Saline County, Missouri - Chapter 2: Missouri Territory, 1910

Chapter 2: Missouri Territory

By act of Congress, June, 1812, the territory of Louisiana was changed to Missouri Territory, providing also a territorial government on a different plan, providing- for self-government by the people of the territory, at least to a limited degree.

Gen. Benjamin Howard, of Lexington, Kentucky, was the first governor of Missouri Territory, holding the office until he resigned to enter the army in the war of 1812. Afterwards Capt. William Clark, of Lewis and Clark's exploring expedition, then Indian agent at St. Louis, was appointed governor in 1813, holding the office continuously thereafter until the creation of the state government in 1820.

Saline county was created by act of the territorial Legislature, approved November 25, 1820, but the boundaries were much more extensive than at the present time, extending south as far as the Osage river, by this act.

When this countr}- west of the Mississippi river was acquired by the United States, the white population of French, Spaniards and Americans was confined to a fringe of settlements along the Mississippi river about New Madrid. St. Genevieve, St. Louis and Portage des Sioux, and on the Missouri river at St. Charles.

After 1804, this fringe of white settlers remained along the Mississippi river for several years, though undoubtedly all Missouri had been visited temporarily by the French voyageurs in the employ of the Hudson Bav and other fur companies. When Lewis and Clark reached the Mandan Indians in 1804, now North Dakota, just above Bismarck, they found the Indians, who had been visited previously by Henry, a white man, and several companions in the employ of the Hudson Bay Company, they coming down at that section from the Northeast. In fact, it is difficult to surmise what part, if any, of the immense Louisiana Purchase had not been visited by white men when it was acquired in 1803. Lew^is and Clark were our first regularly commissioned explorers, but there is no telling how many fur traders had

Very soon after the country was turned over by the French to the Americans on ]\Iarch lo, 1804, the frontier folks began to move into the interior to hunt or reconnoiter for desirable lands or salt springs. It is stated in the history of Cooper county that even at the early date of February, 1804, a man named Nash, a United States deputy surveyor, with two companions, came up the Missouri from about St. Charles, locating a claim in the river bottom opposite the mouth of the Lamine river. But it is not explained what a United States deputy surveyor was doing in the country at that time, when tlie region had not then been put into the possession of the authorities of the United States; that was not done until the loth of March, 1804, or one month later, when, at St. Louis, the countr\^ was transferred to the United States by the oflicials of Spain, then holding possession. Nash and his companions returned to this section and surveyed a tract of land near where Franklin was afterwards laid off. If these accounts of Nash are true, he may justly be designated as the first of American "sooners" in this Western country.

Lewis and Clark, liaving reached the Mississippi river, camped on its banks on the Illinois side, just opposite the mouth of the Missouri, declining to even cross the river until the formal transfer of possession of upper Louisiana had been made. Major Stoddard, of the regular United States army, acting as agent of his government and of France also, arriving at St. Louis from the South about the same time with some troops, notified Lewis and Clark, who were in their encampment, of the time set for the transfer, and Captain Lewis was present as one of the officials of the L'nited States to accept possession of the country, the ceremony taking place on the 12th of March, 1804, at the government buildings in the town of St. Louis.

Following this ceremonial transfer of upper Louisiana, Capt. Aleriwether Lewis set about making final preparations for the journey up the Missouri, across the Rocky mountains, and down the Columbia river to its mouth, where it discharges its waters into the Pacific ocean.

There was no great or extensive movement of the American people into the Louisiana Purchase, or at least into that part of it now forming the state of Missouri until after the war with England, 18 12-14, the war really ending at the battle of New Orleans on the 8th of January, 1815, although peace had lieen agreed upon at Ghent, on the 24th day of December, 18 14.

This battle of New Orleans, fought after peace had been agreed upon, was reallv of greater service to the country than any fought during the en-

Very soon after upper Louisiana was taken possession of at St. Louis, the country bordering on the Missouri river on either side in the central part of the state got to be called "The Boone's Lick Country." Who is entitled to the honor or credit of thus christening or naming the section does not clearly appear. The name, however, adhered to the section for many years, and the country was so designated at least as late as the decade between 1830 and 1840. After the close of the war of 18 12, small companies of pioneers from Howard county, across the river, and Cooper county, on this side, began to occup}- the country now composing Saline count}-, at first a sort of overflow from these other counties of frontier folks, who were seeking more elbow room, wishing to get out where they would not be subjected to the annoyance of too near neighbors. These pioneers were accustomed to the solitude of the back woods, and enjoyed it, and they found it in the timbered parts of Saline county, mainly occupying the river bottoms, where they made limited clearings for patches of corn, potatoes, etc. These pioneer "sooners" were always more fond of hunting than labor and the greater part of the time they naturally devoted to hunting for game, wild animals, fish and bees. The class of pioneers following them were the ones to reduce the country from a wilderness to a productive region. The real producers began to occupy the country now embraced in Saline county after the year 1816, increasing perceptibly thereafter until 18 19, in which latter year the increase in population was very considerable, the lands having been surveyed in 18 17 and the land sales taking place at Franklin the 2d day of November, 18 18, at M^hich time and place a settler could get some assurance of a title to his lands, though some years elapsed before he obtained a deed from the government; a patent signed by the President of the United States.

The Pioneers

O, bearded, stalwart western men : So tower like, so Gothic built, An empire won without the guilt Of studied battles - this hath been Your blood's inheritance.

Jesse Cox, of Kentucky, was the first to undertake a permanent k)dgment in Saline county, or that which afterwards formed Sahne county. He belonged to the Cooper settlement in Howard, but in 1810, in company with others, moved across the river into the big bottom above Arrow Rock, built a cabin and cleared a patch of land, the bottom being called Cox's Bottom for many years afterwards. Cox himself perhaps being recognized as the leader among the squad of settlers who accompanied him from Howard county, or more properly speaking, the Boon's -Lick settlement. Cox moved his family to this cabin in the following year, in the spring of 18 11.

Young Brackenridge, a member of the distinguished Pennsyhania family of that name (several of whom were able lawyers, judges and authors), passed up the Missouri river in the spring of 1811, in company with Manual Lisa, a prominent fur trader of that period, and he gives the following accurate account of the Cooper settlement in his journal, which was published soon afterwards. Brackenridge landed at two or three points in Saline county on this journey up the river in 18 11, but he says nothing of seeing any settlements.

"We put to shore at the farm of Braxton Cooper,* a worthy man, who has the management of the salt works at Boone's Lick. The settlement is but one year old, but is already considerable, and increasing rapidly. It consists of seventy-five families, the greater part living on the bank of the Missouri river in the space of four or five miles. They are generally persons of good circumstances ; most of them have slaves. Mr. Cooper informed me that the uplands back is the most beautiful he ever beheld. * * * "

During the war of 1812-14, Cox was compelled to fall back on the fortified places on the Howard side occasionalh', but eventually after the close of the war with England, the Indians becoming- more pacific, he was able to maintain his permanent residence on the Saline side. Cox remained a resident of the bottom until 18 18, when he sold his claim, removing to Lafayette county, where he died.

*The Coopers were a Virginia family from Culpeper covmty, who had first migrated to Kentucky. They arrived in Missouri in the autumn of 1807, when Braxton, with his cousin, Sarshall, settled at the Hancock bottom upon the north bank of the Missouri river in St. Charles county. There they bought salt from Xathan Boone, a son of old Daniel, who described to them the Boone's Lick country. In the spring of 1810 they moved their families hither and built Cooper's fort nearly opposite Arrow Rock. During the war of 1812-14, the Boone's Lick settlement suffered greatly. The Coopers were leaders of the band that pursued the Indians. Braxton was shot by them September 14th, while cutting logs for a new house. Sarshall was shot in his fort the following spring.

In June, 1816, Daniel Thornton, Isaac Clark and William Clark settled in the Cox Bottom. In Noveml^er of the same year came Henry Nave, Abram Nave. John Thornton and William Collector and their families from Tennessee. They traveled by wagon, and the road was so vague and poorly marked that they lost their way between St. Charles and Boone's Lick, and while lost, suffered considerably for want of food. Subsequently, Fred Hartg-rove. who had been running- a ferry at Arrow Rock, and James Sappington joined the settlement in Cox's Bottom. Daniel Thornton was a South Carolinian; his wife was a sister of Henry and Isaac Nave. Nearly all the first settlers of Cox's Bottom were from Tennessee. Cocke county, on the banks of the beautiful P'renchbroad river, than which no handsomer stream flows out of the Blue Ridge mountains. Of course, the miasma of the Missouri river bottoms was not conducive to the health of the newcomers from the clear mountain atmosphere of the East Tennessee mountains, and they were soon nearly all afflicted with chills and fever, and no doubt man}- wished themselves back in the Blue Tennessee mountains, from whence they had moved.

In the fall of 1820, Isaac Nave, Abram Nave, Mr. Neal, Mr. Ekel and Mr. Hill arrived in the bottoms, the latter's wife being along with them, all from Cocke county, Tennessee, and they came all the way in a keel boat built by the Nave brothers, and came laden with freight of iron castings, brandy and whiskey. The boat was forty or fifty feet in length, having floated down the Frenchbroad to the Tennessee, thence down that river to the Mussel shoals, at which point the boat was probably unloaded, and a portage made around the shoals, thence down the Ohio to its junction with the Mississippi, whence it was cordelled up that stream, and the Missouri to its destination near Arrow Rock.

Henry Nave brought a wagon to the bottom in 1816. The first one had passed through there a few days before, and he also brought along with him from Tennessee some apple and peach seeds with which he started the first orchard in this couiUy. having preserved the seeds through the winter in a large gourd, near the fireplace. Mr. Nave and Daniel Thornton are entitled to the credit of sowing the first field of wheat. They sowed about three pecks and harvested twenty bushels in the year 1819. and this shows that it must have been a good year for wheat. This same year, 1819. General Atkinson, in command of the United States troops at Council Bluff's, Iowa, had raised in the prairie there fine crops of corn, potatoes and turnips for the use of the troops which were stationed at that point in the spring of that vear, he. Atkinson, having no question as to the fertility and productiveness of the prairie soil Up there. This matter of the productiveness of the prairie had before been tested by the troops of the United States regular army in the western part of Ilhnois and Wisconsin, particularly at Fort Armstrong, Rock Island, and Prairie du Chien in A\'isconsin, where fine crops had been raised for the use of the troops many years previously, and perhaps wheat, too, but the records of these forts do not mention wheat as one of their products.

It is an error to assert that the early settlers believed the prairies to be worthless for cultivation. There were other reasons for avoiding the prairie. The difficulty of getting firewood in winter was one, and the serious trouble from green horse-flies in summer was another, for within the memory of the author of this history it was impossible to ride a horse across the wild prairies in the day time in this and the adjoining county of Pettis. No horse could stand the attack of the swarms of green flies at certain periods of the summer, rendering it impossible to cultivate corn or other crops on these wide stretches of open prairie.

It was necessary for travelers on horseback to cross them in the night. The deer even had to take to the Avoods to avoid these voracious flies. This is one fact that rendered the early occupation of the prairies difficult, if not impossible, necessarily resulting in their occupation being gradual.

It was from Cox's Bottom in 1820 that the first surplus export was made by Henry Nave, James Sappington and John Hartgrove, who made canoes, loading them with bacon and floated down the river to St. Louis, trading at the different settlements at which they landed, going down the river as low as Herculaneum on the Mississippi, before finally closing out their stock ; also disposing of their boats, and returning home by land. In Henry Nave the mercantile spirit and habit was thus early developed, of latter years a marked characteristic of his descendants, his son, Abram, becoming a leading and an extensive merchant in the western part of this state, and who commanded vast capital and amassed great wealth. The trading faculty and capacity descended even to the grandchildren, in some instances, of Henry, the ancestor and founder of the family, his grandson, J. M., at Kansas City, and Samuel, at St. Joseph, being among the successful and intelligent merchants of their respective towns.

The Nave brothers. Henr}- and Isaac, did not find permanent homes for several years afterwards, remaining in the bottom perhaps for only a year or so. They moved first and built houses immediately on top of the bluff, where they remained until 1828 and 1830. At that time they entered lands, mostly of prairie, where they built permanent homes five or six miles from the river, where they lived to a ripe old age. highly respected citizens, and some of their descendants are yet residents of the neighborhood.

In the fall of 1815 James Wilhite and William Hayes came from western Tennessee to Cooper's Fort in wagons. During the winter of 181 5 and 181 6 they crossed the river to reconnoiter the country and find locations. In October, 1816, they moved over, locating near the lower part of the big bottom, Wilhite's house being on section 19, township 51. and range 18, and Ha3^es' on section 18, of the same township and range. Their camp fires were the first lit by the white man to burn in this locality. They did not get their cabins completed before cold weather, and consequentlv suffered considerably during that winter.

On the first of January, 181 7, Charles Lucas located a New Madrid certificate on the southwest quarter of section 18, township 51. range 18, and this was doubtless one of the first record claims made to land in this section of the country. These New Madrid claims formed a basis of a very unusual and peculiar land title, resulting from the destructive earthquake which occurred in the southeastern part of the state in the year 181 1, when a large part of the land of New Madrid county was injured or destroyed, being sunk or lowered so that it became covered with water and rendered unfit for cultivation. These lands had been granted to the owners by the Spanish government, and in order to reimburse them, CongTess passed a law granting them other lands of equal amount to be selected from unoccupied government land in the territory of Missouri, subject to sale. Under this law. a party claiming land under this act must first relinquish or convey to the United States the lands he had owned in New IMadrid countv, that were injured or destroved

This deed witnesseth that Nathaniel Shaver of the county of New IMadrid, Territory of Missouri, for and in consideration that he is about to take the benefit of an Act of Congress entitled, "An Act for the relief of the inhabitants of the late county of New Madrid, in the Missouri Territory, who suffered by earthquakes," by locating on the public lands in Missouri Territory according to the provisions of that act, four hundred acres of land for and in lieu of a certain lot of ground situate in the said county of New Madrid on Lake St. John, adjoining the lands of Windsor and Coons and containing the aforesaid quantity of four hundred acres originally granted by the Spanish Government to the said Nathaniel Shaver and confirmed to him as appears by the records in the office of the recorder of Land titles of Missouri Territory. Doth hereby remise, relinquish and forever quit claim the above mentioned tract of land unto the United States of America.

In w^itness whereof the said Nathaniel Shaver has hereunto set his hand and seal at St. Louis this twenty-third day of April, one Thousand eight hundred and seventeen. Signed Scaled in ]\Iark bv the earthquake. On proof of this fact to the recorder of land titles at St. Louis, Missouri, he obtained a certificate, stating that he was entitled to locate a like quantity of orovernment land in the place of it, the sale of which was authorized by law. They were called New Madrid certificates, and afterwards caused a great deal of litigation over land titles in Missouri, the certificates being located on lands in various parts of the state, and the names of many of the claimants in Saline county show that they were all, or nearly all, French or Spanish people. The location of these New Madrid certificates on lands already claimed by others under Spanish grants produced many suits to settle conflicting claims or titles.

Peter Lausson located section 19, township 51, range 18, in April, 1817. In 18 1 7 George Tennille located a New Madrid certificate on section 4. township 51. range 18. He sold part of his tract afterwards to Gen. Duff Green, who lived at Old Chariton, and then connected with the surveyor-general's office, and he subsequently became famous throughout the country as the editor of the JJ'ashington Telegraph, General Jackson's personal organ, at the national capital.

In the fall of 181 7 Jacob Ish joined the settlement, which by that tune had a populatiou of some three hundred. There had been a large immigration from Indiana and Kentucky, and the cabins stood along the river bank

St Louis Countv. ss. On the day and date of the above Deed before mc, Mary Phihp Leduc, Clerk of the circuit court within & for the county aforesaid, personally came & appeared the above named Benjamin Carpenter, one of the subscribing witnesses to the above instrument in writing, who being duly sworn deposeth and sayeth that the within named Nathanel Shaver who signed and sealed the same is to him the said deponent well known to be Nathaniel Shaver and that the said Nathaniel acknowledged before him the said deponent the said instrument to be his act & Deed, hand & seal for the purposes

^I. P. Leduc, Clk. (Seal). The within Nathaniel Shaver, before the undersigned Recorder of Land Titles, personally acknowledged the within Deed to the United States, to be his act for the purposes

St. Louis April 23d, 181 7. I certify that a tract of four hundred arpens of land, situate Bayou St. John, in the county of New Madrid, which appears from the books of this office to be owned by

These settlers worked to a great extent on the co-operative plan, fencing a hold in common in the heavilv timbered bottom, having but one big field of a thousand acres or more, each contributing to the building of the fence and cultivating the part he cleared. William Hayes took the first wagon into the big bottom. It was rather a shackly affair and would hardly compare with those of the present day. The women walked and carried their babies in their arms, and assisted in driving the stock during the day when on the route, and upon camping- at night built the fire and prepared the evening meal. They necessarilv endured all the privations of pioneer life and did their part of the labor incident to the development of this country.

Wild Game

The country abounded in all sorts of game, and venison, at the proper season, was the main reliance for meat. About the Great Salt Springs bufifalo were to be found, but not in great numbers, and elk were not scarce in Saline county. The few hogs ran at large, as did the cattle also. The former fed largely on wild roots and acorns. The animals had been brought over from the Cooper settlements in Howard, and occasionally they would swim the river to return to their old range. At first hogs were very scarce. Henry Nave had none, but having traded his wife's side-saddle for some shoats, he

Nathaniel Shaver has been materially injured by Earthquakes. And that in conformity to the provisions of the Act of Congress of 77th Feby. 1815, the said Nathaniel Shaver or his legal representatives, is entitled to locate four hundred arpens of land, on any of the public lands of the Territory of Missouri, the sale of which is authorized by law. Comr. Crt. Xo. 588.

Office of the Recorder of Land Titles, St. Louis, Missouri, Xovember 3rd, 1832. I Certify, That in pursuance of the Act of Congress, passed the 17th day of February, 1815, a Location Certificate, No. 287, issued from this office, in favor of Nathaniel Shaver, or his legal representatives, for four hundred arpens of land ; that a location has been made, as appears by the plat of survey herewith, and that the said Xathaniel Shaver or his legal representatives is entitled to a Patent for the said tract, containing, according to said location, & Survey, (Xo. 2618^ (3ne hundred and eighty-nine acres & eighty-five hundredths of an acre of land, being in Townships 45 & 46 X., R. 6 E. of the stii Prl. Meridian.

soon had a start of hogs, and afterwards in his old age said that his smoke house had never been without hog- meat since. It was difficult to raise hogs or sheep, the woods being infested with wolves, catamounts, panthers and bears, all having a decided relish for pork and mutton. However, this condition did not last long', bacon becoming- soon a leading commodity of export down the river to St. Louis.

In the fall of 1816 a band of elk, prcjbably some thirty, crossed the river above Arrow Rock. They had been chased b}" the Howard county settlers, and were met by the hunters of Saline on this side, when some of them were killed. They then turned down the river into Cooper county and re-crossed the river. Some of the people from the Big Bottom secured one or two of these animals. In the latter part of the fall of that year a bee-hunting party was organized in the Big Bottom, composed of Mr. Hayes, Daniel Thornton, William McMahan and James Wilhite. The}- went up the river in canoes, landing at the Little Rush bottom. There they found large bee trees and plenty of hone3^ They spent a week and got fifty-eight gallons of pure, strained honey.

Indians Show Friendship

A Stirring incident at this time occurred to the family of Mr. Ish, one of the Big Bottom settlers. Having camped in the tall grass, and while absent from the camp in search of horses that had strayed, his wife and children were threatened with destruction by a prairie fire approaching and sweeping rapidly over the prairie bottom. Some friendly Indians, who happened to be passing, observed the danger to the Ish family and camp and hastened to back fire against the rapidl)^ approaching- flames, and in that way prevented the impending destruction and damage to the Ish family and their camp, they not being injured at all, but frightenedydt the interference of the Indians themselves, wdio were probably Osages. After the danger was passed, Mrs. Ish manifested her thanks to these Indians by giving them her husband's supply of tobacco, and on Mr. Ish's return to camp, he also evinced his thanks and pleasure at their timely and fortunate conduct, telling the Indians that they must ever consider him their fast friend, but whether these Indians fully understood him is difficult to determine at this day.

These inhabitants of the bottom soon began to be disturbed by the annual June rise occurring in the Missouri river, the water being very high, particularly in 1820. In June of that year. Gen. Henry Atkinson, commander of the Western Military Department, and at that time in active command of the post at Council Blufifs. wrote to Gen. Thomas A. Smith of the exceedingly high water at that place, and of its encroachments on the fields which were being- cultivated by the troops, and expressing the opinion that if the river was equally high in its lower reaches that they would be in danger of being washed out at Old Franklin, where General Smith lived at that time, being receiver of public moneys at that place, and in fact the river did get very high at that point. It began to cut away the very foundations of the town. But the most serious and destructive high water came in the summer of 1826, the water overflowing all the bottoms to a depth varying from three to ten feet. Cox's Bottom was entirely submerged, and so was the Big Bottom completely overflowed, resulting in great damage and causing many of the settlers to move to high ground, and thereafter avoid the bottom. Following the subsidence of the water, malaria succeeded and much sickness and suffering followed.

The birth of the first white child in the county, a daughter of Jacob Ish, occurred in the Big Bottom during the year 18 17. She was taken back to Tennessee by her mother's sister, grew up and married there.

Early Milling

The first mill in the county was built in the Big Bottom in 18 17. Its location was a mile below where Cambridge now is, on a little branch called Shockley's branch. It was run by horse power and merely ground corn and wheat of the settlers, having no bolting apparatus. The pioneers came to this mill, not infrequentlv a distance of thirty or forty miles. Clark, its owner and founder, is said to have been a Reform preacher.

Prior to the building of this mill the settlers depended mainly on their mortars and pestles for meal, or upon a mill across the river in the Boone's Lick settlement. This latter establishment did a rushing business. Like Clark's, it also was a horse-power mill. The settlers becoming tired of pounding corn, joined together and sent Jacob Ish to get a wagon load of meal ground. Crossing the Missouri river at Arrow Rock, he camped in the bottom on the opposite bank in company with a number of other settlers from different sections of the country, enroute for Boone's Lick mill. The time was spent very agreeably around the camp fires, relating stories of their encounters with Indians and wild beasts, and of ventures in the war of 1812. also enlivened by the spirited music of a violin, and the presence of some good dancers in the crowd. Upon reaching the mill at Boone's Lick, it was found to be swarming with customers, many of whom had been there a week waiting their turn, although the mill ran night and day. Some hundred yards away from the mill was a cabin where corn whiskey was freely dis- pensed. Some one of these men, by having imbibed too freely of the corn whiskey, failed to be on hand when his turn came, when Ish got himself substituted in his place, and therefore succeeded in getting his grinding done much sooner than he had a right to expect on his arrival, returning home in triumph with a wagDU loaded with unbolted meal for himself and his neighbors.

Domestic Economies

These pioneers of the Big- Bottom and of Saline county generally were from the states of Kentucky, Virginia, Tennessee and North Carolina, and who had always been accustomed to frontier life. For the most part they were hunters, and did not care to acquire large tracts of land or to raise very large crops. Thev raised just about as much corn as would serve their families with bread, together with the usual variety of vegetables, relying on game for the rest. They raised almost everything they ate and manufactured almost everything they wore. Their smoke houses were always filled with meats of various kinds and wild honey of the finest flavor, and after the first year or two they lived well. Little coffee or sugar was used, and store tea was almost unknown. The family who had coffee once a week, Sunday morning for breakfast, were considered aristocratic, high livers.

These settlers would hunt and trap to secure furs and peltries, which they exchanged for powder and shot and hunting knives for themselves, and scissors, needles, thread and such articles for the use of their women folk. These latter articles were scarce and high. Their apparel comported well with their style of living and their circumstances. The men were chiefly clad in buckskin, with an undershirt of linsey or flannel, or cotton domestic; a cap of coonskin and a pair of moccasins completed the apparel. As the settlement grew older, shoes made of home tanned leather made by themselves were substitutes for moccasins.

The women at first prepared a linen from a bark of nettles, which grew abundantly in the bottoms and on the islands in early days. The fiber was prepared similarlv to the way in which flax was treated, and this fiber, mixed with cotton, furnished the material out of which their wearing apparel was chiefly made. Each family raised a patch of cotton, which the women picked, ginned by hand, carded and spun. There were few who aspired to clothes made of store goods. It is well known that buckskin makes a very fair article of clothing, and even to this day it is largely used among the settlers in the mountains of the Southwest. Fifty years ago. it was almost the universal dress of the New Mexicans. The early settlers did not aspire to great riches,

In the fall of the year, the men would go down to Old h'ranklin,* St. Charles, Boonvillc or St. Louis, trade furs and peltries for ammunition, get their guns repaired, and on returning home prepare for the fall hunt, which they were ready to enter upon after the first white frost in October. They would be absent on these hunts for some weeks, always returning laden with the choice trophies of the hunt. Buffalo, elk and deer meat were brought back in abundance, and in addition an ample supply of honey for the winter use.

During the year 1819 there w-as a great deal of sickness in the settlement, the prevailing illness being caused by the malaria of the bottoms. There was great distress on this account and the year w^as long remembered by the settlers. The most of them left the bottoms. Some went to Howard county and some elsewdiere. and some never returned, selling their claims for whatever they could get for them.

In portions of the bottoms, the rushes grew so rank and luxuriantly that near the ground they remained green, tender and nourishing throughout the winter, so that cattle could live without much feed. One spring the settlers killed a steer wdiich ran wild the preceding winter, living on rushes and

* The town of Franklin, or "Old Franklin" as it was called after 1826, when the county seat was moved to Fayette, is frequently mentioned by historical writers in this state, but we have never run across anything like an accurate description of the place until reading the exploring expedition of Major S. H. Long, of the topographical engineers, published in 1823. This book, in two large volumes, is a rare work, but is an interesting and well written account of the first well-appointed and equipped exploring expedition that w-as sent out by the government to ascertain what sort of country we had purchased from Napoleon Bonaparte. John C. Calhoun was secretary of war when the project was organized, equipped and sent out under his orders and supervision and with the sanction and support of his great intellect behind it. Under his orders, Major Long, in the winter of 1818 and 1819, went to Pittsburg, and there built a steamboat to be used by him in ascending the Missouri river. The boat, completed in April, 1819, was called the "Western Engineer," taken down the Ohio and up the Mississippi to St. Louis, where the cargo of troops, arms, provisions, etc., were put on board.

There were three or four other scientific men attached to the expedition, an astronomer, a geologist and a botanist under the general command of Major S. W. Long. That spring the government had three other steamboats collected at St. Louis, forming what was officially called "The Yellowstone Expedition," designed to take up troops and supplies to the mouth of the Yellowstone, where it was intended to locate a fort. This expedition was under the command of Col. Henry Atkinson, commander of the Western Military Department, but they could only get up that summer as far as Council Bluffs, where a post was established. These boats left St. Louis about the first of July, 1819, the "Western Engineer" taking the lead to ascend the Missouri river.

wild pea vines, that weighed eleven hundred pounds net. In fact, it used to be a question among the early settlers of this part of Missouri, the natural pastures being so good, whether it was better to feed their stock in the tirst or latter part of the winter, it not being considered necessary to feed them all through the winter season.

The first occupant in this localit}- was Richard Edmondson, a native of jVIadison county, Kentucky, for whom the bottom was called, and who settled and built a cabin on a New Madrid claim, located by Gen. Thomas A. Smith, being section 34, township 53. range 20. Just at what time Mr. Edmondson came to this bottom is not certainly known, but it must have been prior to November, 18 16. for at that time he sold his cabin and truck patch to Laban Garrett, and then moved farther west. Garrett was a pioneer from Pittsylvania county, Virginia. In 1817 Garrett was joined by Adam and William Hopper, Daniel Stout, John Young, George Yunt, Thomas and Daniel Tillman, Richard Cummins, Thomas Rogers, Rucker and others, who jointly improved and cultivated a big field, an enclosure of one hundred

This expedition reached Franklin about the middle of July, 1819. It had not then reached its highest prosperity, but was the civil and political headquarters of the Boone's Lick country. The river had already begun its encroachments upon its location. Gen. Thomas A. Smith was its leading citizen, its wealthiest man, who had been a prominent officer in the regular army for twenty years, and then having resigned, held the office of receiver of the land office, the best paying place in the western country. The General built a large brick residence in the edge of the town, which in 1826 was washed away or rendered uninhabitable by high water. There were a number of young men residents of the town at that time who afterwards became prominent in national and state politics. Among them, Hamilton R. Gamble. Lilburn W. Bowgs and Claiborne F. Jackson, afterwards governor of the state, and Judge Todd, Benjamin H. Reeves, Charles Carroll, Abiel Leonard, and Richard Gentry, the latter afterwards a colonel in the Seminole war and killed in battle with the Indians in Florida ; also John F. Ryland, who was afterwards judge of the supreme court of this state. Among the practicing lawyers was Major Taylor Berry, who was killed in a duel with Abiel Leonard, fought on Wolf island in the Mississippi river.

"After taking a supply of wood, we departed on the morning of the 13th (July, 1819.) and the same day arrived at Franklin. This town at present increasing more rapidly than any other on the Missouri, had been commenced but two j-ears and a half before the time of our landing. It then contained about one hundred and twenty log houses of one stor}^ several frame dwellings of two stories and two brick, thirteen shops for selling merchandise, four taverns, two smiths' shops, two large steam mills, two billiard rooms, a court house, a log prison of two stories, a postoffice, and a printing press issuing a acres or more. Ten \ears afterwards, Nancy, the daugiiter of Lal)an and Xancv Garrett, who was l)orn in Virginia, hecanie the wife of Major Jesse J.ankford. another pioneer of Saline county, and who has many descendants }et residents of the county.

in the spring of iSi<S William J. W'olfskill left Howard county and came into this settlement. At hrst he joined in work in the big held, hut after one cro]), he opened and settled on a farm out on the prairie, where he li.ved and remained for the next hfty years. Air. W'olfskill was from Madison county, Kentucky, and was a soldier in the war of 1812, being a member of Colonel Johnson's regiment, the colonel who killed Tecumseh in the battle of the Thames and gained a great victory over the British and Indians, a thorough w'oodsman and well conversant with all the details of frontier life.

Shortly after the coming of Wolfskill. he was joined by the following: James Burlison, William McDaniel, Rice Downey; the Browns, James, Henry and Coger; James Wells, Uriah Davies, James Wilkerson and Isaiah Huff. In 1819 came Jonathan Harris wdth his sons, Timothy and Williams, and Mrs. Wheeler with her sons, Samuel, William and Alfred. Mrs. Wheeler was the widow of Thomas Wheeler, a gallant Kentuckian. who had fallen under the cruel knife of the cruel savage in Dudlev's defeat on the River weekly paper. At tliis time bricks were sold at ten dollars per thousand, corn at twentyfive cents per bushel, wheat at one dollar, bacon at twelve and one-half cents per pound, uncleared lands from two to ten or fifteen dollars per acre. The price of labor was seventy-five cents per day.

"The bottoms about Franklin are wide and have the same prolific and inexhaustible soil as those below. The labor of one slave is reckoned sufficient for the cultivation of twenty acres of Indian corn, which produces ordinarily about sixty bushels per acre at a single crop. In the most fertile parts of Kentucky fifteen acres of corn are thought to require the labor of one slave and the crop being less abundant. We may reckon the products of agriculture then at about one-third less than in the best lands in Missouri. Franklin is the seat of justice, Howard coiuity. It stands on a low and recent alluvial plain and has behind it a small stagnant creek. The bed of the river beneath the shore has been heretofore obstructed by sand bars which prevented large boats from approaching the town. Whether the river will increase or diminish, it is not possible to determine. Such is the want of stability in everything belonging to the channel of the Missouri river. It is even doubtful whether the present site of Franklin will not at some future day be occupied by the river, which appears to be at this time encroaching on its bank. Similar changes have happened in the short period since the establishment of settlements on the Missouri. The site of St. Anthony, a town which existed about thirteen years ago near Bonne Homme, is now occupied by the channel of the river. Opposite Franklin is Boonville, containing at the time of our visit eight houses, but having in some respects a. more advantageous situation, and probably destined to rival if not surpass its neighbor." "While at Franklin, the gentlemen of the exploring party received many gratifying attentions, particularly from Cen. T. A. Smith, at whose house they were often hospitably received and where they all dined by invitation on the 17th of July."

Raisin, in southeastern Michigan, during the war of 1812. \\'iniam Ish, James Kuykendall and Samuel Duckworth came about the year 1820. Of these settlers, Cummins, Rogers and McDaniel were Tennesseeans ; Davies. the Harrises and \\'heelers were from Kentucky, and the Tillmans, Hopper and Young were from Virginia. All of these were hunters of greater or less degree, but William Hopper, Cummins and Rogers were expert and proficient. The accuracy of their shooting was remarkable. Hopper seldom killed fewer than three deer a day, even ^vhen these animals had become scarce. Edmondson's Bottom, like the others, contained plenty of pea vine and rush pasturage and afforded fine range for stock, both summer and winter, which came out in the spring looking thrifty and fat. This soil was very productive, growing corn, beans, potatoes, etc., in abundance, and at an early date flat boats and keel boats took loads of produce, bacon, corn, furs, pelts, etc., down the river to St. Charles, St. Louis and other places on the Mississippi.

The First School

In this settlement, Laban Garrett claims he taught the first school ever taught in Saline county, it being in the year 181 7, in a cal)in built by Edmondson. There were many children in the settlement and Air. Garrett had a good school that lasted more than four months. The terms of tuition were one dollar per scholar per month, payable in any sort of currency or commodity recognized in the community as legal tender. This included gold, silver, corn, potatoes, beaver, coon and deer skins. At the close of \h\ Garrett's school, the settlers gathered in and had a barbecue and a good time generally. The school closed in the latter part of 1817. Mr. Garrett, who was at that time a spry and spruce young man of twenty years, was regarded as a person of some distinction and consequence because he had a good education and could teach school. Mr. Garrett said the second school .taught in the county was by Mr. Rogers in tlie Big Bottom.

Among the sturdv people who settled in this section of Missouri was the above mentioned Jesse Lankford, son-in-law of Laban Garrett, who came from Virginia, after being a resident of Tennessee, in 1808. At the age of nineteen he enlisted as a soldier in the army of General Jackson, and afterwards took part in the famous battle of New Orleans. At an early hour, on a cloudy Sunday morning, the attack was made by the British forces upon the cotton-baled breast works of the Americans, he, Lankford, being on guard, one of a squad of three detailed from his company for such seiwice, and stationed at a conspicuous point on the line. The noise occasioned by the rolling of the cannon wheels over the dry cane stalks first attracted his attention to the approach of the enemy, when he awakened his captain, who, in turn, aroused the entire camp. Packenham's command came up in three divisions, each in the form of the letter V, but few of them ever reached the line of cotton bales, which were piled just high enough for the Americans to rest their long rifles upon and bring down the enemy with their deadly aim acquired in shooting squirrels, deer and Indians. During the short fight Generals Carroll and Coft'ey rode up and down the line encouraging them to stand up to the rack, and cautioning them against leaving their powder horns open, as some exploded occasionally by sparks falling from the old flint locks. Sunday was the fight; Monday they moved the wounded, and on Tuesday buried the dead. The British army disappeared the following Sunday, the dragoons following them, but not overtaking them. After peace was announced in February, Mr. Lankford returned to Tennessee, remaining there until 1817, when he set out for the Missouri country, in company with that famous pioneer physician. Dr. John Sappington. Their route was through Kentucky and Illinois, crossing the Mississippi just above the mouth of the Missouri, two months being consumed in making the journey, stopping temporarily in the Boone's Lick country of Howard county. In the month of June, 1819, they crossed the Missouri river just above Arrow Rock to cast their lot with the people of Saline county. Major Lankford became one of the early builders of this county, under contract erecting mills and the better class of houses. On account of his military experience, he was appointed major of the militia of this county, which mustered at Jonesboro, the county seat. In 182 1 he helped build a water mill on Salt Fork at the site of Jonesboro, and in company with Alexander Galbraith, purchased and rah it for several years. Afterwards he engaged, in making salt near Heath's creek. There were some works at Lockhart's, on Blackwater, and on Cow creek, near Henry Weeden's mill, but with seven men and fifty kettles producing one hundred barrels per week, he soon supplied the market. Later he traded down the river, but the venture was not a financial success.

Settlement Of The Miami Bottom

In the year 181 5 a band of the Miami tribe of Indians located in the Missouri bottoms and after they had been overwhelmingly defeated by General Wayne in Ohio, having migrated west, and their fort or village stood immediately on the bank of the river at the foot of the bluffs, near where the Marshall and Brunswick road crosses. From this band of Indians the bottom and the town of Miami took their names. During that year 1815 these Miamis had left their fort and village and gone into camp for the summer in a grove about a mile and one-half east of the present town of Miami. At this time a band of Sacs and Foxes came down from the north, attacking the white settlements in Howard county. They drove the settlers into their forts and carried ofT considerable plunder. They retreated through the camp of the Miamis. where they stopped and sold to them the property they had captured in Howard county. The settlers found this out, and some of them believed the Miamis had a hand in the attack, notwithstanding their professed friendship for the whites, and that they were in league with the Sacs and Foxes and were really a party to the attack on the settlers. At an}^ rate, their property was in the hands of the Indians.

The Miamis had three or four hundred warriors in good fig'hting condition and there were only about two hundred and fifty of the settlers that were fit for good soldiers. It was, therefore, a hazardous experiment for the settlers to undertake forcible recovery of their property, and they were forced to call upon the government for help. So Colonel, afterwards General, Henry Dodge w^as sent up to the Boone's Lick country with a battalion of regulars to punish the' Miamis for their rascality and to recover the property of the settlers.

Dodge was joined at Boone's Lick by two hundred and fifty mounted riflemen under Col. Benjamin Cooper, Dodge assuming command of the expedition by virtue of his rank and position in the regular army. The command crossed the Missouri river at Arrow Rock, following the old Osage trace to the vicinity of the Miami fort, where it halted and began to arrange for an attack upon the fortifications of the Indians. An assault was made and the works captured, but no Indians were found. They had probably been apprized of the approach of the troops and had abandoned the fort to avoid a conflict. ^ Their whereabouts were soon discovered, and they at once surrendered.] The Indians said they had purchased the property claimed by the whites from other Indians, and denied that they had joined in, or aided and abetted the attack on the white settlements. The men from Howard immediately recognized articles in the Miami camp belonging to them, and began to take possession of them. Colonel Dodg'e, commanding, said that that sort of proceeding must stop ; that the articles must be restored in a different manner, following an investigation, etc. The pioneers disliked this sort of formality, but Dodge called on his regulars to enforce his authority and he and Colonel Cooper were about to engage in a conflict between themselves, but other officers interfered and the matter was quieted and arranged to the sat- isfaction of all concerned, the settlers reclaiming- their property. The Indians insisted tliat they were not guilty, but this trouble served- as a cause of their removal not long afterwards. Subsequent developments, however, showed that they were innocent, as the}- claimed to be, the Sacs and Foxes being the guilty ones.

It is not certain where the Aiiamis were moved to. "The Annals of the West" says they were taken back to the rest of the tril3e in the Wabash country, but many old settlers declare that they went west, reserving the right to return and hunt in Saline county, which they often did.

Gen. Henry Dodge was afterwards United States marshal for Missouri. He was an old resident of Missouri, but afterw^ards moved to Wisconsin, and became a United States senator from that state, and served in the senate with his son, Gen. A. C. Dodg^e, senator from Iowa, the only incident on record where a father and son were members of that body at the same time.

Prior to the year 1817 no permanent settlement was made on the Miami bottom l)y a white man. John Ferrill and his son, Henry, had trapped beaver and otter along the river, and camped temporarily in the bottom, no permanent settlement being- made until the year 181 7, when John Cook and family settled about one and one-half miles northeast of Miami, in section 33, township 52, range 22. In 18 18 came Samuel Perry, \\'illiam Clemens, Thomas Clemens, Henry Ferrill, John McMahan, William McMahan and Robert Patrick. These first settlers in the bottoms were all Kentuckians, hospitable, manly, generous and brave. August 10, 1819, William Miller, a Virginian, entered the southeast quarter of section 35, and on July 6th William Renick entered the west half of the southeast cjuarter of section 33, township 52, range 22. May 14th of the same year. Miller entered the northwest quarter of section 10, township 51, range 22. June loth, Louis Rees entered the southeast quarter of section 13, township 51, range 22. July i6th. ^^'illiam Renick entered the east half of the southeast quarter of section 8, and the northwest quarter of section 4, township 51, range 22. Miller was not an actual settler, but a speculator, non-resident. During the year 18 19 he entered considerable portions of sections i, 2, 3 and 4, in township 51, range 22. On January 15, 1819, A. L. Langham entered the east half of the northwest quarter of section 9, township 51, range 22. Rol)ert Patrick was the contractor for supplying the western forts and troops with beef. That year, he took up a drove of cattle for the troops at Cantonment ]\Iartin, located on Cow island just below the present town of Atchison, on the ^Missouri river. He held the position from 181 7 to 1826, owned a thousand acres of land in the bottoms, w'here he collected and herded his cattle until readv for delivery.

Salt Pond Settlement

Ill the fall of 1 817 Edward Reavis ascended the Lamine and made the first settlement at the Salt Springs, four miles below the present site of Sweet Spring's. His family numbered about fourteen souls, half being his own family, the other his neg'ro slaves. Reavis engaged in the manufacture of salt at the strong salt springs of that locality. His appliances were not the best, but he made a fair article of salt in considerable quantities, supplying most of the salt used in the early days, continuing the business for some fifteen years. It was a hazardous undertaking to make a settlement there at that time, for the country was infested with roving bands of Indians, and to guard against possible attacks he built his house in the shape of a fort, such a fort as was usual with the early settlers, with a block house attached, properly pierced with port-holes and well calculated for defence against an ordinary attack of savages, not too numer(ius. Its defensive qualities were never tested, never having been attacked b}- the Indians. Subsecpient to the Reavis settlement. John and Matthew Alayes located at the McAllister Springs, and Isham Reavis came in at the same time. In 1820 Duke Prigmore, Sr., joined the settlement, making at least five families up to that time. Soon afterwards, Philip Cecil settled lower down on Blackwater. He located on section 28, township 49, range 20, built a cabin there, and remained for several years, entering some land out on the prairies. Afterwards he sold out and left the neighborhood. Subsequently, in the year 18 18, Arthur Hunt, from Xorth Carolina, settled the prairie bottom near the Napton bridg'e on Blackwater. His nephew, Oliver Hunt, settled in the same vicinity about the same time. In the year 18 19 Charles Lockhart commenced prospecting all over the Blackwater country in search of minerals, continuing his labors at intervals for nearlv two years. He was induced to make his search by seeing traces of Renault's diggings, made one hundred years previously. Lockhart thought Renault's men had not made their investigations sufficiently thorough or complete, and he dug over many of the pits of the Frenchman. Lockhart employed sometimes as many as thirty laborers, working" faithfully and zealously, but finally abandoned it, after repeated failures.

Settlement Of The Sappington Neighborhood

The first settlement in this locality in Arrow Rock township was said to have been made by William McMahan in the year 181 1. Like Cox and the Coopers, however, he sought refuge occasionally in the Howard county forts.

where he remained until after the war with England was over. He did not return to his claim, however, but jointed the settlers in the Big bottom, as it appears, for in 18 16 he is mentioned as one of the members of a party that went up in canoes into the Little Rush bottom bee hunting. Afterwards he settled in the Miami bottom. In the year 18 10 Samuel McMahan had built a strong block house and fort six miles south of Arrow Rock called Fort Anderson, the fort taking its name from three families of that name who w^ere Mr. McMahan's nearest neighbors. The other settlers were David Jones, Joseph Wolfskill, Steven Turley and William Reid. From this settlement, Mr. McMahan came to his claim. During the w^ar of 18 12 the Indians drove the settlers in and about Anderson's fort across the river to Cooper's fort and burned Fort Anderson. While Samuel McMahan was at Cooper's fort, he was killed by the Indians, having brought his family over to this side of the river, and had accumulated some property in stock. The same week that Gregg was killed up in Cox's bottom, Christmas week, 18 14, Mr. McMahan re-crossed the ri\er to secure his cattle, and in his effort to procure his cattle he w^as killed by the Indians in Cooper county. His youngest son was Jesse McMahan, long a highly respected citizen of Arrow Rock, and whose name is frequently used in these pages. In 18 19 there came to this locality, where Mr. McMahan had settled, Alexander Galbraith, Asa Finley, Sanders Townsend, Richard Marshall, Rev. Payton Nowlin and Dr. John Sappington, from whom the settlement took its name. The Doctor settled on sections 8 and 9, in township 49, range 19. The land is yet owned and occupied by his descendants.

Among other settlers in this neig"hborhood were Andrew Browmlee, Joseph Robinson, John Bingham, Nathan Holloway, Bradford Lawless, Burton Lawless, Judge Beverly Tucker and M. M. Marmaduke. The most of these settled here before 1820 and the remainder very soon afterwards. Arrow Rock was nothing more than a crossing place on the Missouri river, where there was a good ferry. The first regular ferr^'man was Captain Becknell, of Franklin, and afterwards a captain of a company of Saline count\- men in the Blackhawk war. Becknell's predecessors as ferrymen were Jerry Lecky and Frederick Hartgrove, who had lived in a log cabin on the river bank called the Ferry House. Captain Becknell was the originator of the Santa Fe trade and the locator of the Santa Fe trail, as will hereafter be more fully explained.

Early Settlement Of The Petite Saux Bottom

This famous 1)ottom, or ])lains. has a lateral extent of about eighteen miles. The locality was long since named by the French, but its exact name or the mode of spelling it is a matter not definitely settled.

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 18 16, according to the best information. Prior to this time one Reverend Gilham and his sons, Hugh and Neely, from Howard county, had hunted and trapped throughout the bottom, giving descriptions of it to the settlers. In 1816 came George Davis, who settled the farm long thereafter known by his name. In 1818 Anthony and Notley Thomas settled near the Grand Pass church, a farm of Notley Thomas being immediately back of the one occupied by his son, Baltimore Thomas. Other settlers soon followed, most of them being from Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee. The high water and sickly season of 1820 drove the majority of them away. Some migrated to Clay county, then beginning to be settled, and some to other portions of the county and country. Those who remained were the Thomases, McDowells, Berry Estes and William White. The latter, a Revolutionary soldier, was from Tennessee. Other early settlers in this part of the county were John Lincoln, Elisha Evans and Andrew Russell, who came from Kentucky in 18 19. Lincoln was an industrious bachelor blacksmith who followed that trade in this county until 1829, when he removed to Clay county. He was tall, angular, rough looking and uneducated, and after removing to Clay county, he married a Miss Duncan. John Gregg, with a family of twenty-one children, as early as 1818, is said to have been a settler in this bottom.

The author of this history and the people of this county are under lasting oblig'ations to Jerrold R. Letcher, a native of the county but now of Utah, for collecting and preserving and procuring the publication of the history of the early settlers of this county. But for his kindly action, in the year 1876, all data of our early settlements would have been lost and no history of them could ever have been written. He obtained the facts and data from men then living, all of whom have long- since passed away and their tongues have become silent forever.

The Indians Of Saline

The aborigines, who formerly roamed over or inhabited the country of which Saline county is now composed, probably deserve some notice at our hands.

The Osages seem to have had the best claim to this part of Missouri, and while they were nomads, yet they maintained a more or less permanent occupancy of the country .south of the Missouri river within the state or territory of Missouri.

Col. William Clark (of the Lewis and Clark expedition) made a "treaty" with them at Fort Osage (in the western part of the territory), in the year 1808, by Avhich the Indian title to the lands here was relinquished to the "Great Father" at Washington.

The Sacs and Foxes and lowas were occasional visitors, making- hunting excursions and sometimes warlike raids over this section. These savage Indian trilDes were rarely on real friendly terms with each other and during the war of 1812-14 thev were encouraged to hostility against the white "Americans" bv British emissaries, wlio were scattered through the West for that purpose. The Indians needed very little encouragement or inducement to engage in war against the settlers, whom they knew were moving upon their lands with the intention of permanent occupancy. The patriotic sentiment, or love of country, was alone sufficient to induce them to make war on the settlers here in central Missouri and it is strange that the tribes did not combine against them and with all their united strength drive them back to the eastern side of the Mississippi. Xo fair minded man could blame the Indians for going to war under such circumstances, for it was nothing more than natural patriotism for them to desire to kill every white man found in the country. But no great battles ever took place.

The Indians who came down from the north, Sacs, Foxes and lowas. were the most troublesome and dangerous to the settlers. It was they who created the most trouble during- the war of 1812. Incited by the British agents from Canada, emmissaries of Proctor and Tecumseh. they engaged in open hostilities against the settlers, so continuous and formidable as to drive the settlers from their homes here on this side to seek refuge and safety in the forts of Howard county that had been built and made secure sometime previously. But fifteen or twenty of the settlers- were killed by Indians, among- them the Coopers and Samuel McMahan. The tragic death of Capt. Marshall Cooper, who was shot by an Indian through a crack in the log--house at night, while he was sitting by the fire with his youngest child on his lap. excited the deepest feelings. It was thought a single warrior crept up to the side of the fort, picked out the "dol)bin" between the logs sufficiently to allow him to get a sight of Captain Cooper and give him a fatal shot, without touching the child in his arms.

Cooper's fort was the stronghold and favorite refuge of the settlers on the north side of the river, while Cole's fort was just below the site of Boonville, on the south side. Cooper county was named for Captain Cooper and Cole county for Captain Cole.

writers have drawn for our delectation and entertainment. The early settlers doubtless came to the conclusion that the only real good Indian was a dead one. But the savage Indian is no worse than the savage black man. or indeed a savage man of any other color. Probably the white man in the arboreal state was just as bad as the Indian in the savage state.

Hunting parties from Kansas came down to this section to hunt as late as 1848. The author recollects a hunting party camped in the big bend of Blackwater. The negroes visited the camp, said they had a turkey cooking in a pot whole, head, feet, feathers and all. The hunting parties from Kansas were looked upon with suspicion by the residents, saying they had no right to luint here. The Indians probably knew the feeling towards them, and remained only a few days, Init enjoying the visit to their old haunts.

Along about 1840 a party of five or six Indian chiefs, enroute to W'ash- \ ington (diplomatic agents), stopped at "Experiment," the farm of Gen. Thomas A. Smith, to get something to eat, probably knowing the General by reputation as a former officer and commander of the Army of the ^^'est. They were taken into the dining room and an abundant dinner set before them. A whole roasted wild turkey and part of another, with a ham and other things, were placed before them on the table, of which they all ate heartily, but it was observed that the}- did nc^t touch the whole roasted turkey, although urged to do so by the negro servants of the General. But when through and about leaving the table, one of the big consequential-looking fellows, withdrawing an arrow from its quiver, stuck it into the whole turkey yet left untouched, and gently transferred it from the table to his hunting or provision pouch, slung over his shoulder, the negro seiwants being very much amused at this conduct, one of whom many years afterwards related the incident to the author. These braves, ambassadors to Washington, were looking a little ahead as to commissary supplies, reserving the whole turkey for future use.