St. Clair County
Remnants Of The Past

Kansas City Times
26 March 1951

A Rugged Ozarks Resident at 83 Tells Tales of A Pioneer Neighbor’s Prowess

Jacob Coonce, Who Went to St. Clair County About 1825, Built the First Cabin in the Area Six Years Later – With His Beloved Rifle, “Old Betsey”, He Killed a Stalking Indian, and Once Stole a Panther’s Meal.

By Albert H. Hindman.

In many hunting expeditions which the writer has made in the last ten years to the Ozark borderline country near Collins, St. Clair County, Missouri, it has been his good fortune to have been accompanied in some of them by Grant Rector, a native of the region, and his hunting dogs.
Rector has enjoyed eighty-three birthdays, but he still climbs tirelessly over the rocky, tree covered hills. He carries an ancient double-barrel 12-gauge shotgun, bearing the scars and scratches of many campaigns, and woe betide the animal or bird htat gets within range of it. He recently killed two wolves.
“I heer’ed my hounds a runnin’ somethin’ t’other day when I was out’n th’ timber,” he says. “Sounded like they was a comin’ my way, and I stood still. Purty soon I sees a wolf a trottin’ along, lookin’ behind him over his shoulder in the direction of the hounds. He never did see me, and when he got in range, I raised my old double and let him have it. Well, sir, in just a few minutes, here comes his mate, trottin’ along and lookin’ behind her, too. So I just raised my old double and let her have it, too.”

Tales of a Pioneer.

As we walked through the timber, Rector has told many times of the early history of St. Clair County in general, and one of Jacob Coonce in particular, whose many feats of hunting and woodcraft, as extolled glowingly by Rector, rival those of Daniel Boone, Davy Crockett and Kit Carson.
“Jake Coonce built the first cabin in what is now St. Clair County,” Rector had often related, and a research into early St. Clair history and records verifies this. Jacob Coonce built his cabin in 1831 in what is now Roscoe township, about five miles southwest of the present site of Osceola. He lived there a year, then located permanently near Brush creek, in Washington township, on his claim of 720 acres. There he lived until he died in 1878.
Coonce was born in St. Charles County, Missouri Territory, February 6, 1806. He left home when he was 14, and made his way alone from that time on. The first money he ever earned was a silver dollar, which he kept as long as he lived. While still in his teens he went to the mountains of the far Northwest, remaining there several years; then journeyed on north to Canada.
When about 19 or 20, he returned to Missouri, and hunted from the Gasconade river to the hills and valleys near the junction of the Sac and Osage rivers. As early as 1827, when he was 21, he had decided to make his future home in this region. He was in the Black Hawk Indian war, and served in the Mexican war under Sterling Price and Alexander Doniphan.

In West With Carson.

Jacob Coonce was a good friend of Kit Carson, and accompanied him on many of the latter’s expeditions in the West.Whether it was on one of these expeditions, or in the Black Hawk war, the records do not state, but at one time Coonce and four other men had a fight with Indians, and captured sixteen of them. In this fight Coonce was struck on the head with a tomahawk, and wounded severely.
When Coonce built his cabin near the Sac river in 1831, the region was really a howling wilderness. The records relate that deer roved through the vicinity in herds of from ten to seventy; that elk and black bears were seen frequently, and that the woods fairly teemed with panthers, wild cats, wild turkeys, raccoons and oppossums. On the prairies, there were prairie chickens without number, and great flights of passenger pigeons flew over in clouds so thick as to blot out the sun. The rivers abounded with fish, and in the spring and in the fall, great flights of ducks and geese alighted on them. Jacob was lulled to sleep at night by the howling of the wolves, and sometimes these would venture so close to his doorstep that his dogs would chase them away, only to be chased back themselves by the wolves.
At this time, there were only about 5,000 miles of railroads in the entire United States, and no railroads west of the Mississippi river. Supplies were obtained from Harmony Mission in Bates County, or from Boonville. Mail was carried on horseback, by river boats, and on wagons which occasionally went through the country.

Affection for His Rifle.

Coonce raised a little corn and vegetables, but hunting was his real occupation. His greatly beloved rifle he affectionately called “Betsey”. Betsey was a flint-lock. About the time that Jacob built his cabin, the cap-lock was beginning to appear. It was faster and surer in firing.
In 1834, on a horseback trip to St. Louis, Coonce stopped at the shack of Henry H. Sproull, a gunsmith living six miles from Calhoun, in Henry County, and told him to put a percussion, or cap-lock, on Betsey. On his return to the gunsmith, he obtained his rifle, patted it affectionately, and said, “Old Bet, you and I have never been parted so long before, and we won’t be again.” He then loaded his rifle, placed a cap on the new lock, and catching sight of a squirrel high up in a tall oak, he hugged Betsey to his shoulder, took a quick aim, and pulled the trigger. The squirrel came tumbling down. Jacob smiled, turned to Sproull, and said, “She’s all right,” then went happily on his way.
Even more colorful than the tales related in the St. Clair County records about its first settler are the tales told about him by Grant Rector, tales which were in turn told Rector by his father and his father’s neighbors, who knew Coonce personally, and hunted and fished with him.

Stopping an Indian.

“Once,” said Rector, “Jake was huntin’ in the woods here-abouts. Jake was a peaceful man, and never did anyone harm except in self-defense. But this afternoon he saw, out of the corner of his eye, that an Indian was followin’ him.
“Jake didn’t know whether the Indian’s intentions were peaceful or not, but he decided to find out. He stepped behind a tree, and waited for the Indian to come a little closer. Then Jake took off his coonskin cap, placed it on the ramrod of his rifle, and poked it a little ways out from behind the tee. Sure enough, an arrow came whizzin’ along, and knocked the cap off the ramrod. Before the Indian could fit another bow to his string, Jake stepped from behind the tree, raised Old Betsey and shot the Indian right between the eyes.”
Another time, Rector told of Jake walking along the banks of Brush creek, where Grant and I were fishing at the time.
“It was right near here that Jake was huntin’ deer one day,” said Rector reflectively, “and all of a sudden he saw a big buck grazin’ right under a big oak. Just as he was raisin’ Old Betsey to shoot, he spied a little movement along an overhanging limb. Thar was a full grown panther, getting’ ready to spring on the deer. Now old Jake, he thought fast. He knew better than to shoot the deer, and face the panther with an unloaded gun; and he knew that if he shot the panther the deer would run away. So he just stood like a statue, let the panther spring on the deer and kill it, and then he shot the panther.”
Grant and Mrs. Rector celebrated their golden wedding several years ago. Their yard and house were filled with their children and grandchildren, and dozens of neighbors for many miles around, and some of these brought their fiddles and “gittars” and made merry music.
Several years ago, when Grant was 75, he decided to sort of settle down. So he bought forty acres of ground and built himself a snug little cabin, with his own hands, mostly.
“You know,” he told me at that time, “I was born jest about five miles from here. I kind o’ like it here in St. Clair County, and I think Ill jest stay.”



Picture: Grant Rector at 83, and his “Old Double”… In his best Hunting Outfit.

Submitted by: Stacy Kelly