Clinton County

Clinton County. . , Once forming part of Missouri's western boundary, Clinton County was organized in 1833 and named for N.Y. Governor DeWitt Clinton. It lost its boundary status in 1837 when the Indian Platte Purchase territory extended the State border to the Missouri., Plattsburg, the county seat, founded 1833, is on site selected by Commissioners David R. Atchison, Howard Everett, and John Long. First called Concord, then Springfield, it was named for Plattsburg, Clinton Co., N.Y., 1835. A U.S. Land Office was located there 1843-59, to handle sales in Platte Purchase. James H. Birch (later Mo. Supreme Court judge) was first register of Public Land. An early school, Plattsburg (Methodist) College opened there in 1855 and closed in 1897 under the private ownership of J.W. Ellis., Cameron, the county's second town, was laid out, 1855. The Hannibal and St. Joseph (Burlington0 reached there, 1859. There was Cameron Institute (Mo. Wesleyan College), 1883-1928. Near Cameron is Wallace State Park, named for local family, founded 1932. Lathrop, famed horse and mule market in Boer War and World War I, dates from 1867., One of Missouri's leading cattle counties, Clinton is also a grain, dairy, and poultry producer. In territory ceded by Iowa, Sac and Fox tribes in 1824, the county was settled in the late 1820's. Southerners, New Englanders, Missourians, pioneered the area., In the war years of 1861-65, guerrilla raiders halted growth. The 1870's brought the Chicago, Rock Is. and Pac. And Santa Fe railroads. The Quincy, Omaha and K.C. came 1897. New towns were laid out along the routes. Plattsburg, Cameron, and Lathrop developed as important shipping points. , In Plattsburg is State's statue of David Rice Atchison (1807-1886), U.S. Sen., 1843-55; proslavery leader in the Mo.-Kan. Border trouble. He is buried in Plattsburg and his home is in Gower. It is claimed he was "President for a Day" since he was pres. pro tem. of the Senate when Zachary Taylor's inauguration was put off from Sun., Mar. 4, 1849, to Mon. In Plattsburg is birthplace of O.O. McIntyre (1884-1938), newspaper writer, and home of novelist of J. Breckenridge Ellis (1870-1956). Musician Don Gillis was born in Cameron and there lived artist G.E. Burr.