Daviess County, Missouri - Chapter 19: Population, Weather, Dead Towns, and First Facts, 1882

Chapter 19: Population, Weather, Dead Towns, and First Facts

Population of Daviess County - Census of 1580 - Daviess County in 18S60 - Remarks - Census of 1870 - Census of IS80 - The Gain - Food for Thought - Weather Obserrations - The Winter and Sunmer - The Record - The Third Heated Term - September - Rain-fall - Dead Towns - A Record of Events.

While Daviess county was settledin 1831, the census was not taken until 18411, so that it had nearly the full decade to grow in, and the population was 2,736. What it was by townships is hard to tell. Township names and municipal township lines were changed so often that nothing but the county population could be given. The above population in 1540 was a fair showing as counties settled in those days. In 1850 Daviess had nearly doubled her population of 1840, and the figures were 5,298. This inerease was equal to any county in the State excepting Greene and Crawford, for that decade, according to population. From 1850 to 1860 we come to the record of population by townships, and the census of the latter year gives the white and

Whith. Colored, Total

That census reported Gallatin, the county seat, with a population of 448, and Jamesport 59. No other towns or villages reported, The population of these towns is included in the figures above viven

The census of 1870 was probably the worst attempt to get correet figures ever attempted in this or any other country. A majority of the canvassers were notoriously incompetent, while many added names to their lists that did not exist and many went so far as to guess at it and then render their bill for labor never performed. In all the statistics as well as iv numbering the population, this trand and incompeteney existed. This matter was not carried to the counties having a small population, and therefore they are comparatively correct, thongh some showed less gain in population than was expected.

Another rather singular feature about the census of 1870, is in many instances leaving out the towns and villages in some of the counties, and when given placing the figures in the same line as those of the township. Take the Daviess county census for 1870, and the population of the towns are given in no single instance, nor is there a town or village mentioned. Therefore what these towns numbered in population can only be guessed at. The figures given will not vary much from the facts.

Census Of 1870 White, Colored. Total

Gallatin had a population of about 750, Jamesport 200, Pattonsburg 150, Salem 100, Civil Bend about the same, Alto Vista, Victoria and Bancroft,

The last two villages are not put down in the censns report of 1880, but the fignres above are given as abont their present popuiation, This isa full list of all the towns in the county to date.

The Gain

The growth of Daviess county by decades is here summarized, and its per cent of gain, leaving out fractions, shown for each ten years of its existence: -

This is above the average. The State gained twenty-six per cent the last deeade, which gives Daviess county a gain of seven per eent above the average of that of the State. But the climate, soil and productions of the county are capable of meeting a far heavier gain, and it is for the people to look at- ter this increase of population. There should be a systematic effort made to let the resources and the opportunities of the county to furnish cheap homes to the immigrant be widely known.

Food For Thougiit

In 1870 there was north and east of the river, giving two-thirds of Union township to the west, 7,172, and south and west, 7,238, which give the last section sixty-six majority, and again from 1860 of 900 over the north and east. But the census returns of 1880 again changed the situation, and instead of having a majority of 66, it is in a minority, in 1880, of 786; or a loss during the last decade of $52.

The population living in towns and villages is nearly equally divided. North and east there are 1,673 living in towns, and south and west 1,577. There is very little ditference in the number of acres of land on each side of the river, so that there isa chance for a pretty even race.

North of the river there is a wonderful sight of vim in the citizens who eall Jamesport, Jameson and Pattonsburg their homes, and add to this the fact that Jameson, which is about a quarter of a mile nearer the centre of the connty than the present county seat, is very ambitions to become the metropolis of Daviess county, and there is * food for thought"? for the people living south of Grand River, and to Gallatin a sabject for serious contei plation.

Weather Observations

There has been an oceasional term of severe cold weather in northern Missonri, and there have been also several heated terms, which have caused a good deal of surprise as well as discomfort to the people. These, however, are all exceptional cases. The general temperature is not of either extreme heat or cold. In fact there has never been a very long time of severe cold weather, but generally lasts from two to four days, and seldom longer than first mentioned. There is cold weather lasting through a portion of November, December, January and February, with the usual blustering March, At this writing, the last week of November, there has not been over ten days of really cold weather, while Iowa and Nebraska have been greeted with snow storms, and from a month to six weeks of cold weather. It is also this way in regard to the heated term. A week of extreme warm weather seldom veeurs in this climate. Three or four days being the usual length of time and then a change. The winter of 1880-51, as well as the summer of the latter year, has been, in its weather phase, a phenomenal one. Neither the winter nor the summer of the years mentioned above, have ever had their counterpart in the country. The winter was not strange as regards extreme, long-continued cold weather, but from its great quantity of snow its sudden changes, and in the exceeding length of time the cold weather lasted. Snow fell as late as the 12th of April, 1S$1. and that in this climate was an extraordinary affair.

The winter ot 1873, for severe cold weather, was the coldest winter experienced in Missouri for fifty years, and is likely to hold its own in that respect 'for fifty more. The mercury fell as low as twenty-eight degrees below zero on the 26th and 27th of January, 1873. It remained but two days of such extreme cold weather, but ten degrees below zero was where the mercury rested in many places in north Missouri that winter.

Of heated terms, the warmest seems to have been the heated term of July, 1878, but that was of short duration. The fall term lasted six days, and was above ninety degrees each day, but the hot days were July 13, 14 and 15, these days the mercury reaching 104 degrees at 2 o'clock each day. There have been several other times when one or two days of extreme heat or cold have been met with, but not long enongh to be worthy of note. The records now bring us down to the winter and summer of the present year, its remarkable changes being worthy of a place in history.

The Winter And Summer

The winter of 1880-81 was a long and severe one. It did not commence earlier than usual, but held on until the middle of April, snow falling, then followed by heavy rains. It was a wet, cold and backward spring, as well asa severe winter. The severe cold weather continued, but the extreme cold lasted but one or two days at any time, and those severe days have been exceeded in previous years. The fall of snow was never known to be so great in the West. The snow and the spring rains caused the Missouri and Mississippi rivers to bring down the greatest flood everknown. Theformer

This backward spring added to what proved the latest summer known to the " Oldest Inhabitant," added to a drought of two months' duration, had a terrible effect upon the crops. The first heated term, lasting nearly two weeks, was early in July. It was then called a heated term, the (ns eter varying from eighty-five to ninty-six degrees in the shade. There was then a cooler period of about ten days, when, on the 26th of July, the seeond heated term commenced. This was terrible in its intensity. "Tt fairly stopped business. The rays of the sun seemed to burn and seorch everything. Vegetation drooped as though the blast of a sirocco had passed over it. The corn curled up and was fairly crisped by the heat. Wheat had suffered from the cold and wet of the previous winter, and was only about three-fourths of a crop, and now came the heat and drought to parch vegetation, and burn up the corn. The crop was reduced thirty per cent below the average in this State, while the decrease in other great corn states, exeepting Nebraska, was over forty per cent. The backward spring had eaused late planting, and the intense heat of July and August fell with a deadening blight upon the growing crops. The large yield expected from the growing crops of corn, potatoes, ete., in June began to fade away. The heat and drought continued, and the farmers were disheartened, and before the end fairly discouraged. Hay, alone, of all the crops, held its own and was cured in a prime condition. Oats, rye, and flax were far below the ayerage. Cisterns began to go dry, streams failed, and cattle had to be driven miles to water. Daviess county had the advantage then, as Grand River never goes dry.

This second heated term lasted for seventeen days, and then, with a light lowering of the thermometer, for two days, again commenced and the heat 'was absolutely appalling in its intensity.

No rain, blinding, scorching heat, no cessation, but day and night for sixteen days longer the heat lasted, People became debilitated, and a listless apathy appeared to take possession of all. This continued until August 29, when the heat gave way before a strong wind, and dark elouds began to skirt the horizon. On the night of August 31, 1851, the long looked for, the long prayed for, rain came. The following day, the rain continned and the parched earth drank its fill. The birds warbled their sweetest notes, and man arose from his drooping attitude, and his spirit drank in a new inspiration. '*Too late for corn," said the farmer, "but not too late for high prices," and although the farmer lost in bushels, in many instances he more than gained in price all a short crop had lost to him.

It wasa singular year this year of 1831; the intense heat, the atmospheric changes, seemed to have a startling effect upon the haman system.

frequent. From every section of the northern portion of the country, crime seemed epidemic. Chicago boasted of thirty murders within about three months. St. Louis, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Buffalo, Boston, New York and Philadelphia, flashed over the wires almost daily, their catalogue of murders, suicides, assaults, and robberies, until the people became astounded at the list. Why this should have been so, let those versed in the fitful working of human minds explain; certainly men, and women too, have been strangely affected and murder or suicide seemed the only act that would appease their maddened or disordered brains. The epidemic of crime appeared 'to be far greater in the cities than in the country. Perhaps it was the heat reflected from the dense mass of brick and stone which added still more fiercely to that of the sun which affected the body and mind, and while it sapped the strength of one, it excited the other until man became frenzied.

Ancther strange thing abont all this was, that the Sonth escaped both the intense, fervid heat that enveloped the entire North like the hot air of a voleano, but also the carnival of crime which seems to have swept over the North, blighting every portion with the despairing cry of a soul lost for crimes committed, or the wail of a suicide, when despair found relief only in death. The cities of Chicago and St. Louis can show more murders committed within their limits in the year 1881, than the entire South. This is strange but true, and history while recording it must leave to others to explain why it was so.

The Record

While in other years the heat of July, 1881, had been reached and even exceeded a trifle, taking the two months together, July and August, and their average has never been reached; that is, both the oldest record and the oldest inhabitant fail to report the tact if it ever happened. The record for September, shows that month for 1881, to have been the warmest ever known.

The first heated term in July, was between the 2d and the 12th, and the warmest days, the 6th, 7th, Sth, and 9th, and the highest point reached by the mercury was ninety-six degrees, and the lowest ninety. It was, however, but the prelude. Simply getting ready for business, trying its hand, as it were, for something that would astonish the natives of this terrestial spliere.

The second heated term, commenced July 26,1881, and on July 27th, 28th and 20th, the thermometer reached ninety-six and ninety-eight degrees respectively. It then fell to ninety-two and ninety-four degrees, until August 4th, when the mereury showed 102 degrees, and on the Sth, 104 degrees, On the 6th it fell, and on the 7th registered ninety eight degrees. But this was just a rest, fur the next day it reached, in the town of Gallatin, 110 degrees, the remaining days, however, only showed ninety-two to ninety-six degrees. After this there was a week of less heat, but would do well enough for summer weather, and this, also, was but a prelude to the final touch. '

The Third Heated Term

Commencing on the 14th or 15th, and continning until the 30th of August, there was fierce, intense, burning heat that literally shriveled up vegetation, sent the beasts of the field to starve rather than endure its heat, and man to wonder if this was not about the time the world was to be burned up, aceording to prophesy, natural history or the sciences.

From the 14th to the 17th, inclnsive, the thermometer registered each day from ninety-four to one hundred degrees. Then came the deluge. The 18th, 19th, 20th, 2ist, 25th, 26th and 27th registered from 100 to 110 degrees. The lowest, 10) degrees, was on the 27th, the highest, 110 degrees, on the 19th, and the others in the order above registered; 102, 106, 108, 104, 106 degrees. Then 102 and 92 degrees, on the 28th and 29th. The 30th cooled off, and the glorions rain before spoken of came to the relief of all living things on the night of Angust 31st, and during the next day. There were two or three exceptionally hot days, but very few days but what reached ninety degrees in the shade during the month of August.

September

This month was a very warm one, not really having a cold day. On the 3d, 4th, 5th and 6th of September, 1881, the thermometer registered, at the county clerk's office, ninety, ninety-two, ninety-two and ninety-four degrees on the north side. The weather continued warm, but the heat was not so great until the 25th, 26th and 27th of September, marking ninety, ninetytwo and eighty-eight degrees those three days, and, for that late in the seagon, was certainly unexceptionally warm. With this the weather article is closed, excepting there is here added the report of the Leavenworth station of the Weather Bureau, which says: -

"Tt was the hottest August on our records as shown by the mean temperature of the month, which was 81.7 degrees, this is four degrees above the August mean, and the highest tor any Angust since the establishment of this station in 1871, although the maximum temperature in August, 1874, was two degrees higher than the maximum for the past month, but the daily means were higher and more constant than in 1874. The highest temperature was 105 degrees on the 17th; the lowest sixty-three degrees on the 13th and Qist. The greatest daily range was 345 degrees on the Sth; the least, fourteen degrees on the 19th. Maximum temperatures of 100 degrees or more were observed on six days, and of ninety-tive degrees or over on

Rain-Fall

"The rain-fall during June was about normal, and during July and August considerably below the average. The total rain-fall during the summer was 9.73 inches, which is, with the exception of 1872, the smallest summer rain-fall on the records of this station, and 5.66 inches below the summer average. The greatest summer rain-fall ever recorded at this station was 21.33 inches, in 1S72; the least 7.59 inches, in 1873. The rain-fall in 1873 was very evenly distributed through the months, therefore the crops did not suffer so much as they did the past summer."

" Villport, the oldest place in the county, once existed on the Stephen Smith farm, in Union township. It was settled in 1831 by Robert P. Peniston, Sr., who laid it off asa town in 1886. It took its name from Peniston's horse-miil, the only place where pioneers could obtain meal or flour this side of Richmond, in Ray county. It never revived after being burned by the Mormons in the fall of 1838. It contained ten dwelling-houses, three stores, a grocery, blacksmith shop, horse-mill, postottice, ete.

""Di- Amon was \aid off by the Mormons in acre lots, and extended two miles square. It had few permanent buildings, of which but one remains, and is now oecupied by Major McDonald; this house was originally built for Lyman Wight. At the time the Mormons surrendered there were many temporary buildings, generally covered with rawhide.

" Cravensville. Atter the Mormons were driven from "Di-Amon, Dr, John Cravens established a new town within the limits of the old one, and called it Cravensville, This place for a long time disputed with Gallatin for the county seat. When there were only two hundred and eighty tax-payers in the county, ninety-three petitioned for the removal of the seat of justice to Cravensville, but the petition was rejected by the County Court. This town at one time had ten or twelve dwelling-houses, a number of stores, and some sixty inhabitants.

" Eclipse, Prairie City and Crittenden were once towns, at least on paper, in the northeast part of the county. Prairie City was located in the north part of Grand River township, and Crittenden in the southwest part of Linecoln township." The writer of this history would add that Prairie City was quite a little village in 1859 and 1860, with very large pretensions, and as late as 1870 had an assessed valuation of $365. It was in Grand River township, on section ten. Crittenden was assessed in 1870 at $345; the other, Eclipse, conld hardly boast of an existence.

There is to be added to the above list of "Dead Towns " that of " Old" Pattonshurg. This town flourished up to the year 1872, when the Wabash road came to an end at " Elin Flats." From that time it began to droop. The business men removed to the * Flats," and in removing took the name with them. The new town is known by the name of Pattonsburg, the post office is called " Elm Flats," but the Pattonsburg mail finds a home there also. In 1870 * Old' Pattonsburg had au assessed valuation of $4,625. In 1881 the principal part of the town is a cornfield, and but three families reside there, and one of them was to leave this fall. The death of thistown is ascribed to the spite of a railroad official, the president of the Wabash road, who had charge of its construction. The compiler of this work, also adds Mr. Kost's concluding remarks, as they are very applicable to the ease, especially the last sentence. Ile says: " Much more might be written of this fair county and itsearly history. * * * * * Much time has been spent in gleaning the information here given, imperfect as it may prove to be. We have tried to give the facts, os they exist, unembellished by flights of fancy or expression. If any parts of the county are not fully represented, it is because those we depended upon for information have failed to report."

A Record Of Events

The first County Court met April 7, 1837. , The first county clerk was James B. Turner. The first county sheriff, William Bowman. : The first county depnty sheriff, William P. Peniston. , The first county judges, John W. Freeman, Vincent T. Smith, and William Morgan. _ The first county presiding justice, John W. Freeman. The first townships were Honey Creek, Grand River and Grindstone, April 7, 1837. | The first election in Daviess county, April 29, 1837. The first election was held at the house of Elijah Frost. The first officers elected were two justices of the peace and one constable in Grindstone township. The first license to keep a grocery store was issued to John A. Williams, April 7, 1837. The first license to sell general mervlandise was taken out by John Wright, April 8, 1837. The first license to runa ferry was issued to Jacob 8. Rogers, Angust, 1837. Clear Creek township organized, November, 1837. First election in Clear Creek township, held at the house of John Etherton, December, 1837. Gallatin laid off and its metes and bounds given, September 13, 1537. First sale of lots in Gallatin took place January 8, 1838. The first election in Gallatin took place August 6, 1838. The town of Gallatin was surveyed and laid off by Medders Vanderpool.

Harrison township was organized in June, 1840, and the first election was held at the house of Green Bowers, Jr., on the tirst Monday in August, 1840,

Folio 313 of book E, county clerk's office, shows 187 names that received the $100 bounty for volunteers for the war, and there is an error in the footing of $400. This was on March 5, 1866.

The first telegraph line over the Chicago & Southwestern Railroad route reached Gallatin at 12 x, Thursday, Angust 17, 1871. A message was sent to Chieago and answer received the same afternoon.

The first through train from Chieago, over the Chicago & Southwestern, now Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad, passed through Daviess county, September 26, 1871.

The first rail laid by the same road inside the limits of Daviess county, was July 22,1871, the tracklayers crossing the Grundy county line that day.

The first map of Daviess county was issued in 1876 - a sinall atlas map, with maps of the several townships, each separate, giving townships, range and section lines.

Up to this year, 1881, Daviess county has never had a hanging. There are facts viven in this history, however, which are likely to convince the reader that a few eases of hanging would have been beneficial.

The largest tree in Daviess county is in the Grand River bottums on the land owned by Judge Keene. This tree is probably the largest in northwest Missouri. It is known as a yellow cottonwood and has a circamfer ence of twenty-fonr fect at the butt, and runs straight up fur fifty or sixty feet without a limb. For height, it towers above all trees in its neighborhood. ;