CHAPTER VI.
THE BEGINNING OF THE COUNTY
THE FIRST COUNTY COURT - STORES ESTABLISHED - COUNTY SEAT LOCATED - ECONOMIC CONDITIONS.
The records show that the first County Court was held at Henry Avery's on the fourth and fifth of May, 1835, the next term being held at the cabin of William Goff in Deer Creek township. Here was held the first term of the Circuit Court, in December, 1835, with Charles H. Allen as judge.
The trading point of the early settlers was Boonville, on the Missouri River. Goods were brought up the Missouri River by boat and thence overland to Henry County. The needs of the growing county demanded the establishment of stores, and so in 1835, not far from the home of Henry Avery, Thomas and Charles Waters opened the first store ever opened in Henry County. Clark and Boggs, the former a merchant of Boonville, opened the second store. Near the home of William Goff, James Field opened the third mercantile establishment, while a little later "the store down on the creek" was started by Hall and Ketcham, at the crossing of Tebo Creek. The hard times which followed in the "panic of 1837" caused the failure of all of them except one, and that was owned by Wallace Brothers, at Clinton, where in the year 1836 the county seat was located.
In the year 1834, the Legislature of Missouri, which organized Rives County, appointed a commission composed of Anderson Young and Daniel McDowell of Lafayette County, and Daniel M. Boone of Jackson County, to locate a county seat for the newly organized Rives County. Twenty-one months after their appointment, in the fall of 1836, these gentlemen reported that they had selected the southeast quarter of section 3, township 41, range 26, for the location of the county seat. The County Court accepted the report at its November term, 1836, and appointed Peyton Parks as county seat commissioner, with full power to lay out and plat the new county seat, to build roads, etc. James M. Goff was named by Mr. Parks to lay off sixty-four lots and the first sale took place in February, 1837. The first building was for the store of Wallace Brothers, which had hitherto been located in Fields Creek township, north of Clinton, but it was moved to the county seat after the commissioners had located it.
At the time of the location, there was some rivalry over the matter. It is probable that the present site of Calhoun would have been selected had it not been that the commissioners felt that it lay too far north of the center line of the county. The first hotel was put up by John Nave and was located on the ground now occupied by the Clinton National Bank. Logs are said to have been hauled by Nathan Fields and the buildings themselves obtained the sky-scraping dimensions of one and a half stories.
As was stated earlier, the trading point for the people of the county up to 1836 was Boonville. Even with the establishment of the county seat and the revival of trade and credit that followed the panic of 1837, the wants of the settlers were not as extensive as the average citizen's of today, who is unable to live without the telephone, the automobile and the electric light. Travel was on horseback. Light was given by tallow candles, while the method of communication was the mail which reached them through the post office at Muddy Mills, some thirty to fifty miles distant. The land was worth $1.25 an acre, cows from $5.00 to $10.00 apiece; a good horse cost $25.00, a dressed hog from $1.25 to $1.50. Wheat sold for from thirty-five to forty cents a bushel, corn could be bought for fifty cents a barrel and a young calf for seventy-five cents. Farm-hands received from twenty-five to fifty cents per day and their board, while the price for splitting rails was twenty-five cents per hundred.
With the coming of the country store came also the horse-mill, so that it was not necessary to continue to go long distances to have corn ground. In 1835, Richard Wade erected the first horse-mill in Henry County, which was situated on section 7, township 43, range 45, or about three miles west of the Avery settlement. In the same year, William Collins put up a mill in the eastern part of Henry County; in 1838, a grist mill was established on Honey Creek, by John Dickson, and Huntley's mill, which had a run of burrs for both wheat and corn and which was considered a particularly good mill, was established in Clinton township in 1845.
