The Farmington times. (Farmington, St. Francois County, Mo.) 1905-1926, 1920-04-09

DR.. ]. P. Sebastian of Williamsville,
Mo. has sent us the following bit of
interesting history OF this immediate
vicinity of Southeast Missouri, writ
ten by his sister, Mrs. M. c. Winn,
from "reminiscences OF her adopted
grandmother, Mrs. Meekie Caldwell,
and her father, the late Judge Z. G..
Sebastian, early pioneers of Cook
Settlement, with later facts within her
own knowledge:
About the year 1910 quite num-
Der of families came over from Ken
lucky, mostly from Harrison, Wood
ford, Scott, and Fayette counties, with
sothers from Virginia, and pitched their
tents in Upper Louisiana Territory IN
what is now known as st. Francois
county, S. E. Missouri. Several years
previous a grant of land including
many of the pretty valleys OF that
country had been made to Nathaniuel
Cook, and in one of these the Ken
lucky Colony made its home and was
known as Cooks Settlement. They
were people, of more than ordinary in
telligence, frugal, and ambitious,
They brought with them goodly sup
ply of farming implements and stock.
Nearly all owned slaves who were al
so brought along. They also brought
with them the enterprise, habits and
tastes of Kentuckians, and some be-
gan to produce the well known results
of such an immigration. Their ad-
vantages were few and their sacri-
fees many, but by industry and fru-
gality they soon made for themselves
comfortable homes which in time be-
came beautiful Ste. Genevieve, the
oldest town in the territory, Thirty
miles distant) was settled by French
Catholics, who built the first church
in Upper Louisiana, and as early as
1903 incorporated an academy by an
act of the Governor of the Territory
of Louisiana. They sent out Mission
aries to all of the settlements and Of
fered religious instructions to these
as well as to the surrounding tribes
of Indians. Very soon they establish
ed schools in what is now Perry coun-
ty and at st. Michael's, now known as
Fredericktown, Madison county, Mo.
Catholicism was the prevailing re-
ligion and aside from it's churches
none were to be found in the country,
and though the colonists tried to have
a few months of school during each
year their efforts were often without
avail. Most of the colony known as
Cooks Settlement had been members
of the Baptist church before leaving
Kentucky, and these Catholic schools
We're not patronized to any extent by
them. The younger members found
employment during the day; the boys
telling trees, plowing, sowing and
reaping; the girls carding, spinning,
weaving and making garments for the
entire household, and at night by the
blazing pine knot they scanned their
lessons, depending on father, mother
and chance visitors for explanation
of same.
The local circumstances, the charac-
ter of the original settlers, the occu-
patton and above all the religious
views and habits of thought often give
to every district certain unity of SEN
timent which resists innovation and
is opposed to change. Such was the
case in this community and these
good people fell into the habit of
meeting from house to house on the
afternoon of each Lords Day to read
and study their Bible, and in this way
the path was made straight for the
march that was soon to begin. A
commodious log school house was
built and teacher was imported
from old Kentucky, but they were cut