Clear Creek Township

Clear Creek Township

Among the early settlers of this township, were James Taylor, who had three sons, William, John and James. He emigrated from the Sfate of Georgia to New Madrid, Missouri, where he witnessed the long series of earthquakes which occurred in 1811 ; from thence he moved to Cooper county, in the year 181 7. He had a large plantation, raised and alwa3^s had on hand large quantities of corn, upon which, when cribbed, he placed a certain price, and would not dispose of until he could get for it what he demanded. He was a very eccentric, plain, matter of fact kind of man, and was charitable to such as would work, but he had no patience with a lazy, trifling or profligate man. He was also a good judge of human nature.

At one time when corn was very scarce throughout the county, and very little could be had for love or money, two men came to Mr. Taylors house asking to purchase some corn, of which he had a large quantity, on credit, as neither of them had any money with which to pay. One was very poorly dressed, with his pants torn off below his knees, and what there was remaining of them, patched all over. The other was almost elegantly dressed. Mr. Taylor sold the poorly dressed man, on credit, all the corn he wished. He told the other one that ''he could get no corn there, unless he paid the money for it, and that if he had saved the money which he had squandered for his fine clothes, he w^ould have had sufficient to pay cash for the corn.

He had a large number of negroes, and required them, during the day, to perform a great deal of work. Shovel plows were mostly used in his day, and the wooden mole board just coming into use. It is related, that the shovels of Mr. Taylor's plows had, at one time, worn off very blunt, and he was very averse to buying new ones. So that one negro man plowed once around a field before he discovered that he had lost the dull shovel to his plow, the plow running just as well without as with it. He was a leader in the Baptist church, and was a devoted member, a kind neighbor, and a strictly honest man.

Jordan O'Bryan, a son-in-law of James Taylor, was also one of the early setilers of this township. He was born in North Carolina, moved to Kentucky when young, and to Cooper county in 181 7. As will be seen from the abstract, he was elected to the State Legislature in 1822, 1826, 1834 and 1840, eight years in all ; in 1844 he was elected State Senator for four years. He was a fluent speaker, a man of no ordinary talents, and an uncompromising Whig. In about 1830 he removed to Saline township, where he remained until his death.

Charles R. Berry, the father of Finis E. Berry, Isaac Ellis and Hugh and Alexander Brown, are among the oldest citizens ; others of a later date, were Herman Bailey,

William Ellis, Samuel Walker, A. S. Walker, H. R. Walker, Finis E. Berry, James and Samuel Mahan, the Rubeys, Jeremiah, William G., and Martin G. Phillips, Samuel Forbes, Ragan Berry, Hiram Dial, Samuel and Rice Hughes, and Willis Ellis.

Lamine river, the bottom lands of which are very fertile, forms the boundary line between this and Black Water townships. The greater part of the population are Germans, who have proved themselves to be a very industrious and thrifty people. They have mostly settled on the hills which the x\mericans thought too poor to cultivate, and have made them "blossom as the rose." They have succeeded in raising good crops, made good livings, and have been generally prosperous and happy. In the hills they cultivate the grape very successfully, and a large amount of wine is manufactured here every year. The Missouri, Kansas and Texas railroad runs about five miles through this township, furnishing the inhabitants transportation for their surplus productions.