Nixa, Missouri

When I was growing up in Fair Grove in the 1950s, Nixa was not a whole lot bigger than Fair Grove was. Fair Grove had a population of about 250, and Nixa had maybe a couple of hundred more than that. But Nixa has completely outstripped Fair Grove (and most of the other towns in the Springfield area) in population growth over the past 60 or 70 years. Nixa's biggest growth spurt occurred during the 1990s, when it ballooned from a population of less than 5,000 to well over 12,000, an increase of almost 160 percent in just ten years. The rapid growth has continued, as the town's population stood at over 23,000 in 2020 and has no doubt surpassed 25,000 by now.

The irony is that Nixa is a relatively new town compared to Fair Grove and some of the other towns around Springfield. The first residence was not built in the future town of Nixa until 1873, and the place got its first post office in 1878. The post office took its name after the store in which it was located, Faught's store, which had come into existence not long before the post office. The place, therefore, became known as Faught. Although the post office served between 150 and 200 families living in the surrounding area, Faught was still not an actual village at this time. However, it became a stopover point for travelers between Arkansas and Springfield as well as a gathering spot for locals.

In 1881, the citizens of the fledgling community decided to come up with a new name, and they decided on Nixa in honor of a local blacksmith named Nicholas, whose middle initial was "A." The name Nixa was formed by combining a pluralized form of the man's nickname (Nick's or Nix) and his middle initial. The post office also changed its name at the same time. The village was not platted as a town, however, until 1889, and it was incorporated in 1902.

A Springfield newspaperman visited Nixa in early 1912 to report on the place. Interestingly, it took him two hours traveling "directly south on South Street" to reach Nixa from Springfield. At this time, Nixa had fifteen places of business, a hotel, and one church (Christian), according to the reporter. You could get a room at the hotel for one dollar per day. Land in the Nixa area was mostly improved and sold for anywhere from $45 to $100 an acre.

For a more complete history of Nixa, check out the one compiled by Paul Johns and Wayne Glenn that appears on the city's website: https://www.nixa.com/nixas-history/.