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Chapter 1: Introductory to Monroe County |
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History
is but a record of the life and career of peoples and nations. The historian, in rescuing from oblivion the life of a nation, or a
particular people, should "nothing extenuate, nor set down aught in
malice. " Myths, however beautiful, are but fanciful; traditions,
however pleasing, are uncertain; and legends, though the very essence of
poesy and song, are unauthentic. The novelist will take the most fragile
thread of romance, and from it weave a fabric of surpassing beauty. But
the historian should put his feet on the solid rock of truth, and turning
a deaf ear to the allurements of fancy, he should sift with careful
scrutiny the evidence brought before him, from which he is to give the
record of what has been. Standing down the stream of time, far removed
from its source, he must retrace with patience and care, its meanderings,
guided by the relics of the past which lie upon its shores, growing
fainter, and still more faint and
uncertain as he nears its fountain, ofttimes concealed in the debris of ages, and the mists
of impenetrable darkness. Written records grow less and less explicit, and
finally fail altogether, as he approaches the beginning of the community
whose lives he is seeking to rescue from the gloom of a rapidly receding
past. Memory, wonderful as are its powers, is yet frequently at fault, and
only by a comparison of its many aggregations can he be satisfied that he
is pursuing stable-footed truth in his researches amid the early paths of
his subject. It can not then be unimportant or uninteresting to trace the
progress of Monroe county from its embryotic period to its present proud
position among its sister counties. To this end, therefore, we have
endeavored to gather the scattered and loosening threads of the past into
a compact web of the present, trusting that the harmony and perfectness of
the work may speak with no uncertain sound to the future. WHAT
TIME HAS DONE Fifty-three
years have passed since Monroe county was organized. Most wonderful have
been the changes, and mighty have been the events and revolutions, the
discoveries and inventions, that have occurred within this time. Perhaps
since " God formed the earth and the world, " and tossed them
from the hollow of his hand into space, so many great things have not been
accomplished in any fifty-three years. Reflection can not fail to arouse
wonder, and awaken thankfulness, that God has appointed us the place we
occupy in the eternal chain of events. Tennyson and Browning, Bryant and
Whittier, Lowell and Longfellow have sung. The matchless Webster, the
ornate Sumner, the eloquent Clay, the metaphysical Calhoun and Seward have
since reached the culmination of their powers and passed into the grave.
Macauley, Theirs, Gizot and Froude have written in noble strains the
history of their lands; tand Bancroft and Prescott and Hildreth and Motley
have won high rank among the historians of the earth. Spurgeon and Beecher
and Moody have enforced, with most persuasive eloquence, the duties of
morality and religion. Carlyle and Emerson, Stuart Mill and Spencer have
given the results of their speculations in high philosophy to the world.
Mexico has been conquered; Alaska has been purchased; the center of
population has traveled more than 250 miles along the thirty-ninth
parallel, and a majority of the States composing the American Union have
been added to the glorious constellation on the blue field of our flag.
Great cities have been founded and populous countries developed ; and the
stream of emigration is still tending westward. Gold has been discovered
in the far West, and the great Civil War-the bloodiest in all the annals
of time-has been fought. The telegraph, the' telephone and railroad have
been added to the list of the most important inventions. In fact, during
this time, our country has increased in population from a few millions of
people to fifty millions. From a weak, obscure nation it has become strong
in all the elements of power and influence, and is to-day the most
marvelous country for its age that ever existed. IMPORTANCE
OF EARLY BEGINNINGS Every
nation does not possess an authentic account of its origin. Neither do all
communities have the correct data whereby it is possible to accurately
predicate the condition of their first beginnings. Nevertheless, to be
intensely interested in such things is characteristic of the race, and it
is particularly the province of the historian to deal with first causes.
Should these facts be lost in the mythical traditions of the past, as is
often the case, the chronicler invades the realm of the ideal and compels
his imagination to paint the missing picture. The patriotic Roman was not
content until he had found the , first settlers," and then he was
satisfied, although they were found in the very undesirable company of a
wolf, and located on a drift, which the receding waters of the Tiber htd
permitted them to preempt. One of the advantages pertaining to a residence
in a new country, and one seldom appreciated, is the fact that we can go
back to the first beginning. We are thus enabled to not only trace results
to their causes, but also to grasp the facts which have contributed to
form and mold these causes. We observe that a State or county has attained
a certain position, and we at once try to trace out the reasons for this
position in its settlement and surroundings, in the class of men by whom
it was peopled, and in many chances and changes which have wrought out
results, in all recorded deeds of mankind. In the history of Monroe county
we may trace its early settlers to their homes in the Eastern States and
in the countries of the Old World. We may follow the course of the early
backwoodsman, from the I" Buckeye " or 'Hoosier"
State, and from Kentucky and Virginia on his way West, " to grow up
with the country," trusting only to his strong arm and willing heart
to work out his ambition for a home for himself and wife, and a competence
for his children. Again, we will see that others have been animated with
the impulse to move on, after making themselves a part of the community,
and have sought the newer portions of the extreme West, where civilization
had not penetrated, or returned to their native heath. We shall find
something of that distinctive New Elgland character, which has contributed
so many men and women to other portions of the West. We shall also find
many an industrious native of Germany, as well as a number of the sons of
the Emerald Isle, all of whom have contributed to modify types of men
already existing here. Those who have noted the career of the
descendents of these brave, strong men, in subduing the wilds and
overcoming the obstacles and hardships of early times, can but admit that
they are worthy sons of illustrious sires. FIRST
SETTLEMENTS MADE IN THE TIMBER The
first settlements in the county were invariably made in the timber or
contiguous thereto. The early settlers did so as a matter of necessity and
convenience. The presence of timber aided materially in bringing about an
early settlement, and it aided in two ways; first, the country had to
depend on emigration from the older settled States of the East for its
population, and especially Kentucky and Tennessee. These States originally
were almost covered with dense forests, and farms were made by clearing
off certain portions of the timber. Almost every farm there, after it
became thoroughly improved, still retained a certain tract of timber
commonly known as "the woods." ' The woods " was generally
regarded as the most important part of the farm, and the average farmer
regarded it as indispensable. When he emigrated to the West, one objection
was the scarcity of timber, and he did not suppose that it would be
possible to open up a farm on the bleak prairie. To live in a region
devoid of the familiar sight of timber seemed unendurable, and the average
Kentuckian could not entertain the idea of founding a home away from the
familiar forest trees. Then again the idea entertained by the early
immigrants to Missouri, that timber was a necessity, was not simply
theoretical. The early settler must have a house to live in, fuel for
cooking and heating purposes, and fences to inclose his claim. At that
time there were no railroads by which lumber could be transported. No coal
mine had yet been opened, and few if any had been discovered. Timber was
an absolute necessity, without which material improvement was an
impossibility. No
wonder that a gentleman from the East, who in early times came to the
prairie region of Missouri on a prospecting tour, with a view of permanent
location, returned home in disgust and embodied his views of the country
in the following rhyme: - '
Oh! lonesome, windy, grassy place, Where
buffalo and snakes prevail; The
first with dreadful looking face, The
last with dreadful sounding tail! I'd
rather live on camel hump, And
be a Yankee Doodle beggar, Than
where I never see a stump, And
shake to death with fever 'n ager." The
most important resource in the development of this Western country was the
belts of timber which skirted the streams; and the settlers who first
hewed out homes in the timber, while at present not the most enterprising
and progressive, were, nevertheless, an essential factor in the solution
of the problem. Along either side of the various streams which flow across
the country, were originally belts of timber; at certain places, generally
near the mouths of the smaller tributaries, the belt of timber widened
out, thus forming a grove, or what was frequently called a point, and at
these points or groves were the first settlements made; here were the
first beginnings of civilization; here " began to operate those
forces which have made the wilderness a fruitful place and caused the
desert to bud and blossom as the rose." Much
of the primeval forest has been removed for the building of houses and the
construction of fences; other portions, and probably the largest part,
have been ruthlessly and improvidently destroyed. PARTS
OF THE COUNTRY FIRST SETTLED As
early as 1817 parties came into what was then. Pike county, and in the
vicinity of Middle Grove located tracts of land, but no permanent
settlement was made within the boundaries of Monroe county until 1820. The
first settlement was begun in the county about three and a half miles east
of Middle Grove, by Ezra Fox, Andrew and Daniel Wittenburg and others. For
many years afterward this was known as Fox's settlement. About the same
time a settlement was commenced between the Mliddle and North forks of
Salt river between Paris and Florida, by Joseph Smith, Sr., Alexander W.
Smith, Joseph Smith, Jr., Samuel H. Smith and others. This was designated
by the early settlers as the "Smith settlement." Not long
subsequent to the formation of these settlements others were begun,
namely: On the Elk fork, south and east of Paris, by the McGees and
others. On the Middle fork, east of Madison, by Daniel and Urbin East and
others. On the North fork, in the vicinity of Clinton, by Robert Martin,
Col. Gabriel Jones, Caleb Wood and others, and also in the neighborhood of
Florida, by Robert Greening, Samuel Nesbit, William Wilkerson, John and
James Dale and others. As early as 1820 Benjamin Young settled on the South fork not far from Santa Fe. He was the only settler in that portion of the county until 1828. Only eight families were living in this settlement when the county was organized. For eleven years after the first settlements were commenced, the history of the county is connected with that of Ralls. These were years of toil and hardship, of hope and disappointment, of genuine hospitality and true friendships. There was no squinting at aristocracy among the people, no formalities, all were on one common footing, grappling with nature in a united effort to reduce it to the uses of civilization. Rude cabins with puncheon floors or without even this resemblance of a floor, without windows, except a hole closed with a piece of greased paper to let in the light, were built, forests were felled and cleared away by the united efforts of the pioneers. Immigration came in slowly; gradually the settlements began to lose that distinctiveness of separation which characterized them during their earliest years; gradually the monotony of the wide stretches of country intervening between the settlements was broken up by rude cabins of the pioneers, scattered here and there; gradually the settlements were linked together. There were no trading places, blacksmith-shops nor mills in the county for a number of years. The settlements supplied their few wants at the trading posts or towns on the Missouri or Mississippi rivers. The first blacksmith shop in the county was opened on the Louisiana road, near where Upton's old shop now stands, by Charles Eales. Among the first, and perhaps the first store in the county, was opened in the fall of 1830, one-half mile south of Florida, near where Hickman's mills now stand, by Maj. W. N. Penn. The town of Florida was laid out during the winter of 1831. Robert Donaldson, John Witt, Dr. Keenan, Joseph Grigsby, W. N. Penn and Hugh A. Hickman were its founders. Soon after the town was laid out Maj. Penn moved his stock of goods to the site, and became the first merchant of Florida. It is said that the first mill in the county was built by Benjamin Bradley, about two miles north-east of Florida. It was simple in construction, and was run by horse power. Some amusing incidents are told to illustrate the slow operation of grinding on these mills, but our space will not permit us to reproduce them here. Some of these mills are yet to be seen in the county-memorials of the old time. The first public road established in the county was what is now known as the "Old London Trace." Traces of it are yet to be seen. It began at Fox's settlement, followed along down the dividing ridge between the Elk Fork and the South Fork, crossing the latter near where the Louisiana road now crosses the same stream, thence through White's neighborhood and on to New London. This road was surveyed and laid out by Alexander W. Smith, Robert Hickland and J. C. Fox, pursuant to an order of the county court of Ralls county. POSTAL
AND MILL FACILITIES The
early settlers of the county, for several years after they built their
cabins, had neither postal nor mill facilities, and were compelled to
travel from 25 to 50 miles in order to reach a post-office, or to get
their meal. Their usual way of sending or receiving tidings from their
friends and the news of the great world, which lay towards the east and
south of them, was generally by the mouth of the stranger coming in, or by
the settler who journeyed back to his old home, in Kentucky or Virginia.
Postage at that time was very high, and if the old settler sent or
received two or three letters during the year, he considered himself
fortunate. His every-day life in the wilds of the new country to which he
had come to better his condition, was so much of a sameness that he had,
indeed, but little to communicate. His wants were few, and these were
generally supplied by his rod and his gun, the latter being considered an
indispensable weapon of defense, as well as necessary to the support and
maintenance of himself and family. No wonder that the pioneer loved his
" old flint lock," and his faithful dog, whose honest bark would
so often- " Bay deep-mouth'd welcome as he drew near home." MONROE
COUNTY FORMED AND ORGANIZED During
the years 1829-30 emigration came in rapidly. The inconvenience of being
so remote from the county seat, New London, and the hope of more rapid
settlement, induced the pioneers during the latter part of the year 1830
to take steps to secure the organization of a new county. The subject was
laid before the General Assembly of the State, was favorably considered,
and on January 6, 1831, the following act was passed creating a new
county: "All that portion of the territory within the county of Ralls
lying within the following boundaries, to wit: Beginning on the township
line between town W. L. Smiley's sketch of countyships 52 and 53 at the
first sectional line east of the range line between ranges 7 and 8, thence
with said sectional line on a parallel with said range north, to the
southern boundary of the county of Marion; thence west along the Marion
county line with the township line between townships 56 and 57, to the
range line between 12 and 13, it being the eastern boundary line of
Randolph county, thence south with said range line to the township line
between townships 52 and 53, thence east with said township line to the
place of beginning, be and the same is hereby declared to be a separate
and distinct county, to be known and called by the name of " Monroe
county" (Laws of Missouri). These boundaries have not been materially
changed. The same act appointed Hancock S. Jackson, of Randolph; Stephen
Glascock, of Ralls, and Joseph Holliday of Pike, commissioners to select
the seat of justice for the county. These were men possessing integrity
and purity of character. Joseph Holliday afterwards removed to the county,
where he lived and died, respected by all who knew him. Hancock S. Jackson
was afterward elected Lieutenant-Governor of the State, and was one of the
most highly respected men in the State. The
first entries of land were made by the following persons: Township 53,
range 8, George Markham, in 1819; township 54, range 8, Bennet Goldsberry
in 1818; township 54, range 8, John Hicklin, in 1819; township 54, range
8, Joseph Holliday, in 1818; township 54, range 8, Benton R. Gillett, in
1819 ; township 54, range 8, Andrew Rogers, in 1819; township 55, range 8,
Daniel McCoy, in 1819; township 54, range 9, Joseph R. Pool, in 1819;
township 55, range 9, James Adams, in 1819. THE
NAME A
great dramatist intimates that there is nothing in a name; but a name
sometimes means a great deal. In many instances, it indicates, in a
measure, the character of the people who settle the country and have given
to it its distinctive characteristics. Names are sometimes given to towns
and countries by accident; sometimes they originate in the childish
caprice of some individual, whose dictate by reason of some real or
imaginary superiority is law. Whether the policy of naming counties after
statesmen and generals be good or bad, the Missouri Legislature has
followed the practice to such an extent, that fully three-fourths of the
counties composing the State bear the names of men who are more or less
distinguished in the history of the country. THE
NAMES OF PIONEERS When we consider that more than half a century has passed since the men whose names we append below, pitched their tents within the present limits of the county, it will be readily understood how difficult has been the task of collecting them. In placing these names upon record we have doubtless made mistakes and omissions, but feel confident that the errors will be overlooked, when it is remembered that we have spared no little effort to be accurate and perfect. They who in the early dawn of Western civilization first " bearded the lion in his den, " opened a path through the wilderness, drove out the wild beasts and tamed the savage Indian, are entitled to one of the brightest pages in all the record of the past. The old pioneers of Monroe county--the advance guard of civilization have nearly all passed away; those remaining may be counted on the fingers of one hand. A few more years of waiting and watching, and they, too, will have joined: "The innumerable caravan, that moves To
the pale realms of shade, where each shall take His
chamber in the silent halls of death. " Fresh
hillocks in the cemetery will soon be all the marks that will be left of a
race of giants who grappled nature in her fastness and made a triumphant
conquest in the face of the greatest privations, disease and difficulty.
The shadows that fall upon their tombs as time recedes are like the smoky
haze that enveloped the prairies in the early days, saddening the memory
and giving to dim distance only a faint and phantom outline, to which the
future will often look back and wonder at the great hearts that lie hidden
under the peaceful canopy. These
are the names of the old settlers:
In addition to the names above given, others will be mentioned in giving the history of the different townships. Still living, in his 90th year. Still living. |