Caldwell County MO Archives History .....HUGH CHAIN, AN EARLY KINGSTON CARPENTER 
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Karen Walker khw4@yahoo.com September 1, 2008, 4:37 pm

HUGH CHAIN, AN EARLY KINGSTON CARPENTER
	Narrator:  Miss Sarah Chain, 81, of Hamilton, Missouri

     Miss Chain was born in Ohio but came to Kingston as a child when her 
father Hugh Chain brought his family there 1859, shortly after the Hannibal 
and St. Joseph railroad had started up new towns and a building boom in 
Caldwell County.  
     Hugh Chain was a carpenter and had a good trade.  He would often be gone 
from Kingston for weeks on jobs, at times as far as Hannibal to build houses.  
An old freight bill for lumber dated July 2 1860 involves his name.  J.A. 
Brown owner of the lumber yard at Hamilton consigned the lumber to A.G. Davis, 
the freight agent at Hamilton--the nearest freight station for Paxton and 
Chain.  Its freight cost was $39.60 for one car of 2,000,000 pounds, a charge 
which is less than the present freight rates from Hannibal.  Chain was 
building for Paxton of Mirabile, father of the well known Paxton brothers of 
Hamilton.
     During the Civil War, Chain had a narrow escape from death.  He with 
Aaron Pfost and other Kingston and Mirabile men were captured by the 
Thraillkill (Confederate) force, and were in danger of being killed, but were 
released when Pfost showed he was a Mason and threatened the Thraillkill force 
with Masonic enmity if any was killed.
     When Miss Chain was a little girl, the Indians occasionally used to roam 
in small bands through Kingston scaring the children to death, but only 
wanting food.
     Miss Chain taught school in the county for over thirty years beginning in 
the 70's.  In those days, you got a certificate by going up for examination on 
appointed days.  There were three grades lasting one, two and three years.  
Later in the 80's the summer Teachers Normal was held for four weeks ending 
with examination.  Stephen Rogers of Kingston was County School Commissioner 
1874-83.
     The Chain family ran the Kingston House (later Cadman) at Kingston for 
several years and in 1881 Mr. Chain built the Chain House at Hamilton (now the 
Snyder Hotel).  After Mr. Chain's death 1884 the three Chain sisters ran the 
Hotel.
     Interviewed  February 1934.


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