Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 16.djvu/552

Rh 526 MISSOURI staple in the rich counties in the northern central part of the State, bordering upon the Missouri river. No State raises so many mules, asses, and hogs. The production of cereals in 1880 was corn, 202,485,723 bushels ; wheat, 24,966,627 bushels ; rye, 535,426 bushels ; oats, 20,670,958 bushels ; barley, 123,031 bushels ; buckwheat, 57,640 bushels. The production of tobacco for the same year was 12,015,657 ft from 15,521 acres, valued at $600,256. Three-fourths of this amount was raised in Chariton, Marion, Randolph, Howard, Callaway, and Saline counties. Wild Animals. Red-deer are found in every part of the State, especially in the thinly-settled and mountainous districts. Venison, indeed, in its season, is as cheap as good beef in the markets of St Louis. Wild turkeys are numerous in the swampy and mountainous districts, and are found in all parts of the State. Prairie chickens, or pinnated grouse, are found in the prairie portion of Missouri, and are shipped in great numbers to Eastern markets. In all parts of Missouri are found the quail or Virginia partridge, thousands of barrels of which are shipped from the State each season. The rabbit, a species of hare, is so common as to be considered a pest. The grey squirrel and the red fox-squirrel are also found in large numbers all over the State. Black bass, perch, catfish, buffalo fish, suckers, and pike are the leading varieties of native fish. Manufactures. In 1880 Missouri had about 20,000. manufactur ing establishments, in which a capital of about $125,000,000 was- employed. The products of these establishments were valued at upwards of 300,000,000. The leading manufacturing counties outside of the city of St Louis are Jackson, Buchanan, St Charles, Marion, Franklin, Greene, Cape Girardeau, Platte, Boone, and Lafayette ; but more than three-fourths of the manufactures are produced at St Louis, which is the fourth manufacturing city of the Union. The chief manufacture is that of flour, which employs about 900 mills, and is rapidly increasing. Twenty-four mills made in St Louis, in 1830, 2,142,949 barrels of flour, having a daily out put of more than 11,000 barrels. St Louis millers and dealers sent in 1880 to Europe and South America 619,103 barrels of flour ; and at the world s fairs at Paris, Vienna, and Philadelphia, Missouri flour received the first award. The iron industry, which stands second in importance, is yet only in its infancy, and St Louis seems destined to be one of the great centres of iron and steel manufacture. The amount of iron made in Missouri in 1880, in twenty-two establish ments employing 3139 hands, was 125,758 tons. St Louis made the same year 102,664 tons of pig-iron, steel, and rolled iron and blooms. The yearly values of a number of other iiuhistries are estimated as follows : meat packing, $20,000,000; lumber, $10,000,000; bags and bagging, $7,000,000; saddlery, $7,000,000; oil, $6,000,000; printing and publishing, $5,500,000; furniture, $5,000,000; car riages and waggons, $4,500,000 ; marble and stone, $4,000,000 ; tin, copper, and sheet-iron, $4,000,000; agricultural implements, $2,000,000. The manufacture of glass and glass-ware is carried on to a considerable extent, especially in St Louis. At Crystal City, on the Mississippi, 30 miles below St Louis, is a very large deposit of sand suitable for the manufacture of plate-glass, and a company has been organized and is now in successful operation, with a capital of $1,000,000. Commerce. The extensive commerce of Missouri centres at St Louis, between which city and the ports on the Mississippi and Missouri rivers steamboats are constantly plying. Railroad trans portation has, in recent years, furnished superior and cheaper facilities for much of the trade which formerly depended upon the rivers. The trade in cotton especially has been greatly increased in Missouri since 1870 by the use of railroad transportation, which has made St Louis one of the great cotton centres of the United States. Extensive cotton presses were built in St Louis in that year, and the receipts of cotton from the more southern States has increased rapidly from 12,264 bales in 1869-70 to 457,563 bales in 1879-80. Railroad connexions have made the interior portions of Arkansas and Texas more accessible to St Louis than to the southern ports of shipment, and the trade with the south-west, with the Indians, and with Mexico is constantly increasing. In 1870 St Louis was made by Act of Congress a port of entry to which foreign merchandise could be brought in bond. The value of the direct imports for the year ending 30th June 1882 was $1,934,342. Population. Missouri is divided into 114 counties. The following table gives the number of inhabitants since 1850 : Year. Males. Females. Total. Density per square mile. 1850 1860 1870 1880 357,832 622,201 896,347 1,127,187 324,212 559,811 824,948 1,041,193 682,044 1,182,012 1,721,295 2,168,380 14-37 18-03 26-34 31-55 In 1880 the foreign-born residents numbered 211,578, or 97 per cent., of whom 109,974 were Germans and Scandinavians ; there were also 145,046 of African descent. The early settlers of the State were French, and their descendants are still found in St Louis and Ste Genevieve and a few other smaller towns. Many Germans have recently settled in all parts of the State, while English, Irish, Scotch, and Swedes have also made Missouri their home in considerable numbers. The native American population is mostly descended from immigrants from the States of Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, and Virginia. During recent years there has been a large accession to the population from the eastern and north-western States. St Louis, the chief city of the Mississippi valley, situated upon the Mississippi river about 12 miles below the mouth of the Missouri, has a population of 350,518 ; Kansas City, a thriving town on the western border, situated on the banks of the Missouri, has 55,785 ; St Joseph, in the north-west, has 32,431 ; Hannibal, in the north-east, has 11,074 ; and Jefferson City (the State capital), in the centre, has 5271. Education. Missouri has a public school system of education first adopted in 1839. There are district schools, elementary and ungraded ; city schools, graded, with high school courses ; four normal schools, and a State university. Free public schools for white and coloured children between the ages of six and twenty years are required by law for every district in the State. Besides these public institutions supported by the State there are many private schools and colleges for both sexes. Chief among these are the St Louis University, an institution managed by the Jesuits ; the College of Christian Brothers, also under the control of the Roman Catholics ; and Washington University, a non-sectarian en dowed school, which has property estimated at $1,000,000, and more than 1300 students. The Baptists have a college at Liberty called William Jewell College ; the Congrcgationalists one at Spring field called Drury College ; and the Methodists and Presbyterians several colleges and seminaries. Religion. The early settlers of Missouri were Roman Catholics, and in the river towns may be found to-day a large number of that faith. The Baptists have 88,999 members, with 1385 churches ; the Methodists, 96,270 members and 918 churches ; the Protestant Episcopal Church, 25,000 members and 65 church buildings ; the Presbyterians, with their various branches, 34,628 members and 706 churches. Administration. The legislative power is vested in a body con sisting of a senate and a house of representatives, which meets once in every two years, on the Wednesday after the first day of January next after the election of the members thereof. Members of the legislature are paid a sum not to exceed $5 a day for the first seventy days of the session, and after that not to exceed $1 a day for the remainder of the session. They are also allowed mile age. The executive department consists of a governor, a lieu tenant-governor, a secretary of state, a State auditor, State treasurer, an attorney-general, and a superintendent of public instruction ; these are all elected by the people. The supreme executive power is vested in the governor, who is chosen for four years, as also are the other members of this department. The governor has a qualified veto upon the acts of the legislature, and such other powers as are common to that officer in the several States. The judicial power of the State is lodged in a supreme court, the St Louis court of appeals, circuit courts, criminal courts, probate courts, and municipal courts. All judicial officers are elected by the people. Judges of the supreme court are elected for ten years, those of the St Louis court of appeals for twelve years, those of the circuit courts for six years. Executive and judicial officers are liable to impeachment by the house of repre sentatives. All impeachment cases are tried by the senate. Every male citizen of the United States, and every male person of foreign birth who may have declared his intention to become a citizen of the United States, according to law, not less than one year nor more than five years before he offers to vote, who is over the age of twenty-one years, is entitled to vote at all elections by the people, if he has resided in the State one year immediately preceding the election at which he offers to vote, and has resided in the county, city, or town where he shall offer to vote at least sixty days immediately preceding the election. History. On the 9th April 1682, the French voyager and dis coverer La Salle took possession of the country of Louisiana in the name of the king of France. Its limits were quite indefinite, and in cluded the present territory of Missouri (see LOUISIANA). The first settlements of Missouri were made in Ste Genevieve and at New Bourbon, but uncertainty exists as to the exact date. By some the year is fixed at 1763 ; by others, and by many traditions, as early as 1735. St Louis was settled by Pierre Laclede Liguest, a native of France. The site was chosen in 1763, and in February 1764 Auguste Chouteau went at the order of Liguest to the spot previously selected, and built a small village. For a long time the settlements were confined to the neighbourhood of the river. On the 31st of October 1803 the Congress of the United States passed an Act by which the president was authorized to take possession of the territory according to the treaty of Paris, and the formal transfer of Lower Louisiana was made on 20th December