BICENTENNIAL: VILLAGE OF CAPE BEGINS AFTER LOUIS LORIMIER

After Don Louis Lorimier became commandant of the Cape Girardeau District in January 1793, he employed Louis Francois Largeau as his secretary to keep a daily journal and carry on all written correspondence with the Spanish officials, since he could neither read nor write. Then in 1795 Lorimier petitioned Baron de Carondelet for a grant of land where Cape Girardeau was established. He did this through Juan Barno y Ferrusola acting as his agent, in September 1795.

Don Thomas Portelle, commandant at New Madrid, who lent Largeau to Lorimier as his secretary, recommended the land be given Lorimier. On Oct. 27, 1797, Antonio Soulard, who surveyed the land, certified he placed the land in Lorimier's possession. Carondelet granted Lorimier the land, but he was to make a road and regular improvements on it within a year. This stipulation went with the transfer of all land. Lorimier's grants at that time amounted to about 8,000 arpents of land.

In the meantime Lorimier had during the year erected a large building on the land fronting on Aquamsi Street for a house and an office. Nearby was a spring of fresh, flowing water, and a fine growth of timber. Some distance from the house on the road that led to Jackson was a campsite used by the Indians when they came to Cape Girardeau to visit. (This is now called Capaha Park.)

Today, as plans for the bi-centennial are being formulated and the city has a population of 34,438, with a county population of 61,633, it is difficult to visualize the city when it was a river settlement of a few log cabins and a small number of people trying to start a new community.

It was a fortunate day when a skiff pulled to shore near Lorimier's Red House and a spry little Frenchman approached the commandant asking to become his secretary. Details of how this man, whose name was Barthelemi Cousin, happened to come to Cape Girardeau are lacking, but since he came from New Orleans it is possible the journey was suggested by Baron de Carondelet because he was aware that Thomas Portelle had lent his secretary to Lorimier and would want him to return.

Cousin became the deputy surveyor of the district and the interpreter. He was a man of education and a linguist. Pierre Menard, a merchant in Kaskaskia, and a large property owner, spoke very well of Cousin, and seemed to have been acquainted with him even before he came to see Lorimier.

Among Cousin's talents was the ability to understand many of the Indians dialects. After the United States purchased the Louisiana Territory and the residents of Southeast Missouri became familiar with the transaction, being able to communicate this information to the Indians in the area was very important.

As more and more new settlers crossed the Mississippi River, they would approach Cousin and request that he write their petitions for land.

Since the Spanish did not pay the commandants in money but instead gave them land, there was some rivalry between them on the amount of land each one was given. Because Lorimier had a great interest in developing the Cape Girardeau area and he had the knack of getting the farmers to cultivate their farms, he made the Cape Girardeau District the most prosperous community in Upper Louisiana between 1793 and 1803.

Carlos DeHault DeLassus, in communicating with Don Manual de Salcedo, recommended Lorimier be made a captain. Salcedo was the "intendant" for the Spanish, serving with Marquis de Casa Calvo at the time the transfer of Upper Louisiana took place, Nov. 30, 1803, when Spain gave the land back to France.

Cape Girardeau was not regularly laid out as a village by Lorimier while he was commandant of the post. He claimed all the land that made up the village and by the time he died he had been given a large amount of land.

The two most important persons in Cape Girardeau during those infant years were Cousin and Lorimier. When Cousin laid out the city for Lorimier in 1806, he was given land near the corner of Main and Themis, where he had a small log house erected.

There were two main streets to the village. The one along the river was called "Rue de Charlette" honoring Lorimier's wife. Later it was renamed Aquamsi Street, because of the water.

Above Cousin's house in 1799 were the trading houses of Daniel F. Steinback, Frederick Reineke, and Michael Quinn. Also living in the village was Solomon Thorn, a gunsmith, who repaired the guns of the Shawnees and Delawares. Thorn came from Illinois with the George Rogers Clark's regiment and had been a soldier in Captain Dillard's Company.

Another resident was John Risher, a blacksmith who obtained a piece of land from Lorimier that years later became the site of St. Vincent's College, and where Risher laid out a village that he named Decatur. John Patterson and Charles Seavers were also blacksmiths and lived at the post in 1802.

David Wade was the village carpenter. Because most household furnishings and implements had to be constructed, workmen were always in demand, but some of them did not remain in one place very long.

Things were changing in Southeast Missouri, and although the change seems to have been gradual from the time Lorimier became commandant until long after the Louisiana Purchase occurred, it must be remembered the residents labored under great handicaps. They had no money, little education, transportation was poor, food was what could be raised by the inhabitants, and supplies were limited. But the new settlers, and those who had previously established homes, were not dissatisfied and had no thought of leaving Cape Girardeau. Their loyalty to the river city, even with its many drawbacks, remained steadfast. This trait of civic support has continued for 200 years.