James Cargill

James Cargill was born at Liberty, Maine, April 4, 1789. When a young man he moved to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and engaged in the lumber business. In 1814 he married Miss Agnes Gilmore Crookes of Belfast, Maine. In 1829 he moved to Wheeling, Virginia, and became associated with his brother-in-law, Captain George Nelson Crookes in a steamboat line on the Ohio River between Pittsburgh and New Orleans. Mr. Cargill engaged in the mercantile business at Wheeling and was active in outfitting the many emigrants moving west into Kentucky and Tennessee. The business was very successful but Cargill's partner endorsed notes without Cargill's knowledge and the Panic of 1837 Cargill was forced to make good large losses. He paid in full obligations of $100,000.

In the spring of 1843 James Cargill determined to investigate the stories of the rich new land which the Platte Purchase had added to the state of Missouri. With his sixteen-year-old son, James Monroe Cargill, he spent several weeks in the area and was especially impressed by the strategic location of Robidoux Landing, the Black Snake Hills. He returned to Wheeling and in September 1843 the family-including two other sons, John Colby Cargill and George W. Cargill; two daughters, Abigail, aged twenty-three, and Agnes Jeanette, aged thirteen; and a son-in-law-embarked on one of Сарtain Crooke's steamboats to St. Louis. There they changed to the steamer Lexington and arrived in St. Joseph on September 25, 1843.

Joseph Robidoux was in the crowd meeting the boat. The raw and muddy village, the Indians, and the roughly dressed fur traders were most depressing in appearance and Abigail cried, asking the family to take her back to Virginia. The captain of the Lexington invited the family to spend their first night on board, and on the next day Robidoux had one of his French-Indian families vacate a part of their log house to receive the Cargills. In a short time Mr. Cargill purchased a settler's claim to a section of land east of the town-later to be known as the Lemon Farm, and now the land of the Moila Country Club. There were three log cabins on the place; a shed was hastily constructed to house the fine mahogany furniture which had been brought along; lumber was hauled in from Weston, thirty miles away, and the family home was built. Shrubs and fruit trees (brought from Virginia) were planted, and farm operations got under way, producing hemp, wheat, and corn. The plantation was named “Burr Oak Grove.'

The Cargills brought with them only two of their negroes, leaving the others in Virginia in order not to sever their family ties. In 1844 they purchased additional negroes at Savannah, an older settlement than St. Joseph. "Aunt Mary, an excellent cook, cost $1,000, and her husband, “Uncle Adam, an able farmer, cost $1,200. Adam was so efficient in the breaking of hemp that his day's work usually came to 200 pounds as compared with the 100-pound average of the other hands. In recognition of his superior production, Mr. Cargill always gave him double wages.

Mr. Cargill then set up a steam flourmill, the first one west of St. Louis and the largest flourmill of any kind so far up the Missouri River. His first location was near the river at the foot of Francis Street. Erosion of the riverbank, however, forced a move to a better location on the south side of Felix Street between Eighth and Ninth Streets, near and just east of where Hirsch's Dry Goods Store stood for many years. The mill machinery had been brought from Cincinnati and an expert miller was brought out from Virginia. “Smith’s Branch, a small stream originating far out Frederick Avenue, flowed down past the corner of Eighth and Felix and supplied the water for the steam machinery. It was crossed by a bridge.

The discovery of gold in California in 1848 set off a great western migration of which a large part was funneled through St. Joseph. This was the optimum north and west point to which the steamboat could provide transportation in relative safety and comfort, saving time and distance, before jumping off on the hazardous 2000-mile overland wagon trip across the plains. As a result, St. Joseph became a great outfitting point, thousands of emigrants passed through, and there was a great demand for the product of Mr. Cargill's "Eagle Mills. His success was even greater than it had been in Virginia, and he built a townhouse at the corner of Second and Charles Streets.

On August 3, 1849, Agnes Jeanette Cargill was married to Mr. James A. Owen at Burr Oak Grove. The Cargill family had been associated with the Episcopal Church before coming to St. Joseph and two children who had died at Pittsburgh were buried in the churchyard of Old Trinity Episcopal Church there, where James Cargill had been a vestryman. In 1852 Mrs. Cargill, her two daughters, and three other ladies addressed a petition to the Episcopal bishop of Missouri asking that a clergyman be sent to St. Joseph. In response, the bishop himself came and the first church meeting was held at the Cargill home. Mrs. Cargill was the first to sign the register and her daughter, Agnes Jeanette Owen, was the first to be confirmed in the new parish. That was the beginning of Christ Church in St. Joseph. James Cargill died in 1858 and Mrs. Cargill lived on at the farm with her youngest son, George W. Cargill. They were interested in the development of fine livestock. John Colby Cargill operated the flourmill. When the Civil War came on in 1861 the Cargill family, as known Southern sympathizers and with visible property, were vulnerable. Captain Reuben Kay, C.S.A., the son of James Kay, a prominent St. Joseph merchant, and friend of the Cargills, had been captured and confined in the Buchanan County jail. His mother, Mrs. Eliza Kay, was permitted to visit him, and she had concealed under her hoop skirt files and two pistols. With these, Reuben made his escape from the jail and came to Burr Oak Grove for help. The Cargills gave him food and warm clothing, for he was still wearing the thin summer garments he had on when captured six months before. George Cargill then concealed him under a lap robe and drove him on the first leg of his journey back to the South. This became known and a crowd of men determined to seize George Cargill and hang him. A friendly minister was able to ride, by horseback, to the farm ahead of the mob and with that short warning, George was able to flee on his horse to the Confederate lines. The mob then burned the Eagle Mills and threw John Cargill into jail. Raiders drove off the livestock from Burr Oak Grove and soldiers assisted the departing negroes in carrying offin army wagons large quantities of clothing and food stolen from the Cargill home and farm. Mrs. Cargill was advised to leave the state and she was given a military pass together to Virginia. She was allowed to ship a few possessions including the family silver, but the boat carrying her goods was sunk in the Missouri River. The fine mahogany furniture she left with her daughters, Mrs. James A. Owen and Mrs. E. D. Ford. The federal ban against the Cargills was not lifted until several years after the close of the Civil War.

The oldest Cargill son, James Monroe Cargill, who had made the first trip to Buchanan County on the survey trip with his father in the spring of 1843, died in a few years after the family came to St. Joseph. John Colby Cargill was a farmer, operator of the Eagle Mills, and a steamboat owner. He served as a member of the St. Joseph City Council in 1854 and 1855. George W. Cargill, after his escape from hanging in January 1862, remained in the South for the rest of his life.

There were numerous descendants bearing the Cargill name. James Nelson Cargill and two of his brothers all joined the Confederate Army. John was captured at Vicksburg and paroled. He returned to St. Joseph in July 1863 in an emaciated condition and died two days after reaching home. He is buried in Mt. Mora Cemetery. Another grandson of James Cargill, Jesse, was associated with the St. joseph Daily News from 1902 to 1906. His sons were also connected with the paper, but none of the descendants carrying the Cargill name now remain in St. Joseph.