County: Lewis County
Marker location: 101 Lafayette St, Monticello
Marker Sponsor: Monticello Bicentennial Committee.
Marker Text:
LEWIS COUNTY
1832 1982
In December 1832, the Legislature passed a bill introduced by the Honorable Charles Allen to organize Lewis County. Until then a part of Marion County. The name was chosen to honor Meriwether Lewis, who with William Clark, led the expedition to Oregon in 1804-1806.
The town of Monticello was platted in the fall of 1833 on 60 acres of ground donated to Lewis County by Andrew P. Williams. After two courthouses were destroyed by fire, the present courthouse was built in 1875 at a cost of $9,750.00 by contractors McAlister and Barnes. Since that time, County and Higher Courts have been held here.
"Lewis County, Missouri was first organized as a separate county on January 2, 1833 from Marion County. The county was named after Meriwether Lewis of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, later governor of the Missouri Territory. The third and present courthouse dates from 1875. Lewis County is one of the few remaining courthouses in Missouri dating from the 1870's. The towns are Canton, Durham, Ewing, La Belle, La Grange, Lewistown, Maywood, Monticello (county seat), Steffenville and Williamstown." ~ MoGenWeb
"Lewis County, bordering on the Mississippi River, has a river frontage of twenty-five miles in extent. It is bordered on the north by Clark, on the south by Marion and Shelby, and on the west by Knox. It was reduced to its present limits by the organization of Clark County in 1838, Scotland in 1841, and Knox in 1845. Inclusive of this territory, Lewis was organized with permanent boundaries in 1833 nearly three years after the towns of Canton and La Grange were established. Immediately previous to this time, all this territory had been attached to Marion County, as part of Fabius Township, for military, civil, and judicial purposes. In 1830, Canton Township was formed, followed in 1831 by Union. The county was thus divided into the two townships in 1838 on its organization. There followed by 1841 a division into six townships, and on the reorganization of the county in 1866 a division into eight, its present number. On its organization, the county was named for Governor Meriwether Lewis, the second governor of Missouri Territory, 1807. Captain Meriwhether Lewis (1774-1809), a native of Virginia, became private secretary to President Jefferson in his first term, and when in 1803, the President projected an expedition to explore the country just purchased west of the Mississippi River, he selected Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, officers both of the American Army, to take charge of the expedition. In the two years (1805-1806) that the expedition was absent, they crossed the country by way of the Missouri River to the Rockies and then descended the divide to the Pacific by way of the Columbia River. In 1807, Captain Lewis was honored by being made Governor of Missouri Territory. He died while in office." ~ Campbell's Gazetteer of Missouri, 1874, Page 308; History of Lewis County, 1887, Goodspeed, Pages 38, 62; History of Marion County, 1884, Goodpseed, page 192; History of N. E. Missouri, pages 378-386; Davis & Durrie 1876, page 49; Quincy Harold-Whig, Dec. 29, 1935; Map Missouri, 1934