Marissa Township

Marissa Township

The original town of Marissa was laid out by James Stewart in December, 1867. It soon became a village with a few dwellings, a general store, a blacksmith shop, and a mill which could turn out a hundred barrels of flour a day. In 1870 when the railroad, known as the "Cairo Short Line" ran through, it left the village a little to one side. Of course since the railroad would not come to the town, the town had to go to the railroad. Accordingly a site was chosen for a station and a new town was laid out by M. E. and J. C. Hamilton.

The old and the new towns were not too far apart to grow together, and now they are connected by a continuous street and together have a population probably about two thousand. The name was selected by James Wilson, the first postmaster, who showed his love for classic lore by choosing a name preserved only in Latin records. It was the name of a city destroyed, and afterwards rebuilt, by Gabinius, and our St. Clair County city is now believed to be the only place in the world by that name. One of the founders, John Hamilton, came to this county from South Carolina in 1834. M. E. Hamilton erected the first business house; the mill was built and operated for many years by A. J. Meek; and the Wyllie brothers ran a store. The town was not incorporated until 1882 but it has easily outgrown some of its older neighbors. It has the usual type of business houses, stores, banks, garages, and electric light plant, and the coal mining interests are a strong rival to the agricultural in that community. The public school employs twelve teachers, and the excellent Township high school has eight. There are churches of sev- eral denominations. The leading one is the United Presbyterian. There are also Methodists, Baptists, and Evangehcals. Marissa had the distinction of being a prohibition town long before the days of the eighteenth amendment.

In 1906 when the Missouri Pacific railroad company located its shops at a point seven miles south of East St. Louis in the American Bottom, it laid the foundation of a thriving town called Dupo. The name is probably an abridgement of the name Prairie Du Pont which was anciently given to a settlement a short distance north of where Dupo now stands. The site selected is said to be the highest in the river valley for many miles. In all the high waters for the last half century It has not been overflowed and it is therefore considered free from all danger of flood. The railroad yards brought many employees and it was necessary for them to have homes and hence a town soon sprang up. In 1907 it was incorporated as a village with Louis J. Dyroff as president of the Board. Mr. Dyroff held the office for some years and then for a time lived elsewhere, but a few years ago he returned to Dupo and was again placed in a position of leadership as president of the Board. During his recent administration concrete walks were built on all the principal streets of the town. He then took up the matter of municipal waterworks, and has that enterprise so well under way that the contract has alre.idy been let tor the installation of a modern municipal water plant. The first plat of the town covered one hundred acres subdivided into city lots and additions made since then bring the total area to one hundred and twenty acres. There is a thrifty population of about two thousand people and the town IS well supplied with schools and churches. There are two excellent school buildings. The grade school employs ten teachers and a superintendent. The upper grades are conducted on the departmental plan. The Community high school IS housed in a magnificient brick building which cost more than $140,000 including equipment. This was completed in 1926. In that year the taxable property in the community district was valued at more than six million dollars. The enrollment is more than a hundred and still growing. There are four churches in Dupo - the Baptist, Catholic, Congregationalist and Evangelical. The Missouri Pacific railroad maintains a vast plant, employing switchmen, trackmen, round house workmen, engineers, firemen, and clerks to the number of six hundred as an approximate total. These men do not all live in Dupo at present but they probably will as soon as the new water works plant is installed and in full operation.