Smithton Township (part 1 of 2)

Chapter Xxix Sedalia In The Early Days

GENERAL SMITH - FOUNDING OF TOWN - NAME - FIRST THINGS AND EVENTS - PA¬ CIFIC RAILROAD - COUNTY SEAT - CIVIL WAR - IMPROVEMENTS AND INDUS¬ TRIES - EARLY BUSINESS HOUSES - CHURCHES - SCHOOLS - PUBLIC UTILITIES - BUILDINGS - PROFESSIONAL MEN - OFFICERS - STATISTICS - RAILROAD HIS¬ TORY _ 202-228

National Guard

COMPANY FORMED IN SEDALIA IN 1890 - IN THE SPANISH- AMERICAN WAR - SEC¬ OND REGIMENT BAND - HOSPITAL CORPS - ROSTER OF COMPANIES D AND I - REORGANIZATION - MEXICAN BORDER - WORLD WAR _ 245-250

Chapter Xxxv

MASONIC BODIES - INDEPENDENT ORDER OF ODD FELLOWS - REBEKAHS - KNIGHTS OF PYTHIAS - ELKS - MOOSE - EAGLES - RED MEN - MACCABEES - WOMANS' BENEFIT ASSOCIATION - KNIGHTS OF COLUMBUS - WOODMEN OF THE WORLD - WOODMAN CIRCLE - KNIGHTS AND LADIES OF SECURITY - CHAPTER "B" P. E. O. - YOEMEN - UNITED WORKMEN - MYSTIC WORKERS - ANCIENT ORDER OF HIBERNIANS - KNIGHTS AND LADIES OF FATHER MATTHEW - ROY" AL NEIGH¬ BORS - MODERN WOODMEN OF AMERICA - TRADES UNIONS _ 278-288

Chapter Xxxvi Clubs And Other Organizations

CHAMBER OF 'COMMERCE - COUNTRY CLUB - CHAUTAUQUA - GRAND ARMY' OF THE REPUBLIC - UNITED CONFEDERATE VETERANS - UNITED DAUGHTERS OF THE CONFEDERACY - WOMAN'S RELIEF CORPS - DAUGHTERS OF AMERICAN REV¬ OLUTION - NEHEMGAR - [DAUGHTERS OF 1812 - MUSICAL CLUB _ 289-297

Chapter Xxxvii Cities, Towns And Villages

LAMONTE - GEORGETOWN - HUGHESVILLE - GREEN RIDGE - LONGWOOD - BEAMAN - HUSTONIA - DRESDEN - SMITHTON - THEIR SETTLEMENT, GROWTH, OFFI¬ CIALS, INSTITUTIONS AND INDUSTRIES - OTHER PLACES AND EXTINCT TOWNS _ 298-308

Roads And Highways

SEDALIA SPECIAL DISTRICT - ORGANIZATION OF SAME - SURFACED ROADS - AVER¬ AGE COST PER MILE - OFFICERS 12-MILE DISTRICT - TOTAL MILEAGE - BOND ELECTION IN 1912 - REVENUE FOR BUILDING - MAINTENANCE - REPAIRS - SMITHTON SPECIAL DISTRICT AND OFFICERS - LAMONTE SPECIAL DISTRICT AND OFFICERS - GREEN RIDGE SPECIAL DISTRICT AND OFFICERS - HOUSTONIA AND LONGWOOD DISTRICT AND OFFICERS _ 309-311

Chapter Xxxix Bench And Bar

EARLY DAY PROCEEDURE - FIRST COURT HELD AT ST. HELENA, FIRST COUNTY SEAT - COUNTY SEAT AT GEORGETOWN FROM 1837 TO 1869 - COUNTY COURTRECORD OF FIRST CIRCUIT COURT - OTHER TERMS - SEDALIA, THE COUNTY' SEAT - COURT OF COMMON PLEAS - PROBATE COURT - CRIMINAL COURT - PRESENT COURT OFFICERS - ATTORNEYS SINCE ORGANIZATION OF COUNTY' - PRESENT ATTORNEYS OF PETTIS COUNTY _ , _ 312-321

Chapter Xl The Missouri State Fair

ACT OF GENERAL ASSEMBLY - SEDALIA SELECTED - ADVANTAGES OF LOCATIONFIRST OFFICERS - DISASTROUS FIRE - REBUILT AND IMPROVED - 1918 MOST SUCCESSFUL Y'EAR _ 322-323

Chapter Xli

SEDALIA CHAPTER AMERICAN RED CROSS - ORGANIZATIONS - BRANCHES - DE¬ PARTMENTS - JUNIOR MEMBERSHIP COMMITTEE - BELGIAN RELIEF - RE¬ PORTS OF VARIOUS DEPARTMENTS - HOME SERVICE SECTION OF CIVILIAN RELIEF - RED CROSS DRIVES - UNITED WAR CAMPAIGN - PETTIS COUNTY'S THIRTY PER CENTUM - COUNCIL OF DEFENSE - NATIONAL WAR SAVINGS RESPONSE TO THE LIBERTY LOANS - FOURTH OVER SUBSCRIBED MORE THAN COMMITTEE _ , _ _ 324-334

Introductory

The history of Pettis County, Mis¬ souri, is of necessity connected with the State and county surrounding us. We will refer in a general way to the ele¬ ments and conditions of our common country, so far as in the writer's opin¬ ion, it effects this county. The deeds, habits and customs of those who have lived and served before us will be discussed and preserved in this work. We realize that neither history nor song can recount them all and that the vicissitudes of time have not erased them nor dimmed their glory and for that reason they will not be treated lightly here.

History, whether it be that of a tribe, a nation or a community, is a recount, a record, or a perpetuation of events of previous occurrence. Biography is the history of individuals. To be authentic it should not glare with vain praise nor flattery; at the same time, it should not lightly treat, nor underestimate the importance of events, or of persons responsible for their happening. Biography is not neglected in this work because the people of Pettis County have made it what it is today. They have organized our civilization, moulded our customs, founded our insti- tutions and enacted our laws. All of these we have, and owe them for all. It should be a pleasure to us to know who made these things pos¬ sible and a source of gratification to future generations, through bur efforts, to read of those people who have maintained and upheld them.

History comes either from the pens of writers or from the memory of individuals. Both sources have been neglected in Pettis County. We reflect that there was a time when the vast domain west of the Mississippi was inhabited by wild men and wild beasts. We are even told it was, upon a time, an inland sea. When man came to America, however, there were great possibilities for him in this country of the west, out of which Pettis County was carved. In the early part of the eighteenth century to France and Spain fell this western domain to bring into civilization. France seems to have ceded to Spain, Spain recedes to France, and France in turn cedes to the United States. It isn't the province of this history to elaborate upon these transfers, yet we will refer to them to recall dates so far as they effect the ultimate carving the present bound¬ aries of this county out of this domain, Louisiana Territory, and State of Missouri.

Octoher 30, 1795 (some have put it 1763), the French Government ceded to Spain what was known as Louisiana. On the first day of Octo¬ ber, 1800, by the treaty at St. Defonso, Spain retroceded the same terri¬ tory to France. A very interesting history is of these dates. The great Napoleon was embarrassed by war. Practically all then nationalized Europe had drawn their swords. Napoleon needed money. Jefferson, President of these, then, United States, saw the disadvantage of the west Mississippi being held by another power, opened negotiations with Napo¬ leon, for Napoleo'n was France at that time, for the purchase of the Louisiana territory. So far the treaty of Paris, on the 30th day of April, 1803, the commissioners from the French republic, and the commis¬ sioners from the United States signed a treaty ceding to the United States for the consideration of fifteen million dollars "the colony or prov¬ ince of Louisiana." (See Laws of Missouri 1804-1824, volume one (1) page one and following.)

Napoleon realized his losing a great prize in disposing of Louisiana, is shown in his address to his commissioners prior to the ceding of the country, viz.: "I am fully sensible of the value of Louisiana, and it was my wish to repair the error of the French diplomats who abandoned it in 1763 (?), I have scarcely recovered it before I run the risk of losing it, but if I am obliged to give it up, it shall hereafter cost more to those who force me to part with it, than to those to whom I shall yield it. The English have despoiled France of all her northern possessions in America and now they covet those of the South. I am determined that they shall not have the Mississippi. Although Louisiana is but a trifle compared to their vast possessions in other parts of the globe, yet, judging from the vexation they have manifested on seeing it return to the power of France, I am certain that their first object will be to gain possession of it. They will probably commence the war in that quarter. They have twenty vessels in the Gulf of Mexico and our affairs in St. Domingo are daily getting worse since the death of LeClere. The conquest of Louisiana might be easily made, and I have not a moment to lose in getting it out of their reach. I am not sure but that they have already begun an attack upon it. Such a measure would be in accordance with their habits and in their place I should not wait. I am inclined, in order to deprive them of all prospects of ever possessing it, to cede it to the United States. Indeed, I can hardy say that I cede it, for I do not yet possess it; and if I wait but a short time my enemies may leave me nothing but an empty title to grant to the republic I wish to conciliate. I consider the whole colony as lost, and I believe that in the hands of this rising power it will be more useful to the political and even commercial interests of France than if I should attempt to retain it. Let me have both your opinions on the subject."

These ministers or commissioners failed to agree and Napoleon fur¬ ther said: "The season for deliberation is over. I have determined to renounce Louisiana. I shall give up, not only New Orleans, but the whole colony, without reservation. That I do not undervalue Louisiana I have sufficiently proved, as the object of my first treaty with Spain was to cover it. But though I regret parting with it I am convinced it would be folly to persist in trying to keep it. I commission you therefore to nego¬ tiate this affair with the envoy of the United States. Do not wait the arrival of Mr. Monroe, but go this very day and confer with Mr. Living¬ ston. Remember, however, that I need ample funds for carrying on the war, and I do not wish to commence it by levying new taxes. For the last century France and Spain have incurred great expense in the im¬ provement of Louisiana, for which her trade has never indemnified them. Large sums have been advanced to different companies, which have never been returned to the Treasury. It is fair that I should require repayment for these. Were I to regulate my demands by the importance of this ter¬ ritory to the United States, they would be unbounded ; but, being obliged to part with it, I shall be moderate in my terms. Still, remember, I must have fifty millions of francs, and I will not consent to take less. I would rather make some desperate effort to preserve this fine country."

Within eighteen days from the speaking of these words Louisiana became a part of the United States. The treaty provided amply for the protection of the rights of settlers and it was a pleasure to the great Bonaparte to congratulate his late subjects upon their new relation. Upon completing the treaty Mr. Livingston, one of the commissioners on behalf of our country, is reputed to have said: "I consider from this day the United States takes rank with the first powers of Europe, and now she has entirely escaped from the power of England." Bonaparte is further quoted as saying: "By this cession of territory I have secured the power of the United States and given to England a maritime rival, who, at some future time, will humble her pride." These prophetic words have been verified fully. Amos Stoddard took actual possession for the United States of upper Louisiana on March 9, 1804. The authority, of the United States over Missouri dates from this day. The purchase of Louisiana was known to embrace a great empire and secured a heritage to the peo¬ ple of our country for all time, but its grandeur, its possibilities, its inex¬ haustible resources and the important relations it would occupy among nations, never entered the brain of the wildest dreamer nor the profoundest statesmen. The pioneer, who in early days pitched his tent upon these broad prairies, or penetrated the lonely forests of this country little thought of the mighty tide of physical and intellectual progress so soon to flow in his footsteps, to populate, build up, and enrich this vast domain which he conquered. We will never know the debt we owe these hardy forerunners, who year after year lead civilization further and further across the valleys, plains, hills and mountains of this new purchase.

Do we owe Napoleon, who delivered us Louisiana, a debt of grati¬ tude? He did not underestimate the value of this territory, geographi¬ cally located as it was, to us. Was his act one of revenge to give England a maritime rival to humble her pride? This thought seemed uppermost in his mind. We cannot assume that he forsaw the Teutonic struggle for world power and dominion nor that in his dreams he saw his own France and his rival England, in later years, standing together bleeding, broken and torn at the shrine of this Nation, the tomb of Washington at Mt. Vernon, on the banks of the quiet Potomac, there placing wreaths of flowers, and offering silent supplications to their Creator for the preser- vation of civilization. Could Napoleon have seen or dreamed this, he must have felt that we had paid France in full for whatever advantage she had given America. We are taught and we know, realize and under¬ stand that nothing happens in this world by chance. Napoleon did not cede Louisiana by chance. He ceded it to America, this creator and destroyer of empires and kings, regardless of what his dreams might have been, that it might save the civilized world from oppression and America, of which the Louisiana Purchase is a part, did in the year 1918 A. D. make the world safe for Democracy. Pettis County, carved from Louisiana, did her part well.

"The District of Louisiana," composed of the country so ceded by France to the United States, lying north of the thirty-third degree, of north latitude, was organized as a territory of the United States by an Act of Congress approved March 24, 1804. By the same act said "Dis¬ trict of Louisiana" was placed under the jurisdiction of Indiana Terri¬ tory for governmental purposes (Chapter 2, Laws of Missouri 1804-1824 at page 5). The "District of Louisiana," was changed to the "Territory of Louisiana," by Act of Congress approved March 3, 1805. (Same laws, chapter 3, page 6.) The name of Louisiana Territory was changed to Missouri Territory by Act of Congress approved June 4, 1812. By the same act the "executive power was vested in a Governor, who should reside in the said territory." This act has a very interesting provision for the selecting of a legislature. It provides the representatives shall "be convened by the Governor, in the town of St. Louis on the first Monday in December next." (Same laws, chapter 4, page 8.)

Chapter Ii State Of Missouri

-'THE CHILD OP THE STORM" - SOURCE OF EARLIEST SETTLERS - MORE AMERI¬ CANIZED SETTLERS - THE MISSOURIAN - EVENTS OP ITS ADMISSION - PLAN OP ADMITTING FREE AND SLAVE STATES - COMPROMISES - MISSOURI ADJUTTED BY PROCLAMATION - STRIPE OF SETTLERS - FIRST GENERAL AS¬ SEMBLY - SELECTION OF U. S. SENATORS - BARTON AND BENTON SELECTED - EARLY SETTLEMENTS - EXECUTIVES SINCE 1S13.

John Scott, the delegate from Missouri Territory, in Congress in 1819, referred to Missouri as "The Child of the Storm." Very aptly was this name applied to the territory he represented. Not only viewing it from the stormy political questions raised when she sought admission to the Union, but also from the class of its early settlers.

The earliest settlers, coming as they did from three distinct sources, each possessing racial peculiarities, habits, prejudices and principles. When this blood was mingled there is no wonder why the offspring should be turbulent, courageous, and at the same time reasonably lovable and firm in their convictions. Convictions with these early adventurers was synonymous with action. The Spaniard came to this new world from his home then deluged with war, reaching the lower Mississippi his adven¬ turous spirit leading him up the "Great River" to our shore. The French¬ man coming by way of the great lakes to the Mississippi River and down to our shores. He, too, came from a country then in the throes of a bloody war.

Then there came a more Americanized people across our eastern mountains, forests and plains to settle beyond the "Great River." These were from the eastern shores of the United States, made up of a people out of the old English and other stocks. These had mingled their blood for quite a century and so amalgamated had become quite a different

The events of Missouri's admission to the Union as a State has much to do with the formation of the character of early settlement of the county. When Delegate Scott, from Missouri, introduced in Congress in 1819 his resolution preparatory to the admission of our State into the Union, there was a story raised relative to slavery. Jefferson is quoted as saying, "The Missouri controversy sounds like a fire-bell at midnight." The statesmen from North and South had been in the habit of admitting States into the Union by pairs. One to be slave, the other free. In 1818 Illinois and Mississippi were admitted, one slave, the other free State.

In 1819 when Alabama and Missouri applied for statehood, both ask¬ ing to be admitted as slave states a great hue and cry was raised through¬ out the Union and the strife never ended indeed until at Appomattox. The tempest was stilled for a while by cutting Maine off from Massa¬ chusetts and admitting her as a free State and Alabama and Missouri as slave states. Thus peace was held for a time. After furious debates both in Congress and on the hustings the peacemakers procured what was known as the first Missouri Compromise. . This compromise left no ad¬ vantage to the slave, or pro-slavery party, and only left the country, par¬ ticularly Missouri, in a state of agitation. In 1820 Delegate Scott called up his resolution for the admission of Missouri. Her constitution so pre¬ sented called for slavery. The storm burst forth with renewed fury. This all resulted in what is known as the Clay or Second Compromise. This was as meaningless as the first Missouri compromise. It had the effect, however, of James Monroe, by proclamation bearing date of the 10th day of August, 1821, declaring Missouri one of the States of the Union. The significant fact, revealed in our histories, is that all these eventful contests admitting Missouri into the Union were all accomplished without a vote of the people.

All this wrangle left Missouri in a state of turmoil and strife. Not this alone but further brought to our shores a citizenship from the North and the South, bringing with them the bitterness and combativeness of each. It was this restless class who generally claim his home on the frontier. Statehood settled, we would expect quiet, if not peace, to reign. Not so in Missouri. Her first General Assembly meeting, even before the admission of the State, was in an apparent deadlock over the selection of the first senators to the United States Senate. David Barton was selected with little opposition. Then followed a complete tie-up over the selection of his "senatorial yoke fellow," as we term it today, his associate in the Senate. After much acrimonious strife, it was proposed Senatorelect Barton should name his mate. This he did by the choice of Col. Thomas Hart Benton. Mr. Benton hailed from Tennessee, having been born in North Carolina. He had settled in Missouri during her terri¬ torial days.

During the period of seeking statehood, we had a government, in a way. The position of our State was fairly portrayed in the message of the then Governor, McNair. He said, "Since the organization of this gov¬ ernment (referring to the State organization) we have exhibited to the American people a spectacle novel and peculiar - an American republic on the confines of the Federal Union, exercising all the powers of sov¬ ereign government, with no actual political connection with the United States, nothing to bind us to them but a reverence for the same principles and an habitual attachment to them and their government." It would seem we were then in the Union, but not of the Union.

The lucky strike seems to have thus early turned to Mr. Benton. Missouri, it was assumed, was entitled to two senators, one for a four-year term and one for a six-year term. This was determined between David Barton and Thomas H. Benton, by casting lots. In this Mr. Benton received the six-year term. The man who really made him a senator had to take the short term. The long term gave Benton much prestige and great power which he fixed firmly over the fighting democracy of Mis¬ souri. By great force of character and the faculty to take the initiative and do the right thing at the right time Benton retained his seat in the United States Senate for thirty years.

From the earlier settlements about St. Louis and St. Genevieve, Cape Girardeau, and the eastern border of the State, this turbulent spirit of the pioneers pushed his way west, up the Missouri and Osage rivers. From the Osage, they wended their way northward and from the shores of the Missouri they came over the plains southward. From these early sources came the first settlers of Pettis County. They were different in temperament. The Frenchman came that they might mine the earth for lead and zinc and other ores about which the Indians had told such luring and fabulous stories. The Spaniard and his offspring came in quest of new hunting grounds, purely of an adventurous spirit, not to exploit, but simply as a discoverer. Thus came the earlier settlers of Pettis County.

Chapter Iii Geology And Topography

Topography. - Pettis County lies chiefly on the northwest flank of the Ozark Dome and on that physiographic province known as the Ozark border plain. This plain encircles the Ozark Dome proper on the west and north and is upheld by a series of resistant limestones of Mississippian age. The characteristic topography of this plain is that of a rolling to smooth prairie surface, frequently intersected by deeply carved val¬ leys of narrow width. Rough and rugged country, however, may pre¬ vail in proximity to the streams of important size, but the wide divides are commonly of gentle relief. The topography of the county corre¬ sponds in every way with that of the physiographic province described.

The surface of the county slopes moderately to the north. Along its southern boundary elevations of 1,000 or more above sea level occur, while the uplands along the northern boundary lie 200 feet lower. Sedalia has an elevation of 910 feet above sea level; Green Ridge, 897 feet; LaMonte, 867 feet, and Hustonia 749 feet, while the village of Mora, just south of the southern boundary of the county, lies 1,007 feet above sea level. The maximum relief between the highest and lowest point in the county is about 500 feet.

Roughtly speaking the county may be divided into areas of broadly rolling hills, gently rolling prairies, and broken hilly zones adjacent to some of the important streams. The broadly rolling hill land occupies the southern portion of the county, chiefly south of Flat Creek, and con¬ sists of high but well-rounded divides and hills with broad tops and easy slopes. The stream beds lie seventy-five to 150 feet below the crest of the divides, and their valleys, ordinarily quite narrow, are in places broadened by strips of bottoms. Gently rolling or level prairies occupy large tracts in the western, northern and central parts of the county and form one of the most conspicuous features of its topography. Notable among these prairies are the level fertile areas surrounding Green Ridge and Camp Branch, southwest of Sedalia; the Smithton, Sedalia, Dresden, and LaMonte prairies along the main line of the Missouri Pacific Rail¬ road, and the Hughesville-Hustonia prairies, in the northwest part of the county. Much of the area between Heath's and Muddy creeks is also this type. The broken hilly zones are confined chiefly to the northern and southeastern portions of the county and do not extend far back from the streams. Most notable of these are found in Heath's Creek and Bowling Green townships.

The drainage of the entire county is effected through streams tribu¬ tary to Lamaine River, which itself barely enters the county at one or two points in the northeast corner. Its largest tributaries are Flat Creek, Muddy Creek, and Black Water River, all of which flow northeast to the master stream.

Geology. - The geologic formations exposed within the county range in age from Lower Ordovician to recent. The bed rock over most of the area is composed chiefly of limestone, varying in composition from hard magnesian limestone or dolomite to pure crystalline limestone. Out¬ side the area occupied by the coal-bearing formations in the western part of the county, only a relatively small amount of shale and sand¬ stone is exposed, and these are only found in local patches. The coal¬ bearing or Pennsylvanian rocks, however, are constituted chiefly of shale and sandstone, both of which appear in common exposure in the western part of the county. The rock strata all dip to the northwest, at an angle which exceeds the north surface slopes ; thus the oldest formations are exposed in the southeast portion and the youngest in the northwest part of the county. The following geologic table gives an outline of the rocks outcropping in the county

Recent. - The unconsolidated deposits which form a mantle, covering the bed rock of the county, seldom attain an important thickness. Most shallow wells indicate the mantle to be only ten to twenty feet thick, though in places of course this thickness is exceeded. The mantle has been formed entirely, on the uplands, as a residuum from the disinte¬ gration of the underlying bed rock. It is thus over most of the area a yellow to brown or reddish clay filled with fragments of chert which have weathered out of the limestone. Locally, the residuum is sandy ; in fact, quite generally so in some parts of the county. Due to the variation of the type of rock from which it was derived, it must be naturally expected that its composition changes somewhat from one locality to another. The great ice invasions which several times covered the north part of the state did not extend into Pettis County and its surface is, therefore, free from glacial drift.

Pennsylvanian Deposits. - The main body of the Pennsylvanian or Coal Measures area extends eastward into Pettis County. The eastern border of these rocks along the north boundary of the county reaches a point approximately due north of Sedalia. From this point southward the margin extends in a sinuous line southwestward, passing shortly east of Hughesville, Dresden, and Rodelia. On both sides of Lamine River, however, it swings sharply westward, almost to the Johnson County line. The main body of the Coal Measures in the county, therefore, may be roughly said to occupy the northwest portion.

Mississippian Deposits. - The Mississippian formations directly under¬ lie the Pennsylvanian and appear in outcrop over a wide belt extending from northeast to southwest across the central part of the county. They form the country rock over nearly all of the northeast quarter of the county and occur at the surface over the greater part of the southwest quarter. However, south of Flat Creek only outliers of the Mississippian occur, except on the high divide and prairie, extending southward toward Ionia, Benton County, where these rocks generally underly the surface.

found, the upper beds have been removed by erosion. These rocks are composed almost wholly of limestone, which throughout most of the thick¬ ness, is very cherty. Just below the limestone occur locally patches of white sandstone, which have been doubtfully correlated as the Mississippian. These sandstone patches in places reach a thickness of fifty feet, but the sandstone is not present as a persistent bed.

Three formations of the Mississippian series are known to be present, the uppermost being the Burlington limestone, below which lies the Chou¬ teau limestone, and below this in turn lie the local patches of Phelps sandstone which must at present be considered as a doubtful classification.

The Burlington limestone has a known thickness in the county of from sixty to 150 feet and is seen commonly in outcrop in the northeast and southwest parts of the county. It is a white to gray limestone, beauti¬ fully crystalline, and containing beds, lentils, and concretions of chert. It is also abundantly fossiliferous, containing many well-preserved speci¬ mens of brachiopods, and crinoids.

The Chouteau limestone, which directly underlies the Burlington, differs materially from it. It occurs in general in thick, massive beds with very few bedding and stratification planes. The rock is fine grained, com¬ pact, and siliceous, with a very uniform light drab to blue color, although upon weathering it becomes buff. Large chert nodules are disseminated irregularly through it and the stone breaks with a concoidal fracture. The Chouteau is well exposed around Sedalia and to the east and south of Smithton. It has been extensively quarried in these localities and may be seen forming bluffs shortly north of Sedalia along the Georgetown road. In places near Sedalia the lower part of the Burlington limestone still rests upon the Chouteau but for most part it has been removed by erosion. The exposures in the central part of the county indicate the Chouteau to be forty to ninety feet thick there, but the full thickness is known to exceed 100 feet. The principal difference between the Chou¬ teau and the Burlington limestones is found in the texture and the color, being easily distinguished one from the other by virtue of these charac¬ ters. The Chouteau limestone is also a fossiliferous limestone.

The Phelps sandstone is encountered locally in wells reaching the base of the Mississippian limestone and patches of it outcrop at a num¬ ber of localities south and east of Sedalia. One good exposure is to be found just on the south side of Flat Creek at the Sedalia Waterworks plant. The sandstone varies in thickness from less than a foot to over fifty feet, often appearing in lenticular patches. The size of the patches may be large or small, but it is believed that most of them cover a very limited territory. The sandstone is white, where clean, and is composed of rounded quartz grains, chiefly. It is frequently asked whether or not this sandstone would not be suitable for glass manufacture, or for core sand. No doubt it could be used to advantage for either purpose, were the quantity sufficient to justify.

Unexposed Rocks. - No rocks older than the Jefferson City forma¬ tion are exposed within Pettis County, and our record of these older rocks must be taken from the logs of deep borings at Sedalia and Lamonte. To the south and east higher on the flank of the Ozark dome they are of course exposed and have been studied, so their character is fairly well known.

Below the lowest Jefferson City beds a sandstone has been en¬ countered in all the drillings in the county of sufficient depth and this sandstone constitutes a part of the Roubidoux formation. Where en¬ countered by the drill it yields a copious supply of water though its thickness has not been found to exceed fifteen feet under the county. It is a coarse grained sandstone embedded between cherty dolomite and pure chert layers, all of which go to make up the total thickness of the Roubidoux formation. Directly underlying this formation the drill pene¬ trates more than 250 feet of crystalline dolomite, containing beds of chert and resting on a thin bed of sandstone. The whole thickness including the sandstone constitutes the Gasconade dolomite and the thin basal sandstone is called the Gunter sandstone. The Gunter sandstone forms another excellent water-bearing horizon which in the deep wells drilled at Sedalia adds its supply to that encountered in the higher Roubi¬ doux sandstone.

are principally non-metallic, there being no extensive deposits so far as known of any of the metals. It is true that some lead and some zinc ores have been found principally in the southeastern township but the lead has been principally "float" material scattered over the surface and the zinc ore has been found only in small quantity. While it is not impos¬ sible that commercial deposits of one or the other or both of these metals may be found in the Jefferson City formation in workable deposits, the possibility seems rather remote. We must, therefore, consider the nonmetallics as more likely to contribute to the mineral production of the county than the metals. Of these non-metallic materials coal, clay, build¬ ing-stone, sand and gravel, and mineral waters have already been pro¬ duced, in considerable quantity, and the production of all is capable of much greater expansion.

Coal. - Coal has occasionally been mined in Pettis county for local use, but in the last few years little or none has been produced. The main coal-bearing area is confined to the western part of the county, as shown on the geological map of the State, and the Coal Measures have a maxi¬ mum known thickness of only about 150 feet. The coal beds present in this area are, in general, irregular in thickness and distribution.

Outside of the region mapped as Pennsylvanian are pockets of Coal Measures sandstone and shale containing bituminous and cannel coal. As much as twenty feet of coal have been reported in these, though their lateral extent and the amount to be derived from any one of them is small and the quality of the fuel is poor. Pockets have been reported in T. 45 N., R. 22 W. and southeast of Sedalia, and they probably exist in other parts of the county.

The coal beds in the different parts of the county cannot be cor¬ related with accuracy, but the estimate of a total original tonnage of 300,000,000 tons is believed to be conservative. This estimate does not include beds or parts of beds less than fourteen inches in thickness and is made on a basis of 1800 tons per acre-foot of coal.

Dresden. - About two and a half miles west of Dresden considerable mining was done at an early date. When Broadhead visited the locality two mines were being operated by Messrs. Newport and Westlake near the line of the Missouri Pacific railroad. The mines were only 100 yards apart and operated the same bed at a depth of about thirty-five feet. The coal varied from 27 to 30 inches in thickness. Broadhead also re¬ ports about two feet of coal south of Dresden (S. E. Vi N. E. Vi Sec. 8, T. 46 N., R. 22 W.).

LaMonte. - Two or three shafts were formerly operated one to two miles east of LaMonte, near the Missouri Pacific railroad, but when the locality was visited in 1911 no mining was being done. R. E. Guthrie was engaged at that time in sinking a shaft on the land of H. Conway.

The coal, which is said to be just below the sixteen feet of shale in the above section, is reported to be thirty inches thick. At this shaft and at others in the vicinity much trouble has been caused by the great abundance of water entering from below the 12-inch limestone. The coals at the Guthrie shaft and the other mines in the vicinity, with one exception, perhaps, belong to the Tebo bed, though the rocks above them do not correspond very closely with those above the Tebo in eastern Johnson County.

Now The Mileta Day Nursery

Houstonia. - Coal is reported to have once been mined near Houstonia, but nothing has been done recently. The coal found in Saline and Johnson counties near the Pettis County line probably extends into the northwest corner of Pettis County.

Clay. - Stoneware and potter's clay occurs in deposits near Dresden, chiefly about three miles northwest of the town and these deposits for many years supplied a small but thriving industry at the Stein Pottery. The clay lies practically at the surface, is easily obtained and is said to be of excellent quality for use, standing rapid drying without checking. Besides potters' clay, however, shales occur quite extensively in the Coal Measures area of the western part of the county and about midway be¬ tween Dresden and LaMonte a good bed of soft paving brick shale is said to have been penetrated in the old Newport mine only a few feet below the surface. While fire clay is not uncommonly found in the Coal Measures rocks and nearly all the deposits in the State do occur in these rocks, the similar shales of Pettis County appear to be at best suitable for paving brick or common brick.

Within the past year Pettis County has come forward with a glass pot clay, probably the finest grade of clay now being produced in Mis¬ souri. This clay is being produced from a short distance west of Sedalia. While the individual deposits of this clay will probably not be extensive and not many deposits have yet been found there is a good possibility for discovering a large number of deposits. Glass pot clay brings about the highest price of any clay on the market, which combined with the good possibility of further discoveries should lead to a diligent search for further deposits.

Up to the present time very little has been written or said about Pettis County clays, but it is believed that such deposits offer some of the best possibilities for mineral development in the county.

Building Stone. - The quarrying industry of Pettis County is naturally built around the market at Sedalia though small quarries are operated in various parts of the county. The stone quarries comes from the Burlington limestone, the Chouteau limestone and the Jefferson City dolomite. The Jefferson City furnishes a good hard stone for road metal and may be utilized for rough building. Certain phases of the Burling¬ ton and Chouteau limestone make excellent building stones and take on a beautiful polish.

The quarries which are operated at the present time in the vicinity of Sedalia are owned by Rymer Brothers, J. W. Marsh, James Jenkins, Benjamin Johnson and Mr. McEnroe. A number of abandoned quarries occur in this locality. The quarry at Georgetown, four miles north of Sedalia, is said to contain excellent building stone, but its distance from the market makes it unprofitable to work. Along the Georgetown road, north of Sedalia, a number of quarries have been opened up which are now abandoned. The stone from one of these was, at one time, used by the city as a road metal.

The Jenkins Quarry. - This quarry is located at the corner of 22nd and Engineer streets, near the southeast limits of the city. It has a north face 250 feet long and twenty feet high.

The stone breaks with a conchoidal fracture and wdien blasted or split, it usually breaks toward any chert nodule which may occur in the block near the breaking surface.

The Johnson Quarry. - This quarry, which is located four miles west of Sedalia, consists of two openings, in which several beds, from four to twelve inches in thickness, are being worked. The stone is a fine grained limestone belonging to the Chouteau formation. It is used for curbing, sidewalks and foundations. The quarry has been opened about ten years.

The McEnroe Quarry. - This quarry is located about three and onehalf miles northeast of Sedalia and one and one-half miles east of the March

At the time the quarry was inspected the stone was being used ex¬ clusively for the foundation course to macadam pavements near Sedalia. Hiver gravel was being used for the surface and the combination is said to produce an excellent pavement.

The Rymer Bros. Quarry. - This quarry, which is located two miles north of Sedalia, is owned by Mrs. Heidenfelter and operated by Edward and J. W. Rymer. It was opened in 1894, since which time it has been operated each year. It consists of two openings, only one of which is now being worked. The opening which is active has a face fifty feet long and ten feet in height. The entire output is being used for founda¬ tions, although ashler blocks might be obtained, especially from the lower bed. From three to five men are employed during the summer months.

Sand and Gravel. - Only one sand and gravel plant of important size is known to be in operation in Pettis county at the present time. This plant, owned by Geo. T. Menefee and Sons, is located near Valda Station on Spring Fork Creek, about eight miles south of Sedalia. The output is chiefly gravel.

The plant has a spur of the Missiuri Pacific railroad, and shipments are made to Sedalia, Jefferson City, Boonville, and other nearby towns.

The exposures of sandstone in the county are practically limited aside from the Coal Measures area to the small patches of the so-called Phelps sandstone scattered in the eastern and southern part. This sand¬ stone is white and composed of clear quartz grains, where not stained * with iron, and it has every appearance of being a good glass sand. There has been for some time a feeling on the part of many that there was a possibility of utilizing these sands for glass-making. Such deposits as occur on the Missouri, Kansas and Texas railroad at the Pettis-Cooper County line and just south of Flat Creek at the Sedalia Waterworks are no doubt pure enough to be suitable for glass-making.

Water Supply. - Pettis County is well watered, the supply coming principally from shallow dug wells sunk to the base of the residuum or bored well drilled into the bed rocks. The dug wells in the residuum supply sufficient water only for a family and are not always dependable throughout dry seasons. The bored wells, however, yield various amounts of water, depending somewhat upon their depth, and from a dependable source of supply throughout all kinds of seasons. Many of these bored wells enter the surface limestones to a depth of 200 or 300 feet but as a rule the best of them are sunk to the Roubidoux sandstone where tests show that thirty to sixty gallons of water per minute may be obtained. Where larger supplies of water are needed wells are sometimes sunk to depths of 700 to 900 feet. Springs in Pettis County are quite abundant but usually small.

Mineral Waters. - The sulpho-saline water so commonly encountered in the wells of the counties to the north and west of Pettis is rarely met with in this county. In the northwestern part water of slightly sulphosaline character is obtained from a few wells, but in none of the wells is the mineralization strong. In view of the fact that the deep horizons encountered in the gusher at Sweet Springs, Saline County, offered such highly mineralized water, it is believed that drilling to depths equally great in northern Pettis county would encounter similar water. How¬ ever, in all but the northern part even these deeper horizons carry fresh water.

Crystal Spring, a small mineral spring flowing from a sandstone member of the Coal Measures is located about two miles south of La- Monte near Muddy Creek. Its water has been classified as sulphatic by Schweitzer.

Chapter Iv Duction

We have quoted largely from the report made to the United States Government by the "Bureau of Soils" officials in their soil survey of Pettis County, known as "Advance Sheets-Field Operations" of the Bureau of Soils of 1914. The county is fortunate at having the soil survey mentioned because it was prepared by competent hands and is authentic and very full in its treatment of soils of Pettis County. The report says:

The soils of Pettis County belong to the group of residual prairie soils that cover the greater part of western Missouri. They were formed by the weathering of the country rock, and their distribution and char¬ acter are influenced by the distribution and character of the rock.

In general the soils of Pettis County are silt loams, containing rela¬ tively little sand or clay. They are usually mellow, or are easily made so with proper treatment. They are well drained, and are moderately early and warm. The subsoils are universally heavier than the surface mate¬ rial, which makes the various types generally retentive of moisture.

From their origin and color the upland soils of Pettis County are grouped into four general divisions. The dark-colored rolling prairie includes the Summit, Pettis, and Bates series. The Oswego, Cherokee, and Boone series make up the flat prairie soils. The red limestone soils are represented by the Crawford and Baxter series, while the Eldon series and a part of the Baxter gravelly loam represent material coming from the cherty limestone.

uplands and deposited over the stream flood plains from overflows. Since most of the streams rise within or near the border of the county, the material deposited by them is of local origin, and the bottom soils are closely related to the upland soils. The alluvium, where derived from the lighter colored prairie soils, is gray in color; it is darker gray or brown where derived from the black prairie soils. Thus, the Muddy Creek bottoms are somewhat darker than the Flat Creek bottoms, because the former drains the black prairie and the latter the light prairie soils. The difference, however, is not sufficiently great to warrant a separation, and all the lighter colored alluvial soils are included with the Osage and Robertsville series. In the northeastern part of the county the alluvial soils are largely derived from the Crawford material. They are darker in color and have a higher content of organic matter than the Osage soils, and are classed with the Huntington series. The Chariton soil is similar to the Robertsville in topography, origin, and texture but differs from it in color and organic-matter content.

The summit soils are dark gray to black in color to a depth of eight to twelve inches. The subsurface material is brown to light brown, slightly heavier than the surface soil, and friable in structure. The upper subsoil, into which .the subsurface layer passes gradually, is a plas¬ tic silty clay to clay, dark drab in color, with abundant spots of yellowish brown. The lower subsoil is predominantly grayish yellow or yellow with abundant gray mottling. These soils are residual in origin and derived from shales and limestones.

The Summit silt loam is locally known as "black land" or "black prairie." It consists of a black, dark-brown, or very dark gray, rather heavy silt loam, ten to twelve inches deep, underlain by a brownishblack or very dark gray, crumbly silty clay loam, which at about eighteen inches grades into a dark-drab to black silty clay or clay loam of a plastic, waxy character. The subsoil below 30 inches is a yellowish to drab, crumbly silty clay, mottled with brown and yellow. On many of the slopes where erosion has been active the surface soil is frequently only 6 to 8 inches in depth and rests directly on the heavy, compact clay subsoil. Such areas are locally known as "glade lands". In the northern part of the county much of this type has a brownish color in both surface soil and subsoil, the latter containing less clay and being more friable than in the dark-colored areas. The brown variation has a more rolling topography, and is associated with the Bates silt loam. North of Dres¬ den and LaMonte the type has a lighter color than typical.

The Summit silt loam is similar in appearance to the Oswego silt loam. When wet these types have almost the same color, but when dry the Summit silt loam retains the dark color as distinguished from the lighter color of the Oswego silt loam.

In the vicinity of LaMonte and westward the soil is a transitional soil between the Summit and the Oswego. It is like the Summit in color and in the gradual change from subsurface material to subsoil, but ap¬ proaches the Oswego in the presence of a faintly developed subsurface gray layer.

The Summit silt loam is one of the most extensive types mapped, and includes all the smoother land in the northwestern part of the county. In general, it may be said that the Summit silt loam in Pettis County represents the eastern edge of the most extensive soil type in west-central Missouri.

The Summit silt loam represents typical prairie land and originally supported a heavy growth of wild grasses. Where properly plowed the soil is loose and friable and easily tilled. The mellow surface soil, good drainage, and heavy subsoil make it well suited to all the staple crops, and it is regarded as one of the best upland soils in the county. It is the best corn soil of the uplands, although wheat is grown extensively. Corn yields forty to seventy-five bushels per acre, and wheat twenty to thirty bushels. A large acreage of the type is used for pasture and produces an excellent growth of bluegrass. Clover thrives on it, and alfalfa is grown successfully, except in the more eroded areas. With an ex¬ tension in the acreage of clover the present system of farming will tend to keep the soil in a fairly productive condition. This soil has a good content of lime.

The soils of the Oswego series are dark brown to a depth ranging up to about twelve inches. The soil grades into a gray subsurface layer, slightly heavier than the soil, and this in turn at a depth ranging from fifteen to twenty inches passes rather abruptly into a tough, plastic silty clay to clay layer, dark drab in color, mottled with dark reddish brown.

The Oswego silt loam is the typical prairie soil of the county, and is characterized by its dark color, nearly level topography, and stiff sub¬ surface stratum. The surface soil to a depth of nine to twelve inches consists of a dark-gray, dark-brown or black, mellow silt loam, grading into a lighter gray and more friable silt loam at about twelve inches. The subsoil, beginning abruptly at a depth of sixteen to eighteen inches, is a brown or grayish-brown to dark-drab, heavy, plastic clay, faintly mottled with red.

The almost flat areas, as those west of Green Ridge, have a lightgray surface soil, a well-developed gray subsurface layer, and a darker and stiffer subsoil than the more rolling areas. These areas closely re¬ semble the Cherokee silt loam, but since they include considerable dark soil they are not separated from the main type.

That part of the Oswego silt loam to the east and south of Sedalia averages darker in color and probably possesses a slightly higher agri¬ cultural value than the main body of the type in the southwestern part of the county.

This is one of the most extensive types mapped. It occupies entire sections in the southwestern part of the county. It occurs on high, flat divides and gentle slopes, and in general represents the smoothest land in the county.

The Oswego silt loam is derived from soft argillaceous shale of the lower Coal Measures. The limestone beds that outcrop in ditches act merely as a support for the overlying soil and give character to the topography, but have no influence in the formation of the soil.

The soil of the smooth prairie land in the southern part of the county is of the same origin as the Oswego silt loam, but is of lower agri¬ cultural value. The soil is a dark-gray to dark-brown silt loam, grading into a brownish-gray silty clay. This is underlain at about ten to fifteen inches by a dull-brown, heavy plastic clay, which at about thirty inches passes into a drab or yellowish-gray silty clay, mottled brown and gray.

The shallow phase of the Oswego silt loam occupies the flat divides and plateaus south and east of Flat Creek. It has an average altitude of about 1,000 feet and represents the highest land in the county. It was originally more extensive, but is steadily being encroached upon by draws heading back into the upland.

The soils of the Cherokee series are gray and have a floury struc¬ ture. The subsurface material is nearly white and slightly heavier in texture than the surface soil. The upper subsoil, beginning abruptly at twelve to eighteen inches, is a tough, waxy clay to silty clay, dark loam ranging from ten to twelve inches in depth. When dry the soil is almost white, but when moist it is much darker in color. The surface soil grades into an almost white silt loam, which contains slightly more clay and usually is somewhat more compact than the surface material. The ashy-gray layer has a depth of four to six inches. It is often mottled with rusty-brown ferruginous material. The subsoil, beginning abruptly at sixteen or eighteen inches, is a tough, plastic, waxy, heavy clay of dai'k-drab to brown color, faintly mottled with reddish brown. Below thirty inches the material becomes more friable, and the dominant color is drab with yellowish-brown and gray mottlings.

The soils of the Crawford series have dark-brown to reddish-brown surface soils and reddish-brown to red, friable subsoils. The series in¬ cludes residual limestone soils of the prairie regions. The soils contain a fair percentage of lime. The surface is undulating to rolling, with some local areas of rough, broken topography. Three types of the series - the stony loam, gravelly loam, and silt loam - are found in Pettis County.

The soil material of the Crawford stony loam consists of a black to dark-brown friable silty clay loam. The subsoil is a reddish-brown clay loam, which crumbles on exposure.

This type includes steep, precipitous areas and slopes where the percentage of rock at or near the surface is so large as practically to preclude cultivation. It represents the roughest land in the county and is mapped along Muddy and Heath's creeks. Practically all the type sup¬ ports a characteristic growth of walnut and elm, and grape vines.

The fine material of the Crawford gravelly loam is like that of the silt loam, varying from a reddish-brown or dark-brown silt loam in the surface soil to a reddish-brown silt loam or silty clay in the subsoil. Both soil and subsoil contain from twenty to sixty per cent, of brownishgray, porous chert.

The soil of the Crawford silt loam is a dark-brown, yellowish-brown or reddish-brown, mellow silt loam, grading at about fifteen to eighteen inches into a reddish-brown, friable silty clay loam. Frequently there is little change within the three-foot section, although the subsoil is always redder than the surface material. In general, that part of the Crawford silt loam south of Muddy Creek is mellower and has a brighter color than the main body of the type in the northeastern part of the county. In the latter place it is usually a yellowish-brown, heavy silt loam with a yellowish-red or dull-red, plastic silty clay subsoil.

Locally, the Crawford silt loam is known as "red land" or "mulatto land." It occurs on the slopes of the streams in the northeastern part of the county. The greater part of the smooth land occurs south of Muddy Creek. It is a good agricultural soil, well suited to the general farm crops of the region. It is considered best wheat and fruit soil in the county. It is a natural clover soil, and is the best type in the county for the production of alfalfa.

On account of its rolling topography, much of the type is subject to serious erosion. The warm, open character of the soil causes a rapid decay of the organic matter. The type requires careful farming, to¬ gether with the frequent growing of legumes as green manuring crops.

The soils of the Baxter series range in color from reddish brown to gray and pale yellow, and the subsoils are brown. The soils differ from the Crawford series in being shallower and usually lighter in color. The chert seems to be less calcareous than the Crawford chert. This series includes three types in Pettis County - the Baxter gravelly sandy loam, gravelly loam, and silt loam.

The Baxter gravelly sandy loam has the same origin and distribu¬ tion as the gravelly loam, but differs from the latter in the larger percentage of sand in the soil. Typically it consists of a gray to darkbrown fine sandy loam, grading at about six inches into a light-brown, friable loam.

The sandy material of the soil is derived from the thin sandstone lenses in the cherty limestone and from the Carboniferous sandstones originally overlying the limestone formation. The type is associated with the Baxter gravelly loam, and is of about the same agricultural importance.

The fine material of the Baxter gravelly loam is a yellowish-brown to grayish-brown silt loam, grading at six to eight inches into a yellowishbrown or dull-red silty clay loam. The lower subsoil is usually a red, plastic clay loam.

The Baxter gravelly loam, dark-colored phase, is locally known as "veneer land," because of the thin covering of soil material over the gravelly substratum. The surface soil is a black to dark-brown or darkgray, mellow loam or silt loam, grading at about eight to ten inches into a brown, friable silt loam.

Originally all the phase was prairie, but now some of the more broken areas are covered with a black oak, blackjack, sumac, and hazel brush.

The most profitable use of this land is to seed it with some of the hardy bunch grasses, such as orchard grass, and use it for the production of hay and for pasture. The Baxter silt loam typically consists of a light yellowish brown or light grayish brown silt loam, grading at about eight to twelve inches into a friable silty clay, with little change in color. The content of organic matter is low. The subsoil becomes heavier and redder with depth, and at about thirty inches the color changes to mottled brown and yellow. The Baxter silt loam has its greatest development in the eastern part of the county along Flat Creek and its tributaries. Sev¬ eral smaller areas occur west of Sedalia along Muddy Creek. Like the Crawford silt loam, it occupies slopes, although it is more rolling than the latter. It is also of limestone origin, but is inferior to the Crawford agriculturally.

As a grass, clover and fruit soil this type is equal to the Crawford silt loam, and, like the latter, it responds to manuring and good cultivation.

The surface soils of the Eldon series are dark brown to nearly black. The upper subsoil is gray or grayish yellow to yellowish-brown, and has a friable or crumbly structure. It is underlain by mottled gray and red, moderately plastic to crumbly silty clay material, and the lower subsoil is mottled gray and yellow in color and rather plastic. Usually a com¬ pact layer, consisting largely of angular chert mixed with reddish clay, is encountered at a depth of eighteen to thirty inches. The soils of the Eldon series are derived from shale and limestone.

The surface soil of the Eldon silt loam consists of a dark-brown to dark-gray or brownish-gray, mellow silt loam, grading at eight to ten inches into a brown or yellowish-brown, friable silt loam, which gradually becomes lighter in color and heavier in texture with increasing depth. The subsoil, beginning at fifteen to eighteen inches, is a yellowish-brown, crumbly silty clay.

The Elden silt loam has its greatest development in the southeastern part of the county in the area drained by Flat Creek. It occupies long, gentle slopes on the gently rolling uplands. For the most part it is prairie, although some of the lower slopes are forested with oak, elm, and hickory.

It is primary importance in the management of the Eldon silt loam to add large quantities of organic matter, and thus improve the physical condition and the water-holding capacity of the soil. Like the

The soils of the Bates series are dark brown. The subsoils are yellowish to mottled red, yellow, and brown. The types are derived fi'om sandstone and shale. They are distinguished from the soils of the asso¬ ciated Oswego series by the darker color of the surface soils. They are usually well drained and treeless and have a level to undulating topog¬ raphy. In pettis County two members of this series are mapped, the Bates loam and silt loam.

The Bates loam is closely associated with the silt loam of the same series. Typically the soil is a brown or grayish-brown loam, becoming lighter in color with depth. The subsoil, beginning at about fifteen inches, is a light-brown, friable sandy clay loam, highly mottled with red and yellow.

The Bates loam has a rolling topography, with prevailingly moderate to gentle slopes. The loose, open structure of the soil and the rolling topog¬ raphy render the drainage good, and the soil is early and easily worked. Good crops are produced where the soil has sufficient depth and is prop¬ erly managed, particularly with reference to conservation of moisture. Corn yields are about the same as on the Bates silt loam. Cane and cowpeas make a good growth on this soil in seasons of scant rainfall. In the western part of the county the soil of the Bates silt loam is a darkbrown to grayish-brown, mellow silt loam. This is underlain at about eight to ten inches by brown silt loam, which changes at about eighteen inches to light yellowish-brown, friable silty clay, mottled with red, brown, and gray, and becoming lighter in color and texture with depth. In the northern part of the county the type has a dark-gray to yellowish-brown surface soil and a yellowish-brown subsoil, and the red mottlings are absent.

The Bates silt loam is widely distributed over the county. Like the Boone silt loam, it occurs near draws and on slopes where the Oswego and Summit soils have been removed and the underlying shale and sandstone material exposed.

The topography is gently rolling and for the most part consists of gentle slopes along draws and streams and the rather indistinct escarp¬ ment slopes found in the northern part of the county. All the type is in cultivation.

centage of organic matter, underlain by pale-yellowish to slightly red¬ dish yellow and often mottled, porous subsoils. A bedrock substratum is frequently encountered at shallow depths. The soils of this series are residual in origin, and are derived from sandstones and shales, mainly of Carboniferous age. The topography is rolling to stepply sloping, and the soils are usually forested. Only one member of the Boone series, the silt loam, is encountered in Pettis County.

Areas of this type occur throughout the western half of the county. They occupy gentle slopes and low-lying flats, usually forming narrow strips along the streams between the bottom land and the Oswego or Summit silt loam.

The soil is evidently composed of the same material as the adjoin¬ ing upland types, though it has acquired distinct characteristics through the modification of this material by different drainage conditions and timber growth. The Boone silt loam is not considered a very productive soil. It is low in organic matter and lime and does not retain moisture well.

The soils of the Pettis series are brown to dark brown in color. At a depth of six to twelve inches the soil grades into a brown to yellow¬ ish-brown, friable subsoil, slightly heavier than the soil. The color, texture, and structure continue practically uniform throughout the threefoot section, though faint grayish mottlings may appear below a depth of thirty inches. These soils are residual from shales, and the topography is smooth to undulating. The series is represented in this county by a single type, the Pettis silt loam. It is darker than the Crawford silt loam and has a deeper soil.

All of the type is in a high state of cultivation, and it is recognized as one of the best soils in the county. The type is used for the production of the staple crops of the region, and good yields are obtained.

The Gerald soils are gray to light brown in color. The subsurface material is light gray, friable, and slightly heavier than the surface soil. This layer grades at twelve to eighteen inches into a pale-yellow to drab, silty, rather plastic clay mottled with brown or yellowish brown.

The Gerald silt loam is closely associated with the Summit silt loam and the Pettis silt loam, and, like the latter, is a transitional type between the black prairie soils and the lower lying residual types. The soil is variable in color, and in general is inferior agriculturally to the surrounding types.

The Osage series includes dark-gray to black alluvial soils, composed principally of wash from sandstone and shale soils of the prairie regions. Two types are encountered in Pettis County - the Osage silt loam and clay. The Osage silt loam to a depth of eight to twelve inches consists of a dark-gray to almost black silt loam. This is underlain by somewhat lighter colored and more compact material of the same texture. When dry the soil has an ashy-brown color. The lower subsoil is usually a drab or dark-gray silty clay, retaining this characteristic to a depth of several feet. There are some included areas in which this soil is gray.

The Osage silt loam is the most extensive of the alluvial types and is found in all parts of the county. The soil material shows a close relation in its color and textural characteristics to the upland soils from which it is derived. The material forming this type has been washed down from the higher adjoining land, carried varying distances by the streams and flood waters, and deposited. The soil in the Muddy Creek bottoms, derived from the black prairies, is darker in color than the soil in the Flat Creek bottoms, which is derived from the light-colored prairie soils. It is one of the most valuable types in the county and is highly prized for the production of corn.

The Robertsville soils are gray to light gray in the surface portion. The subsoils are gray to almost white and compact, passing into a lower stratum of compact, impervious, plastic clay of grayish to brownish color, with some faint mottling of reddish brown. The flat surface and im¬ pervious subsoil cause many areas to be poorly drained. These soils con¬ sist of old stream alluvium occupying terraces and abandoned stream valleys no longer subject to overflow. The soil includes material washed principally from limestone, sandstone, and shale soils. Only one member of the series, the Robertsville silt loam, is recognized in Pettis County. The Robertsville silt loam is locally known as "gray second bottom." The soil to a depth of eight to twelve inches is a gray silt loam, which is very light gray or almost white when dry.

The Robertsville silt loam has its greatest development along Flat Creek and its tributaries, although smaller areas occur along the streams in other parts of the county. The soil is alluvial in origin, but has received a large quantity of wash material from the adjoining Oswego silt loam.

The surface soils of the Chariton series are dark in color, ranging from dark gray to black. The subsurface layer, encountered at depths of ten to fifteen inches, is usually lighter in color than the surface ma¬ terial.

The Chariton silt loam is similar to the Robertsville silt loam in topography, origin, and texture, but differs from the latter in color and organic-matter content. The Chariton silt loam is darker than the firstbottom land and is considered one of the strongest soils in the county.

The type occurs as low, poorly defined second bottoms along the streams in widely scatterel locations. It is a rich, productive soil, well suited to the production of the staple crops of the region.

The Huntington soils are light brown to brown, and the subsoils yel¬ low to light brown. Frequently there is little change in the color or character of the material from the surface downward. The soils are developed in the limestone, sandstone, and shale sections of the humid region in the first bottoms of streams, and are subject to overflow. They consist of material derived from limestone, sandstone, and shale soils. These are the best drained first-bottom soils of the region. The silt loam is the only representative of the Huntington series in Pettis County. The soil of the Huntington silt loam is a very dark brown to almost black, mellow silt loam, with little change in color or texture in the soil section. This type comprises the rich, productive bottom lands along the streams in the region of Crawford soils in the northeastern part of the county.

Early Sixties

PRECEDED THE WHITE - OSAGES - TREATY OF FIRE PRAIRIE - TREATY AT ST. LOUIS - BOUNDARIES FIXED BY TREATIES - COST OF LAND PER SQUARE MILE UNDER TREATIES - APPEARANCE - MANNER - CUSTOMS OF OSAGES - INDIANS AND HALFBREEDS IN PETTIS COUNTY - ONE WHO SAW THEM IN EARLY SIXTIES.

The predecessors of the white settlers in this section of Missouri were the Great and Little Osage Indians. Their first treaty was made with the General Government in the fall of 1808 at Fort Osage, a fort on the Missouri River between the present cities of Independence and Lexing¬ ton, Missouri. By this treaty the government and the tribe, there was but one tribe, fixed the eastern boundary of Indian possession as beginning "on the Missouri River, five miles above Fire Prairie (some point between Lexington and Independence), thence to run due south to the Arkansas River, and thence down this river to the Mississippi." All the territory east of this line was relinquished to the United States, which relinquish¬ ment would, of course, include Pettis County. There was some dispute as to the location of this eastern boundary line running south through what is now the State of Missouri, but it is now generally conceded that the line was west of the western border of Johnson County at least ten miles. Thus we learn that Pettis County was not Indian territory after the treaty at Fort Osage in 1808, but that it was prior to this time. The Osages were here after the treaty of 1808, returning to their former hunting grounds, "roaming through," as some of our old settlers tell us their fathers have told them. Historians of the State and of adjoining counties have given us a fair insight of the Osages and their history is worth repeating.

Sedalia Public Library

by which they gave up all claim to territory in Missouri State, reserved by them in their treaty of 1808 at Fort Osage. It might be of interest to know that these Indians by the treaty of "Fire Prairie," Fort Osage, accepted in cash the sum of $1,200 and the payment, yearly in provisions, of $1,500 for their relinquishment. Pettis County then was bought for about five cents per square mile in cash and six cents in trade.

Our ideas relative to the Indians are most generally incorrect. We learn, from reliable authority and from books telling us of the Osage, that they were of remarkable height, rarely finding one below six feet; that their bodies were agile and still muscular, well formed, straight athletic and, almost without exception, of fine figure. They were athletes. "The Osages," says one author, "are so tall and robust as almost to war¬ rant the appellation of the term gigantic ; few of them appear to be under six feet and many of them are above it. Their shoulders and visages are broad, which tends to strengthen the idea of their being giants." They were swift in their movements and capable of almost untold endur¬ ance. They possessed the faculty of saying little and never interrupting in conversation. They were not drunkards, but were noisy when drunk. They seldom drank, however, and one who did was avoided by his tribes¬ men. They possessed an exceptional knowledge of astronomic bodies, measured time by the waxing and waning of the moon and directions by the north star and their sunning instinct. Insanity was unheard of among this tribe and they bore pain, distress and sickness with great courage and fortitude. Their hunting grounds were along streams and tributaries; they would quarrel and fight over their hunting grounds and would bravely engage, with one another, in battle. They raised few crops, some however of corn and beans and pumpkins. They were reliable, trustworthy and hospitable to a fault. They were always honorable and conscientious in their dealings with the government and did not treat treaties lightly, but lived up to them to the letter. Their religion was the "Indian Religion," believing that at his death the faithful warrior rode his pony over the "Milky Way" to the "Happy Hunting Grounds" in the great beyond.

The Osages resented the white man's use of their hunting grounds. They had sense enough to disapprove the white man's want of hospi¬ tality. Their lodges were constructed with upright posts put firmly in the ground, about twenty feet in height, with a crotch at the top, and placed about twelve feet distant from each other. In the crotch of these posts they put a ridge pole, over which they bent small poles, the ends of which were brought down and fastened to a row of sticks about five feet in height, these sticks being fastened together with three horizontal bars, foi'ming the flank walls of the lodge; the gable-ends were board slabs, rounded off at the ridge pole. The whole of the building and the sides were covered with matting made of rushes two or three feet in length and four feet in width, joined together and entirely excluding rain. The doors were on each side of the building. The fires were made in holes in the center of the lodge, the smoke ascended through aper¬ tures left in the roof for that purpose. At one end of the building was a raised platform about three feet high, which was covered with skins, generally of bear. On this platform reposed the honored guests. Around the interior of the walls sometimes hung ornamental mats and other neat workmanships. All this structure made quite an imposing as well as comfortable abode. These were abandoned frequently when the hunting season came around and the Indian went to the timber for his hunt. Their cooking utensils were of a very simple kind and limited in quantity, a brass or iron kettle, and wooden bowls and spoons. Every person, male and female, carried the knife in their girdle. They had no regularity in eating. They would eat four or five times a day when food was plentiful and frequently do all day without food when food was scarce.

Sometimes villages and lodges were built close to one another. The Osages were quite systematic. They separated their people into classes. Some were warriors and hunters and cooks and doctors. The doctors also exercised priestly functions. The young buck or warrior who showed cowardice was sentenced to associate for life with the squaws, to wear squaw dress and do drudgery. He lost respect of both male and female of the tribe.

The Osage government was democratic in form. All matters were taken before the whole tribe and after full discussion, decided upon by the whole assembly, by majority vote. Generally a chief was chief by in¬ heritance. This, however, was not universal. Sometimes a bold warrior, after some great accomplishment by bold bravery in war was chosen chief.

Little progress was made by the Osages in educational life except in the tradition of their tribes. Establishment of schools for them by the government was a failure. They liked to roam, hunt and live at ease.

then called, now the State of Oklahoma. Emigrants to Missouri in 1818 found this country chiefly inhabited by Indians and also by a great num¬ ber of half-breed French and Spanish, the latter very undesirable citi¬ zens. They were principally stockmen, dealing in horses, had no perma¬ nent or fixed abode, roaming from one place to another where pasture was best for their stock and where they could live with the least effort. From May until October they roamed the country watered by the Mis¬ souri and Osage rivers and when autumn came, they left and would go south to "Indian Territory" and Southeastern Kansas. These halfbreeds retained some of the refinement and customs of their former civilization. They were cruel and treacherous, spoke Indian dialects and the languages of Spain and France ; they would often become commanders of Indian bands and lead them into bloody encounters with the early settlers.

The Indians, in many respects, were unlike the half-breeds. They were permanent inhabitants of the country, had villages and plantations. From what we can learn from books and early settlers these Indians were undoubtedly the Osages - judging, too, from their customs and mode of living. They did not, however, live in great numbers here after the treaty of "Fire Prairie." Some were here, however, in the early sixties. Mrs. Kate A. Crandall, widow of the late 0. A. Crandall, tells us that she has seen Indians riding through the streets of Sedalia on their ponies, painted up and wearing their robes and feathers. Mrs. Crandall says they came, usually, in numbers from ten to twenty, from the East and South and that when they returned they went toward the Lamine River and Flat Creek; that they would create no serious disturbance when coming to town except that they usually yelled on coming in and going out. She has seen them trade and buy provisions.

There is yet some evidence of their civilization in the southern part of Pettis County. One place in particular is on the farm now owned by H. K. Benty, the attorney. There in the feed lot are yet to be seen ridges of uniform height and size and distance apart. These ridges, we are reliably told, were once the floors of the Indian wigwams, built up above the level of the ground to keep out moisture. When these Indians left Pettis County they, too, went toward the South and took up their abode in Indian Territory.

Taken From Saline And Cooper And Named

It has been the custom, since the foundation of the American Gov¬ ernment, to commemorate the names of heroes and men of brilliancy. Our county followed this precedent and took its name from one of the most brilliant men Missouri has ever honored, the Hon. Spencer Pettis. He was the third representative in Congress from Missouri.

Mr. Pettis was not a Missourian by birth. He was born in Virginia in 1802, chose the law as his profession and began his practice in Fayette, Howard County, Missouri. At twenty-seven years of age Mr. Pettis reached the fullness of his political genius as a Democratic candidate for Congress. In this campaign there were two other candidates, Edward Bates, who was a Whig, and William Carr Lane, a Democrat. The two Democratic candidates divided strength and the success of Mr. Bates, the Whig, seemed certain. Suggestion was finally made to Mr. Pettis and Mr. Bates that one of them withdraw. Finally, by agreement, the question of who should withdraw was left to Col. Thomas H. Benton, who, without any hesitation, decided that Mr. Pettis should continue the campaign. These days were long before the advent of telegraph or telephonic communication, there were but few newspapers and the fact of Lane's withdrawal was heralded throughout the country by means of handbills.

The archives at Washington disclose this brief bit of history : "Spen¬ cer Pettis, St. Louis County, Missouri, elected August, 1828, for two years. Re-elected 1830. Killed in a duel with Biddle, August, 1831. Term of service, three years."

In 1830, there was much political turmoil and strife in Missouri. Spencer Pettis was again a candidate for Congress. He entered, with Col. Thomas H. Benton and others, the strife against United States Banks. General Jackson, too, had always opposed United States Banks with his influence and administration. Mr. Pettis was caustic and severe in his denunciation of the United States Banks. He was the political hero of this campaign, defeating the Hon. David Barton, who had re¬ cently returned from the United States Senate and entered the race for the lower house. During the campaign, Mr. Pettis had a personal quarrel with Maj. Thomas Biddle, who was at that time paymaster in the United of the United States Bank and still another brother, Commodore Biddle, was of the United States Navy. Mr. Pettis, as a result of some spoken and printed insult, challenged Mr. Biddle to a duel. Mr. Biddle accepted the challenge. The date fixed was Friday, August 27, 1831, and the place, the sand-bar opposite the city of St. Louis. Mr. Biddle was near sighted and for that reason the combatants agreed that the distance between them should be measured at five feet. They were so close to¬ gether that their pistols overlapped when presented. Both men fired simultaneously and both fell mortally wounded. When their physicians informed them of their condition the duelists readily forgave each other.

Mr. Pettis died of his wound on Saturday, August 28th, and was buried on Sunday, August 29, 1831. Mr. Biddle died of his wound on Sunday, August 29th, the same day that Mr. Pettis was buried. After the Pettis-Biddle duel the name, "Bloody Island" was given the sand-bar where it was fought.

When Pettis County was carved out of Saline and Cooper Counties, January 26, 1833, the people, with reverence, remembered the name of Spencer Pettis, their political hero and champion of their rights, and in honor to his memory named this county, Pettis.

Chapter Vii Early Settlers

The early settlers of Pettis County, like those of most other counties, came here in search of new homes, new advantages and opportunities. They found the country uninhabited, except by Indians and some halfbreed Spanish and French. They were, in truth, pioneers, as much so in this locality as were the "Pilgrim Fathers," who landed on our New England shores, to build up their own civilization and government, bring¬ ing with them habits and customs of their former homes. They lacked neither hospitality, generosity nor refinement. Some, of course, were adventurers, pure and simple, but such did not leave the stamp of their form of civilization on the early history of the county ; neither have they done so since. The adventurer was not a permanent fixture here. He came and went and, when he did stay, he absorbed the good traits of the sturdy pioneers surrounding him and became a part of their society with their ideas. Many of the pioneers of Pettis County can be traced to the old world from whence they came.

The period embracing the decade prior to 1820 may be considered constituting the very earliest stage of pioneer life. The pioneer cared little about preserving history of people or times ; he was busy building up and trying to carve fortune for himself in his new home, "The West." This period is not marked by stirring events, but with toil, privation and sacrifice incident to the formation of society and the building of homes, and for the events which follow civilization as it advanced. The settlers were not burdened with cares attendant upon even moderate wealth.

They shared each others' hardships and all stood on about the same foot¬ ing. When the Creator made man, He made him dependent on society. It might have pleased Him to have made His created image independent of all other beings; but the strongest bond of society lies in man's de¬ pendence upon his fellow creatures and this fact is made clear and appre¬ ciated fully in the early existence of a people, whether it be in the tribe, the family or the nation. It has been seen that here, as most every¬ where else, the pioneers were poor but not vain. There was no existent aristocracy and no place for it. Neighbors were few and far between and envy and jealous rivalry had no place in their daily lives. Far re¬ moved from civilization, except their own, they were unselfish and bore nothing but good will toward each other and toward the stranger who, perchance, entered their gates. They shared each other's burdens un¬ grudgingly. When a neighbor was sick they ministered unto him; in death, their sympathetic loyalty knew no bounds. When misfortune, accident or sickness hindered a settler in gathering his crop the neighbor¬ hood with willing hands, came to help him ; when his cabin would burn down they all, without invitation, would rebuild his home. They had few infractions of the law, no law suits, and few officers of the law. The sentiment of the particular neighborhood where dissention arose settled all differences without delay or ill will and justice was meted out to all concerned.

Looking retrospectively through the veil of years past, feeling now the cramp of advanced civilization and the congestion of many interests and ambitions, it is almost a tonic to the weary mind to dream of the early civilization of this county. It was a wonderful period and one which will always be thought of with interest and deep satisfaction.

The home of the pioneer was fashioned after the pole cabin and the hut of the Indian, made with bark of trees. We learn of these simple huts from early writers because the memory of our people extend not back that far. The next home of the pioneer was a log cabin which, when compared with the old one, was an aristocratic dwelling. These cabins were of round logs and poles, notched together at the corners, ribbed with poles, and covered with boards split from a tree. A puncheon floor was laid down, a hole cut in the end of the building where a stick and mud chimney was built. The cracks were stopped or chinked with blocks of wood and mud. The one-legged bedstead - now a piece of furniture of the past - was made by cutting a stick the proper length, boring holes in the logs of the cabin one and one-half inches in diameter, at right angles, and the same sized hole corresponding for the triangular part which was fastened in the floor or ground, poles made the bed rails, and from pole to pole hickory bark was often interwoven or clapboard were laid across, and upon this structure a straw or shuck mattress was laid, and sometimes a feather tick was placed still over this. The house¬ hold and kitchen furniture were all in the same little room. The conven¬ ience of the cooking stove was not thought of then, but instead, the food was prepared in pots, kettles, ovens, and skillets, on and about the big open fireplace. The cabin took much time, labor and a good part of the men of the neighborhood to build. Window glasses were rare, the window generally being made by cutting out a log or removing some of the chinks to permit light and sun rays. The doors were made of split logs, hewn down as thin as possible with axes. They were hung on wooden hinges and fastened with the old-fashioned wooden latch. In many instances fireplaces were built of mud and sticks, rough stones laid for the hearth, jambs and back, the mud and stones to keep the sticks from firing and the mud to hold the sticks in place. The fire place served for purpose of heat, cooking and also ventilating the cabin.

Very few of the streams furnished mill sites. In the very early days of pioneer civilization, James Wasson set up a gi'ist-mill on Muddy Creek and named it "Pin Hook Mill." Some of the settlements had the old mill which was run by horse-power and this was the most reliable because inclement weather and swollen streams sometimes kept the neighborhood from the water-mill, and in this emergency the coffee-mill was resorted to. When some had not coffee mills - they didn't all have them - a grater was made by punching holes in a tin can, the corn softened by boiling water and the meal grated. In 1829, for weeks, whole settlements sub¬ sisted on meal grated and ground by the improvised grater and the coffeemill. A little later, Flat Creek furnished mill-sites.

The earliest settlements were made in Pettis County in the wooded skirts of the small streams, Muddy and Flat Creek, which furnish an abundance of water and fish. At this time there were no roads, ferries, bridges and few boats, except the small Indian canoe. In these days even a slight rain made many small creeks dangerous to ford.

Many of the first settlers went to Boonville for their milling, which was the only place where merchandising was carried on for several years. At that time all the present State of Missouri west and north of the

Osage River, and the old settled counties north of the Missouri River, was for many years known as the "Boone's Lick country." The old set¬ tlers knew it by no other name. It received its name from a place called Boone's Lick, in what is now Howard county, situated about eight miles northwest of New Franklin, near the Missouri River. This place was visited by Daniel Boone at a very early date, finding several large salt spring where deer and other game resorted, he made this a favorite hunting ground. Here in 1807, Nathan and Daniel M. Boone, sons of the frontiersman, Daniel Boone, manufactured salt at Boone's Lick, and shipped it down the river to St. Louis. Several adventurers came to this section as hunters, but no one attempted to settle here until 1808, when Col. Benj. Cooper determined to make his home in this favored spot, but the territorial governor, Merriwether Lewis, issued an order directing all frontier settlers to return since he could not afford them protection in case of an Indian war. When the first settlers came to this county fish and game were plentiful and furnished all the food necessary except the bread which was made from the corn as we have just described it. Tur¬ key, deer, elk, bear and smaller game was as plentiful as the domestic animals which now stock the land of our farmers.

In 1818 Nimrod Jenkins and a few others settled near the Lamine river, in the northeastern part of the county, which then formed a part of Cooper County. Solomon Reed came from Crab Orchard, Kentucky, and settled in 1821 in what is now known as Pettis county. He was a genuine pioneer, all of his life having been spent on the outskirts of civilization. He was liberal in his dealings with the Indians, and always on familiar and friendly terms with them, and among them he bore the sobriquet of "Pumpkin," owing to the fact that they could always get from him a supply of that vegetable, of which they seemed to be very fond. One year later Jesse Swope, Silas Jenkins, and Sylvester Hall located on Blackwater. Soon after this settlement came Reuben E. Gentry, Thomas Osborne, Wm. O'Bannon, James Wasson, James Ramey and others, and settled on Muddy Creek. A German settlement was made on Lake Creek in 1831.

A settlement was made on a spot near old Georgetown. Settlements were made on Muddy and Flat Creeks. George Heard, Esq., built the first house in Georgetown, during the fall of 1835. He was the first teacher of the county.

Swope, Hiram Swope, Abijah Hughes, Leonard Bouldin, Edward Speddin, William C. Harrison, Henry C. Hall, Richard O'Bannon, Absalom McVey, Reuben E. Gentry, M. Emery, C. and W. Woods, Reece Hughes, J. M. Wooldridge, Andrew Forbes, Samuel Forbes, Maj. William Gentry, Aaron Jenkins, Amos Fristo, Gen. Geo. R. Smith, John Montgomery, Mentor and Milton Thomson, Norah S. Rigg, Jesse Douglass, Aldea A. Glass¬ cock, Albion Robinson and others, some of which will appear elsewhere.

The farming utensils of the early settlers were the bull-tongue colter, single shovel, and wooden mold-board plows. Then if a man owned a wooden board plow he was an aristocrat. With these simple implements the plowman opened up his patches. These rude plows did good service and are awarded the honor of first stirring the soil of Pettis County.

The cost of living was less then than it is now. When boarding houses were first established in this county, ten cents was the price of a meal. Boarding houses were fewer and the "Star Border" changed not so often as at the present date. He was content with much less in both food and attention.

Chapter Viii

DATE OF ORGANIZATION - POPULATION - CREATING ACT OF LEGISLATUREBOUNDARIES - SECOND LEGISLATIVE ENACTMENT - HELENA MADE COUN¬ TY SEAT - GEORGETOWN MADE COUNTY SEAT - SEDALIA COUNTY SEAT - FIRST SCHOOL DISTRICT - EARLY COURT SESSION - COURT HOUSE BUILTVOTING PRECINCTS IN 1860.

Pettis County was organized on January 26, 1833, by severances effected from Cooper and Saline counties. At this date, the entire popu¬ lation of the county was less than six hundred. For the purpose of local government, the United States was divided, each state, into counties. The counties were divided into townships, school-districts and municipal corporations. The officers were those who superintended the affairs of finance, a court of inferior jurisdiction and a Circuit or Supreme Court. The county being subordinate to the State, had, and has yet, only such power and authority as delegated it by the sovereign State. The General Assembly, when it deemed and declared it necessary to the interests of the people, created new counties by an act defining boundaries and the assignment of a name to the new political creation.

The following act of the Legislature carved Pettis County out of Cooper and Saline counties, by the following enactment. "Re it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Missouri, as follows: 'All that portion of territory, lying and being south of Saline County proper, in the State of Missouri, and which has heretofore been attached to Saline County for all civil and military purposes, and also a part of the terri¬ tory now composing the counties of Cooper and Saline, included within the following boundaries, towit: Beginning on the range line dividing ranges twenty-three and twenty-four, (the line now dividing Saline and

Lafayette counties), at the northwest corner of section nineteen, in town¬ ship forty-eight; thence running due east with said section line, to the range line between ranges nineteen and twenty; thence due south with said range line, to the middle of the main channel of the river Osage; thence up said river Osage, in the middle of the main channel thereof, to the southeast corner of Lafayette County ; thence due north, with the range line dividing Saline and Lafayette counties to the beginning, be, and the same is hereby declared a separate and distinct county, to be known and called by the name of Pettis County.

" 'The courts to be holden in said county, shall be held at the house of James Ramey, until the tribunal transacting county business for said county shall fix a temporary seat of justice for said county; and the county courts to be holden in said county, shall be held on the third Mon¬ days in February, May, August and November.

" 'It shall be the duty of the governor, so soon as it shall be con¬ venient after the passage of this act, to appoint judges of the County Court for the said county, who shall hold their offices until the next general election in eighteen hundred and thirty-four, and until their successors be duly elected and qualified.