Reprinted here with the permission of the "Cedar County Republican Newspaper".
Cedar County places we've never been...and a few we have
by Aaron Sims
Communities and towns of all sizes have periods of prosperity and adversity.
As we have seen, many small communities across Cedar County faded as times
changed. The three largest communities in Cedar County El Dorado Springs,
Jerico Springs and Stockton have seen boom and bust. For our look at these
three Cedar County towns, we rely on information from the late Arthur Paul Moser
and ³Cedar County, Missouri History and Families² published in 1998 by the Cedar
County Historical Society.
The town of Lancaster, later to become Fremont and
finally Stockton, was founded in 1846 as a permanent seat of justice for the
newly created Cedar County. The court had been meeting under a buckeye tree on
property owned by Elisha Hunter, near Croweıs Mill. The court continued to meet
at the temporary location until the town of Lancaster officially was laid out
Feb. 11, 1846. The town site was chosen because of its location near the center
of the county and the spring that flowed from the center of the bluff.
Lancaster most likely was named after one of several other towns named Lancaster
across the nation. In 1847 the name was changed to Fremont, in honor of U.S.
General John C. Fremont. The town was officially incorporated May 19, 1851.
The name Fremont remained until Feb. 8, 1859, when the name was changed to
Stockton by an act of the Missouri Legislature. According to historians, the
change was a political move made by enemies of General Fremont. The name change
was made without consulting the residents of Cedar County and the
town of Fremont.
The town continued to grow and by 1870 boasted nearly 500 residents. An excerpt
from the Stockton Journal dated Wednesday, Jan. 5, 1870, tells of the
communityıs prosperity: ³The County Seat is situated near the center of
the county, two miles west from Sac River, and on the line of the proposed
LaClede & Ft. Scott R.R., has a population of 500 and contains three hotels, six
stores engaged in general merchandising, two drug stores, one hardware and tin
shop, one book store, one saddle and harness shop, two shoemaker shops, one
woolcarding machine, one tailoring establishment, two newspapers, Masonic, Odd
Fellows and Good Templarsı Lodges, and an excellent high school, saw and
flouring mills are located within two miles of town.² The railroad through
Stockton did not come to fruition, and the city grew little within the next 100
years.
Like many communities, Stockton did not escape the ravages of the War Between
the States. Skirmishes were quite common throughout the region, and raiders and
bushwhackers were notorious for their activities.
The Battle of Stockton, an unorganized attempted attack on the town by
Confederate forces, occurred July 11, 1863. A candidate for the state
Legislature, Orville Welch, was making a speech at the courthouse when a group
of Confederate raiders came charging up South Street and began to circle the
courthouse. A small group of local militia were on hand and began firing on the
attackers after taking cover inside the courthouse, which stood at the center of
the square.
The Confederate commander was shot from his horse, and the attacking forces
retreated south. Lieutenant McMillan, the militia commander, was gravely
wounded, but later recovered and returned to battle.
The Battle of Stockton was a Union success, but skirmishes plagued the
countryside until the warıs end.
Other settlements across Cedar County were destroyed by attacking forces, never
to be rebuilt. While Stocktonıs designation as the county seat and economic
center for the vicinity ensured its continuance.
The square in Stockton was at one time the location of a pump, drawing water
from the underground cave and spring. The pump was used to water horses and
travelers passing through the town. An official courthouse later was built at
the center of the square, only to be destroyed by fire. A second structure was
erected in 1867, serving as the seat for county government until it was replaced
in 1940 with the current courthouse on South Street.
After the old courthouse was demolished, a flagpole was installed at the center
of the square, and traffic flowed around the flagpole. Today, a four-way stop
marks the center of Stockton. Stockton continued to grow, as the county
seat and as a crossroads of two main thoroughfares. Industry came to the town in
the 1930s with the beginnings of a cheese plant in the late 1930s.
The operation grew until a new plant was built in 1947, eventually rising in
production capacity from 15,000 pounds to more than 150,000 pounds of milk
processed each day. The milk used for production was purchased from area dairy
farmers, adding income to farmers and providing production jobs at the plant.
In 1946, grocer Ralph Hammons began capitalization of a local resource and began
a new company, Hammons Products Co., which would become the largest producer of
black walnuts in the world.
In 1945, Hammons was a buyer of black walnuts for a company in Virginia, and in
1946 purchased equipment to begin his own shelling operation. Today the company
purchases millions of pounds of walnuts in the shell, adding to the local
economy with money from the purchase of walnuts and by hiring
full-time and seasonal employees for the operation.
The countryside around Stockton and Cedar County took a dramatic change in the
late 1960s and early 1970s, when the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers began a
flood-control project on the Sac River.
Proposed plans for damming the river had been discussed since the 1940s, but
work officially began in 1958 when land was purchased, surveys were made and
decisions were made on where to locate the dam. Funding for the dam project was
approved in 1964 when President Lyndon Johnson made $2.6 million
available for the work. Work began not only on the dam itself, but on purchasing
property; relocating homes, villages, churches and cemeteries; and dealing with
the influx of people into the area.
Jobs created by the project saw increases in housing, school enrollment and
wages. Inflation was rampant as the wages paid to government workers far
exceeded the average pay prior to the dam project.
Work on the dam project continued, with the gates on the dam closed in December
1969 and official dedication of the lake and dam June 24, 1972. The new 24,000
surface-acre lake today attracts visitors from around the region and nation
adding to the local economy by creating a variety of opportunities for Stockton
and the area.
Today, Stockton is in a period of regrowth following the May 4, 2003 tornado
that destroyed the townıs business district, destroyed or damaged a large number
of homes and killed three people.
Businesses are being rebuilt and public sentiment encourages a better Stockton
than ever.
Jerico Springs
The town of Jerico Springs was officially incorporated in 1883, but settlement
in the area began much earlier. Joseph B. Carrico homesteaded the land
that would become the town in 1857. Local history says Carrico was
an Indian, or was married to an Indian, which brought him to the area. The
spring, now located in Jerico Springsı city park, was believed to hold medicinal
properties. Native Americans had visited the site for a very long time believing
in the healing power of the spring. By 1857, nearly 100 white settlers
were in the area, and a Dr. Bass of St. Louis visited the area after hearing of
the healing nature of the waters. He returned to St. Louis to raise money to
build a resort and hospital, but before he could return, the Civil War erupted,
ending his efforts. After the war, an Illinois man D.G. Stratton came
to the area to test the waters, and after his nameless affliction was cured, he
purchased the land from Carrico and laid out the town of Jerico Springs. The
name was derived from the biblical city of Jericho and the former property owner
Joseph Carrico. The first home was established in the newly formed town
June 9, 1882, when a house was moved from a nearby farm to a location in town.
That date set the establishment of the annual Jerico Springs Picnic, which has
been held each year since 1882, when workers were fed lunch while moving the
home. Bath houses and hotels were built in the town to capitalize on the
springs, and growth surrounded the efforts. Jerico Springs was a boom town in
the late 1800s, with an official population of 486 in the 1890 census. However,
as new roads and railroads were built, all bypassed Jerico Springs resulting in
a decline. By 1900, census records show a population of 443.
A list of businesses in Jerico Springs in 1900
showed four drygood and grocery stores, two drugstores, three hardware and
undertaking businesses, two hotels, two barbershops, a roller mill, three
restaurants, a butcher shop, three banks, a bakery, a sorghum mill, two
attorneys, three livery stables, three doctors, a dentist, three real estate
offices, a newspaper, a milliner, a jewelry store, a confectioner, a
photographer, a candy and movie house, four churches, a college or normal school
and one boot and leather repair business a larger number and variety of
businesses than any other town in Cedar County at the time.
Not being located on a major highway and the lack of railroad service led to the
decline of Jerico Springs. Today, few businesses remain and the largest activity
is the annual Jerico Springs Picnic held on the weekend closest to June 9, to
celebrate the founding of the community.
El Dorado Springs
Cedar Countyıs largest town was the last to be incorporated. El Dorado Springs
was founded July 20, 1881, on land owned by N.H. and W.P. Cruce. The two young
men lived on a farm several miles northeast of a spring, which for a time was
believed to hold curative powers. Osage Indians had long believed in the
powers of the spring, but on June 28, 1881, a moverıs wagon and party of two men
and a woman were led to the spring by a farmer who lived nearby. The party of
Joshua Hightower, his wife Carmelia, and Joshua Hightowerıs brother, camped near
the spring on their way to Eureka Springs, Ark., where they were headed to tend
to the womanıs deteriorating health. Planning only to stay for a few days to let
the woman regain her strength, the days turned into weeks because of remarkable
improvement in Carmelia Hightowerıs health. In early July, they
broke camp and returned to their home in Vernon County to spread the word of the
spring. The news spread quickly, and within a few weeks, several hundred campers
surrounded the spring. When the Cruce brothers, who owned the property,
arrived, they decided to lay out a town. The town was designed in a manner that
the spring and about 10 acres of land surrounding it was to be designated as a
public park. The property was surveyed and divided into lots, which were sold
for $10 to $600 each, according to size and location.
The spring and the waters it produced were the benefactor to a growing
community. El Dorado Springs, so named after one of the 14 other El Dorados
across the United States, saw the need to be able to easily attract visitors and
by the 1890s began efforts to attract a railroad. El Dorado Springs and Virgil
City each lobbied railroad interests to their town, and after acquiring
construction capital to aid the project, El Dorado Springs was the chosen
location for an extension of the MK&T line east from Rich Hill on the Kansas
City and Nevada route. The city agreed to build and furnish a depot,
arrangements were made, and in early July 1899, the first Kansas City, Nevada
and El Dorado train pulled into the depot. Passenger service brought visitors to
the springs and bathhouses until passenger service was discontinued in 1940.
Freight service ended Jan. 5, 1971.
The mineral springs gave life to the town of El Dorado Springs and also prompted
one of the first industries in the town. The El Dorado Springs Mineral Water Co.
began in 1893 or 1894, bottling spring water and manufacturing soda, ginger ale
and other summer drinks. Business grew rapidly as word of the healing
nature of the water spread. Shipments spread into every state in the
Mississippi valley and continued for a number of years.
A devastating fire destroyed a portion of El Dorado Springs in October 1912,
including the cityıs opera house. City founder, N.H. Cruce rebuilt the opera
house in 1914, and the structure hosted plays, musicals, high school
graduations, and was used as a movie theater until 1971. The opera house was a
mainstay in downtown El Dorado Springs for many generations.
Other activities and businesses have come and gone in El Dorado Springs, but one
continuing tradition is the annual picnic commemorating the founding of the
town. The picnic began in the 1880s with an annual gathering that later
grew into a fair-like event with musicians, rides and attractions lasting for a
number
of days. By the 1950s, the picnic date was set for the Thursday, Friday and
Saturday closest to July 20, rather than the actual date of July 20.
Thousands attend the event each year.
El Dorado Springs continues to prosper with industry, commercial businesses and
a travel center for western Missouri. Located on major thoroughfares of highways
97 and 54, the town continues to thrive.
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