County: Reynolds County
Location of county: on edge on SE quadrant of state; crossroads of MO-21, MO-49 & MO-72
Organized: Feb. 25, 1845
Named after: Thomas Reynolds, governor
County seat: Centerville
Elevation (highest): 544 meters (1,785 feet)
Population: 6,275 (2017)
The Person:
"Thomas Reynolds, 1840-1844
Thomas Reynolds was born in Bracken County, Kentucky to Nathaniel and Catherine Vernon Reynolds on March 12, 1796. After receiving his basic education and training in the law, he moved to Illinois where he was admitted to the Illinois Bar in 1817.
"Reynolds served as the Clerk of the Illinois House of Representatives (1818-1822), Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Illinois (1822-1825), and as a member of the Illinois House of Representatives (1826-1828).
"Reynolds married Eliza Ann Young on September 22, 1823 in Fayette County, Kentucky. In 1829, the couple moved to Fayette, Missouri where he was elected as representative to the state legislature from Howard County in 1832. Reynolds was immediately chosen as Speaker of the House.
"He next served as circuit judge of the Second Judicial District encompassing Adair, Knox, and Lewis counties in 1837. Reynolds was elected as the seventh governor of Missouri in 1840, having defeated John B. Clark.
"As governor, Reynolds carried out a vision of limited government. He believed that each state had the right to settle the question of slavery within its borders and advocated life imprisonment for those aiding escaped slaves.
"On October 16, 1843, Governor Reynolds issued the first Thanksgiving Day proclamation for Missouri, setting aside the fourth Thursday in November.
"During his tenure, the University of Missouri enrolled its first class, the debtor imprisonment law was repealed, and voting requirements were improved.
"On the morning of February 9, 1844, the Governor requested a prayer at the breakfast table, retired to his office and committed suicide. The sealed message left on his writing desk cited slanders and abuse received from his political opponents. He is interred in Woodlawn Cemetery, Jefferson City, Missouri." ~ Missouri Digital Heritage
The Place:
"In an area of rugged beauty near the geologic center of the Ozark Highland, Reynolds County was organized 1845, and named for Missouri's 7th governor, Thomas Reynolds. Drained by the Black River, called L'eau Noire by early French trappers, the county lies in land claimed by the Osage Indians until 1808. Kentuckian Henry Fry was probably the first settler in 1812.
"Centerville, the second town to serve as county seat, is on the West Fork of Black River. 80 acres were acquired there from John Buford for $100 in 1845. It succeeded Lesterville as the county seat when the courthouse there burned, 1867.1 Centerville had a courthouse, 1872. In Civil War , troops and guerrilla bands foraged the area.
"Clearwater Lake, in southeast Reynolds County, flood control measure and popular resort area, was impounded by a dam built on Black River, 1940-48. Near Lesterville is Johnson Shut-Ins State Park, opened 1956, on land donated by Joseph Desloge. The scenic shut-ins, where East Fork of Black River flows over some of Missouri's oldest exposed rock, is named for an earlier settler.
"Reynolds County, resort, lumbering, and livestock farming area, was once one of the State's leading timber producers. About 85 percent of the virgin pine forests were cut out in the lumbering boom on the 1880's to 1920's. During 1898, a peak year, some 92 million board feet were produced. A large part of the county is now in Clark National Forest, established during the 1930's.2
"The lumber industry brought the Mill Spgs., Current R., Barnesville (Mo. Southern) Railroad. No longer operating, it was built through west Reynolds County in 1884-86. Ellington, founded 1847, by Thomas Barnes was a prominent lumber town and shipping center. Ruble, Corridon, Reynolds, Garwood, and Bunker were other shipping stations. Redford, Black, Monterey, and Greeley are among other county communities.
"Near Lesterville at Proffit Mtn. (altitude 800 feet) is Taum Sauk power station built 1960-63. Water pumped at night through a 7000-foot tunnel cut through solid granite to reservoir atop the mountain is released to create daytime power by flowing down to reservoir at the foot of the mountain made by damming East Fork of Black River." ~ State Historical Society of Missouri, 1961
Corrections and updates since 1961:
1) The first courthouse in Centerville opened in 1850 and was burned in 1863. The second courthouse built in 1867, burned in 1871.
2.) Clark National Forest was combined with the Mark Twain National Forest in 1976.