Springfield-Greene
County LibraryCompiled by Arthur Paul Moser
[I]
The pioneers of 1815, or those who passed this way ... were not the first inhabitants of this section of Missouri. As related in the History of Cole County, the Oua-chage or Osage Indians had their principal town on the Osage River, where Du Tassent visited them in 1719, and where Fort Carondelet was established in 1785 by Pierre Choteau.
Early in this (19th) century, when the movement of the tribes to the West was begun, the Shawnees, Delawares and other Indians came hither as visitors, hunters or travelers; but years before the historic period the hills and valleys of Moniteau offered a home to a race of whom nothing is known beyond that tell-tale skeletons and other mementos of their settlement point out.
In the History of Cole County (p. 212), the settlement near Moniteau Rock (1815-16) is first, but in Moniteau there are some who claim James Savage was here as early as 1812 ...
The first record relating to this section of Missouri was made under date of April 2, 1821, when the Cole County Court established Moniteau Township, and named Isaac Stephens an officer of the new township ...
The first meeting of the county court was held at Salem Meeting-house (four miles north) February 27, 1845 ... The only business transacted was the adoption of the following resolution: "Ordered, That in the discretion of the court and in compliance with an act passed in regard to the place of holding court in the county of Moniteau, that we adjourn to meet at California on tomorrow morning, which place shall be the permanent place of holding court ...
Up to 1845, the Cole County Court continued to give much attention to this portion of the old county. (--Hist. of Moniteau County, 1889, Goodspeed, pp. 316, 317.)
Moniteau County was organized out of the western part of Cole County and a part of Morgan County by legislative act approved February 14, 1845. The word Moniteau is a corruption of the word Manitou, meaning the Deity, and was first applied to a stream which flows through the county and into the Missouri, and after this stream the county was named. (--Encyclopedia of the Hist. of Mo., 1901, Conard, Vol. 4, p. 456.)
Some of the early marriages of Moniteau County are recorded in the History of Cole County. (--Hist. of Moniteau Co., p. 325.)
Many marriages of Moniteau County from April 2, 1845 ... to the close of the year are recorded on pp. 325, 326, of Hist. of Moniteau County.