Our Pettis County Missouri History Page

Welcome to Pettis County, Missouri


Pettis County is entitled to a historic name and has it and the name contains much history.  It has been the custom, since the foundation of the American Government, to commemorate the names of heroes and men of brilliancy. Our county followed this precedent and took its name from one of the most brilliant men Missouri has ever honored, the Hon. Spencer Pettis. He was the third representative in congress from Missouri.  The archives at Washington disclose this brief bit of history: “Spencer Pettis, St. Louis County, Missouri, elected August, 1828, for two years. Re-elected 1830. Killed in a duel with Biddle, August, 1831. Term of service, three years." When Pettis County was carved out of Saline and Cooper Counties, January 26, 1833, the people, with reverence, remembered the name of Spencer Pettis, their political hero and champion of their rights, and in honor to his memory named this county, Pettis. 


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Copyright 2000 Robin E. Helman
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