Scott County, MO: History & Families (Limited)

By Scott County History Book Committee

The history of Scott County, MO and their communities. Also includes Scott County officials, churches, businesses and family histories.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Turner Publishing Company
• Release date: Jan 1, 2003
• ISBN: 9781681624518

Book preview

History Book Commitee

The Scott County Historical Society was organized November 15, 1980 in Morley, MO. Charter members were Janice Thomeston, Morley; Mason Emerson, Sikeston; Sylvester and Ramona Glastetter, Kelso; Louis Hirschowitz, Oran; Fred and Mildred Laster, Sikeston; and Mary McArthur, Morley.

Margaret Cline Harmon was Chairman of the Scott County History Book Committee and wrote the general county history and individual personal vignettes. She is currently a senior at Southeast Missouri State University in Historic Preservation and is married to Tom Harmon. Margaret is past president of the Scott County Historical and Genealogy Society and also wrote the society newsletter for over five years. She is now serving as Historical Director on the Board of Directors of the Missouri State Genealogy Society. Margaret enjoys writing about local and state history and is a published newspaper author and winner of several essay contests.

Tom Lett has been president of the Scott County Historical and Genealogy Society since January 2000. He is a native of Scott County and now lives in Cape Girardeau County, MO. He is retired from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and owned and operated Lett’s Nursery for some twenty years before retiring again. He now volunteers for organizations he believes in. He served as church and business sales representative for the Scott County History and Family History book.

Lois Dirnberger Spalding has been the treasurer of the Scott County Historical and Genealogy Society for five years. Her contribution to the publishing of this History book consisted of contacting families and asking them to write their family histories, collecting family histories and logging them, collecting and logging all orders for the book and accounting for all funds collected toward purchases of the book.

Lois is a member of St. Denis church in Benton, MO. She worked for twenty years for the Missouri State Division of Family Services and helped her late husband, Joe Spalding, with his trucking business. She is also a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution, Nancy Hunter Chapter, Cape Girardeau, MO.

Carolyn Graham Frey is vice-president of the Scott County Historical and Genealogy Society. Throughout the duration of the book she collected family stories and edited for grammar. She logged the families and pictures, submitted them as to be mailed or picked up, and forwarded finished stories to the publisher. She wishes to thank all those that contributed family histories and pictures, as well as a special thanks to Peggy for her help.

Supportive Committee Members:

Donna Cannon, Ramona Glastetter, Caryl Hairston, Conrad Hudson, Carolyn Johnson, Betty Mirly, and Carolyn Pendergass.

Introduction

The pioneers that built Southeast Missouri with wagons, oxen, and traveled on horses, steamboats and stage coaches are no more. In their place is modern civilization with automobiles, comfortable combines to harvest the cotton, and people enjoying life in an easier life style. Let us not forget the connection between the past and present. This book shows that one’s genealogy and history are inseparable.

Missouri’s willingness to stand back while others rush ahead prompts some observers to dismiss her as a state which somehow faltered after a promising beginning as the gateway to the west. Evidence can be selected to show that the ancient ways and cautious spirit of southeast Missouri, the Ozark Hills, the farms and hamlets along the river valleys, and the rolling countryside have made Missouri an artifact in these United States. One can see relics in Scott Countians to show a willingness to pause while others rush ahead. Scott County is only one of a few counties where cotton plants are found growing in the city limits of its largest town, Sikeston. Agriculture is still of primary importance to its citizens and gives them roots.

Although Scott County’s citizens are still divided in culture, all of her people are well grounded in the traditions of family values, a respect for the environment and a determined spirit to meet each day with hope and perseverance. Scott County has many generational families tracing back to the early 1800s. It appears the younger generations realize, in farming some of the same family land, the appeal agriculture carried a century or more before. The county’s people’s realism and frankness may show other counties, states, and the Nation the realization that thoughtful restraints are needed, if democracy is to survive a third century.

The Scott County Historical and Genealogy Society will continue to preserve and make available to citizens of Scott County and other researchers the records that document and preserve our rich heritage. By doing so, we will help to preserve the collective memory of the men and women who make up Scott County today and yesterday. The Book Committee wishes to thank everyone who has contributed in any way to the successful publication of this history book.

History of Scott County, Missouri

Blodgett, MO, circa 1892. Wagons of watermelons waiting for the train. (Photo courtesy of Mike Marshall)

Scott County Early Development

The first known human occupants of the re gion of Southeast Missouri were the Mound Builders. They were not numerous, though Southeast Missouri has over 18,000 identifiable mounds. Undoubtedly these ancient people hunted, fished, and farmed a bit in this area as they did in most of the Mississippi and Ohio valleys.¹

The close of the American Revolutionary War brought American immigrants to the bounties of Spanish territory. The Spanish authorities agreed to a tentative plan for a buffer colony. Settlers were to be offered liberal grants of land, religious freedom, local self-government, and the creation of a port of entry that would eliminate the necessity of carrying goods to New Orleans. Spain was to donate 15 million acres for this project, which had been suggested by, and was under the control of, Colonel George Morgan, an American Revolutionary War veteran from Virginia.

Early in 1789, Morgan selected the site of New Madrid as his capital, and the town was laid out on a rectangular plan extending four miles along the river. Sites for schools, churches, and market places were provided, and in the center of town a generous driveway was platted around a lake. No trees were to be cut along the streets or in the parks of the new town without official permission; laws protected the game in the surrounding country. That was Morgan’s plan anyway.

The project generated great interest among American colonists, who considered Morgan’s plan a better method of attracting settlers to the West than any suggested by Congress. There were many followers from Vincennes and Kaskaska who believed in Morgan’s plan. Unfortunately, Morgan had political problems with Governor Miro of Louisiana. As often happens, what one politician promised, another took away and the once invisioned grand city of New Madrid failed to materialize. Many of Morgan’s group returned to their homes east of the Mississippi River, but a few stayed in New Madrid along with Francis and Joseph LeSieur.²

Probably the first settler in present day Scott County was William Smith who came up the Mississippi River and settled in Tywappity bottoms in 1797. He built an establishment, sort of a tavern, for the convenience of travelers. It was opposite Cat Island at the future site of Commerce.³ The census of the area taken in 1803 showed that William Smith’s family included three males, six females and no slaves. His farm production that year was 1,000 bushels of corn and 2,000 pounds of cotton. Livestock on hand included 30 head of cattle and six horses.⁴

The years of the Napoleonic Wars (1789-1815) were very difficult for the average person in Europe. Both political and religious rights were greatly diminished and everyday life presented hardships we can only imagine. These reasons made exile-compelling motives for migration. Beyond these push factors of declining everyday life; immigration to America presented a strong pull factor to Europeans too. They were pulled toward the possibility of becoming landowners and of experiencing a better life for themselves and family in America.⁵

In the early days, eastern Missouri was divided into five original districts: New Madrid, Cape Girardeau, Ste. Genevieve, St. Louis, and St. Charles. The districts continued after the Louisiana Purchase was completed, until the Territory of Missouri was organized by Congress. Most of the settlers immigrated just after the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. They were from Virginia, Kentucky, North Carolina and Tennessee. Congress organized the Territory of Missouri on June 4, 1812 and immigration accelerated.⁶

Among the families from Kentucky were Hartwell Baldwin, Joseph Hunter, Edward N. Matthews, Isaac Ogden, Samuel Phillips, Stephen Ross, John Shields Sr., Moses Shelby and other lesser known families but equally important to the development of the area.⁷

In 1789, a road known as King’s Highway was marked out from Ste. Genevieve to New Madrid and it was along this road that the settlements were most numerous in New Madrid District and what is now Scott County. Other early settlers west of the Mississippi River were Edward Robertson, who with this son-in-law, Moses Hurley, located near where Sikeston is now. Hurley was an extensive land speculator, and also kept a store and trading post. He was uneducated and could not write his name but he was a shrewd business man and succeeded in keeping most of the other settlers in his debt.

In 1796 or 1797 Capt. Charles Friend, with his family, came from Monongahela County, Virginia and secured a concession of land near the present site of Oran. He had been a captain in the Revolutionary War, and was at this time about 75 years of age. He had a family of nine sons, three of whom, Jonas, John and Jacob, each received the customary concession of 800 arpents of land, an inducement to settlers at that time.

In the early 1800s, William Meyers moved with his parents to what is now the Benton area.

During the Spanish domination, the territory now comprised in Scott County was attached to the post of Cape Girardeau. Governor Harrison defined the boundaries of the districts of Upper Louisiana, in 1804, and the line between New Madrid and Cape Girardeau did not change until June 7, 1805. Governor Wilkinson, by proclamation, fixed the line as follows: Beginning at an outlet of the river Mississippi, called the Great Swamp, below the Cape Girardeau, and extending through the center of the same to the River St. Francois, and thence until it strikes the present northern boundary of the district of New Madrid, and with the same westward as far as the same extends. This change proved inconvenient to the people living in Tywappity Bottoms, who had transacted all their business at Cape Girardeau in the past. They developed a petition and presented it to the Governor and on August 15, 1806, the boundary was changed as follows: The southern boundary of the district of Cape Girardeau shall form and, after the date hereof, be fixed and determined by a due west line, to be commenced on the right bank of the Mississippi adjoining to and below the plantation of Abraham Bird, opposite to the mouth of the Ohio. This remained the boundary between the districts of New Madrid and Cape Girardeau until the organization of the counties in 1813.⁸

The first settlement recorded in Scott County was in COMMERCE, alongside the Mississippi River. The first actual documentation of settlements in Commerce is provided in the Spanish land grants dating from 1791 to 1804. The land upon which the town built was originally granted to Thomas W. Waters, and was owned by his heirs when the survey was made. Early residences of the town were John Brown (hotel keeper), J. W. Echols, Samuel & William Gray (manufacturers of stoneware), Archibald Price and James Weaver.

Thomas Willoughby Waters arrived at Commerce in March of 1804. Shortly after arriving here he formed a trading partnership with Robert Hall under the firm name Waters & Hall. He also formed a partnership with James Brady and their firm was known as Thomas Waters & Company.

On August 23, 1804 Waters wrote President Thomas Jefferson, applying for the position of commandant of the district, pointing out that, as a Major in the Revolutionary War, "he had filled a higher military office than any one here, except for one man upwards of sixty years old.⁹" No record of a response was found. Waters also operated a stage coach out of Commerce and the Tywappity Bottoms, as one was listed on a February 15, 1809 personal property appraisal. It was valued at $21.75.¹⁰

Under the statutes in effect in the period immediately after Missouri became a state, the circuit courts were given control over executors, administrators, guardians and minors. As Thomas and his wife Fannie Waters had died, there were much litigated and long overdue settlements of their estates. In an effort to speed and facilitate this process, the court, in 1823, ordered a board of commissioners to be appointed to lay out lots at the present site of Commerce and to expose and sell them at public venue. Many of the out lots and town lots were bought by absentee speculators or bid on by individual members of the Waters family. Among the better known in the first category were Nathaniel W. Watkins, William Myers and Nathaniel Wickliffe. Myers was then a resident of Benton, Watkins lived in Jackson at the time, and Wickliffe was then residing in Kentucky.¹¹

During the War Between the States, the County Seat was moved from Benton to Commerce as Commerce was under Union Control. Plans were drawn, copying the first brick Courthouse in Benton, and was completed by mid-1865. It remained the County Seat until 1879 when voters, by more than two-thirds of the votes, expressed their desire that the Seat of Justice be returned to Benton.

Commerce was a thriving town in the 1800’s with steamboats arriving and departing on schedule, and the 1875 edition of Campbell’s Gazetteer listed the town with a population of 600, besides a considerable suburban population. The town had 8 stores, 4 shops, 4 hotels, 2 stave mills, 1 pottery (Koch’s) factory, 1 steam flour mill, 2 churches, a Methodist and Baptist. The first newspaper published in Commerce was the Dispatch, established in 1867 by William Ballentine and H. P. Lynch. It was published under the management of various editors until the removal of the county seat back to Benton.

Robert S. Douglas’s History of Southeast Missouri, written in 1912, featured a brief biography of Benjamin F. Anderson as follows: Benjamin F. Anderson was born in 1852. In his early youth he attended local subscription schools, but otherwise was self-educated. At the age of 15 he went to work in a store at Commerce that his brother, Joseph Anderson, owned. He continued this job until 1874, when he went into the mercantile business for himself, and continued to run his store until 1882. At that juncture he became a partner with another brother, William B. Anderson, in a commission grain and milling business.

At the time Douglas’s book was published (1912), Ben Anderson owned two elevators that had a combined capacity of 100,000 bushels and shipped grain in carload lots to various markets. He also owned a 200 acre farm which he rented out and was a co-owner with his son, Norwell Anderson, of a store in Commerce. Other Anderson family members living in Commerce were merchants too. Benjamin’s wife, Mary Ellen, who was born on April 22, 1852 and died seven years after her husband on June 30, 1935. Joseph T. Anderson, born April 27, 1840 and died September 14, 1895, at White Springs, Mo. of typhoid fever. His two wives are buried near him. His first wife was Fannie Ross Gaither Anderson and second wife Clara W. Ranney Anderson. Also, in the cemetery are: Henry Gaither Anderson, Nowell F. Anderson, Tillman Wylie Anderson, Jessie Gail Anderson, Wade Gray Anderson, Pauline Maupin Anderson and the last to be buried was Virginia A. Anderson, born March 23, 1881 and died August 13, 1971.

The Anderson family lived in Commerce in its prosperous and exciting years. The William B. Anderson home is now a Bed and Breakfast and it continues to give a hint of the affluent lifestyle the Anderson family enjoyed.

Another prosperous and important family buried in the Commerce/Anderson cemetery is the Moore’s. Joseph H. Moore was born June 12, 1836 and died December 21, 1915. He attended Arcadia College in Arcadia, Missouri. He studied law and graduated from Cumberland University in Lebanon, Tennessee. He opened his law office in Benton, Missouri in 1857. He had the first Scott County Abstracts of Land Titles Company in the county. The office was later known as Moore-Harris Abstract Company. In his long career, with many acres in timberland, he cleared land and put it in cultivation and was an extensive stock farmer. He had extensive land holdings in the area immediately south and southwest of Commerce. Reportedly, he once owned 5,000 acres of land.

Water Street, Commerce, Missouri, circa 1900. (Photo courtesy of Bob White)

Political township map of Scott County.

First Scott County courthouse in Benton, 1822.

When the County Courthouse moved from Benton to Commerce during the Civil War, he moved to Commerce and remained there though the Courthouse was moved back to Benton in 1879.

About 1811 John Ramsey moved from Cape Girardeau and located on what was later the Scott County Poor Farm. He remained there until his death in 1837. The Ramsey family played a major roll in the development of Cape Girardeau County too.

The Bird, Byrd, Moore, and Hunter families are several of the oldest and most prominent families of Southeastern Missouri. Migrating from Virginia, Maryland, and Tennessee, they settled in the Missouri Bootheel around the time of the Louisiana Purchase. By virtue of making the initial land entries, and then through a series of marriages and resulting multiple inheritances, the families became among the largest landholders in southeastern Missouri, owning several thousand acres of rich Mississippi delta farmlands. Primarily farmers and stockmen, the families were leading citizens in their communities and furnished representatives to Missouri territorial councils and state legislatures.¹²

Joseph Hunter, one of the most distinguished pioneers of Southeast Missouri, located near the present site of Sikeston about 1806. He was a son of a Scotch Irish Presbyterian who immigrated to America from the North of Ireland prior to the Revolutionary War. During the early settlement of Kentucky the family moved to Louisville. A brother of Joseph, who had been an officer in the Continental army, received a grant of land on the river above Sikeston in what is still known as Hunter’s Bottom. Upon the organization of the Missouri Territory, Joseph Hunter was appointed by President Madison a member of the territorial council.¹³ He had a large family and his descendants are very numerous and many are still living in Scott County.

After the disastrous New Madrid earthquakes, the seat of justice for the New Madrid District was moved to Winchester in 1812, the first town in the neighborhood of Sikeston. It was located south of where I-57 is now, south of Sikeston.¹⁴ Today you will only find a corn field and a clump of trees where Winchester once stood and business was conducted.

In November of 1814, County Surveyor Joseph Story laid out the town of WINCHESTER on the present day Scott County and New Madrid County border. They named the town in honor of Col. Henderson Winchester who lived in the vicinity. Stephen Ross and Moses Hurley donated fifty acres of land for the town of Winchester. The money obtained from the sale of lots was used to build a jail. Winchester was one of three post offices in the New Madrid area before 1820. Mail was delivered about once a week, by horse, from Cape Girardeau.

Pioneers Daniel Sparks, Edward N. Mathews, Samuel Phillips, Stephen Ross, Thomas Phillips, John Shields, Sr. and Moses Shelby bought early lots in Winchester. Thomas Bartlett opened a general merchandise store and Hartwell Baldwin opened a tavern in the young town. David Hunter, Mark H. Stallcup and Christopher Houts were also engaged in business at Winchester until 1822. Then, Scott County was created and Winchester ceased to be the seat of justice for New Madrid County. The town failed to survive after the county seat was moved to New Madrid.¹⁵

On December 28, 1821, by act of the Missouri Legislature, New Madrid County was divided into two counties – present day New Madrid and Scott County. By the same act, Enoch Evans, Abraham Hunter, Thomas Roberts, Joseph Smith and Newman Beckwith were appointed to locate the seat of justice for Scott County. The committee selected Benton as its County Seat. Scott County, Missouri was officially founded on December 28, 1821.

The county court was organized at the house of Thomas Houts in February or March, 1822 at which time the judges were Andrew Ramsey, Richard Mathew and Thomas Houts. In 1822 the county contained but two townships, Moreland and Tywappity. Scott County was named after Missouri’s first Congressman, John Scott and Benton was named after Missouri’s first Senator, Thomas Hart Benton.¹⁶

Upon entering the Union in 1821, Missouri closed an amazing pioneer period in the western empires of France, Spain, and the United States. Scott County was part of the original five Districts of the Louisiana Purchase along the western banks of the Mississippi River. President Thomas Jefferson dreamed of a slow, deliberate movement of America’s frontier through the valleys of the Ohio and Tennessee rivers. Meanwhile, out of conflict’s reach, Jefferson had hoped the Osage, Missouri, Iowa, Sacs, Fox, Kickapoo, Shawnee and Delaware Indians in Missouri would undergo a transformation. It was a sublime concept, worthy of Jefferson’s best moments of philosophic repose on his Virginia mountaintop.¹⁷ As we know, this was not to be the case.

In 1822, William and Nancy Myers donated 40 acres of land for the new county seat and the town of BENTON. Although no legal record of this transaction appears to have survived, there are several historical books that reference the transaction. The town of Benton was surveyed in the fall of 1822 and lots were sold at public auction on October 22, 1822. Edison Shrum makes mention in his History of Scott County that Commerce and Benton street names are almost identical. They both include Saint Mary’s, New Madrid, Cape Girardeau, North, South, Missouri, and Tywappity Streets. Two distinct streets in Benton are Meyer and Winchester. One certainly was named for its founder, although spelled differently, and the other for the town of Winchester. William and Nancy Myers are buried in the old Benton Cemetery south of town.

The first frame house in Benton was built by Joseph Hunter and used as a storehouse between 1830 and 1840. Other merchants during that time were Dr. E. B. LaValle and John Harbison who occupied the McLaughlin house from 1831 to 1833; George Netherton and Abraham Winchester had a store on the Heiserrer corner and George and Thomas Williams were the leading merchants of the eighteen-forties. The first newspaper in Benton was established by George M. Moore in July 1879, with Louis Dehls as editor. It was named the Benton Record.¹⁸

Scott County has always been primarily agricultural. Missouri’s first senator, Thomas Hart Benton, in the 1820s and 1830s fought to defend a Jeffersonian America by selling public land at low prices and defeating efforts to entice farmers into debt through the availability of paper money. As defender of hard cash, Benton soon earned his nickname, old Bullion, and a reputation as guarantor of an old order. Generally, Benton’s massive influence in Missouri and the nation came to be used to preserve an old-fashioned pastoral society. Through them, he encouraged within Missourians their natural suspicions of big government, glamorous economic legislation, and urban viewpoints.

A great depression occurred after 1837 and it was Benton’s Missouri, firm on the rock of fiscal conservatism, which appeared to be the only state faithful to the simple, rural commonwealth that Jefferson had urged and Jackson had echoed. As banks in other states were failing, the Bank of the State of Missouri thrived. Senator Benton’s greatest moments in politics occurred in the decade following 1837. These years may also have been Missouri’s most significant period in American public affairs.¹⁹

America received a procession of Catholic pioneers from Alsace-Lorraine between the years 1837 and 1839. The immigrants first settled in an area near Canton, Ohio. The Ohio frontier served as the political, economic and social foundation for the settlement of the Old Northwest. By 1830, the American boundary moved ever westward. By 1837 land costs in Ohio had risen to as high as $40.00 to $50.00 an acre and many Germans found the land too costly to purchase in any quantity. One group of these German-speaking immigrants was from the village of Schirrhein, a border province touching the Rhine River. This group of Catholic pioneers decided to move into Southeast Missouri where land was reported as affordable.²⁰

In the early 1800s, the United States depended heavily on immigrants to fuel expansion of the land west of the Mississippi River. The government officials understood that what immigrants wanted most was affordable land. They advertised land in Southeast Missouri for $1.25 per acre. The inducement of affordable land worked. Immigrants flooded westward during the early to mid 1800s. Missouri’s eastern bank was the first stop for immigrants. Many German immigrants, including the Catholic pioneers from Alsace-Lorraine, established themselves in Missouri and descendants of these pioneers remain today in the northwestern section of Scott County.

The early Scott County Catholics came by boat down the Ohio River by way of Cairo, Illinois and then up the Mississippi River headed to Commerce. They experienced trouble with their boat and had to land in Tywappity Bottoms, or Horse Shoe or Texas Bend, south of Commerce. It was here the Alsace-Lorraine pioneers built a log cabin church, which they dedicated to God, under the sanctification of St. Francis DeSales, on September 15, 1839.

The Tywappity Bottoms were unhealthy. Many people became victims of malaria, then known as Swamp Fever, and died. There are no marked graves for these early pioneers. The survivors sought a warmer, healthier climate. In 1841, Xavier Stuppe, Joseph Stuppe, Wendolin Bucher and David Kappler moved to land near Benton.

In 1843, William Myers donated the land on which they built a log church. The first Catholic Church in Scott County was founded in Benton on Hunter Hill on the south side of the town limits. They built near present U. S. Highway 61 and named it St. Mary’s Church. Little is known of this pioneer church, its promoters or its organization.

In 1851, a newly found parish of St. Lawrence was dedicated at New Hamburg, Missouri. Scott County’s population began to increase with the arrival of new settlers. The trend was for the German Catholics to settle toward the hills around New Hamburg and Kelso. Benton’s congregation then went to St. Lawrence in New Hamburg where they had built a small frame church. They abandoned the church at Benton and Union soldiers burned it to the ground in 1864.²¹

The distance of ten or more miles every Sunday was tiresome for old settlers around Benton. A new parish was started in Benton and Denis Diebold, father of Frank L. Diebold, provided $1,000.00 and five acres of land in his will to the Catholic Congregation of Benton. His will stipulated that the church be built within five years. Mrs. Diebold made the same bequest in her will. This enabled the church to be completed. Frank L. Diebold donated six more acres of land to the church to continue the mission begun by his parents. Today, the St. Denis church and cemetery are found on the north side of Benton on the western side of U. S. Highway 61.²²

Mark Hardin Stallcup, who had served in the War of 1812, moved to Winchester from near Springfield, Kentucky soon after the war and engaged in business. In 1817 he married Hannah Hunter, daughter of Joseph Hunter, and it is interesting to note that he was the man who once owned the whole site of the present town of Sikeston, having bought the land from Michael F. and Luceal Taylor, wife, on December 11, 1844. At his death on December 11, 1848, the property went to his three children: Catherine, Lydia, and James. Catherine married first Andrew Myers, January 9, 1840. He lived about one year and she then married John Sikes on January 14, 1844. Mr. Sikes died in 1867 and much later in life she married Judge Noah Handy of Charleston, Missouri. James Stallcup and Lydia Stallcup Brown, the other heirs to this property, which contained the original town of Sikeston, sold their interest to John and Catherine Sikes on December 14, 1859.²³

The first wheat thrashing machine in Southeast Missouri, before 1900, belonged to Carter Foster. (Photo courtesy of Paul Foster)

Four railroad flatcars of Allis-Chalmers #60 combines delivered to and sold by W.R. Rich Lewis. The old Sikeston water and ice plant is in the background. (Photo courtesy of Bill Lewis)

On June 9, 1853. a meeting of the citizens of Charleston was held at the courthouse to take action to secure a railroad. Judge Noah Handy was chosen chairman, and John C. Thomas secretary. After many trials and tribulations a survey in 1856 was run from Bird’s Point. In 1857 construction was began. During the summer contracts were accepted for the grading of the road from Bird’s Point to Charleston and on October 1, 1857, the contractor, Colonel H. J. Deal threw the first shovel of dirt. The work was pushed forward as rapidly as circumstances would permit and on April 1, 1859, the first train drawn by the locomotive Sol G. Kitchen entered Charleston. The formal opening of the road did not take place until July fourth, when a grand celebration was held. As Abraham Hunter had sold stock in the railroad, he rode into town on the train and made the main speech of the day. The railroad had another locomotive, the Abraham Hunter, named after him. Construction continued and the road reached Sikeston in 1860.²⁴

This railroad was called the Cairo and Fulton (Arkansas). The War Between the States interrupted construction soon after. It was not extended on to Poplar Bluff until about 1872.²⁵ The nature of American housing changed dramatically as railroads mushroomed across the continent in the decades from 1850 to 1890. Louis Houck, a Cape Girardeau lawyer and businessman, developed railroads in Southeast Missouri. His first venture, the Cape Girardeau Railway Company opened in 1880. In his lifetime, Houck created three railway lines, creating an extensive network that reached into Arkansas and Illinois, and spanned much of Southeast Missouri.²⁶

John Sikes had a store where the First Baptist Church was on Kingshighway in Sikeston. He stated in a land title: "I, John Sikes, am going to start me a town and I am going to call it the TOWN OF SIKESTON." The original plat of the town is a matter of record in the county courthouse at Benton.

John Sikes was the son of Needham and Mary Shields Sikes who lived south of Sikeston. John and Catherine Stallcup Sikes had one son, Needham Sikes II. They lived on their farm which extended to the railroad in a house directly across the road from the store. It stood back from the road quite a bit.

Many history books allude to the two different cultures of Scott County but do not spell out the difference. Having grown up in Scott County it is clear that north of the Benton Hill, the German Catholics, who fought for the Union in the Civil War, settled and stayed in northern Scott County. Below the Benton Hill, settlers immigrated from Virginia, Kentucky, North Carolina and Tennessee with their customs of agriculture and slaves. They were supportive of the Confederacy in the War Between the States.

During the War Between the States there were turbulent times throughout Southeast Missouri. There was a band of outlaws, called guerillas, which roamed the countryside and made life miserable for the settlers. During 1864 they came to the Sikes’ store and tried to make Mr. Sikes tell them where the family money and jewelry were buried. He refused their request so they hanged him to a big oak tree in the front of the store. Mrs. Sikes, who saw the whole thing, took one hundred dollars hidden in a sack of cotton on the porch and sent it over to them by a Negro girl. Mr. Sikes had turned quite black in the face but they cut him down and he recovered. The Confederate and Federal soldiers both were after the guerillas, but somehow they never were able to catch them.²⁷

About a week later the Sikes’ house was burned in the night, the family being unaware of it until the structure was falling in. Mr. Frank Boyce, a nephew of Mr. Sikes, ran in and picked up a big featherbed. When he laid it down on the ground, two little girls rolled out of it. One of them was Mary Catherine Kate Brown (later Chaney), and the other was Ella May Brown, her sister. Their mother, Lydia Stallcup Brown, Mrs. Catherine Sikes’ sister, died in 1863. Mr. and Mrs. Sikes took the two little girls to raise after their mother’s death. Conditions continued so unsettled throughout Southeast Missouri that Mr. and Mrs. Sikes and their family went to St. Louis and stayed until the war was over.²⁸

Blodgett Elevator and Grain Co. (Photo courtesy of Harlan Smothers)

After the war they returned to Sikeston. John Sikes went into business with William Hughes. In 1867, a man named William Maulsby came from the country to their business, got drunk, and created a disturbance. Mr. Sikes, knowing him well, took him out to his horse which was tied to a hitch rack at what is now Legion Park, handed him his shotgun and advised him to go home. As Mr. Sikes turned to go back into the store William Maulsby shot him in the back. John Sikes lived about three days after being shot. Mr. Maulsby was arrested and put in jail at Benton. The next morning he was gone. The jailer said that Maulsby had climbed out the flue hole. He was never seen around there again. It was once reported that he had been seen in Texas.²⁹

On August 17, 1874, Sikeston was incorporated. Sikeston merchants in 1875 and 1876, when the population was two hundred fifty, were: W. A. Coffey, proprietor of the Star Saloon; J. O. Davis, fancy groceries; Charles Ebert, bakery, grocery and restaurant; H. C. Edwards, an attorney, Justice of the Peace and collector; A. Griedenberg, general merchandise; O. E. Kendall, druggist; H. Plotz, boot and shoe maker; W. C. Puckett, hotel proprietor; Henry A. Smith and J. R. Tucker, hotel proprietor (from L. A. Wilson), and Dr. J. L. Shumate, general merchandise (and one of the earliest physicians in the area). Another prominent physician was Dr. O. W. Kendall who was born near Martin, Tennessee, and served under General Nathan Bedford Forrest during the War Between the States.³⁰

The Americans that immigrated into Scott County early in the 1800s from Virginia were many. One was the Archibald A. Price family. They purchased original Spanish Grant Survey Number 2848 from Robert Lane for $1,075 on March 31, 1834. This land became known as PRICE’S LANDING.³¹ The 1875 edition of Campbell’s Gazette of Missouri listed a store and warehouse there at that time and in Wilson’s Gazetteer & Director of Southeast Missouri; the landing was estimated to have had a population of 25. There was also a post office that opened February 1, 1859, with Archibald Price as postmaster.

Page 191 of the 1850 US Census of Scott County, Missouri listed the family as follows: Price, Archibald A. - 44 year old male farmer, with 13 slaves, born in Virginia and owner of land valued at $5,000.00; Sarah Catherine Price, 13 year old daughter born in Missouri; William M. Price, 10 year old son, born in Missouri; Mary Elizabeth Price, 8 year old daughter, born in Missouri; Louisa Price, 4 year old daughter born in Missouri; Robert A. Price, 2 years old son, born in Missouri and a white male laborer, Thomas H. Hublz, age 40 years old born in Tennessee.

Price’s Landing saw a lot of action during the War Between the States as Archibald Price helped his (reported) cousin Gen. Sterling Price warehouse goods for the Southern cause. The War of the Rebellion: Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Vol. III, pages 449 & 450 (1881) relates that Col. C. C. Marsh, Headquartered in Cape Girardeau, took son, William M. Price and his brother-in-law, B. S. Curd, prisoners on or about August 10, 1861, and had William write the following note to his uncle Capt. Charles Price, Missouri State Guard: The colonel says that if you attack Commerce tonight he will hang us. This brought a letter, dated August 15, 1861, by Thomas C. Reynolds, Acting Governor of Missouri, to be written to Maj. Gen. John C. Fremont:

The gentlemen held by Colonel Marsh are, as I am credibly informed, citizens of this State, and unconnected in any way with military operations. Even were they so connected in a manner justifying their being made prisoners of war, the Articles of War and Army Regulations of the United States require humane treatment of prisoners.

I also learn that the detachment of Colonel Marsh’s troops, which captured Mr. William M. Price, wantonly, burned his father’s warehouse and took away a large quantity of corn and 60 mules. Similar outrages are believed to have been very lately committed at the farm of General N. W. Watkins, near Cape Girardeau, and by Colonel Marsh’s troops. I therefore, in the interest of humanity, lay these matters before you, and request a frank answer to these inquiries:

Confirmation class at St. Denis Catholic Church, Benton. Front row: Zeta Essner and Loretta Bertrand. Second row: Leo LeGrand, Joe Diebold, and Leon Heisserer. Third row: Alponse Robert, Joe Miederhof, Otto Essner, and Phillip Weber. Fourth row: Clemens Miederhof and Leon Essner. Back row: Flora Wilhelm, Clara Diebold Essner, Lena Essner Halter, Emma Essner (Sr. Angeline), and Bertha Bertrand. (Photo courtesy of the family of Alfred Halter)

1924 Benton Tigers. Bottom row, L to R: Avell Williams (sub), Howard Brothers (sub), Tom Haw (sub), Howard Spaulding (sub), and Mr. Rau (coach). Middle row, L to R: Ursal Thompson (right end), Lester Thompson (right tackle), Loomis Lincoln (right guard), Leslie Harris (center), Donald Warner (left guard, captain), Thomas Moody, (left tackle), and Sydney Williams (left end). Back row, L to R: Joe Bucher (half back), Myron Frobase (half back), John Goodin (full back), and Elbert Morrow (quarter back).

Does this conduct of Colonel Marsh and his troops meet your approval? If not, what steps do you propose to take in respect to the guilty parties and in order to prevent the repetition of such conduct?

It is the desire of the Missouri State authorities to conduct the present war according to civilized usages, and any departure from them by Missouri forces will be properly punished by their officers if aware of it. I deem it proper to add that on seeing Colonel Marsh’s letter I immediately instructed the general commanding the Missouri State Guard in this district (M. Jeff. Thompson) to hold in close custody a number of prisoners recently taken by him and belonging to your forces. Should Colonel Marsh’s future treatment of Messrs. Curd and Price necessitate the hanging of any of those prisoners in retaliation, I am content that impartial men shall judge who is morally responsible for their melancholy fate.

I am sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

Thos. C. Reynolds,

Acting Governor of Missouri Col. Marsh responded, I plead guilty to the charges of having written the note mentioned, and would have done as I promised had Captain Price committed the threatened outrages on the peaceable citizens of Commerce. My threats had the desired effect, and prevented his doing any act of violence there. I tried hard to get hold of Captain Price and his troop of marauders, but they always run, even when but half their number of foot soldiers are opposed to them. The young man Price (William M.) and his brother-in-law, who were taken prisoners, have been notoriously active in aiding the enemy. Their father (Archibald), the brother of Captain Price, was the agent for procuring supplies for the New Madrid forces, and his mules, servants, and families were all engaged in transporting them.

Archibald himself was taken prisoner from Price’s Landing by the Union soldiers in late December, 1862, to the Union prison at Cape Girardeau, MO. Bail was set for ten or twenty thousand dollars and he was released, for his good behavior in the future. He then went to his Cousin Charlie Riley’s farm near Tiptonville, Tennessee. There he took sick with heart trouble and rheumatism. When he found he was going to die, he sent for his daughters back in Price’s Landing, Missouri. He died in about half an hour after their arrival. That was on February 18, 1863. Postal service was discontinued on April 14, 1875, and most of Price’s Landing was slowing washed away by the Mississippi River.

Immigration into Scott County continued and new towns started to develop. NEW HAMBURG was organized in 1866 by Francis Heuring.³² The village is located about two miles west of Highway 61, between Benton and Kelso. The St. Lawrence Church is the center of the small town of New Hamburg and is central to the cultural and spiritual lives of its parishioners.

St. Lawrence and St. Denis church in Benton and their cemeteries are historically entwined with the early settlement of Scott County. A group of German-speaking immigrants from Alsace-Lorraine, near the Rhine River, established both original churches.

St. Lawrence Church is the mother parish of Benton, Oran, Chaffee, Kelso and Scott City. Prior to the building of the first church, they heard confessions in a chicken house and they said Mass in parishioner’s houses, according to the History of St. Lawrence Church.

The parish priest told the parishioners in New Hamburg that the church need not be expensive, nor need it be exactly square in the corners. He just wanted a place to worship together. The original St. Lawrence Church stands today in New Hamburg behind the impressive rock church built in 1857.

The first person buried in the cemetery was Sophia Stuppy, wife of Donatus Scherer. She was born Sept. 10, 1823, in Schirrhein, Alsace, France, and died October 5, 1847, in Scott County, Missouri. Her grave was the first dug in St. Lawrence Cemetery and the funeral was the first service held at the church. Denis Diebold hauled her remains and had the brush cut out to let the wagon through. Her monument is 6 feet high and oxen hauled the stone from the quarry at Cape Girardeau to New Hamburg. They carved the inscription in German, rather than English.

German Catholics universally were believers in education. It was not long before the church served as both a church and a school. After completion of the new stone church building, the old church was used to house the parochial grade school. It is the oldest church and schoolhouse still in existence in Scott County.³³

About this time the railroads played a big part in the building of Southeast Missouri. The two major railroads were Houck’s Missouri and Arkansas, and Iron Mountain Railroads and Gould’s Frisco Railroad.

ORAN was initially settled by James and John Friend in 1796 when he came by river with his parents, Charles and Nancy (Gouch) Friend to Southeast Missouri. They settled on 640 acres near Oran obtained from the Spanish Government. Later it was settled by a large number of German Catholics, and the many big, square German type houses in the town still easily distinguish this town first called St. Cloud and then Sylvania. These early settlers were hard working, industrious people who were directly responsible for making Oran the center of a busy prosperous agricultural community. The old Iron Mountain Railroad depot still stands near the tracks today.

Oran was laid out in 1869 and was still known as Sylvania for several years. The town had three weekly newspapers over the years. The first was the Scott County Citizen from January 1 through December 31, 1904; The Oran Leader from April 15 to July 29, 1910 and April 4 through May 10, 1912; and lastly the Oran News January 11 through December 26, 1957; January 4, 1963 through April 28, 1967.

In 1912 Oran had five general stores, several minor business establishments and the Bank of Oran. Some of the first merchants were the Brice & Basset store, Ross & Howell. Mr. J. W. Clemson began as station agent at Oran about 1892 and continued until the late 1920s when he retired on a pension.

First Communion of Leo and Blanche Hamm, May 27, 1917, St. Lawrence church, New Hamburg. John I. Hamm and Emma Theresa Hamm were candle carriers. (Photo courtesy of Ramona Glastetter)

St. Lawrence church and school, New Hamburg, 1904. (Photo courtesy of Ramona Glastetter)

Oran had a population of 940 citizens in 1930. It had a first-class consolidated high school and was modern in every way. It had concrete sidewalks, electricity, a modern fire department and good gravel streets. In 1935 the city voted a bond issue for the purpose of constructing a modern water system.

Oran had two practicing physicians – Dr. Cline and Dr. Loest. The late Dr. H. S. Winters served Oran for many years as a physician and president of the Board of Education, and as Mayor. Dr. E. D. Kimes, dentist of Chaffee, maintained an office three days per week in Oran.

In 1939, the business establishments located at Oran were: The Scott County Milling Company, T. S. Heisserer & Company, large department store; Womack Drug Store, Sturgeon’s Garage, Kroger Grocery, Metz Café, Harper’s Grocery and Meat Market, Oran State Bank (this bank moved to Oran from Blodgett in 1937), Vogel’s Garage, Maddox Grocery, Majestic Theater, Oran Ice and Cold Storage Col, Oran Lumber Company, Scott County Oil Company, Black Bros. Gin Col., and several oil stations, barber shops, and beauty parlors.

Oran is located three miles west of Highway 61, and a mile west of Highway 77.

GRAYSBORO had one of the first mills in Scott County and surrounding area about the year 1844. A small settlement had been started there some time before as grain was brought to the point for miles around to be milled. Capt. Gray was an early settler in the settlement. He owned steamboats and operated them on the Mississippi River. Capt. Gray built a beautiful mansion near the Mississippi River. It was known as one of the most beautiful mansions in the state at the time. Capt. Gray made acquaintances of men who traveled up and down the river. Members of the Gray family, including Mr. Charles Gray, lived on the old Gray plantation.

St. Denis Church, Benton, MO, date and event unknown. (Photo courtesy of the family of Alfred Halter)

St. Denis grade school graduation, Benton, MO, June 9, 1929. Boys: Alfred Halter and Sylvester Felter. Girls unknown. (Photos courtesy of the family of Alfred Halter)

Heisserer’s Store, Benton, MO. (Photo courtesy of the family of Alfred Halter)

Overview of Oran, Missouri, ca. 1930s. (Photo courtesy of Harlan Smothers)

Blodgett, MO, Watermelon Capitol of the World, circa 1892, loading melons on freight cars. (Photo courtesy of Mike Marshall)

Extraordinary Honor Certificate awarded to Myrtle Flynn in 1920 from the Methodist Sunday School in Deihlstadt. It was awarded for attendance for five Sundays in February and notes, It is possible for a certificate of this character to be issued only three times in one hundred years because very rarely does the leap day fall on Sunday, thus being the fifth Sunday of February.

Morley Public School, 1919. (Photo courtesy of Harlan Smothers)

During the year 1897, the Cotton Belt on St. Louis Southern Pacific Railroad extended its tract from Delta (at first known as Deray, Missouri) to Grays Point and made Grays Point the northern terminus of the line. This marked the beginning of a town to be known as Graysboro, Missouri. The building of this terminal at Graysboro brought several hundred people to Graysboro and the population increased rapidly. All the work of building the terminus and track was done by men and teams. The business of the railroad increased steadily and so did the population of the little town until it attained a population of around one thousand people.

After the construction of the Thebes Bridge (completed in 1904) it was found that the grade approach to the bridge was too much for the heavy trains to get a start for the grade. So it was decided to move the terminal back about two miles to where Illmo-Fornfelt became located. A great part of the population of Graysboro moved to Illmo-Fornfelt, which marked the decline of Graysboro and the beginning of the above mentioned towns. Most of the business houses in Graysboro also moved their wares to Illmo-Fornfelt. A special train (which was finally taken off) carried workers to and from Graysboro daily.

Some of the houses once located in Graysboro were J. D. Vanneton General Merchandise, Pate Grocery, Bollinger’s Meat Market, four saloons, and a rock quarry. Most of the dwellings in Graysboro were razed and moved to Illmo when the city of Illmo was started. Doctors once practicing in Graysboro were Dr. G. S. Cannon, later practicing in Fornfelt and Dr. D. S. Mayfield. Other business houses once located in Graysboro were Gray Bros. General Merchandise, D. I. Bloom Dry Goods, Pate Hotel, Curtus Hotel, O’Donnel Hotel, McDoom Second Hand Furniture, George Hawkins Grocery, and Jasper Belk Dry Goods. The town of Graysboro was a busy town about 1900 and there was plenty of money in circulation in the booming days. Graysboro had board sidewalks. Thebes Bridge was constructed, on large transport boats to Thebes, Illinois.

As history has shown many times, the removal of industry from one town to another often caused the decline of the first town to benefit the new town where industry moves. This was the case for Graysboro. Today it is a ghost town with only memories living there.

DIEHLSTADT is on the tract of land granted by the United States Government to Mr. Henry Kirkpatrick. In 1854 Henry Kirkpatrick and his wife, Jane, deeded the land to John Kirkpatrick and his wife Nancy. They established the first store in the town in 1868. John Kirkpatrick borrowed $500.00 from Henry Diehl to aid him in his venture of platting a town. He thereby named the town Diehlstadt in honor of his friend and keeper. The original deed for the town of Diehlstadt comprised forty acres of land. Mr. Max Ostner built a large mercantile store in which one could purchase anything needed from farm machinery, clothing, groceries and all farm needs. Rev. John T. Ford operated a restaurant in town at 1875. Diehlstadt was incorporated in 1894 and its first mayor was John Rushing.

In 1912, Diehlstadt had five general stores, barber shops, a drug store, besides minor establishments of various kinds. Although Diehlstadt is primarily a farming community, it has supported several successful industries. The Moulten Irrigation Company once provided manufacturing jobs. It once was on the Iron Mountain Railroad line. Today, it is a village located ten miles east of Morley, on State Highway 77.

MORLEY was laid out in 1869. It was a station on the Iron Mountain Railroad and the shipping point for Benton as well as Morley. The town was named in honor of James H. Morley, Chief Engineer, for the planning and building of the Pilot Knob-Belmont line. Streets, except for four that were given women’s first names, and one named in honor of Gen. N. W. Watkins, were all named for men connected in one way or another with the railroad.

On October 6, 1868, A. C. Ketchum and 16 other Morley residents petitioned the county court for authority to incorporate the town. The court approved their petition and appointed A. C. Ketchum, W. J. Welsh, John Riggs, Alexander Courtway and James D. White as trustees. For some reason the actions of the trustees seem not to have met the approval of the townspeople, for on Mar. 23, 1870, Gen. N. W. Watkins, representing James D. White, persuaded the county court to rescind its order of incorporation, and then presented the court another petition of incorporation, signed by White and 40 other residents of the town. This second petition was granted and James Boutwell, Henry Wadsworth, George R. Wilson, B. V. Yandell and L. O’Brien were appointed trustees.

Kelso, MO, 1903. Left to right: Joe Compas, Frank Seyer, Joe Weidefeld, and Joe Glueck; on porch: Leo Dohogne and Mike Welter; on step: Joe Diebold; far right: Mike Diebold and Amos Drury. The buildings shown are Dr. William’s office (built 1892), the old Farmers and Merchant’s Bank, and Mike Diebold’s Drug Store (each occupied a part of the building with porch), the residence of Charles Logel, and a blacksmith’s shop operated by Casmier Martin in 1889. Blattel Street runs East and West between the bank building and Charles Logel home. (Photo courtesy of Romona Glastetter)

St. Augustine School, Kelso, MO, Room I, May 7, 1912. Front row: Raymond Enderle, Adolph Kirn, Louis Robert, Joe Blattel, Ed Heisserer, Hilda Ressel, Bertha Lauch, Anna Ressel, Josephine Ziegler, Leona Schaefer, Matilda Kirn, Leona Diebold. Second row: Fred Burger, Paul Lieble, Eugene Dumer, Joe Welter, Ervin Messmer, Ann Felter, Alphine Dumey, Dina Blattel, Estella Burger, Sylvia Heisserer, Ada Compas, Bertha Pfefferkorn, Francis Wiedefeld. Third row: Werner Ressel, Frank Compas, Theon Blattel, Leon Ziegler, Father Muhlsiepen, Mary Diebold, Agnes Weissmueller, Mary Enderle, Mary Glastetter, Mary Spalding, Mary Heuring, Leona Staebel. Back row: Hugo Robert, Joe Glastetter, Herman Blattel, Sister Delphine, Emma Dumey, Leona Hess, Anna Seyer, Mary Redman, Irene Glastetter, and Bertha Scherer. (Photo courtesy of Ramona Glastetter)

St. Augustine School, Kelso, Missouri, Room III grade 5 and 6, May 3, 1939. Left to right, front row: Joseph Schwartz, Delores Hopkins Mier, Valeria Ressel Mirgeaux, Leoma Leible Tucker, Mary Lou Enderle Heisserer, Margaret Rogers Bles, Lorena Weissmueller, Elveria Enderle Metheny, Alvina Georger Lett, Ramona Blattel Glastetter, Lena Compas Bucher, Marie Westrich LeGrand, Paul Felter, and Louis Heisserer. Second row: Lloyd Corvick, Ervin Glueck, Frank Bles, Louis Glastetter, Marvin Miller, Benjamin Enderle, Charles Drury, Leroy Blattel, Joseph Glueck, Ruby Peetz, Herbert Blattel, and Leon Blattel. Third row: Paul Diebold, Claude Whaley, Cletus Essner, Norvel Messmer, Florence Welter Diebold, Aurelia Scherer, Melva Jane Heisserer, Edvieria Messmer Rhodes, Emma Compas Scherer, James Crites, Paul Enderle, Leander Drury, William Martin, and William Essner. (Photo courtesy of Ramona Glastetter)

Business district of Blodgett after June 5, 1916 tornado. Ruins of B.F. Marshall Mercantile Co., Hardware and Implement Store. (Photo courtesy of Harlan Smothers)

Blodgett post office and W.H. Stubbs’ Café. (Photo courtesy of Harlan Smothers)

Downtown Blodgett, 1905. (Photo courtesy of Mike Marshall)

Among the first merchants were B. B. Gaither, W. A. Cade, Hughes and Watkins, Harris & Rosenbaum and J. T. Anderson and Brothers. A grist and corn mill was built soon after the town was established by L. C. Martin and Brothers. The town was incorporated in 1870, with James Boutwell, Henry Wadsworth, George R. Wilson, B. V. Yandell and L. O’Brien as trustees.

According to information in the 1875 edition of Campbell’s Gazetteer of Missouri, Morley, at that time had one public school, two churches, Baptist and Methodist Episcopal South; two hotels, one livery stable, one cotton gin, one mill, ten stores, and several shops.

L.A. Wilson’s Gazetteer and Directory of Southeastern Missouri and Southern Illinois, also published in 1875, estimated the population of Morley in that year was 350 citizens. The town continued to grow, though slowly until, in 1910, it reached 494, where it more or less became stable, and remained so until the decade of the 1960’s when its population went from 472 in 1960 to 528 in 1970.

Morley had a school until the Morley and Vanduser Schools consolidated and created the Scott Central School System. The last Morley graduating class was the Class of 1959.

Morley had two weekly newspapers for a brief time. The Scott County Citizen was published January 1 through December 31, 1909 and the Scott County Banner was published January 1, 1914 through August 4, 1921.³⁴

Today, Morley is a bedroom community. The Post Office still operates and there is a bank and a volunteer fire department. However, there is one grocery store, a restaurant, a garage, a beauty shop, a second-hand store, a laundromat, four churches and a Masonic Lodge. A filling station is located on the spur coming into Morley.³⁵

BLODGETT was organized in 1870 on the line of the Iron Mountain Railroad about five miles southeast of Morley. By 1900, Blodgett was known as the Watermelon Capitol of the world. Ben F. Marshall, Sr., received an award at the World’s Fair of 1904 testifying to the fact that Blodgett