Brochure led to author's book about Elmwood Manor, family's history

Author Carl Armstrong didn't set out to write a book on local history and family legacies in Cape Girardeau. But as pieces fell into place, he kept putting them together.

Armstrong's book, "Elmwood's 1,000 Year Dalhousie Castle Legacy," started as a brochure on Elmwood Manor in Cape Girardeau, but Armstrong said he found so much information on the family who built the house and the connections to other structures and history, the project grew.

Although the book primarily is about Elmwood Manor, the history of the Ramsay family, the Giboneys, Louis Houck and Louis Lorimier are woven together as well, Armstrong said.

After his 2004 retirement from a career in chemical engineering, Armstrong and his wife Connie moved back to his childhood home in Cape Girardeau.

"I grew up in a house with a log cabin hidden within the walls," he said. "I didn't realize it was log cabin until the 1980s, when local historian Edwin Shrum from Scott City came along, told us this was built by Andrew Ramsay in 1795."

Armstrong said he was shocked to learn about the log cabin and the home's history.

"We knew the walls were thick," he said, adding the history of the home didn't mean much to him as he was growing up there, but now it does.

Ramsay was the first English settler in the Cape Girardeau area, according to research by Armstrong and his sister, Bonnie Ludwig. Ramsay's sister, Rebecca, and her husband, Alexander Giboney, moved to the area and in 1797 built Elmwood Manor, modeled after Dalhousie Castle in Scotland.

"Thought it was kind of unique, the relationship involved," Armstrong said.

The still-standing castle near Edinburgh, Scotland, still-standing log cabin in Cape Girardeau and Elmwood Manor together created a fascinating trio for Armstrong, but that was only part of the story.

"The book goes back into the history of the Ramsays, and it's intertwined with the Lorimiers and Giboneys and so on," Armstrong said.

A granddaughter of the Giboneys married Louis Houck, who in addition to being a prominent businessman in Cape Girardeau also founded what became Southeast Missouri State University.

Armstrong's home was part of a plantation which originally spanned over 1,000 acres, from Interstate 55 to the Mississippi River, he said.

"The house I live in was kind of the central command post, so to speak, for settlers coming in to the area," Armstrong said, according to records he found.

The arrangement worked out well for Lorimier, too, who was pleased to have settlers in the area.

"English settlers coming to the area came here first and then spread out," Armstrong said.

"I found it fascinating once I got into it," Armstrong said, likening the process to unraveling a ball of twine or eating a plate of spaghetti. "You just keep going until you reach the end," he said, adding the little surprises that popped up along the way kept him going.

Armstrong said he used quite a few resources. "A book, 'History of Southeast Missouri' by Robert Douglass, was handy," he said.

Armstrong also conducted research online, he said, and had access to papers from Elmwood Manor.

"In my book, I describe [researching] as being like feasting on wine and crackers," he said, where the crackers are the archives and the wine is the storytelling.

Occasionally there are questions about when an event occurred or what the correct spelling of someone's name is, Armstrong said.

For instance, from what he can tell, Ramsay's name changed to Ramsey at some point.

"Ramsey Creek goes through our farm, or the branch of the larger creek when you go south on I-55, you cross Ramsey Branch and over the Diversion Channel, then cross Ramsey Creek several times as you go toward Scott City," Armstrong said.

His sister did a lot of the research, he said, while he was still an engineer. But once he retired, he felt a need to keep busy, not just sit and watch TV.

Armstrong said he has written a number of other books, but this project was different.

"It's really a fascinating story," he said.

A signing for Armstrong's book, "Elmwood's 1000 Year Dalhousie Castle Legacy," will be held from 1 to 6 p.m. Saturday at the Osage Centre at 1625 N. Kingshighway in Cape Girardeau. Presentations will be given by historian Frank Nickell and authors Linda Nash Clark, John Fisher and Joel Rhodes.

mniederkorn@semissourian.com

(573) 388-3630

Pertinent address:

1625 N. Kingshighway, Cape Girardeau, Mo.