A woman once wrote that the town was “a beautiful place but it is very wicked. There is no chance to hear the gospel preached without going ten miles over a wretched road to a chapel. The main way the men spend their Sundays is in drinking and gambling, horse racing and chicken fighting.”

It isn’t surprising, really, that such a town was established by a man who used to pay Indians for American scalps, and it was named for a Frenchman who deserted his country’s military to first settle the area.

The town is Cape Girardeau.

AOWM – January 4th (mp3)