Livingston County, Missouri
History, Records, Facts and Genealogy

Livingston County was organized January 6, 1837, from Carroll County and named for United States Secretary of State Edward Livingston. The County Seat is Chillicothe. See also County History or Courthouse History for more historical details.

Livingston County has records of genealogical interest available: Recorder of Deeds: Index to deeds, 1837-1895; Deed records, 1837-1909; Index to marriage records, (no dates); Marriage records, 1837-1915. Clerk of the County Court: Register of births and stillbirths, 1883-1891; Record of births, 1883-1890; Register of deaths, 1883-1890. Clerk of the Circuit Court: Circuit court records, 1837-1886. Clerk of the Probate Court: Index to probate records, ?-1915; Probate records, 1837-1891; Administrator’s/executor’s letters, bonds and records, 1868-1909; Inventories, appraisements and sale bills, 1867-1903; Settlement records, 1860-1890; Guardian’s/curator’s records, 1857-1866; Will records, 1837-1925. 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 Livingston County are Grundy County (north), Linn County (east), Chariton County (southeast), Carroll County (south), Caldwell County (southwest), Daviess County (northwest). Cities and Towns include valon, Chillicothe, Chula, Dawn, Ludlow, Mooresville, Utica, Wheeling

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Livingston County Court Records

Livingston County Vital Records

Livingston County Census Records

Livingston County Maps & Atlases

Livingston County Military Records

Livingston County Tax Records

Livingston County Genealogical Addresses

Livingston 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 Livingston County Family Trees, web forums and other family type information. Email us with websites containing Livingston County Family Trees, web forums and other family type information by clicking the link below:

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Livingston County, Missouri Family Books at Amazon.com

County History

On January 6, 1837, Livingston County came into existence when Governor Daniel Dunklin signed a Piece of legislation enacted by the Missouri Assembly. The county was named for the Hon. Edward Livingston, the eleventh Secretary of State, of the United States under President Andrew Jackson.

The land that came to be called Livingston County dates back much further than 1837. Before settlers came to the area the land was populated by its natural inhabitants - coyotes, beavers, squirrels, panthers, deer and rabbits. The Grand River flowed from the northwest to southeast, shagbark hickory, cottonwood, and white oak growing on its banks. Beneath the prairie grass covered hills a sub-soil of clay and thin veins of coal lay hidden.

An old indian trail crossed what is now known as Medicine Creek and went north to the mouth of Honey Creek. The Chippewas, Sacs, Fox and Pottawatomies used the trail. They camped for brief times near the watercourses; when the game became scarce they moved on.

The Missouri indians settled Livingston County in the early 1800’s. An example of their burial mounds can be found near the bank of the Grand River just upstream from Bedford. They were the first known occupants of Livingston County. The indians settled a number of towns and villages in this county. One city was located a mile west of the present site of Chillicothe; another was located on Medicine Creek; another on the bluffs on the east fork of Grand River. One village was located three miles southeast of the present town of Springhill, another west of Farmersville. According to a treaty drawn up in 1833 the indian title to the land in the Grand River Valley was nullified, and the indians were to move north and west. The Shawnees were the last tribe to leave. They left behind the name of their town - Chillicothe.

French trappers are known to have explored and written of the Grand River as early as 1724. About six miles below the mouth of the river the French had held a fort; their trappers covered many miles trading with the indians for beaver and otter.

In the late 1820’s settlers from Carroll and Ray counties came north in search of honey said to be found here. The "bee hunters", as they were called, set up camp in the timber bottoms between the two forks of Grand River. In a few days, they returned to their homes with a wagon filled with barrels of honey.

In the spring in 1831, Samuel E. Todd chose a spot west of Utica as his home; other settlers soon followed. Numerous families reported seeing the giant meteor shower on the night of November 12, 1833.

Joseph Cox built the first log cabin in the Chillicothe area in the summer of 1832. Indians coming through Ray County had stolen one of his horses, and he traced them to Livingston County. He got his horse back, and was so impressed by the rolling countryside that he moved here. It was at the Joseph Cox house on April 6, 1837, that the first term of the county court was held and the county divided into four townships - Shoal Creek, Indian Creek, Medicine Creek, and Grand River. The first term of the Circuit Court for Livingston County was also held later that summer at the Joseph Cox home. The judge. jury, lawyers, witnesses and defendants all boarded at the house free of charge. Corn pone, butter, and venison were served on log tables set up under the trees.

In August, 1837, the Livingston County Court took the first steps in laying out the town of Chillicothe. John Graves was appointed trustee to lay off lots by September 4th. He resigned and Nathan Gregory finished the surveying and platting in time for lots to be sold in October. The name Chillicothe comes from the Shawnee indians and means "the big town where we live" or "our big home." It was not until July, 1839, that Chillicothe was designated as a county seat.

Livingston County’s first courthouse was built in 1838, but because of an oversight in the plans it had no windows. A second courthouse was built in November, 1841, on the southwest corner of Webster and Cherry Streets. It was a two story brick structure with all rooms warmed by fireplaces. The original courthouse without windows was used as a school.

By this time Livingston County was becoming a much-traveled area as wagon trains and pioneers went west. One route led through the northern half of the county crossing East Fork of Grand River at Cox’s Ferry, then up through Navetown and on to the northwest. Another route came across the southern part of the county and crossed Shoal Creek at Josiah Whitney’s Mill in what is now Dawn. The southern route was the route the Mormons chose to take. The Mormons and their practice of polygamy angered settlers in Livingston County. A group of settlers from the forks of the river petitioned the Governor to expel the Mormons from the county. Josiah Whitney took matters in his own hands halting all wagons at his mill and demanding that the Mormon men give him their guns and ammunition or turn back to Illinois.

Since they could not survive without guns to hunt for food they protested, but Whitney insisted that he was the law and determined to keep bigamists out of Missouri. Whitney succeeded in turning some of the Mormons back, and others went on without their arms to Caldwell County. Sentiment against the Mormons ran high in Livingston County and a militia of two hundred men was organized. They encountered the Mormons at Haun’s Mill in Caldwell County. The Mormons offered no resistance and were told to move west. Before they could move, a second group attacked them and seventeen Mormons were killed. The militia looted the houses and stables and brought the bounty back to Livingston County.

In the spring of 1846 the first move was made to establish the Hannibal & St. Joseph Railroad. As A.J. Roof noted in his History of Livingston County, "The newspapers of the towns through which it was thought the road would be built favored it; those located off the line were opposed to it, and the people divided with the newspapers." When it was finished in 1859 passenger trains left Hannibal at 10:30 a.m. and reached St. Joseph, 206 miles away, at 9:30 p.m. Hannibal, Hudson (Macon), Brookfield, Chillicothe, and St. Joseph were the principal stations.

In 1858, Chillicothe had 1000 residents, two dry goods stores, a livery stable, a drug store, a hotel, an eating house, and a newspaper, "The Grand River Chronicle." The town boasted of one physician, four lawyers and regular stagecoach service. The sixty mile trip to Bethany was one of the most popular. There were no paved streets or sidewalks and few fences in town. The pigs and chickens ran all over. The local Thespian Society, for men and boys only, put on a play called "Tootles" and charged twenty-five cents admission.

Through the beginning of the Civil War, Livingston County was uniformly Democratic in politics. In 1860 the Democratic vote was split by different candidates; but of the 1469 votes cast only twenty went to Abraham Lincoln.

In the winter of 1860 and 1861 the men began a series of Friday night meetings to discuss such questions: "Resolved: That the inaugural of President Lincoln means war." The meetings were brought to an abrupt end in April when Fort Sumter was fired upon. Soon afterward, the first Federal cannon was moved to the square in Chillicothe.

Sentiment in Livingston County at the beginning of the war was strongly Secessionist. In 1862 all persons liable to military duty were asked to enroll themselves as loyal or disloyal. Several hundred in Livingston County registered as disloyal.

An example of the feelings of the county residents concerns a certain Reverend J. E. Gardner. In the election of 1860 only twenty people in the county stood up and by voice vote voted for Lincoln, fifteen in Monroe township and five in Blue Mound. Utica had voted for Bell, Breckenridge and Douglas. Rev. Gardner had been one to vote for Lincoln but then he went to Utica as a Northern Methodist minister, and on a camp meeting, the Reverend Gardner was "found in the wrong tent" at the revival. There was a meeting of citizens in Utica about December 20, 1860, and at that time thirty seven residents gave the minister three days to leave their county. This time was extended and they finally forced him and his family out of town by January 4, 1861. He was rescued by a Mr. P. Rudolph from Monroe township.

By 1863, when Lincoln issued the Emancipation proclamation, sentiment was divided. At a public meeting discussing the Proclamation two supporters were arrested. One was Mr. Harbaugh, editor of the Constitution Newspaper; the other was Reverend T.B. Bratton, Presiding Elder of the Methodist Episcopal churches in this area. The officers of the Harper Union Ladies Encampment of Utica decided to rally to the cause of Reverend Bratton and Mr. Harbaugh.

The Harper Union Ladies Encampment had over 250 members and included most of the women from Utica and the surrounding areas. Carrying a Union flag and wearing red, white, and blue sashes, they marched on Chillicothe to call on Judge McFerron. When the judge appeared the ladies introduced themselves and said they had come to demand the release of Reverend Bratton and Mr. Harbaugh. The judge asked them by what right, and the ladies replied, "By our rights as loyal Americans."

The judge reminded them that they did not have the vote and challenged their right to tell him what to do, but the women replied that free speech is guaranteed to men by the Constitution and the Reverend Bratton and Mr. Harbaugh were only venting their right to free speech and should not be imprisoned. Further discussion ensued and the women were told to roll up their flag, take off their red, white and blue sashes, and go home where they belonged. The judge eventually gave in, the two men were freed, and the meeting ended with the women singing "Rally Around the Flag Boys."

In the three years from Lincoln’s election in 1860 until 1863 the sentiment in Livingston County had changed. In 1860 only a few had wanted to do away with slavery, but by 1863 only a handful stood against the Union and emancipation.

City pride began to be aroused in Chillicothe in the 1870’s and 80’s. The city park was rid of black locust sprouts and an attempt was made to keep the cows and pigs away after the City Council passed an ordinance that said livestock must be fenced in. Dr. Green helped to get an Opera House started. Tickets for Opening Night cost $10.00 and a ball was held afterwards at the new Leeper Hotel.

Disasters hit the county, too. In 1873 a bank robbery was made on People’s Bank, and an attempt was made to kidnap the bank president. The Wheeling Railroad burned in 1881. A tornado killed four persons, wrecked thirty-seven houses and did $65,000 worth of damage in 1881 in the Blue Mound area. An earlier tornado in 1880 had wiped out most of the town of Bedford. In 1886 the tower of Central School was struck by lightning.

Electric lights came to Chillicothe in 1885. They ran until midnight six days a week, no electricity on Sunday. The street railway was begun with four cars and ten little mules to haul people from one depot to another or up to the square. The first telephone system in Chillicothe began with sixteen phones in 1886. The Chillicothe, Milwaukee and St. Paul railroad built a new line through Chillicothe. The innovations in the coming years would bring swifter changes than could be imagined.

Courthouse History

Livingston County planned a temporary building in Chillicothe, the county seat, for its first courthouse in 1837; the cost was not to exceed $50. The court ordered the 18-foot-square, log building to be built in the manner of cabins, covered with clapboards and laid with a puncheon floor (split log with a smoothed face). For the first 18 months the building apparently had no windows. The court later made arrangements to have then cut in. The court held session in the building during May 1838. As soon as the need for this courthouse passed, it was used as a schoolhouse.

The court arranged for the first permanent courthouse to be built on the square. An initial appropriation of $4,000 in September 1839, later supplemented by an additional $1,600, provided funds for the two-story, brick courthouse with cupola.

In February 1840 the court awarded the building contract for $5,600 to Moses Burton. He completed the building November 2, 1841. An early postmaster in Livingston County drew an eyewitness rendering of the courthouse in 1840.

In 1864 the court condemned the building as unsafe and ordered it razed. For many years the square remained open and available to the public. Townspeople called the area "Elm Park." County officers occupied quarters in different buildings around town until the 20th century courthouse was built.

Voters in Livingston County rejected several bond issues to finance a courthouse. Finally, a direct tax of 25 cents per $100 valuation passed in April 1912, providing funds for a $100,000 building.

The question of where to locate the courthouse caused some disagreement. Many in Chillicothe wanted to keep the pleasant park atmosphere on the square, but the park was county property, and apparently the judges felt the majority of county residents favored a courthouse site on the square.

The court visited Carroll, Boone, Vernon, Jasper, Barton and Monroe counties to examine their recently constructed courthouses. The commissioners were not favorably impressed with Jasper and Barton; the exterior of Carroll they found acceptable, but they did not care for the plan. They liked Vernon; Boone was closer to what they had in mind, and they were impressed with City Hall in Kansas City, Kansas.

Eighteen architects presented plans before the court; one brought a model of his work. Late in July 1912 the court accepted the proposal of Warren Roberts and George Saase for a three-story building, 80 by 100 feet, of Bedford stone.

The general contract was let to L. W. Dumas, Jr. Construction Co. of Columbia, Missouri, for $97,890. Ground was broken in April 1913. Cornerstone ceremonies were conducted June 28, 1914, and the court accepted the completed building July 25.

This was a popular courthouse design in Missouri from 1910-1930. Ray County officials visited Livingston County during construction of this courthouse, talked with architect Roberts, then chose him to design their 1914 courthouse. Both buildings continue to serve the counties, excellent examples of Warren Roberts' work.

Additional Courthouse History
THE FIRST COURT-HOUSE.
The first court-house of Livingston county was begun in October, 1837, and was built in Chillicothe, pursuant to the order of the county court. Following is a literal copy of the order: -
Ordered that a house be built in toun of Chillicothe for a temporary court house for the county of Livingston to be built buy the forth Mondy in march next or 1838 to be of this discription towit. Eighteen feet from Out to Out to be raised in cabbin form to be flored with Loose plank of punce ons [puncheons] to be well hewn doun in side to be covered with clabords [clapboards] well nailed on - joice to be 7 feet from floor with a good wood or turf chimney with back & Jams as is usal to cabbins & to be well Chinked & daubed to have a door cut out faced up & Shutters made to it. The said Commissioner to let out said house to the Lowest bidder or not to give higher in private contract than Fifty dollars to the undertaker of said house & it is further ordered that said court house be set on lot 5 block eleven.
" Lot 5, block 11," is about 150 yards northwest of the present county jail, or 200 yards from the northwest corner of the square. The first court-house was indeed a modest structure. No provision was made for windows in the order, and it actually had none until in May, 1839. The first county court was held in this building in May,

1838, when the first furniture was ordered purchased at public expense - a table 4 x 3 1/2 feet, with a large drawer, and six chairs. In March, 1841, the citizens of Chillicothe used this building for a school-house.
The first jail was ordered built in the fall of 1838. No recorded particulars of this building can now be obtained, save that the commissioner was directed " not to go higher than $1,000" in contracting for its construction.
SECOND COURT-HOUSE.
The second court-house in this county was completed November 2, 1841. Its construction was ordered by the county court in August, 1838. The order directed that the contract be let the following November; that the cost should not exceed $5,000, and that the contractor might have two years to complete his work. In November, however, the letting of the contract was ordered suspended until March, 1839, but when that time came the court again ordered the postponement of the contract. Old Thomas R. Bryan, the county clerk, and some others claimed that this action of the court was illegal, and moved to appeal the decision to the circuit court, but the motion to appeal was overruled. The grounds of the second postponement was "lack of funds at present, and no good prospects for any soon."
In September (1839) the court appropriated $4,000 to build the house; in November the plan of the superintendent for the same was received, and he was ordered to receive proposals for undertaking the work till January following. In February, 1840, the contract was let to Moses Burton, Esq., of Fayette, Howard county, Messrs. Majors, Garner, Black, Collier and Settle, of that county, being his sureties. The contract price was $5,600, of which $1,600 was an additional appropriation. The building was of brick, two stories high, and stood in the center of the public square, Chillicothe. The height of the first story was 13 feet. At first, all the rooms were warmed by fire-places. The house was painted and had a cupola (or, as the record says, a "cupelow "), and was not an unattractive structure. It stood until after the Civil War. Mr. Burton was not paid the cash in full when his work was done - "no funds." He was given a warrant for near $4,000, with interest at ten per cent, and this was not paid for some years later.
Livingston County’s first courthouse was built in 1838, but because of an oversight in the plans it had no windows. A second courthouse was built in November, 1841, on the southwest corner of Webster and Cherry Streets. It was a two story brick structure with all rooms warmed by fireplaces. The original courthouse without windows was used as a school.

Livingston County, Missouri
History, Records, Facts and Genealogy

Livingston County Court Records

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

Livingston County Vital Records

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Livingston County Census Records

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

Livingston County Maps & Atlases

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Livingston County Military Records

See Also Military Records in Missouri

Livingston County Tax Records

See Also Research In Tax Records

Livingston County Genealogical Addresses

See Also Other Missouri Genealogical Addresses

Livingston County Church & Cemeteries

See Also Church & Cemetery Records in Missouri

Family Trees & Genealogy Tidbits

Courthouse History

Livingston County, Missouri History, Records, Facts and Genealogy

Livingston County Court Records

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

Livingston County Vital Records

See Also Vital Records in Missouri

Livingston County Census Records

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

Livingston County Maps & Atlases

See Also Research In State Map Collections

Livingston County Military Records

See Also Military Records in Missouri

Livingston County Tax Records

See Also Research In Tax Records

Livingston County Genealogical Addresses

See Also Other Missouri Genealogical Addresses

Livingston County Church & Cemeteries

See Also Church & Cemetery Records in Missouri

Family Trees & Genealogy Tidbits

Courthouse History

Livingston County, Missouri
History, Records, Facts and Genealogy