1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Mexico (Missouri)

MEXICO, a city and the county-seat of Audrain county, Missouri, U.S.A., N.E. of the centre of the state, and about 110 m. N.W. of St Louis. Pop. (1890), 4789; (1900), 5099, including 948 negroes and 111 foreign-born; (1910), 5939. It is served by the Chicago & Alton, the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy, and the Wabash railway systems. Mexico is the seat of Hardin College and Conservatory of Music (Baptist, 1873), for young women, an institution founded and endowed by Charles H. Hardin (1820–1892), governor of the state in 1872–1874, and of the Missouri Military Academy (1889). The city is situated in the blue grass region of Missouri, and is a shipping-point for horses and mules. Among the manufactures are Hour, shoes and fire-clay products. Mexico was laid out as “New Mexico” in 1836, and became the county-seat under its present name in 1837. It was incorporated as a town in 1855, was entered by the Wabash road in 1858 and by the Alton in 1872, and was first chartered as a city in 1874.