Springfield-Greene
County Library
[I]
Gentry County is located in Northwestern Missouri, being separated from the Missouri River by the counties of Nodaway and Atchison, and separated from the Iowa line by the county of Worth which formed a part of Gentry until 1861.
It is bounded on the north by Worth County; on the east by Harrison and Daviess; on the south by DeKalb and on the west by Andrew and Nodaway...
All of Northwestern Missouri, excepting the counties of Platte, Buchanan, Holt, Andrew, Atchison and Nodaway were once a portion of Howard County. In 1816 Howard County was established out of a portion of St. Louis and St. Charles Counties...
In 1822...Clay County was organized. In 1833, Clinton County was taken from Clay County and organized.
DeKalb, Gentry and Worth having been attached to the county of Clinton, for civil and military purposes, were afterward detached from said county and organized into separate counties; Gentry and DeKalb in 1845, and Worth, which had been attached to Gentry, in 1861. In the winter of 1841, the Legislature of Missouri passed an act, approved February 12th, which located and named Gentry County; that act is as follows:
"All that portion of territory now attached to Clinton County and lying north of the township line, dividing township sixty and sixty-one, shall be included in a new county to be hereafter organized and known by the name of Gentry, in honor of Col. Richard Gentry, who fell in the battle of Okeechobee, in Florida.
Gentry County shall be attached to the county of Clinton for all civil and military purposes, until otherwise provided by law...
The county, however, was not organized until 1845...(The boundaries are given on page 93 of History of Gentry and Worth Counties, 1882.)
(--History of Gentry and Worth Counties, 1882, pp 92, 93.)
Townships
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Athens Township
Michael Maltsberger came from Tennessee before the county was organized and located three miles southeast of Albany...He was commissioned by the Governor one of the first county court justices and was one of three persons elected to that position at the election of 1846, the first election held in the county. It was at his suggestion that the county seat be called Athens, in McMinn County, Tennessee.
Daniel Sanders, from North Carolina, located two miles north of Albany, at Sandsville, which was named for him. The County Court of Gentry County met for the first time at his cabin, and organized in May, 1846. Daniel Sanders was the first postmaster in the county, having been appointed to that position about the year 1838...
Among the early settlers of Athens Township are the following: J. B. Kingsborough, Iri Orton, Alfred Orton, Robert Dubois and William Greene, all from Richland County, Ohio...Kingsborough opened a farm on Section 7, Township 63 N, Range 30 W, and the others settled near him...J. B. Kingsborough was at one time assessor of the county, and afterwards judge of the probate court...(--pp. 119, 120.)
Bogle Township
John Ross and his son John, came from Nova Scotia about the year 1841 or 1842, and settled west of the Middle Fork of Grand River...
Peddler Creek in Bogle Township received its name from the following circumstance: About 1841 an itinerant peddler by the name of Stophet came from Clay County, MO, to the territory now known as Gentry County, with a small wagon containing a barrel of whiskey, and miscellaneous merchandise. His intention was to sell them to the Musquaque Indians...He was told he must employ a guide. The man whom he chose, a Mr. Vasser was true type border ruffian...of doubtful character...
Through a ruse, Vasser alarmed Stophet, who fled, as he feared an Indian attack...Thus Peddlers Creek was named...(--pp. 151, 155.)
The pioneer grist mill of Bogle Township was a horse mill, built prior to 1830, by John Armstrong, and located on Linn Creek...William Jackson and brother built the next grist and saw mill...(--p. 154.)
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Cooper Township
Among the early settlers of Cooper Township were John Hussey, William R. Jimes and James H. Saunders.
The Northwestern Normal School and Business Institute was located at Stanberry about 1881, at the suggestion of Prof. C. H. Moore of the Valparaiso, Indiana Normal School. (--pp. 157, 165.)
Howard Township
Samuel and Asa Howard, after whom Howard Township takes its name, came about 1840, and located near the southwest corner of the township, near the East Fork of Grand River. (--p. 177.)
Huggins Township
One of the first to locate in this township was Samuel Collins, who came from Indiana about the year 1840, and settled in the southwest side of the township, near the West Fork of Grand River. He was one of the three county judges, the first that the county had in 1845, his associates being Michael Maltsberger and William Steele. They were commissioned as judges by the governor of the State...
John Huggins, after whom the township was named, came from Ohio, about the year 1845, and settled west of the Middle Fork, at Hugginsville, which also took its name from John Huggins, where was afterwards established a post-office... (--pp. 198, 199.)
Miller Township
Miller Township was the first settled in the county, that is to say, the first emigrants coming to the county located in Miller Township near what are now (1882) known as Greenwell Ford and Gentryville.
In 1832 Isaac Miller and his brother, Tobias, came from Garrett County, Kentucky, to Clay County, where they remained two years. During the fall of that year and the succeeding fall (1832-33) he came to Gentry County... (--pp. 201, 202.)
Page numbers refer to History of Gentry & Worth Counties, 1882.