Kingston was laid out in 1843 in the fertile Shoal Creek Valley to replace Far West as the seat of Caldwell County, which had been organized in 1836 for Latter Day Saints driven from Jackson County in 1833 and asked to leave Clay County in 1836. Far West, nearby, served as the county seat and church headquarters, and when the Mormon War began it had 3,000 settlers. Hostilities between Latter Day Saints and their neighbors grew from political, social, and economic differences, with early hostile acts at Adam-ondi-Ahman and De Witt in Daviess and Carroll counties, involving Missouri militiamen and the Caldwell County militia of Mormons. After 17 Latter Day Saints were massacred at Haun's Mill, the Caldwell militia surrendered at Far West on November 1, 1838. Church leaders, including Joseph Smith, were accused of treason and ordered shot, but they were jailed when Brig. Gen. Alexander W. Doniphan refused to carry out the order; some were later freed and others escaped when charges were not sustained. By June of 1839, about 12,000 Latter Day Saints had removed to Illinois. Caldwell County, named for Indian scout John Caldwell, lies in Missouri's Glacial Plains in an area used by Missouri and Osage Indians and claimed by the Iowa, Sauk, and Fox until their 1824 land cession; its first settler was Jesse Mann in 1831. Kingston, named for Judge and later Governor Austin A. King, stands on land donated by James Ramsey and William Hill, and its first house was moved from Far West after that town was left desolate. In June 1864, about 300 Confederates under Captains Thrailkell and Taylor raided Kingston. Hamilton, to the northeast, became the county's largest town after its founding in 1855 in anticipation of the Hannibal and St. Joseph R.R. being built through the county in 1859, and Kidder, to the northwest, was the site of Thayer College, later Kidder Congregational Institute, from 1884 to 1933. Joseph Smith and Brigham Young were among the Latter Day Saints who lived in Caldwell County, and James C. Penney and Paul Armstrong were born nearby.