[5] Four members of the United States House of Representatives have come from Canton, and are buried in the city's Forest Grove Cemetery.

[5] It was founded by Issac Bland, Robert Sinclair, and Edward White—the latter constructing the town's first home in February, 1830.

The village of Tully, founded in November, 1834, was just a mile north of fledgling Canton and had a slightly better area for steamboats to anchor.

[7] Being the preferred spot to load and unload cargo, Tully slowed Canton's growth for the first two decades of its existence.

[6] Canton, with its somewhat higher ground but still close river proximity experienced rapid growth over the next nine years after Tully's demise and by 1860 had a population of over 2,000 people.

A stage line ran from Canton as far west as Kirksville, some eighty miles away in Adair county, prior to the American Civil War.

Federal troops occupied Canton in July, 1861 to quell recent unrest and quash recruiting for the Missouri State Guard and pro-Confederate guerrillas by Lewis county residents Martin E. Green, Joseph C. Porter and others.

One resident was killed and another, a Union sympathizer, kidnapped by the bushwhackers, who also stole large quantities of weapons, medicine and other supplies.

[10] Canton continued its role as gateway to northeast Missouri agricultural after the war, with several industries catering to those needs.

Iron plows, wagons, a patented hand corn planter, and buttons—using mussel shells from the nearby river—were some of the diverse items manufactured in Canton in the 19th century.

[5] Limited rail service had existed in Canton in antebellum times but the tracks were destroyed during Civil War fighting.

Rail service was finally restored to the town in 1871 with the arrival of the St. Louis, Keokuk & Northwestern Railroad.

Within an hour of the break two square miles of the town and surrounding countryside were underwater, including more than 200 homes and the Canton school building but there were no deaths.

[5] During the New Deal era, Jessie Hull Mayer won the federal commission to complete a mural in the Canton post office.

[11] Periodic flooding of the downtown area happened again after World War II, but was largely ended by construction of a bigger and stronger levee in the 1960s.

However, a large tornado struck Canton on May 10, 2003 damaging an estimated 100 structures, 40 of them severely, but leaving only four persons injured.

The Culver-Stockton College fieldhouse, which just hours earlier had contained a large crowd for spring commencement, was virtually destroyed while the dome on Henderson Hall was also ripped away.

[23] Burlington Trailways provides intercity bus service to the city on a route between Cedar Rapids and St.