Cass County, Missouri
History, Records, Facts and Genealogy

Cass County was organized March 3, 1835, from Jackson County and named for Lewis Cass, Michigan senator and presidential candidate. Originally organized as Van Buren County in honor of Martin Van Buren, the Democratic legislature changed the name to Cass on February 19, 1849, to honor Van Buren's Democratic opponent Lewis Cass. Van Buren ran as the Free-Soil candidate for president in 1848. The County Seat is Harrisonville. See also County History or Courthouse History for more historical details.

Cass County has records of genealogical interest available: Recorder of Deeds: Index to deeds, 1837-1886; Deed records, 1837-1899; Administrator’s deeds, 1879-1883; Quitclaim deeds, 1882-1896; Sheriff’s deeds, 1879-1883; Mortgage deeds, 1870-1871; School fund mortgages, 1869-1894; Deeds of trust, 1870-1903; Deed releases, 1884-1894; Marriage records, 1836-1918. Clerk of The Court of Common Pleas and Chancery Court: Index to common pleas, 1867-1878; Record of common pleas,1867-1878. Clerk of the County Court: Permanent record of births, 1883-1899; Register of births and stillbirths, 1883-1903. Clerk of the Circuit Court: Index to circuit court records, 1842-1888; Circuit court records, 1835-1886. Clerk of the Probate Court: Index to probate records, 1839-1956; Probate records, 1836-1887; Index to administrator’s/executor’s letters, bonds and records, 1830-1950; Administrator’s/executor’s letters, bonds and records, 1835-1901; Index to inventories, appraisements and sale bills, 1861-1916; Inventories, appraisements and sale bills, 1861-1887; Proof of publication, notices and affidavitts,1867-1881; Index to will records, 1830-1861; Will records, 1844-1918.. The Health Department has Birth & Death Records from 1910-Present. See Court Records for more details on whats available from the courthouse.

Counties adjacent to Cass County are Jackson County (north), Johnson County (east), Henry County (southeast), Bates County (south), Miami County, Kansas (west), Johnson County, Kansas (northwest). Cities and Towns include Archie, Baldwin Park, Belton, Cleveland, Creighton, East Lynne, Freeman, Garden City, Gunn City, Harrisonville, Kansas City, Lake Annette, Lake Winnebago, Lee's Summit, Peculiar, Pleasant Hill, Raymore, Strasburg, West Line

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Cass County Court Records

Cass County Vital Records

Cass County Census Records

Cass County Maps & Atlases

Cass County Military Records

Cass County Tax Records

Cass County Genealogical Addresses

Cass County Church & Cemeteries

Family Trees & Genealogy Tidbits

The use of published genealogies, electronic files containing genealogical lineage, and other compiled sources can be of tremendous value to a researcher.

When view family trees online or not, be sure to only take the info at face value and always follow up with your own sources or verify the ones they provide. Below is a list of online resources for Cass County Family Trees, web forums and other family type information. Email us with websites containing Cass County Family Trees, web forums and other family type information by clicking the link below:

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Cass County, Missouri Family Books at Amazon.com

Extended History

The Harrisonville area was originally inhabited by the "Dhegilha" Indians subgroup. Being of Siouan linguistic stock, the Osage, Quapaw, Omaha, Ponca and Kansa tribes comprise this subgroup.

The Kansa tribal range extended southward from the Kansas-Missouri River junction as far as the northern edge of Bates County, Missouri, taking in the sites of modern Pleasant Hill, Garden City, Archie and Drexel. On their southeastern border they were neighbors of the Osage, although there is no evidence that either of these tribes ever had a truly permanent settlement in the territory of Cass County.

At early camp meetings southwest of Harrisonville after the white man came, as many as five hundred Indians were often in attendance and seemed to enjoy religious services as much as the whites[citation needed], with whom they mingled on such occasions. These Indians were reportedly Shawnees and Delawares, both of Algonquian linguistic stock.

In 1818 a grant of land in southern Missouri was made to some Delawares, but it was re-ceded by them in 1825, and most of them moved to a reservation in Kansas, while others had previously gone to Texas. Those who remained in the Harrisonville area were close relatives of the Sauk, Fox and Kickapoo tribes.

The first white settler on the site of modern Harrisonville was James Lackey, in 1830. Others early settlers were Humphrey Hunt, John Blythe and Dr. Joseph Hudspeth. Lackey was considered a "squatter", as he built a cabin and enclosed a small field on the tract of public land taken for county seat purposes.

Site of the town was fixed under an act of the Missouri General Assembly in 1835, by David Waldo of Lafayette County and Samual Hink and William Brown, both of Jackson County. In the same year, the first court met for the county, known as Van Buren County. The Justices James McClellan and William Savage, met in McClellan's residence about three miles southeast of Peculiar on September 14, 1835. William Lyon was appointed clerk of the court and county government was organized , included the setting up of Grand River Township.

In the spring of 1837 the town of Harrisonville was located by Enoch Rice, Francis Prine and Welcome Scott, who had been appointed commissioners by the state legislature in the winter of 1836. These commissioners in company with Matin Rice, the county surveyor, met at the home of John Cook on April 3, 1837 and finally decided on Lackey's pre-emption claim. In May they laid off the town in lots 3, 4, 5 and 6 of the northeast and northwest quarters of Section 4, Township 44N., Range 31W. Within these 160 acres there were to be four streets: Wall and Pearl running east to west, Lexington and Independence going north and south, each less than forty feet wide. Fleming Harris was appointed as town commissioner on April 8, 1837. The first town lots were sold on June 12 of that year; those facing the public square sold at $20 each, the others at $10.

"Democrat" was strongly urged as a name for the new town but was finally rejected. Instead, the town was named after Albert G. Harrison, a U.S. representative from Missouri.

On October 8, 1835 the first Harrisonville church was organized in the county two miles southwest of town known as Hopewell or New Hope Baptist.

The first house within the town was erected by Jason L. Dickey in 1836.

The first jail in Harrisonville and second for the county was established in 1838. Its site was 312 S. Independence. One of its successors is listed among the state's historic sites.

Harrisonville eventually was served by railroad lines presently known as the Missouri Pacific and the Frisco. Railroad construction was responsible for the notorious "Gunn City Massacre", the background of which began in 1857, Cass County approved a large stock subscription for the Pacific Railroad Company. This corporation later surrendered the bonds to the new Saint Louis and Santa Fe Railroad, from whence they were still later assigned to the Land Grant Railroad & Construction Company of New York. Citizens of Cass County sought by injunction to prevent the funding of these bonds, but by legal maneuvering and collusion, a new set of bonds was issued secretly. Three men, who helped to perpetrate this swindle , including the county attorney and a judge of the county court, were shot on April 24, 1872 while on board a Katy railroad spur between Bryson, Missouri and Paola, Kansas, now known as Gunn City.

The year before the Civil War, twelve cities in Missouri had population of approx. 2500 or more. Harrisonville ranked 37th with a population of 675. In 1863 the town was depopulated, and most of the buildings burned, the jail among them . Fort Harrisonville was a Union stronghold for a brief period in 1863 and provided protection for loyal Union families.

Courthouse History

First called Van Buren in 1835, this county changed its name to Cass in 1849.

Although the clerk recorded specific instructions for building a courthouse in April 1837 and identified the superintendent, this order was rescinded at the May 1837 meeting, and the court appointed another superintendent, John Cook. No additional entries clarify the order, but the County Court Record does note that court was held at the courthouse in Harrisonville on February 5, 1838.

Specifications called for a 1-1/2-story, two-room, weather-boarded building. One room was 18 feet square, and the other 14 by 18 feet. Two stone or brick fireplaces were to be in each end, with the tops of the chimneys completed with sticks and good lime mortar. The floor was to be well laid so it would not rock, shake or rattle.

Some speculate the building was never erected. Others assume it was. No location was identified, but Allen Glenn wrote in 1917 that he believed it was a log courthouse off the square.

On February 14, 1843, the court appointed Charles Sims superintendent to prepare and submit a plan with cost estimates not to exceed $3,000 for a permanent courthouse. This suggests that the previous courthouse was considered temporary. Sims submitted plans which the court approved in march 1843 and specified a completion date on or before September 1, 1844. Contractors were Henry Baker, John Fife and George Rice. The two-story, brick building occupied the public square, which was enclosed by an iron fence.

An order issued by the court in May 1860 for building a new $15,000 courthouse caused concerned citizens to sign a petition protesting such action because of depressed financial conditions. They encouraged the court to reconsider the order. Disregarding this protest, the court proceeded to contract for manufacturing the brick.

War erupted and all thought of building was dismissed. Soldiers quartered their horses in the courthouse during the war, and at the conclusion of hostilities, the court declared the building unfit for occupancy. In 1865 sale of the 300,000 unused bricks that had been manufactured five years earlier for the planned courthouse provided funds for repairing the 1843-44 building, which served Cass County until the end of the century.

A petition presented to the court in November 1895 asked the court to develop plans and specifications for a $45,000 courthouse. W. C. Root, an architect from Kansas City, drew the plans for Cass County's third courthouse, which was built in 1897.

Thomas Wilson contracted for the building in December 1895 for about $40,000. Citizens paid $45,000 for the building by direct taxation in two years, which they had authorized in an election March 14, 1896. W. B. Harrison superintended construction.

The three-story, yellow brick courthouse measured 93 by 78 feet. Dominating the facade is the off-center tall clock tower. Cornerstone ceremonies for Cass County's present courthouse took place April 10, 1897.

"She's A Grand OLE Lady"
by Lenore Hutchison

She's one of many faces. She has been a log cabin; she has been built of brick that was burned in a kiln locally and she stands, as she is today, after several face lifts since 1897. The log courthouse was built in 1837 when the county was called Van Buren County.

She was a dream in the hearts of early pioneers. Cass County became "official in 1835 and in 1837 Fleming Harris was appointed Town Commissioner. In May of the same year the court received bids for the first building. It was composed of 1 room, 18 foot square and the other room 14 x 18 foot with …a good plank floor in each room well laid so that it will not rock nor shake nor rattle. A good chimney in each end put in and the fireplace well and complete fixed with stone or brick so as to secure the safety of fire." She was becoming a reality. She was completed in the early part of November 1837 and was located at 200 West Wall.

Harrisonville was growing and the Court wanted a permanent courthouse so in 1843 a plan " not to exceed $3000" was submitted and approved. To be finished by early fall of 1844, it was a 2 story brick building with the brick fired in a kiln on the public square by "brickmaster" Henry Baker. She was now the center and the heartbeat of the county.

Early in 1860 the courthouse was deemed unsafe and inadequate so the County Court appropriated $15000 to build a new one. But the Lady was required to wait for a while. Petitions of serious objections were filed with the Court from a worried public, concerning the expenditures of such a large sum when the entire country was in such a depressed condition. Circumstances were leading to a war and although new bricks were waiting to be laid, they were instead sold at public auction. The money was then used to repair the old courthouse. This substantial old building was then used for almost 40 more years.

She was a patient and gallant Lady. The present structure was built in 1897. She is a 3 story, yellow brick structure 93 feet long and 78 feet wide. She sits majestically in the center of-the town square. She has even outgrown her walls and spills over into other annexes in order to house all the offices necessary to keep a county running.

She has known her moments of sorrow and joy. She suffered the indignity of having horses stabled within her walls during the tragic Civil War. She wept tears of sadness when blood was shed within her shadows and men and women stood upon her sides in hatred. When autos were new to the community, the Lady must have smiled as the drivers of horse-drawn buggies and wagons and the automobile operators fought over the parking spaces. (Peace reigned when the horses settled for the East and West sides and those new-fangled cars won the North and South sides of the Lady).

Retaining walls were added to her "skirts" and trees have been her planted sentries. A statue guards her southwest corner and honors her boys and girls who defend her ground. She flies Old Glory with a proud patriotism. It was a hard-won battle for her. But she takes it all with quiet dignity and demands the respect that is due her. She's a grand OLE Lady.

Cass County, Missouri
History, Records, Facts and Genealogy

Cass County Court Records

See Also Missouri Land Records, Marriage Records, Court & Probate Records

Cass County Vital Records

See Also Vital Records in Missouri

Cass County Census Records

See Also Research In Census Records & Statewide Records that exist for Missouri

Cass County Maps & Atlases

See Also Research In State Map Collections

Cass County Military Records

See Also Military Records in Missouri

Cass County Tax Records

See Also Research In Tax Records

Cass County Genealogical Addresses

See Also Other Missouri Genealogical Addresses

Cass County Church & Cemeteries

See Also Church & Cemetery Records in Missouri

Family Trees & Genealogy Tidbits

Extended History

Courthouse History

Cass County, Missouri History, Records, Facts and Genealogy

Cass County Court Records

See Also Missouri Land Records, Marriage Records, Court & Probate Records

Cass County Vital Records

See Also Vital Records in Missouri

Cass County Census Records

See Also Research In Census Records & Statewide Records that exist for Missouri

Cass County Maps & Atlases

See Also Research In State Map Collections

Cass County Military Records

See Also Military Records in Missouri

Cass County Tax Records

See Also Research In Tax Records

Cass County Genealogical Addresses

See Also Other Missouri Genealogical Addresses

Cass County Church & Cemeteries

See Also Church & Cemetery Records in Missouri

Family Trees & Genealogy Tidbits

Extended History

Courthouse History

Cass County, Missouri
History, Records, Facts and Genealogy