The relief art is positioned two each of the four, for a total of eight. I will attempt a brief explaination of each:
1.
1804 - represents the Lewis and Clark exploration which went through the county along the Missouri River.
The Corp of Discovery entered into the county on or about May 29, 1804. They even broke a mast near Jefferson City, camping in Callaway County on June 4, 1804.
2.
1808 - Daniel Boone passing through the county.
3.
1808 - The first homestead.
4.
1818 - The first church.
5.
1821 - A famous trial.
6.
1839 - The first newspaper.
The first apparent newspaper in Callaway County was the Fulton based Banner of Liberty, a weekly publication.
7.
1855 - The first railroad.
8.
1861 - The American Civil War and the founding of the Kingdom of Callaway
Of the eight images, this is the one that I am the most familiar with and can explain the best.
In 1861, Missouri was a state in turmoil. This state had the second most battles of any state. Part of the reason was due to the large imigration of people from the North, South and foreign lands. While logic would say that atleast individual counties would have the same loyalties, this was not the case; many counties were as divided as the state they were in.
Through out early to mid-1861, state after state succeeded from the Union. The United States government made the decision to stop the rapidly escallating situation, by stopping the remaining states likely to succeed. Federal troops already occuppied St. Louis by May 1861, and by July had ran the legally elected government out of the state capital.
In October 1861, Federal troops formed in Montgomery County to the west, to subdue the rebels in Callaway County. The locals were il-equiped to deal with a mounting force, so they did what was the only other solution, bluff! Armed, mostly with shotguns, they painted logs and set them up to look like cannons. As the Union spies reported back, the Federal commander, General John B. Henderson, postponed the attack. As reports returned to the Federal camp, the commander of the "rebels," Colonel Jeff Jones, sent a message to Federal commander that he the rebels would disband, if only the Federal troops would leave with attacking, arresting, or harming the citizens of Callaway County. The message was a rouge, only attempting to determine the strength of the opposing force, but the Federal commander bought into the terms of the letter. He agreed to the terms choosing to leave the rather than chance lossing in battle to this group of "well trained and armed" men.
Essentially, the Federal commander General John B. Henderson, allowed the citizens of Callaway County to negotiate its independence. Through these actions, the county became the "Kingdom of Callaway." Even after the war was over, citizens refused reconstruction relief from outsiders. The right of the people was still the supreme law. "We were proud that we had faced adversity, had stood strong against it, and had won our right to be who we wanted to be."
Quote taken from the Kingdom of Callaway Historical Society website.