This book comes from the abstracts of 6 of the oldest newspapers that existed in Missouri from 1823-1832. These newspapers are: The Missouri Gazette, St. Louis 1823-1832; The Enquirer, St. Louis 1823-1832; The Missouri Intelligencer, Franklin 1823-1832; The Missouri Herald, Jackson 1823-1832; The Independent Patriot, Jackson 1823-1832; and The St. Charles Missourian, St. Charles 1823-1832. The index mentions over 4,000 persons, of which lived and died before the First Census. These newspaper records may be the ONLY mention of their lives. Whether they were prosperous or poor, they left names in newspapers - an absorbing account of the lives and times, fortunes and misfortunes, of our earliest Missouri ancestors.