John Risher establishes Decatur

Among the extinct towns of Cape Girardeau County is one very close to Cape Girardeau. In fact, the town of Decatur was inside the current city boundaries. Today it encompasses Southeast Missouri State University's River Campus, formerly the St. Vincent Seminary and College.

The founder of Decatur was John Risher (or Reisher). Risher was of a German family from Pennsylvania, born about 1766, and lived near Pittsburgh before coming to Missouri. He married his first wife, Susannah Roush, in about 1784. Risher operated a grist mill in Upper St. Clair Township. For unknown reasons, perhaps news of open land and opportunities, he moved to Upper Louisiana (Missouri) after the Louisiana Purchase. He returned to Pennsylvania in 1805 to dispose of remaining property.

Once Risher established in Cape, he purchased the lot on the south side of Broadway between Spanish and Lorimier streets in 1807 but assigned the deed to Abraham Byrd. Then, on Sept. 10, 1810, he purchased 45 1/2 acres, including the future Decatur, from Louis Lorimier. The tract extended from the south side of Cape to about present Highway 74, and from the river to Middle Street. He began selling lots from the parcel in May 1818, eventually selling 19 by 1820. Risher deeded a public space on the riverfront on May 13, 1818, along the east side of Decatur, and apparently including land outside the platted lots. This deed also served to declare the establishment of the town.

Risher was either talented or not focused. Most accounts of early Cape Girardeau indicate he was a blacksmith, but he briefly owned a distillery and a mill. Bartholomew Cousins, Lorimier's secretary, respected Risher's talents, indicated by the bequest in his will of "the spiral wheel which I have made out of wood, for [Risher] to apply to the purpose of propelling a skiff or canoe on the waters, as I do believe that a wheel of that or a similar construction may be very efficiently applied to that purpose, and become a valuable improvement in navigation." Tax records fail to support Risher's success in any of his pursuits, however.

Decatur became a failed venture. Over half the lots never sold, and Risher paid tax on those lots. Additionally, he sold 19 lots to Charles Hempstead, who defaulted on a $2,000 mortgage. Risher defaulted on a farm purchased in western Cape Girardeau County and mortgaged to Martin Thomas. He lost court cases involving debt to his brother-in-law, George Roush. The result was a sheriff's sale of unsold lots in Decatur to Ralph Daugherty on Dec. 9, 1828.

John Risher died just prior to 1830. His second wife, Maryan, and two young sons appear in guardianship records, but there was no probate.

The end of Decatur was unheralded. On March 28, 1833, Daugherty sold it and other properties to John B. Tornatorie acting for the Catholic Church. Within five years, the Church began development of the educational facility that was to stand on the site of the old failed town.