County:L Harrison County
Location of courthouse
Location of county: Northern border with Iowa and in the NW quadrant of the state; crossroads of I-35, US-69 & US-136
Organized: Feb. 14, 1845
Named after: Albert G. Harrison, member of Congress
County seat: Bethany
Elevation (highest): 892 ft (272 m)
Population: 8,524 (2017)
The Person:
"Albert Galliton Harrison (June 26, 1800 – September 7, 1839) was a three-term United States Representative from Missouri.
"Born in Mount Sterling, Kentucky, Harrison graduated from Transylvania University, Lexington, Kentucky, in 1820. He was then admitted to the bar and began his law practice in Mount Sterling. Seven years later, he moved to Fulton, Missouri.
"Harrison served as member of the Board of Visitors to the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1828, and from 1829 to 1835 was a member of the commission to settle land titles growing out of Spanish grants.
"In 1832, he was elected as a Jacksonian Democratic Representative to the Twenty-fourth Congress (March 4, 1835 – March 3, 1837). Harrison was re-elected as a Democratic Representative to the Twenty-fifth and Twenty-sixth Congresses (March 4, 1837 – September 7, 1839).
"Albert G. Harrison died six months into his third term in Fulton, Missouri at the age of 39 in 1839. His remains were interred in the Congressional Cemetery, Washington, D.C..
"Harrison County, Missouri is named for him, as is the town of Harrisonville in Cass County, Missouri." ~ Wikipedia
The Place:
"Under an act of the General Assembly of the Territory of Missouri, approved January 13, 1816, the county of Howard was erected, being the ninth organized county of the territory, and was taken out of the counties of St. Louis and St. Charles. It included among other counties what is now Harrison County...
"For a few years after the first settling of the county, the principal market place was at Liberty, Clay County...
"There were at this time no post-offices or post-roads in the county and what few letters were written by the settlers had to be sent to Cravensville, a small post-office in Daviess County, five or six miles north of Gallatin. This was a post-office that had been established by the Mormona and occupied by them, but after they left the village went to decay and the post-office was discontinued...
"The first post-office in the county was established at Bethany in 1845. For several years it went by the name of Bethpage, and David Buck was appointed postmaster. The mail was carried on horseback to and from Cravensville...once a week...
"Harrison County is one of the northern tier of counties, joining Iowa on the north, Mercer and Grundy on the east, Daviess County on the south and Gentry and Worth on the west ... The territory embraced within the limits of Harrison County originally formed a part of Daviess County and remained such until created a separate jurisdiction by an act of the General Assembly, approved March 28, 1845...
"The State line between the State of Missouri and Iowa was then in dispute and the district north of township 65 for a distance of about twelve miles was then called the "disputed territory." The State line was settled and permanently located in 1850 and iron stakes six inches square and six feet long were planted along the line at intervals of ten miles.
"Shortly after the organization of the county, commissioners were appointed to select a site for the county seat...After careful inspection and deliberation a site on the banks of Big Creek was chosen. The plat of the survey was made and the county seat was named Dallas...
"The settlers did not like the name of the county seat to be Dallas and at the November term, 1845, the county officers took a vote on the naming of the town which resulted in the choice of Bethany, and the name was changed accordingly...
"The County Court held its first session under a big tree on the west bank of Big Creek... " ~ History of Harrison County, 1921, Geo. W. Wanamaker, pp. 117, 138, 139, 151-154.
"According to the most reliable authority, no permanent settlements were made in the county, which was then a part of Daviess, until 1839, when John Conduit, Reuben Massey and William Mitchell located in the southern part...The circulating medium of the early times consisted of honey, beeswax, game and fish, and it was many years before any businesses were engaged in. St. Joseph was the nearest trading point of any importance...Harrison County Territory was included within the limits of Ray when that county was organized and later was part of Daviess, from which Harrison County was organized by legislative act approved February 14, 1845. It was named in honor of Honorable Albert G. Harrison, of Callaway County, who was a representative in Congress from 1834 to 1839... " ~ Encyclopedia of the History of Missouri, 1901, Conard, Vol. 3, p. 197.
"The time or place of the first settlement in the county is not definitely known. Joseph Arnold...is credited with being one of the first settlers and he stated that in the spring of 1838 his father and Levi Hunt settled on the west bank of Big Creek about five miles south of Bethany. That they found there when they came John Fields living a little lower down the creek on its east bank. That he had a little log hut and a small field enclosed and in cultivation...
"In 1841 there settled near where Bethany is John W. Brown, Thomas Tucker, Charles L. Jennings, E. M. Jennings and others. At that time there were no white settlers north of them except a few at Fort Des Moines where there was an Indian town and a fort... " ~ History of Harrison County, 1921, Wanamaker, pp. 123, 127.