Page:History of Southeast Missouri 1912 Volume 1.djvu/321

 HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 261 Bank was organized in 1904 and has a capital stock of $15,000. The Southeast Missouri Trust Company was organized in 1906, and its capital is $500,000. All these banks are housed in commodious and beautiful struc- tures erected for them. Another institution which contributes much to the to'sTi is the St. Francis Hospital eon- ducted by the Catholic Sisters of St. Francis. In 1905 was begun the construction of the Cape Girardeau and Jackson Inteiairban Railway. At present it operates electric street cars in Cape Girardeau alone, though it will ultimately be extended to connect other towng in this section. At present there are three miles of paved streets and others are projected. Some notable buildings beside those men- tioned are the Elks Club, the Himmelberger- Harrison office building, the Federal building, the courthouse of the court of common pleas. This latter, which occupies a commanding site on the bluff above the river, has been a land- mark of Cape Girardeau for many years. The town is on the main line of the Frisco from St. Louis to Memphis, and is the terminal point for the Hoxie branch of the Frisco, the St. Louis & Gulf, also owned by the Frisco, the Chicago and Eastern Illinois, the Cape Girardeau-Chester, and the Thebes Terminal. Good roads radiate in every direction from the town and add much to its trade. There are two papers published in the town, The Cape County Herald, a weekly, and The Republican, both daily and weekly. The Herald is published in a well-equipped and The Bepublican owns one of the most complete printing plants in the state. Another business institution is the Cape Girardeau Bell Telephone Co.. operating exchanges at Cape Girardeau and Jackson, and toll lines through a considerable part of this section. The toAvn has a good system of waterworks, electric lights and gas, all operated by the same company. Founding op Jackson Jackson was founded, as we have said, in 1815. It was put upon an improved farm which was purchased from William H. Ash- ley. Surrounding the town there were a num- ber of settlements. On the west was the farm of Col. William Neely, on the north that of Joseph Seawell and on the south that of William Daugherty. The town grew rapidly after the sale of lots and in 1818 its popula- tion was three himdred or more. Some one described it as a "considerable village on the hill with the Kentucky outline of dead trees and huge logs lying on all sides of the fields." The population of the town consisted largely of yoimg people who had been gathered from every quarter. There were only a few stores, three or four in number, some blacksmith shops, several taverns and boarding houses, a tan yard, a printing office, a court house and jail, and there was also erected in the early times a little building constructed of logs which was used as a school house. Rev. Tim- othy Flint, who came to the town in 1819, was very unfavorably impressed and spoke in a very derogatory manner of the town and its inhabitants. He said of them that they were entirely without interest; that they were ex- tremely rough, most of them ignorant and bigoted, and inclined to think that sectarian- ism should atone for the want of morals and decency. Flint, however, seems to have had some prejudice in the matter. Long, who visited the town in 1819, says (Long's Expedition, p. 85): "On oui April expedition we came to Jackson, the seat of justice for the county of Cape Gir- ardeau, and after St. Louis and St. Charles