Missouri
(named for the Missouris Indian Tribe)
became a territory in 1812 and was
originally organized into five
"districts", then organized into
counties by proclamation of Governor
Howard. These were St. Charles,
St. Louis, Ste. Genevieve, Cape
Girardeau and New Madrid. In
1813, Washington County was formed;
1816 Howard; 1818 Jefferson, Franklin,
Wayne, Lincoln, Madison, Pike
Montgomery and Cooper were
formed. Crawford County at this
time was a part of Washington
County. The main judicial and
military affairs were conducted in
Potosi. Mail came by horseback
to the office in Potosi and waited to
be picked up by the settler or a
traveler.
In 1820
Gasconade was formed from Franklin
County. Crawford County was
formed on January 23, 1829 out of a
huge territory that made up Gasconade
County (named after "Gascony", a
French place). This vast area
comprised part (if not all) of Barton,
Camden, Cedar, Crawford, Dade, Dallas,
Dent, Greene, Hickory, Laclede,
Maries, Miller, Phelps, Polk, Pulaski,
Texas and Wright Counties. On
the Northern boundary, a post office
called Bourbois was formed in 1851,
and in 1870 the boundary was changed
and it was renamed to Rosebud.
Crawford
County was named for Georgia Senator,
W. H. Crawford, and the county seat is
Steelville, being laid out in
1836. Archaeological findings
conclude the area had once been
inhabited by Seminoles, Shawnee, and
Cherokee tribes, some small bands of
Kikapoo and Delaware, but was mostly
inhabited by the Osage.
The
legend of Jake Prairie (aka "Jakes's
Prairie")
In
1825, at St. Louis, Missouri, the
Osage Indians signed a treaty to
surrender all land north of the
Arkansas border. From this
time on they were gradually pushed
out west to Indian Territory
(Oklahoma). At about 1835,
nearly all had been forced out by
the settlement of the White Man,
except a few remnants who settled
from place to place adopting to the
White Man way of life. Legend
has it, there was one such Osage
Indian Tribe consisting of over 300
cabins, that settled just over the
Franklin County line, till they
decided to move further north.
Among them was an Indian named Jake,
who got in an argument, packed up
his lone teepee, moved to an area in
the northwest part of Crawford
County, and stayed there for
years. Others who would visit
him would say, "Let's go down to
Jake's Prairie", to visit
Jake. This is how it got its
name. If you would like to
hear more about any other town, just
let me know. Enjoy your stay.
Joe
L. Miller
<PrinceMio@sio.midco.net>
