Decatur is an extinct town in Cole County, in the U.S. state of Missouri. The GNIS classifies it as a populated place. [1]
Cole County is a county in the central part of the U.S. state of Missouri. As of the 2010 census, the population was 75,990. Its county seat and largest city is Jefferson City, the state capital. The county was organized November 16, 1820 and named after pioneer Captain Stephen Cole, an Indian fighter and pioneer settler, who built Cole's Fort in Boonville.
In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are currently 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory and shares its sovereignty with the federal government. Due to this shared sovereignty, Americans are citizens both of the federal republic and of the state in which they reside. State citizenship and residency are flexible, and no government approval is required to move between states, except for persons restricted by certain types of court orders.
Missouri is a state in the Midwestern United States. With over six million residents, it is the 18th-most populous state of the Union. The largest urban areas are St. Louis, Kansas City, Springfield and Columbia; the capital is Jefferson City. The state is the 21st-most extensive in area. Missouri is bordered by eight states : Iowa to the north, Illinois, Kentucky and Tennessee to the east, Arkansas to the south and Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska to the west. In the South are the Ozarks, a forested highland, providing timber, minerals and recreation. The Missouri River, after which the state is named, flows through the center of the state into the Mississippi River, which makes up Missouri's eastern border.
A post office called Decatur was established in 1875, and remained in operation until 1906. [2] The community has the name of Stephen Decatur, a United States Navy officer. [3]
Stephen Decatur Jr. was a United States naval officer and commodore. He was born on the eastern shore of Maryland in Worcester County, the son of a U.S. naval officer who served during the American Revolution. His father, Stephen Decatur Sr., was a commodore in the U.S. Navy, and brought the younger Stephen into the world of ships and sailing early on. Shortly after attending college, Decatur followed in his father's footsteps and joined the U.S. Navy at the age of nineteen as a midshipman.
