Springfield-Greene
County Library
[I]
Cedar County is bounded on the north by St. Clair County, on the east by Polk County, on the south by Dade County and on the west by Barton and Vernon Counties...
In 1840 a forge and furnace were operated on the Little Sac River, but the enterprise was unprofitable owing to the difficulty of shipment, and the works were destroyed by the unpaid workers, and were never rebuilt...
The first settlement in the county was made by John Crisp, Robert Graham, Thomas English, and a man named Crump, who located on Sac River, two miles west of the present Stockton, November 17, 1832. The first mill was built by Philip Crown, three miles northwest of the present Stockton, and about the same time John Williams built a mill on Cedar Creek. The first child born in the county was Susan, daughter of Robert and Ann Graham, October 13, 1833...The first marriage was the same year, that of John Crisp, and Melinda, daughter of Thomas English.
Zimri Crabtree located on the site of Stockton, March 20, 1846, and the same year the first store in the county was opened there. In 1847 James N. Blakey operated a ferry on Big Sac River, where he had a mill, on the road from Stockton to Polk County.
In 1849, Samuel Caplinger built a mill on Sac River, seven miles north of Stockton. The first school was taught by Andrew Stewart, in 1841, near Stockton...
Cedar County was created February 14, 1845, from portions of Dade and St. Clair Counties, and was named for Cedar Creek, one of its principal water courses. The first county court was held April 7th, following, at Crow's Mill, near the mouth of Bear Creek. Thomas Jones, James L. Henry and Ezra Hamer were the justices, with Joseph Allen as clerk, James Cawthon as sheriff, and Thomas Smith as assessor. The seat of justice was established at Stockton in 1846. The first circuit court session was held by Judge Foster P. Wright, September 29, 1845, at the house of Elisha Hunter, two miles south of Stockton, on the Greenfield Road. A grand jury was impaneled, which retired to a buckeye grove, in the absence of a room other than that occupied by the court...
During the Civil War the county was frequently traversed by bodies of troops on either side, and many deeds of violence and destruction were committed by irregular bands. After the restoration of peace, a new immigration began, and new towns were established, among them Lebeck*, many of whose people were Adventists and Latter Day Saints... (--Encyclopedia of the History of Cedar County, Conard, 1901, Vol. 1, pp. 549, 550, 551.)
*See Lebeck in the directory.
[II]
In his article concerning the post offices of Cedar County, Mr. Clayton Abbott mentioned the fact that Cedar County was originally in Barry County.
It might be of interest to note that Barry County was originally included in Crawford County, and afterward in Greene County. It was created January 5, 1835, and named for Commodore Barry of the American Navy. It comprised all the territory now constituting the counties of Barry, Lawrence, Jasper, McDonald, Barton and Dade and part of Cedar. (--Encyclopedia of the History of Missouri, Conard, 1901, Vol. 1, p. 165.)
Cedar County was organized February 14, 1845, and there are a number of persons who have lived in the Counties of Polk, Dade and Cedar, successively, and at all times on the same farm. (--History of Cedar County, 1889, p. 390.)