Page:History of Southeast Missouri 1912 Volume 1.djvu/332

 CHAPTER XXI WAYNE AND JEFFERSON COUNTIES Greenville, Early and Late — Piedmont — P atterson — DeSoto — Crystal City — Her- CULANEUM HiLLSBORO — KiMMSWICK — H EMATITE. In 1819 Greenville was platted on the St. Francois river by the commissioners for establishing the seat of justice in Wayne county. The early merchants were Van Horn & Wheeler, William Creath, Lysander Flinn and Zenas Smith. The hotels of the early times were kept by Moses Timmons and Jo- seph Bennett. The first physicians were: E. W. Bennett, Drs. Paj'ne, Capp and Dickey. The town grew very slowly. It was at a dis- tance from any great number of people, and all the goods that were bought and sold there must be hauled from the Mississippi river, usually from Cape Girardeau. In 1826 it was damaged by an overflow of the St. Fran- cois river, which covered the town to a depth of several feet. The town was built on level ground, and it is difficult to protect it from a rise in the river. For a great many years Greenville was without any railroad facilities, being situated at a distance of twenty miles from the nearest point on the Iron Mountain Railroad. About 1894 the Holliday Land & Lumber Company, a corporation interested in timber lands, saw mills and mining, began the construction of a railroad from Williamsville to Greenville, and at Gi-eenville erected the shops for the railroad and also a very large mill for the man- ufacture of lumber. This railroad was after- wards extended to the northwest a distance of twenty miles from Greenville. The build- ing of the railroad, together with the estab- lishment of the mill, brought about .i consid- erable growth in the town. It became a pros- perous mercantile community. The mills, however, are now no longer in operation and the town depends for its support almost en- tirely upon the farming community nbout it and upon its importance as the county seat. There are now two general stores in the tovn, but no factories. Greenville has two banks: the Citizens, with a capital of $10,000, and the Wayne County, with a capital of $25,000. Among the more important buildings are the court house, a two-story brick structure and a good public school building, which gives accommodation to about 600 pupils. In 1899 it contained about 125 business houses, including two banks, opera house, two tiouring mills, five carriage and wagon shops, machine shop, electric light and ice plants, three hotels, a number of general stores, and miscellaneous establishments. The town is situated on the St. Francois river and a part of it is subject to overflow at the time of unusually high water. It has had one or two disastrous experiences with floods. It is laid out in a very irregular manner, it being a coiumon tradition in the town that the streets were originally deter- mined bj' corn rows. Its present population is 914. The papers in the town are the Wayne County Jovrnal, which is Democratic 272