Vandalia, Missouri: A Railroad Town Named for Illinois

Vandalia was laid out in eighteen seventy by Aaron McPike and Judge Harmen Caldwell and platted the following year, named after Vandalia, Illinois. The town's growth was entirely railroad-driven: the Louisiana and Missouri River Railroad arrived in eighteen seventy-two, followed by the Quincy, Missouri and Pacific in eighteen seventy-three, and with two lines crossing here Vandalia became a natural trade point in Audrain County. Population climbed from roughly five hundred in eighteen eighty to nearly sixteen hundred by nineteen ten.

The city sits in the agricultural heartland of northern Missouri, corn and soybean country, and retains its character as a county market town and railroad junction. Audrain County itself was organized in eighteen thirty-six and named for Colonel James Hunter Audrain, a War of eighteen twelve veteran who later served in the state legislature.