CHAPTER SEVEN
THE FIRST BUSINESS PLACES
The first land entry within
the present limits of Maries County was made on January 11, 1826, at which date
Charles Lane entered the east half of the southeast quarter of section 3,
Township 40, Range 8, and on April 21, 1827, entered the west half of the same
quarter section, giving him one hundred sixty acres of land embracing the
tract known for a hundred years thereafter as the Old Pay Down Mills. As mill
sites were in great demand by the early settlers, Lane probably had such a use
for his land in view when he entered it. It is still considered an ideal site
for water-driven machinery being situated on a small creek below a large
spring that furnishes a never-failing supply of water.
He seems to have made little
improvement, however, and when he sold the land to Peter Walter in 1829
103
the mill was not finished, if
indeed it had ever been started. Walter, who was a German of inventive disposition,
built two small barges which he anchored several feet apart in the swift
water, placing a small paddle wheel between them which he connected to his
burrs and operated a mill until he could complete the one supposedly started
by Lane, and thus 'held his trade' until his dam was finished and the larger
mill in shape to run.
Before this was accomplished, however, the
'boat-mill' turned out to not be so satisfactory, so he fell back on the old
horse-operated one, the power being furnished by the owner of the corn, who
rode the horse to mill, used him to grind the grain while there, and then rode
him home again. Walter operated the different types of mills on the site until
1834 when he sold out to Daniel Boone Wherry, who, in
conjunction with Reuben Terrill, ran it until Wherry's
death in 1850. Terrill and his family and members of the Kinsey family operated
it until 1866, when the property passed into the hands of William Bray. With
the exception of a few years it has been in the ownership of the Bray family
ever since, being now owned by Seth Bray, a grandson of William.
Very little of Peter Walter's
history is recorded. In 1833, shortly before selling the mill site to Wherry, he entered land farther down the river, now a part
of the J. D. Rogers farm, where it is thought he lived the remainder of his
life. He was the father of John Walter who married a daughter of John Steen, an
early settler after whom Steen's Prairie is named, and who lived almost his
entire life along the Dry Fork of the Bourbeuse
Creek. He left two daughters, Margaret, wife of John Arendall,
and Sarah, wife of M. R. Matthews.
Daniel Boone Wherry, who
purchased the mill from Walter, was a native of
104
Camp, the
first Episcopal minister west of the
As has been said, Walter's mill was finally a 'hoss power' affair and the only industry was grinding corn.
But after its sale to Wherry and Terrill the original
purpose of putting in a dam and using the water for power was carried out, and
the customer's horses relieved of the burden of furnishing power for operation.
The power furnished was far in excess of the demand on it, so the owners began
to cast about for other uses for it. Having added a store soon after they
acquired the mill, a powder mill and distillery soon followed. They were
extensive fur buyers, and a thriving trade soon built up. The above industries
supplied about all that the settlers needed except for the very occasional
services of a physician. These, too, were generally to be had. Dr. David Waldo
had entered land a short distance down the river from the settlement and spent
much of his time at the mill since it was the central trading point for the
country for many miles around in all directions. Even before Walter sold to Wherry the business had been given an added impetus by the
entry of Samuel Massey and Thomas James of the land between the mill and the
Gasconade River, on the banks of which they established their Bloom Landing
where the manufactured products of their Meramec Iron
Works were hauled overland and there shipped by water as far as New Orleans.
Much of Wherry and Terrill's furs--and some of their
whiskey-- went down the river in these same boats, part of the furs going
direct to buyers in
After the death of Reuben Terrill in the late
fifties the property was operated by his son, Hamilton Terrill, until about
1866. Then it passed into the hands of the Kinsey and Bray families, the Kinseys shortly after selling their interest to Bray. It has been in the hands of the Bray family ever
since, although no longer
105
operated as a business.
William Bray was an Englishman who appeared at
Bloom Landing remained in the
hands of the families of its entrymen until 1872,
although abandoned many years before as an adjunct to their furnace facilities.
It was then sold by their heirs to C. E. Given, who erected another water-power
mill on it about a mile below the original Pay Down
Mill, which he operated for more than thirty years. After his death the
property passed into the hands of Dr. W. H. Bowles; it is now owned by Ralph
Bixby.
The Indian Ford Mill is an interesting story. Just about
the time
106
road and established a mill. His
first attempt was to dam the big slough in the bottom above the road and
forming what is now known as 'Becky's
Roberson did a good business, but the burden of debt
on the place proved more than he could carry, and the property passed into the
hands of Boardman in 1860. Boardman continued to operate the property for
several years until it was destroyed by fire about 1866.
During the time of its operation, especially during
Boardman's ownership, the place was of considerable importance. In addition to
the grist mill Boardman operated a sawmill of his own, and also a carding machine,
the latter owned by I. J. Jones and leased by Boardman; a blacksmith and wagon
shop, a store and two saloons actively competed with Vienna during this time.
Boardman later lost the property also, title passing to Eli Givens and John
Bishop, from whom the present ownership by Colman Finn and Parker Kellison can be traced. No attempt to rebuild the mill was
made after its destruction while owned by Boardman, as a mill had been started
at
The ferry at Indian Ford was
in operation at least soon after the county was organized, but the name of the
first owner is unknown. During the Civil War it was
107
owned and operated by John King,
the boat being rowed by long oars, or sweeps. It was bought by Ira Noblett in the late sixties, and was operated by him and
his widow, the late 'Aunt Becky' Noblett, and their
son, Jeff, up until about 1912, when bridging the river at this point put the
ferry out of business. For a time two ferries, the other operated by Dolph Bishop, were in operation at this point.
Ferries were established at
and near where the
Business of nearly all kinds
was represented at Bloomgarden. In addition to the
business enterprises of the Johnsons the next most
active place was the blacksmith and wagon shop conducted by Ephraim Kinkeade and George Pickering. These places were oh the
east side of the river. On the east side Calvin Feeler had a store and lodging
house, just at the foot of the hill. Another store was operated for a time
farther back and on the east side of Spring Creek, somewhere near where the
Tennyson Schoolhouse now stands.
Coppedge's Steam Mill, at what is now Safe, was built and operated by members of the Coppedge family until 1864, when it was sold to Moses Lamoreaus. It is
108
not known whether or not it was
a successor to a 'hoss power' mill, but it was one of
the very earliest mill sites in the county after Pay Down. The mill has long
since been abandoned and the machinery removed.
Spencer's Mill on Spring Creek was a water-power
mill in operation before the Civil War, and had a race track as an added
attraction. A store, also a saloon, were operated
there part of the time. Members of the Spencer family owned both the mill and
the store.
In addition to the business
buildings
-Dr. Linn,
who married a daughter of General Parsons of
109
Prewett's Store stood on the land
known as the Ball West place, on the old
The house on the
In addition to the mills above mentioned, many other
small mills were operated as neighborhood conveniences in several parts of the
county. Robert Winston had one on Fly Creek, where the farm-to-market road
crosses. Farmer Doyel had a mill on Mill Creek at the
Hodge crossing in an early day, and later had a small one at the last creek
crossing on the road from
The exact location of
Johnson's Store, owned and for many years operated by T. J. (Jeff) Johnson, is
not
110
known, but it stood in the
general vicinity of Old Grove Dale, which bore the earlier name of Pea Vine.
Jeff Johnson owned so much land in that area that the location of the building
site is difficult at this time, but it is thought to have been on the west side
of the Pea Vine Creek and slightly south of the Old Springfield Road. It is
second only to Pay Down in age, because business was conducted there when the
Terrill family came to this county in the middle thirties. Jeff Johnson's nephew,
G. W. Jones, operated the stand after the death of Mr. Johnson, removing the
stock from that point to his new location in Lindell
when he bought his father's home place after the Judge's death. George Terrill,
brother of the first Reuben, also conducted a store to the south of the
The early settlers in the southwestern part of the
county were largely supplied by stores outside of our boundaries. Coppedge's Mill
on Little Piney, in the Newburg territory. Wheeler's Mill on the
Gasconade south of Hancock, and one at the later site of Bray's Mill near
Iberia in Miller County all operated stores in connection and much of our early
day trading was done at these points.
The Meramec Ironworks
played an important part in the development of
111
before they were to the outside
world. Attention was drawn to them by the bad luck that overtook a band of
Shawnee Indians while camped there. This band, led by Joe Rogers, a white man
who had been captured by the tribe while a small child in western
Continuing their wanderings westward they finally
arrived at the Big Springs where they camped and where they were overtaken with
the 'aguer' of the white man. (For some unknown
reason malaria does not appear to have attacked the Indians, especially the
eastern ones). Anyway, at this time most of them had it and in trying to escape
the Bad Manitou to which they ascribed their affliction they unknowingly did
the right thing--moved to higher ground. Tradition has it that
It was after his residence oh the Prairie that
112
Accompanied by Samuel Massey
he made the overland horseback trip to Missouri in the middle twenties, found
the springs and the iron ore deposit, and characteristically decided to enter
the land and made preparations to exploit his find.
An iron furnace to smelt the
ore was built in the wilderness and finished about 1829, when active work of
mining and smelting the ore began. It turned out that transporting the finished
product would be a much bigger problem than producing it. In casting about for
a way to avoid the long overland haul to
The advance of steamboating, and later the building of the Missouri
Pacific Railroad, led to the abandonment of Bloom Landing in the fifties, or
shortly before, in favor of the longer haul over the Old Iron Road to Hermann.
There the iron products were loaded directly into steamboats or freight cars.
This method of transportation endured until the beginning of the Civil War
when the completion of the Frisco Railroad to Rolla furnished the owners a much
better outlet.
113
In addition to having their
first shipping point in
114