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 Trivia
 
    Chariton was named after a French Indian trader who located a trading post at the spot where this river, then unnamed, flowed into the Missouri River, and to this stream he gave his own name.

Shortly after the Sac and Fox Indians had gone, a band of Mormons, on their way west from Nauvoo, Illinois, to Salt Lake City, Utah, settle for the winter just south of Chariton.  They built temporary homes where the Chariton River had a sharp pyramid-shaped angle.  They named the place "Chariton Point".  They built log shanties with dirt floors and thatched roofs, planted crops and lived there for almost two years.  The Daughters of the American Revolution placed a large rock on the south side of the Chariton square to commemorate this event.

 

   
 

 
Lucas County was named after Robert Lucas, the first territorial governor of Iowa.

There is the grave of an old Cherokee Chief - Chief John Rinehart and his family buried on the south side of the road just inside the Chariton Cemetery.  He died on January 2, 1881.
 

 
   

 


 
 


Lucas County holds the state record for the largest Flathead Catfish caught weighting in at 81 pounds and measuring 52 inches in length.  Caught at Lake Ellis in June 1958 by Joe Baze.

Rainwater falling on the east side of the Lucas County Courthouse in Chariton eventually flows into the Mississippi River, while the rainwater falling on the west side of the Courthouse flows into the Missouri River.

The first light bulb in the State of Iowa was turned on in Lucas; Thomas Edison had invented it the year before.  It had been exhibited at the Philadelphia Exposition and bought by the mine officials for Whitebreast No. 1.  The mine was located east of Lucas in the town of Cleveland.
 
The clock in the Lucas County Courthouse was obtained from the Columbian Worlds Fair in Chicago.  S.H. Mallory of Chariton purchased the clock and donated it to the new courthouse for its dedication in 1894.  The clock had been in the agricultural building at the World's Fair in 1893.
 

  		 In 1881, there were 96 school houses in Lucas County, costing nearly $70,000.

John L. Lewis, Lucas County's native son, worked in the "Big Hill" mine at the west edge of Lucas. 


 
   

There were five coal mines operating in Lucas County in 1923.  The pay roll ranged from $60,000 to $80,000 in gold for a two week period.

Buffalo Bill came to Chariton with his wild west circus.  He had an Indian with him who was known to be a troublemaker.  Bill warned him not to get into trouble here or Bill would shoot him.  He did and HE DID!