An early 'business directory' for Cape County, 1816-1817

Early businesses in territorial Missouri appear in lists of taxes and license fees. The Missouri Gazette and Public Advertiser, dating from 1808 in St. Louis, was the newspaper of record for the area until the Jackson Independent began in 1820. The Gazette printed lists of public monies received for the counties south of St. Louis. A tax and licensure system for Missouri Territory began in 1814, and the list of businesses discussed below was from 1816 and 1817.

The classes of businesses requiring licenses were mercantile businesses; those trading with Indians; "pedlars" or peddlers; ferries; and taverns, public inns, or public houses of entertainment. The legislature set basic rates, modified by local courts for some business classes. The county sheriff issued licenses.

Four licensed ferries operated during this time, with the license fee of $5 (the state set the fee at $5 to $100, with fares set by the county court). Cape Girardeau County encompassed what is now Wayne County and points west, and the ferry operated by Solomon Bollinger was on Black River southeast of present-day Williamsville. This was an important crossing on the main road from Jackson to Davidsonville, a route that many Cape Girardeau families took before 1830 while immigrating to Arkansas. The William Ross ferry was likely south of Cape Girardeau in the vicinity of the present-day cement plant, where Ross had a Spanish land grant (partly underwater today due to river course change). Charles G. Ellis was a noted Cape Girardeau businessman, and his ferry likely operated on the Mississippi at Cape. In 1817, Parish Green bought the ferry operated by Medad Randol in 1816, which was the famous Green's Ferry that ran the Mississippi at present-day Trail of Tears State Park.

The legislature set peddlers' licenses at $14 per year. Two operated in 1817, and both James Smith and the Worthington family lived in the area near Crooked Creek in present-day Bollinger County. The county issued three tavern licenses, set at $10 by the county. John Edwards operated one outside of Jackson. Edwards had been Kentucky's first U.S. senator and had land in the Jackson area. George Henderson's was in Cape Girardeau (as was his mercantile business) and William Sheppard's in Jackson.

Most of the licenses issued to Cape Girardeau County businesses were merchant's licenses. The rate for these businesses was $15 per 6 months on stands selling or retailing merchandise. Of the merchants licensed in Cape Girardeau County, deed and other records show two were in Cape Girardeau (Henderson and Daniel F. Steinbeck), six in Jackson (Daniel M. Stout, Joseph Frizel, William Neely, Nathan Vanhorn, John Herbert & Co., and Rene le Mellieur of St. Louis), and one in the Whitewater Settlement (Joseph Rogers). The location of four others is unclear (Thomas Stevens, Robert Hancock, Jeptha Sweet and John Cammack).

The location of these businesses emphasize the growth in Jackson after its organization as the county seat in 1814 and how far the business community in the county has come since.