Bollinger County, Missouri
Bollinger County | |
|---|---|
 Location within the U.S. state of Missouri | |
 Missouri's location within the U.S. | |
| Coordinates: 37°19′N 90°02′W / 37.32°N 90.03°W | |
| Country |  United States |
| State |  Missouri |
| Founded | 1851 |
| Named for | George Frederick Bollinger |
| Seat | Marble Hill |
| Largest city | Marble Hill |
| Population (2000) | |
| • Total | 12,029 |
| Time zone | UTC−6 (Central) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC−5 (CDT) |
Bollinger County is a county located in the U.S. state of Missouri. As of 2000, the population is 12,029. Its county seat is Marble Hill6. The county was organized in 1851.
History
Early Settlement
The county was named after George Frederick Bollinger, the eleventh of the twelve children of Heinrich Bollinger. George Frederick Bollinger persuaded twenty other families to leave North Carolina in the fall of 1799 and settle in a region immediately east of what is now Cape Girardeau, Missouri. To acquire the land, Bollinger first had to sign of a document asserting that he and his fellow settlers were all Catholics. In reality, most of the group were members of the German Reformed Church, and none were Catholic. However, Don Louis Lorimier, the Spanish Land Commandant of Cape Girardeau, had been impressed by Bollinger on an earlier visit and was willing to bend the rules for him and his fellow settlers.
Making the journey from North Carolina with George Frederick Bollinger were his brothers, John, Daniel and Mathias Bollinger and two nephews Mann Henry Bollinger and William Bollinger. Several friends also joined the expedition, brothers George and Peter Grount (Grounds) along with Peter's young son Daniel Grount, brothers Peter and Conrad Statler, Joseph Neyswanger, Peter Crytes, Jacob Cetner, John and Isaac Miller, Frederick Limbaugh, Leonard Welker and Frederick Slinkard. All had immigrated with their families from Germany in the early 1700's and later migrated down the Shanandoah Valley into North Carolina by the late 1700's.
Lorimier's willingness to place German Reformed settlers west of Cape Girardeau is somewhat perplexing given his earlier role in placing a group of Shawnee settlers in that same location. Lorimier had intimate ties to the Shawnee group. His Ohio wife, Charlotte Bougainville, was half French and half Shawnee. In Pickawillany, Ohio, Lorimier had supported the British and had led Shawnee and Delaware Indian raids against the growing American presence there. His raids had led to an attempt by George Rogers Clark to exterminate the French and Shawnee population at Pickawillany. Lorimier survived and fled to Spanish territory, where he eventually became the Spanish Land Commandant. With Lorimier's help, Shawnee tribe members from Ohio were granted the right by the Spanish in 1793 to take up residence in the land to the west of Cape Girardeau. By that time the earlier indigenous tribes of that area were no longer present, due presumably to their lack of resistance to European diseases such as measles and smallpox that had been carried in earlier by European traffic and settlement along the Mississippi River. Despite Lorimier's historically protective role of the Shawnee group, the Shawnee appear to have been viewed with distrust by many of the inhabitants of Cape Girardeau. This distrust may have influenced Lorimier's decision to augment the area with European settlers.
The Bollinger-led group of German Reformed families moved into the area in January of 1800, crossing their wagons over the Mississippi River after an unusually cold stretch of weather had frozen the surface all the way across. Meanwhile, ownership of the region shifted in quick succession from Spain to France, and then, in 1803, to the United States via the Louisiana Purchase.
The change in national ownership did not bode well for the earlier Shawnee settlers. In 1825 they were removed permanently when the U.S. government enacted the Treaty with the Shawnee, 1825. This treaty, whose first signatory was William Clark of Lewis and Clark Expedition fame, required that the Shawnee move to what is now known as Shawnee Mission, Kansas, on land that had previously belonged to the Osage tribes.
The region west of Cape Girardeau was organized as a county in 1851 and named Bollinger County in honor of George Frederick Bollinger. In the next county to the west, Madison County, the settlement of Fredericktown was also named after George Frederick Bollinger.
Geography
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 1,609 km² (621 mi²). 1,608 km² (621 mi²) of it is land and 1 km² (0 mi²) of it (0.07%) is water.
Adjacent counties
- Perry County (north)
- Cape Girardeau County (east)
- Stoddard County (south)
- Wayne County (southwest)
- Madison County (northwest)
Major highways
Demographics
As of the census2 of 2000, there were 12,029 people, 4,576 households, and 3,464 families residing in the county. The population density was 7/km² (19/mi²). There were 5,522 housing units at an average density of 3/km² (9/mi²). The racial makeup of the county was 97.79% White, 0.21% Black or African American, 0.72% Native American, 0.22% Asian, 0.13% from other races, and 0.93% from two or more races. 0.57% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race.
There were 4,576 households out of which 34.30% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 63.80% were married couples living together, 8.40% had a female householder with no husband present, and 24.30% were non-families. 21.60% of all households were made up of individuals and 10.50% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.59 and the average family size was 3.00.
In the county the population was spread out with 26.20% under the age of 18, 7.80% from 18 to 24, 26.80% from 25 to 44, 24.50% from 45 to 64, and 14.80% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 38 years. For every 100 females there were 97.90 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 95.80 males.
The median income for a household in the county was $30,462, and the median income for a family was $35,741. Males had a median income of $26,078 versus $17,588 for females. The per capita income for the county was $13,641. About 10.90% of families and 13.80% of the population were below the poverty line, including 15.40% of those under age 18 and 17.40% of those age 65 or over.
