Crime Scene and Trauma Cleanup in Greenville, MO

Greenville is the county seat of Wayne County, Missouri, and has served as the seat of county government since the county was organized - Greenville was founded and made county seat in 1819, before Missouri was even a state.

Greenville was named after Fort Greene Ville, Ohio, the place where General Anthony Wayne signed a treaty with Native American tribes after defeating them at the Battle of Fallen Timbers on August 20, 1794 - Wayne County itself was also named for the general.

Greenville was laid out beside a ford on the St. Francis River operated by early settler Elijah Bettis, and local tradition says the new town was laid out in a cornfield with its streets paralleling the rows of corn.

Greenville's first post office opened on August 10, 1832, and the town was incorporated as a village on February 23, 1893.

Greenville's Wayne County courthouse burned in 1854, its records were stolen in 1866, and the courthouse burned again in 1892, which is why few official county records from before 1893 survive.

Greenville had a population of about 1,000 around 1900, but in 1941 the entire town was relocated about two miles from its original riverfront site because of the construction of Wappapello Lake.

Greenville's original townsite, now known as Old Greenville, was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1990.

Greenville had 443 residents at the 2020 census, and at the 2010 census it counted 511 people living in 192 households.

Greenville sits on U.S. Route 67 along the St. Francis River at the edge of the Ozark Mountains, and the Greenville R-2 School District serves most of eastern Wayne County.