Bradley, F. W. Patton, E. A. Townsley, and several others. The present officers are John P. Gass, W. M .; R. T. Hawkins, S. W .; G. W. Davis, J. W. The lodge is represented as being in a prosperous condition, with nineteen members.
GOOD TEMPLARS.
Mizpalı Lodge No. 35, I. O. G. T., was organized in January, 187S. The charter members were Rachael Errett, Almira Rush, Millie Zumwalt, Mol- lie Holt, Margaret Forgey, W. H. Henderson, Kate Prior (nec Eastin), Sallie Smither, Rev. J. H. Ledbetter, J. A. Grimes, and others. The first officers were Rev. J. H. Ledbetter, W. C. T .; Rachael Errett, W. V. T; John Curry, W. Chap .; J. A. Grimes, Sec'y; E. A. Gilbert, W. F. S .; Sallie Smither, W. T. The lodge has at this time about fifty members and has for several years been doing good work for the community in whose midst it has been established.
M. E. CHURCH SOUTH.
This church was organized near Paynesville somewhere about the year 1823 or 1824. For a number of years the congregations met and wor- shiped at the houses of the different members, and for miles around the people assembled to hear proclaimed the word of God. At this early day the people were few and the settlements at a considerable remove from each other, but the zealous and faithful servant of God continued to go from one to another, exhorting the people, encouraging the church, and preaching to all the glad tidings of salvation.
Among some of the early members of this church, planted in this west- ern wilderness more than half a century ago, may be mentioned the names of Andrew Forgey, Mary Forgey, Julian Bryan, John Jewett, Samaria Mc-
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Queen, Robert McDowell, Richard Wells, Mary Wells, Perry Wells, Mor- decai Amos, Susan Amos, Mary Carr, Wmn. Vaughan, John and Joseph Long, Richard Liles, Richard Kerr, Peggy Clifford, and Mary Lawrence, almost all of whom have passed away. Among the first preachers of this early period are found the names of Revs. William Patton, G. C. Light, Andrew Monroe, Richard Bond, John Thatcher, and Conley Smith, men whose deep piety and vigorous common sense would be as conspicnous now as when speaking from the platform in the forest they engaged the atten- tion and won the hearts of the early settlers. Not until 1832 did the Meth- odists build their church at Paynesville, when the membership scattered over that portion of the county was organized into one religious body. In 18 --- the old church, badly in need of expensive repairs and too small to meet the wants of a congregation that was rapidly increasing, was torn away and a splendid brick church was erected on its site. The church is now both numerically and spiritually strong, and through the preaching of the word, the attendance upon the prayer meeting, and the closest attention tothe wants of a prosperous sabbath-school, the people of this religious or- ganization have done, and are doing, a work for the elevation of our com- mon humanity and for the advancement of the religious interests of the community, which has not only been felt in the lives of hundreds but which will yet tell in the destiny of thousands.
CHRISTIAN CHURCHI.
The Christian Church was organized at Ramsey Creek on February 2, 1823. It continued its organization here, gaining new aecessions and pro- mulgating the essential principles of a vital Christianity until the year 1852, when, becoming numerically strong and feeling themselves financially able to prepare better houses of worship, they agreed to divide the congre- gation into two separate bodies, those north of Ramsey Creek to convene and worship at a house to be built in Clarksville, and those living south of the creek to build a house of worship at Paynesville. This was accordingly done, and in 1852 a splendid church edifice was erected and soon thereafter formally dedicated to the service of God. Among the members of the Ramsey Creek congregation are found the names of Paul Harpoo!, John Mulherrin, Francis Watts, Benjamin Barton, Stephen Mulherrin, Rebecca Mulherrin, W. W. W. Watts, and Jane Barton, the last of whom still sur- vives and is a resident of Paynesville, within three miles of the old church where she first worshiped sixty years ago.
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PAYNESVILLE.
The church at Paynesvile has been unusually prosperous. Under the ·ministration of able and pious pastors, it has continued to grow until now the membership numbers almost two hundred and fifty communicants. The sabbath-school which was coeval with with the church and whose members are constantly supplying the places of the pious dead, now number seventy- five scholars, and what is at least unusual if not remarkable, one superin- tendent, Mr. J. T. Duvall, has served the school for a period of fifteen years. Mr. Frank W. Patton acts in the capacity of clerk of the church and has long had charge of its records.
In connection with the history of this church a brief notice of the life and labors of its late able, devoted, and much loved pastor would seem eminently fitting. Elder J. J. Errett was born in New York City in the year 1815. Having lost his father when a mere- boy he removed with his mother to Peun- sylvania, where the earnings of his early manhood was devoted to the mainte- nance of his aged parent. In 1833, when but eighteen years of age, he be- came a Christian and the whole of his future life illustrated the faith which he then professed. He was married in 1839, and in the fall of the same year removed with his wife to Palmyra, Missouri, where he resided until 1852, when he removed to Paynesville, where he died on the 14th of September, 1880. Mr. Errett was a brother of the Hon. Russell Errett, a member of Congress from the state of Pennsylvania, and also of Elder Isaac Errett, editor of the Christian Standard, and who delivered the funeral oration over the body of the late President Garfield. Before leaving Pal- myra he had been set apart "to do the work of the evangelist," and had preached the word of life to multitudes in different parts of his adopted state. He brought to his work at Paynesville the same zeal and devotion that had characterized the efforts of his earlier labors. Coming among strangers he won their confidence by his fidelity and their affection by the devotion of his talent and his energies to their spiritual interests. From the-"new preacher," scarcely known to any, he came to be the friend and counsellor of all. While it could truly be said of him, "he was a good inan," he possessed the largest sympathies for the frailties of his kind. For thirty years he ministered to this people in holy things and built up one of the strongest churches in all the country. During his ministry here he officiated at two hundred and six marriage ceremonies; immersed 2,174 persons and received by letter into the Church of Christ four hundred and seventy-five members. Hle visited the brethren, nursed the sick, adminis- tered consolation to the dying and spoke of immortality at the grave of the dead. The last sabbath he spent on earth was one of prayer and praise.
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He preached to his people in his own church. Two days later the summons came and found him waiting. Death was instantaneous, and a pure spirit, freed from its tenement of clay, sought its " mansion in the skies."
THE OLD SETTLERS OF THE TOWNSHIP.
It is more than seventy years ago since the first white man built kis cabin within the present limits of Calumet township. For a brief period these solitudes cchioed to the voices of bnt few of the sons of civilization. But within a single decade from the coming of the first few families, there had been planted within the borders of the township several very promising settlements, and the cabins of the "new comers " could now be seen nestled at the foot of the beautiful hills or partially hidden away by the nnder- growth that fringed the margins of the streams. There is nothing pecu- liarly romantic in this early history. If a prehistoric race once trod this fertile soil they have left few mementoes of their being. It is true the In- dians were here, but with the coming of the sons of toil, the children of the forest begun gradually to disappear. Once they traversed these flowery vales and roamed there wooded hills, but they have long since gonc, and gone forever, and their memory lives only in the traditions of the burning cabin and the records of the few victims of the tomahawk and scalping knife. After 1825 it was no longer the Indian who sought his subsistence from the prairie or the wildwood, but the white hunter who trod these wilds upon the track of his game, and who with steady nerve and unerring eye, guided the trusty ritle that sent, speeding on its errand of death, the leaden missile.
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