When organized the county was divided into two townships, Black River and Otter Creek. In 1850 the county court made an order dividing the county into four townships: Beaver Dam, in the southwest; Epps, in the northwest; Butler, in the southeast, and Mud Creek, in the northeast. A few months later the name of Mud Creek was changed to Black River, and at the same time Polk Township was formed from the southeast portion of the county. In 1856 the Township of Ash Hills was established, and in 1860 Thomas Township was added. In 1866 the townships were relocated and established under the following names: St. Francois, Black River, Cave Creek, Epps, Beaver Dam, Thomas, Gillis, Ash Hills and Poplar Bluff. In 1871 Thomas Township was divided, and Neely Township was formed. In 1866 Harviell Township was formed from a part of Beaver Dam. (--Hist. of Southeast Missouri, 1888, Goodspeed, pp. 374, 375.)
At the close of the Civil War there were only 4 families residing in Poplar Bluff, and but few in the whole county. (--Campbell's Gazetteer of Missouri, 1874, p. 82.)
for a description of Daniel Epps land holding. Must have been quite a place.
From http://thelibrary.org/lochist/moser/butlerpl2.html
Military Road (Butler and Ripley Counties)
It is a part of one of the most famous trails, the Natchitoches Path (q. v.). Dr. John R. Hume wrote as quoted in Missouri Historical Review, Vol. 24, p. 613: "One of the oldest and most interesting roads in the Middle West, because it is woven into the warp and woof of our pioneer life in such a way as to make it inseparable from our national history." Houck wrote: "After the settlement of the county, the Natchitoches Path became the military and wagon road of the immigrants moving into Arkansas, crossing the Mississippi River at Bainbridge or Cape Girardeau, thence moving to the St. Francois River, crossing the same at Indian Ford, thence to Black River, there crossing near Poplar Bluff and then Current River at what was long known as "Pittman's Ferry". Tradition says it was along this road that the Kittrell's (cf. Kittrell Store in Butler Co., and Kittrell's Mill in Ripley Co.) came, and that it was along this trail that under President Jackson's command was cut out the road over which the U. S. moved the Indians in 1838-39 (cf. Indian Ford in Ripley Co.).
Older settlers mention the road in connection with General Price and his army during the Civil War and point out occasional insulators in the Cane Creek community, where wires were extended by him for sending messages (cf. Reeves Station in Butler Co., and Battle Hollow in Ripley Co.).
Col. Wm. Marks of West Plains, who remembered the Cherokee Indians in Alabama, wrote that his father, James Marks, who with his family came from Alabama, and located first in Fulton Co., Arkansas (later came to Howell Co.), "came by way of Jackson, Missouri, traveled the Old Military Road made by the government troops in removing the Cherokee Indians from the State of Alabama to this present location." He further states that it was the only road leading west.
The Missouri Cash Book, Aug. 6, 1936, has an interesting article on the removal of the Cherokee Indians from North and South Carolina, East Tennessee, North Georgia, and North Alabama, to Arkansas, and Indian Territory. The writer explains that in 1817 some of the dissatisfied Cherokees traded their rights for lands west of the Mississippi along the upper branches of Red and White Rivers. They located in northwest Arkansas. Then in 1838-39, because of the encroachments of the Whites, the other branch of the Cherokees, by a treaty of 1835, were moved by military force from their old home to the Cherokee Reservation (now in Oklahoma), where those of Arkansas joined them. Dr. Hume also mentions an old trail leading from Sun Flower Landing on the Mississippi River across the canebrakes to White River and up the river to the now famous Cherokee Bay and northward. These statements add weight to the local reports that a portion of the Military Road in Butler and Ripley Counties was also known as the Cherokee Bay Road (q. v.).
Some of the oldest settlers interviewed spoke of the country about Corning, Arkansas, as the Cherokee Bay section. It seems quite certain that both names, the Military Road and Cherokee Bay Road, derive their names from these Indians; the first for their forced removal, the latter for the early settlement in Arkansas. (--Place Names.)
Poole in his 1863 scout from Cape Girardeau to Ash Hills and beyond apprently took this route.
John R