Page:History of Southeast Missouri 1912 Volume 1.djvu/185

 HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 125 a little later, was William Boli. These seem to have been the first Amerieaii settlers in Upper Louisiana. The great tide of American immigration did not hegin until about 1790. When Morgan had outlined bis scheme for the forming of a great state, with its capital at New Madrid, he advertised very extensively the attractions of his new settle- ment, and induced a number of Americans to become interested in Louisiana. The sur- veyors whom he brought with him. among whom was Christopher Hays, induced many of their friends and acquaintances to settle in Louisiana. It happened that this scheme of Morgan's coincided in time with the great western movement into Kentucky. Some of the Spanish officials, even before the time of Morgan, saw that the probabilities were that the Americans would come in large numbers to Upper Louisiana, and that they would probably be unwilling to live long under the rule of Spain. When Americans became ac- quainted with the territory and all the ad- vantages of life here, they came in large numbers. By 1804 half the population of the Ste. Genevieve district was American, two-thirds of the population of the New Mad- rid district was American, and of the popu- lation of the Cape Girardeau district, all were American with the exception of a few families. The life of these Americans was quite dif- ferent from that of their French neighbors. Most of the Americans were men who had had experience in a new country. They had been pioneers in Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee ; they were accustomed to the life of the wilderness ; and they had that bold, independent attitude which made them im- patient of restraint. They did not possess the social nature of the French. They were entirely willing to do without ncigliliors and to forego the delights of social intercourse. We find them scattered about on farms, rather than croweded together into the towns. They took possession of the country and began at once to open up the soil for cul- tivation. They were men of energy and vi- tality. They seemed to have seen something of the future of the country and to have appreciated the importance of subduing the wilderness. They were not so much in sympathy with the Indians, nor with the life of the Indians as were the French. They did not have such a romantic at- tachment for the forest and for the life of nature. They liked the wilds of the new country, but they liked them on account of the possibilities they possessed. Accord- ingly, they set themselves to the task of clear- ing the land and putting it into cultivation. Their settlements lacked the charm that was present among the French, but they gave evi- dence of prosperity and an energy superior to that of the others. Many of the French officials who visited the American settlements about Cape Girardeau were struck by the evidence of thrift and energy. They wished the French settlers might exhibit something of this enterprising spirit. The houses of these American settlers were the houses which have been characteristic of new settlements all over America. They consisted, usually, of two square pens built of logs. Between them was an open space usually about as large as one of the pens. Over all was a single roof usually extending far enough in both front and rear to form porches. Sometimes the porch at the rear of the house was boarded up forming another room. The cracks between the logs forming the house were filled with mud. There was usually one, and sometimes two, doors in each of these rooms, besides one or two open-