Morgan County Genealogy

Bibliography

This is a list of published items dealing with Morgan County. Most of them were found by working through the indexes to the volumes of the Missouri Historical Review; some come from other sources. Since the list comes from my own research, there is a bias towards the Gravois Mills area. I have not yet seen most of them myself. If you have more sources, or if you have comments on any of the sources here, please send them in.

Abbreviations:

MHR: Missouri Historical Review
VLS: Versailles Leader-Statesman
MCP: Morgan County Press (Stover)

A.G. Baker. History of Morgan County and Some of Its People. 1901. Available online.

• Local history, with brief sketches of many prominent persons and families, some photographs. The book has been scanned and made available, partly as text and partly in the form of JPEG graphics files by Pat Calton at her Morgan County History site.

Morgan County Historical Society. History of Morgan County, Missouri 1833-1979. Dallas: Taylor Publishing Co., 1979. 488 pp with illustrations and index. Source: "Book Notes", MHR 74 (1978-80), p.518.

• Chapter headings include towns and communities, public services, early business and industry, folklore, and old churches and cemeteries. Over 300 pages devoted to family histories. Brief subject index. I have been advised that the book is no longer available, and the Society presently has no plans to reprint it.

Elizabeth Riffle Andrews. A History of Soap Creek and Gravois Mills. [1983]. 42 pp with illustrations. Source: "Book Notes", MHR 79 (1984-85), pp.138-9.

• Personal account of the Gravois Mills area, including a list of the teachers of Holst School from 1895-1948.

A Rural Survey of Morgan County, Missouri. Monthly bulletin of the Missouri State Board of Agriculture for February 1916 (vol. XIV, no. 2), with illustrations. Source: MHR 10 (1915-16), p.304. Available online.

• Compiled by the teachers of the county over two years; contains information relating to educational, religious and economic conditions, featuring pioneer schools, courthouses and farms. Available online.

1850 Census Book for Morgan County, Missouri, S&K Publications - a photoreprint of the original census pages, with index.

Sherida K. Eddlemon, Morgan County, MO. Marriage Records, 1833-1893 (1990). Partly available online.

• Some of these marriages have been transcribed on "Wynkydynk's Home Page".

Ilene Sims Yarnell, Miscellaneous Records: Includes counties of Moniteau, Morgan, Miller, Camden, Callaway, Laclede and Pulaski, Missouri (1982?).

David W. Eaton. "How Missouri Counties, Towns and Streams Were Named, part 4." MHR 11 (1916-17) 330-47.

• pp.333-5: Morgan County.

"Historic Mills to Pass". MHR 25 (1930-31) p.185 (reprinted from the Kansas City Star, Nov. 17 1929).

• On the closing of the mill at Gravois Mills as a result of the Bagnell Dam project, with a brief history of the mill.

Asbury Good-Knight. "Wheat Raising in Pioneer Missouri". MHR 16 (1921-22) 502-5.

• Personal account of pioneer conditions, including a description of the grist mill at Gravois Mills, run by Mr. Hume.

Omega Hutchison, a book on the descendants of Thomas and Lydia Hutchison - many of whom lived in Morgan County, MO.

• Contact Larry Hutchison, 2448 Arizona #1, Santa Monica, CA 90404, 310-829-0207, Lshutch@aol.com

Newspaper Articles

These references come from the Missouri Historical Review; I haven't seen any of these articles myself. I would welcome comments from anyone who has seen them.

Mrs. Royce Moser. Articles on the early history of Versailles and Morgan County. VLS, Sept. 13, 27, Oct. 4, 1957. Source: MHR 52 (1957-58). p.178.

"Railroad Building Halted by the Great Civil War." VLS 6 May 1960. Source: MHR 55 (1960-61) p.81.

"Gravois Mills Has Come a Long Way." VLS 9 Oct. 1969. Source: MHR 64 (1969-70) p.246.

"Morgan County during the Civil War." MCP 3 Nov. 1976. Source: MHR 71 (1976-77) p.352.

"Pictorial History of Morgan County." MCP 13 July 1994 (special supplement). Source: MHR 89 (1994-95 p.101.

Jay L.B. Taylor. "Some Early History of Jacob's Cavern." Missouri Magazine (Jefferson City), Apr. 1934. Source: MHR 28 (1933) p.319.

Useful Historical Sources

Milton D. Rafferty. Historical Atlas of Missouri. Norman: U. of Oklahoma P., 1981.

• Useful historical maps showing e.g. origins of Missouri's population, evolution of the railway network, etc.

Mather, Mineral Deposits of Morgan County. 1946. Mentioned by Rafferty, Historical Atlas, p.80.

• Not seen.

"Mining History of the Central Mineral District of Missouri." Missouri Mineral News 13 no. 5 (May 1973) 84-89. Mentioned by Rafferty, Historical Atlas, p.80.

• Not seen.

"'Few Men but Many Widows...': The Daniel Fogle Letters August 8-September 4, 1867", ed. James W. Goodrich and Donald B. Oster. Missouri Historical Review 80 (1985-86) 273-303.

• Letters of a Pennsylvanian who travelled through Missouri looking for a farm to buy just after the Civil War.