POINT PLEASANT A post village of New Madrid county, Lesieur township. Six months ago this village: was surveyed and plated upon a large scale, containing some three hundred lots besides the Bravais addition. It is situated on the Mississippi river, 8 miles below New Madrid,the county seat, and commands a beautiful view both above and below. The banks of the river at this place are permanent and above overflow from the river. It is an important shipping point from which large quantities of corn, wheat and oats, also, cattle, mules, horses and hogs, are annually sent to market by steam boats. It is immediately opposite the line dividing Kentucky and Tennessee, at 36 ° 30' north latitude. It enjoys a good trade from Kentucky and Tennessee, which States are in sight, also, from Arkansas on the west, distant 28 miles, and from the south-east counties of Missouri. A plank road, leading from Point Pleasant to West Prairie in Dunklin county, Mo., will shortly be completed, which will add greatly to the business of the place, as the people residing in the counties of Dunklin, Stoddard, Butler and Ripley, Missouri, and in Greene, Poinsette and Randolph counties, Arkansas, have been entirely out off from all direct communication with the counties bordering on the Mississippi river by reason of an impassable swamp, running parallel with the river for the distance of about 200 miles. By means of this plank road they will be enabled to reach the markets of St. Louis, Memphis and New Orleans at all seasons of the year. For the last thirty years there has been a very large trade done here in furs and peltries, the average annual purchases being about $30,000. Within the last six or eight years the collections have gradually declined annually, and are now probably reduced to some $10,000 or $12,000. This decrease is accounted for from the fact that many of the old hunters have abandoned the pursuit of game and pay more attention to agriculture which they find more profitable. This township is above all known floods of the Mississippi river, and therefore as soon as said plank road shall be completed, an easy access will be at all times afforded to the the people living in the heretofore isolated counties in Missouri and Arkansas, to the great mart and highway, the Mississippi river. (Missouri State Gazetteer..., 1860)