John Castlio: A Pioneer's Estate
by Bob Brail
by Bob Brail
On December 23, 1830, the neighbors of a long-time resident
of St. Charles County
gathered on a bluff overlooking Dardenne Creek about a month after his death to
participate in an auction of his property.
The total value of the appraised estate was $3,101.68 ¾, and it included
such items as coffee boilers, shoe brushes, guns, beeswax, and even
slaves. To help create the right
atmosphere for the proceedings, the deceased’s son spent three dollars to
purchase six gallons of whiskey for the day.
Who was this early settler? His name was John Castlio, and he was born in
North Carolina sometime before
1764. Little is known of his early life
other than that he was a Revolutionary War veteran. He served in the Kentucky Militia in the
company of Captain Benjamin Logan, near Logan’s
Station. Castlio married Eleanor
Harrison Lowe, a widow who claimed to be a cousin of William Henry Harrison, in
1795 (Harrison, of course, would later become the ninth
President). Their children were Ruth,
whose husband Frank McDermid was killed by Indians; Charlotte; Mahala, who
married Captain Benjamin Howell; John, who married Capt. Howell’s sister,
Sinai; Eleanor; and Hiram, who did not survive to adulthood.
In his
book, Small Glories, Dr. Dan Brown describes the relationship of John
and Eleanor: “Mr. John was tall an’
slender, 6 foot 3 ‘r more, erect, black-haired, blue-eyed, stringy an’
muscular; give t’ a certain gauntness in times o’ trouble ‘r worry. He was affable, but quiet—a bookish man; his
dreams hidden an’ protected, his moods private, concealed, cloaked. His ‘L’ was considered a beauty by all who
knew her. Her blond tresses, vast,
amber-flecked eyes o’ grey an’ green, an’ her mysterious smile set her apart
from other women. . . . He called her ‘L,’ thinkin’ as he did so o’ the letter
that begun the words love an’ lady. ‘L’
he’d say, then he’d smile—called ‘er ‘Lovely
Lady.’ He b’lieved but two things: that he loved his
Lovely Lady beyond any other, an’, that he did not deserve her.”
The family
moved from Tennessee to what was
then known as Upper Louisiana in 1806. Until 1811 they
lived in the Cottleville area; after Mrs. Castlio’s death (she is buried in the
Pitman Cemetery in Cottleville), they moved to Howell’s Prairie (Survey 417)
where John Castlio constructed Castlio Fort, the seventh fort in St. Charles County. The Castlio home was a two-story double log
house. Portions of this home survived
for several decades; the St. Charles County Historical Society possesses an early
1900’s photograph of a frame house which still contained an original log room
of the fort. Lilian Hays Oliver, in Crow’s
Nest, tells of visiting this house in 1922.
The home is gone now, but its location is easy to find. It was situated in the area of 9719
Avondale Hills Lane, just off Highway DD.
John
Castlio died in November, 1830, and was buried in the Walker Burying
Ground. In 1915 the local D. A. R.
chapter placed a government marker on the grave. The gravesite is now located on the campus of
Holt High School
in Wentzville.
It is
interesting to note that 111 years after the death of John Castlio, one of his
great-grandsons, Calvin Castlio, was the last homeowner to leave Howell (a few
miles from Castlio Fort), one of the small communities removed by the U. S.
government in 1941 in order to provide security for a new munitions factory.
The “Appraisement of the Personal
Property and Slaves of John Castlio” is indeed an interesting document for the
picture it provides of life on Howell’s Prairie in the first half of the nineteenth
century. Several aspects are
remarkable. First is its
thoroughness. A half bushel basket is
listed at 6 ¼ cents, and several items are valued at a quarter or less: 1
hatchet, 7 sythes, 1 frow, 4 gimblets, 2 bred trays, 1 razor and strap, 1 lot
of flax seed, 1 pair of spectacles, and 1 broken pot!
Second is its spelling. As can be seen from the previous list,
spelling was “creative,” to say the least.
Other unusual spellings include 3 chissels, 1 riffle gun, 3 pales, 1 log
chane, 1 close brush, and 1 wash bason.
One bag of jind cotton, 3 yolk of oxen, 1 adds, and 2 pairs of geers are
also listed.
Third is its reflection of the
inherent irony of slavery. Eight human
beings are listed for sale, valued from $100.00 for “1 negro woman named
Isabel” to $550.00 for “1 negro man named Mark.” The total appraisal value of these people was
$2,250, over two-thirds of the estate.
Clearly these slaves were considered property, hence the value placed on
each; clearly these slaves were also considered human, hence the name listed
for each.
Fourth are the mysteries the
appraisal provides. For instance, “60
pieces of cupboard furniture” is appraised at $4.00. Could “cupboard furniture” refer to plates,
cups, and so forth?
Fifth is simply the number of
animals for sale. Besides the three yoke
of oxen, also listed are eight horses, forty-two head of cattle, ten sheep, and
approximately eighty hogs. John Castlio
was a very busy man, raising crops and caring for all of his livestock.
The geographical boundaries of the
Boone-Duden Historical Society encompass many interesting lives and locations
like those of John Castlio and Castlio Fort.
Other old papers pertaining to the Castlio estate are at the Office of
the Probate Court in Box 23.
Sources: Crow’s Nest (Lilian Hays Oliver); Inscriptions Personally Transcribed from
the Tombstones in Old Family Burying Grounds . . . in St.
Charles . . . County, Missouri
(Mary Johnson McElhiney); Small
Glories (Dr. Daniel Brown); St.
Charles Historical Society (www.scchs.org); Westering River, Westering Trail (Dr.
Daniel Brown).