Lafayette Introduction

Located today in and around the railroad 'terminal' and the 'Point' road was the location of Lafayette. Prior to the inundation of the Mississippi river after the building of the lock and dam system in the 1930s, this area was a series of 'islands' surrounded by sloughs of the Mississippi and Grant rivers. Today the Grant river's meeting point into the Mississippi is a mile or so above its earlier confluence. Prior to the damming, it was located near the Grant River Recreational Area. Thus in earlier days a bridge crossed the Grant river along the 'Point' road which led to the 'islands' and 'Port of Potosi".

Before the dam was constructed, the land needed to be cleared of vegetation. The government hired many out of work men in the middle 1930s to clear the timber on the Mississippi River Bottoms. There was a large mess hall in town where the timber men could get room and board. Almost every home in town took one or more workers in for the room and board.

The river bottoms, once fertile fields among the trees are now covered with water. This area once was a refuge in times of drought. Farmers went down there and cut long grass for hay for their milk cows and even sometimes drove whole herds down there to graze and bring them home at night. This kept the milk supply going even during very dry seasons.

Long before the Mississippi covered this land, this area known as Lafayette was a booming little river town, busy with commerce and shipping. But Lafayette's boom was short lived. It was a flood of people leaving in the 1840s, in contrast to the incoming flood waters of the 1930s, that was Lafayette's demise. The competition from Snake Hollow (Potosi), the popularity of railroads, and the siltation of the rivers, which hampered shipping, all influenced the exodus. Please read on to take a look back at Lafayette's past, with its businesses, early church and school, leisure activities, structures, railway station, steamboat and ferry service, and 'Port of Potosi'.

Businesses and Structures

One of the earliest known structures in the area was built in 1824. Thomas Hymer had a log cabin on the flat where the village of Lafayette was later located.

Early mercantile experiments in Lafayette are as follows:
The first store started in Lafayette was opened by Messrs, Wheeler and Price in 1832.

Business partners, Hooper, Peck and Scales, engaged in the mercantile business at Galena forged an alliance in Lafayette under the firm name of Coons, Wooley & Co. In 1836 a large frame store building was built. The materials came from Cincinnati via the Ohio river. Soon after economic woes caused the parent group to topple thus leaving Major Coons nearly penniless. The Major left Lafayette for Potosi to succeed Clark and Woods in the saloon business.

Brayton Bushee was another early settler, who arrived with his family in 1837, to start-up a store. Mr. Bushee, like Major Coons and many others, went down in the financial craze of the times. He then moved up the hollow to Potosi, but never again entered into active business. He owned a tract of timber land a few miles east of Lafayette and in 1856 his son William Bushee established a wood camp there.

Jonathan Craig, known as "Captain Craig", one of the foremost settlers in the new mining camp, came to Lafayette with his wife and stepson, Thomas Hymer, from Gratiot's Grove in 1834, and built the first warehouse in Lafayette in 1837.

Others in business at the time were David T. Anderson and H. C. Greene, lawyers, and C. D. Crockwell and Allen Hill, doctors. Finally, to quench ones thirst, one would visit Bull's Tavern.Besides businesses being built, many homes were built including the homes of Major Coons and Brayton Bushee 1837.

Due to competition from Potosi proper, there were only two stores left operating in Lafayette in 1842. Those were Brayton Bushee and D. A. McKenzie, while the commercial world relocated to Potosi.

After the decline, several building were removed and located elsewhere. The Coons, Wooley and Co., store building became the property of James F. Chapman, and in 1870-71 Chapman sold the building to Nicholas Bonn, who removed it and made a barn of it. Another Lafayette store, Mellichop & Co. went under and the building also became the property of James F. Chapman, who later converted it into a barn. The Snaer and Long hotel, built in 1837 was removed in 1850-51 to British Hollow. There it returned to its former use under the title Union Hotel.

The large two-story warehouse that stood on the bank of Grant river, then a steam boat navigable stream, had a 50,000 bushel grain capacity, was purchased by Adam Schumacher. It was torn down and the material removed to his brewery in Van Buren. The stone in the foundation that was about 8 feet high was broken up and used on the roads.

Lumber first used in the Potosi area was shipped here by steam boat and much was hauled from Hough's mill, down on Platte, and from Galena. It was not until 1853 that a lumber yard was established in the Potosi area, when Kinney and Augustin operated a steam saw mill at Lafayette. Geo. Kinney and Julius Augustine entered into partnership which existed until 1860, when Mr. Augustine disposed of his interest in the business to Simon E. Lewis. The firm then became known as Kinney and Co. Their partnership lasted until the death of Mr. Lewis in 1874, thus giving sole ownership to Mr. Kinney.