Springfield-Greene
County LibraryCompiled by Arthur Paul Moser
Pettis County was organized on the 26th day of January, 1833, by severance effected from the counties of Saline and Cooper ...
The citizens living in the portion of Saline and Cooper Counties, from which Pettis County was formed, were set off by the following act:
(This act is too lengthy to record here, but it may be found in History of Pettis County, 1882, Mac D. Demuth, pp. 241, 242.)
At this time the name of Hon. Spencer Pettis, who served the people as a member of Congress when Missouri was but one congregational district ,was fresh in the memory of the friends of this new county, hence its name.
After the county was organized, the seat of justice was temporarily kept at St. Helena, which commonly bore the name of Pin Hook, till 1837.
At a circuit court begun and held at Ramey & Wason's Mill, the temporary seat of justice within and for the county of Pettis, in the State of Missouri, on the second Monday in November, 1833, being the eleventh day of the month was present the Honorable John F. Ryland, judge of said court ...
Up to the year 1844 there were but five municipal voting precincts, which were as follows:
Elk Fork, with place of voting at the house of M. G. Pemberton.
Blackwater, with place of voting at the house of Samuel Fisher.
Flat Creek, with place of voting at Higgins & McCormack's mill.
Bowling Green, with place of voting at the house of James Lacy.
Mt. Sterling, with place of voting at Georgetown. (--Hist. of Pettis Co., 1882, Demuth, pp. 241, 242, 246, 248.
Quite soon after the county was organized steps were taken to erect suitable county buildings at the county seat -- Georgetown. Prior to this date (1837), the business of the county was dispatched in an old frame building at Pin Hook.
By act of the Legislature of Missouri, January 26th, 1833, Pettis County was organized, comprising all the territory within the present eastern, northern and western boundaries and extending south to the Osage River. The house of James Ramey at St. Helena, now known as Pin Hook Mills, situated eight miles north and one mile east of Sedalia, was designated as the place where the courts should be held. (--Ibid: p. 277.)