Page:History of Southeast Missouri 1912 Volume 1.djvu/169

 HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 109 came to Missouri from Tennessee and made his home at what is now Benton. Settlers began to locate in Tywappity Bot- toms as early as 1798 ; among them were James Brady, James Curran, Charles Fiud- ley, Edmund Hogan, Thomas, John and James Wellborn and the Quimbys. Thomas W. Waters was the first settler on the site of Commerce, arriving there in 1802, here he began the sale of goods in partnership with Robert Hall and also operated a ferry across the Mississippi. The first settlement in Mississippi county seems to have been made in 1800 by Joseph Johnson near Bird's Point. Other early se1> tlements were made on Mathews Prairie called in the early times St. Charles Prairie. Those who lived there were : Edward Math- ews and his sons Edward, Charles, Joseph, James and Allen, Charles Gray, Joseph Smith. John Weaver, George Hector and Ab- salom McElmuriy. Johnson sold his land in 1805 to Abraham Bird whose name was given afterwards to the settlement known as Bird's Point. All of these settlers whom we have named and man}' others whose names we cannot give were farmers and traders. Most of them were engaged in the actual cultivation of the soil. Even those who lived in towns and carried on trade with Indians and with other settle- ments in Louisiana owned and cultivated farms. With the well known liberality of the Spanish government, grants of land were very easy to secure. Anyone who had per- formed a service for the government or who promised to perform such a service in the fu- ture could obtain a grant of land. These grants were also given for the purpose of en- couraging the development of industries. It is recorded in some cases, in connection with these grants, that they were made because the grantee expected to cut down timber on the land or because he expected to use the wood for smelting lead or other ores. These Span- ish land grants varied in size. It was a cus- tom in the mineral district to give every dis- coverer of a mine at least four arpents of land. Outside the mineral district large grants were frequently made. Twenty thou- sand and even thirty thousand arpents was not an unusual grant. These grants were made without any reference to the French sur- veys or to any particular system of lands sur- veyed. Generally they followed a line of a creek, or the meanderings of a swamp, or they included the tillable land in a certain valley, or they stretched from hill-top to hill- top in a most irregular way. It is a rather curious thing that practically the only trace of Spanish occupancy in Missouri consists in these old land grants. The name of New Ma- drid, of course, perpetuates the attempt of Morgan to found a great Spanish town and a few other settlements bear Spanish names. Outside of these, however, few memorials of Spain exist. No great public works were un- dertaken or carried through, no codes of laws were made, no great industries developed, only the grants testify to the presence of the Spaniard. These Spanish grants, owing to the irregularity of their boundaries and the apparently careless way in which they were recorded have been one of the most fruitful sources of legal controversy within the state. It has required a great deal of litigation to determine the ownei"ship of much of tlie land covered by these grants. About 1789 the Spanish government laid out a road running from New Madrid to St. Louis. This road crossed Big Prairie, passed