The Missouri Secession Election in St. Charles County
by Bob Brail
 
     One hundred fifty years ago, in the late winter of 1861, the United States of America roiled with tension as states, both North and South, faced the unpleasant reality of disunion.  South Carolina had left the Union in late December, its state representatives voting 169-0 for secession.  In early January, Mississippi followed (84-15) and Florida seceded soon after (62-7).  Later in January, Alabama voted to leave the Union (61-39).  A few days later George also seceded (209-89).  On January 26, Louisiana became the sixth state to leave the Union (113-17) in a little more than five weeks.  Less than one week later, Texas became the seventh (166-7).   
                                           
     As the new Confederate government formed in Montgomery, Alabama, in early February, politicians from both North and South waited to see if Missouri, a slave state, would vote for secession.  In January, 1861, Missouri’s General Assembly had called for a state convention to discuss secession, “as the debate over secession raged in Missouri.”  Delegates for this convention would be chosen by a quickly arranged statewide election on February 21.  Each state senate district would chose three delegates.   

     There were several candidates in the senate district which included Warren, Montgomery, and St. Charles Counties.  The two candidates from St. Charles County who opposed one another were W. W. Edwards and Robert Frayser.  Edwards, the Unconditional Unionist (anti-secession) candidate, was a lawyer from St. Charles who had been born in Virginia.  Frayser, the Conditional Unionist (pro-secession) candidate, owned twenty-eight slaves and farmed in Dardenne.  The St. Charles Demokrat reported the following election results:
                                                                                         Robert Frayser                W. W. Edwards  
St. Charles Market House
42
171
St Charles Courthouse
241
205
Flint Hill
49
5
Wentzville
132
3
Wellsburg
92
1
St. Peters
20
101
Naylor's Store [Dardenne]
56
20
Cottleville
74
134
Augusta
28
137
Knippenbergs [Femme Osage]
6
99
Hays Mill [near Defiance]
50
1
Callaway New Melle
64
131
Portage
68
23
TOTAL    St. Charles Co.
922
1031
Warren Co.
574
236
Montgomery Co.
457
621
TOTAL    District
1949
1888
Although a slim majority of St. Charles County voters chose W. W. Edwards, Robert Frayser was elected by all voters in the senate district.  As the St. Charles County secession election returns indicate, the southern portion of the county tended to be against secession, yet approximately 300 voters had supported the pro-secession candidate.  The western portion of the county overwhelmingly supported secession.  Soon after the election, the St. Charles Demokrat’s Augusta correspondent characterized that precinct’s results as “contribut[ing] to holding high the Union banner in Missouri.”  The writer went on to sarcastically describe the only two voters in Augusta of German descent who had voted for Frayser, the secession candidate: “The one was a man who . . . felt it necessary to arrange his own head like a grain bin, carefully removing from it everything that other people store there.  The other man is a neighbor of the first, whom he considers an ideal of human happiness and . . . culture which he also would like to achieve. . . . Lots of luck!” 
    
     These strongly held views had nearly erupted into deadly violence on the day delegates were elected.  The St. Charles Demokrat reported: "On the last election day, the friends of both Tickets: for or against the Union, had been working harder than ever for the cause […] and the men, fired up with drink, got caught up in a kind of "fighting" state. A certain Mason, about whose character no one can sing hymns of praise […] got into a dispute, took off his coat and vest, threw his hat away and was slugging it out with several others. He must have come out on the short end, because when he stood up again he was covered from top to bottom with filth, his pants ripped off in the fight and he made his escape […] dressed only in his shirt. A German rode after him with a club, but he was pursued by an American shooting at the German with a revolver. Mr. James Simms, who is otherwise well liked, was also involved in the fight and received a number of dangerous wounds which, if nothing worse develops, at least will require a doctor’s care for a good while.

     “On Friday the news arrived here that as a result of the aforementioned incident about 50-60 Americans, armed with rifles and the like, set out from Wentzville to New Melle to take revenge on the people in New Melle. During the night a special message arrived for the sheriff from New Melle asking for the help and support of the law. Having arrived in New Melle, he rode forward to meet the men coming from Wentzville, but he had a hard time dissuading them from their unauthorized, illegal plan. Only when he threatened to read them the riot act did they give in. The Germans had not been idle at the reports of the advances of the Wentzvillers. They had holed up in several houses in such a way that if it had really come to an attack, the Americans would have been caught in a murderous crossfire. Thanks to the efforts of the sheriff, it did not come to that. . . . The sheriff arrested several of the people involved in the incident, namely Conrad Weinrich, John Schnorr, and Heinrich Rübling.  However, as many claimed, the latter is supposed to have had nothing to do with the affair. These three were put under bond to appear at the next criminal court. Karl Koch and Julius Heldenberg, who are supposed to have actually done the fighting, were able to escape. Also, the American who shot at the German has been charged."  On March 7, 1861, the Demokrat stated: “New Melle is almost empty, all businesses lying still, many moved away with all their belongings.”  By the middle of April, the newspaper reported that twelve men had been charged with rioting, including ten Germans.

     The first session of the Secession Convention met in Jefferson City on February 28 and on March 1 chose Missouri ex-governor Sterling Price to be its chair.  Although eighty-two of the ninety-nine delegates had been born in slave states, mostly Virginia and Kentucky, very few of them wanted secession.  Three days later the convention reconvened in St. Louis at the Mercantile Library.  On March 21, the delegates voted 98-1 against secession, deciding “no adequate cause [existed] to impel Missouri to dissolve her connections with the Federal Union.”  Missouri was never a serious threat to leave the Union after this.

Sources: “150 Years Ago, St. Louis Was Scene of Secession Struggle,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 6 Mar. 2011 (Tim O’Neil); Crossroads: A History of St. Charles County, Missouri (Steve Ehlmlann); A History of Augusta, Missouri, and Its Area, 1850’s – 1860’s (Anita M. Mallinckrodt); “Missouri Constitutional Convention” (www.en.wikipedia.org); The St. Charles Demokrat (microfilm); “A Summary of the States That Seceded from the Union” by Dallas Bogan (www.tngenweb.org/ campbell/hist-bogan/secessedStates.html); Year: 1860 – Census Place: Dardenne, St. Charles, Missouri – Roll:M653_644 – Page: 845 (779) – Image: 350 (284) – Family History Library Film: 803644.
  
The author would like to thank Dr. Walter Kamphoefner for providing the election results and the account of the New Melle incident.