HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 267 houses. They were built by Johu Woodward and Pleasant Bishop. The first merchant of the town was John J. Cox. For years the town was an important and flourishing one. Large stores were erected. The population grew. An academy was char- tered in the early days and all indications pointed to the place as designed for the site of a thriving city. Unfortunately for its in- habitants, the river began to encroach upon the town. At first the caving was just south of the main part of the town. Gradually it extended up the river, until many of the houses had to be moved back. So rapidly did the bank cave in at times that it was almost impossible to remove the houses fast enough to save them. After several successive re- movals, the site was abandoned by many of the residents, who were attracted by the growth of Portageville, which began to ac- quire importance through the construction of the Frisco Railroad through it. These causes greatly reduce the population of Point Pleas- ant and the historic name is preserved by only a handful of houses. Portageville . Portageville, in the south part of New Mad- rid county, now a flourishing town, had its beginning in 1848, when Edward Meatte aud Charles Davis established a store there. In 1851 Robert G. Franklin succeeded them. Later Edward DeLisle became interested in the place and carried on a mercantile es- tablishment for many years. Others came and the town grew slowly. Two causes at last made it an important and flourishing town: the ruin of Point Pleasant and sub- sequent re.moval of many of its inhabitants further from the river, and the building of tlie Frisco Railroad. The land about Portage- ville is fertile and when it was cleared up and drained, the farming interests thus made possible gave an impetus to the town. Its present population is 987 and is rapidly in- creasing. It has wood-working plants aud cotton gins, besides general and other stores. The Farmers Bank wa.s organized in 1905 and has a capital of $20,000. The Portage- ville Bank was chartered in 190,3. Its capital is $20,000. There is a good system of public schools and the usual church organizations. Fredericktown This town, which was the successor of St. Michaels, was laid off in 1819. The land was owned by Nathaniel Cook and the commis- sioners appointed to set out the limils of the town were Theodore F. Toug, John Burdette, Joseph Bennett and Henry Whitener. The first stores in the town were owned by S. A. Guignou, S. B. Pratte and Moses and Caleb Cox. Not much growth was made by Frederick- town luitil after the building of the Belmont branch of the Iron Mountain Railroad. There was always some business transacted, and the list of merchants includes six or eight names at any particular time, but the growth was, on the whole, slow for many .years. The first paper published in Fredericktown was a Free Soil paper, called The Espial. It was estab- lished in 1847 by James Lindsay. An ac- count of the other newspaper enterprises of the town is given in the chapter on news- papers. The first lodge was organized No- vember 25, 1848. This was Marcus Lodge, A. F. «& A. M. The meetings were held in the court house for a time, and F. L. Sullivan was the first temporary master. The town was incorporated for the first time in May, 1868, and on November 28, 1903, it was incorporated as a city of the third class, The first mayor was R. Albert. There are now
