Gen. John J. Pershing Boyhood Home

The northern part of this township is a high, rolling prairie, whose undulating surface gives it a fine drainage. Its timber is found along the banks of the streams and it is mostly white and burr oak, hickory, scrub oak, elm, etc. The southern section of the township is looked upon as rather better land, the soil being deeper than on the north side. Its timber is about the same in quantity. Tobacco yields well in the southern part, but corn, oats, and in fact all kinds of grain and vegetables well repay the husbandman's labor. The soil of the prairies is from eighteen inches to three i'eet in depth, and in some places hard-pan is found, but in the bottom-lands along the streams, the soil is literally without bottom, having for ages been formed of vegetable matter, rich in all that goes to make it fertile and inexhaustible. Limestone is not found but plenty of sandstone quarries of excellent building stone can be seen cropping out along the banks of Lo- cnst Creek, and there is a bountiful supply of coal which underlies nearly the entire southern portion of the township. There is a twenty-six-inch vein of coal now being worked three miles south of Laclede, only forty feet below the surface, and another shaft is being sunk one and one-half miles from the above named city, in which they expect to strike a much thicker vein at the depth of sixty feet. There is plenty of coal for the use of generations to come within the limits of this township. The question of cheap fuel is not one which will rise to trouble the people of Linn county let alone the citizens of Jeflerson township, and will prove a valuable adjunct to her future wealth and prosperity. Besides the immense coal fields of Jefferson township, fine brick and potter's clay is found, and as the county advances in wealth, brick will verv soon usurp the place of wood, and this cla}' is of a quantity that would build every residence in the county of brick.

Passage source: The History of Linn County, Missouri. An Encyclopedia of Useful Information, published 1882.

Thert'. are nine school districts in the townshi]); all have good frame buildings, with such appliances as is necessary for a thorough English education preparatory to a more extended course, all the leading towns in the county having graded schools, and Laclede is no exception. These schools are all in a ver}' Nourishing condition, are ke]it up six months in the year, and are well patronized. These school-lnnises are all frame buildings costing from $1,000 down to $500, and they are all paid for. For a more full and complete histor}' of the schools of Linn county, with an account of the township fund, see the Chapter upon schools in the general county history. It explains fully the situation of all the schools in the county, and the school fnnds. State, county, and townshiji.

Passage source: The History of Linn County, Missouri. An Encyclopedia of Useful Information, published 1882.

Machine-read from a century-old scan, so expect the errors a machine makes: misspelled names, dropped words, stray characters.

Read the whole chapter on Jefferson Township - 57,623 words on its settlement, mills, schools and churches.