An Intensive Survey of Historical Resources in the Proposed Long Branch Reservoir
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
£■! LONG BRANCH LAKE HISTORICAL RESOURCES A H isto ry by David March and Larry Stephens .M8 G7 1977 Vol.3 LIBRARY APR 1 7 1979 Bureau of Reclamation Denve- ''alorado 92075830 CULTURAL RESOURCES SURVEY LONG BRANCH LAKE Macon County, Missouri VOLUME III HISTORICAL RESOURCES SURVEY A PROJECT CONDUCTED FOR THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT U.S. ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI DISTRICT UNDER CONTRACT NO. DACW41-76-C-0116 AN INTENSIVE SURVEY OF HISTORICAL RESOURCES IN THE PROPOSED LONG BRANCH RESERVOIR By David March and Larry Stephens AN HISTORICAL PROJECT CONDUCTED FOR U.S, ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI DISTRICT By NORTHEAST MISSOURI STATE UNIVERSITY KIRKSVILLE, MISSOURI IN FULFILLMENT OF CONTRACT DACW41-76-C-0116 TABLE OF CONTENTS From European Incursions Through the Civil W a r ................................ 1 From the Civil War to World War I ....... 23 From World War I to the P r e s e n t ............... 34 Mitigation Suggestions.......... ............ 41 Endnotes....................................... 43 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 1. Map of Macon County (Map 1 ) .................. 58 2. Map of Hudson, Eagle, Lyda, Bevier, Liberty and Independence Townships (Map 2) 59 3. Duck Creek S c h o o lhouse..................... 60 4. Lea H o u s e ................................... 62 5. Swallow Sorghum M i l l ....................... 64 6. Swallow Farm Implements.......... 66 7. Bethel Church ................................ 67 8. Macon County Courthouse and Annex ........... 69 ABSTRACT OF HISTORICAL REPORT Settlers, chiefly from Kentucky and North Carolina, began moving into the Long Branch area in the early 1830's. By 1837 the population north of Randolph County was large enough to warrant the creation of Macon County. The Upper South origin of the early settlers was reflected in the ante bellum political, social, and economic development of the area. The county was the chief unit of local government, congregations of Baptists and Methodists were most numerous, public schools were slow to appear, farming was the principal occu pation with tobacco as the chief money crop, and slaves were a part of the labor force. The economy and social institutions changed somewhat in the latter 19th century with the ar rival of European immigrants and additional free blacks. General farming continued to dominate economic activity, though livestock production and apple growing received much attention. Public schools, lodges, and churches increased in number. A decrease in the population began in the late 19th century and has continued to the present. This, plus all-weather roads and the automobile, brought about the virtual elimination of the rural schools and churches which had provided a societal cohesion. Most of the farmers turned to commercial agriculture and learned to depend upon the radio, television, and urban institutions for their edu cation and entertainment. Examples of the 19th century culture which should be preserved include the Lea House, the Bethel Church, the Duck Creek schoolhouse, various artifacts including the Swallow sorghum mill and vats, and articles and poems written by Daniel D. Foley. I From European Incursions Through the Civil War Macon County, Missouri, in which the Long Branch dam is being constructed, was a very small part of the vast expanse of territory claimed by France from April 9, 1682, until that power trans ferred all its claims west of the Mississippi River to Spain in the secret Treaty of Fontainbleau, November 3, 1762. This transfer became a part of the final Treaty of Paris signed on February 10, 1763, by the representatives of England, France, and Spain following the Seven Years War, known in America as the French and Indian War. However, Spanish officials did not take over the adminis tration of "Upper Louisiana" until the spring of 1770. During the years France claimed the territory efforts were made by private interests to mine lead and gather furs. Philippe Renault, a French mining company director, operated lead mines from 1723 until 1742 in what is now Washington County, and French fur traders were active on the lower reaches of the Missouri River and its tributaries. What might have become a significant penetration by the French into what is now central Missouri occurred in 1723 when Etienne Veniard de Bourgmond, named "Commandant of the Missouri River," built Fort Orleans among the Missouri Indians in what is now southeastern Carroll County. Four years later the French abandoned the post, allowing the wilderness to reclaim the spot on which Fort Orleans stood so thoroughly that not even a trace remained to mark its location. Little more interest in what is now central Missouri was shown by the Spanish, very few of whom came to Upper Louisiana. The French in Ste. Genevieve and St. Louis, who enjoyed an Arcadian existence under lenient Spanish rule, carried on a lively trade with the Indians along the Mis souri and Osage rivers, often encountering com petition from French Canadian trappers trespassing on Spanish territory, but the land per se held no attraction for the convivial French,“who pre ferred village life and would have been extremely unhappy on isolated farms. For a quarter of a century the official policy of the Spanish government was to keep Americans who poured into Kentucky and Tennessee after the Ameri can Revolution from entering Louisiana. During the last decade of the 18th century, however, the exclu sion policy was rescinded; indeed, American families east of the Mississippi were invited to locate in Upper Louisiana and land grants were made available even to Protestants. Among those who accepted the invitation was Daniel Boone, whose sons had pre ceded him into the Femme Osage Valley. Mbst of the American immigrants wanted to take up land. Therefore, they tended to avoid the French villages, move into the interior, and make farming a way of life. They came in such numbers, mainly from Kentucky, Virginia, Tennessee, and North Caro lina, that by 1800 approximately one half of the population of Upper Louisiana had moved from east of the Mississippi. Most of them had settled just to the west of the French villages along the Mis sissippi and the lower reaches of its tributaries. In 1803, three years after Spain had agreed to return Louisiana to France, the United States purchased the territory for approximately fifteen million dollars. In March, 1804, Congress created the Territory of Orleans, which in 1812 became the State of Louisiana, and provided that the area above 33° north latitude be the District of Louisiana governed by the officials of the Territory of Indiana. The District of Louisiana lasted only a short time, for in 1805 Congress created the Ter ritory of Louisiana, which in 1812 became the Territory of Missouri. In 1819 the Territory of Arkansas was carved out of the Territory of Mis souri and two years later Missouri was admitted to the Union as the twenty-first state. Although the purchase of Louisiana from France was followed by the migration of an increasing number of Americans from east of the Mississippi, it was not until after the War of 1812 that settlers in any significant numbers moved into the central part of Missouri, known as the Boonslick country. These migrants, following the one great natural route into the interior, the Missouri River, were seeking timbered lands near navigable streams.^ In 1816 the territorial legislature recognized this 2 movement by creating Howard County, which comprised £he land within the territory which lay north 2faS? Rlve5 ’ including parts of the counties ot St. Charles and St. Louis organized in 1812. Franklin, near the present Boonville, was the boom town of the area, but a number of other villages several ephemeral, were laid out by speculators.* Among them was Chariton, which was platted by Duff Green near the mouth of the Chariton River said to have been named for Joseph Charette, a St. Louis fur trader who drowned in the river while on an SXp?2iilon 1?d by Jean Baptiste Truteau in 1795. By 1820 settlements had been made along the Mis souri River as far west as the present Liberty and a sufficient number of people had made their homes upriver from Boonville to warrant the creation of Chariton County. Nine years later, 1829 after the economic depression of the 1820's had run its course, and the best lands in the present Howard County occupied, Randolph County was established At that time white settlement in what is now Mac¿n begun^2 St3-H farther from the river, had hardly The first to erect a cabin in what was to be Macon County was James Loe from Wayne County Kentucky, who settled just south of the present CaUao in 1827. Other Kentuckians as well as North rC5? f lni“ 8 soon followed him, among them the William Blackwell family who in the spring of 1831 settled six miles north of the present city of Macon. The families of Nathan Richardson, who planted the first apple orchards in the area, and John Walker soon joined him to form "Blackwell Settlement, later called Moccasinville because ackmg leather, the people wore Indian moccasins. Moccasinville occupied a spot on the Bee Trace Yu C£-ra? n?rtb and south alonS the Grand Divide, the Mississippi and Missouri watershed.^ . 4n ol£ Indian trail from St. Louis to the vicinity of the present Omaha, Nebraska, partially following the Grand Divide, also ran near the settlement. Entitled the Great Trail, this trade route had several branches, one of which, according to a map published in 1722 by Guillaume Delisle, made it an extension of an easterly route called Nemacolm s Path" that crossed the Mississippi near the present Portage des Sioux in St. Charles 3 County. Moreover, the Delisle map, as well as one published in 1755 by Philip Buache, shows the Great Trail with an extension to the Rocky Mountains.