Saline County, Missouri - Chapter 30: Distinguished Men of Saline County, 1910 (part 2 of 2)

Smith. The meeting was arranged by the seconds to take place across the river in Monroe county, Ihinois. Major John F. Darby in his "Memoirs," describes this duel as follows: "The pistols were loaded, the ground measin^ed off, and the principals placed. The pistols were cocked and handed to them. The rules and agreements of the high contracting parties, upon which the lives of two men in full health and in the full enjoyment of all their faculties depended, had been reduced to writing. It was provided that after the pistols had been cocked and handed to the l:>elligerents, the second who had won the giving of the w^ord (generally determined by tossing a coin) should put the question, 'Gentlemen are you ready?' If the parties answered, 'Yes,' or 'Ready,' then the second proceeds to count 'One,' 'Two,' 'Three,' neither party being permitted to fire before the word 'One" nor later than the word, 'Three.'

"In this case Colonel Smith, w'ith the rapidity of lightning, as soon as the word 'One' was uttered, put a ball in the center of Lionel Brow^i's forehead and he fell dead before the word 'Three' was spoken. Smith was untouched. Some one now raised the alarm that the civil authorities of Illinois were after them. McClannahan forgetting to uncock his pistol, put it in his breeches pocket, in haste to get to the river and across. In rowing over, the pistol fired off, wounding him in the leg, from w'hich he did not recover for six months."

In 1829 Colonel Smith, being at Nashville, challenged Gen. Sam Houston to fight, but the General declined the invitation, making a public explanation of his refusal. The duel did not take place. General Houston backing out.

The final serious and fatal encounter of Col. Smith T w-as with a man whom he killed at St. Genevieve, and for which he was indicted, but finally acquitted, by a jury. He became so notorious as to excite general curiosity, and although courteous and polite in his intercourse with acquaintances, yet he was shunned, as being a dangerous man, particularly when "in his cups."

From his home at Shibboleth, Colonel Smith T made annual visits to his property in Saline county, to look after his interests and in addition indulged in deer driving sport in which he took great delight. In the fall he would set forth from his residence in St. Genevieve, on horseback, attended always by his faithful negro servant and body guard. Dave, the latter well armed with a double-barrelled shotgun and large holster pistols, of his own make. Dave being an expert gunsmith, for his trip to Saline county, to spend a month or two in the royal sport of deer driving. Dave rode in the rear of his master a few yards distance, keeping his eye open for ambuscades, knowing his master had many enemies. On one of these journeys, the Colonel spent the night at a hotel in Jefferson City, - in fact he always made it a point to stop at Jefferson to rest for a clay or two. The late Hon. James S. Rollins, a distinguished Missourian, in his latter years took great delight in relating his introduction to Col. Jack Smith T at a hotel in Jefferson City, when Colonel Smith was on his journey from his annual hunt in Saline county, in the winter time when the Legislature was in session.

Major Rollins, then an eloquent young lawyer, who had recently opened a law office at Columbia, Missouri, had just arrived at Jefferson to fill an advertised appointment to deliver a temperance lecture, the Major being a gifted young orator and a very enthusiastic temperance advocate. On entering the hotel barroom, used also as the reception room for guests, he found a gentleman, a stranger to him, sitting there warming himself before the open wood fire, who had apparently arrived lately also. This individual was a man whose personal looks would alone attract the attention of a stranger, - not only that, but arouse his curiosity as well. He soon began a conversation with Rollins, ascertaining his name and residence, and after exchanging observations of Columbia and vicinity, he said, "Mr. Rollins, walk over here and let us have a drink of the landlord's licjuor." Mr. Rollins being out to make a temperance speech, of course it did not strike him as being a very becoming performance to drink liquor under such circumstances. So he declined, telling the gentleman that he did not indulge, etc. Colonel Smith at first used some mild persuasive language to induce the young man to join him, becoming more and more urgent, and at last, excited, finally saying to Rollins, drawing his pistol from his belt, laying it on the bar counter, "Sir! I allow no gentleman to decline to drink with me; you can either drink or fight." At this juncture the landlord stepped up behind Rollins, whispering in his ear. "That is old Jack Smith T ; for God's sake drink with him or he will kill you." "Well," Major Rollins in relating the incident would say, "I had heard of this notorious and dangerous man, and it flashed upon me that I had better drink with him, than suffer the result of his threat to kill me. From his manner, I had every reason to believe that he would not hesitate to shoot me down. So I took the drink of whiskey or brandy with Colonel Smith at the bar. Resuming our seats before the fire, the Colonel became more amiable and agreeable. Not being accustomed to drinking, the liquor soon had its effect on me ; the Colonel insisted on taking another and another until I was entirely too much intoxicated to even make an attempt to deliver my temperance lecture." Major Rollins related this account of his introduction to Col. Jack Smith T. when he was a member of the State Senate thirty years after it occurred, saying it was ineffaceably engraved upon his memory.

It is impossible to endorse or approve of the tragical life of Col. Jack Smith T, and it is not written with the expectation that this sketch will meet the approval of any reader, but so far as dueling is concerned, the practice of that mode of settling personal disputes was general with his contemporaries, and he was no worse than hundreds of other men of spirit and resentment, men such as Gen. Andrew Jackson and Thomas H. Benton, afterwards elevated to the highest positions bestowed by public favor. His conduct in many instances was a source of distressing regret and mortification to his more distinguished brother, General Smith.

Col. Jack Smith had a most amiable, mild and as gentle a wife as a woman could possibly be, and he was most devotedly attached to her. Through all his troubles and trials, she clung with a true love of woman, stronger than David's love for Jonathan. Colonel Smith had only one child, a daughter, who first married John S. Dedrick, by whom she had two children, a son and a daughter. After Dedrick's death, she married Capt. J. M. White, a gentleman of high character and great respectability, who lived in the city of St. Louis. By this marriage she had and reared a large family of children. She w^as gentle and amiable in her manners, respected and loved by everybodv who knew her. She had been brought up a Presbyterian, but from this church she voluntarily withdrew and attached herself to the Roman Catholic church from conscientious convictions alone, and in that faith she afterwards lived and died a devout member of the church. Col. John Smith T loved his daughter with as great affection and warm attachment as any man that ever lived, at least so said Major John F. Darby in his "Recollections."

Col. Jack Smith T went to Tennessee, in the neighborhood of Memphis, in 1835, to open a cotton plantation and here he died with disease, none but his negroes being present. His remains were afterwards brought up on a steamboat to Selma, in Jefferson county, Missouri, where his son-in-law, James M. White, lived, and was buried in March, 1835.

Major Darby further says John Smith T killed the most of the men he shot in fair and open duels, where his own life was at stake, in what in his day and time was considered honorable, open and manly warfare, and when he killed a man in any sudden quarrel or broil he always stood his trial, and was honorably acquitted by a jury of his countrymen. He was as polished and courteous a gentleman as ever lived in the state of Missouri, and as "mild a mannered man as ever put a bullet into the human body."

L.Hapter Xxxi

The author of this work, being a native of the county, remembers with more or less distinctness backward to the micklle of the last century, and in some instances and particulars even earlier than that period. In the southern part of the county, where he grew up to manhood, there were yet living some of the real pioneers, hunters and trappers, people who lived in log houses and still retained many primitive fashions, habits and ways. He remembers when plows with wooden shares or mould-boards were used ; remembers when all the cloth for family use was mainly woven on hand looms at home, and when the cooking was all done in iron ovens, pots and kettles about a large fireplace where wood was the fuel, and when the buckets and piggins were made of cedar staves with one stave prolonged upward above the rim to form a handle. He remembers when all the wheat and hemp was cut with a cradle and the wheat threshed out on a treadyard with horses ridden around over it until the grain was removed from the meshes, and when cornbread was the main staff of life, and when wheat bread was regarded as a luxury. He saw the first threshing machine used to thresh grain in this county, the machine being disconnected with a fanning or cleaning machinery. He remembers the first reapers to cut wheat without binding it in bundles, and in short, has witnessed all the great modern improvements in agricultural implements and machines and the great increase in the products of the soil made possible thereby.

He remembers wdien the county was very sparsely settled; when there were no houses on the vast prairie between Marshall and the Brakes of Blackwater; when the old county jail, built of stone on the same lot now occupied by the present building, was the first house in the town when approached from the south ; remembers when the countiy west of town on the Lexington road was almost one wa\'ing field of hemp for miles on either side of the road, there being several hundred acres on one farm alone, that of Aaron F. Bruce, who was one of the largest hemp raisers in the county.

He remembers when the greater part of the splendid prairie land about Mt. Leonard and Blackburn was nearlv all vacant, Iving unclaimed and un- occupied, yet belonging to the government, a very large part of it being entered and taken up under the "'Graduation Law" of 1854. This law provided when any man not owning land might enter three hundred and twenty acres at twelve and one-half cents per acre, and might enter that amount when it was found lying adjoining to land he already owned if yet vacant and belonging to the government. Congress soon became dissatisfied with this law and it only remained on the statute book until the next session of Congress, when it was repealed, and this placed the government land at the price of one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre as it had been before the passage of this "Graduation Law."

He remembers when Saline county was the finest game country on earth, when the white-tailed deer were more numerous than sheep are now% and when there were probably more wild turkeys than there are tame ones now ; remembers when the royal sport of deer-driving might be indulged in freely to gratify the sporting proclivities of the most ardent sportsman, even when it was denied to those in less favored localities in the adjoining counties, this game having remained here after becoming extinct even to the west of us in Lafayette and Jackson counties.

He remembers when the prairies fairly swarmed with numberless flocks of wild geese and prairie chickens (the latter were called paroquets by Washington Irving and other writers of early travel in the Western states), and when the lakes and creeks were filled with great flocks of wild geese and ducks in such immense numbers as when in flight to darken and almost obscure the light of day.

Saline county was in reality entitled to the designation of a hunter's paradise, the opportunities for killing game being unequalled, and at the same time no extremes of climate or trackless deserts to be encountered by the sportsman as are found in South Africa, Australia, and other great game countries.

He remembers when there was only one bridge over Blackwater, and when there was not a single railroad in the state of Missouri, nor a line of telegraph, - in short, remembers all the changes that have taken place in Saline county in the last sixty years of our history.

Lewis and Clarke, the now famous explorers, who' were sent out by Mr. Jefferson in 1803 to explore, examine and report the kind of country we had purchased from Napoleon Bonaparte, give us the earliest authentic account of

Saline county in their publication made some years afterwards. This expedition in ascending the Missouri in the spring of 1804, gives Saline county notice as follows in the vicinity of Arrow Rock :

"On the 9th of June (1804) we set out early and reached a cliff called the Arrow Rock, near to which is a prairie called the Prairie of Arrows and Arrow creek, a small stream about eight yards wide, whose source is in the adjoining prairies on the south. At this cliff, the Missouri is confined within a bed of two hundred yards, and about four miles to the southeast is a large lick and salt springs of great strength. About three miles further is Blackbird creek, on the north side opposite to which is an island and a prairie inclosing a small lake.

"Five miles beyond this we encamped on the south side, after making in the course of a day thirteen miles. The land on the north side is a high rich plain ; on the south it is also even and of good quality and rising from fifty to one hundred feet. Twenty-five miles above Arrow Rock a head-wind forced us to remain there all the next day, during which we dried the meat we had killed and examined the surrounding country, which consists of good land, well watered and supplied with timber. The prairies also differ from those east of the Mississippi as the latter are generally without any covering except grass, wdiile the former abound with hazel, grapes and other fruits, among which is the osage plum of a very superior size and quality."

Long before this, the "Arrow Rock" was well known to the early French and Spanish voyageurs, trappers and hunters, and the town located on the bluff was afterwards given the same name.

In 1839 the county seat was removed from Jonesboro to Arrow Rock. The reason for this removal is not very apparent at this day, and we have discovered no reason assigned for it at the time of the removal. Here also was the place where the early Santa Fe traders crossed the Missouri river, and the first ferry in this section of the country was established at that place. In fact, the relations between the people of old Franklin and Arrow Rock were very intimate, that is, their trade relations, it being only ten miles from the eastern terminus of the Santa Fe trail.

There is a legendary account regarding the Santa Fe trade to the effort that the second expedition, which went out in 1822, brought back great quantities of gold and silver, Mexican coin. This coin was packed up and secured in bundles, two of wdiich formed an ordinary "pack" for a mule, sewed up in rawhide fastened together with rawhide thongs. When this expedition got back in the fall of 1822. they brought into one of the storehouses at Franklin all of these packs of coin, and the rawhide thongs being cut, exposed to view great i)iles of money, the sig-ht of which brightened the eyes and excited the cupi(hty and ax'arice of all the people of Franklin, who had been for sometime previous using coon skins for currency and as a legal lender. These piles of money "jumped to the eyes." as the French say. of the people of Franklin, and many of them were afterwards encouraged to embark in the Santa Fe trade, though it was a very hazardous and dangerous business. 'i"he old Santa I'e trail was the longest and best nattu^al road to be found anywhere. Thirty-five years after the location originally of the Santa Fe trail, the author of this book traveled over the trail in company with an ox train of freight wagons, that is to sa)'. in the year 1857. There is probably no wagon road of the same length of such easy grade and (n-er which a wagon can l)e drawn from one end t(^ the other very heavily k^aded with merchandise. It was. in fact, a great natural highway. Throughout its whole length, we saw no place that needed or had received any mark of a shovel, scraper, spade or plow used in repairing it. In fact, we saw no place that looked as if it had even been worked on by a body, although the government in years ]iast had sent out some parties for the purpose of improving the highway.

The first ferr}- at Arrow Rock was established by Captain Becknell ( who originated the Santa Fe trade) in 182 1. The ferry boat was constructed of two keel boats lashed together, and covered with a platform with a railing around it. Captain Becknell afterwards ( 1828 and 1830) represented Saline county in the Legislature. The town was surveyed by Governor Marmaduke in the fall of 1829, and had for sometime previously been called New Philadelphia, but its inhabitants becoming dissatisfied with the name, procured the passage of an act of Legislature changing the name of the town from X^ew Philadelphia to Arrow Rock, the name of the bluff on which it was located.

The Town Of Jonesboro

This old town was once the county seat of the county, remaining so for more than a dozen years, although its population in its flourishing days was but a few hundred: still it was the seat of an extensive flouring mill anrl a place frequented by people from a long distance. It was also a favorite outfitting depot and starting' point for some traders, explorers and adventurers. who traded to Santa Fe in early days and who. living in this county. i)referred this place as a starting point at which to load their wagons and collect their teams. These parties would join the regular caravans at Independence or some point west of them. Jonesboro was frequently visited by early settlers from Grand Pass and other parts of the county and by people fr(Mn

The court room was of log's and an upstairs room o\^er store houses situated on the second bottom of the creek about a hundred yards from the bank, but in this court room when the court was in session might be found some of the ablest young- lawyers then in the state of Missouri. In the first place. Judge Todd occupied the bench and after him. Judge Scott in 1836, who afterwards became judge of the supreme court. As lawyers at the bar here were Abiel Leonard, John E. Ryland, Gen. DufT Green, and William B. Napton, as attorney-general. The lawyers usually stopped at the residence of Rice \\'ood. about a half a mile east of the town, where they always found comfortable quarters and good fare.

On the removal of the county seat to Arrow Rock, the business of Jonesl^oro began to decline, and in a few years there were no stores remaining there.

At the time of its prosperity, and wdiile it was the county seat, the annual musters of the militia for this section of the county took place at Jonesboro. These military meetings and trainings were then required by the statutes of the state, the section governing the matter being as follows :

Section 29. Every commanding oliicer of a company shall parade his companv for inspection, on the first Saturday of April annually, at ten o'clock in the forenoon, at such place as the said commanding officer shall appoint, and it is made the duty of the commandants, at every muster,' whether for training or inspection, to exercise their respective companies not less than three hours on each day. And the troops of this state shall be paraded in the month of ]\Iav annuallv. for training and discipline, in battalions on such dav and place as the commanding officers of the respective regiments and extra battalions shall appoint : the said troops shall be paraded in the month of October in every year, for review, inspection or discipline, either in brigades, regiments or battalions (regard being had to the scattered or compact situation of the troops), at such times and places as the commanding officer of the brigade may order. And every commanding oft'icer, non-commissioned officers and musicians of his regiment or extra battalion shall, by his order, assemble the officers, non-commissioned officers and musicians of his regiment or extra battalion, in the month of September in every year, for training and discipline; he shall, by his order, appoint the time and place, continue such training not less than two, nor more than four days consecutively, and may require such officers, non-commissioned officers and musicians to encamp on the ground during the continuance of such training so soon as the militia are furnished with tents and camp equipage. And the places to be appointed for training, inspections and reviews as aforesaid, shall always be as central as, in the judgment of the officers appointing the place, convenience will admit, provided, that no officer, non-commissioned officer, musician or private shall be obliged to travel more than twenty miles to any training, inspection or review."

Under the militia law of that period, all men of the age of eighteen, and under the age of forty-five, were subject to duty as militiamen, except such as could obtain exemption on the grounds of bodily infirmities rendering him unfit for military service, and the law required every commanding officer to parade his company for inspection.

The effect of this old militia law was to furnish a regular and a very flourishing crop of titled civilians, and in the absence of any titles of nobility such as our ancestors in England had, our people have been compelled to resort to militaiy titles, nearly all of which were gained as officials in the militia, but many of whom were never really in actual military service.

When Jonesboro flourished, there was also a good school there. The late Col. Vincent Marmaduke and his brother John, the general and governor, attended school there in their boyhood, but the name of the teacher is lost in the obscurity of the past.

In 1823 Mrs. Walker Atkisson, who was married at that time and settled near Jonesboro, said years afterwards that she had for neighbors James Robertson, Samuel Davis, Richard Scott and \^'yatt Bingham. Several years afterwards Dr. George Penn came and lived on the hill just above Jonesboro, where he practiced medicine. Asa Finley lived near the mouth of Salt Fork. Mrs. Atkisson was married in 1823, the marriage ceremony being performed by Judge George Tennille.

Walker H. Finley, judge of the county court in 1854, settled December 24, 1829, on section 22, township 49, range 20, the land being entered by his brother, W. A. Finley. Judge Finley afterwards stated, "Here I labored for ten years. At the time, the country seemed to be almost a wilderness. The neighborhoods were few and far between. The winter of 1830 and 183 1 was the severest ever known in Missouri up to that date. Snow fell the last of November, 1830, remaining on the ground until the first of the following March. No such snow storms have I ever witnessed since, and the weather was extremely cold. The snow at that time on a level was from four to five feet deep and there were drifts from ten to twenty-five feet deep. At that time, most of the people lived in very moderate size houses built of logs.

they being their own architects, and built in accordance with the situation. The snow was so terrijfic and so much of it that it would bank up around the houses, sometimes covering the windows and reaching up to the eaves of the houses, and the inmates would be compelled to work their way out with shovels. The decade following was one of regular and moderate seasons. The springs and summers were pleasant, but the winters were regularly cold and severe, having snow and cold weather with but little variation throughout the winter until after the first of March, when spring would come in with all its glories and with the rays of sunshine, warm the earth and cheer the people of Saline county."

In September, 1830, Judge Finley, in company with his sister, Phil Houx and David Morrow, went from Wyatt Bingham's to Lexington on horseback. By making an early start, the journey, then called sixty miles, was accomplished in one day. There were only two or three settlements between Jonesboro and Lexington. Cornelius Davis lived near where Marshall now is. The Hayeses, Owenses, Hunters and Gillettes were on Salt Pond creek. Johnson Grove and Page and Samuel Walker lived on the Tebo. The trail was not more than eight or ten inches wide, leading through the prairie on which in many places the grass was taller than a man on horseback. The Judge returned home after an absence of a week without missing the road or getting lost.

The Judge said at that time, 1830, "game was very plentiful, deer were very abundant. I could stand on a ridge in the prairie between the mouth of Salt Fork and Marshall and count at one sight twenty, forty and sometimes sixty deer in a herd quietly feeding. It was no trouble to kill deer then ; three or four a day was not considered a very great accomplishment."

The first marriage I remember after arriving in Saline county was that of Claiborne F. Jackson and Aliss Sappington, February 17, 183 1. The next marriage was that of Dr. George Penn and Miss Chambers, a daughter of Col. Benjamin Chambers, the first county clerk, and after that Judge N. B. Tucker and Lucy A. Smith, the daughter of Gen. Thomas A. Smith. The mortality of the county was certainly very light. There were not many people to die. Samuel Brown-john, an Englishman, died near Jonesboro in the vear 1830, and was buried there. The business men of this community when I first made my appearance here were Dr. John Sappington, Col. M. M. Marmaduke, Col. William Lewis, Gen. Thomas A. Smith, Wyatt Bingham, Nathan Harris, Asa Finley, Judge Huston, Benjamin Huston, Nowlin Hawpe, Thornton, Nave, Beatty, the Browns, Harveys, Davises, Lawlesses, Atkinson, and Marshall, who were then identified with the interests of Saline county. "These men are all dead now," Judge Walker Finley himself dying in 1898.

The tirst school house in this section was near W'vatt Bingham's. It was built of numd logs, the kind of houses both teachers and pupils were accustomed to. The teachers were Green Finley and, afterwards, John A. Trig-g. It was a subscription school, the teachers receiving about twenty dollars a month.

The southeastern portion of Saline county began to be occupied about the vear 1825. The first settler, Stephen Dial, entered and located upon section 12, township 48, range 20. Richard Howard, from Virginia, came in 1830. entering section 11, township 48, range 20. The first marriage in that neighborhood was that of James Campbell and Lucy Ann Rucker, half a mile Avest of the present town of Ridge Prairie. The ceremony was performed by the Rev. William D. Wear, a prominent Cumberland Presbyterian minister. The first regular physician in that neighborhood w'as George W. Rothwell, wdio became distinguished in his profession while he remained here. Some years afterwards he moved and located in Pettis county. The first school taught in the neighborhood was by the Rev. Thornton Rucker. He had about thirty-fi\'e pupils at one dollar per month tuition. Some of them were boarders and some of them li\-ed from four to eight miles away.

The first school house for the neighborhood was built in 1839, near Richard Howard's, being built of logs with a big wdde fireplace. It was built entirely of the material at hand, no mone}^ expended in its erection.

The mill used by these settlers was on Muddy creek, in Pettis county, sixteen miles aw^ay. Economy was everywhere enjoined and practiced by the settlers.

W hen I'ncle Dick Marshall's daughter, Linda, was married, her father called her up to him after the ceremony and after the w^edding supper, and said, "Now, Linda, you hear me. Don't let your face be seen in a store for six years. You understand."

Heath's creek, in the southern edge of the county, w^as named for Mr. Heath, of St. Louis, who came up the river from St. Louis as early as 1808 and made salt from the salt springs along the bank of the creek just at the edge of Cooper county. The Elk Lick White Sulphur Springs on Heath's creek, near the southern line of the county, furnished as good sulphur water as can be f(nind anywhere in the state and before the Civil war it was a watering jjlace of considerable local reputation, being frequented by many people during the summer seasons. The Springs was also a noted place for political speakings and gatherings.

.Among the other early settlers in the southern part of the county were Major Milton Wood, I^eter Thornton, Gen. William Miller. Col. William

The early marriages there were those of Madison \\'ood and Angeline Thornton ; Mr. Herron and Paulina Wood ; William B. Napton and Melinda Williams; John G. Miller and Margaret \Wlliams, daughters of Judge Thomas L. Williams, of Tennessee.

The first school taught in the neighborhood was taught near the Bingham farm by a teacher^iamed Pat Parsons. Jonesboro and Oliver's mill were the main milling places; some of the settlers, however, went to Pinhook in Pettis county.

On Finis creek. Renault's French gold seekers mined quite extensively in 1720. searching for precious metals, and erected rude smelting fnrnaces. Tliese men probably visited and mined on Blackwater also, where they left some remains of their mining operations. Robert Fitzgerald. Charles Beasley. and Caleb Witcher were among the first settlers on Finis creek.

Vp in Grand Pass township, in the western part of the county, John P. DeMoss located in township 52. He states that the first settlers were Capt. Dan Kiser, of Virginia, and George Davis, who came between the years 1 8 18 and 1820, from Ross county. Ohio, locating on section 8, township 51, range 22. Afterwards, in 1830, came the Lewises, William H., George W. and Col. John M., settling on sections 21, 22 and 2y. Col. John F. Yancey came from Virginia in 1834. settling on section 18. Alexander McClintick came from Virginia, in 1834, settling on section 29. Capt. John A. AMhte came in 1836, from Virginia, settling on section 22, and Mr. Renick came from Ohio, in 1839, settling on section 23.

The first marriage in this neighborhood was that of John Kenton and Tulia Davis about the year 1836. Squire J. S. McMillian, in 1836, married Nelson McReynolds to Anna Craig in Lafayette county. His jurisdiction in such matters being confined to his own township, many years afterwards the parties, doubting the legality of the ceremony, went through it again before a clergyman.

Anna DeMoss died October 26. 1839, the first person dying in the neighborhood, and was bnried in the graveyard one and one-half miles west of XA'averly in Lafayette county.

Lewis, who resided at Waverly in 1881. She had about a dozen pupils at a salary of twelve dollars a month. Those who could afford it in those days usuall}' employed private teachers. The Hon. John W. Bryant, afterwards a leading lawyer of the county, was tutor in the family of Colonel Yancey for some time.

The first school house in the neighborhood w-as built on Colonel Yancey's farm in 1828, by Colonel Yancey, William DeMoss, James Brown, Alex McClintick and George Davis at a cost of about fifty dollars.

For many years after the country was settled, there w^as but one road, the state road, running east and west. There were no l)ridges, no defined roads to the timber or from one house to another. Milling was done at Dover, or Jonesboro twenty miles away. Other supplies were obtained at Dover and Arrow Rock, and sometimes from Lexington. From the latter place all lumber was bought. Goods were brought from Dover and Jonesboro in wagons, from Lexington by steamboats, when they were running. The first boats up the river went no higher up than Lexington.

Joseph McReynolds settled on section 17, in 1824. Samuel McReynolds settled on section 18 in 1821. Both were Tennesseeans. Notley Thomas, who settled on section 18 in 18 18, was a Kentuckian.

The first resident physician was Dr. G. W. Hereford, who continued to practice until his death, in 1884. Mrs. Hereford, his widow, is still living in Marshall, at the advanced age of ninety-three years.

The first school was taught in section 18, near the county line, by Hugh French in the year 1827 or 1828. French had ten pupils, for which he w^as paid one dollar each per month. The school was the first school house built, a house of logs with puncheon floor.

The trading places at that time were Old Franklin, Boonville and Arrow Rock. The nearest mill w^as at Dover. The first postoffice was in Lafayette county, about a mile beyond the Saline county line on the Webb place near Waverly, John Dustin being the postmaster. The first steamboat carrying freight and passengers which ascended the Missouri river as high as Lexington is thought to have been "The Globe," owned and commanded by Captain Glasgow^ after w^hom the town of Glasgow, Howard county, was named. The first trip was made in 1835, and on her third trip down the river, being heavily loaded with corn, she struck a snag and sank. Before that time, navigation on the river was for the most part by keel-boats pulled up by ropes.

In the first years of this settlement, green horse flies were a great plague. It was utterly impossible to travel in the daytime with horses on account of the immense swarms of these blood-thirsty insects. Farmers were frequently compelled to work at night all through August and September. The flies were hatched in the long prairie grass abounding everywhere.

Hugh Gilliam first settled township 51, range 23, in 1837. Richard Malone, of Tennessee, and Nicholas James, of Virginia, who came in 1830, to section 32, township 52 ; Harper Meadows, also from Virginia, who came in 1835, settled on section 7, township 51. Milton and Alexander Galbraith, who had lived down about Jonesboro, came to section 31, township 52.

The first minister was the Rev. Jamison, Methodist, and the first religious sei-vices were held at the house of Mrs. Mary Gilliam. The first school taught in this section was by Edward March, who had about fifteen scholars at one dollar a month. The first school house was built on section 9 in 1846, costing

Mrs. Nancy James was renowned in early times as a weaver of cloth. She also became famous as a weaver of figured coverlets and other ornamental cloth.

The first postoffice in this section was on the farm where John Black afterwards lived, and was called Cow Creek. Green McCafiferty was postmaster, and in that day the postage was twenty-five cents on a letter.

The winter of 1830 was noted for its severity. The deep snow laid on the ground nearly all winter, the ravines being so filled up as to render travel almost impossible. In February, Col. John M. Lewis moved into a cabin on Salt Fork, where he remained till the close of the winter. Doctor Penn* of near Jonesboro, was the physician attending the sick in this neighborhood during this dreadful and eventful winter.

*Dr George Penn. a physician, who practiced all over Saline county in the early davs was for a time a partner of Dr. John Sappington. Doctor Penn was a native of Nelson county, Virginia, born in February. 1800. He was educated at Hampden Sydney Colle-e He afterwards studied medicine, taking a course and graduatnig at the Medical Colle-e in Philadelphia. He practiced a few years in his native county, removmg to Missouri in 1830, settling in Saline county. He entered land and improved a farm one

During- the Civil war. it was in this township that General Price's army halted for some days during his march through Missouri in the fall of 1864. The head(|uarters were near Riser's liridg^e, but the camps were located up and down Salt Fork for many miles. Here was where our favorite western general. Sterling Price, w^as visited by hundreds of people, male and female, who admired him and loved his cause. Here also he received and put in service hundreds of recruits, who availed themselves of the opportunity to escape from the hateful domination of the Federals and to enroll in the regular army of the Confederate States of America. This township furnished its quota of men of either side during the Civil war. It was in this neighborhood where the regiment of Col. Joseph O. Shelby was org^anized and rendezvoused in August, 1862.

The Grand Pass, which gives its name to the lake nearby and to the t(nvnship. is a narrow pass of highd>ottom from one hundred to five hundred yards wide [between the waters of Salt Fork (Mi the one side and the lakes in the river bottom on the other. The old state road passes over it, the great old thoroug-hfare of emigration and traders to Santa Fe and to California, and the name was given the pass by these early travelers.

In the early trading times. 1830 to 1835, a hotel was built and kept at the Pass by John and William Early, who were cousins of the Rev. John Early, a noted Methodist bishop of Kentucky. The Earlys sold out to George Francisco, who kept the hotel for some years, when it bimied down.

The Grand Pass and Davis lakes are two lakes in the river bottom north of the plains, one about three miles in length and a mile in width in earlv times. One is called Grand Pass lake on account of its proximitv to the Pass ; the of Saline count}', a sketch of whom we have heretofore given. Doctor Penn Hved on his farm near Jonesboro for many years, where he practiced his profession, also taking an active interest in politics. He had patients scattered throughout the limits of the county. In 1834 Doctor Penn was elected and served as a representative in the Legislature from this county and was also afterwards a member of the state .Senate from the twentythird district in 1838. In 1844 he was appointed by Governor Marmaduke as the agent of the state to superintend the survey of the state line between Missouri and Arkansas, jointly with some agents of the state of Arkansas. In 1847 he was appointed surgeon of the First Regiment of Missouri A^olunteers in General Kearney's army, which marched out to take possession of New Mexico, remaining there until the close of the war. Subsequently, after his return in 1847, he was appointed sub-treasurer of the United States at St. Louis. The acceptance of this appointment made it necessary for him to move his residence from Arrow Rock, where he was then living, to St. Louis. He purchased a farm in St. Louis county, near the town of Bridgeton, where he lived the remainder of his life.

Other, several miles long and a half a mile wide, was named for George Davis, one of the earliest settlers, who lived directly on the high ground above the lake. Just below is the magnificent body of level land called the Petite Saux plains. The soil is very deep and very rich and as productive as any land to be found anywhere. The name of these plains comes down from a very early date, named probably by the early French trappers, "Plaines des Petites Sauts," plains of the little falls, on which Malta Bend is built. These plains are about six or seven miles from east to west and varying from one to five miles in width. They lie about forty feet above the level of the low bottom and fifty feet above the river at a low stage.

At the organization, in 1832, of Grand Pass chapel, the Methodist church, there were present John and William DeJNIoss, Mrs. Jo McReynolds and daughter, Capt. John B. \A^ebb and his wife, the Misses McReynolds. Mrs. Margaret Lewis and daughter; Mrs. L. S. Major, Mrs. Harriett Lewis, wife of Gen. G. W. Lewis, and the Rev. R. H. Lee. the minister.

The town of Malta Bend was located on the Petite Saux plains, and was laid off by Joseph R. Lunbeck in 1857. There were then three dwelling houses, one dry goods store and a postoffice. The town derived its name from a famous old steamboat, named "Malta," which struck a snag at the bend of the river opposite the town and sunk, and thus the bend of the river acquired the name of the steamboat, and then the town became the heir of the name, Malta Bend. The town of Malta Bend now has railroad communication with the rest of the world by the Missouri Pacific, and, being surrounded by such productive land, must always be a prosperous town.

One of the first shipments of produce from the county along the river was made by Samuel Perry in 1822. He bought a flatboat load of pork at from one dollar to a dollar and a half per hundredweight, which he took down the river and sold at old Franklin and Boonville, realizing a good profit. The first shipment of potatoes and other produce was made the following year.

Doctor Penn was not only a man of fine reputation as a physician, but he had an active and an alert mind, well informed in political affairs, and was a good stump speaker and canvasser and naturally took an interest in politics and public affairs. The last public office he held was that of assistant bank commissioner in i860, Governor Jackson being chief commissioner, Jackson being succeeded after his election as governor by ex-Governor Sterling Price.

Doctor Penn lived to the advanced age of eight\--six years, dying at his home in St Louis county in the year 1886. His family of children surviving him were Mrs. Virgmia P. Smith, wife of Dr. Crawford E. Smith, of "Experiment," Saline county, Missouri; Dr. James Penn, physician, St. Louis county; George Penn, Esquire, St. Louis county; and Mrs. Lucy Edmunds, of St. Louis county, all grandchildren of Col. Benjamin Chambers, the first clerk of Saline county, in 1820.

Amony- the earliest ])ioncers of the Miami bottom, whose memory the older settlers used to delight to honor, was Robert Patriek, the government contractor, some of whose good qualities have been mentioned before in this historv. Patrick could travel through the Indian territories with his droves of beef for the armv when no other white man could. His residence was at Patrick's I'end, on the Missouri, where he had a tract of land of a thousand acres and where he collected his cattle preparatory to driving them to be delivered at the L'nited States forts.

While Mr. Patrick was engaged in driving his cattle he supplied himself and his emplovees with food in the following manner: Before leaving his home, he would parch a quantity of corn, grind it in a hand mill and put it in a leather sack for safe keeping. This answered for bread. His meat was obtained from the herds of deer along the line of his road, and from this economical way of living he saved enough money to buy a large tract of land from the government, and his wife also raised cottcMi and flax which she herself prepared for the spinning wdieel and the loom, weaving all the cloth that was required by the family. The women of these early settlements prepared all the cloth used for their clothing from the raw material. Four yards of cloth were supposed to be enough to make a woman's dress. Some men tanned their own leather and made their own shoes, and buckskin ser\'e(l for men's clothes.

In the southern part of Miami township were !Vlajor Thomas H. Har\-ey and Lewis Carthrae, P. Y. Irvine, J. H. Irvine, Hugh Irvine, Col. J. B. Brown, an old miller, Joshua Gauldin and J. A. Saufley. All of these people were from the state of Virginia.

In the neighborhood of Fairville, upon the authority of Josiah Gauldin. a resident since 183 1, it may be stated that the first settlers were Green Mc- Caffertv and wife, the surveyor of the county, wdio came before the year 1831, locating on section 31, towmship ^2, range 21; Daniel Snoddy. from Rockingham countv, Virginia, located in 1832, on section jo, townshii) 51, range 21 : James Lewis, from West Virginia, in 1836, located on section 10. township 51, range 21. Daniel Snoddy married Jane Brown in 1833, at the residence of James Brown, the ceremony being performed b}' a ^Ieth(^dist preacher. 1"he first regular i)hysician was Dr. George Penn. from near Jonesboro, who afterwards became a noted Democratic politician. subse(|uently removing to St. Louis county. The first schools were taught in a grove on section 15, where the first school house was built, which was a frame house eighteen feet square. Among- the teachers here in this school house was Capt. Jonn W. Reid, who afterwards commanded the company of Sahne county men in Doniphan's expedition to the Mexican war. The Glasgow and Lexington road w^as the only thoroughfare through this settlement in the early days. The people went to Jonesboro and Arrow Rock for what they needed in the way of store goods, and the main store in Arrow Rock was then kept bv C. F. Jackson, who also became a noted Democratic politician and was ultimately elected governor of the state, just as the clouds of Civil war began to appear and overcast the political horizon. The main merchants at Jonesboro were Hook & Brothers and IMarmaduke & Sappington, a hrm composed of M. M. Marmaduke and E. D. Sappington.

Miami township abounds in many features of interest to the archaeologist and antiquarian. Here are the Pinnacles and the site of the old French fort, and the probable site of the massacre of the Spaniards by the Indians in the eighteenth century.

There are many evidences and traces of occupants prior to the occupation of the whites in Miami township, among which are the remains of the old fort, which is about four miles southeast of Miami in what is called the Pinnacle hills. In the old fort there have been found and dug up portions of human skeletons. The Indians who were here when the white man came knew nothing of the people who had built the fort, or the mounds in that neighborhood. There was also found in the early days quantities of unglazed broken crockeryware in the vicinity of the Pinnacle hills. There were also pipes made of red stone, arrow heads made of flint, and red stone used for paint. These were undoujjtedly left Ijy the Indians. Stone axes have also been found.

Honey was very abundant in the wild A\o()ds when the country was first occupied. Nearlv every other hollow tree was a bee tree and the hollow trees without honey were filled with coons.

I'he great earthquake of 1811 destroyed a large portion of New ^Madrid countv. leaving' many people in a state of destitution and ]:)overty. As has been before stated in this history. Congress came to their relief, passing an act granting to each settler who was damaged by the earthquake a claim for an equal amount of land to that which had been destroyed by the earth(|uake, which claim might be located anywhere there was any land owned by the government which had been surveyed and was subject to sale. Jacob Ish bought two of these New Madrid land warrants, locating the first warrant in 1 816, in the Big Bottom, and this was probably the first land title in Saline count^- derived from tlie government.

The land of Saline county was surveyed in 1816 and 1817, and a land office established at old Franklin, the land at first being offered at public sale, beginning the 2d of November, 1818, advertising on what particular day the congressional township would be offered for sale. The terms of the land sales was one-fifth cash and four annual payments, which proved very disadvantageous for both the government and the purchasers for the reason thai purchasers were disposed to buy and did buy more than they were ultimately able to pay for, and consequently this plan of disposing of the public domain was shortly abandoned. The lands of those who had purchased more than thev were able to pay for, under a subsequent act of Congress reverted to the government, and were again oft'ered for sale.

The Town Of Miami

This town was formerly called Greenville, and at one time aspired to be the county seat. The land upon which the town is located was entered by Henry Ferrill, in 1833. In 1836 he established a ferry over the river and laid out the town in 1838, which was called Greenville until 1843. when, by act of Legislature, it w^as changed to Miami.

In 1838 a steam sawmill was set in operation, which enabled people to build frame houses, but the first warehouse was built of logs and from this the first crop of hemp, owned by P. Y. Irvine, Esquire, was shipped by J. J. Ferrill in 1840. Hemp soon became the great staple of the county, and in i860 Saline county was the greatest hemp-growing region of the West, and Miami the main shipping point for that article. The population of ^Jianii had then reached about eight hundred. The Civil war brought on a great change in the agricultural products of the county. The main attention was given to the raising of corn, wheat and stock, these crops gradually taking the place of hemp.

In early years it was thought by many that the soil of Saline county was not well adapted to the growth of wheat, but experience of late years has shown this idea to be erroneous. The crops of wheat now are not only large, but the grain is of as good quality as any produced in the West.

One of the main difficulties and troubles encountered by the early settlers was the scant supply of timber for building and fencing purposes. The timber found in Saline county by the first occupants was mainly in the Missouri river bottoms and of narrow strips in the low creek bottoms of the smaller streams.

On the ridges and hills back from the river and the creeks there was a scope of country of various width described by the government surveyors in making the original surveys as "barrens," a rolling and hilly prairie country that was covered with a scattering growth of old large trees of white oak and black oak, hickoiT and black jack, etc. This land called barrens afterwards grew up in timber, that is, it began to become timbered when the settlements became strong and numerous enough, together with the well-traveled roads to keep back the prairie fires and protect the young growth from destruction in that way. These fires had hitherto prevented the spread of the young timber. This preservation and protection of the young timber occurred after the county had become pretty well settled up and the land entered and owned by the settlers.

But for many years before this second growth timber got large enough for house logs, they were a scarce article at a distance from the Missouri river and to get first-rate house logs some of the first settlersi were compelled to go across the river to Howard county after them. There are yet two dwelling houses standing in the central part of Salt Fork' township originally built of hewn logs that were cut and hewn in Howard county, rafted across the river and hauled out by ox teams to the place where the houses were erected. One of these is the old residence of General Smith on section 9, township 49. range 20, built in 1826. The other was the residence of ]^Irs. Rebecca L. Mitchell (aftenvards Mrs. R. L. Shelby), situated on section 21, township 49, range 20, built in 1830, and yet (in 1909) in a good state of preservation, having been weather boarded with walnut planks soon after it was built. It is a house of four rooms, being eighteen feet wide by sixtyfive in length, with two large stone chimneys, the fire-places being nearly large enough for a stick of cord-w^ood, and from appearances it will be a good house eighty years to come, it being eighty years since it Avas built.

In consequence of the scarcity of the timber, the labor and expense of fencing the lands was very great, and many farmers in the central part of the count}^ have been compelled to haul rails ten or twelve miles to enclose their land. But in the latter part of the last century this new growth of timber as above described had much of it become large enough for house logs and rails, and in fact, there was five times as much timber in the last quarter of the century as was found here by the early settlers when they first occupied the county.

There was a town called Jefi^erson on the bank of the Missouri river immediatelv aljove where Cambridge was afterwards built. For eleven years this town was the county seat. Imt the town declined at an early day on account of the landing being destroyed by the changes in the current of the river, and there remains no vestige of the former town at the present day.

'The town of Cambridg'e. on the Missouri just l^elow tbe former site of Jefferson, was a flourishing- shipping point for man}- years before the construction of the Chicago & Alton raib'oad. 1'be town was ])egun in 1845 and was regularly laid out in 1848. The first business man was F. A. Brightwell, who built the first house and was the first i)ostniaster. the postoffice being established about the time the town was begun. The town of Slater has sapped the life out of Cambridge.

The town of Slater has been a flourishing place since its foundation in 1878. The town is largely a railroad town, but is situated in a magnificent farming country, and. being one of the general division points of the Chicago & Alton railroad, it has quite an extensive round house, repair shops and turn-table. The round house accommodates twenty locomotives and there are ten miles of side-tracking at Slater. The land on which this town was built once belonged to Josiah Baker. Jr. He donated t() the railroad company half of his land u^xdu which the town is located for railroad purposes, and in this way secured the location of the town. Slater can now boast of many commodious and pleasant residences, built of brick with all the modern appliances of water, heat and light, granitoid walks, etc. It is a live town, and improving gradually.

The town of Saline City, in Clay township, situated on a high bluff bank of the Missouri river, is said to be the best and one of the most favorable places for the building of a bridge across the river between St. Louis and Kansas Citv. but vet no railroad com[)any has adopted it as a crossing, notwithstanding its most favorable situation. 1die site of this town was cleared off by Rufus Biglow. in 1858. and the town surveyed and i)latted by Col. George \\ . .Vllen. the land belonging to 1'homas Jackson and T>ewis Eversham. Hie landing at this point is good, and sfnne ship])ing is done l)y the ri\-er. The town was named Saline City, though the ])oint had been known bv the Indians and by them called Little Arrow Rock. W'iien tiie posloflice was established it \vas found that there was alread}- a postoflice in Missouri named Saline City, and then the postoffice de])artment at Washington registered the place as Little Rock. Missouri, the town site having long been called ''Little Arrow Rock."

Just below Saline City there is a creek emptying" into the Missouri named Pierre Fleshe. thus called l)y the 1^'rench in the seventeenth century. .\t the mouth of this there was a camp of trappers, and at that time a (juantity of furs were "cached" there. The stream itself, though a small one. abotmded in beaver, otter and other fin"-l)earing aniiuals. and was much resorted to by the hunters and tra]')])ers of the earlv times. John Thornton, an old ])ioneer.

told Jerrold Letcher that Pierre Fleshe, named by the Inchans. puts into the Missoini where the current formerly ran as swift as an arrow, and hence its name, meaning a swift arrow. Of course. Mr. Thornton was mistaken about this, but it matters little.

Orearville was first called Centerville. The site was first settled b)- one James Smith, of Tennessee, who entered on sections 26 and 2~. He afterwards sold to James Shelby, a son of Isaac Shelby, the first goxernor of Kentucky. He sold to Ennis Combs, and his grantee to B. V. and X. C. Orcar. The town was started in 1852, 1)}- X. C. Orear, who afterwards serxed as justice of the peace there, and the town has since been the headciuarters of a ^-erv extensi\-e family for wliom the place was named.

Edward Reavis and Duke Prigmore were among the early settlers in tlie southwestern part of the county. They landed at in 1818, when there was only one store in that place, kept Ij}' Air. W'yan, in a small log house. Prigmore stopped at Buffalo Prairie, about the mouth of Blackwater, afterwards moving t( . the neighborhood of McAllister Springs. A\'hen he arrived there he found two families. Reavis and Alayes. These four men, Air. Prigmore making- fi\-e. were tlie only white people in the neighborhood. Alayes moved awav in a short time and his place was occupied by John and Robert ()v.en>. Tliis was about the year 1824. T\\o or three years after this, (in account of Indian troubles, all of the settlers left, going to Howard county, except Prigmore, who went to Lafayette, then called Lillard. But before the summer was over, Air. Reavis came back. The others came back the next s])ring. Idle Osages, Kaws, Kickapoos, Sacs and Foxes, Delawares and a few Shawnees were the Indians who frequented that part of the country at the time. Thev were ])erfectly friendly and fairl}- honest. The white settlers traded, hunted, ran horse and foot races and wrestled with the Indians in peace and good fellowsliip. Hiis had been the hunting ground of tlie different triljes, and were much inclined to rexisit it. The white people were all farmers, except Air. Rea\-is. who farmed and also made salt. Idie nearest mill was a horse mill owned b\' one AIcFarland al)out fort}-five miles ot+ in Cooper county, southwest of Boonville. They would take a wagon kjad to mill once or IV ice a year, and that was so much trouble that Air. Prigmore bought a -mrdl ])air of mill stones and fixed them up so that the}' could be run by hand.

When these people, Reavis, PriguK^-e and Alayes, settled there, i'.i 1817 and 1818. there were ]^lenty of buiTalo, bear, elk. deer, panthers, wol\-es, wildcats and catamounts, turkeys and bees, that is, on the headwaters of I'lackwater. The l)ear, jjanthers and wolves were \-er}- destructi\-e to the stock, esjiecially to the hogs. Hear was hunted with dogs, when snow was on the o-round, deer and such game with rifles, and woh'es and cats, principahy witli steel traps. If any of the settlers got a new gun, the rest of them were envious until they could beat the new gun shooting at a target. At a houseraising all the neighbors for eight or ten miles would collect together, all bringino- their guns. If, after the house was raised, no deer was wanted, they shot at a mark before going home. Rifles were used altogether.

A camp meeting was held once a year where Dover now stands, and everybodv went. The camp meeting w^as held by Christians and Cumberland Presbyterians.

The first bank in Marshall was that of Dunnica, Cordell & Company, in 1868. and was the second bank in the county. Previous to that there was one bank in Arrow Rock. The company was composed of W. F. Dunnica, J. H. Cordell and James H. Eakin, this partnership being succeeded in the business bv Cordell & Montague, with J. H. Cordell and E. D. Montague, partners. This bnnking concern was succeeded by a stock company called the Saline County Bank, in 1874, of which W. AV. Field was president, and J. H. Cordell, cashier. In March, 1877, the Saline County Bank wound \\\\ its business and sold its real estate to the Farmers' Savings Bank. On the same day the firm of Cordell & Dunnica, composed of J. H. Cordell and William F. Dunnica, l^egan a new banking business.

The banking- house of Wood & Huston commenced the Ijanking business at ^Marshall in February, 1874, the banking business being owned and conducted by Will H. W^ood and Joseph Huston, who had long been business men of Arrow Rock and well and favorably known throughout the county. This bruiking house did a g'ood business from the start and remains up to this time one of the strongest banking houses of central Missouri.