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'''Carter County''' is a county in the southeastern part of the state of [[Missouri]]. It had a population of 6,265 at the 2010 census. The county was officially organized on March 10, 1859 and named for Zimri A. Carter, one of the region's first settlers. Van Buren is the county seat and largest city. Carter County is part of the larger [[Ozarks]] region.
'''Carter County''' is a county in the southeastern part of the state of [[Missouri]]. It had a population of 6,265 at the 2010 census. The county was officially organized on March 10, 1859 and named for Zimri A. Carter, one of the region's first settlers. Van Buren is the county seat and largest city. Carter County is part of the larger [[Ozarks]] region.
==History==
Though it is one of the least populous counties in southeast Missouri, Carter County's past is among the best-documented, thanks to the work of local historians and genealogists.
The first settlement in the area was made by the Carter family, which moved to Missouri from [[South Carolina]] in 1807, initially settling in the Missouri River valley before relocating to a spot near the Current River and about eight miles southeast of present-day Van Buren, sometime between 1812 and 1820. These moves were undertaken by Benjamin Carter; however, he was soon joined by his son Zimri, who had previously spent time in the flatboat trade on the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers. Zimri Carter soon became the leading figure in the area, attracting other settler families and later serving as a county judge.<ref>Robert Sidney Douglass, ''History of Southeast Missouri'' (1912), p. 180, 317.</ref>
At this time, the region was part of [[Wayne County, Missouri|Wayne County]], which then encompassed a large section of southern Missouri. In 1833, it and neighboring territory were separated to form the new [[Ripley County, Missouri|Ripley County]]; that same year, the town of Van Buren was founded to serve as the county seat, with a log-cabin courthouse being constructed in 1853 (replaced by a wood-frame building in 1867). In 1859, as its population had increased significantly, the northern portion of Ripley County was split off by the state legislature to form a new county, named for leading citizen Zimri Carter. Van Buren continued to serve as the county seat for the district, to which adjoining portions of Shannon and Wayne Counties were also added.<ref>https://collections.shsmo.org/manuscripts/columbia/C2366/carter-county</ref>
==References==
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Missouri]]
[[Category:Missouri]]
[[Category:Counties]]
[[Category:Counties]]