Did a Pike County Missouri man help create a new country?

Area historian Brent Engel says maybe so. Engel spoke Tuesday night to the Tri-States Civil War Round Table in Quincy.

The event happened in October 1861 during the Civil War. Union troops under John Brooks Henderson of Louisiana were about to face off in Callaway County against Confederate sympathizers under Jefferson Jones of Fulton.

Instead of fighting, the two men signed a peace treaty. In doing so, Henderson as a Union commander formally recognized secessionist backers who had no formal affiliation.

Residents immediately began calling the county The Kingdom of Callaway. The name is still in use today, with descendants flying the purple and gold Kingdom flag and holding a dinner each March.

Henderson later drafted the 13th Amendment outlawing slavery, campaigned for women’s voting rights and prosecuted federal tax cheats in the Whiskey Ring scandal.

Engel this fall plans to publish his second book on Pike County history.

You can find out more about the Kingdom of Callaway by logging on to www.callawaymohistory.org.