Trenton

Side 1: Trenton, settled in 1834, became the seat of Grundy County in 1841, when James S. Lomax gave 80 acres for a townsite. The county is named for Felix Grundy, United States Attorney General, 1838-1839. The town name is from Trenton, N. J. Important in the history of Grundy Co. is Grand River College, founded in nearby Edinburg in 1850 and chartered in 1851. In this pioneer school in coeducation, women and men were offered college work on an equal footing at the outstandingly early date of 1850. A grade school now stands on the old college site. Among distinguished alumni is Gen. Enoch H. Crowder (1859-1932), author of the Selective Service Act of 1917. Nearby Crowder State Park is established in memory of General Crowder, who was born in Edinburg. In Grundy County's fabulous "Heatherly War," 1836, Missouri's top military leaders, a regiment, and two companies turned out to fight the Indians maliciously reported on the warpath by the Heatherly family to cover their own misdeeds. The "Army" soon disbanded when no Indians were found. Side 2: Trenton serves a rich agricultural area. Grain and livestock farming predominate in this region of productive prairies, stream-fed valleys, and green-wooded hills. In the 1870's, the city became a railroad division. In Trenton's first 100 years, 3 colleges have been opened here. Avalon College, founded by United Brethren at Avalon, Mo., 1869-1873, was moved to Trenton, 1890. In 1900, founders of Ruskin College bought Avalon to establish a branch of an English socialistic movement. This group formed "The Multitude Incorporated," to care for cooperative businesses and the school, but the whole venture failed, 1905. The present day Trenton Junior College, a pioneer in the public school junior college movement, was established, 1925. Arthur M. Hyde, Governor of Missouri, 1921-1925, and U. S. Secretary of Agriculture, 1929-1933, lived here. J. R. Atkinson, one of the co-founders of the Braille Institute of America, was born in nearby Galt. Jewett Norris, early resident, gave $50,000 for the library, 1890. Nearby town is the Gen. W. P. Thompson House, the oldest in the county.