Cooper County, Missouri - Chapter with an unread heading (no. 3 of those read), 1876

Peaceable condition of the "Boone's Lick Country" previous to 1812. - Arrivals in 1811 and 12. - First Fort Built. - Savage Killed. - Removal of the Settlers to Kincaid's Fort. - Killing of Jonathan Todd and Thomas Smith. - Samuel Cole et. al. j)ursued by Indians. - Killing of Samuel Campbell.

Hitherto the life of the settler had been passed in comparative peace and quiet. Supplied by nature with all that he wished to eat or to drink, he had nothing to induce him to labor, except to provide a shelter to cover his family. This completed, he could spend his time in hunting and fishing, and by his pleasant pastime he could provide all the necessaries for those dependent upon him. He had no care about his stock, for in winter, as well as in summer, they were bountifully fed by the grass and other things which grew luxuriantly on every side. And except an occasional encounter with some wild animal, such as a bear or panther, the life of the pioneer was one devoid of incident or excitement.

During the winter of i8ii and the spring of 1812, several families of adventurous frontiersmen came into what is now Cooper county, and settled near the present site of Boonville. The names of those who arrived previous to the commencement of the Indian war, were as follows :

Joseph Jolly, Joseph Yarnell, Gilliard Rupe, Muke Box, Delany Bolin, William Savage, John Savage, James Savage, Walter Burress and David Burress ; and these, together with Captain Stephen Cole and Mrs. Hannah Cole, included all who had moved into the * 'Boone's Lick Country," south of the Missouri River, and west of the Osage river previous to the summer of 1812.

At this time the settlers became satisfied from reports which reached them from time to time, that the Indians were making preparations to attack the settlements along the Missouri river, and they determined to be ready to receive them properly when they did appear. So they soon commenced the building of a fort.

The first fort in the present limits of Cooper county was built by Stephen Cole, his neighbors assisting, in the year 1812, and was called "Cole's" fort. It was situated in the north part of what is now known as the "old fort field," about one and one-half miles east of the City of Boonville, north of the road from Boonvtlle to Rocheport. As soon as it was completed, all the families living around, gathered at the fort for protection from the savages. As their meat consisted entirely of the wild game which they killed, they had to send out parties from day to day to kill it. And it happened that a couple of parties were out hunting when the Indians attacked the fort.

A few months after the fort was built, a band of about four hundred Indians suddenly made their appearance in the neighborhood. When they appeared before the fort, there were two parties out hunting, in one of which were two men by the name of Smith and Savage, who, on their return to the fort, were pursued by the Indians. The savages shot at them several times ; in the first fire. Smith was severely wounded, but staggered on to within fifty yards of the fort, where the Indians shot him again, two balls taking effect and hurling him to the ground. As soon as Savage saw him fall, he turned to assist him ; but Smith handed him his gun, and told him to save himself, as he knew he was mortally wounded. As the Indians were in close pur- suit of them, Savage was forced to leave his unfortunate companion and attempt to make his escape. He reached the fort unhurt, although he had been shot at some twentyfive times. The Indians after having scalped Smith, and barbarously multilated his body, withdrew to the adjacent woods, and laid siege to the fort.

As the Indians who were in pursuit of Savage came in full view of the fort, several of them could have been killed. Indeed, Samuel Cole, who was in the fort at the time, begged his mother to let him shoot an Indian. But she refused, telling him that as the Indians had as yet shown no disposition to fire upon the fort, the inmates did not wish to arouse their anger by killing any of them ; hoping that before they did attack, those settlers, who were out hunting, would arrive, and they perhaps get a chance to escape. During the following night the remaining settlers, who were outside of the fort, returned.

The next day the settlers captured a French boat which came up the river loaded with powder and balls, to trade with the Indians at Council Bluffs. They crossed their families and all their stock, furniture, &c., over the river in this boat, to Kincaid Fort, or Fort Hempstead, which was located in what is now Howard county, about one mile from the north end of the great iron bridge over the Missouri river at Boonville. It will be seen from this, that these settlers were not only brave men, but fit to lead an army in time of danger, as when they made this retreat, the fort was surrounded by the Indians on all sides except that protected by the river. And yet in the face of all this they saved everything from the fort.

After they had crossed their families, &c., in the captured boat, and taken possession of the twenty -five kegs of powder and five hundred pounds of balls which the boat contained, the settlers let the Frenchmen return down the river with their boat with the admonition, that if they ever came up the river again with suppHes for the Indians, they would han^ them, as they could not permit their enemies to thus obtain suppHes.

Previous to the capture of this boat and the ammunition with which it was loaded, which was sufficient to last the settlers a long time, Joseph Jolly had supplied them with powder, manufacturing it himself, saltpetre being found in a cave near Rocheport.

The first white men killed by the Indians in the "Boone's Lick Country" were Jonathan Todd and Thomas Smith, who, early in the spring of 1812, had started down the river to pick out a piece of land on which to settle. The Indians attacked them not far from the present line between Howard and Boone counties, and after a long struggle in which several Indians were killed, Todd and Smith were slain. The savages after killing them, cut off their heads and cut out their hearts and placed them by the side of the^ road on poles.

As soon as the news of the killing of Todd and Smith was brought to the fort, a party of men started out to get their bodies. After they had gone several miles, they captured an Indian warrior who seemed to be watching their movements, and started to take him to the fort alive, in order to get information from him. As they returned after finding the bodies of the settlers, when they arrived within two miles of the fort, the Indian prisoner suddenly broke away from them and attempted to escape. The settlers pursued him about one-half of a mile, when they finding that they could not overtake him and capture him alive, they shot him, killing him instantly.

Immediately after the killing of Todd and Smith, the settlers living on both sides of the Missouri river, being desirous of finding out the true state of affairs, sent out

James Cole and James Davis on a scouting expedition to see whether or not the Indians were really upon the war path. After looking around for some time, and not being able to hear anything of the plans of the savages, they were preparing to return to the fort, when they discovered a large band of Indians in pursuit of them, and directly between them and the fort, in ^hich were their families and friends, unconscious of their danger.

As retreat to the fort was cut off, and they could not withstand the attack of the large body of Indians in the open woods, they started for what was then called Johnson's Factory ; a trading post kept by a man named Johnson ; it was situated on the Moniteau Creek in what is now Moniteau county, about 200 yards from the Missouri river. They reached the Factory that afternoon and the Indians immediately surrounded the place. As Cole and Davis knew that their friends, at the different forts, would fall an easy prey to the savages, if nut warned of their danger in time to prepare for the attack which they seemed certain to make upon the fort, the hardy rangers determined at all hazards to escape and bear the tidings to them. But here the main difficulty presented itself. As long as they remained at the trading post they w^ere safe from the shots of the enemy ; but as soon as they left that protection they knew they would be slain.

But knowing the imminent danger of their families and friends, they resolved to make a desperate effort to reach them. So at 12 o'clock that night, they took up a plank from the floor of the "Factory," reached the creek, and finding a canoe, floated dow^n to the river. But just as they reached the river, an unlucky stroke of the paddle against the side of the canoe discovered them to the Indians, who started in pursuit of them in canoes. They pursued the settlers to "Big Lick," now in Cooper county, where, being closely pressed, Cole and Davis turned and each killed an Indian. The Indians then left off pursuit, and the two men reached Cole's Fort in safety, to announce to the settlers, that they were indeed, on the verge of a long and bloody war. From there the melancholy tidings were conveyed to the other forts, and filled the hearts of the settlers with dismay, as they considered how few of them there were, to withstand the attacks of th'e whole of the Indian nations living around them.

In the summer of i8i 2, while all the settlers living on the south side of the Missouri river, were at Kincaid's Fort, Samuel Cole, Stephen Cole, and Muke Box, started from the fort on a hunting expedition, crossed the river where Boonville now stands, and penetrated the forest to the Petite Saline Creek. After they had hunted and fished for two days, they were preparing to return upon the third, when they heard firing in the direction of the river, whfere they had left their canoe. They immediately started toward the river, knowing that the shots were fired by Indians as there was not at that time any white persons except themselves, south of the Missouri river. When they arrived at the residence of Delany Bolin, at or near where the present residence of Mrs. Maria Muir stands, they discovered that a band of Indians was in pursuit of them ; and the settlers not knowing their number, but supposing them to be very numerous, immediately separated and took to the woods to meet at the place where they had left their canoe.

When they met there they found the canoe gone, the Indians having stole it. As the Indians were still in hot pursuit of them, they lashed three Cottonwood logs together, placed their guns, clothing, &c., upon this raft, swam over, pushing it before them and landed in Howard County, about two and one half miles below the City of Boonville.

Next morning the settlers discovered tracks of the Indians near the fort, and found it had been reconnoitered during the night by a band of eight Indians. They immediately sent to Cooper's &McLean's forts for reinforcements, as there were at that time very lew men in the fort, and they supposed that this band of eight was but the scouting party of a large band of Indians. Reinforcements, to the number of 42, soon arrived from the other forts, and they, together with the men belonging to Kincaid's Fort started in pursuit of the Indians, whom they had by this time discovered to be but a small band. .

After pursuing them some distance they surrounded them in a hollow, near Monroe's farm, about four miles west of the present site of New Franklin. The Indians concealed themselves in the brush and thickets and behind the timber, and not being able to see them the firing of the settlers was a great deal at random. The fight continued for a long time ; four Indians were killed and the remaining four, though badly wounded escaped. None of the settlers were killed and only one, named Adam Woods, was severely wounded, but he afterwards recovered.

Night coming on they were forced to defer the pursuit of the surviving Indians. The next day not satisfied with their work the day before, the rangers started on the trail of the Indians, which was plainly marked with blood.

They followed ittotheriverandtherefoundthe canoe which the savages two days before had stolen from Samuel Cole and his companions. The sides of the canoe were covered with blood, showing that the Indians had attempted to push it into the river, but, on account of being weakened by loss of blood, could not. After hunting them, for some time in vain, the party returned to the fort.

In July 1812 some Quapa Indians disguised as Sauks and Foxes, killed a man named Campbell - commonly called **Potter," from his trade, about five miles north-west of Boonville, in Howard county, under the following circumstances : He and a man named Adam McCord, went from Kincaid's Fort to Campbell's home, at the above mentioned place, to tie some flax, which they had been forced to leave longer than they wished, through fear of an attack by the Indians. While they were at work they discovered moccasin tracks around the farm, as though a party of Indians were watching them and seeking a favorable opportunity to slay them. So they started around in order to see whether they had injured anything or not. While they were searching for them, the savages who were concealed in some underbrush, fired upon the party and shot Campbell through the body, killing him almost instantly, but he ran about one hundred yards, climbed a fence, and pitched into the top of a tree which had blown down, and the Indians, though they hunted for his body, never succeeded in finding it. Adam McCord escaped without injury, and going to the fort, reported the death of Campbell, and the circumstances under which he was killed.

Immediately upon his arrival. Col. Benjamin Cooper and Gen. Dodge with a company of about five hundred men. composed of frontiersmen and regular soldiers, started in pursuit of the Indians who numbered one hundred and eighty. The Indians not being able to recross the river, threw up breastworks in order to repel the attack of the soldiers. When Cooper and Dodge appeared before the intrenchments, the Indians after some parley, surrendered themselves as prisoners of war.

After the Indians had surrendered, Col. Cooper and Gen. Dodge had their memorable quarrel in regard to the disposal of the prisoners. Col. Cooper insisted that although they had surrendered as prisoners of war, they, as the murderers of Campbell, were not entitled to protection as such prisoners, and that in accordance with a long established custom of the western country, they should all be hung. But Gen. Dodge insisted that as they had surrendered to him, he being the superior officer, they were entitled to his protection. So fiercely did they quarrel, that at one time the two forces, for Cooper commanded the frontiersmen and Dodge the regulars, came very near having a fight in order to settle the controvers3^ Finally a peaceful disposition of the matter was made, by Gen. Dodge being permitted to take the prisoners to St. Louis.