

However, two months later, the State of Missouri would join the conflict on the side of the Union, even though Missouri was primarily composed of Confederate sympathizers. In April 1861, a crowd of citizens raised a rebel flag on the east side of the courthouse lawn in Warsaw. Over the next several decades, Benton County would be the center of several violent events, including a family feud that erupted into what is known as the “ Slicker War” and numerous conflicts between its residents when the Civil War broke out. After a two-year battle between various settlements and trading places, most specifically between Fristoe and Warsaw, the latter won the race, and the business of running the county began.

In January 1835, the county was officially formed, and commissioners were appointed to locate the new county seat as near the center of the county, and the Osage River as best could be found. Louis and returning with meat, furs, grain, eggs, whiskey, and other products. Before long, small riverboats were sailing up the river with supplies from St. The Osage River quickly made the region a crossroads of travel and freighting. By 1820, several Kentucky and Tennessee farmers of English, Irish and German descent called the area home. White explorers first came to the area in 1719, and by the early 1800s, hunters, trappers, and traders were also reaping the rewards of the region. By far, however, the land was occupied by the Osage Indians, from which the river would later take its name. Located where the Missouri prairie meets the Ozark Mountains and dissected by the Osage River, this area first provided plentiful game along its bluffs and timber-covered hills to several Indian tribes, including the Delaware, Shawnee, Kickapoo, and Sac. Kaysinger Bluff over the Osage River, Warsaw, Missouri
