Fagus is an unincorporated community in southeastern Butler County, Missouri

Butler County, Missouri

Butler County is a county located in the southeast Ozark Foothills Region in Southeast Missouri in the United States. As of the 2010 U.S. Census, the county's population was 42,794. The largest city and county seat is Poplar Bluff. The county was officially organized from Wayne County on February...

. It is located on Route 51 about eighteen miles southeast of Poplar Bluff

Poplar Bluff, Missouri

Poplar Bluff is a city in Butler County located in Southeast Missouri in the United States. It is the county seat of Butler County and is known as "The Gateway to the Ozarks" among other names. As of the 2000 U.S...

 near the Arkansas

Arkansas

Arkansas is a state located in the southern region of the United States. Its name is an Algonquian name of the Quapaw Indians. Arkansas shares borders with six states , and its eastern border is largely defined by the Mississippi River...

 state line. The community was founded by lumberman William N. Barron

William N. Barron

William Nelson Barron was a lawyer from who settled in Poplar Bluff, Missouri in about 1894. In 1900, he became the plant manager and president of a factory that manufactured barrel staves and headers, known as the Brooklyn Cooperage Company after 1910, a subsidiary of the American Sugar Refining...

 after the Latin word for "beech tree". Although he named it for the European beech

European Beech

Fagus sylvatica, the European Beech or Common Beech, is a deciduous tree belonging to the beech family Fagaceae.-Natural range:...

 native to his home country of England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

, he was surprised to actually find beeches growing in the area.