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Chapter 8: The Founding of Poplar Bluff, Part One |
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The locating of the county seat in a new county in Missouri was closely regulated by law. In 1845 the General Assembly directed that the General Assembly itself should name three non-resident commissioners to select the site of the permanent seat of government of new counties as they were organized.
The commissioners could not own land in the new county. The site selected had to be approved by the Circuit Judge of the judicial circuit in which the new county was located. Thus the citizens of a new county were protected against selfish interests of people who might seek personal profit or advantage in the location of the county seat.
The Commissioners were required to hold a public hearing in the county, the date and place to be advertised in a newspaper published, or of general circulation, in the county and by notices posted in ten public places in the county. At this hearing the citizens could express their views as to the best location of the county seat. In selecting the site, the law directed that due regard should be given to situation, quality of the land, extent of population and convenience and interest of the inhabitants. The Commissioners were to purchase the site selected or accept a site as a gift, secure a deed to the site and have the same recorded in the name of the county. If the site was purchased, it must contain at least 50 acres and not over 150 acres.
The Commissioners named for Butler County were John Stevens of Cape Girardeau County, William Henly of Stoddard County and Martin Sandlin of Ripley County, but Sandlin died, so far as the records show, before the Commissioners met on June 18, 1849. The County Court appointed John F. Martin to fill the vacancy created by the death of Sandlin. John Stevens 1 (appears as printed) was born in South Carolina in 1793 and came to Missouri with his parents in 1808. In 1849 he was in Cape Girardeau County in the area to become a part of Bollinger County on its organization in 1851. He was the first postmaster and a member of the first County Court in that County. John F. Martin was a prominent farmer and landowner near Oxly in Ripley County. He is buried in the Martin Cemetery south of Oxly and about 200 feet west of the Military Road. His name is legible on the gravestone, but the date of birth and death are indistinct. We have no biographical information on William Henly.
The Act creating Butler County directed the Commissioners to meet the first Monday in April, 1849, at the house of Thomas Scott. We have not found a record of the meetings of the commissioners, but we assume they met at Thomas Scott's house and sometime, someplace held a public hearing, as required by law. Since the County did not have a newspaper, we suppose the hearing was advertised by notices posted in ten public places, though it may have had a notice in a St. Louis or Cape Girardeau newspaper; but this would have had very little circulation in Butler County. We feel the hearing was well advertised by word-of-mouth as the citizens must have been keenly interested in the site of the county seat. We feel the hearing was well attended by the citizens, including the members of the County Court. We believe the Commissioners advised fully with the County Court on the best site.
Whatever the deliberations, whatever the conflicts about where the county seat should be, the Commissioners were ready with a decision to report to Judge Harrison Hough when he convened the first term of Circuit Court ever held in Butler County, September 15, 1849, at the house of Thomas Scott. The site selected was the southeast fractional quarter of Section Three, Township Twenty-four North, Range Six East, a little less than 150 acres and Government land or as many settlers said, "Congress" land. Judge Hough approved the report and ordered that the site was to be the permanent seat of government for Butler County as soon as title was secured in the name of the County.
How well did the site meet the criteria stressed by the General Assembly in 1845? In "situation" and "quality of the land," the site was satisfactory. The situation was near the geographical center of the County and the land was suitable for a town site. As for the third criterion, "extent of population," the site simply did not fit. It was surrounded in all directions by an almost uninhabited wilderness many square miles in extent. Nearly all of the settlers lived to the west and northwest, from four or five miles to fifteen or more miles from the proposed county seat site. Evidently the fourth and last criterion, "the convenience and interest of the inhabitants," was the deciding factor in the selection. Why was a site chosen so far from the homes of most of the settlers and so difficult of access to them?
After careful study of the minutes of the Butler County Court we believe the decision was based on the fact that this site was at the head of possible commercial navigation on Black River. This was the factor, "the convenience and interest of the inhabitants," that determined the site of present day Poplar Bluff. The civic leaders of the County realized it would be many years before they could secure a railroad or a good wagon road to link the county with good markets, but they knew economic progress was impossible unless some kind of transportation could be developed. They hoped and believed that Black River could be opened to navigation, giving commercial access to towns down river in Arkansas. We now have no way of identifying by names the courageous and clear-thinking pioneer settlers who, laying aside the immediate convenience, looked ahead for a better future and insisted that the county seat be located where Black River broke away from the hills, entered the lowlands of the Mississippi River delta and might be developed into a navigable stream. Whoever they were, every citizen of Butler County today owes them a deep debt of gratitude for their foresight and courage. We cannot over-emphasize that the decision made in Judge Hough's Court, September 15, 1849, presaged a city instead of a small town.
1. Goodspeed's History of Southeast Missouri, 850.
2. We are indebted to Mr. C.A. "Check" Doherty, Doniphan, Mo., for research on John F. Martin.
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