City Hall, Centralia MO | Circa 1910
Centralia was laid out in 1857, but not incorporated until 1867. "It was named from its central position on the old North Missouri line of railway from St. Louis to Ottumwa, Iowa." It is also the center of a vast prairie between Mexico and Huntsville and between Columbia and Paris, Missouri. (HIST. BOONE COUNTY, p. 695; Eaton, p. 212; COLUMBIA MISSOURIAN, Oct. 22, 1923, 4-5; William, I, p. 236)
Source: Pace, Nadine. "Place Names In The Central Counties Of Missouri." M.A. thesis., University of Missouri-Columbia, 1928. Credit: State Historical Society of Missouri.
