This gives a bit of info re the area under Spainish and later French rule and the date of the Louisana purchase/this was in Missouri Early in the spring of 1800, William, Joseph and David Murphy returned to Missouri with their families. They were accompanied by a younger brother, Richard who came to establish a home for their widowed mother. Sarah Baton Murphy. Soon Mrs. Murphy and three other sons, Isaac, Jesse and Dubart; her only daughter, Sarah, a grandson William Evans; a hired hand and colored woman and boy followed. The journey was made by flat boat; down the Holston River into Ohio; thence to the Mississippi River and up to Ste. Genevieve, a distance of more than a thousand miles. Many places infested with hostile Indians, they managed to pass in the night; while keeping concealed along the banks during the day. When the party arrived at Ste. Genevieve the inhabitants gave them a rousing welcome. At the time of this settlement the area was under Spanish rule. On October 7, 1800, Spain ceded the whole of upper and lower Louisiana to France. It was not until our own Louisiana purchase on April 30, 1803 that this area became a part of the United States.