This excerpt was taken from the History
of Fulton County, published by Chas. C. Chapman & Co. in 1879, pages 760-761.
Sept. 26, 1832, Stephen Rigdon arrived in this county. He located at Canton, where he lived until May 1, 1834, when he moved into Lee township, being the first white man to erect a cabin and make his home in this township. The family lived here for a period of five months before they saw another white person. Mr. Rigdon located upon section 36. Harrison Rigdon was 22 years of age at the time, and says he thought nothing of going 25 or 30 miles on foot through the wild country. Upon one occasion he, with 10 others, engaged in building a mill on sec. 4, Cass township, upon Put creek, for Andrew Laswell. A Mrs. Cline was employed to do the cooking. Some way or another Mr. Laswell offended her. She gathered up her cooking utensils and quitted them. Thus the 11 men were left to do their own cooking, with only one tin cup and a wooden trough as their kitchen furniture. The trough they used to mix the dough in, which they cooked by setting a board in the ground not far from a log fire and pressed the dough upon this, fronting the blazing log. After a crust had formed over the dough the bacon was laid upon it to cook, letting the grease run down over the bread.
The first child born in the township was Jacob Peirsol. The second was Hiram Rigdon. James Osborn and Ruth Smith were the first couple married. The ceremony was performed by James Haney, and occurred in March, 1835. Morgan Beal was the first grown person to die. The first school-house was erected in 1839 and the first teacher was Elizabeth Moon. The first sermon was preached at the residence of Stephen Rigdon by Elder John Rigdon, his brother, who was a Christian preacher. The first Church organized was the Christian Church in 1835. The first frame barn erected in the township was built for Ezra D. Smith, who is now Postmaster at Prairie City. It stood until June 17, 1879, when it was burned down. The first saw and grist-mill was erected by Philip Aylesworth in 1837.
Lee township was organized into an election precinct in 1841. At the time there were 13 voters in the township. Previous to this, Deerfield, Ellisville, Union and Lee composed one election precinct.
In 1866 the Virgil M. E. Church was organized. There has been a society here for at least 30 years. The first Church Board consisted of 5 Trustees, with Secretary and Treasurer. Geo. W. Brown was pastor at that time. Then came in succession Revs. Smith, Cook, Budd, Jennie Brothers, Birch, Woodruff, Magee, Green, Atherton and Martin, who is the present Pastor.
The first Baptist Church of Lee township was organized by Rev. Miner Nov. 20, 1849, and consisted of R. B., E., Cordelia, Martha and Corinna Guernsey, Louis and Abigail Luper, Sarah and Mary Peirsol, Lucinda Martin, Bennetta Leach and Nancy Moor.
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