ST. CHARLES COUNTY HISTORY

By Dorris Keeven-Franke

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History happens. All stories, especially the difficult ones, need to be heard. Award winning author, a public historian, professional genealogist, and International speaker. Member of the Missouri Speakers Bureau and the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom.
  • CALLAWAY’S DEFEAT

    CALLAWAY’S DEFEAT

    Here on the frontier in 1815, Daniel Boone’s grandson James Callaway (1783-1815), had taken command of Nathan Boone’s company of Rangers at Fort Clemson on Loutre Island (Located at today’s southwestern Warren County border across from Hermann, MO). They were about to mount another campaign, so Callaway had sent many of his men home to prepare, when the alarm came that Sauk and Fox had stolen several horses. Callaway gathered his men still at the Fort and took out in pursuit westward. They followed their trail up the dry fork of the Loutre, and discovered an abandoned Indian camp, with just their horses and a few Indian women there. They retrieved their horses, and turned towards home, with some believing that to return the same way would take them into a trap. It did.  As they forded a creek, they were fired upon and Capt. James Callaway was shot. He and five other lives were lost that day.

    In May of 1815, atrocities against the settlers continued, despite the events in the East. One of the worst happened when a band attacked the Ramsey family (near Marthasville, Warren County), murdering and scalping the entire family, except a two year old and an infant. The final battle here came on May 24, 1815 with the Battle of the Sinkhole, when Black Hawk and a band of Sauk attacked Fort Howard.(near Old Monroe, in Lincoln County MO) north of the Cuivre River. An ambush on a group of Rangers led to a prolonged siege in which seven of our Rangers were killed.

    Finally, word reached the frontier about the end of the war that had happened five months before.  President James Madison called for a Treaty to be made with the Indians, and selected Portage des Sioux for the location on September 15, 1815. He appointed Gov. Wm Clark, Illinois Gov.  Ninian Edwards, and Col. Auguste Choteau to handle the affair. With the U.S. showing their strength with Col. John Miller and his Third Infantry, and almost the entire force under Gen. Daniel Bissell stationed at Ft. Bellefontaine in place, the drums began to roll. The tribes began arriving July 1st and negotiations lasted for months, with Black Hawk never signing. But the War of 1812, our Indian War, was finally over.

  • THE WAR OF 1812

    THE WAR OF 1812

    War was official on June 18, 1812, and some would call it the “Second American Revolution,” here it would simply be our “The Indian War.” Callaway’s Rangers included settlers from Howell’s Prairie, Pond Fort, Femme Osage and the Boone Settlement. Companies were raised by James Musick at Black Walnut, Robert Spencer at Dardenne, John Weldon of Dardenne Prairie, Benjamin Howell out on Howell’s Prairie, and Christopher Clark in Troy.

    Governor Howard, advised those settlers with Benjamin Cooper out near Boone’s Lick, to move in closer to the main settlements where they could be afforded some “smallest measure of protection.”  Col. Cooper replied:

    “We have made our homes here and all we have is here, and it would ruin us to leave now. We be all good Americans, not a Tory or one of his pups among us, and we have 200 men and boys that will fight to the last and have 100 women and girls that will take their places with [them]. Makes a good force. So we can defend the settlement. With God’s help we do so.” And so they did.

    Closer to St. Charles the settlers gathered at Griffith’s farm, Johnson’s farm, Portage des Sioux, Royal Domaine, Wood’s Fort, Clark’s, the Peruque settlement, Price’s farmstead, Baldridge’s farmstead, Zumwalt’s Fort, Kountz’s Fort, and waited. Where ever they could, settlers created forts out of their homesteads or erected house forts. Where there were several families, cabins were erected and stockades connected them, with wells dug, protecting their livestock as well.

    Further west on the frontier was Journey’s near Warrenton, Kennedy’s near Wright City, Quick’s Fort and  Talbott’s Fort were near McKittrick (now Warren County) and Isaac Best’s and McDermott’s were near Big Spring, and Jacob Groom’s near Readsville (today’s Montgomery County) . North, in today’s Lincoln County, was Buffalo Fort near Louisiana, Stout’s Fort near Auburn, Clarksville had a stockade, Fort Independence,  and Fort Mason was near today’s Hannibal.

    In August, Winnebagos, Ioways, and Ottos joined nearly 100 Sauk Indians with  the British above Fort Mason, and stole horses.  A company of Rangers and Cavalry commanded by Capt. Alexander McNair were at Fort Mason at the time. With troops  commanded by Col. Nathan Boone,together they pursued the thieves that had made their way to an island on the Mississippi near Portage des Sioux,  and were about 200 yards out. When Boone and McNair caught up with them, they fled to the Island’s interior. The troop’s horses were too fatigued to swim, but McNair and his Rangers swam over and recaptured the stolen horses, after they had marched 60 miles that day.

    In September, 100 Sioux attacked a settler and his wife, stole their horses and cow, which they slaughtered. Captains Musick and Price pursued the attackers in their canoes. There were said to be at least 70 of them. They recaptured the stolen beef.  Then in October, the Van Burkleo family was attacked near Black Walnut.  A member of the Militia, Van Burkleo would later serve as an interpreter at the Treaty at Portage des Sioux when the War ended.

    Those years were filled with danger, and the settlers were constantly being attacked. Men were torn between serving in the Militia and protecting their families. Pleas were made to the Federal government, who the settlers did not believe were doing enough to protect them.  Its location made Saint Charles a passageway for all the Indian nations to the north, who had hunted this area for years prior to the arrival of the white man. Settlement was so scattered that communications were difficult. Just as we were the last to know of the beginning of the War, news of the Treaty ending it, at Ghent  on Dec. 24, 1814, was just as slow. Too slow, to prevent the horrible incidents that occurred next.

  • THE ST. CHARLES TERRITORY IN 1812

    THE ST. CHARLES TERRITORY IN 1812

    Settlement was sparse, and in clusters. Attacks by the Sauk, Fox, Potowatomis and Iowa increased. They stole horses from the settlers and murdered four members of Stephen Cole’s party when they set out to retrieve them. St. Charles was incorporated in 1809, and by1810 the population of the Territory would reach 20,845 with just over 3,500 residing in our District.

    In 1812, those living in the St. Charles Territory, did not know that our young United States had just officially gone to war for the very first time. Without today’s internet, blogs and tweets, they were totally unaware that the House had hotly debated the issue, behind closed doors, ending with the closest vote for war in our Nation’s entire history. For most of the United States, this war would be over the issues of trade embargoes and the forced service of over 10,000 of our men into the British Navy. But for those living here on the frontier, it was “The Indian War”, which had started years before. The British used the Indian tribes, inciting them to slaughter, because of our expansionist activities. Britain was involved in a fierce struggle with Napoleon in Europe. Our pride would not allow us to ignore these threats to our national honor, that most viewed as a continuation of our War for Independence.

    Here, the war actually began with Jefferson’s purchase of the Louisiana Territory in 1804. Quite a deal had been cut because France needed the money. Saint Charles territory stretched northwest of the Missouri River to uncharted lands. After the Corps departed that May, a trickle of settlement began. We were far outnumbered then by the Indian tribes. The Territory contained nearly the entire domain of the Sauk and Fox. We lived in constant fear of attack.

     When Sauk and Fox killed several settlers north of Saint Charles, they turned over one of the warriors involved in the incident, with a petition for pardon to Governor Harrison. The result was a Treaty, in 1804, that read,

    “As long as the lands that are now ceded to the U.S. remain their property, the Indians belonging to the said tribes shall enjoy the privilege of hunting on them.” Some even questioned whether the U.S. had the right to Treaty, the paper was so freshly inked. The treaty did NOT sit well with the settlers.

                In June of 1805, the Federal government established Fort Bellefontaine, the first American fort west of the Mississippi River. A young man named George Sibley served as the factor’s assistant.  John Johnson from Tennessee, an avowed Indian hater, settled his family east of Portage des Sioux, about fifteen miles from Saint Charles. The settlement was growing with families like Boone, Howell and Cooper, mixing with the earlier French and Spanish. Benjamin Cooper, a friend of Daniel Boone would settle first at Hancock’s Bottom, today’s Dutzow, but soon move westward within two miles of Boone’s salt lick, or today’s Arrow Rock. This was all the Territory of Saint Charles and we made the Indians mad with all this settlement.  Acting Governor Dr. Joseph Browne gave out Military appointments in 1806 for the District of Saint Charles Militia that created 6 companies.