Madison County is situated in the southeastern  portion of the State, one hundred miles south of St. Louis, on the St. Louis, Iron Mountain and Southern Rail way — bounded north by St. Francois County, east by Perry and Bollinger, south by Bollinger and Wayne and west by Iron County, and contains 295,550 acres.

The population in:

1820, was 2,047

In 1830, 2,371

In 1840, 3,395

In 1850, 6,003

In 1860, 6,003

In 1870, 5,849

Of whom:   5,688 were white and 189 colored

                   3,015 male and 2,384 female

                   5,471 native  (3,869 born in Missouri), and 378 foreigners

In 1876, 8,518, of whom 8,264 were white and 264 colored.

By the census of 1876:

2,076 horses

841 mules

5,583 cattle

4,752 sheep

13,102 hogs were enumerated.    

The population of the county at the present time is from 10,000 to 12,000 people.

Manufacturing

The manufacturing interests are embraced in a few smelting furnaces, ten flour and grist mills, four saw mills, two planing mills, the Co -Operative Man­ufacturing Company, a plow factory, and a pottery; besides a great many artisans and skilled workmen in every branch of Industry.

Financial

The valuation of the county, per census of 1870, was $8,210,000. Whilst some of the people are in debt, there are quite a number of solid men who are above the waves, and have large amounts invested .In United Statesbonds. The county debt Is only $8,000.

The people have acted wisely in not voting appro­priations to corporations. The merchants are all doing business on their own capital. Nothing of the mushroom style of doing business is attached to them. So the immigrant who seeks a home, need not fear to invest his means in Madison County

.

The county is penetrated by the St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Railway, which passes through the northeastern portion of the county for a distance of twenty-three miles. The company have a depot, round house and machine shops at Fredericktown.  

A great deal of yellow pine plank, stave-bolts and railroad ties have been shipped from Marquand, Cornwall and Fredericktown.

Eductional

The educational interest of this county are in a prosperous condition. There are forty-five sub-districts, and 2,875 children over six and under twenty years of age, who attend school four months each year.

Besides, there are a great many being edu­cated at universities outside the county.

Towns

Marquand, on the St. Louis, Iron Mountain and Southern Railway, is fourteen miles southeast of Fredericktown; has three stores, one merchant mill, one hotel and one church (Presbyterian); also, one Missionary Baptist Church elope to its limits; popu­lation, 150.

Cornwall, a station on the same railroad, seven miles southeast of Fredericktown, contains one store and woodyard, and used to be a shipping point for iron.

Mine LaMott, four miles north of Fredericktown and two and a half miles .from the railroad station bearing its name, is a beautiful place to live. It has one drug store, a tin shop, a restaurant, saddler shop, two meat market, a hotel, two shoe shops, a number of private boarding houses, one smithy, two churches (Catholic and Presbyterian), two school houses, and a large general store. There are also two stores one mile south of Mine La Motte. The company is punctual in paying its employees.   There is also a machine shop and a watchmaker shop there. The population is about 500, and the people are very industrious.

Fredericktown, the county seat, and one of the most thrifty towns in Missouri, is one hundred and five miles from St. Louis and ninety-one miles from Belmont, and was settled in 1821.

 It contains six churches: one Christian, one Catholic, two Metho­dist (one colored), and two Baptist (one colored), and about 8,000 inhabitants.

The greater portion of the old settlers, some of whom are still living, were Catholics. There is one large public school build­ing, well supplied with modern desks and apparatus, costing $8,000.

There is one weekly newspaper, established eight years, Democratic in politics.

To describe all the elegant buildings in Fredericktown would be unnecessary. Suffice it to say, that no inland town with the same number of inhabitants, can boast of more durable and elegant buildings and suburban cottages; besides, the town is well watered, wells, cisterns and living springs abound, and Saline Creek runs through the center of the town, affording water in great abundance for all purposes.

There, perhaps, is not a more healthful place in Southern Missouri. It is destined, so the inhabitants think, to be one of those summer resorts for health-seekers and gentlemen of leisure, who know how to enjoy life.

Social and Religious Denominations

The first Catholic Church in this county was established in Fredericktown, by Father Celeni, in 1827.   Its members number about 400.

The Christian Church was organized in Madison County in 1812.

There are three congregations in this county: one in Fredericktown; Antioch Church„ situated one and three-quarter miles east of Fred­ericktown, has a membership of 300, and Green Chapel, situated on the St. Francois River, twenty miles south of Fredericktown, has a membership of fifty.

There are nine Missionary Baptist Churches, with a membership of 580, and seven ordained ministers. There are several old Baptist churches in the county.

The Methodist Church (South) numbers 260 members;  the old Episcopal Church (North) fifty.  Besides, there is an organization of Congregational Methodists.

There is one Lutheran Church in this county, with about 260 members.

The various orders of Masonry, Odd Fellowship, Knights of Honor, A.O U. W., Good Templars, etc., are strongly represented.

To Immigrants

The climate is mild and healthful; the nights are cool and invigorating. Some of the landscape scenery is grand beyond description.

The people are of the mediocrity; no aristocracy. Every man is rated according to his real merit; and a more kind, whole-souled, generous people, as a body, can nowhere be found. They hail from all the States in the Union, from France, Germany, England, Ireland, Scotland, and other countries. Taken together with the first settlers, they form a homogeneous society, destined, at no distant period, to develop the vast and varied resources, and cause this country to bloom as the rose.

Hand Book of Missouri

The Missouri Immigration Scoiety of St. Louis, Missouri

September 1880

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