The following is an excerpt is from:
The Scott County Missouri Newsboy,
April 20, 1900 Vol XIII No 11.
Transcribed by:
Edward Reynolds
20 Brookview Dr
Lawrenceville, GA 30243
Biographical and Industrial Edition
THE SCOTT COUNTY MISSOURI NEWSBOY
VOL. XIII Benton, MO., April 20, 1900 No. 11.
This county is one of the group designated as Southeast Missouri, and is
situated in the far southeastern portion of the state. The Mississippi River
forms its eastern boundary. To the north lies Cape Girardeau County and to
the south are New Madrid and Mississippi Counties, while Stoddard County
joins it on the west. Its location is described in the Revised Statutes of
Missouri, 1889, as follows:
"Beginning at the northeast corner of Mississippi County, thence southwestardly with the northern boundary line of said County to the northeast cornor of the southeast quarter of section 26, in township 26 north, range 14 east, thence westwardly with the northern boundary line of New Madrid County, as established in section 3037, to White Water River, thence with the boundary as now established by law to the place of beginning. Many points of information long since chronicled by the press of historians might be included in this article, but as such history does not deal particularly with Scott County, we deem it somewhat foreign to this work. That prehistoric race, the Mound Builders, whom it is supposed had their center of civilization along the Mississippi Valley, left strong and conclusive evidence of their one time residence in Scott and the adjoining counties, but principally in the latter, although many traces of this people have been found in this county.
SETTLEMENT OF SCOTT COUNTY
Durring the year 1789, a road known as King's road was marked out from Ste.
Genevieve to New Madrid, and it was along this road that the settlements
were most numerous in New Madrid District and what is now Scott County. One
of the earliest settlers was Edward Robertson, who, with his son-in-law,
Moses Hurley, located near where Sikeston now is. The former was an extensive
land speculator, and also kept a store and trading post. He was entirely
uneducated and could not write his name, but he was a shrewd business man
and succeeded in keeping most of the other settles in his debt.
In 1796 or 1797, Capt. Charles Friend, with his family, came from Monogahela
County, Va., and secured a concession of land near the present site of Benton.
He had been a captian in the Revolutionary War, and was at this time about
75 years of age. He had a family of nine sons, three of whom, Jonas, John
and Jacob, each received the customary concession of 800 arpents of land,
an inducement to settlers at that time, About 1811 John Ramsey removed from
Cape Girardeau and located on what is now the county poor farm, where he
remainded until his death in 1837.
Joseph Hunter, one of the most distinguished pioneers of Southeast Missouri,
located near the present site of Sikeston about 1806. He was a son of a Scotch
Irish Presbyterian, who immigrated to America from the North of Ireland prior
to the Revolutionary War. Durring the early settlement of Kentucky the family
removed to Louisville. A brother of Joseph who had been an officer in the
continental received a grant of land on the river above Sikeston in what
is still known as "Hunter's Bottom." The mother of Joseph and a sister were
killed by the Indians while in a flax fled near their home; a brother, Abraham,
also met his death at the hands of the savages.
Upon the Organization of the Missouri Territory, Joesph Junter was appointed
by President Madison a member of the territorial council. He had a large
family and his decendants are very numerous. His eldest son, Mildred, removed
to Grand Gulf, Miss. The second son, Abraham, married Sally Ogden and became
the father of three sons and three daughters, viz: Isaac, at one time a judge
of the Scott County court; Joseph, residing in New Madrid, and Benjamin F.
who lived near Sikeston and was one of the largest land owners in Southeast
Missouri; Catherine, who married first Americus Price and second Marmaduke
Beckwith, Mary who married Archibald Price, and Amanda. Abraham Hunter in
his day was probably the best known politican in Southeast Missouri and served
successively, in one or the other of the branches of the state legislature
for twenty years. James, another son of Joseph Hunter, married Lucy Beckwith,
and had two children, Joseph, killed in the battle of Pilot Knob, and Kate.
David, a fourth son married his cousin, Nancy Phillips, by whom he had three
children, Samuel, Betty and Jennie. Joseph Hunter Jr., married Elizabeth
Johnson, and was the father of two children, Marie, who married Major James
Parrot, and Ann, who became the wife of Joseph H. Moore. Thomas, the youngest
sons of Joseph Hunter, Sr., married Eliza Meyers and raised two children,
Nannie Kate and William. Of the daughters of Joseph Hunter, Mary married
Andrew Giboney, of Cape Girardeau, whose daughter is the wife of Hon. Louis
Houck, and Hanna married Mark H. Stallcup, of New Madrid County.
Capt. William Meyers was the first settler on the site of Benton. He was
a native of North Carolina, but lived for a time in Tennessee. He was a
commissioned officer in the war of 1812, and distinguished himself as an
Indian fighter.
That part of Scott County formerly known as Tywappity Bottom, which extended
from Commerce to Bird's Point, began to receive settlers as early as 1798.
Among them James Brady, James Curran, Charles Findlay, Edmund Hogan, Thomas,
John and James Welborn, and Stephen, Josiah, and Robert Quimby. About 1802,
Thomas W. Waters, a South Carolinian, located on the site of Commerce, and
established a trading post and store in partnership with Robert Hall. He
also kept a ferry across the Mississippi. He died a few years after coming
to Scott County.
ORGANIZATION
The Territory now embraced in Scott County during the Spanish Administration
was attached to the post of Cape Girardeau, and the proclamation issued by
Gov. Harrison, defining the boundaries of the districts of Upper Louisanna
in 1804, did not change the line between New Madrid and Cape Girardeau, but
on June 7, 1805, Gov. Wilkinson, by proclamation fixed the line as follows:
"beginning at an outlet of the river Mississippi called the Great Swamps, below Cape Girardeau, and extending through the center of same to the river St. Francois, and thence until it strikes the present northern boundary of the district of New Madrid, and with the same westwardly as far as the same extends."
This change proved very inconvenient to the people living in Tywappity Bottom, who had hitherto transacted all their business at Cape Girardeau, and in response to a pettion from them the governor, on August 15, 1806 issued a second proclamation fixing the boundary as follows:
"The southern boundry of the district of Cape Girardeau shall from and, after the date hereof, be fixed and determined by a due west line, to be connected on the right bank of the Mississippi adjoining to and below the plantation of Abraham Bird opposite the mouth of the Ohio."
This remained the boundary between the districts of Cape Girardeau and New Madrid unitl the organization of the counties in 1813. The limits of New Madrid were extended to include nearly all of what is now Scott County, but on December 28, 1821, the following act of the legislature was approved.
"An Act dividing the county of New Madrid, and erecting the same into two seperate and distinct counties -- The now of New Madrid shall be and the same is hereby divided into two separate and distinct counties, by a line running as follows: beginning in the main channel of the the river Mississippi, opposite a small creek or bayou, called James Creek or Bayou, thence in a direct line to the mouth of said creek; thence in a northwesterly course to a point in the swamps to a point due north of the line between townships 25 and 26 east of the principal meridian, parallel with the northern boundary line of a tract of land situated in the upper end of the Big Prairie originally granted and confirmed to Moses Hurly, and where Mrs. Elizabeth Phillips now lives; thence running due west to the western boundary line of said county of New Madrid; and that the said tract of county lying to the southward of said line shall be continued to be called and known by the name of New Madrid County and that tract lying nothwardly and eastwardly of said line shall be called and be known by the name of Scott County."
By the same act, Enoch Evans, Abraham Hunter, Thomas Roberts, Joseph Smith and Newman Beckwith were appointed to locate the seat of justice for Scott County.
Excerpt is from:
The Scott County Missouri Newsboy,
April 20, 1900 Vol XIII No 11.
Transcribed by:
Edward Reynolds
20 Brookview Dr
Lawrenceville, GA 30243
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