Settlers reached what is now Iron County in the first few decades of the 19th century, including Ephraim Stout, who arrived sometime between 1805 and 1807, and the discovery of vast iron ore resources in 1836 brought more settlers and miners, leading to the county’s naming in 1857 and the laying out of Ironton that same year. The St. Louis and Iron Mountain Railroad, completed to Pilot Knob in 1857, first served to transport iron ore and became a vital Union route from St. Louis to southeast Missouri after the Civil War began, though further expansion was halted by the conflict. In August 1861, Ulysses S. Grant received his commission as brigadier general here and later that month became commander of Union forces in Southeast Missouri, and by March 1862 thousands of federal forces had moved into southeast Missouri, securing Missouri for the Union. Iron County was deeply marked by the war, especially in 1864, when damage to the courthouse built in 1858 occurred during the Battle of Ironton, the day before the Battle of Pilot Knob. Sterling Price entered Iron County on September 26, 1864, as part of a raid intended to enlist recruits, gather supplies, and disrupt Missouri elections, but at Fort Davidson in the Battle of Pilot Knob on September 27, Confederate forces were unsuccessfully opposed by Union forces led by Thomas Ewing, a defeat that crushed Price’s hopes of taking St. Louis. The war’s impact remained visible in places across Arcadia Valley, including Immanuel Lutheran Church, which served as a battlefield hospital during the Battle of Pilot Knob, the site of Fort Davidson with its earthworks and Confederate burial trenches, the location where Grant received his commission, the Iron House hotel that served as a hospital during Price’s Raid, and the railroad corridor that Union troops used for men and materials and that Confederate troops tried to block during the battle.
