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The history of Lincoln County properly dates from the first year of the present century, when Major Christopher Clark erected his cabin and made the first permanent settlement within its present limits. About five years previous a few persons located on Spanish grants, in the eastern part of the county, adjacent to the Mississippi and Cuivre Rivers. These were mostly French trappers and hunters, whose residence was only temporary. Hon.Tully R. Cornick, in an address before the first agricultural and mechanical fair ever held in the county, October 4,1856, estimated that at the commencement of the present century less than forty acres of land had ever been put in cultivation in the county. These settlements came to nought, and in a very few years every single grant was held by a non-resident owner.
Major Clark was born in Lincoln County, North Carolina, in 1766. His father, James Clark, was a native of Ireland, and his mother, Catherine Horne, of Scotland. They first settled in Winchester, Virginia. They had six sons---Alexander, William, James, Christopher, Johnand David. Alexander, James and John remained in North Carolina. William was killed by Indians in Kentucky, David visited Missouri in 1811. Returning to his native State, he married Margaret Douglass, by whom he had one son, William, who is known all over the county as “Uncle Billy”. The family came to this state in 1823, and settled on the Wright City Road, three miles south of Troy, where the son now lives. David Clark died many years ago. He was greatly respected for his honest and upright character, and was for many years a Justice of the Peace. Christopher Clark in 1788 settled in Lincoln County. He married Elizabeth Adams, by whom he had six children--James, Sarah, Catherine, David, Hannah and Elizabeth. He served as lieutenant in a company of volunteers, guarding the frontiers of Kentucky, and also during a campaign up the Wabash River in 1790. He came to Missouri in 1799,bringing with him his horses and cattle. On this occasion he came on a prospecting tour as far north as the present site of Troy, where was then situated a small Indian village, the wigwams being placed in a kind of circle around the spring. The following year he brought his family in a pirogue, or large keel-boat, down the Kentucky and Ohio and up the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers, and landed at St. Charles. He settled at what is now known as Gilmore Springs, on the St. Louis, Kansas City and Northern Railroad. A few days after his arrival his wife died. He immediately returned to Kentucky and purchased a black girl to do the house-work in his new home. He remained here about a year. In April, 1801, he moved into the limits of this county, being the first white man to cross Big Creek with a wagon, and built his cabin within a few feet of the present residence of Frederick Wing, Esq., three and a half miles southeast of Troy, on the St. Charles Road. This was the first permanent settlement in the State north of the present limits of St. Charles County. At that time his nearest neighbor was Anthony Keller, who lived on the south bank of Big Creek, four miles off; after that the nearest settlement was at Flint Hill.
Shortly afterwards came Jeremiah Groshong, a native of Pennsylvania, who had lived a few years in St. Charles County, near the Missouri River. He settled half a mile northeast of Clark’s on the land known as the Castleman, or Herndon Place, now belonging to the heirs of the late Talbot Bragg. He built a stone-house on the farm. He raised nine children, of whom six survive; one in Kansas and four in Wisconsin, whither the family, with the exception of Jacob, removed in 1836. Jeremiah Groshong and his wife both died in the last mentioned State, the former at the age of eighty-six years. Jacob was born in October, 1800, a few months before his father came to this county. About thirty-five years ago he settled at his present place of residence, four miles from Chain of Rocks, on the Troy Road. He has been longer resident of this county than any other person, and is doubtless the only person within its limits who has been a subject of Spain and France, and a citizen of the District of Louisiana, the Territory of Louisiana, the Territory of Missouri, and the State of Missouri, without changing his place of residence.
Next came the families of Zadock Woods and Joseph (commonly called Deacon) Cottle, from Woodstock, Vermont, who settled in Troy, 1802. The other pioneer settlers will be mentioned further on.
I shall here finish the personal history of Major Clark, and only refer to him hereafter in his public capacity of military officer and member of the Territorial Legislature. In 1804 he married his second wife, Hetty Calvert, of Virginia, by whom he had three children---Ralph H.F., Julia, and William Calvert. He died in 1841. He was a man of sterling honesty and of good, solid judgment, and ever retained the confidence of his fellow-citizens. During the last twenty years of his life he was frequently solicited to run for office, but he invariably refused. Of his children, James served one year as orderly-sergeant under Capt. Nathan Boone, the youngest son of Daniel Boone, and was once severely wounded. David served one year under Capt. James Callaway, who was a grandson of Daniel Boone. He went to Texas, with his brother James, in 1826, and was killed in battle in 1838. Sarah married Col. Alembe Williams, and went with him to Texas, in 1831, where they both died many years ago. Catherine married Capt. Joseph McCoy, and went to Texas, in 1824, where her husband died a few years afterwards; she is still living. Hannah died single, in 1820. Elizabeth married Jesse Cox, and lived and died in this county. Ralph was born while his mother was on a visit to Green’s Bottom, in St. Charles County, in 1804. He married Mary Murphy, of Kentucky, by whom he had two children. She died in 1839, and he afterwards married Mary Atkinson, also of Kentucky, by whom he had eight children. He is again a widower, and lives near Martinsburg, in Audrain County. He served many years as Justice of the Peace, while residing at the old homestead in this county. He left it for his present residence in 1858. From him most of the personal history of his father’s family is obtained. Julia married Valentine J. Peers, who was sheriff of this county from 1836 to 1838. Mr. Peers died a few years ago in St. Louis, where his widow still resides. William died on his way to California in 1850. Jamesdied in Texas. McCoy and Williams served each a year under Capt. Daniel M. Boone, and a year under Capt. Callaway during the war of 1812.
At the time of Major Clark’s settlement, this country was commonly called New Spain Its official designation was the Province of Upper Louisiana. Its capital was St. Louis. The Executive, under the style of Lieutenant-Governor, the title of the office during the Spanish dominion, which lasted from May 20,1770, to March 9,1804, was Carlos Debault Delassus. In compliance with the provisions of a treaty, ratified March 21,1801, between Spain and France, the former retroceding Louisiana to the latter, Delassus, on the 9th of March, 1804, delivered the Province of Upper Louisiana to Capt. Amos Stoddard, the agent and commissioner of the French Government. On the following day Stoddard delivered it to himself as agent of the United States, by virtue of authority from Wm. C. C. Claiborne, Governor of Mississippi and ex-officio Governor of the Louisiana Purchase. Captain Stoddard was executive, under the title of Commandant, until October 1,1804, when that part of the purchased territory north of the southern line of Arkansas was designated the District of Louisiana, and was temporarily assigned to the government of the Territory of Indiana, the Governor of which was Gen. William Henry Harrison, afterwards President of the United States, with seat of government at Vincennes. Governor Harrison, on the 21st of Dec., 1804, commissioned Christopher Clark a Captain of Volunteers, and he was sworn into service February 9,1805. Clark’s Company used to muster at Zumwalt’s Spring, now known as Big Spring Mills, near Flint Hill. This was perhaps a central point, but the chief attraction was the whisky that was made from Adam Zumwalt’s two distilleries. At one of these musters the Captain treated his men to a wash-tub of whisky, which so elated them that they resolved to receive it with all the honors of war and military display which their proficiency in the drill permitted. They marched around it several times, and then fired a salute over it with blank cartridge. One of the men had already partaken too freely to be able to hold his gun in a proper position, and the wad from the charge cut off one of Daniel McCoy’s toes. There were many settlements of the Sac and Fox Indians within the limits of the county at that time, and the district watered by the two Cuivres and Big and Peruque Creeks was one of the favorite hunting grounds of the two tribes, whose head quarters were in the Rock River Country, Illinois. Black Hawk, or Ma-ka-tai-me-she-kia-kiak, the name by which he was known among his own people, one of the most celebrated Indian braves that ever lived, frequented this county, first on the hunt, and afterwards on the bloody trail of war. He was popular with the whites, and liked their company; he was particularly fond of attending the dancing parties of that day, and took his place in the quadrille with infinite zest. He had a partiality for strong drink, and much of his leisure time was spent at the still-houses, which were then considered the vanguard of civilization. He lived for some time with Adam Zumwalt, whose capacious larder, the generous and free hospitality of himself and wife, his four daughters, Elizabeth, Rachel, Mary, and Catherine, pretty, lively, and ever ready for the dance; his four sons, John, Andrew, Jonathan, and Solomon, vigorous, full of life and spirit, and excelling as hunters, and last, but not least, the two still-houses near by, all combined to render this a most agreeable home for Black Hawk, when resting from the excitement and fatigue of the chase. He was often very drunk; but in all his intercourse with the whites, drunk or sober, his bearing was gentle and dignified, characteristic of his kindness of disposition and greatness of intellect. Black Hawk was perhaps more friendly towards the white people than any other Indian, certainly more so than the most of them; but he was not a chief, and it was about twenty-five years afterwards, when he had nearly reached his sixtieth year, and his eminent wisdom in council recognized far and near, before he had much to do in shaping the policy of his tribe. The attitude of the Indians was becoming more and more threatening. From the first they and the whites regarded each other with more or less suspicion. The Indians would sometimes drive off horses, kill stock, and fire into the houses of the settlers. On one occasion they shot at two of Major Clark’s children standing in the door, and one of the balls came within six inches of the mark, and at another time shot and killed a horse in his stable. Major Clark had long before learned to be cautious and wary in his dealings with the savages, the result of his frontier campaigns in Kentucky. While returning from Kentucky the second time, in 1800, bringing with him his black girl, and within a short distance from home, he camped one night with three Indians. Everything passed off quietly until next morning, when one of the Indians wanted to trade rifles with the Major, nolens volens. The Major let the Indian’s gun fall, held on to his own with a strong grasp, and by a sudden twist loosened the hold of the would-be trader. Springing out of reach of the Indian’s knife, should he attempt to use one, he put himself in an attitude of defence and cast a look of defiance at the red men, whose eyes fell before his keen glance. He then left without further ceremony than to keep a close watch on their movements as long as he was in sight of them. In speaking of this incident afterwards, the Major said that he made up his mind that his bones should bleach on that camp-ground before he gave up his gun. At his settlement in this county it was his invariable custom to place his gun and butcher-knife at the head of his bed every night, and to have the axes brought into the house. In the morning he would reconnoitre some distance from the house in every direction to see if any of the red skins were lurking in the bush. This vigilance was the more necessary on account of his isolated situation. Sometimes for the space of six weeks he saw not a white face outside of his own family. The Indians called Major Clark the “Man with the Big Hands,” and often threatened to kill him because he spoiled their hunting grounds. The Major never believed, however, that they really intended to kill him, because they had so many opportunities. Their object was rather to intimidate the whites, and to prevent by that means a further encroachment on their territory.
Except the massacre of the McHugh children, there is no authentic account of any murders of white persons by the Indians prior to the breaking out of the war of 1812. Doubtless some were perpetrated, as some of the descendants of the pioneers remember to have heard the facts stated; but names and circumstances are alike forgotten. In 1804, William McHugh sent his sons James, William and Jesse to hunt the horses, which they found about a mile from home up Sandy Creek. On their return they fell in with Frederick Dixon, a famous Indian scout. The two older boys were each riding a horse, and Jesse, a lad of ten or twelve years, got up behind Dixon. At the ford of Sandy Creek, a short distance below where the bluff road from Cap-au-Gris to New Hope now crosses the stream, and while their horses were drinking, they were fired upon by the Indians, who were concealed behind a large sycamore. The two older boys were instantly killed. Dixon’s horse made a spring up the bank, breaking the girth and throwing the riders to the ground. They sprang to their feet and fled for their lives. Jesse McHugh could not keep up with Dixon, and he kept crying out, “Oh, Mr. Dixon, don’t leave me! Don’t leave me!” In spite of this piteous appeal for help, and his own strong sympathy for the unhappy youth, Dixon kept on, knowing that to do otherwise would be but a useless sacrifice of his life as he was entirely unarmed. He said he should never forget the agonizing shrieks of the poor little fellow, mingled with the demoniac yells of the savages as they cleft his skull with their tomahawks. Dixon was pursued to McHugh’s fence. The three boys were buried in one grave, on a high point of land near the place of their murder, on the north side of the creek, and between where the old trail ran and the present bluff road. John Lindsey helped to bury them, placing split puncheons around them for a coffin, and then cut their initials on a white oak tree, and his own on another, the two standing on either side of the grave. These in the vicinity, but they have disappeared. Capt. Stonebreaker cut the last remaining one for a saw-log some twenty years ago. The bluff road at this point is a part of the first public road laid off in the county. It was located in the early part of the war of 1812 as a military road from Fort Howard, in this county to Fort Madison on the Mississippi River, in Iowa. The Indians claimed the massacre of the McHugh boys was done out of revenge for a difficulty with some white men a short time previous, in which three dogs belonging to the Indians were killed. The murdering party numbered only four or five, and is supposed by some to have been under the command of Black Hawk himself. Black Hawk in his “Life,” written at his own dictation, says nothing about this but many rangers who had taken part in the war of 1812, and who read Black Hawk’s Life when it was first published, in 1833, claimed that the narrative was not strictly true in several matters to their own knowledge, but was rather an apology than a correct history, Black Hawk having committed many acts which his natural nobility of character was ashamed. The impression that Black Hawk commanded the party referred to has this authority; A brother of the murdered boys lived many years afterwards near the Iowa River in the country frequented by the Sacs, and it came to his ears that Black Hawk on several occasions had boasted of being concerned in this particular exploit. On the whole the weight of the testimony is against the probability of Black Hawk’s participation in the affair. McHugh declared his determination to ascertain the truth of the matter, and if Black Hawk was really concerned in the murder of his brothers to avenge their blood by shedding his. It is scarcely probable that he failed to satisfy himself. There is also strong reason to believe that Black Hawk was then at home in the Sac village. At this time the Sacs held a council, and Quash-qua-me, Pa-she-pa-ho, Ou-che-qua-ka, and Ha-she-quar-hi-qua, four of their principal civil chiefs, to St. Louis to ransom a captive, who was in prison for killing a white man. This they expected to do by paying a sufficient sum of money to satisfy the relatives of the murdered man, thus “covering up the blood,” according to their own custom. This delegation was gone long enough to exceed the apprehensions of the tribe. It finally returned with many presents, and that a treaty had been signed; that the prisoner was let out of prison, and when he started to run was shot dead, and that great quantities of the white men’s fire-water had been drunk. The result of this embassy was not at all satisfactory to the tribe. The interference is a reasonable one that these four Indians, realizing that they had failed in the purpose for which they were sent, and that they had exceeded their instructions in consequence of their prolonged sprees, during which they were outwitted by the whites, were determined by some specific act of revenge, and that they were the men who perpetrated bloody massacre. The McHugh boys were uncles to Thomas, Francis, Stephen Riffle, Mrs. David Allen, and the late Mrs. Wallace W. Birkhead.
The short notice upon which this sketch is prepared prevents the collection of much more information than is already in possession of the writer concerning the settlers who came here prior to the war of 1812. The data on this part being obtained exclusively from the recollection of persons now, or recently living, must of necessity be defective, and inclusive of only a partial list. So as it is, it is here given.
Alexander McLane came from Kentucky in 1801, and settled on the Stuart Place, on the bluff, four miles from Cap-au-Gris. He took his negroes, dammed McLane’s which was since named for him, and built a grist-mill on the spot where the stream cuts through the bluff. The burrs were quarried in the vicinity and dressed by himself and slaves. This was the first mill built in the county.
His son-in-law, John Riffle, came in 1804. Mrs. Nancy Daniels, a daughter of John Riffle, is now living in Burr Oak Township. She was with her parents in Fort Howard during the war of 1812, being nearly grown, and familiar to many stirring events of that time, which she remembers with great distinguishness.
Francis Riffle, born in West Virginia, October 14,1781, came here from Kentucky, where he was raised, and settled on the ridge below McLane's Creek in 1803. He died in this county May 22,1858.
Col. Ira Cottle, nicknamed “Muxey,” came from Vermont in 1799, and settled at Monroe, in this county, in 1802. His father, Warren Cottle, settled in St. Charles County, and was a soldier in the war of 1812. Ira Cottle married his cousin, Suby Cottle, and afterwards the widow of John Ewing. During the war, he, unlike the other settlers, would not retire into the fort, but remained at home. In 1820 he was the second richest man in the county, and paid taxes on a thousand acres of land. He built the house now occupied by Mrs. Henry Hemmingmeyer as a store and dwelling, which is one of the first brick buildings erected in the county, and was, at the time it was built, the largest. He died in 1843.
With Zadock Woods, whose settlement at Troy has been mentioned, came his mother and his two brothers, James and Martin, who settled the same year, 1802 near Monroe. Mrs. Woods died in this county at a very advanced age. The three brothers went to Texas at an early day, where Zadock and some of his brothers were killed fighting for the independence of the Lone Star Republic. The three brothers were each possessed of considerable means. Zadock was a stone-mason, and built the first stone-chimney in Hurricane Township.
William McHugh, whose three sons were murdered, was of Scotch ancestry. In 1803 he settled on Sandy Creek, on the farm now owned by Burt J. Cocke, and built his cabin about thirty steps northwest of where of where the latter’s house now stands. He died a few years after the close of the war of 1812. He and his wife are buried on the banks of Sandy Creek, about two hundred yards north of the site of their cabin. The male line of his family is extinct, except probably a grandson, John McHugh, who was living a few years ago on the Des Moines River, in Iowa.
Col. David Bailey, who occupied a prominent position in the affairs of the county until his death, which occurred in 1864, came here from Vermont in 1803. He was a captain of rangers in the war of 1812. He has two grand-daughters living at the old homestead, in this county.
John Lindsey, from Maine, settled on Sandy Creek in 1803. He possessed an excellent education, and was Deputy County Clerk in 1820, and afterward a member of the County Court, and for many years a Justice of the Peace. He died some time in the winter of 1833-4, having survived his two children. His widow went to Wisconsin.
James Burnes, about the same time, settled on Sandy Creek, a quarter of a mile above the scene of the McHugh massacre.
Roswell Durgee also came here about the same time, and settled at the m___ of Durgee Hollow, on the David T. Killam Place.
The same year, 1803, Frederick Dixon settled in Monroe Township. He married Elizabeth, daughter of James Burnes, lived here many years after the war, and died in Iowa.
Benjamin Allen, of Woodstock, Vermont, came to St. Louis in 1804, and then moved a few years prior to the war to the Tinbrook Place, near Monroe. After the war he settled on Hurricane Creek, where he died about the year 1840, at sixty-two years. He was a prominent and respected citizen, and served many years as Justice of the Peace. He was the grandfather of David Allen, Esq., of Burr Oak Township.
Ezekiel Dunning, an Irishman, and cousin to Gov. McNair, came about the same time. He established the first tan-yard in Lincoln County. It was on the Captain Wehde Place. He was step-father to Freeland Rose, Esq.
About this time came John and William Ewing. They were not nearly related, if at all. The former settled near the Mississippi River, not far from the old boundary line of Hurricane and Monroe Townships. He possessed considerate property. He died about the year 1819-20. Col. Ira Cottle administered his estate, and married his widow. William Ewing settled further down, probably between Sandy and Bob’s Creeks. His wife died in 1811. He divided out his children, and had no settled home after that. His youngest child, named after himself, was killed in the O’Neal massacre.
Jacob Null came to St. Charles County in 1808 from Cocke County, Tennessee, moved to this county the following year, and settled on the Yearly Jackson Place, three miles west of Troy. After the war he moved to where his son, John S., lives, one mile south of Troy, on the telegraph road, where he died in 1819. John S. Null was born in 1806, and with the exception of Jacob Groshong, has resided longer in this county than any other person. Jacob Null was a great bee hunter. He spent so much time hunting bees on Honey Creek in the forks of Cuivre, and was so successful, that the name of the stream was changed to Null’s Creek. His brother John, and the latter’s son, Jacob, Jr., came to the county the same year, 1809. They were prominent in home defence during the war, and also in public affairs in the organization of the county.
John Null died in the western part of the county a few years ago.
Several other families settled in the vicinity of Troy before the war, but the exact date cannot now be ascertained, nor can all their names be recollected. The following were among them: John and Joseph Hunter, the former the father of the late John M. Hunter, of New Hope, settled near West Cuivre, five miles northwest of Troy. Robert McNair, a blacksmith, of Irish parentage, born in Pennsylvania, and brother to Gov. McNair, settled in Troy, and after the war moved to above Auburn, and still later to Hurricane Creek, where he died. Elijah Collard and his father, Joseph Collard, Alembe and Job Williams, Major Robert Jameson and his son, George W. Jameson, who was the first white settler inside the Forks of Cuivre, having located on the farm now belonging to Mrs.Thomas Dwyer, two and a half miles east of Millwood, in 1817, and a man named Paris, settled in Troy or vicinity. A more complete list of the early pioneers will be found further on.
The War of 1812
The apprehensions of the early settlers as to the Indian attitude were greatly increased by the intelligence of the declaration of war between this country and Great Britain. The population within the confines of this county did not exceed five hundred. The exposed condition of the inhabitants would invite the hostile attention of the five or six tribes, who considered this county and adjacent territory as their hunting ground. It was expected that these would make common cause with the British. The declaration was made by Congress on the 12th of June,1812; and when it became known, the people lost no time in providing for the defence of their homes. Stockade forts were built at convenient points. Major Clark, with the assistance of two hired men, built a stockade at his residence, and it was called Clark’s Fort. It took six weeks to complete it, the three working every day, except two Sundays. When done the Major put up seven thousand pounds of pork to cure, with other provisions, for the use of those families that would seek shelter within its walls after being driven from their homes. A large stockade was built at Troy, and called Wood’s Fort. It was built on the lands of Deacon Joseph Cottle and Zadock Woods, and took in the spring. Stout’s Fort was built on Fort Branch, near Auburn. A large stockade was built on what is now called the Tinbrook Place, and known before that as the Samuel Bailey Place, which belongs to Edmund Dederich. It stood on the bluff, north of the intersection of the bluff road, with that leading from Chain of Rocks to Cap-au-Gris, and not far back of the cave spring, where until recently stood the house erected by Samuel Bailey.
This was called Fort Howard, in honor of Benjamin Howard, who was Governor of this Territory, but resigned November 29,1812, to engage in the war as Brigadier-General. At the time of his appointment as Governor, September 19,1810, he was member of Congress from Kentucky. He was an efficient military officer. He died at St. Louis, September 18,1814. Mrs. Daniels, who was in the fort, remembers that General Howard came on a visit of inspection once or twice. He complimented the people for having made the best selection and built the best fort in his district. He was a large, fine-looking man, and wore a buckskin coat or hunting shirt, plentifully adorned with fringe.
As far as known, most of the rangers who volunteered from this county served in the companies of Capt. Christopher Clark, of this county, and of Capt.(afterwards Colonel) Daniel M. Boone, Capt. Nathan Boone, and Capt. James Callaway, the last a grandson, and the other two sons of Daniel Boone, all of St. Charles County. A few were under Capt. Craig, who was killed in this county; but where he came from is not known.
Lieutenant(afterwards General and President) Taylor, of the regular army, had his headquarters at Wood’s Fort, and under his command were quite a number of the citizens of this county, including Zadock Woods, the Cottles and Collards; but whether it was the last year of the war, or just after the war ended, is not now known. David Bailey, Jonathan Riggs, and John McNair, all of this county, were Lieutenants in active service. Before the war ended, Bailey was promoted to the command of a company, with the rank of Captain. Riggs was a man of undaunted courage, but of cool judgment. He was frequently entrusted with the command and on many occasions his sagacity and knowledge of the Indian methods of warfare saved the lives of his men; a notable instance being when on the 7th of March,1815, the gallant, chivalric, but rash and often incautious Callaway, led his men into a trap laid by a largely outnumbering force of Indians on Loutre Creek, in Montgomery County, and laid down his life in a vain attempt to force his way through. Lieut. Riggs brought off the remainder of the men in good order and without further loss. McNair, son of Robert McNair, and nephew to Gov. McNair, was a good soldier, and a brave but rash man. He saw a good deal of service in Illinois. He was killed in a skirmish opposite Cap-au-Gris. The campaigns of the Lincoln County Rangers extended from the Missouri River to past the Iowa line, principally in the vicinity of the Mississippi.
Black Hawk, in the latter part of the year 1812, was commissioned Brigadier-General in the British army, and wished to descend at once upon these settlements; but Gen. Procter would not consent until after the second unsuccessful siege of Fort Meigs, which ended in July,1813. Black Hawk then came down, as he says, with thirty braves; but the rangers of that day said that he had a much larger force. His avowed purpose was to avenge the death of his adopted son, whom he said was killed by the whites. He divided his force, he and a party landing near Cap-au-Gris, went across the bottom, and reached the bluff in the vicinity of McLane’s Creek; the other party ascended Cuivre, and made a feint on Fort Howard. Benjamin Allen, Francis Riffle, Frederick Dixon, Roswell Durgee, John Lindsey, and William McHugh went up to Lindsey Lick, a place now owned by Joel Crenshaw and John Averall, under the escort of five Rangers, names unknown, except one, James Bowles, to sow turnips. It was the custom in those troublous times to keep the families in the forts, and the men to put in, work, and gather the crops, as best they could, taking a guard whenever practicable. The party, not fearing any immediate danger, was somewhat scattered. Dixon and Durgee were riding on one horse along a path, on the side of which Black Hawk and another Indian were concealed. When they got within reach the Indians fired, mortally wounding Durgee. The horse jumped, and both men fell to the ground. Black Hawk started in pursuit of Dixon, who rose and ran. The latter ran over a pile of new rails; when, as he was about to be overtaken, he picked up a stout stick and turned to defend himself. As he did so, Black Hawk saw his face. He says in his Life: “I knew him. He had been at Quash-qua-me’s village, to learn his people how to plow. We looked upon him as a good man. I did not wish to kill him, and pursued him no further.” In the meantime, the ranger Bowles was killed. Before the alarm had been given, Edwin Allen, Chauncy Durgee, John Ewing, and John McLanewere bathing in the creek. When the firing began Benjamin Allen galloped up, took his son Edwin on the horse, and telling the other boys to hide, rode off. The little fellows lost no time in hurrying out of the water, and finding on the bank a large hollow log, crept into it. Black Hawk, in turning from the pursuit of Dixon, heard the noise and sprang upon the log. Chauncy Durgee afterwards said that he looked through a knot-hole and saw the Indian, who seemed to be looking him right in the eye, but that he turned off without discovering them. Black Hawk said that he saw the boys, but thought of his own boys at home, and let them escape. Dixon soon recovered his horse, and found Durgee and attempted to help him mount, but the latter being severely wounded and scalped, had partially lost the use of his reason, and could not be made to comprehend what was desired of him. Finally he took hold of the horse’s tail, and Dixon made him understand that he was to hold fast and travel as rapidly as he could. After going about a hundred yards his hold relaxed and he fell back. Dixon being hard pressed and unarmed made his escape. Black Hawk and his companion came across Durgee.
He says the latter “was staggering like a drunken man, all covered with blood. This was the most terrible sight I had ever seen. I told my comrade to kill him to put him out of his misery; I could not look at him.”
Not long after this a rise took place in the Mississippi River, and the backwater came up from Cuivre along the bluff. A party from Fort Howard went out in three skiffs for some purpose. They had not gone far before they were fired upon by a part of Black Hawk’s band, and seven men killed; among them George Burnes, a son of James Burnes, who settled on Sandy Creek, as already mentioned. The survivors put back, and the Indians rejoined Black Hawk. The latter expected an attack and formed his men in line, himself standing boldly in front. This was scarcely done before the rangers, who had heard the firing from the fort, were seen advancing with great impetuosity, led by Capt. Craig. Black Hawk took deliberate aim and fired. Capt. Craig fell dead from his horse. The rangers never halted, but fired as they advanced, and killed five. The Indians, without taking time to reload, retreated before the soldiers into a large sink-hole, the bottom of which was covered with bushes, which afforded protection from the aim of the rangers. They also dug holes with their knives in the sides of the depression, which gave them a pretty safe shelter. A desultory firing from both sides was kept up for some time. William McCormick, one of the rangers, declared that he was going to kill an Indian, and that he would shoot him in the mouth. He carried out the boast exactly, he and several others going up to the edge of the sink-hole for that purpose. The other fired, but without effect. The fire was returned, killing Lieut. Spears dead on the brink, and mortally wounding McCormick. Black Hawk thus continues the narrative: “Some of my warriors commenced singing their death-songs. I heard the whites talking, and called to them to come out and fight. I did not like my situation, and wished the matter settled. I soon heard chopping and knocking; I could not imagine what they were doing. Soon after they ran up wheels with a battery on it, and fired down without hurting any of us. I called to them again, and told them if they were brave men to come down and fight us. They gave up the siege, and returned to the fort about dusk. There were eighteen in this trap with me. We all got out safe, and found one white man dead on the edge of the sink-hole. They could not remove him for fear of our fire. We scalped him and placed our dead man upon him. We could not have left him in a better situation than on an enemy.” The “battery” was a keg of powder ignited by a fuse and placed on the fore-wheels of a wagon. This was run up to the brink and intended to be pushed down into the midst of the Indians, but it exploded prematurely. The abandonment of the siege, which had continued from early in the day, was the result of a false alarm. This sink-hole was not a great distance from the fort, and is only a few yards from the present Chain of Rocks and Cap-au-Gris Road. Near by is a large spring, which is known as the Black Hawk Spring. When the rangers returned to the fort some of them brought the head of one of the fallen savages and stuck it upon a high pole. Being without an officer, and in need of reinforcements, they sent for Captain Whiteside, who came the next day and had the pole taken down and the head buried. Mrs. Daniels does not remember where Captain Whiteside came from. Black Hawk and his party abandoned their canoes and returned to Iowa by land, taking with them only two scalps, those of Durgee and Lieut. Spears. The body of the Lieutenant was found where he fell, with the dead Indian sitting astride it.
Chauncy Durgee, who hid in the log, moved to Canton, in this State, and died some years ago. His widow was living there quite recently. John Ewing, who was one of his companions in the log, was a son of William Ewing, who, when his wife died, divided out his children, giving the youngest, Willie, a boy not quite two years old, to Mrs.O’Neal, whose husband had moved a few years before to three miles above Clarksville. At the very first of the war, O’Neal and some of his neighbors were engaged in building a stockade, where Clarksville now stands. On returning home in the evening O’Neal saw the hogs dragging some object down the path, quite a distance from the cabin. It was the body of his eldest daughter, who was seventeen years of age. The whole family had been massacred, his wife and nine children, and the Ewing boy. Most of the bodies were found in the yard. Hanging over the fire was a large kettle, which Mrs. O’Neal had been using to heat water for washing. In this kettle, O’Neal’s youngest child, a mere infant, was thrown alive, and when found was, literally roasted. Willie Ewing had been thrown on the fire, beneath the kettle, where his body was found partially consumed. This horrible butchery was perpetrated by a band of Pottowatomies. The next year this tribe made peace with the Americans after the defeat at Malden. Many of them were in the habit of visiting Fort Clark, at Peoria, Illinois, while going on their hunting excursions down the Sangamon. One of the band, who visited the fort frequently, became very friendly, and loved to talk of his exploits, during the time his tribe was at war with the whites. In one of these talks he told of having led the party that massacred the O’Neal family, and how when scalping one of the boys, the victim grinned in the agonies of death. This came to the ears of Lieut. John McNair, who lived in Troy, before he enlisted. McNair said, “The next time I see him, I’ll make him grin.” The next day the Indian came back. McNair was asleep at the time. When he awoke he was told that the Indian had just gone. He inquired the way, and gave immediate pursuit. He got almost upon the Indian before he saw him or was seen himself. From the manner of his pursuer the Indian saw that the matter was one of life or death, and prepared himself for defence. McNair got the first shot, and sent a ball crashing through the skull of the savage. Near the close of the war, Lieut. McNair was stationed at Cap-au-Gris, where Capt. Musick had command. A force of Indians came down on the Illinois side. Hearing of this the Lieutenant took six men and crossed over to reconnoitre, against the advice and caution of Frederick Dixon, who was familiar with the ways of the savages. They had not proceeded fifty yards from the river before they were fired upon. Four men were killed, and McNair severely wounded. He and the other two men, Burnside and Webber, made for the skiff. The Indians reached the water’s edge as soon as they did and sunk the boat. The white men plunged into the water, and the Indians after them. Webber succeeded in driving his hunting-knife so deep into the breast of and Indian that he could not withdraw it. He and Burnside reached a drift, where they were rescued by Dixon, David Lemastre, and Thomas McNair, John’s brother. Lieut. McNair was never afterwards seen.
A party of rangers going from Fort Howard to Madison, along the bluff road, camped one night at a house on Hurricane Creek that had been lately abandoned. They found some provisions and a barrel of honey-beer, of which they partook freely and with great satisfaction. The next morning, after marching a mile or two, about a dozen of the men returned to help themselves to the beer and to bring as much as they could for the others, who according to agreement, were to march along slowly so as to be easily overtaken. These last had not gone very far before a proposition was made and immediately decided upon to have some fun. They deployed themselves in ambush in such a manner as to make as large a show of strength as possible, intending to give their comrades a good scare and then laugh at their expense. The result was not according to programme. The “scare” was on the other side. Presently the dozen rangers were seen coming along the road, happy in the possession of their beer, and anticipating no danger. Their friends in ambush, at the proper moment, fired their guns in the air, raised the Indian yell, and kept up scattering volleys. The surprised men fell back with some disorder, which was keenly relished by their comrades in the bush. They were fully convinced that the surprise was a genuine one, and like brave soldiers they began making ready for battle. They could not see the supposed enemy, but they knew the point whence proceeded the heaviest firing. They advanced quickly and poured a well directed volley into it. The command rang out sharp and clear, “Load, boys, and let the red devils have it again!” and again the leaden hail rattled through the bushes. The “fun” had now lost all attractions for its originators. Several of them were wounded, fortunately not severely, and they recognized the fact that their lives were in imminent danger. The other party was so intent upon the work of self-defence that all the shouting and hallooing could not make it understand the real situation. Finally some of the party in the bush rushed into the midst of the others, and explained the affair. The wounded men were attended to, the beer brought out and drunk and every man pledged himself not to engage in a practical joke of that kind again during the course of his natural life.
William Lynn, who lived where Brown’s addition to Troy now stands, was a ranger, and at one time on duty at Fort Howard. He was fond of his dram, and used to keep his bottle hid out. One day he took his usual walk to enjoy the bottle, and was in the act of drinking, when he was shot and killed by the Indians. Abraham Keithley, of St. Charles County, while hunting his horses, crossed Cuivre at White’s Bar, about half a mile above Chain of Rocks, and a few yards from the river, on the between-the-lands of Major H. Anderson and Francis Freise, was killed by savages. His son, who died near Troy a year ago, preserved his vest, which showed the mark of the fatal bullet. Samuel Groshong, son of Jeremiah Groshong, was wounded in the shoulder, which caused a paralysis of the arm that lasted for several years. This occurred in Moscow, which vicinity was greatly infested by the Indians. After this five men from Clark’s Fort were detailed to guard Groshong’s mill. Among these were Peter Pugh, who used to declare, as Jacob Groshong well remembers, that he would die before he would run from the Indians. He was a very pleasant, agreeable man, had been in several engagements, and possessed an excellent reputation for courage. How well he kept his vow will be presently seen.
The disastrous attempt to relieve Prairie-du-Chien was made early in the spring of 1814. The expedition consisted of three flat boats of soldiers, forty-two regulars under Lieutenant Campbell, and sixty-five rangers, mostly from the county, under the command of Lieutenant Riggs and Rector, and one or two boats loaded with provisions. At the rapids Campbell’s boat grounded, and the other two passed on. Black Hawk attacked Campbell’s boat, set it on fire, and killed several men. Seeing this the other two boats put back, Riggs getting aground and being delayed nearly an hour. Rector ran his boat alongside of Campbell’s and took off the men. The Indians attacked them with great fury, causing considerable confusion among the soldiers, rendering their fire ineffectual and preventing a proper management of the boat. Riggs, after getting his boat off, concealed most of his men, handled his boat as if he were panic-stricken, but managed to get it between the rest of the force and the Indians. The latter poured several volleys into it, to which Riggs paid no attention, but keeping the same show of utter demoralization, ran his boat towards the shore where the Indians stood. As soon as it touched, the savages rushed pell-mell for it, anticipating an easy triumph. Riggs saw his opportunity. At his orders the men rose and delivered a volley that sent the savages flying from the scene of battle. The diversion allowed the other boats time to recover themselves, and they proceeded with all despatch down the river. Lieut. Riggs hoisted sail and followed them without having lost a man. The expedition returned to Cap-au-Gris. Two or three from this county were killed in this action, among them Peter Harpole, who was in Campbell’s boat, and was about the first man killed. The total loss were twelve killed and between twenty and thirty wounded. Black Hawk, in speaking of the conduct of Lieut. Riggs on this occasion says: “I had a good opinion of this war chief; he managed so much better than the others. It would give him pleasure to shake him by the hand.”
In April,1814, Joseph McCoy, Sr., and his nephews, Joseph McCoy, Jr., and James McCoy, the first two being commonly known respectively as Big Joe and Little Joe, the latter a son-in-law of Major Christopher Clark, were sent from Fort Howard to find the whereabouts of the Indians. They went to Sulpur Lick, a spring strongly impregnated with sulphur, iron, salt, and other minerals. It is situated about a quarter of a mile east of North Cuivre, and a mile and a half north of the Riggs Ford, on section three, township forty-nine, range one west. The place had been settled some time before the war, a cabin built, and a small patch of ground cleared around the spring, but at this time it had been abandoned. The mineral water made the spring a favorite resort for deer. Only this occasion no Indians were seen, and the scouts concluded to take a hunt. They unsaddled their horses, and turned them in the old field to graze. Big Joe was not very well; he lay down in the lap of a fallen tree and went to sleep. James McCoy had killed a deer, and was at the spring washing out his gun. The Indians fired on him, wounding him in the thigh, and ran him about three hundred yards, where they overtook him, and killed him with their spears. Big Joe awoke at the sound of the firing, but could not get a good chance to shoot, the Indians were running about through the woods. Presently he was discovered and the savages closing in on him, he made a run for life. He was the fleetest footed and most active of all the rangers. A big Indian, swift-footed and active soon distanced his fellows, and held McCoy a tight race for a mile or so. A large oak had been felled, and the branches lay directly in the path. Without swerving in the least, Big Joe made a terrific spring and leapt entirely over the tree-top. The Indian stopped in amazement: “Whoop! Heap big jump! Me no follow.” McCoy’s speed never slackened until he had put several miles between himself and the Lick. Little Joe was standing on the bank of the Lick Branch, about a quarter of a mile below the spring, when his brother was killed. He went up to the old field, caught and saddled the horses, and finding the coast clear, went in the direction of the fort, leading the other two horses. He sent word to Major Clark. There were only two men in the fort besides the Major, Isaac White, who had both thumbs shot off a short time previous while in the act of firing in a skirmish below Cap-au-Gris, where the rangers were driven back by a superior force, and David McNair. Major Clark collected eight men and gave pursuit. He followed the Indians some distance up North Cuivre to a point where they separated. It is said there were twenty-seven of the savages. Some time after this, Peter Pugh and Robert McNair, a mere boy, and brother to Lieut. John McNair, went to the same Lick to hunt horses. The Indians attacked them and killed both. They might have easily escaped by a timely retreat, but Pugh dismounted, put his gun across his horse and fought until he died. He killed four Indians. The savages in revenge for his bloody work hacked his body to pieces and scattered it over the field. The remains were collected and buried with the body of young McNair on the bank of the Lick stream.
There were many other skirmishes in this county during the war, some of the particulars of which are still vivid in the recollection of persons now living; but as the names of those killed and wounded are forgotten, no further mention will be made of them, the limits of this sketch only permitting a description of those of which more exact data have been preserved. The actual loss in battle conveys but a faint idea of the sufferings of the inhabitants during that period. Farming operations had to be almost entirely abandoned, and not infrequently the uncertain results of the hunt left the besieged families on the very verge of starvation. The pangs of hunger are as strongly remembered by some of our old citizens as any other incident of the war. Could a full and thorough history of the deeds of the rangers of General Howard’sdistrict be written, its pages would read like the wildest romance. They were as gallant a set of men as ever shouldered a gun. Their services were often sorely needed in those dreadful times, and right heartily were they rendered. Not always successful, and often times some of their best material sacrificed through want of skill and fool-hardy recklessness, they were ever ready for the saddle, the long and weary trail, the slow, tedious siege, the sharp clashing skirmish, or the bold, desperate fight.
The County Organization
To the first settler of Lincoln County was reserved the honor of securing an establishment as a separate county, and also of selecting its official title. In the Territorial Legislature which convened at St. Louis in December,1818, being in the fifth session since the creation of the territory, the organization of several new counties was discussed. MajorClark, who was a member, proposed a new county out of the area of St. Charles, of about twenty-four miles square, with the boundaries corresponding very nearly to the present lines. The subject was favorably considered, and the only matter to be decided upon was a name for the proposed county, for which a blank space had been left in the bill. Several names were proposed and discussed.
Major Clark arose to address the assembly, a duty he attempted but seldom in that body. He was not a fluent speaker, and but little given to speaking in public. He was a man of excellent sense and judgement, and possessed clear and vigorous ideas upon every subject that engaged his attention, which he could always express in his plain, homely, yet terse and forcible manner. With the peculiarities of a rude frontier education, that read more of the beauty of grandeur of wild nature than of books, he united all those finer qualities of head and heart that under other circumstances develop into the cultured and polished gentleman. His stern and inflexible principles of personal integrity and honesty which ever shaped his own rule of conduct, never warped his mind into any Puritanical bias; but charity and forbearance towards every human creature were as natural to him as his own unbounded generosity and hospitality, These qualities made him a quiet, unobtrusive, industrious, and valuable member of the Legislature, and they were as fully recognized and appreciated by his fellow-members as by his fellow-citizens at home. His stalwart and powerful form, his dignified and courteous bearing, and the courage that had upheld him on the battle-field and in the peril of the wilderness, and that shone unmistakably in the gleam of his bright eye, always secured him the attentive ear of the entire assembly. On this occasion his manner was earnest, and yet without any exhibition of that egotism his words might suggest. His purpose was evident; he gave a personal reason for the motion he was about to offer. He said: “Mr. Speaker,---I was the first man to drive a wagon across Big Creek, the boundary of the proposed new county, and the first permanent white settler within its limits. I was born, sir, in Link-horn County, North Carolina. I lived for many years in Link-horn County, in Old Kaintuck. I wish to live the remainder of my days and die in Link-horn County, in Missouri; and I move, therefore, that the blank in the bill be filled with the name of Link horn.” The motion was carried unanimously, and the Clerk, not adopting the frontier parlance of the Major, wrote “Lincoln” in the blank space of the bill. This was the 14th day of December,1818. Three days previously Franklin and Wayne had been established; on the 8th, Jefferson had been created. In 1816 Howard County had been formed; and in 1813 the County of Washington. Thus Lincoln County was the sixth one organized by the Territorial Legislature, not counting the County of Arkansas, set off during the session of 1813-14, and which has since been erected into an independent State; and in point of order the eleventh, since in the organization of the territory there were five original districts or counties, St. Louis, St. Charles, St. Genevieve, Cape Girardeau, and New Madrid. During the same session, 1818, Pike, Montgomery, Madison, and Cooper were created. Several very important laws were enacted, and with the exception of that which adopted the common law of England as the ground-work of our statutes, instead of the civil law of France, which came to us in natural course of settlement, this was the most important session of the Legislature held during the territorial existence of Missouri.
By virtue of the act creating the county, and of a supplemental act fixing the time and place for holding Superior and Circuit Courts and “for other purposes,” passed December 23,1818, the first Court convened at the house of ZadockWoods, in Troy, or as it was more commonly known (if the old records are any indication of the fact), Woods’ Fort, on Monday, April 5,1819. It was a Circuit Court, but under the provisions of the law, it exercised the functions of a County Court, and kept separate and distinct records.
David Todd appeared with a commission from Frederick Bates, Secretary of the Territory of Missouri, and “acting with the government thereof,” dated at St. Louis, the first day of the January previous, appointing him Judge of the Northwestern Circuit, comprising the Counties of Cooper, Howard, Montgomery, Lincoln, and Pike, which at that time included nearly half the State. Judge Todd was probably a citizen of Howard County, as he was qualified at Franklin, in that county, before Augustus Storrs, a Justice of the Peace. John Rauland produced a commission from William Clark, Governor of the Territory, appointing him Clerk of the Circuit and County Courts, for this county. He qualified and entered into bond for three thousand dollars, with Samuel Wells and Nathan Heald as securities. David Bailey appeared with a commission from Frederick Bates, Secretary and Acting Governor, naming him Sheriff. He entered into bond, with Ira Cottle and James White as securities. The Commissioners appointed by the Legislature to locate the county seat, David Bailey, James White, Daniel Draper, Hugh Cummins, and Abraham Kennedy, appeared and filed their bond for fifteen thousand dollars, with Jonathan Riggs, Hugh Barnett, Zadock Woods, Ira Cottle, and Alembe Williams as securities.
The first Grand Jury was composed of Joseph Cottle, John Null, Prospect K. Robbins, Samuel H. Lewis, Thacker Vivion, Job Williams, Alembe Williams, Jr., Jeremiah Groshong, John Bell,Jacob Null, Sr., John Hunter, Elijah Collard, William Harrell, Jacob Null, Jr., Isaac Cannon, Hiram Millsaps, Alembe Williams, Sr., and Zachariah Callaway, “who after being duly sworn and charged, retired to their room, and were discharged.”
On the second day the Clerk was ordered to apply to the Clerk of St. Charles County for all orders relating to public roads heretofore established in this county. the Court then proceeded to divide the county into four townships. The county lines, the fifth principal meridian running through the centre of the county north and south, and the line between townships forty-nine and fifty, running through the centre east and west, constituted the boundaries of these townships: Monroe in the southeast, Bedford in the southwest, Union in the northwest, and Hurricane in the northeast.
Prospect K. Robbins, James Woods, and Joseph Oldham were appointed Judges of election for Monroe, and it was ordered that the same be held at the house of Prospect K. Robbins. For Bedford, Elijah Collard, Benjamin Blanton, and Alembe Williams, Jr., were appointed, the election to be held at the house of ZadockWoods. Robert Jameson, Philip Sitton, and Samuel Gibson were appointed for Union, and the election was to be held at the house of the last mentioned. For Hurricane, Benjamin Allen, John Ewing, andJesse Sitton were appointed, and Allen’s house was named as the place for holding the election. James Woods was appointed Constable of Monroe Township, Lee F. T. Cottle of Bedford, Thacker Vivion of Union, and Allen Turnbaugh of Hurricane. Their bonds were fixed at one thousand dollars each, which was comparatively a large amount for that day. Vivion was in court at the time, and filed his bond with Samuel A. Lewis as his security. The court then adjourned.
The first Justices of the Peace in the county, appointed by the Governor, were Benjamin Cottle and James Duncan for Bedford, Daniel Draper for Union, Benjamin Allen for Hurricane, and Prospect K. Robbins for Monroe. The election provided for, as mentioned above, was held on the 2nd of August, and was for a delegate to Congress, being the first in the county. In the abstract filed with the returns, it is stated that no election took place in Hurricane township, that in Monroe nine votes were cast for Samuel Hammond, in Bedford five for John Scott and forty-eight for Hammond, and in Union twelve for Hammond, making a total of seventy-four votes cast in the county, of which sixty-nine were for Hammond. Scott was elected on this occasion. He was the incumbent in the office, having held it from 1816; he continued in the office until Missouri was admitted as a State, and then served three terms as member of Congress, retiring in 1827.
The second term of the court was held on Monday, August 2,1819, at same place as before. Peyton Hayden produced a license from Hon. Alexander Stuart, one of the Judges of the Superior Court, authorizing him to practice law in the several courts in this territory; he was therefore admitted to practice law in this court. He also presented a deputation from John S. Brickey, Circuit Attorney for the northwestern circuit, authorizing him to officiate as Deputy, whereupon he took the required oath. John Payne, William Smith, and Robert McGavock were also admitted to practice before the court. Twenty-three Grand Jurors were sworn in, and duly charged by the Judge and Deputy District Attorney. A road was ordered from Big Creek to the “south end of Mill Street in Moscow;” one from Monroe to Wood’s Fort, and to the western limits of the county on a line with the county seat of Howard County; one through the county by way of Woods’s Fort, in a line from the county seat of St. Charles to that of Pike, and one from Woods’s Fort to the northern limits of the county, in a line with the mills on Salt River, and to “pass by the present habitations of Alembe Williams, Sr., Thomas Hammond, and Col. Cox's Ford.”
Alembe Williams, a revolutionary soldier, lived on the Troy and Millwood Road, on the farm now belonging to William Fasse--the old James Trail Place. His cabin stood across the road northeast from the old Trail House, almost under the hill and near the spring. Capt. Thomas Hammond lived on the place where his son’s widow, Mrs. Ann Hammond, now lives. His cabin was not far from where the present road crosses Null’s Creek, a mile and a half southeast of Millwood. Col. Cox’s Ford was on North Cuivre.
The first civil action ever entered in this county was entitled “William Howdershell vs. James White, in a plea of debt, damage $200.00.” The defendant filed his plea of payment, and the cause was continued. (At the following term the cause was tried by the court, neither party asking a jury, and judgement entered for $100.50 debt and $6.43 3/4 for damages).
Christopher Clark, David Lord, and Almond Cottle were each granted a license to keep tavern, upon payment of the territorial tax, which was ten dollars.
On the second day of this session the county tax was ordered to be levied and collected by the Sheriff, as follows: on each horse over three years old, fifty cents; neat cattle same age, six and a quarter cents; on each negro or mulatto slave between the ages of sixteen and forty-five years, fifty cents; on each billiardtable, twenty-five dollars; on each able-bodied man, twenty-one years old and upwards, not possessed of property to the value of two hundred dollars, fifty cents; on mills, tanyards, and distilleries, in actual operation, forty cents on every hundred dollars of their valuation.
The first petition for partition was that of Benjamin O’Fallon, B.G. Farrar, Samuel D. Holmes, Thomas Hempstead, and Charles S. Hempstead, all non-residents, for the division of 3,056 arpents, being an undivided part of a certain tract of land of 7,056 arpents granted to Auguste A. Chouteau by Don Carlos Debault Delassus, late Governor of the late Province of Upper Louisiana. The Court appointed as Commissioners, Prospect K. Robbins, Joseph McCoy, Joseph Cottle, Elijah Collard, and David Bailey.
The Grand Jury found bills of indictment against William Petty, Isham Petty, James Petty, John Petty, Alexander McNair, Robert McNair, and Moses Oldham for "hog stealing;" Washington Jameson for stealing a bridle, and two against Zadock Woods for assault and battery. These were the first indictments ever made in the county. (At the next term no conviction was had, except in one of the cases against Woods, in which he was fined one dollar and costs; a few of the other criminal cases were tried, and the result being adverse to the prosecution, the remainder were dismissed; in the “hog stealing” cases the prosecutors were adjudged to pay the costs). The Grand Jury “also made a presentment expressive of their disapprobation of the attempt made by the late Congress of the United States to impose restrictions in the formation of the State Constitution for this territory,” showing that our people had then, as ever since, a full appreciation of the perils of liberty in every encroachment of the centralized power upon the rights and priviledges of home government.
Joseph Cottle was appointed Surveyor, and presented his bond in the sum of two thousand dollars, with Elijah Collard as security. David Bailey gave bond of one thousand dollars, with Joseph Cottle and Benajah English as securities, as County Collector, and a bond of fifteen hundred dollars as State Collector for this county.
At the third term of the court, December,1819, the first Petit Jury was empaneled, consisting of Ira Cottle, foreman, John Lindsey, Guian Gibson, Jacob Williamson, George Jameson, Samuel Gibson, Robert Jameson, Sr., Thacker Vivion, Isaac Cannon, Abijah Smith, Hugh Barnett, and Andrew Cottle. The case was that of the "United States vs. Robert McNair, for hog stealing," and the result was as stated above. McNair was a brother to Alexander McNair, the first Governor of the State of Missouri.
Benjamin Cottle was granted a license to keep a tavern in the town of Troy, which is the first mention made of the name as applied to that place.
The Commissioners to fix upon a county seat make a report showing that they have selected Monroe, and that a sufficient jail had been erected there, the Court thereupon ordered that hereafter the courts be held at that town.
The first accounts ever presented against the county were allowed at this term. As affording a curious comparison, a few are given: The Commissioners for County seat were allowed--David Bailey, $51.25; James White, $35.00; and Daniel Draper, Hugh Cummins, and Abraham Kennedy, each $37.50; John Ruland, Clerk, $51.68; David Bailey, Sheriff, $100.19; Peyton R. Hayden, Deputy Circuit Attorney, $20.00; William Christy, Jr., for copy of record, $6.12 1/2; for seal, screw-press, etc., $33.50; Benjamin Cottle, for use of house for court, $16.00. This last item was the only intimation that Cottle’s house was used for the sitting of court. The whole amount of allowances was $459.24 1/2. The county revenue for 1819 was $175.66.
In compliance with an order passed at last term, the Court convened at the new county seat, Monroe, on Monday, April 3,1820. The first change in the boundaries of the municipal townships was made. That part of Monroe lying between Cuivre, Big Creek, and the fifth principal meridian was cut off and added to Bedford. Little else was done besides appointing Judges of Election, which was to be held on the first three days of May,1820, for a member of the convention to frame a constitution for the admission of the State into the Union. This election was the second held in the county, and the first in which all four townships participated. Two hundred and forty-eight votes were cast, which constituted nearly the full voting strength of the county. It is thought that very few eligible voters abstained from voting on that occasion. The opportunity was ample-- three days devoted for the purpose-- and in those days scarcely a man neglected to celebrate any public event. Elections, musters, horse races, house raisings, and log rollings were the events of that day. Added to these, the country was wild with the agitation of slavery. On account of some threatened opposition to its recognition in the proposed new State, this question was made a prominent issue, and not a man supposed to be tinctured with anti-slavery sentiments was elected to the convention. In this county four candidates were voted for, Malcolm Henry, Sr., received one hundred and nineteen votes, Meredith Cox eighty-one, Joseph Cottle forty-two, and James Duncan six. These were all pro-slavery men, and all but Deacon Cottle came from slave-holding States. Col. Cox lived where Louisville now stands, and the other three were residents of Bedford Township as it existed at that time, Henry living on Big Creek, in what is now Clark Township.
At the January term, 1821, Bennet Palmer appears on the records as County and Circuit Clerk. The first County Court, as a separate body, was then in session, Jonathan Riggs and Ira Cottle produced commissions from Gov. Alexander McNair, and took their seats as County Judges. In the April term, John Geiger produced a like commission and took his seat. McNair was elected as Governor of the State, and was acting in that capacity while in fact Missouri was yet a territory. The records of the courts of this period all begin with the form, “State of Missouri, County of Lincoln.” Old settlers will say that Missouri was admitted as a State in 1820, and occasionally authorities are cited to show the same. A short statement of the circumstances will not be amiss here.
Congress passed an act, which was approved March 6,1820, “to authorize the people of the Missouri Territory to form a Constitution and State Government, and for the admission of such State into the Union on an equal footing with the original States, and to prohibit slavery in certain territories.” In pursuance of the provisions of this act the Convention at St. Louis, June 12,1820, and on the 19th of July adopted an ordinance, “declaring the assent of the people of the conditions and provisions in the act of Congress.” On the same day the Constitution was formally agreed to and signed, and a copy transmitted to Congress. This provided for an election for State officers, members of the Legislature, and other officers, to be held on the fourth Monday in August of that year. In this election McNair was elected over William Clark, who was at that time, and had been for seven years, the territorial Governor; Samuel K.Caldwell, of Pike, was elected State Senator from this and Pike Counties, and Morgan Wright was elected Representative from this county. By the terms of the Constitution, which went into effect on being signed by the members of the Convention, and without reference to the people, the Legislature was required to meet at St. Louis on the third Monday of September, 1820, and the Government to assume from that date all the functions of a State Government. One of the acts of the Legislature when it met at the appointed time was to provide for an election for Presidential electors. This was duly held, and William Shannon, John S. Brickey, the Circuit Attorney for this circuit, and William Christy were elected. These met and cast their votes for James Monroe. It was supposed that Congress would readily admit Missouri as a State, and a resolution was promptly introduced in both houses for its unconditional admission, as had been the uniform custom in relation to other new States. Thomas H. Benton, David Barton, and John Scott were present, anticipating an early induction into the seats of their respective office. Benton and Barton as Senators, and Scott as a Representative. But the resolution of admission was lost; the Representatives of the new State were denied seats, and its electoral vote rejected. The Legislatures of Vermont and New York had remonstrated against the admission of Missouri without the restriciton of slavery, and the “restrictionists” in Congress were able to defeat the measure.
In the meantime, and notwithstanding the unsatisfactory attitude of Congress, so far as its internal government was concerned, the State had superseded the territory, and the administration of public matters was conducted with great harmony and success. The people were united and enthusiastic in its support. Finally, and after much heated discussion, Henry Clay succeeded in carrying a resolution for a joint committee to devise measures for agreement. On the 26th of February, 1821, he reported to the House the following, as agreed upon by the committee, and it was subsequently adopted: “On condition that the Legislature of Missouri, by a solemn act, shall declare that the twenty-sixth mention of the third article of the Constitution shall never be construed to authorize the passage of any law by which any citizen, of any one of the States of the Union, shall be excluded from the enjoyment of any of the privileges to which such citizen is entitled under the Constitution of the United States, and will transmit to the President of the United States, on or before the fourth Monday, November, 1821, an authentic copy of such act; that upon the receipt thereof the President by proclamation shall announce the fact; whereupon, without any further proceeding on the part of Congress, the admission of that State into the Union shall be complete.” The Governor called a special session of the Legislature, which met at St. Charles on the 4th of June. On the 27th of the same month the act required by Congress was passed, accompanied, however, the vigorous protest against the right and power of Congress to annex such a condition. This act reached President Monroe on the 10th of August, 1821, and accordingly on that day he issued his proclamation declaring Missouri admission into the Union, it being the twenty-fourth of the Confederation.
The selection of Monroe as the county seat was never satisfactory to the people of the county. By reference to the session acts of the Legislature for 1822, will be found an act, chapter thirty-eight, providing for its removal from that point. In the preamble it is set forth that the inhabitants of this county suffer great hardships and inconvenience, occasioned by their seat of justice having been located at Monroe, which is situated in the southeast corner of the county, and that a good majority of the citizens had presented a petition to the General Assembly for the removal of said seat of justice to the centre, or some eligible spot not exceeding three miles from the centre. The Legislature therefore appointed Robert Gay, of Pike, Francis Howell, Sr., of St. Charles, and William Lamme, of Montgomery, Commissioners, and empowered them with full authority to select a suitable site in accordance with the petition. The courts were to be continued at Monroe until the erection of a court-house and jail at the new county seat. The Legislature also appointed Andrew Miller, Samuel Gibson, and Thompson Blanton, all of this county, Commissioners of the court-house and jail to be erected, and empowered them or a majority of them to purchase, or receive as a donation, such lot or parcel of land, not less than fifty nor more than two hundred acres, as the said first named Commissioners shall have so fixed upon for the site of the aforesaid public buildings, and to pay and receive to them and their successors in office, for the use of the county, from the person or persons of whom they may receive a donation or make a purchase of land as aforesaid, a warrantee deed, in fee simple, which shall be made in trust for the county. And the said last above-named Commissioners shall as respects the public buildings to be erected on the site so fixed upon, purchased the land wherever the same shall be so fixed, laying off the same into squares of lots, and disposing off or selling the same, perform and fulfil the same duties to set forth in the provisions of the act establishing the county. The Commissioners were required to take the usual oath and to give the bond. It was further specified that any lots or lands remaining unsold by the Commissioners should be by them released to the Governor of the State in trust for the county. This act was approved January 2,1822. At the February term of the County Court, Philip Sitton was appointed Commissioner in place of Samuel Gibson, resigned, also William H. Robinson, of Bedford Township, in lieu of Thompson Blanton, also resigned. The Court at the August term allowed the accounts of the first named Commissioners, as follows: William Lamme, twelve dollars; Francis Howell and Robert Gay, each ten dollars; James Duncan, a magistrate, for administrating the oath to them, thirty-one and a quarter cents.
The last term held in Monroe was in November, 1822. No mention is made on the records of any compliance with the terms of the legislative act before the removal of the county seat; but on the first Monday in February, 1823, the County Court convened at Alexandria, the point selected by the Commissioners as the new county seat. The books and papers had been sent up the previous Saturday, and deposited in the only dwelling-house of the place. This was a hewed log-building, one and a half story, with one window containing twelve lights of eight by ten glass, clap-board roof, floor and door of rough planks and by a whip-saw, and a wood and mud chimney with a stone back, capable of holding a six-foot log. A small room adjoining was used as a kitchen.
This was quite a stylish and comfortable residence for the frontiers of Missouri in that day and it was with no little pride that the good lady of the house surrendered the “best room” for the use of the Court, and retired to the kitchen. The room thus placed at the disposal of the county officials was large enough to accommodate them and some twenty spectators.
Ira Cottle, Benjamin Cottle, and John Geiger were the County Justices; Geiger, Jonathan Riggs the sheriff, and Francis Parker, Clerk. The business of the Court proceeded leisurely enough until an hour or two before noon, when it began to be whispered about that the kind lady of the house, who, it was plain to be seen, was in a delicate condition, had reached such a crisis as might compel the Court and all attendants to leave at any moment and without ceremony. The wheels of the car of justice moved faster from that hour. The cases that could not be despatched in a few minutes each were continued over, and the crowd rapidly melted away. There was one case, however, that could neither be continued, on account of the persistent demands of the plaintiff, nor hurried through because of the obstinate resistance of the defendant. The President of the Court, Col. Ira Cottle, was the administrator of the estate of John Ewing, deceased, and William R. Gilbert, of Pike County, was guardian of Ewing’s children. Gilbert desired to have Cottle ruled to give additional security in the sum of two thousand dollars. This was the issue in controversy. Gilbert’s lawyer was the late Ezekiel Hunt, afterwards Circuit Attorney, and still later Circuit Judge of this circuit, whom had ridden some forty miles from home, and did not intend to return without having the case settled. It was reached about night, when all save the officers of the Court and the lawyer had gone. The Court had been engaged incessantly and endeavoring with the greatest diligence and exertion in furthering its word since the first note of warning was sounded, and it is to be presumed that if members were in anything but an equable state of mind. The evidence in this particular case was all of record. During its examination the respective parties became unusually excited. The Judge, forgetful of the dignity of his station poured out the vials of his wrath upon the devoted head of the lawyer. The latter was not slow to retort in kind, and for several hours the trial was nothing else than a war of words, and these of the sharpest and most abusive characters. Finally about eleven o’clock the disputant quieted down, and the case was submitted to the other Judges, who in a few minutes decided in favor of the demand of the guardian’s attorney. The Court was now ready for adjournment, and the question was, to when should it adjourn? A motion was made to adjourn to the next court in course, when one of the members suggested that it would be above proper to adjourn till after midnight, then call the court and adjourn over to next term. This would show another day’s session, and allow the Judges to draw each two dollars more, and the Sheriff one dollar and a half. This latter course was agreed on, the officers of the court being satisfied that they had performed two days’ service in one. In the interim the Clerk was making up the record the Justices were lounging about, and Judge Hunt was trying to sleep, stretched on his back on the floor, with his head resting on the hearth. A pack of hungry wolves in the woods near by were making the night hideous with their howling and the inmates of the court-room, having fasted from early breakfast, and feeling acutely the gnawings of empty stomachs, would involuntarily compare the condition of the hungry pack inside with that of the hungry pack outside. Presently the cause just tried came up in the mind of Col. Cottle, and he again began venting his spleen upon his adversary. He was a large man, of fine appearance, rather inclined to be boisterous in a manner, and very profuse in the use of oaths.Judge Hunt was a much smaller man, but fully as irascible as his opponent. He replied in language thickly sprinkled with epithets more vigorous than polite or pious, and was about to rise from his position as if to engage in something stronger than words. Luckily for the peace of the household on that interesting occasion, he happened to cast his eye up the chimney to where, about six feet above the hearth, hung a fine venison ham. All controversy was forgotten as he sprang like a famished tiger up the capacious jaws of the chimney and brought down the prize in triumph. The anger of Col. Cottle was instantly changed into smiles, and in the place of oaths and epithets all was friendliness and joviality. The meat was well cured and really delicious. The hungry crowd thought that never before had venison tasted so sweetly. The repast was scarcely finished when the sounds from the kitchen indicated the near advent of a new comer into the world. Court was hastily called and adjourned over to that in course, and all present left at once, accompanying General Riggs to his hospitable home on Cuivre. Less than two hours afterwards the family of the patriotic lady was increased by the addition of a daughter.
At a special term held November 19,1825, John Lindsey, Thompson Blanton, Jonathan Cottle, and Benjamin Cottle, Justices on the Bench, the County Commissioners for the court-house and jail, Sutton, Miller, and Robinson, appeared and made a final settlement. They produced a deed of relinquishment to the county for all such lands and lots as remained in their hands as Commissioners in trust for the county. An examination of their account showed that at the two sales of town lots on April 11th and May 24th, 1822, for the purpose of raising money to be appropriated to building a court-house and jail, the sum of $887.25 was realized; and at the sale of October 1,1824, $33.50; making a total of $920.75. To their credit were placed $380.00, paid by them for building a jail, and $448.50 for building a courthouse; for recording papers, five dollars; for chain carriers, four dollars; for clerk of sale, four dollars; for three gallons of whisky used at said sale, three dollars; making a total of $846.50, and leaving on hand $74.25. This amount was divided equally, and turned over to the Commissioners as part of their salary of forty-eight dollars each, and for the remainder they received warrants.
On the 5th of August, 1828, during the sitting of the Court, James Duncan and John Lindsey being the Justices, Joshua N. Robbins and Emanuel Block appeared with a petition signed by a lawful number of the taxable inhabitants of the county, namely, more than three-fifths, as ascertained by the tax list made and returned last preceeding this application, praying a removal of the county seat from the town of Alexandria to the town of Troy. The Court thereupon appointed Felix Scott, of St. Charles County, Thomas Kerr, of Pike, Richard Wright, Phillip Glover, and George Clay of Montgomery, Commissioners for selecting a seat of justice. They were authorized to meet on Monday, the 15th of September, at the house of Andrew Monroe (who then kept a hotel where John McDonald now lives, and who was known for many years throughout the country as “Father Monroe,” the famous Methodist preacher), in the town of Troy, to perform the duties assigned them. Notice of this meeting was directed to be given by the Sheriff by putting up advertisements in ten of the most public places of the county. The Commissioners chose Troy, and the selection having been approved by the Circuit Court, the County Court at its November term ordered an election to be held on Monday, the 8h of December, to take the sense of the people whether the location should be approved or not. The election was held, and on the following Thursday, the Court-- James Duncan, Henry Watts, and Joseph H. Allen, Justices--held a special session to examine the poll books and count the votes. It was found that two hundred and eleven votes were for the removal, and two votes against it; and “thereupon the Court do consider that the said seat of justice of said County of Lincoln is removed to the place selected as aforesaid in the town of Troy.” The last session of the County Court held at Alexandria was on Saturday, January 3,1829, and the first held in Troy was on Monday, February 9,1829.
The change in the boundaries of the municipal townships by which Cuivre became the line between Monroe and Bedford has already been noted. New townships were erected with names, dates and boundaries as below:
Waverly.--- November 7,1825, on petition of Gabriel P. Nash, Caleb McFarland, Marcus H. McFarland, Meredith Cox, James F. Moore, and {twenty others; commencing at the northwest corner of township fifty-one, range two west, and running to the southwest corner of section six, township fifty, range two west, thence east to the southeast corner of section one, township fifty, range two west, thence north to the northeast corner of section one, township fifty-one, range two west, thence west to the place of beginning. At that time it included twenty-eight taxable inhabitants. The house of Meredith Cox was appointed the place for holding elections, and Meredith Cox, Nicholas Wells and Hugh Barnett were appointed judges of election. Henry Watts and Caleb McFarland were recommended to the governor for appointment as justices of the peace.
Clark.---February 9,1826, on petition of Christopher Clark, Cary K. Duncan, Morgan Wright, Malcom Henry, Jr., and twenty-six others; as follows, to wit: All that part of Bedford township as is situated south of the line dividing townships forty-eight and forty-nine. It contained eighty-eight taxable inhabitants. The house of Christopher Clark was designated as the place of holding elections, and Thompson Blanton, David Clark, Sr., Cary K. Duncan and Semore Davis were recommended as suitable persons for appointment by the governor as justices of peace.
Prairie.---August 17,1848; petition not found; commencing at the northwest corner of section four, township forty-nine, range three west, running thence south on the county line four miles to the southwest corner of section twenty-one, township forty-nine, range three west, thence east on the Warren county line four miles to the southwest corner of section nineteen, township forty-nine, range two west, thence south on said Warren county line four miles to the southwest corner of section seven, township forty-eight, range two west, thence north eleven miles to northeast corner of section twenty-one, township fifty, range two west to Waverly township line, thence west on the Waverly township line three miles, to the Montgomery county line at the northwest corner of section nineteen, township fifty, range two west, thence south on said Montgomery county line three miles to the southwest corner of section thirty-one township fifty, range two west, thence west on said Montgomery county line four miles to place of beginning. The elections were to be held at the house of Thomas Gammon, and Robert B. Allen. Isaac Cannon and Malen Spyres were named the judges of election.
Millwood.---May 31,1856, on petition of Henry T. Mudd, Richard Wommack, Hilary P. Mudd, George I. Dyer, James S. Wilson, William C.
Sands, Horatio C. Clare and eighty-four others; commencing at the northeast corner of township fifty, range two west, and running west to the northeast corner of section six, thence south to the southeast corner of section eighteen, township fifty, range two west, thence west to the county line, thence south to the southwest corner of section twenty-eight, township fifty, range three west, thence east to the southeast corner of section twenty-five, thence south to the township line dividing forty-nine and fifty, thence east with said township line until it reaches the north fork of Cuivre river and running up said Cuivre river and making it the boundary until it reaches the east line of section one, township fifty, range two west, thence north to the place of beginning. The town of Millwood was named as the voting place.
Nineveh.---August 12,1872, on petition of William W. Shaw, Owen C. Robinson, Joseph L. Duncan, JamesC. Ellmore, John C. Wells, John C. Williams and forty-four others; beginning at the northwest corner of section thirty-three, township fifty, range three west, thence north on the county line to the northwest corner of section four, township fifty, range three west, thence east on the township line of fifty and fifty-one to the northeast corner of section six, township fifty, range two west, thence south to the middle of the channel of West Cuivre river in section seven, township forty-nine, range two west, thence up the main channel of said river to the north line of section thirty-three, township fifty, range three west, thence west to place of beginning. The town of Nineveh (since Olney) was made the place of holding elections.
Burr Oak.---May 11,1875, on petition of David Allen, Henry H. Morris, Charles L. Alloway, Henry L. Luck and one hundred and thirty-five others; beginning on the range line of one and two east at the centre line of section seven, township fifty, range two east, thence south on the range line to the southwest corner of section seven, township forty-nine, range two east, thence east to the west line of survey No. 736, thence north on said line to the south line of survey No. 1789, thence easterly on said line and section line to the range line of two and three east, thence east on the line of sections one and twelve and the line of Duey and Dalton to the east line of Lincoln county in the Mississippi river, thence up said river to the north line of survey No. 1678, thence west on said line to the east line of survey No. 1724, thence north on said line to the line between Reid and Withington, thence west on their lines to the west line of said survey, thence north on said west line to the centre line of section nine, township fifty, range two east, thence west to place of beginning. The village of Burr Oak was designated as the place of holding elections.
Snow Hill---May 11,1875, on petition of Joel B. Cunningham, William J. Dryden and others; beginning on fifth principal meridian at the centre of section eighteen. (This is a faulty description; the centre of section eighteen is distant half a mile from the fifth principal meridian. Instead of “at the centre of section eighteen,” it should read “at the northwest corner of the southwest quarter of section eighteen,) township fifty, range one east, thence east to the west line of survey No. 1680, thence on the west and south line of said survey to the centre line of section seventeen, township fifty, range one east, thence east to the range line of one and two east, thence south on said line to the centre line of section thirteen, township forty-nine, range one east, thence west to Cuivre river, at the centre line of section eighteen, township forty-nine, range one east, thence up Cuivre river to the fifth principal meridian, thence up said meridian to place of beginning.” The village of Dryden was named as the place of voting.
With a slight change made in the boundary line of the county as affecting Prairie township, the above-mentioned orders of the court give the dimensions of the eleven municipal townships as they now appear on the map.
Miscellaneous.
From the assessment list of 1821, the earliest one preserved among the records, it is found that the following were then resident tax-payers. This is almost a complete list of the early pioneers. As far as descriptions of land set opposite to their names indicated, they are classified according to location in each of the then four municipal townships. In Bedford were: John Armstrong, Thomas Armstrong, Seth Allen, Frederick Avery, Jeremiah Beck, John Bell, John Barker, Wilson Barker, William Brown, senior and junior, John Black, Emanuel Block, Gabriel Brown, Levi Brown, Benjamin Blanton, Thompson Blanton, David Boyd, John Brunk, John Cannon, Lambert Collier, James Collard, Elijah Collard, Christopher Clark, William Cannon, James Chambers, Joseph Cottle, Sherman Cottle, Stephen Cottle, Lee F.T. Cottle, Benjamin Cottle, Isaac Cottle, Andrew Cottle, Samuel Cannon, Benjamin Croce, James Duncan, Cary K. Duncan, Wm. S. Duncan, John S. Duncan, Samuel L. Davis, David Erwin, Terah B. Farnsworth, Rufus Fullerton, John Geiger, Jeremiah Groshong, Samuel Groshong, Jacob Groshong, Thomas Gammon, George Guinn, Thomas A. Guinn, William Guinn, Malcolm Henry, Senior and Junior, John Hunter, Joseph Hunter, Horace Harding, Allen Jameson, Armstrong Kennedy, Abraham Kennedy, David Keller, Joseph King, James Knox, senior and junior, David W. McFarlan, Thomas Mann, Jonathan D. Morris, Hiram Millsap, John Null, David Pressley, Jehu Piles, John Parkinson, Philander Powers, Elisha Perkins, Jesse Perkins, Nathan Ramy, Bethuel Riggs, Jonathan Riggs, Shapley Ross, Mervin Ross, William H. Robinson, John M. Seymour, James Stanley, John Shrum, Nicholas Shrum, John Thurman, John Talbot, Winslow Turner, senior and junior, Miles Turner, Elias Turner, John Ward, John Waggoner, Alembe Williams, Levin Williams, Thos. Williams, James Williams, Morgan Wright, Zadock Woods, G.W. Zimmerman, Conrad Yater, Peter Yater, J.M. Zimmerman. In Union township: Hugh Barnett, John Cantriel, James Cantriel, Meredith Cox, John Cox, Adam Coose, Daniel Draper, Richard Fenton, James Galloway, senior and junior, William N. Galloway, Charles Galloway, John Gililland, Matthias Gililland, Samuel Gibson, James Gibson, Guian Gibson, Isaac Hudson, John Hudson, Thomas Hudson, Brice Hammock, Martin Hammock, Thomas Hammond, William Harris, Joseph Howdeshell, John Howdeshell, Robert Jameson,senior and junior, George W. Jameson, Samuel Lewis, James Lewis, Robert McNair, Joseph McCoy, David Merikle, Thomas Merikle, Quinten Moore, Thomas Moore, William Moore, David Porter, Samuel Smiley, Joseph Sitton, senior and junior, Philip Sitton, William Sitton, Lawrence B. Sitton, Guian Sitton, James Shaw, William Trail, Nicholas Wells, Stacy Wells, Josiah Wilson. In Hurricane: Benjamin Allen, Reuben Abbott, Benjamin Barton, Thomas Barton, William Burnes, James Burnes, Jonathan Cottle, Ezekiel Downing, David Diggs, John Ezell, Samuel Gladney, John Galloway, Peter Galloway, senior and junior, Samuel Galloway, William Galloway, William Hammock, Elijah Myers, John Sapp, Jessee Sitton, Jehu L. Sitton, James Sconce, Samuel Sconce, George Turnbaugh, Daniel Van Burklon, Edward Wiatt, David Wilson, Francis Withington. In Monroe: David Bailey, Samuel Bailey, Ira Cottle, Almond Cottle, Zachariah Callaway, Ezekiel Dunning, Abijah M. Highsmith, David Lard, John Lindsey, Otis Peck, James E. Paddock, Thomas Riffle, Joseph Russell, Barnabas Thornhill, James Turnbull, James Woods, Martin Woods, Allen Woolfolk, A.C. Woolfolk. The following had no description attached to their land, and consequently it cannot be determined in which township they resided: Sylvanus Allison, Elijah Barton, Charles Broadwater, William Beatty, Joseph Barnett, James Cannon, John Cox, James Downing, John H. Downing, Silas Davis, James Early, Walter Emory, John Griffith, Andrew Gilbert, Benjamin Highsmith, William Highsmith, Lovell Harrison, William Harley, George Harley, Martin Harley, James Harley, Henry Howdeshell, Alexander Hill, Jesse Low, Andrew Love, Andrew Miller, David McCoy, William McCoy, William McLane, Reuben Nowell, Bennet Palmer, Andrew Patterson, William O. Ross, Moses Rainey, Return Strong, Samuel Sargent, Samuel Shaw, Samuel Smith, Andrew Smith, George W. Smith, Charles Stewart, Thomas Spillman, John Turnbaugh, William Talbert, Peter Teague, Rollin Teague, Isaac Thurman, Joseph Thurman, Kesiah Woods, John Walker, Jacob Williamson, Thomas Wells, Severn Wallace, James Wilson and John Wilson. Of these Levi Brown and Jacob Groshong still live in the county. It is believed that they are the only survivors of the above list. The list altogether with the widows and the estates of deceased persons made the number two hundred and seventy-six tax payers. The tax averaged a fraction over ninety-five cents each, and ranged from two and a half cents to twelve dollars, forty-one and one-fourth cents, the latter being the amount paid by Shapley Ross, the largest resident taxpayer in the county. He was assessed with five hundred and four acres of land, on which stood a grist and saw mill, (in Moscow,) thirty-nine town lots, seventeen slaves, twelve horses, eighteen cattle and one watch, valued in the aggregate at $9860.00. Ross was also the largest slaveholder. Meredith Cox had ten, and Malcolm Henry, Sr. had eight; after these the largest number was five. There were two hundred and forty-two slaves and one free black in the county. There were four hundred and sixty-six horses and eight hundred and forty-five cattle; no other personal property than mentioned above was listed Besides Ross’s mill, Ira and Almond Cottle owned a mill on Cuivre, point not stated, valued at $1400.00; Joseph Cottle had a horse mill in Troy valued at $400.00; and Meredith Cox had a horse-mill where Louisville now stands, valued at $200.00. Major Christopher Clark had a distillery valued at $600.00, and Jacob Groshong had one valued at $200.00. EzekielDunning had a tanyard valued at $100.00. The non-resident tax list numbered forty-seven taxpayers, of whom Auguste Chouteau paid the largest tax, $48.40 on 25,256 acres of land, valued at $39,128.00. The non-resident list included the names of Thacker Vivion, Nathaniel Simonds, John Ruland, George Collier and others who had been residents, and some of whom were again afterward resident.
The roll of attorneys, signed by themselves in Book A, Circuit Court Records, dating from June, 1827, to September, 1839, is as follows: Ezra Hunt, William Smith, Charles S. Hempstead, John C. Naylor, William Young, Charles Wheeler, George Shannon, Alfred W. Carr, John B. Gordon, Thomas A. Young, Francis K. Buford, L. Rogers, Adam B. Chambers, Carty Wells, Samuel Moore, Thomas L. Anderson, John Anderson, William M. Campbell, Albert G. Harrison, Foster P. Wright, Thomas W. Cunningham, James F. Moore, William Porter, John Jameson, Henry L. Geyer, Bryan Mullauphy, David Barton, George W. Huston, Joseph B. Wells, Beverly Allen, Uriel Wright, Wilson Primm, Alonzo W. Manning, Alexander Hamilton, Gilchrist Porter, Henry Cave, Aylett H. Buckner, A. Backus Bacon and Victor Monroe. Edward Bates, who practised in this court during that period and since, neglected to sign the roll. David Barton and Henry L. Geyer were senators, and Albert G. Harrison, John Jamison, Gilchrist Porter, Thomas L. Anderson and Aylett H. Buckner representatives in Congress. The list contains other names of national reputation.
There were several revolutionary soldiers among the early settlers of this county. Of these the names of Noah Rector, Isaac Hudson, John Chambers, John Barco and Alembe Williams are know to the writer. Noah Rector died near Millwood about 1849 at the age of one hundred and two years.Isaac Hudson was born in North Carolina, and after the war lived in Washington county, Georgia, until 1799; he then went to South Carolina, and in 1804 moved to that part of Logan that is now included in Simpson county, Kentucky; in June, 1819, he came with his wife and four sons, John, Thomas, William and Charles, to this county and settled in what is now Ninevah township. He died many years ago at an advanced age. He was a blacksmith and farmer and was much respected for his strict honesty. John Chambers was born in 1740. In 1778 he enlisted in Capt. Alexander Cummin’s company of the Fourteenth Virginia regiment, and was in the battle of Monmouth. He died in Clark township in 1844 or 1845. John Barco was born in 1744; enlisted May 24,1777, in Camden county, North Carolina, as a drummer in Captain Dempsey Gregory’s company of the Tenth North Carolina Infantry, Col. Shepherdcommanding; was at Valley Forge and West Point; in 1779 was sent to Charleston with his command and assigned to Gen. Lincoln; surrendered with the other forces to the British May 12,1780, and put on board a prison ship where he remained five months. A short time after exchange he was mustered out of service at Richmond, Virginia. Alembe Williams was born in 1757; he enlisted from Guilford county, North Carolina, June 10,1781, in Capt. Moore’s company of the First North Carolina Infantry, commanded by Major Armstrong. He was afterwards in Capt. Michael Randolph’s company, in Col. Henry Lee’s legion. He was present in several battles and at the storming of several forts. He received his discharge from Gen. Nathaniel Green.
This county has had two State officers. Nathaniel Simonds, grandfather of Nathaniel Simonds, of Troy, was State Treasurer, when that office was the franchise of the legislature. He held the position several years, and was in office when the seat of government was removed from St. Charles to Jefferson City. There is a voucher on file in the Probate Court, being a receipt from him under the date of November 30,1826, showing that William R. Gilbert, guardian of the children of John Ewing, deceased, had paid into the State treasury fifty cents scrip and twelve and a half cents in lawful money of the United States, as tax on a certain piece of land belonging to the children. George W. Huston was elected Register of Lands in 1856, and held the office four years.
This county has had but one candidate for Congress. In 1854 Tully R. Cornick, Democrat, ran against Gilchrist Porter, Whig. The district had a considerable Whig majority, and Mr. Cornick was beaten twelve hundred and eighty-two votes, receiving a majority in only Lincoln, Pike and Warren out of the eleven counties.
Col. Daniel M. Boone, son of the famous Daniel Boone, made most of the United States government surveys in this county.
The first letters of administration granted in this county were taken out by D. Benajah English, on the estate of Daniel Epps, May 10,1819. The first guardian was James Murdock appointed to the heirs of William Lynn, April 3,1820. Lynn was killed by the Indians, as stated elsewhere, in 1814, and Murdock married his widow.
At the county court term of April, 1821, Bennet Palmer made application for a “lisance to keep a ferry across the River aux Cuivre, opposite the town of Monroe,” which was granted upon his paying two dollars. This is the first recorded license to run a ferry.
The first divorce granted in this county was that of Samuel Smiley vs. Elizabeth Smiley, October 3,1828; cause desertion, divorce mutual.
The first foreigner naturalized in this county was Eleazer Block, a native of Bohemia, February 6,1827.
The first raft of logs taken out of Cuivre was by Lewis Castleman and Harrison Munday, in 1828, started half a mile above Chain of Rocks. This has since grown to be a considerable business.
An agricultural and mechanical society was originated in 1855. Its officers were Major Geo. W. Huston, president; Dr. F. G. Gilmer, vice president; S.R. Woolfolk, treasurer; C.W. Parker, corresponding secretary; and A. V. McKee recording secretary. The directors were Talbot Bragg, senior, General David Stewart, Joel Blanks, Raleigh Mayes, Tully R. Cornick, Jesse Orear, Joseph M. Healy, Geo. W. Porter, Col. David Bailey and Andrew Cochran, held a fair commencing October 1,1856.
The present court-house was built in 1870, by Edwards & Griffith, at a cost of $27,447.50. At a special term of the county court, November 10,1870, Judge E.N. Bonfils, the commissioner, reported it completed according to contract and it was inspected by the court. The court-house it displaced, a plain, square, brick building, stood on the same ground, and was built in 1830 by Col. David Bailey.
The present jail was built by P.J. Pauly & Bro., of St. Louis, at a cost of $7500.00. It was finished November, 1876. Col. T.G. Hutt was the commissioner. The previous jail was built in 1840 by John A. Woolfolk at a cost of $3536.75. John Chandler was the commissioner.
The Farmers’ and Mechanics’ Savings Bank was organized May 21,1873, and did not suspend during the panic, but has always maintained an excellent credit. The president is Walton Perkins, a gentleman of known integrity and ability in business. He was born in Lincoln county, North Carolina, November, 1807, came to this county with his father December 25,1819. He married Miss Louisiana Green in 1834. He has one son, Henry W. Perkins, the present cashier of the bank.
The “Slicker” War
During the years, 1843,1844, 1845, there raged in this county what was known as the “Slicker” war. The term originated elsewhere, probably in Benton county about the year 1841, and came from the peculiar mode of punishment inflicted by the regulators--whipping with hickory withes, or “slicking,” as the backwood parlance of that day termed it. An organized band of counterfeiters and horse and cattle thieves existed in many counties of this and other Western States, and about the period mentioned above, the people of the eastern part of the county found it necessary to organize for the protection of their property, and extensive were the depredations. It has been said that the parties who operated in this county sold twelve hundred horses, during a single season, at one sale stable in St. Louis. Of course not all these were taken from this county. Their operations in beef cattle were on as large a scale. Sometimes the thieves would be taken with the stolen property in their possession, but would always manage to have enough convenient witnesses on hand to secure acquittal, and would march off with the stock before its owner’s eyes. This aroused the greatest indignation which was heightened by the fact that the prevalence of counterfeit money, both metal and paper, seriously affected the transaction of business. A company of regulators was organized with James Stallard, of Hurricane township, as captain. Some of the very best men of the eastern half of the county went into it. Brice Hammock drew up its constitution and by-laws. Had the spirit of these been strictly followed, some bloodshed and much ill-feeling might have been avoided. Some inexcusable excesses were committed, partly the result of the excitement of the times, but more from the fact that a few unprincipled men took the opportunity, either as active members of the organization or as pretended friends, to settle personal grudges. When the evidence against a suspected person became satisfactory to the regulators, such a person was either “slicked” or ordered to leave the county by a given date, or both; and the penalty for a refusal or a failure to leave was either “slicking” or death, according to the merits of the case. The principals all fled the county. John Plummer, who was notified to leave and was preparing to do so, went to Troy on the very day on which his period expired, and on the way home was shot and killed, it probably not having been known that he intended to leave. Several, against whom the suspicion was not very strong, had their time extended, by reason of sickness in family or other sufficient causes. James Turnbull refused point blank to leave. Turnbull was a very peculiar man, but at this day nobody doubts that he was honest. The cause of suspicion against him was that a notorious thief and counterfeiter, Hal Grammar, was intimate with his son Ezekiel and used sometimes to stop at his house. It is not thought that Turnbull was aware of Grammar’s real character. Turnbull lived on Bob’s creek, in section thirty-two, township forty-nine, range two east, on land that he bought in 1840 from Dominique Francois Burthe, of New Orleans, and Marguerette Susanne Delor Sarpy Burthe, widow of the Baron Andre Burth d’Anelet, of Paris, France. The house was a solid log structure, and was generally called Turnbull’s fort. When the “slickers” came to enforce their demands, Turnbull and one of his daughters went out to dissuade them from their purpose, declaring the innocence of the family. The conference was unavailing, and the one side prepared for attack and the other for defence. It is not now known who commanded the attacking party, nor how many were present. Some random firing was done on both sides, and the “slickers” attempted, but unsuccessfully, to fire on the house. It was then determined to make an assault batter down the door and make short work of the matter. Malachi Davis was the first man to enter, he received a bullet in the bowels from the effects of which he died the next day. John Davis, his brother, rushed forward, thrust his pistol under the chin of James Turnbull, Jr. and fired. The latter fell apparently dead, but finally recovered, except a partial paralysis which rendered him an invalid for life. Davis then raised his rifle and put a ball into the hip of Squire Turnbull, which caused his death some weeks afterwards. Washington Norwell came in by the side of John Davis. As he crossed the threshold, one of Turnbull’s girls cleaved his skull with a cornknife. The wound was about six inches long, and extended an inch down the forehead, penetrating the brain and involving a considerable loss of its substance. Norwell fully recovered; he died a few years ago. The “slickers” retired without accomplishing anything further. This affair caused great excitement, and a company of “anti-slicker” was organized the next day in the vicinity of Flint Hill, and maintained guards and pickets on the fords of Cuivre. On one occasion the “slickers” gathered in force to drive them from this county, and made a rapid march to where the “anties” were supposed to be, but arrived an hour too late. One evening Joseph L. Woodson and James Burdyne were coming from Troy, and just opposite Mont. Cottle’s, Burdyne a few feet behind, sitting sideways, was telling about a game of poker that he had gotten into that day: “I had,” said he, “three jacks and a pair of aces, and” --when the report of fire arms rang out, and the blaze from the guns was seen in the bushes on the side of the road. Neither was hurt, but they quickened their pace considerably, and the luck of the three jacks and pair of aces was never told. After riding a hundred yards, Burdyne remembered that he had a horseman's pistol, and proposed to go back and “give em a shot,” but he was overruled. That same evening Williams Holmes and his brother were riding into the gate of their uncle, Levi Bailey, when they were fired upon by two men, one ball wounding a horse and one penetrating the clothes of the other rider. Some time after this James Shelton, who had been captain of the “anti-slickers,” was in Chain of Rocks, and as he was crossing the river in a skiff had his arm fractured by a shot from the bank. When the legitimate purpose for which the regulators had been formed was accomplished, the organization was disbanded, but it was a long time before the animosities engendered by the civil strife died out.
The Civil War
The people of this county were profoundly interested in the stirring political events that followed the presidential campaign of 1860. Their sympathies were largely with the South, and when Governor Jackson issued his proclamation calling for volunteers to defend the State against the invasion of the Federal troops, no county responded more enthusiastically and more freely in proportion to population than did Lincoln. Her soldiers were in every considerable battle fought in the State. They were in the first great battle, Springfield, in a regiment that went into action with two hundred and thirty-two men, killed the Federal commander, and almost unaided drove back two of the finest regiments of the opposing army, and answered roll-call next morning with one hundred and five men, and not one missing, having suffered the severest loss of the army.
The same bravery and patriotic enthusiasm were shown by them on a hundred battle fields, ending at Blakely on Mobile bay, where the last gun of the war was fired, and by Lincoln county men under command of Lieut.-Colonel Carter who kept up the battle for more than one hour after the last Confederate flag had been furled for the last time. If the career of the Lincoln county soldiers who entered the Federal army was far less brilliant from force of circumstance, it was no less honorable and patriotic. They fought over nearly the same ground as did their brothers on the other side, and they were ever distinguished for bravery, a strict obedience to discipline and a heroic devotion to the cause for which they contended. Further than this, which is only a just tribute to the brave men who fought on either side for their convictions of right, I shall not speak. The event itself with its bitter hatreds and prejudices, is too recent and its memories too vivid to detail here the many tragic deeds that were enacted in our midst during the unhappy struggle.
County Officials
The following is as complete a list of county officials with dates of service as could be obtained by reference to election returns, records of commissions and other sources, without an exhaustive search of the entire recorded minutes of the court-- a work that would require many weeks’ time:
State Senators--1824, Cary K. Duncan;1834, Hans Smith; 1838, Henry Watts; 1840, James Finley; 1848, Richard H. Woolfolk; 1856, M.H. McFarland; all these served four years except Henry Watts who died in office, and James Finley who filled the unexpired term.
Representatives-- 1818, Christopher Clark; 1820, Morgan Wright; 1822, Philip Sitton; 1824, John Ruland; 1826, Philip Sitton; 1828, Elijah Collard; 1830, Hans Smith; 1832, Hans Smith; 1834, Henry Watts and John S. Besser; 1836, Henry Watts and Richard H. Woolfolk; 1838, Geo. W. Huston and Enoch Emerson; 1840, Hans Smith and Carty Wells; 1842, Geo. W. Huston; 1844, James Finley; 1846, David Stewart; 1848, Richard Wommack; 1850, Charles M. Porter and Alexander Reid; the latter died during the session of the legislature, and January 27,1851, Tully R. Cornick was elected to fill the vacancy; 1852, James H. Brittonand Increase Adams; 1854, James H. Britton and M.H. McFarland; 1856, Richard Wommack and John Snethen; 1858, Richard Wommack; 1860, James W. Welch; 1862, Richard Wommack; 1864, Joseph W. Sitton; 1866, Richard Wommack; 1868, Richard Gladney; 1870, Thomas G. Hutt; 1872, E.B. Hull; 1874, Wm. H. Priest; 1876, W.E. Brown.
Members of Constitutional Conventions-- 1820, Malcolm Henry, Sr.; 1845, for this convention, ThomasW. Hutt of this county, and Edwin D. Bevitt, of St. Charles, Democrats, ran against Charles Wheeler, of this county, and J.D. Coalter, of St. Charles, Whigs; Bevitt and Coalter were elected; the Constitution framed by the convention was submitted to the people and rejected; 1864, Alexander H. Martin; 1875, A.V. McKee.
Circuit Judge-- 1851 to 1857, Carty Wells.
Circuit Clerks-- John Ruland from April 1,1819 to December 21,1820; Bennet Palmer to his death, August, 1821; John Ruland to April 2,1822; Francis Parker to January 1,1848; Thomas G. Hutt to January 1,1854; Alexander H. Martin to his resignation in 1869; William Colbert, present incumbent.
Prosecuting Attorney-- 1872, Benjamin W. Wheeler; 1874, Josiah Creed; 1876, George T. Dunn.
County Court Justices-- No dates are given in consequence of several changes in method of appointment and tenure of office. The following are the names of all who sat upon the county bench, except for a short time when the office was abolished by law and the place supplied by the justices of the peace in the county, or a majority of them, in a body, assembled at the court house; several of those named below held the office two or more terms; Ira Cottle, Jonathan Riggs, John Geiger, Benjamin Cottle, James Duncan, John Lindsey, Gabriel P. Nash, Joseph H. Allen, Henry Watts, Charles Wheeler, Caleb McFarland, John S. Besser, George W. Zimmerman, William Young, Brice W. Hammock, Richard H. Woolfolk, Lewis Castleman, Solomon R. Moxley, Thomas W. Hutt, Charles Ferry, James Wilson, Charles W. Martin, Milton L. Lovell, John South, William W. Shaw, Samuel T. Ingraham, Alexander K. Wilson, Levi Bickel, present incumbents, Henry T. Mudd, Horatio N. Baskett, and N.D. Trescott.
County Clerks-- Bennet Palmer from November 28,1820, to his death August, 1821; Francis Parker, September 6,1821, to January 1,1854; N. Hunter Meriwether, to his death March, 1857; James A. Ward, to January 1,1858; Francis C. Cake, to January 1,1875; William A. Woodson, present incumbent.
Probate Judges-- 1825, Gabriel P. Nash, appointed for four years by the governor; before that time and since, till 1871, the county court exercised probate jurisdiction; 1871, Solomon R. Moxley; 1875, Eugene N. Bonfils, present incumbent.
Sheriffs--1819, David Bailey, two terms; 1823, Jonathan Riggs, two terms; 1827, Robert Stewart, two terms; 1831, Henry Watts, two terms; 1835, William Sitton; 1837, Valentine J. Peers; 1839, William Sitton, two terms; 1843, Richard Wommack, two terms; 1847, Henry T. Mudd; 1849, Joel Blanks; 1859, Peachy G. Shelton; 1861, Elias Norton; 1863, John R. Knox, two terms; 1867, Shapleigh R. Woolfolk, two terms; 1871, Frederick Wing; 1873, Thomas M. Carter, two terms; 1877 James C. Elmore.
Collectors-- Previous to 1873 the Sheriff was ex-officio collector of State and county revenue; 1873, William W. Shaw; 1875, Peachy G. Shelton, two terms, present incumbent.
Assessors-- 1835, Philip Sitton, two terms; 1839, Richard Wommack; 1841, William Jameson; 1842, Henry T. Mudd, two terms; 1846, Edward J. Peers; 1848, Joseph W. Sitton; 1850, Morgan Wright; 1852, Alexander H. Martin, resigned after one year’s assessment and Richard Wells appointed; 1854, John M. Reed, two terms; 1858, the county divided into four districts, and William Miller, William T. Wilson, William H. Martin and Richard Wommack, appointed by the county court; 1860, Joseph S. Gear; 1862, David B. Smiley, two terms; 1866, James K. Cannon; 1868, Norman Porter; 1870, Elijah Myers, two terms; 1874, John Wilson, elected second time, died June 1877, and David C. Downing, present incumbent, appointed by the court.
Treasurers-- Previous to 1856, Charles Wheeler; 1858, S.R. Woolfolk, four terms; 1866, Frederick Wing; 1868, James D. Shelton; 1870, James K. Cannon; 1872, John McDonald, three terms, present incumbent.
Public Administrators-- Made elective by the legislature in 1858; Eugene N. Bonfils, two terms; 1862, Samuel Howell; 1864, Robert H. Hudson; 1866, J.B. Allen; 1868, Elbridge G. Sitton, term changed to four years; 1872, Josiah Creech; 1876, Jeptha Wells.
School Commissioners-- 1853, Wm. Young; 1854, A.V. McKee; 1857, Francis C. Cake; 1860, John R. Knox; 1861, Francis C. Cake; 1866,James M. McLellan; 1871, William S. Pennington; 1873, John Wilson; 1875, James M. McLellan, re-elected, present incumbent.
Coroners-- 1820, Barnabas Thornhill; 1822, Jehu L. Sitton; 1824, John Parkinson; 1826, John Chandler; 1828, Thomas Armstrong; 1830, Bluford Stone; 1832, John B. Stone, two terms; 1836, Joseph B. Kelsick; 1838, Barnabas Thornhill; 1840, Alexander Wilson; 1842, Baldwin D. Talliafero, two terms; 1846, William Murphy; 1848, William A. Satlee; 1850, Samuel Barker; 1852, Jordan S. Satlee; 1854, Joseph Chandler; 1856, J.B. Campbell; 1870, R.A. Nurnelly; 1874, George W. Elder; 1876, Robert L. Robinson.
Below are given a few particulars concerning the officials named above. They comprise all that could be ascertained in the very limited time at my command.
Increase Adams came from Maine. He conducted a mercantile business several years in Louisville, and left this county in 1860 to reside in Mexico, Audrain county, where he died June 5,1874, aged about sixty-five years.
Joseph Benson Allen was born in Truxton, this county, December 12,1841; commenced the practice of law in 1860; served in the Eighth Illinois volunteers during the war; married Miss Kate Baker, March 24,1870.
Thomas Armstrong was one of the pioneer settlers; he was a preacher; he went to Texas many years ago.
Joel Blanks was born in Pittsylvania county, Virginia, February 27,1800; married Miss Nancy Compton, January 4,1827, and came to this county in 1831; he had five daughters and one son, of whom four daughters survive. He died February 25,1875, at the residence of his daughter Mrs.Witcher, in Monroe township, after a protracted illness from pneumonia.
Eugene Napoleon Bonfils was born in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, October 13,1829; moved to St. Louis, July, 1842; to Lexington, Kentucky, in 1846; graduated at Transylvania University, July, 1849; came the following month to St. Louis county where he taught school; came to Troy in May, 1852, and commenced the practice of law. He married Miss Henrietta B. Lewis, youngest daughter of the late Thomas M. Lewis, of this county, and formerly of Charlottesville, Virginia; has eight children, of whom six survive. Besides offices named above, was probate clerk for four years preceding his election as judge, and has held several positions of trust.
James H. Britton was born in Page county, Virginia, July 11,1817. His early training was in the mercantile business. He married in 1838; came to Troy in 1840 and commenced business. Besides the office named above, he was county treasurer several times by appointment, and for a time postmaster at Troy; in 1848 he was secretary of the State Senate, and during the session of 1856-7 was chief clerk of the House of Representatives. In 1857 he was appointed cashier of the Southern Bank of St. Louis and moved to that city; in 1864 he was elected its president. He has held several other positions of trust, among them the office of president of the Life Association of America, and that of treasurer of the Illinois and St. Louis Bridge Company. His father, a veteran of the war of 1812, lives in this county.
Warner Edward Brown was born in Union county, Arkansas, February 6,1847; came to Wentzville in 1856; served in Confederate army the latter part of the war. He graduated in medicine at Washington University, Baltimore, February 22,1870, and located at Chain of Rocks. He married Miss Medora Anderson, October 6,1871, and has three children. He abandoned the practice of medicine a few years ago and has since been farming. He was commissioner of the Chain of Rocks bridge, and the principal originator of the project.
Francis C. Cake was born in Deerfield, Cumberland county, New Jersey, November 9,1820; came to Troy October 16,1840, and engaged in mercantile business till 1849. April 12th of that year he started to California by way of the plains; prospected from Nelson creek in the northern mines to Sonora in the southern; was in Sacramento before there was a frame house erected in the city. He returned to Troy by way of Panama and New York. He married May 15,1845, Miss Rebecca A. Woolfolk, daughter of John A. Woolfolk, who lived only sixteen months. August 14,1855, he married Miss Mary E. Myers, daughter of the late George Myers, of St. Charles county, by whom he has three sons living. In 1857 he was appointed on the staff of Gov. Robert M. Stewart, with the rank of colonel.
Thomas Miller Carter was born in Pittsylvania county, Virginia, May 7,1826; came to Lincoln county, September, 1830. He was in the army eighteen months during the Mexican war. November 29,1855, he married Miss Alabama Henry, grand-daughter of Malcolm Henry, who helped to form our first State constitution; has had six children, of whom four survive. Served throughout the war in the Confederate army in the Second Missouri Infantry, which was in active and hard service from the taking of Lexington till the last flag of the Confederate States was hauled down at Blakely. After the siege of Vicksburg he was promoted to the lieutenant-colonelcy of his regiment-- a just recognition of his gallantry and efficiency.
William Colbert was born in this county June 22,1827. His parents came the previous year from Allen county, Kentucky. He married Miss Margaret Broom, of this county, January 2,1848, by whom he had seven children. Some years after her death he married, March 22,1867, Miss Mary Dregay, of St. Louis county, by whom he had four children; has ten children living. Served in Federal army during the war as captain of Company A, Forty-ninth regiment Missouri volunteers, infantry, which made an honorable name for itself in the arduous campaigns through Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi and Alabama.
Elijah Collard, one of the early pioneers, came from Kentucky. He was a ranger during the war of 1812; he went to Texas many years ago. He was a great-uncle to John R. Knox.
Josiah Creech was born in Monroe township, in this county, December 26,1844; commenced the practice of law in Troy in 1871, married in St. Louis June 1,1875, Miss Marie B. Brevator, of that city.
George Thomas Dunn was born in Callaway county, March 26,1840;came to this county in 1865 and taught school; admitted to practice law in 1869 and settled in New Hope; now lives in Troy; was never married.
James Calvin Elmore was born in Caswell county, North Carolina, December 8,1820; came with his parents to Pike county in 1830 and settled in this county in 1862. Was married in 1842 to Miss Elizabeth Kerr, of Augusta county, Virginia; and a second time to Miss Lucinda Prichard of Boyle county, Kentucky. Has had eight children, of whom five are living.
Enoch Emerson was a native of Maryland; he was a merchant; he went to California in 1849 or 1850.
Andrew R. Finley came from Kentucky; he went to California about seven years ago, and lives near Sacramento.
James Finley came from Kentucky; he died a few years ago.
Richard Gladney was a native of South Carolina, and came to this county with his parents when quite young. He went to California in 1870, and shortly afterwards died.
George Webb Huston was born April 18,1810 in New Market, Shenandoah county, Virginia. He married, October 3,1833, Miss Matilda G. Arthur, by whom he had two children, both living. Came to Troy in 1834. Elected State register of lands in 1856 and held the office four years. Married Miss Susan Jones in 1861; died April, 1862.
Thomas G. Hutt was born in Westmoreland county, Virginia, May 21,1817; came to this county in 1837, and has ever since resided here.
Thomas W. Hutt was born in Westmoreland county, Virginia, September 1798; married in 1827 Miss Ann Omohundro, who still lives; was justice of the peace, assessor and major of the militia in Virginia. Came to this county in the fall of 1832; has five children living.
John Robert Knox was born in this county September 16,1836; was admitted to practice of law in 1859; was married April 23,1862, and again February 26,1867, each wife being a daughter of the late Joseph Withrow. For several years, he was engaged in banking. He was traveling for his health the West and South for about three years prior to his death, which occurred in Austin, Texas, May 3,1876. He left a son and daughter.
Charles William Martin was born in Campbell county, Virginia, September 29, 1810; married Miss Nancy Dews, of Pittsylvania county in 1835, by whom had two daughters and one son, and who died in 1841. He came to this county in 1838, and in 1843 married Miss Mahala A. Howdeshell, by whom he had two sons and one daughter; all his children are living. He is a prosperous farmer, and an honest upright citizen.
John McDonald was born in St. Louis county, January 25,1825, the fourth son of James A. McDonald, who was born in St. Louis county in 1795, a ranger in 1812, doing service part of the war in this county, and who now resides in Texas county in this State. He was married February 10,1849, to Miss Mary A. Link of St. Louis county, and in December,1866, to Miss Florence Brunelle, of St. Charles. Has had ten children of whom seven survive.
Archibald V. McKee was born in Harrison county, Kentucky, in 1831; graduated at the law school of the University of Indiana, at Bloomington, in 1854, came to Troy the same year; married Miss Clair S. Wheeler, daughter of Capt. Otis Wheeler, in 1862. He occupies a high position at the bar.
James Martha McLellan was born in Clay county in this State, February 22,1839; was admitted to practice law in 1860, and came to this county in October 1862. He married Miss Martha W. Cummings, of Logansport, Indiana, October 10,1865. He was deputy county clerk for twelve years; is secretary of, and attorney for, the Lincoln County Coal and Mining Company.
Henry Thomas Mudd was born near Gallant Green, Charles county, Maryland, September 23,1816; married Miss Ellen Elizabeth Dyer, January 12, 1837, by whom he had nine children, of whom two survive. Came to the county in 1839. His wife died in 1855, and the following year he married Miss Mary O’Brien, of St. Louis, by whom he had seven children, of whom five survive. He built in 1851 the first carding machine ever erected in the forks of Cuivre; he has been farming since 1832, and in the mercantile business in Millwood since 1853.
Elijah Myers was born in this county July 8,1821. His father, Elijah Myers, senior, came from Kentucky in 1818 and settled two miles west of New Hope. He married February 20,1844, Miss Sarah Keeling, who died September 15, 1873; on March 15,1874, he married Mrs. Lizzie Lackett, who died March 9, 1878.
Elias Norton was born in Scott county, Indiana, August 1,1820. He came to Troy in 1842 and married Miss Mary McConnell, of Jacksonville, Illinois, November, 1844, by whom he had three children William M., Richard H., leading attorney, and Porter E., all living and residing in Troy. He married February 8,1870, MissClara S. Williams, who only lived a few months, and March, 1872, Miss Arabella Turner, of Louisiana, Missouri, by whom he had two children, both living. He kept for many years the Lincoln House, a famous hotel of its day; has been since a farmer and merchant, and for the past few years has, with his son William, been running the Troy Mills.
Nixon Palmer came from Gerrard county, Kentucky. He died in 1845.
Francis Parker was born in Windsor, Vermont, April 27,1797. His grandfather, William Parker, came from the county of Londonderry, Ireland, about the year 1750, settled at Londonderry, New Hampshire, and served throughout the entire war of the Revolution. His maternal grandfather, Tyler Spafford, of English descent, also served throughout the war. His father, Henry Parker, died in 1814, and in 1817 he came to Jonesboro, Union county, Illinois, where he held several important county offices, and where he married, in 1819, Miss Catherine Clapp, by whom he had eight children, four of whom survive. He came to this county in 1821, and married his second wife, Miss Sarah Cochran, of this county, in 1833. By reference to the list of county officials, it will be seen that he was county clerk for thirty-two years, and circuit clerk for twenty-six years. He died September 4,1869. He was greatly esteemed as an honest, industrious and capable public officer, and a sincere and earnest Christian.
John Parkinson was a native of England; he left this county many years ago and died at Galena, Illinois.
Edward J. Peers came from Kentucky; he was a graduate of West Point and a major of militia, was the father of Hon. Charles E. Peers, of Warren county.
Valentine J. Peers was a brother of the preceding; he married a daughter of Major Christopher Clark, and died a few years ago in St. Louis.
J.J. Prichett was a native of Pennsylvania; he left this county about 1856 or 1857.
Charles M. Porter was born in Fredericksburg, Virginia, October 3,1813; came to this county in 1835; was never married; has always been prominent in public affairs.
William S. Pennington was born in Warren county in 1842; served in the Third Missouri State Militia during the late war; came to this county in 1865 and married Miss Annie S. Allen; is a school teacher by profession.
Alexander Reid came from Kentucky; he died at Jefferson City while in office, as stated elsewhere.
James Reid was a native of Kentucky, and long a resident of this county, where he was widely known and greatly respected for his many virtues; he died in 1870. He was the father of Capt. Thomas P. Reid, a prominent citizen in this county.
Jonathan Riggs was a native of Campbell county, Kentucky, and the son of Rev. Bethuel Riggs, the first Baptist preacher of this county. He came to this county in 1812 and made an honorable record during the war. He married Miss Jane Shaw by whom he had eleven children, most of whom are still living. After the war he settled north of the Cuivre, on the Troy and Auburn road where he died in 1834. He was a Brigadier-general of militia.
William Webb Shaw was born in Bedford county, Virginia, November 14, 1830; came to Pike county with his parents in 1833, and to Lincoln in 1847; married Miss Mary Jane Stewart, daughter of Gen. David Stewart, July 1850; by whom he had eight children, all living. He was ousted from the office of county judge in 1861 for refusal to take the iron clad oath. He is a prosperous farmer.
James David Shelton was born in Pittsylvania county, Virginia, June 11,1816; came to this county November, 1829; in 1845 married Miss Mary Erwin, of this county, by whom he had three children, all living.
Peachy G. Shelton was born in Pittsylvania county, Virginia, September 20.1832; came to this county with his father, Abraham C. Shelton, in the fall of 1837. He married Miss Susanna C. Shelton, October 1853, and he has two children living. Is a successful farmer and stock raiser.
Elbridge Gerry Sitton is the son of the late William B. Sitton, one of the pioneer settlers. He was born about the year 1840, and lives at the place where he was born, in Waverly township.
Philip Sitton was born in North Carolina about the year 1772, and came with his father, Joseph Sitton, and several of his brothers, to this county in 1818; he was prominent in public affairs; he died in this county in 1862 or 1863.
Jehu L. Sitton, brother to preceding, was born April 26,1778. He was a captain in the army during the war of 1812, and was at the battle of New Orleans. He married Miss Annie Gray, by whom he raised fifteen children. He came to this county in 1818. In 1846 he married Mrs. Wade, a sister to Capt. Isaac B. Linn, who survives him. He died in 1865. The last vote he ever cast was for John C. Breckenridge for president.
Joseph Winston Sitton, son of preceding, was born in 1806, in Tennessee. He married Miss Mary Buchanan, of this county, by whom he had ten daughters and one son. Major Sitton is one of the most prominent citizens of our county and is much respected.
Hans Smith was a native of Pennsylvania, and came here in the summer of 1828, just two years before he was elected to the legislature from this county. He was a brilliant orator and a very popular man. He went to Arkansas in 1846 or 1847, and was shortly afterwards elected to the State Senate. He finally went to Texas, engaged in mercantile business in Austin, and was drugged, robbed and murdered.
John Snethen was born in Estill county, Kentucky, and came with his father to Montgomery county in 1808. During the war of 1812 he was in the fort at Howard county and went to school with Kit Carson. He married Miss Eugenia Wells, sister of Judge CarleyWells, by whom he had six children, of whom two survive. He was a merchant of Troy for thirty-seven years.
David Stewart was born in Montgomery county, Kentucky, January 24,1798; came to this State and settled near Palmyra in 1829, and came to this county the following year. He married Miss Margaret Jameson in 1826, by whom he had eleven children, of whom six survive. She died in 1848, and two years afterwards he married MissMaryVirginia, a native of Rutherford county, Tennessee; but who had been a resident of this county since 1819, by whom he had one daughter, still living. He was brigadier-general of the militia. He and his wife were both killed by a runaway horse attached to a buggy while on their way to church in Louisville on Sunday, June 11,1871. He was a prosperous farmer, and enjoyed to the day of his death the confidence and esteem of all who knew him; he was a sincere Christian gentleman. Robert Stewart came from North Carolina and was an early settler; he accumulated considerable property and died in this county.
James A. Ward was born in this county, July 20,1826; married September 10,1851, Miss Virginia Hamilton, by whom he had three children, all living; graduated in medicine at St. Louis University, March 1,1860; married September 7,1871, Miss Sarah C. Worsham.
Henry Watts was born in Kentucky, and came at any early age to this county. He was colonel of militia and was under marching orders with his regiment in Gen. Jonathan Riggs’s brigade, for the Black Hawk war in 1832. He died in 1840.
Carty Wells was the eldest son of John Wells who married Miss Ann Brady of Prince William county, Virginia, and settled in Shelby county, Kentucky, in 1810, and in St. Charles in 1827, and died in 1837. Carty Wells was the first county clerk of Warren county, and was a member of the State senate from that county. He came to this county in 1839 and died in 1860. His wife was Miss Mahala Oglesby, of Kentucky, by whom he had nine children, eight living. He was prominent in the profession of law.
Jeptha Wells, nephew to preceding, and son of the late Dr. John C. Wells, was born in Troy, where he still resides, September 18,1852; he is not married.
Benjamin Walker Wheeler was born in Troy, May 12,1847; commenced the practice of law in 1869; married Mrs. Edna Adams, November 25,1873. His father, Otis Wheeler, a native of New Hampshire, was a captain in the regular army, and served in the Florida and Indian wars.
Charles Wheeler was born in Hanover county, New Hampshire, April 1,1794; moved to New Castle, Henry county, Kentucky, in 1820; had charge of
New Castle Academy nine months; went next year to Bedford county and taught school. He came to Alexandria, in this county, in 1825; went to Jefferson county, Kentucky, in 1828, taught school one year, and returned, in 1829, to Troy, where he lived until his death, January 21,1873. He married Miss Permelia Redmond, of St. Charles, August, 1835. He was the brother of Capt. Otis Wheeler. He held the office of justice of the peace from July 31,1829, to within a week of his death when he resigned it. He was a graduate of Dartmouth, both in law and literature, in the class of 1818.
John Wilson was born in Muirkirk, Prince George’s county, Maryland, and came with his parents to this county about 1856; he served in the Confederate army during the late war, and lost an arm in battle. He was a brother of Major James Wilson, of the Federal army, who was killed at Pilot Knob. He died in June, 1877, of consumption.
Frederick Wing was born in St. Charles, August 16,1820, and came with his parents to this county in October of the same year. He married, June 21,1840, Miss Eliza J. Clark, who died in 1844. May 29,1845, he married MissAnn E. Cochran; has had nine children, of whom four survive. His business was tanning, afterwards merchandizing, now farming and milling. He is a prosperous business man and a public-spirited citizen.
Richard Wommack was born in Halifax county, Virginia, January 10,1804; in 1806 went with his parents to Tennessee, first to Davidson, then to Sumner, and finally to Smith county, where his father died. He came with his mother to this county October 22,1823. He was married three times: August, 1825, to Miss Cynthia Smiley; in 1831 to Mrs. Elizabeth Gilmore; and in 1873 to Mrs. Mary Morris; has had ten children, of whom six daughters and two sons survive. He has always been prominent in public affairs, and is a liberal and public-spirited citizen. By reference to the list of officials, it will be seen that he held the office of assessor two terms, that of sheriff four terms; and was elected representative in the Legislature five times; in the last named office he served four terms, and during the fifth his seat was given by a partisan legislature to the defeated opponent.
William Anderson Woodson was born in Monroe township in this county, February 24,1843. He married, October 24,1864, Miss Amanda S. Casner, of Bethany, West Virginia; has had two children, one now living. Has been in the mercantile business some years.
Richard Henry Woolfolk was born in Jefferson county, Kentucky, October, 1803; studied medicine with Drs. Moore and Nucholls, Shelbyville, in 1823-1824, and came to Troy, 1825. Had a good practice in this and St. Charles counties, which he maintained for about twenty-five years. He married May 15, 1828, Miss
Helen B. Wells, sister to Judge Carty Wells; had no children. He died in this county.
Shapleigh R. Woolfolk, nephew of the preceding, was born in St. Charles county June 23,1825; came the same year with his parents to this county. He married, July 10,1855, Miss Susan C. Bragg, daughter of the late Talbot Bragg, formerly of Charlottesville, Virginia.
Morgan Wright was born in Bourbon county, Kentucky, and came at an early day to this county; he was a brother of the late Edward Thomas J. Wright; he married a daughter of Judge James Duncan, of this county, and died at his home in Clark township about the year 1852. Two of his daughters live in this county.
William Young was born in Shelby county, Kentucky, March 26,1803; graduated at Transylvania University, July 15,1824; came to St. Charles county, April, 1827, and the following year to Troy, where he has since lived. He was married twice: to Miss Martha Ann Boyd, August 11,1831; and to Miss Sarah C. Russell, October 27,1835, both of Shelby county, Kentucky. Had five children by his second wife, all living. He was one of the first signers of the attorneys’ roll of this county, which was done at Alexandria, the then county seat in 1827. Besides the offices noticed above, he has held various positions of trust, the result of the confidence of the people and an unblemished character.
Churches
Neither the denomination nor the date of the first church organization in this county can be definitely ascertained. Deacon Joseph Cottle, who came to Troy in 1802, was a minister of the gospel, as is seen in his marriage certificate on file in the county records. Rev. Bethuel Riggs organized the Sulphur Lick Baptist Church in 1813, and this was one of the very earliest churches formed. At this time Rev. Charles Collard, father-in-law of Freeland Rose, Esq., was also a Baptist minister. In 1823 there was not a church building in the county; how soon afterwards one was erected is not known. the oldest church organization still in existence is probably that of the Presbyterian Church in Troy. It was organized under the name of the “Church of Troy,” November 20,1831, by Revs. William S. Lacy and John S. Ball, the former the father of Rev. B.F. Lacy, D.D., of Mexico, Mo., and the latter the father-in-law of Governor Fred Bates. It started with nine members, and elected as deacons Francis Parker, who remained an elder up to his death, and Oratio S. Linn. It has, up to the present received three hundred and fourteen members, had two hundred and eleven baptisms, lost one hundred and ninety in dismissals and deaths, and now has a membership of one hundred and twenty. The present church was erected in 1868 at a cost of $17,000. The pastor is Rev. William B. Young Wilkie, who was born in Scotland in 1845; studied classics and theology in Edinburgh, and was licensed there. He came to this country in 1867, and ordained at Cape Girardeau in 1869.
The oldest Catholic Church is that of Millwood. The first church was built in 1840; the second, a large brick, in 1851, and demolished in a storm in 1876, and the present one in 1877. The membership is about one hundred and fifty families. The pastor is Rev. Thomas Cleary, who was born in the county of Tipperary, Ireland, about the year 1813. He studied Theology at Cape Girardeau, where he was ordained in 1860. He has been at Millwood since 1864; he also attend the church at Troy once a month. The Catholic church at Old Monroe was established in 1867 by the monks of the order of La Trappe. It has a membership of about sixty-five families. The pastor is Rev. Joseph Gerhard Johan Sudeik, who was born in Westphalia, Germany, March 19,1844; studied the classics nine years at Reitberg and Warendorf; came to this country in 1871; read theology at St. Francis Seminary, Milwaukee, and was ordained in St. Louis by Rt. Rev. P.J. Ryan, June 29,1875. He came to his present charge the 18th of August, following. The United German Evangelical church of Old Monroe was organized in 1860, and has a membership of about fifty families. Its pastor is Rev. Samuel Fayue, who was born of German parents in Constantinople in 1841. He studied at Marberg in Hesse and Erlangen in Bavaria, and was a missionary eight years in Asia and Africa. He came to this country in 1876. He has charge of a church at Anderson's Hill, Clark township, which has a membership of twenty families.
On this subject no other data has been obtained, save the number of churches in the various denominations. They are as follows: Missionary Baptist, fourteen; Methodist, south, ten; Christian, eight; Roman Catholic, four; Old School Baptist, three; Southern Presbyterian, two; United German Evangelical, two; Associate Reformed Presbyterian and Cumberland Presbyterian, each one.
Schools
There are one high, two parish, and eighty-three district schools in the county. These latter are held from four to eight months in the year, and are generally in new, convenient and capable buildings. The parish schools are at the Catholic and Lutheran Churches of Old Monroe, and are under the charge of experienced teachers. The high school in Troy is conducted in the handsome building erected in 1855 by Prof. Jones,
and in which he managed for several years the Lincoln Academy. This was afterwards known as the Christian Institute. It was purchased by the school district September, 1873. For three years it was under the control of the Profs. Thurmond, who gave it a high character. They were succeeded in 1876 by the present principal, Prof. J.P.Blanton, who has fully maintained its efficiency and added to its deserved reputation. It has many pupils from abroad, particularly from the State of Louisiana, and is yearly turning out capable and efficient teachers, as well as affording other professions good foundations in the way of liberal and thorough education. Prof. Blanton is a native of Virginia, and was born in Cumberland County, January 1849. During the latter part of the late war he was a member of the 3rd Regiment of Virginia Cavalry, Wickham’s Brigade, Fitzhugh Lee’s Division. He graduated at Hampden Sidney College in 1869, and has been teaching eight years; he was formerly professor of Latin and Greek in Watson Seminary.
Newspapers
The Troy Gazette was established by Ellis and Edrington, July 1854. It was the first newspaper ever printed in the county, and was the official paper of this, Warren and Montgomery Counties. Judge E.N. Bonfils was the editor; in a few weeks he retired, and Henry B. Ellis, one of the proprietors, assumed the editorial management. The first number of the second volume appeared with Major Geo. W. Huston as editor. He retained the position only a short time, and Mr. Ellis again took charge of that department. In January Ellis and Edrington sold the paper to A.V. McKee and H.W. Perkins. In March following, Mr. Perkins sold his interest to Henry A. Bragg, and Mr. McKee continued as he had been, the editor. June 13,1856, they changed the name of the paper to the State Rights Advocate, and April 16,1857, sold it to Edmund J. Ellis. The latter conducted the paper two or three years. During the Presidential campaign of 1860 he was publishing the Tribune, and Henry B. Ellis, the Independent. I am not familiar with the newspaper changes during the war, and the period of one or two years preceding. During most of the war there was no regular paper published in this county. After the war Edmund J. Ellis came back and established the Lincoln County Herald. Theo. D. Fisher bought a half interest May 31,1867, and the next year the remaining half. Joseph A. Mudd established the Troy Dispatch April 8,1871. The two papers were consolidated June 11,1873, under the name of the Troy Herald. Dr. Mudd sold his interest to Wm. T. Thurmond December 13,1876.
Towns
Monroe was laid off as county seat by Daniel Draper. Hugh Cummins, James White, Abraham Kennedy and David Bailey, on the lands of Nathaniel Simonds, Ira Cottle and Almond Cottle, May 19,1819, with Amos Burdyne and Jacob Comegys as witnesses, and acknowledged before Prospect K. Robbins, Justice of the Peace. The plan was on a style becoming the future county seat; the six streets running parallel to the river were numbered and the ten cross streets were named after the public men of the day.
Troy was laid off September 16,1819, on the lands of Joseph Cottle, Lee F.T. Cottle, and Zadock Woods; acknowledged before John Ruland, Circuit Clerk.
Moscow was laid off March 17,1821, on lands of John Geiger, Morgan Wright, James Duncan, and Shapley Ross, witnessed by Sylvanus Allison and Elijah Collard.
Alexandria was surveyed for county seat in 1822; the plat is not recorded. It was the best planned town ever set off in the county. The streets were broad and crossing at right angles, with spacious public squares, parks and reservations for public buildings. It exists only on paper.
Louisville; plat recorded in Pike County, September 13,1832, on part of Hannibal and Marshall Emerson, and in this county January 12,1833, on the part of Enoch Emerson and Dayton Crider, the proprietors.
Westport (Falmouth) was surveyed October 12,1836, on the lands of James Finley, Charles Cox, and JohnGalloway, on the fractional Section 24, Township 51, Range 2 east; acknowledged before E.H. Powers, Justice of the Peace.
Chain of Rocks was laid off on a Spanish grant about 1835; no plat recorded. The name was given it by General Amos Burdyne, on account of a section of archimides limestone exposed in the bank of Cuivre in front of the town.
Sterling was laid off November 9,1836, on a Spanish grant of 800 arpents, confirmed to Louis Brazeau, survey 1679, Township 50, Range 2 east, on lands of Francis Withington and Joseph Cochran; acknowledged before Lawrence B. Sitton, Justice of the Peace.
New Hope was surveyed January 16,1837, on land of Charles Cox, south end of the east half of the south-east quarter of Section 35, Township 51, Range 1 east; acknowledged before Francis Parker, clerk Circuit Court.
Auburn, set off April 18,1838, on lands of Daniel Draper, Sr., and Philander Draper, on east half south east quarter of Section 2, Township 50, Range 1 west; acknowledged before James Wilson, Justice of the Peace.
Wiota (Cap au Gris), laid off November 26,1845, on land of David Bailey in survey 1653. Township 49, Range 3 east; acknowledged before Charles Wheeler, Justice of the Peace.
Truxton laid off about 1845, plat not recorded.
Chantilly laid off July 2,1852, on land of Robert McIntosh, on south-west quarter of the north-west quarter of Section 19, Township 49, Range 2 east; acknowledged before Francis Parker, County Clerk.
Millwood surveyed September 26,1853, on lands of H.P. Mudd, H.T. Mudd, and George Sands by James Reid; acknowledged before John M. Reed, Justice of the Peace.
Nineveh, now Olney, laid off about 1855; plat not recorded.
The population of Lincoln County is about 20,000. In 1870 it was 15,960, of whom 13,973 were white and 1,987 coloured; 8,281 male and 7,679 female; 15,002 native, 11,290 born in Missouri, and 958 foreign.
Chain of Rocks, Mo., June, 1878.
Courthouse History
Monroe was the first county seat of Lincoln County. But since Monroe was in the southeast corner of the county, it proved to be an inconvenient site. The last court session held there was in November 1822. Next, commissioners chose Alexandria, where the court convened in February 1823 in the only home there, a hewn-log residence.
Goodspeed's 1888 History of Lincoln County states that a small frame courthouse was built at Alexandria. Sales of town lots in April and May 1822 made available $887.25 for construction of a courthouse and jail. Apparently the court paid $448.50 for the courthouse in the same year.
Citizens petitioned for the next move of the county seat to Troy, and voters approved the change. Courts started meeting in Troy in February 1829.
In May 1829 the court ordered sealed proposals for construction of a new courthouse in Troy; they chose a 40-foot-square, two-story, brick building. David Bailey received the bid for contracting at a cost of $1,500. Completed in 1830, the county used the courthouse until 1869, when the building was auctioned off for $410 and razed in September to make way for the next courthouse.
The present courthouse in Lincoln County was built in 1870; Gustave Bachmann was the architect. In June 1869 Edwards and Griffith, contractors, received the bid for the 75-by-80-foot, brick building with "T" plan. Construction was complete November 10, 1870, for about $27,500.
The front was 70 feet wide with a 30-foot portico, featuring six fluted Corinthian columns. The rear wing was about 80 feet long, the height to the top of the cupola, about 82 feet. Offices are on the first floor; double stairways lead to the second story. The 36-by-48-foot courtroom is at the back of the second story.
Several additions have been made since. A two-story addition costing about $8,000 was made in the 1930s. Judges approved plans for the most recent addition, estimated to cost $150,000, in June 1974; Henze and Kuda Associates designed and approved the project.
Two other courthouses similar to this were built earlier in the 19th century. Bachmann was responsible for one in Montgomery County, 1865; the other, in Randolph County, 1858, was the work of Henry Austin. Only Lincoln County's survives.
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