But forty-one years have passed since Bates County had its birth, yet great have been the changes wrought within this time, and mighty have been the events and revolutions, the discoveries and inventions that have occurred and have been made on this earth of ours.

Perhaps since God "formed the earth and the world," and tossed it from the hollow of his hand into space, so many great things have not been accomplished in any forty-one years. Reflection on these cannot fail to arouse wonder and awaken thankfulness that God has appointed us the place we occupy in the eternal chain of events. Tennyson and Browning, Bryant and Whittier, Lowell and Longfellow have sung; the matchless Webster, the ornate Sumner, the eloquent Clay, the metaphysical Calhoun and Seward, have since reached the culmination of their powers, and passed into the grave. Macaulay, Thiers, Gizot and Froude have written in noble strains the great history of their lands; and Bancroft, and Prescott, and Hildreth, and Motley have won high rank among the historians of earth; Spurgeon, and Punshon, and Beecher, and Moody, have enforced with most persuasive eloquence the duties of morality and religion. Carlyle, and Emerson, and Stuart Mill, and Spencer have given the results of their speculations in high philosophy to the world. Mexico has been conquered, Alaska has been purchased; the center of population has traveled two hundred and fifty miles along the 39th parallel, and many states have been added to the glorious constellation on the blue field of our flag. Great cities have been created, and populous counties developed; and the stream of emigration is still tending westward. Gold has been discovered in the far West, and the great civil war -- the bloodiest in all the annals of time -- has been fought.

The act, as will be seen, creating the new county, specified that it should be called Bates, in honor of:

At the session of the general assembly in the winter of 1840-41, "An Act was passed to organize counties therein named, and define the boundaries thereof." Under that act fourteen counties were organized, of which Bates County was one, and is comprised in sections 34, 35 and 36, of the act above.

Section 34. All that portion of territory included within the following described limits, viz: Beginning on the western boundary line of this state, at the southwest corner of Van Buren County; thence east to the southeast corner of said county; thence south on the range line dividing ranges 28 and 29, to the township line dividing townships 33 and 34; thence west on said township line to the western line of the state; thence north on said line to the place of beginning, is hereby created a separate and distinct county, to be called and known by the name of the county of Bates.

Section 35. Thomas B. Arnot, of the county of Van Buren; Robert M. White, of Johnson County, and Cornelius Davy, of Jackson County, are hereby appointed commissioners to select the permanent seat of justice for said county.

Section 36. The circuit and county courts for said county shall be held at James Allen's, at the old Harmony Mission, until the permanent seat of justice is established, or the county court shall otherwise direct."

Approved January 29, 1841.

On the 22d day of February 1855, an act was approved attaching a part of Cass County to Bates; that act reads:

Section 1. All that part of Cass County included in and made part of the late county of Vernon by an act entitled, "An act to establish the county of Vernon," approved the 17th of February, 1851, and which late county of Vernon was afterwards decided to be unconstitutional, is hereby attached to and made part of Bates County.

Section 2. All the justices of the peace and constables now acting in that part of Cass here added to Bates are hereby empowered to hold and discharge the duties of their respective offices in the county of Bates until the next general election, but should any of them neglect or refuse so to do, then the county court of Bates are authorized to supply their places by appointment.

Not only was a portion of Cass County (the part above referred to) once a portion of Vernon County, but Vernon included as well the county of Bates. The act of the legislature establishing Vernon County was approved February 17, 1851, and was as follows:

All the territory included in the following limits, to wit: Beginning on the western boundary line of the state of Missouri, at the section corner dividing sections seven and eighteen (18) in township thirty-eight, of range thirty-three; thence east with the line dividing said sections to the line of St. Clair County; thence north with the line separating the counties of Bates and St. Clair to the southwest corner of Henry County; thence continuing north with the line separating Cass and Henry Counties, to the middle of the main channel of Grand River; thence up the main channel of Grand River to the line dividing townships forty-two and forty-three; thence west with the line separating said township forty-two and three, to said western boundary line; thence south with said boundary line to the beginning, is hereby created a separate and distinct county, for all civil and military purposes, to be called the county of Vernon, in honor of Miles Vernon, of Laclede County.

It will thus be seen that Vernon County embraced Bates and the southern part of Cass. The new county, however, was to remain such, provided the people residing in the territory included therein should ratify the act at the polls in August 1851.

The act creating the new county of Vernon was soon declared unconstitutional, which left the county of Bates as originally erected until 1855, when, as stated, the southern part of Cass was added to it. During the same year (1855) Vernon County, as now formed, was organized, and a portion of the southern part of Bates was taken off and attached to it. That portion of Bates County that was added to Vernon was two miles in width and thirty miles in length.

Bates County Missouri MOGenWeb