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Gentry
County, Missouri Genealogy Trails
Gentry County "Firsts"
By: Ben L.
Peery, Albany
Source: A History of Northwest Missouri
Edited by: Walter
Williams
Assisted by: Advisory and Contributing
Editors
Copyright:
1915
Volume
1
Transcribed by: Melody
Beery - 2009
The first store of the county was opened three miles east of the
present site of Gentryville, and operated by a man
named
Stephenson
The first gristmill was
installed by Taylor McCulley,
four miles east of
Gentryville, in 1838. Before this time settlers
were compelled to make the journey of seventy miles
by horseback to
Plattsburg for their
grist.
The first school taught in the county
was conducted by E.W. Dunnegan, a Baptist preacher,
in 1840
The
first postoffice was at
Sandsville, two miles south of the present site of
Albany.The postoffice was named after Daniel
Saunders, a native of North
Carolina, who had left
his home near the Atlantic coast and in the spirit
of adventure braved the wilds this far beyond the
Mississippi.
Saunders was the first postmaster
in the county, having been appointed to
that office
about 1838. He built a log cabin at Old Sandville and
also a storeroom, and was the merchant as well as
postmaster for several
years. In 1842 the
community received an addition to its equipment
in
the nature of a horse mill, which was moved up from its former location
east of Gentryville.
Saunders has the honor
of housing the first
County Court of Gentry County,
which met at his cabin and organized as a
body in
1845. Sandsville did not long survive the establishment of
the county seat, which was located two miles to the
north, and the affairs
of the county were
transferred there. There is nothing left of the
old Sandsville buildings at this date to mark the
site of the first
community in Gentry County and the
first Government postoffice. All
that
perpetuates the name of the original pioneer of Athens Township is
the name of the school district which comprises that
territory,
Sandsville.
The first church
building erected in the county, in
Miller Township,
was built in 1843 by the Presbyterians, and was called
Mount Zion.
The first physician was Doctor
Hood of Miller
Township.
The first marriage
recorded was that of Abraham Popples
and Barbara
Rhudy, which was solomnized
April 3, 1845.
The first
death in Gentry County occurred in Athens Township,
that of Col. E.H.
Wood, in 1847.
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Gentry County, Missouri Genealogy Trails
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