Blood, Trauma, and Biohazard Cleanup in Canton, MO

Canton is a Mississippi River city in Lewis County in northeast Missouri, founded in February 1830 by Edward White, Robert Sinclair, and Isaac Bland, and believed to be named for Canton, Ohio.

Canton is the oldest town in Lewis County and actually predates the county itself by three years — Lewis County was not created from Marion County until 1833.

Set on the pioneer Salt River Trail, Canton had grown into a thriving river port and trade center with a population of over 2,000 by 1860.

Canton is the home of Culver-Stockton College, founded in 1853 as Christian University by the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ).

Culver-Stockton's 1853 charter was the first college charter in Missouri to assure equal education to men and women, making it the first coeducational college west of the Mississippi River; classes began in 1855.

The college closed during the Civil War, when federal troops occupied its main building, and reopened in 1865; its present name, adopted in 1917, honors benefactors Mary E. Culver and R. H. Stockton.

Henderson Hall, the college's main building — rebuilt in 1904 after the original Old Main burned in 1903 — is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and the campus sits on about 140 acres on a bluff overlooking the Mississippi River.

Canton had a population of 2,774 at the 2020 census, up from 2,377 in 2010, and Census Bureau survey estimates put the city at roughly 900 households.

Lock and Dam No. 20, built on the Mississippi River at Canton in the 1930s, replaced the sternwheelers of the town's port era with modern barge traffic.

Local students attend Canton High School in the Canton R-V School District.