County: Carroll County
Location of courthouse: Main St. & W. Washington Ave., Carrollton
Location of county: Upper portion above central in state; crossroads of US-65 & US-24
Organized: Jan. 2, 1833
Named after: Charles Carroll, local resident and signer of Declaration of Independence
County seat: Carrollton
Elevation (highest): 274 meters (899 feet)
Population: 8,796 (2017)
"Carroll County, Missouri, is located in the northwestern portion of the State, being forty-five miles east of the east line of Kansas and sixty-six miles from the south line of the State of Iowa...It is bounded on the north by Livingston County; on the east by Grand River which separates it from Chariton County; on the south by the Missouri River, which separates it from Saline and Lafayette Counties; and on the west by Ray and Caldwell Counties...
"The territory now embraced in Carroll County formed a part successively of St. Charles, Howard and Ray Counties. The territory of Louisiana originally embraced five districts, viz: St. Louis, St. Charles, Ste. Genevieve, Cape Girardeau and New Madrid. In 1816 Howard County was formed out of the western parts of St. Louis and St. Charles districts, and included all the country on both sides of the Missouri River, between the mouth of the Osage River and the mouth of the Kansas River. Ray County was organized in 1820, and the present Carroll County, formed a part of it. On the organization of Carroll County in 1833 its boundaries extended north to the Iowa State Line, and out of its territory the counties of Livingston, Grundy and Mercer have been formed. The organization of Livingston County, in 1837, reduced Carroll County to its present limits...
"Carroll County was organized and the bill was signed January 3, 1833. It was originally intended to call the new county "Wakenda," for the stream of that name which flows through its territory. The bill forming the new county under this name had already passed its first and second readings; but when it came up for final passage the news of the death of Charles Carroll of Carrollton, the last surviving signer of the Declaration of Independence was received at Jefferson City. The proposition was made to call the new county "Charles Carroll, of Carrollton," but it was sensibly shortened to "Carroll," when the bills passed without a dissenting vote.
"The survey of Carroll County was begun by government surveyors in 1816 and completed the following year. There were no white settlements at that time within the limits of the county...While surveyors were in the neighborhood of White Rock a barrel of whiskey was obtained, over which the surveyors made merry around the evening campfire. Whether too much was imbibed for their own good or not will, perhaps, never be known, but it is an undeniable fact that subsequent surveyors have had great difficulty in tracing out the old lines of that survey in that locality; and in fact some disturbing cause seems to have operated to the disadvantage of the surveys throughout the whole of range 21...
"The first session of the county court of Carroll County was held at the residence of Nathaniel Cary (or Carey), as was provided by the act under which the county was organized...on February 4, 1833. This house stood in Section 13, Township 52, Range 22, near what is now known as the Chinn Bridge on Waknenda Creek." ~ 20th Century History of Carroll County, 1911, Turner, Vol. I, pp. 25-26, 29, 82, 87