Lafayette County, Missouri - The whole text, 1881 (part 1 of 19)

Preface

In our diligent search for four months seeking the information embodied in this history, a few men have been indifferent about it, but almost universally we were met with welcome, and those who could furnish information were glad to do so. And a few have taken such pains to render us valuable assistance that we wish to make our special acknowledgments to them for it. Ethan Allen, Esq., furnished us the oldest files of Lafayette county newspapers now in existence. Captain Andrews, the deputy county clerk, has our thanks for the uniform kindness and good will with which he aided us in our frequent occasions to examine the musty and mouldy old records in the county vaults. We are indebted to Captain A. A. Lesueur, editor of the Lexington Intelligencer, for personal favors that were helpful; also to G. Clayton, John Burden, and E. Winsor, for loan of scrap-books containing many valuable records, narratives, military orders, official reports, and other documents of the war time not found in any of the printed histories. To Dr. J. B. Alexander for many favors; to Henry Turner, postmaster, for bound files of the Lexington Register', to H. C. Chiles, Esq., for his Centennial Fourth of July history of the county; to Dr. Gordon for special assistance in regard to old and long-forgotten pioneer school matters; to Captain J. O. Wilson, of Lexington, and Col. W. F. Switzler, of Columbia, Mo., for loan of valuable books; to the Lexington Intelligencer company for free access to all their files, etc., etc. It was a vast work. This county has had a long and intensely history-making career. We found material plenty to make three books instead of one; and the burden of difficulty was to select those things which would be of most permanent interest and value to our patrons, and then condense them to the necessary limits of the promised volume. The work has been done with conscientious care, with painstaking and arduous labor, with unpartisan candor, with good faith and good will towards all; and now it is respectfully submitted to the judgment, acceptance, and use of those who have kindly given their pledges in support of the undertaking - confident that it is in full measure of every promise on our part, and trusting that it will be entirely satisfactory to our patrons.

Introductory

When a book is written, it is presumed that the writer had some object in view and some end to achieve by his labor in collecting the material and writing the book; and it is right that he should put himself on good terms with his readers at the outset by making a brief, but frank and honest statement of his object, plan and purpose in the book which he offers to public patronage. The writer of this History of Missouri has aimed to embody in a brief space the greatest amount of solid and reliable information about things which directly hinge and center upon or within the territory of this State - this international commonwealth, which holds by right divine the royal prerogative of a destiny imperial and grand, if she can acquire or develop human brain and muscle adequate to utilize wisely, honorably and energetically her magnificent natural resources, both of commercial position and of agricultural and mineral wealth. The writer's desire and effort has been to present nothing which would not be read with deep interest by every intelligent citizen of Missouri at the present time; and also stand as a permanent body of information, at once useful and reliable for future reference. Discussion of theories, problems or doubtful matters has been avoided; solid facts have been diligently sought after; and the narrative has been made to embody as many facts and events as possible without falling into the dry-bones method of mere statistical tables. In fact, the limit of space allotted him has compelled the writer to condense, epitomize, shorten up - and therefore continually to repress his desire to embellish the narrative with the graces of rhetoric and the glow of an exuberant and fervid enthusiasm. This, however, secures to the reader more facts within the same space.

In preparing this work more than a hundred volumes have been consulted, to collate incidents and authenticate dates and facts, besides much matter gathered from original sources and not before embraced in anv book. It is not presumed that there are no mistakes or errors of statement herein made; but it is believed that there are fewer of such lapses than commonly occur with the same amount of data in similar works. The classification of topics is an attempt to give them a consecutive and consistent relative place and order in the book, for convenience of incidental reference or of selective reading.

Pre-Historic Missouri

Every State has a pre-historic history - that is, remains and relics are found which show that the land was inhabited by a race or races of men long before its discovery and occupation by a race sufficiently advanced in the arts of civilization to preserve a written record of their own observations and doings. It is now well established that every portion of the United States was inhabited by a race of men grouped under the general name of " Mound-builders," who preceded the modern hunter tribes called "Indians." It further appears, from all the evidence accumulated, that the Mound-builders were a race that made permanent settlements, and built earthworks of considerable extent for defense against enemies, both man and beast; also for sepulture, for religious rites, and for memorial art; it is also evident that they cultivated the soil to some extent, made rude textile fabrics and clay pottery, and wrought implements of domestic use, ornaments, charms, toys, pipes, etc., and weapons of war and of the chase, from flint, porphyry, jasper, hornstone,. granite, slate, and other varieties of rocks; also from horn, bone, shells, and other animal products; and from native copper. But they had no knowledge of iron, nor any art of smelting copper; they merely took small pieces of the native ore and hammered it cold with their stone tools until it took some rude shape of utility, and then they scoured and polished it to its utmost brilliancy; and it is altogether probable that these articles wrere only possessed by the chieftains or ruling families. Plates of mica are also found among their remains, with holes for suspension on cords around the neck or body; and lumps of galena or lead ore sometimes occur, but these must have been valued merely as trinkets or charms, because of their lustre. Remains of this people are found frequently both on the bluffs and bottom lands of the Mississippi and Missouri rivers, and, in many States, far inland, also.

exploring expedition under Major S. H. Long, in 1819. This expedition went in the first steamboat that ever puffed and paddled its way against the swift, muddy current of the Missouri river; *the boat was named " Western Engineer," but it had a double stern-wheel, or two wheels, one of them named in large letters, "James Monroe," and the other "John C. Calhoun," in honor of the then President and Secretary of War. This steamer had to stop at St. Louis for some repairs; and two members of the expedition, Messrs. Thomas Say and T. R. Peale, improved the time by surveying a group of twenty-seven ancient mounds which occupied ground that is now all covered over by the modern city of St. Louis. This occurred in June, 1819; Mr. Say prepared a map of the mounds and a brief account of them, and this appears to be the first authentic record of such ancient works within the territory now constituting the State of Missouri; his notes on these mounds were published in 1823, in the report of Major Long's expedition, but his map of them was never published until 1862, when it appeared on page 387 of the " Smithsonian Report" for the year 1861. In his account Mr. Say says:

"Tumuli and other remains of the labors of nations of Indians (?) that inhabited this region many ages since are remarkably numerous about St. Louis. Those tumuli immediately northward of the town and within a short distance of it, are twenty-seven in number, of various forms and magnitudes, arranged nearly in a line from north to south. The common form is an oblong square, and they all stand on the second bank of the river. * It seems probable these piles of earth were raised

It was from these mounds that St. Louis derived her pseudonym of the "Mound City"; but this name is now almost entirely obsolete, since the city has risen up to claim the prouder title of " Inter-Metropolis of North America". When the largest one of the mounds was leveled some skeletons were found, and some thick discs with holes through them; they had probably served as beads, and were wrought from shells of a species of fresh water clam or mussel. Numerous specimens of wrought flints were found between St. Louis and Carondelet, in 1660; and in 1861 an ancient flint shovel was dug up while building military earthworks.

In Mississippi county, in the southeastern corner of the State, there is a group ol mounds covering ten acres, in section 6, t. 24, r. 17, varying from ten to thirty feet in height. About lb55 these mounds were explored by two gentlemen from Chicago, and they lound some pottery, with men represented upon its sides: one figure appeared to be a priest or some official personage, as shown by his head-dress, and the other

* Campbell's History of Howard County says: '- May 28th, 1819, the first steamboat - the ' Independence,' Capt. Nelson, time from St. Louis, including all stops, twelve days - landed at Franklin on her way up the [Missouri] river." Thus it seems that Major Long's boat was really the second one to go up, although in most histories it is mentioned as th« first - and it wo* the first that went up any great distance.

In December, 1868, some laborers engaged in grading Sixth street, in East St. Louis, dug up a nest of unused flint hoes or shovels, and another deposit of shells with string-holes worked in them, and another deposit of boulders of flint and greenstone, ready to make more tools or weapons from. These deposits were on high ground, and about half-way between two ancient mounds.

In 1876 or 1877 some ancient mounds were discovered on the banks of the Missouri river near Kansas City. They were in groups of three and five together, at different points for five miles up and down the river. Some were built entirely of earth, and some had a rude stone chamber or vault inside, but covered with earth so that all looked alike outside. They were of an irregular oval shape, from four to six feet high, and had heavy growths of timber on top. Mr. W. H. R. Lykins, of Kansas City, noticed a burr-oak tree five feet in diameter, growing on top of one of them, and the decayed stump of a black walnut of about the same size, on another. In describing the exploration of some of these mounds Mr. Lykins gives some points that will be of interest to every one. He says:

" We did not notice any very marked peculiarity as to these bones except their great size and thickness, and the great prominence of the supraciliary ridges. The teeth were worn down to a smooth and even surface. The next one we opened was a stone mound. On clearing off the top of this we came upon a stone wall inclosing an area about eight feet square, with a narrow opening for a doorway or entrance on the south side. The wall of this inclosure was about two feet thick; the inside was as smooth and compactly built and the corners as correctly squared as if constructed by a practical workman. No mortar had been used. At a depth of about two feet from the top of the wall we found a layer of five skeletons lying with their feet toward the south." *

Nont: of the other walls examined were so skilfully laid as this one. The bones were crumbly, and only a few fragments were preserved by coating them well with varnish as quickly as possible after they were exposed to the air. One stone enclosure was found full of ashes, charcoal and burnt human bones, and the stones and earth of which the mound was composed all showed the effects of fire. Hence it is presumed that this was either a cremation furnace or else an altar for human sacrifices - most probably the latter. Some fragments of pottery were found in the vicinity.

was in old time a town there, with streets, squares, and houses built with stone foundations and mud walls. He also mentions the ruins of an ancient stone building described to him by Gen. Ashley, as situated on a high cliff on the west side of the Gasconade river. And another one said to be in Pike county, is thus described: " It presents the dilapidated remains of a building constructed of rough, unhewn stones, fifty-six feet long and twenty-two broad, embracing several divisions and chambers. The walls are from two to five feet high. Eighty rods eastward of this structure is found a smaller one of similar construction. The narrow apartments are said to be arched with stone, one course overlapping the other, after the manner of the edilices of Central America."

I. Dille, Esq., of Newark, Ohio, reported that he had examined some of these pre-historic town ruins, in the vicinity of Mine-la-Motte and Fredericktown, in Madison county, Missouri. He speaks of them as groups of small tumuli, and says: "I have concluded the}' are the remains of mud houses. They are always arranged in straight lines, with broad streets intervening between them, crossing each other at right angles. The distance apart varies in different groups, but it is always uniform in the same group. * I have counted upwards of two hundred of these mounds in a single group. Arrow heads of jasper and agate, and axes of sienite and porphyry have been found in their vicinity." *

Mounds or other pre-historic structures have been found on Spencer'screek in Ralls count)-; on Cedar creek in Boone county; on Crow's Fork and other places in Callaway count)-; near Berger Station in Franklin county; near Miami in Saline county; on Blackwater river in Johnson county; on Salt river in Pike county; on Prairie Fork in Montgomery county; near New Madrid; and in many other parts of the State.

The class of ancient ruins, partly built of stone, said to exist in Clay, Crawford, Pike and Gasconade counties, Missouri, are not found further north, but are frequent enough further south, and are supposed to indicate a transitional period in the development of architectural knowledge and skill, from the grotesque earth-mounds of Wisconsin to the well-finished adobe structures of New Mexico, and the grander stone ruins of Yucatan. But, no matter what theory we adopt with regard to these pre-historic relics, the present citizens of Missouri can rest assured that a different race of human beings lived and flourished all over this region of country, hundreds - yes, thousands of years ago, and that they were markedly different in their modes of life from our modern Indians.

* Many large and costly works have been published by scientists, devoted to the general subject of Pre-Historic Man; but of cheap and popular works for the general reader, the best are Poster's " Pre-Historic Races of the United States" ; and Baldwin's " Ancient America".

And there are at least two discoveries known which show that these people were here before the extinction of the mastodon, or great American elephant. In the " Transactions of the St. Louis Academy of Sciences," 1857, Dr. Kock reports that in the year 1839 he dug up in Gasconade county [as that county then was] the bones of a mastodon, near the Bourbeuse river. The skeleton of this gigantic creature was buried in such a position as to show that it had got its hind legs down in a bog so deeply that it could not climb out, although its fore feet were on dry ground. The natives had attacked it with their flint arrows and spears, most of which were found in a broken condition; but they had finally managed to build a big fire so close to its head as to burn it to death, the head-bones and tusks being found all burnt to coals. The account of this discovery was first printed in the Philadelphia Presbyterian, Jan. 12, 1839, and copied into the "American Journal of Science " the same year. The authenticity of the incident has been disputed, on the assumed ground that man did not exist as long ago as when the mastodon roamed over these pre-historic plains ; but science now has indisputable evidence that man existed even in the Tertiary age of the geological scale, (see note to chart in chapter on Geology) long before the glacial epoch; hence that objection has no force at present.

Dr. Koch further reports that about a year after unearthing the Gasconade county monster, he again found in the bottom land of the Pomme-de-Terre river, in Benton county, a nearly complete skeleton of the great extinct beast called Missourium, with arrow-heads under it in such a way as to show beyond question that they were made and used while the animal was alive. This skeleton is now in the British Museum. *

Human footprints have been found in the rocks at De Soto in Jefferson county, also in Gasconade county, and at St. Louis. H. R. Schoolcraft, in his book of travels in the Mississippi river country in 1821, said of these footprints: "The impressions in the stone are, to all appearance, those of a man standing in an erect posture, with the left foot a little advanced, and the heels drawn in. The distance between the heels, by accurate measurement, is 6^ inches and between the extremities of the toes 13^ inches. The length of these tracks is 10 J inches; across the toes 4£ inches as spread out, and but 2£ at the heel."

Our eminent U. S. Senator, Thomas H. Benton, wrote a letter April 29th, 1822, in which he says: "The prints of the human feet which you mention, I have seen hundreds of times. They were on the uncovered limestone rock in front of the town of St. Louis. The prints were seen when the country was first settled, and had the same appearance then as now. No tradition can tell anything about them. They look as old as the rock. They have the same fine polish which the attrition of the sand and water has made upon the rest of the rock which is exposed to their action. I have examined them often with great attention. They are not handsome, but exquisitely natural, both in the form and position. * * A block 6 or 8 feet long and%5 or 4 feet wide, containing the prints, was cut out by Mr. John Jones, in St. Louis, and sold to Mr. Rappe, of New Harmony, Indiana."*

Prof. G. C. Broadhead, and some other writers, think these were not natural impression of human feet, but sculptures made by hand. This theory requires a belief that the pre-historic men of Missouri had tools with which they could cut the most delicate lines in hard rocks; and that they studied the human form in its finest details of muscular action and attitude, and had the art of sculpturing these things so as to look " exquisitely natural" as Col. Benton expresses it - thus rivalling, if not excelling the most famous sculptors of ancient Greece; all of which is wholly inconsistent with the known facts. And besides this, there is no better geological reason for doubting their genuineness as natural footprints, than there is in the case of the famous bird and reptile tracks in the sandstones of Connecticut, or those found by Prof. Mudge in Kansas, in 1873. There is no valid reason, either of an aesthetic, historical, or scientific nature, for pronouncing them anything but just what they show themselves to be - fossil footprints of a man who stood in the mud barefooted ; and in course of time that mud became solid stone, preserving his footprints just as he left their exact impression in the plastic material.

The White Race In Missouri

In 1512 the Spanish adventurer Ponce de Leon discovered Florida; and at this time and for some years after the old countries of Europe were filled with the wildest and most extravagant stories about the inexhaustible mines of gold, silver and precious stones that existed in the country north of the Gulf of Mexico ; also of great and populous cities containing fabulous wealth, beyond what Pizarro and Cortes had found in Peru and Mexico. And besides all this, the "fountain of perpetual youth," which all Europe had gone crazy after, about this time, was supposed to be in that region. Indeed, it can hardly be doubted that the Spaniards in Mexico had gathered from the natives some inkling of the wonderful healing waters now known as

Ferdinand de Soto was a wealthy cavalier who had won fame as a leading commander in Pizarro's conquest of Peru; he imbibed deeply the current imaginings about the undiscovered wonders of the new world, and was eager to immortalize his name by bringing to his king and country the glory of still more important conquests and discoveries; and he especially desired to find the supposed " fountain of perpetual youth." Accordingly, in 1538 he received permission from the king of Spain to conquer Florida at his own cost - " Florida " then meaning all the unknown country from the Gulf of Mexico to the Northern ocean. He collected a band of more than six hundred young bloods who were able to equip themselves in all the gorgeous trappings and splendor of a Spanish cavalier dress parade, and with this plumed and tinselled troupe, very like the grand entree riders of a modern circus, he landed in Tampa Bay, Florida, in 1539. From here he boldly struck out into the interior, wandering about and pushing forward with dogged perseverance, in spite of bogs and streams and bluffs; in spite of tangling thickets and dense forests; in spite of heats and rains; in spite of the determined hostility of the natives - until in May, 1541, he discovered the Great River, a few miles below where the city of Memphis now stands; and thus he made his name memorable for all time. After some delay, to construct boats, they crossed the river and pushed on northward as far as where the city of New Madrid now stands ; and this was the first time that the eyes of white men looked upon any portion of the soil now comprised within the State of Missouri.* But, so fruitless was this visit that no white man set foot within our present State boundary again until one hundred and thirty-two years afterward, when the French missionaries, Marquette and Jcliet, came from the great lakes down the Wisconsin and Mississippi rivers, to the mouth of the Missouri, in June, 1673. This was the first time white men had beheld the waters of this great stream, and they named it Pekitonom, or " Muddy Water River ". It was known by this name until about 1710 or 1712, when it began to be called " the river of the Missouris," referring to a tribe of Indians that dwelt at its mouth, chiefly on the lands now comprised in St. Louis county. Marquette and Joliet went on down the river as far south as the mouth of the Arkansas river, of course making several camping stops on Missouri soil, and discovering the Ohio river. From the Arkansas they returned northward the same way they

* De Soto and his army came into Missoari Irom the south, twice crossing the Ozark mountains. He spent the winter of 1541-42 in Vernon county, in the extreme western part of the State. Ruins of their winter camp structures and smelting operations are still found there. They melted lead ore for silver, and the glittering, lustrous, yellow, zinc blende or Smithsonite for gold ; but were deeply disgusted to find at last that they had been handling only the basest metals.

The next visit of white men to this State was in 1682. In 1678 the French had built a fort with a missionary station a:id trading post, near where the city of Peoria, Ills., now stands. During the winter of 1681 -82, Robert de la Salle made preparations, first in Canada, and then at this Illinois fort, to explore the Mississippi river to its mouth. He left the fort with a company of' twenty Frenchmen, eighteen Indian men and ten squaws, in such boats and canoes as he could provide. They rowed down the Illinois river and reached its mouth on the 6th of February; a few days were spent here making observations, repairing boats, preparing food, and establishing signals that they had been there and taken possession of the land in the name of their great king. By February 13th La Salle was ready to push on, and started with his little fleet to solve the great mystery of a navigable waterway to the Gulf of Mexico. Of course this expedition passed along the eastern border of Missouri, but no points are mentioned to identify any landing which they may have made within our State. Early in April La Salle accomplished the grand object of his venture by discovering the. three principal mouths of the Mississippi; and on the nearest firm dry land he could find from the mouth he set up a column bearing the cross and the royal arms of France, while the whole company performed the military and religious rites of loyalty to their king and country - and La Salle himself, acting as chief master of ceremonies, in a clear, loud voice proclaimed that he took possession of all the country between the great gulf and the frozen ocean, "in the name of the most high, mighty and victorious prince, Louis the Great, by the grace of God king of France and Navarre, 14th of the name, this 9th day of April, 1682." In honor of his sovereign he named the whole vast region Louisiana - that is, Louis' land, and named the river itself St. Louis. And thus it was that our State of Missouri first became a part of historic Louisiana, and passed under the nominal ownership and authority of France.

The next historic appearance of white men within our State was in 1705. The French settlers in this vast new country had kept themselves entirely on the east side of the Mississippi river; but during this year they sent an exploring party up the Missouri river in search of gold ; it prospected as far as the mouth of the Kansas river, where Kansas City now stands, without finding anything valuable, and returned disheartened and disgusted. On September 14, 1712, the king of France, Louis XIV, gave to a wealthy French merchant named Anthony Crozat, a royal patent of " all the country drained by the waters emptying directly or indirectly into the Mississippi, which is all included in the boundaries of Louisiana." Crozat appointed his business partner, M. de la Motte, governor, and he arrived in 1713; Kaskaskia,. Illinois, was then the provincial headquarters, and source of supplies for Upper Louisiana, which was also sometimes called Illinois; but New Orleans was the nominal seat of government for the whole Louisiana territory. The old town of Mine-la-Motte, in Madison county, commemorates this first governor. Crozat expected to find inexhaustible mines of gold and silver in this territory, and spent immense sums of money in vain efforts to attain his object. Practical miners were sent every where that the natives reported any glittering substance to exist. The explorers found iron, zinc, copper, lead, mica, pyrites, quartz crystals, etc., in great abundance, but no gold, silver or diamonds; and after five years of disastrous failure and disappointment, in 1717, Crozat returned his luckless charter to the king.

Next, in 1716 an adventurous Scotchman named John Law, got up a grand scheme for making everybody rich without work, and induced the French king and court and people to engage in it. This wild financial venture is known in history as the " Mississippi bubble," the " South Sea bubble," etc. The charter of Louisiana and monopoly of all its trade was given to a corporation, called the " Company of the West," whose capital stock was to be 100,000,000 francs, with power to issue stock in small shares, and establish a bank, etc. Shares rose to twenty times their original value, and the bank's notes, though essentially worthless, were in circulation to the amount of more than $200,000,000. Law himself sunk $500,000 in the scheme; but it bursted, as bodiless as a bag of wind; while he, the originator and manager of it, had to escape from Paris for his life, and died poor at Venice in 1729. In 1731 the charter of Louisiana was again returned to the crown. However, the excitement over this great scheme for making fabulous wealth out of nothing, had brought many adventurous Frenchmen into the territory as gold-hunters, who failing in that, worked some of the lead mines, and sent their products back to Europe.

In 1720 or 1721, an enterprising Frenchman named Renault took charge of a large lead mining enterprise. He brought M. La Motte, who was a professional mineralogist, with about two hundred expert miners and metallurgists, and five hundred negroes, to develop the mineral wealth that actually did exist. He made his headquarters at Fort de Chartres, on the Illinois side, ten miles above St. Genevieve, and sent out exploring and working parties to locate mining camps west of the Great River. Mine-la-Motte, in Madison county, was one of the first of these locations; also Potosi and Old Mine in Washington county; and many others. In 1765 a few families located at Potosi. Much of the mining was surface work - hence, scattered and transitory; and their smelting operations were merely to melt the ore in a wood fire and then clear away the ashes and gather up the lumps of lead. This was carried to the river on pack-horses or on rude ox-carts, and thence shipped to New Orleans by fleets of drifting keel-boats, which returned laden with foreign goods. Many of the immigrants of this period also engaged in agriculture, especially in Illinois, so that there really began to be a settled occupation of the country, as a final outcome of the greatest speculative delusion known to history. Lippincott's Gazetteer of the World says: u Fort Orleans, near where Jefferson City now stands, was built by the French in 1719"; this was a temporary safeguard for John Law's crazy gold-hunters, but did not make a permanent settlement. Kaskaskia, now in Randolph county, Ills., was settled by the French in 1673, and was for about a century the metropolis of the vast territory sometimes called "Upper Louisiana," sometimes "Illinois," and sometimes the "Northwestern Territory." And in 1735 some emigrants from Kaskaskia, moved across the Great River and made a settlement at what is now St. Genevieve, Missouri, which was the first permanent white settlement made and maintained within the State; the previous adventurers in search of mineral wealth had located mining camps at several points, but had not established any permanent town or trading post.

The next settlement that can be historically traced to its origin was that of St. Louis. A Frenchman named Pierre Liguest Laclede,* who lived in New Orleans in 1762, organized the "Louisiana Fur Company," under a charter from the director-general of the province of Louisiana; this charter gave them the exclusive right to carry on the fur trade with the Indians bordering on the Missouri river, and west of the Mississippi, *' as far north as the river St. Peter" (the same that is now called the Minnesota river, and empties into the Mississippi at Fort Snelling). Laclede seems to have formed a definite plan and purpose to establish a permanent trading post at some point in Upper Louisiana, for he made up a company of professional trappers, hunters, mechanics, laborers, and boatmen, and with a supply of goods suitable for the Indian trade, they left New Orleans in August, 1763, bound for the mouth of the Missouri river. The manner of navigating these boats against the current of the Mississippi for a distance of 1,194 miles, was of the most rude, primitive and laborious sort. Sometimes when the wind was favorable they could sail a little; but the main dependence was by means of push-poles and towropes. The boats were long and narrow, with a plank projecting six or eight inches on each side. The boat would of course keep near the shore; a man at each side, near the bow of the boat, would set his pole on the river bottom, then brace his shoulder against the top of the pole with

* Campbell's Gazetteer of Missouri says this man's family name was Liguest; B. Gratz Brown gives it in Johnson's Cyclopedia as Lingueste; but the man himself appears to have written his name Laclede, of the firm of Laclede, Moxan & Co., who constituted the historic "Louisiana Fur Company."

all his might, and as the boat moved under him he would walk along the narrow plank until he reached the stern, and the boat had thus been propelled forward the distance of its length ; then he would walk back to the bow, dragging his pole along in the water, set it on the bottom and push again as before. And thus it was that the rugged pioneers of civilization in the new world for more that a hundred years navigated the Mississippi, Ohio, Missouri, Illinois, Wisconsin, and some other rivers, with what were in later years called keel-boats. But sometimes, for a rest, or when the beach was favorable, a gang of men would go ashore with a long rope attached to the boat, and thus tow it along against the current, or they would tie the forward end to a tree or snag and let those on the boat pull in the rope and thus draw the boat along - meanwhile those on shore going ahead with another rope, making another tie - and so on; this was called "warping"; but when it was necessary to cross the stream they had recourse to oars or paddles. It took Laclede three months in this way to get from New Orleans up to St. Genevieve, or Fort de Chartres, the military post on the east side a few miles further up the river, where he arrived on the third of November. Here he left his goods and part of his company, but taking a few picked men, he himself pushed on to the mouth of the Missouri. He seems to have had a sort of prophetic forecast that this was the right spot to locate the future trading post for all that vast region of country which was drained by the two principal great rivers of the new world. At the mouth of the Missouri he found no site that suited, him for a town, and he turned back down the Mississippi, carefully exploring the west bank until he reached the high, well protected and well drained location where the city of St. Louis now stands. This was the nearest spot to the mouth of the Missouri which at all met his idea, and he began at once to mark the place by chopping notches in some of the principal trees. This was in December, 1763. He then returned to the fort and pushed on his preparations for the new settlement, saying enthusiastically to the officers of the fort that he had "found a situation where he was going to plant his colony; and the site was so fine, and had so many advantages of position for trade with all this region of country, that it might in time become one of the finest cities in America."

Early in February, 1764, a company of thirty men, in charge of Auguste Chouteau, set out from Fort de Chartres and arrived at the chosen spot on the 14th. The next day all hands went to work clearing the ground and building a storehouse for the goods and tools, and cabins for their own habitation. In April Laclede himself joined them and proceeded to lay out the village plat, select a site for his own residence, and name the town Saint Louis, in honor of his supposed sovereign, Louis XV. This very territory had been yielded up to Spain in 1762, but these loyal

Frenchmen in naming their new town after the French king never dreamed that they were then and for nearly two years had been Spanish subjects, instead of French; the unwelcome news had reached New Orleans in the same month, April, but did not arrive at St. Louis until late in the year; and when it came the inhabitants were appropriately wroth and indignant, for they hated Spain with a fighting hatred. However, the change made very little practical difference to the town or its people. In 1763 all the French possessions on the east side of the Mississippi river, and also Canada, had been ceded to England, but it was late in 1764 before the English authorities arrived to take possession of Kaskaskia, or Fort de Chartres, and other military posts; and when they did come, many of the French settlers moved over to St. Louis, giving it a considerable start, both in population and business. The Indians, too, being generally more friendly toward the French than the English, came over to St. Louis to trade their peltries, instead of going to Kaskaskia, as they had formerly done; and this fact gave the new town a powerful impulse. From this time forward new settlements began to spring up within our present boundaries. New Bourbon was settled in 1789. In 1762 a hunter named Blanchette built a cabin where the city of St. Charles now stands, and lived there many years; but just when the place began to be a town or village does not appear to be known. However, in 1803, St. Charles county was organized, and then comprised all the territory lying north of the Missouri and west of the Mississippi; thus taking in all of north Missouri, and the entire States of Iowa, Minnesota, Dakota, and on west to the Pacific ocean. This was the largest single " county " ever known in the world, and St. Charles city was the county seat.

In 1781 the Delaware Indians had a considerable town where New Madrid now stands ; and that year Mr. Curre, a fur trader of St. Louis, established a branch house here. In 1788 a colony from New Jersey settied here, and laid out a plat for a large city, giving it the name of New Madrid, in honor of the capital of Spain. But they never realized their high hopes of building up a splendid city there.

Among the historic incidents of early settlement worthy of mention at this point, is the case of Daniel Boone, whose hunter life in Kentucky forms a staple part of American pioneer history. Boone came to this territory in 1797, renounced his citizenship in the United States, and took the oath of allegiance to the Spanish crown. Delassus was then the Spanish governor; and he appointed Boone commander of a fort at Femme Osage, now in the west part of St. Charles county. He roamed and hunted over the central regions of Missouri the rest of his life, and it was for a long period called the " Boone's Lick country," from some salt licks or springs which he discovered and his sons worked, and which were choice hunting grounds because deer and other animals came there to lick salt. Col. Boone died Sept. 26, 1820, in St. Charles county, but was buried in Marthasville in Warren county, as was his wife also. Their bones were subsequently removed to Frankfort, Kentucky.

The American Period

In 1801 the territory west of the Mississippi was ceded back to France by Spain; in 1803 President Jefferson purchased from the French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte, the entire territory of Louisiana, for $15,- 000,000; the formal transfer was made at New Orleans, December 20, 1803. On the 26th of March, 1804, Congress passed an act dividing this vast accession into two parts, the lower one being named the "Territory of Orleans," with its capital at New Orleans ; the upper division was called the " District of Louisiana," with its capital at St. Louis. This latter district comprised the present State of Arkansas and all from that north to nearly the north line of Minnesota, and west trom the Mississippi river to the Rocky Mountains. Don Carlos Dehault Delassus had been the last Spanish governor at St. Louis, and no change was made after its re-cession to France, until in March, 1804, when he delivered the keys and the public documents of his governorship to Capt. Amos Stoddard, of the United States army, who immediately raised the first American flag that ever floated west of the Mississippi river, over the government buildings at St. Louis. There it has floated proudly and uninterruptedly ever since, and there it will float until St. Louis becomes the central metropolis and seat of empire of the entire North American continent.

It should be mentioned here that the war of the American Revolution did not involve any military operations as far west as the Mississippi river; hence the little French fur-trading village of St. Louis was not affected by the clash of arms which was raging so desperately through all the States east of the Ohio river. But the success of the colonies in this unequal conflict gave them control of all south of the river St. Lawrence and the great lakes, as far west as the Mississippi river; and when Napoleon had sold to the new republic the extensive French possessions west of the Mississippi, he remarked that this accession of territory and control of both banks of the Mississippi river would forever strengthen the power of the United States; and said he, with keen satisfaction, "I have given England a maritime rival that will sooner or later humble her pride."

On the 3d of March, 1805, Congress passed at act to organize the Territory of Louisiana; and President Jefferson then appointed as territorial governor, Gen. James Wilkinson; secretary, Frederick Bates; judges, Return J. Meigs and John B. Lucas. Thus civil matters went on, and business increased rapidly. When the United States took possession of this district or territory it was reputed to contain nine thousand white inhabitants and about three thousand negroes. The first census of St. Louis was taken in 1799, and it then had 897 inhabitants. This is presumed to have included the village of Carondelet also, which was started as a rival town soon after the founding of St. Louis.

In June, 1812, Congress passed another act with regard to this new country, and this time it was named the Territory of Missouri, instead of Louisiana. The President was to appoint a governor; the people were to elect representatives in the ratio of one for every five hundred white male inhabitants; this legislative body or lower house, was to nominate to the President eighteen of their own citizens, and from those he was to select and commission nine to form a senate or legislative council. The house of representatives was to consist of thirteen members at first; they were to hold their office two years, and must hold at least one legislative session at Saint Louis each year. The territory was also authorized to send one delegate to Congress.

In October, 1812, the first territorial election was held, and these people experienced for the first time in their lives the American privilege of choosing their own law-makers. There were four candidates for Congress, and Edward Hempstead was elected. He served two years from December 7th, 1812; then Rufus Easton served two years; then John Scott two years; Mr. Easton was one of the four candidates at the first election ; and Mr. Scott was one of the members from St. Genevieve of the first legislative council. The first body of representatives met at the house of Joseph Robidoux,in St. Louis, on December 7th, and consisted of the following members:

They were sworn into office by Judge Lucas. Wm. C. Carr of St. Louis, was elected speaker. The principal business of this assembly was to nominate the eighteen men from whom the President and U. S. Senate should select nine to constitute the legislative council; they made their nominations and sent them on to Washington, but it was not known until the next June who were selected. June 3d, 1813, the secretary and acting governor, Frederick Bates, issued a proclamation declaring who had been chosen by the President as the council of nine, and the)'- were -

December, 1813, the second session of the territorial legislature was convened in St. Louis, and continued until January 19, 1814. This year the second territorial election occurred, and the new general assembly met December 5, this being the third sitting of the territorial legislature. The fourth commenced in November, 1S15, and continued until about the last of January, 1816. And it was during this session that the common law of England, and her general statutes passed prior to the fourth year of James I, were adopted as the laws of Missouri, except such changes as were necessary to phrase them for the United States and its system of government, instead of England.

April 29, 1816, Congress again legislated for this territory, and provided that the legislative council or senate should be elected by the people instead of being appointed by the President; that the legislature should meet biennially instead of annually; and that the U. S. judges should be required to hold regular terms of circuit court in each county. The fifth legislative session (being the first under this act) met the first week in December of this year, and continued until February 1, 1817. Then there was no further legislation until the regular biennial session which met about December first, 1818. But during 1817, Henry S. Gayer, Esq., compiled a digest of all the laws, including those of French, Spanish, English and American origin, which were still in force in this territory. This was a very important work, in view of the fact that there were land titles and instances of property inheritance deriving their legal verity from these different sources; and it was now desirable to get all titles and vestitures clearly set upon an American basis of law and equity. The next or sixth session of the legislature continued through December, 1818, and January, 1819; and the most important thing done was applying to Congress for Missouri to be admitted as a State. John Scott, of St. Genevieve county, was then the territorial delegate in Congress, and presented the application. A bill was introduced to authorize the people of Missouri to elect delegates to a convention which should frame a State constitution. The population of Missouri territory at this time (or when the first census was taken, in 1821,) consisted of 59,393 free white inhabitants and 11,254 slaves. A member of Congress from New York, Mr. Talmadge, offered an amendment to the proposed bill, providing that slavery should be excluded from the proposed new State. This gave rise to hot and angry debate for nearly two years, and which at times seemed to threaten an immediate dissolution of the National Union. But the strife was finally quieted by the adoption in Congress on March 6, 1820, of what is famous in history as the " Missouri Compromise," by which it was agreed that Missouri might come into the Union as a slave-holding State ; but that slavery should never be established in any State which might thereafter be formed from lands lying north of latitude 36 deg. 30 min. The elections were held for delegates, the constitutional convention met at St. Louis, accepted the terms of admission prescribed by Congress, and on July 19th, 1820, Missouri took her place as one of the sovereign States of the National Union.

Missouri As A State

July 19, 1820, Missouri laid off the vestments of territorial tutelage and put on the matronly robes of mature statehood, as the constitutional convention was authorized to frame the organic law and give it immediate force without submitting it to a vote of the people, and this constitution stood in force without any material change until the free State constitution of 1865 was adopted. The first general election under the constitution was held in August, 1820, at which time Alexander McNair was chosed governor and John Scott representative in Congress. Members of legislature had been chosen at the same time, comprising fourteen senators and forty three representatives; and this first general assembly of the State convened in St. Louis in the latter part of September. The principal thing of historic interest done by this assembly was the election to the United States Senate of Thomas H. Benton, who continued there uninterruptedly until 1851, a period of thirty years, and was then elected in 1852 as representative in Congress from the St. Louis district. The other senator elected at this time was David Barton, who drew the "short term," and was re-elected in 1824.

Epitomized Summary Of Events And Dates

Application made to Congress for a state government March 16, 1818, and December 18, 1818. - A bill to admit was defeated in Congress, which was introduced February 15, 1819. - Application made to Congress for an enabling act, December 29, 1819. - Enabling act (known as the Missouri Compromise} passed by Congress March 6, 1820. - First state constitution formed July 19, 1820. - Resolution to admit as a state passed Senate December 12, 1820; rejected by the House February 14, 1821. -

Conditional resolution to admit approved March 2, 1821. - Condition accepted by the legislature of Missouri and approved by governor, June 26, 1821. - By proclamation of the President, admitted as a state August 10, 1821.

The State capital was first at St. Louis; then at St. Charles about five years; but on October 1st, 1826, it was moved to Jefferson City, and has remained there ever since.

Counties And Population

The total was 70,647, of which mumber 11,254 were negro slaves. The area of the State at this time comprised 62,182 square miles; but in 1837 the western boundary was extended by authority of Congress, to include what was called the " Platte Purchase," an additional area of 3,168 square miles, which is now divided into the counties of Platte, Buchanan, Andrew, Holt, Nodaway and Atchison. This territory was an Indian reservation until 1836.

The last census was taken in June, 1880, when the state had an area of 65,350 square miles, divided into one hundred and fourteen counties, with populations as follows:

The State Debt

The bonded indebtedness of Missouri has various periods to run. The following table is compiled from the State Auditor's report for 1879- 1880, and embodies all state bonds that will become payable from 1882 to 1897, at 6 per cent interest.

In addition to this there are $250,000 of revenue bonds, issued June 1, 1879; and $3,000,000 bonds issued to the Hannibal & St. Joseph Railroad Company.

Presidential Votes Of Missouri From 1820 To 1880

-This year Gen. Jackson received 5,192 majority; -but the popular vote of Missouri for this year does not appear in anyef the statistical tables. The other presidential oandidates this year were: Henry Clay, National Republican; John Floyd, Independent; Wm. Wirt, Anti-Mason.

the even numbered years - as 1880, 1882, etc.; and the legislature meets on the first Wednesday after January 1st, in the odd numbered years - as 1881, 1883, etc. The governor is elected every four years, at the same time with the presidential election.

Educational Interests The Public School System

The State of Missouri has made liberal provision for the support of public schools, equal to any other state in the Union.* The main features of our school system are well epitomized in a report made by the state superintendent in 1879, as follows :

School Revenue - Is derived from invested state funds, bearing interest at the rate of six per cent per annum, and one-fourth of the state revenue collections, annually, equal to a tax of five cents on the $100 of valuation; from the invested county funds at rates from 6 to 10 per centum annually, secured by real estate mortgages; from the sixteenth section or township fund invested and producing income in the same manner as the county funds.

The state and township permanent funds arise principally from the sale of lands donated by the general government. The income is used only for teachers' wages, and is apportioned upon the number of children to districts having maintained the minimum term of school.

The deficiency is supplied by local taxation, limited in amount, and controlled in the first instance by boards of directors, and second, by the tax-payers in annual meeting assembled.

State Boards. - State Board of Education consists of the superintendent of public schools, the governor, secretary of state, and attorneygeneral. The duties, practically, are simply the investment and care of the state permanent fund.

Board of Curators of the State University - Consists of nine members, appointed by the governor, with the consent of the senate, for a term of six years, three being appointed every two years. They control and manage the university, agricultural college and school of mines and metallurgy.

* The first free day school ever opened in Missouri was by the Church of the Messiah, in St. Louis. This church was organized in 1834, by Rev. Wm, G. Elliott, D. D., who waa the founder, and is now Chancellor of Washington University.

to each school, appointed by the governor, with consent of the senate, from the locality. The state superintendent of public schools is ex officio member of each board.

Superintendent of Public Schools - Has general supervision of the public schools; collects and tabulates the school statistics of the state; apportions the state school funds to the counties; gives information to school officers upon construction of school law ; prepares and furnishes blanks for use of school officers ; spends five days in each congressional district of the state, yearly, consulting and advising teachers and other school officers, and delivering lectures; is a member of the board of regents of the normal schools, and president of state board of education ; receives reports from the county commissioners and state institutions of learning; makes annual reports to the governor and general assembly alternately; and is the executive manager of the state school fund under the direction of state board of education.

County School Commissioners - Elected at the annual school meetings of the various school districts for the term of two years; compensation varies according to population of county, from twenty to forty dollars per annum and a fee, additional, of one and one-half dollars from each teacher undergoing examination; examines teachers, grants and revokes certificates; has final jurisdiction over appealed cases of changes of district boundaries, appealed from the annual meetings; condenses and reports to state superintendent of public schools the educational statistics of the county, as received by him from the district boards of directors; supplies the districts with copies of the law, and all blanks needed; performs any and all duties required by the State Superintendent, and in counties where the people have voted in favor of it, employs his whole time in supervision and school work.

Miscellaneous. - To draw public money, districts must maintain at least three months public school in each year, but the law requires and provides that four months shall be taught. Any person between the ages of six and twenty years may attend the public schools. In cities, towns and villages, the boards are authorized to hold from five to ten months term of school each year, and in the country districts the people may vote an extension of term over four months. The rate of taxation for school purposes, in addition to the distributed state, county and township, or sixteenth section funds, is limited to forty cents on the $100 valuation, except that the people, at the annual school meeting, may vote an increase not to exeed sixty-five cents on the $100, by a majoritv vote of tax-payers. To raise funds by taxation for building purposes, requires

Annual School Meeting - Meets at the district school house annually, and elects a director for a full term, and fills vacancies in tha board; determines the length of time in excess of four months, that the schools shall be kept open, and orders the proper levies within the limitations to be made therefor; votes a sum not exceeding $20 per annum for purchase of books for district library; decides for or against proposed changes of district boundary lines; directs the sale of property no longer required, and determines the applications of proceeds; designates their choice for county school commissioner every second year; directs the loan of money to aid in erecting school houses ; directs the levy of tax for the erection of school houses; determines the location of the school house or houses; by a two-thirds vote changes location of school house; receives the reports of school district board as to financial condition, and itemized receipts and disbursements for the year ending.

District Boards - Consist of three members in the country districts, and six members in the city, town and village districts; each elected for a term of three years ; one, annually, in the country, and two in the city, town and village districts; they elect one of their number president, and appoint a clerk who may not be a member of the board, if it so chooses; they are the executive officers of the school corporation, which each district is, being created by law ; they serve without compensation ; have custody of school property; execute the orders of the annual meeting; take the school census; make and file the estimates for tax levies; control the disbursements of all school money; keep the district records; visit the schools; employ teachers; provide for a four months term of school without consulting the people; make rules for organization, grading and government of the schools, suspend or expel pupils ; admit and prescribe fees for non-resident pupils, and in general do all things necessary to carry on the schools.

In city, town and village districts the board has power to establish higher grades of schools, but are subject to the same tax restrictions.

Some cities have special charters giving other privileges than those enumerated, but subject to the same tax restrictions, they being constitutional provisions.

Educational Directory. - University of Missouri, located at Columbia; number of students, 577; legislative appropriation for 1S79 and 1880, $39,000. State Agricultural College constitutes a department of the University. Three State Normal Schools, located respectively at Kirksville, Warrensburg and Cape Girardeau .* The appropriation to each of

* St. Louis supports its own normal school, for the preparation and training of its teachers, the greater number of whom are graduates of this normal school.

normal schools is $7,500 per annum. Deaf and Dumb Asylum, located at Fulton; legislative appropriation for 1S79 and 1SS0, $91,000. Blind Asylum, located at St. Louis; legislative appropriation for 1879 and 1880, $46,000. Lincoln Institute,* located at Jefferson City; legislative appropriation, $10,000 for 1S79 and 18S0; devoted to training colored teachers for colored public schools of the state. School of Mines and Metallurgy, located at Rolla; legislative appropriation, $15,000 for 1879 and 1880; constitutes a department of the state university. State teachers' association, meets annually at places selected at each session, during the last week in June.

Statistics of 1S7S. - School population, 6SS,248; school enrollment, 448,033; No. of ungraded school districts, 8,142; No. of graded school districts, 279. No. of school houses, 8,092; estimated value of school houses and sites, $8,321,399; average school year in months, 5; average school year in months, in graded school districts, 9; total number of teachers employed, 11,26S; total wages of teachers, $2,320,430.20; average wages of teachers per month, males, $36.36, females, $28.09; average wages of teachers per month, in grades schools, estimated, males, $87.81, females, $40.73.

The state auditor's report for 1879 and 1880 furnishes the following school items; and they make a very favorable showing for the public school interests of Missouri:

Institute was first projected by the 62d Regiment U. S. Colored Infantry, while on duty in Texas, in 1865, and was designed for the higher education of colored people. In January, 1866, the state attached a state normal department to it, to provide suitable teachers for the public schools for colored children. The school was opened Sept. 17, 1876, but was not finally provided for by law as a state normal school until Feb. 14, 1870, since which time it has gone steadily forward and done a good work for the negro population.

Massachusetts And Missouri School Rates

Massachusetts is taken almost universally as the standard of measurement for other states. The state reports of Massachusetts and Missouri, for 1879, show that in the former there was applied to the education of every child of school age the sum of $13.71 - in the latter, $4.37. But it must be remembered that school age in Massachusetts is between five and fifteen years; in Missouri between six and twenty; a difference of four years in school.

The report of the secretary of the Massachusetts board of education, for 1879, states the "per centage of valuation appropriated for public schools," as two and seventy-two one hundredths mills. In Missouri it was over five mills. That is, every tax-paying Missourian paid nearly twice as much for the maintenance of public schools on the same amount (of value) of property as the tax-payer of Massachusetts.

A good feeling prevails amongst these different schools. Each attends to its own work in its own way, caring for the patronage of its own people and the community at large, as a good neighbor of every other worker. A most liberal and impartial legislative policy is pursued, by dealing with all alike before the law, whether in the maintenance of vested rights or in the matter of taxation. By constitutional provision all property actually used for school and religious purposes may be exempted from taxes, and the same constitution most explicitly interdicts all discrimination, and also all favor or partiality.

Scientific Schools

Note. - Church members of the Catholic and Protestant Episcopal Churches include all persona baptized into the church. The others count only communicants in good standing.

Protectional Laws

Our state legislature has made ample and discreet provision for the protection of a home-place from sale on execution. The home and property rights of married women, widows and orphans, are guaranteed by statute as far as is practicable. A limit has also been fixed to the amount of indebtedness which may be incurred by the people in voting bonds to railroads, or other enterprises in which they may feel a friendly interest, but in aiding which, too generally, so many western -communities have burdened themselves and their posterity with debts and taxation that are grevious to be borne.

Homestead Exemption

The laws of Missouri reserve from execution, in the hands of every head of a family living in the country, a homestead, consisting of one hundred and sixty (160) acres of land, not exceeding $1,500 in value; to every head of a family, in cities of over 40,000 inhabitants, a homestead consisting of not more than eighteen square rods of ground, and of a valuation not exceeding $3,000; and in cities and towns of less than 40,- 000 inhabitants, a homestead, consisting of not more than thirty square rods of ground,, and of the value of not more than $1,500. Thus it is seen that a farmer's homestead in Missouri consists of one hundred ajid sixty acres of land and the improvements thereon, not exceeding in value $1,500; the homestead of the residents of the smaller towns is of the same value; while that allowed to the inhabitants of St. Louis, St. Joseph and Kansas City, where land is more valuable, and the cost of living greater, is fixed at $3,000.

The homestead is in the nature of a lien or charge, in favor of the wife and children, upon certain property of the husband, defined in extent, and limited in value. A declaration of what this property is may be recorded in the office of the recorder of deeds, and notice is thus imparted to all persons having dealings with the owner, that this particular property is not subject to execution, and that they ought not to give credit on the faith of it. The state, under this head, provides that: "Any married woman may file her claim to the tract or lot of land occupied or claimed by her and her husband, or by her, if abandoned by her husband, as a homestead. Said claim shall set forth the tract or lot claimed, that she is the wife of the person in whose name the said tract or lot appears of record, and said claim shall be acknowledged by her before some officer authorized to take proof or acknowledgment of instruments of writing affecting real estate, and be filed in the recorder's office, and it shall be the duty of the recorder to receive and record the same. After the filing of such claims, duly acknowledged, the husband shall be debarred from, and incapable of selling, mortgaging and alienating the homestead in any manner whatever, and such sale, mortgage or alienation is hereby declared null and void; and the filing of any such claims as aforesaid with the recorder shall impart notice to all persons of the contents thereof, and all subsequent purchasers and mortagors shall be deemed, in law and equity, to purchase with notice; provided, however, that nothing herein contained shall be so construed as to prevent the husband and wife from jointly conveying, mortgaging, alienating, and, in any other manner, disposing of such homestead, or any part thereof."

Such a law, while securing the benefits of a homestead to the debtor, works no injustice to the creditor. He sees that the debtor has certain property recorded as his homestead. He never gives credit on the faith that this property will be subject to his execution; but he looks simply to the other property of the debtor, or to the state of his business and his character for honesty.

It may be added that the supreme court of this state has construed the homestead laws liberally, with the view of carrying out the benevolent purposes of the legislature. If the debtor is ignorant or timid, when the sheriff comes with an execution to levy, and fails to claim his right of homestead, his family are not, therefore, to be turned out of doors. The sheriff must summon appraisers and set the homestead apart, whether the debtor claims it or not; and if he does not do this, his sale will pass no title to the purchaser so far as the debtor's homestead is concerned. If the debtor makes a conveyance of property embracing his family homestead, for the purpose of hindering or defrauding his creditors, this does not work a forfeiture of his homestead right; his wrongful act is not thus to be appealed to in prejudice of his wife and children. If the cruelty of the husband drives the wife from the homestead, this does not put an end to her interest in the homestead. She may return and claim it after his death, and his administrator must set it apart for her.

Exemptions Of Personal Property

Pursuing the same wise and benevolent policy, the statutes provide that the following personal property shall be exempt from attachment and execution when owned by the head of a family: "1. Ten head of choice hogs, ten head of choice sheep, and the product thereof in wool, yarn or cloth; two cows and calves, two plows, one axe, one hoe, and one set of plow gears, and all the necessary farm implements for the use of one man. 2. Two work animals of the value of one hundred and fifty dollars. 3. The spinning-wheel and cards, one loom and apparatus, necessary for manufacturing cloth in a private family. 4. All the spun yarn, thread and cloth manufactured for family use. 5. Any quantity of hemp, flax and wool, not exceeding twenty-five pounds each. 6. All wearing apparel of the family, four beds, with usual bedding, and such other household and kitchen furniture, not exceeding the value of one hundred dollars, as may be necessary for the family, agreeably to an inventory thereof, to be returned, on oath, with the execution, by the officer whose duty it may be to levy the same. 7. The necessary tools and implements of trade of any mechanic while carrying on his trade. 8. Any and all arms and military equipments required by law to be kept. 9. All such provisions as may be on hand for family use, not exceeding one hundred dollars in value. 10. The bibles and other books used in a family, lettered gravestones, and one pew in a house of worship. 11. All lawyers, physicians, ministers of the gospel and teachers, in the actual prosecution of their calling, shall have the privilege of selecting such books as shall be necessary to their profession, in the place of other property herein allowed, at their option; and doctors of medicine, in lieu of other property exempt from execution, may be allowed to select their medicines." In lieu of this property, each head of a family may, at his election, select and hold exempt from execution any other property, real, personal, or mixed, or debts or wages not exceeding in value the amount of three hundred dollars.

not to be permitted to plead poverty as against the claims of creditors equally necessitous. It is accordingly provided that the foregoing exemption cannot be claimed when the debt is for wages due to a house servant or common laborer to the extent of $90, and when the action to recover the same is brought witoin six months after the last services were rendered. Nor can the purchaser of goods make this law an instrument of fraud by claiming goods which he has purchased on credit against an execution for the purchase money.

Rights Of Married Women

State legislation is extremely careful of the rights of married women. If a wife is unjustly abandoned by her husband, the circuit court will sequester his property for the purpose of maintaining her and the children of the marriage. If he abandons her, or from worthlessness or drunkenness fails to support her, the court will not only allow her to sell her own real estate without his joining in the deed, but will require any person holding money or property to which he may be entitled in her right, to pay the money over to her. 1. Under such circumstances she is entitled to the proceeds of her own earnings and those of her minor children.' 2. If her real estate is damaged for railroads, or other public works, the damages accrue exclusively to her. 3. If her husband gets into the penitentiary, she becomes to all intents and purposes a femme sole . 4. And if he, by ill usage, compels her to live separate and apart from him, she may claim the sole and exclusive enjoyment of her property as if she were unmarried. Rents, issues and profits of her real estate cannot be taken in execution for his debts, except when contracted for familv necessaries. Moreover, by a very broad statute lately enacted, a wife may hold all her personal property free from her husband's control and exempt from liability for his debts. If he becomes incompetent to lead in the marital partnership, she may take the reins in her hands, engage in trade, accumulate property, and no act of his will create a charge upon it. Finally, at his death, the family homestead descends to her and the children, if any there be, to be held by her for life; if there be any children, in common with them; if not, by herself alone. She also takes dower in one-third of all the real estate of which her husband may have been seized at any time during marriage, in which she has not conveyed her right of dower, diminished, however, by the homestead which is set apart to her. She takes also a child's share of his personal estate; and, in addition to all this, she is allowed to retain as her absolute property a large amount of personalty.

Taxation

public agents to burden the people with excessive taxation. Taxes for state purposes, exclusive of the taxes necessary to pay the bonded debt of the state, cannot exceed twenty cents on the hundred dollars valuation; and whenever the taxable property of the state shall amount to $900,000,- 000 the rate shall not exceed fifteen cents. The rate of taxation for county, city, town and school purposes, is likewise strictly limited. Counties, cities, towns, townships and school districts cannot become indebted beyond the revenue provided for each year without a two-thirds vote of all voters therein, nor, in any event, to an amount exceeding five per cent on the value of the taxable property.

The statutes of limitation in Missouri provide that an open account cannot be collected after it has run five years; a note is uncollectible if held for ten years after due; and a judgment expires by limitation in ten years.

Public Debt Limitation

The state debt, according to the State Auditor's last report, [1878], is $16,"758,000. This mostly grew out of the various issues of bonds given in aid of railroads, and bears interest at the rate of six per cent per annum. To liquidate this debt the constitution provides for the annual levy of taxes, now fixed by law at twenty cents on the $100 of the valuation. With the sum thus raised the interest of the debt is first to be paid, and of the remainder not less than $250,000 is to be set apart as a sinking fund for the purchase and retirement of the bonds themselves. "Hence, in a few years, with the vast increase in the taxable wealth, which is sure to come, the whole of the debt will be extinguished. There is an additional state tax of twenty cents on the $100 for current expenditures, a large share of which is devoted to the support of the common schools. This tax is ample for the purposes for which it is intended, and there is a constitutional provision that it shall be reduced to fifteen cents on the $100 as soon as the taxable property of the state shall aggregate a total valuation of $900,000,000.

The state, and all its municipal subdivisions, whether counties, cities or towns, are forbidden by the constitution to loan their credit to any corporation, so that there is no method by which the public indebtedness can be increased in the usual way. Owing to the great zeal of the people to forward public improvements of all kinds, a municipal indebtedness, aggregating, according to the auditor's last report, $35,727,566.49, has been contracted. Of this amount the debt of the city of St. Louis is shown to constitute $22,712,000, leaving for the agricultural portion of the state and the other cities, towns, townships and school districts only a little over $13,000,000.

The present organic law prevents any municipality from contracting liabilities, in any one fiscal year, beyond the amount of the levy made for that year, and in no county can the rate of taxation for local purposes, aside from the school tax, exceed fifty cents on the $100 valuation, unless two-thirds of the voters shall assent to the levy of a larger sum. Neither can the school tax in country districts exceed forty cents on the $100 without the consent of the tax-payers, to be obtained by a vote of the majority of the residents.

Comparative Tax Rate

The average tax levy for all purposes in Missouri is about $1.30 on the $100; adding to this 70 cents on the $100 for the payment of bonded indebtedness where it exists, there is an average of $2 on the $100 as the rate, and a certainty of its steady decrease. This is given as an average, and while in a few counties the tax rate is higher, in the majority it is much lower.

By the report of the state auditor of Kansas, for the year ending June 30, 1878, the tax levy for state purposes is shown to be 55 cents on the $100, and the average levy for local debts and expenses $3.82 on the $100r making a total average tax of $4.37 on the $100. The taxable property of Kansas in 1878 aggregated the sum of $138,698,810.98, and the local indebtedness was reported by the state auditor at $13,473,197.51. In Nebraska the tax levy for state purposes alone is 62-£ cents on the $100, exclusive of taxes to pay local debts and expenses.

In Iowa, the average rate of taxation for the year 1878 was $2.67 on the $100. In Illinois the tax levy for 1877, the last given in the auditor's report, was $3.24 on the $100, and the local indebtedness of that state was then the sum of $51,811,691.

Thus, it is clear that Missouri has a lower rate of taxation than any of the neighboring states above mentioned ; and, in addition to this, under her wise constitutional provision, the rate of taxation must continually decrease every year, until only a sufficient amount of taxes to liquidate current expenses will be collected.

There are twenty counties that have no indebtedness whatever, and forty more the debt of which is merely nominal; so that their burden of taxation will be lighter than in any other portion of the United States.

Federal Affairs In The State Federal Courts

The United States is divided into nine supreme court circuits, to each of which one of the supreme court judges is assigned. Missouri is now in the eighth circuit, which includes Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska and Colorado; and George W. McCrary, of Iowa, who was secretary of war, in President Hayes' cabinet, is now the judge of this circuit. Missouri is divided into an east and west United States judicial district; and Samuel Treat, of St. Louis, is United States judge of the east district, while Arnold Krekel, of Jefferson City, presides over the west district.

Federal Revenue

Missouri paid the following amounts of internal revenue to the United States during the year ending June 30, 1880: On distilled spirits, $2,151,- 643.98; on tobacco, $2,391,989.93; on fermented liquors, $711,654.53; on banking, $182,929.25; on other items, $1,360.27. Total, $5,448,344.83. Illinois, Kentucky, New York and Ohio were the only states which paid a larger sum of revenue on spirits; Illinois, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia paid larger on tobacco; Illinois, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin paid larger on fermented liquors (chiefly lager beer); California, New York and Pennsylvania are the only states which paid larger on banking transactions.

In 1878, Missouri paid $115,729.64 as penalties for violation of U. S. internal revenue laws, which was the highest amount on this item paid by any state - the next highest being Pennsylvania, which was " caught at it" to the amount of $27,867.20.

U. S. Lands And Land Offices

There are now three U. S. land offices in Missouri, to-wit: at Boonville, Ironton and Springfield. The report of the general land office for 1879 showed 41,836,931 acres of government land still open to homestead entry in Missouri.

Legal Tender In Missouri

Gold coins of the United States (un mutilated), and the " greenback" paper currency are legal tender for the payment of any possible amount of indebtedness. Silver coins are legal tender for any amount not exceeding $10 at one payment - but the standard silver dollar is legal tender for any amount, unless the contract specially provides otherwise. The baser coins of nickel, copper and alloy (3 cent pieces), are legal tender for any sum not exceeding 25 cents. The "trade dollar," and national bank notes are not legal tender; neither is any foreign coin, either of gold or silver, nor the " stamped bullion " gold pieces of California.

U. S. Custom House

St. Louis is a port of entry for foreign goods; and the imports received here during the year 1880, amounted to (foreign value), $1,401,180; on which the import duties paid was $537,257.83. A fine custom house building is in process of erection, and will be completed in 1881.

In the south part of St. Louis, on the river; there is a United States arsenal, and six miles below the city, Jefferson Barracks are situated, a station for a small part of the regular army. A few squares from the arsenal there is a United States marine hospital.

Missouri'S Distinguished Men

Within our allotted space we can only give a brief sketch of those citizens of Missouri who have so pre-eminently distinguished themselves as to have achieved a solid national, and in some cases a world-wide fame. First amongf these is -

Daniel Boone. The adventures of this famous hunter and Indian fighter have become a staple part of the world's perennial stock of daring exploits and hair-breadth escapes. He was born in Bucks county, Pennsylvania, February 11, 1735; emigrated to North Carolina and there married. In 1773 he emigrated with his own and five other families to Kentucky, and founded the present town of Boonesborough. In 1795 he removed to the Missouri river country, and settled in St. Charles county, about forty-five miles west of St. Louis, where he died in 1S20, aged 85. His remains, together with those of his wife, were many years afterward removed to Boonesborough, Kentucky, and a monument reared over them.

Thomas H. Benton. Col. Benton was, in his lifetime, recognized as one of the foremost statesmen of the nation, and the hearts of all good Missourians kindle with pride at the mention of his name. He was a specimen type of the best sort of Democrat; he always stood with Gen.

Jackson and opposed the state-rights doctrines of John C. Calhoun; in congress he opposed the repeal of the "Missouri Compromise;" and during Gen. Jackson's presidency Col. Benton was so vigorous a champion of hard money, as against the old U. S. bank swindle, that he came to be familiarly known all over the United States as "Old Bullion." Col. Benton was born near Hillsborough, North Carolina, March 14, 1782; studied law at Nashville, Tennessee, in 1810. In the war of 1812 he served as a Colonel under Gen. Jackson ; settled at St. Louis in 1815. In 1820 he was elected as the first U. S. Senator from Missouri, and continued to be re-elected every term for thirty years; the longest period that any man in the nation has filled a senatorial seat. In 1852-3 he served one term as member of congress from the first district. In 1856 he was defeated in his candidacy for governor by the state-rights party, to whose doctrines he was strongly opposed, from the time of the nullification acts of South Carolina in 1832, up to the day of his death. In 1854 he published his great work, "Thirty Years in the United States Senate," in two large volumes, and these are held in high esteem as standard authority by politicians and statesmen of every class. Col. Benton died April 10, 1858, mourned by the whole nation as one of her worthiest sons.

James B. Eads, a citizen of St. Louis. His marvelous achievements as a civil engineer have made his name familiar in all civilized countries on the face of the earth; and his last great work, the jetties at the mouth of the Mississippi river, has revolutionized the commerce of three continents. Mr. Eads was born at Lawrenceburg, Indiana, May 28, 1820; emigrated with his parents to Louisville, Kentucky, in 1829; and in 1833 settled at St. Louis. In July, 1861, the government advertised for seven gun-boats of about 600 tons burden, drawing not over six feet of water, plated with iron 2£ inches thick, to steam nine miles an hour, and carry thirteen guns.* Mr. Eads contracted to build those seven vessels in sixty-five days. At this time the timber for them stood uncut in the forest; the iron for their plating was still in the mines, and no machine yet in existence of capacity to roll such enormous plates; and not a pound of iron or steel yet wrought or cast for the construction of the twenty-one steam engines and thirtyfive boilers required to propel the fleet. But within twenty-four hours from the signing of the contract at Washington, he had all the iron works, foundries and machine shops of St. Louis, started on the work ; and inside of two weeks he had more than 4,000 men working in alternate gangs by night and day, Sundays included, so that not an hour should be lost. The boats were built at St. Louis, but the states of Kentucky, Tennessee, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Minnesota and Missouri were all drawn upon for material, while large works in Cincinnati and Pittsburg were also whirling every wheel to hasten forward the great undertaking, all being under the direction and control by telegraph or in person of this one man; and he filled the contract. The world's history shows no parallel to the wonderful mastery of resources and the tremendous vigor of executive and supervisory talent which this achievement involved. He projected, planned and built the magnificent railroad bridge across the Mississippi river at St Louis, which ranks among the greatest works of its kind on this round globe. He projected and built the jetties at the mouth of the Mississippi, which enable the largest sea-going vessels to pass in and out freely, thus making possible the barge system of shipping grain and other products from St. Louis and Kansas City direct to foreign countries, and which has within two years revolutionized the entire international commerce of the Mississippi and Missouri valley states. He is now engaged in developing a ship railway across the Isthmus of Panama, which will take the heaviest loaded ships into a dry-dock on wheels and trundle them from ocean to ocean as easily and safely as they are now towed through the ship canal at Suez.

Carl Schurz. Born near Cologne, Prussia, March 2, 1829; educated at the University of Bonn ; took part in the revolutionary agitations of Europe in 1848 and following years, involving Germany, Austria, Italy, Hungary, etc.; and in which Kossuth in Hungary, and Garibaldi in Italy were prominent leaders, whose names are familiar to and honored by all Americans. Mr. Schurz came to the United States in 1852; settled as a lawyer at Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in 1859; in 1861 was appointed minister to Spain; resigned and came home, and in 1862-3-4, was a major-general of volunteers in the Union army. In 1S67 he settled at St. Louis as editor of the Westliche Post; was United States senator from Missouri from 1869 to 1875, and was secretary of the interior in President Hayes' cabinet. Mr. Schurz has thus won the highest positions ever held in the United States by any foreign-born citizen, and has reflected honor upon Missouri, his adopted state, by his masterful ability as a public speaker, and his strong, earnest, humanitarian efforts as an executive officer.

Prof. Charles V. Riley, was born in London, England, September 12, 1843; came to the United States in 1860. In 1868 established in St. Louis, in company with Benjamin D. Walsh, a scientific journal called the American Entomologist, and was the same year appointed state entomologist of Missouri ; this position he filled to the great benefit and honor of the state for eight years; then he was called to come up higher, and took position as entomologist of the national department of agriculture at Washington. Prof. Riley's valuable investigations and discoveries with regard to the Colorado beetle (potato bug), the Rocky Mountain locust

(grasshoppers), the cotton worm, and the phylloxera, or grape insect, hr.ve placed his name in the foremost ranks in the world of science, and among the greatest of benefactors to the agricultural and horticultural industries of the world. This he achieved while serving Missouri as state entomologist, and through the publication by the state of his annual reports. Hence, the name and good repute of our noble commonwealth is inseparably associated with his honor and fame, which has reached the farthest confines of every land where potatoes, cotton or grapes are cultivated.

Missouri In The Civil War

Missouri was powerfully agitated by the controversy on the slavery question in 1818-19-20, which resulted in the "Missouri Compromise." This was a compact, mainly carried through congress by the eloquence and influence of the great senator, Henry Clay, of Kentucky, by which it was agreed that Missouri should be admitted to the Union as a slaveholding state ; but that slavery should be forever excluded from any states which might thereafter be formed out of new territory west of the western boundary of Missouri, and north of the parallel of 3G degrees, 30 minutes of north latitude. This line practically corresponds with the southern boundary of Virginia, Kentucky, Missouri, Kansas, Colorado and Utah, as they now stand.

In May, 1854, congress passed a bill organizing the territories of Kansas and Nebraska, in which it was declared that the Missouri Compromise of 1820 did not apply to them. This was an indirect way of repealing or rendering nugatory the bargain made between the northern and the southern states in that compromise ; and the floodgates of angry debate, contention and strife were at once opened. This became the issue upon which all elections turned. Instead of slavery being prohibited, as the compromise of 1820 had declared it should be, it was thrown open for the territorial legislature to decide whether it should be free or slave territory. In view of this, there was a rush and race of settlers from the free states and the slave states into Kansas, to see which party should get control of the first territorial legislature; and in this movement Missouri, as a slave state, took a prominent part. It was a border country conflict, and there was illegality and violence on both sides, making a chapter in our state history the details of which might profitably be dropped out and forgotten. Suffice to say, the free state party carried the election; and this conflict was a precursor of the great civil war.

In 1860 C. F. Jackson was elected governor of Missouri. Abraham Lincoln had been elected President of the United States at the same time. Governor Jackson took his seat January 4, 1S61; the question of secession was then already in warm discussion in some of the southern states, and Governor Jackson in his inaugural address maintained that " Missouri must stand by the other slave-holding states, whatever course they may pursue." The general assembly ordered an election to be held February 18th, for members of a state convention; the proposed object of this convention was " to consider the then existing relations between the United States, the people and government of the different states, and the government and people of the state of Missouri; and to adopt such measures for vindicating the sovereignty of the state and the protection of its institutions as shall appear to them to be demanded." This convention met, first at Jefferson City, and afterward at St. Louis, and had a decided majority of Unionists - that is, of men opposed to secession; some because they believed in the doctrine of " Federal Nationality," as against the doctrine called "State Rights;" others because, like A. H. Stevens, of Georgia, they saw with a clear eye that secession must inevitably result in the overthrow of slavery. And thus the Union men themselves were strongly divided into northern and southern sympathizers. The convention sat at St. Louis, without any important results, from March 9th to 22d, when it adjourned, subject to the call of its committee on federal relations.

National events rushed on rapidly to a crisis which would admit of no temporizing. In April, Fort Sumter was fired upon; President Lincoln called for 75,000 troops; and men must now take sides for or against the national sovereignty of the lawfully constituted Federal authorities. Our legislature was in session; its measures and discussions were almost entirely of the "State Rights" type; and in a message to the legislature on May 3, 1861, Governor Jackson said the President's call for troops "is unconstitutional and illegal, tending toward a consolidated despotism. * * Our interest and sympathies are identical with those of the slave-holding states, and necessarily unite our destiny with theirs." While these influences were working in the central and western parts of the state, and organizations of "state guards" were being rapidly formed to resist the federal authority, Gen. Nathaniel Lyon and Col. F. P. Blair were actively enlisting men and organizing regiments in St. Louis and vicinity, to maintain the federal authority. The most intense alarm and consternation prevailed throughout the state. Several minor conflicts occurred between state militia or "guards" and Union troops, all hinging upon the question of which power had the right of paramount sovereignty. The state troops were mostly under command of General Sterling Price, subordinate only to the governor of the state; while the federal troops were under

Governor Jackson finally tried to make terms with Gen. Lyon, that no federal troops should be stationed in or allowed to pass through the state. This was refused; and the governor then immediately issued a formal call, June 12, for 50,000 state militia. About April 20th, nearly two months before this, the " state guards " had seized the United States arsenal at Liberty, in Clay county, and taken its stores and arms for their own use. This was several weeks before the celebrated "Camp Jackson" affair. The wager of battle was now fairly joined in Missouri between different parties of her own citizens, although volunteers from other states soon began to pour in. The following is a chronological list of the more important actions and events:

April 15. - President Lincoln's proclamation, calling for 75,000 volunteers to sustain the government, and calling a special session of congress.

April ip. - Gov. Jackson wrote to David Walker, President of the Arkansas Convention, thus: "I have been from the beginning in favor of decided and prompt action on the part of the southern states, but the majority of the people of Missouri, up to the present time, have differed with me. "

April 20. - The U. S. arsenal, at Liberty, in Clay county, was seized and garrisoned by about a hundred " state guards, " and the arms and cannon were distributed to their friends throughout the county, with the concurrence of the governor. :{;