[2][3] The company and town were named after Thomas Adams Smith, the receiver of the land office in Franklin, Missouri.
[4] Smithton’s origin begins with the settlement of American pioneers from Kentucky and Virginia in an early 1800s region known as the Boonslick.
Before 1815 settlement in the region was confined to small log forts because of the threat of Native American attack during the War of 1812.
When the war ended settlers came on foot, horseback, and wagon, often moving entire households along the Boone's Lick Road and often bringing enslaved African Americans.
The Missouri Legislature appointed John Gray, Jefferson Fulcher, Absalom Hicks, Lawrence Bass, and David Jackson as commissioners to select and establish a permanent county seat.