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Missouri Counties
 Click Image to Enlarge Missouri CountiesMissouri has 114 Counties and one independent city. St. Louis City is separate from St. Louis County and is referred to as a "city not within a county." |
Cape Girardeau County, MissouriCape Girardeau County History, Geography, Demographics, Cities and Towns, and Education
Etymology - Origin of County NameNamed for Sieur de Girardot, a French officer. Demographics:County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick Facts History of Cape Girardeau CountyBounded on the north by Perry County, on the west by Bollinger County, on the south by Stoddard County, and on the east by the Mississippi River. Cape Girardeau County had its origin in the Spanish District of Cabo Girardeau, which was established about the year 1793 when Don Louis Lorimer was authorized by Governor Carondelet to "establish himself and his Indians on any unoccupied territory on the western bank of the Mississippi River from the Missouri to Arkansas." He located at Cape Girardeau (q.v.) and was made commandant during the Genet agitation 1792-1795. The boundaries of the district were on the northern Apple Creek, and on the southern Tywappity Bottom. The southern boundary between Cape Girardeau and New Madrid remained in dispute until 1801 when General Anthony Soulard was ordered by Spanish authorities to fix the line five leagues below the city of Cape Girardeau (near the present town of Commerce in Scott County) from the Mississippi River to the St. Francois River. The County was organized from the district on October 1, 1812 as one of the five original counties and retained the original district boundaries until 1818, when Wayne County was cut off and Lawrence and Madison Counties were erected from Ste. Genevieve and Cape Girardeau Counties. Further boundary changes occurred in 1851 when Bollinger County was erected from Wayne, Stoddard, and Cape Girardeau Counties. (Violette 77-89, 46-7, Douglas I 67-9, Houck II 154, 167, Spanish Regime I XXII)
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The history of our nation was a prolonged struggle to define
the relative roles and powers of our governments: federal, state, and local.
And the names given the counties, our most locally based jurisdictions,
reflects the "characteristic features of this country!"
But age, size and colorful names of our counties isn't the only reason to explore counties' role in American history, or the history of county government itself. In fact, the story of county government reflects the larger meanings of American history. Today's counties are the most flexible, locally responsive and creative governments in the US. They are the most diverse, varying in size, population, geography, and governmental structure. In their politics and policies, they express a 1990's political slogan "Think globally, act locally." |
