County of waymark: Dallas County
Location of marker: Cedar St. & Main St., courthouse lawn, Buffalo
Marker erected by: State Historical Society of Missouri and State Highway Commission
Date marker erected: 1961
The Person:
"DALLAS, George Mifflin, (great-great-granduncle of Claiborne Pell), a Senator from Pennsylvania and a vice president of the United States; born in Philadelphia, Pa., July 10, 1792; graduated from the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University) in 1810; studied law; admitted to the bar in 1813; private secretary to Albert Gallatin, Minister to Russia; returned in 1814 and commenced the practice of law in New York City; solicitor of the United States Bank 1815-1817; returned to Philadelphia and was appointed deputy attorney general in 1817; mayor of Philadelphia October 21, 1828-April 15, 1829; United States district attorney for the eastern district of Pennsylvania 1829-1831; elected as a Democrat to the United States Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Isaac D. Barnard and served from December 13, 1831, to March 3, 1833; declined to be a candidate for reelection in 1832; chairman, Committee on Naval Affairs (Twenty-second Congress); resumed the practice of law; attorney general of Pennsylvania 1833-1835; appointed by President Martin Van Buren as Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to Russia 1837-1839, when he was recalled at his own request; elected Vice President of the United States on the Democratic ticket in 1844 with James K. Polk and served from March 4, 1845, to March 3, 1849; appointed Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to Great Britain by President Franklin Pierce 1856-1861; returned to Philadelphia, and died there December 31, 1864; interment in St. Peter's Churchyard." ~ Library of Congress
"Born: 10-Jul-1792
Birthplace: Philadelphia, PA
Died: 31-Dec-1864
Location of death: Philadelphia, PA
Cause of death: unspecified
Remains: Buried, St. Peter's Episcopal Churchyard, Philadelphia, PA
Gender: Male
Race or Ethnicity: White
Sexual orientation: Straight
Occupation: Politician
Party Affiliation: Democratic
Nationality: United States
Executive summary: Vice President under James Knox Polk
American statesman and diplomat, born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on the 10th of July 1792. He graduated at Princeton in 1810 at the head of his class; then studied law in the office of his father, Alexander J. Dallas, the financier, and was admitted to the bar in 1813. In the same year he accompanied Albert Gallatin, as his secretary, to Russia, and in 1814 returned to the United States as the bearer of important dispatches from the American peace commissioners at Ghent. He practiced law in New York and Philadelphia, was chosen mayor of Philadelphia in 1828, and in 1829 was appointed by President Andrew Jackson, whom he had twice warmly supported for the presidency, United States attorney for the eastern district of Pennsylvania, a position long held by his father. From 1831 to 1833 he was a Democratic member of the United States Senate, in which he advocated a compromise tariff and strongly supported Jackson's position in regard to nullification. On the bank question he was at first at variance with the president; in January 1832 he presented in the Senate a memorial from the bank's president, Nicholas Biddle, and its managers, praying for a recharter, and subsequently he was chairman of a committee which reported a bill re-chartering the institution for a fifteen-year period. Afterwards, however, his views changed and he opposed the bank. From 1833 to 1835 Dallas was attorney-general of Pennsylvania, and from 1835 to 1839 was minister to Russia. During the following years he was engaged in a long struggle with James Buchanan for party leadership in Pennsylvania. He was Vice President of the United States from 1845 to 1849, but the appointment of Buchanan as secretary of state at once shut him off from all hope of party patronage or influence in the Polk administration, and he came to be looked upon as the leader of that body of conservative Democrats of the North, who, while they themselves chafed at the domination of Southern leaders, were disposed to disparage all anti-slavery agitation. By his casting vote at a critical period during the debate in the Senate on the tariff bill of 1846, he irretrievably lost his influence with the protectionist element of his native state, to whom he had given assurances of his support of the Tyler tariff of 1842. For several years after his retirement from office, he devoted himself to his law practice, and in 1856 succeeded James Buchanan as United States minister to England, where he remained until relieved by Charles Francis Adams in May 1861. During this trying period he represented his country with ability and tact, making every endeavor to strengthen the Union cause in Great Britain. He died at Philadelphia on the 1st of December 1864. He wrote a biographical memoir for an edition of his father's writings, which was published in 1871. His Diary of his residence in St. Petersburg and London was published in Philadelphia in 1892.
Father: Alexander J. Dallas (US Treasury Secretary, b. 21-Jun-1759, d. 16-Jan-1817)
Mother: Arabella Maria Smith
Brother: Alexander J. Dallas (Navy officer, b. 15-May-1791, d. 3-Jun-1844)
Wife: Sophia Chew Nicklin (m. 23-May-1816, d. 11-Jan-1869, eight children)
University: Princeton University (1810)
US Ambassador to the United Kingdom (1856-61)
US Vice President under James Knox Polk (4-Mar-1845 to 3-Mar-1849)
US Ambassador to Russia (1837-39)
Attorney General of Pennsylvania (1833-35)
US Senator, Pennsylvania (31-Dec-1831 to 3-Mar-1833)
US Attorney Pennsylvania (1829-31)
Mayor of Philadelphia (21-Oct-1828 to 15-Apr-1829)"
~ NNDB - Soylent Communications
The County:
DALLAS COUNTY
Dallas County, organized 1841, was first called Niangua for the river flowing within its borders, but the name proved difficult and
it was changed to Dallas in 1844 for U. S. Vice Pres. George M. Dallas. Settled in the early 1830's by pioneers from Tenn., Ind., and Ohio, the county lies in territory ceded by the Osage Indians in 1808.
Buffalo, the county seat, laid out 1841, is on an extensive plain named Buffalo Head Prairie for a buffalo skull landmark erected by first settler Mark Reynolds, 1833. In Oct., 1863, Gen. Joseph O. Shelby's Confederates burned the courthouse and raiders burned the Methodist Church in July, 1864, then used as a courthouse. A pro-Union county, Dallas suffered numerous guerrilla raids.
In a futile effort to get a railroad, the county issued $235,000 in bonds in 1869-71, and contracted with the Laclede and Fort Scott R. R. Co., for roadbed and bridges. The contract was fulfilled, but the railroad was rerouted to miss the county and then it refused to pay. The debt plus interest rose into millions before it was compromised at $300,000 and finally paid off in 1940.
Dallas County, with timbered Ozark hills on the east and rolling prairies on the west, is a livestock, diary, and grain farming area. From the late 1860's to the 1890's, lead and zinc were mined. In 1882, a vein of fuller's earth, one of the first discovered in U. S., was found near Buffalo and worked briefly.
Urbana, to the northwest, dates from the mid-1860's. Other communities developing after the Civil War were Charity, Celt, Plad, Redtop, Tunas, Louisburg, Windyville, Long Lane. In 1870's, near Buffalo, was Friendship, a communal colony founded by Alcander Longley; the mutualistic Home Employment Co-op Co., at Long Lane, was founded, 1901.
Bennett Spring State Park in Dallas and Laclede counties, dates from 1924. James A. Brice in 1837 was the first settler at the spring which wells up an avg. 71 million gals. daily in a gravelly basin. The area is described in "The Calling of Dan Matthews," by Harold Bell Wright. In Dallas County were born Philip A. Bennett, Lt. Gov. of Mo., 1925-29, Congressman, 1941-42; and Marion T. Bennett, Congressman, 1943-1949.Near Buffalo is site of noted pioneer Reynolds Nursery.