Sketch of Daniel Colgin, St. Charles County, Missouri

>From "A History of the Pioneer Families of Missouri, with numerous
sketches, anecdotes, adventures, etc., relating to Early Days in 
Missouri" by William S. Bryan and Robert Rose, Published by Bryan,
Brand & Co., St. Louis Missouri, 1876.
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Daniel Colgin was a tailor by trade, and settled in St. Charles County,
where the poor house now stands, in 1806.  He made a deep cellar under
his log cabin, and placed a trap door in the floor, just inside of the
door, and every night when he went to bed this trap door was unfasten-
ed, so that if the Indians attached the house and broke the door open
they would fall into the cellar.  He also kept an ax and a sledge ham-
mer near his bed, to use in tapping Indians on the head; but his house
was never attacked, and his ingenious contrivances were never brought
into use.  In 1812 he removed to St. Charles, and opened a tailor's
shop in that town.  Here he dressed deer skins and manufactured them
into pants and hunting shirts, from which he derived a comfortable in-
come.  In 1814 he was elected Justice of the Peace, and made a rather
eccentric officer.  Some of his official acts are noticed under the 
head of "Anecdotes and Adventures."  His dwelling house and shop were
one and the same, and there was but one window in the house, which con-
tained only two panes of glass.  The old gentleman kept a pet bear
chained in his yard, and the boys of the town used to torment the poor
beast until it would become furious.  One day while they were teasing
the bear, it broke the chain, and ran the boys all off the place. After
that they let the bear alone.  Colgin's wife was a native of Kentucky,
and his daughters were said to be the prettiest girls in St. Charles.	

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