County Past
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Butler County, Missouri

Historic newspapers, landmarks, and county history layers for genealogists and local historians.

—newspaper titles
—digitized titles
25historic places
—earliest paper
1849formed
42,130pop. 2020
73cemeteries
1CW battlefields

At a glance

Summary

The National Register of Historic Places includes 25 listed properties in the county, first listed in 1970. Most listings are in or near Poplar Bluff, Naylor, Neelyville.

Summary generated automatically from the source data on this page.

Newspapers

Library of Congress

Newspaper directory data for Missouri is not yet loaded on this site. Browse Butler titles at the Library of Congress.

National Register of Historic Places

NPS NRHP

16 of 25 listings mapped; some locations are restricted by NPS to protect sensitive sites.

25 listed properties
PropertyCityTypeListed
Butler County CourthousePoplar BluffBuilding1994
Cynthia-Kinzer Historic DistrictPoplar BluffDistrict2015
Garfield Historic DistrictPoplar BluffDistrict2017
Greer, Alfred W., HousePoplar BluffBuilding1998
Hargrove Pivot BridgePoplar BluffStructure1985
Koehler Fortified Archeological SiteNaylorSite1970
Little Black River Archeological DistrictNaylorDistrict1975
Mark Twain SchoolPoplar BluffBuilding1998
Moore, J. Herbert, HousePoplar BluffBuilding1998
Moore, Thomas, HousePoplar BluffBuilding1998
Moore-Dalton HousePoplar BluffBuilding1994
North Main Street Historic DistrictPoplar BluffDistrict2011
Phillips, John Archibald, HousePoplar BluffBuilding1998
Poplar Bluff Commercial Historic DistrictPoplar BluffDistrict1994
Poplar Bluff Public LibraryPoplar BluffBuilding1994
Rodgers Theatre BuildingPoplar BluffBuilding2001
South Sixth Street Historic DistrictPoplar BluffDistrict1998
St. Louis, Iron Mountain and Southern Railroad DepotPoplar BluffBuilding1994
St. Louis-San Francisco Railroad DepotPoplar BluffBuilding1994
Wheatley Public SchoolPoplar BluffBuilding1998
Wilborn-Steinberg SiteNeelyvilleSite1972
Williams-Gierth HousePoplar BluffBuilding2012
Williamson-Kennedy SchoolPoplar BluffBuilding1998
Wright-Dalton-Bell-Anchor Department Store BuildingPoplar BluffBuilding2006
Zehe BuildingPoplar BluffBuilding1994

Source: National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Property links open NRHP nomination files at the National Archives.

County formation

Newberry AHCB

Butler was formed in 1849 (1849-02-27) from Wayne.

BUTLER created from WAYNE.

Source: Newberry Library, Atlas of Historical County Boundaries.

Population by decade

Census

Butler County population from 1850 to 2020 (Census historical series).

43k22k1,6161850188019201940196020002020
18501860188019001920194019501960198020002020
1,6162,8916,01116,76924,10634,27637,70734,65637,69340,86742,130

Sources: U.S. Census Bureau historical county population (Forstall 1790–1990) and public-domain / CC0 county population series through 2020.

Cemeteries & historical places

USGS GNIS

73 cemeteries and 5 historical populated places (ghost towns / former settlements) recorded in USGS GNIS for this county.

Cemeteries — 73 of 73 listed
NameLatLon
Ash Hills Cemetery36.77394-90.23121
Ashcraft Cemetery36.68955-90.37345
Baumister GraveyardNoneNone
Bay Springs Cemetery36.74491-90.52747
Black Creek Cemetery36.74144-90.45566
Black River Cemetery36.91233-90.50215
Blue Spring Cemetery36.86838-90.26427
Brannum GraveyardNoneNone
Browns Chapel Cemetery36.66172-90.2426
Butler County CemeteryNoneNone
Carola Cemetery36.55561-90.32343
Carpenter Bend Cemetery36.81332-90.37135
Cochran Cemetery36.68616-90.51927
Coon Island Cemetery36.52951-90.42736
Crab Cemetery36.557-90.54149
Davidson Cemetery36.88509-90.44967
Dickens Cemetery36.69548-90.538
Dooley Cemetery36.80838-90.32871
Dunning Cemetery36.67876-90.49214
Friendship Cemetery36.69227-90.45261
Greenhill Cemetery36.79033-90.36094
Harris Ridge Cemetery36.58033-90.5446
Harwell Cemetery36.88532-90.42899
Hillis Cemetery36.65457-90.2883
Houts Cemetery36.76984-90.56044
Hudgens Cemetery36.76694-90.47474
Huffman Cemetery36.87159-90.33257
Hvam Cemetery36.60038-90.38911
Jones GraveyardNoneNone
Kearbey Chapel Cemetery36.83873-90.63731
Keele Cemetery36.92319-90.46629
Kelly Cemetery36.6037-90.25687
Kenzie GraveyardNoneNone
Kinsey Cemetery36.64199-90.54761
Kittrell GraveyardNoneNone
Lillis GraveyardNoneNone
Lone Hill Cemetery36.7006-90.53844
Lutz Cemetery36.54727-90.51501
Magill Cemetery36.90644-90.47122
Marble Hill Cemetery36.79664-90.40186
Margaret Treanor Cemetery36.87064-90.65626
Melton Cemetery36.65612-90.41085
Memorial Gardens Cemetery36.72949-90.44733
Military Cemetery36.70588-90.589
Military Crossing Cemetery36.91815-90.48891
Mole Hill CemeteryNoneNone
Montgomery Cemetery36.76389-90.47364
Morocco Cemetery36.73593-90.34654
Mount Zion Cemetery36.91965-90.40736
Neeleyville Cemetery36.54118-90.50791
Nunley Cemetery36.83727-90.46844
Nunn CemeteryNoneNone
Oak Hill Cemetery36.84891-90.43062
Old GraveyardNoneNone
Old Soldier GraveyardNoneNone
Owens Cemetery36.83449-90.22426
Podesva Cemetery36.84624-90.37097
Qulin Cemetery36.59505-90.27232
Roberts Cemetery36.50536-90.51721
Robinson CemeteryNoneNone
Sacred Heart Catholic Cemetery36.7506-90.40872
Shadle Cemetery36.76519-90.4495
Sheely Cemetery36.50151-90.54016
Sheppard Cemetery36.75755-90.46483
Shiloh Cemetery36.89032-90.61706
Sims Cemetery36.54658-90.51656
Sparkman Cemetery36.80625-90.52627
Stephenson Cemetery36.82366-90.30038
Three Springs Cemetery36.87451-90.46575
Trainer GraveyardNoneNone
Vale Cemetery36.70358-90.20974
Walnut Hill CemeteryNoneNone
Woodlawn Cemetery36.77671-90.39844
Historical populated places — 5 of 5
NameLatLon
Belcher36.72367-90.57539
Booser36.59117-90.50261
Platanus36.5345-90.26455
Roxie36.72922-90.50623
Sims36.54589-90.50789

Source: USGS Geographic Names Information System (public domain). Cemeteries from the 2021 NationalFile archive; historical places from GNIS HistoricalFeatures topical extract.

Civil War battlefields nearby

ABPP

American Battlefield Protection Program (ABPP) Civil War study areas near this county.

BattlefieldStudy acresDist.Site ID
Chalk Bluff3,70634.4 kmAR007

Source: NPS American Battlefield Protection Program Civil War Study Areas (public ArcGIS feature service).

Historical markers

HMdb link

Marker text and photos from the Historical Marker Database (HMdb) are not embedded here. HMdb allows non-commercial reuse with attribution, but commercial/compensated use needs written permission; this is a commercial site, so we only link out.

Search HMdb for Butler County, Missouri

Terms: hmdb.org/copyright.asp. Linking is encouraged by HMdb.