Seventy-Six, Missouri
| Seventy-Six, Missouri | |
|---|---|
| Abandoned village | |
 Location of Perry County, Missouri |
|
| Coordinates: 37°43′12″N 89°36′44″W / 37.72000°N 89.61222°WCoordinates: 37°43′12″N 89°36′44″W / 37.72000°N 89.61222°W | |
| Country | United States |
| State | Missouri |
| County | Perry |
| Township | Brazeau |
| Elevation | 367 ft (112 m) |
| Time zone | Central (CST) (UTC-6) |
| • Summer (DST) | CDT (UTC-5) |
| ZIP code | 63775 |
| Area code(s) | 573 |
| FIPS code | 29-66782 |
| GNIS feature ID | 726217 |
Seventy-Six was an unincorporated community in Brazeau Township in eastern Perry County, Missouri. It was located fourteen miles east of Perryville, ninety miles south of Saint Louis, and lay directly on the Mississippi River.
A number of theories abound to where the name Seventy-Six originates from. One theory tells of an 1844 flood where a steamboat captain who had been sent to the site to rescue the people reported that he had made 76 landings. Another theory concerns a steamboat captain who had quit swearing and had acquired the habit of exclaiming "That beats all 76," when he was vexed. He used the expression so often at that landing that the steamboat men had got into the habit of calling it Seventy-Six. Another possible explanation is that the landing is the 76th landing after leaving St. Louis. Yet another theory exists that the Government River Commission numbered the river landings and this was No. 76 from the head of the navigable waters. Another story explaining the origin of the name has it that the first captain to land his boat at the site was celebrating his 76th birthday.
According to steamboat captain John Wilkinson, who was to later found the town, the name of the community came from an unfortunate accident when he struck a snag and sank his vessel just outside the nearby landing in 1886, and since it happened to be the seventy-sixth landing on the voyage, the town was named for the catastrophe. Legend has it that Mr. Wilkinson printed a board on the opposite bank "76 LDG" from which the town took its name.
The small community of Seventy-Six originated as a river landing for steamboats on the Mississippi River. John Wilkinson, an immigrant from Yorkshire, England, came to the US around 1816 when his parents immigrated to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He and his father invested in a riverboat called The Laurel and became involved in the shipping trade. The first trip from Louisville, Kentucky to Alton, Illinois went well. However, the return trip met with disaster when the ship sank a few miles from what would later be known as Seventy-Six, Missouri. Wading ashore after the accident, his only possession being the clothes he wore, he was said to have exclaimed: "Here is where I lost it and here is where I'll get it back."
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Wikipedia