| Cape Girardeau District Territorial Papers |
| 1797-1821 |
| Extent: 1 reel |
| Accession Number: 2008.017 |
| Abstract: Microfilm copy of various Cape Girardeau district territorial court documents. |
| Processed by: Amber Miranda, March 2008 |
|
Repository: Special
Collections and Archives, Southeast Missouri State University Phone: (573) 651-2245 Fax: (573) 651-2666 Email: semoarchives@semo.edu |
| Provenance: Documents created by the Cape Girardeau district territorial court. |
| Citation: Cape Girardeau District Territorial Papers, Special Collections and Archives, Southeast Missouri State University |
| Restrictions: Only available on microfilm |
| Historical Note |
| In the 1730s, a Frenchman named Jean Baptiste Girardot, for whom Cape Girardeau is named, established a trading post on the west bank of the Mississippi River. However, Girardot was a trader, not a settler, and by the middle 1700s Girardot had moved on. In 1793, the Spanish Government gave Frenchman Louis Lorimier a land grant to establish another trading post near the river, a few miles south of the site previously established by Girardot. Early in 1806, the town of Cape Girardeau was laid out in lots. A petition for incorporation was presented in 1808. Population expansion at first was slow; however, the age of steamboats allowed easy movement of manufactured goods on the river, which expedited growth. When the railroads were completed, it is said that the city's population doubled in just a few months. |
| Scope and Content Note |
|
Microfilm copy of various Cape Girardeau district
territorial court documents: Memorandum books of Cape Girardeau District court of common pleas, 1808-1816 Minute Book, 1809-1810 Fee Book Circuit, 1814-1821 List of Commissioned Officers, 1815 Field Notes, 1817-1839 Circuit Court Proceedings, 1838 |
| Rules or Conventions: Finding Aid prepared using DACS |
