1956 petitions give a glance at Delta's history

Delta in southern Cape Girardeau County has a fascinating history, beginning long before its incorporation.

Settlers first came to the swampy land in the 1880s. Some were loggers, others fur trappers and hunters. The logging industry and railroads gave Delta its start, according to the Southeast Missourian archives. By 1887, three railroad companies -- Cotton Belt, Iron Mountain and Houck Railroad -- went through the depot at Delta.

On a 1901 map, Delta is marked at the intersection of three railroad lines, but had been turned down for a post office in 1898, because of another post office called "Delto" in Laclede County. It wasn't until 1914, when Delto's post office was abolished, that Delta got its post office.

As for official incorporation, that came several decades later. A petition to that effect was filed in December 1956, along with an affidavit signed by then-postmaster Irvin Swift, affirming that more than two-thirds of the taxable residents had asked that Delta be incorporated as a town. Those 155 signatures meant that the town's population would have been somewhere around 230 at the time.

These documents, along with another petition signed by 24 residents of Corbin's Addition who did not want to be included in the village, now reside at the Cape Girardeau County Archive Center, as part of the county's history.

The petitions are accompanied by a legal description of the metes and bounds of the proposed town of Delta. There is mention of Rosedale Subdivision and Morrison's Addition, and railroads: St. Louis Southwestern, Missouri Pacific and the St. Louis San Francisco. This document also allows for the creation of Playground Park.

A 1927 map shows Corbin's Addition, nearly 10 acres along the south side of Highway 25 at Main Street. The Center Frisco Railroad is also shown on the map. Corbin's Addition was divided into 14 lots for sale, and by 1956, 24 residents of that subdivision signed a petition asking not to be included in the village of Delta if and when the county court incorporated the area, "for the reason that there are no streets or water or anything else ... furnished by the former town of Delta before it was disincorporated," according to the petition's foreword.

This likely refers to action in July 1953, when the village residents voted to become a fourth-class city. A December 1954 Southeast Missourian article noted that the city status was dissolved, and Delta returned to its prior village status.

The 1956 petition to incorporate as a town survives, with signatures and a filing date at the end of December.

In my experience, any research tends to churn up more questions than answers, and for all that I can tell you how many signatures were on the petitions, I can't tell you their reasoning. I can tell you that these petitions exist but not why the movement to incorporate came about at that time.