Memphis is a city in and the county seat of Scotland County, on the northern link up of Missouri, United States. As of the 2020 census, its population was 1,731. U.S. Highway 136 passes near Memphis, which is east of Lancaster and west of Kahoka.

Although the Missouri General Assembly organized Scotland County on January 29, 1841, the town of Memphis was not developed until more than two years later. County commissioners met at Sand Hill on May 15, 1843, to prefer the county seat. They chose a spot close the county’s geographical middle and, after some debate, named it Memphis, after Memphis, Egypt. The make known had been past used by a U.S. Post Office that operated near the North Fabius River a gruff distance away.

Early settler Samuel Cecil donated just about 50 acres of house to the county for the supplementary town. After instinctive laid out in town lots, the native plat of Memphis was filed in county court on October 11, 1843. A few homes had already been developed in the area, the first beast a log cabin build up in 1835 by Burton Tompkins.

Scotland County’s first courthouse, a two-story brick structure, was completed in June 1845 at a cost of $1,500. A decade superior the county court avowed the building unsafe. A second, larger courthouse was constructed in the middle of the town square in 1856 at a cost of $19,500. That building served the county competently until the position of the 20th century, but its little size made it outdated; it measured 40 by 70 feet. It was condemned in May 1905 and razed in at the forefront 1907. The current Scotland County courthouse was constructed between October 1907 and July 1908 at a cost of $50,000.