Springfield-Greene
County LibraryCompiled by Arthur Paul Moser
[I]
The whole of North Missouri was, prior to the year 1818, two years before the organization of the State Government embraced within the counties of St. Charles and Howard, but new counties were rapidly organized. In 1818 Montgomery County was set off from the county of St. Charles, and it embraced previous to the year 1833, the Legislature, with due formality, declared a portion of Montgomery fully designated by metes and bounds, "to be a separate and distinct county, to be known and called by the name of Warren County, in honor of Gen. Joseph Warren, who fell at the battle of Bunker Hill." Jacob Groom, of Montgomery County, Felix Scott, of St. Charles County and Jessie McDaniel, of Franklin County, were appointed commissioners for the purpose of selecting a seat of justice for the new county.
The first white settlement on what is now the seat of Warren County was made by French trappers and traders at the old Charette village, which settlement is said to have been made about the time M. Liguest settled St. Louis, in 1763.
The exact location of this early settlement is now a matter of conjecture, although the mouth of Charette Creek is generally admitted to have been the place ...
These pioneers were originally sent to this country in the employ of the American Fur Company ... It is not known who they were. It is claimed that a famous trapper called Indian Phillip, who was well known as late as 1810, was one of the settlers at Charette ... A man named Choterau (Choteau?), and another called Lazio, were also known as members of this colony of trappers. These three men secured Spanish grants for large tracts of land, no located partly in St. Charles and Warren Counties, and disposing of their interests about the year 1812, left the country. Flanders Callaway, the son-in-law of Col. Daniel Boone, was the purchaser, and on one of the tracts, located about a mile and a half west of Marthasville, Mr. Callaway died ...
Flanders Callaway married Daniel Boone's daughter, Jemima ...
In 1795 ... Col. Daniel Boone, accompanied by his son-in-law Flanders Callaway, came into the country and established a settlement called Callaway Post, at a point near the present town of Marthasville. This was the first American colony to reach the wilds of Warren County ...
(For several years the early settlers were subjected at attacks by the Indians.)
The County Court
The first term of the Warren County Court was held on the 20th day of May, 1833, at the house of Mordecai Morgan ....
It was ordered by the court that the following townships be established: Charette; Elkhorn; Pinckney; Camp Branch (boundaries are given on page 968, Hist. of Warren Co.)
[II]
Warren County has been the site of several skirmishes during the Civil War. Daniel Boone and his wife were first buried in Warren County. Mrs. Boone died on the 13th of March, 1813; Daniel Boone died September 26, 1820. On the 17th day of July, 1845, the remains of both were disinterred and removed to Frankfort, Kentucky.
Immediately after Boone's death, Henry Griswold, who represented Montgomery County in the Legislature, introduced a bill appropriating $500, for the purpose of erecting a monument over the graves of Boone and his wife. The measure was defeated, however, and the Legislature of Kentucky, learning of this action, immediately passed a bill appropriating $10,000 for the purpose ... and instructing the Governor to secure the remains for burial in that State ... (--Hist. of Warren Co., 1885, St. Louis, National Hist. Co., pp. 956, 957, 958, 959, 967, 989, 991, 979, 978, 980.)
Soon after the founding of St. Louis, a number of French families ascended the Missouri River and formed a small village at the mouth of what is now known as Charette Creek, in Warren County. Little is known of this settlement. It existed for a number of years. A fort was built to afford protection from the Indians. Years ago, the waters of the Missouri encroached upon the site of this early town, and it was washed away. Following in the wake of the French the first settler of whom there is authentic record is David Bryan, who, in 1800 settled on the Tuque, on elevated land about one and a half miles southeast of where is now (1901) located the little town of Marthasville, and a few years later Thomas Kennedy settled about eight miles east of the site of Warrenton ...
Warren County was organized out of Montgomery County by Legislative act approved January 5, 1833, and named in honor of General Joseph Warren, who lost his life in the Battle of Bunker Hill. The commissioners appointed to locate a permanent county seat selected New Boston, on Dharette Creek. In 1835 the county court accepted from Henry Walton fifty acres of land, which is now a part of the site of Warrenton, and fifteen acres from Mordecai Morgan, which tracts were laid out in town lots ... Thus was the town of Warrenton founded. (--Ency. of the Hist. of Mo., 1901, Vol. 6, pp. 377, 378.)
[III]
Townships
Charette Township. It was in this locality that the early French adventurers located at the mouth of what is known as the Main Charette. It was in this township that the fort known as Callaway's fort was built before the War of 1812. In the southeastern part of this township the great Boone was originally buried, was buried, and the first town of any consequence was organized within the limits of Charette. (--p. 1029.)
Pinckney Township was created by order of the county court at its first session, held in 1833, following the organization of Warren County. At Pinckney Landing was established the first seat of justice for Montgomery County, where, in a log house built for that purpose, the public business was transacted from 1818 to 1824, at which time the county seat was removed to Lewiston. The site of old Pinckney has long since been washed into the Missouri River, and what remains of the former town was called Kreugerville, the post-office of Pinckney being located on Smith Creek, about four miles from the river ... There were no villages of consequence, although considerable trading was done at stores throughout the township, notably at Pinckney Post-Office, and at Pekate's store on the Holstein road about a half mile east of Smith's Creek.
Among the early settlers of Pinckney Township was William Clyde, a Virginian. One of his daughters married a Canadian, named Swazey, who opened the first store in Pinckney ... (--pp. 1058, 1059.)
Bridgeport Township is bounded on the north by Montgomery County, on the east by Elkhorn and Pinckney Townships, on the south by the Missouri River, and on the west by Montgomery County.
Bridgeport Post-Office was located on the farm of Joseph Haberthier, 15 miles from Warrenton, and about two miles from the Missouri River. There was no village there ...
Among the pioneer residents of Bridgeport was Cornelius Howard, a Kentuckian who settled in the county in 1816 ...
James Pitzer was the first surveyor of Warren County, and settled east of Loutre Creek, and became one of the prominent men of the times. Irwin Pittman lived on Massa Creek in the very early days ... The Pittmans at one time owned the greater part of Loutre Island ... (--p. 1062.)
Elkhorn Township is bounded on the north by Camp Branch Township, the southern corner of Montgomery County, and the southwestern corner of Lincoln County, on the east by Hickory Grove Township, and on the west by Bridgeport Township.
Hickory Grove Township was set off from Elkhorn in 1839. Elkhorn Township was established during the first session of the county court, in August, 1833, at which time its boundaries included what is now Hickory Grove Township ...
[IV]
The old Boone Lick road runs east and west through the township ... Among the early settlers of Elkhorn Township was Mordecai Morgan, a native of Shelby County, Kentucky, who settled in Warren County in 1814, on the present site of Warrenton; and Newton Howell, who lived about three and a half miles northeast of Warrenton. (--pp. 1065, 1066.)
Hickory Grove Township was set off from Elkhorn in 1839 ... The township is bounded on the north by Montgomery County, east by St. Charles County, south by Charette and west by Charette and Elkhorn Townships ... The Bryans, the Boones and other families of note lived in what is now Hickory Grove Township ...
Among the ling list of men who were heroes in Warren County was Thomas Kennedy, a soldier of the Revolution, who settled in Hickory Grove Township in 1809. He built the post known as Kennedy's Fort, and was one of the foremost men of his day. The early settlers looked to him for advice and protection when danger threatened ... (--pp. 1020, 1021.)
Camp Branch Township was one of the original townships established in 1833, when the county was organized. It is bounded on the north and east by Lincoln County, south by Elkhorn Township and on the west by Montgomery County.
Among the first to located was Conrad Yoder, a German, who married in Virginia and came to Warren County in 1818. He erected several mills on Camp Branch Creek ... Walter Carrico, a descendant of an old Spanish family, who came into the State, when Missouri was part of Louisiana Territory. (--p. 1129.)
Page numbers refer to Hist. of Warren Co., 1885.