Scott County, Missouri


Scott County is a county located in the southeastern portion of the U.S. state of Missouri. As of the 2010 census, the population was 39,191. Its county seat is Benton. The county was organized in 1821 and named for U.S. Representative John Scott, the first federal representative from Missouri.
Scott County comprises the Sikeston, MO Micropolitan Statistical Area, which is also included in the Cape Girardeau-Sikeston, MO-IL Combined Statistical Area.
The county is home to Scott County Central High School, which has won 18 state championships in boys basketball—the most of any high school in the state.

History

This area along the Mississippi River was long occupied by indigenous peoples. In historic times, the large and powerful Osage people dominated a large territory including this area and up and west from the later St. Louis, Missouri. Cape La Croix, a rock island in the Mississippi River, has a cross erected by Jesuit missionary Father De Montigny, who traveled with early French explorers in 1699. Some French colonists established trading relationships with the Osage; the traders were based in St. Louis, founded in the late 18th century.
Spain had taken control in 1763 after French lost to Britain in the Seven Years' War. They laid out the King’s Highway in 1789, a north-south route crossing the county and extending through St. Louis, Missouri. In the late 1790s, Southerners were the first United States settlers on Spanish land grants in this area. France briefly took back the territory, then sold it to the United States in 1803 as part of the Louisiana Purchase.
Delaware and Shawnee people migrated into the area in the 1820s from territories east of the Mississippi, pushed by European-American encroachment on their lands.
The second county formed in Missouri’s Southeast Lowland Region, Scott County was created by the Missouri state legislature on December 28, 1821. The county was named in honor of John Scott, the first congressman from Missouri.
One of the earliest settlements was Commerce, Missouri, long known as Tywapitty, derived from an Osage language term. It was an early French fur trading post. Under Spanish rule before 1800, Rezin Bowie was syndic of Tywappity Settlement. This was established as a river landing by 1803, and residents formed the first Baptist Church in Missouri here in 1805. The city was platted in 1823. It served as the Scott county seat from 1864–1878.
The current county seat of Benton was laid out in 1822; it is named after Thomas Hart Benton, one of Missouri’s first U.S. Senators.
New Hamburg, the third town founded in the county, was settled by a wave of German immigrants in the late 1840s, who came to this country after the German revolutions of 1848. The first log church was St. Lawrence Catholic Church. Sikeston, the largest city in the county and the fourth settlement to be founded, was settled in 1800 and was laid out in 1860 by John Sikes on the Cairo & Fulton Railroad.
The county was devastated by guerrilla raids during the U.S. Civil War. Afterward, it developed rapidly from the 1870s to the early 1900s; its dense forests were lumbered off and numerous railroads were constructed. Towns founded during this period included Diehlstadt, Morley, Oran, Perkins, Blodgett, Crowder, Vanduser, Illmo, Fornfelt, Chaffee, Ancell, and Kelso. The Thebes-Mississippi River Railroad Bridge at Illmo was built in 1905.
Located near Morley is the gravesite of Nathaniel W. Watkins, a state legislator and a general in the Missouri State Guards. He was a half-brother of statesman Henry Clay. Wilson Brown, the ninth lieutenant governor of Missouri, lived in the county for a time. Noted early legislators such as Joseph Hunter II and Abraham Hunter also lived here.
Cotton, soybeans, melon and grains were all common crops in rural Scott County. Between the Mississippi River and Little River District drainage ditches lies one of the oldest drainage systems in the United States, Crowley’s Ridge, established in 1905, is a remnant of an old coastal floodplain and natural levee that crosses the country.
On January 28, 2004, the Scott County Courthouse was added to the National Register of Historic Places.

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of, of which is land and is water. The county's eastern border with Illinois is formed by the Mississippi River.

Adjacent counties

As of the census of 2000, there were 40,422 people, 15,626 households, and 11,219 families residing in the county. The population density was 37/km². There were 16,951 housing units at an average density of 16/km². The racial makeup of the county was 87.68% White, 10.50% Black or African American, 0.28% Native American, 0.23% Asian, 0.01% Pacific Islander, 0.40% from other races, and 0.90% from two or more races. Approximately 1.11% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race.
There were 15,626 households out of which 35.40% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 54.60% were married couples living together, 13.40% had a female householder with no husband present, and 28.20% were non-families. 25.00% of all households were made up of individuals and 11.80% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.55 and the average family size was 3.03.
In the county, the population was spread out with 27.40% under the age of 18, 8.50% from 18 to 24, 27.50% from 25 to 44, 22.90% from 45 to 64, and 13.70% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 36 years. For every 100 females there were 91.60 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 86.40 males.
The median income for a household in the county was $39,735, and the median income for a family was $48,847. Males had a median income of $30,169 versus $19,269 for females. The per capita income for the county was $19,363. About 12.30% of families and 16.10% of the population were below the poverty line, including 23.50% of those under age 18 and 13.60% of those age 65 or over.

Religion

According to the Association of Religion Data Archives County Membership Report, Scott County is a part of the Bible Belt with evangelical Protestantism being the majority religion. The most predominant denominations among residents in Scott County who adhere to a religion are Southern Baptists, Roman Catholics, and Methodists.

Politics

Local

The Democratic Party has historically controlled politics at the local level in Scott County. In recent years, however, Republicans have made inroads, gaining control of several county offices in 2018. Democrats currently hold most elected positions in the county, while Republicans now control the offices of sheriff, presiding commissioner, prosecutor, and treasurer.

State

Scott County is divided into three legislative districts in the Missouri House of Representatives.

Federal

Scott County is included in Missouri’s 8th Congressional District and is currently represented by Jason T. Smith in the U.S. House of Representatives.
7614
CommunityMitt Romney%Barack Obama%Gary Johnson%Virgil H. Goode, Jr.%%Total
Benton84675.94%24421.90%211.89%30.27%R+ 54.04%1,114
Blodgett78181.61%16417.14%90.94%30.31%R+ 64.47%957
Chaffee99967.87%43929.82%302.04%40.27%R+ 38.05%1,472
Commerce21464.26%10732.13%123.60%00.00%R+ 32.13%333
Diehlstadt13575.84%4223.60%00.00%10.56%R+ 52.24%178
Haywood City99.28%8890.72%00.00%00.00%D+ 81.44%97
Kelso63579.18%15619.45%111.37%00.00%R+ 59.73%802
McMullin7684.44%1415.56%00.00%00.00%R+ 68.88%90
Miner76377.86%20120.51%121.22%40.41%R+ 57.35%980
Morley28465.59%13731.64%81.85%40.92%R+ 33.95%433
New Hamburg28680.56%6217.46%30.85%41.13%R+ 63.10%355
Oran70177.98%18320.36%121.34%30.33%R+ 57.62%899
Perkins5661.54%3336.26%22.20%00.00%R+ 25.28%91
Scott City1,32968.15%58129.80%392.00%10.05%R+ 38.35%1,950
Sikeston3,67660.31%2,36038.72%520.85%70.12%R+ 21.59%6,095
Vanduser13675.14%4524.86%00.00%00.00%R+ 50.28%181
Absentees69771.71%26627.37%80.82%10.10%R+ 44.34%972
County Total11,62368.37%5,12230.13%2191.29%350.21%R+ 38.24%16,999

Political culture

At the presidential level, Scott County was historically a fairly independent-leaning county. While George W. Bush carried Scott County in 2000 and 2004, Bill Clinton won the county both times in 1992 and 1996. Like most of the rural counties in Missouri, Scott County favored John McCain over Barack Obama in 2008 and again supported Mitt Romney in the 2012 presidential election by an increasing margin. Confirming the region's strong overall trend to the GOP, Scott County voters supported Donald Trump in 2016 by the largest margin and percentage ever over Hillary Clinton, as Trump easily gained Missouri's 10 electoral votes.
Like most rural areas throughout Southeast Missouri, voters in Scott County generally adhere to socially and culturally conservative principles. In 2004, Missourians voted on a constitutional amendment to define marriage as the union between a man and a woman—it overwhelmingly passed Scott County with 85.32 percent of the vote. The initiative passed the state with 71 percent of support from voters as Missouri became the first state to ban same-sex marriage. In 2006, Missourians voted on a constitutional amendment to fund and legalize embryonic stem cell research in the state—it failed in Scott County with 64.85 percent voting against the measure. The initiative narrowly passed the state with 51 percent of support from voters as Missouri became one of the first states in the nation to approve embryonic stem cell research. Despite Scott County’s longstanding tradition of supporting socially conservative platforms, voters in the county have a penchant for advancing populist causes like increasing the minimum wage. In 2006, Missourians voted on a proposition to increase the minimum wage in the state to $6.50 an hour—it passed Scott County with 67.99 percent of the vote. The proposition strongly passed every single county in Missouri with 75.94 percent voting in favor as the minimum wage was increased to $6.50 an hour in the state. During the same election, voters in five other states also strongly approved increases in the minimum wage.

Missouri presidential preference primary (2008)

In the 2008 presidential primary, voters in Scott County from both political parties supported candidates who finished in second place in the state at large and nationally.
Former U.S. Senator Hillary Clinton received more votes, a total of 2,931, than any candidate from either party in Scott County during the 2008 presidential primary.

Education

Of adults 25 years of age and older in Scott County, 72.9% possesses a high school diploma or higher while 10.6% holds a bachelor's degree or higher as their highest educational attainment.

Public schools

Cities