Record of Crimes, Casualties, Etc. Coffey County lies in longitude eighteen west from Washington and in eight-eight north latitude. It is bounded on the north by Osage County, on the east by Franklin and Anderson counties, on the south by Woodson County, and on the west by Lyon and Greenwood counties. The average width of the bottoms is two miles. The average width of the timber belts is one and one-quarter miles, and the varieties of the timber are hickory, walnut, ash, oak, sycamore, cottonwood and hackberry.
Coal underlies a large portion of the area of the county.
The quality is good and the average thickness of the veins is fifteen inches. Lime and sandstone of good quality are found throughout the county, and fine flagging stone is obtained in Rock Creek and Neosho townships. The Neosho River enters the county from the west, eight miles from the northern boundary and nineteen miles from the southern boundary, and runs southeast, leaving the county and entering Woodson on the south, five miles west of eastern boundary line and nineteen miles from western. The Ozark range of mountains forms in Coffey County, north of the Neosho River, and the streams that rise in this county north of the Ozark range, flow into the Marais des Cygnes River and from thence into the Missouri. The streams that rise in the county south of the Ozark range flow into the Neosho River and from thence into the Arkansas.