When Howell County was created from half of Oregon County, the county seat of Oregon County that is Thomasville was left too far to the edge and not adhering to the rule to have county seats near the center of the county. Leaders were selected to meet and find a new location as well as a name for the new county seat. They met in a house near where Alton now sits, The name of Alton was selected as easy to say and spell because the new county clerk was poor at spelling. He proved that in the very first set of notes he took by spelling it Owlton. Much of the migration to Oregon County was from near Marshfield, the county seat of Webster County. That migration was set off in two waves, the opening of land in Oregon County about 1870 and the railroad which was being built in 1882 but most of the people moved to Thayer around 1884-5. Marshfield was settled by many from eastern TN and southern KY around the Cumberland Gap area which was the case with my ancestors. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Lanita Sconce Smith" <ozarkn@grm.net> To: <mo-oregon-history@rootsweb.com> Sent: Saturday, April 21, 2007 8:16 PM Subject: Re: [MO-OREGON-HISTORY] Webster > Sorry, all of the Oregon Co boys were listed as being in WEBSTER > County, the old county name before they came up with Oregon. It was > indeed a part of Ripley but the 1st name was Webster and not Oregon Co. > It was that name a very short while, I've been trying to find where I > found that.. will get back to you. > > Lanita > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > MO-OREGON-HISTORY-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without > the quotes in the subject and the body of the message >