The commissioners appointed in the act creating the county to locate the seat of justice were Thomas B. Arnett, of Cass County (then Van Buren), Robert M. White of Johnson County, and Cornelius Davy, of Jackson County.

The early records of the county court, covering a period of eleven years (from 1841 to 1852) having been destroyed or lost during the war of 1861, we are unable to present any particulars of the selection and location of the first county seat. Harmony Mission, however, being the first settlement in the county, and being at that time near its geographical center, it was but natural that the commissioners should select it as the county seat.

After meeting at Colonel Robert Allen's house, the courts were afterwards held in what was then called the "Mission Building," or school house, which had been used by the missionaries for school and church purposes. No court house was ever erected at Harmony Mission. The courts were held there, however, from 1841 to 1847, when the county seat was removed to Papinville, three miles southeast of Harmony Mission, on the Marais des Cygnes. A temporary building was prepared at Papinville, but really no court house was erected until after 1853.

On the 15th of November, 1852, the county court ordered that a good and substantial court house be erected at Papinville, the then county seat of Bates County, to cost the sum of $2,500. Freeman Barrows was appointed the superintendent of the building, and was ordered to prepare a plan and specifications, to be submitted to the court. In December following, the plans and specifications were submitted, and the court ordered that the superintendent should advertise the letting of the building, and that the bids therefor should be opened in February, 1853. It was concluded by the court to appropriate $3,500 for the erection of said building, instead of $2,500. Freeman Barrows resigned as superintendent of the building in August, 1853, and the court appointed Abraham Redfield. In September, 1853, Mr. Redfield filed with the court a plan of the court house, gotten up by Messrs. Fitzpatrick & Hurt, of Benton County, Missouri, which was approved by the court. The house was to be constructed of brick, 35x60 feet, and to cost $4,200, under the contract made by Redfield with the builders. The building was completed in 1855.

In 1856, the county seat was again moved, this time from Papinville to Butler. W. L. Sutherland and Achilles Easley (the latter is now living near Harrisonville, Cass County) were appointed commissioners by the general assembly to locate the county seat. They selected the town of Butler, the place being so called in honor of William O. Butler, of Kentucky, who distinguished himself as a brave general in the Mexican War. After the selection had been made, the county court ordered the sale of the court house and public square at Papinville, in February, 1857, at the same session, ordered the building of a court house at Butler. The same was to be constructed of brick and was to be 50x50 feet, in dimensions and to cost $5,000.00. Kirkpatrick & Hurt were the contractors.

The old court house and public square at Papinville were purchased by Philip Zeal, who converted the building into a mercantile establishment and continued to sell goods in it until the war of 1861, when it was destroyed by fire. The foundation of Mr. Zeal's present business house was built of rock and brick taken from the debris of that building. The first term of the court was held at Butler, February 4, 1856.

At the November term of the county court 1865, the court determined to build another court house and also a clerk's office (the second court house being also destroyed by fire) appropriated the sum of $1,000 for that purpose. The clerk's office 15x15 feet with ten foot ceiling, and the court house to be 16x24 feet with ten foot ceiling. These buildings were to be constructed of wood and designed merely as temporary buildings.

In September, 1868, the court ordered that a proposition be submitted to the voters of the county to vote an appropriation of $25,000 for the building of a new court house. The election was held and the proposition carried. County bonds of $100 each were issued for the amount payable -- one-third in 1870, one-third in 1871 and one-third in 1872, to bear interest at ten per cent.

J. B. Finkelpaugh took the contract for the building at $23,200, and gave bond for double that amount. The building is 75x75 feet, three stories high and constructed of brick. It contains five rooms on the first floor, three on the second, and the third story contains two large rooms with vestibules, which have been leased for a period of ninety-nine years by the Masonic and Odd Fellow Orders.

The building is surmounted by a cupola, from which a good view of the surrounding country may be had. The public square, in the center of which the court house stands, is beautifully set in blue grass and shade trees (soft maple). This spot of ground occupies an area of 300x300 feet.

Pauperism is an evil which has never, to any considerable extent, afflicted any portion of our state, still less the wealthy district included within the limits of Bates County. No land, however blessed, has been always and uniformly exempt from misfortune which may result in inability to afford self-support, and Bates County, with her generous soil, enterprising and liberal-spirited population, has proven no exception to the universal rule. Still, many years of rapid development and increasing population rolled onward from the first settling of the county before the necessity arose of providing for an indigent class which had just begun to appear.

In December, 1881, the county court purchased from Judge E. A. Henry the south half of the southwest quarter of section 7, and the north half of the northwest quarter of section 18, township forty, range thirty, consisting of 160 acres. The buildings, two in number, are in fair condition. The main building contains six rooms in two stories. It is frame, with a front of 16x36 feet, and a wing running back forty feet. The paupers have averaged about eight in number annually, and cost the county from $1,200 to $1,500 per annum. The poor farm cost $15 per acre.

There have been two jails erected in the county -- one a wooden temporary structure at Butler soon after the removal thither of the county seat, and the second a brick building, which was also located at Butler. The brick is the present jail, containing six rooms, and is two stories high. These six rooms include two cells for prisoners. The sheriff resides at the jail.

The records of the County Court, from 1841 to 1852, as has already been stated, were lost or destroyed, during the late war, and the records of the circuit court from 1841 to 1859, were also destroyed, during that period, so that it is impossible at this time, to give much of their early history.

The court assembled the first time to set in motion the civil government of Bates County, at the residence of Col. Robert Allen, at Harmony Mission in the winter of 1841. Judges William Proffit, George Douglas and George Manship, composed the county court, and Hon. John F. Ryland was the judge of the circuit court. Freeman Barrows was the first county and circuit court clerk, Samuel A. Sawyer was the prosecuting attorney and Charles English was the sheriff.

During the civil war of 1861, the courts became something of itinerants in their habits. In pursuance of an act of the general assembly of the state, approved February 13, 1864, authorizing the courts to be held elsewhere than at the permanent seat of justice, the courts of Bates County were convened at Johnstown in the eastern part of the county, on the second Monday in May 1864, it having been thirteen months, since the holding of the last court at Butler.

On the first Monday in July, 1865, the courts were held at the town of Pleasant Gap, and during the following year, 1866, these honorable bodies again returned to Butler. The last grand jury empaneled before the war in October, 1860, was composed of the following persons: James Boyer, Peter Marry, Phillip Zeal, C. A. Jackman, John Moudy, Calvin Reed, John Hale, John Marley, Joseph Conklin, William P. Thomas, John O. Starr, James Nelson, Pinkney D. Vandyke, James M. Simpson, James R. Coe and George W. Glass.

The early real estate records of the county are still in existence; the first instrument bears date June 12, 1839, and is a deed. The grantor was Winston Adams, and the grantee was Zachariah Benson. The land conveyed by the deed was at that time situated in Van Buren, or what is now known as Cass County, and in that part of the county which was afterwards attached to Bates.

The following is the first deed placed on record:

This indenture made and entered into this 12th day of June, A.D. 1839, between Winston Adams and Jane Adams, wife of the said Winston Adams, of the first part, and Zachariah Benson, of the other part, witnesseth: That the said party of the first part, for and in consideration of the sum of one thousand dollars, to them in hand paid by said party of the second part, the receipt whereof is hereby acknowledged, have granted, bargained, sold, conveyed and confirmed, and by these presents the said Winston Adams and Jane Adams, wife of the said Winston Adams, parties of the first part, do grant, bargain, convey and confirm unto the said Zachariah Benson, party of the second part, his heirs and assigns, all the following described tracts of lands of and lying, situate and being in the county of Van Buren and State of Missouri, to wit: The east half of the northeast quarter of section number fifteen, in township number forty-one, and range number thirty, containing eighty acres, and the west half of the southwest quarter of section number two, in township number forty-one, of range number thirty, containing eighty acres; and the east half of the southwest quarter, and west half of the southeast quarter of section number three, in township number forty-one, of range number thirty, containing one hundred and sixty acres; and the northeast quarter of section number ten, in township number forty-one of range number thirty, containing one hundred and sixty acres; and the east half of the southeast quarter of section number ten, in township number forty-one, of range number thirty, containing eighty acres; and the west half of the northwest quarter of section number eleven, in township number forty-one, of range number thirty, containing eighty acres, being the same tract or parcel of land entered at the land office in Lexington, and numbered on the register of receipts as numbers 15314 and 15319, including the intervening numbers, by the said Winston Adams, under date of June 12, A.D. 1839. To have and to hold the above described tracts or parcels of land, with all the privileges and appurtenances thereto belonging, or in any wise appertaining to him, the said Zachariah Benson, and to his heirs and assigns in fee forever; and I, the said Winston Adams, the same unto the said Zachariah Benson, and to his heirs and assigns, will warrant and forever defend.
In testimony whereof, the said Winston Adams and Jane Adams, wife of the said Winston Adams, party of the first part, have hereunto set their hands and seals the day and year above written.
his mark X WINSTON ADAMS.
her mark X JANE ADAMS.
In presence of witnesses to signature of Winston Adams, Samuel L. Sawyers, Jarrett Adams. Witnesses to signature of Jane Adams, Rachel Cook, Elias Wilmoth.

Acknowledgement.
STATE OF MISSOURI,
County of Van Buren.

Be it remembered that on this 20th of September, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and thirty-nine, before me, a justice of the peace within and for the county aforesaid, personally came Winston Adams and Jane Adams, known as his wife, whose names are subscribed to the foregoing instrument of writing, as having executed the same, and severally acknowledged the same to be their act and deed, for the uses and purposes therein mentioned. The said Jane Adams being by me first made acquainted with the contents thereof, and examined separate and apart from her husband, whether she executed the same deed and relinquished her dower in the lands and tenements therein mentioned freely and voluntarily, and without undue influence or compulsion of her said husband, acknowledged that she executed the said deed, and relinquished her dower in the lands and tenements therein mentioned, freely and voluntarily, and without undue influence of her said husband.
Given under my hand, this 20th day of September, 1839.
P. COOK, J.P.

The early marriage record was lost or destroyed during the war, none being in existence at this time of an earlier date than 1860. The number of marriages in 1841 did not, perhaps, exceed the number of fifteen. The number of marriage licenses recorded during the past twelve months in Bates County reaches two hundred and fifty, which is quite an increase over any preceding year.

Bates County Missouri MOGenWeb