Picture courtesy of Jim Kuntz

Picture courtesy of Jim Kuntz

Fulton was founded here in the Little Dixie Region of Missouri, 1825, to replace the poorly located Elizabeth as seat of Callaway County. Named for a grandson of Daniel Boone and War of 1812 Ranger, Capt. James Callaway, the county was organized, 1820. The town name honors Robert Fulton.

Callaway County is popularly called the Kingdom of Callaway in memory of a War Between the States incident in 1861 when "Col." Jefferson Franklin Jones, leading a civilian army of Callaway men, negotiated with Union Gen. John B. Henderson and got him to agree not to invade Callaway if Jones disbanded his men. Later Fulton was often occupied by Union Troops.

Here is the Missouri School for the Deaf, first such school west of the Mississippi, founded in 1851; Presbyterian Westminster College for men, founded 1851, chartered, 1853; and a Christian Church junior college for women, William Woods, founded, 1869, at Camden Point, moved here, 1890. State Hospital No.1 for mentally ill, chartered, 1847, opened here, 1851, is one of the first three such hospitals west of the Mississippi.

Fulton is the capital of the Kingdom of Callaway, a county early noted for its fine horses and its pioneering in development of the famous Missouri mule.

South, on the Missouri River, is the site of Cote sans Dessein (hill without design). A French trading post, and first settlement in the county, 1808, it was the scene of an Indian attack in the War of 1812. In 1821, Cote sans Dessein was the first place considered for the Missouri state capital, but faulty land titles stood in the way.

Here at Westminster College a plaque marks the site where the phrase "Iron Curtain" was first used in a 1946 speech by English wartime Prime Minister Winston Churchill. Also of interest area museum collection at William Woods College, and, in town, a statue of Capt. James Callaway.

William D. Kerr (1808-89), was first head of School for the Deaf, and Dr. Turner R.H. Smith (1820-85), of Hospital No.1. here lived novelists Nathan C. Kouns (1833-90); G.W. Hamilton (1845-1909); Caroline A. Stanley (1849-1919); Henry Bellamann (1882-1945).

Comments (6)

Jim Kuntz: ... Elizabeth today is the town of "Hams Prairie". 1 July 23, 2006 Jim Kuntz: ... Westminster College began zccepting female students in 1979, and is now Westminster University. 2 August 20, 2006 Jim Kuntz: ... The plaque to mark the "Iron Curtain" speech no longer exists, a 12th Century chapel, rebuilt by Sir Christopher Wren, was moved stone-by-stone from London, reassembled, and dedicated as the Winston Churchill Memorial in 1969 to mark the site of Churchill's address. 3 August 20, 2006 Jim Kuntz: ... There is no statue of James Callaway. And from local records never has been one in the town or county. 4 August 27, 2006 Jim Kuntz: ... State Hospital #1 is now Fulton State Hospital. 5 August 27, 2006 Jim Kuntz: ... William Woods became a four-year college in the 1960's and in 1993 was renamed William Woods University. 6 August 27, 2006

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