Page:History of Southeast Missouri 1912 Volume 1.djvu/126

 66 HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST jNOSSOURI The settlements in Perry county were made in the Bois Brule Bottom opposite Kaskas- kia, along the Cinque Homme, the Saline, the Brazeau, the Aux Vases, on Establishment creek, and on Apple creek. The Bois Brule Bottom is one of the most fertile pieces of territory in the district of Ste. Genevieve. It was the fertility of this soil which at- tracted the early settlers. Some of these were John Baptist Barsaloux, who came in the year 1787, William Lowry, and on the Cinque Homme, Levy Wiggins, John Duval, William Boyce, Isadore Moore. Over on the Saline were a number of settlers from Ken- tucky. In memory of their Kentucky home they called the open territory on which they settled "The Barrens." Some of these set- tlers were Tuckers, Laytons, Moores, Hay- dens. Israel Dodge and his son who have been mentioned in connection with New Bourbon were operating a salt works at the mouth of the Saline in 1804. These salt works had been in operation more or less continuously for a long time, even at that early date ; they probably were begun before the first permanent settlement in Upper Louis- iana. Others on this stream were Thomas Madden, Job Westover and John Hawkins. Thomas Dodge was, perhaps, the first man who lived on the Aux Vases. Other claims have been located on this stream before his time, but he seems to have been the first actual settler. He bought his claim from De Guire. The Fenwick settlement was made on Brazeau creek ; this is not far from the pres- ent town of Wittenberg; the grant was made to Joseph Manning, but the first settler was George A. Hamilton. General Harrison, who moved here from New Madrid, also had a grant on which is now located the town of Altenberg. A little below the mouth of the Kaskaskia is a creek called the Saline entering on the west side a grant of a tract of land one league square made by the Spanish govern- ment in favor of a Frenchman named Pe- greau, the founder of the deserted town called New Bourbon. The tract included a valu- able brine spring near the mouth of the creek. The proprietor built a house near the bank of the Mississippi where he resided a long time and where he carried on the manu- facture of salt, but having occasion to go to France he rented his works to a man who for want of funds or for some other reason, failed to keep them in operation.* Long saysf that when he visited ]Iissouri, which was in 1819, that the important pop- ulous part of the section was the country immediately below the mouth of the Mis- souri including the town of St. Louis and the villages of Florissant, Carondelet, Hereula- neum, Ste. Genevieve, Bainbridge, Cape Girardeau, Jackson, St. Michaels and the country in their immediate vicinity. The lead mine tract, including Mima, Berton, Potosi and Bellevue were also populous; be- sides these he says there were a number of other settlements and small villages in this part of the territory. This visit to New Mad- rid was made in 1811 just before the earth- quake. . t "Long's Expedition," p. 126.
 * ' ' Long 's Expedition, ' ' p. 99.