108 HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI pound, milk half dollar per gallon, eggs a quarter of a dollar a dozen and fowls half to three-quarters of a dollar each. ' ' * Cuming says that at this time there was a camp of Delaware Indians about one mile be- low Little Prairie. Besides this settlement at Little Prairie there were some three or four other settle- ments within Pemiscot county. One of them was in the vicinity of the town of Gayoso, afterward the county seat; another in the western part of the county on Little river; the third was just north of the lake called Big Lake and the fourth was located on Port- age Bay. All of these settlements suffered greatly from the earthquake and most of them were practically depopulated by its ef- fects. With the opening of the King's Highway from Ste. Genevieve to New Madrid in 1789 there sprung up a number of settlements along the line of this road, some of them be- ing in Scott county. One of the first of these was made in the vicinity of Sikeston by Ed- ward Robei-tson and a son-in-law, Moses Hur- ley. Robertson was a shrewd and capable man. He traded with the Indians and also kept a stock of goods which he sold to other settlers, but he accumulated the greater part of his wealth by land speculation. At his death he left a considerable amount of property. Another one of these early settlements was made in Scott county in 1796 near the pres- ent town of Benton by Captain Charles Friend, who was a native of Virginia. He received a grant from the Spanish govern- ment near Benton and located there with his family. There were nine sons and two daugh-
- Cuming's "Tour to the West," p. 283.
ters in his family and most of them remained in the vicinity of the Spanish grant. Another settler in this neighborhood who came in 1811 was John Ramsay of Cape Girardeau. Perhaps the most distinguished and influ- ential family in Scott county in this period was the family of Joseph Hunter. He came to New Madrid in 1805 and located on a grant near New Madrid, but soon afterwards re- moved to Big Prairie not far from Sikeston and continued to reside in Scott county until the time of his death. The family of Joseph Hunter was a large one and was always wealthy and prominent in this part of the state ; he, himself, was a member of the terri- torial council after the transfer to the United States and his son, Abraham, was one of the best known politicians in Southeast Missouri, holding ofSce in the state legislature for about twenty years. He wa.s the second son an-d married Sally Ogden. Their family con- sisted of three sons and three daughters; the sons were Isaac of Scott county, Joseph of New Madrid county, who has recently died, and Benjamin F., who lives near Sikeston. One of the daughters, Catherine, married Marmaduke Beckwith, Mary married Archi- bald Price. Another son of Joseph Hunter was named James; he married Lucy Beck- with. The youngest son of Joseph Hunter was Thomas ; he married Eliza Meyers and to them were born two children, a daughter wlio became the wife of Colonel Thomas Brown, and Senator William Hunter of Benton. Of the daughters of Joseph Hunter, Mary mai-- ried Andrew Giboney of Cape Girardeau, their daughter is the wife of Hon. Louis Houck, and Hannah married Mark H. Stall- eup of New Madrid. Another of the early settlers of Scott county was Captain William Meyers, who
