Cooper County Maps and Stories
Object Profile
In the book/series of maps published by the St. Louis Atlas Publishing Co., one can find a lot of information regarding the population sizes in Cooper County, the history of the county itself and its townships, and plenty of illustrations. The book was published in 1877. At the time, Germans were described as entrepreneurs as they used the very hilly and precipitous landscape of Cooper to their advantage by building towns and farmlands. Above, you can find a map of the county, with other familiar places of interest like Moniteau, Otterville, and Boonville.
As the book goes on, it references many instances of German populations starting to bubble up and accrue large amounts of German immigration. In the “History of Townships,” section, it mentions how it started around the 1840s, and eventually a German newspaper was born out of necessity in the county. The paper accumulated 500 subscribers after its first issue on May 28, 1868. On the continued section of the “History of Townships,” section there is also a mention that a Lutheran German school has been established and feature an English speaking portion of coursework.
The next section that mentions Germans is “Biographical Sketches,” in which it talks about how Germans were involved in the Civil War effort in Missouri. Under the guard of General Seigel and Dr. Staples, 1,000 Germans were given orders to take prisoners and the flag of St. Louis.
While it doesn’t go into detail or the extent of their business, it can be inferred that the Germans were heavily involved in some of the infrastructure in Cooper and other counties. For instance, like John Hopkins details in his Johann David Rau profile, the Germans were involved in the creation of churches and the establishment of Lutheran, Catholic, and German Evangelical churches. Rau was ahead of this front as he moved to Boonville in the mid-1850s along with 215,000 other Germans immigrating to America. In this quote from Hopkins, you can see the growth and how it affected the county: “In turn, the 1830 population of Boonville is estimated at only some 600, although by 1840 it was 1,666 and by 1853 2,800, with an increase of roughly 140 a year. The increase from 1853 was largely due to the influx of Germans, whose contributions to the community were soon seen everywhere, not least with the construction by German brickmasons of many homes and businesses now comprising ‘historic downtown Boonville.’” The population growth in Boonville was exponential over time and allowed many Germans to flourish while here in Missouri.
Moving along to the visual aspects, we see illustrations of the cities, towns, and farms built across Cooper County and how they looked and functioned. Below, you can see the architecture of the courthouse in Cooper County along with the jail and calaboose.
In the countryside, the greenery and farmland seemed to stretch for miles with crops and animals scattering the fields. Here, we see examples of different farms and possibly how Germans settled once they arrived in Cooper County. Like the residences of the Carpenter’s and the Helmreich’s, the 569-square-mile county was lined with these type of houses as well as its eventual county seat Boonville.
Sources
Hopkins, John D. “The Johann David Rau Family in Cooper County, Missouri.” The johann David Rau family in Cooper County, Missouri. University of Tampere, Finland, May 12, 2018. http://research.jdhopkins.fi/rau-toellner.html.
Williams, John R. “History of Cooper County.” Map, 1877. Plat Maps of Missouri, SHSMO. https://digital.shsmo.org/digital/collection/plat/id/1595/rec/8
