Editing Perry County, Missouri (section)

===American settlement===
The first American settlers to Perry County arrived during the latter half of the 1790s and claimed rich land in Bois Brule Bottom. These Americans organized the region's original Baptist Church in 1807. In the early 19th century, a second group of American settlers crossed the Mississippi River to take advantage of Spanish land offers. These were Roman Catholics of English stock from north-central [[Kentucky]]. They had originally come from [[Maryland]] to escape religious discrimination and prided themselves on being descendants of Lord Baltimore's original colonists. The first of these to settle permanently in the future Perry County was Isidore Moore. He arrived in 1801 and became a patriarch of the area, and founded [[Tucker's Settlement, Missouri|Tucker's Settlement]]. Others soon followed whose family names predominated the decades: Tucker, Fenwick, Cissell, Hayton, Riney, Hamilton, Layton, Manning, and Hagan. Most of these settled in the uplands around Perryville in a place called the Barrens because of its open land. Another Maryland Catholic, Joseph Fenwick, established the short-lived [[Fenwick Settlement, Missouri|Fenwick Settlement]] at the mouth of [[Brazeau Creek]] in the [[Brazeau Bottom]]s.<ref>{{Cite book | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=gX8_AAAAYAAJ&q=shawnee+delaware+perry+county+missouri&pg=PA214 | title = Hand-book of Missouri: Embracing Exhibits of the Agricultural, Commercial, Industrial ... Interests of the State ... | author1 =  Missouri Immigration Society | year = 1880}}</ref>

When the region was transferred to American sovereignty in 1803–1804, the Barrens became part of the Louisiana Territory. Prior to the admission of Missouri to statehood in 1821, several new migrations altered the religious composition of the future county. In 1817, a large group of [[Presbyterians]] from [[North Carolina]] settled in the neighborhood of [[Brazeau, Missouri|Brazeau]], an area roughly bounded by the Mississippi River and the [[Cinque Hommes Creek]] and Apple Creek. These settlers organized a church in 1819. They were soon followed by [[Methodists]] from the same state whose family names live on, like Abernathy, Farrar, and Rutledge. In 1826, they built their first log meeting house, which was later replaced by York Chapel.<ref>{{Cite book | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=7j3NNrHFVR4C&q=perryville&pg=PA396 | title = Opening the Ozarks: A Historical Geography of Missouri's Ste. Genevieve District, 1760-1830 | isbn = 9780826263063 | author1 = Walter A. Schroeder | year = 2002| publisher = University of Missouri Press }}</ref>

Until 1821, the Barrens region formed the southern portion of [[Ste. Genevieve County, Missouri|Ste. Genevieve County]]. When Missouri was granted statehood, Perry County was organized out of the parent district. It was divided into three townships: [[Brazeau Township, Perry County, Missouri|Brazeau]], [[Cinque Hommes Township, Perry County, Missouri|Cinque Hommes]], and [[Bois Brule Township, Perry County, Missouri|Bois Brule]]. Their boundaries, following natural geographical features, were quite irregular. In 1856, the borders were made symmetrical and two new townships, St. Mary's and Saline, were added.<ref>The Centennial History of Perry County Missouri 1821-1921 Committee of Citizens 1921 reprinted by the Perry County Historical Society; Perryville MO: 1984</ref>

After 1821, the descendants of French colonial families from Ste. Genevieve trickled into Perry County, and in the middle of the next decade, their ranks swelled by immigrants from France itself. They settled on the lands that were near the present city of Perryville. At about the same time, a small group of Flemings settled in the northeastern part of the county, with the present town of Belgique as their center.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://shs.umsystem.edu/manuscripts/ramsay/ramsay_perry.html |title=Missouri Historical Society: Perry County Place Names, 1928-1945 |access-date=December 31, 2015 |archive-date=March 31, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160331203235/http://shs.umsystem.edu/manuscripts/ramsay/ramsay_perry.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> There were also [[Swiss people|Swiss]] in the same area.