Buchanan County, Missouri - Chapter 7 (1 of 2 so headed), 1900

Chapter 7

THE STATE CAPITAL. - SOME EIRST THINGS IN MISS< )URI. - LEWIS AND CLARK. - NEW MADRID EARTHQUAKE. - DANIEL BOONE. - CHOLERA. - IMPRISONMENT FOR DEBT. - GASCONADE BRIDGE DISASTER. - RAILROAD BONDS AND STATE AID. - IOWA BOUNDARY LINE. - "IMPERIAL MISSOURI."

The first seat of government of the State of Missouri was at St. Louis. In 1821 the capital was changed to St. Charles, but this was not satisfactory, for immigration was pushing to the broad prairies of the west. By a revision of the constitution it was provided that the capital be located on the Missouri River, within forty miles of the mouth of the Osage. A commission was appointed, and after examining many localities, they decided upon the spot where Jefferson City now stands. The town was named after Thomas Jefferson, the third President of the United States. The capitol was located upon four sections of land donated bv the United States government. It was large enough to meet the needs of the state at the time, and stood until 1837, when it was destroyed by fire. The legislature met in the new state building in 1826. The oldest portion of the present capitol was erected after the destruction of the original building.

The following are some of the first things that occurred in Missouri: 'Fhe first marriage took place April 20, 1766, at St. Louis. The first baptism was performed in May, 1776, at St. Louis. The first house of worship (Catholic) was erected in 1775 at St. Louis. The first ferry was established in 1805 on the Mississippi River at St. Louis. The first newspaper was established in 1808. This was the Missouri Gazette, and the St. Louis Republic represents the perpetuation of this pioneer in journalism. The first postoffice was established at St. Louis in 1804, with Rufus Easton as postmaster. The first Protestant church (Baptist) was erected at Ste. Genevieve in 1806. The first bank was established at St. Louis in 1814. It was called the Bank of St. Louis. The first college was built at St. Louis in 1814. The first market house was opened at St. Louis in 1811. The first steamboat on the Upper Mississippi River was the General Pike, which landed at St. Louis in 1817. The first steamboat that came up the Missouri River was the Independence, which touched at Franklin in 1819. The first court house was erected at St. Louis in 1823. The first line of telegraph reached St. Louis December 20, 1847.

Lewis and Clark, the explorers, began their ascent of the Missouri River in May of 1804. Captain Meriwether Lewis and William Clark were accompanied by forty-three men and a servant. The party stopped off frequently and explored the surrounding country, collected information concerning the Indians, the soil, the tributaries to the rivers, etc.

The earthquake that destroyed New Madrid occurred after midnight of December 16, 1811. By this terrific convulsion vast tracts of land were plunged into the Mississippi River, large lakes were made in an instant, trees split in the middle, great fissures were formed where the earth had burst, and hundreds of them remained for years afterward. After the earthquake the country about New Madrid exhibited a melancholy aspect. Congress enacted laws permitting the earthquake sufferers to locate the same amount of lands in other parts of the territory, but owing to their ignorance of the ways of the world many of them were cheated out of their claims by unscrupulous speculators.

Daniel Boone, the famous pioneer, came to Missouri in 1794 and settled forty-five miles north of St. Louis in what is now Warren County. He spent most of his latter days with his son, Major Nathan Boone, in St. Charles County. He died September 26, 1820, aged eighty-eight years. In 1845 both his body and that of his wife were disinterred and taken to Frankfort, Ky. Boone had two sons, Nathan and Daniel M., who, like their father, were noted for their courage and enterprise. They were among the first to manufacture salt, building furnaces at what was afterwards called Boone's Lick, in what is now Howard County. Wonderful salt springs existed there, and the Boones brought kettles in which the water was evap- orated and the salt retained. The country about Boone's Lick was settled rapidly when the fame of the salt springs and the beauty of the locality became known.

Asiatic cholera appeared at St. Louis in 1832, and for a time the death rate averaged thirty-two per day. When it finally disappeared a reckoning showed that one out of every twelve of the population had fallen a victim. In the spring of 1849 it appeared again, and between April and August 4,060 persons died. In 1850 and 1851, and again in 1867, there was cholera at various points along the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers. St. Joseph had but little of it, while Weston and other points farther down, suffered more severely. Those who were crossing the plains and Indians along the trails fell victims in large numbers.

Imprisonment for debt was permissible under the statutes of Missouri until 1843. The enforcement of this worked great hardships and created much dissatisfaction. There were but few things that the sheriff could not sell for debt, and if there was not enough to satisfy the avaricious creditor, he could have the unfortunate debtor cast into prison. The act abolishing the law was written by Governor Reynolds. It contained but six words : "Imprisonment for debt, is hereby abolished.'' Yet those few words brought great joy to all but the avaricious.

On November 1, 1855, there occurred the first railroad wreck in the history of Missouri. The completion of the Missouri Pacific railroad from St. Louis to Jefferson City was being celebrated and an excursion train of nine cars crowded with notables, was speeding to the capital. The bridge spanning the Gasconade River was not completed and a temporary scaffolding had been erected. A furious storm was raging while the train was crossing this bridge, and, amid the fiercest lightning and thunder, the timbers of the temporary structure parted and several cars went down. Forty-three lives were lost and many persons were injured.

The Drake constitution permitted counties to subscribe any sum of money to aid in building railroads, and county courts were authorized to issue bonds binding the county for the payment of these subscriptions wherever two-thirds of the qualified voters should assent thereto. These courts, in some cases, were characterless or ignorant men and the "qualified" voters were not the people who owned property and who had to shoulder the burden. Bonds to the amount of over $15,000,000 were issued by various counties. In some instances the roads were not built, only a few miles being graded. But the bonds were marketed in New York and passed into the hands of the "innocent purchaser" as soon as possible. The county courts of Lafayette, Cass, Knox and St. Clair Counties refused to pay such bonds at maturity, but the United States court held that they were legally issued and must be paid. The people of Cass and St. Clair Counties were particularly stubborn in their opposition, and are to this day. County judges are firm upon this issue and cheerfully go to jail rather than levy taxes for the payment of these bonds.

At different times prior to the war the state had granted aid to various railroad companies by issuing bonds to the amount of $23,701,000. For this aid the companies agreed to pay interest. During and soon after the war the Missouri Pacific, the Iron Mountain, the North Missouri and what is now the Kansas City, St. Joseph & Council Bluffs road, from St. Joseph to Weston, were sold for non-payment of interest on these bonds. The entire debt at the time of the sale was over $31,000,000, and the state realized from the various sales only about $8,000,000, thus leaving a deficit of $23,000,- 000, which the state has since had to pay, besides several millions in interest.

The contest over the boundary line between Iowa and Missouri, which was settled by the supreme court of the United States in 1845, was due to a mistake on the part of John Sullivan, the United States surveyor, who ran the lines. Missouri claimed that the northern border should be a parallel of the latitude which passed through the rapids of the Des Moines River, and Iowa claimed it should be a line which passed through the rapids of the Mississippi River, some twenty miles south. Unfriendly and revengeful feelings grew out of the dispute between the people who resided on the borders. Sullivan, the surveyor, began on a meridian one hundred miles north of Kansas City, and, instead of running due east, varied to the north, having varied four miles when he reached the Des Moines River. The United States had recognized Sullivan's survey in a number of Indian treaties, and now held that it should be forever the dividing line, and Missouri lost a strip of territory ten miles wide from the northern line.

Having briefly sketched the history of Missouri from its beginning, it will be appropriate to quote from the 1898 Manual of Secretary of State Lesueur as to the present condition of the state :

"Missouri is the fifth state out of forty-five in the American Union in population, which, according to the last census, was 2.676,- 184. The population is now estimated to be 3,250.000. Missouri is the eighth state in assessed valuation, only the states of New York, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Ohio, California, Michigan and Indiana being greater. It is doubtful whether the real value of property in Michigan or Indiana surpasses the real value of property in Missouri, and it will be noticed that the assessed valuation of the great state of Illinois is less than that of Missouri.

"Missouri in area has 69,415 square miles, or over 44.000.000 acres. It is larger than any state east of or bordering upon the Mississippi, except the state of Minnesota. The length of the state north and south is 282 miles ; its extreme width east and west is 348 miles, and its average width 335 miles. Some idea of the immensity of this magnificent domain may be gained from the fact that the entire states of Maine, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Vermont, Rhode Island and Delaware could be put down side by side within its limits, and still leave a margin of 900 square miles.

"Missouri is the third state in the Union in the number of its farms and the third state in the number of acres of improved land, having over 17,000,000 acres under cultivation, or a larger acreage for the harvests than is possessed by the states of Michigan and Minnesota combined, or the states of Maine, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Maryland, Minnesota and Rhode Island. Missouri raises more corn than Indiana and Maryland.

"It produces as much wheat as the states of New York, Kentucky and Texas combined. Missouri ships nearly 50.000.000 pounds of poultry every year, not being equaled by any state in the Union. It is the fourth state in the number of horses, and leads every state in the Union in the number of mules, producing last year tobacco crop is in the neighborhood of 10,000,000 pounds. Its southern counties raise an excellent quality of cotton. All the cereals, all the grasses, all the fruits and timbers of the latitude flourish in abundance and grow to maximum dimensions.

"It is capable of sustaining in comfort ten times as many people as are now within its borders. From its cotton fields in the south, its corn fields in the north, its splendid cereals and grasses, its endless variety of fruits and woods, its limitless deposits of coal, iron, lead, zinc and other minerals, it comes as near being self-sustaining and independent of other communities as it is possible for any state to be. Missouri has over 14,000 business manufactures, with a paid-up capital of $189,558,546, with 143,139 employes, making finished goods of all kinds amounting to $324,561,933 annually.

"Missouri has 6,599 miles of railroad and several navigable rivers. Its railroads have the highest order of equipment, and passenger and freight service unsurpassed anywhere in the world, the frequency, the speed, the elegance and perfection of its trains being the admiration of the traveling public. Upon its rivers are to be found steamboat and barge lines capable of doing at low cost an immense freight business.

"Missouri enjoys the proud distinction of having the largest available public school fund of any state in the American Union. This fund is divided as follows : Common school fund, $3,141,538.77; State seminary fund, $1,229,260.03; permanent county, township and district school fund, $7,9 12,692.39 ; total permanent school fund, $12,283,491.19.

"It is a land of schools and churches, of education, refinement' and culture, a land flowing with milk and honey, where the lack of bread is something unknown, where hospitality, kindness and fraternity prevail, where the laws are strictly and impartially enforced by a pure and fearless judiciary, and where happiness and contentment prevail as nearly as they do in any country upon the earth."

The Platte Purchase The White Man

ORIGINAL WESTERN BOUNDARY. - PLATTE COUNTRY OCCUPIED BY INDIANS. - THE WHITE MAN NEEDED IT. - MUSTER DA Y AT DALE'S FARM - GENERAL HUGHES' SPEECH AND ITS EFFECT. - THE PURCHASE MADE. - CONSIDERATIONS AND STIPULATIONS OF THE TREATY. - EXIT THE INDIAN, ENTER THE WHITE MAN.

When Missouri was admitted to the Union the western line of the state passed from the corner of Arkansas directly north through the mouth of the Kansas River to the Iowa line. This left a section embracing what are now Platte, Buchanan, Andrew, Holt, Nodaway and Atchison Counties in the Indian territory, of which both Kansas and Nebraska formed a part.

This section of the territory, between the Missouri River and the west line of Missouri, was ceded to the Sac-and-Fox and Ioway Indians, in the treaty of Prairie du Chien, ratified in 1830, in exchange for certain lands in Wisconsin. These two tribes, and also a band of Omahaws and a few Sioux, located along the banks of the larger streams in the upper part of the strip, while the lower portion was occupied by the Pottawatomies, who were removed from Indiana in 1833. after the Black Hawk war.

The government had places of supply at Rock-house, near what is now the town of Agency, in Buchanan County, and at Beverly, in Platte, and General Andrew S. Hughes was the government agent. General Hughes made his headquarters with Joseph Robidoux in the Blacksnake hills, going among the Indians only on issue days. He had warehouses near the Ford and at Beverly, but these were in charge of guards.

The Indians were particularly undesirable neighbors to the people of the old Missouri border. They were drunken, lazy, quarrelsome, and altogether unworthy to occupy so valuable and so beautiful a territory. So argued the white man, who believed the heritage to be his, and who went systematically to work to secure it.

It was customary in those times to have militia muster on certain days, and so it came to pass that a muster was held at the farm of Weakly Dale, near Liberty, in Clay County, in April of 1835. At these musters there were speeches, and measures for the general welfare were publicly debated. The Indian neighbor was the theme of a speech by General Hughes on this particular occasion, and the effect of his oration was immediate.

Recent correspondence between Major John Dougherty of Clay County, then an Indian agent, and Senator Linn, in reference to coveted territory, was also read. Major Dougherty had shown how the formation of the boundary had inconvenienced persons settling along the border, in what are now DeKalb, Gentry or Worth Counties, from reaching the river (then the only mode of transportation) without traveling over a hundred miles to get below the mouth of the Kansas River, when the Missouri could be reached at twenty, thirty or fifty miles at Robidoux's or Weston, which were the most important river points in the Platte country.

The many streams capable of furnishing water and power, the rich soil, valuable forests, luxuriant grasses, wild fruits, thousands of wild flowers, well-filled bee trees, flocks of wild deer and turkey, all had been voiced aloud until the old Kentuckians, Tennesseeans and North Carolinians forming that military array, resolved that they must have the strip without delay. In fact, they started to obtain it in Western style, resolving that they ought and would have it, and E. M. Samuel, David R. Atchison, Alexander W. Doniphan, W. T. Wood and Peter H. Burnett were appointed a committee to obtain it. But some of those same muster-men, being doubtful about the efficacy of negotiation and red-tape, moved into the new country that fall. The government had them removed by soldiers, but they went back again, and like the Sooners of the present day, kept themselves in evidence so as to hasten the inevitable.

The result was that on September 17, 1836, William Clark of the famous expedition of Lewis and Clark, of 1804, then agent for all of the Indians west of the Mississippi River, held a council with the Sacs-and-Foxes and Ioways at Fort Leavenworth, and made a treaty whereby the Platte country passed into the hands of the white man.

The Indians received $7,500 in cash and four hundred sections of land in what are now Doniphan and Brown Counties, Kansas. The government agreed to erect five comfortable houses for the Ioways and three for the Sacs-and-Foxes ; to provide for each tribe an interpreter, a farmer, a blacksmith, and a schoolmaster; to break up two hundred acres of ground for each tribe and to furnish each with a ferryboat; also to provide rations for one year and agricultural implements for five years.

The treaty was signed by William Clark, superintendent of Indian affairs, for the United States. For the loway Indians it was signed by the following chiefs and braves : Mo-hos-ca (or White Cloud), Nau-che-ning (or No Heart), Wa-che-mo-ne (or the Orator), Ne-o-mo-ne (or Raining Cloud), Ne-wan-thaw-chu (Hair Shedder), Man-haw-ka (Bunch of Arrows), Cha-tau-the-ne (Big Bull), Man-omo-ne (Pumpkin), Con-gu (Plumb), Wau-thaw-ca-be-chu (One that Eats Rats), Cha-tea-thau (Buffalo Bull), Cha-ta-ha-ra-wa-re (Foreign Buffalo).

The following signed for the Sacs-and-Foxes : Ca-ha-qua (Red Fox), Pe-shaw-ca (Bear), Pe-cau-ma (Deer), Ne-bosh-ca-na (Wolf), Ne-squi-in-a (Deer), Ne-saw-au-qua (Bear), Qua-co-ousi-si (Wolf), Suquil-la (Deer), As-ke-pa-ke-ka-as-a (Green Lake), Wa-pa-se (Svar), No-cha-tau-wa-ta-sa (Star), Can-ca-car-mack (Rock Bass), Sea-sa-ho (Sturgeon), Pe-a-chim-a-car-mack (Bald-Headed Eagle), Pe-a-chim-a-car-mack, Jr., (Bald-Headed Eagle).

The following citizens of Missouri signed as witnesses : S. W. Kearney, John Dougherty, A. S. Hughes, George R. H. Clark. William Duncan. Joseph V. Hamilton, Joseph Robidoux, Jr., William Bowman, Jeffry Dorion, Peter Constine, Jacques Mette, Louis M. Davidson.

Thus was the Platte Purchase made. The red man was told to move on, and resumed his pilgrimage toward the setting sun, and the white man promptly built his cabin where the Indian's tepee erst had stood.