Villages of Crawford County, Missouri - OSAGE--BERRYMAN Several miles upstream on the Courtois at the mouth of Lost Creek is the little village of Berryman. Strangely enough Berryman, like several other historic places in Crawford County remained a wayside village almost lost to tradition. Fortunately the village is on the old Ironton Road that was used so many years ago by iron workers who hauled the ore from Pilot Knob and Iron Mountain to the smelters at Midland, Sligo, and the Meramec Iron Works. When the great road building program began years later it was found to be the natural place to construct Highway 8 from southeastern Missouri toward the north and west. The historical setting of Berryman is interesting because it is on the borderlands of the early mining interests of Washington County. The Spanish had arrived in the region and opened many "tiff" mines, the French had arrived and opened up a great fur trade with the Indians. Moses Austin settled at Potosi in 1798. Potosi had become an important trading center. Twenty miles away at the site now called Berryman archaeologists have found much evidence of an Indian village. Recently the federal government has acquired land at the junction of Lost Creek and the Courtois to be reserved as a national point to be preserved for the study of the early Indians of the region. The old settlers of the vicinity have handed down to later generations the story that the place was first called Osage because a band of Osage Indians had a village at the site. Certainly they were in a natural location for good trapping and hunting along the valleys of Lost Creek and Courtois. Potosi was only twenty miles away and the valley of historic little Lost Creek extended for more than ten miles toward the important trading center. The original date of beginning of Osage is unknown, but an 1864 map of "Pilot Knob" indicates that the retre at of the Union army afte r the Battle of Pilot Knob, and the follow up of the Confederates, passed by the village of Osage. This fact sets the date previous to 1864 because the Battle of Pilot Knob and the famous march to Leasburg occurred between September 27 and October 1, 1864. The Osage Indians had yielded to the Great White Father thirty years before. The Osage Indians are gone, but the name retained until 1886 when it was changed to Berryman by John W. Berryman. Although the Indians in Missouri relinquished their claims and gave up their lands in the region, there were roving bands of the various tribes for several years after the signing of the various treaties. The Osage and the Little Osage gave up claim to lands in Missouri in 1825. The Shawnee in 1825 and the Delaware in 1829 sold their property rights. Finally, in 1832, the remaining tribes--the Kickapoo, Peoria, and Piankeshaw--agreed to move out. About .1835 some of these Kickapoo Indians were still embarrassing and harassing the early settlers of Washington and Crawford counties. Berryman village is located on the county line and the antics of the Indians were common. One interesting but unpleasant incident is told in history . . . . Goodspeed's History relates it in this fashion: '!Among the early settlers of Washington County, Mo., was one Henry Padgett, better known as Henry Fry, who settled at Big River Mills, near the eastern line of the county, as it was originally organized. Miss Elizabeth Baker was also among the first settlers of the neighborhood. These parties contracted to marry, and, there being no minister of the gospel, nor magistrate then in that vicinity, it was planned to invite a party of attendants and go to Ste. Genevieve, and there have the marriage solemnized by the Catholic priest. It was also designed to take provisions along for a good s upper, and after the supper to have a dance. Accordingly, at the appointed time, the whole party, consisting of the bride and bridegroom, five or six young ladies, and an equal number of young men, all on horseback, and two wagons loaded with peItry, bear meat, venison, maple sugar, wild honey, etc., set out for Ste. Genevieve. All moved along merrily until they were near their destination, when they were halted by a band of about sixty Kickapoo hidians, who took from them the wagons and their contents, and stripped all the horseback riders naked, both men and women, except the bride, on whom they left one undergarment, and then bade them mount their steeds and proceed on their way, doing them no other harm. Thus the wedding party advanced, gentlemen in front and ladies in the rear,, and halted in the timber near the village of Ste. Genevieve, while the bridegroom advanced to within hearing distance of the dwelling of a Frenchman in the suburbs. Loud calling brought the Frenchman out, and to him the signal of distress was given. Being a kindhearted man he went to the relief of the intended husband, and after hearing explanations returned to the village, made a quick canvass for clothing, and soon gathered an entire outfit for the parties in distress. Being reclothed in borrowed garments, the wedding party entered the village and went to the church, found the priest, and the contracting parties were married as though nothing had happened; but the supper from their own provisions was not prepared, and, as the clothing did not exactly fit each individual, the dance was postponed. It is said that Padgett lived to a great age--considerably over a hundred years. The truth of this narrative is vouched for by old c it i z e n s who learned the facts from the early settlers living when the incident occurred:' The earliest factual history of Osage began when Zachariah T. Maxwell came to the site and opened up a general store in 1875. It is believed, however, that the Osages had had a little trading post here many years before, and that it became finally the nucleus of a white man's village which he called Osage. Zachariah Maxwell was born in Washington County and educated in old CaIedonia Academy. His little store was near the banks of the Courtois and over the county line in Crawford County. While operating the store he was elected Representative of Crawford County in the Missouri legislature and served from 1886 to 1888. The mail in the early days was brought on horseback from Potosi, but it is not known when the first post office was established or who the first postmaster was. In 1875 Zachariah Maxwell was the postmaster. In 1886 the property and lands around Berryman were purchased by the Honorable John W. Berryman, another prominent man from Washington County. He attended Arcadia High School and in 1861 enlisted in the Confederate army, becoming captain of his company. He fought in the battles of Shiloh, Corinth, Granada, Iuka, and Port Hudson. After the war was over he wentto the goldfields of California but returned in 1865 and engaged in sawmill operations. In 1886 Mr. Berryman built a store on the Crawford County side and a fine home on the Washington County side. This Washington County residence enabled him to be a candidate and he was elected to the state legislature for twoterms representing Washington County. At this period Mr. Berryman built seven houses, a bIacksmith shop, and was the owner of three hundred twenty acres. In 1888 there weresigns on the horizon that the village would be a thriving place. John Beiryman had become the postmaster and the name was changed to Berryman. Soon after Mr. Berryman sold all his possessions of both property and land along the two streams to Cyrus N. Banta. C. N. Banta was a successful man in business, was director in a bank in Steelville, and active in many other enterprises in Washington and Crawford counties. He became postmaster in 1888 and operated the store for many years until he sold it to his son. Epke, during the 1920s. Epke retained the position till about 1930, having served in that capacity for over forty years. Since Epke Banta the postmasters have been Glen Banta and Mrs. Beulah Hudson Banta. The store of Berryman has remained the possession of the same famiIy for eighty years, but today it is owned by the Matchell family. The churches of the community are located a short distance from the village. The Baptist Church was organized many years ago and is on the hill west of the Courtois. The Christian Church is up the Lost Creek Valley about two miles. Both have declined in membership, but have served the spiritual needs as meeting places for many years. The Berryman Cemetery is located adjacent to the Baptist Church and is the silent city of several of Crawford County's early settlers. The closing paragraphs of the history of Berryman may appear to the reader as having an undue personal character. This is purposely true because the writer was fortunate to be the first high school teacher at Berryman. It was aprivilege to serve as superintendent, principal, classroomteacher, coach play director, and janitor of the Job High School organized at Berryman in the fall of 1926. This Berryman High School was under a large elm, which also sheItered the first little store built by Zachari ah T. Maxwell in 1875. When C. N. Banta and wife arrived at Berryman in 1886 they lived in this building until they were able to find a suitable place to live. In 1926 it became a bulwark of secondary education in the community. The basketball court was a thirty-five by seventy feet sawdust-covered area bounded by logs to prevent loss of the sawdust, and it was also under the shade of the old elm tree. The subjects taught were world history, American history, algebra, plane geometry, agriculture I first and second Year EngIish, and sanitation and physiology. The high school students attending the Berryman High School during the two years from 1926 to 1928 were Calvin Mason, Mona Huitt, Noel Johnson, Cleo Scott, Mabel McMillen, Kenneth McMillen, Ollie Blount, Mildred Matthews. Wanda Blount, May Mason, Edith Payne, Dewey Crump, Harlan Hansen, Kenneth MetcaIf, Hallie Silvey, Ethel Gibson, Thomas Roussin, Jewell Breuer, Lynwood Trask, Beulah Hudson, Jess Compton, Jessie Miner, Neva Wilkinson, and Rodney Johnson. Extra curricular activities were volleyball and basketball. Basketball games were played with other two-year high schools. Some were victories, some losses. The highlight of those years was the long ride to Jefferson City to visit the capitol in a flat-bed truck. The Berryman eIementary school was located about a mile down the Courtois Valley from the high school. The teachers for the two years given were first, Edith Adair, and secondIy, Gladyne Banta. Following 1928 the later high school teacher s were Arthur Naugle and Mary Munro. The high school was closed about 1932 and the grade school a few years later with the county school reorganization. In recent years the highway past Berryman has been changed several yards north of the original road and the Berryman Store was subsequently torn down and rebuilt at a new site. The high school buiIding has been razed. A new bridge had been constructed across the Courtois replacing a hog-trough bridge that had replaced a primitive pole bridge. Although Berryman commercially stands still it has a rich and interesting past. Along this beautiful Lost Creek Valley trekked the weary broken-hearted Cherokee Indians in 1837-39 when they left that "infamous trail of tears" while on that forced march to the Oklahoma reservations. Along the savalley came General Ewing's footsore Union army it retreated from Fort Davidson to Leasburg in 1864. Berryman has been the gateway for great number of pioneers coming from southeast Missouri into Crawford County. They came from Tennessee, Kentucky, Georgia, and the Carolinas; to live and to die in Crawford County. ------ CRAWFORD COUNTY AND CUBA MISSOURI James Ira Breuer, 1972 p. 85-92 ==================================================================== USGENWEB NOTICE: In keeping with our policy of providing free information on the Internet, data may be used by non-commercial entities, as long as this message remains on all copied material. These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or for presentation by other persons or organizations. 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