280 STATE HORTICULTUEAL SOCIETY. 



Indulgence of every passion, and without a regard for religion, the state of society among 

 the rising generation Is truly deplorable. The wives of the Imnters are particularly unfor- 

 tunate, lieing exposed to Incloment weather, hardships and fatli^ues of all kinds, living In 

 cabins wltli no ttoors except the damp earth, and dolnt?. In many Instances, man's work. 

 It Is no wonder that most of their children die In Infancy, and that they themselves are 

 stolid, spiritless and without ambitions. 



The first permanent settlement in Southwest Missouri, of which 

 ■we have any authentic record, was established soon after Schoolcraft 

 made his most interesting journey through this i)art of the State, and 

 ■was on the James river, about eight miles south of the site of the 

 present city of Springfield. William Pettijohn, who belonged to a 

 White river settlement in Arkansas, and who had been on a hunting 

 excursion to the James, went back to his neighbors with the news that 

 he had discovered a country which "flowed with milk and honey, bear's 

 oil and buffalo marrow." And so he, after having removed succes- 

 sively from Virginia and Ohio to the White river, and some of his 

 friends, who had dwelt first in North Carolina and then in Tennessee, 

 made one more move to the fertile banks of the James — the stream of 

 ■which Schoolcraft, in J818, wrote: "Its waters have the purity of 

 crystal; it lies under a climate the most mild, salubrious and delight- 

 ful ; and on its banks are situated a body of (he most fertile and beau- 

 tiful lands which the whole valley of the Mississippi affords. The 

 timber on its banks is abundant, and remarkable for its size and value, 

 and nothing can exceed the vigor and the verdure of vegetable nature 

 on this beautiful and neglected stream." All of which the tourist of 

 today will find exactly true. 



Although the first explorations in Missouri were made by the 

 Spanish, we have seen that the first settlements were made by the 

 French many years later, and these were established mainly along the 

 Mississippi river, after which the Spanish again appeared, making some 

 email contribution to the colonization of this new territory. 



When Featherstonhaugb, the English geologist, visited St. Louis 

 in 18;^4, he called attention to the strange mixture of French, Spanish 

 and American settlers, adding that at that very time the city was half 

 filled with German immigrants. His comments on the state of affairs 

 at that time are graphic and amusing. He says : 



On reaching Ihe main street of st. Louis, my fancy was filled with the history of the 

 peregrinations and adventures of Father Hennepin, La Salle and other early travelers in 

 these regions, and, anxious to see the descendants of the enterprising Canadians who first 

 discovered the shoi-es of the Mississippi, I was grievously aflllcted at the common place ap- 

 pearance of tlie shops and the want of Frencli names over them. To have followed Pere 

 Hennepin so far, merely to find a street full of Reuben Doollttles and Jeremiah Cushlngs 

 painted over tlie doors, gave me a sensible chill; but the moment that the avaricious looks 

 of the numerous Yankee storekeepers and their stores well filled with European goods from 

 the Atlantic states met my eyes, all the romance of Canadian cottages, old French physiog- 

 nomies and crowds of Indians walking about, that had been flourishing in my imagination, 

 was completely dispelled. I saw at once that the everlasting Jonathan had struck his roots 

 deep Into the ground, and that the La salles had given way to Doolittle & Co. 



