Scott County, MO

Description

The history of Scott County, MO and their communities. Also includes Scott County officials, churches, businesses and family histories.

Sujets

• Histoire
• Misuri
• Local history
• State
• History of Missouri
• History of the United States
• United States
• Missouri
• History
• Local

Informations

• Publié par: Turner Publishing Company
• Date de parution: 01 janvier 2003
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781681624518
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 5 Mo

Extrait

History of Scott County, Missouri
Book Commitee Chairman: Margaret Cline Harmon
Publishing Consultant: Douglas W. Sikes
Book Designer: Emily Sikes
Scott County Logo Design: Elizabeth Sikes
Copyright MMIII Scott County Historical and Genealogy Society
All rights reserved.
Publishing Rights: Turner Publishing Company
Library of Congress Control Number: 2003111474
ISBN: 978-1-56311-919-4
Limited Edition, First Printing 2003 A.D.
Additional copies may be purchased from Turner Publishing Company and the Scott County Historical and Genealogy Society.
This book or any part thereof may not be reproduced by any means, mechanical or electronic, without the prior written consent of the Scott County Historical and Geneolgy Society and Turner Publishing Company. This publication was produced using available information. The Publisher regrets it cannot assume responsibility for errors or omissions.
Front and rear maps reproduced from Soil Survey of Cape Girardeau, Mississippi and Scott Counties MISSOURI by the United States Department of Agriculture, Soil Conservation Service in cooperation with Missouri Agricultural Experiment Station. Issued August 1981. Major fieldwork for the survey was performed from 1973-77.
Table of Contents
History Book Commitee
Introduction
Scott County Early Development
Communities
More About Scott County
Scott County Officials
Personalities of Scott County
Churches
Businesses
Family Histories
Index
History Book Commitee
The Scott County Historical Society was organized November 15, 1980 in Morley, MO. Charter members were Janice Thomeston, Morley; Mason Emerson, Sikeston; Sylvester and Ramona Glastetter, Kelso; Louis Hirschowitz, Oran; Fred and Mildred Laster, Sikeston; and Mary McArthur, Morley.

Margaret Cline Harmon was Chairman of the Scott County History Book Committee and wrote the general county history and individual personal vignettes. She is currently a senior at Southeast Missouri State University in Historic Preservation and is married to Tom Harmon. Margaret is past president of the Scott County Historical and Genealogy Society and also wrote the society newsletter for over five years. She is now serving as Historical Director on the Board of Directors of the Missouri State Genealogy Society. Margaret enjoys writing about local and state history and is a published newspaper author and winner of several essay contests.

Tom Lett has been president of the Scott County Historical and Genealogy Society since January 2000. He is a native of Scott County and now lives in Cape Girardeau County, MO. He is retired from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and owned and operated Lett s Nursery for some twenty years before retiring again. He now volunteers for organizations he believes in. He served as church and business sales representative for the Scott County History and Family History book.

Lois Dirnberger Spalding has been the treasurer of the Scott County Historical and Genealogy Society for five years. Her contribution to the publishing of this History book consisted of contacting families and asking them to write their family histories, collecting family histories and logging them, collecting and logging all orders for the book and accounting for all funds collected toward purchases of the book.
Lois is a member of St. Denis church in Benton, MO. She worked for twenty years for the Missouri State Division of Family Services and helped her late husband, Joe Spalding, with his trucking business. She is also a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution, Nancy Hunter Chapter, Cape Girardeau, MO.

Carolyn Graham Frey is vice-president of the Scott County Historical and Genealogy Society. Throughout the duration of the book she collected family stories and edited for grammar. She logged the families and pictures, submitted them as to be mailed or picked up, and forwarded finished stories to the publisher. She wishes to thank all those that contributed family histories and pictures, as well as a special thanks to Peggy for her help.
Supportive Committee Members:
Donna Cannon, Ramona Glastetter, Caryl Hairston, Conrad Hudson, Carolyn Johnson, Betty Mirly, and Carolyn Pendergass.
Introduction
The pioneers that built Southeast Missouri with wagons, oxen, and traveled on horses, steamboats and stage coaches are no more. In their place is modern civilization with automobiles, comfortable combines to harvest the cotton, and people enjoying life in an easier life style. Let us not forget the connection between the past and present. This book shows that one s genealogy and history are inseparable.
Missouri s willingness to stand back while others rush ahead prompts some observers to dismiss her as a state which somehow faltered after a promising beginning as the gateway to the west. Evidence can be selected to show that the ancient ways and cautious spirit of southeast Missouri, the Ozark Hills, the farms and hamlets along the river valleys, and the rolling countryside have made Missouri an artifact in these United States. One can see relics in Scott Countians to show a willingness to pause while others rush ahead. Scott County is only one of a few counties where cotton plants are found growing in the city limits of its largest town, Sikeston. Agriculture is still of primary importance to its citizens and gives them roots.
Although Scott County s citizens are still divided in culture, all of her people are well grounded in the traditions of family values, a respect for the environment and a determined spirit to meet each day with hope and perseverance. Scott County has many generational families tracing back to the early 1800s. It appears the younger generations realize, in farming some of the same family land, the appeal agriculture carried a century or more before. The county s people s realism and frankness may show other counties, states, and the Nation the realization that thoughtful restraints are needed, if democracy is to survive a third century.
The Scott County Historical and Genealogy Society will continue to preserve and make available to citizens of Scott County and other researchers the records that document and preserve our rich heritage. By doing so, we will help to preserve the collective memory of the men and women who make up Scott County today and yesterday. The Book Committee wishes to thank everyone who has contributed in any way to the successful publication of this history book.
History of Scott County, Missouri

Blodgett, MO, circa 1892. Wagons of watermelons waiting for the train. (Photo courtesy of Mike Marshall)
Scott County Early Development
The first known human occupants of the re gion of Southeast Missouri were the Mound Builders. They were not numerous, though Southeast Missouri has over 18,000 identifiable mounds. Undoubtedly these ancient people hunted, fished, and farmed a bit in this area as they did in most of the Mississippi and Ohio valleys. 1
The close of the American Revolutionary War brought American immigrants to the bounties of Spanish territory. The Spanish authorities agreed to a tentative plan for a buffer colony. Settlers were to be offered liberal grants of land, religious freedom, local self-government, and the creation of a port of entry that would eliminate the necessity of carrying goods to New Orleans. Spain was to donate 15 million acres for this project, which had been suggested by, and was under the control of, Colonel George Morgan, an American Revolutionary War veteran from Virginia.
Early in 1789, Morgan selected the site of New Madrid as his capital, and the town was laid out on a rectangular plan extending four miles along the river. Sites for schools, churches, and market places were provided, and in the center of town a generous driveway was platted around a lake. No trees were to be cut along the streets or in the parks of the new town without official permission; laws protected the game in the surrounding country. That was Morgan s plan anyway.
The project generated great interest among American colonists, who considered Morgan s plan a better method of attracting settlers to the West than any suggested by Congress. There were many followers from Vincennes and Kaskaska who believed in Morgan s plan. Unfortunately, Morgan had political problems with Governor Miro of Louisiana. As often happens, what one politician promised, another took away and the once invisioned grand city of New Madrid failed to materialize. Many of Morgan s group returned to their homes east of the Mississippi River, but a few stayed in New Madrid along with Francis and Joseph LeSieur. 2
Probably the first settler in present day Scott County was William Smith who came up the Mississippi River and settled in Tywappity bottoms in 1797. He built an establishment, sort of a tavern, for the convenience of travelers. It was opposite Cat Island at the future site of Commerce. 3 The census of the area taken in 1803 showed that William Smith s family included three males, six females and no slaves. His farm production that year was 1,000 bushels of corn and 2,000 pounds of cotton. Livestock on hand included 30 head of cattle and six horses. 4
The years of the Napoleonic Wars (1789-1815) were very difficult for the average person in Europe. Both political and religious rights were greatly diminished and everyday life presented hardships we can only imagine. These reasons made exile-compelling motives for migration. Beyond these push factors of declining everyday life; immigration to America presented a strong pull factor to Europeans too. They were pulled toward the possibility of becoming landowners and of experiencing a better life for themselves and family in America. 5
In the early days, eastern Missouri was divided into five original districts: New Madrid, Cape Girardeau, Ste. Genevieve, St. Louis, and St. Charles. The districts continued after the Louisiana Purchase was completed, until the Terri