St. Clair County
Remnants Of The Past

History of Henry and St. Clair Counties, Missouri, 1883

The Birth of Osceola

The first house built upon the site of the city of Osceola was built in the winter of 1835-36. Sanders Nance and his colored man, Martin, cut the logs and hauled them to the bluff back of the residence of James H. Linney. Trouble as to who staked out the claim arose between Nance and Phillip Crow, and the former vacated the ground, giving Crow possession. Phillip Crow put up the house and also a store, of poles. He was joined by Richard P. Crutchfield, and in March, or about April 1st, 1836, the first store within the limits of St. Clair County was started on the banks of Osage River. It was known as the "crossing of the Osage at Crow & Crutchfield's", for several years, and the name "Osceola" was given after the celebrated Indian chief of that name. Crow and Crutchfield were soon joined by others, and Dr. P.M. Cox, Joseph Cox and William Cox, all brothers, came in May 1836. Dr. Cox purchased the land adjoining Crow's. Finding it a good trading point, Messrs. Cox and Crow decided to lay out a town, and they located the same mostly on section 20. Soon after the store and house of poles, which was the liquid refreshment establishment of the embroyo city, Phillip Crow started to build him a residence. He did so, on the point where the present lumber yard stands, near Mr. F.R. James's brick residence. Dr. Cox first built on the point just this side of the railroad, on the northeast quarter of section 20, and afterward staked his claim on section 17. The Cox brothers, Dr. P.M., William and Joseph, opened the second store in Osceola, in the spring of 1837.
James Gardner opened the first hotel, a double log with a passageway between. Bridges & Dudley ran a blacksmith shop, Dr. Cox healed the sick, and the ministers were of the circuit riding class.
Steven Noel started the first saloon in the place, and was the first road overseer in the county, having been appointed by the Rives County Court in 1836.
William C. Thompson started a saddler's shop in 1838.
In 1839 David Corbin and son built the first frame house put up in the town. When completed it was occupied as a tailor shop by a Frenchman named Ernest Leming. The lumber used was whipsawed by the old man Corbin and his sons, in the old style of whipsawing of that day. The next house, which the owner's extravagance led to fine lumber instead of logs for floors, etc., was that of Lawrence Lewis. The joists and planks in his house and the floor of his barn were sawed by hand, and the plank floor of his residence was the second laid down in the county.
By this time Osceola began to show signs of permanent improvements, and for the next two years grew steadily. In 1840 the population had reached the number of about fifty to sixty, and Crow and Crutchfield had a portion of their land platted. The first sale of lots, of which the deed was made of record, was two lots sold for $25 each, by the above named parties, to James Dudley and Washington Whitlow on February 21, 1840, and was recorded the following year after the organization of St. Clair County. The lots were lot 1, in block 20, and lot 1, in block 21, filed for record March 29, and recorded April 10, 1841.
The first lot sold by the county seat commissioner was lot number 5, block 16, for $13. 12 ½, on March 14, 1842, in three installments of six months each.
The growth of the town, and near approach of an independent organization of the county, caused the Osceoleans to be on their metal, for they wanted to secure for themselves the county seat. So, taking in the situation early, they prepared for the struggle and won.
The beautiful valley of the Osage and the magnificent region of country which lined its banks, extending back for miles, began to attract the attention of those seeking homes, in at that time called the region of the setting sun. Osceola from its commanding situation, its magnificent surroundings, comprising the valley and the uplands, the hills and prairies of Southwest Missouri became the Mecca, which brought its devotees from not only its own state, but from Arkansas and the Indian Territory.
It was one of the first trading posts established in the interior of Missouri, and at an early day steamboats navigated the Osage, making the town the headwaters of navigation. Yes, situated in the heart of Southwest Missouri, in the rich and fertile valley of the Osage, and has within easy and convenient access, and abundance of superior coal, lead, copper and iron; the celebrated Monegaw Springs, which possess superior medicinal qualities, and will some day be the great summer resort of the south and west, is it any wonder that she grew and prospered and became a city of 1,500 to 2,000 people. Then look at her productive capacity. If it is true that water, wood, stone and coal are requisites for a number one location for a town or city, all these are here. Water runs by the town in such quantity as to float steamboats six months in the year, and all who have lived or traveled in this country know that the Osage water is pure. Of wood, the finest bodies of hard timber in the west are found. On the Sac River, which empties into the Osage two miles above Osceola, are also some of the finest bodies of timber to be found anywhere.
Coal is everywhere, all around and probably under the city, nearly crowded out by an inexhaustible supply of water lime rock for manufacturing cement. Of this there are two different, independent stratums, a strata of at least twenty-four feet in thickness, which has an exposed front on the river bank from which the rock can be obtained for years without blasting, and is pronounced equal in every respect to that of the celebrated Louisville cement. Here are both the fosiliferous and non-fosiliferous formations. Another very important feature in this connection, is the fact that no other locality in the country possesses advantages over this, so far as cheapness is concerned in its manufacture, wood and coal in abundance and with an outlet to market by means of the Osage River. Any amount that can be required of fine building stone, either sand or lime stone, lies in the immediate vicinity of the town. Some of the very best of lime is that made from this limestone, while right adjoining Osceola is some as fine brick clay as is to be found west of St. Louis.
In the immediate vicinity of Monegaw Springs, eight miles up the Osage River from the city, there is a large and valuable deposit of iron, which can easily be brought down the river and smelted in the furnaces builded and operated there.
Such was Osceola and her surrounding up to the commencement of the civil war. She commanded the trade of an extensive circle of country. Her merchants kept stocks of all kinds of goods, exceeding hundreds of thousands of dollars in value. Osceola, then the pride of all Southwest Missouri and portions of Arkansas, was razed to the ground, not a house being left to mark the spot where a few hours previously had teemed and toiled nearly 2,000 souls.
After the war ended, as all wars do in time, and Osceola arose to a new life. The destruction of the old town had been complete, and a new city on the banks of the beautiful Osage was to be raised upon its ruins. All was not lost. The land was there, some of the owners still lived, and the spot nature had marked out for the homes of a generous and hospitable people was to be restored, and where all was ruin and desolation, a glorious city was to arise, and a cultured and refined people would make of it bright and beautiful homes, and for true and generous hospitality, an abiding place.
So new Osceola commenced life, not rapidly but steadily, and where but a few years since was ruin, now stands an embroyo city of some 550 inhabitants, with a future before it unsurpassed in all the length and breadth of this land. All her wealth of timber and mineral resources are still left her, the boundless prairies, the rich upland and imperishable bottom lands are still there to give up annually the richness of their inexhaustible nature, her water power and the enterprise of her citizens will yet place her in an enviable position before her sister cities.
At the close of the war a new order of things were inaugurated and the town soon took a reasonable start and grew, not so fast as could be wished for, but steadily and solidly. The want of railroad facilities were a drawback, for the road north of her and one south drew the travel away, but a brighter day is dawning, and before the present decade has passed two railroads will be at her door, bringing and receiving wealth as they pass. Her growth required the incorporation of the village into a town, and to this end a petition was circulated, with the following result.
The people of Osceola concluded, like Roscoe, to become a body politic; so they also came before the county court to have their village raised to the dignity of a town. The petition was presented to the county court for action August 6, 1868, and reads as follows:

Whereas, The petition of W.O. Mead, J.W. Ramsey, E.J. Smith, Thomas J. Monroe, Wm. D. Graham, J. Wade Gardner, Lindsey Barnes, Thomas D. Hicks, Alfred G. Clarke, T.B. Sutherland, W.F. Johnston, E.B. Daniel, Charles E. Spedden, W.S. Terry, Joseph P. Landes, R.S. Graham, E.P. Bartlett, W.P. Sheldon, William H. Scoby, G.W. Shields, E.T. Daniel, William Williamson and Henry Florsheim has this day been filed, praying that they may be incorporated in the following metes and bounds, to wit: As the same is laid out and described in the original town plat of said town of Osceola drawn by Phillip Crow and R.P. Crutchfield, and now remains on file in the office of the clerk of the circuit court and recorder of said county of St. Clair, and also described and set out in the plat of Cole's addition to the said town of Osceola be, and the court being satisfied that two-thirds of the inhabitants of said town be incorporated within the bounds above mentioned, and they shall be known as the "Inhabitants of the town of Osceola", and the court appoints as trustees William O. Mead, T.B. Sutherland, William Williamson, Charles E. Spedden and Henry Florsheim until legal termination.

The above named trustees failed to qualify in the time prescribed by law, and their appointment was revoked, and on December 14, 1868, E.T. Daniels, William Williamson, Thomas B. Sutherland, J. Wade Gardner and William O. Mead were appointed as trustees upon the same condition as the others, "until legal termination thereof". The same year, 1868, Cole's addition was added, but before the date of incorporation.