Wayne County's Lost River Settlements

Wayne Countys Lost River Settlements is
a history of six hamlets in southeastern
Missouri that were destroyed by the
government to clear the landscape for
development of Lake Wappapello on the
St. Francis River in the late 1930s. Several
of the profitable river bottom homesteads
had been in the families for well over 100
years, but with nothing else to do the evicted
farmers moved on reluctantly in what
became the greatest upheaval in the history
of the county.


With so much of Wayne Countys assessed
valuation lost in the government buyout, it
was feared remaining tax revenues would be
inadequate to support essential services and
that the countys various parts by necessity
soon would be attached to adjoining
counties. That didnt happen, but citizens
at the doomed county seat, Greenville,
struggled through an ordeal of pain and
uncertainty that went on for several months
before finally coming to an agreement to
build a new town outside the flood plain.



Greenvilles turmoil and fight for survival
is covered in the concluding segment of
the book. It lives on as the county seat in
its new location, but little is known today
of the lost settlementsChaonia, Taskee,
Ojibway, Bethel, Center Ridge and Kime,
each near the other and all at the time
of their destruction closely aligned by
blood and marriagewhich gives added
significance to the discovery of the papers
of Henry Yeakley Mabrey (1836-1915),
who spent his childhood at Kime and for
the greater part of the rest of his life resided
a few miles to the south at Center Ridge,
which was just north of Chaonia, whose
birth he witnessed in 1888. Chaonia,
a railroad town, became the trading center
for one of the richest farming areas in
the southeastern part of the state.



Much of what is known of the settlements
formative years is based on information
gleaned from the Mabrey papers, which
include school, church, governmental,
and Civil War journals, as well as diaries,
letters, and personal notes. Mr. Mabrey,
a teacher, served in a number of political
posts, including two terms as commissioner
of public schools and two terms as probate
judge of Wayne County.



The author brings a unique perspective
to the story, since he has lived with it
since early childhood. As he states in the
preface of the book, My involvement,
my yen to write about these people,
was possibly ordained, for I had heard
much chatter about many of the families
and of course the lost settlements while
growing up at Greenville. It is his hope
his work brings a measure of honor
if not appreciation to the families in the
lost settlements whose sacrifices for
the common good were for the most part
made without fanfare or public notice.