During 1981, a group of ladies from Seneca formed "The Seneca Historical Committee" to collect and preserve as much of the history of the area as possible and to make it available to the public. These ladies were Venta Plummer, Hazel Hansen, Mary Alice Tourtillott and Virginia Brady Hoare. Their first publication provides information on the first families of this area. I have used their information as a base for some of my research.
I was able to confirm and add to some of the information about the families from the Seneca Area along with the remainder of Newton County, using the 1840, 1850 and 1860 U.S. Census, Military Records, Land Records, County REcords as well as the Death Records from the Missouri Secretary of State. Many of the families moved between Newton and McDonald County, Mo., and Ottawa County, Ok. You find an overlapping of family names in these areas. If you are looking for information to prove your Ancestors, you can use this as a guide; however, you should always confirm everything with official records.
On February 20, 2018, Virginia Hoare donated her collection of scrapbooks to The State Historical Society of Missouri. These scrapbooks contain photographs, newspaper clippings and articles about the history of Seneca, Missouri. The collection is open for research at The State Historical Society of Missouri Research Center - Springfield. (https://shsmo.org/manuscripts/springfield/sp0029.pdf)