This week, the show traveled to the seat of Howard County: Fayette, Missouri. Our panel included Presiding Commissioner Jeremiah Johnmeyer, former-County Commissioner Millie Haggard, Dr. Kenneth Vroman, and Harold Kerr, President of the Howard County Genealogical Society.
On January 2, 1816, the first Governor of the Missouri territory, Benjamin Howard, founded Howard County. Howard County is often referred to as the “Mother of Counties”.
Once considered a part of Little Dixie during the Civil War, Howard County was then home to many Southern sympathizers and provided 2,000 troops to the Southern cause. Today, we will discuss the 1864 Civil War Battle of Glasgow and the violent past of Bloody Bill Anderson.
However, Howard County’s history includes more than just Civil War stories. In the early- 1800’s, the Boon’s Lick salt spring was discovered in Howard County which led to the establishment of the Boon’s Lick trail into St. Charles.
On this episode, we discuss everything from Howard County’s earliest settlers’ tobacco and hemp farms to the modern state of politics in one of Missouri’s most storied counties.