Middle Grove
Union Township
The town is situated in the southwest corner of the county and 20 miles from the county seat, and four and a half miles from Evansville, the nearest RR. Station. The town site is a part of the old Ezra Fox settlement, which was made in 1820, and was the first permanent settlement in Monroe Co., and the name was derived from its being a midway station between the Father of Waters and the Big Muddy and also the central station on the first mail route established between New London and Fayette; and from being located in an area of belt of timber stretching into the Grand Prairie, and was called Middle Grove. John G. C. Milligan, a Virginian by birth, built the first house that was put up in the Grove, and in fact, in this section of the county. He was also the first postmaster and the first hotel keeper. Middle Grove claims the honor of being the first place where the first store was opened in Monroe Co. The house, as already stated, was built by John G. C. Milligan and John Glenn. It is situated in the southwest corner of the county on Milligan Creek.
--The State of Missouri, 1904 ,Williams (submitted by Robin Gatson)