County of city: Scott County
Location of city hall: Winchester St. & Tywappity St., courthouse lawn, Benton
Location of city: just N. of center in county; crossroads of US-61 & MO-E, MO-77
Founded:
Named for Thomas hart Benton, First US Senator from Missouri
Elevation: 436 ft (133 m)
Population: 858 (2017)
The Person:
Thomas Hart Benton, (born March 14, 1782, near Hillsborough, North Carolina, U.S.—died April 10, 1858, Washington, D.C.), American writer and Democratic Party leader who championed agrarian interests and westward expansion during his 30-year tenure as a senator from Missouri.
"After military service in the War of 1812, Benton settled in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1815 and became editor of the St. Louis Enquirer (1818–20). Vigorously asserting that the West must “share in the destinies of this Republic,” he appealed to a mixture of agrarian, commercial, and slaveholding interests and was elected a U.S. senator in 1820, an office he held until 1851.
"Building an electoral base among small farmers and traders in the mid-1820s, Benton became a crusader for the distribution of public lands to settlers. His views on many issues grew to coincide with those of President Andrew Jackson, and he was soon acknowledged as the chief spokesman for the Democratic Party in the Senate. In the 1830s he led in Congress Jackson’s successful fight to dissolve the Bank of the United States. Benton also eschewed wildcat state banks as economically unsound; rather, he advocated a federal independent treasury and a hard-money policy.
"Although he was generally considered proslavery and pro-Southern and was an early supporter of statehood for Missouri without restriction on bondage, in the 1840s he came to oppose the extension of slavery into the territories on the grounds that it inhibited the national growth and was a menace both to the Union and to his vision of the freeholder’s Arcadia. This steadfast antislavery position, applied repeatedly to emotionally charged sectional issues, finally cost him his Senate seat in 1851. He continued his opposition in the House of Representatives, however, from 1853 to 1855. Unlike many other antislavery Democrats, he rejected the newly formed Republican Party, and he went so far as to oppose his own son-in-law, John C. Frémont, as Republican presidential nominee (1856).
"Benton’s imposing memoir-history of his years in the Senate, Thirty Years’ View, 2 vol. (1854–56), was eloquent with agrarian and Jacksonian Democratic faith, opposition to slavery extension, and concern for the imperiled Union. He produced a learned Examination of the Supreme Court’s Dred Scott decision in 1858 (which reaffirmed that the status of slaves, as property, could not be affected by federal legislation), and his 16-volume Abridgement of the Debates of Congress through 1850 is still useful." ~ Britannica
The Place:
"Benton: The county seat of Scott County in the central part of Moreland Township. The first settlement was made in 1796 by Captain Charles Friend. The town was laid out in 1822 on land owned by Colonel Wm. Meyers and named for Thomas Hart Benton (1782-1858), one of the first senators from Missouri, who served from 1820-1850." ~ History of Southeast Missouri, Douglass Vol. I, pp. 108, 179, 290
"Benton, 5 miles northeast of Morley, formerly the county seat ... had one of the best school houses in the county, also 1 M. E. Church, South, 1 store, 1 tannery, 1 carding machine and 1 carpenter shop. Population about 150 (1874)." ~ Gazetteer of Missouri, 1874, Campbell, p. 597.
"The town of Benton was laid out in 1822, upon land owned by Col. William Rogers ... Among the first residents of the town were Edmund Rogers, who built a log tavern ... John Houts ... who ... ran a tanyard; Michael McLaughlin, who sold goods ... The first physicians were John Goulding and Samuel Chapman ... Benton was incorporated by the county court in April, 1860 ... The corporation was allowed to lapse and was not revived until November, 1880. In 1878, by a vote of the people, the seat of justice was removed to Benton." ~ History of Southeast Missouri, 1888, Goodspeed, pp. 303, 353, 354, 462.
It is located at Sec. 18, R. 14 E & Sec. 13, R 13 E in Twp. 28 N, at the junction of 61, 77 & E." ~ General Highway Map of Scott County, issued by the Missouri State Highway Department, 8-1-65.
"Benton, the county seat, laid out in 1822, is named for Thomas Hart Benton, one of Missouri’s first U.S. Senators. From 1864-78 the county seat was located at Commerce, a town laid out 1823 on Mississippi River. Long known as Tywappity, the townsite was a trading post and river landing by 1803. There was formed the first Baptist Church in what is now Missouri, 1805." ~ State Historical Society of Missouri