With Statehood for Missouri, the block that had been held by the French and tribal law was removed from the mineral bearing area of upper Current River. There were a number of areas opened for surface mining but the opening of shafts and established claims to mineral rights was confined to areas close enough to Current River for the ore to be rafted down river.
The surface miners were often experienced miner immigrants from Wales or Germany. They banded together and worked as a unit. The Slater Mine was of this type. They improved the trails so ore could be transported back to smelters of the Bellview Valley.
In 1839 when Robert M. Shannon was elected surveyor of Wayne County, the mineral area was largely in Wayne County.In 1840 he came to the area to establish numbers of lands so mineral rights could be filed. He became aquainted with Hodge at one of the Slater Mines. As the Slater mining operations were closing, they decided to establish a group of miners to continue the operations. A petition was circuited to establish a County to be called "Shannon." The name honored the Hon. George Shannon who had died at Palmyra, Missouri in 1836. He was a member of the Lewis and Clark expedition.
The petition was submitted to the Legislature of Missouri which, on January 29, 1841, passed the Creative Act to establtsh said County. They commissioned John L. Pettit of Wayne County, Richard Britton of Madison County and David Hanger of Washington County to establish Shannon County and locate a place for holding court.
In meetings during 1841, no decision was made as to location of the seat of Justice and Shannon County was attached to Madison and Washington. Thomas C. Rogers was appointed to represent Shannon County.in the General Assembly of Missouri.
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In January, 1842, the General Assembly of Missouri, finding that no county to be called Shannon had been organized, commissioned Samuel Hyer of Crawford, West Maulding of Ripley, and Joseph M. Stephenson to organize the county and fix a time and place for holding court. They appointed Pate Buford to represent Shannon County in the 1543 General Assembly. On January 26, 1843, a call was issued to hold the court of Shannon County on the first Monday of April, 1843 at the home of "Andrew McCane." The court was directed to locate the seat of Justice to be named Eminence in honor of Eminence, Kentucky, the home of the Shannons. In August, 1843, Robert M. Shannon resigned as Surveyor of Wayne County reasoning that he was not residing in the county. John D. Shannon was of considerable help in the formation of the county as he was the representative from Taney County in the General Assembly 1842-1843. In 1845, the Seat of Justice was built at the cost of $75. Joshua Chilton was elected to the General Assembly where he served from 1846 to 1854. The population of Shannon County for the year 1850 was shown in Campbells Gazetter as 1,199. The following men represented Shannon County in the General Assembly: David C. Heed 1856-1857; Shannon Chilton 1858-1559; AIet Deatherage 1860-1861. The 1860 population was listed as 2,242. |