MISSOURI HISTORICAL REVI EW, CONTENTS Mark Twain's Early Writings Discovered C J. Armstrong David R. Atchison Theodore C. Atchison Nathan Chapman Kouns Robert F.Walker An Account of Spanish Louisiana, 1785 A. P. Nasatir Selling Missouri Mules Down South in 1835 Frederic A. Culmer Experiences of Lewis Bissell Dougherty on the Oregon Trail, Part II Ethel Massie Withers Public Opinion and the Inflation Movement in Missouri, 1875-1879, Chapter III J. A. Leach Historical Notes and Comments Missouri History Not Found in Textbooks STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY of MISSOURI VOL. XXIV JULY, 1930 NO. 4 OFFICERS OF THE STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF MISSOURI, 1928-1931 GEORGE A. MAHAN, Hannibal, President. LOUIS T. GOLDING. St. Joseph, First Vice-President. ... ••': • ••;" • . • ••.':';•:•-••'••••.'•;•;•. :.-... <. .'•• '-'• ... •• : ' : :,'••-',. v :•••, ";: .•.:•• •!••:.•; 1. ,• .:'? • . ; .;!.:•. • -,-., : ••• -,u.. <•'••>.- •••'.: ^ •.•••••. • . ^ ' ;: ,,:. : : : ,ji. AL «th Vice-President. R. B. PI ' "K Columbia, Treasurer. FLOYD C.SH R, Secretary and Librarian. * Deceased BOARD OF TRUSTEES Term Expires at Annual Meeting, 1930 C. P. DORSEY, Cameron. H. S. STURGIS, Neosho. EUGE ille. olumbia. ; GEOR' >al. WALTER WILLIAMS, Columbia, WM. R. PAINTER, Carrollton. Term Expires at Annual Meeting, 1931 ROLLIN J. BRITTON, Kansas City. ( T. H. B. DIJ olivar. • : • ., • • • St. Loui STEPHEN B. HUNTER, . " • • Cape Girardeau, Clinton. Term Expires at Annual Meeting, 1932 PHIL A. afield. ' • - : : . : I; FORREST C. DON NELL, WM., ',JR., St. Louis. BOY EY, Gallatin. CHA . WOODS, Rolla. J. F. i EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE The twenty-six trustees, the president and secretary of the ety,the Governor, Secrei ;r, and President versityof Misa";: ttee. FINANCE COMMITTEE R. M. WHITE, Chairman. Mexico. ISIDOR LOEB, St. Louis. WALTER WILLIAMS, Columbia THE MISSOURI HISTORICAL REVIEW VOL. XXIV JULY, 1930 NO. 4 CONTENTS Mark Twain's Early Writings Discovered 485 C. J. ARMSTRONG David R. Atchison 502 THEODORE C. ATCHISON Nathan Chapman Kouns 516 ROBERT F. WALKER An Account of Spanish Louisiana, 1785 521 A. P. NASATIR Selling Missouri Mules Down South in 1835 537 FREDERIC A. CULMER Experiences of Lewis Bissell Dougherty on the Oregon Trail, Part II 550 ETHEL MASSIE WITHERS Public Opinion and the Inflation Movement in Missouri, 1875- 1879, Chapter III 568 J. A. LEACH Historical Notes and Comments 586 Missouri History Not Found in Textbooks 605 FLOYD C. SHOEMAKER, Editor The Missouri Historical Review is published quarterly. The sub­ scription price is $1.00 a year. A complete set of the Review is still obtainable—Vols. 1-24, bound, $80.00; unbound, $^0.00. Prices of separate volumes given on request. All communications should be ad­ dressed to Floyd C. Shoemaker, The State Historical Society of Missouri. "Entered as second-class matter at the postofflce at Columbia, Mis­ souri, under Act oj Congress, October S, 1917, Sec. W-" CONTRIBUTORS ARMSTRONG, C. J., minister, is pastor of the First Christian Church in Hannibal, Missouri. For a number of years Dr. Armstrong has made a special study of and delivered addresses on Mark Twain's life and writings. ATCHISON, THEODORE C., a native of Kentucky, is distantly related to the family of Senator David R. Atchison. He has practiced law in Dallas, Texas, and New Orleans, and since 1909 has been an active member of the bar in New York City, where he now resides. WALKER, ROBERT F., native born Missourian, has been attorney-general of the State, president of the Missouri bar association, and since 1912 has served as judge of the Supreme Court, having been chief justice during 1919- 1922 and 1927-1928. He is a graduate of the University of Missouri, holding the degrees of A. JB., A. M., and LL. B., and in 1926 received the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws. NASATIR, ABRAHAM P., received his Ph. D. from the University of Cali­ fornia. He has taught in the University of Iowa and the State Teachers Col­ lege at San Diego. He spent one year in Spain translating documents relating to the Anglo-Spanish frontier in the Missouri-Mississippi valley. His mono­ graphs, published in standard historical magazines, are distinct contributions. His home is in San Diego. CULMER, FREDERTC A., holds the chair of political science at Central Col­ lege, Fayette, Missouri. He is engaged in writing "The Life and Times of Abiel Leonard." WITHERS, ETHEL MASSIE, received her A. B. degree from the University of Missouri in 1903. Mrs. Withers has been prominently identified with women's club and organization work, and in 1915-1917 was state historian of the D. A. R. of Missouri. She comoiled and illustrated the lecture, " Pioneering in Missouri" contributed to W. H. Woodson's History of Clay County and planned the Clay County Centennial Celebration in 1922. LEACH, J. A., native Mssourian, received his master's degree from the University of Missouri, specializing in Missouri history. He is chairman of the history department of the Paseo High School, Kansas City, Missouri. MARK TWAIN'S EARLY WRITINGS DISCOVERED BY C. J. ARMSTRONG* "No other writing of any kind has been preserved from Sam Clemen's boyhood, none from that period when he had served his apprenticeship and was a capable printer on his brother's paper, a contributor to it when occasion served. Letters and manuscripts of those days have vanished—even his contri­ butions in printed form are unobtianable. It is not believed that a single number of Orion Clemen's paper, the Hannibal Journal, exists today." (Italics mine) When Albert Bigelow Paine wrote the above words {Mark Twaine's Letters, I, 20) they expressed the regrettable truth. But, fortunately, I was enabled to discover some old volumes of bound papers, that contain copies of the Hannibal Journal and some of the early writings of Mark Twain. On the day that we dedicated "Tom and Huck," the statuary (presented to the city of Hannibal by Mr. and Mrs. George A. Mahan and their son, Mr. D. D. Mahan) that put Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn in bronze at the foot of Cardiff Hill, I learned through Miss Nettie A. League, of some old Hannibal papers, preserved by her father, the late Mr. W. T. League, Sr., who had been a boyhood friend of Samuel Clemens. The collection contain seven volumes. I happened to pick up volume one. Imigine the thrill when I looked upon the issues of Ament's Missouri** Courier! I cannot describe my feelings when further search uncovered the Hannibal Journal, published by O. Clemens. A hasty exam­ ination showed there were issued for 1851, 1852, and 1853, but I could not then determine either that it was a complete *I wish to express my gratitude to Miss Nettie A. League, Mr. George A. Mahan, Miss Anna Shelton, Miss Queen Austin, Mr. Floyd C. Shoemaker and his staff for their willing service and hearty co-operation. I am also greatly indebted to Mr. Bernard De Voto of Cambridge, Mass., for his invaluable suggestions. **Mark Twain, through faulty memory, always speaks of the Hannibal Courier. The above is the correct title of Ament's paper. ( 485 ) 486 MISSOURI HISTORICAL REVIEW file or that any of Mark Twain's early contributions had been preserved. Subsequently it was my privilege to examine those volumes, and this article is to make known some of the things revealed in those long lost papers. This invaulable collection (now known as The League Collection) is in the possession of the State Historical Society of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri, the generous and gracious gift of Miss League. THE HANNIBAL WESTERN UNION Albert Bigelow Paine, in his Biography* (Vol. 1, 84, 85), writes:—"A periodical ambition of Orion's was to own and conduct a paper in Hannibal. He felt that in such a position he might become a power in Western journalism. Once his father had considered buying the Hannibal Journal to give Orion a chance, and possibly to further his own political ambi- bitions. Now Orion considered it for himself. The paper was for sale under a mortgage, and he was enabled to borrow the $500 which would secure ownership. Sam's two years at Ament's were now complete, and Orion induced him to take employment on the Journal." Mark Twain, in his Autobi­ ography (II, 285), writes, "About 1849 or 1850 Orion severed his connection with the printing house in St. Louis and came to Hannibal and bought a weekly paper called the Hannibal Journal, together with its plant and good will, for the sum of five hundred dollars cash He took me out of the Courier office and engaged my services in his own at three dollars and a half a week." It would seem that this should settle the matter, but it is evident that Mark Twain's memory was at fault here. A perusal of the newly found papers shows that the Journal was not the first paper that O. Clemens published and edited at Hannibal. His first journalististic effort was the Hannibal Western Union, which he published from October 10, 1850 to August 28, 1851. It was a weekly. Sixteen issues are missing from the file at Columbia. From September 4, 1851 to September 15, 1853 he published and *A11 references to Paine's works are to bis Biography unless otherwise specified. MARK TWAIN'S EARLY WRITINGS DISCOVERED 487 edited the Hannibal Journal and Western Union*. This was a weekly issued on Thursdays. This was evidently a uniting of the Western Union and the Hannibal Journal. Many issues of this paper have not been preserved. It has been known that Sam Clemens was apprenticed to Ament's Courier in 1847—after his father's death. It has also been known that he worked on Orion Clemens' Journal from 1851 to 1853. Paine (I, 85) tells us that "Sam's two years at Ament's were now complete, and Orion induced him to take employment on the Journal." If he left Ament's Courier after approximately two years, it was upon the Western Union, and not the Journal, that he first worked for Orion.