More than 110 years ago a distinguished Missouri politician introduced a bill to change the name of one of our counties.
We discovered his suggestion among our clippings. It’s part of a column from the Taney County Republican, January 30, 1913
The column began, “Until a few years after the war, the city of St. Louis was the seat of St. Louis County. When, by authority of an act of the legislature, the voters of the city and the county adopted the ‘scheme and charter.’
“St. Louis became a separate jurisdiction, a county within itself, under the name ‘The City of St. Louis’ and the county became known as ‘the County of St. Louis.’ The county seat was established at the city of Clayton and a courthouse was erected on land donated by a citizen of that name. It has never since had any legal connection with the city of St. Louis, although comparatively few of the people of the State know yet that St. Louis is not in St. Louis County.
“Deeds and legal documents intended for county officials and courts and lawyers are often mailed to St. Louis and important legal documents affecting property and persons in the city of St. Louis are often mailed to Clayton. The confusion created by the use of name St. Louis for the county has been a source of annoyance for many years to both city and county.”
He proposed renaming St. Louis County “Grant” County, honoring the Union General and later President who once lived there and married into a prominent family, the Dents. “There was a time when name of Grant was not popular in that county,” said the newspaper. “But that day has passed.”
“The name of the famous general to whom Lee surrendered is more honored than any other name connected to St. Louis County. No name could be more appropriate for St. Louis County than the name of Grant. If the name of that county is ever changed, it should be called Grant. That it eventually will be changed is hardly to be doubted.”
We know, of course, that his bill didn’t make it. One reason is that Michael McGrath didn’t make it, either. It’s an interesting proposal, too, because it came from a former Confederate soldier.
His name means nothing to most of those who labor in the halls of the Capitol now. But in his time, Michael McGrath was a political power. And his influence is still felt in Missouri government today.
He was the Secretary of State who created the Official State Manual, known colloquially as “the Blue Book” but called when first published in 1878 “Almanac and Official Directory of Missouri.” It contained all of the information about state government in 72 pages.
McGrath was born in 1844 in Ballymaloe Civil Parish, County Cork, Ireland and was raised on a farm and educated in a parish school. He went to the National School in Kinsale, a small village in the southeast corner of Ireland where he studied to be a teacher. He became one at age 16.
(Kinsale is the home to a lot of famous people we Americans have never heard of except for William Penn, the founder of the colony of Pennsylvania. Nearby is Old Kinsale Head, a piece of land jutting into the Atlantic that has a lighthouse and the remains of an old castle. About eleven miles out to sea from Kinsale Head, the liner Lusitania was torpedoed and sunk in 1915.)
He was among the thousands of Irish citizens driven to this country by the Great Potato Famine and general civic unrest in Ireland, arriving after a nine-week voyage in New Brunswick in 1850 and immediately gong to Maine before going to New York a few months later in 1851. He was convinced to come to Missouri by reading The St. Louis Republic in the Astor Room New York City Libray. He arrived here in July, 1856.
Just two days after his arrival, his good handwriting landed him a job with the St. Louis County Recorder. After declaring himself a Democrat, he was hired as a a deputy clerk in the criminal court in 1861. He served in the Confederate Army during the Civil War but signed a loyalty oath at the end that let him take a bar examination and become a lawyer. He was a clerk in various city and court offices until he was elected Secretary of State in 1874.
He served fourteen years, a term in the office not exceeded for a century when Jimmy Kirkpatrick served five four-year terms.
He got into the newspapering business, owning and operating an Irish-oriented paper, The Celt, and the Sedalia Democrat. He also was a major stockholder of the Jefferson City Tribune.
He was elected to the House of Representatives in 1912 but he died shortly after taking office on January 28, 1913 “after a brief illness.” He was 79 and had had heart trouble and problems with bronchitis.
Michael Knowles McGrath is an unfortunately forgotten figure in Missouri history.
St. Louis County is still St. Louis County. But Grant County is a pretty good idea for someplace. Surely a legislature that is always willing to make a fourth-grader’s dream come true by choosing a new state symbol could devote as much time to assessing whether some famous person has worn out his welcome with one of our counties.
(Photo Credit: State Official Manual, 1913)