which were, that there were on the 17th and 18th an unusual number of persons living in the county who were in town attending a meeting at the Christian Church, which was then in progress, and who sickened in a day or two after their return home. The disease continued about two weeks, gradually declining after the first few days. We had considerable fever in August and September; early in October it became quite healthy, and continued so during the fall and winter.

The spring and beginning of the year 1855 were pleasant until the latter part of July, when there set in a succession of heavy rains which lasted until about the 20th of August. Crops of all kinds were good, wheat and oats were far better than usual, both as to quality and quantity; but the farmers having adopted the use of threshers, and being busy with the corn and hay crops, failed to house or stack them in season, and at least three-fourths of the crop of small grains was spoiled, and rotted in the fields. This year was quite healthy, except a short time in September and October. The year 1855 was not remarkable as to health, there being no unusual sickness until late in the fall, when typhoid fever prevailed to a considerable extent for some three months. Sometime in November, when the epidemic of very malignant scarlet fever made its appearance in the northeast part of the county, and spread over a large portion of the county and towns, and continuing through the winter. The winter of 1856 and 1857 was unusu atly cold, with but little snow, and we had an unusual number of cases of rheumatism, and in the spring considerable pneumonia and other inflammatory affections. The season during most of the year 1857 was not unusual. The following winter was not marked by any unusual extremes, and the spring of 1858 was rather dry and pleasant, until the month of June, when we had again excessive and long continued rains, extending to the early part of July; during this month and August the weather was hot and dry. Early in August fever commenced, and we had more sickness than in any year since 1845.

The ensuing year of 1859 was very similar in regard to temperature and rains, and we again had a considerable amount of sickness through the fall and winter months. The winter and spring of 1860 was unusually dry and windy, there being no rain sufficient to wet the ground until the 25th of May, at which time and also some time in June, there was a good shower in the northeast part of the county, particularly on the Little Blue, near its mouth. This drouth continued through the summer, and consequently the crops were exceedingly short; and west of us, in the State of Kansas, almost an entire failure. About the 10th of July we had for two or three days a south wind, as hot as if coming from a furnace, which was very oppressive to man and beast, and wilted the vegetation considerably. There was also on the 4th of July a severe storm of wind, amounting almost to a tornado, with very little rain. In this year, as well as 1854, we had incontestible evidence of the superiority of the bottom lands along the Missouri River, which are bedded on sand as subsoil, in dry seasons, for reason that the water from the river percolates this sand, and a sufficient quantity of moisture arises to sustain the growth of grain. This is also true to some extent in uplands, in which there is a considerable amount of sand mixed with the sub-soil. The year 1861, which will be long remembered for the inauguration of the civil war, which cursed our country and desolated the finest portions of our land, among which Jackson county is one of the most beautiful and fertile, was a season of unusual health and productiveness-full crops and fruits of all kinds, rewarded the labors of the husbandman; and had we been blessed with peace, would have been one of abundance and comfort. There was but little sickness during this and the two following years.

The winter of 1863 and 1864 was exceedingly cold with considerable snow, the spring was pleasant but too cold to bring forward vegetation This dry weather extending through the greater part of summer there was great drouth and vegetation became scarce. The crops of all kinds were light and the little prod

uce was mostly destroyed by the two contending armies during Price's raid, which passed through in the latter part of October. During the latter part of summer and beginning of fall there was a severe form of dysentery, followed later in the season by typhoid fever. The year 1865 may be properly called a rainy season for frequent and exceedingly heavy rains set in early in June and continued till the latter part of August. Dysentery again made its appearance in July and prevailed during that month and August. In September, October and the fore part of November there were many cases of fever which were very violent, being mostly of a congestive type, and complicated with diseases of the bowels. Later in the season we had some cases of typhoid fever, also attended with disease of the bowels and in some cases of the lungs. During the year 1866-7 all the diseases were of a mild character and easily managed. There were no cases of epidemic diseases. In the year 1868 there were more cases of sickness, and some were typhoid fever, but not of a very malignant type. Since the war, even to the present time, there have been no severe cases of cholera since 1854. In 1869 the cases of sickness were less frequent than in 1868, all diseases easily managed. There have been no cases of small-pox since the year 1865, and it might be remarked that as the county grows older it becomes more healthy. The summers which are wet and excessively warm are followed in the fall months by more or less fevers. In 1870 there were several cases of "Rothlene," a form of scarlet fever, in the spring, some cases of intermittent fevers in the fall and taken altogether it was more sickly than 1869. During the years 1871 and 1872 there was some pneumonia in the spring, with mild cases of fever in the fall of 1871. There were very few deaths. Several severe accidents occurred in the year 1871; one was the falling from a wagon of Mr. A. G. Robinson, of which injuries he died soon after, and another a son of Mr. Oldham receiving so severe a fracture of his leg, from a kick by a horse, that he died. The year 1873 was healthy and all the cases requiring the attention of a physician were easily managed. The summer of 1874 was very dry and hot, several persons required treatment for sunstroke, the mercury ranging for considerable time from 95° to 100° in the shade. There were some cases of diphtherietic croup, several of which were fatal. There was also epidemic whooping cough. The spring of 1875 was very wet, and there were cases of capillary bronchitis among children and sore throat and catarrh among adults. There were some fatal cases of consumption. The summer of 1876 was healthy and also the year 1877. In 1877 there were some cases of scarlet fever, but of mild type and easily managed. The year 1878 was quite healthy. The year 1879 chronicled some scarlet fever in the spring. Mr. John Wilson, one of the prominent citizens of Jackson county, died July 23d, of what is termed chronic cystitis. Mr. Wilson was for many years a resident Independence and a highly respected man.

Considerable sickness of a typho-malarial character existed during the spring of 1880, but the remainder of the year it was exceedingly healthy. There were sufficient rains to produce the growth of abundant crops, and probably never in the history of the county has there been a better average yield to the labors of the husbandman. Great quantities of fruit and cereals matured and have been gathered for the market. General prosperity and abundance have crowned the Men who were in debt are paying up the mortgages on their farms and houses and becoming independent.

year.

Independence is the highest point of land in the Missouri Valley in the State and admitted by all as being situated in the most healthy locality in this whole region. There are few deaths here, nearly all the old persons who die, die of nervous exhaustion or old age. J. N. Wallace died January 19, 1880, and Thomas Stayton June 14, 1879, the latter's death was caused by softening of the brain. In the city of Independence there are at present eight regular practicing physicians. The city physician and marshal are constituted a health board and

through their vigilance all nuisances injurious to the health of the people are promptly abated.

We have now given a condensed history of the seasons for the past thirtyseven years, and by it a tolerably correct idea may be formed of the healthfulness of this county.

It will be found that seasons in which there has been an excess of rains, and of floods in the streams, have produced a large amount of sickness, and this is also true with other portions of this great valley. It will also be remarked, that

in our seasons rains are later and more immediately followed by dry and hot weather than in the Eastern States and as a necessary result we would expect in those seasons a considerable amount of fever, but the comparative frequency of such seasons are not greater than in other localities. We find also that we have had several visitations of cholera during its last appearance in the West, but this being then a great thoroughfare of travel across the plains and being greatly crowded this was rationally expected, and such was the case on all the great lines of travel, moreover some places of undisputed reputation for health, have been similarly afflicted during the prevalence of cholera at different times, for instance, Lexington, Versailles and Louisville, Kentucky, in the epidemic of 1832-3 and various other points in 1849 and the following seasons, to say nothing of the larger cities and their surroundings. As to the prevalence of scarlet fever, measles, erysipelas and other diseases of similar character, it may be asserted that our county has not suffered more than other parts of the Western, and perhaps less than many of the Eastern States. Of typhoid fever it may be said that the disease is milder and less frequent than in many of the Northern or Eastern States. In the course of thirty-seven years there have been five, or less than one seventh, in which there were heavy and long continued rains in early summer and general prevalence of fevers, the remainder being comparatively healthy. There has been no year when there has been an entire loss of crops and nearly every year great abundance has been produced.

The greater portion of the county-leaving out the bottom of the Missouri River and larger streams-is posed upon a bed of limestone at various depths; yet such is the formation of the country that the stone very little, if at all, interfere with the cultivation of the soil, for the reason that it does not crop out, except in the immediate vicinity of streams, on the slopes of hills, or at their base. So abundant is the rock throughout the county that it is said that there can scarcely be found four contiguous sections of land on some one of which there is not rock enough for all building purposes; furthermore, very few spots, and those small, in which the stone is so near the surface as to interfere with the growth of vegetation in dry seasons. Those sections in which the limestone is wanting are based on sand of very considerable depth. There is also in the greater part of the county a large admixture of sand both with the soil and the sub-soil, and consequently, as may be inferred, the land is light and easily cultivated, much more so than in many fertile regions elsewhere, as, for instance, the rich blue grass lands of Kentucky. No amount of tramping can make it so hard that, if broken up in large clods, it will not shake and fall to pieces, like lime, in the first considerable shower; and moreover, it has the additional advantage of becoming sufficiently dry in a short time after rains for plowing, and does not break and become hard so easily if worked a little wet. This enables the farmer to cultivate his crops in wet seasons to better advantage than if the sand was wanting. In addition to this, as mentioned in the last article, drouth does not so greatly affect the crops, because a considerable amount of moisture arises from below, which goes to support vegetation. Indeed, our farmers say that crops will grow here with less rain than in almost any other country. We have in this county but little poor land; yet the quality of the soil and the growth of the timber indicating those qualities vary a great deal, and the changes are frequently

abrupt. We have, for example, strips of land covered by walnut, hickory, elm, box elder, honey locust, coffee bean, lima, etc, of some miles in extent, and changing in many instances abruptly, to oakland, of inferior quality. Again, we have strips on which the growth is white hickory, different species of oak, wild cherry, slippery elm, etc., and the undergrowths are in oak lands, hazel, sumach, and a species of dogwood. The papaw abounds in the walnut and hackberry lands, and on river bottoms and hills contiguous to them. There are also some spots of rather sponty lands, with stiff clay sub-soil, the growth on which is almost exclusively a species of pin-oak, of a dwarfish character, with the limbs extending almost to the ground. There is some diversity of opinion in regard to the fertility of the different characters of soil, but the statement is fully borne out by experience that the walnut and hackberry lands are strongest, and in favorable seasons will produce the largest crops of hemp and corn, and are better adapted to the domestic grasses, especially the blue grass, while the brush lands, in which the white hickory abounds, with the undergrowth of hazel and sumach, will on an average of all seasons, and all kinds of crops, surpass them, and are greatly superior for wheat and other small grains. This county is well adapted to the production of various kinds of fruits, as the apple, pear, apricot and peach, all of which grow rapidly and yield abundantly, fruits of excellent quality. The common morello cherry also yields well, but the finer qualities of cherries and damson plums do not seem to do as well. The gooseberry, black raspberry, dewberry, blackberry and strawberry are indigenous to the soil, growing in large quantities in the woodland and prairies. Grasses have not yet been extensively cultivated, but so far as their cultivation has been tried the result has been very satisfactory.

The climate of Missouri is very changeable, the changes of temperature being frequent and sudden, varying often fifty or sixty degrees in a few hours. Great precaution is, therefore, necessary to adapt the apparel so as to be little affected as possible by these sudden vicissitudes, and I would advise those whose business requires them to be at such a distance from the dwellings as to be unable to change their clothes readily, to suffer the inconvenience of being uncomfortably warm for a time rather than run the risk of exposure to these sudden changes when thinly clad. Woolen clothing, therefore, is preferable to lighter fabrics even in

summer.

Dwelling houses should be so constructed as to have free ventilation in every part from cellar to garret, and especial care should be taken that houses without cellars should be somewhat elevated from the ground with openings sufficient to admit the free circulation of air under them and these should be open in summer. In damp, rainy weather fires should be made occasionally to dispel the dampness and dry the rooms. They also serve to purify the air by producing a draught or current of air which carries off the impure atmosphere which is generated, especially in sleeping rooms, and for these reasons small fires night and morning will be found beneficial. It is improper to close sleeping apartments at night so as entirely to exclude the air, especially when the atmosphere is dry. Yet we should avoid sleeping with a current of air blowing over us. It is better to open the upper sash of windows which will generally admit sufficient external air and carry off that which has become heated and impure. Exposure to cold and damp air especially in the latter part of the night and early morning should be avoided, and if this kind of exposure is necessary it is better to fortify the body by taking a quantity of food, say a cup of coffee with a little bread before going out, and this is more especially necessary during the prevalence of epidemic. Indeed it is better, especially with farmers and others engaged in outdoor labor, to have breakfast before commencing the labors of the day. In the latter part of summer there are very heavy dews and care should be taken to avoid having the feet and legs wet with them, as is frequently the case, and as a rule it is better not to go out before sunrise in the morning. Long contiued exposure to midday sun and

heat should also be avoided. Meals should be regular and all unripe fruits and substances difficult of digestion should be avoided. Cleanliness is also an important item, both in person and in habitation. The accumulation of water in cellars and low places as well as all kinds of garbage, decaying animals and vegetable substances should be carefully guarded against. A free use of lime, both by whitewashing houses and cellars and spreading in damp places, will also tend to purify the air and promote health. Cesspools and drains can be purified and deodorized by lime and a strong solution of sulphate of iron thrown into them. Shades about dwellings are very pleasant and promotive of health, but the trees should not be so close together that the sun cannot have access to the ground at some time during the day.

CHAPTER IV.

EARLY SETTLEMENTS.

Fort Osage started in 1808-State admitted in 1821--County organized 1826-Different settlements in the County-The names of the voters in Jackson County in 1828-The vote for Gen. Jackson -Examples of Ancient Records.

Fort Osage was established as a government fort and factory in 1808. Around the fort a tract of land six miles square was laid off, upon which a limited number of white settlers were permitted to locate in order to raise supplies for the fort. Hon. Geo. C. Sibley, late of St. Charles, was government factor and agent from 1818 until the abandonment of the fort in 1825. By treaty with the Osage, Kansas and other tribes, the Indians' title to nearly all the territory of Missouri was extinguished in 1808, excepting a strip twenty-four miles wide lying eastward from the western boundry of the State and extending from the Missouri River south into the territory of Arkansas. The eastern line of this strip was a few miles east of Fort Osage and in it lay nearly all of Jackson county. The Indian title to the strip including an immense territory lying westward was extinguished in 1825.0

The treaty was as follows:

"Art. Ist.

66 'JUNE 2, 1825.

The Great and Little Osage tribes or nations do hereby cede and relinquish to the United States all their right, title, interest and claim to land lying within the State of Missouri and territory of Arkansas and to all lands lying west of said State of Missouri and territory of Arkansas north and west of the Red River, south of the Kanzas River, and east of a line to be drawn from the head sources of the Kanzas, southwardly, through the Rock saline, with such reservations, for such considerations, and upon such terms, as are hereinafter specified, expressed and provided for."

June 3d, 1825, a treaty was concluded with the Kansas Indians ceding territory to the United States described as follows:

66 Art. I. The Kanzas do hereby cede to the United States all lands lying within the State of Missouri, to which the said nation have title or claim lying west of said State of Missouri and within the following boundaries: Beginning at the entrance of the Kanzas River into the Missouri River, from thence north to the northwest corner of the State of Missouri, from thence westwardly, to the