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Doniphan Missouri & Ripley County Area History
The Foothills Of The Ozark Mountain's Current River Country!
 Near The Arkansas Border With Friendly Down-To-Earth People

The area that became Doniphan was permanently settled as early as 1819 when Lemuel Kittrell homesteaded on a bluff above the east bank of the Current River near the site of a French trader's cabin. Kittrell soon built a grist and wood carding mill near his home. By 1841, a sizeable village had grown near the Kittrell home.
   
The village became a regular stop on the Butterfield Stage Line and was on the St. Louis to Little Rock Highway. In addition to the mill, the village boasted an inn, store, distillery, produce warehouse, tannery, justice of the peace, blacksmith and gunsmith.
    
On the hills above the lovely Current River, Doniphan was founded and became the county seat of Ripley County in 1847.
  

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Except for the mill, all of the businesses at Kittrell's Mill moved to the new town and were joined by several additional stores and businesses.
       
Doniphan became the regional center of commerce. By 1860 there were plans to extend the St. Louis, Iron Mountain and Southern Railroad from Pilot Knob to Doniphan.
   
The Civil War changed those plans. Guerilla bands soon overran the county and in September 1864, Doniphan was burned by Union troops as Confederate General Sterling Price's army was moving into Ripley County from Arkansas. Devastated by the war, Doniphan grew with the coming of a branch of the Missouri Pacific Railroad in 1883.
  
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