Page 18 - Firehouse Pond

HISTORICAL NOTES

Archaeological findings revealed the remains of a Mound Builder civilization
near Charleston and throughout Missouri.

Before becoming Charleston, the area was known as Swampeast Missouri.
Poor drainage made the land unusable for farming. The development of a
drainage and levee system in the late 1800s and early 1900s resulted in the

area having some of the state’s best soil for farming.

The Battle of Charleston / Bird's Point - August 19, 1861, Colonel Henry

Dougherty led his Union forces in the destruction of a Confederate camp near
Charleston.

After the Civil War, Charleston flourished as Mississippi County became the
first rural area in Missouri to have a railroad depot and a paved highway
connecting to the ferry in Cairo, Illinois. (St. Louis, Iron Mountain, and

Southern Railway).

On January 31, 1874, at Gad's Hill, Missouri the St. Louis, Iron Mountain,
and Southern Railway became the first train to be robbed in Missouri. It is

believed to be the first train robbery linked to the Jessie James Gang. The
gang is reported to have taken $12,000; the equivalent of nearly $250,000 in
today’s money.

Mother Nature has not been kind to my birth city. Charleston was built near
the New Madrid Seismic Fault Zone. In 1812, the New Madrid earthquake,
measuring 8.3 shook the ground around Charleston. At the time, it was the

largest documented earthquake in the United States.

Mother Nature struck again on October 31, 1895; the trick of the day was that

Charleston was the epicenter of a 6.6 earthquake. That quake reportedly
damaged every building in Charleston.

Charleston’s population remains under 6,000, give or take a few here and
there.