A history of Southeast Missouri local histories

These local history columns focus on detailed aspects of Cape Girardeau. Those needing more on Southeast Missouri history can access published histories. While no comprehensive history exists after 1912, four provide details through the early 20th century. There are also several books that focus on Cape Girardeau, including books of photographs. However, I include only histories of the entire region in chronological order.

The earliest local history is the 1888 “History of Southeast Missouri” published by Goodspeed Publishing Co. Goodspeed’s histories include a general state history, followed by histories of localities. Counties covered are south of Ste. Genevieve and St. Francois counties, and east of Madison, Wayne and Butler counties. County sections cover early settlement and settlers, boundary changes, geography, climate, agricultural products, local communities, county officials, schools, churches and local events. An uncredited historian typically prepared these sections and information sources are unidentified.

A key feature of Goodspeed is a section of biographies. The company sold subscriptions to fund publication, so these emphasized living people of average means or above. Biographical information came from the subjects, and reliability ranges from poor to excellent. Reprints of the book are still easy to find from several publishers.

Louis Houck is best-known locally as a railroad builder and civic leader, but we owe him a great debt for writing two major histories. The first is the 3-volume “History of Missouri” published in 1908. The work is a comprehensive state history until statehood, and Volumes 2 and 3 focus on Southeast Missouri. Much of the remainder is relevant to the area as part of Missouri. Houck provided abundant footnotes and identified many of the sources he used. This history is especially important in identification of early settlers.

Houck also published “The Spanish Regime in Missouri” in 1909. This work is a series of documents from the time Spain owned the region. The documents are from the Archivo General de Indies in Seville, Spain, and others transferred from Cuba to Seville after the Spanish-American War. Of great local interest is the time from the first American settlement in the 1790s until the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. Both of Houck’s histories are available digitally on Internet Archive or can be ordered as reprints.

The last comprehensive history of Southeast Missouri is the 1912 “History of Southeast Missouri: A Narrative Account of Its Historical Progress, Its People and Its Principal Interests,” by Robert Sidney Douglass. Douglass was from Kennett, Missouri, and became a history professor at the Southeast Missouri Normal School. Coverage includes the area south of Jefferson and St. Francois counties, and east of Washington, Iron, Reynolds, Carter and Ripley counties.

Featured in Volume 1 are details on Indigenous people, counties and communities, religions, social life, education, railroads, newspapers, the Civil War in the region and biographies of prominent deceased individuals. Volume 2 includes mostly biographies of people alive in 1912. Subjects of the biographies probably provided the information. Sadly, Douglass fails to cite sources for much of his detailed information.