Saline County, Missouri - The whole text, 1881 (part 5 of 28)

Prior to the year 1817, no permanent settlement was made on the Miami bottom by white men. John Ferrill, and his son Henry, had trapped beaver and otter along the river, and many a time had camped temporarily on the bottom, but no actual settlement was made until the year named, when John Cook and family settled about one and a half miles northeast of Miami, being section 33, township 52, range 22.

Soon after, or perhaps not until 1818, came Samuel Perry, Wm. Clemmons, Thomas Clemmons, Henry Ferrill, John McMahan, William McMahan, and Robert Patrick. The first settlers in the bottom were all Kentuckians, and as a consequence, were all hospitable, manly, generous and brave.

August 10, 1819, Wm. Miller, a Virginian, entered the southeast quarter of section 35, and July 6th, Wm. Renick entered the west half of the southeast quarter of section 33, township 52, range 22. May lith, of the same year. Miller entered the northwest quarter of section 10, township 51, range 22. June 10th, Louis Rees entered the southeast quarter of section 13, township 51, range 22. July 16th, Wm. Renick entered the east half of southeast quarter of section 8, and the northwest quarter of section 4, townhip 51, range 22. Miller was never an actual settler. He was a speculator. During the year 1819, in addition to the tracts of land already described, he entered considerable portions of sections 1, 2, 3, and 4, in township 51, range 22. January 15, 1819, A. L. Langham entered the east half of the northwest quarter of section 9, township 51, range 22.

Other entries and settlements were made from time to time, and upon the organization of the county this settlement contained a considerable population. Mr. Robert Patrick was the contractor for supplying the western parts with beef. He was faithful and honest to a phenomenal extent for a government contractor. He swam his cattle across all the streams from the Missouri river westward, frequently when it was dangerous to do so. He was the contractor from 1817 to 1826. He owned about 1,000 acres of land in the bottom, where he collected and herded his cattle until ready to deliver them. The other settlers were farmers and hunters mostly, at first.

About the 16th of December, 1837, a notable and tragic incident occurred, to which the settlers always reverted with sorrow, mingled with horror. On the evening named John McMahan and Perry Harris, who were running the ferry at De Witt, then as now, a small town on the north side of the river, started to cross over to their homes on the Saline county side. McMahan was running the ferry for Rev. Eli Guthrie, a Cumberland Presbyterian minister, who lived in De Witt. Harris was a young man, aged about nineteen, and boarded with McMahan. The river was running with ice, which was "gorging" at some point below. The boat in which the men were to cross was a fiat-boat, capable of carr3ang across a team, at any rate. It was propelled by oars and poles.

As the underta:king seemed to be an extra-hazardous one, Rev. Guthrie urged McMahan not to attempt to cross the river that night, for in addition to the difficulties mentioned, the weather was extremely cold and growing colder. But the two boatmen had had much experience with the old Missouri, and scouted the idea of danger. Rev. Guthrie was so impressed with the thought that there was danger, that he followed McMahan and Harris to the water, and entreated them to remain. They would not listen to him, and launched away. A few yards from the shore they became entangled or fastened in Jhe almost solid mass of moving cakes of ice, some of which were very thick. The boat became unmanageable and floated down the river at the mercy of the current. Seeing their predicament, Mr. Guthrie and some other parties followed along the bank down stream to see what the finale would be. It came all too soon. The boat drifted upon a huge " sawyer " and upset. McMahan and Harris climbed out upon the tree which had a large fork some feet above the water, forming a sort of platform. Upon this platform they climbed and shouted for assistance. Their perilous situation was soon discovered. In an hour or two dozens of people had congregated upon both shores of the river, all eager and anxious to do something for their unfortunate brethren, but seemingly powerless to do anything.

Rev. Guthrie started back for DeWitt as soon as he saw the men in their fearful position, and arriving at the town about dark, started in a skiff to try and effect their deliverance. Accompanying him were Wm. Smith and Lilburn Barns, two other Carroll county men. The attempt was a most disastrous, a most distressing failure. The boat reached the "sawyer," but McMahan, in his eagerness to save his life, caught the chain of Guthrie's skiff, and pulled the bow of the boat high upon the sawyer, causing the stern of the little craft to sink and the boat to capsize and throw its occupants into the icy current. Lilburn Barns, who was in the bow, sprang upon a cake of ice - from that to another - then to another - and so on until he actually reached within a few feet of the bank on the Carroll county side, seventy-five yards from the sawyer, when ha jumped into the water and waded out, falling exhausted when he reached the dry ground, to be taken up by kind and tender hands. Rev. Guthrie and Smith went down and never rose or were seen again.

The death of Mr. Guthrie and Mr. Smith added to the horror of the situation; for it was now almost certain that the rescue of the men on the " sawyer " was not to be effected by any poor human means. The news spread rapidly, and by ten o'clock there were nearly three hundred people gathered on the icy banks of the river, trying to devise some way to save their comrades, but trying in vain. It was bitter cold and large fires were built to keep from freezing, and in some degree, to cheer McMahan and his companion. Messages were shouted back and forth. From the shore exhortations not to lose all hope, for everything posssible would be done. From the " sawyer " entreaties for help, but at the same time assurances of trust in the friendship and love of humanity of those on the shore. And still the mighty Missouri rolled remorselessly on, the cruel, craunching ice pounding and grinding against . the perilous refuge, if refuge it could be called, of the distressed men, as if begrudging them even that frail and unsubstantial tenure of life, and anxious to send them to keep company with the brave, but unfortunate Guthrie and Smith. So the night passed away.

About day-light Harris shouted to the shore that Mc Mahan was dying and wanted his friends to know that he died resigned to the will of Him who doeth all things well. At seven o'clock Harris again called out that McMahan was dead. He laid the body on the fork of the tree, securing it as best he could. Relatives of the dead man told Harris to take the clothing from the body of McMahan and cover himself to avoid perishing, which he did. This was a dreadful thing to do, but the circumstances excused it.

It was Tuesday evening when the men were wrecked. Wednesday afternoon parties went to the Miami ferry, let the boat loose and three or four experienced river men started with it to rescue Perry Harris. They struck a sawyer before they reached their destination. Their boat came near being upset; it "shipped" a large quantity of ice and water, and the accident so frightened the crew that they made their way to shore as soon as possible. A lump of lead was tied to a string and repeated efforts were made to throw it to Harris and thus furnish,him with the means to draw a rope to him. Many a boat was launched, but it could get but a few feet from shore.

more than 84 hours - exposed to the icy blasts and freezing temperature, with the dead body of his comrade, McMahan, at his feet. Death encompassing him about every moment, and life, safety, home and friends only a few hundred feet away - so near and yet so far. The people on the shore, especially the relatives and friends of McMahan and Harris, were rendered almost frantic by the spectacle before them. Strong, fearless men were there, ready to do everything and anything to rescue the brave young Harris, who certainly showed heroism and fortitude if ever man. did. But the strong men had as well been prattling babes, for all that they could do. The mighty, and in this instance, the murderous, Missouri mocked them, and scorned* them as it held its heroic young prisoner in its horrible embrace, and, aided by the Ice King, began to kill him.

Poor Harris' feet and hands became frozen, and he could not assist himself. At last, in the morning of the fourth day, the ice began to gorge below the sawyer, and faint hopes were entertained that a bridge would be formed which would enable the prisoner to be extricated. But, alas ! The ice " chugged " up, as the settlers, in their rough, but descriptive phraseology, expressed it, and the benumbed and helpless young man was caught between the huge masses and crushed to death. McMahan's body was thrown into the water by the gorging of the frigid boulders, and, like the corpses of Guthrie and Smith, was never seen again. The next day the ice had formed a bridge across the river, and Harris' body was taken out and buried in the grave-yard, near Miami.

The memory of the noble, . humane and brave Rev. Guthrie, and his companion. Smith, should ever be preserved and revered. Not often are such instances of heroism to be recorded. Not often can such an instance of self-sacrifice be noted. Their bodies were never recovered, and never will be seen until that Great Day, when the deep shall yield up its dead. No marble pile was ever reared to commemorate their noble, heroic conduct, but their names ought to live long in the annals of Missouri history. " Greater love hath no man than this - that a man lay down his life for his friend."

[Note. - The publishers desire to return acknowledgments to Mr. Alfred Wheeler, of Miami, for the details of this incident. Mr. Wheeler was a relative of both McMahan and Harris, and an eye-witness of the sad occurrence here narrated. Other old settlers corroborate his statements.]

The Salt Pond Settlement

In the fall of 1817, Edward Reavis ascended the Lamine and the Blackwater in a flat-boat, and made the first settlement at the salt springs, two miles east of the present town site of Brownville. His party numbered about fourteen souls, one-half being his own family, and the other half his negro servants, or slaves. Reavis engaged in the manufacture of salt. His facilities were not the best, but he made a very fair article, and considerable quantities of it. He supplied the most of the salt used in the early days, and continued in the business of salt making for fifteen years.

It was something of a hazardous undertaking to make a settlement at that time where Reavis did. The country was infested with roving bands of Indians never to be confidently trusted, and to guard against possible danger from this source, Mr. Reavis constructed his house after the fashion of a block-house. "A man's house is his castle," Lord Coke, long ago said. Mr. Reavis' house was his fort. It had a heavy door, was pierced with port-holes, and was quite well calculated to protect its inmates from an attack by a body of savages not too numerous. Fortunately its defensive qualities were never tested, as it was never attacked.

Subsequently to Reavis' settlement, John and Matthew Mayes located at the springs now known as the McAllister Springs, and about the same time Isham Reavis came in.

Hunt'S Settlement On Bla.Ckwater

In the year 1818, Arthur Hunt, from North Carolina, settled the prairie farm near Napton's bridge, on the Blackwater. His nephew, Oliver Hunt, settled in the same vicinity at or about the same time. Afterward Arthur Hunt, with his son John, settled on the place now known as the Dr. Smith farm. Here, subsequently, Arthur Hunt died. A certain Mr. Tramwell was then making salt at the mouth of Finney's creek, on the Blackwater.

In the year 1819, Charles Lockhart commenced prospecting all over the Blackwater country in search of valuable minerals, and continued his labors at intervals for nearly two years. He was induced to make this search by seeing the traces of Renault's diggings, made one hundred years previously. Lockhart thought Renault's men had not made their investigations sufficiently thorough and complete, and he dug over many of the pits of the Frenchmen. Lockhart employed sometimes as many thirty laborers. He worked faithfully and zealously, but finally was induced to abandon his search by his repeated failures to attain anything like success.

Settlement In The Sappington Neighborhood

Cox and the young Coopers, however, he was run in " to the Howard county forts, where he remained until after the war. He did not return to his claim then, but joined the other settlers in the Big bottom, as it ^pears; for in 1816 he is named as one of the members of the party that went up in canoes to the " Little Rush Bottom," after honey, returning with fifty-eight gallons of the pure, limpid nectar, and considerately leaving seven bee-trees "for the use of the next comers." Soon after, he settled in the Miami bottom.

In 1810, Samuel McMahan and others had located six miles south of Arrow Rock, and built a strong block-house, or fort, called Fort Anderson. The fort took its name from three families: William, Ambrose, and George Anderson, who were Mr. McMahan's nearest neighbors. The other settlers were David Jones, Jos. Wolfskill, Stephen Turley and Wm. Reid. From this settlement Mr. McMahan came to his claim . During the war of 1812 the Indians drove the settlers, in and about Anderson's fort, across the river to Cooper's fort, and burned Fort Anderson. While Mr. Samuel McMahan was at Cooper's fort he was killed by the Indians. He had brought his family over to this side of the river, in 1811, and had accumulated some property in stock. The same week that Gregg was killed, up in Cox's bottom (Christmas week, 1814), Mr. McMahan recrossed the river to secure his cattle. He had gotten them together, and was driving them down to Booneville, in order to cross the river with them, and had nearly reached the place (then Cole's fort) when he was attacked by the Indians. The savages were in pursuit of another white man, named Mukebox, who had climbed a tree, and they had lost him. While they were stealthily looking for him McMahan came along. They fired upon him and killed his horse. He started to run, but hearing a voice which he supposed to be that of a chief whom he knew, and whom he supposed to be friendly, he stopped, turned and faced the savages, and was shot down. The savages scalped and mutilated the body, cutting it into three pieces. It was afterwards found, taken to Booneville and buried. Mr. McIV^^han's widow died in 1872. Their youngest child is Mr. Jesse McMahan, so frequently alluded to in these pages.

In 1819 there came to the locality where Mr. McMahan settled, or were there at the time, Alexander Gilbraith, Asa Finley, Sanders Townsend, Richard Marshall, Rev. Peyton Nowlin, and Dr. John Sappington. From the latter named gentleman the settlement took its name. He settled on sections 8 and 9, in township 49, range 19. The land is now owned and occupied by his descendants.

Among other settlers, in this neighborhood, were Andrew Brownlee, Joseph Robinson, John Bingham, Nathan Holloway, Bradford Lawless, Burton Lawless, Reese, Judge Beverly Tucker, and Gov. M. M.

Settlement On The Petite Osage Bottom

The town of Arrow Rock at that time was nothing more than a crossingplace on the Missouri river. There was a good ferry at the place, the first regular ferryman being Captain Becknell; afterward the captain of a company of Saline county men in the Black Hawk war. Becknell's predecessors were Jerry Lecky and Frederick Hartgrove, or Hartgrave, who had lived in a log cabin on the river bank, called the ferry house. SETTLEMENT ON THE PETITE OSAGE BOTTOM.

This bottom has a lateral extent of about eighteen miles. It was long ago named by the French, but whether it was called originally by them Petite Osage or Petite Saw, is a matter not definitely settled. It is probable, however, that the original name was Petite (or Little) Osage in contradistinction to the Osage plains proper. At this day the locality is invariably called "Tite Saw" (pronounced Teet Saw) plains.

The first settlers here were Elijah Arthur, an old soldier of the war of the revolution ; Robert and William White, and John Dustin. They came in the latter part of the year 1815 or early in 1816, according to the best information obtainable. Prior to this, one Rev. Gilham and his sons Hugh and Neely, from the Howard county settlements, had hunted and trapped throughout the bottom and taken back descriptions of, it to the settlements. In 1816 came George Davis and settled the farm long thereafter known by his name. In 1818 Anthony and Notley Thomas settled near to the Grand Pass church. The farm of Notley Thomas is said to have been immediately back of the one now occupied by his son, Baltimore Thomas.

Other settlers soon foUovyed, the most of them being from Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee. A few were from New York. The sickly season of 1820 drove the majority of the settlers away. Some of them emigrated to Clay county, then beginning to be settled, and so me to other portions of the county and the country. Among those left were the Thomases, McDowell, Berry Estes, and William White. The latter was from Tennessee, and during the revolutionary war was charged with horse stealing, and imprisoned by order of General Washington. At the close of the war he was released.

Other early settlers in this part of the county were John Lincoln, Elisha E'^ans, and Andrew Russell, who came from Kentucky in 1819. John Lincoln is alleged to have been a brother of President Abraham Lincoln. He is remembered as an industrious young bachelor blacksmith, who followed that avocation in this county till J 829, when he removed to Clay county. He was tall, angular, rather rough looking, and uneducated. After his removal to Clay county he married a Miss Duncan.

Sometime in the remote past, so long ago that no man's memory for centuries hath run back to the time, that mysterious race of beings, the Mound-builders, occupied Saline county. A long time after them, and immediately prior to the possession of the soil by the whites, were the Osages, who sang their songs, and danced and hunted over its surface with none to molest them or make them afraid. About 500 of the Miami tribe of Indians were encamped on the Missouri in the northern part of the county, near the present town site of Miami, by permission of the Osages, and the grace of the other Indian tribes, the French and the Americans. Very reputable Indians for Indians, these Miamis seem to have been, too, notwithstanding the early settlers had them driven from the county for keeping a " fence " for goods stolen by the Sacs and Foxes and other rascally savages.

In the year 1719 war broke out between France and Spain. Although the contest in America was chiefly confined to the posts on the Gulf of Mexico, the upper settlements felt the effect of the struggle. These two nations had always been competitors for the Indian trade, and as continual disputes arose concerning the rights of territory, they kept up a predatory warfare for several years. In 1720, the year when M. De Renault was engaged in the search for minerals down on Finney's creek in the southern part of this county, the Spaniards, in New Me:xico, formed . a design for destroying the nation of the Missouris, who occupied the territory on the north bank of the Missouri river, and of forming a settlement in their country, the object being to divert the current of Indian trade, and to confine the settlements and operations of the French to the borders of the Mississippi. The Spaniards believed that, in order to put their colony in safety, it was necessary that they should entirely destroy the Missouris, who were the warm and faithful friends of the French. But the Spaniards feared that they were not able to accomplish this by themselves, and so they resolved to enter into an alliance with the Osages, who occupied the south side of the Missouri river, including Saline county, and were the mortal enemies of the Missouris.

Stoddard's Annals of Louisiana, says that with these intentions the Spaniards organized an expeditiou at Santa Fe, consisting of men, women, and soldiers, having a priest for a chaplain and an engineer captain for their chief conductor, with the horses, cattle, etc., necessary for a permanent settlement. The expedition set out in 1720 ; but, being unacquainted with the country, and not having proper guides, they mistook their way.

They wandered. about for some time in the wilderness, and at length arrived at the Missouris, whom they supposed to be Osages. Under this impression, the leader of the expedition, with his interpreter, immediately held a council with the chiefs. He explained to them the object of his visit, telling them that he had come to form an alliance with their tribe in order to destroy their common enemies, the Missouris. The great chief of the Missouris, concealing his thoughts upon this proposition, evinced the greatest joy. He showed the Spaniards every possible attention, and promised to act in concert with them. For this purpose he invited them to rest a few days, after their tiresome journey, till he had assembled his warriors and held a council with the old men. The Spaniards acceded to this proposal ; a council of war was held, and the result was that they should entertain their guests and affect the sincerest friendship for them. They agreed to set out in three days. The Spanish commander immediately distributed several hundred muskets among them, with an equal number of pistols, sabres, and hatchets. But the very morning after this agreement, the Missouris came by break of day and killed every Spaniard, except the priest, whose singular dress convin'ced them that he was the " medicine man " of the expedition, at least not a warrior. They kept him for some time among them, but he finally made his escape to the white settlements.

It is quite probable that the massacre of the Spaniards, here detailed, occurred within the boundaries of Saline county. In the western part of the county, near "the Pinnacles," as narrated by some of the old setders, traces of some sort of battle in which bullets were used, were distinctly to be seen at the first settlement of the county. Many bullets were picked ' up, and a broken bayonet was found. Fragments of human bones were also found.

The boldness of the Spaniards in thus penetrating into a country of which they had no previous knowledge, made the French sensible of their danger, and warned them of the necessity of providing against further encroachments. Accordingly, the next year a considerable force was sent up from Mobile Bay, under M. de Bourgmont, who ascended the Missouri and took possession of an island in the Missouri, on which was built Fort Orleans. At that period the Indian tribes of the west were engaged in a bloody warfare, which diminished trade, and rendered intercourse with them extremely hazardous. In 1724, De Bourgmont made an extensive exploration from Fort Orleans to the northwest, accompanied by a few French soldiers and a large party of friendly Indians. His object was to secure a general peace among the surrounding tribes, and establish and foster trade among them, which he finally accomplished. Some of the Indian chiefs were taken to France on a visit and highly entertained, and their attachment to the French was fully confirmed.

A sergeant among the French soldiers, named Dubois, had become enamored of a women of the Missouri tribe of Indians, and married her. He accompanied the chiefs to Paris, and upon his return with them he was placed in command of Fort Orleans. In 1725 the fort was attacked, totally destroyed, and its inmates all massacred. Singularly enough, it has never been put upon record by whom this bloody work was done.

It is reasonably, if not absolutely, certain that Fort Orleans was situated in the river, opposite Saline county. Stoddard, in his "Annals of Louisiana," says it was located " some distance above the mouth of the Osage." Dr. Beck's Gazetteer, as quoted by Wetmore's Gazetteer, of 1837, incidentally alludes to its location as follows. Speaking of the streams of the state. Dr. Beck says:

Round Bend Creeks. Two small streams meandering through the southwestern part of Chariton county and emptying into the Missouri on the left side, near each other, about five miles below the mouth of Grand river. Between them is a prairie, on which once stood the ancient village of the Missouris. * * Opposite the plain there once was an island and a French fort, but there is now no appearance of either, the successive inundations having probably washed them away. Willow Island, which is in the situation described by Du Pratz, is small, and of recent formation.

"Five miles below the mouth of Grand river" is opposite Saline county. If on the prairie described there once stood the ancient village of the Missouris, and opposite to this village there was a French fort, it must have been Fort Orleans. For, (1), The Missouris were the allies of the French, and the latter would be likely to construct their fort in the neighborhood of their chief town, so as to have their assistance in case of attack. Dubois, too, doubtless preferred to be near his dusky kindred; (2), There is no other French fort mentioned in early history or tradition as being above the mouth of the Osage but Fort Orleans.

It is probable that Fort Orleans and its garrison were destroyed when the Sacs, Foxes and other Indian tribes from the north attacked the Missouris and killed two hundred of them at the village above described, some time in the first quarter of the last century.* The Missouris sought refuge from their fierce adversaries near the Little Osage, on the south side of the river, in the territory of their former enemies, the Osages, who gave them an asylum, and some time thereafter retired with them, being forced away by other incursions of the northern tribes.

Their present name seems to have originated among the French traders; for among themselves and their neighbors they are called " Wabashes." They number between 1,200 and 1,300 warriors, and consist of three tribes, the Great Osages, of about 500 warriors, living in a village on the south bank of the river; the Little Osages, of nearly half that number, residing six' miles from them; and the Arkansas band, a colony of Osages of 600 warriors, who left the main tribe some years ago under command of a chief called Big Foot, and settled on Vermilion river, a branch of the Arkansas. In person, the Osages are among the largest and best formed Indians, and are said to possess fine military capacities; but residing as they do in villages, and having made considerable advances in agriculture, they seem less addicted to war than their northern neighbors, to whom the use of rifles gives a great superiority.

Wetmore, in his Gazetteer of 1837, commenting on the foregoing says: " Since these remarks were written by Lewis and Clark, little or no improvement has been made by these Indians, notwithstanding the patronage of the government and the great exertions of the mission establishments in the country of the Osages." The Osages, once the denizens of Saline county, now occupy a part of the northern portion of the Indian territory, on the Arkansas river, and have made considerable advancement in civilization since Wetmore wrote of them.

There is related by the early settlers, an account, not very well authenticated, and largely traditionary or legendary, of a portion of a tribe of Indians, known as the Welsh Indians, whose origin is given as follows : " Before the English had penetrated into the western wilds, a colony of Welsh had advanced as far west as Saline county, and been captured by the Indians and adopted into the tribe. In the course of time, after a series of inter-marriages with the Indians, their children and children's children, became a distinct branch of a tribe known as the Welsh Indians. Many years later a Welsh minister was captured by this tribe and condemed to death. When about to be executed he exclaimed in Welsh language : "Oh, Lord! Have I passed through so many dangers to perish at last in this manner?" An old Indian, a descendent of the Welshmen, heard and understood the unfortunate minister, ran up to him, threw his arms around him, swore to protect him, and succeeded in not only saving his life, but actually had him adopted into the tribe. Honi soif qui mal y fense.

Besides the Osages, the other Indians who were at different times, and for different periods of different degrees of length in the county, there were the Sacs, Foxes, lowas, and Pottawattamies inhabiting the territory far to the north, who made frequent incursions into the county, invariably with evil intent; the Kaws, Kickapoos, and Shawnees, from Kansas; the Otoes, from Nebraska, not forgetting, of course, the Missouris, and the Miamis, whose camp is described, and whose history is given on other pages of this volume.

The northern Indians were the most troublesome and dangerous to the early settlers. It was they who waged warfare against the settlers of this part of Missouri during the war of 1832, and, indetd, for some time prior and subsequent to that struggle. Stimulated by the British emissaries from Detroit and Canada, sent out by Proctor and Tecumseh, they waged open warfare against the American settlers with what means and forces they could command. So repeated and formidable were the assaults of the Indians, and so few in numbers were the white settlers of the county,, that from 1812 to 1816 they nearly all abandoned their homes and sought safety and security in the Howard and Boone' county forts, erected by the settlers of those districts some time previously.

It was during this period that Mr. Gregg, one of the very first white settlers of the county, was killed by the Indians. About the year 1815,^ another white man, named Turney, was killed. He was crossing the Missouri in a canoe, paddling to the Saline county shore, when he was fired upon by Indians, and, falling into the water, and being unable to swim, he was soon dead. It is not certainly known where this happened.. Other prominent settlers killed by Indians, at different times and places, were Captain Sarshell Cooper, Braxton Cooper, Jr., Jonathan Todd,, Wm. Campbell, Thos. Smith, Sam'l McMahan, Wm. McLane, John Smith, James Busby, Joseph W. Still, and Joseph Brown, the latter a colored man.

Peck's "Annals of the West " says that none of these murders excited so deep a feeljng as the tragic end of Captain Sarshell Cooper, who wasassassinated at his own fireside, in Cooper's fort, in the bottom, near Boone's Lick salt works, nearly opposite the present town of Arrow Rock. It was in the evening of April 14, 1814, a dark and stormy night. Captain Cooper was sitting by the fire, holding his youngest child in his arms. His other children were playing about the floor, and his wife was engaged in domestic duties. A single warrior, as daring as he was cold-blooded, crept to the wall of Captain Cooper's cabin, which formed one side of the fort, and made an opening between the logs barely sufficient to admit the muzzle of his rifle, which be discharged at the brave pioneer with fatal effect. The child in Cooper's arms escaped unhurt.

Cooper's fort was a favorite resort of the settlers in time of trouble, as was Cole's fort, which was about two miles east of Booneville, and commanded by Capt. Stephen Cole. Cooper county was named in honor of Capt. Cooper, and Cole county in honor of Capt. Cole.

One incident of the Indian war, never before printed, may here be related. In pursuing a retreating party of lowas that had been repulsed in one of the many attacks made on Fort Cooper, the whites captured an Indian, said to be the fastest runner among all the Sacs, Foxes, and lowas. He gave up his gun when taken, but retained his hunting knife, which he. kept concealed under his blanket. One man rode on either side of the warrior, who was as crafty and treacherous as he was agile, and four men followed. Suddenly the Indian struck at John Peak, who was on his right. The Indian's blanket frightened Peak's horse and it jumped aside.. On the left of the savage rode Townsend Brown, and behind came Dan'l

Durbin, Hiram Fugitt, Mitchell Poag and Ewing McClain, all from Madison county, Kentucky. As soon as the Indian struck at Peak he ran. The four men in the rear dismounted and fired, and four bullets were put in between the warrior's shoulders in a space easily covered by a man's hand. The Indian was buried where he fell, and his faithful dog guarded Ms grave and refused to leave its master's resting place until it starved to death.

The Indians continued to remain in the county long after the whites came in. Straggling parties of them visited the county from other localities, and were seen at Arrow Rock, Jefferson, and other parts of the county as late as the year 1840. They were invariably lazy, worthless, and thievish, and to the settlers their room was preferable to their company.

Among the Kaws who visited Saline county in the years 1833-4 was the celebrated chief Henry Blue Jacket, who uniformly accompanied the hunting parties of his tribe. He had a good English education, and was most gentlemanly and agreeable in his deportment with every one. He was a man of magnificent proportions, and presented a fine appearance. His dress was a loose sack hunting-jacket of blue cloth, with fringed buckskin leggings and moccasins, and a fox-skin cap. Contrary to the usual custom among Indians, the Kaws generally wear caps on their heads made of fox, raccoon or wild-cat skin.

The Indian of nature and he of whom poets sing and novelists drivel, are quite different beings. The latter is kingly in mien, noble in sentiment, brave in spirit, grandiloquent in speech, disdainful of peril, ignorant of fear, and a model of true manhood in general. The former is -cruel, treacherous, thievish, brutish, lazy and nasty. The natural Indian is as unlike the Indian of Cooper's novels as it is possible to be. He is coarse, licentious and vile, and always will be. Instead of going about making the top-lofty speeches of Metamora and other characters, he is more likely to be found about frontier towns and settlements begging for stale food, or food of any kind, or proffering to barter away the virtue (?) of his squaw for fifty cents,

Yet, after all, there is something that calls for sympathy in the history of this unfortunate (for it is an unfortunate) race. The same lust of gold which impelled Pizarro to the conquest of the Incas of Peru, and Cortez to the destruction of the empire of the Montezumas, although in a newer and perhaps less revolting form, has driven the red man from his hunting grounds, from the homes of his ancestors for generations, and given him - what? The inheritance of extinction; the certainty of ultimate obliteration; an existence brief, cheerless and Ishmaelitish.

The Indians were rather than they are. The only hope of their perpetuity lies in their civilization, and civilization means the death of every- thing Indian-like. The former denizens of this county, the Osages, together with the Choctaws, Cherokees, Creeks, and Chickasaws of the Indian Terirtory, have attained some, if not a considerable, degree of civilization, and their future seems promising. The most of the other tribes, however, seem surely approaching extinction. Even the proud and once mighty Dakotas (or Siouxs) are melting away, and in a few decades this once powerful tribe will have dwindled to a mere handful of vagabonds, abiding in squalor and clothed with wretchedness.

Early Religious Organizations

Writing upon the subject of pioneer preaching and preachers, as well as of early religious organizations in this county, the Hon. Wm. H. Letcher says that the command, "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature," was pratically observed in the early settlement of Saline county. Nearly every pioneer preacher was as expert in the use of the rifle as any of the laity. Services were usually held in a neighbor's cabin. Notice of the "meeting" were promptly and generally circulated, and the people generally attended, uniformly bringing their rifles, to guard against possible surprises, or to procure game going and coming. The assertion of scripture that he who will not provide for his own, "and specially for those of his own household, is worse than an infidel," found credence with the pioneers. The practice of carrying fire-arms was not abandoned even on the Sabbath.

An old pioneer states that on one occasion religious services were held in this county when the preacher proclaimed the gospel of peace with his hands and his clothing covered with blood from a deer that he had killed, and butchered on his way to the meeting that morning! The circumstance did not tie his tongue nor cause his hearers to abate one jot or tittle of their attention. This man was perhaps not a graduate of any theological school, but he was devout, and the simplicity and power with which he expounded his text and proclaimed the truths of the gospel, had an effect upon his congregation which clearly showed that the spirit of his Master was with him.

The pioneer preachers worked without money and without price. They gained their subsistence as did their neighbors, by the rifle and by their daily toil in the clearings and corn-field. They did not make merchandise of what they conceived to be their mission. Freely had they received, and freely they gave.

The names of some of the pioneer preachers of Saline county are here given, together with the dates when they worked. - It is not certainly known who was the first minister. Several names have been presented for the distinction.

Probably Rev. Peyton Nowlin, and Rev. Thos. Kinney (or Keeney), both Baptist ministers, were the first preachers in the county. Mr. Kin- -ney, it is reasonably certain, was here as early as 1S16, and Rev. Nowlin soon followed him. They preached in Cox's and the Big bottom, on Edmondson's creek, and wherever "two or three were gathered together." "Upon the authority of Esq. Ish, who was here, and " speaketh that which he doth know," it may be stated that Rev. Nowlin (" Old Man Nowlin," as he was called), was a sedate, formal old gentleman, dry as to manners and sermons, but with a kind heart, and all good intent. His colleague, Kinney, however, was a jocular sort of gentleman, and very popular. He was without literary attainments, but invariably succeeded in preaching his congregation into laughter. Nowlin took him to task upon one occasion for his levity. Kinney answered: "Well, I'd rather preach to laughing devils, than to sleepy ones, as you do ! You make them sleep, and I make them laugh. My congregations will pass yours on the road to heaven - and I'll bet you a coon-skin they will!"

There is, however, a claim that Justinian Williams, a Methodist, preached the first sermon ever delivered in the county by an ordained preacher.

Jesse Green, a cabinet-maker during the week, and a Methodist minister on Sundays, was a pioneer preacher who lived near Arrow Rock. In his shop Geo. C. Bingham, Missouri's greatest artist and one of her best sons, first worked, and here sketched his first pictures with chalk, before he went to Booneville.

The first church organized was Zoar church, in Arrow Rock township, about the year 1827, or possibly two years earlier, with Rev. Peyton Nowlin as pastor. It was of the Baptist denomination, and contained originally nine members. Its full history will be found in the sketch of Arrow Rock township.

High Hill, Baptist; Good Hope, Baptist; Antioch, Baptist; Grand Pass, Methodist; Cambridge, Methodist; Smith's Chapel, Methodist; Mt. Carmel, Methodist; Rehoboth, Baptist; Bethel, Baptist; Rock Creek, Methodist; Fairview, Baptist; church on Black water, near Hunt's or Finley's, Cumberland Presbyterian ; church in Reis' neighborhood, Cumberland Presbyterian (built in 1825, of logs).

Camp-meetings were common after the county had become tolerably well settled. AU denominations participated, and interesting times were invariably had. The favorite places for holding these meetings were near Bethel, at Hawpe's, in the vicinity of Arrow Rock ; at Riser's ; in Tebo grove, and across Blackwater. Afterwards, grounds were established at Henry Weedin's, on Cow creek, and at Richard Durrett's, on Rock creek. At Tebo grove a camp meeting was held many years since, which is yet remembered by many old settlers with pleasure.

In 1835 the Methodist Episcopal conference for this district was held at Arrow Rock. Over one hundred preachers were in attendance. The boundaries of the conference extended on the south to the Arkansas line, . and there were ministers present from all parts of the district. During the session there was an average daily attendance of about 1,000 people, a large concourse of people for that day. The conference lasted ten days, and the interest manifested by the outside world was improved by the zealous ministers present, and many accessions were made to the church. The venerable Bishop Roberts presided, and the services were, for the most part, of an impressive character. Many of those in attendance had never before seen a real, live bishop, and long remembered the occasion. Among those in attendance were many Christianized Indians from the western part of the state, and from the farther west. They belonged to the Delawares, Wyandottes, Shawnees and Kickapoos. Clad in their Indian costume, but paying close attention to the services and deporting themselves in every particular as devout Christians, these " poor Indians,"

At one time, in an early day, a meeting was in progress in Grand Pass township. A lady in attendance was busily engaged in knitting, so busily , that when prayer was being offered she kept at her work - literally "stuck to her knitting." The preacher severely reprimanded her for what he , deemed her irreverent conduct; whereupon sundry male members of the congregation forced the minister to make ample apology under penalty of being taken out and given a sound " hiding." If the action of these gentlemen in the premises is deemed reprehensible, it may be said that the chivalrous devotion of the men of Saline for lovely woman is a quality that has always existed to an extent passing human understanding, and yet prevails of a character and an amount equaling the golden days of romance in the middle ages.

One of the first preachers in the neighborhood of where Brownville now stands, at least in Salt Pond township, was a negro man named Jacob Montgomery, a slave belonging to James Montgomery. In 1830-31, he was considered a very good preacher. He held his meetings for the most part at private houses, and whites and blacks, in about equal numbers came to hear him. It is said that on one occasion a party of young white people concluded to go and hear "Nigger Jake" preach and "have some fun." They went, but like many others who have gone to religious meetings " to scoff," as Goldsmith expresses it, " they remained to pray." One of the party, a young lady of a respectable family, afterward an honore'd wife and mother, who died not long since in this county, became very much and plainly visibly affected during "Nigger Jake's" discourse, and three out of the five members of the party shortly afterward made open profession of religion - converted no doubt by the poor, illiterate black man who could not even write his own name. One of the male members, declared there must be a God, and religion a reality, and that Jake was inspired thereby, or else he could never preach with the force and effect which he did.

At one of the early cam-pmeetings in the county, Col. Thos. H. Benton, then Missouri's famed senator, was present. Knowledge of the presence of such a grea tman as " Old Bullion" was held to be by Missourians, having come to the preachers, they were somewhat embarrassed. No one of them seemed to be willing to preach in the immediate presence of him who had won immortal renown as a speaker and a leader of men. At last a venerable, but yet zealous old minister, rose and said to his colleagues: "Brethren, we ought to be ashamed; Tom Benton is a greater man than any of us, but God Almighty is greater than Tom Benton. Let brother , whose turn it is to preach, get right up and preach, and the Lord will strengthen him. From what I learn, Tom Benton needs preaching to about as bad as anybody on this ground, and who knows but that the sermon of to-day may save his soul!"

The meeting proceeded. Colonel Benton was an attentive listener to the sermon and expressed his entire approval of its sentiments. He was then engaged in stumping the state against the "Jackson resolutions."

Early Schools

As early as 1817, John Hurd taught a school in John Kinnear's house, in the Big bottom. He was succeeded by Ebenezer Rogers and Wm. Hampton. About the same time Dan '1 Johnson, Laban Garrett and Wm. Rogers taught in the Edmonson creek settlement. Mr. Garrett claimed that he taught the first school, in the cabin that Edmondson built. A full account of this school is to be found in the history of the Edmondson creek settlement.

Subsequently, near "where Concord church now stands, Edward MulhoUand, a veritable Irish schoolmaster, taught, and some time thereafter David Howard at Mrs. Howard's, and John Robinson on Camp creek. In the Nowlin neighborhood Josiah Grigg, Jr., and young Peyton Nowlin were among the early teachers. In 1827, John Pulliam taught a school near Wm. Smith's, and John Scott one at Wyatt Bingham's, near the Blackwater.

As soon as settlements were made across Blackwater, schools were taught - first by David Wooden, and afterward by Thornton Rucker, Thos. Thorpe, and others. All of these were private subscription schools. The branches taught in these early schools were usually the Hoosier's three r's - " 'readin,' 'ritin,' and 'rithmetic." The school houses, the text books, and the methods of teaching were far different from those now in vogue. Usually a vacated log dwelling house wasaised as the school house. Thie books used were the Bible, the New Testament, and almost any kind of book for reading; Pike and DaboU were the authors of the arithmetics, with an occasional Western Calculator, while writing was taught with quill-pens and home-made ink - the latter usually a strong decoction of oak bark into which a piece of iron had been dropped - and the writing was done on what would now be considered a very poor article of paper. The school furniture was of the very simplest sort. Rude benches served for seats; a huge fire-place furnished warmth in cold weather; desks there were none, and black-boards, globes, etc., were not needed. The teachers, while they did a good work, and no doubt did it well, were, as a rule, not persons of profound scholastic attainments. Occasionally an excellent

The first boarding-school in the county was established by John Duggins and his wife, Mrs. Frances E. Duggins, on the farm latterly known as the " Mose White farm," three miles west of Marshall. They came to that place in 1834, and soon after established the school, which they maintained for ten years. Mr. Duggins first built a house, part log and part fi-ame. He hauled the lumber for the flooring of his house from Chambers' mill, over on the Big bottom. As the number of pupils increased, so did the size of the Duggins mansion. Among some of the pupils who attended this school were Paris, Pleasant, and Jane Walker; Royal and Dr. Addison Brown, Samuel and Mary Miller, John Wall, Thos. W. Gaines, Liberty Green, David, Rebecca, and Mary Vanmeter, Georgia Bruce, Mrs. Sanfley . (then Miss Brown), Elizabeth and Edwin Oliver, Mary and Wallace Finley, Samuel, Joseph and Ezekiel Scott, David and Marshall Durrett, Miss Susan Bates, of Virginia, and Miss Mary Howard, of Tennessee.

The Rev. Dr. Yantis's school, at Brownville, was .the next high school in the county after Mr. and Mrs. Duggins'. Mr. Yantis' school was begun in 1848, and was not only the first institution of the kind in the county, but one of the very first, if not the first in western Missouri.

Although the general government had made liberal provision for the support of a public school system, by setting apart for that purpose the sixteenth section of overy township of land, yet not much use was made of it until quite a late day, in the history of the county. The schools were usually private or "subscription" schools. Those who could afford it employed tutors or governesses for their children.

The early records of the common schools were lost during the civil war, and were very imperfectly kept for some years thereafter, and no authentic account' of the first establishment of the common schools can be given.

Early Marriages

Probably the very first marriages taking place in this county were never recorded ; or, if they were, are to be found in the records of Cooper county, of which this county was for some time a part. The first marriage that occurred in the county of which a return was made in proper form and recorded, was that of John Tarwater and Ruth Odle.* This event happened on the 13th day of September, 1820. The officiating magistrate's return is in these words:

The next marriage ceremony was also performed by Esq. Ish, who made return that "on the 27th day of November, 1820, 1 joined Anderson Warren and Sarah J. Wilkinson in matrimony as man and wife."

The same official also reported that on January 14,' 1821, he made happy John Job and Polly Clevenger; that January 26,1821, he performed a siniilar service for Thomson Wall and Polly Vann.

None of these returns specify the place where the marriage service was performed. The following is the first return particular enough to so state: State of Missouri, Saline County.

I do certify that I did on the 8th day of March, 1821, join together by marriage Joseph Wilson and Polly MiUsap, at the house of Mr. Kinney, in Arrow Rock^township, in said county. Certified under my hand, April 10, 1821. ' Peyton Knowlin, Gospel Minister.

Other early marriages were those of David Warren and Rachel Burleson, by Bartholomew Gwinn, justice of the peace. May 3, 1821 ; on the same date, by the same, Laban Garrett and Rachel Baxter.

January 6, 1822, Julius Emmons, of "Lillard (now Lafayette) county and Thirza Smith, of this county, by Peyton Nowlin, minister, of the gospel.

February 23, 1823, Thomas Mann and Mary Jeffries; March 16, Jesse McMahan and Polly McMahan; July 17, Hezekiah Copeland and Malinda Gwinn; all by Wm. M. Chick, justice of the peace of Jefferson township.

December 24, 1823, John Nave (Neff") and Elizabeth Kelly, by George Tennille, a justice of the county court. This marriage, according to the return, took place " at the dwelling house of Thornton Adams, in the Big bottom."

February 17, 1831, Claiborne F. Jackson, of Howard county, and Jane B. Sappington, of Saline, by Justin Williams, "ordained preacher of the Methodist Episcopal church." [This was Gov. Jackson's first marriage. He afterwards married Louisa Sappington, and after her death Eliza Sappington, all sisters, and daughters of Dr. John S. Sappington.]

January 4, 1826, Meredith M. Marmaduke, "late of Westmoreland county, Virginia," and Lavinia Sappington, daughter of Dr. John Sappington, by Rev. Peyton Nowlin. This marriage came off" at the residence of the bride's father, about six miles west of Arrow Rock. Some of the guests present were Col. McClure, of Old Franklin; Miss Collins, of Howard county, and members of the family of Mr. Nowlin, the officiating minister. The groom was afterward governor of the state, and one of its most honored and honorable citizens. He died at his home, in Saline county, in 1864. Mrs. Marmaduke had three sisters, each of whom became the wife of Gov. Claib. F. Jackson. She is still living in the county, residing with her children. Her mind is unimpaired, and she retains a vivid recollection of pioneer days in Missouri and Saline county. To this couple were born the distinguished soldier, Gen. John S. Marmaduke, one of the most gallant officers the civil war produced, now a resident of St. Louis, and one of the railroad commissioners of the state. Col. Vincent Marmaduke, and Meredith Marmaduke, Jr.

Rev. Peyton Nowlin, who figures so prominently as the officiating minister in the early marriages of Saline county, was a Baptist, and was one of the first ministers, and preached one of the first sermons in the county

It would be a pleasure to record, and interesting to read, the details of these pioneer marriages of the county, but, unfortunately, they are not obtainable. There were no newspapers here in those days to chronicle events of that character for the consideration of a piece of " soggy" cake, and sour wine, left over from the wedding feast ; an4 the few citizens of the county who were present are not accessible at present.

A pioneer wedding in Saline county, however, would not compare, in point of elegance and finish, to one in these days. For there were lacking the paraphernalia of display, and the "pomp and circumstance" attendant now-a-days upon affairs of that character. In those days few people wore " store goods." Their apparel was for the most part homespun. A " Sunday suit" resembled an " every-day suit," so far as general appearances went, - the former was clean, and looked brighter. The material of which the clothing was made was principally cotton and wool. The men wore buckskin, jeans, cotton and linsey ; the women wore linsey, cotton, jeans, and buckskin !

A bridal toilet, therefore, was not expensive; neither was it elaborate, fanciful, or very showy; neither was it extensive. But it was sensible, for it was sufficient, and it was appropriate to the times, the manners, and the circumstances. And if an old Saline county groom could reappear to-day in the costume he wore on that most eventful occasion sixty years ago, he would hardly be voted dressed properly to appear at court - or at a president's levee - with his 'coonskin cap, his buckskin or jeans coat, his linsey or home-made cotton shirt, his pantaloons of the same material as his coat, his feet encased in moccasins, or in shoes made of hometanned leather, and without a glove to his hand or to his name.

An incident is related concerning the marriage of a couple, and their speedy divorcement, by a justice of the -peace. This happened in the north part of the county, about forty years ago. The couple appeared at the residence of the magistrate* one evening, and desired to be married forthwith. His honor had never performed a job of the kind, and seemed at a loss how to proceed. However, his wife being a devout Methodist, he had a copy of the discipline of that church in the house, and, turning to the form of marriage service there set down, ordered the couple to stand up and join hands, and proceeded to perform the ceremon)' after the rites of the Methodist Episcopal church, and after the fashion of a Methodist Episcopal preacher.

Whether it was a judgment sent upon the couple for allowing themselves to be married by a justice of the peace out of a church discipline, is not certain ; but, at all events, the marriage " didn't stick." The next morning they presented themselves before the magistrate and requested him to " un-marry them ! " That worthy was equal to the occasion. Having usurped powers sarcerdotal the previous evening, he now assumed powers judicial. Commanding the pair to stand up with their backs together, he again took down the discipline and proceeded to read the marriage service backwards, from the ending to the beginning. When the reading was concluded, he said in an impressive manner: "Now, what I have tied asunder let no man put together again, and may the Lord have mercy on your souls ! "

It is said that this was the first "divorce" ever granted in the county. Whether it was or not, it is to be hoped that it was the only one of the kind.

Mrs. McCausland, one of the oldest residents of Lafayette county, remembers that on one occasion, when a wedding was in progress in early days, a young lady who desired to attend, came to Mr. McCausland and borrowed his shoes, so as to appear " dressed up."* Indeed, it was not every lady that had shoes of any sort; and quite often, those who had, wore them without stockings!

But for all of this, and for all of many other discomforts and disadvantages, the marriages were as fortunate and felicitous and the weddings themselves as joyous as any of those of modern times. It is not a matter of silk and satin, this affair of a happy marriage. The wedding was seldom or never a private one. The entire settlement was invited and uniformly accepted the invitation. To neglect to send an invitation was to give offense; to refuse was to give an insult. There were all sorts of merry-making and diversion during the day. A shooting match was quite common. There were foot races, wrestling matches, and other athletic sports - sometimes a pugilistic encounter. At night, a dance was had in which there was general participation. Many of the dancers were barefoot, it is true, and the ball room floor was composed of split puncheons, from which the splinters had not all been removed, but the soles of the feet were covered with a coating impenetrable almost as a coat of armor, and bade defiance to any fair-sized splinter. Indeed, one old pioneer says that a real merry dance always resulted in smoothing a puncheon floor, as if it had been gone over with four and twenty jack-planes!

The wedding feast was always worthy of the name. The cake was cornpone; the champagne and claret consisted of good old Kentucky and Missouri whisky, clear and pure as mountain dew, unadulterated by mercenary " rectifiers" and untouched and untaxed by gauger and government. The latter article was usually imported for the occasion, Sometimes from Boone's Lick, sometimes from old Franklin, sometimes from Booneville, sometimes from St. Louis, and sometimes from old Kentucky or Tennessee.

*Upon this occasion, which was about the year 1831, the bride was a Miss Collins and the groom a Mr. Warren. The wedding took place at the house of the groom's father, for whom the town of Warrensburg, Johnson county, was afterward named.

Then there were venison steaks and roasts, turkey (wild), grouse, etc., nectar-like maple syrup, and other edibles toothsome and elegant, the bare memory of which is sufficient to make an old pioneer's mouth water when he thinks of them "in these degenerate days."

In the first days of its settlement Saline county was the hunter's paradise. The woods and prairies abounded in game, and the lakes and streams in fine fish. Even the "little prairie pots," as certain small collections of water were called, contained fish fully large enough for the pan. The principal species belonged to the carp family; there were the croppy and bass; the blue, the yellow and the "channel" cat-fish; together with the perch, the buffalo and the drum - the last a fair fish only when seasonable; at other times worthless. AH of the others were good, but some kinds were superior to others. The fish here - that is those taken in the streams and lakes of the county - seemed to be of better quality that the same kind of fish found elsewhere - ascribed to the saline character of the water. But, much to the regret of the Izak Waltons of this day and generation, the fish have of late, and now, are fast disappearing.

Quite large specimens have been taken out of the Missouri, on this side of the Big Muddy, but not larger than have been caught in other counties, no doubt. One taken near Miami, many years ago, weighed 110 pounds. It was a catfish. Its mouth was exactly the width of the length of a No. 10 boot. Another, caught near Arrow Rock, some time in the forties, was much larger. But "fish stories" are hardly admissible into the pages of a veracious history.

At present the edible game of the county consists of rabbits, squirrels with an occasional deer, partridges or California quail, prairie chickens, a few turkeys, with flocks of the migratory ducks and geese in the fall and spring, and a stray pheasant or so. In the timber a few, and but a few, opossums and raccoons remain.

In the winter of 1848-9, a thick sleet covered the grcfund for several weeks, driving the squirrels from their snug quarters in the hollow trees to the fields and corn-cribs by thousands. Every bush had its squirrel and as many as two hundred were seen to scamper from a single crib at one time. Since then, these animals, with a few exceptional cases, have been scarce and shy, and in localities where they once were plenty it is seldom that now one can hear so much as a saucy bark. The gray and the red or " fox " squirrel are the varieties making this county their habitat. In early days, when larger game was so abundant, the hunters did not consider squirrels worth wasting powder and lead upon. Occa- sionally one was killed to furnish food for an invalid, and in such cases it was seldom pierced by a ball. The hunter would contrive to shoot at the animal while it was on the limb of a tree, and send the bullet just under the squirrel's head, and grazing the bark of the limb. The concussion of the ball was sufficient to bring the little animal to the ground. This was called barking a squirrel"."

In the winter of 1837, Maj. Harvey's corn-pens were assaulted very vig- OKOusly by squirrels in such numbers that he called in his neighbors to help him drive away the "pests," for such they had become. Large numbers were slaughtered ; Mr. Phillip Irvine alone killed eighty in about half a day.

It does not seem that when the county was first settled there were any partridges or pheasants. These birds seem to have followed the setders. The wild turkeys, formerly very abundant, always attained a formidable size. Hon. Wm. H. Letcher has seen them weigh twenty-two pounds dressed, and he is assured, that upon one occasion, a Mr. Herndon killed one, which, when ready for the Christmas spit, weighed twenty-six pounds. Old settlers say that in early times flocks of these fowls have been seen comprising many hundreds in a single flock.

No elk have been seen in the county since 1836. Prior to that period they were reasonably plenty; they were attracted to this county from other localities, doubtless, by the prevalence of the salt "licks." Old Uncle Natty, as Mr. Nathaniel Walker was familiarly called, a famous hunter and an old pioneer, was wont to relate, that at one time he counted a drove of fifty elk feeding on the knoll where the present court house of Saline county now stands.

The bear disappeared from the county about the year 1840. An oldtime democrat said that the whigs scared the bear, deer, elk, and almost every other sort of game out of the county in that year by their infernal yelling and hallooing, firing anvils, torchlight parades, etc., in honor of Gen. Harrison, their successfiil presidential candidate! There were plenty enough bear in early days, however, to cause the settlers considerable trouble. Bruin evinced a decided fondness for pork and veal, and was a frequent but unwelcomed visitor at many a pig-pen and calf-lot. Bear-hunts were frequently organized, and quite a number of the animals were killed in the county from first to last. The timbered regions of Blackwater and Salt Pond were their favorite haunts, although they were seen in every part of the county. -

The last bear that was killed in the county was taken in the following very singular manner in the year 1840 Tobias Cooper, a descendant of Col. Benjamin Cooper, of Cooper's fort notoriety, with some companions, was out hunting cattle on the prairies in the western part of the county. Suddenly they came upon a full grown black bear on the plains near the present town site of Malta Bend. They were unarmed and had nothing to fight the bear with but their cattle whips; but with these they undertook to drive him to a house, and actually did do so, by fiercely crackings their whips and yelling at the animal and keeping him on the go. Upon arriving at the house a gun was procured and the animal soon despatched. This incident is well known as "Cooper's bear drive." In 1840, a party of hunters started a bear in the brush southeast of the house of Mr. C. L. Franci sco, in Elmwood township, and ran it through the South Grove. The animal escaped.

That famous old Nimrod, old Natty Walker, killed a black bear in 1838 near Mr. Francisco's, on the Elmwood and Marshall road, near a bridge.

The fierce panther also made his home in this county, and indeed was here as late as 1838. Many a Saline county pioneer, as he sat by his fireside in early days felt his blood chill and his heart stand still as the piercing scream of the panther was borne through the forest to his lonely cabin on the wings of the night wind. The cry of a panther is something like that of a woman in distress, but is much more penetrating. It can be distinctly heard a mile or rriore. " Nothing," said an old settler, " ever pestered me like the scream of a ' painter.' It always made the cold streaks shoot over me. I never could get used to it, much as I heard it, and it always made me think of Ingins." These animals, however, would seldom if ever attack a human being, unless first wounded or suffering from hunger. Usually the panther made his rounds in quest of food at night, when he quite frequently visited the settlements and contrived to carry off a calf or a hog. A full grown panther was seen by one of the early settlers down on the Blackwater, trotting along with a one hundred and fifty pound hog thrown across his shoulder as nimbly as a cat would run away with a rat.

In the neighborhood of the Edmondson's creek settlement at an early day, as related by Messrs. Wolfskill, Wilhite and others to Mr. Jerrold Letcher, a panther was once discovered which had killed and carried away nine large hogs and concealed them in a cavity in the earth made by the uprooting of a tree by a wind storm. The animal had dispatched its victims all within so short a time that every hog was yet warm when found. It had attempted to conceal them by covering them well up with leaves. The settlers organized and made pursuit of the savage beast, but it escaped, from them, crossed the river and passed into Chariton county.

On one occasion, in the early settlement of Blackwater, a Mrs. Miller started her two little daughters, aged eight and seven, to school a mile away. They had gone about one-half the distance, when they saw a

"O! There's the bad old wolf that kills our pigs and lambs. You stay here and watch it, and I'll go back and tell daddy, and he will come with his gun and shoot it."

The other little innocent unhesitatingly agreed to the proposition because her sister could run faster than she, and confidently sat down at the foot of another tree to " watch the bad old wolf." Gathering some acorn cups, she sat about constructing "a play-house," for there was a hollow in the tree, and there was soft, velvety moss in abundance. She afterwards related that the animal frequently looked at her, and that it walked back and forth, back and forth, on the trunk of the tree, and then lay down, stretching itself out at full length, and gaping "as if it was awful sleepy!" O, the deadly peril of that child! and yet He who stopped the mouths of the lions guarded her, (who else?) and she was safe.

Meantime the elder child flew along the pathway to her home, where she soon arrived, and informed her mother regarding the " bad old wolf." Mrs. Miller, almost paralyzed with fright, with difficulty contrived to call her husband, and then clasping her little daughter that was safe, sank down to pray for the one that was in the wilderness in the power of the teeth and claws of the cruel panther. Miller and a young man named Plunkett, each armed with a rifle, sped along the little path, hardly hoping to arrive at the scene in time to rescue the child - but they did. Coming cautiously up. they discovered the panther stretched out upon the tree, apparently asleep. Seated on the ground, but a few feet away, was the faithful but innocent and unsuspicious little sentinel, amusing herself with childish pastime, but still watching the "bad old wolf."

At the word from Miller, both men fired, and the panther fell to the ground with two bullets in its brain. Plunkett ran to deal it the finishing stroke with his hunting-knife, and Miller clasped his child to his breast, from which he transferred her in a few minutes to her mother's. O, the unspeakable joy and thankfulness that abounded in that household that day and night! It is perhaps needless to say that the children did not attend school any more at the Blackwater school house.

The panther measured about seven feet. Miller skinned it, and, it is said, had the skin tanned and made into two capes, one for each of his daughters. He shortly afterward removed to Illinois, but returned to Saline county about the year 1850, remaining only a short time.

About the year 1825, two men fought and killed a panther in the Davis bottom, north of where the town of Malta Bend now stands. Mr. Geo. Davis, his son a German in Mr. D.'s employ, and a negro man belonging to James McReynolds, were one day eating their dinners on a log in a clearing in the bottom. For some days previously a large panther had been in the habit of approaching the men, uttering its peculiar cry, and returning to its lair at last. The men had resolved to receive their visitor with hostile hands the next time he came, and armed themselves, strange to say, with no more formidable or destructive weapons than stout hickory clubs. The German had a stout clasp knife. They had also procured five or six indifferent dogs. Upon this occasion the panther came out and sat upon one end of the very log on which the men were eating their dinners, and uttered its peculiar screams, as if importuning them for a share of their repast. They seized their clubs, and calling the dogs,, assaulted the animal. The .panther sprang from the log, which was elevated somewhat above the earth, and attacking the dogs soon killed all of them, except one little fiste, which was an adroit fighter. It would snap at the panther's hind legs, and dart away when that animal would turn round, and in other ways annoy him, keeping up a furious barking all the while.

Davis and his men struck the animal with all their might with their clubs, but only bruised and exasperated him. The panther continued to show fight, until. at last the German struck it in the heart with his claspknife when it fell over dead. None of the men were hurt. The panther measured nine feet from the tip of its nose to the end of its tail.

There seem to have been three varieties of wolves in the_ county ; the black, the gray, and the coyote, or prairie wolf. The first two varieties, named were entirely too numerous at one time, and were of all sizes and of every degree of ferocity. Notwithstanding the relentless warfare constantly waged against them by the citizens, wolves infested the county until 1860 - and, indeed, there are said to be a few in existence at this late day. As late as 1851 a large black she wolf, accompanied by two cubs, was seen running over the hills of Salt Fork, near Mr. Wiley's.

As breeders, wolves are very prolific. One litter was found in this county containing twelve whelps. Speaking of some of the habits of these animals, Mr. Wolfskill, an old pioneer, says: "The old she-wolf howls loud and long, just at daybreak, and again at dusk, between sunset and dark."

Hunting wolves was something of a duty to be performed, as well as a pastime in early days, for they made many a destructive inroad upon the settlers' flocks and herds. About the year 1837, a large black vyolf became quite famous in Saline county, and in many of the counties of central Missouri, by reason of the number and character of its exploits. This animal had left the last part of its tail in a trap, and from this circum.- stance was known, far and wide, as the " bob-tailed wolf." Its favorite haunts were on the Blackwater, although it roamed where it listed. Its boldness and daring were remarkable. Tales have been related of its maraudings that seem almost incredible. It frequently visited farmyards.

in daylight, selected a nice fat mutton or pig, and made off with it sometimes in plain view of the farmer. It could whip as many dogs as could be induced to attack it.

At last the citizens decided to make a united effort to rid the country of this lupine marauder, already as much dreaded as the famed weir-wolf of -German legend. The packs of hunting dogs of Asa Finley, "Uncle Dick" Marshall, and Brutus Finley, were secured, and the timber along Blackwater "beat up" until old "Bob-tail" was started, near Isaac's ford. The trail once struck, the chase was kept up for two days and a night, many of the pursuers in the meantime being " thrown out " and abandoning the hunt, until the Missouri was reached, near Booneville. Here " Bob-tail " bravely plunged into the current, and succeeded in reaching the Howard county shore in safety. The Saline county hunters here gave up the chase, and returned. home.

The wolf soon after took up his abode and plied his vocation on the Grand prairie, in Boone county. Here he stayed for about two years, preying on the farmers' flocks, and defying all attempts at capture. A reward, aggregating nearly $100, was raised and offeredn for the capture of "Bob-tail."

A noted hunter, named Hendershott, pursued the animal all one day his pack of trained dogs. At night Hendershott went home, leaving his dogs to care for the wolf as best they might, not doubting, however, but that he would find them all safe and sound in the morning, except the wolf, of course. The next morning, alas! on going out to search for his -dogs, Hendershott found one of them, maimed and bleeding, dragging itself homeward, and a little further on, the rest. of them, all stretched dead, near a large gopher-hill, on which, apparently, the wolf had .stood and dealt out death to its assailaints as they approached him.

" Bob-tail " then made his way over into Audrain county, where he was at last poisoned by one Walker, who took the skin, scalp, stump-tail, and all, into Boone county, in order to make certain of receiving the promised reward.

A favorite method of capturing wolves was to organize a general hunt or chase. A day would be appointed, and the male population for miles around would assemble, all mounted and armed, and accompanied by packs of dogs. A large circle would be formed, two or three miles in -diameter sometimes, and the hunters with their dogs would gradually close in upon the center. The wolves would be started and chased from one part of the circle to the other, and few of them would escape. Various other kinds of game were frequently taken in these " circle hunts " as they were termed.

During the civil war wolves became rather plentiful, and many of them -were killed; but, as previously stated, save now and then a straggling

Wild cats, catamounts, and an occasional lynx were often seen, but were neither very ^destructive or very troublesome. They restricted their raids upon the setders to sundry visits to the chicken-coop or to the goose-pond.

Mr. Daniel Snaddy and others caught a large black wolf out in the Petite Osage country that was over three feet in height. The animal was caught in a large steel trap. He had killed a good sized, two-yearold heifer. The men cut his hamstring, and he whipped six large dogs and one fiste very easily while in this crippled condition. The hunters were forced to shoot him.

Deer formerly abounded in the county in great numbers. The fine feeding grounds and the numerous salt licks attracted them here from other localities, and it was a long time indeed, in the history of the county, before they became at all scarce. As late as the year 1850, three citizens of this county, neighbors, Messrs. Gaines, "White and Herndon, killed, in the aggregate, 246 deer. Mr. Gaines killed 97; Mr. White, 47 and Mr. Herndon, 102 - all in one season. At that day and for some years thereafter, it was not an uncommon sight to see deer in herds of twelve or fifteen, taking their evening " browse," or bounding through the timber or over the prairies.

Of course where there were so many of these animals there were some exceptionally large ones, and many a story is told of mammoth bucks slain by the early hunters. The number, variety, character, and lack of evidence of their verity precludes the publication of all these stories' in these pages. Says Wetmore's Gazetteer on this point, as long since as 1837: " One of the hunters of Saline was in at the death of a buck which he killed on Blackwater, that weighed 302 pounds, the largest, it is claimed, whose obituary ever found a place in the annals of field sports. Several have been killed in Saline weighing as much as 240 pounds, vvhich were considered enormously large."

In the early settlement of Saline, before bacon and beef were numbered among the productions of the county, the settlers used venison almost universally for their meat. The skins of the deer, when properly prepared, furnished material for their hunting shirts and trowsers, and hence deer hunting was a business as well as a sport. The bucks, when wounded, would frequently turn upon the hunters and prove quite ugly customers. Encounters of this kind were not at all rare, and many of them were exciting if not thrilling. Space forbids full descriptions of affairs of this kind - cf the fight Mr. Sam Martin had with a huge buck in olden time ; of how Mr. Mooney caught a deer in a shock of corn and held it until a boy ran a quarter of a mile and brought a knife, with which he cut the ani- mal's throat; of how Capt. L. dispatched one with an axe, and afterward dived into ten feet of cold water to recover his weapon ; etc., etc.

A famous old buck, called " Old Crump," from the circumstance of his having a crumpled horn, a large specimen of his species, was well known among early hunters. He had been §hot at and chased repeatedly by them. His range was in the neighborhood of Mr. Philin Irvine's. At last " Old Crump " was killed by J. A. Saufley, in Irvine's grove.

One morning in winter, over forty years ago, Mr. Philip Ir\4ne started up three deer near a small ravine. Two of them ran away. The other jumped behind a bush and turned with its face toward Irvine, who fired at random. At the crack of the rifle the deer, a large buck, fell. Irvine ran up to it to cut its throat, but just as he reached the animal it started up and attacked him. " I caught him by the horns," said Mr. Irvine, relating the incident a long time thereafter, " arid endeavored to hold him down. The ground was covered with sleet, and we were on the edge of the ravine. Down the bank we went into the ditch and breaking the ice, which covered a pool of water at the bottom. Our fight was a hot one. First the deer would have the advantage, then I - owing to which one of -us was near enough to the bank to brace his feet against it. Just as I was about exhausted, my. dog came up, and I fell back, leaving the fight to him. I was completely worn out. I do not know how the fight between the dog and the deer would have terminated, but fortunately my brother came up and despatched the deer. On skinning the animal I found that my ball had struck it on the head and had merely stunned it. I was in a sad plight, for I was wounded, bruised and exhausted, and worse of all my bran new jeans pants were torn to shreds!"

Beaver and otter were so plentiful at one time as to attract many trappers to the county, but that day has long since past. A famous trapper was one McReynolds. It is said that the beaver, otter, and muskrats would come up to him, lie down on their backs, and resignedly await the manipulations of his skinning knife!

Prior to 1820 this county, and indeed a very large expanse of country and territory adjoining, belonged to Cooper county. The land now comprising Saline was then divided into three townships, Arrow Rock, Miami - and Jefferson. These townships retained their names and their boundaries upon the organization of the new county. Mr. McMahan was a justice of the peace for Miami; Jacob Ish for Jefferson. Missouri was then but a territory of the United States.

Withal the inconvenience of belonging to a county whose county seat was a long day's ride away, made it certain that Saline county must be formed. With regard to the origin of the division of states into county and township organizations, which in an important measure, and to a great extent should have the power and opportunity ot transacting their own business and governing themselves, s,ubject to the approval, of course, of the state and general government, of which they each formed a part, it may be asserted that it had its origin in the natural desire for and belief in the principles of self-government. There seems to be in every man an inherent inclination to do "that which is right in his own eyes," without commandment or prohibition from any outside authority.

The principles of " home rule " are eternal, for they are natural. They follow a man's love of home and country. And man loves them and is devoted to them in this order:

First, his house-home, which, however humble, is his castle, his dominion, his empire. And here he reigns as emperor, with his wife for empress, his children for princes and subjects. No spot so dear as this. Then his neighborhood, with his neighbors and friends; and there are laws here, unwritten though they may be, which he reverences and regards. Then his township; then his county; then his state; then his general government; then all mankind.

It may be regarded as a rule that man will pay allegiance in the order named. And this, although but two of the governments possess the elements of sovereignty. A distinguished American, Senator Conkling, of New York, returning from an extended trip to Europe and other foreign lands, some years since, was given a reception by his fellow-citizens. In response to an address of welcome, he said, among other things: "I have seen the best, the grandest, the most beautiful parts of the world. I have traveled in many lands where there is muchtodeUght,to charm the natural senses of man. And I have been in nearly every state in this union, and in very many of the counties and cities in this state. But no land have I seen so great, so grand as the United States; no state so great, so grand, so dear as New York; no county so good as Oneida; no city so beautiful, so attractive, so rich in all that is dear to me, as Utica.

"The world is governed too much." There should be fewer laws, and they should be more exactly and more rigidly enforced. Men should be governed more by laws of their own making. There should be more of local self-government, especially in this country of ours, where every man, in theory at least, is a sovereign freeman. The laws of the general government should be few and only those made strictly in conformity with the constitution and necessary to " provide for the common defense, establish justice, and promote the general welfare." These should be universally obeyed and enforced, and legislation on every subject possible left

A western author * says that the county system originated with Virginia, whose early settlers soon became large landed proprietors, aristocratic in feeling, living apart in almost baronial magnificence on their own estates, and owning the laboring part of the population. Thus the materials for a town were not at hand, the voters being thinly distributed over a great area.

"The county organization" says Judge Haines, "where a few influential men managed the whole business of the community, retaining their places almost at their pleasure, scarcely responsible at all, except in -name, and permitted to conduct the county concerns as their ideas or wishes might direct, was moreover consonant with their recollections or traditions of the judicial and social dignities of the landed aristocracy of England, in descent from whom the Virginia gentlemen felt so much pride."

In 1734 eight counties were organized in Virginia, and the system, extending throughout the state, spread ^ into all the southern states, and some of the northern states, except the nearly similar division into " districts" in South Carolina, and into "parishes" in Louisiana, from the French laws. Illinois, which, with its vast additional territory, became a county of Virginia on its conquest by Gen. Clark, retained the county organization, which was formally extended over the state by its first constitution, adopted in 1818, and continued in exclusive use until the constitution of 1848. Under this system, as in other states, most local business was transacted by the commissioners in each county constituting the county court.

The " township system," according to Mr. Haines, had its origin in Massachusetts, and dates back to 1635. It grew out of a state of affairs, thus described by the law providing for the system : " W/iereas, particular towns have many things which concern only themselves, and the ordering of their own affairs, and disposing of business in their own towns," etc., etc.; therefore, " the freemen of every town, or the majority part of them, shall only have power to dispose of their own lands and woods, with all the appurtenances of said town, to grant lots, and to make such orders as may concern the well-ordering of their own towns, not repugnant to the orders of the general court." The township system has been adopted in Illinois, Iowa, and perhaps other states. It is maintained by the people of those states that the heavily populated districts always control the election of county commissioners, to the disadvantage of more thinly populated se ctions. In short, that under the exclusive county system, " equal and exact justice to all men " cannot be secured.

At the first session of the Missouri state legislature, begun in St. Louis, September 19, 1820, an act was passed, organizing, among others,

The bill, it is believed, was introduced by Hon. Wm. Lillard, then a member of .the legislature, from Cooper county, and previously a colonel in the war of 1812, from Tennessee. It passed without opposition, and was approved by the governor, Alexander McNair, the first elected governor of the state, November 25, 1820. At the same time the county of Lafayette (previously called Lillard, in honor of the gentleman before named), was organized, as also were the counties of Boone, Callaway, Chariton, Cole, Gasconade, Perry, Ralls, and Ray.

The county was named from the character of the water of many of its springs. There were salt works, so-called, at one or two places in the county, where, although the machinery and the methods employed in the manufacture were of the rudest and simplest form and character, a very fair article, in very respectable quantities, of salt was produced. It was thought then that in time salt manufacture would be the leading industry of the county, and its most valuable feature.

By the terms of the act of organization " the town of Jefferson, in said county," was made the county seat. Bartholomew Gwinn and George Tennille were appointed judges of the county court. An act of the legislature was also passed at the same session, " prescribing the times and places for holding courts," and agreeable to the provisions of the act, the first term of the county court, of this county, was ordered to be held on "the third Monday (the 16th) of April, A. D. 1821."

The county judges were appointed for four years. Bartholomew Gwinn was a native of Virginia, and had been a resident of the county about a year prior to his appointment. George Tennille was a descendant of one of the early French families of the state, and if not a native of

*" Sec. 23. Be it further enacted, That all that portion of territory included within the following boundaries, to-wlt: Beginning at a point where an extension of the range line between ranges 18 and 19, west of the 5th principal meridian, due north, will intersect the middle of the main channel of the Missouri river; thence running due south to the bank of the said river, where the said range line terminates; thence with the western boundary line of Cooper county to the middle of the main channel of the Osage river ; thence up said river, in the middle of the main channel thei-eof, to a point at which an extension of the range line between ranges 33 and 34 will intersect the same ; thence due north to the middle of the main channel of the river Missouri ; thence down said river, in the middle of the main channel thereof, to the beginning; - shall compose the county of Saline." - Lams of Mo., I General Assembly, Ohwp. 1. Of Counties. The boundaries were not long afterward changed to conform to those circumscribing the county at present, as follows: " Beginning in the center of the main channel of the Missouri where the range line dividing ranges 33 and 24 crosses said river at the northeast corner of Lafayette ~ county ; thence due south with said range line to the northwest corner of section 19, township 48; thence due east with said section line to the county line dividing Cooper and Saline counties; thence north with said county line to the middle of the main channel of the Missouri river; thence up said river, in the middle of the main channel thereof, to the hegiiming." The county was surveyed by Gen. Duff Q-reen, and Benj. Chambers.

The court, upon assembling, appointed Benjamin Chambers, clerk. He held the same office for sixteen years. Mr. Chambers was a Pennsylvanian, and a member of the Chambers family, of Chambersburg. No more efficient officer ever held a place in the county. The early records, many of which are still in existence, show him to have been an accu-. rate composer, a skillful penman, and an officer who comprehended that the work he was doing was not only for the benefit of the people of the county then, but for their posterity, and for generation after generation to come ; for his records are all intelligibly and intelligently written, and with care and precision. It is to be regretted that a complete biographical sketch of this gentleman cannot here be giveti.

After the appointment of the clerk, the next act of the county court was to appoint commissioners to take charge and care of the school lands within the county. Messrs. Jacob Ish, Peyton Nowlin, Peter HufF, Wm. McMahan and Charles English were appointed the commissioners, and " were sworn in open court."

At this session Wm. S. Edwards was appointed constable of Arrow Rock township; Daniel McDowell, of Miami; and Alexander Goodin, of Jefferson. There were but three townships - those named - then in the county. Wm. McMahan was justice of the peace for Miami township; Jacob Ish, for Jefferson.