Grundy County, Missouri Genealogy Trails

Grundy County, Missouri Genealogy Trails

History

GRUNDY COUNTY, MISSOURI

A county in the northern part of the State, bounded on the north by Mercer; east by Sullivan and Linn; south by Livingston, and west by Daviess and Harrison Counties.
For many years before white men settled in Grundy County territory it was occupied as a hunting ground by tribes of Sac, Sioux and Pottawottomie Indians, who chased game over its prairies and through its forests.
There is no obtainable record or tradition of any permanent settlement being made in the county until 1833 when General W. P. Thompson, of Ray County, settled near Grand River.
The year following a number of Kentuckians and Tennesseeans, who had for a while lived in other parts of Missouri, located on land in the vicinity of the present site of Trenton. Among the first settlers were John Thrailkill, Levi Moore and William Cochran. During the next two years the settlements in the county were increased by the arrival of about a dozen other families, including those of Jewett Norris, John Scott, Daniel DeVaul, James R. Merrill Samuel Benson and the Perrys, Grubbs and Metcalfs.
It was organized as a separate and distinct county, January 2, 1841 and was named in the honor of General Felix Grundy, of Tennessee, Attorney General of the United States under President Van Buren.
Grundy County was a part of Carroll County when that county was organized, and later was attached to Livingston County.
[Encyclopedia of the History of Missouri Edited by Howard L, Conard Vol. Ill, page 130-131- C. Horton -2009]