Page:History of Southeast Missouri 1912 Volume 1.djvu/366

 306 HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI Kittrell were William Little and Thomas Pul- liam, who located on a small creek which flows into Current river. Near the present town of Doniphan the early settlers were George Lee, Joseph Hall, William Dudley, William Merrill and Abner Ponder ; the de- scendants of these families are still living in the count}'. The general assembly of the state organized Ripley county by an act passed January 5, 1833. It was named in honor of General Eleazer W. Ripley; pre- vious to its organization the territory had been part of Wayne county. As first organ- ized, the county was vastly larger than it is at the preseut time. It was reduced to its present size, finally, by the organization of Carter county in 1859. For many years the county seat of Ripley county was Van Buren in what is now Carter county and the princi- pal population of that section was in Carter county. The whole country was slowly set- tled. In 1840 there were in all Ripley county, then much larger than it is now, only 2,856 people ; and Van Buren, the county seat, had one store in 1837 and a log building for the courts. When Carter county was created in 1859 Doniphan was selected as the seat of justice for Ripley county and has remained the county seat until this time. A court house was erected shortly after the selection of the county seat, but it was burned during the war, as was practically all of the town of Doniphan. The new court house was erected shortly after the close of the war and is still in use. There are now thirteen town.ships in the county, as follows : Current River, Doni- phan, Gatewood, Harris, Johnson, Jordan, Kelley, Pine, Sherley, Thomas, LTnion, Varner and Washington. Pioneers of Dunklin County The first settlers in Dunklin county were Howard Moore and family, who were natives of Virginia. They came to the county in 1829, settling aboiit four miles south of Mai- den. They lived here for a short time and later bought the cabin which had been erected by the Indian chief, Chilletecaux, near Ken- nett. Here Mr. Moore made his home until the time of his death. He left a large family and many of his descendants still live in the county. His son, David H. Moore, ivho was born July 10, 1832, was the second child bom in the county. Another of the pioneer citizens of the county was Pascal Rice, who moved to the county in 1830. He was at the time about 12 years of age and spent the rest of his life in the community to which he first moved, near Hornersville. At the time he came to the county it was the home of many Indians and he became well acquainted with these Indian chiefs and attended many of their war dances. The first child born of white parents within the limits of Dunklin county was Thomas Neel, Jr., who was born in IIay, 1832, his father, Thomas Neel, having moved to the county in February preceding and settled in the south part of the county near the little town of Lulu. He grew up under the pioneer conditions of life and became acquainted with the Indians and knew all the customs which distinguished them. One of the earliest settlers was Michael Branum, who moved to Dunklin county from New Madrid, having been in New Madrid during the time of the great earthquake. His family, including Tecumseh, named for the great Indian chief, and daughters, Lizzie and Victorine, who became Mrs. Horner, lived in