With the formation of counties, law came to the Riverways. The settler, freed from the fear of the sky's red glare (the result of the torch and the tomahawk), took in his hands the ax and started clearing land for farms and permanent homes.
The establishment of the seat of Justice brought the Courts, a Sheriff and a Recorder to record the land titles and ownership of property.
The Congress of the United States had established land as the basis for political rights by an ordinance of 1787. To vote for a representative a man must own 50 acres but to hold the office he must own 200 acres. To hold a Governorship he must own 1,000 acres. The counties were organized along the lines of the Federal Government so the settlers found if they wanted a say in the government, they would have to record their land and pay taxes.
The slaveholders who had built fine farms along the Ohio and other Northern areas found that they were not liked by many of their neighbors who had fled to this country to escape oppression. The slaveholder could sell his farm and move to Missouri with his slaves and buy cheap land. Dependency on each other made the family of the slaveholder and his slaves close. They worked side by side to make the land productive because in that way each had food, shelter, and clothing.
Many of the immigrants from European Countries, as well as second generation immigrants who had retained their family alliance, found their way to the area. The Germans and Swedes were good farmers, but while the Germans wanted a house of stone, the Swedes were content with his soddie. With all European nationalities, the cow was popular for milk, butter and cheese. Soon settlers who had depended upon meat accepted the cow as a necessity for the family.
When the District of Louisiana became a part of the United States in 1804, the area was divided into five districts. Congress had, the previous year, changed the name of the district to the Territory of Louisiana but the law retained the names and boundaries of the five districts and called them counties. This placed most of the settlers of the Riverways who spoke English, or Indian and English, in the Latin speaking county of Cape Girardeau.
The County Seat was located at the town of Cape Girardeau, where the people spoke French and lived for generations under the communal and church oriented way of life.
Thus, the Justices of the new county were faced with the difficulty of administering a new concept of law known as Common or English Law which made land ownership and proper recording of land holdings a requirement for anyone wishing to vote or hold an elective office.
County officials came to the conclusion that the problem could be solved by moving the county seat to Jackson, an American town about twenty miles to the west, so as soon as Jackson was organized they petitioned for an election for the move. The election was held but, much to their chagrin, enough votes were cast from Davidsonville to keep the county seat at Cape Girardeau. A meeting was subsequently called at Jackson at which the votes from St. Francis and German Townships were declared void because the voters' lands had not been registered under common law. With this accomplished, Jackson was duly certified as the county seat.
The few sporadic Indian raids and unsettled conditions brought on by English agents ended with signing of the Peace Treaty and another stream of settlers from, Virginia, Tennessee, Kentucky, and North Carolina entered the Missouri Territory.
On April 20, 1816, the U.S. Congress approved the highest rank for Missouri Territory. The change increased the frequency of Legislative meetings to 6 month periods and allowed one representative be elected from each county and created the Circuit Court System. At this time there were three members of the Legislature from Cape Girardeau County and all were from the area opposed to the American town of Jackson as the county seat. They introduced in the legislature a law to establish a county to be called Lawrence. The act to create Lawrence was passed by the Missouri Territorial Legislature January 15, 18I5 and the designated place of holding court was at Solomon Hewitt House on, Spring River. The January, 1816 court was held at the town of Lawrence, County of Lawrence, territory of Missouri, with the Hon. Richard S. Thomas presiding. As the north line of Lawrence county was 30 miles north of the 37 degree north latitude it would place the Riverways in Lawrence county.