Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition/Missouri
Plate VII. MISSOURI, a Central State of the American Union, lying almost midway between the Atlantic and the Rocky Mountains, British America and the Gulf of Mexico. Its eastern boundary is the Mississippi, separating it from Illinois, Kentucky, and Tennessee. North and south its boundaries with Iowa and Arkansas respectively are mainly coincident with the parallels of 40° 30' and 36° 30' N. lat.; but a small peninsula between the Mississippi and St François rivers stretches 34 miles farther south between Arkansas and Tennessee. The western border, with Nebraska, Kansas, and the Indian Territory, is nearly coincident with the course of the Missouri to the junction of that stream with the Kansas, and then follows the meridian of 17° 40' W. of Washington (94° 43' W. of Greenwich). The area of the State is 65,350 square miles, the extreme length from north to south 282 miles, the extreme width 348 miles. Missouri is divided into a northern and southern portion by the Missouri river, flowing 400 miles in a generally easterly direction from its junction with the Kansas to the point 12 miles above St Louis where it unites with the Mississippi. Northern Missouri has a surface broken and hilly, but not mountainous. It is mainly prairie land, well watered by streams, and fit for agriculture; but there is a good deal of timber in the eastern parts, especially along the bold bluffs of the two great rivers. Southern Missouri is almost equally divided between timber land in the east and prairie in the west. In its south-western portion rises the table-land of the Ozark hills (highest point 1600 feet above the sea). The Osage, the Gasconade, and other streams flow northward and eastward into the Missouri. The south-eastern lowlands form an undulating country, readily drained after rain, with fertile ridges generally running north and south, occasional abrupt isolated hills, forests of oak, hickory, elm, maple, ash, locust, willow, persimmon, pecan, chestnut, and cherry trees, and in the lowest parts swamps and morasses. High rocky bluffs extend along the banks of the Mississippi from the mouth of the Meramec river to Ste Genevieve, rising sometimes precipitously to the height of 350 feet above the water, and low bottom lands with many lakes and lagoons extend from Ste Genevieve to the Arkansas border. The south-east corner of the State is 275 feet above the sea, the north-east corner 445 feet, and the north-west corner 1000 feet.
Climate.—The climate of Missouri, lying as it does far from the ocean and unprotected by mountain ranges, is one of extremes in heat and cold, moisture and drought. The Ozark range is high enough to influence the climate locally, but not to affect that of the whole State. The mean summer temperature for the ten years 1870-80 ranged from 75° in the north-west of the State to 78°.5 in the south-east; but the thermometer has been known to rise to 104°. The winter temperature averaged 33°.87 for the whole State, varying from 28°.5 in the north-west to 39°.5 in the south-east. In some winters the temperature hardly falls to zero; in others 20° below zero have been registered. The Mississippi at St Louis freezes over once in four or five years; but this is partly caused by the accumulations of floating ice coming down from the north. The river has closed as early as the first week in December, and, again, has remained open until the last week in February. It is in cold seasons sometimes passable for the heaviest teams. The Missouri river is often closed during the whole winter. The mean annual temperature of the State varies from 53° to 58°. The climate is, on the whole, dry; for, in spite of the abundant rains, especially in the spring, evaporation is so rapid that the atmosphere is rarely overloaded with moisture. April is the driest month. The greatest amount of rain falls in the south-eastern part of the State. An unusual amount of fair weather, prevailing clearness of sky, general salubrity of soil and climate, are chief among the natural advantages of this great State.
Geology.—The stratified rocks of Missouri belong to the following divisions:—Quaternary, Tertiary, Carboniferous, Devonian, Silurian, and Archæan. The Quaternary system comprises the drift, 155 feet thick; the bluff, 200 feet above the drift; then the bottom prairie, 35 feet thick; and on the surface the alluvium, 30 feet in thickness. Clays with strata of sands, marls, and humus form the alluvial bottoms of the two great rivers of the State, and make up a soil deep, light, and incomparably rich. Beneath the alluvium is found the bottom prairie, made up also of sands, clays, and vegetable moulds. This formation is found only in the bottom lands of the Missouri and Mississippi rivers, and more abundantly in those of the former. Numerous and well-preserved organic remains are found in the bottom prairie, including the shells found in great quantities in the bluff and remains of the mastodon and many trees and plants. Below this formation, resting upon the drift, is the bluff. This rests upon the ridges and river bluffs, and thus is topographically higher, although geologically lower, than the bottom prairie. It is composed chiefly of a grey siliceous marl, coloured sometimes to a deep brown or red by the stains of oxide of iron. This formation extends along the bluffs of the Missouri from Fort Union to its mouth, and is found capping those of the Mississippi from Dubuque to the mouth of the Ohio. It is sometimes 200 feet thick; at St Joseph it is 140, at Booneville 100, at St Louis 50, in Marion county only 30 feet. This formation has interesting fossils (Elephas primigenius, &c.). The drift, the lowest of the Quaternary system, appears in the altered drift, the boulder formation, made up largely of the igneous and rnetamorphic rocks, with rocks from the Palæozoic strata upon which the others rest. Large boulders, five or six feet in diameter, are found, usually of granite or metamorphic sandstone; no fossils except a few logs in the altered drift have been found in this formation. The Tertiary formation in Missouri is composed of clays, shales, iron ores, sandstone, and sand, and extends along the bluffs and bottoms of the south-east part of the State. Iron ore is found in this formation in great abundance; sand of the best quality for glass-making and clays for pottery and stoneware also abound. Below the Tertiary bed are found rocks which strongly resemble Cretaceous beds found in other places in the United States. These strata are in such a state of irregularity and disturbance as to indicate the occurrence of some great movements after their deposition and before the formation of the Tertiary strata. The Upper Carboniferous system, or coal measures, made up of sandstone, limestone, marl, coal, and iron ores, covers an area of more than 23,000 square miles in Missouri, occupying the western and northern portions of the State. The supply of bituminous and cannel coals found here would seem to be well-nigh inexhaustible. In the Lower Carboniferous rock are found many varieties of limestone and sandstone. Among these are the Upper Archimedes Limestone, 200 feet; Ferruginous Sandstone, 195 feet; Middle Archimedes Limestone, 50 feet; St Louis Limestone, 250 feet. The Devonian system is represented by limestone in Marion, Rails, Pike, Callaway, Saline, and Ste Genevieve counties, among which occur the Chouteau Limestone, 85 feet; Lithographic Limestone, 125 feet; Onondaga Limestone, 100 feet. Of the Upper Silurian series are the following formations:—Lower Helderberg, 350 feet; Niagara Group, 200 feet; Cape Girardeau Limestone, 60 feet. Prominent among the Lower Silurian formations are the Trenton Limestone, 360 feet; the Black River and Bird's Eye Limestone; and the Magnesian series. The last-named series is valuable both in a scientific and an economic sense. It covers much of the southern and south-eastern portions of the State, and in it are found vast deposits of lead, zinc, copper, cobalt, iron ores, and marble. The Archæan rocks occur below the Silurian deposits, and contain siliceous and other slates in which no fossils are found. The porphyry rocks of this formation also contain iron ores.
Coal.—The exposed coal in Missouri includes upper, middle, and lower measures. In the first are about 4 feet of coal, and the area of exposure is about 8400 square miles. The middle coal measures contain about 7 feet of coal, and cover an exposed area of about 2000 square miles. The lower measures have five workable seams, varying from 18 inches in thickness to 4½ feet, and also some thin seams of only a few inches. In 1880 556,304 bushels of bituminous coal were raised in thirty-five counties of Missouri, the value at the pit mouth being $1,060,225. $642,772 were paid in wages to 2599 persons. The Missouri coal mines are easily worked.
Iron.—The iron ores are red hematite, red oxide, specular iron, brown hematite or limonite, and clay ironstone. Manganiferous and siliceous specular ores occur in the porphyries of the Archæan rocks, and in the granites. The greatest exposure of specular iron yet discovered is Iron Mountain, the purest mass or body of iron ore known. Analysis shows it to contain from 65 to 69 per cent. of metallic iron. The ore of Shepherd Mountain is not so rich as that of Iron Mountain, but is uniform in character, free from sulphur and phosphoric acid and on the whole superior to any other yet developed in Missouri. Pilot Knob ore gives 53 to 60 per cent. metallic iron, and has few deleterious substances. It is line-grained, light bluish grey in colour. The ore of the Scotia iron banks and Iron Ridge are much alike in appearance and character, being specular boulders imbedded in soft red hæmatite. In some of these boulders are cavities in which the ore has taken botryoidal form, and upon these peroxide of iron crystallizations are so formed that a gorgeous show of prismatic colours is presented. The above are the chief deposits of iron ores, but limonites are found mostly in the southern parts of the State. The counties of Ste Genevieve, Madison, St François, Capo Girardeau, Bollinger, Wayne, Stoddard, Washington, Reynolds, Shannon, Carter, and Ripley have the greatest exposures of these ores, although they are found in many others. The supply of iron ores is, indeed, practically inexhaustible.
Lead.—Second only to iron among the metals of Missouri is the vast deposit of lead found in the southern parts of the State. The great disseminated lead region occupies about one-half of the northern portion of Madison, and about as much of St François county. It is in the magnesian limestone that the largest quantities have been found. In Franklin county galena is found in abundance in ferruginous clay and coarse gravel. In the great mammoth mine in Washington county is a succession of caves in which millions of pounds of lead were found adhering to the sides and roofs. The central lead district of the State comprises the counties of Cole, Cooper, Moniteau, Morgan, Miller, Benton, Maries, Camden, and Osage; the southern lead region the counties of Pulaski, Laclede, Texas, Wright, Webster, Douglass, Ozark, and Christian. The western lead district includes the counties of Hickory, Dallas, Polk, St Clair, Cedar, and Dade; the south-western the counties of Jasper, Newton, Lawrence, Stone, Barry, and Mc Donald. The two counties Jasper and Newton produce fully one-half of the pig lead of Missouri. The lead mines of Granby are among the best-known in the State, and millions of pounds of lead have been taken from these lands.
Copper deposits have been found in several counties, chiefly in the south-western part of the State. Zinc is found, in the shape of sulphuret and also silicate of zinc, in nearly all the lead mines in south-western Missouri. It has often occurred in such masses as seriously to hinder mining operations, and until very recent years, when railroad facilities have given this ore a market, it was thrown aside as worthless. It is now an important and profitable adjunct of the lead mines of Missouri. Cobalt and nickel are found at Mine La Motte and in a few other places. Silver is found in small quantities in lead mines in Madison county, combined with the lead.
Clays for the manufacture of ordinary brick for building purposes and for fire-brick exist in quantities beyond computation, and kaolin has been found in a few places. Marble of various shades and qualities abounds in Missouri, and is an important item in its mineral wealth. Limestones and sandstones suitable for building purposes are found in many parts of the State.
Agriculture.—Indian corn, wheat, oats, and tobacco are the staple products; but cotton, hemp, and flax are also raised to some extent in the southern counties. The average yield of wheat to the acre is 30 bushels, and that return is often far exceeded. No flour is of a higher quality or more in demand in foreign as well as home markets than that made from Missouri wheat. Indian corn is especially used in fattening live stock. Blue grass, timothy, red-top, and red and white clover grow luxuriantly, and favour stock-raising. In some parts of the State pasturage can be had all the year round, and the cheapness of corn makes the raising of pork, in particular, a very profitable business. All varieties of fruit can be very successfully cultivated. The more tender fruits, such as apricots, nectarines, figs, and many choice kinds of grapes, grow here as well as the more northern fruits—the apple, the pear, the plum, and the cherry. Apples and peaches do well in all parts of the State. Six native varieties of grapes are found in luxuriant growth, and many cultivated varieties have been successfully introduced. No State, not even California, can hope ultimately to rival Missouri in the production of both red and white wines. Sheep-raising has proved remunerative in the southern counties chiefly, where the mild climate, the fine grasses, and the abundance of good water are especially favourable to this branch of agricultural industry. There are in Missouri, in round numbers, 10,000,000 acres of improved and 13,000,000 of unimproved land, including 9,000,000 acres of woodland. The cash value of the farms is estimated at $90,000,000. In 1880 there were on the farms in the State 667,776 horses, 192,027 mules and asses, 9020 oxen, 661,405 cows, 1,410,507 other cattle, 1,411,298 sheep, and 4,553,123 swine. Missouri is the fourth maize-producing State of the Union; it supplies more wine than any State except California, and is a rival of Kentucky, Virginia, Tennessee, and Maryland in the culture of tobacco, which is a staple in the rich counties in the northern central part of the State, bordering upon the Missouri river. No State raises so many mules, asses, and hogs. The production of cereals in 1880 was—corn, 202,485,723 bushels; wheat, 24,966,627 bushels; rye, 535,426 bushels; oats, 20,670,958 bushels; barley, 123,031 bushels; buckwheat, 57,640 bushels. The production of tobacco for the same year was 12,015,657 ℔ from 15,521 acres, valued at $600,256. Three-fourths of this amount was raised in Chariton, Marion, Randolph, Howard, Callaway, and Saline counties.
Wild Animals.—Red-deer are found in every part of the State, especially in the thinly-settled and mountainous districts. Venison, indeed, in its season, is as cheap as good beef in the markets of St Louis. Wild turkeys are numerous in the swampy and mountainous districts, and are found in all parts of the State. Prairie chickens, or pinnated grouse, are found in the prairie portion of Missouri, and are shipped in great numbers to Eastern markets. In all parts of Missouri are found the quail or Virginia partridge, thousands of barrels of which are shipped from the State each season. The rabbit, a species of hare, is so common as to be considered a pest. The grey squirrel and the red fox-squirrel are also found in large numbers all over the State. Black bass, perch, catfish, buffalo fish, suckers, and pike are the leading varieties of native fish.
Manufactures.—In 1880 Missouri had about 20,000 manufacturing establishments, in which a capital of about $125,000,000 was employed. The products of these establishments were valued at upwards of $300,000,000. The leading manufacturing counties outside of the city of St Louis are Jackson, Buchanan, St Charles, Marion, Franklin, Greene, Cape Girardeau, Platte, Boone, and Lafayette; but more than three-fourths of the manufactures are produced at St Louis, which is the fourth manufacturing city of the Union. The chief manufacture is that of flour, which employs about 900 mills, and is rapidly increasing. Twenty-four mills made in St Louis, in 1830, 2,142,949 barrels of flour, having a daily output of more than 11,000 barrels. St Louis millers and dealers sent in 1880 to Europe and South America 619,103 barrels of flour; and at the world's fairs at Paris, Vienna, and Philadelphia, Missouri flour received the first award. The iron industry, which stands second in importance, is yet only in its infancy, and St Louis seems destined to be one of the great centres of iron and steel manufacture. The amount of iron made in Missouri in 1880, in twenty-two establishments employing 3139 hands, was 125,758 tons. St Louis made the same year 102,664 tons of pig-iron, steel, and rolled iron and blooms. The yearly values of a number of other industries are estimated as follows:—meat packing, $20,000,000; lumber, $10,000,000; bags and bagging, $7,000,000; saddlery, $7,000,000; oil, $6,000,000; printing and publishing, $5,500,000; furniture, $5,000,000; carriages and waggons, $4,500,000; marble and stone, $4,000,000; tin, copper, and sheet-iron, $4,000,000; agricultural implements, $2,000,000. The manufacture of glass and glass-ware is carried on to a considerable extent, especially in St Louis. At Crystal City, on the Mississippi, 30 miles below St Louis, is a very large deposit of sand suitable for the manufacture of plate-glass, and a company has been organized and is now in successful operation, with a capital of $1,000,000.
Commerce.—The extensive commerce of Missouri centres at St Louis, between which city and the ports on the Mississippi and Missouri rivers steamboats are constantly plying. Railroad transportation has, in recent years, furnished superior and cheaper facilities for much of the trade which formerly depended upon the rivers. The trade in cotton especially has been greatly increased in Missouri since 1870 by the use of railroad transportation, which has made St Louis one of the great cotton centres of the United States. Extensive cotton presses were built in St Louis in that year, and the receipts of cotton from the more southern States has increased rapidly—from 12,264 bales in 1869-70 to 457,563 bales in 1879-80. Railroad connexions have made the interior portions of Arkansas and Texas more accessible to St Louis than to the southern ports of shipment, and the trade with the south-west, with the Indians, and with Mexico is constantly increasing. In 1870 St Louis was made by Act of Congress a port of entry to which foreign merchandise could be brought in bond. The value of the direct imports for the year ending 30th June 1882 was $1,934,342.
Population.—Missouri is divided into 114 counties. The following table gives the number of inhabitants since 1850:—
| Year. | Males. | Females. | Total. | Density per square mile. |
| 1850 | 357,832 | 324,212 | 682,044 | 14.37 |
| 1860 | 622,201 | 559,811 | 1,182,012 | 18.03 |
| 1870 | 896,347 | 824,948 | 1,721,295 | 26.34 |
| 1880 | 1,127,187 | 1,041,193 | 2,168,380 | 31.55 |
In 1880 the foreign-born residents numbered 211,578, or 9.7 per cent., of whom 109,974 were Germans and Scandinavians; there were also 145,046 of African descent. The early settlers of the State were French, and their descendants are still found in St Louis and Ste Genevieve and a few other smaller towns. Many Germans have recently settled in all parts of the State, while English, Irish, Scotch, and Swedes have also made Missouri their home in considerable numbers. The native American population is mostly descended from immigrants from the States of Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, and Virginia. During recent years there has been a large accession to the population from the eastern and north-western States.
St Louis, the chief city of the Mississippi valley, situated upon the Mississippi river about 12 miles below the mouth of the Missouri, has a population of 350,518; Kansas City, a thriving town on the western border, situated on the banks of the Missouri, has 55,785; St Joseph, in the north-west, has 32,431; Hannibal, in the north-east, has 11,074; and Jefferson City (the State capital), in the centre, has 5271.
Education.—Missouri has a public school system of education first adopted in 1839. There are district schools, elementary and ungraded; city schools, graded, with high school courses; four normal schools, and a State university. Free public schools for white and coloured children between the ages of six and twenty years are required by law for every district in the State. Besides these public institutions supported by the State there are many private schools and colleges for both sexes. Chief among these are the St Louis University, an institution managed by the Jesuits; the College of Christian Brothers, also under the control of the Roman Catholics; and Washington University, a non-sectarian endowed school, which has property estimated at $1,000,000, and more than 1300 students. The Baptists have a college at Liberty called William Jewell College; the Congregationalists one at Springfield called Drury College; and the Methodists and Presbyterians several colleges and seminaries.
Religion.—The early settlers of Missouri were Roman Catholics, and in the river towns may be found to-day a large number of that faith. The Baptists have 88,999 members, with 1385 churches; the Methodists, 96,270 members and 918 churches; the Protestant Episcopal Church, 25,000 members and 65 church buildings; the Presbyterians, with their various branches, 34,628 members and 706 churches.
Administration.—The legislative power is vested in a body consisting of a senate and a house of representatives, which meets once in every two years, on the Wednesday after the first day of January next after the election of the members thereof. Members of the legislature are paid a sum not to exceed $5 a day for the first seventy days of the session, and after that not to exceed $1 a day for the remainder of the session. They are also allowed mileage. The executive department consists of a governor, a lieutenant-governor, a secretary of state, a State auditor, State treasurer, an attorney-general, and a superintendent of public instruction; these are all elected by the people. The supreme executive power is vested in the governor, who is chosen for four years, as also are the other members of this department. The governor has a qualified veto upon the acts of the legislature, and such other powers as are common to that officer in the several States. The judicial power of the State is lodged in a supreme court, the St Louis court of appeals, circuit courts, criminal courts, probate courts, and municipal courts. All judicial officers are elected by the people. Judges of the supreme court are elected for ten years, those of the St Louis court of appeals for twelve years, those of the circuit courts for six years. Executive and judicial officers are liable to impeachment by the house of representatives. All impeachment cases are tried by the senate.
Every male citizen of the United States, and every male person of foreign birth who may have declared his intention to become a citizen of the United States, according to law, not less than one year nor more than five years before he offers to vote, who is over the age of twenty-one years, is entitled to vote at all elections by the people, if he has resided in the State one year immediately preceding the election at which he offers to vote, and has resided in the county, city, or town where he shall offer to vote at least sixty days immediately preceding the election.
History.—On the 9th April 1682, the French voyager and discoverer La Salle took possession of the country of Louisiana in the name of the king of France. Its limits were quite indefinite, and included the present territory of Missouri (see Louisiana). The first settlements of Missouri were made in Ste Genevieve and at New Bourbon, but uncertainty exists as to the exact date. By some the year is fixed at 1763; by others, and by many traditions, as early as 1735. St Louis was settled by Pierre Laclede Liguest, a native of France. The site was chosen in 1763, and in February 1764 Auguste Chouteau went at the order of Liguest to the spot previously selected, and built a small village. For a long time the settlements were confined to the neighbourhood of the river. On the 31st of October 1803 the Congress of the United States passed an Act by which the president was authorized to take possession of the territory according to the treaty of Paris, and the formal transfer of Lower Louisiana was made on 20th December 1803. In 1804 Congress divided the territory into two portions. The northern part, commonly called Upper Louisiana, was taken possession of in March 1804. In June 1812 Missouri was organized as a Territory, with a governor and general assembly. The first governor (1813-1820) was William Clarke. In 1818 Missouri applied for admission to the Union as a State. Two years of bitter controversy followed, which convulsed the country and threatened the dissolution of the Union. This controversy followed a resolution introduced into Congress which had in view an anti-slavery restriction upon the admission of Missouri to the Union. This was at last settled by the adoption of the “Missouri compromise,” which forbade slavery in all that portion of the Louisiana purchase lying north of 36° 30′ except in Missouri, and on 19th July 1820 Missouri was admitted to the Union. A convention to frame a constitution had already been called, and the constitution then adopted remained without material change until 1865. The first general assembly under the constitution met in St Louis in September 1820, and Alexander McNair was chosen governor in August. The seat of government was fixed at St Charles in 1820, and removed to Jefferson City, the present State capital, in 1826. The first census of the State was taken in 1821, when the number of inhabitants was found to be 70,647, of whom 11,254 were slaves. In the Black Hawk war in 1832, the Florida war in 1837, and the Mexican war in 1846 Missouri volunteer troops did their share of the work. In the troubles in Kansas, and the bitter discussion upon the question of slavery, Missouri was deeply involved. A strong feeling in favour of secession showed itself in many parts of the State. Governor Jackson, in his inaugural address on the 4th of January 1861, said that Missouri must stand by the slaveholding States, whatever might be their course. The election of a majority of Union men, however, as delegates to a convention called to consider the affairs of the nation, showed that public sentiment was hostile to secession, and the convention adjourned without committing the State to the secession party. United States troops were soon gathered at St Louis, and forces were also sent to Jefferson City, and to Rolla. Governor Jackson fled from the capital, and summoned all the State troops to meet him at Booneville. General Lyon defeated these troops, 17th June 1861, and soon most of the State was under the control of the United States forces. The State convention was reassembled. This body declared vacant the offices of governor, lieutenant-governor, and secretary of state, and filled them by appointment. The seats of the members of the legislature were also declared vacant. Governor Jackson soon issued a proclamation declaring the State out of the Union, and Confederate forces were assembled in large numbers in the south-western part of the State. General Lyon was killed at the battle of Wilson's Creek near Springfield, and General Fremont, commanding the department of the west, decreed martial law throughout the State. For a year matters were favourable to the Confederates, and at the opening of 1862 their troops held nearly half the State; but in February a Federal force under General Curtis drove General Price into Arkansas. He returned in 1864, and overran a large part of the State, but was finally forced to retreat, and but little further trouble arose in Missouri during the war. Missouri furnished to the United States army during the war 108,773 troops. In 1865 a new constitution was adopted by the people. In 1869 the XV. Amendment to the United States constitution was adopted by a large majority. In 1875 still another State constitution was drawn up by a convention called for that purpose, and ratified by the people, and is now the fundamental law of the State. (M. S. S.)
| VOL. XVI. | MISSOURI | PLATE VII. |
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