Our Storied River Town

Early travelers up the Missouri River noted primitive red-keep Indian paintings on the limestone bluffs which projected over the river in the Rocheport area. As members of the famous Lewis and Clark Expedition passed by the Rocheport site, June 7, 1804, they noted a “limestone rock covered with uncouth paintings of animals,” near the mouth of the Moniteau Creek. They landed to examine the paintings but found the site infested with rattlesnakes. The landing place was at the present Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railroad tunnel, south and west of Rocheport. John Bradbury, naturalist and traveler, in his journal of a voyage up the Missouri in 1810, mentioned the Manito Rocks in the Rocheport area, and explained that the Indians often applied the term “manitou” to unusual manifestations of nature which they highly venerated. He said, “On these rocks several rude figures have been drawn by the Indicans with red paint: they are chiefly in imitation of deer, buffaloe, etc.” Maximilian, Prince of Wied, traveling up the Missouri River in 1833, wrote:

Just before dinner we reached Rockport [Rocheport], a village founded two years ago on the Manito [Moniteau] River, six miles up which river Columbia is situated. Near this place there are again many red figures on the rocky wall, among others that of a man with uplifted arms.

Town Proprietors Advertise Lots for Sale

For several weeks prior to November 17, 1825, the owners of the Rocheport site advertised the sale of lots in the Franklin Missouri Intelligencer. In 1822 the site was included in a New Madrid claim of 191.4 acres granted to David Gray. Gray sold the tract to William Kincehloe who in turn sold it to John Gray. In 1825 John Gray sold one-third to Abraham Barnes and another third to Lemon Parker and John Ward. John Gray had obtained a license to operate a ferry at the landing in 1821 and Arnold’s warehouse was erected before the lots were advertised. The proprietors described the advantages of the site:

This town is situated on the Missouri River, at about an equal distance from Ranklin and Columbia, at the mouth of the Grand Moniteau. Its scite [sic] is not equalled by any on the Missouri from its mouth to Fort Osage. Its harbor is very superior, having nearly half a mile of deep still water in front of the town, occasioned by a bluff of rocks above, projecting into the river, which renders it perfectly secure for Boats during the breaking up of ice. The tract is well watered, having several large springs of fine soft water….Its communication with the back country is easy and free form those difficulties which generally exist with towns situated on the Missouri viz: Bad Roads. In almost every direction from this point good roads are and may be had with little labor….

Lots were to be sold with the provision that a log house would be built on each within thirteen months after date of purchase. Lots would be donated to merchants and mechanics who wished to make extensive improvements. The sale was probably not successful, since portions of the original tract were again sold in 1828 and 1832. John Gray sold his remaining interest to Joshua Newbrough in 1828. Four years later Newbrough sold to William Gaw and he, in turn, sold to Lemon Parker and Oliver Parker. The plat of the town was filed December 18, 1832. The lots were laid out 132 feet long and 82 ½ feet wide. Rocheport was incorporated in 1836. A post office was established in 1832 with Cary Peebles the first postmaster.

Boat Landing and Ferry Crossing

On August 9, 1834, Thomas B. Hubbard, executor of the estate of John Hubbard, advertised in the Franklin Missouri Intelligencer the sale of Lot No. 2 on Moniteau Street in Rocheport. He announced that it was believed to be the best lot in town because it was nearest to the steamboat and ferry landing. On the lot was a “first-rate log Dwelling House with a first-rate Kitchen and Stable.” Jesse B. Dale, in 1834, advertised as a commission merchant for shipping tobacco from Rocheport, either by steamboat or flatboat. In 1835 there were eight stores, two tailoring shops, two blacksmith shops, two carding machines, a steam sawmill, five brickyards, two tanyards, two ropewalks and a tobacco factory. In 1837 Abraham Barnes and Company announced that they had a “new and substantial Horse Board on the Missouri River [at Rocheport] which will be kept in readiness at all times to cross passengers without delay” as they traversed the “great State Road” form the eastern to the western part of the State, which passed through Fulton, Columbia, and crossed the Missouri at Rocheport. Rocheport, after its founding, became an important landing place and ferry crossing of the Boonslick Country, which derived its name from the salt lick in Howard County where Daniel Boone’s sons Nathan Boone and Daniel Morgan Boone made salt as early as 1807. The town was located on the Boonslick Road, laid out in 1820, and served in later years as a ferry crossing on the National Old Trails Road. As early as 1827 Congress established a post road “from Fulton by Columbia, Rockport [Rocheport], Booneville and on to Livingston, a place near Independence.” Accessible by both land and water, Rocheport was considered by the State Senate in 1835 as the site for the location of the state university.

1840 Whig Convention

With a superior harbor and ferry and a main highway leading to the town, Rocheport was chosen as the site for the Whig Convention of 1840. Several thousand delegates came from various parts of Missouri by steamboat, in wagons, carriages, buggies and on horseback to attend the meeting held June 18-20. Three hundred St. Louis delegates arrived on the Platte and the Rienzi, two of the largest steamboats which plied the Missouri River. The boars carried bands, log cabins and two live eagles, emblems of the Whig party. A mile-long parade, headed by a chief marshall and his assistants, dressed in dark coats and blue scarves, marched from Rocheport to Crawford’s Grove, southeast of town, to open the convention. Soldiers of the Revolution and soldiers who had served under General William Henry Harrison in the War of 1812 were transported in carriages. Each county delegation carried a banner. The Saline County banner, designed and executed by George Caleb Bingham, famous early Missouri artist, was four-square and carried by eight men. It was described in this manner:

In front is the portrait of General Harrison, mounted on a marble pedestal, inscribed ‘Commerce, Agriculture and the Arts, in union we will cherish them.’ AT the base of the pedestal is the constitution of the country, surrounded by the instruments of mechanics and artists. On the left is the battle of the Thames, Harrison and his aide on horseback occupying the battleground; underneath the words ‘William Henry Harrison, the Hero of the Thames.’ On the right is the farmer of North Bend following his plough, a log cabin in the rear. In the rear a handsome landscape view of a western river, upon the bosom of which floats a canoe, bound to Washington. The whole is surrounded by a staff from the top of which floats a streamer inscribed, ‘Our Country.’

The thousands assembled heard Chilton Allen of Kentucky, Fletcher Webster, son of Daniel Webster, General A. W. Doniphan of Liberty, Abiel Leonard of Fayette, James S. Rollins of Columbia, and George Caleb Gingham of Arrow Rock express their political views. After the General Convention, an Old Soldiers Convention and Young Men’s Convention were held.

A Thriving Antebellum Town

The growth of Rocheport paralleled the development of steamboat transportation on the Missouri River. In 1849 fifty-seven steamboats made 500 landings at Rocheport. Tons of wheat, hemp, tobacco and corn were shipped from the landing and goods for the surrounding area were imported. Farmers from a radius of thirty miles delivered cured loose tobacco to Rocheport factories during the winter months. Much of it was stemmed, packed in hugs hogsheads and stored in warehouses until the opening of navigation in the spring. A small amount was made into chewing tobacco and cigars and into quarter-pound twists for the Indian trade. J. A. Hadwin was the owner of one of the three tobacco factories.

In the 1840s Rocheport was the home of Captain John W. Keiser, who with D. S. Lamme operated the Rockbridge Mill in Boone County in the 1830s. After the mill burned, Keiser became one of the largest steamboat owners in the West. Making crockery ware and vases from native clay, John Cranson established a pottery at Rocheport in 1844. Other businessmen of the 1840s were T. H. Ready, John Woods Harris, Moses U. Payne, George Knox, James H. Parker and James K. Wright.

Churches were built and a lodge was organized during this period. The Christian congregation, organized in 1837, built the brick church in 1845-1846 which still stands. The Methodists, organized in 1835, built a brick church in 1843. The Presbyterians, organized in 1839, built a church in 1845 which was burned during the Civil War. Rocheport Lodge, A.F. and A.M., No. 60, was organized in 1844. The following year a Rocheport literary society held meetings at “candlelighting” and Moses U. Payne sponsored an African Colonization Society. In 1847 John Stemmons informed the public that he had a new ferry board with room to carry three wagons or forty horsemen and during “the ordinary stage for water” he could cross the river in four minutes. All teachers and preachers would be transported free of charge. A “finger board” located on an east hill, pointed the way to the Rocheport ferry landing. Stemmons promised that passengers would be cared for in “good old Kentucky style.”

The Golden Age of Steamboating

As steamboat traffic increased Rocheport became the largest shipping point between St. Louis and St. Joseph. There were twelve retail stores in Rocheport in 1851. In 1855 Moses A. Carson operated an inn for travelers on the Boonslick Road. Moses M. Barth, his brother, Alex Barth, and Alexander Greenabaum opened a store in Rocheport in 1853. John W. Harris engaged in business as a commission merchant. Benjamin F. Dimmitt, from Bourbon County, Kentucky, taught school in Rocheport in 1853. The following year he opened a drugstore. William Slade, native of Vermont, with T. M. Smith and Fayette Kirby operated a grocery store. A man of ingenuity, Slade’s construction of the guttering and crossings of the Rocheport streets were models of artistic skill. He served as postmaster during the Civil War and members of the Slade family continued in that office until the 1940s., Leopold Grossman, native of Baden, Germany, engaged in the baker business in Rocheport in 1848. Afterward, he ran a general store with William West and with George Gregory, built two large stores and a warehouse. He served as mayor of Rocheport for ten years. Other businessmen of the 1850s were: J. B. Harris, Thomas Chapman, T. F. Clayton, William Hulett, Henry Tumy, T. D. Jackman, J. A. Townes, G. W. Townes, and William Smallwood. The physicians were A. H. Robinson, C. W. Phillips, George B. Wilcox and John Wilcox. In 1854, Elizabeth Keiser, widow of John W. Keiser, advertised that she was the proprietress of the Rocheport Ferry. Her board, operated by “an accommodating ferryman,” could carry eight wagons or sixty head of stock. The Rocheport Academy was chartered in 1858. By 1860 Rocheport had a population of 735 which included 250 slaves.

Guerrillas Raids During Civil War

At a States Rights Association meeting in February, 1861, Rocheport citizens agreed that if they were forced to range on one side or the other, they would unite with the South to which “alike our sympathies and interest lead us.” The town was subject to frequent guerrilla raids throughout the war. In September, 1864, Bill Anderson and his men took command and the citizens could not defend themselves. Sixty-two men and sixty-six women and children left Rocheport during that month. The steamer Buffington, carrying supplies to the state penitentiary, was captured by Anderson, August 30, 1864. Captain Thomas Waterman, the commander, was killed. Anderson then ordered the crew to cross the boat to Cooper County where his men looted the countryside. Although Rocheport citizens were not responsible for Anderson’s deeds, Union General William S.  Rosecrans ordered that the sum of $10,000 be collected from them in retribution for waterman’s death. The penalty was later reduced, and only the amount of $3,500 was ever collected. One of Rocheport’s principal business blocks and the public school building were burned during the war.  After the war, there were only twenty-five qualified voters in the town, all others being listed as Southern sympathizers.

Postwar Revival

In 1865 the Columbia Missouri Statesman reported that business was reviving in Rocheport and the hope was expressed that the town would rise phoenix-like from the ashes of the burned district. The next year nineteen men were again engaging in business and new business buildings replaced those which had burned. In 1867 David Keiser replaced the former flatboat with a steam ferry, the Litle Dick, and some one hundred workmen, under the supervision of Robert Lemon built the Columbia-Rocheport turnpike, a gravel road. After the completion of the road, a daily stage was scheduled between Rocheport and Columbia. In 1868 a three-story brick building was erected for the Rocheport Academy at a cost of $6,000. The Boone Lodge, International Order of Odd Fellows, No. 121, chartered in 1858, built a brick hall in 1869.

Before the turn of the century businesses thrived, banks were organized, newspapers were published and a railroad was built through the town. In 1870 Colonel R. A. Caskie engaged in the tobacco trade and for several years shipped 1,000 hogsheads of tobacco to England and Scotland each year. In 1876 he handled more than a million and a half pounds of tobacco. In 1875 Leopold Grossman and Jeremiah W. Champion built the Moniteau Mills. In 1880 John H. Chambers, J. H. Armstrong and R. S. Miller, proprietors of the Star Mills, produced 500 pounds of flour each week. The Rocheport Savings Bank was organized in the 1870s by Dr. C. Q. Chandler. In 1879 W. S. Woods bought the stock of the bank and it became known as the Rocheport Bank. One of the first rural telephone lines in Missouri was built from Columbia to Rocheport in 1878. The first newspaper, the Times, was published in 1868-1869. In 1872 and 1873 E. B. Bysfield published the Enterprise. J. W. McQuitty was editor of the Rocheport Commercial from 1879 until after the turn of the century.

In 1875 the Mattie Belle, a 350-ton boat, was built at Rocheport by Captain Samual Scobee and a Mr. Haycock for the Red River trade. In 1881 the Little Dick, a 63-ton center wheel ferry board, was caught on the bank as the river fell. The boat careened as efforts were made to float it. The Little Dick sank with a loss of $10,000 to its owners, David and Fannie Keiser. The Georgia Lee, a 99-ton stern wheel ferry board was sunk by ice near Rocheport in 1883.

Sleigh riding in winter and moonlight boating excursions and sailing in the summer were popular pastimes of the 1870s and 1880s. A home dramatics club, a culture club, a shooting club and a silver cornet bank provided additional diversion. In 1876 Rocheport held a grand centennial barbecue at Rollins’ pasture near town, where a large harbor was erected for those who wished to engage in a “merry hop.” Fist fights and a run-away team disturbed the orators of the day who delivered their speeches mounted on a dry goods box. The dinner and the ball in the evening were more successful.

Rocheport continued as a prosperous business center in the 1880s and 1890s. The Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railroad was built through the town in 1892. The ferry, in later years a double-deck boat known as the August Wohlt, carried passengers until the 1920s. The present Methodist brick church was dedicated November 17, 1901. A number of citizens were engaged in business in the 1890s. Among them were: Joseph Barth, merchant; George E. Bysfield, lumberman; B. F. Dimmitt, druggist; E. Inman, merchant; H. C. Lam, restaurant owner; Sterling B. Potts, jeweler; J. H. Sampson, livestock dealer; C. C. Dimmitt & Co., merchants; and Henry F. Williams and George Hill, blacksmiths. Physicians were Dr. E. H. Chinn and Dr. P. J. Mitchell.

Gradual Decline

But the gradual decline in population because significant by the turn of the century. From a population of 823 in 1870 the number of inhabitants decreased to 593 in 1900.  Disastrous fires in 1892 and 1922, and the development of modern highways and automobiles contributed to the decline of the town. The ferry was no longer needed as a river crossing and boats no longer stopped at the Rocheport landing. The halcyon days when Rocheport was a shipping point on the Missouri River are now only memories. Rocheport stands today, with its century-old buildings, a nostalgic reminder of its former era of prosperity as a river town of the Boonslick Country.