County: Scotland County
Location of courthouse: 117 South Market Street, Memphis
Location of county: Northern border and in the NE quadrant of state; crossroads of US-136 & MO-15
County organized: Jan. 29, 1841
County Named after: Scotland, the European nation
County seat: Memphis
Elevation: 240m (787 feet)
Population: 4,963 (2017)
"Upon the organization of Scotland County, the territory belonging to it as it is now composed, was comprised in Benton and Mount Pleasant Townships, then of Lewis County. Benton Township lay on the east, and embraced a little over one-half of the present area of the county, and Mount Pleasant adjoined it on the west and embraced the balance of the territory.
Soon after the organization the county court subdivided the county (including the territory of Knox) into the following named townships: Benton, Mount Pleasant, Johnson, Miller, Maidenkirk and Ayreshire. The record of the creation of these townships being lost, their boundaries (which remained permanent for only a short period) cannot now be given with the accuracy, and are therefore omitted. A general election, for the election of county officers, was ordered to be held in the townships thus organized at the usual time in August, 1842. The election for Benton Township was to be held at Sand Hill ... The election for Mount Pleasant Township was to be held in Edinburgh ... The election for Johnson Township was to be held at the house of Daniel S. Farnsworth ... The election for Miller Township was to be held at the house of John Crow ... At the election for Maidenkirk Township Frank Loweris, Charles H. Baldwin and Robert Nelson were appointed justices thereof (location was not given.) The election for Ayreshire Township was to be held at the house of Hezekiah G. Lyons ... (--Scotland Co., 438, 439.)" ~ Springfield-Greene County Library
"Scotland County was organized by act of the Missouri General Assembly on January 29, 1841. At first its boundaries contained all the land now known as Knox County as well, but another act by the General Assembly in 1843 divided it off. Surveyor S.W.B. Carnegy suggested that the county be named after his native country of Scotland. He also gave several settlements in the area Scottish names.
"The first white settlement in Scotland County occurred in 1833 by brothers Levi and George Rhodes and their families near a location known as “Sand Hill”. Sand Hill was in the southern part of the county, about twelve miles from present-day Memphis.
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"A general store was opened there around 1835 by James l. Jones, who also served as Scotland County’s first sheriff. Slavery, while never as prevalent in Scotland County as in others further south in the state’s Little Dixie region, did exist from the county’s earliest days. Robert T. Smith brought the first slaves, a group of three, to the county in 1834. In 1850 Scotland County had 157 slaves or other “non-free people of color”. However by the 1860 census that number reduced to 131.
"Farming was the primary economic lifeblood of Scotland County from its earliest times. Once the stands of timber could be cleared and the tough prairie grass plowed aside, settlers found rich soil. Between 1850 and 1880 the number of farms in the county area from 334 to 1,994. The value of the farmland, in 1880 dollars, was over $3.72 million. Corn was the major cash crop, followed by oats, wheat, and potatoes." ~ Scotland County, Missouri