The first people who came to Madison County were miners and their stay was ordinarily transitory; the first men who came to settle on a farm within the county was John Callaway, who came from Kentucky in 1799, and obtained a grant on Saline Creek near the head of the Little St. Francois about the same time the sons of Nicholas Lachance settled on Castor Creek.  Their father lived at New Bourbon in Ste. Genevieve County.  

Other early settlers were William Easum and James and Samuel Campbell, who at some time before 1803, built cabins near the St. Francois and cultivated the land.  

John Walther came to the county in 1882 as did Christopher Anthony, John L. Pettit, Daniel Phillips and William and Thomas Crawford.

In 1800 the Spanish authorities granted four hundred arpents of land to thirteen individuals, the land lying between Saline Creek and the Little St. Francois.  On the land so granted a settlement was soon made which was called St. Michael; it is now the town of Fredericktown.

The early residents were Peter Chevalier, Paul, Andrew and Baptiste De Guire, four brothers, whose name was Caillot, called also Lachance, Gabriel Nicoolo, Pierre Variat and three others whose names are not known.

These settlers all came from other settlements in this district.  They engaged in farming and also in lead mining at Mine LaMotte which is only a few miles distant.

History of Southeast Missouri: A Narrative Account Of Its  Historical Progress, It's People and Its Principal Interests  - Volume 1   - 1912                 

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