Coutny of city: Knox County
Location: Crossroads of MO-6 & MO-15
Courthouse location: 4th St. & E. LaFayette St., Edina
Elevation: 814'
Population: 1,153 (2013)
"Edina, the seat of Knox County, was laid out here in the glacial plains of northeast Missouri, 1839, by W.J. Smallwood. Scotsman S.W.B. Carnegy, who surveyed the new town, named it the poetic form of Edinburgh. The county, formed 1843 and organized 1845, is named for Revolutionary War General Henry Knox. An area rich in soil and water resources, Knox County lies in territory ceded by the Iowa, Sac, and Fox Indians in 1824. Some 70 Indian mounds have been found in the county.
"Early schools in Edina were St. Joseph's Academy [which became a grade school then closed its doors in 1996.] founded, 1865; Lyon Academy, 1866; Edina Seminary (Knox Collegiate Institute), 1878; St. Joseph's College for Boys, 1883; and at Novelty, to the south, was Oaklawn College, founded in 1876.
"Centered in rolling prairie land of Knox County, a grain and livestock farming area, Edina lies north of the South Fork of the Fabius (name probably derived from early trapper).
"During the Civil War, Edina was occupied July 30, 1861, by Colonel M.E. Green and the pro-Southern State Guards.
In the railroad boom after the war, The Quincy, Mo., and Pac. R.R. (C.B.& Q.) reached Edina, 1872.
"Edina was the birthplace of noted jurist George Turner (1850-1932). Union General T.T. Taylor edited an Edina newspaper, 1868-73, and Confederate Capt. Griffin Frost, author of "Camp and Prison Journal," edited another paper here, 1874-1905." ~ State Historical Society of Missouri