County of courthouse: Vernon County
Location of building: 100 W. Cherry St., Nevada
Loction of county: western border and top edge of SW quadrant; crossroads of I-49, MO-43 & US-54
County Organized: Feb. 27, 1855
County seat: Nevada
Named after: Miles Vernon, a state senator
Elevation (highest): 385 meters (1,263 feet)
Population: 20,437 (2017)
The Person:
"Miles S. Vernon, Colonel of the Militia
b. March 26,1786 VA.
d.Aug.15,1866 Phelps, MO., of pneumonia in a hotel he inherited
he lost all personal fortune slaves & homestead.
Son of Thomas III & Nancy "Nannie" (Hicks) Vernon.
The Vernon's moved from VA., to Monroe county, TN.
Col. Miles was State senator 1835 - 1836 and State Senator for MO., for 20 yrs., till the civil war broke out he took all but the youngest of 7 sons south were he enlisted in the confederate army.
Vernon county, is named after him and the Vernon cemetery he established in 1840's in W. Lebanon.
"Col. Miles M/1 1803 to Ann Catlett Atchley b.1787 TN., and had 10 ch., Ann d. 1856 in MO.
He M/2 in 1857 Ann's sister or half sister Sarah "Pasty (Atchley) Wyatt, widow of Moses Wyatt.
They separated over beliefs no children." ~ The Civil War Massage Board
"He was the son of Thomas Gaines Vernon and Nancy Harrison.
Vernon County, Missouri is named after him.
The photo of the house has this note on the back:
"Col. Miles Vernon Home, S.W. Lebanon, Mo.
Original house of logs built 1840. Covered with rustic since Civil War.
Military Hospital in Civil War.
General Lyons' Northern Army camped here on way to Wilson's Creek to meet defeat by General Price. The Colonel joined Price and went south to Texas...for duration of War. At close of War he returned to old home and was turned over to Federal Concentration Camp at Rolla, Mo. He died there of pneumonia, a broken man, all personal fortune, slaves and homestead lost. Title to same to son Lillard Vernon upon leaving for south 1861. No distribution made later to other heirs. A blot on the honesty of a trustee."
Missouri State records state that Miles, "Presided over the Senate branch of the Claiborne Jackson Legislature which adopted the Neosho Ordinance of Secession. Afterwards went with Gen. Price South where he remained during the War." ~ Find-A-Grave
The Place:
"The first white settlers of whom there is record found evidence of previous occupation by civilized people.
"(Two miles north of Blue Mound, named for Anselm Halley. This is presumably the site of Fort Carondelet, established about 1787 by Pierre Chouteau, Sr., under Spanish authority, and commissioned by him. This was at once a fortification and a trading-post. Here, as late as 1838, were remains which the white settlers took to be those of lead furnaces, and some writers ... have argued that De Soto made his winter headquarters there in 1541-1542. Chouteau abandoned the post and must have destroyed it, for Lieutenant Pike, who ascended the river in 1806, makes no reference to it ...)
"The first permanent settlers were three brothers -- Jesse J. Moses, and Allen Summers. They were Kentuckians, who had removed to Warren County, Mo., about 1820, afterward went into Arkansas, and in 1829 or 1830 located on the Osage River, fifteen miles northwest of the site of the present city of Nevada. In 1832 William Modrel came from Harmony Mission, (Butler Co.) and located one mile east of the present Little Osage Post-Office, which came to be known as Balltown, when Cecil D. Ball located there in 1837, after visiting the county in 1833 ...
"The real development of Vernon County dates from October 26, 1870, when the first railway reached Nevada, The Tebo and Neosho, now a portion of the Missouri, Kansas and Texas System ...
"In 1851 and ineffectual attempt was made to organize Vernon County. February 27, 1855, it was created out of Bates County (which see) and named after Miles Vernon, who fought under General Jackson at New Orleans ... Hiram Stevens, of Cass County; James Ramey, of Bates County; and James F. Walker, of Jasper County were appointed commissioners to locate a county seat. They neglected to act, and a new commission was appointed, of whom A. Cassel, of Cass County, and J. W. Boyd, of Jasper County, acted in agreement upon the selection of Nevada City, by which name it was known until 1869, when the word "city" was dropped. The people of Bates County undertook to defeat the institution of the new county by writ of injunction, forbidding the location of a county seat. (See A Directory of Bates County to be issued later, for particulars. The action of the commissioners was defended by R. L. Y. Payton and C. F. Bullock, and they were sustained ... The first term of the county court was held July 9, 1855, at the house of Noah Caton, four miles north of Nevada." ~ Encyclopedia of the History of Missouri, Conrad, 1901, Vol. 6, pp. 296, 298, 299.
"At the time of the location of Harmony Mission in Bates County, in 1824, the Big Osage Indians had quite a large village 8 miles northeast of the present site of Nevada, governed by a noted chief among the tribes, known as White Hair, and there was also a village of the Little Osages, 3 miles north of the present site of Balltown ...
"John Son, an old veteran of the War of 1812, settled at Belvoir and established the first ferry service across the Osage River. The first dry goods store on the south side of the Marmaton, was established one mile south of Cephas ford, by Wm. Waldo from Virginia." ~ Gazetteer of Missouri, Campbell, 1874, pp. 623, 624a.
Note: According to the office of Secretary of State, Jefferson City, Mo., Vernon County was organized February 17, 1851.