TOWNS
Boone County Government offices are locate at 801 East Walnut Street, Columbia MO 65201; phone: 573-886-4305.
Beginnings [1]
No history of Boone county would be considered authentic, unless in the opening paragraph it is stated that Boone county was named for Col. Daniel Boone (name usually spelled Boon), the famous Kentucky hunter and pioneer Missourian. While it is generally believed that Boone was never in the county that bears his name, still the early settlers of Missouri had the greatest admiration for him and for his deeds of bravery. It is a fact worth mentioning that the death of Daniel Boone occurred in St. Charles county, Missouri, on September 26, 1820, and the legislative enactment that subdivided Howard county (often called "the mother of counties") and created Boone county was passed by the territorial legislature in October, 1820, and approved by the governor on November 16,1820, just a few weeks following the death of Daniel Boone. A son of Daniel Boone was then a member of the legislature from Montgomery county and all the members wore crape on their arms for the remainder of the session. It was natural, therefore, that this county should be named in honor of the man they loved and whose death they all regretted.
As far as known, the first house built in Boone county was built by John and William Berry. The land office records at Boonville and the United States government plat book in the recorder's office of Boone county show that the first land ever patented by anyone was near the present village of Woodlandville, formerly a part of the Model Farm but still earlier known as "Thrall's Prairie," named in honor of Augustus Thrall. But the certified copy of the government book of entries, now belonging to the Bayless Abstract Company, shows that the first land entered in this county was by Elijah Foster, July 2, 1818. This land is located one mile south of Rock Bridge. The patent to it was not issued till September 8. 1821. Durrett Hubbard was the patentee.