Perry County, Missouri

The first inhabitants of what is now Perry County were Mississippian Mound Builders who cultivated corn and constructed earthen mounds. The Mississippian cultures inhabited the region until their decline in the 12th and 13th centuries. Remnants of their earthen mounds can be found in the eastern part of the county.[3] By the time of European contact, the area was populated by Native Americans of the Illinois Confederation[4] who inhabited much of eastern Missouri.

During the 18th Century, the Perry County area, like the rest of the future State of Missouri, was part of French Louisiana, also known as the Illinois Country. For most of the 18th Century the area of present-day Perry County was left largely uninhabited, even by the French of nearby Ste. Genevieve. The latter was the first permanent White settlement in the Missouri area. In 1764, when the terms of the 1763 Treaty of Paris were announced in Louisiana, the French settlers found themselves transferred to an alien domination, that of Spain. In general the French were unhappy with the change of rule and the Spanish governance of the territory was an uneasy one, occasionally punctuated by armed rebellion. In the Ste. Genevieve area, the Spaniards, making a virtue of necessity, tended to let the French govern themselves.[5][6] During the 1770s and 1780s members of the Peoria Tribe, whose situation had deteriorated under British and American rule in Illinois, migrated west across the Mississippi River into Ste. Genevieve and the lower part of the Bois Brule Bottoms.

The French population suffered continued harassment by the Osage to the southwest. In the 1790s, Louis Lorimier, authorized by Spanish officials, invited the Shawnee and Delaware tribes in Ohio to immigrate and settle along Apple Creek in Perry County in the hope that they would act as a buffer between the French to the north and the Osage to the south.[7] Their largest village, Le Grand Village Sauvage - with a population of some 400, was located in the southern part of the county, just above Apple Creek, near present-day Old Appleton. Within a decade of the Native American immigration, Spanish authorities showed an interest in opening the area to colonization by Americans.[8][9] The first French settlers were Jean Baptiste Barsaloux and his father Girard Barsaloux who lived in the Bois Brule Bottom in 1787.[5][6]

The first American settlers to Perry County arrived during the latter half of the 1790s and claimed rich land in Bois Brule Bottom. These Americans organized the region's original Baptist Church in 1807. In the early 19th century, a second group of American settlers crossed the Mississippi River to take advantage of Spanish land offers. These were Roman Catholics of English stock from north-central Kentucky. They had originally come from Maryland to escape religious discrimination and prided themselves on being descendants of Lord Baltimore's original colonists. The first of these to settle permanently in the future Perry County was Isidore Moore. He arrived in 1801 and became a patriarch of the area, and founded Tucker's Settlement. Others soon followed whose family names predominated the decades: Tucker, Fenwick, Cissell, Hayton, Riney, Hamilton, Layton, Manning, and Hagan. Most of these settled in the uplands around Perryville in a place called the Barrens because of its open land. Another Maryland Catholic, Joseph Fenwick, established the short-lived Fenwick Settlement at the mouth of Brazeau Creek in the Brazeau Bottoms.[10]

When the region was transferred to American sovereignty in 1803–1804, the Barrens became part of the Louisiana Territory. Prior to the admission of Missouri to statehood in 1821, several new migrations altered the religious composition of the future county. In 1817, a large group of Presbyterians from North Carolina settled in the neighborhood of Brazeau, an area roughly bounded by the Mississippi River and the Cinque Hommes Creek and Apple Creek. These settlers organized a church in 1819. They were soon followed by Methodists from the same state whose family names live on, like Abernathy, Farrar, and Rutledge. In 1826, they built their first log meeting house, which was later replaced by York Chapel.[11]

Until 1821, the Barrens region formed the southern portion of Ste. Genevieve County. When Missouri was granted statehood, Perry County was organized out of the parent district. It was divided into three townships: Brazeau, Cinque Hommes, and Bois Brule. Their boundaries, following natural geographical features, were quite irregular. In 1856, the borders were made symmetrical and two new townships, St. Mary's and Saline, were added.[12]

After 1821, the descendants of French colonial families from Ste. Genevieve trickled into Perry County, and in the middle of the next decade, their ranks swelled by immigrants from France itself. They settled on the lands that were near the present city of Perryville. At about the same time, a small group of Flemings settled in the northeastern part of the county, with the present town of Belgique as their center.[13] There were also Swiss in the same area.

The late 1830s saw the beginnings of a heavy German immigration that would permanently alter the ethnic balance of the county. In the fall of 1838, more than 600 Saxon Lutherans, under the leadership of Pastor Martin Stephan, uprooted themselves and migrated to Missouri in what is called The Saxon Lutheran Migration, seeking to avoid the enforced religious conformity brought about by the Prussian Union of churches.[14] They settled in the southeastern corner of the county and moved inland through a series of towns whose names enshrined both religion and nationality: Wittenberg, Friedheim, Frohna, Dresden, Altenburg, and Paitzdorf, which was renamed Uniontown during the American Civil War. Much of the legacy of the German immigration lives on today through the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod.[15] A distinct Saxon dialect of German continues to be spoken by about 250 residents (in 2014), although that number is declining with the youngest speakers being over 50 years old.[16]

Others who settled in the area were German Catholics, mostly from Bavaria and Baden. They settled in the Barrens area. The Lutherans and Presbyterians established churches in the region bounded by the 1856 Township of Brazeau. The Methodists located farther west in the area that comprised the 1856 township of Cinque Hommes. There they set up two churches, the first York Chapel, near present-day Longtown, about 5 miles (8 km) southeast of Perryville,[17] and in 1836 a second in Perryville itself. Then in 1844–1845, they divided between north and south over the question of whether a bishop could own slaves. The two Methodist churches in Perry County parted company, the city congregation going with the North and the York Chapel siding with the South. The Baptists of the county tended to congregate in both Bois Brule Bottom and in the area of Saline Township. In the first decades of the 19th century, they met in private homes.

While it is one of the oldest communities in Missouri, Perry County also founded the first college west of the Mississippi River, dating to 1827.[18]

• Interstate 55
• U.S. Route 61
• Route 51

• Middle Mississippi River National Wildlife Refuge (part)

Unlike many rural counties in southeastern Missouri, Perry County is an exception to the Bible Belt, with Roman Catholicism being the majority religion, according to the Association of Religion Data Archives County Membership Report (2000). Among residents in Perry County who adhere to a religion, 60.33% are Roman Catholics, 29.72% are Lutherans, and 4.94% are Southern Baptists.

Perry County has the second highest percentage of Catholics of any county in the state of Missouri behind only Osage County, Missouri.[27] Perry County also has the second highest percentage of Lutherans of any county in the state of Missouri behind only Atchison County, Missouri.[28]

The Republican Party predominantly controls politics at the local level in Perry County. Republicans hold all of the elected positions in the county.[30]

Perry County is divided into two districts in the Missouri House of Representatives, both of which are held by Republicans.

• District 116 - Currently represented by Dale Wright (politician) (R-Farmington) and includes North of the city of Perryville as well as some area east and west of the city. Wright has represented the district since 2018.

• District 145 - Currently represented by Rick Francis (R-Perryville, Missouri) and includes the rest of Perry County (Altenburg, Biehle, Frohna, Longtown).

All of Perry County is a part of Missouri's 27th District in the Missouri Senate and is currently represented by State Senator Holly Rehder (R-Scott City). The 27th Senatorial District consists of Bollinger, Cape Girardeau, Madison, Mississippi, Perry, and Scott counties.

Perry County is included in Missouri's 8th Congressional District and is currently represented by Jason T. Smith (R-Salem) in the U.S. House of Representatives. Smith won a special election on Tuesday, June 4, 2013, to finish out the remaining term of U.S. Representative Jo Ann Emerson (R-Cape Girardeau). Emerson announced her resignation a month after being reelected with over 70 percent of the vote in the district. She resigned to become CEO of the National Rural Electric Cooperative.

At the presidential level, Perry County is a reliably Republican stronghold. John McCain easily carried the county over Barack Obama in 2008, and George W. Bush carried Perry County by even stronger margins in 2000 and 2004. The last Democratic presidential nominee to win Perry County was Lyndon B. Johnson in the landslide Election of 1964.

Like most rural areas, voters in Perry County generally adhere to socially and culturally conservative principles which strongly influence their Republican leanings. In 2004, Missourians voted on a constitutional amendment to define marriage as the union between a man and a woman—it overwhelmingly passed Perry County with 85.07 percent of the vote. The initiative passed the state with 71 percent of support from voters as Missouri became the first state to ban same-sex marriage. In 2006, Missourians voted on a constitutional amendment to fund and legalize embryonic stem cell research in the state—it failed in Perry County with 69.45 percent voting against the measure. The initiative narrowly passed the state with 51 percent of support from voters as Missouri became one of the first states in the nation to approve embryonic stem cell research. Despite Perry County's longstanding tradition of supporting socially conservative platforms, voters in the county have a penchant for advancing populist causes like increasing the minimum wage. In 2006, Missourians voted on a proposition (Proposition B) to increase the minimum wage in the state to $6.50 an hour—it passed Perry County with 69.52 percent of the vote. The proposition strongly passed every single county in Missouri with 75.94 percent voting in favor as the minimum wage was increased to $6.50 an hour in the state. During the same election, voters in five other states also strongly approved increases in the minimum wage.

Unlike many of the rural areas in Missouri that backed former Governor Mike Huckabee (R-Arkansas), Perry County provided U.S. Senator John McCain (R-Arizona) with his third strongest showing in Missouri. However, former U.S. Senator Hillary Clinton (D-New York) received more votes, a total of 1,180, than any candidate from either party in Perry County during the 2008 presidential primary.

• Altenburg 48 Elementary School - Altenburg - (K-08)
• Perry County School District No. 32 - Perryville
  • Perryville Early Childhood Special Education Center (PK)
  • Perryville Elementary School (K-04)
  • Perry County Middle School (05-08)
  • Perryville High School (09-12)
  • Perryville Area Career & Technology Center (09-12)

• United in Christ Lutheran School - Frohna - (PK-8) - Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod
• Immanuel Lutheran School, Perryville - (PK-8) - Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod
• St. Vincent De Paul Schools, Perryville - (PK-12) - Roman Catholic
  • St. Vincent De Paul Elementary School (PK-6)
  • St. Vincent De Paul High School (7-12)

• Altenburg Branch Library[39]
• Perryville Branch Library[40]

• Altenburg
• Frohna
• Perryville (county seat)

• Longtown

• Biehle
• Brewer
• Lithium
• Shakertowne