Chesapeake, Missouri

   As a longtime resident of Joplin who is originally from the Springfield area, I've made a lot of trips between the two cities over the past 45 years or so. Most of the time, I stick to Interstate 44 the whole way when I make the trip, but sometimes I take Highway 174 that runs between Mt. Vernon and Republic just for a change of pace. That route takes you through the small community of Chesapeake about halfway between Mt. Vernon and Republic (slightly closer to Mt. Vernon). Chesapeake is most noted nowadays for the Missouri state fish hatchery that is located there, but the number of houses and buildings in the immediate vicinity has led me to believe for a long time that the place was probably a thriving little community at one time. Apparently that was, indeed, the case, but with emphasis on the word "little." The population of the place was probably never more than a hundred or so, if even that many. In other words, Chesapeake seemingly bustled with activity at one time, but it was never much more than a wide place in the road.
   Chesapeake dates back to pre-Civil War days, since a post-office was established there in 1850. The community was named after the USS Chesapeake, which was captured at the Battle of Boston Harbor during the War of 1812. In 1874. when Campbell's Gazetteer of Missouri was written, Chesapeake was still not much more than a post office, because that's how the author identified the place: "a post office eight miles e. of Mt. Vernon."
   The place flourished somewhat, however, during the latter quarter of the 19h century. During this period, the village had several businesses and/or religious and fraternal organizations, and a sizeable number of people lived in the area and presumably got their mail through the Chesapeake Post Office.
   At one time or another during the last 25 years of the 19th century, Chesapeake (or the immediate Chesapeake area) boasted at least one general store, a blacksmith, a carpenter and painter, an insurance agent, a school, at least one church, and two Sunday schools. Because the village was the principal community in Turnback Township, it also had a justice of the peace and a constable. Chesapeake hosted teachers' meeting, political speeches and meetings, and numerous religious camp meetings. Among the groups or organizations headquartered at Chesapeake were a literary society, a grange (i.e. a farmers' organization), and a baseball team.
   Chesapeake's heyday continued into the 20th century. In 1926, the state of Missouri acquired over 117 acres at Chesapeake to establish a fish hatchery. The grounds included a spring that had long been a gathering spot for picnics and camp meetings. Plans called for twelve lakes, two large ones and ten small ones, to be laid out along the north side of the road (then called Highway No. 16) that ran through Chesapeake, and the lakes would be fed by Chesapeake Spring, which had a flow of over a million gallons a day. When completed, the hatchery would be the second largest fish hatchery in the US. Work began in the summer of 1926, and the first hatchery opened the following year, stocked with bass and bluegill. Even after most of the lakes had been built and the hatchery was going great guns, the site continued to be used by tourists and residents alike as a picnic or scenic rest spot, although tours of the hatcheries were not offered since they were not readily accessible.
   In 1934, a CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps) camp was established at Chesapeake. Plans called for the corps to make numerous improvements at the hatchery, including construction of roads and more lakes. In 1935, plans were announced to move a contingent of black men from a CCC camp at Liberty, Missouri, to Chesapeake and to move the white contingent at Chesapeake out of state. An advance group of ten blacks arrived at Chesapeake on a Monday evening in late August, but because of demonstrations by local white citizens protesting the presence of the blacks in their neighborhood, the planned transfer was canceled and the black CCC men were sent back to Liberty. Just goes to show how prevalent racist sentiment was in these parts at the time.
   Although the hatcheries at Chesapeake continued to flourish in the years after the Depression and are even still going today, the heyday of the village itself was already in the past or soon would be.