NOTE: Cedar Township in Callaway County no longer contains the town of Cedar City since boundary changes creating Summit Township from its former southern sector sometime between 1883 and 1897 . This has caused some confusion in historical, geographic, and genealogical research—see "History" section below. Cedar Township is today one of eighteen townships in Callaway County, Missouri, USA. As of the 2010 census, its population was 2,937.
Geography
Cedar Township today covers an area of and revolves around the incorporated town of New Bloomfield and areas in the northern reaches of Holts Summit addresses around Lake Mykee. Cedar Township includes the streams of Fitzhugh Branch, Kelly Branch, Lawson Branch, Murphy Branch, Murray Branch, Riley Branch, Skunk Creek and Town Creek, and cemeteries named Boyce, Cason, King, Mount Zion, Perry, Prospect, Providence, Saint Paul and Sheley. Cedar Township is bordered to the north by Guthrie Township, to the east by Caldwell Township, to the southeast by Cote Sans Dessein township. To the direct south and southwest of Cedar Township today are Summit Township.
History
Cedar Township was established in 1824, and named after the Missouri River tributary Cedar Creek, which generally forms its western border with Boone County. At that time, it included what is now Summit Township, later separated around 1890. Unfortunate confusion has arisen in historical and genealogical research from the fact that the nearby historic Missouri River shore town of Cedar City is no longer inside Cedar Township, but instead at the southern shoreline boundary of Summit Township, beyond Holts Summit, and since 1989 incorporated into the city limits of Jefferson City after its expansion northward across the Missouri River into Callaway County. To clarify 'the two Cedars' and changes over time, a historic map of Callaway County townships, where one can see both Cedar Township and Cedar City in detail can be found at http://cdm16795.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/moplatbooks/id/656. Historic maps often do not show the relatively new and short-lived Lake Mykee Town, located near the border between Cedar and Summit townships, and Lake Mykee was absorbed in 2017 into the city limits of Holts Summit, making Holts Summit extend from its Summit Township base across into southern Cedar Township.
