Caldwell County, Missouri

Caldwell County, Missouri
Location in the state of Missouri
Missouri's location in the U.S.
Founded	1836
Seat	Kingston
Area  - Total  - Land  - Water	429.34 sq mi (1,112 km²) ,
Population  - (2000)  - Density	8,969
Time zone	Central: UTC-6/-5

Caldwell County is a county located in the U.S. state of Missouri. As of 2000, the population was 8,969. Its county seat is Kingston. The county was organized in 1836 as a haven for the Mormons, who had been previously driven from Jackson County, Missouri in November 1833 and had been refugees in adjacent Clay County ever since. The county was one of the principal settings of the 1838 Missouri Mormon War, which led to the expulsion of all Latter Day Saints from Missouri following the issuance of a so-called "extermination order" by then Governor Lilburn Boggs.

Caldwell is part of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area.

History

Origin of name

According to the Missouri Secretary of State, the County was named by Alexander Doniphan to honor John Caldwell, who participated in the George Rogers Clark Indian Campaign of 1786 and was the second lieutenant governor of Kentucky. He was also the namesake of Caldwell County, Kentucky.

Mormon settlement

Caldwell County was originally part of Ray County, Missouri. The first white settler was Jesse Mann, Sr. who settled one half mile northeast of the public square of Kingston on Shoal Creek in 1831. The early settlers moved back south in 1832 for better protection during the Black Hawk War uprising.

In 1832 a few Mormon settlers, who had been evicted from Jackson County, Missouri, moved into the county. These included Jacob Haun, whose mill on Shoal Creek would become the scene of the bloodiest battle in the Mormon War, known as the Haun's Mill Massacre.

The settlers established the first town in the county—Salem—two miles southeast of Kingston. In the fall of 1836 a larger number of Mormons moved to the county. In December 1836 the Missouri General Assembly created Caldwell County, with the understanding it would be dedicated to Mormon settlers. Its county seat was Far West, Missouri. By 1838 Far West reported a population of 4,000.

Included in the migration were the major figures of early Mormon history, including Joseph Smith, Jr., Hyrum Smith, Brigham Young, John Taylor (Mormon), Edward Partridge, Sidney Rigdon, Parley P. Pratt and John D. Lee.

Mormon War

Mormon settlers moved further north into Daviess County, Missouri, particularly at Adam-ondi-Ahman after Smith proclaimed that it as the Bibilical place where Adam and Eve were banished after leaving the Garden of Eden. He said it would be a gathering place on the Judgement Day. Following a skirmish between original Missouri settlers and Mormon settlers in the Gallatin Election Day Battle, the Mormon War erupted.

After the Missouri militia was routed in the Battle of Crooked Creek, the Missouri Governor Lilburn Boggs issued Missouri Executive Order 44 to evict the Mormons from the state. Three days later a group from Livingston County, Missouri killed 18 Mormons in the Haun's Mill massacre. Troops laid siege to Far West, where Smith surrendered in October 1838. The settlers agreed to leave; they abandoned Far West and regrouped in Nauvoo, Illinois.

Following the dissolution of Far West, the county seat was moved to Kingston.

Notable natives

• James Cash Penney, founder of J. C. Penney
• Charles J. Hughes, Jr., U.S. Senator
• Frank B. Klepper, Congressman
• Zack Wheat, professional baseball player

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 430 square miles (1,113.7 km²), of which 0.09% is water.

Adjacent counties

• Daviess County (north)
• Livingston County (east)
• Carroll County (southeast)
• Ray County (south)
• Clinton County (west)
• DeKalb County (northwest)

Major highways

• U.S. Route 36
• Route 13
• Route 116

Cities and towns

Braymer Breckenridge Cowgill Hamilton

Kidder Kingston Polo

• Far West (ghost town / historic site)

Townships

Caldwell County is divided into twelve townships:

Breckenridge Davis Fairview Gomer

Grant Hamilton Kidder Kingston

Lincoln Mirabile New York Rockford

See also

• National Register of Historic Places listings in Caldwell County, Missouri

Sources

• Booth, Bertha Ellis (1936). A Short History of Caldwell County. Hamilton, MO: Hamilton Public Schools. pp. 23. http://files.usgwarchives.net/mo/caldwell/misc/booth3.txt. 
• Caldwell County, Missouri: A Peek in the Past. 1. Missouri: Caldwell County Historical Society. 1985. 
• Hamer, John C. (Spring 2008). "Mapping Mormon Settlement in Caldwell County, Missouri". Mormon Historical Studies 9 (1): 15–38. http://www.mormonhistoricsitesfoundation.org/publications/studies_spring2008/3-MHS_spring2008_Caldwell-County-Missouri.pdf. 
• History of Caldwell and Livingston Counties, Missouri. St. Louis: National Historical Company. 1886. pp. 1227. http://www.archive.org/stream/historyofcaldwel00peas#page/n5/mode/2up. 
• Jensen, Andrew (January 1888). "Caldwell County, Missouri". The Historical Record 8 (1): 685–723. http://books.google.com/books?id=Is1LAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA685#v=onepage&q&f=false. 
• Johnston, Carrie Polk; McGlumphy, W.H.S. (1923). History of Clinton and Caldwell Counties, Missouri. Topeka; Indianapolis: Historical Publishing Company. pp. 836. 
• LeSueur, Stephen C. (Fall 2005). "Missouri's Failed Compromise: The Creation of Caldwell County for the Mormons". Journal of Mormon History 31 (3): 113–144. 
• Walker, Jeffrey N. (2008). "Mormon Land Rights in Caldwell and Daviess Counties and the Mormon Conflict of 1838: New Findings and New Understandings". BYU Studies 47 (1): 5–55. http://byustudies.byu.edu/showTitle.aspx?title=7873. 

External links

Media related to Caldwell County, Missouri at Wikimedia Commons

• Caldwell County Website
• Digitized 1930 Plat Book of Caldwell County from University of Missouri Division of Special Collections, Archives, and Rare Books