Dayton is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

in southeast Cass County, in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its so ...

Missouri Missouri (''see #Etymology and pronunciation, pronunciation'') is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it border ...

. Garden City is five miles north along

Missouri Route F A supplemental route is a state secondary road in the U.S. state of Missouri, designated with letters. Supplemental routes were various roads within the state which the Missouri Department of Transportation was given in 1952 to maintain in add ...

and Creighton lies 6.5 miles east along

Missouri Route B A supplemental route is a state secondary road in the U.S. state of Missouri, designated with letters. Supplemental routes were various roads within the state which the Missouri Department of Transportation was given in 1952 to maintain in addit ...

. The Settles Ford Conservation Area along the South Grand River lies to the southeast. The community lies atop a ridge between Sugar Creek to the west and Lick Branch to the east. It is part of the

Kansas City metropolitan area The Kansas City metropolitan area is a bi-state metropolitan area anchored by Kansas City, Missouri. Its 14 counties straddle the border between the U.S. states of Missouri (9 counties) and Kansas (5 counties). With and a population of more t ...

History

A post office called Dayton was established in 1856, and remained in operation until 1918. The community was named after William L. Dayton, a vice-presidential candidate in the

1856 United States presidential election Presidential elections were held in the United States on November 4, 1856. Democratic nominee James Buchanan defeated Republican nominee John C. Frémont and Know Nothing/ Whig nominee Millard Fillmore. The main issue was the expansion of sl ...

. Dayton is currently protected by GCFPD Station 2 located in the center of town. The town was burned to the ground by Union soldiers during the Civil War, on January 1, 1862.

References

Unincorporated communities in Cass County, Missouri Unincorporated communities in Missouri {{CassCountyMO-geo-stub