Morehouse, Missouri

Morehouse is a city in extreme northern New Madrid County, Missouri. The population was 973 at the 2010 census.

History

Settlement in the Morehouse area began as early as the 1840s, with the construction of a sawmill camp in the swampy lowlands west of present-day Sikeston. The community that developed was first known as "Little River," for the stream that flowed just to the west; however, when a post office was established in 1893, it was re-named in honor of Albert P. Morehouse, governor of Missouri from 1887 to 1889. By the early 20th century, Morehouse had a population of 1,700 and a newspaper, the Morehouse Sun, though it has declined somewhat in recent decades.

In May 1946, the biological father of future President Bill Clinton, William Jefferson Blythe Jr., was killed in a car accident on U.S. Route 60 between Morehouse and Sikeston, three months before Clinton's birth. Blythe was a traveling salesman returning to his family from a business trip to Chicago.

Geography

Morehouse is located in the northwestern corner of New Madrid County, near the border with Scott and Stoddard Counties. It lies about six miles west-southwest of Sikeston, with U.S. Route 60 running along the southern edge of the town and Missouri State Highway 114 crossing through its center. Its exact coordinates are 36°50’44”N 89°41’28”W.

The city has a total land area of 0.79 square miles, and an average elevation of 302 feet. It is sandwiched between the Little River to the west and the slightly elevated Sikeston Ridge to the east.