VERSAILLES The county seat. of Morgan county, situated in the midst of a rich and fertile farming country, 166 miles from St. Louis and 40 from Jefferson City. It is immediately on the surveyed line of Osage Valley and Southern Kansas Railroad. The town contains one Methodist church, a good school, a Masonic lodge, and about 300 inhabitants. County Sheriff, W.H. Goddard. (Missouri State Gazetteer..., 1860)
VERSAILLES, the county-seat [Morgan County, Missouri], is situated near the center of the county, on the "divide" between the waters of the Osage and the La Mine Rivers, on a beautiful prairie, with an abundance of timber on the south, and fine farming land all around it. Population about 500. A large bed of cannel coal has been opened at Versailles, and about 1-1/2 miles distant bituminous coal is found in large quantities. Ten miles from Versailles is a large spring, which affords sufficient water power to propel a grist and saw mill, and a carding machine.
The Osage Valley and Southern Kansas Railroad, projected to run from Tipton, on the Pacific Railroad, to the Kansas line in Bates County, passes through Versailles; and from Tipton to Versailles it is under contract and rapidly being made. Of business houses in Versailles, there are 3 hotels, 5 stores, 1 furniture store, 1 drug store, 2 saddlers, 1 shoe shop, 2 groceries, 2 blacksmiths; and several carpenters, cabinetmakers, physicians, lawyers, etc. Distant from St. Louis, 165 miles; Jefferson City, 40; Syracuse, 17; Tipton, 16 ; and Boonville, 40 miles. (Parker's Missouri as it is in 1867..., 1867)