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MONTGOMERY COUNTY
MONTGOMERY
COUNTY -The county of Montgomery was organized December 14,
1818, out of surplus territory of St. Charles county. It was
named for Montgomery county, KY., because so many citizens of
that county had settled here. The statement that it was named
in honor of General Montgomery, who fell at the battle of Quebec,
soon after the commencement of the American revolution, is erroneous.
The seat of justice was first located at Pinckney, on the Missouri
river and within the present limits of Warren county. This town
was named for Miss Attossa (?) Pinckney Sharp, daughter of Maj.
Benjamin Sharp, the first clerk of the county and circuit courts
of Montgomery county. It was once a flourishing place, but the
removal of the county seat to Lewiston proved its death blow,
and the town disappeared many years ago. The spot where it originally
stood has fallen into the river, and a postoffice in the vicinity,
with perhaps one store, are the only reminders of its existence.
The land upon which the town was built was originally granted
to Mr. JOHN MEEK, by the Spanish government, but he failed to
comply with the terms, and it reverted to the United States
government upon its purchase of the territory. It was sold at
the land sales in 1818, and bought by MR. ALEXANDER MCKINNEY,
who sold fifty acres of this tract to the County commissioners,
for the use of the county, for which he received $500. The commissioners
were DAVID BRYAN, ANDREW FOURT, & MOSES SUMMERS. The first
public building erected in the place was the jail, which was
built in 1820, at a cost of $2500. During the summer of the
same year, NATHANIEL HART and GEORGE EDMONSON built a frame
house there, which was the first frame house erected in Montgomery
County. It was 25 X 30 feet in size, and was rented to the county
for a court house, at $100 per year. The rest was paid with
county scrip worth 25c to the dollar. The same summer, FREDERICK
GRISWOLD built a log store house, and opened the first store
in Pinckney. The next house erected in the place was a mill,
partly built by HUGH MCDERMID, who sold it to two germans named
LINEWEAVER and DUVIL, who completed it.
The first judges of the county court were ISAAC CLARK, MOSES
SUMMERS & JOHN WYATT. At the first meeting of the court,
Mr. Clark resigned and MAJ. BENJAMIN SHARP was appointed to
fill the vacancy. He also resigned soon afterward, and HUGH
MCDERMID was appointed in his place, after which there was no
other change in the court until the removal of the county seat
to Lewiston. Previous to his appointment as Judge of the county
court, MCDERMID was a member of the Territorial Legislature,
and when the line was established between Montgomery and St.
Charles counties, he acted as one of the commissioners for the
former county. IRVINE S. PITMAN was the first sheriff of Montgomery
county. JOHN C. LONG was appointed first county and circuit
clerk, by GOVERNOR MCNAIR, after the admission of the territory
into the union, but he sold the offices to JACOB L. SHARP before
assuming his duties; so that Mr. Sharp became the first incumbent
of those two offices under the state government, which he held
by election for many years afterward. ROBERT W. WELLS was the
first prosecuting Attorney, and ALEXANDER MCKINNEY was the first
county surveyor.
ANDREW FOURT built the first hotel in Pinckney, and on court
days he generally had a lively time. Men would come to town
and get drunk, and then quarrel and fight in and around the
hotel, which they regarded as a public place, where they could
do as they pleased. Among the most noisy characters of that
class was a man known as BIG BEN ELLIS, of South Bear creek,
and one day he became so demonstrative that Fourt offered him
a dollar to leave the house. Ellis took the money, stepped out
at the door, came right back again, and told Fourt that if he
would give him another dollar he would go home. They finally
compromised on fifty cents, and he took his departure.
The first criminal case tried in Pinckney was against a man
named JIM GOEN, who had stolen a pair of shoes from his sweetheart.
He was sentenced by the court to receive twenty-nine lashes
at the whipping post, which at the time was a familiar instrument
of justice, as there was one at every court house in the state.
As soon a the sentence was pronounced, the prisoner started
to run, and the sheriff, (Mr. Irvine Pitman) gave chase. It
was a pretty close race until they came to a fence, which Goen
attempted to jump, but failed, and fell on his back. Pitman
secured him, took him back to the whipping post, and inflicted
the punishment, which was the first and last sentence of the
kind ever executed at Pinckney.
In 1826 or 1827, the seat of justice of Montgomery county was
removed to a place called Lewiston, situated a short distance
south of the present site of New Florence. Every vestige of
the town has long since disappeared. It was named in honor of
COL. MERIWETHER LEWIS, generally known from his connection with
Lewis and Clark's famous expedition to the Pacific Ocean, and
who was also the second governor of the territory of Upper Louisiana.
The land upon which the town was situated was entered in 1818,
by AMOS KIBBE, who donated to the county a sufficient quantity
of land for the public buildings. Several courts were held in
Mr. Kibbe's house, but in 1824, a log court house and jail were
erected. The jail was built by CHARLES ALLEN. It was 18 feet
square, and composed of two walls, one a few inches outside
of the other, with hewn timbers set on end in the space between.
The court house was the same size as the jail, built of logs
and floored with puncheons. The roof was composed of clapboards,
weighted down with poles. During the intervals between courts
this house afforded a shelter for Mr. Kibbe's sheep, which were
driven out the day before the commencement of each session and
the house swept clean. The materials for the jail and the court
house were furnished by various individuals, who were paid with
county warrants, with which some of them liquidated their taxes
for the next ten years.
Mr. Kibbe laid off and sold lots, and a small town soon came
into existence. GEORGE BAST and WILLIAM KNOX opened the first
store in Lewiston, and hauled their goods from St. Louis in
a wagon drawn by oxen. They sold principally for skins and furs,
which they bartered in St. Louis for new goods. Not long after
they began business they met with a serious misfortune, which
ruined them financially for the time being, and compelled them
to suspend. They had been to St. Louis with a load of furs,
and started home with a stock of new goods in their wagon. When
they drove on board the ferry-boat at St. Charles, it sank,
and their team, wagon and goods were all lost. This misfortune
left them without means to carry on their business, and they
suspended.
In 1834 Danville was laid off by JUDGE OLLY WILLIAMS, on land
belonging to him, and the same year the seat of justice was
established there. This place is situated about five miles west
of where Lewiston stood, and was, for many years, the most flourishing
town in that part of the country, but when the North Missouri
railroad was built, it was left several miles to the south and
since then it has not prospered. It suffered severely from guerrilla
raids during the late war between the North and South, during
one of which the court house was burned and all the public records
were consumed, and several prominent citizens killed. A proposition
will be submitted to the voters of Montgomery county this fall,
for the removal of the seat of justice to Montgomery City, and
the friends of the measure confidently expect to carry it. A
similar attempt was made several years ago, but failed.
In this connection the following letter from Mr. ALFRED KIBBE,
a son of the founder of Lewiston, to the compilers of this work,
will be interesting. Mr. Kibbe at present, resides at Dallas,
Texas, where his letter was dated, and as he has a great many
friends in Montgomery county, we have endeavored to preserve,
as nearly as possible, his characteristics of expression in
copying his letter, thinking they would be glad to recognize
something that would call up memories of the olden time.
MR. KIBBE'S LETTER.
"You wanted to know something about my father, Amos
Kibbe. Well, he was born in the State of Connecticut, and
emigrated west when he was seventeen or eighteen years of
age, in company with his brother, Timothy, who was a colonel
in the United States Army. My father parted with his brother
somewhere in the state of Ohio, and went to Little Sandy Salt
Works in Greenup county, Kentucky. After remaining there several
years, he became a partner of JESSE BOONE, son of old DANIEL
BOONE, and they carried on the salt making business for a
number of years. They finally sold out in 1816, to a Louisville
man named DAVID DELLWARD, and my father came to St. Louis,
Missouri and kept hotel on the corner of Pine and Main Streets
for several years. In 1818 or 1819, (I can't remember which),
Missouri was admitted into the union as a state *
and the first session of the Legislature was held in St. Louis
** The legislature was then removed to
St. Charles, and my father moved there with it, and built
a hotel, which he kept for several years. After the removal
of the Legislature to Jefferson City (in 1826), my father
sold his hotel to a man from Kentucky named WHITLEY, and moved
to Callaway county, six miles north of Fulton.
"We were the first settlers in that part of the county.
Our nearest neighbor was a man named VANBIBBER, who lived
fifteen miles east of us on Loutre Creek. We lived at that
place one year, and during that time, my mother died of consumption,
and we buried her sometime in August 1822. My father then
sold out to a man by the name of MCKINNEY, from Kentucky,
and moved back to St. Charles. He had not received all the
pay for his hotel and went back to collect the balance that
was due him; and after doing so he moved to Montgomery county
and settled in a little prairie eleven miles from Camp Branch,
where the Booneslick and Cotesansdessein roads forked. While
we were living there the county seat was moved to that place,
and my father donated half his land to the county. A town
was laid out by the county, and called Lewiston for the man
that crossed the Rocky Mountains with General Clark. In a
few years the county seat was moved again, to a place called
Danville, about eight miles up the Booneslick road. This place
was settled by a man named OLLY WILLIAMS, who was from one
of the eastern states and was a very industrious man. He was
a mechanic, and built a mill with an inclined wheel with which
he ground our wheat and corn. He afterward attached a wool
carding machine and cotton gin and wheel to the same mill.
The people raised only enough cotton for their own use. A
man named WHITESIDES, who lived twelve miles from Williams'
Mill, was the first to raise cotton in Montgomery county.
Olly Williams was the most useful man in the country, owing
to his great skill as a mechanic. He ground our corn and wheat,
carded our wool, ginned our cotton and spun it into thread.
He built a find brick house, which was used as a hotel after
the county seat was moved to Danville. His property increased
rapidly in value, and he finally sold out for a good price
and moved to St. Louis county, and bought property close to
he city, which made him rich. He had a large family.
"My father was married twice. The maiden name of his
first wife, who was my mother, was SIDNEY BRAGG, a daughter
of THOMAS BRAGG who lived on the Ohio River at a place called
Lewisburg, in Lewis county, Kentucky. About one year after
the death of my mother, my father married a widow lady by
the name of FINCH. she had two children, and he had six living
and one dead. My eldest brother, Preston, died of typhoid
fever, a disease which had just made its appearance and was
considered incurable. Its victims died suddenly, and nearly
every one that was attacked died. It was a long time before
the doctors learned how to cure the disease. My father had
six children by his second wife. Some of my half-brothers
went to St. Louis to live, and after they had been there awhile
they sent for the old folks, who were growing old and helpless.
My father died a short time after he went to St. Louis, at
the age of seventy-five or seventy-six years. He was a postmaster
at the place where he lived in Kentucky, in 1793, and some
time after he settled in Montgomery county, he was appointed
postmaster again, and held the office for a number of years.
He was also county magistrate for some time. My step-mother
lived for a number of years after the death of my father,
and finally went to live with a son-in-law, on the Illinois
river, where she died. I will now give you some of the names
of the old settlers of Missouri. There was a large family
by the name of TALBOTT, that settled first on Loutre Island.
The next was COLONEL PITTMAN, who married a Talbott. In the
eastern part of the state (St. Charles County) there was a
large family by the name of CALLAWAY, which was related to
Daniel Boone's family by marriage. Then there were the BRYANS,
MCKINNEYS, HAYSES, SHARPS, WYATTS & GRISWOLDS. FRED W.
GRISWOLD was a merchant in the town of Pinckney, which was
the first county seat of Montgomery county. That part of the
country was quite thickly settled, but no one lived on Loutre
Prairie near where my father settled except JONATHAN SMITH,
whose house was about a mile below my father's, on the Booneslick
road. North of Lewiston lived JOHN DUTTON, GLOVER DOZIER,
BASS FARROW, JOHN CUSTER, HENSLEY, & some few others.
In the upper part of the county lived a noted man by the name
of ISAAC VANBIBBER, whose house was at a place called Loutre
Lick, where the Booneslick road crosses Loute creek. He was
raised an orphan boy by old DANIEL BOONE, and was a very kind,
generous hearted old man. He could tell a great many things
about the early settlement of Missouri, and the trouble they
used to have with the Indians.
"It was quite interesting to hear him talk about old
Grandfather Boone, who always came to see him once a year,
and would spend several weeks or months at his house. It was
at Isaac VanBibber's that I first met Daniel Boone and got
acquainted with him. I would rather sit and hear him talk
than to hear any other man I ever saw in my life, and I have
seen several of the greatest men of this nation, among whom
were HENRY CLAY, ANDREW JACKSON, GENERAL HARRISON, THOMAS
H. BENTON, GENERAL TAYLOR, ANDREW JOHNSON & last but not
least by any means, GENERAL CLARK. Isaac VanBibber's nearest
neighbor was LEWIS JONES, who was a brother-in-law of Mrs.
VanBibber. He crossed the Rocky Mountains with Lewis and Clark.
SAMUEL BOONE, a cousin of Daniel Boone, and ISAAC CLARK, a
very considerable man, lived in the same region of country.
Clark's eldest daughter married a man named KNOX, and their
eldest son, named HENRY KNOX married a Miss Talbott, of Loutre
Island. Families by the name of LOGAN, DAVIS & ELLIS lived
on Bear creek, and ENOCH & ALECK FRUITE lived on Nine
Mile Prairie. They were the first settlers there. JESSE BOONE,
a son of Daniel Boone, settled in that part of the country
in 1820, and JOHN CLARK, a brother of Isaac Clark settled
on Nine Mile Prairie in 1825. ISRAEL & WILLIAM GRANT lived
in the southwestern corner of that prairie, where they settled
in 1819. Israel was afterward killed by two of his negroes,
who waylaid him on the road about three miles from home as
he was returning from Fulton, where he had gone to collect
some money. They killed him with clubs and knives. The next
settlers there were two brothers, named MCMURTRY , who bought
out the Fruites. Boone and SAMUEL HAYES, relatives of Daniel
Boone, also lived in that part of the country.
"The first saw mill in Montgomery county was built
by COLONEL PITNAM, on Loss Creek. It was run by water.
"A man named LOMAX, who was one of the early settlers
of Callaway county, was taken very sick and sent for a physician
at Fulton, who gave him calomel and salivated him very badly;
and in order to stop salivation he poured cold water on him,
which caused him to lose all his teeth. When my father lived
in Callaway county, we had to go forty miles to mill, and
take our own team to grind with. We went three times a year.
In the year 1817, while we were living in St. Louis, I saw
the first steamboat that ever landed at that place. It was
simply a large barge, with an engine and smoke stack. The
first newspaper I ever saw was the MISSOURI REPUBLICAN. It
was published then by a man named CHARLES, who was the father
of JOSEPH CHARLES.
"While we were living in St. Charles, my father made
the fist cradle for cutting grain that was ever seen in that
county, and the old French settlers viewed it with as much
curiosity as their friends in St. Louis did the first steamboat.
When harvest came my father sent several negro men with cradles
to assist a farmer named JOHN EAST in cutting his wheat. When
harvest was over, East wanted to pay several dollars per day
for each of the hands, the customary price being one dollar,
"because", said he, "each of them did as much
work as two or three men with sickles".
"My grandmother's name was LUCY BRAGG. She was born
on the Shenandoah River, in Virginia, and lived to be 113
years old. She was a widow for more than fifty years. Her
mother was born in Paris, France, and lived to be 120 years
old. My grandmother gave my mother a negro woman who had eight
children at the time; she afterward had eleven more, making
nineteen in all. The woman lived to be 110 years old, and
died in St. Louis. "Yours, etc., Alfred Kibbe"
The first person hanged in Montgomery county, by Judicial
process, was a negro named MOSES, who had killed his master,
JOHN TANNER, who lived on Cuivre River, in the northern part
of the county. This murder was committed in 1828. The negro
had run away and hid in the woods, where he remained several
weeks. In the meantime he was furnished with a gun by a man
who had a grudge against his master, and with this weapon, he
crawled up to the house and shot Tanner through an opening in
the wooden chimney, which had not been completed. The house
was an ordinary log cabin, such as the people universally occupied
in those days, and it had a partly finished puncheon floor.
When Tanner was shot he was sitting on this floor with his feet
in his wife's lap, and his face toward the chimney. The entire
discharge entered his breast. He sprang to his feet and called
to his wife to hand him his gun, but before she could do so
he fell on his face outside of the door, and expired immediately.
The negro was arrested and tried at Lewiston, and hanged in
the spring of 1829. HENRY CLARK was sheriff at the time, and
rode in a cart with the negro, seated on his coffin, to the
scaffold. The last act of the condemned man before his execution
was to sing the hymn commencing, "Show pity, Lord; O Lord
forgive", which he did in such an affecting manner that
nearly all who were present shed tears. No other scene like
it was ever witnessed in Montgomery county. The body was given
to DR. JONES, of Marthasville, who dissected it for the benefit
of his students.
It may not be generally known that the ancestor of the notorious
Younger boys was an early settler of Montgomery county. His
name was CHARLES YOUNGER. He came from Mount Sterling, KY.,
and settled near Pinckney, then in Montgomery, but now in Warren
County, about 1819, where he lived until 1822, when he removed
to Callaway county, and settled on Auxvasse Creek. He was a
horse racer and gambler in Kentucky, and followed the same pursuits
in Missouri. One day in Kentucky, he placed his little son of
a fine horse to run a race. The horse threw the child and killed
him, but Younger dragged his body out of the way and placed
another son on the horse, who won the race. In 1823 he sold
his place on the Auxvasse to DAVID HENDERSON, and removed to
Clay County, where he died soon after. His son, COLEMAN YOUNGER,
who was the father of the boys who have become so well known
as outlaws in this state, was a delegate from Clay county to
the convention that nominated GENERAL TAYLOR for President in
1848.
Bear Creek, in Montgomery county, was so named by Daniel Boone,
because he found a great many bears in that locality. North
Bear creek was named by PRESLEY ANDERSON, who settled in Montgomery
county in 1817. The name originated in an adventure which he
had with some bears one day, while hunting on that stream and
which nearly cost him his life. While stalking through the woods
looking for game, he saw two cub bears run up a tree, a short
distance from him, and desiring to capture them alive, he set
his gun down and climbed after them. Pretty soon he heard a
fearful snorting and tearing of the brush under him, and looking
down he saw the old mother bear just beginning to climb the
tree after him, with her bristles on end and her white teeth
glistening between her extended jaws. He knew she meant business
and began to wish himself somewhere else. To go down by the
angry brute was impossible, and it was equally impossible to
ascent higher, as the slender branches would not sustain his
weight. If he remained where he was he must sustain a hand-to-hand
contest with the old bear, which he knew would result entirely
in her favor. He had only one way to escape, and that was to
play the squirrel and jump to another tee. It was a desperate
chance, but he felt the hot breath of the old bear close to
him, and determined to take it. Gathering himself up for a desperate
spring, he made it, and safely landed among the branches of
a neighboring tree. Then hastily sliding to the ground, he secured
his gun and killed all the bears. This incident led him to name
the adjacent stream Bear creek, but as main Bear creek had already
been named, he designated the former as North Bear creek, by
which name it has been known ever since.
n a small stream in the southern part of Montgomery county
there is a huge, singular looking rock, known as Pinnacle Rock.
It stands alone in the midst of a small valley, and rises perpendicularly
on all sides except one, to the height of seventy-five feet.
It covers an area of about one acre, and the top is flat and
covered with trees, grass, etc. A shelving path on one side
affords a safe ascent, and the people of the vicinity often
collect there on picnic occasions and Fourth of July celebrations.
During the last few summers the Pinnacle has been used as a
preaching place, and the praises of God are often heard ascending
from its romantic summit.
The dates of the organizations of the various churches in
Montgomery county are difficult to obtain. Some of them are
given in connection with the histories of families. On the 16th
of April, 1824, a Baptist church called FREEDOM was organized
at the house of JOHN SNETHEN, on Dry Fork of Loutre, by REVS.
WILLIAM COATS & FELIX BROWN. The following members were
enrolled at the time: JOHN SNETHEN & wife, NANCY SKELTON,
SARAH ELSTON, WILLIAM HALL, MARY ALLEN & JONATHAN ELSTON.
Mr. Snethen was chosen Deacon, and Jonathan Elston, clerk. A
small log church was erected the following July, and their meetings
were held in it for a number of years. In this church, on January
4, 1825, ALEXANDER SNETHEN & JABEZ HAM were ordained ministers,
by Revs. William Coats & ABSALOM BRAINBRIDGE. During the
first four years of the existence of this church the collections
for all purposes amounted to $1.75. On one occasion, two of
the members were sent as delegates to a Baptist Association
south of the Missouri river, and they concluded to swim the
river on their horses, and save the money which had been given
them to pay their ferriage. After swimming the river they invested
the money in whiskey, and both got "tight", for which
offense they were tried and suspended. About 1838 another church
building was erected on South Bear creek, also called Freedom,
but owing to its location near some stagnant water, it subsequently
received the facetious appellation of "Frog Pond".
The association was afterward removed to Jonesburg, and retained
the name of Freedom.
* This, of course, is a mistake, as the
state was not admitted into the union until 1820.
** This is also incorrect. A session of the legislature was
held in St. Louis, commencing on the third Monday of September,
1820, which was three months before the commencement of the
session of congress at which the territory was admitted into
the union. This session was held under authority of the state
constitution, which had been adopted by the convention, but
not yet accepted by Congress. An act passed this Legislature
on the 28th of November, 1820, fixing the seat of government
at St. Charles, where the next legislature met in the winter
of 1821-22, so that the first legislature of the state of Missouri
met in St. Charles. The seat of government remained there until
October, 1826, when it was removed to Jefferson City.
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