Fordland, located about 25 miles east of Springfield on U.S. Highway 60, was founded as a stop along the Kansas City, Fort Scott and Memphis Railroad. The town was platted in 1882, when the railroad was constructed through the area, and it was named after J. S. Ford, a railroad official. The community also got its first post office in 1882. It was incorporated the following year, 1883.
When a Springfield newspaper columnist visited Fordland in August 1911, he estimated the town's population at about 500 and said it was growing rapidly. The town served as a shipping and receiving point, and it was a trade center for folks living within an eight to ten-mile radius. Besides being home to a number of businesses, Fordland also had a bank, a canning factory, a roller mill, a high school and four churches.
The Fordland School served grades 1-10, and according to the newspaperman, it had the largest graduating class in Webster County during the prior year, and the class also achieved the highest average grade of all the schools in the county. I find the first claim a little hard to believe, since Marshfield was over twice as populous as Fordland at this time.
The newspaperman said it had been six years since he'd last visited Fordland, and the going price for land surrounding the town had doubled since his last visit from an average of about $20 an acre to about $40 an acre. He thought the advance in price during the next five years would be equally great.
If the Springfield man's estimate of Fordland's population in 1911 was accurate, then the town must have started losing residents fairly rapidly after 1911, because its official population in 1920 was only 248. It has gradually rebounded since then and now boasts about 800 residents.
No comments:
Post a Comment