County of city: Cooper County
Location of city hall: Main St. & Spring St., SW corner, Boonville
location of city: Northern border of county, central,
crossroads of: US-40, MO-87, MO-B & I-70, MO-98
Founded: 1817
Named After: Nathan & Daniel Morgan Boone
Elevation: 669 ft (204 m)
Population: 8,418 (2019)
"The town was laid out by Asa Morgan and Charles Lucus, and the plat filed on the first day of August, 1817. It was surveyed by William Ross...Mrs. Hannah Cole, mother of Capt. Samuel Cole, made the first settlement on a part of the land on which Boonville is located, in the year 1810, and took a pre-emption, which she sold to Bird Lockhart and Henry Carroll, January 25th, 1819, for a trifle. The first settler in the old limits of Boonville was Gilliard Roupe...The next was a ferry house, built by Roupe at the mouth of Roupe's Creek, where he had a ferry landing. The first ferry was kept by the Widow Cole's boys.
"A Frenchman named Roubadeux kept the first store in Boonville, in a cabin built of poles...Shortly afterwards a man named Nolin kept a grocery on the flat, at the mouth of Roupe's Branch...This part of the town was mostly built in 1816 and 1817.
"James Bruffy was the first blacksmith...On Christmas Day, 1819, a fight occurred between the young men of Old Franklin (Howard Co.) and the Boonville boys. The young men of Old Franklin had crossed the river on ice for the express purpose as they termed it, "of cleaning out Boonville." The old men of Boonville had to come to the rescue of their young men, and the contest for some time remained in doubt; but at last Boonville had to give way to superior numbers, there being but a few inhabitants here then. There was no one killed or mortally wounded. But where is Old Franklin now? Then the metropolis of Western Missouri. The sea of commerce, wealth, fashion and power swept away by the waters of the Missouri River. The only house left now (1876) is now owned by Mr. Wm. Smith, built in the suburbs of that once prosperous city." ~ History of Cooper County, 1876, Levens, pages 126-129
"In 1840 the first steamboat was built and successfully launched at Boonville. It was built under the superintendence of Captain McCourtney, and was intended for the Osage trade. It was called the "Warsaw." As a port of entry, Boonville excelled any other town on the river above St. Louis. As many as five and six steamboats would often land during the day and night, for the purpose of taking on or discharging freight...
"Boonville is situated in the Northeast Quarter of Sec. 35, Twp. 49 N, Range 17 West, and was laid out by Charles Lucas and Captain Asa Morgan on the 1st day of August, 1817." History of Howard & Cooper Counties, 1883, National Historical Society, pages 660, 797; Campbell's Gazetteer of Missouri, 1874, pages 173, 174
"It is situated on Highways 40, B & 87." ~ General Highway Map of Cooper County