Columbia's Nuisance Ordinance of 1843

The lengthy “Ordinance Respecting Nuisances” was printed in the Columbia Missouri Statesman of July 14, 1843, on p. 4, columns 1-4, and has been transcribed faithfully.  Original spelling has been retained, even when apparent errors were printed.  It is a wonderful window into daily life in Columbia at this early date.

Specific nuisances that might be of interest can be quickly found using the following table of internal links:

Privies
Dead Animals
Decaying Vegetable Matter
Livestock pens
Card playing in certain stores
Selling spiritous liquors to slaves
Furious galloping of horses
Willful firing of a gun or pistol
Hollooing, screaming, or making a lot of noise
Trading with servants
Displacing property of others
Making a fire at night in a street, alley or lot
Allowing a boar hog to run at large
Permitting a female dog to run at large
Quarrelling or fighting in uprorious, profane , or drunken manner
Getting drunk by a slave
Loitering of servants
Causing obstructions in a street, alley or sidewalk
Emptying, piling or throwing all manner of things into the streets
Digging in the streets
Riding of a horse or vehicle upon a paved sidewalk
Having a poorly constructed fire-place, chimney or stove or flue
Leaving building materials in the streets
Hand railings, horse blocks, hooks and other obstructions
Vicious dogs
Uncontrolled dogs

AN ORDINANCE 

RESPECTING NUISANCES.

Be it ordained by the Trustees of the inhabitants of the Town of Columbia as follows:
     S 1. The things in this section mentioned are hereby declared and held to be nuisances. Viz. 1. All Privies so called, located wheresoever they my be, east of 4th cross street, which shall, from the want of frequent emptyings of their foul contents, and purifications by effective washings and careful applications of quicklime, exhale at any time putrid and offensive gases to the sensible discomfort and annoyance of any other family in the vicinity thereof, than that of the owners or occupiers of the lot or lots on which such privies are situated: 1.[2?] All privies, east of 4th cross-street, having an opening at or near to near to the bottom, exposing the offensive contents thereof to the view of those who pass along the streets and alleys in the vicinity thereof: 3. All deposits of human ordure, made in any place or under any circumstances whatever, east of 4th cross-street, by any family or part thereof, and continued or repeated to the annoyance of any other family in the vicinity thereof, and it despite of the remonstrances by the head of said other family which may be annoyed by said deposits; as also all large deposits or accumulations of horse excrement or other filth within the limits aforesaid, in, from, or about, stables, or stable-yards, which shall become the subject of annoyance and complaint by the head or heads of any family or families living in the neighborhood thereof of account of the offensive smell proceeding therefrom.
     Any person therefore owning or occupying any lot of part of a lot in the town of Columbia who shall cause any such nuisance to exist as defined in this section; or shall fail or refuse to correct or remove it — such nuisance having been produced before the publication of this ordinance, shall in either case, be fined five dollars for every week he shall so cause such nuisance to exist, or to fail or refuse to correct or remove the same — it being hereby made the duty of the marshall before suit is commenced to give any person offending in any manner as explained in the preceding part of his section, notice that unless the nuisance caused or continued by him or her shall be corrected or removed in two days’ time that suit will be brought against him or her for the recovery of penalties.  Such notice or a second or third suit for the same offence shall not be required.

     S 2. All dead animals within the limits of the town, not killed as food for people—as cats, hogs, dogs, cattle so called, mules, horses or asses — are hereby declared to be nuisances; and if dead animals or any one of them be not removed out of the town to some lace where they or any of them, will not annoy any person at his or her place of residence by sight or small — whether such persons live within or without the town — in six hours, day-time, after the death of such animals or any one of them, the owner or keeper thereof in their or its lifetime, shall be fined as follows, viz: for every cat one dollar; for hog or dog two dollars; for cattle so called, each, and for every mule, ass, or horse, five dollars.  If any of the dead animals, mentioned in the preceding part of this section, be removed out of the town but shall be dropped or deposited on the outside of the town where they or any one of them, shall prove annoying to the head or heads of any family or families in town, or out of it, by sight or small — of if the dead animals or any one of them shall be removed out of the town and be dropped or deposited in a public or much-used road, or in less distance to such road than eighty yards, the owner or keeper of such dead animals or any one of them in their or its lifetime, so dropping or depositing dead animals or any one of them, or causing them to be so dropped or deposited, or suffering them or any one of them to be so dropped or deposited by any person under his or her control, in any of the ways or places herein last mentioned, shall be fined in the same manner and in the same respective amounts as mentioned in the first part of this section for leaving the same kind of dead animals or any one of them in the town longer than a given time.

     S 3. All decaying vegetable matter when accumulated in large masses at any given point — all stagnant waters — all artificial drains from any house, cellar or privy except such as empty into the paved gutters over the footway-pavements in regularly formed vallies, and which from the want of frequent clearings and washings shall give rise to annoying and offensive smells in the neighborhood — all within the limits of the town east of the 4th cross-street — are declared to be nuisances; and if not corrected by those who cause them or suffer them of any one of them to exist upon the lots, lot or part thereof, they own or occupy, in two days time after notice by the town Marshall, said persons on offending shall be fined five dollars; and if such nuisance or nuisances are not corrected or removed after a first judgment by any justice of the peace for a first offence, the person or persons so offending, shall be subject to a new fine of five dollars without any such notice as that required above by the town Marshall, for every week such nuisances are not corrected or __?___ed.

     S 4. A cow-pen, calf-pen, or hog-pen so called, being used as such, located on, or immediately adjoining Broadway street, at any point east of 4th cross-street, or upon any cross-street east of 4th cross-street, and within one hundred feet of Broadway street, is hereby declared to be a nuisance; and any person making, owning or using for his stock so called, such cow-pen, calf-pen or hog-pen, shall be fined five dollars for every week such nuisance shall be continued or used..

     S 5.  Each of the things in this section mentioned, is hereby declared to be a nuisance; and any and every person being truly chargeable with creating or causing the same, or suffering it to be created or caused by others under his or her control, shall for each and every such offence be fined as follows, viz: 1. For the suffering of card-playing in any house kept for the purpose of selling or retailing groceries so called, or spirited liquors therein — whether money or any thing else be staked or not, ten dollars.  2. For the selling of spiritous or intoxicating liquors to any slave without a written order from the owner, master or mistress of such slave, fifteen dollars.  3. For the furious or unnecessary galloping of a horse or other animal through any street or alley east of 4th cross-street, five dollars. 4. For the wilful firing of a gun or pistol, day or night, except in killing a beef or dog, five dollars.  5. For hollooing, screaming, or making or causing to be made, any unnatural noise, without unavoidable necessity, to the disturbance of any quiet and orderly person or family, or other citizen, or any stranger temporarily remaining in the town — ten dollars.  6. For trading with servants in respect to other things than intoxicating liquors, without a written permission from the master, mistress or other person having the management of the same, except in common marketing so called — not more than twenty nor less than five dollars.  7. For removing or displacing from the position in which its owner or proper and legal user placed it, the property of any citizen or other person, and placing it in some other place or position — whether with a mischievous or wicked intent or not — to the annoyance or injury of the owner or user thereof — such as signboards, boxes, gates, carriages of any kind, horses, cattle so called, or any other thing, without consent from the owner or legal user thereof — ten dollars.  8. For the kindling, making or leaving of a fire after night, upon any street, alley or lot of ground not within a house, but in an open situation, east of 4th cross-street — five dollars.  9. The permitting of a boar or male hog not castrated, over the age of three months, to run or range at large in the town, east of 4th cross-street — three dollars; and if still permitted thus to run and range, one week longer after a first judgment by a justice of the peace for a recovering of a fine under this last specification, the owner thereof shall be fined a second time the sum of five dollars.  10. The permitting of a proud sl__ [rhymes with cut -- ed.] or female dog to run at large within the town — five dollars.  11. For quarreling in an uproarious, profane, or drunken manner; as also for fighting so called — in both cases, being without legal or justifiable excuse — five dollars for each or either offence.

     S 6. Each of the matters or things mentioned in this section is hereby declared to be a nuisance; and the person who shall produce or cause any one of them, shall be fined as follows, viz: 1. For the getting drunk by any slave — ten stripes with a cowhide on the bare back; to be well laid on with becoming judgment by the town Marshall, instanter: 2. For the loitering about, or the collecting together, or servants, whether by day or night, to the number of five, at or about any one place at the time — except evidently for the performance of, or attendance upon, religious services — not exceeding fifteen, nor less than five stripes; to be well laid o by the town Marshall, instanter, but with good judgment an propriety; the said Marshall being hereby held responsible to the master, mistress, or manager of any slave that may be whipped by him for any permanent injury that may result from the manner of executing the duties imposed by this section of this ordinance.  No servant shall be molested by the authority of this Board, whilst going to, remaining at, or returning from, and lace of public worship — if he, or she be peaceable and orderly in his or her conduct.  Passes so called, shall not be required of slaves to secure to them the immunity in this section mentioned.

     S 7. Any person creating or causing, directly or indirectly, any obstruction in any street, alley or sidewalk between 4th cross-street and the east end of the town, injuriously affecting the free, convenient and safe public use of the same — excepting the alleys running through the outside blocks of lots on the northeast-east and south sides of the town — also, the alley that runs through the block of lots numbered 76, 77, 115, 116, 117 — also, the alley that runs through the block of lots numbered 88, 89, 90, 103, 104, 105, — also, the alley that runs through the block of lots numbered 271, 272, 273, 304, 305, 306, — also all of Ash street that lies eat of 10th cross street — by horses, fences, fire-wood, fence-timbers, coal of building, paving, curbing or MacAdamising materials, except the latter be intended for early use, to be judged of by others by circumstances — shall be adjudged guilty of creating a nuisance; and any person so offending in any of the ways herein mentioned, shall upon conviction before a justice of the peace having jurisdiction thereof, be fined five dollars.  This section shall not be so construed as to prevent any person living on any of the cross or other streets parallel to Broadway from throwing into them coal or wood — provided it be not done near to Broadway than one hundred feet, but not in such quantities or places as will very injuriously affect the free, safe and public use of said cross streets or any one of them.

     S 8. Any person who shall empty, pile or throw, or shall cause or suffer to be emptied, piled or thrown by any one in his or her employ or under his or her control, into any part of Broadway, east of 4th cross-street, including its side walks, or into any part of any one of the cross=streets, east of 4th cross-street, and within one hundred feet of Broadway, ashes, cinder, coal, earth, putrid flesh or vegetables of any kind — lime, sand, brick, brick-bats or stone, not intended for building or improving purposes — shavings so called, straw, litter, offal or trimmings of any kind — refuse matter or scraps from stores, cellars, work-shops or other houses; as also all kind of recrements from stables — dung so called – and shall fail or refuse to carefully gather up the whole and every part of the things emptied, piled or thrown as in this section mentioned, and remove them to some other place where they or any one of them will annoy no one, in six hours-day-time — from and after the time said substances or any one of them, may have been thus emptied, piled, or thrown in Broadway or on other forbidden places, as specified above, shall be deemed guilty of causing or continuing a nuisance; and any person so offending in any particular herein mentioned, shall be fined five dollars.

     S 9. Any person who shall dig or cause to be dug or suffer to be dug by another subject to such person’s control, in any part of Broadway, east of 4th cross-street — including its sidewalks – whether paved or McAdamised or not, or in any cross-street, est of 4th cross-street and within one hundred feet of Broadway — any holes, ditches or trenches, sensibly affecting the evenness and regularity of the streets, sidewalks, grades, pavements or McAdamisings within the bounds in this section mentioned, or any part or parts of the same — except by the previous consent of the street commissioner, shall be deemed guilty of causing a nuisance; and any person so offending shall e fined five dollars which fine shall be repeated every week after a rendtion of a first judgment by any justice of the peace for such offence till the same be removed or corrected.  Andy should any person with a mischievous or wicked intend, injure any public improvement as a pavement of any kind, curbstones or gutterings, or if any person should with mischievous or wretched intent injure any private property, as doors, gates, steps, mud-scrapers, glass in windows or tubes for conducting water, he shall be deemed guilty of causing a nuisance, and shall be fined five dollars over and above what would be considered a necessary expenditure in repairing the injuries inflicted.

     S 10. The wilful riding or driving of any horse or other animal, wagon cart or other carriage of any kid, upon any paved sidewalk is hereby declared to be a nuisance; and any person so riding, or driving any horse or other animal, wagon, cart or other carriage so called, upon any paved sidewalks, except in front of a stable, or causing or suffering any one under his or her control to offend as int his section mentioned, — shall be fined five dollars for each and every such offence.

     S 11. Every fire-place, chimney, stove or flue therefrom, or dry-kiln so called, being in use, east of 4th cross-street, so unskilfully or carefully constructed of fixed as to be considered by a majority of the heads of three families of other adult persons living or doing business nearest such fire-place, chimney, stove or flue therefrom, or dry-kiln, as dangerous from the spread of fire, to the property of other citizens in the vicinity thereof is hereby declared to be a nuisance; and any person causing or suffering such nuisance to exist on any lot of ground owned or used by him for the period of three days time after having been requested to correct or remove the same by the persons composing the majority already mentioned, shall be fined five dollars for every three days thereafter he or she shall so fail or refuse to correct such nuisance.

     S 12. If any master builder, tradesman or mechanic, as a stone-mason, stone cutter, brick mason, carpenter, plasterer or other person engaged in building or repairing any house or houses, or any part thereof, on Broadway street, east of 4th cross-street, or on any cross-street east of 4th cross-street and within one hundred feet of Broadway street, shall incumber or shall cause or suffer to be incumbered by any person under his or her direction or control, any street or sidewalk within the limits specified in the preceding part of this section, with stone, brick, lime, sand, timber, poles, earth or any thing else used in or about buildings or repairs thereon, & shall fail or refuse to carefully remove the whole of the things in this section mentioned and every part thereof, including all remnants, litter, or refuse matter of every kind, as near as practicable within one week from and after the time they or any part of them may be wanted in any building or improvement in progress of completion, shall be considered guilty of causing or keeping up a nuisance, and shall be fined five dollars for every week such nuisance shall last or be continued.

     S 13. The things to be mentioned in this section shall be considered nuisances, viz: all hand-railing, horse blocks so called of any shape or material, all posts of any kind — those for tavern signs excepted; all hooks or catches of any kind, made or contrived for the purpose of hitching or fastening horses to — all in Broadway street and east of 4th cross-street, or its sidewalks, or in any cross-street and within forty feet of Broadway street;— also all obstructions of any kind, whether from the throwing of wood, coal, timber of any kind or hitching of horses or other animals on the sidewalk on the east side of 7th cross street and between Walnut and Broadway street as it runs by or passes the Union Meeting house; and any person giving rise to or producing such nuisance as herein and above mentioned, shall be fined five dollars for ever week such nuisance shall be sustained or suffered by the person creating it or causing it to exist; except the hitching of horses on 7th cross-street as limited and defined above.  In this case or for this offence the person causing such offence shall be fined two dollars and fifty cents for each and every such offence.

     S 14. Any dog owned or kept by any person in the Town of Columbia having the known disposition to attach and bite any person passing along any street or alley, whether in the day or night, is hereby declared to be a nuisance; and the owner or keeper of such dog shall be fined two dollars for every week that such dog shall be kept as aforesaid; and if such dog shall actually attack and bite any person in any street or alley, whether in the day or night, the owner or keeper of such dog, shall be fined ten dollars.

     S 15. Any dog found from home and within the house or other enclosures, of any other person than those of its owner or keeper, and suspected of a thievish disposition, is declared to be a nuisance, and may with impunity be killed by any person or his agent, aggrieved by such dog; and if complaint be made to the Marshall of the Town by any person on account of such dog, it is hereby declared to be the special duty of such Marshall — he being pretty well satisfied that the complaint of such person is well founded — to kill such dog without unnecessary delay.

     All other ordinances on the subject of “nuisances” as also an ordinance entitled “an ordinance respecting dogs in the town of Columbia,” are hereby repealed.  This ordinance to take effect and be in force from and after its publication.

W. JEWELL, Chairm’n.

List of Killed from Thirty-ninth Missouri Infantry, at Battle of Centralia, Mo., September 27, 1864.

The following is transcribed directly from The History of Boone County Missouri by W.F. Switzler originally published in 1882, page 462+. The book is available for purchase from the Boone County Historical Society.

LIST OF THE FEDERALS KILLED

The exact number of Federals killed, it is believed, has been correctly ascertained, together with their names. J.A. Waddell, Adjutant General of the State, furnishes from the muster rolls of the companies of the Thirty-ninth Missouri, on file in his office, the name of every man reported killed at Centralia, as follows: --

LIST OF KILLED OF THIRTY-NINTH MISSOURI INFANTRY, AT BATTLE OF CENTRALIA, MO., SEPTEMBER 27, 1864.

Major A.V.E. Johnson

COMPANY A

Capt. J.A. Smith
Sergt. Wm. G. Elliott
Sergt. J.S. Nesbit
Sergt. M.B. Long
Sergt. J.C. Reynolds
Corp. A.W. Walters
Corp. Jasper May
Corp. Canada Keller
Corp. Elijah Eitel

Privates:

Josiah Adams
Geo. W. Bragg
O.C. Byrd
Wm. H. Braden
John N. Braden
Wm. H. Corbin
A.J. Capps
J.L. Canada
Geo. W. Cook
Porter Cunningham
A.J. Denton
David R. Graves
John B.W. Graves
Alfred B. Hayward
Valentine Hine
Benj. Hargrove
John Hanlin
Granville Hanlin
Wm. H. Jeffers
Henry Keller
Daniel Lorton
James Morrow
Joseph Morrow
F. McClanahan
E.T. Miles
Mark S. Musick
Jas. K.P. Mock
Wm. Norton
Eli F. Osborn
A.B. Polly
Alfred S. Parsons
Jacob Reed
John S. Spicer
Issac Slaughter
James C. Stuteville
Emmet H. Selby
Wm. Shoemaker
Daniel A. Simler
Chas. Wilbaum
Jas H.B. Waddell
David Wilbaum
J.R. Williams
Thos. Waugh
Jas. Willis
John R. Wood
C.C. Wise
Alfred Zimmerman

Total [company A]. 56

COMPANY G

Sergt. David N. Dunn
Sergt. Jno. Donahoo
Sergt. Wm. Lair
Sergt Geo. W. Miller
Corp. Leander P. Bart
Corp. Jas. S. Gunby
Corp. Wm. Loar
Corp. David Riggs
Corp. L.D. Sherwood
Corp. Jacob R. Wexler

Privates:

Geo. W. Adams
Charles Bishop
Samuel Bell
Philip Christman
Wm. Christman
Oscar Collier
John J. Cirstein
Homer M. Dunbar
Wm. Drennan
Sylvester H. Deen
James S. Edwards
Eleazer Evans
Robt. R. Elston
Wm. G. Floor
James Forsythe
Robt. Greenfield
Wm. P. Golay
Henry T. Gooch
Joseph S. Glahn
John W. Hardin
Elijah Hall
Chas. M. Jenkins
Wm. Knipper
Anthony Labas
Louis F. Marquette
Chas. Matterson
John Moore
Jno. C. Montgomery
Wm. A. Ross
Robt. E. Spires
J.G. Sellers
Edward Strachan
James Stalcup
Wm. T. Smith
Peter Sunnoner
J.W. Traswell
Geo. W. Van Osdale [maybe VanAusdale? – editor]
J.N. Vaden
A.M. Vandiver
Jonathan Wobdell
Wm. T. Whitelock

Total [Company G]. 51

COMPANY H

Sergt. Henry F. Porter

Privates:

Patrick Ballager
Samuel L. Dingle
Wm. Dingle
Wm. Dexhimer
Wm. A. Denny
James M. Henry
Chas. Kline
Frederic Miller
Robt. E. Montgomery
Conrad Pilgram
Chas. E. Rendlen
Winfield Shuler
Benj. Stephenson
Bennett Ford

Total [Company H]. 15

RECAPITULATION. —
Field officers, 1
Line officers, 1
Company A, non-commissioned officers and privates, 55
Company G , 51
Company H, 15.
Total, 123.

The following are the names of some of Capt. Theiss's company (H.), who escaped:
Capt. Adam Theiss
Lieut. John E. Stafford
Corp. John R. Sublett
Isaac (?) Howard, color-bearer
Louis Taylor
John Cummings
Ephriam J. Folen
Jack Calvert
Enoch Hunt
Frank Barns, wounded
Wm. Parker

The seventy-nine bodies buried at Centralia were disinterred December 17, 1873, under direction of Capt. Nelson, and forwarded to Jefferson City, and reinterred in the national cemetery at that place. James A. Harris had the contract for taking them up, for which he received $150. A monument which had been placed over the grave was removed by C.A. Brown for $30. About fifty-six bodies were taken up the first day. The bones, clothing, cartridge boxes, belts, etc., were well preserved. The skeletons were small, indicating they were of young men. Those who buried them say they were young men, in most cases, with smooth faces and without even mustaches. Seventy-nine skulls were taken out of this grave, each with a bullet hole in it.

The prisoner, Sergt. Goodman, taken from the cars at Centralia and spared by Anderson, was in the charge of Anderson’s company on Johnson’s men in the field, and witnessed the fight (as did Mr. Yates, a citizen, who happened to be near the field with his team), and accompanied the command when it left. He was with the guerillas ten days, and escaped as they were crossing the Missouri River. After his return to his home, in page County, Iowas, he published a pamphlet giving an account of his experiences. From this pamphlet much information has been derived for this article. Mr. Goodman now lives at Santa Rosa, California.

Commentary:
Jan Irwin (jcirwin@pacbell.net) made a comment on rootsweb.ancestry.com on 6 August 2000 pertaining to this battle:

“One of my ancestors was a survivor of the Centralia Massacre from Company H. His name was Edward Knox Irwin. I have confirmed that he was in Company H and according to the "Green City, MO Centennial History", he survived the massacre because he was left to watch some of the horses in Centralia due to his young age (though this story lists him as 16 while subsequent census records would put him at 19 years of age at the time). The story continues that the horses whinnied and gave away his hiding location but because the bushwackers were more interested in taking the horses, Edward was able to escape and ran to Sturgeon where he hid out with some other soldiers who had escaped. I have written for his service records from NARA but nothing has arrived yet. But, I do know he was in Co. H Missouri 39th and he did survive the war.”

The Jefferson Monument at the University of Missouri

Boone County Historical Society collection.  Donated by William H. Taft.

THE JEFFERSON MONUMENT

AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI

William Peden [copyright]

On the campus of the University of Missouri in Columbia stands a rough-hewn block of granite surmounted by a weather-beaten obelisk approximately six feet in height. This scarred and battered monument is the original tombstone that for half a century marked the grave of Thomas Jefferson at Monticello. Its history, including the details which culminated in its being presented as a gift to the University of Missouri in Boone County, Missouri, is a chequered one.

Shortly after Jefferson’s death on July 4, 1826, his descendants found among his personal effects the rough sketch of a tombstone and directions for its inscription. “Could the dead,” Jefferson had written on the back of a partially-mutilated envelope, “feel any interest in Monuments or other remembrances of them,” he would be gratified by a “plain die or cube . . . surmounted by an Obelisk” bearing the words:

“Here was buried

Thomas Jefferson

Author of the Declaration of American Independence

of the Statute of Virginia for religious freedom

& Father of the University of Virginia.”

[Left click on the image below to enlarge it.]

He also requested that on the base should be carved the dates of his birth and death, recording his birth-date as “Apr. 2, 1743. O.S.,” the O.S. referring to the old style calendar in use when he was born. Jefferson further directed that these memorials be made from “the coarse stone of which my columns are made, that no one might be tempted hereafter to destroy it for the value of the materials.”

Jefferson was buried between the graves of his wife and their daughter Maria in the graveyard at Monticello.(#1) Within a month, Thomas Jefferson Randolph, his favorite grandchild and executor of the estate, attempted to follow his grandfather’s instructions, but the estate was so heavily encumbered with debts that Monticello could not remain in the family as Jefferson had intended. House, out-buildings and 552 acres of land were sold, successively, to James T. Barclay, a “local eccentric,” in 1831 and, five years later, o Lt. Uriah Levy, U.S.N., a Jefferson admirer from New York; the graveyard, however, “with free access,” was to be kept in the family.(#2)

The monument itself was not erected until seven years after Jefferson’s death, apparently because of his bankruptcy. It is possible that a small temporary marker may have been placed over the grave, but it seems certain that no monument was erected until 1833. [Year should be 1783 - Ed.] The monument followed Jefferson’s instructions to the letter, with on notable exception. Because of the coarseness of the specified granite, it was not possible to cut the inscriptions into the face of the obelisk; instead they were carved upon a marble plaque which was set into its face.

The graveyard, meanwhile, was in “neglected and wretched condition.” Souvenir hunters were undeterred by the iron gates and high brick wall which had replaced an earlier wall and pyracanthus hedge enclosing the burying place at the time of Jefferson’s death; splinters had been chipped from the monument itself; the white marble slabs over the graves of Jefferson’s wife and daughter had been “similarly desecrated:; the turf was “trodden up”; and the marble plaque, “loosened by . . . rude treatment,” was rescued from probable destruction by Lt. Levy.(#3)

In the following decades, particularly during the War Between the States when Jefferson’s name and fame were temporarily eclipsed, vandalism and decay increased rather than diminished.

When Levy, then a Commodore, died in 1862, he left instructions willing Monticello either to Virginia or to the nation, but the will was attacked by his heirs and became a subject of litigation, and Monticello was sold, finally, at auction in 1879, to his nephew, Jefferson Monroe Levy. During most of this seventeen-year period, the house was occupied by Levy’s tenant overseer. Bats, it ha been said, made their nests in the Dome Room where Jefferson’s favorite daughter had reared her children; livestock were bedded down in the spacious entry hall; Thomas Jefferson Randolph had had to force his way into the estate “to assert his ownership of the graveyard and his right of access to it.”

Such conditions gave credence to varied unsubstantiated reports that the Jefferson monument had been destroyed and replaced.(#4) As early as 1838, for example, a Washington publication had commented on a visitor’s report that he had found the grave of Jefferson in “forlorn condition,” a report vigorously denied in the Charlottesville Advocate. Forty years later, Harper’s Weekly commented that “three successive headstones have been quietly chipped away and now ornament many a mantle piece throughout the Country he loved so well. A fourth stone will soon be required.” In the same year, after a visit to Monticello, Congressman Augustus A. Hardenbergh of New Jersey stated (in the Congressional Record) that the “original monument . . . had been all chipped away; that a second one had also been chipped away; and a third is now undergoing the same process . . . . Last night a week ago during a heavy gale the lower part of the brick wall surrounding the tomb was blown down . . . . The inscription is gone; not a trace remains. An obelisk stands over the tomb, but the whole site bears the evidence of a nation’s neglect . . . . “

By this time, Jefferson’s descendants, public officials, the press, and some private individuals had made various unsuccessful attempts to remedy the situation. An 1878 Resolution of Congress appropriating five thousand dollars for a replacement bogged down, but four years later the Congress appropriated twice that sum to repair the graveyard and erect a new shaft commemorating the memory of the man who had been Governor of Virginia, American Minister to France, Secretary of State, Vice President, and President. A colonel in the Corps of Engineers was ordered to “report to the Secretary of State for duty in connection with the erection of a monument over the grave of Thomas Jefferson,” designs were submitted and approved, contracts awarded, and by mid-April, 1883, the monument arrived at Monticello: the “weight was about 16,000 pounds and it required ten horses to draw it.”(#5)

Prior to proposed ceremonies to dedicate the new monument, Jefferson’s descendants had received numerous requests fo the tombstone. One such request came from the University of Missouri. As the first state university in the Louisiana Purchase Territory which Jefferson had had been instrumental in acquiring during his first administration as President, the University of Missouri presented an appealing claim. The claim, or rather supplication, was strengthened because of Jefferson’s life-long labors I behalf of state-supported education (Jefferson, in effect, originated the concept of the state university, and Missouri’s university had projected a curriculum and a concept of higher education similar to those which Jefferson had put into practice some years before at the university of Virginia), and because of his faith in the western portions of the nation.

Even more relevant, probably, many first and second generations residents of Columbia and Boone County were originally from Virginia and could claim “cousinship” of one kind or other with Mr. Jefferson; Thomas Jefferson Randolph himself had at one time considered emigrating to Missouri; and the sponsors of the University of Missouri’s efforts to obtain the monument were Virginians, including President Samuel Spahr Laws who had been confined to several Union prisons because of his outspoken sympathy for the cause of the Confederacy (and who apparently paid personally the expenses attendant on moving the monument form Monticello to the Columbia campus), and Professor of Greek Alexander Frederick Fleet, a graduate of the University of Virginia who had been a member of the 26th Virginia Regiment from the beginning of the War until General Lee’s surrender at Appomattox and who seems to have originated the quest to acquire the monument.(#6)

At any rate and whatever the reasons, the monument and the marble plaque inscribed with Jefferson’s epitaph were finally given to the University of Missouri. Professor Fleet journeyed to Virginia to attend proj3ected but never-performed dedicatory ceremonies at Monticello;(#7) under his supervision the old base, obelisk, and plaque were shipped frm Monticello to Columbia, whereupon the Curators praised President Laws and Dr. Fleet fo their “unsolicited, timely and active agency in not only originating the purpose to procure the monument of Jefferson for the University, but for prosecuting that purpose in the midst of the difficulties to success: and expressed their gratitude in a formal statement, “printed on white satin, thanking certain great-grandchildren of Mr. Jefferson for giving to the University of Missouri . . . this most gracious . . . gift.”

Mrs. Ellen Wayles Harrison, Thomas Jefferson Randolph’s daughter, responded even more graciously, in a letter to Professor Fleet, concluding:

“We gladly accorded our assent to the proposition that they [the representatives of the University of Missouri] should become the possessors of what we venerated so highly. We have never regretted the gift, and feel that in no other state of the union would its poor, battered, weatherworn front have met with such a welcome. Our admiration for the State of Missouri could not have been heightened, but she has won our lasting gratitude by the veneration she has shown and honor she has done Mr. Jefferson.”

The “sacred relic” was placed to the right of the entrance to Academic Hall, the main building of the University at that time, where it was unveiled on July 4, 1885, the final day of commencement exercises, in a ceremony, said to have been the most elaborate in the history of the University, which include addresses by Missouri Senator George E. Vest, Thomas F. Bayard, national Secretary of State, and Captain James B. Eads, noted Missouri engineer.

The marble plaque was subsequently mounted on the obelisk, but was removed some time thereafter, for safekeeping, to Academic Hall. Ironically enough, when this building was destroyed by fire on January 9, 1892, the shaft was unmarred but the plaque was “cracked and burned.” Since then the restored tablet is kept in a vault in the University’s administration building, Jesse Hall, where it remains tody except for the annual celebration of Jefferson’s birthday at which times it is customarily displayed.

The monument itself was frequently moved from one campus site to another, virtually ignored(#8) and without a marker—although certain individuals and patriotic societies occasionally placed a wreath upon it on Jefferson’s birthday—until 1931. In that year, Jefferson’s birthday was declared a state holiday by the General Assembly of the state of Missouri.

Following this action of the Missouri legislature, University of Missouri President Walter Williams and Representative Joseph b. Shannon of Kansas City were active in renewing interest in Thomas Jefferson at the University. On April 13, 1932, ceremonies were conducted at the tombstone which included unveiling a new marker for the monument and addresses by President Williams and Mr. Shannon who had been influential in obtaining funds for the marker and for the passage of the bill making Jefferson’s birthday a state holiday.

In America’s bicentennial year the monument was again moved, to a site adjacent to the Chancellor’s Residence and alongside a much-frequented walk on Francis Quadrangle. It was rededicated the day after Mr. Jefferson’s birthday, as a part of the University’s bicentennial observances, and aided by a gift from the class of 1926. In its impressive new setting, atop an 18-inch concrete block surrounded by a brick-paved courtyard and evergreen plantings, it was estimated that in three days more students saw the monument than had been even aware of its existence during the preceding year. Chancellor Herbert Schooling, in his dedicatory comments, observed that the monument would be a continuing reminder that Mr. Jefferson considered his founding of the University of Virginia to be one of his major accomplishments and that “the establishment of the University of Missouri in the territory Jefferson had acquired will continue to be a most important accomplishment” in Missouri.

Such annual ceremonies signify a continuing awareness of a great American whose faith in education and in the American people is best summarized in his own words:

“Educate and inform the who mass of the people . . . . They are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty.”


ENDNOTES

1. According to family tradition, Jefferson and Dabney Carr, his boyhood friend, William and Mary classmate, and husband of his sister Martha, had promised each other that the survivor would see that the other was buried at the foot of a favorite oak tree at Monticello. A week after Carr’s death on May 16, 1773, Jefferson had men at work preparing a burial place.

2. Levy bought the property, reduced to 218 acres, for $2,700; Barclay had paid $7,000 for the original purchase.

3. When Levy, who stayed at Monticello primarily during the summers, stopped using Monticello as a “vacation resort,” he gave the plaque to Thomas Jefferson Randolph. It remained at the Randolph family place, Edgehill, until 1883 when it was given, with the monument itself, to the University of Missouri.

4. For full discussion, see Kean, “History of the Graveyard at Monticello.”

5. The new obelisk was twice the size of Mr. Jefferson’s original, the result, perhaps, of bureaucratic love of bigness-as-such.

6. The fact that the Missouri capital, Jefferson City, was named after Mr. Jefferson probably further strengthened the appeal of Missouri’s request.

7. “Let us hang our heads in shame,” a writer lamented in the Charlottesville Jeffersonian, for this “exhibition of the great want of public spirit which characterizes our people.”

8. Except in 1904 when it was lent to the St. Louis World’s Fair. When asked to repeat the favor at the Jamestown Exposition a few years later, the apprehensive Curators declined “for fear that if it were ever taken into . . . Virginia” it might never be returned.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

For detailed information concerning the early years of he graveyard and monument, Robert H. Kean’s “history of the Graveyard at Monticello,” The Collected Papers of the Monticello Association, George Green Shackleford, ed., Princeton university Press, 1965, is invaluable, as is the letter from Ellen Waynes Harrison, undated but written in 1885, to Professor A.F. Fleet, included in The Annual report of the Monticello Association, 1956, pp. 19-21. Interesting material is in William H. Gaines, “From Desolation to Restoration: the Story of Monticello Since Jefferson,” Virginia Cavalcade, I, 4, Spring, 1952; and John Hammond Moore, Albermarle: Jefferson’s County, 1727-1976, University Press of Virginia, 1976.

I am indebted, too, to various individuals: Mrs. Virginia Botts, Columbia, Missouri; Dr. Richard Brownlee and Dr. James W. Goodrich, Director and Assistant Director of the State Historical Society of Missouri; President Emeritus Elmer Ellis, Office of Publication Information Director Mr. Robert Kren, and Chancellor Herbert Schooling of the University of Missouri; Mr. Robert H. Kean of Alexandria, Virginia; Mr. Edward King, Director of he University of Missouri Press; Mr. Sheridan A. Logan of St. Joseph, Missouri; Miss Olivia Taylor of Charlottesville, Virginia; and the late John Cook Wyllie, Librarian of the University of Virginia Library.

© Copyright by William Peden undated but ca 1980

Commentary:
Peden's booklet is used with permission of William Peden's wife, Margaret Sayers Peden.  The undated monograph was probably written in the 1980s.   The text is fully reproduced here but certain photographs were omitted.

Perche Creek Covered Bridge

Following are several newspaper articles detailing the "life" of the once famous Perche Creek covered bridge.  The bridge was located nearly directly under present Interstate 70 where it crosses Perche Creek west of Columbia.

Even before the covered bridge was built, we find this notice from the Missouri Intelligencer of June 8, 1833, p. 2/col. 5, announcing the intent to build the first bridge on the Columbia-Rocheport road across the Perche creek.

NOTICE

The undersigned Commissioners will, on Tuesday the 25th day of June, 1833, in the Town of Columbia, let to the lowest bidder, by public outcry, the BUILDING of a

BRIDGE

across Perche Creek, at or near Burrough's Mill.  The plan of the building, and terms of payment, will be known on that day.  Bond and good security will be required of the undertakers.

J.W. HICKAM,

WILLIAM LIENTZ,

Commissioners.

____________________

The above reference bridge lasted until it was destroyed by a flood in 1849.  The loss of the bridge was a major blow to travel west from Columbia.  The disruption reached westward and was commented on in the Liberty [Missouri] Weekly Tribune of April 12, 1850, p. 2/col. 5:

Why don't the Boone county court build a bridge across Perche in that county.  We are informed by the mail agent that one fourth of the mail failures have been caused by this creek.

____________________ 

The Missouri Statesman answer to that question was published in the Liberty Weekly Tribune of May 2, 1850, p. 2/ col. 4:

BRIDGE OVER PERCHE. --- The Liberty Tribune asks why the Boone County Court don't build a bridge across Perche and thus prevent frequent failures of the mails westward.  In this part of the State neither Courts nor Kings can build bridges in the winter time, but if our friends above will be patient we will soon have a bridge across Perche that will be a bridge.  $3,000 have been appropriated for the purpose, and it is the design of the Court to span the creek with a first class bridge --- stone abutments, covered in, and all that. --- Missouri Statesman.

____________________ 

A broader history of the bridge was reported in the Columbia Missourian newspaper, March 14, 1925, p. 1 of the Missourian Magazine section.

COVERED bridges, once a common sight on Missouri roads, are rapidly becoming a thing of the past.  This is especially true since the state highway program has been inaugurated and construction of hard-surfaced roads is going on all over the state.

The covered bridge on the Rocheport gravel through which thousands of tourists have passed in the past few years is one of the few remaining in the state which will not be on the new highway when it is completed.

The bridge built in 1851 and '52, is the product of Boone County energy and resources for it is built of native oak which was sawed in a mill on Perche Creek where the Gillespie bridge now stands.  The dam of the old mill can still be seen under the bridge but only the marks of the drills show where the stone quarry, which furnished the mill with rock, still stands.  The iron posts which hold the large cross sections of the bridge together were forged in Columbia.

Miss Annie Burroughs and George Burroughs of 109 Hitt street are children of Travis Burroughs, the man who built the bridge.  They feel that the bridge is a monument to the honesty of their father, who was paid $2,500 by the county court to erect the structure.  Mr. Burroughs, in speaking of the erection of the bridge tells how his father suffered a mishap when the Perche creek, which the bridge spans, rose and swept away the platform used by the bridge constructors.  According to Mr. Burroughs, the only living person who was employed in the construction of the bridge is C.C. Boggs, who was the water boy and who is still a resident of Boone County.

The real purpose for covering the bridges was not to keep horses from getting scared, as many people believe, but to preserve the bridge from the weather, according to Mr. Burroughs.

Whereas bridges of today are constructed by calculations, that is, the builder figures out how much strain the bridge will have to bear, and then uses timber or steel whose strength has been tested by machinery designed for the purpose, the covered bridge was built by what is known in engineering language as "judgment."  The builder would put a piece in place and then, if he judged it not strong enough, would use a larger and stronger piece of wood.

An interesting legend centers around this covered bridge.  According to old-timers here, a farmer happened to catch another man making love to his wife under the bridge one day.  He became so angry that he decided to kill the man, so one night he climbed up on to the roof of the bridge.  When his supposed victim came riding through the bridge on his horse the farmer jumped down on him, stabbing the rider to death.  Upon investigation the farmer found that he had killed the wrong man in the dark.

A covered bridge on the road between Boonville and Bunceton figured in an amusing incident last summer when the road for ten miles was lined with cars returning from the Bunceton barbecue where the Democratic candidate, John W. Davis, had delivered a speech.  A light ran was falling, which made the long strong of automobilists anxious to get home, when for some reason or other the whole line of cars stopped.  Upon investigation it was found that one of the cars had stopped on the covered bridge to change a tire and escape the rain, thus holding up some thousand or more cars for fifteen or twenty minutes.

____________________

The old bridge was in a bad state of repairs at this point and was closed to vehicle traffic.  The Columbia Missourian of February 1, 1926, reported on a hopeful effort to preserve the bridge:

Historical Society Still Planning to Preserve Old Covered Bridge

The Boone County Historical Society has not given up its plan of having the old covered bridge on the highway west of Columbia preserved as an historic relic.

"We still hope to devise some plan whereby this interesting example of pioneer bridge work can be preserved," says Prof. Jesse E. Wrench, who has been particularly interested in the movement.

Site Selected 65 Years Ago.

Prof. Wrench has hunted up, in the Courthouse records, the report of the committee which selected the site and made the estimate on the bridge more than sixty-five years ago.  The report was filed with W. Woodson, county clerk, Nov. 16, 1849.  The following is a literal rendition of the report as filed:

"To the County Court of Boone County, we the undersigned commissioners appointed by the court to select a site, Draft a plan, and make an estimate, for a Bridge across Perche-creek, on the Road from Columbia to Fayette, Do report than in pursuance of said order, we have proceeded to view the premises, and have selected a point on said creek, where there is a small Hickory, or Black Oak Bush, on the East Bank, marked H.B. and a leaning Burr Oak Tree, on the West Bank, near the review of the State Road, To be built on the plan of the self suspended Bridge, The plan and specifications to be hereafter filed, and we have estimated the value, at Twenty-Five Hundred Dollars.  All of which is respectfully submitted. Given under our hand this 13th day of November 1849.

"WILLIAM M. BOGGS

"I.W. HICKAM."

Estimated Cost $2,500.

The specifications for the bridge, filed with the county court two days later, stipulate an amazing amount and quality of lumber for an estimated cost of $2,500.

The stone work of the abutments was to be 22 feet long, 8 feet thick at the bottom and tapered so as to be 4 feet thick at the top.  The height to be 30 feet.   The foundation for these abutments was to be made of oak timbers "12 inches thick, 18 feet long running from the water's edge into the bank, and 24 feet long up and down the creek."

The string timbers were specified to be of white oak, 12 by 14 inches square and the floor planking of white oak, 2 by 10 inches.  The bridge was to be weatherboarded with "good black walnut plank, dressed, and shingled in with good white pine shingles."

The hand railing and studding for the roof and sides was "to be put up of good sound timber in a strong, substantial, workmanlike manner."

____________________

Commentary:
The reporter and editor of the last article in the Columbia Missourian seem to have been math-challenged.  The bridge was 75 years old at the time of this article, not 65 as reported twice.

Unfortunately, the plans by the Boone County Historical Society of the time did not materialize and the bridge was not saved for future generations.

The Jefferson City Daily Tribune, April 27, 1887, p. 4/col. 3, included an article attributed to the Rocheport Commercial newspaper that incorrectly said the covered bridge was built in 1854, and that it was "probably he oldest bridge in the state."  The article also claimed the bridge "is the most substantial bridge in the county, and from all appearances is good for thirty years yet."

According to a Missouri Historical Review article (Vol. 36, April 1942, p. 336), the bridge was built in 1850-1851.  The state improved the road and made it the first cross-state highway in 1912, later callilng it Highway 2.  In 1925, the route became US Route 40.  "Then the wooden structure, though which covered wagons once headed to California, saw sleek transcontinental buses crossing the Perche on a new bridge."


The Columbia Evening Missourian of August 5, 1921, p. 2/cols. 2-3, carried an article about the covered bridge titled "Hundreds of Auto Tourists Now Cross Old Civil War Landmark."  The article adds a few things to our knowledge of the bridge.  For example, it says that: "Before the Missouri, Kansas and Texas railroad was built a large hack with a white canvas top, driven from Rocheport to Columbia for twenty-five years by 'Uncle Billy' Ridgeway of Rocheport, crossed te bridge twice daily with passenges, produce, and the Columbia, Midway and Rocheport mail-bags."  It also tells us that the old bridge had been washed away in 1849.
An article by Dorothy  J. Caldwell in the Missouri Historical Review (Vol. 61, January 1967, pp. 229-236) added that the bridge was "closed to utilitarian traffic in the 1920s with the opening of U.S. Highway 40" and that it was razed in 1931.

 It is interesting to note that Mr. Burroughs' occupation in the 1850 and 1870 Boone County, Missouri, census was "farmer."  In the 1860 census, Mr. Burroughs was a "renter," presumably of a farm, and lived as a neighbor of Ishmael Van Horn in the vicinity of the covered bridge that he had built.  The editor wonders if Mr. Burroughs had ever built a bridge before he was contracted by the County to build this one.

The State Historical Society of Missouri has a number of photographs of the Perche Creek covered bridge in their photograph collection, all of which seem to be from late in the bridge's life.  They show that the bridge was situated very close to the high east bank of the creek but had a very long approach over the Perche creek bottoms at the west side.

O.D. Royer Icebox, ca 1905, Added To the Easley Store

Boone County Historical Society collection. Donated by Charles & Judy Johnson and David & Jo Sapp.

The icebox pictured was made ca 1905 by the O.D. Royer Mfg. Company and is rare because it was made with see-through sides for the commercial market of stores and shops. While the available information suggests that the Royer Manufacturing company moved from Downing, Wisconsin to Minneapolis, Minnesota, before 1900, the brass handles on the box doors are stamped with a patent date of Mar. 26, 1901. Thus the estimated 1905 date of manufacture. It measures 24-5/8" x 24-5/8" x 62-3/4" high.

Oscar David Royer was born 13 December 1866 probably in Waverly, Franklin county, Iowa, and died 2 February 1949 in Pasadena (Altadena), Los Angeles county, California. He married Elma Etta Hall, daughter of Amos and Amelia Hall, 13 June 1890. "O.D."as he was known, was a sales representative for Specialty Display Case Co. in Kendalleville, Indiana, and then owned a factory in Downing, Wisconsin. Later he established the Royer Refrigerator Co. in Minneapolis, Minnesota, before moving his family to California where he owned a wholesale candy distributing firm.

The iceboxes that he made displayed chocolates and cheeses and other items needing refrigeration. The see-through sides have double panes of glass about 1" apart. The top ice compartment is insulated in the method of the day, probably with flax straw, and includes a beveled mirror on the side opposite the doors. The door side was probably positioned toward the store clerk for the clerk’s access, while the mirror side faced the customer.

This icebox’s journey from Wisconsin to Boone county is unknown, except for the fact that it was acquired by Mr. & Mrs. Johnson after having for a time been in a restaurant at the Lake of the Ozarks area. Thus, while not a “Boone county artifact,” the wonderful piece is a perfect addition to the Easley General Store in the historical society’s Village at Boone Junction.