Encyclopedia of the history of Missouri, a compendium of history and biography for ready reference, Vol. I, Part 87

Author: Conard, Howard Louis, ed. 1n
Publication date: 1901
Publisher: New York, Louisville [etc.] The Southern history company, Haldeman, Conard & co., proprietors
Number of Pages: 856

USA > Missouri > Encyclopedia of the history of Missouri, a compendium of history and biography for ready reference, Vol. I > Part 87

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Illinois, for many miles. The origmal sur- vey and plat of the town were made by Bartholomew Cousins under the direction of Lorimier. Its limits were placed at North Street, north; Williams Street, south, and Middle Street, west. The cross streets were the same in width and number as at present. Lots were sold at private sale at the uniform price of Sioo each. Among the first pur- chasers were John Risher, John Randol, Solomon Ellis, William Ogle, Ezekiel Able, John C. Harbison, William White and Charles G. Ellis. Besides these at this time there were residing in the town Daniel F. Steinbach, Robert Blair, Dr. Erasmus Ellis, Anthony Haden, James Evans, Frederick Gibler, Levi Wolverton, Robert Worthing- ton, Frederick Reinecke, Joseph MeFerron and George Henderson. The first store was conducted by Lorimier, and the second one was opened by D. F. Steinbach, a son-in- law of Lorimier, and Frederick Rein- ecke. This was on the corner now occupied by the Sturdivant Bank, and was also the residence of Steinbach. In 1800 Garah Davis and William Ogle opened a store. Ogle was also collector of internal revenue. Hle was killed in a duel by Joseph McFerron, an account of which is given elsewhere. An account book of Davis & Ogle gives the prices of commodities prevailing at that time. Among other things the price of calico was $1.00 per yard ; linen, 75 cents per yard ; pins, 3112 cents per paper, and sugar 25 cents per pound. The house where Louis Lorim- ier lived was on the lot now occupied by St. Vincent's Academy: It was a low, long frame building, and after his death was called the "Red House," and by many of the superstitious was supposed to be haunted. Charles G. Ellis built a two-story log house on the lot now the site of Turner Hall, which was the leading hostelry, and which he ran in connection with a store until his death in 1831. Ellis was an active man and in 1826 was one of the promoters of the Cape Girar- deau Mill Company, which built a mill in the upper end of the town. The power em- ployed to run this mill was a screw, similar to the ones on large steamers now, which was placed in the river and turned by the current. Some years earlier Bartholomew Cousins supplied power to the first mill in Cape Girardeau by a like method. Among the other enterprises of which the town could

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boast, were two tanneries, one started in 1810 by William Scripps and his son, John, the other started in 1819 by Moses McLean, and a stillhouse, operated by Levi L. Lightner. The legal fraternity was represented by Rob- ert Blair, who was judge of the Court of Quarter Sessions ; John Evans, John C. Harbison, Anthony Haden and George Hen- derson. In 1811 the first brick house in the town was built by Ezekiel Able. He was a contractor and was awarded the building of the courthouse and jail. The latter he com- pleted, but became insolvent and could not build the courthouse. Afterward he was successful in business and died a wealthy man. He had four sons, William, John, Jeremiah and Ezekiel, and two daughters, Mary, who became the wife of General W. H. Ashley, and Elizabeth, who became the wife of W. J. Stephenson. The first com- missioners of the town, when it was incor- porated, in 1808, were Joseph McFerron, Anthony Haden, Robert Blair, Daniel F. Steinbach and Isaac M. Bledsoe. The fail- ure of Able to build the courthouse and the subsequent removal of the seat of justice to Jackson, in 1813, gave Cape Girardeau a setback, and for some twenty years there was little improvement. In 1818 a writer described the town as having two stores and fifty houses. That year the sale of the Lorimier estate caused an extension of the town. The advent of steamboats on the Mis- sissippi gave the town renewed vigor, and it became one of the most important shipping points along the river, and retained its prestige for many years. The building of the Iron Mountain Railroad cut off much of its territory and decreased its trade and ship- ping. In 1867 there were in the town twenty-seven dry goods stores, three hard- ware stores, twelve grocery, five drug and five furniture stores, twelve shoeshops, seven tailor shops, eleven blacksmith shops, three flourmills, five breweries, a distillery, two tan- neries and two cotton gins, besides a bank, the Sturdivant, which was formerly the third branch of the State Bank, moved from Jack- son in 1853, and purchased by Mr. Robert Sturdivant in 1866. The inroads into the trade of the town by the building of the Iron Mountain caused the projection of the Cape Girardeau & State Line Railroad. Toward this line $150,000 was subscribed by the city and as much more by the township. The

failure of the road resulted disastrously for the city, which made little progress until the building of the Cape Girardeau & South- western Railway in 1880, when the growth of the city was given fresh impetus. The first school in the town was in a small log house that stood upon the site of the St. Charles Hotel. The early schools were of an elementary character and many of the children attended the school at Mount Tabor, some ten miles west. The first schoolhouse of any pretensions was built in 1830, on a lot purchased for the purpose on the corner of Fountain and Meriwether Streets. It was of brick. The Cape Girardeau Academy was incorporated in 1843, and six years later the Washington Female Seminary was chartered. Both schools, in 1867, were superseded by public schools and the State Normal. In 1843 St. Vincent's College was founded, formed out of the Catholic Academy estab- lished years before at Perryville.

The first newspaper published in the town was the "Patriot," established in 1836 by Edwin H. White. It was a Whig paper and was succeeded in 1843 by another of the same politics, "The South Missourian," edited by John W. Morris. Other papers that were published in the town and the years of the first issue are: "Western Eagle," "Marble City News," 1866; "Democracy," 1870, by Wallace Gruelle; "Censor," in the forties, by James Lindsey; "Argus," 1869; "Westliche Post" (German), 1871 ; "Courier," 1878; "Expositor," 1852; "Mississippi Valley Globe," 1872; "Cape Talk," 1886, and the "Baptist Headlight," monthly, 1896. The press of the town at present is represented by the "Democrat," published both daily and weekly. The weekly was established in 1876 and the daily edition in 1888. Benjamin H. Adams is its publisher and editor. The "Southeast Gazette," weekly, was established in 1890 by Joseph Flynn, and now edited by Mr. Genung. Cape Girardeau at the present time is a growing and beautiful city. Its commercial interests are represented by more than two hundred business concerns, includ- ing two banks, four hotels, operahouse, four flouring mills, paint, cement and chalk works, foundry, several marble yards, stave and heading factory, two packing houses, one brewery, large lime works, ice factory and well stocked stores in every branch of trade. The city has a street railway, electric lights,.

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waterworks, well paved streets, a sewerage system and all improvements generally found in a progressive city. There are nine churches for white, and four for colored peo- ple. The population in 1900 was 4,815.

Cape Girardeau County. - A county in the southeastern part of the State, bounded on the north by Perry County, on the east by the Mississippi River, on the south by Scott and Stoddard Counties, and on the west by Bollinger County. Its area is 308,450 acres ; about 50 per cent is under cul- tivation, theremainder beingtimber land bear- ing valuable growths of oak, walnut, poplar, cypress and gum. The surface of the county in the southern part is level, with some swamp lands ; other portions are undulating, affording good drainage, with hilly lands in the northeastern and northern parts. In the hilly sections the soil is gravelly and sandy, and in the valleys and bottom lands an ex- ceedingly fertile black loam. Numerous small streams wind their way through the county. In the north are Apple Creek- which forms the northern boundary line- Little Apple, Hugh, Buckeye and Shawnee Creeks ; in the east, Flora, Indian Cane, Cape and Cape La Croix Creeks, and in the central and western parts, Whitewater River and tributaries, Hubble, Caney, Byrd, Hahn and Crooked Creeks. Some of these streams afford good water power. The principal agricultural products are wheat, corn and other cereals, hay, potatoes, onions and other vegetables that can be grown in a mild climate. Fruit-growing has become an im- portant industry. Apples, pears, peaches and grapes are cultivated extensively. In the year 1898 there were exported from the county 28,442 pounds of evaporated fruit and a large amount of small fruits. During the year there was also shipped from the county 128.990 bushels of wheat, 26,162,948 pounds of flour, 7.757,850 pounds of feed and 29,037 pounds of grass seed. Flour made from Cape Girardeau County wheat received the highest medal of award at Vienna, 1873, and Philadelphia, 1876. Owing to the abundant growths of native grasses, stock-raising in the county is a profitable pursuit. In 1898 the shipments from the county included 1,094 head of cattle, 5.458 head of hogs, 2,527 head of sheep, 16,022 pounds of wool, 109,886 pounds of dressed meats, 22, 114 pounds of

tallow and 137,125 pounds of hides. Poultry- growing has been successfully carried on for many years, and in 1898 there were marketed 230,054 pounds of poultry, 81,240 dozens of eggs, and 4.168 pounds of feathers. The minerals existing in the county are iron ores in the eastern part, lead-but not in such quantities that it can be profitably mined- and ochre and kaolin in vast deposits. Great

strata of marble underlie sections of the county in the eastern part. This is found varying from pure white to purple, red, yellow and black, all highly useful in the arts and for ornamental purposes, being suscepti- ble of a fine polish. Of this marble was constructed the Louisiana State Capitol, and much of it has been used in the large build- ings of St. Louis and other cities. The city of Cape Girardeau is over a formation of marble. A superior quality of brown sand- stone is abundant in the eastern part of the county and has been extensively quarried for building purposes. The manufacture of lime and cement, principally at the city of Cape Girardeau, is an increasing business. Dur- ing 1807, from Cape Girardeau, there were shipped 4.350 barrels of this product. The large tracts of timber of late years have given employment to thousands of laborers in the lumber trade, which adds much to the commerce of the county. In 1898 the exports of lumber were 4,688,780 feet and 4,032,000 feet of logs. There are 58.05 miles of railroad in the county, the St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern passing through the southwestern part, with a branch to Jack- son, the county seat, and the St. Louis, Cape Girardeau & Fort Smith (now known as the South Missouri & Arkansas), and the. St. Louis Southwestern, passing through the southeastern section. Cape Girardeau was one of the original districts of which the Ter- ritory of Louisiana was composed. Under Spanish dominion it was bounded on the north by Apple Creek, south by Tywappity Bottoms, east by the Mississippi River, front- ing the same for thirty miles, and with its western limits not defined. The territory then was the hunting ground and camp of tribes of the Shawnee and Delaware Indians, who had a number of villages, one of which, as late as 1811, consisted of eighty huts. As early as 1730 French miners and hunters had explored the country. There is evidence to substantiate the claim that Cape Girardeau

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CAPE GIRARDEAU COUNTY.

derived its name from one Ensign Sieur Girardot, who, from 1704 to 1720, was stationed with the royal troops of France at Kaskaskia, and who, upon leaving the army, became a fur-trader. His principal rendez- vous was at Big Bend, about three miles above the present city, to which place the name Cape Girardeau was first applied. However, he did not make a permanent set- tlement in the territory, nor was there any made until 1793, when Don Louis Lorimier fixed his place of residence at the present site of the city of Cape Girardeau. Lorimier was born in Canada, of French parents. For some time he lived in Ohio, later was a trader at Vincennes, then Fort St. Vincent, and in 1788 removed to the Ste. Genevieve district and took up his residence at Saline, about four miles west of the site of the present town of St. Mary's. He had cultivated the friendship of the Shawnees and the Dela- wares, and when he settled west of the river many of the Indians from the Illinois side followed him. In Canada he had married a half-breed woman, Charlotte Bougainville. This seemed to have endeared him to the Indians, with whom he had much influence. He was an uneducated man, could neither read nor write, but spoke the French, Indian and English languages, and accounts of his life show him to have been the possessor of a keen sense of justice, a man of business sagacity and great executive ability. When he made his place of residence at Cape Girar- dean many of his Indian friends followed and built villages near where he settled. In recognition of his valuable services to the Spanish Government, in 1794 he was made commandant of the post of Cape Girardeau by Baron de Carondelet, the Governor Gen- eral of Louisiana, who also made him two grants of land, one of 8,000 arpens and an- other of 4,000, respectively, on October 26, 1705, and January 20, 1797. This land con- stitutes the site of the present city of Cape Girardeau. The grants to Lorimier were affirmed to his heirs by act of Congress July 4. 1830. In January, 1800, the Spanish made to Lorimier an additional grant of 30,000 arpens. Lorimier, as commandant of the post, manifested admirable efficiency. Trans- gressors of the law were dealt with without the accompaniment of display and red tape. One Robert Pulliam, charged with larceny, by Don Lorimier was sentenced to thirty

lashes, to pay the expense of his trial, return the articles stolen and leave the district, and notified that if he returned he would receive five hundred lashes. Residents of the district were also notified to not give him shelter. Josiah Lee, "for leaving his wife and taking the wife of another man," was ordered to leave the district and the people cautioned not to harbor him. Lee was penitent and petitioned the commandant to allow him to remain to care for his wife and children, promising to do nothing in the future to offend the community. History does not record what action was taken upon this peti- tion, but Lee's name appears upon the tax list of Cape Girardeau five years later. A valuable assistant of Lorimier was Bartholmy Cousins, a native of France, a linguist of note, who had traveled much in the West Indies. He was secretary of the post and was given valuable grants of land by the Spanish government. He was a surveyor and was an intimate friend of Antoine Soulard. Don Lorimier's first wife bore him seven children, four sons and three daugh- ters. She died March 23, 1808, and was buried in the cemetery at Cape Girardeau. After her death Lorimier married Mary Bethune, a half-blood French Delaware. Don Lorimier died June 26, 1812, and was buried beside his first wife in the town ceme- tery. His widow became the wife of Dr. John Logan, a resident of Illinois and grand- father of General John A. Logan.

First among the pioneers of the district was Andrew Ramsey, who, with his family and a number of slaves, moved from near Harper's Ferry, Virginia, and settled near Cape Girardeau. Among other first settlers were Nicholas Seavers, Jeremiah Simpson, Alexander Giboney, Dr. Blevens Hayden, Samuel Tipton, Abraham Byrd. Matthew Hubble and a number of families of Bol- lingers and Williams. Samuel Randol and family moved from Pennsylvania in 1797 and took up their residence on Randol's Creek. Abraham Byrd, a native of North Carolina. who had lived in Virginia and Tennessee, with his four sons, and their wives, located in 1799 on the creek which bears his name. John Byrd, one of his sons, built the first stillhouse, cotton gin and blacksmith shop in the district, and managed them until his death, in 1816. His brothers. Abraham, Jr., and Stephen, became prominent in both

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State and national politics. Stephen was a member of the first Territorial Assembly and a member of the State Constitutional Con- vention, and Abraham was a member of the State Legislature several terms, and in 1830, one of the presidential electors. William Russell, a native of Scotland, came with the Byrds from Tennessee and taught the first school in the Byrd settlement. Andrew Ramsey, mentioned herein, was a man of wealth and the owner of numerous slaves. He exercised much influence in the district, and through his efforts the first English school west of the Mississippi River was opened at Mt. Tabor, one mile from his plantation. Mexander Giboney was another prominent settler. and his descendants are numerous in southeast Missouri. Colonel George Frederick Bollinger was one of the first settlers at White Water River, near the line of the county named in his honor. The thrift and prosperity of the settlers of Cape Girardeau County is shown by the record of the productions of this district in 1802. These were: Wheat, 2,950 bushels; corn. 58.990 bushels ; tobacco, 3.100 pounds : fax and hemp, 9.200 pounds; cotton, 39,000 pounds: maple sugar, 19,000 pounds. In 1803 in the district were 2.380 head of horned cattle and 674 head of horses. That year the exports were: Three hundred and seventy one barrels salt pork, 14 barrels lard. 8.075 pounds of beef, 1.800 pounds of cotton and 7,000 pounds of bacon. The population of the district in 1799 was 416 whites and 105 slaves : in 1803 the population had increased to 1,200, and in 1810 to 3.888. The pioneers were nearly all Americans, mostly from North Carolina. Virginia and Tennessee. In 1706 there were not a half dozen French in the district. The first German settlement in Cape Girardeau County dates from 1834. when Otto Buehrman, a native of Brunswick. William Cramer and Rey. Frederick Picker. natives of Hanover, locate l on a farm in the Big Bend. A year later William Bierworth, Daniel Beriling. Henry Friese and Chris Schotte arrived. The same year a number of emigrants from Switzerland settled in the county and founded Dutchtown. Three years later a German Evangelical Church was organized there.

The first political division of Cape Girar- deau County was made in 1806 for the pur- pose of taxation. Lines were defined. "com-

mencing at the upper corner of the northern boundary line of Lonis Lorimier's large tract of land on which he resides ; thence by said boundary hne one mile ; thence in a straight line to the old road to Andrew Ramsey's; thence in a straight line adjoining, and above the plantation of John Patterson ; thence to the mouth of Byrd's Creek ; thence due west to the western boundary line of the district." The first assessors were, of the northern dis- triet, Chas. G. Ellis and Abraham Byrd. and of the southern, John Abernathy and Frederick Bollinger. In 1807 the district was divided into five subdistricts : Tywappity, German, Byrd, Cape Girardeau and St. Francois. Tywappity included nearly all of what is now Scott County; German about all of Bol- linger and a part of Madison, Cape Girardeau and St. Francois all of the settlements now in Wayne County. By act of the Territorial Legislature, October 1, 1812. Cape Girardeau District was organized into Cape Girardeau County. The present limits of the county date from March 1, 1851, when part of it was cut off for the organization of Bollinger County.

On the 19th day of March, 1805, the tien- oral Court of Quarter Sessions for Cape Girardeau District was organized, and the judges commissioned were Louis Lorimier, Thomas Ballew, Christopher Hays, Robert Green, John Geuthing. Frederick Limbaugh and John Byrd. Joseph MeFerron was ap- painted clerk of the court and John Hays sheriff. Members of the first grand jury were Henry Sheridan, Ithamar Hubble, Matthew Hubble. Elijah Whittaker. Martin Rodeney, Samuel Pew. James Earls, Joseph Waller, John Taylor. Daniel Harkelrode. Louis Lathem, John Petterson, James Boyd. William Boner. John Abernathy, Samtel Randol. James Currin, Robert Crump. Frank Bollinger and Sammel Bradley. The first indictments were against William Harper for assault "upon Raccoon, an Indian of the Delaware tribe," and against Baptiste Menie for robbing the store of Waters & Hall. At the June term of the court a license was granted Edenston Ross to keep a house of entertainment at Hubble's Mill and permits given to Louis Lorimier and Thomas W. Waters to run ferries across the Mississippi River. A proclamation by Governor Wil- liam H. Harrison directed that the first courts for the district be held at Cape Girar-

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deau and that proposals be received for the location of a permanent seat of justice. Louis Lorimier made a proposal to give in fee-simple to the district four acres situated north of his dwelling, furnish timber for the building, and give $200, and thirty days' labor of a man for the erection of the courthouse. Ile also agreed to reserve certain tracts of timber for the use of the inhabitants of the town of Cape Girardeau, which he then pro- posed to have laid out. His proposal was accepted and the Governor named Cape Girardeau as the fixed seat of justice. The court of quarter sessions, January 13, 1806, appointed a commission to lay off the town and locate the sites for public buildings, and another commission to let a contract for the buikling of a courthouse and jail. Members of the first named were: Anthony Haden, Christopher Hays, Edmund Hogan, Robert Hall and Benjamin Tennille, and of the latter, John C. Harbison, John Geuthing and Pierre Godair. At the next term of court the plan of the town was approved, and it was ordered that three acres of the public square be divided into lots and sold. The jail, built of oak logs, one foot square, and its dimen- sions twelve by twenty-five feet, and nine feet in height, was completed in December, 1806. The contractor be- came insolvent and the courthouse was never built, and the jail was a failure, in 1812 the grand jury making it a subject for report, as it was so poorly constructed that prisoners easily escaped from it. In 1812 Cape Girardeau District was succeeded by Cape Girardeau County, and the seat of justice was changed. From March, 1814, to the following year sessions of the court were held in a meetinghouse, on Thomas Bull's plantation, about one mile and a half south of the present town of Jackson. Circuit courts were established in 1815 and the court of common pleas abandoned. The first ses- sion of this court in Cape Girardeau County was held in May of the above year, in a building located upon the William H. Ashley plantation on Hubble's Creek. Fifty acres of this land, in 1814, had been purchased by commissioners appointed to secure sites for county buildings. The house upon it was used as a court room until 1818, when, at a cost of $2.450, a large barn-like building was erected. Two years previous a jail had been built, costing $1.400. This, in 1819, was

burned, and another one built, at a cost of $1,994. The structure was used until 1849, when a two-story building was erected, which was torn down ten years later and was re- placed by a more suitable building. The prosperity of the county demanded that a new courthouse be built, and in August, 1837, the county court appointed as commissioners to superintend its erection, Edward Criddle, Nathan Van Horn, Ralph Guild and Eben- ezer Flinn. The building was constructed of brick and stone, was forty-five feet square and two stories in height, with cupola. It was occupied until 1870, when it was burned. The same year the present building was erected, at a cost of about $33,000. Two executions are recorded in the annals of the county. The first punishment for a capital offense was in 1828, and was the execution of Pressly Morris for the killing of Zach Wyley in Scott County, the case being tried in Cape Girardeau County on a change of venne. Morris was hanged in Jackson, just east of the cemetery. Owing to circum- stances bearing upon the murder, public sentiment was not in sympathy with the decision of the court. At the December term of court, 1832, Isaac Whitson was indicted for the murder of John MI. Daniel. Whitson and Daniel had been drinking in a saloon at Jackson, and left the place together. Next morning Daniel was found by the road- side, bullet wounds showing the cause of his (leath. It was known that, while at Jackson. Whitson was armed, and the evidence before the court was mainly circumstantial. Whit- son was convicted and his execution by hanging took place January 30, 1833, Rev. Thomas P. Green, one of the early Baptist ministers, preaching a sermon at the gallows. Like other settlements in southeast Missouri, the pioneers of Cape Girardeau were prin- cipally Catholics. Father Rosati was a mis- sionary priest who held services in the carly days. His fervent preaching and charitable ways gained him many friends, and brought back into the fold recreant professors of the faith. The first Catholic parish was not organized until 1836 and Father Odin was installed as pastor. In 1808 a local preacher of the Methodist Episcopal Church was appointed to attend the Cape Girardeau Dis- triet. Two years prior to this the first Methodist society west of the Mississippi was formed about three miles west of Jackson,

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Encyclopedia of the history of Missouri, a compendium of history and biography for ready reference, Vol. I, Part 87

Author: Conard, Howard Louis, ed. 1n Publication date: 1901 Publisher: New York, Louisville [etc.] The Southern history company, Haldeman, Conard & co., proprietors Number of Pages: 856

Author: Conard, Howard Louis, ed. 1n
Publication date: 1901
Publisher: New York, Louisville [etc.] The Southern history company, Haldeman, Conard & co., proprietors
Number of Pages: 856