Page:History of Southeast Missouri 1912 Volume 1.djvu/223

 HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 163 named in honor of Andrew Jackson. There was a sale of lots in the town, the sum of $900 being derived from this source. The divisious of Cape Girardeau county were first made in 1806. At that time two dis- tricts, the northern and the southern, were formed and two assessors appointed for each. Charles G. Ellis and Abraham Byrd were assessors in the northern district and John Abernathy and Frederick Bollinger on the southern. In 1807 the entire district was divided into five townships: Tywappity, German, Byrd, Cape Girardeau and St. Fran- cois. Tywappity was bounded on the north and west by the middle of the Big Swamp, on the south by the district line separating Cape Girardeau from New Madrid and on the east by the river. Cape Girardeau township was bounded on the east by the Mississippi river and on the south by the middle of the Big Swamp, and on the north and west by a line beginning at Joseph Waller's ferry on the Mississippi and running we.st and south to Hubble creek and dovai Hubble creek to the middle of the Big Swamp. Byrd township was boiuided on the east by Cape Girardeau township on the north of the district line, on the south by the Big Swamp, on the west by "Whitewater. German township extended from the district line on the north to the Big Swamp on the south and from Whitewater to Turkey creek. St. Francois township was west of Turkey creek, and included all the territory between the district line to the north and the middle of the Big Swamp on the south, extending as far west as there were any settlements. Tywappity township was thus practically the same as Scott county. German township included Bollinger and a part of Madison counties. St. Francois township in- cluded Wayne county, while Cape Girardeau and Byrd townships included the present county of Cape Girardeau. Two of these townships, Tywappity and St. Francois, were later cut off to form Scott and Wayne counties. In 1872 a new toTnship called Randol was formed from portions of Byrd and Cape Girardeau; Apple Creek was erected from a part of Byrd township two years later and at the same time Lorance was formed from the southern part of German township. No other changes were made in the township line until 1840, when Union was created from portions of Apple Creek and German; four years later a part of Lorance was taken to form a new township called Liberty. The whole system of townships was revised in 1848. At this time eleven town- ships were marked out; they were Lorance, Clubb, Union, German, Liberty, Hubbell, Cape Girardeau, Randol, Shawnee, Byrd and Apple Creek. Bollinger county was organized three years later and Lorance, Clubb, Union, Ger- man and part of Liberty townships becom- ing a part of Bollinger coimty. In 1852 Whitewater township was organized, in 1856 Welsh, and in 1872 Kinder. The court house had become unfit for its purposes by 1837 and the court in that year appointed Edward Criddle, Nathan Vanhorn, Ralph Guild and Ebenezer Flynn as the commissioners to superintend the erection of a new building; it was built of brick and stone and was two stories in height. In 1870 tliis building was destroyed by fire, and in November of that year the court set aside $25,000 for the erection of a new building. It was a brick structure, standing on the pub- lic square in Jackson and was erected by Jos- eph Lansmann of Cape Girardeau. In 1905 it was determined to erect a larger building more suited to the use of the court ; this build- ing was completed in 1908 and is still in use.