The Shin Bone Trading Post was established in 1848 by French Canadian, Edward Meatte and an American, Charles Davis, and served as the “springboard” for the development of what we know as Portageville today. The post, sold to Robert Franklin in 1851 and later to Bob LaFont, bought pelts from trappers. The river, eight miles to the east, provided means for shipping the pelts by river as well as means for the trading post to receive it’s merchandise. Most early inhabitants were French settlers who worked in fur trade, lumber camps clearing the huge cypress in the swamps, or in farming the newly cleared land.

The area did not grow much until 1860, when Plank Road was built across the area known as “Nigger Wool Swamp”. This road connected Dunklin County to a community on the Mississippi River, Point Pleasant, and became the only outlet for farm products headed to the Memphis market. Heavily laden wagons transported these products from the Kennett region to Point Pleasant, where they were unloaded for shipment down the Mississippi, then reloaded with household goods and farm supplies needed back home. This was a three day trip at best and the Shin Bone Trading Post became the stop over point where meals, rooms, supplies and feed for the animals were available. Plank Road was destroyed during the Civil War and rebuilt as a pole road in 1873.

After becoming disenchanted at Point Pleasant by the Mississippi River that claimed their land, Brothers Edward and Alphonse Umbra moved into the Portageville area. Ambrose and Ed then purchased the Shinbone Trading Post, carrying on the mercantile business for many years. Alphonse Umbra later became a partner in the post. The brothers were great promoters of commerce and encouraged settlers to come to the settlement. By the 1870’s the community was thriving.

In 1872, the primarily french settlement was named Portageville, after the Portage Bay, where Portage Ponies roamed the region. The ponies were left by settlers vacating the area after the earthquake of 1811-1812. The first Post Office was established that year, with Ambrose DeLisle as the first Post Master. In the same year, Mr. Ed DeLisle built the community’s first cotton gin. The first public school followed, built around 1875.

From 1888 thru 1890, Portageville was surveyed. The DeLisle Brothers helped lay out the first streets, which were fashioned after the streets in Memphis and New Orleans…..wide enough to turn around a horse and buggy and reminiscent of their families’ French Heritage.

Portageville was experiencing rapid growth. Ed DeLisle became interested in the lumber business and began engaging in clearing the great cypress swamps of Southeast Missouri. By 1898, this endeavour was so successful that he, the Barnes family from Marston, and Lewis Lilbourn of Lilbourn, managed to bring the railroad 13 miles into Portageville. The original train, fired by wood, made one trip per day to Lilbourn, then known as Paw Paw Junction, to transport lumber to market via the St Louis and Southwestern Rail Road.

Details regarding the early churches are almost non-existent. The earliest know church, however, was built by Presbysterians in 1895. In 1899 Ed DeLisle brought to town the first Catholic Priest, a friar, and built the first Catholic Church. The structure was named Eustache DeLisle, a direct descendant Phillippe’Amable DeLisle, the first DeLisle in America in the year 1775. That church was replaced in 1924 by the new St Eustacius Catholic Church and an elementary school was added. Most of the present day churches came between 1900-1904.

The City of Portageville held it’s first election in 1901, naming L.F. Davidson as the first Mayor.
The Portageville Bank organized in 1903 by W.L. Stacy and Ed DeLisle and later dissolved during the depression. Portageville was incorporated in 1905 and the first newspaper was started.
A small electric plant was built in 1909 near the cotton gins, and initially furnished power only at night.
After U.S. Highway 61 was built in 1919, the city experience continued growth.
Water works in the city were constructed in 1925 and Main Street was paved in 1929.
Natural gas became available in December of 1955.

Portageville’s business and economic history is closely tied to agriculture, being geographically situated in the fertile lands of the Mississippi River Delta.