Page:History of Southeast Missouri 1912 Volume 1.djvu/377

 HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST .AIISSOrjRI Sli sioner, A. C. Farnham county treasurer, and A. W. Holliman was county surveyor. Arcadia was made the first county seat, but in August, 1857, tlie people voted to change the county seat to Ironton. The first meeting of the circuit court was held May 17, 1858, and was presided over by Judge John H. Stone. A grand jury was summoned which returned indictments against two persons for grand larceny. Iron county received its name from the fact that iron was being mined within its limits and was believed to exist in very large quan- tities. The first county seat, Arcadia, was named by a lady who came from New England, and being struck by the beauty and simplicity of the .surrounding country, and the delightful people, suggested that it be called Arcadia. The derivation of Ironton, the name of the present county seat, is apparent. It i.s sit- uated quite near to what were then believed to be immense deposits of iron ore. The county was made liable at its organiza- tion for a part of the stock subscribed for the building of the Fredericktown & Pilot Knob Gravel Road Company. This obligation was met bj' the issuance of bonds to the amount of $6,666. In January, 1858, an order of the county court was made for the erection of a court house. The contract was let to George S. Evans and William F. Mitchell in the sum of $14,000; John V. Logan was appointed as superintendent. The building was completed in 1860; six years later the present .jail was built at a cost of $10,000. The present townships are Iron. Kaolin, Liberty, Union, Dent, and Arcadia. Carter County The first settlement made in Carter county was made in 1812 by Zimri A. Carter, who settled a few miles south of the present to^^^l of Van Buren. The county at this time was still a part of Wayne countj' and the country was wild and much of it rough. Zimri Carter was a man of ability and power and when he began to open up the country other settlers were attracted, among them the Chilton, Ken- nard, Snider and Kelley families. These all settled in the neighborhood of Carter and opened up considerable land. The population of the county grew slowly for a number of years, and it was not organized until March 10, 1859. The territory used in creating the comity was cut off from the west part of Rip- ley and the eastern part of Shannon county and the legislature named the county in honor of its fir.st settler. On the erection of the county Adam Lane of Ripley, John Buford of Reynolds, and D. C. Reed of Shannon county, were appointed as commissioners to locate the seat of justice. They met in April, 1859, at the house of James Brown near Van Buren, and located the county seat at Van Buren. This had formerly been the county seat of Ripley county and the old log court house, which had been erected in 1853, was the rrieeting place for the "courts until 1867. At that time a frame court house was built which is still in use. At first the county was attached to Ripley county for the purpose of representation in the general assembly and the first member sent to the legislature from Carter county was William Lawson, who was elected in 1864 and served until 1870. He was succeeded at the latter date by F. ]I. Coleman. Carter county has an area of about 321,000 acres, much of which is hilly and broken land and much of it is a low grade of fertility. It is drained by Current river, which tlows thi'ough the central part of the county in a