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Missouri County
Stoddard County, Missouri
Dexter's Mingo National Wildlife Refuge and the Bootheel's wetland restoration - from the Mingo National Wildlife Refuge (a 21,676-acre protected wetland in the Little Black River bottomlands - one of the most significant migratory waterfowl stopover areas in the Mississippi Flyway, hosting hundreds of thousands of ducks and geese during spring and fall migrations) to Dexter's agricultural processing economy and the Bootheel's cotton and soybean production on some of Missouri's most productive alluvial soils.
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Office: Stoddard County Emergency Management – operated through the Sheriff’s Office; confirm current phone via stoddardcountymo.us.
Sheriff: Stoddard County Sheriff’s Office – 207 S Prairie St, PO Box 319, Bloomfield, MO 63825 | Non-emergency (573) 568-4654 | Fax: (573) 568-3003; Sheriff Carl Hefner; operates a Citizens Police Academy for community education.
Notes: For an active emergency, call 911.
Roads & Utilities
ROADS & TRANSPORTATION
Roads: US-60 serves Dexter, the county’s largest city (population ~7,300, the commercial hub); MO-25 serves Bloomfield, the county seat and government center – a common Missouri arrangement where the seat of government and the economic hub are different cities.
Notes: Stoddard County, organized January 2, 1835, is named for Major Amos Stoddard, the first American civil governor of Upper Louisiana. Roughly 28,300-28,700 residents across 829 square miles – the largest of Missouri’s six southeast lowland counties. Bloomfield was platted in 1835 on 50 acres donated by Absalom Bailey, near the site of a Delaware and Shawnee village first settled by white residents in 1824; the name comes from a large field of wildflowers found there.
Business & Permits
BUILDING & PERMITS
Office: Stoddard County Courthouse – Prairie and Court Sts, Bloomfield, MO 63825; built 1867-1870, enlarged in 1909 in Classical Revival style, NRHP-listed (1984).
Notes: Stoddard County holds a genuinely remarkable place in American media history: Bloomfield is the birthplace of the military newspaper Stars and Stripes, first printed there on November 9, 1861, by a company of Illinois Union volunteers stationed at the local newspaper plant; a dedicated Stars and Stripes Museum is headquartered south of Bloomfield. During the Civil War, Bloomfield served as a Union post and was burned to the ground in September 1864 during a Confederate raid led by Gen. John S. Marmaduke. Bloomfield City Park preserves two rare hand-hewn poplar log cabins built in 1833 by Morton Barnett, moved from the swampland near Clines Island. In Puxico, the only log cabin library still in active use in the continental United States, built with WPA labor, is listed on the State Historical Register. The early 20th-century Little River Watershed drainage project – one of the largest wetland reclamation efforts in North American history – converted more than a million acres of Bootheel swampland into the county’s fertile farmland.
Veterans Services
VETERANS SERVICES
Office: Stoddard County Veterans Service – confirm current contact via stoddardcountymo.us.
Federal: VA facilities accessible via a Cape Girardeau or Poplar Bluff VA clinic; confirm current routing.
Libraries
LIBRARIES
Keller Public Library (Dexter) – confirm current address/phone via cityofdexter.org.
Puxico Log Cabin Library – a WPA-built log cabin structure, the only one of its kind still in active library use in the continental U.S.; listed on the State Historical Register.
Parks & Recreation
PARKS & RECREATION
Key Assets: The Stars and Stripes Museum, the Bloomfield City Park log cabins, the Puxico Log Cabin Library, and the Stoddard County Museum are the county’s premier attractions.
Notes: The genuine birthplace-of-Stars-and-Stripes connection is one of the most historically significant media-history facts covered anywhere in this project.
GIS & Maps
GIS & MAPS
Appraisal/Parcel Search: Stoddard County Assessor – confirm current contact via stoddardcountymo.us.
Animal Services
ANIMAL SERVICES
Dexter Animal Shelter – 601 East Grant St, Dexter, MO 63841 | (573) 624-5512 ext. 7 | Email: [email protected]; a no-kill shelter operated by the Dexter Police Department with no adoption time limits, accepting dogs only; adoption fee $150 (includes vaccines, microchip, spay/neuter, heartworm test); recently received a $25,000 donation from Nestlé Purina (which has operated a factory in Bloomfield since 1972) to fund a new showroom and outdoor kennel space.
Bloomfield Animal Control – PO Box 350, Bloomfield, MO 63825; confirm current phone via local listings.
Bernie Animal Shelter – PO Box 605, Bernie, MO 63822; confirm current phone via local listings.
Environmental & Waste
ENVIRONMENTAL / WASTE MANAGEMENT
Office: Stoddard County – confirm current contact via stoddardcountymo.us.
NOTES: Stoddard County is the first county in the fifteenth batch of the Missouri v2 A+ sourced redo. The genuine birthplace-of-Stars-and-Stripes connection is one of the most historically significant media-history facts covered anywhere in this project. All contact information above was sourced via web search as of early August 2026 and should be reconfirmed directly with the relevant office before a visit, deadline-sensitive filing, or emergency-adjacent decision.
About Stoddard County
Stoddard County is southeastern Missouri’s Bootheel wetland and agricultural county – a flat alluvial plain community whose Mingo National Wildlife Refuge provides critical habitat in one of the most drained agricultural landscapes in America.
Bloomfield (the county seat, population ~1,900) is a small Bootheel courthouse community serving the surrounding agricultural county.
Dexter (population ~7,500) is the county’s largest city and commercial hub – agricultural processing and retail services support the surrounding farming community.
Mingo National Wildlife Refuge – preserving bottomland hardwood forest and seasonal wetlands in the Little Black River bottomlands – provides critical habitat in an otherwise intensively farmed landscape. The refuge’s impoundments attract enormous concentrations of migratory waterfowl on the Mississippi Flyway.
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Stoddard County Assessor at 401 S. Prairie Street, Bloomfield, MO 63825, phone 573-568-3220. MO residential assessed at 19% of true value. Appeal to Board of Equalization.
Courts & Legal
Stoddard County Circuit Court at 401 S. Prairie Street, Bloomfield, MO 63825, phone 573-568-3339, handles probate.
Marriage & Vital Records
Marriage licenses, divorce records, and birth & death certificates are handled by the following office(s):
COUNTY CLERK
401 S. Prairie St., Bloomfield, MO 63825
(573) 568-3339
Genealogy
County-level record sources
Stoddard County Circuit Court, Probate Division (probate case files – see Probate section above).
Local societies
No dedicated Stoddard County genealogical society was confirmed in available directories.
Probate & Estate
Losing someone and having to deal with courts and paperwork at the same time is hard. This section won’t make that easier, but it should tell you what to expect, what it costs, and where to go – so at least you’re not walking in blind.
Where to go
Stoddard County Circuit Court, Probate Division Stoddard County Justice Center, 403 South Prairie Street, Bloomfield, MO 63825 (573) 568-4640 Stoddard County is in southeastern Missouri, seated in Bloomfield.
Step 1: figure out which path applies
Missouri probate is governed by Title XXXI of the Missouri Revised Statutes (Chapters 470-475), the Probate Code.
Small Estate Affidavit (RSMo § 473.097) – available when the entire estate, less liens and encumbrances, does not exceed $40,000. A 30-day waiting period after death applies, and only if no application for letters is pending. If the property listed is worth more than $15,000, the clerk must publish a notice to creditors in a newspaper of general circulation in the county. A bond may be required. Once the court issues a certified small estate certificate, the affiant presents it directly to whoever holds the property to collect and distribute assets – avoiding full probate. Typical timeline: about two months to close, versus six months to a year or more for full probate.
Formal Administration – required for larger or more complex estates. A petition for Letters Testamentary (with a will) or Letters of Administration (without one) is filed with the probate division. After review, the court appoints the personal representative and issues the letters. Missouri offers both supervised and independent administration. Missouri requires an attorney to represent the personal representative in both types of administration.
Step 2: filing for formal probate
File a petition with the Probate Division of the Circuit Court in the county where the decedent was domiciled.
The court appoints the personal representative and issues Letters Testamentary or Letters of Administration.
The personal representative publishes a notice to creditors in a newspaper of general circulation in the county, and gives direct notice to known creditors. Creditors have 6 months from the date of first publication to file claims.
Within 30 days of appointment (unless the court extends the deadline), the personal representative files an inventory and appraisement of all estate assets.
After debts are paid and the creditor claim period expires, the personal representative distributes the remaining assets and files a final settlement with the court to close the estate.
What it costs
Missouri sets statutory minimum fees for attorneys and personal representatives based on a percentage of the estate’s value, though additional fees may be allowed for extraordinary services.
Missouri has no state estate tax and no state inheritance tax. Only the federal estate tax could apply, and only to very large estates.
Probate filings, estate administration, and guardianship matters are handled by the following office(s):
Public Safety & Arrests
Arrest records, inmate search, and law enforcement services are handled by the following office(s):
SHERIFF
401 S. Prairie St., Bloomfield, MO 63825
(573) 568-2811
Elections & Voting
Voter registration, polling locations, and elections information are handled by the following office(s):
ELECTIONS
401 S. Prairie St., Bloomfield, MO 63825
(573) 568-3339
Health & Human Services
Offices & Contacts
Health services, social services, and assistance programs are handled by the following office(s):
MO Dept of Social Services — Stoddard
(573) 568-4541
Missouri Delta Medical Center
modeltamedcenter.com (Sikeston — accessible major regional hospital)
Southeast Health — Dexter
sehealth.org (Dexter — quality community hospital)
Public Health Information
PUBLIC HEALTH
Office: Stoddard County Health Department – confirm current phone via stoddardcountymo.us.
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Last verified June 2026
County Facts
County Seat: Bloomfield
Population: 29,000
Area: 828 sq mi
Established: 1835
Tier: 3
Public Records
TruthFinder
Search public records for Stoddard County residents.
