Flemington, Missouri

   I've previously said on this blog that, having lived in southwest Missouri my whole life, I've traveled through nearly every part of it at one time or another. I have to admit, however, that there are a lot of out-of-the-way villages in the region that I've never been to. If a community is located on a county road or even a state highway that is not considered a main route, there's a good chance I might never have been there. I've mentioned one or two such places on this blog in recent weeks. Flemington, a small town in northwest Polk County at the intersection of Route O and Route V, is another such place. It's the sort of place that you're not likely to pass through on your way to somewhere else unless you live in the immediate vicinity. If you live over a hundred miles away from Flemington, as I do, it's not likely you'd ever go there unless it was your specific destination.
   Flemington got its start as a railroad town, as did a good number of other towns in the Ozarks (and elsewhere). Flemington was founded in 1898 when an extension of the Frisco Railroad was built between Bolivar, the Polk County seat, and Kansas City. The place was named after Robert L. Fleming, a longtime resident of the area who donated the town site.
   Flemington grew pretty rapidly at first, and it had a population of about 200 and a good number of businesses by 1905, when the Springfield Leader published a profile of the town. A that time, Flemington had a bank, a post office, a school, a hotel, a lumber yard, a livery, a large poultry dealer, an insurance and real estate agency, and several groceries and general stores.
   The population of Flemington gradually declined throughout the mid and late-twentieth century. It reached a low of 124 in 2000 but rebounded to 148 in the 2010 census. Today it is still a going little town with a post office, a private elementary school, several businesses, and a considerable number of residences.