South Fork Township

Source: History of Northeast Missouri, Edited by Walter Williams, Published by The Lewis Publishing Company, Chicago Illinois 1913 

Monroe County Article written by Thomas V. Bodine, Paris

South Fork township, the richest agricultural section of the county, was organized in 1834 and Santa Fe, its one town, was laid out in 1837 by Dr. John S. Bybee, a Kentuckian. The first business house in the town was built by Henry Canote and was followed by Clemens Hall with a general store. South Fork is an inland township, settled mainly by Virginians, and Santa Fe has been en important trading point from the beginning. Its first physician was Dr. D. L. Davis and its first tailor Alvin Cauthorn. The Methodists had a church house there as early as 1840, South Fork Presbyterian church was organized in 1853 and the Santa Fe Christian church in 1855. Among the pioneers of this rich township were the Criglers, Prices, Bybees, Tanners, Hannas, Hizers and Davises. Later came the Trimbles, Creighs, Cowherds, Quisenberries and others whose names still figure largely in its life and activities. From South Fork came Colonel Pindle of sharp-shooter fame in Price’s army, before mentioned, and there lived Dr. William Houston, who, amid rebellion on all sides, continued to uphold the Union cause during the Civil war. Dr. John S. Drake, Kentuckian, has been one of the revered figures of this fine community for fifty years. The names of Bates, Vaughn, Brashears, Fleming, Peak, Ragsdale and others of the early families continue in perpetuity and Monroe county possesses no finer or more progressive body of people. At Strother in the northern portion of South Fork township was once located one of the county’s chief institutions of learning. It was established by John Forsythe, Jacob Cox, Joseph Sproul, William Vaughn, Hiram Bledsoe and others before the war and continued up until the late seventies, when it burned, having in its time many renowned instructors, the last being Prof. French Strother, now making his home in Virginia. South Fork has had the educational impetus from the beginning and has furnished the county with some of its most illustrious citizens.