PREFA‘TORY. 
HE Publisher offers no apology for the issue of this Atlas. The field which he occupies is wholly a new 
i in Missouri, and indeed in any State in the Union, with three or four exceptions, His Descriptive 
s\tlas of Illinois, published in 1869, with revised editions in 1871 and 1872, was the first, possibly the 
second, State Atlas ever issued in America. That publication met with such marked success in Illinois that he 
was induced to undertake the arduous labors necessary to the construction of a similar, and as he believes, a 
superior work for this State; and particularly too when, on submitting his plans to a number of the leading 
citizens of Missouri, he received the most flattering assurances of their co-operation and patronage. 
The large scale of the county maps—six miles to an inch—has been adopted as being the smallest that would 
enable the publisher clearly to present the various items of information necessarily shown in order to render a 
work of this character complete. A larger scale would have enhanced the cost of the volume so as to limit its 
purchase to the few, and thus in a measure have defeated the design of the publisher to make the work an 
Atlas for the People. 3 
The publisher desires to acknowledge the many obligations that he is under to the able corps of contributors 
to the letter-press of the Atlas for numerous favors; also to Hon. E. H. Hessg, custodian of the original United 
States Surveys of Missouri; to the County Surveyors and Circuit Clerks throughout the State for information 
furnished, and for free access to, and assistance in transcribing from, the plats and records of their respective 
counties; to the Superintendents and Chief Engineers of the various railroads of the State for like favors, and 
for numerous other courtesies which only gentlemen in their positions could extend; to Hon. W. L. N ICHOLSON | 
Topographer of the U. S. Post Office Department at Washington for a file of U.S. Postal Maps and a corrected 
list of the post offices of the United States, with the exact location of the post offices of Missouri; to Hon, Francis 
A. WaLKER, Superintendent of the U. S. Census Bureau, for advance sheets of his forthcoming report, from 
which the greater portion of the statistics of this volume are compiled; to N. H. PaRrKER, Esq., editor of the 
Industrial Age, for facts from his excellent treatise entitled “Missouri as it is in 1867”; to Hon. J. B. Merwin, 
editor of the American Fournal of Education, and his business associate, Colonel F. A. SEELY, for numerous 
favors and valuable suggestions; and especially does the publisher desire to acknowledge his indebtedness to 
Hon. Evcene F. Weicet, Secretary of State, and his able and courteous assistant, Captain Cuas, SCHACKEL, for 
invaluable assistance; and last, but not least, should grateful acknowledgments be made to the long lists of 
gentlemen in all parts of the State, who, by their orders for the work in advance of publication, have already 
guaranteed the financial success of the enterprise. 
The publisher will be under obligations to any gentleman in any part of Missouri who will furnish him with 
reliable information concerning changes occurring in the State, or for the correction of possible errors. All such 
additions and corrections will be made from time to time, as successive editions of this work are issued. 
Sr. Louis, December, 1872. 
