CHAPTER VIII
In surveying the city of Clinton Mr. Goff had as his assistants James Gladden, Robert Sproul and William George. For the survey Mr. Goff received $42.75. The first lots sold by Mr. Parks amounted to $1,356.48. Even after the County Court had appointed superintendents to plan for a new court house, it was some months before they looked after the patent for the quarter section on which the county seat was to be located. The following order was therefore made and placed upon record:
"John F. Sharp is appointed agent for and in behalf of the County of Rives to deposit with the registrar and receiver at Lexington $200.00 for the purpose of obtaining a pre-emption right to the quarter section of land on which the seat of justice for Rives County has been located; and it is further ordered that said county pay said agent $2.50 for each day he may be necessarily engaged in transacting said business."
The entire bill which was presented and allowed to Judge Sharp for transacting the business outlined in the above order was $12.50.
Meanwhile the court had appointed Judge Sharp and Thomas B. Wallace, who had succeeded William Goff as treasurer of the county, as commissioners for a new court house. In December, 1837, these gentlemen reported on a plan for the courthouse which was to be a brick structure for which the county was to pay the sum of $2,500 after the contract had been let to the lowest and best bidder. The contract to build it was let in January, 1838, to John D. Mercer, who was to complete the courthouse within eighteen months and who was to be paid for it in three equal payments. Judge Sharp was appointed county commissioner for the permanent seat of justice with the full power to transact business in the name of the county. After the lots in the first plat were sold, another survey was ordered. In passing it may be noted that for one lot sold at private sale George W. Lake paid $8.00 for what was supposed to contain a half acre of ground.
The census of Rives County was taken in 1836 for which Robert Allen was paid $35.00. This and many other of the early records have been lost, so that it is impossible to state what this census showed.
After the sale of lots, it was ordered that the County and Circuit Courts should be held at Clinton. At the last session of the County Court held before going to Clinton the commissioners who had selected the permanent seat of justice of Rives County presented their bill. The two gentlemen from Lafayette County were given $12.00 each, while Mr. Boone of Jackson County was paid $14.00, for their services in determining the location of the county seat of a county in Missouri.
In this last term of court held at Goff's house, a blind man by the name of George Manship became the first pauper taken charge of by the county.
After it was decided to locate the county seat at Clinton, there was no determined county seat fight. Mr. Mathew Davis succeeded Judge Sharp as superintendent of the court house building, while Thomas B. Wallace remained as the other commissioner until the completion of the work. What is not known to many of the present residents of Clinton is the fact that at the same time a public well was deemed necessary; this was made possible by the offer of A. W. Bates and Thomas B. Wallace, who contributed $100.00 toward the making of a well on the condition that the County Court would make up a like amount.
