Springfield-Greene
County LibraryCompiled by Arthur Paul Moser
Montgomery County
[I]
Montgomery County is bounded on the north by the counties of Audrain and Pike, east by Lincoln and Warren, south by Warren and the Missouri River (which separates it from Gasconade) and west by Callaway and Audrain ...
At least the greater portion of Montgomery County was well known to the first Europeans that ventured up the Missouri. In the year 1705 the French ascended the Missouri as high as the mouth of the Kansas River (now Kansas City) ...
It is claimed that Daniel M. Boone, son of Daniel Boone, was the first American bona fide and actual settler in Missouri. He came to the St. Charles country in 1794, and the next year his father came with his family ... It must be borne in mind that at this time all of this country belonged to Spain, and the only banner of authority that waved over the land was the flag of Castile.
In 1803 the country passed into the hands and under the control of the United States, having for three years previously been under French denomination ...
The settlements of Laney Bowlin and at the Big Spring of John Snethen on Dry Fork in 1807-08 were probably the first made in the interior of the county ...
In the years 1808-09-10-11 there was some immigration to "the Missouri country," as it was called, and Montgomery got her share of the pioneers, who were chiefly from Kentucky ... (The early settlers frequently were attacked by the Indians, which culminated in the death of Capt. James Callaway, for whom Callaway County is named.) Two days after Capt. Callaway was killed, on March 9, 1815, a treaty was concluded with the Indians, by which the following limits were resigned to the whites: "Beginning at the mouth of the Kaw (Kansas) River, thence running north 140 miles, thence east to the waters of Au-ha-ha (Salt River), which empties into the Mississippi River, thence to a point opposite the mouth of the Gasconade River with its meanders, to the place of beginning." But some of the Indians cared nothing for -- or let us hope they had heard nothing of -- the treaty, and it was more than two months after it had been ratified and proclaimed when the Rawley family were killed, and murders took place in Lincoln County ...
The Americans had one good friend among the Sac Indians. This was the old Chief, Quashquama. He opposed the War of 1812 against the Missouri Settlers and took no part in it. He was much grieved when his nation yielded to the persuasions of the British emissaries and joined England against the United States ... After the Black Hawk Wars in 1832, the Sac Indians -- or a great portion of them -- were moved to Kansas ...
The Territorial Legislature of Missouri commenced a session at St. Louis in December, 1818. During this session the counties of Jefferson, Franklin, Wayne, Lincoln, Madison, Pike, Cooper and Montgomery were organized. Also three counties in the southern part of Arkansas, then attached to Missouri. Montgomery County was organized December 19, 1818. It was formed from St. Charles and included not only the present territory of the county, but that now included in Warren and a portion of Audrain as well ...
[II]
The county was named for Gen. Richard Montgomery, who fell at Quebec during the Revolution. -- Or as Rice says, for Montgomery County, Kentucky, from whence many of the settlers had come. At the time of its organization the population of the county was 1,000.
The first election in the county was held at Big Spring, at the house of Jacob Groom ... The voting place in the eastern part of the county was at Marthasville.
Prior to its organization the territory of Montgomery County belonged to St. Charles.
The county seat was located at a new town called Pinckney, but the first courts (county and circuit) were held in a log cabin three miles east of Pinckney, in the door yard of Benjamin Sharp, the first clerk of those counties ...
The first judges of the county court were Isaac Clark, Moses Summers and John
Wyatt ...
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 and Felix Brown ...
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 afterward was removed to Jonesburg, and retained the name Freedom.
In 1826 or 1827 the county seat of Montgomery County was removed from Pinckney to a new site near the center of the county. Pinckney was down the river, and very inconvenient for the people who lived in the upper portion of the county.
The new capital of the county was laid out on the Bonone's Lick road a short distance south of where New Florence now stands, and west of High Hill. Every vestige of the town has long since disappeared. (For more information concerning Lewiston, the reader may want to read under Lewiston, in this directory.)
About the First of September, 1832, Washington Irving, one of the most distinguished and graceful of American writers visited Montgomery County on his way to the far West. He stopped in Lewiston a short time, and at Loutre Lick, he left the stage and remained one day at the lick, and in wandering among the picturesque hills in the vicinity. To Maj. Van Bibber he said, "When I get rich I'm coming to this place and build a nice residence here."
January 5, 1833, the Legislature passed an act organizing Warren County, taking off the eastern side of the county, and taking out a large part from the southeastern portion. It is said that this was done for the benefit of Jonathan Ramsey, who lived on the aforesaid "part" and wished to remain in Warren County.
[III]
The next year (1834) after the organization of Warren County, the county seat was removed to Danville, and in a short time quite a thriving village sprang into existence. (See Danville.) It is said that Loutre Creek came near being made the county seat instead of Danville. Among the arguments in favor of the Lick was that a slack-water navigation could be established on the Loutre, so that steamboats might ascend the Missouri affording steamboat navigation between the new capital and St. Louis ...
Montgomery county is bounded on the south by the Missouri River which separates it from Gasconade and Franklin Counties; on the east by Warren and Lincoln Counties, on the north by Audrain County, and on the west by Callaway County ...
As Montgomery County had been a county while Missouri was a territory she was one of the original counties when it became a State. (--Hist. of Montgomery Co., 1885, Goodspeed, pp. 531, 534, 537, 541, 547, 548, 549, 550, 551, 555, 557, 558, 559, 583, 582, 585, 584.)
Townships
Prairie Township. This township comprises the northeastern portion of Montgomery County and is twelve miles long from east to west and seven miles in width from north to south ...
If Charles Wells located at Middletown in 1817, he was undoubtedly the first settler in Prairie Township. Settlements were made on Cuivre in Lincoln County as early as 1800 ... As is perhaps well known, the word cuivre is the French word for copper, and Cuivre (pronounced "quiver") River really ought to be called Copper River. The first French found copper along its banks and so named it.
In 1817 Geo. W. Jameson and Edward Cottle left Clark's Fort in Lincoln County, crossed West Cuivre, and settled about two and one-half miles east of Millwood. It is quite probably, therefore, that others pushed out further from the main settlements about the same time.
Wm. Baugh, one of the oldest settlers settled on Sec. 6, Twp. 49, Range 3 ... (--Ibid. 679.)
Loutre Township comprises the southern portion of Montgomery County and embraces all those portions of Congressional Township 46 lying in the county, the sections and fractional sections of Township 45, and the lower two ranges of sections in Township 47, Ranges 5 and 6.
In 1829 Matthew L. White entered the land embracing the famous "Pinnacle Rock," which is in the southern part of this township on South Bear Creek. Mr. Rose wrote the following description of this singular stone formation in 1876: --
[IV]
"It stands alone, in the midst of a small valley, and rises perpendicularly on all sides, except one, to the height of 75 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 ... The pinnacle has been used as a preaching place." ...
It was within the limits of Loutre Township that the first settlements were made in Montgomery County. These were on Loutre Island perhaps as early as 1798, while the country still belonged to Spain. The island was first discovered by French trappers and voyageurs, and by them called Loutre -- meaning otter. (Loutre, in French means otter in English: "L'outre" means "the otter;" but the word denoting the name of the island and stream here has always been written without the apostrophe. See Beck's Gazetteer (1824) p. 308. Wetmore's Gazetteer (1837) p. 249.
Benjamin Cooper, Sarshall Cooper and their families went to Boone's Lick, Howard County, in the spring of 1808, but subsequently returned to Loutre Island in June, 1808.
When the War of 1812 came on and the fierce Northern Indians, the Sacs, Foxes, Iowas and Pottawatommies, animated by a natural hatred against the Americans and stimulated by British gold, began to make war upon the settlers of Missouri, the pioneers of Montgomery County removed their families to one of the numerous forts on the Missouri bottom and remained together until the danger was over. The fort resorted to by the Montgomery settlers was Fort Clemson. (See Fort Clemson in this directory.) ...
After the settlement on Loutre Island, the most important in Loutre Township was that known as the Big Spring Settlement (q. v.) ... The first church built in Loutre Township stood near a spring on the northwest quarter of Sec. 25, Twp. 47, Range 6. This church building was put up by the Baptists in 1825. It has long since disappeared, the logs having been hauled away about 1840 ... (--Ibid, 751, 752, 753, 754, 755.)
Danville Township. Doubtless Thomas Massey, who located at the Loutre Lick in 1813 ... was the first bona fide white settler within what is now Danville Township. Massey had a family of eleven children ...
Next after Massey came Maj. Isaac Van Bibber to Loutre Lick ... Daniel M. Boone, son of the old pioneer, came to the southeast quarter of Sec. 28, Twp. 48, Range 6, a mile or more northwest of Loutre Creek, on the west side of the stream in 1819 ... He is said to have resembled his father more than other of the children ...
Perhaps the first settler in the eastern part of Danville Township was Col. Amos Kibbe, who settled in 1823, in a little prairie 11 miles from Camp Branch where the Boone's Lick and Cote Sans Dessein roads forked ... Here is where the town of Lewiston, the second county seat of the county was laid out ...
[V]
Nathaniel Dryden built a horse mill near Danville soon after his arrival in Montgomery County, which, being something unusual for those times, attracted a great deal of attention. It was situated on a high point of ground, where the wind had a fair sweep against it, and several persons came near to freezing to death while grinding grain during cold weather; its capacity for grinding was from three to five bushels per day ... (--Ibid: 763, 764, 765.)
Montgomery Township is the last formed municipal township of Montgomery County, up to 1872. After the formation of those townships, its territory was embraced in that of Upper Loutre, Danvillen and Prairie.
The western portion of this township, along Loutre, was the first settled. In the southern part of the western portion of the township there was a settlement called "Cobbtown," as early as 1823, in which year came Samuel Cobb, Sr., and his sons, Samuel, Jr., Adam and Philip, and located here in the border of the prairie ... Samuel Cobb, Jr., lived to be nearly 90. He was the father of Alvin Cobb, the noted guerilla.
To the vicinity of "Cobbtown" came the Peverlys (or the Pevelays as they are called) in 1824 ... They were related to the Cobbs. Another settler in early days was Wm. Brown, a son-in-law of Daniel Cobb. Isaac and James Olfey came into the settlement in about 1825; all of these were Kentuckians ... (--Ibid: 814.)
Upper Loutre Township comprises the northwestern portion of the county, and is the smallest municipal township in area ...
Upper Loutre formerly comprised a considerable extent of territory. Montgomery City was in this township until in January, 1872, when Montgomery was formed. The township now (1885) comprises 62 sections.
Perhaps James and Isaac Olfrey, who came in 1825 to the southern portion of this township or the northern portion of what is now Montgomery, and settled on Little Loutre, were the first settlers in this township. The Olfreys lived near the Cobb Settlement -- or "Cobbtown." ...
The first settlers here bought their first goods at the store at Loutre Lick or at St. Charles. When Dan Robinson opened his store at Loutre Lick, it was considered that they had a store right at their doors.
Rev. Jabez Ham was the first preacher listened to, and New Porvidence, down the Loutre seven or eight miles, was the first church to which the people resorted. The first school an informant could remember was taught in 1830, by a teacher named Hayden, in a house three miles south of Wellsville, near where two families named Petty and Mahoney lived. Dr. Newland was the first physician in the settlement ... (--Ibid: 906, 907.)