By Daniel Winningham
The director of the Perry County Historical Society spoke as part of the Perry County Lutheran Historical Society’s gathering Sunday, April 24, at the Lutheran Heritage Center and Museum in Altenburg.
Bill Hart released his work “Historic Missouri Roadsides,” and discussed a few of the notable two-lane trips in the Show-Me State.
“Missouri…it’s beautiful everyone,” Hart said.
One of the trips was along the El Camino Real road, or Kingshighway, from St. Louis to New Madrid. Hart spoke of several towns between St. Louis and Festus, including Imperial and Herculaneum. Later, he detailed Ste. Genevieve, St. Mary and Lithium.
“I used to go on my grandpa’s delivery trips with him on Tuesdays in the summer time,” Hart said. “My grandma said the Lithium spring water helped her arthritis. I think we just decided that it kept her from being hysterical.”
Eventually, the discussion reached this area.
“Perry County, nearly triangular in shape with the Mississippi River forming the entire eastern boundary and Apple Creek forming a portion of the southern boundary, was established in 1821,” Hart said. “This part of Missouri was originally inhabited by Shawnee Indians. They crossed the Mississippi River to the east and settled in Missouri. The largest Shawnee settlement was just north of present day Old Appleton and consisted of about 400 inhabitants.”
The original name of the first European settlement was “The Barrens,” according to Hart.
The area was platted in 1821 and named after Oliver Hazard Perry, a naval hero in the War of 1812. French families, German Catholics, Methodists, Presbyterians settled in the area. There were also small Swiss and Belgian settlements ahead of the Saxon emigration in the late 1830s.
“I’m not going to say too much about East Perry County because you all know more about it than I do and I don’t want to get in trouble,” Hart said.
Hart traveled to most of Missouri’s 114 counties ahead of releasing the book.
The research for the book took about nine months. After spending time with the Missouri Alliance for Historic Preservation he had travelled the state extensively, but still had about 10 counties left to visit
“I’ve been taking photographs of historic places for 10 years, 12 years,” he said.
The French had already settled St. Louis and so when the Spanish acquired Louisiana, they were looking for a new capital.
The Spanish wanted to put their mark on the territory so they came up with New Madrid, that was supposed to be their new capital of Spanish America. They owned thousands and hundreds of thousands of acres by virtue of owning Louisiana. It was their commerce route. It was already an established Indian trail but it was to connect the already-established French colony with Spanish (establishments).
Hart learned a great deal in researching the book.
“I had to go and do a lot more homework, and I learned a lot more of my own history and my family’s history,” he said. “I hadn’t realized there was such a large influx of Shawnee Indians that had settled near Old Appleton. I’m always learning about Perry County every day, especially at the office.”
Hart was asked inspired him to do a book about scenic drives across Missouri.
“Kind of my work in historic preservation, but also the fact that I can little small towns emptying out and wanting for residents and businesses and all that,” Hart said. “I’ve also noticed that even while Missouri towns are emptying out that if they can kind of rediscover themselves as a destination or capitalize on their history, then more people tend to want to come visit and spend money, that was a part of it, too, to help bolster tourism in small towns.”
