278 HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI John Boaz. The town was incorporated as a village by order of the county court in 1856, with John Cobb and George "W. Williams as trustees; William R. Taylor was city clerk. It was incorporated as a city of the fourth class in 1878, the first mayor being Alvin Rucker. The town grew slowly and depended upon the farming commimity about it and also upon its possession of the county seat. At the breaking out of the war it had a popu- lation of about 500. At this time the princi- pal merchants were M. P. Cayce, S. A. Dout- hitt & Son, Peers & Company, and Ai-nold & Rucker. The first grist mill was built in 1856 by M. P. Cayce and S. A. Doi;thitt ; this mill, afterward enlarged and remodeled, was kno^^a as the Parmington roller mills. The town suffered considerable injury by the fact that the St. Louis & Iron Mountain Railroad Mas built at a distance of two and a half miles to the west, owing to the fact that the town refused to subscribe to the stock of the rail- road. However, the injury to the toMTi was neither serious nor permanent, and contrary to general expectation the business was not moved to the new town of DeLassus. The jjrincipal merchants in the period from 1880 to 1890 were Dalton & Marks. J. Krieger, S. S. Smith, Cole & Hackada,^% M. Rosenthal, Simon J. Copson, Thomas Williams; general mer- chants, Orten & Davis, F. E. Klein & Com- pany, S. C. Gosson and J. H. Waide ; grocers, J. R. ]IcCormick, Brad Robinson, A. Rucker and A. Parkhurst ; druggist, Robert Tetlay ; jeweler, C. E. Barrel! ; stationer, Lang & Brother; lumber dealers, Giessing Brothers, proprietors of the Farmington Roller mills. In 1887 the Bank of Farmington was or- ganized, with A. Parkhurst as president and L. P. Cayce as cashier, with a capi- tal stock of $15,000; it now has a capital of $50,000. The Farmers' Bank of Farming- ton was organized in April. 1904, and has a capital stock of $35,000. The St. Francois County bank was organized in April, 1907, and has a capital of $30,000. At the present time there are twelve general stores, two drug stores, two confectionery stores, three restau- rants, one five- and ten-cent store, two express oflices, one jewelry store, four barber shops, one book store and three newspapers. The present manufacturing establishments are three wagon and buggy shops, three black- smith shops, foi;r lumber yards and one con- struction company. The town has a good sys- tem of electric lights and water works. The principal buildings are the court house, St. Francois hotel, the Realty building, the opera house and a high school building. The tOMTi now covers two and a half square miles and has a population of 2,800. Its assessed valu- ation is more than a million dollars. It is divided into four wards ; there are eight alder- men. Hon. George M. Wilson is mayor of the town. There are eight churches in Parmington — ]Iethodist Episcopal, Methodist Episcopal South, negro Methodist, Christian, Baptist, Presbyterian, Lutheran and Catholic. The fii-st newspaper published was the Southern M'issouri Argus, which was established by Nichol. Crowell & Shuck in 1880. In 1889 its name was changed to The Herald, and in 1892 it was removed to Desoto. The Xeiv Era, a paper which began a publication at Libertj'- ville. was removed to Parmington in 1871 and to Marble Hill in 1876. In 1872 The Times was started by C. E. Ware and J. H. Rodehaver; it is now published by Theodore D. Fisher. The Neivs was established in 1884 by P. T. Pigg and The Herald in 1886 by Isaac Rodehaver. Farmington has been famous for many years as a center of educational interest. Its .system of public schools is not surpassed in Southeast Missouri. It has three good school
