USA > Missouri > Greene County > Past and present of Greene County Missouri, early and recent history and genealogical records of many of the representative citizens, Volume I > Part 73
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95 | Part 96 | Part 97 | Part 98 | Part 99 | Part 100 | Part 101 | Part 102 | Part 103
The plant has a capacity of one hundred hogs and twenty cattle a day. From twenty to thirty experienced men are constantly employed. During the past year the firm paid over three hundred thousand dollars for live stock to the farmers of Greene county.
A plant like that of the Welsh Packing Company is of inestimable value to the farmers of this locality, and it should be fully appreciated, for it in- sures a better local market and a more steady one than would otherwise be the case. They pay from thirty to forty cents a hundred of the maximum prices paid at the great market centers-St. Louis, Kansas City and Chicago. Thus it can readily be seen that this is a great saving to the farmers, for the ex- pense of shipping and the usual shrinkage on live stock would be from fifty to sixty cents per one hundred pounds.
GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI.
Of all the productive industries of this city there is none of more in- portance in its relation to the development of the neighboring country than that represented by the Springfield Creamery Company, the mission of which is to- put the dairying business of the Ozark region on a cash basis. The phenom- enal growth of this institution since its establishment in 1910 has demon- strated its usefulness in promoting the prosperity of the farmers in this sec- tion in an extraordinary manner. The original equipment, consisting of a small plant with one horse and a small wagon for delivery purposes, was valued at six thousand dollars. In October, 1910, the business was pur- chased by the present company, incorporated with a capital stock of fifteen thousand dollars; F. R. Patton, becoming president : C. L. Ibinger, manager and C. L. Dille, secretary. The output of the first year was seventy thou- sand dollars, since which time it has doubled annually. The Ozark Ice Cream Company was absorbed in 1912 and the Harrison Ice Cream Company during the present year. J. B. Dunlap, who headed this company, became secretary of the Springfield Creamery Company in March, 1914, succeeding Mr. Dille who had died. The business of the consolidated company has increased until an equipment valued at thirty-five thousand dollars is required. The plant at the corner of Mill and Dollison streets is one of the most excellent in the country. everything being up-to-date and completely sanitary. Five teams and two auto trucks are kept busy handling the product which during the. current year will amount to about one and a half million pounds of butter and a hundred thousand gallons of ice cream. The plant is run by thirty skilled employees while four traveling men are kept busy and the company has over a hundred local representatives at various points. The payroll amounts to two thousand dollars per month while over a quarter of a million dollars is distributed annually among the farmers of this section in payment for cream. There are two branch receiving and distributing stations in this city and a distributing branch was established in Memphis during the past March while other outlets are being arranged. The efficiency of management which has brought stich great success in this enterprise is due to the fact that those in charge are exceptionally capable men and well qualified for their work. Messrs. Patton and Dunlap had years of experience in leading creameries of Kansas. Mr. Ibinger is a graduate of the State University of Wisconsin, where he took special agricultural and creamery courses and has since had ten years of practical experience.
The Springfield Bakery Company, located at 715 Robberson avenue, is one of the thriving twentieth century business institutions of the Queen City of the Ozarks that demands special attention. Its present officers are: Presi- dent, J. H. Hasten ; vice-president. S. L. Eslinger ; secretary and treasurer,
681
GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI.
Frank Lippman : general manager, C. C. Millikin. These are all well known and influential men in the commercial world of the Queen City of the Ozarks.
This concern was incorporated under the laws of Missouri, in 1905 ;. its capital stock at present is fifty thousand dollars. Operations was begun ten years ago in a one-story brick building, one hundred and thirty by sixty- two feet on Robberson avenue. Later a site, seventy-two by one hundred and seventy feet on Boonville street was purchased. In the spring of 1914 a modern substantial brick building, sixty-two by one hundred and seventy feet was built, adjoining the original building. It is a one story, red brick front, two stories high in the rear. The plant throughout is equipped with all up- to-date and first-class machinery to insure prompt and high-grade service at all times, and this is not only one of the best equipped but one of the most sanitary and well arranged bakeries in the state of Missouri-everything is. under a superb system. Only skilled, neat, clean and trustworthy employees are to be found here. All the interior of the plant is white enamel. Both the old and the new buildings are devoted exclusively to the bakery business. The capacity of the plant is forty thousand loaves per day, and it is the home of the much-sought after "Top-notch" brand of bread, which, owing to its superior quality, finds a ready market over a large territory. This bread is not only sent daily by a large number of neat-appearing delivery wagons to all parts of the city but large quantities of it is shipped to nearby towns. The ovens are equipped to burn either coke or oil. The entire plant is open to. inspection at all times. The office is on Boonville street. The company owns its own buildings and property. It has a driveway ten feet wide running from Boonville street to Robberson avenue. The Springfield Bakery Com- pany would be a credit to any city.
CHAPTER XXI.
CITY OF SPRINGFIELD.
By A. M. Haswell.
ITS FOUNDERS-INCORPORATION-FIRST SETTLERS-EARLY DAY BUSINESS INTERESTS-GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT IN RECENT YEARS-CITY GOV- ERNMENTS-LIST OF MAYORS-STREET MAKING-BONDED INDEBTED-
NESS-CITY SCHOOLS-FIRST AND PRESENT SCHOOL HOUSES- INDUSTRIES-PUBLIC LIBRARIES-FIRE DEPARTMENT-
WATERWORKS-ELECTRIC LIGHT AND POWER PLANTS.
It was not until the year 1830 that the Indians were finally removed from what is now Greene county ; and it was not until the next year that the original great territory, called Wayne county, was cut in two to form Crawford county, which, in 1833, was again divided and Greene county became an organized body politic.
But even before the final departure of the red men the man who more than any other is entitled to the name of "The Founder of Spring- field," was on the ground where was to grow the little hamlet of his own beginning, into the proud "Queen of The Ozarks" of today.
This man was John P. Campbell, a native of Maury county, Tennes- see, who first reached his future home in the Ozarks, in the fall of 1829. It is one of those forunate things for which all future writers about Springfield will be duly thankful, as are those of the present generation, that we have the story of John P. Campbell's coming to Greene county in the words of one who took part in that migration. Some thirty years ago Mr. John H. Miller, then residing in Ritchey, Newton county, Mis- souri, and a nephew of Mr. Campbell's, who accompanied that pioneer on his final journey from Tennessee to Springfield, wrote a series of articles descriptive of those days, for the Springfield Leader, and those columns are today a perfect mine of unique and first-hand information. I avail myself of the privilege of quoting much from Mr. Miller's invaluable account. Of Campbell's first trip to the present location of Springfield, Mr. Miller says :
"In the fall of 1829, Madison and John P. Campbell left Maury
683
GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI.
county, Tennessee, on horseback, traveling towards the setting sun in search of homes for themselves and their families.
"Crossing the Mississippi river, thence west through the then Ter- ritory of Arkansas, on to the present site of Fayetteville, then almost an entire wilderness. Thence making a circle back in a northeasterly direc- tion into southwest Missouri, striking the old Delaware town, the only place of note on the James fork, ten miles southwest of where Spring- field now stands.
"From thence they went on to Kickapoo prairie, and then north into the timber, discovering the Fulbright spring, and the natural well. Near the latter they cut their names upon some trees to mark their claims to land in that vicinity."
It is doubtful whether one person in a dozen now living in the busy metropolis of the Ozarks ever heard of this "natural well," but it exists today as certainly as it did nearly a century ago when the two Campbell brothers discovered it. It is located just south of Wilson creek (now commonly nicknamed the "Jordan"), and between that stream and the Missouri Pacific railway tracks on Water street. It is apparently the opening into an immense underground lake, and almost inexhaustible supply of water. Some thirty years ago it was tested as a source of sup- ply of water for fire protection. A large steam pump driven at full speed for several days and nights, raised many hundreds of thousands of gal- lons of water, but failed to reduce the level in the lake at all. The day will doubtless come when this great reservoir of inexhaustible water will be utilized for the protection against fire which it would insure. Its use as a supply for general use is naturally forbidden by the drainage which must reach it in greater or less degree, from the increasing city, but there have already been great conflagrations which could have been stopped at far less loss if connection could have been had with this wonder of nature, ready whenever Springfield says the word to double and treble our fire protection.
The Campbell brothers returned to their homes in Tennessee, and in a few months we find John P. Campbell starting back for the land of promise. I can do no better than to give Mr. Miller's description of the coming to Missouri of these who were so literally "The first citizens of Springfield." He says :
"In February, 1830, John P. Campbell and his brother-in-law, Joseph Miller, fixed up with their small families and set out for Kickapoo prairie. Mr. Campbell's family consisted of himself, wife, and one child, Talitha, then less than one year old, who afterwards became the mother of Lulu, wife of Frank Sheppard.
"Mr. Miller's family consisted of himself, wife and two children, Rufus was one year old and John (the writer) was twelve. They also
68.4
. GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI.
had six darkies, one five-horse team and one Derbin wagon, which was driven by Jolin. Madison Campbell did not move until 1832.
"They journeyed via Nashville and Hopkinsville, crossing the Ohio at Golconda; thence over the south end of Illinois to Green's old ferry on the Mississippi. It being February, they encountered great difficulties in crossing on account of the quantities of floating ice, but after making several trips across the river in an old rickety piece of a flat, the wind being high and cold, they succeeded in landing safe on the Missouri side.
"Thence they were obliged to almost cut their own road, but onward they went towards the west, by Old Jackson in Cape Girardeau county, stopping one day to rest at old Colonel Abram Byro's, five miles west of Jackson. Thence they proceeded on to Farmington in St. Francois county, and by Caledonia in Washington county, which was the last town, and it contained only one little store, and two or three dozen in- habitants.
"Then on west with scarcely any road to the present site of Steele- ville in Crawford county, and on twelve miles further to Massey's Iron Works, which had been in operation but a very short time, and so on to where Rolla now stands. Twelve miles further on they came to old Jimmy Harrison's at the mouth of Little Piney on the Gasconade, about four hundred yards south of the present Gasconade bridge ( of the Frisco railroad). Mr. Harrison kept a little store for the accommodation of the few settlers up and down the Piney's and Gasconade. That was also the court house for the whole of southwest Missouri; and so it was the only postoffice until 1832.
"Thence west twenty miles brought them across the Big Piney on to Roubidoux, near Waynesville, Pulaski county. Continuing their journey they went up the Gasconade to the mouth of the Osage Fork, where they found a few white settlers. From there they came on to the Cave Springs, where they crossed the Osage Fork, leaving it at the old Barnett place. From there to Pleasant Prairie, now Marshfield, and striking James Fork twenty miles west, thence down to Jerry Pierson's, where he had built a little watermill at a spring just below the Danforth place. Thence on west they struck the Kickapoo prairie, one mile east of the present Joe Merritt place. Thence five miles more brought them to the natural well, a short distance north of the present public square of Springfield. Here they first camped on the night of the 4th of March, 1830.
"In the meantime Uncle Billy Fulbright had got about three weeks ahead of them, and stopped at the Fulbright spring. His brother, John F., had settled at another spring nearby, and had a cabin up, and his brother-in-law, A. J. Burnett, had succeeded in putting up a small oak
685
GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI.
pole cabin, 12x15, just on the spot of the old 'Squire Burden residence on Boonville street. Mr. Campbell having rather the oldest claim, his name being cut on an ash tree at the well, Mr. Burnett gave way, and commenced an im- provement five miles east, at the Merritt place."
OVER ROUGH ROADS.
If the reader will take a map of Missouri, and trace the route of that little caravan of pioneers, he will find that they covered probably two hundred and fifty miles of the roughest hill country in the Ozarks, a route which even today, with all the improvements in roads and bridges that have been made in eighty-four years, would put any automobile on wheels out of business, and would prove a strenuous road for even the best teams and wagons of our day.
That these people followed that route at that date, and tell of their journey in the unassuming manner I have quoted, sheds a fine sidelight on their sturdy and vigorous manhood, and that modesty which is the age old accompaniment of the ability and courage of the men who "do things."
The little pole cabin, only twelve by fifteen feet in size, built by A. J. Burnett in 1830, was without doubt the first dwelling for white men on that territory which is now Springfield. As we have seen in Mr. Miller's description of the arrival of John P. Campbell in Springfield, or where Springfield was to be, William Fulbright, affectionately called by all who knew him, "Uncle Billy Fulbright," had reached the new location some three weeks ahead of Campbell and Miller, and had settled at the spring which bears his name in the western part of the city.
During that first year. 1830, there also came to the new settlement Thomas Finney and Samuel Weaver. Next year there followed Daniel B. Miller, Joseph Rountree, Sidney S. Ingram, Samuel Painter and Junius Campbell, a brother of John P. Campbell. This last named brother of the founder of the city, Junius Campbell, has the honor of being the first merchant of the settlement. He had a little store near the south end of the present Frisco building. After a few months he had as a partner, one James Feland, said to have been an old Santa Fe trader. Mr. Feland's name does not appear much in the records of the city, and probably his residence was brief.
And now the tide of immigration flowed steadily. The new comers found the hearty and friendly welcome always to this day characteristic of the people of the Ozarks. Nothing that the older settlers could do for the help and comfort of the new people was considered as too much. One of John P. Campbell's daughters has left on record the fact that
080
GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI.
that wonderful man built no less than thirteen cabins in one year, turning himself and family out of one of them after another, that some newly arrived family should have shelter. At last, in 1833, the region had enough inhabitants to entitle it to be set aside as an independent county, and the Legislature organized the county of Greene. The territory in- cluded in the bounds of the new county were so great that there have been carved from it in the years that have passed since 1833, at least a score of counties. Naturally there was much speculation as to the loca- tion of the county-seat. At first, it is said, that the newly elected judges of the County Court favored putting it about at the center of the county as created by the Legislature. This would have thrown it some thirty- five miles to the west, somewhere near where Mount Vernon, the county- seat of Lawrence county, is now located.
But the fact of the legislature which had given the county life, had stated that the County Court, when elected, should meet at "The house of Jolin P. Campbell, in the county aforesaid," and it was here that the newly elected judges selected one of their number as presiding justice of the court, and placed John P. Campbell himself as county clerk. It used to be quietly hinted by old-timers that Mr. Campbell entertained the judges so sumptuously that they at length agreed with him that the place, which by that time had begun to be called Springfield, was the proper place for the county capital.
Still the matter remained unsettled for some time. But at the ses- sion of the Legislature for 1835, on the fifth day of January, was passed an act appointing a commission of three men "For the purpose of select- ing a permanent seat of government for the county of Greene." This commission met, and officially named Springfield as the "Permanent seat of justice for Greene county."
At this time, it must be remembered, that Springfield had not at- tained to the dignity of even a survey. There were perhaps twenty-five log cabins, scattered around irregularly, as convenience to the natural well, or some other water supply suggested. The name Springfield was supposed to have had its origin from the springs that drew the first settlers. and the field that soon occupied much of the ground soon to be occupied by the town. Mr. J. G. Newbill, editor for many years of the Springfield Express, and a descendant of one of the early settlers, asserts that several names for the town were suggested by various settlers. Among others. Kindred Rose handed in the name Springfield, in honor of his former home, Springfield, Robertson county, Tennessee. Which- ever version is correct, the name was given to the little hamlet at a very early date, and no one has ever suggested changing it.
The immediate cause of the official survey of Springfield was the ur-
687
GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI.
gent need for public buildings for the new county of Greene, and the im- possibility of raising the means to build them, by taxation, because of the poverty and scanty numbers of the inhabitants. Then, when it seemed as if the hopes of having here the county-seat were doomed to a sudden and permanent ending, there stepped into the breach the same man who had first set foot upon the land where the future city was to stand, John P. Campbell, with a proposition which is without doubt the only offer of its kind in American history. This was that he would deed to the County of Greene a tract of fifty acres of land for a town site. That this tract should be laid off into streets, alleys and lots, and that the lots, being sold to the highest bidders, the proceeds should be placed in the county treas- ury for the purpose of erecting the needed public buildings.
Imagine one of our latter day real estate "Boomers" doing such a thing as that! At the best the modern way would have been to donate every other lot and then sit back waiting for the fortune sure to conie to the giver as the result of other men's labors. Or the gift would have been so tied up and hampered with conditions as to rob it of half its value. Not so with John P. Campbell. His offer had no "strings to it." It was the free gift of a noble, public-spirited man who seemed almost to have been endowed with prophetic foresight, and able to see something of the future which his generosity made possible. Springfield owes it to herself, far more than to him, that some fitting and permanent public monument be reared to hand down to future generations the name and fame of this man who was so truly the father of the city.
JOHN P. CAMPBELL'S GOOD WORK.
Not only did Mr. Campbell give the ground on which the city grew but to him we are indebted for the very plan of the original town. For we are told that he drew the first plat from the plan of his former home, Columbia, Tennessee. Thus, at a special term of the County Court, held July 18, 1835, we find the following order entered in the records :
"It is ordered by the court here that the plan presented by John P. Campbell be filed and received as the plan for the town of Springfield, and the county commissioner for Greene county is hereby ordered to lay off the town of Springfield accordingly, viz: to lay off the public square and one tier of lots from said square; the square to contain one acre and a half, and each block to contain one acre and a half, to be divided into six lots or parts by said commissioner, or by some person for him, and each of the other lots back to contain two acres, subject to division as the court may hereafter order. The streets leading to the square, in the above named plan, to be sixty feet, and an alley-way fifteen feet back of said
GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI.
first tier of lots; and the commissioner is further ordered to establish the front corners on the second tier of lots; and that Daniel B. Miller be ap- pointed commissioner of the county."
All these measures would seem to indicate that the question of the permanent location of the county-seat, at Springfield, was forever set- tled, but we find that such was not actually the case, for although the com- mission, appointed by the Legislature to locate the permanent seat of justice for Greene county, filed their final report in favor of Springfield, in this same month of July, 1835, the agitation in favor of other locations still continued. The uncertainty of the final permanent boundaries of the county gave a good argument to those advocating other points for a county-seat. Some urged that the eastern line of the county was much further from Springfield than the western line, therefore the county-seat should be removed to the east ; and the matter finally came to a head when a petition was circulated asking that the seat of government be located upon the land of Josiah F: Danforth, some eight miles east of Springfield. The representative of Greene county in the General Assem- bly that year was John W. Hancock, and like a wise politican he offered to work in the Legislature for that site which should send in the longest list of names. That put the friends of John P. Campbell and Springfield on their mettle, and the result was an overwhelming majority upon the petition for Springfield. That settled, and settled forever, the harassing question, nor has it ever shown signs of a resurrection.
But all this had taken time, and the elements of uncertainty had hindered the surveying of the town site. In August, 1836. however, all having been finally decided in Springfield's favor, we find the County Court ordering the county commissioner. Daniel B. Miller, to "employ a competent surveyor and lay off the town tract of Springfield, donated to the county by J. P. Campbell, and to file plats and field notes of the same."
It is claimed by some that Mr. Campbell suggested the names for the first streets, naming the ones that ran cast, south and west, East street, South street and West street, and the one that ran north was named Boone street, after Daniel Boone. None of these names was retained except that of South street.
Mr. Miller was also ordered to offer lots for sale at once, and to advertise the same in three insertions in the "Missouri Argus," published at St. Louis, and the "Boones Lick Democrat," published at Old Frank- lin. Howard county, and also "by setting up handbills at the county-seats of Greene. Pulaski, Barry and Polk counties." From this sale Mr. Mil- ler was ordered to reserve one lot for the location of a jail and one as the site for a clerk's office.
On October 31st Mr. Miller filed his plat and field notes of the sur-
689
GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI.
vey of the town, as directed, reserving in that report lot 18 of biock 5, "where the present court house is situated, from sale at present." At this term of court the proceeds of sale of lots were ordered set aside for the erection of public buildings. Lot 11 was substituted for lot 10 as the site for the clerk's office.
The very next day, November 1, 1836, Mr. Miller conducted the sale of lots, as advertised beforehand. People were at last convinced that here was certainly the permanent seat of county government, and the bidding was spirited, so much so that on the 9th of the month the com- missioner made a settlement with the court for the proceeds of that first day's sale, turning over to them no less than $649.88, and was, himself, allowed $131.51 as the total expenses of the sale, the balance of $518.37 being turned into the county treasury.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.