New London was founded in 1819 by William Jamison on the route of the historic Salt River Road and by 1820 became the seat of newly organized Ralls County, named for local legislator Daniel M. Ralls. Settled mainly by Kentucky and Virginia pioneers drawn by the area's salt licks and other resources, Ralls County had earlier been part of the northeast frontier settlement in Spanish Upper Louisiana. Near New London at present Spalding Springs, Maturin Bouvet operated a salt factory in 1792 and was harassed by Indians before being killed at his depot on the Mississippi in 1800, while Chas. Freemon Delauriere, called Freemore, worked two salt licks in the area in 1799. The Sac and Fox tribes ceded the region in 1804, and during the War of 1812 Rangers and Winnebagoes fought on July 4, 1813, near Fort Mason, a stockade at what is now Saverton. Ralls County's third courthouse was built in 1858 by Francis Kidwell with Chapel Carstarphen as superintendent for $18,000, and wings were added in 1936; Missouri buildings at the 1939 New York and San Francisco World's Fairs copied its facade. New London serves a county devoted to the limestone industry and diversified farming, and its high school was the first in Missouri to offer a course in Vocational Agriculture in 1917, while one of the state's biggest cement plants is at Ilasco. Salt River, called Auhaha by Indians, flows through the county and is associated with the expression "Up Salt River." During the Civil War, skirmishes and raids halted the growth of town and county, and Mark Twain's brief Civil War service was with pro-Southern troops of Ralls County. New London benefited when the St. Louis and Hannibal R.R. was completed to the town in 1876. Other county towns include Saverton, laid out in 1819 on the Mississippi, near Federal Lock and Dam No. 22, opened in 1938, and Perry, laid out in 1866, site of the Mark Twain Research Foundation. North of New London stand the buildings of Van Rensselaer Academy, a Presbyterian school opened in 1851, educator Henry J. Waters was born in Center, and more than 400 Indian village campsites and two major Indian trails have been found in Ralls County.