Caldwell County, Missouri Genealogy Trails

History

CALDWELL COUNTY, MISSOURI
A county in the northwestern part of the State, bounded on the north by Daviess County, on the east by Livingston and Carroll south by Ray, and west by Clinton and DeKalb Counties. There were no permanent settlements made in the territory now Caldwell County until 1830.
That year Jesse Mann, who is credited with being the first permanent settler, located on land near what is now the center of the county,
in the vicinity of the site of Kingston. A few other settlers, among whom was Rufus Middleton, settled the same year on Shoal Creek,, It is not known that any others took up their residence in the county until 1832, when Zephaniah Woolsey settled in what is now the eastern part of the county. In 1834 Robert White, Richard Beerner and a few others settled near where Woolsey had located.
The State Legislature organized Caldwell County, December 26, 1836, by detachment from Ray County.
The author of the bill creating the county was General Alexander W. Doniphan, and he named the county after Colonel John Caldwell, of Kentucky. The Mormons, in 1836, moved into Caldwell County and laid out a town, which they called Far West. Leaders among the Mormons who settled in the county were Joseph and Hyrum Smith, John Carroll, Sidney Rigdon, W.W. Phelps, Edward Partridge, Philo Dibble, Elias Higbee, Edward Partrid?e, Oliver Cowdery, and many others.
Far West was the rallying point for all the "Saints" and Joseph Smith and his associates planned to make it one of the grandest cities of the world.
This town was made the first county seat.
In 1842 the county seat was moved to Kingston, about six miles southeast, a town laid out for county seat purposes and named in honor of Governor Austin A. King. There a courthouse was built. It was destroyed by fire, April 19, 1860, with all the records it contained.
[Encyclopedia of the History of Missouri Edited by Howard L. Conard Vol. I, 1901 Pages 466-467 - C. Horton - 0409]