Named by pioneer S.W.B. Carnegy for his native land, Scotland County was organized in 1841. Two years later it was reduced in size by the formation of Knox County as a separate unit in 1845. Its north boundary was not determined until 1851, when the U.S. Supreme Court set the Missouri-Iowa boundary. Memphis, the second town to serve as county seat, was laid out by J.F. Forman in 1843 on land donated by Samuel Cecil and is said to be named for the ancient Egyptian city. Sand Hill, settled in 1835 as the first county seat, lost that role to the more centrally located Memphis after the county was reduced in size. The Keokuk & Western Railroad, now C.B. and Q., reached Memphis in 1871. During the war years of 1861-65, Scotland County saw skirmishes and guerrilla action. In the fall of 1861, forces of Union Colonel David Moore stationed in Memphis skirmished with the enemy. On July 18, 1862, a sharp skirmish lasting about 3 hours took place at Vassar Hill near Bible Grove south of Memphis, where Confederates led by Colonel Joseph Porter withdrew before Union Major J.Y. Clopper's forces and casualties were heavy. In the Glacial Plains Region of northeast Missouri, the county's rolling prairies are cut by the alluvial river valleys of the North and South Wyaconda, the North and South Fabius, and their tributaries, all flowing diagonally through the county, and the area is characterized by livestock and grain farms. The first settlers came in the 1830's, mainly from Kentucky, Tennessee, and other Missouri counties. Scotland County lies in territory ceded by the Iowa, Sac, and Fox tribes in 1842, and Sac and Fox people, friendly with the pioneers, roamed the area into the 1840's. Two Indian trails ran north through the county, more than 50 prehistoric mounds remain nearby, and mastodon bones were found near Memphis. Tom Horn, born near Memphis, became an Indian scout and interpreter for the U.S. Government, and James Proctor Knott, Missouri Attorney General from 1856 to 1861 and later Governor of Kentucky, lived in Memphis in the 1850's; his wife, Mollie Foreman Knott, is buried in the Memphis Cemetery. Local points of interest include the Jacob Maggard House, used as a hospital after the Battle of Vassar Hill, and the Christian Church in Bible Grove, built in 1855.