PIKE COUNTY, Mo. — Fort Pike was the kind of deterrent that often gets overlooked by history, but the short-lived garrison briefly kept Missouri safe during the Black Hawk War.

The primitive outpost surrounded by a barrier made of honed trees was at what is now St. Francisville along the Des Moines River in Clark County.

It was built 190 years ago this month by Pike County men who refused to cower to their Ralls County neighbors and were determined to keep warring Native Americans out of Missouri.

Their leader was Adam Mase, who was born in Kentucky in June 1798 and moved to Frankford in 1819. He established what is believed to be one of the first log cabins in town, and married another Kentucky native, Maxamilla Fisher, on Nov. 22, 1821. They would have nine children. Mase was a tanner, turning raw animal hides into leather for a variety of uses.

The origins of the Black Hawk War dated to the Treaty of St. Louis in 1804, when the Sauk and Fox tribes ceded land in what became Illinois to the federal government. Illinois became a state in 1818.

Over the next decade, American forts and settlements so angered the Sauk leader known as Black Hawk that he prepared to do battle. The chief briefly sought refuge across the Mississippi River in Iowa, but returned to Illinois — only to be confronted by federal troops.

On May 14, 1832, warriors from three tribes under the command of Black Hawk and Chief Keokuk battled American troops near Dixon, Ill.

“The proximity of these hostilities to the Missouri frontier caused Governor John Miller to adopt precautionary measures to avert the calamities of an invasion, which seemed imminent,” according to “The Commonwealth of Missouri: A Centennial Record.”

Miller ordered Major General Richard Gentry of Columbia to recruit 1,000 militia men. A mounted battalion featuring companies from Pike, Ralls and other counties was raised. Mase put together the First Company Pike County Missouri Volunteers.

Before heading to the far northeastern tip of the state, the Pikers met at Palmyra with the Ralls County militia commanded by Richard Matson. They were supposed to choose a major who would oversee both companies, but rivalries led to arguments. Mase wanted to go as ordered to a spot along the Des Moines River. Matson suggested going farther northwest to the Chariton River valley.

“The dispute grew violent; fists flew and men reached for their rifles,” historian Mary Ellen Rowe said in “Bulwark of the Republic: The American Militia in Antebellum West.” “An old Pike County veteran waded into the fray urging his fellows not to waste powder on blank shots: ‘Put down bullets, boys, put down bullets; tow-wads won’t do here.’”

Major General Benjamin Means threatened the recruits into a “sullen calm,” Rowe wrote. Gentry insisted that the Pike and Ralls companies follow their orders.

“The frontier settlement shall not suffer from obstinacy of a few individuals,” he said.

Despite the order, the Pike and Ralls companies left separately without a joint commander. Mase and his men reached the Des Moines at what originally was called Camp Weaver’s Springs on June 10. The colonel was “determined to conduct his business with formality and military discipline,” Rowe said.

Mase informed Indian agent Joshua Pilcher of his company’s mission and his men began building a blockhouse with palisades. As it was taking shape, Mase renamed the outpost Fort Pike. He then sent a party to link up with Matson’s company 80 miles to the west.

“The Ralls men were still not in a cooperative mood; that Mase presumed to act as the senior officer and issue orders to Matson further irritated them,” Rowe wrote. “They shunned Mase’s attempts to establish regular communications and ignored his orders.”

Mase also was having trouble with his own men. After two weeks of back-breaking work battling heat and mosquitos, they were tired and grumbling. Mase said Private Ephraim Caldwell threatened officers and Private Lewis Hutt “raised armes in the face of authority.”

“A wagon laden with whiskey, salted beef, bacon and flour arrived fortuitously on July 3,” Rowe said. “Instead of a mutiny, the men rallied to celebrate the Fourth in grand style.”

The militia used Independence Day to officially christen the camp Fort Pike. They were joined by 14 men and women from Canton.

The following morning, rumors reached them that the Indians planned an invasion of Missouri. It never happened.

Word soon came that Gov. Miller had ordered the men from Ralls and Pike counties to return home within 30 days. Those at Fort Pike unanimously offered to stay an additional month, but Miller “wanted the rowdy Ralls and Pike men replaced with more reliable companies,” according to Rowe. Gentry was sent in to boost discipline, which was found lacking.

“Not only had the two companies gone their separate ways, they had abandoned their primary mission of patrolling the border,” Rowe said.

Gentry found the Pike and Ralls men “were so engaged in the labor of the erection of those block houses as to have overlooked the importance of ranging the country.”

Fort Matson, the post set up by the Ralls County men, was abandoned and two replacement companies moved into Fort Pike. Mase and his men left for home on July 18.

Black Hawk surrendered on Aug. 27, 1832, and the Fort Pike was abandoned the following month. In 1834, Mase won a seat in the Missouri House of Representatives. He also served as Frankford postmaster and was a Pike County representative to the 1840 Democrat state convention.

In 1846, a letter signed by a group calling itself “Many Democrats” said Mase had its support if he would run for Pike County sheriff.

“The people of Pike county know Mr. Mase too well for us to add in any thing in his favor by speaking of his merits,” the group wrote in a Democrat Banner newspaper ad.

There is no record of Mase running for the office in 1846, but he did in 1848, losing at the May 8 Pike County Democrat Convention to Mathew Givens by a vote of 638 to 168. Mase died on June 15, 1865. His wife passed at age 91 on April 12, 1893.

The site of Fort Pike was later used as a ferry landing. Today, it is a recreational area maintained by the Missouri Department of Conservation near the old St. Francisville bridge.