Boone County was originally part of Howard County, which, back in the day, stretched for more than 22,000 square miles across Missouri and into Iowa. That’s why Howard County, despite its more diminutive size today, is referred to as the state’s “Mother of Counties.”
Things moved quickly from Howard County’s founding in 1816. In 1821, as Missouri became a state, Boone County was carved out of Howard, along with the entirety of 29 other current counties and several partial ones.
But before that happened, there was Smithton, a community of about 20 families, founded in 1819 on the west side of Flat Branch Creek. By 1821, people moved to the east side to access a water supply. Columbia, now the home of more than 130,000 souls, was born, and Smithton ceased to exist.
Such has been the case with many early communities in Boone County. Their existence hasn’t been completely forgotten, thanks largely to two written works. First, there’s Nadine Pace’s master’s thesis, published in 1928, “Place Names in the Central Counties of Missouri.” Her work was subsequently referenced by Robert L. Ramsay, who became a professor of English at Mizzou in 1911 and published the paper “The Place Names of Boone County, Missouri” in 1952.
Here are some of Columbia’s long-gone Boone County neighbors.
Thrall’s Prairie
It makes sense when addressing Boone County communities of old to begin with Thrall’s Prairie. Augustus Thrall from Tennessee erected the first cabin in Boone County on 300 acres near today’s Harrisburg in 1812. In 1816, it became the first permanent settlement of what would come to be Boone County.
Lexington and Rock Port
Boone’s Lexington shouldn’t be confused with the famous Civil War battle site of Lexington in Missouri’s Lafayette County. Situated near Thrall’s Prairie, Lexington was larger than Columbia, was home to Boone County’s first U.S. post office, and stood as a strong contender to become the county seat. Instead, the community moved south to the banks of the Missouri River and became Rock Port. It was a French missionary visiting the area in 1825 who thought it should be called “Rocheport.” However, the Anglicized version of the name didn’t go to waste. Rock Port in Atchison County, Missouri, was founded in the 1850s.
Greenland
This Greenland should not be confused with a certain country a certain president wants to take over. It wasn’t technically a community but a post office location. But when the new Louisiana and Missouri River Railroad was built in 1871, the area piqued the interest of John Harris, a landowner in Thrall’s Prairie and a Boone County leader. He and a couple of business partners purchased the land that would become Harrisburg, a mile or so north of Greenland.
Nashville and Providence
Ira P. Nash was a surveyor for the Spanish government when he was awarded a land grant around the same time as the Louisiana Purchase. He’s often referred to as “eccentric” in sources. But accounts of his life point more toward cheating, thievery, and criminality than eccentricity.
In fact, he was fined $100 ($3,675.85 today) by the Boone County Circuit Court for challenging Capt. Gilpin S. Tuttle, also of Nashville, to a duel, years after dueling was outlawed in the state. The case was nicknamed “The Crack of the Pistol.” The key evidence was an elaborate letter of invitation from Nash to Tuttle in which the former invites the latter on a “hunt” near New Madrid, along the Mississippi River. The ruse fooled neither Tuttle nor the court.
Regardless of Nash’s criminal convictions (that wasn’t the only one), Nashville, located on the Missouri River at Providence Bend, enjoyed a degree of prosperity before being wiped out by a flood in 1844. That’s when villagers moved up to the bluffs and established a town they named Providence, since that’s how they believed they had survived.
Easley
A 20-minute walk will take you from Cooper’s Landing south to Easley. This unincorporated community still exists, although its last building — a general store — now stands reconstructed at the Boone County Historical Society. It was named after W.G. Easley, who donated the land, built a store, and ran the post office. What other name could it have?
Whoopup and Sapp
If you take State Route N northeast from Easley to Pierpont, you drive through a line of homes that comprise the Sapp neighborhood, near the Nashville cemetery, about halfway to your destination. But before Sapp was Sapp, it was Whoopup.
Ramsay attributes the name to an Irish war whoop used by Shakespeare in “The Winter’s Tale.” But Pace’s take involves a scene in a busy store where a visitor asked the name of the town. The frenzied proprietor replied, “Whoopup. Whoopup. That’s the name of this store. Whoopup.” It stuck until a post office was built, and people who thought that development demanded a more serious name for the town called it Sapp after a local teacher. But Whoopup is so much more fun.
Perche and Persia
Perche Creek is well known in Boone County. According to Ramsay, it’s one of the French names that stuck. It means “pierced or perforated crag or cliff,” referring to the rock formation at the creek’s mouth. Ramsay also cites Capt. William Clark’s recording of “Split Rock Creek.”
The original records of the community refer to the “The Town of Persia,” and it appears it was called by both names. Ramsay suggests someone wanted to elevate the name of the town by using “Persia.” After all, its leaders threw in their hats, unsuccessfully, for Perche/Persia to become the Boone County seat.
Ginlet
Ginlet is a spelling error. As was often the case, when someone built a little store, the people in the community applied to Washington, D.C., for a post office. The villagers called their little hamlet “Gimlet.” However, someone along the way misread the “m” for a “n,” and the rest is history. They did get their post office, although it’s long gone. Ginlet, on Route AB, is still a Boone County neighborhood, gimlet or not.
Deer Park
John Harris of Harrisburg fame wasn’t the only one in the family who named a village. His father, Judge Overton Harris, owned a farm. And on his farm, he had a lot of deer and a post office. Deer Park is an unincorporated community in Boone County, straddling U.S. Highway 63 just west of Gimlet, I mean, Ginlet.
Bourbonton, Bourbon, Buena Vista, and Sturgeon
It took a few names to get to present-day Sturgeon. A group of settlers from Bourbonton, Kentucky, first adopted that name for their new home in 1846, later shortening it to Bourbon. But some — perhaps those who didn’t hail from Kentucky — called it Buena Vista, or “beautiful view.” It didn’t matter, though, because in 1856, the North Missouri Railroad came to town and renamed the settlement after Isaac Sturgeon, the railroad superintendent.
The Name Game
How did people name these early communities? Some were named after people, like Minnie, likely the store owner’s wife or daughter. There’s Oldham, so called to recognize storekeeper Asa Old, who is said to have taken great pride in his inventory of old hams.
Some took less imagination and stated the obvious. There’s Boone’s Lick, named after Daniel Boone’s sons, who made salt from local salt springs, and Dripping Spring, where water drips from a rock into a creek near a general store.
Many, like Boone County and Boonesboro, are named after places in Kentucky, where settlers — including the eponymous Daniel — had lived before. Not that Kentucky was the only place to be so honored. Two German entrepreneurs called their burg Germantown, while Englewood was named by a teacher after a town in Illinois.
Stores, post offices, and railroads spurred formation of communities around them. They also played a role in naming them, as was the case for Whoopup and Sturgeon. See also Smackout, which, as Pace’s legend has it, earned the moniker after a store owner who ran out of inventory all the time and would tell customers, “I am just smackout of that.” And Harg was originally McHarg, named after — you guessed it — a storekeeper. For the convenience of the U.S. Postal Service, however, it was later shortened to just Harg.
Columbia, it seems, took its name from a popular nickname for the United States at the time. What’s in a name? It depends on what’s happening at the time.
