Maps of Clinton County, Missouri (How Galen & Pearl Met Cont.)

    The recent 52 Ancestors Prompt, Courting, took me down a road where I found more information than I was expecting. On my quest to learn more about the area where Mark's Grandparents met, lived, and were married, I came across some sources that opened up a new perspective for me. While researching the area trying to get an understanding of where everything was located (The School, the Church, the Swope Family, the Berryman Family, and the town), I discovered some maps of the town from that time period. I had mentioned that the town was small and surrounded by farms. I was curious how close everyone was to everything. Well, I was in for a surprise.

    To recap, Galen Swope would stay with his parents when he would come back to town from Kansas City and Pearl McGrew was renting a room from the Berryman family while she worked as a teacher for the Martin School. The 1930 Census shows where they lived.

1930 US Federal Census
Mildred Mcgrew
Platte Township, Clinton County, Missouri
Source: Ancestry.com

1930 US Federal Census
Galen Swope
Lafayette Township, Clinton County, Missouri
Source: Ancestry.com

    I found these maps online after doing a Google Search. The first map shows the Plats of land that belonged to J.A. Swope and R Berryman. The 1930 Census told me that they both owned their properties, so that told me to look at these maps. Look how close the Swope Farm and the Berryman Farm were to each other. 

    The second map shows the location of buildings. Black squares were houses. There were a couple of houses right near each other that could have the Swope's house and the Berryman's house. 

Map 1

Plat book of Clinton County, Missouri
Lafayette Township
Missouri Plat Books cir 1930
Source: Missouri Digital Heritage

Map 2

Plattsburg, Missouri
cir 1926
Source: Old World Maps
Courtesy of USGS

    There are a couple other things written on Map 2 that caught my attention. First, Martin School. That's the school that Pearl taught at. Map 1 does not have the school listed because the first map is for Lafayette Township only. Map 2 has Lafayette Township and Platte Township, where Martin School was located. So I found the Platte Township map & combined it with Lafayette. See Map 3 below. If you look in square 11, you will see a dark square which is labeled "school". Looking back at Map 2, you can see that is where Martin School was located.

Map 3

Plat book of Clinton County, Missouri
Lafayette Township & Platte Township
Missouri Plat books cir 1930
Source: Missouri Digital Heritage

    There was something else I noticed on Map 2. West of the Martin School is Lebanon Church. That would be the Lebanon Baptist Church that they attended. Now when you look back at Map 1, I circled a cross on that map. That would be the location of Lebanon Church. Do you see where that's located? Right next to the J.A. Swope property! So everything was right there along the same road.

    This is really neat! And helpful. I now have a better understanding of the area. Mark and I plan on making a trip out to this part of Missouri hopefully this year. When we traveled out there a few years ago, it was tricky trying to find where the old farmhouses were and where the location of the Church used to be. The cemetery used to be opposite the Church. While the church is gone, the cemetery is still there and that's where a lot of Mark's family is still buried... including Galen & Pearl Swope.

Lebanon Cemetery
Stewartsville, Missouri
Google Maps

Galen & Pearl Swope Headstone
Lebanon Cemetery
Stewartsville, Missouri
July 2014

    It's amazing what else you can learn about family when you start looking a little deeper. I never planned on looking up maps for the area. I never thought about looking up the location of the farms, the church, or the school. Just goes to show you, just when you think you can't research anymore, there is always something. 

Read the post about the Prompt that started this all here: Week 8: Courting (How Galen & Pearl Met)