INVITATION: BUDDING AREA BEGINS TO GROW

Since there were few newspapers in America when Louisiana became part of the United States in 1803, and none in Southeast Missouri, it is surprising how news of free land to settlers became public knowledge so fast. It seemed to have attracted people to the Cape Girardeau District.

When Alexander O'Reilly took possession of Louisiana on Aug. 18, 1769, no person was allowed to establish his residence in territory belonging to the King of Spain, including English merchants and traders. The English and the Spanish were engaged in war in 1779, but feelings between the two nations had been far from settled for years.

The Spanish wanted new settlers, but the right kind who would build up the land. The lieutenant governors granted settlers' requests for land and ordered the surveyors of upper Louisiana to make surveys and place the land in the possession of settlers, who paid only a trifling fee to the surveyors, although they received large tracts.

In 1795, Gov.-Gen. Carondelet informed Lt. Gov. Zenon Trudeau, who had become head of matters in upper Louisiana in 1792, that the Spanish wanted to keep Louisiana Catholic and devoid of incoming American settlers. But there seemed to be so many of them arriving from various places by river in boats, skiffs, and other conveyances that the Spanish were powerless to stop the invaders.

So Carondelet changed his thinking about the Americans. He told Carlos DeLassus, when he sent him to New Madrid, to invite inhabitants of the United States; not hunters but families who had means to come settle in the district, and to have the surveyors of the districts give the new settlers title to the land by reducing the cultivation clause to one-tenth of the grant within three years. It was an attractive offer, and more and more Americans began to arrive in Southeast Missouri and in other districts in Spanish Louisiana.

After newcomers crossed the Mississippi River, they had two roads on which to travel. The first was a tree-notched road from Ste. Genevieve to Mine La Motte. This practice of marking roads was familiar to settlers because it was practiced in the East. The second road was Rue Royale, or El Camino Real, which extended along the Mississippi north and south connecting New Madrid to St. Louis. It followed what today is essentially Highway 61 and extended through Cape Girardeau, Jackson and Ste. Genevieve, to St. Louis.

Few travelers made the difficult trip from New Madrid or any of the other Southeast Missouri settlements north by using these roads because Indians often raided traveling parties. After the Indians left the territory, the roads were used. River travel was a safer, more popular route.

We have no realization of the hardships and dangers our forefathers endured to settle Missouri. Their courage, faith and spirit was unbelievable; it carried them from the East Coast of America westward to the Pacific Coast.

The first American to be impressed by the Spanish invitation to come to the Cape Girardeau District was Andrew Ramsay in 1795. A stream between the city of Cape Girardeau and Jackson is named for the Ramsay family. The pioneer came from Harper's Ferry at an advanced age, accompanied by a large, well-grown family. Ramsay had served with the Virginia troops under Col. George Washington, who saved Gen. Edward Braddock's army from annihilation in 1775.

Ramsay's plantation became the gathering point for many other American settlers who came to his place for assistance in finding desirable land. Often they homesteaded nearby (although the Homestead Act was not passed by the United States government until May 1862). Ramsay was followed by a number of his own kin.

Soon the Cape Girardeau District was populated by more Americans than any of the four existing districts along the Mississippi. The other areas were chiefly French; early records show that the only French families in Cape Girardeau were Lorimier, Cousin, Godair, Largeau, Mariot and Berthiaume.

Other early families to settle in the Cape Girardeau-Jackson area were Alexander Giboney, Nicholas Seavers, Jeremiah Simpson, Dr. Belemus Hayden and Samuel Tipton, who brought their families and black servants with them.

William Dougherty, a son-in-law of Ramsay, obtained land to farm on Hubble Creek south of Jackson. His house, erected on a rise of land, was called "High Hill," and it stood for many years next to the H.H.M. Williams place on Route PP. The Dougherty house is gone, but the Williams place remains.

By the time Louisiana became part of the United States, there were American families living in Jackson, Burfordville, Gordonville, Byrd's Creek, Dutchtown, and outside of the towns along the roads. There were still Indians residing throughout the region, but they were peaceable and usually caused the settlers no trouble.

By 1806 Cape Girardeau was surveyed by Bathelemi Cousin and laid out into lots that were sold at $100 each. The city of Cape Girardeau then became a reality.