County of city: Daviess County
Location of city: MO-13, just S. of MO-6
Elevation: 922'
Population: 1,762 (2013)
I just had to include the local jail. Called a squirrel cage jail, located in a hexagon building, and rotated to allow the jailer access to the door of each cell. Prisoners relieved body functions in a small trough with emptied outside into a gravel "moat" around the jail
"This Grand River town, platted in 1837 as the seat of Daviess County, is named in honor of Albert Gallatin, Secretary of the Treasury, 1801-1813. Settlers were in the area as early as 1830 and in 1836 the county was formed.
"Adam-ondi-Ahman, 5 miles northwest was settled by the Mormons on direction of Prophet Joseph Smith, 1838. The name is said to mean "Adam's Consecrated Land," for here, according to Smith, Adam blessed all the patriarchs before his death. At this place, also known as "Adam's Grave," Smith announced the discovery of the altar, on a nearby hill, where, he said, these ancients worshipped. Hostilities broke out between the Mormons and the anti-Mormons and a sharp skirmish took place in Gallatin. In 1839, when the Mormons were expelled from Missouri, Adam-ondi-Ahman was abandoned.
"Established in Gallatin were the Daviess County Female Academy and Masonic Hall, chartered in 1855. In 1893, Grand River College was moved here from Edinburg in Grundy County.
"Gallatin, settled on land ceded the U.S. by the Osage Indians, 1808, and by the Sauk, Fox, and Iowa tribes, 1824, served a fertile agricultural area of the Green Hills Region of North Missouri.
"Nearby is Grand River, called by the Indians Nischma-Honja and by early French writers Riviere Grande. This chief river of north Missouri has eroded a rock-walled valley paralleling the valley, a few miles east, which before the glacial age carried the Waters of the North, now the Missouri River, to the south.
"Gallatin was the scene of the trial of Frank James, elder brother of Jesse, after he voluntarily surrendered to Gov. Thomas T. Crittenden on charges of participating in a holdup of a train near Winston to the southwest. The trial, 1882, highlighted by the appearance of Confederate Gen. Joseph O. Shelby as a defense witness, ended in acquittal for Frank James.
"Here lived A.M. Dockery, Governor of Missouri, 1901-1905, and Joshua W. Alexander, Secretary of Commerce of U.S. 1919-1921." ~ State Historical Society of Missouri
When Frank James went to trial in Gallatin, Mo., in August 1883 for his actions (he had allegedly killed passenger Frank McMillan) during the July 15, 1881, Winston, Mo., train robbery, Edwards was still urging in the newspapers for all to be forgotten and for Frank to be acquitted. And Shelby was still in Frank’s corner, testifying as a character witness for his old friend. Shelby said that he had seen Jesse James in November 1880 but hadn’t known that Jesse was wanted by the authorities. Shelby added, ‘The last time Jesse was at my house was at Page City, in the fall of 1881, where I saw Frank James in 1872, which was the last time I saw him.’ The lead prosecuting attorney, William H. Wallace, questioned Shelby about a waybill the old general had signed for Frank’s wife, Annie Ralston James, in the spring of 1881. Drunk at the time of his testimony, Shelby didn’t like that line of questioning and threatened Wallace. The next day, he apologized to the court for his earlier behavior, but Judge Charles H.S. Goodman still fined him $10. After court had finished, Shelby again tried to intimidate Wallace, this time outside the courtroom.