Pomona, Missouri

Pomona, Missouri, located about halfway between Willow Springs and West Plains on Highway 63, started out in the 1880s as little more than a big fruit farm located along the line of the Memphis branch of the Frisco Railroad. When the town was platted and a post office established at the location in 1894, it was named Pomona after the Roman goddess of fruit trees.

The place became known for its fruit growing, mainly apples, and the town grew fairly rapidly. By the middle of the first decade of the 20th century, Pomona had a bank, a two-year school, at least one church, and several businesses.

When a Springfield newspaperman visited the place in early 1913, he estimated the town's population at about 700. Apple growing had slowed by this time, and Pomona was known more for its berries, especially strawberries. Among the town's businesses was at least one general store, a blacksmith/woodworker, a livestock dealer, a real estate agent, a doctor, and the bank. The newspaperman reported that Pomona was a "dry territory" and that the law was rigorously enforced.

Pomona has gradually dwindled in population over the years, and today its population is estimated at less than 200. The town no longer has a school of its own, but it does still have a post office and is still a fairly thriving place. For instance, the West Plains Municipal Airport is actually located at Pomona, midway between Howell County's two principal towns.

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/.

Fordland, Missouri

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.

  

Cole Camp, Missouri

The Cole Camp area was settled in the early to mid-1830s, and the community took its name from Cole Camp Creek, which in turn was probably named after Captain Stephen Cole, a famous Indian fighter who had camped in the area in the early 1800s and who later served in the Missouri Legislature. A general store opened on Cole Camp Creek sometime before or during the year 1839, when a post office was established at the store under the name Cole Camp. Later, the post office was moved a short distance away to the current location of Cole Camp when a new store opened at that location, with the post office retaining the Cole Camp name. 

The town of Cole Camp was laid out in 1857, and it became a flag stop on the Butterfield Overland Mail route, or the Butterfield Stage route as it was informally called, when that mail service began in 1858. The Butterfield Stage operated until 1861, when it was discontinued because of the Civil War and because of advancements in transportation and telecommunication. 

Many of the early settlers in and around Cole Camp were of German ancestry.

On June 19, 1861, near the outset of the Civil War, a skirmish, sometimes dubiously called a battle, took place at Cole Camp, when Southern-allied Missouri State Guard forces, on their way to southwest Missouri after their defeat at Boonville, routed a Union Home Guard force northeast of Cole Camp. The local Home Guard, composed mostly of German soldiers, suffered considerable losses while the number killed, wounded, or missing Southerners was relatively small. 

By 1874, Cole Camp had grown to a village with five stores, one hotel, one flour mill, one sawmill, and one church. By 1900, the town had a population of about 650, and in 1910, it boasted a population of over 900 residents.

When a reporter for the Springfield Missouri Republican visited Cole Camp in the fall of 1911, he considered the town "the heftiest municipality in Benton County." He went one step farther and called it "the best town between Springfield and Sedalia" on the route that would become US Highway 65. He said the only thing about Cole Camp he could find to criticize was its name, because a lot of people, when they heard the name, thought it was "Coal Camp" and assumed that the area was rich in coal. 

Among the going concerns in Cole Camp in 1911 were a water works, an electric power plant for lighting, a telephone company, a newspaper, two banks, several general stores, a lumber store, a restaurant, at least two hardware stores, two saloons, a jeweler, a couple of real estate agents, a bakery and confectionery, a theater, a grist mill, a couple of drugstores, three doctors, at least one attorney, a public school, several fraternal organizations, and four churches (one Congregational, one Catholic, and two Lutheran).  

When Highway 65 was built, it passed through Cole Camp, following the old Butterfield Stage route through the county, but the highway was later moved west, bypassing Cole Camp. It's been that way as long as I can remember, because I have traveled Highway 65 between Springfield and Sedalia numerous times, but I've never been to Cole Camp.

After the Springfield reporter's visit to Cole Camp in 1911, the population of Cole Camp fluctuated slightly over the next 60 years until it passed 1,000 inhabitants in 1970. The population has since remained fairly steady, as the number of residents according to the 2020 census was slightly over 1,100.

 

Norwood, Missouri

Early in my teaching career, I taught at Houston, Missouri, for a year, and almost every weekend, my wife and I would drive to Springfield to see our two families., both of whom lived in the Springfield area. We didn't always take the same route, but most of the time we came by way of U.S. Highway 60, which took us through Norwood. I remember that, either during the time I taught at Houston or somewhere near that time, there was a big controversy at Norwood High School because a boy had been expelled from school for refusing to cut his long hair. 

Those trips between Springfield and Houston and the hair controversy are the two main things I tend to associate with Norwood, but there's a little more to the town than that. Norwood was laid out along the route of the Kansas City, Springfield, and Memphis Railroad when it was built through the area in 1882. The town was named Norwood after the novel of the same name by Henry Ward Beecher. 

Norwood didn't exactly boom in the months and years after its formation. At least, that's the conclusion one can reasonably draw from a brief mention of Norwood that I found in a March 1892 issue of a Springfield newspaper. A reporter visited Norwood and asked an old man he encountered what the population of the town was. The old codger supposedly said, "About ten, reckonin' the children, two cats, and one dog." This statement, of course, was made in jest, but it still gives an indication that Norwood did not amount to much, even ten years after its creation. The reporter opined that Norwood could hardly be called a village. 

Norwood did experience growth after 1893, though. In 1911, when a Springfield Leader reporter visited Norwood, he estimated the town's population at about 500. The newspaperman had previously visited Norwood about six years earlier, and he estimated that the town had grown by about 65% during the interval. A lot of farming, stock raising, and fruit raising were taking place in the outlying areas around Norwood, and the town itself boasted a bank, three general merchants, a lumber store, two drugstores, and a hardware and farm implement store.  

In 1930, Norwood had a population of about 350. Over the next 80 years, it reached a low of about 260 in 1960 and a high of over 660 in 2010. In 2020, the population stood at 578.

Summersville, Missouri

Summersville, straddling the Texas-Shannon County line about 23 miles southeast of Houston, was platted in 1870 and named after early area settlers Jesse and Thomas Summer. The village got a post office the following year and has had one ever since.

In 1885, the population of Summersville was about 100 residents. Businesses in the town included two or three general stores, a drugstore, a hotel, a land agent, a wagonmaker, and a cabinet maker, as well as the post office. The community also boasted a Methodist church and an I.O.O.F. (Oddfellows) lodge.

The population was 187 in 1900, and by the time a Springfield Leader reporter visited Summersville in 1913, the population had grown to about 250. To reach Summersville, the Springfield man traveled first to Cabool (presumably by rail), and from Cabool he took a stage to Summersville. The 35-mile second leg of his trip took nine hours, but he claimed that he enjoyed the scenery so much that he didn't mind the long journey and arrived "without any great fatigue." 

Only about four months before the Leader man's visit, Summersville had suffered a fire that destroyed several business buildings and one "handsome residence." One store had already been completely rebuilt, and a couple of other buildings were under construction. The Springfield visitor opined that the fire had turned out to be "a blessing in disguise," because the new buildings were of better quality and more fireproof than their predecessors. 

Land around Summersville was very good for agriculture purposes, said the reporter, and land close to town was selling for $30 to $50 an acre. Farther out of town, farmland was selling for $10-$25 an acre, while unimproved land could be had for $5 to $10 an acre. Four or five miles outside of town, the land became free range, and cattle were turned out on it during the summer months so that farmers only had to feed their stock about five months out of the year. 

According to the Leader representative, Summersville had "a good school system" and "churches of various denominations." There were several church-affiliated societies as well as at least one fraternal lodge.

Among the town's businesses was the Summersville State Bank, which had a capital of $25,000. Other businesses included a pharmacy, a real estate agency, a clothing store, a hotel, a hardware and furniture store, a telephone company, a combination lumber store/insurance agency, two general stores, and a combination livery, feedstore and sale barn.

One of the pressing needs around Summersville was better roads, and a Good Roads movement was underway in the area when the Springfield man visited. On his trip back to Springfield, the reporter took a surrey to Mountain View, site of the nearest railroad depot. The trip took only three hours, and at Mountain View, our man presumably caught the train home to Springfield.

Summersville continued a gradual growth throughout the twentieth century, reaching a peak population of 571 in 1990. It has since decreased slightly in population to 453, as of 2020.

Linn Creek, Missouri

I've mentioned Linn Creek a few times over the years in my posts on this blog, but I don't believe I've ever devoted an entire post to the town. Today, I will.

When Camden County was formed in 1841, it was originally named Kinderhook County, and the village of Oregon, located where Linn Creek (the stream) emptied into the Osage River, was named the county seat. When the name of the county was changed to Camden in 1843, Oregon also changed its name to Erie. In 1855, because a cholera epidemic had killed much of Erie's population the previous year and because Erie's location was prone to flooding, the county seat was moved up Linn Creek about half a mile, and the new town took the name of the creek.

Because of its strategic location near the confluence of two fairly major waterways (i.e. the Osage and Niangua rivers), Linn Creek, like its predecessor, was an important shipping point during the pre-Civil War days, supplying goods to places throughout southwest Missouri.  

In 1870, Linn Creek had a population of about 130. By 1912, when the town was profiled in the Springfield Leader, the population had grown to about 430. To reach Linn Creek, the reporter who wrote the profile took the stagecoach from Lebanon. He said the whole territory through which he passed was new to him. He thought the surrounding land looked promising for crop farming, dairy farming, and raising poultry. Unimproved land was relatively cheap, selling from $5-$10 an acre, depending on the quality of the soil and the proximity to markets

In 1912, Linn Creek had a high school, three churches and several fraternal organizations. Among its businesses were two banks, a newspaper, and a hotel. 

In 1929, Linn Creek was destroyed during construction of Bagnell Dam and the Lake of the Ozarks, and the town was covered with water when the lake was filled. A new town called Linn Creek, or New Linn Creek, was built on higher ground a short distance away from the lake. However, a rival town, Camdenton, also sprang up nearby, and it became the new county seat. With Camdenton emerging as the principal town in Camden County, Linn Creek diminished in importance during the first decade after construction of Bagnell Dam, and its population plummeted from about 550 to about 200. Its population since 1940, however, has remained fairly steady at approximately 200.

Lowry City

When I used to write for Show Me the Ozarks Magazine, I sometimes was assigned to profile doctors or other leaders in the community in what was called a "Meet the Doctors" or "Meet the Educators" feature, or whatever the case might be. Sometimes these so-called profiles were actually paid advertisements. For instance, one of the local hospitals might occasionally buy advertisement from the magazine in the form of profiles of the physicians affiliated with that particular hospital. I would interview the doctors and profile them, but I was expected to show them in the best light possible, since the hospitals were paying for the copy.

Back in the early part of the 20th century, the Springfield Leader used to do the same thing, but the subjects of their profiles were not people but rather towns that surrounded Springfield. The profiles were paid for by the town's businesses that were featured in the profiles. Even though these articles were meant to promote the town in question rather than provide an objective view of the town, they usually imparted quite a bit of interesting information about the place.

Over the next few weeks and maybe the next few months, I plan to write about some of the places profiled in the Leader during the early 20th century, although, in many cases, I'll probably consult other sources besides the Leader in order to give a more complete, well-rounded view of the town in question. First up is Lowry City, Missouri.

Lowry City was platted in March 1871 eight miles north of Osceola in northern St. Clair County in anticipation of being a stop along the C & M Branch (I think the C & M stood for Clinton and Montrose) of the Tebo and Neosho Railroad, which was being laid through the area, and the new town was named a couple of months later, even before the railroad was completed. The man who owned the land on which the town was laid out named it after a businessman for whom he'd worked in Indiana. A post office was established at Lowry City about the same time it was named, and the Osceola Herald featured an article in June of 1871 about the new town while buildings were still going up apace. The Herald declared that, due to its favorable location on the prairie and its proximity to the railroad, Lowry City would "certainly make a good town."  

The new town grew rapidly, and by the latter part of 1871, it already had two physicians, two dentists, and about twenty businesses. In 1880, Lowry City boasted a population of 195 people, and it still had about the same number of businesses that it had in late 1871. By 1899, the population had increased to about 500 people. The town had at least four churches, two newspapers, a flour mill, and a sawmill, as well as a good number of basic businesses like general stores and drugstores. 

At the time Lowry City was profiled in the Springfield Leader in 1912, its population had decreased slightly from ten years earlier to about 460 people, although the article in the Leader erroneously estimated it at about twice that figure. The town had "splendid schools and excellent churches," and its citizens had just voted a bond for a "twentieth-century high school building." Improved farmland surrounding Lowry City was going for about $40 to $50 an acre. 

Lowry City's population has held fairly steady over the past 110 years. Its current population is slightly over 600, and at no time during the past century has it dipped below 437 or above 728. 

 

Pleasant Hope and Pin Hook Again

When I was growing up in Fair Grove (MO), I often heard Pleasant Hope, our neighbor ten miles to the northwest, referred to as Pin Hook, and I used to wonder why it was called that. I always assumed it was just a nickname that came about because both Pleasant Hope and Pin Hook start with the same two letters.

In 2012, I found an 1872 article in a Springfield newspaper that seemed to contradict my childhood assumption. I concluded from the article that Pleasant Hope and Pin Hook were, in fact, two separate places, because the article reported that a new town called Pleasant Hope had recently been established a short distance away from the site of old Pin Hook, which was now (1872) nothing but a cornfield. This suggested to me that Pin Hook must have been a village that predated Pleasant Hope, and that the new town of Pleasant Hope took the name of its predecessor as a nickname. 

But I was never quite satisfied that what the Springfield newspaper seemed to be saying was the real story; so, recently I decided to dig a little deeper and see what else I could come up with about early-day Pleasant Hope/Pin Hook. As it turns out, my interpretation of what the 1872 article was saying was wrong, and my original assumption that Pin Hook was just a nickname for Pleasant Hope was closer to the truth. At least, I think, based on my recent research, that such is the case. In fact, I believe my interpretation of that 1872 article was so misleading that I have now deleted the blog entry that I posted thirteen years ago.  

According to a history on the City of Pleasant Hope's website, an academy affiliated with the Cumberland Presbyterian Church started near the town's present site in 1849, and a small settlement soon grew up around or near the academy. U. S. Postal history tells us that this community, under the name Pleasant Hope, got its first post office in 1851. This post office was discontinued in November 1855, but Pleasant Hope got a new post office in December 1860. It may have briefly had a post office between 1855 and 1860 as well. The town did for sure have a post office during the Civil War (at least during part of the war) and for several years after the war ended.

However, this is where the confusion comes in, because in 1870, C. E. Bushnell applied for a post office to be established at a new village called Pleasant Hope, which was located about a mile north of where the previous town or at least the previous post office had been located. Bushnell said the new village of Pleasant Hope had only four families at the time, and he estimated that about 78 people lived within a two-mile radius of the village. Apparently, the original Pleasant Hope, which somewhere along the line acquired the nickname Pin Hook, had died out for some reason, and a new town by the same name was created a mile or so away. And the new village of Pleasant Hope inherited the nickname of Pin Hook, the same sobriquet by which the previous village had also been known.

So, when the writer of the 1872 article in the Springfield paper referred to the new town of Pleasant Hope being located a short distance from old Pin Hook, he was not saying that Pin Hook was actually the name of the older town, but, instead, he was simply referring to the old town by its nickname.