Dunklin County, Missouri - Chapter 1: Territory of Missouri, 1896

Chapter 1: Territory of Missouri

Congress organized the Territory of Missouri, June 4, 1812. The first Council consisted of nine members, and the House of thirteen. ** Territory of Louisiana " comprised its real boundary, yet it practically consisted of only the settled parts of Missouri, as follows : Cape Girardeau, embracing the territory between Tywappity Bottom and Apple Creek, Ste. Genevieve, extending from Apple Creek to the Meramec River, St. Louis', including that part of the State between the Meramec and Missouri rivers, St. Charles, comprising the settled country between the Missouri and Mississippi.

In October of the same year, these four districts were reorganized into five counties, by proclamation of Gov. Howard. The fifth was called New Madrid, and included Arkansas, therefore the present site of Dunklin County.

the old '*Bank of Missouri" was chartered; and in the fall of 1817 the two banks, *' St. Louis" and ** Missouri," were issuing bills, the former having gone into operation in 1814.

The first newspaper west of the Mississippi was published at St. Louis, July 12th, 1808. It was first called the Missouri Gazette, and measured 12x16 inches. It proved to be the forerunner of the Missouri Republican, thence The Republic, and now so widely read by the staunch Democrats of Dunklin County.

The first paper west of St. Louis was the Missouri Intelligencer, established by Nathaniel Patton, in 1819, at Old Franklin, and later removed to Fayette.

In 1818 the first Protestant Church (Baptist) was built in St. Louis, and in the same year a cathedral was commenced on the site of the old log church which had been built by the early French settlers.

In 1818, the inhabitants of Missouri petitioned for admission into the Union, through John Scott, delegate to Congress. Two years was consumed in the discussion of the slavery question, by the House of Representatives and the Senate. The House insisted on the gradual restriction of involuntary servitude, and the Senate refused to indorse any anti-slavery proviso whatever.

In 1820, while the matter was still under discussion, that amendment, famous as the ** Missouri Compromise," was presented by Jesse B. Thomas, of Illinois, and adopted March 6th of the same year. This settled, for the time, all differences between the two Houses, and allowed Missouri to enter the Union with slavery. The pro-slavery senators consented to this measure because they saw by the determination of the House that they would be unable otherwise to secure the admission of Missouri.

The people of the Territory of Missouri then organized into fifteen counties, were authorized by Congress to hold an election in May, 1820, to choose representatives to the State Convention, whose object should be the framing of a Constitution. Accordingly, forty-one representatives convened at St. Louis, June 12. The Constitution which the Convention framed took effect from the authority of the body itself, not being submitted to the vote of the people. It withstood the mutations of parties and all efforts at material amendment from the time of its adoption till the Convention of 1865.

November 16, 1820, Mr. Scott laid before the House of Representatives, at Washington, a copy of the Constitution of the new State, when a fresh debate arose, first, because the Constitution sanctioned slavery, and, second, because one of its articles especially enjoined that such laws should be passed as might be necessary to prevent free mulattoes and negroes from coming to or settling in the new State under any pretext whatsoever.

The perils of the political situation becoming imminent, Mr. Clay, of Kentucky, moved that twenty-three Representatives, one from each State, be appointed to act jointly with the Senate committee, in an attempt to adjust the difficulty. Such acomaiittee was chosen with Mr. Clay as its chairman. The Senate also appointed seven of its members on the joint committee which, on February 26, 1821, reported to each House the followinof:

That Missouri shall be admitted into this Union on an equal footing with the original States, in all respects w4iatever, upon the fundamental conditions that the fourth clause of the twenty-sixth section of the article of the Constitution, submitted on the part of said State to Cons^ress, shall never be construed to authorize the passage of any law, and that no law shall be passed in conformity thereto, by which any citizen of either of the States in the Union shall be excluded from the enjoyment of any of the privileges and immunities to which such citizen is entitled under the Constitution of the United States.

'^ Provided. That the Legislature of said State, by a solemn public act, shall declare the assent of the State to the said fundamental conditions, and shall transmit to the President of the United States, on or before the fourth Monday in November next, an authentic copy of the said act, upon the receipt whereof the President, by proclamation, shall announce the fact; whereupon, and without any further proceeding on the part of Congress, the admission of the State into the Union shall be considered as complete.''

The 26th of the following June, the Legislature of Missouri adopted an act declaring the assent of the State to the conditions of admission, and transmitted to the President a copy of the same.

August 10, 1821, after a struggle of nearly two years and a half, the admission of Missouri into the Union was announced by the proclamation of President Monroe, and the State from that day took rank as the twenty-fourth of the American Republic. The seat of government was fixed at St. Charles, but was moved, in 1826, to Jefferson City.

Why We Were Included In Missouri

In 1804 Congress divided Louisiana into two territories by a line running with the thirty-third parallel of north latitude. In 1812 the Territory of Missouri was organized from a portion of Upper Louisiana, and in 1819 Arkansas Territory was established. When it was proposed to organize the State of Missouri, the bill as first introduced provided that the parallel of 36° and 30" should be the Southern boundary of Missouri throughout its entire extent, from the Mississippi river West.

There were at this time many hardy pioneers on the Mississippi below that line, whose interests were linked with the settlements of the North by tiescommer- cial as well as social, and they felt that as their position was so far in advance of other portions of Arkansas Territory, they were entitled to all the privileojes and immunities which is offered by a State government.

Prominent among these pioneers was Col. John Hardiman Walker, who owned larofe tracts of land in Pemiscot and Dunklin Counties, and who was anxious to have his lands annexed to Missouri. Many others of the pioneers were desirous of being Missourians, and until a late date became indignant if spoken of as being properly «' Arkansawyers."

Col. Walker, Godfrey Lesieur, and several other leading citizens of this portion of the State, by exerting their influence with friends in Washington, succeeded in having the original bill amended and the line from the Mississippi to the St. Francois rivers lowered to the parallel of 36^. Hence we are for all time / Missourians. ^r - *

Dunklin County was organized February 14, 1845, from that portion of Stoddard County south of the parallel of 36° 30". In 1853 a strip nine miles wide was added to this territory on the north. The county was named in honor of Daniel Dunklin, Governor of Missouri from 1832 to 1836, then Surveyor-General of the United States, etc. It lies between St. Francois river and J^ew Madrid and Pemiscot Counties, in a portion of the State which apparently belongs to Arkansas.

Dunklin. Beginning at the northwest corner of New Madrid County in the middle of township 23, north, in range 10, east of the fifth principal meridian, thence due west with the section lines to the middle of the main channel of the St. Francois River, thence down the middle of the main channel of said river, with the meanderings thereof, to where said river crosses the line between the States of Missouri and Arkansas; thence east with said State line on the parallel of latitude 36 degrees and 30 minutes, to the middle of the main channel of said St. Francois River where it crosses the State line at the southeast corner of the southwest quarter of section 36, in township 22, north, in range 8, east of the fifth principal meridian ; thence down the middle of the main channel of said St. Francois River with the meanderings thereof to the extreme south boundary of the State of Missouri: thence due east to the southwest corner of Pemiscot County ; thence with the western boundary line of Pemiscot County to the southwest corner of New Madrid County to the place of beginning.

The county is only about five miles neal* the center, and reaches its greatest width on its southern extremity, being there twenty-two miles wide. On the north line it is eleven miles in width.

corn, other grain and garden vegetables. Excepting a portion of Grand Prairie the lower end of the county is almost entirely composed of this soil and is exceedingly productive and fertile.

There is also another variety of sand lighter in character. This is the soil of the prairies, which is peculiarly adapted to the production of grain, potatoes, watermelons, and vegetables whose value depends upon early ripening. With intelligent attention both of the above mentioned soils grow the very finest small fruits, and that too with the very least labor.

Another variety of soil is found near the foot-hills in the northwest part of the count}^ and is a rich, yellowish loam. It is heavier than the sandy varieties and is not easily exhausted. It produces large crops of corn, and is adapted to grass, wheat and fruit. -

Still f\\rther up on both sides of the hilUridge the soil is of a still heavier and black variety. The strip of hills known as ** Crowley's Ridge " are principally of a variety of clay. Here the peach and other fruits are grown of good size and the best quality; and here, also, the principal wheat crop of the county is grown.

The very best brick and potter's clay are found on the ridge and along the St. Francois River in this county. There is also a pure white variety that resembles putty in appearance, and a red of similar or ochraceous character, with a considerable show of iron in many places. Our farm lands have proved to be not easily exhausted, producing good crops annually, many of them ^for over forty years, and without any especial care,

These are known as New Madrid earthquakes. They have been felt not only in the county of New Madrid, but also the adjacent country on both sides of the Mississippi River. The center of the disturbance seems to have been in Pemiscot County, in the vicinity of Little Prairie.

Michael Braunm (father of Tecumsey Braunm, Miss Lizzie Braunm and Mrs. Victorine (Braunm) Horner, all yet living in Dunklin County) - Was a married man livino: at the above mentioned place durins: the time of the earthquakes. In describing the catastrophe he stated that in one particular place on the Mississippi the earth rose like a great loaf of bread to the height of many feet, the uprising being accompanied by a terrible rumbling noise. The swell finally burst with one of the most severe shocks of the period, and great quantities of sand, water and a black sulphurous vapor, was thrown out to nearly the height of an ordinary tree, completely darkening the atmosphere for some distance. When it was again light it was noticed that many acres of land had disappeared in the Mississippi, the current of which was retrograded for a short time. The rising motion and rumbling noise warned the inhabitants, and they fled in dismay, so that no lives were lost. Mr. Braunm's residence was about a half mile from the seeming center of this particular shock, and when it had subsided he placed his wife on a horse, walking in front himself, to search out a way

The description of the first shock as given by Godfrey Lesieur, who was an eye-witness to the scene, is quoted from the *< History of Southeast Missouri," as follows : -

** The first shock was about 2 o'clock a. m., on the night of December 16, 1811, and was very hard, shaking down log houses, chimneys, etc. It was followed at intervals from half an hour to an hour apart by comparatively slight shocks, until about 7 o'clock in the morning, when a rumbling noise was heard in the west, not unlike distant thunder, and in an instant the earth began to totter and shake so that no persons were able to stand or walk. This lasted a minute, then the earth was observed to be rolling in waves of a few feet in height, with a visible depression between. These swells burst, throwing up large volumes of water, sand and a species of charcoal, some of which was partly covered with a substance which by its peculiar odor was thought to be sulphur. Where these swells burst, large, wide and long fissures were left running north and south parallel with each other for miles. I have seen some four or five miles in length, four and one-half feet deep on an average, and about ten feet wide."

by an earthquake equal to the first in violence, and characterized by the same frightful results. Mr. Lessieur says further, that upon this second visitation the inhabitants, excepting two families, fled in dismay, leaving behind their stock and even many of their household goods, all of which were appropriated by adventurers and carried away in flatboals.

During this series of the most terrible earthquakes that have ever visited the American Continent, which occurred along the Mississippi Valley, streams were turned from their channels or dried up ; hills, forests and plains disappeared, and lakes, one of which, Eedfoot Lake, sixty or seventy miles in length, and from three to twenty in breadth, were formed. Vast heaps of sand were scattered in various places, and whole tracts of land sank below the level of the surrounding country.

Dunklin County's swamps and sloughs were undoubtedly made then, also its prairies and ** sandblows." Many of the fissures made in the earth are yet plainly visible in this county, especially on Horse Island, and near the foot of the hills west of Maiden.

All these fissures and the prairies, «' sandblows," sloughs or swamps, run in a northeasterly and southwesterly direction in Dunklin County.

Judging by the description of this county before these earthquakes, as given by Mr. Michael Braunm, it seems to have sunk or settled down at least fifteen or twenty feet, and in some places even more, all over the south end and east side along the swamps of Little River.

The small fissures in Dunklin County, made by the earthquakes, run parallel with Seneca Creek, Kinamore Slough, Honey Cypress, Buffalo Creek, Raglin and Taylor sloughs, - and it is supposed that these are only larger fissures made by the same catastrophe. The Indians stated this to be a fact, also, that there was no sand, sloughs or swamps prior to that time, but a beautiful high-rolling country.

Since 1812 slight shocks have been felt in the same region as the earthquakes of that date along the Mississippi Valley. Two or three shakes are sometimes felt in one year. The last, and hardest one since 1812, occurred about 5 o'clock Thursday morning of October 31, 1895. The Republic of November 2, 1895, says: ** Near Henson Lake, six miles south of Charlestown, Mo., about four acres of ground were sunk and filled with water, forming another lake. Near Bertrand hundreds of mounds of sand are piled up, ranging in size from twelve inches to ten feet in circumference, and the ditches in this neighborhood are filled with water, coming from the holes made, there having been no rain to fill them any other way for nearly two months. Near Big Lake, four miles north of Charleston, are two small holes in the earth, from which the water is spouting to the height of three feet. Every bricklayer in the city (Charleston) was busy all day replacing flues and chimneys that were skaken down.

'* The trembling of the earth is said to have been felt in at least seventeen States. The vibration ^eeiBS to have been most violent in the section ex- tending directly south of the State of Ohio. Only a few slight personal injuries have been reported. Considerable damage has been done to property in many places, brick flues were felled, chimneys shaken down, - plate-glass fronts and glass window panes fell from houses, plastering shook from walls, clocks were stopped and lights put out, and in some places people were nauseated and rolled out from their beds by the rocking of the earth."

These late shocks were much lighter in Dunklin County than in many other places, the severity being indicated by a message sent from Maiden to The Republic on October 31, 1895 : *' The heaviest earthquake since 1812 occurred here at 5:07 this morning, lasting tiiree minutes, from northeast to southwest. There was a fceneral scare but no damage is known."