In 1829 the Legislature passed an act defining the boundaries of a new county to be called Stoddard, in honor of Capt. Amos Stoddard, and annexed it to Cape Girardeau County, for civil and military purposes. It thus remained until January 2, 1835, when an act was passed for its organization. By this act it was made to embrace all the territory between the St. Francois and Little Rivers, and south of Black Mingo and the "Big Swamp".

Court Transactions - The first count court met at the house of A.B. Bailey, which stood in the southwest part of the present town of Bloomfield, on February 9, 1835. Jacob Taylor, Field Bradshaw and John Eaker were the justices, and Jonas Eaker the clerk of the court. Soon after a small brick courthouse was erected upon the public square, and a log jail southeast of the square. These buildings were used until 1856, when $10,000 was appropriated for the erection of a new courthouse, and Solomon G. Kitchen appointed as superintendent. At the same time a new jail was built by Daniel Kitchen. During Price's raid in September 1864, the courthouse was burned by some stragglers, but fortunately the records had been removed. At the beginning of the war Maj. H.H. Bedford took the records into Arkansas, and concealed them, and after the close of the war, returned them without the loss of a single book.

In 1867 the county court made an order for the rebuilding of the courthouse, and appointed William G. Phelan to superintend the work. The contract was let to George F. Miller and Samuel D. Henson, and the building was completed for occupancy in 1870. During that year the contract for a new jail was let to P. J. Pauley & Bro., for $8,000, and an order made for the issuance of 6 per cent county bonds to the amount of $10,000.

Upon the organization of the county it was divided into four municipal townships - Castor, Pike, St. Francois and Liberty. In 1850 a fifth township, Duck Creek, was added, and soon after four more townships were erected. They were Prairie, Clay, Benton and Fillmore. In 1853 the territory of the county was reduced. A strip nine miles wide was taken off on the south, and added to Dunklin County, and a similar amount from the north and added to Cape Girardeau. The townships were then reduced to five, and relocated under the following names: Liberty, Richland, Duck Creek, Castor and Pike, to which was afterward added New Lisbon. In 1868 the county was again redistricted and Elk Township formed.

The first circuit court for Stoddard County was held at the house of Absalom B. Bailey, on March 21, 1836, by John D. Cook, and continued but one day. The grand jury empaneled was made up of the following men: Samuel Lesley, foreman; Andrew Neale, Benjamin Taylor, Frederick Verner, Ephraim Snider, Jacob Crites, William V. Carlock, George Slinkard, Frederick Slinkard, Peter Proffer, Levi Baker, Henry Miller, Henry Ashbranner, William W. Hicks, Daniel Bollinger, Samuel Moore, Thomas Neale and Horatio Lawrence. They were charged by the judge and retired, but reported no business before them, and were discharged. The next term of this court was held in February, 1837. At the following June term indictments were found against John Summers for larceny, against Lucien Barnhart for the same offense, against Davis Revelle for selling liquor without a license, against Green Freeman for adultery, and against John Cockerell for arson, but none of them were prosecuted to conviction. The first person sent to the penitentiary from Stoddard County was Peter Jones, who was sentenced to two years imprisonment for stealing $15 from William Henley. In 1843 Daniel Sanford and M.B. Koons were indicated for the murder of Samuel Chapman. The former was tried first and acquitted, and the indictment against the latter was then quashed. Sanford, Koons and Chapman were physicians practicing at Bloomfield, and considerable jealousy and enmity existed among them. Koons and chapman met one day near where Maj. Bedford's office now is, and after exchanging some words, engaged in a fight. Sanford, who happened to be present, laid hold of Chapman, who was a very high-tempered man, and attempted to stop the fight. At that Chapman struck at Sanford, but the latter being much the stronger man pushed him away. He then drew a dirk, stabbed Sanford several time, and turned and ran. Sanford drew a large pocket knife, and overtaking Chapman, plunged it into his neck, inflicting a fatal wound. To void imprisonment, Koons and Sanford escaped to Texas, but returned at the next term of court, and were indicted as above stated.

The next trial that excited general interest was that of Sarah Buckner, brought on change of venue from Bollinger County in 1856. Mrs. Buckner had been twice married. By her first marriage she had two children, a boy and a girl, who, at the time of the trial were aged about ten and fourteen years, respectively. Her second husband was a boy only nineteen years old, who had been employed by her to work the farm, and who, through her blandishments, had first become criminally intimate with her, and then had been forced to marry her. She soon tired of him and drove him away, but, after the birth of their child, she sent him word to return and take it away, as she did not wish to care for it. He returned for the child, and while sitting in front of the fire waiting for his wife to clothe it properly, the latter ordered her daughter to kill him with an ax. The daughter obeyed so far as to strike him a blow, which rendered him insensible, but did not kill him. Mrs. Buckner then seized the ax and finished the bloody work. To conceal the crime, she tore up the floor of the cabin and attempted to bury the remains, but finding this impossible, set fire to the house. Afterward the heart and some of the bones that had not been consumed were gathered up, taken to a slough, and stamped into the mud.

The disappearance of the young man soon led to an investigation, and the little boy, who had witnessed the murder, related the details of the horrid deed. Mrs. Buckner and her daughter were arrested. The latter was tried in Bollinger County, and sentenced to fifteen years' imprisonment in the penitentiary, where she died a short time after her incarceration. Mrs. Buckner obtained a change of venue to Stoddard County, was convicted of murder in the first degree, and sentenced to hang on July 18, 1856. An appeal was taken to the supreme court, and the cause was remanded for a new trial. This resulted as did the first, and the date of execution was fixed for February 5, 1857. A second appeal was taken, and while pending, the jail at Bloomfield was broken open and the prisoner rescued. At about this time the Civil War came on and no attempt was made to recapture her.

Within the past twenty years, several persons have been tried in Stoddard County for murder, and three executions have taken place. At the March term, 1870, John H. Skaggs was brought on a change of venue from Dunklin county, and tried for the murder of Robert V. Richardson, whom he killed in Clarkton on January 6, 1870. He was convicted, and was hung on August 6, of the same year.

On October 2, 1876, William Shaw was shot and killed by some one in ambush, while working at Kapp's sorghum mill. Poindexter Edmundson was arrested for the crime, and the trial which took place in March, 1877, resulted in the verdict, "guilty of murder in the first degree". He was sentenced to hand on May 15, 1877, but an appeal was taken, and the execution was postponed for a short time.

Soon after his imprisonment he and another prisoner over-powered the jailer, and made their escape, but were recaptured within a few days. He was hanged by Collin Morgan, then sheriff of the county.

In autumn of 1879 Thomas Dixon and James McNabb, accompanied by a woman represented as the wife of Dixon, came to Stoddard County from Arkansas, and rented a farm two miles south of Essex. In March, following McNabb disappeared. He was said by Dixon to have gone to Arkansas to arrest a man for whom there was a reward offered. A few weeks later he told several neighbors that McNabb had been killed in attempting to make the arrest. He appropriated McNabb's property to his own use, and after making a crop, returned to Arkansas. Nothing more was thought of the matter for nearly two years. In February, 1882, a buyer of walnut timber came into the neighborhood, and the owner of the farm rented by Dixon and McNabb remembering that Dixon had buried a large walnut log, decided to exhume it. He did so, and under it was the partially decomposed body of a man, which, by the clothes and some other articles, was identified as that of McNabb. Dixon was arrested tried and convicted, and sentenced to be hung on May 18, 1883. The evidence was purely circumstantial, but it was conclusive, and although an appeal was taken, the supreme court refused to interfere, and Dixon was executed on May 2, 1884.

On July 30, 1880, John L. Ramsey killed Charles Flint at Jenkin's mill. Ramsey was a man of quarrelsome disposition and dissipated habits, while Flint was a reputable citizen. They had had some prior difficulty, when they met at the mill. There, Ramsey sought a quarrel, and finally succeeded in engaging Flint in a fight, in which he cut him with a knife, killing him almost instantly. He was arrested and had two trials. The first resulted in a mistrial, and the second in conviction of man-slaughter. He was sentenced to ten years in the penitentiary, but was soon pardoned by Gov. Marmaduke. Subsequently he was arrested for assaulting his wife, but escaped from the jail and left the State.

County Officials - The officers of Stoddard County, from its organization to the present time, so far as could be ascertained, have been as follows:

Clerks of the County Court - Jonas Eaker, 1835-1841; Levi W. Tankersly, 1841-46, Reuben P. Owen, 1846-65; A.B. Owen 1865-; R.W. Christy, 1869-78; Stephen Chapman, 1878-86; M. S. Phelan, 1886.

Clerks of the Circuit Court - W.W. Norman, 1865-67; R.M. Fraker, 1867-70; George G. Pollard, 1870-72; Joseph L. Carmichael, 1872-74; G.J. Harvey, 1874-78; C.H. Barham, 1878.

Sheriffs - William Wray, 1835-37; Harmon Ried, 1837-40; William A. Whitehead, 1840-44; William W. Hicks, 1844-48; Pittman Miller, 1848-52; William A. Whitehead, 1852-56; James Dowdy, 1856-60; John J. Johnson, 1860-; Lewis M. Ringer, 1865-66; S.D. Henson, 1866-67; George W. Kitchen, 1867-70; R.M. Fraker, 1870-72; Reuben Harper, 1872-74; Collin Morgan, 1874-78; J.G. Lewis, 1878-82; N.M. Cobb, 1882-86; D. W. Sanford, 1886.

Treasurers - Orson Bartlett, 1840-43; Richard Wall, 1843-46; Henry Miller, 1846-; William S. Welborn, 1865-66; William P. Knox, 1866-68; Henry E. Miller, 1868-70; John L. Buck, 1870-72; W.P. Renner, 1882-86; W.C. Hardy 1886.

Assessors - Absalom Faris, Jr., 1840-42; S.G. Kitchen, 1842-43; Jesse A. Gilley, 1843-44; James Stafford, 1844-46; James D. Shrader, 1846-49; James M. Purtle, 1849-54; J.K. Cook, 1854-56; R.W. Christy, 1856; Daniel Renner, 1865-66; J.M. Horton, 1867-67; Solomon B. Hobbs, 1867-68; John M. Allen, 1868-74; W.C. Harty, 1870-74; C.H. Barham, 1874-78; F.S. Evans, 1878-1880; Joseph Howell, 1880-82; S.A. Norrid, 1882.

Judges of the County Court - Jacob Taylor, 1835-; Field Bradshaw, 1835-36; John Eaker, 1835-41; John N. Mitchell, 1841-45; Lawson Taylor, 1842-45; Sanders Walker, 1843-45; William Wells, 1845-46; S.G. Kitchen, 1845-47; Joseph B. Davis, 1845-52; Given Owen, 1846-49; John J. Jackson, 1848-52; John Tippen, 1847-48; N.W. Seitz, 1849-50; J.B. Kistner, 1850-53; Thomas J. Walker, 1852-54; Hiram A. Shook, 1852-55; W.D.Taylor, 1854-55; N.W. Seitz, 1854-55; Richard Wall, 1853-54; Jonas Eaker, 1855.

Judges of District Court - Green L. Poplin, 1856-66; J.G. Nall, 1856-67; Seth G. Hollis, 1865-67; Samuel Montgomery, 1866-67; John McMillen, 1867-69; John Seisin, 1867-73; John Brooks, 1867-69; J.D. Stafford, 1869-70; Caleb B. Crumb, 1869-70; S.D. Henson, 1870-75; A.J. Davis, 1870-75; Caleb [Chiles] M. Dowdy, 1873-75; P.G. Wilson, 1875-78 (sole justice); Jonathan Haislip, 1878-79; W.N. Ringer, 1879-80; T.H. Mauldin, 1879-80; A.W. Ruidisill, 1880; John Humphreys, 1880-81; S.D. Henson, 1880-82; B.B. Lockard, 1880-82; Stephen Elliott, 1880-84; James W. Denny, 1884-86; C.P. Hollis, 1882-84; Thomas L. Wilson, 1884-86; W.N. Ringer, 1884; R. W. Thompson, 1886; Z. Goforth, 1886.

Representative in the Legislature - Fields Bradshaw, 1836-38; A.B. Bailey, 1838-40; Harmon Reid, 1840-44; William A. Whitehead, 1844-46; Robert Giboney, 1846-48; Orson Bartlett, 1848-50; Henry Hewitt, 1850-52; J.D. Smith, 1852-54; Richard Wall, 1854-56; H.H. Bedford, 1856-58; James Hale, 1858-60; James O'Dell, 18562-68; D.S. Crumb, 1868-70; George H. Crumb, 1870-72; William R. Slack, 1872-76; J.L. Hale, 1878-80; J.S. Richardson, 1880-84; NC. Chasteen, 1884-86; J.S. Richardson, 1886.