Buchanan County, Missouri - Horack Greeley-Lincoln -Seward - Seward's Speech-Grant-Sherman-Hayes, 1881

Horack Greeley-Lincoln -Seward - Seward's Speech-Grant-Sherman-Hayes

May 13, 1859, Horace Greeley, editor of the New York Tribune, passed through St. Joseph on his way to the Ossawattamie Convention, Kansas. December i, 1859, Abraham Lincoln, afterward President of the United States, passed through St. Joseph on his way to Kansas.

On the 22d December, i860, William H. Seward, Secretary of State, under President Lincoln, reached St. Joseph. He was escorted fronj the cars to the Patee House, and being introduced from the balcony by Mr. T. J. Boynton, made the following speech :

Mr. Chairman, Gentlemen and Fellov^^ Citizens: - I think that I have sometime before this said, that the most interesting and agreeable surprises that ever human being has had on this earth, was that which Columbus felt when, after his long and tedious voyage in search of a continent, the existence of which was unknown to himself, as to all mankind, and the evidence of whose existence was nothing but a suggestion of his own philosophy, surrounded as he was by a mutinous crew, who were determined on the destruction of his own life if he should continue the voyage unsuccessfully another day, he went out at night on the deck of his little vessel, and there rose up before him, in the dark, the shadow of an island, with habitations lighted by human beings like himself. That was the most interesting surprise that ever occurred to any man on earth. And yet I do not think that Columbus was much more surprised than I and those who are with me have been to-night.

We have been traveling in a land of friends and brethren, through many states, from Maine to Missouri, along the shores of the ocean, along the shores of the great lakes, and along the banks of the great rivers, and I will not deny that our footsteps have been made pleasant by kind and friendly and fraternal greetings. We entered the soil of Missouri this morning at ten o'clock, feeling that, although we had a right to regard the people of Missouri as our brethren, and although we were their brethren and friends, yet we were to be regarded by its citizens as strangers, if not aliens and enemies ; but this welcome which greets us here, surpasses anything that we have experienced in our sojournings from Bangor, in the State of Maine, to this place. The discovery that here there is so much of kindness for us ; so much of respect and consideration, takes us by surprise. I will confess freely that it effects us with deep sensibility, for we did not propose to visit St. Joseph. There is a land beyond you - a land redeemed and saved for freedom, through trials and sufferings that have commended its young and growing people to the respect of mankind and to our peculiar sympathy.

We proposed to be quiet travelers through the State of Missouri, hoping and expecting without stopping here, to rest this night on the other side of the Missouri, where we know we would be welcome, [a voice - we wont hurt you.] No, I know you won't hurt me. The man who never wished evil to any human being, who challenges enemies as friends to show the wrong with which any being made in his own form ean accuse him when he comes before the bar of justice, has no fear of being harmed in the country of his birth and of his affection. But I stated that, not merely for the purpose of showing how agreeable is this fraternal welcome. It is full of promise. I pass over all that has been said to me of consideration to myself There are subjects on which I take no verdict from my fellow-citizens. I choose to take the approbabation of my own conscience if I can get it, and to wait till a future age for the respect and consideration of mankind. But I will dwell for one moment on this extraordinary scene, full of assurance on many points, and interesting to every one of you as it is to me. The most cheering fact, as it is the most striking one in it, is that we, who are visitors and pilgrims to Kansas, beyond you, find that we have reached Kansas already, on the northern shores of the Missouri River. Now, come up here - if there are any such before me - you who are so accustomed to sound an alarm about the danger of a dissolution of the Union ; come wp here and look at the scene of Kansas and Missouri, so lately hostile, brought together on either shore in the bonds of fraternal affection and friendship. That is exactly what will always occur when you attempt to divide this people, and to set one portion against another. The moment you have brought the people to the point, where there is the least degree of danger to the national existence felt, then those whom party malice or party ambition have arrayed against each other as enemies, will embrace each other as friends and brethren.

Let me tell you this simple truth ; that though you live in the land ©f slavery, there is not a man among you who does not love slavery less than he loves the Union. Nor have I ever met the man who loved freedom so much, under any of the aspects involved in the present Presidential issues, as he loved the Union, for it is only through the stability and perpetuity of the Union that any blessings whatever may be expected to descend on the American people.

And now, fellow citizens, there is another lesson which this occasion and this demonstration teach. They teach that there is no difference whatever in the nature, constitution or character of the people of the several states of the Union, or of the several sections of the Union. They are all of one nature, if they are not all native born, and educated ' in the same sentiments. Although many of them came from distant lands, still the very effect of their being American citizens is to make them all alike.

I will tell you why this is so. The reason is simply this : the Democratic principle that every man ought to be the owner of the soil that he cultivates, and the owner of the limbs and the head that he applies to that culture, has been adopted in some of the states earlier than others, and where it -was adopted, earliest, it has worked out the fruits of higher advancement, of greater enterprise, of greater prosperity. Where it has not been. adopted, enterprise and industry have languished in proportion. But it is going through ; it's bound to go through. [A voice - It's not going through here.] Yes, here. As it has already gone through eighteen states of the Union, so it is bound to go through all of the other fifteen. It is bound to go through all of the thirty-three states of the Union for the simple reason that it is going through the world."

In 1868, General Grant was here, and in 1879, Rutherford B. Hayes, then President of the United States, in company with Mrs. Hayes and General Sherman, was present at the opening of the fair at St. Joseph.

Park And Boulevard

" Here we sit gracefully reclining upon our seven hills, forty thousand souls, with block after block of costly business houses, wherein thousands upon top of thousands of dollars change hands daily ; with beautiful residences and everything necessary to make this the city of the west, yet not a park have we. It has been a standing disgrace to us for years, but thanks to Messrs. Chapman & Cornell, the live real estate dealers under the News office, for one. They were far-seeing, and imbued with a love for their home and determined to have a park, or know the reason why. They went to work some time ago, and have kept up a " still hunt" which has proven very successful. ' They labored late and early, and last week completed all arrangements, and it is at last definitely settled that within a very short time St.,Joseph will have a park and a iboulevard which will be an honor and a credit to the Queen City.

The land has been purchased from different parties during the last six months, and has been all sown in blue grass this spring. The tract einbraces what is known as the old Richardson or Hawley farm, lying north of Corby's Grove, part of Corby's Addition, and two other tracts adjoining these pieces. It is beautifully diversified with hill and dale, , has some seventy-five acres of lovely woodland, several springs and streams, and one of the finest orchards in Buchanan County. There are several high points on it that command a view of St. Joseph and the surioiinding country. Near the center of the park will be a mile track, one hundred feet wide. Surveyors and parties who have looked at the ground say it will make the best track in the West. While the plans of the projectors of this enterprise are not yet fully developed, as an initial step they propose at once to raise a subscription to make the boulevard from Faraon Street north on Twenty-second Street, until it strikes their ground, where they will widen it to one hundred feet, and run it through the proposed park on the section line, to a point near A. P. Gofi's residence, making a splendid boulevard two miles long. Mrs. Corby has consented to give half the road where it strikes her line, and, also, to, give the right of way, one hundred feet wide, through her land for a drive, which will deflect to the east and run partly through her land and partly through the park to a point on the Rochester Road, just north of Ashland. The drive will continue on the Rochester Road to a point known as " Lovers' Lane," returning on that drive will pass A. P. Goff's residence, and intersect the boulevard, running north from Twenty-sec-i - ond Street. This makes a drive of about five miles, a great portion of . which is beautifully shaded. Frederick Avenue, from Twenty-second. Street and the Rochester Road, passing W. G. Fairleigh's, Captain Charles West's, John B. Hundley's, and William Carson's places, to intersect the boulevard passing east out of the park, will also form one of the beautiful drives.

New Ulm Park

New Ulm Park is located about one mile north from the limits off the city, and is accessible by the street railroad. The grounds were laid out about fifteen years ago, and contain eighteen acres of ground, eight of which are enclosed. The grounds are handsomely ornamented with cultivated shade trees of different varieties. At present, there are in the park, as objects of attraction, a few deer, bear, wolves, white rabbits, etc., and several species of birds. Schaeffer & Rosemund are the proprietors. -

Death Of Joseph Robidoux History Of St. Joseph

"The funeral obsequies of the late Joseph Robidoux most conclusively manifested that the citizens of St. Joseph were not unmindful of the deep obligations due to the deceased, the founder of the city, who had so cheerfully sacrificed his time and money to aid the growth and establish the prosperity of St. Joseph.

At noon all the places of business were closed, and in all parts of the city there was a general suspension of business during the remainder of the day. Edmond Street, in the neighborhood of the residence of Jule Robidoux, Sr., was densely crowded during the early hours of the afternoon, by the old and young, all anxious to take a last look at the remains of the old pioneer, whose name is inseparably connected with the city of St. Joseph. Before the hour named for the funeral procession, the neighboring streets were literally packed with conveyances, while the sidewalks were crowded with hundreds of our residents.

Simeon Kemper, Wm. Fowler, Robert Carter, E. W. Welch, Judge Schreiber and Governor R. M. Stewart, all old citizens, officiated as pall-bearers. ,

At three o'clock, the funeral procession was formed as follows : Police, delegation of firemen, the hearse with the remains of the deceased, guarded by his grand-children, relations of the deceased, the old settlers, the Mayor and members of the City Council, and citizens in general.

We know not whether the site of his grave is marked by marble slab Or granite shaft, or whether anything exists to tell the stranger of the exact burial place of Joseph Robidoux. We do know, however, that the grandest and most enduring monument of him, is the city he founded. His name, and the names of his children, will live co-extensive in history with the name of St. Joseph, -

The Pony Express

One of the most noted events in the history of St. Joseph was the starting, on Tuesday evening, April 3d, i860, of the pony express for San Francisco.

At a given signal, a cannon shot from the Patee House, the fleet little animal with its light and active rider, darted from the doorway of the old Pike's Peak Stables, which then stood on Penn, between Ninth and Tenth Streets, opposite the Patee Park, and in a few minutes was at the United States Express office, on Third Street, between Felix and Edmond. Here, amid the cheers and huzzas of the vast throng assembled to witness the event, the rider received his light burden of dispatches, and again, at 7:15 P. M., darted off, directing his course to the ferryboat at the foot of Jule Street, and, in a few minutes after, was pursuing his wild career to the distant West.

"On last Tuesday evening the pony express of Messrs. Majors, Russell & Co., started from this city amid the shouts and cheers of hundreds of persons who had gathered together on the spot from whence it was to depart, to witness the opening of this grand enterprise.

" All being desirous of preserving a memento of the flying messenger, the little pony was almost robbed of his tail. The train which bore the messenger over the Hannibal & St. Joseph Railroad, accomplished the distance from Palmyra to this city, in four hours and fifty minutes, averaging thirty-six miles per hour, including stoppages.

" The pony express made Kinnekuk, a distance of forty-five miles, in four hours and fifteen minutes, and was met by the express from Salt Lake 14O miles out, being then only thirteen hours from St. Joseph."

"Elwood* to Marysville, 12 hours; Fort Kearney, 34 hours; Laramie, 80 hours ; Bridger, 108 hours ; Salt Lake, 124 hours; Camp Floyd, 128 hours; Carson City, 188 hours; Placerville, 226 hours; Sacramento, 232 hours ; San Francisco, 240 hours.

As may be supposed, the transmission of messages over this line effected at no trifling cost, and those who had occasion to avail themselves of its convenience made it a point to study brevity of expression. An amusing incident is chronicled as having transpired in this connection. Baldwin, the leading theatrical manager of San Francisco, sent to Artemus Ward, in New York, the following dispatch : " What will you take for forty nights .?" The great humorist, who never lost an opportunity for a joke, promptly replied, at the expense of the manager, "Brandy and water." Baldwin, it appears, had the good sense to accept the joke, and by means of a perhaps less ambiguous communication, afterwards effected a mutually profitable engagement with the witty and jocose Artemus.

*Elwood, formerly a thriving, popul jus village of Kansas, opposite St. Joseph, now (1881) existing only in name, having long since disappeared by the caving of the Missouri River banks.

The following interesting scrap of history is taken from the Herald : The facts narrated constitute the most remarkable feat ever recorded in the annals of time. We regret that the article is not more lengthy, and that all the facts and incidents connected with this ride of two thousand miles are not given.

"In 1859, St, Joseph was the western terminus of railroad communication. Beyond, the stage-coach, the saddle-horse and the ox-trains were the only means of commerce and communication with the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific Slope. In the winter of i860, there was a Wail Street lobby at Washington, trying to get $5,000,000 for carrying the mails overland one year between New York and San Francisco. The proposition was extremely cheeky, and Wm. H. Russell, backed by Secretary of War Floyd, resolved to give the lobby a cold shower-bath- He therefore offered to bet $200,000 that he could put on a mail line from San Francisco to St. Joseph that should make the distance - 1,950 miles in ten days. The bet was taken and the 8th of 'April fixed upon as the day for starting. Mr. Russell called his partner and general manager of business upon the plains, Mr. A. B. Miller, now a citizen of Denver, and stated what he had done, and asked if he could perform the feat. Miller replied: 'Yes sir, I'll do it, and do it by pony express.' To accomplish this, Miller purchased 300 of the fleetest horses he could find in the west, and employed 125 men. Eighty of these men were to be post-riders. These were selected with reference to their light weight and their known bravery and courage. It was very essential that the horses should be loaded as light as possible : therefore the lighter the man the better. It was necessary that some portions of the route should be run at the rate of twenty miles an hour. The horses were stationed from ten to twenty miles apart, and each rider would be required to ride sixty miles. For the change of animals and the shifting of the mails two minutes were allowed. Where there were no stage stations at proper distances, tents sufficient to hold one man and two horses were provided. Indians would sometimes give chase, but their cayuse ponies made very sorry show in their stern chase after Miller's thoroughbreds, many of which could make a single mile in a minute and fifty seconds.

All arrangements being completed, a signal gun on the steamer at Sacramento proclaimed the meridian of April 8th, i860, the hour for starting - when 'Border Rufifian,' Mr. Miller's private saddle horse, with Billy Baker in the saddle, bounded away toward the foothills of the Sierra Nevadas, and made his ride of twenty miles in forty-nine minutes. The snows were deep in the mountains, and one rider was ^ lost for several hours in a snow storm, and after Salt Lake Valley was reached additional speed became 'necessary to reach St. Joseph time. From here on all went well until the Platte was to be crossed at Julesburg. The river was up and running rapidly, but the rider plunged his horse into the flood, only, however, to mire in quicksand and drown. The courier succeeded in reaching- the shore, with his mail bag in hand, and traveled ten miles on foot to reach the next relay. Johnny Fry, a popular rider of his day, was to make the finish. He had sixty miles to ride with six horses to do it. When the last courier arrived at the sixty-mile post, out from St. Joseph, he was one hour behind time. A heavy rain, had set in and the roads were slippery. Two hundred thousand dollars might turn upon a single minute. Fry had just three hours and thirty minutes in which to win. This was the finish of the longest race and stake ever run in America. When the time for his arrival was nearly up, at least 5,ooo people stood upon the river bank, with eyes turned toward the woods from which the horse and its rider should emerge into the open country in the rear of Elwood - one mile from the finish. Tick, tick, went thousands of watches ! The time was nearly up ! But nearly seven minutes remained ! Hark ? a shout goes up from the assembled multitude ! 'He comes ! he comes ! ' The noble little mare ' Sylph,' the daughter of little ' Arthur,' darts like an arrow from the bow and makes the run of the last mile in one minute and fifty seconds, landing upon the ferryboat with five minutes and a fraction to spare. *

The Homes Of St. Joseph

Chief among the many attractions of St. Joseph, are the homes of its citizens. There is perhaps no city of its size in the United States that has a greater number of elegant mansions. St. Joseph is to her citizens what Athens was to the Athenian of the age of Perricles ; what Florence was to the Florentine of the fifteenth century. They are not only proud of their city, because of its commercial importance, but especially proud of it because it is associated in their minds with all the domestic affections and endearments of loved homes ; homes to which the banker,, the merchant and the shopkeeper repair when the evening shadows fall,, knowing that the genial fireside, the social table and the quiet bed are all there. Appropos to the subject, we here quote from the report of the Board of Trade of 1881 :

"A larger percentage of its population live in houses and lots unencumbered, owned by their occupants, than any other city in the Great West. Outside of the massive structures of its compact business districts, stretching for miles, are the neat frame and brick residences of the mechanics, artisans and small shop-keepers, and the cleanly, white cottages of the laboring population, each surrounded by a liberal plot of ground, the whole covering a vast territory.

" The wealth of room and air thus afforded the poorer population is. increased by numerous little parks and garden plots that dot its wide expanse of white and red with spots of green, so frequent that the chil- dren of every neighborhood have a convenient place of recreation in some of them. The first care of every lot owner seems to be to set out trees, principally indigenous elms and maples, which grow in rich luxuriance, and are so numerous that, viewed from one of our towering bluffs, many portions of the city have the appearance of an unbroken forest or well-kept parks. The householders are equally solicitous about their patches of ground, and their lawns and bloonaing flower-beds are so common that their absence is the rare exception. The homes of the St. Joseph mechanic are as interesting within as without. The works of refinement and comfort pervade them everywhere.

"The beauty of St. Joseph, unlike other cities, is reflected largely from the homes of its working classes, but it by no means depends entirely upon lovely cottages. Radiating through ithe avenues and streets devoted to residences, many of which rival the celebrated residential districts of any of our great cities, in the splendor of its architecture, the smoothness of its well-kept pavements, and the expanse and beauty of the grounds surrounding, are elegant mansions, which in some cases cover an entire square. These are not the growth of a day, but in some cases are the monuments of a life of industry and economy."

Tom. Farris

St. Joseph became again the headquarters of an organized band of thieves, from 1847 to 185 1, who baffled all attempts of officers and law abiding citizens to convict, notwithstanding there are many of them well known, and their robberies almost of weekly occurrence. The gang was headed by one Tom. Farris, an old man of pleasant address and rather prepossessing appearance. He stole everything he wanted, and many things that he did not want, but he could never be detected.

John Corby was the first pork packer in St. Joseph, and he was annoyed very much by "Old Tom. Farris," as he was called, stealing hams from his smoke house for the use of his family and friends. When Mr. Corby proposed to him one day, that if he would take shoulders, he would supply him with all he and his family could use, but he didn't like to have him steal his hams, Old Farris replied that he would rather have hams.

During the great rush for California, in the days of '49, Tom. Farris was in his glory, and many a victim to his artful tricks was compelled to pay tribute to the old rogue. In the spring of 1849, the facilities for crossing the Missouri River, were limited to a few unweildy flat boats, and the waters being very high at that season of the year, made the crossing of the thousands of gold seekers very slow and tedious.

their white covered wagons, the scene resembled more the camp of a grand army than anything else. It lacked only the blue coat and brass buttons, with the bugles sounding reveille, or retreat, to complete the picture.

Many were compelled to wait for weeks their turn to undergo the trying ordeal of crossing their trains. Tom Farris was busy then. A train of wagons, or perhaps a single outfit, would move to the river bank, preparatory to crossing in the morning, unhitch their cattle, drop their chains in a line, as is the usual custom, and camp for the night, eagerly looking for the morrow, when they would go on their way rejoicing. Lo, and behold ! when morning came they missed their chains and were unable to hitch up. The hind wheel of a wagon was gone. Their time had come to cross after waiting a week or two, and they could not move. No chains could be found in St. Joseph ; the supply was exhausted. To have a new wheel made was next to impossible. What a straight ! There is always a way out of the greatest difficulties. Some ministering angel seems to work out our salvation when we think we are lost. Tom Farris was far from being an angel then ; we don't know what he may be now. However, he appeared as one of these men. A kind, portly, prepossessing old man as he was. He would walk down, with his cane in his hand, along the river bank, and coming to the camp of the unfortunates, would say, "Well, boys, your off to-day ; good luck to you." The conversation would at once turn upon the lost chains and missing wheel. Old Tom would extend his sympathy. " That is too bad ! too bad ! Some mischievious boys, they are always up to some mischief. " Tom would engage himself to hunt the wheel up, of course they would pay him well. The old man would hunt diligently for a short time, and finally discover a stout rope fastened to a stake in the water's edge, draw it in, and with the missing wheel, to the joy of the owners. Of course he would get his ten or twenty dollars. " Now, boys, I guess I can help you out on a few chains, though I don't like to let them go, for there are none to be had in these parts, and they are worth money," would come from his generous lips. They would pay any price. Farris had a few barrels of chains salted down. When he would steal the new chains at night, he would put salt on them to rust them, and sell them back to their owners in the morning. Many stores and dwellings were robbed from time to time by Farris and his gang, but notwithstanding the leaders were well known, they always managed to evade the law, and it was impossible to fasten any evidence upon them.

One fine May day, the good people of St. Joseph became so tired of their stealing, that old Tom and his first lieutenant, a handsome and finely dressed man, was conducted to the top of Prospect Hill, and there received the kind admonitions of the raw-hide to the tune of one hundred each, with a pass through the lines good for thirty minutes. This broke up their thieving gang, and St. Joseph had a breathing spell.