GAYOSO, a small post-village, capital of Pemiscot county, Missouri, 310 miles S. E. from Jefferson City. It is situated near the Mississippi river, at Walker's Bend, 40 miles by water below New Madrid. The earthquakes of 1811 and 1812 exhibited the greatest violence in this vicinity. Laid out in 1851. (Baldwin & Thomas, A New and Complete Gazetteer of the United States ... 1854)
GAYOSO The county seat of Pemiscot county, Gayoso township, situated near the Mississippi river, 430 miles south of St. Louis, was first settled by Spaniards and French in the year 1800. The town contains one public school, one Baptist and one Methodist Church, two general stores, one jeweler, one hotel. one dentist, two carpenters, two attorneys, one forwarding merchant, one dealer in hides, three physicians, two saw mills, one cigar store, &c. The chief productions are corn, wheat, potatoes, and grass. Timber, cypress, cottonwood, ash, oak, and walnut. Uncultivated lands may be bought from 25 cents to $6 per acre, and cultivated from $10 to $50 per acre. Iron is supposed to exist here in large quantities. Population 300. (Missouri State Gazetteer..., 1860)