Saline County, Missouri - Chapter 5: County Organization, 1910

Chapter 5: County Organization

During- the first session of the state Legislature, held in St. Louis. September 19, 1820, an act was passed organizing the county of Saline. The bill was introduced by the Hon. \\"illiam Lillard. a member of the Legislature from Cooper county, and who had been a colonel in the army in the war of 1812, from Tennessee. The bill was passed without opposition and approved by Governor Alexander McNair, the first elected governor of the state. The same bill provided for the organization of Lafavette, Boone, Callaway, Chariton. Cole, Gasconade, Perry, Ralls and Ray counties. This county was named from the character of the water of many of its streams. There were salt works at one or two places in the county, although the method employed in the manufacture was of the crudest form and character. A fair article of salt in very respectable quantities was produced. The opinion was prevalent that the manufacture of salt would be the leading industry of the county and one of its most valuable products. The town of Jefiferson, on the ^Missouri river, was designated as the county seat. Bartholomew Guinn and George Tennille were appointed judges of the county court. The same Legislature also passed an act prescribing the time and places of holding court, and in conformity therewith, the first term of the county court in this county was held on the third Monday in April, 182 1, it being the i6th.

The county judges were appointed for four years. Bartholomew Guinn 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, a native of New [Madrid, having come from New Madrid county to Saline, and here locating a New Madrid grant, which he was entitled to under the law of Congress. The court, upon assembling, appointed Benjamin Chambers clerk, and he held the office for sixteen years. He was a Pennsylvanian and a Presbyterian, and was a descendant of the famous Chambers family, who founded Chambersburg, in that state. The records show that he was a very efficient officer, accurate composer and skillful penman, comprehending his work and keeping his records intelligently written and with great care and precision. Colonel Chambers was not an ordinary man. The founder of the family was Benjamin Chambers, who migrated from New Jersey to Pennsyh'ania in the first quarter of the eighteenth century. There his son, Gen. James Chambers, was born, June 5, I743- His career in the Revolutionary war is historic from Cambridge to the end. His son, young Benjamin, afterwards the first clerk of our county court, accompanied him from the beginning, and was in his first battle at the age of twehe }ears. At fourteen he was an ensign in his father's regiment, and first lieutenant at fifteen, serving through to the end of the war, which closed in his sixteenth year. After the w-ar he was appointed surveyor in the Northwest Territory by General Washington, and proceeded to his work in the territory of Indiana. In 1803 he was judge of the court of common pleas of the court of Indiana, and a lieutenant-colonel of the militia. He was also a member of the first Legislative Council of the territory. In 1820 he removed to Saline county, Missouri. Mrs. C. J. Pulliam, recently deceased, long a resident of the community of Marshall, was a daughter of Colonel Chambers, as also was Mrs. George Penn, the wife of Dr. George Penn, one of the early leading physicians of Saline county, who afterwards became a resident of St. Louis county. Mrs. Penn was one of the handsomest, Ijest educated, elegant and refined women who ever lived in the county. Her daughter, Jennie, became the wife of Dr. Crawford E. Smith, long a resident of this county also. Of Colonel Chambers, we might say : "Soldier, pioneer, farmer, good neighbor, efiicient public officer, scrupulous business man, elder. Christian by profession and in practice; a rare combination." He died at Cambridge, Missouri, August 27, 1850, and his remains repose in the old cemetery a mile southwest of Cambridge. So the county made a good start so far as the clerks of the court were concerned, a good example for -those who followed.

The next act of the court after the appointment of the clerks was to appoint commissioners to take charge and care for the school lands wathin the county. Jacob Ish, Peyton Nowlin, Peter Hufif, William McMahan and Charles English were appointed commissioners and sworn in open court. Then W. S. Edwards was appointed constable of Arrow Rock township. Daniel McDowell of Miami, and Alexander Goodin of Jefferson. There were l)ut three townsliips. A\'ilHam McMahan w^as justice of the peace of Miami township and Jacob Ish of Jefferson. Joseph H. Goodin was appointed assessor, having previously been appointed sheriff by the Governor. David Warren was appointed county collector. Rev. Peyton Nowlin w-as appointed surveyor of the boundar}- line between this county and Cooper, to act in conjunction w-ith Dr. Hart of the latter named county.

tlie third Monday of the month. Guinn and Tennille, judges; Benjamin Chambers, clerk; J. H. Goodin, sheriff. The first business was the appointment of Littleberry Estes, Daniel McDowell and William White, Jr., as commissioners to view and mark out the first road established in the county, petitioned for by Louis Rees and others, leading from Arrow Rock to the Grand Pass, bv the place where Fred Rees now lives, and from thence to the western Ijonndary of the county, and "make return to this court at the next term."

The first letters of administration were granted by this court to David Warren, administrator of the estate of James W^arren, deceased, and Richard W. Cummins, Edward Burlson and William Shipley were appointed appraisers of the estate.

The first enumeration of the county was made just previous and reported to the October term of the court, 182 1, it taking the assessor, Goodin, only eight days to take the enumeration, the population of the county being at this time eleven hundred and twenty-six.

There was a deficiency in the county and state tax, and it was ordered by the court at the January term, 1822, that the sum of four dollars and fortythree and two-thirds cents be allowed David Warren, collector, for the deficiency.

At the January tenn, 1822, a ferry license was granted to John Nave, across the Missouri river at the mouth of Rich Land creek, for which he paid two dollars into the treasuiy.

Thomas Shackelford, the third judge of the county court, having produced his commission from the governor, was sworn in and took his seat at the February term, 1822.

At this term the court fixed the boundary of three townships. Arrow Rock, Jefferson and Miami, into which the county was then divided, Arrow Rock comprising nearly the southern half of tlie county, and the northern portion being nearly equallv divided betw^een Jeft'erson and Miami. At this term, also, Joseph H. Goodin was appointed collector, and assessors were appointed for each township, Hugh Galbrath for Arrow Rock, William Ferrill for Miami, and Laban Garrett for Jefferson. -\t the August term of the court, 1822, the court ordered that one-half of the tax collected be appropriated to the use of the county. The first deputy clerk was appointed at the August term, 1822, J. H. Goodin, collector, being appointed deputy clerk. At the November term, 1822, James Wilkinson appears on the records as sheriff of the county. He had been elected at the prex'ious election, the first Monday in August. Governor McNair commissioned him September 3, 1822, from

St. Charles, then the capital of the state. One peculiarity of Wilkinson's commission may be noticed. It bore the governor's private seal, in attestation of its genuineness and authority, for the reason, as stated in the commission, that no seal of the state had as yet been provided.

To show how small was the valuation of property in Miami township at this early day it is only necessary to state that William Ferrill was allowed three dollars for the assessment of the taxable property. The fees paid the county officials in 1822 seemed to have been very small. At the November term, 1822, Guinn was allowed for services as judge of the county court, twent3^-two dollars ; Chambers as clerk, thirty-three dollars and twenty-five cents ; Goodin as former sheriff, forty-five dollars and fifty-three cents ; as deputy clerk, twenty-six dollars for general and special services.

At the November term, 1822. the first final settlement was made by Tennille, administrator of the estate of William Bones, deceased, the value of the property being eight hundred and twenty-four dollars and one and one-half cents.

The first tavern license was granted to John McAIahan at the February term of court, 1823. to keep a tavern in the town of Jefferson, he paying the sum of ten dollars into the treasury.

There being a considerable slave population, and which was constantly increasing, it was considered necessary to appoint patrollers, and at the May term. 1824, three patrollers were appointed for each township.

As early as the first year of the county organization in 1821, William McMahan recorded his mark and brand as follows : A crop and slit in the right ear, and a swallow-fork in the left. His brand is the letter O, and on the 4th day of September, 1822, the county clerk, Chambers, recorded the fact that B. Chambers has for his mark a slit in each ear, and his brand being the letter G. This practice of marking animals for purposes of identification and ownership remained for many years.

The county government was now fully and completely organized and the machinery in running order, and passed from its condition as a portion of Cooper county and took its jilace among the other counties of the state, soon to become equal to the best of tliem and superior to the most of them.

Comparatively few of the first settlers of Saline county remained to transform the county from a wilderness of woods and prairie to a corn, wheat and hemp-producing region. The very early settlers as a nde were devoted to hunting and fishing and fur gathering, and were uncomfortable when crowded by near neighbors, so they soon moved west or south in order to keep abreast with the movements of the game and the fur bearing animals, and also to be free from the annoyance of near neighbors. It was the people from Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee and Kentucky who migrated to Saline county after the formation of the state government in 1820, who constituted the substantial subduers of the wilderness, men who came wuth their wives and children, slaves and cattle, tra\eling by land in wagons and carriages, the families consisting of from a dozen to forty or fifty persons, white and black. These people came here irnm the older settled states to find new, rich, productive lands instead of the worn-out lands they had left behind in the older states. And no better class of people ever came into a new country than the immigrants to this ( Saline) county, who became owners of the land, entering and purchasing them from the general government, intending to make farms and permanent homes for themselves and families. In fact, no county in the state was more fortunate in respect to its population than Saline county, none known to the author of this work superior, and few that were equal. They were people of education and property, besides being- endowed with that kind of refinement and intelligence found only among people who owned slaves, people who were exempt from the labor of cooking and of washing clothes, the drudgery of everyday life. And although their farms were frequently separated, miles apart, these people were never troubled with what is now called the "isolation of the farm," for a family of twenty or thirty members, white and black, constituted company enough for each other, and besides, furnished ample protection for any members of the family who might need protection, however remote they might be from towns or other settlements. There was little disposition or inclination among them or among their children under the system of slavery to move from the country to the town. On the contrary the inclination was in the opposite direction, and before the Civil war nobody ever heard of a farmer moving to town. The wealth was found in the country, and not in the towns, and it is well known that when a borrower sought a loan he invariably went to the country to find it. The abolition of slavery brought about by the Civil war made a complete change in this respect as well as in many others.

Permanent Settlers

It is impossible to give the name of every settler who came into the county for the purpose of making a permanent home, or to give a detail of the lands he purchased. However, a considerable amount of correct informa- tion on this subject was collected and ])rcser\-ed by Jerrold Letcher, while many of the early original immigrants of the county were still living in 1876. and according- to the records of Mr. Letcher, in 1819 Asa Finley went out on Salt Fork, and two years thereafter located a mile above said springs. Many years thereafter Mr. b^inley, speaking of the growth of the timber in that region, said that 'Vails and house logs now grow where I could hardly get a riding switch when I moved here." As it turned out, nearly all the land that Asa Finlev entered grew up into timber, and years afterwards put the owners of it to a great expense to clear the timber off of it in order to reduce it to a condition capable of being cultivated.

In 1823 William Hayes removed from the Big Bottom to the bluff, and before that date Thomas Shackelford and Drury Pulliam were living on the hig'h ground near where the Glasg-ow and Lexington road leaves the bottom. Tn the summer of that year Anthony Harvey located a tract of land, which includes the present town-site of Arrow Rock. Arrow Rock is the oldest town in the county. Some accounts say that the first house was built in 1807, or 1808. by George Sibley for a trading post. The probability is that this house was built in 1808, George Sibley being of a party who came up the river from St. Louis that year with General Clark, wdio was superintendent of Lidian affairs at St. Louis at that time, and under order from the war department, came up the Missouri river from St. Louis and Fort Bellfountaine to establish a fort and factory for the Osage Lidians. The General brought along with him a company of troops under command of Captain Clemsom, of the First Regiment of United States Infantrv-. George Sibley was probably along with this expedition and, stopping off at Arrow Rock, establish.ed a trading post there. There were several brothers of the Sibleys, all engaged in the fur trade. Another of them went on with the expedition up to Jackson county, and on the bluff of the Missouri river, in what is now Jackson countv, Fort Osage was built, by orders of General Clark and Captain Clemsom, and he became the suttler at that place, where the tribe of Osage Indians soon after assembled to meet the superintendent and agent. General Clark. Shortly afterwards, a treaty was made with these Osage Indians by which they relinquished all claims to the countn' of which Saline county is formed.

General Clark returned to St. Louis that fall, leaving Captain Clemsom and his company of regular troops in charge of the fort, and here he remained in command until after the close of the war with Great Britain, in 1814, at which time he wrote to the secretary of war that he was anxious to be removed to some other post.

In 182 1 Alexander Galbraith located and built a mill at the site of what was afterwards Jonesboro, the name of the place being subsequently changed to Napton. He had William Edwards and Mr. Chapman for very near neighbors.

In 1824 Abraham Smith located on Camp creek, and Joseph Robertson, Samuel Davis, Richard Scott, Henry Galbraith and Wyatt Bingham located near the mill. Isaac Odell settled on the place afterAvards owned by Robert Y. Thompson. The Wheelers, Harrises and Wolf skills ventured up Edmondson's creek out ontO' the prairie.

In the year 1826 the unusual high water of the Missouri covered all the bottom and drove the settlers out. In this year Green McCafferty settled on the headwaters of Cow creek. Georg'e Rhoades and Nathaniel W^alker had already located near Frankfort, it being reported that Bartholomew Guinn settled on the present site of Frankfort in 18 17, and a considerable settlement was formed, known as the Guinn settlement, including North Rock creek and Bear creek. This settlement contained, shortly after the coming of Rhoades and W^alker, both William and Bartholomew Ouinn, Benjamin Hawkins, Col. John Smith and Col. Ben Chambers, our first county clerk, who was described by the old pioneers who knew him as the politest man in the county, and this historic politeness of Colonel Chambers, our first county clerk, must be the origin of a notable and universal politeness of our county officials since that early time. Or do they accjuire the polite habit while they are candidates for nomination, which they are unable to lay aside during- their official incumbency. John Jackson, Thomas Shackelford, R. Y. Thompson and some others were refugees to the high ground from the submerged river bottom.

In 1827 James Wilhite, who had removed to Lafayette count}', returned and settled on Fish creek with his old friend, William Hayes, with James Crossland and Hugh Tennille for neighbors. Henry Nave moved out of Cox's bottom, locating between Arrow Rock and Marshall.

In this year, 1827, there was a heavy immigration into the county, and the ferry at Arrow Rock was kept busy crossing them to the Saline county side. The newcomers were principally from Virginia and Kentucky. The Lewises, the Millers and the Risers came in force from the valley of Virginia. ]\Ir. Finley, from Kentucky, located on Salt Fork. The same year Ephraim McClain came over from Howard county and settled near James Sappington and John Shipton, who had preceded him.

In. 1828 Capt. Daniel Kiser settled on Salt Fork above Straddle creek, Jolm and Samuel Miller opened and settled a farm north of Salt Fork, known afterwards as the Judge Storv farm. About the same time lohn Bacon set- tied on a tract between Kiser and Colonel Lewis, his only other neighbors being Abraham Smith, on the east, and on the north, William Huffman and George Davis, up in the Petite Osage plains.

With the exception of the Kiser settlement and Jones at the Big Salt Springs, the entire region from McCaffertys to the settlement of Reavis's, on Blackwater, and from Galbraith's mill, on Salt Fork, to George Davis's farm, on the plains, was, in 1828, an unbroken wilderness of prairie. There was an encampment of four or five hundred Osage Indians about two and onehalf miles northeast of Malta Bend, and numerous bands of lowas. Sacs and Foxes, with occasional Kickapoos and Kaws from the West, roamed over the country at will in quest of game. They molested no one and nobody interfered with them. Game was abundant and easily procured. The grass on the prairie was, in most places, as tall as a medium sized man, and as high as the head of a man on horseback on the Petite Saux plains. Fire, when set out while the grass was dry, spreading rapidly, would drive out deer, wolves and other animals to seek shelter and safety. The hunters frequently fired the prairies in order to drive out the game, a very destructive practice, retarding and preventing the growth of timber and frequently burning valuable property.

The only road through the county that was much used was the one from Arrow Rock to Grand Pass, which followed the old "Osage Trace," running north of the Salt Fork, crossing Cow creek, and passing about a mile south of Mt. Carmel church, and this road is probably the one that the county court, in January, 1822, ordered Lewis Rees, Daniel Thornton and Green McCafferty to view and mark out. At the same session, Cornelius Davis, William Hayes and Nathaniel Walker were directed to mark out a road from the Blackwater salt works to the ferry at Chariton, and Daniel Mann, William Jobe and William Hampton were directed to mark out a road from the ferry at Chariton to the town of Jefferson, and also Almond Guinn, William Shipley and Joseph Burlison to mark out a road from Jefferson to the upper end of the Rush Bottom.

Li 1828 Dr. George Penn located on the hill immediately above the town site of Jonesboro, beginning the practice of his profession. His practice extended from his residence as far west as the Grand Pass, and all along the Blackwater and Heath's creek. Previous to his coming, Dr. John Sappington had been the principal physician. A little before that, Samuel Hayes, James Montgomery and Moses Johnson had settled in the Salt Pond country, where they were joined by Logsdon.

Robert Owens, Isaac Parsons and his sons, who settled a mile and one-half southeast of Brownsville, where the elder Parsons erected a mill. At this time the only persons north and east of Parsons were Benjamin Prigmore, Anderson Reavis, Joseph Dickson, Fielding Pennell, Hayes, Johnson, Montgomery and Logsdon.

Before this time Nathan Harris and Stephen Trigg were making salt down on Blackwater, ten miles east, carrying on the business with Benjamin Willow in their employ. They did quite an extensive business, and settlers for miles and miles away bought salt from them. At the Big Salt springs John A. Jones had been extensively engaged in salt manufacture for some time. He was a somewhat renowned personage in his day, although a little shaded in his complexion. He claimed to be a Portugese, but many believed him to be an octoroon.

In 1832 John M., William and Washington Lewis reached the county, the last two settling in the Grand Pass country that same year, and Col. John M., three years later, and John and William DeMoss. This Lewis family desenTS especial regard not only because they were among the most respectable and worthy of the immigrants, but from having entertained one of the greatest literary men of America - Washington Irving - who made a tour of the West in 1832, and from the highlands on the old Osage Trace (to the northwest of where Marshall now stands) commanded a view of the Salt Fork valley, the Petite Saux plains, the Miami region, and the boundless stretch to the southwest looking toward Elmwood, he had his first glimpse of this Great Prairie region, which charmed him more than anj^hing he had ever encountered in all his travels. In company with two companions, he spents two nights and a day in this county and was the guest of two of its most worthy families.

At that date among the best known settlers in the northwest portion of Saline was the Lewis family, who came from the valley of Virginia. (They were descendants of Gen. Andrew Lewis, who commanded the Virginians, and Col. Charles Lewis, who was killed at the battle of Point Pleasant, Virginia, fought near the mouth of the great Kanawha, on the lOth of October, 1774, the Indians being commanded by the great Shawnee chief, Cornstalk, aided by Logan, Red Eagle and other brave warriors, and which, all circumstances considered, ranks among the most memorable and well contested battles with Indians of the ante-Revolutionary period.)

After an overland journey of seven weeks they reached the ferry at Arrow Rock in the latter part of October, 1830. The party consisted of three - brothers, John Maury, George Washington and William H. Lewis, with their families, consisting of eleven white persons, eighteen servants and a complete outfit of stock and vehicles, the latter including- two old-style carry-alls and three Virginia wagons, huge and galley-shaped, antecedents of the "prairie schooners."

After the delays usual to a ferriage ni the "Big Muddy," an easy day's drive brought them to Rock creek, where both wood and water were abundant, and there they made their first camp within the borders of Saline county. Crossing Cow creek, they skirted the highlands on the north side of Salt Fork and spent the second night in the county, under the hospitable roof of John Miller, near the junction of the old State and Chariton roads. The third night was spent at the home of Col. \A'illiam Lewis, who resided a short distance northwest of the present county seat, on what was afterwards known as the O'Bannon place. "Settling down," William H. rented the Colonel Lewis place, George \\^ashington located at the Grand Pass, and John M. on the Miller (Marmaduke-Irvine) farm, which, on account of productive soil, happily blending timber and prairie, was considered one of the most desirable places in the county.

About two years later, in the second week of April, 1832, the distinguished American author, Washington L'ving, who had been abroad for nearly seventeen years ; Charles Joseph Latrobe. an Englishman by birth, descended from foreign stock, as Irving himself wrote, and possessing all the buoyancy and accommodating spirit of a native of the continent," a botanist, an artist, a geologist and an indefatigable sportsman (subsequently known as the author of the "Rambler in North America,"), and M. de Pourtales, a young Swiss count, "full of talent and spirit, but galliard in the extreme, and prone to every kind of wild adventure," set sail from Havre de Grace, and on the 22d of May following- arrived at Xew York.

The acquaintance of these three gentlemen began at Havre and, cemented on '^hipboard, was resumed ashore and led to a series of common wanderings, which kept them bound together for tlie greater part ni the summer and autumn of that vear. After having thoroughly "toured" most of the eastern and northern portions of the United States, and while on board a steamboat bound for Detroit, they chanced to meet with ex-Gk)vernor Ellsworth, of Connecticut, one of the commissioners appointed by the government of the United States to superintend the settlement of the Indian tribes in the Indian territory migrating to the west of the Mississippi, they gladly accepted an invitation to join his expedition to the Indian territory.

The party at once landed at Ashtabula, Ohio, proceeded to Cincinnati, thence to Louisville, where thev took passage for St. Lonis. arriving at the latter place after a slow, but to them m(3st interesting voyage, on the morning of September 13, 1832. Here it was determined that each should travel as best suited his convenience to Independence, then a small frontier settlement about three hundred miles up the Missouri. Some concluded to wait for the steamlioat, which was expected to leave in a few days, luit the trio - Irving, de Pourtales and Latrobe - decided to purchase horses and wagon and to travel by easy stages overland to the place of rendezvous. After outfitting at the American Fur Company store and securing the services of a French Creole as guide, cook, driver, valet and interpreter - Antoine by name, hut abbreviated to Tonish, "a kind of Gil Bias of the frontier." who had passed a scrambling life among the whites and Indians - they left St. Louis on the evening of September 15th, and made their first night opposite St. Charles at a little French inn. Crossing to the north side of the Missouri river and turning through the outskirts of that town, they struck the old Boone's Lick road and spent the following nine days in traveling westward through a sparsely settled, undulating country, well covered with fine forests.

The hospitality of those upon whose kindness they were daily cast for entertainment was a source of constant admiration, and nothing in the life and surroundings of the "settlers" escaped their notice and kindly comment. The double-log house, with kitchen at a distance ; the zigzag fence of rails, enclosing a tall growth of Indian corn ; cattle, swine and poultry, supplemented by wild ganie ( deer, turkey and prairie chickens, all in abundance, enabling the good housewi\"es on shortest notice to spread a plentiful meal of tame or wild meats, fried chicken, egg, milk, honey, delicious butter, boiled green corn, and hot biscuits.

The}- traveled merril}- and happily together, noting much that was new, such as the great flight of prairie chickens, frecjuent salt springs and changes in the product of the forests, the pawpaw with its heavy luscious fruit being one of the greatest curiosities. On the fifth day they reached the town of (Old) Franklin, Howard county, where they made a diversion to visit Boone's Lick, and then recrossed the Missouri at the Arrow Rock ferry. The first night in Saline county (September 21st) was spent in a crowded log cabin, some distance west by north from the ferriage, where they were compelled to halt after dark, and it was with the greatest delight that they took their first morning ride toward the open prairie and enjoyed a late breakfast at the home of Col. John M. Lewis, spoken of at the first part of this narrative.

It was here that they got the first view of the vast prairie region, covered with the early autumnal flowers. In speaking of this visit. 'Sirs. Mary J. Lewis (widow of Col. John M. Lewis) said thiry years since that Mr.

Irving was so charmed with the beauty of the landscape, bedecked as it was in all its autumnal loveliness, that he could scarcely be content to remain indoors long enough to finish his breakfast. The young Swiss count, M de Pourtales, strolled out to get a shot at a herd of deer, and during his jaunt lost a scarf or handkerchief, which was found several days later, carefully preserved by Mrs. Lewis, and shown to visitors thirty years later. It was made of twilled silk, a yard sf|uare, with red and white striped borders oneeighth inch wide, and the center of cherry color.

The night of the 22d was spent at the Grand Pass at the home of WilHam i\Iiller, and the 23rd at Lexington, Independence l^eing reached on the afternoon of September 24th. In the course of a few days, they were joined by the commissioner and the journey continued by land to Fort Gibson in the Indian Territory, whence, under special escort of a body of rangers, they extended their tour to x\rkansas and Canadian rivers as far as the Pan Handle of Texas, returning late in the fall and again reaching civilization by way of the river routes.

A highly interesting narrative of this journey through the Indian Territory was afterwards written and published by Irving under the title of a "Tour of the Prairies."

Two years later Mr. Brown settled near where Mt. Carmel church now is, and the next to settle in the neighborhood was Major Thomas H. Harvey, who afterwards became superintendent of Indian affairs with his office at the city of St. Louis, under John Tyler's administration. After him came Daniel Snoddy, Joseph Gauldin, Col. John Brown, P. G. Hugh and James Swan, the latter, however, not until 1838.

In 1834 came Washington Lucas into the Guinn settlement, where he found, in addition to those already named, Thomas Monroe, James Garrett, Abner Guinn, and Allen, Harrison and Elijah Guinn, three brothers, who occupied the tract of land whereon Frankfort stands. Subsequently came Mat Ayers and his sons, Alexander and James, and James Jones, Hickerson and William S. Fields. Between 1829 and 1834 William Brown, O. B. Pearson, Burton Lawless, Jesse McMahan, Joseph Huston and Mrs. Henry Bingham settled at Arrow Rock, the latter the mother of George C. Bingham, famous as a painter and politician.

In 1833 the Vanmeters had settled near the Pinnacles, and in 1834 John Duggins settled southwest of the present town of Marshall. His neighbors were Cornelius Davis, Nathaniel Walker and Henry Pemberton. In the same year, Jeremiah Odell, Doctor Reid, Stephen Smith, Aaron F. Bruce and Samuel \\\ill located on the high prairie north of Salt Fork.

In 1833 John McDonell settled on Heath's creek. He sold out to James Witcher, who had for his neighbors Gerrin Head, who had come in the fall before, and William Corn, the latter four miles northwest, and McClure beyond him, north of Blackwater. Mr. Witcher found game plenty, and often killed a deer in the morning before breakfast. Wlien asked many years afterwards what induced him to select that location, he replied : "I was looking for good water, good timber and good land, and I found them all right here."

Isaac Nave visited Fort Cooper in 1820, but did not make a permanent removal until 1833, when he settled the place he afterwards lived on up to the time of his death. When he located there Benjamin Brown was already in the neighborhood, and soon afterwards came Ezekial Scott, Bernis Brown, the county surveyor, Mortimer Gaines and Rice Wood.

Major Thomas H. Harvey settled the same year in the ]\It. Carmel neighborhood, built a substantial brick house, where his son, Thomas, afterwards lived and which is yet standing and occupied as a residence in 1909. Robert C. Land also settled in the Shackelford neighborhood. At the same time, near Old Jefferson were located William T. Gilliam, George Hawkins, Doctor Kinear, Peter Huff" and Almond Guinn. Joseph and Samuel Grove came soon afterwards. The residents of Old Jefferson at that time were F. H. Gilliam, Thomas Lewis, William A. Wilson, Dr. John A. Hix, J. Davis, Nicholas Land, Perry Scott and Spencer Vaught.

In 1838 there were two more of the Reavis family, Odon and Doctor Reavis, who moved into the Salt Pond country, and also John Berry, Thomas and Robert Hickinson, James G. Beaty and Thomas Hunter, John and Robert Owens, James Yantis, Asa, Henry and Simon Pennington, Ed Armentrout, Captain Bright, Charles Murray and George Francisco, and William B. and George Kincaid lived some miles east of the site of Brownsville. Thomas Miller settled here this year, and his son, Calvin J., the following year. About this time, John McAllister located at the springs which yet bear his name.

In 1840 Beverly Carey moved down and settled Hazel Grove. Benjamin Miller and William Brown were his neighbors. The Lynches, Doctor Yantis and Ostrander, the Fergusons and others were on Blackwater near Brownsville.

In 1839 Judge W. B. Napton settled at Elk Hill. T. C. Duggins on Edmondson's creek. Henry and Tillman \^'eeden settled on Cow creek, where Henry built a mill about 1843.