Missouri Statehood, Bicentenary

Number by catalogue:  Michel: 5859BA   Yvert: 5468   Scott: 5626   Gibbons: 6241  

Perforation type: 10 ½x10 ¾

Subject:

First-Class Mail Forever stamp, suitable for payment of the letter on the USA, weighing 1 ounce (28,3 gr).
On the day of issue - 55 cents.

The Bollinger watermill and covered Burfordville bridge

Additional:

The Bollinger Mill State Historic Site is a state-owned property preserving a mill and covered bridge that pre-date the American Civil War in Burfordville, Cape Girardeau County, Missouri. The park was established in 1967 and offers mill tours and picnicking. It is managed by the Missouri Department of Natural Resources.

In 1797, George Frederick Bollinger received a land grant in Upper Louisiana from the Spanish Government and moved with several other families from North Carolina to what is now Burfordville. In 1800, Bollinger began building a log dam and mill on the Whitewater River. In 1825, Bollinger rebuilt the mill and dam using limestone.

After Bollinger's death in 1842, his daughter Sarah Daugherty and her sons continued to operate the mill until the Civil War, when the mill was burned by the Union army in order to prevent the supply of flour and meal to the Confederate army. Following the war, the mill site was sold to Solomon R. Burford.

The current four-story brick mill was completed by Burford in 1867 and is built upon the limestone foundation of the 1825 building. Burford owned the mill until 1897, when the Cape County Milling Company took over operations and continued operating the mill until 1953 when the mill was sold to the Vandivort family, relatives of George Bollinger. The mill was donated to the Cape Girardeau County Historical Society in 1961 and to the State of in 1967. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1971.