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New Madrid Co |
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FEDERAL WRITERS PROJECT, MISSOURI: page 459: "Left from Haytie on State 84, a concrete road, to CARUTHERSVILLE, 6 M. (225 alt., 6,612 pop.) seat of Pemiscot County. Built on a bend of the Mississippi River and protected from floods by an earthen levee surmounted by a concrete wall, the town is the center of a cotton, corn, melon, and alfalfa area. it is also a shipping point for wood products, sand, and gravel. Caruthersville had its origin in La Petite Prairie, a French trading post whose site, near that of Caruthersville, has been washed into the river. It was settled about 1794, by Francois Le Sieur, the fur trader, who a decade earlier had established a post at New Madrid. The settlement on the wide, fertile bottom attracted John Hardeman Walker and his family from Tennessee in 1810. The violence of the New Madrid earthquake desolated the settlement in 1811-12. Seven years later, when the Reverend Timothy Flint traveled through the region, traces of the catastrophe were still evident; crevices where the earth had divided, sand covering the region to the depth of two and three feet, the surface red with oxidized pyrite. Only two families remained and "the tokens of former cultivation and habitancy, were now mementos of desolation and desertion." The Walker family was one of those that remained. In 1818 Walker, learning that the proposed southern boundary of the State would not include his land, began a vigorous campaign to include all land south to the thirty-sixth parallel, between the Mississippi and the St. Francis Rivers. To Walker MO thus owes its "boot heel.' In 1857, with George W. Bushey, he platted a town on a protion of the Walker plantation and named it Caruthersville, in honor of Samuel Caruthers (1820-60), Madison County lawyer and judge. The town had a slow growth, until it became the eastern terminus of the St. Louis, Kennett & Southern Railroad; about 1900, it succeeded Gayoso as the county seat. Right 3.5 m, from Caruthersville on an unmarked concrete road to a cluster of houses and stores called STUBBTOWN; L. 1.7 m. on the marked Cottonwood Point Road to a great INDIAN MOUND (L), the largerst in southeastern MO. Rising like a low hill from the surrounding flat plain, the mound is 400 feet long, 250 feet wide, and 35 feet high, with a southern approach to the summit. The sides originally were covered with two layers of burned clay, three to four inches thick, with split cane laid between each layer. This and other mounds in the vicinity indicate a numerous and sedentary people, interested in agriculture and more advanced in civilization than the migratory Indians living in the area at the arrival of the white men. Early settlers used the mound as a refuge during flood." Return To History of Southeast, Missouri A Narrative of Its Historical Progress These pages are a collection of genealogical information to help you research families in White County IL Included you will find historical information, county resources, queries and much much more. Many volunteers have contributed information to these pages. Their names will appear on the pages and information they have provided. These pictures may not be copied or used in any publication or for any other purpose without the contributor's written consent. This is a free site. There is not a charge to view these pages. | |
