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Fort Adams 4E29
In a fort which stood in this locality, formerly a possession of Spain, Capt. Isaac Guion, USA, raised the nag of the United States for the first time in 1797, thus proclaiming the exclusive sovereignty of the United States on the Mississippi River. The fort was renamed in honor of President John Adams.
DeSoto Mounds 4E32
This ancient Indian village may well have been visited by DeSoto in 1541 and may have been one of the towns he called Quiz Quiz. The two large mounds were built as substructures for Temples. During the years this site was incorporated within Fort Pickering. The westernmost mound was hollowed south to make a powder storeroom, and guns were entrenched on its summit overlooking the Mississippi River.
Roark Bradford 4E24
Born 4.1 miles west, near Nankipoo, August 21, 1896, this author's stories of Mississippi River and Delta characters, including "How Come Christmas," "01' Man Adam an' His Chillun," "John Henry," "Kingdom Comin'," and "This Side of Jordan," won him wide fame. The play "The Green Pastures" was adapted from his stories. He died Nov. 13, 1948.
Mark Twain MO430
Mark Twain Mark Twain (Samuel Longhorne Clemens) was born in the nearby village of Florida, Nov. 30, 1835. His birthplace was given to the Mark Twain Memorial Park Association by M.A. Violette, 1924, and is maintained as a museum. The two-room clapboard house was rented by Twain's parents, John M. and Jane Lampton Clemens, upon their arrival here from Tennessee, 1835. Before it was moved to the park, 1930, it had been moved once before and had seen use as a printing office, grain storage shed, and cow shelter. Twain spent many summers on his Uncle John Quarles' farm near Florida after his parents moved, in 1839, to Hannibal, Mo. It was from his boyhood in Hannibal and here that he drew material for "Tom Sawyer" and "Huckleberry Finn." In 1853, Twain left a job on his brother Orion's Hannibal newspaper to become a printer, Mississippi River pilot, and a miner, writer, and lecturer in the West, where he adopted the pen name, Mark Twain (two fathoms--a river measure). In 1870 he married Olivia Langdon. He died April 21, 1910, and is buried in Elmira N.Y. Mark Twain State Park, beautiful tract of woodland along the South Fork of Salt River, was given the State, 1924, by the Mark Twain Memorial Park Association formed by the country editors of northeast Missouri, 1923. The State has added to the original gift. The Bringhurst bust of Twain in Florida was erected by the State, 1913. In Hannibal are the State statue of Twain by Hibbard; his statue of Tom and Huck; the Mark Twain Museum and Home; Becky Thatcher House; Mark Twain Cave; and other sites. In Florida's cemetery are buried Twain's sister and other relatives. Located at Perry, to the southeast, is the Mark Twain Research Foundation and its collections. The State Historical Society of Missouri, Columbia, has a noted collection of Twain's writings and a file of Hannibal newspapers on which he worked. It is of interest that General Ulysses S. Grant's first assignment of the Civil War brought him to Florida, July 1861. He was looking for Col. T.A. Harris, who had withdrawn.
The Life of Daniel Boone - Part II MO416
Life of Daniel Boone {continued from Part I} In 1782, while Daniel and Boone's second son, Israel, took part in the Battle of Blue Lick against the Shawnee Indians in eastern Kentucky, Israel was killed. Daniel also took part in a number of other Indian skirmishes and campaigns during this period. The following year Daniel was appointed to the highest position in Fayette County, County Lieutenant (in charge of a whole county, both civil and military). Several years later he and Rebecca moved to the town of Limestone in northeastern Kentucky where they operated an inn, and where Daniel was elected to the Virginia legislature for a second time. Several years later he moved to the Kanawha Valley of present West Virginia, where he was elected in 1791 to the Virginia Legislature for the third time. He was also appointed Lt. Colonel of the Kanawha County militia. During this time Daniel rescued six year old Chloe Flinn from an Indian village. In the mid-1790s the Boones moved back to Kentucky. Daniel Morgan Boone, the oldest living son, began exploring in Spanish Louisiana (today's Missouri) where he obtained a Spanish Land Grant in 1797. The next year the Spanish Lt. Governor sent a letter via Daniel Morgan Boone, asking Daniel to move from Kentucky to become the head of a colony of emigrants in Spanish Louisiana. The invitation was accepted in 1799, and the Boone family left Kentucky, the men going overland with the animals, and the women going by boat down the Ohio River and up the Mississippi River. They arrived in Spanish Upper Louisiana (Missouri) in October, and settled along the Missouri River and nearby Femme Osage Creek, being the westernmost settlement of Americans (temporarily as Spanish subjects) west of the Mississippi River. In 1806 Daniel was appointed the Commandant of the Spanish Femme Osage District, making him civil administrator, military leader, and judge. Rebeccca passed away in 1813, after becoming ill while making sugar maple at their daughters Jemima Callaway's place, near present day Marthasville. In 1820 Daniel became ill and passed away at the home of his son Nathan. And was buried next to his wife at the Bryan Farm Cemetery. Daniel had lived in Missouri 21 years, longer than the time spent in any other of the present states. He never returned to Kentucky to visit as sometimes stated. Missouri was his chosen home.
The Third Principal Meridian IL390
At the point where U.S. Highway 51 and the Jefferson-Marion County Road meet, the Third Principal Meridian intersects its East-West base line. This Cardinal point was established by a Federal surveyor on February 1, 1815. At least 60 percent of the land in Illinois is measured from and identified by these two important coordinates. In the original thirteen states, land had been measured by Metes and Bounds, employing known landmarks and compass points, but the system had proved inaccurate and impermanent. As a result, the Jefferson Committee on public lands devised the rectangular method in 1784. It became law the following year with the passage of the Land Ordinance of 1785, which applied to government lands not yet surveyed in the area northwest of the Ohio River. The ordinance stated that "The surveyors, as they are respectively qualified, shall proceed to divide the said territory into townships of six miles square by lines running north and south and others crossing these at right angles, as near as may be." Each new survey had to be tied to a Principal Meridian and its base line. The first Principal Meridian was laid out to govern land mostly in the Ohio Country; the second, mostly in Indiana; and the third - - running due North from the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers - - in Illinois only. Surveyors' Townships are numbered North and South of a Base Line and placed in ranges that are numbered East and West of a Meridian. Unless a township is fractional, it is further divided into 36 sections, each measuring one mile by one mile. A full section contains 640 acres.
The Sons of Daniel Boone MO393
They Have Been Overlooked by Historians In Missouri the Boone's sons, Nathan, Jesse, and Daniel Morgan Boone, and grandson James Callaway played significant roles. Some are listed here:
History along the Mississippi Parkway MO373
CANTON MISSOURI "most westerly Missouri town on Mississippi Bank" Founded May 30, 1830 ----- CULVER-STOCKTON First Coeducational College West of Mississippi. Overlooks River Bluffs. Established 1853 ----- FEDERAL LOCK and DAM NO. 20. Completed May, 1934 ----- HOME TOWN OF James S. Green Senator 1857 - 1861 Feb. 28, 1817 - Jan. 19, 1870 ----- Frederick C. Hibbard Noted Sculptor June 15, 1861 - Dec. 12, 1950 ----- James T. Lloyd Congressman 1897 - 1917 Aug. 28, - April 3, 1944 ----- This section of the GREAT RIVER ROAD OF MID-AMERICA Developed in co-operation with NATIONAL PARK SERVICE U. S. BUREAU PUBLIC ROADS MISSOURI HIGHWAY COMMISSION And TOWN OF CANTON OFFICIALLY DEDICATED BY GOVERNOR PHIL M. DONNELLY March 10, 1956.
Canton MO368
Here on the Mississippi, where wooded hills rise above the plains along the river, Edward White, Robert Sinclair, and Isaac Bland founded Canton, probably named for Canton, Ohio, in February of 1830. On the pioneer Salt River Trail, the town by 1860 was a thriving river port and trade center for the upper Salt River Country. A rival town, Tully, laid out adjacent to Canton, 1834, declined after the flood of 1851 and disappeared when Federal Lock and Dam No. 20 were built in the 1930's. During the Civil War, the countryside suffered from raids and recruiting sorties by Confederate and Union troops. In the period after the war, Canton recovered its economic standing with the coming of the St. Louis, Keokuk, and Northwestern R.R. (now Burlington) in 1871. Culver-Stockton College, founded by the Disciples of Christ here, 1853, as Christian University, is famed for having the first college charter in Missouri to assure equal education to men and women. The present name, adopted, 1917, honors Mary E. Culver and R.H. Stockton, school benefactors. Canton is the first town founded in the fertile Mississippi River county organized in 1833 and named for Meriwether Lewis. Settled by Southern pioneers as early as 1819, Lewis County lies in territory ceded the U.S. by Iowa, Sac, and Fox tribes, 1824. Westward is Monticello, the seat of Lewis County, laid out on the North Fabius, 1833. La Grange, south on the Mississippi, early river port and meat packing town, was laid out in April, 1830, near the mouth of the Wyaconda where Godfrey Le Seur is said to have had a trading post by 1795. Baptist Hannibal-La Grange College was chartered there as La Grange College, 1859. Sculptor Frederick C. Hibbard (1881-1950) was born in Canton, and here lived editor Jesse W. Barrett, a founder of Mo. Press Assn., 1867; Union Gen. David Moore; and Jurist David Wagner. James S. Green, noted U.S. Senator, 1857-61, and Confederate Gen. Martin E. Green lived near Monticello, and southwest in the county was the home of Confederate Col. Joseph C. Porter. In La Grange, for a time, lived Thomas Riley Marshall, U.S. Vice President, 1913-21.
The Naming of Portage des Sioux MO362
The name of Portage des Sioux had been given to this place by the Indians, and was adopted by the French settlers. Here the distance between the Missouri River and the Mississippi River is scarcely two miles. Bands of Indians were accustomed to disembark, carry their canoes across the narrow neck from one river to the other and thus save the long journey of twenty-five miles around the point of land, which runs up from the confluence of the two rivers. Frequently the Mississippi, in front of town, would be covered with fleets of canoes, while the village would swarm with swarthy voyagers. For many years after the settlement of the country the old trail could be distinctly traced. Perhaps an incident, which tradition still preserves was of service in establishing the name, particularly in reference to the tribe of Sioux. The Osage Indians occupied a village on the Missouri, at or near the mouth of the Kansas. The Sioux lived on the Mississippi, above the mouth of the Des Moines. A hunting party of the Osage wandered over towards the country of the Sioux, and fell in with some hunters of that tribe, and killed one or more of their number. This greatly incensed the Sioux, and they resolved on Indian revenge. They formed a war party, fitted out a fleet of bark canoes, descended the Mississippi to the mouth of the Missouri, and ascended the latter river to the neighborhood of the Osages. Here they secreted their canoes and made a night attack upon their unsuspecting enemies, of whom they massacred a large number. Their revenge was single, terrific and complete. The Sioux then returned to their canoes and fled, but in less time than Roderick Dhu could marshal his ready clansmen, a strong war party of Osages was formed, who, panting and thirsting for vengeance, launched their canoes upon the dark waters of the Missouri, and gave chase to their retreating foes. Both tribes were distinguished for their skill in water craft. The race was a contest for life and death. On they sped, the pursued and the pursuers. Each party employed all its skill and strength and cunning-the fugitives prompted by the love of life and hope of escape-the pursuers urged on by the desire for revenge and thirst for blood. The Sioux made great speed down the muddy river; but the Osages gained on them. The signs of the chase freshened; neither party stopped to rest, nor flagged; on, on they sped for days, the Osages still gaining, until in one of the long stretches of the river, they came in sight of the Sioux. A loud, wild cry of exultation from the pursuers rang out upon the welkin, and was echoed back by a shout of defiance from the Sioux. The last trail of strength and skill was now made, and every nerve strained to its utmost capacity. On they sped until a certain bend of the river concealed the fugitives from their pursuers. Under this cover they soon reached a point on the Missouri, about twelve miles above its mouth and only a mile from the Mississippi, nearly opposite a point on the Mississippi where Portage des Sioux stands, and, taking advantage of this sudden turn of fortune, disembarked, withdrew their canoes from the water, and concealed themselves from their pursuers. Soon, however, the party of Osages came, noiselessly, yet swiftly as an arrow in flight, gathering new life and fresh courage from the glimpse of a broken paddle, as it glided by them on the turbid waters, or some useless article of which the Sioux had disencumbered themselves in their flight. A moment of breathless suspense, into which was crowded an age of hope and fear and anxiety, is now experienced by the fugitives as their pursuers are passed and lost to view in the next curve of the river. Manitto has smiled on the Sioux - the Osages foiled. Hastily gathering up their canoes they bear them on their shoulders across the narrow portage, relaunching them in the Mississippi and resume their flight up that river, while the Osages continue down the Missouri to its mouth and then up the Mississippi. This successful stratagem enabled the Sioux to gain on their pursuers some twenty or thirty miles, and secured their escape. The point were they re-embarked is the sight of Portage des Sioux, the portage of the Sioux, by which name it has ever since been known. Display # 11 - 20 of 128 |