Page:History of Southeast Missouri 1912 Volume 1.djvu/139

 HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 79 for a time in Virginia and in Tennessee. It was in Tennessee that he became acquainted with the Byrd family. He was the father of Plouorable James Russell at one time sherifi! of Cape Girardeau county, and member of the state legislature. William Russell was a man of education, a teacher, and conducted the first school in the Byrd settlement. The Rodney family was another prominent and influential one. They settled about two miles southwest of Gordonville. They were Germans, the original form of the name seems to have been Rodner. The head of the family iu this country was Martin Rodney, who came about 1801 or 1802. One of his sons mar- ried a daughter of Louis Lorimier. The first settlement of Randol creek was made in 1797 by Enos Randol. His family consisted of himself and ten children, seven sons and three davighters. Mrs. C. B. Houts who lived for a long time in Cape Girardeau was a daughter of Anthony Randol the eld- est son of Enos. Samuel Randol married PoUie Pierrpont. He was an influential man, one of the syndics under Louis Lori- mier. He built one of the first mills in the county. ]Iedad was the second son, and for his second wife he married Thankful Stout, in Scott county. After his death she pur- chased a farm on Matthews Prairie, and be- came a part owner of the city of Charleston ; other members of the family continued to re- side in the county. In 1797 the first settlement was made on Hubbell Creek. The creek was then known as Riviere Zenon, having been so named in honor of Zenon Trudeau, lieutenant governor of Upper Louisiana. This settlement was made by Ithamar Hubbell. where the town of Gordonville is now located. Hubbell had been a soldier in the Revolutionary army from New York. Andrew Sumners located near the head waters of Hubbell creek and in 1800 Christopher Hays settled on a gi-ant about eight miles north of Gordonville. Cornelius Arent made an early settlement at the mouth of Indian creek. Joseph Chev- alier from Kaskaskia settled on the river north of Cape Girardeau in 1799, and south of Chevalier George Hender.son settled in 1808. William Denny, a native of Wales, came to Cape Girardeau from Tennessee in 1808. He settled near Gordonville. He was a gun- smith and a very fine workman. There were seven children in the family; these settled in Cape Girardeau, in Stoddard, Scott and New JIadrid counties. South of Jackson in 1798, there came the family of Daughertys. There were four brothers of them and they located on adjoin- ing farms. William Daugherty was the hus- band of Elizabeth Ramsay. He was an orig- inal abolutionist and would own no slaves of his own and controlled only those inherited by his wife. His son, Ralph Daugherty, was a son-in-law of George F. Bollinger. The first settlement in Bollinger county was made by George Frederick Bollinger, a native of North Carolina, of Swiss descent. He came from North Carolina about 1796 or 97 and selected a location on Whitewater. Lorimier promised him a large tract of land on condition that he would bring a certain number of settlers to the district. In fulfil- ment of this agreement he made a trip back to North Carolina and on his return he was accompanied by twenty families. They crossed the Mississippi river at Ste. Gene-. vieve on the first day of January, 1800, and later settled along Wliitewater. Some of the men who came with him were IMatthias. Jolm, Henry, William, Daniel, and Phillip Bol- linger, Peter and Conrad Statler, Joseph