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Contents

County Courthouse

Buchanan County Courthouse
5th & Jules
St. Joseph, MO 64501
Phone: 816.271.1412

Register of  Deeds has marriage records;
Clerk Circuit Court has divorce records;
Probate Judge has probate records;
Magistrat Court has court records;
County Assessor has land records [1]

Buchanan County Courthouse in St. Joseph, Missouri

An order was made to erect the first courthouse for Buchanan County, Missouri on 04 January 1841.  The building was to be completed by July 1841.  The site of the first county seat was in the village of Sparta.[2]
  1. ↑ Handybook for Genealogists: United States of America, 10th ed. (Draper, Utah: Everton Pub., 2002), Buchanan County, Missouri. Page 398 At various libraries (WorldCat); FHL Book 973 D27e 2002.
  2. ↑ History of Buchanan County, Missouri Containing a History of the County, Its Cities, Towns,etc., (St. Joseph, Missouri: St. Joseph Steam Printing Compnay, 1881).
 The contractor who built the simple courthouse was Guilford Moultray and the men, who made the initial plans for the building were George W. Nixon and William Fowler.  This building was a temporary structure.  On 09 November 1842 the County Court approved a second order for a more permanent structure.  This order was for a court house to be built in Sparta which was near the center of Buchanan County, however, there was discension concerning this location.  The residents who lived in the larger town of St. Joseph which was platted in 1843 were vying for the courthouse to be moved to this city.  They presented a petition with the signatures of more than 3/5 of the tax-payers of the county requesting that the county seat be moved to St. Joseph and the new courthouse be built there instead of the more central village of Sparta.  On 04 July 1843 a report drafted by three men, who were appointed as commissioners by the Justices of the County Court was filed with the State of Missouri stating that an election should be held on 05 August 1843 to decide the permanent location of the county seat.  Residents of each township were to decide if the new courthouse should be built in what is now St. Joseph, but at that time was known as Blacksnake Hills.[1]
  1. ↑ History of Buchanan County, Missouri Containing a History of the County, Its Cities, Towns,etc., (St. Joseph, Missouri: St. Joseph Steam Printing Compnay, 1881).
  It took the residents about three years to make the final decision to move the courthouse. The site of the new courthouse was donated by Joseph Robidoux. 

History

Buchanan County was added to the state of Missouri with the Platte Purchase which was finalized in the year 1837.  Prior to that it was part of the Indian lands and only a few white settlers and fur trappers occupied the region.  One of the earliest was Joseph Robidoux, III who was a trader and fur trapper, who settled in the hills above the Missouri River at what is now known as St. Joseph, Missouri.  He apparently, first arrived in the area about 1800 when he was 17 years old.  He and his associates had ventured out into the frontier to try to establish a trading relationship with the local Native Americans (the Blacksnake, Missouri, Otoe, Joway, Iowa and other tribes).[1]
  1. ↑ Robert J. Willoughby, Robidoux's Town (St. Joseph, Missouri: Platte Purchase Publishers, 2006).


In these early years, Joe Robidoux did not establish a permanent residence in what later became St. Joseph.  Instead, he traveled up and down the Missouri Valley from St. Louis, Missouri to Council Bluffs, Iowa bartering and trading with the Native Americans.  In later years, Robidoux became an employer of the American Fur Company and established a permanent residence.  The area was known as Blacksnake Hills.


By 1834 white settlers began to enter the area illegally and began squatting on land.  Their main intent was to take acquire land.  Since this area was not yet part of the United States they could not legally obtain title to their land and it was the duty of the U.S. military to see to it that they did not invade the area.  One of the military leaders in charge of this agency was General Andrew Hughes, who did not like to enforce the policy of no squatters in the area.

Parent County

1838--Buchanan County was created 31 December 1838 from the Platte Purchase. County seat: St. Joseph [1]

Boundary Changes

See an interactive map of Buchanan County border changes at N2Genealogy.

Record Loss

Places/Localities

Populated Places

Neighboring Counties

Resources

Cemeteries

The following link will take you to the MOGenWeb site containing information about Buchanan County cemeteries: http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~mobuchan/Cemeteries.htm 

Index and list of tombstones and cemetery records in the FHL;

FHL 928268 item 1

FHL 977.8155 V3

FHL 6049448


  • The following link will take you to Find A Grave. This is a list of 151 cemeteries in Buchanan County. Many have photos of the tombstones. Find A Grave

Census

For tips on accessing Buchanan County, Missouri census records online, see: Missouri Census.

Church

LDS Ward and Branch Records

  • St. Joseph

Court

  • The following link will take you to Naturalization Records for Buchanan County. They are for the years 1816-1955.Naturalization Records They are from the Missouri State Archives.


Land

Deed records are available from 1839 to the present.  They are archived at the Recorder of Deeds Office in the Courthouse.

Local Histories

A Portrait and biographical record of Buchanan and Clinton counties, Missouri containing biographical sketches of prominent and representative citizens... (1893) is available online free from Google Books. The first part of the book contains biographies of the U.S. presidents. The second part, starting on p.111, contains biographies Buchanan and Clinton county residents.

Maps


Migration

Early migration routes to and from Buchanan County, Missouri for European and African American settlers included:

Military

Newspapers

Probate

Taxation

Vital Records

Births

Marriages
Deaths

Death records can be found also in the State Records.

Census Records

Societies and Libraries

Family History Centers

Web Sites

  • USGenWeb project. May have maps, name indexes, history or other information for this county. Select the state, then the county.
  • Family History Library Catalog

References

  1. ↑ The Handybook for Genealogists: United States of America,10th ed. (Draper, UT:Everton Publishers, 2002).
  2. ↑ Jim Tompkins, "The Oregon Trail 1841-1848 Map I" in Oregon Trail Landmarks at http://www.oregonpioneers.com/OTMap1.jpg (accessed 18 July 2011).
  3. ↑ "Oregon California Trails Association" at http://octatrails.micromaps.com/ (accessed 18 July 2011).
  4. ↑ "The Pioneer Story: The Mormon Pioneer Trail" in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at http://lds.org/gospellibrary/pioneer/pioneerstory.htm (accessed 18 July 2011).
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