Fredericktown, in the southern extent of Missouri’s historic southeast Lead Belt and in north Madison County near the geologic center of the Ozarks, was laid out on Saline Creek in 1819 by state legislator Nathaniel Cook after commissioners T. F. Tong, Joseph Bennett, James Dotson, John Burditt, and Henry Whitener chose it as the seat of Madison County, organized in 1818. According to tradition, the town was named for pioneer George Frederick Bollinger, and the county honors the U.S. President. The area’s historical continuity begins in 1715, when La Mothe Cadillac, French governor of Louisiana, seeking silver, found lead at nearby Mine La Motte; Philip Renault opened the mine in 1723, and transient miners worked there throughout the 1700s. Permanent settlement began in 1799 when French-Canadians founded St. Michael, now part of Fredericktown, on a Spanish grant, and Americans took up land in the county. Near here, the Battle of Fredericktown was fought on October 21, 1861, when about 2,000 pro-Southern State Guards led by Colonel M. Jeff Thompson, attempting to gain control of southeast Missouri, were defeated by 4,500 Union troops under Colonel J. B. Plummer. Madison County became one of the state’s prominent lead and cobalt producers, with fertile farmland in wide valleys and fine timber on rugged hills that form part of Clark National Forest. Fredericktown’s development as a banking and trading center was assured by the arrival of the St. Louis and Iron Mount Railroad in 1869, and a railroad division point was later established there. Marvin Methodist College was located in Fredericktown from 1894 to 1925. Nearby Mine La Motte, the oldest lead mine in Missouri, has been used by white men since 1715; Osage Indians, who claimed the area until their 1808 Missouri land cession, killed seven miners there in 1774. In early days, lead from the mine was molded into collars hung on horses’ necks for the trip over Three Notch Road to Ste. Genevieve, an Indian trail and the oldest road in Missouri, named for its trail markings. To the west is Einstein Silver Mine, worked in the 1880s and the only silver mine in Missouri.