Ralls County Historical

Volume 3- Issue 1                                                                                   January 2004

RALLS COUNTY MISSOURI HISTORICAL SOCIETY

P.O. BOX 182

CENTER MISSOURI 63436

http://www.rootsweb.com/~morchs/

 

Dear Friends of the Ralls County Missouri Historical Society:

 

January Annual Meeting

The Ralls County Historical Societies meeting will be held at the society’s new museum/library at 120 East Main Street , Perry Missouri. The doors will open at 6:00 p.m. with the meeting beginning at 7:00 p.m. Please try and attend as this will be the annual meeting and election of society officers will be held. Other major items to be discussed are the society’s role and support to the county in getting the courthouse restored and  possible funding available for the Short Line restoration. The public is welcomed and encouraged to attend and see the museum/library under construction and see the plans for its future.  Please bring a lawn chair if needed, because seating has not been purchased yet and may not be available at the time of the meeting

 

Newsletters and Website

 

This issue begins the third year of this newsletter. Please keep sending articles and information to share in future issues. We also plan to add more features and pictures to our website soon. The website was begun in August 2002 and we will soon have 1,400 hits on that site which has shared and produced a lot of interest in our society. Almost weekly we get inquiries, requests for information on Ralls County history and families. 

 

Museum/Library

 

We now have the museum/library we have wanted for years. A lot of work is needed in stocking, cataloging, supplying and cleaning for a soon as possible grand opening.  If you are available to work on or see the project let me know and I’ll have someone to provide you a key to get in. The membership input is very important, so please let us know of your ideas. With the memberships of last year and with on going book sales we can maintain and operate the site with going deep into our savings. A more detailed account of funding and budgeting will be provided to the membership. The stocking of the library is helped by bartering, trading and the donation of books by members and authors. I have a list of books we already have and will send a copy by e-mail to interested people and leave a copy at the site also.  We will try a buy as many books of history and families of Ralls County as we can right away, purchasing additional books of surrounding counties and northeast Missouri from the voluntary and onsite donations.  Sales of historic photos are a source of income being looked into also. Also available will be CDs of maps, books and histories, see ongoing books. Speaking of CDs one of our most needed expense items is a computer.  I have an old computer that we can use for CDs and record keeping until we get one for our needs. We need a computer that could be used to store a lot of photos and used to connect to the internet. A donation of such a computer is being discussed

 

Below is the news release that we put out announcing the project

 

Work has begun on the new Ralls County Historical Society Inc. museum/library at 120 East Main Street , Perry Missouri. Over the years the society has collected historic  artifacts, articles, books, genealogies and  others items of historical interest that will be featured there.  One of the features of the museum will be many old photos of historic events, people, schools and churches of Ralls County and the surrounding communities.  Any donation or loan of old photos or other items that could be featured is welcomed. For people wanting to keep their photos, a service to scan old photos is being planed. The library will be stocked with histories, censuses, atlases, genealogies, cemetery records, church records, and reference books of Ralls County and Northeast Missouri . The hours have not been set yet and will likely vary with the seasons and attendants. As soon as possible there will a grand opening for the public to see the hard work of our membership. It will operate on memberships, public donations, books sales and voluntary donation at the site.  Anyone wishing to help or contribute money, time or items to this project write Ralls County Historical Society,  P. O. 182, Center MO 63436, call Mr. &  Mrs. Bill Cearley at 636-565-1941 573-225-8575 or contact Ron Leake, 1276 Pequeno Lane, Fenton MO 63026, 573-225-8575 e-mail  rwleake@aol.com

 

Ralls County Courthouse Restoration;

 

The Ralls County commissioners are hard at work on putting a courthouse renovation bond issue and sales tax increase on the August 2004 ballot. Studies are being made now to determine the total cost of a renovation, amount of a tax increase and the length of the tax increase. The tax  would be a “sunset” tax and only for the courthouse.  In a very few years this 1858 courthouse will begin to fall apart or be damaged by its very primitive  wiring. The longer the delay the costs will increases and a replacement of the present building in the future would cost a lot more than a renovation now.  If a new building had to be built, the old courthouse would have to be maintained also, because it is a National Historic Landmark. As the Historical Society of Ralls County we need to support this project and get behind the county commissioners in saving the county tax payers money and preserve our national treasure. I plan to attend as many public local meetings and events as possible to promote this project, if you would like to help in anyway please contact me.  Please send me your e-mails and letters of your support for the project so we can show our support. If you are not in favor, I would like to hear from you too.

Ron Leake, 1276 Pequeno Lane , Fenton MO 63026 , 636-225-8575 E-Mail rwleake@aol.com

 

Ongoing Books;

            My progress of publishing Goldena Howard’s articles, early Ralls County biographies and Joshua Briggs “A Pioneer Missourian” has been held up by other projects and a problem in indexing. The system I have used in the past has given me problems and won’t allow me to index. I do have them on one CD and may make them available as CDs after some needed editing and proofreading. 

 

Local Cemeteries Online

 

The Walnut Grove Cemetery in Paris Missouri now has a website that lists all the just less than 5,000 burials at the old and large cemetery. http://parismo.net/walnut_grove_cemetery.htm

 

The Grandview Cemetery in Ralls County just south of Hannibal also has a website with a listing of their burials. http://www.grandviewfuneral.com/

 

Ralls County Cemetery ;

 

Mount Pleasant Cemetery # 92 Township 55 west, Range-7 west, Section 16

Recorded by Okle Rouse, Fay Rouse, Fred Leake and Ron Leake April 5, 1980 . Many field stones seem to be used to mark many of the graves.

 

Stevens;¹          Samuel,² born February 28, 1822 , died February 8, 1899

Swank; Elizabeth , died March 8, 1901 m age 52 years

Young;             Dovie A., died October 5, 1875 , age 10 months 12 days

The following markers were found with only letters and dates

M.T.; 1818

T.P. 1879

N.A. 1877

J. E. W. 

 

Pendleton Cemetery #102 Township 55 west, Range-7 west, Section 23

Recorded by Okle Rouse, Fay Rouse, Fred Leake and Ron Leake April 5, 1980

 

Moss;               Claibourne, born 1822, died 1869, there is another stone with the same                                     dates, but the name is spelled Claiborne

Moss;               Deborah, born 1829, died December 7, 1899

Moss;               Dulcena J., born 1858, died 1863

Moss;               John L., born 1856, died 1857

Melson;            Infant son of J. S. & S. D., born March 12, 1871 , died May 11, 1871

Melson;            Meadow M., born March 19, 1868 , died April 8, 1871 , son of S. J. & S. D.

Melson;            Sarah D., died December 4, 1878, age 31 years, 6 months 28 days, wife of                             S. J., daughter of Presley and Dulcena Pendleton      

Pendleton;        Betsey C., born September 29, 1830 , died September 7, 1841 , daughter of                              P. & D.

Pendleton;        Dulcena³, born October 29, 1803 , died July 24, 1876 , a second stone was                               the birth date as October 26,

Pendelton;        Emily Ann, born 8, 1842, died August 29, 1844 , daughter of P. & D.

Pendleton;        Martin J., March 24, 1834 , died December 4, 1907

Pendleton;        Presley⁴, born January 13, 1803 , died July 24, 1894

Stephens;         Martha Moss, born May 8, 1853 , died January 31, 1921 wife of Thomas                                 P.

Stephens;         Thomas P., born July 19, 1852 , died March 5, 1938

 

Rackerby Cemetery #104 Township 55 west, Range-7 west, Section 10

Recorded by Okle Rouse, Fay Rouse, Fred Leake and Ron Leake April 5, 1980

 

Ely;                  Aaron F., born June 29, 1811 , died June 29, 1844

Ely;                  Emily, born March 8, 1818 , died September 11, 1878

Ely;                  Martin Irvin, born February 29, 1844 , died January 4, 1936

Ely;                  William J., born and died 1842

 

Yager Cemetery #138 Township 55 west, Range-7 west, Section 10 (also known as Settle cemetery)

Recorded by Okle Rouse, Fay Rouse, Fred Leake and Ron Leake April 5, 1980

 

Yager;              Hurt, died December 20, 1887, age 83 years, 2 months, 7 days

Yager;              Lucinda¹, born died November 27, 1807 , died January 30, 1869

These were the only two markers found.

 

Presidents View; Thanks to the hard work of the members and friends of the Ralls County Historical Society, we have become one of the largest and active rural county historical societies in Missouri . We have a number of major projects ahead of us in 2004 like the restoration of our historic courthouse, grand opening of the new museum/library, restoring the Short Line Railroad depot and others.  With your continued support we can complete these projects have a landmark year in 2004.  I want to thank those who attend our bimonthly meetings and especially thank those who attend from a long distant, and some spend over an hour on the road to attend. The unsung heroes are many of the members who cannot attend the meetings because of work, children, distant, age or caring for family members.  These members contribute hours of work on the computer and share a large amount of their information and items.  If you are a new member or would like to volunteer or help please let us know.

 

Bit of Ralls County History

 

“The Heritage of Missouri – A History” by Duane Meyers

One came picture the trails of the early salt makers from the following official testimony given in 1811:

Albert Tison saith….that he saw the salt furnaces in operation by Fremon Delauriere; that the family of said Delauriere had been residing on the said saline since either 1801 or 1802, in fact, a long time before the land was surveyed, at least two years before; that they made a great quantity of salt at said works for the supply of inhabitants; that they sustained losses by boats upsetting in the Mississippi and yet more in Salt River itself; that at the beginning of their undertaking there was a great danger on account of the Indians; that they were obliged to fortify themselves; had a piece of cannon and were several times threatened of being attacked; that the place where they made salt was the extreme frontier of the settlements; that by this undertaking Fremon Delauriere was reduced to poverty.

 

[His full name was Charles Fremon Delauriere. Over the years the site of the salt operation has  become known as Freemore  Lick]  Ron Leake

 

Jefferson City MO “Inquirer” March 27, 1845

            Mr. Enos Johnson of Ralls County lately found on the banks of Salt River , half a mile above the mill of C. Castarhen [Carstarphen? Ron Leake], a cannon or swivel, three feet in length, eighteen inches in circumference and two inch bore. It was buried five feet below the surface of the ground with one end slightly projecting from the bank, the latter circumstance having lead to its discovery. A large cotton wood tree more than eighteen inches in diameter grew immediately above the spot, in which it was imbedded. The muzzle was broken off and the gun is much eaten with rust. At the time it was found was loaded. The probability is that it belonged to an trading post, which tradition says was established some forty years ago in the neigh hood of Boavet’s [“Bouvet later Spalding Springs” Ron Leake] lick. Hannibal Journal

 

[“I think this cannon is the same or another cannon of Delauriere at Freemore Lick. Giles Thompson operated a mill as early as 1817 near the Freemore Lick and Chapell Carstarphen owned property in same area as the mill it may have been. More research will be needed to  find if the Carstarphen land was the site of the mill”]  Ron Leake.

           

“The Encyclopedia of the History of Missouri “1901

            The name of the first white man to set foot in the territory now Ralls County is forever forgot to posterity. There can be little doubt that about the time of the founding of Kaskaskia, Illinois (early in the eighteenth century), the French, who were well established in the northwest, made an expedition into the country north of the Missouri and immediately west of the Mississippi River. Evidence to substantiate the temporary occupation of the county by civilized people was unearthed in 1830. That year Judge C. Carstarphen found on the bank of Salt River a rusty cannon. It was buried a few feet below the surface of the ground and over it had grown an oak tree thirteen inches in diameter. It is likely that the party that carried this piece of ordnance up Salt River were the first white men to visit the country now Ralls county. For some years Judge Carstarphen retained the cannon as a curiosity and in 1840 sold it to Dr. McDowell, of St. Louis, who placed it in his cabinet of curiosities in Hannibal Cave [“now Mark Twain Cave” Ron Leake]