Stone County, Missouri Genealogical Records Information

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Stone County History and Information

Stone County Facts

Stone County was organized February 10, 1851, from Taney County and named for William Stone, pioneer judge of Taney County. The County Seat is Galena. See also County History or Courthouse History for more historical details.

Stone County has records of genealogical interest available: Recorder of Deeds: Index to deeds, 1855-1887; Deed records, 1854-1888; Marriage records, 1851-1935. Clerk of the Circuit Court: index to circuit court records, (no dates); Circuit court records, 1851-1892. Clerk of the Probate Court: Index to probate records, 1850-1886; Probate records, 1851-1886; Administrator’s/executor’s letters, bonds and records, 1875-1922; Inventories, appraisements and sale bills, 1875-1884; Guardian’s/curator’s records, 1875-1912; Will records, 1848-1923. 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 Stone County are Christian County (north), Taney County (east), Carroll County, Arkansas (south), Barry County (west), Lawrence County (northwest). Cities and Towns include Blue Eye, Branson West, Cape Fair, Carr Lane, Coney Island, Crane, Crossroads, Elsey, Galena, Hurley, Indian Point, Kimberling City, Lampe, McCord Bend, Ponce de Leon, Possum Trot, Reeds Spring, Reeds Spring Junction, Shell Knob, Union City, Viola

Stone County, Missouri History Books at Amazon.com
Family History Library - The largest collection of free family history, family tree and genealogy records in the world.

There are free downloadable and printable forms to help with your research. These include U.S. Census Extraction Forms, U.K. Census Extraction Forms, Research Calendar, Ancestral Chart, Research Extract, Correspondence Record , Family Group Sheet , Source Summary Form.

Stone County Court Records

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

PLEASE READ!! Please call the clerk's department to confirm hours, mailing address, fees and other specifics before visiting or requesting information because of sometimes changing contact information.

All Departments below are in the Stone County Courthouse located at P.O. Box 18, Galena, MO 65656; Telephone: (417) 357-6171 , unless otherwise noted below. The Official County website is located at http://www.stoneco-mo.us . See also Courthouse History. NOTE: The record dates below are from the earliest date to present time.

Stone County Clerk of the Court has Birth & Death Records from N/A.
In this office in each county is located an index to common pleas, records of all extant proceedings, chancery minute books, records of births and deaths, county court records, right-of-way and road records, as well as surveyor's records (including field notes and plats made by the county surveyor). This office usually holds the county treasurer's notes, bonds and commissions, records of marks and brands, wolf scalps, stray notices, real estate assessments, and tax books. In some counties, early terms for this court included “Chancery” or the “Court of Common Pleas.”

Stone Register of Deeds / Recorder has Marriage Records from 1851 and Land Records from 1854.
The Office of Recorder of Deeds records and files instruments of writing affecting real property or personal property, subdivision plats, federal and state tax liens, and other instruments of writing. Also, the Recorder’s Office issues marriage licenses, and in accordance with the Uniform Commercial Code files termination statements. All recorded instruments are available for public research.

Stone County Probate Court Clerk has Probate Records from 1848.
In the smaller counties, probate matters are handled in the same office as the associate circuit court office. (In larger counties, there will be a separate probate court clerk's office and separate probate judges/commissioners).

Stone County Circuit Court Clerk has Court Records from 1851.
This office holds the direct index to records such as divorces, debt, dissolution of partnerships, adoptions, judgment, and tax fee books including direct and indirect indexes. They also retain the index to criminal records and criminal files of the circuit court. Adoptions are under the jurisdiction of the circuit court. Naturalization records, including petitions, declarations of intention, certificates, and certificates of allegiance, and granting of citizenship are also located in the clerk's office, as well as an index to civil case files. Some naturalization records have been found with the deeds.

There are a few online databases for Court, Land and Probate Records which include:Missouri Marriages, 1766-1983, Missouri Marriages to 1850, Missouri Marriages, 1851-1900. You may also search the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) or Land Patents: 1831 - 1969. Many pioneers and settelers bought land from the government instead of individuals.

Click Here to Search Missouri Court, Land, Wills & Financial Records! - Researchers often overlook the importance of court records, probate records, and land records as a source of family history information.

Below is a list of online resources for Stone County Court Records. Email us with websites containing Stone County Court Records by clicking the link below:

Stone County, Missouri Court Books at Amazon.com
Missouri Immigration & Emigration Records - Immigration records help the family historian to understand the movements of their ancestry as they relocated to different parts of the world.

Stone County Vital Records

See Also Research In Tax Records

The Missouri Historical Society has some original tax records; others can be found in the Western Historical Manuscript Collection at the University of Missouri, but most extant records remain in the office of the clerk of the county court. The Missouri State Archives has microfilmed some tax records for the counties of Boone, Callaway, Cape Girardeau, Chariton, Clay, Cooper, Franklin, Howard, Marion, Monroe, Montgomery, St. Charles, St. Francois, and Ste. Genevieve.

Prior to 1850, purchasers of the federal lands in Missouri were exempt from land taxes for five years after purchase. If one finds an ancestor on a Missouri tax list with livestock, etc., but no land being taxed, the individual may have purchased his land from the government within the preceding five years.
Some early delinquent tax lists were sent to the state auditor's office and are now located in the Capitol Fire Documents held by the Missouri State Archives

Below is a list of online resources for Stone County Tax Records. Email us with websites containing Stone County Tax Records by clicking the link below:

Stone County, Missouri Tax Books at Amazon.com

Stone County Genealogical Addresses

See Also Other Missouri Genealogical Addresses

The Repositories in this section are Archives, Libraries, Museums, Genealogical and Historical Societies. Many County Historical and Genealogical Societies publish magazines and/or news letters on a monthly, quarterly, bi-annual or annual basis. Contacting the local societies should not be over looked. State Archives and Societies are usually much larger and better organized with much larger archived materials than their smaller county cousins but they can be more generalized and over look the smaller details that local societies tend to have. Libraries can also be a good place to look for local information. Some libraries have a genealogy section and may have some resources that are not located at archives or societies. Also, take a special look at any museums in the area. They sometimes have photos and items from years gone by as well as information of a genealogical interest. All these places are vitally important to the family genealogist and must not be passed over.

Below is a list of online resources for Stone County Genealogical Addresses. Email us with websites containing Stone County Genealogical Addresses by clicking the link below:

Galena Historical Preservation Society, P.O. Box 22, Galena, MO , 65656, Phone: (417) 357-6446
Stone County Historical Society/, Genealogical Society, P.O. Box 63, Galena, MO 65656
White River Valley Historical Society , P.O. Box 555, Point Lookout, MO 65726
Ozarks Genealogical Society, P.O. Box 3945, 534 West Catalpa , Springfield, MO 65808, Phone: (417) 831-2773, E-mail: Ogsoc@dellepro.com
Local Missouri Researchers, Find a local researcher or become a local researcher.
Missouri State Archives, Missouri State Information Center, [EMAIL]
P.O. Box 1747, 600 West Main Str, Jefferson City, MO 65102; Phone:(573) 751-3280, Fax: (573) 526-7333
State Historical Society of Missouri, 1020 Lowry Str., Columbia, MO 65201-7298; (573) 882-7083, [EMAIL]
Missouri State Genealogical Association, P.O. Box 833, Columbia, MO 65205-0833
Missouri Newspapers & Periodicals Records - Newspapers and periodicals are the diaries of local communities. They are excellent sources of family history details - often recorded nowhere else. Look for obituaries, marriages, legal notices, and more found in our Historical Newspaper Archives.
See the Society page for more statewide Societies and archives
Missouri Genealogical Society Books at Amazon.com

Stone County Church & Cemeteries

Click Here to Search Missouri Obituary Records! - This database is a compilation of obituaries published in U.S. newspapers, collected from various online sources. Obituaries can vary in the amount of information they contain, but many of them are genealogical goldmines, including information such as names, dates, places of birth and death, marriage information, and family relationships.

There are many churches and cemeteries in Stone County. Some transcriptions are online. A great site is the Stone County Tombstone Transcription Project.

The Missouri State Archives has published A Brief Guide to Church Records on Microfilm which is a county by county listing, but it is currently out of print. The available church records can be located by using the Archives' Manuscript Register. Church microfilm rolls are not available for purchase, without written consent of the individual church, and must otherwise be used at the Missouri State Archives. The Western Historical Manuscript Collection on the University of Missouri-Columbia campus holds some church records. These can be located by using their descriptive catalogue or microfiche guide. Most church records in Missouri are scattered and remain in private hands

There is no central registry for cemeteries located in Missouri. The following national cemeteries are located in Missouri:

Springfield National Cemetery, 1702 E. Seminole Street, Springfield, Missouri 65804. All known soldiers buried there, including those transferred from towns throughout southwest Missouri were published in Ozar'kin
Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery, 101 Memorial Drive, St. Louis, Missouri 63125. There is a card file reference to persons interred there. Inquiries may be made by phone or mail.
Jefferson City National Cemetery, 1024 E. McCarty Street, Jefferson City, Missouri 65101. The researcher may phone or write the Jefferson Barracks for information.

Below is a list of online resources for Stone County Cemetery & Church Records. Email us with websites containing Stone County Cemetery & Church Records by clicking the link below:

Missouri Bible Records, Volume 1: The database is the first volume in a series of Bible records that includes such information as births, marriages, probate information, and deaths of individuals who settled in Missouri.
Stone County, Missouri Cemetery Books at Amazon.com
Stone County, Missouri Church Books at Amazon.com

Family Trees & Genealogy Tidbits

Click Here to Search Missouri Family Tree Records! - 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 Stone County Family Trees, web forums and other family type information. Email us with websites containing Stone County Family Trees, web forums and other family type information by clicking the link below:

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Sites on USGenweb: [ Stone County ] [ Missouri ] [ Main Page ]
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Stone County, Missouri Family Books at Amazon.com

County History

Authentic history of the occupation, settlement and colonization of this region which on February 10, 1851, became Stone County, Missouri, begins about 50 years before the creation of the county. During this period there were two distinct immigrations, one of which was by the Delaware Indians and the other by Anglo-Saxon colonizers.

The Delaware Indians immigrated to this region about 1800 to 1808 and remained until their evacuation under governmental compulsion in 1830 to the Kansas Territory. These were the progeny of the Delaware Indians which the European explorers, more than two centuries before, had found in the valley of the Delaware River. They were the traditional enemies of the Iroquois which finally conquered them after which the pressure of both the Iroquois and the whites forced them periodically and successively westward into Ohio, Indiana, and finally into Missouri.' They lived in portions of Southeast Missouri and finally in territory now included in Greene, Christian, Taney and Stone counties during which time they built and occupied the well-known Delaware town or village on James River in territory which afterwards became Christian County and at or near the point where Highway 14 now crosses that stream. They were peaceful Indians.

After their evacuation in 1830, they returned here annually until 1836 to hunt and fish, but when the whites misunderstood their innocent purpose and a military force was sent to investigate, they quietly left this region never to return. The first known white settler in this region was James Yocum (sometimes spelled Yoachum) of French origin who about 1790 located at the junction of James and White rivers. He carried on trading with the Indians and the white settlers who had furs and peltries to sell or to barter in exchange for such necessities as coffee, salt, blankets, cloth, shoes, rifles, bullets, pots, knives, hatchets, axes and other articles of primary importance to the settler's manner of life. At that time bear, deer, buffalo, elk, beaver, raccoon and other wild life were abundant.

A trade-coin, the Yocum Dollar, served the local necessities of commerce. This coin was stamped with two words, "Yocum Dollar," and was not intended to be a counterfeit. Its size and shape were identical to the American dollar, and it contained more pure silver.4 An important historical event in this region was the tour of Henry Rowe Schoolcraft, a historian and explorer who, in 1818 and 1819 at the age of twenty-five, visited this region to study its features and its occupants. He wrote one of his books in 1853.-'Schoolcraft found these early white settlers, in the main, were not interested in agricultural pursuits. They cleared out and cultivated only an acre or so of land and grew corn for the family and the horses, and a few vegetables for family use, but hunting and trapping were their main interests. He said that when hunting season arrived, their ordinary labors even in the cornfield fell upon their wives and that "the inhabitants pursue a similar course of life to that of the savages whose love of ease the settlers generally embraced." Among other settlers, Schoolcraft and his party visited Yocum who fed them roast beaver tails. Any impression that all the white settlers in these times were interested only in a life of ease comparable to the Indians in this region would be erroneous. Many other whites, including other Yocums and Joseph Philibert, a Frenchman, went seriously into agricultural pursuits and the establishment of permanent homes, although in the process of doing so they were obligated to obtain much of their subsistence from the abundant wild life until their agricultural efforts were adequate for support. Such white settlers formed the nucleus of the permanent colonization next to be noticed.

What we can properly regard as the more permanent and enduring colonization of this region began about 1833 "when Kentucky and Tennessee sent their sons into the wilderness to open up the country near the confluence of the James and White rivers."these immigrants were the progeny of the proud Anglo-Saxon colonizers of our middle Atlantic coast about 200 years previously. They were neither explorers nor exploiters of the land. They sought no enrichment from mineral resources. They sought no higher privilege than to subvert the land to agricultural purposes and to build their permanent homes thereon, which always had been the distinct characteristic of the English colonizers. The Kentuckians generally were political adherents of Henry Clay and the Tennesseeans almost unanimously followed Andrew Jackson. In these early days, the colonists here and elsewhere in the Missouri religious groups were fundamentalists. They would not have thanked anyone for any allegorical explanation of some portions of the Holy Bible which is a stumbling block to some sinners, and possibly some saints. Divorces were frowned upon, no matter what the provocation, and a man who was sued at law, particularly upon his promissory note, was almost disgraced in the public mind.

These Anglo-Saxons needed and used the hunting and trapping predecessors as a means of subsistence until their agricultural pursuits improved their living conditions. It was a long and laborious process to reach their goal, for few if any in this hill country had slaves or any other independent means to augment their efforts, but all had large families. Their story is "the short and simple annals of the poor." These immigrations from Kentucky and Tennessee and, in time, from other states continued unabated to these two rivers and their tributaries and beyond until about all the low-cost Government lands which were desirable for agriculture had been taken. Immigrations were interrupted during the period of the Civil War, but were resumed thereafter when free lands also were obtainable under the Homestead Law of 1862. The Government would not sell land even for a church or a school site until its surveys were completed, for the reason that surveys afforded a definite description and a convenient means of conveying the land.

President Monroe on April 30, 1818, issued a proclamation authorizing the sale of lands in Missouri after its survey. No doubt the delays in making surveys tended to retard the settlement of this area; the extreme northeastern portion of the area in this county, including the confluence of Finley Creek and James River, was not surveyed until 1838. And the remainder was not surveyed until between 1846 and 1849, or barely in advance of the creation of Stone County, although long after the evacuation of the Delawares and other Indians. The 16th General Assembly of Missouri convened on December 30, 1850. By its Act of February 10, 1851,Stone County was created and was named "in honor of William Stone late of Taney County, Missouri."

Courthouse History
The home of John B. Williams, in Cape Fair, served as meeting place for Stone County's first County Court. In January 1852 court was ordered to meet at Jamestown, the county seat. Jamestown's name was changed to Galena in January 1853.

Money for construction of the first courthouse came from the sale of lots. The court appropriated $376 and appointed Samuel D. Nelson, superintendent. John H. Moore submitted the low bid and won the contract for building the two-story, hand-hewn structure, which the court accepted in February 1853.

The upper story was neither finished nor partitioned. Court officials kept their records and equipment in special corners.

Workers painted the building in 1854 and repaired the underpinning and the chimney in 1858. By 1867 the courthouse was in such poor condition that the county clerk's office moved to the home of P. C. Berry, a few yards from the courthouse.

On December 12, 1870, the court appropriated $4,000 for construction of a new courthouse. Harry Baker served as first superintendent. He was succeeded by W. P. Davenport. Contractors were Goodall and Bradshaw. Apparently, an additional appropriation of $986 was required to complete construction on the hip-roofed, two-story frame. It may have had a cupola. Exterior stairs led from each side to the center door upstairs. The court accepted the courthouse May 4, 1874.

By 1919 the building was in such a deplorable state of repair that only three offices remained; the other offices were scattered throughout Galena. After more than 50 years of use, the courthouse was razed when Stone County authorized construction of a 20th century courthouse.

Petitions presented to the Stone County Court called for an election on a $50,000 bond issue, which passed in July 1919. Illustrations of recently built neighboring courthouses were printed next to the old courthouse of Stone County to point out the contrast.

Commissioners chose Charles Sudhoelter and Co., Joplin, as architects. Contractor was the Pauley Construction Co., Springfield, which bid $47,600 on the three-story, 65-by-70-foot, 40-foot-tall, brick building with concrete trim. A central hall divides the interior; courtrooms, located on the south, have a curved projection with seven windows. The graceful, oval shape of the third floor Circuit Court room distinguishes this modest courthouse. Cornerstone ceremonies for Stone County's present courthouse took place on March 27, 1920.

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