Lafayette County, Missouri - The whole text, 1881 (part 6 of 19)

And the said Thomas Whitsides, in consideration of the prompt fulfillment of this contract, on the part of the party of the first part, contracts to and agrees with the said John Jones, to pay for said hay five dollars per ton, for each ton as soon as delivered.

In case of failure of agreement by either of the parties hereto, it is hereby stipulated and agreed that the party so failing shall pay to the other, one hundred dollars, as fixed and settled damages.

Agreement With Clerk For Services

This agreement, made the first day of May, one thousand eight hundred and seventy-eight, between Reuben Stone, of Marshall, county of Saline, State of Missouri, part)'- of the first part, and George Barclay, of Sedalia, county- of Pettis, state of Missouri, party of the second part -

Witnesseth, That said George Barclay agrees faithfully and diligentlyto work as clerk and salesman for the said Reuben Stone, for and during the space of one year from the date hereof, should both live such length of time, without absenting himself from his occupation; during which time he, the said Barclay, in the store of said Stone, of Marshall, will carefully and honestly attend, doing and performing all duties as clerk and salesman aforesaid, in accordance and in all respects as directed and desired by the said Stone.

In consideration of which services, so to be rendered by the said Barclay, the said Stone agrees to pay to said Barclay the annual sum of one thousand dollars, payable in twelve equal monthly payments, each upon the last day of each month : provided that all dues for days of absence from business by said Barclay, shall be deducted from the sum otherwise by the agreement due and payable by the said Stone to the said Barclay. Witness our hands: Reuben Stone.

Note. - It is generally assumed that the gross weight of hogs diminished by 1-5 or 20 per cent, of itself gives the net weight, and the net weight increased by }£ or 25 per cent Of itself equals the gross weight.

Rule. - Multiply (by short method) the number of cubic feet by 6308, and point off one decimal place -the result will be the correct answer in bushels and tenths of a bushel.

Rule. - Multiply the number of cubic feet by 54, short method, or by 4r^ ordinary method, and point off one decimal place - the result will be the answer in bushels.

Note - In estimating corn in the ear, quality and the time it lias been cribbed must be taken into consideration, since corn will shrink considerably during the winter and spring. This rule generally holds good for corn measured at the time it is cribbed, provided it is Bound and clean.

Practical Rules For Every Day Use-, 1U7

Rule. - Multiply the square of the mean diameter by the depth (all in feet) and this product by 5681 (short method), and point off one decimal jplace - the result will be the contents in barrels of 31f gallons.

Rule. - Under the square of the mean diameter, write the length (all in inches) in reversed order, so that its units will fall under the tens; multiply by short method, and this product again by 430; point oft one decimal place, and the result will be the answer in wine gallons.

Rule. - Multiply the length (in feet) by the width (in inches) and divide the product by 12 - the result will be the contents in square feet.

Rule. - Multiply the width, the thickness, and the length together, (the width and thickness in inches, and the length in feet), and divide the product by 12 - the result will be square feet.

Rule. - Multiply the length by the width (in rods) and divide the pror duct by 160 (carrying the division to 2 decimal places if there is a remainder); the result will be the answer in acres and hundredths.

Bricks are usually made 8 inches long, 4 inches wide, and two inches thick; hence, it requires 27 bricks to make a cubic foot without mortar, but it is generally assumed that the mortar fills 1-6 of the space.

To find the length of the rafters, at one-fourth pitch, multiply the width of the building by .56 (hundredths); at one-third pitch by .6 (tenths); at two-fifths pitch, by .64 (hundredths); at one-half pitch, by .71 (hundredths). This gives the length of the rafters from the apex to the end of the wall, and whatever they are to project must be taken into consideration.

Note. - By }£ or % pitch is meant that the apex or comb of the roof is to be j^ or Jf the width of the building higher than the walls or base of the rafters.

If the corn in the box is in the ear, divide the answer by 2 to find the number of bushels of shelled corn, because it requires 2 bushels of ear corn to make 1 of shelled corn.

In measuring land, the first thing to ascertain is the contents of any given plot in square yards ; then, given the number of yards, find out the number of rods and acres.

The most ancient and simplest measure of distance is a step. Now, an ordinary-sized man can train himself to cover one yard at a stride, on the average, with sufficient accuracy for ordinary purposes.

To make use of this means of measuring distances, it is essential to walk in a straight line; to do this, fix the eye on two objects in a line stright ahead, one comparatively near, the other remote; and, in walking, keep these objects constantly in line.

Farmers and others by adopting the following simple and ingenious contrivance^ may always carry with them the scale to construct a correct yard measure.

Take a foot rule, and commencing at the base of the little finger of the left hand, mark the quarters of the foot on the outer borders of the left arm, pricking in the marks with indelible ink.

Practical Rules For Every Day Use. 1H9

Rule. - Multiply the square of one-fifth of the circumference in inches by twice the length in feet, and divide by 144. Deduct 1.10 to 1.15 according to the thickness of the bark.

Rule. - The reciprocal of the rate is the time for which the interest on , any sum of money will be shown by simply removing the decimal point two places to the left; for ten times that time, remove the point one place to the left ; for 1-10 of the same time, remove the point three places to the left.

U. S. Government Land Measure

An eight section, half a mile long, north and south, and a quarter of a mile wide - 80 acres. A sixteenth section, a quarter of a mile square - £0 acres.

The sections are divided into quarters, which are named by the cardinal points. The quarters are divided in the same way. The description of ' a forty-acre lot wculd read: The south half of the west half of the south-west quarter of section 1, in township 24, north of range 7 west, or as the case might be ; and sometimes will fall short, and sometimes overrun the number of acres it is supposed to contain.

Practical Rules For Every Day Usb Surveyors' Measure

A league is three miles, but its length is variable, for it is strictly speaking i nautical term, and should be three geographical miles, equal to 3.45 static miles, but when used on land, three statute miles are said t* be a league.

How To Keep Accounts

Every farmer and mechanic, whether he does much or little business, should keep a record of his transactions in a clear and systematic manner. For the benefit of those who have not had the opportunity of acquiring a primary knowledge of the principles of book-keeping, we here present a simple form of keeping accounts which is easily comprehended, and well adapted to record the business transactions of farmers, mechanics and laborers.

Interest Table

op Time. Multiply the principal (amonnt of money at interest) by the time reduced to days; then divide this product by the quotient obtained by dividing 360 (the number of days in the interest year) by the per cent of interest, and the quotient thus obtained will be the required interest.

Require the interest of $462.50 for one month and eighteen days at 6 per cent. An interest month is 30 dayp; one month and eighteen days equal 48 days. $462.50 multiplied.by .48 gives $2-^2.0000; 360 divided l>v 6 (the per cent of interest) gives 60, and 222.0000 divided by 60 will give the exact interest, which is $3.70. « the

Miscellaneous Table Names Of The States Of The Union, And Their

Virginia. - The oldest of the states, was so called in honor of Queen Elizabeth, the " Virgin Queen," in whose reign Sir Walter Raleigh made his first attempt to colonize that region.

Florida. - Ponce de Leon landed on the coast of Florida on Easter Sunday, and called the country in commemoraticn of the day, which was the Pasqua Florida of the Spaniards, or " Feast of Flowers."

Texas is the American word for the Mexican name by which all that section of the country was called before it was ceded to the United States.

Suggestions To Those Purchasing Books By Subscription

The business of -publishing books by subscription, having so often been brought into disrepute by agents making representations and declarations not authorized by the publisher, in order to prevent that as much as possible, and that there may be more general knowledge of the relation such agents bear to their principal, and the law governing such cases, the following statement is made:

A subscription is in the nature of a contract of mutual promises, by which the subscriber agrees to pay a certain sum for the work described ; the consideration is concurrent that the publisher shall publish the book named, and deliver the same, for which the subscriber is to pay the price named. The nature and character of the work is described by the prospectus and sample shown. These should be carefully examined before subscribing, as they are the basis and consideration of the promise to pay, and not the too often exaggerated statements of the agent, who is merely employed to solicit subscriptions, for which he usually paid a commission for each subscriber, and has no authority to change or alter the conditions upon which the subscriptions are authorized to be made by the publisher. Should the agent assume to agree to make the subscription conditional, or modify or change the agreement of the publisher, as set out by the prospectus and sample, in order to bind the princi-ple, the subscriber should see that such condition or changes are stated over or in connection with his signature, so that the publisher may have notice of the same.

All persons making contracts in reference to matters of this kind, or any other business, should remember that the law as written is, that they can not be altered, varied or rescinded verbally, but if done at all, must be done in writing. It is therefore important that all persons contemplating subscribing should distinctly understand^ hat all talk before or after the subscription is made is not admissible as evidence, and is no part of the contract.

Persons employed to solicit subscriptions are known to the trade as canvassers They are agents appointed to do a particular business in a prescribed mode, and have no authority to do it in any other way to the prejudice of their principal, nor can they bind their principal in any other matter. They cannot collect money, or agree that payment may be made in anything else but money. They cannot extend the time of payment beyond the time of delivery, nor bind their principal for the payment of expenses incurred in their business.

It would save a great deal of trouble, and often serious loss, if persons, before signing their names to any subscription book, or any written instrument, would examine carefully what it is; if they cannot read themselves, call on some one disinterested who can-

Pioneer Events

The first election held in the territory of Missouri was in October, 1812, and it was then divided into five voting or representative precincts; but just how and when this sub-division originated, history does not relate. The district of St. Charles embraced all north of the Missouri river; the district of St. Louis embraced all south of the Missouri river, except the old settlements of St. Genevieve, Cape Girardeau and New Madrid, on the Mississippi river; and therefore the territory now constituting Lafayette county, was at that time a part of what was called St. Louis parish or district. However, in governor Howard's proclamation, dated October 1, 1812, calling this first election, the five civil districts are for the first time officially called counties.

January 23, 1816, all that part of the state lying north and west of the Osage river on the south side of the Missouri, and west of Cedar creek, (opposite Jefferson City), and west of the dividing ridge between the streams that flow eastward into the Mississippi and those which flow southward into the Missouri, on the north side of that river, was organized under the name of Howard county. It was so named in honor of Gen. Benj. Howard, of Kentucky, who was appointed governor of this Territory in 1810. The county seat was first located at Cole's Fort, just below the present site of Boonville; but in 1816 it was removed to old Franklin, opposite Boonville.

In 1818, all that part of Howard county lying south of the Missouri river, and north and west of the Osage, was erected into a new county called Cooper, in honor of Capt. Sarshall Cooper, who, with ten others of the same name, his sons or relatives, were early settlers and Indian fighters in the " Boone's Lick country." (Capt. Cooper was killed in 1814.) The county seat was at Boonville.

On November 16, 1820, the legislature again created a lot of new counties; and all that portion of Cooper county lying west of the present eastern boundary of Lafayette county, and between the Missouri river on the north and the Osage river on the south, was named Lillard county, after a

James Lillard, who was the first member of the legislature from this locality, and introduced the bill to make the new counties. The county seat was fixed at Mount Vernon, a small settlement near the mouth of Tabo creek, about eight miles east of Lexington. Mr. Lillard subsequently abandoned the new county which had received his name, and went back to his old home in Tennessee. The pioneer settlers were displeased with this move, which seemed to cast some discredit on their chosen and favorite country.

In April, 1825, Gen. Lafayette and his son George Washington Lafayette, visited St. Louis, the General being then sixty-eight years old, and were received with a magnificent ovation. The legislature of 1824-5 was still in session, and it signalized the great event by changing the name of Lillard county to that of Lafayette, in honor of the distinguished Frenchman who had so nobly aided our country in the revolutionary war. His name and great services to our national cause were fresh in the minds of the people; and the naming of this county after hfm was designed as a perpetual memorial of their reverence and gratitude. In February, 1823, the county seat of Lillard county had been moved from Mount Vernon to Lexington, so that when the name Lillard was dropped, and Lafayette substituted, Lexington was alreadv the county seat, and has remained so ever since.

In 1826, December 15, Jackson county was organized, and its eastern boundary was the present west line of Lafayette county. And on December 13, 1834, Johnson county was laid off by act of legislature, its northern line being the same as the south line of Lafayette county. This completed the different steps and stages successively by which Lafayette county went through the process of political incubation and was hatched out into her present goodly plumage and fair proportions.

At the present time the county is divided into eight civil townships, towit: Clay, Davis, Dover, Freedom, Lexington, Middleton, Sniabar and Washington. But during its various stages of development it has had Blackwater, Blue, Caw, Clearfork, Fort Osage, Springfield, and Tabo townships, which do not now exist within her borders.

The first court held in Lillard county was at Mount Vernon, February 12, 1821. The county of Lillard was established by an act of the Legis lature passed November 16, 1820, and was included in the first judicia district. Gov. McNair appointed David Todd to be judge of this circuit, and hence it was Judge Todd who held the first court at Moun Vernon, as above mentioned. The act creating Lillard county had desig nated Mount Vernon to be the county seat until the people of the county should be able to suit themselves better. The governor had likewis commissioned Hamilton R. Gamble to be prosecuting attorney of this court; Young Ewing, clerk, (commission dated Jan. 18, 1821); and Wm. R. Cole, sheriff, (commission dated Jan. 1, 1821). Hamilton R. Gamble, Peyton R. Hayden and John T. McKinney were admitted to practice as attorneys at the bar of this court, the first day of its existence.

A grand jury, the first one in the county, was empaneled the same day, as follows: Wm. Lillard, foreman; John J. Heard, John Lillard, Wm. F. Simmons, Thomas Linville, Jesse Cox, James Bounds, Jr., David Jennings, Isaac Clark, Wm. Wallace, Christopher Mulky, Jacob Catron, John Bowman, George Parkerson, Thomas Hopper, James Linville, John Robison, Thomas Fristoe, Wm. Fox and Samuel Watson. Their first presentment was made in a short time, against John Salady, for trespass and assault and battery, "a true bill," etc.

The next day, February 13, the court was opened at 10:15 o'clock, and the first case presented was an application for divorce, as follows : "Sarah Lillard, by David Jennings, her next friend, complainant, Against Jerry Lillard, defendant, In a petition for a divorce.

This day came the complainant, by her counsel, and filed her petition, praying for a divorce from bed and board, and setting forth cruel and barbarous treatment so as to endanger her life, and indignities offered so as to render her situation intolerable, and compelling her to leave her husband," etc.

But at the next term of the court, June 12, the case was on motion of the complainant discontinued. However, this same' day another divorce case was entered, to-wit: Jane Cooper, complainant, against Braxton Cooper, defendant. This case was heard October 10th, and Jane was granted a divorce.

That first term of circuit court, in February, 1821, had one case in chancery, - Thomas Cox and Richard Scott vs. Wm. E. Aikman. And on the second day the grand jury brought in quite a list of presentments, as follows: The state of Missouri vs. John Young, for assault and battery; also against John Ingram and Solomon Catron, for the same offense, and against John Young, Jonathan Hicklin, Jacob Catron and James Lillard for an affray. The business of litigation continued to increase from term to term so that the court always had enough cases on the docket to keep it busy while in session. In fact, the records show that "those early times" were not any better in that respect than these later times. Indee , there was a great deal more litigation in proportion to the number of people than there is now.

The July term, 1825, of the circuit court is entered as " a circuit court begun and held in the town of Lexington, and county of Lillard" etc. Its record occupies pages 11 to 15 of book No. 2. Then on page 16 of the same book occurs this entry: "A circuit court begun and held in the court house in the town of Lexington, Lafayette county, on the 24th day of November," etc., (1825). There is no record, note or memoranda to show how, when or why the name of the county ceased to be Lillard and commenced to be Lafayette. It is common report that one of the first acts of our state legislature after Gen. Lafayette's visit to St. Louis in 1825, was to change the name of Lillard county to Lafayette county; but this historian failed to find a copy of the act, or any document or other record giving the exact date or particulars of the change. It would certainly seem as though the court record should have had some memoranda to account for and explain the change, so as to authenticate the proper dating and entitling of official papers, but nevertheless no such explanation appears, neither in the circuit court, county court or marriage records. In each case there is simply an abrupt, unexplained change of name from Lillard to Lafayette county.

The first circuit court of Lafayette county was held at Lexington, November 24, 25, 1825. David Todd, judge; Markham Fristoe, sheriff; Young Ewing, clerk.

The first grand jury of Lafayette county consisted of: Wm. Bowers, foreman; David James, Henry Rowland, Geo. Nevil, A. P. Patterson,. Spencer Estes, Thos. Marr, Isaac Clark, Pink Hudson, Wm. Clark,. Calvin Howe, Samuel Cox, Wm. Robertson, Jesse Demasters, Hiram Helm, David Norris, Jesse Nave, Frederick Sebril, Jesse Cox, and Henry Campbell. They received their charge, and retired for consultation; but, unlike their predecessors, the first grand jury of Lillard county, there was no business before them; and they were at once dismissed.

David Todd continued to be judge of the circuit court, up to the November term, 1830. But at the February term, 1831, J^hji^\_Ryiandjook his seat as judge of the court, under a commission signed by John Miller governor, January 18, 1831. This Judge Ryland was the father of Judge John E. Ryland and Xenophon Ryland, Esq., prominent and well-known attorneys of Lexington at the present time. Judge Ryland occupied this bench continuously for eighteen years, then occupied a seat on the supreme bench of the state for eight years. He died September 10, 1873>

The first thing that appears of record is the opening of the county court at the house of Samuel Weston* in the town of Mount Vernon, January 2, 1821. John Stapp, John Whitsett and James Lillard, Sr., had been commissioned by Governor McNair, under date of St. Louis, December 8, 1820, as justices of the county court of Lillard county. Henry Renick

*Sarnuel Weston had been commissioned by the governor, November 22, 1820, as justice of the peace for Tabbo township, then in Cooper county, but at this time in Lillard county.

Sr., was then justice of the peace for the county, and he administered the oath of office to the new justices. (He had been commissioned by the governor November 22, 1820, as justice of the peace for Sniabar township, then in Cooper county, but now Lillard county.) Young Ewing was the first clerk of court; his bond was given for $1,200, with Wm. Y. C. Ewing and Joel Campbell, as securities. This was at the April term. The January term had done no business except to record the justices' commissions aud swear them into office.

The first case in this court was a motion of Abram McClelland, April 23, 1821, for letters testamentary on the last will of Amasa Crain, deceased. Mr. McClelland, David Ward and Abel Owens entered into bond in the case. The will was proven by the oaths of John Tharp, and John Walker, and the record says: " Ordered, that Lilburn W. Boggs, [afterwards governor of the state, 1836 to 1840,] Richard Edmundson and Wm. E. Aikman, who being first sworn, do appraise all the slaves and all the personal estate to them produced of Amasa Crain, deceased, and make due return thereof according to law ."

The same day Wm. Y. C. Ewing, Thomas Fristoe, Joseph Irwin, Abel Owens and Samuel Evans, were appointed commissioners of the school lands of the county; and it was "ordered, that all persons who have improved school lands shall be allowed to occupy the same so long as to reap the benefits of three crops, including those that have been made or received by said improver."

April 24, 1821, John Dustin was appointed surveyor of Lillard county, he "having been examined in presence of the court, as to his qualifications," etc.

July 24, John Stapp was appointed to be president of the court. After this, the court proceeded to make up the first bill of county expenses, thus:

October 23, 1821, Braxton Small was appointed deputy clerk of the county court. The first report of the tax collector was made on this same day, when there appeared to be due the county, from Markham Fristoe, the collector, the sum of $83.70. The court ordered him to pay $50 of it to the county treasurer within fifteen days, and the balance at the next term of court.

March 12, 1822, John Duston, James Bounds, and James Lillard were bonded in the penal sum of $2,000, as commissioners to select the most suitable place whereon to erect a court house and jail, and to let contracts for the buildings.

The first record, in regard to an election in the county, occurs under date of July 9, 1822. At this time, Solomon Cox, Legard Fine, and James Lillard, Jr., were appointed judges of an election to be held at Mount Vernon, in Tabbo township; and Julius Emmons, David Ward, Thomas Swift were appointed judges of an election to be held in Sniabar township, "at the place of preaching near Henry Renick's."

At this election, which occurred in August, Jesse Hitchcock was elected constable for Sniabar township, and James Bounds, Jr., for Tabbo township.

It is noticeable, that in the earliest official county records Tabo is sometimes spelled Ta Beau; and Sniabar is nearly always spelled Sny E. Bairre. [See Township History of Dover and Sniabar township, for origin of the names Tabo and Sniabar.]

March 12, 1822, James Bounds, John Duston, and James Lillard were appointed commissioners to select a town site for the county seat, and let contracts for suitable buildings. They selected the site, and laid out the town of Lexington (old town). The contract to erect public buildings was let to Henry Renick, and on June 27, 1825, appears an account of $875.15 paid him on the job. There are small items of payments, for jail and court house, scattered along in the county records, for two or three years, so that it was never known just how much this building did cost. It was a poor job, anyway, as the facilities for obtaining suitable materials for such a structure were then very meagre.

November 23, 1825, appears another entry of $467.41J, paid Renick on construction of court house; and the same day the building was accepted, and commissioners discharged. This building was occupied for county purposes a few years, but proved to be unfit and unsafe, and on July 24, 1832, the county court " Ordered that James Fletcher be appointed commissioner to sell the court-house of this county, except the rock foundation, as follows: The brick, in four parcels, and the shingles, planks, and timbers, in one lot, etc. The sale took place August 1.

Rollins & Thomas, completed a new fnree.-story building for the county. This was used until 1845, when the present classic and stately court house was erected in the new town of Lexington, by Hunter & Alford, contractors. The old building in old Lexington was eventually sold to the Baptist Female College, and used by that institution until the war of the rebellion. During the turmoil it was used by the United States troops as a hospital, and finally as a pest-house for small-pox cases; hence after the war it was not used again for a school house, or any other public purpose, but was torn down and sold as old brick.

The transition from Lillard to Lafayette county is a little curious. The session of county court June 27, 1825, called it Lillard county. The session on July 11, makes its entry, " Lillard or Lafayette county." This occurs twice. Then the August term again uses Lillard county only. The November term does not once in any way name the county. The next term, February 6, 1826, says, " county of Lafayette, and so it has stood ever since.

First Roads, Ferries, Licenses, Etc

The first mention of a road in the count}' occurs under date of April 24, 1821. Abner Graham was appointed overseer of the road leading from Fort Osage through Sniabar township, from opposite where James Connor then lived, to Fort Osage. He was required to keep the road in good repair, clear and smooth, twenty feet wide. At the same time James Young was appointed overseer of the road from Little Sniabar to James Connor's. Wm. F. Simmons was appointed overseer of the road from the Tabbo Creek crossing near Mount Vernon, to the range line between ranges 26 and 27; and from this latter point Thos. Fristoe was appointed overseer westward to Little Sniabar Creek. George Parkerson was appointed for the road from Tabo Creek eastward through Mount Vernon to east end of Tabo township.

On the same day Gilead Rupe, Markham Fristoe, Wm. Robertson, and Reuben Riggs were appointed commissioners to view the best and nearest route for a road leading from Jack's ferry to intersect the road leading from Fort Osage to Mount Vernon. Fort Osage was near where the town of Sibley now stands, in Jackson county, and was the nearest post of U. S. soldiers, in case of an attack upon the settlement by Indians.

At the same time also a license was issued to Adam Lightner to keep a ferry across Tabo Creek, for which he paid a tax of two dollars. The ferriage rates fixed by the court were: For one passenger, three cents; horse, three cents; cattle, three cents each; hogs or sheep, two cents

July 9 a license was granted to Robert Castles to retail merchandise in this county, for which privilege he paid $30 per year. This is the first license of the kind on record, and it is presumed he was the first merchant in the county. The location of his store is not named.

July 23, 1821, license was granted to Thomas Stokely to keep a ferry across the Missouri River about three miles below Fort Osage, for which he had to give bonds to the amount of $2,000. Abel Owen was his bondsman. The rates fixed by court for this ferry were: Passenger, twelve and a half cents; man and horse, twenty-five cents; neat cattle, ten cents each ; hogs or sheep, three cents each ; carriages, thirty-seven and a half cents; carts, fifty cents; wagons, one dollar; lumber or goods not in vehicle, six cents per hundred weight. Mr. Stokely also procured the appointment of Abner Graham, James Hicklin, William Y. C. Ewing and Wm. Renick as commissioners to lay out "a road from the bridge on Fire Prairie creek to said Stokely's ferry on the Missouri river."

There does not appear any record as to how or when or where Jack's ferry was established, but we learn from General Graham that it was at the original steamboat landing which afterwards became the foot of Commercial street of the city of Lexington, although now (1881) there is solid land for half a mile out from this old landing.

July 23, Ira Bidwell, Benjamin Gooch, Jesse Demaster and Pink Hudson were appointed to lay out a road, giving Jack's ferry a shorter connection with the Ft. Osage road. Also Gilead Rupe, Richard Fristoe, John Allison, and John Young were appointed to lay out a road from Jack's ferry to the county line toward Revis salt works.

July 24, Abel Owen and Henry Renick were appointed to lay off Sniabar township into suituble and convenient road districts. And the same day a license was granted to Adam Lightner, to keep a tavern; for this license he paid $12 per year. The same day also Michael Ely was licensed to sell merchandise; this license cost $30 per year.

August6, 1822, Alfred K. Stevens was granted a permit to build a warehouse on the Missouri river, on the northwest fractional quarter of section 24, fractional township 51. This was for the storage and inspection of tobacco, and appears to have been the first commercial enterprise in the county.

November 5, record is made of license issued to Abner Graham to retail wines and spirituous liquors; also to James Rath well for the same purpose - each paying $5 for six months' license. In August, 1823, a renewal of Rath well's license to sell liquors is recorded as "J. Rath well's

First Marriage

Lillard county no ye to home it may concern that this 8 day of February 1S21 was joined together in the holy estate of marimony James Keeney and Anney Ramsey by me

During the same year, 1821, the following additional marriages occurred: February 23, George Shelby to Margaret Tunage, by Rev. Martin Trapp ; March 15, Wm. Cox to Sary Cantrel, by Rev. Martin Trapp; March 28, Wm. Furgusson to Polly Heard, by Samuel Weston, J. P.; March 15, Robert McAffee to Mary Gladden, by John Heard, J. P.; March 15, Wallace McAffee to Susanna Givens, by John J. Heard, J. P.; April 26, Walter Burril to Lydia Cox, by J. J. Heard, J. P. This was all in that year.

A total of sixty-one marriages occurred in Lillard county, from the first one, February 8, 1821, till August 5, 1S25. But the first marriage recorded as occurring in Lafayette county, after the change from Lillard to Lafayette, was that of Nicholas Turner to Keziah McClure, by Abel Owens, J. P., July 19, 1825. There is some confusion in the records during the period of the change of name from Liliard to Lafayette county. The last marriage, as above noted, is given as occurring in Lafayette county, and yet on November 2, 1825, nearly four months later1, Young Ewing signs his name on the record as Clerk of Lillard circuit court. The July term of the circuit court was recorded as in Lillard county, but the November term is recorded as in Lafayette county. No record was made to explain this change of name.

The actual first marriage within the present bounds of the county, was that of John Lovelady and Mary Cox, in 1818, before the county was organized, and hence does not appear on the record. [See article headed " History of Dover township."

Commencing on page 20 of this volume will be found a chapter on the general subject of the prehistoric or Moundbuilder race in Missouri. That chapter rambles all over the state for its data. This article is confined to such relics of those ancient people as we have been able to get knowledge of in Lafayette county.

The writer hereof has identified the site of an ancient or Moundbuildei village near Lexington. It is on the north half of southeast quarter of.

section 27, township 51, range 27; the land is known as the old Cromwell place, and is just across a ravine north from Judge A. S. Tutt's place. It was formerly cultivated as a corn field, but has lain fallow for three years past, the old house upon it being decayed and uninhabitable. There is a small orchard near the old house ruins. The ground here for five or six acres is dotted over with flint chips, bits of ancient pottery, and other relics of the Moundbuilder folks. The Lexington Intelligencer of June 25, 1881, contained the following local item:

Relics of the prehistoric people Or Moundbuilders, who inhabited Missouri before our modern Indians occupied it as their hunting grounds, have been found and published in about twenty different counties of Missouri, but Lafyette county has not received her share of celebrity in this line.

Two of the Intelligencer office boys, Frank Lamborn and Ethan Allen, Jr., have specimens of flint arrow-heads and other curious things which they showed to Prof. Reid, of the Missouri historical company, and he listed and named them thus:

Ethan's list: 1 flint drill, 3^ inches long - was used by the ancient people to drill their soapstone and pipestone pipes; also to make holes in other trinkets so as to string them; 4 flint arrow-heads of different sizes, shapes and colors; 1 flesher - an implement made of green-stone, and which was used as a hand wedge or peeler in the process of skinning animals, then as a flesher and rubber in preparing the skins so they would be soft and pliable. This tool weighs just a pound. It was also used to peel bark from trees.

Frank's list consists of 25 arrow and javelin heads, varying from 1£ to 5 inches in length. Five implements which archaeologists call shovels; these range from 3Jto 6^ inches long; 1 flesher; 1 stone ax - a very beautiful specimen, made of a kind of rock called syenite, a species of granite.

Last Mondav evening the boys went with Prof. Reid out to a place they called "Indian Hill," east of the old Masonic college, and there they found great quantities of flint chips, broken arrow heads, fragments of ancient pottery with different styles of ornamentation represented on different pieces; and lastly a part of a tiny copper ax. * This last is supposed to have been the emblem of authority, kept or worn by the chief. The boys say they used to find pocketsfull of arrow-heads and such things there. The abundance of flint chips, broken pottery, etc., on the ground is said to show that a village was located there, and a manufactory of arrow-heads, flint knives, shovels, stone axes and pottery must have been kept there for some time.

* On page 20 of this volume it is stated that "they had no knowledge of iron, or any art of smelting copper,'1'' etc. But in Switzler's history of Missouri, page 108, we find this passage: "It has been stated, and often repeated, that they had no knowledge of smelting or casting metals, yet the recent discoveries in Wisconsin of implements of copper cast in molds - as well as the molds themselves, of various patterns, and wrought with much skill - prove that the age of metallurgical arts had dawned in that region, at least." This was written by A. J. Conant, of the St. Louis Academy of Sciences. The copper specimen found by Prof. Reid at Lexington looks as if it may have been molded, instead of hammered out from the virgin ore.

Col. John Reid also submitted for examination and name a round stone weighing one pound and seven and one-fourth ounces, which looked more like a petrified osage orange than anything else. But the professor says it is not a petrifaction at all, but is made from a flinty kind of rock called hornstone, and was used by the Mound builder people as a sort of pestle to work in a saucerlike cavity in another piece of hard stone which served as a mortar. With this rude apparatus they ground or mashed their parched corn and roasted acorns; they also used it to pulverize red and yellow ochre to make war-paint.

Prof. Reid made several subsequent visits to the place in company with Prof. S. M. Sellers of the Wentworth male academy, Mr. Charles Teubner, George Wilson, and others, and each time found some additional relics, until he had fragments of pottery showing over thirty different styles of ornamentation, besides many plain pieces, and much variety in the quality and admixture of the clay in degrees of hardness, toughness* etc., and in shades of color.

The following ancient mounds have been reported to this historian: Mr. George Wilson says that when the house was built where Prof. Quarles now lives, (a part of the Elizabeth Aull seminary property), two mounds were dug away in digging the cellar and foundation, and some human bones and unimportant relics were found. And there is one mound still remaining in the back yard at this place, just on the edge of the bluff, commanding a fine view of the river.

Wm. H. Chiles, Esq., reports a group of five mounds on Brush creek bottom, where the old Lexington and Warrensburg road crossed the creek on Robert H. Smith's land in section 36, township 50, range 27.

Charles Teubner reports two mounds on T. R. E. Harvey's land, southeast quarter of section 22, about a quarter of a mile northwesterly from the negro burying-ground, which is on the Robert Aull estate. These two mounds are perhaps twenty rods apart, and near the brow of the bluff, giving a grand outlook over the Missouri river and country beyond. One of the mounds is still six feet high, and has a modern grave on top, with a rude board fence around it.

Dr. Sandford Smith reported a mound on section 5, township 50, range 27; and in company with Dr. Smith and Mr. Charles Teubner, we visited it. The mound is on the Odell place. Old Mr. George Odell dug into it, from top to bottom, more than twenty years ago (it was before the war, anyway). Its extreme height was about six and a half or seven feet. A layer of loose stones had been laid on the ground and then the earth piled up over them. No wall or chamber was found, nor any relics except a few crumbly human bones. This mound is on the highest point of land in that vicinity, and from its top objects can be seen which are known to be twenty-five miles distant; hence, it is concluded that this was used by the ancient people as a signal tower, to guide their distant friends up or down the river by night, or give warning of approaching danger. It si on the brow of the river bluff.

Mound-Builder Relics

Mr. Charles Teubner of Lexington has a collection of Moundbuilder relics, numbering about 2,300 specimens in flint, comprising arrow-heads, spear-heads, javelins, daggers, bird darts, drills, reamers, fish spears, shovels, hoes, scrapers, knives or lances, and some forms the use of which is still undetermined. The materials represented in these specimens are flint, hornstone, agate, chert, chalcedony, slate, hematite, milky quartz, and vitreous or glassy quartz crystal. Among these are over 100 specimens known as bird darts, being perfectly wrought and finished arrow heads less than an inch long. These are supposed to have been designed especially for shooting small birds of brilliant plumage, the feathers of which were used by some tribes in making a very rich and gaudy kind of cloth. Specimens of this kind of cloth were found by the conquering Spaniards in Mexico which excelled iu princely gorgeousness the most costly silks, satins, velvets or laces ever seen in European courts. It was made in the same way that some good housewifes now-a-days make most elegant rugs, by knitting common store-twine and looping a small shred of silk fabric into each stitch, and when finished, shearing the silk ends all to even length.

No. 1 Indian with battle axe, in the act of striking a savage blow. This figure or chart is composed of 181 flint arrow and spear heads, so arranged as to depict the Indian physiognomy, costume, and action with great vigor and lifelikeness.

No. 2. Indian with drawn bow and arrow, full life size, and the Indian's redness of face, even, is artistically represented by using red or coppery tinged flints for that part. This design is composed of 192 pieces.

No. 5. Indian squaw and pappoose. This is the masterpiece of all; it contains 296 flints, so exquisitely arranged that the woman's moccasins, frilled skirt, flowing hair, and nursing breast are perfectly represented; the child's figure is perfect, even every finger and toe being shown, and by a skillful use of the different shapes and colors of the arrow-heads, an expression of glee or laughter shows in the features of both mother and child as she stands tossing the little sucker as high as she can reach.

The specimins of which these figures are composed were all collected in Gasconade and Franklin counties, Missouri, during the years 1873-74- 75, by George H. King, Esq., now of Kansas City, who was then school commissioner of Gasconade county. He made the charts and had them displayed in the Missouri building at the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia in 1876. Mr. Teubner afterwards bought them and added them to his Lexington collection, where, in addition to the above, he has specimens from Lafavette, Pettis, Montgomery, Warren, Boone, and Jackson counties in Missouri; and also from the States of Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, Virginia, Maryland, and New York. Besides the flint specimens of Moundbuilder work, are grooved stone hammers and axes weighing from twelve ounces to over five pounds. Two of these are of hematite, a kind of brown iron ore almost as heavy and hard as real iron. Also stone bark peelers, skin dressers, corn pestles, paint cups, game discs, and various other tools or trinkets. There are supposed to be two or three other larger collections in the United States than this, but there is probably not another one equal to it in the variety of forms and material and the great number of exquisitelv finished specimens of the flint work. Mr. Teubner has been over twenty years making his collection and still pursues it. He is determined to give Lexington the honor of having both the largest and most varied collection in the United States except that of the Smithsonian Institution. Of course no private collection can compete with that.

Mr. Jackson Cox, in his field in south half of section 2, township 48, range 28, Sniabar township, plowed up an ancient pipe of flattened ovoid form, with a groove and two creases worked around from the stem hole. The material is a heavy, compact, dirty-blue tinged variety of pipe-stone, and an excellent specimen. Mr. Geo. F. Maitland furnishes a fine specimen of flint drill, 5f inches long and half-inch bore, such as the ancient people used to work with thumb and finger, for drilling into softer kinds of stone. He found it on Gen. Vaughan's farm.

In connection with Mr. Teubner's specimens that were collected in Gasconade county, we ought to mention the fact that a stone about eighteen inches square, with a human footprint on each side, was found in his field by Mr. Wm. Miller, of Bay post-office, Gasconade county. [See page 14, of this work, for the St. Louis footprints in stone.] Mr. Miller sold this stone, together with other relics, to John P. Jones, Esq., of Keytesville, Chariton count}7, a well known writer on the early explorations of Missouri by the Spanish and French. [See Kansas City Review of Science, Nos. for May, June, July, August, 1881.] Mr. Jones thinks the footprints which he had were sculptures and not plastic moulds. He sent the stone to the Smithsonian Institution at Washington City. Mr.

Jones says this stone was reddish quartzite. He further writes: "Geo. S. Mepham, of St. Louis, had a footprint stone a few years sgo, its material being limestone. I saw one at Washington with two footprints on the same side. I also knew of one in Kansas."

Physical Features

Lafayette is the second county east from the state line between Missouri and Kansas; has seven counties between it and the south line of the state, six east of it, and four north. Its area is 395,000 acres, one authority says; another says 393,000; and a third says 403,671 acres. The last man gives exact figures, as if he had measured it himself, so we conclude the other fellows were only "guessing at it." The 39th parallel of latitude crosses about midway of the county - almost through Higginsville; and its longitude is from 16^ to IT degrees west from Washington. Saline county adjoins on the east, Johnson county on the south, Jackson on the west, and Ray and Carroll across the Missouri river on the north. Its latitude is the same as Kansas City, Cincinnati, and Dover the capital of Delaware; its longitude corresponds with the boundary between Louisana and Texas, and with the cities of Des Moines, Iowa, and Mankato, Minnesota.

Topography And Hydrography

We have not found any survey notes or other authentic data to show where is the highest or lowest point of land in Lafayette county. But an examination of the map shows that the county about Mount Hope and Odessa, in the east part of Sniabar township, is probably the highest land ; for streams rising in this vicinity flow off in every direction - north, south, east and west. Both forks of the Big Sni rise here, one flowing northward and the other westward; ^eadstreams of Davis creek flow from here eastward; and small tributaries of the Blackwater river in Johnson county rise here and flow southward. Hence a knob near Odessa, on Edward Lee's land, is supposed by some to be the highest point. On the other hand, the vicinage of Mayview likewise has streams flowing from it in nearly every direction, and some think that is the highest land. Others again claim that Lexington, or some hills in its vicinity are the highest, citing the fact that the coal beds dip from Lexington southward, and that the Lexington & St. Louis railroad runs a heavy down grade for five miles out of the city. ISTothing but an actual topographical survey can settle such a point; and we are informed that some such surveys will be made in this county by the government during this year and next.

The largest and longest stream in the county is Davis creek: which rises by several tributaries in the southern, western and central parts of Washington township, and flows northeasterly between Freedom and Davis townships, then southeasterly in Saline county, where it empties into Blackwater river, that into the Lamine, and that into the Missouri in Cooper county a few miles above Boonville. The east and west forks of the Big Sni both rise in Sniabar township, the east fork flowing steadily northward, while the west fork makes a grand detour westward into Jackson county, then back northeasterly to a junction with the east fork in Clay township, about three miles from its mouth near the village of Wellington. The Little Sni rises partly in Clay and partly in Washington townships, flows north, northwest, and north, and for three or four miles of its course forms the boundary between Lexington and Clay townships.

Tabo creek is perhaps the next largest stream after the Big Sni; and has two considerable branches which rise in Washington township, two in Lexington township, and one in Dover township. The course of the main stream is steadily northward, and it forms the entire boundary line between Lexington and Dover townships. One of its branches rises in the southeast part of Lexington city, anal the Lexington & St. Louis railroad follows it in a southeasterly direction, for advantage of grade, for a distance of over- five miles.

Salt creek rises in the southwest part of Middleton township, with small headstreams flowing in from Davis and Dover. Its course is north and northeast, and then it flows away entirely across Saline county and empties into the Blackwater river, of which it is called the " Salt fork." Saline licks occur in many places along this stream, and this fact gave name to Saline county. Elm creek rises in southeast part of Middleton township, and flows northeasterly into Saline county and joins Salt cfeek. Panther creek rises in Freedom township, west of Concordia, and flows southeasterly into the Blackwater.

The above are all the principal streams of the county, but there are a great many small tributaries with local or neighborhood names which do not appear on the maps. In Freedom township there is Mulky creek, Blackjack creek, and Peavine creek. In Middleton township there is Willow creek and Craig's branch. In Davis township there is an Elm branch, Bear branch, Merritt's branch, and Johnson's creek, all flowing southwardly into Davis creek. In Dover township there is Cottonwood creek. In Washington township, there are James creek, Honey creek, North and South forks of Davis creek, and Brush creek. In Clay township there is Owl creek, and Helm's lake, the latter a remnant of t'ne ancient river bed. In Lexington township there are Graham's branch and Rupe's branch, at Lexington city, and the Garrison fork of Tabo creek. In Sniabar township there is Horseshoe creek. Clay, Lexington,

The river at the city of Lexington has very much changed its channel. The original landing for Jack's ferry and keel boats, before steamboats came much into use, was at or near the mouth of Rupe's branch. The backwater from the river set up into the branch above the stone bridge on the Wellington road, and there was a ledge of bare rocks in the bed of the branch just above the bridge, from which boys used to leap or plunge into deep water; it was a favorite swimming ground. When steamboats began to come, and Lexington grew to be a great center of trade, the steamboat landing was at the old ferry landing; and the city graded and paved Commercial street to make a good and mudless roadway from her main business center down to the wharf. But now the river has filled up its old channel with solid land, so that a steamboat today cannot land anywhere within half or three-quarters of a mile of the old place; Rupe's branch cove is all filled up, the ledge of rocks completely covered, and Commerce street grown to weeds and chink-grass, though the paving still remains as a reminder of the " used-to-be." At low water, the steamboat and ferry landing are now far down the river, almost below the city. And what the old Missouri is going to do with it in the future no mortal can tell.

River Surveys And Soundings

During the winter of 1879-80 the Burlington and Southwestern railroad company made a series of surveys and soundings to determine the feasibility of building a railroad bridge across the Missouri river at Lexington. Howard Dunn, a civil engineer of Lexington, was employed on this work, assisted by Wm. Tutt, Charles Morrison, Charles Montgomery and Charles H. Dunn, all Lexington boys. Some work was done by making soundings through the ice. Then Mr. Dunn was sent by the same company to examine and report on the grades, curves and condition of roadbed of the old Lexington and Gulf railroad. After this, or about February 18, 1880, the railroad company sent another engineer, Mr. Hurst, of Chilicothe, to join Mr. Dunn in a further prosecution of the river-bed soundings and bank surveys, and this work was carried on from a point on the north bank considerably above the foot of pine street to a point on the south bank bluff, near Dr. Wilmot's place. The highest point taken on the bluff was just north of the old Masonic college, and was 167 feet above low-water mark. Fifteen different test soundings were made for bed-rock in the river, with the following results: house at foot of Pine street, and 149 feet out from the river bank, bare rock was struck at 15.8 feet from the surface, the river being then 3£ feet above low-water gauge. This rock was drilled into 18 inches without going through, and was found to be a solid limestone ledge.

No. 3. Same place, 396 feet from river bank, sand bottom was found at 21 feet depth of water. A two-inch gas-pipe was then sunk in the sand 46.7 feet without finding rock.

Nos. 11, 12, 13, 14 and 15 represented a line of soundings from shore to shore at a point 200 feet up-stream from Major Claget's coal mine. No. 15 was 200 feet out from the south shore, and at 21 feet depth of water the bedded limestone, same as Nos. 1 and 2, was found. But at all the other numbers on this line, at an average depth of 51 feet from the surface, there was found a reef of boulders and coarse gravel, with sand again below them.

No. 9. This sounding was 500 feet up-stream from the line last mentioned, and on the north side of the river, 50 feet back on the beach from the water's edge. The result was, they bored through 55 feet of sand and sandy loam, then 8 feet of gravel and shale, then 4 feet of slate and coal, then 13 feet of sand, without finding bed rock. The total depth bored at this point was 80.2 feet.

No. 10. This test-point was 150 feet out in the river from the north shore line, and the water was 4.5 feet deep. At 21 feet below the water surface coal and sand was found; at 22 feet, gravel; at 27 to 46 feet, quicksand; at 52 feet, gravel; at 94 feet, no bed-rock. Here the tube stuck fast, could not be got out, and is there yet.

Whether the railroad company considered these results such as to warrant them in ever building a railroad bridge at Lexington, no man knoweth; but at this writing (Oct. 1, 1881) there are many signs which seem to indicate that a bridge will sometime be built here, and that the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy railroad company will run its southwestern branch from Burlington, Iowa, by way of the old Lexington and Gulf grade toward Texas.

In October, 1880, Mr. Dunn assisted in making water soundings for the government, from Wellington down to Lexington island, and the deepest water found was opposite the foot of Pine street, where it showed thirtyfive feet depth of water below low-water oauge.

A little above the old hemp warehouse on Pine street, in the angle of the bluff on the west side of the street, there is a heavy bed of rock facing the river, and in this rock is a plug of lead with a copper bolt in its center. This is called a government bench mark; the government surveyors have established a similar mark every ten miles along the banks of the Missour river, from Sioux City to its mouth. These form permanent fixed points from which to reckon all future topographical surveys, but do not seem to have any uniform reference to water level.

Water Levels And Floods

A mark known as the St. Louis directrix, is the standard gauge from which all levels on the Missouri and Upper Mississippi rivers are reckoned, and that mark is 372 feet above sea level. The government low water gauge-mark at Lexington is at an assumed elevation of 424.2 feet above the sea, but that is not certain; and a series of soundings made for the government by Mr. Dunn, of Lexington, on September 20, 1881, gave a depth of 19 feet 4 inches of water, below low water gauge, in the channel a little above Pine street; but there was known to be deeper water below this point.

In 1844 occured the greatest flo od on record in the Missouri river. Another " high water" came in 1877, and another in 1881. The following is their record: 1844, 26.66 feet above Lexington low water gauge; 1877, 17.75 feet above; 1881, 23.10 feet above.

An old city survey reports the top of the curb stone in front of Aull's building, corner of North and Broadway streets, to be 190 feet above low water mark, and that is nearly the level of North or Main street of Lexington City.

River Improvement At Lexington

From the annual report of U. S. chief engineers, 1880, Part II, page 1409, we quote: "The rapid erasion of the left bank, in the bend just above Lexington, is allowing the whole river to move bodily down stream, and if not checked will soon destroy entirely the harbor and boat-landing at Lexington. The plan proposed contemplates the protection of caving banks by brush-mattress revetments, and the construction of floating dikes, designed and located so as to rectify the channel."

In Part I, page 163, of same report, we find this: "With the funds appropriated by act of June 14, 1880, for improving the Missouri river at this locality (Lexington), it is proposed to commence the work by protecting the banks where necessary with brush revetment, and rectifying the channel by floating brush dikes or other structure (wire mattress is being used, 1881,) designed to produce like effect, as far as the funds available will allow."

The above work was in progress during the summer of 1881, under immediate charge of E. C. Shankland, U. S. assistant-engineer. A steam hydraulic grading machine or boat was employed on the north bank of the river, to prepare the bank for the floating dykes and recumbent wire mattresses. This machine was kept at work steadily by two crews, five working from noon to midnight, and five from midnight till noon; then a cook, making eleven men in all, and all Lexington men except one. The survey and sounding party, in charge of Mr. Howard Dunn, of Lexington, consisted of seven men, two flagmen on shore, three oarsmen, a leadman, and a recorder in boat; and five of this party were Lexington men.

Meteorology

In the spring of 1877 Prof. Francis E. Knipher, of Washington University, St. Louis, established a system of voluntary weather observing stations throughout the state. It was purely a voluntary service, only engaged in by those who were willing to give time, labor, and care to it, from their love of science and their desire to secure to Missouri the practical benefits of such observations. There were in Missouri at one time eighty of these stations, but in June, 1881, only forty-nine made any reports. In the state of Iowa there are two hundred similar volunteer weather stations.

In December, 1877, Dr. J. B. Alexander, of Lexington, commenced his work as a member of the Missouri Volunteer Weather Bureau, making careful observations of wind, moisture, temperature, etc., three times each day, and at the end of each month reporting to Prof. Knipher in tabulated- form, the results of the month's daily record. This is one of the most unremitting and taxing kinds of public service that any man can engage in; it is fraught with the supremest interests of agriculture, commerce, climatology, prevailing diseases, etc. Its devotees are selfsacrificing public benefactors, toiling gratuitously for the industrial and sanitary welfare of the state, for it is only by such observations, kept up through a long series of years, that the laws of climate and season can be learned, and their normal recurrences taken advantage of for the benefit of mankind.

The following tables of observations made at Lexington, show a marvelous amount of patient and painstaking labor, and were prepared by Dr. Alexander especially for this work, in order to their permanent pres- ervation; and any one can see that when similar records have been kept at forty or fifty different places throughout the state for ten, twenty, or thirty years successively, they must throw a vast deal of valuable light upon the problems of climate and season within our commonwealth.

Prevailing Winds

During a period of four years, observations, amounting to 4,077 in number, gave the following result as to relative frequency of direction ot the winds:

Times. Times. Times Notable Weather Items

A few points of interest we have gathered from memoranda, kept by Mr. George Venable. January 29, 1873, at eight o'clock in the morning, the thermometer, at Grimes & Venable's jewelry store, showed 24 ° below zero. During the winter of 1875-6, no ice was put up in Lexington; the river did not close at all; the steamboats ran all winter; and it was the mildest winter that had occurred for thirty years. December 12 and 13, 1878, snow fell continuously for twenty hours, and then measured thirty-three inches deep. Uncle George Houx said it was the deepest snow that had been in Missouri for sixty years. During the winter of 1880-1, the river closed December 29, and remained icebound until February 7, a period of forty-one days. It then remained open seven days, but on the night of February 15 it froze up again, and remained so until February 26.

Dr. Swallow was born in Buckfield, Oxford county, Maine, in 1817, and traces his ancestry back to a Norman French family named Sevallieu, whose chief marched with William the Conqueror into England. One branch of the family afterward emigrated from France to New Orleans, while another branch came from old England to New England; and from this latter stock Prof. Swallow is descended. His father was a farmer and mechanic. Very early in life, young George took a deep interest in the then new and mysterious science of geology. In 1843, he graduated at Bowdoin College with high honors, and was immediately appointed lecturer on botany, in his alma mater. In 1848 he obtained aid from the state of Maine, and established an agricultural school at Hampden, Maine. In 1850 he was elected professor of chemistry and geology in the University of Missouri, and in 1853 was appointed state geologist - the first one Missouri ever had. His first official report was published by the state, in 1855. He first determined, located, and correctly mapped the boundaries of the geological formations of Missouri, and their mineral contents, as published in his reports, and in Campbell's Atlas of Missouri - St. Louis, 1873 - a work which has been followed by later investigators, in working out the minor details of Missouri's geology. During the war-time, the business of the State University and the geological survey were so much broken up, that, in 1865, Prof. Swallow accepted an appointment as state geologist of Kansas, and continued in that work two years. He had previously, in 1858, discovered and determined rocks in Kansas, belonging to the Permian group of geological series. This was the first time that rocks of this age were shown to exist in America ; and this discovery by Prof. Swallow, together with his reports on the geology of Missouri and Kansas, and papers read before the American Association, gave him a high rank and honorable recognition among the learned societies and savans of America and Europe.

George Clinton Swallow, M. D.,Ll. D.

In 1870 the University of Missouri was enlarged, reconstructed and reorganized on the true university plan - with co-ordinate schools or colleges of literature, science, art, law, medicine, mines and agriculture. Dr. Swallow was appointed to the chair of natural history and agriculture and made dean of the agricultural college, which position he still holds.

For nearly thirty years past he has been a working and leading member of the agricultural and horticultural societies of the state, their very existence having grown out of his urgent and eloquent advocacy of such organizations as early as 1852. He has also been an active member of the "American association for the advancement of science," and has taken an honored and leading part in many of its profoundest discussions. He has always been a staunch opponent of " Darwinism," or the materialistic phase of the doctrine of evolution. His most persistent and useful work is, perhaps, his study and classification of Missouri soils as shown by his numerous publications on their chemical and physical properties, and the best modes of culture for the staple crops of the Mississippi valley. [See page 70 and following pages.]

Rocks, Coal, Fossils, Etc

In Prof. Swallow's geological map of Missouri, Lafayette county is all included in what he marks as the " coal measures," or upper carboniferous formation, except some strips of alluvial bottom lands along the Missouri river; these bottom lands he marks as "quarternary " - but other authorities would further subdivide and class them as "recent " formations, (see geological chart on page 67) because they are the same sort of formations as are now being made every year by the Missouri and other rivers. By referring to the chart the order of superposition of the different geological formations will be readily seen. Lafayette county bluffs show the coal-measures subdivision of the carboniferous age; then there is an absence of several succeeding formations, to- wit: Peruvian, Triassic, Jurassic, Cretaceous and Tertiary; but the first division of the quarternary is found - a layer of sand and gravel, with occasional granite boulders from the azoic rocks of Dakota, Wyoming and Colorado. These are the drift materials of the glacial epoch ; and upon them is deposited the " bluff' formation," as Prof. Swallow calls it, but which is called loess by most other writers. The manner of production of this " bluff' formation " will be found explained on page 80, and this is the body soil or clay at the top of the geological formations all over Lafayette county, except the recent bottom lands or flood plains of the rivers and creeks, and the outcrop of other formations in the river bluffs and on the banks of streams.

The writer of this history learned from some former pupils of the Elizabeth Aull Seminary that Miss Emma G. Wilber. a long time favorite teacher there, used to take her pupils out on geological excursions; and also have them bring in any specimens which they might find, and which she would explain to them individually or in class. And Miss Wilber having removed to Englewood, Illinois, we wrote to her, requesting a sketch of some of her geological excursions with her classes, and notes of any rare specimens found. Accordingly, the lady wrote us- in reply, under date of June 23, 1881:

"My pupils overrate me if they take enthusiasm and interest, and a little imperfect book-learning, as comprehensive and accurate knowledge. In teaching, I have but attempted to give them a glimpse into the beauties and wonders of the boundless regions of Natural Science, and to awaken in them a desire to go in and by patient study to view for themselves.

"Bluffs, stone ledges, water and ripple marks, and the small shells that are so thickly imbedded in the shales in the ravines, mean much to girls who are taking first lessons in observation, but mean nothing to men of mature study, except that to the latter even little things are of value in making estimations. I found, not far from the stone bridge a large granite boulder with striae upon it, and an injected vein of coarse granite. I do regard that as a specimen of value in a geological cabinet, and I had it taken to the Elizabeth Aull Seminary, where it remains. Beyond, and on the hill, I found a concretion resembling a petrified turtle, which is also now at the Seminary; and many small shells, besides two or three univalves, large and well preserved."

The granite boulder above referred to, with "striae" or glacial scratches upon it, is indeed a very interesting relic. The original bed or ledge from which it was broken must have been far to the north-west; and the scratches upon it would show that it was once embedded in the bottom of a glacier, or possibly a iceberg, and had ground along upon bed rocks as hard or harder than itself, thus leaving scratches or grooves upon it to tell the story of how it came to Lafayette county during the glacial epoch of the geological calendar. The "concretion resembling a petrified turtle," which she refers to is a fine and valuable specimen, but it is of mineral origin (sometimes called "septaria"), and not a fossil or petrification. In closing her modest and ladylike coummunication, Miss Wilber says: "Mr. George Wilson, to whom I have referred many questions, and Dr. Alexander, are so able in expression and so well informed with regard to geology and kindred subjects, that even were I a very great deal wiser, I could add nothing to what they can say."

Geological Surveys

The first official geological work ever done in Missouri was by David Dale Owen, who was from 1847 to 1852, the United States geologist. In 1852, Lippincott, Grambo & Co., of Philadelphia, published Dr. Owen's elaborate report of his geological surveys in Wisconsin, Iowa and Minnesota, and a part of Nebraska. Missouri is not mentioned in the title page, but the text and accompanying maps show that he surveyed the Missouri river from Sioux City to its mouth. His map of the Missouri river notes geological sections taken from the bluffs on the north side opposite Napoleon and Wellington in this county, and on the south side at Lexington and again fourteen miles below. These are undoubtedly the first geological sections ever made in Lafayette county, but they are merely generalized and not given in detail, their only purpose being to show the relative position of the coal and any other valuable minerals or any good rock for' industrial uses. The Lexington section gives, from top downward, Chaetetes limestone, [chaetetes is a fossil coral], then shale, then coal 20 inches, then indurated slaty clay, then limestone, the river bedrock. Thickness of beds is not given except for coal. On this map he notes that there are "heavy beds of cannel coal back in the bluffs, some 200 to 300 feet above the Missouri, on both sides of the river." In the introduction to his great work, Prof. Owen says: "The thickest vein of coaltdetected in Iowa does not exceed from four to five feet ; while in Missouri some reach the thickness of twenty feet and upwards." These quotations were written in 1851, just thirty years ago, and were based purely on geological observations and theories, for no such mines had then been worked. Coal beds of such thickness do not appear to have been yet found in Lafayette county; but the "History of Saline County," published this year (1881), by the Missouri Historical Company, says:

Township 49 and range 19, lying witlun the township of Arrow Rock, contains, perhaps, the richest deposit of coal in the county. The stratum of bituminous coal in this section varies from two to twenty feet in thickness, of the very finest quality of coal, and is interspersed in numerous places with huge -pockets of cannel coal of a quality equalling the famous cannel coal of Kentucky. These pockets often present a face of from thirty to forty feet of coal. In this region is the famous cannel coal mine on the farm of the late Gov. C. F. Jackson, besides numerous others, nearly all of them of great thickness, from ten to thirty feet - of limited extent, and most of them reposing on the lower carboniferous rocks. South of Blackwater there is much the same coal deposit as that in the region just described. Cannel pockets are also here, as is proved by those found on the farm of the late C. G. Clark, now worked by Mr. Laner. Coal has also been found along the northern edge of the county near Miami, in township 52, ranges 19 and 21.

From Prof. Owen's work, page 137, we again quote: "The first workable bed of coal which I encountered in my descent of the Missouri river, was at Wellington. It is from twelve to fourteen inches thick, and lies a few feet above the bed of the river. * * . The bed of gray limestone which covers the principal coal-seam at Wellington, containing choetetes capellaries [a species of fossil coal called choetetes milleporaceous by later writers], occupies the same relative position over the coal at Lexington, but here it lies at a greater elevation above the river - fifty feet. One to two miles below Lexington, the coal and chaetetes limestone are seen on the right bank of the river, forty-five feet above the water level. * * . At the bold promontory on the right shore, fourteen miles below Lexington, heavy beds of sandstone from fifteen to. twenty feet in thickness, extend down to the river."

The above are a few of the main points of public interest, as relates to Lafayette county, which were developed by that first geological survey, thirty years ago. The first state geologist was Professor G. C. Swallow, who was appointed April 12, 1853. He published annual reports of progress in 1854, 1857, 1859 and 1861. In 1870, Albert D. Hazer was appointed state geologist; in 1871, Raphael Pumpelly took the position, and his report was published in 1873 by Julius Bien of New York. The most useful service that any of the geological surveys has rendered to Lafayette county will be found in Prof. Pumpelly's work, pages 40 to 59 ; also, pages 136, 193, 421, and several other places of incidental mention. Those speciallv interested in mining coal or quarrying stone in this county should study that work. We can only give here a few gleanings of popular interest.

In going from the east line of Lafayette county to Lexington, we pass in succession from the lower to the middle coal measures. At Henry Franke's mine, one and a half miles east of Concordia, or about two miles from the eastern and three miles from the southern county line, the following geological section was noted, belonging to the lower coal measures:

A coarse, generally thick bedded, brown or burl' sandstone, filled with small particles of mica, is found occupying the top of the lower coal series. It is seen near Aullville, on Gen. J. O. Shelby's land. The next place where it was observed, was on the McCausland farm,* two miles north of Higginsville. On this farm occur outcrops of bituminous sandstone, and borings were made to a depth of 800 feet for oil, but without success. Prof. Swallow made a geological section on this farm thus:

This oil stone on the McCausland farm is usually so saturated that it shows plainly on fresh fracture, and will burn well in the fire. The petroleum is found as solid asphaltum, breaking with a shiny fracture, as a dark, viscid fluid like tar, and as thin as amber-colored oil. Prof. Broadhead says of this oil rock that he regards it as of the same age as the Berlin sandstone, and that above the mouth of the Tabo, which would go to prove that there is a northerly dip of about fifty feet in nine miles. In its northern extension this lower coal-measure sandstone crops out at various points, low in the bluffs on the Missouri river, from the east line of Lafayette county to the mouth of Tabo creek. The Berlin sandstone, and that of the McCausland farm, and that at Warrensburg, may all be considered of the same geological age; but only on the McCausland farm was it observed to contain petroleum.

In Prof. Pumpelly's volume there are printed at least twenty-seven geological sections from different places in Lafayette county. We only aim to give such information as may be of interest to the general reader. The geological section at Franke's coal mines, as given above, was taken in 1872, and represents the lower coal measures. The following section was obtained in June, 1881, specially for this History of Lafayette County, at the air-shaft of the Lexington and Kansas City Coal Company's works, about a mile west of Lexington City; workmen were then engaged in sinking the air shaft, and their measurements were mainly relied upon. This section represents the upper coal measures, and its coal vein is by geologists called " the Lexington coal " wherever the same vein is met with:

In 1872 Prof. G. C. Broadhead was assistant state geologist under Prof. Pumpelly, and examined nineteen different coal mines then being worked in Lafayette county. He found the coal two feet thick at Henry Franke's mine, half a mile north of Concordia, and at R. G. Tucker's mine at Lexington; 23 inches thick in mine east of the stone bridge at Lexington, and 22 inches in Gen. Graham's mine a little way above the stone bridge up Graham's branch. It was 21 inches thick at the Mulky mines, two and a half miles east of Aullville, and the same in a mine west of the Lexington ferry landing. It was 17 inches on the Little Sniabar, six miles south of Lexington, and 16 inches, four miles below Berlin. Other mines are reported at 5 inches of coal (two miles east of Judge Wood's place), 6 inches, 7 inches, 8 inches, 9 inches, and so on, but none higher than 24 inches. The writer hereof measured a vein of coal 23 inches thick, with a clear outcrop in the bed of Rupe's branch about two miles back from the Missouri river, and only 30 or 40 feet from the Lexington and Gulf railroad bed which is said to now belong to the Burlington & Southwestern railroad company; this vein will furnish the railroad a good and easily-worked mine at the lowest possible cost. There are now coal shafts, or mines of some sort, in every township of Lafayette county.

Dr. J. B. Alexander called our attention to a fact of local geological interest. The coal and other formations west of Rupe's branch lie about twenty-five feet higher than the corresponding formations on the east side, which shows that there was once a cortaclysm or great fracture of the earth's rocky ribs at this point, and one side of the gulfy chasm finally settled lower than the other. [See also under head of " River Surveys and Soundings."]

Two petrified stumps were found in Tabo creek where the road from Lexington to Dover crosses it, and Mr. Geo. W. Garr has them at his house, which is the first one east of the bridge. He brought a large fragment of one stump to the Lexington Intelligencer office, where we examined it. This fragment was 13 inches long and 17 inches in diameter; its top fracture showed the open, heavy-pored, succulent structure that characterized the watery and gigantic weeds (they were not trees at all, in the present sense of the word) which formed the vegetation of the early carboniferous period. The wood is agatized, and some of the great pore cavities, nearly an inch square, are beautifully bordered with headings of chalcedony. Mr. Garr said the other specimens were similar to this, except very much larger, and some of the root parts still remaining. Rev. F. R. Gray, three or four miles southwest of Higginsville, section 10, township 49, range 26, also has a petrified stump, about four feet around at its base, and 18 inches high, which was found in a small stream near his house in 1861. Some other fragments were found in the vicinity.

These interesting geological specimens were originally imbedded in the bluff formation, and had been washed out and fallen to the bed of the - creek as its banks kept washing down. They originally grew in some region far to the northwest, or probably in Colorado, where whole forests of similar petrifications have been found; and these fragments, after petrifaction, were transported by masses of floating ice and dropped in Lafayette county while the great Missouri lake was being filled up with the sediment which now forms our priceless " bluff" formation. [See page

80 of this history.] Their angles are not rounded or worn, like boulders and gravel, and this fact shows that they were not brought here during the glacial epoch, but were transported gently on or in floating ice, and " let down easy " as the bergs of ice stranded and gradually melted away. The following article was prepared by Prof. G. C. Swallow, the first and most eminent state geologist of Missouri, specialty for this work; but was not received until the foregoing geological matter had already been prepared, ready for the printers.

Prof. Swallow'S Sketch

The geological formations of Lafayette county are among the most interesting and useful to man. It is to these formations that Lafayette owes its fair fame as a most beautiful, fertile and prosperous country.

Vii. Carboniferous System

1. The recent alluvium of Lafayette county includes the soils and all the recent deposits of clays, sands, gravels and river drift of pebbles found in the river bottoms or beds of lakes. These deposits abound in the beds of the stream as the sand-bars of the Missouri and the mud, gravel and pebble beds of the smaller streams, and in the stratified sands and clays beneath the bottom lands of the principal streams of the county.

2. The bottom prairie so extensive in the Missouri bottom in Chariton, Carroll and Clay, covers but small areas in 'Lafayette. It is known by the many thin beds of sand, clay and loam interstratified in the formations under the old bottom prairies. These beds were deposited in the Missouri river bottom, when that stream spread its sluggish waters from bluff to bluff", filling the whole valley with the sediments of its lake-like waters. After the level was changed so as to give a rapid current to the waters, the river cut its channel through these deposits thus made, and has been wearing them away ever since and forming the newer river or alluvial bottoms, whose surface is more uneven and whose deposits of sand are more irregular.

Bluff Or Loess

The bluff which underlies the soil in all the Highlands of the county consists of a sandy marl more or less stratified and varying in thickness from a few inches to more than one hundred feet. This vast deposit was evidently formed in one of those lakes which were formed as the ice of the glacial period melted away. This lake extended over northern Missouri, eastern Kansas, and southeastern Nebraska and southwestern Iowa. * The Missouri, Sioux, Platte and Kansas rivers flowed in this lake from the north and west, bringing into it the rich marls ground out of the rocks to the north and west by the great glaciers of the drift period. These bluff marls constitute the rich subsoils of all the uplands of Central Missouri. The marls of the bluff are a little coarser and more sandy on the bluffs adiacent to the rivers, as the finer materials were washed out by the subsiding waters of the streams where the land was changed and the lake drained oft and the rivers became more and more rapid, until they found their present condition.

I have collected from it, of the Mammalia, two teeth of the Elephas -primigenius, mastodon, the jaw bone of the Castor fiber Americana, the molar of a Ruminant, and the incisor of a Rodent; of the Mollusca, seventeen species of the genus Helix, eight Limnea, eight Physa, three Pufa, four Planorbis, six Succinnca, and one each of the genera Valvata, Amnicola, Helicina, and Cyclas, besides some others not determined.

These lacusstrine, filuvialile, amphibious and land species indicate a deposit formed in a fresh-water lake, surrounded by land and fed by rivers. These facts carry back the mind to a time when a large portion of this great valley was covered by a vast lake, into which, from the surrounding land, flowed various rivers and smaller streams. We see the waters peopled with numerous mollusks, the industrious beaver building his habitation, the nimble squirrel, the fleet deer, the sedate elephant and huge mastodon, lords of the soil. There must have been land to sustain the elephant and mastodon and helices, fresh water and land for the beaver, and fresh water for the cyclas and limnea.

Some geologists have supposed the marls back from the river which have a more jointed structure, are boulder clay and belong to the drift. This opinion, they think, is confirmed by the small pebbles sometimes found in these marls; but these pebbles would be very easily carried out

The evidence that the surface marls of the interior belong to the same formation as the marls on the river bluffs, is shown by the facts, they are continuous with the river bluff marls, they contain the same fossils, and have the same chemical composition, and about the same lithological characters. When both have been exposed to the weather, no one can distinguish them by the lithological characters.

The Drift

The drift which is so abundant in North Missouri, is very sparingly developed on the south side of the Missouri river. Where seen in Lafayette it rests immediately on the consolidated rocks of the coal measures, beneath the marls of the bluff just described. These limited deposits consist of sands and pebbles, containing some small boulders, called Lost Rocks.

Coal Measures

The lower and middle coal measures are found to underlie the whole of the highlands of Lafayette county. These rocks are limestones, sandstones, clays, marls, shales, iron and coal variously interstratified.

The clays and shale of the coal measures usually make a poor soil as in England and Pennsylvania, but in Lafayette county, all the coal rocks are so deeply buried beneath the bluff marls, they have very little influence on the soils.

The usual process of forming soils on the suface of solid rocks, such as the surface of Missouri was before the clays, gravel, sands and soils were placed over the solid rocks, is a very slow process. The action of the winds, the rains, and the frosts would slowly decompose the rocks into sand, clay, and marls. Plants would grow on these clays and marls, and animals would live on the plants; and when the plants and animals died they would make up the necessary organic matter and thus the soil would be formed. But the process would be an extremely slow one. It would take a thousand years to form a foot of soil by this process. And when the solid rock is so near the surface, the soil is of small comparative value.

Bui if some vast mill of the gods would grind up the rocks to the depth of some fifty or one hundred feet and then sort out the finest and best material and place it on top to the depth of from five to fifty feet, a first rate soil would be formed in a few years, since all the mineral elements would be provided in vast abundance and in the best possible condition to receive the decaying plants and animals to complete the soil. This is just what has been done for central and northern Missouri, c

The great glaciers which swept over the whole of North America from the pole to our latitude), ground up the rocks and left the material to the depth of from a few irfcnes to more than a thousand feet. A lake was then formed over Missouri xind the adjacent parts of Iowa, Nebraska, and Kansas and the rivers washed the best soil material out of the groundup rocks spread over the regions to the north and west and into the lakes, where it was deposited as the "bluffs," the best soil material in the world. Thus Missouri has in the Bluff the best soil materials of the rocks in all the States and Territories to the north and west as far as the Rocky Mountains and the Saskatchewan.

Plant Food In Lafayette Soils

It may be well to ask attention to the vast amount of plant food in the soils of Lafayette ; but more particularly to the amounts found in the sub soils resting upon and formed out of the rich marls of the bluff.

To show at a glance the amount of plant food in the soil itself, and then in each foot of depth below the soil, I have prepared the following table, which presents an average of all the varieties of soils resting on the bluff, from the richest Hackberry land to the poorest White Oak, and the amount for each foot in depth for the first three feet and also for one foot at he depth of twelve feet below the surface. Other portions between the third and twelfth foot and below are equally rich. Table showing the amount of various elements of plant food in each foot

This table shows these soils as rich in plant food, save the organic matter at a depth of three feet as they are at the surface, even a little richer in phosphoric acid, soda, potash, chlorine, and sulphuric acid. At twelve feet below the surface the amount of plant food is still greater, except in organic matter and phosphoric acid.

Farmers usually cultivate less than one foot of their soils, and when the plant food is exhausted they use fertilizers, at great expense of money and labor to supply the plant food . But the farmer on these Missouri soils, when the surface soil is exhausted, has an abundance of the best fertilizers in his subsoil; and instead of buying fertilizers and spreading them over the surface, he sets his plow a little deeper and turns them up from his own stores in the subsoil. And when the plants have consumed the supply thus obtained, there is still lower down, enough of the same costlv materials to replenish his soil a hundred times; for it goes all the way down to depths varying from 10 to 200 feet, all about equally rich, as the table shows it to be at a depth of twelve feet.

To show the money value of this store of plant food in the subsoil of all these lands, we may reckon the commercial value of the phosphoric acid for a single foot in depth on one acre. The second foot of these soils, that is, the subsoil from the depth of one foot to two feet, in every acre contains 11,157 pounds of this acid. At ten cents a pound this would cost $1,115.70. The next foot below, that is from two to three feet in depth, contains in each acre 13,996 pounds of phosphoric acid, which would cost $1399.60.

Thus it is seen that two feet only of these subsoils, contain on each acre as much phosphoric acid as could be bought in commercial fertilizers for $2,515.30.

If we should calculate the commercial value of the other fertilizers, as potash, soda, sulphuric acid, chlorine, and organic matter found in the subsoils of a single acre, and if the calculation be extended to a depth of ten feet or one hundred feet, the result would be somewhat startling. Such a calculation would not fall far short of a demonstration of the often repeated assertion, " Our Lafayette soils are inexhaustible."

Oak - White oak, burr oak, post oak, rock or chestnut oak, black oak, pin oak, laurel oak, chinquepin oak, poison oak. Persimmon. Sycamore - or buttonwood.

Shrubs - Blackberry, buttonbush, coralberry, elderberry, gooseberry, greenbriar, hawthorn, black haw, raspberry, red bud, paw-paw, hazel-nut^ wild plum, sumach, wahoo or staff tree, laurel bush, wild, black, or Missouri currant, wild roses, serviceberry.

Native Animars

Bear, beaver, buffalo, catamount, chipmunk, coyote, deer, dear mouse, elk, fox (gray and red) gopher, ground mole, groundhog, mink, muskrat, otter, opossum, panther, prairie dog, prairie mouse, pouched rat (commonly called pocket gopher), rabbit, jack rabbit, raccoon, skunk, squirrel, red gray and black varieties, swift, weasel, (wolf prairie and gray and black varieties), wild cat.

Birds. - Wild turkey, grouse or prairie chicken, wild goose, swan, pelican, wild ducks (many varieties), snipe, plover, pigeon, partridge, gray and bald eagle, raven, crow, turkey buzzard, owl, hawk, finch, mocking bird, blue jay, kingfisher, gull, robin, bluebird, blackbird, bobolink, woodpecker, oriole, sapsucker, night hawk, whipporwill, curlew, sandhill crane, blue heron, swallow, wren. These, some of which have several varieties, are the more common species of birds that have been found here ever since white men first knew the country.