Caruthersville is in the east central part of the county, on the Mississippi River. It is a city of the fourth class in Little Prairie Township, six miles southeast of Gayoso. It occupies a site near the old town of Little Prairie, of which it was the successor, and for many years was called Lost Village. In 1857 a town site was laid out by Colonel John H. Walker and George W. Bushey, and called Caruthersville in honor of Honorable Samuel Caruthers ... Its growth was slow until the building of the St. Louis, Kennett & Southern Railway of which it is the eastern terminus. It had Baptist, Catholic and Methodist Episcopal Churches, a graded school, two banks, four saw-mills, stove factory and wood work factory, two newspapers and an electric lighting plant. Samuel Caruthers, born Oct. 13, 1820, died July 20, 1860, was elected to Congress in 1852, and re-elected twice in succession, serving in the Thirty-third, Thirty-fourth and Thirty-fifth Congresses.