New Local History book!
Our pictorial history of Livingston County is available from the authors directly or at Amazon. You can email us for more information at [email protected].
Both the Livingston County Library and Grand River Museum are partners with us for this project. We want to thank all those who contributed photographs for this effort.
Our pictorial history of Livingston County is available from the authors directly or at Amazon. You can email us for more information at [email protected].
Both the Livingston County Library and Grand River Museum are partners with us for this project. We want to thank all those who contributed photographs for this effort.
NEW! Theatres of Chillicothe: Tingles, Keen Zip, Brisk Sparkle, and Romance!
Now Available on Amazon, at Boji Stone Cafe, and from the author
Would you be surprised that Chillicothe has had over twenty theatres since the 1860s?
Local talent using available space gave way to actor troupes with dedicated space.
Did you know that the earliest “opera house” in Chillicothe was located over a stable? It brought in top name performers.
Theatres grew more sophisticated, culminating in the Luella Grand in 1895.
With the advent of moving pictures, nickelodeons exploded with about nine such theatres in Chillicothe from about 1905-1915.
Do you know where the first silent film was shown in Chillicothe?
Other places like the old Chillicothe High School, Industrial Home for Girls, and the
Chillicothe Business College also had auditoriums used for local entertainment.
And none of them remain.
That is why it is so important to collect these stories and remember our rich past.
MEET OUR AUTHORS
Kirsten Mouton
Since 2013, Kirsten Mouton, her husband, Rodney, and their two teenage children have lived in Chillicothe, Missouri. Kirsten spent over 15 years as an archaeologist doing field and lab work in California, Arizona, and New Mexico. She obtained her master’s degree in Archaeology from University College Dublin in 1997. In 2005 and again in 2014 she turned to the library field. Kirsten became fascinated by the downtown buildings she could see from the family’s 1895 Queen Ann Victorian home in Chillicothe. Slowly, she has been researching their stories and telling them in both conventional and unconventional ways. Through her work at the Livingston County Library, she has developed, and the Library hosts, a QR code/online downtown historic tour as well as an online county encyclopedia, GoLivCoMo. Her hope is to retell the stories of the community’s past and get the next generation interested in listening and learning. Kirsten is involved with Main Street Chillicothe, the Grand River Museum & Historical Society, the Sliced Bread Committee, and the City of Chillicothe’s Historic Preservation Commission. To fill in gaps in local preservation, she started her own nonprofit, the Livingston County Preservation Society that maintains the Chillicothe Hall of Fame and Century Plaques project and is trying to save locally significant buildings in the area. To unwind, she enjoys video games with her son, baking and shopping with her daughter, and coffee and preservation projects with her husband.
Brenda O'Halloran
Brenda Anderson O’Halloran is a genealogist, researcher, and history writer. Born and raised in Livingston County, Missouri, she is proud to live there as the sixth generation from several lines of her family who settled in early Livingston County as far back as 1837. Brenda holds BSE and MSE degrees from Northwest Missouri State University specializing in literacy education, and she worked for over 40 years teaching the children of Chillicothe. She is the author of the book A Duty Sanctioned, commissioned by St. Columban Church in Chillicothe, Missouri. Her book tells the story of the founding of the parish in 1857 and the 1879 construction of the large and beautiful St. Columban Church, still in use today. She is currently researching and writing a two-volume book on the Anderson family of Livingston and Caldwell Counties of Missouri, and she has followed that line back to the first of her Andersons who came to America before 1740. Brenda resides in Chillicothe, where she serves on the city’s Historic Preservation Commission, is a member of the Grand River Historical Society and the Livingston County Preservation Society, participates in several service organizations, and volunteers with the Livingston County Library historical archives and genealogy department. She spends time daily building her family tree which allows her to claim connections to nearly every early family in Monroe Township, Livingston County, Missouri. She enjoys listening to her parents share stories of life in Livingston County through the years and she frequently travels to visit her children and grandchildren in nearby states.
You can get ahold of us at [email protected]. You can also send us a message via the "Contact Us" form in the top header.
Sign up for our newsletter to stay up to date.