How St. Catharine came to be
From Wikipedia’s history of St. Catharine.
An old stagecoach road ran near here, from Hannibal, Mo. to Saint Joseph, Mo., called the "Hound Dog Trail" and dates to the early 19th century. St. Catharine was founded in 1856, and is not named for Catherine of Alexandria, but instead for Mrs. Catharine Elliott, by her husband, William H. Elliott, a wealthy manufacturer. Both were born in England, and, with locals Caleb S. & Mary Farmer, joined in buying 160 acres, which was filed and recorded November 17, 1855. William and Catharine took the west half of 160 acres and laid out the town of Catharine. Afterward, the word Saint, or "St." as it was written, was added, "as a sort of joke, but as Mrs. Elliott remarked, she had no objection to being canonized as a saint, and the name became an established fact."
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
