History
Macon County was organized from Randolph and Chariton
counties. The county seat is Macon and was named after
Nathaniel Macon. The area, organized at the session of
the General Assembly was held in the city of Jefferson in
the winters of 1836-1837. Selecting and locating the
county seat (in Owenby Settlement - Bloomington) were
commissioners Joseph Baker and Henry Lasiler. Two room of
small log house contained the courts and an area to keep
their records. A brick court house was eventually built.
Rapid growth from the Hannibal and St. Joseph, the
Northwest railroads, and the influence of the great
rebellion necessitated a shift in the county seat from
Bloomington to Macon City. At the time, Macon had a
population of 3,000 and they soon built a court house and
jail.
The first
settler within the present boundaries of the county was
James Loe. He came from Wayne County, Kentucky in 1820 to
Howard County, Missouri living there until 1827. He then
moved south of Callao.
Agriculture
has always had an important role in county history. The
late Captain William Smith of Clark County, Kentucky came
to Missouri with other Kentuckians in 1839. This group
claimed their land just south of present day Macon.
Captain Smith then returned to Kentucky for some blue
grass seed and on a subsequent trip brought a herd of
Shorthorn cattle and Cotswold sheep, the first in
northeast Missouri.
Woodville is
the oldest town in Macon County: it was laid out in 1833
and was first called Centerville. There was a name change
to Woodville in 1850.
William H.
Rowland and his brother, Frederick Rowland entered the
first land in Middle Fork township in 1828. They were
originally from North Carolina and came to Randolph
county in 1822. Middle Fork township is in the southeast
corner of Macon county and gets it wat from the Middle
Fork of Salt River.
In early day
Woodville, mail was received weekly and was carried from
Macon to Paris in Monroe County and stopping at the small
post offices along the way. In 1836, William R. Graves
received a letter from Kentucky and he had to pay twenty
five cents to retrieve it from the post office.
Nathan
Walker, a Virginia native, came to Middle Fork Township
in 1840. He carried the first supplies in and out of the
county driving a yoke of oxen hitched to a covered wagon.
His route was from Woodville to Hannibal carrying farm
products.
In 1833 a
grist mill, Stinking Creek, was built in Morrow Township
by William Morrow, the third settler of the county. The
first mill in the county (after the county was chartered)
was established by Judge James C. Cochran at Bloomington
in 1837. Howell Rose established the first water mill in
the county.
While
digging a well Alex Rector discovered coal in Macon
county in 1860. Thomas Wardell began the coal industry in
the county in 1861 and maintained the lead in Missouri
until 1922.
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