Cass County, Missouri - Chapter 10: Nature's Gifts, 1917

Of The White Man

LUXURIANT VEGETATION - PRAIRIE FIRES - HOW THEY AFFECTED WILD ANI¬ MALS - WILD FRUITS AND NUTS - AN ENCHANTING LANDSCAPE - NATIVE TREES AND FLOWERS - COMING OF THE FROST - ANIMAL LIFE - ADVENT OF THE WHITE MAN.

Cass County is bountifully blessed with nature's gifts. Ours is pre¬ eminently an agricultural county. The luxuriant growth of grasses and vegetable matters of the ages, deposited annually in their season, has built a soil not to be surpassed. When we reflect on the stories of early pioneers, and the traditions coming down from occupants, prior to the white man's advent, relative to the difficulty of travel over the prairie and forests by reason of this immense vegetable growth, and realize that this has been repeated for ages, and its deposits gone back to the soil, we are struck with wonder. Grasses so high as to impede travel. Timber too dense to penetrate. All going back to the soil. The offal of the herds of buffalo, deer and kindred, also made rich fertilizers. Such conditions as these awaited the white man when he came to take possession of the , land. It is no wonder such soil brought forth in their season the wild flowers of great varieties, wild fruits in profusion, with nuts and other products of the forests in great abundance. Then when the white man came and deposited the seed of corn, wheat, oats, hemp, flax, tame grasses and all the seeds which go with higher civilization, he reaped manyfold times the amount of his sowing.

Did the reader ever witness one of these early day prairie fires? If not, words can give but little impression of their grandeur, sublimity and awe. A conflagration from which it was perilous and fortunate to escape. A conflagration which put the most timid of the wild inhabitant and the most vicious beast on the very intimate and friendly terms. The rabbit and the antelope, side by side, with the wolf, bear, lion and other cruel beasts, lied together from these llames and all huddled against one another at any spot giving protection from the fire, their common foe. The writer well remembers a prairie fire in 1858. It was doubtless worse in years prior to this date. In 1858, there was quite a settlement in localities in the county. Far into the night in the fall of 1858, the writer then a lad, heard a noise and confusion; on awakening, he saw everybody, white and black, for we had slaves, all in intense excitement. The bell, an ordinary cow bell, could be heard in the distance, ringing out the alarm of fire. Now and then a rider would dash by giving warning of approach¬ ing danger. The heavens seemed to be filled with smoke, whirling in every direction. The sight extended as far as the eye could reach. Horses, men, plows and all available help were hurried to the back or outside of the field, to build protection against the coming fire. There is little hope against such destructive fires. Rain and change of wind could help. There was nothing to do but use the best available at hand. When this particular fire had passed by, practically all the rail fences about the farm were gone, the lot and yard fences only remaining. Scarcely a year passed but some farms or ranches met this fate. After such fire has passed you can see the lamb and the lion lie down together. We have seen the wolf and the antelope in the same corner of the fence.

We find in "Hauck's History of Missouri," a description of western Missouri, which applies so perfectly to our county, we adopt it practically as a whole. "The earliest adventurers uniformily record that the woods and the margins of the prairies were full of wild grapes, wild plums, red and black hawes, mulberries and pawpaws ; the pecan, hickory and walnut trees were of great size in the bottoms, the chinkapin and hazel, strawberry, raspberry and blackberry also grew in great quantities in their places and seasons. These western prairies and woodland are of surpassing beauty and fertility, possessing a happy climate which, with¬ out fail, produces everything in abundance.

"Missouri is a land of beauty now, but, in a state of nature, before touched and too often defaced by the work of man, Missouri was a ter¬ restrial paradise. Indeed, nature had done everything to make the land¬ scape one of ravishing beauty. Nowhere else did she lavish more pro¬ digally her charms, excelling all that the highest art of man could create, on a scale magnificent and stupenduous, soaring knobs, grassy plateaus, through which in ravines, ran crystal rivers mirroring the varied sky, lined with odorous flowers and trees forming a natural arch and often an enchanting scene. The broad alluvial bottoms along the rivers were covered with towering forest trees. Here the wild fruits were abundant, the grape, plum, persimmon, pawpaw and cherry. Early in February the maple yields its sugar. In autumn the walnut, hickory, pecan and hazel strewed the ground. The extensive prairies of west Missouri, by their vast extent and luxuriance, mocked human labor and dwarfed it into insignificance.

''It is difficult to imagine the natural beauty of this virgin landscape. The outline remains - the swelling hills, the valleys, the rocks and streams. But the picturesque clump of trees, the narrow line of woodlands here and there along the creeks, or on the isolated hill-tops, far away, are gone; then, too, bordering these prairies, the immense thickets of wild plum and the varieties of crabapples, and the matted grape vines have disappeared. From the open oak woods, crowning here and there a hill¬ top, the emerald prairie then gleaming to the far away horizon. There was nothing to disturb the serene repose of the scene or divert the mind. In the summer a green carpet covered the whole landscape. The high wild grass undulated in the breeze like the billows of a sea. Here the various prairie flowers, some in purple, some with creamy spikes, some in golden yellow; lilies, some in white, and others tossing and swaying their red cups in the breeze ; the gorgeous sunflower ; lobelias, some purple, some blue, and some scarlet, made fragrant when in full blossom in the summer sun, these gardens of the desert, these unshorn fields, bound¬ less and beautiful. Here the wild rose bloomed and blossomed. When summer was past, autumn followed with its mellow sunshine stealing through the hazy atmosphere, with trees and woods panoplied with a thousand varied colors, and with a golden glory unparalleled at any other season of the year in any other land.

"After a few killing frosts had completed their work, blasting the long grass of the prairies and rendering it combustible as tinder, came the prairie fires, filling the air with a filmy cloud for days, and at night fringing the horizon with pale red tints, at length growing into forked flames, encroaching nearer and nearer until the last tuft of withered grass disappeared. Should a sharp wind arise, these fires would spread with marvelous rapidity over the landscape, darkening the sun with smoke and filling the air with ashes and flying sparks. Before such a storm no living creature could stand, and led by wonderful instinct all animals then lied to the banks of streams for cover/' To fight these fires is difficult when taken in its beginning. When it has fairly started it was beyond human power to stop until it had exhausted itself by burning the burnable in its route.

In this favored park-like land all animal life flourished. The clear waters were alive with fish, the air full of birds, the woods and prairies were the haunts of wild and ferocious animals. Here, the lordly buffalo roamed in great herds. How could this garden be otherwise than full of animal life? It had lain for centuries without disturbance by the destructive white man. The aboriginal population was not familiar with firearms. They were few and scattered. Prior to the advent of the white man the aboriginals cared nothing for these animals except for furs and other matters of commerce.

It was only for actual subsistence these original Missourians enticed the fish, snared the bird, or with the silent and deadly arrow laid low the deer, elk or the buffalo. This population cared little for the vast herds of wild cattle and stags, nor for the prowling wolf and bear, and less for the flocks of turkey, partridge, quail, wild pigeon, geese and duck and other birds who flew by and homed here, nor did he molest the beaver and martin which multiplied here and all to become a source of pleasure in pursuit, and in value as furnishing useful articles of commerce for the white man. These plains furnished food for all these birds, animals and beasts. Besides the multiplied forms of food that grew, there was the wild oats on which birds and cattle and game fattened and prospered.

These descriptions are pleasant to dream of, but we must pass to what use the white man put our county to. Has his civilization bettered the condition which then existed? This race found nature's lavish gift of soil, built to the very highest quality by these conditions and fertilizers, the deposit of the ages. Our modern agriculturist scientists have analyzed these fertile soils and have given them the new names of limestone, shale and clay, etc. Be the name whatever it may we have this bounteous gift of nature for our own. We have the scientific view of our natural resources too.