Source:
Wetmore, Alphonso,
Gazetteer of the state of Missouri, published 1837
The boundaries of this county begin in the middle of the main
channel of the Mississippi river, at a point due east of the eastern
termination of the line between townships numbered fifty-six and
fifty-seven; thence west to the termination of said line; thence
west with the last-mentioned line to the range line between ranges
numbered eight and nine; thence north with the last-named range line
to the township line between townships numbered fifty-nine and
sixty; thence east with the township line last mentioned to its
termination on the Mississippi river; thence due east to the middle
of the main channel of said river; thence down the same to the place
of beginning.
In
this county there are some indications of lead and copper mineral.
Bituminous coal of good quality is found in Marion, and saltpetre
has been discovered in many places. Salt water flows out of the
earth in this county, but no improvement of the salt-springs has
been attempted, except the operations of Mr. Muldrow, which will be
noticed in a particular description that follows this general
sketch. The low price of salt from abroad has rendered such an
enterprise doubtful as a profitable operation.
Limestone
and freestone are abundant in Marion, but the latter is found in
larger quantities. It would be unreasonable to look for valuable
minerals in a country where the soil is so rich and so productive as
it is in this county. The mill-machinery, both for sawing and
grinding grain, in Marion, by steam and with water power, is in
operation on so extensive a scale that it would fatigue the reader
to throw in his way a record of the names and location of all that
has been erected. The streams that afford power to propel machinery
are Salt river, North and South rivers (or by some called North and
South Two rivers), and North and South Fabius. On all of these mills
are erected, and other sites remain unimproved. These streams, with
the branches that contribute to swell their consequence, render
Marion literally a well-watered country. There is nothing peculiar
in the soil of this county, unless it be the superabundance of
intro, which is the constituent of fertility. The products of Marion
are similar to those of the same parallel of latitude in other
counties. These consist of wheat, rye, corn, oats, hemp, tobacco,
& together with the usual kind, of fruits. The timber consists
of several kinds of oak, walnut, cherry, hackberry, linn, &c. It
is supposed that three fourths of the land, commencing at the mouth
of the Desmoines, and running sixty miles up that river, thence in a
line parallel with the Mississippi one hundred miles south, may be
called timbered land. The water of this county is generally very
good. It is singularly misfortunate that the stock of this county is
not equal to that raised in some of the older states. As this is a
good grass country, it is probable that this defect is attributable
to inattention in the stock-raisers. Homes, mules, cattle, sheep,
and hogs are, however, all raised, and profitably, by the farmers of
Marion. They will doubtless perceive and remedy the defect by which
they suffer at present. Palmyra, eight miles from the river, is the
town where justice is dispensed for Marion county. The land-office
for the upper district of Missouri is located here; and the amount
of money received for pub-lie lands at this office indicates the
value of the country round about, clearer than any speculations of
the theorist could establish the fact. It is probable that the
inhabitants of the Atlantic states may have emigrated hither with
the belief, that the same parallel of latitude in Missouri to which
they had been accustomed in their native country would prove more
healthy to them than a position farther south in the same state. But
in this they are deceived. The climate of the county of Ste.
Genevieve and Cape Girardeau is as well suited to the constitutions
of New Englanders as that of Marion. Both are as healthy as the
White Mountains, or the borders of Passamaquoddy Bay.
Two
public journals are published at Palmyra. In the vicinity of Palmyra
there are two colleges; one of them, the Marion College, is twelve
miles west of Palmyra; and “ the Lower College” is six miles
south of Palmyra. These institutions are upon the manual-labour
plan, and the great number of young men who have resorted thither to
obtain instruction, testifies strongly in favour of both colleges.
These institutions were founded by Messrs. Muldrow, Ely, and their
enterprising associates, who have drawn upon themselves much of
popular denunciation— with how much justice, time and an
intelligent people will determine. ‘There is reason to apprehend,
generally, that a spirit of opposition to improvement and innovation
exists, unhappily, to a great extent in Missouri. There is a
jealousy of those who project or execute great works, and an
unwillingness to permit any effort that can make the reputation or
pecuniary condition of one citizen rise above that of his countrymen
around him. Enterprise is sometimes misnamed monopoly; and the
advocates of equality frequently lend a violent and intrusive hand
to pull down merit to a level with sterility of intellect. The human
family have always derived advantage from an opposite course, by
efforts to raise all below to the condition of those in more
fortunate circumstances.
In
Palmyra there are three handsome brick houses for public worship, a
Presbyterian, a Methodist, and a Baptist church.
MARION
CITY is one of the new towns to which public attention has been
latterly directed. It is situated on the river-bank at the Palmyra
landing. Improvements are going forward there.
HANNIBAL,
another town on the river, below Marion city, has recently become an
attractive point; and it acquires great and deserved consequence by
the interest some of the oldest and most capable business men of
Missouri have taken in it.
Later
and more particular information enables the compiler to add the
following description (derived from the most authentic source) of
Marion county, and the interesting country around it.
MARION
COUNTY is in extent nineteen miles north and south, and twenty-four
miles east and west. Its general characteristics are the same which
belong to the counties of Rails and Monroe on the south of it,
Shelby on the west, and Lewis and Clark on the north. They are all
intersected by numerous streams, whose general course is from the
northwest to the southeast.
These
streams have been dignified, as most streams m the West are, by the
title of river:. When
swollen they deserve the name, but during the greater part of the
year they are nothing more than large brooks of great length. The
Salt river is the largest stream on the west side of the
Mississippi, between the Missouri
and the Desmoines. It
runs diagonally through Shelby county, and in Monroe and Rails
counties has numerous branches.
North
of Salt river we have the two
rivers,
the one called the North and the other South river; which are
not united, as most maps represent them, but empty by different
mouths, half a mile apart, into the Mississippi, about three miles
above Marion city. In travelling north you next pass the two Fabii,
which are united one mile above their junction with the father
of river:. The Wyaconda
is next in the course, then Honey
Creek, and then Fox
River,
before you reach the Desmoines.
Into these principal water-courses enter almost innumerable
smaller brooks, which descend, running for the most part towards the
northeast or southeast, from the prairies that lie between and
stretch along parallel with the main streams. Between the smaller
water-courses are multitudes of little prairies, projecting like
saw-teeth from the main body of the highest lands in the country,
the main branches of the great prairie, which will be seen in some
maps marked as if it were a ridge of mountains, when, in truth, for
fifteen hundred miles west there are no mountains.
Take
these counties together which have been named, and you may say that three
fifths of the surface of the same are highland meadows,
prepared for the plough, without bush, stump, or stone, and with
only here and there a pin-oak tree, while the remaining two
fifths are covered with timber, which irregularly fringes the
streams. These prairies are undulating, while at a distance they
appear nearly level; so that it is a rare occurrence to find a pond,
a swamp, or any stagnant water. The soil of these native meadows is
deep and rich, and is found capable of enduring a long dry season
much better than the woodlands.
From
early spring until a severe frost comes, the whole surface of these
immense mowing lands, in a state of nature, is covered by a
continued succession of flowers, intermixed with the prairie
grass; and most of the flowers, as well as the grass, are delicious
food for cattle. This part of Missouri is indeed the Lord of
Nature’s flower-garden.
For
many years it was thought that these prairies were for ever destined
to remain unfenced, a common for all the herds of the community,
because of the difficulty of breaking up the greensward. Mr.
William Muldrow, a native of Kentucky, is generally allowed to have
been the first man in all the north of Missouri who first brought a
prairie farm into subjection. At first, for want of more force, he
yoked his much cows with his oxen, and so turned up the soil. When
well broken, in a few months it becomes so mellow that ever after a
pair of horses will suffice to cultivate it. Mr. Muldrow’s success
produced a new era in the state, and ever since intelligent farmers
have regarded a prairie farm as the best in the world, provided they
can procure at no great distance timber enough to fence it.
The
prairies of these counties are from one to six miles wide. Beneath
their deep soil is uniformly found a stratum
of clay from ten to twenty feet deep; and them you have a shelly
limestone rock. Sandstone, soapstone, sand and gravel, and even
marine mud, are then found below. In digging a well lately at Marion
College, a large tree was found buried at the depth of eighty feet
from the surface.
The
streams in the woodlands supply abundant water for cattle; and good
springs, though not so numerous as in the mountainous regions of
the east, abound in them. Good water can be found by digging wells
at no greater depth than is common in all the older states, if the
places of them are judiciously selected.; The water is generally
impregnated, but not strongly, with limestone.
On
the west side of the Mississippi, above the mouth of the Missouri,
there is most of the way a high bluff of limestone rock, which rises
almost perpendicularly from the margin of the water, with
comparatively few sites for towns and villages, until you come to
the mouth of Bay Charles, two
miles above Hannibal
and seven below Marion
City. There the
limestone bluff skirts the west side of the bay, and extends in a
sort of semicircle to the northeast corner of Lewis county. Between
this rocky ridge and the river lie the Mississippi bottom-lands,
which vary in width from half a mile to three miles. These lowlands
are about half of them covered with the best of timber; the other
half being the richest kind of prairie, on which it is a common
thing to raise 100 bushels of corn and three tons of timothy grass
to the acre. No better soil can be found for every garden vegetable
which will grow in the temperate zones. The west margin of these
river prairies, from springs proceeding from the bluffs, or other
causes, is commonly the most damp portion, and subject to be
overflown. Rarely, however, does the overflow do any injury to the
grass, because the water is clear, and. rises but a few inches above
the sod. A ditch to carry off the water into the bay or river would
render these lowest lands amble in any common season.
MARION
CITY is a new town, begun to be built in April, 1836, and. situated
on a beautiful meadow near the central point of the east line of
Marion county, where the bluffs, distant about three miles, form a
most magnificent amphitheatre. Bay Charles runs up into three
principal branches, which would all form natural canals. Across two
of these the p1st of the city extends.
It
reaches along the Mississippi for a mile and a half, and has as good
a landing-place for steamboats as any on the river. The population
of the place is now about three hundred. Thirty considerable houses
and two large steam saw-mills have been erected there within nine
months. Most of the merchandise of Palmyra and of Marion county is
now landed at this place. Three other large steam-mills are in
progress at this place, their engines having been procured and
landed on the bank of the river. To guard against the possibility of
being disturbed by the highest freshet hitherto known along the
river, the original proprietors of the town are building a levee
which is to surround the whole place.
A
railroad has been
projected from Marion city, to pass along by Palmyra to the centre
of Shelby county, to a new town called New York, and thence to pass
along the Chariton river to the Missouri, to some point near
Booneville. This work is in progress, and is likely to be prosecuted
with rigour by the owners of Marion city, and two experienced
engineers now in their service.
There
is but little land in Marion county which now belongs to the United
States. In Shelby and Lewis counties about one third of the lands,
and in Clark county one halt; are still (Jan., 1837) subject to be
entered by any persons who may possess the means. The lands yet
remaining unsold in these last-named three counties are
intrinsically as good as any which have been purchased.
Marion
College, which has seven teachers and 116 pupils, was chartered
about five years since by the legislature of Missouri. Its
corporation propagates itself, and is possessed of as ample powers
as any university in our country. Dr. David Nelson, Mr. William
Muldrow, and Dr. David Clark, must be considered as having
originated and founded the institution. Through their
instrumentality nearly five thousand acres of the best land were
purchased with money borrowed in New-York, for which they severally
mortgaged their own estates. Buildings, fences, and other
improvements have been put upon this land, which have cost 70,000
dollars. The president, professors, and pupils are all to be
supported by the products of the soil. Under one board of trustees
there are in the college a preparatory school, a department of arts
and sciences (or the college proper), and a theological seminary.
Three other foundations have been laid in this part of Missouri for
extensive academies or literary institutions, by the purchase of a
township in Clark, another at Shelby, and another in Rails and
Monroe, by a few gentlemen who have at each place devoted 4000 acres
to the purposes of education. If the debt of Marion College shall be
paid, and these other schools should go into operation, the northern
part of Missouri would be better endowed with the means of education
by private munificence than any other state by public patronage.
Besides
the mills at Marion city, there is a steam flour-mill near Palmyra,
and a new steam saw-mill of the first class, carrying two saws, has
been put into operation by Dr. David Clark, near the new town of
Philadelphia, on the site of the department of arts and sciences
of Marion College. Mr. Hicks has also erected a valuable water-mill
in the same region of the county of Marion; and in Ralls, Dr. Ely
and John McKee, Esq. have had a steam saw and grist mill in
operation for a year, near the remarkable salt lick at which William
Muldrow bored into the earth three hundred feet, and made salt water
rise fifty feet above the surface. It is a remarkable fact, that in
this boring Mr. Muldrow carried his augur through sixty feet of
solid rock-salt, which he found on trial fit for the use of the
table. At some future time, in all probability, this salt will be
quarried and brought forth from its bed, to supply the surrounding
country. On salt river, about six miles southwest of the last-named
mill, Mr. John McKee and Mr. William Muldrow have erected another
steam saw-mill; so that, in a little more than a year, the means of
internal improvement in and around Marion county have been
multiplied, we think, beyond any former example, even in our
enterprising western world.
The
town of ELY is
situated on the southern border of Marion county, in range six west,
about four miles north of Ely
& McKee’s mill, at
the Salt lick, and adjoining the principal farm of Marion College,
which is a prairie of 4000 acres, intersected by a chain of springs.
On the west side of this farm another new town is growing rapidly,
called West Ely, which
has been established as a post town.
PALMYRA,
the seat of justice for Marion county, is a flourishing town of
about fifteen hundred inhabitants. It is a place of many
clear and beautiful springs, which supply all the inhabitants, who
have scarcely a well in the place. Good common schools are greatly
needed in every part of Missouri, and without them the state must
mourn. The school sections are selling, or have been sold, for sums
that will create but small funds; so that small enterprise must
accomplish the work of education, or it will not be done.
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