Tales from Days Gone By

Perhaps no event in the history of crime and punishment in Southeast Missouri is as bizarre as the hanging and subsequent attempted revival of John H. Skaggs.

A restored log cabin, the Casey Cabin, is in Heritage Park in Potosi in Washington County. The Casey family donated it to the Mine au Breton Historical Society in 2002, and the Society restored it.

The county seat of New Madrid County has been New Madrid for much of the county’s history. However, from 1815 to 1822 the county seat was in a town that no longer exists—Winchester.

June 24, 1780, was a momentous day for settlers in the vicinity of Ruddell’s Station, Kentucky. Warnings of possible attack by British-allied Shawnee and other native people had moved them to take shelter in the fort constructed for such threats.

The most tragic event of the time before the Louisiana Purchase in the southern part of Spanish Upper Louisiana was the murder of David Trotter.

An overturned grave marker in Welch Cemetery near Summersville in Shannon County memorializes Peter Renfrow, whose life was profoundly altered by his crime and its aftermath.

The story of one of the most notorious events occurring near Cape Girardeau during the Civil War began in St. Louis in the early summer of 1863.

Two major European allies assisted the fight for American Independence: France and Spain. One of the consequences of the alliance with Spain was a more favorable view of Americans by the Spanish authorities in Louisiana.

July 27, 1871, proved to be a tragic day in the small Wayne County community of Lowndes.

The lure of riches has given rise to many historical events. Sometimes the promised boom happens, but often the lure leads to overly optimistic visions. One such event occurred in the late 1880s in Stoddard County.