By the beginning of the
eighteen fifties the population of the section now embraced in
The first paragraph of the
bill setting up the new county defines its boundaries as follows:
"All the territory
included in the following limits, to-wit: beginning at the southwest corner
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of Gasconade County; thence
north with the dividing line of Osage and Gasconade counties to the middle of
the eastern line of township 41, of range 7, thence west through the middle of
township 41 to the range line between ranges eleven and twelve; thence south to
the southeast corner of Miller County; thence east to the middle of range ten;
thence south to the middle of township 37; thence east on a parallel line to
the western boundary of Crawford County; thence north to the northwest corner
of Crawford County; thence east to the place of beginning, is hereby created
a separate and distinct county for all civil and military purposes, to be
called the county of Maries."
By this section of the bill all of township
thirty-nine, range seven, the southeastern six miles square of the present
county, remained a part of
The second, third, and fourth sections of the Enabling
Act provided as follows:
"Peter B.
McCord, of Osage county, Jesse A. Rayle, of Pulaski
county, and Burton Cooper, of
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as they shall appoint, and
shall proceed to select the Permanent Seat of Justice for said
Nothing occurred to change
the make up of the Commission, which evidently proceeded with its duties at
once, and on July 20, 1855, acquired title to the seventy acres of land on
which Vienna now stands from William Shockley and wife, who donated the tract
in consideration of the county seat being located on it, it being within the
distance allowed from the center of the county for such location. Shockley had
entered the land from the government
The succeeding sections of the act provide for the
appointment by the governor of three persons as Judges of the County Court and
one as Sheriff, to hold office until the election of 1856; provides that the
Judges of the County and Circuit Courts shall appoint their own clerks, and that
County Court shall appoint an Assessor and may appoint a Surveyor; all the
appointees to hold office until the next general election; provides that all
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Justices of the Peace
residing in Maries County, elected or appointed by the counties from which
Maries County is taken, shall continue in office; fixed Thomas Anderson's
residence as the place for holding the various Courts until the permanent seat
of justice is established; and closes by attaching the newly formed county to
Osage County for representation purposes. At that time representation in the
legislature was based on population, and the General Assembly evidently
estimated that the population of the new county did not yet entitle it to a
representative of its own. The next legislature, in 1857, was convinced of the
error, however, and provided for separate representation for
In pursuance of the enabling act the governor appointed
V. H. Latham Presiding Judge and A. E. Rowden and
Elijah Jones Associate Justices of the County Court, and William Simpson,
Sheriff. The County Court appointed W. A. Rowden
County Clerk, Edward Moss, Treasurer, John Ayres, Assessor, and Reuben Terrill,
Surveyor. W. A. Rowden was also appointed Circuit
Clerk and Recorder, the above named persons constituting the new county's
first list of officers.
Reuben Terrill's first duty after taking office was
that of surveying the seventy acres donated by William Shockley into town lots,
which were sold at public auction at different dates shortly after the survey
was complated. The proceeds of these sales, together
with a 'loan' which the county made to itself of its share of the road and
internal improvement funds in its hands, were used to build the first
courthouse at the new county seat. This first permanent Seat of Justice was
named
The first term of the Circuit Court for the new county
was held at the home of Thomas Anderson, now and for many years owned and
occupied by Henry Schwartze
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Senior, as provided in the
Enabling Act, on the first Monday in May, 1855, Judge G. W. Miller of
By this time Vienna was beginning to take on the
appearance of a town, and a building about twenty feet square, stand ing on the site of the present Masonic Hall, was used until
October, 1856, when the first courthouse was completed and occupied. This
building was of brick, forty by forty-four feet is size, and two stories high;
it stood at the extreme east edge of the present courthouse square, adjoining
the street, and a part of the old foundation can still by traced. It was
completely destroyed by fire of incendiary origin the night of
In spite of the fact that the
act organizing the county provided that the permanent seat of Justice should
be established and maintained within three miles of the center of the county,
the loss of all the county property at Vienna by the fire brought on an
immediate movement to remove the county seat to the east side of the Gasconade
River. The site selected by the advocates of removal was that for many years
occupied by Bowles Chapel, at the junction of the old High Gate-Vienna and St.
James-Chamois roads, then the most central point in the eastern part of the
county. A petition to vote on the removal was presented to the County Court in
1869, but the matter never came to a vote. Neither is there a record of any
action on the petition, so it is likely the
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petitioners withdrew it after they
became advised of the situation.
At the same time the
agitation for removal was going on, preparations were be ing
made for building a new courthouse near the site of the one destroyed. Actual
work was begun in the spring of 1869 and completed in 1870, George A. Lett of St. James being the contractor, and J. M. (Myscal) Johnson, Commissioner of Public Works, supervising
for the county. The building still stands. The only other property belonging to
the county, aside from the poor farm bought several years ago, is the jail,
built of stone in 1856-57, still standing and in good repair. The walls are
some eighteen inches thick. It contains living quarters for the Sheriff
downstairs and a cell and extra room for women prisoners on the second floor.
In general
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