Crawford

Formed January 23, 1829 (31^st county)

Crawford County (23,059), Steelville (1,470), Cuba (3,169)                

The red brick Federalist courthouse built in 1885 was remodeled and enlarged in 1974 and sits on Main Street at 3^rd Street.  Main Street is Missouri State Highway 8 in the town.  J. J. Upchurch provided the courthouse designs.  There were 1844, 1857, and 1873 versions of the courthouse previously.  A Circuit Courthouse augments the county structure.  Little Piney River (1829), Liberty Hill (1834), and Steelville (1835) have all served as county seat.  The county was founded on January 23, 1829 from Native American Territory as the 31^st county.  It is named for Georgia Senator William H. Crawford.  The county seat is named for settler James Steel. 

Crawford County government consists of a sheriff, an administrator, an attorney, a collector, a coroner, an assessor and a clerk (executive).  It has 3 Commissioners (legislative.)  Two Circuit Court Judges serve Crawford, Dent, Iron, Reynolds, and Wayne counties and One County Court Judge and a court clerk serve Crawford County (judicial.) The county is eastern Missouri.  Saint Louis, Missouri is northeast and Springfield, Missouri is southwest of the county. 

The area of the county is 743 square miles.  It is 24 out of 115 in the state.  It ranks 50 out of 115 in population in the state.  It has a density of 31.0 persons per square mile making it 56 out of 115 in the state.  Crawford County has 36.2% of its population in its incorporated areas.  Interstate Highway 44 crosses the county northeast to west from Franklin County to Phelps County.  The county looks like the number 9.  Steelville is in the western third of the county.  Cuba is in the northwest quarter of the county.  Steelville is the county seat and Cuba is the largest city.  Steelville is 6.4% of the county population while Cuba is 13.7% of the county population.  The county center is 14.5 miles Northeast of Steelville nearer Leasburg.  The county is surrounded clockwise by Franklin, Washington, Iron, Dent, Phelps, and Gasconade counties.  This county is in the Saint Louis Metropolitan Statistical Area.

Sullivan