USA > Missouri > Pike County > The history of Pike County, Missouri : an encyclopedia of useful information, and a compendium of actual facts > Part 5
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55
The early settlers of Calumet township were intellectually and morally the equals of any class of men that has ever planted human habitation within the domain of state or territory upon this western continent. There were among them no single one who was fleeing from the terrors of the law or who had been driven out by social ostracism. They were men who had been reared for the most part in happy homes, surrounded by the comforts of life, with the advantages of the best social relations and with that char- acter of education furnished by the best facilities of the times. Morally, they recognized duty a privilege and right a law; socially, they made the interest of their neighbor paramount to the aggrandizement of self. Financially, but few of the early settlers were very rich and none were very poor. They had come seeking homes and with money to buy them. They had left the older states, not because they could no longer live there, but because they felt that they could do better here. To build homes for their children in the west they had disposed of their own in the east.
-
559
PAYNESVILLE.
The first settlers were principally from Virginia and Kentucky, although some came from North Carolina and a few from Tennessee. Many brought with them a greater or less number of slaves, and the rapid clearing away of the heavy forests and the preparation of the ground for the earliest crops is in large measure attributable to their labor. Under proper care for their physical condition, the increase of this species of property had been so rapid that at the commencement of the Civil War Pike county was one of the very largest slave-holding counties in the state.
It is difficult to assert with any degree of certainty who were the very earliest settlers, but the list given below will furnish accurate information as to the time when many who were among the earliest first came to the township. It is believed by many that Joe Scott was the first white man that ever came into Calumet township, and that as early as 1805 he settled near the present site of Clarksville, where he remained for about two years, when he returned to Kentucky and some years thereafter came back and settled the "Scott's Springs " place in Cuivre township. But it is as late as 1816 and 1817 that any definite and authoritative data can be had respect- ing settlements. In the year 1816 James Burns settled on the present site of the city of Clarksville and Samuel Ewing at a remove of but a few miles from him. In 1814 Jesse Hughs settled about four miles southwest of Clarksville, and in 1817, his brother John Hughs located on a place ad- joining his. The Paynesville neighborhood was settled from 1817 to 1820 by the Mulherrins, Ruddells, McCues, Spears, Burkalews, Weldons, Har- pools, Hansfords, Boxleys, Bartons, and others. The Mulherrins and Bar- tous with William Thomas and others came in 1817, while Andrew Forgey first settled in the neighborhood in 1819, Samuel Shuck in 1820, Thomas Patton about 1824, Dr. C. C. Eastin in 1817, Abram Lear in the same year, while Mordecai Amos and other old settlers came a few years thereafter. The Clarksville neighborhood was settled about 1816 or 1817 by Llewellen Brown, and James C. Fielden, with Robert Burns and Samuel Ewing; and about one or two years thereafter there came Capt. John Stark, Warren Swayne, William Simonds, Ephraim Jenkins, Major J. W. Booth, Jeptha Onsley, John R. Carter and James McCord. William Denny settled two miles west of Clarksville about the year 1817, and Capt. Mackey severa! miles north of it abont the same year. On and near Ramsey Creek and at about the center of the township, Major John Watts had made a set- tlement as early as 1818, while about two miles north of him William MeCuve had located the year before. In the same year in which Watts settled on Ramsey, Win. Patterson, with his two sons, John and William,
560
HISTORY OF PIKE COUNTY.
hadiremoved from St. Louis county and settled upon the farm upon which William now resides. In 1820 Mountjoy Scholl settled in the western part of the township, while Hines Worsham, with his three sons located near Patterson, and in 1823, William LaForce and others settled in its central portion. From this time until 1840 the stream of immigration continued to flow in this directiou, and Virginia and Kentucky were sending out their best and most courageous sons to carve their fortunes out of these western wilds. In this time there had come the Coles, Edwards, Givens, Wilsons Davises, Turners, Vaughans, Clarks, Meriwethers, Goodmans, Bankheads, Schoolers, Paxtons, and others, whose names are as household words, and whose descendants make up a large proportion of both Calumet township and Pike county. Probably the first marriage ever celebrated in the town- ship was that of Julia Muun to Dr. Lane about the year 1817 or 1818. Miss Munu was a daughter of Rev. Munn, a reformed minister, and supposed by many to have been the first preacher in the township. Both the parties re- sided at or near Clarksville. Another very early marriage, and by some supposed to antedate the above, was James Templeton to Miss Mackey, not later than the fall of 1818. John Patterson and Jane Maxwell were married on September 2d, 1819, and this venerable and most estimable old lady is still living and continues to relate with much quaintness and humor many of the happenings of sixty years ago.
The first child born in the township, as remembered by Mrs. Elizabeth Mackey, was Elizabeth Ewing, but just when is not known.
Dr. Lane, who married Miss Munn, is supposed to have been the first physician in the township, although Drs. Stewart, Booth, and Eastin must have been very nearly contemporaneons with him.
The first man killed was John McGee, by the Indians, about the year 1816, and this is also probably the first death ever known in the township. Nancy Ewing was the first to die from disease or natural causes. The first serious accident was the breaking of the leg of John Duke by a falling trec. A man was dispatched to St. Charles for a surgeon, but the creeks were up and he was detained. After waiting for more than two days for the physi- cian and amputation appearing imperative, two of his neighbors undertook the job, and with a butcher-knife and tenant-saw they successfully per- formed the operation, and the man recovered as readily from the effects of this pioneer surgery as though he had passed through the hands of the ex- pert of to-day. This accident happened on the Treadway place, near Paynes- ville, in which neighborhood Duke continned to reside, doing the work of a cobbler and enjoying the liberal pay contributed by his generous neighbors.
.
ยท
,
561
PAYNESVILLE.
The very earliest school teachers were Joe! Music and John Denny, and succeeding the latter, abont 1824, may be mentioned Uriel Griffith, still a resident of the township and now in his ninety-second year. In these years, from 1816 to 1824, Calumet not only progressed in the cultivation of the soil, in the making of fruitful farms and pleasant homes, but the car of progress was freighted with a strong desire for self enlture, aud schools were easily started whenever the number of children was sufficient to jus- tify the teacher in accepting his one dollar and fifty cents per scholar for the term, with the privilege of "boarding round."
The first mill in the township was a "hand mill," or "horse mill," built by Mr. Wells, the grandfather of James R. and George Wells, on what is known as the old George Wells farm, some two miles south of Clarks- ville. From the best data to be had it appears that this mill was built as early as 1816, and that for some time after Mr. Wells's death his widow con- tinued to own and operate it. Two years after the Wells mill was built Andrew Edwards constructed another of like character on the Parson Brown farm, and these two for several years served the convenience and met the wants of the people of the township.
The first church in the township was Ramsey, organized by Stephen Rud- dell in 1818, and situated on a creek of that name, five miles south of Clarksville and three miles north of Paynesville. This church was built by all the settlers of the neighborhood, each one bringing a log and after- wards lending their united efforts to its raising and completion.
Among the earliest preachers of the gospel were Davis Biggs, Baptist; G. C. Light and Andrew Monroe, Methodists; Messrs. Matthews, Weden, and James W. Campbell, Presbyterians; and Stephen Ruddell, by some thought to have been a Baptist and by others claimed as a Reformer, or Christian preacher.
The first justice of the peace for Calumet township was Richard Kerr, who resided on the farm now owned by Mr. John Treadway. First cousta- ble was John Duke, the same whose leg was broken by a falling tree.
The first blacksmith was Daniel Walker, whose shop was situated on the old Frunnels place, now owned by John F. Turner.
The first carpenter was John Chambers, who built more looms than houses.
The first to weave cloth was Hannah Patterson, who as early as the year 1818 had supplied her own family and some of her neighbors with the pro- duct of the loom.
The first suicide was John Melnary, who hung himsef in the neighbor-
P
562
HISTORY OF PIKE COUNTY.
hood of Crow's Cross Roads in the year 1820, and in 1842 Hannah Patter- gon, residing in the same neighborhood, committed the same act, hanging herself with a skein of yarn in an old shop situated on the farm.
The only person ever executed under sentence of the law from the town- ship, or even within the limits of Pike county, was a negro man, Lewis, who was bung for the murder of his master, Reason Mackey, in August, 1841.
No mob law has ever been put into execution in the township, and the people have frequently attested their loyalty to good order and the provis- ions of the statutes by refraining from acts of violence under circumstances of the greatest provocation.
The first tau-yard was on the place now owned and occupied by George Fielder and was conducted by Charles Mountjoy. The next was on the Graves farm, under the supervision of Thomas Patton, late of Paynesville.
ADDENDA.
We add here some additional data respecting the old settlers, their cus- toms, etc., which has been received since the foregoing was written. Mr. George Fielder and other very old settlers believe that the first cabin was built in the township by old Mr. Ramsey, at the big spring on the farm af- terwards owned by Samuel Wilson. Ramsey was driven off by the Indians and afterwards settled at Bryant's Lick. These gentlemen believe that Burkalew was the next comer after Ramsey. John, James, and Thomas Mackey, three brothers from North Carolina, also settled in the township as early as 1816 or 1817, and Joseph Mackey, whose most estimable widow still survives, living with her son Thomas, on the old homestead, was mar- ried in 1822 and immediately commenced to plant a home in the township. Edmund Mountjoy, who gave the land upon which Ramsey Creek Church was built, was also settled here as early as 1816 er 1817. ' The Jamisons also came at a very early day. Among the earliest school teachers Mr. Fielder has heard of Sati, a Frenchman, who taught not later than 1818 or 1819. Mr. Fielder, who came with his father, has also been here for but little less than sixty years. Mr. Fielder says "our clothes were bark-colored jeans and flax shirts for winter wear, and for summer tow linen pants." " When we learned to dress the deer skins our winter wear was partially changed, as we donned the buck breeches and encased our hardened feet in the soft and yielding moccasin." He says further, " I never wore a boot until I was seventeen years of age." Among the early marriages in his recollection Mr. Fielder remembers as the first that of John Jamison to Miss
563
PAYNESVILLE.
Nancy Cantrell, the ceremony being performed at his father's house. The settlers at first made their own clothing. For a while cotton, in small patches, was grown, and flax was a common crop. The men would pull and break the flax and the women would pick the cotton, and from the two was spun and woven the wearing apparel of both sexes. Nettles, which grew in rich luxuriance, were also gathered, broken with the brake, hackled, and woven into eloth for pants and sacks. At this early day coffee was fifty cents per pound and sugar almost as dear, so that the common table bever- age of the early settler was rye (not. Rio) nicely browned and sweetened with maple engar or wild honey. History has in this case repeated itself, for from 1861 to 1865 many of the residents of Calumet township became fa- miliar with "rye coffee," whose chalky appearance and mealy taste will for- ever be associated with the recollections of that unfortunate war.
THE O'NEILL MURDER.
The O'Neill family came to Calumet as early as 1811 and settled in the extreme northern portion of the township ,npon the farin now owned and cultivated by Peter Gaeger. In the latter part of 1817 or 1818 the Judians came down the opposite bank of the river and crossing to the Missouri side murdered the mother and eleven children. They were tomahawked, scalped, and stripped of their clothing and their dead bodies left scattered about the yard. The family was engaged in making soap at the time of the appear- ance of the Indians, and it is said that the bodies of the mother and one child bore evidence of having been tortured to death by being repeatedly dipped into the boiling cauldron. Mr. O'Neill was absent from home, at the time having gone to St. Charles, with his neighbor John Mackey, on business; he returned to find that his home had been invaded and all his loved ones slain; his great grief over his own sad loss did not prevent his caring for the safety of others; he notified Mr. Mackey whom he had left but a few hours before, and together they alarmed the settlement. The bodies of the dead were hastily thrown into the cellar for burial, as there was time for no more decent or elaborate sepultre, and the few families of the neigh- borhood hastened for protection to the nearest, fort.
GAME.
There was very much game in the early days of the township and almost every one was a hunter. It is true that the elk and the buffalo had disap- peared, but deer were very abundant, and droves of turkeys could be seen almost anywhere, while the drumming of the pheasant and the whirr of the
564
HISTORY OF PIKE COUNTY.
partridge were sounds familiar to every ear; ducks, geese, brant, swans, and other water-fowl sought then, as now, the lakes and streams of Calumet and in almost countless numbers; the forests were alive with squirrels whose constant barking became monotonous and annoying while their raids upon the corn patches of the carly settlers were fearfully destructive. In the camp hunts of the early times it was not unusual for one company to kill as many as thirty deer, while the turkeys and smaller game were never reck- oned in the count. Two men, Joe and Reuben McCoy, killed eighteen deer in less than a week as late as 1830, on and near the ground now occupied by Hawkins and Bankhead's ranch on Bryant's Creek, and Carson Jamison re- ports that in 1529 at "Cole's Point" seven deer were killed in fifteen minutes after the firing of the first gun. But should we attempt the relation of even one-half of the stories (facts) told in connection with the killing of game during this early period, we would be regarded by the reader of the present times as a rejuvenated Baron Munchausen, or an enlarged and improved edition of the mendacious Eli Perkins. Wolves were also unpleasantly nu- merous and made many a raid upon the settler's sheep-folds and pig-pens, frequently carrying away the lambs from the very chimney corners of the houses, where they had been penned for greater safety. But if they fattened upon the product of the fold, they also furnished rare sport for the inen and dogs, and after a few years the hound and the rifle had driven the skulking cowards into regions beyond the reach of civilization. The streams also abounded in the finest fish, which were easily taken with hook or net and the tables of the carly settlers were often supplied with this delicious and healthful article of diet. Bee trees were also plentiful and wild honey abundant. In every house could be found honey, clear and limpid and nec- tar-like to the taste. Surely if the old settlers lacked a few of the luxuries, they possessed many of the comforts of life, and with the earth, the streams and the forests to minister to their wants, they could feel assured that the physical man was well provided for and gratefully accept all the good things bestowed by the liberal hand of the great and munificent giver.
SOCIAL LIFE OF THE EARLY SETTLERS.
The social life of the early settlers was as pleasant and agreeable as that of the people of to-day, and by many believed to have been even more cheerful and happy. Mutual dependence naturally attracts men to each other, and the knowledge that the good of the community depended upon the action of the individuals composing it, favorably affected the conduet of all. At times all needed assistance, and hence each felt willing to do what he
.
565
PAYNESVILLE.
could for his fellow man, whether he was his brother, his neighbor, or a way- faring man and a stranger within his gates. When a house was to be raised it was understood that everybody that beard of it was invited and expected to be present, unless unavoidably kept away; many a house has been raised in this township when there were present men from territory now in Lincoln county, fifteen miles away. The first cabins were usually of small round logs, and could be put up by a few men; but after a little while as the settlers grew wealthy and high-toned, (?) hewed-log-houses, a story and a half high, and sometimes double, came into vogue, and to put ny one of these required the assembling of about all of the male adults of the township; and, how cheer- fully they came, how cordially they greeted each other as the horny hand of the one was placed in the hardened palm of the other. Our modern eti- qnette and artificial politeness has tanght us to lift the smoothly brushed hat as we touch the kid covered fingers, while our mere semblance of good will but shames the sincere friendship of our fathers. But apart from house- raisings, there were log-rollings and corn-huskings in abundance; and while the men were at their work, often the women would have a quilting or a wool-picking in the house. These occasions generally terminated with a dance at night, where the "old folks" were not extra pions and did not hold dancing in abhorrence; but where the master and mistress "belonged to meeting," there was a "play-party" instead, with any amount of fun and "lots" of promisenous kissing and vigorous hugging, with jollity commin- gled. Oh! for another settlement of this dear old township! Disturbances seldom happened, though a fisticuff would occasionally occur, when each of the combatants was shown fair play and the one that was defeated would acknowledge it, when both would wash the blood from their noses, shake hands and be as fast friends as before.
The marriage of a young couple furnished another occasion for the joy- ous assembling of the early settlers. At that time the bride and groom sel- dom made a bridal tour, and the prospective happiness of the pair was never measured by the number or costliness of the presents. They usually re- mained at home, the young husband to labor in the field or the forest, and the blushing bride to keep the new-made home and cook the frugal meal. No editors were then hired with cakes and plums to say that the "groom was attired in conventional black," or to elaborate the beauty of the toilet of the bride. The suit of the husband came not from London, nor the dress of the wife from Paris, but his costurae was frequently drawn from the for- est, while her troussean was the product of the hand-loom. But their un- pretentious dress detracted naught from their merit, and he was as brave
U
566
HISTORY OF PIKE COUNTY.
in his vigorous manhood, and she as pure in her noble womanhood as any who, attired in the faultless and costly garments of fashion, have ever stood in darkened church, at holy altar, or neath the hanging marriage bell. But no human cup is filled with joys, and with the pleasures of life are mingled sadness and tears. If it was a wedding one day it might be a funeral the next, and they who but yesterday rejoiced with the happy and light-hearted might be called to-day to mourn with the bereaved and despondent. Ilow sadly they missed the departed; how tenderly they laid him to rest. They were but a few in a wild country and the loss of a single one was sorely felt; but they were men and women of brave hearts, and from the grave of the dead they turned to console the living and to extend to the new comer a wel- come warm and hearty. This is a brief outline of the social life of the early settlers of Calumet township; a class of brave and generous men and women whose equals are seldom seen and whose superiors are unknown. A large majority of these old settlers have now passed away; others are following them in swift succession to the tomb, and ere long the last one will have for- ever disappeared from view. May He who led them to this favored land still guide the tottering footsteps of the remaining few and give in the glad hereafter a reunion alike glorious and complete.
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
CLARKSVILE.
Rev. Taylor Bernard. pastor C. P. Church, Clarksville. This gentle- man is a native of Pike county, Missouri, born at New Frankford, in 1850. His father, Orlando Bernard, came originally from Kentucky, and died when the subject of our sketch was quite young. After the death of his father he went to live with his grandfather, where he remained until 1861. Hle received his primary education at the common school and then attended the Watson Seminary at Ashley five years. After leaving school he en- gaged in preaching. He attended the theological department of the Cum- berland University at Lebanon, Tennessee, graduating in June, 1882. In September of the same year he assumed the duties of pastor of the C. P. churches at this place and at Corinth in this county. Our subject's mother was originally Miss Helen Scanland, daughter of Charles Seanland, who was from Virginia, and came to Missouri in 1819. She is still living and is quite active for her age. Her present home is in Montgomery county, this state.
567
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
Benjamin F. Boone, of the firm of Boone & Hemphill. Few men have been more thoroughly identified and have contributed more to the general character and financial standing of the mercantile status of Clarksville than Mr. Benjamin F. Boone, who is a native of this state and was born in Lin- coln county, near the town of New Hope, on the 22d day of April, 1836. His father, William Boone, was by birth a Kentuckian and a distant relative of the distinguished and celebrated Daniel Boone, of Kentucky. William Boone emigrated to Missouri in the year 1829, and tirst settled in this part of the county; then moved to Lincoln connty, where he settled on a farm, and where he continued to reside and follow the avocation of a farmer until his death, which occurred in 1863. The mother of Benjamin F. Boone, our subject, was Clara, daughter of Capt. John Wallington, of Revolutionary fame. She is still living and is in her eightieth year, and is making her home with our subject, and she is in the full enjoyment of all her faculties. Mr. Benjamin F. Boone, who spent his boyhood days ou a farm, received the rudiments of his education, at the common school, and when pretty well grown he entered Jones' Commercial College of St. Louis, Missouri, where he graduated in 1858. He then came to Clarksville and entered the store of Carroll, Cummings & Co. as clerk, which position he filled for one year. In 1860 Mr. Boone went to New Hope, where be em- barked in the mercantile trade upon his own account, which he continued successfully for several years. In 1865 he returned to Clarksville and asso- ciated himself with his brother, the style of the firm being Boone & Bro. His brother disposed of his interest to R. B. Campbell; this firm continuing until 1874, when Mr. Campbell retired, Mr. Boone buying his interest. In 1876 the present firm, Boone & Hemphill, was established, which is one of the largest dry goods and clothing honses in Pike county. Mr. Boone was married to Miss Nannie M., daughter of Dr. Easton, a very successful and distinguished physician of Paynesville. They have by this union three boys. Mr. Boone is a prominent member of the Masonic fraternity, and he and his estimable lady are both consistent members of the Christian Church.
Daniel D. Boone. The Boone family in this country are the descend- ants of seven brothers of that name who came over with William Penn, and settled in Pennsylvania. They were from Devonshire, England. From Pennsylvania they scattered over the different States. William Boone, father of the subject of this sketch, was born in the Territory of Ohio, April 15, 1797. He was the son of Jacob and Mary (Dehart) Boone. They were among the first white people to settle in Kentucky. Jacob was a first
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.