HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY.

CHAPTER I.

NAME AND LOCATION.

Different Counties Named Jackson-Most Favored County in the Union-The Area and Exact Geographical Position-General Observations for the Reader.

In honor of Andrew Jackson, the seventh president of the United States, this county received its name. There are twenty counties in the Union bearing the same distinguished appellation, but Jackson county, Missouri, with her 85,ooo, has nearly twice the population of Jackson county, Michigan, which is second in point of inhabitants. Of these twenty counties the one in Oregon, bordering on California is much the largest in extent, having an area of 11,000 square miles, but a population in 1870 of only 4,778, and while Jackson county, Missouri, is the first in wealth and population, it is eleventh in area. Twentythree post offices in the several States and Territories are known by the name of Jackson, and many others by the name of Jacksonville, Jackson Station, Jackson Valley, etc. It seems to have been a favorite custom to christen a new county or town with the name of some distinguished man, especially one who at that time stood prominent before the people. We have twenty eight counties, and thirty four post-towns and villages named Washington, and during the last twenty years not a State or Territory has been organized which does not contain the name of Lincoln. In this State we have counties bearing the immortal names of Washington, Webster, Clay, Douglas, Franklin, Lafayette, Lincoln, Jefferson, Green, Warren, and many more, and although it is said "there is nothing in a name," in many instances a name means a great deal. It frequently carries with it a whole history. Names are sometimes given to towns and counties by accident; sometimes they originate in the childish caprice of some one individual. Those counties and cities of our State, however, which were named after distinguished individuals, or to commemorate great national events or to perpetuate the memory of aboriginal tribes, as Jackson, Independence, and Kansas City, have real significance. The name of its principal river and the State itself are among the almost numberless examples of the significance of names with which our language is enriched.

The State had been admitted into the Union, and in the course of a few years all the best tracts of land had been taken along the Mississippi River and far up the Missouri. The county next east which now bears the name of Lafayette had been organized in 1820 and named Lillard; the pioneer pressed westward and it was supposed when he reached the mouth of the Kaw, that this

would be at the extreme limit of civilization for many years to come; but still, "westward the course of empire takes it way."

The period during which a large portion of Missouri was settled, and during which the county was organized, was a period of great events in the history of our country. In the latter part of 1817 a war with the Seminole Indians broke

General Jackson was sent against them, and speedily brought them to terms, and for sixteen years thereafter Jackson's name was one of the most prominent in the nation. In his annual message to Congress, December, 1823, the president alluding to the Spanish colonies of America, recently recognized as sovereign powers promulgated the famous "Monroe Doctrine."

In 1820 a violent debate arose in Congress on the question of admitting Missouri as a slave-State and then the world renowned Missouri Compromise was effected.

In 1824 Lafayette came to the United States as the guest of the nation whose independence he had assisted in gaining with his blood and his fortune. The presidential campaign of 1824 had four candidates in the field, Jackson, Adams, Crawford and Clay, and although Jackson received a plurality of the electoral college, yet the House of Representatives elected John Quincy Adams president. The fiftieth anniversary of the national independence, July 4, 1826, was made memorable by the deaths of two eminent American patriots, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. In 1827 occurred the controversy in reference to the Creek Lands in Georgia. The vexed question of tariff agitated the country in 1828, and the most intense and bitter party strife entered the presidential campaign that fall that the country has ever experienced, and resulted in the election of Jackson president. During the greater part of Jackson's administration the Republic was agitated from center to circumference by grave and important questions championed by the eloquence and statesmanship of Webster, Clay and Calhoun. Indian wars, Nullification and the United States Bank were also before the people.

These are some of the leading events transpiring in the nation at or near the time when the county was born and christened.

Andrew Jackson was born in North Carolina March 5, 1767, and died near Nashville, Tennesee, June 8, 1845. The distinguishing features and prominent events in this great man's life are too well known by all to need further reference here, but it is no wonder the future greatness of this county was presaged by our fathers with his great name.

Jackson county is located on the extreme western border of Missouri, 160 miles from the south line, and 112 miles from the north line of the State. It is bounded on the north by Clay and Ray counties separated by the Missouri River, on the east by Lafayette and Johnson, on the south by Cass county and west by Johnson county, Kansas. The area is exactly 385,404 acres or 6024 square miles. It boundaries are more exactly defined in the following: Beginning at the confluence of the Kaw (Kansas) and Missouri Rivers and running due south on the line dividing the States of Missouri and Kansas to a point 18.86 miles from the starting point the southwest corner of the county is reached; thence due east on the line dividing the counties of Jackson and Cass to southeast corner of section thirty-three (33), township forty-seven (47) north of the Base Line, and range twenty-nine (29) west of the Fifth Principal Meridian, a distance of 26.27 miles the southeast corner of the county is established; thence north on the line dividing Jackson from Johnson and Lafayette to the Missouri River a distance of 21.57 miles, thence in a westerly course following the meanderings of the river a distance of forty miles to the point of starting.

The south and east lines were run by the land surveyors who surveyed most of the country in this vicinity, at a magnetic variation of from 7° 30' to 9°, and the west line of the county was established by the commission appointed to locate

the western boundary of Missouri, September 23d, 1823, at the true variation of II° 8'. The latitude of the mouth of the Kaw (Kansas) river, is exactly 39° 4′, that of Kansas City and Independence being the same. The longitude of Kansas City is 94° 30' west.

Beginning at the south-east corner of Jackson county, for a distance of six miles Johnson county forms its eastern boundary, the remaining 15.57 miles to the Missouri River is the dividing line between Lafayette and Jackson. Beginning with the north-east corner of Jackson county, the Missouri forms the boundary line between Ray and Jackson for a distance of nine or ten miles, and for the remainder of the distance it separates Jackson and Clay counties. The center of Jackson county is two hundred and seventy miles a little north of west of St. Louis by the shortest railroad line. By the Missouri Pacific Railroad, Kansas City is two hundred and eighty-two miles from St. Louis, and one hundred and fiftyseven miles from Jefferson City. By the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad, Kansas City is five hundred and thirty miles from Chicago. By the Chicago and Alton Railroad, the distance is four hundred and eighty-nine miles. At Kansas City, the north-west corner of the county, the Missouri River makes a great bend from the south to the east, and from thence pursues an easterly course till it unites its waters with the Mississippi. No other county in the State is so favorably located as Jackson. It is in the heart of the best agricultural region in the Missouri Valley, and enjoys the center of traffic for western Missouri and eastern Kansas. Situated as it is in the exact geographical center of the Republic, north and south, and only a few miles east of the geographical center east and west, and possessing natural and developing resources superior to all other sections of the country, the future greatness of Jackson county is almost beyond our comprehension. Having referred at sufficient length to the name and location of the county we now proceed with a few general observations, which will be found of service to the reader. The difficulty of compiling a history of Jackson county, we do not underestimate.

The importance of the work becomes more and more apparent as, in passing from one county to another, we become more and more deeply impressed by the fact that there exists throughout the several counties of the State a deplorable, if not a reprehensible ignorance of those events which form the staple of local history, in which consist the data for determining the ratio of material progress and which form the sole basis for estimating the social, mental and moral conditions of the present. The difficulty of the task consists, to a large extent, in the fact that the events to be treated, while they have to do with the past, are so intimately interwoven with the present, that they are a part of it. The writer of history, as a general rule, deals wholly with the affairs of past generations, and his aim is to pause when he arrives at the realm bounded by the memory of men now living. The whole field of our investigations lies inside that boundary line, as there are, doubtless, some who will peruse these pages, who have witnessed and acted a part in the events which we shall attempt to narrate.

The first settlement in the county was made in 1808, and there continued to be new arrivals from that time until the organization of the county, December 15th, 1826. More importance attaches to the first few, than to the many who came subsequently. The history properly dates from its organization, and taking that date as a beginning, there is a period of fifty-five years since then, and some who were here at that time or came shortly after, still live, and have been critical observers of passing events, even as they will be critical readers of the following pages. And such, while they have grown old in body by reason of the hardships and privations incident upon a life of more than ordinary activity and trial, have not grown old in mind. Each one of such knows the history of the county; and be it said with due reverence for their hoary heads and bended forms, each one knows that history better than any one else. Such readers are very uncharitable

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critics and a work of this kind absolutely accurate in all its details and particulars, were it within the power of human ability to make such a work, would undoubtedly be pronounced by many well-meaning and honest persons, faulty and untrustworthy. This results from the fact that fifty-five years, though not a long period in the history of the world, is a long time in the past life of an individual. Events occurring at that length of time in the past we think we know perfectly well, when the fact is, we know them very imperfectly. This is proved and illustrated by the reluctancy and hesitation manifested invariably by old settlers when called upon to give the details of some early transaction; the old settler usually hesitates before giving a date, and after having finally settled down upon the year and month when a certain event occurred, will often come to you in less than a day and request the privilege of correcting the date. In the meantime. you have found another old settler who was an eye-witness of the act in question, and the date he will give you does not correspond with the first date, nor the correcteddate as given by the first old settler.

We have noticed the same uncertainty in regard to other details of a particular transaction, such for instance, as an early election, whether Mr. A was the successful or defeated candidate; and in regard to an altercation whether Jones or Smith was the aggressor.

There is, at this time, living in a neighboring county, a noble old gray-head ed man, whose pioneer feet trod close to the tracks of the receding red man; who has held many offices of honor and trust, and although life has lost none of its charms, he would rather die than utter an untruthful word or commit a dishonorable deed. It appeared from the official record that at an early day he held the office of county surveyor, and the fact having been made public in a work of this kind, he sought out the writer and informed him that the statement was incorrect; that not he but a certain Mr. B. had been elected to the position named at the time mentioned. He clung tenaciously to his position and refused to recede from it even when the poll book was produced confirming the statement of the writer. To this day, the old gentleman firmly believes that Mr. B. and not himself was county surveyor in 1849, although in addition to the evidence of the poll book, was the evidence of the county plat book where were certified over his signature, the surveys of at least three different towns. There are some marked exceptions, but as a rule, the memory of the old settler is untrustworthy; his idea of the general outlines are generally correct, but no one who puts the proper estimate upon his mental faculties when they are impaired by age and weakened by the many infirmities of years, will trust his memory in the arbitrament of questions of particulars and details.

The historian who goes into a county possessed of none of the information, which those have after years of residence, works at a great disadvantage in several respects. At first he knows not whom to consult or where to find important records, he must necessarily spend considerable time in learning what others already know. He, however, possesses advantages which more than outweigh his disadvantages: he enters upon his work with an unbiased mind. He has no friends to reward and no enemies to punish, his mind is not preoccupied and prejudiced by reports which may have incidentally come into his possession while transacting the ordinary affairs of business, and when, in addition to this, he is much better qualified for the task, and to discriminate between statements, seemingly of equal weight than those who immediately or remotely are interested parties and whose regular employment lies in other fields of industry. This is true, even though the former be a total stranger and the latter have become familiar with men and things by many years of intercourse and acquaintance. He is best judge and best juror who is totally unacquainted with both plaintiff and defendant, and he is best qualified to arbitrate between conflicting facts of history, who comes to the task without that bias which is the price one must pay for

acquaintanceship and familiarity. The best history of France was written by an Englishman, and the most authentic account of American institutions was written by a Frenchmen, and it remained for an American to write the only authentic history of the Dutch Republic.

The American people are much given to reading, but the kind of reading is such that in reference to many it may truthfully be said, that "truth is stranger than fiction." Especially is this the case with respect to those facts of history belonging to one's own immediate county and neighborhood. This is, perhaps, not so much the fault in every instance of the reader as the book maker. Books, as a rule, are made to sell, and in order that a book may have a large sale, its matter must be of such general character as to be applicable to general, rather than particular conditions-to station and State rather than to county and township.

Thus it is, that no histories heretofore published pertain to matters of county and neighborhood affairs, for, such books, in order to have a sale over a large extent of territory, must necessarily be very voluminous and contain much matter of no interest to the general reader. The fault, however, belongs not wholly to the book publisher; it lies partly at the door of the people themselves. Things are regarded great in proportion as they are far off. "Distance lends enchantment to the view." Like a lens of wonderful power of refraction, it makes events important in proportion as they are far away. The fact is illustrated by the thousands who annually leave America for a journey through Europe. The in convenience, the expense and the danger of an ocean voyage are cheerfully endured by the tourist in order that he may view the mountains and rivers of Germany and Italy, whilst loftier peaks, larger rivers, higher cataracts and broad. er plains at home conspire to make American scenery grander and more magnificent by far than any European scenery, and the thousands who cross the Atlantic to view the Rhine, know nothing of their own beautiful Hudson or grand Missouri; they become ecstatic at the prospect from the Alps when their own homes are in the shadow of loftier mountains. It is the same with men as with great events and grand scenery; the great man is usually in the distance, and now, as eighteen hundred years ago, it is true that "A prophet is not without honor save in his own country." The same is true of books. For many years after the settlement of America, no book was regarded as worth reading which had not been published in London or Edinburg and contained a certain quality of matter. In more recent times, no book could be sold which was not published in New York or Boston. Owing to the enterprise of western authors, and intrepidity of certain western publishers, the fact has been demonstrated recently, that a book worth reading, may be written and printed west of the Alleghany Mountains, and people are beginning to realize that right in their own state and in their own county are to be found materials for the making of books, the reading of which will afford more interest and profit than those books which are concerned with times and places more remote.