[2] The county was officially organized on October 1, 1812, and is named after the Spanish district once located in the region, after Saint Genevieve, patroness of Paris, France.

Genevieve, the earliest settlement west of the Mississippi River outside New Spain, and one of the French colonial mid-Mississippi valley villages.

Genevieve County is located on the west bank of the Mississippi River approximately 60 miles (97 km) south of St. Louis.

According to Goodspeed's History of Southeast Missouri, and most of the descendants of the early settlers, 1735 is the most generally accepted date.

Genevieve was founded closer to 1750, based on interpretations of early letters, maps, and Catholic Church documents.

This was generally accepted to be all the land claimed by the French from the mouth of the Ohio River, north to the Great Lakes, and including the valleys of the Mississippi, Missouri, and Ohio rivers.

Salt was a very important commodity at the time, used in the preservation of foods and curing of animal hides.

The early French settlers were quick to exploit the salt springs on Saline Creek just south of Ste.

Some of the earliest lead mines were named for La Motte in nearby Madison County.

Across the Mississippi River in Fort de Chartres and Kaskaskia, there was a growing need for agricultural land for the colonists.

Across the Mississippi from Fort Kaskaskia was a large fertile section of river bottom, called the "Grand Champ" or Big Field.

Genevieve was originally an offshoot of the older French communities on the east bank of the Mississippi River—Cahokia, Kaskaskia, village of Chartres, Prairie du Rocher, and St. Philippe.

The rich agricultural lands of the river bottoms were main attractions that lured most all of the early French pioneers to Ste.

Genevieve was transacted at Kaskaskia until about 1766 when the first commandant, Philippe de Rocheblave, was installed at Ste.

By that time, more French migrants moved to the village from east of the river to escape British rule after France's defeat in the Seven Years' War.

Genevieve to its present higher location from the river bottoms after the devastating floods of 1785.

According to a sworn statement by Julien Labriere, in October 1825, "there were about fifty or sixty cabins in the old village.

Around 1787, the Spanish government, which had acquired the territory from France in 1762, brought in a band of Shawnee and Delaware Native Americans, who had been friendly to the French, to help protect the settlers from the Osage.

Genevieve, the first English-speaking American settlers started showing up in about 1788, and trickled upriver from Cape Girardeau and New Madrid.

Genevieve County is divided into two legislative districts in the Missouri House of Representatives.

Smith won a special election on Tuesday, June 4, 2013, to finish out the remaining term of U.S. Representative Jo Ann Emerson (R-Cape Girardeau).

Emerson announced her resignation a month after being reelected with over 70 percent of the vote in the district.

Genevieve County, however, was broken in 2012 when Mitt Romney carried it by three points over incumbent President Obama.

Genevieve County generally adhere to socially and culturally conservative principles but are more moderate or populist on economic issues.

In 2004, Missourians voted on a constitutional amendment to define marriage as the union between a man and a woman—it overwhelmingly passed Ste.

In 2006, Missourians voted on a constitutional amendment to fund and legalize embryonic stem cell research in the state—it failed in Ste.

The proposition strongly passed every single county in Missouri with 78.99 percent voting in favor as the minimum wage was increased to $6.50 an hour in the state.

During the same election, voters in five other states also strongly approved increases in the minimum wage.

Senator Hillary Clinton (D-New York) received more votes, a total of 1,922, than any candidate from either party in Ste.