Emergency Biohazard Cleanup Services in Middle Grove, MO

Middle Grove is an unincorporated community and census-designated place in Monroe County in northeastern Missouri — it first appeared as a census-designated place in the 2020 census, which counted 57 residents.

The community was settled in 1830 and founded by John C. Milligan and Jacob Whittenburg, on land that was part of the Ezra Fox settlement of 1820 — the first permanent settlement in Monroe County — and the town was formally laid off into lots in 1840.

Middle Grove got its name because it was a midway stopping point between the Mississippi River and the Missouri River and the central station on the first mail route established between New London and Fayette, set in a belt of timber reaching into the Grand Prairie.

Middle Grove claims the honor of hosting the first store ever opened in Monroe County, and founder John G. C. Milligan was also the community's first postmaster and first hotel keeper.

A post office called Middle Grove was established in 1835, was renamed 'Middlegrove' in 1894, and closed for good in 1907.

In its 19th-century heyday Middle Grove was a thriving trading village of roughly 200 people with a steam flouring mill, stores, a public school and two churches, and many of Monroe County's leading families traced their start to it.

In 1942, heavy rains and flooding hit Middle Grove so hard that residents were forced onto their rooftops to await rescue.

The census-designated place covers 0.56 square miles, and Census Bureau survey estimates put it at only about 18 households with a median age near 60 — one of the older, smaller communities in Monroe County.

The community lends its name to the Middle Grove C-1 School District, a small rural district based in the village.