NAMES OF THE EARLY PIONEERS.

     The history of one decade has been here given, which, at the close, establishes Linn county on the enduring basis and from the year 1840 the solid progress of the county may be dated.  In closing this portion of the county's history, its first settlement, trials, and advance progress, it is believed that those earnest men, the old pioneers, who brought it out of the wilderness into light and life, would be of interest to the present and future generations.  Not all who figured in the early history are here recorded; many familiar names may be missing - all could not be secured.  The list numbers over two hundred and fifty, all of whom, with few if any exceptions, were residents of Linn county in the year above mentioned.
     The voters of Lin county numbered, in 1838, one hundred and sixty-nine votes, the highest vote polled being for assessor.  It will thus be seen that nearly all the voting population are given, with the exceptions noted above.  There are names found elsewhere in this history not recorded in this list.  The record is as follows:

OLD SETTLERS.

1840 to 1850

    The decade between the above dates was one of advance all over the country, and Missouri had her share of the general prosperity.  After the exciting election of 1840, the country quieted down and the people turned their attention to the importance of building up their homes and individual fortunes.  This continued until the spirit of the people was aroused by the declaration of war by Mexico.

SCHOOLS.

     The number of inhabitants rapidly increasing suggested an improved system of schools.  Up to this time, 1840, the schools of the county were kept only where the settlers were near enough together to afford to engage a teacher for about three months in the year.  An old log cabin was generally secured, or one put up by the neighbors, and all schools were subscription schools; that is, the neighbors would agree to send so many scholars, and pay from $1.50 to $2.50 per month per scholar.  In another place will be found the school history of the county, and we will only state here that in the year above mentioned, the citizens of congressional townships 58-18 and 58 -20 concluded to ask for the sale of the sixteenth or school section of land in their townships, and organized for school purposes.  Congressional township 58-20 was the pioneer township thus organized, which done Feb. 22, 1840,adn the entire sixteenth section was sold, realizing $2,269.40.
     In 1843 the Hon. Lewis F. Linn, United States Senator from Missouri from 1833 to 1843, and in whose honor Linn county and the county seat was named, died at his residence at Ste. Genevieve.  He was an able man, of broad views, a mind of the progressive order, and he filled worthily the trust reposed in him as United States Senator, the associate and the peer of Benton.  The General Assembly appropriated nine hundred dollars for a monument over his remains at Ste. Genevieve, which is enclosed with a handsome iron railing.  Few nobler men have ever graced the Senate Chamber than Lewis F. Linn.  The presidential election of 1844 again precipitated the country into a period of Excitement no less great than that of 1840, but upon entirely different grounds.  Texas, the "Lone Star" State, has asked to be admitted into the union of confederate States, which lay upon her northern border, with the understanding that annexation would be followed by admittance as a State, and an act was passed Marcy 1, 1845, admitting her into the Union, to take effect Dec. 29, 1845.  This caused the war with Mexico, which shed such luster upon American arms and added unbounded mineral wealth to the country.

MEXICAN WAR.

     The Annexation of Texas, followed by its admittance into the Union as a State, and the occupation of the boarder on the Rio Grande, aroused Santa Anna and the Mexican people to a spirit of frenzy, and the Mexican government promptly declared war against the United States.  The flower of her army, under Generals Ampudia and Anista, two of her most noted captains, were placed to intercept the march of the American troops for the declaration of war on the part of Mexico was promptly met by Congress with the counter-declaration "that war existed between Mexico and the United States," and General Taylor, who was in command on the Rio Grande, was ordered to march at once into the enemy's country.  War had been declared by Mexico, in April, 1846, and in May, on the 8th and 9th, the celebrated battles of Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma had been fought and won, and the Mexican army had been defeated with great slaughter, and were in full retreat for Monterey.  It was at the first of these battles that the brave Ringgold fell, and in them many of the rank and file gave their lives to their country's defense and glory.
     It is not necessary to go into all the history of this war.  The achievements of the American arms added luster to the American name, and the armies of Taylor and Scott, and the splendid exploits of Doniphan, have left an undying record upon the footprints of time.  They and other comrades in arms.

"Belong to the few immortal names,
That were not born to die."

     In May, 1846, Governor Edwards called for volunteers to join the Army of the West, and in June, the Hon. Sterling Price resigned his seat in Congress and was given a colonel's commission by President Polk, with authority to raise a regiment to reinforce the "Army of the West."  Colonel Price raised a full regiment from the district which he represented, and where he was well known.  These volunteers came principally from Boone, Chariton, Carroll, Livingston, Linn, Randolph, and Monroe counties.  They rendezvoused at Fort Leavenworth, in August, where Colonel Price was elected colonel, and D. D. Mitchell lieutenant-colonel.  The troops claimed their right to elect their own colonel, notwithstanding the appointment by the President.  Soon after, Colonel Price took up his line of march for Mexico, and arrived at Santa Fe, September 28, 1846.  Generals Kearney and Doniphan had preceded him, and taken possession of New Mexico, and formally declared it a part of the United States territory, leaving a small garrison in command.  When General Kearney captured New Mexico, by the surrender of its capital, Sante Fe, which was previous to Colonel Price's arrival, he raised the American flag, and asserted the supremacy of the United States over all its territory, and appointed Silas Burt its provisional governor.  The leading Mexicans, backed by the Catholic priests, who feared for the power of their church under American rule, undertook to raise a revolt and drive out the forces of the United States.  The situation of Colonel Price and his men was critical.  Of those in command of the post was the Linn County Volunteers, under the command of Captain _____.  Colonel Price was, however, equal to the demands of the occasion.  The revolt was led by General Tofaya, and the first outbreak occurred at Bent's Mills, near Taos.  A few persons were killed, and Tofaya, with a strong force, threatened Sante Fe.  Colonel Price gathered his forces, and determined to meet the advancing Mexicans and decide the contest.  The opposing forces met at a place called Canada, and the Mexicans met with a decided feat.  Colonel Price pursued the retreating forces to their str4onghold, Taos, capturing that place and capturing General Tofaya, and several other leaders of the insurrection.  They had taken the oath of allegiance, and their revolt was treason.  Tofaya and the others were tried and hung, and this satisfied the Mexicans that the power of the United States was not to be trifled with, and that treason and treachery would be promptly and severely punished.  This ended all opposition on the part of the native Mexicans, and the Catholic priests were quietly informed that any action on their part would result in their punishment as severe as that meted out to the leaders of the revolts.  The Linn county company remained at Santa Fe until they were ordered to return.

COMPANY N, SECOND REGIMENT - MOUNTED VOLUNTEERS.

     With the command of Sterling Price was Captain Thomas Barber's company from Linn county.  This was known as company N, Second Regiment of Missouri Mounted Volunteers.  The brave men who composed this gallant company are here given:

     Those marked d are dead.  Of this company but sixteen are now living.  Much sickness was in Price's army and he was unable to commence active operations until near the close of the year when he left Santa Fe in search of the enemy.  January 24, 1847, he met the enemy at Canada under the command of General Tofaya and defeated him, loss slight on both sides.  The enemy retreated to Taos, but before reaching there Colonel Price again over took them and this time caused a stampede or total rout.  The battle was at El Embado, Jan. 29.  The Mexican losses in these battles were about 300 killed and many more wounded.  Colonel Price lost fifteen killed and forty-seven wounded.  Taos was captured and a portion of the command returned to Santa Fe.  The Linn county troops remained at the latter place until they were ordered to return and then discharged.  Some came home to die others left their bones to rest 'neath the chaparrals of that southern clime, and others still live.  They were received with open arms and a grand barbecue given in their honor.  They had done their duty like brave men, and their memory will ever be green in the hearts of the American people.
     The brave deeds of the volunteers in the war with Mexico have been recorded in song and story, and this has been done that posterity may remember and revere those who gave their lives to their country's honor and glory, and it cannot and never can be forgotten, for

"In seeds of laurel in the earth,
The bloom of your fame is blown;
And somewhere, waiting for its birth
The shaft is in the stone."

     The war had closed, peace spread its mantle once more over the land and in the past two years destiny, as it was looked upon by many, and added much territory to the area of this country.  What this territory was few knew.  It might be a desert, or its soils might be fertile and its mountains of great value, but who knew?

THE GOLDEN LAND.

     Hardly had the clash of arms ceased, and the sound of cannon might still be said to be reverbrating through the canons and chaparrals of Mexico, when the country was excited by astounding news which came in fitful gusts from the Pacific coast.  The report was that gold had been found in that western land; that the waters of the Pacific actually washed a golden shore, and that among mountains and on the plains, on hill-top and in gulches, the golden ore was found.  All this came to the ears of the people, and by-and-by, when corroborated, created the wildest excitement.  Talk of frenzy, the madness of the hour, the surging of the wild sea waves when the stormking lashes them to rage, listen to the clamor of contending hosts when the God of battles urges on the serried ranks to slaughter and to death!  Think of all these combined in one terrible onset, and you can have only a faint conception of that mighty throng who truly proved the madness of the hour, and whose pathway became a charnel-house of sorrow and death, while the road became whitened with the bones of the victims who had failed to realize their dreams and never reached the golden shore.  In that far distant land, where the white capped waves kissed the pebbly beach
on the Pacific's sun lit coast, and sang the soft lullaby of a murmuring sea, or where the stormking in his wrath ground the grand old ocean to fury, there gold, bright yellow gold had been found.  The rush was as the charge of a mighty host.  In wagons, on foot, on horseback, everywhere the tide set to the western border of our State, and there vast throngs "crossed the Rubicon," until the plains were whitened with their covered wagons and tents, and they entered the dark portals of an unknown beyond, some to pass the arid waste, others to leave their bones to mark the pathway of those who followed.  It was many days, days of terrible suffering, before these prisoners of a trackless plain saw the light breaking and the golden land appear in view for which they had longed with yearning hearts, and looked for with eyes dimmed by expiring hope, but seen at last.  Despair gave way to joy too great for utterance.  The El Dorado had been reached; would their hopes be realized?  The higira has left terrible footprints upon the pages of time.  History has recorded in words of burning intensity the hardships and sufferings of the thousands who sought fame and fortune on the shore of the distant land.  How many succeeded, or how many, after suffering and enduring all in the hope of a brighter day, failed, will never be recorded?
     The stream of surging humanity kept on for years, for many had gained a fortune, and California became to the poor man a veritable land of promise, but in reaching it many weary days and nights were passed, and many dropped by the wayside - crossing not the plains which bordered the land of their hope and desire, but over the "dark river," with their fate unknown, until Gabriel's trump shall sound.

EXCITEMENT IN LINN COUNTY.

     The people of Linn county caught the contagion, and the gold fever raged  with violence.  The voting population of the county did not probably exceed one hundred and fifty votes, and full fifteen per cent of this left for the golden shore.  The pioneers had been through privations and hardships to secure a home in the then wild West, and now, when wealth held out its allurements simply by enduring a few more months or years of what had already been their lot, were ready for the work.  They had conquered the wilderness, had opened a pathway for civilization to tread, and what man had done man could do, and so while reports came thick and fast of the immense wealth of the far off El Dorado, they hastened their departure, putting down with the faith they had of their own powers, any report that told of the suffering the trials to be endured before reaching the elysium of their hope.  Over one hundred and twenty of the bone and sinew of Linn county started for the land of the setting sun, - some to drop by the way, others to have years of alternate hope and despair, while yet others best with a full fruition of their hopes, returned to tell of their success and the marvelous wonder of that far off land.  When the cold facts of experience are brought forward as a test, and the expenses incurred in fitting out it is scarcely probable that Linn county received in return the amount required to fit out those who left to seek their fortune on the Pacific coast.  A few of her citizens remained to add to the population of the Golden Gate, and when the profit and loss is footed up the figures show a preponderance on the wrong side of the ledger.  Those who returned were ready and willing to let it be known they had secured a competency.  So trade revived, and a new era of prosperity was opened to the county.  No more stagnation, but new life to start the wheels of progress, and to inaugurate an era of prosperity which was to continue until the wild fanatacism of the hour, our country became a charnel-house, and a fratricidal strife deluged our land with blood.
     In 1856 a heavy rain-storm so suddenly raised the waters in the streams and branches that it is stated that every bridge in the county, but one, was swept away.  They were not very valuable, but cheap wooden structures, ready to float off without any extraordinary effort.  The bridge policy of Linn county up to 1870 seemed to have been of a penny wise and pound foolish character.  Of course there were many streams to bridge, but it would seem to most people that one good bridge would cost less and be of more value that two poor people that one good bridge would cost less and be of more value that two poor ones.  What the bridges of Linn county have cost the people will be found under the head of bridges in a separate chapter.
 

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