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Perry County, Missouri

Perry County History, Geography, Demographics, Cities and Towns, and Education

Etymology - Origin of County Name

Named for Oliver H. Perry, naval hero of the War of 1812.

Demographics:

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History of Perry County

Created by a law passed on November 16, 1820, the last county constituted before the admission of Missouri to the Union. The territory was originally a part of the Ste. Genevieve district. Boundaries were designated thus: on the southeast by the Birmingham Hills, on the south by the brakes of Apple Creek, on the southwest by Whitewater River and Saline Creek, on the west by the Saline Hills. The Mississippi River forms the east and northern boundaries, with Ste. Genevieve and St. Francois on the northwest, Madison County on the west, Bollinger and Cape Girardeau counties on the south. The County court was organized May 21, 1821 in the home of Bede Moore by Lewis Cissell, D.L. Caldwell, and Samuel Anderson. The county was divided into three townships: Brazeau, the southern part between Apple Creek and Cinque Hommes Creek; Bois Brule, the northeastern part; and Cinque Hommes, the rest of the territory. Commissioners were appointed to locate a seat of justice, but no move was made toward the erection of a courthouse until 1825. For the "Saxon Migration" of 1839, which was largely responsible for the settlement of the county, see under Altenburg. The county was named for Captain Oliver Hazard Perry (1785-1819), a great naval hero of the War of 1812. Perry took charge of the construction of a fleet with which the Americans hoped to wrest from the British the control of Lake Erie. By 1813 a squadron of nine vessels had been built and manned. Perry won the battle of Lake Erie September 19, 1813, and sent to Gen Harrison the famous laconic message: "We have met the enemy and they are ours..." "So," says a Perry county historian "when the founders of our county looked for a name, they unanimously chose that of the great naval hero," who had just passed away. Nine counties in other states bear the name Perry, and there are twenty towns so named, including one in Ralls County, Missouri. (Conard, Douglass I 169, 170, CENTENNIAL HIST. OF PERRY COUNTY MISSOURI, Houck III 268)

Source: Hamlett, Mayme L. "Place Names Of Six Southeast Counties Of Missouri." M.A. thesis., University of Missouri-Columbia, 1938.
 

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