First Settlers, Harrison County, Missouri

The time or place of the first settlement in the county is not definitely known. Joseph Arnold, who until his death some years ago lived about three miles south of Bethany, is accredited with being one of the first settlers and he stated that in the spring of 1838 his father and Levi Hunt settled on the west bank of Big Creek about five miles south of Bethany. That they found there when they came John Fields living a little lower down the creek on its east bank. That he had a little log hut and a small field enclosed and in cultivation. In the year 1838 William Mitchell, Jacob Mitchell and others settled on Sugar Creek in the southeast part of the county.

During that year and 1839 several families settled in the county at different points and the neighborhoods were known by the names of some of the more prominent of the first settlers. There were such neighborhoods as Dunkerson's Grove, Taylor's Grove, Harris' Mill, Foster's Farm, Allen's Big Spring, and like designations were common about the country by which different localities became well known among the people, and as commonly referred to as are now the towns and villages.

In the history of Harrison County, published in 1888 and edited by the late Colonel D. J. Heaston, of Bethany, we learn that efforts had been made to obtain the names of the actual settlers prior to 1850 and to arrange them by neighborhoods, but it was found impossible; but the following list then taken from public records and interviews then had with pioneers was published therein alphabetically: 

County Settlers

The first settlers of this county were all an exceptionally good class of citizens and all accounts we have learned of them agree in this. No county was ever settled by a better class of men than:

First Settlers

Those who settled with them near Bethany. Even William Penn and his early colony were no better.

Harrison County| AHGP Missouri

Source: History of Harrison County, Missouri, by Geo. W. Wanamaker, Historical Publishing Company, Topeka, 1921