First Commissioners of the City of Jefferson

The first commissioners of the City of Jefferson were no strangers to each other. All three of the commissioners were early settlers of Callaway County and were frequently appointed to serve as representatives of the County Court for the purpose of investigating the need of a proposed road, determine the most feasible path and to make recommendations to the County Court as to whether the proposed road should be approved by the County Court.

The appointment for February Term 1822 was not the first or the last time that these three individuals had served as appointees on a proposed road and it was most natural, at the instigation of Jonathan Ramsey who served as one of the principal legislators that were involved in the selection of the site for the City of Jefferson, that they would serve as the commissioners that were appointed by the Legislature to plan, build the first state house and sell the 200 first lots in the City of Jefferson.

1820-1859 Callaway County Road Records - Kingdom of Callaway Historical Society

Major Josiah Ramsey Jr. was the son of General Jonathan Ramsey who served as a Brigadier General during the War of 1812 and as a member of the Legislature in his native Kentucky. Shortly after the close of this war, at Belle Fountain (a garrison in St. Louis County, Missouri), he was married to Martha W. Lockwood, a daughter of Captain Lockwood, then commanding the garrison. When the Ramsey family moved to Callaway County at some time between 1816 and 1819, Jonathan also became a member of the Missouri Territorial Legislature and was one of the principal legislators who were involved in the selection of the site of the City of Jefferson and his son Josiah Jr. was named as one of the trustees that planned and sold the first lots in the City of Jefferson. Josiah Ramsey Jr. purchased a total of ten lots in the first sale of lots in the City of Jefferson. In November 1825, the City of Jefferson was incorporated with Josiah Ramsey Jr. named as one of the five trustees; however the incorporation was not observed until 1839. In December 1826 Ramsey was among a number of citizens that were cited and fined for conducting a faro game. Josiah Ramsey Jr. opened a tavern in November 1826 and was licensed to keep a tavern in February 1827. On or before Oct. 27, 1829, Ramsey, as postmaster of Jefferson City was found to be in defalcation (default) in the amount of $377.58 with that amount sued for by the U.S. Government as of March 02, 1833. The postal service was still following for payment in 1844 to include the principal and $399.53 in interest. Ramsey died intestate with no visible assets in 1834 in Jefferson City. His wife, Martha, was appointed as his administrator and his burial location is unknown.

Adam Hope, a commissioner of the City of Jefferson, was an attorney who had made his home in Franklin in Howard County, Columbia in Boone County, Cote sans Dessein in Callaway County before moving to the site of the soon to be City of Jefferson. Hope bought only one lot at the time of the first sale, Lot # 330, at the northwest corner of High and Jefferson Streets. Adam Hope Jr. appears to have married to Rebecca Van Uxon Clark, September 04, 1805 in Nashville, Davidson County, Tennessee. The Tennessee State Archives have a small collection of Adam Hope papers which includes a deed for land in Callaway County, Missouri, dated 1825, indicating that Hope must have returned to Nashville where he died. Little additional information was found to be available for Adam Hope.

John C. Gordon, another of the early City of Jefferson commissioners, was the son of a Revolutionary War soldier who, in Princeton, Caldwell County, Kentucky, was appointed as one of the commissioners to superintend the construction of a courthouse and jail in 1818 and becvome its first jailor. He later was an early settler at Cote sans Dessein in Callaway County before moving to the City of Jefferson for the purpose of being a commissioner to plan and build the city. Gordon invested heavily in the City of Jefferson in the first sale of lots, buying 19 lots many of which were valuable corner lots. He was the owner of a tavern and inn located at the southeast corner of Madison and Water Streets known as the "Rising Sun". The first account of a school in Jefferson City was in 1828, held in a small room adjoining Gordon's Rising Sun Hotel and he was later appointed one of its trustees. The first meeting of the County Court in the new county seat, City of Jefferson, was held in the home of J. C. Gordon on March 30, 1829. The last record found of John C. Gordon in Jefferson City was a purchase of outlot #108 on May 02, 1843. Gordon was known to have taken a caravan to the gold rush in the 1850s, then returned to Cole County, but went back to California where he lived out his life and is buried. Gordon was then known to be in Marin County, CA by 1858 where he was later known to be Superintendant of Labor and Acting Warden at San Quentin Prison in Marin County, California. His wife, Cassandra Casey Gordon is buried in the Old City Cemetery in Jefferson City.

* The author acknowledges the assistance of Michelle Brooks and Becky Gordon Bocklage by providing biographical information on several of the commissioners.