Picture Courtesy of Jim Kuntz

Picture Courtesy of Jim Kuntz

Largest City in Henry County
Welcome to Clinton, the largest city in Henry County. The city is named for DeWitt Clinton, governor of New York (1817-23) and primary advocate for the Erie Canal. Henry County (Originally Rives County) honors Patrick Henry, patriot and orator, who is said to have roused the Virginia colonial legislature with the words"give me liberty of give me death!"

County Commissioners chose the site of Clinton in 1836. Daniel Morgan Boone, first son of the famous Daniel Boone, was one of these commissioners. The following year, when the population of the town had yet to reach 50, construction of the courthouse began on the last high ground heading west. Although the original courthouse was razed in 1887, the current one (built in 1892) is located on the same site. Both courthouses served as focal point for the largest public square in Missouri, and one of the largest in the nation.

The Golden Valley
Local tradition credits the Osage for labeling present-day Clinton as "The Golden Valley." It was said that storms from the western prairies dissipated here, and the area was believed to be free of severe weather.

Golden Valley settlers were primarily agrarian, but within a generation, Clinton boosted of a brick courthouse, a two-story log tavern, a stagecoach depot and a two-story brick residence known as the Judge Dorman home (Now in the National Register of Historic Places).

As was true in many rural towns, the Civil War kept prosperity at bay. Three separate skirmishes were fought in Clinton between 1862 and 1864. Henry County's position in the war is reflected in the fact that it supplied over 10 men to the Confederate Army for every one man to the Union.

[Upper Photo: Henry County's first courthouse was built in 1837 on the last high ground heading west, as shown in this 1880's photo.]
Used by permission, Henry County Historical Society.

[Middle Photo: Judge Jurubial Gideon Dorman, a leading Clinton businessman and representative to Missouri's 27th General Assembly, was the first passenger off the first Katy train into Clinton, Aug. 23, 1870.]
Photo courtesy of the Clinton Chamber of Commerce.

[Bottom Photo: The Judge Dorman residence was the largest home in Clinton at the time it was built in 1852. The house is in the National Register of Historic Places.]
Photo courtesy of Clinton Main Street, Inc.

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