Grundy County, Missouri - Chapter 1, 1908

THE EARLIEST PERIOD - Early Subdivisions of Missouri - The Indians - Ths First S?ttlement - Bee Hunting - The First Settlers - Settlements multiply - Plowing - The Mormons - The Heatherly Gang - Commerce, Foreign - Commerce, Domestic - Post Office Facilities - Political - An Old Time Honeymoon And a Peep Inside the New Home - Brief Sketch of Uncle Jack Moore - Charles Scott, an Old Settler - Pen Pictures of The First Cabins - List of First Settlers.

G1841. Since 1837 it had been a part of Livingston County. It was named in honor of the Hon. FeHx Grundy of Tennessee, a former United States Senator, and at that time, 1841, Attorney General of the United States.

In 181 2, in accordance with an act of Congress, Governor Clark issued a proclamation dividing that part of the Louisiana purchase known as the Territory of Missouri, into five counties, as follows: St. Charles, St. Louis, St. Genevieve, Cape Girardeau and New Madrid. In the year 1816 Howard County was created from the territory of St. Louis and St. Charles.

org-anized on November i6, 1820, whereupon this territory became a part of Missouritan Township, Ray County, and so remained for twelve years,, when it 1:)ecame part of Grand River Township. January 2, 1833, Carroll County was organized from the territory of Ray, and Livingston County was formed of a part of Carroll County, January 6, 1837.

Up to 1795 this country was claimed by the Missouri Indians. They were forced to the south and west by the Sacs and Foxes, who by the year 181 2 were locating on the Missouri River. Indians here were never numerous nor did they ever permanently occupy the country so far back as we have any record. The Sacs and Foxes and at intervals the lowas came in small bands hunting and trapping along the streams. They relinquished their claim to the land in 1824, but continued to revisit the place until as late as 1840. The settlers of this county never had any serious difficulty with the Indians.

The first settlement made in Grundy County was in 1833. Deer and turkey w^re numerous here then, there were some buffalo and bear, and a few elk. Wolves made the first settlers keep careful watch of their young stock; there were numerous foxes and all manner of small game, while occasionally a wild cat was seen. Indians were to be found here only at irregular intervals and in small numbers, hunting and trapping.

Depending to a great extent upon hunting and fishing for a living, the early settlers always built their log cabins in timber land and near a stream. Not until well into the fifties did they begin to

One of the chief attractions this country had to the first settlers was in the number of bee trees to be found here. While honey and wild game were among the principle articles of food, both were so easily obtained as to be wasted in large quantities. The securing of beeswax, one of the principle exports, was of much more importance than the securing of honey. A whole neighborhood at a time would go bee hunting, sometimes going a considerable distance from home. On these trips when they cut a bee tree they would squeeze out the wax, allowing the honey to run down on the ground where a part of it would be collected again by the bees. Large hollow trees being plentiful then, and bees comparatively unmolested, prodigious quantities of honey would often be found in a bee tree.

The first settlers in Grundy County were Dr. \\m. P. Thompson, John Scott and Harvey Meek, brothers-in-law, who came here together, with their families and settled on Thompson's fork of Grand River in the fall of 1833; and Levi Moore, with his family and sons-in-law, Wm. Cochran, John Thrailkill, George Tetherow and Yancy Stokes, who formed Moore's settlement, afterwards Trenton, in 1833 or 1834.

It is a disputed question as to who was the first settler. "Uncle Jacky" Moore, son of Levi Moore, is very positive that his people came in the spring of 1833. In this case they would be the first settlers. Others are equally positive that it was not until 1834, the spring after the coming of Thompson, Scott and Meek, that the Moores came to the countv.

In 1835 came the Watsons and Hawkins, who located in the east and southeast part of the county; the Dobbins, who located where Lindley now is. In the same year Daniel Devaul, who afterwards l^uilt the first store in the county, came to Moore's settlement. A few other settlers came, locating in different parts of the county. The "Heatherley gang," it appears, came the same year, but they were not bona fide settlers.

In 1836 a steady stream of immigration set in. The county was surveyed by the United States government survey in that year and the next, a land office was opened at Lexington, and the land of the county was opened to entry. Lands were quickly taken up, both by incoming settlers and speculators.

Immigrants were principally from Kentucky, Virginia and Ohio. They would come in squads of from five to ten families, and locate in the same neighborhood.

It was not long until they began to till the soil. Breaking prairie at that time, with the implements then obtainable, was Cjuite different from modern methods of plowing. The plow of that period had a w^ooden mouldboard, cut a furrow from thirty to forty inches wide, and was drawn by from four to eight or ten yoke of oxen. This being more oxen than the average farmer had, certain settlers in each neighborhood broke prairie for their neighbors for wages.

James Bunch is said to have put up the first horse mill. Each customer furnished his own horse and did his own grinding. The toll charged for the use of the mill was one-eighth.

Samuel and Wm. Benson, Evan and AVm. N. Pegry, Wm. AlcCammon, Wm. Metcalf, the Oxfords, Grubbs, Applegates and Wynne's settled on the west side of the river in 1837. On the east side Jesse and Raison Bain, Samuel Kelso, Henry Foster, Wm. Dille and others came the same year, forming the Bain settlement, in the present neighborhood of Tindall. The Bain settlement was then the most northerly one in the county. Other early settlers are George Peery and sons, William and Archibald, Jewett Norris, Philip ^Vild and George Bunch. j

It is thought that a few Alormon families stopped for a few months in Franklin township in 1836. At this time there was a Mormon colony in Daviess Count}^ and this colony, if it existed, was an offshoot of that. The Indians reported the existence of the settlement in Franklin Township, and the first white settler in that vicinit}^, James Weldon, found evidence that the report was true.

The Heatherleys, a gang of horse thieves, made this country their rendezvous as early and perhaps earlier than 1835. In the story of the Heatherley gang, as well as in many other instances of the very early settlement it is hard to distinguish between fact and tradition. According to one account in the old Grundy County History, they killed a man named Dunbar and a companion in 1836 in an attempt to rob them, and threw their bodies into Medicine Creek. Then to avert suspicion they gave out that the lowas and Sacs were on the war- path. The settlers were, of course, wildly excited. Two companies of militia were called from Ray and two from Clay County, while one was organized here in Livingston and the force placed under command of General, or Dr., Thompson. In the meantime the settlers at Moore's and Thompson's settlements had assemhled at Moore's settlement and constructed a rude block house for their defense. The bodies of the men were found, but finding that the rumor of hostile Indians was false, the settlers had the Heatherleys, who started it, arrested. One of the gang, Hawkins, turned state's evidence and the gang was sent to the penitentiary. It is said that Senator David R. Atchison commanded one of these militia companies. So ended the Heatherley

The same authority in another section of the book says that this disturbance arose in 1838. That the depredations of the gang were chiefly against the Pottawatomie Indians; that after raiding an Indian camp and stealing a number of ponies they were followed by the Indians and a fight ensued in ]\Iarion Township, in which two of their number and one Indian were killed. The Indians then, so the story goes, in retaliation commenced depredations on the other settlers, which led to the calling out of 2,000 militia. The Heatherle3's lost some others of their number, and the rest of the gang left the country for parts unknown. The Indians surrendered, were giveri a trial at Richmond, Ra)^ County, and acquitted.

An entry in the Government Field Book, dated April 27, 1837, in describing the location of certain sections refers to "a cabin known bv the name of the Heatherley Den, here hvecl a nuniljer of men who created the trouble with the Iowa Indians in the summer and fall of 1836. Cabin about ten chains to the S. W. and inhabited at the present time by Minter Brassfield.''

Warden Matt Hall, of the state penitentiary, in response to an' inquiry by the author, says that after a thorough search of the records he fails to find that any person of the name of Heatherley was in the penitentiary in this period. From these evidences it appears that the disturbance caused by the gang- was in the year 1836 and that things becoming too warm here they left of their own accord instead of being sent to the penitentiary. The cabin referred to was situated northwest of tlie present site of Gait, and near the present residence of George Winters.

Glasgow, on the Missouri River, loo miles away, Richmond, Ra}- County, and IJruns^vick ^^ ere the chief trading points in those days. Nearly all merchandise bought was paid for in skins, furs, honey, venison, beeswax, hogs, etc. Monev was a very scarce article, and what little there was in the community was generally used to enter land. They did not go shopping often then, once a year sufficing for the average settler. The annual pilgrimage to market was an important event. The equipage on the way to to\\n would consist of an ox team and a wagon loaded with skins, venison, etc., hogs following, fattening on the mast along the way, and men enough to drive the hogs. Hogs were raised cheaply, and when driven somewhat more than a hundred miles to market sometimes brought as high as two cents a pound. On the return trip the wagon

Grundy County had not been settled long until it had a store of its own. Daniel Devaul, who came to Moore's settlement in 1835, built there the first store in that year. It was a pretentious building* for that time, being built of hewed instead of round logs, and plastered with lime instead of mud. The store was located not far from where the court house now stands. The first merchants to occupy it were James S. Lomax and his l^rother-in-law^ Thomas Jacobs, who for a short time were partners in the mercantile business.

The settlement first called Moore's, and later known as "the Bluffs," now became known as Lomax's Store. Lomax, however, did not long" have a monopoly on the mercantile business. Wm. Thrailkill and brother started a store the following year and they w^ere soon followed by James L. Henshaw. Supplies for the stores were hauled from Richmond, Glasgow and Brunswick, at the rate of sixty to seventy-five cents per one hundred pounds.

The land on which Lomax's store was built, with the greater part of the present site of Trenton, was bought by Wm. Cochran at Government price, $1.25 per acre. He sold it to James R. Merrill for $400.

Post office facilities were the most primitive until after 1839. Spring Hill in Livingston and Mill Port in Daviess County were the nearest post offices. Any one going to either of these places would get the mail for the whole neighborhood, and, after that store was established, leave it at

Lomax's store. In the year 1839, liowever, a post office was established at Bluff Grove, as it \vas called, with James S. Lomax, postmaster. He was succeeded by George Moberly in 1842, w4io served eio-ht vears, durino- which time the name of the place was changed to Trenton.

\\'hile a part of Livingston County, the people took an active part in political affairs. This county and Mercer formed a part of the two townships, Sugar Creek and Muddy Creek. Elections in Sugar Creek Township, which lay west of the east fork of Grand River, were held at the house of Wm. Peery ; in Muddy Creek Township, which was east of the east fork, at the house of Daniel Devaul. Wm. Thompson was presiding judge of the Livingston County Court from 1839 until the organization of this county.

It was in these days that the first roads were laid out in this county. The first was called the Iowa trail. Petition for it w^as filed by George Tetherow, and the road led from Chillicothe to Section 35, Township 62, Range 24, now the south central part of Lincoln Township. The next road, established in 1839, ran from Chillicothe to the house of Wm. Thompson. The first merchant's license granted for a resident in this county was g-ranted by the Livingston County Court to James Lomax in 1838 as a retailer of merchandise and liquors. Livingston County also organized our first school district. It was in Trenton Township and was organized in 1838. James Merrill was appointed commissioner and Martin Winn and Samuel Benson school inspectors.

pioneers, who came to Grundy County with her father, Daniel Devaul, in 1835," says the old Grundy County History, "is given a short account of what the wives of the early settlers performed as their part of the work for the regeneration of the wilderness. The old lady is hale and hearty, (1881), claims that her early days were full of happiness as hard work, and she holds in slight contempt the effeminate beauties of the present day, who lack of courage and the will to do - that was the glorious trait the young women of olden times possessed, and what made them the equals of, and fit wives and associates for the men of those days. The wedding tour of Mr. and Mrs. Jarvis Woods was a horseback ride of about six miles, ending in the woods at a temporar}- log shanty. There the young bride jumped from her horse and took possession of her home. It was built of slabs or puncheons, placed against a large white oak tree, and they were kept in their places by heavy logs placed against them. And in telling the author of this bridal tour and her new home, Mrs. Woods said she w^as just as happy as she could be. The floor of her house was of mother earth. Her chief cooking utensil was an iron bake-pan, used in old times to make a pone of corn bread and to bake an occasional biscuit. The wTiter was shown this relic of olden time. It is doing duty now as a lye pot. This young bride also had a skillet, and with a gourd, or a tin cup or two, she had her culinary outfit. It would give a farmer's bride of today a chill of absolute despair if she were introduced to such an establishment. Well, that was the bride's home for six short (not long) weeks before their new palace residence was completed. This happened in February, 1838 - the couple being married on the 26th of February by Squire Thrailkill, and the road to their home was simply a not over-beaten pathway in the woods. vShe milked the cow, and cooked, and sewed, wove and spun, and went to mill, thus doing her part and keeping her end of the line taut. They made their bread literally by the sweat of their brows and led happy and contented lives. They were the first couple married in Grundy county. A calico or a gingham dress in those days was a piece of finery good enough to visit in or go to church, but you would oftener see a new home spun dress do duty on the same occasion; then these fine dresses would last a year or two, and it took eight yards for a dress. Hoop-skirts had not yet put in an appearance and pin backs were of another day and generation. So w^ith the multiplicity of duties the young wife kept on her way. By and by, when the family had grown up around them, cares began to increase and the wife and mother was often compelled to sit up night after night that the husband's and children's clothes might be mended, their stockings darned, and the preparations for the coming morning's work made ready. Then it was discovered that the woman's work is never done. The household was asleep. The tired husband and father was resting his weary limbs in dreamland, the children were tossing here and there on their beds as restless children always do. Nature itself had gone to rest and the outer world was wrapped in darkness and gloom, but the nearly exhausted mother still sewed on and on, and the midnight was still shedding its pale light over the work or the vigils of the loved and loving mother. And this is the record of the thousands of noble women, the female pioneers, whose daily presence, loving hearts, earnest work and keen judgment, made the work of civilization and progress one of success. And the question has often times been asked, 'What would the men of olden times have done if the women of olden times had not been with them.-'' and the reply comes back, 'Ah! yes, what would they have done?' "

"Uncle Jacky" Moore, one of the most interesting characters in Grundy County, and probably its oldest settler, says that in the spring of 1833 his brother-in-law, Wm. Cochran, came to Grundy Countv and put in about seven acres of corn in a field extending from near where the court house now stands to the overhead bridge. The first planting was taken by wild pigeons. He, then a boy of ten, came from Daviess County, where his father lived, and stayed with his brother-in-law, keeping the pigeons away from the corn. The birds nested in a scrub oak thicket on the present site of the fair grounds. Within a few years they had disappeared through Mercer County into Iowa.

His father, Levi Moore, came with his large family in the fall of 1833, and wnth his sons-in-law formed Moore's settlement on the ground on which the city of Trenton is built. The United States survey not yet being made, every man helped himself to whatever land he wanted.

Mr. Moore is a man of excellent memory and tells vividly occurrences of early days. He was a soldier in the INIexican war, made the trip across the plains in the early fifties, returned by way of the isthmus of Panama, and has had numerous adventures with Indians. On one occasion, when he was fifteen years old, the Iowa Indians came down from Fort Des Moines, Iowa, on a horse trading expedition, preparatory to moving- further west. They secured a good many horses from the new settlements in Grundy County, giving their notes in payment, payable when they should receive their allowance from the government. He, having learned the Indian language, was sent to Fort Des Moines to collect the notes when they became due. He w^as one night and two da3^s on the way, going the most of the time without food. A short distance across the Iowa line he reached a trail which led him directly to the fort. Here he collected payment in full for every note as the Indians received their allowance from the government, and afterwards had considerable excitement riding in the races in which the Indians took great delight.

Charles Scott, a son of John Scott, disputes with Mr. Moore the honor of being the oldest living resident of Grundy County. His father came with Dr. Thompson and Harvey Meek in the fall of 1833, and for a time the three with their families lived in one log cabin. They had previously been in this county and were attracted by the number of bee trees and the plentifulness of game. They settled on the west branch of Grand River, which in honor of Dr. Thompson, is now known as Thompson's fork.

Dr. Thompson was one of the leading men in this part of the state, not only a physician of repute but a level headed business man. Mr. Scott tells a story of a unique prescription given by him. The patient was very ill and nervous when Dr. Thompson was called. The doctor, after a critical examination, said: "The first thing Til prescribe is a pint of hog's fat. yieh it and give it to me now." The wondering wife of the patient soon brought him the melted lard. The door of the log cabin, as of other cabins, was made of two puncheons stood on end and fastened together and was fastened to the side of the house by wooden hinges in such a way that it creaked hideously when opened. Without a word Dr. Thompson took the lard and poured it over the hinsres and down the side of the door and over the floor where the friction was greatest, and proceeded to further treatment of the case.

The typical house of that time consisted of one room. It was built of logs, of course, and had a puncheon floor. To provide light a log was left out of one side of the house. Xails were not to be had, and for a roof, clapboards were fastened overhead by weight poles. The chimney was made of sticks and clay. The fire place took up a good part of one side of the house. The door was made of puncheons, as previously described. The bed was made by fastening a post in the floor and running poles from this post into holes bored into the logs of the wall on the two cornering sides of the house. Chairs were made of hickory bark, and the few other necessary articles required to furnish a house were equally crude.

The following list includes most of the names of those who were here prior to the time the county was organized. There may 1 e a few names there that ought not to be and are, doubtless, several not there that ought to be, but the list is as nearly com-