Excerpt from The History of Clinton County, Missouri What wonderful changes a few years have wrought in this western country! Less than sixty years ago not a single white man dwelt within the present confines of Clinton County. Its soil, had doubtless, occasionally been pressed by the feet of the reckless hunter and the daring adventurer, but its beautifully rolling prairies, its charming timber-fringed streams and enchanting groves were the homes of the antelope, the elk, the deer and the red man. How all has been changed by the hand of progress! To-day the busy hum of industry everywhere resounds, and the voice of culture and refinement echo where once was heard the howl of the wild beast and the war-whoop of the Indian. These have been years of important events; events fraught with interest to the sons and daughters from the old firesides of Kentucky, Virginia, Tennessee, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Indiana, and from the more distant homes beyond the Atlantic. The energy and bravery of these hardy pioneers and their descendants have made Clinton County what it is. Their labors have made the wilderness to "bud and blossom as the rose;" and, to preserve the story of this wonderful change and to hand it down to posterity as a link in the history of the great country of which Clinton County forms an integral part, has been the object of this book. While the publishers do not arrogate to themselves a degree of accuracy beyond criticism, they hope to have attained a large measure of exactness in the compilation and arrangement of the almost innumerable incidents which are here treated. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

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