Springfield-Greene
County LibraryCompiled by Arthur Paul Moser
[I]
Mississippi County was formed by an act of the Legislature passed February 14, 1845, from the southern portion of Scott County. The county court was organized in Charleston, on April 21, 1845, and was composed of William Sayres, presiding justice, and Absalom McElmurry and James M. Overton, associate justices ... For the first five years, no effort was made to erect any public buildings with the exception of a clerk's office which was completed in the summer of 1846 ... The county court was held in the storehouse of Henry C. Cummings and the circuit court in the Methodist Church ...
At its organization the county was divided into five townships: Tywappity, Mississippi, St. James, James Bayou and Wolf Island. In June, 1847, it was ordered that all of Mississippi Township, included in the following boundaries be erected into a new township by the name of Ohio: "Commencing on the county line in the Mississippi River opposite Lake Bayou and running down the river with said line to the line dividing Sections 19 and 30, in Township 26 North, Range 18 East; thence west with said section line until it strikes Clear Lake, north of Judge Henson's; thence northwardly with the line of Tywappity Township to the place of beginning." At the same time the boundaries of the other townships were readjusted. In June, 1858, Long Prairie Township was formed from portions of Tywappity and St. James. (--History of Southeast Missouri, 1888, Goodspeed, p. 364.)