Before Laclede County

Before Laclede County was formed the land within current day Laclede County was part of these counties:

For more information, click on the links below:

1895 Laclede County Map

1912 Laclede Township Map

Laclede County History

The history of Laclede below was taken from the book History of Laclede, Camden, Dallas, Webster, Wright, Texas, Pulaski, Phelps and Dent Counties published by Goodspeed Publishing Company in 1889. Note that only some portions with many surnames were taken from this book (since there is no index printed for this section of the book, this should be helpful for researchers to find their ancestors.)

History of Laclede County, County Organization

Laclede officially became a county on February 24, 1849.  Originally Laclede consisted of the following townships Union, Lebanon, Hooker, Osage, and Smith.  On the 11th of June, 1874, the county court ordered that the county should be divided into nine municipal townships, as follows:  Smith, Auglaize, Hooker, Osage, Lebanon, Gasconade, Franklin, Washington, and Union. [tid bits from this section]

History of Laclede County, Early Settlement

Jesse Ballew is believed to have been the first white settler who erected his log cabin in the bounds of Laclede County.  In the spring of 1820 he settled on the east side of the Gasconade River, where the Indian trail crossed that stream.  Henry Anderson in the same year settled on the opposite side of the Gasconade from Ballew, and William Montgomery a few miles below.  William Gillespie, about the same time, settled on the same river, where Lynn Creek and Waynesville road crosses it.  William Tweedy and Leonard Eastwood, in 1821 or 1822, settled near what is known as the 'Old Grigsby Farm', on the Osage Fork of the Gasconade just below the mouth of Bear Creek.  Spencer O'Neil at an early date located near Tweedy, and Josiah Tygart higher up the Gasconade.  Prior to 1830 Aaron Span settled near Henry Anderson's, and James Campbell at the Bean Ford, on  the Osage Fork.

Prior to 1825 the nearest mill to these settlements was on the Meramec River, near what is now Staton Station, on the Atlantic & Pacific Railroad, 100 miles distant.  The grain and meal was carried to and fro on horses.  In that year a mill was erected at the mouth of the Roubidoux.  The first store in that section was kept by Alexander Somerville, at Little Piney.  He sold out to James Harrison in 1832.

The lands in that region were not surveyed and sectionized until 1836.  From the first entries it appears that Abram Munholland, John Tucker, Robert Montgomery, D. B. Laxton, Benjamin Moore, William Maxey, John Honssinger, Robert Faires, Moses Bean, and W. P. Wisdom were among the early settlers on the Gasconade and Osage Fork.

That portion of Laclede County designated as Hawkin's Leg was established as a township, and named Smith, in honor of William H. Smith, one of the most highly esteemed pioneers of that section.  The best information we have in regard to the early settlement of this locality is as follows:  Jordon Lane, William and Meredith Wilson and Thomas Stark, between the years 1830 and 1835 settled on Bear Creek.  A few years later Adam Todd, Charles Phipps, James Manes and Jesse Towel settled higher up the same creek.  About the same time Jerry Rowland, Benjamin Fugate, Carter T. Robinson and Thomas Weatherly settled on the Gasconade.  A short time after thereafter William Murrell and Eli Rippy settled on Prairie Creek. 

Robert Montgomery, in 1825, built a horse mill, which is supposed to have been the first mill erected in the territory.  The second company of settlers that came to this section comprised George W. and Robert Davis, W. H. Smith, Elisha Northrip, B. F. Fugate, Joseph Lane, James Mayfield, John Paradise, John Mizer, J. W. Harrison, A. Story, F. W. Pearcey, H. W. Traylor, and others, who settled in the rich valley of Bear Creek.

The earliest settlers in and around Lebanon were James Jolly, who settled where Alfred Case now resides; John T. Cooper, where Matt H. Hooker now lives; William A. McPhail, where a part of the present town of Lebanon is now located, and Lauckland Murphy, about two miles east of Lebanon.  About the same time Mosses Thompson settled some eight miles south and Isaac Whitson twelve miles southeast of Lebanon.  These settlements were made about the year 1834, and J. M. Appling in 1836 adjoining Lebanon.  (footnote:  Since 1876 several of these have died, Case and Appling being the only ones now living, and the former has changed his location.)  Among the first settlers in Goodwin Hollow were Peter Goodwin, after whom it was called, Abel Benton and John Case, father of Alf. Case.  The tide of settlement soon thereafter set in that direction.  Among those who came prior to 1840 were Miles Veron, Joseph J. Thrailkill, John Alchley, Jared Hoffman, Peter Barr, Alex. Hoffman, a Mr. Dryden, John Robinson and Thomas Lowrey. 

The lands embraced in the territory of Laclede County were not surveyed into sections, townships and ranges, and put into market and made subject to entry until from 1835 to 1840.  To give a more extended list of early settlers, the following has been complied from the records, showing by whom and in what years the first land entries were made in the several congressional townships included within the county:

Township 32, Range 12:  James J. Easley, Jeremiah Davidson, Henry P. Yourkey and John M. Crawford, in 1857; James H. Hudson, Edward Tracy, James Long, John Taylor and Alfred King, in 1859.

Township 32, Range 13:  Benjamin Moore, in 1855; Harman Crisp, James A. Parsley, Washington Yates, Joel M. Hoffman, Roland Bakestraw, Robert T. Graven, and Oscar W. Burke, in 1857, and Jesse Whittenburg, in 1859.

Township 32, Range 14; William McBride, in 1854; Ezekiel H. Porter, John W. Henderson, John Bushy and Josephus Hough, in 1855; Jonathan Williams and T. T. Ridgen, in 1856; Mary A. Headler, Robert T. Cantwell, Robert T. Graven, David D. Reed, Daniel Cathcart and Jesse Hickman, in 1857.

Township 32, Range 15; Terrell L. Grigsby, in 1847; William Williams and Bartlett Williams, in 1848; Harvey Doty and Elijah Bohannan, in 1850; William Nesbit, Thomas and George W. Atwood and William B. Williams, in 1852; William Atwood, in 1854; Presly Farris, Rufus Phillips and M. L. Bailey, in 1857.

Township 32, Range 16; John S. Shields, in 1848; Lewis B. Benton and Samuel Grigsby, in 1851; Janet Jerrigan and Eliza Thurman, in 1852; Tilman G. Helm, in 1856; James W. Clinkingbeard, William A. Hawkins, D. W. Dollar, Samuel and Charles Dennis and Elijah P. Robinson, in 1857.

Township 32, Range 17:  William Casey, in 1847; George Russell, in 1848; Elijah Burch and J. L. Remmer, in 1850, Micajah Forner, in 1856; Nathan H. Knight, in 1857.

Township 33, Range 12; John W. Davis, 1857; Josiah Wheat, James M. McCoy, James P. Thomas, George A. Harrington, William C. Hatler and Joseph T. Smith, in 1858; Francis Padgett, S. V. Casey, Gotleib Koehler, George Day, Morris Rafferty, Henry A. Miner, Isaac H. Robinson, Christopher Getty, Joseph Maxwell, Patrick Gill and William W. Hudson, in 1859.

Township 33, Range 13:  D. H. Casey, in 1836; James Welch, Robert Montgomery, Abram McHolland, and John Tucker, in 1837; Amos Laxton, in 1839; Abraham E. Burnes, in 1849; David B. Laxton, and Washington Yates, in 1851.

Township 33, Range 14:  Ashford Hough, in 1841; Daniel Cobb, in 1839; Isaac Whitson, Parsley Atkins and John W. Cox, in 1846; William King, 1847; Jacob Stroup and Robert Holt, in 1854; Allen G. Wilson, in 1855.

Township 33, Range 15; John B. McDaniel and Achillis F. Grigsby, in 1847; John Wilson, in 1848; William Bohannan, in 1850; Elias Butler and Jesse Vestal, in 1852; Henry Sharp, in 1854.

Township 33, Range 16:  Elias Barker and Robert Clinkingbeard, in 1847; Morgan Davis, Isaac Clinkingbeard and Daniel Bilderback, in 1848; Hartwell Mizer, Samuel K. Moore, and John W. Scott, in 1855.

Township 33, Range 17:  Nicholas R. Smith, William Casey and Charles Bilderback, in 1846; James Hughart, in 1847; Thomas B. Alsap, in 1848.

Township 34, Range 12:  Only about eleven sections of this township lie in Laclede County, and there were no entries made prior to 1850.

Township 34, Range 13:  John Montgomery and Joseph Binns, in 1837; Jacob B. Casebolt, in 1838.  Only a few entries were made in this township until 1859, when they were mostly made. 

Township 34, Range 14:  John Paradise, Robert Faires, Moses Bean and Andrew Steel, in 1840; John Honssinger and John H. Miller, in 1841; John P. Campbell, in 1842; George W. Bean and A. J. Roden, in 1848.

Township 34, Range 15:  Alfred Smithpeter, in 1847; Lewis Keedy, in 1848; William Owens, William Sauders and Eli C. Burney, in 1849; Zach. B. Robinson, in 1850; Calvin Jones, in 1851.

Township 34, Range 16:  Laughlin Murphy, Benjamin Hooker and William McPhail, in 1846; Alfred S. Cherry, James M. Appling and Abner Adkins, in 1847; Hartwell Mizer, in 1850; John B. Harrison an Jacob Layman, in 1851; Ousley Paul, John H. Coffman, William C. Williams and Alfred Case, in 1852.

Township 34, Range 17:  L. M. Vernon, in 1851; Obadish Veron and Martin W. Wyatt, in 1854; Hirman D. Robertson, 1857.

Township 35, Range 14:  Adam Todd, Lewis McCain and William Murrell, in 1840; Jeremiah Rowland and John Mosher, in 1842; William Sanders and William P. Rippy, in 1843; John Fugate, in 1844; Benjamin F. Fugate and William H. Smith, in 1846, M. B. Woody, in 1849.

Township 35, Range 15:  John R. Cooper, in 1842; John Lauderman, George T. Holman, Andrew and Josiah Lambeth, in 1844; James and John Jones, in 1848; Byron Moore, James E. Clark, Isacc Wilson, John Williamson and John R. Craddock, in 1850.

Township 35, Range 16:  James and John Atchley, in 1844; John Smith, in 1852; Joseph Thomas, in 1856.

Township 35, Range 17: No early entries were made in this township, and not more than half of it was entered prior to 1881.

Township 36, Range 14:  George W. Davis and James Hendrick, in 1844; John Quinn, in 1848.

Township 36, Range 15:  Martin Thrailkill, Thomas Lowry, Andrew McKaffy, David, John and Daniel Fulbright and George Smithers, in 1838.

Township 36, Range 16:  Alexander Givens, William Grizzele [Grizzel ?], Thomas Woolsey, Eli Goodwin, Martin Fulbright and Robert B. Hyatt, in 1838; S. W. Wilson, in 1839; Abel Benton and John Fulbright, in 1840.

A few individuals named in the foregoing as having made the first land entries may not have become actual settlers.  It will be observed that some men entered lands in different Congressional townships, and that the first settlers lived here many years before they entered their lands, as they could not enter them before they were surveyed and put into market.

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Last updated 07/11/2005