St. Catharine

History

An old stagecoach road ran near here, from Hannibal, Mo. to Saint Joseph, Mo., called the "Hound Dog Trail" and dates to the early 19th century. St. Catharine was founded in 1856, and is not named for Catherine of Alexandria, but instead for Mrs. Catharine Elliott, by her husband, William H. Elliott, a wealthy manufacturer. Both were born in England, and, with locals Caleb S. & Mary Farmer, joined in buying 160 acres, which was filed and recorded November 17, 1855. William and Catharine took the west half of 160 acres and laid out the town of Catharine. Afterward, the word Saint, or "St." as it was written, was added, "as a sort of joke, but as Mrs. Elliott remarked, she had no objection to being canonized as a saint, and the name became an established fact." A post office named Saint Catharine was established in 1859, the same year that James Early White obtained land patent no.13685, which was signed October 10, 1859, by White and President James Buchanan for forty acres on which White established a tobacco farm five miles north of St. Catharine. He had become, seven months prior, the first postmaster of the village, on February 11, 1859. That was just two days before the great fanfare marking the connection of the tracks of the western-headed line of the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad from Hannibal and the line coming eastward from St. Joseph, about thirty miles due west of St. Catharine at Chillicothe, Missouri, opening the first railroad to cross the state. James Early White was born in 1804 near Dyke, in Greene County, Virginia, but the tobacco plantation on which he was born was closer to Nortonsville, in north Albemarle County. The youngest son of James White and Susanna Bourne, he was known as "Early" when his father bequeathed an enslaved girl named…

Race & ethnicity

Most-observed species

• Blue Jay

  Cyanocitta cristata (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  144
• American Crow

  Corvus brachyrhynchos C.L.Brehm, 1822 · Aves
  137
• Turkey Vulture

  Cathartes aura (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  134
• Northern Cardinal

  Cardinalis cardinalis (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  131
• Red-winged Blackbird

  Agelaius phoeniceus (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  125
• Red-tailed Hawk

  Buteo jamaicensis (Gmelin, 1788) · Aves
  100
• American Robin

  Turdus migratorius Linnaeus, 1766 · Aves
  99
• Mourning Dove

  Zenaida macroura (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  87