Bollinger County, Missouri

Bollinger County is a located in the  of. As of, the population is 12,029. Its is. The county was organized in.

Early Settlement
The county was named after, the eleventh of the twelve children of. George Frederick Bollinger persuaded twenty other families to leave in the fall of 1799 and settle in a region immediately east of what is now. To acquire the land, Bollinger first had to sign of a document asserting that he and his fellow settlers were all. In reality, most of the group were members of the, and none were Catholic. However,, the Spanish Land Commandant of , had been impressed by Bollinger on an earlier visit and was willing to bend the rules for him and his fellow settlers.

Making the journey from North Carolina with George Frederick Bollinger were his brothers, John, Daniel and Mathias Bollinger and two nephews Mann Henry Bollinger and William Bollinger. Several friends also joined the expedition, brothers George and Peter Grount (Grounds) along with Peter's young son Daniel Grount, brothers Peter and Conrad Statler, Joseph Neyswanger, Peter Crytes, Jacob Cetner, John and Isaac Miller, Frederick Limbaugh, Leonard Welker and Frederick Slinkard. All had immigrated with their families from Germany in the early 1700's and later migrated down the Shanandoah Valley into North Carolina by the late 1700's.

Lorimier's willingness to place German Reformed settlers west of Cape Girardeau is somewhat perplexing given his earlier role in placing a group of settlers in that same location. Lorimier had intimate ties to the Shawnee group. His Ohio wife, Charlotte Bougainville, was half French and half Shawnee. In, , Lorimier had supported the British and had led Shawnee and raids against the growing American presence there. His raids had led to an attempt by to exterminate the French and Shawnee population at Pickawillany. Lorimier survived and fled to Spanish territory, where he eventually became the Spanish Land Commandant. With Lorimier's help, Shawnee tribe members from Ohio were granted the right by the Spanish in 1793 to take up residence in the land to the west of Cape Girardeau. By that time the earlier indigenous tribes of that area were no longer present, due presumably to their lack of resistance to European diseases such as and  that had been carried in earlier by European traffic and settlement along the. Despite Lorimier's historically protective role of the Shawnee group, the Shawnee appear to have been viewed with distrust by many of the inhabitants of Cape Girardeau. This distrust may have influenced Lorimier's decision to augment the area with European settlers.

The Bollinger-led group of German Reformed families moved into the area in January of 1800, crossing their wagons over the Mississippi River after an unusually cold stretch of weather had frozen the surface all the way across. Meanwhile, ownership of the region shifted in quick succession from to, and then, in 1803, to the  via the.

The change in national ownership did not bode well for the earlier Shawnee settlers. In 1825 they were removed permanently when the U.S. government enacted the Treaty with the Shawnee, 1825. This treaty, whose first signatory was of  fame, required that the Shawnee move to what is now known as, on land that had previously belonged to the  tribes.

The region west of was organized as a county in  and named Bollinger County in honor of. In the next county to the west,, the settlement of was also named after George Frederick Bollinger.

Geography
According to the, the county has a total area of 1,609 (621 ). 1,608 km² (621 sq mi) of it is land and 1 km² (0 sq mi) of it (0.07%) is water.

Adjacent counties

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 * (southwest)
 * (northwest)

Demographics
As of the of 2000, there were 12,029 people, 4,576 households, and 3,464 families residing in the county. The was 7/km² (19/sq mi). There were 5,522 housing units at an average density of 3/km² (9/sq mi). The racial makeup of the county was 97.79%, 0.21% or , 0.72% , 0.22% , 0.13% from , and 0.93% from two or more races. 0.57% of the population were or  of any race.

There were 4,576 households out of which 34.30% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 63.80% were living together, 8.40% had a female householder with no husband present, and 24.30% were non-families. 21.60% of all households were made up of individuals and 10.50% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.59 and the average family size was 3.00.

In the county the population was spread out with 26.20% under the age of 18, 7.80% from 18 to 24, 26.80% from 25 to 44, 24.50% from 45 to 64, and 14.80% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 38 years. For every 100 females there were 97.90 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 95.80 males.

The median income for a household in the county was $30,462, and the median income for a family was $35,741. Males had a median income of $26,078 versus $17,588 for females. The for the county was $13,641. About 10.90% of families and 13.80% of the population were below the, including 15.40% of those under age 18 and 17.40% of those age 65 or over.