26 MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN BULLETIN 
upright is in fairly good condition. The entire tree, how- 
ever, is in a poor state of preservation, several large branches 
which have been broken off by wind and ice during past years 
still being lodged in the tree. 
According to Walter B. Stevens’ Centennial History of 
Missouri, Boone’s visit to Missouri from Kentucky in 1798 
was inspired by the Spanish government. He found the 
region so much to his liking that he decided to settle in Mis- 
souri, making his first home at Marthasville. Later he moved 
to Femme Osage, where a son had built a log cabin. This was 
replaced by a pretentious stone house, where Boone lived until 
his death. This was apparently the first stone house built in 
St. Charles County and required eight years for its comple- 
tion. All the stone used was hauled on stone sledges drawn 
by oxen from a hillside on the eastern part of the farm. The 
interior woodwork is black walnut, cut from trees on the 
place and is of the hand-made wooden-pegged variety of the 
period. 
After settlers began to flock to the vicinity of the Boone 
homestead, he was elected ‘‘Syndic’’ of the district, which 
office made him the foremost man of the locality. One of his 
duties was to hold court from time to time, passing on both 
civil and federal cases. Offenders were not infrequently sen- 
tenced to a given number of lashes on the bare back. After 
the United States obtained control of this region, the jurisdic- 
tion of the territorial court was extended to include the 
district formerly presided over by Boone, and eventually a 
courthouse was erected at St. Charles. The habit of appeal- 
ing to Boone and accepting his opinions without question was 
too firmly fixed in the minds of the settlers to admit of their 
accepting the new arrangement; consequently, as long as he 
lived he continued to hold court under the elm tree in front 
of his house and here the troubles and grievances of his 
neighbors were adjusted according to the principles of com- 
mon sense. 
The Garden is indebted to Mr. Ernst Robyn and Mr. Edgar 
Thoroughman, of Augusta, Mo., for information leading to 
the location of the tree and for certain facts included in the 
above article. Thanks are also due to Mr. and Mrs. Henry 
Bollmann, who gave permission for the taking of the accom- 
panying photographs. 
