Perry County, Missouri

Perry County is a county in the southeastern part of the state of Missouri. It had a population of 18,971 at the 2010 census.

The county was officially organized in 1820 and named for Oliver Hazard Perry, an American naval hero during the War of 1812. Perryville is the county seat and largest city.

History

The Perry County area was part of the Mississippian culture before and during the Middle Ages. The Mississippians were known for their construction of earthen mounds, a number of which still exist near the Mississippi River. By the time of European contact, the region was dominated by the Illinois Confederation, including such tribes as the Kaskaskians and the Cahokians, though members of the Shawnee tribe would also move in from the east during the late 18th century.

The first Europeans to explore the area were Father Marquette and Ensign Joliet, leading a French expedition down the Mississippi from Canada in 1673; they were the first to observe and describe Grand Tower Rock in the middle of the river. French soldiers and colonists began settling just to the north, around Kaskaskia and Ste. Genevieve, by the mid-18th century; however, no such settlements were made in the Perry County area until after the Spanish took possession of the Louisiana Territory following the French and Indian War. In 1795, the colonial government began issuing land grants to settlers from the new United States. A number of these early settlers were English Catholics arriving from Kentucky, though some also came from Pennsylvania and the South. Most of the first settlements occurred in the so-called "Bois Brule" river bottoms, opposite Kaskaskia Island to the northeast.

Population growth increased after the Louisiana Territory was purchased by the U.S. in 1803, with more American pioneers arriving, including a colony of North Carolina Presbyterians who settled around Brazeau Creek further south in 1817, with a village of that name growing up around it. After the creation of the Missouri Territory and its division into counties in 1812, the region was made a part of Ste. Genevieve County, but soon a movement arose to form a separate jurisdiction. Perry County was officially formed by the legislature on November 16, 1820, though a county court was not organized until the following spring. The present site of Perryville was selected for a county seat, with a courthouse constructed in 1825. Perry County was the last to be formed before Missouri's official admission into the Union in 1821.

The Saxon Lutheran Migration

During the 19th century, a variety of ethnic groups would settle in Perry County, including French, Belgians, and Swiss, along with a number of German Catholics. Possibly the most significant, however, was the arrival of Saxon Lutherans from Germany in the late 1830s. These were traditionalist Lutheran adherents who objected to the Kingdom of Prussia's attempts to force them into a single church with Calvinists, and chose to emigrate to America. Some 500-600 arrived in Perry County in 1839 and settled in its eastern portions (as well as in northeastern Cape Girardeau County to the south). Among the communities they established are the modern cities of Altenburg and Frohna, as well as the unincorporated communities of New Wells, Uniontown, and Wittenberg; and they would be instrumental in the founding of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod. Eastern Perry County continues to have a strong German Lutheran presence, with some of the older residents still able to speak an old Saxon German dialect.

Geography

Perry County is located in the northern part of southeastern Missouri, between the St. Francois Mountains and the Mississippi River. It has a roughly triangular shape, with the apex to the north, the base to the south, and the river forming its northeastern leg. It is bordered to the northeast and east by the state of Illinois, to the southeast by Cape Girardeau County, to the southwest by Bollinger and Madison Counties, and to the northwest by St. Francois and Ste. Genevieve Counties.

The county has a total area of 484.16 square miles, including 474.35 of land and 9.81 of water. It has two main topographical divisions; by far the largest are the foothills of the St. Francois Mountains (themselves the eastern edge of the Ozarks), which are gently rolling in the central part of the county around Perryville and more rugged to the west. Its highest point is an unnamed hill in the far west, near the border with Madison County, rising to about 1,080 feet above sea level. The other part of the county is the floodplain in the northeast along the Mississippi River (mostly north of Brazeau Creek), and is several miles wide in some places. These include the Bois Brule and the Brazeau Bottoms, which average about 360 feet in elevation. These lowlands have by far the most fertile soil in the county, and were the area of first settlement in the early 19th century.

The three major highways in the county are Interstate 55, which passes from northwest to southeast on a line skirting the western edge of Perryville; U.S. Route 61, which passes through the center of Perryville but otherwise generally parallels the interstate several miles to the east; and Missouri State Highway 51, which enters the county from the southwest, intersects I-55 and U.S. 61 at Perryville, and continues north to the Mississippi River, where it crosses the Chester Bridge into Illinois.

Communities

Perry County is home to six incorporated communities, including three cities, two villages, and one census-designated place (CDP).

Cities

• Altenburg
• Frohna
• Perryville (county seat)

Villages

• Lithium
• Longtown

CDP

• Biehle