Survey No. 169 of Lot No. 216, Columbia, Mo., 1830

Survey No. 169. Boone County, Missouri.
Surveyed for Oliver Parker on the 8th day of March 1830 in the town of Columbia, Boone County, State of Missouri, lot No. 216 represented by the plat here with exhibited: beginning at ? the S.E. corner of said lot, thence north 142 ½ feet, thence west 80 feet, thence south 142 ½ feet, thence east 80 feet to the beginning: figure 1 and 2 on the S.E. corner of the lot represent a store house and counting room fronting broadway street 23 feet and running back with 8th street 38 feet. The building is two stories high, the walls and gable ends are brick, covered with shingles made of wood. The figure 1 represents the store room and 2 a counting room separated by a brick wall [chimney symbol] represents a brick chimney with one fire place below and one above occupied by said Parker: — the figure 3. 4. and 5. represent a dwelling house. 3 stands on the SW corner of said lot fronting 18 ft. on broadway st. and running back 28 feet. 4. and 5. represents an ell running 30 feet east from the north end of 3. and is 18 feet wide. 4 represents a passage between 3 and 5. The whole building is of wood weather boarded with plank and painted: one chimney in 3 and one in 5 of brick and stone: each chimney with one fireplace. The chimneys represented by [chimney symbol] occupied by said Parker as a dwelling house: 6 represents a hewed log kitchen attached to the north end of 3. Which is 20 ft. by 18. Has a brick floor, one brick and stone chimney with one fire place marked occupied as a kitchen by said Parker: [circular well symbol] represents a well, 7 represents a one story hewed log smoke house 14 ft. square standing 23 ft. north of the N.W. corner of the said kitchen. 8 represents a hewed log stable one story high 15 by 20 feet square, covered with shingles and standing on the N.W. corner of said lot the stable and smokehouse occupied by said Parker: broadway street is 100 ft. wide and is on the south side of said lot. 8th street is on the east side of said lot. [There] is an Alley 15 feet wide on the west side of said lot. There is no buildings adjoining:

Surveyed to a variation of 8° to the East. Platted on a scale of 40 feet to an inch. Recorded 12th March 1830. Guitar Wm. Shields S.B.C.

Parker C. B. [Chair Bearer]

Commentary:

Oliver Parker was a risk-taker and fortune seeker who came to the Boone’s Lick country soon after the conclusion of the War of 1812. He established the first store in Boone County at Lexington on Thrall’s Prairie in 1818 or 1819 and obtained the first post office commission at his store. He married Augustus Thrall’s daughter, Mary.

Parker and his new wife abandoned Lexington for the promises of Columbia about 1823. He purchased Lot #216 on the northwest corner of Eighth and Broadway for his first home and store house. Parker, for unknown reasons, had a complete survey of this lot done that included not only the usual lot lines, but the exact location of all structures complete with detailed descriptions of these structures. This is the only recorded survey in all of the early Boone County records that carries detail about structures. What a wonderful, detailed “picture” it gives us of this early lot in Columbia.