Page:History of Southeast Missouri 1912 Volume 1.djvu/252

 192 HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI taverns permitted in any commimity. Effort seems to have been made to reduce the num- ber as low as possible. In a number of in- stances licenses for keeping tavern were re- fused on the ground that the community was already sufficiently supplied. After the or- ganization of the territorial government, ac- companying the growth of population, there was an increase in the number of taverns. By 1805 the United States government had established postoffices at Ste. Genevieve, Cape Girardeau and New Madrid. Provision was made for the carrying of mails between these points and for connecting these mail routes with those east of the river. The weekly mail which reached these and other points in the territory was, necessarily, irregular ; the roads were very poor, and many of those engaged in carrying the mails had very long journeys to make. It is rather curious to observe the constant complaint of the inhabitants of the territorj' concerning the mails, they were too irregular and at too infrequent intervals. Even settlers at the oldest of the to^vns, who had seemed to be content under Spanish gov- ernment wdtliout any mails at all, were unable to be satisfied with one mail a week after the transfer to the United States. Doubtless the establishment of these postoffices and the reg- ular delivery of the mail into even remote communities was one of the powerful agencies by which the government fostered the growth of population in the new territor.y. Men who have enjoyed the advantages of the regular postal system are often tuiwilling to settle in a community where no postal facilities are provided. The government could have done nothing that would have offered greater in- ducement to man}' prospective settlers than to arrange to keep them in contact with civili- zation by providing for the delivery of mail. The rate for carrying letters and parcels v«-as, of course, very high compared to the present rates. The roads over which the mails were carried were very bad, and in many cases hardly existed at all. As a consequence, all mails were transported for a time on horse- back and this was for many years the prin- cipal method of carrying them. There was no fixed rate of postage for a letter at that time. The price was not fixed then as now by weight. The distance it must be carried de- termined the cost and not its weight. In no case was the amount charged by the govern- ment small. The ordinary^rate on letters was from twenty-five to seventy-five cents. The first newspaper published in Southeast Missouri was the Missouri Herald. It was established at Jackson in 1818 by Tubal E. Strange. It was a weekly newspaper, but its publication was discontinued in 1819 ; it was revived in 1820 under the name of the Inde- pendent Patriot, published by Stephen Rem- ington & Company. In 1825 a paper under the title the Ste. Genevieve Correspondent and Record was established at Ste. Genevieve. "While these were the first papers actually published in Southeast Missouri, the first Missouri paper was established in St. Louis in 1808 by Joseph Charless; this was the Mis- souri Gazette. It is still published imder the title. The St. Louis Bepiihlic. This paper had some circulation in Southeast Missouri, even at this early date. The publication of news- papers in a new territory such as this was at- tended with very great difficulty ; it was al- most impossible to secure sufficient subscrib- ers to pay the expense of publication. For this reason we find a constant change of proprietors taking place in almost all the early papers.