Information
Sheet
R Missouri and Illinois Mineral and
Land Company.
58 Papers,
1834-1900.
11 folders.
These are records of the acquisition and
disposition of lands in a speculative industrial development scheme in
Jefferson, Ste. Genevieve, Perry, Cape Girardeau, and Madison counties in Missouri.
The Missouri and Illinois Mineral and
Land Company was a speculative venture apparently designed to develop a
rational holding of coal, mineral, timber, water power, and river front properties
on or near the Mississippi River in southeastern Missouri and southwestern
Illinois. The ultimate goal seems to
have been the establishment of a vertically integrated industrial enterprise.
In the 1830s and 1840s the firm acquired
parcels of land from individual owners.
By 1850 this process had been essentially completed (See folders for
DEEDS, MISCELLANY, and BOUND VOLUMES.).
Although early land transactions indicate that Giles Pease and Forrest
Shepherd initiated the acquisitions, by the 1840s John Tappan of Boston,
Massachusetts, was actively involved.
Eventually control of the company and its land holdings fell to Tappan
and Charles Stoddard, the surviving trustees.
Except for the land acquisitions, nothing else is included concerning
the company's active life.
In June 1868 the company named Walter
Hilliard Bidwell (D.A.B., 2:249) as
“special and authorized agent” to dispose of the firm's land holdings. In November of that year the remaining
properties were sold to Bidwell’s brother, Oliver B. Bidwell. Oliver took no active role in the resulting
transactions, and gave his brother a power of attorney shortly after the
transfer. In 1871, as a part of the
continuing effort to dispose of the lands, Walter Bidwell encouraged the development
of a plate-glass manufactory at the mouth of Plattin Creek in Jefferson
County, Missouri. This became the site
of Crystal City. He was also interested
in a plan, apparently supported by the leading citizens of Ste. Genevieve
County, Missouri, to build a railroad along Saline Creek and through the Old
Lead Belt and other mineral areas to Phelps County, Missouri. During this period Walter Bidwell was
legally separated from his wife Susan (See folders for CORRESPONDENCE, FINANCIAL
PAPERS, LEGAL PAPERS, DEEDS, and PROPERTY TAXES.).
In 1881 both Walter H. Bidwell and Oliver
B. Bidwell died. Edward R. Pelton of
New York, New York, their kinsman and executor assumed their affairs. After settling their estates, Pelton resumed
the efforts to sell the lands in Missouri.
By the time of Pelton’s death in 1899 some properties were still in his
possession, worth as little as 50 cents per acre (See folders for CORRESPONDENCE,
LEGAL PAPERS, BIDWELL ESTATES DOCUMENTS, and PROPERTY TAXES.).
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