1833: Grand River Baptist Church Established
The Grand River Baptist Church, once located on a two acre plot one and one-half miles northeast of Jameson, has a meaningful history. By the early 1970’s, the songs, sermons, and times of fellowship once occurring here had ceased to exist. At that time the...
1833 Map: Daviess County’s First Settlement at Millport
Millport in Daviess County, MO 1831
Pioneer Conflicts: ‘Fort Gallatin’ Defends Against the Indians
Daviess Countians today don’t often think of this area as being among the Old West areas threatened by Indian attack. History records, however, state that a fort was once built east of Gallatin for that very reason. Settlers here in 1832 constructed a blockhouse...
Pioneers: Daviess County’s First Election Was at Millport, MO
John Splawn’s house was used in the first county election, according to the writings of Rep. David L. Kost, a state representative from Daviess County in the 1870s. The beginnings of Millport marked many firsts for Daviess County. In 1831 Robert P. Penniston,...
Mormons: Documenting the Mormon Troubles in Missouri
Missouri Historical Review July, 1910 Vol. IV. No. 4; pages 238-250 by Heman C. Smith The Latter Day Saints began settling in and around Independence, Missouri, in 1831. Their customs, and their religious and political attitude were not in harmony with the feelings...
Pioneer Conflicts: Black Hawk War in Daviess County, MO
The following is an historical account of the Black Hawk War and what is called the “Heatherly War” in Daviess County, MO. Black Hawk War 1831 Settlers had just begun to come into what is now Daviess County (MO) when all of North Missouri was aroused over...
1831-39 Map: Significant Mormon Sites in NW Missouri
Historic Mormon sites in Northwest Missouri are mapped for visitors as follows.
Pioneers: Harris Log Cabin Among the Oldest in NW Missouri
The oldest standing log cabin in Northwest Missouri is the Harris Family Log Cabin, reconstructed for display at the Jamesport City Park. The 18×18 cabin was built between 1830-36 about four miles east of Jamesport. Present-day family members only speculate about...
Pioneers: Early Settlers in What Became Daviess County, MO
The territory now embraced in Daviess County was at the formation of the State of Missouri, attached to the county of St. Charles, which included all of the territory lying North of the Missouri River as well as some territory south of the river. The County of Howard...
Pioneers: Old Bloomington Trail Links North Missouri
Sandy Sappington has researched the Old Bloomington Trail which once ran across North Missouri. Here is her letter dated 2011: “We were intrigued about the trail two years ago when I read a sentence in the History of the Gateway to the Green Hills 1976, which...
Pioneers: Osage, Missouri Tribes Once Blanketed the State
Missouri, Mississippi, Meramec, Osage, Kahoka, Kenoma and Kewanee. The strange-sounding names on highway signs are reminders of the American Indians who once called Missouri home. Few Indians are left in the state. The names and some villages that still can be toured...
Pioneers: Unusual Cache of Indian Artifacts Discovered
April 15, 2006, started off as an ordinary spring day for Shannon and Amy McCrary of Pattonsburg, MO — but it would quickly take an extraordinary turn as they discovered on a farm-ground hilltop some of the most spectacular blades ever created by Native Americans. The...
Pioneers: Early Transportation Rules of the Road
Times change and roads change. By the mid-1800s, the time for nothing but winding paths was over. As this demand for better roads or “advanced paths” continued, there was a need for restrictions and guidelines. A few of the first regulations were: roads...
Pioneers: Earliest Cattle Drive in Daviess County Recorded in 1819
The grass of the Great Plains upon which the buffaloes had grazed for thousands of years proved to be equally good for cattle. Government land purchased from the Indians was without fences until 1875 when barbed wire first came into use. Most private land was without...
Pioneers: The Prominence of Judge Adam Black
Judge Adam Black (1801-1890) is remembered in Daviess County as the Justice of the Peace during the period of the Mormon struggles of 1838. Adam Black was born in Henderson County, KY, on Sept. 11, 1801, into a large Virginia family. The family moved to Missouri in...
Pioneers: First Settlers Found a Hunter’s Delight in Daviess County
The following reveals life as known to settlers who first entered into this region, before Daviess County was organized out of Ray County, MO. Pioneers who came to stay in the old Ray District, landed on the east bank of Crooked River in August, 1815. The land was...
Pioneers: Last Pioneer Killed by Indians in NW Missouri 1814
The first permanent settlers in Daviess County, MO, came to stay around 1830. This followed the last important Indian battle in Northwest Missouri, which occurred in July, 1818, when six Osage Indians (without guns) were shot and killed near Orrick. History records no...
Pioneer Conflicts: Daviess County’s Namesake a Hero at Tippecanoe Battle
This is a brief account of the life of Col. Joseph Hamilton Daviess of Kentucky, summarized from the Feb. 2, 1911, edition of the Gallatin North Missourian. Daviess County is named after this Kentuckian killed by Indians at Tippecanoe, 25 years before this county in...
Pioneers: Lewis-Clark Expedition Touches Daviess County
Evidence of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, surprisingly, can be traced today to Gallatin, the county seat of Daviess County in Northwest Missouri. Two original hand-written survey books — written and signed by the nephew of the famous explorer and who was...
Visit the 1889 Squirrel Cage Jail, located 2 blocks west of the Daviess County Courthouse in Gallatin, MO. This historic relic is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and serves as a visitors’ center — by appointment,
Trudi Burton, ph: 660.663.7342
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