The "Platte Purchase" comprised the six counties organized as follows:  Platte county, December 31, 1838; Buchanan county, February 10, 1839; Andrew county, January 29, 1841; Holt county, February 15, 1841; Atchison and Nodaway counties, February 14, 1845.
    The legislative act creating Nodaway county reads as follows:
    "Section 1.  All that portion of territory bounded as follows, viz: Beginning in the middle of the main channel of the Nodaway river, opposite the line dividing townships 61 and 62; thence up the middle of the main channel thereof to the mouth of the brook, in what is now known as Roland Grove; thence west to the dividing ridge, dividing the waters of the Big Tarkio and Nodaway rivers; thence north upon the top of said dividing ridge to the state line; thence with the state boundary to the old western boundary of the state; thence with the same to the township line dividing townships 61 and 62; thence west with said township line to the place of beginning, is hereby organized into a separate county, to be called and known by the name of Nodaway.
    "Section 2.  Amos Graham and William M. Sitton, of the county of Andrew, and Daniel Hunsucker, of the county of Holt, are hereby appointed commissioners, to select the permanent seat of justice of said county; said commissioners shall meet at the house of I. N. Prather, on the first Monday of June, next.
    "Section 3.  The county courts of said county shall be held on the first Mondays of February, May, August and November, and the first meeting of said court shall be at the house of I. N. Prather, and shall continue to be there held until the permanent seat of justice is established, unless otherwise ordered by the court."

    The above act, under which the county was organized, was introduced as a bill in the General Assembly of Missouri by a member of the lower house from Andrew county, Missouri.
    An act defining the boundary and naming the county of Nodaway was passed by the General Assembly as early as January 29, 1841, the territory of which at that time embraced the present county of Holt.
    On the 15th of February, 1841, the same General Assembly passed a supplemental act, amendatory to the act above referred to, changing the name of Nodaway county, which it had just created, to Holt.  That enactment reads as follows:
    "That portion of territory included within the following described limits, to-wit:  Beginning in the main channel of the Missouri river, at a point where the range line dividing ranges 36 and 37 would intersect the same; thence north, with said range line, to the middle of the main channel of the Nodaway river; thence up the middle of the main channel of said river to the northern boundary of the state; thence west with said boundary line to the middle of the main channel of the Missouri river; thence down said river, in the middle of the main channel thereof, to the place of beginning, shall be called and known by the name of Holt, in honor of David R. Holt, Esq., late representative from Platte county, any law to the contrary notwithstanding.
    David R. Holt was one of the most prominent men at that time in all western Missouri.  The General Assembly of Missouri appropriated the sum of two hundred and fifty dollars to the erection of a tomb over his grave and for a suitable inscription.  At the request of Mrs. Holt, a place was reserved by the side of his remains for her interment after her decease.