Note 113 — TRAVELS IN THE INTERIOR OF NORTH AMERICA, IN THE YEARS 1832, 1833, AND 1834 (continued 4)

Several fruitless attempts were made to establish a city at the confluence of the two rivers. Trinity, long time a rival of Cairo, was first settled in 1817 at Cache River. Shortly afterwards Shadrach Bond, John Comyges, and others entered a land claim for eighteen hundred acres between the Ohio and Mississippi rivers and incorporated it as the City and Bank of Cairo. At Comyges's death, however, the claim was allowed to lapse. In the same year William Bird occupied three hundred and sixty acres at the extreme point of the peninsula, and named his proposed city Bird's Point. A few houses were built; but during the War of Secession were removed to the Missouri side. In 1828 John and Thompson Bird built the first houses on the present site of Cairo. Here boats were long accustomed to stop for supplies. In 1835, Sidney Breeze, Baker Gilbert, and others re-entered the forfeited land of the City and Bank of Cairo, and two years later obtained its incorporation as Cairo City and Canal Company. Speculation followed; the company purchased at a high price ten thousand acres, comprising all the territory between the Ohio, Mississippi, and Cache rivers, including Bird's Point. Plans for extensive improvements were made. D. B. Holbrook, one of the leading promoters, sold in Europe two million dollars in bonds. Sharp reverses followed and Cairo was not incorporated as a city until 1858.—Ed.